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.

Supergirl, Fandom and that new Marriage in Marvel Comics are among the many topics floating around this week, so let me be your guide to some interesting places!

Who’s That Girl?

In his Fortress of Soliloquy, Tom Foss revisits Supergirl challenging the idea of “wholesomeness”:

And oh, how far this new “Supergirl” was from the real thing. I refused to read the series, and the more I read about this nasty Linda Danvers and her dealings with demons, her sordid past, and eventually, her weird angelic powers, the more secure I felt in my boycott.

Then, I actually picked up an issue. Sure, I was thoroughly confused (sampling a series at issue #50 doesn’t always work out), but hey, maybe she wasn’t so bad. Eventually I picked up the series again (as part of collecting Our Worlds at War in its entirety–an expensive and not altogether unrewarding venture) and got hooked. When the series ended not too long after, I had already honed my love for Linda, and I was quite sad to see it go.

Shelly adds her own perspective:

I loved Kara dearly, but it took Crisis to make her interesting again. That’s typical, as I’ve seen it happen on TV, too. Make a character interesting when you know they’re about to die so folks will care more. And damn it, I cared, so much so that I never even read the rest of Crisis.

The Art of Posting

At Post-Modern Barney, Dorian shows us all how to use message boards to facilitate lazy blogging.

Sometimes, you just don’t want to share your brilliance with the world. Your precious insights and witticisms are just too…special to be shared with the masses via your blog. But you have an obligation to the many thousands and thousands of people who come to your site daily to be enlightened by your gloriosity. So, you need something to keep the monkeys occupied while you refresh yourself from the very hard work that is blogging.

Reading too much into it?

At Whereof One Can Speak, Katherine evaluates Cable and Deadpool in terms of slash subtext:

I was looking over the Deadpool scans on scans_daily lately and was struck by evidence from the comments of a schism between Cable & Deadpool fans who are all about the subtextual homoeroticism, and old-school Deadpool fans who find it annoying that there are so many people who think Deadpool’s either gay for Cable or just plain gay.

Because the Classics are Cool

At the Absorbascon, Scipio examines DC’s heroes with regards to literary conceptions.

(He gets bonus points for having a title that I don’t actually know how to pronounce!)

A Match Made by Marvel:

The Keeper of the Fortress of Fortitude has found his mind changed regarding Black Panther #19. Loren Javier adds his two sense. D. Edward Sauve hated it.

But our own Ragnell loved it?

Meanwhile, Dawn has a proposal for another major Marvel couple.

Fandom, It’s Like a Cult, In a Way…

At Dave’s Long Box, Dave Campbell reflects on the fundamentalist nature of fans:

It goes on. The murder of Blue Beetle in Countdown to Infinite Crisis. Greedo shooting first in the revamped Star Wars. Hulk Hogan becoming Hollywood Hogan. Star Trek: Enterprise. The rape and murder of Sue Dibny in Infinite Crisis. Iron Man blowing his secret identity by saving a cat. Batman ice skating. There are lots of different ways to piss off loyal fans.

Coke or Pepsi?

At the Filing Cabinet of the Damned, Harvey Jerkwater compares the approach to heroism of DC and Marvel:

Marvel’s abandonment of secret IDs and its ongoing Civil War project are built upon the idea of superhumans in the real world. Marvel roots its stories in the question “What would it mean if tomorrow a few hundred people around the world were mega-powered?” It focuses on the gulf between our world and a world with superhumans in it.

DC’s maintenance and new care about secret IDs is built upon the idea of superheroing, not super powers. DC roots its stories in the question “What would it be like to be a superhero?” It focuses on the gulf between the everyday life of a regular person and the everyday life of a super-being with powers, tights, and a split life.

Quick Hits

Brainfreeze knows what she likes.

Dorian has an apparently unpopular opinion about Trials of Shazam.

Devon reflects on the Baltimore Comicon.

Googum remembers Warlord.

Dave ex Machina’s Dave wants to know What’s Distracting Patricia?

And Diamondrock is vindicated.

On a rare serious note…

Lea Hernandez has been posting regular updates about her situation on her livejournal, for all who are concerned.

Finally, Our Illustrator’s Site of the Week

This week’s site is Colleen Doran’s blog. Fandom, her work experiences and current events are among the many topics discussed at her site. It’s very interesting.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, September 12th, 2006 at 3:24 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.