So, this is a thing that has happened

If you've been wondering as to the lack of post and posters of late, my reasons are pretty straightforward:

1) It's summer. There's sun and beaches and warm air.
2) Complete and utter apathy towards Big Two Corporate supercomics.

The second one may or may not be important to you, but let me explain. Normally, I go through the solicits for upcoming books, and if there's a cover that really grabs my interest as poster material, I plug it into the macro and ...well, see for yourself.

However it has now been about two months since the Marvel or DC solicits have any images worth posterizing. DC is all about the reboot, and I just don't care about that at all (and in an upcoming post, I'll explain as to why that may or may not be a good thing), and all the Marvel series are in ALL OUT WAARRRRRRRR! mode with three major "WAR" crossovers (Fear Itself, X-Men Schism, and "Spider-Island") which simply fail to grab my interest because it has become so repetitive and boring.

Now, the cover images make about 50% of my poster material (I don't have hard numbers - someone can do that if they really feel a burning need). But this is combined with my genuine apathy towards all but a precious few series that grab my attention (Love and Capes, PS238, Farscape, Dungeons & Dragons, and occasionally Mark Waid's Incorruptible and some of the Zorro and Star Trek material). And while I could expound on those books endlessly, I don't know if it's enough to sustain a blog. In reality, I've probably said most of what I want to say on the comics I've read, and what's out there (not much in my mind).

So, will I be closing down? Eventually, yes. It's inevitable as other interests and concerns in my life are taking over. The reason I restarted this blog a few years back was to share with people my poster images. There's actually a secret origin story for that, so stay tuned and you'll see it. I don't have a set quit date yet, as there are other posts I'll throw up - the secret origin, a few thoughts on the DC reboot, and other items of interest to me. But for the most part, the majority of the posts from here on out will simply be poster-only posts for you to enjoy and share with one another.

Thank you all and please, stay tuned and keep reading!

And again with the slash

Plot Devices that Need to Go Away #11

Plot Devices that Need to Go Away #11

THE DYNASTY


Also known as: The ______ Family, the ____ Corps, League, etc.

What is it?

It's a group of of a characters based around a primary "Classic" character, with multiple versions of the same powerset/personality/narrative arcs with only moderate tweaks.

Why Do Comic Companies Do It?

Multiple reasons:

1) Nothing succeeds like success and excess.
2) It's easier to come up with a variation of an old character than to create a new character or to modify/retcon the old one to fit the new variation.

3) Because creators increasingly keep their most original ideas for their own projects.

Recent Offenders Include but are not limited to:

Superman - Superman, Superboy, Supergirl, Powergirl (yes she counts), Steel, The Eradicator.

Flash - Barry, Wally, Jay, NuImpulse, Jesse Quick, Max Mercury, Bart/Kid Flash

Green Lantern - Hal, Kyle, Guy, John, Alan (I don't count the non-Earth ones here).

Batman - Bruce Wayne, Dick Grayson, Azrael, Red Robin, Robin, Batwoman, Batgirl, Spoiler, and I'm sure there's a couple more I'm missing.

Green Arrow: Oliver Queen, Connor Hawke, Arsenal, Speedy, Arrowette (sorta counts?)

Oh, and if you think this is just a DC thing...you're wrong, because Marvel is jumping on this bandwagon like it's going on out of style.

Captain America - Steve Rogers, Bucky, Patriot, Nomad, USAgent (sorta counts if you ask me) and I could make a case for Jack Flag

Iron Man - Iron Man, Rescue, War Machine

Hulk - Red Hulk, Green Hulk, the three She-Hulks, A-bomb, the other two Hulk kids...

Wolverine - Logan, Daken, X-23

Spider-Man - Peter Parker, Venom, Anti-Venom, Spider-Girl/Arana, Spider-Woman, Arachne/Julia Carpenter

Patient Zero

While the SHAZAM Marvel Family are certainly the first "family" of supercharacters, I don't count them as part of this particular phase.

No, I think Patient Zero is the 90s "Batfamily" and "Superfamily" of comics where most of these guys (Superboy, Azrael, Nightwing) really started spawning their own separate titles.

Why does it have to go away?

Redundancy, pure and simple - guys like Superman and Batman aren't unique if there are 9 other people in the same universe who can do almost the same thing.

Angles for Redemption of the Device:


OK, I admit that the Kon-El/Conner Kent clone Superboy is a guilty pleasure of mine, but that said? The best thing to do is to phase out a lot of these unnecessary variants or at least start making larger distinctions and differences - and keeping them apart from each other wouldn't hurt either.

Awwww!

Feeling sick, so this is what you get.

Friday Night Physics!

Back in High School, a friend of mine used to go on about how once the technology became available, he'd get as many cybernetic/bionic limbs and gadgets as he could, because the idea of living forever in a body made of steel sounded cool.

Now, not to shoot down the transhumanists, but I'm going to take some time tonight to shoot a few holes in your dreams.

• Software: Size is the obvious first problem - software required to map your neurological impulses to the associated motion/action (and that's just limbs - never mind more complicated systems) would be pretty intensive, and prone to bugs - and who really wants to run their bodies and sensory organs on Windows Vista?
• Systems control - So, you're going to control the various extra weapon and sensor systems (Nightvision, enhanced imaging, IR, UV, and etc etc) like you would operate you iPhone, I guess? (Totally unrelated, but if Steve Jobs hasn't gotten the trademark for iBorg, you should steal it - right now). Or are you going to try and operate it using an optical system from your eye. Oh, and what do you do when there's a malfunction? How many redundant systems can you cram into a human shape body?

• Following from above: Power systems - what do you plan on having and how often are you going to have to recharge the systems (again, if it's going to fit into a human-size frame, it's probably going to be pretty small)? And won't it be expensive?
• What about repairs and maintenance? And would that be covered by your health insurance or some other body? And yes, there would be maintenance - see cars, buildings, bridges, tanks, jet fighters - or any majorly expensive piece of hardware designed to last more than 2 years of heavy exposure to the elements.
• For those of you who want to go for the mixed package of flesh and metal - how do the various parts interface? How do you prevent infection?-gangrene sucks. Or, given that the metal parts would likely have a very different weight and center of mass than the flesh and blood components they are replacing, you'd need a very good gyroscopic system (probably similar to what the F-22 uses) to maintain your balance and stablity while in motion. And you'd need to reinforce the non-metal bits so they can move the metal bits.

I'm sure they'll figure out solutions to these problems eventually, but here are some of the technical questions I have - and I hope you share them.

Pick the Best Caption

Thirty for 30, Part 3