We have taken the list of the Top Money Makers of the Decade and we are doing the “Question Entertainment Lightning Round”
I hope you like it. Let us know your thoughts.

See them all at http://www.youtube.com/user/1ThessFIVE21and22#p/c/A4E6B15329949FF4

The Incredibles

I’ve been thinking about metatextuality the last few days. Although there are many types of metatexuality, I’ve been concentrating on fictional narratives in which a character understands that he/ she is a part of a film, television show, or comic book. I watched the Woody Allen movie Whatever Works last night  in which the lead character (played by Larry David) is the only person who knows that he is in a film. That made me think about the old Bruce Willis and Cybill Shepherd television Moonlighting, in which both actors openly “broke the fourth wall” and talked to the viewing audience. Although these instances certainly exist in film and television, I believe that the comic book is the ultimate metatextual popular culture art form. Although Grant Morrison’s run on Animal Man, in which the title superhero gets to meet his creator, is probably the most well-known, the history of comic books is filled with metatextual stories. Stan Lee and Jack Kirby not being allowed into Reed Richards and Sue Storm’s wedding in Fantastic Four Annual #3. Action Comics #554 in which two children have to create Superman so that he can save the world. Fantastic Four #511 where Jack Kirby is God. The Julie Schwartz 70th birthday issue in Superman #411. Or even the latest Superboy/ Superman/ Superboy Prime Stories in Adventure Comics. Not to mention numerous cover in which a lead character speaks directly to the audience. After giving it some thought, I believe that superhero comic books by their very nature are metatextual. Superhero stories are the new American mythology. This hero narrative consists of hundreds of thousands of stories and works to explain American life.  The two leading publishers, Marvel and DC, have crafted intricate universes for over seventy years and all of these stories fit together to create possibly the most detailed mythology ever written. (DC and Marvel’s heroes have interacted many times and from this viewpoint it would be fair to say that the two universes are now one shared mythology.) These comic book mythologies are built on the same things that all mythologies are; belief. The heroes and their stories exist because the readers say they do. Although the writers give create the characters, the readers give them life. Except for promotion events like his “death,” Superman has appeared in multiple stories every month for over seventy years. He, and other heroes, become a part of the fabric of reader’s lives and no longer are just characters but weekly/ monthly friends. A television show or a movie series are periodic and rarely follow a set schedule. They also always end. A comic book can be counted on to appear monthly (or close to it unless the creative team is terribly late.) This creates a relationship with the reader that is metatextual by nature. The reader becomes part of the hero’s universe and the hero becomes part of his/her’s. Although the hero is not always shown to be metatexually aware, the reader often assumes he/she because of the ongoing relationship. This creates a connection that is rare in any other medium. No wonder I can’t stop buying comic books.

Fantastic Four #12 - Look at Hulk's 3 toes!

 I got a busted up copy of this historic comic – but man, it is a prized piece in the collection!  I love it!  I won this off ebay for a very affordable price – the sad truth is – it wasn’t the best transaction… but I don’t care!  I don’t let that sour admiring the historic comic – I love it!  Now here’s something interesting… I asked 10 random Comic fans on the forums I visit to tell me what happened in the first 12 issues of FF.  I told them they couldn’t look it up – it had to be from memory.  Here’s what happened:

All 10 of them knew #1 – they could even describe the cover.  Most (meaning all but 1) knew that #5 was the first appearance of Doom.  But the other issues were sporadically unknown.  Some knew, but most didn’t.  Except #12 – ALL TEN knew FF #12 was the Hulk guest shot.  Imagine that… I mean, I know that’s far from concrete evidence – but I found that pretty cool!

If you’ve never read the issue – it’s a pretty fun read.  The Hulk doesn’t show up until the last quarter of the comic – but he takes on the FF, he beats Johnny by applauding, beats Reed by twirling – and the Thing and Hulk’s fight gets interrupted – which is good for the Thing… but Sue doesn’t have her force field ability yet – so she’s pretty useless until the end – or that’s how Stan wrote her anyways.

December 19, 2009

Monday night was magical. My sexy girlfriend and I (she’s a model) took a limo into the city, ate a fabulous dinner at a fancy restaurant, saw a Broadway show, and spent the night in a luxurious mid-town hotel. At least that is what I’ve been telling people.

Truth is I did no such thing. Well, I did go into the city, I did eat a meal, and I sort-of saw a Broadway show. You see, I tend to stretch the truth. Makes me feel like a big shot.

In reality, my brother and I took the train into the city to see the Rangers, AKA “The Broadway Blues” at MSG. So I say I did see a “Broadway show.” Sue me.

We started our Mid-Town sojourn at one of the greatest gifts Manhattan can bestow: Mid-Town Comics. They don’t need me to plug them but for the sake of taking up space in this blog I’ll do it. If there is something comic book related, they have it. If they don’t have it you don’t need it. They have two floors full of stuff that just compels the money out of your wallet. You don’t even know it. Walk in and ten minutes later you are standing at the register behind a pile of stuff Webster couldn’t see over while the guy behind the counter calls in your credit card and asks for a credit line increase. It is that good. There must be some magic in that old silk hat they found, how else to explain all the people buying $100 Wolverine busts?

If Mid-Town Comics has a problem, it is the one thing they don’t have and desperately need: a way in. As I said, they are two floors of the best stuff a comic book nerd could ever want. Trouble is, the two floors are the second and third floors of a building. The first floor is taken up by souvlaki stands, fake Rolex shops, the World’s Smelliest T-Shirt Shop, and an unmarked door guarded by a large bald man in sunglasses and a leather coat that must have taken the combined hides of four cows to make.

To get to the comics shop, you have to climb up a staircase to the second floor, a long straight climb without a landing. I assume there is a handicapped entrance somewhere- maybe the bald guy is guarding it. Aside from the long climb, the main trouble with the staircase is that it is too narrow. I hope no building inspectors are reading this. The staircase is too narrow for two people to pass. If someone is walking down and you want go up, you have to wait for the person to get to the bottom. Even if the guy going down the stairs is 96 years old, takes the stairs one step at a time and then waits to catch his breath, you’re stuck waiting.

I stepped on the bottom step to go up at the same time as someone stepped on the top step to go down.

We stopped.

I stared up.
She stared down.
I squinted at her, Larry David style.
She kept staring.

My brother said “oh this is bullshit!” and pushed past me and went upstairs. I followed along, and when we got to the top the woman kept staring at me. Who cares? I was where I wanted to go.

A lot of people have a wrong idea of comic book readers. They expect fat guys in Fantastic Four t-shirts and old baseball caps. Nothing could be further from the truth. Mid-Town Comics was crowded with men in business suits, guys in casual office wear, women in smart skirts. In fact, the only fat guy in a Fantastic Four t-shirt and an old baseball cap that day was me.

I spent about $80 to stimulate the economy (including a George Perez JLA collection and a hardcover of The Return of the Sinister Six. I tell you this in case you were going to get me either of these as a Christmas present.) and somehow managed to avoid the allure of the $100 Wolverine busts. We went to go back down the stairs and damn if there wasn’t a 96 year-old man coming up the stairs one at a time, catching his breath at every step.

Twenty minutes later we were down the stairs and on our way to eat.

TO BE CONTINUED

X-Factor #200

So our super powered Investigators have moved out to New York again to take advantage of a larger superpowered populace. However, not all of our PIs have embarked on this little journey–Madrox (AKA Multiple Man) and Terry (AKA Siryn) have gone their separate ways after their last encounter, which is probably smart cause Terry promised to break Jamie’s neck if she saw him again, and this Irish beauty is a lady of her word. However, apparently finding a base of operation seemed to be difficult for Madrox because the new X-Factor is currently running out of an abandoned funeral home, morgue and hearse included! Everyone quick, to the X-Hearse!

So the New York investigators include our doppelganger leader Jamie Madrox (AKA Multiple Man), super strong tank Guido Carosella (AKA Strong Guy), adaptive powered Armando Muñoz (AKA Darwin), genetically engineered mutant Gaveedra-Seven/Benjamin Russel (AKA Shatterstar), depowered earthshaker Julio Esteban “Ric” Richter (AKA Rictor), and probability manipulator Longshot while Monet St. Croix (AKA M) and Terry Cassidy (AKA Siryn) have stayed back in Detroit, however it is later revealed that Terry closed down her office of investigation.

The issue opens up with two shady characters burying the body of some unknown victim. Having a little banter among the two, the one gravedigger is quickly dematerialized after the body is buried and we come to find out the man who is behind this is none other than Reed Richards, Mr Fantastic! Or at least it appears to him. What is America’s superhero celebrity doing burying bodies?

Well we quickly learn from his two children, Valeria and Franklin Richards, that The Invisible Woman has gone missing and their father is acting casual about the disappearance of their mother. The super-powered geniuses finally get the assistance of Madrox and the crew after a few puns about the disappearance of the Invisible Woman.

Also as a side note, a few cute panels are dedicated to Rictor and Shatterstar sitting around watching a movie together. I love their relationship, and I also love how the writers aren’t afraid of making them real about it too. Guido’s banter, Madrox’s statement, “Who didn’t know about Rictor and Shatterstar”, and just the general feel the two of them have for each other. I’m a supporter of this as a positive image of gays in comics. Score one for X-Queers!

Anywho, also as a side note, what the hell is Terry doing!? Sleeping with Deadpool… Not only is that disgusting but… what the hell, random? While we never see the Merc with a Mouth in any of the panels his costume is strewed across what appears to be Terry’s apartment floor and his characteristic yellow speech bubbles are everywhere with typical Wade Wilson craziness. Oh jeez… what are you doing with your life Siryn?

Well, as the Madrox, Strong Guy, and Shatterstar make their way with the Fantastic kids to confront Mr. Fantastic about the disappearance of his wife, a Madox dupe and Rictor head around the Fantastic Four base to find some clues to what might have happened to Susan. To maintain Rictor and the dupes secrecy, Guido starts a fight with the thing to buy the pair some time to snoop. However, Valeria is quick to catch onto what Madrox plan was, which gives Madrox the feeling that Reed Richards too picked up on the crews plan–however, Mr. Fantastic didn’t do anything to stop them. Something is up.

Meanwhile, back at the base, Monet comes back to try to get Madrox to accompany her to Ireland and talk to Terry who is becoming more and more distant but is quick to judge the funeral home/base and finds a presumably dead Longshot in the morgue. However, it appears that in a drunken stupor the luck manipulator had fallen asleep inside one of the body compartments. However Val Cooper comes to deliver some bad news to M, telling her that her father has been captured by terrorists with plans to behead him on TV. Their only comprise, is M in exchange for her father.

Best line of the entire issue though is when Madrox returns to headquarters to stumble upon M and Val in the middle of discussing what they are going to do about her father: “And… Val…? Are you two together? Not… in the romantic sense, I mean, but…” Love the gayos (gay + chaos).

M asking for some space, gives the crew a chance to piece over the clues they found over at the Richards facility. A single bobbypin that was found in the Fantasticar (lamest name ever) leads to Longshot using his abilities of psychometry to view what happened to the Invisible Woman. This leads him to following Susan through some sort of portal that brings him face to face with what appears to be a cloaked Layla Miller who states she is in Latveria–nation ruled by Doctor Doom.

The story then crosses over to Ireland where Terry is standing before her father’s grave (wonder if this is going to have any relavance or noting in Necrosha sense papa Cassidy is out and about being all TO zombified) rather confused about her life. Madrox then appears behind her and asks if she could us some help, which leads her to clobbering him across the face. However, we quickly find out that this is the dupe of Madrox that is a priest. The pair follow the sound of a gunshot which leads to a pair of idiotic hunters who accidentally kill a baby deer. This leans Siryn to use her powers and scare away the hunters while she laments over her past on the shoulders of the dupe of Madrox.

Rating: 4/5 art is nice, story is looking good, heading in the right direction

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The last installment of this epic list-making enterprise comes a day after the Times ran their own 100 movies of the decade list, and as expected, within moments of looking at it I regretted missing out two fantastic films: Battle Royale and School of Rock. Actually, the first movie is one I’ve only seen once, and though I remember loving it it’s been so long I’d like another chance to reappraise it at some point.

This is something that has come up frequently in our house, which contains two hardcore fans of Suzanne Collins’ fantastic Hunger Games series. Though Battle Royale — itself based on a novel by Koushun Takami — has high dementedness value, it’s arguable that Collins’ YA novel features a similarly hardline ethos. When I read it I was surprised by Collins’ willingness to take her characters to some extremely dark places. That said, Battle Royale does have one thing over Hunger Games: Chiaki Kurigama as the deadly Takako Chigusa, in a performance so eerily amoral that Tarantino hired her to play GoGo Yubari in Kill Bill Part 1. She is terrifying.

There’s a good chance watching that again might convince me it should have reached the top 100, but I already know for sure I screwed up with School of Rock. It’s one of my all-time favourite movies, and one I had only just recently had a chat about with friends of Daisyhellcakes, so there really is no excuse for missing it off. I’m a fan of Jack Black and tend to ignore criticisms of him, especially when he has recently excelled as my beloved Po in Kung Fu Panda: a role that he was born to play. I even liked him in the not-great-but-not-terrible-either Year One, and thought pairing him with Michael Cera was an inspired choice that needed to have been made on a better movie. So yeah, considering School of Rock is the perfect vehicle for him, mixing his endearing/obnoxious immaturity and his sincerity better than almost anything he has been involved with.

I’ve heard some people criticise Richard Linklater for selling out and making a mainstream movie, but the level of commitment from everyone involved — and Linklater’s surprising facility with the most likeable cast of teenagers ever assembled for a movie — marks this as a triumph for dedicated filmmaking no matter what studio it was made for. I’m so pissed that I missed this off: it would definitely have been in the top 30, maybe even top 20. This omission tells me it’s been too long since I’ve seen it.

And what do you know, Jack Black appears in one of the top five movies as a very angry biker, and Richard Linklater directed another of them. It’s as if it was meant to be. Remember, this list has been built with one important caveat: I’m not including movies from this year as I’ve not yet had time to get acquainted with them. As a result I’m going from 1999 – 2008. This might seem silly considering everyone else is doing it from 2000 – 2009, but I feel safer sticking with movies I know well instead of including stuff from this year that I’ll just go off in time, and if I started it in 2000 I’d only be considering 9 years of films. Also this timeframe matches my arrival in The Big Smoke, and so has subjective value. The reason why this special list-ruining rule is important now will become clear very soon…

5. Anchorman

What had seemed, before release, to be little more than a one-joke movie about 70s fashion and workplace sexual prejudice was something much, much more than that: a Dada-esque parody of a vast number of cinema and TV cliches, racing past the dreary pastiche of the 70s that it could have been, and coming to rest in a parallel universe where all bets were off. Ferrell and director/co-writer Adam McKay slaved over the script and rehearsed with their incredible cast for months before shooting began to come up with as many alternate lines as possible, and even had two B-plots, allowing them to construct a “sequel” — Wake Up, Ron Burgundy — from the leftover scraps. Freed of storytelling logic, and willing to play with audience expectations, the viewer has no idea what will come next. A crazed Yazz Flute solo? A huge fight between rival news teams? A dog talking to a bear? No matter what they threw at you, it made a kind of twisted sense in this baffling world. At the risk of sounding like boring nerds, it’s a rare day when we don’t quote Anchorman in some capacity, which is either testament to our lameness, or the almost infinite genius of this film. It deserves a place in the Comedy Hall of Fame alongside Blazing Saddles, Duck Soup, Sleeper, This Is Spinal Tap, and Airplane!

Best Moment: There are countless wonderful scenes and lines in this, but this moment from a deleted scene shows how even the alternate versions of the finalised movie featured incredible moments. Not only is Ferrell’s hysteria inspired, check out how Brian Fantana (Paul Rudd) races into the studio. Perhaps that’s what I like about this: every time there is an opportunity for a stupid joke, Ferrell and co. take it.

4. Before Sunset

Richard Linklater’s Before Sunrise was the perfect romantic movie for those who shared the ages of the onscreen couple of Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy. Their impulsive and idealistic romance would most appeal to those who had not yet reached a point in life where hopping off a train in Vienna to spend time with a complete stranger would seem like a terribly risky idea. Going back to that movie as I grew older, its appeal remained, but more and more it seemed like a fantasy. The sequel came at exactly the right moment, just as I had suddenly decided to take an impulsive step of my own, and so my first experience of seeing it was already ripe with subjective emotion. Even to those who were not embarking on their own journey of romantic discovery when first seeing this, surely its intelligence and careful expansion of the themes of the first movie would impress them. Bravely showing how Jesse and Céline have changed and matured in the nine years since their first meeting, Linklater uses its real-time format to cram in as much discussion about the nature of love, regret, and the effect of time on memory as he possibly can, with his two leads improving on their already impressive work from the first movie. Without a doubt, it’s the most profound and most life-affirming romantic movie ever made.

Best Moment: For much of its length it feels like a realistic riposte and negation of the flighty romanticism of the original, pitching it perfectly at an audience that had been optimistic when seeing the first film, but were maybe feeling less romantic when seeing the second. Linklater’s masterstroke comes in the final moments, where he shows those who might have “grown up” that maybe that impulsiveness was still something to aspire to. Objectively, an amazing note to end on. Subjectively, it was an unnervingly accurate depiction of what I was going through there and then. I will be eternally grateful to all who worked on it.

3. Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World

If ever a movie was crying out to be made into a franchise, it’s this one. Peter Weir’s phenomenally entertaining adaptation of Patrick O’Brian’s Aubrey-Maturin series is pure joy from beginning to end. Russell Crowe was criticised by fans of the series as being wrong for the role, but he is utterly believable as a man who is a fool on land but a genius at sea. Paul Bettany as the stiff Maturin is less of a stretch, but his work is just as endearing, and the relationship between them both is perfectly played. With Aubrey as Kirk and Maturin as an amalgam of Spock and Bones, it’s almost like watching an episode of Star Trek, though easily the best one ever made. With a humbling attention to detail only matched by Peter Jackson, a mastery of mood and pace borne of years of making underrated classics, and the understanding of cinema’s power that would drive even the most cynical audience to the edge of its seat, director Weir has created a modern marvel with seeming effortlessness. A repeated refrain — from myself, Daisyhellcakes, film critic Anne Billson, and several other people who I have seen this movie with and watched their indifference transformed into awestruck adoration — is that it could have continued for another two hours and it wouldn’t have been a chore. On the contrary. I, and many others, would love to see this series go on for as many movies as can be made from O’Brian’s books, and have leaped on every scrap of sequel news as if it were a liferaft. If I ever win a EuroMillions rollover, bankrolling a new movie will be my first — and biggest — splurge.

Best Moment: Too many to mention, with multiple high notes including Crowe’s bluff performance, Bettany’s lovable snootiness, exquisitely rendered battle scenes, and an amusing side-trip to the Galapagos for Stephen Maturin, here portrayed as a proto-Darwin. It’s impossible to find clips that haven’t been tampered with, so let this review from Roger Ebert and Richard Roeper stand in their place. Basically, what they said, and then some. It’s a magnificent adventure.

2. The Incredibles

The only bad thing I can say about Brad Bird’s superhero movie is that it renders moot any attempt to make a Fantastic Four movie, which of course didn’t stop 20th Century Fox from trying and failing to do just that. Twice. In the space of a single movie Bird showed us how flexible Stan Lee and Jack Kirby’s original creations were by adapting the “Superfamily” metaphor into the tale of an actual family of Supers, forced (like the JSA) to hide their powers from an increasingly hostile public. From there Bird is free to satirise our litigious culture, paralysed by bureaucracy, all while providing entertainment on a level even the best of Pixar had yet to achieve. Though criticism has been levelled at him for making a movie that seemed to celebrate Ayn Rand’s Objectivist philosophy — with the exceptional people of the world forced to curb their efforts to change the world by those who are less exceptional — as with Ratatouille Bird is merely interested in seeing people using their knowledge and skills to help others instead of taking shortcuts and chasing fame and fortune (Syndrome and Linguini both over-reach, misunderstanding the importance of experience and intelligence, though at least Linguini learns his lesson and finds a way to excel in the final act).

What could be more inspirational than saying you should be true to yourself and then use your talents to make the world a better place? And what could be more thrilling than Bird’s staging of some of the greatest superhero moments ever committed to film? With the help of Michael Giacchino’s rousing, playful score, and some of the best voicework of recent times (No surprise that Craig T. Nelson’s best performance is found here, but could this be Holly Hunter’s finest moment too?), Bird delivers a series of bravura setpieces, respectfully paying homage to early James Bond movies and classic 50s and 60s superhero tales while still keeping things fresh. As I’ve said before, this was the decade in which the superhero genre came into its own, but it was The Incredibles that represented the ultimate expression of the things that make superheroes appealing: it’s inspiring, it’s fun, and it’s spectacular. Pixar will struggle to top this beautiful moment. If I was compiling a list of movies released between 2000 and 2009, it would be number one with a bullet.

Best Moment: An early trailer for The Incredibles made it seem like a mere superhero spoof. Though those movies can be fun (Kinka Usher and Neil Cuthbert’s entertaining adaptation of Bob Burden’s Mystery Men was another movie that could have found a place on this list), I had hoped for more from Pixar. As it progressed a seriousness of purpose became apparent beneath the brightly-coloured surface, but when Helen Parr and her children Dash and Violet are fired upon by Syndrome it becomes clear that the stakes here are deadly serious. At that moment, The Incredibles went from being a good movie to a truly great one, something that touched on every emotion in the spectrum. I was utterly smitten, and have been ever since.

1. The Matrix

For those who know me, this is no surprise (and before anyone accuses me, my fudging of the parameters of this list was not an intentional move to allow me to wax rhapsodic about it). However, to anyone who has come through this list expecting a more respected movie, this might come as a disappointment. Though it was admired on release, familiarity and two unloved sequels have made it easy to forget how groundbreaking this was. SF fans who were once thrilled to see a cerebral and exciting science fiction film have long since decided that this is as embarrassing and soft-SF as other unloved and bone-headed mainstream efforts. It’s not hard-SF, I have heard. It’s just a pastiche of Philip K. Dick’s ideas, a brainless and shallow action flick that pisses faux-profundities down its leg like a village idiot dressed like a goth. Admitting to loving this movie has proved as fraught as saying I loved Titanic. Which I didn’t. But I’ve heard enough anti-Matrix complaints to last a lifetime, and that’s before we get to the knee-jerk criticisms about how Keanu can’t act. Yes yes, that’s very perceptive of you all.

None of this matters to me. Seeing The Matrix for the first time was an epiphany. The Wachowskis collected ideas about the nature of reality, society-as-form-of-oppression, anarchic resistance to control structures, and the power of self-belief, and then mixed them up with cutting-edge visual effects, explosions, and martial arts action. It was as if they had made the movie I had been waiting my whole life to see, and since then nothing has matched that feeling of awestruck recognition, something akin to a waking dream. It was as if a movie had ravished my brain and injected my heart with adrenaline. I walked on air for months after.

Ten years later, it might be time to give The Matrix another chance. The Wachowskis might be amateur philosophers giving Cliff’s Notes abbreviations of challenging philosophical ideas, but as a primer for further exploration, it can’t be beat. It’s no coincidence that after seeing this I read Baudrillard and Debord and Chomsky, my interest in political and moral philosophy finally overtaking my previous fascination with epistomology. This may not have turned me into Christopher Hitchens (thank God), but it made me — and many others — take note of the injustices intrinsic to the structure of our society, and how it has become increasingly difficult to escape that Black Iron Prison. It deepened my appreciation of PKD as well, and the rest of the decade saw me expanding my reading habits. In that way it is laid the groundwork for Lost, probably the most thematically complex pop culture artifact ever. Another reason to love it.

It’s no exaggeration to say it changed cinema. Many of the visual conventions that the Wachowskis borrowed from anime have since been “borrowed” from them and overused to the point of cliche, but we should only blame the brothers for being smart enough to recognise the appeal of these images. It was probably the first time famous actors were expected to undergo intensive martial arts training in order to perform many of the stunts themselves. Its visual effects were not just technically impressive but also looked unlike anything else, and represented a break from the traditional SF conventions of space battles and giant monsters. And it also featured some of my favourite characters ever: treacherous Cypher, lovestruck Trinity, naive Neo, deadly Mr. Smith, and — best of all — Morpheus, the man who sets it all in motion, played by the coolest cat in cinema, Mr. Laurence Fishburne. As with many other movies on this list it technically doesn’t belong in this decade, but to me this decade started the moment I saw this, and everything since has been a post-script. Even the sequels cannot ruin it.

Best Moment: I’m sure this cod-Buddhist speechifying will make a lot of people cringe, but when I first saw this, and Morpheus says the big line, it took all of my energy to not leap to my feet and scream “YES!” at the top of my lungs.

And that’s that. A big big thank you to all of those who have checked out these posts and sent me kind comments on Facebook and Twitter. Hopefully, though a lot of my choices were pretty obvious, there have been a couple of mentions here or there that have inspired you to go back and check out a movie you’ve forgotten or avoided, and I certainly hope that you enjoy whichever film it is you end up watching. There are more lists to come at the end of the year as I go over the movies I’ve seen in 2009. Fingers crossed those don’t get out of hand, though I already suspect they will.

This is the second of the 4-part series Marvels, written by Kurt Busiek and painted by Alex Ross.  In the first issue, we were introduced to Phil Sheldon, photojournalist in New York City in the 1940’s.  This issue is set around 15 years later in the early 1960’s, otherwise known as the Silver Age of comics.  New superheroes (or Marvels) have appeared since the war:  the Fantastic Four, Spider-Man, the Hulk, the Avengers and even Captain America, the patriotic hero from World War II.  (Captain America was frozen in a block of ice since the war, but that information probably wasn’t known to the general public at the time.)

The story starts out with Phil taking photos of the Avengers battle against the Masters of Evil (from Avengers #6-7, which sets this in mid-1964).  We see from Phil’s narration and the reactions of people on the street that the average person seems to have adjusted quite well to these new super-beings.  The mood is one of awe and adoration, not fear or suspicion.  Even when the battles take place in the streets of Manhattan, threatening to injure citizens, there doesn’t seem to be any resentment from them.  Everyone is so enamored of the Marvels that they just assume everything will turn out all right in the end.

But we soon find out that Phil has bigger ambitions than just being a newspaper photographer; he wants to collect all the photos he’s taken over the years into a book.  He talks to a publisher (whose name is apparently Bennett Schwed, but who looks a lot like Bennett Cerf to me) and convinces him that a book of superhero photos would be a bestseller.  Phil even talks the publisher into giving him a chance to write the dialogue captions for the photos.  (It looks like the publisher Phil goes to is located in the Flatiron Building, which was later used as the location for the Daily Bugle newspaper in the Spider-Man movies…not relevant to anything here, I just find it interesting.)  Phil works at the Daily Globe, one of the Bugle’s rival tabloids.  On his way back to the Globe, he encounters a mob confronting the X-Men.  The X-Men are also superheroes, but aren’t loved or trusted like the other heroes generally are, for the simple reason that the X-Men are mutants…they were born with some genetic abnormalties which eventually gave them super-powers.  But the general population hates and fears mutants for some reason, instead of embracing them like they do with the other Marvels.  Even Phil, who is usually pretty level-headed (and who likes the Marvels more than anyone, since he’s dependant on them for his job) succumbs to the hysteria surrounding mutants.  The mob confronting the X-Men accuse them of trying to kill a construction worker on a scaffold (although it turns out he fell and the X-Men were saving his life).  Phil joins the mob willingly, even throwing a rock at one of the X-Men, who leave rather than retaliate, saying that it is “not worth” fighting back against the mob’s blind prejudice.  Phil is somewhat baffled at the remark and tries to figure out why he was acting the way he did.  He realizes that reporters are supposed to report the news, not make the news.  But he speculates that mutants bring out the worst in ordinary people because of their fears…fears that if mutants are the next evolutionary step then that means that there’s no place left in the world for regular people…that we’re just obsolete, a genetic dead-end waiting to be replaced by Homo Superior. He thinks that the mutants are the dark side of the Marvels, the “price” that has to be paid in order to live in a world with superheroes.  There’s an interesting parallel with the first issue of Marvels, since people seemed to fear the superheroes back in the 1940’s for the same reason;  their very exsistence might mean that ordinary people were suddenly less than they had been before, that they were becoming obsolete.

Phil decides he needs some practice at writing, so he convinces his boss at the Daily Globe (Barney Bushkin) to give him a writing assignment.  He is sent to an art gallery showing of Alicia Masters sculptures.  She is a friend of the Fantastic Four, so the show is a major event.  There are numerous superheroes there in their civilian identities: Don Blake and Jane Foster, Hank Pym and Janet Van Dyne, Tony Stark, Matt Murdock and Karen Page, Stephen Strange, and even Charles Xavier, Scott Summers and Jean Grey.  (And if you dont know who any of those people are, turn in your M.M.M.S. badge immediately.)  Some of the attendees are talking about “filthy muties”, not knowing that some of the X-Men are there listening to them.  There’s an interesting parallel in this scene, because most of the “normal” people at the show are afraid of Ben Grimm (aka The Thing), even though he’s part of the Fantastic Four, a well-beloved team of heroes.  Ben is right out in the open and the X-Men are not, but both are feared by the general public.  A short time later, when Mr. Fantastic and the Invisible Girl announce their engagement, it dominates the news.  Even the anti-mutant hysteria takes a backseat, but it doesn’t completely disappear.

A few weeks later, Phil is heading home to the suburbs from work when he finds a bunch of his neighbors arming themselves and running through the streets.  They tell him there is a mutant in the neighborhood and they’re hunting it down.  Phil rushes home to make sure his family is safe, but finds out his daughters have been sheltering the mutant (a little girl named Maggie) in the basement, sneaking food to her on the sly.  Phil instantly recoils, wondering if the mutant girl has “contaminated” his daughters, but after talking to Maggie he realizes she’s not a monster, she’s just a scared little kid.  He recognizes the haunted look in her eyes as the same one he saw in the eyes of the prisoners liberated from Auschwitz.  But he also knows he can’t tell anyone because his nice, friendly neighbors would burn his house down and kill his family, just to get rid of a mutant.

Phil tries to figure out what to do, but in the meantime the Mr. Fantastic/Invisible Girl wedding is dominating the news.  It goes off without a hitch, but on the same night a scientist named Bolivar Trask unveils his Sentinels, robots designed to exterminate mutants.  But something goes wrong and the robots go wild, tearing up the TV studio.  This seems to enflame the public, who start rioting in the streets, venting months of pent-up fear and anger towards mutants on any convenient target:  store windows cars, and ultimately each other.  Phil takes photos of the mindless mob, who ironically are finally brought to their senses when the Sentinels pass overhead, scanning the crowd and revealing that no mutants are present.  When the people see each other and themselves and realize what they’ve become, it shocks them back to their senses.  Phil remembers his own family out in the suburbs and rushes home to make sure they’re safe, worrying that if the mutant girl in his basement was discovered, his neighbors would destroy the house.  When he gets there everyone is fine, but the Maggie is gone.  She was feeling guilty about putting Phil’s family in danger, so she left.  Later, Phil’s daughter Jenny asks her dad if Maggie will be OK, but Phil realizes he can’t give her any reassurance, all they can do is  hope for the best.

This issue was obviously centered around the public’s fear and hatred of mutants, a topic in the comics which was meant to parallel racism in the real world.  It becomes heavy-handed at times, but overall the analogy is sound and it works without taking too much away from the story.  I’m not sure it would be such a big issue if superheroes actually existed, since there’d be no way for the general public to know which heroes were mutants and which weren’t.  I think people would either love the Marvels or hate/fear them, but not hate some and love others.  If people are afraid of mutants, then why not be afraid of Thnder Gods, or spider-irradiated teenagers, or cosmic ray-powered teams?  But the paranoia and mindless fear is well-depicted here; it reminds me a little of “Invasion of the Body Snatchers” and (especially) the classic Twilight Zone episode “The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street”.  Maybe that’s the point  Busiek was trying to show…that prejudice IS usually mindless and based on our own internal fear instead of anything external.  Phil seems to have overcome his fears and prejudices against mutants, but how will he react when the entire Earth is literally threatened with destruction?  We’ll find out in Marvels #3.

Review written by Mike Wilson

It’s cold as ice . . .

No, that doesn’t mean I’ve been listening to Foreigner. It just means that winter has arrived. On a couple of days this week I shifted my walk to the afternoon—on Wednesday because the snow had turned to rain and Thursday because I just couldn’t get motivated to get out in the morning. Afternoon walks are just fine, though, especially in the winter when the western sky is tinted the color of wheat and flocks of ducks fly down the creek, with the setting sun turning their underwings orange as they bank.

For me this is comic book weather. It reminds me of the times back in the seventies when I would walk through wintertime Augusta, Maine, on my twice-weekly rounds to buy comic books. I was a pretty serious comic-book collector throughout high school and I must have amassed thousands of them. At first I kept them in little stacks on a little metal shelf in my bedroom. Eventually they began taking up more and more room in my closet. At some point I put them in big steamer trunks. I sold one trunkful to finance my move to Washington, D.C., in 1985. Just a few weeks ago I sold my copy of Fantastic Four #1 on eBay for $510. I had purchased it when I was in high school for $25, but the price was low because someone (not me, I hasten to add) had clipped the muscle-man ad from the inside front cover.

Back then the two newsstands in Augusta received their new books and magazines on Wednesdays and Fridays. During the temperate months I rode my bike to the newsstands to see what had come in, but in the winter—on days like yesterday and today—I made the circuit on foot and felt the bite of the cold winter air in my lungs as I clomped around town in my winter boots. First I’d head downtown to Depot News, a rundown place on the edge of downtown that doubled as the city’s Greyhound station. It smelled of cigars and even in the 1970s it felt like something from a black-and-white film. Sometimes I’d reach Depot News before they had put their new arrivals out, so I’d continue my hike up the hill in the direction of the State Capitol building to State Street News. It didn’t have the same downtown vibe as Depot News but by the time I got there they usually had their comics out.  I’d make my purchases and complete the circuit by walking across the Memorial Bridge, up the long hill past the high school, and back home.

I read Marvel comics almost exclusively. Superhero comics were okay, but I preferred horror and science fiction titles. My two favorites were Man-Thing and Tomb of Dracula. Man-Thing, in fact, was the comic that sparked my collecting mania. One summer day I read one of his adventures in the comic Adventure into Fear and I thought it was pretty cool. I decided I would keep this comic book and my collection began to grow around it.

The Man-thing was a swamp creature, a mindless, shambling monstrosity of muck and mire that had once been scientist Ted Sallis. He had big red eyes, three root-like growths that formed his face, and powerful ape-like arms. The comic often called him “macabre,” a great word. Man-thing lived in the Everglades, which happened to be a nexus of realities where parallel dimensions met and bizarre things often happened. Unlike his D.C comics counterpart Swamp Thing, the macabre Man-thing could neither think nor speak, but he could respond to emotions, especially fear. It was best not to fear the Man-Thing, because whatever knows fear burns at the Man-thing’s touch.

It was a strange comic, switching back and forth from somewhat ham-fisted morality tales to surreal otherworldly adventures (one of which introduced the cult character Howard the Duck). I was either oblivious to or just ignored the somewhat ribald nature of the name (made even more obvious in the jumbo spin-off comic, Giant-Sized Man-Thing).

Tomb of Dracula was even better. Written for most of its run by a guy whose name was really Marv Wolfman, it spun a complex saga of gothic horror, with Dracula himself a complicated central character. He was evil, no doubt about that, but he also had a beleaguered nobility about him. Best of all, he was illustrated by the Gene Colon, one of the great comic-book artists. Colon had a very fluid way of drawing—as though gravity ebbed and pulsed in ways that stretched his characters and panels in all directions. It was a bold and dynamic style that worked to great effect in other Marvel comics, especially Dr. Strange and Daredevil. I though Colon was at his best in Dracula, in part because of the fine inking by a guy named Tom Palmer. Colon drew the pencil sketches and Palmer would add the depth with his inks, and you could always tell Palmer’s work. He made other illustrators look good, too, but he and Colon made a perfect match.

I was in horror comic book heaven when Dracula teamed up with the title character from another comic I liked, Werewolf by Night. The match prompted me to take pen in hand and write to Marvel. Imagine my delight weeks later when I received a postcard telling me that my letter would appear in Tomb of Dracula #22 (and so it did). I guess that must have been my first published writing. I still have the postcard and I keep it tucked inside the comic book.

After I sold the Fantastic Four on eBay I took out my bins of comics and went through those colorful pieces of my past. Strangely enough, though, I found I lacked the patience to actually read any of them cover to cover. I never felt guilty reading them when they were new, but now I feel I should be tending to more important things. I guess that’s one of the burdens of growing up.

Yesterday I kept the iPod on shuffle as I walked through the cold, wintry neighborhood. Nothing really grabbed me until I heard “One Fine Day” from the David Byrne/Brian Eno CD Everything That Happens Will Happen Today. It fell just short of inspirational, but it did lift my spirits considerably. As I made my way up the final hill a school bus stopped at the top and disgorged a couple of kids, who ran down the hill toward their waiting mom. One of them stopped to pick up a big chunk of frozen snow crust and went running down the sidewalk with his prize clutched in his bare hands—I assume he wanted it because it was a really big chunk of frozen snow crust, something that was cool in more ways than one. You value things differently when you’re a kid.

Picture Bin is a lazy feature I just came up with. I browse to my Pictures folder on my computer and pick three at random. If it’s something good, I post it here.

This is what I stumbled upon today:

1) a little comic from Side B organizer and Primary author.

Find more of Rachel Dukes’ stuff on Poseur Ink.

2) Cover to Fantastic Four : True Story #2. Weird, but ballsy for a Marvel Comic.

3) A classic picture from Calvin & Hobbes, mixing a pilot fantasy with a dinosaur one. Amazing, as always.

That’s it for today. Resume regular programming now.

Very, very strong. Rock solid. Imagine having the whole team on the board at the same time. This guy gets BIG.

Hmmm. It looks like Iron Man will be packing a rather powerful beam of light. Zap!

Once upon a time in a parallel universe, was there people not so different than us. But they were afraid and worried about the “others”. Some of the “others” convinced themselves there was a war going on between them and humans, some of them was taught that they should not be enemies, but friends. Taught by Professor Charles Xavier.

In September 1963, talented artists Stan Lee and Jack Kirby published X-Men #1 with great predictions. Their expectations about these unusual characters were high, because comics like Fantastic Four and Incredible Hulk which are also from Marvel Comics, were no different than X-Men, except for the fact that most of the mutants happened to be mutants because of a gene called X-Gene in their genome. The first reaction to X-Men was not as expected, but in a few years X-Men became a part of the Marvel Universe; It was one big family with mutants, gods and humans(bunch of weirdos, actually).

Now, If you ask me, the crown jewel of marvel is definitely X-Men. Being in a completely different world and imagining yourself as a mutant with special powers, trying to save the world(sometimes the universe itself) is different than being in an any other universe. I can’t think of any other movie or other comic book(even though I am a bigger fan of Sandman and Vertigo series) that gives the same essence of another universe.

This universe was completely turned upside down when the amazing author of Sandman, Neil Gaiman showed up for a book of the Marvel Universe. I’m talkin’ about Marvel 1602, something more than a comic book. Marvel 1602 was first published in 2003 and was a 8 book series. The incidents take place in England(year 1602, of course). Strange things are happening at this time of the year, Queen Elizabeth(they all fucking are Elizabeth’s) is forced to leave the throne to James, King of Scotland(Remember, Remember the Fifth of November!). Weather is changing, big thunderstorms, changes in the color of the sky… Everyone thinks it’s the end of the world. And, there are witchbreeds. At that time, Spain is considered a hell to all witchbreed and England is the heaven. The New World has recently been discovered. Queen Elizabeth’s #1 Agent Nicholas Fury(Nick Fury it is!) informs her about the situations between witchbreed and humans. At the time, Stephen Strange tries to explain the weather phenomena using his powers.

Marvel 1602 does not have only Stephen Strange and Nicolas fury. X-Men itself is in the book. Charles Xavier, Cyclops, Jean Grey, Iceman, Hank McCoy… Not only X-Men. From Magneto to Scarlet Witch, Quicksilver and Victor Van Doom, you can encounter many more Marvel super villains in this book. There are also Fantastic Four, Spider man and Daredevil. It is one of the best all star games I have ever read in my life.

At a glance, it may seem like a boring book, because the action level isn’t like the ones we usually see in marvel comics. Neil Gaiman states this issue, saying “[...] while I wasn’t certain what I wanted in there, I suddenly knew what I didn’t want. No planes, No skyscrapers. No bombs. No guns. I didn’t want it to be a war story, and I didn’t want to write a story in which might made right–or in which might made anything.” ih his Afterword of the book. If you ask me, the book is 100% Neil Gaiman and 100% Marvel, which makes it one of the best comic books.

Um, I know you’re expecting a conclusion or something like that, but to be perfectly honest, I don’t have a conclusion. All I can say is to give yourself in to the absolution of the perfect Marvel Universe that was created 30 years ago, and enjoy yourselves. That’s all for the comic books. For now.

Welcome to December.  Christmas is only three short weeks away kids.  Have you done your shopping?

Me either.

I’m too busy compiling our weekly fantastical trip around the internet as compiled by your friendly neighborhood GonzoGeeks.

As always, before we hit the links, its time for some cheesecake.  Ironically, it was a hit from the links that brought us this slice.  Say hello to Elin Nordegren aka Mrs. Tiger Woods.  Yes, she was at one point a model.  Then she married Tiger and became a wife and mother.  This week she became the center of a media blizzard when she allegedly worked Tiger over with one of his own clubs.

I think I speak for us all when I say…”Tiger, you sir, are an idiot.”

On to the links.

1. We start this week with a literal interpretation of  Total Eclipse fo the Heart.
2. METAL tournament bracket.
3. KISS Alive!  The homecoming.
4. Music biz accounting.
5. Japan re-enacts Tiger’s night.
6. A columnist takes BYU QB Max Hall to tasks.  Kudos to Hall for proving that Mormons can be douchey too.
7. John’s shameless self-promotion.  Updated almost once every month.  Whee!
8. Best.  Gimmick.  EVER.
9. Somehow, I think Freddie Mercury would approve.
10. Silly rabbit, the tweeting is supposed to take place AFTER the wedding on the honeymoon.  Tweeting means engaging in gratuitous sex, right?
11. Fun stuff!
12. More fun stuff!!
13. Another best of the decade list.  This time?  Comedians.
14. Apparently I’m not the only one digging the new take on Iron Fist over at Marvel.
15. And check out this homemade Iron Fist movie.
16. David’s Iraq deployment blog.
17. 11 great “edited for television” lines you making faker.
18. Comcast just bought NBC.  I’d be worried if I were Jay Leno.
19. Kevin Smith weighs in on Twilight.  This ought to be good.
20. 6 creepy urban legends that are actually true.
21. It might just seem like it guys.
22. 5 famous last status updates.
23. Since Scarlett Johannsen is playing the Black Widow in Iron Man 2, let’s take a look at some comic book commies.
24. Just in time for the holiday, nerd nativity scenes.
25. Sarah Palin has gone ‘birther.’  Just now?  Really?
26. 25 hilarious WiFi Network names.
27. Maybe Ronnie should lay off the MMA broadcasts for a while.
28. And finally, tomorrow night Chris and I induct Junior into the Army.  In his honor, its God of Thunder.  \m/

by Kieron Gillen (writer), Billy Tan (pencils), Batt (inks), Christina Strain (colors), and Joe Sabino (letters)

The Story: Balder begins his war with Doom, as the Latverian dictator’s experiments stand revealed.

What’s Good: Gillen and Tan have a very unenviable task in following one of the greatest Thor runs of all time.  Thankfully, Gillen tries his best to work in the spirit of JMS’ final few issues.   There are no problematic shifts in character voices.  Balder and Loki in particular remain just as sound as ever.  If anything, Loki seems a little less sinister and a little sleazier under Gillen’s hand.  His manipulations are just a little more blunt and obvious, but for the time being, it works given the circumstances.

Gillen also gets the award for writing the most arrogant and pompous Doom of the month.  At times it’s a little over-the-top, but ultimately, Gillen successfully straddles the line between badass and campy. Gillen’s Doom is a vibrant, scenery-chewing read and really dominates every page he appears on.

In the meantime, there’s a rather humorous Fantastic Four cameo in the book that got a smile out of me and I actually felt Gillen’s Balder to be an improvement over JMS’ portrayal of the character over the past few issues.  While still a far cry from Reed Richards, Balder actually isn’t a dumbass under Gillen’s pen, despite maintaining his standard heroic shtick.

On art, this is some of the best work I’ve seen Billy Tan produce in some time and is head and shoulders over his recent New Avengers work.  It’s clear that Tan put absolutely everything he had into this issue.  It is easily up to the standard that Coipell and Djurdjevic have set for the series.  It’s very detailed, while maintaining a dark and epic atmosphere and mystique.  Tan’s effort is close to faultless and superior to Djurdjevic’s rushed work last week.  Despite my concern, if Tan can maintain the quality he showed this month, he was definitely the right man for the job.  Also, his illustrations of Doom’s “experiments” are fantastic.

What’s Not So Good: I was nothing less than irate over Gillen’s treatment of one of JMS’ original characters.  In my review of last week’s finale, I stated that JMS’ massive change in direction for this character was perhaps the most interesting strand he left open at the end of his run.  Gillen, however, seemed to have nothing for the character and so, decides to kill said character off.  He basically took one of the most interesting dangling plots that JMS left behind and completely snuffed it out.  The fact that he does this in literally the very first scene of the book is nothing less than insulting.

Even if the character isn’t dead, it doesn’t change the fact that Gillen has placed the character in a passive position of distress, in need of being saved.  This would be a massive step backward from the terrifyingly pro-active state JMS left the character in.

Other than that, Doom, while enjoyable, does refer to himself in the third person a little too much.  Also, there’s a bit of dialogue where Donald Blake essentially out-thinks Reed Richards.  That Reed would not be able to figure out a basic line of reasoning, especially one related to technology, is ridiculous.

Finally, in an effort to convey Jane’s shadowed surroundings, colorist Christina Strain somehow manages to change poor Jane’s ethnicity.  I had no idea Dr. Foster was Hispanic.

Conclusion: It’s far from the horrific drop-off some predicted, but there are some small glitches and the character death is absolutely unforgivable.

Grade: C+

-Alex Evans

I read 19 comics in November, and these were the best.

5. Astonishing X-Men #32

Yeah, that’s a badass sentinel, a badass, brood-shooting-from-fingertips sentinel, the bastardization of Beast’s theoretical research. It’s Ellis being Ellis, writing pitch-perfect X-Men. Each issue is episodic, building a plot as it goes. This chapter involves the aforementioned sentinel, with lines like, “We don’t need weapons. We have science!” It’s glorious fun.

4. Fantastic Four #573

Hickman’s Fantastic Four is even better than his Secret Warriors? How’d that happen? But it’s true, even when Dale Eaglesham takes a break, and we’re left with a “filler” issue. Neil Edwards fills Dale’s shoes, and it’s a fine fit, with Edwards’ post-Bryan Hitch style and Paul Mounts’ colors, you’ll hardly notice the difference. But Hickman’s distinguished voice is the star here, penning a done-in-one adventure that could’ve easily sustained a four-issue arc. Hickman plays with, and adds to, Millar’s toys, exploring a black hole-ravaged Nu-World. This is a dense, grand adventure, and the new letters page, hosted by Franklin and Val? Absolutely adorable.

3. Invincible #68

The regular art team is back with a vengeance, allowed the opportunity to create Kirkman’s zany, new Dinosaur villain. This is about as playful and unique as villain dialogue gets. Kirkman then continues to show off his dialogue skills when he gives Atom Eve’s father the scariest monologue Mark could ever imagine, concluding with one hell of a funny sight gag. The issue concludes with a few classic Kirkman twists. All in all, this is one hell of an Invincible issue.

2. Hellboy: The Wild Hunt #8

Another Hellboy chapter concludes, and Alice sums it up best, “Well, I didn’t see that coming.” Mignola embraces Hellboy’s entire mythology here, Alice herself being the baby from the beloved “Hellboy: The Corpse.” What occurs within these pages has been a long time coming, and it unfolds unpredictably, yet resolves with the doomed conclusion we all knew was coming. Every major Hellboy player progresses, even poor Gruagach, who’s almost as tragic a character as “Big Red” himself. A stunning effort from Mignola and Fegredo.

1. Detective Comics #859

Since Rucka & Williams’ run began, almost every issue of Detective Comics has made my “Best of the Month” list. This issue is the best of the run, so it’s only natural that Detective finally tops my list. We’re still taking a trip down Kate’s memory lane, this issue containing another episode of her life. We learn of Kate’s rise and fall at West Point, her utter loss of purpose, how that leads to trouble with the love of her life, and what finally makes Kate’s life whole again. And there, making it all epic poetry, is Williams and Stewart. And as you can see in the above scan, when Kate’s Mazzucchelli-styled life clashes with Batman’s rich, painted aura, it’s beautiful and profound. 

For more comic goodness, go here.

So I missed doing this last week… I feel horrid about that.

Arkham Reborn #2 of 3

Things go bad at Arkham.  Interesting issue.

Blackest Night #5 of 8

Basically Barry Allen starts getting the various crews together to fight the Black Lanterns and Hal Jordan shows up with the rainbow brigade.  They fight Nekron–apparently the big bad of the series–and he uses the emotional connection all the heroes feel to Batman to kill them all.  This one ended with a real “WTF just happened?” type moment, but this series is very good.

Detective Comics #859

More delving into Kathy Kane’s origins and path to becoming Batwoman, focusing on her brief military career and the aftermath of her discharge.  Also gets into her first encounter with the Batman and Rene Montoya.  The Question backup feature has a guest appearance by the Huntress as Rene continues to battle against the human traffickers.  Liking the main story about Batwoman, not so much with the backup story.  Batwoman is being put together in a very nice story that I think establishes her very well.  I think it’s mostly the art with the backup story.  I think they could do a lot more that.

Fantastic Four #573

Johnny and Ben go to Nu-World with stowaways Franklin and Valeria in tow.  Good story, good art.  Hickman is spinning a pretty good story here.

Gotham City Sirens #6

Probably the best Batman related book out right now, this one has the girls fighting against the Joker’s former partner Gaggy.  Very enjoyable issue.  I will say this series is shaping up to be a great look at these characters, picking their strengths and weaknesses apart.

Green Lantern #48

Where Hal Jordan puts together the Rainbow Brigade, as I’m referring to it.  I kind of want to call it the “Light Brigade”–get a classical literary reference in there–but it just doesn’t feel right.  Good issue, delves into a lot of who these

Hulk #17

This series is like a trainwreck.  You know it’s a horrible mess, but you can’t look away.  That’s the best way to describe it.  It’s a horrid, horrid book, but you can’t turn away.

Image United #1

A new hero shows up in the Image Universe, saying that they need to unite against some kind of big bad that’s going to hit them.  Meh.  Can’t say as I really care.  Image has really only had a handful of great books, and none of them are involved in this.

Incredible Hercules #138

So Hercules and company are preparing to attack Hera.  They get team of Avengers together to go up against her.  This is actually a very exciting series to read.  Highly recommend it.

Invincible Iron Man #20

Tony Stark is a vegetable, but apparently he had a plan to bring himself back.  The group of Bucky, Thor, Maria Hill, Black Widow and Pepper Potts deliberate this, wondering if they should do it.  All but Pepper agree to it, who feels it’s unfair given how many have died and wonders if Tony really deserves to come back.  Very good issue here, it keeps going strong.

Justice League of America #39

The group of Plastic Man, Vixen, Doctor Light, Gypsy, Red Toronado and Zatanna arrives at the Hall of Justice where they’re attacked by various people from their past.  Blackest Night tie-in.  Basically just reaffirms how disturbed the villainous Doctor Light was.

Justice League: Cry For Justice #5 of 7

Wow.  Intense issue here.  Red Arrow goes off to say goodnight to his daughter and things go to hell from there.  Very intense issue.

Justice Society of America #33

Apparently King Chimaera wasn’t the one responsible for the attempt on Mister Terrific’s life?  It got a bit hazy in there, but still a solid story with some decent action.  Apparently the team splits to give us a second JSA book next month, which should be interesting.

Secret Warriors #10

This issue tells a bit more about Alexander/Phobos and his role in the grand scheme of things.  Ares arrives to bring him for a rite of passage among the Gods, where it is revealed that Phobos will have to die to reach his full potential.  Solid story here, great art.  Very good.

Superman #694

Mon-El is back to protecting Metropolis while Superman is gone on New Krypton, picking up where he left off before his kidnapping.  He fights Bizarro after getting some advice from Ma Kent and Conner.  Pretty good issue here, does some good stuff with Mon-El.

Superman: Secret Origins #3 of 6

Basically telling the story of Clark’s first day at the Daily Planet and Superman’s debut.  Geoff Johns does some excellent writing here.  I’m not a fan of Gary Frank though.  It always feels like he struggles with facial expressions and just goes a bit too far with them.

Teen Titans #77

Deathstroke and Ravager end up facing off against a bunch of people that Deathstroke killed.  Which are a lot.

Ultimate Avengers #4

Mark Millar is the only guy that should have been writing Ultimate Marvel.  Loeb, Bendis… they really had no idea what they were doing.  This is probably the best story since his early stuff on the Ultimates and on Ultimate X-Men.

Uncanny X-Men #517

Scalphunter drops six of the Predators just off the coast of Utopia.  Namor runs off to fight one on his own, while the others work as a team to kill the rest of the monsters.  Solidly written issue, but Greg Land’s artwork just bothers me.  There is very little variation in the way he depicts female characters and it just gets annoying.

Wonder Woman #38

Diana is going to be executed.  But not if Donna Troy and Artemis have anything to say about it.  And apparently Achilles isn’t nearly the ass everybody thinks he is.  Gail Simone is doing great stuff here.

World’s Finest #2 of 4

Robin teams up with Guardian to fight Mister Freeze and Parasite.  Not a horrible issue, but not a great one either.

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Sub Việt

http://subscene.com/Fantastic-Four-Rise-of-the-Silver-Surfer/subtitles-68671.aspx

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Sub Việt

http://subscene.com/Fantastic-Four/subtitles-63137.aspx

by Jonathan Hickman (writer), Neil Edwards (pencils), Andrew Currie (inks), Paul Mounts (colors), and Rus Wooton (letters)

The Story: Johnny, Ben, and the kids go to Nu-World for a vacation but what they find there is a far cry from being a resort.

What’s Good: Probably the best thing the issue has going for it is its generic tone.  The book is a wacky, retro sci-fi adventure.  While Nu-World has become a dystopian mess, Hickman uses this as an excuse to fill the issue with a scuttling, disembodied brain and a hero with a goofy helmet blasting apart robots by the dozen with his ray gun.  It’s cheesy, but definitely fun, like a bad 70s sci-fi flick.  There’s also a depiction of a pseudo-scientific, transcendental sort of mass suicide that sort of reminded me of Logan’s Run with astronauts.  I’m probably alone on that, but it’s cool nonetheless.

I’ve never been a fan of the kids, but Hickman actually made me enjoy their presence.    Both Val and Franklin have a comical way of undercutting Ted Castle and his planetary problems, but in different ways.  Val makes it all seem so simple through her intellect, while Franklin approaches the situation and his circumstances on an entirely different level, as a child would.  There’s a beautifully paced sequence where he offers a grieving Ted Castle a sandwich, tugging the heart-strings while providing a laugh.

Through his wacky sci-fi hijinks and his use of the brain and the kids, Hickman takes what could’ve been a heavy-handed, grindingly tragic affair and turns it into something much more light and fun.  That said, by the time the issue ends, he still gives a little glimpse of the epic nature of what actually unfolded, finishing the book with a beautiful retrospective montage, narrated in a simple fashion that metatextually breaks the comic into its component parts and making it seem all the grander in retrospect.

What’s Not So Good: Despite all this, under perhaps a more cynical lens, it’s hard not to be very well aware of the fact that this issue was more or less written to serve a simple purpose: sweep Nu-World under a rug.  Now, don’t get me wrong, I’m all for it, but it can be a bit frustrating when a writer’s purpose is so abundantly clear.  The comic is as much a story as it is a means to an end.

Of course, if Hickman is writing this issue solely to be done with Nu-World, that also means that several characters are treated cursorily, perhaps not with the respect they deserve.  There’s not one but two character deaths, both of which are insultingly brief, abrupt, and underwhelming.  Like Nu-World itself, it’s clear that Hickman just wanted them out of the way.   The Nu-World characters have little page-space, don’t flesh themselves out much, and basically show up just to remind us that they’re there.

Furthermore, while the art isn’t atrocious or anything, Neil Edwards is a far, far cry from Dale Eaglesham.  His artwork just feels very generic, with little sense of individual style or flair.  It does the job without attempting to do anything more.  Edwards also struggles with headshots.  Two panels in particular, one of Johnny and one of Psionics, are total botches.

Conclusion: Enjoyable for what it is, but it creaks a little at times due to the weaker art and Hickman’s obvious motivations.

Grade: B

-Alex Evans

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