tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5618879740460069575.post398941237934070150..comments2024-02-22T02:31:34.108+00:00Comments on Too Busy Thinking About My Comics: Why Am I So Vexed That Geoff Johns Vexed Me? - Green Lantern # 52 And The Dangerous Myth Of How We're All So SpecialUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger21125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5618879740460069575.post-78312603350298029902010-11-27T15:56:16.636+00:002010-11-27T15:56:16.636+00:00Hello kingbeauregard:- having spent a significant ...Hello kingbeauregard:- having spent a significant amount of time writing about Darkest Night a few weeks ago, I'm less troubled by the Earthcentricism - a new useless word! - than I was. And of course you're right, Earth is special. But I still stand by the main points I made, though I hope I didn't come across as hammering American Exceptionalism so much as the tendency of human beings to portray themselves as so wonderful that the universe exists for them and their purposes. There are still surviving pockets of British exceptionalism over this side of the pond and they're never particularly aware or even pleasant people! My best to surviving the trials of working with the folks you mention!<br /><br />But I guess the question is not whether Earth is made special in a comic book, but the use that that's put too. So I'll be sure to keep my eye on what Mr Johns is doing and if I have to eat humble pie, well, it'd be my pleasure!Colin Smithhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15246781681702128600noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5618879740460069575.post-75385380308936918962010-11-26T23:56:03.807+00:002010-11-26T23:56:03.807+00:00I give Johns a complete pass on "Earth is spe...I give Johns a complete pass on "Earth is special" because, dammit, earth <i>is</i>. Why are most of the universe-threatening events happening on or near earth? Clearly such events must either be happening in the vicinity of mighty heroes or they're not happening at all, and if there are teams of heroes out there as mighty as the JLA, they've somehow never been depicted in comics. So does that mean earth special in both its population of heroes and also its ability to attract threats?<br /><br />To a certain extent, seventy years of comics have forced the question, and I am satisfied with Johns's answer. It's not a perfect answer but it will do. And yes, I am an American, but I am as frustrated with American Exceptionalism as you are. (Probably more so; you don't have to work with the people I do.)Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5618879740460069575.post-24666302803001627322010-05-13T10:17:45.860+01:002010-05-13T10:17:45.860+01:00Hello Ben! - thank you not only for the correction...Hello Ben! - thank you not only for the correction, but for the splendidly civil way you made it. The very first comment on either of my blogs - back when I didn't know anybody had even come across my blogs at all - was, when I read it, a brutally contemptuous few sentences about how I'd mis-spelt the name of a character, ending with "Dammit! These things matter.". And of course, it was anonymous. That certainly nipped my delusions of interblognet fraternity right in the bud! You're the antidote to that, so thank you. <br /><br />And I think we're safely on the same page about the Sentry, who I find myself writing about in small part for the blog piece I hope to post this very evening. I'm going to have to go back to my copy of "Siege" so I can understand how I misremembered it so. I was looking at the relevant pages when I wrote the blog! I think I have a problem with the Sentry in that he's such a daft, portentous, appallingly-written character that my mind immediately tries to re-write his adventures so that (a) they make more sense, and (b) the Sentry isn't in them. I can't be having that exploding Chaos in my head.<br /><br />I never got to the catharsis of enjoying the pricking of Captain America's perfect man-of-the-American-people role that you did because I was again mind-wiped by the sheer stupidity of the story-line. Of course super-powers should be registered. Of course you can't have masked vigilantes on the streets without training, over-sight or reference to the rule of law. (There is such a thing as the rule of law in Marvel-Earth, isn’t there?) It's such an obvious argument that I was amazed anyone could ever think to mention it - it's the elephant in the room & best ignored unless you want that elephant constantly waving it's big big big trunk in front of every scene Marvel presents to us. It made so little sense that I couldn't engage with it, emotionally or politically. And they killed “Black Goliath” off too, dammit!<br /><br />I think I'll head over to Marvel Digital and have another look at Captain America and his Civil War adventures. You've inspired me to go and see what I missed there too. Thank you for commenting, and I hope you have a splendid day!Colin Smithhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15246781681702128600noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5618879740460069575.post-47690896956890020372010-05-13T01:51:57.333+01:002010-05-13T01:51:57.333+01:00It's a minor correction, but Asgard met its de...It's a minor correction, but Asgard met its demise at the forehead of The Sentry/The Void/Wretched Character to Begin With. A schizophrenic drug addict spells the end of the home of the gods, tears War in half, and explodes Chaos. Riddle me that; explodes Chaos. The anthropic face of the ineffable pops like a sporing fungus in the face of human chemistry. <br /><br />One of the reasons I liked Civil War was seeing Captain America lose, seeing him, in spite of all of his good intentions and conviction, fall to the terror of the average person on the street. In Siege, the punctuation of that loss has since dissipated. The Good Guys Win. <br /><br />Thank you, very much, for this post. You've certainly put your finger on that itch at the back of the head caused by Blackest Night.Benhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12885989992799259852noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5618879740460069575.post-69299532366196585152010-05-04T10:30:12.695+01:002010-05-04T10:30:12.695+01:00Hello Daryll - I very much appreciate your kind wo...Hello Daryll - I very much appreciate your kind words. And I too understand why so many "indy" readers want, as you say, to have nothing to do with the big Two. Which is a shame, a real shame, because there are really good things going on there still, even if we may agree that these last two big crossovers have had a few problems with them. And if I have a go at the Big Two at times, well, it's because I still have a tremendous amount of affection for what they've done and for a fair amount of what they're doing. (I'm just about to start on my last draft on a piece that I'll be putting up tonight on a mini-series from DC which has just come out in TPB that I've got some considerable time for. I don't want to come across as a "big Two" hater, even though that "specialness" business does get my goat!)<br /><br />I too have always a fondness for the cosmic books. If only we could have a little less focus on how wonderful WE are & a little bit more on how WONDERFUL everything else is, I think I'd love them more.<br /><br />Have a splendid day, Mr D!Colin Smithhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15246781681702128600noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5618879740460069575.post-3139034203837767262010-05-04T09:29:13.720+01:002010-05-04T09:29:13.720+01:00Wesley - thank you for your comment. Reading, for ...Wesley - thank you for your comment. Reading, for example, what you write on SuperDoomedPlanet.com reminds me of how I've lost track of the SF/Fantasy genres, and how hard it is to jump back in when you've lost most of your reference points. (There came a point where I nipped out to the "mainstream" and I find that for a very, very long time I haven't been back. And we all know that the longer you leave a return, the harder it becomes.)<br /><br />I had thought of Frodo after reading your first comment here, and I love that "all burden, no benefit" line you write, which we might have put on mugs and given to everyone who looks likely to construct a "found-on-a-boat-of-reeds, born-of-kings, will-save-us-all" epic. <br /><br />I shall just have to use you as my gatekeeper for a while, Wesley. There will be no comeback, no requests for reading lists. You won't even know I'm there. I'll just scurry 'round your blog for a while. But I really ought to go back and have a proper look around the genres which I so loved quite a shameful time ago. Even though it looks rather intimidating and not-for-the-regular-reader on the awards lists at the moment. I'm just terribly out of the loop.<br /><br />I'll have a go at a Company book, I think. Thank you for the advice.Colin Smithhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15246781681702128600noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5618879740460069575.post-49108035603895189142010-05-04T09:13:44.005+01:002010-05-04T09:13:44.005+01:00Justin - you are absolutely right there. If the po...Justin - you are absolutely right there. If the possession of powers indicates "specialness", then the mission that the "special" folks have to strive to achieve would not be, shall we say, a conventionally moral one if weight of numbers determined whether "heroes" or "villains" were on the right side.<br /><br />Which does show two particularly pernicious conventions of the superhero comic book. The first is that characters still fall into "good" and "bad" characters, with shades of grey too often provided not by "real" people but by those who shift between lawbreaking and "heroic" behaviour. We desperately need a superhero comic which does for capes'n'costumes what "The Wire" did for TV cop shows. We need more people and less heroic figures. Whether anyone is going to infiltrate the mainstream to achieve that is beyond my future-reading powers - which are sadly nil - but it must surely be a viable step forward. Old and apparently irredeemable fictional genres have been rescued before; I think particularly of the BBC's "I Cladius" in the 1970s, which took the "sandal'n'toga" genre & produced a thing of wonder, and on no budget too. If that can be done, perhaps superheroes can be nailed to. Or was that "Watchmen" and the whole project dead and buried. (I don't say that it has to be a "serious", portentous take on the genre.)<br /><br />The second pernicious trend is that of taking one population and deciding that one segment is special while the rest are not only not special, but actively dangerous, all based on our personal morality and prejudices. (Superfolks we like = good, including stone-cold killers like Wolverine & The Punisher. All others pretty much = bad)I'm going to be having a whack at something to do with this in the next couple of blogs, so I won't say too much for fear of confusing myself, but as soon as a population is divided up into "good" and "bad", with no other obvious role being allowed, the next step is - to take a modern example - to decide that the "real America" is "our folks" and the rest is all "other", all dangerous anti-social destructors from the planet "destroy-all-decency", despite both groups seeming from the outside to no more "special" than the other. And that doesn't go anywhere good.Colin Smithhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15246781681702128600noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5618879740460069575.post-41501534960338303062010-05-04T08:55:44.256+01:002010-05-04T08:55:44.256+01:00This was far deeper and far more extensive that an...This was far deeper and far more extensive that any critique I have had for Blackest Night and to another extent Siege. <br /><br />One feels like a preach-fest on why my hero is so wonderfully good that it doesn't want to share the spotlight on the organization of heroes, who, by the way, all share the same powers as the hero being glorified.<br /><br />The other is just a brainless fight with no major point or ramifications... Just one big brawl to "clear the board" of lifeless carrion.<br /><br />Yeah I pretty much oversimplified my point but now I can truly see why some independent comic fans want nothing to do with "the big two".<br /><br />As far as Earth being the center of everything, now I think I know why I love reading the "cosmic" books more than "earth bound" heroes books. I truly, truly hate their sensibilities.<br /><br />Thx for helping my brain expand a little ColsmiDaryll B.http://www.thecomicshoppe.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5618879740460069575.post-28874467778980165992010-05-04T02:18:23.059+01:002010-05-04T02:18:23.059+01:00For the "special despite their own specialnes...For the "special despite their own specialness" thing... it's something I see more in written fiction than in the media. I suppose one classic case would be The Lord of the Rings: Frodo is the one person in all the world who can carry the magic MacGuffin to the Crack of Doom... but it's all burden, no benefit. And in the end he fails--the ring's only destroyed because earlier, when he was in his right mind, he'd spared Gollum's life.<br /><br />Another fantasy example is Laurie Marks's undeservedly unnoticed "Elemental Logic" series (three volumes so far, the most recent being Water Logic), in which the magically-empowered ruler of the fantasy kingdom spends most of her time <em>not</em> using her powers: it's in her nature to take action only when necessary and after a great deal of thought, and she'd rather be fixing things (she's a blacksmith) and spending time with her large family.<br /><br />Kage Baker's Company books are also good--they're about people who've been picked to become powerful immortal cyborgs and sent back in time to preserve lost historical treasures. Which sounds neat, until they find they're being manipulated and sometimes sacrificed for their employer's purposes, when they really just want to do their (mostly scholarly) jobs.<br /><br />Novels often complicate "chosen one" narratives. The best ones notice, and acknowledge, that being a "chosen one" means you've been chosen <i>by</i> someone, for their own purposes, and what that <i>really</i> makes you is a pawn...Wesleyhttp://www.superdoomedplanet.com/blog/noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5618879740460069575.post-17990672456112140572010-05-03T23:57:39.197+01:002010-05-03T23:57:39.197+01:00The recurring theme of "humanity is so specia...The recurring theme of "humanity is so special and noble" is particularly funny when you consider that superhero comics actually suggest a far more pessimistic view. Because the demands of the genre require each superhero to have a variety of different bad guys to fight, there are more supervillains than superheroes in the DC and Marvel Universes.<br /><br />Therefore, the average person randomly irradiated/mutated/whatever on a comic book Earth is *considerably* more likely to use his/her powers for personal gain, if not out-and-out "evil". Do-gooders are a *minority*!<br /><br />Again, this is largely because of the dramatic demands of monthly superhero comics, but I imagine our real world with the addition of superpowers would not be dissimilar.Justinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16490957677766912068noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5618879740460069575.post-3248791520133188272010-05-03T12:08:34.871+01:002010-05-03T12:08:34.871+01:00Mr W - and FINALLY - completely missed the (1)/ (2...Mr W - and FINALLY - completely missed the (1)/ (2)/ (3) bit because I was caught up in what you were writing. And THEN went on to add a (1)/(2)/(3) of m'own in a different context. Talk about being so accurate that the subject misses the point!<br /><br />Nice shot. Like a dinosaur, I was dead before I knew I was toppling over!Colin Smithhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15246781681702128600noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5618879740460069575.post-25655782242124763292010-05-03T08:50:33.328+01:002010-05-03T08:50:33.328+01:00Hello, Wesley - (1) I don't mind TV SF shows b...Hello, Wesley - (1) I don't mind TV SF shows being centred asround Earth and/or Humans. You're right that it's pretty much unavoidable. I object when the message is that humans are special and will somehow, to one degree or another, save the universe & everyone else. Babylon 5 & Star Trek, for example, are saturated with it. Farscape wasn't, you're quite right. Neither was, regardless of it's many faults, Firefly.<br /><br />(2) I hadn't considered the RTD Dr Who in that light before, and I'm going to have to give it some thought. Particularly as regards the Eccleston series, I was so won over by what seemed to be the conceit of the Doctor with PTSD & Eccleston's performance that I know I'm blind to faults that should bother me. I know I was more and more uncomfortable with the last three series & specials until the end, and I think you may have given me an "in" to a better grasp of that. My thanks. I shall chew on it. (Wouldn't it be good if most of those who talk about the "heroes journey" hadn't lifted it straight from the dreaded Vogler or even worse his many adherents? Wouldn't it be splendid if they'd actually tried to read something of Gilgamesh, or even Campbell's actually work rather than the cheap guides to it. The whole concept - even in Campbell - strikes me as a ridiuclous example of unfalsifiable reductionism, so common to snake-oil salesmen these days, an idea so hard to prove that anything can be included in its provisions.) <br /><br />(3) I've never even heard of the "Macho Sue" concept. Thank you. Please throw as much homework my way as you can. Your blog is great on material on writing, and I'll take absolutely everything you can throw my way.<br /><br />(4) That's another point I'd not considered. (Another one!) The protagonist who is special despite their own specialness, if you will. And there would be some real force to that. If you can ever recommend some examples of that, I would be grateful.<br /><br />(5)On the whole, I'm against chosen ones of any sort. History really is clear on this point, and I know it sounds pious, but it is also true; as soon as anyone feels special, or is regarded as special, bad things happen. Human beings are "special" when they realise they're not and act accordingly. (cue "Life Of Brian" - "His shoe!"<br /><br />I like that stentorian voice. It's compelling me to google "Macho Sue". Thank you very much for your comments.Colin Smithhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15246781681702128600noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5618879740460069575.post-7027671604835523902010-05-03T03:10:59.834+01:002010-05-03T03:10:59.834+01:00I tend to give live-action SF shows like Star Trek...I tend to give live-action SF shows like Star Trek a pass on the Earth-centric thing just because it's hard to focus on aliens when every one of them requires expensive makeup or CGI [1]. Comics have less excuse. It's as easy to draw an alien as a human and the slight abstraction inherent in good comic art [2] means that even a non-SF-oriented reader should find it easy to identify with a talking rock or an eyeball with tentacles.<br /><br />I've been seeing a lot of the "Cult of Individual Specialness" lately. I'm not sure whether there's more of it or if I'm just noticing it more. Every pop culture character is the Chosen One or the Slayer or one in whom the Force is particularly strong. I think it's also the reason the Doctor is now not just a Time Lord but the Last of the Time Lords [3]. (This goes back a ways--many of the ideas floated for reviving the show in the 90's used the concept, or put the Doctor on a Campbellian "Hero's Journey." Then the BBC novels blew up Gallifrey years before Russell T. Davies had the idea. Interestingly, the idea that the Doctor was Special seemed to pop up around the time people who'd grown up as fans started writing the stories.)<br /><br />The biggest problem is when the hero's special super power is Being Right, where the hero is not right because he does the right thing but because the narrative believes that anything he does is right. It's the chief trait of what SF writer Kit Whitfield calls a "Macho Sue" character. (Google the term, and her essay should be the first thing that comes up. Interesting reading.)<br /><br />I can enjoy a "Cult of Individual Specialness" story once in a while if it avoids that pitfall... but it usually also has to be a story where what makes the character "special" doesn't really have anything to do with what the character wants to be. Maybe it's a distraction, maybe it's an onerous responsibility. Either way, power fantasies are more bearable when the power turns out not to be easy.<br /><br /><br />[1] Farscape did a good job--the whole point of the show was that the hero was cut off from Earth--but it still leaned heavily on one humanoid species.<br /><br />[2] Nope, not an Alex Ross fan.<br /><br />[3] Cue stentorian voice.Wesleyhttp://www.superdoomedplanet.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5618879740460069575.post-33344136781262043592010-05-01T14:06:30.639+01:002010-05-01T14:06:30.639+01:00Hello Mike! - and your first sentence made me laug...Hello Mike! - and your first sentence made me laugh out loud! It's fair cheered my afternoon here bashing away at the typewriter to hear from you. It's good to hear that I wasn't imagining that what you quite rightly term "entitlement" is indeed infesting our cultures on both sides of the Atlantic, or rather, I'm glad I wasn't entirely imagining it and sorry to hear that I wasn't entirely imagining it too. I think that "cult of specialness" is a terrific political tool & a wonderful ideology to get the passive support of folks who want an excuse not to take responsibility for their lives. And I would like the comic books which taught me so much about responsibility when I was boy - and they really did - to challenge this rubbish about being "special". If everyone is special, then nobody is, and everybody gets prizes. Insanity. <br /><br />I thoroughly agree with what you say about Mr Johns' JSA work, and indeed with all you've written! To be honest, I wish I'd had that clear a grasp of his work when I started beating this beast of a subject into its current lumpy form. You've put your finger on the growing centrality of violence in his stories which, you're quite right, is unpleasant. There's a kind of critical mass in his work which is, if not already here, close by, and I appreciate you saying what you have here; it may be that there's no way back from this constant hammering of old plots & thousands of characters flying backwards & forwards at each other with menace. I wonder if Mr Johns is even aware of this slow spiral in his work down to this kind of populist junk narratives. It seems a long way from Stars & S.T.R.I.P.E.S. And I don't think it's healthy. <br /><br />It's always splendid to hear from you, Mr L. I wish you well with your work & hope your day is a splendid one.Colin Smithhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15246781681702128600noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5618879740460069575.post-10201359041990278482010-05-01T13:38:46.393+01:002010-05-01T13:38:46.393+01:00America has two main philosophies: Rugged Individu...America has two main philosophies: Rugged Individualism and It's Not My Fault. We are a nation of people who think they are the best, plus people who won't accept blame. We teach our children that they are special, and argue with the referees when they strike out in Little League. <br /><br />I'm a teacher, and it amazes me that parents argue with teachers over their children having to do homework. There is a sizable group of children whose parents will side with them when a teacher reports their bad behavior. I thought this sense of entitlement only happened in the suburbs, but I teach in the inner city. I don't encounter this behavior very often because I teach students with autism (I have a whole 'nother set of issues to deal with), but the teachers who work in regular ed talk about this stuff on a regular basis. Our children aren't being taught to take responsibility for their actions.<br /><br />Anyway, I liked Johns' JSA comics just fine. While it was never my favorite series, I enjoyed it for years before losing interest. His Superman stories were fun, despite the uncomfortable politics you note. I found his Green Lantern stuff uninteresting, but could see its appeal. He struck me as a competent super-hero writer whose work was equally capable of being good or bad, like Fabian Nicieza or Chuck Dixon. <br /><br />His dominance in DC (along with the editorially-driven plot-by-number stories), however, has made DC the comic book company in which I'm least interested. I find his recent writing both bland and excessively violent and unpleasant(excepting the Superman stuff), and have no interest in Blackest Night. It's just not my thing, although plenty of people like it. The Cult of Earth stuff you point out, along with the Cult of the Silver/Bronze Age and overreliance on shock tactics, make me uncomfortable with Johns' work.<br /><br />-Mike LoughlinAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5618879740460069575.post-58869708145944988222010-05-01T08:48:07.874+01:002010-05-01T08:48:07.874+01:00Hello Dean - and you do put your finger on a stran...Hello Dean - and you do put your finger on a strange contradiction in Mr Johns' work. I got absolutely cussed a few months ago by some Brit posters - not in connection to my two blogs, I should say - because I praised Geoff Johns highly for his unchallenged ability to scrape off the barnacles that have obscured old characters - all the stupid continuity, the angst, the poor decisions - and said that I thought his promotion at DC was well-deserved and a relief. If anybody can help us avoid the worst excesses of broken-back-Batman and so on, Johns at the moment looks like the best candidate on the blocks. So I don't lack respect for his work. And you are so right to nail this point by stating that Mr Johns "got" Hal Jordan in a way that so many of his peers and predecessors failed utterly to do. It's to Mr John's great credit.<br /><br />But there's a difference between his conceptual abilities - which are splendid, even if they're not all to my taste - and how he puts them into practise in his stories. He is undoubtedly a fine craftsman - I wrote that in this blog and I stick by it - but I too share your worry that his main theme seems to be an endless "heroes journey", which has become so sadly the norm in comic books/film/TV in its' most obvious form: heroes are good, romance is good, villains are bad, just as you rightly argue. I wish Mr Johns would take less huge themes, less massive - massively money-spinning! - story-arcs and drill down to smaller, more personal, more intimate points. Perhaps he might inform his stories by some "touching base" with some content that isn't inspired by comic books, popular culture or story-telling manuals and norms. Let's get some history, philosophy, economics in there - just a few sparks to throw things off in a slightly-less conventional form. It would throw a few curves into what is, for all the narrative twists, rather narrow and unengaging-for-me stories.<br /><br />I agree wholeheartedly with everything you say, and I share both your respect and frustration with Mr Johns. Indeed, I admire his attention to and fidelity to the market-place. I think he respects the fanboy hardcore and understands it as no other modern day writer does.<br /><br />But that kind of lock on popular taste doesn't tend to last, although he's surfed the wave for a good few years now. And I suspect that sometimes you maintain your position by seeding the main fare with some unexpected influences. The "heroes jouney" is always there in one form or another; that's why it's such a ridiculous concept as far as modern story-telling manuals are concerned. But what makes stories truly interesting is the individual spin. And at the moment, I can't see much of an individual spin to Mr J's work beyond his undoubted individual competence. Which I would prefer to 98% of his fellow super-hero writers over the past 30 years, hand down, of course.<br /><br />Thank you for your comment. I hope a splendid day is coming to you!Colin Smithhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15246781681702128600noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5618879740460069575.post-11200434503253295652010-05-01T08:26:29.494+01:002010-05-01T08:26:29.494+01:00Hello Mr E - and how I wish I'd thought of &qu...Hello Mr E - and how I wish I'd thought of "the Cult Of Earth" when I was writing this. I struggled for days, literally, to bring this beast under control & that title would've really helped. It's almost as if one of us is actually a writer & one of us a blogger!<br /><br />And I'm absolutely with you on the "Cult of Individual Specialness", as I hope you thought I would be. I had a section which I had to prune down about American Exceptionalism, the points of which I only touched upon in the end. (I still intend to return to the topic, not to have a go at the USA, because I hope I've made it clear that such ideas are absolutely typical of most human cultures, but because it informs alot, I believe, about some comics.)And there what concerned me was that being "good" becomes a function of simply existing within the borders of a nation, rather than actually doing anything to earn any greater measure of "goodness". So "good" is something you are rather than something you aspire to & strive to work towards. As I say, touched upon, but not developed.<br /><br />And your Stephen Strange point chimes exactly with that whole topic of "instrinsic" v "achieved" virtue, and it's a shift in the superhero narrattives that you put your finger on which I fear has become more and more prevelant the further we come from the '60s. There was a wonderful narrative tension in,for example, Stan Lee's first wave of heroes, because chance granted them their powers & yet all of them had to work-work-work to justify their new advantages & make something of themselves. I can't think of any of them who were "special" in themselves. Indeed, Thor had been exiled to Earth for being a dick & Iron Man gradually became the story of the capitalist who learned that predatory capitalism hurts others & eventually comes home to hurt the capitalist.<br /><br />And that's exactly what I want to read. As far as I can see, hard work is everything, or if not "everything", of course, then a huge factor in what we are that culturally is becoming more & more devalued because it's HARD to work HARD and that's not something the consumer citizens in our society want to hear about. Every day as a teacher I would, in my own cack-handed way, struggle with the years in schools that had allowed students to retain the cultural belief that they were either "swots" or "the middlin' type" or "stupid". And these labels had nothing to do with potential or even achievement. They were, to make a point rather than to be a serious statitician, 35% labelling, 35% a lack of being "scaffoled" and pushed", and 30% a strange latching on to this excuse in order to excuse being lazy. It's the curse of British society in my mind, Mr E. Our culture has always been about being born as something - King, sportman, nerd, whatever - and not about learning to fight through work-work-work. The Cult of Individual Specialness is of course the kind of thing that makes Kings "Kings" and the rest of us "proles". And it's so Anti-American, even as it's sadly traditionally British/English, that I'm amazed it's become so sentimentally prevelant in so much of the USA's popular culture. And saddened too.<br /><br />So, not off-topic at all, of course, Mr E. Absolutely the topic. All my heroes/heroines, fictional or "real", are triers and failures. And nothing gets that poor undeserving goat of mine more than the Cult Of Special anything.<br /><br />I really do wish I'd thought of that title though! "The Cult Of Earth" would've looked fine.<br /><br />Thank you very much for the comment. I hope you have a very splendid day.Colin Smithhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15246781681702128600noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5618879740460069575.post-51605372607953391862010-05-01T04:51:01.425+01:002010-05-01T04:51:01.425+01:00GREEN LANTERN is a difficult title.
On the one ha...GREEN LANTERN is a difficult title.<br /><br />On the one hand, a writer needs to be able to write Jet Age swagger with some conviction. A shockingly large number of quality writers are defeated by that requirement. They just do not believe in their core that an old-school fighter jock can be a relatable protagonist. Geoff Johns certainly does not have that problem.<br /><br />On the other hand, it requires a genuine broad mindedness. Thinking about cosmic issues is too often bounded by the Star Trek derived thinking you are rightly decrying in your blog. What should feel like an amazing journey is all too often reduced to being a collection of straw men for the author's personal hobby horse, or (worse) a droning over explanation of how one old straw man is connected to another. None of it is a pale shadow of the deft, satirical tone of Swift, nor the eerie mystery of Moore. <br /><br />Why Johns is so vexing to me is that he clearly has the talent to be a better writer than he currently is. He has a technical mastery of the medium that has rarely been matched. He obviously loves and cares about the characters. His gift at plotting is remarkable. <br /><br />He just doesn't seem to have that much to say. His good guys are good because he says so. His romances are wonderful because he says they are. Earth is the center of the universe because he buried the big white McGuffin there. Who, ultimately, cares?<br /><br />I have read a lot of Geoff Johns comics and don't really have any sense of him at all.Dean H.https://www.blogger.com/profile/17923782800713104454noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5618879740460069575.post-19025143788836896802010-04-30T23:58:46.759+01:002010-04-30T23:58:46.759+01:00Great article! And yes, reflecting my own irritati...Great article! And yes, reflecting my own irritation with the Cult Of Earth.<br /><br />Where do you stand on the Cult Of Individual Specialness? I'm going to go into a rant here (almost certainly with swears), but I have a particular problem with Dr Strange in this regard.<br /><br />Time was, Strange was an arrogant, egomaniacal wreck who, through his many grevious flaws, found himself halfway up a mountain in Tibet bellowing at an ancient mystic. Learning that there are more things in Heaven and Earth, etc, and finding it within himself to sacrifice his easy lifestyle and go down the difficult road of sorcery - purely because it's the only way he can think of to save the life of a crazy old man who he doesn't much like - he cleanses his ego, lays down his arrogance, stops being a venal little bastard and, in time, becomes The Master Of The Mystic Arts. <br /><br />And if someone else as well or better qualified had wandered into that temple a week earlier, someone else would have been Doctor Strange. (Well, Doctor Jennings or Doctor Richlieu or Doctor M'boto. Point is, that someone else would have been Master Of The Mystic Arts.)<br /><br />In other words, Strange was not special - or rather, he'd once thought he was special, and then he'd lost every token of his specialness and any talent he'd had - talents he'd misused because he'd thought he was special - and THEN learned into the bargain that he was an insignificant ant and everything he thought he knew about the workings of the universe was a bunch of hooey. <br /><br />And then he BECAME special through the only means human beings have to become special - painstaking hard work and an acceptance that you can be better than you are.<br /><br />What a great story! Man poisoned by ego, ego is stripped away, now-penitent man learns higher truth, becomes wise man and superhero. It'd be hard to wreck that, right?<br /><br />Cue sudden revelations - because Dr Stephen Strange, venal scumbag who becomes tragic loser who becomes incredibly hard-working student... that story's kind of lame, right? I mean, he starts off not being a hero, then he's just a loser (and we all hate losers, right?) and then he has to like... WORK to become a hero. Like study all night and take lessons and everything. It's a total bummer.<br /><br />Cue the sudden revelation that Stephen Strange was... SPECIAL! All the time! Just anybody COULDN'T have done it! It's got the be that special little boy, chosen for his special destiny by the Ancient One before sperm even hit egg! Fuck reinventing yourself, Steve, just let your inner specialness shine. All that time you were a prick, it was just you knowing how special you were! Fuck hard work, you're a natural at this magic shit 'cause you're special, special, special! It's not that we're all ants - it's that everyone ELSE is an ant except YOU! YOU SPECIAL, SPECIAL LITTLE FUCKING SNOWFLAKE!<br /><br />Yeah, buddy, you're so extra-especially special that now everybody wonders why readers can't relate to you any more. (Actually, the reason is probably that he's been reinvented every six months since the early nineties, but that's a whole other rant.)<br /><br />Um... sorry to go off topic there, and feel free to bleep out some of the curse words. It is sort of on-topic, I guess... what do you think?Al Ewingnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5618879740460069575.post-3574632263338503442010-04-30T21:45:53.073+01:002010-04-30T21:45:53.073+01:00Hello Josh, and you put that so well. "Beta-R...Hello Josh, and you put that so well. "Beta-Ray Bill, the Cosmic Houyhnhnm". I would certainly buy that!Colin Smithhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15246781681702128600noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5618879740460069575.post-10064258727256017352010-04-30T21:04:14.217+01:002010-04-30T21:04:14.217+01:00So, Beta-Ray Bill is a cosmic Houyhnhnm, then? Bec...So, Beta-Ray Bill is a cosmic Houyhnhnm, then? Because I can see that.Josh Reynoldshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10799600827217221916noreply@blogger.com