Public Announcements, 3/4/11

It's been several months since I wrote a "Public Announcements" post, so here goes nothing:


*ATTENTION, MODERN COMIC BOOK WRITERS!* - If you want to pay tribute to the recently-deceased Dwayne McDuffie, here's a good way: Follow his example. Take the time to understand the characters you're writing, including their past history. Respect the work of past writers of the character you're writing. Avoid the "everything you knew before is bullshit" approach. Don't try to alter the existing character you've been given in order to warp him or her into the mold of a new character you really want to write. If you feel this temptation, it's better to just create that completely new character. Don't feel the need to tear down everything past writers established, including supporting casts, under the guise of making the character your own. This is especially true in the case of a certain Amazon Princess.


*ATTENTION, JUDD WINICK!* - When the best defense of your revised origin of Ice I can devise is "Well, at least she didn't get raped", that means your new origin sucks.


*ATTENTION, DC AND MARVEL EDITORIAL!* -  After this summer, can we please put a moritorium on the "Altered History/Reality/Timeline" plots? Maybe five, even ten or fifteen years? You've gone to this well way too often, especially recently, and, quite frankly, we readers are feeling very burnt out. Here's a clue: when you have two of these storylines running at the same time, there's a big problem! Get some new material.


*ATTENTION, SUPERMAN EDITORIAL!* - Please keep Chris Roberson on SUPERMAN after "Grounded" concludes. Roberson's actually making some lemonade out of the lemon that was JMS' storyline, providing a coherent explanation of Superman's recent behavior and channeling both Grant Morrison and Elliott S! Maggin in places. (I loved the "Fortress of Solidarity" concept!) And his work on the recent Lord of Time 2-parter in Superman/Batman shows he's a great writer when left on his own. Let him shine.


*ATTENTION, GUY WHO CALLED UP WISCONSIN GOVERNOR SCOTT WALKER PRETENDING TO BE DAVID KOCH!* - You're officially my hero.


*ATTENTION, WISCONSIN GOVERNOR SCOTT WALKER!* - When you tell public union workers that you can't honor their pension deals because your state's facing rough economic times, and they actually agree to all the concessions in those deals that you suggested, the honorable thing to do is to simply say "thank you", not to insist on stripping them of their collective bargaining rights, too.


*ATTENTION, LIBERALS WHO STAYED HOME FROM THE 2010 ELECTIONS TO "SEND A MESSAGE TO OBAMA"!*  - How'd that work out for you? Thanks to you, we've got a Republican House of Representatives who wants to cut education and social services to the bone (potentially costing the US at least 750,000 jobs) while refusing to eliminate subsidies to oil companies or tax cuts for the wealthy and actually increasing military spending this year, as well as several state governors who want to use tough fiscal times as an excuse to eliminate unions' collective bargaining rights. Can we all agree now that staying home on Election Day is AN EXTREMELY STUPID IDEA and promise to never do it again? Please?


*ATTENTION, JOHN BOEHNER!* - You kept asking President Obama "Where are the jobs?" during the 2010 election season, and claimed you would make job creation your top priority. But at last count, going into your third month as Speaker, we've seen exactly three abortion bills come before the House and zero jobs bills. So now I have to ask YOU: "Where are the jobs bills?"