Michael Paciocco's Mind

[michaelpaciocco]

Yes, exactly this Jard. And again, given the Guardians staggering record of outright incompetence at their so-called "jobs" there'd be a good arguement that they would be in the right.


pacioccosmind.blogspot.com/2011/01/choices.html

Easily the best response to my last post was a friend of mine asking that if it came right down to it, who made worse decisions - The Guardians of the Universe or the U.S. Military.

This was a no-brainer - the Guardians are incompetent on a massive scale. The Green Lantern Corps was wiped out a grand total of what? 3 times in the last decade? Plus that whole Manhunter thing, the fact that they've made the wrong move in every single "Crisis" event, the Blackest Night, etc.

Really, at this point, the Guardians should maybe scale back their ambitions -start with seeing if they can successfully protect, say, an abandoned strip mall. That's about their speed.

[jkcarrier]

The idea of the self-appointed Guardians of the Universe sending their private militia to police sovereign planets without said planets' consent is problematic anyway. It would be interesting if GLs had to negotiate treaties with various worlds before they could operate there. Make them wrestle with regulations and overlapping jurisdictions the way federal/state/local authorities do.

[michaelpaciocco]

Jan 24, 2011 13:31:18 GMT -8 jkcarrier said:

The idea of the self-appointed Guardians of the Universe sending their private militia to police sovereign planets without said planets' consent is problematic anyway. It would be interesting if GLs had to negotiate treaties with various worlds before they could operate there. Make them wrestle with regulations and overlapping jurisdictions the way federal/state/local authorities do.

That was basically the idea behind the original L.E.G.I.O.N. series in the late 80s, as I understand it.

[michaelpaciocco]

In short - why I won't post as much in 2011 as I did in 2010 and my thoughts on the last month or so of "comics industry NUZZ"

pacioccosmind.blogspot.com/2011/01/quick-hits.html

As you've noticed already, 2011 isn't going to be the daily post-a-rama that 2010 was for various reasons - mostly due to an uptick in activity in my real life. However, the other reason? Comic "industry" news is pretty damn boring when you get right down to it. Let me go through the big news of the last little while.

-One of the Fantastic Four Dies! Uhm,....yeah, you do realize you brought back BUCKY, right? And Captain America, and Jean Grey's about due to pop out of the grave any day now, so excuse me if I don't take this all that seriously. How about, and this is a crazy idea, instead of obsessing on killing and murder and death (Heroes dying! Kids dying! Villains Slaughtering whole races and countries and creeds!) they try giving characters interesting lives? I know that would be a challenge, and challenge isn't really something that Big Two comics goes for much, but it's just a thought.



-WIZARD will stop publishing! Well, that's not a surprise, ever since any 12 year old figured they could find better toilet based humor using a Google search, Wizard has been redundant.
-Marvel Editorial Shake-ups! You know what? I'll care when I see any indication that there's a change of philosophy or how it treats creators rights, or shows a different and evolving perspective of comics as medium in the 21st century. Otherwise, it's just deck chairs on the Titanic.

-A final note - on Marvel Comic movies, there are only two possibilities as far as I'm concerned; either they will be good entertainment, which is more than 99% of their current comics output, in which case I'll spend money on it, while wondering why there isn't similar quality in the comics, or they won't do as well, which will lead to more focus on the comics side of the business, which will force the quality of them to rise by adapting grown up policies. It's a no-lose scenario, as I see it. Thus, I'm not too concerned about things like Jon Favreau or the new Spider-Man Costume. If they want to lose money and audience - well, they've had a lot of experience with that the way their comics have been selling the last 15 years, so who am I to stop them from doing what they do best?

[michaelpaciocco]

Updates: In which I comment on a couple little bits of news, plus I add Paul, Mario, and Jens' blogs to my sidescroll at long last.

pacioccosmind.blogspot.com/2011/03/catchup.html

[jensaltmann]

Mar 6, 2011 8:16:20 GMT -8 michaelpaciocco said:

Updates: In which I comment on a couple little bits of news, plus I add Paul, Mario, and Jens' blogs to my sidescrollshow at long last.

;D

[jessebaker]

Regarding Hal Jordan being back in the Air Force, IIRC, didn't Geoff (before Sinestro Corps War basically jetisoned the whole Air Force set-up) imply strongly that Hal's superior in the AF sussed out that Hal was Green Lantern, hence why Hal never had much trouble with his disappearances and such?

[michaelpaciocco]

Mar 12, 2011 22:12:25 GMT -8 jessebaker said:

Regarding Hal Jordan being back in the Air Force, IIRC, didn't Geoff (before Sinestro Corps War basically jetisoned the whole Air Force set-up) imply strongly that Hal's superior in the AF sussed out that Hal was Green Lantern, hence why Hal never had much trouble with his disappearances and such?

It was there in the first storyarc, yes. However, my understanding is that just being the darling of your immediate superior (even if he was the base commander) wouldn't necessarily be enough cover - there'd be the guy who review the commander's performance, outside contractors - nevermind that the people who didn't know might go voice some kind of favoritism complaint (or belief that the commander and a regularly absent pilot are commiting some kind of conspiracy). I could be wrong, but it's like any other job - your boss has a boss too.

[michaelpaciocco]

Seriously, was I the only one creeped out by Valeria there?

pacioccosmind.blogspot.com/2011/03/on-killingagain.html

So, here's the state of the ethics of superheroes, as depicted by Marvel and DC comics, in the year 2011;

At DC, the heroes are continually depicted as ineffectual idealists because they don't kill, struggling in a sea of mass-murdering psychopaths. I can think of no better example here than Hal Jordan, so-called "Greatest Green Lantern". First, he forms his "proactive Justice League" in the abominable Cry for Justice. This would be the League where Ray Palmer, a man of 'great compassion' (so Blackest Knight tells us), went kicking around other people's brains like his ex-wife did when she killed Sue Dibny to torture them. And what did he end up showing for it? I mean, other than Prometheus completely infiltrating the team and completely botch the whole thing? Then, not learning from his mistakes, he corals together the "New Guardians", which has at least three members (Atrocitus, Larfleeze, and Sinestro) who are known mass murderers with body counts equal to or exceeding that of the Joker.




Over at Marvel, it looks like there isn't a hero left standing who isn't A-OK with killing opponents, which is why Wolverine and Moon Knight are accepted on the Avengers, and I'm sure the Punisher will be getting a call any day now. The only one who isn't OK with this is...well, I want to say Spider-Man isn't OK with this, but given the frequency with which he teams up with Wolverine and the Punisher, I guess he's OK with killing so long as he's not the one doing it. For me, the most telling case of this occured in the last issue of the Fantastic Four (SPOILERS AHEAD), where we see Valeria Richards, clearly anguished over the death of her uncle, gathering the rest of the young kids, and plotting to kill the one responsible. A tight moment of plotting, but the implications are disturbing. Let us consider the following;

1) SHE'S THREE YEARS OLD, TOPS - yes, she's hyper-intelligent, but intelligence rarely translates itself to any kind of emotional maturity. Yes it clearly is the act of a child, but there's no scene to draw attention to that little fact, so either it is meant to implied that she's making a rash, immature and dangerous decision, or we're meant to take this at face value. I'd feel better about the former being the correct option if this wasn't the same company that gave us Hit-Girl.

2) THE REST OF HER GROUP ARE CHILDREN - Oh, and the group she gathers together for her little plan are (with the exception of Alex Power) untrained combatants. So, if her plan is to advance, she will be making a group of minors accomplices to a premeditated act, and that trips well into that whole 'Child Soldier' thing I talked about a year ago.

3) WHERE'S THE ADULT SUPERVISION? - No one's around during class time? No HERBIE robots? or video cameras? Or any kind of supervision? No? OK.

So there you have it; Ineffectual morons on one side, and murderous children on the other. And people wonder why comic readership is sinking.

[Mario Di Giacomo]

This all feeds into my "shrinking genre" thesis, that I've posted about elsewhere. Basically, almost every single "storytelling engine" used by Big Two writers boils down to:

"Hero fights villain. Hero wins barely survives."

Not too long ago, you could still sell "mainstream" comics that were mysteries, comedies, or adventures. And FF was probably the greatest of the last. A family of people, changed by fate, exploring the weird & unusual

But now? Hickman created/copied a bunch of new settings, and rather than spend an arc or so exploring them, the entire purpose seemed to be to have someone new for the FF to fight.

And now, one of the FF is (almost certainly temporarily) dead. What purpose does it serve? A short term sales boost? Added angst? Making a villain seem more badass?

What makes this a story that could only be told in the pages of FF? You could tell the exact same story in nearly any team book. Indeed, you could argue that Annihilus killing a blond energy-manipulator was one of the major bits in Annihilation.

I'm pretty much over Hickman, anyway. The more of his work I read, the more the flaws in his writing manifest.

[michaelpaciocco]

These are all good points - however my main point is, simply put "We've gotten to the point where grief-stricken murderous TODDLERS is A-OK? Really? Stewie Griffin, but played straight? You're joking, right?"

The moral compasses of modern creators is just terrifying to me.

[Mario Di Giacomo]

The thing is, Hickman has never written her as a toddler. She's as short as one, but he's fallen into the "super smart means standoffish and arrogant" cliche. Her entire character is "she's really smart, and overly pragmatic".

Hell, she's such a Mary Sue I actually looked to see if her middle name was Susan (it isn't, it's Meghan).

[michaelpaciocco]

Mar 17, 2011 5:18:03 GMT -8 Mario Di Giacomo said:

The thing is, Hickman has never written her as a toddler. She's as short as one, but he's fallen into the "super smart means standoffish and arrogant" cliche. Her entire character is "she's really smart, and overly pragmatic".

Hell, she's such a Mary Sue I actually looked to see if her middle name was Susan (it isn't, it's Meghan).

Stewie Griffin, minus the laughs. Yes. Exactly.

[michaelpaciocco]

Because I deeply enjoy making fun of Smallville, that's why. I enjoy it more than Chris Sims does, anyway.

pacioccosmind.blogspot.com/2011/04/smallville-oy.html

Smallville - Oy


OK, so before Smallville starts up again for the last time, I think it's only fair that I put up some posters and beat "Smallvillians" to the punch on these jokes:




Yeah, not that introducing the glasses is a bad idea, it's just that it should have been done about, oh, 5 years earlier. It's also going to require some effort to distinguish between the two identities, which quite frankly, may be well beyond Welling's range here.




I utterly despise this jacket. Nevermind that I have no idea where the blue blazes Clark got it from (or he put it together himself...somehow), but it looks ...well, silly. How silly? I think the Black get-up is better.







OK, this? This actually looks like a really faithful version of Booster Gold's costume, and actually manages to highlight what makes the character unique.







I just think this is a funny punchline. Sue me.







Not that I don't think you can come up with a good Blue Beetle costume, but I don't think you can do it on Smallville's budget. I submit this evidence as proof.






You know I speak the truth here

[Mario Di Giacomo]

Apr 8, 2011 15:39:31 GMT -8 michaelpaciocco said:

Not that I don't think you can come up with a good Blue Beetle costume, but I don't think you can do it on Smallville's budget. I submit this evidence as proof.

Some think he may have been caught in mid-transformation. Given we've already seen a better version in this clip:



I am willing to give them the benefit of the doubt.