SPOILERS AHEAD for King books
"I'd probably be mad if someone went into my actual story and then rewrote it and didn't have my name on it, I don't think that happens in comics, so."
So you wouldn't like retcons being done on your work ? Because that's basically what happened when HIC rewrote scenes from Geoff Johns' DC Rebirth issue and Dan Abnetts' Titans. Changing the context of happy scenes to enforce a narrative that wasn't previously there to jam in a story that doesn't make sense. Yes, it happens in comics.
"But yeah, I don't know, I write in-continuity comics, and I love in continuity comics. This is just how we play that game; this is how we have fun."
I'm honestly confused because for someone that loves continuity King changes it a lot. In ways that don't make sense and alter the meaning of the story. And in a lot of cases (like Booster, Wally, etc.) he doesn't seem to understand the characters enough to make them fit.
"I don't think I got death threats from Wally West fans. I got a lot of hate from Wally West fans, which of course, I understand that and that makes total sense to me. The death threats were from people whose minds were a little thicker than that. It wasn't sound, mainstream fans sad about Wally West, it was people who were crazy that I think just were taking it out on me at that moment."
I will give King credit for seeing the difference between the death threat people and Wally West fans. He seems to be taking it in stride.
"Yeah, I don't know. I wish I could say that it's all hunky dory and I don't care. But I mean, I want to make everybody happy, I just don't do it. The failure's my fault, not yours. And if I could write some legitimately fun story that everyone loved, I'd write it in two seconds. But for me to write good, it has to be this weird, personal stuff, and the weird, personal stuff tends to scratch at these heroes, and get them to places where some people don't want to see them go."
The problem a lot of readers have is that many of the stories are the same bleak tone and in many cases we don't understand how the character got to that point. Take Booster Gold for example, he wasn't acting like himself from the beginning of King's Batman story "The Gift." He's an experienced time traveler--A Time Master--that doesn't know how time travel works. His gift was meaningless because Bruce wouldn't and shouldn't remember. Booster also wouldn't put himself through unneeded trauma for something so pointless. He has a support system to help him deal with trauma, it was a plot point that his sister Michelle will help him deal with the dark times.
He went from the greatest hero you never heard of to the idiot time traveler that everyone knows can time travel and barely does anything besides getting beat up in HIC. Booster can and has fought without his suits' powers.
"That said, I face this time and again, this is kind of what I do. I tear down heroes to their essential components and build them back up. I mean, to the first page in Mister Miracle, he's bleeding out, he's cut his own wrist. The first issue of Omega Man, Kyle Rainer gets his neck chopped open, the first issue of The Vision has his daughter being stabbed through the heart, right?"
Has King build these characters back up? I honestly want to know because from what I hear these characters are still trapped in their own trauma and haven't made any major break throughs. I don't feel like King knows these characters well enough to get their "essential components."
"This is sort of what I do, but at the end of the day, hopefully people say "oh, he had some respect for that Mister Miracle, he wasn't just doing it to be mean, he was actually doing it to exploit his character and to elevate the character." Mister Miracle went through hell, but now everybody knows who Mister Miracle is, right?"
If I only knew Mr. Miracle as being the depressed guy and took the interpretations of the characters from King I would not have a good understanding of the characters. He's probably suggesting that readers would look up other Mr. Miracle titles because of him. It depends. I might not want to read more about the character. I certainly wouldn't want to see more of Booster or Wally if HIC was my introduction to them. And on the off chance I did I would be just as livid that they were changed like this. I mean I could write a story where Bette Kane decides to murder Alfred but that doesn't make it good. Just because it's grim and it brings attention to a character many aren't aware of doesn't automatically mean it's important.
"Same with Vision, I put him through hell. I had him almost turn into absolute evil, but it elevated that character a little bit, and now they're doing the TV show which, you know, had something to do with my stuff. So, hopefully people will see at the end of the day, we're doing the same thing with Wally. Wally hasn't had a successful solo comic since, when? 2003? What I'm saying is, the idea behind this is to elevate that character. Everyone is now talking about Wally. Everyone wants to see where Wally goes next. Everyone wants Wally to get the attention that that character deserves. He's my favorite Flash. He's my entry into DC comics -- The Flash #53 by Messner-Loebs and Larocque was my first DC comic. I love that character. I have a page above my desk of Wally from that Flash run and I think this, at the end of the day, will shine a spotlight on my character and put him at the center of the DC universe, in a place he hasn't been for 15 years."
Born Again, to me, is the best "break them down and build them up" story I've read. It works because of the characters involved and how it's written. Matt's life is ruined by the Kingpin but his own paranoia keeps him separated from his support system (Foggy) and by remembering his origins he is able to come back stronger. This does not work for every character as shown by the attempt Devin Grayson did with Nightwing. As for Wally...
I have a hard time believing King thinks this is true. Even before I got into Flash comics I knew editorial was removing Wally from the narrative. Wally hasn't had a book because of DC replacing him with Barry. After Flashpoint he was gone and then replaced with a different Wally West. They let Dick and Roy stay around but not Wally. How could he have a chance?
So now Wally, who Johns had written as the beacon of hope for DC, is reduced as a hero. The fastest man alive accidently killed HEROES. One of which was a close friend. Worse yet he tampered with the evidence to frame the other two survivors. I constantly hear that "oh it doesn't matter because we'll forget about this in time." Will we? Certainly not if DC keep kicking Wally down.
And I'm fairly certain we all still recall other stories that change the way we view characters. What comes to mind when I say Dr. Light? Sue Dibny? Anyone recall what Hal Jordan did? Some stories stay with us and the bad ones can ruin the way we think of characters. Remember how Wally never wanted to kill anyone and testified against Barry? How Wally confessed that he made a mistake when repairing a car that almost cost the driver her life? Will that be the Wally West that's remembered or the man that attempted a cover up by tampering with the bodies of the heroes he just killed? If it's the latter if may take more than 15 years to get any good Wally West stories.
"People really hate Heroes in Crisis. [Laughs]
I feel like Heroes in Crisis and Batman and Mister Miracle all sort of tell the same story, like my second theme. The first theme was about the Iraq War, the second theme in my career is about, "what do you do after trauma?"
And the way I'm telling it in all three different comics -- I think to write about trauma, sometimes it makes people feel trauma. I know that sounds wrong but I don't know how to write about that topic without sort of getting into the muck of it."
It's a problem that it's the same story. If the only thing you can write about is trauma then you already limited yourself as a writer. Even if I was a fan of King's writing I wouldn't want to read a new title because I'd be expecting more of the same.
"Yeah. With Wally, this kid was like 14, 15, and then he got hit by lightning and then he had this incredible power, I mean the greatest power in the universe. No offense to the Green Lantern ring, but the Speed Force can be more than a ring can. So that's coursing through him for his whole life, and then he develops that, he becomes a hero, he goes through evolution, he finds himself the perfect happy ending. He walks away with his family. And then he comes back and they're like "hey, you're hope, you're rebirth, this is wonderful for you," and he's like "yeah, and where's my family?" They're like "no, no, don't think about that. Just ignore that, you're rebirth now, you're hope." I feel like it's that moment that people come back from being overseas, and they get off and they're home and they're like "oh, that's great, you're a soldier, thank you for your service, you're a hero now."
And I'm like, "well you know, I kind of had some experiences..." "No, no, don't worry about those experiences man, you're the fucking hero, you're the best person alive now. You're a symbol of America." And how am I going to live life as a symbol for America when all I can feel inside is like I've lost something, you know? That's what I was trying to say with Wally. Hopefully the last issue will clarify some of that."
Why do so many writers believe that marriage and kids equals perfect happy ending? It doesn't mean you never experience any problems afterwards. In both the Waid and Johns runs Linda and Wally have a lot of problems they need to work through. As a couple, with their past, their quirks and Wally's life as a hero. They have to work through everything to make their relationship work. The kids added another layer of issues given their powers and their parents responsibilities.
I'm pretty sure that everyone pushing the hope label in universe was something King added. As for the kids...Wally just found out they existed in Flash War. Now I think Wally's support system should have been there for him more to help him get readjusted in general but his family were just learning about his kids. Barry should have made himself clearer and told Wally that he'd see if they could look for them while he was in rehab. King pushing his own experiences on Wally doesn't work especially since we know he wasn't treated like this in other books.
"You go back to what I did with Booster in the beginning, and I did it in Batman. It was like "what? What did you do to Booster? You made him so terrible." And now as you see in Heroes in Crisis, he came back from being terrible and now he's kicking ass again. This was always about those three characters. It was a Harley story, a Wally story, and was a Booster story. As I've said many times before, I don't pick the characters for my story; I give my plot to the editors and then the editors pick the characters for me. So I told them in the beginning, "this is what it's going to be -- it's going to be about one hero who's made a mistake and it's going to be about the two heroes that get framed for that mistake." And they said, "okay, it's Booster, Harley, and Wally, those are the three characters." I mean they're a joy to write, I love writing them. That's almost what I miss the most about this book is writing those two. Booster is the most fun character in comics, except maybe Hal Jordan."
Uh no. Booster Gold is terrible in Heroes in Crisis. He constantly gets his ass kicked by Harley Quinn/Barry, gets bailed out by Ted then teams up with his would be killer and Barbara "I'm mildly annoyed that Harley ignores me but don't care if you die" Gordon. At most he used a never before seen time travel deux ex machina that doesn't even make sense. He acts like he isn't a Time Master by calling time cops "prudes" and sounds like an idiot.
So this was a DC version of mad lips? That actually explains a lot. But Harley isn't a hero and I don't think these weren't the right character to use.
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