Thursday, September 11, 2014

Pet Peeve

People grip and complain about anything and the comic book community is no different. Some people seem to get outraged for the smallest things, but I guess it's like anything else, the few people with the loud voice over shadow the majority. I know people have things that bother them and I think it is good to voice your opinion.  Me... I tend to enjoy most things and go with the flow. That, for the most part, is my personality.
However, there is one thing that has gotten on my nerves the more immersed I become in the comic book circle and that is the phrase "If done right". I know I hear it's other places too but I've noticed it being used way to much in the comic community and it really has no value. Where I hear it the most is when it comes the the comic book based movies. People want to talk about what comic book based movies that film studios should make and it is fun to talk about but people seem to justify their choice by saying "if done right". For instance, here is a sentence you might hear: "If done right, a Black Panther movie would be so good" or "I think a  Flash, Green Lantern Team-Up movie would be awesome.... if done right".  If you think about it, doesn't any movie or comic book or anything have potential to be great and make money "if done right"?
Take Guardians of the Galaxy for example, this is a case of a movie being "done right". No one knew about these characters, their history or anything really unless you were a big comic book fan and look how great it did. Honestly, it had more potential to fail than succeed but it was done right and is a huge hit!
But, on the other end of the spectrum, we had Superman Returns that came out a few years ago. Now a Superman movie has huge potential to be successful because Superman is one of the (if not the) biggest and most well know superheros out there. However, I think that Superman Return is one of the worst superhero films. I could name a few others that rank up there with it but I think Superman Returns had the most potential but just wasn't "done right".
There are two newer comic book runs that I thought sounded terrible but has turned out to be two of my favorite to read; they are Uncanny Avengers and All New X-Men. These are "done right". Look these titles up, you may like them as well.
I think people just want to say some crazy concept and rationalize it by saying "if done right". Isn't it really a rhetorical phase? Anything can be good "if done right". The phase doesn't give any insight into how to do it right or what would make it successful. People just use the phase to say "I would like to see this".
So lets stop using the phrase "if done right". We know what you're trying to do and what you really mean.

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