Friday - December 17, 2004:

This little scene seems well-timed. Like the Websnark guy, I just finished reading the final issue of Identity Crisis, and I agree with him. It will be seen as a turning point for superhero comics, but it's a turning point they're trying to make fifteen years too late. DC and Marvel bet the farm on the eternal child a long time ago and this late flirt with something else is half-hearted. If you've read the whole series, I'm thinking you know what I mean. If you haven't, don't bother. At the end of the day it's still guys in tights and girls with big boobs, oh yeah, and sound effects too.

I'll admit I was excited to get the book and it's the only limited series I've been genuinely excited about in years. I love several other print comics, but I can wait for a day or two to read them. Not this one, and to be honest, there aren't any web-comics that I can't wait for.

The thing that Marvel and DC don't realize though is all they've got going for them is the paper they're printed on and the money that brings in because for every print comic I read these days I'm doing five hundred things on-line, several of which involve web-comics. I don't think I'm alone but more importantly I think the numbers in my court are increasing lots faster than Marvel or Dc's. There's only one thing stopping them from winning and That's a serious turn towards the internet. The only question is how many years late they'll be in making it.

I did a quick search for the illegal comic scans that I've been hearing so much about lately. I guess I'm not good at scrounging around the internet because I couldn't find any for Identity Crisis #7. I'm sure it's out there, but maybe it's not yet too late for the print comics to jump into the fray. Wouldn't it be ironic if, after years of the small press clambering for a micro-payments system to catch on, it was one of the big two print companies that jumped in and solved the problem?

-Bob Stevenson