The Use of Bad Comic Book Science, I Thought We Were Past This
I have never really been a big fan of DC Comics or their related properties. I generally am aware of them, but I don't go out of my way to watch their stuff for the most part and when I do, I normally find my views to be justified. I just do not enjoy most of what DC puts out there. In past posts I have talked about some of the DC-related elements that I do not like and why.
Every so often something DC-related surprises me.
I am a huge fan of Watchman and I understand why it is such a big deal. Neil Gaiman's Sandman is just so incredibly well done. I liked Batman Begins, the only good movie of that trilogy, as The Dark Knight is one of the most overrated films ever.
And thanks to my son, I got into the new Flash TV show and Supergirl. While neither fully breaks away from the flaws of DC, they a least were different and had interesting characters and plots that I enjoyed. And while the Flash is insanely overpowered and they tried to pull Supergirl down power-wise, they soon gave that up and let her get as overpowered as the concept always is, I was able to ignore those flaws and just look at the basic storyline. After all they never let themselves sink to the worst level of bad 'science' that we often see with DC. Yeah, the Speedforce is questionable and in Supergirl a small rock can be spread to contaminate the whole Earth with lethal levels of a substance, so you have to over look a lot of rational thinking to enjoy them, but at least they never did the really lame flying real fast around the world to turn back time...
Now for the big crossover event for this year, Elseworlds. It started off interesting. Switching around The Flash and Green Arrow led to some interesting and amusing confrontation. It had some character growth in it, having both of them have to look a themselves from a different perspective.
So it was off to a good start that had possibilities.
Then we get Batwoman forced into the story where she does next to nothing, just walks around saying 'hey look at what the next show we're working on will be.' And Gotham just felt like a city that should be allowed to die. There was nothing there to convince me it was a city I wanted to see get saved or watch any adventures happen in.
This is followed by introducing Arkham Asylum into the world... My guess is the diehard DC fans loved it, as there were names all over the place that I am betting were Easter Eggs that I just didn't get. Which is fine, but there were other elements that really bugged me. Way too easy for the prison break to happen. Throw one switch and all hell breaks loose. Then why would they store dangerous weapons in the basement of a mental institution for the most dangerous of criminals? I was really thrown out of the story there. Then at the end of it all, they let the one guy keep his nice gold mask. No, you don't lock them up still in their costumes.
But all of that is just annoyances compared to the big final battle and the 'risky' solution they come up with.
So the Flash is to run around the world as fast as he can in one direction, while Supergirl flies as fast as she can in the opposite direction and they know, they know without a doubt, that this will somehow slow time down... What? Seriously, WTF? No, just no. Big No. This is stupid on so many levels. And they are going to do this, a task which somehow Green Arrow has foreseen will kill them both, because, well... Yeah, that's going to do something...
When they got to this point in the story, where they throw out this truly idiotic plan, they also have nothing else to the plan, all it was 'we going to risk our lives to slow down time, and then you guys do something, and bad guy gets defeated.' Seriously, at the point they started running and flying, there was nothing set to how the others were going to bring the bad guy down. Both Superman and Green Arrow would have been affected by the slowing of time as far as we knew. Now after the two heroes go to throw their lives away in a plan that is not really a plan, with nothing having been shown that would actual save the day, Green Arrow goes and makes the deal that allows him to be able to stop the bad guy during the slow down. This is AFTER the process of slowing time down has started, so if he didn't do this the Flash and Supergirl would have died (Or so we have been told) and the villian would have won, all becuase there was no actual plan made before they took off.
I cringed at how bad this 'solution' was. It had bad science and logic at every stage, huge gaps in plot followed by forced risk to the characters, as they did something truly pointless.
I fear for where the shows are going to go now. If we're going to get the worst aspects of DC storytelling now, then there is no point to keeping up with it all. I may have to drop the shows, as it would be painful to have to watch such piss poor storytelling week after week.
Every so often something DC-related surprises me.
I am a huge fan of Watchman and I understand why it is such a big deal. Neil Gaiman's Sandman is just so incredibly well done. I liked Batman Begins, the only good movie of that trilogy, as The Dark Knight is one of the most overrated films ever.
And thanks to my son, I got into the new Flash TV show and Supergirl. While neither fully breaks away from the flaws of DC, they a least were different and had interesting characters and plots that I enjoyed. And while the Flash is insanely overpowered and they tried to pull Supergirl down power-wise, they soon gave that up and let her get as overpowered as the concept always is, I was able to ignore those flaws and just look at the basic storyline. After all they never let themselves sink to the worst level of bad 'science' that we often see with DC. Yeah, the Speedforce is questionable and in Supergirl a small rock can be spread to contaminate the whole Earth with lethal levels of a substance, so you have to over look a lot of rational thinking to enjoy them, but at least they never did the really lame flying real fast around the world to turn back time...
Now for the big crossover event for this year, Elseworlds. It started off interesting. Switching around The Flash and Green Arrow led to some interesting and amusing confrontation. It had some character growth in it, having both of them have to look a themselves from a different perspective.
So it was off to a good start that had possibilities.
Then we get Batwoman forced into the story where she does next to nothing, just walks around saying 'hey look at what the next show we're working on will be.' And Gotham just felt like a city that should be allowed to die. There was nothing there to convince me it was a city I wanted to see get saved or watch any adventures happen in.
This is followed by introducing Arkham Asylum into the world... My guess is the diehard DC fans loved it, as there were names all over the place that I am betting were Easter Eggs that I just didn't get. Which is fine, but there were other elements that really bugged me. Way too easy for the prison break to happen. Throw one switch and all hell breaks loose. Then why would they store dangerous weapons in the basement of a mental institution for the most dangerous of criminals? I was really thrown out of the story there. Then at the end of it all, they let the one guy keep his nice gold mask. No, you don't lock them up still in their costumes.
But all of that is just annoyances compared to the big final battle and the 'risky' solution they come up with.
So the Flash is to run around the world as fast as he can in one direction, while Supergirl flies as fast as she can in the opposite direction and they know, they know without a doubt, that this will somehow slow time down... What? Seriously, WTF? No, just no. Big No. This is stupid on so many levels. And they are going to do this, a task which somehow Green Arrow has foreseen will kill them both, because, well... Yeah, that's going to do something...
When they got to this point in the story, where they throw out this truly idiotic plan, they also have nothing else to the plan, all it was 'we going to risk our lives to slow down time, and then you guys do something, and bad guy gets defeated.' Seriously, at the point they started running and flying, there was nothing set to how the others were going to bring the bad guy down. Both Superman and Green Arrow would have been affected by the slowing of time as far as we knew. Now after the two heroes go to throw their lives away in a plan that is not really a plan, with nothing having been shown that would actual save the day, Green Arrow goes and makes the deal that allows him to be able to stop the bad guy during the slow down. This is AFTER the process of slowing time down has started, so if he didn't do this the Flash and Supergirl would have died (Or so we have been told) and the villian would have won, all becuase there was no actual plan made before they took off.
I cringed at how bad this 'solution' was. It had bad science and logic at every stage, huge gaps in plot followed by forced risk to the characters, as they did something truly pointless.
I fear for where the shows are going to go now. If we're going to get the worst aspects of DC storytelling now, then there is no point to keeping up with it all. I may have to drop the shows, as it would be painful to have to watch such piss poor storytelling week after week.
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