Friday, July 29, 2005

Infinite Ass

Just read the mini-preview of Infinite Crisis #1.

Yikes.

Spoilers ahead!

First off, it is bizarre to me that there ARE this many spoilers ahead. I mean, the book is coming out in OCTOBER, yet in the five/six page preview, they spoil a good deal of stuff.

For instance, at one point or another, the JLA Watchtower will be destroyed. Which already happened during Morrison's watch, right?

But whatever, it is a fine plot point, just not one I think should be spoiled this early.

Next, the Freedom Fighters show up to investigate a rumored Society appearance (The Freedom Fighters being Uncle Sam, Phantom Lady, Black Condor, Damage and the Human Bomb).

Why bother?

I mean, we have read the formula already, Johns.

We know what it means when you have B-List characters show up out of nowhere.

It means they (or at least a good portion of them) are going to die.

So why bother?

It is like there is this undying need to follow convention.

Like before Identity Crisis, we all knew the formulaic result was Sue Dibney dying.

Before Countdown, we knew Blue Beetle was dead.

Before Sacrifice turned out to be an OMAC tie-in, we all knew it was going to end with Wonder Woman killing the bad guy (at the time, we all thought it was Ruin, but as soon as we learned that Sacrifice was an OMAC tie-in, we knew it was Max Lord she was going to kill).

Heck, this formula was tired when Giffen and Fleming used it with Starman during Eclipso: The Darkness Within....THIRTEEN YEARS AGO!

Maybe if there was not this sense of "we SHOCKED you," it would not be so annoying. I mean, I wasn't irked by the fact that I knew that the six heroes were going to die in Seven Soldiers #0, because Morrison was playing along with conventions, not acting as though he was defying them.

Oh, that and the fact that he invented all but one of the heroes he killed off, so that when he chose to kill them off, he was getting his emotional kick out of characters HE created.

Which is far different than killing off Sue Dibney, Blue Beetle and, in the pages of Infinite Crisis (so far), Black Condor.

The only people who care that you killed off Black Condor are the same ones who are going to be disappointed that you killed him off to add drama to your "epic."

It seems so silly.

Oh, and having BIZARRO be a part of the group of villains who murder Condor (and possibly other members of the Freedom Fighters)?

Nice.

Good use of a lighthearted character.

Next thing you know, they'll start having lighthearted characters raped or shot in the head in the books.

Read More

14 Comments:

Blogger Nik said...

I didn't really get that Black Condor was dead from the preview, although clearly he won't be feeling too good for a while.

Anyway, I'm interested - hopefully it won't be as much of a letdown in the end as Identity Crisis was. I do dig Jimenez's Perez-lite art.

7/29/2005 07:41:00 PM  
Blogger Bill Reed said...

Jeez Cronin, you're starting to sound like me.

7/29/2005 08:08:00 PM  
Blogger Julio Oliveira said...

You know the hate that Johnuckawick have of the Giffen/Matteis and now with Black Condor, Jurgens League is bizarre to say the last. I mean... raped and killed Sue Dibny (okay, that one was Moralez), killed Blue Beetle, transformed Max Lord in a stupid villain and then killed him, i think they killed Red Rocket 7 on Omac (will know for sure on next issue). I mean, I know that they want to make all the comics grim and gritty, but they specific choice of 2nd-tier heroes to kill smells of grudge against the sucess back on the day of the goofy JLA. Coupled with the moronic treatment of Hal Jordan by Johns (I mean the stories read like plot points explained or fanboy pandering or both...). It's not that I have nothing against Hal, but if they wanted to bring him back the least they could do was tell interesting stories with the character.

7/29/2005 09:48:00 PM  
Blogger Julio Oliveira said...

As for the spoils... they are bad, but not Michael Brian Bendis bad...

7/29/2005 09:49:00 PM  
Blogger Brian Cronin said...

Oh crap, I forgot to mention Andreyko's Manhunter, where he brings in B-List characters just to kill them off (or otherwise ruin them).

Except Chase, thankfully.

7/29/2005 10:10:00 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Wait hasn't The Human Bomb died recently or am I mistaken?

7/29/2005 10:11:00 PM  
Blogger Brian Cronin said...

The Freedom Fighters from an alternate universe were in Superman/Batman, and the Living Bomb died there.

However, Loeb, for the most part, treated them a good deal better.

For instance, he made Uncle Sam cool.

Johns, on the other hand, mocks Uncle Sam ("He claims to have done blah, he claims to have done blah.....he claims a lot of things").

7/29/2005 10:32:00 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

No I wasn't thinking of that it was further back. I think it was in a series called Enginehead.

7/29/2005 11:00:00 PM  
Blogger Brian Cronin said...

Oh, right, Enginehead.

Hmmm...you may be right.

I will check that out!

7/30/2005 03:48:00 AM  
Blogger Brian Cronin said...

You are correct, he did die in Enginehead #6.

But was that series in continuity?

7/30/2005 03:49:00 AM  
Blogger Michael said...

Has Bizarro even been a lighthearted character Post-Crisis? (The other one, that is. Geez, how annoying is it going to be next year, when we have to say "Post-Crisis-1" or "Post-Crisis-2" just so people know which crossover we're talking about?

7/30/2005 10:53:00 AM  
Blogger Harvey Jerkwater said...

Do you want to know the true shocking fallout of Infinite Crisis?

Are you ready for the DCU to be forever altered?

The inclusion of OMAC wasn't an afterthought. Oh, no no no.

After the "one year leap," EVERY SUPERHERO MUST HAVE THE OMAC MOHAWK!

The New DC: There's No Stopping Them Now.

7/30/2005 12:50:00 PM  
Blogger Brian Cronin said...

"Has Bizarro even been a lighthearted character Post-Crisis?"

Just this week, in Loeb's Superman/Batman.

7/30/2005 06:14:00 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

With that post title, I thought you were going to review some porn.

8/01/2005 12:16:00 PM  

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