Pretty, Fizzy Paradise

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Wednesday, July 02, 2008

Just because I didn't go, doesn't mean I can't comment...

I didn't go to the Chicago convention this year. Mostly because neither my ex-roommate nor Ragnell could go, and it's not nearly as much fun to go alone.

That and my wallet can't quite handle it. Instead, as my blog has already related, we hung about and watched stupid things and generally enjoyed ourselves. I don't regret it.

Though I am a teensy bit sad about missing out on panels like this and this one.

Especially the latter. The former is always interesting (and for those of you who may not have noticed (Ragnell's broken her hiatus. Mine's still going for now, but I have the distinct feeling my guilt over leaving her to do all the work should kick in any time now and I'll be resuming my "do one-fifth of the work, get half the credit" contribution. :-P). But still, Greg Rucka and Gail Simone talking Wonder Woman? Awesome.

I like the thought of Simone making some new villains for Diana. I do think she's got some good villains in her mix (and admittedly some clonkers) but heck, that's no reason not to play around with new ideas. I'm not sure what I think about the "Doomsday" one. One one hand, I think the notion of a being created out of soil from a lot of genetic cleansing sites is a really interesting idea. On the other, though, it kind of reminds me of Captain Pollution in the whole equal-and-opposite vibe. :-) Which means that it could turn stupid pretty quick. But I tend to like Gail Simone's work, and when I don't, it's usually because I just don't care for the characters/concepts and not out of any problem with the writing. (See: Secret Six.)

So I'll probably enjoy it.

The Marvel and DC panel sounds like fun too. Especially with all the fussing I've seen online about how DC (and Didio) is apparently screwed because Final Crisis 1 didn't sell as well as Secret Invasion. That never made sense to me because in actuality, I don't think Marvel and DC are in competition. It's not like we're talking about utilities or phone companies or anything like that here. With cable or telephones or electricity, yeah, you pick one company and you use it. If you switch, you switch to a new one and don't give any money to the old one.

But comics aren't like that. People buy comics they like. Sure, lots of folks, myself included, do have a general preference for one company over another, but even the most hardcore DC or Marvel polarist usually enjoys at least ONE comic produced by the other side. And even if one does better in any given month, it doesn't mean the other is suddenly in dire straights. It's not a big deal if Final Crisis comes in second to Secret Invasion. It's still coming in second and that's not a bad position at all.

I think the panel sounds like it had nifty insights into the different stylistic elements of each company and would have been fun. :-)

4 Comments:

  • At July 02, 2008 8:46 AM, Blogger Jer said…

    The Wonder Woman panel sounded really good from the Newsarama write-up. I've been really liking what Simone has been doing on the book to this point - partly because I'm a sucker for talking gorillas, partly because Simone has a knack for dropping little snippets of DCU continuity into her work without turning the whole work into a love letter to the things she liked as a kid, and probably mostly because her writing style clicks with me in ways that some of the previous Wonder Woman writers haven't.

    I'm not sure what Rucka's talking about with the "no consequences for killing Max Lord" thing. It was handled near perfectly given that DC editorial made the bone-headed decision to put one of their three major superhero properties into the position where she had no choice but to act like a cold-blooded killer. The story SHOULD be quickly swept under the rug and forgotten as quickly as possible. Of course, Rucka seems to think that the fairy princess from the magical island who was sent to "Man's World" to teach us the folly of war and violence should be some kind of Special Ops paramilitary expert, so I suppose he and I are fundamentally at odds about what the character of Wonder Woman is supposed to be anyway (probably explains why I found his Wonder Woman so irritating I had to drop the book).

     
  • At July 02, 2008 10:23 AM, Blogger SallyP said…

    Both of those panels looked interesting. I do have to wonder a bit about the whole Max Lord thing however. I thought that Marc Andreyko handled it quite nicely over in Manhunter. Granted, that wasn't Wonder Woman's book, but what the heck.

     
  • At July 02, 2008 8:41 PM, Blogger Diamondrock said…

    You can go with me next year if nobody else is going! (and you've got the money :-P )

     
  • At July 04, 2008 1:36 AM, Blogger Ununnilium said…

    I especially liked the part at the end (of the one talking about the Marvel/DC panel) where he talked about how some people enjoy their comics by complaining about them. Indeed.

     

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