Sunday Splash Page #316

 

"Little Big House," in Locke and Key: Small World, by Gabriel Rodriguez and Joe Hill (storytellers), Jay Fotos (colorist), Robbie Robbins (letterer)

Since Locke & Key: Alpha concluded, Hill and Rodriguez have done a series of shorter books. Those revolve around Keyhouse, but not Tyler, Kinsey, or Bode. I suppose Tyler at least ought to be aging out of the point where he can remember the keys or the magic. Though we did see him build a key to restore Keyhouse entirely, so. . .

All the stories since then have focused on an early-20th Century generation of the Locke family. Pale Battalions Go was about John, the younger son, swiping keys to fight in World War I. This does not end well, and if I remember right, he ends up using the Anywhere Key to transport himself into the Titanic's sunken hull as penance for his hubris. To think we still have to rely on shoddily built submarines for that purpose.

There was also a crossover with Sandman, which I haven't read, but I think revolves around John's oldest sister, Mary (the blonde above) trying to rescue his soul from Hell via Dream's realm, which is a bad idea on so many levels one scarce knows where to begin.

This is the only one I still have, a done-in-one about Chamberlin Locke building this dollhouse that, when activated, can show the location and activity of every person in it. He expects the girls to use this birthday present to learn about keeping house properly. Mary sees it as a great way to gather blackmail on her brothers, while Jean sees it as a great place to hide boogers.

Problem being, the door swings both ways. Actions taken in the larger house are reflected in the doll house, but things placed inside the doll house from outside then manifest in the real house, at a proportionate scale. So when Jean leaves the dollhouse active and a spider wanders in, well. It's bigger than the dolls, so the version that is loose in Keyhouse is, too. It's an effective little horror tale (which Hill says owes a lot to Richard Matheson's The Shrinking Man.)

Saturday Splash Page #118

 

"Sho' 'Nuff"", in Street Fighter Alpha ch. 7, vol. 1, by Masahiko Nakahiro

I don't know all the ins-and-outs of Street Fighter continuity, so I'm not sure how Alpha relates to II. I'm guessing it's an alternate timeline to account for adding new characters and shifting the backstories and relationships of various characters.

Now Ryu and Ken's teacher was killed by his brother, Akuma, who has mastered some force called the "Dark Hadou," which Ryu keeps tapping into when he loses control of his anger or his life is threatened. Except Ryu doesn't control it, he just goes Kung-Fu Incredible Hulk on everyone. He's now responsible not just for the big scar across Sagat's chest, but also taking his eye.

This two-volume manga really ups the destructive power of, well a couple of characters. Ryu destroys a police cruiser the first time he goes off, dodging bullets and no-selling everyone's attacks like the most annoying pro wrestler you can think of. In the climactic fight, he and Bison wipe out a skyscraper fighting up the side of it.

But most of it is about Ryu trying to come to grips with the Dark Hadou. You know, acknowledge the darkness and power within him and accept it, rather than denying it. This is expressed through the Shoryuken attack, which is at least one thing consistent between the two mangas. Both stories insist Shoryuken is a lethal attack, one that Ryu hesitates to use for that very reason. Ken, on the other hand, spams the things like it's the only button combo he ever figured out. 

Nakahiro draws the Shoryuken as the entire character doing a twisting uppercut (see above), while Kanzaki drew it like only the forearm was corkscrewing or, like, formed little buzzsaw tornadoes around it (see last week's entry.) I think Nakahiro's style, looser, more simplified style works better. It also works with Alpha's more humorous tone, especially with the addition of Dan Hibiki as the jobber, and Ryu being the sort of a meathead who complains when Chun-Li has his gi washed - awful nice after he was acting as bodyguard for a gang and destroyed a ship - because it washed off the essence of all the fighting spirit from his countless battles.

Those are probably the parts I like best, the lighter bits. Or the fights that are driven by more personal things. Ken's up there punching Ryu to convince the both of them the Shoryuken isn't automatically going to mean unleashing the Dark Hadou, because their master told him he'd have to kill Ryu if that happened, and Ken can't stand that idea. Or when Chun-Li stops Ryu from jumping in to help a genetically engineered soldier of Bison's (not yet named Cammy), only to jump in and defend her herself. It works better than when some character named Guy no-sells the Dark Hadou while telling Ryu that he threatens the destiny of the world, and so the world may destroy him. I, um, OK? Sounds like a lot of New Age horseshit you'd say when trying to sell me special "crystals".

Random Back Issues #125 - Suicide Squad #41

Now we know Captain Boomerang buys his gear from Acme.

Alright, Amanda Waller was released from prison last issue, because the U.S. government needs someone to deal with the Soviets getting involved in suppressing a revolution in Vlatava. Batman's involved, too, after investigating the murder of a cargo hauler on the Gotham docks led him right into the Steel Wolf, Stalnoivolk. Batsy's not too happy about working with Waller, but he's never happy, so whatever.

By now, Stalnoivolk's in Vlatava, watching the incumbent leader's forces get trounced by the Vlatavan rebels, led by a manic Count Vertigo. The Russian super-speedsters Blue Trinity are there in plainclothes, but they aren't doing any better against Vertigo, and his power even messes with missile guidance systems, so forget using those.

So the Steel Wolf picks up Molotov, and chucks the Russian with the exploding power at Vertigo. Doesn't kill him, does knock him flat, putting the rebels in retreat. Stalnoivolk's more concerned with the notion someone tried to double-cross him in Gotham, but Zastrow (essentially Waller's Soviet counterpart) is more concerned with General Kaligari, current ruler of Vlatava. The general wants more overt support from the USSR. Tanks and soldiers and such. Zastrow points out the Red Shadows are meant to counter Vertigo, while keeping Soviet involvement under the radar, but recognizes Kaligari could out their presence to make Gorbachev look bad, on the chance it gets him replaced with a more hardline leader. Which is something Stalnoivolk might appreciate as well. So maybe he blew his own cover?

With thought processes like this, it would be a miracle if every real-world intelligence agency didn't decimate itself.

While all that's going on, Waller's getting the team back together. First to Paris, where Vixen's showing off one of her own designs on the catwalk. She's not keen on rejoining the Squad, until Waller mentions she knows where Ben Turner, the Bronze Tiger, is. Ben flipped out (or was induced into a breakdown) courtesy of Sarge Steel around the time the Squad fell apart, then vanished. Mari's concerned, so she's in.

Ben's not doing well, or even thinking of himself as "Ben." The two start fighting, to the amusement of some dipshit Great White Hunter. But Alan Buck-and-a-Quartermain catches a bottle in the face from Waller and she uses his machine gun to end the lover's spat. Ben doesn't want to wipe the paint he regards as his face away, but Waller ain't having any of it, and what the Wall wants, she gets.

Meanwhile, Batman's in Puerto Azul's capital, where General Vaca's reign is going down the toilet, to his indifference, and a conniving Poison Ivy's fury. But it's fine, she's drained the treasury and she's got her own guards to help her escape. Oh, wait, Batman's here to tell her that her accounts are frozen, and her guards. . .

Yep, the inevitable result of combining "Batman" and "goons." If Ivy wants out, it'll be with him, and she'll have to work to earn her escape. From there, Bats travels to London, where Ravan set up shop, killing people as part of his beliefs that he delays the arrival of Kali by doing so. Batman blows up the church and walks out with Ravan slung over his shoulder. 

That's four. Who's Waller picking for her fifth? Why none other than Ol' Boomerbutt, looking much the worse for wear after a year on the island where she stranded him after his exposure as the Mystery Pie Thrower. In fact, Boomerang's about to launch himself off the island - and to his death - on a giant boomerang he's constructed out of - actually, I don't know what he made it out of. Palm fronds? Either way, Vixen launches it prematurely and once Digger sees it smashed to pieces on the rocks, agrees to join up.

Well, the team's assembled, what can go wrong? Maybe a shadowy figure who is aware of all this, and tells Deadshot to kill Waller?

{10th longbox, 280th comic. Suicide Squad #41, by Kim Yale and John Ostrander (writers), Geof Isherwood (artist), Carl Gafford (colorist), Todd Klein (letterer)}

Out of the Syberian Wastes

It's been a decade since I played through the first two Syberia games. I was worried where Syberia 2 left Kate Walker, and based on how Syberia 3 starts, it was a valid concern. She wakes up in a hospital that's clearly seen better days (not a unique condition in this fictional world), run by medical staff that seem determined she stay there. To the point of questioning the stability of her mental state.

Oh goody, one of the concepts that creeps me out. Really wish the game would let Kate run faster.

Kate was found near-death by a Youkol caravan, and brought to the hospital with their guide, Kurk, who needs a prosthetic leg. Unfortunately, the battle-ax of a head physician is just as determined Kurk not leave until she's finished warping his mind with drugs and hypnosis. And the doc, sorry, Dr. Olga Efimova - she's always referred to by her full name and title - is working with some eye-patched, Baron Strucker lookalike of a colonel who wants Kate Walker in custody.

The story is Kate first getting herself and later Kurk the hell out of that place, and then helping the Youkols and their giant, woolly ostriches follow the migration route. This, like the first two games, results in solving a bunch of puzzles requiring Kate to grab almost any random item she can and combine them MacGyver style into whatever she needs.

There are different ways you can interact with things, like simply observing something, or picking it up to add to your inventory, or actively moving it, if it's a lever. Each action tied to a different button, signaled by its position on the little ring and probably its color if you're using a standard controller. Moving things is tricky, as you have to hold the button then move the joystick, and the controllers can be a bit touchy.

This sometimes also requires talking to people. While the game offers different dialogue options, you can usually progress regardless of what choice you make. It's mostly a matter of how you want to play Kate. I opted for polite, with a mix of charm and humor as seemed workable. These conversations can also help you figure out what you need to do with the eclectic arrangement of crap you collect, but sometimes I was stuck just trying to use everything in my inventory to interact with an object until something happened.

How was I supposed to know the sawdust went in the drawers of the steampunk smoke machine I needed to activate to get the Youkols permission to pass a non-sacred bridge?

The problem is, the nature of the gameplay doesn't match the story. Kate and the Youkols are supposed to be working against a clock of sorts. The colonel and Dr. Olga Efimova are after them, and the colonel's got a missile-armed helicopter and AK-47 toting soldiers at his disposal. But no matter how long it takes me to figure out what I'm supposed to do, the pursuit is always just slow enough, never quite able to mobilize fast enough.

In the first two games, any resistance of that sort was less organized and much more limited. The monks that were reluctant to release Hans, for example, hadn't the resources to pursue Kate once she got back to the train, even if they wanted to. Time wasn't so critical. Here, even when the ship they use to cross a lake comes under attack by a freaking kraken and Kate has to figure out some way to turn off all the lights, there's no real urgency. You have as much time as you need to figure out where to find a crowbar to smash the lights.

To be clear, I appreciate the puzzles aren't timed, but I think it works cross-purpose to the story.

The game itself can lag, and there was one point it kept crashing as I would finish a brief cut scene. Which was especially annoying because I knew exactly what I needed to do next for once, and had everything ready to go. All I needed was the game to stop crashing long enough to turn on the Ferris wheel.

Syberia 3 plays pretty much like the first two games, which makes it feel like a bit of a throwback they tried to upscale graphically to more recent console generations. But it still suffers from weird camera angles that make it hard to tell where you can and can't go, which is the sort of thing that actually needed improving. The at times, questionable, voice acting doesn't help. I don't know if they used a computer speech program for the minor characters, but there are times whoever is speaking sounds like they've never done it before.

I didn't find Syberia 3 as frustrating as the earlier games, which might owe to my being slightly more patient than I used to be, but I was more disappointed by it than the earlier games.

Summer Manga-thon

I'm still not seeing a lot of stuff I want to get in the June solicits, but there were at least several manga series with new volumes I might get (eventually.) DC continues to get shut out, and while I can appreciate they've dialed back their line, in contrast to Marvel's bloat, where it feels like it takes five minutes to scroll past the Star Wars stuff, it'd be nice if there was at least something I was interested in.

Meanwhile, Marvel's in the middle of this Blood Hunt thing, and I think I might skip Fantastic Four and Vengeance of the Moon Knight, since both books are doing tie-in issues.

What's coming out that's new? Look, I will not be buying this, but figured I would mention Winnie the Pooh: Demon Hunter, a 4-issue mini-series coming out through Antarctic Press. Make whatever preparations you feel appropriate for that event, whether it's setting aside money to buy it, or setting aside money for an apocalypse bunker.

Fairsquare Comics has Tunis to Sydney, written by Meriam and Christian Carnouche, with Sam Rapley as artist, about a woman returning home after the deaths of her parents, and unpacking emotional baggage around that.

Humanoids has Cyn, a graphic novel by Ibrahim Moustafa about former cyborg enforcer trying to find peace. Joanne Starer and Diego Greco also have Total Suplex of the Heart, about a journalist joining a wrestling club, but getting swept up in drama. I haven't really loved the stuff I've picked up from Humanoids, but it's always different writers and artists, so I keep trying.

What's ending this month? Three Marvel minis: Jackpot and Black Cat, Black Widow and Hawkeye, and Ms. Marvel: Mutant Menace. Which isn't great news for Marvel. That's half the stuff I might buy in June. Three-quarters if I do avoid the event tie-ins. Maybe they'll come up with something in July.

What's that leave? Like I said, there's several manga in the solicits. Volume 6 of No Longer Allowed in Another World (Seven Seas), and volume 7 of The Boxer (Ize Press). Also volume 15 of that deluxe edition of Soul Eater (Square Enix Manga), and the second volume of Momo Legendary Warrior (via Alien Books). I called it My Name is Shingo Perfect when the first volume was solicited, but it's actually just My Name is Shingo, but a perfect edition, and now the second volume is being solicited by Viz Media.

I haven't seen Shingo or Momo yet, so I don't know if I'd pick them up, and I have my doubts about ever catching up on Soul Eater, but this helps me keep them in mind, at least.

As far as single issues, a trio of third issues. Deadpool, Blow Away, Morning Star. Blood and Fire is on issue 2, while Rogues will be on issue 4. Although I'm a little concerned about Scout Comics. There were a couple of things solicited for this month that never showed. I'm still waiting for the last issue of Space Outlaw. Come on, already!

Cadillac Man (1990)

Joey (Robin Williams) is a car salesman. One shameless enough to try and sell a car to a widow on the way to the cemetery. But hey, he's got money problems, what with the ex-wife and teenage daughter, and two mistresses. The mistresses are played by Fran Drescher and Lori Petty. There's apparently a 14-year gap between Williams and Petty's actual ages, but I think they're playing it as much larger here. He's also gotta sell a bunch of cars at the dealership's big "we're moving!" sale, or he won't be moving with it.

Too bad Larry (Tim Robbins) comes crashing through the window on his motorcycle with an AK because he's tired of his wife cheating on him. At which point, it becomes a sort of comedic hostage situation? Joey claims to be the one Donna's cheating on Larry with, then also tries to help Larry make it out of this without killing anyone or being killed by the cops that quickly surround the place.

So much yelling in this movie. I was grateful for Larry's arrival through the display window, because the movie was doing an extended bit where Joey is trying to juggle three different customers, all of whom are yelling for him while he's yelling back, plus ringing phones. I was getting a headache. Of course, then Larry's yelling, punctuated with machine gun fire, which prompted a lot of screaming. So, you know, life closes a door in the face of screeching Christmas carolers, and opens a window on a road construction crew.

There's a whole, not even a subplot, about the daughter not having come home the night before, and Joey and his ex-wife arguing over the phone about it during the hostage situation. She just, shows up, at the end, I guess as a symbol of how Joey trying to be a stand-up guy and protect others has made him someone deserving of a second chance at having family. It felt pointless, though, to have them going on about it and then it resolves itself at the end.

What I Bought 3/20/2024 - Part 2

So much time on the road last week. 300+ miles of driving on Tuesday, but it was a productive day. 400+ miles on Thursday, and it was a shitshow, as expected. 500 miles on Saturday, which was family-related, so it was, fine.

Fantastic Four #18, by Ryan North (writer), Carlos Gomez (artist), Jesus Arbutov (color artist), Joe Caramagna (letterer) - I really wanted to see Ben Grimm clobber a meteor with a telephone pole.

Couple of reveals in this issue. First, once a year, Franklin Richards unlocks those crazy powers of his to look at what might be coming in the year ahead. This year, it was a swarm of invisible meteors, which he foresees his family not being able to stop. If you ever wanted to see Reed Richards pierced by dozens of meteors, this is your comic. 

Franklin uses his powers to nudge the meteors on a different course (that will not aim them at anyone else, which is a nice touch.) Then his powers shut down and he goes to sleep, not remembering any of it (until next year.)

Two, Nicolas Scratch and his terrible costume are watching the FF, so he sees Franklin's little show and reverses. Death by invisible meteors is go! Things start the same, but Alicia comes up with the idea of using the light Johnny generates with his fire, manipulated by Sue's powers, to create a laser which Reed and Ben guide visually. Death by meteors averted! Booooooo.

On the other hand, Jo-Nah asks if Johnny and Sue are going to visit to Cyclops and gloat about their cool laser eye power, and I think they should absolutely do that. Rub Cyclops' nose in the futility of his existence!

Vengeance of the Moon Knight #3, by Jed MacKay (writer), Alessandro Cappuccio (artist), Rachelle Rosenberg (color artist), Cory Petit (letterer) - It'd be funny if he got the crescent blades tangled and whacked himself in the back of the head by accident.

It's Soldier's turn with the doctor, and he feels guilty. What a shock. He thinks he should have died instead of Marc, because that was his job, to die for his boss. Since it's a little late for that, he's taking his own approach to trying to stop the Shroud, I mean, this new Moon Knight. Which involves calling in a debt from the Chinatown vamps Marc helped out in the last year of his previous book.

I have a hunch Soldier's actually setting them up, too, since he had 8-Ball get him into the Bar with No Name to meet with someone Cappuccio keeps obscured. Could be wrong. Maybe he was setting up the 4 super-villains attacking the Midnight Mission because they think Moon Knight's there, to try and impress the seriousness of the situation, but that seems a little much. Soldier describes them as a "gang", and I can't see a gang encouraging someone coming onto their turf and unloading machine guns and flamethrowers. But I've not been in a gang, so what do I know?

Soldier also seems like he might be embracing his vampiric side. Reese knows the mist trick and whatnot, but she doesn't show her fangs as much as Soldier, who takes full advantage of the resilience and healing. He runs right into the gunfire, doesn't care if pieces of himself get blown off. Guess we'll see how far that attitude goes if he gets a crack at the new guy.

Sunday Splash Page #315

 

"Two's Company," Locke and Key: Omega #5, by Joe Hill (writer), Gabriel Rodriguez (artist), Jay Fotos (colorist), Robbie Robbins (letterer)

The conclusion to Locke and Key was split between two mini-series, Omega and Alpha (helpfully collected together in volume 6 of the tpbs.) Omega, a 5-issue mini-series, came first, followed by the 2-issue Alpha.

Omega takes place near the end of the school year, all the students looking to their future, and to regrets. In Tyler's case, a lot of regrets, which he seems to be trying to run from by burying himself in work around the house. Similar to Volume 1, although he might see it as trying to become more responsible so he doesn't repeat those past mistakes.

The kids decide to have a post-prom party in the caves under Keyhouse (drained of water this time), which is when Dodge - still inside Bode's body, with basically all the keys, and golden eyes as he makes no attempt to disguise his presence - makes his move. As Tyler, his mother, his uncle and the detective come under attack from shadows, Dodge uses more shadows to gather the high schoolers at the doorway to his world.

Alpha is when Dodge reveals his true plan, which is not what Kinsey or we might expect. More critically, it's when Tyler comes up with a plan to counterattack, based on a conversation he has while dying with his dad's spirit. As a rule, last-second, death door's epiphanies are more useful than last-second, death bed recanting, but are also much rarer so I guess Tyler's luck was running good that day.

Tyler takes advantage of one last gift of his dad's, and that combined, with the return of Rufus and the fact memories extracted via the Head Key can't drown, is enough to take care of Dodge once and for all. A few characters die and stay dead. One character's dead and doesn't stay dead. A couple are already dead, but end up, I guess extra dead. Perma-dead? Unable to be summoned via the well, at any rate.

Saturday Splash Page #117

 

"Gut Punch," in Street Fighter II - The Manga, vol. 2, ch. 9, by Masaomi Kanzaki

Despite being consistently gawd-awful at the games, I always find myself drawn back to Street Fighter comics. Like the games, the comics never quite seem to be what I'm looking for. Probably because they so often seem to revolve around Ryu, and I don't really care about him. Goku's just about the only, "goofy but kind guy with a huge appetite who loves the challenge of a good fight" character I have time for.

Yet I still try. This 3 volume manga was based on, as the name suggests, Street Fighter II, and the first 2 volumes one big fighting tournament, funded by the mysterious M. Bison. Ryu's seeking several things: his teacher's killer, his best friend Ken, and a good challenge. Guile's out for revenge for a dead friend. Chun-Li's out for revenge for her father, but is trying to find evidence linking Bison to a drug known as "Doll" to get him arrested.

It's interesting to see the differences between this and what the canon of the games would become later. Here, Doll is a drug that makes people into obedient weapons. Later, Doll refers to genetically engineered fighters for Bison, most notably Cammy. Here, Bison killed Ryu and Ken's master, but later it's Gokuen's brother Akuma that's responsible. Blanka's a conniving and vicious figure, trying to prove he should be one of Bison's sub-bosses, rather than a gentle being tortured by Bison's experiments. Dhalsim's a grief-stricken man who wears his dead children's skulls(?!) around his neck. A far cry from the calm and measured sage he becomes in later versions.

The fights vary from somewhat silly (Chun-Li versus E. Honda) to kind of cheesy. Guile beats Zangief with a powerbomb and when the Russian expresses shock Guile would use a wrestling move, Captain Flattop responds that he's from the Land of the Free, so he's free to fight how he likes. Dude deserved the ass-whupping he got from Sagat in the next round, I'll tell you. There's a bit of blood - Ken shatters his fist punching a wall when he breaks the drug's control during a fight with Ryu - but this isn't Mortal Kombat. Nobody's got bones sticking through the skin or being disemboweled. Bison swings Ryu headfirst into the floor, but that's no match for true Fighting Spirit!

There's a persistent thread in the story that anger only weakens you. Guile's focused on revenge and fights stupid against Zangief, which leaves him too injured to even slow Sagat down. Blanka's vicious out of an inferiority complex, and nearly wins because Chun-Li loses control of her own anger and grief. Ryu manages to focus on winning, even when faced with the man who killed his teacher, and makes it to the top. He crushes Bison, wins the tournament, and then is off in search of his next opponent.

So for volume 3, Kanzaki plays off the game mechanic of fighting yourself. Everyone gets lured to the same location, and have to team-up to fight palette-swapped versions of themselves who are, of course, convinced they're the "real" ones.

What I Bought 3/20/2024 - Part 1

The march through my movie collection continues. Today is Iron Man. Last night was Inherit the Wind, and prior to that, the first 3 Indiana Jones movies. So, in that regard at least, it's been a good week.

I bought 3 Marvel comics this week, so let's start with the one from a mini-series.

Night Thrasher #2, by J. Holtham (writer), Nelson Daniel (artist), Matt Milla (color artist), Travis Lanham (letterer) - Just a couple of street fightin' men.

Dwayne licks his wounds after Rage whupped his ass last issue. Sil urges him to try and reach Rage, but Dwayne's going to rely on his fists. He also gets some new armor, but the design seems a lot like what he had during the "reality TV" run, with the duster over the armor. I like Silhouette's blue-and-black armor, though I'm not sure if that's new. Feels like I've seen it before.

As Dwayne does his training montage, Rage and his crew of kids prepare for another big play. Unfortunately, the cops are setting a trap, while adding checkpoints and constant patrols. And the cop in charge is of course the sort who insists if anyone objects to having their i.d. checked, it means they're hiding something. Sure, they're hiding that they don't like your face.

Rage and the kids attack a gentrified section of the neighborhood, the cops move in, which probably wouldn't make much difference if Night Thrasher doesn't show up and take down Rage, leaving the kids easy pickings for the cops, who decide to go ahead and arrest any other people who just happen to be standing around, including Night Thrasher. Good thing he's got an ex-girlfriend with access to the Darkforce Dimension, but now things are worse.

So I guess next issue, Dwayne resumes being involved in the neighborhood. He said he was back, but just being back to kick an old friend's ass isn't helping. In the early issues of New Warriors, he was marked by his obsession with fighting crime and trying to avenge his parents' death, to the point it was a struggle for him to pull away from that when his friends needed help. Batman, if being a total dick actually had consequences.

Setting aside crime-fighting, helping the neighborhood, keeping locals from being priced out, that's going to be an endless battle, too. I wonder if having died, then come back through what he defines as a fluke has taken that sort of drive out of him. And that's why he wanted to just start over somewhere else, he thought a clean slate would be an easier road to hoe.

Ears of the Jungle - Pierre Boulle

Set during the Vietnam War, the United States tries some trickery that involves seeding the jungles with listening devices that look like plants, so they can hear the truck convoys at night and precisely bomb them.

The trick is almost immediately revealed to the NVA's head of intelligence, a Madame Ngha, because she's made allies of the hill people in those jungles, who can recognize plants that don't belong. From that point forward, the book is Madame Ngha figuring out how to manipulate the U.S. into bombing things to the benefit of the North Vietnamese. Play recordings of trucks in an open field that has a lot of game, let the bombers kill a bunch of buffalo to feed the hill people and the NVA. The Air Force switched to napalm? Get them to bomb places that could be used to plant rice. The Air Force switched to herbicides that effectively salt the earth? Get them to bomb a place you want to build a new highway.

The U.S. is too impressed with their technological marvel to figure out it's been turned against them. Everything is automated, so the people in charge barely have any idea of where they're hearing the "convoys" or what they're bombing. Totally divorced from the process, or maybe even from reality. There's a brief digression where, as the U.S. is dropping all these defoliants that will stop the jungle from growing back for potentially decades, they are also very concerned with the damage done to the environment by use of chemicals at home. This does eventually carry to the war, but it means they just go back to dropping high explosives. More environmentally friendly.

And Madame Ngha has an agent working for the general in charge, who is of course touched by Thu's stories of how she desperately wants to help the Americans after the NVA killed her family. Except it was actually a flight of B-52s that killed her family, but it lets the general feel like a dad, since he's apparently failed so utterly at maintaining a connection with his own daughter.

There's also a subplot where Thu, when alone in her quarters, envisions herself with a family of her own, complete with a maid and the maid's daughter (also named Thu.) I guess the emotional toll of the war, which the Americans are also oblivious to as they bomb the shit out of villages. She's dedicated to her duties, but she also likes the fantasy she's been able to concoct while working for the Americans. Not really sure what I was supposed to take from that.

I think The Bridge Over the River Kwai was a stronger book, maybe for being more focused. Or the notion of the incredibly sophisticated fake plant listening devices, which are nonetheless immediately thwarted, felt too fanciful. The book read easily enough; it wasn't any sort of difficulty to get through, but I kept waiting to feel drawn in, really invested in what was happening. But the Americans were duped so thoroughly, so quickly, there were never any stakes beyond what particular goal Madame Ngha felt like using them to achieve at that moment. By 50 pages in, there was no chance the bombers would hit anyone she didn't allow as part of some larger plan, so there was no tension to the proceedings.

'The process rendered the place immaculate, leaving only ashes, but poisoned ashes, from which nothing could ever rise again, lying in a desolate landscape forbidden to all vegetation. This dead earth, it was clear, could no longer bear rice or manioc.

Yet for all this, traffic on the trail continued uninterrupted.'

The Lighthouse (2019)

If you ever wanted to see Robert Pattinson beat it to a scrimshaw model of a mermaid that may exist, or may merely be a representation of his inner demons, twice!, this is the movie for you!

What a perfect way to start post #6,000.

Now that everyone is either sufficiently intrigued, or has run screaming from this blog, we can continue. Winslow (Pattinson) is on a 4 week tour tending a lighthouse somewhere at sea. His superior, Tom (Willem Dafoe), is a bearded, bug-eyed, limping old man who alternates insults and mockery with compliments and tales of his life at sea before his injury. The specifics of how he was injured change, but what doesn't change is that tending the light is his duty. Everything else, hauling oil, shoveling coal for the foghorn, repairing the roof on their home, falls to Winslow.

The movie plays with time, in that there's no clear sense of how long they've been at the lighthouse. They reach what is meant to be the end of their four weeks, which Winslow and Tom celebrate by getting blind drunk, but a terrible storm rises and their relief doesn't arrive. Does his killing a seagull in a fit of frustration (and he kills the hell out of that bird, no question), have anything to do with it? Well, Tom would certainly think so.

After that, Winslow's grip on reality, already tenuous due to past decisions he hasn't come to grips with yet, begins to slip. The rain keeps coming, the roof leaks get worse, there's less coal in the wheelbarrow and more water. Winslow starts drinking regularly, after refusing to do so the first 4 weeks. Pattinson gets sloppier with his dress, with his movements, indifferent to the weather. Time slips, too. We see what seems to be one day of this routine, but Tom insists it's already been weeks, confusing Winslow as much as us.

The movie's shot all in black and white, or really grey. Even before the storm arrives, it's never sunny. Grey sky, grey sea, grey buildings, with the characters especially blocked in by the 1.19:1 aspect ratio the film's shot in. The attempt to paint the lighthouse seems futile even before the platform breaks under Winslow. The interior of the house is dimly lit by those skies or flickering oil lamps that only make Dafoe look wilder when he really get going.

Dafoe does great work shifting between being a hardass, gentle encouragement, a poor, wounded old man, or an all-seeing sage. He'll let Winslow lug a huge drum of oil up the stairs before offering him the more manageable metal spout, then tell him to lug the drum back down. But he'll also offer him compliments and praise, that he'll do a fine job tending his own lighthouse some day. He can get so offended when Winslow won't say he likes how Tom prepares lobster that he calls on Neptune to curse Winslow, but also sit there calmly rocking in a chair and imply it was Winslow who chased Tom with an axe, not the other way around like we just saw.

It gets especially strange near the end, with lines like, "You smell like a hot onion fucked a farmyard shithouse!" or one character making the other follow him around on hands and knees like a dog. It might have been a little too comic for what seemed like a bleak descent into madness as the isolation leaves Winslow too much time with his own thoughts and failings.

Reforged

Maybe it's because you saying things like, "You women."

Volume 1 of Kaare Andrews' Iron Fist: The Living Weapon, left Danny Rand with two broken hands, K'un-Lun burned to the ground, and a little girl with a baby dragon on the run from a now partially cybernetic Davos.

Volume 2, which covers the second half of the series and is subtitled "Redemption" is, as you'd expect, Danny trying to get his shit together and stop a catastrophe. In some cave in a snowy mountain range, Sparrow and a crazy old inventor named Fooh try to get Danny back on his feet and with a little fight in him. Meanwhile, the strange hybrid of his father and The One, the killer robot Danny beat to officially become the Iron Fist, have reopened to Rand skyscraper, and are rebuilding it into. . .something.

In keeping with the first six issues, Andrews continues to play the "everything you knew is wrong" card, as Fooh tells Danny he's not only the only Iron Fist ever to rely solely on his fists, but that he only defeated The One because Yu-Ti had it programmed to lose. Because Yu-Ti figured Danny as Iron Fist was a controllable outcome. I assume because he knew Danny would choose to leave K'un-Lun to pursue Harold Meachum, and thus couldn't be any sort of problem for Yu-Ti's plans.

Except going back to Danny's earliest adventures, through his Heroes for Hire years with Luke Cage, and into Immortal Iron Fist, Danny has repeatedly returned to K'un-Lun and fucked things up for Yu-Ti. Culminating in Danny helping Lei Kung and Sparrow oust Yu-Ti from his seat. Which would seem to suggest either Danny was more of a wildcard than Fooh is giving him credit for, or that Yu-Ti was kind of a dumbass. Or we're meant to believe all that was some Thanatos Gambit where, every time Yu-Ti appeared to be thwarted, he was actually winning, and no, sorry, not buying that nonsense.

More effective is issue 8, where Danny (possibly) travels to some level of Hell to free his mother. Which actually involves letting the memory of her go. Letting go of his anger that the archers of K'un-Lun didn't save her, too, the anger at himself for not protecting her, etc., etc. Andrews colors the issue in stark black-and-white, reserving color for the sound effects and the steampunk gauntlets Danny is wearing to reinforce his arms.

Issues 9 through 11 are an extended battle in and around the Rand skyscraper as Danny and Sparrow try to stop The One/Wendell Rand. Like Danny, he's had trouble letting go. Unlike Danny, he's prepared to go to ludicrous lengths to "fix" things. Andrews also continues the character regression of Davos. He's not even the arrogant, entitled guy he's been in the past. Now, he's more of a craven opportunist, bailing out at the first sign of trouble, but still expecting people to rally around him for it.

I guess it's a contrast to Danny. Fooh says Danny never earned or deserved the power he's had, whether financial or the chi of Shou-Lao. So now Danny is trying to do one or the other, I assume "deserve." He's got the Iron Fist, so use it for more than revenge (which, you know, he's done plenty of times protecting the innocent, but I guess we chalk those up to Danny doing that as an excuse to exercise his rage.)

Davos wasn't handed power or wealth like Danny, but because of who his father was, he's always thought it was his by right. He hasn't deserved it, and certainly hasn't earned it, but still persists in thinking he has.

Anyway, Danny channels the chi of all the surviving people of K'un-Lun into a weapon potent enough to defeat a God of Order. Becoming one with them, instead of holding himself apart. Which, for all my grousing about the writing, Andrews draws as pretty, even if it doesn't last. Andrews pulls the bait-n-switch of, "the hero's got it! No, no, nevermind, he doesn't," at least a couple times during the battle. Enough to where it feels like perfectly good chances to wrap things up are missed to marginal gain. There is a nice bit where Andrews has close-ups on Wendell-One's face as it shouts threats, then switches to a profile shot of the god leaning in, and Wendell-One is a little blot with a speech balloon whose words you can't read. Emblematic of the arrogance, of how blinded by his insane goal Wendell-One is.

The last issue is set-up for a status quo I don't think much of anyone used. Sparrow leads the survivors back home, but leaves Ping Mei with Danny, as he's now the Thunderer to her Iron Fist (although he still has the Iron Fist, too.) The dragon gets revived, but Danny's attempts to open his hear to the reporter with mysterious skills goes poorly. Danny's trying to move forward, but not everyone is ready to go along on his fantastic voyage.

Sunday Splash Page #314

 

"The Door of Horrors," in Locke and Key: Clockworks #1, by Joe Hill (writer), Gabriel Rodriguez (artist), Jay Fotos (colorist), Robbie Robbins (letterer)

The fifth volume of Locke & Key starts with a trip to the 18th Century, to see how the keys first came into being, and where they came from. For the latter, from the things on the other side of that portal. For the former, from a young man determined not to let his parents' deaths be in vain.

The second issue shows how Tyler and Kinsey were able to see past events, and also what Dodge is getting up to inside Bode's body. It's bad. His actions do force Kinsey to reclaim her tears and fears. That's good! And their mother is going to AA meetings. That's definitely good! But Dodge found the Omega Key. That's bad.

But Tyler wants to see their dad, so the other 4 issues detail how everything fell apart for that group. Why Dodge is the way he is. Why Ellie had a bottle with one of Dodge's memories hidden in her wall. What the hell happened to Erin (though I'm still not clear why the experience turned her hair white.) Why we haven't seen any of Rendell Locke's other friends through the entirety of this story. Why Rendell moved so far away in the first place.

(One thing I'm curious about is how Rendell explained so many of his friends just disappearing, or what the hell happened to Erin. Fine, he might forget because the house had a key magic that makes you forget past a certain age, but other people would still notice their kids, part of a small clique, being reduced by two-thirds.)

Hill plays up the similarities between the generations of Locke kids. Rendell tries to threaten Duncan to keep him out of things just like Tyler tries with Bode, even though, like Bode, Duncan's the one who usually finds the keys. Doesn't work any better for Rendell than it will his son. And Rodriguez plays up the similarities in Rendell and Tyler's appearance, especially as Tyler starts wearing glasses more often. And Rendell makes the same mistake Tyler made: he tries to use the keys to impress a girl. Except Rendell fucked up even more spectacularly than his son did.

Saturday Splash Page #116

 

"No-Frills Commuter Flight," in Sub-Mariner (vol. 1) #35, by Roy Thomas (writer), Sal Buscema (penciler), Jim Mooney (inker), Jean Izzo (letterer), colorist uncredited

The three issues of Namor's late 1960s-early 1970s series I own are courtesy of Essential Defenders Volume 1. The first picks up from the final issue of Dr. Strange's first series, as Strange enlists Namor's helps defending Earth from the Undying Ones. That issue starts with Namor returning to Atlantis, but having lost his gills as a result of some aliens abducting and experimenting on him 4 issues earlier.

Roy Thomas resolves that within a handful of pages and then sends Namor off to help Strange, although it ends with Strange sending Namor back to Earth and staying behind to fight the Undying Ones himself (the Hulk would later help Strange escape, but Barbara Norriss gets left behind.)

The other two issues involve Atlantean scientists realizing the U.S. Army is building a device which could screw up the entire world's weather. No one's going to listen to Namor with all the times he's attacked the surface world, so he'll have to stop the device by force, and that means allies. The Silver Surfer buys in on the premise of protecting this world of madmen (after the customary misunderstanding fight with Namor.) The Hulk's busy destabilizing a Latin American dictatorship because they decided to shoot at him, but he's on board for smashing some different soldiers.

The two-parter sets the tone for a lot of Defenders stories. Minus Dr. Strange's (or later Valkyire and Hellcat) more level-headed demeanor, Hulk is less a teammate than a natural disaster you can gently nudge in a certain direction. He fights the Army, Namor, the Avengers when they show, Namor and the Surfer again when he tries to just smash the machine rather than letting the Army agree to more study before implementation. The Surfer spends a lot of time moaning about human tendencies towards violence, but is he any better for responding in kind. Certainly not any less annoying. Namor tries to just order everyone around, which goes as well as you'd expect.

What I Bought 3/13/2024

Welp, did not go to a comic convention last weekend. Did try a gaming store, but it was more collectible card games than video games. Also, they had a box of comics, but it was basically just The Walking Dead. Anyway, I'm typing this Thursday, waiting to see if a tornado shows up. Hopefully not!

Power Pack: Into the Storm #3, by Louise Simonson (writer), June Brigman (artist), Roy Richardson (inker), Nolan Woodard (color artist), Travis Lanham (letterer) - Storm gambling the Brood are terrified of the color blue.

Franklin's apparent death is immediately revealed as a fake-out. The ship's just caught in a Brood tractor beam, and Franklin's body gets wrapped in some fiber stuff that would keep him asleep, if, you know, he wasn't asleep already. So while Franklin goes back to Earth and brings Storm in the ship, the Pack stage a rescue attempt.

The rescue is going pretty badly until Storm shows up and takes advantage of the large amount of lightning available on the alien world's atmosphere. The kids are free, but the storm goes out of control and causes the Brood ship to crash and explode. So for the second time since the end of last issue, the Power kids think someone in their little group has died. At least this time, we already know Djinna is a prisoner of her aunt, along with Franklin's unconscious body. Still, that feels like going to the same well too quickly.

Kofi insists on trying to save Djinna himself, but the effect of teleporting that far makes him easy prey for Mayhem. And the Pack and Storm are back on the alien world. So it feels like all that's changed is who is a hostage, and who's holding them. Mayhem seems to have plans to use the kids' powers for herself, just like the Brood. It's just that her plans don't involve planting embryos inside them.

One thing I notice is how quick all these kids are too try and take the blame for things when they go wrong. Alex tries to blame himself when they think Franklin is dead. Kofi thinks it's his job to rescue Djinna. Some of it is these are superhero comics, so the characters are going to care about doing the right thing (and Kofi's dad clearly places a lot of expectations on him as a future public figure.) But I'd expect kids to deny responsibility at least some of the time.

Black Widow and Hawkeye #1, by Stephanie Phillips (writer), Paolo Villanelli (artist), Mattia Iacono (color artist), Joe Sabino (letterer) - That arrowhead looks weird.

Hawkeye's on the run from a lot of people, for killing a Russian Foreign Minister. Mockingbird's being watched too closely to help, but the Black Widow's not. Didn't realize those two had become pals, but why not? All superheroes are pals now. 

By the time she finds the guy released from Russian prison to kill Clint, he claims he already blew Hawkeye up. Wrong, but unfortunately there are other killers with the professionalism to try and finish the job. Just not before the Widow shows up. She tries to make Hawkeye leave Madripoor, but he refuses. In fact, he doesn't want her involved at all. So he's determined to solve it alone, since he's being hunted. Because he's stubborn and arrogant. Natasha's going to stick around, figuring he can't do it alone. Because she's also stubborn and arrogant.

At any rate, Clint's explanation is phrased in such a way as to imply he's guilty. I figure it's another fake-out where he was watching the press conference, and saw someone who looks just like him release the arrow that killed the guy. Or the whole thing is faked footage. A.I. generated crap that nobody's debunked for. . .reasons. Ominous reasons.

So far, the fact the Black Widow has a symbiote is something I can largely ignore. She uses it to get information - via symbiote spiders crawling into the guy's brain? - and to restrain one of Hawkeye's attackers. Which makes it basically a tool. Like her bracelets. I can deal with that. This "give everyone a symbiote" thing is still stupid.

Villanelli seems to have a lot of panels with close-ups on things. Clint's bow, Natasha's hand as the symbiote reforms around it, a mechanical hook arm that clasps Hawkeye's ankle. Sometimes they're smaller panels set against the backdrop of a larger establishing shot, and sometimes they're one in a sequence of rapid-fire panels. It works as a point of emphasis.

Waiting for the Sun to Rise

Eight friends gather at a remote house in the mountains, one year after their last gathering, when two other friends - younger sisters of another member of the group, who is voiced by Rami Malek, and he must have some serious molars, because he chews scenery like his life depends on getting all possible nutrition from it - went missing in a snowstorm.

As soon as they arrive, weird shit starts happening. The lights act strangely, there are weird noises and doors closing for no apparent reason. One friend is pulled through a window into the snow, and there's a maniac in a clown mask drugging people and playing games out of Saw. There's someone with a flamethrower roaming the woods. You periodically adjourn to a strange room to chat with a psychiatrist - voiced by Peter Stormare - who asks what you're more afraid of, or what you value more in a person. 

Until Dawn changes based on your decisions. In theory, anyway. You jump between different characters over the course of the game. Mostly you walk from one place to another, keeping alert for clues or other items. How many of them you find can also affect the game at certain points.

Or at least unlock different cut scenes. The game feels like it's always going to arrive at certain story beats. I couldn't avoid Chris and Ashley getting knocked the fuck out by clown maniac, or keeping Emily and Matt out of the fire tower. I didn't seem able to avert a certain confrontation at the very end of the game. I guess there was always the option to get all the characters killed before reaching that point.

When you aren't walking, you're usually talking, and the game will give you two options on how to respond. Usually one is kind or humble, the other blunt or cruel. You select by moving the right thumbstick one direction or the other. These affect your relationships with the character you're speaking to, although I'm not sure how much of a difference that makes, either. A few times I tried being very blunt or rude. Basically acting like a dick to see what happened. It didn't seem to have that big an impact on the plot.

Outside walking and talking, there are a lot of quick-time events. You're climbing a wall, and you have to hit a button or you lose your grip. You're fleeing something through the woods, hit the triangle button when it tells you or get clotheslined by a tree. Sometimes it's about hitting or shooting something. There'll be a little targeting reticle, and you have to move your controller over it in the time allotted.

One thing the game does, that I had to make myself remember, is give you the option to not do anything. Not all the time, but just because there's a reticle over something, doesn't mean you have to attack. Just because the game offers two choices of what to do, doesn't mean you have to take them. Those moments are marked by the choices having a ring that shortens as time ticks away. If there's none of that, you're gonna have to choose or the game won't advance. But there were a few times "doing nothing" was the best call.

Along those lines, there's the "DON'T MOVE!" challenges, where you have to hold the controller very still, or you'll be detected. When I knew they were coming, I found having my forearms resting on my knees took care of that challenge pretty handily. If you have shaky hands though, I imagine it would get frustrating. Maybe you could set the controller on the floor or a table before it started.

My first play-through, I tried to find everything, missed several things, and ended up with only 3 survivors (plus one character that was alive, but everyone probably assumed was dead.) All the deaths happened in the last 20 minutes or so of the game. Two because I chose poorly, two because I botched consecutive "DON'T MOVE!"s.

Second try, still only 3 survivors, but mostly different survivors. I didn't make the same wrong choices, and I passed the "DON'T MOVE!"s, but then I had Sam run for the light switch too soon. I knew Mike was gonna get blown up, but I saw Chris run outside and figured everyone was clear. The game doesn't always show everyone's movements. When Mike is traversing the old hospital with the wolf, there are some times I don't know how the wolf got ahead of Mike, considering the door was locked, but it managed some how. So I assumed that was the case here and, nope, blew Ashley and Emily right to hell.

So I tried the last chapter again and managed 5 survivors. Mike still bought it - no big loss there - but I was annoyed in the credits cut scenes where Sam blames herself because Mike told her not to move and she didn't listen. That's bullshit. I stood perfectly still, and Mike still got his neck snapped.

There are obvious limits to how much the game recognizes and adapts to the choices you make. And that seems to manifest most obviously in terms of Matt. Matt is Emily's current boyfriend, after she and Mike broke up some time in the year interval. And Matt seems to be there mostly to be yelled at by Emily, or feel insecure she might still be hooking up with Mike. He's also the only black character in the game.

They end up in a fire tower that is tipped over into a mine shaft. First time I played, I made one attempt to save Emily (dangling from a railing above a void), and then had Matt leap to safety before the thing collapsed. Then Matt doesn't show up again for a couple of hours of gameplay, after having barely been a playable character, and only returns when he encounters another character, who also hadn't been seen in a few hours, but also got more time as the main earlier in the game. Emily survived the drop, because a rope somehow looped around her ankle(?), and you play as her for at least one very long stretch before ever seeing Matt again.

Second try, all right, let's have Matt be resolute in his attempts to save Emily. I kept trying until the tower fell into the void. They still get separated, Emily still survives the fall. Matt ends up on a different level of the mine shaft, but I'm playing as him immediately after. Progress! Walk for five seconds, cut scene, Matt is attacked and killed.

When checking the "Butterfly Effect" info screen, it points out Emily kept the flare gun Matt found, so he had nothing to defend himself with. OK, goddamnit, third try. Emily, give Matt the flare gun. Now he'll have a weapon when the tower falls.

Matt immediately turns and shoots the flare into the night sky of a howling blizzard when they're alone on the fucking mountain. The tower falls, I try to save Emily, Matt lands on that ledge, Matt dies seconds later. Why did the game make the point that Emily keeping the flare gun meant Matt had nothing to fight with, if he wasn't going to have it to fight with anyway?!

You might be saying, 'Calvin, why not just, not try and save Emily?' Well, because when I went the "jump to safety" route the first time, Matt's lack of a weapon never came up as a critical factor. So it didn't seem like whether he had the flare gun or not was going to change anything.

The game has some effective jump scares and suspenseful moments, but it sells itself on how you can replay it to make different choices and see what that changes. Setting aside my frustration with the limitations of the butterfly effect, if you keep replaying it, the scares wear off, because you've seen them before. I'm not nervous about the wendigo being inches away from Sam, because I know as long as I don't fuck up "DON'T MOVE!", she's fine for the next few seconds. Sudden movements don't startle me. So there's tension between the two sides of the game.

Last Course

That's why he's the perfect choice. Anyone who wanted the job couldn't be trusted with it. First rule of politics.

The third and final volume of Rokurou Ogaki's Crazy Food Truck picks up where volume 2 ended. Arisa's been taken captive by the leader of some minor principality that isn't interested in being part of the larger global community. So Gordon has to team-up with his old subordinate Major Kyle, Kyle's subordinate Tanaka, and Arisa's little sister Myna, to rescue Arisa.

That's dealt with in one chapter, thanks to a heavily modified, even crazier food truck, and the soldiers not being too excited to fight when they learn they've been guarding giant eels for generations.

The remainder of the volume is about Arisa, and the terms of her existence. She's part of a major genetic engineering project that a lot of resources were invested in. More than that, her accelerated healing and other abilities need a periodic injection to maintain. An injection she's not getting while she's cruising around the wasteland with a man who's supposed to be dead.

(There's a few pages in there detailing why this famous general is supposed to be keeping a low profile. It also introduces a couple other members of Gordon's officer clique who we never see otherwise.)

Vald wants her back for the signs of progress. Colonel Sarah wants her back for Arisa's safety. Even Gordon agrees Arisa will be better taken care of if she returns, but Arisa disagrees. She'd rather stay with Gordon and eat his cooking, risks and all.

After that, it's pretty a running fight, as Gordon and Arisa try to survive a massive armed force, with a couple of assists. I'm surprised Ogaki didn't use this as the chance to bring in those other two characters he'd introduced. Have Kyle or Sarah give them a ring and see if they show up to help their old general out. We only know that Gordon's five subordinates were enough to help him survive one battle against overwhelming odds, but we don't see the battle. Maybe Ogaki originally intended for this to go more than 3 volumes? Or maybe he just liked the idea of Gordon having other friends that don't show up here.

I find myself more confused than ever how old Arisa is supposed to be. We're told she's 17 in volume 1, but here we learn her cells are "activated" cells, based off Colonel Sarah's. But Sarah admits she only started her involvement with this project after Gordon's "death." Which means 3 years ago. It's possible Arisa already existed and was enhanced by the injection of the cells, but Ogaki makes it explicit that she looks like Sarah (something Gordon hadn't noticed). Which makes it seem she's a child that was aged at a greatly accelerated rate.

All of which is to say, her and Gordon having sex seemed a questionable decision to me, not to mention unnecessary. Ogaki's established she likes traveling with Gordon, and she really likes eating his food. Gordon likes having her around, and likes how much she enjoys eating his cooking. Why does it need to be more than that?

I don't know if Gordon and Arisa's fate is meant to be sad or inspiring. They aren't trying to interfere with the grand plans of the people in the big chairs, but the planners still won't leave them alone. I think it's supposed to be inspiring, but it might depend on how the reader feels about "live free or die." It didn't really hit me any which way, which is surprising. I expected to feel something about it.

Action Point - 2018

"Jackass, but it's an amusement park," essentially. Johnny Knoxville plays an elderly grandfather, telling his granddaughter about the amusement park he used to own back in the days before pesky things like safety regulations and health codes. 

So most of the movie is Knoxville, minus make-up and grey hair, running his park - or being run over by the attractions in his park - and day drinking constantly. Setting aside all the parts that are just about watching someone get hurt, whether it's Knoxville being blasted down the water slide by a firehose, or thrown through the side of a barn by a trebuchet, or an employee being shot in the butt with one of those automatic tennis ball shooters (which they have built into a little motorized tank for kids to use on the go-kart course), or - 

Where was I going with this? Oh, right, the parts of the movie other than the slapstick comedy/personal injury. A good portion of it is Knoxville trying to save his park from an annoying land developer working with a new, larger, more modern park. This takes the form of various bits; coming up with new attractions, sneaking an ad on the local TV broadcast. The sort of stuff from movies with similar plots in the '80s and '90s. I did rather like the one where they pretend to be people protesting how dangerous the park is to make people want to come.

The other half, placed in conflict with saving the park, is Knoxville's attempts to be a good dad for his daughter, Boogie (Eleanor Worthington-Cox), who is visiting for the summer. He tries to encourage her creativity and for her to take an interest in the park, but that's the problem. Between the park and Boogie, Boogie keeps losing.

The resolution of the two conflicts is not at all what I expected, but still satisfying. Knoxville's character makes a decision about who is most important to him, and what he has to give up on to stay in her life. But he manages to do so in a way that is still juvenile, petty, and ruins the day of the worst people.

Akira Toriyama

Akira Toriyama died on March 1, although the official announcement was delayed a week to grant the family time to mourn privately. I'm glad that happened, if a little surprised no one blew it by just not being able to help texting a friend with the news.

I suspect if you are someone to which that information is significant, you already knew. It's a little staggering, to see Jackie Chan or the President of France, sharing their thoughts and feelings at Toriyama's passing. The reach of the characters and stories he created, the number of people that felt their lives enriched by his work.

This is going to ramble, I don't know. Like a lot of people in the U.S., I first encountered his work through DragonBall Z on Cartoon Network. The fighting, the transformations, the long sequences of powering up while screaming loudly. A lot of that was padding done for 22-minute episodes, rather than being like that in the actual story Toriyama wrote and drew. Example: When he powers up for the Kaioken x 3 against Vegeta, the powering takes over 75 seconds in the anime. In the manga, it's less than 4 pages, and most of two of those pages are other characters reacting to what he's doing (selling that yes, this is as dangerous to Goku as it is to Vegeta, as matter of establishing stakes.)

There's a post on Tumblr, talking about how Toriyama drew fight scenes. The clarity and simplicity of the action. The knowledge of when to remove the surroundings details so all the focus is on that kick, that punch, the impending beam struggle. That even when the character's attacks have big elaborate names - like Thunder Shock Surprise - it's still presented as a straightforward, easy-to-follow, movement. That's no small thing. If you've read many comics, whether Japanese, American, whatever, you've probably seen plenty with just awful fight scenes. Either the characters look static, like mannequins posing, or there's no sense of where anyone is in relation to one another or what's actually going on.

I've heard that DragonBall, in addition to drawing heavily for Journey to the West, was always Toriyama having some fun spoofing what were the conventions of shonen anime at that time. If true, crazy to think what he created became the new standard that so many others would draw from or emulate. It also points to what I didn't realize until I actually encountered DragonBall: As good as Toriyama was at action, he was a comedy guy first.

Dr. Slump is the most notable example (albeit one I haven't read), but going through the Akira Toriyama Manga Theater, most of the his shorter works, and especially the earliest ones, were comedy. Where there's action or violence, it's in service to a joke. The pilot in Wonder Island, so condescending and rude, who tries to show off his homemade wings, and falls flat on his face. Or one of the locals shouts so loudly the word strikes the pilot in the face as a physical blow.

And that carried over to DragonBall, with one of Goku's early attacks being the Rock-Paper-Scissors Attack, which he then uses successfully against Jackie Chun by yelling "Rock!", but doing a 3 Stooges eye-poke (i.e., scissors). Or Krillin beating a big smelly opponent by farting in the guy's face. Or the leader of the Red Ribbon Army just wanting the Dragon Balls so he can wish to be taller.

Which is also a little terrifying, that this guy formed an army that killed and pillaged, to get a magic dragon that could grant him anything, just to make him taller. But Toriyama was also good at making villains who had petty goals and grievances, but were ruthless about achieving them. Kind of a valuable life lesson, not to underestimate someone just because their goals seem small or limited to you. Those are the kinds of things a person might fight the most viciously for.

Although the lesson I try to take most to heart is the idea not to calcify, to withdraw and become stagnant. It's part of the Kame School creed to live well, eat well, study well, play well. To do whatever you do to the fullest, to not just accept a limitation imposed on you. But it comes up in Toriyama's other work. Characters that have isolated themselves. They're bitter or jaded, just going through the motions. But when they stretch themselves, go different places, or even see old places with a new outlook, their perspective changes. Things don't seem so hopeless or pointless. You aren't dead until you're truly dead, but you can let yourself drift into spiritual death so easily.

Sunday Splash Page #313

 

"Weird War Tales," in Locke and Key: Keys to the Kingdom #4, by Joe Hill (writer), Gabriel Rodriguez (artist), Jay Fotos (colorist), Robbie Robbins (letterer)

Volume 4 of Locke and Key is a mixed bag. On the plus side, Hill and Rodriguez get more creative with the format of the issues. Issue 1 is set so that on each page, there's a 4-panel, newspaper cartoon strip running down the center that focuses on Bode's adventures as a sparrow (courtesy of the Animal Key.) Rodriguez modifies his style to something closer to Bill Watterson's for that, while retaining his usual look for what Tyler and Kinsey are doing in the meantime.

Issue 2 involves the Locke kids meeting an old friend of their father's, who is not in a good way. That Erin Voss is black leads into some discussion of racism and how little the Locke kids understand about that. Nothing more ever comes of Kinsey using the Skin Key to make herself black long enough to speak to Erin, so I don't know how great an idea that was.

Issue 3 covers February, with little calendar pages as panels in an upper corner. The kids fend off a series of attacks from the "dark lady", while their personal lives and relationships fall to pieces. Kinsey tried dating "Zack" (i.e., Dodge/The Dark Lady), but he refuses her request to share something with her from his mind via the Head Key. She turns to Scott and Jamal, but that leads to some chest-thumping between the two of them and the dissolution of their friendship with each other and Kinsey. And Jordan deliberately fucks things up with Tyler, which puts him in a irresponsible mood.

Issue 4 is Sam's ghost trying to recruit Rufus (the son of Dodge's old girlfriend/current "mother") to beat Dodge. Rufus tends to discuss things in soldier-speak, so Sam makes his ghost look like a sergeant, and Rodriguez draws some of the panels to match Rufus' imagination or himself as a big, tough soldier.

Then in the last two issues, multiple characters figure out something's going on with "Zack." Tyler, the detective that's been hanging around, and Sam all take a run at Dodge, and he slips past all of them into the perfect disguise. After spending an entire issue that established Dodge can't see Sam's ghost, Sam's big attempt to thwart Dodge goes to hell because Dodge had him outsmarted all the time anyway. No idea how Dodge got back the Music Box the Locke kids briefly contend with in issue 3 - presumably he swiped it back during one of his visits to Kinsey - but either way he's got it to keep Tyler busy.

It's just incredibly frustrating because Hill established right off in volume 1 that while Dodge is absolutely an unrepentant murderer and sadist, he's no criminal mastermind. He couldn't convincingly fake a suicide for the old professor or keep people from recognizing him, he can't keep Tyler hoodwinked, but somehow he was able to outmaneuver all these characters into thinking he's been dealt with.

Saturday Splash Page #115

 

"Brake Check", in Sudden Death #1, by Alexander Banks-Jongman (writer), Robert Ahmad (artist), DC Hopkins (letterer)

This came out last year, as sort of sampler for the collected edition of the story. Which is only available on the Scout Comics' website, which explains why I never saw a listing or solicitation for it.

Hank Kelly is a divorced single guy struggling with anger and self-worth issues, trying to get his life together so he can gain custody of his daughter, who he describes as the 'one good thing in his life.' On the way to the custody hearing, Hank get run over by a truck (see above image). He wakes up 5 hours later, completely fine, and an instant celebrity.

There's a catch, of course, as a man somewhere else spontaneously bursts. Suggesting that Hank's survival comes at the cost of someone else. From there, Hank's going to try using the celebrity to bolster his self-image and put his family back together, while a reporter is digging into what's going on. The hell of it would be, the first page establishes Hank has suicidal thoughts, which makes me think he'd take that option when everything falls apart. Except it would only get another innocent person killed.

Ahmad does almost the entire book in the blue/white color scheme you see above. There are a few panels that flashback over Hank's family life after he's run over that Ahmad uses a golden yellow with the white, and two done in grey when we're looking at a TV screen, but otherwise, it's that sort of melancholy blue. I don't know if it shifts as Hank's star rises and falls, that'd seem like a reasonable guess.