No Asterisks

For the past year or so, I've been whining about comics that don't use the text boxes. Remember when they would actually explain the hero, the power of the hero, the background, in those little usually yellow text boxes? I remember those. I loved those. Plus, the editor would usually put an asterisk by a reference to a previous book in the series or another series. EX: (*Wolverine first fought The Hulk way back in The Incredible Hulk #181.) It was especially helpful when a fellow superhero from another book would up in the pages of your favorite mag. When there were crossovers, it helped you put the books in order. I could never have worked my way through Marvel's Mutant Massacre from the late 80s without it.

So I go to DC's website as I usually do, and they sort of answer this question in their "Ask the Editors" column. IF you ask me, they are just being plain lazy!


ASK THE EDITORS #18

May 12th, 2005 - A WELL-READ HOOD (BATMAN #639)
Question: Where are the little boxes explaining the dialogue between Batman and Green Arrow ? Yes, I've read IDENTITY CRISIS and the Kevin Smith's GREEN ARROW run but what if I didn't? What if it was my first issue of a DC book? You must never forget that an issue is always a first issue for someone.However, this was a great issue. Mahnke and Nguyen were the reason I bought the book but I like the writing too. Don't let them go.— Larry

Answer: It's always a tough call when to include or exclude a reference to another series to give the reader a deeper perspective. If we did it every time that any given conversation had some special connotation to an earlier meeting of any two characters, well... sometimes there'd be no room for the art!— Bob Schreck, Group Editor, BATMAN

How hard is it to put in a little text box?? I have been plain lost during recent issues of JLA and JLA Elite because I didn't even know some of the characters, for crying out loud.

I remember when Marvel would put the text box in that explained Wolverine and his powers. Remember? Devout fans could probably recite it word for word and kind of glossed over it as they read. It went something like, "Wolverine is a mutant, born with a fast healing ability and superhuman senses. He also has adamantium bonded to his skeleton that makes it unbreakable. His claws are also razor-sharp adamantium." And remember when it always said before he went into a fight, "Wolverine is the best there is at what he does. But what he does isn't very nice."

How hard is that to put in a corner of the book, especially for new readers? There is no way I could pick up a comic book for the first time and figure it out now. I took a few years off from collecting in the nineties (and by looking at back issues, it appears that waswise), not knowing that Ice from the Justice League was killed, somewhere around 1998 or so. They referenced it in the recent Countdown to Infinite Crisis. I had no idea. There was no text box explaining or telling me to see a previous issue. Not even another piece of dialogue to explain. How do new readers figure this stuff out, especially in a medium where you want to hook new kids. How does a twelve-year old in 2005 know what the hell happened to a character back in 1998?

So, my declaration to DC Comics is this: PUT IN SOME LOUSY TEXT BOXES!!

(In all fairness, even though I am not a Marvel fan really anymore, recent issues of X-Men I have picked up have had the whole front page be a sort of synopsis of previous issues. I think Marvel still gets it.)