tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8207237618509440496.post839804272255299388..comments2023-03-28T04:32:18.124-04:00Comments on Witless Prattle: I Read This: BRIGHTEST DAY #1Kazekagehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07499536996058174109noreply@blogger.comBlogger24125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8207237618509440496.post-83401435220920800352010-09-28T15:48:17.605-04:002010-09-28T15:48:17.605-04:00Words cannot express how much I love that quote. :...Words cannot express how much I <i>love</i> that quote. :)Kazekagehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07499536996058174109noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8207237618509440496.post-62330277351720123172010-09-28T15:39:38.701-04:002010-09-28T15:39:38.701-04:00I must paraphrase the great Dorothy Parker regardi...I must paraphrase the great Dorothy Parker regarding the matter of Stephenie Meyer: Her books are not to be tossed aside lightly, they should be thrown with great force.<br /><br />Ha! Brilliant! :)Diana Kingston-Gabaihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06606122690934557406noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8207237618509440496.post-66301573775999571102010-09-09T21:25:07.566-04:002010-09-09T21:25:07.566-04:00Homeland Security would totally bust you for that-...Homeland Security would totally bust you for that--given their druthers people would rather take their chance with the morning mail fulla anthrax rather than read Edward and Bella, Volume 2 of ohgodpleasekillme. :)<br /><br />Verily Diana, he is the Giant Sized Man-Child. :)Kazekagehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07499536996058174109noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8207237618509440496.post-61446744896169829282010-09-09T14:39:20.796-04:002010-09-09T14:39:20.796-04:00Seeing as how I wouldn't give Meyer's book...Seeing as how I wouldn't give Meyer's books away for free - as I'm reasonably sure they're the evil force behind "Pet Sematary" - I'm not sure that would help. :)<br /><br />And aside from most politicians and a few Hollywood prats, I can't think of anyone more deserving of testicular homicide than Joe Quesada - the manchild who forced his midlife crisis on a hundred thousand readers.Diana Kingston-Gabaihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06606122690934557406noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8207237618509440496.post-36950163619142495002010-08-24T23:14:28.124-04:002010-08-24T23:14:28.124-04:00Yeah, and that fact is exactly why we as a nation ...Yeah, and that fact is exactly why we as a nation should listen to the late great Bill Hicks and "Stop putting a goddamned dollar sign on everything." <br /><br />That's probably the only time anyone's actually had constructive advice from Powers, I would imagine, but yeah . . .some people just ask for a swift one to the junk. One should never underestimate the corrective powers of laying a mighty ass-whupping on someone who desperately needs it. :)Kazekagehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07499536996058174109noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8207237618509440496.post-74775001303080633412010-08-24T16:21:44.490-04:002010-08-24T16:21:44.490-04:00That's really the only justification I have fo...That's really the only justification I have for the continuing existence of "Twilight" - it makes lots of money, so no one looks too closely at the actual content. Rubber stamps all the way.<br /><br />I normally side with Austin Powers - you don't hit a man in the pills, it's just not right - but when it comes to Quesada I'd be more than happy to mark him down as a deserving exception to the rule. :)Diana Kingston-Gabaihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06606122690934557406noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8207237618509440496.post-63473082830698765782010-08-15T11:24:53.404-04:002010-08-15T11:24:53.404-04:00Yeah, there's no will or incentive to really t...Yeah, there's no will or incentive to really try to aim for an optimal balance of creative and financial success, the thing to do now seems to be to redefine success as "whatever I'm doing is working," however ultimately poisonous she is.<br /><br />That's his least vulnerable spot. She should aim lower. ;)Kazekagehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07499536996058174109noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8207237618509440496.post-19776458261317847832010-08-15T07:14:00.836-04:002010-08-15T07:14:00.836-04:00And that's the real danger: from their respect...And that's the real danger: from their respective EiCs' point of view, their companies are on the right track (all evidence to the contrary), so there's no need for genuine quality control. It <i>does</i> lead me to wonder exactly how bad things need to get before everyone just wakes up and realizes that Batman peeing himself does <i>no one</i> any favors.<br /><br />That, or she's broken too many rolling pins over his head to think one more would make any difference. :)Diana Kingston-Gabaihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06606122690934557406noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8207237618509440496.post-38776288365299528442010-08-06T17:07:44.021-04:002010-08-06T17:07:44.021-04:00True, and never mind that the whole exercise is po...True, and never mind that the whole exercise is pointless, because when sales are good, that's Marvel's metric to justify themselves. When sales are bad, failure gets redefined as limited success.<br /><br />I think Lady Quesada, like all right-thinking people these days, can't be bothered to read comics anymore. :)Kazekagehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07499536996058174109noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8207237618509440496.post-29144860524225048622010-08-06T16:31:17.317-04:002010-08-06T16:31:17.317-04:00That's what's so frustrating about bringin...That's what's so frustrating about bringing sales into the discussion: there's no way to conclusively prove that satanic annulment has had an adverse effect on Spider-Man sales, because Marvel defenders could just as easily point out that almost <i>every</i> title loses sales at a monthly pace. By the same token, you can't really prove that quality stories result in more sales, because X-Men #1 circa 1991 sold 8.3 million copies while Vaughan's run on Runaways probably never hit 50,000.<br /><br />Quite. They seem to be assuming that their readers aren't married, and never will be. Even though I'm sure Mrs. Quesada had some choice words for her husband after he told Newsarama that marriage aged Peter Parker horribly. :)Diana Kingston-Gabaihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06606122690934557406noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8207237618509440496.post-18490071102281679782010-07-20T22:31:28.731-04:002010-07-20T22:31:28.731-04:00Well, it's splitting hairs, isn't it? I wa...Well, it's splitting hairs, isn't it? I was reading an article about the decline and fall of Valiant comics (I have insomnia as of late) and they were posting numbers near the end that would have made them top sellers nowadays. It's just that we've decided fighting over scraps is all we can do.<br /><br />I think it says everything about comic creators unwillingness or inability to write married people, really--from Spider-Man to Superman to the Dibnys, it's a troubling pattern, innit?Kazekagehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07499536996058174109noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8207237618509440496.post-3589669069845245992010-07-20T13:41:57.998-04:002010-07-20T13:41:57.998-04:00Well, K-Box certainly supports that theory... but ...Well, K-Box certainly supports that theory... but in an industry where <i>everything</i> is in decline, even those few books that are genuinely good, I honestly don't know if sales are a strong enough indication of failure. It's certainly never been acceptable to see high sales as a mark of creative success...<br /><br />To be fair, they were pulling that particular trick as late as Margot Kidder getting her brains drawn out through her mouth in Superman 2. Not quite sure what that says about the dynamics of their relationship.Diana Kingston-Gabaihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06606122690934557406noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8207237618509440496.post-87129339856128946992010-07-10T12:03:07.796-04:002010-07-10T12:03:07.796-04:00I'm not sure. Of course, when you look at the ...I'm not sure. Of course, when you look at the fact that the whole Bland New Day BS is winding down due to soft sales, that pretty much says it all, doesn't it?<br /><br />Yeah, and that was one of the things that I balked at with the whole Superman 2000 proposal, despite the pedigree of the writers involved. To try to run the clock back to when Lois Lane, ace reporter was constantly getting her brain messed with by Superman would have been bloody toxic.Kazekagehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07499536996058174109noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8207237618509440496.post-47354415988206179792010-07-10T08:07:04.809-04:002010-07-10T08:07:04.809-04:00Not only that, but every adaptation I can think of...Not only that, but every adaptation I can think of - the films, the FOX cartoon, even that bloody awful <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Amazing_Spider-Man_(video_game)" rel="nofollow">Amiga game</a> - sets up MJ as Peter's <i>only</i> love interest. If Gwen Stacy or some other woman is introduced, they're always relegated to romantic foils. So I'm utterly stumped as to just who Quesada thinks will be interested in this particular configuration of the character.<br /><br />And, you know, this is one of those rare instances where I see DC more favorably than Marvel - for all the talk of undoing Superman's marriage to Lois, they've never actually done it (as far as I know). Even "Smallville", which is about as far as you can get from conventional Superman without crossing into Bizarro World, maintains that relationship.Diana Kingston-Gabaihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06606122690934557406noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8207237618509440496.post-83971045431648402632010-07-07T20:39:04.963-04:002010-07-07T20:39:04.963-04:00Yeah, I mean, they were talking about peter and MJ...Yeah, I mean, they were talking about peter and MJ possibly getting hitched in the films as early as the second movie, I think. If we're going by how things play out in ancillary media, they always end up together, and you can't play that out indefinitely without marrying them off.<br /><br /> But naturally, a deal with the devil is infinitely preferable to marriage. That makes sense.Kazekagehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07499536996058174109noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8207237618509440496.post-86350063979930940722010-07-07T16:58:40.208-04:002010-07-07T16:58:40.208-04:00See, I think that's exactly where Quesada misc...See, I think that's exactly where Quesada miscalculated: he's absolutely right (and how often does anyone say <i>that?</i>) when he points out that at the end of the day, Spider-Man is a formula; his mistake was thinking Mary Jane wasn't a part of that formula, because by now she's replaced Gwen Stacy as the default love interest for Peter Parker. She's been included in every adaptation, whether it's film, TV or video games. So getting rid of her didn't "fix" anything at all.Diana Kingston-Gabaihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06606122690934557406noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8207237618509440496.post-26777103521628701882010-06-25T23:06:57.206-04:002010-06-25T23:06:57.206-04:00When Michael Jackson's song is the most normal...When Michael Jackson's song is the most <i>normal</i> thing about the movie . . .<br /><br />Well, it was never going to work in the first place--with 20+ years of married Spider-Man that was a long enough time for there to be as many fans of married Spider-Man as not, and those that didn't want to read about the marriage had plenty of options left to them and undoing it (and worse yet, not leaving it alone) only causes all those problems to bubble to the surface.Kazekagehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07499536996058174109noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8207237618509440496.post-35068453704288604582010-06-25T09:16:15.641-04:002010-06-25T09:16:15.641-04:00And how. I think the whale's the only living b...And <i>how.</i> I think the whale's the only living being that <i>wasn't</i> driven bonkers by the movie.<br /><br />The odd bit is, reaction to BND Spidey stories are typically divided, in that his superhero adventures are still being received well but <i>every</i> aspect of his personal life has come under fire: the thing with his crazy Latina roommate, Carlie Cooper, all of that... the whole point of Divorce by Satan was to "rejuvenate" the character (and my skin's crawling at the very gross and backwards mentality that sort of thing requires), and now he's a 30-year-old loser living with his aunt. That's not backfire, that's backinferno.<br /><br />Shh! Don't tell Stacy Palumbo. She won't be pleased. :)Diana Kingston-Gabaihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06606122690934557406noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8207237618509440496.post-129620377764557332010-06-11T20:11:37.435-04:002010-06-11T20:11:37.435-04:00That movie has always attracted the wrong element,...That movie has always attracted the wrong element, I think. ;)<br /><br />It's one of those stories that's so spectacularly tasteless that one can scarcely imagine it sounding like a good idea to anyone, but yet . . .it fits <i>exactly</i> into the paradigm that the current regime thinks all Spider-Man stories should follow--"let's torture the sumbitch any way we can think of, because conflict equals drama and by having all drama and no hope of eventual victory, well . . .we'll have the most dramatic comic ever. Oh, and Mary Jane totally married Hunter Rose in the past."Kazekagehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07499536996058174109noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8207237618509440496.post-28693546848638278902010-06-11T15:02:14.464-04:002010-06-11T15:02:14.464-04:00Well, if we're going on the theory that Johns ...Well, if we're going on the theory that Johns is basically channeling warped memories of his own childhood into the DCU... I'm guessing he saw "Free Willy" one too many times?<br /><br />Oh my <i>God</i> I'd forgotten about "Spider-Man: Reign" and the radioactive mariners. Wow. Juxtaposing that with "Rise of Arsenal" is like trying to put out a forest fire with kerosene. :) Also, I honestly can't decide which one's worse: "Reign", for trying to do a "Dark Knight Returns" with bloody <i>Spider-Man</i>, or "Rise of Arsenal" for cat-fu and post-dead-child-coitus.Diana Kingston-Gabaihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06606122690934557406noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8207237618509440496.post-23200908000097617152010-05-30T00:14:25.377-04:002010-05-30T00:14:25.377-04:00. . .and now, thanks to Johns, you have to accept .... . .and now, thanks to Johns, you have to accept that the first living thing to feel willpower was a whale. :) You tell <i>me</i> what that's about.<br /><br />You know . . .wayyyy back in the day, everyone laughed at <i>Spider-Man:Reign</i> because it had stupid shit like Peter killing Mary Jane with . . .uhm, "Peter" and page after page of angst that even Claremont would say "Nahh, that's way too much." Thankfully (Or not, depending on how you feel about it) <i>Rise of Arsenal</i> is here to show us that comics can always, <i>always</i> disappear up their own backsides even more.Kazekagehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07499536996058174109noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8207237618509440496.post-77153105858734709072010-05-29T19:16:09.953-04:002010-05-29T19:16:09.953-04:00Sure, if you accept that "willpower" is ...Sure, if you accept that "willpower" is an emotion. Still, on my Grande List of DC Quibbles that didn't even make the top 50. :)<br /><br />Hold on a sec... my God, I think you've just figured it out. They've read "Watchmen". And they've come to the conclusion that the story would've been even <i>better</i> had Moore been allowed to use the Charlton characters after all. And presto, we have an impotent Roy Harper swinging dead cats in an alley while being haunted by the decaying spectre of his dead 5-year-old daughter. ART! :)Diana Kingston-Gabaihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06606122690934557406noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8207237618509440496.post-65537798602237658452010-05-15T21:53:50.913-04:002010-05-15T21:53:50.913-04:00Of the various Corps, it's funny that the only...Of the various Corps, it's funny that the only really breakout one (besides Sinestro's, of course) is Larfleeze, partly because you have one character rather than a horde of indistinct aliens, partly because making someone driven nuts by endless greed is instant comedy. And yeah, the whole Care Bear-ization of the Lanterns is a bit foolish on the face of it and a bit more subtlety would be nice, but the basic concept is sound.<br /><br />I think so--either that or they read <i>Watchmen</i> at the wrong time and decided that if they could just cross-pollinate the Silver Age with that comics would be "grown up." Needless to say, they totally missed the point.Kazekagehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07499536996058174109noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8207237618509440496.post-69351437185695409212010-05-15T14:28:29.917-04:002010-05-15T14:28:29.917-04:00In theory, the idea of a "Rainbow Corps"...In theory, the idea of a "Rainbow Corps" is certainly interesting, in that it opens up all sorts of possibilities relating to the Green Lanterns... my problem had more to do with the fact that they turned the color spectrum into a Care Bears variety show: red is Rage, blue is Hope, purple is Love (seriously? The Power of Love?)... and those alternate Oaths sound like something a first-grader cobbled together: <br /><br />"With blood and rage of crimson red, ripped from a corpse so freshly dead, together with our hellish hate, we'll burn you all--That is your fate!"<br /><br />Oy. :)<br /><br />But I think you've touched upon <i>the</i> issue with this whole retro trend: namely, that the writers involved are completely missing the point of the Silver Age. They're bringing back the <i>iconography</i> of the '60s and '70s but implanting them into a sex-and-violence sensibility that's distinctly mid-'90s. It's an ill fit, to say the least... <br /><br />And it sort of makes sense, because I figure writers like Bendis and Johns didn't really get into comics forty years ago - it's far more likely they started with Deathblood the Rapemancer and worked backwards into the Silver Age, which explains why they're getting it so very <i>wrong</i>...Diana Kingston-Gabaihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06606122690934557406noreply@blogger.com