Something About Mary
I just can't seem to let go of this. It's one of those annoying, niggling things, like sand in your shoes, or something. Let me just state that not ALL of Countdown was terrible...in fact there were a few things that weren't bad at all. I liked Piper and Trickster for one thing, and the scene where Tim Drake kicked Jason Todd right in the family jewels was a moment to be treasured. The bit with Superbrat Prime and Mr. Myxzlepltik (?) was pretty damned good. There were a few others as well.
But they did a horrible job with Mary Marvel. For the life of me, I can't figure out WHO or WHY turning Mary Marvel evil was supposed to be such a great idea. To me, THIS is Mary Marvel...
I realize that Formerly Known as the Justice League and I Can't Believe it's the Justice League are not exactly in continuity. I don't really care. They did a sensational job of portraying Mary as a sweetie pie. A sweetie pie in little lamp slippers. Jeff Smith did an equally excellent job in portraying her in his Monster Society mini-series.
The point is, that Mary Marvel is young, sweet and GOOD. So naturally, they decided to make her dark, grim and gritty.
Ok, I can live with that, it's an old trick after all. So they have Mary being systematically seduced by Eclipso/Jean, and given powers by Black Adam, and she slowly begins to succumb to the dark side, (not to mention Darkseid) and becomes bad. Not only that, she wears a severely tiny mini-skirt, which just goes to SHOW how evil she's becoming.
Then, they have her renounce her evilness, and Do Good, thus showing her true character, and that she's a true hero after all, and she's rewarded by the Gods that she just rescued with her powers, and everything should be sweetness and light again. A hero has just undergone a hazardous journey and triumphed. Lessons were learned. I began to start unclenching my teeth.
Then Darkseid shows up with his evil pill, and just like that, it's all over. Mary swallows his evil jellybean (it must have been delicious) and presto! Without ANY justification, other than she likes power, she throws away her redemption and goes to the bad. The SEXY bad.
If that's not pornface, then I don't know what is.
So, now, without ANY show of regret or certainly a moment to think, Mary throws it all away. Of course, there WAS this particular moment, which I admit to being rather amused by...
...because, bad person that I am, I find that to be HILARIOUS. But a brief moment of amusement does NOT make up for the bit where she meets up with Black Adam, and throws a hissy fit, and calls herself...(I kid you not...) Mary Goddam Marvel!
ARRRRGGGHHHHHHH!
posted by SallyP @ 10:04 AM
9 Comments:
Poor Mary. She never deserved such editorial treatment. Still, I agree with you -- the whole thing has been worth it just to see her use Kyle as a club to pound Donna to a pulp. :-)
I miss the lamp slippers.
I'm so with you on the 'arrrrrgh' of Mary, because her switching back and forth could've been a struggle that was really interesting. Instead, we got porn faces, magic pills, cupcake skirts and Mary Goddamn Marvel. Weak!
Her beating Donna with Kyle was completely classic, though, and I cackle like a madwoman every time I look at it. I'm contemplating framing it.
See? Kyle WAS good for something in Countdown! It was really the ONLY thing that he did, other than ogle Donna and sneer at Jason occasionally.
But poor Mary. Poor poor Mary.
yeah mary's fall was pretty lame but i guess in a couple years we can say that she was psossesed by a parallax type creature and everything she did was out of her control and her character will get some death and emotional gravitas to play with.
Somewhere in Gotham there's a very cranky Jason who missed out on seeing the Kyle Bat.
I wasn't wowed by it, but I could handle the rest of Countdown. I could even handle them turning Mary evil the first time, because, after all, she had pretty much been abandoned by Billy and Freddy with no explanation, so I could understand her being a little eager to be be powerful again, and being easily influenced by Eclipso -- maybe even being a little traumatized by being left suddenly powerless and in a coma like she was. (Guy would totally understand.)
But for her to go good, and then evil again for no real reason? I can hardly stand to think about it. Giffen's Mary Marvel was innocent to the point of it being a bit out of character, but still, the basic essence of Mary was there. And honestly, in The Power of Shazam!, I always saw her as being more mature than Billy and Freddy! Yet here she is, throwing a baby-girl hissy-fit, complete with cursing.
It's terrible. And I can't help but wonder if they're not going to use her sudden immaturity as justification for giving the Captain Marvel powers/title to Freddy rather than Mary, when really they ought to have been Mary's by right.
I mourn for the real not-evil Mary Marvel. Perhaps she's locked up in a box somewhere along with the real not-evil Maxwell Lord.
Hey, remember when the Piper reformed, and was friends with Wally and Linda and Jay, helped out the poor, and was refreshingly non-angsty. I really liked him.
To reduce him, with very little justification, to someone who goes back to hanging out with the Rogues (who he sees as muderous, homophobic thugs), including the guy who killed Piper's parents and framed him for it; stick around while they plot against Bart Allen (rather than taking action or at least telling Jay); and stand by uselessly (at best) while Bart gets killed... Well, I'm happy for you that you liked the Piper/Trickster story. But from my point of view it started off with character assassination.
So I know how you feel about Mary.
Lamp slippers? I think I know what you're talking about - like the slippers on this page (which, oddly and with little evidence, identifies Mary as a Mormon), right?
http://www.adherents.com/lit/comics/MaryMarvel.html
But whence the term "lamp slippers?" Googling it brings up this very page as the first that isn't either a typo for "lamb slippers" or part of a list containing "lamp, slippers," among various objects.
Lamb....LAMB slippers. I really ought to proof read once in a while. Sorry about that. On the other hand, I suppose that wearing slippers made out of actual lamps would prove how hardcore Mary has turned. Shocking!
Haw haw! I kill me.
But seriously,
Mary has managed to redeem herself, then Darkseid shows up and hands her a jellybean of evil...and SHE TAKES IT! Mary may have been portrayed as innocent, and naive, but she was never stupid before.
I wonder if this will be addressed in Final Crises?
Post a Comment
<< Home