Now, the ending, I might have to disagree, as I feel like it was foreshadowing that the Silk Spectre was going to end up like her father, the comedian, which I wouldn't say is very upnote...

Actually( ! ), it showed that she finally accepted that the Comedian was her father and she had forgiven him and had let go of her lifelong hatred of him.

BTW, the Hulk is just awesome.

JB, do you really think Ozymandias equals big loser?

I never got that from the poem-- the traveler finds the ruin of a great and long-vanished civilization. He doesn't know how long that civilization endured, nor how epic the achievements of Ozymandias may have been. All he knows is that Ozymandias and his works are *now* one with the dust of history.

To me, it's about the impermanence of any accomplishment, even the building of a mighty empire. Nothing is immortal-- which seems to be a key theme (and implicit threat) in WATCHMEN. On that basis, Veidt makes a very odd choice... but then again, maybe he's playing the odds and figuring his deceit will long outlast his mortal existence. It would be in line with what seems a megalomaniacal character if he didn't really worry what would happen after... or believe that his trick would ever be revealed. After all, if he's the smartest man in the world, how could he ever be caught?

LOTS of criminals make the same mistake.

But to me, Ozymandias is more about the eventual victory of entropy, regardless of how much we struggle and fight. A very nihilistic name but not self-identification with a "loser."

-----------------------

Mark / Patrick:

Maybe I'm out of touch with the current fan base, but personally I do not need to know the sexual orientation of my favourite super-heroes (or creators, athletes and artistic performers, for that matter). To me, that information is not something that's essential to them doing their job and doesn't add to my enjoyment of their work. Why is this such an issue nowadays?

-------------------------------

Hi Mark, thanks for the quick reply.

Glad you understand where I was going because I honestly didn't have a direction or an agenda. I was just sitting here pondering, thinking and typing as I go (a dangerous combination).

When I was a kid it didn't matter to me that Spider-Man had a girlfriend; it mattered to me that he could get out of the way of the Rhino in time. (And when I grew older, it probably pissed me off when he DID have a girlfriend and I was between girls at the time, but that's another story.)

I'll grant you in some comics the romantic relationship is a key component -- the triangle of Superman / Clark / Lois is the best example; she's an essential part of the mythos. Sue Richards in the Fantastic Four is another -- that comic is about family, and her loss would be great. But in a number of other comics, apart from rounding out the supporting cast, the love interests are not all that critical as they interfere with "the mission." Batman does quite well without Vicki Vale, et al; conversely, the comic would greatly miss Alfred. Now, we could play the "Match the Hero to the Girlfriend Game" and after pairing up the names we could ask how many of those female leads are really all the essential to the comic. (Does Captain America miss Sharon Carter? Does Iron Man miss Pepper Potts?) I think we'd both be surprised how few there are.

I guess what I'm stumbling towards is that more and more comics seem to be soap operatic (for lack of a better term) and the things that were "background colour" behind plot-driven works are becoming "foreground issues" in character-driven pieces. A different approach for a different generation.

--------------------

Stories that should NEVER be told..

How I celebrated my 28th birthday ;-)

"My" Northstar was Gay. I have paid as little attention as humanly possible to what has been done to/with the character since I left ALPHA FLIGHT.

"Maybe I'm out of touch with the current fan base, but personally I do not need to know the sexual orientation of my favourite super-heroes..."

***

Yeah, for example, that whole Lois Lane thing in the Superman comics.  Superman should just keep his proclivities to himself and stick to fighting supervillans.