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  1. #31
    A Wearied Madness Vakanai's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Robotman View Post
    I think that would only be interesting if she has a real character arch where she realizes that being a cynical d-bag for the sake of being a d-bag is not the way to live her life. Otherwise it’s just stupid that DC is promoting the hell out of this new “breakout character!” who embodies some of the worst aspects of modern society. Yeah the Joker is a murdering monster but at least he’s an interesting character. So far Punchline just seems like a bad parody of a millennial troll.
    Problem is such a character arc would kind of end with her quitting the villain thing. No cynical d-baggery, no reason to be a villain. And sometimes it takes a while or a different writer to make a villain interesting - look at Mister Freeze or Kite-Man, neither used to be more interesting than a paper bag. So internet troll villainess could still work with either time or a different writer. It isn't a problem with the premise, no reason it can't work great, just a problem of execution.

  2. #32
    A Wearied Madness Vakanai's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Fergus View Post
    She's very busty.
    Eh, she's no Power Girl...

  3. #33
    Harper Row fan Westbats's Avatar
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    IMG_0393.jpg

    I'm not sure if this means that Punchline will be getting a one-shot or a mini-series later this year; has any character that's gotten their own logo not had an accompanying mini-series or a one-shot?
    I'm currently reading Batman, Detective Comics, DCeased: Dead Planet, Dark Knights: Death Metal, Daredevil, Thor, Nightwing, The Rise of Ultraman and Red Hood and The Outlaws. I'm also trade-waiting the Hickman-era of X-Men comics.

  4. #34
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    Just on a "how things always work" note, I'm curious whose idea it was to Eventize Punchline's debut. Because it's a bad idea, always, to lay down hype like that. When you drop a character that you hope finds popularity, you have to debut them with a quiet push. Certainly you can introduce them on the cover of the book if they're not meant to be a Mystery, and that's usually in a badass pose or fighting the hero. But that's all the presentation of hype you really want. Even your solicitation a few months in advance, if it invites a little curiosity with the "this issue features the debut of a new character who'll shake things up!" line that inevitably cannot be true in a shared universe with multiple editorial teams, writing teams, and soft canon resets every six months, is understandable as a level of ginning up interest, but should probably be the maximum effort given.

    Quietly introducing a character without hype is like a perfect lay-up. It wins games, winning games wins loyal cult followings. Big Hype PR pushes are like going for a dunk and missing.

    On the page, a character's debut can be whatever it is. That's the character within the world being as bold or basic as they are, if they leave a big impression it's because the story is leaving a big impression. A PR blurb isn't the place.

    Writing in the Social Media age is taking a pretty big hit, I'm finding 9 times out of 10 writers think like P.T. Barnum but are unaware they do it, or uncritical of their own problems. They get paid to be a writer, so they assume you must be good and doing it right. The eye toward social representation is good but the eye toward social media is masturbatory and Twitter feeds inflated egos a steady diet of sugar and hype. Factor in irrelevant decompression and the price hikes and you realize that yes, comics are basically a reflection of America. Overweight, saccharine and having heart disease.

    I guess in a ranty, roundabout way I'm trying to say lay off the hype. In this context, as I've seen her, Punchline is a solid character filling a role in a storyline that'll probably make sense as it goes on and be memorable. Lasting effects will be understood at the end, not here at the debut. But there was no chance this character would ever match the Hype.

    Batman doesn't even match the Hype.
    Last edited by K. Jones; 06-13-2020 at 01:18 PM.
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  5. #35
    Extraordinary Member Restingvoice's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by K. Jones View Post
    Just on a "how things always work" note, I'm curious whose idea it was to Eventize Punchline's debut. Because it's a bad idea, always, to lay down hype like that. When you drop a character that you hope finds popularity, you have to debut them with a quiet push. Certainly you can introduce them on the cover of the book if they're not meant to be a Mystery, and that's usually in a badass pose or fighting the hero. But that's all the presentation of hype you really want. Even your solicitation a few months in advance, if it invites a little curiosity with the "this issue features the debut of a new character who'll shake things up!" line that inevitably cannot be true in a shared universe with multiple editorial teams, writing teams, and soft canon resets every six months, is understandable as a level of ginning up interest, but should probably be the maximum effort given.

    Quietly introducing a character without hype is like a perfect lay-up. It wins games, winning games wins loyal cult followings. Big Hype PR pushes are like going for a dunk and missing.

    On the page, a character's debut can be whatever it is. That's the character within the world being as bold or basic as they are, if they leave a big impression it's because the story is leaving a big impression. A PR blurb isn't the place.

    Writing in the Social Media age is taking a pretty big hit, I'm finding 9 times out of 10 writers think like P.T. Barnum but are unaware they do it, or uncritical of their own problems. They get paid to be a writer, so they assume you must be good and doing it right. The eye toward social representation is good but the eye toward social media is masturbatory and Twitter feeds inflated egos a steady diet of sugar and hype. Factor in irrelevant decompression and the price hikes and you realize that yes, comics are basically a reflection of America. Overweight, saccharine and having heart disease.

    I guess in a ranty, roundabout way I'm trying to say lay off the hype. In this context, as I've seen her, Punchline is a solid character filling a role in a storyline that'll probably make sense as it goes on and be memorable. Lasting effects will be understood at the end, not here at the debut. But there was no chance this character would ever match the Hype.

    Batman doesn't even match the Hype.
    Tynion has been doing this kind of introduction since he started working at DC. It's also Snyder's style so no doubt he learned it from him.

    Snyder introduced Duke in Zero Year, then reintroduce him in Batman Endgame and make a starring role series for him during Superheavy, then hyped up his power in Metal.

    Snyder and Tynion said during New 52 they wanted to hold off reintroducing Stephanie Brown and Cassandra Cain because they want their debut story to be significant. Those stories turn out to be the year-long Batman Eternal event for Stephanie and the half-a-year long Batman and Robin Eternal for Cassandra. Both events were also used to reintroduce and hyped up Harper Row.

    Now he's doing it again with Punchline, solo. Honestly compared to what they did with Duke, Steph, and Cass, this one's a lot more understated since it's not a DCU wide or year-long event.
    Last edited by Restingvoice; 06-14-2020 at 02:24 AM.

  6. #36
    Astonishing Member WonderScott's Avatar
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    I’ve been enjoying the story in Batman and those are the only appearances of Punchline I’ve read so far. The background for the character is timely, but not timeless... yet. Which is what needs to happen for a character to transcend their current moment and become a classic Bat foe or adversary. So, we’ll see what’s in store for her.

    I’ll just sit over here and wait patiently for the issue where Joker, Punchline, Harley Quinn, Joker’s Daughter, Marionette, and Mime all hang out in an abandoned amusement park or condemned chemical plant in Gotham to chat about their issues.

  7. #37
    The Superior One Celgress's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Vakanai View Post
    Eh, she's no Power Girl...
    Maybe not but I can see how people might confuse the two at first glance.
    "So you've come to the end now alive but dead inside."

  8. #38
    Spectacular Member agentofthebat's Avatar
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    I like her

  9. #39
    A Wearied Madness Vakanai's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Celgress View Post
    Maybe not but I can see how people might confuse the two at first glance.
    She does have a nice bust - but which Gotham gal doesn't? I know Catwoman usually is on par.

  10. #40
    Censorship Sucks
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    A believable enough origin story in line with the mentality today of everyone getting a trophy. You can all be what you want! She wants to be bad. Cool idea. I do like her design. Should be fun to see some of the cos play costumes of this.

  11. #41
    ...of the Black Priests Midnight_v's Avatar
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    I really want here to be a meta.
    Something about her appearance make me think she's always about to DO something supernatural. I'd love it if she was a powerhouse villainess that uses knives and was secretly an army killer or planet buster, hell I take a deadly nightshade set.
    I hate to think she's just another "juggalette" and that's weird to me but that's what they went with. It'll be a long road before she gets any development power wise like that. I do like her design though and I find her pretty realistic since... well since there are
    a plethora who are that way in real life.
    My priority is enjoying and supporting stories of timeless heroism and conflict.
    Everything else is irrelevant.

  12. #42
    Post Editing OCD Confuzzled's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by K. Jones View Post
    Big Hype PR pushes are like going for a dunk and missing.
    Well, it worked 54 years back for Barbara Gordon.



    Really surprised how there hasn't been THAT level of cross-media spontaneous debut pushes for new comic characters since. Or how Babs has been the rare exception to make a multi-platform debut of this scale among Big 2 characters.

  13. #43
    Moderator Frontier's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Confuzzled View Post
    Well, it worked 54 years back for Barbara Gordon.



    Really surprised how there hasn't been THAT level of cross-media spontaneous debut pushes for new comic characters since. Or how Babs has been the rare exception to make a multi-platform debut of this scale among Big 2 characters.
    Yeah, I think the only real chance Punchline has is if media adaptions actually start to push her as a valid alternative to Harley as Joker's sidekick and people respond well to that.

  14. #44
    Spider-Ninja themasething's Avatar
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    I think she's just another character who'll be gone in a year or so and no-one will remember her name. There's nothing that makes her memorable or interesting. She's just a standard emo-fringe 90s goth girl with modern troll style tendencies. Hell her hype was probably something to do with speculation marketing to get people to buy a bunch of extra copies (which will become worthless in a few months) hoping that collectors would have the next Harley Quinn on their hands. Overall much like the Batman Who Laughs, she'll be regulated to the pile of gimmicks that didn't sell books.

  15. #45
    Incredible Member Gotham citizen's Avatar
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    Oh my God! We are already reciting a requiem for a character who made her debut less than fortnight ago and until now she appeared in a panel and two story (one of them short). Maybe we should await six or seven issues, before to start to dig her grave; or don't we?

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