I went on and on about how much I loved Daredevil in my previous blogs. Once I decided to come out of the comics closet I latched onto that one hero. I always liked my superheroes to only be a tad super powered. I think Spiderman is the most super powered a hero can get for me. And Daredevil is just cool. The entire red-suited look and the how he could be so brooding and intimidating, yet not defined by fear, like Batman. In fact, DD is "the man without fear." I haven't read any of the Frank Miller DD yet, which most consider the best and what defined the modern character. I do look forward to that, reading those back issues I mean.The whole point of that love fest was that I tended to stick more with Marvel comics because of just the hint of super poweredness in their guys. Yes, they have guys like Thor and Dark Phoenix who can shatter stars or something but they don't have walking deus ex machina's like DC (I am talking about you Superman!). Of course, I had to respect the DC for their contributions to overall American culture (As much as I love DD, he is not an American icon like Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, etc.).
You know how you always had like that one religious friend who would sometimes just get curious and want to go see what the other folks were believing. Or how you just have to break down one day and take a peek at some Ann Coulter articles? Yeah, curiosity.
Well, I might not like the sheer overpowered-ness I feel comes from DC and I might cringe at guys able to move planets, but I have to admit that I have given to one hero at the "Distinguished Competition."
Green Lantern
Yes, I understand the GL is pretty much the opposite of DD. You go from a guy who is just a ninja with super senses and a law degree to a dude (or series of dudes) with the most powerful weapon in the universe. I gave in to my GL curiosity by reading the landmark Green Lantern:Rebirth, where DC brings back the original GL (Hal Jordan) after they had killed them off in 1994 and replaced him with the (pictured above, Kyle Rayner). GL:R has been the only comic to date (and I will admit my actual reading of comics is fairly new) that really held me there. If these are supposed to be true stories worthy of inspiring and amazing us then this is the only one I have read so far. I couldn't put it down and re-read as soon as I had turned the last page of my handsome trade paperback. I really do hope to re-create that experience with other comics. To the non-comic oriented, think about the first time you saw your favorite movie. And I mean favorite movie. The kind of movie that made you want to rewind the damn thing and watch it all over again. With me, it was Fight Club. Or that album that you just had to listen too all over again. You can also imagine this with a song. For me, the album was the Beastie Boy's Hello Nasty and the song was Jimmy Eat World's "Disintegration." The book that you just had to talk to someone about or start reading all over again! For me, it was Ender's Game. If you haven't had experiences like that then I suggest you start absorbing more and more until you have those jaw droppers that make you want to devour the entire piece.
Why Kyle Rayner above instead of the iconic Hal Jordan? I guess I just like Kyle better. I also like those everyman heroes (ex. Spiderman) who get handed these powers. DD is kind of like that too, but I will spare you my analysis of his origins. I am reading the current GL run with Hal Jordan as the hero and he is cool, but Kyle just seems like the GL I would have grown up with if I had succumb to the comics bug earlier.
Ok, well, that's that. Two favorite heroes. There we go. Now, let's try to keep them at that. I am way to poor to be buying shit loads of monthlies. Seriously, wait for the New Year's Resolutions post for more of that.
Want something non-comics related. Well, here you go, but it's short...
Anyone who knows me also knows that I don't really believe in God. Not that I don't believe in something else beyond this plane, but that this all powerful being sitting up in the skies telling us what to do through old books and secret societies never seemed appealing. I won't be some wishy-washy kid and call myself agnostic or anything. I am an atheist in God, but a believer in the wonderful. I mention this because there are those rare times that I would like to believe that there is a God and a heaven and a hell, where people can either celebrate or suffer. This is one of those times.
Pinochet escaped humanity's judicial system long enough and it is comforting to think that in the afterlife he will meet the final judgment for his crimes. Like one reader on the BBC News site said, "The CIA, however, lives on..." So does Henry Kissinger. So does September 11th 1973.
Pinochet is not without his supporters. Many see him as a figure that saved Chile from communism and turned them into a vigorous Latin American state. Growing up, our front door neighbor was a political refugee from Chile who had fled the Pinochet coup. He certainly had no love for the man. Just as anti-communists say that Mao's Great Leap Forward and Stalin's controlled starvation of the Ukrainians can't justify the Great Leap Forward and rise of the Soviet Union, then the Pinochet supporters can't support their claims on the bones of 3,000 people. In fact, waging war on your own citizenry and murdering 3,000 of them should never justify a political action, be it from whatever angle of the spectrum.
There was a certain poetry to his death with today being International Human Rights Day. A BBC reader in Puerto Rico (Yay!) also pointed out that a giant rainbow crossed his/her part of San Juan when he/she heard of the death.
It's a shame he lived to 91 when men who created peace (like MLK Jr.) are gunned down in their middle age. Also a shame that he dies surrounded by his family.
Monster or hero? It depends on who is talking. Murderer? Well, of course he was! If there is a God, then maybe that is the last bit or irony here.
Peace!
Yes, I understand the GL is pretty much the opposite of DD. You go from a guy who is just a ninja with super senses and a law degree to a dude (or series of dudes) with the most powerful weapon in the universe. I gave in to my GL curiosity by reading the landmark Green Lantern:Rebirth, where DC brings back the original GL (Hal Jordan) after they had killed them off in 1994 and replaced him with the (pictured above, Kyle Rayner). GL:R has been the only comic to date (and I will admit my actual reading of comics is fairly new) that really held me there. If these are supposed to be true stories worthy of inspiring and amazing us then this is the only one I have read so far. I couldn't put it down and re-read as soon as I had turned the last page of my handsome trade paperback. I really do hope to re-create that experience with other comics. To the non-comic oriented, think about the first time you saw your favorite movie. And I mean favorite movie. The kind of movie that made you want to rewind the damn thing and watch it all over again. With me, it was Fight Club. Or that album that you just had to listen too all over again. You can also imagine this with a song. For me, the album was the Beastie Boy's Hello Nasty and the song was Jimmy Eat World's "Disintegration." The book that you just had to talk to someone about or start reading all over again! For me, it was Ender's Game. If you haven't had experiences like that then I suggest you start absorbing more and more until you have those jaw droppers that make you want to devour the entire piece.
Why Kyle Rayner above instead of the iconic Hal Jordan? I guess I just like Kyle better. I also like those everyman heroes (ex. Spiderman) who get handed these powers. DD is kind of like that too, but I will spare you my analysis of his origins. I am reading the current GL run with Hal Jordan as the hero and he is cool, but Kyle just seems like the GL I would have grown up with if I had succumb to the comics bug earlier.
Ok, well, that's that. Two favorite heroes. There we go. Now, let's try to keep them at that. I am way to poor to be buying shit loads of monthlies. Seriously, wait for the New Year's Resolutions post for more of that.
Want something non-comics related. Well, here you go, but it's short...
Anyone who knows me also knows that I don't really believe in God. Not that I don't believe in something else beyond this plane, but that this all powerful being sitting up in the skies telling us what to do through old books and secret societies never seemed appealing. I won't be some wishy-washy kid and call myself agnostic or anything. I am an atheist in God, but a believer in the wonderful. I mention this because there are those rare times that I would like to believe that there is a God and a heaven and a hell, where people can either celebrate or suffer. This is one of those times.
Pinochet escaped humanity's judicial system long enough and it is comforting to think that in the afterlife he will meet the final judgment for his crimes. Like one reader on the BBC News site said, "The CIA, however, lives on..." So does Henry Kissinger. So does September 11th 1973.
Pinochet is not without his supporters. Many see him as a figure that saved Chile from communism and turned them into a vigorous Latin American state. Growing up, our front door neighbor was a political refugee from Chile who had fled the Pinochet coup. He certainly had no love for the man. Just as anti-communists say that Mao's Great Leap Forward and Stalin's controlled starvation of the Ukrainians can't justify the Great Leap Forward and rise of the Soviet Union, then the Pinochet supporters can't support their claims on the bones of 3,000 people. In fact, waging war on your own citizenry and murdering 3,000 of them should never justify a political action, be it from whatever angle of the spectrum.
There was a certain poetry to his death with today being International Human Rights Day. A BBC reader in Puerto Rico (Yay!) also pointed out that a giant rainbow crossed his/her part of San Juan when he/she heard of the death.
It's a shame he lived to 91 when men who created peace (like MLK Jr.) are gunned down in their middle age. Also a shame that he dies surrounded by his family.
Monster or hero? It depends on who is talking. Murderer? Well, of course he was! If there is a God, then maybe that is the last bit or irony here.
Peace!
No comments:
Post a Comment