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[Thad]

No, it was a bunch of exposition (admittedly, presented such that the dialogue actually sounded natural) followed by a [spoiler]fucking WiR[/spoiler] ending.  Thought Smith was above that.

[Mongrel]

[spoiler]WiR[/spoiler]?

[TA]

When a secondary character is killed off as part of the main character's story, as a cause for exploration or growth of said main character as part of their reaction to it, and fans of that secondary character bitch that rather than being a storytelling tool it must be because the comic industry is universally misogynist.

[Thad]

If a female character exists solely for the purpose of dying and motivating the hero, then yeah, that's kinda misogynistic, dude.

[TA]

How so?

No, seriously.  You have a character-centric story, in which there is one main character around whom the events of the story resolve.  You have ancillary characters, who exist as part of the story to drive the events relating to the main character.  How does the gender, or race, or whatever of those ancillary characters have anything to do with anything extrinsic to the story?  Guy's girlfriend gets killed, guy seeks revenge - how does that say, or imply, or hint at anything having to do with women as a whole?

[Thad]

If it happened once, in a vacuum, it might not.

If it happens hundreds of times over a period of 35 years or so, then it's probably a pattern worth examining.

At best, even if you leave any possible gender bias out of it, it's shoddy storytelling.  It's a cheap trick, a human MacGuffin.  It's like, say, Minority Report giving Tom Cruise a murdered kid as a cheap way to tug at the audience's heartstrings and make him more sympathetic without any actual fucking effort on the writer's part.  (Making Anderton an icy, calculating character who'd murder someone in cold blood and willingly spend the rest of his life in exile, just to save his own legacy, now THAT would take a talented author.  I wonder why nobody ever thought of that.)

There are intelligent and complex ways of giving characters motivation and making them relatable.  "Dead girlfriend" is, at best, lazy storytelling and, at worst, something that happens constantly in a medium dominated by overgrown teenage boys with limited social skills.

Anyway, for Mongrel's benefit: Women in Refrigerators.

[Büge]

Anyway, for Mongrel's benefit: Women in Refrigerators.

Tvtropes has a list of examples here.

[Thad]

...Incidentally, I assume it's not coincidental that the WiR on Heroes was named "Simone", but last time I did a Google search I couldn't find anyone else making that connection.

[Royal☭]

To be fair, Heroes was a much better show after she and everyone connected with her died.

[Thad]

1985 #2: This is a fun little series, not least because it's a "what if" that we've all pondered from time to time.  This is Millar's childhood, but every reader has his own childhood memories -- a point hammered home by the hint that this isn't the first time this has happened.

I DO have to complain a bit that that high concept is somewhat lost in the story; the only definitively 1985 Marvel moment is Banner being in control of Hulk.  As for the rest of the cast, they could be from any time in Marvel's history.

Anyway, it's got me thinking about the Marvel books of my childhood, and what the book would be like if it were 1995 instead.  The purple-haired female Doc Ock, Norman freshly back from the dead, Colossus as one of Magneto's Acolytes, hints of Onslaught...

...man the 1990's sucked.

Black Panther #37: finally, Hudlin's acknowledging Priest.  (Yeah, Everett K Ross has been a recurring character in this series since issue #1, but this is the first time he's spoken more than a few sentences and actually seemed like Everett K Ross.)

I could give a crap about the fight between T'Challa and Killmonger except that, judging by next month's cover, Killmonger wins, which is as it should be.  Still no acknowledgement of Priest leaving his series with Killmonger as ruler of Wakanda, but this is likely the closest we're ever going to get.  More to the point, that the US is behind the whole thing goes back to Hudlin's first and strongest arc on the book, and also evokes two major themes from Priest's run, Wakanda as a player on an international stage and a not-always-friendly rivalry between T'Challa and Tony Stark.  Also, Everett K Ross.

Thunderbolts #121: the Ellis/Deodato run concludes nicely.  The character arcs for Norman, Songbird, Penance, and Bullseye reach satisfying conclusions, the conflict is resolved in a disarmingly quick and efficient manner, and all in all the book's left in a great place for someone else to take it over.  Unfortunately, it's going straight into fucking Secret Invasion tie-in territory next month.  Not sure how much of that I can take, but the last time I dropped Thunderbolts was during that fucking Fight Club reboot, so I think that establishes how bad the book has to get before I stop buying it.

[Thad]

So there are people who aren't enjoying Final Crisis.

I blame DC for this.  Countdown and Death of the New Gods are two obvious strikes; the other is, where the hell are the $20 paperback editions of the Fourth World Omnibus?

I have the first two $50 hardcovers, and I love them.  But that is not an appropriate price point for the casual reader.

If people are going to get excited about Final Crisis, they have to know the fuck Sonny Sumo and Dan Turpin ARE.  And, while Barry Allen's return is not a surprise to anyone at this point, the image on the last page is a hell of a lot more effective if you know that [spoiler]that's DEATH HIMSELF right behind him[/spoiler].

All in all, little I can say about #2 that I didn't already say about #1.  Great book, but you pretty much need to be up on your Fourth World history for it to have an impact.

[Mongrel]

Yeah, sorry I forgot to respond further to the RAZL comments.

After you pointed it out, it became fairly obvious. But I'm surprised I missed such an obvious cliche. Perhaps I was giving jeff the benfit of doubt, but once pointed out, it does become pretty inescapable that that was fairly lazy storytelling.

[Thad]

Smith's written a number of strong female characters, including Thorn, Grandma Ben, and Mary Marvel.

That's what makes it so jarring to see a female character whose role consists, literally, of fucking the hero while complaining that he doesn't bring home enough money, and then dying to make him vow revenge.

FF #558: damn, Millar's dangling a hell of a lot of plot threads, here.  It's not quite like Morrison's Batman where I feel the need to hit up Wikipedia after every ish, but I DO feel like I should be taking notes.

First of all, it appears that every new minor character he's introduced has some hidden agenda and hasn't actually just shown up by chance; more interestingly, each one seems to have a completely different and unrelated agenda.

I have a pretty good idea who Ms. Deneuve is, and think she may play a part related to the title of the arc.

As for the New Defenders: Millar and Hitch already made it clear in The Ultimates that they love the Defenders, and this is yet another great new take.

The Defenders are one of those teams that have a great name but never manage to catch on (see also: Champions).  But this iteration could definitely see a spinoff; the characters are interesting, their motivations have piqued my curiosity, and their leader, the only founding member of the team, makes for a great last-page reveal.  [spoiler]Plus, this would seem to be one of those tie-ins between 1985 and FF, given that both feature an articulate, under-control Hulk.[/spoiler]

[Büge]

Fourth World Omnibus

How are they, Thad? I want to pick up something by Jack Kirby, but I'm not sure what. Something that would showcase his bombastic art style and uh... storytelling talent?

[Thad]

God, there's so much to choose from.

Fantastic Four has got to be his most-loved work, so I'd certainly recommend that.  But to answer your question, I love those Fourth World collections.  I bought them on sale (and there's a 4th of July sale coming up, so I'm debating getting the third one then), but even with 15 or 20% knocked off they're obviously still a pretty big chunk of change.  But they're worth it -- I have 3 comics on my shelves with $50 price tags, those two plus Gilbert Hernandez's Palomar, and they're all well worth the price.  (I also have my eye on Jaime Hernandez's Locas.  One of these days...)

Anyway, as for the content itself: the art's gorgeous and groundbreaking, and the ideas are positively revolutionary.  It's Kirby's attempt to woo the hippies who were obsessing over Lord of the Rings and, 15 years before Watchmen and Dark Knight, to try and write a comic that would later be collected and sold in bookstores.  The result is a whole cosmology, with intriguing new characters showing up almost every issue.

The script's pretty similar to what Stan Lee was writing in those days; over-the-top, heavy on exposition, and generally full of dialogue that nobody, anywhere would ever actually say out loud.  (It bears remembering that Kirby had a junior-high education.)  Sometimes this helps make characters like Orion and Darkseid seem more otherworldly; sometimes it just means silly 1960's slang.  It lacks subtlety, but it's effective; the dialogue is simple, but it slowly reveals a very complex story.  (Volume 2 hasn't gotten as far as Orion's origin; I think that shows up in 3.)

Of course, the bad news, and one of the greatest tragedies in comic history, is that it's unfinished.  So be prepared for that disappointment.

Anyway.  All in all, I'm hoping to see paperback editions so that the books can get a wider audience, but if you can afford the hardcovers they're absolutely worth it.  Fourth World deserves its legendary reputation, and is some of the best superhero stuff you'll ever see.

[Thad]

Nrama has an interview with Ellis.  I'm frankly still a little bitter about him leaving that signing in Mesa early when I took off work in the hopes of meeting him, but he's definitely a funny motherfucker.

...I don't give a crap about most of the rest of the Con features they've put up, but in the DCU Crisis Panel, DiDio says they've got the rights to the Superboy name again.  Expect we'll hear more on that very soon.

[Mongrel]

Well, that makes both sides of the NextWave equation that I've heard saying no now. Though interestingly enough they both referenced the other - without actually assigning blamein any way - as the reason there would be no more.

[Royal☭]

...DiDio says they've got the rights to the Superboy name again.  Expect we'll hear more on that very soon.

Superboy: One More Day

[Thad]

...Finally got around to reading Understanding Comics.  Some of the stuff in there is obvious, some is questionable, but a hell of a lot of it is quite interesting and insightful and, at a minimum, gives me some ideas on what to say the next time one of my non-comic-reading friends asks what exactly it is that the medium does that others can't do better.

It's a recommended read for any comics fan; there's a lot about the history and the craft that I knew instinctively but had never really thought about.  It's good for building vocabulary and for understanding why things work the way they do.

[Thad]

...Was planning not to keep reading Superman after Busiek left, but decided to pick up the first Robinson issue just to see what it's about.

Here is the narration from the first couple pages:

Man.

Man throw thing.

I.

Catch.

I bring to man.

And he does thing makes Krypto happy.

Happy!

That's right.  The issue is partly narrated by Krypto.

Frankly the rest of it's pretty mediocre, very standard "new team's first issue on Superman" stuff, but...Krypto narrating while Superman and Hal play fetch with him in space is enough to get me to keep an eye on it for now.