Comics News: The McDuffie Principle

Sufferin' Shad!



Snell totally blows my image of Namor as a cool, tough guy with multiple examples of the sea-king's hilariously ridiculous exclamations.

The Gamekeeper Omnibus



Back when Virgin Comics still existed, the only series of theirs that I was really interested in was Guy Ritchie's Gamekeeper. Partly because it was a Guy Ritchie concept, a lot because the story sounded cool (the gamekeeper of a huge, wooded estate turns the tables on the black ops team that have attacked his employer and destroyed his life), but mostly because it was written by two of my favorite writers: first Andy Diggle and then Jeff Parker.

Unfortunately, Virgin folded before the entire story could be collected, but Dynamite's now got that covered. The 256-page story is coming out in August as a $25 paperback.

Pass the Comics: The Mummy



I didn't find enough comics for a separate "Pass the Comics" post this week, so we'll just include this one here. [The Horrors of It All, Part One and Part Two]

"I can't do this--"



Talking about continuity and canon, Dwayne McDuffie once made a comment the wisdom of which has stuck with me ever since. "If I didn't see it, it didn't happen." That's why I'm not at all upset about the stupidity of the revelation that Rogue apparently had sex with the Sentry at some point.

It certainly is a ridiculous development (Topless Robot has exactly the right reasons about why), but even though I technically have seen it (in the panels above), I'm still claiming protection under the McDuffie Principle. In fact, I'm broadening that principle to, "If I don't like it, it didn't happen."

I'm tired of letting publishers dictate what is and isn't canon. They've proven over and over again that they'll let all manner of silliness go on, so why should they get to be the shepherds? Let them do what they do: throw tons of stories out there with various levels of quality. I'll pick the ones I like and build my own canon, thank you very much. Paul Jenkins' fan fiction doesn't have to be a part of it just because Marvel published it.