There's something been bugging me lately about modern comics, and I think I've finally worked out what it is.

It came up partly because of the upcoming The Last Airbender movie, directed by M. Night Shyamalan. I've enjoyed most of his movies, but the tone and pacing are polar opposites to the cartoon.

Then somebody asked me to lend him recent DC or Marvel comics so he could get into them. The most recent thing I could lend him that was good enough was Young Avengers (he'd already read Runaways).

I think we've all noticed that comics follow the vagaries of fashion, same as anything else. The current fashion is ultra-realism; in comic book movies, I think the peak is The Dark Knight.

The thing these trends do is abuse the trope. It could be good once, on one thing, but they shove it on everything, until you're sick of it. Even though the realism one is doing the same, I'm still behind it.
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