Word from the TV Guide summary is that Claire and Nathan flee to Mexico while Peter and Angela are supposed to hide-out in a church - asylum, of course, referring to the religious and political practice of granting sanctuary and refuge. The other big story based on the previews is that Danko and Sylar may form an unholy alliance since both of them are working toward the same eventual ends for different reasons - kill as many powered people as possible.
We shall see.
8:00 - So, quick recap of the last few episodes that will be relevant to tonight... Danko finding Eric Doyle gift-wrapped, Angela escaping a drag-net with Peter and Claire escaping the drag-net with Nathan. No surprises so far.
8:01 - When did Claire have time to get her bangs done? Ah well... actually that does make kinda sense if she's changing her appearance.
8:02 - Gee... I wonder WHY she'd be reluctant to stay with you, Nathan. Jerkass. If Claire goes and turns him into the cops for attempted rape and the series ends with Nathan rotting in a Mexican prison, I think we'll all be a lot happier.
8:03 - "That's not why I saved you. I want answers." Yeah - Peter being less and less in touch with his empathic side is looking more and more likely.
8:04 - Yay! More Noah/Danko dick-waving!
8:05 - So there is the proposal. But c'mon - we know that Sylar is the one who killed the agents... right?
8:06 - What the... how did Sylar get there? Unless... was the math teacher he just killed a teleporter/time freezer like Hiro? If so... holy shit....
8:09 - "Nice speech." I love snarky Noah.
8:10 - Am I the only one who thinks that Noah knows a LOT more about what is going on with Sylar right now than Danko thinks he does? Because I find that much preferable to the idea that Noah is - once again - unintentionally sowing the seeds of his own destruction, like he did before with Sylar.
8:11 - "I sold my kidney. Both of them. Twice". Hee hee hee.
8:12 - Nathan? Do yourself a favor and shut up now. Like the eskimoes said to the air conditioning salesman, "We're not buying it!"
8:13 - Wow! The Petrellis are Catholic. Who knew? Interesting.
8:14 - Okay - Nathan is holding the Idiot Ball now - trying to win a drinking contest instead of selling his daughter's jewelry. Or - I dunno - letting the dainty looking woman who theoretically should be able to metabolize the alcohol before it can affect her - enter the contest instead of you.
8:15 - "You'd be amazed what you can do with a lifted ID badge, a 4 dollar tie and a Baltimore accent." Now there's the Sylar we know and love.
8:16 - "He's a shapeshifter." Again... I'm calling bullshit on this and am willing to put money down that Sylar is the real killer and that he's just trying to sow dissension in Danko's ranks so he can "save the day" and convince Danko to go for the partnership.
8:21 - Well, holy crap. Sylar was telling the truth. Now there IS a twist I didn't see coming! Unless it turns out THAT guy was Sylar...
8:23 - And now we see Nathan demonstrating how most of us coped with watching Season 3. And Claire is showing the savvy she used to show fairly often.
8:25 - Heh. Never really thought about it... but Sylar IS a bit of a drama queen, in the sense of how he enjoys playing a role and manipulating people.
8:28 - Are You There, God? It's Me, Peter. And yeah... Peter seems to be coming to a revelation regarding his anger and his issues with his family.
8:30 - Wow. Actual tension. Seems like forever since we've seen it.
8:35 - Nice little detective scene here. I realize I'm not commenting much but that's because there's so little to say about this other than "This is good." and describing the action.
8:37 - BWAHAHAHAHAHAHA! Good one, Claire!
8:38 - "I was Cassandra". Ooooh... good literary allusion.
8:39 - And in case you doubted where Noah's loyalties still are... there's your proof.
8:40 - BWAHAHAHAHAHAHA! I like this shapeshifter's sense of humor.
8:44 - "He's a better you than you." BWAHAHAHAHAHA!
8:45 - And Claire-issa explains it all (I'm sorry... I'm sorry!) for those of you who can't guess how regeneration = cannot get drunk.
8:47 - And for those of you who couldn't guess it, the whole reason Nathan gave Claire a pass had nothing to do with buying off Noah and was all because he felt guilty about not being there for her when she was growing up. Wow. I am feeling so much non-sympathy for him right now, I don't have the words to describe it. Is it wrong that I'm thinking Claire should probably consider just how much HIS organs would be worth on the Mexican Black Market?
8:48 - Yes, Claire. First the blanket... and then a pillow across the face!
8:49 - Okay, that was dark. And twisted. And actually kinda awesome. I'm just trying to figure out HOW Sylar can do it without the cutting and everything. I'd bet we'll see a repeat of the lost scene from Season 2 where he pulls a guy's brain out through his nose... but that wouldn't explain the blood on the hands.
8:53 - And finally, Nathan admits that he bit off more than he could chew and that he's screwed up. Cry me a river.
8:54 - And now Claire is giving the drunken, "Pity me" jackass a sarcastic pep-talk. Yay Claire!
8:55 - Sister?
8:57 - *sighs* Well, I guess he IS a better way home than the bus, Claire.
8:58 - I don't think Noah is buying this for a moment.
8:59 - And we have unholy alliance.
9:00 - Next time - Grave Robbing!
The Final Word: Not a bad episode by any means. Lots of good character moments here but I can't believe anyone is going to be feeling any sympathy at all for Nathan at this point.
He's brought this all on himself and has gone begging to sympathy from the last person in the world who would or should give him any benefit of the doubt at this point. Actually, he was so whinny in this episode... I would rather see him die than Mohinderance at this point.
I know. I'm shocked too. And I think I need a drink....
Monday, March 30, 2009
Spider-Man Comic Banned in Nebraska... For Showing A Woman In A Bikini.
SOURCE: Spider-Man Faces Being Banned In Nebraska Public School
While I usually make it a policy to support my fellow librarians and fight censorship in every form, this case is clearly the librarian's fault for having bought materials for an elementary school library without reviewing them first to see if they were appropriate.
Because stunningly - as this one library system is finding out - NOT ALL COMICS ARE FOR KIDS!
So I can't say that the outrage over Spider-Man comics of an inappropriate age-level being bought for an elementary school library is altogether inappropriate or shocking. What does shock me, however, is the particular graphic novel that has inspired this offense and the reason why it has been singled out.
Amazing Spider-Man Vol 2: Revelations. Seriously.
Not the Todd MacFarlane Spider-Man books featuring bondage play with the web fluid.
Not the Mark Millar Marvel Knights: Spider-Man books featuring Electro, his shape-shifting prostitute girlfriend and the suggestion that Electro has a taste for being buggered.
Not even Spider-Man: Reign which is remembered less as a half-assed attempt to write a dark-future Spider-Man story in the Frank Miller Dark Knight Returns style and more for the revelation that Peter Parker has radioactive semen and that "his love" gave Mary Jane cancer and killed her!
No, it was Amazing Spider-Man Vol 2: Revelations.
What was it in the book that the mom found so objectionable? The graphic but realistic depiction of the 9-11 attacks and the effect on New York City? Aunt May joking, when she finds out the truth about Peter's secret identity, that she had always thought he was gay or a cross-dresser and that his being a superhero never occured to her?
No. Much worse than that...
Svendsen claims that when her son brought the book home he found an image of a woman in a bathing suit and went, as 6- year olds normally do, “Ohhhh!” The images about which Svendsen are protesting show a very shapely redhead in various states of undress. This woman is quite possibly Mary Jane Watson, long-time love interest to Spider-Man’s alter ego, Peter Parker. Lending credence to this idea is the fact that in one scene, the woman is being photographed on the beach during a photo-shoot.
A woman in a bikini?! That's it? That's the objectionable material that everyone is going crazy over?
*face palms* Good thing the kid didn't wind up taking Teen Titans home. I can only imagine what Mom would have thought of Supergirl's short skirt and Wonder Girl's belly-shirts.
Honestly, I agree that the librarian should have known better. But out of all of the many reasons why J. Michael Straczynski's Amazing Spider-Man should not be in an elementary school library, women in bikinis isn't even in the top ten!
I mean, Betty and Veronica wear bikinis more often than not now. Would anyone argue that those books contain inappropriate sexual content?
While I usually make it a policy to support my fellow librarians and fight censorship in every form, this case is clearly the librarian's fault for having bought materials for an elementary school library without reviewing them first to see if they were appropriate.
Because stunningly - as this one library system is finding out - NOT ALL COMICS ARE FOR KIDS!
So I can't say that the outrage over Spider-Man comics of an inappropriate age-level being bought for an elementary school library is altogether inappropriate or shocking. What does shock me, however, is the particular graphic novel that has inspired this offense and the reason why it has been singled out.
Amazing Spider-Man Vol 2: Revelations. Seriously.
Not the Todd MacFarlane Spider-Man books featuring bondage play with the web fluid.
Not the Mark Millar Marvel Knights: Spider-Man books featuring Electro, his shape-shifting prostitute girlfriend and the suggestion that Electro has a taste for being buggered.
Not even Spider-Man: Reign which is remembered less as a half-assed attempt to write a dark-future Spider-Man story in the Frank Miller Dark Knight Returns style and more for the revelation that Peter Parker has radioactive semen and that "his love" gave Mary Jane cancer and killed her!
No, it was Amazing Spider-Man Vol 2: Revelations.
What was it in the book that the mom found so objectionable? The graphic but realistic depiction of the 9-11 attacks and the effect on New York City? Aunt May joking, when she finds out the truth about Peter's secret identity, that she had always thought he was gay or a cross-dresser and that his being a superhero never occured to her?
No. Much worse than that...
Svendsen claims that when her son brought the book home he found an image of a woman in a bathing suit and went, as 6- year olds normally do, “Ohhhh!” The images about which Svendsen are protesting show a very shapely redhead in various states of undress. This woman is quite possibly Mary Jane Watson, long-time love interest to Spider-Man’s alter ego, Peter Parker. Lending credence to this idea is the fact that in one scene, the woman is being photographed on the beach during a photo-shoot.
A woman in a bikini?! That's it? That's the objectionable material that everyone is going crazy over?
*face palms* Good thing the kid didn't wind up taking Teen Titans home. I can only imagine what Mom would have thought of Supergirl's short skirt and Wonder Girl's belly-shirts.
Honestly, I agree that the librarian should have known better. But out of all of the many reasons why J. Michael Straczynski's Amazing Spider-Man should not be in an elementary school library, women in bikinis isn't even in the top ten!
I mean, Betty and Veronica wear bikinis more often than not now. Would anyone argue that those books contain inappropriate sexual content?
Sunday, March 29, 2009
Fast Thoughts - The Week of 3/25/09
And The Rest...
CONAN THE CIMMERIAN #9 - First of all, let me say how happy I am to see Joseph Michael Linsner doing the covers instead of Frank Cho. Amazingly, given Linsner's skill with drawing beautiful, voluptuous women and reputation as a cheesecake artist first and foremost, he has not descended into the depths of fan-service that Cho did in his capacity as a cover artist for this title. Good on you sir!
Things continue on much as they did from the last issue, with Conan continuing to adjust to life as a soldier and getting a Klingon Promotion to an officer position with the front-line troops who usually suffer the heaviest losses. Naturally this suits Conan just fine.
This issue - as with the one before - is setting the ground for an adaptation of the classic Robert Howard story Black Colossus. So far things are looking very promising and I can't wait until the next issue, when we will hopefully get to see one of my favorite moments in the entire Conan mythos portrayed.
KULL #5 - A week late but I finally got it. And I want this as a regular series to go alongside Conan.
Kull often gets accused of being a proto-Conan. But while Howard did revise his last unsold Kull story ("By This Axe, I Rule!") into his very first Conan tale ("The Phoenix On The Sword"), the two were remarkably different heroes and two very different kings. While Conan gives only a cursory interest to the matters of civilization after his ascension to the throne, Kull throws himself into truly understanding every aspect of the new world he has entered into. Kull believes there are things he does not understand and must strive to do so, even as he strives to temper his warlike nature. Conan, on the other hand, is more than willing to reduce that which he does not understand to a simpler level - by the point of a sword if necessary.
I can say little about this story, save that coming as it does as a continuation of a classic Kull story it does an admirable job of fitting the Howard style and that I will be sorry to see it go next month.
JACK OF FABLES #32 - More aftermath from the destruction of Mister Revise's concentration camp for Fables and a number of disturbing revelations. The least disturbing of which is the fact that Jack is apparently the bastard son of Prince Charming and a half-literal. Who is the mom? Well, that would be telling and giving away the most glorious joke in the whole book. I've said it before and I'll say it again - if you aren't reading this book by now, you should be.
WONDER WOMAN #30 - THIS is the issue of Wonder Woman we were all waiting for when it was announced that Gail Simone was taking over the book. Because this issue, more than anything that has been done with the character in Simone's run - or indeed, any Wonder Woman story I've ever read - has established just how awesome a character Wonder Woman is and how utterly badass (for lack of a better word) she should be portrayed as being.
It all comes down to one four-page spread in which Diana...
1) arrives on the doorstep of a Secret Society of Supervillains hideout in Gotham City.
2) takes out a tank waiting for her in the lobby by throwing the front door at it
3) causes Felix Faust, upon witnessing this, to declare "I'm out" before he teleports away from the building as quickly as possible. Let me say that again: the sight of an angry Wonder Woman terrified a man who deals with demons on a regular basis.
4) takes down Shrapnel - a man of living scrap metal - in about five seconds
5) causes Phobia - a woman with the power to cause others to hallucinate their worst fears as reality - to have a panic attack without even touching her.
6) apologizes to T.O. Morrow for the damage to the building, as he whines that he built it to withstand a nuclear blast... just before throwing a scrap of metal INTO the wall next to Morrow noting "You might want this back then. I think it was the steering wheel."
More please. :)
CONAN THE CIMMERIAN #9 - First of all, let me say how happy I am to see Joseph Michael Linsner doing the covers instead of Frank Cho. Amazingly, given Linsner's skill with drawing beautiful, voluptuous women and reputation as a cheesecake artist first and foremost, he has not descended into the depths of fan-service that Cho did in his capacity as a cover artist for this title. Good on you sir!
Things continue on much as they did from the last issue, with Conan continuing to adjust to life as a soldier and getting a Klingon Promotion to an officer position with the front-line troops who usually suffer the heaviest losses. Naturally this suits Conan just fine.
This issue - as with the one before - is setting the ground for an adaptation of the classic Robert Howard story Black Colossus. So far things are looking very promising and I can't wait until the next issue, when we will hopefully get to see one of my favorite moments in the entire Conan mythos portrayed.
KULL #5 - A week late but I finally got it. And I want this as a regular series to go alongside Conan.
Kull often gets accused of being a proto-Conan. But while Howard did revise his last unsold Kull story ("By This Axe, I Rule!") into his very first Conan tale ("The Phoenix On The Sword"), the two were remarkably different heroes and two very different kings. While Conan gives only a cursory interest to the matters of civilization after his ascension to the throne, Kull throws himself into truly understanding every aspect of the new world he has entered into. Kull believes there are things he does not understand and must strive to do so, even as he strives to temper his warlike nature. Conan, on the other hand, is more than willing to reduce that which he does not understand to a simpler level - by the point of a sword if necessary.
I can say little about this story, save that coming as it does as a continuation of a classic Kull story it does an admirable job of fitting the Howard style and that I will be sorry to see it go next month.
JACK OF FABLES #32 - More aftermath from the destruction of Mister Revise's concentration camp for Fables and a number of disturbing revelations. The least disturbing of which is the fact that Jack is apparently the bastard son of Prince Charming and a half-literal. Who is the mom? Well, that would be telling and giving away the most glorious joke in the whole book. I've said it before and I'll say it again - if you aren't reading this book by now, you should be.
WONDER WOMAN #30 - THIS is the issue of Wonder Woman we were all waiting for when it was announced that Gail Simone was taking over the book. Because this issue, more than anything that has been done with the character in Simone's run - or indeed, any Wonder Woman story I've ever read - has established just how awesome a character Wonder Woman is and how utterly badass (for lack of a better word) she should be portrayed as being.
It all comes down to one four-page spread in which Diana...
1) arrives on the doorstep of a Secret Society of Supervillains hideout in Gotham City.
2) takes out a tank waiting for her in the lobby by throwing the front door at it
3) causes Felix Faust, upon witnessing this, to declare "I'm out" before he teleports away from the building as quickly as possible. Let me say that again: the sight of an angry Wonder Woman terrified a man who deals with demons on a regular basis.
4) takes down Shrapnel - a man of living scrap metal - in about five seconds
5) causes Phobia - a woman with the power to cause others to hallucinate their worst fears as reality - to have a panic attack without even touching her.
6) apologizes to T.O. Morrow for the damage to the building, as he whines that he built it to withstand a nuclear blast... just before throwing a scrap of metal INTO the wall next to Morrow noting "You might want this back then. I think it was the steering wheel."
More please. :)
Saturday, March 28, 2009
Some Good Things To Look At...
I didn't mean to spend so much time writing two mostly negative reviews. So before I go out for the night (I have a show to perform at this evening) and return tomorrow to cover the rest of the comics I picked up this week, here's some good things to check out.
Atop The Fourth Wall - quite easily the best comedic critic video-blog since The Spoony Experiment, Lewis Lovhaug does for Amazons Attack! what Noah Antwiler did for Yor, The Hunter From The Future
Amazons Attack! #1-2
Amazons Attack! #3-4
Amazons Attack! #5-6
Harley Quinn: A Masochistic Bimbo Who Screwed Her Way Through College - a very thoughtful analysis of the character and The Joker that is one of the more intelligent bits of commentary I've read in a goodly while.
Atop The Fourth Wall - quite easily the best comedic critic video-blog since The Spoony Experiment, Lewis Lovhaug does for Amazons Attack! what Noah Antwiler did for Yor, The Hunter From The Future
Amazons Attack! #1-2
Amazons Attack! #3-4
Amazons Attack! #5-6
Harley Quinn: A Masochistic Bimbo Who Screwed Her Way Through College - a very thoughtful analysis of the character and The Joker that is one of the more intelligent bits of commentary I've read in a goodly while.
Justice League #31 - A Review
In which a preview gets more attention from outraged fans than the actual story.
A lot of people are talking about this issue. Not because it foreshadows the up-coming (and long-delayed) James Robinson Justice League book. Not because of the Justice League disassembling... again.
No, they're talking about the first seven pages (well, six now that they've pulled the page where Wonder Woman was apparently drawn in place of Black Canary) of the new Justice League and the apparent exposure of Green Arrow's suffering at the hands of his abusive wife, Black Canary.
There's a lot of discussion out there about how horrible it is that one spouse punching the other is being played for laughs. There are several blog posts regarding how there is no way this kind of thing would be tolerated if the shoe were on the other foot and it were Ollie punching Dinah for embarrassing him. And there's also a considerable number of message board threads about Dinah's "homophobic" slam of the Ollie/Hal relationship.
Most of this discussion is, to my mind, a lot funnier - in the ironic sense - than this scene.
Yes, spousal abuse in any form is wrong. Yes, Dinah is a trained martial artist who could easily kill Ollie with her bare hands if she wanted too. And read straight, this whole scene is a horrifying indictment of a relationship where a man is beaten repeatedly by an abusive wife and his best friend witnesses this and just laughs it off, going so far as to say “you deserve to be beaten.”
Nevertheless, there's no real malicious intent here - just three old friends who, because they are so close, will crack jokes that only they could get away with, even in the middle of an argument.
Dinah even says as much - “You don’t get to joke about this, Hal” - when Hal tells Ollie “She doesn’t even know about half the stuff you’ve done.” Later, she tells Ollie that he can't joke his way out of this when he remarks, after Dinah accuses him of not supporting her, "You've got my support. I'm just offering Hal my quiver.... you know, maybe there IS a little homoerotic tension in our relationship."
But seriously: does anyone out there really think Hal Jordan would stand by and make jokes if he thought anybody was actually in actual physical danger? Does anyone - with the exception of Andrew Kreisberg. - believe Dinah Lance lacks the control and ability to hit a grown man with just enough force to knock him down without bruising him? Does anyone - with the exception of Judd Winick - think someone as willful and quick-tempered as Oliver Queen is just going to lie there and take a real beating?
I doubt it. And yet, that doesn’t take away from the fact that - no matter what the intent - this whole scene isn't funny.
It isn't funny because we’re supposed to be amused by a man being beaten up by his wife. Ignoring the abuse angle and the fact that Dinah could seriously injury Ollie if she wanted too, it still doesn't work as comedy. This is still negative reinforcement of stereotyped gender roles. I.E. "Ha-ha! You got beaten up by a girl!"
And the fact that this is coming from Hal Jordan, who has gotten his butt handed to him on numerous occasions by Star Sapphire is kind of funny. But not in the way McDuffie intended.
It looks bad anyway you slice it though. The art says action even as the dialogue says comedy and I can think of a thousand ways that the intent could have been made a lot clearer. Have it made more clear that Dinah sucker-punched Ollie in the stomach to knock the wind out of him rather than having him depicted as being knocked off his feet. Put more of a playful gleam into Dinah's eye after Ollie's crack about hoping for some rough sex. Even having Ollie say “Yes, Mistress” sarcastically after Dinah says “Don’t make me smack you again.” would help even if it did inspire a new wave of fanfic I’d rather not read.
And yet, despite all this, I’d still rather have McDuffie writing Green Arrow/Black Canary instead of Judd Winick or Andrew Kreisberg.
So now that THAT is out of the way, how does the rest of the issue play out? Not so good.
Hal gives voice to a several thousand disgruntled Justice League fans and notes, in describing the last 2 1/2 years of story-lines that "We haven't saved the world. We haven't even protected it... We've done nothing."
Personally, I think this is a bit harsh given that they DID fight The Legion of Doom, who probably would have wound up endangering the world a bit had they not decided to kill The Justice League first... but still fairly accurate given that all of Meltzer's run involved personal non-world-treatening business and even McDuffie's plots were continually side-lined by The Crossover Of The Week.
Dinah goes to talk to Barbara Gordon, who says - long friendship between Dinah and Hal completely ignored - that Hal is a jerk who has no respect for Dinah and that he'd never pull the "form a new JLA" stunt on Bruce or Clark, leading me to wonder just when did bluefall start ghostwriting Oracle dialogue for Dwayne McDuffie?
(Actually, if bluefall were writing this, it would be better written, Ollie probably would have died on page 4 and the issue would have ended with Barbara and Dinah in a honeymoon suite in Massachusetts.)
We then get a montage of Dinah asking other League members on if they are going to stay in the wake of everything that happened during Final Crisis. The short answers are...
Hawkgirl - now shacking up with Hawkman. Still on the team, for now.
Red Arrow - depressed after being dumped by Hawkgirl for Hawkman, he quits and tells Hawkman (who apparently wants to rejoin) that he can have his slot, which leads to a dirty joke Roy immediately apologizes for voicing to Dinah.
The Flash - despite not actually having been on the team for more than a few seconds, Wally says he hasn't got the time what with raising two kids who are as fast as he is AND being on The Titans.
Wonder Woman - busy with events on Themyscria. No detail is given past this, but it is no shock to those of us who have been reading her book.
Superman - busy with things on New Krypton. Again, no surprise for those reading his books.
Black Lightning - Sir Not Appearing In This Issue, we are told that he - per Batman's wishes in the event of his death - has quit the JLA to take over running The Outsiders.
Red Tornado - not returning Dinah's calls.
This leaves Dinah with John Stewart, Vixen, Zatanna (who may or may not be on the team and was mostly there as a favor to Bruce) and Dr. Light (who has only been on the team since last issue). Faced with four bickering teammates who are torn between trying to reconcile with Hal and his new group and trying to beat some sense into Hal and his group, Dinah announces - to the shock of everyone - that she is dissolving the JLA.
Of course there's another issue solicited for next month so we know that this isn't really the end of the JLA, especially with James Robinson's book not due out until summer. So this cliff-hanger is ultimately as meaningless as most of this book.
Still, there are some things about this book that don't suck. While a lot of McDuffie's attempts at humor fall flat, the lines that do work, such as Dinah's comment on how The Fortress of Solitude isn't easy to get to and Clark's reply that "that's sort of the point", are pretty good. A lot of the character moments, especially the Dinah/Roy scene, are quite enjoyable. And the artwork by Shane Davis is a lot better than the Ed Benes pin-up work that has been par for the course on this title for too long.
The Final Word: A rather forgettable issue that has gotten a lot more attention than it deserves thanks to a rather inappropriate and nonsensical attempt at humor in its' opening pages. All the more unfortunate and nonsensical since the book is basically setting up a series that won't be coming out for at least another two months, if that. Decent artwork and a few good character moments but not much else. Hal Jordan says it best in describing The League's recent lack of action - "We haven't saved the world. We haven't even protected it... We've done nothing."
A lot of people are talking about this issue. Not because it foreshadows the up-coming (and long-delayed) James Robinson Justice League book. Not because of the Justice League disassembling... again.
No, they're talking about the first seven pages (well, six now that they've pulled the page where Wonder Woman was apparently drawn in place of Black Canary) of the new Justice League and the apparent exposure of Green Arrow's suffering at the hands of his abusive wife, Black Canary.
There's a lot of discussion out there about how horrible it is that one spouse punching the other is being played for laughs. There are several blog posts regarding how there is no way this kind of thing would be tolerated if the shoe were on the other foot and it were Ollie punching Dinah for embarrassing him. And there's also a considerable number of message board threads about Dinah's "homophobic" slam of the Ollie/Hal relationship.
Most of this discussion is, to my mind, a lot funnier - in the ironic sense - than this scene.
Yes, spousal abuse in any form is wrong. Yes, Dinah is a trained martial artist who could easily kill Ollie with her bare hands if she wanted too. And read straight, this whole scene is a horrifying indictment of a relationship where a man is beaten repeatedly by an abusive wife and his best friend witnesses this and just laughs it off, going so far as to say “you deserve to be beaten.”
Nevertheless, there's no real malicious intent here - just three old friends who, because they are so close, will crack jokes that only they could get away with, even in the middle of an argument.
Dinah even says as much - “You don’t get to joke about this, Hal” - when Hal tells Ollie “She doesn’t even know about half the stuff you’ve done.” Later, she tells Ollie that he can't joke his way out of this when he remarks, after Dinah accuses him of not supporting her, "You've got my support. I'm just offering Hal my quiver.... you know, maybe there IS a little homoerotic tension in our relationship."
But seriously: does anyone out there really think Hal Jordan would stand by and make jokes if he thought anybody was actually in actual physical danger? Does anyone - with the exception of Andrew Kreisberg. - believe Dinah Lance lacks the control and ability to hit a grown man with just enough force to knock him down without bruising him? Does anyone - with the exception of Judd Winick - think someone as willful and quick-tempered as Oliver Queen is just going to lie there and take a real beating?
I doubt it. And yet, that doesn’t take away from the fact that - no matter what the intent - this whole scene isn't funny.
It isn't funny because we’re supposed to be amused by a man being beaten up by his wife. Ignoring the abuse angle and the fact that Dinah could seriously injury Ollie if she wanted too, it still doesn't work as comedy. This is still negative reinforcement of stereotyped gender roles. I.E. "Ha-ha! You got beaten up by a girl!"
And the fact that this is coming from Hal Jordan, who has gotten his butt handed to him on numerous occasions by Star Sapphire is kind of funny. But not in the way McDuffie intended.
It looks bad anyway you slice it though. The art says action even as the dialogue says comedy and I can think of a thousand ways that the intent could have been made a lot clearer. Have it made more clear that Dinah sucker-punched Ollie in the stomach to knock the wind out of him rather than having him depicted as being knocked off his feet. Put more of a playful gleam into Dinah's eye after Ollie's crack about hoping for some rough sex. Even having Ollie say “Yes, Mistress” sarcastically after Dinah says “Don’t make me smack you again.” would help even if it did inspire a new wave of fanfic I’d rather not read.
And yet, despite all this, I’d still rather have McDuffie writing Green Arrow/Black Canary instead of Judd Winick or Andrew Kreisberg.
So now that THAT is out of the way, how does the rest of the issue play out? Not so good.
Hal gives voice to a several thousand disgruntled Justice League fans and notes, in describing the last 2 1/2 years of story-lines that "We haven't saved the world. We haven't even protected it... We've done nothing."
Personally, I think this is a bit harsh given that they DID fight The Legion of Doom, who probably would have wound up endangering the world a bit had they not decided to kill The Justice League first... but still fairly accurate given that all of Meltzer's run involved personal non-world-treatening business and even McDuffie's plots were continually side-lined by The Crossover Of The Week.
Dinah goes to talk to Barbara Gordon, who says - long friendship between Dinah and Hal completely ignored - that Hal is a jerk who has no respect for Dinah and that he'd never pull the "form a new JLA" stunt on Bruce or Clark, leading me to wonder just when did bluefall start ghostwriting Oracle dialogue for Dwayne McDuffie?
(Actually, if bluefall were writing this, it would be better written, Ollie probably would have died on page 4 and the issue would have ended with Barbara and Dinah in a honeymoon suite in Massachusetts.)
We then get a montage of Dinah asking other League members on if they are going to stay in the wake of everything that happened during Final Crisis. The short answers are...
Hawkgirl - now shacking up with Hawkman. Still on the team, for now.
Red Arrow - depressed after being dumped by Hawkgirl for Hawkman, he quits and tells Hawkman (who apparently wants to rejoin) that he can have his slot, which leads to a dirty joke Roy immediately apologizes for voicing to Dinah.
The Flash - despite not actually having been on the team for more than a few seconds, Wally says he hasn't got the time what with raising two kids who are as fast as he is AND being on The Titans.
Wonder Woman - busy with events on Themyscria. No detail is given past this, but it is no shock to those of us who have been reading her book.
Superman - busy with things on New Krypton. Again, no surprise for those reading his books.
Black Lightning - Sir Not Appearing In This Issue, we are told that he - per Batman's wishes in the event of his death - has quit the JLA to take over running The Outsiders.
Red Tornado - not returning Dinah's calls.
This leaves Dinah with John Stewart, Vixen, Zatanna (who may or may not be on the team and was mostly there as a favor to Bruce) and Dr. Light (who has only been on the team since last issue). Faced with four bickering teammates who are torn between trying to reconcile with Hal and his new group and trying to beat some sense into Hal and his group, Dinah announces - to the shock of everyone - that she is dissolving the JLA.
Of course there's another issue solicited for next month so we know that this isn't really the end of the JLA, especially with James Robinson's book not due out until summer. So this cliff-hanger is ultimately as meaningless as most of this book.
Still, there are some things about this book that don't suck. While a lot of McDuffie's attempts at humor fall flat, the lines that do work, such as Dinah's comment on how The Fortress of Solitude isn't easy to get to and Clark's reply that "that's sort of the point", are pretty good. A lot of the character moments, especially the Dinah/Roy scene, are quite enjoyable. And the artwork by Shane Davis is a lot better than the Ed Benes pin-up work that has been par for the course on this title for too long.
The Final Word: A rather forgettable issue that has gotten a lot more attention than it deserves thanks to a rather inappropriate and nonsensical attempt at humor in its' opening pages. All the more unfortunate and nonsensical since the book is basically setting up a series that won't be coming out for at least another two months, if that. Decent artwork and a few good character moments but not much else. Hal Jordan says it best in describing The League's recent lack of action - "We haven't saved the world. We haven't even protected it... We've done nothing."
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