“The portal to hell is fun and all, but I’d just rather have a background.”
The Joker’s Wild
Tangent Comics (September, 1998)
“B-B-B-Blackout!”
WRITERS: Karl Kesel & Tom Simmons
PENCILER: Joe Phillips
INKER: Jaben Rodriguez
COLORIST: Moose Baumann
SEPARATIONS: Digital Chameleon
LETTERING: Comicraft
EDITOR: Eddie Berganza
“TANGENT” CONCEPT: Dan Jurgens
If you want to see the “complete story” summary of the Three Jokers story, Comicstorian did that as well as a rant about why he didn’t like it. I have watched none of these and wouldn’t even bring it up if not for needing to mention it in today’s Tangent Comics review and not wanting to waste the space going over it there for the uninitiated.
My quick thoughts: While the mystical pops up in Gotham City now and then it’s hardly part of the city’s identity so I have to reject Benny’s “paleman” theory. I go for the psyche theory because the Joker was driven mad when he hit those chemicals and the chemicals hit back. it makes sense for him to do a bank robbery one time, a murder spree the next, a simple revenge plot after that, and then just some general shenanigans that cause trouble. It’s what keeps the Joker unpredictable and as I’ve written before that’s why the Joker shouldn’t have an origin nor should we ever learn his name. We should learn the Doctor’s name from Doctor Who before learning the Joker’s. So basically I reject the three Joker idea.
Replacements for the sake of replacements, whether driven by world view or just wanting the name on their shiny new character as cheap promotion, isn’t something new. DC’s uneven history with minority characters caused them to make a big change in the 1990s, replacing heroes like Green Arrow and Firestorm with new minority versions. It’s something I’ve discussed all the way back in 2015. These new versions didn’t take because the originals already had too strong a fanbase.
Oddly, this included replacing the white Hal Jordon with the mostly-white (his father was Mexican and his mother Irish) Kyle Rayner, though he is still pretty light skinned and was raised by his divorced Irish mother. While he is my favorite Green Lantern conceptually the fridging of his girlfriend Alex, literally where the “women in refrigerators” trope got its name, discouraged me from giving him a chance. Firestorm I heard good things about but Jason Rusch and the revolving door of helpers wasn’t Ronnie Raymond and Professor Stein. Kyle had something even worse keeping him from being accepted than poor Alex though.
It meant evilizing and ruining Hal Jordan.
I grew up on Superfriends and reruns of the Filmation DC shows, so Hal is the Green Lantern I grew up with, as did many others. Having him turn evil just to replace him and wipe out the entire Green Lantern Corps was a mistake that DC took years to fix, though it actually did so by lessening Kyle’s role in the comic. The following video by Owen Likes Comics goes over the history of Hal’s turn to evil and why the decision was made. I have some thoughts on the end result and aftermath.
“I’m feeling strangely pixelated today. Maybe I should call my doctor?”
Nova Phase #1
SLG (2013)
WRITER: Matthew Ritter
ARTIST: Adam Elbahtimy
EDITOR: Jef Bambas
No, they’re not technically connected except by the discussion of subverting expectations. Also, some swearing in this one.
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I’m neutral on subverting expectations. Do it right and it could be interesting. Do it just to do it or because you think you can do it better than the source material and you’re doing it wrong.
Lego Star Wars: The Freemaker Adventures is part of my head canon.
Today has decided to keep me from writing anything interesting but I’m going to get a post in somehow. So let’s talk Rey Palpawalker.
It’s not that Rey is a bad character but one that was badly executed. There was potential. I for one wasn’t bothered by the fact that she didn’t have a legacy like Luke did…which was probably one of two things about The Last Jedi that didn’t bother me. (Stupid or not, the Holdo Maneuver is amazing to see in action.) However, among the channels I usually follow none have been more critical of Rey than Literature Devil…except maybe MechaRandom42 but I digress. The commentator and comic creator has had more than a few negatives to say about Rey, even using her as an example of a bad female character and “Mary Sue”.
However, he’s not one to leave a character or story as bad, and will on occasion try to improve them. In the following video, which I present just to get something up tonight as everything has failed me, LD takes on the bane of classic fans’ existence (I have my own plans for former title holder Jar Jar Binks) and shows at least one way that Rey could have shown her potential and become a character fans might have actually liked…by doing the same thing that male characters go through and earn her status.
“What, no in-flight movie?”
Sonic Quest: The Death Egg Saga #1
“Scrambled”
WRITER: Mike Gallagher
PENCILER: Manny Galan
INKER: Jay Oliveras
COLORIST: Kyle Hunter
LETTERER: Jeff Powell
EDITOR: J. Freddy Gabrie
The Clutter Reports (my other site) Atop The Fourth Wall Crisis On Earth Prime Lean Into Artcast Bully Says “Comics Oughta Be Fun” Siskoid’s Blog of Geekery
Cartoon Hero’s Lair SF Debris Four Million Years Later
BW Media Spotlight 