h a l f b a k e r yAssume a hemispherical cow.
add, search, annotate, link, view, overview, recent, by name, random
news, help, about, links, report a problem
browse anonymously,
or get an account
and write.
register,
|
|
|
If you've seen it once, you've seen it a thousand times: some bizarre twist of fate or cosmic accident hurtles an idealistic, Silver-age superhero into a grim, dystopian, urban nightmare where morally-gray thugs with super powers struggle for their very survival. Or conversely, a necromancer from a
horror comic invades a more standard superhero comic, forcing that villain's nemesis to team up with colorfully-costumed crimefighters to stop the foul sorceror's schemes.
Sure, it's fun to think of ways to tweak (or even seriously bend) traditional genres in order to explore the implications of their inherent assumptions, or to look at them in a new light. But after it's all over with, what are we really left with? Either a "fish out of water" episode (complete with painful-to-behold culture shock) that doesn't quite fit in with the regular continuity, or a one-shot "elseworlds" type story. Either way, both genres involved end up looking silly (at best).
In response to this, I propose the formation of an agency to enforce genre differentiation. This agency would ideally have the power to reject cliched crossovers and ill-advised guest appearances outright. I belive that this agency would be a great benefit to the comics medium as a whole. Because really, do we need another pulp-action adventurer teamed up with a mallet-wielding anthropomorphic iguana to stop the resurreciton of the dreaded elder god DIjljkdjd'rrahfskoll? I think not.
Quite good, I think
http://www.mcsweene.../09/24superman.html On the editorial enforcement of superhero guidelines [snarfyguy, Oct 04 2004, last modified Oct 05 2004]
[link]
|
|
I'm going to give you a croissant just on the basis of this idea being really, really weird. Good form, your honor. |
|
|
Well, of course you like the iguana! Smashy captures the very zeitgeist of modern funnybooks! I'm just saying that he loses something when he's put up against slithering Lovecraftian horrors. Surely you see what I mean. |
|
|
Crab Boy vs. mallet-wielding anthropomorphic iguana |
|
|
Originally read this as "Superhero Gender Enforcement Authority" which was odd as I didn't know that was a problem. |
|
|
[Rods Tiger] "So you're saying that some superheroes suffer from genre confusion?"
Certainly not all the time. I'm just taking issue when say, one of DC's Vertigo characters interacts with say, Superman. That's what the SGEA would work against. |
|
|
//This agency would ideally have the power// |
|
|
The dreaded elder god DIjljkdjd'rrahfskoll wonders what sort
of costumes the agents would wear. |
|
|
20 years later and not neither croissant or bone, but a record of a visit by the legendary [Rods Tiger] Where are they all now? |
|
|
I thought that Mr Tiger was the same as Mr Tindale, just as
[basepair] was [MaxwellBuchanan], [Zanzibar] was [Unabubba]
and [Private Boney Bunny] was [JesusHChrist]. |
|
|
So, we lost [Rods Tiger] as and when we lost [Ian Tindale]. |
|
| |