Sunday, May 18, 2008

Re: DCU: Decisions

My friend Patrick passed this one on to me.

SOURCE:DC Comics To Release Politically Themed Book Before Election

Even before I read the article, I just knew The Judd-ass was involved.

But even if he weren't, I'd agree with most of the posters on Newsarama that this series is a Very Bad Idea. But I don't believe this is a bad idea because DC risks alienating some readers by saying that Superman is a conservative and Batman is a liberal or vice versa. I think this is a bad idea because for the vast majority of characters, this kind of series is just plain redundant.

You know why they've never done a story like this before? Because all of the big name heroes have traditionally been too busy to worry about politics. Apart from doing what he can to help support honest politicians in Gotham, Batman has never been very political. Bruce Wayne is more likely to funnel his money into charities or do his own good works rather than give money to a politician and trust them to do good. And Superman has made it a point in the past NOT to endorse any politician.

And this is ignoring the countless characters who we know what their political affiliations are already simply because of their very nature (i.e. Wonder Woman = social liberal/feminist) or because it's already been established (i.e. Green Arrow = Prius-driving ex-hippie). So really, this series does nothing to develop those characters.

But even if - for the sake of this story - they were to break with tradition and have Supes or Bats make a statement on this issue or that, I don't think there would be any truly shocking revelations in this series. We can guess where certain characters will fall based on their actions and histories very easily.

I find it hard to imagine Batman not being in favor of stricter gun-control laws or that Superman would support any candidate who favors the death penalty. Because Batman hates guns and Superman believes in second chances. Even with more minor characters like Martian Manhunter or Aquaman, you can figure out where they'd fall with about five seconds of thought. Is Aquaman an environmentalist? Does Martian Manhunter favor amnesty for illegal aliens?

Quite honestly, this is something which is a lot more fun to argue about with your friends than it is to read about. And that is why this story is going to fail.

4 comments:

  1. Maybe it will be just Hawkman and Green Arrow duking it out for 32 pages.
    With no dialogue or story from Judd, a good art team could make me buy that comic :)

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  2. Hmmm... that begs the question. If Judd Winick authored a story where the characters never spoke, could I actually tolerate it?

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  3. Come to think of it ... the answer is probably no. After reading just the pics in Titans #2 as an experiment ... I was possibly more offended.

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  4. To be fair, the artwork is the fault of Joe Benitez and Victor Llamas.
    I never thought I'd see art in a professional comic that looked so much like a bad porny DeviantArt fan-piece. Seriously - what was up with Raven's electrical tape costume?
    Oh gods... I feel dirty because I just realized this means there is officially an artist who is worse at drawing The Titans than Ian Churchill.

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