Plot Devices that Need to Go Away #10

Plot Devices that Need to Go Away #10

The B-List


Also Known as: First Tier/Second Tier, First String/Second string, etc.


What is it?

Have you noticed that superheroes in comics lately actually state their level of status (or that of other characters) in the heirarchy of the superhero communities in the same terms that celebrities do?


Why do Comic companies do it?


Usually they set out at the start of a story that a given character is some low tier member of their community to lower expectations and create a surprise when the character is elevated to a new status (greater) status. The celebrity metaphor is a quick and dirty shorthand for that.

Recent Offenders include but are not limited to:

Luke Cage and Jessica Jones-Cage, Booster Gold, Blue Beetle (Ted Kord) and most of the "JLI" -era characters (Fire, Ice, Rocket Red, Elongated Man, Sue Dibny, etc.), Nova, Darkhawk, etc.





Patient Zero

This is a hard one to pin down, but for me, I'm going to go and put the blame for this one on Identity Crisis and Dr. Light in particular - the whole premise of that story is that Dr. Light is no longer a joke.

Why does it have to go away?

First, I think I've remarked on how little I care for comparing superheroes to celebrities, so that's a start. But the greater danger is not just because of a personal choice, but because the overuse has created a degree of overexposure on the "A-List" to the exclusion of the development of other characters who might actually be better tools to tell a story. It's not always about the "Trinity" (Cap/Thor/Iron man or Superman/Batman/Wonder Woman, take your pick) but about those other characters who get a moment to shine and truly step up to the plate because their stories have been building to this point for years. Remember, Wolverine used to be B-list too.

Angles for Redemption of the Device:

There's two methods in my mind. The first is showcased by what Brian Michael Bendis did with Luke Cage over the years in the Avengers, although that creates another set of problems too. Still, like it or not, I give Bendis credit for taking Luke Cage and taken him from forgotten 70s character to someone compelling enough to be the focus of two ongoing series. The other method is more traditional - simply give characters different focuses on different times in different stories that highlight their own unique and special nature.

Pissing off Chris Sims

OK, now not everyone's going to agree with me here - in fact most of you won't. So be it.

People are always going off about Superman being boring because he's so powerful that there's no tension to his stories. Then, in 99% percent of these rants, the first comparison is to Batman, that he's more "relatable" because he's a non-superhuman being in danger.

I have a few problems with this particular comparison.

First off, is there really that much more tension in any given Batman story? I'm not even going to the meta-level here in the sense of "Warner Brothers and DC comics will not kill their cash cow" either. Batman, as a character, is usually so hyper-competent, so well-prepared, that nearly any threat he faces has little to no chance of more than temporary success. You don't see a lot of stories where Batman is continuously rocked back and manages to barely eke out a victory. What you usually see is Batman temporarily mystified or setback, to be followed by a turnabout caused by his impressive intellect and a victory. A few stylistic and genre tics aside, isn't that the exact same format as most Superman stories?

Then there's the relatability arguement. Clark Kent was a kid who found out he could do something amazing, and tries to balance using his talents to the utmost to help others while trying to maintain some semblance of a life for himself. Bruce Wayne is a billionaire who lives in a mansion, and could live a life of luxury if it wasn't for the fact that an early childhood trauma drove him to develop a level of focus that is frankly inhuman. He's honed his body and mind to the absolute limit of performance, giving up luxury (except for the apperance of such - but at what point is the appearance of luxury actually a luxury?). He's directed his talents towards a very specific, narrow goal (the elimination of crime - mostly in terms of street/violent/urban crime) with very specific tactics and strategies and weapons. I'm not even sure where to begin relating to that.

So, there you have it - a different take on the comparisons between Batman and Superman. Enjoy

What if we Lived in a comic book universe? Part 68

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For my American friends

Happy 4th of July!

iPad + Comics = ?

OK, so everyone and their uncle has been talking about comics and the iPad, so, yeah, I'm a guy who doesn't own an iPod or an iPhone, but I'll throw in my two cents - after all, that's what the internet is about!

Seriously, just a few quick thoughts of a random nature.

-Now, clearly no sane person would buy an iPad JUST to get comics - even at what is becoming the standard of $1.99 for a single issue (and not to sound like a cranky old man, but that was the price of a paper comic book back in the mid-90s), the point at which having an iPad for comics would exceed the value of buying the single issues is well into the hundreds of comics.

-Hope: That this new format kills the endless crossovers and convultion of Corporate supercomics dead. This puts comics in a very real and direct competition with every other media out there, and tight, taut, self-contained "Bang for your buck" is going to win every time over byzantine useless continuity and nostalgia.
-Speculation: Creators are going to have to fight to maintain rights and continue to receive royalties in this new medium of publication.

-Engineering Trade-Off Analysis: The iPad's advantage? It can carry hundreds of comics in a very portable way. The disadvantage is the initial investment, the need to maintain the iPad (battery, power, etc.) and the loss of ownership of a physical product. And for the record, I don't buy into the "Save the Trees" arguement - when you consider the energy required to maintain a high-tech device like the iPad, you are trading one cost (paper products) for another (power and plastic).

Arching

There are some people out there who are of the belief that the Green Goblin is, always has been, and should be Spider-Man's #1 Archenemy.

And...I'm sorry, but no. That honor belongs to Doctor Octavius here. Mr. Osborn has been the recipient of quite a bit of luck.

People will point to the fact that the Goblin found Parker's double identity. Of course, Doc Ock unmasked Parker the first time they met, he just didn't know Parker from Adam. Norman had the advantage of knowing Peter through his son Harry. So...luck, not skill.

Then there's the Gwen Stacy factor. Have you read that issue? Again, it was dumb luck and a serious miscalculation on Spider-Man's part that lead to Gwen's death. By comparison, Doc Ock had a higher bodycount until the return of Osborn in the 1990s and especially under Bendis, where his murderousness was amped up beyond expectations.

When it comes to general lethality, Norman made some nice toys, this is true. Doctor Octopus built goddamn indestructible arms and nuclear reactors, undersea bases, and dimensional portals. Doctor Octopus formed the Sinister six, not the Green Goblin. Now, granted the Goblin legacy (Harry Osborn, the Hobgoblin, etc.) has on balance, been as big (if not bigger) problem for Spidey over the years as Otto Octavious. However, if we are talking sheer level of threat, Osborn's a step above Electro, sure, but up until a few years ago he couldn't even measure up to the threat level of the Kingpin. Doc Ock was a world beater, pure and simple.

Happy Canada Day

Might as well say this now

With tomorrow being Canada Day and all, now's a good a time as any to talk about this.

So, Alpha Flight.

Yeah, it's not really good. And there's reasons for that. The biggest ones being that John Byrne never really invested them with any personality to begin with, and then just about every subsequent writer just treated them as TEAM GENERIC. Sort of the no-name grocery-store brand of superteam that you intentionally gloss over, because hey, the name stuff is on the shelf just a ways over and it's not that much more expensive.

So, yeah, that's Canada's superteam, and it could use some retooling.

So, here's the basics:

1) Maybe get a Canadian to write it again? Or at least, someone who's been to Canada and actually knows things about us? Like culture, or politics? Because there are some.
2) Remember in Busiek's Avengers run, during the Kang War? How the Master had all that supercool technology he brought to the game that the Avengers ended up using? And how most of that is in the far north of Canada? That might be something to look at.
3) Take chances.

Sorry, that's the best I got.

And now, for no reason whatsoever

Summer Slog

Yeah, sorry, this is usually the time of year when my blogging frequency drops dramatically (usually to "not at all") and I'm not sure this year will be any different. It's not just because hey, it's summer and there's like, warm weather and the lake is just a short drive away, though that's part of it. The other thing is that right now, I don't find there's much I want to talk about, to be honest.

I mean, sure, I could talk about how "Three", the upcoming Fantastic Four Story arc by Hickman et. al sounds an awful lot like the "Reed Dies" storyline that dragged on for two goddamn years during the DeFalco/Ryan FF era (see above). Or I could talk about how much I'm dreading the heavy-handed social commentary coming up in the JMS Superman arc, but that's pretty well covered just by this post alone. In general, I'm finding Big Two comics to be bland to outright distasteful, what with all the child-killing, cannibalism and human sacrificing going on.

I'm at a loss here - so any ideas would be a boon.

Atlas. No, the other one

I really really loved the Kurt Busiek Thunderbolts run, and for my money, it's one of the best superhero comic runs ever.

And easily my favorite character from that run was Erik Josten, the former Goliath who became Atlas. Given the characters I usually tend to relate to and talk about, this is a pretty odd choice. The thing to keep in mind is that Erik really, really, was a mess. He always made questionable choices, and most of the time, he wanted nothing more than to not have to make a choice at all. He had to struggle to develop a moral compass after a lifetime of bad choices and errors in judgement. He had to learn from the consequences of some pretty huge mistakes, to build himself a better person.

And I think that's it right now; his choices had consequences, not just for him, but for the people he cared about. Actually, more often it was others who ended up suffering for his mistakes, whether it was members of his family, or his teammates, or just other civilians. The character's struggle struck a chord with me because this was a guy who had come face to face with the wreckage left in his wake, and he had to struggle to find a way to make up for it. And it didn't come all at once either - he still made mistakes, he backslid, and progress was painstakingly slow.

But I couldn't help but root for the guy.

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What If we lived in a comicbook universe? Part 67

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