Daily Comics Digression #49: Spergeddon is Nigh, sigh...

Marvel just advertised that "Spidergeddon is nigh."

I can't.

*Deep Breath*

This is why no one takes comics seriously. They can't even take themselves seriously. No, I don't mean that superheroes need to fall down the dreary, vulgar pit that Alan Moore dug when he spearheaded the Dark Age of comics (though I would much rather give credit for that stylistic choice to Frank Miller). However, it is of critical importance that a storyteller treat his work with the appropriate weight that it is due. Throwing together silly things to create some ironic hyperbole is not EPIC, it's stupid, and anyone who really wants to read action fantasy is immediately going to look elsewhere. Marvel Comics has become the poster boy for self immolation. Marvel Comics used to walk a fine line between comedy and tragedy. You know those two theater masks, the ones that have one face crying and the other laughing? That's what Marvel used to be. The characters may have used quips and sarcasm, but their lives where fraught with uncertainty, frustration, and loss. Marvel characters these days seem to have overdosed on ironic sarcasm, and they seem unable to take anything seriously. It's like being nudged by an obnoxious clod who think's he's funny when he's actually unbearable. 

Remember when characters were worried, visibly so, when they confronted their enemies instead of making a parade of inane pop-culture references like they're auditioning to be on a sitcom? Remember when superhero stories were not written and paced like an episode of The Big Bang Theory? Remember when we got The Sinister Six story line or even The Clone Saga? Now we have Spidergeddon.

I can't.