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Nov. 19th, 2019
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history79"I think the impact of superheroes on popular culture is both tremendously embarrassing and not a little worrying. While these characters were originally perfectly suited to stimulating the imaginations of their twelve or thirteen year-old audience, today’s franchised übermenschen, aimed at a supposedly adult audience, seem to be serving some kind of different function, and fulfilling different needs. Primarily, mass-market superhero movies seem to be abetting an audience who do not wish to relinquish their grip on (a) their relatively reassuring childhoods, or (b) the relatively reassuring 20th century. The continuing popularity of these movies to me suggests some kind of deliberate, self-imposed state of emotional arrest, combined with an numbing condition of cultural stasis that can be witnessed in comics, movies, popular music and, indeed, right across the cultural spectrum. The superheroes themselves – largely written and drawn by creators who have never stood up for their own rights against the companies that employ them, much less the rights of a Jack Kirby or Jerry Siegel or Joe Schuster – would seem to be largely employed as cowardice compensators, perhaps a bit like the handgun on the nightstand. I would also remark that save for a smattering of non-white characters (and non-white creators) these books and these iconic characters are still very much white supremacist dreams of the master race. In fact, I think that a good argument can be made for D.W. Griffith’s Birth of a Nation as the first American superhero movie, and the point of origin for all those capes and masks."
Source: https://alanmooreworld.blogspot.com/
Source: https://alanmooreworld.blogspot.com/
Mod Post - Off-Topic Tuesday
Nov. 19th, 2019 10:33 amicon_ukIn the comments to these weekly posts (and only these posts), it's your chance to go as off topic as you like. Talk about non-comics stuff, thread derail, and just generally chat among yourselves.
The Hong Kong protests are in their sixth month and show no signs of abating, and in fact seem to be escalating, and are worth noting.
The seemingly neverending chaotic tedium of the UK General Election has been slightly derailed in the UK by Prince Andrew, 2nd son of the Queen, deciding that, against all historical evidence to the contrary and the advice of pretty much everyone (I mean, look at Diana, Charles and his nephew William), an hour-long TV interview would settle the furore surrounding his relationship with Jeffrey Epstein. The results were about as bad as you might expect.
The Ohio House of Representatives has passed House Bill 164 aka "Ohio Student Religious Liberties Act of 2019" which might (this is as yet unproven according to Snopes) mean that students can’t be penalized if their submitted work is scientifically wrong as long as the reasoning is because of their religious beliefs. However it might be more sensible than that, and still insist on the questions being answered in the context of what was taught, though if the student then says that they don't AGREE with that, they can't be penalised. We shall see.
POTUS45 has reversed over 40 years of US policy and declared that the US no longer considers the Israeli settlements in the Occupied Territories ti be illegal. We can't foresee any negative feedback from THAT move from the rest of the planet, of course. [/irony]
Doctor Who's contribution to Children in Need was a very small one, but it packed an emotional punch.
The BBC launched their major production of "The War of the Worlds" this past weekend, and it has been generally held as something of a disappointment. The fact it was shown first in Canada a month ago, and had very, very little in the way of advertising seemed to hint that the BBC new this. It's the first (or at least the first in a LONG time) on-screen version to be made set in the original time period (as opposed to updated to modern times as the past movies have done) but has also tacked on extra characters, a lead who has no personality, subplots that seem to distract rather than add anything and it's all a bit flat.
"The Mandalorian", the first live-action TV spin off of Star Wars since The Star Wars Holiday Special has proved to be far more entertaining (though critics were not kind for some reason). Personally, I'm loving it. I think we should probably avoid the spoilers from the last moments of the first episode which lead into the second, but if you've been able to avoid the resulting discusions and the memes, my lord, the memes, then you're lucky.
Google is launching it's cloud-based, streaming videogame service "Stadia", and we wait to see if the model of not actually owning a game, but paying to play it, will work with fans, and whether the network created can cope with the demand on servers in terms of response time and data storage, and that's leaving aside the implications of Google obtaining yet MORE information about you. Have fun!
"Star Wars: Fallen Order" and "Pokemon: Sword and Shield" have both laucnhed and I leave it to those who play such games to comment on them.
The Hong Kong protests are in their sixth month and show no signs of abating, and in fact seem to be escalating, and are worth noting.
The seemingly neverending chaotic tedium of the UK General Election has been slightly derailed in the UK by Prince Andrew, 2nd son of the Queen, deciding that, against all historical evidence to the contrary and the advice of pretty much everyone (I mean, look at Diana, Charles and his nephew William), an hour-long TV interview would settle the furore surrounding his relationship with Jeffrey Epstein. The results were about as bad as you might expect.
The Ohio House of Representatives has passed House Bill 164 aka "Ohio Student Religious Liberties Act of 2019" which might (this is as yet unproven according to Snopes) mean that students can’t be penalized if their submitted work is scientifically wrong as long as the reasoning is because of their religious beliefs. However it might be more sensible than that, and still insist on the questions being answered in the context of what was taught, though if the student then says that they don't AGREE with that, they can't be penalised. We shall see.
POTUS45 has reversed over 40 years of US policy and declared that the US no longer considers the Israeli settlements in the Occupied Territories ti be illegal. We can't foresee any negative feedback from THAT move from the rest of the planet, of course. [/irony]
Doctor Who's contribution to Children in Need was a very small one, but it packed an emotional punch.
The BBC launched their major production of "The War of the Worlds" this past weekend, and it has been generally held as something of a disappointment. The fact it was shown first in Canada a month ago, and had very, very little in the way of advertising seemed to hint that the BBC new this. It's the first (or at least the first in a LONG time) on-screen version to be made set in the original time period (as opposed to updated to modern times as the past movies have done) but has also tacked on extra characters, a lead who has no personality, subplots that seem to distract rather than add anything and it's all a bit flat.
"The Mandalorian", the first live-action TV spin off of Star Wars since The Star Wars Holiday Special has proved to be far more entertaining (though critics were not kind for some reason). Personally, I'm loving it. I think we should probably avoid the spoilers from the last moments of the first episode which lead into the second, but if you've been able to avoid the resulting discusions and the memes, my lord, the memes, then you're lucky.
Google is launching it's cloud-based, streaming videogame service "Stadia", and we wait to see if the model of not actually owning a game, but paying to play it, will work with fans, and whether the network created can cope with the demand on servers in terms of response time and data storage, and that's leaving aside the implications of Google obtaining yet MORE information about you. Have fun!
"Star Wars: Fallen Order" and "Pokemon: Sword and Shield" have both laucnhed and I leave it to those who play such games to comment on them.
RIP Tom Lyle
Nov. 19th, 2019 08:00 pmicon_ukIt is with deep sadness I convey the news that Tom Lyle, well known comic artist has died, aged 66.
Tom Lyle will be remembered for his work on many titles amd designs. He designed the 1980's Starman, created the signature hoodie-look for the Scarlet Spider and co-created Stephanie Brown/Spoiler. And that's barely scraping the surface.
In September, he suffered an aneuryism and was put in a medical coma, The cause of death has not been announced as yet.
I know I speak for the SD Mods and the entire scans_daily community when I say our thoughts are with his family and friends at this most difficult of times.
Tom Lyle will be remembered for his work on many titles amd designs. He designed the 1980's Starman, created the signature hoodie-look for the Scarlet Spider and co-created Stephanie Brown/Spoiler. And that's barely scraping the surface.
In September, he suffered an aneuryism and was put in a medical coma, The cause of death has not been announced as yet.
I know I speak for the SD Mods and the entire scans_daily community when I say our thoughts are with his family and friends at this most difficult of times.
icon_ukBack in the late 1980's it was a dark-ish time for the old school superhero fan (well, this one at least), a significant number of characters I liked had either been reimagined to unrecognisability or shot dead and the "dark antihero" was on the rise, a school of character I rarely like.
But every now and again, there were glimmers of hope
( Featuring a rather colourful costume... )
But every now and again, there were glimmers of hope
( Featuring a rather colourful costume... )