Married with Comics – Wed, 11/12/2008

November 18th, 2008 by

This week, Florence and I discuss I Hate Gallant Girl issue #1, and the Walking Dead issue #54.

Just to remind everyone, there will be spoilers aplenty after the click.

I Hate Gallant Girl, #1

Florence: I liked it. It was pretty. I’m very sleepy right now.

Martin: I don’t know why I always seem to think this is a good thing for us to do right before you go to bed. Then again, that’s pretty much the entirety of our evening.

Florence: No, the evening is you playing video games on the iPhone and ignoring me, then suddenly showing an interest in doing something together just before I fall asleep.

Martin: So… this comic.

Florence: I was kinda surprised you picked it up, honestly. Because it seemed to be a high-school girl protagonist kind of story. I thought it was mildly interesting. The central premise is that a bad-ass motivated young woman with true powers who is not the physical ideal, is overlooked for the role of Gallant Girl, the most coveted/popular super-heroine spot on a super crime fighting team. This premise is undermined by the fact that she’s drawn EXACTLY the same as Gallant Girl, but with dark hair. She’s totally skinny and booby and conventionally attractive.

Martin: I’d agree with that point, I guess. But it’s interesting that the point at which you cannot suspend your disbelief starts and ends with her looks. I mean, this is a superhero comic, she’s fighting a giant robot. I sort of just took it on faith that she’s not that attractive. Although then again, she is Miss Maine or something. You forget that she’d already won some kind of pageant in order to compete for the role of Gallant Girl. I mostly picked it up because I thought you’d like it. That and that it reminded me of something, and I wasn’t quite sure what.

Florence: The art did remind me of Love and Capes, in a good way. But back to the premise: I’m just disappointed that, what could be a positive and differentiating concept in a superhero comic instead contradicts its own positive message, and renders the plot somewhat nonsensical at the same time. And this is a visual medium. We don’t need to buy any more of these.

Martin: What?!? I want to see where they’re going with it.

Florence: Do you want me to tell you where they’re going with it? Because I don’t think there’ll be any surprises.

Martin: OK, lets play the prediction game. What happens in the next issue?

Florence: She’s going to prove herself and the public is going to love her, and in the end she’ll be more successful than Gallant Girl, but she’ll have her own identity, and won’t have to fit into an existing mold. Except the mold of a conventional superhero, who is born with powers, and looks good in spandex, which she totally does.

Martin: OK, I’m going to go out on a limb here, and guess that all won’t happen in the next issue.

Florence: But you said it was a three issue series, so I’m saying in the next two issues.

Martin: Good point. You may be right. It does certainly seem like that’s the most likely outcome. I still hope the creators can surprise us somehow.

The Walking Dead, issue #54

Martin: Looking back on this, I’m hard pressed to say that anything really happens in this issue. I know I didn’t exactly feel like that was the case while reading it though.

Florence: I forget what happened. Oh wait, no, they learned about herds. And I acknowledge for the record that you were right that the reference to the herd was significant in the last issue even though I wrote it off as something we already knew about.

Martin: Excellent. You know I love it when you tell me I’m right about something. It happens so rarely.

Florence: ***censored***

Martin: OK, enough of that. Uhhhh… They leave the farm! And follow some idiot who won’t tell, but claims he knows how the whole zombie thing started.

Florence: Hello “Y the Last Man”.

Martin: I don’t know about you, but I’d have a gun to that guy’s head and make him tell all. It just seems so stupid for him to cling to some kind of government authority when the government is clearly non-functional in this crisis. I guess it’s possible that nobody would understand his explanation, but I’d still want more than “It’s classified.” And it would just piss me off hearing that kind of bullshit excuse for not telling.

Florence: I think he just thinks it’s the only thing keeping him alive. Also, it seems like the evidence that he’s smart has more to do with him watching Mr. Wizard than his being a high class scientist. Look, he can fashion a compass out of soap! I think he’s full of shit. I think he’s just found a way to keep people motivated to keep him alive.

Martin: Good conjecture. I also got that vibe. All the more reason to dismiss him. It’s interesting the direction that Rick’s personality is getting taken right now. It’s almost like he’s pretending to be all meek and shit. It was most convincing with his son at the end of the issue.

Florence: Well, there’s no way, having read Kirkman’s letters columns, that he’s going to have them end up finding a cure.

Martin: Good point. He wants this apocalypse to go on forever. And why not? It’s been plenty interesting so far.

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