The Big Picture: Super Single

[PunkRex]

I always liked the Batman / Wounderwomen set up in the Justice League cartoon. Batman was just constantly saying it was a bad idea while Wounderwomen was like "whatever ***** your arse is mine", I think it suited their characters, at least in that series.
Not that Wounderwomen being lesbian wouldnt make more sense. Hell im preaty sure Batmans converted at least 3 lesbians. Id be gay if it meant doing it with Batman... and I dont even read Western Super Hero comics.

 

[Wolcik]

Since I tend to focus on Marvel's big event I don't spend much time on DC - it's nice to get an update on that and explanation

 

[ManupBatman]

Bob are you familiar with The Sentry? Pretty much Marvel's early 2000s ultra realistic version of Superman that has a cooler concept then most writers can handle if your not. Though more on topic, they show how the most powerful person in the world probably gets along with marrying a normal person, and that is not well. Not well at all.

And I hope they keep Supes single for a while and play the field a bit. Nothing says "internal strife that you simply solve by throwing it in the Sun" like a woman, am I right fellas?............. Yeah I'm totally right.

And then Sentry devolved into an invincible, boring, irritating character nobody liked. Nobody at Marvel knew what the hell to do with the guy.

Tell me about it. They just couldn't resist putting him in teams and using him as a go to deus ex machina. Same thing with Doc Strange, and Ironman, and really pretty much all characters that have a lot of magic or tech. Least DC has the curtsy of rotating their characters who save the day and reset things back to 0.

 

[ManupBatman]

Sorry for the double post.

 

[SomeBritishDude]

Superman and Lois Lane not being together? Whatever.

Grant Morrison, the writer of All Star Superman, bringing back an angry, socialist golden age Superman who fights currupt corporate buisness men and politians and represents the working man in the new great depression?

Spoiler: Oh hell yes!

 

[The_ModeRazor]

...comics are still being made and sold?
Wow, good to know.

 

[SomeBritishDude]

I would be in favor of Marvel and DC retiring some of the old superheroes and letting new ones rise up. Both companies have basically run out of ideas for the characters are are just staggering around looking for new ways to reinvent the heroes they've got. When that happens, it's time for fresh blood.

The problem is both Marvel and DC try to introduce new characters all the time. None of them are as popular as either comics regular Superheroes. Very few created in the last 20-30 years have stuck

The ones who do stick either have niche or cult followings (Booster Gold, Blue Beetle, Deadpool) or are legacy characters connected in someway to existing franchises (Damian Wayne (Robin 4), Tim Drake (Robin 3), Batwoman, Superboy, Kyle Rayner (Green Lantern 4) ect)

 

[Moeez]

Fantastic Four as "old married couple with two obnoxious kids" Blew my mind.

 

[GiantRaven]

Grant Morrison, the writer of All Star Superman, bringing back an angry, socialist golden age Superman who fights currupt corporate buisness men and politians and represents the working man in the new great depression?

A thousand times yes.

And on top of that unbelievably delicious cake there's the damn tasty icing of Rags Morales' art.

Should be one of the best books of the relaunch in my eyes.

 

[SomeBritishDude]

Grant Morrison, the writer of All Star Superman, bringing back an angry, socialist golden age Superman who fights currupt corporate buisness men and politians and represents the working man in the new great depression?

A thousand times yes.

And on top of that unbelievably delicious cake there's the damn tasty icing of Rags Morales' art.

Should be one of the best books of the relaunch in my eyes.

That and everything in the Dark line up (Animal Man, Swamp Thing, Justice League Dark, Frankenstein ect) is a must buy.

 

[jmarquiso]

Darn, I was hoping this one would be about our new Black Spiderman. I wanna hear more about Marvel's decision to kill off peter parker.

They're not killing off Peter Parker though. They're killing off the 'Ultimate' version of Peter Parker which is basically an alternate universe version that was made up 10 years ago or so. The regular Peter Parker from the 60's is still alive and well.

Regardless (how is that different from superman hooks up with wonderwoman in an alternate universe anyways?) I still would like to hear how Marvel reached this decision. I'm not going to try and understand what the point of the alternate universes are for (especially not after reading marvel zombies) I'm just curious, besides it'd make a good episode.

Books like that aren't as designed by committee as DC is. Usually, the writer (Brian Michael Bendis) pitches it to the EIC and such, and if it makes sense and it could be interesting, they approve. If it's a big shift - such as the Black/Latino Spider-man - they put some marketing power behind it as well.

Even the big events began as simple pitches by the writers, not necessarily directed by a marketing department.

As for why it happened, well -

Likely they're planning on separating the Ultimate Universe from the regular universe even more. Killing Ultimate Peter Parker - the first Ultimate character - signifies that, but they've been talking about it since Ultimatum. They want more original stories with original characters more so than derivative stories with "Ultimized" characters. This new Spider-man is indicative about it.

 

[LadyRhian]

Bob are you familiar with The Sentry? Pretty much Marvel's early 2000s ultra realistic version of Superman that has a cooler concept then most writers can handle if your not. Though more on topic, they show how the most powerful person in the world probably gets along with marrying a normal person, and that is not well. Not well at all.

And I hope they keep Supes single for a while and play the field a bit. Nothing says "internal strife that you simply solve by throwing it in the Sun" like a woman, am I right fellas?............. Yeah I'm totally right.

And then Sentry devolved into an invincible, boring, irritating character nobody liked. Nobody at Marvel knew what the hell to do with the guy.

And that's why they ultimately (ba-dum-tish) killed him off. What irritated most folks was how they threw him in and retconned stuff so that he always had existed in Marvel comics. Most fans were like Bwah-huh? Especially when most comics readers though he was stupid and disliked him to begin with.

 

[shufflemonkey16]

Bob, I dare you to go the next three weeks without a comic book episode.

The way you started this one even sarcastically admits that this is basically becoming what the show is about, which is sad, because there are so many other interesting, engaging things that you can talk about and have talked about.

Or, at the very least, use the comic book topics as a springboard to expand into farther reaching subjects. Most of these episodes are just about comics for the sake of comics.

I do realize that you just did a month about movies, which I appreciated, and it's why I'm kind of exasperated that you're dropping straight back into comics.

 

[RJ Dalton]

The problem is both Marvel and DC try to introduce new characters all the time. None of them are as popular as either comics regular Superheroes. Very few created in the last 20-30 years have stuck

The ones who do stick either have niche or cult followings (Booster Gold, Blue Beetle, Deadpool) or are legacy characters connected in someway to existing franchises (Damian Wayne (Robin 4), Tim Drake (Robin 3), Batwoman, Superboy, Kyle Rayner (Green Lantern 4) ect)

So, it's all the fans fault then.

 

[titaniumChampion]

Clark Kent getting married is logical to me. Ma and Pa Kent are not going to be around forever, and the character needs somewhere to call home and someone just as close to confide in. The character himself may be physically indestructible, but emotionally he'll just be a slave to the people who constantly forget their babies in burning buildings. This is one of my favorite things about Spider-man 2, since that film addresses the desires of the superhero to lead a normal life even with the burden of responsibility of their powers.

Superman being single doesn't make him more relatable any more than being married. Do people want to see Clark Kent, boy scout as he his, hit it and quit it? I honestly don't understand what is so wrong with a logical progression of a relationship status. Does he need to be obsessed with the Metropolis Meteors, drink a lot, date endlessly, and despise his life of endless heroism in order to match up with American tastes? His desire to marry stems from being raised by his married parents and observing the love and support they offer each other. Just because he's an indestructible alien doesn't mean he has to be condemned to a personal hell of solitude. So marriage is the true enemy of the superhero?

I don't think the company is making a wrong decision in taking the opportunity to alter their stories, and provide a solid jumping-on point for new readers. However, if their desire is to pair Superman and WW together I have a big problem with that. I love the alternate universes where this relationship is explored, but I think that hurts WW's characterization too much. It makes her look weak, and I feel that WW should remain independent.

I'll leave this here to inspire your empathy.

 

[moosek]

I'll read comic if the DC reboot happens. I don't want to have to deal with head up the ass continuity issues.

 

[RyePunk]

Most stable couple in comics?
The Dibny's.

 

[leviadragon99]

Interesting... though I have to say I agree more with the passing mention of Wondy coming out of the closet than the "Supes as a swinging bachelor" main argument.

 

[HyenaThePirate]

Nope, I'm gonna be a stubborn old man on this one.

Supes wears red undies or I cancel my subscription.

Supes belongs with Lois Lane or I cancel my subscription.

You know, I've never been a fan of reboots. I like the idea of a parallel world where things march on right alongside ours and removing the few attempts at changing things up in the past, I enjoy a long, storied continuity.

Superman and Lois Lane are iconic. It's one of those things that keeps gushy little losers like myself believing that true love can exist and two people can be fatefully perfect for each other. If big blue and Lo-La can't even find that joy that being with the one you love gives you, then what hope is there for those of us in the real world to believe in such things?

Besides, I think you could go the other way with the dynamic. Yes being married to Superman is a tough thing, but it's like being married to an ATF agent or soldier, as you said Bob. There's stress in that relationship but there's also a great deal of devotion. It makes for great drama if the right writers capitalized on it. Even Spidey and Mary Jane kinda used to make me smile every time something big would go down and he'd be on the verge of going out that window, probably to his death, both of them realizing that but MJ realizing that it's what a hero has to do. Then she'd say, "Go get 'em, Tiger."

Boy if I was a hero about to rush to in all probability a horrible, painful demise at the hands of some twisted, psychotic, super powered freakazoid, having the love of my life send me on my way with a "go get em tiger" would be more sustaining than any super power I had. I would fight that much harder, react that much smarter, risk everything and anything to win for my lady and return to her arms for some super powered love making after I heal up.

Superman and Lois Lane splitsville? SOunds like an excuse to retread the same old ground and you and I both know it won't last long. In short order they'll be falling in love all over again, and we'll be going through that whole cat-and-mouse thing that the past 6 seasons of Smallville already traipsed through.

Some things, I think, are better off left alone.

 

[Rakor]

Well, I don't think it was a horrible thing for superman to get hitched, but i agree something should change because of it.

I see two main ways to do it:

A) Superman retires, happy little life with louis a while, meanwhile superbaddies pop out left and right, superman realizes this ain't gonna work so he breaks it off himself, maybe breaks himself off from humanity a bit.

B) Superman does the 90% of the time superheroing and louis gets right pissed about it, maybe breaks it off herself and he goes into depression mode a while.

Oooo, third one, no one would see this coming (sarcasm):

C) Louis dies, brutally. In the superhero's not allowed to have a happy little life mindset, he just gets punished pretty quick. Not so much if readers think he's not allowed, but in a universe like this with so many enemies and responsibilities, does he really think he can keep an ounce of normalcy.

Now I don't read comics, enjoy hearing such a synopsis from a knowledgeable source but I don't know jack about how it all went down canonically, but i certainly agree that the only difference being now superman occasionally kisses his wife goodbye in the morning is kinda silly.