rant
Okay, I'm seriously getting tired of this Civil War stuff. It was bad enough to have Spiderman come out of the closet (or whatever) but seriously - why is he Tony Stark's do-boy? Also, Ive noticed that all the "heroes" are in an incredibly crappy situation for no damn reason. I mean, c'mon, wtf? Why would they try to take out their "friends" so ruthlessly? It soesn't make sense for them to turn against their own so quickly. It's like they've all been replaced by characters I've never seen before (except maybe Captain America... he's closer to character than Iron Man - but I've always hated Iron Man so I may be biased). And then, there's Thor. I thought Thor was supposed to be a God... what's he doing mixed up in all this? Don't tell me they made a NORSE GOD register!!! How does that make any sense whatsoever?Another thing... I used to love Steve McNiven's art. His work on Meridian was an inspiration for a lot of the design ideas that I contributed to Legacy and his art was radiant and almost ethreal when he drew Sephie and her world. Now it seems so... flat. Grainy and flat. Every once in awhile I catch a glimmer of his previous talent (like one of the drawings of Emma Frost) but there's little to no spirit in his work on Civil War. It may be partially due to the colorist (who's work also reallllly bothers me) but I think anyone who picks up a copy of Meridian can see the drastic change. Then again alot of people are raving about his work... but alot of people disliked the revamp of Batman and Superman (something about it being uncreative and "boring") so I guess I'll just keep on disregarding most of the reviews I read.
Then, there's Batwoman. Ugh. What the HELL is a rich, pedicured and pampered socialite doing running around fighting crime in Gotham?? Were her parents murdered before her eyes inspiring her to spend a lifetime training to aquire the skills she would need to do battle with the evil men of Gotham? No. Was she a young genius daughter of a police comissioner inspired to push herself to her physical and mental limits by training and studying day and night for many years by Batman's crusade? No. As far as I can tell she's Paris Hilton with a closeted attraction to women. Is it just me or does this make no sense? 52 makes me sad...
On the upside I enjoyed JLA... it did of course serve to point out how severely messed up DC continuity has been over the years but I thought it was kind of sweet.
Oh, and we went and saw Superman Returns again - I still really enjoyed it :)
posted by Gwen at 12:44 AM
8 Comments:
Welcome to the new age of comics. Hype rules over story. The publishers are using short term, controversial stories to sell comics and get butts in the shops. The tales aren't very good nor original. The characters aren't speaking with their true voices. Characters die only to be brought back to life a couple of months later. New characters like Batwoman come in riding a huge wave of hype and deliver no punch at all when they hit the printed page. What is there to like about this new Batwoman? People have told me that we haven't seen enough of her to make a judgment, but there is just no spark to this character at all.
Luckily, most events have no legs at all. Identity Disc, Secret War, Decimation, 198, and House of M. What permanent mark did any of these leave in the Marvel U's landscape? How about Identity Crisis? What have been the long term ramifications of that story? Tim lost his dad but seems fine now, like it never happened. All that hoop-la with Boomerang's son went absolutely nowhere. Whatever happened with the villains running around knowing the heroes' identities? Simply forgotten. Yup, some 2 years later and it's like ID Crisis never happened, just like Morrison's run on X-men. This is the new cycle we're in.
Civil War itself is an interesting idea and elements have been done well in many other stories. This could have also been done well, but I think it was rushed and I agree that almost all the characters were given roles to play, whether it fit their personaility or not. Marvel seemed determined to tell a story and cast there heroes in roles regardless of whether it was in character or not.
I also agree that McNiven's art, while strong, is clearly lacking soemthing. I'm not sure what happened to it, but it doesn't wow me like it used to do.
Batwoman is too early to judge. I agree she needs some motivation, but remember Montoya hasn't seen her in ten years, so that is a lot of time to get ready to be a super hero. As she sits right now she is very two dimensional.
If you want a really cool female super-hero(villain/goddess) check out this week's 52, best issue to date and Isis really looks like she will rock.
Okay Jim, so here's where your argument, as well as many other's, falls apart. You say that it's too early to judge Batwoman, but then say how great the new Isis is. Well who got more pages so far? I believe Batwoman has been in more pages than this new Isis. So why do we both love the new Isis and feel nothing for the new Batwoman? Characters either have that spark or they don't. Batwoman is a flop and Isis is great. Not too early to judge what is the lamest addition to the bat-family in a long time.
I have to admit that I'm glad that although I read alot of comics I am not wrapped up in all the big Marvel and DC crossovers and 'events'. Saves on my pocketbook and inevitably the consensus opinion seems to be that they aren't all that great.
Jeff - Good point, but all I'm saying is that with the right writer Batwoman has a chance to make it as a decent character (of course I have read that Devin Grayson will be the writer on the series - a guess a mini - based on DC's track record). BUT - that certain spark is needed to really light up interest and Isis has IT in spades.
I understand that we haven't seen much of Batwoman to say we know all about her - but first impressions matter. Am I the only one who cringed at Montoya's narration? "That's not Batgirl. That's... that's a... that's a BatWOMAN." As things stand she's a two-dimensional character - and when you try and make a new character based off of the Bat-universe, well it's been done before, so damn it, I expect something new.
What would be the motivation for Kate Kane to become Batwoman? Death of a loved one? Been done. Bored socialite looking for some action?? Done and done. Broken hearted lesbian looking to win back the heart of a certain alcoholic, hispanic lesbian detective by donning a cape and cowl and fighting anthropomorphic villains?? That's a new twist. But I think it has more to do with Batman's absence. Guess we'll soon see.
I'm trying to pretend "Civil War" doesn't exist.
It think it just kind of misses the point. Of course, I say that about a lot of the comics done today.
- Pat
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