[Jason Powell continues his issue by issue look at Claremont's X-Men. If this is your first post, then you have a lot of archives to go through to catch up. Get started now. Right now. They are really good.]
“Scary Monsters”
Uncanny X-Men 261 to 267 comprise a sequence that is looked back upon ruefully by Claremont, as no two consecutive issues in the set feature the same penciller. Marc Silvestri’s last issue and Jim Lee’s first (as the new regular artist) bookend five issues by fill-in pencillers. It is the longest such string in Claremont’s run, although the sequence from 211 to 216 (the transition from John Romita Jr. to Silvestri) is similarly ragged. But the run from 261 to 267 apparently nags more incessantly in Claremont’s memory – he’s mentioned it in multiple interviews – because it is also the first time in years that Uncanny X-Men slipped out of the #1 slot in the sales charts. The lack of consistent visuals accounts for this, as does the contemporaneous debut of Todd McFarlane’s massively hyped Spider-Man #1 – both matters out of Claremont’s control. But surely the X-Men’s rotating cast was also frustrating readers as well. Granted, the series’ unpredictability had always been part of its massive appeal … but it seems as if Claremont finally went over the line in terms of how far he could perversely play on reader expectation. In issues 262 to 264, the protagonists are Banshee, Forge and Jean Grey – two of the canon’s lesser lights, and a third character on loan from Louise Simonson’s X-Factor. It’s a bit daring on Claremont’s part to trust in such a motley crew to carry the series over three issues, but commercially the risk didn’t pay off.
Tuesday, March 30, 2010
Friday, March 26, 2010
Union Station: An Appreciation
[Gordon Harries brings us a review of Union Station. I hardly read any comics anymore, so recommendations are more than welcome. For a lot of us, I bet.]
Ande Parks/Eduardo Barreto
Oni Press
$11.95
The recent period thriller tends to belong to a broad church, roughly breaking into two denominations: On the one hand you have James Ellroy, the self-styled ’demon dog of American noir’ his literary prowess dedicated to an evisceration of the recent past. On the other, near contemporary Walter Mosley who’s mannered approach of times masks an otherwise incisive intelligence. Alongside an oft-stated appreciation of Alan Moore and Eddie Campbell’s ‘From Hell’, it was Ellroy that writer Ande Parks referenced in the interviews surrounding the publication of ‘Union Station‘.
Centering around the 1933 massacre referenced by the title, ‘Union Station’ concerns itself with both the resulting manhunt and the forces that drove it, eventually leading to the formation of J. Edgar Hoover’s Federal Bureau of Investigation. Such forces are personified by three protagonists; the good natured Agent Reed Vetterli, the criminal turned pariah Verne Miller and Newspaperman Charles Thompson, a recent arrival in Kansas City whose ambitions are undermined by his wife’s depression over her recent mastectomy.
The mastectomy is utilized to illustrate one of the central themes of the piece; that each character slowly becomes emasculated by the institution they serve. This is true of Thompson, who must navigate being a crusading journalist and surviving in a town wherein the legitimate and illegitimate economies have become much the same thing, just as much as it is of Verne Miller, the former lawman turned criminal who’s now hunted by his own kind. Reed Vetterli, on the other hand, is the equivalent of the western’s small-town sheriff: constantly half a step behind and facing down his own demons. In truth, the mastectomy is the weakest point of Parks’ elegant script, not because the idea of male emasculation isn’t well executed, but because the use of feminine decline to illustrate this is so male a conceit.
Ande Parks/Eduardo Barreto
Oni Press
$11.95
The recent period thriller tends to belong to a broad church, roughly breaking into two denominations: On the one hand you have James Ellroy, the self-styled ’demon dog of American noir’ his literary prowess dedicated to an evisceration of the recent past. On the other, near contemporary Walter Mosley who’s mannered approach of times masks an otherwise incisive intelligence. Alongside an oft-stated appreciation of Alan Moore and Eddie Campbell’s ‘From Hell’, it was Ellroy that writer Ande Parks referenced in the interviews surrounding the publication of ‘Union Station‘.
Centering around the 1933 massacre referenced by the title, ‘Union Station’ concerns itself with both the resulting manhunt and the forces that drove it, eventually leading to the formation of J. Edgar Hoover’s Federal Bureau of Investigation. Such forces are personified by three protagonists; the good natured Agent Reed Vetterli, the criminal turned pariah Verne Miller and Newspaperman Charles Thompson, a recent arrival in Kansas City whose ambitions are undermined by his wife’s depression over her recent mastectomy.
The mastectomy is utilized to illustrate one of the central themes of the piece; that each character slowly becomes emasculated by the institution they serve. This is true of Thompson, who must navigate being a crusading journalist and surviving in a town wherein the legitimate and illegitimate economies have become much the same thing, just as much as it is of Verne Miller, the former lawman turned criminal who’s now hunted by his own kind. Reed Vetterli, on the other hand, is the equivalent of the western’s small-town sheriff: constantly half a step behind and facing down his own demons. In truth, the mastectomy is the weakest point of Parks’ elegant script, not because the idea of male emasculation isn’t well executed, but because the use of feminine decline to illustrate this is so male a conceit.
Wednesday, March 24, 2010
Lost Season 6, Episode 9: Ab Aeterno
My post about the newest LOST episode is over at Smartpop. Here is a sample; click for more.
But a lot of tonight’s episode felt like filler, and I think it would have even if I had not been lead to expect more with such a juicy focus at the halfway point in season 6. A lot of it had been implied before to great effect, like how Richard came to the island as a slave in the Black Rock. Some of it we had already been told, like Jacob making Richard eternal. And some of it did not really add much, like Richard’s accidental murder of a doctor to save his wife. The story of a man who wanted to kill himself but cannot, and who tries to redeem his earlier crime of murder, told with an unusual structure for the show (one massive flashback bookended by two scenes in the present) — I already saw this when Michael did it in season 4. The theory that the island was hell and everyone on it is dead had already been raised by fans AND incorporated (and dismissed) on the show when Locke’s Dad claimed it back in season 3, and when Naomi told Hurley that the rest of the world found flight 815 and everyone was dead.
One thing I did not mention there was how I was not real clear on how dramatically interesting it is to have The Man in Black successfully get someone to kill Jacob at the end of season 5, THEN show us a failed attempt in this episode, especially since we already had a sense that the successful attempt was the result of trying. And just as the Alt U is getting this repetitive structure (adventure of one player ending with that person bumping into some other member of the cast), the island U is also repeating s structure where people are picking sides every episode -- Team Jacob or Team Man in Black.
Also I don't know what to say about it, but I feel like I have to acknowledge my friend Katie's point that the women who used to be interesting strong characters, have less and less to do. Charlotte last episode being a particularly egregious example. She was like a super scientist linguist and now she is just another notch in Sawyer's formidable bedpost (along with Kate, Juliet and Anna Lucia). On a show where pregnancy is a big issue it was bound to happen; BSG destroyed Kara at the end (she SLAPS Baltar? really? Like a Dynasty character?).
But a lot of tonight’s episode felt like filler, and I think it would have even if I had not been lead to expect more with such a juicy focus at the halfway point in season 6. A lot of it had been implied before to great effect, like how Richard came to the island as a slave in the Black Rock. Some of it we had already been told, like Jacob making Richard eternal. And some of it did not really add much, like Richard’s accidental murder of a doctor to save his wife. The story of a man who wanted to kill himself but cannot, and who tries to redeem his earlier crime of murder, told with an unusual structure for the show (one massive flashback bookended by two scenes in the present) — I already saw this when Michael did it in season 4. The theory that the island was hell and everyone on it is dead had already been raised by fans AND incorporated (and dismissed) on the show when Locke’s Dad claimed it back in season 3, and when Naomi told Hurley that the rest of the world found flight 815 and everyone was dead.
One thing I did not mention there was how I was not real clear on how dramatically interesting it is to have The Man in Black successfully get someone to kill Jacob at the end of season 5, THEN show us a failed attempt in this episode, especially since we already had a sense that the successful attempt was the result of trying. And just as the Alt U is getting this repetitive structure (adventure of one player ending with that person bumping into some other member of the cast), the island U is also repeating s structure where people are picking sides every episode -- Team Jacob or Team Man in Black.
Also I don't know what to say about it, but I feel like I have to acknowledge my friend Katie's point that the women who used to be interesting strong characters, have less and less to do. Charlotte last episode being a particularly egregious example. She was like a super scientist linguist and now she is just another notch in Sawyer's formidable bedpost (along with Kate, Juliet and Anna Lucia). On a show where pregnancy is a big issue it was bound to happen; BSG destroyed Kara at the end (she SLAPS Baltar? really? Like a Dynasty character?).
Tuesday, March 23, 2010
Uncanny X-Men #261
[Jason Powell. Chris Claremont. Every issue. That is all.]
“Harriers Hunt”
This issue is Marc Silvestri’s 32nd and last of Uncanny, making him second only to John Byrne in amount of Uncanny issues penciled during Claremont’s tenure. It’s also the last Claremont Uncanny issue to be inked by Dan Green, making his final tally a remarkable 58 issues – far surpassing any other embellisher.
It’s not the finest comic for Silvestri and Green to go out on. The Dazzler material of the previous issue was much more impressive – and more representative, for that matter. “Harriers Hunt” is, by contrast, an uninspired story that accomplishes nothing other than to return Wolverine to Madripoor. (The move was necessary in order to sync up Wolverine with the solo title, which at this point was being handed off to Jo Duffy for another saga featuring the Madripoor-based supporting cast.)
In a nod to the series that necessitated this story in the first place, Claremont brings in some of his own original characters from Wolverine #5 – Harry Malone, Battleaxe and Shotgun, or “the Harriers.” That earlier story hinted at the existence of a larger team, and so – in much the same way that, ten years earlier, the Claremont/Byrne “Weapon Alpha” story had eventually led to a sequel featuring Alpha Flight – here we get the ranks of the Harriers filled out with more than half a dozen new characters.
But whereas Alpha Flight were striking and memorable thanks to John Byrne’s canny designs, the Harriers are something else again. A promising double-page spread introduces them – a la the Reavers’ intro in Uncanny 248 – but ultimately they turn out to be a collection of ciphers, lacking the personality and mystique of teams like Alpha Flight, or the sheer dramatic impact of villains like the Marauders. Uncanny 261 is, in retrospect, a foretaste of the latter-day Claremont that flourished in the pages of X-Treme X-Men and other vanity projects – the lackadaisical writer who would gleefully introduce a team of new villains at the drop of a hat, providing some codenames and some vaguely defined sets of powers, but entirely failing to make any genuine impression.
We also get a single Banshee/Forge scene, setting up the upcoming Morlock two-parter. It’s a welcome bit of variety, but ultimately not enough of a diversion from the plain vanilla of the main plot: The Harriers show up, Wolverine is kidnapped, Jubilee and Psylocke rescue him, and another 22 pages have been filled.
“Harriers Hunt”
This issue is Marc Silvestri’s 32nd and last of Uncanny, making him second only to John Byrne in amount of Uncanny issues penciled during Claremont’s tenure. It’s also the last Claremont Uncanny issue to be inked by Dan Green, making his final tally a remarkable 58 issues – far surpassing any other embellisher.
It’s not the finest comic for Silvestri and Green to go out on. The Dazzler material of the previous issue was much more impressive – and more representative, for that matter. “Harriers Hunt” is, by contrast, an uninspired story that accomplishes nothing other than to return Wolverine to Madripoor. (The move was necessary in order to sync up Wolverine with the solo title, which at this point was being handed off to Jo Duffy for another saga featuring the Madripoor-based supporting cast.)
In a nod to the series that necessitated this story in the first place, Claremont brings in some of his own original characters from Wolverine #5 – Harry Malone, Battleaxe and Shotgun, or “the Harriers.” That earlier story hinted at the existence of a larger team, and so – in much the same way that, ten years earlier, the Claremont/Byrne “Weapon Alpha” story had eventually led to a sequel featuring Alpha Flight – here we get the ranks of the Harriers filled out with more than half a dozen new characters.
But whereas Alpha Flight were striking and memorable thanks to John Byrne’s canny designs, the Harriers are something else again. A promising double-page spread introduces them – a la the Reavers’ intro in Uncanny 248 – but ultimately they turn out to be a collection of ciphers, lacking the personality and mystique of teams like Alpha Flight, or the sheer dramatic impact of villains like the Marauders. Uncanny 261 is, in retrospect, a foretaste of the latter-day Claremont that flourished in the pages of X-Treme X-Men and other vanity projects – the lackadaisical writer who would gleefully introduce a team of new villains at the drop of a hat, providing some codenames and some vaguely defined sets of powers, but entirely failing to make any genuine impression.
We also get a single Banshee/Forge scene, setting up the upcoming Morlock two-parter. It’s a welcome bit of variety, but ultimately not enough of a diversion from the plain vanilla of the main plot: The Harriers show up, Wolverine is kidnapped, Jubilee and Psylocke rescue him, and another 22 pages have been filled.
Friday, March 19, 2010
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.
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.
Thursday, March 18, 2010
Punisher MAX Issue 7
[Graham Tedesco-Blair continues his issue by issue look at Garth Ennis's Punisher Max series. Read this one. You will learn something. Graham Tedesco-Blair is going to take you to school.]
It's possible to read the next story arc without knowing anything about Irish history, and it's possible to enjoy Garth Ennis without knowing anything about his upbringing (“blah blah the author is dead etc.”), but this arc makes a little more sense if you know a little bit about both.
In 1968, what's known colloquially (and with a great deal of understatement) as “The Troubles” began in earnest. It's difficult to give quick summary of this VERY complicated conflict, but the short version is that the Catholics hate the Protestants, and the Irish who want to be part of England hate the ones who want Ireland to be completely free, and of course vice versa. It's a traditional hatred that's been going on since the 1600s or so, and that a civil war was fought over in the 1920s. The Ulster Volunteer Force, the Irish Republican Army, the British security forces, and hundreds of other splinter factions were engaged in an extremely violent campaign of war and terrorism against one another. Bombings and assassinations were common. It was an unequivocally shitty time to live in Northern Ireland. And our Garth Ennis was born in 1970, smackdab in the middle of it all. He grew up in Holywood, just outside Belfast, the capital of Northern Ireland, the son of atheist parents. He has claimed an interview with the Comics Journal in 1998 that his childhood had very little effect on his writing, but, considering how often he writes about Ireland and its Troubles, about how stupid religion is and the terrible things it can make people do, and about how awesome the British SAS are, he's must be being incredibly facetious.
It's possible to read the next story arc without knowing anything about Irish history, and it's possible to enjoy Garth Ennis without knowing anything about his upbringing (“blah blah the author is dead etc.”), but this arc makes a little more sense if you know a little bit about both.
In 1968, what's known colloquially (and with a great deal of understatement) as “The Troubles” began in earnest. It's difficult to give quick summary of this VERY complicated conflict, but the short version is that the Catholics hate the Protestants, and the Irish who want to be part of England hate the ones who want Ireland to be completely free, and of course vice versa. It's a traditional hatred that's been going on since the 1600s or so, and that a civil war was fought over in the 1920s. The Ulster Volunteer Force, the Irish Republican Army, the British security forces, and hundreds of other splinter factions were engaged in an extremely violent campaign of war and terrorism against one another. Bombings and assassinations were common. It was an unequivocally shitty time to live in Northern Ireland. And our Garth Ennis was born in 1970, smackdab in the middle of it all. He grew up in Holywood, just outside Belfast, the capital of Northern Ireland, the son of atheist parents. He has claimed an interview with the Comics Journal in 1998 that his childhood had very little effect on his writing, but, considering how often he writes about Ireland and its Troubles, about how stupid religion is and the terrible things it can make people do, and about how awesome the British SAS are, he's must be being incredibly facetious.
Wednesday, March 17, 2010
Lost Season 6, Episode 8: Recon
My review of the latest episode of Lost is up on Smartpop. Here is a sample -- click it to read the whole thing.
First off, and this has nothing to do with anything at all, the Last time Widmore was putting a crack team together he got Miles, Charlotte, sexy Naomi, Keamy (the most evil man in the world), the dude from The Wire, Fischer Stevens and Zoe Bell (who didn’t have much to do because of the writer’s strike, but still) and Jeremy Davies. This time he has a poor man’s Tina Fey, and Chip from Kate and Allie and yoghurt commercials (seriously, check imdb.com). Widmore is going to have to make up with Michael Emerson to even think about having a team with the acting chops to take on evil Terry O’Quinn.
One thing I thought of after the show ended was that The Man in Black tells Kate that Aaron now has a crazy mother, and he knows from experience how bad that is. It feels like he is justifying someone other than Claire raising Aaron -- something the psychic told Claire never to let anyone do, or bad things would happen. It will be interesting to see how baby Kwon and Aaron will figure into the show, what with them both being off island.
First off, and this has nothing to do with anything at all, the Last time Widmore was putting a crack team together he got Miles, Charlotte, sexy Naomi, Keamy (the most evil man in the world), the dude from The Wire, Fischer Stevens and Zoe Bell (who didn’t have much to do because of the writer’s strike, but still) and Jeremy Davies. This time he has a poor man’s Tina Fey, and Chip from Kate and Allie and yoghurt commercials (seriously, check imdb.com). Widmore is going to have to make up with Michael Emerson to even think about having a team with the acting chops to take on evil Terry O’Quinn.
One thing I thought of after the show ended was that The Man in Black tells Kate that Aaron now has a crazy mother, and he knows from experience how bad that is. It feels like he is justifying someone other than Claire raising Aaron -- something the psychic told Claire never to let anyone do, or bad things would happen. It will be interesting to see how baby Kwon and Aaron will figure into the show, what with them both being off island.
Tuesday, March 16, 2010
Uncanny X-Men #260
[Jason Powell continues to look at stacks and stacks of Claremont X-Men comics, one at a time. We are almost at the first appearance of Gambit! I quiver with anticipation.]
“Star 90”
For his penultimate issue, Marc Silvestri illustrates a story whose premise he himself suggested to Claremont (sparing Dazzler from “death” at the hands of Mastermold). In a surprising move, the story takes as its departure point Jim Shooter’s 1984 “Dazzler: The Movie” graphic novel. A dreadful excuse for a comic, “The Movie” introduced a trio of Alison-Blaire admirers – shy, young Freddie Stanachek, evil millionaire Eric Beale and good-hearted movie producer Roman Nekobah (the last one being a Mary Sue for Shooter himself). Six years later, Claremont, Silvestri and Green present its sequel, “Star 90,” a marvelously successful attempt to bring the character of Alison Blaire full circle.
Freddie and Beale both return, the former recast as an up-and-coming Hollywood player and the latter as a cocaine-addicted psychopath. Roman Nekoboh appears only briefly, drawn by Silvestri to evoke Jim Shooter so that Claremont can thank the former Marvel Editor-in-Chief for supplying this issue with all of its core narrative elements. (“Gotta give credit where credit’s due, big guy!” enthuses Shooter/Nekobah’s companion. “This moment couldn’t have happened without you!”)
In the original graphic novel, Dazzler destroys the only print of her titular feature film, in an act of defiance against bad-guy Beale. Uncanny X-Men #259 showed Freddie discovering another surviving print and subsequently happening upon the post-Seige Alison in a nightclub. The present issue follows the Hollywood adventures of the amnesiac Dazzler as she is groomed for stardom by Freddie and stalked by the obsessive Beale. In a subversion of expectation, Claremont plays the Beale thread for laughs (despite the issue’s Jim Lee cover, which suggests a level of earnest – if overblown – menace); a sequence midway through the story goes particularly cartoonish, subjecting the villain to Yosemite Sam-levels of slapstick torture (complete with cowboy costume). Clearly enjoying himself, Silvestri makes the most of the Beale material.
“Star 90”
For his penultimate issue, Marc Silvestri illustrates a story whose premise he himself suggested to Claremont (sparing Dazzler from “death” at the hands of Mastermold). In a surprising move, the story takes as its departure point Jim Shooter’s 1984 “Dazzler: The Movie” graphic novel. A dreadful excuse for a comic, “The Movie” introduced a trio of Alison-Blaire admirers – shy, young Freddie Stanachek, evil millionaire Eric Beale and good-hearted movie producer Roman Nekobah (the last one being a Mary Sue for Shooter himself). Six years later, Claremont, Silvestri and Green present its sequel, “Star 90,” a marvelously successful attempt to bring the character of Alison Blaire full circle.
Freddie and Beale both return, the former recast as an up-and-coming Hollywood player and the latter as a cocaine-addicted psychopath. Roman Nekoboh appears only briefly, drawn by Silvestri to evoke Jim Shooter so that Claremont can thank the former Marvel Editor-in-Chief for supplying this issue with all of its core narrative elements. (“Gotta give credit where credit’s due, big guy!” enthuses Shooter/Nekobah’s companion. “This moment couldn’t have happened without you!”)
In the original graphic novel, Dazzler destroys the only print of her titular feature film, in an act of defiance against bad-guy Beale. Uncanny X-Men #259 showed Freddie discovering another surviving print and subsequently happening upon the post-Seige Alison in a nightclub. The present issue follows the Hollywood adventures of the amnesiac Dazzler as she is groomed for stardom by Freddie and stalked by the obsessive Beale. In a subversion of expectation, Claremont plays the Beale thread for laughs (despite the issue’s Jim Lee cover, which suggests a level of earnest – if overblown – menace); a sequence midway through the story goes particularly cartoonish, subjecting the villain to Yosemite Sam-levels of slapstick torture (complete with cowboy costume). Clearly enjoying himself, Silvestri makes the most of the Beale material.
Wednesday, March 10, 2010
Lost, Season 6, Episode 7: Dr Linus
My blog is up at Smartpop. Total spoilers. Here is a sample. Click the sample to read the whole thing.
And I DO. NOT. CARE. how many times we have done the slow-mo-long-lost-castaways-are-reunited-on-the-beach-to-Michael-Giacchino’s-score thing. They get me every time, and Giacchino won an Academy Award a few days ago FOR A REASON. This one was no exception, and we have a Sun and Jin one on the way to look forward to. (Lost knows everyone liked the tension of Desmond and Penny separated: I think it was kind of cheap to just do it again with Sun and Jin, but whatever. I can get over it.)
I thought it was hilarious that the unique page URL for this week's Smartpop is http://www.smartpopbooks.com/616 -- all this talk about alternate universes, and the number 616 is how we identify this post. (A note to my mother, who now reads by blog now -- "616" is how Marvel Comics identifies their main universe of Spiderman, Iron Man, Captain America and the X-Men, as opposed to other universes where say, all those characters are Zombies because history went different there).
One thing to add here, also for my mother: I forgot to mention what a beautiful moment of Christian forgiveness is shown to Ben in this episode: to not forgive him is not just cruel but puts his soul at hazard (in McCarthy's words), as he will have no choice to side with the Satan figure of The Man in Black (if that is where we are going with this, which is by no means clear, or desirable).
And I DO. NOT. CARE. how many times we have done the slow-mo-long-lost-castaways-are-reunited-on-the-beach-to-Michael-Giacchino’s-score thing. They get me every time, and Giacchino won an Academy Award a few days ago FOR A REASON. This one was no exception, and we have a Sun and Jin one on the way to look forward to. (Lost knows everyone liked the tension of Desmond and Penny separated: I think it was kind of cheap to just do it again with Sun and Jin, but whatever. I can get over it.)
I thought it was hilarious that the unique page URL for this week's Smartpop is http://www.smartpopbooks.com/616 -- all this talk about alternate universes, and the number 616 is how we identify this post. (A note to my mother, who now reads by blog now -- "616" is how Marvel Comics identifies their main universe of Spiderman, Iron Man, Captain America and the X-Men, as opposed to other universes where say, all those characters are Zombies because history went different there).
One thing to add here, also for my mother: I forgot to mention what a beautiful moment of Christian forgiveness is shown to Ben in this episode: to not forgive him is not just cruel but puts his soul at hazard (in McCarthy's words), as he will have no choice to side with the Satan figure of The Man in Black (if that is where we are going with this, which is by no means clear, or desirable).
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.
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.
Tuesday, March 09, 2010
Uncanny X-Men #259
[Jason Powell continues to look at every issue of Claremont's X-Men run. This one is short, and he worries this will look like his is phoning it in, but I think he is focused, smart, and can usefully rely on all the writing he has in the can -- there is no reason for him to keep making the same points. Especially when the new point he has here is such good one.]
“Dream a Little Dream”
While Claremont’s messing around with Storm’s age and Psylocke’s ethnicity seems like change just for the sake of it, his concluding narrative turns for Colossus and Dazzler are beautifully conceived. Throughout the Outback era, these were the two characters who – within in the world of the story – were never fully at ease with the path on which they found themselves. Peter was raised to be a farmer, and had a passion for art. Alison was groomed to enter law school, but pursued her passion for music. Both originally set to follow in their parents’ footsteps, both with an artistic bent, they nonetheless became “superheroes” – one out of a sense of duty; the other, desperation.
These parallels had existed all along, but only in “Dream a Little Dream” does Claremont juxtapose the two characters so deliberately. They both emerge from the Seige Perilous in Uncanny 259, in scenarios that allow them to pursue their respective passions. Peter becomes a painter; and Dazzler, a movie star. And while each of them will become involved in action-story tropes over the next couple of issues, there is a sense that the greater burdens associated with their X-affiliations have been lifted.
“Dream a Little Dream”
While Claremont’s messing around with Storm’s age and Psylocke’s ethnicity seems like change just for the sake of it, his concluding narrative turns for Colossus and Dazzler are beautifully conceived. Throughout the Outback era, these were the two characters who – within in the world of the story – were never fully at ease with the path on which they found themselves. Peter was raised to be a farmer, and had a passion for art. Alison was groomed to enter law school, but pursued her passion for music. Both originally set to follow in their parents’ footsteps, both with an artistic bent, they nonetheless became “superheroes” – one out of a sense of duty; the other, desperation.
These parallels had existed all along, but only in “Dream a Little Dream” does Claremont juxtapose the two characters so deliberately. They both emerge from the Seige Perilous in Uncanny 259, in scenarios that allow them to pursue their respective passions. Peter becomes a painter; and Dazzler, a movie star. And while each of them will become involved in action-story tropes over the next couple of issues, there is a sense that the greater burdens associated with their X-affiliations have been lifted.
Monday, March 08, 2010
Carl Wilson's Let's Talk About Love: A Journey to the End of Taste
Carl Wilson wrote this great little book a few years back called Let's Talk about Love: A Journey to the End of Taste. In it Wilson, a serious indie music critic, subjects himself to Celine Dion music to understand why so many people love it, and investigate where taste comes from. I clipped this passage to show to my students, but there is something about it I don't quite get:
[91] The pleasure of listening to music or playing a sport is obviously real. [Sociologist Pierre Bourdeiu’s] argument is that the kinds of music and sports we choose, and how we talk about them, are socially shaped – that the cultural filters and concepts that guide my interests in and reactions to music, clothes, films or home decoration come out of my class and field. At the worst I am conning myself, but to what I feel is my advantage.
Thursday, March 04, 2010
A Serious Man
Total spoilers.
Harold Bloom remarks somewhere that The Torah posits a fullness of meaning for the Jewish people. Because of the Torah everything is meaningful, and everything is meaningful in the Torah, including individual letters, even their shape. The Torah is full of wisdom, as a woman wearing braces from polio points out to the protagonist of A Serious Man, that can help with anything that may arise. Judaism posits a fullness of significance.
Bloom draws a couple of conclusions from this. For one, he says that this is why Jewish poetry is very weak. Because according to Bloom's theory of poetry, poets become great by battling a father figure to determine, among other things, meaning. Wordsworth is great because he is trying to outdo Milton. But Bloom says this is not a Jewish virtue. In Judaism, meaning has already been given in its totality, and surpassing fathers is not the thing to do. (I know a very successful Jewish professional man who outdid his blue collar father; the father refused to visit the son's office.) Bloom also believes that Freud's psychoanalysis, which he did not want to merely be a "Jewish Science," was very Jewish -- just as the Torah contains all the meaning that will ever be needed, so in psychoanalysis your destiny is set at a very very young age for the rest of your life, and just as in Judaism, in psychoanalysis everything -- even slips of the tongue -- have meaning.
The universe of almost all of the Cohen brothers' movies posits the exact opposite - everything is totally EMPTY of meaning, which is why so many of their movies just become complete farce.
Harold Bloom remarks somewhere that The Torah posits a fullness of meaning for the Jewish people. Because of the Torah everything is meaningful, and everything is meaningful in the Torah, including individual letters, even their shape. The Torah is full of wisdom, as a woman wearing braces from polio points out to the protagonist of A Serious Man, that can help with anything that may arise. Judaism posits a fullness of significance.
Bloom draws a couple of conclusions from this. For one, he says that this is why Jewish poetry is very weak. Because according to Bloom's theory of poetry, poets become great by battling a father figure to determine, among other things, meaning. Wordsworth is great because he is trying to outdo Milton. But Bloom says this is not a Jewish virtue. In Judaism, meaning has already been given in its totality, and surpassing fathers is not the thing to do. (I know a very successful Jewish professional man who outdid his blue collar father; the father refused to visit the son's office.) Bloom also believes that Freud's psychoanalysis, which he did not want to merely be a "Jewish Science," was very Jewish -- just as the Torah contains all the meaning that will ever be needed, so in psychoanalysis your destiny is set at a very very young age for the rest of your life, and just as in Judaism, in psychoanalysis everything -- even slips of the tongue -- have meaning.
The universe of almost all of the Cohen brothers' movies posits the exact opposite - everything is totally EMPTY of meaning, which is why so many of their movies just become complete farce.
Punisher Max issue 6 -- one more thing
[Graham Tedesco-Blair has been looking at Ennis's Punisher Max series. Last week he sent me a revision to one of the paragraphs in his last review, but I forgot to make the change for him. My bad. Here it is. The paragraph that begins "Pittsy and Frank keep smashing the tar out of one another" should look like this:]
Pittsy and Frank keep smashing the tar out of one another, when we get an odd call back to Morrison's Arkham Asylum, of all things. Morrison is about as un-Miller as you can get these days, though he had yet to start his attempted subversion of Millar's Batman, bear in mind. Pittsy stabs Castle through the hand with a shard of broken glass, recalling that famous scene in the aforementioned book, the one than snaps Batman out of his scared and tired trance, and the same thing happens here with Frank, who uses it as an opportunity to chuck Pittsy out of the window, where he's impaled onto the sharp spikes of the fence below. Even then, though, this isn't enough to kill him, so Frank jumps off after him, landing feet first on Pittsy's chest, and driving him further onto the spikes. That old school mafia archetype is hard to put down, after all, but perhaps it can be temporarily distracted by a crazy Scottish magician?
Pittsy and Frank keep smashing the tar out of one another, when we get an odd call back to Morrison's Arkham Asylum, of all things. Morrison is about as un-Miller as you can get these days, though he had yet to start his attempted subversion of Millar's Batman, bear in mind. Pittsy stabs Castle through the hand with a shard of broken glass, recalling that famous scene in the aforementioned book, the one than snaps Batman out of his scared and tired trance, and the same thing happens here with Frank, who uses it as an opportunity to chuck Pittsy out of the window, where he's impaled onto the sharp spikes of the fence below. Even then, though, this isn't enough to kill him, so Frank jumps off after him, landing feet first on Pittsy's chest, and driving him further onto the spikes. That old school mafia archetype is hard to put down, after all, but perhaps it can be temporarily distracted by a crazy Scottish magician?
Wednesday, March 03, 2010
Lost Season 6, Episode 6: Sundown
My spoiler-ho review of the latest episode of LOST is up at smartpop. Here is a sample you can click to read the whole thing.
The Empire Strikes Back is the best Star Wars movie for a pretty obvious reason: as the second act of the story, the bad guys are winning. As Dante learned writing the Divine Comedy, it is always more fun to hang out with bad guys than good guys. This far into season 6 of Lost we are clearly in the second act of the final season, and, right on schedule, the bad guys are in glorious form. I can only assume that while I am writing this a series of Youtube clips are being thrown together, scoring the final moment of “Sundown” — The Man in Black’s bad-ass slow-motion walk away from the temple with his crew — to any number of songs, including “Damn it Feels Good to be A Gangster” and “Little Green Bag” from Reservoir Dogs.
Something I did not say over there:
Neil has a theory that the Alt-U is not a different timeline but the result of some time travel mojo that has yet to happen -- that basically we are witnessing how everything will resolve for our characters, the ending engineered for them by Jacob and The Man in Black after the events of the island play out. The fact that a late episode is called "Happily Ever After" supports this, as does the fact that Sayid is in the thrall of The Man in Black, and his Alt U story does not take such a happy turn as the others have. A punishment perhaps, and an appropriately ironic one: the Man in Black said he could see his true love again, and indeed he does -- in the arms of another man.
The Empire Strikes Back is the best Star Wars movie for a pretty obvious reason: as the second act of the story, the bad guys are winning. As Dante learned writing the Divine Comedy, it is always more fun to hang out with bad guys than good guys. This far into season 6 of Lost we are clearly in the second act of the final season, and, right on schedule, the bad guys are in glorious form. I can only assume that while I am writing this a series of Youtube clips are being thrown together, scoring the final moment of “Sundown” — The Man in Black’s bad-ass slow-motion walk away from the temple with his crew — to any number of songs, including “Damn it Feels Good to be A Gangster” and “Little Green Bag” from Reservoir Dogs.
Something I did not say over there:
Neil has a theory that the Alt-U is not a different timeline but the result of some time travel mojo that has yet to happen -- that basically we are witnessing how everything will resolve for our characters, the ending engineered for them by Jacob and The Man in Black after the events of the island play out. The fact that a late episode is called "Happily Ever After" supports this, as does the fact that Sayid is in the thrall of The Man in Black, and his Alt U story does not take such a happy turn as the others have. A punishment perhaps, and an appropriately ironic one: the Man in Black said he could see his true love again, and indeed he does -- in the arms of another man.
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.
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.
Tuesday, March 02, 2010
Uncanny X-Men #258
[Jason Powell continues his EPIC look at ever issue of Claremont's X-Men, in the process inspiring other people not only to love Claremont MORE, but also to do their own issue by issue projects.]
“Broken Chains”
Why did Claremont turn Psylocke Asian?
The character’s transformation into a ninja is explainable in the context of Claremont’s extended Miller homage. Indeed, the eventual plan was to have the Hand succeed where they fail during the Mandarin trilogy, brainwashing Wolverine into their master assassin – a development that would have lasted a year. (Editorial nixed it, and when the time came Claremont had already quit anyway.)
But the desire to transform Betsy into a different ethnicity seems purposeless. I say “seems” because as I write this, there have just been some fantastic comments made to the blog entry for Uncanny 247, wherein Gary and others helped to beautifully explicate some of my difficulties with that issue’s ending. So while I’m inclined to say that Psylocke’s transformation was arbitrary and ill-considered, I will wait and see if any commentators can shed some light.
(I tend to put Storm’s transformation into a child in the same category. Developments like Ororo’s and Psylocke’s feel very much like the massive narrative chess game that was Claremont’s X-Men ended with “Inferno,” and that everything afterward amounts to him just idly pushing the pieces around on the board.)
“Broken Chains”
Why did Claremont turn Psylocke Asian?
The character’s transformation into a ninja is explainable in the context of Claremont’s extended Miller homage. Indeed, the eventual plan was to have the Hand succeed where they fail during the Mandarin trilogy, brainwashing Wolverine into their master assassin – a development that would have lasted a year. (Editorial nixed it, and when the time came Claremont had already quit anyway.)
But the desire to transform Betsy into a different ethnicity seems purposeless. I say “seems” because as I write this, there have just been some fantastic comments made to the blog entry for Uncanny 247, wherein Gary and others helped to beautifully explicate some of my difficulties with that issue’s ending. So while I’m inclined to say that Psylocke’s transformation was arbitrary and ill-considered, I will wait and see if any commentators can shed some light.
(I tend to put Storm’s transformation into a child in the same category. Developments like Ororo’s and Psylocke’s feel very much like the massive narrative chess game that was Claremont’s X-Men ended with “Inferno,” and that everything afterward amounts to him just idly pushing the pieces around on the board.)
Monday, March 01, 2010
Women in Refrigerators 10 Years Later
[Scott takes a discussion from ten years ago and evaluates how it holds up today. He sent me this a while ago but we have had so many regular posters on here, it sat in the pipeline for a while -- Sorry Scott. If it makes you feel better I have one in the pipeline too (expect it Monday).]
For those of you unfamiliar, It was a little over 10 years ago that Gail Simone and a few of her fellow comics creators/fans noticed what they felt to be a disturbing trend in superhero comics, a trend they named ‘Women in Refrigerators’ after the event in 1994’s Green Lantern 54 where Kyle Rayner returns home to discover his girlfriend has been murdered and stuffed into his refrigerator by Major Force (Ron Marz would later defend this scene by explaining that, since the censors would not allow them to show the full picture, many assumed that she had been dismembered when, in fact, she had only been crammed WHOLE into the refrigerator… because that’s SO MUCH better). While often used as a blanket term to refer to any wrong done to a female character, it is more specifically linked with something bad being done to a female character who is close to the hero in some way for the purpose of a plot device, usually one that involves having the hero ‘undergo a baptism of fire’ of sorts or to ‘raise the stakes’ and force the hero to consider and, sometimes, cross a line that they normally wouldn’t cross.
To document this phenomena, they created this website which not only list all the female characters who have had atrocities visited upon them that range from being depowered to being raped or murdered, but also contains responses from various comics professionals (some of whom are the guilty parties in the abuse of these characters) where they will often attempt to apologize or, at least, defend/explain their actions (interestingly, Geoff Johns, who weighs in at one point on this subject is given kudos for his portrayal of the, at the time, newly created Courney Whitmore (Stargirl) whom Simone describes as “ a delightful creation… the kind of young girl character I’ve been hoping for.” So, despite our issues with him here on the blog, maybe there’s some stuff he gets right.).
For those of you unfamiliar, It was a little over 10 years ago that Gail Simone and a few of her fellow comics creators/fans noticed what they felt to be a disturbing trend in superhero comics, a trend they named ‘Women in Refrigerators’ after the event in 1994’s Green Lantern 54 where Kyle Rayner returns home to discover his girlfriend has been murdered and stuffed into his refrigerator by Major Force (Ron Marz would later defend this scene by explaining that, since the censors would not allow them to show the full picture, many assumed that she had been dismembered when, in fact, she had only been crammed WHOLE into the refrigerator… because that’s SO MUCH better). While often used as a blanket term to refer to any wrong done to a female character, it is more specifically linked with something bad being done to a female character who is close to the hero in some way for the purpose of a plot device, usually one that involves having the hero ‘undergo a baptism of fire’ of sorts or to ‘raise the stakes’ and force the hero to consider and, sometimes, cross a line that they normally wouldn’t cross.
To document this phenomena, they created this website which not only list all the female characters who have had atrocities visited upon them that range from being depowered to being raped or murdered, but also contains responses from various comics professionals (some of whom are the guilty parties in the abuse of these characters) where they will often attempt to apologize or, at least, defend/explain their actions (interestingly, Geoff Johns, who weighs in at one point on this subject is given kudos for his portrayal of the, at the time, newly created Courney Whitmore (Stargirl) whom Simone describes as “ a delightful creation… the kind of young girl character I’ve been hoping for.” So, despite our issues with him here on the blog, maybe there’s some stuff he gets right.).
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