Oh comics...

[bluegargantua]

Hey,

So someone mentioned that there was a new DC series coming out called Great Ten about a Chinese team of superheroes. That could suck a lot, but it could also be pretty nifty too. Apparently they've made some guest appearances here and so they've already got a wikipedia page.

I'm reading through the various members and no one seems terribly stereotyped. There's one super-martial artist and one super Bhuddist monk, but it doesn't seem out of character for a country that loves wuxia films and tales. The other characters are pretty much your standard superhero types.

But then I get to this member of the team:

Mother of Champions: Real name Niang Guan Jun, is a woman who can birth a litter of twenty-five super-soldiers about every three days. She uses a metallic chair with six insect-like legs to remain mobile during her pregnant state. One of her superstrong and tough children named Number Four appeared in The OMAC Project - Infinite Crisis Special. Number Four was sent into Saudi Arabia to retrieve the fallen OMAC satellite. In Nightwing #144, Mother of Champions is kidnapped from the Great Wall Complex by operatives of Talia al Ghul; in this same issue it is revealed that she has had thousands of children, and that each batch of superhuman children are conceived by suitors whom she hand picks.

Another super hero site mentions that the children age 10 years a day and are used by the Chinese as super shock troopers

Um...really? Your whole superpower is having expendable super-babies?!? This idea is terrible in every possible sense of the word and I can't imagine who thought this was a good. Oh...Grant Morrison apparently.

So yeah, here's a book not to pick up when it comes out.

ugh
Tom

Comments

[kadath.livejournal.com]

Not only did Morrison come up with it, someone had to green-light it during development. So at least two people, and probably quite a few more, thought this was a good idea. Or at least, not an idea that sucks so hard it has an event horizon.

[woodwardiocom.livejournal.com]

Morrison's Japanese superteam apparently suffers from similar "cultural" problems. (Though the team leader, Most Excellent Superbat, sounds kinda nifty.)

[badseed1980.livejournal.com]

Both this post and that WP entry made me go like this:

o_O

"Wait. WHAT??? I mean, WHAT???????"

[kadath.livejournal.com]

Oh, Jesus fuck. What is wrong with him?

[bluegargantua]

OK, Superbat's power of "being rich", should totally get played up more but yeah, that whole team has issues.

later
Tom

[kadath.livejournal.com]

Also, how can a Japanese super team not have a gadgeteer, a kid, or a robot? The original Japanese comic book superhero is a kid robot!

[purple-dj.livejournal.com]

I agree with your post, but have now run off onto the pun/tangent of "Breakfast of Champions" -- a super-hero who's ability is to make a breakfast SO AWESOME that it gives people super-strength for a day.

His or her nickname would of course be "cookie".

[bluegargantua]

So...Drak then.

"I...I have Pork-oportation!"
Tom

[purple-dj.livejournal.com]

The only super power I got that day was a craving for fruits and vegetables.

[mikecap.livejournal.com]

Drak?? He was but a sous-chef for The Morning Eye-Opener!!

[mikecap.livejournal.com]

Grant Morrison has now made me feel okay about the Comics Code. But then again I guess it's never been particularly good about protecting children's fragile little minds from racism and jingoism...