Feb 27
House To Astonish Episode 33
Posted on Saturday, February 27, 2010 by Al in Podcast
Join us for another episode as we look at the DC corporate/editorial reshuffle, the allegations of plagiarism against Nick Simmons, Siege‘s sales and the May solicitations. We also review The Weird World of Jack Staff, Ms Marvel and Captain Swing and the Electrical Pirates of Cindery Island and take a look at Marvel’s mythology in the Official Handbook of the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe. All this plus an opportunity to sell your car, the nineteenth Children of the Corn sequel and Shuma-Gorath, the Susan Boyle of the Marvel Universe.
The podcast is here – let us know what you think, either by commenting below, on twitter, via email or by leaving a backwards message in a hit 1970s record.
I do know what you mean about being nervous about what Geoff Johns will do in the DC reorganisation, & the last thing we need is more micro-managing of the already-continuity-constrained DC universe. But I do have faith in Johns because, although he’s hardly one of my favourite writers, his central purpose has always seemed to me to be identifying the most appropriate & respectful-of-the-past form that elements of the DC universe should take. He’s consistently taken areas which have been ignored – large numbers of golden age properties – or messed up – the GLC/LSH – or allowed to float along without having a clear “statement of purpose” – Booster Gold – and made them work without demeaning the characters or their past. The only revamp of his I didn’t think nailed a clear identity for a character was Dr Fate, so that’s not a bad record. He’s a trustworthy fan with damn good judgement with a seat on the board. When I think of all the ridiculous DC editorial decisions of the past 20 years, I feel much happier that he’s there.
respectful-of-the-past
This honestly seems to me like the last thing these characters need. “Respectful of the past” gets you The Protector, or at best a character that has a foot in two increasingly dissonant frames of reference, like a man with one foot tied to an express train, and the other to the platform.
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Loved Paul busting out the wrestling knowledge to correct Al on how to pronounce ‘luchadores’.
Except, of course, that in Spanish the proper pluralization is to pronounce the last E, so it comes out like “luchador-ace”. 🙂
Except that the singular is luchador – as in, presumably, “one who fights” (c.f. “matador,” which is, presumably, “one who kills,”). HE SAID PEDANTICALLY.
…I also hate people who say “Pearljam” instead of “Pearl Jam.” Oooh! *shakes fist*
…I miss Rage. I only ever had, like, three of his comics – one of which was in French (county orchestra tour) – but damnit, I LIKED his derivative origin story.
I really do smile every time I see him in the Marvel Movie Flippy Thing.
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And to off-set the pedantry: Mark Crilley has a stack of ace “how-to” vids over at YouTube.
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“Luchador” is a word that’s been absorbed into English from Spanish, just like “sushi” from Japanese, or “lasagna” from Italian.
These sorts of words tend to retain their original pronunciation in the singular, but the plurals are all over the place; the plural of “sushi” is still “sushi”, but the plural of “lasagna” is “lasagnas” as opposed to the Italian “lasagne” (although frustratingly, “lasagna” and “lasagne” are both correct under English spelling).
Although there are exceptions, the general rule of thumb is to apply the convention of adding an “s” to the singular to form the plural, giving us “luchadors”. That would be consistent with other Spanish words with similar endings that have been borrowed by English, such as “alligator” or “guitar”.
So Those Who Sit Above In Shadow are just Al and Paul then? I know you guys were going for the X-Factor parallel but what you guys do with OHOHOMU is pretty much what you described for THSAIS doing with Balder and the minor Asgardians.
And in the Marvel U proper, I always took them to be allegories for comics editors, especially at the end of Thor Disassembled.
“If this was a professional podcast … ” ??!
🙂 🙂 🙂
Uh, alligator is most definitely not a word in Spanish. The Spanish word is caiman (accent on the last A). Also, the Spanish word for guitar is guitarra. So when making it plural, you actually do just add an S.
I don’t think Marvel will be massively disappointed by the sales figures for ‘Siege’.
– It’s not an ‘event’ in the usual sense accepted in Comicdom. (Well, I suppose at least, it’s only a ‘mini-event’.) While it is obviously a (fairly) standalone story/mini-series it is (a) more a high-profile conclusion to Dark Reign than a defining storyline in itself and (b) the point where the new status quo starts afresh. It’s drawing a line over the last few year’s worth of (profitable) storylines.
– Marvel haven’t completely staked their 2010 performance on this. Any company that wanted to would have pushed their event through massive promotion and gratuitous tie-ins (c.f Blackest Night, House of M etc.). They have tie-ins of course, but really only through regular titles where it was justified or expected.
I can’t help thinking the X-Men Forever ending is down to the two obvious factors:
It’s a biweekly at $3:99. This is the main reason I’ve not jumped on, and I think, many others will be in the same boat. This has recieved unexpected buzz, and having read the first trade, I’d love a good jumping on point.
Presumably, Marvel expected it to fail by now, so have had to cancel it for retooling to take into account the unexpected success. Ah, Marvel policies…
Lambnesio: You’re right, I should have done more checking; “alligator” is derived from the Spanish “el lagarto” (the lizard). It isn’t borrowed wholesale.
Ben Johnston may have gotten his words wrong, but his basic point was sound. The plural of “caiman” in English is “caimans” and (according to my brief Google search which may be incorrect) it’s “caimánes” in Spanish.
(For the record, in English, a caiman is a type of alligator-like reptile from, I believe, South America. Basically, they are to crocodiles what jaguars are to leopards. Similarly, the plural of “jaguar” is “jaguars” in English and “jaguares” in Spanish (again, according to Google)).
Someone could write a thesis on the mysterious organisations in comics that require characters to stand in a darkened circle while they sit above them in a ring, reaching solemn judgements. As Martin S Smith says above, one can only assume that Marvel and DC editors have very high desks and very low wattage lightbulbs.
I can’t believe that the epilogue of Siege (or whatever those five one-shots constitute) is longer than the actual event.
It isn’t really – you’ve got Siege: The Cabal as an essential prologue, along with Origins of Siege and the New/Dark Avengers issues. Plus Siege: Embedded, Thor, Thunderbolts, Mighty Avengers…
Noh Varr as the “cosmic brat” had the same kind of charm Namor has at his best, and they’ve ground it out of him over the past few years. I didn’t love the original Marvel Boy series either, but it still strikes me as a great shame to see what’s been done.
As for Jack Staff, the first issue of these story arcs is always a bit unfocused, with lots of apparently unconnected plotlines, but it always gets pulled together at the end in a way that shows that he’s been doing it deliberately all along. I’d imagine the same is true here.