[Rev] End of Month Reviews - April 2004 [spoilers]

[Martin Phipps]

saxon.brenton at uts.edu.au (Saxon Brenton) wrote in message
news:<15f3bff1.0405011620.6b009c71 at posting.google.com>...

> LNH Europe 2020 #1-2, 3-4
> 'Brothers Up In Arms' part I and III
> and
> 'Dorf Wars, Episode III' parts I and III
> A Legion of Net.Heroes 2 [LNH2] miniseries
> By Martin Phipps
>  
> LNH Asia 2020 #1-2, 3-4
> 'Brothers Up In Arms' parts II-IV
> and
> 'Dorf Wars, Episode III' parts II and IV
> A Legion of Net.Heroes 2 [LNH2] miniseries
> By Martin Phipps
>  
>      These twin miniseries contain two four issue crossover stories, 
> each bouncing back and forth between titles. If I were in a paranoid 
> frame of mind I'd accuse Martin of deliberately trying to make a
> summary
> of these stories as difficult as possible. 

Actually, I thought I was helping you out by posting everything before
the end of the month so that you only had to read and review the
stories once rather than having them spread over two or more months. 
Remember, I was originally planning to spread out over into 2005. 
Once I knew how the stories would pan out, there didn't seem to be
much point waiting until next year to type them up and post them.

> As it is I know that he simply
> thinks much like I do and likes to parody the publishing conventions
> of
> comics as much as the story and genre conventions. Fortunately for
> Martin
> he writes much quicker than I do, so he can pull it off.

Actually, I recall a recent 4 issue arc of Limp Asperagus Man that was
posted in the space of a few weeks but maybe you'd been working on
that story for a while.  Perhaps it just seems like I write faster
because I feel my issues are finished when they reach 9 or 10 k in a
wordpad file and I don't spend a lot of time second guessing what I
write, unless I decide to do a corrected repost.

>      In any case, the first story arc is 'Brothers Up In Arms' and
> covers
> the quest by the Brotherhood of Net Villains to find Lagneto, and the 
> efforts of LNH Asia and LNH Europe to investigate this, one way or 
> another. Structurally the arc is heavy on exposition and introduction 
> - it's fortunate that the introduction of LNH Asia already took place
> in
> Generation Zed, The New Class #3-4 (see above), so that part II could
> be
> given over too at least to a cursory fight scene between Deja Due II, 
> Moonfire, and Utraman, and the net.villains Capatin Coredump,
> Plotchopper
> and Robgoblin. As it was I found myself wondering how a confrontation 
> between Grim and Gritty and Lagneto would play out in the
> comparatively
> short time of the final issue - and then it turned out that they
> wouldn't
> be. Once again, Martin seems to be aware of the dramatic tension
> problems
> that this causes, since in part IV he throws in a confrontation with
> alien
> Boba LaRocque and his Dorian destroyer, which in turn springboards
> into
> the 'Dorf Wars III' story arc. Nevertheless, the resolution of the
> Lagneto
> situation does feel like an anticimax, no matter how much it allows 
> Martin to put a case for a humanist assessment of Lagneto, or play
> with
> the theme of mistrust between superheroes.

There's another reason why I didn't bring Lagneto in to it, namely
that I didn't want to repeat myself.  The authorities came after
Lagneto in Lagneto 2017 #'s 1-2 and Lagneto faced off against his own
father in Lagneto Saga Part II #'s 5-8.  I didn't see what I could do
with Grim and Gritty vs. Lagneto to make it fresh, especially since
Grim and Gritty wouldn't stand a chance against Lagneto so the
confrontation would have seemed anti-climactic anyway.

>      Actually, during first reading I was wondering whether Deja
> Dude's
> precipitous actions might affect inter-hero relations in future
> storylines
> - especially in light of the scene in part III where Hamster Man 
> investigates the details of Lagento's trial and 'death', correctly
> deduces
> that there are suspicious circumstances, but then goes further to
> infer
> the possibility that Lagneto might be assembling a mutant army in
> Asia.
> If Deja Dude's actions and memory wipes were discovered, this would
> put
> him and the rest of LNH Asia in even deeper conflict than that shown
> in
> part IV - but the 'Dorf Wars III' storyline didn't bring that up, and
> the
> authorial comments at the end of 'Brothers Up In Arms' seem to deny
> the
> possibility entirely.

And yet in LNH Europe 2020 #3, there was a deliberately awkward moment
where Hamster Man and Linguist Lass can't explain why they were in
Asia meeting with LNH Asia in the first place.  I am sure that Hamster
Man has lingering suspicions of LNH Asia, even if he doesn't recall
why.  To tell you the truth, I rather thought that the Dorfian threat
put aside any internal conflicts, at least for the time being,
especially when the Dorfian Ambassadors showed up and there was the
question of whether or not Looniearth would go to war with the
Dorfs... again.

And, of course, the theme of mistrust has been done to death already,
both in mainstream comics and the LNH.  Recently in mainstream comics
we had the Ultimate War miniseries (Ultimates vs. Ultimate X-Men) and,
similarly, JLA/Avengers had the two teams fight and then work
together.  I haven't read either stories because there are no comic
shops here any more.  (The exchange rate really kills whatever
interest one might have in buying comics, although I would still like
to read them.)  So, of course, I had two arcs, one with LNH Europe and
LNH Asia in conflict and the other with them working together.  I
don't know if there's any reason to go over this territory all over
again any more than I think it would still be amusing to have the
general public continue to mistrust the present day LNH after all
these years.

Oh, by the way, there _might_ be a Generation Zed, the New Class #5. 
The new team could consist of Token Boy, Cheesecake Eater Lass,
aLLiterative Lad, Whining Girl and four characters from Lalo Martins'
Acra Flight which he gave me permission to use for LNH Europe 2020
just in case I needed them.  (As it turned out, I didn't need Analysis
in LNH Europe: I just decided that Hamster Man had become very hard
nosed and efficient after all these years of operating LNH Europe out
of Gen.eva.)  Similarly, LNH Europe 2020 could continue if I could
come up with a story focusing on Linguist Lass, Swiss Mouse, Green and
Demon Girl.  I'm sure Lalo wouldn't mind me using these characters as
I assume the permission he gave me still stands.  In fact, he might be
disappointed in that, while Acra Flight did inspire LNH Europe 2020, I
didn't actually use any of his characters except to give Analysis a
couple of lines in Generation Zed, the New Class #4.  And I may yet
continue LNH Asia 2020 if there's a story to be told.  Anything's
possible.

Martin