In this adventures up the cliffs of insanity, I'll recap the many deaths of Lois Lane, who should be wearing the reporter equivalent of a red shirt, the intriguing possibility that Jimmy Olsen may be a woman in the Man of Steel movie, the bad news regarding the proposed Wonder Woman television show, and the geek parenting moment of the week involving my daughter's search for a particular Pokemon.
So, Lois is murdered. Again. This time in a comic books that acts as a prequell of the Injustice: Gods Among Us game.
Last year, I wrote a satirical column for GeekDad entitled Dear DC Comics: Why Do You Keep Fridging Me? and it was signed by Lois Lane. At that point in time, Lois had died three times in one year in various alternate universe storylines and it had become somewhat ridiculous, especially as she's one of the few comic characters that the general public instantly recognizes.
One would think marketing would like to build her popularity, especially with Lois being played by Academy Award Winning Amy Adams in the Man of Steel movie.
Instead, all DC and a number of writers seem to be able to do is kill her.
This latest death is even more over the top, as it's not enough to kill Lois but also her unborn baby AND also the entire city of Metropolis and also, it's all done at the hands of a deranged Superman who's been poisoned by the Joker.
I'm kinda unsure how the Joker survives to be in the game itself because, hey, even superheroes might react badly to being tricked into killing their wife and unborn child, not to mention a whole city, and Joker has no powers and….
But I digress.
Why does Lois die so often? To make Superman angry and angsty of course. This begs the question as to why one would need an angry, angsty Superman, given the character is basically a symbol of hope and works best when portrayed that way. Superman Returns is a classic example of why angsty Superman it doesn't work.
But writers seem bound and determined to do it anyway.
Despite the Silver Age cover in this post, the first use of Lois' death in a major DC work was in Kingdom Come by Mark Waid and Alex Ross, published in 1996. Lois dies off-screen in that and we see Superman refusing to get involved in the world because of it. Wonder Woman snaps him out of it and that pair ends up together. I like this story but never did like the Wonder Woman/Superman pairing. It seems, well, boring.
Writers following Waid seemed determined to do exactly the same thing as Waid when they're writing about an isolated Superman. Lois, off to the grave with you! The only exception was the Justice Lords storyline in the cartoon television show, Justice League. In that, Flash's death at the hands of a villain triggered Superman's need to impose order on the world, while Lois is the one saying he's gone too far.
So Lois has been dying for a long time now but, lately, the deaths are coming closer and closer together. This makes four in eighteen months.
Bored now.
There are also obvious and problematic gender issues in making one of the most well-known female characters in comics a constant death magnet. Instead of a person, she becomes a simple prop. Yes, I know, the women he loves dying is sure to make Superman sad. One, why do we always have to make Superman sad? Can't we challenge him in another way? And, two, at this point, how can her death emotionally affect readers anymore, knowing it's the go to thing to do to make Superman sad? Oh, hey, Lois is dead. Must be Tuesday.
But it's okay, you say, because Lois is still Lois in the mainstream comics being published right now. These are just alternate reality examples or ones connected to a game. That doesn't explain the constant need to pummel and destroy one of the most popular and strong female characters in comics.
And I wish it were true and Lois was a vibrant presence in the comics. In the mainstream Superman comics, Lois has been sidelined behind a desk, had much of her drive to uncover the truth eliminated, and has been reduced to being the victim of Superman stalking via email.
There's always the Lois Lane in Smallville Season 11, available digitally via Comixology.com which should be read not because Lois is still Lois but also because that Superman is a hero I still recognize. DC seems to be very good lately about writing costumed people with powers.
It's not the same as writing as heroes with powers.
Holy Gender-Swap, Batman!
In gender politics of another sort, it appears that Jimmy Olsen may be "Jenny" Olsen in Man of Steel. The Mary Sue sums up the situation. Nothing is confirmed, save a possible movie still of Jenny and Jenny Olsen being listed in the cast credits.
On the one hand, I can't see a woman saying "Gee willikeers, Mr. Kent!" and that makes me sad. On the other hand, it would be somewhat nice to see Lois mentor another woman. Objections have been made all over the internet about the possible gender swap, similar to the ones voiced about casting African-American actor Laurence Fishburne as Perry White.
Here's the problem faced by the original stories to the modern day: they are a reflection of the long ago times when the casts of most comics were white and mostly male. (We're still working on the mostly male part, it seems.) It's impossible to ignore times have changed and casting Fishburne as White is a great recognition of this change. Jenny Olsen could potentially be part of this as well, though I'll point out Jimmy always harbored a secret crush on Lois. But there's no reason Jenny couldn't either.
Where's Lynda Carter When We Need Her?
While Jenny Olsen might make it to the big screen, it looks like Princess Diana aka Wonder Woman won't be coming to television, at least not for this season. The CW network pushed back production of the proposed Amazon show back to 2014. The show was to focus on a teenage Diana's coming to America as a high school student (no costumes, darling!), a setup perfect for the youht-oriented CW but the script isn't yet finished and the perfect person to play Diana hasn't been found. So the show may still happen but not this year.
Gotta Catch 'Em All!
While I was worrying about Lois Lane's fate, my youngest daughter was busy trying to corner an elusive Pokemon.
She saw a news item about a free download available at Gamestop of the Keldeo Pokemon that would go in her Pokemon Black game. But she forgot to check the date on the news item, which was August 2012.So the trip to Gamestop to download Keldeo was in vain.
But all was not lost. More searching and googling eventually led us to the official Pokemon Black and White 2 site. (Official site. D'oh!) There, Keldeo was now available as a download for the updated game via any wireless network. Success!
What did we learn? Always check the dates of free things. Also, never make a trip to Gamestop in vain. While we were there, we traded in a bunch of games she had outgrown and now she has substantial credit.
No doubt for when the next Pokemon game is available.
No hay comentarios:
Publicar un comentario