Well, it’s official. Your friendly neighborhood Keeper has finally arrived.
This past week, we were blasted on a message board - and it didn’t even involve the Transformers.
No, it emanated from our change of heart regarding Black Panther # 19 - the issue where T’Challa chided Storm for interfering in a battle against Doctor Doom.
Spurred by an enthusiastic review from The Buy Pile, we picked up the issue and were initially won over by Reginald Hudlin’s admittedly clever way with dialogue. There were a few small problems with characterization, but overall we considered it a good read.
After giving the book a strong recommendation ourselves, we re-read the issue a few times afterward and decided those problems weren’t so small and wrote a post stating that very fact.
Since that time, the post has attracted pretty steady readership and drew comments from one fan in particular who disagreed with the Keeper’s assessment very strongly.
(The resulting conversation can be found in the comments section …)
We honestly thought the matter was finished until noticing an incoming link from the hudlinentertainment.com message boards where the Keeper is referred to as a lying fanboy and a moron.
Your friendly host isn’t bothered by the name-calling. That’s the risk one takes when stating an opinion publicly.
We are bothered, however, by the writer’s assertion that we deleted her most recent response to our post. It turns out the comment was swept away by our spam filter due to her use of a certain four-letter word that starts with “d” and ends with “k.”
In his everyday life, the Keeper earns money as a journalist. We don’t take kindly to censorship in any form, so in the interest of free speech your host has retrieved the writer’s comment and is printing it in its entirety (including the naughty word).
Nuff said”? What are you, twelve? If you don’t like dissenting opinions, then turn off the comments to everyone who’s not your little friend.
First off, Doom was written as racist all the way back from “Astonishing Tales #7″ (or 8, or whatever). This isn’t exactly new. Remember when he called Panther and the Wakandas “savages”? Know your history before you get your Underoos in a bunch.
Second, I find it kind of hard to believe that a story you praised one week is suddenly slammed this week, despite the fact that nothing in the book has changed. Just a wee bit too convenient.
Third, perhaps you were expecting Storm to roll her neck and snap her fingers, saying NIGGA DONTCHU EVAH TALK LIKE DAT TO ME AGAIN!!!! YOU SHOW ME MAH RESPECT, MUHf*ckA!!!!!111ONEELEVENTY She certainly could’ve. She was ENTITLED to it, but she CHOSE to take the high road, as opposed to sitting in a plane for hours in stony silence - or worse, shouting. Sometimes you stand your ground. Sometimes you let things slide. (Perhaps you’ll reexamine your interpretation when you enter a real relationship.) Not to mention that we have no idea what was discussed towards the end of #18 and the beginning of #19. This is very true to life of most (healthy) couples. You don’t need to ever every flipping discussion they have. Do you need someone to fingerspell it for you? Of COURSE they talked it over. Certainly you don’t think Storm spent hours just sucking her husband’s dick all that time.
Again: you didn’t change your mind. You got your ass handed to you and suddenly, your rather convienient amnesia has vanished. So there, doodyhead.
The First Amendment is preserved. For the Keeper’s part, we respect Jenn’s view and agree to disagree.
(Although we will note that your blogging buddy has been happily married for 13 years, which should qualify as a “real” realtionship.)
Now the Keeper will turn his attention to other matters, like writing about Spider-Woman and importing Electra Woman & Dyna Girl episodes to his iPod.
