things have been dark for too long

I spent way too much time trying to write a post about the first issue of Amazons Attack, DC’s current big dumb event book, before I realized that:

1. It was a rehash of this post, with “child murder” in place of “ephebophilia”
2. I don’t really care enough about it to write an elaborate critique
3. I lose half my readership every time I do a post about some current comics-related topic

So I just said “to heck with it” despite the fact that it made clever use of Iraq War atrocity photos and contained this wonderful bit of descriptive prose:

The post-Crisis relaunch of Wonder Woman came closest, but hit way too many sour notes, to the extent that reading it felt like eating a really great sandwich that has been spiked with random strips of tinfoil and stray human hairs.

Thank goodness I didn’t decide to write about the World War III miniseries. I might have put you folks off eating for a week.

Here are today’s music selections, completely free of their contextual burdens. It’s for the best. The stink of fan entitlement (today’s aborted theme) is harder to neutralize than the smell of cat piss, and far more unpleasant.

Booker T & The MG’s – Outrage (from Soul Dressing, 1965) – This is a very fitting choice for the fan entitlement/internet rage official soundtrack; its deceptively fierce title masks a whimsically goofy soul instrumental befitting a carnival midway. Who needs a display case when I’ve got Booker T?

INXS – Don’t Change (from Shabooh Shoobah, 1982) – A sweet sentiment, but it is realistic? The cozy haze of infatuation can only last so long before one starts noticing things like how one’s partner leaves empty Pepsi cans on the coffee table or fails to replace the toilet paper roll. No one ought to be pressured into transforming their core persona for the sake of love, but every healthy relationship should involve some degree of compromise, lest small resentments sprout into irreconcilable differences.

New World Symphony – Wonder Woman (from Tube Tunes, Volume 2, 1995) – Feminist empowerment, disco beats, and some really bizarre lyrics. Poor Diana. It’s sad when the high point of a superheroic icon’s career is the time she fought an evil version of The Carpenters (played by Sarah “Real People” Purcell and Judge Reinhold) while unraveling a murder mystery involving backwards masking.