Back to the 90's - Guest Commentary

A friend of mine Jeff sent me the following e-mail and I'm sharing it with his permission.
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So why do you think it is that comic book companies seem stuck in the 90's? Big event driven books, variant covers, deaths of characters; that really aren't deaths.....it just feels all so 90's to me.

This battle for the cowl thing is straight from the 90's heydays. Remember when Superman died and 4 contenders to the throne were vying to be the new Supes? Or how about when the Punisher "died" and 4 new Punishers were all fighting to see who would be the new Punisher? Or when Azrael took over for Batman, then Nightwing had to put on the cape and cowl? I just don't get it. We've been over this ground many times before. Why walk it again? Are they still thinking that they can recreate the sales numbers from the 90's glory days?

Then I read this article with Didio that talks about his reasoning for Batman's "death". He says that it makes no sense to have everyone around Bruce getting older, but he never ages a day. He's not immortal, so how do they justify a mid-20something Nightwing and a Tim Drake who's moving onto college while Bruce stays the same age? Didio felt that they needed to address this. Me, I don't see a problem. I assume that Bruce is in his 40's now, whether or not they actually tell me that. The math totally works and I think he could be just as athletic and skilled in his 40's as he was in his 20's or 30's. In fact, now he has experience and the wisdom to make smarter choices than he did when he was just starting out. Hell, if they can have the Punisher in his late 50's/early 60's over at Marvel, still kicking ass and tough as nails, Bruce can surely still manage in his 40's without some ass coming along and killing him.

Is the idea of a 45 year old Bruce Wayne that distasteful to the higher ups at DC? Christian Bale is 35 and looks like he's still got a few more good years in him. This ageism crap has got to give.