New and exciting forms of piracy
Dec. 11th, 2005 10:29 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
tocryaboutWhy am I only finding out now about comics in cbr format on soulseek? I have enough friends who are comics nerds that someone -- perhaps one of you -- should have told me.
However, I'm still a sad enough geek that I actually BUY New X-Men: Academy X or whatever they're calling themselves these days. I downloaded an issue I already own to make this icon, because the world needs more Wither icons.
I probably shouldn't like this book as much as I do. I'm aware, while reading it, that the art is pretty shitty and the writing is about at the level of a lame after-school cartoon, which is probably the market they're going for, judging by the ads. Marvel clearly believes that I will buy Kellogg's Scooby Doo Berry Bones if they appear alongside Hellion and the gang. They may be right, unfortunately.
Anyway, not only is it a pretty shitty book, but the constant revamps and reloadings and gimmick alternate universes all bear the stench of someone in an office going, "Nah, nah, give me attitude, attitude! Uh...sunglasses!" My favourite character has been written out of the story twice so far, and may be about to go AWOL again. Fabulous.
But I do keep reading it, because there's something there. I like how Hellion is a complete and utter cock. I like Rockslide being happy-go-lucky and not all angsty like The Thing or The Hulk. He's all, "I'm rock! Hooray!" I like Laurie being sweet and girl-next-door on the surface, but manipulative and selfish underneath. I like Dani and Shan no matter what they're doing.
Most of all, I like Kevin being a typical Marvel no-one-can-touch-me/my-powers-are-so-deadly angst machine...but there's also a creepy undertone to him. Not just that he likes using his deadly power, although he does, but also that he did something extremely spiteful to his personal nemesis and to the girl he likes, because he was lonely and bitter and jealous. And he hurt them by following the rules to the letter. In both of the "alternate universes" we've been shown so far (House of M and a vision of Dani's), Kevin does horrible things. And he's great as a villain, because we know that he doesn't lack a conscience and we know how much rage and pain he's had to deal with.
As a hero, he kind of sucks. You can't have a good guy rot all the flesh off somebody and then have an ad for chocolate milk, so usually Kevin just stands around saying, "I won't use my power! Never!" At one point Hellion basically says, "Fine, then hold my coat while I fight."
I think Nunzio DeFilippis and Christina Weir didn't quite know what to do with a character like Wither (they said something to that effect in an interview once), so I'm hoping that Craig Kyle and Chris Yost are as dedicated to Google as their predecessors. Are you ready, Craig Kyle and Chris Yost? Have you two Googled your way here? Because here is valuable advice: Kevin Ford needs to be a villain. Like, yesterday. I know you guys want to write out everybody you think is extraneous so that X-23 has lots of room to pop her claws, but please don't cast Wither off completely or let him fade into the background. He didn't succeed as a hero because he's faintly unsettling, and you can use that. Have him lose his shit and disappear for awhile, then reappear withering the hell out of everyone. It'll be fucking great. End of message.
I liked #20. I like the Decimation thing. (This is another issue where Kevin strikes a weird balance between normal and hey-how-dare-she-prefer-to-date-the-guy-who-didn't-just-take-her-arm-off? so I'm pleasantly surprised.) I dislike X-23 because Wolverine is the only one who can get away with being Wolverine, and the position is filled. I'm interested to see how this plays out, anyway.
Liking bad, unpopular comics (and bad, unpopular TV shows, etc.) is pretty universal in fandom. There's something special about those shining points of potential in a bad soapy story. I'm not sure what it is -- maybe just the realisation that even ordinary non-geniuses can hit on something really good, even if they don't know it. Making art isn't all skill. There is grace to it, grace in the sense of something falling from above. Masterpieces like Hamlet are full of grace, of course, but it's the difference between rain falling on wet ground and rain falling on dry cement. In bad stories, we can clearly see the outline of what makes good art divine.
Or maybe I'm just too insecure about reading bad comics and liking awful shows.
P.S., in case nobody notices due to friends-page viewing and style=mine, I redid the design of this journal rather than write my Kant essay. I am a bad person but the sidebar (from a larger image I made of the whiteboard at Joel and Paul's house -- yes I am a self-indulgent OC author, mollycoddling her characters offstage with silly doodads) contains many things that amuse me. You can have fun guessing what they are, or have more fun by laughing at me. Either way I increase the amount of happiness in the world, which is what Kant would have wanted.
However, I'm still a sad enough geek that I actually BUY New X-Men: Academy X or whatever they're calling themselves these days. I downloaded an issue I already own to make this icon, because the world needs more Wither icons.
I probably shouldn't like this book as much as I do. I'm aware, while reading it, that the art is pretty shitty and the writing is about at the level of a lame after-school cartoon, which is probably the market they're going for, judging by the ads. Marvel clearly believes that I will buy Kellogg's Scooby Doo Berry Bones if they appear alongside Hellion and the gang. They may be right, unfortunately.
Anyway, not only is it a pretty shitty book, but the constant revamps and reloadings and gimmick alternate universes all bear the stench of someone in an office going, "Nah, nah, give me attitude, attitude! Uh...sunglasses!" My favourite character has been written out of the story twice so far, and may be about to go AWOL again. Fabulous.
But I do keep reading it, because there's something there. I like how Hellion is a complete and utter cock. I like Rockslide being happy-go-lucky and not all angsty like The Thing or The Hulk. He's all, "I'm rock! Hooray!" I like Laurie being sweet and girl-next-door on the surface, but manipulative and selfish underneath. I like Dani and Shan no matter what they're doing.
Most of all, I like Kevin being a typical Marvel no-one-can-touch-me/my-powers-are-so-deadly angst machine...but there's also a creepy undertone to him. Not just that he likes using his deadly power, although he does, but also that he did something extremely spiteful to his personal nemesis and to the girl he likes, because he was lonely and bitter and jealous. And he hurt them by following the rules to the letter. In both of the "alternate universes" we've been shown so far (House of M and a vision of Dani's), Kevin does horrible things. And he's great as a villain, because we know that he doesn't lack a conscience and we know how much rage and pain he's had to deal with.
As a hero, he kind of sucks. You can't have a good guy rot all the flesh off somebody and then have an ad for chocolate milk, so usually Kevin just stands around saying, "I won't use my power! Never!" At one point Hellion basically says, "Fine, then hold my coat while I fight."
I think Nunzio DeFilippis and Christina Weir didn't quite know what to do with a character like Wither (they said something to that effect in an interview once), so I'm hoping that Craig Kyle and Chris Yost are as dedicated to Google as their predecessors. Are you ready, Craig Kyle and Chris Yost? Have you two Googled your way here? Because here is valuable advice: Kevin Ford needs to be a villain. Like, yesterday. I know you guys want to write out everybody you think is extraneous so that X-23 has lots of room to pop her claws, but please don't cast Wither off completely or let him fade into the background. He didn't succeed as a hero because he's faintly unsettling, and you can use that. Have him lose his shit and disappear for awhile, then reappear withering the hell out of everyone. It'll be fucking great. End of message.
I liked #20. I like the Decimation thing. (This is another issue where Kevin strikes a weird balance between normal and hey-how-dare-she-prefer-to-date-the-guy-who-didn't-just-take-her-arm-off? so I'm pleasantly surprised.) I dislike X-23 because Wolverine is the only one who can get away with being Wolverine, and the position is filled. I'm interested to see how this plays out, anyway.
Liking bad, unpopular comics (and bad, unpopular TV shows, etc.) is pretty universal in fandom. There's something special about those shining points of potential in a bad soapy story. I'm not sure what it is -- maybe just the realisation that even ordinary non-geniuses can hit on something really good, even if they don't know it. Making art isn't all skill. There is grace to it, grace in the sense of something falling from above. Masterpieces like Hamlet are full of grace, of course, but it's the difference between rain falling on wet ground and rain falling on dry cement. In bad stories, we can clearly see the outline of what makes good art divine.
Or maybe I'm just too insecure about reading bad comics and liking awful shows.
P.S., in case nobody notices due to friends-page viewing and style=mine, I redid the design of this journal rather than write my Kant essay. I am a bad person but the sidebar (from a larger image I made of the whiteboard at Joel and Paul's house -- yes I am a self-indulgent OC author, mollycoddling her characters offstage with silly doodads) contains many things that amuse me. You can have fun guessing what they are, or have more fun by laughing at me. Either way I increase the amount of happiness in the world, which is what Kant would have wanted.
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no subject
Date: 2005-12-12 04:35 am (UTC)Wait, for free? I'm right with you, out of the loop.
shining points of potential
Wow, that is beautifully put. Makes me want to save this entry in "memories."
no subject
Date: 2005-12-12 04:41 am (UTC)And thank you. My brain is everywhere and I'm supposed to be writing a Kant essay about now, so I'm lucky to squeeze out anything besides "GRANT MORRISON GOOD! ALEX SMASH!"
no subject
Date: 2005-12-12 04:44 am (UTC)