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Are motion comics the next big thing?

Marvel seems to think so. After all, they held a massive outdoor premiere for the slightly-animated version of Joss Whedon and John Cassaday’s Astonishing X-Men.

I know that it’s good to draw attention to your company. No publicity is bad publicity and all that. Here’s the thing, how many non-fans who attended that event are going to actually pick up a comic? Or even a trade paperback?

Probably the same amount of people who “loved” Iron Man or the Dark Knight and decided to pick up a few comics.

Sidestepping all of that– because it’s an entirely different rant– what is the point of motion comics?

Let’s take a look at Spider-Woman: Agent of S.W.O.R.D.

There’s a few obvious problems.

The biggest being the actual animation. It’s barely a step above cardboard cut-outs on Popsicle sticks. Alex Maleev’s artwork is gorgeous, but it can’t save the animation. The voice work isn’t much better. You can have the greatest script in the world and a bad cast is going to make it sound awful.

To top it all off, motion comics are just boring. I don’t want to watch my comics, I want to read them. With a comic, you can linger over details, study a panel for a minute before moving on, flip back a few pages to double-check  something you missed. Not with motion comics.

Now, I appreciate a faithful (read: identical) adaptation of any story, but these… I’m sorry, these are a fad.

While I do think that digital versions will eventually replace print comics or, at the very least, become a major part of the comic publishing industry, these will be traditional comics on a screen. No sound effects. No voiceovers. No animation.

I mean, otherwise, what’s the point? You may as well skip the comic portion of production and head straight for the animation studio. (DC did this with the Death of Superman, Superman/Batman, Green Lantern and Wonder Woman, adapting existing stories into animated format. You can argue their success, but I’d rather watch one of those.)

(Oh, I’m not only picking on Marvel, I just couldn’t find any official versions of the Watchmen motion comic to roast. That and I’ve already said enough unkind things about that debacle.)

EDIT: And now work has begun on a Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season Eight motion comic. God damn it.