Sunday Splash Page #190

 

"And He Won't Use Expedited Shipping, Either!" in Fantastic Four versus the X-Men #2, by Chris Claremont (writer), Jon Bogdanove (penciler), Terry Austin (inker), Glynis Oliver (colorist), Tom Orzechowski (letterer)

This mini-series spins out from the events of the Mutant Massacre in the various X-books. Specifically, that Kitty Pryde's stuck in her intangible state, and is rapidly falling apart at a molecular level. Moira' McTaggert's stymied, but Reed Richards might just have a doodad to fix this particular problem. He does, but once he reaches Muir Island, he balks at using it, for a reason even he's not certain of. Which, as you can see, is not well-received by the X-Men.

With Richards of no use, the X-Men are left to consider accepting Dr. Doom's offer to help Kitty. Kitty's left wondering if it's better for her to just let herself disperse before the team makes a mistake. Meanwhile, Sue's found one of Reed's old journals. One that suggests what happened to them in the rocket flight was no accident. Which is not happy news to one Benjamin Grimm.

Like the issue title suggests, the mini-series is about consequences of actions, whether careless or thought out. The X-Men can debate whether to accept Doom's offer, whether he's telling the truth when he says there's no price for his assistance, but working with Doom is always going to carry costs. Reed tries to warn them, but strangely, people aren't inclined to listen when you just refused to save their dying friend. Weird how that works. Johnny fires off a burst of flame intended for Wolverine and badly burns Storm instead, which spooks him. Sue ignores Franklin's prophetic warning to hide the journal away and watches it nearly tear her family apart. Magneto has to deal with the fact his presence hurts the X-Men's credibility with the FF, and resist his own impulses to lash out.

Dr. Doom might be the real superstar of this mini-series, though. Bogdanove gives Doom a very expressive mask, with both the mouth and the brows able to move and express emotion. Doom is, of course, all polite manners, when he's not berating Magneto for using his powers and risking disrupting Doom's delicate machinery. I actually do believe Doom wouldn't have asked anything else of the X-Men, because the opportunity to do something Richards seemingly wasn't able to would be reward enough. Dunking on Reed Richards is highly enjoyable. 

In fact, one other aspect of this story is actually a scheme of Doom's. One he must have put into place years ago, with no idea when it bear fruit. Which suggests he did it just for the enjoyment of fucking with Reed. Even he's surprised (and gleeful) when he realizes that little time bomb must have finally gone off.

I mostly know Bogdanove's work from his time as one of the main Superman artists during the '90s. Austin's inks soften and round out Bogdanove's work here compared to that, but there's still a unique feel to it. Bogdanove really takes advantage of the pliability of Reed's body. When someone strikes him, Reed's face flattens or stretches in ways a normal person's wouldn't. When Rogue absorbs the Thing's power, Ben doesn't revert fully to human form, but some wrinkly, hairless prune that looks vaguely humanoid. It's kind of disturbing, actually. Oliver's coloring, combined with Austin's shading is great at creating mood, whether it's the X-Men staring into the fire as they decide to go to Doom, or Sue gazing down at a sleeping Franklin whose face nearly glows in innocence. The deep shadows Ben's face is given when Reed' confronted with his journal.

I don't know if anything that happens carries over to Fantastic Four (which is in the stretch after John Byrne but before Steve Englehart). Kitty's dispersion is reversed, but it's still years before she returns to an active role, in the pages of Excalibur. It does play in to the sense the X-Men are badly on the defensive, just trying to play triage after the Massacre. An almost entirely overturned roster (Longshot, Dazzler, Havok, and Psylocke are there, but other than Dazzler and Havok's ongoing game of oneupsmanship, they're not significant to the story), away from the Mansion, low on allies. Magneto continues his attempted face turn, and Claremont makes sure to continue to challenge the characters in ways that make him want to go back to his old ways, especially when people are reluctant to think he's changed at all.

It's not an essential mini-series, but it's a fun one.

Random Back Issues #73 - Fantastic Four #179

Oooh, swing and a miss there, Johnny.

The FF are coming off a narrow victory over the Frightful Four. Real narrow, even with the help of Thundra, Tigra, and (unwittingly) the Impossible Man. But it's not a complete victory because Reed Richards, who has lost his powers somehow, is floating in the Negative Zone in his underwear. In his place, is the Reed Richards of Counter-Earth. Rather than stretching powers, he can transform into a giant purple guy (with green trunks, which explains why he left Reed his blue underwear but took the rest of the costume) called the Brute.

He stomped Reed, tossed him into the Negative Zone, and assumed human form. The FF are none the wiser, even when they gather for a team meeting (their) Reed arranged. Brute doesn't know what it was for, but when he snaps at them over Thing and Thundra's arguing, he's able to play it off as stress, and Sue sends everyone else away. Not like Reed being a bossy, condescending jerk is that unusual. For Brute's part, he's just ecstatic to be able to hold Sue again, since his Sue is in a coma. He plans to let her live, but kill the others, not realizing Sue is starting to notice something's off.

The rest of the team is busy watching "The Bionic Woman". Well, except Ben and Thundra. She won't stop trying to get him to admit he should dump Alicia for her, since she's a better physical match. Ben calls her a 'drag', then a 'wet blanket' and a 'millstone'. He does apologize, admitting he's distracted wondering whether he should go ahead and propose to Alicia, or let her go. Thundra, not reading the room, encourages him to dump Alicia and hook up with her instead, so Ben storms off, musing that Thundra might make a swell date - for King Kong.

Tigra slips in just before the elevator doors close, but it's not to flirt. Instead, she's wondering why Reed hasn't rescued his other self from the Negative Zone, something Ben admits to wondering himself. They head off to get some food and discuss it further. 

Reed's stuck in the Negative Zone, wondering why his friends haven't rescued him. Because you're an unpleasant person to be around, Reed. But he tells himself to snap out of it, reminding himself, 'you didn't come out of World War Two just a few medals shy of Audie Murphy by standing around feeling sorry for yourself!' This is actually the second reference of the issue to Reed serving in World War 2. Reed finds some rocks floating in space that just so happen to resemble flint, and creates a fire. Which attracts some sort of bat thing he snatches out of the air, kills, cooks, and eats.

Back in NYC, Ben and Tigra are at dinner, although he seems more interested in, as she puts it, 'shocking the rubes', by eating his steak with his hands, and lighting a cigar of the next table's candles. Right about then, Tigra notes Ben's kind of cute. before Ben can come to grips with being pursued by three women, and robot runs by carrying a safe. Oh thank goodness, something to hit. The robot chucks the safe at them, but Ben catches it easily and throws it back. The robot turns out to be really hot as well, so when it catches the safe, the whole thing melts. Ben tries a direct assault, only to get baked and pummeled.

Tigra manages to buy him some time with a kick to the face (weird that worked when it shrugged off a punch from the Thing), and the fight continues to the East River. Ben throws it onto a garbage scow and smashes it and the barge with one final punch. At least in this issue, there's no hint of who sent the robot or why, as Ben notes it must have cost more than the money that was in the vault it stole.

The issue wraps up with Sue more certain than ever the Reed in their bed isn't hers, and Reed being attacked by Annihilus. Also, the Impossible Man has decided he's a Humphrey Bogart fan, which partially explains his appearance in Spider-Woman a few years later.

[4th longbox, 121st comic. Fantastic Four #179, by Roy Thomas and Gerry Conway (writers), Ron Wilson and Joe Sinnott (artists), George Roussos (colorist), Joe Rosen (letterer)]

The Dark Past (1948)

An odd little noir flick. William Holden plays an escaped mobster who, along with gal (played by Nina Foch) and two of his henchmen, takes refuge in a cabin owned by a professor of psychiatry (played by Lee J. Cobb), who is there with his wife, their son, and a couple of friends of theirs.

While Holden waits for the guy who is supposed to pick them up with a boat, Cobb tries to tease out what problems are eating at this guy. Holden alternates between scoffing at psychiatry and asking for help, but offers answers to questions only grudgingly. Still, Cobb is able to break through sufficiently that when the cops finally catch on, things end quietly. It's far too neat and tidy, but the story is related by Cobb to a police officer, who earlier scoffed at Cobb's insistence he could help a young man who had been in juvenile court 9 times. So there's a decent argument that Cobb is making it sound like smoother sailing than it was to convince this cop that some criminals are just people with deeper issues that can be resolved with compassion and patience. 

As my dad noted, that's not a philosophy that seems to have won out here in the U.S., sadly. Also, I did not realize that the police would parade recently arrested people in front of their officers, so the cops could become accustomed to what they looked like. You know, for future reference. Because there will be crimes in the future, and it will just save time to go immediately after people who were arrested in the past.

90% of the movie takes place in the cabin, with occasional cuts to what the cops are up to with their checkpoints. There are also some flashbacks to Holden's childhood, plus an interesting dream sequence where it looks like they overexposed the film, or used a negative.

I think Holden's performance is a little too much. He seems to be a boss or leader of some sorts, but he's so high-strung and ready to kill anybody that it's hard to picture him running the show. Holden's character seems more like the trigger man for a big mob boss. The one the boss threatens to unleash on the hero if they don't talk. It's like working for the Joker, if he wasn't also brilliant, and just wildly homicidal.

Maybe that's because Foch's character is supposed to be the boss. She's mostly calm and level-headed, speaks much more eloquently than the typical gangster's moll in one of these films. She carries her own gun, she gives orders, she brushes off threats from Cobb's guests and staff with an amused smirk. She only loses her cool when she feels like Holden is slipping through her grasp, as he listens more and more to Cobb.

Peering At Next Year's Comics

There isn't much new in the January 2022 solicitations I'm interested in, but at least there's still a decent amount of series ongoing I might buy.

At Marvel, there's the delayed final issue of Defenders, Moon Knight #7 (although it looks like Cappuccio's been replaced as artist by Federico Sabbatini, and in the third issue of The Thing, Ben's throwing down with the Champion again. There are two new things. One is a one-shot where Mary Jane has to rescue Felicia Hardy. It's drawn by regular Black Cat artist C.F. Villa, but it's written by Saladin Ahmed, which gives me pause. The other is a new She-Hulk series, by Rainbow Rowell and Roge Antonia, which appears to be returning Jen to her intelligent lawyer Hulk form.

I thought DC's solicits showed issues 1 and 2 of Batgirls last month, but here's issue 2 again, as well as the second issue of One-Star Squadron, so I guess not. Otherwise, DC's pumping out a lot of Bat-books. Even compared to their usual amount. I guess because of the impending movie.

Among other publishers, there's the third issue of Grrl Scouts: Stone Ghost, Impossible Jones, and Tales From the Dead Astronaut. Deadbox' solicit makes it sound like the series might be ending at five issues, but I'm not sure I'll stick with it past issue 3, so that may be irrelevant. Rush is supposed to be up to issue 4, but since it seems the first issue didn't ship this month like it was solicited, I'm guessing that's incorrect. Maybe that's just what Vault does. Deadbox was a month late on its first issue, too. So I shouldn't expect Lunar Room to actually be up to issue 3 by January either then, eh?

Also, I saw in the solicit for Yuki vs Panda #6 that the panda will finally be trying to take revenge on Yuki. Yeah, I wouldn't have wanted to wait that long.

One new series I'm considering buying is Distorted, by Salvatore Vivenzio and Gabriele Falzone. Which seems to be in a world where some people have powers, but there's none of the capes and tights, battles between good and evil stuff going on. If Scout Comics sticks to their pattern, there'll be three issues between the first and second issues. Plenty of time to decide if I like it.

There were three graphic novels from Magnetic Press I was at least considering. Pascal Jousselin's Mr. Invincible, which I see talked about some online because of how Jousselin uses the notion of breaking the fourth wall as part of the main character's actual powerset. Seems like a gag that could get old, but maybe not. Jerome Hamon and Antoine Carrion have Nils Tree of Life, about a father and son journeying to learn why their land's suddenly become infertile. Then there's Pistouvi, which sounds like a sort of bittersweet coming of age story by Merwan and Bertrand Gatignol. 

Will I end up buying any of those three books? Maybe someday.

On the list of things where I'd need to buy the earlier volumes first, Viz has the third volume of No 5, about the member of the global peacekeeping group going rogue and the problems it causes. If I get some of the other manga series caught up, maybe I can give that one a try. And Titan Comics has the second and final volume of Ryuko, by Kagami and Eldo Yoshimizu. I don't know if I even like Japanese gangster stuff, but, it might be worth trying the first volume at some point. On the list it goes.

Airplane II: The Sequel

The thing that surprised me re-watching this was how many actors I recognized I didn't really remember being in the movie. I knew Shatner's in there at the end (perhaps incidentally, I feel like that's the point the movie moves the slowest, with the fewest jokes). But I'm not sure I remembered Chuck Conners (my dad opined Conners must have been hard up for cash to appear in this. Maybe he just wanted to be in a funny movie) being in here, and I definitely didn't remember Raymond Burr, Roger Vernon, or Rip Torn.

Like the first movie, the jokes are flying constantly. Whether it's sight gags, puns, stupid dad jokes (I want to ask a question. What's that? It's an interrogative statement designed to test knowledge, but that's not important right now.), whatever. It's one of those movies where not every joke is going to land, or it might not get more than a smile, but there's going to be something that makes you laugh out loud sooner rather than later, just based on the sheer volume.

The best part about watching it this time was watching it with my dad, to see which jokes made him laugh. The bit where Lloyd Bridges keeps unknowingly trying to put his cigarette out in Conners' coffee. Or the part where the dad gets angry with his kid, and the kid ponders (internally) how Dad never hits him at home, so maybe it's the coffee. Then his mom thinks, 'No, I always serve him decaf at home. He's just an asshole.' And he and I are both always up for a good "Ronald Reagan was a senile old man" joke. Me? I cracked up at the "We pulled Striker's record. It's not pretty." And he holds up a vinyl of "Ted Striker's 400 Polka Hits".

A More Direct Version of Car Talk

Well, it can be a problem if you don't have a cat to dispose of your corpse, but otherwise I see no downsides.

The first volume of Aki Irie's Go With the Clouds North by Northwest (don't look at me, I didn't name the book), seems as though it's going to ease us into things. Kei Miyama is of Japanese and French descent, living in Iceland with his grandfather Jacques. When Kei works, it's as a seeker of sorts. You contact him if you want something or someone found. Also, Kei can speak to mechanical things, and they can respond. He seems to have to touch them, and there's typically a series of sparks or electricity drawn, though I think that's just a representation of the otherworldliness of his ability, and not something that visibly occurs. The mechanical things aren't given voice balloons or anything, Kei just always repeats aloud what they say.

There's no explanation for this ability other than Jacques mention odd powers run in their family. He has some sort of connection to the minds of birds. An ability to alter their perception, or see through their eyes. When a group of birds swirl around him, he explains he's made it so they see him as a strong wind that will carry them where they want to go.

It seems purposeful that Kei locates things of great importance for others, while being rather closed off and distant himself. Irie draws him frequently looking at people out of the corner of his eye, and often looking down at them and the reader when a cold expression. You could wonder what's of importance to him.

And for the first half of the book, that's pretty much what there is. Kei finding things and seeming either perplexed or annoyed at other people, and his grandfather carrying on a relationship with an actress he met. Then it takes a swerve in a direction I did not anticipate at all.

Kei's younger brother lives in Japan with their aunt and uncle, but suddenly Kei can't reach him by phone, and the line at the house is disconnected. A hurried flight to Japan reveals the uncle and aunt are both dead, of sickness and a car accident, and Michi is missing. Returning to Iceland, Kei gets the shit kicked out of him by a cop who was a friend of his uncle's. Said cop insists Michi killed both of them, and is uninterested in Kei's insistence of his brother's innocence. Lo and behold, Michi shows up to help Kei home right after the cop stalks off.

It feels as though Irie is working hard to make us think Michi is a killer. Beyond the cop's statement, and the remarks of Lilja, a young woman (who is kind of odd and drawn with an otherwordly quality herself) Kei's met that Michi's voice has an impure quality that suggests he's lying. His explanation for why he did or didn't do certain things when his uncle got sick is pretty weak. There's this whole thing that Michi is really attached to his big brother, and jealously tries to hoard his attention, via a flashback where Kei is looking at a cool bug, and Michi immediately squashes it and asks if that makes him cooler.  And Michi's drawn with this near-angelic expression, with huge sad eyes and almost sparkles around his face. Like in a cartoon when some character tries really hard to demonstrate their innocence.

That last may not mean anything, though, since just about everyone (certainly all the major characters) are drawn as being beautiful, or at least ruggedly handsome in Jacques' case. Pretty people and the murders they get up to.

If Irie is trying to make it a mystery in the reader's mind, I think this is a whiff. It leans too hard into all the suspicious or circumstantial behavior. Unless we're expected to doubt the cop because he's a violent asshole who assaults teenagers for refusing to answer questions. But it seems more likely the point is that Kei can't or won't see the truth because it's his brother, and the question will be what it will take for him to remove the blinders.

Sunday Splash Page #189

 

"Another Fine Mess Ben's Gotten Himself Into," in Fantastic Four: Grimm Noir, by Ron Garney and Gerry Duggan (storytellers), Matt Milla (color artist), Joe Caramagna (letterer)

This one-shot came out just last year, right before the pandemic shut a lot of stuff down. Ben Grimm has been having nightmares, and thinks they might be connected to the disappearance of a neighbor across the street. He ends up having to fight D'Spayre to rescue the neighbor and himself.

I have no idea why this exists, or why it was released when it was. If it ties in to something important from the Dan Slott Fantastic Four run it's concurrent with, or anything like that. Maybe Duggan and Garney just wanted to do a story about Ben fighting his fears. Lot of creative teams have gotten mileage out of that.

Most of the issue is drenched in black. Like there's a single spotlight focused on whatever we're seeing, so everything else is obscured. It's raining constantly. Ben's eyes are either in a shadow cast by his brow, or the white of the eyes themselves is colored black, so that the blue stands out even more. There's a bit of Joe Kubert in Garney's artwork, in the angle of the faces or some of the scratchy lines he uses. Moreso when he gets to draw Ben as a human, rather than when the story focuses on bizarre creatures and body horror (nothing too graphic, depending on how you feel about a rock guy falling to pieces.)

Like I said, seemingly inessential, but as far as random one-shots go, not bad.

Random Back Issues #72 - GrimJack #64

John Gaunt's looking a bit different than the last time we saw him, but that's because he's also a guy named Jim Twilley!

By this point, we're following one of GrimJack's reincarnations, 200 years later. He's still getting the right people pissed off at him, though. Hired by a man named Alfred Godden, who feared he was going to be killed by someone named Dis, Twilley arrived to find Godden dead. Godden's daughter shouted an accusation at him, which is enough for Justice Drok (has to be a Judge Dredd spoof) to carry out an execution.

Gaunt/Twilley gets a reprieve in the form of Justice Peece, who resembles Commissioner Gordon a bit. Peece is a robot cop capable of non-linear thinking, so he's been assigned to investigate murders. Peece hears GrimJack out, who explains Godden believed he was going to be killed by someone named Dis, for doing them dirty in a past life. Godden's daughter explains she was just pissed GrimJack didn't protect her dad, so Peece commutes the sentence and takes over the investigation, sending both Drok and GrimJack on their way. 

Neither is happy about it, but Drok can't disobey programming. Gaunt however, does as he pleases, and heads to the suburbs. The Bainbridge family's kid had lots of souls, but only inhabited the body at the time. The rest roaming Cynosure, learning anything they want. Like, possibly the location of a person named Dis. Chuckie's not interested in sharing, but Twilley's magic speaks louder and the kid coughs up the goods. Chuckie relinquishes the body back to Zack, who breaks down sobbing. At the dad's question of how he did that, GrimJack only replies 'I know the dark better than you son will ever know it.' That's an understatement. Also awkwardly worded.

Meanwhile, a group called the Ninth Circle, is making backup plans. They're a bunch of demons using human bodies for shells, including Godden's daughter. The Circle isn't convinced they can pull off their scheme without some help, so they summon a 'True Hell's Angel,' TDP bike cop Jericho Noleski. Who arrives on a flaming motorcycle with four cans of a six pack left.

The last time Noleski showed up was 200 years (and 14 issues) ago, when he drove into a demon gate to seal it up as a final act. Hard to believe he only drank two of those beers in all that time, but Hell probably has some decent booze, and Noleski's the sort who would find it.

GrimJack, following Chuckie's information, heads to the Thatcher Building. An entire apartment block on wheels, endlessly circling a massive highway, offering temporary housing for the poorest of the poor. Dis is hanging out inside Li Ho Fok's opium den. They don't remember killing anyone, but do know about the Ninth Circle. And that's because. . . well, if you had, "Dis is the first thing formed after the great battle between two primal gods and created the multiverse," you are correct. Also, you're probably cheating.

Dis created different universes by dreaming them, but lost energy in the process. They created the demons to build Cynosure to gather back that energy so Dis could achieve full strength, split back into the two gods, and start the whole thing over. The demons decided they preferred the universe gradually burn out, and designed a building to keep Dis trapped. Essentially, the Big Bang/Big Crunch theory versus the entropic universe theory. Did the Legion of Superheroes do that with Time Trapper versus the Infinity Man or something?

Anyway, GrimJack destroyed that trap 200 years (and 10 issues) ago. Dis isn't sure they care whether the demons succeed in killing them or not, and neither is GrimJack. If Dis dies and Cynosure eventually burns out, Gaunt can't keep being reborn, since his fate is tied to the city. Sure, but how quickly does that happen? There's gotta be a quicker way to end that cycle.

That's about when Noleski makes the scene. GrimJack tries getting his attention, but remember what I said about Noleski plunging into a demon gate? Gaunt's partially the reason Jericho needed to make a grand final act at that moment, so Jericho goes ahead and causes the building to crash.

In the Munden's Bar back-up (set 200 years in the past), a reporter waits for his informant, I mean snitch. Flea had been a series regular whenever Gaunt needed information, but even he has scruples. Mac Heath (who was the loan shark that was an literal shark in GrimJack #29) killed a judge brutally enough, Flea's gonna tell the papers. If he makes it to Munden's Bar.

[5th longbox, 10th comic. GrimJack #64, "Catspaw" by John Ostrander (writer), Flint Henry (penciller/inker), Gerald Horton (inker), Martin Thomas (colorist), Gary Fields (letterer). "Snitch" by Kim Yale (writer), Tony Akins (penciller), Tom Baxa (inker), Paul Mounts (colorist), Gary Fields (letterer)]

Cry Danger

I was at my dad's last weekend, so it's time for old movies! Cry Danger is about Rocky Malloy (Dick Powell), who was imprisoned for his role as driver in a heist of 100 grand. He gets early release because a man named Delong (Richard Erdman) comes forward and says they were fishing that day. It took him a few years to come forward, because he was off losing his leg in the war.

One issue, Malloy has never met Delong before in his life. Delong figures if he does Malloy a solid, he'll get a cut of the money Malloy must know the location of. Although it's interesting that DeLong never tries to accompany Malloy as he tracks down the guy in charge of the heist (played by William Conrad). There's also a cop dogging Malloy's heels, certain he'll be led to the money as well.

The most enjoyable part of the movie is Erdman, who plays Delong as an endlessly sarcastic alcoholic. The kind of guy who keeps trying to make time with a lady who keeps trying to pick his pocket. Who, when she observes it's early in the day for drinking replies, 'When you drink as much as I do, you have to start early.'

There's one other amusing part, when it seems like Malloy's starting to get his money, and Conrad's actually trying to set him up with the hot money. But he goes about it with a plot involving a fixed horse race, and mysteriously vanishing back rooms and cigarette girls. So Malloy ends up yelling to the cop, "I swear the room was right here!"

There's a whole subplot involving Rhonda Fleming, who was dating one of Malloy's friends (also imprisoned after the heist), but who is clearly hung up on Malloy. It ends up being relevant to the plot, but it's mostly hanging in the background because even if Malloy's aware of the attraction, he's trying very hard not to make time with his buddy's gal.

Knowing Ahead of Time You Aren't Welcome Saves Trouble

The mutant nation of Krakoa has a "no precognitives" rule. I know this concerns primarily resurrections, such as how Destiny hasn't been brought back, to Mystique's annoyance. Although that might be more out of spite on Moira's part, honestly. But it would also seem to extend to Blindfold, who as far as I know didn't once take part in killing Moira and burning all her shit.

Not sure how Mystique and Destiny didn't expect that to come back to bite them on the ass, but Mystique's always doing dumb shit, then being shocked when it backfires. "I used this teenage girl as a weapon in my terrorist activities and deeply traumatized her, and now she wants nothing to do with me?! Has the world gone topsy-turvy?"

Does the rule (which I'm assuming isn't openly stated, because that would raise questions the people in charge don't want to answer) extend to living mutant precogs who want to immigrate to Krakoa? Some mutant in Mozambique, or Alabama, decides Krakoa sounds pretty bitchin', and they want to move there. 

Would they be turned away at the gates? Would they be quietly killed (in a tragic accident, of course), and then have to wait their turn behind all the millions and millions of other mutants that are still waiting to be brought back because the Five have to resurrect Quentin Quire's dumb ass every five minutes?

Either of those seems as though it would raise too many questions, within Krakoa and especially outside it. We know that most of the major world powers (and several off-world) are watching Krakoa closely. If mutants who all have the same ability are being told they aren't welcome, or all seem to be turning up mysteriously dead, somebody's going to notice.

I suppose that a precog would be able to tell ahead of time what their fate will be if they try moving to Krakoa. If they're going to end up turned away or dead, they probably wouldn't bother. Which solves the problem rather neatly. Or, they wouldn't bother because they see far enough ahead to know Krakoa's going to come tumbling down, and it's safer to be someplace else when it does.

Giant Days - Non Pratt

Set during Daisy, Susan, and Esther's first year, the story finds their friendship still on uneasy footing. Susan is struggling to share, Esther is wondering how college has so quickly become same old, same old, and Daisy wonders if she's latched too tightly onto these two girls. 

Each of them ends up lost in one obsession or the other that leaves them blind to each other's problems. Susan can't stop being angry about McGraw's presence. (Based on that and Daisy having her baby pigeon, I think this must be set not long after the first six issues of what became the ongoing series.) Esther repeatedly debases herself, even being willing to attend her classes, trying to become friends with some massively cynical goth girl. And Daisy signs up for three dozen different clubs and becomes ensnared by a yoga cult.

I wasn't sure about this going in. Would another writer be able to capture the voice of characters that I'd only seen written by John Allison. Especially when I'm used to seeing the characters say the dialogue and emote. Pratt mostly pulls it off. The voices of the characters seem right, even in their internal monologues. Their reasoning behind their decisions feels on point, too. Daisy's difficulty in saying no, Esther's tendency to make bad decisions about friends based on superficial characteristics, Susan inadvertently causing harm with her caustic attitude. There's a fair amount of humor, and the absurd elements the stories typically have.

The characters are chattier than in the comics, but there's no pictures to carry any of the story, so that makes sense. If I thought it about, it wasn't hard to picture what I was reading in my head in comic panels. It was in Max Sarin's art style, for the record.

'Daisy had been ejected from the club, and an e-mail with Esther's photo attached had been sent out to every stationary story in Sheffield warning employees not to let her in.'

What I Bought 10/15/2021

Spent the weekend at my dad's. Hoped we would make some small dent in his to-do list. We did, I guess. A very small dent. Felt something go pop in my lower calf. Hopefully didn't tear my Achillies tendon. At least I found one comic last week. Was hoping for at least two, and three if I was very lucky. No dice.

Deadbox #2, by Mark Russell (writer), Benjamin Tiesma (artist), Vladimir Popov (colorist), Andworld (letterer) - I've heard buying gas station sushi is a bad idea. I can't imagine DVD rental box fruit is much better.

This issue is all about conformity, and how people will will seize on anything they can use to force everyone else to be as miserable as them. In the real world, we see this through the tale of Bobby and Katie. Bobby buys a pair of lavender pants at a swap meet and wears them in public. The people of Lost Turkey decide this is unacceptable behavior from a man. Sinful behavior, possibly not heterosexual, even. Gasp! So Katie kicks him out of the house.

To take her mind off being a terrible spouse, Katie watches a rom-com which seems neither funny or particularly romantic. About two researchers who are dating, who also both want the single promotion available. So each of them perform social experiments on monkeys to try and earn it. Experiments which promote cruelty and indifference to suffering. But when all is said and done, the scientists put aside their rivalry to get married, so hooray, I guess?

Meanwhile, Penny can't afford more of the medication her father needs, because only the initial amount was on discount, and without that, the price increased over tenfold. And two newcomers have arrived in town for some reason. What anybody would want with the town in this comic, I can't fathom.

Tiesma draws the characters in the movie portion of the book with a bit simpler style. The bags and worry lines we see in the people of Lost Turkey are absent in Hollywood. The male lead always smiles so as to really show off perfect teeth. It also feels like the movie parts have more panels with someone's face in the foreground. Not a sharp zoom in on just their eyes, but where their head is the height of the panel. A very blase sort of cinematic approach for a pretty crappy movie.

This book is kind of depressing. I was expecting something more in a horror or suspense vein, but it's definitely not that. Unless the horror is the creeping ennui of being stuck in a small town that you can't feel comfortable in, but can't escape the gravitational pull of, either. Which is still more depressing than anything else.

Sunday Splash #188

 

"Complications, of Many Sorts", in Fantastic Four #546, by Dwyane McDuffie (writer), Paul Pelletier (penciler), Rick Magyar and Scott Hanna (inkers), Paul Mounts (colorist), Rus Wooton (letterer)

Dwayne McDuffie and Paul Pelletier's stint on Fantastic Four isn't a long one, starting at issue #542, and ending at #553. It's wedged between what were undoubtedly more highly-publicized runs, following (finishing really) J. Michael Straczynski's run, and being followed by a Mark Millar/Bryan Hitch creative pairing.

Worse, JMS departed before the book's tie-ins to Civil War were finished, so it fell to McDuffie to clean up and address that mess as best he could. His explanation for Reed's actions - essentially, Reed made psychohistory from Asimov's Foundation a reality and the math said Negative Zone prisons and cyborg murder-clones of Thor were the best path forward - does nothing to lessen my desire to see Reed get punched in the face. However, it does feel very much like the sort of thought process Reed Richards would follow.

Doesn't change the fact that while Tony Stark (deservedly) spent about 18 months getting his ass kicked literally or figuratively by people for what he did, Reed mostly dodges any of that shit. His place as Marvel's Gladstone Gander, the one things always work out for, unchallenged.

(Until the Hulk returns royally pissed off, but he's mad at Reed over things besides the Registration Act, and beats up a lot of people who had nothing to do with it anyway, so it doesn't really count.)

Not that McDuffie ignores it entirely. The Four were fractured by Civil War in ways I'm not sure they had been previously. This wasn't Ben or Johnny temporarily deciding they needed a change, or Reed and Sue deciding to focus on raising Franklin. Sue and Johnny joined essentially a rebellion against a force Reed was a public face of, and Ben decided to go to France rather than end up punching his friends over legislation. 

Reed and Sue do have to patch things up, most of which is implied by their vacation on Titan. That leads to the Black Panther and Storm joining the team for about 8 issues. A Dr. Doom from the future shows up near the end to try and sow discord between the team, exploiting everyone's recent doubts about Reed. Doesn't work, naturally. The general theme seems to be Sue, Ben, and Johnny know Reed's not infallible, but they trust that his heart is in the right place. And Reed needs them for the times when he overreaches, or when they see something he doesn't.

McDuffie writes Reed as someone endlessly curious and not entirely aware of how brilliant he is, whose brain makes unusual intuitive leaps. Such as when he and Hank Pym are studying an alien messenger probe and it helps Reed decide he should bring Sue perfume of some sort. Ben feels things deeply (it's interesting how bothered he is by Gravity's grave being robbed), but is more observant and smart than some writers give him credit for. He was a qualified astronaut, he's gotta be fairly smart. McDuffie alternately plays up Sue's resilience and her presence as possibly the most dangerous member of the team, and her supportive nature. Johnny probably gets the short end of the stick, pretty much the impulsive goofball. Although it certainly takes confidence to try flirting with the Black Panther's bodyguards.

Black Panther and Storm make for interesting additions to the cast. T'Challa is brilliant, but in very different ways from Reed Richards. More cunning, more quick to suspect ulterior motives, and somehow both more blunt and more diplomatic. You can tell he's used to his decisions being followed, by how he goes for the throat when Ben basically tells him "you ain't the boss o' me" at one point. Storm's quite a bit more open with her feelings, probably because she's used to the sort of informal atmosphere the Four have. Ben and Johnny aren't going to seem that unusual to someone who spends a lot of time around Wolverine and Nightcrawler. And she tends to react similarly to the Thing and Torch. When she sees an injustice, she won't turn away or make a tactical retreat.

McDuffie has a bit of sport with the annoying fans who no doubt complained bitterly about things like the Black Panther handling the Silver Surfer. There's a panel where the Wizard dismisses Storm and the Panther as "B-listers with delusions" while looking at us. Which is hilarious coming from the Wizard of all characters.

Pelletier's art is pretty well-suited to what the story needs. It's very slick and classic superhero art, everybody with the perfect physiques, pretty straightforward presentation. No real wild layouts or character designs, but it always makes sure to tell you what you need to know. Shows the action and makes it easy to follow, expressive enough to carry the emotion of the story. The speculative look he gives Sue when she seems to be considering how she should kill the Wizard is a favorite. It's exaggerated, but Sue's also acting, so it makes sense she'd play it up. Pelletier's got enough design sense to make all the weird science stuff look futuristic and cool. It's too bad he and McDuffie didn't get more time on the book, I'd be curious what else they'd have done.

Random Back Issues #71 - Lady Rawhide #3

Seems like that would be a particularly unpleasant place to give yourself a rope burn. 

At the time of this mini-series, Mexico is on the verge of revolution. People were being inspired by how folks like Zorro and Lady Rawhide were standing up to the corrupt government. Except, rather than just protecting people they find being treated unjustly, the Sisters of the White Rose have been attacking and killing Army officers, leaving a trail through the county not unlike Sherman through Georgia. That's only fed the discontent of the people. In turn, the governor (under the influence of American industrialists) has been sending out the Army to suppress them.

Lady R saved one of the Sisters, a young lady named Esme, from near death when she was left behind, then set out to find the rest. Doesn't take long, a bartender tells her they've seized the Governor's Mansion. And the Governor. And Captain Reyes, who Lady R's tangled with before and considers a generally honorable fellow. The bartender agrees, but figures he'll be executed by the Sisters on some pretext sooner or later.

Approaching the mansion, she finds a bunch of hired guns making plans to storm it and retrieve their leader, a man named Cole. They're also supposed to retrieve the Governor, but don't seem to care about that, or potential civilian casualties. And they've got a Gatling gun, always an encouraging sign. Scaling the roof, she gets the drop on two of the Sisters and asks them to bring her to their leader.

So much for diplomacy. She does make certain they don't splat on the floors, but stealth is out and there's one particularly large woman in the way. Trying to get the whip around her throat just gets Lady R hauled off her feet and punched in the head, so the next time around she goes for the wrists and pulls her over the railing.

She hurries into the cellar, looking for the prisoners. The Governor isn't pleased to see her, but Cole wisely recognizes it's better to try and escape than stay there and be executed. Too bad all the Sisters have arrived with guns. Not really sure how Lady Rawhide though this was going to work. They know she's there, they must know which direction she went. Cellars don't typically have a ton of exits. 

Adelina, leader of the Sisters of the White Rose, isn't inclined to listen to any warning, and says it's time to start the trials. Meanwhile, Esme's trying to ride to keep Adelina and Lady R from killing each other, the people outside the mansion are getting more restless, and Cole's men are preparing to make their onslaught.

[6th longbox, 119th comic. Lady Rawhide (vol. 3) #3, by Eric Trautmann (writer), Milton Estevam (artist), Dinei Riberio (colorist), Marshall Dillon (letterer)]

Police Story 2

Police Story 2 picks up not much after the end of the first movie. Chu Tao has been arrested and convicted, but Officer Chan caused so much property damage he's been demoted to traffic cop. Sadly, this does not result in Jackie Chan pulling any sick stunts on a motorcycle. Bummer.

Initially, the movie looks as though it'll be about Chu Tao trying to take revenge. He's able to be paroled because he's contracted an illness that's going to kill him in three months, and I guess he can't think of anything better to do with his money. Despite various threats against both Chan and his girlfriend May (Maggie Cheung), all they really succeed in doing is breaking the couple up. Mostly by bringing May's fears that Chan's always going to be devoted to his job first, and she'll just be a distant second.

While the relationship drama carries through the movie, Chu Tao drops out partway, replaced with a group of bombers trying to extort money from a large company. So there's scenes of the surveillance unit Chan joins trying to track the suspected bomber across town and through subways to his hideout and things like that. There's also a part where Chan tries to approach the guy selling the explosives while wearing a cheesy fake '70s mustache, which made me laugh every time I saw it.

The movie climaxes in a fight between Officer Chan and the crew of bombers in an old factory loaded with all kinds of fun stuff. Explosives, flammable stuff, chutes and ladders. It's a wonderful feeling when you see the setting and just know rad shit is about to happen. Jackie gets knocked down some immense funnel thing at one point and keeps bouncing off slanted metal surfaces for about three stories. Earlier on, I was really stoked when Chan chases this one annoying goon of Chu Tao's (who keeps getting his glasses busted by Jackie) into a playground, because you know they're gonna have fun with the slides and jungle gyms.

Not nearly as many people getting thrown through windows in this as the first movie, but still quite a few people with bleeding skulls if the credits are anything to go by. I know they're all trained professionals, but it's amazing to me any of these people survived this stuff.

What I Bought 10/08/2021

So the search for issue 3 of Locust was a bust, but the other store in town did have issue 3 of Defenders. Although I saw online issue 4 isn't coming out until early December. I assume Javier Rodriguez needs more time to make it look beautiful, so I'll allow it.

Defenders #3, by Al Ewing and Javier Rodriguez (storytellers), Joe Caramagna (letterer) - Cloud hasn't quite got the "Master of the Mystic Arts" hand gestures down yet.

The Defenders, minus the Surfer but plus Galactus' mom, land in the Fifth Cosmos. Where science doesn't exist, but magic is everywhere. Zota's already there, the slave of some C'thulu looking mage named Mor-I-Dun. Strange is leery to use his magic, Cloud's powers don't seem to work well, and seemingly neither does Masked Raider's mask. Not sure why Harpy's doing so well, I thought she was also a product of science.

Anyway, cue the Bad Mage attacking. He's at a bit of a disadvantage because, something about the way Strange summoned this team. Makes them like all the different parts of a spell. Rodriguez colors them in a hodge-podge of cyan, magenta, yellow, and black when they're struck by the spell to reveal them. I'm like Zota, I don't get why that makes a difference against the guy who created the rules of magic, but Strange insists it does and sends the magic he's not trying to control which is therefore not bound by rules, through Harpy instead of himself. Sending Mor-I-Dun to his fate at the end of this universe - I guess he was Omni-Max in the previous issue? Zota's role as herald there would make sense, then - and the team is sucked through a giant green door to the Fourth Cosmos. 

Which is going to be very comic-booky by the looks of it. Or maybe "archetypical" is the better term, since the first character they see is "talking" in colors. The old comic printing colors of cyan, magenta, yellow, and black. It looks sorta like a Hulk, so there's that, too.

I'm not sure what this is leading to. I have a suspicion the Masked Raider is actually Zota from further down his own timeline. Looking back at issue 1, the way he tells Strange he knew where Zota would be, or how he knew what Zota was going to do, and that it was what he was 'always going to do.' Suggests a man who's lived it all before. Or he could be Adam-IV, who seemed to know things and have his own plans. Maybe those involved eventually coming back around to this point. They obscured most of the guy's face for a reason.

Anyway, it continues to be a very pretty book to look at. The panels of Mor-I-Dun emerging through a pool of magenta blood were especially nice, and the shift to more archaic look on the last two pages (replicating the printing process with all the little dots like in older comics) was a nice touch. Only two months until the next issue!

Divorce: Italian Style (1961)

You got a Sicilian Baron who decides he doesn't want to be with his loving, doting, affectionate wife. He would rather be able to fuck his 16 year old first cousin (he's 37.) But, you know, Catholicism, so he can't actually divorce his wife. So he's got to kill her. 

We see plenty of visions of her dying in different ways. Him pushing her into a boiling pot used to make soap. Throwing her into quicksand. Asking a favor of the local mafioso. But he settles on a different, culturally appropriate scheme. Contrive a way to make her be unfaithful, and then he can kill her for having dishonored him. The sentence for that would be three to seven years, and since he's an educated aristocrat, with a good lawyer, he'll probably get the minimum.

A lot of the film seems to be the ridiculous double standard between the sexes. Ferdinando gets the idea from the trial of a woman who killed her husband for cheating on her, with the gun he gave her for that purpose if he ever dishonored her. But contrary to what the penal code says, she got 8 years. Ferdinando's father, a dissolute gambler responsible for the family's decline, routine harasses their servant girl, and everyone tells her it's her fault he pinches her butt and tries to force his way into her room at night. 

When Rosalina does finally run off with her old flame, the Church decries how movies like La Dolce Vita (which is screened in town during the film, to much acclaim among the dudes) bring about such moral decay. But the entire town is giving Ferdinando the side-eye because he hasn't yet hunted down his wife and murdered her. (He botched his original plan and is playing things out so that, when he does kill her, his attorney will be able to argue he cracked under the strain of all the social disapproval.)

I assume this was meant to be a commentary on Italian society, but it seems like it could describe a lot of places, including the United States today. There is one funny bit where a prospective Communist Party candidate is speaking to the people in town about how this whole thing relates to the issue of female emancipation and solidarity. He asks the men assembled what they should call her, and just looks so dismayed when the men sharply retort, "Whore!" 

Man clearly did not know his constituency.

Credit to Marcello Mastroianni, who plays Ferdinando with this perpetual hangdog expression. he always looks a little forlorn or lost, shoulders slightly hunched, neck craned forward a bit. You can just tell he's bemoaning his fate to still be married to the same woman after 12 years, when he wants to be with a girl less than half his age. He projects the air of a man with his head up his ass to an impressive degree. His self-absorption, his cruel indifference to anyone, even those expressing concern for him, it really makes you want to punch him repeatedly in the face.

I didn't expect a happy ending. This is a European film, not an American one. Ferdinando was not going to show up to kill Rosalina, only to find she and her lover had conspired to kill him. Nor was he going to have a change of heart and realize he did love his wife. I hoped that he'd get a longer sentence than he expected, or at least that his young lover would have found another by the time he was paroled, but no dice. 

No, his apparent punishment is that his now 19 year old bride is fooling around behind his back. Which is a wholly unsatisfying conclusion. Like, yes, he's a putz who pushed his loyal wife to another man through neglect and deliberate action, who is now being cheated on by the girl he's madly in love with. But he's oblivious, so it's not actually hurting him any. If he finds out, he'll just kill her and get away with less than a three year sentence again, so how bad off is he, really?

What I Bought 10/4/2021 - Part 3

The comic I was hoping to find on Friday was the third issue of Locust. Unfortunately, the owner of the store I was planning to visit got banged up in a fall and couldn't open the store, according to the note on the door. I preferred when they were just closed because the parking lot was being repaved. We'll make do with what we've got.

Locust #4, by Massimo Rosi (writer), Alex Nieto (artist), Mattia Gentili (letterer) - Nice to see New Yorkers maintaining their typical level of hospitality.

In the past, Max tries to escape Ford's men with the one kid he rescued. Gets shot in the leg, falls off the roof (with the kid) into a river. But they lived, obviously, and made it as far as Max' boat.

In the present day, Max was not killed by all the giant locusts that one guy was going to release at the end of issue 2. Not at all sure why, but he escaped, with one of Ford's teenage followers, who might take him to Ford. Or might not. While they stop over in an abandoned house for the night, a different group of armed people Max recognizes and I don't roar by on trucks on motorcycles. Looks like Max may have stolen something from them, and whatever it is gives off some sort of proximity or homing signal. Question is whether he pissed them off enough they'll take time out from whatever they're doing to hunt him down and retrieve it.

I'm not sure the switching back-and-forth between past and present is working. The end result is that it doesn't feel like either thread really gets anywhere. I'm not sure Rosi can stop now, though. Not until the flashbacks catch up to where we started. Maybe that won't take the full eight issues. 

My problems could just be from the absence of the third issue. I don't know what happened there, so I don't know why it feels like the present day part of issue 4 starts up more or less where it left off in issue 2. I'm left with that feeling of a plot running in place.

Even by the standards of this series, this issue's coloring is very dark and murky. Pretty much the only break from endless grey and black backdrops are the panels when someone is either shooting or being shot. Just brief instants among relentless dark. Even when there's light it barely illuminates anything. Max and his "guide" are sitting around the campfire, but their faces are still overwhelmingly shadowed. There's nothing good or hopeful here. At least not yet.

Sunday Splash Page #187

 

"Celestials Like to Tailgate," in Fantastic Four #340, by Walt Simonson (writer/artist), Max Scheele (colorist), Bill Oakley (letterer)

Like with Alan Davis' Excalibur run, I picked up Walt Simonson's Fantastic Four run via the "Visionaries" trades Marvel released back in the mid-2000s. It's not a lengthy stint, compared to his time on Thor, at right around 20 issues. His run follows the acrimonious end of Steve Englehart's stint on the book, where Englehart chose to be credited as "John Harkness" for the last seven issues because, I think, editorial was messing with his work. My vague understanding is Englehart was gradually phasing most of the team out, and the Human Torch was going to be the new leader, which is difficult for me to visualize.

Anyway, Marvel apparently nixed that, so Simonson inherits a team with three of the Four, plus Ben Grimm in human form (occasionally donning the Thing exo-skeleton) and Sharon Ventura, who was transformed to look more or less like the Thing early in Englehart's run (at the same time Ben developed his "spiky rocks" look, which Simonson brings back briefly for the last few issues.)

Most of Simonson's run seems to revolve around time travel, or hopping timelines, spinning off from his own Avengers' run, which I have not read, but sort of know involved a crapload of Kangs and Dr Druid playing the chump for a blue lady. The FF have that to contend with, plus the Celestial up there, plus a Galactus that's on the verge of devouring the entire universe. There's a stopover in a timeline very similar, but not identical to theirs, then a few issues where they're trapped on an island full of dinosaurs and soldiers, minus their powers.

Simonson brings a blessed end to the extremely lengthy plotline about Kristoff believing he's Doom and running Latveria, while another Doom hangs out in the U.S. and tries periodically to retake his country. I don't know how long that went on, but it feels like it was status quo for years and years. Simonson just ends it by bringing the "true" Doom back from some multiverse sojourn in a cool new armor (that was probably the rough basis for the Doom 2099 look).

Which leads to the classic "battle through time" issue between Doom and Reed, where you can read the book the normal, linear way and follow what the other characters are doing, or jump all over (including the cover) tracking Reed and Doom's back-and-forth struggle. Finally, the Time Variance Authority shows up, trying to clamp down on the Fantastic Four because of all their recent mucking with time.

It's more than a bit of a meta-textual run. The end of it brings the FF back home and Ben is somehow back to his classic look. Sharon's been reverted to human by Doom (in a cruel twist, right as Ben was subjecting himself to cosmic rays to become rocklike so she wouldn't feel so conscious about being a Thing.) Simonson shunts Franklin Richards and his mind-boggling powers off to the side somewhere and basically forgets about him.

When Doom mentions he's been waiting years to avenge his loss to Ben on the roof of the Baxter Building, and Ben asks if that means he's been a Doombot every time since then, Doom plays it coy. Meaning the reader (or creative team) can dismiss any appearance of Doom they didn't find in character. Which people probably did anyway, but I'm not sure how often a writer had more or less explicitly said it.

The whole "New Fantastic Four" story was a gag about pandering to the "hot characters" for sales. Put big solo stars like Spider-Man, Wolverine and Ghost Rider on the team! Add big monsters! Toss in an extremely gratuitous Punisher cameo at the very end! It's all in good fun, but there's a definite wink to the reader going on.

And Simonson does lighten things up. The Acts of Vengeance tie-ins are the FF being "menaced" by a bunch of the lamest villains possible, in what is essentially a massive troll job by Doom (or a Doombot). Ben gets to make some decent wisecracks and be the butt of the jokes sometimes (while also demonstrating he's got a brain and a good understanding of people.)

Simonson draws the run himself, minus the first three issues and the two Art Adams drew. The Fantastic Four aren't prone to the sort of titanic slugfests he drew so well on Thor, but the cosmic level threats they encounter are on a scale well-suited for his work. The Celestial, Galactus, dinosaurs. A giant mech piloted by a still-alive Stalin.

What I Bought 10/4/2021 - Part 2

It's David Hahn Day! I mean, I don't think it's his birthday. It could be I guess, but both comics today were drawn by him, so according to the Blog Constitution, that counts.

Midnight Western Theatre #5, by Louis Southard (writer), David Hahn (artist), Ryan Cody (colorist), Buddy Beaudoin (letterer) - Alex has got some serious veins on his shins.

The flashback portion shows us that Ortensia woke up after the guys who killed her father tried to sacrifice her. She was not dead, or at least not dead dead, and they were all crispy fried. Then a woman named Sarah, who looks like a rather desiccated Pilgrim found her. And that's all we get on her backstory.

The main part of the issue is her first meeting with Alexander, 15 years later, when she's hired to kill the "Chupacabra" feasting on some ranchers goats. Surprise, it's a very lonely for Revolutionary War soldier turned vampire! Alexander is OK with dying, if he can just have a conversation first. Ortensia reluctantly agrees, he offers his origin as having gotten lost marching in the snow and being found by a peculiar woman. Who then bit him on the neck. He escaped, but now he's a vampire. Who only feeds on animals, mind you.

It's interesting that Hahn gives Alexander vacant white eyes, except in the page where he's feeding on the goats and they're black voids with a red dot in the center. But for the woman who rescued/turned Alexander, Hahn gives her eyes that are entirely black. Is that some signal as to the difference in their status? She's a full vampire, he's not? Or just a representation that she's killed and fed on many people, and Alexander has refrained. One tainted by their choices, the other not.

Long story short, Ortensia feels kinship with someone who was turned into something without a choice, and gives him the opportunity to work for her. Or stay in the cave in what's left of his ragged clothes. And the rest is. . . the first four issues of this mini-series. So far. It feels like Southard left enough space to return to some day. Sarah's an enigma to be sure, and what happened after Ortensia and Alex moved to her property in Oregon is another question. 

Maybe we'll get some more some day. That'd be nice.

Impossible Jones #1, Karl Kesel (writer/inker), David Hahn (penciler), Tony Avina (colorist), Comicraft (letterer) - If you're going to try and stop a thief with a barrier, pick something more sturdy.

Impossible Jones is a hero with stretchy powers, which may or may not come from an other-dimensional alien parasite/symbiote she picked up after being caught in some sort of incident with a quantum generator. Of course, she was caught up in it because she's actually a thief named Belle, who was helping a disgruntled employee of the CEO of a tech company (who is also a super-criminal, possibly with snake powers) rob said company. Belle thinks her crew betrayed her, but at present, the person meddling with the controls of the machine she was trapped in is unknown. Although her buddy Jimmy is definitely acting jumpy.

Even for the comic being 28 pages, Kesel and Hahn fit quite a bit in there. Belle's origin and her crew. We see at least three other costumed heroes and villains each, and here about a couple more. There are all sorts of hints to rivalries and long-running problems, and at least one strange hero legacy, called "Persephone", that seems to be carried by a person for one year, then passed to someone else. 

The hows and the whys are unknown, but I like that Kesel writes it as though this is a universe in progress we've stepped into. The story doesn't stop to explain all the backstory, or this would just be an expository issue. We've got Christmas-themed villainy, betrayals, rivalries, all sorts of stuff going that we hopefully get to tease out as the story goes along.

Kesel's inks soften Hahn's artwork a fair bit. Characters' faces aren't as sharply defined. Ortensia has a jawline that could cut roast, while Belle's is a bit rounder. They have a similar shape to the nose, but Kesel emphasizes different aspects of it than Hahn. Hahn's shadows are heavier, too. thicker and darker than Kesel's.

It fits the characters and their stories, much like Avina and Cody's respective color work does. Impossible Jones is a much brighter book, appropriate for what feels like maybe a Bronze Age super-hero book. Midnight Western Theatre tends to darker colors, but also more solid colors. Less shading. It's Western horror. Even if one of the heroes is a vampire, there's still right and wrong. The ones who hurt, and the ones who help. Belle is a costumed hero sometimes, but she's not above keeping the loot she kept from being stolen for herself. In a bit of a grey area there. Not always bad, not always good.

Police Story

I had a coughing fit that kept me up last Friday night, which is how I found out HBO Max' Turner Classic Movies selection includes Police Story. I intended to watch Seven Samurai, but oh well. Jackie Chan trumps Akira Kurosawa, I guess. At least at 2 a.m. he does.

Jackie's character is the cop who captures notorious heroin dealer Chu Tao after an extended chase through a shantytown (and I mean through it, they drove their cars through it) and on the side of a double-decker bus. This gets Chan tabbed as the public face of the police department, which is about when everything goes wrong.

He's assigned to protect Chu Tao's assistant so she can testify, even though she has no interest in testifying. So the cops stage an attack on her by the most incompetent, overacting "killer" ever. So that backfires and Chu Tao's lawyer talks his way free with a lot of fancy bullshit about sunrise (even though it was clearly daylight during the sting) and mysterious other buses.

And if Chu Tao were smart, he'd take the win and leave it at that. He's free, Chan's humiliated and demoted to a desk job, Salina not only didn't snitch, she helped ruin the case against him. But Chu Tao's got to push things. Try to silence Salina permanently, and ruin Chan's career.

The movie's kind of slow until the last fifteen minutes. There's a whole bit where he brings Salina to his apartment and his girlfriend's waiting (because it's his birthday) and draws the wrong conclusions. That whole bit goes on for a while. When he's demoted, there's another extended scene with him trying to have five phone conversations at once because everybody else left out of laziness. I was starting to want the movie to just end already.

Looking at the movie on the whole after it's done, I can understand the latter scene better. It shows how far he's fallen, that Chu Tao really could just take the win and be satisfied. That he doesn't, means I have no compunctions about him, his men, or especially his sleazebag lawyer getting what's waiting.

Because the last fifteen minutes is when we get an extended fight/chase scene in a mall where freaking everybody is getting thrown through glass. Jackie's kicking dudes down escalators and being thrown over railings to fall a couple of stories through a trellis. A guy tries to run over him with a motorcycle, Jackie pulls him off, then rams into him with it, drives him through a half-dozen glass windows and slams him into a wall (while they guy is crotched on the front tire.) I'm assuming they're using some sort of safety glass (I sure hope so) but it's still a little terrifying.

Then the very end is very abrupt. Chan doesn't restrain himself from beating the shit out of Chu Tao, or his lawyer, while all the other cops either look away or hold the guys in place. Which, OK, Chan needs to get some payback, sure fine. Chu Tao's a dick, I'm fine seeing him get kicked through a display case. But the movie just stops there, in the midst of that ass-kicking. Salina's cleared his name, but there's no real closure between the two of them. May, Chan's girlfriend, got kicked down two flights of stairs and he never goes to see how she's doing. Jackie Chan was directing the movie, so apparently he wanted the audience to leave amped up to fight somebody. No cool down denouement with tender moments in this movie!

What I Bought 10/4/2021 - Part 1

I managed to get almost everything I was still looking for from September. I'm hoping I might find the one comic I didn't on Friday, but we'll see. For today, we've got one title reaching the end of Act One, I guess, and another that's still just getting going.

You Promised Me Darkness #5, by Damian Connelly (writer/artist), Annabella Mazzaferri (letterer) - Sage's stomach looks a little like a face.

Sage's big plan seems to kind of go bust. Sort of. His crew actually do pretty well trouncing the Anti-Everything's supporters, but Sage himself gets controlled by the two lovers, Diva and Ophelia and flattens Sebastian. Yuko's power somehow shuts them down by showing them the darkness that holds them all back, and then taking it in.

Then the Anti-Everything seems to kill her. Sebastian loses his shit and between he and a couple of Sage's folks also out for revenge, kills the Anti-Everything. But that's not the end of his malignancy, and the path leads to Alaska. Sebastian's being guided there by Yuko, or something in the shadows calling itself Yuko. Hell if I know which, and since I don't think I'm going to buy Follow Me Into The Darkness whenever it shows up, I suppose I never will.

I don't know how I feel about the ending. The idea that this didn't really "save the world" doesn't bother me. There's always going to be something bad happening. Stop one, another problem will come along, or make itself known if it was already there. I'm curious about whether Sage was manipulated, set up to go this way, or if his plan was just bad all along. Is it important that Yuko (if it is Yuko) becomes part of the darkness? If so, important to who? When she speaks to Sebastian, she mentions the comet as if it's part of something. 'The comet and I. . .we weren't.' Is the comet working to some purpose?

You know me, the hypotheticals are always catching my attention, but I really can't deal with the art style. It's gotten easier to follow, maybe that's Connelly or maybe I'm just getting used to it. Either way, it hasn't grown on me as I hoped. The book may have promised darkness, but some of these pages tip too far into it. Outside of a few examples, any time action starts happening, it's not too clear what's I'm supposed to be seeing.

Black Jack Demon #2, by Nick Hermes (writer/artist) - Once again, crime doesn't pay. If you get caught.

Silas is still chasing the demon, with limited success. Horse died, couldn't rope well enough to keep a job at a ranch, got mugged in the next town he came to, after getting laughed at by a cute, intelligent girl. He steals a horse, gets waylaid by the sheriff in the next town he comes to. Sheriff does have a posse out hunting a mysterious "leper" who attacked some people. Silas gets away from John Law and his dipshit, Bible-thumping Barney Fife and into the hills. Finds his demon right about the time the sheriff and the posse find their "leper", wondering why the kid is so intent on him. The demon points Silas out, then grabs him and does a Hulk leap into the sky.

I mentioned in my review of issue 1 Hermes' art reminds me of the old EC horror comics, or maybe just Golden Age comics in general. The large amount of smaller panels, the almost garish coloring, even just the way he draws the characters, a little old-fashioned compared to more recent artists. In the first issue, the demon was kept entirely in shadow if seen at all.

This issue, we get to see it more clearly and it's reminiscent of a super-hero a bit. The cloak with the hood, the bright purple shirt that shows off the musculature. Has some bandages across parts of his (green?) face. Not a mask, but sort of close. Was somehow able to sense Silas hiding in the bushes behind him. When he does the super-leap, the cloak is trailing behind him and he's got one arm extended in front of him, pretty classic flying hero pose. Not sure what the significance is yet, if any. We'll see if Hermes changes how he depicts the demon again in issue 3.

One thing about the writing is sometimes I feel as though I'm missing pieces of the conversation. Silas gets information out of a general store owner by pretending to have seen a leper in town. No one has mentioned this up to then, and it's just the two of them in the building. Yet the two girls, who already left, somehow know Silas is asking about the leper. 

But it fits with how Silas is losing track. He realizes after escaping from jail that he's not only missed Christmas, but his birthday somewhere along the line. Time had ceased to exist for him, only the chase on his mind. When that's taken away from him, when he can't pursue, then those thoughts can intrude again. Like the thoughts about how he already had a shot at the demon once, and he froze. We don't know if anything has changed on that score, because he never gets the chance here.

Phantom from Space

A '50s sci-fi movie about an alien that lands on Earth and roams around. It gets attacked by one person who freaks out about the diving suit its wearing, and the fact its actual body is invisible to human eyes. The cops are after it, as well as the military, some people from an observatory, and a guy from the communication commission. Because the radioactivity its suit gives off keeps disrupting phone, TV, and radio signals.

The movie goes almost a half-hour before you see the alien, content to show scenes of guys in suits behind desks asking witnesses questions. Or people driving around in wood-paneled station wagons trying to track the radiation. It does show up eventually, in a silver spacesuit. And it's kind of funny, because after all the build-up, I was expecting some sort of unstoppable force. Like the aliens sent down Jason Voorhees. Something that marches forward slowly but relentlessly. In reality, the alien is less scary than a Scooby-Doo villain. It prefers to flee than fight, and doesn't seem to carry any weapons. It even ditches its suit when it realizes they're tracking the radiation. So yeah, invisible naked alien for a lot of the movie.

Which means the movie does a lot of the tricks with moving stuff without there being anyone visible on the screen. Marking the alien's progress by having shrubs move, or the occasional footprint if it steps in something that will stain. A lot of theremin music for spooky atmosphere. Which is a little weird, because it still sort of implies something dangerous about the alien. That all this invisible sneaking around is for some nefarious purpose, when they've already shown it would rather run than confront anyone.

It never seems clear why the alien is there. It can't speak at a pitch humans can hear, and attempts to communicate via code fail completely. None of the Earthlings can understand what being said. It's able to run around without the suit and breathing apparatus for quite a while, hours at least, even though it needs some sort of air supply.

I'm not sure it's one of those sci-fi movies about how man is the real monster, exactly. The alien is greeted with hostility by the first few people it meets, but it also blows up a fuel tank for reasons I'm unclear on. The authorities do chase it, but one of the scientists tries to communicate while locked in a room together. At the end, the police officer puts away his gun when they're able to see it via ultraviolet light, rather than interpreting the gestures as hostile. It still dies because it can't breathe, but it's not because the humans willingly withheld what it needed. An unfortunate failure to communicate, ultimately. So maybe it's pointing out if we met life from another world, understanding will be difficult to come by. We can't just assume we'll be able to speak back and forth, even if we can set aside fear and mistrust.

Rematch Time

That's the spirit! I think. . .maybe.

As far as these tpb/manga reviews go, I hit them in the order I bought them, which is why we're skipping volume 2 of Cross Game and going to volume 3. The first half is largely focused on a rematch between Seishu Gakuen's front-line team, and the "portables", led by Ko and Akaishi, with their respective coaches' jobs on the line.

Adachi advances a few different threads here. One is the continued progress of Ko as a pitcher, as he utterly dominates Coach Daimon's lineup. Adachi uses a couple of different characters as the POV here. 

One is Aoba Tsukishima, who is added to the portable team as their starting centerfielder (even though she can't play in any official games because she's a girl.) Aoba still doesn't believe in Ko, but she also hasn't seen him pitch in a game other than the first one between these two teams. We see that in how immediately irritated she gets with him. When he walks one batter in the late innings, Adachi draws her glaring and muttering "Hey!" in the next panel. This is a chance for Ko to prove to his biggest doubter that he's actually taking this seriously and not just a goof-off.

The other is Yuhei Azuma, the star slugger, who Adachi begins to soften, or maybe flesh out is a better descriptor. We get to meet his older brother Junpei (who's a pervert, but otherwise an upbeat guy and supportive brother). Yuhei's recognized something in Ko already, demonstrated in volume 1 by the fact Yuhei bothers to remember his name, a courtesy he didn't extend to most of his teammates. He's the only one who doesn't dismiss the portables chances of winning the game. Though that may have as much to do with how aware he's become of Coach Daimon's limitations. The portables probably win because Yuhei lightly injures himself so he can't play, telling Daimon to prove this team is good enough to win without him.

He's still kind of a prick, or just has a very deadpan delivery on his jokes, but Adachi is working hard to show that Yuhei isn't simply condescending to the others. Rather, he holds them to the same standard holds himself. Because he believes it's the only way he'll achieve his goals.

Adachi really likes using the head-on perspective during the game action. The baseball coming directly towards us, slightly squashed looking. Or using seeing the catcher from the perspective or whoever is throwing, with the ball already in their mitt. Or showing Ko at the end of his delivery. It's probably the best approach, breaking up the action into small panels. A baseball field is so large, it would be hard to show all the action in one panel and convey any sense of action or tension. Better to save that for establishing shots, and zoom in on specific moments.

After that game, Adachi jumps ahead a little as a way to shake things up again. Yuhei's brother is trying to court Aoba's oldest sister, and Yuhei is no living at Ko's house, because all the players Daimon recruited left with him, so there's no one in the dorms. Which makes Yuhei sort of the outsider perspective on everything with Ko and Aoba. We see that there are tons of boys smitten with Aoba, none of whom she's interested in, and Akaishi is actively keeping all the girls away from Ko by saying he's Aoba's property. Aoba is unaware of this, which is probably good for Akaishi's health. Or maybe Ko's since she'd probably blame him somehow.

Aoba and Ko are still pretty antagonistic to each other, so I'm not really buying there's going to be some big romance between them eventually, but I know that's where it's going nonetheless, even with the late introduction of Aoba's cousin, Mizuki.