COMICS ARE GETTING GOOD?!

This is yet another opinion piece. I just read NEW AVENGERS #9; and although it reminded me of TOTAL RECALL without Arnold - it was a fun read, it was really a chapter out of a longer story, but an exciting chapter nonetheless. What is going on here? Are comics getting better than they have since the 1980's? I really would like to know what the kids today think or else the pre-teen me would I think if I was reading today's comics back then.

I grew up on Dark Knight Returns, Watchmen, American Flagg, Miracleman, X-Men, Ninja Turtles, Nexus and all the great stuff from the mid-80's; I know its not just me who loved that stuff everybody remembers it fondly even if people read it today.

So was the period from say 1990-2000 mainly filled with junk? Of course there are many, many stand-out series in that time period, but compared to what I've been reading I can't compare. Is it really the Editor-In-Chief that makes things so exciting - for all those that hate Jim Shooter his period at Marvel was the most memorable and now we have Dan Didio and Joe Quesada heading up the 2 biggest mainstream comic publishers in the world and really whacking out great stuff.

There really is no point to this POV, I just find it interesting that I can remember what happened in the last issue of New Avengers and it was a month ago...I even skip over that front page (which I am glad is there) I also think it interesting that both sides are actually kicking up the sideline characters too. HAWKMAN, AQUAMAN, GREEN ARROW, FLASH and now even WONDER WOMAN are all good reads on a monthly basis. And Marvel is trying its best to bring in new characters or re-invigorate old ones - RUNAWAYS, SHE-HULK...um I guess that's it outside of the main ULTIMATE UNIVERSE books, the X-Men, Avengers and Spider-Man books, but still lots of fun it to be had.

It really is a great time to be reading comics. Buy them in singles or trades, just buy them.

With all the excitement in mainstream I hope to see a pick up in the independent comic company scene...we need a new ECLIPSE, FIRST and COMICO - people who publish mainstream stuff but just off the beaten path. Places where we found stuff like MAGE, ELEMENTALS, GROO, DREADSTAR, LIBERTY PROJECT, ZOT! and many many more...and I dont mean like Dark Horse, IDW and Oni - who are producing licensed comics and obscure indie books. I mean more like DEVIL'S DUE who tried superheroes but bombed out, they should be acting more like publishers and finding the best material and then putting it in the market - not deciding that the market needs more superhero books so they manufacture some that are just sub-standard riffs.

Ok enough for today...tell me what comics you liked in the 80's and today and what parallels you see.