Thursday, April 12, 2007

Anger, Angst and Anticipation

I didn't get my comics today, but just skimming the blogosphere I can tell that Wonder Woman would probably make me angry.

The question is, what kind of angry?

There are many kinds of anger. There's anger that floats on top of your heart and seeps into the front of your throat from there. There's anger that forms in the pit of your stomach and hovers stiffly around your collarbone. There's even that special kind of anger that in addition to the other effects also charges the bottom of your feet and settles below your intestines, that anger that gathers there until you get out of your seat and make some kind of movement. That's good anger. That's anger that energizes you. That's anger that makes you do something. It makes you write, it makes you rant, it makes you go to the gym and run or beat the stuffing out of the punching bag. Its anger you can taste, anger that you breathe. It ranges from mildly annoyed to fully outraged but no matter the severity its always a living anger, that can be channeled into incredibly productive actions if cultivated and handled properly.

Mixed with vicious dark humor, it can be very fun!

I like to think of it as Larsen Anger.

On the other hand, there's dead anger. This doesn't float on top of your heart. It lays on top of your heart like lead. Its solid in the pit of your stomach, but still manages to churn with the liquid there. It collects in every muscle of your body and when it seeps into your throat it forms a lump. Its heavy anger, that you can't do anything with. It'll turn to fear, disgust and depression almost immediately.

The sad thing is, that if you stop channeling your living anger into something productive, it tends to turn into dead anger and weigh on anything you do. After a while of holding back that rant (or working and getting no results!), you just get disgusted with the whole thing and can't muster the energy to react anymore.

Ever heard anyone say they were "all out of outrage"?

Yeah, that's the feeling.

I haven't named it yet, but I've been toying with "Reis Heartbreak" after the guy who designed Star Sapphire's current costume. I held back from ranting about the Arisia costume constantly for a week, but Star Sapphire just depressed me.

I'm worried Wonder Woman #7 will just depress me too.

I hate to skip it this week, partially out of curiosity, but mostly because I already trimmed my pull-list at the shop and Steve orders these books thinking he has a sure sale. Seems a waste to trim the list again when I'll just be adding this book again for the next writer.

Maybe this is one of those points where I expect something so bad I'm pleasantly surprised.

Maybe not.

8 comments:

  1. More narrative abuse, more lame heroes-as-pop-icons, the fight scenes are...lacking--to say the least, and the highlight is Nemesis actually trying to 'flirt' with WW. I wont spoil what looks like yet another lame plot concept where Circe does something stupid--

    0_0. I'm tolerating this because I want to read Amazons Attack, but I don't like where the set up is going, if it involves Circe. =_=;

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  2. I'm not sure what kind of anger I am supposed to be feeling...all I feel is a bit naseous and confused. There are some enormous plot holes and bad, BAD characterization.

    Meh.

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  3. I liked that Nemesis is now Steve Trevor.

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  4. Yeah, I drop this before reading issue #6 based on what I read around the blogsphere and when I read the issue, well it sucked. It was fun, but that is not WW that Picoult is writing. It's some newbie heroine the fucked up in her career.

    I did however add Amazons Attack, because I hope that will fill my WW gap until Gail–hopefully-takes over. Also, Will Pfeiffer did a good job in his fill in WW issue.

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  5. Wonder Woman was yesterday's topic in the "Slushpile Challenge" I'm participating in. She was picked in part because of what I've been reading about WW on this site.

    The details of the challenge are here.

    My shot at a WW, which hopefully won't make you want to kill ishere.

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  6. I thought I'd left a comment, but I don't see it. I said something about not really being angry, just depressed, a bit frustrated, and resigned. Maybe the next author, hopefully Gail, will get Wonder Woman right. If it's Gail, she will. And based on his take on her when she guested in Manhunter, Marc Andreyko would probably do a great job with her, too.

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  7. Just keep repeating to yourself: "Issue #13, issue #13, issue #13." That's what I'm doing.

    That and: "Monkey off a waterfall, monkey off a waterfall..."

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