Pop Culture Shock has preview pages of DC’s Countdown(er) and Marvel’s House of M(isery). It makes BeacoupKevin wonder of DC couldn’t use a Zoloft or two. He ends with a perfectly reasonable request of publishers of super-hero comics:
“Show me people doing good things because they can. Show me heroes doing what they should do. Stop dragging them through the mud and elevate them. I don’t think the argument that they need to be characters to which the can audience relate means that they have to have awful things happen to them nor do they need to be ‘pushed to the edge,’ as is in vogue.”
Amen. I got the vibe Kevin asks for from the second issue of Legion of Super-Heroes. The third comes out this week. Hopefully, it can keep up the trend.
(Kevin focuses on DC downers. For a more expansive look at misery, stop by Kung Fu Monkey for a look at what John Rogers calls the “Year of the Bummer.”)
Marvel’s quota of fun will be filled by Spider-Man/Human Torch 2, brought to you by Dan Slott and Ty Templeton. I know it probably won’t happen, but I would love it if Gwen Stacy and Crystal (featured in this issue) ditched their dates and headed off to an East Village fortune teller to see what their futures hold. “Wait a minute… I lose my virginity to who?” “Ick, I marry Quicksilver? Doesn’t he have a thing for his sister? And I cheat on him?” Yes, Marvel’s maidens-gone-wild… who could blame them for dismissing such fearsome visions?
Those interested in female archetypes in Marvel comics might want to pop by Usenet. Shawn Hill is looking at the women of Marvel Comics through the maiden-mother-crone construct, and other people are putting in their two cents.
Viz ships out a new volume of Hot Gimmick, which ended with a pretty loaded emotional cliffhanger the last time out. Naturally, I’m eager to see where the A-plot goes, but would it kill Miki Aihara to give me more Akane and Subaru? Because those two? Are adorable.