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Okay, so, I bought THREE Watchmen toys tonight. And I had planned to do this big story with my Watchmen toys and act out crazy hijinks but um ... these dolls are like, not meant to be played with. :-( I guess that makes sense, given that multiple joints of articulation are for, like, children and Watchmen isn't for children, but ... yeah, these dollies are pretty much made for standing on your desk and collecting dust. :-(
Rorschach can move his arms (YAY!) and one of his hands can be replaced with a hand that holds a grappling hook (Eh ... just means something to get lost, but okay). But his trenchcoat is basically solid plastic when you look underneath, so all you can really do is move his disembodied legs from side to side, but there's no reason to do that, as then he'll NEVER be able to stand up. Blech.
Silk Spectre II isn't much better, although her pointed, heeled feet are rather cute, if a bit scary. She can also move her arms like Rorschach but ... that's it. No knee articulation, just swirls around at the thighs. Can't bend over. Boo. Also SHE HAS TINY NIPPLES. I'm serious. It's crazy.
Nite Owl II is what I thought the others would be like. He can move his knees, bend at the waist, move at the arms and elbows. Basically ACT LIKE A DOLL. You can also turn his head around which, while somewhat disturbing, is actually rather owl-like. Also, his crescent moon comes off, although I don't know why you would want to do that, because it's not like he can hold it.
So ... yeah, these could have been better. Although it's not totally impossible to make them look silly and thus, fun.
"As the Not-Mod Squad celebrates their victory, the benevolent spirit of America looks on, bringing her sideways-message of hope."
And yes, that's Rorschach's disembodied hand down there.
Oh well. At least I can have them group hug. And have Nite Owl touch Rorschach's ass.
Rorschach can move his arms (YAY!) and one of his hands can be replaced with a hand that holds a grappling hook (Eh ... just means something to get lost, but okay). But his trenchcoat is basically solid plastic when you look underneath, so all you can really do is move his disembodied legs from side to side, but there's no reason to do that, as then he'll NEVER be able to stand up. Blech.
Silk Spectre II isn't much better, although her pointed, heeled feet are rather cute, if a bit scary. She can also move her arms like Rorschach but ... that's it. No knee articulation, just swirls around at the thighs. Can't bend over. Boo. Also SHE HAS TINY NIPPLES. I'm serious. It's crazy.
Nite Owl II is what I thought the others would be like. He can move his knees, bend at the waist, move at the arms and elbows. Basically ACT LIKE A DOLL. You can also turn his head around which, while somewhat disturbing, is actually rather owl-like. Also, his crescent moon comes off, although I don't know why you would want to do that, because it's not like he can hold it.
So ... yeah, these could have been better. Although it's not totally impossible to make them look silly and thus, fun.
"As the Not-Mod Squad celebrates their victory, the benevolent spirit of America looks on, bringing her sideways-message of hope."
And yes, that's Rorschach's disembodied hand down there.
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And have Nite Owl touch Rorschach's ass.:3
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and her nipplage.I am rather put-out that there's no Owl Ship! The figures themselves look pretty good and I'm probably going to buy a Silk Spectre I when that becomes available.
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The nips very much hide like ninja. From far away they're invisible given her black outfit. It seems like they were put in there as hidden fanboy-incentive. (Yet I keep compulsively touching them whenever I hold her. :-X)
I DID want a Silk Spectre I, because her movie self is FIIIIINE, but I'm a little disappointed by the unplayability of these. Dr. Manhattan I am sure about getting, though. I don't care if he's practically a statue.
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I honestly haven't read Watchmen and I just don't see what the big deal is. Is it because it was all so dark and gritty before its time or something? Because frankly, I've had my fill of it from all the idiocy I see over at Marvel and DC.
I'm not trying to start an argument, but I just want to know what the big deal is.
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This will be long ...
Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons created the book to take the medium to its limits. Some of this involved taking superhero tropes to their worst conclusions. So they came up with conclusions like "If there really was a Batman he would be a sociopath." But they also came up with conclusions like, "If there was a nuclear war coming, how much would superheroes really be able to help? Why do you need so much firepower to catch petty criminals? Wouldn't the police resent their presence?" It's not really about going for shock value, but more about deconstructing the medium and creating a work of art out of it.
Re: Dark and Gritty. Yes, Watchmen, like DKR (which I haven't read yet) is credited with starting the grim and gritty trend, but it's one of those works that may have STARTED a trend but aren't necessarily part of that trend. You know how Halloween is credited with starting the slasher film genre but actually has minimal blood? Or how Saw was the start of the "torture porn" genre but only has one super-brutal scene of violence and no women are killed? It's kind of like that.
The book can be violent, and some of its heroic characters do un-heroic things. (There's an almost-rape scene. Rorschach also kills criminals.) I've heard people say if Nite Owl, who perhaps best fits our traditional view of a "superhero," wasn't in the book, they wouldn't have enjoyed it. But the book doesn't glory in its violence. Any character that does anything bad is usually condemned by another character.
But Dark and Gritty is sort of a mis-label, there are moments of great beauty in the book, too. There's this one chapter where Dr. Manhattan, who is a Quantum superhero so he experiences all time at once, sits on Mars and looks back on his life, except to him he's not really looking back because everything is happening to him at the same time, and we're privy to this knowledge that while he has this incredible power he also has basically no way to make his own life better ... moments like those you really can't call "Dark and Gritty."
Speaking of Dr. Manhattan, the characters in Watchmen are really amazing. Every one of the six main characters (Rorschach, Nite Owl II, Silk Spectre II, Dr. Manhattan, The Comedian and Ozymandias) has multiple, complex facets to their character and their own detailed history that Moore & Gibbons nevertheless manage to cram into 12 issues. And, like any great piece of literature, there are times when you HATE the characters and the next scene you feel sorry for them and then you go back to hating them. Or maybe on a second or third reading your view of a character changes or you notice something new about them.
Heck, I've done maybe two straight readings of the book, and I've read my favorite scenes multiple times, and I usually notice something new every time I read it. As a sort of small example, Dr. Manhattan has two girlfriends in succession, and he gives the first one these earrings. And then on the second reading I realized his second girlfriend was wearing the first girlfriend's earrings. And then when the second girlfriend started fighting with him she stopped wearing them. It's not something the characters mention at all, but it's something neat you notice on multiple readings.
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See, I told you ...
- Multiple text sections that expand the universe
- Echoing motifs in the book. The symbols of faces and clocks, especially.
- A whole chapter that has an entirely symmetrical layout from the inside out -- to the point where the same characters interact on the same pages they were on the other side of the comic
- A six-page spread after the climax that's, honestly, in context one of the most horrifying and sad upsetting things I've ever read EVER.
I mean, I say this seriously: this book is art. It was intended to be art and intended to expand the respectability of comics. It won a Hugo. It got on TIME's 100 Novels of the Century (the only comic to do so). It's definitely the book I would give to anybody who says, "Oh, I don't read superhero comics."
So ... yeah, there's a lot of reasons why this is a big deal.
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Sorry, but I've become damned jaded on comics today trying to be so real yet gawking at the idea of actual realism if it means replacing sexualization. Such as Wonder Woman having over the shoulder straps on her outfit, as was suggested by Gail Simone, being shot down since they can't change an iconic costume.
Plus, I get kinda edgy about things that were the milestones of comics. Makes me glad I don't normally go to comic MBs.
But yeah, I'll check this out sometime.
Also, nice Ms. Marvel statue. Wasn't Marvel really pushing her as their Wonder Woman?
(As opposed to Storm, an original woman of colour character who's going to become the new Black Panther, thus wiping out her own character... *sigh* Stupid comics.)
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Re: See, I told you ...
Also, nice Ms. Marvel statue. Wasn't Marvel really pushing her as their Wonder Woman?
She's Wonder Woman now? I thought they were calling her a Power Girl ripoff. (Also bullshit.)
I'm a Ms. M fan. I have a deep love even if I don't always show it with actually BUYING her stuff. (I have limited funds and am easily distracted.) She was created to be an explicitly feminist superheroine back in the 1970s, which is awesome and something I wish Marvel would push a little harder on, even though the subtext is definitely there with the little bit of the recent stuff I've read. Her early books weren't perfect, but they got their mistake. I actually really liked how she got her powers from Mar-Vell, but then later was like, "Hey, wait! I am my own woman! I'm getting a new costume!" Also she chewed her Avengers teammates out for their sexism. Sort of like Wonder Woman but ... eh, very much her own person. I love this survivor from tragedy stuff, too.
I love the prominence she has in the current books. I don't know if that makes her Wonder Woman. (Character is kind of king over HOW IMPORTANT YOU ARE TO THE UNIVERSE, anyway, otherwise Dr. Strange would be the most popular.) But I think it's a nice change and a necessary one. I even thought her position on Civil War worked very well. So ... yeah, no Ms. M complaints.
(As opposed to Storm, an original woman of colour character who's going to become the new Black Panther, thus wiping out her own character... *sigh* Stupid comics.)
On the other hand, I really, really, really hate practically everything that's happened to Storm in the '00s ever. There are no words for how much that fucking marriage issue filled me with rage. Plus, Reginald Hudlin was NO FRIEND TO WOMEN (esp. WoC) and it totally showed.
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And the nipple thing makes me giggle.
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I actually really love my Ms. Marvel mini-maquette/bust/statue/thing. So I wanted to show that off a bit, too.
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Too bad about the joint-moveablity failage. That's the oldest ripoff trick in the action figure book, no? And nipples? *shudder* But you've managed to make them look vaguely triumphant at least \o/
You don't know me, but people pointed me your way so just accept my love mmkay?
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And nipples? *shudder* But you've managed to make them look vaguely triumphant at least \o/
Are the nipples triumphant or are the action figures triumphant? I'm a bit confused. (But yeah, they are a bit fail.)
You don't know me, but people pointed me your way so just accept my love mmkay?
That's cool.
Although now I'm wondering who's talking about me. [glances around]From:
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Fact: People only have good things to say about you.
Hypothesis: Triumphant Nipples would be a great name for a band.