Pretty, Fizzy Paradise

I'm back! And reading! And maybe even blogging! No promises!

Sunday, August 20, 2006

Random Thoughts: November Solicits

So Ragnell just linked the DC Solicitations. Most aren't up yet but there are a few that intrigue me. I'm doing another reaction snippet post to try to hide the fact that I don't feel like writing anything of substance tonight either. I'm lazy. Anyway:

The Collateral Damage one could either be really kickass or really awful. It's Chaykin, and I liked his Evil's Might, but I don't know how well he'll write Guy Gardner. Beau Smith vouched for him on a message board a while back though so I'm hopeful.

But a serious take on G'Nort perplexes me. Then again, he's calling Guy as a neutral party, so that probably says something. I'm looking forward to seeing it really. Guy IS my favorite Lantern.

The 52 issues look intriguing. I'm particularly interested in the Bat-family one. I really want to see Kate and Bruce interact. The Black Marvel family sounds pretty neat. And I really want to know what's going to happen with Jean Loring.

I'm really intrigued by Birds of Prey. I'm hoping Bulleteer ends up on the team. Of all the seven soldiers, I find her and the new Shining Knight the most interesting. I'd love to see Shining Knight on the JSA (I think she'd benefit from the strong family connections as well as Courtney would thrive in a big sister role, but I suppose that's another Infusing Estrogen post...) and Bulleteer would be awesome in BoP. I'd love to see what Ms. Simone can do with her.

The Connor Hawke mini looks promising, but I wince a little at the cliche of having the part-Asian guy, who happens to have grown up in a zen monastery, in a story called "Dragon's Blood". This is probably my liberal guilt-defensiveness talking, but it seems a bit...irritating to me. Still I like Connor, so I'll try it.

JLA should be fun. I like the picture of Vixen, though it seems very "Noble Savage" for me. Which could be awfully cliched. The only person I've ever seen to do the "Noble Savage" thing well was Beau Smith but that was satirical, with a subversive twist or three. Still, I do tend to like Meltzer's work so...

This definitely explains why the Englehart story's been dominating JLA-Classified and JSA-Classified. Much to my irritation. (I want my JSA-C about the JSA thanks!)

My interest is peaked though, and I can't wait for the full solicits on Monday.

posted by kalinara @ 5:30 AM  

14 Comments:

  • At August 20, 2006 11:16 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    Birds of Prey is one of my favorite books and, whatever the new line-up might be, the team consists of either non-powered or low level powered heroines. I think that Manhunter would be perfect for this team, if you ask me. Catwoman would be interesting...but I don't know if I would want to Selina Kyle in that role (if she goes back to being Catwoman, that is). I'd like to see Holly as part of this team and I think she could benefit from some extra mentorship. I could even see Grace Choi on this team. Yes, she is super strong and invulnerable, but it could gel with the team that tends to be a little more kick ass. I'd also love to see what Gail Simone could do with her.

    I'm really looking forward to the Connor Hawke mini. I agree that the zen monestary thing is a bit irritating, but, it is part of his past. So, I can give it a break. Plus, Connor is another favorite character of mine. I really liked his run in the last volume of Green Arrow and continue to enjoy his adventures in the current Green Arrow title. Speaking of which, it sounds like he'll be making his return in the next issue!

    I hope that Vixen is part of the Justice League of America. I really like her character and think she could be an interesting member of the team.

    And, agreed on the JLA-C/JSA-C "Justice League Detroit" storyline. I liked the JLA-C one and thought it should have ended there. The JSA-C one is dragging and needs to be making more of a connection with JSA to keep my attention on this current storyline.

     

  • At August 20, 2006 3:17 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    I'll ditto loren on Holly in BoP. I don't think Manhunter would work, though; her methods would clash with Barbara's painfully, plus she doesn't seem like the sort to join a team.

    Also: CURSE YOU, ENGLEHART! CURSE YOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

     

  • At August 20, 2006 4:55 PM, Blogger Flidget Jerome said…

    I whined over in Ragnel's thread about how I didn't want Manhunter to join the Birds because she's an DEO agent and that's bad for Oracle's secret.

    On consideration I really don't want her to join because I really don't want every single strong female character except Wonder Woman to get segregated onto the Birds. I was really disapointed when Savant left and Creote got demoted to babysitter, because with them Birds was a female-dominated team that remained a female-dominated team even with strong male characters on the roster.

    Hell, why are all of Oracle's candidates women? Why isn't DC allowing her to consider male candidates, even in the most token way?

     

  • At August 20, 2006 6:14 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    That JLofA cover is so annoying.
    Of course, the cover by a good artist is the variant.

     

  • At August 20, 2006 8:00 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    Well, I assume it's because JLA and JSA and Outsiders and The Titans and Shadowpact and Suicide Squad and the Green Lantern Corp. and the Bat family and so on tend to be heavily male-dominated teams that few women get to play on, so Birds of Prey gets to be the one more heavily-female team in all of the DCU. One team is more female-centric. Just one.

    As it is, Wildcat, Green Arrow(s), Blue Beetle, Savant and Creote, and so on have all helped the team out a lot. It's not like it's a sorority or anything. It just happens to be the one team where the gender balance is in favor of women not men for a change. I mean, if you recall, there had to be cause for rejoicing that JSA might have up to four women on a team of 11 or 17 or whatever. Why is it when one little space finally gets carved out for women, it's called unfair to men?

    -- Anun

     

  • At August 20, 2006 8:07 PM, Blogger kalinara said…

    loren: Holly would be an awesome addition.

    I'm actually okay with the monastery, my problem is that the title "Dragon's Blood" is pretty much...well, let's just say it's not a terribly original title for a part-Asian character.

    Still I'll give it a chance. I love Connor. :-)

    ununnilium: Yeah. Manhunter's awesome, but I can't see her taking Barbara's command.

    flidget: I agree! (love the icon too)

    david: Hee

    anun: If I'm reading correctly, Flidget isn't arguing that it's unfair to men that BoP is female dominated. I think her argument is much the same as mine, which is that it's so rare to see strong male characters taking orders from a female character. It enriches the team when men are involved as well and still following Babs or even Dinah's lead.

    I'd like to see one or two men considered, even if the ultimate choice is a woman.

     

  • At August 20, 2006 9:39 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    Too bad they couldn't get Amanda Connor to draw the origin of Power Girl, but I hear this Hughes guy has some experience drawing DC women... they're usually drawn more D than C, though.:p

    Darwyn Cooke and Tim Sale doing a six-part Superman story? WOW! I'm sorely tempted...if Cooke were doing the art, there would be no question that I'd get it...

     

  • At August 20, 2006 10:31 PM, Blogger Ferrous Buller said…

    ". . . I wince a little at the cliche of having the part-Asian guy, who happens to have grown up in a zen monastery, in a story called "Dragon's Blood"."

    Ironically, perhaps, as the only(?) part-Asian guy `round here, this doesn't bug me as much as your pitch for Tsunami. Which sounds paradoxical, but let me explain. :-)

    When you have a story about an Asian character in a martial arts-y setting - be it monastery, dojo, remote mountain hut, or whatever - I expect a certain number of martial arts tropes / cliches, including names. Yes, they are a crutch for lazy writers, but it's not like there's a shortage of them in Asia. Heck, the Shaw brothers would never have been able to stay in business without `em! :-)

    Or, put another way, given the cliche setup in the first place, the title barely registers. :-) At that point, what I care about is execution, not premise or title, which obviously I can't comment on yet.

    When you have an Asian character in an Asian setting, you expect their cultural and racial identity to be front and center, because they're surrounded by it all the time - which includes various cliches / stereotypes. But because it's ubiquitous to the setting, you don't need to draw attention to it: it's just there.

    Whereas when you put an Asian character into a non-Asian setting and then draw attention to him or her because of their ethnicity - like you did with Tsunami - that's what sets off my personal peeves. Because consciously or not, the writer is making that Asian an Other: someone who stands out from the herd based on their ethnicity. It's a difficult line to walk well: particularly pernicious is the tendency for Western writers to make the Asian femme "exotic" or "mysterious."

    Not that I think you were making that mistake with Tsunami. Just that it's the sort of alarms that go off in my head when a non-Asian writer pitches an Asian character like that. I'm sure the average African American would look askance at me writing about a black character growing up in, say, Harlem: it's something outside my personal experience and thus that much harder to capture.

     

  • At August 20, 2006 10:38 PM, Blogger kalinara said…

    chuck: That does sound cool!

    ferrous: I understand what you're saying.

    Actually, and I probably should have said this then, my ideal new Tsunami would not be written by me. :-) I think it'd be cool to have her on the team and explore ideas of race, but ideally, I'd like to rope someone with a little more familiarity with the issues at hand into actually writing it. :-) Or co-writing it with me. As I'm a control freak who likes having input. :-)

    But I can definitely see how it'd hit warning bells. There's so many ways to screw it up. :-)

     

  • At August 21, 2006 12:10 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    Ah, my bad. But I think it's not because people don't think it's unlikely Oracle wouldn't be listened to, I think it's more likely that TPTB assume it would cause more fuss if guys joined the team and disrupted the all-female make-up rather than what role the guys played on the team. I could be wrong though.

    That said, Blue Beetle and Wildcat both did follow the leadership of Oracle and Black Canary both, and Wildcat especially is no pushover. So it's not unprecedented.

    -- Anun

     

  • At August 21, 2006 3:00 AM, Blogger Zaratustra said…

    Morrison fans demand Bulleteer.

     

  • At August 21, 2006 5:15 AM, Blogger Flidget Jerome said…

    Thanks, Kali. You said it better than I did. ^^

     

  • At August 21, 2006 7:21 AM, Blogger kalinara said…

    anun: That's a good point.

    zaratustra: I agree.

    flidget: :-)

    Oh, and if you still need the copy of the JSA OWAW [leans in to whisper in a very shady manner] I may know where you can grab a copy. Catch me on AIM, if you're interested. [/shady]

     

  • At August 21, 2006 7:51 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    Seeing as how I'm a complete and utter sucker for the Arrowclan, I'm really happy to see Mia on the cover. I doubt she's more than periphally in the running, as she simply doesn't have the experience to replace Dinah, but it's nice to see her get the acknowledgement. Catwoman and Manhunter are the most obvious choices, although I don't want to take either of them away from their own books. I can't see Babs working with Supergirl for long without getting irritated, although Kara would benefit from hanging around with the Birds. Peej would be awesome, and while I'd adore Grace on the team, I get the feeling she wouldn't get on too well with the rest of the team, and that feels like something that's become very important in the Birds. It's not the JLA, where you work together despite personality clashes, or the Titans, where your teammates are also your family, but the friendship is important to them, after what they've gone through to get it.

    Connor Hawke: I don't think there's much that could be done to make me not buy this, even if it does turn out to be 'Connor Hawke and the Legion of Martial Arts/Asian cliches'

    Picking on Michael Turner's art is far too easy, but that Vixen cover is gorgeous. I'm so, so, so hyped about the new JLA lineup, it may actually be balancing out my hate-on for the Batoffice (oh, I've so just jinxed myself, haven't I? The Connor Hawke mini will suck, Roy'll be killed off, and Mia will have yet more horrific backstory revealed, just you wait and see...)

     

Post a Comment

<< Home