Comments on: On awesomeness.

By: Super Doomed Planet » Blog Archive » Doctor Who Reviews: Shadowmind

Super Doomed Planet » Blog Archive » Doctor Who Reviews: Shadowmind — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 02:53:51 +0000

[...] hiding in their chests. The concept scores high in that ineffable quality geeks call “awesomeness” and would have been magic in the hands of, say, Dave Stone. It’s a tribute to [...]

By: Marvin is a Martian

Marvin is a Martian — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 09:27:37 +0000

Thinking about Grodd I’d mention his post-coital interruption of Snapper Carr in Final Crisis Submit. Then there’s Grodd eating his way through Superbia in JLA Classified 1-3….

By: Dan

Dan — Wed, 31 Dec 2008 23:40:15 +0000

I mean… you’re completely correct and very eloquent about it.

On the other hand, way to dissect awesomeness until its guts hang like streamers from its distended belly and its heart lies on the floor, still beating sadly.

By: Lord Morgue

Lord Morgue — Mon, 29 Dec 2008 14:06:28 +0000

Snakes On A Plane, anyone?
Oh, and I liked Grodd in that Phil Foglio Angel And The Ape miniseries, funny, but he still snapped Dumb Bunny’s spine.

By: Quietus

Quietus — Mon, 29 Dec 2008 01:11:26 +0000

“Awesomeness” is the stuff that xkcd-reading, ninja vs. pirate nerds use because they think themselves above Halo-playing, Chuck Norris joke-cracking frat boys and ironic hipster kids who like Power Rangers and Pokemon.

By: bellatrys

bellatrys — Sat, 27 Dec 2008 00:21:15 +0000

and the word-of-mouth that made Pirates of the Caribbean wasn’t “it has a strong plotline and good actiony bits and it’s funny,” it was “Johnny Depp is this crazy pirate who acts like he’s Keith Richards with a sword and he fights zombies.”

Slight correction – the *actual* WOM at the time went like this:

JohnnyDepp!OrlandoBloom!KateWinslet!ZombiePirates!!eleven! ARRRR! SQUEE!SQUARRR!

Otherwise – dead-on rant, old chap.

By: Zenrage

Zenrage — Wed, 24 Dec 2008 17:40:42 +0000

“Heh, Daniel Way already did the angel thing, actually.”

If you would please excuse me for a moment. I want to go introduce Garth Ennis to my good friend Mr Tire Iron.

At high velocity. Repeatedly.

By: bentarc

bentarc — Wed, 24 Dec 2008 14:44:45 +0000

The first two parts of the “Run Riot” storyarc were good Grodd stories. Not GREAT ones, to be sure, because the plot was simple:

Flash: “If Grodd escapes, he’s going to be really angry and beat the crap out of me. Grodd MUST NOT GET OUT.”

The ensuing struggle was built around the Flash trying to stop Grodd’s escape, failing, and then getting wrecked.

I think the issue could’ve been a GREAT Grodd story if it had lasted one more issue–there needed to be some sort of bridge in there, something more than just “Grodd messes up the Flash, then the Flash messes up Grodd.”

By: Will Entrekin

Will Entrekin — Wed, 24 Dec 2008 03:07:31 +0000

“Isn’t “awesomeness” a lot like Colbert’s “truthiness” in that it explicitly acknowledges the bullshit inherent in the concept?”

I like this idea a lot. Not sure I totally agree, but I think there’s something to it, definitely.

By: SC

SC — Wed, 24 Dec 2008 00:03:17 +0000

Oh, and regarding the Iron Fist creative split, Brubaker has said that Fraction did most of the work on that.

By: SC

SC — Wed, 24 Dec 2008 00:02:16 +0000

The Ghost Rider will either be turned into an angel or it’ll go down the same mindless path that Spawn overdid.

Heh, Daniel Way already did the angel thing, actually.

By: LurkerWithout

LurkerWithout — Tue, 23 Dec 2008 15:44:13 +0000

Wow. You must have been reading some entirely different Midnight Sons imprint books in the 90s…

By: John

John — Tue, 23 Dec 2008 12:45:18 +0000

Isn’t “awesomeness” a lot like Colbert’s “truthiness” in that it explicitly acknowledges the bullshit inherent in the concept?

Or is it more like the elusive “cult” designation in cinema? It’s almost impossible to set out to create a true cult film, say something like Blue Velvet, Rocky Horror, Buckaroo Banzai or Donnie Darko, but they almost always have a lot of the same “high concept” and genre-blending elements. When someone tries to make a cult film you wind up with something like Pootie Tang, which fails at just about ever level. (Of course, someone will just say “Pootie is teh Awesome!” and render my argument meaningless). Then there are kitch movies with a cult following, like the Dolomite movies, which have the same trash appeal of those Haney comics and not coincidentally a lot of the same fan base.

By: Zenrage

Zenrage — Tue, 23 Dec 2008 09:30:52 +0000

Sage, if you want to masturbate to the further adventures of Ghost Preacher, you go right ahead. The Road to Damnation was a shit story that focused more on the Angels and Demons that Ennis let fall out of his ass than it was about Ghost Rider. Ghost Rider had as much to do with that series as Blade did in his television series.

The movie was shit and the 70′s version of the Ghost Rider wasn’t much better. The Ghost Rider has always been at its best when it is unexplained; An unstoppable force of nature. This is why the first four years of the 90′s version was the best Ghost Rider.

Also, they never had a defining moment for the character, because like any other force of nature it arrives unexpectedly, causes massive damage, and then leaves the survivors knowing that it could have been worse. In which case, the only thing that can or should be defined is how the survivors cope with the damage.

MGK defines this as a concept. I say its a concept with a purpose: to test those around it and those that would confront it.

The Ghost Rider mythos will never be better than it was with Mephisto, Blackheart, Zarathos (as a separate entity), Lilith, Blackout, Scarecrow and especially MADCAP (why Marvel didn’t push that villain in the series, I’ll never figure out) than it ever can be with the christian bullshit because inevitably that crap will end in one of two ways – The Ghost Rider will either be turned into an angel or it’ll go down the same mindless path that Spawn overdid.

By: Sellyourselfshort

Sellyourselfshort — Tue, 23 Dec 2008 07:51:26 +0000

I’m not trying to belittle Brubaker in any way, Captain America has been my favourite comic since it started. And I’m definitely not trying to say Fraction is the only reason Ironfist is great. I’m just trying to say that he is great example of taking concepts that would be deemed “awesome” (like the commie bear in a jet pack from the order) and crafting intriguing and excellent stories around them. I used Ironfist as an example because “Kung-fu billionaire” is a direct quote from him when describing the book. Also I agree that punisher war journal is crappy and I think that it may be because with a book like punisher he can’t use any of the “awesome” concepts that would work in other books. It also occurs to me that many people probably haven’t read “the annotated Mantooth” so let me describe it in one “awesome” sentence. Kung-fu secret agent gorilla fights; robots, Hitler, zombies and Oprah Winfrey.