beccaelizabeth (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
beccaelizabeth) wrote2005-08-04 01:53 pm
beccaelizabeth) wrote2005-08-04 01:53 pm
Entry tags:
wherein I rant about 'foreshadowing'
I keep on seeing stuff posted to scans daily where people say 'oooo, foreshadowing!' about Identity Crisis, or OMAC, or Beetle getting shot. And in not one case I have read so far is it actually foreshadowing. That word means something put in to set up something further down the line. The way people are using it they only mean that these things connect to the later things in odd, usually uncomfortable ways.
Like when Beetle says Max would never shoot you in the head (he'd go for the spine, much slower) it made perfect sense at the time and didn't 'foreshadow' or deliberately set up something that happened ten, maybe even fifteen or twenty years later. Max was always at least slighty dodgy, sometimes outright evil (but only under mind control, when he made a dodgy deal and came out on the short end). His first story arc had him set the League up, and set himself up in the league, through lies and manipulation. He turned out to have planned (but not had a chance to go through with) a murder for financial gain, and he ended up getting the same benefit from simple neglect, when the guy fell on his own and Max could just leave him there. He had a whole twisted deal going on with a computer. Computers were a thing with him.
This is *not* foreshadowing. This is the raw material the writers were working with when they looked to come up with this year's great big huge crossover event.
I don't buy what they did to Max in said event, because he hasn't been human for about ten years, so trying to wipe out the non humans, not so much worky from his point of view. They screwed up his continuity. And they screwed over (and continue to screw over) basically ever character from the league he put together, the one I read growing up. So I have rage.
But those old 'foreshadowing' things? Are no such thing. They're inspiration. They're ingredients. They are sometimes different riffs on the same themes. And that is all they are.
Oh, and the 'foreshadowing' of Identity Crisis people keep seeing in old JL issues? No. The use and abuse of power is central to the superhero mythos. The league is a great place to play a lot of different opinions against each other. Elseworlds are fun because they are the only way to get Batman to look like a moderate - because Batman is utterly consistent in his views, however fascist the rest of the league get in an elseworld, Batman simply doesn't change, and can point out why they are going too far. Because he dances right on the line, he can see when others tip over it. That is why he plays the role of conscience in other stories, and that is why he is in the middle of the mess now, because they knew exactly what he wouldn't agree to. No foreshadowing involved.
Foreshadowing means something that hasn't happened yet casts a long shadow. If it isn't even planned, it isn't casting a shadow. Events now are the shadow of basic issues of power and control. Same as ever.
Like when Beetle says Max would never shoot you in the head (he'd go for the spine, much slower) it made perfect sense at the time and didn't 'foreshadow' or deliberately set up something that happened ten, maybe even fifteen or twenty years later. Max was always at least slighty dodgy, sometimes outright evil (but only under mind control, when he made a dodgy deal and came out on the short end). His first story arc had him set the League up, and set himself up in the league, through lies and manipulation. He turned out to have planned (but not had a chance to go through with) a murder for financial gain, and he ended up getting the same benefit from simple neglect, when the guy fell on his own and Max could just leave him there. He had a whole twisted deal going on with a computer. Computers were a thing with him.
This is *not* foreshadowing. This is the raw material the writers were working with when they looked to come up with this year's great big huge crossover event.
I don't buy what they did to Max in said event, because he hasn't been human for about ten years, so trying to wipe out the non humans, not so much worky from his point of view. They screwed up his continuity. And they screwed over (and continue to screw over) basically ever character from the league he put together, the one I read growing up. So I have rage.
But those old 'foreshadowing' things? Are no such thing. They're inspiration. They're ingredients. They are sometimes different riffs on the same themes. And that is all they are.
Oh, and the 'foreshadowing' of Identity Crisis people keep seeing in old JL issues? No. The use and abuse of power is central to the superhero mythos. The league is a great place to play a lot of different opinions against each other. Elseworlds are fun because they are the only way to get Batman to look like a moderate - because Batman is utterly consistent in his views, however fascist the rest of the league get in an elseworld, Batman simply doesn't change, and can point out why they are going too far. Because he dances right on the line, he can see when others tip over it. That is why he plays the role of conscience in other stories, and that is why he is in the middle of the mess now, because they knew exactly what he wouldn't agree to. No foreshadowing involved.
Foreshadowing means something that hasn't happened yet casts a long shadow. If it isn't even planned, it isn't casting a shadow. Events now are the shadow of basic issues of power and control. Same as ever.