Well, at least it isn't a "rich people are evil" character rant. Between the Illuminti and CIVIL WAR, Marvel cornered the market on that. DC wisely leaves that alone.
Well, when the girl started talking about Karen being a billionare, I was assuming that there was going to be some, "you don't pay enough taxes to feed the poor" rant, but then it turned into an admittance of unrequited romance.
For me, it really started with CIVIL WAR. The Pro-Regs were all upper class (exceptions like Carol Danvers and James Rhodes were from the military). The Anti-Regs were from lower-middle class backgrounds. Captain America calling Iron Man a "pampered punk" cemented this.
Marvel's favourite event writers also have a real "educated intellectuals are the source of everybody else's problems" vibe going too. Don't trust all those proven experts in their fields who are trying to solve problems with their brains - they're all just amoral manipulators with no feelings towards their friends and families! Street level characters who solve problems by punching stuff are the true moral centre of the universe.
I want Jonathan Hickman to write an event just so some of Marvel's smart characters are actually allowed to take part in resolving the crisis instead of being completely ineffectual and part of the problem every time.
That's an awful lot of pop culture's message, though, movies and books and TV.
Although it's interesting, because out of the four Marvel and DC movies I'd say DC's went for 'an ordinary Joe is what you need!' and Marvel went more for smart, dedicated, exceptional people.
Have you read Ultimate Gah Lak Tus? It's very smart people resolving the crisis oriented. So much so that Captain America has an emo tear moment because there's nothing to punch.
Yeah, I don't think it's necessarily Marvel's overall message, it's just one that seems to come out repeatedly in events. Possibly an unfortunate confluence of Mark Millar's tendency to write everyone in the most extreme and flawed way possible, Bendis not doing very much research into the actual personalities of characters that aren't his faves, and generally weak event plotting that doesn't explain why the geniuses aren't coming up with the kind of fixes they do every month in their own titles.
You're right, the Ultimate Galactus trilogy was definitely a good example of people using their skill sets in smart ways. I mean, it really doesn't matter if they actually solve anything or all their efforts are stymied, I just want half a page or even a line here and there dedicated to the fact that they're making some effort to help save the world and why it isn't working. (Unlike, say, the way Reed Richards appears in a single-issue tie-in to Fear Itself, witnesses his best friend in the grip of possession only months after the group lost Johnny Storm, and then he and Sue apparently wander off and go home to play cards or something, never to been seen again until somebody else has saved the day.)
Tony Stark as a brilliant electronics engineer I have no issue with. Tony Stark deciding he's also a brilliant social engineer I have more qualms about.
True enough. In individual instances, "arrogant genius overreaches area of expertise" makes a perfectly reasonable and often very in-character plot. It's when it's all the intellectual characters in multiple events regardless of usual behaviour and values that it becomes a pretty wearing pattern.
The inspiration of it all though was Tony the Futurist having a vision of the "inevitable" war between superbeings (whilst on a time travel jaunt to Camelot) and then doing bugger all to prevent it for the years between then and the Stamford Incident.
well, a lot of Marvel's brains tend to be theorizing against people almost as smart as them. They aren't dealing with global warming or diseases that can't really adjust themselves. Thay're strategizing against fellow sentient beings who can adjust plans on the fly.
We all know that hypocrisy isn't something DC is above. Technically speaking, we already have this going anyway, in the form of Superman, I'm not exactly happy about that either.
I don't know how serious you are being, but please avoid making group attack. If you want to problematize the comment you were answering to, there are other ways to do it.
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scans_daily2011-09-15 12:31 am
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I want Jonathan Hickman to write an event just so some of Marvel's smart characters are actually allowed to take part in resolving the crisis instead of being completely ineffectual and part of the problem every time.
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Although it's interesting, because out of the four Marvel and DC movies I'd say DC's went for 'an ordinary Joe is what you need!' and Marvel went more for smart, dedicated, exceptional people.
Have you read Ultimate Gah Lak Tus? It's very smart people resolving the crisis oriented. So much so that Captain America has an emo tear moment because there's nothing to punch.
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You're right, the Ultimate Galactus trilogy was definitely a good example of people using their skill sets in smart ways. I mean, it really doesn't matter if they actually solve anything or all their efforts are stymied, I just want half a page or even a line here and there dedicated to the fact that they're making some effort to help save the world and why it isn't working. (Unlike, say, the way Reed Richards appears in a single-issue tie-in to Fear Itself, witnesses his best friend in the grip of possession only months after the group lost Johnny Storm, and then he and Sue apparently wander off and go home to play cards or something, never to been seen again until somebody else has saved the day.)
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Mod Note