Do you feel Fancomic-y? Well, do ya?

[auggie18]

I think one of these might need a content warning. So, um...


Content Warning! Violence against Women!






So, the DCnU Justice League book has a Shazam back-up. New backstory for Billy Batson. New backstory which turns Billy from this sweet natured little optimist to a tiny tool who has been kicked out of several foster homes.


Way to completely miss the point of the character, dudes.


Also, the Amazons are now mass-murdering slave owners.

Um.


Yeah.



So, back in the day, there was an issue of the X-men in which Wolverine tries to stop Rachel from breaking the 'X-men don't kill' rule...



...by stabbing her to death.


Yeah.


I thought that it's kinda funny that Wolverine is back to being Mr Stabby Stabby Death Death and is friends with Rachel again. Although I guess it's less about him killing and more about him stopping others from killing. Though Rachel had totally killed before this. And Wolverine actually went back later and tried to murder the hell out of Selene.


So, in conclusion, I've totally lost track of what I was trying to say with this.

Whatever.
 

Comments

[shadowpsykie]

exactly. i always though that billy being this naive kid who grew up in the foster system to be... i don't know kinda insulting... it felt almost like a mistrel version of a foster kid... "The Happy Orphan!" hell little orphan annie was more like a real orphan than Billy.

and to answer md84 below, we don't know what Billy is REALLY like inside. for all we know he DOES have a good heart and he is a great person. but he's also a person that knows that not EVERYONE is a good person. so yeah. he's an abrasive kid, maybe he had to be...

[whitesycamore]

Yes to all of that! When you're living in Billy's circumstances, being sunny and optimistic and trusting towards everyone is not always the wisest attitude to have. It tends to set you up for disappointment and can get you hurt worse.

I'm also not a big fan on judging the goodness of characters based on how superficially pleasant they are. Being abrasive is really not the worst thing in the world, and it doesn't necessarily reflect on someone's heart or integrity.

You sort of already said all that for me, though. :P

[shadowpsykie]

hehee i have my moments.

I'm also not a big fan on judging the goodness of characters based on how superficially pleasant they are

Professor Umbridge is a prime example. she tried to pull off this girlish sweetness but really she was a horrible, wretched, EVIL woman. at least with Voldemort (oh stop whimpering) you knew where you stood.

i mean when STEPHEN FUCKING KING thinks you have created the best villain since HANIBAL LECTOR.....

[auggie18]

(Okay, I just read this back and it comes off kinda long-winded and ranty, but it covers my feeling on the situation pretty well.)


There is a very large difference between being pleasant and being trusting towards everyone. Just like being abrasive doesn't necessarily indicate being a bad person, being nice doesn't necessarily indicate being a sucker. Lots of comics made it clear that even though Billy tried to see the best in people, that didn't mean he wasn't prepared for the worst.

It was mentioned in the comic itself that Billy has been kicked out of several foster homes already. Granted, I'm not familiar with the foster care system, so I'm not aware what you have to do to get kicked out of foster homes, but that still seems to indicate deeper problems.

On more honest note, even assuming this is a facade to cover up a soft interior, it still bothers me because it's such a radical change from the old Billy Batson. The character was a bright ray of sunshine in an increasingly dark world. He took everything life had to to throw at him and kept on being an optimist. Granted, this is hard to believe. But the world being presented to us is one in which people can fly and shoot lasers out of their ears. A sunny disposition doesn't seem that far out of the realm of possibility. The whole attitude is understandable, yeah. It makes sense. But there've been a lot of different takes on Billy and for the past 70 years, the most consistent thing about the character has been his personality and general attitude. It feels like a disservice to the character to change that.

(I was not kidding when I said long-winded, apparently. Sorry about about that.)

[md84]

I'm not saying Billy is a bad person. Far from it. It's not like the powers that be would want another Black Adam.

Billy reminds me of a more foul-mouthed and younger version of Disney's Aladdin -- the street rat thief who is the "diamond in the rough" that is the only person worthy of Genie's power.

The fact that the person most worthy of divine power has to act like a jerk to protect himself drives home the point that the Nu Universe isn't quite as idealistic as past incarnations of the DC universe.