Interview: Sandra Hope - Comic Book Inker
OH, COMICS: "Oh, okay, those little books that show up in my comp box."
[Review] Re-Gifters and Clubbing.
Untitled
P.O.W.E.R. in Comics
Okay, now what?
FYI: Your Feelings May Be Lies. No, Really.
These Things Are Fun, and Fun Is Good
Big sigh.
The Seven Deadly Sins Of The Comic Book Industry
America's Junior Ms.
One more Carol Danvers thought from Ms. Marvel #17 (Spoilers, presumably)
At last! Pants parity!
Joss, oh Joss… you break my heart: Astonishing X-Men - Gifted
A Point We Keep Coming Back To
Question.
[Interview] Austin Grossman and “Soon I Will Be Invincible”.
Strategic Placement.
Awesome Damn Comic of the Week: Girls With Slingshots
This has been knocking around in my head a while
Dear Entertainment Industry,
1 comment:
Because, for some reason, 't post my reply to "Joss, oh Joss… you break my heart: Astonishing X-Men - Gifted" post (http://www.thistoowillpass.com/bradydale/wordpress/?p=238)in the blog in question, I am going to post it here.
"Of course, there is a flipside.
Reading this article, I found myself reflecting on my own reading experience of both the arc in question and the stories that it evoked. My experience was very different from yours. I suspect most of this has to do with the fact that we come from two different generations. I was born in 1985. This meant that I wasn't even alive when most of the stories you referenced were published for the first time. "Kitty Pryde and Wolverine # 1", for example, came out in 1984. I didn't get into comics until junior high, and even then, it was quite a while before I found American superhero comics. And even then, that wasn't my first exposure to X-Men - that honor belonged to he 90s cartoon. By the time I picked up the comic version, I knew that it was going to be different from the version I was familiar with, so I went in with an open mind. And I just so happened to find X-Men comics while they were in midst of Morrison's ever-so-controversial run. While I had some issues with the run it first, I came to enjoy it. And, for better or for worse, it fundamentally influenced the way I view the entire franchise.
Now, thanks to the internet, I became familiar with the history of the franchise. My local library had some trades collecting Claremont's and Byrne's run of "Uncanny X-Men." Older fans sang all sorts of praises to this era, so I decided to check it out.
And, truth be told, I was disappointed. Those stories had merits, to be sure. if nothing else, it was fascinating to see the history of the characters I was familiar, a history that was occasionally referenced, unfolding before my eyes. But, at the same time, I couldn't get over the. (how to put it politely?) dated dialog, overwrought, unsubtle characterization and melodramatic narration. Most importantly, I was left with the sense of unfulfilled potential - if plots could've been explored better, if characterization was more subtle and complex, if the language itself was less bombast, if the writing was better, then these stories would've truly been remarkable. But taken as they were, they were merely passable. Interesting in their own way, but passable.
To be fair, I realize that many of the above-mentioned flaws were simply products of their age. To fans that were reading the stories at the time, this was the norm. I can understand it. However, I cannot view these stories in that light, for the simple reason that, well, I'm just not that old.
You and the fans from your age group got to read the stories in sequence. Your were there when Kitty Pride and Emma Frost appeared on the pages of "Uncanny X-Men." Those characters may change and grow, but to you, these are the definitive versions, the foundations on which the characters developed. But to me, the definitive versions are the ones I first saw when I was introduced to Morrison's run of New X-Men. Your Kitty Pride is a young girl who was thrust into a strange world and tried her best to adjust. My Kitty Pride is a confident, capable 20-something woman who used to date a chain-smoking British guy. Your Emma Frost is the White Queen, the evil villain who terrorized the X-Men. My Emma Frost is an arrogant, but loyal and, yes, caring member of the X-Men with a dark past, a past that she thankfully left behind.
Mind you, both of those points of view are perfectly valid. However, they signify a gulf between our respective perception of Whedon's run..For me, the emotional resonance you so eloquently captured is simply not there. So where exactly does that leave me? Or, for that matter, where does it leave fans from my age group? We can enjoy it, to be sure, but not the way you do.
Nostalgia for nostalgia's sake is exclusive like that.
P.S. That said, I'm terrified that twenty years down the line, we'd get the same sort of wishful nostalgia based on our childhood. I hope to God that I'd maintain enough perspective not to wallow in it too much"
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