GREEN LANTERN #171: new depths of incompetence.

[greenygal]

Okay, Raab's GL is dreadful. Not news. And his total ignorance that one of the characters he's inherited is a teenage boy, with a teenage boyfriend, and that they should not be freaking moving in together, well, that's pretty high up on the list of reasons why. But move past that for a moment, pretend Terry and David always were the adults the story thinks they are: this issue still commits a mistake so big it might as well be a neon sign saying "I am phoning this in."

Early in the issue, they have a conversation about how, apparently, David has been asked to take a job with the Human Tolerance League in L.A. It reads really oddly on several points, most notably David saying that it's "a chance to prevent what happened to me from happening to others." Since Terry is the one who was put in critical condition by gay-bashers, it seemed a bizarre thing to say. (Not that I think that was a pleasant experience for David, but I can't imagine anyone phrasing it that way.)

Later in the issue, though, they discuss it again, and it suddenly becomes clear what the problem was: David wasn't offered the job. Terry was offered the job. In spite of the fact that in the first conversation, not only are the art and dialogue balloons unambiguous about who's on which side of the discussion, but both characters use each other's names. So, not only is Ben Raab writing really atrocious stories, not only is he demonstrating a lamentable ignorance of his characters, but can't even be bothered to remember who those characters are. And apparently nobody's bothering to edit this book for even basic consistency, either. Christ.

I don't hate the actual story--I liked Winick's Jen and Kyle, honest, but I never entirely got past my annoyance that they got back together in the first place and so I can cope with their breakup. But I can barely bring myself to be interested in the relationship side of the book, and I'm having to actively force myself to read the plot parts. And now screwups I wouldn't expect from a fourteen-year-old fanwriter. This just isn't any fun anymore.

*sighs and goes to reread JLA/AVENGERS to get into a better mood*

Comments

[marag.livejournal.com]

JLA/Avengers is pretty cool, innit? I wasn't going to buy it, but the guy at the comic book store practically forced it on me, and I'm glad he did. Good stuff. Any idea when #3 is out?

[greenygal.livejournal.com]

That would be today. :) Hie thee to your comic store, and quickly. (Well, you know, as quickly as the holiday season will allow... :) It's a really wonderful read.

[marag.livejournal.com]

Ack! I thought about going to the comic book store today, but decided that since I'd just been a few days ago and *nothing* I wanted was there, perhaps it wasn't worth the trouble.

::bangs head on desk:: I probably missed 1602 #4 also.

[ratcreature]

And his total ignorance that one of the characters he's inherited is a teenage boy

I don't read GL, but could it be that the writer just doesn't understand the time warp condition of comic characters, that locks them in their teenage years for decades, and let them grow up instead? It'd be an explanation if one were in a charitable mood towards the writer (which he doesn't seem to deserve though).

[greenygal.livejournal.com]

Mmmm...no, not really; Terry's just too recent a character for the kind of thing you're thinking about. Even if he'd aged in realtime since his last shown birthday (and honestly, Raab's done enough comics work to know better than that) he'd still only be nineteen.

Now, sure, there might well be an interesting story to be told about two teenage boys deciding to get out and live on their own the moment they're legal (not so implausible for Terry, especially; his parents were really upset that he was gay). It just isn't the story Raab's telling. They're living in a nice, well-furnished apartment (in New York City, no less); they're showing no concern over paying the rent or whether either of them will ever go to college; we don't know what David is doing for a living, but he refers to it as a "career"; and Terry is getting a job offer to head a public relations department (on the other side of the country, and neither of them show any concern about moving expenses or finding a new place, either). Unless David has rich, permissive parents, or has somehow acquired an unusually good job given his age and lack of higher education, it all sounds very odd. (And even then there's Terry's job offer. Due to the above-mentioned assault he's become something of a gay spokesman, but I still have trouble believing it would outweigh his age and total lack of experience.)

It's good of you to try and be charitable, but in this case, no, I'm gonna have to say that he doesn't deserve it. (He should be used to that; this is a love letter compared to general fannish reaction to his run on EXCALIBUR. I was willing to chalk a lot of that up to editorial interference, but I'm starting to think that he's just not a very good writer...)