Hal Pictures Green Lantern Butt's FOREVER!: Cracked Ice

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Monday, September 13, 2010

Cracked Ice

So I think that we can all agree that over in JLI: Generation Lost, sweet little Tora Olafsdottir has not been exactly been behaving herself. If you read this blog with any sort of regularity, you are probably getting sick of me whining about it. Still, I do have a theory. It's not just Winick messing with our minds.

It's Max Lord.

Oh that rascal! He's been messing with EVERYONE'S minds all throughout the world, and apparently able to reach people out in space as well. Or something. He's blown hot and cold with Booster Gold, one minute trying to bash his brains in, and the next telling him that he's sorry about Ted and that he misses him. Talked about mixed signals! He's turned the remnants of the old JLI into apparent criminals, and yet he's made it so that the other heroes aren't really that interested in bringing them to justice. He's pulling strings all over the place, and I'm sure that somehow, there is a kind of master plan.

On the other hand, it is also possible that Max himself is being manipulated. The White Entity certainly seems interested in him, and has given him a quest, that of murdering Magog. Quite frankly, this seems a little peculiar for an Entity of Life, but on the other hand, it IS Magog, and no doubt he's just as irritating to supernatural immortals as to the rest of us.

I'm also wondering if in fact, Max is in complete control of himself, since he seems to be pulled in several different directions. I can't forget that he was a cyborg, and possessed by that Kilg%ore thingie at one point. Is he STILL being possessed? Is this Max a clone or something? I guess we'll find out...eventually.

However, getting back to Ice. Unlike the rest of the bunch, Max seems to have been fairly hands-off when it comes to Tora. With the exception of making it seem as though she was trying to kill Guy of course, but that was actually him messing with GUY's mind, not Tora's.

Except that she's just NOT acting like herself. Tora had to be one of the sweetest, nicest most innocent people out there. She was ALWAYS portrayed that way,and even when she came back from the dead, except when she was being controlled by the crazy Russian who resurrected her, she has been the epitome of all that is good. Here however, she's crying, and whining, and swearing, and stomping her dainty little feet and having tantrums and swearing. Did I mention the swearing? Ordinarily I would say that Tora wouldn't even KNOW those words, but she did spend an awful lot of time with Guy, so of course she would be reluctantly familiar with the more popular forms of profanity. But using those words herself? Never. And, as nice as she is, Tora is certainly not a coward, nor does she ever shirk her duty.

So what is going on here? I think that she's being subtly influenced by Max. Max was pulling the strings with Fire in the latest issue, making her attack her comrades, but at least she was aware that she was being manipulated. Part of Max's agenda seems to be to make poor Tora the very polar opposite of her normal personality. What really confuses me, is not that Max is messing with her, but that the REST of them haven't caught on. There has been a bit of kvetching between her and Captain Shinypants, but really, you'd expect Bea to be a little less clueless, not to mention Booster. I can't really blame Jaime, since he's only met her a couple of times prior to all this mess, but still...it's pretty obvious that she's just not acting as she should be.

Is this a valid plot point? Or is Winick really that clueless himself, and it's just bad writing? Winick infuriates me at times, because he CAN write quite well, when he feels like it. I'm hoping therefore that it is a part of the plot. Which might explain this.

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I've read the blurb about how Tora is supposed to go up against Fire, which is pretty ridiculous on the face of it...unless she's being manipulated. Or they BOTH are. Whatever is going on, I'm finding myself being pulled into the storyline, almost against my will. I miss my Tora, but it IS all quite interesting, and frankly, I love these particular characters so MUCH, that I'm just happy to be reading about them at all. But I certainly don't want them to all disappear at the conclusion of this series.

But I'd sure like Guy to show up and bring her to her senses. As well as coming to his own.

14 Comments:

At 12:02 AM, Blogger Erin S. said...

Definitely a theory I haven't heard before. Although it does seem a little at odds with what Winicks' been saying in regards to Toras' behavior. Geoff Johns gave his two cents on the retcon of cyborg Max in Booster Gold. Basically Checkmate put him through a whole lot to reclaim a human body again. I don't think they said that a body was cloned for him but it's sorta implied. Vague I know. :)

I can kinda see Tora having PTS after finally getting around to buying Blackest Night. Is there any truth to what the Black Lanterns' say? There's a scene where she fights Guy when she's crying black tears and tells him being resurrected and dying again is all too much for her. That her life keeps getting taken away whenever she's trying to reclaim it.

I don't really think the others are clueless. Cap has already talked to her. Although he knows why she's upset he doesn't quite get it and is annoyed since he's going through his own issues. Booster seems to be willing to talk but Tora keeps going around in circles. She wants to leave, there are other ways to get Max (which the others have already tried]), etc. Bea might have been a little annoyed in #7 but they were in the middle of a mission but she still talked to Tora.

Winick knows how Ice is supposed to be written. He's gone on the record on saying he's not being subtle about how much her death(s) have affected her. But he's also noticed that neither Bea or Tora have really gotten that much attention over the years. So this is Winicks' attempt at seeing what makes them tick. Will it work? Can't say but I'm all for it if Tora comes out of it with some character development. And actually gets over it.

12 is supposed to be when Tora finally blows up and fights Bea. Who knows, maybe she almost dies again and it looks (to her) like Bea is ignoring her to continue the other fight their in making Tora flip. I sorta hope that with them fighting that it brings up the long forgotten subject of Guy and Bea dating. Just because no one else mentions it anymore.

 
At 12:03 AM, Blogger Erin S. said...

This comment has been removed by the author.

 
At 9:12 AM, Anonymous smesch said...

Hey Sally! Have you heard about this Tora-mini scandal from earlier today? Now people are even more worried about Winick's knowledge of the character...

http://blog.newsarama.com/2010/09/14/ice-ice-baby-youre-wrong/

 
At 2:13 PM, Blogger SallyP said...

Erin, I would be delighted if they brought up the fact that Guy and Fire were dating after she died. It seems to have been swept completely under the rug ever since then, and really,you'd think that the subject just MIGHT come up.

I don't know what to think about Max, and exactly what the heck is going on with him. I was terribly fond of the OLD Max, do having him run around killing people upsets me. Fangirl entitlement, I suppose.


Smesch, I immediately went over to Newsarama and read the article that you cited. I'm now banging my head against the desk.

They want to make ICE grim and gritty? ICE????!!! For the love of God, why? Although I suppose that if they can turn Mary Marvel into a strumpet, then even sweet Ice isn't safe.

I...am now completely depressed.

 
At 2:46 PM, Blogger LissBirds said...

Nice theories, Sally. I hope you're right. I don't like Tora swearing. I'm not a big fan of swearing in comics in general, but I don't mind it so much if there's a mild-languaged character like Tora to balance out the others. I hope it turns out she's been mind-controlled.

"it IS Magog, and no doubt he's just as irritating to supernatural immortals as to the rest of us." HAHAHA. That made me laugh. :)

 
At 3:22 PM, Blogger SallyP said...

Tora swearing just seems...so wrong somehow.

And yes, I find Magog to be REALLY irritating.

 
At 3:30 PM, Blogger Erin S. said...

smesch: To be fair Winick didn't say this, Brian Cunningham did. I admit that I'm a little nervous about elements to her new origin but they admitted to editing Cap Atom too. Not sure if she's being turned grim and gritty permanently or just for the Tora arc coming up. Hoping for the latter.

 
At 8:31 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

I've said it before: I'm quite sure this isn't the real Max. The real Max is on Kooeykooeykooey or some tiny forgotten island in the South Seas, living as a beach bum (he used to threaten to do that).

Sooner or later he will return, probably wearing a really garish Hawaiian - er, Kooeykooeykoooeyan? - shirt, and the nightmare will end.

Maybe he'll tell us what's wrong with Tora, too.

 
At 9:13 PM, Anonymous AE said...

I think fans of the JLI are more interested in characterization than 99% of the all readers of all other comics combined and the current DC creative editorial staff might no be playing to us as much as they think.

 
At 9:49 PM, Blogger LissBirds said...

I LIKE your theory, Aridawnia. Now it all makes sense!

And AE is totally right. JLI fans are in it for the characters. Can someone tell DC that?

 
At 12:28 PM, Blogger SallyP said...

Aridawnia, I LOVE your idea about Max, and hopefully Sue and Ralph and Ted and everyone ELSE is actually living on KooeyKooeyKooey. God, if they made that book, I would Buy it and Read it.

Characterization is indeed what a ton of people...including myself...got interested in, way back when, when Giffen and DeMatteis first came up with the League. Prior to that, we had the Detroit League or the Big Seven. The JLI was definitely a bunch of second and even third stringers, with a few "names" to fill in, but man, I didn't care. I loved them all.

It wasn't really ALL Bwhahahaha all the time either, they fought and defeated some pretty heavy hitters. But it was FUN, dammit, and I miss fun.

It's not good when an editor gets characters confused. It really isn't that difficult. Last I knew, poor Ice Maiden, aka Sigrid was floating in a tank, minus her skin. Tora...a completely DIFFERENT character, is being rude and cranky.

*sigh*

 
At 9:09 PM, Blogger Erin S. said...

Sigrid is another character I'd like to see addressed. Her and Tora were friends when she backed out and Tora took over, right? Bea was close to her and I'd like to think they'd have something to say about what happened to her and the woman who skinned her.

 
At 11:51 AM, Blogger SallyP said...

I'm not really sure that Tora and Sigrid ever interacted all that much. Sigrid was there first of course, but the way that SHE told it, when they brought Tora in, her powers were considered second rate and redundant, so she "retired". When she came back to the League, Tora was dead and Bea was more or less using Sigrid as a way to cope with Tora's loss.

It got a little weird during that particular era of the Justice League, but although the Bwhaha was gone, there was still a LOT of characterization and interpersonal relationships going on all over the place, and for that reason, I'm rather fond of the Gerard Jones stories.

 
At 11:40 PM, Blogger Scipio said...

Max isn't really a character. He's a MacGuffin; always has been.

 

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