Random Back Issues #66 - The Spectre #52

You and an unpleasantly large percentage of people in the American prison system.

Last time we looked at Ostrander and Mandrake's Spectre run, the Spirit of Vengeance was out of control because Corrigan couldn't deal with the pain of losing someone he cared about. Today's issue is from about 3 years later, and the Spirit of Vengeance is out of control because Corrigan's having problems.

I'm sensing a recurring theme here.

But first, a dream sequence. The Spectre has been resting inside the soul of Corrigan's cop partner, Detective Kane. This is due to a combination of factors including, but not limited to, the Spectre using his lifeforce to sustain Gaea during Final Night and the Spectre getting stabbed with the Spear of Destiny by the Avatar of White Supremacist America. Completely serious about that last bit, by the way. Also, we just missed the issue where Spectre tries to judge the Joker and ends up getting his power stolen by him. Damn.

Anyway, Kane finds himself in what he thinks is a dream, but soon realizes is a memory of Corrigan's. A memory that involves Jim shooting a woman named Julia Edmonds and her falling over the edge of the Manhattan Bridge. The Spectre denies any knowledge of this and sets out for another fine day of vengeance. 

And what finer place to punish the guilty than a prison? Boy howdy, does the Spectre get down to business. Starts with a guy who shanked someone in the prison yard just to get some quiet time in solitary. Crushes him between the walls of the cell. Then resurrects a bunch of guards to beat the shit out of one that beat a prisoner to death for kicks. And on and on, all except that guy up above, one Mihcael Lincoln, who is set to be executed tomorrow night. The Spectre says that's not his concern, and takes off.

Reverend Craemer is woken up a short time later by Corrigan, who admits to feeling a bit out of control. No shit. Corrigan can't figure out why he and Spectre aren't on the same page. Craemer suspects that Jim is growing beyond his cut-and-dried, black-and-white mindset, but the Spectre can't change. He's a spirit of vengeance, period, full stop. Which presents a problem without a clear solution. 

So Jim decides to table it, and focus on saving Michael Lincoln. He approaches Lincoln's public defender and learns the execution is still on for that night. The Spectre not killing someone, is not considered proof they are innocent of the murder they were imprisoned for. This is what happens when they won't let you put the Ten Commandments outside courthouses any longer, is probably something Mike Huckabee would say. Also, the governor doesn't want to look like he's intimidated by the Spectre, so execution, ho!

That evening, as they prepare to administer the lethal injection, the Spectre appears. He tells them, again, Lincoln is not guilty. The warden tells him he better not try to stop the execution. Real pair of balls on that guy, but the Spectre says he's not there to stop it. Mortal legal matters aren't his jurisdiction. However, he's told them Michael Lincoln is innocent, so if they kill him, that's murder. And we all know what the Spectre does to murderers! 

The doctor refuses to kill a healthy, innocent man. I don't remember the Hippocratic oath making any distinctions about guilt or innocence, but whatever helps you sleep at night, doc. The warden says they'll get another doctor. The Spectre will just show up again, with the same stipulation. Now the warden says they're just carrying out the wishes of the people of New York. So the Spectre replies, and I'd swear Mandrake's shadowing makes it look like part of his mouth might be smiling, that he would have to hold the entire state of New York accountable for the murder.

Keep in mind the Spectre already killed basically everybody in Vlatava already, 40 issues ago. The warden finally takes the hint, and Lincoln at least gets a stay of execution. Meanwhile, Kane's been busy digging into the Edmonds murder, and when the Spectre returns home and dives inside Kane's mind for the night, Kane readies a trap.

[10th longbox, 48th comic. The Spectre (vol. 3) #52, by John Ostrander (writer), Tom Mandrake (artist), Carla Feeny (colorist), Todd Klein (letterer)]

Police Story: Lockdown

I think this is the fourth of Jackie Chan's Police Story films, released in 2013. This one deals with Jackie's Inspector Zhong Wen getting trapped inside a nightclub with a bunch of hostages (including his estranged daughter), by the club's owner, Wu Jiang (Ye Liu). Not all of the hostages, including Zhong Wen, are there by chance, because the club owner has a very specific demand.

First off, Jackie Chan with close-cropped hair looks weird. Second and more relevantly, I figured initially this was going to be "Jackie Chan's Die Hard," which you have to admit, sound fucking awesome. It's not that, though, as there's only a little bit of Jackie sneaking around and trying to ambush the goons. Just enough for him to pick up a few clues to hint towards what Wu is after. But the movie is honest about that, because Wu knows Zhong is a cop, and that his daughter is there (because he's dating her), so any idiot would know to use her as a hostage to force Zhong to surrender, and Wu's not an idiot.

So the movie becomes more of a slow mystery/thriller, where you're trying to figure out what Wu is after, why he wants to speak with this one particular prisoner. And at the same time, there's a battle of wills between Zhong and Wu. Wu is constantly testing how serious Zhong is about trying to save people, and how badly he wants to protect his daughter. Zhong in turn is trying to tease apart what Wu is after, and resolve the situation without anyone dying, while the SWAT teams are getting ready to bust in. Lots of talking, where Wu usually seems to be trying for a weak point, and Zhong is just staying on course.

The film does this thing where Zhong will consider a course of action in his mind, and we see it play out, then the camera cuts back to him and he ends up doing something different. Kind of like in the Robert Downey Jr. Sherlock Holmes movies, where he'd visualize and narrate a fight sequence in slow motion first, then actually do it. Except this movie doesn't narrate it or slow it down, so you the first time, I got very confused about what just happened. The movie doesn't really do anything to tell you "this is in his imagination," which is a little annoying.

The end of the movie, when Wu gets his answers is kind of interesting, because the movie presents the story from multiple perspectives, with different people remembering different things, and of course trying to make themselves look better in their version. But I feel like there's also one more "surprise!" moment than the film really needs. I guess you could argue the film's been hinting there's something up with that character the whole time, but it feels like a contrivance to wrap the explanation up neatly.

Still, even if it wasn't "Die Hard, but with Jackie Chan," a pretty solid movie.

Lean Times Return with a Vengeance

The October solicits were real slim pickings. There was no issue of Black Cat listed, so Marvel was down to Defenders and Moon Knight. And I still haven't seen an issue of the former yet, so who knows if I'll like it.

Outside that, no Black Jack Demon or Impossible Jones (no surprise on either count, but it would have been nice to be surprised), and no Locust. There is an issue of Deadbox, so hopefully the first issue of that impresses me when it comes out in August.

In new (to me) business, Albatross ran the solicitation for the first volume of a book called Namwolf, by Fabian Rangel and Logan Faerber, which came out in 2017, about a young soldier who figures out he's a werewolf while fighting in the Vietnam War. Does seem like a good way to get shot at by both sides.

Black Mask Comics has an OGN, Eternal, by Ryan Lindsay and Eric Zawadski, about some viking warrior women who defend their village from some hordes led by a, 'loitering mystical scumbag.' There's also the fourth and final issue of Everfrost, written by Lindsay with Sami Kivela as artist, which has a very cool cover. The first two issues are already out, so I might go back and pick those up.

In addition to Deadbox, Vault Comics has another series called Rush by Si Spurrier and Nathan Gordon, about some weird goings-on in the Yukon Territory around the dawn of the 20th Century. It sounds pretty cool, and even if Black Knight and Way of X didn't knock my socks off, Spurrier's non-Marvel work hasn't let me down yet (Spire, Coda). Look, I have to get excited about something, OK?

As far as manga, the 7th volume of Precarious Woman Executive Miss Black General (christ that title's exhausting to type) is coming out, and there's volume 2 of No. 2, about a council of beings created to keep the peace, but one of them has gone rogue for some reason or another.

The only other thing I saw was from Aspen Comics of all places, called Artifact One, By J.T. Krul, Vince Hernandez, and Romina Moranelli, about a curious explorer who finds some startling secret. I mean, that could go a lot of places, although they solicited issues 0 through 4 at the same time (although they also say 2-4 are going to come out before 0 and 1, which is a curious publishing strategy.) But even if I bought all five issues (a big if), plus Everfrost, Rush and the single issues I'm already buying, that'd only add up to 10 comics for the month.

On the Wing - Alan Tennant

Tennant was working on a project banding arctic peregrines along the Texas Gulf Coast in the late '80s. At that time, it was known where the peregrines ended up during the summer (Alaska/the Yukon), and roughly where they migrated in the winter (Latin America). The specific routes they took were only guessed at, since even with radio transmitters being attached, no one was bothering to actually follow them.

So Tennant gets the notion to try, and gets the 70-year-old pilot that was assisting on the project to buy in as well, and off they go. The actual tracking of the falcon he catches and tags - who he names Amelia, after Amelia Earhart - is only maybe a third of the book. Tennant spends the first 50 or so pages on the work he was involved with in Texas, his attempts to actually catch a bird for this, the trouble he gets himself into with the Army by running his yap. 

Tennant's not clear on why the Army is interested in project that's tracking falcons partially to take blood samples to check for incidences of health issues related to pesticide concentration in their bodies, but it's probably something nefarious. Some idiot that wanted to revive that World War 2 idea about releasing bats with tiny incendiary devices attached over Japan to start fires or something.

The book spends time on the issues of actually finding Amelia again several times, but how excited Alan and George get when they actually do pick up her trail. George seems to only agree at first because he loves flying, but he seems to get almost as attached as Alan. The hazards of flying a barely stitched together Cessna and using whatever tiny airstrip they can happen to find to land. The last third of the book, Alan tags a couple of other falcons the following fall and convinces George they should fly south and try to track them that way. Which leads to a lot of adventures in Central America with Guatemalan rebels and accidentally landing on a drug plane airstrip in the middle of a cane field.

The end is a little odd, because Tennant's been steadily pissing away his relationship with his girlfriend on this mad chase. Even when she seemed on board to go south with him, he wouldn't wait the day or two she needed to be ready. So right at the end, he has some kind of epiphany about how this hasn't really been about the falcons and tries to patch things up, but it's not a romantic comedy. It's a little strange, because he's spent almost 300 pages talking about what it is about falcons that attracts humans to them, causes them to be regarded so highly by us, and then it's almost like he regrets getting sucked in?

For the most part though, it's a fast read and Tennant offers enough description of the places and people they encounter to really give a sense of the scale of their trip, even if he and George can't follow their falcons all the way to the end.

'Winging along below, neither falcon felt herself embarked on some desperate southward journey; each was simply exercising her newfound freedom of movement through the air, hungrily chasing smaller birds when the chance arose. The only vision of a distant Caribbean shore was mine.'

He Needs a Therapist, Not a Muse

Hmm, steampunk dubstep. Terribly awesome, or awesomely terrible?

D-P Filippi and Terry Dodson's Muse was not quite what I was expecting. I was expecting a story about a woman hired as governess to a young boy with a vivid imagination, who finds herself drawn into said imagination, either metaphorically or literally. And the story does have that.

What I wasn't counting on was Coraline, the governess, would find herself having to escape being assaulted in each of these fictional worlds. An unexpected turn, but that's what happens, repeatedly. She wakes up in the middle of the night, finds a strange room with two men who give her outfits which show off her figure (if you're familiar with the women Terry Dodson draws, Coraline may be the apex of his style) in the back of her dresser, and is sent off into some fantasy where there's always a guy trying to get her clothes off. It's like Bizarro Chronicles of Narnia or something.

Oh, and during the daytime, Vernere is always trying to get her to drink some 'special brew' of his. Not drinking it seems to grant her more control in the dreams, or lets her wake up, I'm not clear which. Either way, yikes. And one of his two servants is constantly playing Peeping Tom on Coraline.

You might wonder why Coraline doesn't hightail it the hell out of there. If not after the first time, when she might be able to write off the thing with pirates as just an odd dream, certainly by the second, when some Tarzan analogue tries to cop a feel. Or the third, where Prince Charming asks her to give the sleeping princess a kiss, only for the princess to turn into him, wide awake and trying to kiss her. (She gives him five upside the head instead, which is her entirely appropriate reaction each time to this crap.)

Coraline took the job because she's looking for someone, so she has to stay until she can find them, but Filippi doesn't reveal that until 80% of the way through. He does drop plenty of hints that Coraline is far from the first governess, and that things with her aren't going as usual.

The conclusion is kind of odd. It basically suggests that, since Vernere was orphaned at a young age, he's trying to be an adult, but without parents around, he's emulating male protagonists in adventure novels? Especially in terms of how they get women? Is it a commentary on what fiction teaches men in general, about "winning" women, or about how people who retreat into fantasies are stunted and have unrealistic notions about interpersonal relationships?

You can certainly see Vernere does his best to avoid acting as a child might. He doesn't see the point in games. When Coraline suggests they build a treehouse, he trots out a treehouse-building machine he built some time ago to do it, but then is offended at the idea he might want to actually play in the treehouse. When he tries to dance with her on his birthday and she picks him up to make it easier, he gets completely embarrassed and storms off. He has a notion, maybe because of his intelligence, that he needs to be seen as an adult, and when Coraline tries to do otherwise, he gets angry. But he's still acting like a boy, in that he's trying to impress her to get her to like him. Showing off his inventions and trying to be cool instead of showing how he can do a handstand or whatever.

Which still doesn't explain how readily everyone seems to forgive and forget his repeated attempts at dreamworld date rape. That seems like something that needs correcting, but I guess we're meant to make allowances for grief.

In the comic adaptation of The Rocketeer movie, I think there's an entire page where Peter David just lets Russ Heath draw Betty (or Jenny, I guess in the movie) pulling on nylon stockings. Just absolute male gaze. This comic is that page, but basically nonstop for 100+ pages. Coraline in outfits that show off her chest. Coraline in lingerie. Coraline in the shower. Coraline with strategically torn "sexy" outfits. On and on, whether in the waking world or the dream world. 

You'd think the servants, if they're so intent on having the old Vernere back, would try to discourage his libido during the daytime, instead of handing Coraline outfits that would seem to play to exactly that part of him, but I don't know. They also never bother to explain to Coraline what they're hoping for her to accomplish, or what's going on with Vernere, so quite how they expected her to fix things I don't know.

Sunday Splash Page #176

 

"Knock Before Entering," in El Diablo #2, by Gerard Jones (writer), Mike Parobeck (penciler), John Nyberg (inker), Lovern Kindzierski (colorist), Willie Schubert (letterer)

I picked this up in a dollar bin search a few years back. About the time series writer Gerard Jones was being sentenced to six years in jail for possession and distribution of child pornography. I tend to assume the comic fans who read this blog are more aware of stuff like that than me (I hadn't heard probably a year after I bought this), but if you weren't, and it's a deal-breaker on having interest in this book, figured I should mention it up front.

Now I'm trying to figure out how to segue from that to talking about the book itself, but it felt weird to put that at the end, like "oh yeah, by the way. . ." Start with the bare facts, then. El Diablo ran 16 issues from fall of 1989 until the end of 1990. DC had an earlier character with the name, a Western hero created in the early 1970s, possessed by a vengeful spirit. And there's the later, pyrokinetic one that was in the Suicide Squad movie.

This version is non-powered city councilman named Rafael Sandoval, who uses his experience boxing to become a vigilante when he grows frustrated with the lack of help investigating some fires. Which probably explains why he's gotten the least traction outside his own series of the three. "Frustrated, civic-minded politician" doesn't quite stoke the imagination like "possessed gunslinger" or "remorseful firebug gang leader". Even if the energetic young politician being waylaid by the older, more comfortable members of his own party is depressingly relevant today.

Jones writes Sandoval as idealistic, but aware of the compromises and need for support that come with politics. The series takes place in a town called Dos Rios, close to the Texas/Mexico border. So racial tensions come into play a lot, especially during a multi-issue story about a series of child abductions. Everybody loves pointing fingers! Sandoval sometimes feels he's just a pawn in the mayor's (a good-old boy Democrat) attempts to court Hispanic votes. Sounds too intelligent for Democrats to me, but maybe.

We're still a few years away from Parobeck working as an artist on the Batman Adventures comics, or The Fly series for Impact!, or even his Justice Society work. His art isn't quite to that streamlined, very clean look we'd see on those books yet. That might be due to Nyberg's inks, although you see hints of the future look here and there. In the more exaggerated expressions, or sometimes the characters in the background, where there isn't going to be as much detail. (The mayor, who spends a lot of time with a big "aw shucks" smile definitely would have fit in Parobeck's later work.) Or it might be Parobeck feeling the book needs a somewhat more realistic look. The colors on El Diablo also aren't nearly as bright as they were on those books, but this is a different kind of book.

The series remains decidedly street-level. Other than El Diablo, the only other costumed type that shows up is the version of Vigilante that was a movie cowboy, not the owner of a chain of fried chicken restaurants. It's the late '80s, so drugs crop up a lot. Not just moving them across the border or selling them, but the crime that arises from addicts looking for money to buy more drugs. Immigration comes up in a string of dead workers not entering the borders through official channels. 

The series comes back repeatedly to the notion of community. El Diablo ends up with a small group of teenagers that agree to help for one reason or another, and the series deals with the fact they aren't always going to agree amongst themselves about what to do.

What I Bought 7/21/2021

Once again, basically all the comics I want this month are either at the beginning or the end. Only one book between this week and last week. But it's a first issue, so more pages (and also more costly).

Moon Knight #1, by Jed MacKay (writer), Alessandro Cappuccio (artist), Rachelle Rosenberg (color artist), Cory Petit (letterer) - I don't think McNiven should try to ape David Finch's style. But really, the store only had Skottie Young and Gabrielle Del'Otto covers available, so I went with Young's.

Moon Knight's carved himself out a section of the city as his, and those within it are under his protection. Whether that's from vampires that are part of a 'self-actualization pyramid scheme cult,' or Spidey's old foe Vermin (who has cloned himself, apparently?), or whatever. One person he rescued from the vampire cult is now his sassy personal assistant, and he's also seeing a therapist, who says that what Khonshu is, being touched by it has literally altered Marc's brain chemistry. I wouldn't have thought a merc would have a lot of MRIs laying around to compare pre- and post-Khonshu, but sure. 

At any rate, between Reese and Dr. Sterman form a couple of pieces of a supporting cast. MacKay also introduces a couple of threats. One is someone we only catch glimpses of, but they're very interested in Moon Knight and making him lose his faith. I kind of think its Bullseye based on his comment about his statements typically leaving lots of dead bodies. But they also seem to be a nihilist, which would fit Cletus Kasady, but I'm pretty sure he's sort of dead. Or a ghost in the shell in a symbiote, I'm not sure.

The other is a Dr. Badr, who has opened a clinic in Moon Knight's territory, and is apparently Khonshu's other fist. Calls himself the Hunter's Moon. Well, it's a good name, to be sure. I kind of thought that, since Marc's symbol is a waning crescent, Badr's might be a waxing crescent, but with that name, I guess it has to be a full moon. Otherwise he'd look ignorant, and that's not good.

So Mackay's taking the Immortal Iron Fist approach of their being all sorts of lore tied up in Khonshu that Marc is ignorant of. I eagerly await the arrival of Khonshu's heart, Blood Moon. I joke, but it's not a bad approach to take for a series. Obviously, since so many writers have used it with so many characters. It's all in how it's used.

Cappuccio's Moon Knight comes in two flavors: the classic version with the cowl and the cape, and the Mr. Knight version Ellis created where Marc wears an all-white suit. Mr. Knight sits and talk, and puts up his symbol on alley walls. Moon Knight beats the shit out of people. The Mr. Knight look is almost entirely white, while Moon Knight has a lot of shadows. The coloring plays up the contrast between light and dark there a lot more than in the Mr. Knight scenes. In general, Rosenberg's coloring is pretty stark, there's not much of a grade to it. Which might help bring out Cappuccio's linework, which pretty sharp and defined. There's not a lot in this issue that would be described as "soft".

I would like a little more detail in the city backgrounds. They make New York look remarkably empty. No vehicles on the streets, no pedestrians, no trash or wall art. There's nothing except the characters actually involved in the scene. We don't necessarily need the background details, but it might lend something to the setting. If Moon Knight protects travelers by night, then shouldn't we see more people out traveling, confident he'll protect them?

Twin Dragons

When I was out running errands in St. Louis a couple weeks back, I found this 8-movie collection of Jackie Chan flicks (including Operation Condor and Armour of God), for $5. Whoo! Alex was here last weekend, and it was funny to see him read the brief descriptions on the back of the box and keep changing his mind which one he wanted to watch.

In Twin Dragons, Jackie plays twin brothers separated a birth in an incident involving a badly injured criminal and some random cop who rappelled out a window on a bed sheet and got dragged behind an ambulance after getting shot in the shoulder. Even unnamed background characters in Jackie Chan movies are freaking badass.

The son who isn't lost returns to America with his parents, and John becomes an accomplished composer and pianist (and apparently Jackie Chan can play the piano, so he's doing at least some of the actually playing in this movie). The other son, found by some very intoxicated young woman on her way home from a night out, is named "Boomer" and grows up to become an auto mechanic.

Boomer's idiot friend Tyson gets them in trouble with some gang over a girl he likes (played by Maggie Cheung), at the same time John arrives in Hong Kong for a big performance. Cue misunderstandings, unintentional role swapping and romance hijinks.

Alex and I were pretty stoked when, within the first ten minutes, Boomer is fighting an entire gang of guys in some sort of karaoke bar that is decorated to look like a Paris streetside cafe, and he's using a microphone as a flail. The movie has fun with the notion that each brother can unwittingly control the other's movements during moments of, I guess extreme stress or concentration. So Boomer finds his fingers moving oddly during times when John is playing piano, or John finds himself bouncing around crazily when Boomer is in a high speed boat chase.

The effects they use to get two Jackie's on-screen simultaneously aren't bad. It's most noticeable to me when one of them is supposed to brush past the other (as in the bathroom scene when they first meet), and you can tell the clothing doesn't move the way it should. On the whole, for an early '90s movie, not bad, and the film does a couple of funny bits with John and Boomer trying to keep someone in the dark about there being two of them.

The big drag on the movie is Tyson, who is a completely useless comic relief character, there almost entirely to make every situation worse. And he's so incredibly annoying, during the big end fight in the car testing facility, Alex and were both hoping that he'd get killed when the car he was in got put through the crash test.

Sadly, while lacking in any other signs of intelligence besides recognizing Maggie Cheung is pretty, Tyson does wear his seat belt.

Throwing the Baby Out

After reading Way of X #3, I had this thought. Mutants don't always have babies that are mutants, if I remember right. Usually they do, but I know at the time when Mystique and Sabretooth had a son (hell if I know if Graydon Creed is still in canon), he wasn't a mutant. Unless that got retconned somewhere along the way. Making the virulent mutant-hater be a mutant himself seems like the ripoff Twilight Zone twist a lot of comic writers would do entirely seriously.

Point being, it's possible some of those kids in the nursery Stacy and Lost and other people look after aren't mutants. Since all their care is being handled by volunteers, there's no guarantee any of the scientist types are doing anything to test that.

Which leads me to wonder what happens if some of the babies aren't mutants. Humans are allowed on Krakoa, with permission. Like Northstar's boyfriend (husband?) Kyle. I guess Deadpool, if he hadn't been such an ass the time he showed up. It was hilarious to me, but he was still being an ass. Umm. . . I mean, there's probably some other people, right? Wolverine has some old non-mutant buddies that might come hang out and drink beer. Oh, maybe the Power kids could come visit Kitty!

(I'd suggest Wonder Man could come hang out with the Beast, but a) I'm not sure if Simon's alive. I think Rogue may have absorbed him at some point, and b) Hank's a creepy, creepy fucker now. Nobody wants to hang out with that asshole.)

That said, the key phrase is "with permission." Or maybe "by invitation," is a better way of putting it. Whichever. But these babies were apparently just dumped off here and there. Clearly their biological parents don't want them around. There are obviously people willing to take care of them, but is that specific to particular babies, or just babies in general? Is Lost going to care if someone sends a couple of the infants off to a farm somewhere up north, if there are always more new ones?

So what happens then? Do they make arrangements with Social Services in another country that is friendly to Krakoa to take the children? Do they just dump them, toss them through the portal with a cheery, "Your problem now, sapiens!" That seems cruel, but I really wouldn't put it past the Quiet Council, which has been content to ignore this entire situation. Even Stacy is using the "sapiens" nonsense, which is consistent to her character going back to her earliest appearances in Joe Casey's Uncanny X-Men run, but not necessarily a great sign.

Plus, you can just imagine the anti-mutant bigots freaking out about "covert mutants" or "plague babies", or something equally nuts. The life expectancy for those kids is not going to be great outside Krakoa's borders. Maybe Krakoa could find them homes quietly, but it seems like that sort of thing always comes out eventually. Usually at the most inconvenient time. Funny how that works out!

They could just let the kids stay. Krakoa has so many resources they can probably handle it. Given the general attitude of most of the people on Krakoa towards non-mutants these days, I can't imagine that would be a fun upbringing, the sapien among mutants who can't stop telling everyone how much better they are than sapiens. Or they'll be used as guinea pigs by Mr. Sinister or Hank McCoy. Sounds like fun.

Black Widow

It's fine, I guess. 

Florence Pugh seemed to be having fun as Yelena, although getting to play the irritating younger sister seems like a more rewarding role than big sister. The, 'This is a much less cool way to die,' line made me chuckle. The fight they had in the Budapest apartment reminded me a little of watching my friends and their siblings fight, albeit at a much higher level of skill. But the point where they're choking each other with the curtain made me think of two kids where one has the other in a headlock, but their hair's getting pulled or the eye poked or something.

The whole weird family dynamic thing was, I don't know. David Harbour plays Red Guardian as your typical American sitcom dad. A big clumsy well-meaning putz. Who is also a true believer Soviet super-soldier. That kind of humor is pretty typical for Marvel movies, but it felt out of place in what, at times, felt like it was trying to be a spy movie. Everyone else is being so serious, even Pugh, who is playing excited, not silly. 

If there'd been more of them as an undercover family, I think it would have worked there. Him trying to maintain cover and being really unnatural about it. Like Steve Rogers struggling with being inconspicuous in Winter Soldier, a comparison the Guardian would apparently appreciate. By the time the family is together, they're moving into the climax and there's only time for fight scenes and speeches.

Rachel Weisz' character felt like it fit the movie better. She's extremely competent and cool under fire, more than a little morally ambiguous at best with the mind control thing. But she'll also tell Natasha not to slouch at the dinner table. It's still sort of a sitcom mom, but a much more toned down version in comparison to what Harbour's doing. Maybe the movie is too dour without him. Or maybe, since he seems like a true believer in Communism, you also need him to recognize they got used, but their little family still mattered, too. 

I think all three of Melina, Natasha, and Yelena weren't believers so much as they were pragmatists. They were put in situations where they had no choice to play ball, but none of them were under illusions about what they were doing or why. They knew they were just puppets. Maybe Melina with her work with the pigs didn't see it that way, but it seems just as likely she was fooling herself. Like Natasha had been doing when she went to work for SHIELD that it would be different.

When Dreykov was making his big speech about how the world is run from the shadows and blahblahblah, I expected Natasha to point out none of that would have meant a damn thing if the world is conquered by space aliens commanded by an Asgardian. For that matter, what good were all his little widows when Ultron was going to use Sokovia to cause a mass extinction event? But the guy's whole bit is control, so he probably just ignores that.

Taskmaster was definitely not what I was hoping for. Taskmaster being an example of the red in Natasha's ledger was fine. I'd have preferred a freelance killer, but the whole movie is Natasha trying to actually deal with her past rather than run from it, so it's fine. But I was hoping for someone a little more talkative, boastful about their skills, and instead we got a Terminator, basically.

I mean, at least Batroc got to talk a little smack to Steve Rogers.

What I Bought 7/10/2021 - Part 2

It's too bad this book didn't come out the same week as Midnight Western Theatre #2, so I could have had two comics that involve fighting a bunch of religious loonies in hooded robes.

Locust #2, by Massimo Rosi (writer), Alex Nieto (artist), Mattia Gentili (letterer) - Aw, he's got a big bug buddy!

So, past and present. In the past, Max tries to get himself and his elderly mother out of NYC, but isn't very good at driving with giant bugs on the roof of the car. Fortunately, they get rescued by some helpful, heavily armed folks who turned a police station into an armed compound. Don't worry, though, they describe themselves as 'Good Christians.' Yeah, those two words used in combination have never meant anything positive. Led by the mysterious "Ford" Max is seeking in the present. 

Speaking of the present, Max makes his way to a cabin in the woods, where he finds a lovely little congregation in the basement. All of whom are preparing to kill some kid because if they kill the unclean God will stop the plague or some such shit. It really sounds more like they're a bunch of white supremacist dipshits, but they've also captured some of the locust people to use as weapons? Or perhaps they've somehow converted them to their cause. Otherwise I'm not sure how they were able to mark the little crosses on their foreheads. Anyway, someone set them loose, so now Max has that to deal with.

Nieto gives every location a different sort of color motif. The scenes during the escape from New York are mostly greys and blacks, so that the fires and taillights can stand out more in contrast. So everything is very muddy, but then there's this one streak of something brighter to catch the eye. Even if it's just to highlight how overwhelmingly dark everything is. He kind of does the same with the scenes in the basement, but cuts it down to really just black and red. Makes everything ominous and menacing.

The couple of pages of Max' approach to the cabin are dominated by blues and whites, with the snow and the looming mountains. Initially, there's no sign anything is wrong with the world. He could just be an average hunter or nature enthusiast out and about. It gives it a peaceful air that's shattered when he comes across a couple of mutilated bodies that have been strung up in a tree.

Plotwise, both threads seem to follow the notion of false haven. Max reaches a place that seems promising - either in terms of being safe, or in terms of having the child he seeks - only to find danger lurking instead. The presence of the locusts, but more the people. Ford's the danger in the past, and however they've captured or turned the locusts in the present, it's the people planning to use them for a specific purpose. Big surprise, people are awful.

Sunday Splash Page #175

 

"Turns Out, Worms Can't Read Maps," in Earthworm Jim #2, by Dan Slott and John Lewandowski (writers), Barry Crain (penciler), Sam De LaRosa (inker), Ed Laz (colorist), UL Higgins (letterer)

I'm guessing this is not what you expected to kick off the "E's" with. Or maybe it was, if you know my affection for the old EWJ.

A three-issue mini-series from mid-90s Marvel, written at least partially by Dan Slott (he gets plot credit at least), which I was not expecting when I bought this several years back. It's kind of an odd bird of a story. It's not an origin, except perhaps for Peter Puppy's friendship with Jim. Jim's already a well enough established hero that there's a background subplot about several of his villains hiring Evil the Cat to sic his lawyers on Jim with a lawsuit for all those times he beat them up.

(The lawyers keep get waylaid one way or the other. Going to the wrong address, chasing ambulances full of injured super-villains, stuff like that.)

The main villain actually ends up being Bob the Killer Goldfish of all things, who tricks Princess What's-Her-Name into agreeing to marry him to save Jim's life. The comic's version of the Princess is sort of a weird amalgamation of the cartoon's version (where she's a hardbitten rebel leader/warrior princess), and the video game version (who seemed like sort of a bubblehead). So she's very strong and ready to fight, but also kind of dumb when the plot requires demands it. Not unlike Jim, actually.

Barry Crain and De LaRosa handle most of the art chores, except the back third of issue #2, which is drawn by Manny Galan and Carlos Garzon, who utilize a simpler, cleaner style. De LaRosa really likes to shade in as many muscles on Jim's suit as possible, and Crain's version of Jim is much more animated and a little feral looking. The top of his head is always moving or squiggling about, and he can get a distinctly manic look in his eyes at times. Crain also likes to add little details to the background. Like having one of Evil's lawyers look like Pinhead from Hellraiser, or what looks like a TIE Fighter getting plowed through at the top of the splash page up there. 

Which fits with the general tone of the comic, a nearly constant stream of jokes, one-liners, puns, sight gags, the occasional meta-joke, etc. I'd say there's more misses than hits, but there's a few that are kind of funny.

What I Bought 7/10/2021 - Part 1

So, three books last week. The two for today are both in the penultimate issue of an arc. One of them does a lot more with that than the other.

Runaways #37, by Rainbow Rowell (writer), Andres Genolet (artist), Dee Cunniffe (color artist), Joe Caramagna (letterer) - I'm really not sure what everyone is so shocked about in the context of this issue. Although Nico only looks mildly concerned at best.

This issue is almost entirely silent for 16 pages. Then the last two pages have a bunch of dialogue. Yes, that only adds up to 18 pages, because that's how many pages there were in this comic. Swell, right? I think that's the second time this year they've stiffed us on pages with an issue. And Genolet is a good artist, the work is pretty and all. Emotions are clear, even if I'm not always clear on why exactly they're having that emotion. Still, it's not so great it demands to be seen sans any actual talking.

So what did happen? Nico is frustrated about her fight with Karolina about letting a genie steal part of her soul when she uses the staff. Which is, to be clear, a stupid thing to agree to, but they seem to make up. Although some of Karolina's people show up looking for her, whatever that means. Present Gert and Victor find Future Gert and Present Chase making out, and Present Gert is not happy and runs off. Is she not happy about how she turns out, or that she seems fated to end up pining over Chase?

Admittedly, that would be a rough realization to have, but I don't know for sure because nobody says anything. Oh, and Future Gert cries while hugging Victor, which probably doesn't bode well for him.

Gib found someone to offer him sacrifices. Relax, it's cats, who bring him mice. Mice which Doombot must then vacuum up, and why doesn't he build something to do housecleaning? Wouldn't that be beneath a Doom? Also, Alex Wilder is still around, which is probably bad news.

I don't see why this issue needed to go Silent Era, and if you're going to do that, then fucking commit. Don't half-ass it.

Jenny Zero #3, by Dave Dwonch (writer/letterer), Brockton McKinney (writer), Magenta King (artist), Dam (color artist) - Seeing your emotionally distant and deceased father figure in cloud formations is a common coping mechanism.

The government agency is becoming increasingly evil, as they try to intimidate Jenny hotel heiress friend, to no effect. But, their telepath pokes through Jenny's uncle's mind and figures out where she went. And their evil leader orders them to either get Jenny to work for them, or bring her corpse back so they can incorporate her DNA into their stormtroopers. I feel as though that development happened extremely quickly, but to be fair, the comic has largely been focused on Jenny making an ass of herself for two issues as an avoidance technique, so there probably wasn't an opportunity.

Anyway, Jenny's busy tracking down an old associate of her father's, who tried to approach her about training years ago. It's a middle-aged lady who is the master of an entire temple, and she's gonna teach Jenny some drunken master stuff. Well, Jenny's a drunk, so she's halfway there! I think they get approximately one day of training in before the government dorks show up and there's a big fight. And once Jenny gets involved, it's really a "big" fight. I'd see myself out, but this is my blog, and my ass has fused with the chair.

Somewhat abrupt shift into cartoonish supervillainy by the mostly unseen Action Science Police aside, there's actually several bits in here that made me laugh. Ms. Sheratin deciding to call the terribly named Alpha Major "Chad". Aiko's ways of testing Jenny. First, knocking her flat on her ass. An oldy, but a goody. Then throwing a cup of tea at Jenny to catch, only for Jenny to punch it, and both of them being very confused by the other's actions. The dog is as amused by it as I am.

The best might be when "Chad" is trying intimidate Aiko and he snaps his fingers, and nothing happens. You turn the page and all his guys are still down the hill waiting because 'The snow is really giving us hell on the comms', so they couldn't tell if that was a signal. Idiots trying to look cool and failing miserably will always be funny. At least, I hope so. If not, this world may not be worth living in.

So, is the fin on the head for these Ultraman types always a natural growth like it is for Jenny, or is it usually a helmet, like the Rocketeer? I'd always assumed the latter, that it was something added to the costume to look cool, but Jenny actually has a headfin, because either her faces uniform didn't have his helmet, or she opted not to wear it. It looks fine as is, although it's kind of weird how much it seems to cause King to flatten out Jenny's nose when drawn from straight ahead, versus in profile. The bridge kind of disappears.

King does a really good job drawing "Chad" to look like a complete ass. Although I'm not sure I've seen a fictional guy with pink hair who wasn't. This doofus, Quentin Quire, there's probably some others I'm forgetting, but those two are strong date points in favor of my hypothesis. He's wearing a purple band-aid under one eye at the beginning of the comic for no apparent reason. He's not wearing it when they attack Aiko's temple, and there's no noticeable scar. So it's an affectation, and an incredibly dumb one at that.

Terminator 2: Judgment Day

I've discussed parts of Terminator 2 several times on here. The scene where the orderlies are so busy trying to restrain Sarah Conner they somehow don't notice the enormous man with the shotgun walking towards them. My concern with the presentation of psychiatry in the movie. It looks like, in a footnote to my review of Poul Anderson's There Will be Time from 2010, I predicted the plot of the sixth Terminator film. Blind hog, acorn, you know how it goes.

Never really discussed the film entirely, though. So, short review, I really like it. Probably more than the original, definitely more than T3 or Terminator: Genesys (I haven't seen the other two.) It's like most sequels, though, in that it wouldn't work anywhere near as well without the first film. Terminator, like Alien, works perfectly well as a standalone film. T2 (like Aliens) relies on the first movie for some of its story beats to land. Sarah Conner being a completely ripped head case doesn't land as well if we haven't seen her as the terrified, confused waitress. It's cool on its own, but the contrast adds something. Same with having the first movie's antagonist become the protector in the sequel, while the new antagonist is an even more advanced machine. March of progress, villain upping its game, take your pick. And both those sequels are more conventional action movies, whereas the originals are more suspenseful. The smaller budgets required more to be hinted at, less shown until key moments.

(Although I've been thinking, Kyle can't bring weapons - or clothes - back because nothing technological or artificial can come with him. The T-800 skates by because it's flesh and blood over metal. Which suggests they could have tried stashing some futuristic plasma grenade inside Kyle's body like he was a coke mule, but anyway, the T-1000 doesn't have any flesh. It's all liquid metal. So how does it make it back unscathed?)

And T2 is definitely less suspenseful. It's a much brighter looking movie (the better to see some very cool stunts and effects), and even though the T-1000 is a move advanced killing machine, there's not the sense of John, Sarah, and "Uncle Bob" really being in severe danger. There's the long stretch after they escape from the hospital until the big shootout at Cyberdyne where the T-1000 has no clue where they are. Which is sort of a silent testament to Sarah's preparation over the years. Contrast that with the first Terminator, where even once Kyle has found Sarah, he seems certain the Terminator will find them again, it's just a matter of time. There's more of a constant background terror that it could show up at any moment, because it's relentless in its pursuit. Almost like a Friday the 13th movie, only instead of a zombie in a hockey mask, it's a killing machine that looks like an Austrian bodybuilder.

Terminator 2 does use the long quiet stretch to some effect to let us see the three heroes interact. I guess a lot of people don't like Eddie Furlong's John Conner (or at least that's the impression I get when I see people discuss the film online), but I'm fine with his performance. I think you have to make allowances for it being his first acting gig, and he's dealing with James Cameron writing dialogue for him. Not quite as bad as having George Lucas writing dialogue for you, but still sub-optimal. 

I think there is a genuineness to the performance. He's an angry, confused, kind of fucked up kid, because he's had a shitty exhausting life with a mother putting a ridiculous amount of pressure on him. The scene when he realizes the Terminator has to follow his orders, how giddy he is at the power that gives him. This thing his mother has told him to be terrified of, is his to command. How awesome. Not quite the same thing, but when I was a kid I definitely thought it would be cool to pilot Voltron, or one of the Power Rangers' Zords. But if I had, that would have ended badly for a lot of people.

He immediately tells the T-800 to get rid of some guy that was only trying to help, because he wants to see his cool toy in action. That turns in a second when he realizes the Terminator's definition of 'get rid of this guy' is "shoot him in the face". A kid gifted incredible power he doesn't grasp the danger of. And you can tell his feelings towards Sarah are mixed. She's his "real mom" and he cares about her. He keeps that photo from the end of the first movie with him, even when he's just going to the arcade. When he thinks she's in danger, there's no hesitation on his part that they have to save her. 

At the same time, there's definite resentment. That he couldn't have a normal life because she's so hellbent trying to get him ready to survive the War Against the Machines. You can hear it when he and the Terminator are working on the truck in Mexico. John talks about the one guy they lived with for a while that was cool, who taught John about engines. Then he sort of scoffs and says, 'Mom screwed it up, of course. Started going on about Judgement Day, and how I was this great leader.' Every time John starts to find some stability, a life like other kids get, his mom wrecks it because she can't stop thinking about the future. Sarah's trying, in her own way, to keep him safe, but she can't see there are things John wants from her he's not getting. 

Linda Hamilton's got this fierce protectiveness in her, almost feral, but she doesn't really know how to comfort her son (she and Arnold sort of swap the traditional gender roles.) She wants to check him for injuries, but then she berates him, calls him stupid, for risking his life for her. She doesn't seem to get why it would be important to her son to make sure she's OK. It doesn't even register. You start to see it breaking through when she's thinking about the T-800 and how, not only would it do everything possible to protect John, it would always be there for him, never lose patience with him. Let him teach it elaborate high-five sequences.

There was an oral history of T2 on The Ringer (which is fun to read, especially Arnold being befuddled he's not killing anybody in this movie), and there's a bit in there from Cameron about how part of the notion he had, and part of the thinking behind having the T-1000 appear as a cop, was to be about how people make themselves into terminators. Where we abandon compassion. Sarah very nearly falls into that. She makes the same mistake Skynet makes. Skynet always acts as though, if it kills John Conner, it wins. There will be no Resistance if he's dead. It might occasionally target his future High Command (Terminator 3), but it's still trying to kill him, too. 

Sarah decides if she kills Miles Dyson, that's it for Skynet. It'll never exist. We already know that's nonsense, because we've seen Dyson works for a big company with an entire team studying the remains of the first T-800. But Sarah's fixated on the notion that all it takes is knocking over one domino, even when the T-800 tells her Dyson is only the one considered most important, not solely responsible. 

(T6 apparently makes it entirely clear that killing John doesn't make a difference, because there's still a Resistance. Resisting an entirely different AI, apparently, so even though Sarah and John did keep Skynet from coming into being, it just got replaced by some other artificial intelligence. Which is pretty depressing. But at the rate things are going, the climate will kill us all long before machines can. Probably do it more efficiently, too.)

Anyway, I like Terminator 2 a lot. The way all the characters come together in the psychiatric hospital, and Sarah's escape in general is fun to watch. The highway chase scene with the helicopter and later, the liquid nitrogen truck (and that was a real chopper flying under overpasses, not CGI, which is terrifying. I couldn't pilot a helicopter under an overpass in Grand Theft Auto without damaging it, and that guy did it for real.) The movie uses Arnold well, Hamilton's aces, I already said I like Furlong's performance. Robert Patrick as the T-1000 gives a good performance. He's got that unsettling intense expression when he's moving. He can drop it occasionally, smile or say "thank you"and have it not reach his eyes, but mostly it's just there, along with all these movements that are just a little stilted. The way he turns his head or walks, or whatever. It could seem like overacting since he's supposed to be imitating people, but he is a machine trying to imitate a person, so he is overacting. Presumably he'd get better at it over time, since I imagine he can learn from experience like the T-800, but he's a brand-new experimental unit. It's still early in the learning curve.

What I Bought 7/6/2021 - Part 4

Over the weekend, I managed to pick up all three comics that came out last week I wanted. So we'll get to those starting on Friday. In the meantime, here's the last two books from last month. Monday was for second issues, but today is for third issues. Trying to get over the hump in their respective storylines.

Way of X #3, by Si Spurrier (writer), Bob Quinn (artist), Java Tartaglia (color artist), Clayton Cowles (letterer) - Kurt has interesting DTs.

Kurt gets really hammered at the gala for reasons I'm unclear on, and frankly, don't get a fuck about. In the aftermath, he's wandering around and sees a cloaked figure handing out something to lots of mutants. And it's Stacy X! The comic is 5000% better for me already. Kurt is appalled to learn she's handing out contraceptives, which, well, he is Catholic.I guess he wouldn't agree to using his powers for abortions then. Stacy points out that plenty of mutants have been following the first law about making more mutants, and apparently just abandoning them at a place called the Bower Stacy and some other mutants run to care for them. (It's also a place people can come with partners they want to spend time with, however they define that.)

Bravo Krakoa, great fucking hustle once again. Maybe the first law should have been "make and raise more mutants," asswipes. Anyway, Legion's busy searching for, sigh, Onslaught, and also using his telepathy to short circuit a potential relationship between a couple of young mutants. Onslaught's still on the loose though, so they return to the bar, and it turns out Dr. Nemesis is hassling Dazzler all the time because he's actually really into her. Hell, man, who isn't, but I'm never a fan of the "hostility is a mask for attraction" trope.

So some of the residents of Krakoa are looking after the babies. Which is nice, but it sounds like a voluntary thing, rather than something the Quiet Council established. Actually seems apparent from what Stacy says the Krakoan government hasn't done shit for all its newest citizens, too busy in their dick measuring contest terraforming Mars. So the Bower is like when people start a gofundme to pay their hospital bills, because the U.S. government is a useless pile of shit. Yes, Krakoa has certainly moved beyond "sapien" thinking. Man, it is really hard not to want to see these assholes fall flat on their faces.

You Promised Me Darkness #3, by Damian Connelly (writer/artist), Annabella Mazzaferri (letterer) - Yeah, I got nothing for you.

The Anti-Everything and Sage are both moving their plans forward with 10 days until the big show. The Anti-Everything's plan is to steal power from as many other comet-affected people as he can. Sage's plan, well, Sage isn't saying, other than that his(?) plan is much better. It involves Sebastian getting control over his powers, since he was apparently important to the Anti-Everything's father's plan.

Which has possibly given the Anti-Everything an inferiority complex, or daddy complex. Something like that. We learn that during a flashback sequence to the first time he almost caught up with Sebastian and Yuko, and she used her power on him and his goon squad. Which might explain why that one girl had run off and was living in an alley last issue. There's another flashback before that, to the Anti-Everything finding some other comet types over a year ago and having what I assume was a fight. Connelly draws everything so closely focused on people's face I can't tell much of what's going on. But a character named Igny says she used an energy bomb, sooo, I guess there was an energy bomb.

I get Connelly's not really writing this to be some big superhero throwdown comic. It's more of a, creeping apocalyptic doom sort of thing. The sense of impending horror. Especially since the Anti-Everything seems to take powers by breaking people down and absorbing them into himself. Someone Sebastian and Yuko met was melting, and then she seemed to break into a bunch of little globs. Like the inside of a lava lamp. And when all he's doing is drawing people sitting around talking, it works fine. His tendency towards extreme close-ups is fine.

But man, it would be nice to actually be able to tell what's going on more often. Anytime something actually starts to happen, it's just a mess. The backgrounds are so inky and dark, even if you can distinguish the person and what they're doing, there's no context because you can't tell where they are in relation to anyone else. It's like every person in this comic is in their own separate little world, talking and acting, and sometimes it intermingles with someone else's world, somehow.

Life of Crime

Two small-time crooks (played by Yasiin Bey and John Hawkes) decide they're going to abduct the wife of a crooked apartment developer (played by Jennifer Aniston and Tim Robbins) and ransom her for $1 million. Things naturally do not go according to plan. Problems range from Robbins already having planned to divorce her, to his mistress getting involved to protect her interests, to the guy whose house they stash Aniston at being a Nazi sympathizer and an attempted rapist.

The scene near the end when he does try to assault Aniston is odd, if only because the movie has sort of played things relaxed and almost comical for long stretches up to then. Like he tries to peep through a hole he drilled in the wall and she jams a lit cigarette into his eye and Bey makes jokes about it. Robbins is down in the Caribbean being manipulated by his mistress like a goober. Will Forte plays some associate of Robbins and Aniston's who clearly is trying to have an affair with her. He shows up during the abduction, and then is more concerned that someone might figure out he was there than in telling anyone she's been taken. Aniston is obviously frightened early on, enough she meekly complies with their commands, but it settles into something more amicable after that. 

Hawkes and Aniston have several conversations about his life, and how she's certain that her husband won't pay the ransom. He brings her dinner on a tray and is polite about it. When she removes some of the tape over her mask to cover the peephole and sees his face, he's sort of annoyed, but he doesn't rage at her or make threats or anything. She's their hostage, but it's mostly very chill. Then the movie goes, "Wait, this is actually not a chill situation, she's a hostage, that should be scary." 

However, even though he never actually lays a hand on her, it's not even subtext that Robbins is an abusive husband. When Aniston asks him to let her drive, because he's been drinking to celebrate winning some golf thing at their country club, he drives recklessly while berating her for always keeping track of how much he drinks. He hits her car, then blames her for parking in the driveway. When she shouts she won't ride with him ever again, he marches back to the car and she flinches back as he reaches in to grab his ugly trophy. (He also publicly refers to her as his 'other trophy,' so real winner there.) So a big, drunk asshole snarling at her to take off her clothes is probably not a new experience.

But then the last 15-20 minutes of the movie after the assault are kind of ridiculous, so I don't know exactly what to make of it. It's not quite that everyone's a dumbass or neurotic like Fargo, so it isn't a dark comedy. But it's a little too relaxed or silly in places to feel like a crime movie. Forte's attempts to disguise his presence at the house could come off as sinister, but instead is just kind of pitiful. Comedy. But Bey's character feels like a competent, careful criminal who just picked the right target at the wrong time. Heist gone wrong crime movie. I'm not sure the two halves mix all that well.

What I Bought 7/6/2021 - Part 3

For today, we've got a pair of second issues. Two issue #2s. One I enjoyed, one not so much. So kind of a good head, bad head thing. This post is starting to feel like a Two-Face crime. Hopefully Batman doesn't come smashing through my sliding door to break my face. I don't think that's covered by renter's insurance.

Yuki vs. Panda #2, by Graham Misiurak (writer), A.L. Jones (artist/letterer) - Meteorologists say the "looming panda" storm front will be with us for a while, bringing high temperatures and extended stupidity.

The first half of the issue is to introduce us to Yuki's friends, Madesin and Bernard. "Madesin"? Really? And her father's a pastor. Why would a pastor put the word "sin" in his daughter's name? Especially when it requires such an idiotic spelling? OK, OK, deep breath breath Calvin, focus on other things. Madesin, yeesh, may be in love with Yuki, or she just may be an enthusiastic best friend. Bernard is the sarcastic, delusional one, who is apparently building himself a sexbot? A little frightened to see how that Chekov's Gun is going to go off. Yuki finally arrives carrying a huge backpack as training. Which her grandfather was hiding inside, so he could pop out and take a photo of them being surprised.

If he's that bored, you'd think he'd spend more time with online dating.

The other half of the issue is focused on the panda, who spends it monologing about everything he's gone through over the years searching for the child who bit his ear. This includes working in a call center and raking some trailer trash lady's lawn without her permission. He also gets fired from his job at the hot dog cart because he's so lost in thought he lets them get robbed. Except then he stops the thief as they run off. But he also burns his hot dog cart hat and attacks everybody, so maybe he's not cut out for customer service. And all that takes place in the same town Yuki lives, not that he knows that.

Not to sound like Ian Malcolm, but I was expecting more of Yuki fighting the panda in a book called Yuki vs. Panda. I know, I know, table-setting, character introduction, mood establishment. And the contrast between the two leads is sort of interesting. Yuki clearly never thinks about that day, though it's unclear if she ever thinks about anything at all. She admits she's stopped wondering why her grandfather is training her like this, or to what purpose. She's drifting mentally through life, while being pushed towards an unclear goal. Her expressions are most often dismay or confusion, and the weight of the crap her grandfather puts her through is literally pushing her down.

The panda, fixated on a particular humiliation, drifts physically through life. He has a clear goal, but no notion of how to achieve it. Jones draws the panda as walking through the world with his head down, wide straw hat pulled low. A sort of perpetual gloom or fog surrounds him outside brief moments of peace that are shattered by the next panel. But the world around him is bright and sunny. People are happy and laughing, but all he sees is his own misery. 

And all of that is me talking out of my ass like I was Ace Ventura.

Midnight Western Theatre #2, by Louis Southard (writer), David Hahn (artist), Ryan Cody (colorist), Buddy Beaudoin (letterer) - A skeleton horse certainly looks cool, but I imagine it's difficult to find a saddle that fits comfortably.

The issue opens with a brief scene from Ortensia's childhood, when her father has a disagreement with some men working for him, but tells her to learn how to read people, and that he knows a good man when he sees one. Given how Ortensia ended up, I'm going to guess he's not as good at it as he thinks.

17 years later, Ortensia and Alexander show up at a disturbing church in the middle of nowhere, looking for a missing girl. The preacher invites them in to be saved, although they'll be crucified if they refuse. So they go in, and descend into a crypt full of idiots in robes. Always encouraging, at least, it is if you're looking to re-enact any number of parts of Resident Evil 4. The loonies worship Samual, which is a red-eyed Doberman. Who just seems to bark mindlessly until Ortensia reaches for her gun. At which point it manages to say "BULLET!" So she obliges, and gives it a bullet. Cue the fight scene.

17 minutes later, everyone's dead save Ortensia, Alexander, and the head priest. Who is very happy, because they've sent everyone on to their god. He asks they do the same for him, and she basically tells him to suffer and die slow. But the girl they were after refused to join, so they'll be bringing back a corpse. Mission accomplished?

The best bit in all this is when Alexander initially refuses to go inside because he's convinced going inside a church is bad for a vampire. Which he thinks he was told by someone in Jersey in 1789. His relief when learns Ortensia is right and that's not true, replaced in the next panel by childish annoyance that he's been afraid of churches for three-quarters of a century for nothing was pretty funny. Although, this feels like a Satanist church, so I'm not sure that's the best judge of whether he could go inside, you know a Baptist church or a synagogue or whatever.

Ortensia is a little gentler with Alexander than she was in the first issue. Not a lot, but she reassures him that he can go inside the church, and that she wouldn't lie to him. It's a bit of a softer moment for her, not quite saying she wants him there to have her back, but implying it. Otherwise, Hahn draws her with a fairly neutral expression until there's violence to be done. A distinct contrast from Alexander's increasingly nervous look as they're surrounded and told to kneel. She's trying to follow her father's suggestion. Watch the people she's dealing with, and having judged the kind of people they are, wait for the proper moment to act.

I'm really enjoying these done-in-one stories, and Southard is sprinkling in other things that I assume are going to build to something by the end. For example, that both Alexander and Ortensia have died previously. Not a surprise with the vampire, and maybe not for her, either, given the skeleton horse, but I'm definitely curious.

Sunday Splash Page #174

 

"Lizard Men Improve Any Occasion," in Dynamo 5 #22, by Jay Faerber (writer), Mahmud Asrar and Yildiray Cinar (artists), Ron Riley (colorist), Charles Pritchett (letterer)

The conceit behind is Dynamo 5 was that the Superman of that world was kind of a horndog, and after his death, his widow (a top-notch reporter) tracks down his various illegitimate kids and forms them into a super-team. Each kid ends up with one of dead old dad's powersets - telepathy, flight, super-strength, shape-shifting, or vision powers - and away they go.

Each of them comes from a different situation, and they're spread out in age a bit. Gage and Hector are both still in high school, Livvie's attending Georgetown, Spencer's an adult living in a series of hotel rooms. Livvie's mother is deceased, but her father (the one who raised her) isn't. Gage's parents are together, but he's got two younger brothers. Bridget lives alone, but her parents seem to having periodic falling outs. Faerber has a couple of the parents find out in different ways, with different reactions. The teens have their own trouble adjusting, both to the truth about their father, to having siblings, and to having super-powers and the strain it puts on their everyday lives. Sometimes to the good, like Gage being determined to help Hector talk to girls. Sometimes bad, when the team learns the other side of Spencer's family tree is a lot different from theirs and reacts badly.

Asrar's the artist for almost the entire series, minus this and one other issue Cinar draws at least part of, and one drawn by Matteo Scalera. Since it's a team book, Asrar goes for the team uniform approach, which a little variation. Scatterbrain gets a hood, puts the emphasis on his mental powers. Visionary's got a helmet with a visor that amplifies his powers. Slingshot gets some of the old armpit wings for maneuvering, stuff like that. Keeps them from being too interchangeable. 

Most of the different hero costumes are pretty straightforward, but I think Asrar has a little more fun with some of the villains. Like Brainstorm, the guy in the background of the picture above, who is a big android body with the brains of five human scientists on it (that's what the yellow bubbles are. You'd think they'd hide their brains inside the body, but I guess it's more impressive-looking this way.)

Asrar doesn't do anything too flashy on page layouts most of the time, but each character has a distinct look in and out of costume, which helps them feel like individuals. The fight scenes are well-drawn, and even the characters who take a physical approach do it differently. Myriad is maybe the most acrobatic, using a lot of flips and jumps kicks, whereas Scrap tends to just charge in a throw haymakers. She's stronger and tougher, but she also doesn't have as much experience fighting. When Gage fights physically, he tends to do so like a football player. A lot of tackles and using his size, which is what would come naturally to him by now.

Faerber and Asrar plays with expectations a bit. Maggie, the widow, turns out to have actually been a secret agent who uses being a reporter as a cover, or maybe an additional way to get information. She ends up keeping secrets a lot, and has her own skeletons in the closet. Which is where Maggie's tendency to act like a Nick Fury/college football coach-style hardass backfires a few times. But the series touches on the fact it's not easy for her to work with the living embodiment of her husband's fidelity. Gage, the big jock linebacker ends up with the telepathy, which predictably frustrates him, while Bridget, the extremely pale (but hot) goth girl gets the super-strength.

Faerber shifts things up a lot with some surprises and twists. Takes Maggie out of commission for a few issues, forcing the team to work without her guidance. The surprise reveal of Spencer's mother that throws the team for another loop. The roster changes once, Maggie's past comes back to haunt the team. There were a few things I don't think ever actually came to fruition, like the reporter Bridget briefly starts dating, or her and Spencer being roomies. On the one hand, it keeps the book from getting stale, because things can change at any minute, but on the other hand, it feels like some things get tossed aside without ever exploring if they could be interesting. Maybe Faerber reconsidered after he started and that's why he moved on from those ideas.

Faerber had a few other superhero books he was writing at the same time - Noble Causes, Firebirds, maybe one other I can't think of - and he set all of them in the same universe. Which gives him the advantage of having other books to introduce characters and concepts in, which could then be sprinkled into this book whenever. Which is a nice way to make a book feel like it's part of a universe that's already been going for a while.

The series ran 25 issues from 2007-2009, plus an Annual and Holiday Special. There was another 5-issue mini-series a year or two later, but it was a big alien invasion thing that used not only a bunch of Faerber's other characters but also some other Image characters like Invincible, and I'm not really here for that.

What I Bought 7/6/2021 - Part 2

Somewhere along the line in May, the fourth issue of White Lily came out and I missed it. I only figured that out when the fifth and final issue came out at the end of June, so I'm just going to review both today.

White Lily #4 and 5, by Preston Poulter (writer), Jake Bilbao (penciler), Kumar (inker?), Alonso Espinoza (colorist), Taylor Esposito (letterer) - I know it takes some work to heat up engines in a Russian winter, but this seems excessive.

These last two issues cover a lot of ground. Lilya's fiance, Captain Alexi, is shot down over Stalingrad. Unlike Lilya, he doesn't survive. She goes into a depression, reaching the point where she tries to light her fighter on fire while she's inside it. She decides to focus on killing the enemy instead. Death will find her on its own soon enough. Once the Nazis surrender at Stalingrad, Lilya and Katya are sent to be flight instructors. Katya's happy to be out of the line of fire (and have more chances to woo Lilya), but Lilya misses combat. 

The two of them do have one night of passion, but Lilya gets her wish and is assigned to a frontline squadron at Kursk. Katya, loyal friend/pining lover, goes against her instincts and follows. They're starting from square one almost in having to prove to the commander that women can be successful combat pilots (even though both of them are aces already), but they pull off their first mission, which had killed the last four teams that tried it. Eventually though, Lilya's time is up, when she runs afoul of two Nazi aces at once. Katya has a depressing visit home for leave to try and deal with her grief, and returns to the front. As she puts it, she would 'rather fight the Nazis than her mother. At least fighting them would serve some purpose.' She finds the two aces and kills one, but the other gets her. It's unclear if she at least managed to shoot him down. I think they may have partially collided, but we don't see his plane go spinning off into the horizon, so I don't know.

There's a lot in there I didn't cover. The last two issues are almost 65 pages combined. They could have made this a six-issue mini-series and I wouldn't have batted an eye. Lilya being a harsh training instructor. A sequence after Stalingrad where all their male wingmen start treating them like just sexual objects again. Which is a depressing recurring thing. They get some respect when the heat is on, but as soon as things start looking up, they're dismissed again. A bit during Kursk where Lilya and their Captain share Polish and Russian folktales. Katya doesn't get to share one from Lithuania until it's too late for Lilya to hear it.

The section where Lilya falls into depression after Alexi's death, Bilbao uses mostly smaller panels in rows, to show the progression of time. For example, three panels showing a steadily increasing pile of cigarette butts beside her bed. There's also a bit where the speech balloons of anyone speaking around her are just filled with squiggles to show she's not registering what's being said.

I think Poulter should have held off on the dialogue in Katya's death scene. The last few panels, as she's reaching for a blood-stained white lily she placed in her cockpit are kind of marred by all the "GHEH gheh gahuuuuuuuuh" sound effects for death gurgles. I think the fact we saw her take several rounds to the chest four pages earlier and the way she slumps over in the last panel would tell us she was on her last legs well enough. Bilbao's art could convey what needed to be well enough on its own.

Bilbao also manages to shift his art style a bit for the folktale parts, especially for the Captain's one panel story about the bird trying to touch the sun, and Katya's about the girl whose evil stepmother makes her ask the Baba Yaga for the secret of fire. The latter especially, he mimics the sort of medieval storybook picture feel for most of it. Not so much the very end, when the girl has become fire herself and returns for revenge, but Katya's also clearly thinking of Lilya throughout, and especially at that point, so it fits. Reality intrudes on the fantasy.

I really enjoyed this whole mini-series.

In Our Time - Ernest Hemingway

So my dad got me a book of a lot of Hemingway's early writing, basically up through The Sun Also Rises. Many of them I've read, including The Sun Also Rises, but also the articles about getting free shaves at the barber college, or interviewing Mussolini. And from what I've heard, The Torrents of Spring was a mess. His mean-spirited attempt to poke at some more established author that pissed him off, that just came off as pitiful. No thanks.

But I hadn't read In Our Time before, which is a collection of a bunch short stories. Some of them very short, less than a page. Just quick bits about someone being prepared for execution, or about a bullfight. The others are longer, for 4 to 15 pages, about a lot of the same things. A man trying to get away from things by returning to a river he hasn't fished in a long time, and the pleasure he takes from it ("Big Two-Hearted River".) Those stories, and several others are about a Nick Adams, growing up alongside his dad, or trying to ride the rails and the perils of that.

The story that was maybe most interesting to me was "My Old Man", written from the viewpoint of a young boy whose father is a jockey, first in Italy, and then in France. The mixture of a boy's idolization of his father, combined with confusion when he does things the boy can't understand. The limited view and understanding a child has of what's going on around them, the blind spots and the information they aren't privy to. 

I don't know if the writing style in that story is on the track to what became his signature style. Certainly not as much as some of the Nick Adams stories. In those you can see him developing that mixture of short specific sentences and the longer, more rambling sentences that are almost stream of consciousness about whatever. It feels like he leans more to the short sentences, brief statements about how he's going to make coffee a certain way. Like his friend Hop insisted. And it has to be Hop's way completely. Too bad Hop's not here. But he won the lotto and went to collect. Never came back like he said. And so on.

'All around people were saying, "Poor Kzar! Poor Kzar!" And I thought, I wish I were a jockey and could have rode him instead of that son of a bitch. And that was funny, thinking of George Gardner as a son of a bitch because I'd always liked him and besides he'd given us the winner, but I guess that's what he is, all right.'