tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7696405456639455377.post1085500460822534432..comments2022-04-09T23:33:47.941-07:00Comments on This Ain't Kansas.: Empire by Mark Waid and Barry Kitson - A Comic Book ReviewDru Tanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10388790989950008557noreply@blogger.comBlogger9125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7696405456639455377.post-60932212902127204012016-11-23T10:46:37.719-08:002016-11-23T10:46:37.719-08:00Thanks for checking out my blog. (One day, I'd...Thanks for checking out my blog. (One day, I'd like to update it, I promise!)<br /><br />In regards to the swearing thing, I didn't mean to imply that they were a problem in Empire. I was saying that it was weird that they were censored in the first half and then uncensored in the second half. It's a weird shift in tone when reading the entire story as a whole.<br /><br />It's not a matter of realism to me, but a matter of storytelling. I've read plenty of superhero comics where there was massive, city-wide destruction, yet there was minimal gore and not much swearing. It doesn't really lessen the impact of the story that's being told. Throwing in more gore or "mature language" doesn't necessarily make the story better - it just makes it different. One thing that comes to mind is The Authority. Compare the original Ellis/Hitch run to the stuff that Robbie Morrison and Dwayne Turner did. Morrison and Turner had free reign to unleash all the violence, sex, and cussing they wanted, but that doesn't make their comics better than the Ellis/Hitch Authority.<br /><br />I don't mind if a story has swearing (or sex, nudity, gory violence, etc.) if it's got a purpose to it. I do agree that it's ridiculous whenever they do a story about the Hulk where he loses it and smashes everything in sight, and the story tells us that no one got hurt or whatever - that's kind of silly. But I think for the most part, a lot of the deaths are implied, and I think that's fine when it comes to the Hulk or other mainstream Marvel/DC properties. It is what it is.<br /><br />It's like, I'm not gonna hate on an X-Men cartoon just because Wolverine doesn't slash people's heads off or spill their entrails with his claws. It's a cartoon aimed at kids - what do I expect? (I try to find better reasons than that to hate on X-Men cartoons.)Dru Tanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10388790989950008557noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7696405456639455377.post-34624424078083447772016-11-23T06:16:23.617-08:002016-11-23T06:16:23.617-08:00I'm also waiting on the Superman story where h...I'm also waiting on the Superman story where he is no villain (like in 'Übermensch') and looses his cool with humanity (like he does a little in 'Kingdom Come') and destroys every weapon, fighting plane, warship a.s.o. (with the help of Flash and other very powerful heroes) but does not kill the wielders of these weapons.<br />Supes and some of his friends could actually do this. Imagine the trillions of lost money if during the course of, let's say 4 weeks Supes and friends would tirelessly scour the globe for weapons, take them from their owners (no matter if they are army bases of a sovereign state or terrorist groups) and push them in the sun or drop them on the moon rather, for later extraction and recycling of the million tons of metal in those weapons.<br />It would force humanity to take a break and look at itself and the heroes could sit them ignorant all-grown-up-but-even-less-the-wiser assholes of todays leading elites on a table and solve some real and pressing problems.<br />Of course to make the story believable, you'd have to consider that Supes and friends would probably get the weapons most easily found first, i.e. military bases, nuclear silos, weapons factories (which they'd have to smash and thus also destroy jobs - not nice, but necessary and better than to kill people) a.s.o. and then you could spin off a beautiful side story of how individuals owning guns privately come together or try to get influence through their weapons in a 'toothless' world and how people like Batman start hunting them down. Or how rich entrepeneurs like Lex Luthor try to get at the weapons stashed on the moon before the vacuum ablates them totally. Of course the nukes would be thrown in the sun in any scenario.<br />Besides, why did no one ever complain about the fact that the worlds of DC and Marvel shouldn't have trouble with climate change at all, because they can put up hundred times more nuclear power plants (of the ecologically worrysome fast breeder type) and hundred times less coal plants, because they just have to pay people like Shazam, Superman, Wonder Woman, Thor, Quasar a.o. to lift their nuclear waste and throw it in the sun. Or even better, use some superhuman with earth-moving/transmogrifying powers or with gravitational skills to push it deep beneath the planetary crust in the molten mantle to give nuclear material back to the mineral cycle of earth, so that future generations have some nuclear ores to dig up again (after the movement of the inner earth has brought them close to the surface again after some centuries/millennia).<br />And they have nearly continuous unbroken contact with advanced alien species all the time in DC's and Marvel's universes and they never get the idea to maybe incorporate that tech or ask all those denizens of other worlds living on earth to give it to humanity?<br />BIIIIIIG SIIIIIIIGH!Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10553974435119004530noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7696405456639455377.post-2970500368223501352016-11-23T05:22:12.087-08:002016-11-23T05:22:12.087-08:00I'm still waiting on the vigilante superhero/-...I'm still waiting on the vigilante superhero/-villain who has a score to settle with the world and justifiably so.<br />Or the story how the MC1 judges cleanse todays global society and put down low the assholes leading our world into destruction. Since Judge Dredd's world is partially wasted by the time him and Rico start their judicial service at the (forcegrown) physical age of 12 and attack the White House they would have had ample justification. Not that the fascist judge system is so much better. It isn't. It's unfair, devious, holding on to power no matter the cost, brutal, unforgiving and selfserving. But they stabilized human progress, took the insane headless dynamic out of it. At the same time alien contact was established and regulated and humanity put on the next technological level. Or some levels ahead even, when you look at the tech stuff they have: Antigrav, selfaware machines, FTL-drive, highly advanced genetic technology a.s.o.<br />Alien tech-influence is also responsible for that.<br />But I am still waiting on the story where the old power mongers of today get what's coming for them and the judges struggle to implement laws for all kinds of stuff. Binding, harsh, even brutal laws against massive pollution, exploitation of whole peoples, socially critical constellation a.s.o., while at the same time they set up their system so as to how it might best promote their own power. Laws for AIs and how First Contact in Dredd's world was handled (I guess Tek-Judges have been founded during these circumstances) would also be nice.<br />But we don't get that. Sigh! I guess I have to start writing comics myself if I ever wanna see stuff like that. Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10553974435119004530noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7696405456639455377.post-59979832993482872182016-11-23T05:03:41.461-08:002016-11-23T05:03:41.461-08:00Another thing altogether: I own the first 3 issues...Another thing altogether: I own the first 3 issues of 'Empire'. Back then I was excited to see Golgoth start his revolution in Australia with tribes of aborigines. I thought: 'Yeah, well he is a supervillain, but he is a genius and extremist and probably got fed up with the stupidity, ignorance and destructive shortsightedness of today's globalized society and so he starts a war to bring a unified global empire earth into existence and to elevate human kind to the next level.<br />That'd be a motive and put him in the shoes of warlords/rulers/dictators like Alexander the Great, Genghis Khan or Napoleon.<br />We got Silch.<br />I never did stumble across any rational motives for his rule. Only the symptoms of his lust for power and his hold on power and an overall unforgiving and scheming character of his.<br />I wanted to ask you if the whole story reveals any such motives and if our society's shortcomings are maybe reflected in some of the enemies/nations he beat in the past?<br />To say it clearly: I expected a story which was promised by the big bad Batman himself in the very last pages of 'The Dark Knight Returns' so long ago. In the story Batman confirmed in front of a congressional hearing on superheroes and vigilantes, which broke apart the superhuman society years before the actual story kicks off, that 'of course we (the superheroes) have to act outside the law. How else should we get to corrupt individuals who use the law as their shield and who see themselves as untouchable?' Subsequently superheroes where outlawed and state-commissioned teams disbanded.<br />At the end of the book after he beat Superman and faked his death Bruce Wayne promises to take on more than mafias, street thugs and (super)villains. Namely crooked politicians, businessmen, dictators, terrorists a.s.o.<br />Until this day DK2 and DK3 have not delivered on that promise.<br />And even worse, when Mark Millar published his 'Nemesis' I expected at first a true brutal vigilante who is fed up about how things are going globally and who is rich and determined enough, technologically gifted and sociopathically inclined to take on the most powerful and corrupt individuals/groups (for example the american president and his cronies). Instead we got a selfserving bastard just following the premise: What if the Joker was (a slightly different) Batman and used his skills and gimmicks to cause mayhem?<br />Why would anyone read such a story nearly 20 years after Spawn, especially because Spawn did the things I mentioned earlier above?Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10553974435119004530noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7696405456639455377.post-29160050400559154482016-11-23T04:09:18.509-08:002016-11-23T04:09:18.509-08:00I guess it's like with Sex, something else whe...I guess it's like with Sex, something else where american society likes to display superhypocrisy. Either you like dirty sex or not. If you think you have to marry a sexually unimaginative wife, but you still have the urge for kinky sex, than talk to your wife about it or get a divorce! Instead some gentlemen (especially in the u.s., where liking exciting, passionate and unfetterd sex is always seen as a sinful horrible character trait) go to prostitutes to get their good sex. Then they hate themselves for being weak and following that they hate and have to mistreat, kidnap, torture, rape and murder young women for leading them into temptation or not giving them honest admiration. IT'S NO FAULT OF THE PROSTITUTES! So if you need kinky sex in your life but can't reconcile it with the picture of yourself as a good citizen, you better KILL YOURSELF instead of becoming either a highly corrupt, hypocritical, societal or religious leader who starts spewing hatred and justifications over your surroundings or worse, before you become a serial killer or 'just' a thug mistreating or abusing women.<br />I know that example is a little harsh and some would say not exactly fitting the topic, since as an author you (should) have control over your writing and their is no 'urge' to put swearwords in, but if you depict a fight-to-the-death between 2 adversaries, who have gone to some lengths already to spite and hurt themselves, the situation 'calls for' the vocal equivalent of the turmoil they feel. And thus, one or two (even 3 or 5!) heavy swearwords (like 'Fuck' and 'goddamned') can find their way into your writing. OTHERWISE YOU SUSPEND THE SUSPENSION OF DISBELIEF for all of us grown-up readers who want to enjoy the full spectrum of human emotion in any kind of story-medium and -context and don't need to use fiction as a means of state/society-prescribed education.<br />I know kids read these comics. If you are worried, talk with them about it and EDUCATE THEM, as is your job as a parent. Or don't allow them such comics. Buy Mickey Mouse-comics for them. But at a certain age you will have no control over what their friends are reading. And if your kids go to their friends and read stuff, which can also be read by grown ups than it'd be rather better that you know what's going on and you know how to sit down and talk with your kids about critical traits of the human condition, instead of being overwhelmed by it, antagonizing your child by forbidding everything their friends do or try to attack the comic industry. Your kids aren't their responsibility, they are yours. If you can't handle that, or don't find the time in your life to handle it, DON'T HAVE KIDS!Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10553974435119004530noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7696405456639455377.post-11559981197998812072016-11-23T04:07:19.818-08:002016-11-23T04:07:19.818-08:00Why are uncensored swearwords a problem please?!?!...Why are uncensored swearwords a problem please?!?! Would you rather have these goofy non-swear words like Marvel and DC used up until the late '80-ies/mid '90-ies (like shouting 'dimwitted broad' rather than 'stupid bitch' or some such) when Image finally broke with this stupid tradition of the comics code authority?<br />About swearwords in ANY KIND of comic: If you don't wanna use them, then don't write stories where people get hurt, tortured, their friends or families getting taken hostage or getting hurt or killed, where one person tries to kill another or a whole cityscape or stretch of land gets pulverized. In such awful and destructive scenarios it's veeeery unplausible someone wouldn't use the most hurtful and insulting words they know or rather break forth from their anguish (because that's what swearwords do in such situations. You got no control over your emotional outbreak, that's why it is called an outbreak. D-UH!)<br />I would go further even and show the deathtoll and the broken bodies which inevitably must follow your regular superhero/supervillain-bout, especially in overblown scenarios nowadays like 'Age of Ultron' or any Hulk-looses-it-scenario since the inception of the jade giant.<br />Btw. Judge Dredd-stories kinda censored themselves with inventing future swearwords, like 'drokking' instead of 'fucking'. It fits their anal-retentive police state lawcode and reminds us (today with the tv-terror of beeped-over swearwords in u.s.-television more than ever) of the culture which came up with the lawful fascim of his world (american urban eastcoast that is). But the great thing is, that most of his heated exchanges with his adversaries still come across as angry and spiteful (much more so and much more down-to-earth than the useless pompuous monologues and childish never-used-in-any-era-of-human-history swearwords of most supervillains we know from DC or Marvel).Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10553974435119004530noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7696405456639455377.post-54719039520366481922016-11-23T03:13:22.441-08:002016-11-23T03:13:22.441-08:00This comment has been removed by the author.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10553974435119004530noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7696405456639455377.post-67153200867683663152012-07-30T11:29:42.367-07:002012-07-30T11:29:42.367-07:00Thanks for checking out the blog, Joseph! Yeah, yo...Thanks for checking out the blog, Joseph! Yeah, you should track down the other issues or the TPB if you can.Dru Tanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10388790989950008557noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7696405456639455377.post-86575952877282733752012-07-28T17:07:09.778-07:002012-07-28T17:07:09.778-07:00NICE TO SEE that there was an ending(somewhat expe...NICE TO SEE that there was an ending(somewhat expected)with a villain such as Golgoth in the center ring conducting the circus performers. All in all I'd like to find the other 5 issues that I missed,AFTER.. after Gorilla comics went under, and the continuing story that Waid & Kitson finished with the "DC" Comics imprint.<br />Nice Blog....<br />Comics fan since 1971<br />Joseph m.Josephhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15533232474032866885noreply@blogger.com