As a comic book reader for more than twenty-five years, I find it almost embarrassing that comics dealers would assume that something as horrible as Liefeld’s Captain America would appeal to me, or anyone else, for that matter. Sadly, they were gambling on the idea that Image Comics--in the forms of Liefeld and Wildstorm’s Jim Lee--had come to the rescue of Marvel Comics, whose non-mutant icons--the Fantastic Four, Captain America, Iron Man, and the Avengers--were suffering in the shadow of the company’s hugely popular X-Men line of titles, and the youth-minded upstarts who founded the very successful Image line meant cash in the tills. In other words, the stalwart heroes who sold Mighty Marvel to the kids of the early 1960’s weren’t selling to the kids of today, and the creators who sold such copycat concepts as Youngblood (X-Force), Supreme (Superman), WildC.A.T.s (X-Men), and Deathblow (Punisher) to these same kids could rework and reestablish these faltering icons. I guess the logic of “Heroes Reborn” makes some kind of odd sense.

However, I would like to think that most comic book readers are fairly literate and savvy individuals who can discern between good stories with solid, sequential artwork and stories that are . . . well . . . for lack of a better word, trash, and the fact that the newly relaunched versions of Fantastic Four and Iron Man and, especially, Captain America and The Avengers are still lining comics dealers’ shelves is a bit reassuring. Obviously, anyone who bought these books thinking he or she is going to see some sort of return on his or her investment is in for a rude awakening; these books always be readily available.

Still, one must wonder if the Big Two, Marvel and DC, are getting the message that their readers want good stories and good artwork. Recently, Marvel put the artwork on Elektra, the new monthly series starring Sin City creator Frank Miller’s classic anti-heroine, in the hands of Jim Lee-clone Mike Deodato, Jr., making her look like a combination of the X-Men’s Psylocke and the WildC.A.T.s’ Zealot, while DC continues to keep Catwoman looking like a balloon-chested bimbo under the artistic guidance of Jim Balent. Fortunately, these two titles have good writers in their favor; British favorite Peter Milligan is chronicling Elektra’s adventures, and Bat-scribes Doug Moench and Chuck Dixon are responsible for the scripting chores on Catwoman.

Of course, one must also wonder how these two publishers--and the retailers--can get the message when we, the fans, made William Messner-Loebs and Deodato, Jr.’s run on Wonder Woman a surprise hit just two short years ago. Occasionally, we betray ourselves; we allow our sensibilities to be clouded--more often than not--by flashy artwork, that pin-up style that seems to be the order of the day at Image Comics, and we make a book like Artemis: Requiem a modest--and, sometimes, a huge--hit. On the surface, we like these comics’ slick visuals, but, upon closer examination, we find them to contain shallow stories and pictures that do not tell those stories in any sort of logical sequence. We buy them, and then we hate ourselves for it. We buy an issue of Artemis: Requiem or Glory, and then we gripe, moan, and complain because there aren’t more comics out there like those being written by the likes of Mark Waid (Flash, Impulse, and Kingdom Come), Kurt Busiek (Untold Tales of Spider-Man, Astro City, and Marvels), James Robinson (Starman, Leave It to Chance, and The Golden Age), and Karl Kesel (The Adventures of Superman, Daredevil, and The Final Night . . . or even Jeff Smith (Bone), Terry Moore (Strangers in Paradise), Randy Reynaldo (Adventure Strip Digest), and Batton Lash (Wolff and Byrd, Counselors of the Macabre).

What we have to understand is that by even sampling the wares of the slick and the shallow, we are sending a message; we are telling the publishers and the retailers that we thought enough of a particular project to buy an issue of it. On top of that, we’re limiting the marketplace for good comics, such as Byrne’s Wonder Woman and New Gods, Peter David’s Supergirl and Aquaman, Tom Peyer and Roger Stern’s Legion of Super-Heroes and Legionnaires, and Dixon’s Black Canary/Oracle: Birds of Prey. We have to tell the publishers what we want with the most powerful weapon we have at our disposal: our money. If those of us who realize that comic books aren’t just for kids anymore and who are able to spend a good portion of our disposable incomes on our collections refuse to buy even one issue of the flashy trash that’s littering our retailers’ shelves, the output from the publishers will change. We must resist the urge to pick up the first issue of Liefeld’s Captain America, even if it holds for us the same fascination as passing an accident scene. We must refuse to be taken in by flagrant attempts to separate us from our hard-earned money--enhanced covers, alternate covers, needless intra-company crossovers, superstar creators, lame theme annuals, first-issue relaunches, etc.

After we’ve spoken with our wallets, we must let our opinions be known in written form. Write letters to the editors and the executives at DC and Marvel. Flood their computer systems with e-mail. Post your opinions on their message boards. Comment on a particular title, a particular character, or a particular creator’s work . . . or, heck, take on the entire direction of a particular publisher’s line, and remind the them that you can back up your words with your money. If enough fans demand high-quality products from the major comic book publishers, they will have to listen. The recent return of the real Peter Parker to the role of Spider-Man is a good example of the fans’ power at work. A few months ago, sales on the Spider-titles dropped to their lowest point since the mid-1960’s, and fans complained loudly about the revelation that Ben Reilly was the one, true Spider-Man. Marvel listened. Likewise, fans complained that the Justice League should be composed of DC’s powerhouses, their most recognizable heroes, the icons, and DC canceled the incarnation of the team that was launched by Keith Giffen, J.M. DeMatteis, and Kevin Maguire in the late 1980’s in favor of a JLA composed of Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, the Flash, Aquaman, Green Lantern, and the Martian Manhunter.

The fans have power, and, if we make it known in numbers, the publishers will listen, and, hopefully, travesties such as “Heroes Reborn” will never occur again.