Sunday, July 15, 2007

October Solicits

The full solicits aren't up until Monday, but they have some early DC ones up.

This probably spoils the end of the current GL crossover, but check out the cover to Countdown for a look at Kyle's new look. The design is nice, and I like it. Very close to traditional, but still Kyle and the hair has a bit of length that does away with the crewcut that scared me from that sketch last month. (Yes, that crewcut annoyed me more than anything in Green Lantern: Sinestro Corps.) Can't wait for an artist I really like to draw it.

Also, Kalinara has notes on the JLA cover and which Lantern is on it. I'll be doing my I Told You So dance in the meantime.

Oh, and if anyone would like to see an entertaining and rage-inducing conversation on race as Hal-only fans react to the JLA cover and cry because now their favorite's only dominating one book, check out the discussion thread on Newsarama. There's vague whining, then it gets cooking around Page 4 or 5 when someone mentions reverse discrimination.

The Newsarama forum debates the issue of racism with all of the class and dignity we've come to expect from a superhero fan-site message board.

Hal-fans take this opportunity to express the opinion John is a character with no personality other than being black while John-fans point out he has a rich and detailed history that stupid people like to ignore because they don't know enough about Green Lantern, but Hal-fans still insist that he's being thrown in for race. Someone who can't count thinks that half of the team is black now, someone says a third and members of the silent majority sensibly realize that they don't know how many people are on the finalized roster yet. There's the "editorially mandated diversity so it will suck" vs. "McDuffie loves John so its no surprise" argument, the theoretically intelligent point that there's more to diversity than adding a black character is used to support an extremely stupid argument, the required Didio-trashing and a "Did you know Kyle's Hispanic?" "WTF? Seriously?" tangent thrown in for variety.

Somewhere along the way someone points out that DC spoiled the ending to Sinestro Corps, but the "JLA is Kyle's book, dammit!" fans don't show up until Page 8.

Also on page 8, a reader loses his faith in the writer's word and someone finally brings up that there might be two Lanterns on the team or that Hal might have very good in-story reasons for dropping out.

On Page 9 there is a valiant effort at stopping the fight through logic.

My absolute favorite is the this post:
There are people of color in this country. They deserve super-heroes. You are a big doodee head.
See, being a Green Lantern fan is not all the Hal vs. Kyle war. Sometimes we fight about John too.

15 comments:

  1. Somehow this surprises me. I don't know why, but it does.

    Not that the Newsarama forums are a cesspool, that's a given, but John being in the League? That's a travesty? Man what?

    Besides, it's not as if the Justice League's had a consistent line-up for more than a few years at a time, anyway. They swap members in and out only slightly less often than the Avengers, it's become part of the concept.

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  2. Not that the Newsarama forums are a cesspool, that's a given, but John being in the League? That's a travesty? Man what?

    I should have been surprised, but wasn't. I was just disappointed. Kyle fans pulled the same shit back when John was switched out with him a few years ago. I figured we were beyond this sort of idiocy.

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  3. Following up on your earlier "who is John really" post, I do sorta wonder which John we will see in McDuffie's JLA. You probably know better than I, but from what I've seen of DCU John, none of his various incarnations have much of anything in common with JLU John, whose background alone (military) is so different that it would be really hard to make DCU John start acting like JLU John, and I figure that McDuffie knows the DCU well enough that he wouldn't try it (the two Johns are as different as Kendra is from Shayera, really). I guess I bring this up partly because these snivelling fans calling "reverse racism" (my least favorite, most bogus concept in the universe) are talking about how much McDuffie loves John, but in reality, he will (hopefully) be writing an entirely different character.

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  4. Wow, that IS much better. I hated, hated, hated HATED (hated) the "Ion" costume Jim Lee came up with- for all his strengths, he's the worst costume designer ever- but I like this. I assume Donna's lasso is covering up a little Lantern symbol over the right chest.

    I like his Parallax costume, actually.

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  5. Am I the only one continually confused by the fact that a ton of people seem to think that Shilo "Mister Miracle" Norman is a new character, and was created as part of DC's Diversity Comics Invasion?

    John-fans point out he has a rich and detailed history that stupid people like to ignore because they don't know enough about Green Lantern

    This is a good point. It's one thing to not like a character. It's another thing entirely to not like a character, know nothing about him, and then make up things to support your position!

    And venturing into Newsarama comment threads? You're a braver soul than I.

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  6. David -- It just shows how few people have actually read Kirby's stuff.

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  7. My reaction to this kind of thing is often the same: "God forbid we should want something other than square-jawed, generic white men written in the 1940s as our protagonists."

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  8. As someone who read that whole thread, I wish I woulda just waited to see your summary of it later. I could have saved myself some rage and bewilderment.

    (I like John in the League since he was in the League before the relaunch. It was him and J'onn J'onnz talking a new line-up when Superboy struck, wasn't it? Am I the only one who remembers that? I also like the A Book For Every Lantern approach; can't this be John's).

    Anyway, do those covers spoil the end of Sinestro Corps regarding Kyle? I was really thinking that might be one of the other 51 Kyle's out there, since Jason and Donna are doing the multiverse thing.

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  9. But of course they're Not Racist™ for being convinced that of course black Superheroes, like Superheroines, are only included because of Affirmative Action and are Unjustly Taking Away Slots That Could Have Gone To More Competent™ [read "Whiter/Maler"] Individuals...

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  10. Anyway, do those covers spoil the end of Sinestro Corps regarding Kyle? I was really thinking that might be one of the other 51 Kyle's out there, since Jason and Donna are doing the multiverse thing.

    Are there 51 Kyle's? I mean, he's described in Infinite Crisis as the "Earth-8 Green Lantern", which sounds to me like he's part of the Earth-2 Alan/Earth-1 Hal sort of set-up.

    And from the reaction of the Monitors, I'd think it's more likely that Kyle's not a duplicate and that he actually belongs/ed on Earth-8.

    And more on-topic, yeesh, would it be such a bad thing if half the JLA were black? I mean as long as the big three are there, there's a Flash and Green Lantern and the like, why would it be a bad thing to have a high percentage of black heroes? You can't tell me Black Lightning, Vixen or Firestorm has any less right to be on the team than freakin' Geo-Force.

    Message Boarders give me a headache.

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  11. I want there to be 52 Kyles because the thought of them all being on one Earth is beyond hilarious.

    It'd be like Jamie Madrox with a wishing ring.

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  12. Kalinara,

    Well, the "Earth-8" thing mentioned by Alex Luthor referred to a potential, theoretical Earth-8...like if there was a multiverse, Kyle would have been GL there. But there wasn't one, so he became a GL on Earth-DCU (or wherever).

    There would have been 52 Kyles before Mister Mind messed up the new multiverse, but aftewards, yeah good point, there need not be a Kyle per earth anymore. So I guess there's 0-51 other Kyles out there.

    Why the Monitors are upset about Kyle...doesn't make any sense to me. He was on the only Earth there was, so can't really be in the wrong dimension. Ditto with Jason Todd and Donna Troy. I THINK DC's story rationale is that they were all supposed to stay dead at some point and didn't, but it's actually just that they're three characters DC's not sure what to do with, so why not make them pivotal to Countdown because no one would buy a special featuring Offspring, Zatara II and Supergirl exploring the Multiverse.

    I still don't understand where the Monitors came from though, and where they have they're memorie/ pasts from. It all seems like a big mess to me.

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  13. Thanks Ragnell for reading through all that so we don't have to.

    I'll be able to sleep tonight.

    And hey! John's my favorite Lantern!

    Carl: It is theoretically possible to have a "strategic leader" John Stewart even without a military background. He's been in a different Corps for how long now? (And a Darkstar, correct?) He's totally a veteran. That said, I do think he shouldn't be the JLU Lantern... Hm... Hawkgirl and Vixen are on the team, right?

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  14. Wow.

    Thanks for reminding me why I don't hit the boards at Newsarama.

    So... has anyone from the "You're all a bunch of brats who need to wait for the damn book to come out before whining about how bad it is?" camp come out yet?

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  15. I'm...I'm just happy to see John. 'Bout time, dammit! Hal is in the Corps, and John are in the Corps, and the two of them are the GL's for Earth. Ergo, either one of them, both of them or neither of them, can be in the Justice League. Hell, I think they should bring in Guy for an arc or two, just for fun.

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