More Public Opinions from Comicbook Universes

[espanolbot]

Inspired by this post I've decided to post some more comments from the general public in various comicboook universes to see how much of a difference there is between them.

I mean, we all know the standard Marvel reaction to any superhero or supersituation that they come across...


...and whether they are throwing hotdogs or some similar wet object of the same shape depends on who is writing. But how do other universes fare?

Just to note: these aren't the defining comments of each universe or series, just ones that I thought were interesting or funny.

First up, the Hellboy-BPRD Universe, specifically the Hell on Earth storyline, where after several Lovecraftian beasties have made large attacks on highly populated areas both in the US and abroad, the UN decides to fund the organisation as they're the aforemost authority when it comes to gigantic wiggly things that turn people into smaller wiggley things.


Heh heh heh, it's funny because the BPRD fought the Nazis (and collaborated with the Soviets when necessary)!

Over to Birds of Prey, when a man who was saved by a redheaded girl in a batgirl costume gives an account of the rescue to the police,



Hm, so both Babara and Misfit have epic boobs then apparently? Also, ew for that apparently being the only way the cop can think of to describe her and the other guy apparently thinking that it was accurate. Oh, and Misfit? Your time if coming in my next Cringeworthy Comics Moments entry!

A moment from Batgirl, where Steph (who, unlike Charlie can be happy and quippy without being thoroughly irritating) encounters a reaction she's never gotten from superheroing before, and also Nell, the now retconned Batgirl of the Future!



They did turn against her briefly in a future issue, but that pretty much seemed to be temporary thing, and I think that the GCPD even apologised to her over the misunderstanding.


And the final moment from the old DCU for now, from Bruce Wayne: Murderer, which shows that people in Gotham actually kind of liked Bruce Wayne, before the whole Occupy Gotham thing that happened recently anyways.

Oh, and the term Deezee is short for deserter, and was used to describe people who fled Gotham before No Man's Land and came back once the city was opened up again and jobs became avaliable. The first guy is being kind of unfair, because 1. Bruce lives outside of Gotham City most of the time, and 2. he campaigned in Congress to stop NML from happening, campaigned to end it and spent billions to rebuild the city after Lex Luthor effectively ended NML through sheer force of money. Either way he's coming off as a massive dick.


And finally, the Wildstorm perspective of superheroes, from Captain Atom: Armageddon, where Captain Atom gets teleported to the Wildstorm Universe after getting blown up in Superman/Batman: Public Enemies, and then proceeds to blow up the Wildstorm Universe in order to reboot it.

Comments

[mrstatham]

Ah.. More reasons to hate Misfit. It feels like I'm usually the sole voice of dissent when it comes to disliking Simone, but I still feel like Misfit was one of the most dunderheaded character choices of all time, frankly; They're a covert operative team of kickass women who frequently run afoul of villains like Deathstroke, Talia, and the Secret Society. One of their associates was tortured pretty brutally at the hands of the latter. And they thought it was a good idea to let a fifteen year old or whatever onto the team?

I also loathed how Simone bigged her up here by describing Cass as the 'mopey' one. How would anyone even KNOW Cass' personality? She kicks the shit out of stuff and leaves. That's it.

[espanolbot]

Gail Simone I have no problem with, it's just Misfit I positively LOATHE.

[mrstatham]

I think Misfit's just an awful character. And whilst I'm not going to rag on Gail unreasonably, putting Misfit on the team in the first place is just an awful, awful decision, given what the Birds are meant to be.

[protogarrett]

I have issues with the whole teen thing sometimes as well. Or even younger. Take the early issues of Power Pack where they fought the Reavers. Cyborgs with guns vs. superpowered children, the youngest being 4!

WTF?

[espanolbot]

In Young Justice Robin has apparently been a superhero since he was nine... which I guess makes sense since he's the most experienced out of the group (even M'Gann, who is 16 in Martian years but 60-something in Earth ones).

Still kind of make the Light's "child soldiers" comment from the series opener oddly apt.

[icon_uk]

Katie was 5 when she got her powers, a very intelligent 5, but your point is well taken.

[q99]

Super Stupor on the subject

[jlbarnett]

all black costume, stitched up mouth, I believe she also perches on gargoyles although I don;t know if people would know that.,

As for whether Misfit belonged on the team. Dinah grew up surrounded by superheroes. Barbara started at fifteen or sixteen. 15 years old makes her nearly the same age as Dick when he led the Teen Titans, Tim, Steph.

It's a common superhero age, and Misfit has the bonus of powers. I mean hell, if Jason Todd has Misfit's powers he could have survived in the original story. He was semi- conscious, bounce outside and heal up then bounce back in and drag his mom out.

It's perfectly logical to have her on the team

[runespoor]

Believe me, you are not the only one who greatly dislikes the vast majority of Gail Simone's writing.

Those pages about "the real Batgirl"? I don't care what Simone's intent was in writing them, it's a terrible riff on a terrible stand.

(My issues with the description of Cass' personality is how wrong it is. Seriously, open any issue of her series before Steph's death, and you'll be hard-pressed to find even one where she's not smiling/grinning/giggling. And I don't care if Simone wrote that to prove the character didn't know what he was talking about - it's still a terrible riff on a terrible and common stand at DC.)

[jaybee3]

My biggest problem was the description of Cass as well. I don't think anyone - especially a civilian - would call her "mopey". Civilians would have barely enough to see her to gauge a personality - she does her thing and splits. Even most of the super-hero community didn't know her well or what to make of her. And one would think Cass as Batgirl would be popular with a certain segment of the Gotham university - I can just imagine video of her in-action would make the younger crowd be in awe (as Hit-Girl did in the Kick-Ass movie).

My main problem with Misfit is that she really wasn't a Gotham character (she has super-powers and is frequently used them) and really shouldn't have been a recurring character. Gail should have used/introduced her like she did Black Alice (another character who became ridiculously overpowered). One issue and she's out and can be used in other sections of the DCU - where she would fit in better.

[mrstatham]

Oh, and Captain Atom is still one of the biggest pieces of shit that Jim Lee ever allowed to take place in the Wildstorm Universe. Those pages alone are good reasons why NO-ONE who doesn't get what stuff like the Authority and latter-day Wildcats is about shouldn't be allowed to touch them AT ALL.

[espanolbot]

Basically it's kind of established that the Authority needed a Jenny in charge in order to stick to their mission statement and stop going out of their way terrifying people.

Finer world and all of that.

[jlbarnett]

are you sure that wasn't when Harley dressed up as Batgirl?

[espanolbot]

Oh, it was Misfit alright.

[leikomgwtfbbq]

I guess I'm the only one who actually thought Misfit was fun! Didn't know that.

[akodo_rokku]

You're not alone. The problem is, once Gail left birds, Charlie was written as nothing bit a whiny troll.

[janegray]

Nah, I thought Misfit was cool too.

When written by Gail, that is. Other writers wrote her horribly.

Then again, I'm a fan of Jason Todd (awesome when written by Winick, abominable when written by Daniel), so I'm very familiar with the Depending On The Writer trope.

[shobogan]

I'm very fond of Misfit, and her relationship with Babs.

When both are written well, anyway.

[starwolf_oakley]

One thing I never got about Misfit: How in the WORLD she knew Barbara Gordon was Oracle. How she knew where the Watchtower was, well, maybe you can know that if you know about Barbara Gordon. But HOW did she know about Barbara Gordon? Did Simon ever explain that? Just because you have supercool teleportation powers that don't set off motion detectors doesn't mean you can just find out Barbara Gordon is Oracle.

[pyrotwilight]

I figured she just liked teleporting about for fun and accidentally came upon the Oracle Cave one day.

[pyrotwilight]

Oh Misfit. You I like.

[maxisanacorn]

They WERE going to make Misfit Batgirl too. The whole "Batgirl is a redhead" deal. But Gail begged them not to do it.

Though I sorta like the idea of a meta with Misfit's powers as Batgirl. Just not Charlie's personality.

[runespoor]

Bruce Wayne: Murderer and Gotham Knights are my happy canon.

Though I don't find guy 1 to come across as such a massive dick, certainly less so than the second and especially third person to speak. Yeah, he's more talking about generalities than about Bruce as a person, but to be fair, people with a lot of money do tend to get away with more than people who don't.

[espanolbot]

I do think that it's somewhat funny that people'll commenting more on the Misfit/Cass comparision and not the boobs thing.

[jaybee3]

I guess we've become so attuned to slights to Cass (even by Gail Simone) and how body types are regarded in super-hero comics (where every woman - to paraphrase Judd Winick's Roy Harper in The Outsiders - has the "body of an Olympian"). It is weird though - I never thought of Babs as Batgirl as amply endowed (even in a super-hero way). She was certainly never drawn that way. And no one - not even a civilian - would think that about Misfit.