On a vaguely related note...

[lithera]

While I'm still waiting.... and waiting....

This made me smile. It's a review of a comic book for those who may or may not care.

I love the quote "That seems to be Lady Shiva’s role in the DC Universe at least: Lady Shiva, the deadliest martial artist on the planet! But wait, she doesn’t actually prove this, as she’s too busy making other characters seem better by not killing them!"

I laugh because it's painfully true.

Comments

[mizkit.livejournal.com]

This last issue of BoP was *particularly* nice, I thought. Go team go! :)

[lithera.livejournal.com]

I've loved this run. I picked it up for Shiva because I love Shiva but it has been better than I thought it would. I'd be happy if she became Canary's mentor. It would be nice for Shiva to be in a comic semi-regularily. Especially because Richard Dragon is getting his own title again in May.

[leiden.livejournal.com]

I dunno, every now and then she up and slaughters 50 odd ninjas. I'm pretty convinced.

[lithera.livejournal.com]

Yeah but we all know she's never going to kill a main character and it just makes her look less impressive when it happens.

Oh - I fight Batgirl and since I can't kill her, I have to lose. Same goes for just about anyone else she fights. It makes me sad.

[leiden.livejournal.com]

Yeah. I don't see why she can't just whoop the ever loving crap out of them and show some compassion here and there.

I mean, BATGIRL??? She lost to BATGIRL?? That one actually pissed me off.

Though I did like Robin's trick in the miniseries with the whistling staff. That was classic, so was him wincing after he did it and going "Okay, now I learn pain."

[lithera.livejournal.com]

She has no compassion, really. I mean, I can see her randomly deciding not to kill people but it wouldn't be out of compassion. She's sacrificed most all of her emotions in the quest for perfection - they're distracting. There are very few people who know her well enough or long enough to have seen her emote anything other than amusement or anger.

And losing to Batgirl did make a certain amount of sense. Shiva sort of has a death wish and she went into the fight thinking that Batgirl would actually kill her.

Yeah. I liked the Robin mini-series' way of handling it all. I really like the way BoP is handling Shiva now. Canary is slowly trying to work her way inside Shiva - telling her to stop it with the inhuman monster act and Shiva replies with, "Why do you think it is an act?"

[leiden.livejournal.com]

Okay, maybe compassion was the wrong word. Perhaps contemps but in general I don't see how someone retains the title of "most deadly martial artist in the world" and ever loses unless they are tricked (ala Robin).

For instance: Batman is *good* but he's dedicated so much to stealth and detective skills that no matter how good he is, he shouldn't be able to take Shiva toe to toe. My opinion of course but I really think it stands to reason that his dedication went elsewhere. Batgirl is young and while dedicated she's still missing some 10 years exeperience so unless Shiva let her win (I didn't actually read the comic) in hopes of dying, I just don't see her skill being on par.

But this list goes on. A more pleasing and plausible situation: I can see her finding Robin again and bouncing him off of a couple walls, leaving him all kinds of fucked up and telling him to practice harder or she'll kill him the next time. Next time she comes back and whoops his ass but he did markedly better so she lets him live and continues the cycle. After quite a few years I can see him finally building the skill and knowledge of her fighting to actually beat her but none of this "Be able to defeat me in a year or I kill you" BS.

Of course, I'm a great believer in stories that follow very distinct arcs with a start and end. Where you're not clinging to your syndicated, 40 year old storyline and are able to make something out of loss (Frank Miller, anyone?).

Someone give me Batman circa 1989 forever and I will be happy as a clam. This post-crisis warm-fuzziness irritates me.

GIVE ME BACK THE DARK SIDE

*goes back to reading Preacher*

[lithera.livejournal.com]

I agree with you there. Part of me is upset that Shiva lost, it feels like a cop out to both Shiva and Batgirl. (Batgirl is an amazing martial artist but her ability iis mostly from being able to read people's motions and know what they're doing before they've actually done it.) I can rationalize it with the idea that Shiva went into the fight expecting to die and therefore, did not give everything she could have - in the hopes that Batgirl would kill her.

Batman is good. He's great. However in a martial arts fight, toe to toe with no tricks? He'd lose. That's why he shouldn't fight her that way. He isn't stupid. He knows better than to take her on in just a hand to hand fight. I'm really tired of Batman being the greatest at everything, as they done with him recently. I love Batman as a character but his greatest advantage isn't that he's the greatest fighter - but he can out think his oppoenants. I'm a little sad about what Frank Miller's vision of him brought - a Batman who is undefeatable in combat. Sad. Batman has been broken. It says something that it was Shiva who he went to to regain what he had lost.

I like the Robin scenario. It makes sense to me. Shiva seems to have a soft spot for people with talent. I also know that she really seems the sort not to be stupid enough to leave people she perceives as actual threats to her person alive, unless the death wish sublimates that common sense.

(You can't tell that I had to write out a character app for Shiva, can you?)