LNH: Legion of Net.Heroes vol 2. #17

[Tom Russell]

Jesse Willey wrote:
> > Three different threads intersect in this
> > Willey-penned issue, and for
> > once they actually tie in together in a coherent and
> > structurally-sound
> > fashion (as coherent and structurally-sound, anyway,
> > as a time loop
> > story can be).
>
>    Technically, this is a parody of time loop stories.

Ohhhhhh.  Well, then, I stand corrected, and I apologize for not
getting it. :-)

My general rhetoric about mystery stories still stands, even if it
doesn't apply in this case.

>   Master Blaster was a little off in the annual
> because a certain persons (who shall remain nameless)
> wouldn't let me do everything I wanted to with their
> characters.

::think, think, think::

Well, Jesse, it would have been out of character for WikiBoy to seek
revenge on Master Blaster.  It's not in his character.

Next thing I know, someone will want Haiku Gorilla to start pulling
sophomoric pranks on his fellow legionnaires, or they'll retcon one the
survivors of Teenfactor into having betrayed the team...

>   Actually, no.  He really was Master Blaster.    The
> joke being that Master Blaster, inspite of or because
> of, how stupid he is changed that possiblity-- twice
> even.   Yes, I was setting up that second change from
> the get go... but still.  He really was Master Blaster
> there for a second.

Wait.  But Applicant Lad is the one who put on the armour.  I figured
Master Blaster wa a red herring.

>   I don't care if it was obvious.   I was going for
> funny.   You know... ha-ha.

My bad.

>   I heard part of the reason Ditko left was a
> disagreement with Stan over Green Goblin.  Stan wanted

No one's talking, but I think it has more to do with the fact that
there was a serious disconnect between the two of them.  Check out the
issue right before the Master Planner saga, "The Claws of the Cat!"  In
Ditko's plot, it's obvious that The Cat is just a cat burglar, while
the guys in the gaudy uniforms work for someone else-- someone whom we
discover in the next issue to be the Master Planner!  But Stan couldn't
quite figure it out, and so even though it makes no sense what-so-ever
for this low-rent cat burglar to _also_ be a criminal mastermind with a
cartel of thugs, that's the way it reads.

What's even worse is that, they were on such bad terms, that Ditko
didn't tell Lee he had made a mistake.

>From what Roy Thomas said, it had nothing to do with the Goblin-- it
was that Ditko felt that Lee kept mucking around in his plots.
Sometimes, they were really in synch-- the Master Planner issues were a
great example of this-- but sometimes, they were really out of synch:
for example, I don't think Ditko had intended for the Looter to be
described as "a nut".

Politically, Ditko's fairly right, a proponent of moral absolutism and
objectivism.  Lee's fairly left, and after Ditko's departure,
Spider-Man became less of a social drop-out, started dating seriously,
started having less of an anger problem.  If you look at the Ditko run,
Peter is really quite cocky and stand-offish to people.  In fact, it's
this anger that motivates him in the first Spider-Man origin story-- a
fact that was never really picked up on by either Bendis or Byrne when
they told their versions of AMAZING FANTASY # 15.

Don't get me wrong: a series has to evolve, and if Ditko was still
writing the series, I doubt it'd be popular today.  Peter would have
been extremely anti-social, extremely unlucky in everything, probably
would have been less effective (check out the number of times during
the Ditko-plotted issues that the police beat Peter to the punch; Ditko
didn't approve of vigilantes), he never would have ridden a motorcycle,
fallen into his group of college friends, or have the left-leaning
political stance that makes him endearing.  And I'm not saying that
Ditko is racist, but I doubt the black campus protest story that
introduced Robbie Robertson's kid _and_ the Kingpin (if memory serves)
would have come about, either.

At the same time, had Ditko stuck around for _just a little longer..._
... what a story that would have been!!

The theory that it was all a dispute about the Goblin's identity has no
real factual evidence, save for fan speculation.  Even Romita said that
Stan just naturally assumed that Osborn was intended to be the Goblin.

Stan and Steve didn't argue about it, because they didn't argue.  If
they had, maybe the Cat story would have been more coherent.  I think
Ditko just turned in his pages and complained when Stan screwed them
up.  (You have to realize, Ditko did his own inking, and he only inked
the pages after they had been lettered.  So there was time to raise an
objection.)

Ditko was apparently a very testy individual (and probably still is!).
One story about his dislike of Vince Colletta's inking comes to mind:
he'd walk into the Marvel office, get a comp copy of the latest
Kirby-pencilled issue, and flip it open.  As soon as he saw Colletta
inked it, he would drop it in the garbage can, in plain-view of Stan.
And, yes, Colletta did flatten Kirby's artwork and lessen the number of
details in the pencils.  But Kirby must have been happy with him, since
Colletta did ink a great portion of the New Gods saga.

Anyway.

Sorry I missed the parody. :-)

--Tom

>   What Master Blaster doesn't realize is that  Luke
> destroys this father aspect of himself.  He rejects
> the destiny his father offers him.  The swamp scene is
> really about an establishment of identity other than
> one that destiny provides us.   The irony is then
> furthered when Master Blaster has a similar but more
> literal encounter in the cargo bay where he two
> rejects fate.
>
>    See, those two years of film classes weren't a
> waste.

Actually, they were if you think that's what it's about.  THe scene of
Luke being in the swamp is REALLY about... Luke being in the swamp.

You need to read you some Ray Carney, boy.  He'll whip you into shape.
:-)