Brian Rogers (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
subplotkudzu) wrote2009-08-07 11:00 am
subplotkudzu) wrote2009-08-07 11:00 am
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Books 64-66
64) Jack of Fables volume 2: The Los Vegas stroy arc, this was the best of the Jack collections that I've read. The book still suffers from hideous subplot kudzu, however, and I'm not sure this was strong enough for me to keep reading it.
65) The Authority volume 1: I finally own a copy of Warren Ellis 1999 "supers try to change the world" story, and it is as good as I remember. I almost bought volume 2, but I'm torn on it - Ellis only wrote the first of the two arcs in the second volume, the other penned by Mars "everything I touch turns into a festering turd" Millar. But the first volume is pure over the top mad wonderful ideas super-hero wierdness combined with serious thoughts about world changing.
66) The Illiad: Homer's other great epic, I didn't find this one as gripping as the Oddysey. It was much, much bloodier than I had expected, but gave a very good feel for a type of combat that Fantasy games could emulate, but usually don't. It's also clear that the various movie and TV adaptations of the material are written by people who have the level of familiarity that I had before reading it, who then use the story as a framework on which to superimpose their own contemporary biases. In other words, no actual Greek myth was accessed in the making of Wolfgang Peterson's _Troy_.
65) The Authority volume 1: I finally own a copy of Warren Ellis 1999 "supers try to change the world" story, and it is as good as I remember. I almost bought volume 2, but I'm torn on it - Ellis only wrote the first of the two arcs in the second volume, the other penned by Mars "everything I touch turns into a festering turd" Millar. But the first volume is pure over the top mad wonderful ideas super-hero wierdness combined with serious thoughts about world changing.
66) The Illiad: Homer's other great epic, I didn't find this one as gripping as the Oddysey. It was much, much bloodier than I had expected, but gave a very good feel for a type of combat that Fantasy games could emulate, but usually don't. It's also clear that the various movie and TV adaptations of the material are written by people who have the level of familiarity that I had before reading it, who then use the story as a framework on which to superimpose their own contemporary biases. In other words, no actual Greek myth was accessed in the making of Wolfgang Peterson's _Troy_.
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While I never read anything past the first Millar 4 issue arc I did see some of their later advertising, so the low point to me was the cover artwork that made sure you could identify the Engineer's vulva through her nano-skin as she generated clevage by hugging her overlarge breasts. My how the book had falled from the glory days.
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(Anonymous) 2009-08-12 08:02 pm (UTC)(link)The Authority was the most fascistic comic I've seen. "We're right, therefore everyone who disagrees with us is evil, so we can blithely ignore things like democratic processes, law, and anything else."
Cambias
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Looking at the first 8 issues of Ellis run we have
1-4: a nation state run by a terrorist espousing government launches high profile, high casualty atatcks against major population centers. After securing a modicum of UN supportthe Authority moves to mitigate the second and third attacks, providing clean up support after asking for approval from the affected nations governments. After/During the third attack the Authorty makes a massive strike on the attacking country, killing their leader and removing their technological ability to threaten the rest of the world. The the origanize for the UN to lead the nation building effort in the terrorist country.
5-8: A once courted but now isolated parallel world run by a brutal tyrrany launches an attack on our world. Authority moves to stop the incoming attacks while laucnhing a "shock and awe" strike to obliterate the ruling government of the parallel world and all of its governing infrastructure. An announcement is then made to the centuries oppressed population that they now have a chance to govern themselves, and the Authority promises to offer some help.
It's been a while since I read 9-12, but if memory serves they fight God, or whatever they developed for the Galactus/New Gods cosmic threat.
This behavior hardly strikes me as heavy-handed progressiveism. If anything, the idea of claiming moral authority to use massive targeted violence in disabling the governments of dangerous states, then letting the inhabitants re-invent their gorvernment without tyrants strikes me as a Neoconservative one. That might not be Ellis' personal politics, but it is what his heroes are doing.
The Authoirty never demands the complete restruction of the world economic and social structure for a more "equitable" arrangement (as in Miracleman). We see no evidence that they are planning to overthrow the governments of existing nation states that are not making super-human assaults on other countries, or taking out rival superhumans who have taken over governments (as in Supreme Power), They actually never engage in anything that usually appears in "supers start changing the world" stories.
They disrupt no democractic processes, they secure permission from nation states before engaging in non-crisis intervention on their territory, and they aren't taking it on themsevles to distribute hyper-tech worldwide to disrupt the world order, leaving that to existing governmental structures. The reason their actions only face Evil people is because they aren't engaging in action against people who aren't launching unprovoked attacks or invasions.
The status quo they are disrupting is the Comics Norm, where the attacks would be stopped but the main villains would be left in power so they could provide plot in later issues. Ellis is doing that Morrison couldn't do in Justice League, which was actually letting the heroes permanently remove the villains (Morrison even had his first JLA story arc include comments on how the JLA lacked the power to actaully change the world, and were just there to catch humanity when they fell)
By contrast, the story arcs under Millars run include a US Government sposered psuedo-Avengers trying to kidnap baby Jenny Quantum so she could be brainwashed to assure USA's dominance of the 21st century, and later the development of a G7 funded super-team to beat up the Authority and make sure the existing world order isn't latered to their disadvantage. And this is why Millar's run on the book is worthless.
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(Anonymous) 2009-08-14 12:22 pm (UTC)(link)JLC
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