Playing Favorites excerpts, pt 48

Every Most Tuesdays I post excerpts from best selling at not selling super blog, Playing Favorites. 

I’ll admit that I don’t know much about Blue Beetle 2 (Ted Kord. Let’s also take a second to give mad props to The Blue Beetle for being a legacy character that stays dead. Long live Jamie Reyes!), but I do know he figured out that the telepathic, meta-phobic Max Lord was behind an organization called Checkmate that was going to subvert the OMAC system that Batman helped create to expunge all superheroes from the planet.

Playing Favorites excerpts, pt 19

Every Tuesday I post excerpts from best selling at not selling super blog, Playing Favorites.

The Midnighter(Warren Ellis/Mark Millar)
Jenny Sparks(Warren Eillis/Mark Millar)
The Batman
Booster Gold (Geoff Johns)
Damian Wayne (Grant Morrison)
Steve Rogers(Ultimates Vol 1 & 2)
Cloud 9 (Dan Slott)
Superman(All-Star Superman)
Rorschach
Deadpool (Cable & Deadpool)

I guess that's it. It's strange that it’s these guys. There are a lot of other characters out there that are great and have some really good books, but fundamentally, these are the characters I like reading about. They're a motley crew--well, less motley than my original list. One homosexual, two females, two non-Americans (if Damian counts, even though I'm sure he would be an American citizen if Bruce Wayne is on his birth certificate), an alien, a time-traveler, six different tax brackets and two effective amnesiacs, but it is a whole loaf of white bread. Guess I can blame the comics industry for that. Sounds convenient.

That said, with the exception of All-Star Superman and Rorschach, most of these characters have a compatible feel to them that would let them interact in some way. I mean, you'd have the killing versus no killing sides, which would be Batman versus...well everyone but Booster Gold, I guess.

Though I would read the hell out of a Batman/Booster Gold team-up versus a Jenny Sparks lead Authority consisting of Midnighter, Deadpool, Cloud 9, Ultimate Cap, and Damian Wayne.

Playing Favorites excerpts, pt 17

Every Tuesday, I post excerpts from my best-selling at not-selling super blog, Playing Favorites
 

Alright, I think it's easier for me to break down the characters I like into four distinct groups:

Characters in a Great Story: So, maybe I like these guys more for the story they're in. All-Star Superman, Cloud 9, Adrian Veidt, Rorschach, Cable(Cable & Deadpool)

Like them Because They are Jerks: It is a shitty reason, though I worked really hard to come up with that 'righteous violence' thing, which I stand by, but it is just a fancy way of saying “I like a character because they are a jerk and I'm just going to go ahead and act like it's actually a call-out to the fundamental nature of the medium.” Midnighter, Ultimate Captain America, Damian Wayne.

Playing Favorites excerpts, pt 03

Every Tuesday and Thursday, I post excerpts from my best-selling at not-selling super blog, Playing Favorites.

Alright, I think my two weakest picks are Booster Gold and Damian Wayne. Booster Gold is a slacker who only does good because he benefits from it. Well, most of the good he does is because he benefits. He’s still a decent guy at heart. Damien is a self-centered, entitled little jerk who thinks hurting people will solve the problems they represent. Damian is great because he’s a living chariacture of so many other Batmen.

So what is it about these two guys that earn them a chance to get in? My first impulse is to say that they both want to be good, but the fact of the matter is that Booster Gold doesn’t want to be any more good than any average person. The thing about Booster Gold is that he believes in other heroes and he serves as a measure for them. Even the noblest of irrelevant heroes (Aztec) shines brightly when they’re standing by Booster Gold. Heck, even his famous bromance with The Blue Beetle makes The Blue Beetle look goody-goody and gives other heroes the opportunity to save the duo from Booster Gold’s zany schemes. He’s not blind to this; he knows that the contributions of Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman, and the Green Lantern are far greater than what he will ever achieve. He doesn’t try to be them, granted, but he also tries to help them however he can. As much as any modern hero, Booster Gold is the regular guy who would love to be an A-List hero, but who’s already come to terms with the fact that he needs a bigger paycheck and more me-time than that caliber of hero can afford.