lennhoff@scas.DEC (06/21/85)
I thought I would give my review of COIE #7.
The reason I wish to do so is I come from a different ( and younger)
tradition than does Jerry and friends, and thus come to Crisis with
different emotional baggage. This review will assume that you have read
Crisis # 7.
To do background first I was born in 1957, of honest but poor parents
in New York. My first encounter with comics was roughly 3rd-5th grade,
and involved Archies and DC's only. I don't know why I don't remember
Marvel, but I don't. (Part of it is that I was mostly reading older neighbor's
comics rather than purchasing them myself).
In 1976 with the arrival of Chuck Huber in Boston, I was again
exposed to comics. This was heavily Marvel oriented and I spent too much
of my college career trying to read everything Marvel published from about
1970 on. Starting in 1979 with my move to Amherst, I was exposed to
the independents (especially Cerebus and the Spirit). Mike Moyle deserves
to be mentioned for that latter introduction as I share Jerry's opinion of it.
Mike also introduced me to Jonah Hex, thus causing me to revise 2 opinions,
(1) Westerns were pointless and violent
(2) DC has nothing worth reading.
Since that time and especially with the start of the Darkseid LEGION
sequence and the arrival of Allen Moore (who is to the 80's what Will Eisner
is to all time) I have been reading DC regularly, and also reading back issues.
(whew! This may get cut.)
So, on to Crisis #7 (thought I'd forgotten, didn't you).
The first thing I'd like to mention is that there was a lot more here
than just (?!) the Death of Supergirl. We see the origin of the Multiverse,
the Monitor and Anti-monitor, Pariah; the creation of a super heroine where
before there was a superbeing (Dr. Light) and more besides.
I liked much of the handling of the death of Supergirl, but this was
outweighed for me by all the other features I didn't like. Dealing with
Supergirl first my major problem is that in this issue she seems to be little
more than a 2nd class Superman. She is totally devoted to her cousin and seems
to have very little life of her own. I have no objections to heroic deaths,
but when it happens I think the essence of the character should be on display.
Supergirl's essence seems to be "it is better that I should die so Kal might
live". Not even ONE thought balloon about her own life, its loves and hates,
its victories and defeats.
{Mike M rebuts: If Superman went into a fight thinking "ah Lois" you'd
scream (and rightly so). Superman has been Kara's role model since the
Argo City days and her thoughts are perfectly in character}
On to the rest of what I didn't like. (Note: I know I'm not G-d and these
are preferences, not facts of nature).
I HATE!! "Things man was not meant to know" stories. Crisis #7 gives us
2 of them. I realize (from Legion not from GL) that the story of Krona
was part of the DC Universe. But surely some other origin for the multiverse
and the anti-matterverse could have been found. It will be harder for me to
like the DC universe, knowing THE ONE WHO'S BEHIND IT ALL sets (to my mind)
arbitrary limits. (Just in passing if Krona hadn't observed the Beginning
think of all the people who would never have existed. Evil may be a small
price to pay).
{Mike M rebuts: You needn't assume anyone is punishing Krona. Heisenberg
points out you can't observe without interacting. One assumes observing the
creation, the momemnt when the universal constants are being set, could have
large scale effects.}
Some inelegant features:
1) Why did observing the Beginning create infinite Positive matter
universes and only 1 negative matter universe. (If you think it created
infinite negative matter Universes, speak up).
2) Couldn't we have a more interesting origin than spontaneous generation
for the Monitor and the Anti-monitor. Also seeing the Anti-monitor was created
first, shouldn't the names be reversed. (I may write another response in which
I show how *I* would have done it :^) .)
3) Could Jerry or some other old (er.. long) time fan tell me if there
have been any precedents for Superman vs Anti-matter. This seems awfully
contrived, but I don't want to flame without checking.
{Chuck Huber comments: Superman has been hurt in the past by the "Q-energy"
weapons of Qward.}
4) A variety of trivia - just a mention of someone supplying those
who needed it with life support and flying capability would have been nice,
for example.
5) Pariah's origin - reread "things man was not meant to know", also
why tell the same story twice in one issue (or one Maxi-series). (Hmm... could
this be Krona's unrepentance vs Pariahs repentence?) Have to see if K appears.
Larrymoriarty@fluke.UUCP (The Napoleon of Crime) (06/25/85)
In article <2816@decwrl.UUCP> lennhoff@scas.DEC writes: > 3) Could Jerry or some other old (er.. long) time fan tell me if there >have been any precedents for Superman vs Anti-matter. This seems awfully >contrived, but I don't want to flame without checking. Anti-matter seems to be the "in" nasty substance these days, not to mention it's "evil" (or at least under the control of evil). I think Wolfman is responsible. The answer to your question is that the precedents only popped up in the last year or two. THE DAILY PLANET SUPERMAN SAVES DESSERT! Plans to "Eat it later". Expect the Unexpected. He does. ---> Moriarty, aka Jeff Meyer John Fluke Mfg. Co., Inc. UUCP: {cornell,decvax,ihnp4,sdcsvax,tektronix,utcsri}!uw-beaver \ {allegra,gatech!sb1,hplabs!lbl-csam,decwrl!sun,ssc-vax} -- !fluke!moriarty ARPA: fluke!moriarty@uw-beaver.ARPA