Video Games and Comics: Underdogs Unite!
The latest issue of
Game
Informer (#129, Jan. 2004) has a fair amount of comic
coverage, including an "exclusive first look" at the
100 Bullets
video game. Other comic-related mentions include:
- A look at the Red Star video game in the news
section (apparently it's going to be a "brawler" fighting game?)
- A paragraph about Activision hiring Stan Lee as a "development
consultant" for their Marvel-based games. Interestingly, they
bring up Stan's legal troubles with Marvel, saying "we're glad to see
Stan (who famously feuded with Marvel over money he felt he was owed
for the blockbuster Spider-Man movie) getting paid for
the franchises he helped create." Even if he couldn't get paid by
the company he helped create the characters for, huh? Ouch.
- A mention of a possible Iron Man game, accompanied
by an image from the cover of Iron Man #64
Comic-related games also placed strongly on a top ten list. Unfortunately it's
a list of the ten worst games of 2003:
- Justice League: Chronicles ("Not since the Wonder
Twins has something brought so much shame to DC's mightiest heroes")
- Aquaman: Battle for Atlantis ("Who's a cooler comic
character than Aquaman? Everyone.")
- Batman: Dark Tomorrow, which nabs the #1 spot
("We're not exactly sure what happened during the development of this
title, but we have a sneaking suspicion that Joel Schumacher was
somehow involved.")
But of course the biggest comic-related story in
GI is
the
100 Bullets feature article. It spans six pages
and features plenty of art from the comic in addition to screen shots
from the forthcoming game. And there's a sidebar on the comic
itself encouraging readers to check out the series. One of the
reasons listed was news to me: According to
GI,
100
Bullets is used in three American Literature classs at
Northwestern University.
Interesting note: Twice in the magazine reference is made to the
lack of respect faced by both comic book readers and gamers, first in
the table of contents listing for the
100 Bullets article
and later at the close of the
100 Bullets feature. The
first line seems to call for a sort of geek solidarity, but it's an
appeal laced with self-loathing: "Comic books and video games
should be much closer friends. Neither medium gets the respect it
deserves from our snooty parents." (Yeah, because we all still
live with our parents. Ha ha. That joke never gets
old.) The second quote is much more grandiose:
"Individually, neither comics nor video games tend to get the respect
they deserve as legitimate art forms, but when the two come together,
the quality of the results should be undeniable." Hmm. You
might want to check that math again. More than likely the result
of combining two marginalized media will a more insular product, not
some transcendent "third way" art form. Consider the converse
melding of the two media: Have any comic books based on video
games ever achieved "undeniable quality"?
