Blood...Boiling...!
ARRRRRGHHHHHH!!!!! Now I know what it feels like to become a member of the Red Lanterns. My rage knoweth no bounds. I would also like to extend my apologies to those people who have had their favorite characters written so poorly as to be unrecognizable. I knew that Cass-fans for example, would be livid at the improprieties perpetrated on their girl. Since I wasn't a Cass-fan, it didn't mean anything to me, and while I sympathized, I was SURE that such a thing would never ever happen to me.
Well...it HAS happened to me!
I made my blithe way to the comic bookstore, simply full of anticipation at the books awaiting me. Green Lantern AND Green Lantern Corps, not to mention Batman: the Return of Bruce Wayne, Gotham City Sirens, Brave & the Bold, Power Girl and Wonder Woman. Oh, and Justice League: Generation Lost.
Now Justice Leage:GL, is a biweekly book, with the second issue now coming out. I got the first issue, and was quite pleased with the premise, not to mention getting to see several of my favorites all together such as Ice, Fire and Booster. And heck, even Max. So...I opened this week's issue up, with delight.
I...I may never recover. Although Plotted by Keith Giffen, the book is actually Written by Judd Winick. He's NOT my favorite writer, but he has his moments of occasional brilliance. This however was not one of them.
Max Lord, through his mind-whammy powers has successfully erased all trace of his existance from the world, with the exception of Booster, Fire,Ice and Captain Atom. They are going around trying to convince everyone what REALLY happened, and nobody believes them. When they show photographic proof, Superman and Wonder Woman don't see what they see. Ok. I can live with this. It's a pretty scary thing, to KNOW that you are right, but nobody will believe you. Until I reached the page with Guy.
Guy Gardner, is trembling with fear at the sight of Tora. When she asks him what is wrong, he screams that she tried to kill him, and to stay away, and that she's crazy, and blah blah blah. Tora just rolls her eyes.
WHAT IS WRONG WITH THIS SCENARIO????
Well for one thing, they show him with brown eyes. Guy doesn't have brown eyes, he has blue eyes. This is really nitpicky, but sheesh...how hard is it to get something like that right?
Secondly...there is NO WAY IN HELL that Guy Gardner would ever quake in fear at the sight of Tora. Or that he would react so violently. Or that he would be MEAN to Tora. Even if she really HAD tried to kill him! This isn't the old brain-dead Guy, he's certainly smart enough to know that people can be mind-controlled. Heck it happens to Hal on a regular basis. Guy LOVES Tora. Even in Blackest Night when she really WAS trying to kill him, he reacted with compassion.
This is not the Guy Gardner as written by Steve Englehart, Gerard Jones, Beau Smith or Peter Tomasi. This is not even the Guy Gardner as written by Giffen and DeMatteis.
Nor is this Tora Olafsdottir, aka Ice. Ice doesn't roll her eyes, or go "whatever" or be snotty about the whole thing. She also isn't the sort of person to keep trying to quit. I can understand her being a bit spooked about dying and coming back and dying again and coming back, and the whole readjustment to Guy and Fire, but again, the character portrayed here by Winick is NOT Tora.
In case you haven't realized it, I'm pissed royally. Which is ridiculous of course...it's ONLY a comic book, and they are ONLY fictional characters. But they're MY fictional characters.
Dammit.
Anyway...getting back to the reviews.
Batman: The Return of Bruce Wayne was pretty good. Bruce pops up in 17th century America, at the height of the witch trials, and falls in with a young lady. He's also posing as a witch hunter, but just can't control his urge to detect. Meanwhile, Hal, Superman, Booster and Rip have gone to the end of time to try and figure out what exactly is going on. It's a little confusing, and they sort've lose their time machine. Oops.
The Brave & the Bold, has the Legion of Super Teenagers teaming up with the Doom Patrol, in order to figure out how to save future earth from its untimely demise at the hands (hands?) of a cute little black hole. The art, by Jesus Saiz is quite nice, and it's a pleasant little story. Nothing spectacular, but good.
Gotham City Sirens continues to entertain me. Selina is still searching for her sister Maggie, who has apparently gone QUITE around the bend, and Ivy is getting to know the lady that she fired at STAR Labs. Harley is tagging along with Selina, but they may have bitten off a little more than they can chew.
I'll get to the Green Lanterns. Guy shows up in Green Lantern Corps, and is blessedly, written LIKE HIMSELF!
Power Girl, was a delight...simply a delight. This is the last issue by Gray and Paliotti and Amanda Conner, which is a DARNED shame. I'm going to just pretend that it was a 12 issue mini-series. It does have a nice happy ending, Peej and Terra hang out at Terra's place and get all happy, the Ultra Humanite gets his humanity back and his memories erased, and Peej's cat finally...FINALLY gets a name. It's been a LONG time. Dang it, I love that cat.
Guess who is supposed to take over next month? Oh yeah, isn't it WINICK? I WAS going to give it a shot, but in my rage, I may have to change that thought.
I believe in holding a grudge.
Wonder Woman was good. I was getting a bit worried, it seemed as though Gail had really stacked the deck against Diana, but she manages to come through and wins in the end. But boy, the saying that you can pick your friends, but not your family REALLY applies here. It's nice that Hippolyta and the Amazons show up in DC and help SAVE the place. I'm going to miss Tolifhar though. Again...something of a happy ending
So...pretty good books this week. One one...unfortunate exception.
Gah!
THIS is Guy and Tora...!
posted by SallyP @ 1:12 PM
17 Comments:
Yeah, Green Lanterns in general don't usually show much fear, so what is up with that.
Exactly! Besides, this is Guy Gardner for pity's sake. If Tora actually did try and kill him, he'd might even get a kick out of it. And her attitude is just as baffling.
Makes me wonder just WHAT Max made Guy see to get him that freaked out. Tora was mean for a lot of this. When Boosters' upset that it took them two hours to help him Toras' worse than Bea telling him that maybe they should have left him lying there for another two hours to bleed to death. 0_0 The art makes her look so snuck up.
I know. It's bad enough that they are writing Guy completely out of character, but they are also doing the same thing to Tora. TORA! Who just happens to be the sweetest nicest person in the entire DC Universe! Bea, I can understand being a bit cranky, but NOT Tora. Captain Atom, I don't care, because he's always been a bit of a jerk, but I also don't understand why they are being so crass to poor Booster. They were certainly all getting along perfectly well when Guy, Tora, Bea and Booster went and helped save the day with Blue Beetle a little while back (Jaime, not Ted)
It's as though Winick couldn't be bothered to read a few back issues. But you would think that Giffen would know the history of these characters!
Supposedly Toras' messed up some from the Blackest Night event but STILL! How did we get from everyone gathered around Booster, worried about him to the point where their all ganging up on him for being miffed that no one came in time to stop Max or help him? In one issue no less!
Winick hinted that he wanted Jaime to get along with Booster for some new Blue and Gold action. So maybe someone won't be snapping at him. At least they followed up on the Booster/Dick connection from Jurgens. And hey, HE was nice even if he didn't believe Booster.
The general thought is that Giffin plots and Winick. does the dialogue.
While I can totally buy that Winick is responsible for an "off" voice for Ice, I can totally see Giffen turning Guy's Machismo around for laughs. It's just his style. Heck, Lobo even showed up at the end of GL. Gonzo Giffen is back...
You expressed my feelings about Generation Lost pretty accurately.
UGH! Because this is comics, and comics like to have their heroes act completely brain-dead from time to time for purposes of the plot, I could almost forgive them having Guy actually believe that Tora tried to kill him. But for him to act like he's that terrified of her? I kept expecting him to make the cross sign with his fingers and back away like a frightened peasant from a vampire.
And I could buy Tora being sort of emotionally messed up now that she's found out she was only brought back to life to have a few measly panels as a side-character henchman for the major crossover villain du jour -- er, I mean, be a sleeper-agent puppet for Nekron -- but she's being such a snot! I would expect it from Bea occasionally maybe, but not Tora!
I will admit, though, that the "Ted Kord killed himself" line stabbed me right in the heart. I probably had the same expression as Booster when I read it.
Also, for a brief moment when it looked like Magog and Captain Atom were going to face off, my heart soared with hope that they would fight and kill each other and that would be the end of them both. Alas, it was not to be.
Okay, I'm willing to overlook that and give it a try. Admittedly, it wasn't my favorite character - that would be Kyle - and I do get where you're coming from in terms of mis-characterization; however, remember, mind control is involved! If Superman and Wonder Woman were, as the main characters themselves pondered, acting "off", then no one's safe. (Although, admittedly, you're right about Ice. Win(n?)ick really screwed that one up royally.)
None of those people in JL: Generation Lost seemed familiar. I think that's the last issue I pick up.
A Green Lantern quaking in fear? C'mon.
Also, gaping plot holes: Diana has a magical tool for determining truth. At worst asking Bea to hold the lasso would have revealed that one of them had been messed with. But no. That'd make sense. Then she callously told Bea she'd been fired and walked off without so much as an "I'm sorry."
-- Jack of Spades
Admittedly it is a better version of "no one believes you" than Countdown to Infinite Crisis when everyone treats Ted like crap just because. And if it makes you feel better, having reread it Guy only looks freaked out in the first panel. The rest have him looking royally pissed off. Likely an artist goof since everyone except Booster and Dick (Cap Atom when he realizes it's not Max) generally have the wrong expressions.
Like Cap said Superman acted off so I'm willing for all the weird reactions to be a byproduct of the mindwipe. I think Booster, Skeets and Dick all remained perfectly in character. The only major wrongness was Wonder Woman, Tora, and Guy. I hope that they at least explain Tora as her not knowing what her place in the world is.
I'm still trying to figure out how Max was able to mess with Guy. It's a LOOOOONG way to Oa, for a telepath.
Yeah, just about everyone is acting weird. Except Booster and Skeets. I wouldnt have minded in the least if Captain Shinypants and Magog had creamed each other, but alas...it was not to be.
Why isn't Tora at least asking Guy what it is that she did to him, instead of being snotty? Tora is NEVER snotty! Bea...maybe, but not Tora.
My fangirl entitlement is apparently overflowing.
Well Guy was the first person Max met when he returned. He could have put that infor there then and trigger the most messed up things he could if need be since the GLC is a freaking big threat.
Do they want us to like Magog? Well at least Dick seemed to care that Booster was hurt. I like to think that Tora tried to but we didn't see it. Fanwank for the win!
Jack> I would think the lasso wouldn't have changed what Diana or Bea said. Diana's memories have been altered, but I don't think the lasso would pick up on that. It's not as though she's deceiving herself or deliberately voicing untruths.
Yeah, I think it's too early to judge, at least for Guy. They stated outright that Superman was acting out of character, and I think Wonder Woman was too (not just not using the lasso, but also not thinking she'd be capable of killing someone).
Tora's a better point, though I think Guy's antics could make even the most patient, understanding person roll their eyes. I'd think Tora would be more shaken by Guy's reaction than anything.
I wasn't planning on buying Generation Lost, but I've been picking it up. I haven't yet read Brightest Day, but if what I hear is accurate, I may be dropping it and getting JL:GL instead. I'm enjoying the latter a lot more than I think I'd enjoy the former, and I'm willing to give each four issues or so to hook me.
oh jesus. i'm glad i didn't buy it.
Looking at the issue again, I really can't see a problem with the dialogue...it's the art that's the issue. There's nothing in Tora's dialogue that suggests she's being flippant or dismissive or anything but confused and concerned. I don't know anything about Bennett, but he's got some problems with facial expressions looking weird throughout. He's trying for something like Rags Morales or Dale Eaglesham, but he clearly doesn't quite have the chops. Check out the 90s-style exploitative posing in the scene where Tora quits as a prime example.
Lest I become an apologist for Winick--about the last thing I'd like to be--I think it might be too early to write the series off, especially when the problem doesn't really seem to be with the writing.
Of course Guy and Diana are acting out of character. They're being MIND-CONTROLLED.
If you suspend the (really strong in my case) disbelief that Max could control Diana and Guy in the first place, than practically everything Max has brainwashed them to do is "in character". If Max had compelled Guy to cluck like a chicken, that's what Guy would do if he couldn't resist Max. So cowering before Ice because Max compelled him to is not such a stretch.
Superman wouldn't ignore evidence right before his own eyes. But he did here.
Doesn't explain Ice, though. BAD Winick!
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