Pierre Speaks - Comic Book Deja Vu

I mentioned in an earlier post about how life is a cycle.

But for an old Warhorse..... as time goes by, you actually "SEE" the cycle. After a few decades, you "see" history repeat itself.

Many who saw the "House of M" "saga" remembered that there was the "Age of Apocalypse" before it.

"Civil War" and "Secret Invasion" took 2 to 5 years, depending on who you ask, and countless issues to repeat what was masterfully done in 6 issues in the "Astro City Confession" storyline.

And now we have "Acts of Vengeance 2".... hum... I mean "Dark Reign."

When I saw this...

It was impossible for an old Warhorse like me not to think of this....

Although unlike the "Age of Apocalypse" and "Astro City; Confession" which were pretty good, "Acts of Vengeance" was..... not awful.... but not much about it was very good/memorable.

So unlike it's predecessors, "Dark Reign" could..... I repeat.... could... end up being better then the original tale that it is emulating.

I guess we could wait and see.

But I won't.

Why??

The story starts with a major flaw..... Norman Osborn.

The story starts with the reader needing to swallow the fact that Norman Osborn is appointed to replace Tony Stark.

Really???

Swallowing an elephant would be easier.

I understand that to get their "Dark Reign" story going, Marvel needed to have Osborn and his "Dark Illuminati" be in charge at the end of "Secret Invasion". But the way this was acheived was very clunky/unbelievable.

When the writer makes leaps in logic that make no sense just to get the story to a certain point.... just to move the story to where HE wants it to be as oppose to where it would logically go..... well.... that is at best poor storytelling if you ask me.

Surely there are some records of Osborn being the Green Goblin?? That he is mentally unstable??

Heck Spider-man knows that Osborn is a wacko. It should be at the very least in the Avengers data base...... and by extension SHIELD's and the White House's data base as well.

How could the White House appoint him as head of the Thunderbolts.... and now even worse.... head of Shield, the Avengers and the Fifty States Initiative???

Makes no bit of sense.

But it was made for shock value, and to set up the "Dark Illuminati".

I am sure that many are thinking that DC did the same thing with "President Luthor" some years ago. But Luthor got elected but using the fact that the general populace was ignorant of his true nature and voted for him.

But here we are expected to believe that the authorities are ignorant of Osborn's true nature?? or that they know but are ignoring it on purpose??

Ouch.

The one story that comes to mind (not that there could not be other stories used as an example, but this is the most obvious example I can think of) where the writer needed something that made no sense to happen to move the story forward to where the writer wanted it to be was this...

What made this tale flawed from the start?? What elephant did the writer expect us to swallow??

Just this...

Batman falling off a building...... really??

I gave up on Hush right there and then.

Why??

First it had already been establish in countless Batman comics that Batman does NOT just fall off a building. Although there would be many examples, THE best example of that has to be this....

And later as a friend did lend me his copy of Hush to read because it was "really good" and I "should read it", I found out that the writer needed Batman to crack his skull so that he could introduce a "long lost friend" of Bruce that so happen to be a brain surgeon.

Not break his legs...... or his back....... or one arm and one leg........ Batman WOULD crack his skull.

Why???

So that he would need his friend Tommy who is a brain surgeon.

That makes so little sense that MY brain hurts just thinking about it.

So as I gave up on Hush right as Batman fell from a building......... I gave up on "Dark Reign" with Osborn replacing Stark.

Unless my friend ask me to read his "Dark Reign" comics.....? ;)

We shall see.