Spider-man Shrugged

I somehow stumbled on some articles about Steve Ditko (the original artist for Spider-man, Dr. Strange, Shade, the Changing Man, and The Question.

I did not know, until now, that Ditko was an Objectivist (a philosophy that I consider to be pretty much morally bankrupt). Not just an Objectivist, but really Objectivist.

According to some sources, he quit Marvel because:

Stan Lee had wanted a villain called "The Green Goblin" to have an alter ego of a prominent businessman, and Ditko objected both to the heavy-handed ultimatum requiring this development and the notion that a career criminal might prosper in commerce among free men. He saw criminals as, essentially, bums who turned to criminal methods out of lack of the necessary grit to succeed at honorable callings. Lee persisted, Ditko quit Marvel Comics

I have never read (or even seen copies of) Ditko's Mr. A, which is apparently the most political of his work, but I was interested in the suggestion that Rorschach (of The Watchmen) was basically a fusion and satire of The Question and Mr. A. What's especially weird is that, I guess, Ditko really kinda believed the stuff that Rorschach believed (although the misogyny is probably an invention).

Here's an amusing quotation I found:

[An essay in The Comics Journal] relates the great story about how Kirby wanted the Him/Warlock story of Fantastic Four #66-67 to be a critique of objectivism, but Lee gutted it, which led to their falling out. Very interesting. "When I peel off the mask of the supervillain, all I see is the face of Ayn Rand, the philosopher-bitch who managed to outdo Yoko Ono and blast apart two of the 1960's most creative partnerships."

Shocking LEGO developments

So, I was hanging out in the toy store the other day and noticed that the people in the latest Harry Potter media tie-in LEGO aren't yellow.

According to LEGO press releases, this appears to have started last year with a set of NBA basketball sets.

I vaguely recall reading a study that suggested that kids play with media tie-in toys less creatively than "generic" toys like LEGO used to be, so I think I'm kinda against the new trend of media tie-in LEGO.