InsaneJournal

Tweak says, "You taught him well..."

jlbarnett (jlbarnett) wrote in scans_daily,
@ 2009-09-16 21:17:00

Entry tags:

char: lois lane, char: perry white, publisher: dc comics, title: action comics

This really annoys me

One page from Action 881

Actually it pisses me off.

After years of that stuff in reality we're now getting it in comics. It's not brave doing it after the administration and others who encouraged that line of thinking are out of power. I don't want to come across as bashing Bush. I certainly thought there actually were things that shouldn't have been said(no American leader should ever be compared to Hitler okay?). But that's a case of censoring yourself for civility's sake. Not others trying to intimidate you into silence. You had your chance to be edgy DC, you missed it. This is completely unnecessary

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	aaron_bourque 2009-09-17 02:06 am UTC (link)
	They did plenty of Bush-bashing while he was in office. It was as misplaced as this, though. (Reply to this) (Thread)

	zordboy 2009-09-17 02:13 am UTC (link)
	This is true. I mean, they had 'Lex Luthor as president' running for a long time, didn't they? Until Loeb fucked it up. Someone else today posted a scan from Ellis's JLA Classified story "New Maps of Hell", and when the JLA confronts President Luthor over something shady he did in the middle East, you can see exactly what they're trying to say. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

daningram
2009-09-17 02:27 am UTC (link)

Heh, reminds me of Ellis' Jack Cross.

The set-up is that he's a liberal intelligence agent (as if all cops and military are republican). He gave a nice speech about abiding by civil rights and how 9/11 was akin to shoving a stick in a giant computer. Devastating yes, but hardly an institutional flaw. It was a nice comment...

...which didn't make the least bit of sense story wise considering that Cross *shot a man's finger off* in an earlier issue to get the information he needed.

(Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	jlbarnett 2009-09-17 02:31 am UTC (link)
	I don't know the story but you could probably justify that with it's situational rather than the way his agency is being told to work. It's sounds like something they could do where he's not sure if he's going to be punished or rewarded. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	daningram 2009-09-17 02:37 am UTC (link)
	If they wanna decry abuses, then they shouldn't hinge a plot point on said abuse. Something like that should have gotten the agent removed. (Reply to this) (Parent)

On Luthor and Bush:

box_in_the_box
2009-09-17 02:35 am UTC (link)

The problem is, aside from a handful of stories (Kelly did a JLA issue with President Luthor that was so obviously an anti-Iraq War screed that, EVEN AS SOMEONE WHO WAS AGAINST THE IRAQ WAR, I hated it), Luthor-as-Bush didn't really map out quite the way they wanted, did it?

After all, part of the reason why Bush-haters (myself included) hated him so much was because Bush was dumber than a bag of hammers, whereas Lex, while assuredly evil, is one of the SMARTEST MOTHERFUCKERS ON EARTH.

I mean, seriously, casting Luthor as Bush is like casting Lex Steele to play The Man With The World's Smallest Penis - it simply doesn't fit, and what was fascinating about the DCU at the time was seeing how BADLY the writers' ORIGINAL intent was FAILING, because in an ironic twist, whenever their stories FAILED to hammer home the Luthor-as-Bush theme, the stories were actually BETTER as a result.

Lex's character, in particular, went through this fascinating evolution of suddenly realizing, "Holy shit, I took over the world, and I did it legally," and then, unlike what Bush-haters like me believe Bush did to America, Luthor actually kind of made America a BETTER place - partly because he had enough ENLIGHTENED SELF-INTEREST to want to make people's lives better, but partly because he ALMOST seemed to be GROWING A CONSCIENCE.

It was fascinating because Lex was finally using his big brain to GROW UP, and it's an example of how BETTER writing can actually be WORSE for a franchise, because once the arch-villain stops being a bad guy, what the fuck do you do?

In DC's case, you hand him off to Jeph Loeb, who gives him a case of Out Of Character Stupid so that he can be kicked out of office.

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Re: On Luthor and Bush:

mcspakypants
2009-09-17 02:56 am UTC (link)

Honestly I don't think Bush was an idiot, he just wasn't a great (or even good) public speaker, plus his mispronunciation of words led to easy mocking.

And I know your opinions of the story Box, but I say Millar had the most realistic take on Luthor becoming President in Red Son. If he really put his immense mind to it, he can solve all the worlds problems in that position of power. Of course they couldn't really do that in the mainstream DC universe but I guess that means they shouldn't have done that story in the first place.

(Reply to this) (Parent)

Re: On Luthor and Bush:

zordboy
2009-09-17 04:52 am UTC (link)

I don't think Kelly apologised for that issue, because I know there was some press afterwards where he was like, "Meh." I responded by not buying the issue. I always thought Kelly was the weakest link in the Morrison/Waid/Kelly triumvirate of JLA-awesomeness anyway.

None of the Superman-writers did the effort beforehand, though. I think Loeb (or Kelly who was on "Action" at the time IIRC) admitted that they created "Luthor as president" without an exit strategy (if you'll pardon the reference).

Which is what went horribly wrong.

They should've known what the hell they were doing.

Or at least, sat down at some point over lunch, and figured out where they were going.

I think Luthor as an Evil President had great potential as an idea. I could've totally seen that as building up to a Big Summer Crossover (and after "Last Laugh", they really could've used a good one). The Downfall of President Luthor, or something. You have baggage including OWAW, NML, framing Bruce Wayne for the murder of Vesper Fairchild -- there's no way Luthor didn't do some pretty illegal things during his time in office.

In this entirely-theoretical finale, all this stuff could've been used to stop the guy and bring him down. Superman and Batman working together to bring down President Lex. I would've bought it.

But that's right! They gave him to Loeb! And Luthor's grand plan involved shooting up with kryptonite (you know, the stuff that gave him cancer a few years back), macking Amanda Waller, and mildly injuring Batman. The grand climactic finale of "President Lex" ended us as six-issues of rubbish before being forgotten about.

(incidently, I still argue that's the reason the major companies keep pairing McGuiness with Loeb. So we're distracted by the pretty art and don't pay attention to the story. It didn't work)

Fuck you DC. And no, don't have a cupcake.

(Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	Re: On Luthor and Bush: ashtoreth 2009-09-17 05:18 am UTC (link)
	Now, don't be criticizing Luthor macking on Waller! That was the best part! (Reply to this) (Parent)

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