Man The 90’s were weird… but incredibly influential…?
I feel like I should just start this off by saying that these figs didn’t really reflect any one specific JL team from The 90s, but rather the idea/aesthetic that DC held at the time. As much as I would have loved to do a Grant Morrison JLA, I’d need someone to print a decent Kyle Rayner fig first 😛
Anyway, let’s see if I can pin-point some of the major events… oh yeah SUPERMAN DIED! :O
Lot’s of other things happened too, like Hal goes nuts (and in comes Kyle for a bit), Batman get’s crippled (so then Azrael comes in for a bit), Green Arrow has a son (who’s now Green Arrow for a bit), Wally gets married (Then he dies and then comes back again for a bit), even Aquaman looses a hand and grows out his hair… (for a little while :P)
…Dude, this is only a handful of the crazy things that happened in the decade, and this is just with these few characters!! 😛
DC brought the focus back to their heavy hitters once again, but taking them to the most radical extremes they could! This stuff was riding a thin line between cool/edgy, or 1960’s overpowered campy ridiculousness!
In addition to this, there was this huge influx of creator driven content, like Mark Waid and Alex Ross’s Kingdom Come, or Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale’s Long Halloween, to name just a couple…
Some argue that many of these things drove Comic Business to record high sales. Some even say that Tim Burton’s Batman was the new “cool”; and that lead to comics being taken seriously (for what seemed like the first time). We all know now that ultimately the influx of buyers (then ditching it like the fad that it was) lead the comic industry to plummet and never quite return to this level of financial success. At the time, it was cool to own a Batman book and all the variant covers. It was cool to own an Animal Man #1 or have a longbox full of Ambush Bug, or Hellboy, or Spawn, or anything with Todd McFarlane’s name on it 😛
But inevitably, there could be many things to blame for the great comic book fallout. One reason could have been over-saturation of the market. Companies like Wildstorm Comics were just joining the fray. These newer smaller companies generally consisted of former Marvel and DC employees looking for more creator-owned projects and better pay for their work (in somewhat of a response to the Superman lawsuits and his creators). DC made attempts to eat up and buy out these smaller companies in the frenzy, and even succeeded in doing so with Vertigo Comics, Helix Comics, and even Image Comics.
Too many comic books, not enough readers I guess…?
Anyway, DC during this time (to make even more profit) also began re-releasing old stories in collected hardcover books. To their betterment it moved their newer fan base to find interest in these old characters from the Golden and Silver Ages. Only to find that when they wanted to read new stories about Barry Allan or Hal Jordan, they’d only find Wally or Kyle at the newstands.
To keep things on topic though, there were some really great Justice League stories to come from Grant Morrison’s run with the JLA series like Tower of Babel, and The Rock of Ages. Additionally, a wee little Geoff Johns’ Career began, and he revived The JSA (for a bit)!
Funny enough, a lot of today’s newer Justice League stories are inspired by this super weird decade of comic book history (Like the 2017 Movie for example)! So things weren’t all bad, right?!
Think about it. The writers and artists and film makers and actors of today, were just kids and teens back then. Strange how things will come full circle if you give it about 30 years 😛
Despite all it’s hardships, The 1990s did as much good as it did damage to the industry (I think) 😛
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Yes, Aquaman and WW’s hair were altered in post-production, in case you were wondering 🙂
Parallax Hal is an old UV Print that Onlinesailin made a few years back.
Supes is CyclopsBricks
Az-Bats is from UG Minifigures
Walter West is Christo 🙂
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Posted by Andrew Cookston on 2017-11-01 13:37:50
Tagged: , Lego , DC , Comics , Justice , League , Green , Arrow , Connor , Hawke , The , Flash , Wally , Walter , West , Dark , Christo7108 , Azrael , Batman , UG , Minifigures , Superman , CyclopsBricks , Cyclops , Bricks , Clark , Kent , Wonder , Woman , Diana , Prince , Lantern , Hal , Jordan , Parallax , Onlinesailin , Aquaman , Arthur , Curry , 1990s , 90s , Dan , Jurgens , Brian , Bolland , George , Perez , Mark , Waid , Alex , Ross , Tim , Sale , Custom , Minifig , Minifigure , Photoshop , Toy , Still , Life , Nikon , Macro , Photography , Andrew , Cookston , Andrew Cookston
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