NEW YORK COMIC CON 2013: PART 1

New York Comic Con is the second largest comic and pop culture convention in the U.S. This was my first time at Comic Con, and as a newly hatched comic book nerdling with a 4-day pass, I was damn excited. I traveled all the way from Chicago just for this event, and I've got lots of stories to share!

Note: If anyone sees any photos on here that they wish to have removed, please email me at comicallyoverblown@gmail.com and I'll gladly take them down for you!

DAY 1

I was staying in New York with a friend of mine whom we'll call Solis for privacy purposes. She and I are friends from my days as a zookeeper - er, I mean, junior high school English teacher in Japan. To keep things inexpensive, we decided to stay at the Y.M.C.A. which, for the record, is not fun to stay at - unless your definition of "fun" is chewing gum on the floors of the showers, a mattress like a loose hammock, two toilet stalls on a floor with a hundred girls, and a raging mold problem. Lesson learned.

After escaping the Y.M.C.A. - where I'm pretty sure the movie Hostel was filmed - Solis set out to prove to me that New York bagels are superior to Chicago ones. To do so, she took me to Tal Bagels, where I discovered that yes... yes they are. New York bagels are fucking awesome. So crispy on the outside, so chewy on the inside. Look at this glory. Look at it!

It's beautiful *cries*

NYCC takes place at the Javits Center, which turned out to be a sprawling metropolis. I seriously did not realize the scope of this thing until I got there. I mean, holy crap...

That right there is just the line to get into the building, and the weirdos began appearing immediately:

It's a cactus in a cowboy hat. Duh.

At last, we got in!

The true size of the place wasn't obvious at first, but it just kept getting bigger.

I mean, I'm from Chicago. I'm not some small-town bumpkin who has a seizure at the sight of a mall with more than twenty stores, but dayum, there was an ass-load of people. Wow.

Right out front they had these really cool painted cars:

Cosplayers began appearing at the entrance, like this lady Deadpool. 

Hey! Hey! What the hell did I do?!

She was certainly sexier than the cross-dressing Wonder Woman.

Not sure where to begin, Solis and I wandered into the exhibition hall. The first thing we saw upon entering was Tom's Rhinoplasty. We walked in and it was just like, boom, South Park:

That was the moment when Solis and I became completely overwhelmed by the sheer awesomeness of Comic Con. I mean, the exhibition hall was huge. We stood there for several minutes going, "where the fuck do we start?!" 

After we got over our paralysis, one of the first things we ran across was Lola from "Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.!"

Hey good lookin'!

The Marvel area had a massive Thor advertisement, too:

*internal seizure*

It was the 10th anniversary of The Walking Dead comic series:

This was also happening:

And this. Because nothing says "ready for sex" like a Star Trek bathrobe:

For the record, both my parents are Trekkies.

A wall of plushies:

But wait, what's... what's Thor's hand doing down there?! Thor, stop that!

"I need an adult!"

Even Harry Potter was represented at Comic Con:

I found a Bellatrix Lestrange cutout and took a picture with her because why the fuck not:

Hey, look, Game of Thrones bobbleheads!

They had a Ned Stark one, so I made a really inappropriate joke, and Solis told me it was "too soon."

We came across a booth selling really rare autographs. Like, holy crap, you can buy Brandon Lee and Heath Ledger autographs if you've got thousands of dollars in your back pocket:

We also found a giant Lego thing from Halo:

And Star Trek figurines:

"Live long and buy our shit"

Also found the DeLorean!

And the motherfuckin' Batmobile:

It's a special moment when you realize you're riding an escalator behind the Power Rangers:

Hey, we found Inspector Gadget! His propeller spun around and everything!

Hey, old-school Batman and Superman!

And Morbidly Obese Pikachu:

Time to lay off the Aprijuice.

I don't even know what's going on anymore:

Omigawd, they were selling Leeloo Dallas Multi Pass:

Totally overwhelmed by all the stuff going on, Solis and I wandered over to the painfully overpriced food court to get some pasta. Every single table had a Ninja Gaiden hot sauce sitting on it:

Keep away from balls?! Shouldn't be a problem.

The sauce was legitimately delicious, so I dumped about a fourth of the bottle on my pasta.

Later in the day, Solis and I decided to go to the kickoff show, Comedy Mutant, featuring Brian Posehn (the current co-writer of Deadpool), Mike Drucker (a writer for the Jimmy Fallon show), Myq Kaplan, and Janeane Garofalo (plus a few others). The staff let the line enter in small groups only, and the lady cut the line off right in front of a guy in a Predator costume. The people behind him kept yelling at him to push past her 'cause he's, "a freakin' Predator!" and he "doesn't have to take that!" Unfortunately, the Predator was no match for a middle-aged woman with a staff badge.

Onto Comedy Mutant!

Brian Posehn opened the show, then a bunch of other comedians performed. Afterwards, Posehn returned for the closing routine. All the comedians were hilarious, especially because they were very nerdy, and they really understood the audience. The biggest surprise of the night was the unannounced Trevor Moore from The Whitest Kids U' Know. He came on stage with his guitar and sang songs about circumcision and the joys of drinking mouthwash. You can check out the hilarious music video here:

I was pretty excited to see Janeane Garofalo, but I'll admit, it really wasn't her crowd. Her jokes fell pretty flat. She had a notebook with her that she kept consulting, because apparently she didn't remember her material. That doesn't seem very professional...

The star of the show was undoubtedly Brian Posehn. That man is so goddamn funny, I actually wanted him to get off the stage because I was getting a stomachache from laughing. I don't think my diaphragm was meant to do whatever the hell it was doing. Posehn's act is about how "fat" and "old" and "gross" he is, which I found horrifyingly relatable despite being a twenty-four year old girl. My favorite bit of the night was when Posehn talked about how The Avengers is a movie that has to be viewed naked, and that Loki getting Hulk-smashed is a "dick out" moment. Thank you, Posehn. Truly.

When the kickoff ended, Solis and I went back to our nightmare hostel to get some sleep in time for...

Day 2

Solis decided to do a Thor cosplay, so I forced us to take a selfie together:

#fabulous

This was what greeted us when we walked in the front doors:

There's an actual person in that suit.

First up on our Friday agenda was to check out the Game of Thrones panel with Jerome Flynn, who plays the roguish sellsword, Bronn. Solis and I went to the panel early in order to get a good seat. What we didn't realize, however, was that we'd actually gone in so early, we now had to sit through another panel, which turned out to be an hour-long concert video of Hatsune Miku. For those who don't know, Hatsune Miku is a computerized Japanese vocalist. She also looks like a soulless Barbie doll:

I lived in Japan for three years, and I worked in a junior high school in Japan for two of those years. To say I've had enough of Hatsune Miku would be an understatement. During the concert, I had Vietnam-style flashbacks of my students running in circles around me squealing and waving Hatsune Miku pen cases in my face. My students all think she's soooooo "kawaii." No, I'm sorry, Hatsune Miku's cracked-out hamster voice is not kawaii. It sounds like Satan playing a violin with a buzz-saw. Worst of all, her animators dedicate so much of their effort on perfecting the physics of her hair and clothing, they completely neglect to add any sort of emotion to her face. Seriously, Hatsune Miku is the stuff of nightmares. I was so glad when it was over because...

It was time for Jerome Flynn from Game of Thrones! Unfortunately, something had gone wrong in transportation, so Flynn was running late. While we waited, Game of Thrones cosplayers started gathering together to take pictures. One group couldn't find the Jon Snow cosplayer they'd seen earlier, so a guy in the audience shouted, "come on, bastard!" Hah.

Jerome Flynn showed up about fifteen minutes late, looking rather windswept but as devilishly handsome as ever.

Luckily, after some panel discussion and amusing Q&A, he began to perk up a little:

I learned all kinds of interesting things during the panel. First of all, Jerome Flynn has a slightly different accent from the one he uses for Bronn. He told us he originally auditioned Bronn with a Scottish accent, but they decided to constrain all the show's accents to a more British flavor because of the American audience (at which point Jerome Flynn gave us all a pointed look). He told us he only got the part of Bronn because he accidentally hit himself in the face with a cabinet door the day of his audition and showed up looking unintentionally rugged. Flynn also talked about filming fight scenes and working with Peter Dinkelage. He accepted a flower wreath from a fan and wore it on his head as he gave her a big hug. During the Q&A, Flynn told us he ultimately wants Arya to win the throne, and that, in season 4, the series is going to start diverging from the books. Oho...

After the panel was over, Solis and I decided to check out the Artist Alley. From what I've heard, New York Comic Con has the largest Artist Alley in the country. To be honest, I wasn't even sure what the alley was supposed to be, and I thought it would be kinda dull. I was a naive little hatchling.

Holy crap...

The first thing we spotted was a white car with drawings on it. Every few hours, a different artist came over and worked on the car. This was how it looked at the time:

The guy behind the car was drawing on it while I took this picture.

We ran into lots of cosplayers down in the alley, including this unbelievable Gambit. Holy crap, look at this guy! He had the freaky contacts and everything!

Hey man, um... call me, maybe?

I also ran into a cosplayer who wins the award for Biggest Balls at the Con. She was dressed as Joffrey from Game of Thrones. Seriously. She actually had the audacity to show up dressed as Joffrey, the most hated man in the history of television. Here's the worst/most hilarious part: when I asked if I could take her picture, Joffrey said, "Sure. Can I get my fiancee in it with me?" Then she pulled over a Sansa cosplayer. Oooooooooh. Balls, man. Serious balls. We got a whole group together:

Oh, Sansa, your smile says "yes," but your eyes tell me "no."

We continued wandering the Artist Alley to check out all the stupid amateur... um... amateur... is that... is that the cover art for the Kid Loki run of Journey into Mystery...? Is that woman over there the cover artist...? Is she working right there at the table...?! Live?!

No waaaaaaaaay.....

Holy bajeezus, it's Stephanie Hans. You mean to tell me this Artist Alley has actual comic book artists?! Like, these people are all professionals?! Holy shiiiiiiiit, why didn't anyone tell me?! As someone who is more than a little obsessed with the Kid Loki run of Journey into Mystery, I had a fangirl stroke for several moments before I finally approached the table and asked if I could buy a print. Hans asked me if I wanted her to sign it, and it was like, ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!?!?! I have Stephanie Hans' autograph, whaaaaaaat?!

AAAAAAAAAAGH.

The Artist Alley was unbelievable. As we wandered around, we started to see people like Oliver Coipel, and a zillion other names I recognized from the comics I've been reading. I couldn't believe it. It was like an endless maze of artwork. I wound up buying a print from the incredibly talented Sasha Yosselani:

Truly astounding. 

After looping through the Artist Alley for an hour, we decided to venture back out. Solis and I wound up doing the Comic Con scavenger hunt. We followed the clues on the mobile app to find twelve QR codes scattered throughout the Javits Center. It was a good way to find new areas, such as the Superman display commemorating his 75th anniversary:

They even had the suits worn by the late Christopher Reeve:

Out in the showroom, we found people doing live art:

And a bunny people could doodle on with chalk. I signed my initials.

As we continued on, we heard a guy shout, "Thor! Hey, Thor! I've been lookin' for you all day, motherfucker!" We turned around and came to face with motherfuckin' Nick Fury!

Not far from there, we found Loki trying to escape Nick Fury.

Solis asked him how he got out of prison, and Loki said, "there's always a way."

Later, we found an area with awesome video game weapons on display:

There were tons of cosplayers in the showroom, such as Sailor Moon:

And Edward Scissorhands!

There was a really cool Iron Man display full of suit models:

And this souped-up car thing you could take pictures in:

I don't even know what this is, but it's cool:

More awesome cosplayers!

Solis and another Thor found a Lady Loki at the same time. Ambush!

Oh sweet Jesus, it's Pyramid Head......

Hide yo' kids, hide yo' wife...

This is just damn awesome:

The mutants ran into the No-Face!

Holy crap, this Storm is amazing:

Those contacts!

As we traveled along, I saw an incredible Kid Loki cosplayer and chased her down for a photo. The next thing I knew, she and Solis were hugging. I was sooooo confused. Turns out they're old friends! Check out this amazing Kid Loki copslay!

Oh Loki, I see what you did there, you troublemaker.

While we were chatting with Kid Loki, a Balder and a Leah from Journey into Mystery joined us! I don't have many friends who are into nerdy stuff like JiM, so it was really cool hanging out with other fans! While we were chatting, lo' and behold, a Lady Loki showed up!

And not far from there was yet another Leah!

For the record, Solis and I did complete the scavenger hunt before the day was over. We were excited for our promised prize, but it was just a Comic Con sticker and a 20% off coupon for an online store. Oh well.

It was getting late, and the second day of the convention was sadly drawing to a close. On the way out, we passed a few more cosplayers. I've been to several anime conventions in my life, and I've seen many attempts at Vash the Stampede, but I gotta hand it to this guy... this is the best Vash I have ever seen:

We also saw this amazing Dr. Strange near the exit:

And with that, Solis and I left the Javits Center and trudged back to our decrepit Y.M.C.A. to get some sleep. We'd need some energy for Day 3!

Hope you enjoyed my pictures and stories! In Part 2, I'll talk about more panels, angry mobs, and lots more cosplay!

Stay tuned for Part 2!

A Devil on the Shoulder: Loki and Impossible Redemption

After a long absence in which I moved my entire life across the Pacific Ocean, I'm finally back with an overblown ramble.  Today's topic?  Loki.  We all knew it was coming.

Quick note on spoilers: Any mention of the Journey into Mystery comic series will be spoiler-free.  I won't bring up or discuss any aspect of the story that ruins its final act.  However, all Marvel movies will be discussed under the assumption that everybody seen that shit already!

So, ever since the release of the first Thor: The Dark World trailer, the name on everyone's lips is Loki, Thor's adopted brother and the God of Tumblr.  Will Loki aid Thor in the new movie?  Will he turn traitor?  Can Loki even be redeemed?  That's what I'm here to talk about.  I recently wound up diving into (and became totally addicted to) the Kid Loki saga of Journey into Mystery.  While I was reading the series, I found a lot of parallels between the character of Kid Loki, and the film character he was loosely based on.

First things first, for those of you who don't know who Kid Loki is, or why he's a "kid," let's introduce the adorable little rascal.  In the world of Marvel comics, Kid Loki is the reincarnation of the deceased adult Loki, and an overly enthusiastic rider of demons and maker of rude hand gestures:

"L" is for "LOOK OUT, IT'S A FUCKING HELL DEMON!"

Here's what happened in as much of a spoiler-free manner as possible: prior to Kid Loki's run in Journey into Mystery, evil adult Loki staged one of his usual, villainous blowouts: banish Thor, become the new king's councilman, destroy all of Asgard  - y'know, a typical Tuesday for Loki.  At the last minute, however, Loki had a change of heart for unknown reasons and sacrificed himself to save Thor and the Avengers and (what was left of) Asgard.  So... that was pretty much unexpected.  Even though Loki died a hero's death, very few mourned his passing - besides Thor, who couldn't cope with the loss of his brother - even if his brother was a known fucktwit.  In an unexpected and totally inexplicable twist, Thor decided to resurrect Loki from the dead (which was only possible because, as it turned out, the trickster had taken certain precautions before his death that allowed his soul to be reincarnated).  Anyways, Loki's soul - or whatever the hell Norse gods are made of (rainbows and Pantene?) - was reincarnated into a French preteen boy.

No, I'm serious.

Thor sought out the little French Loki and restored him to his, er... former glory (yes, that's an MCU Loki reference, shut up).  In almost every way that counts, Kid Loki is Loki, just a... reduced Loki.  He has no memories from beyond childhood, and he's been reset to a time before he became evil.  You could go so far as to say he was reborn with "original sin," and Loki is literally given a second chance to redeem himself.  Unfortunately, everyone in the known universe still remembers Loki as an insufferable, cocky asshole, and the fact that he's now a cute, cuddly little boy with an internet addiction isn't going to change their view of him.  All the innate building blocks that turned Loki into a fucking asshole are still there... the question is: will Loki use them?

The fact that everyone except Loki remembers Loki's evil deeds makes his attempts at redemption extremely difficult.  His memories are wiped clean, but there's no escaping what he's done.  In other words, Loki doesn't get a free pass just because he's born again.  In fact, Loki can't escape who he was at all.  His run in the Journey into Mystery comic series starts off with Kid Loki having a confrontation with the remnant spirit of none other than adult Loki himself, wearing his finest furs and his most disgusted expression.
 

"I mean, really, kid?!  A hoodie?!  I thought I taught you better than this!"

 
Kid Loki has no choice but to face his bitter past.  Ultimately, he decides he wants to be the one and only Loki, and that he wishes to banish away the evil temptations of his former self.  To put it simply: Loki wants to be good.  At his core, free from the suspicious glares of others, Loki has no desire to be evil.  In the end, Kid Loki reduces his adult spirit into the body of a magpie and names the bird Ikol (Loki backwards, obviously).  Ikol's job is to share adult Loki's knowledge and wisdom with Kid Loki and guide him through his new life (yeah, that can't possibly go wrong).  In other words, Loki has a literal devil on his shoulder - and that devil is Loki himself.

"Caw-caw, motherfuckers."

Kid Loki's internal conflict over whether or not to become evil is depicted in an external fashion.  His past sits on his shoulder - a constant reminder of what he used to be.  There are many times, in fact, in which Loki is forced to choose between Ikol's cruel wisdom and Loki's own desire to do the right thing.  For example, there's scene in the comics in which Loki is ordered to kill a vicious puppy from a litter of Hel-dogs.  While Loki stands above the World Tree preparing to toss the (fire-breathing and perpetually-swearing) puppy into the abyss, Ikol perches nearby, encouraging Loki to do it.

Says the eyeless, talking bird.

What's interesting about this scenario is that Ikol (who is really just adult Loki) echoes the sentiments of all the other people in Loki's life.  While it may seem evil to throw a puppy into an abyss, Ikol is telling Kid Loki to do exactly what everyone else considers the right thing.  In fact, it's one of the rulers of Asgard who tells Loki to kill the puppy because...

To her credit, this is the puppy:

Such a good boy!  Yes he is!  Who's a shmoopy whoopy cutie pie?!

Loki's defense of the Hel-dog shows that, at his center, Loki is sometimes more good than the "good people" around him - or at least more righteous.  If we peer even deeper into this rabbit hole, those "good people" may have actually led to Loki's corruption in the first place... which is where the parallels between Kid Loki and movie Loki begin to show.  If we think of Ikol as the echo of adult Loki's inner thoughts, there are some very interesting things that can be observed.  For example, there are times when Ikol discourages Kid Loki's reformed behavior because Ikol simply can't accept that Loki might actually have an innate capacity for goodness.

You're stupid!

At times, the echo of Ikol's jealousy towards Thor is so strong that it continues to rear its ugly head even from beyond the grave - and, thus, threatens to corrupt young Loki with the same darkness that led Loki to become his brother's arch-nemesis in the first place.  When Loki attempts to do good, Ikol doesn't even see it as worth the effort because, deep down, he bitterly believes Thor could do it better.

What starts to become clear here is that Loki internalized his own self-hatred so deeply, it follows him into death.  Now, he projects that self-loathing onto his own reincarnation.  Loki creates his own cyclical corruption.  So where did all this self-hatred stem from?  Well, everyone in Loki's life believes it's "inevitable" that Loki will become evil.  If that sounds a little off, well, it is.  I should point out that the comics tells us adult Loki was not originally evil, even when he was older than Kid Loki.  The very same people who mistrust Kid Loki  openly admit to a time when the original Loki was older than Kid Loki and not evil.  Volstagg - who completely mistrusts Kid Loki - has no problem admitting to a time when Loki was still a good man:

He has a name, you know.  Gawd, no wonder he grew up to hate you.

Even the normally reasonable Sif goes so far as to say she's sure Kid Loki will grow up to become the same evil man he was before he died, even though Kid Loki's done absolutely nothing wrong that she knows of.

So what does any of this have to do to do with the Loki of the Marvel movies?  Well, I think Loki's descent into evil actually mirrors Kid Loki's story in several ways.  Movie Loki doesn't seem particularly evil when the film opens - I mean, yes, he let the Frost Giants into the weapons vault, but it doesn't seem like that level of trickery is a normal activity for him.  No one else in the film ever speaks of any previously evils deeds that he's done.  It's possible the film failed to develop Loki's past due to lack of time or focus, but considering the fact that Thor and his friends don't seem the slightest bit concerned about having Loki join them on dangerous missions leads me to believe that Loki hasn't done anything yet to earn extreme mistrust.  In other words, just like in the comics, we're led to believe that a teenage-to-early-adult Loki isn't necessarily evil.  Yet, just like in the comic books, there's an assumption on the part of virtually everyone that Loki will go the way of douchebaggery.  There are many moments in the Thor movie in which Loki is convicted of wrongdoing for seemingly no reason.  For example...

#1: Loki tries to convince Thor and his friends not to go to Jotunheim, yet Hogun doesn't even hesitate to point a finger at Loki when they talk about who let the Frost Giants into the weapons vault.

While it's later revealed that Loki actually did let the Frost Giants into the vault, there's absolutely no reason why anyone should've suspected him.  When Thor wanted to go to Jotunheim, it was Loki who urged him not to.  Thor and his friends had no problem breaking the law, while Loki was the one trying to do the right thing.  Then, when Thor and his friends ignored Loki's advice and went to Jotunheim anyways, they started a goddamn war.  This, after Loki continually said they should leave before the crisis escalated.  During the battle with the Frost Giants, Loki even saved Fandral's life and helped assist everyone to safety, and yet the moment they're back home treating their wounds, Hogun doesn't waste even a goddamn second before accusing Loki of letting the Frost Giants into the vault.  Even the word "treason" is thrown around!  Um, 'scuse me, Hogun?  I was just wondering, um... isn't accusing a prince of Asgard without any evidence technically treason?!

#2: Heimdall assumes Loki's committing evil behind his back for no reason.

Heimdall can't see Loki with his magical long-distance pervert vision, so that automatically means Loki's doing something evil, right?  That seems to be Heimdall's logic, at least.  Did Heimdall ever stop to consider the possibility that Loki was off boning someone and didn't want to be watched?  Or that Loki secretly likes to crochet in his spare time?  There are about five billion other things Loki may not want Heimdall to see him doing, yet Heimdall just automatically thinks, "the son of my king who has never acted against the crown in any way has got to be committing treason."

He was actually off modeling for Garnier Fructis.  Duh.

#3: When Loki rightfully takes the throne, everyone in the movie acts as though he staged a coup.

Which is, of course, ridiculous.  In fact, unlike #1 and #2 above, Loki actually, really, truly is innocent of this offense.  There was no reason for people to suspect he'd taken the throne by force or deception.  Odin falls into the Odinsleep all the damn time, and with Thor banished, who the hell else was going to sit on the throne?!  No one in the film knows that Loki is adopted or a Frost Giant - not even Thor.  As far as anyone knows, Loki is Odin's younger son and the next in line for the throne.  It's not like Loki killed Queen Frigga either, so unless she was imprisoned - which someone would've heard about - she obviously okay-ed the entire thing.  In fact, there's a deleted scene from Thor in which Frigga literally tells Loki he has to be king and forces the scepter on him.  He doesn't even want to be king.  In the deleted scene, this is the face Loki makes when his mother tells him he has to take the throne:

You... you mean I have to wear an even stupider hat now...?

Ultimately, both comic book Loki and movie Loki's corruption becomes a chicken and the egg conundrum.  Did Loki become evil because everyone around him assumed he would, or did everyone assume he would become evil because he would?  If no one assumed Loki was evil as a child, would he become evil nonetheless?  Or did the people around him hand him an evil crown, and the innocent child grew to fit it?  There's no easy or correct answer to that question because we'll never really know.  Even in the Kid Loki series, it's impossible to say for sure what Loki would've become in a pure environment, because the people around him still continue to suspect him of wrongdoing at every turn.  Worst of all, the magpie on his shoulder - the Loki who was led to believe himself evil by the exact same people in his former life - now starts to convince Kid Loki that the words of the others must be true.  It's kind of a mindfuck, but it's like Ikol internalized the words of the other Asgardians and came to believe he was inherently evil - thus, he can't help but encourage his reincarnation to believe that there's no other possible outcome.  We end up with two wheels of corruption turning against each other.  After all, if Loki internalizes the words of the Asgardians and starts to act out their expectations, the Asgardians become justified when they start pointing fingers.  The cycle just goes on and on, until we have ourselves a super-villain.

So all of this leads to the question: can Loki be redeemed?  Not will, but can.  How can a character be redeemed if those around him don't allow for the possibility of redemption?  Even Kid Loki himself is aware of the problem:

Testify!

The same can be said of movie Loki.  No one in Loki's life trusts him.  Loki's schemes always seem to fail, but it's not because he's the "bad guy" that he fails, it's that he's always set up to fail by those who expect the worst of him.  In the comic books, Loki's way of doing battle appears "deceptive" instead of brave, so even when he succeeds at doing something good, he doesn't succeed the way others think he should, so he fails by default.  Take a look at the following story from The Mighty Thor #12.1.  When Thor, Loki, and Sif were still in their youth, Sif got her ass captured by a giant, and Thor and Loki had to come to her rescue.  Loki set up a trap that allowed Thor to easily kill the giant, thus saving Sif's life and setting her free.  Here's the thanks Loki gets for his good deed when Sif retells the tale as an adult:

Wow.  Talk about ungrateful.  Loki saves Sif's fucking ass from a giant birdcage, and all she does is talk about what an evil monster he is because she didn't like the way he rescued her.  The way he saved her life wasn't good enough.  Wow.  I can't think of anything bitchier.  Loki did absolutely nothing wrong, but he didn't do things the way Asgard thinks they should be done, and thus he was condemned for his efforts.  Why would someone like Loki even bother doing good if that's the way he always gets treated for it?

Unfortunately, movie Loki is subjected to similar treatment.  He failed at being a king because everyone expected him to fail.  When Loki schemed to get Thor in trouble with their father, he probably didn't expect Thor to start a damn war.  However, since Thor went and did that anyways, Loki had to set things right once he was king.  He was actually cleaning up Thor's intergalactic mess.  Loki's attempted genocide of the Frost Giants is usually considered his most evil act in the movies - and it totally is - but one must also bear in mind that Laufey was the one who declared war on Asgard, and Loki had a duty to protect Asgard from that threat now that he was king.  If the scenario is look at from that perspective, Loki technically succeeded.  He killed Laufey and ended the war with Jotunheim without spilling a single drop of Asgardian blood.  The problem is that he did so through trickery, so it was viewed as an act of evil by both the Asgardians and the movie's audience.  In other words, we were told the movie's story the same way Sif told her story above, and we were goaded into sharing the Asgardian bias.  While I would never say Loki isn't a villain - I mean, seriously, genocide?!  Talk about an overreaction - I would still argue that the audience is tricked into vilifying Loki.  Just as history is told by the victors, the film's story is told to us by the heroes.  Obviously, the perspective is somewhat skewed.  I mean, Loki's the villain, right?  So anything he does must be evil... right?

Basically, the point of this entire ramble is to say: some villains are born, and others are made.  Loki may be the so-called God of Mischief, but it seems to me he was created from the ignorance of "good" people.  What makes it rather creepy in movie Loki's case, however, is that the audience becomes an active participant in this transformation.  When Thor's friends come to Loki to ask that he free Thor, we automatically take their side.  The audience is tricked into forgetting that Thor was banished for good reason, and that Loki would be breaking his own father's decree if he took it back.  We don't question Sif and the Warriors Three when they betray their king (both Loki and Odin) to return Thor to Asgard, and we don't question the fact that Heimdall betrays Loki as king either.  We just say, "oh, but they're the heroes and Loki's the bad guy" without really thinking about what's happening right in front of us.  Just like the Asgardians, we point fingers based on the role Loki was supposedly born into.  At the risk of sounding melodramatic, it's like the audience helps to create the monster.

Which brings us right back to Thor: The Dark World.  Let's face it, we're all waiting for Loki to betray Thor.  It's not even up for debate.  Thor says, "when you betray me, I'll kill you."  Not if, when.  And who could blame him?  We all know Loki will turn out to be an asshole.  We all say, "it's just Loki's nature" or "Loki's the bad guy" and that automatically means Loki will turn evil.  Trust me, I'm no different.  I'm gonna spend the entire movie waiting for Loki to shout "jk!" and go evil, and I'm gonna facepalm if Thor doesn't see it coming from a mile away.  After all, Loki's the bad guy.  That's the role he's been molded into for three films, and it might be too late to take it back.

The ultimate plot twist would be if Loki didn't betray Thor at all.

Could it happen?  Probably not.  He's the villain, after all, and that's the role that was made for him by mythology, Marvel comics, and the script writers of the movies.  Thus, it's the role the audience expects of him.  When Loki turns evil in Thor: The Dark World - and we know he will - our expectations will be met and justified, just as they are for the heroes.  Loki knows it, and he'll probably play with that sentiment for his own amusement.

His face in the trailer alone says it all:

Tee hee, you all so effed.

And that's my rambling food for thought.  It's a bit of an extreme view - one that I don't even fully believe, but I love to play devil's advocate.  Either way, I hope I was able to offer a slightly new perspective on what's become a very popular villain.

Comments?  Opinions?  Anything to add?  I'm pretty new to comic books, so if anyone has any interesting or in-depth info that I haven't mentioned, I'd love to hear it.  I'd also love to hear any counter-arguments or new takes on the situation.  Feel free to speak below!

Japan... What Have You Done...?

What the hell has Japan done to Batman and Superman?!

 

It's like a unicorn took a shit on Gotham.  Trust me, this isn't confined to merchandise stores, either.  My students are obsessed with these pen cases and vomit-inducing pastel goods.  I'd estimate that about 35% of my students (in a school of 500 students) have at least one of these sacrilegious objects on their desk.  For shame, Japan......  For shame.  No one should have to fight crime in Easter egg colors.

(Pictures taken at Yamashiroya in Ueno, Tokyo)

Western Comic Books in Japan

In this world of a billion comic book blogs, I usually can't offer anything new to the table.  I can, however, offer a rare peek into Japan's perspective on Western comic books which - up until recently - were barely acknowledged.  Thanks to the comic book movie boom, Japan has started to take a slight interest in Western comic books, so I decided to go to a Kinokuniya book store in Maebashi City, Gunma Prefecture (basically: Who-the-fuck-cares-ville, a couple hours outside Tokyo), to see what kinds of comic books normal, non-Tokyo people in Japan are interested in reading.  Here's what I found:

As expected, The Avengers is extremely popular:

It says something about including a "Marvel Avengers" song.  What.

To my surprise, the book store was even selling the Marvel Zombies series in Japanese.  I guess they figured it might appeal to the horror interest in Japan.

Lately, DC has also been really popular in Japan thanks to Nolan's "Batman" movies.  DC heavily advertises in Japan, so I think they might be pushing the upcoming "Justice League" movie early:

I'm guessing this means Japan didn't see that Green Lantern movie.  Oooooooooh.

Similar to the United States, Japan separates their DC and Marvel sections.  As you can see, Japan's idea of DC basically just means "anything and everything Batman":

I can attest to the fact that my 12-15 year old students are obsessed with Batman.  It's hard to tell if they're into the character or just the damn symbol, but I think it's a little bit of both.  A lot of my students - in equal parts male and female - have Batman pen cases, Batman pens and Batman keychains.  However, when it comes to folders, Iron Man reigns supreme.  Superman and Spiderman pen cases are also popular, but Spiderman's actually been really popular in Japan for awhile - especially among young boys.

What I wasn't expecting to find in the Western comic book section of Kinokuniya was this: the Walking Dead graphic novel series:

As far as I know, the show's not even airing on Japanese TV yet.

Other things of interest included the Kick-Ass series in Japanese, and some French graphic novels I didn't recognize.  I'm actually really glad to see Japan opening up and trying new things when it comes to comics.  Despite the country's reputation for being obsessed with Western popular culture, Japan has a tendency to be very stubborn when it comes to reading materials - especially comic books.  This influx of superhero comics and movies could be an interesting new perspective for them.  Nonetheless, the Western comic books section of Kinokuniya was tiny compared to the massive manga section taking up a fifth of the store.  All the "Batman" movies in the world couldn't tear Japan's interest away from One-Piece.

I hope I was able to provide a unique look into Western comic books abroad!

See y'all next time!