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To be avoided
🕑 Added 2017-10-20 00:00:01 +0000 UTC There are certain tropes I solemnly swear never to use in a comic book.1. Heroes fighting heroes
This is a weird trope, because it actually got less tolerable as it was more subverted. See, it's important to realize there are two eras (for our purposes) in comics continuity. There's the 'Wild West' era where the heroes are just starting out and don't know each other all that well, thus leaving open the possibility of misinterpreting each other's intentions and accidentally coming to blows. Then there's the Modern era, where a lot of guys in suits get involved, everyone basically knows each other, and they even have meetings and conference tables about shit.
Both of them offer interesting storytelling possibilities, and the Wild West era inevitably has to give way to the Modern era, even by the loose comic book chronology of change (how many times can Captain America think "maybe Spider-Man really did murder this guy--I should bring him in!?" before Cap looks like a fucking yutz?). And so, in the 90s and thereabouts, you had superheroes self-awarely asking if they had to fight just because they were meeting for the first time, saying they should just not and say they did, et al. A little smug--hey, people enjoyed reading about Cap and Iron Man getting into a big fight that was over in five pages--but tolerable.
Then someone decided that in the Tens, this trope should be brought back to life, but played dead serious, and there would be heroes fighting each other to the death over conflicts where one side was obviously wrong, or the whole thing could be resolved by a peaceful conversation between friends who have known each other for upwards of 15 years... it's like they're trying to turn cape comics into a Game of Thrones thing full of various factions jockeying for power instead of, y'know, a bunch of heroes who generally want to keep the peace, fight injustice, protect innocent people, and even go about it with a minimum of injury to bad guys or violation of civil liberties, and thus should be able to present a unified front. After all, you don't see the Navy and the Air Force going at it, or firefighters and the NYPD trying to kill each other.
My point is, it makes sense to have small-scale 'Wild West' conflicts as part of the fun of the genre. When you actually try to turn Batman vs. Superman into A Thing, you just waste a bunch of time trying to justify such a thing while also keeping it in-character. Especially when you could just say "oh no, Batman's been mind-controlled!", get the exact same fun fight, and move on without anyone having been an insane asshole. Or, worse, an immature jackass who can't peaceably resolve a conflict without causing wide-spread collateral damage in an unnecessary punch-up.
2. The ungrateful civilians
This is more a Marvel problem than a DC problem, and I'm not saying civilians 'must' be worshipful of superheroes, without anything else being treated as some kind of thought-crime. (That's one of many sour notes the Supergirl TV show strikes for me.) It's more when, instead of even having a dissenting opinion about superheroes or some concerns about them or anything remotely reasonable, we have a civilian population that is apparently five seconds away at all times from wholeheartedly joining up with HYDRA/Thanos/Darkseid, that will forgive supervillains any crime at the first crocodile tear but hold superheroes to an impossible standard, and that will form a lynch mob at the drop of the hat.
Yes, yes, I'm sure it's all a metaphor for how people are against gay marriage, but aren't comics supposed to be escapist power fantasies? Even if you do believe that most people are evil bastards just waiting for an excuse, is that a world any reader wants to spend time in? Especially in a Superman story? It seems like the opposite is true, with comics fans really enjoying scenes like New Yorkers helping out Spider-Man or Gothamites refusing to play the Joker's game.
It doesn't even make logical sense, since in most continuities, superheroes are some combination of police officers and soldiers, with celebrities a distant third. Those are not unpopular occupations in America. (In fact, it kinda seems like Marvel's mixed it up, with liberals embracing the quasi-fascist superheroes and conservatives soundly rejecting them.) And I know fame is fickle, but even the direst celebrity is able to muster up some supporters and have enough 'star-fucking' in the system to avoid real negative repercussions, even when they've actually done something wrong. Even Justin Bieber has managed to drag himself along and maintain some level of fame and success. But you're telling me the Human Torch is just one mistake away from being spat on in the streets? Yeah. Doubtful.
I get that it's supposed to make everything more dramatic, that these heroes are risking their lives for a bunch of people whose idiocy is surpassed only by their malice, but--like DC making their heroes all single and miserable for similar reasons--it just gives you escapist fiction that isn't any fun to read.
3. Memes
Opening a comic book and finding Iron Man repeating a catchphrase from Black Twitter isn't funny, clever, or subversive, it's just an Epic Movie joke in four colors. "Look, we had Black Panther say YAS QUEEN!" If someone is paying cash money for a book, it shouldn't be referencing someone else being funny, it should be so funny itself as to create its own meme. There is zero need to have a forced, unfunny, and dated reference trying desperately to convince the readership that the writers are young and hip.
Comments
Keeper
God, Marvel having done Heroes vs Heroes events for 11 years and then saying "No more heroes vs heroes events!" with Legacy(which had a hero vs hero fight as its focus instead of the pre-historic Avengers it was advertised as) only to right after start 2 crossovers with heroes vs heroes and set up 5 more...
