I follow up on my word.
It’s a dawn of a new age. A new, possibly financially destructive age for me, and hopefully the opposite for DC Comics.
The first of the new 52 are here. Down with the old, in with the new.
Haven’t read them it yet. I will soon. Don’t wait up.
This time, we’re surpassing dimensions.
I’ve always been a fan of alternative art—the creative phenomenon where many fans and artists alike visually reimagine some our most beloved characters. The result? Hours of browsing interpretations, and how cool and weird and incredibly well done they are, more often than not.
Well, this time Futurama steps up to the plate once more, and it’s a common subject for visual reinterpretation. Deviantart (or deviantsculpt?) user artanis-one takes it to…
A whole.
Notha.
LEVEL.
My guest post on preposterousthoughts:
No, I’m not a fat-ass, the Simpsons didn’t draw me, and my comic book shirts look fucking awesome—no three week old stains and unwashed smelliness. My voice isn’t obnoxious. I’m not an elitist.
My basement is, in fact, unfurnished, but my bedroom is a nice place to sleep.
But yeah, I enjoy comic books. I enjoy picture books for overgrown children. The almost literature. The stuff for little cousins and creepy guys in your English lecture. And I tell as many people as I possibly can, because more people need to like them.
More of you, and your friends, and your parents, and your children. You need to benefit from reading a comic book, because there’s more good in one than you can possibly know right now, and because it will help you. It will help you be a more creative person, a more imaginative mind. It will aid you in understanding your perception of the world and help you think critically and creatively about absolutely everything you experience.
You know why? Cause it’s helped me in the two and a half years since I picked up my first one, and it sure as hell can help you and everyone you know.
Look, I realize you have better things to do with your time and money. You have work, you have school, you have more productive, active hobbies. You may read books, and since comic books are not those, there’s no need.
It’s a common misconception. A majority one. A one comics can’t yet seem to break.
That’s because they rely on us—on me, the reader, to spread word. To recruit audiences. To get people interested. Because unlike books, there’s never an end to them when the author sells a bunch of them to a company, and calls it a day.
No, comics are a rare form of narrative. They’re deviations from the structure. They’re special. In a self-contained narrative, you have characters, plot and setting to create a story. It’s alone. It ends, and with it, so does everything else contained within. Comics are not self-contained. They’re self-sufficient. They evolve with each generation. And because of it, there’s people you and I both know, that have been alive far longer than we have, and will most likely continue to do so.
Clark Kent, Bruce Wayne, Peter Parker. They don’t end with the story. They live on. That’s what they do, because they’re more than characters; they’re icons. They exist to give us examples, to provide us with something, to enrich our understanding of life and its values. They are templates.
To be important, they must represent importance.
Lets do some role-play. You’re the scrawny kid in school. You grades are pretty good for your age, a few friends, you keep a low profile because that’s how you roll. Then you find out there’s some others who don’t like something about you. Your scrawniness. Your good grades. Who you are. They beat on you, they hurt you, they make you feel less than them.
You want to get back at them, show them who’s boss, make them understand what they’re doing is wrong. You want to be powerful.
Who do you turn to, without making a scene, without risking yourself? When there’s that much fear involved, of consequences, of punishment, what’s the way out?
I hope, for that kid, it’s a comic book. The reason why someone like Spider-Man is one of the greatest, if not the greatest, comic book characters of all-time, is that he was born into a generation of nerdy, bullied, and weak kids like he was. He had the grades, he liked a girl, he was picked on. Then he got bitten by a spider, and had these amazing abilities. Abilities that real life would never allow under any circumstances, and right in front of your eyes, after each page flip, Peter Parker’s doing it all in front of you.
When you’re a kid, ‘real’ can be as fluid as your next daydream in class. That kid takes that comic book with him wherever he goes, because after each bully pushes him around, he turns to Peter Parker. ‘With great power comes great responsibility’. Those catchphrases become mantras. They live by them. It moulds them. It guides them through turmoil and helps them overcome hardships thrown at them.
When they grow up, the grow up with Peter Parker too. That’s how comic books get fans. They connect with you. You see something in those iconic characters that have survived sometimes longer than your parents. They have amazing abilities, crazy powers, but there’s one thing that they will always be:
Just like us.
They’re human. Maybe not in the literal sense, but they are like us, because they’re written by us. They’ve had lovers lost. Their parents are gone too. They’re orphans in a place they’re not used to. Problems to them are problems to us, just with supervillians thrown into the mix.
The fantastic versus the realistic. The unimaginable versus the understandable. There is no competition in comic books. They co-exist by necessity. When I read comic books, for that moment, in that panel, reading that word bubble—I’m hearing, seeing, witnessing the character come to life. My imagination connects with the page. I bring it to life myself, I fill in the blanks. I have the power to make it as real as I want it to be.
When you’re a kid, that seems like the easiest thing to do in the world. Everything else is a mountain to climb. When your head’s in that comic book, it’s a way out. It’s a resource, and a bible. You live in it, and it lives in you as long as you carry on everything your favourite characters and stories represent.
Truth, honesty, responsibility, justice, kindness, heroism, understanding, tolerance—the list goes on. Comics teach more than they tell. We want the heroes to win, that’s a universal truth of storytelling. In comic books, rarely, if ever, is that fantasy not fulfilled. For that kid, it’s a wish come true. It’s reaffirming. It’s validation.
It’s telling him, ‘If you’re a good person, and you do the right thing, and you stay true to who you are and what you stand for, you’ll always be the good guy—you’ll always be the hero.’
Basic. Simple. Direct. A comic book is all these things on page. Yes, they’re complicated, and yes there’s a lot of history and backstory and pretext, but you distill those things into what’s important: the character—what, and who, they fight for.
I’m not going to lie, it takes work. When you grow up, you lose a lot. Most of why being a kid is awesome slowly dissolves. I think one of the first to go is that enthusiastic acceptance of the incredible. Everything is exciting. You’ll accept anything as reality—is it naiveté? No, just wild abandon. Not caring for the world, because you don’t fully understand it yet. And that’s okay, you’re a kid.
When you’re older, you have to care. You have to be a realist, accept that this is the world you live in. There’s no more tea parties with stuffed animals, or car races on your bedroom ceiling. Just you and the world you live in.
Then you pick up that issue of Spider-Man, remember how much it did to save you from yourself, and others, back when you were that scrawny kid, and it all comes back. You live it all over again. Your imagination sparks, you start thinking inside the book. Things come to life. People come to life.
Just think, how could you ever drop something like that again?
You have to take yourself outside your world. Your bubble needs to be burst from the inside out. Open a comic book to a random page—I’ll bet you anything something amazing is happening. If not, within the next two or three pages. It’s not like films, where it generally has to be rooted in reality, or like books, where your imagination is exercised to the point of exhaustion. Reading comic books is a team effort. It gives you glimpses into another world, with you to decide the rest.
You provide the images motion. You give the comic book a life of its own. All it takes is for you step back from your world, and your perceptions, and your understandings as vast as they may be, and pick one up and read it. Leave ‘real’ at the door. Enter another one—it will takes you places.
There’s a commitment. Comic books make money, yes. But it’s in the most creatively satisfying way possible, for both parties. Readers, they get a perpetual storyline and an awesome protagonist (a few have run to 900 issues), and creators—writers and artists—they get to create those worlds, guide your hand while you traverse something you’ve never seen before.
To me, that’s enticing. That’s something I can commit to. It gives me inspiration that things so fantastic can engage me that closely. Evoke a plethora of emotions and thoughts with each page. I want a lot of what I can’t have. But I can take pieces of it, and use them elsewhere. Create my own stories, my own realities. Engage with my imagination and let it, instead of trying to make it, go places.
I hope you have an alternative. For me, comic books represent the ability to dream, the opportunity for escapism, and the inspiration to use my imagination as freely as I possibly can. Maybe you have other ways, and I’d love to hear them.
Just know that, that creepy guy in the English lecture, he could have been that kid who grew up without Peter Parker, or Clark Kent, or Bruce Wayne. I want you to help him. Get a comic book. Give it to him.
His mind, and his heart, and his dreams will do the rest.
Support comic books. Visit your local comic book store and ask about DC Comics’ ‘New 52’. There’s 52 new issue one comic books releasing tomorrow, featuring 52 of DC’s top characters and teams.
No history needed. Just pick one up and start reading.
If you get confused, just ask me. I know my shit.
[via my tumblr & preposterousthoughts]
This site makes you want to fucking do better.
Just keep clicking, the advice keeps coming.
I want to live off this site come second year.
And I will. I’m ready. Bring on the design.
Tons more to get you pumped.
‘I’m bored’ is a useless thing to say. You live in a great, big, vast world that you’ve seen none percent of. And even the inside of your own mind is endless. It goes on forever inwardly. Do you understand? Being the fact that you’re alive is amazing, so you don’t get to be bored. – Louis CK.
Word.
There’s something called Tumblr and it’s been like a really annoying rash that you don’t know it’s there half the time but when it does show up you can’t really avoid feeling it right there, begging to be dealt with.
Well, I scratched it.
This is me. Toned down, brass tacks, simple stuff. If you want to know what I’m up to in terms of my head and its craziness, follow that Tumblr.
I promise myself I won’t re-blog every single cool thing I see, but now that I’m in enemy territory it’s hard not to develop some Stockholm Syndrome. It’s just so easy. There’s even a Tumblr directory devoted to comics. I don’t know what to do.
If I turn, know that I loved you all.
Bee tee dubz, I’ll be concurrently using both. This is for the general crazy shit. The other one, I hope, will turn out to be mainly for the creative crazy shit.
Fubar from Hasraf HaZ Dulull on Vimeo.
Motion comics are always a pleasant sight. It’s like two different mediums having a baby together. A baby that kicks ass.
The voice acting, the expressive animal faces, the sense of realism and the military jargon are all contributing factors to making FUBAR, FABAR (Fucking Awesome Beyond All Recognition).
God damn, I’m so clever.
30+ pages kind of big.
Several characters kind of big.
Arms aching kind of big.
I want to be in this world kind of big.
Might turn into something.
Check back in a little while.
Mitch Reed’s the kind of guy who will get shit done when he has his mind set on it, finish it, and then fist-pump in the air. And then flip a table and laugh at the person sitting there.
And then high five someone.
Also, he’s famous and he makes video shorts like a boss.
Also, he reps my blog cause he’s a cool motherfucker.
Get at him at his tumblr, folks.
Watch the Sagan Series, right here, right now.
“Imagination will often carry us to worlds that never were. But without it we go nowhere.” – Carl Sagan
God is Life. Life is God. We are its saviour. And we’re not doing a fucking good job right now.
Is the one you get to watch following your favourite movie.
Posted a few days ago about The Thing’s prequel, with a news article almost a year old. Well, they were well into production then, and now they’ve updated with some more news from the production set.
Graphic, epic, disgusting news.
That cautious optimism? Yeah, that’s now become giddy excitement. I am so down for this shit. Bring on the writhing bones, gargling flesh, painful screams, and assimilating awesomeness.
BODY STATUS: READY.
[via Bloody Disgusting (among others), more nasty pics at the link)]
For every time I swagger into a room, or chase a bear.
The album is Treats, from 2010. Noise pop that ditches the flowers and cuteness and just goes hard.
Don’t know if many people do this, but I’m guessing there’s some of you out there.
Few hours ago, I was walking home with a buddy and we were imagining some crazy, stupid, epic shit that would be cool and awesome and probably terrifying to see in our measly ordinary existence in this reality. Fantastic, incredible, unimaginable shit—things that could and would never ever happen in our lives, or anyone’s for that matter.
It was only a short walk, and we discussed it for a brief time, and I don’t know about my friend, but all I could see in my head was all that crazy shit coming together, and me being a center of it, and it coming at me, and it being awesome.
Throwaway conversation becomes inspiration to me. “Wouldn’t it be cool if…” becomes “Why not make that?” “Why not create that world?” “Why not become that person?” “Why not believe?”
Say what you want about it, but the way I think—the way I’ve developed my imagination, I’m always more willing to see the fantastic than the ordinary. If only in my head, if only for a brief moment in time, I’d rather imagine something greater than the world itself than sit in a chair and observe reality.
Sure I’m a realist in normal situations, but shit, when I dream, I want to dream up things that I will not ever experience. In a way, I’m creating it then, it’s mine, and I can do what I want with it.
‘An idea is the most resilient parasite’ – Dom Cobb
I’m paraphrasing, but I think Cobb from Inception said something along those lines.
I know a lot of creators and storytellers and artists have that parasite in them, and the cure is the camera, the paintbrush, the typewriter, or what have you. I don’t think I’m at that stage yet, where the idea becomes unbearable to control, because, well, I invented the parasite that is this idea, it’s mine, but it also feels like its own entity. Certainly shaped from my perceptions and experiences, my resources and definitely the clusterfuck I consider my imagination, but it can grow and thrive and writhe this way through my psyche until I put it on a page.
Do I want that to happen? Eventually, yes. I want to constantly spend my time trapped in my mind’s worlds, creating and destroying, shaping and reforming everything that I have under the control of imagination—or maybe, rather, under control of whatever idea is consuming me, I hope.
Look, I can’t draw, but I’m planning on learning, I can’t dance too well, I don’t do a lot of sports, not a scholar or a savant, I don’t have a +1 in Charisma or Strength, and I probably can’t do a lot of things my friends can.
For me, it’s always been, “What do I have?” –mind you, I don’t mean “What do I have that others don’t”, because that’s restrictive and overly self-deprecating. Just, without any ceiling to reach, any basis for comparison, what are my assets?
I’m fairly good with words, I know people who have a better grasp of it, but I can write a decent paragraph on lots of topics. I have pretty eccentric, sometimes broad, tastes in music and movies, and TV. Gaming’s a big thing, and I’m pretty good at it. I know a lot of esoteric information about mainly comics, but also some other topics.
I’m a nice guy too—let’s check that off for those wondering.
Above all though, because recently I think I’ve chosen this one as the big winner, just because it’s probably the main thing I have going for me—I imagine things greater than myself, this world, and the people in it. By no means is this a set-in-stone trait. And by no means, am I done learning more about this asset, let alone done developing it, even eventually training it if I have enough willpower, frankly.
I like to think I’m a bit more imaginative than my peers. I see solace and interest in things that most other people wouldn’t be the most keen to discuss. I like thinking about things that will never happen, simply because it provides a chance that it will happen for me—in my head, yeah, but really what’s the damn difference?
The whole fiction vs. reality debate and all that, I don’t want to get into. Who would pick reality, really? Everyone has the story they want to be a part of, be they the writer or the protagonist. Every boy wants that girl. Every unhappy wife wants that harlequin novel affair to happen.
Every person wants to escape.
There’s just some that can’t, because they have a 10-foot tall wall made of believability and comprehension blocking their way out from that rut of being stuck with this reality.
A lot of people can jump over it too, break it down, stomp on the rubble, with a pen, pencil, brush, keystroke, mouse click—whatever, they’re all tools. Just takes one fantastic idea, one fantasy, specific as a space cowboy rescuing alien refugees, or as vague as just getting up and leaving, is all it takes for someone to accept that dreaming big and taking what you know and turning it into something no-one ever will know is okay for a while.
After all, it’s all in your head, until you want to make it more.
And I’ve wanted to make it more for some time. Ever since I’ve witnessed others who do it daily, for a living, and love it. Ideas turned into fruition, into worlds—not yet real, but not totally intangible anymore. A great in-between—perhaps the closest form the idea will get to an individual’s reality. I’m thinking comic books right now, but it can be novels, films, television--hell, even music if you value hearing as much as sight, but it’s all the same, again.
I dream big; vivid and vast, because it’s the best thing I can do right now. I don’t like reality. I’m sorry. It’s just not working with me. Hell, I know I’m stuck with it, and I got a lot of helpers I’m thankful for to make the ride enjoyable, but after what I’ve seen and what I’ve dreamt, I'll take any chance I get to hop on board any other reality out there.
That’s why I read what I read—probably most others who do it do it for that reason too. Escapism is the drug that keeps imagination alive. That one core desire that we’ve developed for ourselves, and not enough people I think embrace the power of imagination to self-sustain that feeling of escapism, if only for until the movie ends or the last page is written or read.
In my mind, with that one parasitic idea (I hope), my imagination creates the drug. And I control my imagination. But wait, that’s an oxymoron. You should never, ever try to control your imagination, in fear of what you might find, or whether it hinders your grasp on every day life, it doesn’t matter. Just do it because you can, and because it will inevitably take you places.
I’m not talking about imagining God’s telling you to slaughter a bunch of kids to bring them to Heaven, those people are flawed from before this whole ‘imagination is a drug’ thing.
I’m talking about me, and hopefully someone like me. Maybe you. I hope, you.
Hell, it’s brought me places. You can’t really tell right now, because I’m in the same physical place as I was since I was born; normality reigns, reality binds.
Places don’t have to be physical though. I’ve imagined a couple worlds, a few dozen or so people I’d really like to meet if I could, and a few world-changing/cosmic events to spice things up. So yeah, I’ve gone places, and back. And gone to them again.
So do I prefer those realities over this one? Sure. As much as acting on that preference is an impossibility, nothing else is. I have real people, real places in housed in my mind. Real to me, is real enough, okay?
I don’t care if I sound bat-shit crazy, this is what I want to do for a long time. I want to make worlds and hopefully, painstakingly, make them as real to everyone else as they are real to me.
That’s the burden of imagination. That’s the cure to the parasite that is that one, award-winning, life-changing idea. That’s my biggest dream.
Three minutes of walking down my street, thinking about how a discoloured lamppost could actually be housing an light-based energy alien lifeform scouting from inside the shell of the casing, which is actually a camouflaged outpost to send information to its homeworld.
And look where it’s brought me.
Don’t just think about life, imagine it. It’ll do you some good.
[I really am grateful for you, dear Blog Reader, if you got through all of that. I thank you for your dedication for this blog, I know I’m light on the GIFs and reblogging. Kudos]
So, Gamescom in Germany is happening again. And all the big players are out there flaunting their neat new games, like Battlefield 3, Guild Wars 2, Resistance 3, Saints Row 3, Borderlands 2, Dark Souls, Modern Warfare 3, and plenty more both you and I have never heard of, but that isn’t necessarily a bad thing. It is the year of the sequels, and threequels, but to spice things up a bit, some new players are entering the ring.
NCSoft, the company that owns ArenaNet (creators of the Guild Wars franchise), have had a sleeper agent waiting to pounce on the games convention circuit till now, in the form of this awesome trailer and potentially awesome game.
It’s another MMORPG, yeah, but as I said in previous posts, sometimes the standard tropes with big steel swords and ancient ruins and medieval sensibilities gets bogged down. Enough arrows and mage staffs. Bring in the hoverbikes and space freighters.
That’s right, it’s a damn space western, a ‘future fantasy’ and an MMORPG. Not much news yet, since just about everyone is discovering this game for the first time, but I’m stoked to see how they handle classes and gameplay mechanics. Looks like your standard class archetypes though; rock-dude tank warrior, bunny-girl sorcerer, dashing duel-wielding rogue—but hey, those things work in MMO’s, so I’m not complaining.
Also, I would watch a movie of this, like if Pixar had a fringe sister company taking care of less kiddy-oriented, more awesomesauce ideas like space westerns. The animation reminds me of Tangled though, if Tangled was set on an alien planet and everyone had energy pistols. Lovin’ the art direction this game, is my point.
Disney-Pixar X-Treme?
Fund it, Pixar. Fund it.
For those interested, here’s some commentary. Apparently it’s been in dev for four years. Jeez, NCSoft, you’re really holding back to cards on this one.
Makin’ the rounds here, folks.
Elizabeth, from the upcoming Bioshock: Infinite. Click through for flickr.
And the character as seen in-game:
And a trailer, just for kicks:
Sick photography by the way, always want to try some portrait, but my camera is as useful as a fistful of really shiny dirt. The photographer’s photostream is pretty packed with some decent, and some awesome cosplay of other characters.
Could cosplaying be making an entrance at The Fanboy Subconscious?
Am I really going off the deep end?
What’s next? Anime-Con coverage? Some manga reviews? Furries?
That’s next time, on The Fanboy SUBconscious: How Far Down Will He Go?
[photo via theawesomer.]
Fanart or official, I’m not entirely sure, but it doesn’t matter.
Here’s Karen Zachary Wang. Discovered her three minutes ago.
Check out her blog at http://iamacoyfish.blogspot.com/.
The world needs more Wonder Woman, in my opinion.
Much more at the link below (most importantly, some Plastic Man, bitches).
[via ComicsAlliance & Daily DCU]
Ever wondered what my favourite movie is, you nosy bastard?
Well it’s this:
And a few months ago, I found out somebody was making this:
So I was like this:
It’s difficult to say what exactly there was to expect from a remake—what it was thought to be at the time of the first news breaking out—but to have your favourite movie modernized with contemporary horror tropes that ensure profitable returns (aka. turned into shit), you have to take it with a pinch, or entire bowl, of salt.
But, as it turned out, not a remake, but a prequel. For those of you who haven’t watched the original 1982 The Thing, go do it, and you’ll get what I mean. Seriously. Now. Look, I’m giving you a fucking download link.
Last year in October, the horror movie/games/comics news site Bloody Disgusting had extensive coverage on the developmental process of the prequel so far. Fun tidbit, the production studio was actually located on the Harbourfront in downtown Toronto, at Pinewood Studios. Passed by it a couple times, big-ass building. Wanted to go inside, but there was a big-ass gate too. Sucks.
I digress. It was a pretty comprehensive article, if you have enough attention span and interest to read the whole thing, be my guest. But here are some excerpts.
"No matter what you do, somebody is going to come after you. You say 'The Thing Begins' and they go, 'John Carpenter's is the beginning, asshole. Yours is like 'The Thing Bullshit'. Why don't you call it that?" – Producer Marc Abraham on possible fanboy reactions to a new title
I like their attitude, and self-awareness. The producers behind the prequel are the guys who remade Dawn of the Dead back in 2004, still one of my favourite zombie flicks—and cited alongside 28 Days Later as reviving the genre and the emergence of ‘fast zombies’.
"Matthijs [the director] has on his laptop…screen captures of that entire movie", he said. "He's so careful about where the axe is in the door or what the ice block looked like, or the spaceship, where they stand when we see the spaceship…when it [comes] to being anything that was referenced in that movie, we have absolutely stayed with it. Thousands of hours he's spent looking at that movie. He knows and is respectful of every aspect."
This is why I’m queasy over it as much as I was when it was announced. If that kind of care is taken into recreating and respecting the original as much as possible, and because it’s not a remake—and thusly, not changes in the original narrative can happen—the risk-reward ratio for a viewer like me is much better. Maybe, like 10/1. Nah, that’s bullshit, it’s just better when I read that.
Now, before you get your panties all up in a bunch about the use of CGI in the film, keep in mind that had Carpenter and his team enjoyed access to the modern computer effects technology that's available today, you can be 99% sure they would've taken advantage of it. It's all a question of whether it's used judiciously - that is, utilizing it in a way that doesn't overwhelm the practicals and take you out of the movie. Luckily, Image Engine – the studio behind the fantastic CG effects in last year's District 9 - is holding the digital reins here, so hopefully they'll be able to adhere closely to the type of work they pulled off so brilliantly in Neil Blomkamp's movie.
This was probably initially my greatest concern after the first announcements. Practical effects are a huge part of the original, and to rely on CGI to recreate those iconic monsters in the original would be doing a great disservice to the astounding effort put into those creature designs and prosthetics—most importantly, it’d be a disservice to Rob Bottin, the lead SFX artist on the original The Thing, who worked overtime seven days a week during production on the various monsters on the set.
Anyways, that’s just some of the tidbits the full interview, in two parts, tells about the production. The point is, it was a good way to quell my concerns at least a little bit, and since that was from a while ago, I was sure that so early into the production they already had that positive mindset in relating it back to the original, that they can’t deviate much from what the original meant to a lot of its fanbase.
And, just recently, the first trailer popped up looking pretty damn good, sporting the soundtrack emulator from the original trailer and movie, and having some awesome Mary Elizabeth Winstead footage—I mean, reason enough to watch it, forget being my favourite movie of all time.
Norwegian actors, detailed recreations of original set pieces, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Splitface, Image Engine, flamethrowers, mass paranoia, connecting the dots—not much to be pessimistic about. I’m downskies.
October 14th, 2011, folks. Two days from the season premiere of The Walking Dead? Gonna be a pretty sick October.
captainfuck [on Tumblr]:
Superman is easily the most misunderstood fictional figure in modern popular culture.
Any issues people tend to have with him are a result of lazy writers, not any failings of the central myth behind him. His lack of appeal speaks more to the persistent cynicism of our society than anything else. Why else do people have such a hard time rooting for a man with the power of a God who seeks only to do good? Same reason you don’t trust that really nice guy who’s helping you with your groceries. Your first instinct is “he’s a rapist.”
That’s the appeal of Batman. Batman doesn’t fucking trust anyone. You wouldn’t either if you saw your parents get capped at age 8. People can relate to that. Bruce was normal, then the world showed him it’s true colors, and he never looked away again.
Clark is essentially Jesus, but far less preachy. People can’t relate to that shit. Superman is like Jack from LOST. Most people cannot relate to a gifted, well to do Anglo alpha male struggling with his place in the world. Bruce is the emo kid acting out his revenge fantasies on drug dealers and motherfuckers dressed up likes clowns. Clark is the jock valedictorian who felt bad that his best friends didn’t get accepted to the schools he did.
I think at this point I should get across that I am a Batman stan for life. Period. I’ve been Team Rich Nigga Vigilantism since birth.
Just, as I get older, I wish for the moral fibre and the dedication to be more like Superman.People point to his absurd power levels & shit but be honest: if YOU could fly and punch the moon, how many kittens in trees would you save? Bruce is incapable of seeing the good in humans, and understandably so. Clark is incapable of not at least trying to. That’s admirable. Bruce is equally restrained. I mean, he’ll beat the shit out of a crackhead with a car engine if the mood strikes, but he can’t cross a line. Can you imagine having the wealth and means to just fucking murder serial rapists and get away with it, and have the strength not to?
I don’t like regular people, mostly. I grew up with titans and misunderstood freaks who held themselves to a higher standard. 95% of the people I’ve met in life have at one point or another fucked up my perception of humanity. Shit, myself included.
Superman never let me down. Never cut a corner. He never fucked somebody over out of selfishness. He stood on a line and wouldn’t be moved. Half of the historical figures who’s regurgitated mantras and quotes we parrot and strain to adhere to were fuck ups just like us. I’m pretty sure Gandhi told a white lie or two in life to get some head. Superman? Not so much.As a kid, I thought Superman was lame. I’ve read the end fight scene from THE DARK KNIGHT RETURNS thousands of times. As I’ve gotten older, I’ve respected him more.
Idk. Some people really fucking like Jesus. I wasn’t raised with the bible. I was raised with The Justice League. My Christ wears a cape. I think belittling the myth of Superman down to being a boring do-gooder is reductive and insulting.
I’m just saying…how many kids right are going to grow up idolizing nihilistic, selfish, jaded cocksuckers with broken belief systems? If I have a kid, I don’t want him to grow up to be like me. That’s a low ceiling to build over a child. Why can’t he reach for the skies?
Doing the right thing is fucking HARD. Clark Kent is an awkward, workaholic nerd who keeps people at a distance so he doesn’t endanger them. Here’s a dude who could basically turn 22 and walk into the white house and incinerate the President, and run the free world. He could build iron fortified fuck palaces with his bare hands and stock them to the brim with color coordinated cooze puppets in every city. Instead, he works at a fucking newspaper. He’s in love with a bitch who only likes him when he wears a cape. Everyone dogs him. His boss is a dick. His parents are the only two people in the world who seem to understand him at all. He doesn’t take days off. He gets up every day and sacrifices anything he could be doing for himself to save lives. And better the world around him. I don’t understand how no one can relate to that? You’ve never done something because you know it’s right, even if it doesn’t benefit you? I’m not saying, you know, defeat Darkseid on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. Shit, you never helped an ungrateful friend move? How many parents leave their kids in front of an Xbox and let Master Chief raise their young? Shit, pop in some Superman cartoons.
I’ve always considered myself a man in search of a cave to plot revenge in, but I’m trying Ringo. I’m trying REAL HARD to be more Super.
He was raised by two decent, hard working, loving humans. He saw in them that EVERY human, regardless of circumstance, had that capacity. Bruce knew from a young age the very worst humanity had to offer. Clark knew the opposite. I’m cynical as fuck! When I meet new people who seem genuinely nice, it takes WEEKS for me to stop secretly assuming they’re pedophiles!I don’t fucking trust ANY of you people! I WISH I’d studied to be a ninja to facekick shady fucking people. But, God, how I wish I could be a kid again. Children have that quality Superman has. It’s not naiveté. They just still believe in magic.
Obviously, Superman can afford to give everyone the benefit of the doubt. If he ends up being wrong, you know, he can atomize hem w/ a look. I think the beauty of the character is that, if our sun didn’t turn him into a God, and he was raised just the same, he’d be no different. He’d just be a shy nerd who gives people the benefit of the doubt, and probably get mugged a lot.
People. you don’t have to be able to fly to be Superman. Take a week trying not to be a dick. You’re halfway there. Just fucking SMILE at people in the streets. ASPIRE, dammit.Remember that poster for Donner’s SUPERMAN? “YOU WILL BELIEVE A MAN CAN FLY!” When’s the last time you believed in anything aspirational?
I think I’m pretty much done. Been in a bad mood for three weeks and I read SUPERGODS and decided Kal-El was going to be my new religion.
Still BATMAN 4 LYF, but I think we could all stand to see a little more Superman when we face the mirror in the morning.
You caught me in a rare, uplifting mood. Tomorrow it’s back to big asses, hipster music and bad mouthing stupid people.[thanks, deebeemonster]
Great rant. And a good incentive to pick up at least Action Comics #1 this September.
Fuckin’ Adam Hughes, bitches.
You know his covers when you see them.
ABOVE: Covers for Teen Titans, Catwoman, Wonder Woman, Power Girl and Zatanna. It’s mostly women for good reason: he knows how to draw them.
Mostly known for his work on Catwoman (vol. 2), being the dedicated cover artist for over almost forty issues. Most Wonder Woman art you google will turn up his work. His style is basically pin-up art modernized with superheroes. The lines and the detail in his characters makes each cover.
Only downside? His work takes a long damn time to make it look so good, so you won’t find him doing any interior art. Shame.
Prime example of those who draw women the way they’re supposed to be drawn, I think. His website is http://www.justsayah.com/. Have at it.
