I don't really mind soap operatics so long as it's rooted in telling good stories about the characters that don't bog down the plot or action in the process. Over at DC, it seems like there's far too LITTLE of that stuff (where it's mainly just beating up villains), and at Marvel, where there's too damn much (heroes spend more time fighting each other). Brennert understood the balance of this better than most, with every one of his stories focusing on superhero angst in ways that furthered the story and gave the characters development by the end.
So Molokai is good? I shouldn't be surprised, but I had a hard time getting into it. It seemed a bit too much like something out of my Mom's book club, y'know? But if it's that good, I will absolutely give it another chance. Are you going to read Honolulu next?
Both these stories also make their adversaries (Two-Face and Scarecrow) SMART (and quite difficult to deal with).
Totally! And hey, not that this has to do with smart villains, but I just realized that both of those stories were written by people who worked on the 80's Twilight Zone. Maybe those kinds of writers just have an innate understanding about how to ground human characters amidst fantastical settings rather than just tell yet another story of hero vs. villain.
I don't mind soap operatics either, as long as they involve genuine character motivation, challenge and growth that are organic to the people and the plot (like say, Gar going after the brotherhood of evil for the murder of the Doom Patrol, or Kory's space showdown with her sister...a LONG simmering plot line.... Notice how I even called the characters by their names instead of the hero codes, because that's how I thought of them.
I really hated how Marvel would make you read not one, but a half dozen X titles in order to follow your favorite characters (and they would hop between titles). It was maddening to try and jump on in the middle of all that. Up until then, New Teen Titans had really been my only "ongoing"...although Fury of Firestorm did have a over arching plot over it's first 18 issues and annual...but much like X-Files it managed to tell a bunch of done in ones (and twos) along the way as well.
And, much as I have both enjoyed and been annoyed by "events" in the last few years, I give total props to J.T. Krul for making great use of the Blackest Night event to finally give Gar / Beast Boy closure over the whole Terra incident. That emotional journey always seemed somewhat in limbo for the longest time (as did Beast Boy) Just thought I'd shout that out, btw.
So Molokai is good? I shouldn't be surprised, but I had a hard time getting into it. It seemed a bit too much like something out of my Mom's book club, y'know? But if it's that good, I will absolutely give it another chance. Are you going to read Honolulu next?
Both these stories also make their adversaries (Two-Face and Scarecrow) SMART (and quite difficult to deal with).
Totally! And hey, not that this has to do with smart villains, but I just realized that both of those stories were written by people who worked on the 80's Twilight Zone. Maybe those kinds of writers just have an innate understanding about how to ground human characters amidst fantastical settings rather than just tell yet another story of hero vs. villain.
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I really hated how Marvel would make you read not one, but a half dozen X titles in order to follow your favorite characters (and they would hop between titles). It was maddening to try and jump on in the middle of all that. Up until then, New Teen Titans had really been my only "ongoing"...although Fury of Firestorm did have a over arching plot over it's first 18 issues and annual...but much like X-Files it managed to tell a bunch of done in ones (and twos) along the way as well.
And, much as I have both enjoyed and been annoyed by "events" in the last few years, I give total props to J.T. Krul for making great use of the Blackest Night event to finally give Gar / Beast Boy closure over the whole Terra incident. That emotional journey always seemed somewhat in limbo for the longest time (as did Beast Boy) Just thought I'd shout that out, btw.
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