Wednesday, January 27, 2010

Priorities, Lois Lane

Lois argues with Perry White about true news reportingSuperman: Secret Origin #3 by Geoff Johns and Gary Frank
Click to See The Rest of the Image

Poor Lois. She thinks that in times of economic trouble, particularly problematic for the newspaper industry, she can just continue to push the boundaries and report actual news stories about real issues. This just in, Lois: no one cares about the public transportation infrastructure or political corruption of frivolous waste of taxpayer money. Did you learn nothing in Econ 101? I think it was Adam Smith who said that the only way the newspaper industry can survive is by resorting to spectacle and sensationalizing stories.

Here are the kind of news stories you should be thinking about:

"Superman's Birth Certificate May Reveal Un-American Origins. Is He Fit to Save Our Country?"

"Experts Debate Whether Lex Luthor is Man or Alien Cyborg."

"Study reveals people are indeed better than fruit."

Priorities, Lois.


11 comments:

colsmi said...

Some trains of thought just, to use the cliche that comes to mind, boggle the mind. Journalism in the DC Universe? I suspect you're right that mass-market journalism would be as impervious to what might be regarded as "real" issues such as sewage and administrative reform. But think, as I'm sure you have, about the issues affecting the DC Universe that even, or especially, yellow journalism would have to deal with. Did you, our noble newspaper reader, exist before the history of the world changed again, or were you Elvis in that chronology? Why can't the teleporting tech shown in the JLA & available to the US Army not feed the world, or at least New Orleans after the storms? How come death can be conquered & shingles can't? Don't panic about terrorists: we've got alien brain-eaters in Georgia! And let's shudder as we imagine the knowledge of actual Gods from non-Christian/Moslem/Jewish religions impacting on the US Fundamentalist communities. The DC Universe press must be fascinating. After so many years of reading comics, I might find the press more interesting than the comics themselves.

Keep up the good work! Love the blog! Great to see the playfullness of real thinking at work in a blog about comic books. It isn't until the high and the low elements of culture are muddied up together that things get fun, I always think.

Will said...

I really enjoy that, because so many comic book characters are fairly old (in our world, not in their own, because, as we discussed, they don't age while the world does), they work in jobs that are declining in significance. For instance, no offense to fighter pilots, but the increase in drones and decrease in enemies with air forces means that job isn't the daredevil prestige job, but Green Lantern, the Thing, and others had it. Newspaper reporters are abundant in both Marvel and DC. Heck, even Superman's origin of a small family-owned farm is a slowly dying concept with the increase in mega-farms run by corporations. You also have a great number of heroes from World War II and some former Soviet agents. Great times for heroes and villains, but a World War II vet would be over 80 and a former Soviet agent would likely be in his late 40s at the youngest, not a young and strong Black Widow (I know she now has biotech that slows down her aging, as does Nick Fury and others, but those are justifications for anachronisms). Personally, I really enjoy that time capsule element of comic books.

Sorry for going completely off topic, but Lois Lane seems like such an anachronism.

ShadowBanker said...

Colsmi - That is an amazing point! I bet the media in the DC Universe is full of sensationalized stories by virtue of the fact that people live in a sensational world. Although I think Superman: Secret Origin is supposed to take place before much of this has happened, so the media should be as tame as they portray it.

Also, your remark about alien technology not being readily available to the public has actually been covered before in the very early days of this blog. Here's the link: http://eco-comics.blogspot.com/2009/05/alien-technology-and-economic-growth_29.html

Thank you so much for your kind words! Hope you keep reading!

Will - It's so funny that you mention this, because my post today was entirely about the economics of superheroes and aging (or lack thereof).

I'm not sure if you're actually being sarcastic, but I sincerely do enjoy the, as you put it, time-capsule element myself. The great thing about these stories is how, even when retconned, I doubt they're ever going to really change these anachronistic elements. Superman may be carrying an iPhone now, but he'll always be that farmboy regardless of whether he's living in the 1940s or in 2010. And there's something oddly comforting about that fact.

Will said...

@Shadow No sarcasm meant. I agree wholeheartedly that Superman always being a farmer is awesome. That is why the DB story in Spider-Man was powerful for me. People who die in comics come back, but that specific building is gone. They may rebuild something similar, but it will never be the same Daily Bugle building.

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