ways_back_room | Substitute DE for a New Decade

Everyone knows about Sherlock Holmes and Avatar and Doctor Who and Supernatural and Harry Potter. But what about the things that you love and that everyone else hasn't read or seen (or even heard of), but should?

I'll start off with Marvel Comics' Nova, the story of a space-faring super-hero who is the last member of the storied Nova Corps (Marvel's surprisingly interesting version of the Green Lantern Corps). It's a little continuity-heavy at times - it grew out of one crossover event and gets sucked into several others - but the stories seem to work on their own, the writing by Abnett and Lanning is crisp and witty, the art is very good, and the hero himself is likeable and about as heroic as anyone I've encountered in a super-hero comic in ages.

ETA: I should probably also mention that DC Comics has reprinted the first 30 issues of The Question in five trade paperbacks, with the last coming this year. It's not just prime canon for my pup, but it's also one of the most influential and highly regarded comics of the 80s, written by Denny O'Neil at his peak.

Your turn.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Wow -- at the end of the 'Fiction' section of the Wikipedia article, he becomes again so friggin' relevant in just the way I mean here. And yep, I have a version of the book from shortly before the movie, with Crichton's afterword where he explains everything. Also, I was recced the book by an archaeologist working as a posh tour guide in and around Naples who was asked which historical novels in general were Doing It Right, in spring 1998. And was really interested in how my own perception of Ahmad changed in the years since.

I didn't mean to say there are no Muslim or Arab heroes in mainstream entertainment. Perhaps I meant that in 1999, we could identify with Ahmad more easily because his being a muslim was a non-issue. It was all about being civilised vs. being savages, perhaps even (another trope!) Noble Savages. We are civilised people in a cinema seat with popcorn and coke (or were in 1999 when the movie ran in cinemas) and not savages that all spit into the same water bowl, hence would identify with the civilised man. That was the given, in 1999. Sayid on LOST being a Muslim from Baghdad wasn't a non-issue; his backstory is very much not a common or garden one, and we probably don't identify with him. Well, so is the backstory of anybody on LOST, but then, it is LOST...

I would still like to believe that Sayid is a heroic representation. For all the horrible things he did, he was still trying to do what he thought was right.

As for Muslic/Arabic/Near Eastern characters we the reader/audience are intended to identify, perhaps you're right, as there are no other characters I can think of (short of Disney's Aladdin) that fit that bill. (Does Saladin from Kingdom of Heaven count? Was I the only one who really liked his portrayal in that movie?)

I do wish we could see more accurate representations of the Near East as a font of reason and civilisation during the Dark Ages. They had so much going on, and I'm honestly not sure even THEY know it. Nobody teaches solid Middle Age history anymore, or gives it any credence, which is a crying shame.

I liked Saladin's portrayal a lot, even though the entire movie was (for me) dominated by Edward Norton doing the Leper King without anybody ever seeing his face. Kingdom of Heaven is a seriously underestimated movie, though. Not just a blockbuster; it has fantastic acting, and lots of relevant things to say. But suffers the fate or Too Much Orly.

As for your last paragraph -- I have been made aware of that again recently because I am apping a character who derives his technological and mental advantage in canon from having spent an indistinct but sizeable amount of time in the Near East during the crusades, and not as a crusader. We never find out in canon what exactly he did, but I already found in Mixed Muses that he is infinitely less impressed with modern technology than, say, Teja is, because he saw where human inventiveness, reason and research can go while in the Near East. He knows about civilisation and progress. All the shiny stuff is just an extrapolation. Perhaps that will be part of what his journey in Milliways will be about -- just as much as Teja's was about the end of civilisation, conflicting values, culture clash, and finding one's priorities among these.

Substitute DE for a New Decade

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