tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37940560.post759948076028353573..comments2024-03-27T08:49:38.786-03:00Comments on Siskoid's Blog of Geekery: DCAU #134: Tools of the TradeSiskoidhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08266365376486695812noreply@blogger.comBlogger10125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37940560.post-45335885018045713592016-05-31T15:13:41.417-03:002016-05-31T15:13:41.417-03:00Like I said, I'm no great fan of Thanos, but a...Like I said, I'm no great fan of Thanos, but at least they change him up. And I'd be much happier with Darkseid if they did better things with him.<br /><br />I was just looking at a Chris Sims article on comicsalliance.com about an early Darkseid appearance, where he had set up an amusement park on earth whose exhibits were people being tortured, with barely-convincing laughter and music to conceal the very real suffering going on. The twist is that children would perceive the suffering in its full horror, while adults would allow themselves to be deceived by the barely-convincing laughter and music, and thus help teach their children to ignore the suffering of others. Now THAT is some scary stuff, and if Darkseid were doing that sort of thing today, my estimation of him would shoot up immensely.<br /><br />I remember the Super Powers cartoon, and how Darkseid was not even a match for Superman; in the opening sequence they even showed Darkseid's eye beams bouncing harmlessly off Superman's chest and Darkseid and his cronies running away in fear. And The Great Darkness Saga ... well, what happens in the 30th century stays in the 30th century.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37940560.post-88813959243742430292016-05-31T10:29:11.699-03:002016-05-31T10:29:11.699-03:00Darkseid became DC's big bad more than a decad...Darkseid became DC's big bad more than a decade earlier actually, when he was more or less simultaneously featuring heavily in Super Friends Galactic Guardians, getting his own Super Powers action figure, starring in the Super Powers mini-series, and finally interacting with the mainstream DCU, so to speak, in the well-remembered Great Darkness Saga.<br /><br />When the universe rebooted, the Fourth World was more fully integrated into the DCU's affaires in Legends. And since then, we've had New Gods in the Justice League, etc. It's only in the past 10 years that the brand's really been diluted, with the many deaths of the New Gods, and writers riffing on Kirby without really understanding what he brought to the table in the first place. So now we have entirely too much Darkseid, and it feels like he's played out, but only I think because he's been BADLY used.<br /><br />I still prefer him, as an established presence, to big bads you'd never heard of before like Neron, the Anti-Monitor, etc.<br /><br />It's possible you don't like Darkseid and his quest for the Anti-Life Equation, but me? It's Thanos and the Infinity Stones I hold in the same disdain.Siskoidhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08266365376486695812noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37940560.post-49479295474858538572016-05-30T23:48:54.670-03:002016-05-30T23:48:54.670-03:00But he has to be seen driving! How else are they g...But he has to be seen driving! How else are they going to convince the kiddies to want the Conversion Coupe transforming car with exclusive Clark Kent figure?<br /><br />As for Thanos, another part of the reason he works better than Darkseid as the Big Bad is that he's one of several Big Bads that Marvel's creators can choose from. There's also Mephisto, the Celestials, Grandmaster (or Collector, or insert your preferred Elder here), Kang, Galactus, Loki, Apocalypse, Doctor Doom, and even Red Skull with a Cosmic Cube. Over at DC the villains powerful enough to steer a crossover event are a bit fewer and farther between, and even threats like the Dominators, Nekron or the Anti-Monitor feel like they belong in the same sentence as Mr. Mxyzptlk or Lord Manga Khan.Andrewhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06382811944483828955noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37940560.post-37513908349718490632016-05-30T18:34:47.431-03:002016-05-30T18:34:47.431-03:00"I get what Anon means. For some reason, Dark..."I get what Anon means. For some reason, Darkseid homage/rip-off Thanos seems to work better as a Big Bad for his universe than Darkseid does in the comics. I don't know nearly enough about the New Gods to try and figure out why, though."<br /><br />I can tell you exactly why! Several reasons:<br /><br />1) A Darkseid fight is usually about "I am Darkseid and now I am here to destroy you" and heroes have to punch him until he falls down. Thanos stories are rarely that straightforward. In his first arc he was trying to gain the Cosmic Cube (at that time a singular item) to develop infinite power. In his next arc he was trying to defeat The Magus, a possible future version of Adam Warlock who would have been able to destroy him if that timeline were to lock in. Thanos's next adventure after that was just a simple attempted invasion of earth with a massive fleet. Then Thanos was dead for quite some time until the Infinity Quest when he was trying to collect all six Infinity Gems. Then the Infinity Gauntlet when he was god and everyone was trying to stop him, and at the end of that he was trying to stop the person who took his gauntlet. Then he was a farmer. Then the Magus showed up again in Infinity War and Thanos had to team up with heroes to stop him. Then it was Thanos and heroes versus the very religious evil Adam Warlock in the Infinity Crusade. I could keep going but that's a pretty good start.<br /><br />tl/dr - Thanos changes it up. It's rarely a matter of him just showing up and being all omnipotent, which unfortunately is the only way Darkseid is used these days.<br /><br />2) Thanos can have a variety of motivations that potentially make him ally himself with the heroes, sort of like Dr. Doom. Darkseid doesn't have that versatility, or at least he is written that way.<br /><br />3) One of Thanos' motivations is love, as in he is literally in love with Death, who thinks he's a a stalker creep. At some level, we can identify with Thanos as possessing a weakness we all do. Darkseid's got no motivations other than conquest, destruction, and a math formula.<br /><br />4) Thanos schemes, sometimes to the degree that Loki does. Like with his second arc where he was teaming up with Adam Warlock to stop the evil Magus, poor Adam didn't know that he was being suckered into never becoming the guy who could eventually stop Thanos. (He managed to anyway, spoilers.) But Darkseid ... ? At least as written these days, he doesn't scheme. He just shows up and there is a lot of punching.<br /><br />5) Thanos has been developed, character-wise, such that one of his plot points is that he tends to defeat himself out of a deep-seated perception that he is unworthy of power. That means, among other things, you don't have to worry about finding someone with big enough fists to punch Thanos a lot, it's perfectly acceptable to engineer a flaw in one of his schemes and let him trip over that, and it feels right provided it was a subtle flaw. You can't do that with Darkseid, all you can do is punch him until he falls down.<br /><br />I can't claim to be much of a fan of Thanos, but at least he's more versatile than Darkseid, or at least he's used more creatively than Darkseid. Which is a shame because Darkseid COULD be done better. Consider the other year's GLC / New Gods fight, where the New Gods turned into genocidal a-holes for no real reason. That would have been a great time to reveal that Darkseid had found a way to afflict the New Gods with despair and panic -- got them to give in to their dark sides, if you will. But that's not the way the story went, which is a shame.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37940560.post-21312711404158928242016-05-30T12:28:15.004-03:002016-05-30T12:28:15.004-03:00I fully realize that growing up in a rural area me...I fully realize that growing up in a rural area means Clark would have gotten his license as soon as possible, so I'm going to stop beating that dead horse.Siskoidhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08266365376486695812noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37940560.post-39301905209450926122016-05-30T11:01:54.124-03:002016-05-30T11:01:54.124-03:00Sorry, Siskoid- Clark Kent in a car is here to sta...Sorry, Siskoid- Clark Kent in a car is here to stay. You will particularly hate the Bizarro episode, methinks. (To be fair, driving a car is a lot better way to maintain his secret identity than flying everywhere and hoping no one notices).<br /><br /><br />"Oddly enough, i can cope with seeing Clark driving, but react very negatively to seeing The Doctor behind the wheel of any car that isn't Bessie." - LiamKav<br /><br />Right on, brother- preach it! :-) In my (unpublished) blog, I repeatedly refer to "The Whomobile, that hussy..." It is literally the subject of a short story I am writing at the moment for Big Finish's Short Trips contest. Casual disregard for Bessie is... offensive, somehow.<br /><br />"(Saying that, I don't have any problems with him in the cartoon. Or at least, I don't think I did. I can't remember much of him as my STAS knowledge is a lot less than my BTAS knowledge. I guess we'll find out...)" - LiamKav<br /><br />I definitely do, though not for the same reason as Anon, precisely. I just find him one of the least interesting of Superman's extensive, untapped (in most forms of media) rogue's gallery. To me, he's kind of one-note. After their first fight, and "Here, I am god," you've literally said all there was to say about him.<br /><br />I just tend to get bugged that he gets all the spotlight moments. STAS major events? Often Darkseid. Supergirl's introduction? Darkseid. STAS finale? Darkseid. Showdown with Brainiac at last, on Justice League? Has to bring in Darkseid. JLU finale? Resurrectic a DEAD Darkseid to make him the final boss of that series, too! Smallville finale? Darkseid. Live action Justice League movie? Darkseid. Big reveal for the (unintentional) finale of Young Justice? Darkseid.<br /><br />It just seems like there are so many more worthy characters of getting the spotlight, and nowhere is he more disproportionately represented than the DCAU. Seriously, the final villain of TWO series is the same guy, even though he's already dead in one of them? It's like making every live-action movie Luthor or Zod; I just want to see some more variety. To me, someone like Mongul can have just as high a power level (and his own killer planet of evil); he just doesn't have as good a PR agent. So Darkseid isn't the only option for 'ultimate big bad'- but he's the only one they ever *use.* (Just my two cents.)Andrew Gilbertsonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10604304361825660940noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37940560.post-70116097432073196802016-05-30T10:10:49.741-03:002016-05-30T10:10:49.741-03:00I get what Anon means. For some reason, Darkseid h...I get what Anon means. For some reason, Darkseid homage/rip-off Thanos seems to work better as a Big Bad for his universe than Darkseid does in the comics. I don't know nearly enough about the New Gods to try and figure out why, though.<br /><br />(Saying that, I don't have any problems with him in the cartoon. Or at least, I don't think I did. I can't remember much of him as my STAS knowledge is a lot less than my BTAS knowledge. I guess we'll find out...)LiamKavhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01996095233681105682noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37940560.post-7942576031980870562016-05-30T09:54:29.031-03:002016-05-30T09:54:29.031-03:00Reign of the Uber-Man!
This is where the series t...Reign of the Uber-Man!<br /><br />This is where the series takes a turn for the worse, and I think makes the comic book universe worse too. We start seeing more and more Apokolips in the cartoon, and I find Apokolips cannot coexist with the superhero universe without one or the other getting broken. But at least the cartoon deals with Apokolips by having the New Gods intercede and prevent Apokolips from leveling the earth, so Apokolips is kept in check. Sadly, the comics will start following the cartoon's lead and position Darkseid and Apokolips as the "big bads" of the DC Universe, but as of the nu52 the New Gods don't have the power to intercede.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37940560.post-21391197899163081582016-05-30T09:20:57.267-03:002016-05-30T09:20:57.267-03:00"But please, PLEASE, stop putting Clark Kent ...<i>"But please, PLEASE, stop putting Clark Kent at the wheel of a car. I find it upsetting."</i><br /><br />Man, you're going to hate the upcoming 5-episode arc where Clark goes undercover as a Uber driver...snellhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06181997862745538999noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37940560.post-23873294789158248822016-05-30T07:17:34.669-03:002016-05-30T07:17:34.669-03:00Oddly enough, i can cope with seeing Clark driving...Oddly enough, i can cope with seeing Clark driving, but react very negatively to seeing The Doctor behind the wheel of any car that isn't Bessie.LiamKavhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01996095233681105682noreply@blogger.com