#my obsession with the ties on lois and clark is because it's set on a somewhat realistic earth

[whatisshelties]

This jacket of Quark's gets me every time.

[maneaterwithtail]

More Praise of DC Gene Yang

I finally got my hands on the second volume collection of Superman's Adventures. At least the ones that were penned under Gene yang. I have to be honest I think choosing Vandal Savage as the big bad was much more appropriate. He's human enough so that it doesn't feel like we're getting a cosmic space flea from nowhere. And he ties into things that I think work very well with Gene's work. Particularly how Humanity's drive for ambition and to create Perfection and virtue can all too often Peter into cruelty and abuse.

It also creates a more appropriate theme between Clark, godhood, and of course the villain. In short we get an examination of ambition without necessarily vilifying ambition. We see why it always comes to a negative end point for both Clark's own sense of justice and why we ourselves would oppose it. These are things that Gene explored in a previous work that naturally he got to do much more coherently, The Shadow Hero.  there he is taking a version of a golden age superhero and putting him in a knockoff version of The Golden Era of the Detective Comics with lots of social commentary. Okay there are also elements of Marvel and the strips  and the character that he's Reinventing originally came from the House of Ideas. One aspect that he's always negotiated with, at least since American Born Chinese, is the fact that the very culture that he's a part of comes with a sense of conflict. He has a Heritage that very much interest him but also is in conflict with the ideals that he wants to live up to. Of course this also ties into the whole broken father figures thing.

The idea that Vandal Savage is in fact a hidden chosen one who has sponsored the Arts and society and ultimately wants to create the strongest Clan seems very romantic. Hell in this Game of Thrones world it even seems like something you would want to do. Who doesn't like to build their own faction and Kingdom Civilization and Minecraft say not enough that pandering the the illusion won't make you a millionaire? But we also see there's a reason why as a whole we try to move away from that.

Simply put even before we invented democracy as the Americans practice it or whatever no one liked being subjugated to a distant figure who basically will do everything that they wanted. In short his villains always seem to be a variation on a Fallen Hero and they always have a sense of connection with the hero but it's more deeper than them necessarily being father and son. It's more along the lines of he starts with a crisis or problem and then has two men react in two different ways to it. We even see why the first was seduced, the person that will ultimately end up on a bad path. There's usually some good attached to it as well.  And certainly power and strength.

But inevitably because the path is based on self satisfaction it's all going to fall apart in a terrible way. Vandal Savage is pretty good for this, particularly as Lex Luthor in some ways has become too cuddly. Let's face it if you could be a bald, fit, superjeenius who employed millions and got to be an a****** because you were an expert at everything well I mean that's practically the protagonist of like 4 out of 7 TV dramas right now. Fuck it IS memetic Iron Man!!! Likely always has been an ideal.

Unfortunately then we run into the fact that comic book publishing even when you have one major author is so dominated by events and weirdness that even in this one collection there are enormous gaps in the story. However he's often able to do a pretty damn good short. Such as the use of Fight Club in order to keep the gods sustained on a ritualized form of worship and belief.

I mean I've always come to him for his sort of magical realism urban fantasy style trappings. Wee get right down to it you can't talk that without thinking superheroes and one way or the other. Being the children of pulps and many ways the modern language of how we deal with such Myths among us (USA USA, I know Europe and Britain does it different). I mean let's face it and this one he had effectively a secret Shadow Emperor have his sons and daughters attain power from the sky and then decide what to do with it. That is a freakin maxi-series right there!!!  Likely start of a franchise.  Why didn't he bottle this idea into a set of novels and webpublish!!

Hey as a result of Vandal Savage's takeover attempt did any of his suddenly empowered children ever decide that they were going to fight for Humanity instead of prove that they were part of the strongest Clan for Daddy? Also I'm not sure, intentional or not or maybe he just had a very strong editorial mandate, but i like the fact that he kept one characterization I always heard about Vandal Savage. His rhetoric and intellect may increase but at the end of the day he's still that disgusting barbaric caveman obsessed with being the strongest and the center of the world. .

This always ends up proving why Vandal should never try to make himself a leader. But he always ends up being so or a shadow before 1. He just can't seem to resist acting brutally in an act of self rationalized pettiness and cruelty and amusement. I do like however that he always does this in light of a very palpable Injustice or ignorance. Again he sees the same or similar problem but he uses the solution in the most cynical and authoritarian way and not because of genuine sense of law but it's always an excuse for self-aggrandizing.

And while Gene yang did alter vandals origin, I think he did it in a way that makes sense. Vandal is not bad because he's a caveman. He's bad because he refuses to accept anything outside of himself having authority over him. I also like how he writes Superman as flawed if only in a narrative sense because while he does mean well you can easily see that Clark does have something of a paternalistic complex and loves to avoid issues. He gets condemnative and annoyed with Lois for revealing his secret to the point that he can't forgive her despite the fact the circumstances were nowhere near as simple as he starts to remember them. This is contrasted with Superman's own relationship with Steve Trevor. He ends up craving power in order to fill a sense of validation. And he often is avoided reflection of his own negative character traits and flaws. Despite the fact that he really really loves being powerful and righteous and praised and looked up to. I love the fact that he feels this temptation. Because it feels like a very American one and Superman is a very American superhero Which was the nice touch. Gene always seems to remember the human element. How cool is it that Clark basically got bro manced by a fallen Sun Daddy?

But again I guess if you only read one sentence I want to ask did any of the children of Vandal Savage when they were empowered by the comet end up being well a decent person? Obviously when you're suddenly drunk on a high of super Juice from the sky and a guy appears and says hey want to keep this High going beat up Superman I can totally get why you get on that s***. But you got to wonder where there's some people who are all like you know what yeah I've heard this picture before it sucks thanks for the powers dad I'm going to go fight for the people I actually believe in