Mokka mit Schlag » Comic Books

Episode 6. Wow. Hooded Justice is the character I’ve wanted for decades and never, ever seen. Superman may have fought the klan, and Captain America fought the Nazis; but no superhero I can think of has ever taken on real, non-cartoon evil in their own society quite so directly. Indeed that’s the fundamental flaw of all the godlike beings like Superman, Captain Marvel, and Green Lantern. For all their power, they never turn it toward building a better world. The Joker is a psychopathic serial killer, but he doesn’t have a body count anywhere near a run-of-the-mill U.S. president.
(more…)

Veidt’s in space. I had pretty much figured that out already, but now it’s confirmed. I didn’t recognize exactly where, perhaps one of the moons of Jupiter? I assume Dr. Manhattan put him there. I can’t imagine anyone else could have done it, but why?
(more…)

So Laurie Jupiter, now Laurie Blake, showed up and finally we have a character we can root for. That’s a big step forward. I don’t know why she;s using her father’s name now. He was a pretty bad guy and she was not fond of him to say the least. Perhaps this will be revealed later. Anyway, I’m still watching.

Episode 2 didn’t answer many questions but it did reinforce my feeling that every adult in this series is a bad guy: cops, terrorists, “super” “heroes”, everyone.

One new revelation: Veidt has become a narcissistic psychopath. He was always a mass murderer, but thirty years ago it was at least possible to  read him as someone who had done the math and killed millions to save billions. Now, however, he apparently is willing to burn people to death for his personal amusement. Just maybe Mr. Phillips and the other servants are all some sort of robots or not fully sentient artificial life forms—they don’t exactly act like normal human beings—but even if that proves to be the case, the simulated subtraction of Mr. Phillips’s intrinsic field seemed pointless and cruel. Frankly I’m not thrilled with this development. It seems very out of character for him.

One new question: why did Laurie Jupiter decide to take her father’s name? Hard to believe she simply got tired of explaining how to spell Juspeczyk. Not hugely important, but I am curious. Possibly the name change was also mentioned in the previews, but if so I missed it until the end of this week’s episode.

P.S. I don’t consider Doomsday Clock canonical or worth reading, an opinion I apply to pretty much everything Geoff Johns is involved with. That’s the problem with non-creator owned properties. Even if a work is a recognized classic for 25 years, eventually some corporate bean counter is going to decide to milk it for a few more dollars.

I had very mixed reactions to the Watchmen premier on HBO last week. On the one hand, it’s incredibly well done and I can’t stop thinking about it, much like I was obsessed with the original comic book when it first came out in the 1980s. On the other hand, I absolutely despise every single character in this show. No one, so far, is likable or sympathetic except for the family in the opening scene; and based on the closing scene I’m not sure they’ll stay that way in the present day. In the comic book Rorschach, Nite Owl, Dr. Manhattan, Laurie Jupiter, and Veidt were all interesting people with some good qualities. Yes, they were all deeply flawed in different ways, but I didn’t detest any of them (except the Comedian, and he was meant to be detestable). Watchmen was a story about good versus good, not good versus evil. Everyone in that story was trying to do what they truly believed was the right thing, and that was the horror of it all.

So far in the TV series, it’s the opposite. I detest everyone. This is a story about evil versus evil. There are no good people, just less bad people or people who are bad in different ways. It’s really hard to root for anyone.

That said, episode 1 answered a few questions I had about HBO’s sequel and opened a few more. In no particular order:
(more…)

Given the thousands of comics and graphics novels published every year, not to mention web comics, it’s really surprising the nominees weren’t better. I suspect there’s a strong aversion to including any superhero comics in the group. There’s no other way to explain their complete absence from the nominees, especially given that any midlist mainstream Marvel/DC title is the equal of all but one of the nominees.
(more…)