The Four Color Media Monitor

The Cleveland Plain Dealer runs a fluff-coated article about recent Marvel/DC "accomplishments":

This year, the comic universes inhabited by Superman, Spider-Man and friends have altered so dramatically that it will take months, perhaps years, to sort things out.

Well at least there's one part we can agree on.

Marvel Comics underwent not one, but two, such world-changing events in two years. The first occurred when the Scarlet Witch, a character long believed to be a B-level heroine with the unpredictable power to "hex" things, proved to be one of the most powerful people on Earth.

Boy, is that really fogging things up more than a bit. Since when was she ever really considered a B-level heroine? Wanda was one of the most popular cast memebers of the Avengers for many years, pleasing everybody except people like Bendis and Quesada, who, rather than prove their strengths in writing her, chose to toss her into limbo, but not before embarassing her. This is pure sensationalism. And I can't say she's one of the most powerful people on earth either, but can say that the way this article puts it implies that she's little more than a danger to humanity; a form of villification.

No one ever thought much about how her hex power worked, but it turns out that it affects the world on a fundamental level. She had been using her power subconsciously for years, but recently she went a little bit nuts. The world rebuilt itself to fit her particular mind-set.

Uh, what's that? Her hex power alters probabilities, NOT realities. As for the madness part, isn't that just brilliant, how they barely even touch upon it, yet do succeed in sounding sensationalistic, or sleazy.

At the end of the day, most things went back to normal except for one thing: There were almost "no more mutants." Those final three words she uttered depowered 99 percent of the world's mutant population (which had risen to millions).

To be sure, the concept of mutants had gotten out of hand. A couple mutants with weird abilities to fly or turn into ice were fine, but Marvel went overboard. There was an entire nation of mutants; whole areas of cities were occupied.

Something needed to happen to wipe the slate clean and make mutants special again. That's what the Scarlet Witch did.

The couple hundred that remain soldier on.

Marvel said there will be a big event coming this winter that will put the remaining mutants through their paces. No one is talking about what exactly it will be, but a series of stories called "Endangered Species" will be released this summer to lead up to it.

That title does not bode well for the mutants.

That's why I may not dare to take a look!

The second part, about DC's 52 and Countdown, isn't much better either:

In 1986, DC decided the idea of multiple Earths was confusing and smooshed all the Earths and their histories together. This created a unified history that DC writers have been trying to sort out ever since.

At the end of "52," it's back to the drawing board.

And for the next year, readers will be studying weekly chapters of the new universe-altering series, "Countdown," and wondering just what the heck we are counting down to.

Yes, what are we counting down to? There's no end in sight, and the DC staff aren't willing to tell us anything either, which by now is very dishonest. That's why this is one reader who'd rather not study the book in question.

Meanwhile, DC is releasing trade paperbacks of the "52" series for anyone needing to catch up. Reading the story from the beginning a second time is even better. Armed with the knowledge of how it all turns out, you'll see things you missed the first time around.

Including a few things I'd rather not see, I'll bet. That's why I simply won't bother. I think I'd feel much better off reading some copies of Mark Schultz's Xenozoic Tales instead.

Labels: Avengers, dc comics, marvel comics, msm propaganda