80's comics are a lot of fun, even though one can't deny that it's often nothing more than nostalgic irony that makes us come back to these issues. From the bubble gum ads to the amateurish classifieds, everything seems wonderfully antiqued, a time capsule that manages to capture the sentiments and images of this era. But would one have actually liked the comics?
The most apparent issue of almost every comic of that time is how little the writers actually trust and value the very medium they are creating. Afraid to let the art do some of the storytelling, every panel that doesn't feature dialogue instead features the narrator's voice in captions, only describing what you've just seen anyway. And oh, these captions. The constant urge to sound overly poetical does not only disrupt the flow and dynamic of the comic, but also lays bare another crucial issue. For many writers (and editors) of that time, high quality content could not be conveyed by art and dialogue, but had to come from text in a more classic and literal sense. "Hey, it's just a comic, but you know, we're using really fancy words and syntax here."
All this is even more unfortunate since the actual story of Detective Comics #514 is actually not bad at all. The premise makes for an entertaining Batman adventure (although he tends to be a righteous dick sometimes), and especially the titular Haven makes for an excellent deus ex machina/(anti-)hero, whose characterisation goes as deep as a single title story can provide.
Comics have come a long way since then, and mostly for the better.
All this is even more unfortunate since the actual story of Detective Comics #514 is actually not bad at all. The premise makes for an entertaining Batman adventure (although he tends to be a righteous dick sometimes), and especially the titular Haven makes for an excellent deus ex machina/(anti-)hero, whose characterisation goes as deep as a single title story can provide.
Comics have come a long way since then, and mostly for the better.
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