Monday, March 15, 2010

For the Record, Anger Does Not Equal Interest

This, a link found over on Insolvent Republic of Blogistan (great title, btw), is irritating to the extreme.

Here are the quotes that gall me:
James Robinson: "That decision [was] a controversial and one that I know has been greeted with some displeasure by some people... I'm sorry if it upset people. In all honesty, they wanted to kill Speedy too, and I said no, so give me some credit for that."

Ian Sattler: "I'm happy it upset people because it means that the story had some weight and emotion."
Uh, no. Upset means upset. It means the CHARACTERS have weight for us. Whether or not the story does and can evoke emotion depends on the story, how well it's written, for example. And the emotion you want when a child is killed is grief and yes, anger that she was killed, but directed at the bad guy in the comic, not the bad guy in the editorial office. Or the bad guy typing up the words.

Lian has weight and her death matters because 1) she's Roy's daughter, and 2) she's a little girl. That she died is the sad thing, not the way she was killed. That just sucked, story-wise, art-wise, every-wise.

As for Speedy, I'd sooner have had them kill Mia, much as I like her, because she's relatively new next to Lian whose been around 23 years, for fuck's sake. Sheesh. It's a little girl, killed only to give Ollie grief and angst. Roy's angst seems almost an afterthought here. Hmmm.... lost an arm, lost a daughter... toss-up which will drive him mad and maybe to drugs first. But Ollie? He's out there avenging an entire city. Why did a little girl have to die to further that plot point?

Shit. This just makes me angry. The story sucked. I did not buy it. I skimmed it in the store (don't tell FPNY, okay?), because I knew it was gonna suck. If, maybe, it looked like it wouldn't suck, or Lian wasn't dead, I would've bought it, but it sucked. SUCKED! If the idea is to get people to never want to read anything James Robinson writes ever again, congrats! Because I sure won't. I just don't trust him. (Yes, I bought the Starman books. Yes, I still plan to read those, as I have no emotion invested in that character.)

No, Mr. Robinson. I will not give you any credit.

No, Mr. Sattler, the story did not anger me because it was evocative. It angered me because it was crap.

Yeah, I'm pissed.

6 comments:

  1. well i'm very happy mia is still around..but he doesn't get plus points for not killing mia..he just gets less minus points.

    and yus, we are angry cos the story is bad. not cos it is meaningful. it make sme angry to read bad art (pictures and words) it makes me angry when people produce something of low quality.

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  2. Yes, especially when it could've been great.

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  3. I fear that Mr. Sattler does not "get it". This is a classic version of a fridging. Female gets iced in order to cause anguish to male hero. The fact that she's a completely charming and innocent little girl just makes it worse. And he's happy?

    What a twit.

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  4. The thing is, this didn't have to be a fridging. Someone mentioned somewhere that they're killing little girls only, but Aquaman's kid was a boy and he was killed. Aqualad and his family are gone and Aqualad also had a little boy. When Arthur Jr died, way back when, it was a good story. I felt bad about the kid, who was just a toddler, but it was well done, well written, and the art (Aparo, as I recall) was nice.

    But it's the sheer stupidity, poor writing, poor art, and cheap shot that makes this a fridging. (Gee, we have a new verb here. I wonder if Merriam-Webster knows about it.)

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  5. Yeah, I saw that quote earlier and it really rubbed me the wrong way. And I didn't even read Cry for Justice! That right there, that's the sort of thinking that drove crap like Identity Crisis. Gah. The mainline DCU is so rarely fun anymore.

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  6. Mr. Sattler: when a comic book makes fans pissed off *AT THE CREATORS* rather than the characters, UR DOIN IT WRONG.

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