I hadn't thought about the influence of Watchmen specifically on this book. Unless there are some very specific allusions, I never consider Watchmen specifically. I just assume it's an influence and move on. That's a terrible habit and I need to break it.
I don't know why, but they never seem to consider the limitations they'll face before undertaking projects like these, do they? Shawn and I both said some similar things (him better than I) and the main thrust is that Identity Crisis tried to tell a story that require the superheroes not to be DC superheroes. They needed to exist outside of concerns over next week's comics, because the story demanded that they not be limited in such a way.
I have never understood Batman's outrage at mindwiping Dr. Light. That always seemed inconsitent with his character, which seems to have only one line: he doesn't kill. Everything else is fair game. Except there needs to be a reason for them to mindwipe him, too. Because they need a dark secret. The story came first, the characters second... in a world where the characters always come first, even over real people. ("Of course," says Grant Morrison, "Because they're more real than us! They'll outlive us all!") How does this slip through the cracks? To call it the beginning of the era of "DON'T SAY NO TO PEOPLE WITH NAMES THAT SOMEONE ON THE STREET MIGHT RECOGNISE" isn't right, because that had begun years prior with Kevin Smith and J. Michael Straczynski.
Books like this make people like me wonder what an editor's job is. And if they're proud of having it. You can just picture a group of nervous people muttering about all of the flaws while Dan DiDio stomps around, froth at the mouth, eyes everywhere, shouting "I SMELL MONEY!" over and over again until the muttering dies down and he's free to take a giant shit on each of their desks in peace.
In a comic of dumb moments, the dumbest always seemed to be the part where Green Arrow stabs Deathstroke in his eyepatch eye. Why wouldn't you blind the asshole? Why even introduce the idea that Green Arrow would do such a thing and not follow through on the logical path? It's stuff like that that confounds me. (So much about this comic does!) What does one think when they decide to have Green Arrow stab a guy in his eye that doesn't work instead of blinding him? Are we to assume that Green Arrow is a moron? That he think it too cruel to blind the assassin? What is the fucking point?
I shouldn't have picked this topic. It brings up bad memories.
One last question: what's worse, Identity Crisis or Infinite Crisis?
In 30 minutes, we move onto a good comic: Spaceman with Adam Langton!
We have hit ONE THOUSAND DOLLARS raised. Actually, it's $1010 officially. I keep running out of ways to express my shock at how much money has been raised, but it's still there. Over one thousand dollars. Amazing.
[Don't forget to donate what you can to the Hero Initiative (Details in this post)! After you do, let me know via comment or e-mail (found at the righthand side) so I can keep track of donations -- and who to thank.]
Storm #2 annotations
1 day ago
