The Secret Service #5

[superboyprime]

Words by Mark Millar, pictures by Dave Gibbons.





He proceeds to whack them over the heads with the pool stick.

Comments

[captainbellman]

Mark Millar: choosing the character with the closest traits to the majority of his own audience to be the delusional, genocidal maniac pitied by the entire rest of the cast.

Dave Gibbons: drawing said genocidal maniac as Dan Dreiberg because (as far as I can tell) he misses working with an actual writer.

[writeofway]

It's not the first time he's directly insulted his target audience. Won't be the last. I'm surprised he hasn't just come out with a graphic novel series called "Nerds suck!"

[mrstatham]

Presumably that would be the last page of Wanted printed about 360 times with the last page being Millar counting money whilst pointing and laughing at us off the page.

[writeofway]

It's one of several reasons why I can't stand him.

[espanolbot]

Having met and spoken to a wide range of people from our subculture, I can actually say that at least some of the criticisms are accurate.

If only for those sections who unironically use phrases like "embarassingly feminist".

[beoweasel]

Sounds like Reddit.

Because really, they sure love to chronically masturbate over Idiocracy. Not to mention parrot all kinds of racist, sexist, and homophobic bullshit.

[starwolf_oakley]

"Embarrassingly feminist" reminds me of this bit from Just Shoot Me:

Maya Gallo: All my feminist friends agree that the covers for Blush are sexist.
Elliot DiMauro: Are these the same friends who thing all intercourse is an act of violence?
Maya Gallo: Jan and Gertie, yes.

I love this board.

[sadoeuphemist]

I don't see how you can say that the billionaire has the closest traits to Millar's target audience. He's trying to save, for example, Hanna-Barbera animators, Simon Sinek, and Tony Robinson. Someone who likes Mark Millar comics is likely to also be a fan of Hanna-Barbera cartoons? Or Simon Sinek, Tony Robinson, etc? I don't see the connection.

I'm just really frustrated by the idea that there's a unifying category of "nerd" that engulfs every single person with "nerdy" interests, and that an insult to one is an insult to them all. Someone who likes violent comic books is not categorically identical to someone who likes old cartoons, and so on.

[silverhammerman]

I'd kind of like the idea of the main character actually using his resources to go and help out his family, if it didn't feel like more pandering from Millar. The obnoxious kid who was obsessed with videogames comes back as a sculpted badass and gets to beat up all the nasty men who were mean to him and they can't even fight back because he's just so clever.

Honestly between that kind of drivel and the villain being a ridiculous nerd cliche, this book seems to swing wildly between Millar shamelessly pandering to his audience and then insulting it every chance he gets.

[sadoeuphemist]

I don't see how Gary and the billionaire are both somehow supposed to represent the same audience. Gary plays video games, sure, but the only other media he consumes aside from that is reality TV, and he was a thug who regularly got into fights with the police. Meanwhile, the billionaire is a huge media and pop culture fan, to the point that he's trying to preserve his favorite personalities.

Like I said above, I am really frustrated by the idea that a single "nerdy" hobby makes you a "nerd", and the idea that all "nerds" are somehow equivalent and interchangeable.

[ablackraptor]

Well, many comic fans tend to also enjoy cartoons, or did at one point, and Millar's readership will contain some of those guys, so he's at least insulting some of his readers. Plus, this isn't the first time. There's Wanted's infamous 'fuck you reader' ending.

[sadoeuphemist]

That's the most specious logic I've ever heard. Mark Millar's villain is also wearing a t-shirt; is Millar also insulting all t-shirt wearers???

This is exactly what I was talking about, the idea that a single interest somehow constitutes an identity. I enjoy cartoons, I do not identify as a "cartoon-enjoyer" to the point where I get upset if other "cartoon-enjoyers" are insulted. Millions, maybe even billions of people enjoy cartoons. I sure as hell don't identify with all of them.

[nyadnar17]

I do like that MM never hides how much he despises his readers or women. About the only nice thing I have to say.