TF Views

138 Scourge wrote:she cared about her friends, especially about Dick.

I guess someone misinterpreted this quality, then.

Really though, this stuff's just one tip of the many-tipped iceberg that is gender misrepresentation in comic books. They've been incredibly sexist for a looooooooooong time.

Gomess wrote:

138 Scourge wrote:she cared about her friends, especially about Dick.

I guess someone misinterpreted this quality, then.

Really though, this stuff's just one tip of the many-tipped iceberg that is gender misrepresentation in comic books. They've been incredibly sexist for a looooooooooong time.

So true. I think the only reason this particular instance caused such an uproar is because Starfire brought nothing to the story except sex. Skintight spandex, skimpy costumes, provocative camera angles and poses, and giant boobs are nothing new to comics, but at least in most cases other female superheroes bring more to the table than just their physical assets. That, and Starfire's personality was wiped clean and replaced with something worse.

Catching up on my comics....

Red Lanterns #1
Atrocitus realizes something has changed within him. He feels that he is not as full of Rage as he once was. He wonders if his own Corps might be able to tell, and if so what might they do, or not do if they stop fearing him, as Bleez already laughs off following his orders. After being reminded of his origins, and why he created the Red Lanterns, he decides to use Krona's blood for a blood prophecy, which shows him a great deal of injustice in the universe. He decides to make the universe's rage his own, to make his Corps an instrument of vengeance for those who deserve retribution. Meanwhile, Bleez proclaims her own rage at Atrocitus to the other Red Lanterns, confirming Atrocitus' thoughts that his own Corps might betray him.

Red Lanterns #2
On an alien world, Atrocitus responds to the Rage from a little girl whose brothers were just killed mistakenly from soldiers who thought their toys were weapons. Atrocitus lets one of them go down with the ship they were flying and shows the other soldier their mistake before killing him. But Atrocitus admits, the soldier had a point when he asked him who would get vengeance for his wife and children. He wonders if Rage only begets more Rage. Finding the little girl, he is reminded of his own family. He returns her doll, but she's frightened of him and runs away. Atrocitus realizes some Rage is more worthy than others, and that the universe is indeed complex. He'll need help on his mission, and decides he'll need to increase the consciousness of one of his Red Lanterns.

-I have to say, I was pleasantly surprised by these two issues. It's interesting to see Atrocitus' process of trying to figure out what he should do now that he's got Krona, who was responsible for his Space Sector's destruction. It's really nice to be able to see some of his thought processes here. I love how much depth they give these Red Lantern character once we get past just the Rage that overwhelms them. He's learning how to transition the Red Lanterns into avengers, and he's making mistakes along the way which is nice to see. He's also realizing he needs help and how his control over the Red Lanterns could break down quickly. It'll be nice to see how this series continues to develop.

Green Lantern: New Guardians #1
After a retelling of Kyle Rayner's origins as a Green Lantern, we're shown several Lanterns from the different Corps are suddenly decommissioned, having their rings fly away having locked on a replacement in Sector 2814. This turns out to be Kyle. As soon as the rings find him, members from each Corps arrive (save for Blue and Orange) demanding the return of the wayward rings as they believe he stole them.

Green Lantern: New Guardians #2
Kyle fights with the other Corps members, until Fatality captures him in a violet crystal stasis matrix. The prison doesn't hold long though as his ring is super charged by Saint Walker's arrival. Happy to see someone give him the benefit of the doubt, they leave for Oa to talk to Ganthet and find out why these rings are following Kyle, while the others give chase. On Oa, the Guardians aren't happy to see Kyle has the other rings with him, and Kyle finds that they've removed Ganthet's emotions. They demand answers from Kyle, but he tries to explain he came to them for answers. Finally, the rings fly onto his fingers, giving him the power of all 7 rings.

-Nice to see a book with a focus on Kyle Rayner. Unfortunately half of the first issue is just retelling his origin, which if you already know it, is a bit of a waste of time. But as this is part of the DC relaunch, I suppose it's a nice jumping on point for new readers that don't know the character. As with the other Green Lantern titles, this picks up basically where things were left off before the relaunch. I feel that this series has been slow to start as it really only feels like stuff is starting to happen with the second issue. Still, I like the set up so far.

Green Lantern #2
Sinestro offers Hal a ring, knowing he'll need help to liberate his homeworld from his own Sinestro Corps who have enslaved the planet rather than just protecting it. But this ring has a catch, as it's controlled by Sinetro, who can turn it off when ever he feels like it. Ever the super-hero, Hal immediatley goes to save people at the scene of a collapsing bridge. Sinestro tries to make a point that Hal's never used the ring and his status of a Green Lantern to it's full potential by taking over the situation. It turns out the bridge was damaged by a member of the Sinestro Corps, which Sinestro easily kills, which is when Sinestro explains they must destroy the Corps he's created.

-Seems to be a running theme in these Lantern books post-relaunch about living up to the greater potential. I'm not sure how Sinestro can just create a Green Lantern ring that he can program to be under his control, but it makes for an interesting way for Sinestro to control Hal and force him to help. I'm still intrigued by Sinestro being a Green Lantern again. It'll be interesting to see how this goes.

They rewrote Kyle's origin, didn't they? I flipped through the New Guardians book, and Ganthet now talks to Kyle about overcoming great fear, as well as giving him a few quick pointers on the ring, as opposed to just saying "you'll have to do" and vanishing. I guess that's okay, it's just not really necessary and it does take away from Kyle's uniqueness. He didn't fit the profile of a Green Lantern, and yet her survived and made it work for him.

andersonh1 wrote:They rewrote Kyle's origin, didn't they? I flipped through the New Guardians book, and Ganthet now talks to Kyle about overcoming great fear, as well as giving him a few quick pointers on the ring, as opposed to just saying "you'll have to do" and vanishing. I guess that's okay, it's just not really necessary and it does take away from Kyle's uniqueness. He didn't fit the profile of a Green Lantern, and yet her survived and made it work for him.

Yeah, it is a bit of a rewrite. But I wouldn't say it takes away from Kyle's uniqueness. It's still Ganthet choosing Kyle rather than the ring. And he really doesn't give Kyle pointers. Ganthet starts to explain what the ring can do, with practice, but Kyle figures it out on his own before Ganthet can even finish his sentence.

And, today's haul:

-Fear Itself 7.1: ain't read it yet.

-Moon Knight #6: ain't read it yet.

-Transformers #29: gonna read it shortly.

-Transformers Volume 5: "Chaos" set up compiled.

-Return of Doomday: Cornell's pre-"Flash Point" story. For $15, I am not going to complain.


Dom
-did not mean to spend that much today.....

Dominic wrote:-Fear Itself 7.1: ain't read it yet.

Shit, I forgot that one. My comics shop has the "Fear Itself" books on a different rack than the other Marvel books, and since I haven't been reading "Fear Itself", I totally forgot to check that rack out.

My haul for today:

Avengers Academy #21: I like the Avengers Academy kids well enough, but never felt compelled to follow their book. But if they're gonna go and put Julie Power on the team, I feel like I should give it a shot. Lots of other teen hero characters I remember from back in the day show up briefly, as well, so that was fun. Aside from that, this is a decent book, not spectacular, but good enough to keep me in for at least another issue. Okay, Marvel, there's two of 'em, now where the hell are Jack and Katie?

Amazing Spider-Man #673: Fallout issues aren't usually very good, so kudos to Dan Slott for pulling this one off. There's a lot of fun stuff that goes into the wrapping up of things here. One great bit features Hawkeye, Misty Knight, and T'Challa comparing notes on why they're waking up naked on the streets of Manhattan along with everyone else in the city. Emergency pants shipments are delivered. Mary Jane Watson gets to web-sling around Manhattan for awhile. The spell that keeps people from figuring out that Peter is Spider-Man is pretty much shot straight to hell (telling the world that he's got spider-powers isn't the same as telling 'em he's Spider-Man, but it's close enough), and Carlie Cooper is done with Pete after figuring out that he's Spider-Man. Good stuff, I'm excited for the next issue.

Action Comics #3: At one point a crazy homeless person tells Clark "There's a ghost watching over you. I see a white dog...". I still don't think any of the changes that have happened in the new 52 are worth killing off Krypto the Superdog, but that line's kind of sweet in a sad way. I like the idea of Krypto still being around Superman in some form. Anyway, that goes down, and so does a bunch of stuff with Brainiac and Metallo, and there's a Krypton flashback. And the police yell at Clark. Really, if this book didn't come out during such a slow comics week for me, I'd probably have dropped it by now, but I keep picking it up and it keeps being okay, but not amazing.

OMAC #3: This, on the other hand, keeps being amazing. Yeah, it's still a huge Kirby riff, but Giffen's certainly doing a lot more than aping Kirby's style, and the antagonists of each issue manage to seem like Kirby dudes without actually being Kirby dudes. I know Amazing Man from last issue wasn't, and I'm pretty sure this issue's "Psi-Fi Man" is a new thing. Anyway, it's an absolute joy for me to read. Of course, it's the lowest-selling book of the new 52 (beaten out by I, Vampire and Red Hood and such. Cripes) so I'm sure it won't be around that much longer.

Also, I find a new reason that I like Marvel better than DC. DC runs ads for The Big Bang Theory. Ugh.

138 Scourge wrote:The spell that keeps people from figuring out that Peter is Spider-Man is pretty much shot straight to hell (telling the world that he's got spider-powers isn't the same as telling 'em he's Spider-Man, but it's close enough), and Carlie Cooper is done with Pete after figuring out that he's Spider-Man.

And the threads that hold One More Day together are slowly coming unravelled. Next think you know, Aunt May will be dead again.

Also, I find a new reason that I like Marvel better than DC. DC runs ads for The Big Bang Theory. Ugh.

No, it's more like "Big Bang Theory runs ads in DC." DC puts those ads up for space; basically saying "We have x amount of advertising pages. Who wants to advertise for us?" Then Big Bang Theory goes "Fuck yeah I want a piece of that." (Alright, it's more complicated than that, but still.) I doubt DC is going to turn down advertisers because their show sucks and insults their very fanbase.

Actually, I know a few comic readers and/or toy collectors who *love* that show. Apparently a show about obnoxious border-line retards has resonance with comic fans....who maybe need something to identify with. So, yeah, it is win:win. DC sells advertising space, which is how a publication is *supposed* to make money. (In theory, circulationi money from selling copies should *never* be relied on to pay more than printing. And, even then, advertising should cover it.) And, the makers of "Big Bang Theory" reach a potential audience that is apparently desperate for characters to identify with.

The show itself is ultimately just another sitcom and will probably follow the same life cycle of initial popularity before old episodes start turning up in syndication as filler on the UHF stations. It will then, most likely, fade away for a decade or so and come back as morning/afternoon filler some place. Eventually, it will end up on the channel for "shows your parents watched" channel. At that point of course, we will be old for parents, and some of us might even be grandparents. The characters are repugnant. But, that is standard for a sitcom. ("Seinfeld" made an artform of using rephrehensible characters. And, that show lasted for years.)

The only reason we notice it is that because of lampooning traditional family values, (like most sitcom templates do), and maybe having a good hearted nerd show up as a foil for a main character, (Urkel being the most famous example), "Big Bang Theory" lampoons Otaku (gotta love that word) culture. But, in a way, it does show that we have "arrived". Just like regular sitcoms enjoy mainstream acceptance despite mocking mainstream culture, BBT likely enjoys Otaku acceptance for much the same reasons. Maybe both cases show that at least some people are actually self-loathing malcontents?

And the threads that hold One More Day together are slowly coming unravelled. Next think you know, Aunt May will be dead again.

Not really. What this basically does is that it nullifies the interesting dynamic left by the spell. Initially, the spell was that everybody who knew who Spiderman was would forget unless provided with evidence. Seeing Parker unmask would tip them off, even if they never met Parker. Documents were destroyed/altered by the spell. But, if one happened to see a document that somehow survived or was created after the spell took hold, then that would tip them off.

The thing was that they would not be able to "kind of figure it out" the way that Aunt May had done at various points over the years. (For example, finding a Spiderman costume under Peter's bed would not be a reveal so long as he had a plausible reason for it being there.)

This left Peter with less margin for error than most heroes. For the most part, a hero could get away with being caught maskless, so long as nobody they knew was around. Even a picture would not necessarily doom them, because many people do not look quite the same in pictures as they do in real life. Parker would not have had that out.

The recent issue looks like it left everybody's memory wiped. But, they can now figure out who Peter is.


Oh, and yeah, I got some comics:

Moon Knight #7:
I mistakenly listed this as issue 6 yesterday. Damn, this book should be called "Raving Crazy Ass". Part of me wonders if the big reveal at the end of the arc is going to be that Moon Knight is the new Kingpin of crime. When Moon Knight showed up in "Dark Wolverine", he seemed to be more inhinged than he is here. That likely was a function of the point of view of the story. And, it raises questions about what is happening in the main book. For all of this though, I am not liking this book as much as I should be.
Grade: A


Fear Itself #7.1:
The big reveal about Winter Soldier still being around does not bother me as I am pretty sure that he was always meant to survive "Fear Itself". What does bother me is that we now have Steve Rogers working as Captain America....again....as if nothing has happened. Winter Soldier is getting a new title next year. Part of me wonders how similar to the old "Nomad" series it will be, and if Jack Monroe will eventually come back and kill Winter Soldier. As it stands now, this is predictable filler.
Grade: C


Dom
-thinks that Goatse should have a show called "The Big Bung Theory". That would be awesome....becuase it would be about bungs.

Dominic wrote:Actually, I know a few comic readers and/or toy collectors who *love* that show. Apparently a show about obnoxious border-line retards has resonance with comic fans....who maybe need something to identify with.

I met a few of those people over on the DC boards! I went there just to give some feedback to DC on what I thought of their new, character-assassinating take on Starfire, and all these fanboys jumped on me, throwing insults and saying how I was an idiot for not seeing how empowering and positive the new Starfire is. It was very tempting to start hurtling insults back, but I just left the forum. No point having a flamewar with a bunch of horny teenage boys that are jacking off to Starfire.