Punisher MAX Issue 1: In the Beginning...

[Graham Tedesco-Blair starts his issue by issue look at Ennis's Punisher MAX run. I wanted to comment but have not yet read the issue, though it is in my house. Soon. I make a brief comment below.]

We open with a single page splash panel depicting the gravestone of Frank Castle's family. There are very few other places one could start the series, as Castle is as tied to his origin story as heroes like Batman or Spider-Man are. And it is just that origin story we are treated to in the opening pages, depicted ably by penciler Lewis Larosa. Some panels look like they were inked by running them through a photocopier that was low on toner, but this adds a grittiness and atmosphere that help set the mood. “Gritty” and “Moody” are overused adjectives, but they describe these pages perfectly.

“They hated that old man so much that they shot him through my family,” Castle's narration begins. Like the aforementioned heroes, the Punisher had his origin in the death of his family by criminals, but unlike them, he was already a well trained soldier, a veteran the Vietnam war, rather than an impressionable young boy or teenager. While Bruce Wayne's parents being shot down in front of his young eyes gave him a life long aversion to guns and killing, and fueled his transformation into a child's idea of the perfect man, and teenage Peter Parker's uncle dying thanks to his inaction led him to have crippling guilt about ever not interfering if he thinks he could help, Frank Castle was already a trained killer with a wife and two children he loved dearly. Without them, he reverts to being a soldier, the only thing he knows how to do, the only thing which makes sense. His description of the incident is peppered with phrases like “Thompsons, like the kind our fathers carried” (presumably in World War II) and “the old man's soldiers” because this is the kind of mindset he now lives in. Rather than a traditional, reactionary vigilante book, we are being set up for a war comic that happens to take place in New York City between one well trained man against any and all criminals who cross his path. As his narration continues, Castle mentions almost as an aside that he's already killed the old man, all the shooters responsible, the ones who had ordered the hit, and “probably thousands more.” It hasn't given him any sense of closure, nor has it stopped his mission.

Free Form Comments

Say whatever you want to in the comments to this post -- random, off topic thoughts, ideas, suggestions, questions, recommendations, criticisms (which can be anonymous), surveys, introductions if you have never commented before, personal news, self-promotion, requests to be added to the blog roll and so on. If I forget, remind me. Remember these comments can be directed at all the readers, not just me.

ALSO. You can use this space to re-ask me questions you asked me before that I failed to answer because I was too busy.

AND you can use this space to comment on posts that are old enough that no one is reading the comments threads anymore.

You do not have to have a blogger account or gmail account to post a comment -- you can write a comment, write your name at the bottom of your comment like an e mail, and then post using the "anonymous" option.

WRITING FOR THIS BLOG. If I see a big free form comment that deserves more attention, I will pull it and make it its own post, with a label on the post and on the sidebar that will always link to all the posts you write for this blog. I am always looking for reviews of games, tv, movies, music, books and iPhone apps.

Uncanny X-Men #253

[For you all this may be just another blog post. But you guys were getting ones in the que for a while -- this one was written in the final moments of 2009, and represents the beginning of Jason's final push toward the end, as he looks at every issue of Claremont's initial X-Men run. I make a brief comment below, but it is not that smart.]

“Storm Warnings”

The story cycle from issues 246 to 252 saw Claremont steadily narrowing down his cast of characters, to the point where Wolverine was the only one left. Logan is even referred to as “the last of the Uncanny X-Men” in the opening splash pages of issues 251 and 252, just to drive the sense of finality home. What could possibly come next?

The answer, in issue 253, is surprising yet obvious: He suddenly swings the doors open wide on the massive X-mythology that he spent the last 15 years building. Banshee, Moira MacTaggert, Amanda Sefton, Polaris, Magneto and Forge all return, reminding us with a jolt that the eight X-Men who went to Australia were far from the only characters Claremont has available to him. Muir Island – a staple of the series since the 70s but not seen in Uncanny for almost two years – is suddenly a setting again. Claremont even imports characters and concepts from his concurrent Excalibur series (which were already imports from the Alan Moore/Alan Davis/Jamie Delano Captain Britain comics published in the UK). The scope of the series sweeps outward from one corner of the globe to all of them, an explosion of color and atmosphere that contrasts brightly against the bleak, existential desolation that had settled on the series over the previous three months.

The artwork, too, seems to soften to accommodate Claremont’s departure from the gritty Outback sands. Steve Leialoha returns as a guest inker, seeming much more comfortable than he had in issue 250. His work is still a departure from Green’s, but it feels lighter and more carefully applied.

Mister Miracle 17 & 18

[Andy Bentley's pen-ultimate, or pen-pen-ultimate, look at every issue of Jack Kirby's New Gods.]

Mister Miracle #17 “Murder Lodge!”
Mister Miracle #18 “Wild Wedding Guests”

This is my 50th post on Kirby’s Fourth World, which also happens to be the end of the Fourth World Saga in sequential form. I cannot sum up the finale any better than the jacket liner to the Omnibus which proclaims “Kirby’s Epic Saga Concludes!”. It certainly does, but not in the fashion with which it began.

Let’s get the penultimate issue out of the way. Miracle, Barda and Shilo (now decked out in a red and yellow sidekick uniform) have their vehicle break down in an unknown part of town and seek refuge in a creepy old hotel. If you’ve ever seen any episodes of Scooby Doo, you know the rest of the story. The bad guy doesn’t dress as a ghoul or ghost, but he utilizes plenty of trap doors and knockout gas on our heroes. In the end, it turns out the trio resembled another trio of fugitives spotted in the area. Hence, the hostile treatment. The cops take the bad guys away and that’s really all that needs to be said.

Now, onto “Wild Wedding Guests”. The issue opens on the standard preparation of an escape act when suddenly there’s an attack of shock-grenades from above. The culprit is Virman Vunderbar, a formidable opponent from Apokolips. Miracle and Barda avoid the explosion with the help of Miracle’s boot-lasers. Then, out of nowhere, the two profess their deep and undying love for one another! Sure, there were hints several issues back, but I was hoping for at least a bit of a slow natural progression on this front. The blame probably lies on the abrupt cancellation of the title and not necessarily on Kirby’s plotting.

Late Avatar Review

I finally got around to seeing Avatar last night. I think just about everyone has had their say, and I do not have that much to add to the discussion, except to locate myself in it and maybe make a few rambling observations. Major Spoilers.

The visuals and the 3D tech were more impressive than I though they were going to be: I figured it would basically be like Coraline, and Beowulf and Up, but this was certainly a notch up. Everything was bright and crisp and clear; the depth of field really brought a lot, and Cameron, whatever his other faults, brought a lot to look at. The screenplay was basically solid, with introductions and call-backs -- introduce the hammerhead-rinos, bring them back; introduce how the mask works, bring it back; introduce the super-dragon, bring it back, introduce the dog monster, bring it back; introduce the magic tree, bring it back. The dialogue was less cringe-worthy than it could have been. It also had a lot of sweeping action that was also very good, pretty well choreographed and epic. The bad guy was evil in a fun way, and Sam Worthington -- who I did not realize until I got in the theatre was the guy who plays MacBeth in the 2006 Australian Machine Gun Version I show in class every term -- is basically good. Without the 3D those elements get you a C, with the 3D they will bring up to a B. As a $500,000,000 blockbuster movie, this is doing its job. It is not a work of genius, but like a well made table, it stands up. If that does not sound like much of a compliment, maybe it shouldn't, but so many blockbusters are just downright badly made -- Transformers, for example, or Phantom Menace, or the Matrix sequels -- you have to respond with some respect. In a perfect world Mission Impossible 3 and the Bourne Films maybe would not be on my list of favorite movies of all time, but I love those kinds of movies and mostly they are just done so goddamn badly you get really excited when one shows up that actually works as advertised.

“Avatar: my little cream soda, oh-well, oh-well!”

[Guest Blogger C Lue Disharoon gives us his take on Avatar.]

(with a minimum of spoilers, at that)

I’ve briefly encountered the criticisms related to Avatar, which were typically founded on reasonable observations. It’s true, there’s a science fiction story called The Martian Princess, and it’s true there’s a movie called Fern Gully, another one called Dances With Wolves; it is so, that many elements of said stories echo loudly within the 3-D enhanced cinema plexes of those familiar with them, who yearned for the mind-staggering visuals to be presented in context of a more original story. I follow you: you wanted the narrative to surprise you the way soaring down a cliff on those reptilian banshees might take one’s breath away.

You didn’t want to predict the love interest, the climax, or the treachery within the first half hour. Maybe you wanted something with more intricate characters, or for that Mega Gulp soda not to make you feel as though the Elf With a Gun stopped to jump up and down on your bladder for the last half hour (get this rebellion OVER with, dangit!). You probably skewed the grading curb occasionally, daydreaming through the molasses pace of regular classes (like the physics major, Cameron, who directed this movie). Maybe you would’ve liked something directed a little more at the rational neo-cortex and less in a limbo in the limbic brain. Once upon a time, all you wanted was for a cutting-edge special effects milestone to contain a story you found thought provoking, “oh-well, oh-well... (with apologies to the White Stripes).”

The Punisher MAX: Preamble [New Guest Blogger]

[Oh! What? Did someone say an issue by issue analysis of Garth Ennis's Punisher MAX run? Graham Tedesco-Blair is going to be covering that for us here on Thursdays. BAM. This is a good one for me. Jason's has taught me the virtues of Claremont, who I never disliked exactly (though I did foolishly and ignorantly consider bog standard at one point). But I kind of almost HATE Ennis, even on Punisher and Preacher, which I read at least more than 10 issues of. EXCEPT: Punisher: The End, which is on my list of favorite comics of all time because a friend put the comic in my hand and MADE me read it. I don't think I have ever seen a writer do a better job of taking a character, and thinking him all the way through to the end. So I am intrigued by this. Let's all welcome GTB.]

“[The Punisher] kills criminals because he hates them. It's not exactly brain surgery. It's his methods were interested in here.”
--Detective Soap, Marvel Knight's Punisher #3

When I was younger, I rented the film The Big Lebowski from the local video store. While watching it with my father that evening, my mother happened to walk in, and commented that she disliked how much swearing was in the film. I recall saying something about how the swearing isn't important, because it's a really great story and a very well made movie, but she just couldn't get over the word “fuck” being uttered about once a minute. And it seems that this is precisely the problem most people have with Garth Ennis.

Ennis is an often misunderstood author. Ever since his career in comics really took off with Hitman and Preacher in the mid-90s, his works have been regarded by most as a combination of Adam Sandler and Eli Roth, a coupling of scatological humor and extreme violence. While this is not at all an unfair or unfounded assessment, there's also a lot more going on in his comics than people saying the word “fuck” back and forth for 90 minutes.

With all the crazy things going on in his work, it's easy to miss that he's pretty clearly laying out a system of what's right and what's wrong. Ennis is a very moral writer, but one in the vein of writers like Bret Easton Ellis. Often, the judgment is implied by the consequences of the character's actions and our own reactions to the horrible things that they do to one another. If you need someone standing over your shoulder, reminding you that American Psycho's Patrick Bateman is an unequivocally horrible human being, then you miss the point entirely. As a result of this stylistic choice, Ennis is one of the few writers out there with the capacities to write completely reprehensible and unlikable villains who are none the less gripping and enthralling. You're not going to get any scenes of the villain playing the piano in an empty room, crying.

Free Form Comments

Say whatever you want to in the comments to this post -- random, off topic thoughts, ideas, suggestions, questions, recommendations, criticisms (which can be anonymous), surveys, introductions if you have never commented before, personal news, self-promotion, requests to be added to the blog roll and so on. If I forget, remind me. Remember these comments can be directed at all the readers, not just me. ALSO. You can use this space to re-ask me questions you asked me before that I failed to answer because I was too busy. AND you can use this space to comment on posts that are old enough that no one is reading the comments threads anymore. You do not have to have a blogger account or gmail account to post a comment -- you can write a comment, write your name at the bottom of your comment like an e mail, and then post using the "anonymous" option. WRITING FOR THIS BLOG. If I see a big free form comment that deserves more attention, I will pull it and make it its own post, with a label on the post and on the sidebar that will always link to all the posts you write for this blog. I am always looking for reviews of games, tv, movies, music, books and iPhone apps.

Uncanny X-Men #252

[Jason Powell. Chris Claremont. The epic issue by issue X-Men conversation continues. At the end, only two men will be left standing. Claremont will be one. Jason Powell will be the other. And I guess we will all be standing around and occasionally saying stuff as well. There is a lot to talk about.]

“Where’s Wolverine?”

Neil Shyminsky has commented about the cleverness of Claremont’s swerve with Wolverine at this point in the series – essentially taking a character who had evolved into a kind of uber-idealistic notion of extreme masculinity and undercutting him severely, through both plot and dialogue. The process was begun with the previous issue, but “Fever Dream” served more as a final, climactic gasp of the masculine Wolverine. (It’s hard to assign any sort of weakness to Logan’s insane display of machismo as he frees himself from crucifixion through sheer grit, especially as depicted with such idealistic fervor by Marc Silvestri.) It’s not until this issue that we see the character’s hyper-masculinity being undermined. The title is the first clue, and it serves as a bookend with the story’s final bit of dialogue, spoken by Jubilee: “… You gotta do something about this macho attitude. I mean, it is like SO lame…!” Helping to reinforce the point visually is guest penciller Rick Leonardi – a delightfully expressive artist whose cartoonish style is the antithesis of Silvestr’s ultra-sexy-cool – and guest inker Kent Williams, who drew Logan as a pot-bellied slob with un-erect hair in the “Havok/Wolverine” miniseries. (A visual that Claremont seems to have enjoyed enough to jokingly reference not once but twice – see Uncanny X-Men #246 and Excalibur #14.) Even artistically, Logan is being sabotaged. The cover, conversely, features an ultra-slick image by Jim Lee – of the villains.

Mister Miracle 15 & 16

[Andy Bentley, going through Jack Kirby's New Gods, has reached that point where Mr Miracle is in that long, dark, editorially-screwed tea-time of the soul. Bear with him. Jack's bizarre return and outlandish non-ending are right around the corner.]

“The Secret Gun!” and “Shilo Norman, Super Trouble!”

Mister Miracle 15 introduces Shilo Norman, a troubled youth who Mister Miracle takes on as an apprentice by issues end. Norman would eventually succeed his mentor in Grant Morrison’s metaseries, Seven Soldiers. When I first saw Norman as Mr. Miracle, I scoffed at the idea. Scott Free was MY Mister Miracle. Now that I see there is precedent for Norman, my views have changed. This is a phenomenon that has occurred several times for me in the Fourth World series. The idea of a DNA Lab in metropolis that cloned Superman into a boy was ridiculous for me at age 14, but once I learned of the DNA lab’s origin in the pages of Jimmy Olsen, the fact became acceptable. If the Death of Superman is to be treated as a stand alone novel, then the writer revealing a cloning lab beneath the city halfway through the novel is suspect. However if the DC comic narrative is thought of as one large story, then the reveal seems congruent to the fantasy world.

Free Form Comments

Say whatever you want to in the comments to this post -- random, off topic thoughts, ideas, suggestions, questions, recommendations, criticisms (which can be anonymous), surveys, introductions if you have never commented before, personal news, self-promotion, requests to be added to the blog roll and so on. If I forget, remind me. Remember these comments can be directed at all the readers, not just me.

ALSO. You can use this space to re-ask me questions you asked me before that I failed to answer because I was too busy.

AND you can use this space to comment on posts that are old enough that no one is reading the comments threads anymore.

You do not have to have a blogger account or gmail account to post a comment -- you can write a comment, write your name at the bottom of your comment like an e mail, and then post using the "anonymous" option.

WRITING FOR THIS BLOG. If I see a big free form comment that deserves more attention, I will pull it and make it its own post, with a label on the post and on the sidebar that will always link to all the posts you write for this blog. I am always looking for reviews of games, tv, movies, music, books and iPhone apps.

Uncanny X-Men #251

[Some men claim they know. Some men claim they care. But Jason Powell actually cares. He actually knows. And it is said that once, he defended Claremont's skills to a bear in the woods and that the bear thanked him, and later they became friends. He continues his look at every issue of Claremont's epic X-Men run.]

“Fever Dream”

Issues 247-250 saw Wolverine once again written out of the comic to accommodate his ever-growing glut of solo adventures and guest-appearances. With issue 251, Logan is back where he once belonged, and the charge of energy given the series is palpable. Claremont’s letting the character go for stretches might have been grudging on occasion, but creatively it made for a nice, hard shot in the arm. The appearances of the character seem more exciting when they’re rarer, and – as Mitch Montgomery pointed out when talking about Logan’s absence almost 100 issues earlier in the “From the Ashes” arc – it even helps a bit to increase his mystique. Anyone not reading the character’s solo title or other guest appearances were invited to imagine for themselves just what exactly Wolverine had been up to.

Here, Claremont heightens that sense of mystery by reprising his trick from Uncanny #205: starting in the middle of the story, with a Wolverine who’s been nearly massacred. It’s an artfully deployed device in this case, given that “Fever Dream” reprises the same villains as well.

Monsters with Sandwiches

My wife Sara has started a new tumblr thing called Monsters with Sandwiches.

(What is Tumblr? It is like a attempt to rebrand blogging as a thing for hipsters rather than nerds? Cause that's what it looks like).

This started because Sara was reading the New Yorker and I was bored and reading over her shoulder and noticed the little cartoons that dot the essays -- not the cartoons with punchlines, but little cartoons, often connected to each other, that just provide some visual break-up on a page filled with words. I asked her what she would draw there, given the chance, and she said "Monsters." I said "What are the monsters doing?" And she said "eating sandwiches." So I gave her a stack of 3 x 5 notecards, and a black pen and made her draw bunches of them. We put them in frames and gave them to everyone for the holidays, and now they have their own website.

I am going to put them here occasionally. If you want some for your blog in whatever form -- doodles in your essays, links, profile pictures, grab Sara through the comments on the Tumblr thing.

Mister Miracle 13 & 14

[Andy Bentley looks at the next two issues of Miracle Man as part of looking at all the New Gods stuff.]

Mister Miracle #13 The Dictator’s Dungeon
Mister Miracle #14 The Quick and the Dead

Mister Miracle 13 and 14 share a number of similarities as Jack Kirby begins to settle into a groove for his final few issues. The villains, King Komodo and Madam Evil Eye, are not from Apokolips, but they share an inspiration: the third reich of Germany. Komodo is revealed to be a fugitive WW2 German scientist which is part of the inspiration for Darksied’s perverse assistant Desaad. Madame Evil Eyes is posing as the leader of a satanic cult and satanism has been linked to Hitler’s army in many forms of fiction, most notably Raiders of the Lost Ark. Both villains have secret lairs with hidden panels and trap doors for Mister Miracle to evade. Miracle ultimately disposes of both of them by using some amazing and previously unseen powers originating from the circuitry in his cowl. These resolutions were the most disappointing aspects of the issue as Miracle’s powers seem to grow with every issue.

Free Form Comments

Say whatever you want to in the comments to this post -- random, off topic thoughts, ideas, suggestions, questions, recommendations, criticisms (which can be anonymous), surveys, introductions if you have never commented before, personal news, self-promotion, requests to be added to the blog roll and so on. If I forget, remind me. Remember these comments can be directed at all the readers, not just me.

ALSO. You can use this space to re-ask me questions you asked me before that I failed to answer because I was too busy.

AND you can use this space to comment on posts that are old enough that no one is reading the comments threads anymore.

You do not have to have a blogger account or gmail account to post a comment -- you can write a comment, write your name at the bottom of your comment like an e mail, and then post using the "anonymous" option.

WRITING FOR THIS BLOG. If I see a big free form comment that deserves more attention, I will pull it and make it its own post, with a label on the post and on the sidebar that will always link to all the posts you write for this blog. I am always looking for reviews of games, tv, movies, music, books and iPhone apps.

Jason Powell: Claremont Post-1991 X-Men?

[Jason Powell wrote this in a comment last week, and I wanted to elevate it to its own post:]

I suppose now is as good a time as any to say this, since others have asked me. (Which is, on the whole, very flattering, that people apparently are enjoying this blog-series enough to ask about future ones.)

Most of Claremont's latter-day X-Men stuff just isn't interesting enough to me to want to review them individually. X-Men: The End is dreadful; GeNext is a mess; Exiles was bland; Forever started out being at least fun, but is swiftly becoming a bore; as for his returns to the mainstream X-Men universe ("Revolution," X-Treme, the brief Alan Davis-Chris Bachalo run) ... I simply haven't read any of that. (Sorry, Jeff.)

The Nightmare Before Christmas: The Anti-Christmas Carol

(Ok, yeah, I should have posted this before Christmas. I wrote it before Christmas, but then I realized no one would be looking at the blog till after New Years. I have never been timely.)

My mother loved Miracle on 34th Street and I responded as a teenager by insisting we do these kind of anti-christmas movie marathons every year: Scrooged, The Ref and The Nightmare Before Christmas. Scrooged: Bill Murray. Nuff said. The Ref I have not seen in years and imagine it would be terrible to watch now. I liked it because I think I really identified with the way Dennis Leary tore into suburban facades -- years later this would re-emerge in the form of American Beauty, which also took apart suburban facades as embodied by Kevin Spacey.

What makes The Nightmare Before Christmas entertaining to me now is of course the loving design of everything in it, which I don't think has been rivaled since: Coraline, while great in many ways, has nothing on this movie. This has to be the main thing: the literally two-faced mayor, Oogy Boogy Man made out of bugs, skinny Jack fallen into the snow, Sally made out of rags. The songs are largely forgettable except for a few good lines here and there ("There's children throwing snowballs instead of throwing heads / they're busy building toys and absolutely no one's dead"; "And since I am dead I can take off my head to recite Shakespearian Quotations").

But the thing I return to again and again are the themes which are surprising and well developed for a movie that, like Coraline, could have still been a great movie if it coasted by with something far less smart.