Over on Silver Bullet comics, you know the site that if you do a google search for you get the hits for the female masterbatory toy and home of the "damn I thought this was a comic fan site site" we get treated with their year end review of moments for the past year. Every thing was going along fairly well with the usual articles from the torcherd soles of "comic fans/ journalist" when I came across this gem. My mouth dropped open when I read this one entry from a guy who !) either came up with his article by reading the forums at newsarama or cbr or he is in fact a poster who not only dabbles in e-journalisim like our girl jen or he plagerised the postings of folks he shares oppinions with. I post this for us to consider the ethics.
The internet was going nuts over hudlin posting as an alias but what are the ethics for an e-journalist, help us out jen, who post as a fan on a message board and then use their position to "report" or give commentary or reviews on comics. My point is it is easy as hell to enter into a flame war or start eflamatory topics and then turn back around as a journalist and report it as news. See jenn is here as a fan and her stuff at b.e.t.com or at her fan sites have little to do with what she does here. This guys views sound so similar to what you read at cbr or newsarama it is hard to believe that he has not participated in or "lifted" his commentary right from the forums. I could be wrong and I very may well be but still yall can read "his views" and respond to what he said. I find it funny as hell that he takes a character that was pretty much in creative limbo untill she was thrust into the spotlight through reg/qusadas wedding plans. Say what you will about the quality of this book and if the wedding was rushed or not but minus the x-men movie this is the most pub that storm the individual has ever gotten. The e-article
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Bruce Logan: 2006 was the year of changes, and by that I don’t mean those taking place in the comic-universes. The changes I speak of for an avid comic buff like yours truly are of a more personal nature. Starting the year my pull list had a near even split between the big two publishers (with Marvel leading at a little over half of the 50+ titles in my box), with the others (Image, Dark Horse, Indies) making up for paltry 5-7 titles. However, as of the end of December 2006, my Marvel reading is down to three (soon to be two) titles, the number of DC titles that I read has both increased and decreased throughout the year and now it’s the same number that I began the year at. All the Marvel drops have led to my trying out (and staying with) quite a few Indie publishers (including IDW, SLG, and most of all, the new upstart, Virgin). Going by that trend, instead of doing a “Top 5” column, I am doing an about turn and recognizing the “Worst 5” events, changes, whatchmacallits of 2006.
1. Storming into Obscurity: Storm. For a comic fan, even one in passing, the name alone is enough for him/her to not only recognize but even get a respectable enough mental picture of the character in question: her powers, her costumes and her physical features (including special quirks, i.e. the white hair and blue eyes, most of all her hair). However, while almost anyone will be able to place Ororo Monroe, Storm of the X-Men (even more so, thanks to Halle Barry’s rendition of her in the three X-Men movies), not many will term her as that “black chick” from the X-Men. One of the many minority characters on the X-teams, Storm is not only one of the most recognizable comic characters, she is also by far the most famous African-American character. (Note that she is American and not African, having been born in New York, USA, well, that is until the next wave of Joe-Hudlin-retcons). All this recognition, all this fame, and never has the race or the color of the skin of his character ever been a deterrent or a point to play…, until now. In the last year, ever since their House of M (and the X-Men’s “Wild Kingdom” story), Marvel has done everything in its PR-machine’s power to, not only play up (at every available or even deliberately forced opportunity) Storm’s racial heritage, they have done it in a way that has alienated her from the very base of her recognition and rise (the X-family and their millions of readers) and continue to do so with each passing month. Why all this? Why take Storm away from a place where she led her own team(s), and on more than one occasion, the whole X-Family and dump her in a setup that despite repeated decades spanning efforts has remained (and will remain) a niche corner of the MU? Try to imagine DC pulling a similar stunt and by means of retcons (almost all of them forced and incredibly tacky) setting up and going through the nuptials of Diana (Wonder Woman) and (gawd bless his brains) Ted Kord (Blue Beetle II). Now, just as idiotic this idea sounds, this proposed union between an A-level female character and a (at best) C-level male character is not all that different from what has been done with Storm. What is even more “cow pie in the face” for Marvel is that any hopes that they had from this “Farce of the Century,” any jump and sustained increase in the sales of the title Storm is in now, none of them came to fruition. Not one bit. One special issue, which was doubly loaded by slapping a Civil War tie-in on it, and not only did the sales return to previous issue’s levels, they also resumed the downward slide that that title has had ever since its first issue. So, what does that mean for Ororo Monroe, now an Ex-X-Woman? It means, that despite her mutation, this is one quicksand that even her winds won’t be able to pull her out of.
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