So are the Superman: Earth One books generally hated?

[byrd156]

I like it, it's an Elseworld and any book branded that can do whatever with the character as long as I find my myself entertained. Honestly it felt Man of Steel done right. You still have Clark being semi-reluctant but you still have what makes Superman great. The ending with the newspaper is so awesome.

[Ascended]

Which begs the question: Is EO even necessary anymore? Why not use the Black Label tag to do out of continuity stories with characters that aren't tied to anything? I like the EO books but when was the last time a Superman book came out? It's already infrequent enough as is.

Well, the big draw of the E-1 line was that it put the genre in bookstores instead of hobby shops, and was supposed to reach a new audience. That was the main goal; to find new readers who knew superheroes from cartoons and movies but weren't going to take the dive into a LCS.

As far as I know Black Label isn't being distributed or marketed that way. It's still focused on the LCS first, bookstores a distant second. I think? I could be wrong, as my perspective may be askew. My local bookstores have all had a strong selection of trades and floppies and other geeky stuff but that might not be true nation wide.

Which does beg your question; if bookstores do carry a stronger selection of comics material than they used to, do we even *need* E-1 anymore?

[superduperman]

Only real reason to keep EO around is because Johns isn’t done with his Batman book, and I like GL EO and wouldn’t mind more. Superman EO is done. WW EO will be done with the next book. Aquaman and Flash are a ways off if they’re ever coming. I guess a JL EO might be interesting but I doubt that will ever happen.

I think we're looking at the end of the EO line. WW was already in the works years ago and I imagine the Flash and Aquaman ones were too. Assuming we ever get them. But I think as a permanent ongoing series, I think it's winding down. For one thing, I don't think it did what it was designed to do which was bring in new readers to comics.

[byrd156]

Well, the big draw of the E-1 line was that it put the genre in bookstores instead of hobby shops, and was supposed to reach a new audience. That was the main goal; to find new readers who knew superheroes from cartoons and movies but weren't going to take the dive into a LCS.

As far as I know Black Label isn't being distributed or marketed that way. It's still focused on the LCS first, bookstores a distant second. I think? I could be wrong, as my perspective may be askew. My local bookstores have all had a strong selection of trades and floppies and other geeky stuff but that might not be true nation wide.

Which does beg your question; if bookstores do carry a stronger selection of comics material than they used to, do we even *need* E-1 anymore?

Do we *need* stories? Everything has it merits, even the bad or stuff you don't agree with. As much as I hate something like the N52 TT, I'm grateful it exists. It is a text book example of how not to write those characters. Also every comic is someone's first so they may take some enjoyment or nostalgia from something.

[dancj]

Hm looks like you’re right. Odd I remember Gaiman talking about how he was approached out of the blue to write Sandman.

You might be thinking of Black Orchid. IIRC it took a long time to paint, and Gaiman had very little work to his name when he started writing it.

[Ascended]

Do we *need* stories?

??? I'm talking distribution models. E-1 was created to bring the characters to a wider audience. But things have changed since the initiative began and those characters are (from what I can tell) now being pushed in bookstores in a way that they weren't when the E-1 line began.

So if bookstores are now offering trades and floppies and collections to a degree they weren't before, questioning the value of a imprint designed to do the same thing is a perfectly valid question.

And looking at the entirety of human history, yes, we *need* stories. If we didnt we likely would have dropped the habit at some point.