Thanks to a lengthy transcript from
comicbookGRRRL, we have the following comments from comic book writer and creator Mark Millar about the upcoming relaunch of the DC comic book universe. Below are a handful of excerpts from the report, but I strongly advise clicking the link below to head on over the the site to read Millar's thoughts on the portrayal of female characters in comics, the current trend of regular "event" books, and why he's left Marvel to focus more on his own creator owned work.
It's a tricky one because if you're a fan of something, sometimes it's really alluring, the idea of going and doing it. But then, I love the Clangers, I love the Wombles, I like the Mr Men, but I don't want to write them! I like them existing, I love it as part of my life, my childhood especially, but the idea of doing back and doing it...I don't know, I feel that ship has sailed. Even two years ago I think it would have been a wee bit different but I just feel the exciting stuff that's happening just now is creator owned. Something like Kick-Ass is the most fun I've ever had writing anything and I could never get away with doing something like that at DC, I'd feel as if I was wearing a straightjacket. Dealing with corporate culture, everything that I wanted to stop doing at Marvel is ten times worse with DC
I love owning my own characters. I interviewed Stan Lee a few years ago and Stan said why don't you just do your own characters, I didn't go and write Superman and Batman, I went off and created Marvel guys.
The culture atrophies if we just keep recycling the same thing, and when I saw the new Justice League that's coming out in September, all slightly redesigned, it just felt like when you see Sylvester Stallone's mum with botox?! It just looks weird. How many times can Batman kick the shit out of the Joker? How many times can the Penguin cause grief? If Galactus hasn't destroyed the Earth the last forty times, chances are things are going to be fine!
And at DC it seems that there's a massive desperation, they're relaunching their entire line right now in September, all in one month. And I said, why didn't you guys just roll it out over a year so that everybody gets a chance to buy, you know, try out the first issues? And they said, we're actually more accountable to Warner Brothers now than we've ever been before – we need to show some serious profit.
While it's interesting to read what the writer of hits like
Kick-Ass,
Civil War,
Nemesis and
Old Man Logan had to say about the controversial relaunch of the DC Universe, I find his remarks about DC being more accountable to Warner Bros. most interesting. Could they be the reason behind the simplification and rebooting of some of the comic companies best known characters? Be sure to share your thoughts on these comments in the usual place!
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