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Petter Myhr Ness
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 02 July 2009
Location: Norway
Posts: 3826
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| Posted: 17 January 2010 at 10:44am | IP Logged | 1
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I'm just waiting for DC to pull a "Spider-Man/MJ" - and dissolve the Superman/Lois marriage. The writers seem unable to deal with the marriage, so they largely ignore it (of course, they could just be bad writers...).
Which shows that the power-that-be should be careful about changing the long-term status quo of characters. Yes, you'll get some mileage out of the new marriage or the children, but you're also stuck with it.
One of the reasons why Fantastic Four succeeds as a family is that they were conceived and written that way. Superman and Spider-Man weren't.
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Michael Penn
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 12 April 2006
Location: United States
Posts: 12444
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| Posted: 17 January 2010 at 11:15am | IP Logged | 2
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When I first read Lee-Ditko as a tiny tot, I thought for sure that's what those older early 60s teenagers had been like. Oops! Just the best stories every, pretty much, but I can't imagine how inaccurate (to be kind) a contemporary to Peter Parker must have thought of their depicting teenage life circa 1963. Then again, this lack of au courant concern rather helps the stories avoid being overly dated.
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Stephen Robinson
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 16 April 2004
Location: United States
Posts: 5835
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| Posted: 17 January 2010 at 11:58am | IP Logged | 3
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The aging of Peter Parker did extensive damage to the unique aspects of Spider-Man and to his supporting cast.
I was reading the Lee/Ditko run recently and noticed that Peter really isn't a "loser" by any means. He thinks of himself as such, as any high school kid does. And the "jocks" refer to him as "puny Parker," but he's still a science whiz with a huge future ahead of him (it's not until he's in college, that stories begin to drift toward the idea that being Spider-Man is endangering his educational and personal life).
Of course, a college graduate -- and worse a grad-school drop-out -- who is doing the same job, more or less, that he had in high school is very close to being considered a loser.
Some readers have commented that putting Peter Parker in college "opened up story opportunities," but they seem to forget the story opportunities that were lost -- the dynamic of Peter in high school (and having to deal with Flash and his goons, something that was forced in a college setting -- why would he even still interacts with him?). Oh, and Aunt May, a cornerstone character, began making more frequent trips to Florida.
Comics has the opportunity to keep dynamics that work in place forever. Joss Whedon had to deal with the fact that the cast of Buffy was aging and couldn't play high school kids forever, but if this were a comic, you could have the peak of Third Season Buffy for as long as you wanted.
Dick Grayson could still be Robin. Spider-Man could still be in high school. Yet creators chose to "age" these characters and for no really good reason in retrospect.
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Paulo Pereira
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 24 April 2006
Posts: 15539
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| Posted: 17 January 2010 at 1:20pm | IP Logged | 4
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The very fact of a title called TEEN TITANS should clue people in on the nature of time in the world of superheroes.
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John Byrne
Grumpy Old Guy
Joined: 11 May 2005
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| Posted: 17 January 2010 at 1:24pm | IP Logged | 5
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Dick Grayson could still be Robin. Spider-Man could still be in high school. Yet creators chose to "age" these characters and for no really good reason in retrospect.•• And leave us not forget the other aspect of this foolishness -- when characters like Oliver Queen, Hal Jordan, Barry Allen, etc, get retired or bumped off when, having been unnecessarily aged, they are declared to be "too old" to be of any interest to the "modern reader". The asylum is not being run by the inmates. It's being run by the cleaning staff from the fast food joint down the street.
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Don Zomberg
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 23 November 2005
Posts: 2355
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| Posted: 17 January 2010 at 1:51pm | IP Logged | 6
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And then tykes like Wally West are "aged" up to replace guys like Barry, which leads to another (supposed) vaccum, where the former teen sidekick's role needs to be filled, leading to Impulse, Batgirl II, etc.
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Don Zomberg
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 23 November 2005
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| Posted: 17 January 2010 at 1:55pm | IP Logged | 7
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It's so bizarre to see fans and pros arguing that teen/young adult characters need to age, but you never see these same knuckleads demanding that "adult" heroes like Daredevil, Batman, and Captain America move up a corresponding number of years. "Hey, when's Iron Man going to finally turn 50? How long do we have to read about the adventures of a guy in his thirties?"
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Don Zomberg
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Joined: 23 November 2005
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| Posted: 17 January 2010 at 2:07pm | IP Logged | 8
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Peter Parker is rather unique among the characters who aged, because he didn't just get older, he became someone the average reader wanted to be--a good looking fella with a motorcycle, a bachelor pad, and two hot babes chasing after him.
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Petter Myhr Ness
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 02 July 2009
Location: Norway
Posts: 3826
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| Posted: 17 January 2010 at 2:17pm | IP Logged | 9
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.. whencharacters like Oliver Queen, Hal Jordan, Barry Allen, etc, get retiredor bumped off when, having been unnecessarily aged, they are declaredto be "too old" to be of any interest to the "modern reader".
--
And then you get your Kyle Rayners and your Red Arrows. And when these new incarnations fail to make a real lasting impact you end up with a reboot or a retcon to bring the original characters back. And so the circle starts again...
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William McMahon
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Joined: 24 March 2009
Location: Canada
Posts: 224
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| Posted: 17 January 2010 at 4:06pm | IP Logged | 10
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OK what if Billy Batson had gone through the aging process?
Wouldn't he be older than Capt. Marvel now?
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Josh Goldberg
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 25 October 2005
Location: United States
Posts: 2065
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| Posted: 17 January 2010 at 4:52pm | IP Logged | 11
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Isn't that sort of what happened to Billy Batson in Frank Miller's Dark Knight Strikes Again?
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Stephen Churay
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 25 March 2009
Location: United States
Posts: 8369
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| Posted: 17 January 2010 at 8:25pm | IP Logged | 12
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The asylum is not being run by the inmates. It's being run by the cleaning staff from the fast food joint down the street.
===
LOL. Now that's funny. Sad and true, but funny.
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