Two Steps Back

The current - and much derided - nostalgia boom isn't the first of its kind in the comics industry. Ben Wooller looks back to the last big craze for reviving old properties, and asks what the important differences are between then and now.
19 July 2002

For lovers of the new and the fresh, the last few months in comics have been something of a nightmare with the announcement of even more nostalgia-based comics.

Spearheaded by new GI JOE and TRANSFORMERS comics, the market is now being flooded by retreads of concepts most of us grew up with. We're also getting BATTLE OF THE PLANETS, complete with Alex Ross covers and layouts; THUNDERCATS, which has already broken pre-order sale records; and MASTERS OF THE UNIVERSE. Dolph Lundgren rung the death knoll on this way back when, and he's just given up the acting game, so there's no chance of him helping out this time around.

(It's worth noting that not only are old dead properties being reanimated, but all the rusty bells-and-whistles of comics past are being brought back with them: spin offs and variant covers. Been there. Done that.)

For some, these retreads are nothing more than nostalgia trips. BATTLE OF THE PLANETS, as horribly censored and butchered as it was, was the first exposure many people had to anime. At the time, at the age many of us were, we didn't know any better. Main characters didn't die. People were either boys or girls, and there was no grey area.

We all watched TRANSFORMERS on TV, bought the toys and read the comics. The same goes for GI JOE and THUNDERCATS. But while the cartoons were essentially glorified commercials, the comics at the very least had depth. Larry Hama wrote the entire 155 issue run of GI JOE, and in the UK TRANSFORMERS comic Simon Furman took the characters in new and incredible directions for what was originally a comic about giant robots.

But let's be honest, the pre-order numbers of TRANSFORMERS and THUNDERCATS show that there must be a market for this 'new nostalgia'. Or at least retailers think so. But the question should be asked: why are these artists and writers working on old properties when they could be making their own? A lot of us grew up with these characters, so that's probably a big part in it (not to mention the money to be made). Indeed, many of the 'creators' (which really isn't the term to be using in this case) have openly said they're doing this in order to revisit the past, to play in the playgrounds they loved when they were kids.

But as the saying goes, you can never go back. Or at least, it's not a good idea to go back. C'mon, we've all gone back at some stage, buckled under the pressure of nostalgia, and rented the videos to relive the past... and more often than not, regretted it. For me, personally, it was VOLTRON and MASTERS OF THE UNIVERSE. Big mistake. We don't really remember the sub-par animation, dialogue and characterisation, do we?

Maybe opposition to the 'new nostalgia' is due to seeing our memories being stomped all over. Perhaps we don't like having our childhood heroes messed with. It was traumatic enough when they killed Optimus Prime and then brought him back.

But do any of us stop to think about what fans who grew up with Jack Kirby's SANDMAN thought when it was announced that some unknown British guy was going to be writing their cherished hero? Because, remember, all this has happened before... in a manner of speaking.

The late 80s and early 90s were also a time for revamps in comics, but of a different type than what we're seeing now. Sure, they were bringing back old characters and ideas, but they weren't a basic rehash of what had come before. At the time they were different, exciting and new. And more importantly, they helped change the way people thought about comics. Come on guys, we all know this story...

DC, thrilled at the success of Alan Moore on SAGA OF THE SWAMP THING, went headhunting in Britain for more of the same type of talent. The Brits wrote differently to Americans. Warren Ellis puts it down to Americans seeing the same old characters when they looked at comics, while the British saw brand new stories, and therefore, in his words, "were taught that what you do is get up on stage and do something brand new too".

Neil Gaiman says American comics were like postcards from another world where "the idea of a place that looked like New York, the idea of fire hydrants and pizzerias, was just as strange to us as the idea that anyone would wear a cape and fly over them".

The result of the headhunt brought writers like Grant Morrison and Gaiman to an American (and worldwide) audience, and opened the door for others like Ellis, Peter Milligan and Garth Ennis to follow.

In the cases of Morrison and Gaiman, they were asked by DC to pitch stories involving old characters. Moore had revamped SWAMP THING, and had even brought in new storytelling techniques (especially the psychedelic plant-love in "Rite of Spring"). This had won over readers, and DC figured they were onto something good.

And they were. This was the birth of Vertigo. Built on the bones of old superheroes.

It's worth wondering if it was feared that the pre-Vertigo retreads would have the same problems inherent in the majority of superhero comics: How long can the same hero (say Batman/Swamp Thing/Optimus Prime) continue to fight the same villain (The Joker/Anton Arcane/Megatron)? How many variations of that battle can you have? The 'new nostalgia' comes with this baggage as well.

It's yet to be seen if any of the retreads will be giving the old concepts new twists. In the majority they're already adding to an extensive established continuity, with GI JOE and THUNDERCATS, at least, picking up where the old stories ended years ago.

OK, sure, when Moore took over SWAMP THING and Morrison took on ANIMAL MAN and DOOM PATROL, they continued where the stories had left off. But the pre-Vertigo writers bypassed this problem by integrating the old continuity while revamping the characters, giving the titles a new lease on life (and leading to one of the most popular comic imprints).

Moore gave SWAMP THING a new origin story. Morrison introduced real world concerns and ideas such as Multiple Personality Disorder and Chaos Theory in DOOM PATROL and animal rights activism and vegetarianism in ANIMAL MAN. Gaiman turned SANDMAN on its head, incorporating Golden Age DC into a completely new mythology, which helped drive his story to a definitive conclusion (but left the door open for others to take over, unfortunately). It's difficult to imagine anything so inventive in the new BATTLE OF THE PLANETS.

I'm obviously biased. I never knew these old comics before they were revamped. I'm only just now catching up with ANIMAL MAN through the new trades. Like I said, maybe the people who read Kirby's SANDMAN and Drake and Premiani's DOOM PATROL the first time around were crying foul when the British Invasion happened. There's a good chance they feared these new kids were destroying the icons they grew up with.

We're yet to see how well these 'new nostalgia' returns to old concepts will fare in the 21st century. I'm sure I'm not the only one who thinks they're outdated. While the pre-order buzz has been good, it's still not clear how sales will stay strong. The Vertigo revamp lasted as long as it did because of new talents, new situations and new writing. They were new ideas.

Maybe there's something to be said for those old ideas, though. Maybe we need the familiar icons of nostalgia. Maybe they make us feel safe, and transport us back to our childhood, before the world fell apart.

But more likely, it's all about the oldest idea of all: making a quick buck.

Ben Wooller is a freelance writer and is currently studying for his PhD.

Ninth Art endorses the principle of Ideological Freeware. The author permits distribution of this article by private individuals, on condition that the author and source of the article are clearly shown, no charge is made, and the whole article is reproduced intact, including this notice.