My first entry: Nev's meme
Hi, all, first entry here.
I'm a lazy, lurking 30ish male making my first livejournal entry. I don't know how often I'll be doing this since I find it so much easier to lurk than to type, but here goes.
I started an account about a week or so ago. My only reason for doing so was to respond to one of nevermore999 's entries. She was suffering a traumatic comic book experience that was remarkably similar to one I'd had a few years ago. I wanted to post so I could empathize and give some advice. To my delight she's followed my advice and I hope it all works out for the best.
Recently, she's been doing a meme where one lj user will list 5 things they associate with another user. The other user is supposed to then comment on each of these 5 things. She offered to do this to anyone who responded to her entry. I responded because the idea intrigued me. I've only just started my lj "carreer" so most ljers won't know me. But Nev and I have a mild history (thanks entirely to her spectacular Stephanie Brown wiki), so I was interested in what 5 things she associated with me. Here's what she came up with:
6. Chronology Page at Steph Wiki
And so now, here I go:
1. Ted Kord
The one and only (well, personal favorite) Blue Beetle. When I first started collecting comics in a big way, there was a regular series called Secret Origins that I began buying. The second issue was all about Blue Beetle. I found the idea of Ted Kord, a hero carrying on the legacy of a superpowered hero despite having no powers himself, intriguing. So I bought Ted's solo series which was, eh, okay. But it was as a member of the JLI that Ted soon became my favorite. The JLI writing team of Keith Giffen and J. M. DeMatteis are among the best wisecrackers in the comics business. Since Ted was already a wisecracking hero, the G&D quips came most naturally to him. Basically, Ted's my favorite hero because he's my favorite character of my favorite series. He's the hero I can most imagine being.
2. Likes Lois and Clark
I have 3 favorite series from my former comic buying days. The first was the JLI, the last was Young Justice. In the middle were the Superman comics of the Nineties. There were 4-5 titles in that period: Superman, The Adventures of Superman, Action Comics, Superman: The Man of Steel, and the occasional Superman: The Man of Tomorrow. The result of all those titles was a closely integrated series of Superman comics once a week every week. It was like a tv show without reruns. I know the Nineties was ultimatly a bad decade for comics (I mean there's no denying it, comics sales plummeted by the end of that decade). I can even agree with many of the complaints about it. But honestly, I don't remember it as a bad decade for comics. Because no matter what else was going on, I could always count on a Superman comic each week and most of the time it was good (it was often great).
The key to these books' greatness was that they took what John Byrne had started with his revamp begun in the late Eighties and developed it further. It's one of the rare occasions in comics where succeeding writers really respected what had gone on before and built something onto it that was so much better than if these new writers had started from scratch. At the heart of that development was the relationship between Lois and Clark.
John Byrne had revised the dynamic of the Clark/Lois/Superman triangle. Clark was now the real person while Superman was just the disguise. Thus, Clark earnestly wooed Lois, trying to get her to love the "real" man and not the Superman. Byrne's successors (so good they are worth naming: Dan Jurgens, Jerry Ordway, Roger Stern, Louise Simonson, Karl Kessel, Stuart Immonen, Jon Bogdanov) had that approach triumph. Clark proposes to Lois and she accepts. Then he reveals his identity. She's surprised yet not surprised ("It's like all the pieces of the puzzle finaly fit," she tells him). They make an ideal pair, a "normal" woman who is yet the perfect match for Superman.
3. JLI
My all time favorite series. Often hilarious, serious when it needed to be, and some of the best, most real characterization of superheroes that I've ever read. I have less to say about it then the Nineties Superman books, because most of my praise for the JLI has already been said. I just felt the need to elaborate a bit more on ol' Supes. Suffice to say, I really love those guys: Martian Manhunter, Blue Beetle, Booster Gold, Fire & Ice, Guy Gardner, Maxwell Lord, Oberon, L-Ron, Captain Atom, Crimson Fox, Elongated Man, Flash, Metamorpho, Power Girl, Rocket Red, Catherine Cobert and Sue Dibny. To me, they are the real Justice League.
4. Dissatisfation with character assassination over at DC
"Dissatisfaction" is a polite, extreme understatement. Try "so-disgusted-I-quit-DC-even-though-I'd-been-a-fan-for-nearly-20-years". I mean, really, after the excreable Countdown To Infinite Crisis, DC readers were forced with a choice, reject Modern DC continuity or reject the superior JLI continuity. "Fortunatly" for me, I'd already lost much of my enthusiasm for DC after Young Justice was cancelled. Rejecting Modern DC was a remarkably easy decision for me to make.
5. Kindness and good editing skillz
*blushes* Awww, thank you so much, Nev. :)
There's not much more I could say to that without sounding overly humble or arrogant. Nev, realizing this, gave me a sixth thing to comment on.
6. Chronology Page at Steph Wiki
For the life of me, I can't remember how I stumbled onto the Stephanie Brown Wiki or Nev's lj account. It was early, back when all of her lj entries could fit on two pages. My own experience with Steph had been minimal. At the same time I was eagerly buying the JLI, I came to the conclusion that Batman was a huge asshole not worth following. Since this was before the debut of Tim, let alone Steph, I saw very little of Spoiler. Still I had liked what little I'd seen of her in Young Justice, and saw her horrible demise as one more reason to quit DC. I was impressed by Nev's passion for Steph and the way she has for making an article interesting even if it's not about one of your favorites. I was blown away by her wiki, still I felt it lacked something. She had a page showing the complete appearances of Steph but it was all grouped together by series, no listing of when each issue took place. I decided the wiki could really use a Chronology page so I typed one up.
That's my one contribution to the Stephanie Brown Wiki, and even there I feel most of the credit for it belongs to Nev. Even though I'd had little exposure to Steph, typing up the Chronology page was fairly easy thanks to all the info Nev made available on that one wiki. I couldn't have done that one page without her groundwork, and of course without her there wouldn't be any wiki at all. I can't thank her enough.
Well, that's my first entry. Hope it wasn't too boring.
I'm a lazy, lurking 30ish male making my first livejournal entry. I don't know how often I'll be doing this since I find it so much easier to lurk than to type, but here goes.
I started an account about a week or so ago. My only reason for doing so was to respond to one of nevermore999 's entries. She was suffering a traumatic comic book experience that was remarkably similar to one I'd had a few years ago. I wanted to post so I could empathize and give some advice. To my delight she's followed my advice and I hope it all works out for the best.
Recently, she's been doing a meme where one lj user will list 5 things they associate with another user. The other user is supposed to then comment on each of these 5 things. She offered to do this to anyone who responded to her entry. I responded because the idea intrigued me. I've only just started my lj "carreer" so most ljers won't know me. But Nev and I have a mild history (thanks entirely to her spectacular Stephanie Brown wiki), so I was interested in what 5 things she associated with me. Here's what she came up with:
- Ted Kord
- Likes Lois and Clark
- JLI
- Dissatisfaction with character assassination over at DC
- Kindness and editing skillz
6. Chronology Page at Steph Wiki
And so now, here I go:
1. Ted Kord
The one and only (well, personal favorite) Blue Beetle. When I first started collecting comics in a big way, there was a regular series called Secret Origins that I began buying. The second issue was all about Blue Beetle. I found the idea of Ted Kord, a hero carrying on the legacy of a superpowered hero despite having no powers himself, intriguing. So I bought Ted's solo series which was, eh, okay. But it was as a member of the JLI that Ted soon became my favorite. The JLI writing team of Keith Giffen and J. M. DeMatteis are among the best wisecrackers in the comics business. Since Ted was already a wisecracking hero, the G&D quips came most naturally to him. Basically, Ted's my favorite hero because he's my favorite character of my favorite series. He's the hero I can most imagine being.
2. Likes Lois and Clark
I have 3 favorite series from my former comic buying days. The first was the JLI, the last was Young Justice. In the middle were the Superman comics of the Nineties. There were 4-5 titles in that period: Superman, The Adventures of Superman, Action Comics, Superman: The Man of Steel, and the occasional Superman: The Man of Tomorrow. The result of all those titles was a closely integrated series of Superman comics once a week every week. It was like a tv show without reruns. I know the Nineties was ultimatly a bad decade for comics (I mean there's no denying it, comics sales plummeted by the end of that decade). I can even agree with many of the complaints about it. But honestly, I don't remember it as a bad decade for comics. Because no matter what else was going on, I could always count on a Superman comic each week and most of the time it was good (it was often great).
The key to these books' greatness was that they took what John Byrne had started with his revamp begun in the late Eighties and developed it further. It's one of the rare occasions in comics where succeeding writers really respected what had gone on before and built something onto it that was so much better than if these new writers had started from scratch. At the heart of that development was the relationship between Lois and Clark.
John Byrne had revised the dynamic of the Clark/Lois/Superman triangle. Clark was now the real person while Superman was just the disguise. Thus, Clark earnestly wooed Lois, trying to get her to love the "real" man and not the Superman. Byrne's successors (so good they are worth naming: Dan Jurgens, Jerry Ordway, Roger Stern, Louise Simonson, Karl Kessel, Stuart Immonen, Jon Bogdanov) had that approach triumph. Clark proposes to Lois and she accepts. Then he reveals his identity. She's surprised yet not surprised ("It's like all the pieces of the puzzle finaly fit," she tells him). They make an ideal pair, a "normal" woman who is yet the perfect match for Superman.
3. JLI
My all time favorite series. Often hilarious, serious when it needed to be, and some of the best, most real characterization of superheroes that I've ever read. I have less to say about it then the Nineties Superman books, because most of my praise for the JLI has already been said. I just felt the need to elaborate a bit more on ol' Supes. Suffice to say, I really love those guys: Martian Manhunter, Blue Beetle, Booster Gold, Fire & Ice, Guy Gardner, Maxwell Lord, Oberon, L-Ron, Captain Atom, Crimson Fox, Elongated Man, Flash, Metamorpho, Power Girl, Rocket Red, Catherine Cobert and Sue Dibny. To me, they are the real Justice League.
4. Dissatisfation with character assassination over at DC
"Dissatisfaction" is a polite, extreme understatement. Try "so-disgusted-I-quit-DC-even-though-I'd-been-a-fan-for-nearly-20-years". I mean, really, after the excreable Countdown To Infinite Crisis, DC readers were forced with a choice, reject Modern DC continuity or reject the superior JLI continuity. "Fortunatly" for me, I'd already lost much of my enthusiasm for DC after Young Justice was cancelled. Rejecting Modern DC was a remarkably easy decision for me to make.
5. Kindness and good editing skillz
*blushes* Awww, thank you so much, Nev. :)
There's not much more I could say to that without sounding overly humble or arrogant. Nev, realizing this, gave me a sixth thing to comment on.
6. Chronology Page at Steph Wiki
For the life of me, I can't remember how I stumbled onto the Stephanie Brown Wiki or Nev's lj account. It was early, back when all of her lj entries could fit on two pages. My own experience with Steph had been minimal. At the same time I was eagerly buying the JLI, I came to the conclusion that Batman was a huge asshole not worth following. Since this was before the debut of Tim, let alone Steph, I saw very little of Spoiler. Still I had liked what little I'd seen of her in Young Justice, and saw her horrible demise as one more reason to quit DC. I was impressed by Nev's passion for Steph and the way she has for making an article interesting even if it's not about one of your favorites. I was blown away by her wiki, still I felt it lacked something. She had a page showing the complete appearances of Steph but it was all grouped together by series, no listing of when each issue took place. I decided the wiki could really use a Chronology page so I typed one up.
That's my one contribution to the Stephanie Brown Wiki, and even there I feel most of the credit for it belongs to Nev. Even though I'd had little exposure to Steph, typing up the Chronology page was fairly easy thanks to all the info Nev made available on that one wiki. I couldn't have done that one page without her groundwork, and of course without her there wouldn't be any wiki at all. I can't thank her enough.
Well, that's my first entry. Hope it wasn't too boring.