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thehefnerThere's an Old Spice commercial with Bruce Campbell and no one notified me?!? Seriously, I managed to catch the last second of it at the gym the other day and now I can't find it! Not even on youtube! I am very disappointed in you, Intranets.
EDIT: All is forgiven, Intranets. Dear lord, we all wish we could be this cool.
In other news, I'm still loving STARMAN. It occurs to me that Jack Knight strikes me as everything that Kyle Rayner fans love about their favorite Green Lantern. Now, I honestly like Kyle, even though he has two major strikes against him:
1.) He's rarely ever been written well or interestingly or not-annoyingly to me
2.) Many of his fans are every bit as psycho and extreme as many of Hal's fans
That second one still pisses me off that people only remember the crazy Hal fans. Both sides make everyone look bad, and it's a really cheap shot when folks think Hal fans are all send death threats and cut Green Lantern symbols into their flesh or something. And yet, for all his own nutty fans, I liked Kyle as a character. But I hated, hated, hated the writing of his creator Ron Marz. Under Marz, Kyle was an L.A. style Peter Parker with unfunny quips and a vague Keanu air about him. The situations were trite and cliched 90's tripe (women in refrigerators, the costume that was dated even then, etc.), the "hip superhero" dialogue was clearly written by a chubby nerd, and they used the exact same formula for every story arc. Here, see if this sounds familiar:
--Kyle is inexperienced. He encounters some more established hero and/or villain. Kyle gets his butt kicked. Kyle is reminded (or is neurotic about) how he's not as good as Hal Jordan. Kyle stands up like a noble hero and beats the bad guy. Someone tells Kyle how he truly is Green Lantern now. Kyle shrugs and says, "Thanks. I'm *trying.*" Rinse and repeat for eighty fucking issues.
I mean, honestly, Kyle didn't get any real character development until Judd Winnick took over. Judd gave Kyle more growth in six issues than he'd gotten over the previous five years. Problem is, I don't like Winnick's writing anyway. He's too damn sentimental, too whiny liberal, and his obsessions with Asian women and homosexuals (and twice now, they've been one and the same! Twice!) is rather tedious. Seriously, I could write a whole other rant about how cheap and forced the whole "Let's introduce a gay character into GREEN LANTERN" idea was. But I'm ranting about Kyle here, for the three or so readers out there who are interested.
Honestly, the only time I've felt Kyle Rayner's ever been written up to the potential of his character was by Grant Morrison. Morrison, bizarrely enough for such a Superman fan, dislikes Hal a good deal and very much favors Kyle. His vocalness in this opinion over the years should have turned me off, but godDAMN, he wrote Kyle well. The character was fresh, he was actually funny, he wasn't so damn whiny or angsty or wallowing in "Can I ever live up to the legacy? Wank wank wank." For the first time, Kyle was actually the Green Lantern.
He honestly lived up to those attributes Kyle fans list off whenever they explain why they prefer the character to all the other GLs: he's imperfect, he's an artist, he's cool, he's a smartass, and he's "relatable." Personally, that last one still makes me itch. "Relatable?" Since when should that be the most important attribute to a good character? 99% of comic fans can't truly relate to Wolverine or Batman, I'm guessing.
And yet, that's why I am so interested in Jack Knight from STARMAN. Like Kyle, he's a black-haired, snarky, smartass, cool-but-still-a-bit-of-a-dork, Gen-X, pop-culture-spouting young dude trying to fill another guy's shoes. But where Kyle's so often struck me as whiny, angsty, and annoying, Jack is transcendent, reflective, and poetic.
Maybe it's because I'm so neurotic and insecure on my own that I don't care to have those attributes in my comic character. Maybe it's because Jack Knight is, by his own admission, an elitist snob with a taste for Woody Allen movies and a rich sense of nostalgia, even as he's looking forward. And that... is something to which I can very much relate.
EDIT: All is forgiven, Intranets. Dear lord, we all wish we could be this cool.
In other news, I'm still loving STARMAN. It occurs to me that Jack Knight strikes me as everything that Kyle Rayner fans love about their favorite Green Lantern. Now, I honestly like Kyle, even though he has two major strikes against him:
1.) He's rarely ever been written well or interestingly or not-annoyingly to me
2.) Many of his fans are every bit as psycho and extreme as many of Hal's fans
That second one still pisses me off that people only remember the crazy Hal fans. Both sides make everyone look bad, and it's a really cheap shot when folks think Hal fans are all send death threats and cut Green Lantern symbols into their flesh or something. And yet, for all his own nutty fans, I liked Kyle as a character. But I hated, hated, hated the writing of his creator Ron Marz. Under Marz, Kyle was an L.A. style Peter Parker with unfunny quips and a vague Keanu air about him. The situations were trite and cliched 90's tripe (women in refrigerators, the costume that was dated even then, etc.), the "hip superhero" dialogue was clearly written by a chubby nerd, and they used the exact same formula for every story arc. Here, see if this sounds familiar:
--Kyle is inexperienced. He encounters some more established hero and/or villain. Kyle gets his butt kicked. Kyle is reminded (or is neurotic about) how he's not as good as Hal Jordan. Kyle stands up like a noble hero and beats the bad guy. Someone tells Kyle how he truly is Green Lantern now. Kyle shrugs and says, "Thanks. I'm *trying.*" Rinse and repeat for eighty fucking issues.
I mean, honestly, Kyle didn't get any real character development until Judd Winnick took over. Judd gave Kyle more growth in six issues than he'd gotten over the previous five years. Problem is, I don't like Winnick's writing anyway. He's too damn sentimental, too whiny liberal, and his obsessions with Asian women and homosexuals (and twice now, they've been one and the same! Twice!) is rather tedious. Seriously, I could write a whole other rant about how cheap and forced the whole "Let's introduce a gay character into GREEN LANTERN" idea was. But I'm ranting about Kyle here, for the three or so readers out there who are interested.
Honestly, the only time I've felt Kyle Rayner's ever been written up to the potential of his character was by Grant Morrison. Morrison, bizarrely enough for such a Superman fan, dislikes Hal a good deal and very much favors Kyle. His vocalness in this opinion over the years should have turned me off, but godDAMN, he wrote Kyle well. The character was fresh, he was actually funny, he wasn't so damn whiny or angsty or wallowing in "Can I ever live up to the legacy? Wank wank wank." For the first time, Kyle was actually the Green Lantern.
He honestly lived up to those attributes Kyle fans list off whenever they explain why they prefer the character to all the other GLs: he's imperfect, he's an artist, he's cool, he's a smartass, and he's "relatable." Personally, that last one still makes me itch. "Relatable?" Since when should that be the most important attribute to a good character? 99% of comic fans can't truly relate to Wolverine or Batman, I'm guessing.
And yet, that's why I am so interested in Jack Knight from STARMAN. Like Kyle, he's a black-haired, snarky, smartass, cool-but-still-a-bit-of-a-dork, Gen-X, pop-culture-spouting young dude trying to fill another guy's shoes. But where Kyle's so often struck me as whiny, angsty, and annoying, Jack is transcendent, reflective, and poetic.
Maybe it's because I'm so neurotic and insecure on my own that I don't care to have those attributes in my comic character. Maybe it's because Jack Knight is, by his own admission, an elitist snob with a taste for Woody Allen movies and a rich sense of nostalgia, even as he's looking forward. And that... is something to which I can very much relate.
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no subject
Date: 2007-01-09 05:53 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-01-09 06:01 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-01-09 06:06 pm (UTC)Is there anything he can't do?
having nothing to do with anything.
Date: 2007-01-09 06:20 pm (UTC)Re: having nothing to do with anything.
Date: 2007-01-09 06:25 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-01-09 07:03 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-01-09 08:17 pm (UTC)I didn't know Bruce was in an Old Spice commercial either. CURSE YOU, HEFFIE! CUUUUURSE YOU!
You know, you bring up excellent points about Kyle. Here's another one: half the Hal haters have barely, IMHO, even read any Hal material. On top of that, it's the fault of the collective writers of Kyle that there is so much Hal hate, because if you've not been exposed to much Hal, but have to endure Kyle whinging about not being able to live up to Hal's legacy for eighty issues, I'm not surprised that Hal resentment exists. Still? UNFOUNDED!
And let us not forget why your younger slashy fangirl loves Kyle: OMG, he bashed a gay basher! Surely that exceeds EVERYTHING else in importance of characterization!
Meanwhile, Hal's been off fighting against discrimination of all kinds across the universe for years.
And fuck Grant Morrison. Seriously. I suspect the reason he hates Hal is that he'd be a very hard character for Morrison to actually write, because Hal is Captain Perfect. He's left giant shoes for the other GLs to try to fill, and I don't think Morrison as a writer would be capable of it.
no subject
Date: 2007-01-09 08:44 pm (UTC)But yeah, many hate Hal for being "Captain Perfect." Which I can understand to an extent, especially given Geoff Johns' Mary Sueish love for Hal (on par with Bendis and Spider-Woman and Winnick and Red Hood... by the way, Red Hood appears in not one but two, TWO Winnick comics coming out tomorrow).
Nah, don't fuck Grant Morrison. He's crazy overrated, but I adore 40% of what he's done. And he deserves credit for making Kyle as great as he was in JLA. For the first time, he was really worthy of being Green Lantern.
Pee Ess
Date: 2007-01-09 08:21 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-01-09 08:30 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-01-09 09:32 pm (UTC)I don't know much about the Green Lanterns, but I do know about Judd Winick. Apparently he's recently created a children's TV show about (come on, guess!) an Asian girl. The obligatory gay character shoehorned into the plot can't be far behind! A giant leap for children's television, but I'll respect it a little less because it's Judd Winick.
no subject
Date: 2007-01-09 11:51 pm (UTC)Yeah, I really could go on at length about the shoehorned gay character in GL whose whole purpose was to be "the gay guy." Judd should really have been taking notes from Holly in CATWOMAN.
no subject
Date: 2007-01-10 12:42 am (UTC)It's too bad. I liked "Pedro and Me", I really did. But finding out about his subsequent work and its spiraling repetitiveness has sort of ruined it, you know?
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Date: 2007-01-09 09:47 pm (UTC)I think you may be spot on in the whole Jack Knight vs. Kyle Raynor, here. Part of Jack's charm, I think, is that he's never presented as "he was a normal guy before he became a superhero" -- because the comic book definition of normal doesn't entirely exist. He's quirky enough to seem real. He has tattoos and not to seem "edgy", which appeals to those of us who are used to tattoos as just an everyday thing, and not the sole perogative of criminals and bikers and sailors, or whatever.
If all this just-woke-up rambling is obtuse: in summary, good post. Right on. A++ for editing in the commercial. :3
no subject
Date: 2007-01-09 11:49 pm (UTC)And I love Guy too. He doesn't get enough love.
no subject
Date: 2007-01-10 12:43 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-01-09 11:40 pm (UTC)I think it's just an example of "write what you know". Judd married an Asian woman (if memory serves, his cast mate from the Real World San Franciso). In fact, you should pick up "Pedro and Me", his semi-autobiographical take on living in the house and with Pedro Zamara, an influential gay rights/AIDS activist.
no subject
Date: 2007-01-09 11:47 pm (UTC)That said, everything he's done since has increasingly felt like fanfic wankery over good storytelling, and the patterns that have emerged have become quite tedious. I mean, the new issues of "Green Arrow" and "Outsiders" come out tomorrow, and they BOTH have Jason Todd/Red Hood in them. It's taking Mary Sueism to a whole new level there.
"Pedro and Me" has the benefit of being a true story. His superhero work, on the other hand, strikes me as wankery.
no subject
Date: 2007-01-10 12:49 am (UTC)I don't get why people hate hal and kyle as much as they do. I like both of them, they're different characters. I didn't mind Kyle's early issues, they weren't great but much like tv shows need a season or two, Kyle needed time to find his footing. The only thing that bugs me about him is the crab mask..I mean honestly they couldn't think that that looked good.
I remembered what you were saying about Cyclops awhile back. I've been reading old Justice League America issues and remembered how well they fleshed out Guy..Guy! If ever there was a character who should have been doomed to become stagnant and two dimensional it was Guy, but they went all out and gave him depth.
What're you talking about? I totally relate to Wolverine Schnikty Schnikty Schnoin!
no subject
Date: 2007-01-11 02:17 am (UTC)here's the old spice commercial
no subject
Date: 2007-01-11 04:00 am (UTC)