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As someone who never really got into comics, I find Chase's piece to be pretty insightful. I believe titles like Batman: Arkham City show the significance of the link between comic books and video games.
NOTE: This is my entry into December's Secret Santa Bitmob Writing Challenge. I was challenged to discuss the relationship between comic books and video games.
When I am forced into one of those dreadful conversations about video games as art (it's a valid debate that I'm sick of having so frequently), the comparison of games to movies often comes up. People on the “art” side of the argument will look at the way film evolved and apply that logic to how video games might evolve in the future.
But cinema is just one of many entertainment avenues, and it’s unfair to assume that gaming will follow in film’s footsteps exclusively. Maybe a new perspective is in order. Let’s talk about video games from a comic-book perspective.
In the history of American comic books (let’s put Japanese manga to the side for now; that's another article for another time) five eras have existed:
The Platinum Age: Books came from bundled comic strips and were mainly intended for a somewhat-shallow entertainment experience.
The Golden Age: Superman and the medium-defining super-hero comic genre were introduced.
The Silver Age: After the late Golden Age’s experimentation, a resurgence of the super-hero comic occurs.
The Bronze Age: Comics were revamped to address social issues and super heroes were humanized. Spider-Man’s girlfriend, Gwen Stacy was killed, and Wonder Woman lost her powers for a prolonged period.
The Modern Age: This is today's era where a few, large mainstream publishers and many smaller, independent publications make up the industry.
What’s interesting is that despite the evolution of their stories and genres, comic books seemingly hit their peak in the Golden Age. Believe it or not, even with the popularity of comic-book films like The Dark Knight and critically acclaimed series like The Walking Dead, along with a thriving independent-comic scene, fewer comics are sold in North America now than in any previous time. Video games, however, continue to be on an upward tick. New consoles generally outperform their older counterparts.
Maybe that’s due to the mediums themselves. Not to downplay comics (which I very much enjoy), but their format is not very unique, making adaptations into other forms of entertainment, such as film, easy. Games, on the other hand, offer a unique interactive experience that so far hasn’t been able to be effectively adapted to other channels. Did you feel immersed during the Doom movie’s first-person sequence? The unofficial poll I just took between me and common sense points to no.
So what do we do with this information? First, I think we should count ourselves lucky that gaming is still growing. Second, we must keep in mind what makes games special: interactivity. And we need to maintain focus on that aspect as this medium evolves.
