Geek Rant Topic 12: Modern Mythos

When All Else Fails, you call Mousa the 14, that one ranting geek.

Once upon a time there were these deities worshiped by ancient civilizations. These people told many stories of the exploits of these deities. However, these stories were all primarily from word of mouth, there was no single comprehensive and linear and consistent story of any of these gods, only what was told and what little was written down. These deities by modern day became primarily abstract concept with vague yet specific jobs and exploits and rulings that can be interpreted and spun around in a myriad of ways by many different writers in the present day.

We called this ancient incomprehensible library of vague references mythology. These deities and heroes such as Gilgamesh or Zeus were mere concept that could be twisted and turned into whatever we wanted within certain pre-established guidelines. The idea was there and we could make up the details ourselves, it was all based on the person telling the story.

I want to you to think long and hard about this. Does this sound familiar to anybody, anybody at all? Anything in the modern day that works on this exact system of vague pre-established concept that many people write about and with each different writing, different interpretations re made and different details are added based on personal preference. Perhaps this is too vague. After all, mythology of old had specific groups, we had the Grecko-Roman Gods, The Norse Mythology, Agyptian gods, and far many more I don't even know the names of. I'll keep this simple, this modern day version I'm referring two has only two self contained groups.

Now I'm going to stop treating you like an idiot and tell you this modern day mytholgoy is superhero comics and the two specific mythologies are Marvel and DC.

Despite the obession with "Continuity", American comic books are a mess. and probably have the least amount of continutiy that make sense. Especially DC. These things have gone on for decades wit hcharacters that age in reverse dog years and basically they're environments where characters and stories are allowed to exist. These comic histories are incomprehensible and with all the crossovers, one shots, and and tie ins, not even counting the alternate universes, I doubt even the most devoted geek can keep track of their favorite superhero and if they can, they need to go outside and start smelling the frikkin' rosies becuase their dedication most likely took up 75% of their existences and I wish I was joking but that's how extensive these things are.

I saw the comic book industry needs to quit it and geeks need to quit it. You know why? Becuase the DC and Marvel comic universes are now nothing but big flipping mythologies, worlds where anything can happen and anyone can do whatever based on the mythology behind them. At this point no continuity matters and I doubt we can ever go back to the days of everything being separate individual characters and stories that may have a a conclusion, the connected universes will never end so let's just go all out, write whatever we want, we already disregard continuity ad consistency anyway, let's just run with this. We just remove the concept of "canon" and have everything be right depending on the writer. It's easier on the fans that way.

Isn't that awesome? We invented a mythology without having it being centuries of lost archives behind us!

Wanna hear more about how this whole continuity and comic books are a mess? Movie Bob has got a few vids that helped inspired this: Continuum, Continanity, and Nerd Gods, mind you the man uses stronger language than I do.

-Good Bye, Good Luck, and Imagination Is Your Greatest Power

Mousa the 14

Random Musing: Nothing to Hide

I went to take an exam to see if I qualified for some classes at the local community college and I saw the oddest thing:

Dark skinned Asian guy, who knows, maybe he was Inuit, not the point, anyhow, he was wearing an interesting amalgam of items I can only call "Convention Casual".

He was wearing a Jack Skellington hat, you know, one of those semi-common winter hats, an Ushanka, methinks? That sort of hat with Jack Skellington print. He wore checkerboard patterned fingerless gloves, those kinds of gloves you wear because incompleteness is hardcore. And He wore black pants that I associate greatly with my eccentric positive metalhead friend who tended to wear black pants with too many pockets. This guy wore similar stuff only surprisingly less pockets and blue highlights on it. The icing on the cake of this odd piece of leg wear was the two chains that were cross along the front of his pants. Yeah, he isn't exactly running anywhere, or striding for that matter.

But here's the kicker, right there tied to the back belt hook on his pants was a big blue fizzy tail! No, I was not looking at his butt, you couldn't miss it. It was a tail!

That tail has been in my mind... Like I get this feeling that certain apparel is starting to become less of an issue, and by less of an issue I mean, coming out f the woodwork and suddenly being okay to wear in casual everyday settings.

I mean, sure it starts with cute animal hats, eventually with ears on said hats or hoots, but when does it stop or keep going on? How does it keep going on? Will hats bring along with it fashionable goggles? fingerless gloves? chains? tails? Jack Skellington? Is the geek and furry apparel slowly crawling out of the convention dealer room and Hot Topic? I mean those two places I mentioned are like the kingdoms of the Rummage Sale Reject style of clothing, but how much of it is... seeping into regular everyday things?

How many of us are forgetting to remove our Digi Charat Bells from our necks? When was the last time you took that SOS Brigade arm band off? How are you looking into those goggles today?

Is this a bad thing? Yes and no. I just find this a little odd perhaps intriguing, maybe even sinister.

Random Musing: Muslim Batman

I don't know all the particulars behind it but long story short: There's a Muslim Batman.

I mean, let's get this out of the way, Isn't this costume frikkin' AWESOME!?

It's almost a shame he's the French Batman.

Yeah, the French Batman. It's a shame, I mean the French don't particularly like Muslims, I mean they're trying to ban burqas and all that. Which means in real life, The French aren't going to like this choice. Frankly, this shouldn't be a big deal. The type of Batman chosen is not indicative of the entire nation, it's indicative of that character's history and skills and personality, with French having very little to do with it. I mean if that were the case, C. America should be a Native American, you know, just to keep things pure.


You know, I should be more bothered by the fact that Bats is trying to go global but it makes perfect sense to me that he's trying to make his image international, becuase lord knows he can't strike fear into the hearts of every crook world-wide. It takes an army to do that, an Army of Batmen. But this could probably cause in-universe controversy about him exerting too much world power I imagine. I don't know, I love superheroes but don't really pay attention to them so much. I'll explain my view in my upcoming "Mythos" Geek Rant.