Query for Cap - Raging Bull ... Mera and Brightest Day

[Martin Gray]

Andrew, in the latest Comic Buyers Guide, #1666, in your look at the Brightest Day characters, you seem to cast light on the spread in Blackest Night: Wonder Woman #3 which confused the heck out of anyone who read it.

You write that Mera's rage 'stems from the fact that she never wanted children ... and wasn't all that sorry to see Arthur Jr die'

Whoa! Is that from Geoff Johns' mouth - I know you spoke to him for the piece - or is it your interpretation of Greg Rucka's scene. Cos if that's the lie we're meant to buy about Mera, Brightest Day just lost me as a reader.

[Philip Portelli]

Well having read Arthur Jr's death in "Adventure" and the 70s "Aquaman", if that is what he thinks, it's a REAL misinterpretation. If she was angry, it was because Aquaman left her alone afterwards. In fact there was a three-part back-up in "Aquaman" #58-60 (N'77-Ma'78) where Mera returns to her home dimension in order to retrieve a machine to save her dying son at great peril to herself only to return too late. That was the actions of a loving mother.

I know writers want conflict, emotions and twists for their stories but that not only SEEMS wrong, as a reader I know it to BE wrong!

[Martin Gray]

Thanks Philip, I read those stories too which is why I can't accept that Mera might have been secretly happy about her child's death - even if she'd never planned kids, being relieved one had died would make her a monster. And as you say, it just doesn't fit the facts.

[Dagwan]

I do want to point out that there is a huge difference between, "wasn't all that sorry to see Arthur Jr die" and "might have been secretly happy about her child's death".

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[Martin Gray]

There is? I can admit degrees of difference, but not huge.

[Philip Portelli]

No mother in her right mind would be able to feel *not sorry* about her child's death. This is an artificial, baseless conflict. Mera was driven to the deepest depression over Arthur Jr's death. It was telling that they never tried again to have another baby. But to say, after all this time, Mera was somehow relieved by her baby being MURDERED by Black Manta is unfathomable and unforgiveable in a literary sense.

That being said, I will wait and see what "Brightest Day" really means and if Mera is being manipulated by the Red or Black Lanterns.

[Dagwan]

Martin Gray said:

There is? I can admit degrees of difference, but not huge.

HUGE.

I'm not all that sorry this has turned into a discussion of semantics, just a little bit. I am in no way shape or form happy about it, secretly or otherwise.

Huge difference.

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"Outside of a dog, a book is man's best friend. Inside of a dog, it's too dark to read." -Groucho Marx

Check out the Secret Headquarters (my store) website! it's much better now!

Listen to WOXY.com, it's the future of rock-n-roll!

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[Martin Gray]

I see your point (I don't take it, to me it's still degrees) but it's not really changing the fact that Mera was positively happy about Arthur Jrs birth, and devastated by his death. If that's not the case in current continuity we're going to have to say Mera was Superboy-punched during a Crisis of Infinite Zero Hours or something.

Now, what do we do to get the Captain on here? I've made a polite thread about his article, on his message board, with his name in the title and meanwhile he's buggering around with a thesis. OI, ANDREW! :)

[Rob Staeger (Grodd Mod)]

I don't know... her big scene in Brightest Day 1: "Anyone who hurts children -- will feel my RAGE!" doesn't sound all that ambivalent about the issue.

[Figserello]

We're going to have to say Mera was Superboy-punched during a Crisis of Infinite Zero Hours or something.

Everyone and everything was Superboy-punched in Infinite Crisis. That's the writer's get-out-of-jail-free card for everything we disagree with. We can say we don't like it, but we can't say the results of it aren't (comicbook) logical.

[Dagwan]

BTW, I totally agree that Mera should have been emotionally scarred by the death of Aquababy. I haven't read either the "Death of" story in question, or Cap's full article yet.

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"Outside of a dog, a book is man's best friend. Inside of a dog, it's too dark to read." -Groucho Marx

Check out the Secret Headquarters (my store) website! it's much better now!

Listen to WOXY.com, it's the future of rock-n-roll!

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