Originally, this post had about 1000 words of an extremely angry denunciation of the J. Michael Straczynski authored Thor #4, in which Thor goes to Darfur and solves the Crisis by smashing his hammer in the earth and creating a big hole between the warring factions. But then I saw this press release from Marvel, and I realized, oh god, they’re bragging.
“In addition to giving Thor additional depth, Straczynski hopes to expand the tapestry of the Marvel Universe by infusing locations that exist and matter in today’s headlines.
‘The strength of the Marvel Universe always has been [that] it operates in the real world,’ contends the writer. ‘That real world is not confined to the United States, it reaches out and penetrates everywhere.’
Sending Thor into situations like these and involving him group such as Doctors Without Borders continues Straczynski’s mission statement to make THOR a book that can be enjoyed by fans of the character’s classic adventures, but also something more.”
Four very simple points.
#1. Stop.
#2. Thor doesn’t go to Darfur– he goes to “Darhan.” But last issue Thor went to a clearly identified New Orleans. Comics have a long history of disguising places under different names– but I believe that this is to avoid difficulties, legal or otherwise. Is there any reason for the switch besides not wanting to cheese off the Sudanese, a potential future, or perhaps an existing (via film), market for the company’s products? Could this be, pray tell, an example of Thor entering the real world of global corporations?
#3. This issue ends with Thor transforming 3 of the Doctors Without Borders into his chums and bringing them back to Asgard. If you’re writing a comic intended to call attention to a catastrophe and the noble beings struggling within it, isn’t it a little weird that a rollicking tale of an Aryan superman wrestling with African problems then ends with that same superman spiriting away the Noble White Doctors? Counting Thor’s alter ego, “Darhan” is four doctors shorter by page 20 than it was by page 4.
#4. Stop. Really. The real world doesn’t have dudes in capes. You write genre fiction. You’re totally not Alan Moore. You’re not Grant Morrison.
Sir, you are not even Warren Ellis.
Stop.
Update, Later: Oops. A commenter rightly points out that Thor, in fact, takes away the 3 best guards. Not doctors. My bad, and apologies. Either way, Thor’s visit remains a net loss for Doctors Without Borders. If anything, Thor’s continuing Holiday in Other People’s Misery now seems even worse. At least my erroneous read gave a perverse strength in numbers, with me thinking that there were other doctors willing to abandon the noble mission for high times with swords and sorcery.
But let’s not split hairs: I find it hard to believe that anyone could read this book and find the whole story line to be anything other than a nebulously defined narrative pretext for Thor to gather more guns. You know, the Real Work.
November 16th, 2007 at 11:24 pm
[...] wrote an interesting post today on COMICS: AN IDIOSYNCRATIC EXAMINATION, PART INTERLUDE (The White …Here’s a quick [...]
November 17th, 2007 at 3:06 am
he did not take the doctors they came out of two guys and they were guards not docs way to show you did not read the book