Subcultural engagement for the 21st Century...
Barbelith is a new kind of community (find out more)...
You can login or register.

7 Soldiers: The Bulleteer

Page: 1 ... 5 6 7 8 9(10)11 12 13

Lel

16:27 / 10.02.06

I thought it was a great issue, but I would have liked to see more from Lil Hollywood (who haven't we seen from the Newsboy Army?). For a second, I thought the fact that Lil Hollywood did such a good impression of Gimmix might mean something, but it might just be a little message from Morrison to the theorists: "close, but no cigar."

Mario

17:18 / 10.02.06

The only "grown up" ones missing are Chop Suzi (who may be dead), Captain 7 (likewise), and Millions, who only got a particularly bizarre offhand reference in this issue.

I find myself wondering if we'll see Suzie before the end. For some reason, the idea "Suzi = Gloriana" just popped into my head.

H3ct0r L1m4

04:07 / 11.02.06

mine too.

and what if Lil' Hollywood traded places with Gimmix before SS#0? don't know what use this could have in the larger mix [maybe Lil'H trying to reach Chop Glorianna via Miracle Mesa?], but gives me nerd bumps.

Mario

17:21 / 11.02.06

I'm starting to think that, when all is said and done, every Soldier will be tied to a member of the Newsboy Army in one way or another.

This Sunday

22:20 / 11.02.06

I'm still sticking with the connection between Gloriana and Suzi as that 'even machines love her' line from a Guardian issue. Between that and lurid child-rape puritan-girls-defiled kicks, the whole thing falls from them fairy-types to the kids. For me, anyway.

Aertho

10:47 / 14.03.06

Bump! Out tomorrow?

I bet Sally was going to sell smartskin... the stuff that makes you skin hard as enamel(7S:MM3).

Aertho

16:19 / 15.03.06

It's all over.

I was hoping for more essential Alix, but like every other issue, it focusses on some other character... which i guess is the point. Penetrating others.

Any guesses who the first reproducing superhero of the DCU is?

Mario

17:05 / 15.03.06

Alan Scott?

COBRAnomicon!

17:12 / 15.03.06

I was actually dissatisfied on the first read, because I'd been hoping for more Alixocentrism. But after getting over that, I enjoyed it a lot on the second run-through. There's a lot to chew on thematically, and a couple of weird continuity hooks (the ending, the first-reproducing-superhero bit) that'll require some thought/research/further reads.

Good stuff overall. I'll miss the Bulleteer.

Aertho

17:19 / 15.03.06

Well. I would assume that E2 Superman was the first superhero of the DCU... but that was with metanarrative goggles on. Diving back into the continuity game, I wondered if Alix is Vigilante's long-lost descendant from his Old West timelost days gone by. But superhero might mean any old thing. Perseus? Gilgamesh? Some Cro-Magnon with a GL ring? I'm hoping Mario knows how far back this can go; maybe he's got an answer.

Mario

21:20 / 15.03.06

My first guess, since Saunders specifically said EARTH's first superhero, is the Immortal Man or Ressurrection Man, both of whom go back to Neanderthal times.

Resurrection Man has a slight edge, since he reincarnates in the same body, which may be how Alix survived the smartskin to begin with. However, Arion's Atlantis is older.

Still, knowing Grant, I think IM fits more as a model. Call it a hunch.

Aertho

21:24 / 15.03.06

Well, it's a little late in the game for him to be mentioning new players, you know? Miracle 4 gave us Oracle, but there's no indication that he's not also Croatoan...

If it's Immortal Man, I think he would've been mentioned somewhere in the tezxt... or at least alluded to. Must reread.

Mario

21:49 / 15.03.06

In that case, probably someone from Ystin's Camelot. There may be a few candidates there.

Mr Tricks

23:49 / 15.03.06

Pehaps ystin ends up returning to a restored camelot (via castle revolving) inspired to be the first superhero.

Mario

00:03 / 16.03.06

That may be the operative word here. Not "first", but "superhero". When does a hero become a superhero?

COBRAnomicon!

00:35 / 16.03.06

Yeah, i was kicking around a Camelot connection, too-- it has to be something already established somewhere in 7S, or we've drifted into narrative laziness. I don't see how it could be Ystin, though, without requiring some time-travel kinks that would at the very least take her off of the available-character board at the very end.

Hallo, Paper Spaceboy

00:49 / 16.03.06

Cassie: I was hoping for more essential Alix, but like every other issue, it focusses on some other character... which i guess is the point. Penetrating others.

Alix Harrower is the supporting character in her own narrative. She's the Professor's Wife in #1, then Sky-High Helligan's hired muscle in #2 (and, after a fashion, hired glamour-puss and taxi service), then Stella Stellamaris's bodyguard in #3, and finally she's Sally Sonic's super-nemesis in #4. Being pushed to the sidelines is pretty much what Alix has been subjected to for the entire mini, and it's all to push her to the point where she says NO to destiny, NO to Greg Saunders, NO to saving the world. Because she's constantly treated like a piece of meat, a piece of metal, a spear not thrown - she's not a set piece, she's a person!

So #4 worked perfectly. She's tired of not being included in the story because everybody else has to feel special.

Aertho

01:13 / 16.03.06

I thought it was because it was a "specialized" kind of special. Her life had been rendered into a flat cliché of superhero-ness. She listed them. (Something), team-ups, arch-enemies, and unfulfilled destinies... she knows it's a joke, and she wants a LIFE.

I love Alix. mwah!

Aertho

01:17 / 16.03.06

Even her name is kind of superhero-y cliché...

vajramukti

02:53 / 16.03.06

i think sally sonic is meant to be an example of what happens when you buy into the myth without questioning it. you end up disillusioned, abused, stripped of innocence, coked out and crazy.

Alix is supposed to be the hero who rejects the myth. has to reject it, to be immersed as an observer in all the sordid cliches, infantile excesses and exploitive objectification. she's the archetypal victum of the lifestyle, and if she is in fact descended from the first superhero, then she is the last superhero, the one who sees through the cycle and walks away.

' if it's so important to you, you'll save the world without me.'

it would be interesting to see that the very act of walking out, to never be thrown, as it were, is what ends up saving the world.

Aertho

03:28 / 16.03.06

Ach. She'll be back.

They'll probably end up firing her into the past, fixing the six at Miracle Mesa, and ending the threat before it began.

So... is Vitaman real? Madame Martinette?

Hallo, Paper Spaceboy

03:31 / 16.03.06

I would not be surprised, actually.

Her diatribe at the end of #4 reminds me of Bob Parr, early in The Incredibles in a documentary newsreel -- he rails against the job, and wishes that the world would "just stay saved" for a while. I walked away feeling like maybe Alix was tired of her secret power of listening; she didn't give a &^%(@ about Sally's tragic tale, she was no longer willing to give her the benefit of the doubt.

Except of course that she still called the authorities to get help for her. Alix can't escape the impulse to help and save people, but it's never expressed a superheroic impulse (it's always practical, down-to-earth, or emotional).

She's Sophie Bangs (Bang, bang, my baby shot me down...), tired of being a superhero, a goddess, a world-ender, a world-saver...the Bulleteer is Promethea.

Hallo, Paper Spaceboy

03:33 / 16.03.06

Vitaman sounds familiar, but that could just be that he sounds like all those "Vita-Ray" empowered types like Mystico.

vajramukti

04:31 / 16.03.06

well i think it probably will end up in an aw shucks it's lovely and grand to be a superhero after all, cause that's grants style. but i think that subtext is very strong that there was this first superhero, the first guy to wave around his giant superpowered cock, and now here's alix, a woman mutilated into a surrogate of that same phallic power fantay and choosing to turn away from it.

alix with the big pointy helmet is like christ on the cross. it's not a costume, it's the sins of the superhero world that she bears for us. bulleteer is like the passion of the christ for superheroes.... lol how's that for pretentous bollocks?

Professor Silly

04:43 / 16.03.06

I read somewhere that she would end up on an alternate Earth....

Hallo, Paper Spaceboy

04:45 / 16.03.06

She's at a low point. I think Alix will turn it around. I think she'll either die and be reborn -- another superhero cliche - or she'll skip death altogether, because it is cliche. I suspect she'll find some middle ground, where the heroism is emphasized rather than the super -- that seems to be the point of her mini. All these other people are too busy trying to be super to remember what it means to be heroic (even on a small, interpersonal level).

LDones

05:37 / 16.03.06

Emotionally brutal issue. Major lack of closure for me, which even Guardian, with its non-ending, still provided.

I wonder if Sally Sonic will end up being one of the cast of characters redeeming themselves to help fend off the Sheeda, finally turning her life to her own direction and making good on her promise.

I also wonder if Alix will end up being considered the traitor by 'opting out'. Nah, I doubt it.

Here's hoping she'll get the spotlight time she deserves.

Aertho

11:47 / 16.03.06

Who called Alix?

In the beatdown splash page prior to her cellphone conversation, it's evident that someone was calling her.

Was it Mind Grabber Man? Who else would know about Sally Sonic and otehr stuff?

Also, FREFON?

The Falcon

13:31 / 16.03.06

Last story there is about a Vitaman; right time period, too.

I thought it was Freeon, as in some kind've gasoline (non-revolving orbitals - chemistry ain't a strong suit)? But it's definitely Frefon, though a bar mighta been knocked out.

Aertho

13:50 / 16.03.06

FREFON

?

The Falcon

14:11 / 16.03.06

Yeah, I found that too. Paquette's a pretty French name, eh? So's LaPointe.

Hallo, Paper Spaceboy

14:40 / 16.03.06

Anyone else wonder if "Mister Hyde's evil serum," the one Vitaman gives to Sally, is maybe derived from the Sheeda Spine Riders or something?

Here's a question: is Sally Sonic meant to look adult, or should she be a teenager like Sara Smart? I'm just wondering if there's an eternal superwoman/girl routine like Captain Marvel/Billy Batson (although, in-story, Billy's getting older)...I find Paquette's art makes all the superwomen look the same age.

We also get the "bullets dissolving" money shot from #1...

Aertho

14:47 / 16.03.06

threadrot/

How old is Billy Batson in continuity? How old are the other Marvels? Has Cap Marvel changed due to that maturation?

/threadrot

Hallo, Paper Spaceboy

14:54 / 16.03.06

Billy is, last I heard, sixteen years old. This came up when he and Stargirl had a brief relationship (which had to stop because Marvel couldn't tell anyone else how old he actually is). Mary's sixteen too, law of twins, but I think Freddy's actually a bit older...

Mario

14:58 / 16.03.06

One could assume Mr. Hyde's serum is related to a certain Henry Jekyll...

Page: 1 ... 5 6 7 8 9(10)11 12 13

Add Your Reply