It's interesting, because I think a lot about how to incorporate the New Gods and Apokoliptans into the DCU at large and wonder why it hasn't yet been done so. I wasn't around for the initial release, but the characters, especially the New Gods, were always a little on-the-nose to me; Lightray, Highfather, Big Bear, etc. Kind of like the He-Man characters in Masters of the Universe. (Which I love BTW when played straight and not tongue-in-cheek, so maybe that's what I'm looking for in the New Gods.) Amidst other attempts at "cosmic" stories and setting, something just didn't click for me.
The dark side of the pantheon seems like the stronger of the concepts too. Darkseid, Desaad, Kalibak, Tigra, Heggra, Orion, Granny Goodness, Kanto, the Female Furies, and others in Darkseid's Elite are far more interesting than the New Gods. Metron is a great character, but of the other New Gods, Big Barda and Mister Miracle are probably the most interesting and even those two have origins that are dependent on ties to evil.
Otherwise lately, and except for maybe Morrison's ideas with them, they've become stagnant. DC has never properly dove into their divinity in comparison to other divinities to make them unique and they have really pushed their grand background theme of technology as god into the new Millennium. I mean, we're all essentially using Mother Boxes right now, so how do the New Gods continue to "be" what's next and somewhat the "unknown." That takes a lot of work and a visionary. The Legion of Super-Heroes has a bit of the same challenge - depicting what's next for sentient beings far in the future and incorporating that into their soap opera and action and adventure.
Just for fun, I'd love to see an editorial office designated as dealing with this and adding some conceptualization and especially consistency when it comes to depicting the New Gods in titles. Or an overarching story arc that has the characters interacting with the DCU.
I don't see them gaining anything or becoming more interesting characters, until they stop playing so fast and loose with them.
I think this is a fair criticism. Which is why I think Mr. Miracle has been so good recently. It has a very human down to Earth central focus, but the larger than life cosmic entities in a holy war are taken as they are and should be. But I agree that over the years, not enough has been done with them. I suppose they're difficult to fully realize. Humanize them too much and they lose their entire purpose; but fail to communicate their grandiosity and cosmic character in a truly artful way and you cheapen them into a cliche.
A bat! That's it! It's an omen.. I'll shall become a bat!
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What that piece doesn’t explain is how the DC Implosion came about.
DC got a bunch of money from Warner when the SUPERMAN movie was going to come out (it should have come out in June but was delayed to December). With that money they were going to expand the line—the Explosion. At the same time DC was put under the control of the Warner Books division, who called the shots.
The previous winter, there was a big snowstorm on the eastern seaboard that prevented the comics from getting to major outlets thus killing sales. When the sales reports came in, months later, the Warner Books guys lost their nerve and reversed the Explosion, calling for cancellation on the weakest titles, according to their figures, which included DETECTIVE COMICS.
It was only the quick thinking by the guys in the DC offices that saved the flagship title.
I’d also reckon that if SUPERMAN had come out on time that would have supported the Explosion and DC would have a better argument for staying the course —as the movie would give them a higher profile and bring more readers to the spinner racks.
But indications are that ‘TEC was in trouble long before this. Maybe as far back as the early 1960s yet they always kept a monthly schedule until 1973 when the book was cut back to a bi-monthly schedule (six issues per year).
Soon after this, the title was handed to Archie Goodwin, taking over from longtime editor Julius Schwartz. But then it became one of the Super Spectacular sized comics, which were all bi-monthly (every title featuring Batman was in this format) for about a year. By contrast, ACTION COMICS never went the Super Spectacular route and always stayed a monthly.
However, once the Super Spectacular experiment ended, Schwartz had returned and ‘TEC soon went back to monthly status, only to be cut back to a bi-monthly again in 1977, which was how it remained through the Implosion until 1980.
Nevertheless, I’d say these were the best of times for me as a DC reader and a Batman fan. You can’t always get what you want, but if you try sometimes, you just might find you get what you need.
Am I the only person that loves Kirby's goofy dialogue?
I don't think it's unsuccessful.
Thank to Jack Kirby we got the new gods' history and setting, that is what DC usually lack of: detailed introduction of alien/non human civilization.
In the early ‘70s, the DC super-hero titles were in decline, while they were having success in other genres—horror, romance, war and fantasy adventure. The Fourth World books (including JIMMY OLSEN) often had a weird, supernatural tone. And Kirby went on to do THE DEMON and SANDMAN (horror), the Losers in OUR FIGHTING FORCES (war) and KAMANDI (fantasy adventure/science fiction).