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Underground > Comic Books >

Turning the tables.

17:39 / 18.02.02

Last list thread by me, I promise.

When I go to the comic shop with a friend who doesn't read them, I usually make two purchases. One comic that I picked myself, and another picked by my friend. I've discovered a number of really good titles this way, most times things I never would have picked up myself. People who aren't immersed in the culture of comics have no idea what's cool or what has historical or nostalgic value. They pick things that simply look interesting.

All this was on my mind as I was glancing over the board the other night. I happened across a thread started by SFD and I wondered what kind of comics she read, if any. Then I started wondering the same thing about other posters who never come here.

This isn't some ploy to drive anyone into the Comics forum who doesn't want to be here. However, if you could take the time to name a comic or comic strip you like, even one from your childhood, it would be appreciated.

[ 18-02-2002: Message edited by: moriarty ]

17:51 / 18.02.02

You should scoot this up into the conversation, may see some more action up there. I'd love to drag some non-comics posters down into the muck w/ us...

00:41 / 19.02.02

Well, um, hello... moriarty PM'd me to this thread... you really want to hear about the only three comics I've read? I guess I will tell you about the one that I think is the X-men comic. Whatever you do, don't tell me it's some rare edition worth millions of dollars b/c I'm sure it's long been trashed.

So anyway, I say I think it was X-men because definitely Charles Xavier was in it. But also it had Green Lantern, Flash, and possibly Wonder Woman. But they were not themselves, they were doubles on an alternate universe called Earth 2. Which confused the hell of me at the time, but then again I was nine & a lot of things confused me when I was nine.

Anyway. The story was this: Earth 2 is going to hell in a handbasket --earthquakes and tidal waves and everything. So all the superheroes are out fighting disasters & the more they do, the worse things get.

(Oh, I just remembered, there was a character called Huntress and a blonde woman who was new to being a superhero & so did things like accidentally break her waterglass in her hand, when she was supposed to be only a mild-mannered secretary at lunch.)

Soooo... finally, Charles Xavier calls all the superheroes into the Hall of Justice & tells them that he's figured out what's going on & what they have to do. What's happening is that whatever the malignant force is on Earth 2, what it's doing is sucking up all the energy from our superheroes for its own evil ends. Hearing this agitates the superheroes greatly and they crowd around Charles Xavier in his wheelchair and ask him what they can do.

Close up on his head, chin touching his chest. He mutters, "Nothing."

So then a bunch of panels of everyone doing nothing.

And then the malignant force makes a Curses, foiled! speech.

The End.

I seriously thought it was the greatest, still do. Lots of times when everything's going to hell in a handbasket, I make myself sit as quietly as Charles Xavier and do nothing. I would advise more people to do so, only it involves telling this whole story about quasi X-men on Earth 2 & I don't usually get to the payoff line before people start looking for the exits.

<hey... where're you all going...>

Matthew Fluxington

00:54 / 19.02.02

Well, you've baffled me. Are you sure that wasn't maybe a wheel-chair bound Lex Luthor?
Cos on an Earth 2, he may have been a good guy or something...

Wow. That sounds like a fun comic, though.

02:45 / 19.02.02

Lex was a good guy on Earth-3 (pre-crisis) and Earth-1 or 2, depending on who you ask (post-crisis). Thanks Persephone. Superhero comics are all shades of crazy when you're a kid. I still get a weird feeling peering over my old Justice League of America comics. And, to be honest, it sounds like the comic you're referring to is a JLA comic. But when it gets right down to it, the damn things are usually better in your head than on the page.

Sounds fantastic though. And oddly familiar...

06:25 / 19.02.02

i used to read comics, all the time. i was a particular fan of daredevil and the fantastic four (had a bit of a crush on sue reed, i suspect!) tho the odd spidey comic went down well, too. it's all rather a hazy memory and i suppose i've been avoiding this part of the board because i know so little about comics these days. i certainly recall sneering at dc in favour of marvel, no idea why..... but i got into skateboard magazines and music/political fanzines and the comic reading rather fell by the wayside.

saying that, i have read a few queer comics in the last few years - hormone frenzy springs to mind, and a lot of rachel house's stuff makes me laugh.

06:25 / 19.02.02

have you read alison bechdel's dykes to watch out for? she does cartoony strip-style stuff rather than long stories. they're fun though.

06:25 / 19.02.02

ah yes, i have done so. and thanks, kooky, you have reminded me to pay homage to hothead paisan - homocidal lesbian terrorist, whom everybody should check out.....

Haus about we all give each other a big lovely huggle?

06:25 / 19.02.02

Agreed. All hail Hothead Paisan. She is lovely.

06:25 / 19.02.02

Another thing to deprogram from my head... that's the second one this month... alrighty, one, no dead bobsledder, two, Lex Luthor *not* Charles Xavier... actually, that rings a distant bell, Lex Luthor being good may have been one of the things my 9-year old self had a big big struggle with... s'funny, I loved this comic to pieces because it was the only one I had --apart from the Underdog, which I thought was dorky-- but the whole Earth 2 thing made me feel like it --and I-- was just slightly off, somehow fitting in with Mom always substituting udon noodles for spaghetti.