If you dig The Shadow snippets here, you might think of checking out my side channel, The Shadowcast here: ru-vid.com/show-UCE5ls-3WtyXiirzcyzEgxXw And if you want to check out my ORIGINAL pulp series, 'Nightvale', head over here: www.nightvalenovels.com Godspeed!
@@shebakoby lol what? The shadow is a morally binary white knight in a black cloak and slouch hat. Alucard is literally a bloodthirsty monster in a zoot suit who'd gun down innocent people in his way. They're nothing alike. The Bram stoker version of Dracula, alongside Sherlock Holmes and others, were an influence on the shadow.
Funny enough, Zorro is still big in the Latino community. A friend of mine has done cosplay as the Dred Pirate Roberts for a number of conventions, and he says he repeatedly hears Hispanic families and convention goers call him "Zorro". Man we could use Zorro to save California now...
Zorro is the biggest hero in the Hispanic community by far. He’s the greatest example of making a POC character without throwing bullshit political agendas into his character.
For all you americans that like these type of comics look ni further than Italian publisher Sergio Bonneli and comics like Zagor, Mister No, Martin Mystery, Dylan Dog and other similar pulpy comics that are far better than anything Marvel or DC ever wrote.
I remember a scene from the Family Channel's Zorro series. It was a Christmas episode and Zorro bumps into one of his enemies, who is piss drunk. Zorro doesn't do much despite having the opportunity to kill him, just shakes him around a bit and busts his chops. It's such a simple thing, but we don't see moments like that anymore, just wokewashing.
Anyone who wonders who the original badass killing machine was way before Wolverine and the Punisher should look up The Spider. The "Master of Men" who was a horrifically masked vigilante armed to the teeth that would rack up kills in the hundreds and mark his victims with his spider symbol.
Holy cow you are hitting on all cylinders. luckily at a young age my mother had told me about the shadow and described his exploits in good detail. Which help added more fuel for the imagination fire burning inside me.
Even in that grey world, though, there's a morality of retribution. If a character strays from the straight and narrow, they're doomed. They won't ever escape the consequences of their actions. The best they can manage, like Mitchum in 'Out Of The Past,' is to delay the punishment that awaits them which in some way makes it even worse. Just when you've built a nice quiet little life for yourself, thought 'That Day' was far behind you, gotten yourself a girl even, that's when that old dog comes back around to bite you in the ass and no matter how much you squirm, it won't let go until you're dead.
Which is what makes it so great. It’s easy to preach about honor and duty when everything is going right, but standing by your convictions in a world gone mad, and continuing to fight the good fight no matter how much life tries to beat you down; that’s truly admirable.
@@Harvest133 except that they did speak greek. They are a distinctly greek culture. The oldest one on record actually. They came after the proto greeks. Mycenean greek has been translated from the linear b script it was written in and it is destinctly greek. Linear b was the script used to write greek till around 700 bc when the current greek alphabet replaced it. Linear B was based on the minoan script also known as linear A. It predates classical greek but its still greek nonetheless. Im greek and can still roughly understand mycenean texts when reading them. All languages change over time. some more drastic then others but whats makes greek unique is that it has changed reletively little campared to most other languages.
@@MrSpotface That's pretty amazing you can just understand it when modern Greeks have a hard time with Medieval era Greek, and even more so with Classical. Myceneans were also genetically distinct from modern and classical populations as they did not incorporate Doric and other peoples. They are an ancestor of Greeks, but not entirely Greek themselves, in the same way that all Modern Europeans have Indo-European ancestry within, but Indo-Europeans were not Europeans. There isn't an easy straight line from A to B in terms of modern human populations. A lot of migrations and conquests occurred before written history, and during written history. If they are Greek, than so are Minoans.
When I was growing up I was fascinated with the stories of Flash Gordon, Zorro, The Lone Ranger. It wasn't until I started watching this channel that I was reunited with those stories, and introduced to "The Shadow".
Honestly, this video had me ready to buy whatever you were selling me. I’m going to check out some Pulp comics As soon as I can. This is better than any infomercial I’ve ever seen.
"Today's flawed superheroes are superior in physical strength but common, average, ordinary in mental strength and rich in super-powers but bankrupt in reasoning powers." - Steve Ditko (1987) "The Masters of Comic Book Art" documentary "Comic book fans who later became editors, writers, wanted flawed heroes, anti-heroes to suit their own unwillingness to seek higher standards. It seems comic book companies, publishers, editors, too many writers and artists, all want the comfort of the anti-hero, where we're ALL grey, so no one can judge anyone or anything." -Steve Ditko (2014)
There is a world of difference between recognizing the inherent flawed nature and limitations of what at the end of the day are still human beings - and wholeheartedly subscribing to moral relativism. The modern entertainment industry is often muddled by the latter, but not universally so. Also, Steve Ditko was a neurotic, and often quite contradictory mess of a flawed human being, far and away from objectivist ideals he advocated for. Which is often the main issue I have with people like him, even if I try my damndest to separate the art from the artist.
When you look at ancient heroes from mythology they come off as being quite morally gray considering things a good example is Heracles whose story is quite a tragedy.
@Glenn Krenz while aspirational depictions of heroism and heroes has its merit, flawed, humanized heroes make for better stories. Simple as that. No real person, historical or contemporary, can remain entirely unscathed and unfazed as he faces extreme adversity and evil time and again. The heroic tropes need to be reconstructed, but not by reductionist and traditionalist retrogrades like Razor.
@@johnjay370 because those are creations, building up a myth and legend of a character and theme. Now it’s all deconstruction. Which can work, but needs to be built back up afterwards.
"Progress means getting nearer to the place you want to be. And if you have taken a wrong turn, then to go forward does not get you any nearer. If you are on the wrong road, progress means doing an about-turn and walking back to the right road; and in that case the man who turns back soonest is the most progressive man." - C.S. Lewis
I inadvertently started getting into pulp thanks to Disney of all places. Back when the original Tarzan animated film came out it spurred my interest in reading about the character delving into the pulp genre before I was even 10 years old. I have to say, pulp is a genre that never ends, the amount of content out there from film serials to radio shows that are saved on CD and digital, to comic strips and comic books, to novels and short story collections, to movies and TV shows, it's an inexhaustible resource, and that's just the stuff that's already made. It's up to the next generation of content creators and us as a whole to preserve the original content that came before and push forward with new content to inspire and entertain current and future audiences.
One could argue some of the 80s "toy commercial" heroes were also PULP to a degree, or took some inspiration from the era with their sense of morality. He-Man, Duke, Optimus Prime, Lion-O, etc. It is a shame modern writers always try to write them as morally gray.
I've been storing ideas for years, it will take me a bit of time but over the next few years your going to see the most badass insane stories ever told (and ofc no woke agenda or any of that bullshit!)
Solomon Kane's inspiring, more that can be said for the vast majority of comic book superheroes. He falters, fails, falls, and doesn't give up, doesn't get deconstructed as the bad guy, doesn't get replaced, doesn't instantly heelturn, he rises back up with renewed faith, vigor, and hope, and he overcomes by fighting for what's right. If that's not a spirit people should try to emulate, I don't know what is.
Nay, alone I am a weak creature, having no strength or might in me; yet in times past hath God made me a great vessel of wrath and a sword of deliverance. And, I trust, shall do so again. -Solomon Kane A fine quote from the man himself.
The best part is you can find a lot of old pulp at your local used bookstore. This also has the benefit of keeping you money local instead of enriching some far left loon out west.
@Bobby Campbell aka (The Oracle) I adore brutal and hilarious. In an age where a sentient being with a finite span of life would rather cover up the world and worry about "micro-aggressions" than having fun, we need brutality and ESPECIALLY hilarious aspects. To hell with feelings
The Shadow was a breath of fresh air for me. His sense of absolute justice and the method of carrying it out spoke to me far more than the likes of Spider-Man (the only character I think benefits from self doubt and moping around), Superman, and even my longtime favorite character Batman. We need more crimefighters like The Shadow.
I especially dislike one specific thing about Batman (the rest is cool) and it’s what basically everyone else who I know loves most about his philosophy: he refuses to kill because he believes it drops him to the level of those he fights… so the joker can blow up entire buildings with people in them but Batman will just throw him in an asylum he’ll escape by Tuesday, so he can murder another mass of innocent people. This is true for basically all those villains, but he refuses to kill one evil person, and so constantly the innocent are harmed because he won’t just do his job for once.
Marvel Max line Punisher by garth ennis. A M60 machine gun, a gym bag full of spare belts of ammo, some claymore mines, and a willingness to kill everything within a square mile.
@@nkemnoraulmanfredini7286 Batman is basically a hypocrite for refusing to kill the Joker since hes afraid he might end up becoming a murderer, but the Joker has killed hundreds of thousands+ more people throughout the decade. This would make Batman a murderer by proxy due to this. That's what OP was saying. "ALL THE PEOPLE I'VE MURDERED, BY LETTING YOU LIVE!" "I never kept count." "I DID!" "I know! And I love you for it!" - _The Dark Knight Returns_
@@acrsclspdrcls1365 He refuses to kill, because Batman is a traumatised child dressing up like a bad-ass, in order to face his own fears. That's what he is, a hypercompetent, peak-human who is a scared child on the inside. It is what made him what he is, his deepest secret and his greatest weakness.
Ah! So THIS is the inspiration for the Silver Shroud from Fallout 4. Just got done with that quest the other day and now I get a look at pop culture that inspired him. Thanks Razor!
It's interesting how stories about men that had moral codes and did what was right in a world gone mad is more manly and enduring than the deconstructivist hellhole we ended up in the current industry. I used to love reading the Phantom, i will get around to give some other Pulps a read as well.
Can't remember where I heard this, but, to paraphrase: "Strong men make good times, good times make weak men, weak men make hard times, hard times make strong men..."
The world has always been mad you just didn't have a 24/7 window for it. I mean the world is very small compared to even 20 years ago let alone thousands.
My dad used to go on and on about Pulp. I never understood why every time a “new” characters came out from the big comics, he would say that they’re a rip-off. I get it now dad.
There was a good pulp-inspired Hollywood movie that came out over 15 years ago called Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow. It was a huge flop at the box office, but it stands out from 99% of modern movies because of its obvious pulp inspiration and total dedication to the style.
I saw it at the movies; it was the first movie all filmed on green screen IIRC. It was more axed toward the high adventure, still decent for the time, way better than most compared to today's movies.
I've been a fan of Conan, Tarzan, and pulp content in general for decades. It has a raw, straight-forward brutality that's mixed with ideas of individualism, which is why I find it so enthralling.
@@jmgonzales7701 Pulp refers to these adventure and detective stories published in cheap magazines in the 1920's, 1930's and onwards. They're called pulps because of the bad quality of the paper the magazines were printed on, to keep costs down. And this word has become representative of entire genres and subgenres of various kinds of stories. And yes, I'm crazy about them as well. They have an inimitable vibe of vital, raw glory and excitement which today's mass produced millennial and zoomer crap can NEVER hope to equal, let alone surpass.
@@mirceazaharia2094 should we revive these pulp stories to modern day stories and superhero movies, I do like the idea of detective stories but i do fear its not gonna be as popular to modern day audience as it tends to be slow and boring.
@@jmgonzales7701 "modern day stories", i.e. try to appeal to degenerate speds who need do not drink labels in motor oil? That's exactly what has ruined entertainment.
So I’m not crazy! Back when I lived in Colombia as a kid, I remember reading a bunch of Zorro pulps that my grandpa used to own. It’s no wonder why I grew to love the character over the course of my life. Awesome video Razor!
Razor got me into Elric, his reading of Ideal War got me into Battletech at this point I'm willing to do as I'm told. If he says read [insert title here] I'm gonna do so.
He recommended The Amateur, the book about the lame first term of Barack Obama. I got it for free on Audible because I also have Prime. Give you a good idea why he ranks Obama among the top five worse Presidents, as although I think he would put TaliBiden ahead of Obama now.
I’m the exact opposite no matter how interested I am and all the things people mention or convince me off I can’t for the life of me bring myself to read or watch anything. Depression be like that.
Agreed about Razor's reccommendations. I didn't know how fucking awesome the The Shadow, Ninja Turtle, and Dare Devil were until I watched his comic videos.
Doc Savage seems to encapsulate what fiction used to be about: what we can all strive to be, the embodiment of man at his very best and most noble, a truly exceptional figure using his talents for good. In this jaded, cynical age, we could use a hero like the Doc. And not "re-imagined for modern audiences", but played completely straight and with the same extraordinary spirit the character was created to embody.
Those wondering if they can get into Pulp, let me ask you a question, did you like the Indiana Jones trilogy? How about the Shadow? The Spirit? what about the Rocketeer? If you said yes to any of these, you've already been exposed to pulp heroes, since Indiana Jones is based off the old pulps and the others come from them.
I’m working on some pulp stories of my own in that aim. Taking a hint from Solomon Kane and real life lawman Bass Reaves, I have Wesley Toombs, an ex-slave and veteran of the American Civil War traveling the Southwest and Deep South in search of wrongs to right. Klansmen, evil voodoo priests, outlaws, vampires, werewolves you fucking name it, and he will be there to defend the innocent with hot lead and cold steel.
One of the biggest obstacle for these pulp heroes is literally been men and women out of time in a place where heroes don’t do heroic no more. Like an example, in my free time i an currently writing a pulp about a Spanish conquistador adventures in the high seas, The New World and the world beyond the new . If I ever published the story the same goons running Industry and sites will accuse me of glorifying stereotypes of the time and justify the Spanish conquest of the New World.
As a side note, The rocketeers rig was not created by Howard Hughes but by Doc Savage, in the last part of the first comics story Monk, Ham, and I think Doc makes an appearance to get the jet pack back and later on in one of the Dark Horse or Millennium Doc Savage comic Doc uses the jet pack it even still has the leak from the pistol round they show it at the beginning of the story Doc is taking on a bunch of American Nazis while using it.
Yep, based on Razors video I’m dipping my toe in with the Rocketeer collection, but I’ve already been enjoying anime as a refuge from the woke shit. Only other option is rewatching old stuff, or watching old stuff I haven’t seen.
@@YT1300MF what kind of anime are you watching? The '80s anime, especially the OVAs, tend to be pretty good. And if they're not, they tend to at least be entertaining and / or short.
@@JLCL01 all over the place really. Classics like Initial D and Cowboy Bebop, newer action shows like Attack on Titan and FMA Brotherhood, to more character driven stuff like Steins;Gate. As long as it’s good is all that matters. I’m watching Love is War right now, which I was worried might be too UwU cringe, but it’s actually really relatable and funny. Nice thing about anime is the episodes are short, so if you find you hate something you can punch out without having wasted a bunch of time!
Im going to just say this. But anyone who says Anime doesn't have some really good story is kidding themselves. Things might not be your taste but once you find something you like you will be GARUNTEED to be hooked to it for the rest of your life. And don't think Japanese animation is all Sailor moon, Anime can be RAW and Brutal as much as you want it to and even more.
When my grandmother went into labor with my father my grandfather dropped her off at the hospital and then left so he could find a radio because he didn't want to miss that week's episode of The Shadow.
"Dreams save us. Dreams lift us up and transform us. And on my soul, I swear... until my dream of a world where dignity, honor and justice becomes the reality we all share -- I'll never stop fighting." - Superman. I miss when Superhero stories had that kind of message. No long winded speeches about how we need to do better without telling us HOW we can do better. No lecturing a hero about how they're privileged and should feel bad, as if the last 70 years of character development didn't happen. No edge lord nonsense about seeing the worst in people. Just good old heroism. And if a full blown revival of the Pulp genre is what it takes to bring back those superhero stories of hope that I grew up with, then I welcome it with open arms. Because right now, Japan has done a better job of keeping that hope alive than America has.
I highly recommend the Conan stories, the world building is so rich and detailed, the character is so much more nuanced than you might imagine. They may be *a little bit* dated but they are far superior to most modern fantasy.
Awesomely BAD. Try reading "The LIving Shadow" (Shadow #1) or some of the other early novels. He was a person of mystery and was NOT Lamont Cranston. Even his aides didn't know if he was working on the side of good or evil. He did NOT have magical powers. He could NOT to turn invisible. In the earlier novels he wasn't really the main character : in "The Living Shadow" the story revolves around Harry Vincent, a down in his luck guy who is rescued from an attempted suicide and now who's life is own by The Shadow. He gets instructions over the phone from some unknown person (it turns out later to be another of the Shadow's agents) that he follows without knowing what those instructions are for.
@bjbell52 I haven't read as much as I should, but I do know that the movie is based on the radio drama, and they DID give him the power to "cloud men's minds" in that medium. I'm not sure about the telekinesis, though. The name and backstory I understand weren't exactly cannon, but I think it was pretty well done. My dad loves old radio shows, so on road trips, we'd listen to some, The Shadow was a favorite of mine, and I still love the movie to this day.
@@bensigl3766 I'm sure The Living Shadow can be found onLine. I found a site that had 260+ Shadow novels in text form. Let me know if you can't find them - maybe we can figure out a way for me to get them to you.
H. P. Lovecraft, Robert E. Howard, and Edgar Rice Burroughs have created some of the most enduring characters of all time. Embrace pulp, it will embrace you back.
He'd have to do dialogue, thats a must. Actually that could be his superpower. All his foes would go back to their hideaway in utter shame, questioning what was once their iron clad beliefs. Oh yeah, he'd also have....razors on his fucking fists!
For anyone interested: RU-vid channel "The Late Late Horror Show" has a sizeable collection of pulp detective and crime audio dramas readily available to listen to.
My favorite pulp magazine hero is Conan The Barbarian. I have the original pulp magazines written by the late great Robert E. Howard. My female cousin hated that I like who & I quote "treats women like an object". I told she would be clinging to him if he was real because most women love masculine men who take charge & give no fucks. She gave me a look that would if it could kill me.
Wait, so Disney once had the rights to Zorro, the Fox, and when they came to make an animated movie featuring a cartoon fox, they made ...'Robin Hood?' I don't get it.
Most people bash it simply because family guy did. As if seth McFarland knows a damn thing about cinema. Does anyone even remeber what a million waysvto die in the west was actually about?
It was the very first thing I streamed on Disney+ upon that service’s launch. Followed by ‘Gargoyles,’ which while not in any way, shape, or form a part of “the pulps” does hit a lot of the same tones and story beats (albeit in a Nineties kid friendly form).
@@chalkdeamon6070 a sheep farmer, virgin, hanging out with a guy who is gonna marry a brothel worker, in the late 1800's runs a foul of a real Chad and somehow defeats him despite being the worst shot in the world (surprising considering he lives and works on the family farm in the 1800's). It's not a great western, much more a parody like Blazing Saddles, which still checks out.
Stories back than taught children important lessons, and didn't treat them like complete idiots. Also, they understood that all children eventually grow up, and will have to face the harsh & ugly realities of the real world, no matter how any of us feel about it. Unlike today, where children are taught to live in a safe-space fantasy world.
That's how I feel about most 1990s cartoons (the cartoons from my childhood, though there were some 1980s ones scattered around and some further back if you want to include the cartoons like Looney Tunes and Tom and Jerry).
Got Savage Tales of Solomon Kane, and I do love it. While straight-up novel print is dull to me, many of the stories kept me going because I wanted more of this Puritan Purveyor of Heroism. Personally, I love "Moon of Skulls" and "Hills of the Dead" most thus far. Mainly because I loved the weird worldbuilding involving Atlantis, and their take on Vampires. Never idealized Vampires as being giant, red-eyed man beasts with skin string lime wood and having a general aversion to fire as well as sunlight. Plus, I love it when N'Longa and Solomon team up; it's so fun, epic and charming.
BTW, Razor, sorry to comment on my own comment, but have you ever checked out PRIMAL? I don't know if you either like or just barley withstand animation, but it's pretty much an amazing Pulpy adventure helmed by a powerful Neanderthal and his T-Rex companion. Genndy Tartakovsky, the man behind the show, said he was a fan of Robert E Howard's Conan the Barbarian and loosely based it on that. Hell, the characters are named after Howard's earlier work, "Spear and Fang." All I can say is "Reject Disney, Embrace Monke."
"It was a hard code, that one of Doc's. It would have curled the hair of weak sisters who want criminals mollycoddled. For Doc handed out justice where it was deserved. Doc's justice was a brand all its own. It had amazing results. Criminals who went against Doc seldom wound up in prison. They either learned a lesson that made them law-abiding men the rest of their lives- or they became dead criminals. Doc never did the job halfway." -- Lester Dent from "The Land of Terror."
Not joking Razor, seeing this lifted a heavy weight off my heart. With the shitshow farce that modern society has become, I find precious little to provide an escape. I knew of pulp before, but I did not know pulp until this video. Congratulations brother, you have another convert to the golden years of entertainment.
Got into the Doc Savage and The Shadow when Nostalgia Ventures started publishing reprints. Reading about Doc and the band of iron gave me a religious experience.
Doc Savage, Tarzan, The Shadow,Conan the Barbarian, the Lone Ranger, Zorro, John Carter - there was a lot of great stuff that I got into thanks mostly to used books from yard sales and flea markets. I've had a difficult time convincing anyone else about it, in part because of the butchery these classics were subjected to in the translation to Hollywood....
Pulp heroes are amazing. Literally no political correctness bullshit anymore because they were mostly written before Marxists took over. Even older comics could work.
Razorfist's enthusiasm and passion is contagious. Im giving pulp heroes a shot. Tired of mainstream comics' non-stop proselytization and condemnation...
Wow...! I cannot unsee "The Silver Shroud" from Bethesda's Fallout being a nod to the Shadow... I feel I have failed in not finding such masterpiece before...
*_“In those days spirits were brave, the stakes were high, men were real men, women were real women and small furry creatures from Alpha Centauri were real small furry creatures from Alpha Centauri.”_* The past was and STILL IS ... better!
@@weemadangus1834 Our grapes - one plant of 20m vines with quite a lot of grapes - are being eaten by those dastardly evil Raccoons ... which a) arent native to the region (but arent allowed to be hunted/caught) and b) have the black mask and striped costume of a villain!
@@captainmaim One of the first "encounters" I had with raccoons ... was a trio of youngsters at the bottom of our freshly emptied trash bin (so there was about 1m of slick wall for them to "climb out"), which had just one bag with an empty tin of cat food in it. No one "wanted to take care them" ... and this could have been done without shooting (since we are in a city that is a bit dangerous). P.S.: The one video I uploaded on my channel is raccoons climbing through our grapevine ...
@@TOGYS7 It's probably not even much of a coincidence, pulp has been getting more popular lately. Channels like Razor, Midnights Edge and The Critical Drinker have all talked about Conan recently. That's what got me into Robert E Howard :)
@@rogueboner8138 If someone says this to you seriously, that is an instant signal they know worse than nothing about the man's life, work, or opinions. Disregard any that say his stories are just "racist tales of tentacle monsters." And if these people truly hate Lovecraft so much THEN STOP ADAPTING HIS STORIES. These people are true bullies, belittling the awkward kid while also stealing his homework.
@@TheLeadhound I'm aware there's more to the man than "a cat with a very racist name". I've just heard that bullshit spouted off non-stop "i love c'thulu and Lovecrafts work i just hate what a ism/ist/phobe he was.. ugh separate the art from the artist amirite fellow leftoids?"
@@rogueboner8138 Yeah, I was not calling you out there. I know you were joking. So many are not and think they are enlightened, while ironically being totally ignorant.
Hit the nail on the head. Not just comics, but in books too. Too much young adult Harry Potter Twilight crap. We need to get back to pulp. I actually dabbled a bit in writing my own, but a combination of mediocre writing, and publishers too interested in, well, young adult Harry Potter Twilight crap made sure it'll only ever see life as self-published vanity books on Amazon. ... "Hand of the Death God" and "Herald of the Death God" if anyone is interested by the way, wink wink. Not great, but at least cheap!
"Not great, but at least cheap" Dude, thats the right attitude to have for pulp. Keep pushing it out and keep getting better, even if you have to make it improvisational and spire of the moment, like the old pulp authors did.
My favorite modern-day Pulp Adventure heroine is (classic) Lara Croft, not the new-age "survivor" Lara. Classic Lara was based on Indiana Jones, who was based on Doc Savage, who -- in turn -- was based on Zorro. It's funny how, in tracing their lineage, you can see similarities between all of them. Also, how would you compare Pulp Heroism to Rand's preferred genre of Romantic Realism?
The Fuckin' Rocketeer. I loved that shit when I was a kid. Watched the movie, got into the comics from that. Shame that Disney is shitting on it right now.
What we need is to not only reject modernity, but return to the creation of epics - be it in poetic fashion, in the manner of Tolkien & Howard, rather than just in the form of pulps. I'm not knocking pulps (I love them and just got into Barsoom and am writing a few). But we need a new Lord of the Rings of sorts (I'm working on something approaching the tone and scale) or a Silmarillion, and we need to return also to the days of chevalerie/chivalry in literature and behaviour. It isn't enough to have 'cool' anti-heroes but we need actual heroes Razor, as a glut of anti-heroes is what got us here I would argue. We need more Gauvains & Arthurs and Aragorns, Frodos and Gandalfs, and Conans and Zenobias, not simply Shadows, Batmen and Daredevils. Though on the other hand, if we're to get anti-heroes they need to be elemental and archetypal and great.
I mean Stephen King wrote the Dark Tower which I feel is honoring both the pulps and Lord of The Rings. Have you checked that out? The Dark Tower is most definitely an epic
These early 20th century heroes and culture have always interested me. Weird to think we went from legit badasses like James Cagney, Clint Eastwood, Bruce Lee, Humphrey Bogart, Jimmy Stewart, Christopher Lee and Audie Murphy to... I can't even think of any modern celebs that matches the experiences and charisma of these legends.
batman: "no I cant kill the joker..." a sane person: " you know his body count is over 50 million people..." batman: " No he wins if I kill him..." a sane person: "no srsly just kill the guy you will save a lot of lives..." batman: "IM BATMAN...." *glides away* sigh
DC: Look, man. We need the Joker to milk more adventures out of Batman. Take it or leave it. A sane person: But...considering the world Batman's in, couldn't there be new villains who can challenge Batman physically, mentally and morally? DC: What!? You want us to, like....create NEW characters or something?
Just once, I'd like to see what might happen if, one day, the Joker just gets gunned down, either by some no-name vigilante that's just had enough with his shit or by a bystander who actually knows what the Second Amendment is and doesn't give a flying fuck about big city bleeding heart commie horseshit infringing on the right to self-defense. Of course, knowing modern Batman, considering how he responded to Superman shoving his arm through the Joker's chest cavity after the latter nuked Metropolis in Injustice, he'd go off the deep end and try to bring the killer down despite them objectively doing the world a fucking favor.
@@z3r0_35 Batman selfishly enables the Joker for his own personal obsession. As far as I am concerned, Batman is an accessory to Joker's murders, by not taking him out permanently.
@@blank557 Exactly. Bruce Wayne is insane, if not criminally, then at least negligently. He projects his own fear of losing control of himself onto others, hence his staunch opposition to killing, and to doing so with firearms in particular, even when it's absolutely necessary. The Joker knows this, which is why he often tries to goad Batman into killing him.
Been saying it for years: Joker is like an sjw; he's a threat to society that would be pretty easy to deal with if it wasn't for the so called "righteous" who enable him and keep him from facing just consequences.
That Raymond Chandler introduction you read is one of the best passages ever written in the English language. It is the distilled quintessence of virtuous masculinity in the modern era. Heard it a hundred times, but it never fails to make me say, "Damn. That's SO good."
I love the old pulp stories and heroes, but I still miss me some caped crusading. I wish we could enter an era with the unrestrained creative storytelling of the Silver Age successfully married to the deeper and more sophisticated characterization of the 90s and very early 2000s.
Stick with the runs that you enjoy by good creators. For 50-80 years of ANY character, at least 85% of it IS shit. There's like maybe 5-8 good years of any character that's been around THAT long. I don't want to own all of it. I have too many longboxes of mostly unsellable shit as it is! I just want the stuff that appeals to that 8-12 year old kid in me. I don't like relentlessly dark comics. Marvel and DC have mostly failed since at least the mid-1990s. They didn't go to crap in the last 10 years just because of SJW's. They were failing at least 15 years before that!
@@AvengerII Oh I get it. All you have to do is pull up the Wikipedia page for any character and after 20 seconds of reading your brain is already going to explode from the sheer amount of convoluted, stupid shit in their history. However, even at that they were almost always still "themselves". Its really been the last decade where the characters have transmogrified into unrecognizable, gender-bent parodies of who they were. The 90s may not have been kind to Superman, for example, in terms of the stories, but he was still undeniably the Man of Steel we always imagine him being. That image of hjs core qualities that was stamped so heavily onto him by the 5-10 years of great writing he had received remained. Meanwhike, the same cannot be said of what happened during the New 52 or afterwards. The people who have taken over actively want the dissolution and destruction of everything that came before because they have a bitter and resentful belief that it was all engineered to suppress them.
batman: i dress as a bat because bats are scary, the costume makes me more than a man! The Shadow: I am not what they truly fear, what they fear is the cold cruel hands of justice.
Growing up, we could not afford a TV. But we had a Short Wave Radio. My Brothers and I would stay up late Listening to Radio Shows and Mystery Theater. It was so freaking COOL!!!
Remember that one time when Dave Stevens just included The Shadow in one of the Rocketeer comics without asking anyone permission, to make basically an unofficial crossover? Even better, I read that comic in THE PHANTOM magazine where Rocketeer was a backup. Can you get a better lineup of Pulp/Pulp adjacent heroes?
The lesson to learn here, of course, is that a production that cares more about ticking off the checkboxes and "being current" exponentially reduces marketability and quality. A.K.A.··········· GET WOKE GO BROKE BECOME A JOKE!
