Random Back Issues #78 - Copperhead #16

Kid, if we didn't let people who only an idiot would give a badge become cops, we wouldn't have any cops. Hmm. . .

Sheriff Clara Bronson is a bit tied up, as she's been taken prisoner by escaped criminal Clay and his lady friend Annabeth. Clay heads out to get the money from an armored car heist Clara has. Or so Annabeth thinks. Clara explains he's actually here for his son. Who is Clara's son, or rather, Clara's sister's son.

The flashback plays out over this and the next issue, but for now we see that Fiona was very excited to pull a robbery with her beau that would set them and their son up for life. Clara has, entirely reasonable doubts about this, and Fiona basically questions her right to judge anyone else's decisions. Clara can't hold a job, can't even hold her nephew. Always with the excuses. Ah, the bond between siblings.

Back in the present day, Bronson's old boss Lieutenant Ford is trying to find her and Clay ASAP. Unfortunately, Bronson's only deputy recently became Mayor, so now Ford's deputized the local schoolteacher, who is also an artificial human (or "artie"). Ford doesn't know any informants here, but Luken does, the father of one of his students. The man, who looks a bit like a past-his-prime Hellboy declares he's not a snitch, but agrees to make some calls in exchange for a guarantee his son will pass all his tests the rest of the year. I wish my dad could have functioned as a snitch during my high school years, instead of being one of my teachers. Might have done a lot better in Pre-Calculus that way.

Zeke, meanwhile is hiding out at an old scrapyard with Missus Sewell, a local woman who acts as Zeke's nanny or babysitter. Zeke doesn't know what's going on, so he's just excited to camp out. He's significantly less excited when someone shoots Missus Sewell, even if that someone turns out to be his father. Zeke has more than one protector tonight, though, as the artie named Ishmael, who lives alone out in the wilderness arrives. He really should have just shot Clay, rather than announcing himself.

Clay's not impressed, pointing out he was locked up for killing 17 men (probably not something to admit in front of your son), but they never bothered counting how many artificial humans he killed. Ishmael had been a pretty solid badass up to that point in the story, but he gets his butt kicked emphatically in the next issue. His face ends up looking like a pug's, or a manatee's.

[3rd longbox, 6th comic. Copperhead #16, by Jay Faerber (writer), Drew Moss (artist), Ron Riley (colorist), Thomas Mauer (letterer)]

Above Suspicion (1943)

There have been a lot of movies with this title, including at least two in the last 12 years. Guess it's an easy title. 

This version is about Fred MacMurray and Joan Crawford, who are interrupted on the first night of their honeymoon by the British Foreign Service. They're to go to France and find a man, who will give them a clue to find another man in Austria who will tell them what people they can trust. Problem being, they don't know who any of these men are, so it turns into one of those games of wearing hats with roses on them and repeating certain phrases at certain times while spilling a glass of wine.

That goes about as smoothly as you'd expect, although the movie plays it as awkward more than funny. Joan Crawford repeating this same thing to three people in a row until it's the right person. Which definitely wouldn't be suspicious! They reach a bookstore they're seeking in Salzburg, but the first person they ask for a specific book has no idea what they're talking about. MacMurray meets the guy they're looking for, but I think misses the code phrase and so the guy doesn't identify himself.

The movie never really feels tense, though. Maybe at the very end, when Crawford actually gets captured by the Nazis, but until then there's never a time where it feels like they're really in danger of being discovered. But the movie's not trying to play their missteps as comedy, so it's not really funny. And they spend so much time on the code words and whatnot it doesn't leave much time for any sort of romantic interplay or banter between MacMurray and Crawford. 

The movie is just sort of there. Not tense, not funny, not sweet or cute. It's got Basil Rathbone in it as a German count that went to college with MacMurray, but it doesn't give him a lot to do. It feels like the movie meanders to a conclusion along the dullest path possible.

A Steady Start to Spring

The March solicits brought a few new things, but let's cover the returning stuff first. 

Marvel has the fifth issue of The Thing, and the third issues of both She-Hulk and Ben Reilly: Spider-Man. Moon Knight's up to issue 9, and there's also a one-shot tying in to Devil's Reign but haha, I'm not buying that. Batgirls will be at issue 4, with Spellbinder already in the mix, and Grrl Scouts will be up to its penultimate issue like The Thing. 

I don't know if the first issue of Step By Bloody Step is going to do the trick for me, but if so, March brings the second issue. Same for Ice Canyon Monster, where it seems the monster is growing stronger all the time, and may have its own goals. Everyone's always unleashing monsters, but nobody's ever ready for them to get out of control. It's like kids with a new puppy. Vault doesn't have anything listed for Lunar Room or The Rush, but since they're a month behind their solicits with the actual releases, my guess is we'll see issues 4 and 5, respectively. Or they're on a skip month so the artists can catch up.

So, any new comics? Well, there's a couple. Image has Slumber by Tyler Burton Smith and Vanessa Cardenali, about a lady who murders people's nightmares, but finds herself on the trail of an actual serial killer. I assume they mean one who works in the physical realm, rather than a Freddy Krueger dream monster. But maybe not. 'murders people in their sleep' could be read different ways. Dark Horse has the first issue of a two-parter called Radio Spaceman, but it's only written by Mignola. Not meant as a dig against Greg Hinkle, but I kinda want Mignola drawing his own stuff. But we'll see. Behemoth has Strgrl by Lucas Mendonca, but I can't tell from the solicit if I want to give it a whirl or not.

I briefly talked myself into the Black Label Rogues book Joshua Williamson was going to do. Then I remembered I found the last two Black Label books I tried underwhelming, and I don't really want a "one last job" thing with the Rogues. So I talked myself out of it. Larry Hama and Andrea DiVito are doing a mini-series about Wolverine in his Patch identity, called Wolverine: Patch, set before Hama originally wrote Wolverine. I wasn't a fan of that Iron Fist: Heart of the Dragon mini-series Hama wrote, so I should probably give this a pass. Will I end up being stupid? Probably. Speaking of Iron Fist, one version of the solicit lists Christopher Cantwell as writer, but I saw another that said Alyssa Wong. So I don't know what's going on.

Red 5 has the first issue of Lead City by Eric Borden, about a homesteader that gets caught up in a competition between a bunch of killers in an Old West town. If it's all gunfights, I think this would be a pass. I'm not sure comics can really make those sorts of showdowns work the way movies can. But if this is a variety of killing styles, then that could be interesting. 

Jakob Free and Will Tempest's Cities of Magick from Scout sounds like something I'd enjoy playing as a video game. A gun-toting drifter coming to town as two powerful magick clans start fighting, yeah, I'd enjoy the option to side with one or another, or play them both like a harp from hell. Aka, what I did to the Legion and NCR in Fallout: New Vegas. That was immensely satisfying. I really doubt the comic would give me the hit I'm looking for, though.

Vault has West of Sundown, about a vampire that tries to return to where she was reborn to replenish herself, only to find New Mexico's changed. But the solicit lists Tim Daniel and David Andry as writers, with Sunando C as artist. But the description says it stars 'a cast of literary horrors from diabolical the minds of Tim Seeley, Aaron Campbell, and Jim Terry.' So did they come up with the concept, or is it an error? Maybe Southard and Hahn could just give me more Midnight Western Theatre.

The Mortal Storm (1940)

The movie begins on Professor Roth's (Frank Morgan's) 60th birthday, where we see all the letters and presents he received. Where he finds his lecture hall filled with students and his co-faculty, there to celebrate him.

Unfortunately, the movie takes place in 1930s Germany, Professor Roth is Jewish, and his 60th birthday happens to be the same night Hitler's appointed Chancellor of Germany. Worse, his two stepsons and their lifelong friend Fritz (Rovert Young), who just announced his intention to marry Roth's daughter Freya (Margaret Sullavan) without really consulting her, are all ecstatic. Things are going to get done now, but everyone had better get on board with supporting their new leader.

Unfortunately, Freya and her other lifelong friend, Martin (James Stewart), are not on board. Martin tries to stay up on his family farm in the mountains, but Freya's attempts to maintain the bond between all the friends only make things worse. Martin objects when the Hitler Youth hassle one of his old professors who won't stand up and sing in the beer hall (no international coalition to sign "La Marseillaise" ala Casablanca), and he and Freya help the man home when he's brutally beaten out on the street minutes later. Martin ends up helping the professor escape to Austria, but now he's wanted if he returns.

The movie shows the situation getting worse in small ways. When Roth's stepsons try to dictate that Martin can't speak with Freya or enter their home. The gradual disappearance of possessions from the walls of the house as they have to sell things off after the professor loses his job. Their housekeeper leaves because it would be bad for her to associate with them. Of course, things get worse in more overt ways, too. Like the Professor being arrested and thrown in a work camp, or the teenage girl who works on Martin's farm being tortured for information on his whereabouts.

The one thing I find odd is that Freya never seems to really grasp how bad things have gotten. Her father, after losing his position, was writing a manuscript of some aspect of physiology. It wasn't finished when he was arrested, and Freya tries to take it with her to Austria as a keepsake. She's stunned when the Nazis not only won't let her take it, but won't let her leave Germany. Maybe I shouldn't be surprised. I sometimes think I'm not concerned enough about how likely the U.S. is to devolve into fascism. 

But it's usually a case of people not understanding the danger until it personally impacts them. Well Freya can't make that excuse. They threw your father in a prison camp and worked him until he died! Your brothers actively support this regime and beat up a lifelong friend for not falling in line! How much more evidence did she need?

The movie doesn't end on a happy note, which is hardly surprising. Not like Austria was ultimately safe from the Nazis. The one possible bit of hope is that one of the two stepsons seems to have doubts by the end, that maybe trying to control and dictate what people think is actually a bad thing.

Picking Up the Pieces

Doombot is beyond such laughable frailties as shame. Besides, Doombot has abs of, well, something stronger than steel. Titanium?

Volume 4 of Runaways, "But You Can't Hide", is an opportunity for the characters to sort of take stock after the mess with Alex and the Gibborim in the previous arc. And so there's not necessarily one big plot that dominates. There's no external threat, it's more that most of the cast are trying to cope with loss. The first issue is entirely about Molly chasing after Alex and traveling with him, in the hopes he'll help her recover the clone of her mother her grandmother made from, as Alex puts it, "Avengers jail." But that clone isn't Molly's mom, so that's another person she's lost that isn't coming back.

Victor starts to feel the loss of his weaponry and advanced abilities, his inability to protect those he cares about, while still being afraid that he might repeat his murder of the Vision's son in Tom King's Vision series. He does end up growing himself a new body out of bathtub water(?), but then he and Gert start making out. Which sends Chase into a tailspin, but he focuses on work and gets Doombot running again. A success! Except Doombot reverts to shouting about Richards and attacking everyone. He's lost whatever progress he'd made on becoming his own being, but it offers Victor the chance to confront his fear of losing someone in a way where he doesn't risk electrocuting anyone. Nico Henrichon draws the conversations inside Doombot's consciousness, where all the panel borders are mechanical junk and cables.

Also, this reminded me Nico and Victor dated at one point and jeezus, did Nico date everyone in the cast? Chase, Alex, Victor, Karolina, didn't she date Xavin, too, or was that just Karolina that did that?

Gib is still there, minus his two siblings, in a world that is not what he was promised. Join the club. The crew are trying to figure out how to feed him, but even once he grasps how to eat like them, it doesn't help. Their attempts at "sacrifice" don't cut it, either. Karolina has fallen hopelessly behind at college, and maybe it's not even worth continuing, but she does realize she likes using her powers to actually help people. I mean, on purpose, rather than just falling into it like they normally do.

Nico seems to be the only one doing OK throughout, but she spent half of the previous arc struggling with the knowledge there's a wizard trapped inside her staff. She's got a better deal, or so she figures, so she can afford to be in a better mood. Still odd that, knowing the wizard's soul will bleed into hers when she uses the Staff of One, she agrees to go patrolling with Karolina. 

(It goes horribly, fyi. Hard to believe Nico was on an Avengers team, although at this point, who hasn't been an Avenger? Dr. Druid is ecstatic because it means there must be someone who was a worse Avenger than him. I'm not saying it's Nico Minoru, just the odds are good the title belongs to someone new.)

This arc marks the point where Andres Genolet takes over as regular artist from Kris Anka, a role Genolet maintained until the book's cancellation. I'm still trying to figure out when Molly makes the major jump in height I noticed in the last few issues, but it hadn't happened as of this story. She's still a lot smaller than everyone else. Genolet continues to give each character their own style in terms of clothes, though I couldn't describe it to you for anything. Just Nico doesn't dress like Gert, who doesn't dress like Victor, etc.

Genolet's also got the ability to draw expressions and body language in a way to sell the beats Rowell likes to use. Those two-to-four panel silent bits between a couple of characters. In the first issue, there's one where Alex leans towards a guy making creepy comments towards Molly, then in the next panel he touches him, and the panel after that is the guy getting the hell away. There are a lot of those, but Genolet illustrates them the best they can.

Sunday Splash #198

 

"So Much for the Super-Villain Team-Up," in Fu Jitsu #2, by Jai Nitz (writer), Wesley St. Claire (artist), Maria Santaolalla (colorist), Dave Sharpe (letterer)

Awkward place to start, but, in spring of 2019, co-creator and writer Jai Nitz was accused by multiple women of rape and/or sexual assault. I can't find anything about how that turned out, although it sure as hell sounds bad. I know Nitz' mini-series Astro Hustle had just released its first issue at the time and Dark Horse canceled the thing. Which may just be standard CYA by the publisher, but maybe not. On the chance I end up making this sound like something interesting, but that's a deal-breaker as far as hunting it down in back issues, better to lay it out there up front.

Fu Jitsu was a five-issue mini-series that came out in late 2017 by Nitz and artist/co-creator Wesley St. Claire. The title character is a century old alien boy genius, who has to somehow stop Robert Wadlow, the World's Tallest Man, who took over the world with the power of the Atomic Katana. Fu Jitsu's only ally is his ex-girlfriend Rachel, who is also an android he built, who broke up with him.

It's one of those series that throws a crapload of concepts at the wall. Which is something I am very susceptible to. See also, Atomic Robo. The third issue is actually set in the 1960s, when Fu Jitsu was the Shaolin Kid, sidekick to Johnny Unitas, who was apparently the superhero Golden Arm. I guess it beats "Super-Pro". Sorry, "NFL Super-Pro." There are fights against future versions of himself, battles involving Gundams, a brief appearance of a bunch of past enemies of Fu Jitsu's. That's them getting pummeled up there. I really like the name, "Baron von Punchausen," but Sizzle Reel and Death Panel are probably the best designs.

The story tends to just glance off a lot of this stuff. Parts of Fu Jitsu's past are mentioned in passing, because the characters know it and don't need to go into detail. Trying to make the world seemed lived in with hints they hope are intriguing. The story also ends on a cliff-hanger, which is a risky choice. Nitz and St. Claire wanted there to be enough buzz and demand for more Fu Jitsu, and so they seem more interested in showing the breadth of this thing they've cooked up. I mean, there's the possibility of more adventures with Golden Arm, focus on Fu Jitsu's time spent in space, his creation of Rachel and everything around it. 

I feel as though, if you're going to make a five-issue pitch, maybe don't end it on the big epiphany that Fu Jitsu has ultimately always been most concerned with himself, and is really the cause of all this trouble. Puts kind of an unflattering light on all those past adventures they wanted people to be interested in.

What I Bought 12/22/2021

Merry Christmas Eve morning if you're on this side of the date line! I tried that comic store near me, and it had the one comic I wanted from last week, and one of the two from this week. It'll probably work for the weeks where I've mostly got Marvel or DC, but I don't think it's going to be the place to go for the smaller publishers.

Moon Knight #6, by Jed MacKay (writer), Alessandro Cappuccio (artist), Rachelle Rosenberg (color artist), Cory Petit (letterer) - Come on now, Marc's either a believer in Khonshu or he's Jewish, he can't be doing a Christ pose, I don't care how seasonally appropriate it is.

Moon Knight's not in any condition to fight Zodiac, by Hunter's Moon shows up to help and Zodiac bails. Then Dr. Badr patches Marc up while offering up his backstory. During this, Marc is in some dream realm, dressed as Moon Knight, walking past Badr's memories. They lead to a temple, where a statue of Khonshu towers above Marc beneath an open sky. Contrast to Marc, who keeps a more modest Khonshu statue in his office, where it never sees the sky.

Badr talks about how he studied religion all his life, but grew frustrated that he couldn't find the connection so many others did. He figured he said the prayers, followed the rites, why wasn't it working? Then Khonshu saved him after he was attacked by vampires (which at least explains his antipathy towards them), and finally, he felt the actual presence of god. So it pisses him off Spector seemingly just threw it away.

We know from last issue Spector was raised in a religious family, by a rabbi. Like Badr, he couldn't feel it, either. I think in both cases it's a lack of belief, not being able to feel the presence of god. Though Badr saw others who could and wondered what he was missing, while Marc couldn't understand how his father could continue to believe given all the shit the world rained down on them.  That's the difference. As Badr said, he's searched for this his whole life. Marc was saved by Khonshu and so he served him, but it was nothing he'd been seeking. 

So when he felt Khonshu went too far, Marc turned from him. "Thanks for saving my life that one time, but you and me are done-zo." From Marc's perspective, being Moon Knight has done him as much harm as good, because he looks at it purely from the physical (mortal?) plane. The friends he lost, lovers estranged. For Badr, it's a spiritual thing, so he hasn't hit the limit of his gratitude, and maybe he never will. But I think it's definitely something he doesn't understand about Spector.

Anyway, Marc's feeling a lot better after a day of being wrapped up like a mummy and sleeping in a sarcophagus, and he's ready to defend the territory he's sworn to protect, whatever Zodiac tries.

The Thing #2, by Walter Mosley (writer), Tom Reilly (artist), Jordie Bellaire (color artist), Joe Sabino (letterer) - Getting punched by a dude using tires for boxing gloves might be the most embarrassing moment of Ben's career.

Ben's doing OK fighting Brusque until the glow of the weird vial takes all his strength. Ben gets flattened, but is kept from being noticed by the cops by a kid covering him with a sheet. Because Ben's under house arrest. Like there wasn't a big crowd of people who all saw the Thing. Anyway, the kid, Bobby Spector, knows where Brusque went with Amaryllis, which is a "New Manhattan" under the regular one. Ben and Brusque fight again, Ben gets saved by Bobby throwing his a white cloth that turns into a steel glove, Brusque loses the vial, and then his dark heart erupts from his chest. Then the guy who runs the underground community tells Ben, Amaryllis and Bobby they have to stay forever, but he has a heart attack and dies.

This is definitely one of those things where shithead gods fuck around with mortals because of some stupid bet. I don't know why, I don't know what the rules are, I don't know who Bobby or Amaryllis are in all this. Bobby seems to know too much and is too vague about how to trust. Amaryllis is usually less suspicious, but every so often she does or says something that feels like she knows more about what's going on than she should. Trying to stab Brusque with his little glowing vial. It's a blunt plastic tube. Why would she think that was going to work? Jabbing a finger in his eye woulda worked better. Unless she knew something. Plus, he comment about the guy being so filled with evil glee it killed him feels really on the nose. Also seems odd Ben just shrugs off the guy keeling over like that.

At one point during Ben and Brusque's rematch, Bellaire starts coloring all the panels where they're actually fighting in this solid orange-red. Not quite as red as the panel where Ben sees all the corpses of the people Brusque killed down there. It does have the effect of making even the moments when Ben is trying to be gentle seems brutal. There's a panel where Ben takes a piece of rebar from Brusque and wraps it around him to pin his arms, and between the coloring, the veins in Brusque's arms and the blood, it sure looks like Ben bear-hugged him to death.

I liked how, in their first fight, Brusque clocks Ben across the face and the tires leave a tread mark across Ben's face. Only for a single silent panel, before Ben uppercuts hard enough his shirt explodes, but it's a nice detail.

No One Writes to the Colonel and Other Stories - Gabriel Garcia Marquez

OK, Autumn of the Patriarch was a dud, but that's fine. Nobody bats 1.000. No One Writes to the Colonel is a novella - about sixty pages - about a colonel who keeps waiting. He keeps expecting his pension will show up in the next mail delivery. It doesn't. He has a fighting rooster that belonged to his son that he keeps, even when he and his wife can barely feed themselves, because if they just wait a few more months, until the fights, it will be worth so much. Assuming it wins. But it will win, it has to.

The colonel is a believer, maybe he has to be, to go war for what he believed in. They promised they would pay a pension, so he believes they will. The rooster is something that meant a lot to his son, so he'll keep it ready, even if it means selling everything else in the house that can be sold. 

His wife doesn't seem to have the luxury. She's acutely aware they can't live on promises, and it's a question of whether she can sway him or not. And there's a complication of the interest the entire town has taken in the rooster. I've never lived in a place like that, where everyone knows everyone else's business, and I'm pretty glad about that.

The short stories are a mixed bag. There Are No Thieves in this Town was interesting, for all the things Marquez hints at between Damaso and Ana. The push-and-pull of their relationship, of Damaso's conflicting urges. Marquez is good at that, giving enough to let you make out the picture without belaboring the point. Sometimes. 

Big Mama's Funeral is one where he belabors it far too much, going on and on about all the politicians wanting to attend, and even the Pope has to make his way there and on and on. At one point he's describing all the different "queens" in the procession, the banana girl, the soybean queen, the kidney-bean queen, before say others are omitted 'so as to not make this account interminable.' too late for that. The point seems to be for all this pomp, this dog-and-pony show about how great and beloved Big Mama was, once she's in the ground, all the people that were under her boot for decades are just ecstatic, and she's a footnote. Which is a decent enough point, but not terribly interesting to read.

Like I said, nobody bats 1.000, and there's more hits than misses here.

'For nearly sixty years - since the end of the last civil war - the colonel had done nothing else but wait. October was one of the few things which arrived.'

What I Bought 12/17/2021 - Part 2

Of the books from last week, I didn't expect the second issue of The Thing to be the one I couldn't find. Maybe it's really popular. The public was clamoring for more of the ever-lovin' idol o' millions! But for now, let's talk about some Gotham vigilantes.

Batgirls #1, by Becky Cloonan and Michael W. Conrad (writer), Jorge Corona (artist), Sarah Stern (colorist), Becca Carey (letterer) - Dang it Steph, keep your flippin' mask up.

The cast - Barbara, Cass and Stephanie - have moved to a section of Gotham called the Hill. Oracle's Clock Tower base was blown up, and Batgirl and Spoiler got framed for the act by some altered footage. So they're trying to maintain a low profile because someone called "The Seer" had previously breached Oracle's network. But she's got a plan to establish a new, encrypted network! Which, if I'm correctly interpreting those red eyes we see on the monitor screens in panels where her back is turned, has failed immediately.

Cass and Steph aren't terribly impressed by the Bat-mopeds Oracle provides, so they rip off a car from some guys that tried robbing Cass earlier and go cruising. I know I don't know anything about this version of Cass' backstory, but it's weird to see her enthusiastically stealing and driving a car. Cloonan and Conrad establish a few threads besides the Seer, or the girls' WANTED status. A mysterious graffiti artist, an art showing called "SPELL BOUND". Yep, nothing at all ominous there. Some road repair crews acting weird. Plus a couple of neighbors. They don't have names yet, but probably they will. Soon! Maybe.

So I have no idea what's going on in the Bat-books these days, or what the Seer wants, but I think Cloonan and Conrad give us enough. The girls are supposed to maintain a low-profile, but they're not very good at that, and this has repercussions. Stephanie still has a lot of her boundless energy and optimism, and Cass has moments of stoic badassery, so it's not like I can't recognize the characters. Although the differences between them seem reduced. 

Some of that is Cass being a little more vocal, better adjusted. But Corona drawing Steph wearing overalls over a t-shirt somehow makes her seem younger than I think she's supposed to be. Maybe that's not an uncommon look for girls in their mid-teens (Stephanie has to be at least 15 here, right?) I do wonder where the heck her mother is, for Steph to just move in with Cass and Barbara. Is she an emancipated minor, is she adopted now, is she legally an adult? I highly doubt the last one, but hell, I don't know.

Corona alternates between a thick, almost splotchy line, and going so faint it gets lost under Carey's colors. He is trying to give each of the main characters a different style in their civilian clothes, so we'll see if that continues going forward. The Hill itself trends towards being rundown and kind of economically depressed, but it is Gotham we're talking about. The residents should count their blessings it's still standing.

The Mitchells vs. the Machines

I was not feeling encouraged in this decision for the first fifteen minutes. The effects Katie uses in her short videos made me feel like I was watching something off Snapchat or tiktok. Which is probably the point, but they were kind of annoying. Too much extraneous crap on the screen. And the conflict between her and her tech-phobic dad (who I would never have guessed was voiced by Danny McBride) felt ridiculously cliche. Especially the part where they're fighting over the laptop and it gets thrown against a wall.

But after a slow start, it picked up dramatically. The way the movie presents parts of the family's battle against the machines with the same filters and effects Katie uses in her film not only makes the whole thing feel like an extension of the documentary she was trying to make of the road trip, but it draws connections to those earlier bits. The movie's very good at using the things it establishes in the early going. Rick teaching Katie to drive stick. Linda impressing on Eric and Deborahbot 5000 that they're part of their family. The thing about the screwdriver anniversary gift. All the little in-jokes between Katie and her little brother, Aaron. Although they got along a lot better than most siblings I know. It was kind of sweet, though.

The movie knows when to lean into absurd humor or slapstick physical comedy, which are always good. Witness the repeated gags of Katie tricking Rick into getting licked by the dog (or is it a pig? or a loaf of bread?) Or the angry AI asking to be set on the table so it can flop about in fury. The Giant Furby in general, but especially it declaring pain only fuels its rage. Actually, the whole sequence in the mall cracked me up.

The one thing I didn't really enjoy was the other family the Mitchells compared unfavorably to. They didn't really seem necessary to the plot, and the Mitchells were so dysfunctional you don't really need to see a happy family as a point of contrast.

What I Bought 12/17/2021 - Part 1

Turns out there has been a comics store about 2 miles from my apartment for about a year. I was going to try it last week, and it was closed because the owner has COVID. Well, maybe this week. So I went to one of my fallbacks the next town over. Got three of the four books I wanted.

The Rush #2, by Si Spurrier (writer), Nathan Gooden (artist), Addison Duke (colorist), Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou (letterer) - Not that I'd recommend making a habit of shooting at ravens - they got long memories - but a derringer's probably not the best option.

Things pick up shortly after the first issue ended, with Nettie waking up in the Mountie's cabin. Lapointe not only accepts her story of seeing a man in black with a giant spider, but explains the man is called "The Pale", though his motives are unknown. He never steals possessions, just the bodies of his victims. Including Nettie's son, Caleb. Nettie's dreams that night convince her Caleb isn't dead, so she and M.P. go to investigate the claim her son supposedly made, despite not being of legal age.

They find three other men there - or is it four? - including one Nettie's sure she's seen before. There's violence, but brief. Then Nettie encounters a giant demon moose. It doesn't hurt her, and she finds Caleb's Bible. Returning to town, she hires a lawyer who's getting out of there to go investigate who filed the claim in her son's name. The guy makes it about one step, before he's killed by something.

Spurrier's both explaining a few more things, and setting up more mysteries. There's more than just the Pale and it's giant spider out there now. And this is the second issue we've seen a man cut open his arm and pull out a piece of gold. As though it just appeared there. The first time was at the very beginning, and the Pale arrived seconds later to kill him. This time, Nettie takes it after the man runs off, and uses it to pay the lawyer. Who dies as soon as she turns her back. Lapointe mentioned those who aren't seized with gold fever seem to be allowed to leave, but that raises the question of the lawyer. Of course, it could just be Lapointe and everyone else is fumbling for an explanation, and there is no rhyme or reason to who dies. Or that logic only applies to one creature. M.P. says he seeks gold to raise his social station for a woman he loves. Curious to see if that protects him, assuming it's true (or remains true.)

Nettie's having strange dreams and visions, and Gooden gives those wavy or irregular panel borders, like puzzle pieces that fit, but oddly. Duke also shifts the color scheme for those to more of a sepia tone. They also gave the moose and whatever the thing on the last page is blank circles for eyes. Either white voids against their dark bodies, or like bizarre lights shining out. Duke otherwise keeps the colors sort of dingy and washed out. Nobody looks bright and shiny in this place. The skies are always overcast. The brightest panels come with violence, when Duke puts a lot of relatively bright yellow and red across the background. Makes for a nice contrast, the abrupt change from one panel to the next.

Defenders #4, by Al Ewing and Javier Rodriguez (storytellers), Joe Caramagna (letterer) - Doesn't look like Stephen can sit out of Civil War this time.

The Fourth Cosmos is a bunch of archetypes. Cloud, who gets to narrate this issue, describes them as living ideas, but trapped in an unending cycle. They fight, over different things, but always they fight. They change, until it resets and they start over. Zota's shuffling the deck, though, bringing the archetype of Galactus, the devourer, death, whatever, to end all this so Zota can be God-King of a new universe. Cloud evolves themselves into a new, non-binary form, and is able to convince the archetypes to fight together, sending Zota running for the Third Cosmos. 

I know this is all deliberate, Masked Raider leading the Defenders by the nose to bring about what he needs to happen to Zota (namely, Zota undergoing whatever change will make him into the Raider), but it's getting fucking exhausting. It reminds me of the game Metro: Last Light, when I really wanted to kill that one guy, and the game kept stringing me along. "Nope, he got away. Maybe next time!" Let me have my vengeance already!

Yeah, it's the journey. Zota needs to go through all of this or he can't undergo whatever perspective shift he needs. And in the process, maybe the Defenders are making a difference. The Surfer giving baby Galen an impression of the lives he will take to carry with him into his next life as Galactus. Cloud, staying behind as an archetype in the Fourth Cosmos, who will hopefully carry over into subsequent cosmoses.

Should I trust Word Hippo that the plural of cosmos is "cosmoses"? Feels like "cosmosi" would be better, but my spellcheck balks at that, and not the former.

Fortunately, there's Rodriguez' artwork to look at. The various archetypes being recognizable, but still their own thing. Like the Hawkeye one having a bow, but a bullseye for a head. Goes with a very pointillist coloring style for this issue, which fits with earlier superhero comics. Although his "What-Must-Be" has strong elements of Sienkiewicz' Magus in it. Mostly in the face. Making the argument his work was so far away from the standard, the Buscema/Kirby/Kane/Curt Swan/whoever style typical to superhero comics prior, that it represents something totally new to the form and the universe. 

But taken to the conclusion of what it's supposed to represent, wouldn't that mean Sienkiewicz' art was going to be the death of superhero comics, or at least an end to the endless cycle, the constant "middle of the story" serial approach? That doesn't seem right.

Sunday Splash Page #197

 

"Masked Menace Abducts Insane Newsgirl," in Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man (vol. 1) #4, by Peter David (writer), Mike Wieringo (penciler), Karl Kesel (inker), Paul Mounts (colorist), Cory Petit (letterer)

Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man wasn't the first book I dropped after I started this blog (Sensational Spider-Man gets that distinction), but it was one of the ones that didn't survive the first year. I don't think there was really any specific need for this book, outside of Marvel's urge to put more Spider-Man comics on the stands, because idiots like me would buy things that said "Spider-Man" on the cover. And it worked, at least for a while. Until about the middle of 2006, really. After that I showed at least a little discretion.

In theory, Peter David was probably planning to focus on more ground-level stuff. JMS was still writing Amazing Spider-Man, which seemed most likely to deal with Avengers-related stuff, so that left a niche for stories where Spider-Man deals with smaller threats, things more closely related to his teaching gig. What it left for Marvel Knights/Sensational Spider-Man I'm less clear about.

In practice, not so much. The fact the book opened with tie-ins to The Other should have been the first hint. I kept this one issue, because I enjoy the sequence where Peter, having returned from the dead just prior, takes Mary Jane on a ride around the city. They swing past the Bugle, Jonah leans out the window to yell, MJ flips him off (with the offending digit tastefully obscured by a pigeon. Because, "flip him the bird", get it?) Not a great reason to hold onto a comic for 15 years, but 2006 was not a great year for Spider-Man comics, I took what I could get.

It's too bad. I think this was the second time Marvel got Mike Wieringo as artist on a Spider-Man book. The first was, unfortunately, the original Sensational Spider-Man, back when Ben Reilly was being Spider-Man, something Wieringo apparently didn't love. He wanted to draw the real Spider-Man. At least he got his wish this time, even if the stories he got to draw were kind of a waste. Again, The Other. Plus the story where David makes fun of bloggers portraying them as self-important losers with no life of their own. Truly an epic for the times.

I dropped the book about the time it looked as though an Uncle Ben from another universe had shown up and was a killer. I recall being outraged they would dare to do something like that, which is really embarrassing. Nowadays I'd just shrug, maybe roll my eyes. I think it turned out to be the Chameleon of some other universe, possibly from the distant future (the same year as that other Spider-Man David created when he did the original Spider-Man/Spider-Man 2099 crossover), but I was long gone by then.

Random Back Issues #77 - The Spectre #44

Just because you're dead, doesn't mean you get to go around without pants. 

Jeez, third issue of The Spectre this year. Today finds the Spirit of Vengeance hunting pieces of the American Talisman, a spiritual MacGuffin the Founding Fathers used to create an avatar of the colonies to help them combat Great Britain. I think Ostrander retcons Uncle Sam to be one of the later representations of that avatar, but maybe it was already that way.

One of the pieces was sent to Helen Belcanto by an author she works with. Helen's the best editor at thus publisher, but has hit the glass ceiling hard. All the execs, all old men, sit around laughing about how they won't let her in, and she can't play hardball because she 'hasn't got the equipment.' Not really accurate. It may require balls, but it also requires something to strike them with, and I'm sure she has no shortage of options there.

Anyway, the talisman seized on her frustration and anger and created Hellion. Who promptly lit those execs on fire. Well, the Spectre's not down with that, so away we go. Hellion smacks him across the chest with some flaming chains, and when he's surprised it left a mark, asks if he's surprised a woman is capable of such a thing, then binds him up in the chains. He doesn't seem too troubled. Probably thinking, "Man, I make my chains out of spiders or animated children fingers. This stuff ain't shit."

Then Madame Xanadu shows up and complicates everything. Helen, or rather a past life of hers, is Xanadu's daughter. Originally, Xanadu taught her magic, but Past Helen reached for power she couldn't control and it destroyed her. This has repeated itself through the ages, while Xanadu keeps trying to save her. She thinks this might be the last chance. Well, yeah, if the Spectre casts her into Hell.

The Spectre, showing an unusual amount of restraint, leaves them to this and summons live cop Nate Kane to Salem. By pulling him through a railway station bathroom mirror and dumping him out a different mirror. Nate's not pleased, but agrees to locate Helen's home. Except things are getting weird when he steps outside. He's back in Pilgrim times, right as a bunch of folks prepare to hang a woman accused of being a witch. Nate, in period appropriate clothes, barges in and pulls a flintlock pistol on the leader, right as everything snaps back to the present, leaving a lot of confused people. The time distortion is coming in waves, so Nate goes against the flow, figuring he'll find the source.

Back in the boardroom, Hellion and Xanadu are arguing about the best ways to achieve the freedom to be women, however they define that. Xanadu doesn't think using repression and violence against men, as they have against women, will achieve it. Hellion, who points out she didn't kill the executive circle, merely used her version of the Penance Stare on them, plans to do that to everyone. The Spectre finally rejoins the conversation, stating he's not going to allow that.

Moonface acknowledges Hellion has a fair complaint about how women have been abused, but points out somehow Hellion's causing these ripples in time, causing women in this time to suffer horrors that were inflicted on women in the past. It's harming the innocent, and he'll stop her if he has to. Xanadu warns he has to go through her first, over Hellion's protests she doesn't need protecting. I mean, she hasn't been destroyed yet, but the Spectre also hasn't really attacked her, either.

Hellion is very similar to the "man-killer" type super-villainesses the comics had back in the '70s and on from there, which is kind of rough to read. It can easily feel like someone using a strawman argument, but I think the point is this is just Helen's anger and frustration given physical form. It's not all of what she thinks and feels, just the part that's hurt and tired, which is why it's causing unintended harm, as Xanadu warns her. YMMV.

Hellion senses Nate breaking into her apartment, where Helen's body is in a sort of stasis. She rushes off, Xanadu sics her pet demons on the Spectre to keep him away from her daughter. He swears she'll suffer if Nate's harmed, which Xanadu rebuts, pointing out she can't die. I don't think the Spectre would really make her life unending torment as he warns. He'd get bored eventually.

You can imagine how happy Hellion is to find a strange man in her apartment. The Spectre and Xanadu follow before she can harm Nate. Ultimately, everyone agrees (well, not Nate, no one asks him) Helen has the right to choose what she's going to do. She'll just have to accept the consequences. Helen rejects the power, wishing to be more than just anger, and hands off the talisman piece, remarking, 'it's not part of me or any other woman.' 

Xanadu offers to teach her more about magic, and Spectre's left wondering if the talisman can ever be whole if it truly excluded so many from the dream of America? Well, you get enough people who agree with its vision of America, like the Republican Party, sure.

[10th longbox, 40th comic. The Spectre (vol. 3) #44, by John Ostrander (writer), Tom Mandrake (artist), Carla Feeny (colorist), Todd Klein (letterer)]

The Angriest Man in Brooklyn

Henry (Robin Williams) is an angry man with a doctor's appointment. His doctor, however, decided to start the weekend early, leaving it to Sharon (Mila Kunis) to break the news Herny has a cerebral aneurysm. When Henry takes the news badly and berates her, demanding a timeline of how long he has to live, she picks 90 minutes based on the cover of a magazine in the room. Cue Henry trying to fix all the relationships he's shattered before he dies, while Sharon runs around trying to fix the mistake her momentary lapse in patience brought about. The movie also gradually reveals why Henry became so angry in a series of flashbacks, although you know what happened after the first one, if not sooner.

So it's about grief and regrets, not letting hurt you're experiencing make you lash out and hurt others. Then you just end up with more regrets. Sharon was tired, overworked, depressed that her cat jumped out the window last week, and then Henry tore her to shreds, so she hurt him back. I mean, he demanded to know how long he had. That he doesn't like the answer is his problem. Yeah, there's apparently liability issues for her saying that, blah blah, whatever.

It's to the movie's credit Henry can't just magically fix a couple years' worth of him being cruel in 90 minutes. His wife is unreceptive, his son won't even take his calls. He falls back into anger extremely easily when things don't go well, which doesn't help. His big attempt to gather all these friends from his past for a dinner (on 30 minutes' notice) fails miserably. Some of the people are probably dead. Also, he takes his brother (Peter Dinklage) for granted. Henry says he wants to spend time with family, then just rushes off and leaves his brother standing there.

I feel like it's supposed to be funny watching Robin Williams go on these angry, Denis Learyesque rants at whoever happens to wander into the line of fire, but it doesn't really play out that way. Angry Robin Williams isn't funny. Mila Kunis getting pissed off and macing some uncooperative taxi driver Henry pissed off at the beginning of the film, that was kind of funny.

Big Wheel Keeps On Turnin'

We've reached the end. . .of Year 16 here at Reporting on Marvels and Legends! Tomorrow begins Year 17, a bold new era. . .of much the same stuff I've been posting on here for years!

This past year was a little quieter than the one before it, and not just because the family with the rambunctious kids downstairs moved away. There was no weather related home or car damage. There was some car-related damage to me, though, providing a valuable lesson about the dangerous nature of being helpful.

The governor of our state ended the work from home status, forcing me to readjust to needing to actual prepare for work in the morning. As opposed to rolling out of bed and staggering to the living room table in my sleepwear to boot the work laptop up. I'm not sure working from home was good for me in terms of getting actual work done, but it was definitely good for me in terms of feeling relaxed and exercising.

As for the blog, like I said, nothing much changes. I've reviewed a lot of movies, many of them very bad. Reviewed two dozen or so books, some good, some bad. The Autumn of the Patriarch being unreadable was an unpleasant surprise. With the pandemic not disrupting things quite as much, there were more new comics to buy and review, so reviews of tpbs and manga dropped from the year before. Only 26 Random Back Issues this year, versus roughly 36 the year before. Hard to believe given that stretch of six consecutive Fridays in October and November where I ended up with a Random Back Issue, but it's true. Sunday Splash Page made it from Gerber's Defenders to the Aguirre-Sacasa Marvel Knights Fantastic Four series. Got out of the D's right around mid-year, and that's the last letter with more than a year's worth of posts to do for a long while. I'll actually wrap up the F's by year's end, and I think we'll be most of the way through the H's by this time next year.

I did not do the additional diversion writing here on the blog that I hoped to. I've been working on some other, very long pieces to post elsewhere, and that's been a battle. There was one I hoped to have done by June, and I'm still not done, although the end is near. For the story or for me? We'll see. Either way, I won't make any promises in that regard for Year 17. If I manage to write about the Clever Adolescent Panda's trip to cheer up or Rhodez, or one of the other things I have in mind, then you'll see it. If not, well, you won't.

There is one thing I plan to change for the upcoming year. I did the math, and it's going to take until somewhere in 2029 to finish Sunday Splash Page at the rate I'm going. That's not accounting for however many series I add over the course of the years I don't currently have. Even I can't picture myself still doing this in 8 years. Or maybe I can't picture Blogger still existing in 8 years. 

Anyway, to expedite the process, starting January 1, I'm going to begin Saturday Splash Page! Which will start at the end of the alphabet and work forward! If I can actually keep it on a weekly schedule, the two post series will meet up somewhere in the P's in late 2025. It means I'm trying to go back to everyday posting for the first time since early 2015. Don't know if that will work. I'll probably cut back on movie or book reviews. Sometimes I feel like I'm looking for something to watch as much to have something to post about as anything else. That way lies. . .well, you've seen some of the shitty movies I've watched over the years.

That's it, basically. Thanks for reading, thanks for commenting if you do.

The Tenth Planet - Edmund Cooper

Idris Hamilton is a captain of a starship taking the last shipment of people from a polluted and dying Earth to the existing Martian colony. The ship ends up damaged and Idris seemingly dead from an act of sabotage by someone unhappy they're not getting to go. That seems like such a dumb way to spend your remaining time, so it's perfectly realistic for humanity.

Through a series of events involving the lower half of his body being sucked out a crack in the hull and his ass forming an airtight seal, something is left of Irdris' brain to be revived over 5,000 years later by what's left of humanity: 10,000 people living below the surface of the tenth planet (counting Pluto as the 9th, because this came out in the early 1970s. Idris also remarks at one point the dinosaurs went extinct because they too destroyed their environment, because the meteor strike idea wasn't around yet).

Idris eventually received a new cloned body, as he's really a guinea pig in a scientist's attempts to combat the declining lifespans of the colony. If it works for this ancient Earthman, it can work for them. But the people of the future are very different from Idris, and he quickly gets himself in to trouble being too macho and awesome. All these future people are pitiful sheep with no sense of adventure or any other drive! Their art and entertainment is bland and designed to be unchallenging! They don't even settle things violently, what the hell?

Reading Idris' critique of Minervan (the 10th planet is Minerva) society reminds me of Harry Lime's (Orson Wells) speech in The Third Man. The part about Switzerland having 500 years of peace, and producing nothing better than the cuckoo clock. Cooper seems to strongly believe in the need to expand and conquer as a motivation for progress, and if that comes with some violence or rape (Idris himself describes his first sexual encounter in his new body as a rape, with him ignoring her protests and being rough as he pleases. Naturally she's OK with it after, because he's just some ancient caveman and can't help it, yeesh), well, you can't make an omelet without breaking eggs. 

I'd say Cooper also buys into the "man on a horse" view of history, which I guess is something he shares with Heinlen. The people who settled Minerva were supposed to be journeying to nearby stars to search for inhabitable planets after things fell apart on Mars, but one charismatic guy decided they should settle on Minerva instead, blew up the ship whose captain refused, and set down a book of laws Minerva follows solidly 5,000 years later. There are people dissatisfied with this, younger people mostly, but they're ineffectual children until REAL MAN Idris Hamilton comes along to actually get things done.

The women characters are as poorly served as you'd expect given all that. There to be lusted after by Idris or remark how they feel like a full woman after he's had sex with them or whatever. It's pretty eye-rolling stuff. It's funny, because Idris doesn't seem nearly so unpleasant before his "death." He's a loyal captain who tries hard to be good at his job and doesn't ask the crew to take risks he wouldn't. After, he's just an ass. Maybe because he doesn't have anyone he cares about on Minerva like he did that crew. Or maybe something got lost in the process of reviving his brain. I don't think the book is making that argument. I think we're meant to see that Idris just recognizes he's in a bad society he needs to fix and he can't be gentle about it, but you gotta wonder.

Cooper's fairly prescient in the sense he sees humanity eventually destroying Earth because we won't moderate consumption. Indeed, Earth in his book is focused on trying to make Mars or the Moon liveable, even though that might not support more than 100,000 people, rather than focus on fixing things here. Although I get leery when the book describes the potential solutions put forth to help Earth and includes mass sterilization, given the history of such things being forced upon minorities by various white governments. Makes me wonder a little more about Cooper's politics.

I actually enjoyed the first half or so of the book. I thought maybe we'd see something about the issues between a Martian colony trying to grow and avoid Earth's pitfalls, and an embittered Earth trying to lash out or take things back. How Minerva was going to figure into that, I didn't know, but once Idris actually starts moving among Minervan society, the book takes a real nosedive.

'He had to see clearly to get back into the Dag. He shook his head violently in the spacesuit. Some of the tiny globules splattered on his visor. Some just floated about until he inhaled them, coughing a little. Well at least it was a new sensation, he told himself grimly - to choke on one's own tears.'

What I Bought 12/8/2021 - Part 2

Friday we looked at two first issues. Today is also a #1, but it's a one-shot, that's really more of a conclusion to a story.

Giant-Size Black Cat #1, by Jed MacKay (writer), C.F. Villa (artist), Brian Reber (color artist), Ferran Delgado (letterer) - The store only had the cover with Felicia holding the Infinity Gauntlet, but I prefer this one or the Dave Johnson variant.

It's go time on Felicia's big plan. She's got her three Infinity Stone wielders, everything's in place. And it works like a charm. With the boost to her powers, Star is able to cure Monica Rappacini's cancer. Which means both she and Dr. Doom owe Star a favor later. Or it would, if that was who she just cured. It was actually Felicia's mother who notified her two months ago of the diagnosis. Odessa can't just make her a member of the Thieves' Guild and get the immortality boon, because she's not a thief. So Felicia's pulled this whole thing, gotten Nick Fury and Nighthawk after her by gathering people of immense power, because she couldn't find another option.

The second half of the issue is a madcap scramble. Felicia's trying to get the hell out. Star's trying to get Felicia, both because she's pissed at being played and because she think Felicia can lead her to the rest of the Infinity Stone folks and make her a real god-tier being. Nighthawk wants the device Felicia used to find the Infinity Stone folks. Nick Fury wants to arrest everybody and has a hospital full of soldiers to try it. 

Villa uses a double-page splash cross-section view of the hospital to try and capture all the different moving parts, but I'm not sure it works. Star's on two different floors, and one room away from Nighthawk on one of them but Felicia's one level down somehow. Basically, I'm not clear which way things are meant to be read. Top from bottom? Right to left? Felicia and Nighthawk are going left, so is one of the Star's, but the one higher up is going right, so maybe that one happened earlier. But then how did Felicia get two levels below her so quick?

Anyway, everybody ends up in the same hallway. Star decides she'd rather beat Nighthawk's ass and they end up going through a wall, while Fury tranqs Felicia. Fury says he let Felicia save her mom before springing his trap, and throws her in a super-villain prison. But her crew are posing as her lawyers, so she'll be out soon, and she got everything she wanted, and did it her way, so it's all good.

As far as conclusions to MacKay's stint writing the Black Cat go, this was pretty decent. Certainly more action-packed than the previous arc, and Villa's art is much more energetic than Dowling's was. Actually felt like Villa loosened up on the facial expressions a bit, went a more exaggerated. Not just the guys getting kicked in the face, but Felicia during the conversation with her mother seems to speak with her body language more than in earlier issues. Maybe that's just because she knows her mother is OK and she can relax a little, but I liked it.

Even if I don't care a hoot about the Infinity Stone hosts, I appreciate Felicia as being both aware of how this is messing around with something outside her usual neighborhood, and desperate enough not to care. MacKay's always had a pretty good approach to the character. He knows that she steals because she loves it, loves doing as she pleases, and that playful cockiness has to be part of her. But also that she's a professional, not just some thrill-seeking idiot. She took a precaution in case Star turned on her, she knew enough not to let Fury or Nighthawk have a way to track the Stones down again. She knew getting caught was always a risk.

Sunday Splash Page #196

 

"Is that an OSHA-Approved Load Bearing Superhero?" in 4 #1, by Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa (writer), Steve McNiven (penciller), Mark Morales (inker), Morry Hollowell (colorist), Randy Gentile (letterer)

Fantastic Four is never Marvel's highest selling book, but sometimes Marvel can't help themselves and try to run two titles for the team. 4 ran for 30 issues, from early 2004 until mid-2006, under the Marvel Knights imprint. I'm not sure why. There's nothing in the book I would think couldn't have been in the main title (which was in the last year of the Waid/Wieringo run and then into the JMS/Mike McKone run at this time). Maybe Reed helping a man preparing to commit suicide, or Sue helping one of her employees who was being abused by her husband?

Written by Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa, the book was in theory more focused on the cast as a family, and less on dimension-spanning adventures. To that end, the story starts with the team learning their money manager stole a lot of their cash (along with stealing from Tony Stark and Hammerhead, suggesting this man is not very wise), and then having the Mayor evict them from the Baxter Building to pay for the damages they've caused.

So at least initially, it's the Four trying to adjust to finding jobs, a new place to live, the change in their status. Johnny gets yet another arc where he tries to grow up and mature. That part doesn't really last that long, and the book eventually does return to them dealing with unusual problems. Psycho-Man, Rama-Tut's bastard son, Puppet Master abducting women to steal their eyes for Alicia. But there's maybe more focus on the character's thoughts and feelings. The trust they have in one another, how well they know each other. When Reed's captured by aliens along with a couple of guys trying to make a video about the Jersey Devil, Reed very calmly explains that they're fine because Ben no doubt disobeyed Reed and is already getting involved, and Sue will be along soon and so on.

McNiven leaves after 8 issues (right in the middle of a two-part story, no less), replaced by Jim Muniz, who stays on for about a year. Then Valentine de Landro draws most of the last ten issues, which I tend to find some of the weaker ones. Not de Landro's fault, but Aguirre-Sacase drags in the Salem Seven, and does a story about him getting the job as the in-universe writer of the FF and tagging along while they contend with the Impossible Man.

What I Bought 12/8/2021 - Part 1

I came into work yesterday and found out the administrative assistant, who had been out sick Tuesday, came in just long enough Wednesday to dump a bunch of her work on my desk and send an e-mail to our Program Director telling him to tell me to do it. Lovely. Keep in mind I'm not an administrative assistant. Put me in a sour mood all day Thursday. In other news, three comics this week, and I managed to get 'em all! Whooo!

One-Star Squadron #1, by Mark Russell (writer), Steve Lieber (artist), Dave Stewart (colorist), Dave Sharpe (letterer) - Ah, Weather Wizard's started up one of those cash hurricane booths to distract the heroes.

Basically, this is about a company for super-heroes that are struggling to get by. Join up and they'll help you make public appearances or bodyguard gigs to pay your bills. The '90s Superman supporting character Gangbuster shows up with various issues related to being hit in the head a lot, and Red Tornado decides to try and help him. Which is somehow the perfect moment for Power Girl, who is now taking business tips from Max Lord, to try and get herself installed as the one running things. Except she's reporting to five dorks in a skyscraper to have them put her in that job, so she's not really running jack shit.

I don't know what this is trying to be. Lieber is trying to be very expressive with the faces and body languages of the characters. Which is good, because all they do is sit around talking, so him trying to instill personality into that is helpful. Although it's weird to see Red Tornado eating a hamburger. I can't remember if he's still an android or flesh and blood. Brad Meltzer made him human when he wrote Justice League, didn't he? 

Anyway, I saw one person compare Lieber's work to Kevin Maguire on the old Justice League International, which, you could do a hell of a lot worse on artist to emulate! And if you want the cast to feel like everyday people with everyday problems, who just happen to have superpowers, having the artist draw them making mundane or goofy expressions when appropriate is a good way to go.

But Justice League International was also, at least some of the time, funny. This really isn't. I'm not sure it's meant to be. Probably meant to be depressing, that this is what these heroes have been reduced to. Cold calling people to get them to join up, or advising each other to do mall openings to raise their rating to get more work, like this is freaking Uber. "Maybe carry bottled water to offer after you save them from a burning building. They'll be thirsty, after all." Red Tornado's trying to do what the company purports to do, look after a hero struggling with mental health issues, and it's going to get him ousted because he's not focused on the bottom line.

Power Girl as the backstabbing opportunist who has decided money is what matters, is definitely a choice. Not like she hadn't run her own companies that were dedicated to trying to make the world a better place or anything. I mean, was Max Lord even a successful businessman, the insights of which others would want to read? Wouldn't his key to success be, "Develop mind control"?

I think Russell's brand of satire, or maybe it's his approach in general, just doesn't work for me. You can do commentary on depressing aspects of life, get the point across, and make me laugh. I've read a lot of books and comics that managed it, but not Russell's work. Now I have a month to debate if I should give it a second issue to be "fair", or just cut my losses here.

Lunar Room #1, by Danny Lore (writer), Gio Sposito (artist), DJ Chavis (colorist), Andworld (letterer) - Reminds me of the end of one of the DragonBall Z movies. Piccolo and Vegeta, just sitting on a chunk of ice. "Is it over?" "Wait for the fish to jump." *splash* "It's over."

Cynthia was a werewolf and an enforcer for some mob boss. Somehow she got cursed, and can't change into a werewolf any longer. Zac is a half-assed mage who tried to steal a magic sword from some university-looking place his twin brother Axton runs. He only got a piece of it, but it's enough to at least temporarily give Cynthia some of her old self back. Which gives him a lever to use to get her to protect him.

There's a lot of backstory hinted at. Zac was apparently locked up somewhere prior to his attempt at theft. Cynthia had a girlfriend (or maybe it's her old boss) named Angie who she still pines after, but mostly ignores her. Cynthia's condition, being "bound" as they call it, is common knowledge in the circles she works in. The specifics of most of this, the whys and wheres are left unsaid. Probably get to those down the line.

One thing I don't like about the format is, every time it switches from Cynthia's perspective to Zac's (or vice versa), they count that as a different chapter. Even if there's only four panels in the chapter, such as Chapter 6. This feels like one of those times it would be better to use thought balloons, if they feel the color-coded exposition boxes aren't sufficient to show the shift in whose inner monologue we're reading.

Sposito's art has a slick feel to it. Not a lot of excess lines, keeps the shading pretty straightforward and simple. Focuses on making the characters look distinct, gives them their own looks. Cynthia seems to constantly have her fists clenched, always seems to be leaning towards people, or moving with her head down like she's in a hurry. I don't know if she's leaning forward because she's used to scenting things, or she's trying to appear more aggressive to make up for what she's lost in power and status.

Batman Returns

I found a 2 movies for $5 thing of the two Tim Burton Batman flicks. I think I must not have watched this in over 20 years. I'd forgotten pretty much all the innuendo. Penguin, 'Just the pussy I've been looking for.' 'No hard feelings? Well, semi-hard.' Also didn't remember Paul Ruebens playing Penguin's father at the beginning of the movie. Could the last time I watched this the whole way through really have been when I saw it in theaters with my dad?

OK, so the movie itself. I like the theatricality of the villains. Penguin gets to have actual weaponized umbrellas. The bit where he's controlling the Batmobile from one of those little kid rides outside grocery stores. Catwoman deciding she's just going to somersault up to and away from people. An entire crime circus. Are they all over-the-top, veering into ridiculous? Sure, but that's not a bad thing. Although the color schemes are a little dull and dingy. The city has some character to it, without venturing into Joel Schumacher's "we built enormous statues to hold up freeways" territory.

I like parts of DeVito's Penguin. The viciousness of him, how quick he is to do harm, or lash out, that works. The desire for a veneer of respectability, yes. So I guess it's really just the visual presentation. The black gums, the oversized infant onesie he wears. It plays into the idea all these notions he seizes on (which are really Max Schreck trying to use him) are just a mask, that however wealthy his parents might have been, that isn't how he grew up, and that isn't who he is. But it's a little too on the nose.

I'm less sure about Pfeiffer's Catwoman, but I don't think it's her fault. Her not being a thief disappoints me a little, but I don't think that would have fit what Burton's going for. Selina's constantly being expected to conform to what other people expect. Max, her mother, her (ex-)boyfriend. She's a supporting character in their stories. Batman isn't anyone's supporting character, and so that's what she tries to make herself. She does as she pleases, which I think explains the unfocused approach she takes throughout. Save a woman from a mugger, blow up a department store. Fight Batman, team-up with Penguin. Turn against Penguin.

The problem is, very little of it works out. Basically from the moment she runs into the other two "freaks", things start going downhill. Batman hits her on the arm with some acid. Penguin uses her to frame Batman for murder. Selina almost finds something with Bruce Wayne, but the things she's gotten herself into as Catwoman pull her away as surely as Batman does for Bruce. She's back to being a supporting character, putting her life and her desires on the back burner for Penguin's grandstand play to discredit Batman and elevate himself.

Really, it's probably more that the plot ultimately revolves around Batman vs. Penguin. The boy whose parents were taken from him, versus the boy whose parents didn't want him. The two that could, as Schreck notes, have been prep school chums in a different world. The one playing dress up as a giant bat, versus the one trying to dress up as a politician. Catwoman ends up shoehorned in, trying to make a space for herself in the plot. I don't know that it entirely works - though she's a fine example of the kind of person Schreck is, cautionary tale for Penguin if he knew it - but the emotional core of the movie between Selina and Bruce does mostly work. I felt for these two, trying to figure it out, but not being able to pull it off.

Michael Keaton's Batman doesn't seem to have resolved the "duality", as he puts, he's struggling with. He would like to be slightly awkward but generally pleasant Bruce Wayne, have quiet dinners with this lovely Selina Kyle, but he's not going to stop being Batman. I do like that Keaton's Bruce Wayne doesn't do the "boozy, idiot playboy" act. He's involved in the running of his business. If Max Schreck wants Wayne investment money in his power plant scam, he has to deal with Bruce, not Lucius Fox or some beancounter. And Bruce is on the ball, sees the scam for what it is, even if he doesn't outright say it.

Unfortunately, his Batman is still fairly kill happy, which is, not great. Takes a bomb off one clown, attaches it to another, throws him down a sewer access. Uses the rocket exhaust of the Batmobile on the fire eater. Doesn't even try to save Penguin. Sadly, I feel like Schumacher's Batman may be the only one that doesn't kill his enemies. I guess maybe Nolan's, if you agree not saving Liam Neeson is different from killing him. But Nolan's Batman also runs over cars with people in them in that Bat-tank, so those folks are probably dead.

The only one who seems truly comfortable in his own skin is Max Schreck (Christopher Walken with some real Doc Brown hair). It's easy for him to play the humble businessman for the crowds, while being the cruel, selfish, ruthless bastard inside all the time. The most unbelievable part of the movie for me is when Max actually asks to be taken hostage in place of his big, dumb son (Penguin calling him "Great White Dope" made me laugh.) Yes, more unbelievable than when a bunch of cats trying to eat Selina's body somehow brings her back to life, or whatever the hell happened in that scene. But you can argue that Max figures he can still manipulate Oswald, so it's fine. He'll talk this thing back around to his benefit. Max Schreck, selflessly surrendering himself to protect his son, such great copy.

As far as the Burton films, I still much prefer Batman (although I haven't watched it the whole way through in a while.) But I probably prefer this to almost any other Batman movie. Except Mask of the Phantasm, certainly. Love that movie. (My feelings on The Dark Knight fluctuate with how willing I am to accept the nature of Nolan's version of Batman, with the tank, and Bale's absurd Bat-voice and so on.)

Underwater (2020)

Kristen Stewart's an engineer on a deep-sea mining platform. The structure begins taking on water, which is bad when you're 6+ miles down in the ocean. She and a handful of other workers who couldn't reach the escape pods are forced to find another way back to the surface.

When the breach initially occurs, I thought she was having a nightmare. The movie had opened on empty hallways and cut to her, alone in front of the sink, talking about how night and day don't have any meaning down here, only awake and dreaming. And that sometimes it's hard to tell the difference. I probably spent at least two or three minutes after she started her panicked flight to a place they could seal bulkheads, expecting her to wake up.

It takes about 30 minutes before they figure out this wasn't some random undersea earthquake. Once again, humanity has fucked around and pissed off something at the bottom of the sea. No, not Namor.

The movie takes some advantage of how hostile an environment the characters are in. They really need to find a place to recharge the oxygen scrubbers in their suits, but keep coming up craps. One character has never actually used the deep-sea suits, and is understandably terrified, which means they could run through their air faster. If your helmet starts to give way, you're fucked. At one point Stewart is being dragged along towards the surface behind the captain, and you might think, good, the surface is where you need to be. But the pressure's changing too fast, so it's actually bad.

There's also the aspect of how clumsy and slow their movements are, how limited their ability is to perceive their surroundings. Inside those suits, all they really have is their eyes, and those are restricted to what their helmet lights can pick up, which isn't always very much in the muck and silt on the sea floor. Plus the helmet restricts peripheral vision. So there's a fair amount of, "what did I see?" going on, especially once they and the audience know there is something out there to see. I thought with the oxygen depletion concerns, they might do a little more with that playing into that blurred comment about the blurred line between dream and reality.

Continuing Logan's Tradition of Awkward Family Gatherings

I'm guessing Laura didn't mention this moment to Logan when he came back from being dead.

All-New Wolverine: The Four Sisters was the opening arc of Tom Taylor's series about Laura Kinney assuming the mantle of Wolverine during the stretch where Logan was dead, but there were somehow more books about him than ever. The overarching plot is about Laura tracking down a group of clones of herself Alchemax made with some of Laura's genetic material they got from the bunch that created her. David Lopez makes the older clones look very similar to Laura, while Gabby is a bit less so. All that might just be her tendency to smile a lot, something none of the others, including Laura, do often. Alchemax CEO Guy insists the clones are inhuman monsters who killed a bunch of people when they escaped. Alchemax CEO Guy is, of course, full of shit.

Also, it is weird to me to see a fictional company I associate with 2099 Marvel in present day Marvel. It's not 2099 yet!

Laura ultimately tries her best to protect the other girls - Gabby, Zelda, and Bellona - both from Alchemax, who wants to treat them as test subjects, and from themselves. From their urge to take bloody, murderous revenge on these people who took away their ability to feel pain and expected them to be obedient weapons. 

Those efforts lead to one issue of teaming up with Doctor Strange, and then another issue of teaming up with the Wasp. There's a little advancing of the plot in those issues, but in practice, they feel more devoted to using other characters to tell the audience how different Laura is from Logan. Mostly with regards to how she handles her anger. Strange remarks that she has all her father's rage, but she can control it, channel it. The Wasp is surprised that, once they encounter a nanobot, Laura hasn't just charged over there snarling and clawing it to pieces. Excuse me, have you not read Kitty Pryde and Wolverine? Logan can channel his berserker fury whenever he wants!

I'm joking. I know that even if someone has read it, they would never admit to it. I'm not entirely clear on why, but apparently it's a shameful act. The tattered remnants of the comicsblogowhatchamafloogle are a strange land even to its inhabitants. 

Taylor also does the bit where Strange looks at Laura's soul and is just stunned by her experiences, which, c'mon man. I didn't buy that move when Starlin tried it with Strange and Adam Warlock in Infinity Gauntlet, I'm not buying it here. He's Doctor fucking Strange, he's seen shit most other Marvel heroes couldn't comprehend. Don't try to hard sell me.

But Taylor does keep playing it where Laura holds back. She wounds - as one of the sisters points, she won't kill a guy, but she'll cut his fingers off - but she refrains from killing. Even when she thinks Taskmaster has killed the girls, she doesn't kill him. Nathan Fairbairn tends to color panels entirely in red during the moments when Laura's on the verge of cutting loose. 

It's an interesting character choice, given Laura's whole thing with the trigger scent (which Taylor addresses in the third arc). People have been able to send her into a killing frenzy whenever they wanted, so I can see her wanting to make the choice not to kill. And she does emphasize it's a choice, one she makes, and one she doesn't entirely hold others to. She lets Gabby have a moment alone with Alchemax CEO Guy, knowing how that could end.

Taylor's writing is a bit quippy at times, lends itself to snappy responses. Sometimes that's amusing, sometimes he starts to overdo it. The issue with Dr. Strange I think veered over that line with some of Gabby's comments about 'cabinets of horrors' and so on. But he does use the fact Laura's bones aren't coated with adamantium (other than the claws) so she tends to get broken a bit more and have to heal, and that's painful. The bits of her interacting with the time-traveling teen version of Angel, who is her boyfriend apparently, are sort of cute. It's a different slant on her questionable social skills, dealing with the largely sheltered rich boy who really doesn't understand her life, but is trying his best.