[THE HELL… ?!] Fixing Problems That Didn’t Need Fixing

Since rebooting this blog (a process, I must say, that has been much simpler than rebooting the Sister Site) I have notice a few old standby posts that have fallen to the wayside. One of which is the The Hell… ?!, in which I rant about the crazy things I have seen or have happen to me. I’ve done only two of them since starting over.

Perhaps this is understandable. I was so much younger and slightly (very slightly) less handsome back when I started things here at Welltun Cares Presents. Not a lot shocks and outrages me any more. I may even have become jaded.

Other things that have dropped away are less understandable. For instance, ranting about how stupid Green Arrow is. This never grows old for me. As well as it shouldn’t, as it’s an ever fresh topic. Everyone should rant about how stupid Green Arrow is. At length. With passion.

It’s shocking more people don’t.

WHAAAA?!

In between these two points of obvious understanding and bewildering disbelief sits a third topic: My love for the comic book character Power Girl.

Talking about her wasn’t necessarily a big part of this blog. It’s not like I’m her biggest fan, after all. I have no action figures. I own one collection of her comics, which, I should add, was given to me as a birthday present. While I know a healthy chunk about her history, I can’t point to individual stories featuring her. In fact, calling myself a fan might not be wholly accurate. I might just like the concept.

That said, unlike with the The Hell… ?! series, where I debated not rebooting, I always considered going back to the Other Maid from Krypton. My problem was that for a while there was so very little new pictures going around. It seemed like DC was avoiding using the character.

Looking at the character over to the right, I can see two reasons why this might be. These days it seems the bigger the reasons, the less likely the character is used. And that’s a damn shame, considering how “tolerant” the world is supposedly getting with diversity.

Today, though, Constant Reader henrybrennan has solved two problems for me. He’s given me another The Hell… !? post AND a blessed reason to talk about Power Girl.

I give you this headline.

Really.

Really.

Let’s look at the new costume.

Now let’s look at the classic Power Girl costume again:

Huh.

Huh.

Now let’s look at Supergirl.

And again, Classic Power Girl.

And, again, that new costume.

Yeeeeeeeeyeah. Not really anything different there, is there?

Portrait of a man on the verge of losing a finger. Among other things.

Don’t get me wrong. It’s probably the best costume… oh God, as I’m typing this, I realized something. They’ve recently changed Power Girl’s secret identify to Paige, and I didn’t get why until just now. It was originally Karen, and now Karen has a nasty stigma to it.

Wow am I dense.

Anyway, nice costume. Not sure about the face, as it doesn’t seem to capture the attitude Power Girl has been known to have (should be more like the right, frankly). Though I do like it.

What I can’t see is how it’s any different a change from what she’s been known to wear. The character was already quite distinctive. And not just because of the usual two reasons.

I dunno. Maybe it’s me. Maybe if I was a paid journalist, I could see how the new costume does anything the old costume doesn’t.

Or, as I have admitted, I am dense. Maybe that’s it. Maybe if I studied both characters really hard, maybe then I’ll see and know better.

Yes! Yes, that’s what I’m going to do. An in depth analysis of the two characters.

Total focus, maximum effort! I got this!

You may never hear from me again.

The Big Three (I): Does Whatever a Spider Can

One of the potential joys of restarting this site is “doing things right”. Such as introducing (or reintroducing) myself to the Reader. Laying out my interests, showing where this blog will lead. I’m not saying I did it wrong the first time. But I am strongly implying that.

How to do it varies, but I think I’m going to start by talking about the Big Three Heroes of my childhood. After that, I plan on reposting a few of the essays related to these oh so similar characters before moving on to other things.

Where to start with these three is ease enough: Spider-man. As in all likelihood he really was the first fictional hero I had.

When I was a little guy (a very little guy) my most favorite cartoon was the original Spider-man series. I would watch it on channel 44 so often that the number 44 was my favorite. From the cartoon I’d go on to the PBS series Electric Company, which on occasion had a Spider-man sketch, and, of course, the comics themselves. If it was related to the Wall Crawler in any way, I no doubt saw it in my youth. From Spider-man and His Amazing Friends to the live action TV series to even slightly connected stuff like Spider-woman.

This has continued to a degree to this day. I’ve been collecting Marvel Masterworks of the original Amazing Spider-man run, the Marvel Team Ups, and even Spectacular Spider-man. Up until Disney got its claws in him, I’ve watched most every series, with Spider-man Unlimited.

All of this begs the question, why? What has Spider-man got that other super heroes don’t? For me, at least.

Maybe it’s a combination of things. When well written, the comics are entertaining adventure stories, full of wit and excitement. While powerful in his own right with his spider strength and spider-sense, Spider-man tends to be the underdog, especially in the early days. His foes range from dastardly criminal minds to mag geniuses to literal monsters. A good Spidey story is a thing of beauty, something I can reread again and again.

I should point out that the teenager aspect was never a part of his charm for me. I was a toddler when I started being a fan. He might as well have been Batman’s age for all I cared.

Still kind of saddens me thinking about how much older that he is I am now.

As this site continues, I’ll no doubt be going into further details, talking about stories and characters I like or dislike, trying to make a case for the opinion. I’m not much of a fan of the newer stuff. Around the Nineties they started moving away from what I liked about the character and these days he’s Flanderized beyond belief.

And I don’t plan on talking about Miles Morales. Ever.

Next on the list, a larger presence on my childhood. Much. At least thirty stories high, breathing fire, standing in the sky…