Ta’veren of the DCU
Monday, October 24th, 2005 Posted in Comics | 1 Comment »I was idly wondering about the way super-heroes and villains are named—not the code names, but the actual names like Clark Kent, Matt Murdock, etc. Was Hunter Zolomon destined to become Zoom? Was Roy G. Bivolo doomed to become the Rainbow Raider the moment his parents named him? And why do so many people with the initials L.L. gravitate toward Superman?
“Obviously, he’s a ta’veren!” Katie said. I laughed for a second, but then remembered an interview I’d read about Infinite Crisis. It actually fits.
Ta’veren is a term from Robert Jordan’s The Wheel of Time that refers to a person who forms a focal point for history (or, from another perspective, destiny). Threads of probability bend around them, and the unlikely becomes likely. Babylon 5 referred to the concept as a nexus. “You turn one way, and the whole world has a tendency to go the same way.” Read the rest of this entry »
Unconventional Naming
Friday, October 14th, 2005 Posted in Comics, Strange World | 3 Comments »I was recently reminded that Kevin Smith’s daughter is named Harley Quinn Smith. At the time I thought it was crazy (though really, who am I to talk about people naming their kids after fictional characters?), but compared to Nicholas Cage naming his son Kal-El, it seems positively ordinary.
Bat Signal?
Thursday, August 4th, 2005 Posted in Comics, Humor | No Comments »You’ll only really appreciate this one if you’ve read some Bad Signal, but this answers the question, what if Warren Ellis was Batman? [archive.org, scroll down to "I Apologize If This Gag Is Inaccessible..."]
(via Cognitive Dissonance)
Sequelitis is profitable
Friday, June 17th, 2005 Posted in Entertainment | 1 Comment »An interesting read on the Most Lucrative Movie Franchises, not so much for what it gets right, but for what it gets wrong.
Tonight’s premiere of Batman Begins marks the sixth in the series. And that’s only counting the “modern” era of Batman flicks, dating from 1989’s Batman from director Tim Burton.
Sixth? Are they including the cartoon Batman: Mask of the Phantasm? If so, why not Batman: Sub-Zero? (Curiously, the table on page two only indicates five Batman films.)
And where do they get four Lord of the Rings films? I suppose they could be counting the Bakshi cartoon, but what about the Rankin-Bass Return of the King and The Hobbit.
Where are they getting their numbers?
