Action/Adventure Aficionados discussion

Many people don’t associate comics with dark themes, strong characters and compelling stories. I’m not one of those people. A lot of darker comics have inspired me. What comics have inspired your creativity?

http://bit.ly/SqEsGo

Thanks in advance.
Gamal

What an interesting way to self-promote!

{P-{D>) but I'll bite...

I liked the old Challengers Of The Unknown (DC Comics) and, I'm a long time fan of Superman and the Legion of Super-Heroes

I also liked "The Warlord" and Green Lantern/Green Arrow. Generally I'm a Marvel Comic's guy at heart,The Defenders, X-Men (both before and after X-men 94) Spiderman back in the days of the Jackal and the return of Gwen Stacy.

I hadn't even heard of Challengers before you posted it...Interesting.

Your tastes in comics seems pretty broad, since Warlord had a much different tone than Defenders or X-Men. Are you reading anything now or have you become disillusioned with them?

Have fun.
G

Not necessarily dark, but I have two that pop into mind(probably because I read them both recently) I Kill Giants and 3 Story: The Secret History of the Giant Man .

I also really loved Scott Snyder's run on Detective Comics #871-881.

Ctgt wrote: "Not necessarily dark, but I have two that pop into mind(probably because I read them both recently) I Kill Giants and 3 Story: The Secret History of the Giant Man ..."

You've got a strong taste for independent comics. I like that, even though I grew up with and worked for Marvel. I'm convinced that like many other forms of media, a lot of the innovation and creativity comes from the independent artists.

Thanks.
Gamal

Gamal wrote: "I hadn't even heard of Challengers before you posted it...Interesting.

Your tastes in comics seems pretty broad, since Warlord had a much different tone than Defenders or X-Men. Are you reading a..."

Well, I wish I could say something really deep, like, I found the comercialism and freedome since Stan Lee retired began to reinforce the elitism of individuals rather than strengths as a human beings

but the reall answer is, I joined the Navy, wound up deploying for months at a time and didn't subscribe to any "Mags" as Stan Lee used to call them. So, I grew away from them. I still have some. I even have a battered copy of Xmen 94.

I'm not sure I see the same thing in them now that I saw in them when I was younger (I joined the Navy at 21, so we aren't talking about my middle school experiences here).

Times were different then, and, since history does repeat itself, only now sort of working it's way back around. The Vietnam War was only a few years in the past. There were a tone of gener and ethinic based civil rights issues, drinking age was 18 years old and a DUI was a trafic violation.

I believe that art imitates life, not the other way around (or, watching a news story about people who break the law will not lead people to want to break the law...art reports what life is like it doesn't create circumstances, life has to happen first).

Anyway, The Legion of Super Heroes (LSH) had been running since 1959 and I picked up on it in the seventies. It had a very sophisticated backstory with and a well devloped story universe (Despite the hokey superhero names that all ended with girl or lad...egad). The Science Police and other organizations like that had a very "anti-big government" feel to them (them as the villains) and they kind of pioneered the same kind of ideas of "being different" is a human strength, as a speicies like the x-men took up later on.

(You may have to read a few of the comics to get that).

I liked the New Mutant's too, and I meant to put up these on the list "Ghost Rider" and "Son of Satan" and "Champions." I have a Chapions #1 around somewhere with yellow pages.

Today I see lots of the same thing in comics, some things never change, and I see more emphasis on the entertaiment value over the message. Now, it's fair to say that Stan Lee, especially early on, just wanted to entertain and thought he had a broader audiene than D.C. (Global) comics at the time, but he didn't water down story lines because he thought the "message" was too controversial (like D.C. had a habit of doing at that time...they grew out of it). I think he found "message" as part of, or adding to the entertainment value.

but I digress.

today I think people like dark story lines and heroes with issues and sneaky vile villains so the comics are darker than a lot of them were when I was younger (not all of them). I'm afraid there's been a move towards squashing a good, if controversial message, in the belief that doing so will make the market opportunities broader (include Television in that now).

But these are just the reflections of a grumpy old under-educated, under acomplished loner, want-to-be-know-it-all, who keeps a bushel of axes to grind when he gets bored. There are probably other, very valid ways to look at the development of comic books.

The original Moon Knight series by Marvel was very dark the first 20 or so issues. Great stuff with a supernatural and serial killery vibe.

The Early Dr. Strange series was dark, well, as much as comics were in those days. (Good Animated Movie on Netflix too for Dr. Strange.

For that matter, the "Ghost Rider" series and "Son of Satan" had some dark edginess to them. As comic books could be edgy at that time.

When I was growing up and until the '90's, I loved Marvel and hated DC. I grew disillusioned with Marvel around the time when they started the annual summer crossover in the X-men titles. I stopped reading comics for a while but now I'm indulging a little thanks to the library and Amazon. I buy mostly DC now. Thanks to the Flashpoint saga, I can start over.

Other than "Legion of Superheroes" and a couple titles here and there, I too was more of a Marvel reader. The Crisis series sort of helped me get over that. Now I see them all equally. I just liked them in the same universe rather than a bunch of different ones.