$250 million puts you in spacelaunch-budget territory. For $250 million WB could’ve given Bryan Singer his own communications satellite and spent the change on a George Clooney movie.

This is the absurdity of modern Hollywood; that taking more than the GNP of Luxembourg in a single weekend is not actually enough to put a movie in the black.

It’s the “spacelaunch” comment that I find most interesting, as I made the same comparison a few years ago, from the other side of the fence: Assuming that the Spirit and Opportunity missions to Mars are typical, price-wise, it doesn’t make sense to complain that we’re “wasting” money on space exploration when a mission costs as much as two summer blockbusters. Manned missions are, of course, more expensive, but robotic missions? If we, as a society, toss away $250 million several times a year on mindless action flicks, what’s so terrible about spending a similar amount to learn something about our universe?

Yes, I know the difference is public vs. private funding. Movies are financed by studios and private investors, and space exploration is usually financed by governments, and therefore by taxes. But comparing the dollar amounts puts things in a different perspective—whether you’re astonished by the literally astronomical movie budgets, or realizing that exploring outer space is more down to Earth than it seems at first glance.

Apparently Aquaman showed up earlier this year, and there’ve been rumors about the Teen Titans’ Cyborg. The Pulse reports that Lee Thompson Young will play Vic Stone in the February 19th episode.

Looks like I’m gonna be watching another episode of Smallville.

“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.”

Well, just before Infinite Crisis #1 hit the stands, Newsarama did an interview with Dan DiDio:

NRAMA: …Back towards the build-up a little – a seed that has been sown and is fully bearing fruit now – when Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman aren’t on the same page…can you explain a little of the ripple effects and resultant instability of the DCU? Are there specific events that can be pointed to because the three weren’t standing strong, that allowed the villains of Infinite Crisis to gain a foothold where they wouldn’t have had one, previously?

DD: That’s a big “wait and see” since it’s a big part of the story.

NRAMA: Do the three realize that they are the root of the current instability?

DD: At the start of the story, no. They do not realize how much their problems are affecting the heroes around them.

This aspect of the story forms a key scene in issue #1, in which the DC Trinity are standing in the ruins of the JLA’s watchtower and arguing over who and what is at fault. Yes, the three most important characters in DCs pantheon, not trying to battle the chaos besetting the world, but arguing. And the world sinks further into madness.

It seems that in some ways Infinite Crisis, like The Wheel of Time, is about a trio of ta’veren facing the end of the world.

This issue, however, though it had some nice moments, was basically a plot summary. “Poet tells the story of…” It seemed an odd narrative choice, particularly for an issue so near the end of the story (#22 of 24) and for the first issue to hit the shelves in nearly two years. Maybe it’ll read better in context.

Anyway, that’s not what I really wanted to talk about. What’s interesting is that in this issue, one of the Specials runs for President. It reminded me of something about the way comic books tell campaign stories. When a fictional character is in the race (or the office), he (it usually is a he) is almost always running under one of three circumstances:

• As an independent.
• On a fictional third-party ticket.
• On an unidentified party’s ticket.

As we all know, third party candidates are rarely high-profile, and they rarely get significant numbers of votes, and I don’t think one has ever won the office*. Yet in comics, it happens all the time. Of course, heat vision, teleporters, and people who wear purple tights to fight crime are also commonplace.

When you think about it, the reason is obvious: the publishers do not want to be accused of political bias, nor do they want to alienate half their readers (or half their readers’ parents). So you get Ravenshadow running as an independent in Rising Stars, or Lex Luthor’s “Tomorrow Party” [archive.org] in 2000, or the disguised Top’s Vice-Presidential bid as an unidentified third-party candidate in 1996.

There is another approach. One of 1991’s Armageddon 2001 stories featured Superman running for President. It’s told in the context of the two-party system: he goes through the primaries, runs against one opponent, etc. But they never actually say which party he’s running with, so you’re free to make assumptions based on your own political leanings.

On the other hand, when all the story needs is the participation of the current President, most comics will use the real President. This, of course, makes for some of the more dramatic examples of the ever-shifting timeline of shared-universe comics, like the perrenially-thirtyish Superman shaking hands with JFK. Perhaps this disconnect is another reason to stick with fictional Presidents.

* We have elected presidents from other parties, but not since 1850. Even then, if I remember correctly — and feel free to correct me if I don’t — there were generally two main parties… it was just a matter of which two parties were at the top. Here’s a table of past US Presidents.

Daily traffic for Flash: Those Who Ride the Lightning (October 2004)

Still, it was a pretty huge spike, and I’m seeing a lot of new referrers as well. At one point the top non-search-engine referrer was actually Television Without Pity (although they seemed a bit confused about the reference they were linking to — they picked an alternate universe for Bart’s “start a league” line instead of, say, the Justice League). Lots of Smallville and Superman forums, sites, blog and LiveJournal posts linked to Bart Allen (Impulse/Kid Flash), Bart Allen (juvenile delinquent) and Superman/Flash races. It’s always nice to get some exposure outside of the usual sources, even if it is only temporary.