A Possible world to come?

MARVEL COMICS OFFICES - THE NEAR FUTURE

"Hey Joe."
"Hey Bri."
"Last day."
"Yeah. Yeah."
"Packing?"
"Yeah."
"You want a-?"
"sure if you got-"
"-yeah."
"Cool. "
"Cool."
"So, you're going back to Image?"
"Yeah, well - if - "
"Still got the legal thing?"
"Yeah, it's no biggie."
"Sorry Bri, couldn't help with that."
"No biggie. So, you got that thing set up yet?"
"The thing?"
"The Dark Horse thing."
"Oh, yeah. Mostly just the Buffy comics, maybe a couple other things to start."


"Cool. Cool. You heard from Mark?"
"Mark?"
"Yeah, Mark."
"Not since he said he was flying out to LA."
"Oh. Me neither."
"Yeah."
"Anything on the others?"
"The others?"
"Yeah the others - Matt, Ed, Jason-"
"Oh. Nope."

"No one's at DC?"
"Maybe a couple of the artists - heard they picked up Colleen."
"Colleen?"
"Colleen Coover."
"Huh. Cool."

"Guess it's part of their new policy."
"New policy?"
"Yeah - they only want people with YA experience-"
"YA?"
"Young Adult."
"Young Adult? You mean like Harry Potter ?"
"Yeah."
"Wow. That's a new direction."
"Yeah."
"You figure that's what-"
"Probably. Explains things."
"Yeah."
"We better finish up. Lot to do before closing time."
"Yeah."

"Bri?"
"Yeah?"
"You think there's anything we could have-"
"about what?"
"I don't know - seen it coming?"
"Seen what coming?"
"I don't know."
"Exactly. We coulda gotten rich if we'd seen it coming."
"I guess.'
"Weird though."
"Yeah. All new people going to be in here. Guess it's best not to stick around."

"I guess."
"Good Luck Bri."
"Good Luck Joe. I'll text you in a couple days."
"Cool."

Just something I'd like to see

Not that I want to add fuel to the fires of deconstruction, but there's still a trope out there I don't care for.

It's a pretty classic story, not one that's used too much anymore, but one I like to talk about. It's the "we must restore the King to the Throne!' story.

Usually, some evil warlord/barbarian invader takes over Atlantis/Attlian/Wakanda/where ever, and the heroes have to help their friend get back his "rightful" throne.

This only works for the following reasons:

1) The ousted royal(s) are friends of our heroes, the protagonists.
2) The "usurpers" are invariably more evil the ousted royal(s). They are harsher to the citizenry, insane, etc.
3) Because it's a common trope of fantasy fiction that dates back from an age where royalty mattered.

What's never really addressed, though its certainly under the surface in stories like these, is that the heroes are restoring a (benevolent) dictatorship. Which is a bit odd for American superheroes set in the modern era. Never mind that in many cases (i.e. Aquaman, Black Panther), the monarch tends to leave the country so they can go adventuring across the world and time and space instead of, you know, their job. Whatever your politics, you'd probably be a bit annoyed if the President of the United States spent 80% of his time outside the country, say, fighting robots from Mars because that's not what he's elected to do.

So, what would happen if a popular uprising of people back in the king's homeland came to power with the intention to install a democratic system? Would a superhero team like the Justice League of AMERICA help their friend go back to being an absentee ruler?

The other really disturbing factor about these stories is that implies very heavily that there is no other persons or parties or factions that could run said nation. Which have some negative connotations about that society, as well as the royals themselves.

Just a thought.

Pick the Best Caption

Of Fans and Friends

A few people I know online occassionally ask why I don't post my opinions on such and such a forum/message board/community chat/whatever on a regular basis. This is flattering, but to me, it's not a big concern for a couple reasons.

The first is that I realize that some of my opinions are polarizing and deeply unpopular among the message board poster crowd - so be it. While this bothers me not in the least, I have neither the urge nor the disposable time in my life to spend arguing with people on the internet. Just getting posters made and semi-regular posts up is going to be a challenge in the coming months, nevermind trying to change people's opinions using only words on the internet - which has proven to be a path with very low likelihood of success on any given subject.

More importantly, it's because I've never really gotten a sense of community out of many of my fellow fans. I never had a click of my fellow nerds and geeks in school, so I'm rather used to sharing my fandoms very very selectively, if at all. The fact that you and another person like the same TV show or comic or movies or whatever doesn't make you friends or even mean you like each other that much - it's just a shared interest. It doesn't really matter that much because relationships of any endurance or quality are built on shared values and experience. The fact that you helped me moved into an apartment, or you really care about an issue that's important to me in the real world matters a hell of a lot more to me than the fact that we both really think Superman is Awesome. I'm increasingly disturbed that people seem to get mixed up by all this, both online and in real life.

We are all fellow fans, but it takes time and effort to become friends.

Let's work on that together, shall we?

HERCULES WEEK DAY 4

Continuing a week long look at Herc-related posters. Brought to you in support of Trouble with Comics!

Sick Week Day 2

Pick the Best Caption

Pick the Best poster

A Typical Week in the Life of...NAMOR THE SUBMARINER!

With of course, a few tangentially related Posters!

Monday: Invade Surface world, shouting “Imperius Rex!” at the top of my lungs

Tuesday: Change my mind about invading when convinced by a human female (most likely Susan Storm Richards). Betrayed by an unstable power-hungry warlord (Note to self; institute some quality controls in military command structure so I stop promoting these guys) and exiled to the surface world.

Wednesday: Join a superteam that isn’t pissed at me for invading the surface world. Flirt with Susan Richards. Attempt to Join the U.N.

Thursday: Get booted off team for being arrogant/flirting with Sue (No one wants a guy on their team who can get their ass handed to them by Reed Richards) and fail to join the U.N.

Friday: Return to Atlantis, find out that they are about to be enslaved/slaughtered by a warlord who betrayed me

Saturday: Defeat Warlord, reclaim throne

Sunday: Rest, Play with Dolphins, beat up sea monsters, get married to an Atlantean only to have her die for no good reason. Swear vengeance on the Surface world

Huh...ain't that funny? We're right back where we started! Go figure.