personally, i didnt like the original series much because i felt that the writers and artists were a little too "kill-happy", and callous about showing people (especially unnamed heroes) run through the heart, or smashed under falling objects, and so on. most of it was in the background, but it was there.
i -detest- the new comics for that very reason.
that, and the writer (mark waid, i believe) has, in my opinion, gone out of his way to insult and demean every single hero in paragon city.
that means you. and me.
*spoilers spoilers blah blah blah*
its -clear- in manticores opening monologue that, the way the stories are told, the heroes of paragon city have come to rely on the mediport system so much that its all just a big game to them.
that none of them believe that there are consequences to their actions.
that means that none of them (meaning your characters and mine) -care- if civilians get maimed or killed.
he also wrote the story in such a way that the surviving eight are all, with one exception (positron) a bunch of self-centered, arrogant, uncaring jerks who despite having worked together for years and years, cant open up to each other enough to give each other the time of day.
i have a better interpersonal relationship with my a.t.m. than these people do with each other.
i also cant overlook the conceit that the comic, which is supposed to be something that we, the players, can "connect to", starts off with an event that can never, and SHOULD never, happen in the game. the mediport system going down is impossible in the game, and well it should be. the game system itself is not designed to differentiate between stunning / temporary damage, and killing / lethal damage in any real context. players d not have a choice of what kind of damage their attacks do. its all a matter of behind-the-screen player "rp" decisions, with no game mechanical impact.
which means that the game operating system doesnt know, or care, if we are playing genuine heroes who preserve life, or rapacious vigilantes who kill their enemies callously. (i have a bias. this is all about my opinion. if youre a vigilante who kills most of your foes, i dont think youre really much of a hero. thats not the point of this post, so lets move on). the game therefore would register any hero who was defeated after the mediport system went down as "killed", and no -way- is that ever going to happen. bad business
furthermore, the surviving eight are portrayed in the comic as being practically intolerable as people. when peoples powers shut off, they -stop- being heroes, and start to bicker, whine, and tear at each other like petulant children. statesman most of all. manticore is portrayed as arrogant, and hard-headed, but at least hes -trying- to help the people around him, and keep the team together. statesman, allegedly the "best of us", walks away and dives into the seamy world of upside-down chain-bondage s&m...with -vahzilok-!!! and other unsavory types. this damages his credibility. badly.
(the vahz kill people. alot. he has no powers. hes tied up. how DUMB can he have been to let himself end up that way??)
plus, when his friends come in to rescue him from forces that years of experience have taught them have -no- regard for anything but themselves, and kill for fun and pleasure (and parts...and possibly food), statesman (their old leader and the best of the best, remember) yells at them and calls them, his friends and teammates, "idiots".
because -he- didnt tell them his plan.
why didnt he tell them his plan; to let himself get tied up and tortured by murderous villains, all in an attempt to "meditate"?
because its a STUPID PLAN!!
out of all of them, positron seems all right. a little quiet, but at -least- he had the decency to back off and try to keep his friends from getting killed in the blast, if his containment suit ruptured. although, if all the heroes of paragon city have lost their powers WHY does he still need a containment suit? why is he bleeding energy? shouldnt that have shut off, too?
sister psyche has a second person in her head, and its driving her nuts. so...like...how did having powers help with this? and shoudnt the second person in her head have gone away when the powers did? just like positrons energy manifestations should have? this doesnt make sense to me.
synapse has a great name and a great costume. but hes a total jerk. yes, he was tortured by crey ind. he should have gotten professional help -long- ago after suffering through a trauma like that. (i did). and again, hes not behaving as a hero would. you say "hes been avoiding the pain by helping others when he can use his powers, and now his powers are gone".
why cant he still help others? manticore does. and he doesnt have powers. in fact, -alot- of people were heroes who didnt have super powers...
and on that note, why do an ar / dev blasters rifle and web grenades stop working after the "spell" is cast that removes all powers, but cars still work? that makes no sense, even for "magic" (last refuge of a bad writer is to have something that violates continuity happen and cal it magic, by the way). why are -any- of the "natural" heroes affected. if a device rendered all superpowers inoperable, would you want to face down batman? i wouldnt.
where is back alley brawler? where is mynx? where is swan?
and -why- do the people of paragon city seem -happier- now that the heroes are powerless to defend them?
because its a slap in the face to the players of the mmo, thats why. because the writer either doesnt udnerstand the game, or actively dislikes it. and us. so we are shown to be not the protectors of paragon city, but its thoughtless, selfish tormentors. going about our little games and playing with peoples lives because it amuses us to do so. not because we want to help people.
not because we are heroes.
so the best of the heroes do markedly unheroic things. like manticore callously shooting statesman in the heart.
i wasnt shocked. i wasnt eager to see how the story unfolds.
i was disgusted.
i started getting disgusted when, by page 7, there were heroes and innocents dying by the dozens. when i saw a hero looking at the end of a pipe sticking out of his chest that had -obviously- pierced his heart, with a shocked look because the mediport system hadnt kicked in and he -knew- he was already dead, he just hadnt stopped living yet. (an obvious bit of melodrama, by the way, evocative of the french revolution, when the heads of freshly guillotined victims would be raised aloft for the sick entertainment of the crowd, becaue sometimes they looked around and looked afraid. because they knew they were dead and there was nothing that could save them).
i know that picture was supposed to evoke the shock and surprise at the tables having turned. but i didnt feel that way.
my first thought was "oh gawd, tell me -this- isnt how this is going to be written from now on".
i guess im kind of old-school. i believe that superheroes are heroes first, and "super" second. that its the person -in- the costume that makes a super admirable, not what powers the super has. the powers allow the superhero to live on a larger canvas, to go places and do things on a grander scale. but its the heart of the hero that makes them a true -superhero-.
heroes live by a higher code.
and that means that they value life. even the lives of the corrupt or the fallen. where a mere soldier of fortune or adventurer would kill an enemy, a -hero- will try to save that enemy from the darkness within. to bring them back into the light.
by valuing life, they encourage us to value life too. the best comics were written when writers (and editors) kept death a rarity in the stories. when a death had some -weight- to it because it wasnt a common, everyday event. that way it -was- a shock when gwen stacy died. when jean grey sacrificed herself. when mar-vell succumbed.
but now it seems like -every- character in every comic companys stable has died, at one time or another.
overuse of character death is a cheap marketing ploy. and one that eventually stops working. and when the deaths of heroes, their friends, and their opponents becomes commonplace, there is no "moral compass" anymore.
and thats whats missing from this comic. these characters are -not- heroic. they dont live by a higher code. they arent trying to be the best they can, or giving of themselves to help others. im not saying that they should all be wooden mannequins of saintlyness. not at all. watch the w.b. animated series of batman and superman, and the justice league, and youll see that these characters are portrayed as having doubts, misunderstandings, misgivings, and flaws. and overcoming ones flaws and misconceptions is a large part of being heroic.
but manticore seems to act more out of pig-headedness than anything else (and petty vengance, in the case of the arrow thru the heart). positron was noble enough to try to get people away from himself in case he went nova, but hasnt really said or done much after that. sister psyche and synapse are so self-involved and antisocial that manticore would be far, far better off without them. and statesman is (in the comics, mind you) just an @$$. the rest of the heroes are unwanted, ineffective, and too timid to act, now that there are risks. the citizens hated them all along, it seems, and are glad to be rid of them. (us).
that offends me
heroes in comics dont exist to show us who we are. they exist to show us who we could be. who we -should- be. that its possible for the future to be better than the present.
thats what superhero stories are really about.
the pictures in the new comics are pretty. i like the artists style and the feel of the drawings.
but as image comics repeatedly proved, pretty pictures do not a strong story make.
the heart of comics is storytelling. and thats the writers job.
and the writer of the first two issues of the new city of heroes comics has not done his job well. even if the characters somehow manage to prevail over their current foes, restore the mediport system, and break the enchantment that nullifies powers in paragon city, they still wont be heroes heroes unless, by that point, they are -totally- different people inside than who they are now.
and considering theyre the surviving eight, the best of the best of us, the bravest and most valiant...shouldnt they be heroes inside and out already?
(sorry this went on so long)
