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Bought/Thought 9/26

Plastic Man was enriched by becoming a damn good hero and having some personal issues with his son. Hey, look at that, development without butchering a character's personality or playing them for pure shock value. The implication that I should be happy he's doing anything with Slapstick because it saves him from obscurity is pretty ludicrous. I guess we should all be happy that Bendis is butchering Dr. Strange, too, 'cause who knows where Strange would be without him?

I know Slott took a while to resolve the whole Starfox thing, which is why I'm not really mad about Slapstick. I'm just disappointed that Slott felt the need to take a fun character in that direction at all when he's done so well just returning a lot of fun characters in their classic form to Marvel's current, often oppressively gloomy comics. He's practically built his name on it, in fact. This whole deal kind of struck me as a Millar-esque move, and frankly I thought Slott was above that level. I have a feeling Slapstick'll just get lost in the shuffle now, but I'm not judging any future possibilities. I'm hoping Slott will find some way to make the ending of A:TI meaningful and restore a bit of fun to Slapstick, but I'm not optimistic about it.
 
I don't know why I bother but can I offer you some cheese with that whine?

Am I the only person on this boards that still enjoys comic books? All I see is a bunch of cry babies bellyaching over how some nearly obscure character is getting butchered by a writer instead of applauding that writer for using that character at all.

If Slott and Bendis left Slapstick and Strange alone, know what you'd be crying? "Where's Slapstick and Strange? Why won't anyone do anything with them?" Because you %#@%^&@* cry every time someone attempts to do something with them that doesn't fit the exact mold for the character you have in your narrow little head.

And before you try and call me a hypocrite, understand that there's a difference between complaining something YOU pay money for that is meant to be entertaining, and complaining about some fanboys who should just shut up and stop buying what they don't enjoy.

I love every book I buy. If I don't enjoy a book, I don't buy or talk about it. Simple enough?

Flame away. I'm sure all you clever message board trolls have something witty to say.
 
95% of Purple Man's 1,763 posts are whining about whining.
 
Well, yeah, anyone with Slapstick's powers who's not an innocuous fool is going to be dangerous. He's functionally invincible and can create anything he wants out of thin air. I always wanted to see an evil Slapstick. But I didn't really want Slapstick himself to be evil, hence my objection to the recent A:TI issue.

I didnt see Slappy as evil...just a bit over-protective of his friends...and it's not like Gauntlet wasnt slamming the New Warriors every chance he got...he even began to use it as a "dirty word"....

Slapstick may be mentally unstable, but i dont think he's evil. Not yet, anyway.
 
All right, "evil" was a bit harsh. But it certainly wasn't good for him to jump Gauntlet and beat him almost to death from behind.
 
I'm hoping Slott will find some way to make the ending of A:TI meaningful and restore a bit of fun to Slapstick, but I'm not optimistic about it.

He was still his usual clowning self most of the issue.
 
I didnt see Slappy as evil...just a bit over-protective of his friends...and it's not like Gauntlet wasnt slamming the New Warriors every chance he got...he even began to use it as a "dirty word"....

Slapstick may be mentally unstable, but i dont think he's evil. Not yet, anyway.

Gotta agree with Cap on this one.....definately not evil....hell I consider myself a very nice guy...but continually bad mouth my family (not to mention family members who recently passed away) and at some point I'm quite likely to jam my boot up your ass...

.....for me Slappy's reaction was one of a kid who couldn't control his emotions,...and that's what he is, a kid...a fairly unbalanced kid.... far from evil and personally I 'm interested to see where Slott goes with this....
 
Gotta tell you, I don't give a s**t about the guy enough to care one way or the other.
 
How did I possibly miss Justice League at my shop? I'm really inattentive this week.

Countdown #31
A marked improvement over the last several weeks. It is still, but no means, a "good comic," nor it is even as good as it has the potential to be, but not really as stilted as we all know it could be.

What really helps is that someone finally remembered to bring a sense of humor. It's dumb, it's cliche, it's so juvenile of me, but I giggled like a ****** at Jason's crowbar remark and Serling's internet slang and A.N.U.S. It's the little touches that matter. Little touches like that which could have made such a difference before. Oh, sure, it wouldn't have helped with the plot, but it would have made reading the plot so much nicer. Trust me, the plot needs it. The decompression at this rate is flat-out fcking ricockulous. Someone on another board mentioned how the same exact status quo as was established at the end of this week as the one that was established fifteen weeks ago, and I just had to laugh/cry out loud at how freaking true that is.

And oh yeah, Mary Marvel killed someone this week with all the significance and care of someone ordering a sandwich.

(6.3 out of 10)


Annihilation: Star-Lord #3
Things move along in Annihilationworld. At this point I'm having a tiny bit of problem keeping up with the plot what with all the long words you have to read (what was the purpose of their original mission, again?), but the characterizations and narration are so strong that it barely matters. You get the basic idea of the story; you know when things are going right, when things are going wrong, and what the characters feel about it. I felt much the same away about the Ronan miniseries last year, and that turned out just fine. Plus, y'know, Groot.

The art is still...problematic. Well, mostly it's just problematic with Peter Quill -- still not looking anything remotely like what we remember him as -- but occasionally it's a problem with the other characters too. At some point everyone just looks bored. Not bored like, oh the artist can't convey any interesting expressions, but bored like the artist is making a conscious effort into drawing the characters looking bored. It's...odd.

There seems to be a lot left to wrap up by the end of next issue, and I'm curious as to how Giffen's going to accomplish it.

(7.9 out of 10)


52 Aftermath: The Four Horsemen #2
Giffen should get to write the Big Three much more often. I wouldn't say he has a perfect understanding of their dynamic, but his take on them is a very tactile, unique, interesting relationship. It may come across as a bit cold and clinical for some, but I would argue that this is them at their most straightforward and professional with each other in face of a potential crisis (small "C," thankfully). The best parts of this comic are, of course, the parts where the trio interact with each other. And the plot is certainly interesting enough to justify it. The Four Horsemen have readily established their badass Big Danger cred, and it shows here.

I still like Veronica Cale here. It gives me all kinds of boners that Giffen of all people obviously found the time to read through Rucka's Wonder Woman run, and read through it thoroughly. The bit about Cale always playing with her pearls is straight from issue 202, and even from Drew Johnson's sketch notes at the back of the Down to Earth trade. All kinds of boners.

As for that ending...whu? Snapper Carr...? Buh? What? Huh? Ooooh.

(8.3 out of 10)


Teen Titans #51
Ha! I so called it! I swear to Buffy I'm so awesome I don't even know what to do, I'm just that awesome. All this really shows is that everyone should always listen to me because I'll turn out to be right a year or two down the line.

As for the rest of the issue, it's quite good. Much better, of course, than the horrible mess we had on this title pre-McKeever. The narrative does suffer, unfortunately, from a bit of jumpy "Okay here's what we need to say to move the plot bunnies along aaaand GO. Go NOW." By the time Kara and Cassie were fighting Starro I was like...what? Starro? Why are they...wait...future...does what? Maybe I'm just a bit inattentive this week.

Future Miss Martian is hella cool, incidentally, and I hope we see more of her business. If she has no fear of fire, she is potentially as powerful as Fernus, which means she's potentially the single most powerful thing on the planet.

And I can't believe someone finally remembered that Wendy and Marvin still live at Titans Tower. Wow, it only took like ten or eleven issues. Props to McKeever for actually bothering to read prior issues, unlike some other replacement writers I could name.

(7.8 out of 10)


Blue Beetle #19
Giganta's really getting around these days.

It's hard to explain what exactly is so awesome about this comic to someone who doesn't read it. Every single character is likeable. Every single subplot is interesting. Every joke hits its mark.

Yet it's not all crazy slappy cracktastic fun. Rogers balances fresh humor with action adventure with genuine melodrama and character development. Events from past issues actually matter to this one. Personality quirks and the decisions these people make make matter to everyone else involved. These characters are literally growing up in front of our eyes. This section of the universe is fluid as opposed to static. Progression instead of just change. Changes happens everywhere in comics. Progression happens not nearly enough.

(9 out of 10)


Wonder Woman Annual
This book is full of the bad and full of the good. Bad parts first.

I seriously have no idea what the heck the point of the first seven whole pages was. As far as I can tell it's just a big ol' tongue kiss to every single Wonder Woman rogue ever. Except that it makes little to no sense from an actual Wonder Woman rogues perspective. Most of these characters are utterly Z-list, some of them have had a total of one appearance ever, and I think maybe at most half of them have even appeared in her stories post-Crisis. A lot of their motivations don't even make sense anymore with WW's present incarnation. The fact is that Wonder Woman's villains are just not strong enough or well-known enough or even interesting enough to support seven pages of them talking at her in generic villain talk...stilted, badly-written, awkward villain talk at that. "...Made us more powerful than ever/i]..." "...And promised us a world where we'll be the heroes." Bad enough that they're finishing each other's sentences, worse that the sentences are freaking laughable.

As for that full-page spread of all the heroes springing into action...I'm literally stunned at the lack of continuity here. Donna has a lasso for some damn reason, even though she's had no lasso for at least two decades now. Starfire is there, even though she shouldn't be at this point in time. Green Arrow is in his old costume. Red Tornado is there, despite the fact that he shouldn't be reassembled until after the new JLA is formed, which obviously happens after all of this. The list goes on. DC has no editors. They have no farking editors. I just can't even be bothered to care anymore. Oh yeah, and later someone spells "assaulted" wrong. Christ on a pogo, Heinberg.

So, the good part? Once we get all that nonsense taken care of and actually get back to the plot again, the story and writing inexplicably becomes good. Diana's character is powerful and consistent and sympathetic. Even when she's emo ("I'm not a person, I'm CLAY zomg teh existentializm!!!!1211" Didn't we get this squared away back in Eric Luke's run?), she manages to be emo with a lot of dignity and wisdom about it. Nemesis feels like a competent secret agent instead of a horndog played by Sean William Scott. Hell, even Circe comes across pretty well here, for once not being a massive psycho btch but actually having a helpful personality...good thing all that's gonna be robbed with she appears in Amazons Attack, eh?

People are gonna btch about the "big thing" here; namely, that Wonder Woman no longer has her powers when she turns into Diana Prince but only has her powers when she transforms into Wonder Woman. I can see why that would make people btch...I mean, did Heinberg just turn her completely into a Magical Girl here? But I don't...mind it...really. The primary reason why I don't...mind it...really...is that it fits with this story. It completely, flawlessly makes sense with Diana's story here, what she's been through in the past year, and where this would take her. "When I become Wonder Woman -- it's not because I have to. It's because I choose to. Because I want to." I do not mind status quo changes, even ones as significant as this, as long as they're true to the character and the overall ongoing journey.

...Look, out of all that shtty shts that DC has sh@t on her recently, this is probably the least possible shtty, okay? Besides, if it really doesn't work, then it's not as if it isn't the easiest thing in the world to undo.

And thus Heinberg's five-issue year-and-a-half run on Wonder Woman ends. In some ways, I really wish that we got to see what this would have been like if it had been on time and if he had bothered to continue writing it...because, as far as story goes, this really wasn't a bad Wonder Woman reintroduction at all. In other ways, I wish that DC had gone with a much stabler, more dependable writer for WW following IC, because if only this had been on time...if only the character had a solid direction right from the start and kept with it...maybe we wouldn't have had to deal with the waste of Picoult and the trash of Amazons Attack in the last few months. Simone has her work cut out for her to prevent a repeat of history.

(6.9 out of 10 for the issue)
(7.6 out of 10 for the entire run)


Uncle Sam and the Freedom Fighters #1
"No one knew or could have predicted that the Amazons would start a war, Sam." Yeah, meta-words to live by.

I'm not quite as enraptured with this as I was with the recent miniseries, which was ball-achingly awesome, but anyone who liked that series should check this out too, since it's obviously a really solid continuation of that arc and pretty damn good on its own, too. Red Bee's arc and new powers is nothing we haven't seen before in an insectoid hero, but her character and others' reaction to it is pretty interesting. Plus, she's like in a coccoon or something. Near the end, there seems to be some sort of team formed within the Freedom Fighters that bears some superficial resemblance to the Initiative, but the specific details are so frustratingly in this issue vague that I have no idea if it's supposed to be a good thing or not. Or I'm just really inattentive this week. Anyway, looking forward to the next ish.

(7.9 out of 10)

EDIT: Did I seriously just type "frustratingly in this issue vague"? Geez, that's like an omega-level fckup.
 
Plastic Man was enriched by becoming a damn good hero and having some personal issues with his son. Hey, look at that, development without butchering a character's personality or playing them for pure shock value. The implication that I should be happy he's doing anything with Slapstick because it saves him from obscurity is pretty ludicrous. I guess we should all be happy that Bendis is butchering Dr. Strange, too, 'cause who knows where Strange would be without him?

I know Slott took a while to resolve the whole Starfox thing, which is why I'm not really mad about Slapstick. I'm just disappointed that Slott felt the need to take a fun character in that direction at all when he's done so well just returning a lot of fun characters in their classic form to Marvel's current, often oppressively gloomy comics. He's practically built his name on it, in fact. This whole deal kind of struck me as a Millar-esque move, and frankly I thought Slott was above that level. I have a feeling Slapstick'll just get lost in the shuffle now, but I'm not judging any future possibilities. I'm hoping Slott will find some way to make the ending of A:TI meaningful and restore a bit of fun to Slapstick, but I'm not optimistic about it.

There is a difference between what Slott did with Slapstick and what Bendis does to characters in NA and you know it. Slapstick got on Gauntlet because he was literally sullying the names of his "dead friends", and had been for 5 issues worth of material, almost for every single drill. He uses it as a curseword. Steve snapped. Right now I will agree it was shock value, but it had a clear motive and reason. It wasn't like Iron Man and Capt. America acting like they'd hated each other since Avengers #3 or #4.

That isn't the same as Bendis having Dr. Strange be able to teleport the team across the planet one page and unable to save them from a falling airplane the next, or being able to use a spell to hide from the Mighty Avengers yet being helpless against a plucky ninja with a katanna.

You also have to understand that the cruel reality in Marvel is that "funny" characters get stuck in a rut, like the GLA. I mean, they're hilarious, but you'll never see any of them get any serious character development, because they are too useful at being punchlines. I acknowledge that as Slott has literally made fun of this factoid and on relying on darkness to grant attention to characters (like Speedball), the action could border on hypocrisy (Bendis, for his part, has never written comics lampooning other writers for fudging power levels, or randomly killing characters, or turning longtime stable heroines into plot-convient PMS ****es). But I think the cold reality is that Slott was betting on most of his audience feeling somewhat entertained by Gauntlet getting his come-uppance, much as everyone friggin' LOVED seeing Thor beat the living crap out of Iron Man in THOR #3, and I'd wager he was correct.

As for past instances of darkness, and this is admittedly stretching, Steve Harmon DID once transform into Slapstick and tried to scare some kids at a mall birthday party by telling them he was an alien out to drink their blood, because they'd been annoying him, in SLAPSTICK #2. He also had a habit of sucker-malleting enemies after some bizarre move, such as kissing the Overkiller and offering "a cuppa coffee" to the Neutron Bum.

In any case, we will have to see where it goes.

I didnt see Slappy as evil...just a bit over-protective of his friends...and it's not like Gauntlet wasnt slamming the New Warriors every chance he got...he even began to use it as a "dirty word"....

Slapstick may be mentally unstable, but i dont think he's evil. Not yet, anyway.

I agree with this take. He snapped emotionally. That isn't the same as being evil. The devil will be in the details and consequences.

All right, "evil" was a bit harsh. But it certainly wasn't good for him to jump Gauntlet and beat him almost to death from behind.

It also wasn't good for Gauntlet to curse the NW name on a daily basis with their former friends and allies on his team. And he knew that. He did it to break them down, get under their skin, because part of being sarge is being an emotional bully. And sometimes that causes people to lash out.

I keep coming back to FULL METAL JACKET because it is vaguely simular. Again, has anyone, ever, in the full history of that movie EVER felt genuinely sorry for Sarge when Pile blows him away? I really, really doubt it. We see Pile as insane, but we don't see Sarge as some innocent cherub.

He was still his usual clowning self most of the issue.

True. Although I will note that perhaps the fact that hours afterward, Slapstick has no remourse and literally chuckles about it could be a bit much, depending on how later issues go with it.

Gotta agree with Cap on this one.....definately not evil....hell I consider myself a very nice guy...but continually bad mouth my family (not to mention family members who recently passed away) and at some point I'm quite likely to jam my boot up your ass...

.....for me Slappy's reaction was one of a kid who couldn't control his emotions,...and that's what he is, a kid...a fairly unbalanced kid.... far from evil and personally I 'm interested to see where Slott goes with this....

I agree with this sentiment, too. I've seen superheroes fight each other for far sillier reasons than Slapstick had for suckering Gauntlet. Remember, just because WE know Gauntlet is not an evil man, but is a man with a wife and kids who sees his abuse as the tool to "toughen up" the cadets into confident heroes, doesn't mean Slapstick knows it. All he knows is Gauntlet was a man who took the memory of his "dead friends" and used it against them, day after day, as a curseword.

I think most of us would eventually snap given those conditions, and we probably wouldn't even feel broken up about it, either. Least right away. But, again, we'll see what goes of it. Admittedly Slott does border on hypocrisy here, but on the other hand, he knows how to play the system. A:TI is also a darker toned book, and Slott never promised us otherwise (all along he compared it to ARKHAM ASYLUM).
 
Plastic Man was enriched by becoming a damn good hero and having some personal issues with his son. Hey, look at that, development without butchering a character's personality or playing them for pure shock value.
Ohhh...you probably don't want to read Countdown to Mystery.
 
Yeah, I'm not too thrilled about that, either. I really hope they retcon Eclipso into having some kind of magical mind-control abilities at some point, because the way she can manipulate anyone into doing anything is pretty ridiculous without them.
It also wasn't good for Gauntlet to curse the NW name on a daily basis with their former friends and allies on his team. And he knew that. He did it to break them down, get under their skin, because part of being sarge is being an emotional bully. And sometimes that causes people to lash out.

I keep coming back to FULL METAL JACKET because it is vaguely simular. Again, has anyone, ever, in the full history of that movie EVER felt genuinely sorry for Sarge when Pile blows him away? I really, really doubt it. We see Pile as insane, but we don't see Sarge as some innocent cherub.
Funny, I don't remember ever calling Gauntlet an "innocent cherub." I understand that the story given to us is a perfectly fine justification for your average person to potentially snap and want to kill someone like Gauntlet. I've seen Full Metal Jacket too, and you're right, I didn't feel too bad for the drill sergeant. I get what Slott is doing. I just don't care for it in Slapstick's case. I'm disappointed that a once-fun character has been turned into one capable of violently assaulting an innocent human being. Gauntlet could be the world's biggest jerk (and may very well be), but he's still not guilty of anything that merits being beaten to within an inch of his life, especially not by a superhero. It's no secret that I'm not a fan of the eroding morals a lot of superheroes display in modern comics. This is just another instance of that. The things that really gall me are that it involves Slapstick, a dumb, fun character that I liked a lot as a kid, and that it comes from Slott, who's usually been a champion of the fun, innocuous goofballs of bygone eras, like Damage Control, Squirrel Girl, and the GLA.

But, like I've said over and over, I'm waiting for some kind of outcome or follow-up to come out of it before I really judge anything. The incident has so far just left me feeling a little more uneasy about Slott's A:TI than I had been before. I'm not calling for him to be burned at the stake or anything.
 
How did I possibly miss Justice League at my shop? I'm really inattentive this week.

Pull lists are you friend.

But then they're your enemy if you wanna pick up a new book but forget to tell them to pull it for you. Like Immortal Iron Fist #9/Annual that I missed last week cause I was in a hurry and just paid for my subs list.
 
BrianWilly doesn't use pull lists because BrianWilly doesn't buy comics.
 
Pull lists are you friend.

But then they're your enemy if you wanna pick up a new book but forget to tell them to pull it for you. Like Immortal Iron Fist #9/Annual that I missed last week cause I was in a hurry and just paid for my subs list.
My shop'll let me put whatever I grab off the racks into my pull list folder for them to hold onto until next week if I forget stuff. Maybe yours'll do the same.
 
95% of Purple Man's 1,763 posts are whining about whining.

It's far more productive than simply whining.

Seriously the person who thought of "you're just whining about whining" as a rebuttal should have been drowned at birth, then hit with a shovel just in case. It stops a potentially positive discussion dead in it's tracks and lets people who post lazy bashes and critiques feel oh-so-witty whilst at the same time allowing them to side step any analysis of their own behaviour or criticisms.



(I await the post that observes I'm whining about whining over whining).
 
I don't use pull lists 'cause I like having the freedom of being a rampant ****. Or, rather, I like having the freedom to not buy any comic I want at any point. 'Cause, frankly, a lot of comics I do buy have the potential to all of a sudden start sucking out of the blue. Thanks, DC!

Usually, any comic that I forget to pick up at the store I'll just..."obtain"...in "another way" when I "get" "home."
 
Immortal Iron Fist #9 - This was just another great issue by Brubaker, Fraction and Aja. I mean how, so many things were shown and revealed, I loved reading every page of this book. The flashbacks being told about Wendell are great. I really like what's happening with Danny and what he gains from the "Book of the Iron Fist." We're seeing Danny growing in strength, powers and awareness as he described. I can't wait to see him use more fighting techniques. The blue eyed assassin that Danny fought with is such a great character and who she was i'll get back to in a minute....

For the first fight of the tournament, we see Danny going up against Fat Cobra. This fight was just amazingly done by Aja, and it was so cool to see the fighting techniques that Danny and Fat Cobra displayed. The K'un Lun aspect of the city even being able to have windows leading into different parts of the earth was so cool. Danny and Fat Cobra even fought in the streets of Hong Kong! Anyway, I didn't expect Danny to lose to Fat Cobra but it seems it has to be a double elimination, so Danny is still in the tournament.

Back to Danny and his somewhat dojo, he heals himself after the fight, and the blue eyed assassin returns to talk to Danny. She takes him underground as she has something very special to show him. They go underground and she reveals a machine that can take Danny to earth and also go back to K'un Lun. Very, very cool is all I have to say. Before going the assassin reveals who she is and she's none other that Orson Randall's daughter! That was just awesome. She tells Danny that a man named Ernest has secrets about Orson that can help Danny for the tournament so Danny enters the machine and he's back on Earth ground. As Danny starts walking in the mountain range, he spots Luke Cage, Misty Knight and Collen Wing! Danny silently walks past them and makes his way to the man called Ernest.

#9 was a great issue and I loved the reveals and action. The cameo from the Heroes for Hire gang was great and I can't wait to see them more involved in the arc. Big props to Brubaker and Fraction, they continue to deliver a great story and Aja's art is just wonderful and well done.

9/10

Immortal Iron Fist Annual - #9 leads right into this Annual and it was a great read. It answered alot of things about Orson and told a great story about his life as an Iron Fist. Some part of me wishes Orson was still alive but o well, he'll be remembered.

All I have to say is I loved the Annual, and Brubaker and Fraction once again amaze. The art by Brereton and Djurdjevic was just gorgeous. I really love the in put Brubaker and Fraction are putting in to the Iron Fist mythos, I can't wait for more.

9/10

It was really great to have two issues of Iron Fist this month, and I really recommend these issues to any comic book reader!
 
My shop'll let me put whatever I grab off the racks into my pull list folder for them to hold onto until next week if I forget stuff. Maybe yours'll do the same.

Probably. They asked me back when I started picking up X-Factor if I wanted to add it to the pulls list after about three issues, which was cool.

They also special ordered Hatter M for me last week when I asked if they had any, which was awesome!
 
It's far more productive than simply whining.

Seriously the person who thought of "you're just whining about whining" as a rebuttal should have been drowned at birth, then hit with a shovel just in case. It stops a potentially positive discussion dead in it's tracks and lets people who post lazy bashes and critiques feel oh-so-witty whilst at the same time allowing them to side step any analysis of their own behaviour or criticisms.



(I await the post that observes I'm whining about whining over whining).

No, it really isn't, at all.

And I wasn't using it as a rebuttal, it was a statement of fact. I've grown to appreciate Purple Man's whining about whining posts as a fact of life by now.

And I also fail to see how someone whining about whining would lead to "positive discussion" when it in fact 99.99% of the time does the exact opposite.
 
Funny, I don't remember ever calling Gauntlet an "innocent cherub." I understand that the story given to us is a perfectly fine justification for your average person to potentially snap and want to kill someone like Gauntlet. I've seen Full Metal Jacket too, and you're right, I didn't feel too bad for the drill sergeant. I get what Slott is doing. I just don't care for it in Slapstick's case. I'm disappointed that a once-fun character has been turned into one capable of violently assaulting an innocent human being. Gauntlet could be the world's biggest jerk (and may very well be), but he's still not guilty of anything that merits being beaten to within an inch of his life, especially not by a superhero. It's no secret that I'm not a fan of the eroding morals a lot of superheroes display in modern comics. This is just another instance of that. The things that really gall me are that it involves Slapstick, a dumb, fun character that I liked a lot as a kid, and that it comes from Slott, who's usually been a champion of the fun, innocuous goofballs of bygone eras, like Damage Control, Squirrel Girl, and the GLA.

But, like I've said over and over, I'm waiting for some kind of outcome or follow-up to come out of it before I really judge anything. The incident has so far just left me feeling a little more uneasy about Slott's A:TI than I had been before. I'm not calling for him to be burned at the stake or anything.

I know about your stance on the eroding of comic book morals; I believe we had a chat the last time Danny & Orson (along with Luke Cage & the Daughters of the Dragon) wasted dozens of HYDRA terrorist goons. It is part of the medium of the 21st century and it is here to stay, and likely not leaving. I'd argue part of the reason it lasted so long was the Comics Code of authority had some sort of meaning until the end of the 90's. I see your point on it, especially having started reading comics in the 80's when it seemed most heroes who weren't Wolverine, Ghost Rider or the Punisher would have sacrificed themselves to save any underlings sometimes.

And you have a fair point, which I also mentioned before, that Slott lampooned this sort of action being done by other writers to other goofy characters, as recently as this summer with the GLC/DEADPOOL special, so this bit could border on hypocrisy.

But from my point-of-view, what keeps many people from enjoying "goofy characters" is that after a while they almost seem too one-note. That isn't to say every character needs to prattle off 22 pages of lonely introspective, but people tend to vary in moods. I'm sure even Plastic Man at his best had moments of anger, or sadness, or whatnot. But many times jokey characters lack this, and so they just seem like punchlines, no matter what threat they face or how high the stakes. Even Spider-Man, the one time KING of snappy banter in heroics, knows when to get serious, or has snapped in anger, or stress. Because someone who lacks any sort of shift given the circumstances becomes wooden.

Deep down I believe Slott knows what he is doing and as you say, has some sort of plan. He brings up everything given time, and usually less time than Bendis or some other writers. This bit with Slapstick will not be forgotten, just as the fact that Rage was an Avenger before Justice or that Justice killed his abusive father and went to jail over it wasn't forgotten. And because of my own personal theories on characters, the fact that Slapstick of all people had a breaking point, had a line in the sand that caused him to a fit of near psychotic anger, for now at least makes him more well rounded and less of a punchline, less of a character who exists to say something funny and then fade away into the background.

The key term is "for now". If this opens doors for Slapstick, it could work. But if Slott just decided to make Slapstick don black leather and become a Joker-esque murdering clown, THEN it would totally suck. But sometimes a severe twist on defined characterization can improve a character. Before Hal Jordon's sins were negated from existance, his psychotic break actually made him overall more interesting to me. But, then again, IMO.

It is, admittedly, another case of a comic stiffing up suspence because of heroes hurting other heroes, rather than amping up a genuine villain.
 
I know about your stance on the eroding of comic book morals; I believe we had a chat the last time Danny & Orson (along with Luke Cage & the Daughters of the Dragon) wasted dozens of HYDRA terrorist goons. It is part of the medium of the 21st century and it is here to stay, and likely not leaving. I'd argue part of the reason it lasted so long was the Comics Code of authority had some sort of meaning until the end of the 90's. I see your point on it, especially having started reading comics in the 80's when it seemed most heroes who weren't Wolverine, Ghost Rider or the Punisher would have sacrificed themselves to save any underlings sometimes.

And you have a fair point, which I also mentioned before, that Slott lampooned this sort of action being done by other writers to other goofy characters, as recently as this summer with the GLC/DEADPOOL special, so this bit could border on hypocrisy.

But from my point-of-view, what keeps many people from enjoying "goofy characters" is that after a while they almost seem too one-note. That isn't to say every character needs to prattle off 22 pages of lonely introspective, but people tend to vary in moods. I'm sure even Plastic Man at his best had moments of anger, or sadness, or whatnot. But many times jokey characters lack this, and so they just seem like punchlines, no matter what threat they face or how high the stakes. Even Spider-Man, the one time KING of snappy banter in heroics, knows when to get serious, or has snapped in anger, or stress. Because someone who lacks any sort of shift given the circumstances becomes wooden.

Deep down I believe Slott knows what he is doing and as you say, has some sort of plan. He brings up everything given time, and usually less time than Bendis or some other writers. This bit with Slapstick will not be forgotten, just as the fact that Rage was an Avenger before Justice or that Justice killed his abusive father and went to jail over it wasn't forgotten. And because of my own personal theories on characters, the fact that Slapstick of all people had a breaking point, had a line in the sand that caused him to a fit of near psychotic anger, for now at least makes him more well rounded and less of a punchline, less of a character who exists to say something funny and then fade away into the background.

Totally agree, I really appreiate the fact Slott made it a point to recognize that Rage was an Avenger.

The key term is "for now". If this opens doors for Slapstick, it could work. But if Slott just decided to make Slapstick don black leather and become a Joker-esque murdering clown, THEN it would totally suck. But sometimes a severe twist on defined characterization can improve a character. Before Hal Jordon's sins were negated from existance, his psychotic break actually made him overall more interesting to me. But, then again, IMO.

Slott added a darker layer to Slapstick, without totally raping the character unlike Paul Jenkins.

It is, admittedly, another case of a comic stiffing up suspence because of heroes hurting other heroes, rather than amping up a genuine villain.

Slapstick is gonna be a better character with Slott's guidance.
 
Slapstick is gonna be a better character with Slott's guidance.

That is what I am hoping for.

People act "out of character" all the time in real life, especially when given motives like emotional stress. The question is whether a writer is able to handle this competantly, or botch it.

Mentioning Jenkins and Emoball is a prime example of how to completely and fundamentally botch it on every level imaginable.
 
I think Slott should be EIC when Joey Fatts retire from the position, it trips me out how some are calling Slott a hypocrite for taking the dark route with Slapstick. Just look at Slott's handling of Slapstick versus Jenkins, its clear Dan knows these characters and is simply a better writer. Jenkins' hackneyed back-up stories in CW/WWH Frontline is just painful to read.
 

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