2004-07-19 - 9:49 a.m.

Comics

I largely ignored comic books of all kinds growing up. First and foremost because I wouldn't have been allowed to keep them in the house with my parents' views of secular entertainment, but secondly because I just didn't see the point in reading yet another Spiderman story.

Lately, I've taken up reading several comic series old and new via the wonders and magic of the Internet. I've read two hundred issues of Daredevil, seventy-odd of Deadpool, the entire Transmetropolitan series, and an odd series whose story's still not completed called Y: The Last Man. And, oddly, I learned quite a bit from these series.

Daredevil, whether it's publically acknowledged or not, has shifted from the 1970s schmoe who was one step away from a pacifist into a man who's lost everything and really trusts absolutely no one. The Kingpin, crime boss of the big city, remarks that he took away everything Daredevil had and accidentally showed him in the process that "..a man without hope is a man without fear."

Nietzsche's the one who said that first. That life was to be lived without fear, but also without hope. Daredevil's an interesting take on one way you could interpret Nietzsche's ideal for humanity. I like reading it and seeing what happens next.

Deadpool is a long series of horribly wonderful puns, stupid jokes, odd plotlines, and carnage. Reading it relaxes my brain.

Transmetropolitan is a series whose writing is done by the esteemed Harlan Ellison about a journalist named Spider Jerusalem. It is brutal, it is often crude and disgusting, and would most likely shock the living hell out of a lot of people if they bothered reading it. That said, it has a lot of very good things to say about truth and the pursuit thereof. Read it if you can.

Y: The Last Man sticks with me because of one of the most recent issues. The statement "You don't get off that easy. Endings have to be earned." was made, and it clicked with me.

I'm sure this is fascinating.

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