At his core, the son of Charles Xavier is a very cool and interesting character. His abilities, fractured mind, etc. etc. can (if handled well) make him one of the more intriguing characters to have come out of the 80/90's.
But can we PLEASE change his frikkin' hair??? It was considered cool back when he first appeared, but it just looks STUPID now. It just comes across to me like some kind of in-joke the creators originally made so you (and those doing the coloring) could tell him apart from his dad. That or so you could tell how REALLY unlike his dad he was, with a CRAPLOAD of hair. Like two feet worth of it.
Am I the only one who has a hang-up over this?? XD
Well... this was generally true for the most part up TILL the end of the 90's, but the title would've been too huge.
Sure the 90's were an embarrassing era for comics (I'd chalk it up to a sorta "awkward puberty stage"), with all the fads it kept chasing, and trying it's damned hardest to be "dark and edgy" and "XTREME" (or perhaps "Rad" would be a better term). But there is one thing I miss about that era (and the ones before it too).
Villains tended to stay down after each conflict.
Seriously, think about it. Up till about the end of the 90's, villains (even the big names) tended to go on the shelf after big events or significant beatings. Wounds received from battle seemed to matter. If Batman broke your face, (and most of your body) you'd tend to be on the sidelines for a few months (or even a year or two) before coming back. It'd make your return appearance mean something, ("oh shit it's that one guy... he's back!!!") as well as give the illusion that the hero/heroes were still effective. I mean for chrissake, the Riddler sported a broken arm for some time in the 90's. Nowadays?? He'd have that shit mended within a seeming week and be back to bother Batman once again before the memory had a chance to fade. Don't get me started on the Joker. e____e
Some fights just seemed to MEAN something still back then. Spider-man could beat up a villain and he'd not show up again for a while, sometimes years (the only seeming exceptions seemed to be Venom and Carnage), but now it's like they're barely in the hospital long enough for it to really matter before showing up again two issues or two stories later. Granted some of this can be chalked up the concept of "Status Quo is God", but can also be chalked up to the fact that many new writers enter these jobs with certain stories in mind to share about their favorite villains. So you get the seemingly repeat appearances by guys like Joker, Riddler, Green Goblin, Red Skull, etc.
That and they're bankable names, characters with weight behind them. If you get the right author and an iconic villain or two... that has the possibility to sell REALLY well. At least alot more of a possibility than "Batman vs. The Doormouse". :P
Why doesn't Marvel just bring this guy back??? They keep giving him cameos in various comics (Capt Britain and MI13, S.W.O.R.D.) and even gave him a cameo in Stryder's end in frikkin' Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3. WHY NOT BRING HIM BACK?!?! Shit I'm sure Simon Furman would be more than happy to write for his iconic creation once more... he doesn't seem to be doing much at the moment. So why not???
And if they ever do, for the love of all that is holy.... bring back the original version!!! Death's Head 2 has his 90's cheese charm, and while I enjoy the Death's Heads shown during Planet Hulk and beyond... nothing tops the original version. He had such a fun personality and usually a pretty awesome look as well.
Become very enthralled with the world of pulp heroes of old. Always have been a big fan of stuff like Indiana Jones, Sherlock Holmes, League of Extraordinary Gentlemen and the Golden Age of Comics... so it's no surprise that I've become a big fan of such characters like Doc Savage, the Shadow, and others. Have also recently discovered the world of French Pulp Heroes thanks to cool stuff like "Tales of the Shadowmen".
By extension, I'm becoming more and more knowledgeable of the "Wold Newton Family" concept.
I guess with the new DCU, the higher ups have decided that all their female characters need to look like top-heavy supermodels. Which means the Flashpoint gave Amanda some serious liposuction. That or one could blame this on movies and TV. OR maybe Jim Lee can't draw fat people. :P
Been really liking the concept behind the First Wave universe, a blend of classic pulp literature (and the Spirit) and a more Golden-Age DC Universe. Would love to see more of this universe. But I can't help but wonder...
who would make great additions to this universe??
The original Spy Smasher would make for some neat stories. I'd envision it as a sort of James Bond-like approach, though more closer to the Bond of the original Fleming novels than the version in films.
The Challengers of the Unknown would be well at home in this universe, as their adventures were usually more pulp-themed. I'd envision it like a mixture of Jules Verne, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, and H.G. Wells through the filter of pre-50's sci-fi movies, b-movies, and serials. It would give them some much-needed attention.
Why are Ethan Edwards, Devil-Slayer and Captain Ultra apart of the Revengers? The others I can understand (having bones to pick with various avengers and whatnot), but what stake do THEY have in things???
That and will they explain how things have been for him since Secret Invasion???
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Probably due to my love of "alternate histories/alternate dimensions", I'm really stoked about the concept behind Flashpoint. Especially so since this is, as far as I know, the first time DC has EVER done something like this. The concept is almost old-hat at Marvle Comics, with stuff like "Age of Apocalypse", "House of M", and the recent "Age of X" stuff. But as far as I know... this is a pretty new concept at DC Comics. Sure we've seen self-contained "alternate earth/rewritten reality" scenarios in countless DC Comics stories, not to mention they practically BIRTHED the concept of a comic multiverse... but not something like this... where there's more than one comic series tying into it, not to this magnitude.
So I'm looking forward to seeing how this plays out.
Once again I pick some movies that I feel could, if given a chance, make good-to-great comic book properties.
Gremlins: One of the biggest Horror debuts of the 80's, Gremlins hasn't had much outside of a sequel and a few video games. One doesn't necessarily have to keep the continuity rolling, you could have the Gremlins infest somewhere new and terrorize victims outside the originals. Just about anywhere is fair game. A school, a mall, an airport, etc. And some tension could come from them not being the main characters, and thus having NO idea of how to handle Gremlins. Personally I'd make it more in line with the original movie and avoid the sillier (but still fun) sequel.
Dirty Harry: "Go Ahead Punk. Made My Day". One of the most influential cop movies of all time, it is quite surprising that there hasn't been an attempt (as far as I know) to make comics based on Clint Eastwood's most iconic role. Crime/Mystery comics have kinda gotten popular again, in some spots, so it'd be really cool to see a big name comic writer tackle the gritty world of Callahan. Give it to someone like Bendis and let him clear his pallete of superheroics for a year or so, or give it to Brubaker or Rucka. Someone like that would probably do something awesome.
Reign of Fire: The post-apocalyptic dragon movie would make great fodder for a comic series, fleshing out this world where dragons are not only REAL but have all but replaced humanity as the top of the food chain. Showing how other countries have tried to adjust or handled this weird situation would be great material for the series. We saw what became of London, but what about places like China? or the States? How about places where it's really f'n cold? Would the dragons even venture up to Alaska, parts of Canada or Siberia?? Would be interesting things to see developed upon.
OR you could just continue the story of the main characters from the film. Either/or would be great.
Big Trouble in Little China: The cult classic martial arts/supernatural adventure movie would be prime material to make into a comic series. Hell, get John Carpenter himself to write it, he's not doing much lately, so I'm sure he'd jump at the chance to revisit this. What became of the heroic truck driver Jack Burton? How about Egg Shen or Wang Chi??? Is Lo Pan really dead or maybe bring in more crazier cultures and lore. *shrugs* Would be potentially fun.
In one of the darker and more thought provoking endings in comics, Ozymandias concocted a scheme to solve the Cold War in his world. It involved convincing the world that alien invaders were a threat to the entire World. It worked, despite killing thousands, and now humanity was united against a common threat.
But what I'm wondering is... is this answer any better than the looming threat of nuclear holocaust? or has it just delayed things for a few years/decades?
Think about it, sure the Cold War is no longer threatening to nuke humanity into extinction in this world, but now humanity is going to throw itself into building up defenses against a threat that doesn't exist. That means making changes to infrastructures and factories, possibly putting people out of jobs all in the name of building up defensive weapons against a percieved threat from outer space. It'll eventually become a fruitless, wasteful endeavor in the end, that's teetering precariously on a lie. It's sole reaon is based on the assumption that people would just go with this without asking questions, and that the results would be nothing short of happiness and lilacs for everyone. Also the idea that nobody is going to investigate the attack, to better understand what they're up against (to better build up defenses, otherwise you'll just be spinning your wheels), is quite a logical misstep by the supposed "smartest man in the world".
You can solve the Cold War problem, but you sure as hell can't solve the "Human Problem". Maybe he should have listened to Manhattan more often.
That's what I always liked about Alan Moore's stuff, they tend to leave such things up to the reader's interpretation.
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