Airboy #4

[laughing_tree]

"Airboy is the best thing James Robinson has ever done, thanks in no small part to the outstanding artwork of Greg Hinkle. As insanely imaginative as it is cringe-inducingly honest, this is mandatory reading." -- Brian K. Vaughan

Comments

[bruinsfan]

"Airboy is the best thing James Robinson has ever done..."

This is like how Hollywood types thought Crash was the best movie ever because it was about the trials and tribulations of Hollywood types, isn't it?

I mean, from what I've seen it's cute in a navel-gazing self referential Grant-Morrison-did-it-a-quarter-century-ago way, but I think Robinson's work on Starman has little to worry about in terms of being downgraded from his crowning achievement.

[captainbellman]

Besides that it's just a bland formula story we've seen ten thousand times. Middle-class white guy is down in the dumps. He meets a magical character from a world of make-pretend. They go on an adventure. By the end he's got his mojo back. SNORE.

[captainbellman]

"The only people who truly aren't great are the ones who've given up trying to be."

That is one of the most toxic sentences I've ever seen.

[laughing_tree]

She's saying the only people who definitely will never be great are the ones who won't try, not that everyone who isn't great is thus because they don't try.

When it rains the, the lawn gets wet, but that doesn't mean if the lawn is wet it must have rained.

[captainbellman]

I take issue with the elitist nature of the concept of being "great", or trying to be. To quote Zefram Cochrane, "Don't try to be a great man. Just be a man and let history make its own judgements." No-one worthy of praise in the annals of history did anything for the fame and prestige alone.

Additionally, even in the context it's still a disgusting line of thought - like those who say you're not a "real writer" unless you write every day. Which would automatically disqualify Harper Lee, among others.

[laughing_tree]

Surely it's more like saying you'll never be a real writer if you never write.?

And greatness need not have so narrow a definition as fame and prestige. I -- and most people, I would imagine -- try to be great at our jobs. That doesn't mean why trying to become famous or lauded.

[captainbellman]

Except the original phrase was "given up trying", not "never tried at all".

And while you and I may use these ideas of greatness, the context within these pages is definitely fame-aligned. From all the scans I've seen, this appears to be Robinson's narcissistic mental breakdown over the fact that his (shockingly mediocre) works of the past have not garnered him the success and prestige he desires.

And looking at the LXG movie, for example, or "Cry for Justice", well...it's hard to side with him. I can't think of a single good writer who can count on their lexicon a volume entirely dedicated to whining about not being a good and/or well-known writer. The only example I can think of is a short story by Dorothy Parker, and even that was actually wise and witty, and contained no misogyny whatsoever.

[laughing_tree]

Okay, then it's "you'll never be a real writer if you give up trying to write." I think the point stands.

And, true, it's definitely fame-aligned for Robinson the character. That's what the book is about, how his feelings of self-pity over his obscurity are sabotaging his life. The series even ends on him receiving a This Is Why You Suck speech about it. If that's what you're describing as "toxic," then I've misunderstood you and we aren't in disagreement.

What I was arguing isn't toxic is the statement in the context of it coming from Obscure Aviatrix Heroine's mouth, not Robinson's (by which I mean the character, not the authorial voice), and so divorced from his fame obsession. But filtered through that obsession, yes, absolutely toxic. That toxicity is, in fact, the point.

[dc2houseofmystery]

I quite liked Comic Book Villains.