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Carmen Bernardo
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 08 August 2006
Location: United States
Posts: 3666
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| Posted: 13 June 2012 at 3:44pm | IP Logged | 1
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Going back to that "Magneto as Holocaust survivor" theme a few posts ago... Looking at how time has passed since the events of WWII, I can see Mags growing up as a Jew in Soviet-era Russia, being persecuted and harrassed by the communist authorities (but not herded into a concentration camp). Or, more recently, being the victim of atrocities that were committed by Serbians in post-Cold War Yugoslavia. We could even say that he was inspired to become a terrorist by a rather brutal act of a criminal organization against his family, and the authorities of whatever country they were living in at the time turning a blind eye towards it. At some point, Marvel is going to have to do a total reboot, or just begin relaunching new series with the characters without the need to worry about whether the 50- or 60-year old fanboys are going to get pissed off that they're retelling the origins of the Fantastic Four, Spider-Man or X-Men with completely different settings...
Edited by Carmen Bernardo on 13 June 2012 at 3:44pm
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Shawn Kane
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 04 November 2010
Location: United States
Posts: 3239
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| Posted: 13 June 2012 at 3:55pm | IP Logged | 2
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Marvel's origins are Cold War era. But for a long time, stories were written that got away from mentioning that the FF attempted to beat the "Reds" into space. They flew into space and cosmic rays gave them their power. That's all that needs to be referenced. Tony Stark was in Southeast Asia when he became Iron Man. All that we need to know is that he was captured by a hostile force and had a political prisoner aid him in building his armor. If movies update it to the Middle East, fine. The problem is that too many writers go back to those origins and want to "fix" or update them. Just tell a story that involves Iron Man NOW. Reference the past cleverly, don't go the EVERYTHING YOU KNOW IS WRONG angle.
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Stephen Bergstrom
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 18 December 2004
Location: United States
Posts: 522
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| Posted: 13 June 2012 at 4:34pm | IP Logged | 3
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A character that I feel has really suffered from this lack of "building on" has been the Hulk. Going back as early as the Peter David run (which I did enjoy). every new "revelation" about the character keeps getting buried, contradicted, or otherwise taken out of context.
This latest run has contradicted a major point the previous writer established, that Banner & the Hulk might not be as separate as they let on, which itself contradicted JB's run whereupon they were separated successfully.
It's that lack of cohesion from writer to writer that makes that book especially difficult to read on a regular basis.
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Matt Wieringo
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 29 April 2010
Location: United States
Posts: 164
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| Posted: 13 June 2012 at 4:57pm | IP Logged | 4
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"It's insidious, really. Even when specific references are not made, the real world can still intrude. When I was doing JBNN in the early 90s, I imagined the series as being set ten to 15 years in the future, but I didn't come right out and say so. What I did do, tho, because I could hardly do otherwise. Was establish the World Trade Center as a prominent part of the New York skyline. When I returned to the series staying honest meant my story was locked into a timeline that could advance no further than 9.11.2001."_____________________
Sort of makes DC's habit of setting their stories in fictional cities (Central City, Gotham, Metropolis) seem pretty darned brilliant.
A little off-topic, I was watching BLADE RUNNER the other night. The film is set in the year 2014 and while we still don't have flying cars (Damn it!) a lot of the technology seen in the film is almost hilariously obsolete. So even showing your character using something as simple as a mobile phone these days can seriously date your story.
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John Byrne
Grumpy Old Guy
Joined: 11 May 2005
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| Posted: 13 June 2012 at 5:11pm | IP Logged | 5
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Sort of makes DC's habit of setting their stories in fictional cities (Central City, Gotham, Metropolis) seem pretty darned brilliant.•• I LOVED "living" in Metropolis! No worrying about buildings being in the right place, or the city having this but not having that, etc. Not for nothing is TRIO set in simply "the City".
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Brian Hague
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 14 November 2006
Posts: 8515
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| Posted: 13 June 2012 at 6:17pm | IP Logged | 6
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Regarding Magneto, I wrote a parody years and years ago wherein I described the character as someone who "will tell you, over and over again, about his tragic past in the Nazi concentration camp. What he will not tell you is that he was one of the Nazis."
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Marc Foxx
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 16 April 2004
Location: United States
Posts: 5584
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| Posted: 14 June 2012 at 8:17am | IP Logged | 7
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Ben McVay wrote:
| Didn't Kryptonite become harmless to Superman sometime in the 70's? I remember him eating it in some panels from that era. |
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Yes, that was the "Kryptonite Nevermore" story line, featuring the iconic Neal Adams cover of Superman breaking the kryptonite chains.
I forget the specifics, but I think there was some sort of world-wide nuclear reaction which rendered kryptonite inert, but which also significantly reduced Superman's power levels. For about 5 minutes.
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John Byrne
Grumpy Old Guy
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| Posted: 14 June 2012 at 8:21am | IP Logged | 8
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Yes, an important element of that story that was largely overlooked (or forgotten) was that it was all the kryptonite ON EARTH that had been neutralized. Superman was still vulnerable to kryptonite -- there just wasn't any around.This was a neat dodge on DC's part, allowing them an out for bringing kryptonite back, if their new idea didn't work out.
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Topic Closed)
