Legion of Super-Heroes Favorites -- The "Threeboot" Legion

THE "THREEBOOT" LEGION

In 2004 we were given yet another massive reboot -- called the "threeboot" by many due to the number of times the franchise had been restarted at this point -- with even more drastic changes to the established history.  This is by far my least favorite version, but even then there were some high points.

Atom Girl

The initial conceit behind the Threeboot version of Salu "Shrinking Violet" Digby is that she's basically an urban legend -- a member so tiny that she could be in your very midst and you'd never know it.  Treated a bit like a running gag for a while by the members, she eventually is revealed to be real when Brainiac 5 calls upon her to help in battle.  A little crazier than the earlier versions of Salu, and prone to violence when people make size jokes. 

Princess Projectra

In the original Legion, Princess Projectra is an honorable heroine who is fearless and fiercely loyal; in the Threeboot Legion, Princess Projectra is a spoiled brat with no powers who is only on the team because her extremely wealthy father bankrolls the team.  Although I wasn't initially a fan of this characterization, over the course of the series we see Projectra undergo a great loss, which awakens her innate illusion powers, and transforms her personality, although not necessarily in a good way.  In fact, by the time the Threeboot series ends, her bitterness towards the Legion, whom she blames for her loss, has transformed her into a chilling villain. 

Dream Girl

I was never a big fan of the previous versions of Dream Girl, whose power to see the future in her dreams was almost as problematic in battle as Matter-Eater Lad.  Plus, the original version was often a bit narcissistic, and the Reboot version was initially a futuristic Valley Girl.  But with the Threeboot, the writers came up with a characterization that I enjoyed, with Dream Girl being a bit out of it due to not always being in synch with the present -- she once just stood around during a fight because she lost track of whether it had happened yet or not--and also serving as a foil to the highly logical Brainiac 5 who was constantly frustrated by the accuracy of her predictions, as well as flustered by her insistence that they were destined to be married.

Enjoyment Modifiers: Horror

As the first full exploration of my Enjoyment Modifiers, I suppose I should explain the format I've settled on.  First, I'll give a nice itemized breakdown of the modifier name, category the modifier fits into (Genre, Plot point, Character type, etc.), type of modifier (Positive, Negative, Neutral), and the strength of the modifier to effect my enjoyment on average.  For type and strength there could be multiple values, since some things effect me differently depending on the medium, as demonstrated by our first entry. After the bare bones breakdown, I'll then pontificate about why it affects me, and maybe post a few examples. So, without further ado, on to the EM exploration.

Modifier:  Horror
Category:  Genre
Type:  Positive 
Strength:  High (Film, TV) Low (Literature, Comics)

When it comes to TV and Film, I'd hazard to say that the genre of Horror is one of my most consistently powerful positive Enjoyment Modifiers, regardless of subgenre; it doesn't matter if it's vampires, slasher, werewolves, demons, or zombies*, if it's a Horror movie then odds are good I'm going to enjoy it, even if just ironically.  This love of Horror fiction stems from several aspects of my personality.

First, it appeals to the part of me that is drawn to the outre, the unique, the inventive, the out-of-this-world.   I have a feeling this aspect of my personality is going to pop up a lot in these posts, as I've found that I'm willing to give much more leeway to anything that's a bit "out there" than I am a more "normal" film of the same general quality.  So, anything with a supernatural theme already has my interest, and even the horror featuring regular human slashers usually gets a bump from featuring some original death sequences. 

Second, it appeals to my darker side; I have a cynical streak which finds boundless optimism in fiction cloying and off-putting, but with the bulk of Horror films, even when the good guys win -- and with horror that is not even close to a given -- there's generally a fatalism that resonates with my own.  This fascination with the darker side of things also applies to the bleak, dreary, and creepy atmospheres you often find in Horror flicks. 

Third, even the less stellar examples of horror can provide for that need that many of us share:  a need for mindless, predictable, formulaic pablum that allows us to turn off our brains for a bit and just enjoy ourselves.  For many people action movies fill this role; for others, it's romantic comedies or procedurals.  But for me, when I'm in the mood to just vegetate, I will always turn to a B-movie filled with slashers or giant animals wreaking havoc on Z-grade actors.  This is probably why out of all the genres, Horror gets the biggest boost from the MST3K effect.

Please note:  I'm not saying all Horror is mindless, predictable, formulaic pablum -- just that when it is, I'm more likely to enjoy it than other examples of mindless, predictable, formulaic pablum.

In regards to the printed page, however, the bonus is much lower.  Part of that is due to the fact that I prefer to get my mindless, predictable, formulaic pablum in moving picture form, and not in typeset; the whole point of such entertainment is to turn your brain off for a bit and just vegetate, and I find it much more difficult to zone out while reading. 

Another factor is that I am not a particularly visual thinker, and thus the perennial bit of wisdom about how the pictures in your imagination are better than anything that makes it onto the screen doesn't always hold water for me, particularly when it comes to conjuring up mental images of the dark and disturbing things that populate Horror fiction.  Not that it can't happen; I've gotten completely creeped out by descriptive passages from Stephen King, H.P. Lovecraft, Clive Barker, and others.  But the amount of verbal skill required for a writer to take me to that place means that it's not as sure a thing as a well designed and directed film.


How about you, my blog monkeys?  Are you fellow gorehounds, or do you eschew all things horrific?  If you are a horror aficionado, are there any particular sub-genres (vampire, slasher, zombie, etc.) that you'd like me to discuss?  Sound off below, and come back next Thursday for a look at another big Genre:  Science Fiction.


*Well, maybe it matters a little if it's zombies -- zed-word burnout has diluted the Horror bonus quite a bit there -- will talk more about that in a sub-genre post at some point.

The MST3K Effect, or "So Bad It's Good"

While the concept of Enjoyment Modifiers dwells upon specific components of works creating resonance or dissonance within the audience, it's important to remember that the modifiers still need a base to work off of -- a base composed of the overall quality of the craft put into the work: writing, acting, directing, editing, etc.  Logically, the lower the quality of the work, then the more powerful the positive modifiers need to be to make the work enjoyable.

Unless, that is, you have a personality type which is susceptible to The MST3K Effect.

For those unfamiliar with it, MST3K stands for Mystery Science Theater 3000, the late lamented TV series based around a group of people endlessly mocking low quality films.  While MST3K might not have invented the concept of deriving enjoyment through ridiculing B-movies, its popularity has made it one of the most recognizable examples of the idea that sub-par works can sometimes be enjoyed not despite their flaws, but because of them.

As I said, it takes a particular type of personality to derive pleasure from bad movies/TV/literature; as you are probably aware by now, I am possessed of just such a personality.  There's just something about scenery chewing actors, dime-store quality special effects, and IQ sapping plot points that amuses the heck out of me. 

Please note that there is definitely a difference between something being "bad" and something being "so bad it's good."  There's a sweet spot of awfulness that a work has to hit in order for its lack of quality to move from painful to entertaining. For example, I recently watched both Leprechaun In the Hood and its sequel, Leprechaun: Back 2 the Hood, and while I found the former to be a laugh riot, the latter was a struggle to get through.

Also, that sweet spot can vary from person to person -- my "so bad it's good" flick can be another person's "terminally unwatchable," and vice versa; after hearing so much about the low budget Birdemic, I was eagerly looking forward to a roller coaster ride of entertaining awfulness, but was instead bored out of my mind for 2/3 of the film's running time.

Personally, that's a large factor of what separates a "bad" work (like Vampire$) from a "so bad it's good" work (Troll 2) -- the boredom factor.  If there's nothing of even mild interest going on for huge stretches of time, then not even the occasional burst of mind-blowing crappiness can fully engage the MST3K effect.  Let's face it -- there's a good reason why Mystery Science Theater 3000 would cut out huge sections of movies from episodes other than making time for commercial breaks and invention exchanges.

Genre can also play a factor on whether a bad movie attracts or repels; I have a weakness for shoddily done horror movies, and to a lesser extent bad Sci-Fi flicks, but it takes a special brand of awful to get me to sit through a poorly done drama or romantic comedy.  I'll probably explore this more in my individual Enjoyment Modifiers posts when relevant.

Now, as you may have been able to tell from the examples I keep using, the MST3K effect mostly comes into play for me when it comes to film, and not so much in other media -- a bad horror movie is going to suck me in most every time, but a bad horror novel will get thrown down in disgust. But this, too can vary for different people.  A prime example is Comics Alliance's Senior Batmanologist Chris Sims, who has gotten great mileage out of mocking several B-grade comic series; and while I have derived great pleasure from reading Sims' mockery of these books, I know that I would be unable to make it all the way through them on my own power.

Are you susceptible to the MST3K Effect?  Or do all bad movies/books/etc. just leave a bad taste in your mouth?

Legion of Super-Heroes Favorites -- The "Reboot" Legion

THE "REBOOT" LEGION

In 1994, a major company-wide crossover called Zero Hour led to a massive reboot of the franchise, starting from the ground-up, adding in some radical changes to character histories and characterizations. In this new version, Legion membership is politically based, as each member of the United Planets strives to have a representative, with some members being more "drafted" than anything else, which lead to some interesting character interactions. It took me a little while to warm up to this version, and there are some changes that still rankle, but over time I came to love this version almost as much as the originals.

Kid Quantum 

The second hero to use the name, Jazmin Cullun adopted the role of Kid Quantum after her brother died on his first mission with the Legion.  Partially blaming them for her brother's death, Jazmin originally joined her home planet of Xanthu's home-grown super-team The Amazers.   For her first several appearances, Kid Q was disdainful of the Legion, and even maintained that attitude for a time after eventually joining the team.  But over time, she began to shed the chip on her shoulder and proved herself to be an incredibly competent member of the team, eventually being elected leader.  Much like with previous Top 3 listers Polar Boy, Sussa, and Salu, I think my appreciation for Kid Quantum stems largely from getting to see her character grow and change over time.

Gates

An example of one of the drafted Legionnaires, the politically active Gates initially did all he could not to become a part of what he believed to be a "teenage death squad" run by fascists intent on keeping the working class cowed.  Yes, that's right; Gates is a futuristic, teleporting, alien bug with communist leanings.   Need I say more?  The news that he has been returned to continuity in the new Legion series is music to my ears.

Shikari

One of the issues I often had with the Reboot Legion was accepting the radical changes made to characters I loved -- Sensor Girl becoming Sensor, the illusion casting snake, for example, is one change that I never fully accepted.  So, when I saw some preview pages for the Legion Lost mini-series which introduced a new winged character with super-human tracking power who wasn't named Dawnstar, I was immediately on the defensive.  But, if Legion Lost taught me anything, it's that I should trust in the skills of creators Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning (or DnA as they're often billed) who not only manged to turn the perpetually annoying She-Hulk knockoff Monstress into a character that was actually this close to making it into my Top 3, but also created a unique and endearing character in Shikari, the lone warrior of her race who helps the Legion find their way home and then becomes an integral part of the team.  Although sometimes naive, in a stranger-in-a-strange-land sort of way, Shikari's naivete was sometimes a source of humor, but never a source of weakness.   

Enjoyment Modifiers: Genre

Welcome to the first of what I hope will be many posts on my Enjoyment Modifiers schema.  To start us off, I thought I'd tackle the broadest category of modifiers:  Genre.  After all, even people who don't put a lot of critical thought into their entertainment choices tend to use genres as de facto Enjoyment Modifiers, selecting and avoiding media by virtue of its status as a work of Science Fiction, Romance, Drama, etc.  In other words, a good jumping off point for the series.

To start off, what exactly constitutes a genre?  Well, the dictionary definition is "A category of artistic composition, as in music or literature, marked by a distinctive style, form, or content."  In other words, a genre is a label given to works that share commonalities in their plots, themes, settings, etc.  For my purposes, I have separated out what I think of as the Major Genres: those categories which are joined together more by broad themes than by specific plots.  The more narrowly defined categories fall into my idea of Sub-Genres.  There are lots of lists of what people consider the Major Genres, but here is my own personal list.

• Action/Adventure
• Comedy
• Crime
• Drama
• Fantasy
• Historical
• Horror
• Musical
• Mystery
• Romance
• Science Fiction
• Superheroes
• Thriller
• Western

I went back and forth on whether to include Superheroes in the above or relegate it to a Sub-Genre, but my pal Josh made an argument on his blog yesterday about them actually being a Supercategory unto themselves, much like Drama and Comedy are sometimes considered, so they made the cut. 

Along those line, one of the difficulties with having such broad designations is that many works will actually be a mixture of two or more of the above; Back to the Future merges Science Fiction and  Comedy, Sweeny Todd is a Musical that is also part Horror and Drama, True Blood is Fantasy, Horror, Romance, Drama, and Comedy all rolled into one.  Often one aspect outshines the others in some way and thus becomes the accepted Genre label, but others have the different threads entangled so much that it's difficult to separate one out from another.

While the major genres can be a useful shorthand for explaining likes/dislikes, in practice the individual works underneath the umbrella often have such a wide range of other factors that it makes their efficacy as modifiers minimal.  For example, while I could say "I like Comedies", in reality there are numerous sub-genres that have varying degrees of negative mods (Slapstick, Farce, Cringe) that outweigh my general love of humor significantly.  Similarly, while I might say "I don't like Romance," there are several works with romantic undertones which I thoroughly enjoy, and in reality it's not so much the larger genre I abhor, as it is certain plot elements which tend to crop up (Misunderstandings, Assumptions) and leave a bad taste in my mouth.

Practically speaking, for me there are only a few Genres which serve as true Enjoyment Modifiers, and even then their use varies depending on medium and overall quality of the work.  My next few posts will be examining these Genres in a bit more detail, starting with one of the more striking ones:  Horror.

So, which of the Major Genres attract and repel you? Please answer below!

Legion of Super-Heroes Favorites -- The "Gap" Years

And now for part 2 of my examination of my favorite Legion of Super-Heroes characters.

THE "GAP" LEGION

In 1989 the Legion went through a bit of a "soft" reboot, jumping forward in time 5 years into a grimmer and grittier world, and undergoing some subtle (and not so subtle) continuity changes to remove Superboy and Supergirl from the Legion's history.  The "Gap" Legion was marked by a generally darker tone, with the Legion having been disbanded and slowly coming back together over the course of the series.  Reviled by many, but I've always been a big fan.  One of the big complaints by many was that the characters tended to call each other by their real names instead of their code names . . . a practice I actually appreciated, and will replicate here in my picks.

Tenzil Kem

Although Tenzil Kem was a member of the Legion during the Silver Age as the prosaically named Matter-Eater Lad, it wasn't until Keith Giffen's re-imagining of the character during the Gap years that I truly fell in love with the character. No longer a super-hero in the traditional sense but rather a Senator for his planetary government, Giffen chose to embrace the innate absurdity of the character's abilities, allowing Tenzil to save the day not by eating any form of matter, but by confounding his foes with his warped and absurdist humor.  Need I go on?

Sussa Paka 

Pre-Gap, Sussa Paka, a.k.a. Spider-Girl, was a rejected Legion applicant who decided not to go the Substitute Hero route, but instead joined the Legion of Super-Villains instead.  Post-Gap, Sussa had abandoned the LSV and their murderous ways, but had continued her life of crime as an accomplished thief who becomes romantically interested in Ultra-Boy and tries to reform for him.  Sussa's mostly unrequited love and her attempts at turning over a new leaf made her one of the more interesting characters in the Gap years for me; of all the pieces of characterization I miss from subsequent reboots, this one probably stings the most.

Salu Digby

Another old school Legionnaire, Salu was codenamed Shrinking Violet, both for her ability to shrink to microscopic sizes, and because she was a bit on the shy side.  However, in the 80s Vi was kidnapped and held captive for an extended period of time, and upon her release was much more outgoing and aggressive.   This trend continued in the Gap years, as over the course of the series we learned that during the Five Yar Gap Salu had returned to her home planet of Imsk and become a soldier, enduring many hardships and emerging even tougher, despite harboring some secret guilt for her part in the war.  Towards the end of the Gap years, she emerged as the team leader. I had grown to appreciate Vi during the latter years of first Legion iteration, but it was watching her continued growth in the Gap Years that bumped her up to the top.

Enjoyment Modifiers

When I first started this spin-off blog, I mentioned that I'd like to use it to explore some of my thoughts about different genres and concepts.  Well, that exploration begins now with a series of posts about what I've taken to calling Enjoyment Modifiers.

So, what exactly are Enjoyment Modifiers?  Well, when discussing the concept with my friend Bubblegum Tate*, he grokked the concept from the name itself :  "I'm immediately thinking in RPG terms," he said. "+10% bonus if MODOK is in it." Which summed up the concept so well, that I had to include it.

On the most basic level, with questions of quality removed from the equation, they are the components of a work which effect how much we enjoy the work as a whole, either positively or negatively. Put another way: with a strong enough positive modifier attached to a work, you can power through an amazing amount of dreck, whereas with a strong negative modifier, not even Shakespearian levels of writing or acting can entice you to finish watching/reading.

The modifiers can be just about anything, from overall genre (Horror, Thriller, Comedy),  sub-genre (Slasher, Caper, RomCom)  to specific plot elements (Splitting Up In Dangerous Situations, One Of Us Is a Traitor, Split Up Over Misunderstanding) to character types (Cocky Jock, Fast-talking Grifter, Quirky Best Friend).

What makes it even more fun is the fact that the effects of these modifiers are different for different people, depending on our tastes and preferences.  For example, while my father and I both find the overall genre of Science Fiction to be a Positive Enjoyment Modifier, the sub-genre of Alternate Timelines is positive for me, but negative for him, so I read/watch them like crazy while he avoids them if he can.


Having a good grasp of what constitutes an individual's personal Enjoyment Modifier profile is key to giving effective recommendations -- which might seem like a no-brainer, but after spending a lot of time on Twitter and in the Onion A.V. Club's** comment sections, I can guarantee that there are a lot of people out there who assume that all right-minded people share their tastes and any who don't are morons.

Anyway, owing to the large amounts of pop culture I ingest on a regular basis branding me as the go-to guy for many of my friends and family when it comes to movie/TV/book recommendations, I have tried to decipher as many of their Enjoyment Modifiers as I can.  So, I know that Flunky is drawn to stories where a lowly commoner becomes a great hero and my parents don't like movies that glamorize thieves and Firestorm checks out when things get bloody and Shack-Fu loves kick-ass military movies and so on and so forth.

And of course, if I can better understand how my own Enjoyment Modifiers affect my reading/viewing experience, then it becomes easier for me to divorce my experience from my recommendations to a certain degree . . . or at least qualify them.  "No, I didn't care for that film," I might say, "but that's largely due to Awkward Continual Lying For No Good Reason being an enormously negative Enjoyment Modifier for me." Or something like that.

Not that it's an exact science, by any means; the modifiers aren't always additive, and sometimes all the positive modifiers in the world can't save a work from one pervasive negative modifiers; there are some modifiers which vary from format to format; some modifiers are more conditional, with their positive effects being proportional to the quality of the work; and I'm sure there are lots of other exceptions and oddities that will pop up along the way. But in terms of trying to explain why this movie everyone else loves is something I loathe with a fiery passion ***, well, I think it's a pretty handy tool.

So, in the coming weeks, I'll be examining some of my more prominent Enjoyment Modifiers:  trying to decipher why they affect me and giving some examples. It's highly likely this will fall into the "only interesting to me" category of posts****, but since when has that ever stopped me?

The plan is to have one of these post every Thursday afternoon. While we're waiting for my first official entry to post, please feel free to mention some of your own Enjoyment Modifiers in the comment section, and I'll be sure to add them to the list of things I'll talk about.

*A.K.A. soon-to-be-published novelist Joshua Unruh who has given me permission to name check him as much as I want as part of his new self-promotion initiative.
**Pretty sure that 99% of the AV Club commenters would list "quirky characters" as a -900000 modifier
***I'm looking at you, Meet the Parents

****Or, more accurately, interesting to me and Mr. Unruh, who was very intrigued by the concept and has been encouraging me to write the post so he can comment on it.