Because Graeme’s on vacation, and because I’m a masochist, I wondered, “What does the John Byrne Forum think of the latest plot development in Green Arrow?” More to the point, what does “the Chief” himself think?
Well, there’s the “real time” concern:
“Suppose Speedy takes three years, “real time”, to die. Currently, in DOOM PATROL, I have Nudge, who is 15 years old. Would I be compelled to have her age to 18 while the Speedy story unfolds in another title, unconnected to DP?”
And the “appropriate content” concern:
“…these kinds of afflictions have no place in “universes” populated by super beings such as we see at Marvel or DC. There is no reason for anyone to ever die of cancer, for instance, since Reed Richards came up with three separate cures while seeking a solution to Captain Marvel’s problem. In a world where magic exists, Barbara Gordon should not have spent two seconds in that wheelchair, let alone two decades. HIV should simply not exist. Now — it would be “unrealistic” to say that, in fact, it doesn’t exist. This is one of the mistakes many writers and editors make, chosing to treat the comicbook “universes” as if they are “parallel dimensions” to our own, and thus removing a degree of identification for the readers.”
The “fan expectations” concern:
“Give someone a mortal disease and a loud segment of fandom will demand that person die. And they will demand it over, and over, and over, and over. . . Until the person dies. Then they will say the death was a sales gimmick and utterly unnecessary.”
The “questionable role model” concern:
“It is certainly true that we have an unfortunate habit of making “heroes” out of people who fell from grace — alcoholism, drug abuse, prostitution, white collar crime — and “fought their way back” rather than those who never fell in the first place. I am often disturbed by the latest sports/movie/TV personality being trotted out as a “good example” because s/he has kicked some habit or other. The unavoidable message would seem to be “screw up your life as much as you want, kids, you can always come back from it!””
The “is Christopher Reeve a ‘hero'” concern:
“I have noticed that people have begun referring to Christopher Reeve as a “hero”. I do not wish to take away one iota of the courage he must have needed not to wake up screaming every single day, but the hard truth is there was nothing “heroic” in what happened to him, or how he dealt with it. In fact, as far as how he dealt with it, he didn’t even have a choice. We could imagine he spent every hour of every day (when not in front of the cameras) begging family members to simply kill him and get it over with — but none of them did, so he had no choice but to deal with each day as it came.* Heroism, I believe, involves choice. *Not in any way suggesting this is what was happening, just in case there are those who are paralyzed from the neck up who might be reading these words. . . “
And, naturally, the “are we safer” concern:
“If you feel safer today than you did before September 11th, you are kidding yourself. And the President is kidding himself if he feels the same way. Because there is just as much possibility, right now, that someone out there is planning something that has never been done before. And we won’t know what it is until it happens, precisely because it is something that has never been done before. “
I couldn’t quite bring myself to quote any of the other posters’ comments, because I’m about to curl up in a fetal position in the corner.