We're stronger than we think we are: Touching and inspiring panels thread

The Something Awful Forums > The Finer Arts > BSS: Bisexual Super Son > We're stronger than we think we are: Touching and inspiring panels thread

Sigma-X: Jun 17, 2005

KittenofDoom posted:

Sorry, but even Superman's super hearing still works at the speed of sound, right? If they're in the South Pacific, and Metropolis is East Coast-ish, then Ollie's cries would still easily take 6+ hours to reach him. Roy would be long-dead before Superman even heard anything.

Buut but Superman!

Honestly, I do not see what people find interesting or touching about that panel. I rarely find Superman an interesting hero due to his omnipotence, and it's exclusively when he's having issues dealing with his inability to actually save everyone that I find him interesting - the juxtaposition of the ideal of Superman and the reality.

The notion of Clark sitting in an office and hearing Ollie shout for him, while literally ignoring the thousands of people screaming in pain and suffering around the world, and then rushing off to Save The Day just bugs the everloving poo poo out of me. He's selectively omnipotent, and they're even mentioning it here, and that bugs the poo poo out of me.

The thing I like about Superman is the earlier panel talking about Superman's hell being unable to save people while they suffer. The thing that the Ollie panels ignore is the fact that he's literally doing this every moment of his life.

# ¿ Aug 23, 2011 15:46

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# ¿ May 2, 2024 20:47

Sigma-X: Jun 17, 2005

Yannick_B posted:

Except that he doesnt? The DC Universe isnt exactly our world. Its filled with superheroes doing a bunch of poo poo to save people. Superman isnt ignoring someone dying in a car crash so he can eat his beef bourguignon with ketchup in peace.
Its just a different reality than ours and projecting the negative parts of ours to paint a superhero in that light has always seemed strange to me.

If there are 6 billion people in the DC universe on Earth, I'm pretty sure there aren't enough superheroes to save every robbery, rape, murder, accident victim, to say nothing of anything larger than single-victim crimes.

Being able to hear all this should be a constant cacophony of suffering and exultation of joy, and everything in-between, and I think that's potentially interesting as a concept.

Conversely, remaining ignorant of all of that and working on a local level, etc, doesn't bother me.

What bugs me is handwaving all of that so Superman can Superhear his friend and choose to save him, but SuperTunesOut everyone else. This is a problem fairly unique to Superman and one of the reasons I've never understood the attraction - he's the man who can do anything, everywhere, he's got these immensely reaching powers, and he's loving durdling along at a newspaper?

This is a derail and I guess that's what the derail thread is for and if anyone would love to discuss it with me further I'll be watching the thread (and I'd love to talk about it more), but I've never been able to 'get' the omnipotent superhero as anything other than a tragic hero, which afaik Superman rarely is. Any random Flying PunchHard I can deal with, but Superman's level of omnipotence bugs me.

Conversely, I loving love Cable in Cable and Deadpool because he has this massive Jesus complex, he actually can and does try to do some truly world-changing things.

# ¿ Aug 23, 2011 21:10

Sigma-X: Jun 17, 2005

Gavok posted:

The line, "You made the right choices. I'm proud of you," is nice on its own, but it's the two panels before that sell it. Bruce realizes that while Damian was in his shoes in losing his father and becoming inspired to become something better for it, he also recognizes that Damian is living Bruce's dream of having his father come back to him. He doesn't just tell him this because he means it, but because it's also exactly what he would want to hear from his own father in the same situation.

And isn't Damian tossing back the "it's your job to make sure Batman gets home safe" to him with regards to Bruce/Alfred's relationship?

(I haven't read the series, I'm assuming that's the Pennyworth involved)

# ¿ Aug 23, 2011 22:18

Sigma-X: Jun 17, 2005

enigmahfc posted:

That image in no way spoils the series. gently caress, it doesn't even spoil that issue. That panel is pretty drat vague as he posted it, since it doesn't tell you anything about the series other then someone threw a jacket into the air. And the comic is like 4 years old.

However he surrounded it with a whole bunch of words that do spoil it.

The series is worth it anyways, it's definitely a book more about the journey than the destination.

# ¿ Sep 27, 2011 04:09

Sigma-X: Jun 17, 2005

FredMSloniker posted:

I'm not quite sure I follow the logic of 'that makes it worse'. I mean, I have a guess, but I'm not sure if it's what Gaiman intended.

Because now they are shamed, now they are being made to change, now they are redeemable. Listen to Breschau boast. He is being flagellated because he is irredeemably evil, he who did yadda yadda yadda.

Instead of a cop, now it's your mom. Or Mr. Rogers. And you've let them down, but they know that eventually you'll come around and do better, and they believe in this, no matter how hard they have to push you.

# ¿ Apr 18, 2013 21:57

Sigma-X: Jun 17, 2005

Mister Roboto posted:

Thunderbros.

Thunderbrolts!

still not quite right...

# ¿ Jun 20, 2013 21:27

Sigma-X: Jun 17, 2005

So Beasts of Burden is basically just designed to make you cry all the time forever, right? Like We3 but with an ongoing continuity?

# ¿ Sep 1, 2013 03:37

Sigma-X: Jun 17, 2005

We3 has a direct connection to whatever weepy bit in my brain is usually buried beneath 30 years of machismo. I got misty typing "Gud Dog" into google image search.

Here you go, it's not really a spoiler for the book. Those lasers are for sighting a gun, in case you thought they weren't.

e: have more

here's the plot to the book, go read it if you haven't. It's basically Homeward Bound 2: Judgment Day.

e: googling around the find those panels I found this comic that you all need to read. Here's a tease:

http://scans-daily.dreamwidth.org/2113348.html

Sigma-X fucked around with this message at 06:11 on Sep 28, 2013

# ¿ Sep 28, 2013 06:01

Sigma-X: Jun 17, 2005

Lurdiak posted:

I'd hate to see those people reading real literature where people die all the time, for good.

I am pretty sure anyone who has ever liked a character in any medium gets sad when they die and there won't be any more story involving that character. It would be a failure of the writing if people didn't have emotional responses to the death of characters.

# ¿ Mar 27, 2015 20:10

Sigma-X: Jun 17, 2005

Skwirl posted:

The Nazi is the only dead one on the list, the other two are still making (sometimes great, sometimes not) movies.

which directors are these exactly?

# ¿ May 25, 2015 07:34

Sigma-X: Jun 17, 2005

Lurdiak posted:

I would guess that they are Roman Polanski, who is still technically wanted for drugging a raping a 13 year old and living in exile, Woody Allen, who had sexual relations with both his daughter and his adoptive stepdaughter when they were underage (and after in the latter case) but has not been charged with any crimes.

I think the Nazi in question is probably Leni Riefenstahl but I'm just guessing.

I find the fact that people are still willing to work with Roman Polanski pretty baffling considering pretty much everyone agrees on his guilt.

I was unfamiliar with Leni Riefenstahl and thought both Roman and Woody were child molesters/rapists (but I guess Woody is not legally rape?) so I was confused as to the differentiation.

Also none of those people have directed a movie based on an 80s toy or comic book franchise so I'm not sure why we are calling them good directors?

# ¿ May 25, 2015 07:52

Sigma-X: Jun 17, 2005

mind the walrus posted:

Y'all really do love putting words in a person's mouth.

It's the closest most goons get to kissing

# ¿ Jun 12, 2015 19:59

Sigma-X: Jun 17, 2005

It would be great if the panels threads went back to the rule about no posting without a panel to avoid the people who only post to bitch about how panel X is not really Y.

# ¿ Aug 17, 2015 18:27

Sigma-X: Jun 17, 2005

Duke Igthorn posted:

"Money can't buy happiness" laments the billionaire as he uses his copious free time he has thanks to his money to woo a female that will make him happy. I'm sure he'd be MUCH happier if he got fired from his second job for being late because he was busy fighting crime or being depressed and didn't have an extra second to spare on his personal life even if he didn't smell like fry oil or minimum wage.

Saying "money can't buy happiness" is like saying "money can't make you less hungry"

There's a bunch of studies about money not affecting happiness once you get above 80k USD or so because at that point all your needs are easily taken care of and there aren't problems that are solvable by money beyond that point.

Money can't buy fulfilling relationships or personal growth or a lot of things.

You are really mad at a comic book. You should watch Rebels Without a Cause, it's about a bunch of kids who don't have any reason to be mad too because they have families and money.

# ¿ Nov 11, 2015 00:07

Sigma-X: Jun 17, 2005

I mean the real superheroes are the ones who work in soup kitchens I think we should have more comic books about that and less comic books about science wizards shooting aliens, y'know? really makes ya think

# ¿ Nov 11, 2015 03:13

Sigma-X: Jun 17, 2005

Gaz-L posted:

Exhaust pipe. Honest.

what is the goofy scribble on his left pec supposed to be? It looks like it could be some half-assed truck decal or gun etching.

# ¿ Mar 31, 2016 23:50

Sigma-X: Jun 17, 2005

DivineCoffeeBinge posted:

Behold the glory that is the original Megatron toy:

E: At least I think it's the original toy; Transformers toy history is mindbogglingly complex

I actually have this (well, a japanese re-issue from the 90s) and thought it looked familiar :v:

# ¿ Apr 1, 2016 05:50

Sigma-X: Jun 17, 2005

Polaron posted:

Pretty sure people have been killed by the police due to that toy as well, as the original predated the US laws requiring orange tips on the barrel.

It's reportedly even tougher to get in Australia, where it's considered a firearm replica.

TSA flight guidelines explicitly ban Transformers toys for this reason.

# ¿ Apr 3, 2016 06:02

Sigma-X: Jun 17, 2005

Infinitum posted:

Isn't Jane's whole bit at the moment that she has cancer, and everytime she transforms into Thor it undoes the chemo she recently had?

Like I can understand the fishing with a Friend and the Funeral... but just digging a well seems counter-productive.

That is the worst loving plot point I have ever heard. Does she have an actual lethal cancer or something easily cured like breast cancer?

# ¿ Sep 25, 2016 19:44

Sigma-X: Jun 17, 2005

site posted:

Cancer isn't something that cure and easy go together in the same sentence

Compared to something like multiple myeloma it's a loving cakewalk

Also I am just bitter because my dad died last week

# ¿ Sep 25, 2016 19:57

Sigma-X: Jun 17, 2005

Die Laughing posted:

Sorry about your loss. Almost jumped down your throat there. My mom had breast cancer twice, and can't really work because of nerve damage, but at least she's alive. Thor is a really good book though. She's probably my favorite out of the new characters with old names that Marvel is full of.

Yeah sorry, didn't mean anything by your mom or anything. I'm in the process of flying back home after helping my mom take care of everything. I'm kind of finally falling out of the "help mom" time warp and spending $9 on a corona isn't helping.

Glad to hear your mom beat it! That's not an option for multiple myeloma and I'm just lashing out unfairly.

But seriously I think the notion of Jane being super loving weak under chemo and then being a loving superhero and having to make that kind of choice just rings real loving hollow for me. Like there's a loving choice for people. Like you can be strong at the very end if you just loving will it. Like as if somehow the entire cruelty of cancer isn't seeing your heroes struck powerless and unable.

I'm sure that's not the point the author is trying to make, but again, if I felt they were capable of executing on the idea well I wouldn't take umbrage in the first place.

# ¿ Sep 25, 2016 21:16

Sigma-X: Jun 17, 2005

Teenage Fansub posted:

But you haven't been reading it, right?
Try the 2014 series out.

No I haven't been

# ¿ Sep 25, 2016 21:22

Sigma-X: Jun 17, 2005

Die Laughing posted:

Go tell Jason Aaron he doesn't understand cancer. Who the gently caress doesn't understand cancer?

lots of people. There is a general pop culture understanding that A) Cancer is a thing that kills, but strong hero fighters can beat it, B) All chemo causes you to lose your hair, and you must wear a lovely bandana, C) cancer is a noble and dignified death with long stretches of just looking gray and wearing that bandana and being skinny because of cancer, and the most important part D) Cancer is generic and all cancers are the same.

And that's as deep as it gets, and that's what is being portrayed here:

Wade Wilson posted:

To be fair, you don't have wizards and literal gods offering to cure you (one of them literally a god you used to date), either.

This isn't the conversation I remember her having with someone else about it, but here is where she tells Thor not to go looking for a magical cure for her.

"hmm yes I have decided that I don't want to exhaust every option to live any longer, a decision that every cancer patient will relate to!"

# ¿ Sep 26, 2016 19:25

Sigma-X: Jun 17, 2005

AnonSpore posted:

Hi I'm Reed Richards, and I don't cure cancer for everyone forever while munching my morning toast because

Reed Richards not solving all these real world issues is totally fine and good and ok when they don't tell stories about those things next to him. The second Sue gets cancer if he doesn't cure all people with her type of cancer and share breakthroughs with the medical community that allow lesser scientists to cure all/most cancer over the next year or so, he's a loving joke.

"No, my magical friend, I do not want to cure my life threatening illness" is loving retarded. Especially when it isn't "No, my magical friend, $cost is too high for the magical cure" but rather "don't even loving look for anything Thor, I'm cool with breast cancer"

# ¿ Sep 26, 2016 22:58

Sigma-X: Jun 17, 2005

Lurdiak posted:

Thanks, Reginald Hudlin.

comic book folks shouldn't write about cancer

# ¿ Sep 26, 2016 23:07

Sigma-X: Jun 17, 2005

W.T. Fits posted:

Doesn't most of Reed's money come from a combination of patents on stuff he's invented and what are basically bribes from various industries to keep his inventions from being sold to the general pubic because it would put those various industries out of business?

I would be willing to bet Reed's probably come up with dozens of wonder drugs that may not actually cure whatever disease it is you got, but can comfortably suppress the symptoms without adverse side-effects while allowing you to comfortably recover from it with your body's own natural defenses (or at least live day to day without pain)... and nobody in the Marvel universe ever sees any of it because big pharma is paying for a new wing to the Baxter Building or whatever loving skyscraper he lives in now.

It's fine so long as that isn't actually a part of the story but the second you recognize that as a story element Reed is straight up a villain

# ¿ Sep 27, 2016 02:22

Sigma-X: Jun 17, 2005

Wade Wilson posted:

"The cost for magical cures are always too high" is pretty explicitly the initial argument Jane Foster makes.

Yeah and its an argument that she makes weakly as gently caress.

# ¿ Sep 27, 2016 19:04

Sigma-X: Jun 17, 2005

bobkatt013 posted:

She was talking to Thor and he is well aware of all the crazy magic/Norse related poo poo that has happened to her.

can we just get to the point where we agree that there is no amount of words that can be typed that is going to change my opinion on this being a badly written cancer story?

If there is a good story that can be told about a superhero that lives in a world full of science wizards, actual wizards, and a billion magical and technological healing artifacts getting a life threatening disease, it does not go "I will let the doctors take care of it."

Like, this is the most easily treatable cancer and one that she's in the early stages of treatment for so there's a ridiculously high chance of success, especially since she hasn't talked about it having spread anywhere, so really the only danger she's facing right now is her decision to go fishing or dig a well instead of doing that a year from now or calling any of her hundred billion superfriends to go loving do it for her so she doesn't undo the treatment she's trusting in.

The whole thing is as stupid as Wakanda holding back the cure for cancer. It is as dumbly and as poorly written.

# ¿ Sep 27, 2016 19:51

Sigma-X: Jun 17, 2005

Wade Wilson posted:

Yeah, except for this forgetting all of the times Jane Foster has personally witnessed magical healing deals for otherwise lethal maladies going horribly bad and resulting in an apocalypse that had to be dealt with, undoing the cure in the process.

I know you're wanting to act like this particular cancer story happens in a vacuum but saying Jane Foster ought to be the character to sit there and do an exposition dump about all of the scenarios where the solution Thor suggests is exactly the wrong move to make in the universe they live in is even more idiotic than you think the story is.

EDIT:

I mean, this is Jane Foster we're talking about. The woman that became a norse goddess when she went to Asgard with Thor in Journey into Mystery #125 in 1966.

She briefly gained immortality, then lost it when cosmic rear end in a top hat Odin took her power away and sent her back to Earth because she showed fear when called upon to fight off some entity called (I poo poo you not) The Monstrous Unknown.

Jane's been screwed over by Odin many times over the course of her existence (the whole being stripped of her immortality and sent back to Earth is just the tip of the iceberg), so her being reluctant to accept any help from the pantheon Thor would turn to (which would ultimately involve Odin at some point) makes a hell of a lot of sense if you know anything about her history.

poo poo, you're right. A tremendous masterpiece, let's start teaching this in schools

# ¿ Sep 27, 2016 21:17

Sigma-X: Jun 17, 2005

Malachite_Dragon posted:

Hey as long as we're posting stuff about Punisher being a rat bastard

Why is punisher shooting any of those three people?

# ¿ Nov 8, 2016 00:00

Sigma-X: Jun 17, 2005

ImpAtom posted:

Because it isn't a joke. I read the issue. It goes into a long detailed backstory that genuinely attempts to evoke pathos and sadness for Fred and Barney being tricked into a genocidal war where Barnie attempts to redeem himself and find happiness by adopting the last surviving child of the people he killed.

There is black humor in Flintstones. That isn't it. You can tell the difference because Flintstones is *blunt as gently caress* about both its humor and its emotional beats. Trying to defend it with "It's supposed to be funny!!!" doesn't work when you actually read the context and see that it's doing a genuine story about PTSD. (And if it was trying to be funny then, as someone else stated, it's *really loving gross* to make fun of ignore soldiers suffering from PTSD.)

Like yeah, something that is at once emotional and black humor in the Flintstones is the soldier waiting on hold on the suicide hotline, but that is blunt as hell throughout the entire issue.

Where can I find these panels?

# ¿ Dec 12, 2016 10:33

Sigma-X: Jun 17, 2005

Sigma-X posted:

Where can I find these panels?

So actually, having looked deeper into the Flintstones based upon your ringing endorsement, I have determined that having an issue devoted to Fred and Barnie being goaded into a genocidal war against The Tree People to take their land and build Bedrock, and now the middle school sports team being The Fighting Treepeople, that The Flintstones is Cool and Good.

Also the marriage issue seems to be very much not about gay marriage and much more about marriage as a whole with a brief footnote on gay marriage so maybe ImpAtom you're laser focusing on little bits instead of the big picture.

# ¿ Dec 12, 2016 10:58

Sigma-X: Jun 17, 2005

evilmiera posted:

Why in the gently caress is Fred serious about anything? Also why isn't he eating a giant plate of ribs the size of his house?

At the mall there is "Panda Excess" where they sell giant chunks of Panda, and Fred gets takeout. They're offering a head as a free sample.

# ¿ Dec 12, 2016 20:22

Sigma-X: Jun 17, 2005

Where's the good comic? I just see superman playing out a tired "cancer victims are heroes" trope.

# ¿ Jan 29, 2017 06:00

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# ¿ May 2, 2024 20:47

Sigma-X: Jun 17, 2005

usenet celeb 1992 posted:

it really is kind of a savage diss on all the other kids tho.

"i notice that out of all the dying children in this room, only ... [checks notes] connie has found the time to write me a letter. the gently caress is wrong with the rest of you. have you given up on life already, you pussies"

Yeah I thought this made it especially poorly done. Like, if she was the only cancer kid in the room and it was a regular class room, it would make more sense to single her out.

# ¿ Jan 29, 2017 18:53

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