Why didn't I think of that before? A little more observation on bait-and-switch gimmicks
Published by Avi Green on Wednesday, November 21, 2007 at 3:53 AM.
The Savage Critics feels that Gail Simone's recent work has taken a turn for the worst, and it may well have, but at the same time, it led me to thinking:
Regarding the All-New Atom, and also the new Blue Beetle, and even the new (but now cancelled) Firestorm, did it ever occur to anyone that they could be bait-and-switch tactics?
I'd never really thought of that as a way to describe them before, but I guess I'll have to thank those who did for bringing that up. And as someone who's become less inclined of recent to pardon most of the writers dealing with these things in near-lock-step with the editors, I can't say I'm happy with what they're doing, but also, I don't see how the story's being well written excuses the possibilities that these all reek of bait-and-switch.
What does this mean? That IMO, those who said they found Identity Crisis terrible, yet embraced the changes made in its wake with new protagonists replacing their earlier counterparts, are making themselves look absurd.
Good writing is certainly a vital feature in many forms of entertainment, but it still doesn't excuse prior misuse of good characters that's been left that way, nor if it's being used as a fig-leaf for bait-and-switch gimmicks. As an example of that, we have Green Lantern when Kyle Rayner was the star, and Ron Marz the writer. While there may have been as many good stories as there were bad ones, it still does not excuse the fact that a great guy like Hal Jordan was sent down while being disgraced and villified, something I'm not even sure has been fully fixed even now. So if I didn't ever buy much of it, let alone read it, I figure by now I was doing the right thing. Because bad edicts cannot be rewarded no matter how good the writing that comes afterwards.
Good writing is certainly a vital feature in many forms of entertainment, but it still doesn't excuse prior misuse of good characters that's been left that way, nor if it's being used as a fig-leaf for bait-and-switch gimmicks. As an example of that, we have Green Lantern when Kyle Rayner was the star, and Ron Marz the writer. While there may have been as many good stories as there were bad ones, it still does not excuse the fact that a great guy like Hal Jordan was sent down while being disgraced and villified, something I'm not even sure has been fully fixed even now. So if I didn't ever buy much of it, let alone read it, I figure by now I was doing the right thing. Because bad edicts cannot be rewarded no matter how good the writing that comes afterwards.
Labels: Atom, dc comics, Green Lantern
