What I'm liking is that we see that Clark is still pretty feisty with his own share of grit even after what's going to happen in Action. It would have really sucked if we got this badass, strong, passionate Superman early on in Action and then more or less a square after. Between this and the pages with Superman actually in it, it sounds like we're going to get a more talkative version of the Flecher cartoon, which I like a lot.
I'm not sure if I'm going to buy these in issues, but I'll DEFINITELY check it out in trade.
It does make DC's haphazard approach to their back catalogue of stories weirdly comical. I'd like to see them give an excuse other than 'dude never existed before' if asked at a convention.
When he was first introduced Morgan Edge was a puppet of DARKSEID, so a shady Edge is hardly new (IIRC He was later revealed to have been an imposter whilst the real Edge was held captive by Darkseid, but one feels that was because they realised that he was a useful character and had to redeem him for continued use)
I got it in digital, and you can do a panel-by-panel view. It's a cool feature and pretty well executed, overall, and it's perfect for busy books like this. It made all the difference.
Yay, they're referencing the scandal with News International. ^^
You know, how they hired PI's to hack into the phone records of the British royal family, celebrities, politicians and a teenaged murder victim (erasing some of her last messages to get more space, causing her parents to think that she might still be alive).
If you're going to show the Daily Planet loosing it's intregrity, do it in ways that's happened in real life, instead of using the wingnut approach pre-reboot when Morgan Edge was going all Fox News commentator on Superman.
Because you know, I love Lois Lane - The Intrepid Reporter who never bows down to anyone in her search of the truth.
Not Lois Lane, the woman who would be happy with a managing job.
Specially because some weeks ago I caught a episode of the Lois&Clark series and it was just the episode where Lois gave back Perry the editor job because she wanted to be in on the action and on the street. Like the core of her character is...
Well, to be fair, I'm thinking that Lois being a behind-the-scenes TV news producer as opposed to being a investigative reporter kind of ties into with what appears to be going on with her overall story arc. Lois is characterized as being more of a pragmatist with regards to the rise of new media, saying that because print media is dying, journalism has to evolve and adapt with the times in order to survive; but at the same time, she still believes that, regardless of the platform, they can still keep their journalistic standards and integrity as they did in the old media. However, given how Superman fans know Morgan Edge is a corrupt media mogul, and as we see in this issue, a conflict for Lois has already arisen. While she wants the new Planet Global Network to be hard-hitting, fact-based journalism, it's clear that the new regime favors sensationalism and innuendo in the guise of news, caring more about ratings above all else. Thus far Lois, despite being a woman of principle, doesn't quite yet realize just how superficial and shallow the new regime really is.
It's the same with her current love life. We, as readers know, that Clark is the better man, someone who, just like her, is someone who has morals, integrity, and independence. And yet, she's currently dating someone who is obviously as shallow and superficial as the new PGN (notice that, when we first see him, Jonathan Carrol laughs at Morgan Edge's butchered Shakespeare quote and think Edge has a real sense of humor, while it's clear Lois didn't think it was THAT funny?) In both her professional and personal life, Lois is only looking at things on the surface when she's getting hints that she needs to be looking at things a whole lot deeper--just like she can't see beyond Clark's disguise and see that he's really Superman. And I imagine that, over the course of the comic, Lois will start to realize just how false and phony both Morgan Edge and Jonathan Carroll truly are and that Clark was right all along.
pragmatists don't jump off buildings to get stories.
And what I dislike is this seems like an excuse to write less of her. Perry isn't in every issue of Superman, JJJ isn't in every issue of Spidey. Bosses don't always have to appear. Unless Superman is lost in time or in deep space Lois Lane should be in every single issue.
Also - since Clark is staying in print, its clear Lois isn't HIS boss but Perry still is (and the new female publisher). So it will have to be more contrived for L&C to run into each other (they don't seem particularly close in this incarnation even as friends) unlike before when they were fighting for the same story.
pragmatists don't jump off buildings to get stories.
That's why I said she's a "pragmatist with regards to the rise of new media." Because you're right, as a character, she still the feisty, no-nonsense reporter who will put her own life on the line to get the story, but when it comes to her views on old media vs new media, she's embracing the new media while still wanting to maintain the standards of the old.
And what I dislike is this seems like an excuse to write less of her. Perry isn't in every issue of Superman, JJJ isn't in every issue of Spidey. Bosses don't always have to appear. Unless Superman is lost in time or in deep space Lois Lane should be in every single issue.
I agree. It would be a really bad mistake on DC's part if Lois gets pushed off to the side because of this new job of hers. But what I'm saying, and hoping, is that--based on how she handled the news coverage in this issue--this will be a source of conflict for her because she ISN'T someone who likes sitting behind a desk or being behind the scenes. She wants to be right where the action is and wants to expose the truth. Now, she's in a position where she's not only behind the scenes but is expected to deliver ratings regardless of the truth or even people's lives. In that respect, Lois, even though she thinks she can be able to deliver the kind of hard-hitting, cutting edge, gutsy journalism that she's known for, she's, in reality, out of her element and had a huge disadvantage, and I think the over the course of the comic, she's going to be made increasingly aware of that fact.
Something about this is just vaguely unpleasant in a way that I haven't yet exactly worked out.
Maybe it's that they're making Lois the corporate careerist sellout.
Maybe it just feels like I've rad this comic a bunch of times before now. Every so often DC decides that because Clark and Lois work for a newspaper that Superman comics need to Say Something About Journalism, and what they have to say is invariably pretty fucking dumb.
Action Comics was a series of bullet points turned into pictures but at least they were interesting bullet points, this shit IDeK.
Hmmm. This is far more interesting than I anticipated.
Things to like, here: Clark is more than a front for Superman. I like being reminded that Clark is about helping people...which isn't just a motivator for Superman, but for Clark Kent. If ANY Superhero can be said to be about Integrity, it's him. I like that this paints Clark's world as involved as Superman's world. I like that Lois is more of the pragmatist, but still fiery and willing to stand up to her boss.
And it only makes sense to discuss the newspaper angle. Back in the 1970s, when Clark became a TV journalist, it seemed...off. It was meant to be forward-thinking, but newspapers weren't in jeopardy back then. TV journalism was ascendant, but print journalism still was landing stuff like Watergate. But today, we have newspapers failing across the country, circulation rates plummeting and fewer and fewer people working in the industry. Absolute circulation is about the same as the late 1960s...but with a population that has increased dramatically...meaning actual circulation numbers are way down. Most cities only have a single newspaper these days and no longer have multiple daily editions. Put simply, newspapers are a dying model...and I expect Clark Kent to end up as a contributor to DailyPlanet.com or something soon.
There's an awful lot of exposition here for a comic book.
And DC can sell it any way they want - I will NEVER be able to see Lois Lane as the pawn of some corporate type (they already did that when Lex Luthor took over the Planet and made it part of LexCorp News and fired everyone but Lois - and she hated it) nor someone who would take a desk job.
It was much easier to accept Clark and Lana being TV anchors in the 1970s than Lois doing TV work. She's a writer. She's a foot-to-pavement journalist. That's what she loves.
And can someone corroborate this but it looks like by the argument here that I was right in thinking that the "preview" pages DC released to the world of Lois getting busy with her BF and being interrupted by apologetic, pining Clark were basically the LAST pages of the comic. If that is the case - it makes the decision to release those pages before anything else even more tacky.
Well it's just one issue so far -- setting up the broad strokes. We may find Lois working to change the system from within, and we may even find that Morgan Edge is not a black and white villain either. It leaves room for some character development.
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Date: 2011-09-29 01:26 am (UTC)I'm not sure if I'm going to buy these in issues, but I'll DEFINITELY check it out in trade.
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Date: 2011-09-29 03:40 am (UTC)SteeleLuthor, Ultimate!Nick Fury flavor?Don't know if want...
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Date: 2011-09-29 06:25 am (UTC)Not even how incredibly pretty Superman is can make me forgive that.
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Date: 2011-09-30 05:06 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-09-29 08:11 am (UTC)You know, how they hired PI's to hack into the phone records of the British royal family, celebrities, politicians and a teenaged murder victim (erasing some of her last messages to get more space, causing her parents to think that she might still be alive).
If you're going to show the Daily Planet loosing it's intregrity, do it in ways that's happened in real life, instead of using the wingnut approach pre-reboot when Morgan Edge was going all Fox News commentator on Superman.
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Date: 2011-09-29 09:21 am (UTC)Can I rage now?
Because you know, I love Lois Lane - The Intrepid Reporter who never bows down to anyone in her search of the truth.
Not Lois Lane, the woman who would be happy with a managing job.
Specially because some weeks ago I caught a episode of the Lois&Clark series and it was just the episode where Lois gave back Perry the editor job because she wanted to be in on the action and on the street. Like the core of her character is...
AAAAAARGH!
All vented now.
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Date: 2011-09-29 06:00 pm (UTC)It's the same with her current love life. We, as readers know, that Clark is the better man, someone who, just like her, is someone who has morals, integrity, and independence. And yet, she's currently dating someone who is obviously as shallow and superficial as the new PGN (notice that, when we first see him, Jonathan Carrol laughs at Morgan Edge's butchered Shakespeare quote and think Edge has a real sense of humor, while it's clear Lois didn't think it was THAT funny?) In both her professional and personal life, Lois is only looking at things on the surface when she's getting hints that she needs to be looking at things a whole lot deeper--just like she can't see beyond Clark's disguise and see that he's really Superman. And I imagine that, over the course of the comic, Lois will start to realize just how false and phony both Morgan Edge and Jonathan Carroll truly are and that Clark was right all along.
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Date: 2011-09-29 11:45 pm (UTC)And what I dislike is this seems like an excuse to write less of her. Perry isn't in every issue of Superman, JJJ isn't in every issue of Spidey. Bosses don't always have to appear. Unless Superman is lost in time or in deep space Lois Lane should be in every single issue.
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Date: 2011-09-30 02:51 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-09-30 05:44 pm (UTC)That's why I said she's a "pragmatist with regards to the rise of new media." Because you're right, as a character, she still the feisty, no-nonsense reporter who will put her own life on the line to get the story, but when it comes to her views on old media vs new media, she's embracing the new media while still wanting to maintain the standards of the old.
And what I dislike is this seems like an excuse to write less of her. Perry isn't in every issue of Superman, JJJ isn't in every issue of Spidey. Bosses don't always have to appear. Unless Superman is lost in time or in deep space Lois Lane should be in every single issue.
I agree. It would be a really bad mistake on DC's part if Lois gets pushed off to the side because of this new job of hers. But what I'm saying, and hoping, is that--based on how she handled the news coverage in this issue--this will be a source of conflict for her because she ISN'T someone who likes sitting behind a desk or being behind the scenes. She wants to be right where the action is and wants to expose the truth. Now, she's in a position where she's not only behind the scenes but is expected to deliver ratings regardless of the truth or even people's lives. In that respect, Lois, even though she thinks she can be able to deliver the kind of hard-hitting, cutting edge, gutsy journalism that she's known for, she's, in reality, out of her element and had a huge disadvantage, and I think the over the course of the comic, she's going to be made increasingly aware of that fact.
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Date: 2011-09-29 10:59 am (UTC)Maybe it's that they're making Lois the corporate careerist sellout.
Maybe it just feels like I've rad this comic a bunch of times before now. Every so often DC decides that because Clark and Lois work for a newspaper that Superman comics need to Say Something About Journalism, and what they have to say is invariably pretty fucking dumb.
Action Comics was a series of bullet points turned into pictures but at least they were interesting bullet points, this shit IDeK.
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Date: 2011-09-29 12:04 pm (UTC)Things to like, here: Clark is more than a front for Superman. I like being reminded that Clark is about helping people...which isn't just a motivator for Superman, but for Clark Kent. If ANY Superhero can be said to be about Integrity, it's him. I like that this paints Clark's world as involved as Superman's world. I like that Lois is more of the pragmatist, but still fiery and willing to stand up to her boss.
And it only makes sense to discuss the newspaper angle. Back in the 1970s, when Clark became a TV journalist, it seemed...off. It was meant to be forward-thinking, but newspapers weren't in jeopardy back then. TV journalism was ascendant, but print journalism still was landing stuff like Watergate. But today, we have newspapers failing across the country, circulation rates plummeting and fewer and fewer people working in the industry. Absolute circulation is about the same as the late 1960s...but with a population that has increased dramatically...meaning actual circulation numbers are way down. Most cities only have a single newspaper these days and no longer have multiple daily editions. Put simply, newspapers are a dying model...and I expect Clark Kent to end up as a contributor to DailyPlanet.com or something soon.
I definitely need to pick this up.
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Date: 2011-09-29 03:31 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-09-29 06:16 pm (UTC)And DC can sell it any way they want - I will NEVER be able to see Lois Lane as the pawn of some corporate type (they already did that when Lex Luthor took over the Planet and made it part of LexCorp News and fired everyone but Lois - and she hated it) nor someone who would take a desk job.
It was much easier to accept Clark and Lana being TV anchors in the 1970s than Lois doing TV work. She's a writer. She's a foot-to-pavement journalist. That's what she loves.
And can someone corroborate this but it looks like by the argument here that I was right in thinking that the "preview" pages DC released to the world of Lois getting busy with her BF and being interrupted by apologetic, pining Clark were basically the LAST pages of the comic. If that is the case - it makes the decision to release those pages before anything else even more tacky.
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Date: 2011-09-30 05:12 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-09-29 08:34 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-09-29 08:52 pm (UTC)http://www.shortpacked.com/2009/comic/book-8/04-guest-strips-and-miscellany/mildmanneredblogger/