Batman 680. I think I am the only one, but I am getting a little tired of this story now. I think it is the combination of this aura of weighty importance and bad art.
I really enjoyed Batman's explanation of his crazy outfit: " The colors demonstrate total confidence. Robin dressed this way for years and survived." And I adored the line about how "inevitable" the Joker is, though the line would have been more at home in New X-Men re: Magneto. Fits in better with the theme there. But it is a great line. But I feel like I have seen that exact scene between Joker and Batman a few times now already.
I like that Batman calls the Bat-mite "Might," though there is something that bugs me (just a little) in the way the speech-balloons clarify something ambiguous in the spoken word, as if we are not only getting what Batman says, we are also getting what he MEANS. The Bat-Mite explains his role (years ago I would have used the phrase "ontological existence"): when Batman asks if he is a 5th dimensional imp or just his imagination Bat-Mite replies "Imagination is the Fifth Dimension" a piece of Morrisonian thinking I really should have seen coming in my thoughts on what exactly the status of the Bat-Mite was; I guess that equation just seemed out of place in a Batman book, where imagination is less of a theme than in, say Seven Soldiers or even JLA. What I find genuinely annoying here -- and I bet people are going to jump all over me with all kinds of absurd rationalizations -- is the Bat-Mite's claim -- his very next claim after establishing that he is a force of Otherworldly Imagination and an insane looking mini-batman cartoon imp -- is that he is the "Last fading echo of the VOICE OF REASON." WHAT? Someone can surely quote me something that equates reason and the imagination, probably from Morrison's own work, but I do not buy it. Someone around here is working with comics and romantic poetry and they are going to have a field day with this line, or break their dissertation on it. To me, it just seems like an overloaded symbolic mess but that may be because of my personal conviction that the imagination and reason are in stark opposition, as William Blake knew (and he got the idea from me).
Which brings me to my next point. Batman says "Diamonds, Clubs, Rich People! Hearts and Spades, Love and Death, The Joke and the Punchline, the Harlequins Motley, Red and Black, Cupid and the Devil." The Joker claims this is all meaningless, and he better be right, because, like the Bat-Mite, this is all starting to feel really overloaded, and it is kind of making me tired. A perfectly reasonable person might find that list to be meaningless, especially the emphasis on red and black which can basically mean anything. Though in Morrison's defense he can stick a landing like no man's business: e.g. the last issue of New X-Men, Invisibles, Animal Man. So maybe he will make me love all this in retrospect.
Friday, October 03, 2008
International Radio Operators Alphabet (Commonplace Book)
You know what I like and look up all the time? The International Radio Operators Alphabet.
Alpha
Bravo
Charlie
Delta
Echo
Foxtrot
Golf
Hotel
India
Juliet
Kilo
Lima
Mike
November
Oscar
Papa
Quebec
Romeo
Sierra
Tango
Uniform
Victor
Whiskey
X-Ray
Yankee
Zulu
Alpha
Bravo
Charlie
Delta
Echo
Foxtrot
Golf
Hotel
India
Juliet
Kilo
Lima
Mike
November
Oscar
Papa
Quebec
Romeo
Sierra
Tango
Uniform
Victor
Whiskey
X-Ray
Yankee
Zulu
Thursday, October 02, 2008
Jason Powell on Uncanny X-Men #169
[Jason Powell continues his issue by issue look at Claremont's X-Men. For more in this series see the toolbar on the right.]
“Catacombs”
The two-parter inaugurated here has been convincingly deconstructed by Neil Shyminski in his essay “Mutant Readers, Reading Mutants: Appropriation, Assimilation, and the X-Men” for its dismally simplified identity politics, wherein, as Shyminski says, “[the Morlocks] are figured as villains as a direct result of their refusal to conform to non-mutant norms.”
Actually, in more prosaic plot-terms, they are figured as villains because inside of the first five pages they commit breaking & entering, kidnapping and attempted murder. But the point is well taken, nonetheless.
Putting aside the problematic politics (which don’t actually manifest until part two), this is a tensely exciting issue. The opening sequence is a particularly solid piece of action-choreography, given a surprising overtone of sensuality via the inclusion of a nude Nightcrawler and Amanda in a bubble bath.
Indeed, Smith’s artistic style in general has a sheen of sexiness to it, a result of his smoothly organic figures, always defined by soft, naturalistic lines, which he then places against architecturally rigorous backgrounds characterized by an inordinately high incidence of hard right angles. The effect is marvelous – Smith’s issues of Uncanny seem, even 25 years after the fact, almost futuristic in their geometric precision.
Smith’s talent for contrast is given further emphasis in this arc particularly, with the artist liberally adding lines to the faces (and even the clothing) of the antagonists, effectively making them appear monstrously overwrought compared to the smooth lines comprising the X-Men.
Meanwhile, a two-page subplot set in the Hellfire Club is one of the first of several red herrings that will appear in the next few issues hinting at a return of Dark Phoenix, but is more notable for its hint of how Claremont’s approach to Uncanny X-Men is changing. Claremont has given up on trying to duplicate the watershed accomplishments that are his run with Byrne and his first run with Cockrum. Instead of trying to recreate them, he is now, innovatively, examining the psychological ramifications of these past superhero epics, and exploring the novel notion that these cataclysmic, cosmic events that occur month after month would create equally catastrophic trauma for the protagonists.
But how, then, to still satisfy genre requirements? How can Claremont still utilize recurring villains, for example, but fight free of the “riff” paradigm, wherein every creator of X-Men offers a new spin on the same old chords? We get a taste of the answer here, as Claremont begins to recast former villains as just additional members of an ever-widening ensemble cast. Sebastian Shaw and Tessa show up in this issue, but they don’t fight the X-Men; they simply are reacting to their own crisis. Next issue, Mystique and Destiny of the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants will appear as part of this same arc, but the arc will conclude without them ever coming into conflict with the series’ title characters.
Granted, in this case Claremont is using both the Club and the Brotherhood as plot devices to a degree: they are there to help plant red herrings for an upcoming twist. But as time goes by, we see villains used more and more often as parallel protagonists rather than antagonists, moving through their own miniature arcs that are sometimes as complete as anything seen among the comic book’s lead characters. This new approach offers several advantages, one of the most immediate being an escape route from the cycle of trying to rehash the classics. As the lines between heroes and villains -- between lead and secondary characters – dissolve, so too do the lines between one arc and the next blur as well, so that stories bleed into each other. The resulting aesthetic messiness will pre-empt even the expectation that another epic as clean and classically structured as the Dark Phoenix Saga could possibly emerge.
“Catacombs”
The two-parter inaugurated here has been convincingly deconstructed by Neil Shyminski in his essay “Mutant Readers, Reading Mutants: Appropriation, Assimilation, and the X-Men” for its dismally simplified identity politics, wherein, as Shyminski says, “[the Morlocks] are figured as villains as a direct result of their refusal to conform to non-mutant norms.”
Actually, in more prosaic plot-terms, they are figured as villains because inside of the first five pages they commit breaking & entering, kidnapping and attempted murder. But the point is well taken, nonetheless.
Putting aside the problematic politics (which don’t actually manifest until part two), this is a tensely exciting issue. The opening sequence is a particularly solid piece of action-choreography, given a surprising overtone of sensuality via the inclusion of a nude Nightcrawler and Amanda in a bubble bath.
Indeed, Smith’s artistic style in general has a sheen of sexiness to it, a result of his smoothly organic figures, always defined by soft, naturalistic lines, which he then places against architecturally rigorous backgrounds characterized by an inordinately high incidence of hard right angles. The effect is marvelous – Smith’s issues of Uncanny seem, even 25 years after the fact, almost futuristic in their geometric precision.
Smith’s talent for contrast is given further emphasis in this arc particularly, with the artist liberally adding lines to the faces (and even the clothing) of the antagonists, effectively making them appear monstrously overwrought compared to the smooth lines comprising the X-Men.
Meanwhile, a two-page subplot set in the Hellfire Club is one of the first of several red herrings that will appear in the next few issues hinting at a return of Dark Phoenix, but is more notable for its hint of how Claremont’s approach to Uncanny X-Men is changing. Claremont has given up on trying to duplicate the watershed accomplishments that are his run with Byrne and his first run with Cockrum. Instead of trying to recreate them, he is now, innovatively, examining the psychological ramifications of these past superhero epics, and exploring the novel notion that these cataclysmic, cosmic events that occur month after month would create equally catastrophic trauma for the protagonists.
But how, then, to still satisfy genre requirements? How can Claremont still utilize recurring villains, for example, but fight free of the “riff” paradigm, wherein every creator of X-Men offers a new spin on the same old chords? We get a taste of the answer here, as Claremont begins to recast former villains as just additional members of an ever-widening ensemble cast. Sebastian Shaw and Tessa show up in this issue, but they don’t fight the X-Men; they simply are reacting to their own crisis. Next issue, Mystique and Destiny of the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants will appear as part of this same arc, but the arc will conclude without them ever coming into conflict with the series’ title characters.
Granted, in this case Claremont is using both the Club and the Brotherhood as plot devices to a degree: they are there to help plant red herrings for an upcoming twist. But as time goes by, we see villains used more and more often as parallel protagonists rather than antagonists, moving through their own miniature arcs that are sometimes as complete as anything seen among the comic book’s lead characters. This new approach offers several advantages, one of the most immediate being an escape route from the cycle of trying to rehash the classics. As the lines between heroes and villains -- between lead and secondary characters – dissolve, so too do the lines between one arc and the next blur as well, so that stories bleed into each other. The resulting aesthetic messiness will pre-empt even the expectation that another epic as clean and classically structured as the Dark Phoenix Saga could possibly emerge.
Wednesday, October 01, 2008
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 a week goes by and I have failed to add you to the blog roll TELL ME TO DO IT AGAIN, and KEEP TELLING ME UNTIL IT GETS DONE. I can be lazy about updating the non-post parts of this site. 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 (but now might not be). That is often the reason I fail to get back to people, and on a blog, after a few days, the comments thread dies and I just kind of forget about it. Let's use this space to fix that, because it does need to be fixed; I look like a jackass sometimes, leaving people hanging. I will TRY to respond to any questions here.
AND you can use this space to comment on posts that are old enough that no one is reading the comments threads anymore. For example, if you thought of a great quote for the great quote commonplace book, but now no one is reading that, you could put it here.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 you think your free form comment here might be better as its own post, but you do not want it to be public yet, email it to me. My email address is available on my blogger profile page. If I think it will work on this site, your post will be published here with your name in the title of the post. You can propose what you will, I am always looking for reviews of games, tv, movies, music and books.
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 (but now might not be). That is often the reason I fail to get back to people, and on a blog, after a few days, the comments thread dies and I just kind of forget about it. Let's use this space to fix that, because it does need to be fixed; I look like a jackass sometimes, leaving people hanging. I will TRY to respond to any questions here.
AND you can use this space to comment on posts that are old enough that no one is reading the comments threads anymore. For example, if you thought of a great quote for the great quote commonplace book, but now no one is reading that, you could put it here.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 you think your free form comment here might be better as its own post, but you do not want it to be public yet, email it to me. My email address is available on my blogger profile page. If I think it will work on this site, your post will be published here with your name in the title of the post. You can propose what you will, I am always looking for reviews of games, tv, movies, music and books.
Scott goes shopping for a Metallica T-Shirt
[Guest blog from Scott: I thought he found an interesting connection at the end].
I bought a Metallica T-shirt today, it's an odd thing for a grown man to do (unless of course it's a concert T-shirt) but I couldn't resist, I've recently rediscovered the awesomeness of ...And Justice For All and it just so happenned to be an ....And Justice For AllT-shirt reasonably priced at 10 dollars. Here's the weird part... I bought it at JC Penney's. This is a recent trend I've noticed: retail chains are selling these oldish rock band T-shirts as fashion. Some places, like Target, label them as 'vintage rock shirts' which is fairly cringe-worthy but, at Penney, the sale sign said 'novelty rock T-shirts' Really? Novelty? I remember when wearing the T-shirt of a band was a sort of showing of loyalty to that band's music; a way of saying, "Yes, I am a fan of this band." I've seen students of mine wearing these T-shirts and, as I begin asking them about the band, it becomes apparent that they have little or no clue about the bands that they are promoting on their chest. Recently, a student came to class wearing a Who t-shirt and, being a huge Who fan myself, I immediately began to quiz him on what his favorite album was. He didn't have one, in fact, other than "My Generation" it seemed the only Who songs he was aware of were the ones that have been used as CSI theme music.
I've been reading AJ Jacobs The Year of Living Biblically where he discusses the fact that there are many worshippers in the Judeo-Christian faith who continue practicing rituals that they have long since forgotten the meaning for. Is that what this is like? These kids know these bands are cool for some reason but they have no idea first hand of why they're great bands?
I bought a Metallica T-shirt today, it's an odd thing for a grown man to do (unless of course it's a concert T-shirt) but I couldn't resist, I've recently rediscovered the awesomeness of ...And Justice For All and it just so happenned to be an ....And Justice For AllT-shirt reasonably priced at 10 dollars. Here's the weird part... I bought it at JC Penney's. This is a recent trend I've noticed: retail chains are selling these oldish rock band T-shirts as fashion. Some places, like Target, label them as 'vintage rock shirts' which is fairly cringe-worthy but, at Penney, the sale sign said 'novelty rock T-shirts' Really? Novelty? I remember when wearing the T-shirt of a band was a sort of showing of loyalty to that band's music; a way of saying, "Yes, I am a fan of this band." I've seen students of mine wearing these T-shirts and, as I begin asking them about the band, it becomes apparent that they have little or no clue about the bands that they are promoting on their chest. Recently, a student came to class wearing a Who t-shirt and, being a huge Who fan myself, I immediately began to quiz him on what his favorite album was. He didn't have one, in fact, other than "My Generation" it seemed the only Who songs he was aware of were the ones that have been used as CSI theme music.
I've been reading AJ Jacobs The Year of Living Biblically where he discusses the fact that there are many worshippers in the Judeo-Christian faith who continue practicing rituals that they have long since forgotten the meaning for. Is that what this is like? These kids know these bands are cool for some reason but they have no idea first hand of why they're great bands?
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