On the Deconstruction of Superheroes

A small post today on a point that has alway bothered me about modern comics. It's no secret that ever since Watchmen, a ton of derivative comic-books were published, tripping over each other in an attempt to deconstruct the superheroic archetype. I won't say all of the books were bad. (Just most of them). But there was a take on the genre that always bothered me as it's premise seemed fundamentally flawed.
These books were often centered on the premise "What if the Earth's greatest superheroes were secretly complete and utter bastards?" The quintessential example of such books are Marshal Law and The Boys. In these books, written by writers who publicly proclaim their hated of superheroes, the heroes weren't flawed and human as they were in Watchmen. Instead, they were pretty much complete monsters. In public, they stand for Mom and apple pie, basking in the media spotlight but in secret, they indulge in every illegal activity known to man.
Naturally, it falls to the protagonist of the series to reveal the truth behind the so-called heroes. His is a lonely task, playing Cassandra to a world that doesn't want to hear what he has to say. To aid him in this task, the protagonist, of course, has powers of his own usually from the same source as the so-called "heroes." Heck, in Marshall Law, the main character even wears a costume designed to mock and strike fear into the hearts of his enemies. The protagonist in the course of his job  often commits disturbing and morally ambiguous acts but, given the ludicrously evil nature of the "heroes", the audience knows who to root for.
If any of this sound somewhat familiar, it's because these stories follow have the same basic plot as almost any random "90s antihero comic that weren't supposed to be ironic or anti-superher polemics. Angry disturbed anti-hero beats up, maims, and kills his way through thousands of terrible people. Calling character who in another work  would be called a "super-villains" "super-heroes" does not  reveal a fundamental flaw in "super-hero" stories.  It merely uses the old trope of the bad guy who everyone thinks is good. That trope have been in thousands of works of fiction. Heck, it even appeared in Superman. I think you'd be hard pressed to say that there's any comic thats more of a traditional comic then Superman. Just because a people in the comic say that Lex Luthor is a hero doesn't make him one.

I'm having computer troubles

Ironically, I'm posting this from the same computer that's giving me grief.

Sometimes you jump the shark and sometimes---

Video game journalism (Warning:

(Warning for the humor impaired: the following post should not be taken at all seriously).
I know next to nothing about video games. I'm not good at playing them. I find  every control system confusing. No matter how many times I move the joystick, my character winds up moving in the wrong direction often in the middle of an important boss fight. This may explain why at out of the twenty or so  video game I have ever plaid, I have beaten roughly two.
I also don't keep track of gaming news. I really don't care. However, I have come to understand that many leading video game journalists have come under criticism for essentially being shills for the video game industry. Essentially, the journalists are alleged to be promoting games in exchange for under-the-table cash and other perks.
All of this leads me go believe that being a video game journalist would be the perfect job for me. Cash, prestige, and free stuff for basically saying nice things. Sign me up. I can heap on on praise with the best of them. "Mass Effect 4 is the best thing to happen to human civilization since the invention of the lightbulb, penicillin, and the Internet combined." See, I can say that without knowing anything about the game.  I don't even know if their actually going to make a Mass Effect 4. I'm not even entirely sure what a Mass Effect is.
In summary, if you need a shill with no integrity whatsoever, you know where to find one.

Cat yodeling

Tormenting small animals is always funny.

Name Change

Just posting to says that after much (five seconds worth) consideration that I have changed the name of  this blog to Unspeakable Horrors. This blog has never really just been about comics, but more about my rambling on whatever subject interested me at the moment --- so I've decided to change the name to reflect that.
There's not much else to this post so I'd thought I'd just post a video by Darkest of the Hillside Thicket to thank you for reading.

Review: The Punisher Armory # 2

For Christmas, this year I was lucky enough to receive several old comics for Christmas. Most of them were rather good but there were a few odd ones. And this copy of the Punisher Armory issue 2 was by far the oddest.
The Punisher Armory is not a traditional comic in any sense. Published in the early 90s, it is ostensibly a list of the wepons (and be weapons, I mean guns) Frank Castle, a.k.a. the Punisher uses to wage his one man war on crime. Theres no plot, no story, just a listing of guns.
But this is no Official Handbook to the Marvel Universe style listing. Instead, the comic ostensibly provides the Punisher's personal opinion on each of his guns. (I refuse to belive that this actually is the Punisher narrating. I just don't see him referring to another person as a "smart Johnny." To be fair , I don't believe that anyone born after 1910 has ever referred to another human being as a "smart Johnny").  Each gun is lovingly described with lengthy paeans to their shooting power and ammunition making sure to name check the gun manufacturer.  As a result, the comic plays out like a long gun advertisement.
Which leads one to ask who thought this was a good idea? I mean, no matter a person's stance on gun control, you have to admit that the Punisher is pretty much the poster boy for gun misuse. He shoots people, for God's sake, When I think of responsible use of weaponry, I don't think of the Punisher. This is pretty much the equivalent Camel Cigarettes making their new mascot an emphysema patient. Actually, come to think of it that sounds like a great idea. At least it would be truth in advertising.