Looks like DC's sticking with their own diversity-pandering in the Atom costume
In Newsarama's rundown of JLA #17, there's good news and bad news. First, the good:
Indeed, one could ask why it's wrong if Jean cheated, even if she didn't instigate the extramarital affair with Paul, but okay if Ray does the same. That's the takeaway one could have from reading Newsarama's article. It may not look as bad on the surface as what DC set up at the time of Brad Meltzer's abominable miniseries, but it's still insulting the intellect all the same. In fact, it's not even all that different from what Marvel's done with quite a few of their own established protagonists over the past few years, replacing them with diverse protagonists, and even if the shifts weren't preceded by steps as nasty as what DC took following Identity Crisis, it was still obviously pandering to social justice. Let's remember DC was doing this nearly a decade before Marvel, which should give an idea where the latter got some of their "inspirations" from.
No doubt, DC must've put out this story under the confidence that, with all the attention focused on Marvel's own SJW pandering, they could slip under the radar all but unnoticed. That's precisely why it's ill-advised to overlook what forced steps DC could be taking themselves for the sake of SJW-pandering, which indeed is what they were doing some time before Marvel did. I don't want to support DC so long as Dan DiDio's still got any standing within the publisher, and this JLA story, too, is another example of something that's a product of his influence that I don't want to support. In fact, have Jean and Sue Dibny actually been seen since merely being spoken of over the past year or so? I'm not sure why we're supposed to be satisfied with hearing about them, but not getting to see them active in a story where character focus could make for a good story, and prove they're willing to mend mistakes of the past.
As the JLA's time in the Microverse ends, readers get another reference to Ray Palmer's ex being alive (confirming yet again that Jean Loring lives and apparently didn't kill anyone in the "Rebirth" universe, as she did in the post-Crisis story Identity Crisis).But now, here's where all takes a swerve into the bad:
Readers are also shown that Ray's got a new girl in the Microverse. Preon and Ray kiss when they see each other again. Hubba hubba.I guess we should've known. They obviously believe the audience will be forgiving so long as Jean's been spared the degradation of 13 years ago and will suddenly accept a character who was introduced to cater to SJW mentality several years before Marvel went overboard with the same in every way. I'm sorry, but I have long known better than to fall for this trick. Besides, beyond what they tell here, nothing's clear why Ray's doing something Jean did, under Paul Hoben's influence, in Sword of the Atom in the mid-80s: cheating.
Ray then says that although he created the Atom, Ryan perfected it. "You're just going to get better from here," he says.
Ray gives Ryan a new suit and says, "You are the Atom!"
Cue full-page panel showing off Ryan's new duds.
Then Ray reveals that he wants to stay in the Microverse to repair the Microverse's decay. He says he discovered "the notes of Dr. Jay Abrams, stranded here from a place called Angor." Batman says that Angor is just another universe.
Ray realizes that the "Microverse might connect the Multiverse itself."
[...] So, after all this, Ryan Choi is still the Atom. Ray is still in the Microverse.
Indeed, one could ask why it's wrong if Jean cheated, even if she didn't instigate the extramarital affair with Paul, but okay if Ray does the same. That's the takeaway one could have from reading Newsarama's article. It may not look as bad on the surface as what DC set up at the time of Brad Meltzer's abominable miniseries, but it's still insulting the intellect all the same. In fact, it's not even all that different from what Marvel's done with quite a few of their own established protagonists over the past few years, replacing them with diverse protagonists, and even if the shifts weren't preceded by steps as nasty as what DC took following Identity Crisis, it was still obviously pandering to social justice. Let's remember DC was doing this nearly a decade before Marvel, which should give an idea where the latter got some of their "inspirations" from.
No doubt, DC must've put out this story under the confidence that, with all the attention focused on Marvel's own SJW pandering, they could slip under the radar all but unnoticed. That's precisely why it's ill-advised to overlook what forced steps DC could be taking themselves for the sake of SJW-pandering, which indeed is what they were doing some time before Marvel did. I don't want to support DC so long as Dan DiDio's still got any standing within the publisher, and this JLA story, too, is another example of something that's a product of his influence that I don't want to support. In fact, have Jean and Sue Dibny actually been seen since merely being spoken of over the past year or so? I'm not sure why we're supposed to be satisfied with hearing about them, but not getting to see them active in a story where character focus could make for a good story, and prove they're willing to mend mistakes of the past.
Labels: Atom, bad editors, dc comics, dreadful writers, Justice League of America, misogyny and racism, moonbat writers, women of dc
