Friday Night Wistfulness

There are no Friday Night Fights this week. But that shan't stop little old me!!

Let's travel back to 1988, as the majority of Earth's heroes are at death's door, victims of the Dominator metagene bomb.

So all the heroes who aren't metagene-powered are making a last-ditch run to take out the Dominator ships and find a cure...

Oh, yeah, it's on!!

Oh, dear...

Flash-forward to today...sad, that in the nu52, most of the heroes seem to share Guy Gardner's bloodthirsty approach. Sigh...

Guy sets the template for the heroes of the future in Invasion Book Three (1988), by Keith Giffen (plot and breakdowns), Bill Mantlo (script), Bart Sears (pencils) and Pablo Marcos (inks). Phew!!

Now would normally be the time for you to go and vote. But no voting this week. So go and see a movie or something...

Sixth Blogiversary Rant--This Isn't Hard: Let Heroes Be Heroes

So, 6 years ago today I began my little cow-town puppet show of a blog.

And one of the reasons I did was to express some...dismay...at some trends of the Big Two, especially DC and their increasingly cavalier attitude about having heroes kill, and having killers become heroes.

Well, I can finally declare victory. After six-tenths of a decade of profound silliness, overlong rants, and laser-like focus, my goal is accomplished. Sanity has been restored to the comics world, especially DC.

Why, just check out this response to a fan question during the Trinity Wars panel at SDCC:

What crossovers do you look to for inspiration? Johns and Lemire agree Identity Crisis is their number one inspiration - a big world-shattering event but with a mystery at the heart of it.

Wait a moment...that can't be right.

DC's Chief Creative Officer and one of the more popular writers amongst fans both have, as their #1 inspiration, the series that had a hero's wife raped by a villain, and later murdered by the ex-wife of another hero because she thought that was a good way to reconcile? The one that had heroes and villains forcibly brainwashed, their memories erased, by a "hero"? That's their number one inspiration for crossovers?

All right, that's just a couple of guys on one panel, and I guess people are allowed to like Identity Crisis, somehow, for some reason.

But things elsewhere at DC are just fine. Why, let's check out the DC Comics 101: Essentials panel, with John Cunningham (VP of Marketing), Bob Harras (Editor-In-Chief) and Bobbie Chase (Editorial Director). C'mon, "Comics101"! "Essentials"! Surely these bigwigs know what a universe of heroic fiction should be, right?

When asked about Villain’s Month and the longevity of the New 52, the overarching response from the panel was that the goal was for the reader to gain a greater understanding of what the villains actually do, what it is that makes them the way they are, and that ultimately our heroes are defined by the villains.

What?"[U]ltimately our heroes are defined by the villains."?!?

Dammit, I guess I'm not done here after all. This looks like it might take another 6 years...

Look, I could go into an extended rant here. I could decry the nu52 as merely a Elseworlds for "What If The DC Heroes Had Lost Legends."

I could kvetch that the constant treatment of heroes as enemies and outcasts has dampened, if not extinguished, the inspirational (and aspirational) aspects of your intellectual properties, alienating both long-time fans and casual readers, a fact that is only hidden by the constant churn of seemingly continuous #1 issues and "event" months with cover gimmicks to artificially prop up sales.

I could ask DC to analyze why, in his 75th anniversary year, their big budget Superman movie will be lucky to earn 70% of what the second Iron Man sequel did, and ask them to consider whether the unrelenting grimness (and gratuitous neck snappage) might be killing their golden goose, both in comics and other media.

But hey, I'm not in a ranty mood. Let's just let these panels from Invasion: Book 2 (1988) (plot & pencils by Keith Giffen, script by Bill Mantlo) speak for me:

See? Is that so hard?

For your edification, DC bigwigs, here are a few dictionary definitions of "hero" (please forgive the gender bias shown by some):

Dictionary.com: a person who, in the opinion of others, has heroic qualities or has performed a heroic act and is regarded as a model or ideal

Merriam-Webster: a man admired for his achievements and noble qualities 

Oxford Dictionary Of American English: a person, typically a man, who is admired or idealized for courage, outstanding achievements, or noble qualities

Cambridge Dictionary: a person who is admired for having done something very brave or having achieved something great

 Admired. Regarded as a model. Idealized.

Enough, DC. Every character doesn't have to be 1970s Spider-Man, hunted and feared. Enough having heroes kill, or being made to look like they killed. Enough secret government agencies dedicated to controlling/fighting/eliminating heroes. Enough fear and distrust by the press and public when these guys have saved the world seven times over. Enough.

Let. Heroes. Be. Heroes. 

Friday Night Fights--Watcher Style!!

Who Observes The Observers? That is the question of this week's Friday Night Fights.

The Earth is being invaded by a coalition of alien races. The Daxamites are there merely as observers. But the Khunds manipulate them, their new found yellow sun-spawned powers have them a little drunk, and they're already kind of dopey.

So when Superman is leading of charge of Earth's heroes against the aliens' stronghold in Australia, the Daxamites decide it's time to have a little talk with the Man Of Steel:

Uatu should observe like that!!

Anyhoo, 3 seconds later the Daxamites start to feel the effects of lead poisoning, and Kal-El makes short work of them.The end.

Spacebooger wants it noted that a mere two years after Crisis, DC was doing Invasion, while two years after Flushpoint, nuDC is doing "Villains Month." 'nuff said.

DC's second greatest event was portrayed in Invasion, Book Two, 1988, by Keith Giffen (plot and breakdowns), Bill Mantlo (script), Todd McFarlane and Al Gordon.

No is the time for you to go and vote for my fight. Why? Hell if I know. Just go and vote, dagnabbit!!

An Important Caveat

You know, DC dropping the whole bombshell on us yesterday was really unfortunate, for one reason:

Flashpoint, the event, is actually pretty good so far.

There, I said it.

I mean, this week should have been left for the fans to discuss Flashpoint #2, and the first batch of micro-series. To discuss how, even though the basic idea is derivative of Yesterday's Enterprise/Age Of Apocalypse/House Of M, it's been executed pretty well, with a good story, good reveals on the differences in this world, good mystery and intrigue. Based on the first batch of micros, those series are being used to fill in the gaps of this vastly different world and help paint the broad picture, and not just repeat the same old same old from the main event series (I'm looking at you, Blackest Night!).

I know it's early days yet, but so far I'd say this is the best DC event since, oh, I don't know, Invasion. And to my eyes, it's the best work that Geoff Johns has done in quite awhile. It's certainly better, as a series and as an event, than Marvel's Fear Itself (although I'll confess my opinion on that is probably too much influenced for my dislike of how Matt Fraction handles Thor, and especially Odin.).

But instead of discussing that, DC opened the can of worms a week and a half early, and instead of Flashpoint getting the proper recognition, everyone's focused on the Flushpoint revelations (And I'm even more guilty of that than most people, so mea culpa.)

I'm not sure why the PR dump couldn't have waited a week, until after there was some time for the public to appreciate the latest Flashpoint; instead they completely diverted attention from it. But then, that's DC all over, isn't it--in declaring a need to better market themselves, they completely botch the marketing of the best thing they've had in awhile.

So, while I'm still quite leery of the forthcoming Flushpoint world, and we can debate the wisdom (or lack thereof) of DC's Punt, let's not miss the actual story that's being told right now. It's purty good.