Why I Hate Infinite Crisis, Part 4

What the hell? How could I have something to not like about Infinite Crisis since there hasn't been a new issue in a month or so?

Wonder Woman, that's how.

They confirmed my fear, if that's what you call it, that Greg Rucka would no longer be writing the book. For that reason alone, I hate Infinte Crisis; it's turned Wonder Woman into another tie-in book, instead of being its own title that fits in the overall tapestry. That's not saying I don't like the book. It's still good, but a certain event has kept it from being all it could be.

Now, for the silver lining. The new writer, the previously mentioned Allan Heinberg, is committed to following Greg Rucka's lead. I'll most likely try it out, if not pick up the book on a full time basis.

Of course, there's the minor chance the "two Wonder Womans" concept could screw everything up--or it might be a smoke screen to give Greg Rucka a Wonder Woman book still. DC, don't screw this up. X-Men stuff has been setting up to get really good, so you've got to prove you're not going to suddenly become allergic to my money.

Personal Code--A Commanding Thought

For a long time, as long as I can remember, I've thought of my personality as a sponge--soaking up the traits I see in others, but never generating anything that I can really say is my own. One exception to this is my sense of honor, which I've spoken about before.

From this honor, I've noted, seen, and done several things. From these, I've had some revelations. To start, I always knew that this semester was going to let me prove who I really am. I just didn't know how right I was.

Trying to a sizeable portion of my thesis this semester has been rough, but far from unbearable. I've yet to go searching out caffiene pills to keep myself going. I haven't done all that much work on the weekends. Despite that, I've still gotten a lot of work done. I just told myself from day one that I was going to get through this, I am going to finish. Honestly, I went from being about 1% finished with my analysis over a week ago to being around 85% done now.

In all this time, my classes haven't really suffered. I've got group work to do, articles to read, abstracts to write, but I still stay ahead. Plus, I still read, watch anime, listen to a lot of music, and hang out with my friends.

I've even been interested in a girl I'm around on a regular basis. Not going into a lot of detail on that, just saying that I know I'm interested in this girl, physically and mentally.

The first girl I was ever really interested in, I was interested in first because of the mental part. I won't disguise this--I started to like Kathryn because of her mind. Is it a coincidence that she had such an impression on me? When I think about myself as a sponge, I see a lot that I picked up, at least partially, because of her. I really care about Kathryn, just as much as I care for any of my friends. Now, before anyone starts running for the stalker hotline, you might want to take note of this next part.

I had a dream recently. I didn't know I was dreaming. I was talking to Kathryn, in person. We talked for a long time. After a while, she had to leave. As she left, I felt as though, if I followed Kathryn, I could have a chance with her, to really be with her. I was about to take a step forward, but I stopped when I felt a sensation coming from her. She felt a great deal of love, undeniable love, but it wasn't aimed at me. So I stopped. I sat down. And I let her go find her love.

When I woke up, I realized I had really done part of that last sentence: I let her go.

In the past day or so, I've thought about all these things. They come and go in my mind. Tonight, I was so charged over getting so much accomplished, I felt the lengths my will had gone to get me where I am. Then I realized what I'd done. I had willed myself to succeed in getting work done on my thesis. Whenever I'm really behind something, I will myself to move forward.

My force of will is my own. It's something I haven't copied from anyone's personality. I haven't inherited it from my ancestors. I haven't developed it in response to emulate any of my personal heroes. I've willed myself to keep going, to succeed. And I will succeed.

Recurring Themes--A Commanding Thought

JRR Tolkien has eucatastrophy. Greg Rucka has lesbians. What recurring elements do I have in my writing?

The obvious one is the power of the mind. I think literally and figureatively there's a lot of truth in this. The mind is capable of so much we don't know, the possibilities are endless. What we do know about the mind can get us through so much. When someone has a strong conviction or force of will, they tend to push harder and farther. Those who put their minds to a task, tend to finish.

Another element that I value is honor. This doesn't mean we all have to conform to a single code and live by it. What this does mean is that we should each have a code we are willing to live by, a basic set of convictions, and keep it always. With Commander, the phrase "twisted sense of honor" is used. He doesn't necessarily play nice or fair, but he always keeps to his own code. He doesn't betray himself or his values. I'll tell you an unconscious rule I have: if a character with some form of honor is conflicted by a character without honor, the character that has honor will be victorious in the end. It might take a long time, but honor will give you victory, true victory.

Inner demons in some form keep coming up in my ideas as well. This isn't the traditional concept of having inner secrets. Instead, it's a more visceral conflict going on inside of each and every person. I think we all have the capacity for good and we all have the capacity for evil. I also think, if you stick around someone long enough, you'll see them do both.

Another aspect might be the static journey, a quest that makes a character look at the familiar and see something new or a quest that doesn't change the character. That doesn't say the character feels static--depending on the story, narration, and point of view, we just might be seeing more and more of a character that isn't actually growing. This one is thin at best right now.

Atticus Kodiak = Damn Good Reading

It was so good, I had to make a post about it as soon as I could. I just finished the third Atticus Kodiak novel, Smoker, and I was impressed. Yes, it had a lot of tension. Yes, it had the humor chapter. Yes, it had a lot of screwed up things going on. Yes, it had the Greg Rucka abrupt ending.

But, damn. Damn it was good. I loved it, loved every second of it. And the ending... great ending. Hollywood movie executives--start making Atticus Kodiak movies now! That way, there might actually be a copy of a Greg Rucka novel in every bookstore.

I'll have to remember to thank Mom and Dad for this great Christmas present the next time I talk to them.

Crash into Zorro... or don't

Rocky let me borrow a couple of movies. Crash and the latest Zorro movie.

Crash. This is probably the best movie (if you're an Oscar voter) from last year. It uses the multiple overlapping story formula which has grown to be so popular among people with film degrees (you know, Oscar voters), but it's only to get some interesting ideas across. What are these ideas? There are a lot of them, but it basically boils down to what happens when we look at how our natural prejudices make us act.

Much like the first two Lord of the Rings movies, Crash doesn't have a prayer of winning. Why? Gay cowboys. Also, I think a lot of people might be threatened by Crash. This is a movie that tells us all, in a very unconscious, subtle way, that we all still have our prejudices, that we all are in some way racist. But since it's subtle, you might not fully catch it. Still, this is a really good movie, a positive movie.

Then I watched the latest Zorro movie, or rather, the first 45 minutes of it. I can sum up this movie in two words (Dan, if you're reading, take note):

CHICKEN HELL! (Imagine a picture of a chicken pecking a stick of dynamite until it explodes.)

It just sucked. It sucked so much, I couldn't bear to watch it any more. Instead, watch something like Underworld Evolution, where you can see Kate Beckinsale in skin tight leather, amongst other things.

Progress

I finally got some time put in on getting my thesis done. Slowly but surely, it'll get done. Today, I downloaded and integrated some wetlands data for my GIS analysis.

Also, I've been cranking away at Smoker, another Aticus Kodiak tale brought to us by his real life twin brother, Greg Rucka. It's a good solid read so far. I love how I'll read a few pages, then come to find out I've actually read about 25 pages.

I'm still on my Cable enthusiast kick, which I'll be on for a very long time (forever, or until I end my run on the book). I've mostly finished a drawing of what he should look like if I write him and found that I could put in everything, with the exception of the highly-ridiculous "half mask." I wish I were kidding that he once wore a half mask, ugh. Still, I've seen a lot of aspects that I like and know how I can integrate about the character.

I might have to take up drawing more often once more. I've been a little busy to really write, so that can keep me going until I finish the thesis.

Why I Hate Infinite Crisis, Part 3

Another part?!?!? What could it be this time? I'm sure you're thinking something along these lines.

Infinte Crisis came out of four miniseries, each dealing with a drastically different aspect of the DC Universe as a whole. These were to be the four building blocks everything was built on leading to the big event. Then came the Pocket Dimension--*spit*--to ruin my fun. I'll come back to that in a bit.

Let me tell you about a good miniseries from DC. A little less than 2 years ago, a miniseries featuring the space-based character Adam Strange started. Great art, cool story, it was a damn good comic. At the end, Starbreaker's disciple, Shri Valkyr of Thanagar reprogrammed a computer causing the planet Rann to teleport right next to the planet Thanagar, throwing the latter satellite into its sun. This was the beginning of the Rann-Thanagar War.

The first of the Countdown miniseries to get it's own special was Day of Vengeance, where The Spectre is going around without a host killing any and all major magic users. Nabu, the Lord of Order who was truly the original Dr. Fate, tricked The Spectre into killing him. This was done to get... God to force The Spectre to be bound to a new host once more.

Before this special came out, Infinte Crisis #3 showed The Spectre killing a bunch of Atlantean magicians. The next issue came out and suddenly The Spectre is inhabiting the recently dead cop, Crispus Allen. Anyone who is just reading Infinte Crisis gets to sit there and say, "Did I miss an issue somewhere?" The right answer to that question is "No."

Basically, Infinte Crisis is largely ignoring the elements that got readers to this point in favor of solely focusing on the Pocket Dimension subplot. Yes, I said "subplot." That's what it is, the fifth major subplot, the fifth crisis.

I just got done reading the Rann-Thanagar War special. When the war was last addressed to any significant degree (read: the miniseries), a rift had been opened in space, right in front of the biggest battle of the war to date. This has been shown to be the hands of Alexander Luthor, pushing the universes/worlds/Earths apart. OK, continuity, that's good.

Infinte Crisis #4 went out of its way to explain that Alexander Luthor sent Superboy-Prime to blow up some planets, effectively creating the rift that appeared in the middle of the interstellar war. I thought this was a fair enough explanation. Then they told me that Brother Eye, the killer satellite controlling the OMACs, was given sentience by Alexander Luthor (saw it coming). Furthermore, this allows Alexander Luthor to control Brother Eye and the OMACs at will, which he does, like flipping a light switch.

Maxwell Lord was villain of the year last year, in no small part because of his pal, Brother Eye. They were a team. After Max died, Brother Eye got pissy and started maliciously going after everybody and Wonder Woman too. Brother Eye was a scary killer satellite.

And in one page, Brother Eye became nothing more than a little bitch villain. No reason why Brother Eye would obey Alexander Luthor--a meta collaborator, the very type of person Brother Eye and the OMACs want to kill!--just that the satellite is taking orders like an obedient dog. It's this extra step to reign in the threat people were really enthused about that pisses me off, it's just so forced.

Similarly, in the Rann-Thanagar War special, a big revelation is made: Superboy-Prime pushed Thanagar toward the star Polaris. So, instead of Rannians or Thanagarians causing their war (and further proving the conclusions of the Pocket Dimension characters--this universe is a bad universe), it all becomes the fault of the Pocket Dimension characters. No, the freaky death cultist that gets in some spite while she dies, she can't cause the war she started. Superboy--no, Superbitch-Prime has to.

Thus, the true threat is revealed: the Pocket Dimension characters possess the ability to bitch any character and any past storyline. The more fun a story was, the more it can be bitched.

Pocket Dimension bitching aside, there are two real problems here. 1. Things that are part of the core plot of the crisis, such as the defeat of The Spectre, should at least be addressed in the miniseries with "crisis" in its name. 2. Move on--don't get so mired in one story that you have to tell your version of that story; it's been done before, so do something different.