Let Me Continue to Flog this Dead Horse

I'm STILL pissed about Winick's treatment of Ice in the latest issue of Justice League:Generation Lost. Which is a shame, because really, otherwise, I have been enjoying the book. But I've been abruptly YANKED out of my comfort zone, and instead of being mildly annoyed at his characterization, I now feel as though I've been pummelled about the face.

I also can't help but wonder how people would react if one of the BIG DC heroes had been so maligned? I also feel a heck of a lot more sympathy for fans of Cass Cain and Stephanie Brown, not to mention poor Roy. I liked them well enough, but they weren't my favorites, so I was a bit callous about their suffering. It couldn't happen to ME after all. Well...of course it has.

I'm also feeling just a tad alienated towards the editors of this book. WHAT were they thinking? Or did they even know who Ice was? I'm beginning to have my doubts. Do they just go out and drag in off any passing stranger off of the streets and hand over the editing job? I would think that at the very LEAST, the editor should have a passing knowledge of the characters being used. Of course, you would think that would ALSO apply to the writer. Winick just annoys the piss out of me, because I know that he can do better...but apparently can't be bothered.

Interestingly enough, Guy Gardner also underwent a massive transformation in characterization over the course of his travails in the Green Lantern books, through the old JLI, and in his own book. He started as a nice guy, who was horribly traumatized, and put in a coma, then woke up as a completely different man, to become the raving jackass that we all knew and loved. Gerard Jones treated him differently in Green Lantern from Keith Giffen and DeMatteis, but he was still recognizable as the same person. Then he got his own book, and changed a bit more, under Jones and then Chuck Dixon. It wasn't until Beau Smith got a hold of him that he REALLY underwent a sea change.



Oh yeah. Lost the bowl cut, got an eyepatch, and lost his powers and went looking for new ones, drinking the Warrior Waters, and discovering that he was actually the last Vuldarian...or at least a half-breed one, with amazing morphing powers and stuff. It was ALL quite ridiculous really.

And yet...it worked. And it worked, because Beau Smith was so very very careful to MAKE it work. He didn't throw out everything that had come before, he integrated into the new. Guy was a jackass, and now he was a jackass with his brains back...and it WORKED!

They have more or less retconned the whole Warrior thing since then, when Geoff Johns had Guy's Vuldarian DNA overwritten by his human DNA back in Rebirth. But he DIDN'T decide that it had all just been a figment of Guy's imagination! Nor did he throw out years of continuity, or completely trash stories from the past.

Guy has met Ice's mother, Queen Olaf. He speaks her hidden Ice Kingdom language. Ice's Mother actually came and visited his BAR for heaven's sake! She thinks of him as her adopted son. She also met all of the OTHER members of the Justice League! She's met Fire! Ice's brother Ewald went to the bad, and killed their father and tried to usurp the Kingdom, and the ENTIRE FRIGGIN JUSTICE LEAGUE showed up to overthrow him. He was killed and THAT was when Ice managed to gain her amped up powers.



But that's ok, it was all just a figment of Ice's imagination!

Oh, and that "you have to keep calm all of the time" advice given by her "father"? This is a woman who dated Guy Gardner. That is simply not POSSIBLE! He took her to a porn theatre. He took her to cock fights. He accidentally pushed her down a flight of stairs. She watched him get beated to a pulp by Hal Jordan, and didn't wig out. Heck, she managed to get KILLED without losing her cool.

So...I am going to ignore all of this. The same way that I am ignoring Power Girl, since Gray and Palmiotti and Amanda Conner left her in Winick's palsied hands. I'm going to cover my ears and go lalalalalalalalalalalalalalalalalalalalallalalalalalala!!!

And I'll wait for the day that Geoff Johns, or Peter Tomasi or a REAL writer comes along and fixes this.