(no subject)
Jul. 19th, 2003 08:42 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
greenygalThe Teen Titans cartoon is on in half an hour. Against my better judgment, I'm jazzed. Starfire! Cyborg! Raven! He-Who-Is-*Really*-Changeling! Right on my very own television screen!
Possibly I will have comments, afterward. Possibly there will be ranting, too, we'll see. :)
Well.
That was a relief.
I had many, many issues with #48, not least of which was that I thought the entire Typhoid Mary sequence was a waste of paper, ink, and time. And I *like* Typhoid Mary. So it's good to know that Bendis is still capable of writing an engaging fight scene, with someone I actually do recognize as Bullseye--although mind you, I thought he went down *awfully* easily. I have a long-standing gripe about how defeating Bullseye too often or too easily detracts from the status of the character (well, this is true of any villain, of course, but for some villains it's easier to construct scenarios where they don't win but they don't exactly lose either), and this is exactly the sort of thing I'm talking about. Bullseye is a master assassin, death on two legs, Mr. Anything Is A Weapon In My Hands, and Daredevil takes him out in under two minutes? Without sustaining any apparent damage himself? Overdoing it. (This was also a problem last issue, come to think of it.)
Of course, there are mitigating factors. Yes, Matt's been waiting for this for the last forty issues or so. Yes, he's been in desperate need of something to hit really hard for quite some time now. Yes, Bullseye is probably taken off-guard by the sheer violence of Matt's rage (though he shouldn't be; he knows better than most just how far Matt will go when pushed). And then there's this business with his parents.
Now, personally, I've never cared about Bullseye's past. (I think there may be something about being a Vietnam vet in there, actually, but if so it's in those pre-Miller appearances I don't have.) Like the Joker, I regard him as sort of a natural disaster on legs, with no identity beyond his work. (Unlike the Joker, I think his work is not focused around "get the hero," though he doesn't object when it works out that way.) On the other hand, that take is not inconsistent with what Bendis is showing us here--this is a man who's done his best to *make* himself into that no-life-but-killing figure. So yes, it makes sense that when Matt gets through those defenses, reminds him of the man he's deliberately left behind, he loses it. In fact, that's my main complaint with that part, that he doesn't lose it *enough*. Bullseye in this situation should be yelling and maniacally trying to attack Matt--Bendis may be right about his self-destructive impulse, but for him, and taking into account his long-standing vendetta against Matt, that's not going to channel itself into "lie here and take it," it's going to be "yell, struggle violently, and hit him with everything I've got until he's forced into responding."
Not that Matt needs any sort of provocation. Anyone who was under any delusions that Matt doesn't possess his very own nasty dark side has just been disabused. Me, I'm not surprised. Chilled? Yeah. Really uncertain about what would have happened if the FBI hadn't shown up *right then*? That too. Grimly satisfied? Hell, yes; Bullseye's had this and more than this coming for *ages*. (Though, again, it would have been more satisfying if he'd been allowed to fight back more, since that last bit is pretty much Matt beating up on a helpless and unresisting opponent. I'm not certain if that was intentional or not.) But not surprised. Honestly not even that surprised at the idea that Matt attempted to hunt Bullseye down and kill him in his sleep, especially not if it was right after Karen's murder. Though I'm pretty sure it resolved when Matt couldn't find him and eventually the rage burned down, not when Matt found out Bullseye was a loser in high school.
But then, I don't believe a word Matt is saying in that section. Who would? "Bullseye, you mean absolutely nothing to me. So I'm going to beat you up, hold you down, and cut you up with a sharp piece of wood!" Riiiight. Matt's brain is clearly working here; he's aimed well and precisely at the thing Bullseye hates most--not just having his past brought out, but being dismissed/disregarded by his most hated/respected enemy. Bullseye would much, much rather that Matt try to kill him than that he walk away from him. But that's as far as Matt's intellect is capable of taking him; he's so utterly filled with rage and hatred that he can't even pretend to withdraw. So he hammers away at the point, so long and so bloodily, that it loses any shred of credibility. At least, to me. Bullseye, irrational as he is in many ways, and particularly on this subject, may well have taken it at face value, and won't that be fun next time they meet up?
Other notes: the tattoo. Heh-heh. This was one of my gripes last issue; I know it was Kevin Smith's idea, but I was wishing really hard that Bendis and Maleev hadn't followed the lead of an unfinished miniseries in dumping a classic costume just to tie in with the movie. (I have no objection to tying in with the movie, but take it over to Ultimate, please.) But it looks suspiciously like Bendis agrees with me on this one--and if I'm really lucky, Bullseye will take the events of this issue as an excuse to switch back.
The one-sided conversation with Foggy was pretty cute. "You want to be my sidekick?" Anyone with images of Foggy in shorty-shorts, please keep them to yourself. :)
Milla. I'm starting to get bored, if you want my honest assessment. Nothing in this issue is unrealistic, or anything I wouldn't have done myself. (Except I would have bailed out when Typhoid showed up, at the very latest.) But helpless damsels in distress just aren't that *interesting* to me. Yes, I'm duly creeped out by the scene with her and Bullseye (especially since I wasn't at all sure that anyone would stop him in time). Yes, I got a very clear and visceral sense of how terrifying it must be to sit there in the dark knowing a stranger's just broken in. But if all she can do with Matt and his life is fight her fears...then that's not much good for either one of them. Maybe I'm expecting too much, too soon. Maybe I've just been spoiled by Matt's previous girlfriends, who by and large are a pretty tough (not to say lethal) bunch. But I *really* want to see Milla doing more than clinging to Matt and thanking him for saving her. Soon.
Of course, I may not have to worry about it. Issue fifty is right around the corner, and somehow I don't think Bendis is planning for it to be a light, untraumatic affair....
I can't wait.
Possibly I will have comments, afterward. Possibly there will be ranting, too, we'll see. :)
Well.
That was a relief.
I had many, many issues with #48, not least of which was that I thought the entire Typhoid Mary sequence was a waste of paper, ink, and time. And I *like* Typhoid Mary. So it's good to know that Bendis is still capable of writing an engaging fight scene, with someone I actually do recognize as Bullseye--although mind you, I thought he went down *awfully* easily. I have a long-standing gripe about how defeating Bullseye too often or too easily detracts from the status of the character (well, this is true of any villain, of course, but for some villains it's easier to construct scenarios where they don't win but they don't exactly lose either), and this is exactly the sort of thing I'm talking about. Bullseye is a master assassin, death on two legs, Mr. Anything Is A Weapon In My Hands, and Daredevil takes him out in under two minutes? Without sustaining any apparent damage himself? Overdoing it. (This was also a problem last issue, come to think of it.)
Of course, there are mitigating factors. Yes, Matt's been waiting for this for the last forty issues or so. Yes, he's been in desperate need of something to hit really hard for quite some time now. Yes, Bullseye is probably taken off-guard by the sheer violence of Matt's rage (though he shouldn't be; he knows better than most just how far Matt will go when pushed). And then there's this business with his parents.
Now, personally, I've never cared about Bullseye's past. (I think there may be something about being a Vietnam vet in there, actually, but if so it's in those pre-Miller appearances I don't have.) Like the Joker, I regard him as sort of a natural disaster on legs, with no identity beyond his work. (Unlike the Joker, I think his work is not focused around "get the hero," though he doesn't object when it works out that way.) On the other hand, that take is not inconsistent with what Bendis is showing us here--this is a man who's done his best to *make* himself into that no-life-but-killing figure. So yes, it makes sense that when Matt gets through those defenses, reminds him of the man he's deliberately left behind, he loses it. In fact, that's my main complaint with that part, that he doesn't lose it *enough*. Bullseye in this situation should be yelling and maniacally trying to attack Matt--Bendis may be right about his self-destructive impulse, but for him, and taking into account his long-standing vendetta against Matt, that's not going to channel itself into "lie here and take it," it's going to be "yell, struggle violently, and hit him with everything I've got until he's forced into responding."
Not that Matt needs any sort of provocation. Anyone who was under any delusions that Matt doesn't possess his very own nasty dark side has just been disabused. Me, I'm not surprised. Chilled? Yeah. Really uncertain about what would have happened if the FBI hadn't shown up *right then*? That too. Grimly satisfied? Hell, yes; Bullseye's had this and more than this coming for *ages*. (Though, again, it would have been more satisfying if he'd been allowed to fight back more, since that last bit is pretty much Matt beating up on a helpless and unresisting opponent. I'm not certain if that was intentional or not.) But not surprised. Honestly not even that surprised at the idea that Matt attempted to hunt Bullseye down and kill him in his sleep, especially not if it was right after Karen's murder. Though I'm pretty sure it resolved when Matt couldn't find him and eventually the rage burned down, not when Matt found out Bullseye was a loser in high school.
But then, I don't believe a word Matt is saying in that section. Who would? "Bullseye, you mean absolutely nothing to me. So I'm going to beat you up, hold you down, and cut you up with a sharp piece of wood!" Riiiight. Matt's brain is clearly working here; he's aimed well and precisely at the thing Bullseye hates most--not just having his past brought out, but being dismissed/disregarded by his most hated/respected enemy. Bullseye would much, much rather that Matt try to kill him than that he walk away from him. But that's as far as Matt's intellect is capable of taking him; he's so utterly filled with rage and hatred that he can't even pretend to withdraw. So he hammers away at the point, so long and so bloodily, that it loses any shred of credibility. At least, to me. Bullseye, irrational as he is in many ways, and particularly on this subject, may well have taken it at face value, and won't that be fun next time they meet up?
Other notes: the tattoo. Heh-heh. This was one of my gripes last issue; I know it was Kevin Smith's idea, but I was wishing really hard that Bendis and Maleev hadn't followed the lead of an unfinished miniseries in dumping a classic costume just to tie in with the movie. (I have no objection to tying in with the movie, but take it over to Ultimate, please.) But it looks suspiciously like Bendis agrees with me on this one--and if I'm really lucky, Bullseye will take the events of this issue as an excuse to switch back.
The one-sided conversation with Foggy was pretty cute. "You want to be my sidekick?" Anyone with images of Foggy in shorty-shorts, please keep them to yourself. :)
Milla.
Of course, I may not have to worry about it. Issue fifty is right around the corner, and somehow I don't think Bendis is planning for it to be a light, untraumatic affair....
I can't wait.
