I have a very strong preference for Team Books, vs Solo books. Oh, there are Solo books I've read over the years, and still do. (Currently, Robin, Batgirl and Nightwing). However, I've always enjoyed team books much more, and the reason for that is fairly simple.
When it comes right down to it, I'm much more interested in character interaction than anything else. Yeah, the whole "hero vs baddie" thing is interesting, and provides a nice backdrop, but I find myself more interested in how the heros connect and relate to one another. Team books give much more room for that sort of thing. Of course, any solo book also has its cast of characters. Spidy has Mary Jane and Aunt May, Supes has Jimmy and Lois and Lana, and so forth. However, the fact that the character's in team books are "more equal" helps establish the connections more strongly.
I find that as I read, there are certain connections and friendships that I look to again and again. Sometimes they are the romantic ones, and sometimes they are simple friendships (as if that's ever really simple.) They are the ones that reach out and grab me. Perhaps that's why Outsiders hasn't really grabbed me. The interactions are so utterly disfunctional (other than Shift and Indigo), that it's not even funny. Of course, it doesn't help that I can't stand Arsenal. Naturally, with the events of issue #25... well.. oi.
So, current "connections" that I'm really interested in:
Capt. Marvel and Stargirl. I don't have the issue (yet) where Billy really fouled this one up, but this is such a nicely convoluted relationship it's great. I'd really like to see Mary stick her nose into things at some point. I've been reading through a partial collection of Power of Shazam I got the other day (I'm also a sucker for boy scouts.. that's a future post). While Billy hasn't really been "drawn" as being quite so neurotic, you can really see the reason for him to make the decision he did, considering his own past. Living on the streets for those years, it's easy for him to desparately want to hold onto any place where he belonged and was accepted. Of course, he would have been accepted anyway, but the poor kid is a teenage boy after all. I think the relationship is over, but I still hope they can come to some resolution with the friendship. It could be really well done.
Black Canary and Oracle Obviously this one goes in the friendship category. It's been great to see them develop, not only respect for one another, but also a real, deep seated caring for one another. Misguided at times (when Babs tried to "fire" Dinah), but still, very, very real. In the last issue of BoP I have we can really see Dinah's heart breaking out of all of this. I know it's cheap melodrama, but I hope that Dinah's the one that finds Babs with that scalpel stuck to her throat (as I said, I tend to be behind).
Robin, Wonder Girl and Superboy I don't have the old Young Justice issues, but just from what I've seen in Teen Titans this is a pretty interesting setup. You have the "best friends" thing with Conner and Tim, the budding romance between Conner and Cassie, and then there seems to be an almost sister/brother sort of feeling between Cassie and Tim (thinking of the way they related to one another win Tim told what happened to his Dad, and then later, when Cassie was trying to process beserk-Conner)
Well, I need my sleep, or I could keep this up for awhile.
1 comment:
I'm the opposite. I don't like the team books as much, because of the types of character interaction they often include. It seems like there is a lot of jealousy and petty snarkiness that makes its way into team books. Where as in the more individual books they are dealing with issues like loyalty, honesty, and meeting loved one's expectations.
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