The 2010 Eisner Awards

Well, something has happened that manage to rouse me out of my long period of no updates.  James Robinson was nominated for an Eisner Award for his work on Cry for Justice.

What the hell?

James Robinson has produced great work . . . in the past.  Cry for Justice is the worst comic series he has ever written.  The villain's a Gary Stu, the plot has more holes than swiss cheese, all the characters behave radically differently from their previously established personalities, the plot meanders.  The comic tries to take itself seriously while using juvenile humor.  The only thing that could be considered good is the art, and even that really isn't spectacular.

Not only that but every single death is meaningless.  Robinson doesn't bother introducing the characters before having them killed off, so any drama or emotion that could have come from the deaths is completely absent.  The only emotion invoked is anger by fans who liked the characters that got killed off in order to write this piece of garbage.  Prometheus Gary Stu is the only character who gets any real panel time before his death, and he's written wildly out of character.

And that's not even getting into the rather unfortunate implications of having a majority of the dead being members of one minority group or another.  Or the fact that Freedom Beast's death is treated as being less important than the deaths of a bunch of animals.

If James Robinson wins an Eisner award because of this, it's proof that the Eisner Awards are meaningless.  The fact that Robinson was even nominated for one is an insult to all the other writers who were nominated.

Cry for Justice: In Memoriam (SPOILERS)

James Robinson has gotten a lot of heat for Cry for Justice.  Some fans have been particularly outraged by his choice of victims, or rather, the minority status of the characters.

Frankly, I don't think there was anything malicious about his choice of victims.  I don't think Robinson is a bigot, racist or sexist.  I think it was just crappy writing.  But, to be fair, here is a complete list of all the characters who were killed off in Cry for Justice (not counting nameless civilians).

Tony- gay black man (Mikaal/Starman's boyfriend)
Freedom Beast- black South African man
Houngan- black Haitian man (presumed dead)
Clayface- white man
Tasmanian Devil- gay Australian man
Gloss- Chinese woman
Sandstorm- Syrian man
Penny Dreadful- white woman
Arak- Native American man
Endless Winter- white woman
Lian Harper- LITTLE GIRL, also part Vietnamese
Prometheus Gary Stu- white man

Note that the only two white men killed are villains.  Every other character who dies is either gay, female, non-white or some combination of the three.  Of the dead, only Prometheus Gary Stu gets a proper introduction before his death.  Everyone else dies within a couple pages of their first appearance (if they appear alive at all).

This adds another level of discomfort and disgust for anyone unfortunate enough to read Cry for Justice. But that doesn't make Robinson a sexist, racist or bigot.  And I don't believe for a second that he is a sexist, racist or bigot.  James Robinson has a very multicultural, inclusive method for killing off characters

It doesn't matter what their gender, orientation, nationality, ethnicity or age is.  No character is safe.