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By Jason Bourgeois
Another month, another Grey Matters. This time out, I want to take a look at something that has a long history in comics, that I am rarely interested in, licensed books.
Licensed comics have a long history in the genre, and for those that might not be familiar with the term, are books that are based on some outside property, such as toys, video games, movies, television shows, novels, even the occasional music group. Their likeness and/or story is sold to some comic company for a limited period of time. Some of the most notable examples of licensed works that most anyone would be familiar with would be the Transformers, and Star Wars, both of which have had some sort of comics presence almost since they were conceived 25-30 years ago.
As for myself, I've very rarely cared for such projects. Too often they're not in continuity, as the original creators of the property, and the people working on the comics are very rarely on the same page, and the comics end up being nothing more than glorified and published fan fiction. They can rarely do anything major with the properties, since they are unable to, for example, kill off Luke Skywalker, since Lucas has plans for him in Episode 6. Licensed comics are almost always inconsequential, and completely missable to any fans, although to be fair, they do occasionally have good stories. They just don't matter in the overall scheme of things, for me, so I give them a pass. I don't own a single Star Wars comic or novel, and the same goes for Star Trek, although I have wound up with a comic or two through my long history with the medium. They're just not as interesting, and don't matter to the stories I am interested in, the official adventures.
I do have my weaknesses though, and have gotten a few licensed comics. Most notably among them would be from my favourite show, Babylon 5. The creator of the show, J. Michael Straczynski, did everything he could to make sure the stories being told in the comics, and the novels, were in continuity, and expanded on his universe, or filled in background details, also writing some of them himself. Even with such strict oversight as he had, there were still continuity glitches, and characters not acting like themselves in the earlier novels in particular. Still, some of the same concerns occurred, but they did a good job to address those issues, and the licensed products at least made a good attempt to matter in the overall picture.
I've also long been a fan of the various Transformers lines, and have most of their comics as well. They went a slightly different route, however, and took the toys and cartoon storylines as a starting point, and ran in completely different directions. There were characters not in the show, and even a number that have never been toys, and rather being a continuation of things we've already seen, was a continuity unto itself. Sadly, most every licensing of Transformers with a different company has taken this route, and created an all new continuity every few years, so while there's often been a licensed comic based on the original, most popular, Transformers toys and cartoon, every few years it gets restarted, and interrupted when things go wrong, so there's been a long string of different versions of the same characters, and unfinished stories. While I remain a fan of the giant robots, this little quirk has begun to annoy me, and I do hope the current license holders can bring some sort of closure to storylines before things implode again.
Most notably, and recently, is the return of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and Angel to the world of comics. Many fans were rightly disappointed when both series ended after seven and five year runs, respectively. The first batch of books, starring Angel, were good but nothing special, and felt very much like the majority of licensed comics. Telling stories with the characters, but not terribly interesting or important. However, with the return of Buffy to comics, the series creator once again took the reigns, much like with Babylon 5, and kicked off what is officially being considered Season Eight of the series. With no other properties to contend with, and being the driving force, these truly are the official continuations of these characters, and even Angel is coming back with his very own Season Six, based on the success of Buffy's comics.
The Buffy comic has been very well done, dropping people into the world again, and picking up right where things left off, and unlike many licensed works, the likenesses of the characters are almost spot on. There are a few oddities, but this is the closest I have seen characters in such comics looking like the actors involved in a very long time. The book is very much for the fans, and just like if a person came into a true eighth season of a television show, new fans picking up the comicbook equivalent may well feel lost as well, but there's a lot of history behind the property, and this book isn't compromising things to water it down for newbies. There's plenty of Buffy fans and information on the web for anyone who needs a refresher course.
I do still hold to my general opinions of licensed comics, while there are indeed a few exceptions. They are quite few and far between, in my opinion though. A key ingredient is definitely that the creator of the original work needs to keep a close eye and a guiding hand on his babies, making sure things stay how they are, and it certainly helps if there's no other competition for officialdom out there. Hopefully more good licensed books do come out for fans looking for more of their favorite characters, even if I may not read them myself.
Jason M. Bourgeois
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