I would have emailed him or her first for their permission, but iron lungfish does not leave such calling cards, so I hope it won't cause that much of an uproar. A few posts back I was discussing my dislike for the last issue of Zatanna. In all honesty, these latter issues of Grant Morrison's Seven Soldiers are confusing the hell out of me and making me feel like a god damn moron. "Everyone else is liking it. Why aren't I? Is something wrong with me? Is it because I have red hair? Why!?!?" That's the conversation in my head. Enter iron lungfish with the critical karate:
Okay, this is why Zatanna #4 sucked: the villain of the series should at least be mentioned before they show up for the big climactic final fight. I read the last issue, re-read all the others, and still couldn't find how this was supposed to fit together (without Barbelith-esque leaps of logic to explain away what would ordinarily be assumed to be crappy writing).
I eventually had to google for "Zor" to find out he was some old Spectre villain, which made his appearance seem even more random. And why the hell should I have to use the internet to figure out a character's significance in the first place? Then there's the gratuitous metafictive stuff, which by now I assume Morrison puts in when he doesn't know what to actually write. There's a difference between "throwing lots of crazy ideas out there" (All-Star Superman, JLA, New X-Men) and "pulling random crap out of your ass and hoping the artist can draw it real good" (Zatanna, The Invisibles).
Now can I get an explanation for Frankenstein # 1 and Mr. Miracle # 2? I have drink tickets for a crappy bar in Ventura County. That should be payment enough, you think. Maybe make this a regular feature. "iron lungfish dissects Grant Morrison so Spencer doesn't have to."
Unrelated Zatanna Cosplay Link : Just because you know you want it.
4 comments:
Explanation for Mr. Miracle #2 (and, I suspect, that whole miniseries):
There is apparently an editorial mandate at DC that in every "event" series there has to be at least a passing mention of the New Gods, Darkseid, and all that rubbish that no one actually likes but we've all come to accept as part of the DCU because it's useless to complain at this point.
Either that, or bad whiskey.
Explanation for Frankenstein #1:
Comic goodness that pure and crazy needs no explanation, my friend. Just buckle up. What specifically didn't you like about it? (I know you mentioned in another post that you didn't have time to properly review it.) I thought it was bitchin'.
I don't think there's anything to explain about Frankenstein, is there? He's essentially a primitive bio-weapon designed to kill Sheeda, who went dormant after their last attack, and has now awoken. He's apparently after Mr Melmoth (from Klarion) in particular, and will be off to Mars in #2 I think, in order to liberate the slave/orphan camp. I got all that from the issue.
Mister Miracle I don't know about, as it's one of the ones I'm not reading.
As for Zatanna, I think it got fudged up due to rewrites. I'm not entirely sure that Morrison was aware that Z would be at the heart of DC's big event story, and so has had to mess around with things a bit in order to make the 7S version and the InC version fit together, and the story has suffered.
Frankestein could have used some more Frankenstein and a lot less geek revenge. Sheeda controlled teenagers are not the type of antagonist that I wanted Frankenstein to fight. Frankenstein's story seemed to get pushed aside for Morrison's weird dialogue about the pecking order of high school's social structure. Just seemed a bit out of place. Plus the art was a little iffy. With the introduction of Mars, I believe the story will go into territory that I'll be more satisfied with.
Okay, I get that. Not enough Frankie, too much Napoleon Carrie Dynamite. Fair enough. I'm hoping to see Frank a bit more in upcoming issues too.
Your post seemed to imply that Frankenstein was one of Morrison's weird ones, so sorry if I misread that.
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