By fnord12 | June 15, 2007, 2:46 PM | My stupid life | Comments (2) | Link

June 14, 2007

But i *like* super-hero comics!

I like comic books. Everybody knows that. I think its blending of static art and words allows for unique types of expression, and i think the medium is definitely not given the respect it deserves in the larger world of literature. I have enjoyed many different stories, in many different genres, that have been published in comic book form.

But the enthusiasm you see on this site and elsewhere from me around comic books really deals very specifically with super-hero comics, more specifically Marvel super-hero comics. I love reading about a bunch of wackos with crazy powers in crazy outfits beating the hell out of each other, and more importantly, i love the idea of the shared universe that's been going on for decades - all these interconnecting story arcs that are part of a giant ongoing epic. That's something fairly unique. And of course within the Marvel Universe there are tons of sub-genres - you've got Dr. Strange, X-Men, Punisher, Runaways, etc.; all very different types of stories.

So, for me, if the rest of the comic book industry had to die in order to keep my Marvel fix going, so be it! But i don't think that's in any danger of happening. Between comic strips, manga, DC's Vertigo, and all the indies, there are plenty of non-superhero stories available in comic form, and even if all the current publishers suddenly went out of business, i think the medium itself is strong enough that it would regrow. I don't see a crisis in the American comic industry due to the dominance of Marvel and DC.

Other people have different opinions, of course. I suspect that these are people that have "outgrown" super-heroes (which is fine) and have some favorite comics that they feel the world needs to know about, but the glut of super-hero books somehow prevents them from getting out there.

I know how they feel. There's plenty of bands that i love, for example, that i think ought to be more popular and i do bemoan the fact that radio stations and MTV mainly play pop drivel. I've never actually met someone who loved Britany Spears* that would be devastated if i replaced her spot on the radio with Can or something, but now i know how they would probably feel if i did:

Alan David Doane:

A Future for Comics -- It is my long-held belief that the direct market network of mostly superhero-oriented comic book stores is headed for extinction. The reason it is passing into history is because it excludes new readers and embraces only an existing "fanbase," willfully ignoring the fact that comics as a vital, living artform are so much more than superheroes. At the same time, a minority of shops within the direct market are reaching out to a broader audience for comics, one nurtured by mainstream media coverage like comics receive on National Public Radio or in print publications like Time Magazine. The question is, will the truly full-service comic book stores that point the way to the future serve as an example to the majority of stores currently dependent on Diamond's weekly shipments of superhero titles? Or will the backward, pro-superhero (but ultimately anti-comics) policies of such stores destroy the direct market before a transition can be made to a viable graphic novel-dominant marketplace that serves all comics readers?

In the 1970s and '80s, the direct market thrived because superheroes were about all there were in comics, at least in North America. Alternative/ground-level titles like Elfquest, Cerebus and Love and Rockets were curious sidebars to what most readers thought of as comics, but in the 1990s and especially since the beginning of the 21st Century CE, those comics as well as manga and some newspaper strips, have come to define what the average person thinks of as comics. Meanwhile corporate superhero comics have marginalized themselves through editor-driven, continuity-dependent, poorly-crafted "events" like Identity Crisis and its descendants. Such titles create a frenzy of interest in the minority of comics readers who value the sub-genre of superhero adventure fiction more than they value the artform of comics as a whole. [Hey that's me! - fnord12]

Such readers don't consider actual quality much of an element [fnord12's emphasis] in the debate over the future of comics at all, and have created an artificial sales bubble that is destined to feed on itself until the direct market itself collapses. [A 'sales bubble' that has been going on since as long as there have been super-hero comics, i suppose - fnord12]

...

I have shopped at a lot of comic book stores since the 1970s, and stores that carry mainly the latest corporate superhero comics with a heavy emphasis on back issues increasingly fill me with indifference bordering on contempt.

First, i'm a little stunned by his raw condescension and the dismissal of the entire super-hero genre, as if nothing within that catetgory could possibly be any good.

I'm also not clear on why he feels that comic stores need to carry the sort of content that he is looking for. He makes a very convincing case that the non-superhero genres are thriving and growing outside of the direct market - look at his argument over how sales analyses that only use info from Diamond are useless. Manga seems hugely popular in places like Borders, based on the amount of shelf space they devote to it - why do we need that replicated in comic shops as well? Meanwhile, i need access to tons of back issues because the back-story of the Marvel Universe is important to me. If you replaced all those boxes with trades that people could get elsewhere, no one would have any need to go to these stores. He needs to think of comic book shops as serving a specialty market - sort of like a CD store that focuses on jazz music.

And i'm a little confused by his apocalyptic vision - if us dumb super-hero fans are only a "minority of comics readers who value the sub-genre of superhero adventure fiction more than they value the artform of comics", then what is he worried about? This majority of sophisticated non-superhero comic book fans must be getting their books somewhere already. Why does he care if the direct market shops go out of business?

I'm not saying he doesn't make some good points. He's right that some comic book stores are operated by people that have no business running a business, but that's really neither here nor there regarding his larger argument (although isn't it interesting that he trashes super-hero comics for being 'corporate' and yet his description of what a good comic store should look like sounds a lot closer to Walmart than a Mom 'n' Pop? (except "They will operate their business in accordance with local, state and federal laws, including labour and employment laws.
", ofc.)). And it's worth trying to promote non-superhero books; there's lots of good stuff out there. But I love my poorly-crafted, spandex-obsessed revenge fantasies super-hero comics, dammit, and he better not take them away from me or i will personally pull my underwear up over my pants and go over there and beat the crap out of him.

Update: ADD takes a thrashing in the comments section here. Many of my points are made much more eloquently there.

*I know, Britany Spears is like 10+ years ago, but i have no idea what's on the radio today, and she's my standard shorthand for 'bad pop music'. Just be glad i didn't say Madonna.

By fnord12 | June 14, 2007, 2:46 PM | Comics | Comments (1) | Link

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What's Wrong With This Picture?

Bush has been handed a copy of Seung-Hui Cho's mental records. Cho's the kid who gunned down all those people at Virginia Tech before killing himself. I have no idea why he would need such records. There's a gubernatorial panel that's investigating the shootings, not a federal one. But, that's not the main issue. Take a look at this picture ABCnews has on their site accompanying the article.

That's our esteemed Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, the Health and Human Services Secretary, Bush, and the Education Secretary, all grinning like baboons like they've got something good there. It's the mental records for someone who went on a rampage and killed a bunch of people, not the spelling bee award!! I'm still waiting for it to be revealed that the government has actually been taken over by a bunch of shape-shifting monkeys from the Mountain of Flowers and Fruit.

Please let it be shape-shifting monkeys.

By min | June 14, 2007, 12:29 PM | Liberal Outrage| Link

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Who Uses Colgate?

If the package contains numerous misspellings and it's not from a Chinese takeout, you should prolly be suspicious.

Colgate-Palmolive is warning consumers to be on the lookout for counterfeit toothpaste that's carrying labels indicating it was made by the company.

Discount stores in New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Maryland were found to be selling "Colgate" toothpaste manufactured in South Africa and containing the dangerous compound diethylene glycol, or DEG.

...
The news comes just two weeks after the Food and Drug Administration alerted consumers to not purchase toothpaste made in China after inspectors discovered DEG in tubes. The regulators went on to issue an import alert with the goal of preventing Chinese toothpaste with DEG from entering the U.S. market.

By min | June 14, 2007, 12:21 PM | Ummm... Other? | Comments (1) | Link

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Random Lyrics Thursday

He Took Her To A Movie by Ladytron

he met her in the fall, he took her to a movie
and when they'd done it all, he took her to a movie
and from the hospital, he took her to a movie
but so did I

and when her heart was sad, he took her to a movie
she's all he's ever had, he took her to a movie
and should their love turn bad, he took her to a movie
but so did I

I think she's been alone, he took her to a movie
when they cut off the phone, he took her to a movie
and when her cover's blown, he took her to a movie
but so did I

there's nothing on TV, he took her to a movie
but she's the one for me, he took her to a movie
we're at number three, he took her to a movie
but so did I

By fnord12 | June 14, 2007, 9:47 AM | Music| Link

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June 13, 2007

Spitzer fails me

Nanny state democrats. This goes back to the original reasons why i stayed away from the Dems when i first started paying attention to politics.

New York Times (via Game Politics):

Violent and sexually explicit video games can be repulsive and demeaning. But banning them as [Governor] Spitzer [left] and legislators want to do probably will not pass muster in the courts. Also, the defense of such laws can be expensive - Illinois paid out more than $1,500,000 in taxpayer funds when courts found that its effort to ban violent videos was unconstitutional.

By fnord12 | June 13, 2007, 3:53 PM | Liberal Outrage & Video Games| Link

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June 12, 2007

Our political discourse

What happens in local politics is a good indication of where our national politics are going. We have here a Republican State Senator from Alabama punching his Democratic colleague (I chose the heavy metal version of the video). Democrats had better start shaping up and getting ready to punch back or the voting public is going to think they are a bunch of sissies. Wouldn't hurt to start throwing a few pre-emptive punches now and again just to be sure, as well.

By fnord12 | June 12, 2007, 4:03 PM | Liberal Outrage | Comments (6) | Link

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Does this happen to anyone else?

We tend to have two phases here at work: super insanely busy and ultra "nothing going on AT ALL" slow.

When we're in the busy phase, even though i'm miserable and working 12 hour days with no time for lunch and totally stressed out, there's a certain buzz i get from dealing with problems, answering questions, etc, so even though someone comes to me with some new issue, my mind goes "Yeah! One more thing to juggle!" and deals with it enthusiastically.

But when we're slow (like now!) and i'm sitting here hitting 'refresh' because i've already read every blog in the world twice and i'm hoping someone will post something new, when someone comes in with a question, or god-forbid wants me to go to a meeting, i get resentful about it and wish they would leave me alone.

It doesn't make any sense but that's where i find myself.

By fnord12 | June 12, 2007, 2:27 PM | My stupid life | Comments (2) | Link

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Whoodwin?

	vs.
Badtz-Maru		Eeyore

By fnord12 | June 12, 2007, 2:22 PM | Whoodwin | Comments (2) | Link

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No, really

I know it's been commented on before, but why is Reed Richards tangled up in ropes on the classic cover of FF#1?

By fnord12 | June 12, 2007, 2:16 PM | Comics | Comments (1) | Link

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June 11, 2007

SuperMegaSpeed Reviews

Ant-Man: I take back my concerns about the comic getting too silly. This is really good. I was afraid i was going to have to make up my own explanation as to why a guy i never heard of can knock out Dragon Man with one punch, but in the very next panel they gave me the explanation i would have made up. Thanks! Also: did Dragon Man travel back from the Battleplanet with the heroes in Beyond or do i need an explanation on how he returned? Ofc, none of this has anything to do with the quality of the comic, which was all character development/interpersonal relationship stuff, done very well. But i prefer to talk about punching Dragon Man.

Iron Man: Also very good. I need to pick up the Warren Ellis run to understand more about what Extremis is. Also, it's unclear to us whether the scenes depicting the Mandarin's revival were flashbacks (in which case, why was it urgent that SHIELD go to China in recent issues?) or current (in which case, how can the Mandarin be orchestrating these events?), but i'm sure a re-read of recent issues will clear that up. Not going to do that now, though - that's why these are speed reviews. I like the modernization of the Mandarin and i like the way this story is unfolding - i used to just get this because my brother wanted it, but it's actually moving up to be a title i look forward to.

Omega Flight: Good, but slowly paced. Even if this were an ongoing, i'd be antsy about this title. As a mini, it's clear that nothing is actually going to happen in this series. We could easily have cut this issue in half by removing a number of the pages showing the Wrecking Crew walk through the Great Beast's dimension (and the dimension should be in black and white, dammit). It also seems a little contrived to have the demons that hounded Beta Ray Bill's people be related to the Canadian Great Beasts - just an excuse to get Bill on the team. Still, it was done well. I love the props the Wrecking Crew is getting, too. They are Thor level villains and they are being treated as such; in the recent past they've been used as "generic thug" villains, which annoyed me. Good story; just wish it would move a lot faster.

By fnord12 | June 11, 2007, 10:22 AM | Comics| Link

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Lieberman - More Cracked in the Head

Last week, Lieberman made a statement saying if Iran doesn't stop supplying anti-American groups in Iraq with weapons, we should bomb them. Taking that fantastic idea further, every country attacked by another nation that is supplied weapons by the U.S. should bomb us. When we supplied the Taliban with weapons to use against the Russians in Afghanistan, should Russia have bombed the U.S.? Hmm...i wonder how that would have turned out if they had. What about weapons our government supplies to Israel? Should Palestine retaliate? What's good for the goose is good for the gander, after all.

If Lieberman wants to say this is the right way for the U.S. to deal with this situation, he has no right to cry about others using this same strategy for dealing with U.S. interference. We might like to think that we're Americans and therefore everything we do is right and shiny and beyond reproach, but guess what? They don't see it that way in other countries. So, don't go pitching actions that you aren't prepared to receive in kind.

To have a government official feel comfortable with coming out and suggesting we bomb another country so easily is frightening. Not only that, none of his people thought it would be a good idea to stop him before he made his crazy rantings public. Couple this with the megalomaniac we call President (who dismisses the possible No Confidence vote in the Senate, declaring it to be his government and no one will dictate who he has running it. so much for a government elected by the people to serve the people), and it paints a pretty disturbing picture.

Hell in a handbasket, ladies and gentlemen. Except the neocons have privatized the road there so you'll be required to pay a toll for the privilege.

By min | June 11, 2007, 8:44 AM | Liberal Outrage| Link

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6/9-6/10

The first dream involved a water slide and spies. But then instead of a water slide, it was a ski slope. And instead of spies, it was Iceman. I was Iceman but i was also watching someone else be Iceman. But it was all just a computer simulation. The visuals were way cooler than the written description. I blame Marvel Ultimate Alliance for this dream.

We then segued into a musical drama starring Bing Crosby and Judy Garland. She's destitute. He's a famous actor (they're always in show business in musicals. i think it's a way to rationalize all the singing and dancing. except when they're sailors. then they aren't necessarily in show business.) They fall in love. They adopt a bazillion kids. He brings her flowers. She leaves him. But they still love each other. A chance meeting at a restaurant where she's there to dine and he happens to be performing in a cabaret. Throw in a couple of songs, one of which is in French. Plus a yacht that can separate itself into 3 pieces so as to conceal the size of the boat while it's docked. Being a famous actor, Bing didn't want the public to know he was in town. You don't have to tell me that makes no sense. It was all automated, too. Like when the Enterprise separates its saucer section. There was a decided lack of dancing, but Bing Crosby's more of a singer than a dancer so it's not really all that unusual

And during a completely different sleep cycle, we have a vampire skrull who is being controlled by another alien, presumably for world domination purposes. It's usually about world domination. Oh, and subjugation of the planet's inhabitants. The vampire skrull was more interested in seducing skrull chicks with his vampiric charm and not at all appreciative of someone else pulling his strings.

Knowing how much you all love musicals and hate comic books, i took special care to remember that dream better than the other two. Lucky ducks.

I don't even like Judy Garland.....*sigh*

By min | June 11, 2007, 8:09 AM | My Dreams| Link

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June 8, 2007

Mmmm.....Donuts

What's important to note here is that they deliver. They aren't responsible for the glaze melting if shipped bet April and Oct.

By min | June 8, 2007, 3:29 PM | Ummm... Other?| Link

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Bring back SuperMegaDio

The slackers at SuperMegaDio have stopped blogging. Sign our petition to bring it back!

By fnord12 | June 8, 2007, 11:19 AM | Music & Ummm... Other? | Comments (4) | Link

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Bye, Blade

Poor Blade. He's an interesting character and he obviously has drawing power considering the popularity of his movies, but he keeps getting saddled with... less than top level creative teams* and he can't seem to maintain a book.

*I didn't try the most recent book, but i have tried his books in the past and they've been terrible. I hadn't heard of this team so i passed on this book. If this funny cover is any indication, maybe i made a mistake.

By fnord12 | June 8, 2007, 10:16 AM | Comics | Comments (5) | Link

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June 7, 2007

New music II

Mike's got a Skelly Gang jam (ExcelLent Jam noodles) up on his Mixed Meteor site. Go check it out, and also see his blog for a picture from our outdoor gig a few weekends ago, and a real-life Petey Piranha plant.

By fnord12 | June 7, 2007, 3:48 PM | Music| Link

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Hey baby hey baby hey baby hey baby!

min knows all about this bird.

By fnord12 | June 7, 2007, 3:06 PM | Comics| Link

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Marvel Sales

April

By fnord12 | June 7, 2007, 2:27 PM | Comics| Link

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The ghost of Joseph Heller

Atrios:

The ghost of Joseph Heller is channeled by Bernstein and O'Reilly to reflect 15 years of reporting on the Clintons.

O'REILLY: Did she break the law?

BERNSTEIN: Yes.

O'REILLY: OK. Good, I like this. How did she break the law?

BERNSTEIN: She broke the law if, indeed, she perjured herself.

O'REILLY: Well, you just said she did break the law.

BERNSTEIN: No. The special prosecutor determined that she did not.So he did not file the charge.

O'REILLY: So you think she did. But the special prosecutor, Ken Starr, said no.

BERNSTEIN: That is correct. You know what? Let me be really straightforward. I don't think she broke the law. I think there was a time that she did not tell the truth.

O'REILLY: Under oath?

BERNSTEIN: You know, I wasn't in the room.

By fnord12 | June 7, 2007, 1:21 PM | Liberal Outrage | Comments (1) | Link

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Random Lyrics Thursday

Airmail Special by Ella Fitzgerald

Warning: This song was published before the PMRC invented its Parental Advisory stickers

Bo ba doobee Bo ba doobee
Bo ba dib ah dib ah diba doode
Bo ba doobee Bo ba doobee
Bo ba dib ah dib ah diba doowii
Bo ba doobee Bo ba doobee
Bo ba dib ah dib ah diba dib doowii
Bo ba doobee Bo ba doobee
Bo ba dib ah dib ah diba doode
Bloobee oobee dah

Eee-owww.

Stoob ah staab a diba doowii
Bo bah bo bah bo bah bee doowah

Bah bo bah dib ah dib ah diba dib doowii

Ah bop bah dah ooh bee ooh bee
Ah bop bah dah ooh bee ooh bee
Ah bop bah dah dohwii dohwii dah
Ah bop bah dah dohwii dohwii dib dowii

Stoob ah staab a diba doowii
Bo bah bo bah bo bah bee doowah
Davy, Davy Crocket, king of the wild frontier.

Bobalimanon Sobalimanon boy
Homanimalon domalimanon hee heeeeeeeeee

Doobee dim ah dim a lon bah
Ah heeeeee-eeee-eeee heeee-heee adoy

Ah pah liminon dee dee
Sah pah liminon dee dee boy

Stoobadee limadee boy
Bomanon limanon bom bah bom bee bop
Bam a dim a limanin aaaawwwwwww

Boo a loo ma boy
Boo a loo ma oi
Boo a loo ma oww
Boo ba boom a loo doi doi

Boo a loo ma boy
Boo a loo ma oi
Boo a loo ma oww
Boo ba boom a loo doi doi

Chestnuts roasting on an open fire

Boo a loo ma boy
Boo a loo ma oi
Boo a loo ma oww
Boo ba boom a loo doi doi
Boo ba boom a loo doi doi

Um da lidadid a did did did ah did bah dah dah doo dah dee
Um da lidadid a did did did ah did Who's on the mountain?

You plow through here
The music goes round and round
Oh-oh-ho Oh-oh-ho Oh-oh-ho Oh-oh-hooooo

We meet
and the angels sing
The angels sing the sweetest song i ever heard

Bah bo bo bah bweevle bwadle
Bweeda bweedee bweeda bweedee-eeeee-owww

Bee skiddle did doo
Bee boobee did a doo dee
Boobee did a doo dee
Boobee did a doo dee
Boobee did a doo dee

Bow bow bow a bow bah bow dee
Bow bow bow a bow bah bow dee
Bow bow bow a bweeeeeeeeeee

Doo did a doo did a doo did a doo dee
Doo did a doo did a doo did a doo dee
Doo did a doo did a doo did a doo dee

Spuddle a doo spuddle a doo spuddle a doo ow
Spuddle a doo spuddle a doo spuddle a doo ow ow
Nnnnneeyyheyyeyyyehhhyeehyehhh
Nnnnneeyyheyyeyyyehhhyeehyehhh!

Nnnngyeee Ngnnneeenhh nnnggeeegh ngggneeegh nngeengh ngh!
Nnnngyeee Ngnnneeenhh nnnggeeegh ngh!

Dago, Dago
Daylight come and me want to go home
Momma look at boogoo day
Shut your mouth, go away
Momma look at boogoo dah
Hush your mouth, go away

When the moon hits your eye
Like a big ah pizza pie
That's amore

Aaaahhh hee aaaahhh hee
Apeh a doo peh day hee
Aaaahhh hee aaaahhh hee
Apeh a doo peh dah hee

Nnnnaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!

By fnord12 | June 7, 2007, 9:20 AM | Music| Link

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June 6, 2007

Sony Layoffs

Link:

Between 80 and 100 SCEA employees paid the price yesterday for the PlayStation 3's mediocre sales performance.

As reported by Kotaku, the layoffs came as a complete surprise. Affected employees were asked to turn in their keys and I.D. cards and escorted from the company's Foster City headquarters.

...

In addition to lagging console sales, the high cost of PS3 game development was cited. Employees received what was described as a fair serverance package.

I still say the PS3 can still turn things around if they start getting more games. This is the situation the Xbox was in when it first came out and was essentially a Halo machine. I don't know why these companies feel the need to release a system every few years when they haven't even made sure there are a bunch of good launch games, but Xbox recovered so the PS3 can, too.

By fnord12 | June 6, 2007, 2:20 PM | Video Games| Link

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Tom Tomorrow Funny

Harry Reid and George Bush in that old Bully of the Beach ad.

By fnord12 | June 6, 2007, 11:56 AM | Comics & Liberal Outrage| Link

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Giuliani: Corrupt Fascist

Matt Taibbi in Rolling Stone

Key quote for me:

The [Ron] Paul incident [attacking Ron Paul for suggesting that the reason terrorists attacked us was due to the fact that we bombed Iraq in the 90s] went to the very heart of who Giuliani is as a politician. To the extent that conservatism in the Bush years has morphed into a celebration of mindless patriotism and the paranoid witch-hunting of liberals and other dissenters, Rudy seems the most anxious of any Republican candidate to take up that mantle. Like Bush, Rudy has repeatedly shown that he has no problem lumping his enemies in with "the terrorists" if that's what it takes to get over.

By fnord12 | June 6, 2007, 11:51 AM | Liberal Outrage | Comments (4) | Link

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Up Or Down?

I got stuck in a bathroom stall yesterday.

By min | June 6, 2007, 11:04 AM | My stupid life | Comments (1) | Link

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June 5, 2007

Amusing enough

If you're bored at work. And who isn't? (Except Josh, ofc.)

Vaguely Wonder-Woman-ish parody concept. The non-adventures of Wonderella. Read 'em all. What else do you have to do?

By fnord12 | June 5, 2007, 4:33 PM | Comics | Comments (2) | Link

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He's talking about his girlfriend!

Man, you've got to be pretty sure your girlfriend isn't going to find your website if you're posting stuff like this.

Here's the follow-up.

Oh, and this is all perfectly work safe, btw.

By fnord12 | June 5, 2007, 4:31 PM | Ummm... Other? | Comments (1) | Link

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June 4, 2007

New music!

Well, sort of. You may have noticed the new JukeboxMonkey feature here on our site (now you can listen to all of my various music projects while you read our fabulous archives!) (and you can thank min for not letting me have the music just start up whenever you come to the site) and i've also replaced the sad links to individual mp3 files on our music pages with a nice flash player (xspf).

In the process of doing all this, i've unearthed a lost classic. It's my "cover" of Schubert's 8th Symphony. It's on my music page (first song). Please go check it out!

By fnord12 | June 4, 2007, 3:50 PM | Music| Link

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Do i, in fact, hate retcons?

It has been suggested that the events depicted in Illuminati #3, in which the Beyonder's origin is seemingly retconned and it is strongly implied that Secret Wars II never occurred, would have thrown me into a whirlwind of outrage if it were done by a writer and editor that have not already earned my trust. Leaving unexplored the question of "Is it hypocritical to like something if it is done by a good creative team but not like the same basic idea when it is done poorly?", i just want to challenge the notion that i have some inherent problem with retcons.

I don't. There are some retcons that i like a lot, some that i loathe, and some that i am fairly neutral towards. If a retcon adds something interesting to the marvel universe as a whole, i am happy with it. The best example of that is Kurt Busiek's Avengers Forever, which basically goes through Marvel's history and "cleans up" a number of Kang stories, most of which were very bad.

The ones i hate are the ones that are not only bad stories in their own right, but also invalidate a good story in the process. Example: The Terminus Factor. While Dave Campbell will tell you exactly why that story was so bad, what he doesn't tell you is that in addition to being terrible, that story also makes it very clear that what you thought was happening in the original Terminus stories was not the case at all, turning a very cool character into something pretty generic and lame.

Another crappy retcon was the recent change to make Xorn an entity separate from Magneto, invalidating Grant Morrison's interesting take on Magneto's character and motivations. It was a bad story that led to much confusion.

The key here, however, is that these are bad stories invalidating good stories. Secret Wars II, on the other hand, was a terrible story. What Tom Defalco vindictively did to the origin of the Beyonder after he got control of the company when Jim Shooter was fired was even worse. Those stories could use some enhancement or a new way of interpreting them.

Like the Xorn retcon, though, these "new developments" on the Secret Wars II front could lead to more questions than Marvel intends. While Secret Wars II was a bad story, there were a number of important things that came out of it, especially in a lot of the tie-in books. If we are now saying that Secret Wars II only happened as a simulation on a far off moon, then how did the things that happened as a result of Secret Wars II actually happen, and what was going on in the 'real' MU when we were actually being shown scenes from the simulation? If Marvel decides they need to follow through with this, they've got a lot of 'splainin to do.

However, here i think they are deliberately drawing on the Marvel legacy of the ambiguous retcon. The best example of this is Fantastic Four #350, in which Doom states that he typically is traveling off-world and most of the time you see Doom it's really a Doombot. The genius of that is that it's totally not definitive. You don't have to take Doom's word for it if you don't like the idea and if you do, you basically get to pick which Doom appearances were "real" and which weren't.

I think the same philosophy can be applied here (and i think this was done deliberately). Professor X gets his information regarding the Beyonder based on some suspicious mind-flashes, and Black Bolt is unable to confirm the details. Therefore the origin retcon is not definite. Furthermore, the scene on the moon is also ambiguous. This is a guy with reality-warping powers; he can do essentially anything he wants, so what we are seeing isn't necessarily what is implied here. So basically, if you hate Secret Wars II so much that you want it stricken from the continuity, here's your starting point (you still have a lot of work to do). If not, then the Beyonder has gone through his Secret Wars II experience, traveled back in time, and is now running through it again at his leisure in order to make some sense of it.

The larger point that the story is trying to make about these particular characters is a good one as well and overall it was an interesting read, so i liked it.

Also this week i got Daredevil, which was also quite good. Neither me nor min can guess who the mystery mastermind villain might be, though.

By fnord12 | June 4, 2007, 9:57 AM | Comics | Comments (8) | Link

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June 1, 2007

Godzilla vs. Megalon

It has come to my attention that there are not nearly enough Godzilla posts on this blog. Here's the best Godzilla scene ever, from Godzilla vs. Megalon. It's a tag team brawl with Jet Jaguar on Godzilla's side and Gigan teamed-up with Megalon.

By fnord12 | June 1, 2007, 2:54 PM | Godzilla | Comments (1) | Link

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