shaxper
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Post by shaxper on Oct 14, 2020 11:36:03 GMT -5
I was wondering today if Tony Stark ever took a particular interest in rescuing prisoners of war or enforcing the Geneva Convention as Iron Man. How odd that the very event that triggered his transformation into a superhero seems to be so far from his mind ever since.
Similarly, why hasn't Batman cleaned up Crime Alley, and when did he decide that his vow to his parents included being a member of the Justice League, or the Outsiders?
What other characters seemed to have strayed from their original motivation and mission?
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Post by Icctrombone on Oct 14, 2020 11:57:17 GMT -5
Tony Stark Just wanted to get the heck out of that country as soon as he could. The accident just necessitated the invention of a life saving device.
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Post by Slam_Bradley on Oct 14, 2020 12:03:23 GMT -5
Ostensibly, The Outsiders were formed because Batman realized he was spending too much time fighting world-threatening menaces which was taking him away from fighting the type of street level "crime alley" crime he had vowed to eradicate. As a practical matter it only took a few issues before The Outsiders were fighting world spanning and super-powered threats. Because that's what DC was about at that time.
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Post by mikelmidnight on Oct 14, 2020 12:40:37 GMT -5
I never liked the Outsiders even conceptually. If the team had been more like the later 'Batman Inc' (or the earlier 'Club of Heroes') it would have made more sense to me, but they immediately seemed too high-powered for a team that related to Batman's wish to return to his street-level roots. Honestly, they would have been a better take on the Detroit League (aside from the fact that many of them aren't Americans … but then … neither are Wonder Woman, Aquaman, or Hawkman).
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Post by codystarbuck on Oct 14, 2020 13:39:53 GMT -5
I was wondering today if Tony Stark ever took a particular interest in rescuing prisoners of war or enforcing the Geneva Convention as Iron Man. How odd that the very event that triggered his transformation into a superhero seems to be so far from his mind ever since. Similarly, why hasn't Batman cleaned up Crime Alley, and when did he decide that his vow to his parents included being a member of the Justice League, or the Outsiders? What other characters seemed to have strayed from their original motivation and mission? Whattayamean strayed? Tony Stark kept right on making a profit from the Vietnam War. He stayed on mission! You could argue Superman strayed, drastically, after his early days of bringing justice to war profiteers, slumlords, wife beaters, and the like. Captain America hasn't punched Hitler, in a while.
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Post by tartanphantom on Oct 14, 2020 22:44:43 GMT -5
I'm thinking of a certain web-slinger who just wanted to be a minor TV celebrity... until fate altered his original plans through the death of a loved one that he could have prevented.
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Confessor
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Post by Confessor on Oct 15, 2020 3:58:42 GMT -5
I'm thinking of a certain web-slinger who just wanted to be a minor TV celebrity... until fate altered his original plans through the death of a loved one that he could have prevented. ...and Spider-Man's been going downhill ever since!
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Post by tarkintino on Oct 15, 2020 5:16:10 GMT -5
I never liked the Outsiders even conceptually. If the team had been more like the later 'Batman Inc' (or the earlier 'Club of Heroes') it would have made more sense to me, but they immediately seemed too high-powered for a team that related to Batman's wish to return to his street-level roots. Honestly, they would have been a better take on the Detroit League (aside from the fact that many of them aren't Americans … but then … neither are Wonder Woman, Aquaman, or Hawkman). But there was something about the members that made them fit into the kind of team Batman formed; much of the roster were high-powered as you put it, but they were not the A-listers of the DC universe. On their own, they did not have that bigger-than-life status of Wonder Woman, Green Lantern or the Flash. That "off to the side" status is what made the title work (initially).
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Post by chadwilliam on Oct 15, 2020 18:30:30 GMT -5
Why hasn't Batman cleaned up Crime Alley? Up until O'Neil wrote " Is There No Hope in Crime Alley?" I think readers were left to assume that the murder of The Waynes could have happened anywhere; a case of, 'wrong place, wrong time'. Under those circumstances, Batman would have had no more reason to patrol the place where his parents were killed than, say, The Punisher would have to regularly schedule some time to check out the park where his family were killed or Spider-Man the warehouse where Uncle Ben's killer ran to. However, once Crime Alley was sort of established as the epicenter of all that's wrong with Gotham - and O'Neil did a great job setting up a backstory for a location which up until then consisted of a lamp post and some gravel in all retellings - you kind of had to wonder if perhaps he should be heading there more than just on the 26th of June every year. I mean, even on the evening when all criminals had ample warning that Batman would be making an appearance on their streets, they still couldn't help help themselves from mugging little old ladies. If that's what Crime Alley is like on its best evening, then what was going on every other day of the year? " And I swear by the spirits of my parents to avenge their deaths by spending the hours of eight p.m. until eight-oh-seven p.m. every June 26th that doesn't fall on a Saturday warring on all criminals within a one block radius of Park Row" just doesn't pack the punch that it should.
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Post by chadwilliam on Oct 15, 2020 18:45:13 GMT -5
You'd think that with Two-Face having a reputation for being half good/half evil, there would be roughly as many good deeds that he's done as bad, but instead his coin coming up unscarred all too often just means he'll put off doing something evil for 24 hours (or whenever his coin next lands scarred side up) instead of doing something good.
The Spectre was tasked with erasing all crime on Earth and yet spent a significant amount of his time fighting aliens elsewhere in the Universe or helping Percival Popp out of a jam.
Peter Parker was established as a child prodigy when it came to science. Sure he took a job earning cash as a photographer, but shouldn't he have a career in some lab or coming up with inventions somewhere by now?
And is there any member of Batman's Rogues Gallery other than Catwoman who hasn't gone from criminal mastermind to mass murdering terrorist by now?
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Confessor
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Post by Confessor on Oct 15, 2020 23:48:11 GMT -5
Peter Parker was established as a child prodigy when it came to science. Sure he took a job earning cash as a photographer, but shouldn't he have a career in some lab or coming up with inventions somewhere by now? That finally happened in the comics about 10 years ago.
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Post by chadwilliam on Oct 16, 2020 10:50:25 GMT -5
Peter Parker was established as a child prodigy when it came to science. Sure he took a job earning cash as a photographer, but shouldn't he have a career in some lab or coming up with inventions somewhere by now? That finally happened in the comics about 10 years ago. I had heard about this and thought it a great idea. A number of readers were very vocally against the idea saying that Peter Parker's whose raison d'etre was to be a sad sack sort of failure to whom nothing good ever happens. Not to stray too far off topic, but there's an example of fans demanding fealty to a core idea which, in my opinion, never existed in the first place. Sure, Parker exhibited a tendency to 'Woe is me' a lot, but just because he felt that the universe was out to get him, it doesn't mean it was.
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Post by mikelmidnight on Oct 16, 2020 11:29:44 GMT -5
You'd think that with Two-Face having a reputation for being half good/half evil, there would be roughly as many good deeds that he's done as bad, but instead his coin coming up unscarred all too often just means he'll put off doing something evil for 24 hours (or whenever his coin next lands scarred side up) instead of doing something good.
That bothered me a lot as a kid, too.
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shaxper
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Post by shaxper on Oct 16, 2020 14:46:58 GMT -5
You'd think that with Two-Face having a reputation for being half good/half evil, there would be roughly as many good deeds that he's done as bad, but instead his coin coming up unscarred all too often just means he'll put off doing something evil for 24 hours (or whenever his coin next lands scarred side up) instead of doing something good.
That bothered me a lot as a kid, too.
I dunno. When the devil and the angel appear on Tom's shoulders, if the angel wins he just leaves Jerry alone.
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Post by MDG on Oct 16, 2020 14:55:10 GMT -5
That bothered me a lot as a kid, too.
I dunno. When the devil and the angel appear on Tom's shoulders, if the angel wins he just leaves Jerry alone. Story idea: Mr. Mxyzptlk casts a spell on Two-Face so tha for 24 hours his coin always comes up on the good side. 18 pages of Two-Face helping old ladies across the street and paying for the car behind him at the drive-thru.
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