25 Quickies

I've been out of the loop for a while. Don't know what's going on. Don't know who's doing it. So, I thought I would launch the return of Superheroes, etc. with as extensive a list as I can write comprised of brief statements regarding my thoughts on the various pop culture, general geekery, politics, and miscellaneous things that have happened since I was blogging more regularly.

1. The beginning of Lost's third season was formulaic and tedious. Others have assured me that season's finale and the episodes leading up to it redeemed it, but I lost my interest. I'm out of the loop there and I like it that way.

2. If you take me seriously when I give you a gentle ribbing about the prominent place you give to a copy of Essential Werewolf By Night in your GN collection, you lose at life. You know who you are. Dick.

3. Heath Ledger's death = bad.

4. Heath Ledger's Joker = good. At least from what I've seen so far. Joker shouldn't be funny. Joker should make you sick to your stomach. Joker should make you want to remind your kids about "red light/green light" people. I dig Burton's Batman, but I think I'm going to dig this more.

5. Am I a hypocrite if I simultaneously feel sympathy for the victims of Katrina, but hate jazz?

6. Steve Rogers is dead. Captain America has a gun and a shiny suit. If this lasts, I'm Gandhi.

7. I suddenly feel very hungry.

8. Persepolis looks phenomenal and it pisses me off that I never bought the GN, because now I'll have to get a copy with the "Now a major motion picture!" announcement on the cover, and those always make me feel like a tool.

9. World of Warcraft is very addictive.

10. Writer's strike = good.

11. SiCKO changed my life. I actually wrote a letter to my representative. It's like Bizzaro Mick. I've always been a cynic. I've never been blindly patriotic. But when it's just all laid out for you like that...man.

12. I like Obama. I don't like Hillary. I will vote for Hillary if I have to. But I don't like her. I didn't vote in the primary. It's New York, Hillary was going to take it. I will vote in the general election. Think I lost my right to complain for not voting in the primary? I support your right to be wrong (for reference, see "Constitution of the United States").

13. As much as people like Mike Huckabee and Mitt Romney terrify me (I know Romney's out, but I have a feeling one of the two will be the Republican VP candidate because McCain will want that evangelical vote), I am thrilled Thompson dropped out so early. I had nightmares about having to watch Hunt for Red October with my grandchildren, explaining, "Yeah, that guy there who sounds like he's about to compare nuclear warfare to barn animals? He was the president."

14. While I don't like Hillary, I am thrilled at the prospect of being alive when the first woman or African American president is elected. No, I don't want to vote for either just because they're black or female, but I feel privileged just to be breathing when the two frontrunners for the Democratic ticket are a woman and a black man.

In fact, it reminds me of an idea I once had about eight years ago when I was considering studying to become a World War II historian. I may be getting the exact quote wrong, but basically Hermann Goering, head of the German Air Force, once said something along the lines of "If one allied bomb lands inside Germany, you can call me Hymie." And the fact is that as you read books about World War II, even divorced from the moral perspective, you learn pretty quickly that most historians consider Goering to have been a complete failure. So I had this idea I thought was clever. I would write a history paper titled "Thank you, Mr. Hymie," in a somewhat sardonic tone about how grateful the allies should have been to have an incompetent ass like Goering at the head of the Luftwaffe.

I'll probably never do that. But, in regards to the prospect of either a woman or a black man being president in January, 2009...thank you, George. Thank you so much.

15. Big Trouble in Little China is fucking genius.

16. A new X-files movie. Huh. Okay.

17. Speaking of which, if I suddenly find that - with nothing to go on but a few seconds of music, lighting, and not even a regular character on the series - I can immediately identify a scene as belonging to X-Files even when it isn't an episode I've seen before...who should die? Me or them?

18. Know what I watch more than anything at my night job? C-SPAN.

19. I really need a day job.

20. So far, I'm surprisingly disappointed with Colbert's I Am America (And So Can You!). It's good. It's funny. They came up with a clever way to inject the whole "The Word" segment in print form. I guess I'm just surprised that this particular kind of book doesn't feel like a page-turner to me. It's something I might put on my coffee table or bathroom. It's funny to pick up and read for a few pages at a time, but I just don't feel any strong urge to keep reading. As hilarious as he is, it's usually pretty easy to guess where Colbert's going.

21. Did you know that taking a year and a half to write an undergraduate thesis about comic books sometimes can make you want to not read comics? Seriously! I would rather do many things to my genitals that include fire and electricity than scan another goddamn page of Captain America.

22. There are two comics I have fallen in love with recently which I never would've guessed I could care about - Astro Boy and Usagi Yojimbo.

23. Don't you dare tell me whether Hulk won against Sentry. Don't say a damn thing. Seriously. I'll nail you to a wall and throw full beer cans at you.

24. As part of a silly revenge scenario against my ex-girlfriend, I will spend most of Valentine's Day watching season one of House, M.D. How is that revenge? It's one of her favorite shows, I bought the DVDs with Best Buy gift cards her family gave me, and she doesn't get to watch cause, you know, we broke up. It's not actual revenge, and I don't really want actual revenge, but, you know. It's kinda funny. Kinda. And it beats the hell out of cutting up my foot when I slam it into the TV after the 50th "He went to Jared!" commercial.

25. Collector's Edition Twin Peaks DVD with everything. I wants it.

So, you think you're funny huh, Mr. God guy?

So, the title of my last post was "Well now that's done: and I'm glad it's over." It's a line from T.S. Eliot's The Waste Land, and I was trying to be all clever by using it to refer to the final acheivement of my Bachelor's degree while at the same time referencing a poem that is a wonderful example of why I desperately wanted to fire my ass out of college with a cannon.

Then, I didn't write anything afterwards in spite of my proclamation of "I am on the warpath to reclaim my life, starting with this blog." What happened there, Mick?

Well, so, yeah. Turns out my college education isn't the only thing that's over. My 5-year relationship with my girlfriend ended shortly after. I've been living with my parents for the past two weeks, officially becoming the comic book geek stereotype (and I don't even have a basement or attic to myself). And, for obvious reasons, haven't been in much of a mood to blog.

I'm not going to go into details. I'm not embarassed by what happened, and I don't care if the whole world knows. I'm not going into details for the sake of anyone who reads this blog. I can guarantee you that you would quickly file it under "TMI." That's right. Even in this dark time, I'm thinking all about you.

"Well now that's done: and I'm glad it's over."

The above quote is pulled from T.S. Eliot's The Waste Land. I wrote about my struggles with the epic poem in March of 2006, and wasn't very kind to either the piece or its author. I have to admit that while my opinion of the poem hasn't changed much, the line quoted in the heading of this post has won some weight in my life. It is a perfect expression of how I feel about finally graduating from college, and about how no one will ever be allowed to force me to read a waste of ink like The Waste Land again.

On December 19th, my graduation from the State University of New York at Albany was finally confirmed. I won't bore you with the details, but there was just a teeny bit of doubt that things would be postponed yet another semester. In fact, even though I have graduated, I will be doing a bit more school work. The big monster I had to tackle was the completion of my English Honors undergrad thesis titled "I Watched Krypton Die and So Did You," about the impact 9/11 had on Marvel Comics. My adviser was determined that the paper be considered for some award the school gives away every year. But since it doesn't give it away until the spring semester, she wants me to polish it some more between now and then. So, as that dude once wrote, once more unto that thing I really don't want to do all that much but kinda have to.

School has dominated my life in ugly, stupid ways. This blog's hiatus was only one of them. Because of both the nature of my thesis and the stress that it brought, I just about stopped reading comics altogether except for those I needed to review for my paper. My relationship with my girlfriend, my physical health, my finances, and my overall enjoyment of life has been in the toilet this last year of school. Now it's done, I'm glad it's over. After happily engaging in nothing but mindless bullshit for a few weeks, I am on the warpath to reclaim my life, starting with this blog.

I Was Out HOW LONG?

I'll have more to say later. It's been a while. For now...





YEAH!

IN! YOUR! FACE!

Poop-head.

Busy reading books about funnybooks

The lack of activity at Superheroes, etc. does not mean I've again given up blogging, but that I'm just really damn busy.

This is my senior year. Last year, I successfully applied to my school English Honors program specifically for the chance to write an undergraduate thesis while being closely advised by a professor. When I first heard of the program, I didn't consider it to be very valuable, particularly since I have no immediate ambitions for grad school. I haven't completely dismissed grad school as a possibility, but if I ever do apply, it will be at least a few years after I graduate, maybe even when I can make enough money that working towards a Master and/or Doctorate wouldn't dig me even deeper into debt.

The idea of writing a thesis itself is what eventually turned me on to the Honors program. As a writer, the idea of having a professor as a captive audience seemed too valuable to pass up, and - unless I ever go to grad school - it will be the only such opportunity I ever get.

I originally planned to write something very critical and very smart and probably very incoherent about superheroes, but when I was accepted into the program I learned that the department was offering a relatively new option: the creative thesis.

For about a year and a half, the creative thesis is what I've been waiting for. It made the "captive professor" opportunity that much more attractive. Unfortunately, the fact that the creative thesis option is relatively new made me a victim of a harsh wake-up call last week when I finally got to talk to my adviser about the project.

The problem with the creative thesis option, you see, is that no one seems to have any fucking clue what the fuck a creative thesis is. It involves creative writing, and it has a "critical component," and that's about as far as most professors go when you ask them about it. To my adviser, a creative thesis meant experimenting specifically with the form of the medium in which you're working. Me? I just wanted to write a story. I didn't want to experiment with the form. The story I wanted to write complicated things, because I wanted to write a prose novella about superheroes, which complicates questions of genre and medium. Plus, while my adviser is pretty much THE person to go to in the department about superheroes and graphic novels, but she's not a creative writer. Finally, I'm a transfer student, haven't had the chance to take many creative writing classes, so if I chose to switch advisers I wouldn't know who the hell to go to. I've had three creative writing classes since attending my current school. The instructor of the first two were adjuncts, and the adviser has to be a full professor. The instructor of the third would make a great adviser, but she's going on sabbatical in the Spring. And while I could always seek out other creative writng professors, considering the usual tastes of English academia, I don't think many would respond with "Oooo!!!! Superheroes! Pick me! Pick me!"

So, I switched to a critical thesis, about, yes, superheroes. The good news is that because of the nebulous "critical component" of the creative thesis, I'd already done a lot of research. The only thing I'm in a big rush to do right now is narrow in on my topic. Last night, I e-mailed my adviser with three brief, convoluted project ideas: The Hulk (I could expand, but I want to sleep), Superhero comics Post-9/11, and the superhero in relation to the Übermensch. Right now, I'm leaning towards Übermensch. Yesterday, I was leaning towards the Hulk. Before that, Post-9/11. Tomorrow, I'll probably be back to Hulk. After that, I may consider switching my major to Hotel Management.

I briefly considered discarding superheroes and doing something about Lone Wolf and Cub, but I've got a backlog of superhero research from other classes, as well as from the first month of this semester, so I'd rather utilize that than derail myself.

The fact that I e-mailed my adviser with those ideas is the only reason I'm giving myself this brief time to blog, because I've decided that until I hear back from her, I'm in a research holding pattern. I need to narrow my scope before I go any further. I have a 5-minute presentation due Tuesday about my progress, and I'd like to be able to say something other than "It's about superguys!" I don't want to read yet another article about "Superman as Christ" or "The Postmodern Narrative of Marvel Comics" until I have a better idea about whether or not it's relevant to my thesis.

So, yeah, that's why I haven't been blogging. It's ironic because on the face of things, I should be more relaxed than in previous semesters. I only have 3 classes. All three are one-day, three hour classes, and the two non-thesis-related courses are pretty low stress (in one, Digital Media Workshop, all we've done so far is learn things about html and photoshop that I've already learned by blogging). I just want to make things as easy for myself next semester (when I actually have to write the thesis) as I can. I've probably read more in the first month of this semester than the entirety of most semesters. I learned about the magic of Interlibrary Loan at the end of last term, and at this point I'm sure whoever is in charge of it at my school's library has a picture of me on their dartboard.

So yeah, that's why I haven't been blogging lately. Mick Busy. Until the thesis ends, blogging will be sporadic.

Though, I have been trying to keep up on my funnybook reading, and along those lines...

(SPOILER ALERT, though you probably know it already)

...MARK! Good job with Civil War #4. If there's one thing that's been bugging me lately, it's the throng of African American superheroes choking the respective cooperative universes of Marvel and DC. The fact that the guy was nothing but a distant memory from the 70's until Civil War promos were plastered all over the Net wasn't a big hint either. Thank God you did it before his updated costume and the wise choice of lopping the word "Black" off the front of his name threatened to make him yet another addition to the incalcuable horde of African American superheroes whose solo titles dominate the marketplace.

(Dude, seriously, I knew you needed to kill someone, but - and I say this as a diehard Defenders fan - couldn't you have killed Nighthawk instead? Kill a rich, white guy every once in a while. It'll make you feel good. It worked for the French.)

Cosmic Crisis (or, The Gods Must Hump Like Crazy)

Anyone who has the sometimes frustrating habit of surfing through Marvel fan message boards will be familiar with the debate – that has received more attention since the beginning of Infinite Crisis – of whether or not Marvel should have its own Crisis event to clean up continuity issues. I’ve never liked the idea, mainly because I didn’t like Crisis on Infinite Earths and consequently haven’t seen one panel of its recent sequel. I don’t know enough about DC continuity to figure out why anyone ever considered either to be necessary, and that’s part of the problem. I have difficulty figuring out the logic behind trying to rejuvenate a mythology – presumably in order to, among other things, draw in new readers – by publishing a massive storyline that only those with a relatively comprehensive knowledge of the history will be able to understand. Of course, the main reason I’d never want to see something like this with Marvel is because it would necessitate the kind of big, dumb crossover we just saw from DC.

As much as I disagree with the idea of a Marvel-wide Crisis, I can’t help but wonder if a specific section of the mythology couldn’t use a little Superboy-meets-wall treatment: namely, Marvel’s cosmic characters.

And that may seem like a stupid thing to say considering that Annihilation, perhaps Marvel’s biggest cosmic event since the days of Starlin’s various Infinity series (or, to be more precise, since the days that Starlin’s Infinity series had any impact on the rest of the MU) is already in full-swing. After reading all the Annihilation books published so far, however, it seems to me that the event is further proof that the problem exists rather than a solution to it.

I was expecting both more and less from Annihilation. By "less," I mean that I wasn’t expecting to enjoy it as much as I have. Annihilation: Nova is certainly the most impressive of the prequel books, and I would be either genuinely surprised or unsurprisingly disappointed if the event doesn’t lead to an ongoing monthly for the character (hopefully with the same creative team as Annihilation: Nova). As Joel Hunt says over at Sleep is for Suckers: "Yes, Nova is basically Peter Parker in the Green Lantern Corps…but damnit, that’s not a bad concept to hang a character on." Annihilation: Silver Surfer doesn’t seem that much different or more interesting than the character’s previous series, but Renato Arlem’s art more than makes up for it. Annihilation: Super-Skrull is fun though not particularly memorable, and Annihilation: Ronan is the worst of the bunch, managing – in only four issues – to be as confusing as any dense crossover from either of the Big Two. Utilizing the Seven Soldiers model served the Annihilation prequels well, giving this cosmic war the kind of grandness such a story deserves, whereas in previous eras something like this would probably have been breezed through in one or two issues of Silver Surfer or Fantastic Four.



But, by saying I was expecting more, I meant that I was expecting something appreciably different about the particular characters and Marvel’s cosmic canvas as a whole. I was expecting some kind of redefinition of the thing. On that front, Annihilation simply hasn’t delivered. The only significant difference I can see is that villains like Drax, Super-Skrull, and Ronan are being treated as protagonists; and heroes like Nova and Silver Surfer have become much darker and, specifically, much more willing to kill. We’re not exactly going where no comic book has dared to go before.

I started to tune into exactly what it was that bothered me about Marvel’s cosmic stories while reading Annihilation: Silver Surfer, as two new characters – Tenebrous and Aegis – were introduced. The two are old enemies of Galactus and are freed during the attack of the Annihilation Wave. After a bit of reflection, I realized that my issue with Marvel’s cosmic stories is the same problem the Christians had with the pagans.

TOO. MANY. FUCKING. GODS.

I’ve never followed the cosmic books as much as the kind of fans who can draw up charts to show how the Living Tribunal can bitch-slap Eternity or vice-versa. Still, ask me to name as many cosmic characters I can off the top of my head, and most of them will be the kind of Beyonder-level characters who seem to be able to do just about anything. It seems like there are more omnipotent-y characters in Marvel’s cosmos than just your average super-guys. The gods are legion in space, there’s too many to name, and no matter how indefinable and powerful they are, all of them seem to manifest their powers in the same way: as ‘splody laser beams shooting of their hands and/or eyes.

I think the relative lack of cosmic stories in recent years has made the problem worse. I imagine that when Silver Surfer was coming out every month, the writers knew they couldn’t just spit out a new uber-god each issue. Now, with the rarity of cosmic stories, it seems like the writers feel that they need to create a new I-can-eat-your-planet-and-fart-a-solar-system character in order to make the thing feel as BIG as possible. In fact, I can’t think of one post-2000 cosmic story that didn’t introduce such a character. There’s the aforementioned duo in Annihilation: Silver Surfer, Stormbreaker: The Saga of Beta Ray Bill had some uber space demon as well as some invisible god guys who resurrected Bill for no discernible reason, Infinity Abyss featured some freaky Thanos clones and one of them – if I remember correctly – was a mix between Thanos and Galactus, Entropy from the first story arc of Captain Marvel’s final volume, and then there was that Pharaoh dude from Marvel Universe: The End. Being all-powerful is as commonplace in Marvel’s cosmos as having superpowers is in Top Ten.

(SPOILER WARNING: I’m about to reveal a significant Annihilation plot point.)

And just like wearing a cape means less than nothing in Neopolis, being a god in Marvel’s cosmos doesn’t mean a damn thing, and the proof is in the stories. The first issue of Annihilation ends with what may be the death of Galactus. Probably not, but if he is in fact dead, who cares? How many times has he died at this point? Yeah, you could say the same thing about most Marvel characters, but most Marvel characters don’t eat fucking planets. The integrity of a character like Galactus depends on his NOT being killed every other time he shows up. Likewise, in spite of the rarity of cosmic stories these days, I can think of exactly two 21st century appearances of Eternity, and in both cases (Captain Marvel and the Giffen/DeMatteis Defenders mini) he was killed.

None of this is to say that Marvel’s cosmos shouldn’t have a rich pantheon of gods in sci-fi clothing. But it seems to me that the pantheon is overcrowded and, worse, the idea of a godlike character is being diminished by overuse. A while back I wrote a post about how the various Star Trek series ran into creative dead-ends and constantly fell back on time travel as a plot device. Marvel’s cosmic stories suffer from something similar. Just about every cosmic story has something to do with a new god rising and trying to kill an old god, and no matter who wins – since no one stays dead in comics – the result is too many fucking planet-eaters. Marvel’s cosmos should have its gods, but being a god should mean something.



This is why I think, while I’m loathe see it happen all across the MU, a Crisis-esque wiping of the cosmic characters might be just what the doctor ordered. Thin out the gods, re-establish some of them, and make them feel like gods in more than name. If not through some kind of reality-altering story, then just have some mean motherfucker slaughter all but a few (of course, a lot of characters are getting whacked in Annihilation, but mainly heroes and villains, not the the big guys). Using another Star Trek analogy, Q wouldn’t have been as beloved a character if he showed up in every episode, or if every other villain was just as powerful. Likewise, Marvel should use its space gods sparingly. And when the writers do bring in Galactus or Eternity or some other big god guy, it shouldn’t be just to slaughter them. If the focus came off the space gods, maybe it would give the "House of Ideas" more time to develop new heroes (or re-establish old ones) in order to give the cosmic fans an ongoing monthly or two rather than your occasional mini-series.

Smooth Criminal

No doubt spurred to action by the early death of Sleeper, Alan Doane has premiered A Criminal Blog, dedicated to the upcoming Marvel/Icon series Criminal.

Criminal re-unites the Sleeper team of Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips, and according to ADD's review of Criminal #1, it's about goddamned time.