Thor: Love and Thunder **BEWARE SPOILERS**

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This is why I sold all of my comics. I was lucky to sell them all to one guy for a good price. Marvel was awesome for me in The New Avengers era with Bendis in 2005. Punisher/Daredevil/Iron Fist/Winter Soldier stuff all awesome with Bendis and Brubaker/Fraction. Then Hickman with F4 and later on Aaron with Thor. Seems like since 2015, Marvel has went total cartoony, silly wokeness. Even though Aaron was great with Thor, his Dr. Strange was terrible and this new event he is writing with all new characters looks terrible. DC got me with Snyder on his Batman run, and really that is all I cared about with DC. They weren't doing silly stuff like Marvel is, but I have been out of the game for a few years now.
 
The last 10 years I mostly have dropped out of comics. I did not care a lot for the new 52, and Marvel was doing crazy stuff. Aside from the occasional good graphic novel, nothing really grabs me anymore.
 
:rotfl

Crazy ****. I haven't been an avid comic reader since the late 90's. I'll read online here and there what the current story arcs are but they all sound so awful. DC seems to be just as bad as Marvel.

So sad.
The sad thing is, what Hickman is doing would theoretically be right up my alley. I've always liked the X-Men for the crazy Sci-Fi stuff and X-TREME Villains. Not the ****** Soap Opera or moronic allegory that's never made any sense. It's about people in tights that have a gene that makes them control the weather. What's going to attract me? A hamfisted metaphor that doesn't hold up, or the hot women in spandex, the dudes with huge laserguns, the alien warships and the would-be conquerors? X-Men's biggest strength were always the fun characters, powersets and zany situations. It's why something more generic like WildC.A.T.S. didn't catch on (although Vols 2 & especially 3.0 are downright great). That's what the average fan wanted. That's what gave us all the vidya and awareness. By the time the 90s were over and the flashy stuff were gone, the X-Men were a footnote. Remember, their first movie barely made 300 Million. Spider-Man made more than 800.

To this day nobody has refuted this (open the image in a new tab):

muties-BTFO.jpg


So Hickman going hard on that, and having a self-contained series of books, seemed tailor made for me. I figured I'd pull it again after years. Then they started coming out and we got Swinger Summers, Public Orgies and Ethnonationalist X-Men while still having the "allegory" firmly in place. I can deal with EthnoNationalist X-Men, because it makes some sense in-universe, but not with the rest. I actually created an OC Fan-Fic Universe or whatever based on how I'd treat the X-Men way back in the day. I still have it stored somewhere. I've always seen the IP as enormous wasted potential.

Anyway, I don't know. Sometimes I curse the day I even picked up a comic. I can "draw the line" somewhere, but the more nonsense that gets published, the more it destroys my enjoyment of the past. The more trivial it all seems. All the memorabilia, all the wasted time; totally useless and they bring no joy anymore either, because everytime I look at them I am reminded of how they've been mangled.

Comics are dead.

What is the new story telling delivery system that kids are growing up on? If it hasn't been invented yet, let's invent it already.
Kids don't read. They watch flashy youtube vids, the new MCU and Netflix production and then play downgraded vidya like Fortnine. There's no stories to be told as it must all go through an entire PC committee. Comics sell about 30K units, in Comic Shops that is, on average. Batman and Spider-Man always sell better than most, and Hickman's brought the X-Men back to the 60-100 K range, but by and large the sales are absymal. And who can blame them? They're screwing old fans by trying to get new customers. New customers don't care because these things cost 4 bucks for 5 minutes of Elementary-School Level reading, and are saddled with decades of continuity. If you're a kid now, there's literally no reason to waste money and time on cape****.

DC is not as bad as Marvel. I can pick up a current Batman comic and still read it without needing all that much info. I feel like if I pick up a Iron Man, Thor, Captain America, X-Men, Avengers comic nowadays, I need a PhD in Marvel. It is just so overwhelming.
They're all the same kind of convulted nonsense. Just drop capes.

Anymore, I just have my own canon, pick and choose what author runs I read. Like Jason Aaron?s Thor, loved it. Relatively self-contained, ergghh, the beginning was, and could be enjoyed without needing a whole lot of background info.
Most runs are that way. Headcanons are really the way to go. It's all fictional, and characters are empty vessels that change with every two-bit writer, so what's the difference?

This is why I sold all of my comics. I was lucky to sell them all to one guy for a good price.
I wish I could do that sometimes, but there's no point; I've already spent the cash. I wish I could erase ever getting into them, sometimes. They were such a ******* timesink and they've given me nothing, bar nostalgia for nonsense. Such a waste.

Marvel was awesome for me in The New Avengers era with Bendis in 2005. Punisher/Daredevil/Iron Fist/Winter Soldier stuff all awesome with Bendis and Brubaker/Fraction. Then Hickman with F4 and later on Aaron with Thor. Seems like since 2015, Marvel has went total cartoony, silly wokeness. Even though Aaron was great with Thor, his Dr. Strange was terrible and this new event he is writing with all new characters looks terrible.
I honestly liked the 00s well enough. Morrison's X-Men, cut short as it was, had some neat ideas. On the other hand he and Fox were the ones that really drove headfirst into "muh allegory", but Morrison took it to a different place. Though after him we got stuff like Austen's run, so... Well, X-Treme X-Men was fun... Still, we had Brubaker's Cap, the Knaufs' Iron Man, Punisher MAX, early Ultimates, etc. The general "tacticool" era appealed to me. Dark Reign was the last fun event too, IMHO. It was a full-on MGS decade and I liked it. It did feel like an extended 90s to an extent. The 10s started off well enough with Remender's X-Force and Hickman's F4 but by the time NOW! rolled around things were already going downhill. Remender, for all his faults, wrote some really Epic-Scale Cosmic stuff and had planted the seeds for some great X-Men/High Evolutionary/Celestial stories, that ultimately went nowhere. The moment he was booted is when Marvel turned to complete ****.

For me, the only way to still work with the past is to pretend that Secret Wars was a reboot. Doom and the F4 survived and created a new Cosmos, being the First Family and the beginning of Marvel and all. Post-SW it's all new versions. That way I can still like what I liked before Marvel became full-on Marlel.

DC got me with Snyder on his Batman run, and really that is all I cared about with DC. They weren't doing silly stuff like Marvel is, but I have been out of the game for a few years now.
You better not look at the current Snyder Bat-Books. Tom King turned Bruce into a suicidal kid who cannot cope if he doesn't have Catwoman. Snyder wrote an absymal MAXIMUM EDGE event that'd make a 13 YO kid decked out in Matrix gear playing Manhunt embarassed. It's just as silly as the Marlel stuff.

The last 10 years I mostly have dropped out of comics. I did not care a lot for the new 52, and Marvel was doing crazy stuff. Aside from the occasional good graphic novel, nothing really grabs me anymore.
I do have some indies I follow, but they take 6 month breaks and return for an issue before another break. But they are always far more interesting than whatever the Big 2 are doing. Not that Indies are always a 10/10, but at least there's more variety.

Comics
Wrestling
Rock n Roll
Sideshow Freaks

It's all going away.
Every forum is pretty much deserted. Every nerdy hobby has been warped beyond recognition. There's nothing left but subpar distractions and the real world. Most get lost in the former. I figure the latter has more merritt.

Sometimes I feel Kylo had a good point when it comes to mass-produced "nerdy" media...

original.gif


There's just no point anymore. At least with a conluded series you can close the chapter so to speak and let it be. But with IPs whose mangled corpse is still being paraded around, it makes you want to just be done with it all.
 
[...] There's just no point anymore. At least with a conluded series you can close the chapter so to speak and let it be. But with IPs whose mangled corpse is still being paraded around, it makes you want to just be done with it all.

Yeah we've discussed this in other threads. It's okay to let things go. Nothing wrong with light entertainment, but a lot of these characters and properties have their limits, which no corporation will accept because they exist to re-package, re-contextualize, re-release and re-mix product endlessly for profit.

Guys like Remender, Ellis, Fraction for example ... they've done some cool stuff but I don't know if it's their own limitations as creators or the limitations of the medium, but read them for long enough and they seem kind of one-note.

I like the pulp feel of Black Science and the '80s nostalgia in Deadly Class but how much traction do those stories have? Deadly Class has been floundering for 2 or 3 volumes now. I'm only on volume...six...??... of Black Science but I'm glad they ended the story because none of these should go on too long.

I checked out a few DC and Marvel superhero comics the last ... 5 or 6 years out of curiosity and not one of them grabbed me; even if they weren't *bad* per se, there's just nowhere for them to go.

The other side of the equation is the fandom. A lot of them won't accept that either the stories or the time of life when the stories were relevant and engaging, are over.

I think once Geekdom was more of a culture, but now it's more of a product masquerading as a lifestyle. It's just the way of things. Look at the endless crap they sell collectors -- most of it is trash. Straight up expensive garbage destined for landfill and dusty secondhand shops.

I don't think it's wrong to love certain things and to collect mindfully if that's what you want to do, but there's a firehose of trash aimed at everyone's credit cards right now, and people should realize they're not nerds anymore, they're shoppers.
 
Yeah we've discussed this in other threads. It's okay to let things go. Nothing wrong with light entertainment, but a lot of these characters and properties have their limits, which no corporation will accept because they exist to re-package, re-contextualize, re-release and re-mix product endlessly for profit.
I'm worried about the men between 20 and 30 something who still obsess over them to an unhealthy degree. They grew up with the comics, the shows, the games and they're ingrained so deeply in them that they've shaped their entire identities. You see them on Twitter, on YouTube, with their blogs and vlogs, talking about how the X-Men made them feel like they "belonged" somewhere or how the Hulk taught them "the importance of non-toxic masculinity" and it's just... weird and sad. Even when I was a kid I was never obsessed with them. I liked some stuff, sure. I played the games. Even caught the cartoons when they were on. Bought some figures. But I never religiously cared. I became more "obsessed" in my teens, but my interest started decreasing again. I never let them overtake my identity to such an extent. But when I hear an adult talking about how a fictional corporate product that changes every 5 years is the foundation of his being, I worry.

And like you said, I get nostalgia for products but only when they're finished. And that's my problem. How can I be "nostalgic" for something that came decades before my time, and by now has been retconned about 5 times? I can be nostalgic for The Legacy Of Kain series. They came, they went, the story is "over" since no new games have been made. But how can I do the same for capes? Thankfully I was never much of an X-Fan. I read some stuff in my teens, watched the cartoon as a kid, bought the Legends games, but that was it. I always thought the potential was there, but was never realized. Yet I see X-Fans still being obsessed. The same people who were screaming "KILL THE WITCH" during House Of M switched to "**** YEAH KILL ALL FLATSCANS" during AvX, and about a full decade later are still screaming the same thing. When does it end? What's the point? Aren't they tired? I bring up the X-Men because they have the most diehard fanabase. Others move on usually because they know they're reading books about superheroes. When they get tired of seeing Ultron or Starro get wrecked, they stop. But X-Fans can't. They see their books as "mature", as a "helping hand", and they never let them go. Myabe not all, but X-Fans have a fanatic streak that I haven't encountered anywhere else bar football matches.

Guys like Remender, Ellis, Fraction for example ... they've done some cool stuff but I don't know if it's their own limitations as creators or the limitations of the medium, but read them for long enough and they seem kind of one-note.
Well, they are comic book writers. Which usually means they aren't even good enough to write proper books, even genre fiction. It's why they all try to get into tv and Image has been turned into the "please notice me Hollywood, here's my pitch" publisher. You enjoy them when you're a certain age, but coming back and reading their work just shows how lacking in true substance it is.

I like the pulp feel of Black Science and the '80s nostalgia in Deadly Class but how much traction do those stories have? Deadly Class has been floundering for 2 or 3 volumes now. I'm only on volume...six...??... of Black Science but I'm glad they ended the story because none of these should go on too long.
Honestly, even if not all Indies are hits, I like them based on the principle that they'll end at some point. And then I can look back and say "you know what, I had a good time with those 50 issues released across 6 years". It's done. The chapter's closed. You can't do it with the Big 2. Every run will be followed by another, and another, and you'll one day check to see what your favourite is doing, and you'll see them be totally unrecognizable. But then it hits you and realize how much investment you poured on probably the least important genre. At least a game remains as is, most of the time. You can replay the series again and again and it is what it is. Black Science has a nice premise and while I haven't finished it yet, I like it. It's what I wish F4 would've been instead of the retread of the same 5 stories.

I checked out a few DC and Marvel superhero comics the last ... 5 or 6 years out of curiosity and not one of them grabbed me; even if they weren't *bad* per se, there's just nowhere for them to go.
Exactly. I don't even keep up that much. I know about the X-Stuff because I like Hickman (go finish Black Monday Murders you lazy ****) and tried to see if it'd be worth to get into the book, purely as a Sci-Fi adventure. Spoilers; it really wasn't. I mostly just read spoilers when I visit those places for the 5 or so titles from all over I still buy. The thing is, you go back, and read things from decades ago, and it's the same. The same childish nonsense repeated over and over but with different dated references.

The other side of the equation is the fandom. A lot of them won't accept that either the stories or the time of life when the stories were relevant and engaging, are over.
That too. Like I said above, lots of them can't let go and end up making corporate product a big part of their entire identity. And that's dangerous. They pretend that it's actual, meaningful literature and that does not bode well for a supposedly well-functioning adult.

I think once Geekdom was more of a culture, but now it's more of a product masquerading as a lifestyle. It's just the way of things. Look at the endless crap they sell collectors -- most of it is trash. Straight up expensive garbage destined for landfill and dusty secondhand shops.
Exactly. It used to be geekdom was just an extra hobby for the more reserved kids. You were still supposed to put it aside at some point, or at least minimize it. But now the geeks have been thrown out of the hobby and everyone just consumes a diluted version of childish distractions. And I have to ask just what is the endgame here. But I fear nothing will change. The characterfans are obsessed and will keep buying the books no matter what because of some deep-rooted and misguided devotion. This will keep the titles in circulation and let Disney retain the copyright. The same stories will be repeated and the same people will be discussing the same stories about musclemen in tights in their 60s. The majority will just consume the "blockbusters" like the movies, then whine on Twitter and move on.

I don't think it's wrong to love certain things and to collect mindfully if that's what you want to do, but there's a firehose of trash aimed at everyone's credit cards right now, and people should realize they're not nerds anymore, they're shoppers.
Sure, we all have some products we feel a certain attachment to. Be they from the 80s, 90s, 00s or whatever. Maybe it's something from the 50s your dad liked and you bonded over, who knows. We have a favourite genre and the such. That's alright. I get that. Having nostalgia over your first comic or that one title you really liked, alongside a movie you have connected to another important period in your life. But past that, such attachment becomes detrimental.

I follow some channels to keep up with an omnibus or a statue or two, and it's insane just how much they buy. And I just wonder; "what's the point". Nothing is special when you have literally 500 Omnibuses laying around. When you have 50 600$ statues scattered all over some place. What's the point? What's it all for? Is it giving you any fullfilment? Do you just like... everything? Do you not choose? Was your childhood literally just consuming media 24/7? Because how else would you manage to have read all that? Some don't even know what they buy, they just do. "Oh yeah, I kinda remember where this is from" they say, holding a 600$ toy...

I just don't know anymore. I think that, grouchy, sometimes hypocritical and whatever else Moore may be, he was right about capes. People used to be connected and inspired by history or their local legends and culture. An expression of their own being. Now it's from musclemen spouting simplistic taglines in stories that follow the same cycle for decades on end and are churned out by a corporation that doesn't even care. British Rasputin may truly be up to something...
 
I'm worried about the men between 20 and 30 something who still obsess over them to an unhealthy degree. They grew up with the comics, the shows, the games and they're ingrained so deeply in them that they've shaped their entire identities. [...]

I'm out of touch, are there that many of them?

There comes a point in any young adult's life they need to make a jump from consuming stories to taking action for personal growth and betterment. That's what all those myths were originally for. They were signposts, not destinations.

Loving a thing should never come at the expense of experiences outside one's comfort zone or at the expense of reaching for personal growth.

Black Science has a nice premise and while I haven't finished it yet, I like it.

Remender's angst-ridden internal monologue works well for Black Science. With better narrative structure it'd be spot-on for Deadly Class as well, which may yet regain it's footing. But he can only do so much with that one voice.
 
Gotta say the last few posts have been fascinating reading.


At least with a conluded series you can close the chapter so to speak and let it be. But with IPs whose mangled corpse is still being paraded around, it makes you want to just be done with it all.


I do believe we have gone insane with the sequel/reboot/world-building/no-end-in-sight way of storytelling. Speaking at least in terms of movies, when I was little those stories had an ending. The villain got killed and the hero won. Then Star Wars came along and in fairly short amount of time, the never-ending saga seemed to take over. Sequel-itis. No ending, no finale, no self-contained world that could be revisited without multiple interpretations and reworkings as your cast ages beyond the boundaries of the original conceit.

The insanity of revamping everything rather than create whole new content has driven so many people away. Like you said, too deep and convoluted for most younglings to try and catch up. What they desperately want -- and need -- is something that is truly theirs. Not their grandparents heroes reinvented with future societal ambitions in mind.
 
I'm out of touch, are there that many of them?
They're all over YouTube. When I used to browse Tumblr, same. I go to find a review for an Omnibus or statue I'm eyeing and I'm bombarded by channels of skinny or fat guys in their 20s or 30s who review every XM statue and have an entire room full of 100$ Omnibuses. It's asinine. Years back I was in the Lego scene, alongside a lot of people my age. Most grew up and dropped it. They went to University, or just closed that chapter. Others are in their 20s and still obsessively stalking Eurobricks for rumors about the new Lego Marvel sets and making kitbashes of figures. That was some years ago but I doubt it's changed. It's pretty much arrested development.

There comes a point in any young adult's life they need to make a jump from consuming stories to taking action for personal growth and betterment. That's what all those myths were originally for. They were signposts, not destinations.

Loving a thing should never come at the expense of experiences outside one's comfort zone or at the expense of reaching for personal growth.
Well, a lot of them don't do this anymore, especially comicfans. Ones obsessed with games had problems during the MMO heights, but it's cooled down. At least from what I see. Comicfans are stuck because they're obsessed by infantile stories that are perpetually recycled. Their heroes never complete their journey, so they never move on.

Like I said, it's alright to hold a couple of Pop Culture things dear. But when you're an actual adult and still act like a teenager, that's a problem. It's not about the money or some highbrow elitism, it's about being a functional person.

Remender's angst-ridden internal monologue works well for Black Science. With better narrative structure it'd be spot-on for Deadly Class as well, which may yet regain it's footing. But he can only do so much with that one voice.
That's good to hear. Deadly Class I haven't tried yet as I've always found things related to teens rather irritating. Even as a kid I couldn't stand them. Maybe I'll check it out when it's concluded.
 
[...]What they desperately want -- and need -- is something that is truly theirs. Not their grandparents heroes reinvented with future societal ambitions in mind.

Well said. I must spread some Reputation around before giving it to Wor-Gar again.
 
I do believe we have gone insane with the sequel/reboot/world-building/no-end-in-sight way of storytelling. Speaking at least in terms of movies, when I was little those stories had an ending. The villain got killed and the hero won. Then Star Wars came along and in fairly short amount of time, the never-ending saga seemed to take over. Sequel-itis. No ending, no finale, no self-contained world that could be revisited without multiple interpretations and reworkings as your cast ages beyond the boundaries of the original conceit.

The insanity of revamping everything rather than create whole new content has driven so many people away. Like you said, too deep and convoluted for most younglings to try and catch up. What they desperately want -- and need -- is something that is truly theirs. Not their grandparents heroes reinvented with future societal ambitions in mind.
Exactly. It's corporate greed in most things. But comics are the worst offender simply due to the nature of the medium and their importance in geekdom. Most self-proclaimed geeks started off with comics and never got out. They kept reading because they were attached to a printed, hollow action-figure. And as long as "writers" kept making that action figure punch and fly, they were still going to follow its adventures.

The truth is that capes are moronic ******** and never having read them is a plus. Comics in general have some good stuff in them, it's an entire medium after all. But the more time passes the more I come to despise the cape genre specifically. It's a perversion of classic tropes filtered through a soulless, corporate lens that does nothing but add [current year] references and repackage the same nonsense ad nauseam. The question is, who's at fault; the "creators" or the consumers?

Star Wars was eventually corrupted utterly, but for a time I think it had some actual merit. It was a simple Hero's Journey with a rather hartfelt message. But as with every IP, they're run into the ground until there's nothing left. Still, I'd take Wars, Trek, bloody PotC over Capes. No matter how much they're milked, there's still a resemblance of a core story and progression. Cape**** is just an endless rehash with no substance.

As you put it, each generation needs something that's theirs. But nobody really cares, or even knows how, to create something new. It's all been done. We live in a cultural wasteland.
 
They're all over YouTube.[...]

Ah. Outside of like...3 one-sixth reviewers, this forum is the extent of my nerding out. I have no idea what's on YouTube for this stuff.

[...]That's good to hear. Deadly Class I haven't tried yet as I've always found things related to teens rather irritating. Even as a kid I couldn't stand them. Maybe I'll check it out when it's concluded.

At first Deadly Class annoyed me, but I realized the immature voice was spot on for the protagonist so I rolled with it. I enjoyed the 80's references, and the misfit kids obsessed with music reminded me of growing up in the post-punk/alt/goth subculture. I also enjoyed the audacity of the premise and the exuberant, remorseless violence -- kind of like Tarantino meets Hogwarts with one hell of a soundtrack, the simplistic, flat artwork appealed to me.

I've got up to volume 9 and I feel like it's lost energy, focus and direction for at least the last 3 volumes, but I'm along for the ride and think it remains salvageable, we'll see.

There's some truth in the middle of Remender's meandering and at times overwrought dialogue, but I think he needs a real editor to reign him in. Jury's out. I have a feeling that Black Science may end up being the superior story.

There are other Image titles I simply let go of because I thought they were too slow or too derivative, even if they were executed with some degree of competence, but I'm hoping they figure this one out.
 
Ah. Outside of like...3 one-sixth reviewers, this forum is the extent of my nerding out. I have no idea what's on YouTube for this stuff.
Well, that's good, honestly. I used to frequent tons of forums back in the day. They're all deserted now. I haven't bothered with Twitter in years. I closed all Social Media a while back. But what I see is somewhat worrying.

At first Deadly Class annoyed me, but I realized the immature voice was spot on for the protagonist so I rolled with it. I enjoyed the 80's references, and the misfit kids obsessed with music reminded me of growing up in the post-punk/alt/goth subculture. I also enjoyed the audacity of the premise and the exuberant, remorseless violence -- kind of like Tarantino meets Hogwarts with one hell of a soundtrack, the simplistic, flat artwork appealed to me.

I've got up to volume 9 and I feel like it's lost energy, focus and direction for at least the last 3 volumes, but I'm along for the ride and think it remains salvageable, we'll see.

There's some truth in the middle of Remender's meandering and at times overwrought dialogue, but I think he needs a real editor to reign him in. Jury's out. I have a feeling that Black Science may end up being the superior story.
I see. If it's something like an edgier Heathers I might enjoy it. I'll give it a shot.

There are other Image titles I simply let go of because I thought they were too slow or too derivative, even if they were executed with some degree of competence, but I'm hoping they figure this one out.
I'm pulling Hickman's stuff, but Decorum hasn't solicitated an issue in some months and Black Monday Murders has been MIA for at least a year. I can't think of much else that catches my fancy. The Image Rennaisance is long past.
 
As you put it, each generation needs something that's theirs. But nobody really cares, or even knows how, to create something new. It's all been done. We live in a cultural wasteland.

I really know nothing about comics I can't talk intelligently about them beyond their movie versions, though I am enthralled reading ZE and your discussion.

That said, I hope your last comment is not true. I hope there's the next Spielberg out there that is ready to reinvent a medium with storytelling for the next generations. I have to believe that someone is growing into that role at this very moment and as soon as that particular medium presents itself ready for "something new" they will rise.

I think it might be next-gen 'video games'... perhaps the movies within the game that set up the world. Perhaps the opening story IS just that -- a complete story that compels you into the game. But a story that can be enjoyed without venturing into the game. Like watching 'Star Wars' and then choosing to go into that world for "the game".
 
I really know nothing about comics I can't talk intelligently about them beyond their movie versions, though I am enthralled reading ZE and your discussion.
It's honestly not worth it to know anything about capes. Comics as a medium is a different thing. But Capes? Wasted time, money and investment; nothing more.

That said, I hope your last comment is not true. I hope there's the next Spielberg out there that is ready to reinvent a medium with storytelling for the next generations. I have to believe that someone is growing into that role at this very moment and as soon as that particular medium presents itself ready for "something new" they will rise.

I think it might be next-gen 'video games'... perhaps the movies within the game that set up the world. Perhaps the opening story IS just that -- a complete story that compels you into the game. But a story that can be enjoyed without venturing into the game. Like watching 'Star Wars' and then choosing to go into that world for "the game".

I don't have lots of hopes, I'll be honest. There's nothing on the horizon that seems new, interesting and made with care. They're all just "things" that come and go, rehashing the same beats over and over, featuring the same stories and tropes we've seen a thousand times, but not doing anything to set them apart. We'll see, there's always something surprising that comes along, but there's a sort of stagnation in such circles. When's the last "game changing" book you heard about? After Infinite Jest there's been none. There was what, House Of Leaves that gained a cult following of sorts? But I can't think of anything in recent years that really shook the world or changed anything. And Hell, when it comes to Pop Culture, it's all forgotten quickly. F4 used to be THE comic book. It turned Marvel into a shared-universe and created about 60% of all the concepts the wider universe uses. But now nobody cares. Its impact has been forgotten even in comicdom.

So I don't know. I'm not seeing the new Halo and Half-Life coming out soon. GTA III, God Of War, Gears Of War, Uncharted, those all changed gaming; but about a decade later from Uncharted, and I'm not seeing anything on their level of impact. A game's story is an important component, but people get into vidya because of the gameplay too. I suppose you could do a mixed-media product with a full movie that goes into the game, but more or less they've been doing that for a while now. Heavy Rain was basically sold as an interactive movie. Actors have been appearing in games through motion capture for a while now.

We'll see, I suppose. But I just think all this "nostalgia" and attachment to capecomics specifically is rather damaging due to the inherent nature of the Big 2 capes. You can always go back to a movie, game or book and it remains the same. A capebook exists in a continuous flux state where it's retconned, warped and recontexted, working within decades of continuity with no end in sight. It's even worse than something like Star Wars or Warhammer 40K. There's no end. No fixed core. Just an endless ride. And as time I passes I wish I never got into them in the first place. I should've just stuck with vidya...
 
Yikes...... reading this made me sad lol. Sometimes I look around my room and I?m like damn maybe I should grow up and throw this out. Idk I like buying figures and books I like . Cause they remind me of a simple time and sometimes they just look so good but I?ll be lying if I said I feel like I?m getting to old.

I just never grew out of collecting. I?m more careful about what I buy. Gone are the days where I blindly buy hot toys figures and iron men. I can?t do that anymore . Also I just won?t pay 600 for a toy anymore.

Idk I?ll always love pop culture but we do need new things. It?s just safe to adapt something you know will sell already. Sad.

People just have that thing that makes them happy. Some like dressing in fur suits and some like spending 10,000 on an accurate Heath joker lol
 
Yikes...... reading this made me sad lol. Sometimes I look around my room and I?m like damn maybe I should grow up and throw this out. Idk I like buying figures and books I like . Cause they remind me of a simple time and sometimes they just look so good but I?ll be lying if I said I feel like I?m getting to old.
I think that when an entire room starts feeling cluttered and asphyxiating, is when you need to do some cleaning up.

I just never grew out of collecting. I?m more careful about what I buy. Gone are the days where I blindly buy hot toys figures and iron men. I can?t do that anymore . Also I just won?t pay 600 for a toy anymore.
That's what I'm getting at. We're all here, we're all wasting our cash. Some more, some less. So it's not like I'm advocating for some Ted-Tier lifestyle in a cabin. Addicted or not, we're attached to these pop culture elements. But I think that everyone should choose a couple, not just buy things blindly and for no reason.

Idk I?ll always love pop culture but we do need new things. It?s just safe to adapt something you know will sell already. Sad.
I don't know, as time goes on I actually dislike callbacks to something I already know. I want that to be over, completed and shut, so that I can properly judge it. Then if I crave more, I'll move on to something new.

People just have that thing that makes them happy. Some like dressing in fur suits and some like spending 10,000 on an accurate Heath joker lol
I worry that most don't feel any actual happiness; it's just completionism syndrome. They buy things, they look at them for a bit and then it's onto the next one. Same thing with being obsessed with vidya and trophies and in-game secrets. It's a form of virtual and easy accomplishment. It makes you feel well that you've finished a team or uncovered every easter egg. I imagine most people have realized that by now. The problem arises when it becomes a habit and not a small escape. When you have a 100+ game backlog and a list of 400$ figures to buy that's in the triple numbers, and so on and so forth, it'll have dangerous repercussions. It's far easier to just buy things and wiggle a controller than learning a skill or building a great body. I know, I know, "what's the point, it's all meaningless for the average joe". Sure. But if you learn German you can read Faust in its original form. If you learn Latin you can read the Aeneid and if you learn Ancient Grek you can read the Homeric Epics. Maybe you won't get much out of them, but hey, you did that. It's like a Virtual Trophy but applicable in the real world. If you build a great body, well, you have that going for you, health benefits aside. If you pick up Tennis or Fencing, you have a fun little hobby. Aren't these more fulfiling than the latest capebook or FPS?

Again, I'm not saying "drop everything". I'm not ready to do that either. But I'm of the opinion that a person should have specific attachments to a few franchises and whatnot. Time is too short to be wasted on multiple insignificant pieces of distraction. One, two, three, five or so are fine. But when you have 10 Superheroes, 20 Pulp Heroes, 25 Film Franchises, 30 VideoGame Franchises and 5 Genre Fiction Book Series you follow religiously, then what is even the point? How can I say "boy, I love Halo" when I have 50 other FPS games I've poured hours and hours into?

Maybe it's me. I always felt the need to create little "boxes" and lists. I have to choose, otherwise I feel like a phony.
 
I worry that most don't feel any actual happiness; it's just completionism syndrome. They buy things, they look at them for a bit and then it's onto the next one. Same thing with being obsessed with vidya and trophies and in-game secrets. It's a form of virtual and easy accomplishment. It makes you feel well that you've finished a team or uncovered every easter egg. I imagine most people have realized that by now. The problem arises when it becomes a habit and not a small escape.


Yes, I have believed this for awhile now. The world is OCD... well, at least our small part of it.

But as we can see, there are more and more people succumbing to the lure of false realities and rabbit holes that quickly become an overwhelming addiction. Humans are geared for it.


A capebook exists in a continuous flux state where it's retconned, warped and recontexted, working within decades of continuity with no end in sight. It's even worse than something like Star Wars or Warhammer 40K. There's no end. No fixed core. Just an endless ride. And as time I passes I wish I never got into them in the first place.

There is something to be said about a concise well-told story that is complete and finished in its time. The endless retrofitting to accommodate modern times is useless and pointless. Some of these stories are going the way religions have been passed down or great myths that got so convoluted between Greek and Roman duplication. I guess I just realized we've been doing this as a species for a very long time. :lol
 
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Again, I'm not saying "drop everything". I'm not ready to do that either. But I'm of the opinion that a person should have specific attachments to a few franchises and whatnot. Time is too short to be wasted on multiple insignificant pieces of distraction.

This is why I don't game.

I have thoroughly enjoyed gaming in the past. I played some RTS games with friends online, had the original PlayStation back in the day, got a character up to level 33 or something in WoW which I played with real-life friends (as opposed to people on the internet) ... but I very intentionally dropped gaming because those were hours I would have rather spent doing something else.

If I picked it up now I'd enjoy it, but the opportunity cost is too high for me, personally.

I have always had a constrained, love-hate relationship with collecting and I'd say my collection has expanded and contracted 3 times ... while I always knew it would as I sorted out what I really cared about, I think this time is probably the last time -- I won't have much left when it's over but it'll be stuff that I truly care to see in my space.
 
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