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Troposphere posted:when the elongated mans wife was raped and then her memory was erased about it and then she was murdered when she was pregnant and her corpse was burned This is a really good comic, of due note, and it explores the importance and nature of secret identities in really great ways. People deride it for being "dark", which it is, but I've always found this seems to be out of objection to the fact that there's rape and women get murdered rather than objection to the story, which really raises some serious grey area questions about the nature of the Justice League, the power they wield, and of course the importance of memories.
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May 12, 2017 02:26
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Cornwind Evil posted:Really, the biggest example of how toxic the rape was (besides all the obvious stuff) that the idea was "this villain has become lame, we need to make him not lame any more", but once they did that, later writers didn't have any idea what to do with him except have him constantly talk about rape and do creepy sexual poo poo. It got to the point where this was even referenced IN THE COMICS THEMSELVES (one hero said of his now constant rape-talk "It's like it's his POWER now."). It did nothing to fix, improve, or bring anything new or interesting to the villain. It was just pointless "THIS IS ADULT AND MATURE AND EDGY" and in retrospect, it shows, big time. I am not sure it's entirely fair to blame the work for what it inspired. DC's continuity has always been its biggest strength and weakness and the fact is is that due to the massive length of the print history of these characters, pretty much every conceivable thing has been done and ultimately retconned at some point. DC's continuity matters until it doesn't. Bogus Adventure posted:When I first read Identity Crisis, I liked it because for the same reasons. However, the more I thought about it, the more I changed my mind. It would have made for a fantastic Elseworlds story, like Kingdom Come or The Nail, but it completely FUBAR'd DC's continuity by taking a stinky dump on the lighthearted history of those characters. It's something that they've been reeling from ever since, as evidenced by DiDio & Co making GBS threads out a new Crisis or retcon every couple of years. Similarly, I'm not sure what "lighthearted history" this story is making GBS threads upon. It's a dark story using familiar characters to tell it. The purpose of superhero stories, in the grand lexicon of human expression, is to serve as modern day sources of myth. DC's heroes are as much concepts as they are people, and so they're ideal for a story where they explore the potentially horrifying consequences of a superhero lifestyle. I can't argue taste or no taste; all my life I've basically been consuming media filled with tons of violent and sexual imagery so I guess I've a tolerance for it now, but to my understanding the rape is portrayed as a horrific action and not just some sort of excuse for titillation. I might be misremembering, it's been a long time since I read it. As I recall also, it is the crime that causes the protagonists to make the instrumental choice about the memory wiping, isn't it? So it's not completely superfluous, though again, I may be misremembering some points.
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May 12, 2017 05:47
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Hellsau posted:poo poo like identity crisis makes for unreadable and unfun comics. I don't want to read comics where the supporting female characters are raped and murdered as a plot device. Then don't? I wasn't aware anyone was forcing you to read anything you didn't want to read.
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May 12, 2017 06:15
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Hellsau posted:Yeah the problem with that is if people don't buy the comics with your favorite characters, the publishers eventually can't publish comics with your favorite characters. I mean gently caress superhero comics readers but it's kind of dumb if the reason they're getting hosed is because the publishers are really stupid and publish obviously terrible comics that should have been killed when an editor heard the pitch. "Hey you know the beloved supporting characters Ralph and Sue Dibny? What if Sue was raped and then she gets murdered while pregnant?" should have been rejected immediately. In your opinion. Identity Crisis was great. I'm sorry that comics has to take into account audience tastes and wants, I assure you I'd have loved to see many short-lived series go on longer, but you're sort of just railing at the world here. You're not obligated to consume media you don't like, and if you don't purchase it, then you may even encourage the company to try and court your dollar with stories you like. This is literally the business model, and it's what's currently motivating various more "light-hearted" and female-focused comic series. Troposphere posted:sue dibny was a fan favorite character from the lighthearted JLI if you liked that comic at all it was kind of hard to ignore them making GBS threads all over the characters from it, not to mention it was the heavily advertised ~world shattering~ event that leaked into all of the other books Sucks if you loved Sue Dibny, but DC regularly prints comic stories for literal children if you really want to read a cartoon fun story with no Bad Stuff in it. The Elongated Man being so overcome by grief that his body is falling slack as he helplessly coils his arms around his wife's corpse is a loving fantastic artistic choice. The pregnancy test part is fairly schlocky, but that's a great panel. Overwrought, but Identity Crisis isn't a particularly subtle story.
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May 12, 2017 06:37
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Troposphere posted:comic fans loving suck, identity crisis was garbage and so are you lol you like dragon age 2 like come now lets be real The most bullshit part about Identity Crisis was that Deathstroke somehow manages to take out the whole Justice League by himself like what even
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May 12, 2017 06:45
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Bogus Adventure posted:
Yeah that's kind of dope, as I said it presents a kind of sobering look at the reaches of the Justice League's power and the consequences for allowing your secret identity to be revealed. The primary threat of the whole story is that the love interests or families of capes would be threatened; to what extent would they go to address that? If the only limit on their power is a refusal to kill, are there not even worse things that might prompt them to do? It's a weird way to retcon some stuff, as DC likes to do, while writing a dark murder mystery that explores broad genre issues and concepts.
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May 12, 2017 06:50
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Troposphere posted:and it was executed in the worst way possible In your opinion.
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May 12, 2017 06:53
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Bogus Adventure posted:Yes, which is what would make it a good Elseworlds story to explore, not a stealth retcon that affects the entire universe. I won't argue with that one, but as I said, generally speaking DC always worked on the "if you liked it, it was canon, if you didn't, somebody will change it in a decade" philosophy, so I don't get bent out of shape there. Continuity changes being a part of the regular series issues is a DC thing I generally like, it forces them to deal with plot problems within the context of their stories, which lead to some truly genius comics. Grant Morrison's Animal Man run isn't really a retcon per se but it does a ton of crazy things with the characters' status quo and also explores the nature of comics. Tato posted:identity crisis is the worst of the worst. the guy who wrote it and anyone who still enjoys it at this point need to be put on some sort of watchlist. A watchlist for your local Scholastic book fair, maybe! He's becoming popular as a children's book author: http://bradmeltzer.com/TV-Kids-and-More/Kids-Books
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May 14, 2017 18:25
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Arsenal loving sucks and it's hilarious how they keep trying to bring him back and it's awful every single time.
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May 14, 2017 18:26
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Coolness Averted posted:it's all he has left to remind him of his dead gay batson Damian Wayne is not gay.
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May 16, 2017 23:29
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Grant Morrison is a genius Everyone should read his run on Animal Man.
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May 17, 2017 00:39
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Bogus Adventure posted:Grant Morrison defined the Anti-Life Equation. That was dumb, and made Jack Kirby roll in his grave. The Jack Kirby New Gods Omnibus is a pro-own for any comic lover. The story where Darkseid's cult turns this entire building into some sort of eldritch energy emitter/death trap was creepy poo poo.
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May 17, 2017 03:43
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scuba school sucks posted:I did, and I was like, what the gently caress was going on here? Apparently I didn't smoke enough drugs to understand it? Like the alligator from Kelly's Pogo came to Earth and lamented that even here, disgusting monkey beings consumed the flesh of other animals, then he tried to bring the gospel of universal love to a group of actual Earth alligators and they ate him because alligators give no fucks if you're a talking cartoon animal, what the gently caress ever, you're made of meat, chomp chomp. Wile E Coyote came in as a guest star to say, yeah it's really not that funny when I get run over by a steamroller cause that poo poo fuckin HURTS. It is the question of the meaning of man's existence in a universe, and on the nature of God. It is an exploration of the meaning of fiction overall; the very fabric of stories themselves is examined. Plus it has Animal Man use his powers in really great ways. I thought it was pretty clever that he uses earthworms to regrow limbs.
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May 18, 2017 04:34
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Barudak posted:Alan Moore's Lost Girls is the most embarassing comic, and I knew somebody who owned a physical copy of it and once people found out lets say nobody was willing to give him the benefit of the doubt that he wasnt a gross pervert who should live alone forever. Ironic, he married the woman who drew it.
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May 18, 2017 04:44
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Troposphere posted:it's just a dumb dumb idiot show for idiots and I love it Well it reaches the intended demographic then BONGHITZ posted:Remember Fables? lol The first two collections of Fables are really great and fun. I have no idea where it turns weirdly pro-Israel but the world and characters were pretty good for the 12+ issues I read.
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May 18, 2017 13:32
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BENGHAZI 2 posted:Dc recently put out a Midnighter and Apollo comic by a local writer who happens to be gay Midnighter and Apollo are legit some of the best and most underused DC heroes. Warren Ellis really put them to great use.
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May 20, 2017 04:50
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