Meme Revival: Ask Me a Question...

I'm going to resurrect an old meme for this one, mostly because I can. Also because it's fun.

Opening this up to anyone who reads my blog:

Ask me a question, any question. I'll answer it to the best of my ability.

I like seeing what you guys come up with. :-)

(...I'm going to feel awfully stupid if no one asks anything. :-P)

More Star Trek stuff!

Oooh, Rich has more casting rumors for the Star Trek movie.

Apparently Mike Vogel is the front runner for Kirk.

It might just be the picture on the blog, but I'm not sure I see it. I'm hesitant to write him off for a single picture, though, so maybe he'll work. Kirk's really more about attitude anyway. If he can pull off Shatner, he should be fine.

Rich also mentions other confirmed casting though, which I hadn't known about. (The only one I'd known was Quinto as Spock, which really works remarkably well.) Apparently Chekov's cast: Anton Yelchin.

Now that one I can see. Of course there is the part of me wailing "Oh my god, he's twelve!" But Chekov's supposed to be young. (He's actually 18, but I refuse to admit the passage of time.) And it's cool that he's actually Russian. I'll kind of miss "nuclear wessels" though. Maybe, since he came here as an infant, there's still hope!

Uhura is Zoe Saldana. I've never heard of her, but she's positively stunning! I can't think of a better choice for Uhura! So pretty!

I admit, I judge this cast solely on looks rather than acting talent, but that's honestly because...well, consider the comparison. I love the show, but no one was really on their A-Game there.

The rumor Rich mentions of Paul McGillon as Scotty excites me. I hope, hope, hope it's true. I was sad when they killed his character off Stargate: Atlantis. And I think he'd do well. Be weird not to see him as a doctor though.

Now I really really want to see their McCoy. Crankiness is fun!

Friday Night Fights!

It's back! And this time I'm ready!

Here's Guy Gardner bitchslapping a viking!



(Bahlactus has sucka-punched my heart!)

My JSA Classified Disconnect (Now with added tangent!)

Okay, I have to get this off my chest. I am THIS close to dropping JSA Classified.

It's not that I don't like the stories. I actually do, but for god sake, Mr. Terrific does not need another solo adventure. He's the White King of Checkmate AND a high profile member of the JSA. He gets seen a lot in group scenes and crossovers. And that's good, he's a good character. He deserves a lot of attention.

But you know? There are a lot of team members who DON'T get a lot of attention. Who AREN'T in two books. Is it too much to ask that maybe we focus on them?

I mean, okay, I haven't sat down and mapped out who starred in what JSA classified, so maybe statistically I'll be proven wrong. But hmm, let me think about who I remember most as stars of JSA Classified comics:

Mr. Terrific, who has two comics already.

Dr. Mid-Nite, who IS criminally under-used, but he seems to have had quite a few Classified stories fairly close together. Also, he has a unique role as team medic which means that while he may not have a lot of panel time over all, there are distinct points where he's bound to come in.

Alan, Jay, or Wildcat: Hey, you can't have too much of these guys and I agree. I do however think they're featured fairly prominently in the main series itself.

Powergirl or Stargirl: Same as Alan, Jay or Wildcat really. I love them, but they're pretty much assumed a state of prominence.

I know we've had Classifieds about Jakeem Thunder, (who hasn't yet rejoined the team) or the Injustice Society, but the rest really seems same-old, same-old.

It's a shame, because JSA Classified could do so much more.

Why are they always mostly solo stuff? Why can't we have more ensemble type stories?

Why not WWII flashback adventures? There are tons of old school fans out there, folks who eat up the Golden Age or even All-Star Comics/Squadron, who'd probably enjoy seeing the old hats in action again. JSA Returns was some of Johns's best work and I'm sure there are other folk who'd have fun writing the past with sly hints and references to the future.

Why not Rick and Jessie's wedding? I mean, sure the couple gets annoying, but you know the wedding of the son of Rex and Wendi Tyler to the daughter of Johnny Quick and Liberty Belle had to have been an event. Who was best man? Who caught the bouquet? Did Ma Hunkel cry?

What about when Sand broke out as the sandmonster? Or Todd started to become sane? What about Infinity Inc flashbacks?

Why not more passing the torch scenes or vignettes? Why not play with the legacy aspect by showcasing "then" and "now"?

How about day in the life sorts of stories? Super-powered folks dealing with mundane crises. How about Maxine and Courtney hanging out, or shopping, or whatever it is teen girls do when coming across someone being bullied? Obviously they can't expose their powers and it wouldn't really be fair to blast them with the rod...so what to do?

How about something family related? Ted and Tom get enough attention in the main book, but how about Alan and Todd? The latter being an ex-supervillain, now being happy, sane and involved with someone, the dead twin sister...that's lots of stuff to talk about. Rick and Rex? Damage and Atom Smasher?

And you know, a lot of the perfectly justifiable "where the hell is Obsidian?" complaints might be slightly appeased if he got an issue. Could bring in Ian Karkull, the Shade, or go somewhere completely different.

...

You know, it occurs to me, while I don't think the lack of Obsidian is an intentional aversion to homosexual characters, I do think it's strange that more of a big deal wasn't made about the JSA having its first, as far as I know, gay member.

Of course, they'd have to USE him to warrant the attention, but still. Considering all the buzz around Batwoman, I'm surprised they haven't tried to use that.

I mean, in this case, it really IS a big deal. JSA is THE legendary superteam. They're the first and the most respectable. Being in the JSA gives you a lot of clout. (Which is why Sandy was the best teenaged hero in the past and Stargirl is the best now...other teen heroes have to make do with teenage teams, they're in the JSA!)

We're not talking about the Teen Titans, the Outsiders, or any of those teams. We're talking about the JSA! The team that's been around in some form or another since the REAL 1940s. It's a big deal that the old staid coots of the DCU are fighting alongside feminists, girls, non-white people, non-straight people...it's powerful symbolism about how the past and the present don't have to be at war with each other, how the values of the past don't have to get lost in the shuffle of progress but are made richer by greater equality, diversity and opportunity.

It should be a big deal that Obsidian's now a member of the team. It ought to be. It's something to be celebrated. It's at least as worthy of attention as some new chick in a bat costume!

But everyone's been quiet. Probably because he's not really a member of the team. He's wall-paper. I personally think that whole cryptic Sand-Obsidian interchange at the end of the first storyarc's supposed to be some kind of foreshadowing for a future arc, but god knows when THAT'll be.

At least a JSA Classified story would be SOMETHING. Even if it means Mr. Terrific will only be in TWO great comics that month. Let's give it a shot!

Disorganized thoughts on Wonder Woman, JLA movie

So apparently Jessica Biel is the new bandied about rumor for Wonder Woman.

You know...I'm not actually displeased by this.

Biel isn't as statuesque as I'd prefer Wonder Woman to be (I'm very much of the Wonder Woman as truly Amazonian in stature school of thought), but she's a far cry from a lot of the other possibilities thrown around. Besides, to be fair, it's not like there are many actresses in Hollywood with the stature I'm thinking of anyway. Some, but not many.

She's athletic though and looks like she may be able to throw a punch. She's also pretty in a fairly classical way. She's faintly reminiscent of Lynda Carter to me, and my gripings about stature conveniently forgotten, Carter IS Wonder Woman for me.

Actually, come to think about it, my ideal Wonder Woman would probably be Melina Kanakaredes circa ten years back. Oh well.

I don't think Biel's one of our generation's legendary actors by any means, but she's functional. And to be honest, much as I love her, I'm not sure Diana's really a role that requires so much...acting. Rather like Captain America, if that makes sense. Sure Diana and Steve are fairly complex and have their characterization issues, but the core of each character is the genuine idealism and heroism. If the actor can pull that bit across, it'd probably be a functional portrayal of the character.

Also, if it's for the JLA movie, it's not terribly likely they'll be going THAT far into any one single member's past or complex conflicts which would require more of an acting commitment.

So really, I think it's a workable casting choice.

Of course, now I'm very very curious about the others. (I'm sure the information's out there, but heck, blind guessing's fun.)

I'm guessing the Flash will be Wally. Even if they go with a "Year One" kind of approach, Wally's really got the modern name recognition. Especially thanks to the cartoon. He's also got the personality probably better suited to the bandied about group of actors.

Green Lantern would probably be Hal, though it seems to me Kyle would be better suited for this group. Age wise and all. Though it'd be really awesome if it were John. Anyone able to point me in a direction to find out about this?

Ooh, never mind, found it, that'll teach me to check Blog@ more often, I only column for them, after all. :-)

So looks like I'm one for two. "Youngest member" definitely sounds more Wally than Barry. And they have John Stewart! That's one prediction I'm definitely happy to be wrong about!

Anyway, I'm actually glad both Routh and Bale aren't involved in this. Much as I've enjoyed both of their performances, their particular movies (Gotham mention aside) strike me as feeling very "closed-universe". It's hard to imagine either movie working out quite the way it does if the other heroes exist, (though to be fair, I suppose it could work PRE-Justice League). Routh, at least, strikes me as a bit too young, for the Superman role in this sort of thing than the whole "Flash as youngest member" thing would imply.

Huh, that's kind of funny. Bale's the one doing the origin story, Routh is doing the continuation, but Routh's the one I think looks too young. Regardless, it'll be kind of neat to see what other actors will do with the role. (Besides, if the movie does turn out as cheesy in all the right ways as I expect it can serve to make me happy while remaining largely unconnected with the more serious elements of the franchise.)

This could definitely be fun!

More on the Goat-Deer Vendetta!

My awesomely awesome good friend Shinsanagi still has some pictures she took from Japan. Sadly none are directly from the evil goat thing's attack, but here's one of me and the evil thing from Miyajima (After I'd managed to reclaim my coat.)



As you can see, I've helpfully and unbiasedly labeled it for your convenience, highlighting my poor ripped bag where I kept my lunch. It's also eating paper.

I'm not petting it. I'm trying to find an angle for strangulation.

Evil.

Shinsanagi also sent me this one which we witnessed:



I'm pretty sure we were all together at this point, so we were a party of three girls that averaged about 5'7" and two guys, easily 6' a piece. Not a single one of us went to rescue that person. We're cowards. :-P

LOOK at those things. Eek.

Non-Comic: Autobiographical: My Great Vendetta

This post is non-comic related and is instead autobiographical, completely true and thus rather boring. Feel free to skip it.

The one disadvantage to having an attention span that works like mine does is that while on one hand, you can be incredibly focused on increasingly bizarre things for long periods of time, it also comes about that other important things can completely slip your mind.

For example, I'd completely forgotten, somewhere along the way, about how I declared war on goats, deer, goats that think they're deer and vice versa. (I can never keep them straight.)

Oh well, it means I now have the benefit of surprise!

See, it all started about four years ago (for perspective, I only started reading comics about two and a half years ago. So my war on certain ungulates has occurred throughout my ENTIRE superhero comic experience!)

Anyway, my reasons for this are threefold, stemming from the study abroad experience I had in Japan. You see, what is not necessarily commonly noted is that in certain places in Japan, deer are held sacred. And those little cretins know it!

Fortunately, I'm over HERE, and thus my vendetta against the little monsters can remain unchecked.

But as to my reasons, again they are threefold:

1. The damn things tried to steal my lunch! TWICE.

Seriously! Every time I saw the damn thing, it'd try to steal my lunch! I need my lunch, you divinely sanctioned evil little monster!

2. They have no respect for personal property.

Not only do they try to steal poor defenseless college student's lunches, once, when I was in Nara, (Nara is the Las Vegas for vile hooved things,) I looked down and saw the body of a deer and a neck. And it's HEAD was BURIED in my PURSE. You don't stick your head in a woman's purse!

Oh yeah, it is ON.

I screamed like a little girl of course, (Diamondrock can attest to this actually, he was there) and the thing very CALMLY pulled its head OUT OF MY PURSE, with a Nara brochure lodged in its TEETH.

That damn thing stole my BROCHURE! It's not like it needed it! IT was a local! I was the foreigner damnit!

It's not just Nara that's plagued by my vile enemy. My adversary can also be found on the island shrine of Miyajima. Where not only did it try to steal my lunch AGAIN (my host mother had made gyoza damnit, that thing will get it over my dead body!)

I also found one biting the SLEEVE of my COAT! (It was hot and I had it tied around my waist.) It tried to EAT my CLOTHES!

...I think Diamondrock was there for that too. Anyway, that brings us to the third reason.

3. While at Miwajima? I saw one EAT a CAN.

Deer aren't supposed to eat cans, damnit. GOATS eat cans. These deer not only get to live in impunity because of their partial divinity, they get to DEFY THE NATURAL ORDER.

They aren't really deer. They're GOATS. Vile, evil GOATS in the guise of DEER.

They MUST be stopped!

They are the DICK GRAYSONs of the animal kingdom and have earned my undying hatred.

In case you doubt the seriousness of this threat, look! It's happened to someone else!



(This picture was taken by Stephen A. Edwards and was originally located at: http://www1.cs.columbia.edu/~sedwards/photos/crazyjapan200207/)

Their reign of terror must end!

The Things I Do In Lieu Of Real Posts...

Okay, first of all, this David Hasselhoff paper doll makes me happy in all the right ways. I am unashamed by my Hoff love, damnit.

Anyway, a few days back I posted enthusiastically about a heroic matchmaking type comic.

Since horrible matchups are invariably more fun than sane ones, this has lead me to the heroic endeavor of imagining the worst, weirdest or most ridiculous possible pairings.

Of course since the top of my list would actually be Hawkman and Power Girl, I'm slightly bemused.

But anyway, here are some really really bizarre/bad/weird pairing ideas that come to mind.

As previously mentioned Huntress and Boomerang.

(It's algebraic: Helena + Owen + relationship = Dead Owen.)

Cassandra Cain and Bart Allen

(Pre Infinite Crisis, I'd bet. Mostly, I think it'd be neat to find out how well her body language reading would work on someone who generally moves too fast for the eye to register)

Amanda Waller and Guy Gardner

(If there's God, this has happened somewhere in the Multiverse. The subsequent offspring has since simultaneously taken over and pissed off the whole damn universe)

Rose/Thorn and Harvey Dent

(...because I'm evil?)

Maxine Hunkel and Tim Drake

(The union of incredibly cute, obsessed superhero fan/stalkers. Sadly, she would die. So no go.)

Wally West and Kyle Rayner

(The combination of constant bickering and mutual lack of attention span alone would be funny. And hell, Wally's died a few times already. He'll be back.)

Damage and Nightwing

(the aaaaangst)

Sanderson Hawkins and Poison Ivy

(...planting. That's all I'm saying. And possibly the best shot at canonical mpreg outside of the Green Lantern universe and that's mostly because Guy gets stupid things happening all the time.)

Donna Troy and Resurrection Man

...Okay I'll stop there.

Anyone got any other incredibly bad, silly, weird or stupid superhero match-ups to suggest?

(Oh, for the purpose of this post: actual sexual preferences can totally be disregarded at leisure. :-) Don't let little things like gender or species get in the way of stupid pairing potential!)

Another reason to like Warrior!

Matrix-Supergirl! Wearing spikes!

I don't know why, but that amuses me enough to forgive the fact that Alan for some bizarre reason looks waay too much like a Ken Doll.

(*sigh* I miss the Matrix Supergirl. Even with her convoluted origin. I thought she was neat. And honestly, I always felt she lost something when she was merged with Linda Danvers and ended up all Earth Angel-y. Too bad.)

Also, that's Arisia holding a clue bat of DOOM. :-) I kind of miss that costume.

Weird Green Lantern thought #446.743

I was thinking about Green Lanterns and I've come to a strange realization.

I can't remember a single time that John Stewart and Guy Gardner have ever really socialized with each other that didn't involve Hal or Kyle.

(I'm not counting the time when Guy was batshit crazy as well, he was crazy and pretty much clashed with everyone. I'm thinking solely of the past ten years or so that he's been sane.)

It's weird, because John and Kyle have interacted a lot, I know, from the time when John was a darkstar and then when he was using the wheelchair. Guy and Kyle interacted more in superheroic team-ups, but they were still seen hanging out a lot.

There were those times John, Guy, Kyle and Alan would all get together to tell the kid old stories and reminisce. But I can't think of anything that was just John and Guy.

After Hal's come back, he's had significant casual interaction with Kyle (you've never flown with me, indeed,), Guy and John.

But still, I can't think of anything that was JUST Guy and John that wasn't, say, a temporary team-up in a fight scene. Even their interaction at the beginning of Rebirth was just waiting for Hal to show up.

There was, as I recall, one storyline in Warrior that involved the two of them, in which Neron uses promise of bringing back Guy's mean dad, evil brother, and Tora back if he kills John Stewart. But ultimately, their interaction consisted of maybe a page which paraphrased went: "You almost killed me!" "Yeah, almost. Here's a bunch of ex-Lanterns, lend me a ship, I wanna go home."

It's strange really, since I think there are a lot of elements to make for some really interesting interactions. I mean, for one thing, think about how testy Guy gets that Hal was chosen first.

Then consider that John was Guy's replacement. The only reason John got the position the first time was because Guy had the bus accident, and after that there was the whole exploding-battery-on-the-first-mission debacle. However, at the same time John actually got to do Lantern-y stuff early on and got to keep doing it while Guy was out of commission. There's really no doubt of the two of them, which is the more experienced Lantern.

That's got to rankle!

And considering that John probably, to an outside observer, seems almost as teflon as Hal. Nothing sticks to him! Guy's one of those characters who gets an unfair share of bad shit happen to him and all he can really do is push through and try to deal with it. John, like Hal, tends toward a loftier demeanor. While we, the audience, know it's not true, it's really easy to see where a colleague would consider them frustratingly untouchable.

Not to mention John's both got far less screw-ups on his record and as well, his big black mark (Xanshi) is so massively big and looming that...well...it's so inconceivable that you can't even blame the guy for it. There's no bitching someone out for that kind of tragic mistake.

Also, while Hal tends to be fairly patronizing toward Kyle and even Guy, he tends to treat John more like an equal partner.

I wonder if there wouldn't be something of a class element as well. To me, John reads very middle class/upper middle class suburban. This is mostly due to my over-generalizing based on career choice (architect), attitude, intellectualized/academic approach to radicalism, and what we've seen of his family life. It's not concrete, of course, but that's how I see him. I think it's kind of interesting that there's a distinct class difference regarding the 2814 Lanterns. Hal (as a military officer's brat) and John on one end and Guy (struggling factory worker's kid) and Kyle (son of divorced immigrant cleaning woman). I'm not sure exactly what that means, but it could add an interesting subconscious level to their dynamic.

John's side is interesting too of course. Because he's in a distinctly different position from Hal or Kyle. Hal knew Guy originally and had spent time getting to know the man before Sinestro got ahold of him. Kyle in turn only knew Guy after the Vuldarian thing kicked in, fixing his brain back up.

John's really the only one of the three whose primary formative experiences with Guy involved the man either being a crazed maniac, an angry brat, or an utter moron. And even if they've all gone out together for drinks and reminiscence to help the kid out or just hang around all "Four Musketeers" (I always did like Porthos best) that underlying perspective will still be there.

I dunno, it seems like there's a lot there to make their interaction fairly interesting, so it's so weird that I can't think of a single time those two were forced to interact without one of the other two involved. Maybe I'm just missing a storyline.

It's pretty weird though...

Massive Spoilers for Captain America 30 herein:

Second post in a row inspired by someone else's review! Wow!

Warning. This post contains MASSIVE SPOILERS for Captain America #30. MASSIVE.

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Okay, this post is largely in response to part of pervyficgirl's Captain America review.

Okay, while Pervyficgirl has many interesting things to say, I couldn't help but disagree strongly with her Captain America review...specifically this part:

Captain America, which is almost always awesome...was not this week. If Sharon Carter is really pregnant that will make me stop reading this series. Oh, Ed Brubaker, why have you forsaken me? Bucky is adorable, Sam wins at life, but Sharon used to have more of a purpose than to cry, be suicidal, and be mind-screwed. I have comics which prove this. Unfortunately, the Ed Brubaker run is not included in them. Look, my thing against the Sharon plot isn't even a feminist concern at this point (though, possibly the pregnancy nonsense is.) It's more along the lines of the same disgust I have for the Parallax plot line. Yawn, yawn, mind control. Standard comic book cliche. But it's only interesting if the character eventually is able to overcome the nonsense. And I know it's not the end, but this storyline has gone on and on and on, and the woman is still sobbing in the shower.

Mostly because I strongly feel that over the past few issues, Sharon's done a lot more than just sob in the shower. She's quit SHIELD, gone around ass-kicking with the Falcon, and been generally her usual kickass self.

She HAS spent an inordinate amount of time in the shower as well, but I think that tends to be understandable if you've been mind controlled into killing Captain America.

I'd also like to point out that while mind-control is a standard comic cliche and Sharon's not overcome hers yet, this is the same issue where Bucky Barnes got taken down by a well-placed "sputnik". Pretty sure that overcoming the mind-control's the way they're going here.

The part that bothers me though is the antagonism to the pregnancy storyline. Not so much the dislike of pregnancy storylines in general, since they do tend to be of dubious quality, but more the implication I get that suddenly this reviewer thinks that Sharon being pregnant is WORSE than all the mind-control and other things.

... Am I the only one bothered with finding anti-feminist themes in PREGNANCY? I mean, sure, it's one thing if EVERY woman in the comic were suddenly spawning offspring left and right. But Black Widow certainly isn't having that trouble while being kickass, and neither is Sin. But okay, acknowledging that a woman pregnant with her dead lover (which, come to realize, doesn't HAVE to be Cap. She was seeing that man who died before her reunion with Steve) is a bit cliched...

(I've always thought Brubaker an incredibly cliched writer. Which isn't intended to be an insult, as he tends to take the cliche, spin it around, and make it utterly satisfying.)

Pregnancy is a woman's issue. Pregnancy can happen to the best of us and the most kickass of us. Sometimes accidently. Now is a time when a pregnancy can do nothing but really fuck everything up even more for her...but you know...sometimes that HAPPENS. And really, the whole implication of pregnancy being anti-feminist sounds like a damn good way to alienate a LOT of women from feminist idealogy. Moreover, it completely ignores the fact that there can be a lot of interesting feminist stories to come from this development (including the decision of whether to keep the baby, give up the baby, abort the baby, or try to be a kickass agent mother...not even getting into when Steve comes back...all those issues strike me as very centered around womanhood and yes, feminism.)

It doesn't help that one of commenters adds:

However, Sharon being pregnant? Please, dear comic gods, kick Brubaker in the head so that he can start writing Sharon like the kick-ass woman she is. Maybe that'll rattle loose an idea for him to bring Sharon back to her kick-ass period.

Okay. Someone needs to go watch Farscape: the Peacekeeper Wars. Now. Because that's a very clear indicator that yes, a woman can be pregnant AND kickass at the same time. (How about giving birth DURING a firefight, gun in hand?) Heck, Aeryn Sun was even MORE kickass pregnant. She had even more to protect. Also, pregnancy hormones.

Seriously, if you don't think pregnant women are scary/kick-ass, go find a 8th month pregnant-to-the-point-of-waddling lady and hand her a gun. Go ahead, I'll wait.

Sharon's always competent and kick-ass and I think it'd be a shame to write her off because of a pregnancy before we even see where it takes her.

(Ten bucks says she's totally going to be shooting people while IN LABOR...I hope Steve's not in there...)*

*Not actually wagering ten bucks here, I'm a broke college student. You think I have that kind of money? Yeesh.

There's a thought!

MildredMilton reviewed the Wedding Special here (Unlike me, there seems to be no grapefruit-wise ambiguity for her, so if you liked the comic be warned) and she had a line there that really made me giggle:

Cut to people getting the invitations. Reactions are evenly split between, "It'll never work," "Finally," and "Seriously?" I like that J'onn says, "I knew from the moment they met." I would actually pay for issues of Martian Manhunter if J'onn ran a dating service.

Dude. I'd totally read that book. :-) I'm not a huge fan of Martian Manhunter outside of JLA type group scenarios (and even then I like him more as psychic network/combat heavy hitter than as the center of the story) but dude, that'd be so entertaining.

A superhero matchmaking service! All the disasterous dates in one place. It'd be fantastic!

Seriously there are SO many single superheroes out there, why not? The couples don't even have to be remotely well matched, could just pull the names out of a hat and then see where that goes! (Hey, I can't see getting any weirder a romantic coupling than Power Girl and Hawkman.)

Think about all the eligable bachelor types out there without dates? Okay, Terrific's finally hooked up with Sasha, but that seems to have been put on indefinite hold, so why not get him someone new? He's handsome, rich, and without half as many issues as Bruce Wayne. Dr. Mid-nite? Sure he can't spell and goes around with a freaking owl, but that's hardly an impediment in the long term.

...heh. I suddenly had the thought that Dr. Mid-Nite and Oracle would make a really interesting couple. Solely on the basis of him having a bird of prey on his shoulder. Nah, it'd never work, he dated Dinah after all and it's always awkward dating your best friend's ex...

Okay, it probably wouldn't suit J'onn's character, but still, someone ought to run a superhero dating service! It'd be funny! (Maybe Olivia Reynolds? We haven't really seen her since the toy storyline in Warrior, but I bet she could branch out. Isn't she involved with Ice Maiden anyway? If there's nothing else many sickeningly happy romantic couples love to do, it's match-make everyone else!)

And who knows, we might end up with some workable romantic couples when it's all through! (Though it's much more fun to make the bad matches: Captain Boomerang and Huntress?)

Since the wedding kind of fizzled as a chick flick sort of event (the ending's kind of a downer, ya know), it might be fun to focus something else on romantic comedy. Or not. Still, it'd amuse the heck out of me. :-)

And hey, since gratuitous crossovers are the norm anyway, we might as well have some fun with them. :-)

Wedding Special, General Reactions

Hmm, I wanted to blog about Tales of the Sinestro Corps: Parallax for a bit (verdict: awesome) but my mind keeps wandering back to the Black Canary/Green Arrow Wedding Special.

(Moderate Spoiler Warning)

It's like grapefruit juice.

That probably doesn't make any sense if you're not me, so I'll try to elaborate. Essentially to this day, I don't know if I like grapefruit juice. Which probably isn't odd, as there are a lot of things I don't know whether I like, the difference being that I haven't tried them.

I've drank grapefruit juice before, a couple of times. And it's not that I'm indifferent to it, but I spend time after every sip trying to figure out if I like or hate it. As I'm generally an opinionated person, I'm used to knowing immediately whether I like something. Here...I've got an opinion, I know I do, but I simply can't parse it.

Much the same as the Wedding Special honestly. There were some parts that made me smile: Roy and Hal's identical reactions to the wedding invitations, Diana and Clark's conversation, the bachelorette party, that picture of Barda carrying Scott in the last scene...

Some parts that made me wince: mostly Dinah's actions in the battle scene. Is she really that stupid to chase after a ring like that? Not to mention, once more requiring saving from Deathstroke...

I have to admit, the ending surprised me. A lot. (Though really, given how skilled a martial artist Dinah is supposed to be, that was the ONLY method at her disposal?) I'm curious to see where it's going in the new book.

Ultimately though, I still can't put my finger on my reaction. Maybe I'll just put it down and reread Cap or Parallax instead.

I hate Starman (JSA version)

Okay, I've held it in long enough.

Starman is really fucking irritating. And by Starman, I mean the JSA ex-old Legion member not the Robinson version.

It's particularly annoying because I really am enjoying JSA right now. Yes, even with the gratuitous Kingdom Come stuff...(as I see it, defining KC as a separate universe and bringing in THAT Superman pretty much firmly separates this DCU from that one anyway, so I can enjoy the parts that were borrowed with impunity.) I'm particularly looking forward to seeing KC Superman turn evil.

I'm just extrapolating from the Countdown image here, but that's my guess.

I've been really enjoying the other new characters too. Jessie and Grant aren't NEW new characters, but they're coming into their own on the team. And Nathan and Maxine are just incredibly cute. As is new Baby!Wildcat.

But Starman? Has LONG worn out his welcome.

Part of it's just that I have very little patience for "zany" characters. I only have room in my heart for one character who is "crazy" in the sense of abject silliness, non-sequiters and wisecracks and that's H.M. Murdock. I don't need anymore, thank you.

See, I like crazy. I do. Crazy is interesting. Mental illness is interesting. Characters that see the world just that bit off kilter are interesting. The thing is, there's a difference between "crazy" and "wacky".

Or god help me, "crazy" and "stupid".

Oh and don't get me started on the interspersing a "wacky" character with "OMG!SERIOUS" moments. The only thing more annoying than a poorly done wacky character is when people try to argue "No! Really! He's SERIOUS AND TRAGIC!" (I don't care how much you make Slobo go blind and have insight, a TEENAGED LOBO created from the blood of a TEENAGED LOBO made so during Sins of Youth is NOT a tragic character, Mr. David.)

I was willing to give Starman a pass early on, and during the Lightning Saga because he did have a fairly decent role to play in that plot. But that was with the expectation that at the end, there would be either the payoff of him BECOMING SANE* or GOING AWAY NOW.

*I would not necessarily say ALL crazy characters should become sane. Just...again, difference between "crazy" and "wacky". "Wacky" gets really really old MUCH faster.

Seriously, I read JSA for the characters, legacies, and the continuity porn. Starman's a redundant legacy (Stargirl's perfectly fine as Ted Knight's legacy thanks), if he's a legacy at all. (Despite Mr. Robinson's fine work tying it all together, I personally think "possible descendant from parallel universe who may or may not be that one guy" is a bit of a stretch.) And heck, even if gravity is the "signal from parallel universes", Stargirl's got a damn cosmic rod! Why not let HER yank out KC Superman?

Hell, if gravity's that important, at this point I'd take GEOFORCE over Starman! He may lack the legacy and be an arrogant doofus, but at least that's an actual personality!

Honestly, at this point he's actually approaching Dick Grayson level annoyance for me. He could miraculously become sane, save the world, have tea with the Shade and shove his tongue down my favorite character's throat (hey, it'd mean panel time!) and I'd still probably be all "Okay, fine, go away."

Especially since there are actual interesting, well developed characters with strong ties to other JSA members going neglected. And yes, I admit, some of this bitterness is probably because my favorite JSA-er got one page of monologue in about two years. But it's not just him!

Let's say we cut all Starman's panel time and split it evenly among Sandy and Obsidian? I bet even if I'm the only one happy about the first, lots of folk will be pleased by the second. Heck, you can even give it ALL to Todd! Please?

No?

Darnit. Oh well, I'm still going to be reading of course. But I reserve the right to whine about it!

Solicit Reactions!

Yay! The DC solicits are up!

Some random reactions in no particular order!

-ICE!!! ICE and GUY!!! He's gonna be so happy! And she's on the COVER! JOY!

--...where are their rings?

---Huh, you know, with all the talk about who might or might get Ion later, we might have missed the obvious solution: they all do. At least temporarily.

-Earth's "prime" Green Lanterns. Well, okay. I guess Guy and Kyle being space troubleshooters means that title's fair. Still, my inner Guy Gardner fan bristles. :-P

-Challengers of the Unknown go to Earth-25! Okay, not really. But it's still funny.

-Montoya and Batwoman both mentioned in Crime Bible solicit! That makes me happy.

-Whoa, something tells me this Booster Gold issue'll end in failure. Still, interesting timing with the whole Killing Joke kerfluffle a few weeks back. Neat to see them address it.

--I wonder how they WOULD go about keeping Birds of Prey if Barbara is never attacked. I guess there really isn't anything stopping her from becoming Oracle anyway, it'd be interesting to see how they'd set it up though.

---Rip's dark secret? He IS Ted Kord. Heh, probably not. But it'd be kind of funny, to me at least. :-)

--NEON THE UNKNOWN?!?! They're bringing back NEON THE UNKNOWN?!?! Okay, THIS I gotta see.

-Why is the Superman solicit referencing parenthood? I know I'm behind, but I didn't think I was THAT behind...

-I'm trying to be optimistic about Supergirl, but honestly, how many "new revelations" do we really need about Kara's past? How about Kara's present and future?

-Justice Society's neat enough. I still wish my favorite character would get more speaking lines. :-) JSA Classified actually looks interesting!

(Though is it just me or are the Classifieds almost always about Alan, Ted, or Michael with a dose of Dr. Mid-Nite for flavor. Don't get me wrong, I love those characters, but it's not like Alan or Ted aren't featured fairly heavily in the main series. And Michael's in TWO series. I'd like to see more characters that don't get lots of panel time get the extra stories...not that I have anyone in MIND...heh.

Oh well, at least it's not Starman. :-) Boy has that character worn out his welcome for me.)

-I'm liking Cassie's costume, but I'm always leery when they take teenaged characters and emphasize a "face from her past". WHAT past?! She's 17! On the other hand apparently Wonder Woman's fighting Captain Nazi, so that's all good. :-)

---

So as usual the solicits make me cheer, gripe, and whine about my long absent favorite character. :-) Looks like it'll be a good month!

Oh and for the record:

CAPTAIN AMERICA #33
Written by ED BRUBAKER
Pencils & Cover by STEVE EPTING
The Winter Soldier faces off against Iron Man!
The man at the top of Bucky's hitlist is finally in his grasp... but saying anything more than that will spoil all our surprises! Still, the final moments of this issue will stun fans just as much as the final moments of Captain America #25 did!
32 PGS./Rated T+ …$2.99

Okay, it's pretty obvious what *I* think is going to happen here (I've actually called it since the October solicit. :-P) So ready your "I told you so's" for if/when I'm proven wrong!

No Post Today

I have absolutely nothing to say today. Also, I'm sleepy and I want to go to bed. :-)

So instead of posting anything of substance, I'm putting up this image of a disturbingly, disgustingly young-looking Guy Gardner from Booster Gold #2:



The dorky sweater is just a bonus really. But isn't he CUTE? Awww.

A Panel I like: GL 23

I like panels that make me think, I like panels that make me think two things at once.

I REALLY like panels that make me think two things at once, neither of which involve any substance what-so-ever.

Take this panel from GL 23:



Thought #1: Whoa! Did he actually snap his NECK? That looks like a "SNA" after all! Considering he's up and about later, he must either a) not have finished or b) they're bringing back Guy's regeneration.

I'm hoping for "b". Not the rest of the Vuldarian stuff as the shapeshifting and gun creating was really silly, but having a lead Lantern character able to regenerate totally allows for even more of that gratuitous violence I love so much since we know he'll get back up! (Sadly for my lust for bloodshed, it's probably a)

(Hey, I wonder if the ring can't be used to temporarily activate latent Vuldarian genes, because that'd come in handy...)

Either way, it probably won't affect their upcoming partnership though, what's an attempted neck-snap between friends.

Especially since Hal ripped out his eye...Guy's surprisingly tolerant about physical maiming...


Thought #2: Okay, you get godhood and the first thing you do is cut your hair, you get demonhood and you get a manicure.

Not helping the whole metrosexual thing here, Kyle sweetie...

My Character Lists!

Okay, so like Rich, I also forgot to get my lists of top ten DC and Marvel characters together to send them in to Brian Cronin's thingy.

But since my tastes are known to change occasionally, I'm very opinionated, and I like telling random people my likes and dislikes out of the blue (and most importantly...I need a blog post) I figured I'd list mine anyway.

Okay.

DC

1. Guy Gardner/Green Lantern

I'm sure this is an immense shock to everyone. Really. I know. I'm shocked too. I've blogged many times about my love for Guy so I probably don't need to do so again, suffice to say, the biggest appeal about the man is that he's a Weeble. Seriously, his ENTIRE decades-long existance is people or fate knocking him down and him unaccountably swinging right back up again. I dig that in a character. The fact that he's mouthy, seekritly squishy, and smarter than he tends to act are just icing on the cake. :-)

2. Sanderson Hawkins/Sandman

Sandy's actually officially tied with Guy in my heart, but the fact that he's gotten maybe three speaking lines in the past year (and even LESS before that) has dropped him down a little. I still love him though, whether he's a snarky little bastard of a sidekick or a quiet little bastard of a sand-monster.

Now if he could just get panel time? Please?

3. Wally West/Flash

I swear to god, I have no idea how he got here. Seriously. None. I've always liked Wally, but it took him showing up at the end of the Lightning Arc to make me realize that I love the jerk. Also marathon sessions of reading Baron/Messner-Loeb Flash comics didn't hurt. Dating a married woman and all.

4. Kyle Rayner/Green Lantern

Floofy artist with no attention span. I don't care what anyone else says, I dig the Parallax costume and the many many teeth. I still don't understand the complaints that Sinestro Corps War is somehow making Kyle look bad either. Please don't explain them to me. I seriously don't care that much. :-P

5. Kara Zor-L/Karen Starr/Power Girl

Power Girl is awesome. And Chairman. And she deserves to be.

6. Tim Drake/Robin

I've gotten to the point where I think I like the idea of Tim Drake better than I like the actuality. (Also as scheming little bastards go, Sand's kind of overshot him in my book. Tim never let his team believe that the other half was dead. And if he DID send a team member to essentially play Russian Roulette with a bad guy who kills on sight, he'd have the decency to guilt about it.)

On the other hand, he did try to clone his best friend, so he's still up here.

7. Linda Park

Probably my favorite DC love interest. Lois Lane is cool too, of course, but let's face it, Clark's a lot easier to have as a husband than Wally is. I'm glad she's back.

8. Hal Jordan/Green Lantern

He's a doofus and an egotist, but he's MY doofus and egotist. I like that the writers rarely ever shy from showing those sides of him either. Even when he's cool and the "greatest Lantern ever", he's still an arrogant jerk who gets felled by ceiling tires or bangs his head in the Batmobile.

9. John Stewart/Green Lantern

I'm a Lantern fan at heart. <3. John is cool and he shines best both on Earth and in a group setting where his cool and brains and stability let him anchor the rest of the maniacs he works with. (I did love Mosaic, don't get me wrong, but all in all, I think he's best served on Earth. Or at least planet-bound)

10. Kate Spencer/Manhunter

Temperamental, Golden Age ties, willing to kill, and a lawyer. I can't not love Kate! Now if only her series'll come back sooner rather than later!

Marvel (Assume 616 unless otherwise noted)

1. Steve Rogers/Captain America

...Yeah, yeah. He shot up there. After he dies, of course, shut up. But this may explain my very likely irrational insistance that he's going to be back sooner rather than later.

Most of my love is for the 616 version, but I do have a really bizarre affection for the quietly crazy 1602 version. Rohjaz clearly lost it along the way, but he also throws serving trays at things and that's just cool.

2. Nick Fury

Because he's awesome. And he makes me laugh.

I like all versions of Nick Fury, though I admit I'm more partial to 616 than Ultimate. Ultimate Nick Fury's great too, but he seems so...sane. You look at him and you're like "I can totally see why people follow him." Where as you look at 616 Nick Fury and it's like "That man is out of his head!!!"

I always did like the crazy.

And yes, I have been reading more Marvel lately, if you can't tell by my shifting list.

3. Bucky Barnes/Winter Soldier

Best. Unthinkable. Resurrection. Ever. It totally should not have worked, but it did. And it's awesome. And even though I worry he's going to get killed off again, I do love him so. Pragmatic angst rocks. (Does Nightwing clothesline a purse snatcher mid-brood, I don't think so!)

4. Hank Pym/Whatever-He-Is-Calling-Himself

Poor Hank, no one can let go of that one little instance. I like him though. He's so very flawed, but he's interesting. And being one of the few comic book heroes with a legitimate mental illness (as opposed to "look how crazy I am!" goofiness, Starman) intrigues me. I want to see him interact more with Victor from Runaways.

5. Eli Bradley/Patriot

...Okay, I'll say it right now, that whole MGH thing...really BAD IDEA, HEINBERG. Aside from that though, I really do think Patriot's remarkably nifty. I like that unlike most teenaged type heroes that have issues with their adult counterpart, Eli's aren't run of the mill or "manufactured" at all. And Cap seems to recognize that. Also, he's smart, strong willed and an awesomely good leader, which I tend to like. :-)

While I insist that Steve WILL be back in his costume soon, goddamnit, I'd love to see a story where Steve ends up meeting a kickass Captain America from ten-fifteen years in the future, who saves his ass and then they team up and it turns out to be Eli. I would be all "D'awww!"

6. Teddy Altman/Hulkling

He's so cute! And nice! And his origins fuck up the Marvel floating 10 year timeline like mad! (Unless Skrull-Krees mature faster or something). I can't not like that. Also, he's cute with Wiccan.

7. Sam Wilson/Falcon

Falcon's just awesome. Even if his costume's incredibly dorky. Seriously. Has that man EVER had a decent costume? Ever?

Still. Awesome. And he once let Steve live in his office. And that's just really sweet. And I like his bird.

8. Sharon Carter

Really, I just like ALL of Cap's supporting cast. Sharon's just nifty though. Even with the rampant sexism of the Silver Age, she managed to be kick-ass. I even liked her relationship with Steve there. He was sexist, sure, but it was a relatable sort of sexist, I think. There's a difference between not necessarily wanting the person you love in a dangerous job and just being a dick to women in general. I mean, no question there's a double standard, but still...

Anyway, I just really really like Sharon. Especially when she shoots or karate chops things. Okay, not so much when she shot STEVE, but that wasn't her fault. He'd forgive her anyway. :-)

9. Scott Summers/Cyclops

I like them uptight and with issues. Also well...I dunno. He was my first Marvel love. He's a dick and has a really bad romantic track record and issues up the wazoo and kids from alternate dimensions and the future...

I just really like him. Besides, most of those issues and dickitude's totally Xavier's fault.

10. Pete Wisdom

I know, I know, he's the quintessential Warren Ellis snarky misanthropic Brit. I like him anyway. He's hot, I dig the suit, and his glowy knife things are shiny. I'm shallow, what can I say?

...

Anyway, that's my list! :-) Blog post done! Going to sleep!

PFP Annual Green Lantern Flame-War Open For Business!

This post of Ragnell's is pretty good. It's expressing frustration at certain Green Lantern fans who can't praise their favorite without knocking the other guy.

Of course, since she titles it "I rarely see this from Guy fans", I had to jump in and flame all the other Earth Lanterns.

Well, I had fun, but the flamewar quickly gets over taken by people with rational intelligent comments. And that's no fun, so I decided to relocate it over here with an open invitation.

All Green Lantern fans, come in here to trash the other guy!

Rules: No intelligent commentary. This is only about knocking down everyone else's favorite! Personal attacks are okay too! It's a free for all!

I'll start of course: Alan's senile, Hal's a weenie, Kyle's a twerp, John's a block of wood. G'nort's a puppy. And that Mathematic Equation...well, what do you think'll happen when someone SOLVES it!

Oh yeah, and Mogo? BEATEN BY A FUNGUS.

Your move!

DC or not DC? Is that the question, now?

I WAS going to blog all gushingly about Green Lanterns, Booster Gold, and all that other good stuff, but I got distracted by something that, perhaps irrationally, annoyed me a tad.

There's been an interesting post here at Dick May or May Not Read Your Blog in which he calls Ragnell, me and Dorian out for our stringent defenses of DC. He mentions my response to Occasional Superheroine's article specifically as "total wishful thinking (exactly what she accuses D'Orazio of!) combined with willful neglect of certain realities of corporate culture."

Of course, the evidence for that is again the Mother Jones article. Which is a criticism I'd directly addressed in the piece and I stand by that. I hardly think Time Warner is going to care about what one fringe publication thinks, as influential and valuable as said publication is in some circles. Especially not in comparison to positive publicity from CNN and the New York Times. I'm sorry but New York Times trumps Mother Jones any day.

I don't know, personally I think anyone can read both articles and see where wishful thinking truly lies. Especially as even if Dick's claim that "firing DiDio would be the clearest way for Time Warner to send the message that the content of DC's comics must be more sensitive to women" is true, there's still the assumption that Time Warner actually cares to send that message. (Not to mention there's no guarantee that Jann Jones, should she succeed Didio, would actually be any more transigent on the specific problems Occasional Superheroine mentions in her article. Not every female fan supports Stephanie Brown getting a case, for example, so why should we immediately assume a female editor would?)

The criticism of that post isn't what gets my goat though. Dick has every right to disagree with my interpretation, just as I have every right to disagree with his and Ms. D'Orazio.

What gets me is how he introduces the whole segment:

But here's the thing: many of the most prominent voices advocating diversity and sensitivity in superhero comics are dyed-in-the wool DC fanatics. I really should point out that this is not so true for those bloggers who focus on race; Brothers is clearly a Marvel dude, while I can't really detect what, if any, allegiance Cheryl Lynn or Rich Watson hold. I know Guy LeCharles Gonzalez was very critical of Dan DiDio back when he was still an active online presence. His and Loren Janvier's absence, however, seems to be tipping the balance towards DC partisans.

I wonder to what extent this influences Lisa Fortuner, Melissa Krause, and Dorian Wright to defend DC against (apparently) irrational fan behavior. 2007 has not been a great year for DC, sensitivity- and diversity-wise (it hasn't been great for Marvel either, but there was a two or three month period where DC just seemed to have one controversy after another). I haven't read the comic alluded to in the posts above, and I sure haven't read any online reaction to it. Maybe these responses are justified; maybe I'm just not invested enough in DC's crossover wrangling to care about these overreactions; maybe there's a shared fear that these particular overreactions are vastly overblown, and exactly the kind of thing which will undermine the cause of feminist superhero fans. But I found it a bit odd that all three would devote so much time to overheated fan rhetoric. Fortuner in particular dwelt on the subject for a number of posts.

Okay, first of all, it's factually inaccurate that DC's been one crisis after another while Marvel has been more sporadic in its offenses. May I gently remind us all how the Mary Jane Statue fervor had only JUST died down when the Heroes for Hire controversy popped up? What has DC done to quite equal that? The Power Girl cover was pretty bad, sure, but it didn't get nearly the press. While the major offenses DC is still criticized for seem to be Sue Dibny's rape and Stephanie Brown's lack of memorial. Both issues are several years old.

The Amazons Attack fervor is comparitive to the aftermath of Civil War fervor at the most. The only real gender tie in is that it's tied to the premiere female superhero. Few people are actually attributing sexism to the claim when they scream "this is ruining Wonder Woman". (c.f. "This is ruining Cap/Iron Man/Spider-Man!")

I should point out that while making a true comparison of this sort of fan reaction is all but impossible, Ragnell and I ARE the compilers for When Fangirls Attack, and thus probably as qualified to judge this sort of thing as anyone else. I respectfully submit that Dick must have got his companies confused, because the only multiple-month outrage that *I* remember chronicling was centered around Marvel.

The thing that gets me though is that if you look at that set of paragraphs, Dick doesn't ask why David Brothers is more inclined to read Marvel. He doesn't appear like he's questioning why the bloggers that focus on race might or might not like a certain company over the other.

So why is he questioning Ragnell, Dorian and my willingness to defend DC? Is it because of our gender focus (extending that umbrella to both sexism/feminism and sexual orientation/homophobia issues)?

Is THAT why we're suddenly "influenced" by much of anything beside the simple fact that, hey, maybe we actually LIKE DC? Maybe we, *gasp*, even LIKE Dan Didio?

Or maybe it's just that we prefer and support a company that Dick does not.

Regardless, while I appreciate the kind words that Dick has to say about Ragnell and my contributions toward the internet discourse surrounding women in comics, I dislike the thought that we have to explain ourselves to Dick and to others about why we may, individually, I might add, support a company or even a person that they don't think warrants it.

Maybe, we don't actually think there needs to be a conflict between our fan-preferences and our politics. MAYBE, we're seeing something that you're not.

We might be right, we might be wrong, but I think that's our business and our decision to make. And if you do respect whatever contributions you think we've made to the internet-comic-feminism-whatever-it-is, maybe you ought to trust that we might have some idea of what we're talking about.

I'm not saying you can't disagree with us. Just please, respect our right to disagree with you.

(Edited to say: I hate when this happens, but after a bit of sleep I ended up with a much better summation of what annoyed me about Dick's post here. It's the comment to Thom. It's quite a bit more coherent than this post.)

Weird Thought...

Okay, I'm sure I'm not the first to think about this, but the implications of a new X-Force got me thinking.

Because, naturally Wolverine's on it. Wolverine's like on fifty teams (okay maybe 2, but I enjoy exaggeration for comic effect) and it's been a running fan joke for a fairly long time...How can he be doing so many things at one time?

Then I thought: Wouldn't it be funny if it turned out that there was more than one Wolverine?

As in, one of them is a Skrull?

No? Okay then. I guess it's just me. :-)

...I'd totally giggle though. Totally.

10 Character Meme!

Ami tagged me!

First, select your ten fictional characters (from any medium) by whichever method you like best. Then answer the questions below.

1. Guy Gardner (DC Comics)
2. Captain America (Marvel Comics)
3. John Sheppard (Stargate Atlantis)
4. Noah Bennet (Heroes)
5. Aeryn Sun (Farscape)
6. Aaron Hotchner (Criminal Minds)
7. Susan Ivanova (Babylon 5)
8. Prince Adam of Eternia (He-Man: Masters of the Universe)
9. Jadzia Dax (Star Trek: Deep Space Nine)
10. Lwaxana Troi (Star Trek: The Next Generation)

1. Divide the list up by even and odd. Which group of five would make a better Five Man Band (like a Power Rangers team)? Who would you slot in each position: Leader, Lancer (second-in-command), Big Guy, Smart Guy, The Chick? If you think the team would be improved by swapping one character between the even and odd groups, which ones would you switch?

...it occurs to me that apparently I like a LOT of leader types. Huh.

Group A: Guy, John, Aeryn, Ivanova, Dax
Group B: Cap, Bennet, Hotch, Adam, Lwaxana

...Okay, I can work with these.

Group A:

Leader: John Sheppard
Lancer: Susan Ivanova (Everyone knows 2ICs do the real work. :-))
Big Guy: Aeryn Sun
Smart Guy: Jadzia Dax
Chick: Guy Gardner (What? it works!)

Group B:

Leader: Captain America
Lancer: Aaron Hotchner (See Ivanova)
Big Guy: Adam of Eternia
Smart Guy: Noah Bennet
Chick: Lwaxana Troi

Damn, I like both teams. Really. I think they balance really well. John's the sort of laid back sort that won't get Guy riled up, while Ivanova provides a more military atmosphere for the others. Hotch's quiet administrative practicality will balance Cap's idealism, and probably help mediate between him and Bennet. And Lwaxana will keep them all from getting too complacent.

I don't actually think I'd switch any of them.

As to which team's better, I'd say it depends on what the mission is. Team A is probably better for first contact missions like we see in Stargate. Team B is probably better for more...directed offensives.

Team B does have Bennet and Hotch though, and it gives them a telepath, a He-Man and a Cap. So I may have to give them the edge.

2. Gender-swap 2, 8 & 10. Which character would have the most change in their story arc? Which the least? Would any of these characters have to have a complete personality change to be believable as the opposite sex?

Okay, I think Lwaxana Troi would both have the most change in her story arc and would be least believable as the opposite sex. I think both Adam and Steve would work surprisingly well, personality wise, as women.

Of course, Steve's background would need to be tweaked some, since I doubt they'd give the serum to a woman, but say if she entered the nurse corps instead of the army (less strict physical requirements), ended up working on Project Rebirth under Erskine, and due to nazi espionage/treachery or something ends up taking the serum herself. Since the army's probably not going to waste a resource like her, woman or no, the rest of Cap's backstory serum-on can probably stay largely the same.

Adam would pretty much require no change. He'd be She-Ra on Eternia is all. Heck, he's got the more traditionally "feminine" personality of the two anyway.

3. Compare the matchups of 1 & 8 and 5 & 9. (Ignore canon sexual preferences for the moment.) Which couple would be more compatible? Which couple would be more plausible to people from either principal's home culture?

Whoa. Well. I was just thinking that Prince Adam as a chick would be like Ice. And Teela IS a temperamental redhead... I'm not sure Adam has enough inner temper like Tora does to keep Guy in line. Though if anyone could provoke it, it'd be Guy Gardner. If he doesn't have it though, I think Guy'll get bored awfully quick.

Hmm, Aeryn Sun and Jadzia Dax would undoubtedly thrill a lot of the guys in the audience. Actually Jadzia likes temperamental warlike honor-obsessed alien folk. And Aeryn dates weird scientists. So it could work.

For all that Adam and Tora have some similarities, I'm gonna have to go with Aeryn and Jadzia as more compatible. Guy likes provoking people, getting them angry, making them react. (He's totally a pushy bottom. :-)) I don't think Adam can be provoked like that though, so it wouldn't work. Too bad. Because Warrior!Guy and He-Man would be pretty hot. I'm not sure Aeryn could follow Trill rules though and not try to resume a relationship with the next Dax host should Jadzia die.

Hmm, as to the culture, that's tricky. I don't remember if Farscape really went into homosexuality much in the Peacekeepers and we know how it is on Earth. Dax's people don't seem to have any such taboo though (except for the relationship extending past current host thing). And Eternia seems to be a fairly tolerant place for an 80s cartoon. I'll go with Aeryn and Jadzia again, as the Trill's the only culture I've really seen actually ADDRESS that even a little.

4. Your team is 3, 4 & 9. The mission consists of a social challenge, a mental challenge and a physical challenge. Which team member do you assign to each challenge?

John Sheppard, Noah Bennet, Jadzia Dax

I swear, I did not plan this ahead of time! Holy crap!

Well, obviously Bennet gets the mental challenge. The man is scary.

Physical and social's trickier. Both Dax and Sheppard are military and obviously fairly athletic, but neither are the "big guy" type. Sheppard's probably more charming and tends to do well with one-on-one stuff, but he botches bigger diplomatic things...Jadzia's got a Trill. But it's a Trill whose hosts include an obnoxious saccharine lady, a psycho and Curzon Dax. And other people too, but from what I dimly remember from the episode where they take over her friends, they were all really fucking annoying.

Okay, provided the physical challenge doesn't involve killing 80 Genii taking over your home base, I'll go with Sheppard for social and Dax for physical.

5. 7 becomes 1's boss for a week in some plausible fashion. How's their working relationship?

Ivanova becomes Guy's boss? My god, the man'll be in heaven.

Hmm, I think there'd probably be some clashing at first. Guy is the sort to push at what he can get away with, but Ivanova's God and doesn't take crap from anyone. I think she'll get him under heel pretty fast and then they'll settle into a good working relationship.

6. 2 finds him/her/itself inserted into 6's continuity. As far as anyone other than 2 or 6 is concerned, they've always been there. What role would 2 be presumed to have had in 6's story, and could they fit in without going wonky?

Cap in Criminal Minds? I guess this is revenge for all the really easy ones before, huh. Well, hmm, I don't really think a superhero suits that particular continuity.

Steve Rogers...hmm...I guess I could see him working as an FBI agent from another division with a fantastic record who ended up out of commission for a while and then ends up either transferred to or working with the BAU. He's probably more dogged and determined than he is brilliant and likely will be similar to Morgan in that he'd end up doing a lot of the wrestling down and tackling of the members. (Provided he still gets to keep the physique.) He's also open and honest without being as clueless/socially inept as Reid, so they might use him as the "people person". He can talk to all the people Hotch scares by breathing. :-)

(Apparently, Hotch was actually designed as a blond, blue-eyed, Mormon, people-person type before Thomas Gibson showed up, played scary intense guy and they decided they liked that better. I could see Cap fitting an original-Hotch role pretty well.)

7. 3 and 5 get three wishes. The catch is that they have to agree on all three wishes before they get the benefits of any of them. What three wishes would they make?

John Sheppard and Susan Ivanova?

Um. Guns. Lots of guns. And strategic weaponry. And um. Guns?

Either way, Wraith and Shadows wouldn't have a prayer.

8. 1 and 2 are brainwashed by a one-time artifact that works even on people immune to mind control to attack and kill 4. They keep their normal personality, skills and competence level, except any Code vs. Killing has been turned off. Can 4 survive? How?

Guy Gardner and Captain America trying to kill Bennet.

Dude. Bennet would live. I don't really know how, but he'd totally live AND unbrainwash them somehow. He's Bennet.

9. 6, 7, 9 & 10 must help an orphanage full of small and depressed children have a merry Christmas. Who does what, knowing that at the very least the kids will be expecting a visit from Santa?

Hotch, Ivanova, Dax and Lwaxana, huh? Well, Hotch likes kids so he'd probably end up in the Santa Suit. (Especially with Lwaxana's prompting). He'll be stiff and uncomfortable, but the kids won't notice because Lwaxana would swoop in and direct everything like a master maestro. Dax might tell stories, while Ivanova watches, plays scrooge for a while, then notice some neglected Jewish children and end up involved in a mini-belated Chanukah celebration and having a good time in spite of herself.

10. 3 and 8 are challenged to circumnavigate the Earth in eighty days or less, using only forms of transportation invented before 1900. Can they do it, or will they be fatally distracted by sidequests or their own personality conflicts?

Sheppard and Adam? God. :-) Those two will have to stop everywhere and save everyone from any kind of plight. While at the same time keeping Sheppard from getting them lost on the ground (though I suppose he'd be okay steering the balloon.)

At the same time, because they're those sorts of characters, they'd still totally make it around the Earth in 80 days. If only to prove McKay's pessimism wrong. (Especially as he'd totally get McKay to think of a way to make it work. :-))

Tagging! Anyone! Memes are fun!

Yahoo!

Okay, so Newsarama's not workin' for me right now so I can't check the link myself, but Brainfreeze has some NICE news over here.

Kyle's gonna be in GLC! Kyle and Guy get to be partners again! Yay!

...is it bad that in my head they've just become the in space equivalent of Homicide's Bayliss and Pembleton? That is if Kyle were like nine feet tall, and Pembleton were an uncouth white redhaired psycho. I bet their interrogations would be interesting.

Yay! All Earth GLs officially accounted for!

Eat it, pessimists! :-)

Irrational Capslock of incoherent joy!!!

Nearly unprecidented third post in one day! Never going to see it again!

But, Ragnell just showed me this. Pointing out that there's likely foreshadowing for a plot about Jim Jordan.

But that's not what I'm looking at. *I* am looking at Booster Gold.

Guy Gardner's HISTORICALLY the Greatest Green Lantern ever! (Booyah, Hal/Kyle fans!)

But that's not the part I'm excited about. They'll undoubtedly fix that back. (Anyway, we Guy fans don't NEED stupid titles to know which Lantern really rocks hardest!)

I'm looking at...the plot!

OMG! YES! Pre-damaged Guy! Sinestro! You have no idea how thrilled I am, seriously! This is like! Dude! Incoherent making!

Booster Gold interacting with Guy Gardner BEFORE Abin Sur ever crashed on Earth!

Booster Gold having to PROTECT Guy Gardner from Sinestro.

When does this come out?! I WANT IT NOW!

Interesting that apparently interacting with Sinestro appears to bring about the alternate timeline Hal saw in Guy's first appearance.

But I digress. I want it NOW! :-)

Praise Be To Editors...

You know, I have to admit, when I write a review, I never consider editors much at all. Oh, I usually blame plot developments that make no sense on likely editorial intent if it looks like they're leading into some major plot event.

But sometimes, editorial interference is a wonderful wonderful thing.

See, in the comments of my post about the Superbuddies stories, SallyP revealed something that if true makes me bless the day editors were invented.

As ridiculous as it was though, it could have been much much worse. Originally, I have heard, Giffen wanted Mary to lose her virginity to Guy...a concept that just makes me cringe. Fortunately, the editors thought it was a bad idea.

Now, I like Keith Giffen, I really do. I may not like Formerly Known As/I Can't Believe its Not The Justice League very much, but he's a funny talented guy with an outright twisted sense of humor. Also he recognized WFA at last year's WizardWorld Chicago.

Still...

BAD! Bad idea! BAD BAD BAD!

Just...

BAD!

Thank god for editors. You may have saved my last link to sanity. Whew.

2nd Hand Marvel Panel Convention Reaction:

Okay, newsarama's got a write-up here and I have two reactions mostly.

The first is the reaction to a new Young Avengers mini-series:

But he and Cebulski announced that there will be a five issue mini-series in January that will focus on the Young Avengers, with each issue done by a different writer and ocusing on a different one or two characters. The writers will be:

Ed Brubaker - Patriot in #1.
Brian Reed - Hulkling meeting Captain Mar-vell in #2.
Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa - Wiccan and Speed in #3.
Paul Cornell - The Vision in issue #4.
"We haven't said who's doing the fifth issue. So there will be more Young Avengers stuff on the way."

Okay, this is awesome news, in my opinion. I love anything that further connects Patriot with everything and anything Cap, Brubaker writing is a damn good sign. I like Brubaker. I like Patriot. This should be awesome.

And also I'm really excited about #2 because I have such a thing for long lost relatives reuniting and I really really wanted Teddy to meet that side of the family. :-)

My other reaction is more to the commenters of the post than to the post itself. See, okay, Captain America's death comes up three times. in the panel write-up. Specifically here:

How can you have Captain America ongoing with no Captain America? Brevoort: "So far so good." Will we see him again? Brevoort: Yes. "On a lot of tombstones. "He's dead. Steve Rogers is dead. As for what that means for the Cap book, yeah, we're going to continue publishing it."

The next fan asked, to the laugh of the audience, so when is Steve Rogers coming back? Brevoort: "Dead. Steve Rogers is dead. Dead."

Here:

Another fan asked about whether Steve Rogers is really dead. Brevoort: "They threw his body in the ocean ... Namor's watching it right now ... Every six months they poke it with a stick ... He's dead!"

And here:

Why did Cap have to die? Brevoort: It was an opportunity to tell new stories about Cap. "In some ways, he's more beloved now than when he was alive," he said. Now Marvel can tell stories about what role he played in the Marvel Universe.

And of course the first few posters are all in the "He's dead forever!" camp. (Perhaps common sense shows up later, but I stopped reading on account of pain from eyes rolling too far into my brain.)

Okay, am I the only who noticed that "He's dead" is not actually an answer to if/when he's coming back?

Seriously, and it might just be my bias speaking, but I read those and come out with even more of a certainty that he's going to be back.

Brevoort has many times in which he could just say "We're not bringing him back. He's dead for good." He explains about the kinds of stories they can tell. He establishes that he's really dead (in an emphatic and overly humorous way that tends to read very playing-to-the-audience) and...that's it.

Honestly, anyone who asks those kind of questions at a convention panel and expects a straight answer is idiotic anyway, since panelists can and do LIE. Brevoort didn't even do that. He dodged the question with a literal answer!

But seriously, this was all planned. All of it. And anyone who doesn't think it's going to end in a resurrection has never read a comic book. This character's been around pretty STEADILY since the forties. So much so that they had to retcon whole decades as other men to unfreeze him from the ice.

There's a MOVIE coming out in 2009.

They never put anyone else in the damn costume! ('xcept Clint, but that doesn't count)

I'm not saying that people can't HOPE he stays dead for a while or bemoan his inevitable resurrection, but dude, it's going to happen. (Honestly, I figure it'll be at the end of the storyline starting in October. The signs seem pretty indicative, but I've been wrong before.)

...this is why I try not to read message boards. Too much silly outweighing the insightful. All you smart message board people ought to get blogs. :-)

Non-Comic: Why Cooper and not Stasheff?

Okay, I saw the trailer for The Seeker: Dark is Rising as well. And it looks indeed dreadful. And I say that as someone who is NOT a fan of the original books.

But it got me thinking.

They stripped all the Arthurian and pagan elements out of DiR, which is pretty stupid as that's the core of the books, to make it some Christian allegory.

What puzzles me is that there are good fantasy books out there with light to heavy Christian overtones that they could have used to make a perfectly serviceable movie.

Narnia isn't the be-all and end-all of religious fantasy, you know.

I just don't get it. Why pick an author whose work you have to gut to suit your ideals? Why Susan Cooper and not say Christopher Stasheff?

I mean, okay, the Warlock of Grammarye might be a bit too high concept for a movie (but come on! High tech agent crashes on world founded by crazy space-fairing SCA types. Robot horses! Pro-totalitarian time travelers out to sabotage the seeds of democracy! Really poor knowledge of genetics! It'd make an awesome movie! It's practically a comic book already!). But what about a Wizard in Rhyme? That'd work pretty well, and it's more overtly religious.

If you don't know the plot, basically this college student, Matt, who's a bit directionless ends up finding this mysterious parchment and ends up spending all his time translating it instead of doing his thesis project. He ends up falling into a fantasy world based largely on medieval Europe where God and Satan are very real and VERY active and folks can cast magic via poetic verse.

It'd probably work pretty well as a niche-fantasy movie. It's somewhat Christian, but not extreme about it. God and Satan quite obviously exist and act on the medieval world, but never on Earth. It doesn't get preachy either. It doesn't really have to since good and evil behavior have very vivid and instantaneous consequences in that world. (Since the story essentially uses religion as "rules of the fantasy world", skeptics and non-Christians may also be able to enjoy the story as well, without feeling like they're being preached at or talked down to.) He's of course got a love interest in the Princess of the Kingdom and ends up joining in the quest to see her crowned. There're swords and knights and all that stuff. The main characters are appealing and there are enough visual effects with fantasy creatures and magic and the like to let the creative teams play with special effects.

As an added bonus, the lead is actually Hispanic. (Both parents are Spanish speaking immigrants from...I forget where actually.) So there can be a nice touch of diversity there too, should they choose to embrace it.

I won't say it's an absolutely legendarily awesome story/series. (Warlock is much better, in my opinion. Less repetitive too) but it's decent, serviceable and could make for a good uplifting mass-market Christian-fantasy movie.

It's not like Stasheff's any more obscure than Cooper and his stories wouldn't require nearly as much gutting to make suit their needs. And it's not like Stasheff's the only good Christian-themed fantasy writer out there either. There's LOTS of material available. Look here or here Or maybe here. Or here. Wikipedia's even got a stub of a page up here.

There's a fair bit of good stuff out there that would be perfect for what these folks want! Why gut something that isn't?

I hate the Superbuddies...

I have a confession to make.

I hate HATE anything Superbuddies.

No, that's not really true. I rather liked Formerly Known As The Justice League for what it was. A pretty funny if substance free collection of jokes.

But "I Can't Believe It's Not the Justice League"?! I'm sorry. It's utter crap. Moreover, it's incredibly overrated crap.

I've never been a really huge fan of humor that requires the characters to be grossly distorted to make the jokes work. Yeah, it's funny that Booster would wish them in Hell. But is he that stupid? No. And really, if you're going to stretch him so far to make that joke, why even use that character at all?

And as a Guy Gardner fan I'm especially annoyed at the caricaturation of my favorite. What? I've got fan-entitlement moments as much as anyone else. It doesn't bother me so much that the timeline doesn't work (Guy got Vuldarian powers during the same time Ice was killed. That adventure was WHY he wasn't there), it's not even that they massacred his personality enough to make him actually fondle a teenaged girl.

(Guy, even at his assiest, wasn't the sort to feel up a woman. Lewd comments sure, but that was pretty much the end of the line. He did it to get them pissed off, not because of any sexual reason. And he certainly wouldn't do it after Ice's death.)

...okay, maybe I am a little bothered that they exacerbated the token jerk to someone who'd sexually ASSAULT a teenaged girl for a joke because paedophilia/ephebophilia is FUNNY.

I'm not bothered by the lawyer thing. Though it seemed pretty pointless. Yes, we law-types are borderline evil, but gym teachers are evil too. Why not work in the joke with something that actually fits his background?*

No. My big problem was that they brought back Ice. Stupidly.

And that intelligent people try to tell me how heartbreaking it was when Guy and Fire played Orpheus to her Eurydice...

and. Um. NO. It was really really awful. It wasn't even original. It didn't even keep in tune with the rest of the story. (First you make Guy a molester, then you introduce Ice as a fast food worker in Hell? And NOW you want to tug at my heart strings?!)

Maybe I would have liked it were I coming right off of JLI to read it. But I didn't. I came off of Warrior. And I know that there's probably only about ten people who could stomach the horribly stylized nineties art enough to actually read the issues, but the whole grief/acceptance of Ice's death PLUS a reconciliation of sorts with Fire? All done. Much better and truer to the characters there.

You know, Ice is mentioned maybe three times in the entire series. Once when Guy storms her kingdom, violently shoving would-be guards aside cursing and shouting until he's met by Queen Olaf next to a memorial. She doesn't try to stop him and he gets quiet. Then they speak partially in Ice's language, which he speaks clumsily but understandably and English. It's a man grieving for his love, a woman for her daughter, and that woman reaching out to the man as mother and son in their time of mutual loss.

Another time, Guy's alien abilities are going quite mad, out of control, he's raging and they can't do anything to contain him. Until Matrix-Supergirl becomes Ice. Then he stops. They reach him. He doesn't say anything about her. They don't really talk about it at all. But that's part of why it's such a powerful moment. When nothing else would reach him, her image did.

The third and last time she's addressed is the Christmas issue, which Guy begins moping about his losses and ends with a new maturity about what he has. After a reconciliation with his father (dead, via Spectre), he argues with a slowly-getting-more-inebriated Fire, then meets Olaf. He shows her what he made (had made?) for Ice, in Warrior, an incredibly beautiful statue. It dominates Warriors, dwarfing even the Green Lantern monuments. She is moved and she gives him a small magically created figurine of him and Ice together. She tells him that he can't bury himself in grief. In the past. Then he and Fire collide, are about to fight, lock eyes over it (naturally they're under the mistletoe) and they decide to mutually share their love and grief for Tora in other ways.

It's really a lot better than it sounds. It was really emotional in execution.

Aside from those moments though, Ice is never really mentioned. But somehow throughout the entire run, his grief and love for her is this incredibly powerful underlying thread. Especially as Guy is finally able to mature in a way he wasn't medically capable of in JLI. It's poignant particularly that the Christmas issue really marks the pinnacle of his emotional growth into the man Tora always wanted and believed he could be.

And every bit of it is in character. The emotional growth felt organic and stuck (a rarety in comics), while the way in which Fire and Guy reconciled might be tawdry with other characters with the two of them, with the way they feel and act, two passionate and emotional people quick to express temper and hate, capable of such loyalty and love...it worked. They weren't a romantic couple and it wasn't about sex, it was about both of them letting go of grief and past hurts and anger and finding something else. They're friends after that point and it works.

Sure an Orpheus-Eurydice story can usually cause a little tingling in the back of the eye, but it's cheap and dreadfully overdone. Practically everywhere, as though it's a badge of "hey look, I'm cultured, I know greek myths!"

Which isn't fair of course. Orpheus is a powerful story, full of emotion, a man loves so much that he can't resist that one look back. Doubt robbing him of all he'd dreamed of. But...honestly? It's a tragedy because of the trope. It's a tragedy because of the concept. There's nothing inherent to the characters.

If Superman and Lois Lane acted out the Orpheus myth, it'd be just as sad and heart-wrenching. If Nightwing and Kory/Barbara/whichever he's in love with right now did it, it'd be able to wrench a tear from many a cold eye. But it's not really THEM. It's about loss in general. NOT about Superman, Nightwing, or anyone else's grief or love. It's just about the loss.

I did like that Guy had enough will not to look back. But really, I don't think Bea would have either. But of course, someone has to. Or the story isn't a tragedy. And in retrospect, it's awfully meaningless now that Ice is back, isn't it?

Warrior wasn't a tragedy. And even if they hadn't...resolved things so admirably in that one issue, it still wouldn't have been a tragedy. It was a story arc about growth. About a boy, if not chronologically, becoming a man.

And you know what? Now that Ice is back? It's STILL powerful. Because the point wasn't the loss, it was about moving past and beyond. When they finally reunite, I hope they're together again, but if their time has passed, that doesn't change any of the emotional strength of those stories.

And don't get me started on the stupidity of the mirror universe and kinky S&M Mary Marvel or lisping Captain Marvel. That was just really really dumb.

(*Heh, it occurs to me though that Guy as a lawyer = Geoffrey Fieger. Okay. Now I DO want Guy to get that law degree. Hehehe.)

New Linkblog: "Comic Gays"!

Hey! Look at this!

Dorian has a new project up!

Comic Gays

It's a bit like a WFA type link blog but for gay/lesbian/bisexual/transgender topics. It's also not just comic books, but includes sci-fi and fantasy too. It's got a particularly nice logo as well.

It really looks great!

10 Mainstream Superhero Comics that THIS Feminist Likes...

While compiling WFA today, I came across an interesting assertion that implied heavily that there were no mainstream comics that are "what feminists want"? (Here's the link if you want.)

Now, I personally admit that I hesitate to recommend something based on feminist issues. Mostly because all feminists are different. And also, to be honest, I don't tend to think about the issues when I read except to notice the problems. Otherwise, I'm just enjoying the comics.

But because I like being contrary, I decided to think deeply about what mainstream comics I really like from a specifically feminist standpoint (omitting all other factors), this isn't the totality of my list. But ten is a good even number I think.

Green Lantern Corps: Green Lantern's traditionally kind of hit or miss when it comes to feminism vs sexism issues, but GLC is awesome both from a storytelling standpoint, but also from a feminist one.

While Guy Gardner owns my heart of course, from a feminist standpoint, the real draw is Soranik Natu. She's tough, strong, a bit uncertain with her role yet, torn between her planet and her job, incredibly competent, intelligent, a doctor and NOT defined at all by the standard "female" roles. Soranik is essentially the second lead of the GLC and thus is very prominently featured.

Soranik's partner Iolande is fairly new and undeveloped yet, but she's interesting too. She's much more traditionally feminine, a (former?) princess, but so far she's been proving herself to be fairly competent herself and an easy match will-wise to her partner. As an added bonus, when she and Soranik talk or argue, it's never about silly things like men or their love lives.

Gleason's art is also wonderfully adept at giving all the female characters distinct and varied looks.

JSA: Not only is Power Girl Chairman now, she's a very good Chairman. There's no question that Power Girl is appealing from a feminist perspective. She's attractive, powerful, stubborn and tough. Seeing her lead and get recognition for it is wonderful.

She's not the only interesting female character though. Stargirl is always the spirit of the team for me, her development and growth as a young woman is very much a draw to the comic book. The reboot made a good choice, I think, in casting her in a mentor/older sister role to Maxine Hunkel, who is another appealing example of a different type of young woman.

We lost Hawkgirl in the reboot but got Liberty Belle, so I'm not too upset. Jesse can be giggly and annoying, especially when the topic of her marriage comes up, but so many newlyweds are. And honestly, it's nice to see a portrayal of a woman who is happy in her marriage and truly gets joy out of it. Her nurturing relationship to Damage is nice as well.

And of course, there's Ma Hunkel. She doesn't get to do much, but it's nice to see an older female character still taking an active role in herodom, even if she's not out there fighting herself anymore.

Manhunter: Yeah, I'm cheating a little since it's still on hiatus. But whether in Trade Paperback or Issue form, it's never not awesome.

Birds of Prey: A staple of course, lots of sexy, kickass heroines with very distinct designs and costumes. (Also, the acknowledgement of Oliver Queen's sexual assault at the hands of Shado was long overdue.)

JLA: JLA's writing's been uneven of late, but its not a team that suffers for interesting, dynamic and powerful female characters. Wonder Woman, Hawkgirl, Vixen, Dinah Lance all kicking badguy ass for our amusement. Can't really go wrong there. (Okay, that Roy and Vixen underground one kind of did, but in general, I'm pretty satisfied).

Checkmate: Power games, espionage, and awesome female characters. Jessica Midnight, Fire, Amanda Waller, Mlle. Marie and Sasha Bordeaux couldn't be more different from each other, but they're all awesome, powerful (in their own ways), kickass and interesting.

Superman: Lois Lane is very much a feminist draw for me. She might get captured and need rescue a lot, but she's also a force of personality to reckon with. She's never not on equal standing with her husband, powers or no powers. She's fun. (Also as an added bonus, Ma Kent. And Clark's bevy of generally professional, assertive and appealing ex-girlfriends. :-))

Captain America: Sharon Carter was by and large the best Silver Age love interest ever in my opinion and she's still going strong today. She might not be as powerful or physically adept as Steve, but Agent 13 more than manages to carry her own. There was the whole killing Steve thing admittedly, but we all know he'll forgive that. And she's got a lot of interesting plot going on right now.

Ms. Marvel: I think Ms. Marvel's not necessarily the most appealing female character out there right now, but she's particularly interesting to me because she doesn't fit a typical female hero mold at all. Her assholish tendancies, her blindspots, even her alcoholism tend to be traits largely limited to male characters. She doesn't fit the mold which makes for interesting variety. Also, she punches things. I like that.

She-Hulk: Yeah, I dropped the title myself. Slott's humor started getting way too meanspirited for me. Still, when talking about what I like seeing from a strictly feminist standpoint, I can't leave Jen out. Big, green, sexy, smart, fun and a lawyer! What more could you want? (I'm totally leaping back on with the writer shift)

Mostly what I look for as a feminist in my superhero comics are women who are varied, interesting, powerful (in terms of actual power, ability, or personality), attractively designed and very developed as characters. I won't say I haven't encountered problems in individual storylines or issues of any of these series, and hoo boy am I willing to complain when I do, but in general THESE are the sorts of comics that this feminist likes and I'm generally very happy with them.

Why I love "canon"

Heheh, following Kevin's example, Ragnell's posted why she hates the word canon.

Which perversely is the same reason I love it. I don't agree with the "must be written by one author thing" since I'd always heard "canon" comes from literature like the bible. And those books were not all written by one person. Well, unless you count "God", but He usually got His minions to do that sort of thing. What's the point of being a deity if you can't hire a secretary to take dictation?

Mostly though, it's the exact carved in stone thing that I love. Because it's so inappropriate for comics. I keep imagining these huge ten-commandment like tablets with the facts and events carved in. Then crossed out and re-carved next to it. Entire tablets get smashed.

It's like that part of History of the World part I where Moses drops the tablet "I bring you these fifteen" *crash* "ten! commandments"

Heh, I love the idea that when Emerald Dawn I and II came by entire decades of Green Lantern stone were crossed out and now with the Infinite Crisis, someone had to go to each one and carve "STET" on the top.

It just is a really really amusing mental picture. Continuity, being all clean and smooth and river like just lacks that for me.

So I use "canon" and I love it. And I snicker the whole damn time.

(Thanks Rob for the correction: Stat -> Stet. :-))