When The Thoughts Don't Flow
There's a longer post I've been working on, but the words just aren't
coming. So let's look at what others are writing about:
Former mangaphobe Dave Lartigue has gotten over
his
preconceptions and
is now
reading
(and enjoying) plenty of manga. He's even started
work on
his
own Manga Stack of Intimidation. (Hint: It's more
impressive if the manga is actually stacked. Don't ask me why; it
just is.) Of course,
not
all manga is wonderful, and
Dave
runs up against one that he finds
damn near incomprehensible. Despite Dave's claim that I
warned
him about
Trigun, I've never read the
manga, so he must have me confused with someone else. Anyway, I'm
glad to see that Dave is reading manga and judging each book by its own
relative merits rather than prejudging all manga based on sweeping
generalizations.
Dirk
Deppey is right:
Jim
Henley was on a roll yesterday. While I'm baffled by
his excitement over Bendis'
Daredevil, his review of
New
Frontier contained one of my favorite lines in recent
memory: "That's what carries the Jordan story across the Stupid
Threshold and
throws it on the Stupid Bed for its Wedding Night of Stupid
Bliss." Go read. It's a great review, and enough to make me
reconsider my thought that maybe I'd pick up this series when it was
collected. (
Jason Kimble
didn't enjoy
New
Frontier much either, although for different reasons, mainly
clunky narration and uneven story execution.)
Also from
Jim
Henley: A suggestion that superhero comics should be seen as
"the literature of ethics."
The core question of the superhero story might be phrased
as What do we owe other people?
The problem is that comics have typically answered the question before
they've barely asked it: "With great power must come great
responsibility!" Really? Are you sure about that? And how much is
"great," anyway? What part of my life can I keep back for myself?
I really like this. It reminds me of Johanna's contention that
superhero comics should be about issues of justice. I'm wondering
if this type of analysis has ever really been applied to superhero
comics. About the only thing that comes to mind is Frank Miller
discussing Daredevil's Catholicism, and even there I'm not sure how
well ol' Hornhead represents Catholic ethics. (Now I want to
write a comic book series that recasts characters as different ethical
schools of thought. And in classic Marvel style, the heroes will
mainly sit around angsting about how to proceed: The Kantian will
try to figure out which maxims he can will into universal laws; the
Aristotelian will try to determine the mean in every situation; and the
Utilitarian will puzzle over what constitutes the greatest good for the
greatest number. Meanwhile, the Hedonist runs amok!)
Finally,
Graeme's
linked to
an
early posting of Marvel's full solicitation copy for April, where
it's revealed that, after Morrison leaves, the development of the
relationship between Scott Summers and Emma Frost will be entrusted
to...
Chuck Austen???
