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.
8 comments:
Won't happen under Didio, who isn't going anywhere. I'm in the process of dropping all of my DC books, not that I've been very supportive over the past decade anyway.
I don't know if it's been made explicit elsewhere, but FCBD strongly suggested PS was Judas and that the proto-Sage was some maniacal magic user. It's moronic. More here.
And nonsense it is. As you say, part of their charm was from the ambiguity of their origin. I really wish that they would stop messing around with perfectly good characters. Or actually...use the ones that they have languishing in limbo for a change.
Thanks for the link, Frank. I'll got take a look. Though I'm kind of afraid to read anymore about this FCBD issue.
t's been almost a year since I bought any DC books. I was just browsing the CBR discussion board and so many people seem happy with the New 52 (and they say sales are up?!) so maybe I'm the one who's all mixed up? Eh, this is why I'm drawn to outsider characters.
Sally, I bet there's a ton of characters in limbo who deserve some new stories. (Whatever happened to the Fourth World anyway?) Or why not just create some new characters? Comics seem completely lacking in creativity these days.
Incidentally, it's good to see you posting again! I missed you!
Thanks, Sally! I'll try to post more often. I was so bitter over the New 52 I had to take a break from comics. Plus grad school doesn't help.
Egad, NOT real life again?
Wow that sounds so poorly conceived it's hard to believe!
I know Judas has been sold as PS's origin, but it's probably a fake. He just thinks he betrayed Jesus. In the issues which followed 0, God both tests and helps PS, even giving him an angel to assist. If PS were the biblical "Judas the Betrayer", that wouldn't make sense. I don't know how long the fake-out will go on, but it just smells too fishy. By the way, I also guessed that Harry Potter had a horcrux in him about 2 weeks after book 6 came out, so I have a pretty good track record.
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