(DISCLAIMER: Minor Man of Steel spoilers)
I saw Man of Steel last night, and personally thought it was very, very good. I don’t review movies. I think that, if you want to see something, you should see it and judge the movie for yourself.
That being said, there were a couple points in the movie that made me say “I can totally write an IBD about this.” So that’s what I’m doing.
Superman doesn’t have a strong track record when it comes to live-action films. DC’s storytelling strength normally lies better in animation than it does in live-action. I’ll even admit that I don’t know that much about Superman outside animated features and television shows. I’ve read some of the comics, but I prefer his cartoons. And after seeing what the 90’s gave us, I didn’t have that much hope for Man of Steel.
I was wrong. Kind of.
So, previously, I’ve introduced you to the very strange conversation that I had in Rome, and run off at the mouth about The Flash and the probability of an all good, all powerful being. There’s supposed to be a post in here about angels, but I’ve pushed it back to talk a little more about the deeds of ordinary human beings. Everyone reading this has wondered what kind of superhero they would be or daydreamed about fighting crime, maybe in a mask or, maybe not.
As a child, I idolized Batman. Heck, I still idolize Batman. What I have yet to do is take that last step into becoming a masked vigilante. Lancaster, Pennsylvania isn’t really in need of any, but apparently Seattle is. The Rain City Superhero Movement, a group of masked activists who fight crime in Seattle, Washington have taken it upon themselves to use their talents to make their city a safer place. According to their fearless leader Phoenix Jones, they are all possessed of a sense of justice, combat skill, and an awareness of the risks they assume in unsupervised crimefighting. To quote Phoenix:
“Everyone on my team either has a military background or a mixed martial arts background, and we’re well aware of what it costs to do what we do.”
So, what do these real life superheroes do? Well, they battle anarchists, stop strong-arm robberies, halt vandals and protect ordinary citizens, though they do occasionally end up in jail or exacerbate the original situation. All this besides running through the streets in the middle of the night, looking like the dude from Kick Ass.
So, when I say “Rome, part 2,” that’s something of a deception. I’ve since left Rome and traveled to Florence, but since it will be a continuation on what happened to me in Rome the other day, I don’t feel so bad about deceiving you. Also, it’s gorgeous here.
In my previous post, I wrote about a conversation I had with two priests in Rome which prominently featured Chuck Taylors, superheroes, angels, and theodicy. I’m going to break this continuation up into two posts, one about superheroes and theodicy and a second about superheroes and angels. So, let’s get up to speed on what I’m talking about when I say “theodicy.”
Briefly, a theodicy is an attempt to argue that an omniscient, omnipotent, omnibenevolent being is probable, even in a universe where, as Paul Draper puts it, “gratuitous evils exist.” This is perhaps most famously put in that way which the early Christian apologist Lactantius attributed to Epicurus:
Is God willing to prevent evil, but not able? Then he is not omnipotent. Is he able, but not willing? Then he is malevolent. Is he both able and willing? Then whence cometh evil? Is he neither able nor willing? Then why call him God?
Greetings from the Eternal City! Rome is so lovely, in many ways, that it is often easy to forget that it is a city. Dirty, noisy, and crowded, as you’d expect. Anyway, I’m supposed to be writing a post. I’ll try to keep it brief so I can get back to being a dilettante. I am the owner of many, many pairs of Chuck Taylors. My love for them cannot be overstated. When I got ready to go out this morning I put on a pair that looks like this:
The Flash is one of my favorite superheroes. It’s only logical that I would wear him on my favorite shoe and every once in a while when I’m wearing these shoes, I’ll get a compliment or two on them. They’re nice shoes. But yesterday, I happened to be in the Vatican when I saw two men, obviously Catholic priests, gesturing toward me. I checked to see if I happened to be wearing a fedora, or if I was dressed like Psy. Maybe I had chosen to wear my Manchester United shirt on the day of a Rome derby at the Coppa Italia. It turns out that the answer was (d): none of the above.
It was my Chucks that had attracted their attention. In what sounds like an exceedingly strange joke, an American, an Irish priest and an Italian priest had a long conversation about shoes and comic books in a mix of Spanish, Italian and English. Imagine my delight to find that I had traveled to the other side of the world to find two people as excited to talk about superheroes as I was.
Our conversation began to sputter as it moved from sneakers and superheroes to superheroes and privatio boni, the privation of good, a theodicy which argues that good is much like light, whereas evil is like darkness. Thusly, evil represents simply the absence of good, and not an entity unto itself, rendering the “whence cometh evil?” question moot. As you might imagine, this is a difficult topic about which to be articulate when you lack advanced skills in a language.
We did manage to make words out of the idea in that in comics, evil seems to rise as the result of good. This is an oft-stated problem, centering around how superheroes seem to attract supervillians. I wondered aloud if some superheroes could be thought of as angels, and the conversation shifted briefly to Islam, wherein angels definitively lack free will. The conversation died right about there.
I was left with lots of thoughts on the subject, which I’ll share in my next post. For now, I’m very pleased with how deep a conversation I stumbled across all because I wore a pair of shoes.
(picture via dcwomenkickingass)
DC Comics recently stated that they will be releasing a free essentials guide to their graphic novels. This guide will be sent to fans, comic shops, and libraries. It is also notably lacking in women.
Certain characters have received multi-page spreads in this book. Most of these characters are the ones that you’d expect, such as Superman, Batman, Green Lantern, The Flash, and, weirdly, Green Arrow. Perhaps Green Arrow was given his very own spread because he is currently a popular character due to the TV show Arrow, but Green Arrow has never been a part of the main lineup of DC superheroes.
You know who is, though? Wonder Woman. Wonder Woman, who is an Amazon, member of the Trinity, and one of the main leaders of the Justice League, does not get her own multi-page spread with her fellow superheroes. Neither do any other female superheroes—not even Batwoman, who is one of DC’s top selling female-led comics along with Batgirl and Wonder Woman (source).
So where are the women in this “essential” guide? In a two-page spread called “Women of DC”. The only women featured in this section are Wonder Woman, Batgirl, Batwoman, Catwoman, and Huntress. Yes, the ladies have been screwed over.
(picture via dcwomenkickingass)
Furthermore, no women or men of color are being featured. There’s no sign of Cyborg, Cassandra Cain, Mister Terrific, Static Shock, Katana, or Vixen.
This book says a lot about who DC Comics are trying to promote and sell to. Remember, this guide is going to be used not just by fans but by comic shop owners and libraries to determine what graphic novels they should order. It has often been said by creators and companies alike that ‘for some reason’ the comics which don’t feature white heterosexual male characters don’t do as well. Well, maybe that has less to do with what DC’s readers want and more to do with how they promote their characters. Just a thought, DC.
I’m constantly thinking about how geek culture can take the next step and move closer and closer to equality. I think that, as a writer, it’s my job to think of ways I can use my talents to better society. I mean, I’m paid to write. It’s not the hardest thing to do. I should at least do something important with this.
So, I opened a word doc and typed away until late, coming up with new superheroes that would rock the comic world to its core, and I came up with this.
I think we need an autistic superhero.
Say you, perchance, want to read comic books. But maybe you don’t have the cash to spend on them. If only there were some sort of day where comic books were given away for free? Well, you are in luck, dear reader, because tomorrow is Free Comic Book Day.
Even to this day, I’m blown away by Batman Beyond. I mean, it is so horrifically underrated, I have nightmares about it.
I started watching it again recently. The complete series is on Netflix now, and man, I’m already hooked. However, I don’t want to touch on Terry McGinnis quite yet. I think there is something that’s staring me in the face that I need to touch on. Can you guess what it is?
For once I was planning on showering something with praise, but that’s not going to happen. You see, Young Justice has a lot of strong points, but it doesn’t cover so much as it touches on as many characters in the DCU as possible. In fact, it’s a little upsetting that there haven’t been more episodes delving further into some of these characters. Young Justice is the show that helped me get into DC comics. It’s well made, it’s got some great characters, and it gives some neat insight into the world. It’s a show with a lot of personality. But I do wish that it would spend more time with certain characters. It has a lot of interesting people and relationships that should be further explored.
The second season has finally come to a close. Unfortunately, one thing I noticed right away with the season finale is that it seemed a little rushed. It was in a hurry to tie up as many dangling plot threads as possible, while leaving others open for the next season. And I’m all for leaving dangling plot threads as long as they’re eventually taken care of. And from this last episode “Endgame”, I can say that the show was definitely building toward a third season.
I say ‘was’ because Young Justice will not be renewed.
