Complaining! About Comics!
Well, I declare the "history of the DCU" back-up in 52 to be officially useless.
I never managed to read through Zero Hour due to the "Ow! God, My Eyes, It Burns!" factor, but I've read *around* it. I've also read fic, and meta, and made my own GL jokes in poor taste. Hell, it took over a stanza and a half of the DCU Tinies, back when I was feeling creative.
In summary, yeah, I am so not the clueless newbie who *needs* a brief history of the DC universe.* And yet, I still managed to come away from the Zero Hour summary thinking:
Wait. Did they just retcon Barbara Gordon's injury into being Hal Jordan's fault?
Isn't that really, really needlessly random and silly and dumb on many other levels besides?
Since no one else was calling shenanigans, I asked Google what was going on. Google told me there had been an AU Batgirl hanging around for that event, because, I assume, getting her shot just the once was not enough fun. (Yes, I'm cranky. Reading comics that are bad do that to me.) The punchline is, I even was vaguely *aware* of this.
If I had been given *anything* resembling context, I probably could have figured it out. Really. Here is all relevant info given...
(Image split because I didn't want to lj-cut.)
Whoever these "histories" are aimed at, it isn't reasonably rabid fans missing an issue here or there.
I'm not sure why I'm so annoyed. Probably leftover annoyance from when I thought Babs had a new backstory mixed with annoyance from *reading* the 52 backup (the words, they *burns* us, precious).
And I still have no idea what the backup is meant to accomplish, unless the answer is, "Make as many people run screaming from the store as possible; send recorded video to America's funniest. Use winnings to buy a pony."
*A brief history of Hawkman canon, okay, I will accept, if only because I don't believe a *brief* (and coherent) history is actually possible.
I never managed to read through Zero Hour due to the "Ow! God, My Eyes, It Burns!" factor, but I've read *around* it. I've also read fic, and meta, and made my own GL jokes in poor taste. Hell, it took over a stanza and a half of the DCU Tinies, back when I was feeling creative.
In summary, yeah, I am so not the clueless newbie who *needs* a brief history of the DC universe.* And yet, I still managed to come away from the Zero Hour summary thinking:
Wait. Did they just retcon Barbara Gordon's injury into being Hal Jordan's fault?
Isn't that really, really needlessly random and silly and dumb on many other levels besides?
Since no one else was calling shenanigans, I asked Google what was going on. Google told me there had been an AU Batgirl hanging around for that event, because, I assume, getting her shot just the once was not enough fun. (Yes, I'm cranky. Reading comics that are bad do that to me.) The punchline is, I even was vaguely *aware* of this.
If I had been given *anything* resembling context, I probably could have figured it out. Really. Here is all relevant info given...
(Image split because I didn't want to lj-cut.)
Whoever these "histories" are aimed at, it isn't reasonably rabid fans missing an issue here or there.
I'm not sure why I'm so annoyed. Probably leftover annoyance from when I thought Babs had a new backstory mixed with annoyance from *reading* the 52 backup (the words, they *burns* us, precious).
And I still have no idea what the backup is meant to accomplish, unless the answer is, "Make as many people run screaming from the store as possible; send recorded video to America's funniest. Use winnings to buy a pony."
*A brief history of Hawkman canon, okay, I will accept, if only because I don't believe a *brief* (and coherent) history is actually possible.