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scans_daily2014-12-06 07:24 pm
lego_joker) wrote in scans_daily2014-12-06 07:24 pm
31 Days of Scans - Power You'd Like to Steal: Super-Singing
I almost couldn't decide what to put for this one; there are tons of amazing superpowers in the realm of comics (One Piece alone has come up with enough to fill an entire 31-day series by itself), but few of them are much use outside of whaling on other superhumans or trying to take over the world. Since I'm too lazy to be violent and only occasionally harbor dreams of world domination, that's no good.
But thinking about dreams reminded me of their pale-skinned, eighties-haired king. And thinking of him made me think of one of his children. And that child, I remembered, had one very peculiar power...
Super-singing.
Not you, moron! Get off the stage! (Also, am I the only one who hears animated!Cyborg when I see that panel?)
As I've previously mentioned, Neil Gaiman's one-shot issues are currently my favorite parts of Sandman, and right now, my absolute favorite might be his retelling of the tale of Orpheus.
Orpheus' legend is, of course, thousands of years old, but I maintain that few storytellers before or since have conveyed his supernaturally good singing as well as Sandman did.
Context for those who need it: Orpheus - in this continuity the son of Dream of the Endless and Calliope the muse - is the greatest musician in all of Greece. But on his wedding day, his lady love gets bitten by a poisonous snake and kicks the bucket. And since technology levels are about 3000 years too primitive for him to pull a Mr. Freeze, Orpheus has to save her the old-fashioned way: bust intoHell Hades itself.
After making a deal with his aunt Death, Orpheus gains kinda-sorta immortality and goes down to the River Styx, home of Charon the ferryman. And we get a small taste of how awesome his music is...
... as a prelude to seeing it in its full power once he reaches Hades and Persephone:
That's right: Orpheus' music is so badass that it freezes every punishment in Tartarus in place and even makes the goddamn Furies cry.
(I have to wonder if, for a moment here, Sisyphus actually managed to push his rock to the very top to the hill.)
Also, you should know this by now - Orpheus doesn't get his bride back (he breaks Hades "don't look at her until you're out of the Underworld" rule when he was this close from leaving), wanders Greece as a moping hermit for a bit, and ultimately gets ripped apart by a band of savage Dionysus worshipers. Sadly, because of his immortality, his severed head still remains sentient and speaking. Oh, and Dream tells him to get lost when he tries to ask his father for help.
Isn't Greek Mythology fun?
Later, Gaiman gave Orpheus a marginally less sucky ending - but only after plunking his detached, immortal head into Revolutionary France. How it got there is left to the reader's imagination, but the resulting adventure - starring one Lady Johanna Constantine as a stone-cold badass - must be seen to be believed.
While Johanna does find Orpheus' head, she can't escape the guillotine-happy Robespierre and France's radical new government, who are determined to destroy such an figure of superstition and paganism in the name of rationality and SCIENCE! Tossed into a dungeon and left with rapidly dwindling options, Johanna and Orpheus try one last , desperate gamble.
That's right: Lady Constantine and Orpheus singlehandedly ended the freaking Reign of Terror.
(Also, I have to say that it was wiser of Gaiman to not give Orpheus' song any definite lyrics this time. It preserves the power of his music by keeping it abstract - equally inaccessible to everyone, and so equally accessible to everyone. Readers of all backgrounds can fill in for themselves what specific words he chose for his song.)
(On that note: I know that Sandman is about to be made into a movie, and I seriously do not envy the fool who might want to adapt this into film or TV. No matter which singer and songwriter they pick for Orpheus, someone's going to be left cold.)
It would be easy to describe Orpheus' super-singing as mind control, but somehow, it feels less... dishonest than that. He cannot issue direct commands as a Jervis Tetch or Dr. Psycho or Emma Frost might; instead, he can only play and sing with all his heart and hope that his enemies have enough of a shred of decency to let their most vulnerable emotions pour to the forefront.
And that? That is an awesome power.
But thinking about dreams reminded me of their pale-skinned, eighties-haired king. And thinking of him made me think of one of his children. And that child, I remembered, had one very peculiar power...
Super-singing.
Not you, moron! Get off the stage! (Also, am I the only one who hears animated!Cyborg when I see that panel?)
As I've previously mentioned, Neil Gaiman's one-shot issues are currently my favorite parts of Sandman, and right now, my absolute favorite might be his retelling of the tale of Orpheus.
Orpheus' legend is, of course, thousands of years old, but I maintain that few storytellers before or since have conveyed his supernaturally good singing as well as Sandman did.
Context for those who need it: Orpheus - in this continuity the son of Dream of the Endless and Calliope the muse - is the greatest musician in all of Greece. But on his wedding day, his lady love gets bitten by a poisonous snake and kicks the bucket. And since technology levels are about 3000 years too primitive for him to pull a Mr. Freeze, Orpheus has to save her the old-fashioned way: bust into
After making a deal with his aunt Death, Orpheus gains kinda-sorta immortality and goes down to the River Styx, home of Charon the ferryman. And we get a small taste of how awesome his music is...
... as a prelude to seeing it in its full power once he reaches Hades and Persephone:
That's right: Orpheus' music is so badass that it freezes every punishment in Tartarus in place and even makes the goddamn Furies cry.
(I have to wonder if, for a moment here, Sisyphus actually managed to push his rock to the very top to the hill.)
Also, you should know this by now - Orpheus doesn't get his bride back (he breaks Hades "don't look at her until you're out of the Underworld" rule when he was this close from leaving), wanders Greece as a moping hermit for a bit, and ultimately gets ripped apart by a band of savage Dionysus worshipers. Sadly, because of his immortality, his severed head still remains sentient and speaking. Oh, and Dream tells him to get lost when he tries to ask his father for help.
Isn't Greek Mythology fun?
Later, Gaiman gave Orpheus a marginally less sucky ending - but only after plunking his detached, immortal head into Revolutionary France. How it got there is left to the reader's imagination, but the resulting adventure - starring one Lady Johanna Constantine as a stone-cold badass - must be seen to be believed.
While Johanna does find Orpheus' head, she can't escape the guillotine-happy Robespierre and France's radical new government, who are determined to destroy such an figure of superstition and paganism in the name of rationality and SCIENCE! Tossed into a dungeon and left with rapidly dwindling options, Johanna and Orpheus try one last , desperate gamble.
That's right: Lady Constantine and Orpheus singlehandedly ended the freaking Reign of Terror.
(Also, I have to say that it was wiser of Gaiman to not give Orpheus' song any definite lyrics this time. It preserves the power of his music by keeping it abstract - equally inaccessible to everyone, and so equally accessible to everyone. Readers of all backgrounds can fill in for themselves what specific words he chose for his song.)
(On that note: I know that Sandman is about to be made into a movie, and I seriously do not envy the fool who might want to adapt this into film or TV. No matter which singer and songwriter they pick for Orpheus, someone's going to be left cold.)
It would be easy to describe Orpheus' super-singing as mind control, but somehow, it feels less... dishonest than that. He cannot issue direct commands as a Jervis Tetch or Dr. Psycho or Emma Frost might; instead, he can only play and sing with all his heart and hope that his enemies have enough of a shred of decency to let their most vulnerable emotions pour to the forefront.
And that? That is an awesome power.
no subject
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wckZcVFLU24