The back of the DVD for Roman Polanski's MacBeth includes one of the worst Shakespeare allusions I have ever heard:
"Filmed in rugged North Wales, Polanski's MACBETH is a tale told by a master, full of sound and fury -- and genius!"
Yikes. For some reason I keep hearing it in my head in the voice of Master Shake. I saw the pilot of Slings and Arrows -- which I could not get through by the way it was so bad - and it included a similar allusion by a corporate lackey, and was used to indicate what an ass he was.
By the way, if you are unfamiliar with what the Internet Movie Database calls the film's "trivia," you should be. Here it is, with one note from me.
* Director Roman Polanski's wife, actress Sharon Tate, was murdered by Charles Manson three years before the making of the film. It is believed that due to this traumatic event, Polanski developed the story to be a more violent representation of Shakespeare's play. For instance, the scene in which Macbeth murders King Duncan was not in the original play and was instead implied.
[More disturbing is the fact is the scene in which MacDuff is informed of the death of his wife and children by MacBeth when he was away from home, since it must have struck very close to home for Polanski.]
* During the set up of the gruesome death scene of Lady MacDuff's children, director Roman Polanski was instructing a four-year-old blonde girl on how to play dead, while smearing tons of fake blood all over her body. Polanski playfully asked the girl what her name was, to which she replied, "Sharon".
* The scene in which Macbeth's thugs massacre Macduff's household was based on Roman Polanski's memory of SS officers ransacking his house as a child.
* When crew members suggested to Roman Polanski that perhaps the film was too unrealistically gory for its own good, Polanski reportedly replied, "I know violence. You should've seen my house last summer."
Monday, May 12, 2008
Scott on the JLI part 5
[Guest-blogger Scott continues his look at the JLI. For more in this series see the toolbar on the right]
Booster Gold: More Like Superman Than You Think
Plus: The Beginning of a Beautiful Friendship
Have you ever noticed how much Superman and Booster Gold are alike? Seriously, think about it, they both come from ‘homes’ where nothing is left for them; in the case of Superman, it is his destroyed home-world of Krypton (often seen as an allegory for the old Europe abandoned by Jewish immigrants at the turn of the century) whereas, for Gold, it is a future (the 25th century I believe) where he is a fallen sports hero. Both men bring from their ‘homes’ certain things that allow them to be ‘super-heroic’ to us; For Superman, it is his innate powers and, for Booster, it is technology stolen from a future museum. (Note: I’m pretty sure I remember an old Who’s Who entry listing Nightwing’s ‘utility wristbands’ among his inventory. Can anyone else confirm this?)
Furthermore, both characters were very much representatives of the era in which they were created. I once saw a documentary that characterized Superman as a sort of ‘super new dealer’; FDR in a cape in tights if you will. He was created at a time where the American people were being asked to trust in a power greater than themselves for survival. As a result, Superman uses all of his power to help those less powerful than himself. Whether this was intentional on the part of Siegel and Shuster is debatable; Booster Gold, on the other hand, was intentionally meant to be a representative of his times. Created by Dan Jurgens in 1986, Booster is very much meant to be a hero for the ‘greed is good’ 80’s (this also makes him the first major DC character created post-crisis which makes him a good candidate for membership based on the idea of the new incarnation of the League being representative of a cross-section of the new, unified DC universe). Rather than using his power to help people simply because ‘it is the right thing to do’, Gold, initially at least, uses it for his own personal gain. His series was an extended riff on the idea of superhero as celebrity. Like the cold war tensions of the previous story, this is an idea that holds up surprisingly well 20 years later. What better place for a fame-hungry hero of the 80’s than the reality TV soaked 21st century. If Booster Gold were real, he’d be taking his turn on Celebrity Fit Club or Dancing with the Stars as we speak.
Although Maxwell Lord would later be characterized as a truly evil and murderous character, at this point in his history, he is simply a bit of an amoral opportunist. He sees the League as an opportunity to get in on the ground floor of a rising superhero industry. In the more ‘realistic’ comics of this period, a globe trotting super-team would need more than a teenage mascot; they would need a publicist, someone to handle the media and take care of damage control. Again, this is part of Giffen addressing the more practical concerns of the enhanced reality of superhero comics of this period. Lord sees the relationship with the team as one that would be mutually beneficial to both parties but the League remains skeptical, especially Batman. There’s a great panel of Batman glaring, almost nose to nose, at a seemingly nonplussed Lord.
Max: You’re upset Batman. I can see that.
Batman: You’re very perseptive.
Max: Let’s talk about this like reasonable men.
Batman: I’m not a reasonable man.
First of all, I would like to say that I think Batman’s line about not being a ‘reasonable man’ was a nice touch. In the wake of The Dark Knight Returns, Batman’s grip on reality was being questioned more than ever before; this is a nice, subtle nod to that. Secondly, you’ve got to hand it to Maxwell Lord here; he’s willing to stand up to Batman. Not only that, but he’s also managed to duplicate a League communicator that is ‘superior to the original’, break in to League headquarters and he has, seemingly, been manipulating them from the beginning. I think that, in the next volume, it is revealed that Lord himself is being manipulated by another, more powerful foe (so this can excuse some of his more ruthless behavior like the UN hostage situation from the first issue) but you have to admit that, for someone without superpowers in a book that deals with some of DC’s most powerful, the guy’s got balls.
At the end of the third issue of Justice League, the team returned home to find Maxwell Lord introducing them to their “newest team member”, Booster Gold. At the beginning of the fourth issue, Dr. Light, enraged by the fact that Maxwell Lord has been using her, angrily quits the team. This is why I haven’t spent a lot of time discussing Dr. Light; she was just there as a plot point. In fact, she never even got to wear her costume during her three issue stint with the team and only got to use her powers twice by my count. Booster, his own ego a bit stung by the League’s skepticism regarding his membership, also storms out of the League’s headquarters but not before throwing the team a little tidbit of information that gives them a hint that he may be more trustworthy than they think.
Booster Gold: Good Luck with your master plan, Max… You’re gonna need it?
Batman and Martian Manhunter: Plan?
Batman: What plan?
Max: It’s … ah…. Nothing.
I think it’s clear why Max wants Gold on the team. He sees Booster as someone who can be more easily controlled than Batman or Guy Gardner. If nothing else, as a self-styled celebrity super-hero, he would be more sympathetic to Max’s vision for the team. The above exchange shows both the reader and the team that Booster is not so easily manipulated. At this point in the series, he has his dignity.
So much of issue four of Justice League is pretty much your traditional ‘initiation-of-a-new-member-into-a-super-team’ story: hero applies for membership, is rejected for one reason or another, is placed in a situation where he is allowed to prove his worth on his own, a threat emerges that requires the whole team, including the pontential new member, must combine their powers to defeat and, in the end, the new team member is accepted. In the case of Booster Gold, shortly after leaving JL headquarters he is attacked by the Royal Flush gang. Since their attack is otherwise inexplicable and occurs at a rather convenient time for Gold to prove himself, one can only assume that, once again, Maxwell Lord has been pulling the strings.
Booster, of course, dispatches four of the five members in short order (with Ace noticeably missing). There’s a nice bunch of classic DeMatteis’s witty banter during the fight the best of which is a riff on a classic adventure hero moment. Booster has defeated three of the first four members of the gang leaving only ‘Ten’ who, in this incarnation of the gang, is female, when the following exchange takes place:
Ten: Uh… you wouldn’t hit a lady would you?
Booster: Well… um… you see… it’s … um… like this….
(the next panel is a nothing but a giant BOPP! Followed by a panel of Booster standing over a fallen ‘Ten’)
Booster: Where I come from equality of the sexes is a given… so we can hit anyone.
I also think it’s worth pointing out that it’s a pretty nice gag that while, where Booster is from, he can hit anyone, we never actually see him hit ‘Ten.’
Hearing a series of cheers and applause from above, Booster realizes that, throughout his battle, he has been watched by the rest of the League.
Booster: I had an audience? Well, then… ah… how’d I do?
Max: Do? You were…
Captain Marvel: Shhh!
This is followed by a panel of a close up of a stoic Batman which is, in turn, followed by a panel another close up but, this time, a smile of approval is beginning to curl across the Dark Knight’s face. Granted, Batman’s hasty acceptance of Booster may be a bit out of character but this really wasn’t a series to pick nits like that. Also, it serves as a nice way of encouraging the reader to accept Booster as part of the team. It’s kind of like saying, “hey, if Bats says he’s ‘ok’ then he must be ok.”
Before Booster can properly be welcomed on to the team, however, the final part of his ‘initiation’ must take place: the threat that the entire team must join together to overcome. In this case, it is the Royal Flush Gang’s newest Ace who, in this incarnation, is a giant android designed specifically to take out individual members of the team: he has a flamethrower for Martian Manhunter, a yellow force field for Guy Gardner, is stronger than Captain Marvel etc. As a result, he is able to take out the League’s most powerful members in short order, leaving only Batman, Beetle and Booster. With a little distraction from Batman, Booster and Beetle whip up a plan that uses the force-field surrounding the League’s headquarters to destroy the android. There’s a nice ‘silver-age’ moment when, as he’s flying Ace into the force field, Booster points out:
Whoever made you gave you weapons to take out all the Leaguers! But I’m not a Leaguer! (this also works nicely with the theory that Max has ‘set-up’ this little initiation for the benefit of the team)
The plan works and, with the android destroyed, Beetle thinks:
. Maybe standing around pushing buttons isn’t so bad.
The major threat, Ace, quickly takes out the League’s most powerful members only to be defeated by Booster and Beetle team members least worthy for membership. This is more than just the beginning of the classic ‘Blue and Gold’ team that would dominate so much of the team’s misadventures to come but it also is an example of what this series would eventually become; it was a series where the underdog would get to shine. The main characters of this run were not Batman, Martian Manhunter or even Captain Marvel; they were Blue Beetle, Booster Gold and Guy Gardner (and, later, Captain Atom, Fire, Ice and… lest we forget…. G’nort!).
Booster Gold: More Like Superman Than You Think
Plus: The Beginning of a Beautiful Friendship
Have you ever noticed how much Superman and Booster Gold are alike? Seriously, think about it, they both come from ‘homes’ where nothing is left for them; in the case of Superman, it is his destroyed home-world of Krypton (often seen as an allegory for the old Europe abandoned by Jewish immigrants at the turn of the century) whereas, for Gold, it is a future (the 25th century I believe) where he is a fallen sports hero. Both men bring from their ‘homes’ certain things that allow them to be ‘super-heroic’ to us; For Superman, it is his innate powers and, for Booster, it is technology stolen from a future museum. (Note: I’m pretty sure I remember an old Who’s Who entry listing Nightwing’s ‘utility wristbands’ among his inventory. Can anyone else confirm this?)
Furthermore, both characters were very much representatives of the era in which they were created. I once saw a documentary that characterized Superman as a sort of ‘super new dealer’; FDR in a cape in tights if you will. He was created at a time where the American people were being asked to trust in a power greater than themselves for survival. As a result, Superman uses all of his power to help those less powerful than himself. Whether this was intentional on the part of Siegel and Shuster is debatable; Booster Gold, on the other hand, was intentionally meant to be a representative of his times. Created by Dan Jurgens in 1986, Booster is very much meant to be a hero for the ‘greed is good’ 80’s (this also makes him the first major DC character created post-crisis which makes him a good candidate for membership based on the idea of the new incarnation of the League being representative of a cross-section of the new, unified DC universe). Rather than using his power to help people simply because ‘it is the right thing to do’, Gold, initially at least, uses it for his own personal gain. His series was an extended riff on the idea of superhero as celebrity. Like the cold war tensions of the previous story, this is an idea that holds up surprisingly well 20 years later. What better place for a fame-hungry hero of the 80’s than the reality TV soaked 21st century. If Booster Gold were real, he’d be taking his turn on Celebrity Fit Club or Dancing with the Stars as we speak.
Although Maxwell Lord would later be characterized as a truly evil and murderous character, at this point in his history, he is simply a bit of an amoral opportunist. He sees the League as an opportunity to get in on the ground floor of a rising superhero industry. In the more ‘realistic’ comics of this period, a globe trotting super-team would need more than a teenage mascot; they would need a publicist, someone to handle the media and take care of damage control. Again, this is part of Giffen addressing the more practical concerns of the enhanced reality of superhero comics of this period. Lord sees the relationship with the team as one that would be mutually beneficial to both parties but the League remains skeptical, especially Batman. There’s a great panel of Batman glaring, almost nose to nose, at a seemingly nonplussed Lord.
Max: You’re upset Batman. I can see that.
Batman: You’re very perseptive.
Max: Let’s talk about this like reasonable men.
Batman: I’m not a reasonable man.
First of all, I would like to say that I think Batman’s line about not being a ‘reasonable man’ was a nice touch. In the wake of The Dark Knight Returns, Batman’s grip on reality was being questioned more than ever before; this is a nice, subtle nod to that. Secondly, you’ve got to hand it to Maxwell Lord here; he’s willing to stand up to Batman. Not only that, but he’s also managed to duplicate a League communicator that is ‘superior to the original’, break in to League headquarters and he has, seemingly, been manipulating them from the beginning. I think that, in the next volume, it is revealed that Lord himself is being manipulated by another, more powerful foe (so this can excuse some of his more ruthless behavior like the UN hostage situation from the first issue) but you have to admit that, for someone without superpowers in a book that deals with some of DC’s most powerful, the guy’s got balls.
At the end of the third issue of Justice League, the team returned home to find Maxwell Lord introducing them to their “newest team member”, Booster Gold. At the beginning of the fourth issue, Dr. Light, enraged by the fact that Maxwell Lord has been using her, angrily quits the team. This is why I haven’t spent a lot of time discussing Dr. Light; she was just there as a plot point. In fact, she never even got to wear her costume during her three issue stint with the team and only got to use her powers twice by my count. Booster, his own ego a bit stung by the League’s skepticism regarding his membership, also storms out of the League’s headquarters but not before throwing the team a little tidbit of information that gives them a hint that he may be more trustworthy than they think.
Booster Gold: Good Luck with your master plan, Max… You’re gonna need it?
Batman and Martian Manhunter: Plan?
Batman: What plan?
Max: It’s … ah…. Nothing.
I think it’s clear why Max wants Gold on the team. He sees Booster as someone who can be more easily controlled than Batman or Guy Gardner. If nothing else, as a self-styled celebrity super-hero, he would be more sympathetic to Max’s vision for the team. The above exchange shows both the reader and the team that Booster is not so easily manipulated. At this point in the series, he has his dignity.
So much of issue four of Justice League is pretty much your traditional ‘initiation-of-a-new-member-into-a-super-team’ story: hero applies for membership, is rejected for one reason or another, is placed in a situation where he is allowed to prove his worth on his own, a threat emerges that requires the whole team, including the pontential new member, must combine their powers to defeat and, in the end, the new team member is accepted. In the case of Booster Gold, shortly after leaving JL headquarters he is attacked by the Royal Flush gang. Since their attack is otherwise inexplicable and occurs at a rather convenient time for Gold to prove himself, one can only assume that, once again, Maxwell Lord has been pulling the strings.
Booster, of course, dispatches four of the five members in short order (with Ace noticeably missing). There’s a nice bunch of classic DeMatteis’s witty banter during the fight the best of which is a riff on a classic adventure hero moment. Booster has defeated three of the first four members of the gang leaving only ‘Ten’ who, in this incarnation of the gang, is female, when the following exchange takes place:
Ten: Uh… you wouldn’t hit a lady would you?
Booster: Well… um… you see… it’s … um… like this….
(the next panel is a nothing but a giant BOPP! Followed by a panel of Booster standing over a fallen ‘Ten’)
Booster: Where I come from equality of the sexes is a given… so we can hit anyone.
I also think it’s worth pointing out that it’s a pretty nice gag that while, where Booster is from, he can hit anyone, we never actually see him hit ‘Ten.’
Hearing a series of cheers and applause from above, Booster realizes that, throughout his battle, he has been watched by the rest of the League.
Booster: I had an audience? Well, then… ah… how’d I do?
Max: Do? You were…
Captain Marvel: Shhh!
This is followed by a panel of a close up of a stoic Batman which is, in turn, followed by a panel another close up but, this time, a smile of approval is beginning to curl across the Dark Knight’s face. Granted, Batman’s hasty acceptance of Booster may be a bit out of character but this really wasn’t a series to pick nits like that. Also, it serves as a nice way of encouraging the reader to accept Booster as part of the team. It’s kind of like saying, “hey, if Bats says he’s ‘ok’ then he must be ok.”
Before Booster can properly be welcomed on to the team, however, the final part of his ‘initiation’ must take place: the threat that the entire team must join together to overcome. In this case, it is the Royal Flush Gang’s newest Ace who, in this incarnation, is a giant android designed specifically to take out individual members of the team: he has a flamethrower for Martian Manhunter, a yellow force field for Guy Gardner, is stronger than Captain Marvel etc. As a result, he is able to take out the League’s most powerful members in short order, leaving only Batman, Beetle and Booster. With a little distraction from Batman, Booster and Beetle whip up a plan that uses the force-field surrounding the League’s headquarters to destroy the android. There’s a nice ‘silver-age’ moment when, as he’s flying Ace into the force field, Booster points out:
Whoever made you gave you weapons to take out all the Leaguers! But I’m not a Leaguer! (this also works nicely with the theory that Max has ‘set-up’ this little initiation for the benefit of the team)
The plan works and, with the android destroyed, Beetle thinks:
. Maybe standing around pushing buttons isn’t so bad.
The major threat, Ace, quickly takes out the League’s most powerful members only to be defeated by Booster and Beetle team members least worthy for membership. This is more than just the beginning of the classic ‘Blue and Gold’ team that would dominate so much of the team’s misadventures to come but it also is an example of what this series would eventually become; it was a series where the underdog would get to shine. The main characters of this run were not Batman, Martian Manhunter or even Captain Marvel; they were Blue Beetle, Booster Gold and Guy Gardner (and, later, Captain Atom, Fire, Ice and… lest we forget…. G’nort!).
Saturday, May 10, 2008
Jason Powell on Uncanny X-Men #124 (by way of Classic X-Men #30, part a)
[Guest-blogger Jason Powell continues his issue by issue look at Chris Claremont's X-Men run. For more in this series, see the toolbar on the right.]
“He Only Laughs When I Hurt”
As the story begins, Colossus is fighting on the villain’s side against Wolverine and Cyclops, having been brainwashed into thinking he is “the Proletarian,” a Soviet superhero whose emblem is a big picture of Lenin’s head. (Silly, yes, but to be fair, it is framed as a deliberately tasteless joke by Arcade, shown laughing hysterically in the opening splash.)
As noted a few entries ago, Claremont has been working a long-term character arc for Colossus, playing up two intertwined psychological weaknesses: 1.) He misses his family and home in Russia, and 2.) He doubts whether he’s an effective member of the team. The brainwashing thread in the Arcade two-parter hammers home both points while bringing up a third, which dovetails: It’s 1979; America and the Soviet Union are opposing forces in the Cold War. So why is Piotr working with a team based in the United States? To put it more simply, is Colossus a traitor?
Ableit politically naive, this is a perfectly solid characterization for Colossus, who is young and naive himself. Problematically however, Claremont’s solution at the end of the issue is facile. Storm and Cyclops simply remind Piotr that the X-Men are “like a family” and that they “love” him, and Colossus snaps out of it. This is the resolution of a character arc that had been running for over a year? (Recognizing his narrative cop-out a decade later, Claremont gives us a much more complex and satisfying resolution in Classic X-Men #29, part b. I’ll discuss that story in the next entry.)
I nonetheless love this issue. Classic X-Men #30 was my very first X-Men comic, bought with my own allowance right off the rack in November of 1988. I had just seen the “Pryde of the X-Men” half-hour animated feature on TV, and Steve Lightle’s cover (much stronger than Byrne’s original for Uncanny #124) sported five of the same X-Men featured in the cartoon.
The issue gave the 10-year-old me everything I could possibly have wanted from a superhero comic. Right from page 4, with Wolverine and Cyclops fighting Colossus, I was in Heaven. Wolverine even says, “I always wondered if my adamantium claws would cut your steel hide, Russkie.” I had wondered the SAME THING after watching the cartoon. (Wolverine and I would both continue wondering; his claws never actually connect with Colossus, in this or any other Claremont-penned issue.)
Meanwhile, the other X-Men’s various threats all seemed cool, with the stakes incredibly high by a 10-year-old’s standards. Storm stuck underwater had a doubly profound effect. First, there was the drama of Storm being trapped where her weather powers were less effective because “water’s a much heavier medium than air” (that seems incredibly intelligent to a kid, believe me). Then, John Byrne and Terry Austin show Storm taking off her boots and cape so she’s not so weighted down when she tries to swim to safety – effectively showing a hot woman stripping down to a bikini. This was really taking my brain to lots of surprising places.
And best of all was the Cyclops/Nightcrawler “buzz-saw car” sequence. I invite anyone who – like Geoff – “NEEDS” to see Cyclops kicking ass after Joss Whedon’s handling of the character in Astonishing X-Men, buy and read this issue. On Page 10, Cyclops destroys eight buzz-saw cars with ONE OPTIC BLAST. Claremont’s narration is a tad superfluous here, explaining the feat as a product of Scott’s “unique, inborn talent for spacial geometry.” Actually, the 30-year-old me kind of likes that, but as a kid I didn’t care. The panel was owned by Byrne, who loved Cyclops enough to give him the coolest moment in the story.
This is one issue I simply can’t look at objectively. If I did, I would probably recognize that the plot doesn’t really make a lot of sense. (Juggernaut of all people needs to hire someone to kill the X-Men? Arcade lets the X-Men go just because Colossus shook off the brainwashing? He doesn’t kill Nightcrawler even though he and his assistants beat him fairly on Arcade’s terms? Also, isn’t Arcade just kind of a poor man’s Joker?)
But the above nostalgia trip hopefully illustrates a point that is important and easily lost amidst all the analysis: Claremont and Byrne were creating a truly all-ages superhero comic here, one that hit all the right notes for an action-adventure-loving 10-year-old kid while still appealing to the literary sensibilities of readers who were quite a bit older. And they did it month after month for 3 years, better and more consistently than any of their contemporaries. Can any X-Men creator post-Claremont (even Whedon and Cassaday, who arguably have come the closest, and whose work on Astonishing X-Men owes a massive debt to Claremont and Byrne) make the same claim?
[I do not want to make too big a deal out of this, but in the last issue Claremont had Banshee reading Finnegans Wake, in which almost every word is a portmanteau word -- a conflation of two or sometimes three (or more) words. Jason has discussed Claremont's love of language, and that may be a reason he admires Joyce. My point here is that, however facile, Claremont comes up with a kind of playful portmanteau word in this issue -- a reference to what is apparently a Marvel Universe pop culture icon -- Battlestarwars1999. The combination of Battlestar Galactica, Star Wars, and Space 1999 is dumb, but I can think of dumber combinations in Joyce. ]
“He Only Laughs When I Hurt”
As the story begins, Colossus is fighting on the villain’s side against Wolverine and Cyclops, having been brainwashed into thinking he is “the Proletarian,” a Soviet superhero whose emblem is a big picture of Lenin’s head. (Silly, yes, but to be fair, it is framed as a deliberately tasteless joke by Arcade, shown laughing hysterically in the opening splash.)
As noted a few entries ago, Claremont has been working a long-term character arc for Colossus, playing up two intertwined psychological weaknesses: 1.) He misses his family and home in Russia, and 2.) He doubts whether he’s an effective member of the team. The brainwashing thread in the Arcade two-parter hammers home both points while bringing up a third, which dovetails: It’s 1979; America and the Soviet Union are opposing forces in the Cold War. So why is Piotr working with a team based in the United States? To put it more simply, is Colossus a traitor?
Ableit politically naive, this is a perfectly solid characterization for Colossus, who is young and naive himself. Problematically however, Claremont’s solution at the end of the issue is facile. Storm and Cyclops simply remind Piotr that the X-Men are “like a family” and that they “love” him, and Colossus snaps out of it. This is the resolution of a character arc that had been running for over a year? (Recognizing his narrative cop-out a decade later, Claremont gives us a much more complex and satisfying resolution in Classic X-Men #29, part b. I’ll discuss that story in the next entry.)
I nonetheless love this issue. Classic X-Men #30 was my very first X-Men comic, bought with my own allowance right off the rack in November of 1988. I had just seen the “Pryde of the X-Men” half-hour animated feature on TV, and Steve Lightle’s cover (much stronger than Byrne’s original for Uncanny #124) sported five of the same X-Men featured in the cartoon.
The issue gave the 10-year-old me everything I could possibly have wanted from a superhero comic. Right from page 4, with Wolverine and Cyclops fighting Colossus, I was in Heaven. Wolverine even says, “I always wondered if my adamantium claws would cut your steel hide, Russkie.” I had wondered the SAME THING after watching the cartoon. (Wolverine and I would both continue wondering; his claws never actually connect with Colossus, in this or any other Claremont-penned issue.)
Meanwhile, the other X-Men’s various threats all seemed cool, with the stakes incredibly high by a 10-year-old’s standards. Storm stuck underwater had a doubly profound effect. First, there was the drama of Storm being trapped where her weather powers were less effective because “water’s a much heavier medium than air” (that seems incredibly intelligent to a kid, believe me). Then, John Byrne and Terry Austin show Storm taking off her boots and cape so she’s not so weighted down when she tries to swim to safety – effectively showing a hot woman stripping down to a bikini. This was really taking my brain to lots of surprising places.
And best of all was the Cyclops/Nightcrawler “buzz-saw car” sequence. I invite anyone who – like Geoff – “NEEDS” to see Cyclops kicking ass after Joss Whedon’s handling of the character in Astonishing X-Men, buy and read this issue. On Page 10, Cyclops destroys eight buzz-saw cars with ONE OPTIC BLAST. Claremont’s narration is a tad superfluous here, explaining the feat as a product of Scott’s “unique, inborn talent for spacial geometry.” Actually, the 30-year-old me kind of likes that, but as a kid I didn’t care. The panel was owned by Byrne, who loved Cyclops enough to give him the coolest moment in the story.
This is one issue I simply can’t look at objectively. If I did, I would probably recognize that the plot doesn’t really make a lot of sense. (Juggernaut of all people needs to hire someone to kill the X-Men? Arcade lets the X-Men go just because Colossus shook off the brainwashing? He doesn’t kill Nightcrawler even though he and his assistants beat him fairly on Arcade’s terms? Also, isn’t Arcade just kind of a poor man’s Joker?)
But the above nostalgia trip hopefully illustrates a point that is important and easily lost amidst all the analysis: Claremont and Byrne were creating a truly all-ages superhero comic here, one that hit all the right notes for an action-adventure-loving 10-year-old kid while still appealing to the literary sensibilities of readers who were quite a bit older. And they did it month after month for 3 years, better and more consistently than any of their contemporaries. Can any X-Men creator post-Claremont (even Whedon and Cassaday, who arguably have come the closest, and whose work on Astonishing X-Men owes a massive debt to Claremont and Byrne) make the same claim?
[I do not want to make too big a deal out of this, but in the last issue Claremont had Banshee reading Finnegans Wake, in which almost every word is a portmanteau word -- a conflation of two or sometimes three (or more) words. Jason has discussed Claremont's love of language, and that may be a reason he admires Joyce. My point here is that, however facile, Claremont comes up with a kind of playful portmanteau word in this issue -- a reference to what is apparently a Marvel Universe pop culture icon -- Battlestarwars1999. The combination of Battlestar Galactica, Star Wars, and Space 1999 is dumb, but I can think of dumber combinations in Joyce. ]
Friday, May 09, 2008
LOST Season 4 Episode 11
John Locke finds the cabin, and meets Christian and an eerily beautiful and smug (is that the right word?) Claire; Christian, Jack's dad, is "representing" Jacob. Keamey is established as the villain for this season by viciously beating up on an unkillable Michael, slitting the doctors throat -- whose body has, due to weird time effects, already washed up on shore -- killing the captain, and taking what looks like a crazy bomb to the island. Sayid gets a raft to save people before Keamy kills everyone. In a Locke flashback we see Alpert (who will always be Batmanuel to me) and Abbadon involved in key moments in Locke's life, leading him toward his destiny.
Keamy is powerfully evil. In just a handful of moments he scares the crap out of me. It is not just the violence, or the history of genocidal violence Ben alluded to just before he killed Ban's daughter -- it is the casting.
The fat on his cheeks and his sort of Chipmunk teeth are almost horrifyingly friendly, and boyish. He is the apotheosis -- I use that word too much, blame Bloom -- of the schoolyard bully, and thus the perfect villain for fans of Lost, who skew more toward the RPG side of after-school activity. The man strikes fear into my bones.
Also good casting -- Locke's mom did look a lot like a young Swoozie Kurtz, though some people thought Claire.
Locke's flashbacks were interesting. I have maybe not had enough time to process them, but I found them odd. Noel Murray of The AV club had this to say:
The model of the reluctant, ignorant and/or unexpected hero is fairly common in myth (and in fantasy fiction), but the way these archetypes have been combined in Locke is especially compelling. Here’s a guy who wants to be a hero, but keeps missing the signs and opportunities, because the model of heroism in his head is all cocked-up.
This is an interesting point, but I still don't know. Maybe his destiny was to be a scientist, but then Christian confirms that he is still chosen in his current hunter form, defined by that knife that he apparently should not have chosen during the Batmanuel Dali Lama scene. He should have chosen, I guess, the comic book -- which is a real comic book, by the way, and not a prop, as perfect as the cover looks for LOST. If he had not been a "hunter" he would not have survived on the island in the first place? Or maybe never been on the plane? So the rejection of his destiny brought him to his destiny, which is how destiny works? But the Alpert seemed so disappointed beneath his raccoon eyes? Or Alpert -- representing the hostiles -- wanted him to be a scientist, while Abbadon (whose name has all kinds of evil bible resonance) who may be working for Dharma wants him to be that hunter and so guides him toward the Walkabout? I kind of do not want to go nuts thinking to hard about all the destiny-choice stuff just now. I am not saying it is a mistake. I just did not land with me just yet. Lt. Daniels is Awesome as Abbadon.
And I should have learned my lesson here last week, but this seems fairly likely and obvious -- surely where we are going with all this is that Sayid finds the Castaways who maybe went inland toward Keamy (stupid people) and gets the Oceanic Six on that raft (though how he gets Jack to go I cannot imagine), probably at least Juliet gets killed, and they escape; when Sayid returns for more people Locke has, in the stunning last line "moved the island" (in space? in time?) and that is why only these people got back and why they need to return. Hopefully Locke will do what has to be done at the temple -- a space we learned about at the end of Season 3, but that we have not seen yet.
Can anyone remind me when we saw Horace before. I thought we were seeing him for the first time this episode, but he must have been in that season three Ben flashback and I forgot about him.
Hurley and Ben sharing the candy bar was awesome, and not just because of the Laurel and Hardy-esque difference in size.
Keamy is powerfully evil. In just a handful of moments he scares the crap out of me. It is not just the violence, or the history of genocidal violence Ben alluded to just before he killed Ban's daughter -- it is the casting.
The fat on his cheeks and his sort of Chipmunk teeth are almost horrifyingly friendly, and boyish. He is the apotheosis -- I use that word too much, blame Bloom -- of the schoolyard bully, and thus the perfect villain for fans of Lost, who skew more toward the RPG side of after-school activity. The man strikes fear into my bones.
Also good casting -- Locke's mom did look a lot like a young Swoozie Kurtz, though some people thought Claire.
Locke's flashbacks were interesting. I have maybe not had enough time to process them, but I found them odd. Noel Murray of The AV club had this to say:
The model of the reluctant, ignorant and/or unexpected hero is fairly common in myth (and in fantasy fiction), but the way these archetypes have been combined in Locke is especially compelling. Here’s a guy who wants to be a hero, but keeps missing the signs and opportunities, because the model of heroism in his head is all cocked-up.
This is an interesting point, but I still don't know. Maybe his destiny was to be a scientist, but then Christian confirms that he is still chosen in his current hunter form, defined by that knife that he apparently should not have chosen during the Batmanuel Dali Lama scene. He should have chosen, I guess, the comic book -- which is a real comic book, by the way, and not a prop, as perfect as the cover looks for LOST. If he had not been a "hunter" he would not have survived on the island in the first place? Or maybe never been on the plane? So the rejection of his destiny brought him to his destiny, which is how destiny works? But the Alpert seemed so disappointed beneath his raccoon eyes? Or Alpert -- representing the hostiles -- wanted him to be a scientist, while Abbadon (whose name has all kinds of evil bible resonance) who may be working for Dharma wants him to be that hunter and so guides him toward the Walkabout? I kind of do not want to go nuts thinking to hard about all the destiny-choice stuff just now. I am not saying it is a mistake. I just did not land with me just yet. Lt. Daniels is Awesome as Abbadon.
And I should have learned my lesson here last week, but this seems fairly likely and obvious -- surely where we are going with all this is that Sayid finds the Castaways who maybe went inland toward Keamy (stupid people) and gets the Oceanic Six on that raft (though how he gets Jack to go I cannot imagine), probably at least Juliet gets killed, and they escape; when Sayid returns for more people Locke has, in the stunning last line "moved the island" (in space? in time?) and that is why only these people got back and why they need to return. Hopefully Locke will do what has to be done at the temple -- a space we learned about at the end of Season 3, but that we have not seen yet.
Can anyone remind me when we saw Horace before. I thought we were seeing him for the first time this episode, but he must have been in that season three Ben flashback and I forgot about him.
Hurley and Ben sharing the candy bar was awesome, and not just because of the Laurel and Hardy-esque difference in size.
Comics Out May 7, 2008
Punisher War Journal 19. Jigsaw makes a big move against Frank. Jigsaw is a pretty disturbing and fascinating villain; I like how the evil version of the Punisher gets to have the family Frank lost, as if that tragedy is necessary to make Frank a good guy. How would a guy like Frank have channeled all his anger -- surely not all the product of revenge -- with a wife and kid. Chaykin, however -- HOW did Frank, surrounded, open a manhole cover silently with just his foot? Those things are heavy, scrape against the ground, and do not have anything for a foot to hold on to. I mean, Buggs Bunny could pull it off, but in this book?
Invincible Iron Man 1. Iron Man vs Ezekiel Stane: The Prologue. The Order, ended seven days ago, continues here. Nothing really dies, which is nice -- you do not feel all those good Order ideas are sitting in a drawer somewhere. I am interested in Stane.
Angel 7. Stories picking up immediately after the conclusion of the show contine: here we get Wesley and Kate. With Kate back I really felt how much of my enjoyment of the Whedon-verse was the actors, like Elizabeth Rohm. Unless you are going to give me great art to replace those actors, then this is always going to be a diminished thing. Does anyone know who the character in the frame story is?
Buffy 14. The Godzilla Dawn thing was funny, and I liked the box of flame, but again, see above. And check out the vaguely inappropriate Sam Keith style sound effect on the bottom of the second to last page. Really? That was the effect you wanted?
Newsarama's got Matt Fraction, more discussion of DCU 0, and I have decided to avoid the Final Crisis previews for some reason.
Invincible Iron Man 1. Iron Man vs Ezekiel Stane: The Prologue. The Order, ended seven days ago, continues here. Nothing really dies, which is nice -- you do not feel all those good Order ideas are sitting in a drawer somewhere. I am interested in Stane.
Angel 7. Stories picking up immediately after the conclusion of the show contine: here we get Wesley and Kate. With Kate back I really felt how much of my enjoyment of the Whedon-verse was the actors, like Elizabeth Rohm. Unless you are going to give me great art to replace those actors, then this is always going to be a diminished thing. Does anyone know who the character in the frame story is?
Buffy 14. The Godzilla Dawn thing was funny, and I liked the box of flame, but again, see above. And check out the vaguely inappropriate Sam Keith style sound effect on the bottom of the second to last page. Really? That was the effect you wanted?
Newsarama's got Matt Fraction, more discussion of DCU 0, and I have decided to avoid the Final Crisis previews for some reason.
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