Just being lazy

It has been a long and tiring day for me, but I thought I would put out a comment I made below about use of character goes evil plot and writer laziness at times. And I'll be revising it, to be honest. Continued revisions another reason I rarely finish writing projects.

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In many ways having a character go amoral – have sex is an easy way to go (Read LAZY – on my mental list of the ways comic writers choose to go the lazy route on potentially interesting ideas).

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[In] Superman III, he does go amoral. He hits on women. But the way to show he is “bad” is that he becomes gunky and grimy. Look at the video on the alter ego link for a look at him at the end. He is unkempt in a way that is almost comical. In comics they do the shaded eyes and grim look and hulking presence, with menacing stance (and, perhaps, the cape is frayed...from combat). That says BAD.

For Supergirl, she needs to show MORE FLESH. Get a bit lesbian. Is that bad?

This is the big problem. The guys can be shown as getting kinky. But also, getting loose. Getting mean. Getting harsh.

With the femmes, not so much.

I remember working with a character and trying to work out a story of an alternate world, with the evil version of the female heroine (I spend so much time imagining, I never actually write.). The way I saw her, she was in darker outfit, a common symbolism. But it wasn’t revealing, or provocative, didn’t make sense. It was more militant and utilitarian. As to her style of acting, she was tougher, more than willing to use force, knock down building, kill, and put her perceived better goals above societies.

She was evil. And it really never occurred to me that she should be preoccupied with sex or boys. Maybe it was because the character was so close to me, that I had invested in it, that I was interested in taking the character in a way that wasn’t a walking…sashaying…slinkering cliché. And that, I think, is a problem for many writers and editors today. They really have a so-so connection to their characters.

It is just lazy.

Superman has gone bad a number of times over the years. Not that long ago he tried to take over the world with the superman bots. I wasn't really reading that closely at the time, but that sounds intimidating, Supes alone is a scary thought. ANY Kryptonian should be!

When he goes bad it is usually dark figure with cataclysmic results.

When you look at Supergirl, she usually sheds so clothes (though the new costume makes that all, but impossible), strikes poses, and can be scary. Why not just let her be a small, silent, deadly and scary ass evil, and just skip kinky ONCE?

Evil Maxwell Lord is scarier than evil Supergirl. That is so wrong. ;)

And it is not, as if this is a genre flaw. IT IS THE WRITERS and EDITOR MANDATES!

Now, again, a character that is evil, or goes evil, can have a sexual appetite. Everyone does. It just seems that if you look to history for allegories, you will find the most interesting villains and the most terrifying ones, really aren't known for obsessing on it. They obsess over death, power, their philosophies, dominion, etc.

Hmm. Plotting and drama wise, what is better a villain that is caught up in their predilections, or one plotting, planning, and moving pawns, and contemplating their next steps? Ones cheap and weak, one is a serious tool for the writer and and the promise of twists and turns in the plot for the reader.

[Sorry, the PUBLISH button lept up and I had to slap it down.]

Just sayin', it seems lazy, and when we are in our creative writing we often dip into the baser parts of the brain.

Compare

Supes gone.




















Supergirl gone bad.





Two images, drawn years apart, by differnet artist (I think). Yet, they seem so akin to me. Odd, hmm.










To be fair with the image on the left, she was a bit scary.


First Lex Luthor.













Then she went onto best most of the Justice League.

But can't the girl have some pants or something? When Supes is evil, he gets pants.