REVIEWS: Russell's Reviews, Volume One # 6

[Arthur Spitzer]

Tom Russell wrote:

Wow!  Those were some long essays!  :)

You should become an English Teacher.... :)

> 
> DEPARTMENT OF APOLOGIES
>  
>    I may have been a little too harsh when discussing
> my feelings about the Beige Midnight event.  I'm
> sorry.

That's okay... no hard feelings...

>    It's true that that piece, which appeared in our
> last installment, was more about feelings than facts;
> it was not an objective look at the Beige Midnight
> story but rather a very subjective explanation as to
> why my interest in the LNH has waned.
>    And it's also true, as Arthur said in response to
> my post, that there have been big multi-author
> crossover events in the past which never stopped
> anyone from writing before.  And it's true that the
> status quo has, in effect, changed only a piddling
> amount.

I think in terms of LNH stories that resemble what is
happening now might be the Evil Ultimate Ninja story
line which last more than a year... certainly during
the time that it was happening people weren't sure when
or if it was ever going to end and where wReam was going
with it... it didn't stop people from writing the Ultimate
Ninja though (of course the joke being that regardless if he's
evil or good people write the Ultimate Ninja exactly the same
way...)

Of course during the time that I was starting to read the LNH there
were all of these status quo changing stories...

I suppose the one thing that will always be true about the LNH is that 
someone
will always be upsetting the status quo... and other people will be
ignoring that person and writing their own upsetting the status quo
storylines... :)



>    But that's not the way it _felt_.  At the end of
> the Infinite Leadership Crisis, there was an
> expectation in my mind that everything would return to
> normal.  Instead, it ended on a note of uncertainty,
> with the leadership of the LNH up for grabs, an
> ideological gap between Irony Man and the Ninja
> widened, LNHQ destroyed.  Things weren't reset, but
> rather had only just begun.
>    Now, many of these things have been resolved; on
> many points, the status quo has been restored, and so
> my accusation-- that the LNH's continuity has become
> inaccessible-- holds considerably less water.

Well the status quo is still kind of a mess... The Ultimate
Ninja is in a coma in some secret prison and wReamicus Maximus
in a cloned Ultimate Ninja body is now in charge of the LNH...
(or a typical day in the life of the Ultimate Ninja)

So at the moment the Hex Fire Club is in charge of the LNH (and
will be til Beige Midnight #4)

Catalyst Lass is either under mind control or faking it...

Bicycle Repair Lad is in his own secret prison cell...

Of course there are like a hundred or so characters in the LNH that
aren't tied into any of this...

And you could write a story with Catalyst Lass and Ultimate Ninja that
could probably ignore this stuff without invalidating BC or BM...

Or you could write something set before ILC...

You could write another issue of the new revamped Teenfactor... :)

Finish the Pigs in Time miniseries...

Or you could write some story set after Beige Midnight...

Or write about No-Significant-Part-in-Beige-Countdown-Midnight Force 
Squad who have the power to exist beyond BC and BM's grasp...

There are options...


>But at
> that time-- at the end of the Infinite April, with
> various legionnaires tied up once more, it certainly
> felt and to a certain degree was less accessible.
>    It's not that there's anything particularly bad
> about the storyline-- with one notable exception-- but
> rather that the timing was a bit of a turn-off as both
> a reader and a writer.  And sure, I guess it serves as
> a parody of the tendencies of big crossovers to only
> serve as preludes to even bigger ones.  But parody
> generally works on a smaller scale.  I mean, one could
> do a parodic comic poking fun at the pacing,
> storytelling style, and general misogyny in Dave
> Sims's Cerebus, but that doesn't mean you have to do
> three hundred issues of it; one would more than
> suffice.
>    Still, other than the aforementioned and
> soon-to-be-mentioned one notable exception, I have no
> qualms with the storyline itself, and certainly none
> with its authors.  I certainly didn't mean to hurt
> anyone's feelings.
>    I'm sorry.
> 

If I knew what this was going to be like I don't think I would
have done it... because to be honest I'm sick of this BM storyline
myself (although for different reasons) mostly because I have to
write it and it's consumed all of my creative energies to the point
where I can't really write anything else because I want to get this
whole thing over with...

It's really going to be a grind getting this thing done before April 
29th... and I wonder if I can get it done...

Most likely Beige Midnight will look like a really rushed Beige
Countdown...

Thanks for the review...

And I always enjoy reading your essays...

Arthur "Beige Headache" Spitzer