John Ostrander: Too Much

John Ostrander

John Ostrander started his career as a professional writer as a playwright. His best known effort, Bloody Bess, was directed by Stuart Gordon, and starred Dennis Franz, Joe Mantegna, William J. Norris, Meshach Taylor and Joe Mantegna. He has written some of the most important influential comic books of the past 25 years, including Batman, The Spectre, Manhunter, Firestorm, Hawkman, Suicide Squad, Wasteland, X-Men, and The Punisher, as well as Star Wars comics for Dark Horse. New episodes of his creator-owned series, GrimJack, which was first published by First Comics in the 1980s, appear every week on ComicMix.

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1 Response

  1. My reactions to the other Robert Langdon books have largely been the same as your reaction to INFERNO. (Although I could’t believe in THE DA VINCI CODE that Langdon couldn’t figure out what was meant by “Newton’s Orb.” I certainly know right away what it meant. And I couldn’t believe in THE LOST SYMBOL that no one could figure out where the Mason’s Pyramid was in Washington DC, as I thought the concept of a famed pyramid in Washington DC practically screamed its location.

    My reaction to INFERNO was, however, a bit stronger. I actively disliked the book. And I disliked it for one basic reason

    SPOILER WARNING!!!

    I’m probably about to reveal more about the ending of INFERNO that you want to know if you haven’t read it but plan to. So if that’s the case, stop reading this comment!

    And now some scroll space, before I continue.
    *
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    *
    *
    *
    *
    *

    An NO POINT in the book was anyone in jeopardy. No one was trying to kill Langdon, they were just manipulating him, so that he overcome his amnesia and be able to assist them. No one was trying to release a new version of the plague into the world to kill 2/3 of the population. The virus that was released only turned 2/3 of the earth sterile, so that the population would go down in the coming years. And nothing anyone did in the book could possibly have any affect, as the virus had already been released into the world before it even began.

    I finished the book and asked myself, why did I bother? No one was ever in jeopardy and nothing any of our heroes did mattered at all.

    Bob