1) Once again, John is the only Lantern with any brains.
2) They are seriously foreshadowing that someone is going to come after Jim again.
3) I have some conspiracy theories about Scarface (the female Lantern burned in the fight with the AntiMonitor) but I'm going to let them stew until we get more information in this plot. I will say that I'm increasingly hopeful that this all ends with Ganthet returning to Oa and declaring that he's taking over again because the Council is full of idiots and cowards.
4) Notice that Boodika is the only one of the Lost Lanterns who is still hostile to Hal.
5) I'm annoyed there's no hint as to who the first Blue will be. I'm hoping for a female human.
6) Does anyone else get the feeling that at DC when male characters kill (Black Adam, Wonderman) it sends them to villain territory, but female heroes can kill and stay heroes (Wonder Woman, Catwoman, Manhunter)? Some sexism at work where women are thought to be less frightening and men less rational, maybe?
Or perhaps "men are more fundamentally corrupt"... give 'em a taste of blood and they'll want more, but women can walk away from the table.
ReplyDeleteWhich would be an interesting turnabout, given how historically, women have always been the corrupting influence.
Interesting point.
ReplyDeleteI don't know who Wonderman is (the male version of Wonder Woman?) but you've got me thinking. Catwoman and Wonder Woman are both depicted as justified in their killings and almost emotionless, while Black Adam's mass murders are shown as a mad rampage. Both Catwoman and Black Adam kill when their family is attacked but the difference is that Black Adam doesn't stop at the guilty parties. The man is shown as the irrational one and the women as the cool-headed ones.
Is this just because of the different needs of the different stories or is a strange sort of sexism in play here? Hmmmmm. This is going to bother me all day but thanks for pointing it out.
I was about to make a similar point... I suspect the heroines who kill are being subjected to a "tigress" stereotype, killing out of essentially nurturing motives.
ReplyDeleteYou know who never gets any guff for killing? Batman. He killed that KGB dude years ago because he realized he couldn't beat him in a "normal" fight, and left unchecked the KGB dude would have killed millions.
ReplyDeleteAlso, Superman killed three Kryptonians in that pocket dimension once. Granted he felt bad about it, but nobody declared that he had ceased to be a hero -- he was short on options for containing them.
Barry Allen killed once too, and not one reader anywhere felt it made him less than a hero. There was an idiot year-long story that centered on his trial, which may have been the worst thing ever written, but Barry was acquitted and it's not like anyone treated Barry as a fallen hero.
I don't think there's as much of a double-standard at work as you are detecting; when the hero's options are limited to either "kill the bad guy" or "let the bad guy kill others", there is an established history of heroes killing. Like good heroes they regret having been put in the position, but they also know that they went with the lesser of two evils.
Hey, don't go gringin' Scarface into dis. He's geen mindin' his own geeswax, see, and you'd getter mind yours, gucko.
ReplyDelete(Actually, if Scarface and the Ventriloquist were secretly behind all of DC's big event crossovers, it could only improve matters.)
Personally, I think the first Blue Lantern will be Superman. Or at the very least, he will be one. And not just because of Superman pretty much being THE symbol for Hope in the DCU.
ReplyDeleteI was rereading GL:Rebirth and I think there's a bit of foreshadowing. Batman says "Hoping is what you do best, Clark." :)
Superman pretty much being THE symbol for Hope in the DCU
ReplyDeleteI believe they've even retconned it at this point so that the S-shield is the Kryptonian symbol for "Hope."
No no no.
ReplyDeleteThe first Blue Lantern will be space-adventure JFK.
I'm calling it right here and now.
6) Does anyone else get the feeling that at DC when male characters kill (Black Adam, Wonderman) it sends them to villain territory, but female heroes can kill and stay heroes (Wonder Woman, Catwoman, Manhunter)?
ReplyDeleteTo answer your question- No, I don't think that too many others are getting this feeling. How can you possibly compare the actions of Wonder Woman to Black Adam? WW killed one person, Maxwell Lord, and it was in the heat of battle when she had no other choice. Black Adam massacred millions of innocent people for no other reason than that some really misguided writers decided that they wanted BA to do something "extreme."
The two are really not comparable.
This exercise in compare/contrast really falls apart when you consider this line:
Some sexism at work where women are thought to be less frightening and men less rational, maybe?
The conventional sexist stereotype holds that women are the irrational, overly emotional ones. Men are supposedly the rational, detached ones. You've just invented a new stereotype where men are considered the less rational ones, and you're wondering if the comics writers are perpetuating this? I'm sorry, but I have to respectfully disagree.
John -- You mean you've never encountered the school of thought where women are weaker and/or more empathetic while men are more violent?
ReplyDeleteI didn't make that one up.
Wasn't the basis of first-wave feminism in the early 20th century (including women's suffrage and the temperance movements) that men were in constant danger of being overwhelmed by their vices and their id, and thus needed the stewardship of women in public life? This notion has carried over in discussions of sexual conduct, where many, especially religious conservatives, believe it is the woman's duty to restrain male excesses.
ReplyDeleteI'm not very familiar with the DCU. Anonymous seems to make some good points, but I'm inclined to agree with lyle that this is a "lioness protecting her cubs" stereotype.
"... but I'm inclined to agree with lyle that this is a "lioness protecting her cubs" stereotype."
ReplyDeleteIs there any chance you picked up the issue of "Green Lantern" being discussed? The entire issue is about a female Green Lantern who killed out of anger rather than to protect the innocent, and she was stripped of her power ring.
To sum up: most of the main male heroes of the DC Universe have killed and retained their hero status because they killed only as a last resort, while the very comic we're ostensibly discussing demonstrates that females in the DC Universe will lose their hero status if they kill for the wrong reasons.
Once again, John proves that he's the smart one.
ReplyDeleteThe comparison is iffy because Black Adam is a villain. The closest he's come to the side of the angles is as an anti-hero. Adam does not fall into the same group as Catwoman, Wonder Woman or Manhunter because they are actually heroes. The others kill as an absolute last resort, Adam kills even when he is vastly superior in strength to his opponent. Is apples and cake.
ReplyDeleteThis could(and probably will) turn out to be nothing but, the popular speculation in the boards is that Laira might become a Red Lantern or even a Sinestro.
SallyP is correct. John is the only one with sense. He should become a Guardian, again.
Anonymous -- Did you read the taunting Amon Sur did before he was killed? Arguably, she could have been doing it to prevent the effect he was hoping to bring about. As a deterrent.
ReplyDeleteI was reading more of a lioness protecting her cubs thing here.
"Anonymous -- Did you read the taunting Amon Sur did before he was killed? Arguably, she could have been doing it to prevent the effect he was hoping to bring about. As a deterrent.
ReplyDeleteI was reading more of a lioness protecting her cubs thing here."
Her fellow GLs felt she was out of line. And given that Laira (a.k.a. Psylocke from Space) is all about honor, restraint, and everything that comic books have taught us Japanese warriors practice, I'd have to say she was not behaving like her normal self. She loved Ke'haan, and Amon knew how to push her buttons (a little too well).