I don’t read any of the titles discussed, but I enjoyed A. David Lewis’ look at portrayals of mortality in a handful of this week’s DC and Marvel superhero comics:
Refreshingly, Green Lantern #25 had something to say about mortality…kinda. That is, this issue concluded “The Sinestro War” where the Green Lanterns’ Guardians decided that lethal force was now authorized. Ring-bearers on both sides of the conflict fell by the dozens (and I found the device of having each ring whose bearer died announce its search for another to be a genuinely impressive flourish). After all is said and done — “the battle’s lost and won” — Earth’s Lanterns pause to consider the enormity of their new situation.
In all seriousness, this is what I would like to see more of. Beings of incredible power discussing how they can and should best apply those powers — what it means to take a life as well as what it means to have that easy capability. Considering that the villain’s whole plot [SPOILER ALERT] was to drive the Guardians to this new lethal measure, this dialogue is a strong and responsible conclusion to “The Sinestro War.”
Or, at least, it would have been if this hadn’t been splashed across its final page: [see “The Blackest Night” ad.
“Across the Universe, the Dead Will Rise.”
Yup, way to butcher your message, DC. We give real thought to death in wartime — now everybody’s coming back!
Lewis also considers New Avengers #25, What If? Civil War #1, Mighty Avengers #5 and (sort of) Justice League of America #15.
This is the sort of feature I wish I’d thought up. Of course, it would require me to read a bunch of blood-and-capes comics, so … never mind.
December 21st, 2007 at 10:47 am
ElCoyote,
Wow! You’re on a roll today–first you slag me and then you call the author of the article a douche without even reading what he wrote. What’re you going to do next? Kick a puppy for Satan?
Besides, the Anti-Monitor isn’t the prime mover of “The Blackest Night”–from what little we’ve seen, he’s a prisoner of the real forces behind the zombie uprising, trapped as the power source for the Black Lantern power battery.
Surely someone who actually read the book would know that, right?
December 21st, 2007 at 11:41 am
Kevin, I don’t think ElCoyote is completely off on this one. I had the same reaction to the snippet you posted. The logic is faulty, having superheroes discuss the taking of lives is not negated by saying that something will soon corrupt our dead.
December 21st, 2007 at 11:41 am
Sorry, I meant Martin, not Kevin.
December 21st, 2007 at 12:17 pm
Sigh.
EICoyote’s comment has been deleted. To repeat what I’ve said a couple of times this week, keep it civil. That means not calling someone you disagree with a “douche.”
December 21st, 2007 at 12:52 pm
Jason,
Oh, he’s not wrong at all–well, he wasn’t wrong about that, at least. But the guy apparently has no ability to make a point without resorting to personal cheap shots, so that obscured any relevancy he had.
Plus, admitting you haven’t read the post and then mixing up the character you’re using to make your point with another character doesn’t help.
December 21st, 2007 at 1:03 pm
I agree with Bryant; nothing is taken away from the serious handling of death in the Sinestro Corps War by having a teaser for a years-away story that features the undead. It would be one thing if every GL who died during the Sinestro Corps War was shown rising with Black Lantern rings…but that’s obviously not how it went down.
December 21st, 2007 at 1:32 pm
“Plus, admitting you haven’t read the post and then mixing up the character you’re using to make your point with another character doesn’t help.”
That doesn’t seem so bad to me. Mixing up the thing about the Anti-Monitor is just getting a detail wrong, or possibly even having a long shot guess about a possible story twist. Getting a detail wrong isn’t good, but it’s not that big a deal.
And if I remember correctly, he was pointing out that he didn’t want to read the rest of the article because he had a low opinion of the part that was quoted. Calling the author a name is definitely bad, but I don’t think it is wrong to say that you didn’t like the sample, so you won’t try the whole thing.
I see lots of blog posts here every day that I don’t bother to read the full article. Sometimes because the topic doesn’t interest me, sometimes because the sample of the blog didn’t seem very good to start with. Even if you disagree with me about the quality of any particular blog, it still seems reasonable to say that I wouldn’t read it because I didn’t like the sample.
December 22nd, 2007 at 12:13 am
I think actually the Black Lanterns “the dead will rise” will be the new laws of Oa coming back to bite the Guardians in their tiny blue heinies. And thus, it won’t undo any of the excellent talk about responsibility in GL #25 because even in the DCU, who expects to have to ever see the executed alive and vengeful again? So it adds an interesting layer onto the discussion that can’t be done IRL.
I dig that.