It's Deja Vu All Over Again
Originality in comics is hard to find, and even harder to keep.
As soon as one comic company comes up with a fresh (or freshly recycled) idea, all the other companies jump on the band-wagon. The 60's super-hero resurgence that gave us Spider-Man was just one example from a series of waves... teen romance, dark crime, cowboys, horror, science fiction... it has always been feast or famine.
Even within the same company, Marvel comics can't help but do everything to excess. As a reader of Spider-Man comics and Spider-Man spin-offs, I've recently seen the damn near same formula repeated four times simultaneously!
- In Scarlet Spider (Vol. 2), troubled Spider-Clone Kaine picks up and moves to Houston, where he wages a dark lonely battle against the criminal underworld, and fights to overcome his darker nature. He meets a vulnerable young kid (Aracely) who needs protection, and a feisty free-spirited girl (Annabelle).
- In Morbius The Living Vampire, troubled Spider-Man Spin-Off Michael Morbius picks up and moves to the run-down Brownsville district of New York, where he wages a dark lonely battle against the criminal underworld, and fights to overcome his darker nature. He meets a vulnerable young kid (Henry) who needs protection, and a feisty free-spirited girl (Becky).
- In Venom (Vol. 2), troubled Spider-Symbiote Flash Thompson picks up and moves to Philadelphia, where he wages a dark lonely battle against the criminal underworld, and fights to overcome his darker nature. He meets a feisty free-spirited girl (Katy Kiernan). He has yet to encounter a vulnerable young kid... but that can't be far away.
- In Alpha: Big Time, troubled protege of Spider-Man Andy Maguire picks up and moves to Pittsburgh, where he wages a lonely battle against the criminal underworld, and fights to overcome his legacy of failure. He meets a feisty free-spirited girl (Soupcan). He has yet to encounter a vulnerable young kid; perhaps he is a vulnerable young kid.
It's great that all these comics are trying something new. But if you could all try DIFFERENT new things... yeah, that would be great.