Ultimate Power #7

[history79]

Written by Jeph Loeb, Art by Greg Land

7 pages of 24

Comments

[captainbellman]

"Hey, you know what this situation could use? *Even more* heroes!"

Ah, the Lobe. Always with the worst possible ideas.

[daningram.insanejournal.com]

How does adding more characters to the plot not solve everything?

Sheesh, some people...

[sagrada]

Yeah, that's the good old Tite Kubo style! Works like a charm, every time. Of course then THOSE people bring up problems, but you can fix that by introducing some more characters. And maybe a few more, fill things out, get a nice round cast. And these villains are realy quite understaffed, that needs remedying too...

[wizardru]

That's hardly something Tite Kubo came up with. Heck, he grew up reading comics that did that. Anything by Rumiko Takahashi, for example: Urusei Yatsura, Ranma 1/2 and InuYasha are all about just adding more and more characters. Dragonball did the same thing. That's just part and parcel of the Shonen genre.

That's not saying that it's a good idea or that this isn't terrible, mind you. Just pointing out Kubo is just following convention.

[sagrada]

Oh I know, don't worry. But he's the most infamous modern example I know of how out of hand that narrative style can get.

[thatnickguy]

I swear, sometimes it feels like he's a kid wanting to play with ALL the toys in the toybox. Even if it doesn't make sense, we'll just throw them in anyway.

[thanekos]

I don't know, if the Freakazoid villain stepped in to write this, it might be.. about the same, actually.

[sagrada]

CRISTOBAL COLUMBO HAD NOTHING TO DO WITH DISPELLING THE NOTION OF A FLAT EARTH.

It was already discredited by his time in Europe! Nobody but the most ignorant peasants would have beleived that by the turn of the 16th century.

Also oh my goodness, Power Priness' real coatume! So happy!

[starwolf_oakley]

My father once told my mathematicians in ANCIENT EGYPT figured out the world was round.

http://scienceblogs.com/startswithabang/2011/09/21/who-discovered-the-earth-is-ro/

[sagrada]

The Classical Greek mathematician Ptolemy worked it out too, and his works detailing the matter were a staple of Medieval and Renaissance learning. Things were slowed by geocentrism, not ignorance of the Earth's curving.

Cristobal's voyage was even undertaken based on flaws in his math, he thought that the Earth was smaller than the Scientific Establishment of the day had figured on, and only good luck got him to San Salvador before catastrophe. He was certainly braver and more resourceful and passionate than me, but he was no genius visionary.

[skemono]

Are you telling me that Star Trek V got something wrong??

[cainofdreaming]

Don't you mean Cristoforo Colombo? I mean, the Portuguese/Spanish name would be just another foreign take of his original one so it's not that different from calling him Christopher.

[sagrada]

I like calling him Cristobal, because it looks like Christ+Baal. Though the 'Columbo' is a misrememerance, should have been Colón.

[dr_archeville]

They really put the Lorem ipusm in there, twice? They couldn't make up some text for the Nobel prize and the newspaper?

[grumman]

Four times.

[drtechnobabel]

And the even more insulting part is that it's so large that you can easily tell that's what they did. It's one thing to use Lorem ipsum in a half-obstructed file in the background, but this is blatantly right on the front of the panel. I guess they just don't have journalists in the Supreme Power universe either, just headline writers.

[yvonmukluk]

Yeah, it says something that Spectacular Spider-Man (the cartoon) actually typed out an editorial by Jonah for the newspapers that flash up for half a second in the opening credits. It's the exact same editorial, but that still shows a lot of effort for something that most people would never pay attention for.

[tugrul]

That scene where Ultimate Reed's stretching fingers come up behind the unsuspecting villain is really badass.

[captainbellman]

Also, I'm more than certain that "Can't breathe, Emil?" panel was drawn from Cillian Murphy in Batman Begins. I'd know those Tommy Shelby lips anywhere.

[mrstatham]

The bit where he gets a taste of his own medicine and starts freaking out over monster!Batman, right? I can definitely see it.

[captainbellman]

I'd look for a matching screenshot, but in all honesty I think we're far beyond the point of needing proof by now.

[matrix_dragon]

You know, when your plan is built around killing millions and endangering billions more to compel a man with super powers and a reputation for saving lives to deliberately expose himself to an entity designed to kill him... maybe it's time to step back and say 'Oh my God. I'm a super villain.'

Also... look, it's modern media. They don't give a crap about the nobel prize these days, you'd be beaten to the front page by some celebrity saying and doing something stupid. Which means, one universe to the left, this dumbass is probably planning to murder the Kardashians :)

[shadur]

...It'd be morally wrong to say "and nothing of value would be lost" but I can't quite keep from thinking it.

[shadur]

... but yeah, you've hit the nail on the head. And this is basically Lex Luthor or the Quiet Man all over again -- when you strip out all the rhetoric, what's left is a whiny brat complaining that people liked someone else better than him, waaaaaah waaaaah waaaaaah waaaaaah so unfaaaaaaaair....

[sagrada]

Which is the exact opposite of what a Master Menace ought to be! Emil in the original comic bowed to nobody, feared nothing except on the physical danger level, held himself above the common herd of Man and their petty disputes or discoveries. Emil Burbank, the Master Menace, was a law unto himself!

[yvonmukluk]

AHAHAHAHA, oh god Land is tracing himself from the first issue with that last page. That's a whole new level of phoning it in.

[junipepper]

OK, that's at least the third time we've (collectively) noted him tracing himself within this series.. I think he's actually doing less than phoning it in.

[sanctaphrax]

Emailing it in?

[kamino_neko]

Not to defend Land, or anything, but in this one case, he has a good excuse for copying - it's the exact same situation, with (mostly) the same characters. It makes sense for it to be a visual echo.