ravingsofanundiscoveredgenius:

ihaveamarvelproblem:

ravingsofanundiscoveredgenius:

brevoortformspring:

>Do you think there’s any legitimacy in my annoyance at the small number of lasting relationships in the MU? Or is Romance a casualty of the long-term medium?>

I think lasting relationships are an inevitable casualty of long-term serial storytelling. Just look at any…

But Clark Kent and Lois Lane were together longer than any Marvel couple and as the New 52 has proved, the characters are better off that way, separating them hasn’t led to any fresh twist or insight into the characters. If the pairing works, ie if it brings out the best in the characters, then it won’t go stale even after 70+ years. The problem isn’t comics longevity it’s that whoever paired Marvels characters up did a shit job at it (“So you’re my ex’s niece? Cool let’s bang and I can relive my glory days”)

(That last comment lol)

I think that virtually any pairing can work, as long as they’re not incestuous/you remind me of someone/you’re my first wife’s clone/oh hey wouldn’t it be cool to marry a robot and be miserable for the last of my life?/that guy is so handsome so what that he’s lived 60 longer than I have/let’s pair these characters who’ve barely ever met before in the off-chance we’ll sell more comics! The one you mention, of course, is halfway between incestuous and “you remind me of someone”.

I don’t read DC (except for New 52 Green Arrow, but still on #3), so I can’t comment on Lois and Clark other than the 90’s TV show, which I loved (and, yup, I shipped them), but, from what I’ve seen about the criticism of the New 52 is that most of those titles don’t really stay true to the characters, which is what happens when editors refuse to let writers use their imagination. Superman and Wonder Woman, despite having some shared history and being a pairing that actually makes some sense, is just a marketing strategy on the editors’ part, not a creative choice that serves the purpose of telling a good story first, or so it seemed from the two issues of their shared title I managed to read. So, again, being mostly ignorant of what is going on in the DCU, I think that Clark could work without Lois as long as whoever was writing them was dedicated to the characters and the story instead of purely not-so-pure interests. Or maybe they are like Sue and Reed Richards, that simply don’t seem to work well romantically paired up with anyone else.

But pairing Clark with Diana changes Clark’s character, even if it was well written, the whole point of post crisis Superman is that he has the power of a god but he thinks of himself as just ordinary Clark Kent. He could get any woman in the world, if he wanted to he could have a harem of trophy wives at his beck and call, but instead he falls for a driven career woman who can’t spell and is always falling off things. He wants a human woman not a Wonder Woman because in spite of being the most powerful being on earth he still sees himself as an ordinary guy. By substituting Diana for Lois you remove his link to humanity and fundamentally alter his characterization.

In theory I guess you could pair him with another woman, but she’d have to have the same personality as Lois for it to work. If a pairing gets stale then it means the characters don’t work together, because if they do work then it should be impossible to separate them.

bringing this here because there are too many posts on this in the other blog

Like I said, I understand very little of DC, so it doesn’t surprise me that my reasoning doesn’t apply to Lois and Clark lol

But I disagree with you on “ if they do work then it should be impossible to separate them”. Maybe it a cynic view on life, but I really don’t see how a comic book couple lasting forever can works, except for the Richards, and they only work because the concept of the Fantastic Foour, the classic concept, at least, depends on that. Like, imagine if, a hundred years in the future, DC and Marvel are still publishing comics. For some couples, they would have by then 150 or 170 years of backstories for the fanatics to go through and feel nostalgic about how much better things used to be. How would that not get repetitive? Even Sue and Reed have broken up from time to time, and that’s the least that you need in order to renovate those stories - give them some character growth apart from each other so new conflicts can be created once they’re back together and things stay interesting.

And, before anyone asks: yes, even if Steve/Wanda or Logan/Ororo were to happen and last for a long time, not just one month or one year as has been the case for these doomed soul mates, while I would be very happy about it, I really can’t imagine how they could last for over twenty years without my coming to hate my OTPs to end all OTPs. This was part of the reason why I stopped liking Remy/Rogue., and so it really is an advantage to some fictional couples to break them up so people can look back with nostalgia instead of just coming to despise them.

1. scarletamerica liked this
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3. amostexcellentblog reblogged this from organastarkgaryen and added:

   I mean I don’t object to drama in the relationship, including breakups, Lois and Clark do that all the time, but the...

4. spasticatt reblogged this from ihaveamarvelproblem and added:

   I agree with ya, comic book continuity is a very strange beast. The best stories I’ve read had a definitive ending (even...

5. organastarkgaryen reblogged this from amostexcellentblog and added:

   bringing this here because there are too many posts on this in the other blog Like I said, I understand very little of...

6. ihaveamarvelproblem reblogged this from spasticatt and added:

   Not all relationships that last years are well-written or exist solely because of a spark between the characters; many...

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13. marvelmaster616 reblogged this from brevoortformspring and added:

    Totally disagree with this, but he’s the editor. He has the power. We don’t.

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16. jeeprhyme reblogged this from brevoortformspring and added:

    I’m inclined to agree, but the problem is that because they’ve already had their big, iconic relationship, there’s...

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