boyajian@akov68.DEC (Jerry Boyajian) (07/12/84)
> From: abnjh!nova [Scott Allen] > > I was so interested that I read the thing in the Comic Store's parking lot. > What a surprise!! It was really good. Well, I decided to give the thing a try, too, even though I was predisposed to not like it. After all, it should get a fair shake before I tear it apart, non? I figured it'd be awful, but I was wrong. It was worse. > *The characterization is at a much more adult level. First of all, the women > are allowed to take interest in male bodies around them. Vixen thinks > J'onn J'onz is cute and Zantanna asks one of Steel's friends (who is > black) if he talks in his sleep. It looks like DC is joining the real > world. Now maybe we can get some interesting character development from > someplace other than Wolfman. Personally, I don't see how Zatanna's character has improved any, or seems any more adult, by her being suggestive in that way. It seems to me that the aggres- sive woman is becoming an archetype "adult character". NB: I'm not a prude, nor against this type of characterization on moral grounds. I just feel that this is a cheap way to suggest adult characterization. And I don't see how Vixen's call- ing J'onn J'onzz cute makes her any more mature. When its mentioned that Zatanna and Gunn spotted the intruder (Gypsy), Vixen immediately leaps to the conclusion that Zatanna's setting her sights on Gunn and makes a catty remark. How adult. > The thing I didn't like was the accent they gave Vibe. He keeps saying "chu" > and it took me a while to figure out what he was saying. At one point, his > accent disappears. I don't know if this is supposed to be ethnic but I think > they missed on this. Missed isn't the word. Vibe has to be one of the most stereotyped minority char- acters I've seen in a long time. Break dancing? Ghetto blaster? Spray painting the wall? That ridiculously affected accent (Conway certainly makes it obvious that the accent is a put-on. Why?). This characterization is just short of being offensive, and that's on good days. > All in all, I think this book now has a lot of possibility. I don't. They've made a travesty out of it. Why they feel they have to oust all the big guys and leave the second-stringers and a few rookies as the JLA is be- yond me. The whole concept of the JLA was for it to be a book where one could see all of the big-name heroes team up together. If Conway wanted to start a new team, why couldn't he have created a whole new team instead of making a mess of the JLA? Ahhh, because no one would touch it with a ten-foot pole if he did it that way, and the comic would die after 6 issues (if not sooner). But by calling river mud a diamond, they hope to foist it upon the jewelry collectors. I mean, we haven't really gotten any idea what Gypsy is really like, so I can't really dump on her, but no matter what her character is like, she just doesn't cut the image of a JLAer. * And I'm also not buying the rabbits that Conway seems to have pulled out of his hat about Aquaman's authority to disband the JLA without a vote of the member- ship, or the fact that the Justice League of AMERICA is chartered by the U.N. Sure, Aquaman's distraught about his personal problems, but I can't believe it didn't occur to him that Superman, Wonder Woman, etc. weren't around for the Earth/Mars War because they might have had other pressing problems on their hands rather than because they didn't want to interrupt their suntan on the beaches of Acapulco. For all he knew, they could've been dead, or trapped by some nefarious intergalactic badguy. Feh. * In all fairness, I should point out that the second-stringer syndrome is, as far as I'm concerned, not much more palatable in the Avengers. At least in the latter, even the second stringers have proven themselves as strong characters elsewhere. The Avengers should be for the heavyweights; the Defenders and the Champions, etc. are for the second-stringers. --- jayembee (Jerry Boyajian, DEC, Maynard, MA) UUCP: {decvax|ihnp4|allegra|ucbvax|...}!decwrl!dec-rhea!dec-akov68!boyajian ARPA: boyajian%akov68.DEC@DECWRL.ARPA
kel@ea.UUCP (07/22/84)
#R:decwrl:-249500:ea:2300001:000:805 ea!kel Jul 21 16:48:00 1984 Aquaman is a heavyweight? Superman is the only incredibly powerful member of the original JLA, and one of their great- est weaknesses was that he couldn't be everywhere at once. Batman has no super powers whatsoever. The purpose of the JLA was to provide a means to defeat adversaries that could exploit the weaknesses of individual heroes, particularly aggregate adversaries, e.g., Sinestro and the Top. JLA followed in the traditions of both World's Finest and the early DC comics, in which heroes crossed titles so much that the JSA and even its predecessors were a completely reasonable occurrence. To say that a personnel change is going to ruin the Justice League is to completely ignore the basis on which it exists. They even let Bouncing Boy into the Legion! In a bitchy mood. Ken
lmaher@uokvax.UUCP (07/25/84)
#R:decwrl:-249500:uokvax:11900010:000:757 uokvax!lmaher Jul 18 23:53:00 1984 /***** uokvax:net.comics / decwrl!boyajian / 1:32 pm Jul 15, 1984 */ elsewhere. The Avengers should be for the heavyweights; the Defenders and the Champions, etc. are for the second-stringers. /* ---------- */ Before Issue #125, the Defenders included the Hulk, Dr. Strange, Submariner, and the Silver Surfer - HARDLY second-stringers. Besides, I rather like variety in my groups. Captain America, Iron Man, Thor, and the Wasp (the Wasp?) are a good lineup, but they need the occasional Hawkeye or Tigra. The interaction between characters is what makes the book for me, not raw power or character popularity. Then again, I haven't read the JLA in more than a decade, so what do I know? :-) Carl ..!ctvax!uokvax!lmaher