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None of those are plot ambiguities at all. The doctor let them out by disarming the locks; Warmaker 1's ghost + he's just that cool; someone told him she was down there. It's not Morrison's fault you have serious reading comprehension difficulties. Jesus.
Nah, I insult Morrison and his cosmic-squid-loving fans all the time. Shortly after The Filth finished it felt like I did little else. That's not what's causing me to be insulting towards you.
This is plain rude and I don't see your justification for it. Being needlessly insulting to people you don't know reflects badly on you.
This demonstrates that I was one of several people who felt the "SAVE" command in We3 #1 wasn't clearly explained.
This in turn demonstrates that I was one of several people who felt Batman's escape in JLA: C #3 wasn't clearly explained.
Of course I can understand the story well enough by skimming these ambiguous moments. But just because I accept that Batman got free and the adventure continues doesn't mean I can't call bad storytelling. I explained in some detail why that Bat-escape sequence was not elegantly handled, on that second link. There is no point me explaining again.
And if this is meant to be pop-express, accessible like a 3-minute single, making the form trendily disposable to people who wouldn't normally pick up a comic book -- yet someone like me who's been reading Batman comics since 1974 and Grant Morrison comics since 1987 goes "huh" at it -- then how are these stories meant to be immediately satisfying to a broad readership?
I think I'm quite justified in suggesting this is a stumble on the creators' part rather than my stupidity.
onyhoo, plot's hardly the most important aspect of a comic. it's da telllin of da story.
It's a fair point that plot in a three-issue arc does have to be simple and linear. I was only complaining above because we've seen three or four Grant Morrison runs like this, in a row, and I feel they are getty samey in their simplicity.
As for telling of the story, I still maintain there have been some troublingly muddy moments of storytelling in the Morrison three-parters I've read recently. They don't ruin the whole thing, by any means, but I found it a little frustrating and even more annoying when Morrison says stuff like "god help those idiots who didn't get the SAVE scene."
In every one of these, where the plot is thin, the story is nevertheless thematically tight,
I think "story" means what actually happened, in linear sequence whereas "plot" means the way the story is actually told: so the story could run chronologically from 1970-2004, but the plot might start in 2004 and include loads of flashbacks.
I know that might seem pedantic, and we don't usually distinguish between the two terms: but I don't know what you mean by saying that if the "plot" is no good, a thematically-tight "story" can redeem it.
yr approach to comics is perhaps a little too English Lit for me.
Well, that's fine. There is room for different approaches.
Anyway, here's why I thought the "Wait a minute. You're Sofia?" moment was queerly handled.
1. Fatima encourages Ali to come to the airport to meet Sofia. His dad says he can do that "after the hospital."
2. Ali comes back from the hospital. To my mind, and I don't see why Ali wouldn't assume the same, there's nothing to show that Fatima went to the airport without him.
3. His little nephew (?) says "that other girl went to look for him." Ali replies "Girl?"
Nobody says "Yes, Ali, your future wife went down the hole in the floor to look for Imran...you must go after her."
This is a pretty traditional family. We are meant to understand that Sofia flew in from Southampton to Bradford, came back to the shop and immediately ducked down a hole in the floor without anyone fussing about it -- and that no-one would tell him when he comes in.
"That other girl?" How does that sound natural? The kid would know full well this is Ali's future bride.
3. Although the clues have been building up -- she calls for Imran, seems to know who Fatima is but has only just arrived in Bradford, so clearly isn't just some neigbourhood girl doing the family a favour -- there's no sudden trigger to set off Ali's "wait a minute" realisation. Which is fair enough, as it's plausible that the evidence was just gathering in his head and clicked into place for that panel, but it set me looking for some reason why he'd just understood, and there was nothing at all to cue him in at that point.
Anyway, it isn't a big deal, but that was my thinking. |
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