Give your character a goal
Comic Reviews for week ending 7/10/2022
Good morning, my friend,
Today’s essay fixes the world of Western comics for good.
Okay, maybe that’s an overpromise, but let’s start with one of the fundamental areas lacking in the Big 2 (Marvel and DC Comics). That area is a lack of goals for (almost) all of their popular characters.
Stating the obvious, the core premise of a story is a journey with a conflict. The main character is either compelled to or chooses to achieve a goal, encountering challenges on the way. Every story since the beginning of human history has this core premise.
The better stories, the stories that are remembered, change the main character through the challenges they face on their journey, or their steadfastness changes the world around them. In either case, the story requires something to change by the end. Maybe the hero matures or grows wiser. Maybe the hero’s kingdom is better or worse. Regardless of the nature of the change, there must be change.
But before there can be memorable change, before the hero encounters challenges to overcome, before the hero sets out on his/her journey, there first must be a goal.
A goal is that thing a hero strives to attain, whether it’s to save a life, save a kingdom, stop a villain, or overcome a personal failing. There can be no hero’s journey without first establishing a goal that aligns with the hero’s personality and motivations.
That last part is important because the goal isn’t compelling if pursuing it doesn’t align with the character’s composition. It doesn’t make sense for Superman to pursue losing 20 pounds if he’s already at the peak of physical health. The Punisher won’t be motivated to go to South America to build low-cost homes with Habitat for Humanity because that’s not what’s important to him. The goal must fit the character.
Bringing this back to the Big 2, most of their top-level characters are floundering under diminishing sales because they have no goals. More accurately, their “goal” is to maintain the status quo.
Let’s pick on Superman for a closer look. Superman is at the peak of physical power, health, and goodness on Earth. He’s effectively perfect, and his mission is to keep the Earth safe. That’s a fine way to live, and nobody would argue that mission isn’t important, but it’s not a hero’s journey. Consequently, Superman is stuck in an endless cycle of reacting to threats as they crop up, relegating Superman to the superhero equivalent of a wall.
Writers, to keep things interesting, are left with little choice but to confront Superman with bigger and more dire but short-term challenges to hold readers’ attention. Sometimes those challenges resort to gimmickry (taking Superman to other worlds or time periods). Other times, less creative writers fall to deconstruction for cheap emotional thrills but rarely do those efforts achieve anything meaningful for the character’s status quo.
[Side note: we’ll discuss the do’s and don’t’s of deconstruction in next week’s newsletter.]
How should DC Comics handle Superman and all their other characters going forward? Give them a journey with an important goal - a goal that changes them, changes their world, or both. For example, perhaps Superman finds out his powers start to give off a lethal form of Kryptonian radiation, and through his journey to find a cure, he discovers his ultimate act of saving his world is to give up his powers for good. Sure, it sounds a bit cliché and probably too close to Morrison’s All-Star Superman, but you get the idea.
The goal has to set the hero on a journey that’s challenging, aligns with the character’s motivations, and changes the character or their world permanently.
If the Big 2 would commit to this strategy for all their characters, even if they stretch the journey out over years, readers will have a story-driven reason to invest in comics again.
What goals would you set for your characters, whether from Marvel, DC, or even your creator-owned character? What changes will that character undergo through the challenges they face? How will attaining their goal (or not attaining it) evolve them? Comment with your suggestions below, and let’s get some ideas going.
Now, on to the week in reviews.
BEYOND THE FARTHEST STAR: WARRIORS OF ZANDAR #3 - Review
PELLUCIDAR: ACROSS SAVAGE SEAS #3 – Review
THE TIGER’S TONGUE #1 – Review
PROMETHEE 13:13 – Review
ESTABLISHING SHOT #1 – Indie Review
TILT #1 – Indie Review
DIE!NAMITE NEVER DIES! #5 – Review
PROJECT SUPERPOWERS: FRACTURED STATES #4 – Review
RED SONJA: RED SITHA #3 – Review
SAVAGE TALES (ONE-SHOT) – Review
KING CONAN #6 – Review
DOCTOR WHO: ORIGINS #2 – Review
Potions Inc. #2 (Mad Cave Studios)
Bêlit & Valeria #3 (Ablaze Publishing)
Dragon Whisperer (Vol. 2) #2 (Red 5 Comics)
Man Goat & The Bunnyman: Green Eggs and Blam! #1 (Zenescope Entertainment)
Van Helsing: From the Depths (Zenescope Entertainment)
Archer & Armstrong Forever #3 (Valiant Entertainment)
The Living Corpse: Relics #5 (American Mythology)
Army of Darkness vs. Reanimator: Necronomicon Rising #1 (Dynamite Comics)
Bettie Page: The Alien Agenda #5 (Dynamite Comics)
Immortal Red Sonja #4 (Dynamite Comics)
Vampirella Strikes #3 (Dynamite Comics)
Roz & the Big Man #1 (Indie Submission)
Snake #1 (Indie Submission)
That’s the shortlist for now. We’ll add more titles and adjust as time and resources allow.
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