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PERMANENT_EDIFICE
November 15, 2008
If you grew up reading comic-books,
their absurdities recede into the
background -- you know that they're
there, and sometimes you might joke
about them, but they don't really
have any effect while you're reading
them.
You know that "Daredevil" has the
full title "Daredevil, the Man
Without Fear", but you don't pay
any conscious attention to the The fact that the "Spider-Man" comic is
dorky (or rather, even dorkier) really titled "The Amazing Spider-Man"
sub-title. and that there was a spin-off comic
titled "The Spectacular Spider-Man" is
But in the hands of a writer a piece of nerd trivia that's not
like Frank Miller, determined obscure enough to interesting.
to take these characters
seriously (as opposed to "Amazing", "Spectacular",
treating them as camp whatever. That's just the
figures), these sort of Superlative Stan at work.
little details become
challenges, raw material... In a recent (as of late 2008)
issue of Iron-Man, Spider-Man/
There's a Frank Miller Peter Parker is a featured
"Daredevil" story where character. Someone asks Peter
the villain has Parker:
completely trashed the
life of the hero's "What did you *do* while
"secret identity", but you were working for Stark
at the close of the Industries?"
story, the villain is
left pondering what the And he responds quietly:
possible reaction might be:
"Oh, this or that, odds and
"... and I have shown him, ends. Nothing spectacular
that a man without hope, or amazing."
is a man without fear."
There's this weird kick in
The old familiar (in fact, that line, creeping up from
over-familiar) line comes an unexpected direction.
back, with more force than
you thought possible. It invokes names of
power that I had no
*Without fear* idea had any power.
What would that mean?
What kind of madman would
really be "without fear"? DHALGREN
It's easy enough to describe:
An even earlier example: "making a reference to a
the DC hero "Green Lantern" shared cultural/literary
has this super-powered backround."
ring that he recharges from
a "lantern", and while he It's not at all
does it, he recites the oath easy to get across
of the "Green Lantern Corps". the effect if
you're not also
It goes something like: someone who shares
that background.
"In brightest day,
in darkest night, SUNDAY_CONVENTION
no evil shall Throughout this Iron-Man story,
escape my sight." the author continually works
with what the reader already
When Dennis O'Neill and Neil Adams knows (e.g. the Peter Parker who
took over that comic in the early walks in the door is the "secret
70s, they were determined to work it identity" of Spiderman, and the
over with 60s-style "relevance". lame excuses he's making about
That silly rhyme came back: "no being late are rather obvious
evil shall escape my sight"? Can hints that he's been at work in
you really recognize evil just on his other identity).
sight? What exactly *is* "evil"?
There's no need to hit the
reader over the head with
phone-booth scenes-- we've
all been through all that.
Arguably, this is
weak writing in
some respects:
there's a third
viewpoint here
that's not
reflected in the
characters in the
story...
Or maybe, more
precisely, the
viewpoint hops
around,
beginning with
Ben Urich was a character the reporter
originally written by character Ben
Frank Miller, to bring us Urich, and
back to the beginning, if veering into
not quite to a point of Peter Parker's.
closure.
POV
Reference to a shared
background:
When this is done well,
when this takes on
power, we call it "myth".
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