I like Apollo (I love the off-skew writing, as well as the fact they were willing to take major risks in the whole portrayal, ranging from the higher-than-then-normal violence, and ofcourse the whole Apollo-midnighter relationship as far as they did, when it could very easily have bombed).
However, Apollo for all his powers has always seemed a tad less capable in scale and scope than a Kryptonian going all-out, and Supergirl is a Kryptonian who (even outside KMC-style battles) goes all out. That is why for a while she was thought to be more powerful than Superman, since she never holds back.
Thus, Supergirl.
And anyways, when you have two girls fighting (as Kara and Apollo would be ....and yes, Apollo is the 'girl' in the Midnighter-Apollo relationship, isn't he), I'd say the one who would win is the one who is stronger, faster, more aggressive, and can actually get PMS.
I think what happens is that after decades of continuous writing flow, material starts to get a little thin.
Thus, writers do one of three things:
They either continue with the same ol' same ol', and in the process risk losing market share (in TV, this would be like continuing with the whole Mr Roger's Neighborhood type of shows)
Or they take the approach of using shock value. It is easy to add a touch of octane by simply doing something 'shocking,' and this can be seen by the 'gay comic characters' in comics, but most importantly in movies and TV (where instead of real character/plot driven stories it is mostly some shock factor. Be it people eating entrails and slugs on Fear Factor, or swapping wives, or horror movies not being even frightening any more but instead relying on images suddenly appearing on screen, or eyeballs getting ripped out etc. It is not about plot ...simply about some shock factor. For instance, instead of horror films playing visceral tricks on your mind, nowadays they simply rely on some guy suddenly appearing from the closet and making the lil'girl sitting in the row in front of you to squeal. That is not scary.) Another example here is violence, where instead of real plot directives you simply have extreme violence. Sure, it is entertaining, but it is like Chinese take-away.
Now, there are a FEW writers who take the third option, which is actually coming up with a write-up that is pure genius. Something new, something fresh, something amazing. However this is hard to do, and few people do it. Also, once it is done it is quickly followed by copy-cats.
The whole Midnighter thing is a mix of 2 and 3 (maybe 90% 2, and 10% 3) ....I like the way they write, however the gay parts were thrown in to create 'velocity' and have people talking about it.
Think about the new Batwoman ....when she was introduced she actually made it into big-paper publications (NYT, WSJ, etc). Why? Not because she was a new DC character ....but simply because she was a lesbian!
Look at all the horror movies for the last 10 years or so. All of them are not horror flicks ....simply b-rate movies that rely on some CG monster suddenly leaping at the screen for shocks and squeals. To see a real horror film you have to opt for European cinema! Nothing has come out of hollywood in the last 10 years that I would consider a horror ....not even a thriller, unless you are a 13 year old girl (or quanchi).
It is sad, but most writers opt for the easiest solution to a given problem, and the easiest is to use 'stunts.'
Next will probably be an anti-hero type who gains his powers from killing old people in nursing homes, or a character that is a pedophile, or a transexual villain, or maybe sexual zombies who turn other people into the undead through herpes-ridden assault, or a hero that has problems fighting his tendencies for bestiality. Any number of stupid ideas can come out.
Anything to get a few lines from a newspaper and hopefully capture some level of interest, even if it dies out in a couple of months.
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Last edited by spetznaz on Mar 4th, 2009 at 06:31 AM
Wait, you can deal with Wolverine cutting people in half, Thanos committing genocide, and other gory feats of violence and but two men kissing is two much for you to handle...?
Apollo and Midnighter's homosexuality granted was unfortunately just a stunt when they first came out. But when their characters progressed, their being gay was just a part of their character.
And wouldn't liken their initial homosexuality to "shock value" like zombies, pedophiles, and bestality (which by the way I find offensive...) I would liken it to the 'diversity' campaign that DC has been touting for the last few years. Like making the new Blue Beetle a Latino youth. And the new Atom a Asian-American.
Unfortunately, Batwoman suffered greatly under this campaign as they failed to make anything other than a lesbian, a problem that Rucka will fix in the upcoming Dect. Comics.
Gay characters are suffering the same shit black comic book characters did and still do suffer in the comic medium. Their characters are defined by their homosexuality/race rather than their actual character. I.E. Black Lightening, Falcon, Black Panther, etc.
Thankfully, gay characters like Hulkling, Wiccan, Willow Rosenburg, and Renee Monotoya have broken this mold.
Oh and Supergirl wins. He's not in her league. He's about as powerful as Wonder Man IMO.
__________________ posted by Badabing
I don't know why some of you are going on about being right and winning. Rob and Impediment were in on this gag because I PMed them. Silent and Rao PMed me and figured I changed the post. I highly doubt anybody thought Quan made the post, but simply played along just for the lulz.
The stuff about MNer and Apollo being gay for the shock value is a little misinformed. They haven't used it to shock anyone since about Issue #5 of their original run. It's actually treated much like a "normal" comic relationship these days, and it's not even something that gets brought up by others in the WS universe too often. Seeing a picture of them kissing is hardly an argument against that, either. When hertero characters kiss, or when we see gratuitous sexual references, we think nothing of it. But in a homosexual context, it's suddenly pandering for ratings?!
Though they did use homophobia to hilarious affect in the Kev titles. But those were never intended to be serious, and also aren't part of the Authority's main run.
Prolly Supergirl, btw. Better high-end feats. Though being near the sun puts the fight in some doubt, and people like to highlight Apollo's low showings rather than his high, leading to what I consider to be a slight forum underestimation.
Cpt. Atom altered his atomic structure in order to overload his cells with solar power. But he's existed comfortably near and in the sun more than once, and also teleported there in a fight to aid himself once, so the fight's setting would only help him. His low showings exist when he burns up his charge too quickly, so he'd be free from such concerns in this fight.
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Mar 4th, 2009 04:46 AM
