Cheryl Lynn isn't quite sure who she is, but she's pretty sure of what she wants to be. A warrior woman. A bad-ass mamajama. Perhaps an earth goddess extraordinaire. She spends her days abusing keyboards and screaming at computer screens while she waits for her cult following to finally show up.

She changes her mind more often than extras in rap videos change thongs.

Remember: save to your own server, sweets!

Reading SELF Magazine.

Writing To-Do lists.

Hearing Thunder.

Watching General Hospital.

Building Nothing.

Eating Vitamins.

Drinking Iced Tea.

Buying Comic books.

Thinking "It is HOT!"

Playing Episodes from Liberty City.

Adoring Cold water.

Saying Very little.

Abhorring Bigotry.

Feeling Calm.

Hoping To get in gear.

Tuesday July 21 2009

Well, I don't care what y'all think.

Blackest Night #1 is so ridiculous that it has looped back around on itself and shot directly into the realm of absolute awesome. I pilfered a friend's copy and enjoyed the hell out of that bastard. Well, half of it, anyway. There's still one major problem though.

I don't give a damn about any DC character except for Batman. And he's already sort-of-dead. That means that Johns can slice and dice every character in this story to ribbons and as long as he does it in an interesting way, he'll have my attention. I'm not emotionally invested in these characters one way or another. In fact, I kind of hate Hal Jordan. I'm just here for some explosions, some kicks to the face and perhaps a limb or two being torn off. And if you give me enough of that, I'll buy the trade. And as soon as you stop giving it to me, I'm gone.

Something has changed in the way that I read mainstream superhero comics. I used to read them like I watched soap operas when I was a kid. I'd get attached to one character or family, and I'd root for them. I wanted to see them overcome any obstacles set before them. I wanted the good guys to win. And I'd plunk myself down for every episode and wait for it to happen.

Now I read these comics like I watch wrestling matches. I don't care who wins and I'm not really concerned about the events leading up to the big moment. Give me the gotcha. Just show me something outrageous.



Oh, hells yeah. That'll work.

Unfortunately, that'll only work for people like me. There's some Hawkman fan probably looking for Geoff's home address right now, and it's not to write him a fan letter.

Shouldn't that fan's concerns be more important than my own? Because that fan is more loyal than I am. That fan is willing to spend his money. That fan is down for the long haul. I'm out the minute your "big bad" starts boring me. Hell, the only reason I even read Blackest Night to begin with was due to my boy drifting over to DC because he thought that Dark Reign was boring. And even with my official embargo on the mainstream, I knew anything that could make a Marvel Zombie change course is something I needed to see. And I was right. Because a little blue dude bit open another little blue dude's neck, reached down into said neck and pulled out the guy's heart.







Still, there's a minor problem here and I'm not sure what the solution is. Should fans know better than to get attached to B-List characters? Should companies cut back on the violence and stop killing second tier characters for a cheap pop? I don't know. Maybe there's no problem at all? Fans are always going to complain about something, right? It's only a problem when the sales start falling. And that won't happen as long as a company keeps producing important earth-shattering events that never permanently change the status quo.

I know that last line sounds improbable, but isn't that what Marvel and DC have been successfully doing for decades?

Cheryl Lynn @ 10:59 PM EST Link