Mindless Ones

Sometime in the nineties the cry rang out: Marvel was gonna put the “character back into comics”.

This was news to me.

As far as I was concerned the Marvelverse, with the possible exception of the X-Men, was still firmly rooted in a pre-Watchmen era. It was only the energizing touch of the man Miller that rescued the company from my utter contempt. DC on the other hand, was, in my rather woolly analysis, the natural home of adjectives like mature, and visionary, the only company where character was likely to flourish. My case rested upon little more than DC’s willingness to publish The Dark Knight Returns, The Killing Joke, and Arkham Asylum, and the serious moonlight cast over the DCU by Watchmen, and the Vertigo imprint.

While I’m now well versed in the legacy of Marvel’s legendary creators, if I’m honest I remain skeptical about Marvel’s claims to the concept of character. I grant that Lee and Ditko’s willingness to subordinate super to man was likely revolutionary back in the late sixties, and that they quite possibly changed the landscape of comics, but the reality is that while character is certainly the focus of many Marvel titles the characters in question have seldom been allowed much more than superficial depth – the MU as a place of histrionics rather than history. That, even as its best, seldom produces character studies with more going for them than I’d expect to see in a well realized soap opera. Don’t get me wrong, I think good soaps have their own virtues, and, and this is important, I’m not sure that I want to see rigorous character studies in (many) superhero comics, but I think it’s worth pointing out that by treating the term character as a monolith, and not admitting to its multiple meanings – the different ways in which the centrality of the concept can be approached, from Dynasty to Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolfe – Marvel, and its die hard fans, are perhaps heaping undeserved glories on themselves. I mean, we’ve all read the Ultimates, right?

Guess what? I actually talk about Born Again after the jump

Get your love on!

This is what happens when boys get together and talk about romance.  It’s mostly guns  and gore though so don’t worry. It’s a long one so I’ve split it into two parts:

click to download part 1
[audio:http://mindlessones.files.wordpress.com/2009/02/movalentines11.mp3]

click to download part 2
[audio:http://mindlessones.files.wordpress.com/2009/02/movalentines2.mp3]

Amazing pictures below!…

In much the preferred manner to attend one’s own funeral, I’ve finally added my Alfreds to our two previous Final Crisis coal-rakings.  Sorry, I know, you’re bored and angry with all that shit right now.  Quick, look at this!

You can’t possibly still be angry now.

Just so you know, we’ve all sworn off superhero comics for a few months too – that’s sort of what Final Crisis does to you (in a good way), isn’t it? We’re all going to pretend to get into indies and undies for a while, a bit of cultural tourism to Japan and the Franco-Belgian linguasphere, perhaps. And when April does come, with Seaguy and LoEG (we had some very exciting League/Mindless news this weekend – keep watching this space), our superheroes will be a bit more idiosyncratic, for a wee while anyway.

But for those of you who just don’t get it when the conversation has moved on – updated Final Crisis commentary:

Part One.

Two.

A weekly strip by Fraser Geesin.

The book Dream Date by Tim Leopard and Fraser Geesin is available from Running Water Press or from Amazon.

STARTS TODAY!

A weekly strip by Fraser Geesin.

The book Dream Date by Tim Leopard and Fraser Geesin is available from Running Water Press or from Amazon.

So if you didn’t get your entry in now is the time to kick yourself thrice in the posterior. Simply stand up and bend your knee, to its fullest, with force. You may need to tilt your heel backward.

Somebody must have mentioned it at the time. I’m sure I missed it. I mean, how could that little image in the right hand of the panel go unnoticed?

more after the jump

Still just about relevant, here’s what we talked about after midnight as we looked forward with brave faces into the howling winds of a future known as 2009.

download mindlessnewyear2
[audio:http://mindlessones.files.wordpress.com/2008/12/mindlessnewyear2.mp3]