Hey , guys ! Sorry I was absent last week . As I mentioned , I was being assault by a giant mutant Cancer - wolf ( WLAN live out ) and I could n’t study your letters ( was snowed in and could n’t push back anywhere ) because I , uh … could n’t open my mailbag ? ( metaphor unwrap down ) Ah well , I ’m back now . Let the mail madness start !
Das Reboot
Vv :
I ’m bedevil about the “ reboot ” of the DC world materialize after Convergence . Former title are continuing , and the onetime DCU certainly is n’t retort , so why exactly are people calling it “ the closing of the young 52 ” ? Can you please avail me shed some light on the situation ?
I do n’t want to blow your head , but it ’s mostly a marketing move , and by that I mean it ’s mostly about DC dropping the “ The New 52 ! ” brand from its comical cover and press loss and so forth . encounter as The New 52 establish back in 2011 , and is no longer particularly new ( and DC has only published 52 title a month sporadically since then anyways ) it had definitely served its determination .
But just because “ The New 52 ” is ending does n’t stand for the universe that begin with The New 52 is . It ’s really a problem of semantics ; to DC , The New 52 was an initiative that bring up the DC comics universe and then was used to preserve to commercialize their products . But to comics fans , “ The New 52 ” is synonymous with the new continuity created by the reboot , which induce us opine the real continuity is going away , to be interchange by another fresh continuity or the old one . As you ’ve noted , neither of these thing are happening . While their may be some change to the DC status quo as a result of Convergence — maybe — DC has gone out of its fashion to accent this is not a reboot .
The other trouble is that no one really agrees what a reboot means any longer . Here ’s a fun game — tell me which of these case are or are not reboots :
• DC resets all its continuity and begins tell apart write up from the earliest days of its heroes .
• DC resets most of its persistence and begins severalize narrative from the earliest daytime of its heroes with the exception of Batman and Green Lantern , which extend tell the same account they were previously .
• Spider - Man ’s marriage to Mary Jane is delete .
• Spider - Man discovers he ’s an incarnation of some crazy African spider - god .
• Falcon becomes the novel Captain America .
• Ms. Marvel changes her name to Captain Marvel .
• Marvel starts put a grownup “ Marvel Now ” logo on its comedian , and makes noises about everything being “ all new . ”
• DC reset most of its continuity and begins telling stories from the earlier days of its heroes with the exception of Batman and Green Lantern , which continue telling the same write up they were previously , but also swears that all the comics they antecedently published still “ count ” even though they never technically occurred in the novel persistence .
• Any character is take “ back to basics , ” whatever that means .
Really , “ reboot ” can apply to all of these things , although hopefully we check that some of these are harder reboots than the other . And to make things more perplexing , reboot has late become a dirty word in the comics diligence , because fan are burned out on all of DC ’s numberless changes and Marvel ’s unceasing rebranding . This is why DC swears it ’s not doing a reboot , while still trying to recount multitude DC comedian will suddenly be novel and fresh and a great starting - out point for Modern readers .
The word “ reboot ” has become meaningless in terms of comics , because no one match what it means , not even the fans . So whether Marvel swears the Marvel macrocosm is ending in Secret war even though it seem most characters are going to be staying the same , or DC swears Convergence is n’t a reboot , even though maybe some poppycock will exchange , it does n’t weigh . It ’s like the son who cried wolf ; both companies have been endeavor to tell us they ’re get down again , with varying levels of truth that we do n’t trust them . And they ’ve stay crying “ reboot ” so many time , over and over again , we do n’t conceive them when they abnegate it , either .
It ’s a mess . And there ’s no solution . Unless Marvel and DC somehow enter out a manner to reboot reboots themselves .
Canon Fire
Jesse S. :
Dear Mr. Post Manatee ,
In regards to Marvel ’s Not - So - hush-hush - War , why do amusing publisher feel the need to do house - cleansing ? Marvel has n’t been so bad , but it seems like DC does it fortnightly . I empathize that they desire to jettison or streamline long time of continuity for the benefit of raw referee . But for years prior to Crisis on Infinite Earths , comedian had plenty of self - contradictory continuity . Why not stick with the tried and dependable method acting that has knead for years in the funny book publishing industry of push aside WHAT YOU DON’T LIKE . Sure there are heavy issues like Peter Parker not being in high school and having got married ( though personally I was okay with both developments ) . That ’s hard to discount , but not unimaginable . There was an under - appreciated form of address call “ Untold Tales of Spider - Man ” which told stories of Peter ’s high school daylight . Another method is the “ Spider - Man have a go at it Mary Jane ” approach . Another title that just ignore regular persistence and had Peter Parker and Mary Jane in high school . Readers did n’t seem to have a job understand that this rubric only tangentially related to the other Spider - Man deed of conveyance .
I guess what I ’m arguing for is two fold – The Ignoring Method ™ ( which bring great in my marriage btw ) and adopt the Contradictions . reader are bright . They want a good write up . Being a stickler for persistence generally leads to lame - assery like “ The New 52 ” .
This is another facial expression of Vv ’s doubt , seeing as most reboots are done strictly to work the problem of canon inconsistencies . Why do amusing company trouble with trying to connect to each other , at any rate ?
Really , it ’s funny fans ’ fault . We may be sick to death of reboots and semifinal - reboots and hard reboots now , but the fact of the matter is we get laid it when our comic account book characters share the same universe . It ’s what immediately set Marvel apart from DC when it debut in the 60s — that Spider - Man could run into the Hulk on the street of New York City , and that if Thor got hurt in his solo comic , he ’d show up in Avengers with that same injury .
persistence is essentially a wages for regular lector . Those who learn tight and continually will understand certain aspects more than nonchalant fans , and then they get to find superscript , as well as more machine-accessible to the work . make love why Thor is in a crazy wooing of armor in Avengers # 276 even though it does n’t specify what the causa is makes the referee feel closer to the characters and the story .
It ’s not something unique to comic strip , obviously . Take George R.R. Martin ’s A Song of Ice and Fire books , for instance . Yes , they are written by one guy , but that does n’t mean he has n’t been able to seed his tale with small details for masses who record them cautiously and exhaustively . for certain it ’s easier for Martin to coordinate this than say , DC is able to coordinate 40 - plus on-going mirthful all written by different hoi polloi , but the difficulty of the task does n’t vary the felicity lector have when they discover something , or how it make them more invested in these fictional worlds .
And the same is true with any television appearance and maybe some movies — really , any recurring narrative that provides stuff that only previous readers / viewer / listeners will understand is create a canon , and it helps make these stories much more enjoyable for fans . While stand - alone stories are n’t spoiled , by fend alone , they do n’t have the welfare of the excited investing created by previous works . And it should go without saying that by getting fan indue , comic publishers / author / showrunners / etc . make regular readers / viewers / auditor / etc . , which is obviously a major asset .
But fans are a double - edged sword . Not only are you bind by unspoken contract to adhere to this continuity as best you could , but if you mess up , devotee are going to freak out like casual readers / spectator / etc never will . And say if you produce a stomach - alone serial publication like Spider - Man bonk Mary Jane that is intelligibly out of continuity , you race the risk of devotee not bothering to read it , because it does n’t contribute to the overall plot line they ’ve been investing in .
There ’s pros and cons to both sides , but you generally finish up with more piquant stories , and thus more fans , and thus more sale if you foster a canyon and stick to it . Now , as a fan whether you should get upset when persistence is break is entirely another thing .
Lots of Walking
fast :
As a fan of World War Z and other proactive zombie Revelation work of fiction , one thing has always bothered me about The Walking Dead – the grapheme and their lazy overture to delete the walker nemesis from major planet Earth ( or at least the states surrounding Georgia ) .
If a pretty well organized and motivated small radical of survivors jell out to make zombie killing a 9 - 5 Monday - Friday chore , usurp they were able to fulfill up with other survivors over fourth dimension , advance more efficient methods of zombi spirit slaying , and eventually spread out across the continental United States ( let ’s forget Mexico and Canada for now ) , how long would it take to clear out the zombie invasion . Months ? Years ? Decades ? Is it worth the effort for Rick and company to kill every zombi they see or is it a lost lawsuit ?
have ’s take a good - display case scenario . allot to the old Google , there are 528.7 million mass in North America . get ’s say of this universe some group manage to assemble 10,000 able-bodied - bodied survivor and form them into a unmarried direct zombie extermination force . That ’s pretty optimistic , given you ’d have to find many more survivor than that to find 10,000 suited “ employee ” , if you will . Plus , this presume you ’re able to amass this chemical group and organize them without the zombie plague breaking out among them or getting distract by evil , harebrained Governors with cooler ot anything .
Now let ’s say after a fair amount of attrition through random attacks , inclement weather , and inadvertent self - destruction , like walking off a cliff or something , there ’s a nice one shot issue of 400 million zombie . Seeing as everyone who dies with their head intact becomes a zombi , this is credibly a gloomy estimation , but we ’re assuming the upright - casing scenario , after all .
If you constitute an elect living dead - put down force with veritable hours , evidently , the number of destroyed zombies will diverge wildly per day , given whether they encounter massive hordes or individual straggler , but I feel like even in the best of circumstances , on fair , each person could at maximum defeat one zombie per hr and be safe about it . You know , once it ’s all tallied up . In a naturalistic zombie apocalypse , it would take some serious searching to happen all the zombies , particularly given how many of them will likely be trap in man - made structures . It ’s last to be at least as much bet as head - smashing .
Pretending that your troops wo n’t diminish — or that you’re able to witness survivors to sum to their ranks even as some of them are bitten or charge aside ( also improbable , but go with it ) , we cease up with 10,000 citizenry , killing a snake god per hour , for eight hours a day , for 40 hours a week . In totality , that ’s 80,000 zombies killed per mean solar day , 400,000 zombies per oeuvre week , and approximately 20,800,000 living dead per year . Quite a destiny ! But it you have 400 million zombies to take upkeep of , that ’s still virtually 20 years of working 40 hours a week , no holidays , of ceaseless zombi death . If you have 10,000 people . Who never get number , spite or kill . And that somehow you could feed and cloak and shelter even as they make their way across the entire continent .
So suffice it to say , unless Rick and his pals make 99,990 or so tightlipped Friend in the approximate future , they decidedly should n’t bother taking on zombie extinguishing .
Trophy Case
Brian L. :
Hey so abouta year ago I ask youif comical book movie , or more specifically a superhero picture , ever come through an Oscar ?
And now Big Hero 6 and Birdman ( though the later of which is more Michael Keaton struggle to be see to it as a respected worker after playing a superhero and pretty much taking the piss out of his Batman career ) have win Oscars , so are we going to start to see a change in how hoi polloi view superhero films ?
I ’m aim this question a bit towards Dan Gilroy who said how his picture Nightcrawler ( there s an X - men antic in there somewhere ) and films like it are survivors of the tsunami of Superhero films that have taken over the industry . Is nt that a bit of a dick move towards all the people who put fourth dimension and effort into Superhero film ?
Yeah , I do n’t count Birdman a superhero film . It ’s a motion-picture show about an actor , and Jesus Christ does the Academy love movies about the movie industry . It ’s no more a superhero moving-picture show than Hollywoodland , where Ben Affleck played George Reeves , the actor that roleplay Superman in the 1950s goggle box serial publication . Yes , Affleck put on superhero leotards occasionally in the film , but he did n’t have powers , he did n’t fight a villain , he did n’t save up the day . Not a superhero movie .
As for Big Hero 6 , the Best Animated Film category is even more of a joke than the relief of the Oscars . Since 2003 , the Academy has given it to the year ’s biggest Disney / Pixar feature every twelvemonth they had a major motion moving-picture show with the exception of Cars , for a sum of eight out of the last 11 twelvemonth . Andhere ’s several members of the Academy who were able to vote on this year ’s category , which go to Big Hero 6 .
The Academy is bullshit .
When Spirited Away won Best alive Feature in 2002 , it did nothing to facilitate Hollywood recognize anime movies , despite the fact it win ( and was infinitely more critically herald than Big Hero 6 to boot ) . Lord of the Ring : Return of the King ’s award has n’t facilitate fantasy or science fabrication motion-picture show since then . The Academy occasionally gives trophies to outliers like these , but they ’re ordinarily for their own alone reasons , and not because of any broad - mindedness on their part — which is why superhero picture show will never be recognize as “ real films ” by the Oscars .
I gave up on the Academy Awards when it decided Gladiator was the Best Picture of 2001 . When that happened I knew that not only could its opinions never be trust , but it was never worth paying attending to anything .
Ms’ed Opportunity
Doownuahsmai :
Dear Post Apocalypse Posty ,
Let ’s talk Ms Marvel ( the current variant ) . Will we ever get a Ms Marvel film as part of he MCU ? I think she ’s a character a lot of masses could get on board with .
potential , but not probable . I feel like she ’s too new a character to have Marvel ’s sureness to get a movie in the next 10 , even after the Captain Marvel movie . Perhaps if the comic gross sales stay unassailable for next five year or so — and by all accounts they ’re doing well — and Captain Marvel does well enough that Marvel feels comfortable precede more female person - direct superhero movies , it could get down the pipeline .
But I look we ’re a good deal more likely to get a Ms. Marvel animated series if the Captain Marvel movie does well ( perhaps we ’ll have to wait until after Captain Marvel 2 , just to check that ) . Kamala Khan is a tremendous character and a perfect sensation for a weekly cartoon , and I bet even Marvel recognizes the potential there . I think Marvel just wants to waitress to make certain the character truly has legs before run a risk a telly show . If I were in mission of Marvel I would have greenlit it yesterday , though .
Firebum
Josh T. :
Dear Postman with the … most … mankind …
I ’m a immense devotee of The Flash boob tube show . I was wonder something about everyone ’s favorite Flamable Hobo , Firestorm . In his present “ lots of old shattered clothes ” look ; when he flare on , why is it his head and hand snap fire , but not his tattered erstwhile rags ? Did he get those dress from a NASCAR driver that was withdraw , thus make them flame retardant ?
I believe Firestorm can hold in his flames to the point where they bourgeon exclusively out of his hands , head , and metrical unit , and place them so they turn in his tramp apparel unharmed . confessedly , I ’m also pretty sure Firestorm wears shoe that still be after he jets off with his thruster foot , so this may not fly ( pun so intended ) but I ca n’t be trusted . Maybe he does n’t , and he need to find new skid every time he fly off somewhere , and The Flash has just been sparing us the interminable panorama of the Flammable Hobo rooting through garbage for novel dyad of kicks every other day .
Wrap Battle
J. :
Dearest mail carrier of the remote past ,
My questions today are simple : What are the best comic onomatopoeia ? I ’m personally a big fan of “ VRONK ” , though I ’m not entirely sure I know what chance when something vronks . I distinctly recall a klunk , with a KB , which displeased my puritanical language leanings . What say you ?
stay put safe , and start neckcloth - piling saran wrap . I ca n’t tell you what for , but you ’ll know when it happens .
I hate to go for the obvious , but you ca n’t go wrong with “ Thwip ! ” and “ Snikt . ” Both noises seem so perfectly suited to their respective sounds — i.e. , Spider - Man firing his webshooters , and Wolverine bulge his claw — that they ’ve put up decennium with modification . Also , I have a fondness for “ Thwok ! ” although I could n’t really say you why .
Also , Saran wrapper is bullshit . No one has ever successfully covered a dish with saran wrap in the story of record civilization .
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