Tuesday, April 4, 2017

Decompression, Thy Name Is Bendis!

I'm on record as declaring that the origin of Doctor Doom is just about the most perfect origin story every written. And unless you're going to reveal that the "mysterious order of monks who had dwelled in a lost mountain cave for centuries" means that Doom got his armor in K'un-L'un, well, you really can't improve it.

[For the record, that's the reason the movies keep getting Doctor Doom wrong. Because they f%^& up his origin, and conflate it with the same incident that created the Fantastic Four. And that kind of thing will always--always--pale next to the original.]

Jack and Stan didn't waste a whole lot space, either. Note this incident, as originally told in Fantastic Four Annual #2 (1964), which took up three whole panels:



And really, who needs more than three panels for that?

Apparently, Brian Michael Bendis does, as in last week's Infamous Iron Man #6, he expands that little vignette to THREE AND A HALF PAGES: (click to embiggen if you want to read every "witticism" and insult):




See, the scene is much better because you brought in Ben to call Victor "Euro-trash."

If only Stan and Jack knew that they were supposed to dedicate THREE AND A HALF PAGES instead of three panels to that scene!!

Stay tuned, as next Bendis expands this scene...

...into a 6-issues min-series!!
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3 comments:

  1. MadmanApril 4, 2017 at 11:19 AM

    This is one of the reasons that comics are in trouble -- that what could be a straight-forward story lasting maybe a whole issue gets expanded into a long convoluted saga which costs maybe $30 to purchase, if you don't want to wait for the TPB.

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  2. Warren JBApril 4, 2017 at 7:55 PM

    That 'eurotrash' moment... I could already feel the scene slipping, but it really went into freefall at that point.

    ... down to the depths of having Ben Grimm say 'yo dude'.

    What is it about this type of modern comic? It's as if they're trying to be grim 'n' gritty - like 90's comics, but with fewer pouches and enormous guns, and more maudlin navel-gazing.

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  3. SallyPApril 5, 2017 at 10:04 PM

    Bends dialogue always annoys me, because all of the characters are speaking with the same voice, the same patterns and tics, and cadences. When Stan Lee wrote Reed or Ben or Victor, you KNEW without even seeing the art, who was who.

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