Monday, July 16, 2012

Why, DC, why?

Is DC Comics on a vendetta to ruin every one of my personal favorite characters?

I suppose the old adage "be careful what you wish for" really is true, because I'd rather have The Question be dead than be Alexander the Great [or Ceasar, or Caligua, depending on whose rumor mill you follow.]

And The Phantom Stranger?  One of the most important points about the Phantom Stranger is that we never know his origins.  Hence, he remains a stranger.  We have a multiple-choice origin story for him in Secret Origins #10--you pick which one you think best fits him.  (Or supply your own origin.)  So DC now sees fit to say that the Phantom Stranger is Judas Iscariot.


I sure hope that site is wrong, or it's part of some elaborate late April Fool's prank.  I never got around to getting a FCBD issue this year, so I don't know for sure.

But this trend of shoehorning characters into roles which they were not created for does no justice to these characters.  The Question was a detective on the lunatic fringe, not an immortal first user of magic.  The Phantom Stranger was mysterious force of indefinable origins who had a penchant for showing up in random moments and helping out various protaganists.  Why twist them into roles which they were not meant to play?

Please, DC, I am begging you: go back to the drawing board.  Simplify.  Tell good stories.  Let characters be who they were created to be.  Be true to their origins.  Stop it already with this nonsense.