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| 2008-11-06 06:30 |
| (no subject) |
| Public |
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California, this was a pop quiz, and I'm beginning to suspect that some of you didn't even read the question. I hate to do this when so many of you seem somehow to have made friends in the graduating class, but any county that failed to get at least 33% right will have to be held back in Bush's America until it masters the basics. You should have another chance to advance in a couple of years. Study hard!
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| 2007-06-18 14:51 |
| "The Black Canary Wedding Planner" |
| Public |
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Sorry, how old is Dinah?
There's so much wrong with that picture, but what annoys me most of all today is poor Dinah's appearance. Bruce Wayne and Superman might be ideals, but they are at least allowed to look like they've hit thirty; their female contemporaries, on the other hand, are stuck on some kind of eternal hellish spring break, where the only way to count the passing years is by their ever-skimpier bathing suits and their increasingly bouncy boobs.
Look at that face! I was under the impression that she was somewhat older than Roy, but she looks like she could be his little sister. Her dcdatabase page says that she "appears slightly younger than her actual age, due to immersion in the Lazarus Pit," but it didn't tell us that she'd actually start aging backwards.
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| 2007-03-18 20:02 |
| Strange Marvel Customs & Ms Marvel |
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One of the stranger customs of the Marvel universe: there's no need to dress up if you're just answering your door.
( Evidence from New Avengers 23 and Ms Marvel 06. )
Speaking of Carol Danvers, I really like her new series. I was hesitant, initially. The first cover I saw featured a big alien, which--for me--was like hosting an ice cream giveaway, but mixing squid into every flavour.[1] And then, right on the heels of the alien storyline, came the Civil War tie-ins--I'm not a fan of Events. But I've been a Ms Marvel fan almost since I started reading comics, so I gave it a try. And you know, the Civil War angle wasn't actually as bad as I'd feared. Carol was pro-registration, but her stated and apparent motivation fit her character, and didn't make me cringe besides.[2]
Now, it's one of only two Marvel comics I buy without having to flip through it first.[3] It's not a brilliant title, but it's decent, it's fun more often than it's grim, and it's about a character who's actually trying to be a better & a good person (although she might not always know how to go about that, and she might not always have the energy to do it when she thinks she knows).
Why do I not have a Ms Marvel icon? You will have to settle for Jessica Jones.
( Footnotes. )
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| 2007-02-13 08:32 |
| Battlestar Galactica 3x14 |
| Public |
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Man, what is with that radiation? Peter Parker gets super-powers, and MJ gets cancer? I thought the whole concept of Spider-Man's origin required that we forget that radiation is more likely to harm you than to enhance your perceptions & abilities. Now I'm supposed to believe, what, that a lot of radiation is awesome, but small second-hand doses over time are deadly? Or is there just some fatal incompatibility with her womb?
( Battlestar Galactica 3x14 )
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| 2007-02-09 09:39 |
| Re: "comics = creator's fantasy" |
| Public |
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I'm on board with the idea that one's fantasy does not necessarily reflect one's feelings or beliefs. However, if you as a comics creator want to write your unexamined fantasy, then you're going to have to stop pretending that your writing is realistic or progressive, and you're going to have to suck it up when people refuse to call it art. And, man, if you're going to publish your even mildly offensive fantasy, you'd better be ready for criticism from the people you've offended. Criticism that, by the way, doesn't even come close to "censorship".
That goes for fans who want to defend those offensive fantasies, too.
I just can't figure out why some people find it so hard to grasp the difference between stories written in & for an amateur/fan community and comics written by professionals & sold to the general public. My hypothetical objectifying underaged incest necrophilia is not the public face of an entire genre, my editors (if any) are not being paid, and no one's out three dollars if he has to hit the back button. How is it hypocritical or even uncommon to hold professional work to a higher standard than unpaid work, or to allow an extra measure of self-indulgence in amateur writing?
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| 2006-11-17 15:36 |
| Dexter 1x07 |
| Public |
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( A question with spoilers for Dexter 1x07. )
I am all over Deb & Dexter. I love both characters, and they have the most authentic sibling relationship I've ever seen on TV, when I define "authentic" as "like my own" or "closer, but not weirdly so". Most fictional sibling relationships do strike me as weirdly obsessive--either too close or antagonistic in a very emotionally connected way. This one actually feels a lot like my relationship with my little brother could be if we were close.
Rita/Dexter is awesome: if you broke Steph/Tim a little more, you could almost make it there. (...Titans Tomorrow Steph/Tim?)
Likewise Masuka. He's like Dexter could be if he weren't a sociopath, and so didn't have to hide anything by pretending to be sensitive. :D There's not really anyone in this show I don't like yet (even McNamara! Although part of that is that I'm impressed all over again by that actor's work in Oz), but Masuka gets my special love for his "ugh germs!"/"heyyy, dead bodies" attitude.
And, um. Um. Any chance anyone has written Deb/Angel fic yet? OK, yes, it's awful: he's a decade too old for her and still hung up on his wife; she's obsessed with her boss and has plenty of obstacles to being taken seriously for her own detective work already. But. Look, I can't help where I see the chemistry! I would settle for Deb/Doakes. Or LaGuerta/Doakes. Or Deb/LaGuerta. Where any of those pairings also indicates gen that focuses on the way the two interact.
I'm totally out of luck, aren't I?
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| 2006-11-11 18:03 |
| The Skills or the Talent |
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I don't actually understand what they ("they" being people like Bruce and Babs) mean when they say "She's not like us"[1] or "You don't have the skills or the talent"[2]. While they undervalue the person in question and set the speakers up as superior, the phrases just seem--empty and arbitrary. Like the core Bats are weakly trying to justify cutting out people who make them uncomfortable or guilty for whatever reason.
And, OK, it pisses me off that Batman jerks Steph (in particular) around[3]. Because while I get that he might have difficulty working with Huntress because her methods are too extreme, or whatever, Steph is a teenager who hasn't, actually, crossed a line. Steph's strengths clearly don't lie in the detecting side of the family business right now, but she's not bad at the rest of it. If she were given the same basic Bat-training that Tim got, she could possibly be better: she seems way more in tune with her body. Already she's fast, she's flexible, she's tolerably strong, and she's got endurance. And, man, it's not like she can't be taught the rest of it! I've never seen any indication that she wouldn't be able to learn to figure things out. Anyway, I doubt that Dick came out of the circus with Tim's innate knack for information-gathering, but he managed to pick it up well enough. I'd hypothesise--although correct me if I'm way off-base here--that it might have had something to do with Batman's making an effort to teach him, and not just in moments of favour between periods of total lock-out and discouragement.
I'm sure Bruce does have very good intentions in wanting Steph out of the game. He thinks of himself--and, presumably, of all the Gotham vigilantes who have his approval--as damaged and special[4], whereas Steph still has a chance for a normal life[5]; he says that last bit explicitly in War Drums, along with his heaps of regrets about Jason-who-was-so-much-like-Steph. But--ask me how much I think good intentions are actually worth. Also, I really can't put into words just how wrong it is to try to make decisions about Steph based on what Jason might have done, or what he might have done to save Jason. (Would Bruce want Dick and Babs to treat him the way they want to treat Helena? They see personality parallels there!)
Batman, if he deserves to be called a detective, knows that Steph is not going to give up doing what they do. How many times has he tried to get her to quit in the past?[6] Does anyone ever give it up? Bruce fired Dick, and he went off and became Nightwing. Kicking Jason off the team didn't, actually, stop him from wearing the suit--he died wearing it. Tim's out of the game at the time Steph's Robin, but he wasn't fired--he quit. And those are the people Batman gave the suit to. Stephanie was doing the masked vigilante thing before she joined the gang.
It just seems so unforgivably stupid and short-sighted for him to wash his hands of Steph when she becomes difficult, instead of trying even harder to teach her. I mean, even if she couldn't be Robin anymore, he couldn't've kept her on as backup? Have her in the cave once a week for remedial detective skills & reporting in to him whenever she went out alone as Spoiler? I mean, I get that Gotham's big on the theory that if you can't fix someone, you give him a token punishment and then set him free to continue his mistakes in near-unbroken peace, but does that have to apply to every corner of the crime-fighting business?
Really--what is it about Steph and Helena that makes them "unsuited" for the life? How are they not like the Batman-approved vigilantes?[7] What unteachable skills and talents do they lack? And why is Batman such an asshole?
( Footnotes. )
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Untitled practise ficlet, in which the world's fast, and Bart's patient, and Cassie's having a hard time dealing.
Cassie's talking to him, speaking fast. Well, maybe her normal speed, but it sounds faster, higher. ( It's kind of like learning a new language. )
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| 2006-10-28 07:20 |
| Four Robins That Nearly Make Batman Give Up On This Sidekick Business Once And For All |
| Public |
| fanfic, robin, what if |
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Four Robins That Nearly Make Batman Give Up On This Sidekick Business Once And For All
( 1 )
( 2 )
( 3 )
( 4 )
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