CosmicSpiral

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Looking for Scans

Right now I'm participating in DC League 2010 over at CBR (Comic Book Resources). I have a team in mind but I need some help approximating their skills and powers. Currently I'm in need of scans for: 
 
Tribulus  
Ice (especially the "power-up" she received in Generation Lost #11) 
Synnar the Demiurge 
Brainwave Jr. 
Post-Crisis (whatever versions of the Legion after that point) Wildfire
Post-Crisis Psycho-Pirate 
Cyclone 
Firehawk 
Ghost Fox Killer 
Mirror Master 
Pied Piper 
 
If you have Post-Crisis scans of these characters showing off their powers, brains, and skills, please send them to me via PM. You can also post links or the pictures in the thread if the mods allow it. 

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I'm sorry

I said the Tenth Circle was the worst JLA story I've ever read. Then I read the Pain of the Gods. 
 
%#&@ you, Chuck Austen. That's all I have to say. 

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Unintentional Racism in Comic Books

Pleas read the link first before reading the rest. 
 
http://www.comicsalliance.com/2010/05/06/the-racial-politics-of-regressive-storytelling/

I remember my first comic book: beginning of freshman year in college, Thor #1 in a Barnes and Noble down at the Waterfront in Pittsburgh, PA. I picked up on the whole legacy hero theme in JSA (basically heroes passing the mantle and name down), but I was never concerned with learning all the back stories of all the characters who once wore a costume. The "Blue Beetle" to me is Jaime Reyes; my Green Lantern is Kyle Rayner, and Firestorm is Jason Rusch. 

So I've greeted the recent onslaught of past characters being reintroduced into DC's mainstream universe with apathy and cynicism. Who is the hell is Ronnie Raymond? Didn't that Barry Allen guy died 20-something years ago? Most of these characters are being brought back for a reading pool that is already familiar with them, but not me. I grew up with Ryan Choi, and this "Ray Palmer" dude is stealing the spotlight from him! And wasn't Hal Jordan popular during the Red Scare or something? Why are all these characters that I don't know and don't care about replacing the characters that make up my comic book reading list? Objectively, why are all these characters returning instead them simply creating new characters or running with their current ones?

If you've aware of Brightest Day or The Heroic Age, you can see a trend of "returning to the old days". The Superhero Registration Act, which caused Civil War and led to Dark Reign, was wiped out in [I]one panel[/I]. Marvel is promising the Big Three (Thor, Captain America, Iron Man) heavily again. DC undid several character deaths, and has brought back other legacy characters like Allen and Palmer. 

These moves are originating from the nostalgia of a shrinking consumer base that wants [B]its[/B] characters back. It's ironic that comic books are automatically associated with kids and teenagers, when the core demographic consists of much older readers and don't want "their" characters fucked with. The writers and editorial staff themselves are subject to this as well since most of them got into the business as passionate fans. I understand their desire to hold onto the characters they love, but there are bad consequences to putting this above things like [I]good storytelling[/I].

The most obvious one is creating (reference to title) an appearance of unintentional racism. The majority of these returning legacy characters were originally created during the Golden and Silver Ages, times when most heroes were predominately white and minority characters could be reduced to their respective stereotypes. Some examples:


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 Tyroc (1976). His superpower was inducing reality manipulation by literally speaking gibberish. He dresses like a disco pimp and comes from an island where all the black people in existence went to settle. To be fair, the power and dress were made by Jim Shooter to make the character ridiculous because he hated the origin story in the first place. 

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 Dawnstar (1977). Descendant of Anasazi Indians kidnapped by aliens and removed to another planet. She can track pretty much anything across lightyears in space. Besides the superpower that stops short of being offensive, she dresses the exact same way as a typical "Native American" despite existing 1000 years in the future. 

And those were relatively recent. I'd rather let the older ones speak for themselves.

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Most of these characters (except Dawnstar) will never return from obscurity. They suffered from horrendous writing and were based on concepts too offensive to bring back to the mainstream universe. We've come a long way, but even today ethnic stereotypes run rampant in mainstream comic books. How many Asian characters [I]don't[/I] have ties to martial arts, dragons, and mystical Oriental powers? 

Meanwhile, the legacy characters have the advantage of appealing to both older and newer readers. You probably know of Green Lantern and Batman even if you've never read a comic in your life, and longtime readers already have the acquired connection to constantly buy comics with these characters in them.

If you doubt what I'm saying, check out this list Ryan Mullenix scrounged up: http://www.bleedingcool.com/2010/05/15/the-new-apartheid-of-dc-comics-by-ryan-mullenix/ This is another problem, primarily that most writers can't write minority characters and use them as cheap plot devices/remove them/screw them over because they are not popular (which the nostalgia factor heavily influences). 

Why is this important? Basically, this self-cannibalizing trend could possibly spell the end of mainstream comics as we know it. It's a vicious cycle that will shrink the totality of readers instead of expanding it, making the vocal cries from the dedicated fan base harder and harder to ignore. They are catering to the past at the expense of the future.    
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So I read some Judd Winick today...

I picked up The Trials of Shazam! volume 1 and Outsiders: Looking for Trouble at my local library. I know about him primarily because of his emphasis on gay/lesbian characters, but never read anything exclusively written by him. Heard bad stories or flat-out "sucks" comments on the forums. *cloud of forewarning*
 
He wasn't as bad as I had imagined. He has a certain knack for setting up banter between characters, and overall the issues ran on competently. Sometimes it was nice to watch superheroes just trying to talk like normal human beings. Unfortunately this is the basis of several problems. It didn't help that I'd read volume 1 of All-Star Superman just before those two, which made everything following this paragraph look three times as ugly (at the time).  
 
Pacing and set-up were kitschy. Winick feels the need to articulate the events prior to whatever he's writing about. In Shazam it happens through exposition and in Outsiders through the characters, but both eat up a considerable amount of time. The set-up for Outsiders was worse since it requires the characters (Dick Grayson, Roy Harper, etc.) to verbally complain/rage about everything that just happened to them. However, no one with some comic-book knowledge should have Shazam and Spectre explained to them.  G-Man sometimes talks about the value of recaps in the first few pages of comic books, but IMO it leads to lazy writing more often than not.  
 
Reading All-Star Superman and The Trials of Shazam! side-by-side presents an obvious difference between Grant Morrison and Judd Winick. Morrison is criticized a lot for being too "high-concept" in a medium where such things lead to raised eyebrows of cynicism. However, he clearly has a handle on the worlds he chooses to create and knows how he wants to define his characters. Winick doesn't have a clear vision of the magical world post-Shazam, and it shows in his attempts to details the aftereffects of Day of Vengeance. They all feel incomplete and ignorant of others events on Earth. Apparently the rules of magic have changed, but everyone else than Billy Batson and his helpers are doing fine using their powers. There are a lot of references to things that sounded magical, but largely composed of semi-humanoid beasties in various shades of grey and green. The Council of Merlin is the major enemy, and a Creole sorceress named Sabina is Freddy's dark counterpart. The former is a bunch of goatee-sporting businessmen sitting around getting frustrated, while Sabina summons pig-headed heathens and such to thwart young Fredster. None of this is explained, especially why this is the only group looking to acquire Shazam's powers.  
  
The "gods" are weak-ass. They're gods for the contemporary world: Hercules is a Yakuza-fighting murderer, Achilles is a Middle Eastern soldier, Solomon a tattoo parlor chick. The quests involved frankly don't make sense at all, and Freddy doesn't learn anything remotely useful beyond standard hogwash. Lamest part: Sabina actually steals strength from Hercules. It might be time to move on to some new gods who can protect themselves from harassment. 
 
I stopped reading up to the middle of the Outsiders volume, so I'll reserve judgment on that. I did enjoy Indigo although her attempts to fit it were pushed a little too hard. 
 
Is this the experience other forumers have felt when reading Winick?

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I Don't Get It

Why must I do this to complete a quest?  
 
Anyway, Oreos are the shit. I would love to get paid in the form of Double Stuf cookies. No milk for me, lactose intolerance issues.  

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ARGH!

I can forgive a lot of things in comics. Generally I don't even notice them since I don't have the time or money to scan every panel and ponder on what's happening, why it's happening, and what it means. Certain comics are just a mess to go through, but something always salvages it. A great scene, a funny piece of dialogue, a new piece of information can overcome the worst writing and characterization. Yes Loeb, even you cannot dim my annoying optimism whenever you turn out atrocities like the Red Hulk's rampage across the galaxy. I love comics plain and simple. But my enthusiasm can be crushed. There are moments too hard to bear. 
 
Here is Justice League: Cry of Justice #6, written by James Robinson with art by Mauro Cascioli. I've heard about the controversy surrounding this mini-series and there's certainly a lot of conflicts to talk about. From what I've read, there's a mixed bag to be found. Sometimes the art can be stiff, sometimes the dialogue cliched and silly. I'm not going to go into all of that. Just read these four panels 
 

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It's great to see Prometheus back in action, the original. Chad Graham was alright, but he fluctuated like a plucked string. At best he was a major annoyance when Morrison's version was a significant nemesis of the JLA. So I was really excited to see how Cry of Justice would reintroduce one of my favorite villains of all time. 
 
Turns out, I've been had. 
 
Those four pages are absolutely chock-full of shame and regret. Or a fanboy's overzealous attempts to make his star seems like Superman with the heart of a blue star.  
 
First (and correct me if I'm wrong), I'm sure Freddy Freeman can say "Shazam" all he wants, thanks to The Trials of Shazam. There are allegedly pokes at him in this series because of that, and it's silly to make fun of a mini just because it wasn't up to par. Minor point. 
 
Don't ask how Prometheus replicated Freeman's powers or (God help us) why he wouldn't continue to use them when he gets attacked. It's one of those large details you're supposed to just accept.  
 
Page 3 is where the palm starts hitting the face. We see Prometheus pulling out the first trick, bullets allegedly forged by the Greek/Roman god of metallurgy, Hephaestus. Since they're magical, a Kryptonian would receive the same damage as if an ordinary person was shot by an ordinary bullet. That's what one would expect. He shoots, she falls, makes perfect sense.  
 
Except...her body language doesn't say she was shot. If the force was sufficient, she would turn on an axis centered on the opposite side of her body. Unlike in movies, real victims don't fly backwards when the casings start flying. That's reserved for the end of car crashes, bullies shoving wee-little kids and alien warriors getting smashed by wrecking balls. A bad judgment call there. 
 
The shot goes through her shoulder. Now, people tell me that Kara would hover there because she believes she can take it. They also claim that Superman tanks blows and blasts due to habit, and he would do the same thing. There's a valid point in those observations, and maybe she was caught off-guard. But still, it's inconsistent and messy. If she was smart enough to figure out that Mr. Fake Freeman had tricked the League and infiltrated the satellite, wouldn't she be suspicious that he had thought of something in case he was discovered? Prometheus wasn't nervous or worried about losing that wool cover, he was very confident. "But Kara's impulsive, she's shown it before and such...": true, but not consistent with this interpretation. 
 
Suppose she had allowed herself to get shot and she didn't suspect it and she didn't react fast enough to dodge (seriously, you expect a guy like Prometheus not to know about Kryptonian vulnerabilities?). But a single bullet in the shoulder does not lead to a KO for someone of her caliber. It passed through her, so she should retain the same durability and strength she always has. Maybe if the bullet remained in her body, that would have caused serious damage. Most of the bleeding and destroyed tissue from a gunshot wound comes from the bullet not cleanly going through flesh. So that was some serious bullshit, pardon my French.   
 
And then the fight, or whatever sorry noun you can think of for this debacle.  
 
I just have a list of questions for Robinson concerning that panel alone. 
 
1. Why is Zatanna running towards Prometheus? She is aware that she can cast magic without rubbing noses with the subject, right? When Deathstroke disabled her during his plan, she didn't do it. Plus Mr. Robinson, you are aware that she can cast blood magic? She did it when her throat was sliced, years and years ago. 
2. Why is the JLA bum-rushing him? Sometimes it makes sense if your roster is composed by bricks, maybe Superman or Captain Marvel. Here's the people in the scan: 
 
Red Tornado 
Black Canary 
Starman (Tomas) 
Plastic Man 
Zatanna 
 
Four of them can use long-range attacks. Three of them are long-standing members of the League. Plus, I'm sure one of them noticed Sueprgirl KOed on the floor. Why would they rush in like a bunch of novices? Tornado could encircle him in a twister. Zatanna could freeze him from 50, 100, 200 yards away. Canary knocks him off his feet with his voice. All relatively easy and within their characters. Even disabling him didn't require a fist-fight.
 
3. Why did you turn Prometheus from the anti-Batman into the walking armor of doom? The whole point of Prometheus was a super-intelligent human who uses planning and prep to defeat superior opponents,a man who saw his parents killed (like Batman) and followed the opposite path with the same passion and dedication.   
 
Part of what made Prometheus such a good opponent during Morrison's early 90's run was that Morrison presented a great villain and a great Justice League. The heroes did not have to job to let the villain win. He took them by surprise, caught members off-guard as they were isolated, and tricked others whom he couldn't physically beat. He lied to Flash to keep him still, he tried to play on Superman's morals to make him commit suicide. None of this involved any feats outside his strengths or possibilities. He didn't try to take anyone head-on unless he had every advantage. And the suit was part of the strategy, not the entire strategy. Pointing and shooting at everyone doesn't make him badass; it just makes the League disrespectful and look weak. 
 
What a way to get back into comics. 
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Darkest Night all the way

 I'm not the biggest fan of DC. I like people (Martian Manhunter, Johnny Sorrow, Kyle Rayner, etc.) but the story arcs never appealed to me much.  But Darkest Night is surprisingly focused on the dual storylines, and the story has not stagnated to any extent. The new Lanterns are drawn well and interesting characters to boot.
 
I don't like Dark Reign. Dark Avengers has been disappointing for so many reasons. It's frustrating to see the Dark Avengers, individuals with power sets that could potentially challenge the previous Avengers teams, constantly fail to complete objectives over and over again, especially since they're not stupid in any sense of the term. Norman has not done shit since he's come to power, and there's no fun in watching a very incompetent villain wield great power. The realism bites them in the ass when the reader realizes how much of the storylines and characterization are meaningless or non-essential. I did enjoy Dark Avengers: Annual #1 and the current issues of Thor (big sucker for Marvel Boy and Thor).

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