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  1. #1
    Boisterously Confused
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    Apr 2014
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    Default No dude...still not cool...

    When comics characters have been around as long as The Big Two's stables, things are going to get a tad threadbare.

    Enter the retrofit. Those sometimes brilliant (sometimes desperate) attempts to throw some edge on the characters, or to open the characters to new directions (or very sudden dead ends). Some work better than others.

    For example, (while I was not much of a fan of either, even I have to admit that) The Speed Force and the Rainbow of Lantern Corps created interesting new story directions for Flash and Green Lantern. Similarly, returning Black Panther to his Kirby-written Fantastic Four roots, and dialing all the underlying concepts up to 11 have been spectacular (and long overdue) for the character.

    However, for every Wein/Cockram-X-Men-Retread out there, there's at least one No-Justice-League-Detroit-You-Ain't-The-X-Men-No-Matter-How-Much-You-Break-Dance. And it is to this latter type of retrofit that this thread is lovingly devoted. Those attempts to make characters or titles edgy, or current, or just somehow more cool, that didn't manage to accomplish the mission.

    So I've nominated the first: Justice League Detroit. Who are yours, what had they been before, what did they try to become, and why didn't it work?

    To answer my own question:
    The Justice League was the premiere superteam of DC for decades. They not only held that brand with the customers, but they were positioned in the comics to play that role. They were The Round Table of Superheroes! Assembled (pardon the cross-company language) from the ranks of the world's greatest adventurers, to commonly pursue justice against threats beyond even their awesome, individual abilities (and just maybe, to help each other feel a little less lonely in a world where they stood so far above everyone around them).

    When the Fantastic Four outstripped them, okay, that's just a style thing. The Avengers? Okay, that's just some snappy dialog, we can do that too. The X-Men? Cool, that's just some neat diversity, good art, and interesting experiments. We can deal.

    But when their own Junior Auxiliary branch, The Teen Titans, (what Marv Wolfman called "The Justice Little League") outsells them? It's time for Drastic Measures.

    The problem was they followed the JJ Abrams School of Franchise Adaptation, only worse. They took what seemed to be selling, and blew it up louder. But they didn't stop to ask what The Justice League was, and why Teen Titans and X-Men were actually selling.

    They grabbed multicultural. They grabbed quirky powers. They grabbed urban. They didn't really think through the why it should matter. So what we got was shallow, derivative, and kind of sad.

    So your turn. To what do you say, "no. still not cool"?
    Last edited by DrNewGod; 03-02-2018 at 02:52 PM.

  2. #2
    BANNED
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  3. #3
    Extraordinary Member PaulBullion's Avatar
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    Default

    Rape jokes, even when they are about Martin Shkreli.
    "How does the Green Goblin have anything to do with Herpes?" - The Dying Detective

    Hillary was right!

  4. #4
    Ultimate Member
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    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by Trey Strain View Post
    This isn't a change though. This is who he's been for at least 45 years.

  5. #5
    Extraordinary Member John Ossie's Avatar
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    Liverpool, Merseyside, England
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    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by PaulBullion View Post
    Rape jokes, even when they are about Martin Shkreli.
    Rape jokes aren't funny period, no matter who it's about.

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