This decompression has become too much of a crutch.

Take Superman 677, for example. Here’s what happens:
1. Superman is playing in space with Krypto and Green Lantern
2. We meet the Science Police, who are fighting a big monster
3. Atlas shows up and beats the big monster
4. Atlas demands that Superman show up
5. Superman shows up.

How many times has someone busted up Metropolis and clamored for Superman to show up? Sometimes, it happens on the very first page of the issue. In this case, items 1-5 above could have been done in 4-5 pages, leaving the rest of the issue to tell an interesting story about this Atlas guy and what he means to Superman. Because of decompression, there is no reason in this issue for me to think that Atlas is any different from any of the other threats that have showed up and demanded to see Superman. Thus, I have no incentive to buy the next issue to get Atlas’s story and find out why I should have been interested in the guy in the comic I just bought.

You could say that we needed several pages to get to know the Science Police, but why? Why not tease them and let us get to know them over time. Do we really need to know all of their names and personalities when we aren’t going to see them again for a month and each didn’t get to do too much this issue?

Why does every story need to be a miniseries? It’s not that hard to tell a story in an issue:

1. 5 pages to set up the story
2. 10 pages to develop the story
3. 5 pages to finish the story
4. 2 pages of buffer to use as needed.

I have no problem with taking 2-3 issues to tell something that is really a big story. Beyond that, you’re not writing a story in a monthly, you’re writing a miniseries or a graphic novel in installments. It’s fine for a series of stories to form a longer arc, but you should get satisfaction out of each issue and there should be a good reason why the events in a particular issue take a whole issue to tell.

I think one of the problems is that writers turn in panel-by-panel scripts. Really, artists should be better at telling a tight story visually. The writer should say what each page accomplishes. Then, the artist should use his more acute visual sense to tell the story. Then, the writer should add dialog. Yes, this is the old Marvel style. When the artist and the writer weren’t in sync, you’d get some odd dialog that didn’t fit the story that the artist created. But, when it worked, you got real economy of storytelling.

Some might argue that this approach shortchanges characterization, but you can show character economically with good art and a few well-chosen lines. It’s only when you have an Ed Benes-style artist who depends on generic poses that the characters must talk on and on to get a point across. With someone like Kevin Maguire penciling, you could leave out the dialog easily.