Since its founding in 1960 until now, the Justice League has included hundreds of members from the DC Universe, of all kinds, from Martian Manhunter to Wonder Woman, and of course, Superman and Batman. But in no comic multiverse could we remotely imagine who the new member revealed this week in issue 5 of Batman/Santa Claus: Silent Knight Returns would be. Holy Santa Clauses, Batman! At the end of this comic, Batman and Superman offer a membership card to, exactly, Santa Claus! It has been 84 years since his first appearance, […]
Since its founding in 1960 until now, the Justice League has had hundreds of members from the DC Universe, of all kinds, from Martian Manhunter to Wonder Woman, including, of course, Superman and Batman. But in no comic multiverse could we remotely imagine who the new member would be that was revealed this week in issue 5 of Batman/Santa Claus: Silent Knight Returns.
And at the end of this comic, Batman and Superman offer a membership card to, exactly, Santa Claus! It has been 84 years since his first appearance in Superman’s Christmas Adventure, and since then he has gone through various crises, side adventures, and imaginary worlds. He even faced Lobo in his Christmas special! What no one expected is that after so much time, he would finally formalize his status with the Justice League. It was about time.
The reason for hiring him is that “They want the League to be able to face any threat”, and Santa receives him with honors: “Indeed, it has been nice going on adventures with you. It reminded me of another time with friends from long ago“. What better way to wish us a Happy New Year?
Did you think that artists and creatives would sit idly by while there are some books among the bestsellers on Amazon that have clearly been created by a generative AI? Of course not. We must stand up to what is coming, because it can completely destroy art and replace it with the softest laziness caused by the greed of a few who intend to annihilate human interaction and replace it with what a machine says. It’s so clear that even Superman has taken a stand against it. SuperChatGPT has been in the issue […]
Did you think that artists and creatives would sit idly by while there are some books among the bestsellers on Amazon that have clearly been created by a generative AI? Of course not. We must stand up to what is coming, because it can completely destroy art and replace it with the softest laziness caused by the greed of a few who intend to annihilate human interaction and replace it with what a machine dictates. It is so clear that even Superman has taken a stand against it.
It was in issue 2 of Absolute Superman, the DC comics set in a new universe, where we discover what Kal-El’s adolescence was like on Krypton (because, yes, this version of the character did not come to Earth so soon). There, we see how he gets into trouble because, instead of using generative text in school, he writes it on his own. And it seems crazy, but there are already jobs where writers or screenwriters are being reprimanded for not using AI. The world is upside down.
This not only makes him human, but directly relates him to Lois Lane, who after facing Superman, prefers to write her own ideas instead of accepting that Brainiac fills in the gaps. Obviously, Brainiac had to be the villain in a story that promises, at the very least, to stand up to all those who believe that making a comic is about feeding a couple of ideas into a machine and hitting Enter. Let them eat their own bread.
There are those who want to declare the world of comics dead, claiming that young people no longer buy physical copies, but the truth is that year after year the figures show otherwise. For example, in 2015, the number of Star Wars comics sold exceeded a million just in the United States, and this year Transformers sold out its entire run, becoming the competitor to beat. Until the king arrived, of course, dressed in black with a new suit: Batman has triumphed, as expected. Gotham to Gotham. Of course, I’m talking about American comics, because as for […]
There are those who want to declare the comic book world dead, claiming that young people no longer buy physical copies, but the truth is that year after year the figures show otherwise. For example, in 2015, the number of Star Wars exceeded one million sold in the United States alone, and this year, Transformers sold out its entire run, becoming the rival to beat. Until the king arrived, of course, dressed in black and with a new suit: Batman has triumphed, as expected.
Of course, I’m talking about American comics, because when it comes to manga in Japan, there are several volumes that have surpassed the 400,000 copies of the first issue of Absolute Batman, from volume 108 of One Piece (1.5 million copies) to volume 14 of Spy X Family (812,000). However, it is noteworthy that a DC comic manages to take this spot in extremis, especially when they compete against themselves in their digital version, on the DC Universe app, and against hundreds of alternatives.
Yes, the comic book industry may not be at its best (nor is the manga industry, whose paper compilation magazines have been losing thousands and thousands of followers over the past few years), but as long as there are hits like Absolute Batman or Ultimate Spiderman, which always hover around the top spots, there will still be an industry. It’s just likely that neither Marvel nor DC want to take more risks and will stick to what everyone already knows. Just like in movies, series, and video games: people think they want surprises, but they buy comfort.
Additionally, it should be noted that the superhero comic market has several lives. First in single issues, then in collected volumes, then in another volume and different editions until whoever wants to have it already has it, including several digital issues. And seriously: Who here has sold more than 400,000 units of something they own in their lifetime? It is, at the very least, worthy of applause.
