Websnark

Comment from: Dave Van Domelen posted at June 27, 2005 12:56 PM

Question - Detective, Obsessive

Huntress - Vigilante, Obsessive

Black Canary - Martial Artist? (I'd put Wildcat in that role, though.)

Green Arrow - Rich man in a mask, gadget user

Comment from: ANT Link posted at June 27, 2005 1:36 PM

Dude, I just found out about and started watching JLU because of your last snark on it. I've been enjoying it immensely and would LOVE to see anything else you have to say about it. Snark webcomics first if you feel you must, but don't leave us JLU fans out of the loop for too long either.

(also, I'm hoping your analysis goes a little bit deeper than the accurate but all too brief one submitted by Mr D.V.D. above me)

Comment from: arscott posted at June 27, 2005 2:26 PM

Hey, don't worry. I won't come at you with a large knife because you're snarking on my favorite cartoon.

I'll come at you with a large knife because you managed to catch justice leage when I've missed all the recent episodes but hunter's moon, due to finals, grandparent's birthdays, and gaming-cons.

Speaking of the con, I though you'd like to know that I dressed up as Keith Ozneker.

Comment from: kirabug posted at June 27, 2005 3:05 PM

Well, Mr. Gets-anne-hooked-on-narbonic-against-her-will-then-disappears, i can't say i'd object to seeing *something* on the last few weeks' worth of events. I lost half of last week to the archives and I'll be lucky if I get my capstone done for class in time.... YOUR FAULT, BURNS!

(thank you!)

(And Shaenon, if you're reading, dude, you rock. I was putting off trying it 'cause of the expense and the time and blah blah blah - but Narbonic's got me totally hooked and I feel like an idiot for waiting so long to read it. Thank you for the awesomeness!)

Comment from: Robotech_Master posted at June 27, 2005 3:48 PM

Speaking of coffee and hero groups...

Comment from: Shaenon posted at June 27, 2005 4:24 PM

He'll *have* to snark Narbonic this week. He'll know it when he sees it.

Comment from: Dragonmuncher posted at June 27, 2005 6:43 PM

Yeah, kirabug, I'm with you about Narbonic.

It's like... wasn't there supposed to be a comic strip? What the hell is this pure, condensed, AWESOMENESS in sequential picture form?

I'd get mad at someone for not telling me about Narbonic sooner... but none of my friends read webcomics, and Eric wouldn't shut UP about it. So I guess I have no one to blame but Tom Cruise.

Stupid Tom, and his Thetons.

...oh, and, uh, to stay on topic... yeah, JLU is neat, too.

Comment from: slabgar posted at June 27, 2005 6:47 PM

Shaenon:

Is there some sort of lynch-pin, er.. keynote? Ah, keystone! Yes. That's it. Ahem:

Is there some sort of keystone comic upcoming?

(Ok, I like using the word 'keystone', but can't help myself..) (It feels like something signifigant is coming.) (The past few weeks have been really fun on Narbonic, by the way.)

Comment from: gwalla posted at June 27, 2005 7:13 PM

I still think "cornerstone" is a better term.

Comment from: Montykins posted at June 27, 2005 7:49 PM

The last episode really made me want to know more about The Question, because he really impressed me. Not just with his detective skills (and entertaining paranoia), but with his guts; after they've emphasized how the "regular" heroes don't pal around with the big guns, it was neat to see the Question confronting Superman.

Comment from: Montykins posted at June 27, 2005 7:53 PM

Oh, and don't forget that the early Green Arrow had an "Arrowmobile" and an "Arrowcave". And how did he know the cops wanted his help? Yep, the "Arrowsignal". He's evolved since then, but just like Captain Marvel has a certain amount of "Superman" in his concept, Green Arrow clearly benefited from Batman's example.

Comment from: slabgar posted at June 27, 2005 7:57 PM

There's been *another* Question episode!?! It's... it's a wonderful season. *sniffle*

Comment from: Shaenon posted at June 27, 2005 8:12 PM

"Is there some sort of lynch-pin, er.. keynote? Ah, keystone! Yes."

Nah, it's just another little present for Eric. Actually, he might not snark it. But if he doesn't, I'll threaten to start speculating in public about the possible parallels between the current Narbonic storyline and Eric's personal life.

Comment from: slabgar posted at June 27, 2005 8:34 PM

Tee hee. =)

Comment from: Phil Kahn posted at June 27, 2005 9:08 PM

I've already figured as much, Shaenon.

I mean come on... it's obvious what the lack of snarks come from. Eric has been transmogrified into a Gerbil, and therefor it takes him far too long to make a sufficient snark.

Comment from: Denyer posted at June 27, 2005 9:13 PM

I'll threaten to start speculating in public about the possible parallels between the current Narbonic storyline and Eric's personal life.

I'm torn between snickering and thinking this would be adorably cute if true. Ah heck, both it is...

Comment from: Paul Gadzikowski posted at June 27, 2005 10:31 PM

Shaenon, I was going to add this to the comments here at Websnark, then decided I oughta email you directly, then I decided to do both. Then I went to your Modern Tales pages and couldn't find a functional email link...

After all Eric's said, I started reading Narbonic daily not when the archives became temporarily free but, before that, when I decided I needn't read a webcomic's archives to start reading it daily. Nevertheless the freeness of the archives made them irresistable (even though part of the reason I've given up on archives as a rule is a lack of stamina I attribute to a growing susceptibility to CRT fatigue).

The thing I laughed longest at wasn't even a punchline, it was from the first panel of a strip. It's when Dave's at the mad science con with Helen and he phones Lovelace to meet him at the dance and she replies, "I'm sorry, Dave, I can't do that."

Yes, Shaenon, you rock. My webcomic's premise makes no allowance for crossovers but, Lord, the woman tempts me.

Comment from: alienpriest posted at June 27, 2005 11:19 PM

Glad to see I wasnÌt the only one who spent my whole weekend unwilling and unable to pull myself out of reading comic archives.

Comment from: Dave Van Domelen posted at June 27, 2005 11:32 PM

Paul: I got that too the other day. www.narbonic.com has a valid email link, however.

Comment from: gwalla posted at June 28, 2005 12:08 AM

You're running out of time, Eric! I DEMAND WEBCOMIC SNARKINGS

Montykins: The Question was created by Steve Ditko (co-creator of Spider-Man with Stan Lee) for Charlton Comics. The character of The Question is inspired by Objectivism (Ayn Rand's brand of "greed is good" libertarianism, to which Ditko is an adherent): he's an absolutist who rejects the concept of moral ambiguity. He's also the model for the character Rorschach in Watchmen, which was originally supposed to feature the Charlton charactersÛthe cast was changed to analogues of the Charlton heroes when DC decided to have them take part in the Crisis on Infinite Earths.

The conspiracy stuff seems to be a JLU innovation for the character.

Comment from: Tangent posted at June 28, 2005 12:13 AM

Oh don't worry, Eric. You said once before that people shouldn't /expect/ webcomic snarks because this blog is about things you want to blog about.

And hey, I've been around to pick up the slack... *watches his viewing audience continue to climb* so feel free to snark about non-comic things. I mean, there's no need for you to feel /obligated/ to snark comics...

*innocents*

*halo catches on horns and tilts*

Robert A. Howard, Tangents Webcomic Reviews

http://tangents.keenspace.com

P.S. - To be honest, I've absolutely loved hearing about Weds visiting you and haven't missed the snarks on comics that much. I mean, you've not been /completely/ neglecting us, you've just been busy. Nothing wrong with that... Rob

Comment from: RoboYuji posted at June 28, 2005 12:13 AM

I like to think that in the JLU cartoon universe EVERY SINGLE ONE of the Questions theories is 100% TRUE!

"There really WAS a 'Magic Bullet' . . . "

Comment from: Eric Burns posted at June 28, 2005 12:47 AM

"The girl scouts are responsible for the crop circle phenomenon."

Comment from: RoboYuji posted at June 28, 2005 12:55 AM

"The plastic tips of shoelaces are called aglets. They serve a sinister purpose . . . "

Comment from: Montykins posted at June 28, 2005 1:57 AM

Yeah, I noticed the "A is A" line in this week's JLU. Even though I think much of Atlas Shrugged is silly, I still approve of a superhero who has any belief system more complicated than "I fight evildoers". I mean, at least it's an ethos (Big Lebowski reference!).

Comment from: Stuart Robertson posted at June 28, 2005 9:25 AM

The Green Arrow appears to be based on the earlier Golden Arrow - the "Robin Hood of the West" - who first appeared in Whiz Comics in 1940. This character, like several others from that era, is now in the public domain.

Comment from: Doc posted at June 28, 2005 10:07 AM

A Question for you JLU fans: I was just reading around on JLU because of all this yammering Eric's been doing and I get the impression it is a more or less self contained two series arc. Can anyone confirm this for me? It might be odd but I always enjoy a series more when it sets out to tell one overall story, does it then shuts up without ruining it. Always motivates me to put more effort into hunting down the dvds.

On an unrelated note, just watched an episode of Justice League (limited variety to my knowledge) and Superman needed a breather to go underwater, but Green Lantern didn't?

Comment from: 32_footsteps posted at June 28, 2005 11:21 AM

"Flouride does not prevent tooth decay, but it does allow spy satellites to track you!"

Here's something I've been pondering about the cartoon JLU. Does it serve the show more to keep the politics out, or does it hurt the feel?

If you never touch the comics, you'd never know about The Question's conservative leanings. You'd only have a vague hint of the Green Arrow's liberal views (from the first JLU episode, when he comments that Captain Atom sounds like what he protested against in college).

On one hand, I think the show could benefit from it. On the other hand, I think Judd Winick has ruined social commentary in superhero comics for a bit, and that it might not go over well. That, and Winick is already ruining one half hour on Cartoon Network, we really don't need him tempted to ruin another.

Comment from: Dire posted at June 28, 2005 3:30 PM

Did anyone else enjoy Monday's Penny Arcade as much as me? I think this has to be my favorite PA strip.

Comment from: 32_footsteps posted at June 28, 2005 4:44 PM

Well, I could comment on that, Dire. But then we'd go down the long road about whether or not PA was funny at all, and do we really need that right now?

Comment from: arscott posted at June 28, 2005 7:01 PM

A Question for you JLU fans: I was just reading around on JLU because of all this yammering Eric's been doing and I get the impression it is a more or less self contained two series arc. Can anyone confirm this for me? It might be odd but I always enjoy a series more when it sets out to tell one overall story, does it then shuts up without ruining it. Always motivates me to put more effort into hunting down the dvds.

Yes and no. The hour-long JL's were more self-contained, and while they had continuous character development, they didn't have a story arc per se.

On the other hand, JLU (and particularly this season thereof), has switched out the tight focus on a group of just a few characters for a more epic plot. I'd liken JL: original flavor to actual issues of the Justice League comic, while JLU was closer to Crisis on Infinite Earths. They're each lots of fun, but in slighly different ways.

On an unrelated note, just watched an episode of Justice League (limited variety to my knowledge) and Superman needed a breather to go underwater, but Green Lantern didn't?

When creating Superman: The Animated Series, the creators intentionally removed and weakened some of superman's powers in order to eliminate the 'he flies around the earth a couple of times and changes history' effect. Ability to breathe in space was one of the first things to go.

On the other hand, The Green Lantern Corps is basically a group of space rangers. Being able to survive in areas of divergent atmosphere, temperature, and pressure is one of their two biggest assets.

Comment from: Josy posted at June 29, 2005 1:30 AM

Not only does Shaenon draw/ write a clearly amazingly awesome webcomic, but I attend her alma mater.

A top-rated webcomic artist went to my school, and nobody told me?!

That cinches it. I'm in love.

Unfortunately, it seems that everyone else has beaten me to the act of sending fan mail after fawning over all the now-free Narbonic archives. Which doesn't mean I can't still send it... it just means Shaenon's ego doesn't need any extra boosting at the moment.

...Well, given the consistent high quality and popularity of the comic, maybe it NEVER needs fanmail-boosting...

Comment from: slabgar posted at June 29, 2005 1:41 AM

Ah, the mystery is solved! (Though, really, is Eric morally flexible enough to reiterate a snark?) (I'm partial to 'plugh' myself, but that's a different medium.)

Comment from: gwalla posted at June 29, 2005 1:46 AM

BTW, are there any Giffen/DeMatteis-era JL members (besides the Big Red Cheese and Batman) in the animated JLU?

Comment from: Aerin posted at June 29, 2005 2:29 AM

Luckily I was able to get through the entire Narbonic archive in one day. God bless my gigabit uplink. Of course, I'll have to pony up for the MT subscription as soon as I miss a day. Ah well. Tomorrow: Digger. Yay for free archives of amazing comics!

Comment from: theusual posted at June 29, 2005 1:00 PM

gwalla: Several of the Giffen/DeMatteis characters have appeared at least briefly, but Captain Atom and Black Canary have been prominent recurring characters, Elongated Man has had a speaking part in a couple episodes, Mister Miracle had his own episode, and there was an excellent Booster Gold episode where he was on crowd control while the rest of the League was fighting a giant menace.

There are apparently legal issues that prevent Blue Beetle's appearance, otherwise I'm sure he'd be in there as well.

Comment from: gwalla posted at June 29, 2005 2:55 PM

They need to bring in Animal Man (then again, he was only in Justice League Europe) and make him aware of his fictionality.

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