It's no secret that I believe they shouldn't bring dead characters back, ever. Yeah, I know why you shouldn't bump off Batman for good and all that other stuff, but if there's no finality in death, even in comics, that takes a lot of the excitement out of it. That being said, raising the dead makes for awesome comic reading:
If a comic promises to bring temporarily resurrect a bunch of dead guys, I'll buy it. It doesn't matter if I've ever read the comic before, if they are going to give us a glimpse at what happened to a character post-mortem, you can slap it on my pull list (although that's a hard thing to explain to my local comic guy: "Yeah, I don't want the issue if the dead guy is coming back for good. Only if it's a temporary thing. And it doesn't matter which dead guy it is, either. As long as he's going to end up dead again when everything is said and done.")
It's not only fun because you're interacting with the dead, but it generally involves a final shout-out to a b-list character (because if they were a headliner, they wouldn't have been bumped off in the first place). So Avengers v1 #131 could have been the best issue ever. It even gave us a bit of Fun with Out of Context Dialogue!(tm!):
But, since it was a Marvel comic, we had to sit through romantic angst between an android and an otherwise-forgettable martial arts chick:
Wow, that was pretty steamy stuff, wasn't it? Hide this issue from your parents, kids!
And while I'm not a huge fan of Iron Man (although the movie is bringing me around), he spoke for us all here:
What, Vision? You say you'll shut up about your love life? Thanks!
My main gripe is that time spent on android/boring chick love was time that cut into Zombies:
See? That was the last panel, and we had none of the promised Zombie fighting! Someone owes me reparations!
Well, I'm taking the high road. Here's a shot of Thor smacking Frankenstein's monster from the next issue:
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Yeah! Get thee hence, creature! FWING!
You're welcome.
See you tomorrow!
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12 comments:
fwing?
*FWANG!* I say to thee!
*FWANG!*
(either way, that's a great panel!)
I had no idea about the black dog problem. I have two rescues (one shelter, one stray), so no additions are possible. Turns out I am allergic to the little guys too. Oh well, what doesn't kill us... makes our nose run and skin break out :-)
You know, that is one reason I don't read comics anymore. You see a cover with a "read me because" in big letters, and it always is just like this one. The final panel has a "read the next one because, see cover". Comics need to take a lesson from Roger Corman; deliver what's on the poster. It don't have to be great, just include it.
A couple of the dogs my in-laws have found on the side of our road (we live on a dirt road) have been black dogs. Never knew it was a problem either, but our road is notorious for people abandoning their pets. Being the saps we are, we take them and try to find them good homes. Failing that, they get incorporated into the family.
And yeah, boo hiss on not delivering on the zombie fights.
RE: Black dogs.
Really? Purely ancedotal evidence, but I have a black lab mix named Sam. He's the basic model of dog in my neck of the woods. The kids and I see "Sam-style dogs" all the time, so it's a long running family joke.
Anyhow, love the Legion of the Unliving, even if the name is more of a misnomer every year...Mightygodking took a look at who stayed dead a while ago, and it wasn't a lot.
Frankenstein's Monster got FWNED!
My bestest dog ever was a black dog, adopted as a young stray who had apparently been abused and dumped. She was the most intelligent and empathic dog I've ever known.
My wife works for Animal Control at the shelter and part of her job deals with adoptions and working with local rescues to get dogs and cats to them, and she attests to the same thing -- black dogs are very difficult to place (and often so are black cats).
Part if the problem is the animals just don't stand out like some some other animals do, especially when they're in an environment where there are a large number of animals to see like you find at a big shelter. They just get overlooked.
Another thing is a lot of people who come into shelters to adopt a dog often have a specific breed in mind -- maybe they've done some research and know a breed that fits their lifestyle or maybe it's just a breed they always wanted. So they overlook mutts. And with mutts, you can't really tell their temperament unless you spend the time to find out, and not everyone is willing to do that. Combine a mutt with the fact they're black and it can be a dog that has very little chance of being adopted despite it's temperament.
We have friends who do dog rescue and they have 6 or 7 black dogs they've taken in over the years and have been trying to get adopted, but have yet to. Not that those dogs want for better treatment then they get in their foster home -- they're some of the best provided for (read: spoiled) dogs I've met.
are you series about Black dogs being put down because no one wants them? that is so sad (those racist for not getting a dog due to it's fur color)
I had a Black mutt that died a few years ago.
now on with the comic booky
that line about dressing like a bar girl but leaping like a grasshopper made me laugh due to level of it's stupidity.
I find it hard to believe that even in context it would make much sense.
but man I didn't realize Vision got so much action for a robot.
Yeah, unfortunately, that's true about black dogs. Some people think its a very old cultural holdover from some countries in which black animals, in general, were believed to be agents of the devil. I found out about that when working on a book about Schipperkes. It's sad, really. :-(
I myself have a hairy black dog -- a Swedish Lapphund. Sure I'm biased, but he's the sweetest ol' doggy in the whole wide world. :-) I also have an American Eskimo Dog. Very pretty, white dog, smaller than the black one, but PURE EVIL. Everyone always wants to pet the WHITE dog instead of the BLACK dog, but the white one is infinitely more dangerous!
Why did Mantis have antennae? Was she a mutant or an alien?
The antennae are part of her costume.
In Indonesia (and, I believe, other Muslim countries) there is a strong prejudice against black dogs as agents of evil.
My sister was a manager for an Indonesian company (outside Indonesia) and used this to her advantage. She had an immense black Newfoundland, a beautiful friendly dog but very imposing, which she used to threaten the staff with when they were being difficult. They were terrified. Grown men jumping on tables to escape kind of terrified.
(My sister is kind of a hardass.)
I'd never heard of this prejudice in the modern west, though.
Awww... I wish we could have a dog, any dog-- but the cats would be horrified. We had two mutts when I was a kid, and they were both black. They had a great sense of humor, which was a good thing given our propensity for making them wear hats, sunglasses, etc.
Black labs seem to be immensely popular in this neck of the woods. I think it's because of dual factors: Pretentious art-farts who love anything black and the dog's built-in raincoat:A must-have accessory in a region where it rains about 3/4ths of the year.
I believe the black=bad luck thing affects cat adoptions, as well.
-- cleome45
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