Rassmguy

I'm finding that I'm actually having trouble following what's going on in Justice League Dark--and the frustrating part is that I'm not enjoying it enough to re-read it. I think I may drop it entirely.

Being a majorly rabid Swamp Thing fanatic, I WANT to enjoy the new series... but I'm just not liking it. I hate seeing decades' worth of continuity jettisoned. And despite what DC and Snyder might be claiming, it DOES jettison all of the continuity. Snyder claimed he was taking everything into account, right up through Dysart, but that's clearly not the case. In addition to seemingly ignoring series 3 and 4, there are many incompatibilities with series 2:

* The Parliament of Trees is no more--it was burned to a crisp by The Word because it was evil. So where was this new Swamp Thing rooted?

* The Parliament hated humanity and was actively working to destroy it, so there's no way they actually REQUIRED humans for bonding purposes.

* The Parliament knew well who Alec Holland was, as they revered him as their father--he spawned the Parliament during his trip through time--so what this new Swamp Thing said about why they consider Alec special doesn't fit what we already know.

* We already know who was the reigning Earth Elemental in the '40s, and it wasn't this new guy. Albert Hollerer and Aaron Hayley were the reigning elementals during that era.

* The very idea that all previous elementals except for Alec have actually contained the flesh of their hosts is completely wrong.

* Abby is way too young at the end.

* Abby's never-before-mentioned brother?? Come ON, Snyder. Not only is it ridiculous that we've never heard of the guy, but Abby's parents have been dead for decades, so how can she have a brother that young, and that much younger than her?

* Alec's soul was reincarnated at the end of Millar's run in the body of a newborn baby who respresented the next step in human evolution. If he's walking around again, then that baby--who'd now be in his late teens, if I recall correctly--must have dropped dead. So much for human evolution.

* This is NOT the first time Abby has met the actual soul of Alec Holland, and yet she's acting like they never met.

Ugh. Pretty much every single thing aspect of this new series cannot be made to fit what came before. And that annoys the hell out of me. I know that was the point of rebooting the universe... but Swamp Thing didn't need a reboot.

Had Marquee Moon been released, it would have named the fourth band member Stu.

Yeah, same here--I've found this run to be one of the best in the entire history of the series. I've never really quite comprehended the lackluster comments some of his more recent stories have received, but I guess tastes differ.

In any case, I doubt this forum was the reason he quit--responses have varied, but many of them have been quite positive.

It's too bad Andy never came back here to discuss why he's leaving Hellblazer. I'd definitely have been interested in hearing more about that decision. Ah, well.

I just found this on Sean Phillips blog:

http://bp1.blogger.com/_TaT4cPPZFEM/R9GUyS...1600-h/7.3a.jpg

Pretty cool! Has anyone else seen this before?

>>56 issues uncollected 34, 36-40, 51, 57, 58, 85 -128, 144, 145, 229

Jenkins gets no respect.

The house I am a flatmate in is owned by a professional couple. They have told us that they are selling, so we have to move out.

Now, this isn't the law AT ALL, no-one can make you leave a house you have a lease on simply because they have brought it off the people who leased it to you. Regretably the three flatmates who rented it from the original owners on the understanding that they be allowed to sub-lease the rooms out, never got written permission to do so. So their contract with the other flatmates (and more importantly, me) has no standing. And rather that defend their right to continue under their existing-use right and fight it, they have folded.

So RIGHT when I can not afford it, I have to move.

That sucks! Eleven years ago, when my wife and I were about to have our first child, our then-landlord decided to have an affair on his wife. She found out and divorced him, and was awarded the rental home they owned--in which we lived. Unaware of any of this, I surprised my wife by setting up an entire nursery while she was out with her mother one day. She was delighted, and things were great...until a week later, when the landlord's wife told us we'd have to move since she was selling the rental house. Now, my wife was in her eighth month of pregnancy and having some related health issues, so she couldn't go out with me to find a new place. She also couldn't pack our belongings. So in addition to having to dismantle the nursery right after putting it together, I also had to spend the next month finding us a new apartment and packing up all of our belongings solo, then move all of our stuff to the new place and unpack it solo as well, as she had a difficult delivery and couldn't help me (plus, someone had to take care of our newborn daughter during all of this).

So, needless to say, I completely empathize with what you're going through. I hope you find a new place soon.

(Oh, and lest anyone misinterprets my above paragraph--I'm not complaining about having had to do any of that. My wife carried and delivered a baby, so she clearly had far more work--and pain--than I did. I was glad to do everything else myself...it's just that the timing was really lousy.)

Nice one, Rich. Not really minor enough, but hey, whatever...

Oh, sorry--how about this, then...

I made a fantastic rice dish for dinner tonight with garlic, chili powder and corn in it.

Hey, congrats! Nothing minor about that!

Thanks, Bill. :)

I sold my first book:

Timeline of the Planet of the Apes: The Definitive Chronology

http://rhandley.0catch.com/POTA/

Does that count?

while reading "Red Right Hand", can somebody explain Chris Cole to me? whats the deal with the master?

Yes. Chris Cole is a horribly written character who is all over the place in terms of motivation and characterization. And the Master is a decent concept unfilfilled due to lackluster writing and negligent editing.

There, I hope that cleared things up for you. <grin>

"I'm doing a graphic novel, a stand-alone based on the DC Comics character Hellblazer"

As long as he knows the character's not called Hellblazer. :)

I'll be at the Dublin con later this year, plus NYCC in February (or whenever it is) and hopefully SDCC in the summer. There may also be a French and/or Spanish con in the offing, time and money allowing.

NYCC? Excellent -- I live on Long Island, nor far from NYC. If I can make it to the show, I'll stop over and annoy you...er, I mean, say hello.

Also, why isn't Moore listed in the second question?

 

Because it's about who was SECOND best. Moore was the best writer of Swamp Thing volume 2, and anyone who thinks otherwise is so clearly wrong that we shouldn't be encouraging them with poll options.

Okay, then! Works for me. :)

And who the heck voted Gerry Conway as the best writer for series 1? LOL

Isn't the last question in the poll a bit pointed? What if you think the end of Moore's was better than all of them? Also, why isn't Moore listed in the second question?

Out of character? While Ennis was writing the book???? Surely not! I don't think hypnosis is a super power.

LOL -- You know, the more I re-read Ennis (almost done with his run), the less I'm enjoying it, for precisely that very idea. I used to think his stories were a lot of fun -- and some of them are, such as Dangerous Habits and Royal Blood, both of which still stand as two of my favorite HB stories -- but his other work is often so off the mark, particularly his one-shots.

Those of you trashing the King of the Vampires as a character.......are absolutely right. What a weak concept. And his "If I went to other planets before Earth, why have I always looked like James Dean?" joke was so groanworthy it literally made me cringe. I must have been a less discerning reader the first two times I went through the whole series. I was younger then.

That'd make Paul McKenna and Derren Brown superheroes and shit.

I consider Derren Brown less a hypnotist and more a TV showman with a good team of producers to set things up for him. I watched some YouTube videos of his tricks, and he's certainly entertaining, but I think that's all he is. In this era of endless reality-TV crap pretending to be unscripted when it is, in fact, planned out, I have trouble believing anything I see on the tube anymore. Everything I've seen Brown do is impressive to watch, but could easily be faked, as with all "magic" acts.

Now, I'm a major skeptic and a cynic, I admit, so I view Derren Brown's act with a bias. To paraphrase Han Solo, I've been from one end of this planet to another and I've seen a lot of crazy stuff, but I've never seen anything to convince me there's one all-powerful force controlling everything. So without a mystic plane to my worlddview, it's difficult for me to believe in this sort of thing.

Take his subliminal advertising trick, for example, where he cons two advertising guys into drawing what he wants them to draw. Entertaining to watch? Sure. Do I believe it? Nope. If those guys had not been looking in precisely the right direction to see each thing they were supposed to see and add to their subconscious as they drove down the road, then the trick would never have worked. That makes the chances of success so close to nill as to be absurd. Therefore, I have to believe the simpler scenario -- it was staged, and the two advertisers were in on it, for the sake of creating entertaining television. (I could be wrong, of course, as I often am. But the cynic in me doubts that, too.)

John's often hypnotized people. I think of it as just another spell, no more an "innate power" than summoning a demon.

Okay, I can buy that. In fact, I'd rather buy that, as I don't like the idea of Constantine as superhero.

Wasn't Axe Man's Jazz written by Andy Helfer?

Actually, the funny thing is that now that I'm rereading what I previously wrote, I believe it was written by Doug Wheeler. Heh heh. That'll teach me not to fire off posts in haste while I'm at work.

I'm not near my collection at the moment, but I believe Helfer wrote issue 101.

A character named Lady Jayne....

Abby leaving Alec because Alec cheated on her with (see above).

Swamp Thing turning into, what was for all intents and purposes, a prototypical superhero character....including macho early-90s Image Comics design.

Horrible dialogue. Just thinking about reading the story where John Constantine returns to punch Arcane in the face makes me shudder.

Far too much angst.

Swamp Thing really reminded me far more of an early-90s Image or Marvel superhero title during Collins' run.

That's what springs to mind off the top of my head. I just really hated Collins run on Swamp Thing. I haven't read any of the issues since they were first released.

I don't even know why I kept buying the series. I bought all the Collins issues. I'm just a really anal comic collector, and have a hard time dropping series.

No argument about Constantine -- she often had him all wrong. And you're absolutely right about the Image Comics design and the heavy-handed angst. It definitely wasn't a perfect run. I like her one-off stories a lot more than her "saga" stories. She had a story about a cursed musical instrument called "The Ax-Man's Jazz" that was a heck of a lot of fun. But I know her writing wasn't everyone's cup of tea, and I readily agree with you that Millar was an improvement. (He also did a much better job with Constantine.)

I've never really thought of him having any "power" as such, beyond maybe a slightly heightened sensitivity to supernatural presences. He's just an ordinary bloke who's picked up some insider knowledge (and a little knowledge can be a dangerous thing). He'll go out and recruit allies with "real" powers as and when he needs them.

That's pretty much how he's always been portrayed, isn't it?

Well, there is the scene in Hellblazer 71 where he uses his mind to make a passing rich guy suddenly give him his checkbook and credit card. I've always felt that was kind of out of character, as I agree with your assessment of his abilities, but it does form a precedent for him having the power of mind control.

I absolutely hated Collins' run. Everything about it.

I found Wheeler's run to be dull, but passable.

That's interesting -- you might be the first person I've met who liked Wheeler more than Collins. That's cool, of course -- vive la diference -- I'm just surprised, since I thought Wheeler wrote a very meandering series of ill-fitting stories that violated a lot of existing continuity, whereas I liked a lot about the Collins run. I thought Lady Jane was a fantastic character, and I loved how she ended her run, leaving Alec destitute and alone, with the revelation that the Parliament was taking his family from him. Great stuf. Just curious -- what was it about her work that you didn't like? I always enjoy hearing a fellow fan's perspective.

Of course, Animal Man, Doom Patrol, and Swamp Thing were all well past dead by this point and should have been cancelled.

I take it you didn't like the later half of the second Swamp Thing run? :)

Personally, I liked it, often a lot. Doug Wheeler's run was pretty dire, especially the end of it (the Quest for the Elementals storyline), but Collins and Millar both really pulled me in. Collins' Constantine was a bit wonky at times, but I thought Millar did a good job utilizing his caracter, controversial "magic Lodge" backstory aside.

I’m not sure anyone's "completely" straight. Constantine’s thrown himself into experiences way beyond where most people would draw the line, looking for kicks and, beyond that, looking for the truth - about himself, other people, the world at large. He kicks open doors most of us prefer to leave locked. That's one of the main appeals of the character.

With that in mind, I think he'd be willing to experiment with new experiences of every kind - sex, drugs, rock’n’roll and magic - in searching for the truth about himself (“Am I bisexual? More importantly, is this fun?”), especially in his younger days. He doesn’t ignore the elephant in the room.

I don’t know if that would make him “more bisexual” than most straight men; but it certainly makes him more inquisitive, more open to new experiences, more comfortable with ambiguity, and more confident in his own sense of self.

I completely buy that -- in fact, you summed up my opinion on the subject better than I did.