Post THE FOUR HUNDRED NINETY-SIXTH, In Which I Use the Term "Sheeple" Ironically While Raging Against Irony (See, That's What Makes it Ironic)

   I've noticed I still haven't answered my question why. Why put up with the haters? The furries and the bronies and the Juggalos. Twihards? Yeah, I guess that too, but I don't think it's the in thing to do to mack on Twihards as much anymore, so disregard that.

   Still, we continue our love of these things in spite opposition. The stuff we like is just too awesome to ignore. Some say that we take on these hobbies and identities as a means to sap pity from other people because we're too poor to earn sympathy or respect any other way. Or there's the claims levied against those on the internet who claim autism, but in reality are just acting like jerks or doing some other socially unacceptable behaviors and getting away with it by hiding behind claims of persecution.

   While both of these are admittedly some evil genius ideas, I don't think that's it at all. To me, it's more earnest, more eager. These are the true fans, divorced from ideas of fanboyishness or even fanaticism.

   There's a bunch of counterculture hipsters who attend Burning Man, and-- I don't want to use the term irony, but this fits the very definition of irony, so here we go-- it's ironic. They're traveling there, but they're doing it in droves, man. They're like hippie sheeple. You can't be a slave to your own free spirit. I mean, you can, but you shouldn't, so you can't. Don't be a slave to your own free spirit, is what I'm getting at. Yeah. You can't be a slave to your own free spirit. That's just a waste of your own life, only made worse through the illusion that it's not.

   There's the jaded post-modern view on the world, where things can only be enjoyed ironically. Still, I don't think even the hipsteriest of all of the hipsters is going to enjoy Insane Clown Posse in anything but a sincere manner. Obviously, there could be a sincere joy of mocking it, but the enjoyment would be sincere nonetheless. Maybe I'm just raging at strawmen, who knows.

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   And now, finally, my first 24 hour comic, for your enjoyment. It's been a long buildup, but here it is now... tomorrow. It's gonna be comin' atsha one page at a time, if you feel you can handle it. I feel saying any more would be giving too much away, so, we'll start with the cover page and work our way from there. One page at a time. This

1. allows you to soak it all in, and 
2. it allows me to stall for posts. 

   But, seriously, I think it might take a while to digest, so this'll let you take it leisurely. Allow you to catch the little details so that the plot is less confusing? Remember, this is a comic whose pages I took one hour each on, plus the cover page and plot that ties these together, so each of these pages deserves its own special post, darn it.

We imagine space as being black. But it’s not. It’s blindingly brilliant.

   The keyboard is smudged and dirty from where people have struck the keys. The ones that are hardly used are the cleanest. Pale white, and lonely. Poor Q. Poor X. The home row, ASDF, is the dirtiest, with S being the most smudged and each letter from that gradually getting cleaner. Poor J. E and R are very used, an island of stain in a glittery white top row. The letters surrounding E and R, W and T, are also slightly smudged, but other than that, the top row is pretty pristine. If you stare at the keyboard and squint, you can begin to see the original intention of the guy who designed the keyboard in the first place, back when the letters needed to be spaced out to prevent typewriters from jamming.

Man of Steel

You will give the people an ideal to strive towards. They will race behind you, they will stumble, they will fall. But in time, they will join you in the sun. In time, you will help them accomplish wonders.

   Do we want our superheroes realistic? Do we want them as ideals? Our heroes used to exist in fantasy universes, then when we found that we could not pull ourselves up to their level, we dragged them down and brought them down to ours. Do we go to superheroes because they represent realism? Or is it now about how any one of us could be a hero?

   Superman has always been an ideal, which dis-intuitively inspires us more than if our heroes were more "realistic." The recent Dark Knight trilogy brings this to the head, where arguably it's the everyday citizens, and even everyday criminals, who are more capable of heroism than our protagonist.

   Superman is both. He's always been Superman. And he's always been Clark Kent. Jor-El's speech in the trailer is the perfect metaphor here, coming out at the perfect time: we as an audience may not be ready for a Big Blue Boy Scout, and we may not even deserve it, but that's what we're getting, because that's what we need.