Thursday, March 13, 2008

Please update your dictionaries...

I really liked the word “JephLoeberizing,” as Savage Critic Jeff Lester uses it in his review of the very expensive and, apparently, not very well-regarded first issue of Brian K.Vaughan and Eduardo Risso’s Logan miniseries.

In fact, I liked the word so much that I thought I'd contact Lester and, since he had already used it in a sentence, see if he could provide a dictionary-style definition of the term to make its future usage easier.

He responded that JephLoeberization is " a symptom in today's comics that will likely only increase.  Future generations should know that we were, at the least, aware of, although almost helpless against, this phenomenon."

So let's start by naming and defining said phenomenon, huh?

Here's the definition of the term Lester provided:


JephLoeberize (Jeph'·Loeb'·er'-ize)  [Jehf-Lobe-uh-rahyz] verb (used with object). (-ized, -iz'·ing). 1.) To take real-life people or historical events and fictionalize them for the purposes of a "shocking" page reveal: Vaughan really JephLoeberized that last page of Logan #1 by putting Wolverine at Hiroshima just before the bomb. 2.) To reduce a story to a sequence of "shocking" page reveals, usually single- or double-page splashes, to maximize fan appeal while minimizing story's ability to have any impact on its own terms: OMG, Fraction really JephLoeberized that last issue of Punisher: War Journal by making Frank's new assistant turn out to be Jigsaw's sexy sister, and having Bridge turn out to be a time-traveling Uncle Ben in blackface.
noun. (-ization). 1.) The process by which one JephLoeberizes a comic book story: The JephLoberization of Marvel required a full-page reveal of Black Panther and Storm be injected into your already-nonsensical story of a sentient race of immortal cat-people. 2.) The process by which one JephLoeberizes a standard for telling a comic book story: Oh, great. Thanks to JephLoeberization, every comic now reads like Ultimates V3 #1.

6 comments:

  1. Anonymous8:21 PM

    I've read a number of good reviews of BKV's Logan - and all from people who said they were tired of Wolverine.

    -arch 14

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  2. Anonymous9:38 PM

    Just get set for Ultimatum, when Ultimate Galactus, Ultimate Beyonder, Ultimate Supreme Intelligence, Ultimate Shaper of Worlds, and analogues for Batman and Superman guest star for a huge event that completely misses the point of why people originally liked the Ultimate books.

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  3. Anonymous6:07 AM

    Yeah, and Marvel should go ahead and switch "Ultimate" by "JephLoeberized". As in "JephLoeberized X-Men", "The JephLoeberizeds" and "JephLoeberizum".

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  4. So, can you give me some examples of what Loeb's done to get this reputation? I"m honestly not all that familiar with his writing. Not saying I'm enjoying Ultimates too much right now, but I'm reading that over-wrought title and getting some enjoyment from it. Anyway, again, tell me what Loeb's done to get this rep?? Thanks much.
    Troy

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  5. Yeah...I'm not a huge fan of Wolverine, but I did love LOGAN. It was my book of the week. You can't hold Loeb's potential overuse of such twists against every writer who does it in the future. Just not fair.

    Mind you...the new vocabulary words are wonderful. I just don't like the moment that someone used for their inspiration to create them. ;)

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  6. Anyway, again, tell me what Loeb's done to get this rep??

    I hate to say "I reccomend" in this context but, well, I'd reccomend you try any of his Superman/Batman run, Supergirl (first five or six issues were his), his recent Wolverine arc, Ultimate Power and that thing with Liefeld he just did for Marvel. That's generally considered the bad Loeb. Maybe Hush (opinions vary on that last one). Good Loeb work tends to be the stuff with Sale, although even some of that can be bad (Spider-Man: Blue, for example).

    Part of the reason he has such a bad rep is that he has done some pretty great stuff, so when he spends six issues telling you Wolverine's a super-evolved wolf man who hates blondes and all the hairy mutants are also wolf-men too or whatever, it seems extra disappointing.

    I haven't been reading Ultimates, but I was sorely tempted when I saw the "Suck it!" cover. It looks too stupid not to be a little fun...

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