Whatever happened to heroes?
Sep. 5th, 2005 07:30 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
forsythOkay, so this isn't directly related to webcomics, but I figure it's fair game. It's still comics, after all.
I work at Barnes and Noble (which is a lot less cool than I would have thought it'd be even a couple years ago) and on breaks, I tend to grab something to read. I've been going through the Graphic Novels section, because they're fairly quick to read, and because I'm a fanboy and get to read them to see if they're any good first that way. I've gone through the usual suspects I don't already have, Hellblazer, Fables, various Batman, Superman, and other superheroes, plus whatever looks interesting. And since I've been on a bit of a hero kick lately, and it was there, I read the Space Ghost TPB. Which made itself a good example of several things I'd been trying to write about anyway. This is going to contain many spoilers.
I went into this with trepidation, mainly because all I'd heard of the title before was that it existed and the creators were going to try and make Space Ghost "hardcore," IIRC. This was back before it came out. Nothing that terribly excited my interest, since I wasn't even really that much into Space Ghost as a kid. But I've been on a nostalgia kick, and a hero kick, so I figured what the hey.
First, the best part: The art was very pretty, including covers by Alex Ross.
It wasn't bad, per se. If it weren't Space Ghost, it'd just be an exceedingly generic sci-fi/superhero story. Not a terribly good or interesting one, though. But since it's supposed to be Space Ghost's origin, it really isn't very good at all. For starters, why do we even need to know Space Ghost's origin story? He flies around space beating up villains with his power bands and shield belt, and carries along a pair of kids and a monkey. Everybody knows who Space Ghost is, if only from Space Ghost Coast to Coast, why do we need an origin?
That fundamental question aside, who decided it'd be a good idea for Space Ghost's origin to involve tragedy, death, and blood-soaked revenge? It's a comic based on a kid's show, for the love of monkeys! It's remembered through the nostalgia of childhood, shouldn't your goal be to hit the same sense of wonder and excitement the original did? And since it's based on a kid's show, aren't kids likely to pick it up? Now, nothing terribly gruesome happens on-panel, but let's see. The bad guys disintegrate an arms merchant's head, Space Ghost's 8.5 month pregnant wife gets killed (for reasons that escape me other than... err... the bad guys are evil?), then they rough Space Ghost up and ditch him on a barren planet and leave him for dead, in his revenge, Space Ghost blows up one of the bad guys' apartment (and them), and another falls from from a speeder high over a city, while fighting Space Ghost. Later on, there's an alien invasion, and at one point the main bad guy cuts his own hand off to escape shackles.
Okay, seriously, what the hell? What's the point of all that? None of it makes things more "serious" or "realistic", just bloodier. And makes Space Ghost a murderer, twice over. He's supposed to be a hero. Not the most inspiring of heroes, perhaps, but there's nothing in the comic that even remotely resembles the Space Ghost from the cartoon, other than looks. I can't see him yodeling "SPAAAACE GHOOOOST!" as he charges.
And that's sad. I get the feeling from the comic that it wasn't done so much because they cared about the characters, or because they thought they could do something neat, and more "Hey! What old nostalgic cartoons don't have comics yet? Which is the most popular? Hey, Space Ghost, let's do that." It sounds silly to say, but they didn't approach it with any care or dedication to the original material, cheesy as it may have been. If you're going to adapt something, do like the Justice League folks apparently* do, and find what's the most interesting and important parts of the characters, and use that. This is nothing like it. It's trying to force the character to be something entirely different and just doesn't work.
Which is one of the things I really like about webcomics, as opposed to paper comics. At least the mainstream superhero stuff. In webcomics, you can feel the fact that people are doing this because it's fun, they care, and they want to tell a story. That comes across. And it's almost always the work of just one (or a few) creators. No editorial "We want everything in this to match the movie." Sure, you get lots of crappy webcomics, and there's some REALLY GOOD paper comics, but even in the not-so-good webcomics, you can tell the creators are doing it because they've got something they think is cool, and want to show everybody. Whereas a lot of mainstream comics are published as much to keep trademarks and mine for movies as anything else. (There's downsides to the lack of editors and lack of money in webcomics too, of course. And not just for the creators.)
Is it just that hard to write a hero who's a hero because he's a good guy? is it that hard to have stories be optimistic, eager, and full of wonder? For a counterexample, I've been reading some Superman stuff, and one of the stories in one of the collections was Superman versus a very-loosely-disguised Authority. It was called "What's So Funny about Truth, Justice, and the American Way." And it set up Superman's ideals against the "pragmatic" killing. The main flaw it had was the end felt rushed, since it was only one issue, 22 pages. And Superman won, of course, because it's his title, but he did it while STILL BEING SUPERMAN.
Man, for not being too bad, I really didn't like it, huh? It wasn't that it was that bad itself, it just was a convenient example of a whole bunch of things that have been annoying me about comics lately. And why I like goofy webcomics that're just having fun because the author thinks it'd be cool.
All in all, I guess the Space Ghost comic was just really First and Ten. By itself, nothing significant, but when people try to pull this stupidity on something as inherently silly as Space Ghost, that doesn't bode well for comics in general. Totally abandoning kids and not even presenting something interesting for adults, just a sloppy mess. There's always Astro City for good superheroes with the real sense of wonder and realism.
* I say apparently because I don't have cable and so have seen exactly no episodes of the new Justice League show. But everybody tells me it's great.
(Crossposted to![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
snarkoleptics)
I work at Barnes and Noble (which is a lot less cool than I would have thought it'd be even a couple years ago) and on breaks, I tend to grab something to read. I've been going through the Graphic Novels section, because they're fairly quick to read, and because I'm a fanboy and get to read them to see if they're any good first that way. I've gone through the usual suspects I don't already have, Hellblazer, Fables, various Batman, Superman, and other superheroes, plus whatever looks interesting. And since I've been on a bit of a hero kick lately, and it was there, I read the Space Ghost TPB. Which made itself a good example of several things I'd been trying to write about anyway. This is going to contain many spoilers.
I went into this with trepidation, mainly because all I'd heard of the title before was that it existed and the creators were going to try and make Space Ghost "hardcore," IIRC. This was back before it came out. Nothing that terribly excited my interest, since I wasn't even really that much into Space Ghost as a kid. But I've been on a nostalgia kick, and a hero kick, so I figured what the hey.
First, the best part: The art was very pretty, including covers by Alex Ross.
It wasn't bad, per se. If it weren't Space Ghost, it'd just be an exceedingly generic sci-fi/superhero story. Not a terribly good or interesting one, though. But since it's supposed to be Space Ghost's origin, it really isn't very good at all. For starters, why do we even need to know Space Ghost's origin story? He flies around space beating up villains with his power bands and shield belt, and carries along a pair of kids and a monkey. Everybody knows who Space Ghost is, if only from Space Ghost Coast to Coast, why do we need an origin?
That fundamental question aside, who decided it'd be a good idea for Space Ghost's origin to involve tragedy, death, and blood-soaked revenge? It's a comic based on a kid's show, for the love of monkeys! It's remembered through the nostalgia of childhood, shouldn't your goal be to hit the same sense of wonder and excitement the original did? And since it's based on a kid's show, aren't kids likely to pick it up? Now, nothing terribly gruesome happens on-panel, but let's see. The bad guys disintegrate an arms merchant's head, Space Ghost's 8.5 month pregnant wife gets killed (for reasons that escape me other than... err... the bad guys are evil?), then they rough Space Ghost up and ditch him on a barren planet and leave him for dead, in his revenge, Space Ghost blows up one of the bad guys' apartment (and them), and another falls from from a speeder high over a city, while fighting Space Ghost. Later on, there's an alien invasion, and at one point the main bad guy cuts his own hand off to escape shackles.
Okay, seriously, what the hell? What's the point of all that? None of it makes things more "serious" or "realistic", just bloodier. And makes Space Ghost a murderer, twice over. He's supposed to be a hero. Not the most inspiring of heroes, perhaps, but there's nothing in the comic that even remotely resembles the Space Ghost from the cartoon, other than looks. I can't see him yodeling "SPAAAACE GHOOOOST!" as he charges.
And that's sad. I get the feeling from the comic that it wasn't done so much because they cared about the characters, or because they thought they could do something neat, and more "Hey! What old nostalgic cartoons don't have comics yet? Which is the most popular? Hey, Space Ghost, let's do that." It sounds silly to say, but they didn't approach it with any care or dedication to the original material, cheesy as it may have been. If you're going to adapt something, do like the Justice League folks apparently* do, and find what's the most interesting and important parts of the characters, and use that. This is nothing like it. It's trying to force the character to be something entirely different and just doesn't work.
Which is one of the things I really like about webcomics, as opposed to paper comics. At least the mainstream superhero stuff. In webcomics, you can feel the fact that people are doing this because it's fun, they care, and they want to tell a story. That comes across. And it's almost always the work of just one (or a few) creators. No editorial "We want everything in this to match the movie." Sure, you get lots of crappy webcomics, and there's some REALLY GOOD paper comics, but even in the not-so-good webcomics, you can tell the creators are doing it because they've got something they think is cool, and want to show everybody. Whereas a lot of mainstream comics are published as much to keep trademarks and mine for movies as anything else. (There's downsides to the lack of editors and lack of money in webcomics too, of course. And not just for the creators.)
Is it just that hard to write a hero who's a hero because he's a good guy? is it that hard to have stories be optimistic, eager, and full of wonder? For a counterexample, I've been reading some Superman stuff, and one of the stories in one of the collections was Superman versus a very-loosely-disguised Authority. It was called "What's So Funny about Truth, Justice, and the American Way." And it set up Superman's ideals against the "pragmatic" killing. The main flaw it had was the end felt rushed, since it was only one issue, 22 pages. And Superman won, of course, because it's his title, but he did it while STILL BEING SUPERMAN.
Man, for not being too bad, I really didn't like it, huh? It wasn't that it was that bad itself, it just was a convenient example of a whole bunch of things that have been annoying me about comics lately. And why I like goofy webcomics that're just having fun because the author thinks it'd be cool.
All in all, I guess the Space Ghost comic was just really First and Ten. By itself, nothing significant, but when people try to pull this stupidity on something as inherently silly as Space Ghost, that doesn't bode well for comics in general. Totally abandoning kids and not even presenting something interesting for adults, just a sloppy mess. There's always Astro City for good superheroes with the real sense of wonder and realism.
* I say apparently because I don't have cable and so have seen exactly no episodes of the new Justice League show. But everybody tells me it's great.
(Crossposted to
snarkoleptics)
