The Hoard Potato makes a note.

[athelind]

I'm watching Justice League Unlimited again, a disc or two each week.

Man, Superman is really surly in this show. He comes off as snarky, sarcastic, and irritable-while Batman seems relaxed and comfortable and cracks a genuine smile now and then.

It's surreal.

Amanda Waller, however, remains the scariest person in the DCU.

Comments

[notthebuddha]

Dude, this is superhero comics - airtight moral justifications are not required to motivate the protagonists, in fact some of the best stories are about them struggling with conflicting motivations. While all of what you say is true, it needs to be overtly addressed at some point. Providing a pretext of the kinds I've mentioned lets you have a story about the attempt to deal with the "Supervillian Problem" and end the stalemate. Would you find it more thrilling to read about off-duty Leaguers lounging around the satellite on a slow weekend having a beer-fueld bull-session about the hypothetical moral dilemma above, or to see a splash page with WW marching into a bank, stringing up the Joker with her lasso, and drawing back for the coup-de-grace and before going into a flashback to show how it all happened to that point?

Flash and Green Arrow burping about moral philosophy, or 22 pages of suspense over 'My God, is Wonder Woman really going to kill the Joker?!?!?'

(And of course the Joker could hurt Wonder Woman, she breathes like everyone else, and dropping a building on her could kill her, as would enough bullets.)

[cpxbrex]

*watches the goalposts shift* Oh, now we're talking about what makes a good story?

It is my opinion that the reason the Joker isn't dead is because he's the greatest supervillain of all time. If he were killed, no one would believe he would stay dead - and, indeed, he has appeared to have been killed on numerous occasions. So, since there is no chance whatsoever that DC is going to let the Joker stay dead, as a matter of fact I would definitely prefer it if they didn't kill him. I strongly dislike comics that fake ass kill characters without acknowledging something even more profound than the inevitability of superhero recidivism - which is the resurrection of characters. I would much rather see the recidivist Joker than the back from the dead Joker.

And while it is true that moral quandaries make for good stories, that was simply not what you were attempting to originally address. Sure, I like to see moral quandaries, but that wasn't the way you presented it until just now. Before, you were, y'know, that someone should "take care of the Joker permanently" - no moral quandary involved. We have spent most of this discussion going over the fact that there WOULD IN FACT BE a moral quandary and everyone wouldn't just cheer the newly minted murderer. Which means that this will probably be my last post on the subject because you're now trying to get me to agree to a whole different conversation - one that has no relevance to this conversation.

[notthebuddha]

*watches the goalposts shift* Oh, now we're talking about what makes a good story?

I have been all along, starting with the hypothetical plot in my first comment: "...why doesn't Green Lantern or Dr Fate or anyone else with ineffable powers say, 'Batman, let me help you with that Joker problem.'..."