Thu Mar 18, 2010 — by Clifford Meth

The Four Questions with Adam-Troy Castro

As sophists worldwide are aware, HaRav, HaGoan, HaWriter Adam-Troy Castro’s “Dear Magneto” essay is currently challenging more than 3000 years of Talmudic wisdom on the subject of homo-superior-phobia. Consequently, we stood in line, knee-deep in rain and runoff, for nearly sixteen hours along with hundreds of the revered Talmudist’s loyal chassidim, just waiting for a brucha from the tzadik… and once we’d gained an audience, we, in our unmitigated chutzpah, dared post these four kashas to the scholarly sage in the spirit of the coming festival of the Passover.

Why is Magneto different from all other super villains?
Unlike the vast majority of super-villains (among them Graviton, who "can crack the planet in two and still can't get laid"), Magneto has character; he's been wronged, he has a case, he's pursued his ideals to their logical extreme and, like a tragic Shakespearean villain, it has brought him nothing but personal tragedy. He has lost his friends (Xavier), his wife (Magda), the love of his children (Wanda and Pietro), the respect of the people who could have become his community (the X-Men) and his potential (which, it's clear, was limitless; a man with his smarts could have changed the world for the better). Magneto is a guy who made all the wrong decisions for all the right reasons, and my "open letter" can be seen as an attempt at an intervention.

How does a serious science-fiction writer read comics—sitting or reclining?
Eating.

Your X-essay is getting lots of attention--and rightly so. Is it read best when dipping or not dipping?
It must be read, footnotes and all, at one sitting for the full effect.

Which Jewish comic character would you like to write and would Doc Samson eat matzoh, or is that too high in carbs?
Benjamin J. Grimm. Or that other famous Jew, Kal-El. (Actually, I always suspected the '70s Oliver Queen of being Jewish; he had the attitude.) I don't know if Doc Samson eats matzoh or not, but I'm sure as hell happy that Bruce Banner doesn't. The last thing we need is the Hulk, constipated.

Rashi notes that HaRav Adam-Troy Castro (the Hugo-, Nebula- and Stoker-nominated author who has also penned four Spider-Man novels) is also responsible for the Andrea Cort novels, EMISSARIES FROM THE DEAD and THE THIRD CLAW OF GOD; and the upcoming illustrated books Z IS FOR ZOMBIE and V IS FOR VAMPIRE, both with Johnny Atomic. There’s some secret projects that he’s working on, too, but that would be telling.

For more Semitic ado about nothing, visit EVERYONE’S WRONG AND I’M RIGHT (the blog of author Clifford Meth) at thecliffordmethod.blogspot.com.

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