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Monday, July 12, 2010

What About Lebron and The Heat? If He's Not A Knick Who Cares......Anyway, The Comic Shoppe Returns Tues at 7pm eastern!



We're back people and in full effect! Why not beat the summer heat, pull up a chair (with your AC unit hopefully in working order) and listen to guys from the Comic Shoppe chew the fat on all things pulp? Join Max, Daryll and yours truly tomorrow at 7pm as we discuss the following: our impressions of The Last Airbender and Twilight:Eclipse; Wonder Woman gets a costume (and storyline upgrade); Ed Norton and his Hulk appear to be on the outs with Marvel for the upcoming Avengers film; Is Damian Wayne the best Robin to date?; American Splendor's Harvey Pekar passes at 70; our thoughts on Andrew Garfield being the next Spiderman and lastly, if time permits, we will provide a synopsis of our favorite comic books from the last few weeks. Feel free to call us "live" with your questions or comments at 646-200-0104 or via email/IM-thecomicshoppe@yahoo.com! See you guys at the Shoppe!

And here's a preempted (my bad!!) blog post from The Comic Shoppe's own Daryll B!

This blog is inspired by http://goodcomics.comicbookresources.com/2010/06/25/wonder-of-wonders-star-spangled-panties-whats-in-a-name/

Personal confession time for my blog readers: I am a sucker for Greek Mythology stories. I loved the Harry Hamlin 'Clash of the Titans'. I loved the episode in the original Star Trek where the crew finds the Gods "planet". One of my favorite arcs in The New Teen Titans was when the team had to journey to Olympus to save Lilith from the Titans of Myth. I loved the War of the Gods crossover. I liked the Percy Jackson novels and found the Herc/Amadeus Cho pairing at Marvel to be pure adventure gold.

So when I read about how these stories are inaccessible to newer readers I have to wonder what has happened to our ability to use our imaginations? Yes, you have heard me rip comic companies for what I perceive to be inane directions for their characters but that is only because of how the writers ha previously set up their stories. Greek myths are supposed to be larger than life for the average man and where ANYTHING is possible. Wonderful and vibrant, these tales are supposed to inspire. However, when it comes to Princess Diana, she always gets hated on by readers.

So why does Wonder Woman bear the brunt of these stigmas? Well, there are a myriad of reasons ranging from her appearance to as referenced in the article above, the "weird" names used. However, I tend to think that the modern reader just cannot relate to the mythical tales anymore and most new writers can't be bothered with making them relate to modern times. One book that does this well is Peter Milligan's Greek Street from DC's Vertigo imprint. Milligan takes Greek tales and translates them into the life and times of a quaint London town. So if that can work why can't it be done for Diana?

Byrne tried, Perez tried, Jimenez tried, Messener-Loebs and Deodato tried, Rucka tried, Heinberg tr.....um forget that, Simone tried, and now it is JMS' turn. The little myth fan in me wishes JMS luck but knows comic fans these days need the stories to be dumbed down and that's a shame.

So in closing, we'll hit stories like Tommy Lee Jones in Captain America, the return of Futurama, Tom's jail fear revisited, and the new Emma Frost on the show coming up, but I just thought it was time to let you into my mind for this once.

I will let this quote from John Byrne's excellent Amazon (the Storm/Wonder Woman mashup) take me out:

" My Amazon sisters and I still worship the gods of Olympus, but for the rest of the world your time has passed! Humankind has moved away from you. It is not for me to judge if that move was wise but if this is how you treat those last few who have any respect for you at all..."

Keep Fantasizing Afronerd readers!


Oh..here's last night's Boondocks...check it out!

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