The worst chat up line ever...

May 18, 2007 11:48



...is Connor's about who would win a fight between Spider-man and Wolverine.

Not because no woman talks about comics (though vanishingly few of them do, and fewer still about superhero comics) but because, if he did happen to meet a woman (or a man) who knew anything at all about comics, the response to that question would be either, a) from a fangirl of Spider-man or Wolverine, the comment that Spidey and Wolvie were good mates - and occasionally New Avengers team-mates - then a long and boring dissertation listing the comics in which they actually did fight, together with the names of the writer, editor, penciller, inker, and possibly even the colourist and letterer or b) from a cynic, "Neither. They'd fight to a standstill, then realise they had been tricked and go and beat up the bad guy together - because that's what always happens."

Now, if he really wanted to interest a young female superhero comics fan, he'd be much better asking about the character's love lives (if they bring Jean back yet again, will Wolvie ever get to consummate his passion for her? Will MJ and Spidey be together or split up?), or whether the recent wholesale changes in either the Marvel or DC Universes were for the better. Sympathy over the appalling treatment of Stephanie in Batman: War Games (echoing similar treatment of Babs Gordon in The Killing Joke) would establish reasonable feminist credentials...

"Who would win a fight between" is not "entry level comics" - it's playground comics. Boy playground comics. I know a number of female comics fen, and all of them would treat that question with contempt, much as some of them love Logan.

I think it was Peter David who once remarked (during his long stint as award-winning writer on The Incredible Hulk) that letters to him asking when Hulk was going to fight Rhino again would get short shrift because he just wasn't interested in match fights. Hulk fight Rhino, Rhino get whupped. Yawn.

In other words, not only does that line prove how inept Connor is with women - he's lucky Abby actually knew who the characters were and that they came originally from comic books, because a majority of young women probably wouldn't - but that he isn't a comics fanboy himself, and that he really is almost as immature as he appears.

episode 1.06, discussion

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