One Perfect Moment: The Riddler

[goggle_kid]

One page from 1989's Secret Origins special.

Comments

[jlroberson]

It would be more Gaiman's way to notice and observe, which would be best considering he was a participant at Ground Zero. He was a lot better once he stopped trying to be a gentler version of Alan Moore. But around then that was exactly what he was. Remember, just as one example, this is the guy that made Jed(from Kirby's SANDMAN) an abused, neglected child.(granted, this was already implied a little in the original, but I'm not judging, just stating a fact) And who made Hector Hall a joke. He was doing plenty of spitting upon "more innocent" times.

But then, I would argue that, at the time, DC at least was so moribund that it kind of needed that. What everyone forgets is that nobody wanted to buy the "innocent" DC anymore. Everyone was sick of it, because it had become static and boring and kids now had video games and cable as competition--not to mention the alternatives were getting very successful at that time and DC wanted some of that money. And Marvel? Marvel was taking lots of chances and had never put themselves in the trap of appealing primarily to little kids, so had the freedom to move that DC, full of old editors with no ideas left, did not, and so was kicking their asses; they had to compete. And did I mention Alan Moore and Frank Miller were very popular, and DESERVED to be?

It's easy to look back now and go tsk tsk, but back then it seemed just about the only way to start writing stories from a new angle.

Personally though, I think at the time Grant Morrison did a better critique of the darkening, especially in ANIMAL MAN.

By the way, bringing up Jurgens? Well, I wouldn't really consider him influential nor worth remembering, frankly. I mean, I wouldn't even KNOW about that story without S-D.

Another point: It was when he was doing DC characters that SANDMAN was at its darkest, and once he stopped, oddly it got a lot LIGHTER.