Authors, no matter what media they work in, has a "tell".
Meaning in Poker parlance a nervous tick that ultimately do's them in. It might even be called a style. Grant Morrison tries to put as many mind blowing ideas on the paper as he can. Go no further than "Final Crisis" for evidence of this. Warren Ellis has an ear for sophisticated dialog and high concept ideas. Garth Ennis earthy dialog and gross out humor.
Some writers are reviled for their tells, the thing they always include when they write a comic book title. The fans eyes roll at the thought of a writer they hate is put on their favorite book. Judd Winnick polarizes fans for his tells, a "supposed" liberal bias and gay positive story-lines. Chris Claremont for overly wordy stories, convaluded plots, and bad European accents. Some writers are just considered hacks.
The first time I had heard of Greg Rucka was when I was a customer at Adventure Comics. The owner John had known him when he worked there briefly. John had always been looking for an 'in' with the comic companies and was always looking for contacts. He even colored a few pieces for George Perez when he was working on WonderWoman back in the day.
I read his run on Detective and I began to notice something, he wasn't writing about Batman so much as other characters. Whether it was Ra's al Ghul's female assasin or Bruce Wayne's new female body guard (who ended up finding out his secret identity). It was annoying, a decent writer who doesn't want to write about the main character.
Why write about a body guard when you can write Batman for pete's sake?
I watched his progression from title to title and a pattern arose. Strong female characters taking a front seat to the main character, created by him. More than half were lesbians.
If he landed at a title, be it Action Comics (Superman) or Detective Comics (Batman) they took a backseat to whoever female character he chose to bring with him. Lois Lane and a female Metropolis Cop became the stars of Action Comics, etc. Checkmate and Gotham Central was full of "Mary Sue" characters brought to the party by Greg Rucka.
Mary Sue, sometimes shortened simply to Sue, is a pejorative term used to describe a fictional character who plays a major role in the plot and is particularly characterized by overly idealized and hackneyed mannerisms, lacking noteworthy flaws, or having too many, and primarily functioning as wish-fulfillment fantasies for their authors or readers. Perhaps the single underlying feature of all characters described as "Mary Sues" is that they are too ostentatious for the audience's taste, or that the author seems to favor the character too highly. The author may seem to push how exceptional and wonderful the "Mary Sue" character is on his or her audience, sometimes leading the audience to dislike or even resent the character fairly quickly; such a character could be described as an "author's pet".
I usually avoid his stuff, being burned a few times before. Don't get me wrong he's a good writer. It's just this tick, this tell, that keeps me from enjoying his work. It was all well and good until recently he took over two of my favorite books Action Comics and Detective Comics, again.
You can guess who the main characters aren't, can't you?
The Kryptonian versions of Nightwing and (the female and probably lesbian) Flamebird in Action and the Rucka co-created Batwoman in Detective Comics.
Now, I've lived with lesbians when I was living with my ex-gf back in Baltimore and I can tell you that I've never met lesbians like Batwoman or Rene Montoya. My ex's sister and her partner are awesome people and helped me feel at home so far from home.
I don't have a problem with gay people in general. It's when a writer chooses to suplant my favorite character with their own when comics are getting more and more costly. Mary Sue won't be getting my money even if I have boxes and boxes of Detective Comics.
Maybe it's just a petty, geek-fanboy complaint. How dare I question the professionals and their choices? One of the 'gaping maw' that prowls the internet spewing venom?
No so much.
D-
Meaning in Poker parlance a nervous tick that ultimately do's them in. It might even be called a style. Grant Morrison tries to put as many mind blowing ideas on the paper as he can. Go no further than "Final Crisis" for evidence of this. Warren Ellis has an ear for sophisticated dialog and high concept ideas. Garth Ennis earthy dialog and gross out humor.
Some writers are reviled for their tells, the thing they always include when they write a comic book title. The fans eyes roll at the thought of a writer they hate is put on their favorite book. Judd Winnick polarizes fans for his tells, a "supposed" liberal bias and gay positive story-lines. Chris Claremont for overly wordy stories, convaluded plots, and bad European accents. Some writers are just considered hacks.
The first time I had heard of Greg Rucka was when I was a customer at Adventure Comics. The owner John had known him when he worked there briefly. John had always been looking for an 'in' with the comic companies and was always looking for contacts. He even colored a few pieces for George Perez when he was working on WonderWoman back in the day.
I read his run on Detective and I began to notice something, he wasn't writing about Batman so much as other characters. Whether it was Ra's al Ghul's female assasin or Bruce Wayne's new female body guard (who ended up finding out his secret identity). It was annoying, a decent writer who doesn't want to write about the main character.
Why write about a body guard when you can write Batman for pete's sake?
I watched his progression from title to title and a pattern arose. Strong female characters taking a front seat to the main character, created by him. More than half were lesbians.
If he landed at a title, be it Action Comics (Superman) or Detective Comics (Batman) they took a backseat to whoever female character he chose to bring with him. Lois Lane and a female Metropolis Cop became the stars of Action Comics, etc. Checkmate and Gotham Central was full of "Mary Sue" characters brought to the party by Greg Rucka.
Mary Sue, sometimes shortened simply to Sue, is a pejorative term used to describe a fictional character who plays a major role in the plot and is particularly characterized by overly idealized and hackneyed mannerisms, lacking noteworthy flaws, or having too many, and primarily functioning as wish-fulfillment fantasies for their authors or readers. Perhaps the single underlying feature of all characters described as "Mary Sues" is that they are too ostentatious for the audience's taste, or that the author seems to favor the character too highly. The author may seem to push how exceptional and wonderful the "Mary Sue" character is on his or her audience, sometimes leading the audience to dislike or even resent the character fairly quickly; such a character could be described as an "author's pet".
I usually avoid his stuff, being burned a few times before. Don't get me wrong he's a good writer. It's just this tick, this tell, that keeps me from enjoying his work. It was all well and good until recently he took over two of my favorite books Action Comics and Detective Comics, again.
You can guess who the main characters aren't, can't you?
The Kryptonian versions of Nightwing and (the female and probably lesbian) Flamebird in Action and the Rucka co-created Batwoman in Detective Comics.
Now, I've lived with lesbians when I was living with my ex-gf back in Baltimore and I can tell you that I've never met lesbians like Batwoman or Rene Montoya. My ex's sister and her partner are awesome people and helped me feel at home so far from home.
I don't have a problem with gay people in general. It's when a writer chooses to suplant my favorite character with their own when comics are getting more and more costly. Mary Sue won't be getting my money even if I have boxes and boxes of Detective Comics.
Maybe it's just a petty, geek-fanboy complaint. How dare I question the professionals and their choices? One of the 'gaping maw' that prowls the internet spewing venom?
No so much.
D-
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