Downtown Khazan: Ice Cold Utopia

[Guy1]

Moving right along.

[Len Ikari145]

Sega has a new protector: Introducing the son of Segata Sanshiro, Shiro!



May he do his father proud.

[bruceleegreyhulk]

[Dark Soul # 7]

Also, it's kind of Disingenuous to say that "Moon Knight" is doing this and not "Moon Knight given new powers by Khonshu, in the location wherein he would be at his most powerful, and after stealing the powers of Ghost Rider, Iron Fist, and Dr. Strange."

Point being, Moon Knight had a serious amount of prep prior to doing this.

I didn't include context because I felt that it didn't make anything better. But sure, let's go through the context.

There's a new super mega special threat coming and Konshu, god of the moon and Moon Knight's patron, has for some reason deemed that Moon Knight is the only person capable of stopping it and beefs him up and gives him an army of mummies and moon mages. But even that won't be enough, he still needs various mystical artefacts and powers to fight the coming evil.

And instead of you know, just asking the Avengers and others heroes for assistance or anything like that, he beats up Iron Fist and absorbs his titular ability, has his mummies and moon mages overwhelm Doctor Strange and steals the eye of Agamotto, just flat out steals Ghost Rider's car (because the Ghost Rider powers is in the vehicle and not at all in the human host itself), goes to Wakanda where Black Panther is going all "We can't possibly beat this guy, he and his moon powers are too good." and then we have the bit with Thor (and there's no indication that he's using the powers he's stolen to pull of that victory, it's all Moon Knight and Konshu).

The reason I picked out Thor scene is because it is the dumbest one. It changes a fundemental detail about the lore of uru in Marvel specifically for the sole reason of having Moon Knight humiliate Thor with casual ease (he also teleports several moons from other galaxies to smack Thor with). Yes, there is context in that he's been powered up, but it's done in such a way that comes off as frustratingly dumb and try hard rather than cool and impressive. It's like that one scene where Batman knocks out Superman with a whistle and Catwoman smacks down three Flashes as they're charging towards her, there's context (the other heroes are brainwashed) but the context is dumb and only there to make Batman and Catwoman look cool at the expense of the other characters.

And that's my issue with this whole comic. It's just Moon Knight getting beefed up to an absurd degree and made to look cool at the expense of other heroes (I know that happens a lot in super hero comics, but this is just one of the most blatant uses of it I've seen in a long while especially with the uru retcon) without anything clever about it.

Your mileage may of course vary. But sufficient to say, I did not care for the comic. However, I did not mean to start a harsh argument between posters. I just wanted to vent my frustration about a silly comic book.

[Nik Hasta]

This topic, which I'm not going to go into the specifics of as per the mod instruction, is emblematic of part of the big strength and the big weakness of shared universe comics to my mind.

On the one hand, you constantly get fresh and new artistic takes on a character and setting. Don't like the current run? Wait for the next one, maybe the next thing will be really interesting and cool to you. It's a good method for keeping the feeling of a character fresh and a good format for allowing genuine evolution as authors and artists have a longform loose conversation about what X character actually is and means. Keeps people coming in and allows for a lot of entry points to a franchise.

On the other hand, it is likely to play merry hell with continuity and makes it intrinsically very difficult to retain consistency of tone, theme and style across a character's career. It's also antithetical to the idea of retaining long term fans as the model simply isn't built with that in mind. It's about adapting and cultivating new interest rather than necessarily catering to your existing fanbase.

Also, as an editor, you wouldn't want to stifle your authors from doing interesting and surprising things but inevitably you become a kind of custodian for an imagined idea of what the status quo /should/ be and have to keep dragging hundreds of books back toward that baseline and that sucks because it's way less interesting than doing the daring things that could make the worlds more interesting.

I think this is part of why mega-events were such a big thing for DC. Quite apart from the presumed monetary value, it also just made things simpler editorially. One major story, one major tone, one editorial mandate for every connected book. Must have been refreshingly simple in some respects.

So, I completely understand why stuff like the above is frustrating. Continuity violations, resets and established characters getting thrown under the bus to make another character look good can be very detrimental for long-term fans specifically. Equally, the fact that all of this is probably going to be forgotten and we're going to get dragged to the status quo in time makes all of this feel a bit... performative? To me, at least, it feels like it matters less.

These two issues are primarily what drove me away from mainstream comics. When you go to the indie end of the medium; you get tighter and more cohesive stories, changes feel like they have much more impact because once a story is done it's done.

Just my two cents on the matter.

[Nik Hasta]

Sega has a new protector: Introducing the son of Segata Sanshiro, Shiro!

May he do his father proud.

The repeated yelling of "FATHER!" really got me on this.

[Hiromi]

At least it wasn't a wombat. Those things will total your car.

you guys need to keep your wildlife in check, like Bruce over here

[Beadle]

So I went for a hike on the weekend, with a couple of my hiking friends (and since none of us has really left our houses in a month, it was nice to get out and explore).

And I made a new friend.

Attachment 97303

He was very friendly. Worryingly so, he came right up to us and stood about two feet away from me. Apparently he lives in the environmental park (where we were walking) and he's quite famous for hanging out with mountain bikers and joining runners and hikers. He walked with us for a few hundred metres (it was so surreal. Three guys and their pet emu, going for a walk), before he just stepped off into the scrub. And, like, it was kind of terrifying (because they're big animals. The second-largest bird in the world), but it was also one of the most amazing things that's ever happened to me.

That is pretty cool.

I’m sure you’re glad it wasn’t a cassowary.

Those things can be vicious.

[Nik Hasta]

That is pretty cool.

I’m sure you’re glad it wasn’t a cassowary.

Those things can be vicious.

And shoot missiles.

[FistofIron]

This next Kengan vs Purgatory fight has me pumped.

[Dark Soul # 7]

The repeated yelling of "FATHER!" really got me on this.

I like how he, between "FATHER!" yells, launched his father into Jupiter. Or did he?...

[Sharpandpointies]

Life has been tricky of late. Two deaths in the family, one from COVID, and other stuff.

Still hanging on, mind. I'm doing okay, my wife is doing okay, so no worries there. Just...not around so much right now.

[FistofIron]

Life has been tricky of late. Two deaths in the family, one from COVID, and other stuff.

Still hanging on, mind. I'm doing okay, my wife is doing okay, so no worries there. Just...not around so much right now.

Sorry to hear that. I’m glad that you and your wife are okay though.

Have your gyms opened back up?

[FistofIron]

Watching the new Baki episodes. I forgot how cool Shobun Ron is. I’m surprised that he never had another appearance.

[Sharpandpointies]

Sorry to hear that. I’m glad that you and your wife are okay though.

Have your gyms opened back up?

Nothing new with the gyms. Which is fine - I don't exercise in a gym, so.

Not getting a lot of practice with other people, though, which is hurting.