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Subj: My favorites, at least right now ... Posted: Tue Sep 16, 2008 at 06:20:05 pm EDT (Viewed 487 times) | Reply Subj: Parodyverse 10th Anniversary: Parodyverse Hall of Fame Posted: Tue Sep 16, 2008 at 02:45:28 pm EDT (Viewed 1 times) | ||||||
... Which are going to seem a bit biased on my own behalf.
It's a toss-up - either “Hey, It’s a Kind of Magic!†(Tie-In to Untold Revolutionary Tales of the Lair Legion #273: Of the People, By the People, For the People) or Gender Versus Genre: The Curtain Call of the CrazySugarFreakWedding!. In both cases, I was proud of finally being able to bring long-running plots to pre-planned conclusions. The latter was basically my meta-fictional tribute to female supporting characters in the superhero genre, as well as a rebuke of everything within the genre that conspires to reduce their roles. Getting all the fridged women to quote Pinhead in Hellraiser was fun, as was wrapping it up with a Rodney Dangerfield '80s teen sex comedy moment. The former actually allowed me to answer quite a few questions about Dream's family, that had been around as long as his character himself had, as well as giving me a chance to take Dream himself to the next level, and for him to stare down gods in the process. The image of him facing off against cosmic powers, and flashing a "fuck you" smile at them through bloodstained teeth, remains one of his defining moments, to my mind.
Might as well split the vote on this one, too - Vizh's Rules, Fouls and Penalties-- The Conclusion and Shrike's Mr. Epitome #17, Part One, “Taking Liberties†In both cases, the overall stories were great, and these just happen to be my favorite chapters of each arc. With the latter, we get to see Dream and Epitome's Green-Arrow-versus-Hawkman split very sharply defined, albeit through a modern media lens, while other strong poster characters, such as Lisa Waltz and De Brown Streak, are woven into the story's themes of identity politics, as well as questions of how to define either civil or human rights in a world with mutants, superheroes and our own ethnicities. Shrike also does a great job of incorporating both my own non-poster characters - Anna Kensington as the black Iron (wo)Man, Kit Kipling as the British Captain America, and Karl Braun as the homegrown (and legal) Red Skull - and his own clever and inspired creations. With the former, we get a lot of the same politically and philosophically charged themes and questions, but this time filtered through the additional lens of family. While it ends on an up note, there's a much muddier moral line, and Dream's almost feral protectiveness of his immediate and extended "family," both by blood and by choice, is acknowledged as being deeply dangerous, just as much as some of the attackers of the twins are actually shown as possessing some vestiges of humanity.
Again, a tie vote - Shrike's Balls Out, Interlude and HH's Untold Tales of the Lair Legion #101: Black’s Crossing. Epitome's attraction to April was unexpected, and something I wish I'd played with more, especially considering his animosity toward Dream. Like Grand Canyon, this is one of those rare stories that actually captures the surreal, flowing nature of dream-logic, and how sensible it all seems until you wake up. I recall HH saying that the "Black's Crossing" trilogy was his nod to The Mothman Prophecies, and if so, then he succeeded very well, because I was reminded of The Mothman Prophecies right away by this story's isolated setting and eerie tone, which made it seem just slightly out-of-sync with reality. My only regret about this story is one which is no fault of the author's, since I kind of wished there had been a way to preserve more of the mystery, even into the conclusion, but such is the nature of these characters and their genre. | |||||||
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