Kal-L's tragedy
Michael Wood
Hypertime was put forward.
The final page had Kal-L aware that he was stuck in (well, basically a
mystical Kandor, frankly, as Metropolis), but happy knowing that all the
multiple stories were not lost and were still out there.
I know that a lot of you/us weren't happy with the EXECUTION of Hypertime,
but the concept really could have brought some of the lightness back to DC.
The whole recent crisis really did wreck a great deal of what went before,
including Kal-L's eternal reward. It is a tragedy.
I really feel like many of the writers/editors today are those bitter
twisted children of middle-class parents that I had to deal with in high
school. They simply can't stand happy ever after endings. They are
unsatisfied with there lives - unable to accept the predictability of a
stable situation, and unable to achieve the magic of the really high
achievers in academia/sport/money/fame. So they twist everyone else's lit
bit of sunshine. (And BTW unpredicatble is overrated - finding someone that
is dependable and predictable is the real challenge in life - which is why
Superman is my hero, damn it!)
* end of rant *
Michael Wood
Anlatt the Builder
I'm not sure I agree with your analysis, but I certainly see the
problem. Sometimes it seems to me that comic-book writers increasingly
have contempt for their readers. (This may be a projection of self-
contempt: "I may be a comic-book writer, but I'm not as bad as those
FANS....") So they torture the characters, who are the readers'
viewpoint characters.
Something I don't like is the escalation of violence and death in
mainstream superhero comics. It's like they think a story doesn't
register unless a whole city, at least, is destroyed. When this
happens on a regular basis, it's hard to think of any hero's victory
as being completely satisfying. No happy endings there.
Edward McArdle
<0897bdc9-8392-46ee...@e4g2000prn.googlegroups.com>, Anlatt
the Builder <tir...@aol.com> wrote:
>On Nov 18, 3:17=A0am, "Michael Wood" <no-...@home.comj> wrote:
>> I just flicked through the TPB of The Kingdom today. This was where
>> Hypertime was put forward.
>>
>> The final page had Kal-L aware that he was stuck in (well, basically a
>> mystical Kandor, frankly, as Metropolis), but happy knowing that all the
>> multiple stories were not lost and were still out there.
>>
>> I know that a lot of you/us weren't happy with the EXECUTION of Hypertime=
>,
>> but the concept really could have brought some of the lightness back to D=
>C.
>>
>> The whole recent crisis really did wreck a great deal of what went before=
>,
>> including Kal-L's eternal reward. It is a tragedy.
>>
>> I really feel like many of the writers/editors today are those bitter
>> twisted children of middle-class parents that I had to deal with in high
>> school. They simply can't stand happy ever after endings. They are
>> unsatisfied with there lives - unable to accept the predictability of a
>> stable situation, and unable to achieve the magic of the really high
>> achievers in academia/sport/money/fame. So they twist everyone else's lit
>> bit of sunshine. (And BTW unpredicatble is overrated - finding someone th=
>at
>> is dependable and predictable is the real challenge in life - which is wh=
>y
>> Superman is my hero, damn it!)
>>
>> * end of rant *
>>
>>
>
>I'm not sure I agree with your analysis, but I certainly see the
>problem. Sometimes it seems to me that comic-book writers increasingly
>have contempt for their readers. (This may be a projection of self-
>contempt: "I may be a comic-book writer, but I'm not as bad as those
>FANS....") So they torture the characters, who are the readers'
>viewpoint characters.
>
>Something I don't like is the escalation of violence and death in
>mainstream superhero comics. It's like they think a story doesn't
>register unless a whole city, at least, is destroyed. When this
>happens on a regular basis, it's hard to think of any hero's victory
>as being completely satisfying. No happy endings there.
And it is a simple mathematical thing - chaos can't keep escalating.
Comics go on for decades. If things continually get worse, readers will
give up.
--
Edward McArdle
Anlatt the Builder
> In article
> <0897bdc9-8392-46ee-b0dd-543159623...@e4g2000prn.googlegroups.com>, Anlatt
Certainly the tendency to make each "crisis" (or, each story) BIGGER
than the previous one - rather than more interesting, or even very
different - leads to a kind of mind-numbing excess.
I think serial literature, like comic books, needs to be a little more
careful in deciding what's "background" and what's "foreground."
Background elements should change slowly and/or rarely; foreground
elements are the focus of the current story, and can change more
quickly.
For example, to me, Paradise Island should be more of a "background"
element - the home of the Amazons, the origin and home base (to some
extent) of Wonder Woman, etc. Individual Amazons can be foreground
elements - in a story, they can go rogue, try to take over, have plots
and plans, get killed. This is all against the backdrop of Paradise
Island, which can, of course, be endangered. But destroying Paradise
Island itself - that's trashing the background, and makes it harder to
write the foreground stories in a way that makes sense. If you destroy
Paradise Island too regularly (and bring it back, of course), it
ceases to be important - the readers get a little numb and/or bored.
Michael Wood
"Anlatt the Builder" <tir...@aol.com> wrote in message
news:0897bdc9-8392-46ee...@e4g2000prn.googlegroups.com...
OK. Your analysis sounds more rational than mine, but it's a rant. There is
no obligation that the pathway makes sense, only that the final conclusion
is heartfelt. : )
Michael Wood
Patrick
"Michael Wood" <no-...@home.comj> wrote in message
news:mJQMm.55718$ze1....@news-server.bigpond.net.au...
I understand where you are coming from, but I am guessing that Kal-L and
Lois-L (just so we know who we are talking about) will become "alive" again
and will move to the Earth-2 that Powergirl went to (That Earth's Kal-L is
missing, and while it is not the same Earth-2, it will be a better home for
him than "Limbo" or "death"). Writers like to "bring characters down so
they can build them up" rather than just have them up in the first place.
Patrick
>
