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The Curse of Generation X
"Nostalgia, it comes from the Greek. I researched it: straight from the Greek. ALGOS means pain. NOSTOS means to return home. Nostalgia: the pain of returning home. And the ache that comes from thinking about it." Suddenly, the comic book industry seems completely obsessed with '80s nostalgia. The first issue of Image's new "G.I. Joe" continuing series was released last month. Marvel just recently announced that it's collecting its old "G.I. Joe" and "Transformers" series into trade paperback form. Dark Horse announced a couple days ago that Marvel's old "Star Wars" monthly is also headed for trade paperback treatment. Tangentially, there's apparently even a new Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle project involving, of all people, influential Hong Kong action director John Woo. What does all this licensed-property-coincidence mean, exactly? Well, first and foremost, it should be said that the events of and post September 11th have nothing to do with it. Those who attended this year's San Diego Comicon and witnessed the disturbingly large amounts of people gawking at the new "Masters of the Universe" action-figure line can tell you that. T-shirts bearing the Cobra, Autobot and Thundercats logos have been in circulation for some time now and can be seen on folks of all ages and of every ethnicity. Recently, I was perusing the racks at a comic store in mid-town New York a few weeks ago and these two beautiful and stylish Hispanic women in their early 20s walked in and immediately started looking at all the t-shirts. Eventually they found the one they were looking for. "Yo, there's that shirt I was telling you about," one pointed excitedly. "Oh man! I LOVE Thundercats!" said the other. What the recent announcements of licensed property reprints means is that the comic book industry is finally discovering the hold pop culture nostalgia has on the majority of us who grew up during the '70s and '80s. And they're finally figuring out that we have money, and we are willing to spend lots and lots of that money- often on that aforementioned nostalgia. (Or we used to, at least. The NEW new economy could change all that. It remains to be seen whether the Marvel and Dark Horse reprints are a success or bust, but the immense popularity of Image's first "G.I. Joe" issue could be an indicator. It's going back for a second printing. A rarity, these days.) These reprints have a great chance of reaching outside of regular comic book readership. They really could be extraordinarily successful. I'm sure there's an entire audience out there whose only relationship with comic books began and ended with Marvel's "G.I. Joe" and who wouldn't mind having a nice collection of them around. Americans are inextricably linked to their pop culture both physically and psychologically and pop culture nostalgia is curiously important to many 18-35 year olds. Exactly why is something I've struggled with. Maybe it reminds us of better, less complicated days. Maybe it reminds us when comic books and TV shows and music and movies were more of an all-absorbing event than just mere entertainment. Maybe nostalgia is simply the easiest form of escape. Maybe it's the shared memory aspect. Maybe because it's an easy portal to other, deeper memories. Maybe we enjoy old pop culture because it's somehow the less attractive, bastard cousin of irony; i.e. Transformers are still fascinating because they're such a ridiculous concept that it's funny. Or check out Sean Baby's "Justice League" page. Pop culture nostalgia's tricky that way. It's different than remembering your grandparents or your childhood home or old friends or places your family used to go on vacation. It's tricky because it's difficult to find meaning or purpose in it. It was disposable before, isn't it still disposable, then? "G.I. Joe" and "Transformers" were hugely successful toy franchises. There's no getting around the fact that the old "G.I. Joe" and "Transformers" TV shows and comics are, essentially, commercials. If you watched those shows, read those comics, played those games- didn't that make you kind of a sucker? Doesn't that make it kind of a weird, materialistic nostalgia? Pop culture nostalgia is so empty and meaningless and yet there's still an elusive joy there. What else would explain why I still love movies like "Flash Gordon" and "Clash Of The Titans" so much? Funny issues arise when experiencing past pop culture now, as an adult, too. You have to be kind of careful. Just as an example, when I was a kid, I loved the cartoon "Dungeons and Dragons". Watching it now only brings about total disillusionment. "Dungeons and Dragons" is, and probably was, terrible, and finding that out becomes this vaguely humorous but still oddly potent psychological blow. Do I really want to re-watch other childhood favorites like "Star Blazers" and "Battle of the Planets" just to find out that they're god awful pop mutations masquerading as entertainment? Do I really want to find out that the disparaging remarks my mom always said about "Scooby-Doo" were true? Why not just leave these memories in their formerly happy, enjoyable place? It's like my urge to play older video games. Of all things, video games have always been a huge deal in my life. When I was a little kid, it was all about arcades and the Atari 2600. In middle school, there was the first Nintendo system, in high school, the Sega Genesis. And for a few years now I've been enjoying Sony's PlayStation. Yet I'm still compelled to play those old video games like "Galaxian" or "Joust" or "Battlezone". And I do. And they're fun…for about 5 minutes. "Wow. This really is boring," I'll think to myself. Then months later I'll get the urge to play them again. Why is this? Why do they matter to me? Why does my past matter to me so much? Either way, nostalgia is, for better or for worse, an influential, inescapable and entirely complex aspect of our society and our generation, and it's big business and I'm rambling and I could go on about this for days. What it comes down to is if the reprints of "G.I. Joe" and "Transformers" and "Star Wars"- and I'm sure eventually "Thundercats" and "Rom" and "Peter Porker" and even, god forbid, "Sectaurs" -bring some folks joy and happiness and possibly some pleasant reminders of sunnier days, I don't think there's anything wrong with it. Flipping through the inevitable trades will most certainly bring a smile to my face, for a short while. © 2002 Andrew Duncan | All rights reserved | Do not reproduce without expressed consent of author.
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