Wednesday, April 13, 2011

Another Waste Of The Judicial System

I really wonder about the Spectre sometimes. July's Zatanna solicit says he's putting Z on trial for something, and all I can think is, "Aren't there any number of other people you should be going after?" Felix Faust is a real magical sleazebag, go take out some vengeance on him. Or Black Adam. I know he's a statue right now, but there was a lengthy stretch of time after he killed an entire country before that happened, so what happened? How does killing a couple million people not bring the Spectre down on his head?

I think the DC Universe's god is just lazy. It couldn't be bothered create a Spirit of Vengeance with a little common sense, or the ability to prioritize. Instead, it created one that operates on seemingly arbitrary terms and decided, "Eh, good enough." Or DCU god is just a jerk, and thinks it's fun to keep the mortal guessing, never knowing what might bring the Spectre down on their heads.

Maybe The Spectre's become like the Punisher to me, where he's better off operating in his own world, where he can be allowed to take vengeance upon anybody. In the DCU, they aren't likely to let a writer send the Spectre after the Joker*, which is kind of a problem when the Joker's racking up triple digit body counts. It leads to writers coming up with all sorts of hoops and loopholes for why the Spectre can't deal with this person or that one. He has no soul. His mission is holy. He had ham for lunch. OK, I made that last one up. Or did I?

Posting may be sporadic for the next week and half. I'm hoping to keep posting through Monday, but the middle of next week will be no content mode for sure.

* But he can absolutely go after Crispus Allen's son for killing the man who killed Crispus himself. Which, considering they're in Gotham, is nuts. There have to be a million people in that city who need vengeance carried out on them more than that kid, but he's the one the Spectre just had to drop the hammer on. Ridiculous.

4 comments:

Matthew said...

Bear in mind the previous great idea was to have flippin' Eclipso as the Spirit of Vengeance, so the DCU's head honcho does not exactly have a sterling record when it comes to the hired help! At least the quality seems to be improving, mind you.

CalvinPitt said...

Matthew: So what do you think, another 3, 4 tries before DC gets a reasonably competent Spirit of Vengeance?

Matthew said...

Oh no, Calvin; the only possible solution is to privatize the system and invite tenders from leading security firms the world over. Only then can we get Big Government out of the judicial system and streamline it according to the invisible hand of the market.

CalvinPitt said...

Matthew: Hmm, that's how we wound up with Robocop, isn't it? I can't decide if that'd be better, or worse.