Tuesday, May 30, 2006

slacker

Sorry guys, no real post today. I'm not feeling well and I just can't get the "PC is killing comics" post right because of it. I've got at least half of it down and will finish it tomorrow, but I do apologize for the delay. I just refuse to post something like that only doing a half-assed job.

I did notice something funny and disturbing today though. While reading through the Dark Phoenix Saga (reminding myself of all they missed out on in the recent movie) I found something I had missed all these years. In issue #129 of Uncanny X-Men (I think, they don't actually tell you the issue numbers in the old graphic novels - it's the 1st appearance of Kitty Pryde if that helps) the X-Men take Kitty out to a malt shop while the Prof. talks with her parents. There's a side panel where Wolverine is looking at a magazine with Colossus peering over his shoulder. A few panels later they focus in on the two and you see that Wolverine is flipping through an issue of Penthouse!

At first I was stunned. As an adult (and as a teenager too, I suppose) I realized that many people enjoy looking at "dirty" magazines (and it really doesn't bother me) but it had never occured to me that Wolverine would do it! In a malt shop! With Colossus! I'd scan the picture if I could but I have no scanner so you'll just have to look it up :) I think I shattered a childhood perception today...

At least Colossus has the decency to look suprised at what Wolvie is flipping through. I guess after all the Mariko stuff later on I kind of though of Wolvie as being above looking at pictures of naked women. He always seemed kind of honorable back in the "good 'ole days". Now I have discover the were no good days :( Gee, I'm glad I never picked up on that when my Dad read us this book when we were kids. *sigh* Oh well, I'm sure I'll recover - at least I haven't found evidence of Superman reading Playboy.

6 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Hope you feel better Cshiana! I can back you up on the Wolvie looking at Penthouse. Remember it well. The point was that Wolvie was a man's man and Colossus was a naive, easily embarassed boy who hadn't seen a noodie mag before.
So I read the full NYTimes article about Didio's diversity agenda and it made me sad. You know why comics never had an openly gay character before? Cuz long ago, once upon a time kids actually read comics. We as a society didn't want to expose our children, some as young as 5 or 6, to sex of any kind, trying to protect their innocence. Now it feels like we're in an era where the far-left liberals who have some sort of political agenda have taken over comics. Tell me this, at the end of the day, if Giffen's new Blue Beetle book is cancelled(no Giffen book has lasted more than 12 issues over the past 6 years)in under a year, what will have been the point of killing a much loved character like Ted Kord solely to replace him with a hispanic character that no one glommed onto, liked or will remember? You can't tell any more fun, humorous Blue Beetle stories without undoing his death. And what about poor Ra's Al Ghul? He is one of the best villains ever and he was killed in order to make room for Nyssa, his arabian daughter that no one ever heard of before. Has Nyssa become popular? No. Does anyone care if she's killed? Doubtful. But Ra's was a white male so he had to go. And what about the actions of Greg Rucka? He single-handedly got rid of every white male police officer in the GCPD and replaced them with minorities. Well loved characters like Gordon and Bullock were out merely to meet some new PC quota. Gordon was replaced by a personality-less african american whose name I cannot even recall. What was the point of that? If you want to diversify, make new, strong characters who have more going for them than the color of their skin or their sexual orientation. Make compelling characters and readers will fall in love with them regardless of race, color or creed.
Take care of yourself Cshiana! The Top 10 books have been shipped and should get to you soon. Oh, and what's worse, seeing the cover of a magazine that says Penthouse or seeing Montoya and her lesbian girlfriend practically naked in bed together? For an adult it's fine, but would you really want your child to see this?

Tuesday, May 30, 2006  
Blogger Gwen said...

Jeff

omg, can't you wait until I actually write the post, haha. I'll try to address the issues you brought up inthe actual post so I'm not going to respond to them here - then my post will be moot and I'll have to trash it =/

I don't care what they were trying to imply - I still don't like it. I just reread some of the earlier x-men stuff with Wolverine and even though he was always gruff he still seemed like this noble samurai type guy at heart. So I'm still having a hard time resolving him being into sleazy magazines. Maybe I'm just a prude, but oh well. As for Montoya's naked escapades, well, I wouldn't expect that out of a book published in 1984. Muchless one of the "heroes" reading Penthouse. *sigh*

Too much more of this train of thought and I'll be calling little kids whippersnappers and reminiscing about $1 comics.

Tuesday, May 30, 2006  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Yeah, I feel like an old crank saying things like, "I remember the good old days of comics". And it was only a mere 10 years ago that I thought comics were in a golden era. Ah well....looking forward to your post and really hoping that your health improves.

Tuesday, May 30, 2006  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Jeff - you are getting close to being an old crank.

But, really comics where getting more adult in the eighties and the ninties, but only in that the writing got more sophisticated. It really has only been in the last five years where it has gone off the charts. The whole body mutilation is way over the top and is just marginalizing comics even more.

Mouse Guard #3 is due out Wednesday - hopefully no mice will be ripped in half by Black Adam or Ultimate Hulk.

Tuesday, May 30, 2006  
Blogger Arielle said...

Heh - Superman reading Playboy. That would be disturbing - and yet somehow hilarious. =D

I sympathize with you on the Wolverine thing, though. No one likes to have their heroes tarnished, least of all their childhood heroes!

Tuesday, May 30, 2006  
Blogger Arielle said...

Oh yes, I hope you start feeling better soon!

Tuesday, May 30, 2006  

Post a Comment

<< Home