The comic blogosphere seems to grow larger every day and just like comics, sometimes it’s pretty easy to get a little lost. “Meanwhile …” will act as your map, pointing out what interesting discussions are happening out there while you’re reading Blog@Newsarama.

You guys may or may not have noticed, but in each of my Meanwhile columns thus far I’ve been trying to incorporate a theme. This week, however, I’ve given up on that and am going instead with the very simple and efficient theme of “some things that Kalinara thought were cool this week”.

Great Scott!

On livejournal, Willow_dot_com posts an interesting defense of one of the X-Men’s most scorned characters:

Scott is not a robot. He’s not an automaton. He’s not a stick in the ass, authority loving, fun sapping, kiss ass, vortex of soul sucking rule following; a tool of the overseer. He’s not an old fashioned boyfriend and love interest. He’s not a romantic foil. He’s not wish fulfillment about the perfect man. And he’s sure as hell is not a callous cheating manho! (Let’s not even go there) He’s not all this despite what the writers have done to him. Despite the saga that is Jean Grey, Phoenix. (And how I feel about her is a whole ‘nother essay)

Scott is who he is due to his past, machinations by Sinister, his relationship with Charles Xaiver and in my perhaps unknowledgeable opinion, some really lazy writing. But even that writing and how his internal life is ignored doesn’t detract from his potential. Potential, some of which Joss Whedon found in ‘Astonishing X-Men’.

Great Scott 2.0

At Random Panels, Brandon declares his love for one relatively under-appreciated Green Lantern:

He’s been a railroad engineer, a WWII veteran, the head of a major broadcasting company, and one of the leaders of a U.N. sanctioned covert operations agency, not to mention a founding member of the JSA. Freakin’ Superman comes to this guy for advice! He’s been called the elder statesman of the DC universe. He even managed to spawn a couple of mega powerful super brats along the way. Plus, you gotta admit, the eye patch is pretty bitchin’.

She’s a Bird! She’s a Plane! She’s…

In his Fortress of Soliloquy, Tom Foss damns Supergirl #9 for making him interested in spite of himself:

Then, Supergirl #9 hit, and things actually clicked. In the span of one issue, Joe Kelly gave Supergirl more personality and more of a place in the Superman family than in the previous fourteen (excluding, of course, her appearances in LSH which have been universally well-done). How did he accomplish such a monumental task?

However, our own Carla Hewitt stil has some problems:

And why don’t I like Supergirl? Why has Kara bothered me since her first appearance in Superman/Batman (and, on a tangent, why is it Superman/Batman? Why isn’t it Batman/Superman? It’s alphabetical.) Is it the waifish body type that only Michael ‘Get these girls a sandwich’ Turner can provide? It is her weird ‘My Two Dads’ involvement of both Batman and Superman (not to mention Wonder Woman) in her getting started? Shouldn’t she be able to stand on her own as a hero?

Marriage and the Single Spidey

Brian Hughes of Again With the Comics has a very bad feeling about the fate of Spiderman’s marriage:

According to All The Rage, those longing for Spider-Man’s freewheeling days as a fun-loving bachelor may soon get their wish. All I can say is: be careful what you wish for. I don’t know if I trust this image*, necessarily. It could be from any number of other projects. I’ve seen speculation that it may be from Spider-Man: Reign. That sure does look like Steve McNiven’s art though. As much as I otherwise am enjoying the Civil War, I’m not going to be happy if Mary-Jane Watson Parker ends up a casualty.

Measuring Up To The Real World?

At Suspension of Disbelief, Loren Collins looks at She Hulk #8 with an eye for legal accuracy:

Witnesses may be heard at the temporary injunction hearing, but probably not the witnesses we see in this issue. (Witnesses which include, oddly enough, Haley Joel Osment.) In this type of lawsuit, the question posed is whether the website is protected speech under the First Amendment, or whether it consists of unprotected threats. (More on that distinction in my next post.)

Polite Dissent’s Scott uses his medical knowledge to critique Batman/Nightwing: Bloodbourne:

By taking the vaccine, Nightwing hopes to develop an active immunity against the virus. His blood is then transfused into Batman who should gain a passive immunity against the virus.

Unfortunately, active immunity takes several weeks to fully develop. Nightwing took the vaccine at most thirty minutes before the transfusion and has not had time to develop enough antibodies to offer Batman any protection. Batman will gain nothing from the transfusion except maybe a transfusion reaction or fluid overload (see below).

While Steven at the Roar of Comics hates the mutant gene:

I hate the concept of the gene for mutant powers, or “X-gene”, in X-Men comics. It’s stupid and it leads to bad stories and muddled meanings, but I specifically hate it for four reasons. The first is scientific, the second semantic, and both are pretty petty and pedantic, but they tie into the third, substantive reason, so I’ll try to get through them quickly to get to the fourth.

Weekly Dose of Nepotism

Because I’m a shameless nepotist, I’m linking my very good friend and newsarama co-worker Ragnell. Again. Because it’s my column and I can. Anyway, this week, she takes on parenthood in the DCU as well as the presumption certain men have about what attracts women to characters.

Two Sides to Every Coin?

Calvin Pitt examines the conflict in Civil War and why it seems one sided:

The thing I think Marvel has missed with their claims that Civil War is going to handle both sides evenly, is that if that were true, then it would be possible to sympathize with characters on both sides. And while I can sympathize with the families of the dead in Stamford and their desire for change, I haven’t been able to do the same with the Stark-Richards-Pym/Parker quartet. And that’s probably because Tony is so damn dismissive of everyone else.

In Memorandum

In honor of Jack Kirby’s birthday, the Sleestak posts this examination of the Tablet of Revelation from Kamandi:

As far as I was concerned Jack Kirby tells the legend of the true Death of Superman in Kamandi #29. In the story it is revealed that The Man of Steel did not die in a fight scene against a creature that should have been a Highfather clone sent by Darkseid (but wasn’t). Kirby had Superman die as a real hero, preventing the planet Earth from destroying itself and being destroyed in a series of cataclysmic events that included World War 3 called by survivors as “The Great Disaster”.

Quick Hits

Chris Sims gets serious for once in his review of American Born Chinese.

Lyle at Crocodile Caucus makes an interesting juxtaposition.

The Fortress of Fortitude’s Keeper reviews the Trials of Shazam.

Doctor Polaris takes on fashion critique.

Jonathan Hamilton has taken on the role of a character doctor that’s currently focused on the Justice League, offering both diagnosis and prescription.

Marionette examines Skrull Culture.

Metrokitty wants to start a drive to get a certain artist a new magazine.

While on the manga front, David Welsh compiles various reactions to Tokyopop’s policies regarding online exclusives.

And finally, Girl-Wonder.org’s own Mary Borsellino speaks a little about Project Girl Wonder. (It is also a response to this notable article.

Illustrator’s Site of the Week

Did you guys know that James Jean has a blog? I sure didn’t! It’s a pretty neat site though, showing some cover samples, sketches, and a sneak peek or two at some in progress work!

This entry was posted on Tuesday, September 5th, 2006 at 3:27 am and is filed under Internet, Meanwhile.... You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.