Countdown Boycott

[Tropico]

Is there a term like misogyny for gay people? If not, I bet Vic Von Doom will come up with one.

 

[PhotoJones]

Uh...homophobia?

 

[Vic Von Doom]

Wow...didn't realize getting on my soapbox would inspire this kind of reaction.

I don't actually care if they kill Pied Piper. And as hard as it will be for you guys to believe this, I am not PC in the least bit. I've been known to make a lot of jokes that have made people gasp and whatnot. I have made gay jokes myself.

It just seems excessive to me. 14 times in 18 issues they have to remind us that Piper is gay and Trickster is homophobic? I get it, already!

Does it really not bother ANYBODY else? I guess I'll shut up about it and whoever can lock this thread and it can fade away to obscurity if it doesn't, but I have to think I'm not the only one who is just sick of the gay jokes already.

As if sloppy storytelling, horrible continuity, and dangling plot threads that are resolved in other books weren't enough, it's just my opinion that resorting to constant gay jokes in one of the main plotlines is hackneyed and, yes, becoming offensive. But again, like I said, if nobody else feels that way then I'll shut up about it.

 

[TheCorpulent1]

I didn't really notice it. As someone else pointed out, he was surrounded by villains the whole issue. Villains are kind of the type of people you'd expect to make a lot of jokes about someone just for being gay.

 

[SouLeSS]

Yeah, last issue I kinda raised an eyebrow and was like "huh, thats like the second time they said something like that in the issue. Whatever."

Other than that, I didn't even really notice it, or remember it for more than that single panel.

 

[Doc Destruction]

What tribe?

The uh....Indians?

 

[SouLeSS]

Indians you say. Thought they liked being called Native Americans now.

 

[Vic Von Doom]

Yeah, last issue I kinda raised an eyebrow and was like "huh, thats like the second time they said something like that in the issue. Whatever."

Other than that, I didn't even really notice it, or remember it for more than that single panel.

It was five times. And it wasn't until then that it occurred to me that I had seen it before, and that's when I went back and found nine more.

Again, I'm no prude or PC Cop, but 14 times in 72 pages is a bit much. I get it. Piper is gay and Trickster is uncomfortable with it. Maybe their plot could actually be advanced instead of having the writers work in new ways to joke about Piper's homosexuality....

 

[TheCorpulent1]

Indians you say. Thought they liked being called Native Americans now.

They don't care, really. It's the self-conscious, PC types who call them that. Just like black people call themselves black but those same PC types call them "African-American" and the PC types call gay people "Homosexual Americans."

 

[SouLeSS]

I just call them worthless.

Hah.

 

[SouLeSS]

It was five times. And it wasn't until then that it occurred to me that I had seen it before, and that's when I went back and found nine more.

Again, I'm no prude or PC Cop, but 14 times in 72 pages is a bit much. I get it. Piper is gay and Trickster is uncomfortable with it. Maybe their plot could actually be advanced instead of having the writers work in new ways to joke about Piper's homosexuality....

Yeah, their story really hasn't progress at all has it? I mean, it's not like they were originally on the run, got mixed up with deathstroke and psn ivy, captured and jumped out a plane, went to penguin for safehousing, had huntress/question attack them, got attacked by the flash, ported by zantana, so on and so forth. Nope, it's just been 72 pages of gay jokes and uncomfortable awkwardness cause trickerster is uncomfortable about it.

 

[BrianWilly]

Yeah, their story really hasn't progress at all has it? I mean, it's not like they were originally on the run, got mixed up with deathstroke and psn ivy, captured and jumped out a plane, went to penguin for safehousing, had huntress/question attack them, got attacked by the flash, ported by zantana, so on and so forth. Nope, it's just been 72 pages of gay jokes and uncomfortable awkwardness cause trickerster is uncomfortable about it.

And what was the point of all these events? Absolutely nothing. No progress whatsoever in either story or character.

Ten issues ago they were handcuffed together and on the run. Now, they're still handcuffed together and on the run.

You can state the same exact situation for every single Countdown story so far. Jimmy Olsen! Fifteen issues ago he was confused about his powers and looking for people to help him figure it out. Now, he's still confused about his powers and looking for people to help him figure it out.

I think this review put it best:

A few weeks ago, he let Steel strap him into a machine, which told us what we already knew – Jimmy Olsen has crazy powers! It also explicitly indicated that they were Fourth World related, which everyone in the real world already knew, and which everyone in the DCU apparently chose to politely ignore, pretending they’d never seen a Motherbox or Source Wall before. Now, a few weeks later, it’s Project Cadmus’s turn to strap Jimmy into a machine – and the verdict is that
he’s got some crazy powers!

...

Well, there you go! 21 issues in, a full 40% of the story of Countdown has been told! And where are we?

# Jimmy Olsen’s got some weird powers he doesn’t understand!
# The Monitors are displeased with people who jump between worlds, and want to kill them!
# Bob the Monitor wants to find Ray Palmer to avert a Great Disaster!
# Mary Marvel is being seduced by Eclipso!
# That mean ol’ Darkseid is planning… SOMETHING.

Close readers may recognize these plot points as things we all knew by the time the first issue of Countdown was finished.

Look, people, it's not even a good running gag anymore. Countdown is horrible. It's not just "average" and it's not just poor "in comparison to 52" or something; in and of itself it is a horrible series in almost every respect.

 

[SouLeSS]

Yeah, but you can probably say that about most comic series'. I'm in no way defending Countdown, as I think it's a rather bad series, but I got the money to burn and I'm already 40% into it, so eh.

 

[TheCorpulent1]

I know it's awful, but something about the weekly format makes me feel this completionist need to finish buying it since I already started.

 

[SouLeSS]

Same here. Expecially since we know that it's going to end in a set number of issues.

It's like picking up a 12issue mini, once you hit around 5, you dont drop it unless you are seriously strapped for cash.

 

[BrianWilly]

I simply don't think anyone who buys bad books -- and acknowledge that they are bad but still buy them anyway -- have any right to whine when companies publish bad books. And I find the "completionist" attitude so very ******ed. You don't even like the book, but you're going to pay money to keep it with you forever because you simply just need to own this story that...again, you don't even like?

This is the exact sort of thing that comic book readers get mocked for, and rightly so.

 

[SouLeSS]

If you're not a completionist, then you don't understand why we do what we do. If you are a completionist, then it makes perfect sense.

 

[Anubis]

I buy it because I actually enjoy it on some level. It doesn't suck as bad as you want it to.

 

[SouLeSS]

It's got it's moments, I can't lie.

Like when they make fun of Pied Piper for being gay.

 

[Anubis]

Making fun of Homosexuals is always good for a laugh.

 

[SouLeSS]

You know what's even better?

Making fun of people that go back and find every instance that he was made fun of for being gay, then make some huge rant about it in an attempt to people to boycot the book.

 

[Anubis]

That's funny....and a bit sad....which is why it's funny.

 

[SouLeSS]

I don't get why he gets mad at this, but not at Bishop always saying he's a time traveling cop, or Luke Cage and his "i have skin thats bulletproof" typa thing.

I mean they say that way more than people call Pied Piper gay, and it's normally different people everytime

 

[BrianWilly]

If you're not a completionist, then you don't understand why we do what we do. If you are a completionist, then it makes perfect sense.

See, that right there is crazy talk of the slow bubbling crazy. "You just don't understand because you're not doing it." Well, yeah.

It doesn't suck as bad as you want it to.

Well in that case, I'm totally sold

!

I would love to know what you actually like about it.

 

[SouLeSS]

Already told you, the fact that they make fun of Pied Piper for bein gay just about ever issue.