Jenny Sparks #6

[heartsways]

 

Comments

[nyadnar17]

Can I just say that I love, love, adore how well Superman is depicted in the modern area.

[aperturedreams]

Surely yelling and swearing at Superman will solve Covid.

[beyondthefringe]

Superman can’t even solve male pattern baldness.
Why not also ask him to cure cancer, impotence, influenza, the common cold, and lactose intolerance?

I dunno what’s more annoying, inserting Covid into the DCU when it was sidestepped before, or having Jenny yell at Superman about it.

[kamino_neko]

Why not also ask him to cure cancer

People have done that too. Kicked off a whole year long arc back in...2008, IIRC.

[laughing_tree]

We get that the point of the scene is that she's immaturely venting her frustration over the pandemic, not that this is a valid critique of Superman, right? We're not supposed to be thinking, "Yeah, she's right!"

[beyondthefringe]

Given that this is a Tom King story, I'm used to looking for the cynical undertone. I mean here we have Jenny Sparks, well over a century old and thoroughly a bitter, cynical, jaded, immature person, giving us all the ranting and raving of the 2020 anti-maskers. Wearing it with her nose exposed, complaining about being unable to breathe or talk (yes Jenny, because you're also a chain smoker...) and bitching out Superman.

The entire scene really just leaves me cold. Actually, the entire series leaves me cold. While King does well at deconstructing some stories, his approach doesn't always work for me and this is one of those cases. Jenny Sparks had a long and eventful life, as chronicled by Ellis, and died in a blaze of glory saving the world as her century came to an end, and she should have been allowed to rest after that, especially given the rise of Jenny Quantum for the 21st century. Taking this series, and issue 6 especially into consideration, it feels like digging up a corpse to kick it some more.

[laughing_tree]

Aw, she's just having a Moment, like a lot of folks did during lockdown. She relents and puts on the mask in the end (and is shown obeying lockdown protocols the rest of the issue).

[blues32]

She's yelling at the wrong person. Try Lex Luthor or something. Someone who should be able to whip up a cure for the virus with ease.

[cygnia]

She's as if John Constantine and Manchester Black dared each other to make a baby...

[cainofdreaming]

Comparing an Authority member to Manchester Black? We've come a full circle.

[superfangirl1]

I wonder if every superhero was wearing a mask during the time of Covid? Before a vaccine was made.

[thanekos]

" I can't breathe.. " groaned the regular smoker.

[blueprintstyles]

I want to see these two interact more. I feel Supes views Jenny as a foul-mouthed Batman a bit, and Jenny is drawn in by the type of heroism Supes represents. How does Lois react to the foul-mouthed woman who slept with him in college and periodically calls him to work her own stuff out.

[sean_613]

Ok, is there anyone that actually likes Jenny's character? I get that she could care less what people think of her, but her abrasive, foul-mouthed attitude is very annoying to me. It's amazing how Superman is willing up with her disrespect while still being polite. I mean for crying out loud, Garth Ennis shows more respect to Superman than Jenny and he HATES superheroes!

[nyadnar17]

I was just thinking about this. Like there was a time when Jenny, Manchester, and Constantine's style of loud mouth "realism" was refreshing but these days.....I dunno I am not sure the audience exist anymore.

Maybe that's the point? She feels dated because she is?

[shakalooloo]

She's SOOOO last century.

[lissa_quon]

Not sure this type of hero is dated - so much as they are being poorly used.

This scene is just painful to read. It feels like the writer is venting their own anger at COVID but it doesn't fit the scene - or the characters or goddamn anything.

Man will write and make people draw and read a painful ass superman scene rather than get goddamn therapy

[deh_tommy]

To be fair, I think for Tom King these destructive deconstructions (of stuff he mostly makes up or tacks onto the characters and stories) are therapeutic for him. It’s kind of like when Jeph Loeb tore down the Ultimate universe to grieve the tragic loss of his son.

[metadronos]

I certainly don't like her and can't believe DC thought building an entire series (hopefully just miniseries?) around her would be a good idea.

John Constantine is rough-edged and, er, flexibly moral in fighting evil, but at his core there's always been a fundamental decency and genuine regard for his fellow human beings (and other beings non-hostile to humanity). And while I can recall various times where he's been cheeky or irreverent towards superheroes and similar good-guys (most of all the Swamp Thing), I don't think (correct me if I'm wrong) he's ever told them to straight out fuck off. He is nothing like Jenny Sparks.

[cainofdreaming]

Yeah, what John does is infinitely worse than bad language. Ask anyone who has ever cared about him.

And Jenny did care too in her Wildstorm appearances. Black Label, at least this series, also seems to love those four to seven characters put together. Way more than Wildstorm ever did.

[knight_moves]

It was novel back in the 90s, when superheroes mostly got along and then suddenly some of them were being written to be more abrasive (Batman, Aquaman). But now, Iron Man fights Captain America and Batman fights Superman about as often as they're actually allies, so there's no real need for a special outside character who runs around dissing people. It's already covered.

[laughing_tree]

I mean, there's fighting someone and then there's mocking and dissing someone. Batman might fight Superman time to time, but he doesn't go around casually ridiculing him.

A better argument for redundancy would be the increased prominence of your Deadpools and Harley Quinns. Except I would argue that there's a crucial difference there, in that, as comedy characters, they come to it from a very different direction.

[zachbeacon]

Throwing a tantrum at a guy who is wearing a medical mask to protect his vulnerable neighbors. Which century is she supposed to be the embodiment of, again?

[bruinsfan]

Welllll...

[zachbeacon]

Humanity just continues to be the same stupid apes, don't we?