Saturday, August 07, 2010

Quotes of the Week: Sentient Hotdog Motorcycles



A while back I noted that televised news in the Marvel Universe must be like having professional wrestling on the air all the time, but, you know, at least that’s safely predictable. I think I’d be more comfortable watching Marvel News and seeing “Sub-Mariner and Dr. Doom have teamed up to fight the Fantastic Four,” which is something I could deal with, versus never knowing what new horror awaited me whenever I’d turn on DC News: “Top story tonight: Superman’s giant ant head…the world’s leaders react!” “The Dow dropped 300 points after today’s appearance of the Zebra Batman.”
--Mike Sterling, describing the respective strengths of Marvel and DC in as clear a way as I've ever seen.


I don't know that I could come up with anything new to say about [Superman] -- I'd probably shrink him and have him race Mr. Mxyztplk across the world on sentient hotdog motorcycles, or have him go on a reality show run by Lex Luthor wearing a blonde wig...
--Tom Spurgeon, trying to explain why he'd be no better a Superman writer than J Michael Straczynski, while simultaneously demonstrating that he's SO the man for the job.


Part of why Hamlet delays the murder of his uncle is that (and we've often spoken of his puritanism) murder is a sin. Though he was quick to swear revenge, the whole of the play has Hamlet working out how he can commit such an act (and abase himself to the level of Claudius - smiling and being a villain) in spite of his conscience. Even if we do not subscribe to Hamlet actually being mad, there is a dramatic insanity at work where a character cannot reconcile who he is and what he must do.
--Siskoid, explaining Hamlet in a way so that I can finally understand and accept the main character's inaction. Seriously, this is a big deal for me.

2 comments:

Ken O said...

I think if you lived in the Marvel Universe you are mostly safe as long as you aren't in New York. I mean how many of their comics are set there?
I still dream of writing a one shot for Marvel where someone steals a purse on the streets of New York and the rest of the book is 50+ heroes tripping over eachother trying to catch the guy.

Kal said...

I love that Siskoid quote. Some of my favorite teacher moments came from teaching Shakespeare - his stuff is wicked genius and so well thought out. While it may seem impenitrable (sp) at first, once you get into it you feel like you have just been taught a foreign language that you can actually understand.

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