Dogfight over Shanghai

[arbre_rieur]

Four pages from The Great Ten #4. This issue's focus character is Immortal Man-In-Darkness, the champion and defender of Shanghai.



Immortal Man-in-Darkness battles Feng Po, the Chinese God of Wind.



The Immortal Man-in-Darkness is Chen Nuo, fighter pilot for the People's Liberation Army Air Force. One year ago, he was summoned to Anshan Airbase to meet a national hero...





He's offered an invitation to join their ranks, which he accepts.

As is explained to him, an alien craft crash-landed in Qinghai province fifteen years ago. The Dragonwing is one of the various products yielded from that craft's reverse-engineering.





Back in the present...




title: great ten, publisher: dc comics, creator: tony bedard, creator: scott mcdaniel, group: great ten

Comments

[theanswer]

One of the stranger characters, but I like him/them.

[proteus_lives]

The perfect communist man. Loyal, obedient and he never questions the state.

[foxhack]

I think that's every country's perfect man.

[toby_wan_kenobi]

Depends on whether you're talking about the government of the country or the ideals of the country- you could argue that the principle behind representative democracies is people who *constantly* question the state. Of course, the actual governments prefer to never be questioned, but that's human nature for you...

[aaron_bourque]

Yeah, Captain America is always obedient and never questions the state--oh wait.

[foxhack]

CAPTAIN AMERICA IS A FILTHY COMMIE

[geoffsebesta]

PRACTICALLY AN OBAMMUNIST

[proteus_lives]

He's too old-school for that!

Cap's a New Deal Democrat!

[jlroberson]

Well, that makes him a fascist, a socialist, a communist and I think a surrealist and a big band, unless I've been misunderstanding what TV tells me. Stop this Nazi jivin' fish!

[zordboy]

And when was the last time he watched a Nascar race or logged onto YouTube anyway? Traitorous bastard.

[halialkers]

Eh....Traditional Chinese culture esteems many of these same virtues, what with Confucius's Four Relationships.....

[ravenous_raven]

there's respect for authority and then there's complete, blind obedience to a thing without questioning it. I've seen the "Asian values" argument before, but times are a-changing and people are leaving flowers at Google's door. *shrugs* it's not "Chinese," or "Asian," it's just "stupid."

[proteus_lives]

This.

[cleome45]

[thumbs up]

[halialkers]

Eh.....I would also note that the Chinese invented the idea of overthrowing government when it fucks up rather badly. That's what the Mandate of Heaven idea was all about. My point was solely that these ideas were not Mao's invention. And unfortunately many people confuse the two.

[halialkers]

I would note that I find Asiatic Despotism to be a tiresome old racist saw, and one of the worst legacies of the Marxists to the West.

[ravenous_raven]

ah, I see, you were just trying to show that those qualities weren't purely "Communist."

[halialkers]

Yes, that was my intention. And they aren't strictly Asian by any means, either. The Asians had the Mandate of Heaven which would have been unthinkable to any version of the West up until the Enlightenment.

[nothingbutcake]

Yes!

[leikomgwtfbbq]

I was waiting for his (their?) story. I think the concept is really cool.

[thokstar]

So the ship is roughly an EVA unit, right? (Not exactly the same, but there's a similarity. Obviously the pilot is nothing like Shinji.)

[cmdr_zoom]

Close: it's Zearth.

[darkblade]

Beat me too it.

[darkblade]

Better yet I'll pimp my posts on the series http://scans-daily.dreamwidth.org/tag/title:+bokurano

[theanswer]

The ship is of Durlan origin.

[thokstar]

You've misunderstood my comment. I'm pointing out similarities between this concept and stuff found in manga (and as cmdr_zoom has noted, there's a better comparison to be found.)

[iskander]

This came out Wednesday ? Did I miss it ?

[aaron_bourque]

Yip.

[arbre_rieur]

I was wondering why you hadn't posted any pages yet...

[aaron_bourque]

Eee-argh, I hate McDaniels' faces.

[cleome45]

Huh. I like the lighter touch on faces. I wish more artists/art teams had it.

[halialkers]

He understands the Confucian Filial virtues quite well.

[pyrotwilight]

So...why do they have to use it until death? Is it irremovable until the person dies or something? Why not have an army who each uses it for a few months or less, one at a time to not die from it?

[pyrotwilight]

Or I guess each do 5 or so missions if it takes a year off each flight.

[the_engineer]

They likely want to keep the circle of people involved as small as possible for security reasons.

[arbre_rieur]

Experience might also be a factor, I think. By sticking with one guy until he dies, they're creating a situation where that one guy can rack up quite a bit of flight and combat experience. Having that sort of experienced pilot could be vital on big missions. The alternative is a perpetual small army of newbies.

[pyrotwilight]

I suppose it makes sense but here's an idea. Why not stick to using any of the 625 available soldiers that Mother of Champions creates?

[yaseen101]

They actually have very small life spans and it's still pretty much sending newbies since they won't have adequate time training them. Plus, quality and experience > quantity. However, Mother of Champions soldiers would make good test subjects if they are modifying the ship any time soon.

[q99]

Since it is living, I would guess there is some bonding factor. The Dragonwing may like it more to be with one for their whole life.

It also may be that after a few months of missions they're in bad enough shape that you might as well have them keep on flying anyway.

[psychopathicus_rex]

So he battles in a fighter plane? That's a little odd for a superhero. Of course, Batman does it in the JLA, but you kind of have to to keep up with Superman and company...
The concept of this guy kind of reminds me of Strikeforce Morituri.

[arbre_rieur]

Well, in this case, it's a fighter plane that can hover in place, stop on a dime, and just generally move around as precisely and controlled as your typical flying hero.

[psychopathicus_rex]

So I gathered - doesn't change the fact that it IS a fighter plane, and superheroes in fighter planes are few and far between (at least since WW2 ended).

[aaron_bourque]

So it's the plot of Stealth, but with superheroes?

[q99]

Immortal Man is badass :)

I like how he's totally loving it.

[mistersandman]

Same. I was worried that he was going to be an immortal black hole of ANGST, complaining about the cruel and heartless Party that forced him into a job that slowly killed him.

[q99]

Yea, he's a volunteer who is totally psyched to be flying the most responsive, greatest aircraft (/spacecraft?) on the planet.

[mistersandman]

永生男黑暗 is his Chinese name? I suppose it correctly follows his English 'translation,' but 黑暗永生 seems more grammatical less redundant to me.

[nothingbutcake]

Love the concept.

I wonder what constitutes a "flight". It is probably an approximation based on how the vehicle continuously wreaks havoc on the pilot's body.