Shawn’s FWIW: Do you want a Revolution?

Rokk and I don’t agree on a lot of things. You might say that I’m the loyal opposition. We aren’t diametrically opposed, but our tastes differ enough that even when we like the same material it is for different reasons. Sometimes Rokk gets a hold of a comic that I like and reviews it for months, giving it low scores and sharp critiques.

A number of folks took issue with a review of New Avengers #50 (a review, by the way, that I though was too kind to the material it was reviewing). Folks wanting to know why Rokk would continue to review a comic that repeatedly drew his ire. Some folks argued (and I paraphrase) that his time and Jim’s would be better served praising comics that he likes and spending less time “trashing” comics he doesn’t over multiple issues.

Rokk, in the comments, apologized (I’m putting words in his mouth too) and did the democratic thing and ran a poll on how to handle further reviews. He even put in place a set of rules, checks and balances to make sure his reviews don’t get lopsided again.

Now, is that any way to run a Revolution?

Rokk buys the comics he reads and reviews. If he is reviewing a comic, it is because he bought it, hoping that the previously poor issue is redeemed by the next one. Whether it is a love of characters, team, writer or company, or even popularity, he keeps hoping the next issue will be better. That alone earns him the right, in my opinion, to rant on if he chooses to do so. He paid for the admission.

How can we get change if we don’t fight against the current, against the hundreds of thousands of readers who buy a comic book just because it says “X-Men”, or “Wolverine” or “JLA” on it and just accept what they get.  Maybe, if these “poorly written but well selling titles” (courtesy of John Hend’s comment on the aforementioned review) had more attention put on them, instead of accepting their mediocrity, they would be better comics, and Rokk would not have to rant quite so much.

While we cannot review everything (I rarely review single issue at all in the interest of full disclosure) we will continue to promote the the comics we like (and we all like different comics). We are already searching out more diverse material outside of the world of DC and Marvel. But most of all, we are fighting the good fight, hoping that our words, and your comments will impact the writing of our comics for the better.

So the question is, do comic books need a Revolution?