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My Life and Comics
Feb. 22nd, 2008 01:12 pmSo, if anyone is curious what my so-called "writing" life is like, I did a break down over at Wyrdsmiths: Day In the Life of A Writer, which is my response to Kelly McCullough's earlier post Day in the Life. Note how little time I actually spend writing compared to him. :-)
I finished SUPERMAN: RED SON last night. I had a lot of issues with it, in the end. First of all, hello, Superman is truly hot in a Russian dress uniform. That part was both disturbing and...uh, cool. *coughs* And, I really liked the implication that Batman exists in response to Superman. The Russian Batman is an anarchist who resents Superman's twisted do-goodiness (which is frankly something I've always disliked about Superman, too.) His orgin story is similar in that his parents are killed, but in this alternate universe it's the chief of the secret police who assassinates them and thus fuels Batmans' hatred of the Soviet Empire, and in particular Superman (whose "half-brother" the secret police chief is -- really, they're not related at all but Stalin kind of adopts Superman and the secret police chief is a bastard son of Stalin.)
My problem, however, is that I feel like the whole Communism = evil and U.S. of A. = good cliche was over-simplified. I did like that Superman struggled with how to create a utopiea, and that the answer was, you really can't. Or rather, that aliens can't. Turns out, when properly motivated, Lex Luthor could. Non-alien, native-born Americans and their know-how. Gotta love 'em.
There was a lot of alien hatin' going on in this book.
But, beyond that, I was have a hard time buying that nearly the enitre world (thank goodness for those stubborn Americans again!) collapsed into Communism, just like all those Cold Warriors used to warn us it would. Like Japan wouldn't resist? I mean, okay, so you've got a superhero that his ultimately pretty fraking scary, but the whole world? A bloodless coup? Really????
Plus, history got messed with in ways that didn't seem germaine to the story. Why isn't JFK assassinated? He's living with Marilyn Monroe who, somehow stays Norma Jean? I don't get it. What does that have to do with Superman crashlanding in Soviet Russia? Maybe one of you history buffs out there can explain to me how this chain of events happens. I was baffled.
Anyway, my biggest issue with the messed up history is the heroes.
There's a scene that takes place at Perry White's retirement party at the Daily Planet and it is revealed that three superheroes work there: The Flash, Green Arrow, and Black Canary. None of them appear to have become heroes.
One of things that I loved about the Marvel alternate history Age of the Apocalypse (this was from way back at the turn of the century,) is that even though history was so screwed up that the Fantastic Four never made their famous space mission, Sue and Ben were still heroes. They were normal people who took up arms against Apocalypse. It made sense with their characters. Why wouldn't the Green Arrow and the Black Canary, who are basically regular people who became heroes, not unlike Batman, still fight?
Why isn't Barry Allen still working at Star Labs? Or, at the very least, he should still be a chemist, not a reporter. It made no sense to me.
I finished SUPERMAN: RED SON last night. I had a lot of issues with it, in the end. First of all, hello, Superman is truly hot in a Russian dress uniform. That part was both disturbing and...uh, cool. *coughs* And, I really liked the implication that Batman exists in response to Superman. The Russian Batman is an anarchist who resents Superman's twisted do-goodiness (which is frankly something I've always disliked about Superman, too.) His orgin story is similar in that his parents are killed, but in this alternate universe it's the chief of the secret police who assassinates them and thus fuels Batmans' hatred of the Soviet Empire, and in particular Superman (whose "half-brother" the secret police chief is -- really, they're not related at all but Stalin kind of adopts Superman and the secret police chief is a bastard son of Stalin.)
My problem, however, is that I feel like the whole Communism = evil and U.S. of A. = good cliche was over-simplified. I did like that Superman struggled with how to create a utopiea, and that the answer was, you really can't. Or rather, that aliens can't. Turns out, when properly motivated, Lex Luthor could. Non-alien, native-born Americans and their know-how. Gotta love 'em.
There was a lot of alien hatin' going on in this book.
But, beyond that, I was have a hard time buying that nearly the enitre world (thank goodness for those stubborn Americans again!) collapsed into Communism, just like all those Cold Warriors used to warn us it would. Like Japan wouldn't resist? I mean, okay, so you've got a superhero that his ultimately pretty fraking scary, but the whole world? A bloodless coup? Really????
Plus, history got messed with in ways that didn't seem germaine to the story. Why isn't JFK assassinated? He's living with Marilyn Monroe who, somehow stays Norma Jean? I don't get it. What does that have to do with Superman crashlanding in Soviet Russia? Maybe one of you history buffs out there can explain to me how this chain of events happens. I was baffled.
Anyway, my biggest issue with the messed up history is the heroes.
There's a scene that takes place at Perry White's retirement party at the Daily Planet and it is revealed that three superheroes work there: The Flash, Green Arrow, and Black Canary. None of them appear to have become heroes.
One of things that I loved about the Marvel alternate history Age of the Apocalypse (this was from way back at the turn of the century,) is that even though history was so screwed up that the Fantastic Four never made their famous space mission, Sue and Ben were still heroes. They were normal people who took up arms against Apocalypse. It made sense with their characters. Why wouldn't the Green Arrow and the Black Canary, who are basically regular people who became heroes, not unlike Batman, still fight?
Why isn't Barry Allen still working at Star Labs? Or, at the very least, he should still be a chemist, not a reporter. It made no sense to me.