Whatever they touch turns to myth
Nov. 25th, 2010 12:18 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
alexsarllOn Tuesday, I went to the Houses of Parliament to see disgraced MP Phil Woolas give a talk which had nothing to do with his disgrace - he came across like a pretty nice bloke, in fact. Some tangents of the discussion related to that old, infuriating question - why do so many members of the working classes vote against their own interests? Why does the Right always do so well at getting traction for lies, from the Zinoviev letter to climate change denial? And at the heart of the answers, in that nagging way which you know is on the route to a much bigger answer nobody can quite find yet, was the suggestion that the Right has better imagery. Not in the SS uniforms sense; just that, particularly for working class women trying to run a household on a shoestring, the idea of national budgeting as being kin to household budgeting makes intuitive sense in a way the paradox of thrift never will.
And then afterwards, I came home and watched a documentary about bottled water, looking at how firms make billions selling people something that tastes the same as the stuff from the tap (more or less - I've known one or two areas where the tapwater does taste a bit iffy, but never one where it tastes worse than Volvic).
Both these things represented good work by smart people. But really, given neither of them had any suggestions on how to change the problems they were anatomising, I found a more satisfactory analysis in the past few weeks' Batman comics by My Chemical Romance* video star Grant Morrison. This is not unprecedented; when everybody was spaffing over No Logo, I was unimpressed because it was pretty much just the footnotes to one issue of Morrison's Marvel Boy miniseries, in which our alien hero fights Hexus, the Living Corporation. It's a truism to describe a writer as fascinated by ideas, but where Morrison is especially good is in seeing the connections between language, magic and branding. To briefly summarise what he's been doing with Batman, and anything which is a spoiler here has either been widely advertised or was bloody obvious anyhow: Bruce Wayne got thrown back in time by the evil New God Darkseid. He was presumed dead, so Dick Grayson, the first Robin, stood in as Gotham's Batman. In fact, Bruce was fighting his way back through time to the modern day as part of Darkseid's wider plot. So far, this is just a moderately diverting adventure story. But. Darkseid's wider plot is about the use of ideological weaponry, "hunter-killer metaphors", killer ideas. Twisting what Batman represents - the triumph of the human will - into a poisonous, negative force (easily done, when you consider what Triumph of the Will so often means). Turning all our efforts against ourselves. And having seen this, when he gets back to the present day Bruce Wayne does not do the obvious thing and simply become Batman again. He leaves Dick as Gotham's Batman, and decides to start a global Batman franchise; Morrison has ditched the rest of the comics to start a new one, Batman Incorporated, in which Bruce Wayne will tour the world** looking for these Batmen. Because Batman was always about branding, wasn't he? Bruce Wayne as a vigilante got a serious beating, but then that bat came through the window, he became Batman, and since then - in spite of having no superpowers - he's basically invincible. So when evil is everywhere, why not expand that brand?
Of course, how one applies any of this in the real world, I still don't know. I wish I did.
The other new comics of interest to crop up lately both involve work from Team Phonogram. Gillen's got a new X-Men spin-off, Generation Hope, which will hopefully last longer than his last X-Men spin-off, the delightful, tragically short-lived S.W.O.R.D.. And McKelvie - whom even Marvel editorial are now calling Kitten - illustrates Warren Ellis' back-up strip in imprisoned psycho supervillain miniseries Osborn. I read Freakangels online, but this is the first Ellis comic I've read on paper in a while, because he's a terminally unpunctual sod and both titles of his I read are more than a year overdue for another issue. And the main thing it made me think, especially with Jamie drawing, was that Warren Ellis now reads like a man trying to write like Kieron Gillen.
Beyond that, Peter Milligan's Extremist has finally been reprinted as part of Vertigo's anniversary celebrations. Whenever people misconstrue the name and assume that the Punisher is some kind of S/M superhero, I have to explain that no, that's the Extremist, except that's long out of print. Except now it's not! Hurrah.
In less happy news, the latest bunch of people complaining about a film getting a superhero wrong, are making themselves look even more like morons than usual because it isn't. Pity's sake, there was even a ginger Green Lantern before there was a black one. And as for 'the only black superhero', well, yes, if the cast of the Justice League cartoon in its early, less good seasons is the complete roster of superheroes you know, but in that case, shut up until you get 1 x Wikipedia. Hell, War Machine was in Iron Man 2, hardly an obscure production.
Oh yeah, and it turns out that even when, staggeringly, he manages not to fall out with the publisher - J Michael Stracynzski is incapable of finishing his promised run on a monthly comic! Anyone else remember when he used to be a genius? I'm starting to wonder if I dreamed it.
*If anybody lets me DJ anytime in the foreseeable future, I am totally going to open with 'Na Na Na' and its intro, because it is one of the year's best pop songs. However, thus far I am not loving its parent album. As with The Black Parade, MCR have become a fictional band to free themselves from perceived constraints, which is fair enough. But whereas the Black Parade were a goth Queen, which is to say bloody brilliant, the Fabulous Killjoys are a pop-punk band. Something of which the world is not short and, as a rule, they don't have that many great songs.
**Despite the timing, there seems to be no cross-marketing with the Batman Live World Arena Tour; I'm reading the damn comics, and I only learned of the tour from ads on the Tube.
And then afterwards, I came home and watched a documentary about bottled water, looking at how firms make billions selling people something that tastes the same as the stuff from the tap (more or less - I've known one or two areas where the tapwater does taste a bit iffy, but never one where it tastes worse than Volvic).
Both these things represented good work by smart people. But really, given neither of them had any suggestions on how to change the problems they were anatomising, I found a more satisfactory analysis in the past few weeks' Batman comics by My Chemical Romance* video star Grant Morrison. This is not unprecedented; when everybody was spaffing over No Logo, I was unimpressed because it was pretty much just the footnotes to one issue of Morrison's Marvel Boy miniseries, in which our alien hero fights Hexus, the Living Corporation. It's a truism to describe a writer as fascinated by ideas, but where Morrison is especially good is in seeing the connections between language, magic and branding. To briefly summarise what he's been doing with Batman, and anything which is a spoiler here has either been widely advertised or was bloody obvious anyhow: Bruce Wayne got thrown back in time by the evil New God Darkseid. He was presumed dead, so Dick Grayson, the first Robin, stood in as Gotham's Batman. In fact, Bruce was fighting his way back through time to the modern day as part of Darkseid's wider plot. So far, this is just a moderately diverting adventure story. But. Darkseid's wider plot is about the use of ideological weaponry, "hunter-killer metaphors", killer ideas. Twisting what Batman represents - the triumph of the human will - into a poisonous, negative force (easily done, when you consider what Triumph of the Will so often means). Turning all our efforts against ourselves. And having seen this, when he gets back to the present day Bruce Wayne does not do the obvious thing and simply become Batman again. He leaves Dick as Gotham's Batman, and decides to start a global Batman franchise; Morrison has ditched the rest of the comics to start a new one, Batman Incorporated, in which Bruce Wayne will tour the world** looking for these Batmen. Because Batman was always about branding, wasn't he? Bruce Wayne as a vigilante got a serious beating, but then that bat came through the window, he became Batman, and since then - in spite of having no superpowers - he's basically invincible. So when evil is everywhere, why not expand that brand?
Of course, how one applies any of this in the real world, I still don't know. I wish I did.
The other new comics of interest to crop up lately both involve work from Team Phonogram. Gillen's got a new X-Men spin-off, Generation Hope, which will hopefully last longer than his last X-Men spin-off, the delightful, tragically short-lived S.W.O.R.D.. And McKelvie - whom even Marvel editorial are now calling Kitten - illustrates Warren Ellis' back-up strip in imprisoned psycho supervillain miniseries Osborn. I read Freakangels online, but this is the first Ellis comic I've read on paper in a while, because he's a terminally unpunctual sod and both titles of his I read are more than a year overdue for another issue. And the main thing it made me think, especially with Jamie drawing, was that Warren Ellis now reads like a man trying to write like Kieron Gillen.
Beyond that, Peter Milligan's Extremist has finally been reprinted as part of Vertigo's anniversary celebrations. Whenever people misconstrue the name and assume that the Punisher is some kind of S/M superhero, I have to explain that no, that's the Extremist, except that's long out of print. Except now it's not! Hurrah.
In less happy news, the latest bunch of people complaining about a film getting a superhero wrong, are making themselves look even more like morons than usual because it isn't. Pity's sake, there was even a ginger Green Lantern before there was a black one. And as for 'the only black superhero', well, yes, if the cast of the Justice League cartoon in its early, less good seasons is the complete roster of superheroes you know, but in that case, shut up until you get 1 x Wikipedia. Hell, War Machine was in Iron Man 2, hardly an obscure production.
Oh yeah, and it turns out that even when, staggeringly, he manages not to fall out with the publisher - J Michael Stracynzski is incapable of finishing his promised run on a monthly comic! Anyone else remember when he used to be a genius? I'm starting to wonder if I dreamed it.
*If anybody lets me DJ anytime in the foreseeable future, I am totally going to open with 'Na Na Na' and its intro, because it is one of the year's best pop songs. However, thus far I am not loving its parent album. As with The Black Parade, MCR have become a fictional band to free themselves from perceived constraints, which is fair enough. But whereas the Black Parade were a goth Queen, which is to say bloody brilliant, the Fabulous Killjoys are a pop-punk band. Something of which the world is not short and, as a rule, they don't have that many great songs.
**Despite the timing, there seems to be no cross-marketing with the Batman Live World Arena Tour; I'm reading the damn comics, and I only learned of the tour from ads on the Tube.
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no subject
Date: 2010-11-25 01:05 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-11-25 01:12 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-11-25 09:48 pm (UTC)for that he is forgiven everything - if it were a musician, you'd forgive some duff tracks on the the of an album for a begining that strong
and who's more genius-er that jms? that's like dissing all of tim burton's back catelog becaue the corse bride wasn't much cop
no subject
Date: 2010-11-26 10:04 am (UTC)I maintain that, while it certainly wasn't *as* bad as the Amazing Spider-Man Twin Towers issue, the New Orleans issue demonstrated a total failure to learn from experience re: the cognitive dissonance which arises when you transpose a real-world disaster directly to a superhero universe. And the Latveria plotline, raised by the second trade, remains nonsensical. There is good stuff in there too, certainly - the struggle of gods to live beyond their myth-cycle, some of the interactions with the neighbouring town - but at best they're flawed-yet-interesting. Nowhere near even minor Grant Morrison or the best of Bendis, let alone Alan Moore. For my money they're not even the best Thor comics of the past ten years - and this is without even having read Danb Jurgens' supposedly very good run.
no subject
Date: 2010-11-26 10:25 am (UTC)and saying "this trade does not work because of one pannel" which is what you have basically said, ok it's a one page pannel, but still, it always seems to me that you decided that you didn't like JMS's thor and that you used anything you can to back-up your argument, rather than remembering that there were good, REALLY REALLY GOOD bit throughout nearly all of the books
no subject
Date: 2010-11-26 10:38 am (UTC)The (largely non-Marvel Universe) benefit comics aside, the only other Marvel comic I've seen which directly featured Ground Zero was the first issue of an aborted Kevin Smith miniseries. So if it was an editorial decision, it seems very strange that they would only have instructed high profile writers who generally had a lot of autonomy to deal with that, rather than the hired hands. I have seen no other issues set in the aftermath of Katrina.
In-universe, well, the NYC-focus thing still wouldn't excuse that Ground Zero issue (ooh look, another New York skyscraper's blown up - must be Tuesday). And as applied to New Orleans it still made no sense given Stark had not long since set up the Initiative precisely to make sure that every state had superheroes. I appreciate what he wanted to say, but he wedged it in where it simply didn't make sense.
It's not one panel, it's a key part of the direction of the second trade. The second collection's main plot is that Thor gets exiled, and the Asgardians decide to relocate. The manipulation into the exile, that was pretty good (and I already said that yes, "There is good stuff in there too, certainly"). The Latveria plot was not. That's one of the two main plot strands, which is more than a slight glitch.
no subject
Date: 2010-11-26 10:46 am (UTC)Also (and here's where I need to shout) there's a fucking good reason why no other comic has covered the aftermath of katerina - that's becasue the comics are super hero comics and the entire super hero comunity has forgotten/doesn't care about katrina.... which is what I said in the first reply.....
and what superheroes were assigned to the state which new orleans was in perchance? obviously not ones who fancied spending their time rebuilding..... BECASUE THEY DON'T CARE - do you see
no subject
Date: 2010-11-26 10:53 am (UTC)Nobody ever mentioned who Louisiana's team were. Presumably because whoever went into that would have then had to address Katrina, which everyone at Marvel except JMS had the sense to realise could only come across as a terribly crass, misjudged and/or logically incoherent story. Possibly because everyone at Marvel except JMS had the sense to regard his Ground Zero issue as a warning from history.
no subject
Date: 2010-11-26 10:57 am (UTC)so you're saying that your opinion of what happened is more valid that the actual writers of Marvel?
The point is we, as the comic book reader have seen that everyone did fuck all to help rebuild katrina therefore the only conclusion is that the assigned super heros did fuck all to help rebuild katrina. We readers don't get to make any call other than that.
no subject
Date: 2010-11-26 11:04 am (UTC)Given his autonomy, he may even have insisted that he wanted exclusive dibs on Katrina. Certainly, he was the only writer who seemed keen to address it. As such, his issue, and its failure to cohere at all with anything else we know from other comics about the state of Marvel's USA at that point, is something for which he alone can be blamed.
(Apart from anything else, given his subsequent hissy fit with editorial and normal willingness to air such dirty laundry in public, do you really think he'd have kept quiet about being forced into that? Certainly he defended the Ground Zero issue when that was met with general and justified WTF)
no subject
Date: 2010-11-26 11:17 am (UTC)This means that New Orleans was abandoned and forgotten about in marvel land (at least for the first year). IT JUST DOES, y'know.... inarguable
no subject
Date: 2010-11-26 11:24 am (UTC)(Though mercifully, I wouldn't be surprised if someone else at Marvel has the sense to enact at least a passive let-us-never-speak-of-this-again retcon)
no subject
Date: 2010-11-26 11:35 am (UTC)just the fact that new orleans was forgotten should hint that there are others, similarly ignored
no subject
Date: 2010-11-26 11:38 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-11-25 09:49 pm (UTC)I don't suppose you could remember (of hand - and if anyone can it will be you) which real ghostbusters he wrote?
no subject
Date: 2010-11-25 09:56 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-11-25 01:07 pm (UTC)Green Lantern's probably the best-known non-sidekick black hero, though - saying that you'd know more if you read the comics seems to be slightly missing the point: he's well known because he's escaped the comics (jaysis, the idea of someone liking the cartoon, and settling down with the Blackest Night...) to a wider audience.
no subject
Date: 2010-11-25 01:19 pm (UTC)Steel was in the same cartoon, and he already had a film (admittedly a dreadful one). Yes, John Stewart may be the best known GL to the wider public, may even be the best known black superhero. But if you complain that an adaptation has 'made Green Lantern white' on the Internet - the same Internet where less than a minute's fact-checking will tell you about Alan Scott and Hal Jordan and Guy Gardner - then you are making yourself look like a fool. Yes, there is a case for suggesting that a John Stewart film might be more interesting than a Hal Jordan one. It's not a case I agree with myself, I think that like Guy, John's personality works best in a team environment or as a supporting character, and you have to lose too much of what makes him him by putting him in the lead. But it would be a valid argument. However, that would have to be couched very differently to these Twitter complaints.
no subject
Date: 2010-11-25 01:38 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-11-26 10:05 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-11-26 02:22 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-11-26 03:15 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-11-26 04:44 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-11-27 08:17 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-11-25 03:45 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-11-26 10:07 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-11-25 04:18 pm (UTC)Wonder if there'll be a Joker Incorporated in response?
no subject
Date: 2010-11-26 10:07 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-11-26 10:29 am (UTC)Spoiler for anyone planning to read Batman & Robin
Date: 2010-11-26 10:39 am (UTC)There is a corporate force of evil too, but it's that to which Bruce is reacting, rather than vice versa.
Re: Spoiler for anyone planning to read Batman & Robin
Date: 2010-11-26 10:52 am (UTC)Re: Spoiler for anyone planning to read Batman & Robin
Date: 2010-11-26 10:56 am (UTC)(This is what a lot of writers don't get about the Joker. He's not just a psycho, and his actions should always be at least potentially funny, from some warped perspective or other)
no subject
Date: 2010-11-25 09:06 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-11-26 10:08 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-11-26 10:34 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-11-26 10:42 am (UTC)It was a fairly hefty role, though. Ditto, of course, Fury - who got turned black for the film, albeit with a precursor in the Ultimate Universe.
Oh, but as well as the Steel film featuring a black superhero lead, I forgot about Hancock and Spawn. I would love to see a decent Black Panther film, though.
no subject
Date: 2010-11-26 10:52 am (UTC)just becasue a side-kick got a pretty hefty role doesn't make him less a side-kick, and fury is not a super hero either.... seriously, people who lament the lack of proper black superheroes really do have a fucking point
no subject
Date: 2010-11-26 10:59 am (UTC)I would consider Spawn a superhero, although admittedly a crappily 'edgy' one. Steel, however, definitely counts. He's even in the same cartoon as the black GL who has apparently so caught the public's imagination.
no subject
Date: 2010-11-26 11:32 am (UTC)Fury to me is like bruce wayne in batman of the future, he's the older advice giving guy rather than the actual hero
no subject
Date: 2010-11-26 11:36 am (UTC)You're not missing much with the Steel film, it must be admitted. And yes, there is a problem with comics featuring black leads tending to die on their arses/not get filmed. But if we want exceptions then I think showing the support which exists for a Luke Cage or Black Panther film is the way forward, not ill-informed complaints about GL.
(And Luke Cage is already rumoured to be in the works)
Now here is a comics/racism story which I think does have legs
Date: 2010-11-30 01:32 pm (UTC)Re: Now here is a comics/racism story which I think does have legs
Date: 2010-11-30 01:35 pm (UTC)Re: Now here is a comics/racism story which I think does have legs
Date: 2010-11-30 01:37 pm (UTC)Re: Now here is a comics/racism story which I think does have legs
Date: 2010-11-30 01:42 pm (UTC)Some other Dynamite titles, better ordered than Bring the Thunder
Date: 2010-11-30 01:53 pm (UTC)Brothers In Arms
Bullet to the Head
Scout