InsaneJournal

Tweak says, "you know how i do"

arbre_rieur (arbre_rieur) wrote in scans_daily,
@ 2009-04-02 12:25:00

Entry tags:

creator: grant morrison, creator: mark waid, publisher: boom!, title: irredeemable

Grant Morrison on typecasting and the Internet
The first issue of Mark Waid's new creator-owned superhero comic, Irredeemable, came out yesterday. It's about the world's greatest superhero becoming its greatest supervillain. Anyway, it has an afterword by Grant Morrison, who, in-between praising the book, discusses how society has a strong tendency to typecast not just actors but people in general, inluding writers.

Is this entry legal? Here, one page from the issue, to cover my bases --

(Read comments) - (Post a new comment)

parsimonia
2009-04-02 05:27 pm UTC (link)

"...a twilight world of bodiless murderers, serial killers, war criminals and madmen..."

You know, it's true that fans with keyboards can be rude, dismissive and thoughtless in their criticism, but sometimes I am honestly taken aback by how common it is for those working in the industry to openly deride and make fun of fans.

He is comparing us, or people like us, to murderers, serial killers, war criminals and madmen. It's pretty sad. Whatever happened to having a good customer service attitude, guys? ;-)

So, yeah, thanks, Grant! I may criticize your writing, but trust me, my bank account is a hell of a lot smaller than yours. Surely that is some consolation to your wounded ego?

Anyways. So from what Morrison says here, this comic is about disgruntled comic book writers turning to evil in response to those dastardly readers/fans/customers with their soul-crushing opinions and comments?

(Reply to this) (Thread)

	jarodrussell 2009-04-02 07:47 pm UTC (link)
	First PAD calls the 'net and infernal spoiler machine, now Morrison says it's a window to formless psychopaths. Have comic writers always hated technology this much? (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	bluefall 2009-04-02 07:50 pm UTC (link)
	Well, consider how many scientists are heroes and how many are supervillains. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	sistermagpie 2009-04-02 07:54 pm UTC (link)
	It's unfair to say, but it's hard not to feel like there's a certain kind of guy that is used to a certain amount of respect and agreement? And the internet is a real affront. (Reply to this) (Parent)

	jarodrussell 2009-04-02 08:03 pm UTC (link)
	Believe me, I have considered this. If I've learned anything from such writers as Geoff Johns, Gail Simone, Mark Waid, Grant Morrison, Tony Bedard, Peter David, Matt Fraction...etcetera...it's that villains are way cooler than the good guys. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	scottyquick 2009-04-02 08:09 pm UTC (link)
	Tony Bedard? (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	jarodrussell 2009-04-02 08:16 pm UTC (link)
	As an example, Birds of Prey #112. If drunken heroes can laughingly kidnap people and force them to drive across country at gun point...and those are the ones without powers...then I wholly support the idea of building my own robot army to defend against the ones who do have powers. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	Damn, I never thought of that until now. scottyquick 2009-04-02 08:19 pm UTC (link)
	Oh, that. But, but, she paid him a million dollars! And she's Zinda! She couldn't fly drunk! (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

Re: Damn, I never thought of that until now.

jarodrussell
2009-04-02 08:27 pm UTC (link)

Birds of Prey #111, wherein Oracle does unknown amounts of damage to a company's intranet battling Calculator, instead of using the teleporter to go fetch what she wanted. The Black Canary mini, wherein Dinah abandons her adoptive daughter to a monastery despite having ready access to the Justice League transport. Beyond that, the way he writers good guys is usually so lame, I want to do the opposite of what they do.

(Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

Re: Damn, I never thought of that until now.

parsimonia
2009-04-02 09:24 pm UTC (link)

How could a teleporter (Misfit, for example) retrieve or destroy information on the company's intranet? Especially while the Calculator was trying to do the same thing. Even with Oracle in her ear, the job required net-fu combined with quick reflexes.

Unless you mean Barbara should've just teleported herself into the building instead of going undercover and having lunch with the guy. If that's the case, then you are correct, but I can buy Babs wanting to do some fieldwork once in a while on her own.

And I don't recall any evidence that Babs did any damage to the company's intranet. She destroyed files accessed through a deceased employee's account.

(I know I'm probably being annoying, and I'm sorry, but I absolutely love that issue and I wish you could enjoy it as I do.)

(Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	Re: Damn, I never thought of that until now. jarodrussell 2009-04-02 10:01 pm UTC (link)
	Even with Oracle in her ear, the job required net-fu combined with quick reflexes. Ever see the Iron Man movie? Remember that scene where Tony sends Pepper to get info off the SE servers with that jump drive thing? Do you think Oracle could have sent Misfit with a similar device? (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

Re: Damn, I never thought of that until now.

parsimonia
2009-04-02 10:22 pm UTC (link)

But it wasn't just retrieving information, it was deleting it. I don't know how Super Sneaky USB keys really work, although I suppose they are quite flexible fictional elements. =)

But even so, there is the angle that Babs sometimes wants to do her own fieldwork. And if the fieldwork actually requires hacking, then I think it's understandable that she'd pass on sending Misfit in to do the job.

(Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

Re: Damn, I never thought of that until now.

jarodrussell
2009-04-02 10:31 pm UTC (link)

The only reason she went herself was because the intranet didn't have an outside connection (until the story needed it to have one). She could have just as easily sent Misfit with a probe device as well as a wifi card. Either way, it's as you say: [There]is the angle that Babs sometimes wants to do her own fieldwork. Oracle would rather run her own badly executed field op (to protect Batman's identity) rather than an efficient one, which is kind of makes my point. And let's not forget, the only reason that drive existed was because Oracle doesn't know how to properly encase her hard drives in explosives to protect her data.

However you look at it, however you enjoyed it (and, hey, don't let me stop you from doing so), everything about that story makes me cringe, because there was a time (long, long ago) when Oracle knew how to marshal meta-human resources.

(Reply to this) (Parent)

	parsimonia 2009-04-02 09:16 pm UTC (link)
	Don't forget the piracy angel! (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	parsimonia 2009-04-02 09:17 pm UTC (link)
	...and by "angel", I mean angle. Although perhaps we are blessed by piracy angels... (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	ashtoreth 2009-04-02 09:51 pm UTC (link)
	The Flying Spaghetti Monster has pirate angels... (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	parsimonia 2009-04-02 09:57 pm UTC (link)
	Ramen. Did you hear they discovered a galactic spaghetti monster? (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	ashtoreth 2009-04-02 10:25 pm UTC (link)
	Oh my FSM. There will be space pirates. You know it will be so. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	bwmedia.wordpress.com 2009-04-03 09:34 pm UTC (link)
	The space ninjas can deal with them, because they're really robots, and robot space ninjas are the coolest. (Second place: space cyborg ninjas.) (Reply to this) (Parent)

	aegof.livejournal.com 2009-04-02 11:12 pm UTC (link)
	I dunno. I think at least one of those is hyperbole. They are also both totally true. (Reply to this) (Parent)

	Don't they sort of have a point. freyaeinde 2009-04-02 11:25 pm UTC (link)
	Well, I wouldn't go so far as to say pychopaths. Mindless trolls would be a better description. Fandom is a two sided coin, and is often times twice as bitter as it is sweet. Why can't you except that his criticism of fandom may have a point same as yours...whatever it was. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

Re: Don't they sort of have a point.

jarodrussell
2009-04-02 11:41 pm UTC (link)

I admit that the Internet is full of fucktards, but that's the people online and not the tool itself. *shrug* It just bugs me when writers dismiss or insult one of the greatest technological achievements ever just because one small segment, that they voluntarily participate in, has some distasteful aspects.

I mean, that's as bad as continuing to buy comics you can't stand reading. :)

(Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

Re: Don't they sort of have a point.

freyaeinde
2009-04-03 12:24 pm UTC (link)

You might have a point there. I think what he's commenting on is one of the most niggling aspects of creative production.That once you're out there and have really made your name doing something you get labeled which can be pretty annoying. And we as fans sort of have these labels for all the well known comic creators Loeb, PAD, Gaiman, we all kinda bank on the aspects of their style.
I don't think he's really hating on technology so much as just being labeled. It's such an annoyance and really no matter what he does he can't escape it, but while that happens enjoy blah blah blah's work.

(Reply to this) (Parent)

darkknightjrk
2009-04-04 02:18 pm UTC (link)

"Anyways. So from what Morrison says here, this comic is about disgruntled comic book writers turning to evil in response to those dastardly readers/fans/customers with their soul-crushing opinions and comments?"

Actually, I read it more as about what would happen if Superman kept hearing all the time that he was worthless and meaningless like many of us geeks do, which is why he used the "Zone-O-Phone" analogy.

(Reply to this) (Parent)

(Read comments) -