When you think about it, the comic industry really is brand spanking new. Not sequential art, obviously - sequential art as a concept is nothing new. An oft-cited historic example of sequential art is the Bayeux Tapestry, woven over nine hundred years before the Dark Knight returned.

But, the industry as it stands now is just finding its feet, just learning how to walk. We've had next to nothing but superheroes fighting supervillains for seventy years, and we're just now breaking out of the mould and creating stories that don't contain someone who wears a mask and tights, so I think it could safely be said that it's a medium in its infancy. We've also got young, new creators doing adventurous things - art for its own sake - unhindered by concerns over whether the lowest common denominator will like it. It should be a beautiful time, and in some respects it is.

Not everywhere, though. I'm forced to ask why, in a time filled with so much potential, the industry is so incredibly retrospective. Everywhere you look, there's nostalgia, homage to prior work, retellings of old stories, pastiches of old favourites and revivals of fondly remembered old characters remembered mainly by people who are in their forties and still live with their parents.

Recently, a continuation of the old GI JOE stories hit the shelves, following on from the incredibly popular run on the title in the mid-to-late 80s by Larry Hama. In the 80s, those comics were loved by a lot of people. They were well written, exciting, imaginative. So why a revival? Is the artistic world crying out for fresh ninja hijinks from Stormshadow and Snake-Eyes? Not particularly. The revival is happening because a bunch of nerdy fanboys want to vicariously relive the enjoyment they had reading the series in the 80s when they were nine years old.

'With so much potential, why is the industry so retrospective?' And you can't do that. There's no way you can recapture that classic sense of excitement. For one thing, a lot of the concepts in the comics were amazingly stupid, and nobody in their right mind would revive them today - yet people will complain if they don't. Conversely, people will complain if they do. Hence, pleasing the fanbase that the publisher is so aching to please is practically impossible.

Another retrospective work is John Byrne's GENERATIONS. GENERATIONS came out a couple of years ago, and is basically a retelling of the entire life stories of Batman and Superman in one self contained series, spanning several decades. Not content with just one GENERATIONS series, Byrne has written and drawn GENERATIONS 2, the first two issues of which are already out. This time around, he's adding another layer to the previous story, to include other DC Universe characters like The Spectre, Green Lantern, Hawkman and so on. And, I'm sorry, but it's absolute crap. It reads like a fanboy wet dream. I'd expect to see concepts like this appearing on websites made by fifteen-year-old fanfic authors rather than coming from comic industry veterans.

Even my personal guilty nostalgic pleasure, TRANSFORMERS, for which my associates will allow me no self-respect, seems to be well on the way to getting a similar revival (judging by the grapevine, and preview art floating around the 'net), which I'm dreading. What's the point? I loved those comics, way back when. As a matter of fact, I still occasionally - when I am absolutely certain that there are no girls nearby - have a read of them.

But a revival of a long dead concept, no matter how undeniably brilliant in its day, simply caters to a market the comic industry is a fool to support - nerds. Each time some ancient and fondly remembered concept is brought back from the dead to appease a few whining fanboys, the image of the comic industry suffers that much more. Behold, FROM HELL! It's a work of genius! We've got a genuine work of genius! Oh, you'd like to read it? Go over there and pick it up. It's next to the brand new BATTLE OF THE PLANETS lithograph by Alex Ross. Don't mind the geek-stink, it washes off with wire wool.

'Don't mind the geek-stink, it washes off with wire wool.' It might be argued that these revivals are simply part and parcel of the phase the industry seems to be going through at the moment. Indeed, the entirety of pop culture appears to be going through a similar phase - the charts are filled with covers of old pop songs by new pop bands. The film world definitely seems to be on a remake kick. But in music and film, this is simply a small part of the overall medium. In comics, it seems like every big new series or hugely popular work at the moment is simply a retread or re-examination of old ideas and concepts.

THE AUTHORITY is all the old-time superheroes "done right", with big explosions and skulls being punched to bits, and other things that we all hold close to our hearts. WILDCATS shows superheroes reexamined from a vaguely realistic perspective - the superheroes' war is over, and now they have to get on with their lives. Grant Morrison is applying his patented Spit, Polish, and Blow Your Mind technique to NEW X-MEN. PLANETARY is nothing but pastiche - though it pulls itself nicely above much of the herd by examining something other than just the superhero genre.

There's a difference here, though. PLANETARY is an actual analysis of all kinds of different fiction over decades of history. THE AUTHORITY, WILDCATS, and many similar books are natural evolutions of the superhero genre. The new GI JOE, however, and probably even Morrison's X-MEN, is a masturbatory retread of an old concept in an attempt to gain the Geek Dollar.

One of the main problems with the comic industry is that it's very insular. It's dominated by superheroes, and the non-superhero work is not particularly well known - in the mainstream its practically invisible. So your average comics creator became interested in comics though the superhero genre, and is therefore very probably a superhero fan him or herself - in other words, a geek.

Now, what kind of comics are geeks going to create? Geeky comics. They'll trot out retreads of agonising clichés. The pinnacle of their ambition will be to work on a corporate-owned character who is older than them. This magnum opus will be read by more geek larvae, who will then grow up to create more of the same.

'What kind of comics will geeks create? Geeky comics.' Thus, the comic industry's focus continues to chase it's own tail like a spotty, greasy haired ouroboros. This is why the comic industry is so slowly moving away from superheroes - because it's going to take a while to instill those life-long ambitions of creation in people who have no interest in the superhero genre. People who'll come along with the plan of starting out by knocking out a few superhero titles to make a name for themselves and then sneakily branch out into creator-owned crime noir, or whatever. A theory I hear quite a lot is that there is such a strong British presence in the Quality Comics Writers Pool because of titles like the long-running science fiction anthology 2000AD, which I've heard nearly all British comics writers talk about reading when they were young.

Unfortunately, in the current climate, these nostalgic moves make sense. It's a safer publishing move to keep publishing the X-books for the hundred thousand people who will buy them regardless of what kind of rubbish they contain than to put out a brilliant crime noir comic that will probably not break 10,000 units sold.

I think that, eventually, the genre mix will shift to something resembling a reasonable spread. A lot of aspiring creators these days are finally coming to comics via stuff like PREACHER and THE INVISIBLES and are drawn to create their own material along the same lines. Unfortunately, they may be too late. The industry as it stands is, if you'll forgive the overly-melodramatic metaphor, a battleground. And one where the nerds have already won.

It's scary to think just how difficult it's going to be for the industry to right itself. In a climate geared toward superhero material, where only superhero-based material can exceed average levels of sale, how long will it take for more daring publishers to establish a more varied environment? I shudder to think, but a GI JOE revival certainly doesn't help.

Nick Locking is the award-winning co-creator of THE ATROCITY, and the writer of the forthcoming ROBOCOP: SIMPLE MACHINES.

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