OK, I should be really, really afraid.

[gridlore]

I'm watching "Minoriteam" on Adult Swim. Quite possibly the most offensive thing ever. In it, one of the characters has been blown up.. all the way past Black Heaven into Nordic Heaven.

Valhalla, in other words. And they got the Aesir right. Thor has red hair and Mjonir looks right. Odin has one eye and ravens.

Why is it this really objectionable little cartoon gets it right and Marvel skill can't get a clue?

Comments

Re: Didn't see that one...

[seawasp]

They don't really HAVE to explain it. Unless we have documented film and testimony from the Norse Gods and the Norns "back in the day", it's all fiction. And as Marvel has *NEVER* come close to the original legends, using only components that they found "cool", expecting them to be "accurate" -- when said "accuracy" would actually contradict the stuff they were doing -- isn't really an issue.

I personally wouldn't even have bothered to try to explain it, beyond "Hey, you 20th century types can't even really understand us gods. You expect the stories told by 12th century barbarians to describe the past, present, and future accurately? Giveth me a break, thou fools!"

If Marvel (or DC) had ever shown really strong interest in long-running consistency in their universes, that might be different. But they haven't. It IS one of my pet peeves, and if I do a superhero universe of my own I'll be remembering that, but I certainly don't expect them to change.

Re: Didn't see that one...

[twfarlan.livejournal.com]

Oh, don't get me wrong. I don't expect them to change. Heck, the myths as told by the old Norsemen changed over time to reflect changes in their society and its needs, as has been mentioned. Marvel and DC have their own mythological cycles. If they're internally consistent, I'm fine with them. Problem is, they don't even bother staying internally consistent. If they need to change something, they just whip up a big event through which they can sell more issues, change things... and then do it all over again a few years later. I understand they're a business, but there are plenty of comic buyers who are more interested in the story than in giving up a ton of money for a plotline that has more pointless twisting than a Gordian knot.

Re: Didn't see that one...

[seawasp]

. Problem is, they don't even bother staying internally consistent. If they need to change something, they just whip up a big event through which they can sell more issues, change things... and then do it all over again a few years later. I understand they're a business, but there are plenty of comic buyers who are more interested in the story than in giving up a ton of money for a plotline that has more pointless twisting than a Gordian knot

I hear you there. Which is why I DON'T buy Marvel any more. "Inferno" was my last straw. As I said, if I ever do my own Superhero stories I'd work out the multiverse AHEAD OF TIME and tell the stories in that framework. That wasn't even thought of back in the Old Days, and so Marvel and DC are stuck with 40 years of accumulated "Hey Wouldn't THIS be NEAT!" stuff which holds boobytraps for the consistency-aware.

Re: Didn't see that one...

[twfarlan.livejournal.com]

Yeah, that's been my problem. I've got dozens of plotlines and plenty of characters, all with firm stories and story hooks, but no talent with a pencil through which they could come to life on the page.

I read Marvel past the Inferno crossover. I felt they cheesed out on the ending of it, but stuck with them and DC for quite a while after that. I still don't think most of their work ever approached the sheer comic brilliance that you'd find in something like Watchmen or even the intelligent approaches taken with Bill Waterson's Elementals or more recently The Authority. Far more interesting stories, there, and often because they had no qualms about killing off characters nor any established malarky to which they had to cling and cleave.

Re: Didn't see that one...

[seawasp]

Well, for my money, Kingdom Come ranks up there with any other graphic novels. Other than that the Big Two haven't produced all that much to grab me.

Re: Didn't see that one...

[twfarlan.livejournal.com]

I thought Supreme Power has been a good body of work. Of course, that started under Marvel's MAX imprint and is now going forward under the only slightly-more limiting Marvel Knights line, so they had the freedom to operate outside any of the usual concerns like Marvel's continuing self-regulation by the old Comics Code Authority guidelines.