The Four Color Media Monitor

While left-leaning Busiek hasn't made many noticeable political statements of recent (which is actually a good thing), here's some items I thought were intriguing he'd written in the past few weeks. For example, this tweet about Spider-Man:

—by me, Aaron Lopresti, Sam de la Rosa, Jon Kalisz and Dave Sharpe. Way back in 1993. pic.twitter.com/BB7bMwZA5T

— Kurt Busiek (@KurtBusiek) January 7, 2022

Yes, I know Busiek wrote several issues of Web of Spider-Man and/or Spectacular during the 90s. But, who knows if he still upholds his and Lopresti's depiction of Mary Jane Watson in sexy lingerie anymore? Come to think of it, with Lopresti having joined the Comicsgate campaign, who knows if Busiek supports him anymore either? Exactly why Busiek's no longer a reliable scribe, if he politicizes his whole approach. Next, something about Harry Potter:

The author of this tweet has since clarified that he meant “the first writer in modern children’s fantasy,” and I can only assume by “modern” he means “nothing older than the first Harry Potter book." pic.twitter.com/pXHiBAiT7Q

— Kurt Busiek (@KurtBusiek) January 8, 2022

Here, I assume he's hinting at an ungrateful attitude towards J.K. Rowling, something he's sadly expressed before, and it's not doing any favors. Nor for that matter, is the way transgender activists have been behaving towards Rowling over in the UK. And then, here's something about Steve Spielberg's latest movie, which tanked pretty badly:

So tonight (tonight…) we went and saw WEST SIDE STORY. It’s superb. Beautifully realized and contextualized. It deserves much more of an audience than it’s gotten. pic.twitter.com/yOfB4vtrN7

— Kurt Busiek (@KurtBusiek) January 9, 2022

Well I'm sorry to say, but if it's as "woke" as some reports told, the movie could be described more like "Woke Side Story", as it's very sadly politically correct, and how peculiar Steven Spielberg refused to include English-language subtitles for the Spanish-language moments, supposedly out of "respect". But then, how is anybody supposed to learn how to speak in Spanish? What if I wanted to travel to a Spanish-speaking country like Mexico, Honduras, Columbia or even mainland Spain itself, and didn't know how to communicate with the locals? It's not everybody living in these countries who understands English, so it pays to learn local languages to make your way around. Same with if you're in France, Italy and Hungary. Also, why is it such a big, freaking deal to put a transgender character in the story, as Spielberg and far-left screenwriter Tony Kushner did? I get the weird feeling Busiek's got no issue with Islamic Gulf countries banning the film due to that. In any event, I've long grown tired of Spielberg, who began as a talented director, but has since degenerated into more of a political activist. Apparently, his all but abandoning the adventure genre worked against his talents in the long run. Now here's a line of tweets where he discusses a DC comics couple who were some of the most victimized characters in the past 2 decades:

For years, I’ve been pointing out that Ralph and Sue Dibny are/were a verison of Nick & Nora Charles from THE THIN MAN…only Ralph is Nora, the thrill-seeking amateur who avidly looks for trouble, and Sue is Nick, the sober professional who’d rather stay out of it.

Admittedly...

— Kurt Busiek (@KurtBusiek) January 13, 2022

…Sue is a sober professional realtor, rather than a detective, but the pattern holds. Sue is the voice of reason who nevertheless can’t restrain the giddy fun-seeker, and that’s where the adventure and the banter come in.

— Kurt Busiek (@KurtBusiek) January 13, 2022

But I think I just realized for the first time (unless I did before and have forgotten) that it had to be intentional, because the name THE ELONGATED MAN is itself a play on the "Thin Man" name.

— Kurt Busiek (@KurtBusiek) January 13, 2022

I always wanted to do a crossover teaming up Ralph & Sue with Hank & Jane, because they were Marvel’s Nick & Nora — Hank being the older pro who’d just rather stay in the lab, and would, if giddy thrill-seeker Jan didn't drag him into adventure.

Not that that ended well.

— Kurt Busiek (@KurtBusiek) January 13, 2022

But it was fun until writers started making Hank mentally ill rather than stodgy, because stodgy wasn’t commercial.

Ah well.

— Kurt Busiek (@KurtBusiek) January 13, 2022

Gee, that's sure something coming from somebody who's never protested how in the past, misogynist mentality was running particularly rampant in the 2000s, and it took several years till it stopped. Even then, it's not like contempt for women in literary format's ever gone away. So if I understand correctly, Busiek once wanted to pitch a storyline not unlike his JLA/Avengers crossover, where Elongated Man and Sue Dibny would team with Ant/Giant-Man and the Wasp, in what'd presumably be a slapstick adventure? And once, it could've worked, but not under the situation as it's been since the turn of the century. Even Hank and Jan suffered badly, and it's not been helpful to the former whenever the 1981 storyline where he smacked the latter to the ground kept getting regurgitated. There are all sorts of ways you can depict a costumed superhero with flaws. But maybe depicting one coming close to committing spousal assault is going a bit far, and it'd be better if a "civilian" character were put in such a role instead. See, this is the boat many creators keep missing - that non-costumed characters can convey certain roles and themes better than putting a costumed character in them.

Sure. But he wasn’t a detective before the series began, like Nick. He was an adventure-seeking dilettante, who has gained these skills over time. It’s not an exact reversal, but the pattern’s there, and an awareness of why it works would help make good stories, if the two of...

— Kurt Busiek (@KurtBusiek) January 13, 2022

…them weren’t so messed up.

Last I saw, they were dead, so I’d think the best way to handle them now would be to do TOPPER rather than THE THIN MAN.

— Kurt Busiek (@KurtBusiek) January 13, 2022

Elongated Man and Sue Dibny had their mid-2000s fate quietly reversed several years ago, thankfully. But don't be shocked if, at this point, you'll never see them again in the DCU because they're white protagonists, and that's becoming toxic to the PC crowd. At this point, the only way they could come into use again under the current circumstances would be if they were race-swapped, which is highly possible, and could come entirely abruptly if the editors saw fit. Even then, you can't possibly expect a convincing sense of humor due to the PC insanity that's destroyed the comedy genre in Hollywood and elsewhere.

But if the way Busiek's written his comments is any suggestion, there's no chance he'll ever acknowledge it was bad when DC/Marvel took the tasteless steps they did back in the day.

Labels: dc comics, Europe and Asia, golden calf of death, golden calf of LGBT, good artists, history, marvel comics, misogyny and racism, moonbat writers, politics, Spider-Man, violence, women of dc, women of marvel