Monday, November 30, 2009

Perhaps They Are Avatars Of Being Wrong?

Sometime soon, I'd like to see the Luminals do something competently. The Luminals are heroes from the planet Xarth that first appeared in Nova in the arc that introduced Knowhere, and have subsequently become antagonists in Guardians of the Galaxy. The Worldmind described them as analogous to the Avengers, but so far they've been more similar to Deputy Police Chief Dwayne T. Robinson, from Die Hard.

You remember, the guy who tells John McClane that he is in charge, to which McClane responds that from where he sits, Robinson is in charge of jack shit. As Roger Ebert noted, Robinson's role is to be wrong at every possible opportunity, and that sums up the Luminals.

They brought their arch-foe, Abyss, to Knowhere, planning to dump it into the edge of existence. Except he turned several of the Luminals into meat puppets, and terrorized Knowhere before Nova was able to seal his prison up properly again, which also gave the transmode virus a stronger foothold in Nova's system, nearly killing him.

They were resistant to the Guardians setting up shop in Knowhere, and lead a witch-hunt for the Skrulls, and Drax (which served to have their butts get kicked by Drax). They refused to take a side in the recent War of Kings, because they were afraid to land in the sights of either the Shi'ar or the Inhumans/Kree. Never mind the Kree were in no position to fight anyone other than the Shi'ar, and thanks to Vulcan, the Shi'ar were fighting practically the entire universe. Not to mention all existence was on the line, and the Guardians could have used the help.

Now they're against letting the Guardians do all the exploring of the Fault, which isn't such a bad thing. The Luminals should have more resources, so a joint venture would be helpful. Except they decided to just go barging in on their own, and now one of their team is infected with something, and is liable to get Moondragon in trouble as well.

Unlike Ebert, I didn't have a problem with Robinson's presence, because I found his ineptitude hilarious, and I like for my action movies to make me laugh. With the Luminals, as part of an ongoing series where they appear regularly, there needs to be some sign they aren't complete putzes. Their planet exists (as far as we know) so they are able to protect it, so they ought to be able to do something right. They don't have to get along with Star-Lord or the Guardians, but Star-Lord is, as Moondragon noted, intense, driven, and proactive. That can lead a person in over his head, where a calmer approach might work better. The Luminals seem more cautious, surely that pays off occasionally.

Or maybe, when Worldmind compared them to the Avengers, he meant a particularly lousy lineup. I'll let you decide for yourself which one that would be. The debate ought to be interesting*.

* The ones with Dr. Druid! The one with Gilgamesh! The Sersi/Crystal/Black Knight group! the Dark Avengers! The New Avengers! The Kooky Quartet! What? I like them, but they are underpowered. I'm just throwing them out there, lest you think I'm only fogging rosters from the last 20 years.

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