I made the trip back to Louisiana to visit the relatives again. Nothing to say about Louisiana. Texas, on the other hand…. everything is bigger in Texas. Including the assholes. Yeesh.
I’ve been thinking about the “superhero” genre, both comics and film/TV versions. It amuses me that there is a whole genre of fiction that basically celebrates criminals as heroes. The only other genre I can think of that does that is Republican politicians’ campaign ads.
Criminals, you say?
Well, yeah. Every episode has them committing assault and battery upon someone. And sometimes kidnapping — tying them up and dumping them at the police station being the politest thing they do. None of that is legal for a civilian to do. Well, if someone’s life is in danger it’s okay to tackle the attacker and hold him for the police, but you can’t just tie him up and dump him at the police station!
Now, the Batman I suppose could have been deputized by his buddy Commissioner Gordon, which would make it legal for him to tackle Cat Lady and retrieve the Cat’s Eye Diamond…. sayyy…. Bruce Wayne is, like, crazy rich, yeah? And how did Commissioner Gordon get elected as Police Commissioner, again? Gosh, no corruption there, right?!
And a sizable percentage of America thinks these guys are heroes. LOL.
Bah Humbug.
— Ebenezer Tux.
This video always cracks me up:
WalkerTexasRanger only thrashes the bad cats! He’s a superhero in humanflesh. Every bastard he inflicts pain upon deserves the Texwhoopass. I was inadvertently exposed to summorrathat on the ward TV on Xmuh Day (2 ½ standard wagerate for that shift, onya union conditions!) It was Walker kicking some thugbutts after they terrorised a CONGREGATION at the TIME OF CHRISTMAS. Chuck Norris was wrapping himself in some righteousness as he smashed people in the face. His lines were outright mouthing Christian piety as he went all schmacko. God and fists! I’m thinking RethugliKKKan preznitial nominee in 2020 after Orangemanbad strokes out/has a manic breakdown later this year. Most kultists already think their orangatoon is everything that’s embodied in the ChuckNorrisjokes. Why not run him outright?
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At least Chuckles was a (fictional) badge-carryin’ officer-of-da-law, which as we’ve learned over the past few years means it’s okay to beat the crap out of people just because, and even shoot people without repercussion. But cops tend to take a dim view of vigilantes horning in on their territory. There’s lots of laws about that which say that the vigilantes are criminals if they (or anybody else) do the kind of things that cops do.
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Back around 1970, Mad Magazine had a feature entitled something like “You’re Cheering for the Wrong Guy”, in which they pointed out how polite and straightforward movie villains are, and how the heroes all seem to be crude, violent, and mendacious. It’s stayed with me all my life, so I judge movies this same way.
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Tux, you seen the story on the guy that tried to kidnap a woman and then followed her into a dojo? Try “kidnapper karate studio”, the Vice take is enjoyably over the op. Now, my thought was the police didn’t shoot the black sensei that had laid out the perp…that’s a step forward.
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When we were reading ‘The Watchmen’ way back when, our group got Miller’s take on so-called vigilante heroes – the mindset was not a healthy one, and even the ones some fans thought were ‘good’, were seriously messed up.
There have been points made about the collateral damage done when the hero(s) and villain(s) go toe-to-toe. Both DC and Marvel have touched on this, but I don’t think the general audience really gets it. In the first Incredibles movie, the reason the Pars were living ‘normal’ lives was that laws were passed in response to the damage from hero’s activities.
And who funds the hero’s? As The Joker stated in the first movie “Where does he get those wonderful toys?” Yeah Bruce Wayne and Tony Stark are rich, but what about most of the others? Somehow, Clark Kent is able to keep his day job while off doing save-the-day stuff. Peter Parker was mixing his work with his hero stuff, and barely getting by. Then there is Captain America – created/funded by the government.
Some of the villains are doing it partially for the money (see Freeze, Mr.) to fund what they really want to do. Yeah, you’ve got the ones who are just in it for the yucks, but they too need some money for the stuff they do – hench people don’t work for free, weapons and vehicles aren’t cheap, secret bases aren’t available as timeshares, plus they have to eat sometime. Lex Luthor is rich, but he still has to keep an eye on the bottom line.
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Joe: Can’t one say the same thing about the Christian religion? How many people did Yahweh slaughter for petty, ridiculous reasons other than “I AM GAWD” versus how many Satan has done in?
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Bill Mahr was right, you can call it a ‘graphic novel’ all you want but it’s still a comic book. And yes, you can draw one about the holocaust, like Maus- you still ain’t reading Schindler’s List.
But never say such things in public lest you arouse the ire of legions of comic fan bois (it’s always Mom’s basement dwelling ‘men’). Never mention that the deified Stan Lee drew comic books, not literature. FFS USA, read a book with no cartoons.
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