People kept emailing me asking me when I was going to do another comic parody, and my answer was always the same. “When the time is right, grasshopper.”
World War Hulk? No. Firstly, it was actually good; secondly, it doesn’t have a lot of clunky expository dialogue and adding it would just be clumsy. Amazons Attack? Closer, but again, not nearly enough dialogue, and although it was profoundly stupid it wasn’t stupid in the right sort of ambitious way, but instead stupid in the way that, say, Larry The Cable Guy is stupid. Countdown? Well, it’s certainly a bad comic, but nothing really happens in any given issue; I can’t just write twenty-two pages of dicking around because DC has already done that for me. Any given issue of Wolverine: Origins? I considered it, but really. Wolverine isn’t that much fun for me to write. (It’s why I went with the “bub snikt snikt bub” joke in the first place.)
It seemed hopeless. But then DC went and did me a favour by publishing a comic both arrogantly ambitious and flagrantly ill-thought out. They published Death Of The New Gods, and I was thankful.
Thumbnails behind the cut, of course.
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Again I ask: why is the characterization and depth and emotion so much more profound in the parody than in the actual comic?
Sadly, in my mind, everything Starlin’s ever written ends up falling into one of two camps: The Death of Captain Marvel and everything else. Typically it’s Adam Warlock Thanos blah blah cosmic profound blee blee history eraser button. And the only difference now is that instead of Thanos-as-Darkseid-knockoff he gets to take Kirby’s original around the block, which is just another level of atrocity.
Thanks for making some good come from all of this. Are we to expect a continuation? (We do have that “this is the screen of everyone who’s died” bit in the next issue which doesn’t at all remind me of Infinity Gauntlet.)
And Darkseid is STILL awesome.
Mightygodking’s Darkseid would NEVER have jobbed to Doomsday!
Again I ask: why is the characterization and depth and emotion so much more profound in the parody than in the actual comic?
“because jim starlin is a shitty writer whose last decent work was “the infinity gauntlet” and that was fifteen years ago.”
you’re welcome!
I doubt there’s going to be more of this. The most fun for me here was writing the interplay between Barda and Scott (which I didn’t expect going in at all, but damn those two are fun to write when you don’t predetermine that they have to be boring and expoundy) and, well, obviously I can’t do any more of that.
Besides, I started this the day after the first issue came out, and right now issue #3 comes out, like, next week. I don’t have as much free time as I used to, you know! 🙂
Any chance of a “30 Reasons I should write The New Gods” any time soon?
There’s really no dignity in dying because somebody opened up a goddamn sphincter in your chest where there was never a sphincter before. That’s just gross. Put me down for having Orion rip my arms and legs off or whatever.
And another thing… the sad thing is, no matter how dumb the source story is, I still want to know how it ends. I bet if I read the non-parody I wouldn’t give a shit.
Darkseid and Metron really make it sing, I think. “It is past time for you to, as the humans say, Grow A Pair,” indeed! *cackles*
Worst bit about the original? Gail Simone gave freaking PARADEMON a better death than Barda or any of the others are getting. PARA-FUCKING-DEMON goes out like a champion. I try to avoid the whole fan entitlement “Dan Didio hates us” thing, but pointless crap like this makes it hard…
Well that and finding out he wrote “Beast Machines”. Man that cartoon was ass…
Dude, those last two scans are perfect. That Scott narrative killed me.
Awesome.
I’m seconding or fifthing or whatever the notion that this is just flat-out better than the original.
I like the way MGK did the death here. It was some big sound and fury “THIS IS SPARTA!!!” champion’s death, but like others’ve said, there was real emotion here. The thing struck me as very personal and very sad, because to Scott Free, Big Barda was the world. I’d be hard pressed to think of a genuine comic death I enjoyed more.
Though, I think there’s something wrong with me. Unlike, say, the Ultimate Power #2 parody, I’d pay for money this.
That death scene was very poignant. If Barda absolutely has to be taken out like that, well I’m glad that someone out there has managed to write it as a decent scene.
By the way, I know you’re busy and all, but I would love to see you do the rest of these. I have zero intention of reading, let alone paying for, the originals -but after seeing this I would really love to see your take on them.
“YOUNGLINGS!” -heh.
My boyfriend told me of Big barda’s death and I resigned myself to NEVER read it since I love MM and BB and this made him rant for a full hour on the phone. But now I have, and I feel at peace. Your parody is far better than any original could ever have hoped to be, it made me feel that the death was justified. It turned a shitty, badly illustrated story into something touching and heartfelt. Yes, funny as hell too, but still…
I really wish you would do the rest. Not just because your parodies are fun, but because I want to know how it ends. And you make me care about the characters, which I generally don’t do with comics anymore.
But, I understand about the time issues.
I agree with above. I would pay money for this.
And I wrote that when I was three pages from the end. Now I just think DC should print this and have you write the rest of the series.
Dude, it’s just not fair if you actually inject the emotion lacking the original. It makes the writers look like they don’t know the characters from a hole in the ground. Or something.
Congrats. Just like Civil War, I have an interest in Death of the New Gods thanks to you.
Damn, man. Just damn.
I loved your Civil War parody – but this reads like a Peter David take on the New Gods. And no, that’s not an insult. You took something that was long-winded and full of crap and turned it into something mostly fantastic. Hell, your take upon the Barda/Scott part of the plot was perfect, far better than anything made up by DC itself.
Congrats, MGK. Keep up the fantastic work.
The only thing that encapsulates this series as succinctly as MGK’s parody would be a Flash animation of Dan Didio fucking Jack Kirby’s wife.
This is basically why I keep up with comics now by reading S_D and MGK’s little satires. I am not plonking down my hard-earned cash for talent-free, leaden-handed, Women In Refrigerators bullshit like Death Of The New Gods.
Thanks, MGK.
I so love the parodies here. MGK really does get to the heart of every character and make them so much more than DC or Marvel could make them. Great job. Again.
Now I’m gonna go wash this down with some Cyberfrog and eat pizza.
Can I mail this to DC? its so much better than the 3 dollars I spent money on. Regardles to when you get around to it, you should do them all !!!!!!
[…] Christopher Bird returns with another reworded parody mix — this time, it’s the first issue of Jim […]
Well, done. I probably won’t be reading the original. But this. This was good. You should get into the industry, I say.
Then I remember that you’d probably end up the foot rest of Mark “Talent escapes me like methane from Burrito Boy” Millar.
Dear Mighty Godking:
Parody? This? Sir, this isn’t a *parody*… this is REAL story-telling, with humour, vision and more respect for the characters than anything mainstream DC has managed in a long time. It’s funny. It’s dramatic. It’s convincing. It’s tragic. It’s all the things we used to buy superhero comics for.
It’s wonderful. Thank-you. More, please.
And calling this a “parody” — ooh, the irony there is just sickening.
there was a point in this that i completly forgot I wasnt reading the real material and thought to myself “Why am I not buying this series? I’m gonna go pick it up right now”. Congrats sir, I havn’t been that emotionally involved in a character moment since colossus came back.
damn, that last part with scott and barda was really damn touching
well done man