tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-199327772024-03-18T16:40:52.252-05:00Reporting on Marvels and Legends18 years of talking about comics, books, and movies. My gosh.CalvinPitthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11815632086057048846noreply@blogger.comBlogger5999125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19932777.post-82672406925323632002024-03-18T06:00:00.107-05:002024-03-18T06:00:00.132-05:00Reforged<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJ5-NGXYZP8xzncl7jzN2wMHDcwfgR3FMkv4mx6-pSKzJYcfZEN3BdNx5ue3MsNSE-Rj9Ge0__5HEebWkG9_dtxldB-WIp0FK0bMpKLwsiJwR9U8LeiO0pl0ltYfAhEcC-sB0NM69JoAGotlpBgzuDqa9_wqbX3FHc9f73YQLEX3A3vrtRdDAMzw/s600/IMG_20240313_0001.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="344" data-original-width="600" height="229" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJ5-NGXYZP8xzncl7jzN2wMHDcwfgR3FMkv4mx6-pSKzJYcfZEN3BdNx5ue3MsNSE-Rj9Ge0__5HEebWkG9_dtxldB-WIp0FK0bMpKLwsiJwR9U8LeiO0pl0ltYfAhEcC-sB0NM69JoAGotlpBgzuDqa9_wqbX3FHc9f73YQLEX3A3vrtRdDAMzw/w400-h229/IMG_20240313_0001.jpg" title="They don't call him "Iron Nuts."" width="400" /></a></div>Maybe it's because you saying things like, <i>"You women."</i> <br /><p></p><p>Volume 1 of Kaare Andrews' <b>Iron Fist: The Living Weapon</b>, 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.</p><p>Volume 2, which covers the second half of the series and is subtitled <i>"Redemption"</i> 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.</p><p>In keeping with the first six issues, Andrews continues to play the <i>"everything you knew is wrong"</i> 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.</p><p>Except going back to Danny's earliest adventures, through his Heroes for Hire years with Luke Cage, and into <i>Immortal Iron Fist</i>, 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.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZjcwA1jwkKDJ5wCbmQT9mRMO2idEPfnqdjLw6TiCwI1ce-TW3hNZWqI2otimoDHqUnHTpjt7CPgS_I_1EVuoHJztNdJ_NHkCCpzcRxHB1F0ZTYk7k-bZJFzFEuPUg3QJ0hI7Z5IcZnl4sykck72BIpvbj2VtFPXguwu49ADtFIFEwl7k0t0NQ5w/s600/IMG_20240313_0002.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="557" data-original-width="600" height="371" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZjcwA1jwkKDJ5wCbmQT9mRMO2idEPfnqdjLw6TiCwI1ce-TW3hNZWqI2otimoDHqUnHTpjt7CPgS_I_1EVuoHJztNdJ_NHkCCpzcRxHB1F0ZTYk7k-bZJFzFEuPUg3QJ0hI7Z5IcZnl4sykck72BIpvbj2VtFPXguwu49ADtFIFEwl7k0t0NQ5w/w400-h371/IMG_20240313_0002.jpg" title="The bear jaws of death." width="400" /></a></div><p></p><p>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.</p><p>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.</p><p>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.) <br /></p><p>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.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUtg0q-zCfjznZm0YTdvmLkuZRypsd6PRvW9H_DyKrBX8DEWys5HWWbY0qGQl9HAyl6flnyVv6mriQvAHEOQyFrf0jxXDtY0RgnXzhiQuxtHodyqtRGxj1Ho5t33TDhDer0pNiAQbHhJOmYfRWbR_HlKVX46ufIJWVxOryfqgQw-B0eSHrUJ3aCg/s600/IMG_20240313_0003.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="355" data-original-width="600" height="236" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUtg0q-zCfjznZm0YTdvmLkuZRypsd6PRvW9H_DyKrBX8DEWys5HWWbY0qGQl9HAyl6flnyVv6mriQvAHEOQyFrf0jxXDtY0RgnXzhiQuxtHodyqtRGxj1Ho5t33TDhDer0pNiAQbHhJOmYfRWbR_HlKVX46ufIJWVxOryfqgQw-B0eSHrUJ3aCg/w400-h236/IMG_20240313_0003.jpg" title="The gnat buzzing 'round the elephant." width="400" /></a></div><p></p><p>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, <i>"the hero's got it! No, no, nevermind, he doesn't,"</i> 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.<br /></p><p>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.<br /></p>CalvinPitthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11815632086057048846noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19932777.post-16439733718439753112024-03-17T11:56:00.070-05:002024-03-17T11:56:00.247-05:00Sunday Splash Page #314<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgwQ4QSSUhCWJsxeQpSWubW81AdpaPjlLgfO9UbzoXncNIBzeMYtSqXSFUpOb3tZ9DXcoS3jbboAZ0ULu89HV6qaklYIt-kZtusjZHn57i1ilOeEmN83lD7zy7gAXEXaa7ZnHFZyxALtQdWHL5d3vcinjsWdT_wqQXhY7w5w-Gf_wiRPUgM6zIkdQ/s800/IMG_20240112_0008.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="503" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgwQ4QSSUhCWJsxeQpSWubW81AdpaPjlLgfO9UbzoXncNIBzeMYtSqXSFUpOb3tZ9DXcoS3jbboAZ0ULu89HV6qaklYIt-kZtusjZHn57i1ilOeEmN83lD7zy7gAXEXaa7ZnHFZyxALtQdWHL5d3vcinjsWdT_wqQXhY7w5w-Gf_wiRPUgM6zIkdQ/w402-h640/IMG_20240112_0008.jpg" title="This is what the Pilgrims called a, "Salem Hootenanny."" width="402" /></a> </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><i>"The Door of Horrors," in <b>Locke and Key: Clockworks #1</b>, by Joe Hill (writer), Gabriel Rodriguez (artist), Jay Fotos (colorist), Robbie Robbins (letterer)</i></div><p>The fifth volume of <i>Locke & Key</i> 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.</p><p>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.<br /></p><p>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.<br /></p><p>(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.) <br /></p><p>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.<br /></p>CalvinPitthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11815632086057048846noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19932777.post-59788734562400388402024-03-16T14:00:00.066-05:002024-03-16T14:00:00.250-05:00Saturday Splash Page #116<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUl-ejn81Iem6H11omhJ6vZjqJsVViV8Or-0okRNw1neLgzgJoZY39VAeGK-faTjQSBf5k8JtleFPpYaVSbe9Kps7vLd8zi7heeLhw1RMAeecAjPZEjhPETZYWxF2MBkDcFPDBk_Ut2pa5ApEEy_YH0rg8M7cel3daVodKOiJHGGVXZkX50v43NA/s800/IMG_20231222_0009.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="556" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUl-ejn81Iem6H11omhJ6vZjqJsVViV8Or-0okRNw1neLgzgJoZY39VAeGK-faTjQSBf5k8JtleFPpYaVSbe9Kps7vLd8zi7heeLhw1RMAeecAjPZEjhPETZYWxF2MBkDcFPDBk_Ut2pa5ApEEy_YH0rg8M7cel3daVodKOiJHGGVXZkX50v43NA/w444-h640/IMG_20231222_0009.jpg" title="Surfer up there thinking, "What a world of madmen, that demand salted peanuts from me!"" width="444" /></a> </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><i>"No-Frills Commuter Flight," in <b>Sub-Mariner (vol. 1) #35</b>, by Roy Thomas (writer), Sal Buscema (penciler), Jim Mooney (inker), Jean Izzo (letterer), colorist uncredited</i></div><p>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 <a href="http://calvinpitt.blogspot.com/2021/03/sunday-splash-page-157.html">Dr. Strange's first series</a>, 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.</p><p>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.)</p><p>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.</p><p>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.<br /></p>CalvinPitthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11815632086057048846noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19932777.post-80515642355617810632024-03-15T15:00:00.108-05:002024-03-15T15:00:00.145-05:00What I Bought 3/13/2024<p>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 <i>The Walking Dead</i>. Anyway, I'm typing this Thursday, waiting to see if a tornado shows up. Hopefully not!</p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiL9Hg29qTPlCYisumTgPVTAIkknL4gpGkRf-D9LcEXdjoz72SeakCUDR6RY7VWrT3no56FMVSbRKYuluUbQTPNGYYD2pP2XN1i0eCGur-ti4BQOwspftfWwwKVfe8LyocO36h7khSHaheNmHtioaOvUFQWmd-eKJ3VfBjdPnIjHKlf6_DSR4G_pw/s450/Power%20Pack%20Into%20the%20Storm%203.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="450" data-original-width="296" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiL9Hg29qTPlCYisumTgPVTAIkknL4gpGkRf-D9LcEXdjoz72SeakCUDR6RY7VWrT3no56FMVSbRKYuluUbQTPNGYYD2pP2XN1i0eCGur-ti4BQOwspftfWwwKVfe8LyocO36h7khSHaheNmHtioaOvUFQWmd-eKJ3VfBjdPnIjHKlf6_DSR4G_pw/w131-h200/Power%20Pack%20Into%20the%20Storm%203.jpg" width="131" /></a></div><i>Power Pack: Into the Storm #3</i>, 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.<p></p><p>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.</p><p>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.</p><p>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.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCBfcYNmK_Z5fJkufFxQ6c2QGTWqGNI8zFC6En2WnHDJo5zthqVRKufkS8ISgNVC8p0ctnNCKZXymqabEX5jOReD8q8HZo2Aq9RnUgeIzPN8Dw0oST1ArY4D9FYDaGzcp7Ek-hai0XNmOnWP797Bc6KNb98JlZz6u08MwCebZrNdGoQHDYbrSwCw/s600/IMG_20240314_0001.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="265" data-original-width="600" height="176" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCBfcYNmK_Z5fJkufFxQ6c2QGTWqGNI8zFC6En2WnHDJo5zthqVRKufkS8ISgNVC8p0ctnNCKZXymqabEX5jOReD8q8HZo2Aq9RnUgeIzPN8Dw0oST1ArY4D9FYDaGzcp7Ek-hai0XNmOnWP797Bc6KNb98JlZz6u08MwCebZrNdGoQHDYbrSwCw/w400-h176/IMG_20240314_0001.jpg" title="Little sister's ultimate argument-ender." width="400" /></a></div><p></p><p>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.</p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEha_sj0VpP4iKjpRZbQOIO2di7Vehhc0dgmE1LJ0I6lS_4WGwTD5QZpuqeHX6rQNWQl5k28URB-dUdhp_okt4VdcKy8EpYju51RahX11o2S_W-vnAtn0MKGZ8O-UexoxUS0lAcEV5QYdwI5ql7Xw_RbTSCSjGkclEQQSSvTEblKHOXw6x8BPfdzOw/s450/Black%20Widow%20&%20Hawkeye%20%231.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="450" data-original-width="296" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEha_sj0VpP4iKjpRZbQOIO2di7Vehhc0dgmE1LJ0I6lS_4WGwTD5QZpuqeHX6rQNWQl5k28URB-dUdhp_okt4VdcKy8EpYju51RahX11o2S_W-vnAtn0MKGZ8O-UexoxUS0lAcEV5QYdwI5ql7Xw_RbTSCSjGkclEQQSSvTEblKHOXw6x8BPfdzOw/w131-h200/Black%20Widow%20&%20Hawkeye%20%231.jpg" width="131" /></a></div><i>Black Widow and Hawkeye #1</i>, by Stephanie Phillips (writer), Paolo Villanelli (artist), Mattia Iacono (color artist), Joe Sabino (letterer) - That arrowhead looks weird.<p></p><p>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. </p><p>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.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjt1nFbN3507jNDvSbZDIZCaCx1MqpEPWbJPTRxhapLD7koeQaVPqi_uqVMRG94uPcaYEU_icD8mf2jSv8U2DlpVltSWR33hTJt-ZyVAssO8Cm2M4ze7BAv8h_TetFtjjruZHkVOusyIoeDLlRvMLKh1YubCKdufoQlJ0orBU5wZkYzaLNUsmbRjQ/s600/IMG_20240314_0002.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="283" data-original-width="600" height="189" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjt1nFbN3507jNDvSbZDIZCaCx1MqpEPWbJPTRxhapLD7koeQaVPqi_uqVMRG94uPcaYEU_icD8mf2jSv8U2DlpVltSWR33hTJt-ZyVAssO8Cm2M4ze7BAv8h_TetFtjjruZHkVOusyIoeDLlRvMLKh1YubCKdufoQlJ0orBU5wZkYzaLNUsmbRjQ/w400-h189/IMG_20240314_0002.jpg" title="Invite her for beer and Parcheesi some time, then." width="400" /></a></div><p></p><p>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.<br /></p><p>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.</p><p>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.<br /></p>CalvinPitthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11815632086057048846noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19932777.post-79904825673118122912024-03-14T12:27:00.153-05:002024-03-14T12:27:00.133-05:00Waiting for the Sun to Rise<p>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 the scenery like his very life depends on getting all possible nutrition from it - went missing in a snowstorm.</p><p>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 of the friends is pulled through a window into the snow, and there's a maniac in a clown mask drugging people and playing games out of <i>Saw</i>. 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 you what you're more afraid of, and what you value more in a person, loyalty or honesty? <br /></p><p><i>Until Dawn</i> is a game that 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.</p><p>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.</p><p>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, while the other is blunt or cruel. You select by moving the right thumbstick one direction or the other. These affects 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.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiSCOGMSkDawF82h8oYD7gyFZFMWTTisJKpItJC8lcR_ZjZmgbAMaz9zWEfGICFKj16SuoIqVC9vANCRmVxRjxxdAHPl8Pp3rLdZyH7gjTrcaheifLtgXd7xOZ2Kw-OMyk9neWWp2QvFXrsEwXc5iprqQM5K1tgoFzPDPFrr5Gv3IA7NoE_Giwrsw/s800/decisions%20decisions.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="449" data-original-width="800" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiSCOGMSkDawF82h8oYD7gyFZFMWTTisJKpItJC8lcR_ZjZmgbAMaz9zWEfGICFKj16SuoIqVC9vANCRmVxRjxxdAHPl8Pp3rLdZyH7gjTrcaheifLtgXd7xOZ2Kw-OMyk9neWWp2QvFXrsEwXc5iprqQM5K1tgoFzPDPFrr5Gv3IA7NoE_Giwrsw/w400-h225/decisions%20decisions.jpg" title="Is, "Go Jason Statham on his ass," an option?" width="400" /></a></div><p></p><p>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 you'll 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.</p><p>One thing the game does, that I had to make myself remember, is give you the option to not do anything. Not all the times, 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. <br /></p><p>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 really get frustrating. Maybe you could set the controller on the floor or a table before it started.</p><p>My first play-through, I tried to find everything, still missed several things, and ended up with only 3 survivors (plus one character that was alive, but everyone probably assumed he was dead.) And 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.</p><p>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 you 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.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhor7H6jAd4dAnBpV99VmpTcXFPkZfQSCsLfV3MLlxq0gnklrsngi3T7BDF8pxz9ORgqtJSV7FtLzznDPLZmV3nXMYUVoyObthX5dXYmEfJZTpaBqGYZHJDs-7n3PlPeDfgOumANOjLuAGKcU8wIWPb6EAr_Y6TEHUTM114hYYhQHO1Vf1onukymQ/s800/Until+Dawn+(6)+PCV.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="449" data-original-width="800" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhor7H6jAd4dAnBpV99VmpTcXFPkZfQSCsLfV3MLlxq0gnklrsngi3T7BDF8pxz9ORgqtJSV7FtLzznDPLZmV3nXMYUVoyObthX5dXYmEfJZTpaBqGYZHJDs-7n3PlPeDfgOumANOjLuAGKcU8wIWPb6EAr_Y6TEHUTM114hYYhQHO1Vf1onukymQ/w400-h225/Until+Dawn+(6)+PCV.jpg" title="Wendigo breath is as bad as you'd expect." width="400" /></a></div><p></p><p>So I tried that 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.</p><p>So 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 that she might still be hooking up with Mike. He's also the only black character in the game.<br /></p><p>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 Mike doesn't show up again for a couple of hours of gameplay, after having barely been a playable character up to that point, and only 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. <br /></p><p>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 much sooner. Progress! Walk for five seconds, cut scene, matt is attacked and killed.</p><p>When checking the "Butterfly Effect" info screen, I note 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.</p><p>Matt immediately turns and shoots the flare gun 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?!</p><p>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'd ever had the flare gun or not was going to change anything.</p><p>The game has some effective jump scares and suspenseful moments, but part of what it sells itself on is how you can replay it to make different choices and see what that changes. Setting aside my frustration with the apparent 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 the "DON'T MOVE!", she's fine for the next few seconds. Sudden movements don't startle me. So there's a bit of tension between those two sides of the game.<br /></p>CalvinPitthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11815632086057048846noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19932777.post-62740228304904476482024-03-13T10:52:00.002-05:002024-03-13T10:52:00.245-05:00Last Course<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNk52dirgVSmZI56DDjGesgNdwIVgQoT8jQEJoNV7BRsWksu5SacRnvLLkV_MHZdm7vZYZJvYel8IheEzfqZsSyqcMhJeq_cpkx0dk_QvHoKUxG33KJ7XsemOnERSELrc3rO4ggfPg6y2GWRWLUWzK0AcqXy9plcVProJKXp5KrH84rqEfYmlszg/s600/IMG_20240303_0001.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="233" data-original-width="600" height="155" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNk52dirgVSmZI56DDjGesgNdwIVgQoT8jQEJoNV7BRsWksu5SacRnvLLkV_MHZdm7vZYZJvYel8IheEzfqZsSyqcMhJeq_cpkx0dk_QvHoKUxG33KJ7XsemOnERSELrc3rO4ggfPg6y2GWRWLUWzK0AcqXy9plcVProJKXp5KrH84rqEfYmlszg/w400-h155/IMG_20240303_0001.jpg" title="Me, when anyone at work asks if I want to lead a project." width="400" /></a></div>That's why he's the perfect choice. Anyone who wanted the job couldn't be trusted with it. First rule of politics.<br /><p></p><p>The third and final volume of Rokurou Ogaki's <i>Crazy Food Truck</i> 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.</p><p>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.</p><p>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.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjIVtbEyN3s8_Qz-CweF_wQUVJDfyjgjSxcqVi322-zk8cf96zE1NSRaFJ4DW2KKqABG2ZTQGPI9NwzQNsgLoEw6flM5o4e7Xb8bLpEzjIeddFeAeMBZpK0ug7UcRZQpFvzj-QOh9zMMsuFVgRGGLbBEj7iF3118IjtJqSxFN9z6gRdOD2qw4wEvg/s600/IMG_20240303_0002.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="378" data-original-width="600" height="253" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjIVtbEyN3s8_Qz-CweF_wQUVJDfyjgjSxcqVi322-zk8cf96zE1NSRaFJ4DW2KKqABG2ZTQGPI9NwzQNsgLoEw6flM5o4e7Xb8bLpEzjIeddFeAeMBZpK0ug7UcRZQpFvzj-QOh9zMMsuFVgRGGLbBEj7iF3118IjtJqSxFN9z6gRdOD2qw4wEvg/w400-h253/IMG_20240303_0002.jpg" title="It would kill me, but I really want to try this culinary Cronenberg." width="400" /></a></div><p></p><p>(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.)<br /></p><p>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.</p><p>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.<br /></p><p>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.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjk1xSWcRi0RW5n55fK066oQv4MqpLBuzDnZ_Y4-bP8SLFcSM6_1X2M6_ZNapEQL4a3iicuPIB4b34V92wQfVuE6LYbX0XSl5GvWujPhEEO9kb70B4RVwSBK3TwmFqhf6zKEytVeZP7vxBKM6OoolXI9aj4gd-SWlHSQdyv6UBGSJ5C3IG0QngjLQ/s600/IMG_20240303_0003.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="391" data-original-width="600" height="261" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjk1xSWcRi0RW5n55fK066oQv4MqpLBuzDnZ_Y4-bP8SLFcSM6_1X2M6_ZNapEQL4a3iicuPIB4b34V92wQfVuE6LYbX0XSl5GvWujPhEEO9kb70B4RVwSBK3TwmFqhf6zKEytVeZP7vxBKM6OoolXI9aj4gd-SWlHSQdyv6UBGSJ5C3IG0QngjLQ/w400-h261/IMG_20240303_0003.jpg" title="You had a nuke in your microwave?! Oh, sorry, I miseard. Disregard." width="400" /></a></div><p></p><p>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?</p><p>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.<br /></p>CalvinPitthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11815632086057048846noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19932777.post-70064854488461767502024-03-12T08:30:00.054-05:002024-03-12T08:30:00.151-05:00Action Point - 2018<p>"<i>Jackass</i>, 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. </p><p>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 - </p><p>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.</p><p>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.</p><p>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.</p>CalvinPitthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11815632086057048846noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19932777.post-41561359885161870222024-03-11T11:59:00.156-05:002024-03-11T11:59:00.241-05:00Akira Toriyama<p>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.<br /></p><p>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.</p><p>This is going to ramble, I don't know. Like a lot of people in the U.S., I first encountered his work through <i>DragonBall Z</i> 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.)</p><p>There's a <a href="https://medakakurokami.tumblr.com/post/744354618244530176/one-thing-ive-always-understood-as-akira">post</a> 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.<br /></p><p>I've heard that <i>DragonBall</i>, in addition to drawing heavily for <i>Journey to the West</i>, 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 <i>DragonBall</i>: As good as Toriyama was at action, he was a comedy guy first.</p><p><i>Dr. Slump</i> is the most notable example (albeit one I haven't read), but going through the <a href="http://calvinpitt.blogspot.com/2023/07/fast-cars-leggy-ladies-and-giant.html">Akira Toriyama Manga Theater</a>, 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 <i>Wonder Island</i>, 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.</p><p>And that carried over to <i>DragonBall</i>, 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.</p><p>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.</p><p>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.<br /></p>CalvinPitthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11815632086057048846noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19932777.post-91215893374372607812024-03-10T11:30:00.061-05:002024-03-10T20:52:45.392-05:00Sunday Splash Page #313<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCC_vWxnQ9k4NuTyuW0-cwgivb_-3v1uKy1VYb1wXej_p95zLvJxpWLaDkjEhW2n5kfIU0zcFvvhxyOKwtrK8lAeotSZ9pJzBp9Iy_gKMtxY3iIrru-YFVu4UPPvn5qIM8rv2dM_oyqc7V7bGmjlKNjstKOqDOniusMlnDqpyPhtqrUfISyQ7C3w/s800/IMG_20240112_0007.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="501" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCC_vWxnQ9k4NuTyuW0-cwgivb_-3v1uKy1VYb1wXej_p95zLvJxpWLaDkjEhW2n5kfIU0zcFvvhxyOKwtrK8lAeotSZ9pJzBp9Iy_gKMtxY3iIrru-YFVu4UPPvn5qIM8rv2dM_oyqc7V7bGmjlKNjstKOqDOniusMlnDqpyPhtqrUfISyQ7C3w/w400-h640/IMG_20240112_0007.jpg" title="A gorilla redcoat and a robot. Definitely a DC war comic." width="400" /></a> </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><i>"Weird War Tales," in <b>Locke and Key: Keys to the Kingdom #4</b>, by Joe Hill (writer), Gabriel Rodriguez (artist), Jay Fotos (colorist), Robbie Robbins (letterer)</i></div><p>Volume 4 of <i>Locke and Key</i> 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.</p><p>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.</p><p>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.</p><p>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.</p><p>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.</p><p>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.<br /></p>CalvinPitthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11815632086057048846noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19932777.post-84833141360596518342024-03-09T12:30:00.029-06:002024-03-09T12:30:00.266-06:00Saturday Splash Page #115<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhnrxH1IQik13NEguDLxmCjflloPyP-wqwgaoYSiHOgGCzCJvMKZ-fKstNwVAX_xO9N6akEbjziJlK-4V5bWEj-ozdmtQTml0dIW17HYMqVuXPJoMhieOlSA04owelTFfW8Sbt5SWUplrAiIAk6oMHfcd9Uhhd3Er6RAUMvEHDMgBucnQBUHMZ6VA/s800/IMG_20240112_0002.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="518" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhnrxH1IQik13NEguDLxmCjflloPyP-wqwgaoYSiHOgGCzCJvMKZ-fKstNwVAX_xO9N6akEbjziJlK-4V5bWEj-ozdmtQTml0dIW17HYMqVuXPJoMhieOlSA04owelTFfW8Sbt5SWUplrAiIAk6oMHfcd9Uhhd3Er6RAUMvEHDMgBucnQBUHMZ6VA/w414-h640/IMG_20240112_0002.jpg" title="The truck driver's choice on the trolley test is based on whether you're a hot chick or not." width="414" /></a> </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><i>"Brake Check", in <b>Sudden Death #1</b>, by Alexander Banks-Jongman (writer), Robert Ahmad (artist), DC Hopkins (letterer)</i></div><p>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.</p><p>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 <i>'one good thing in his life.'</i> 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.</p><p>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.</p><p>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.<br /></p>CalvinPitthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11815632086057048846noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19932777.post-6569328107709577102024-03-08T14:30:00.157-06:002024-03-08T14:30:00.239-06:00What I Bought 3/6/2024<p>We're at the part of the NBA season where everyone is agog at the Boston Celtics' regular season success and proclaiming them a nigh-unstoppable juggernaut rolling towards a title. Ignoring, of course, the fact they said the same thing the last two seasons, only to watch the Celtics bumble their way through multiple lengthy playoff series against allegedly inferior teams, before eventually NOT winning the title.</p><p>Just a couple of night ago they were outscored - the entire team - in the 4th quarter by Dean Wade, a guy best known for NBA writer Zach Lowe saying his name makes it sound like he's an accountant. <i>'Dean Wade, for your company's accounting needs. Dean Wade!'</i> I'm supposed to take <b>that</b> bunch of bumblefucks seriously? Get the hell out.<br /></p><p><i></i></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><i><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjH8TTMdfK2_6tAkORu6crkhGP_BR8VtLTR__m-BnHcVcKlNFlHIhL5yib0uO_NihjmBT0QDPFcQ3Wr7IRH6xPb4p2qvE1ToonvKbSUfd4U36YvzKs_gv7zSDA3NWBXsY5fCw_-MZrYBoDwpqnYIhhyphenhyphen37qVCskPvaSyKCsy-zBgg07y-BRIpmP5cA/s450/Dr.%20Strange%2013.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="450" data-original-width="294" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjH8TTMdfK2_6tAkORu6crkhGP_BR8VtLTR__m-BnHcVcKlNFlHIhL5yib0uO_NihjmBT0QDPFcQ3Wr7IRH6xPb4p2qvE1ToonvKbSUfd4U36YvzKs_gv7zSDA3NWBXsY5fCw_-MZrYBoDwpqnYIhhyphenhyphen37qVCskPvaSyKCsy-zBgg07y-BRIpmP5cA/w131-h200/Dr.%20Strange%2013.jpg" width="131" /></a></i></div><i>Doctor Strange #13</i>, by Jed MacKay (writer), Pasqual Ferry (artist), Heather Moore (color artist), Cory Petit (letterer) - Taskmaster out here like, "How about this? Good pose, right? Lifted it from the last Arkon flick. Piece of shit movie, but good visuals."<p></p><p>So there's a D&D style game that's actually real. Kids start playing it, and it begins to establish itself in their world, branching out and gaining a stronger grip on reality. To beat it, Strange says you have to play by its rules, so that means gathering a party. That's about half the issue, Strange making various pitches to the Black Cat, Hunter's Moon, and Taskmaster. Tasky's in it for money, Felicia so the Doc doesn't snitch to Spidey about nearly dooming Manhattan, Hunter's Moon because Moon Knight owed the Doc a favor.</p><p>Into the game they go, complete with new duds. Taskmaster and Hunter's Moon's outfits feel like they match their regular aesthetics pretty well, the Black Cat's not so much. Maybe it's all the lavender, or just the helm with the little cat ears. One montage of various perils defeated or circumvented later and they've found the kids. Unfortunately, Baron Mordo found the game book first, so now he's running this clown show. Next issue, dragon fight!</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhEiTgInN1eoZY3rXg1GZ8yCiHLPv32MvdW7rErSzmrxePIAeyU5gzE1l17QCBBj82mEp3r1mhAdYrST3H3X6uiBinuQHYJodQyRc9yme5V4RMYyGySqVlk1tYEemk3rodObZgT9lmUbfNp3q4WtpNze6JuDc04ml0_uC2zsxM2s3QwAbyirXHUlw/s600/IMG_20240307_0001.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="466" data-original-width="600" height="312" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhEiTgInN1eoZY3rXg1GZ8yCiHLPv32MvdW7rErSzmrxePIAeyU5gzE1l17QCBBj82mEp3r1mhAdYrST3H3X6uiBinuQHYJodQyRc9yme5V4RMYyGySqVlk1tYEemk3rodObZgT9lmUbfNp3q4WtpNze6JuDc04ml0_uC2zsxM2s3QwAbyirXHUlw/w400-h312/IMG_20240307_0001.jpg" title="You know Strange spent more time fooling around than the other 3 put together." width="400" /></a></div><p></p><p>MacKay has some fun with the banter between Strange and his party, most of whom he doesn't seem very fond of (he admits that's why he picked Taskmaster as the meat shield), but I would have liked a little more of things not going the way the party expects, or the characters less used to this stuff being more confused by it. But Taskmaster just sees it as an excuse to chop things up, and it's probably not that weird for the others, so I guess I can see it.</p><p>Moore's colors help solidify Ferry's art more than I remember it looking in the past. It's been a while, but I remember when he was drawing <i>Ultimate Fantastic Four</i>, the colors made everything look like it was shot through a Vaseline-smeared lens. Kind of ephemeral. They save that here for when they find the bubble with the kids in it, playing what they think is just a game, while it rewrites reality around them.<br /></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6JAtIcxWlSZcX7Nl0kNamlpNsKtAWn9ZmWYJfp_UIvtqOUrwuMw1k0OnO5I-NUyenJgxVcEkW4yNIWYxezJtuRrU6WHe2P20g0ctaphBm6l7XHkYiVpO9oAILtANqtpLnVtT02RvFtmqrmuQmBwKCw3D1g4jYdT16FhYksgYVIRu-DAyYsFWslA/s450/Ms.%20Marvel%20Mutant%20Menace%201.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="450" data-original-width="296" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6JAtIcxWlSZcX7Nl0kNamlpNsKtAWn9ZmWYJfp_UIvtqOUrwuMw1k0OnO5I-NUyenJgxVcEkW4yNIWYxezJtuRrU6WHe2P20g0ctaphBm6l7XHkYiVpO9oAILtANqtpLnVtT02RvFtmqrmuQmBwKCw3D1g4jYdT16FhYksgYVIRu-DAyYsFWslA/w131-h200/Ms.%20Marvel%20Mutant%20Menace%201.jpg" width="131" /></a></div><i>Ms. Marvel: Mutant Menace #1</i>, by Iman Vellani and Sabir Pirzada (writers), Scott Godlweski (artist), Erick Arciniega (color artist), Joe Caramagna (letterer) - All X-Men must do dramatic posing in a sewer, it's in the curriculum.<p></p><p>Kamala's back in Jersey City, but Jersey City's not so friendly to Ms. Marvel. Her list of problems is lengthy, and includes half the people who used to love her no being suspicious because of the affiliation with the X-Men, including Nakia and Zoe. In their defense, they've been made to forget Kamala was Ms. Marvel, but not that Ms. Marvel died, so they aren't sure this is the same person. Nobody loves clones!</p><p>Kamala can't bring herself to stop trying to help people, even when the X-Men encourage her to focus on living her life, which feels true to the character. She gets overwhelmed at times, but she always seems determined to try and do all she can. Unfortunately, her body is acting up when she uses her powers. Godlewski draws it almost like little explosions are going off inside her.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjsDYS8zKS-trubWEiA3mFADsh_KnAW89s0qxxors4EYPRU9yCeckyUC6l2s1Pkr88As-OjTAF1cff74keiyRggnGvvXD5DVM8ale_zr18_3npHmOdzkALKlyhDsz_JzOur1uV5IyEojqUGQGBlgjtf4qclVm3kZUjTKchYxy_mzLskXoW5kmTYDQ/s600/IMG_20240307_0002.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="314" data-original-width="600" height="209" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjsDYS8zKS-trubWEiA3mFADsh_KnAW89s0qxxors4EYPRU9yCeckyUC6l2s1Pkr88As-OjTAF1cff74keiyRggnGvvXD5DVM8ale_zr18_3npHmOdzkALKlyhDsz_JzOur1uV5IyEojqUGQGBlgjtf4qclVm3kZUjTKchYxy_mzLskXoW5kmTYDQ/w400-h209/IMG_20240307_0002.jpg" title="Too many microwave burritos from the corner store." width="400" /></a></div><p></p><p>The Hordeculture, who show up trying to abduct some mutant kid crook with plant powers, claim to know what's going on, but didn't feel like sharing. Kamala does save the kid from capture and eventual dissection by the creepy grannies, which is really nice after he dissed her codename. Not a bad design, lots of room for different looks as he mimicks characteristics of different plants, and the sweatpants emphasize the cobbled together, low-budget crook he's meant to be.<br /></p><p>At any rate, Lila Cheney shows up and teleports Kamala to one of her concerts. That's where the issue ends, which is a weird place to leave it. Lila's watching the fight from the shadows, and Godlewski keeps her in shadow when she announces her presence. Then Kamala's in the crowd at a concert and just starts cheering wildly once Lila walks up on stage and begins to play.</p><p>So, why the mystery of her identity? Or, conversely, why have Lila essentially abduct Kamala because she needs X-Men, but then not speak to her about it at all. It seems like the cliffhanger ought to be Kamala materializes in a strange place full of aliens, and then next issue figures out it was Lila who did it and why. Or, have Lila approach her and at least make some cryptic and suspenseful or misleading statement to close the issue on. Like, "Ms. Marvel, you're killing it," or "I need you to have my baby, Ms. Marvel." OK, those are shit examples, but you get what I mean.<br /></p>CalvinPitthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11815632086057048846noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19932777.post-69673427348454082502024-03-07T12:30:00.170-06:002024-03-07T12:30:00.252-06:00Forgotten Fires - Omer C. Stewart<p>In 1954, Omer Stewart wrote a massive report about how grasslands were the result of deliberate burning practices on indigenous populations. This was in contrast to the general view that the habitats that Europeans discovered upon reaching North America were "wilderness", strictly the result of natural processes like soil chemistry and rainfall.</p><p>Stewart didn't have any luck getting the report published, rejected by two different publishing houses and a third that managed to lose the paper for two decades. In the early 2000s, with at least some acknowledgement that Native Americans had actually impacted their natural surroundings, Henry Lewis and M. Kat Anderson streamlined the now-deceased Stewart's work a bit (he had written more briefly about grasslands outside North America, and these parts were removed), added chapters offering critiques on both anthropological (Lewis) and ecological (Anderson) grounds, and here we are. Lewis and Anderson's chapters cover the first 60 pages (~20% of the book.) Discussing the value in Stewart's work and how bold of a stance it was at the time, when there might only have been one or two other authors advancing similar notions.<br /></p><p>Stewart's approach is to start in one particular section of North America, then go state-by-state or region-by-region, describing or quoting every source he can find that either directly mentions Native Americans burning, or any studies done in the first half of the 20th Century about what happens if you burn or stop burning a particular area. He cites reports from as far back as the 1500s, from a Spanish sailor taken as a slave in present-day Texas, and up to a "Cultural Element Distribution" study from the University of California, which involved surveying members of several different tribes throughout the West Coast about various cultural practices, including burning. And if they burned, or were told about their ancestors burning, why was it happening?</p><p>The problem is, this makes for incredibly dry reading, with Stewart sticking to a rote pattern of, <i>"in Year X this person said this, while this person said this X years later, and this person said. . ."</i> At one point, 10 of 11 pages of Stewart's report is just an excerpt from Miller Christy's 1892 work on why Canadian grasslands are treeless. Keep in mind, Christy's paper was only 22 pages to begin with, so Stewart plunked half in his own paper. Stewart mentions plates or photographs in certain sources, but apparently didn't include them in his paper. When he cites scientific studies on tree growth in areas isolated by fire, he rarely cites any data, and never includes a graph or chart that might illustrate the idea (or just break up the walls of text.) Anderson adds some photographs and the occasional chart to illustrate her points (and Stewart's), which helps a fair bit. She and Lewis are also more concise, so going from them to Stewart really doesn't do his writing any favors.<br /></p><p>Instead, Stewart limits himself to pulling all these disparate sources together, then concluding periodically that there are clear reports that various tribes burned either to drive game, clear undergrowth for easier travel, to encourage new growth of food sources for themselves or their favored game species, among other things. And based on how these observations may cover the several different areas within a given tribes' historic range, this means they obviously burned everywhere within their range.</p><p>As Anderson notes, that's a dodgy conclusion, since there would be variations in local conditions that could make burning ill-advised. I suspect Stewart was trying to be strident to counter what he saw as decades of dismissing the facts that seem so plain, but he may push it too far the other way. He acknowledges that some of the respondents in the Cultural Element Distribution admit no one ever told them about doing any burning, but he never really addresses it. Might just be their older relatives didn't see the point, but maybe there really wasn't burning there. Stewart doesn't seem to pay that notion any mind whatsoever.<br /></p><p>He will cite writers who dismiss fire, or fires set deliberately, as having any effect, then attempts to point out how they often provide evidence contrary to their own conclusions. So when Clements (repeatedly) dismisses fire as forming grasslands, in favor of either rainfall or soil chemistry preventing the trees from establishing, Stewart will point out how Clements or someone Clements cited as support acknowledged that trees were moving into places where fire had been suppressed or eliminated, even in drought conditions.</p><p>The work is impressive for the sheer amount of research he did in finding all these accounts and studies, and he methodically goes through them so the audience gets as full a picture of the evidence as he can provide. But his approach doesn't make for gripping reading.<br /></p><p><i>'My thesis is we must consider the plains and prairies in the light of at least 25,000 years of human prehistory, while projecting trends thousands of years into the future, if we are to properly evaluate man's part in the formation of grasslands.'</i><br /></p>CalvinPitthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11815632086057048846noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19932777.post-57711595300625349312024-03-06T10:30:00.058-06:002024-03-06T10:30:00.144-06:00What I Bought 2/29/2024<p>I might be going to a comic convention this weekend. Alex is trying to work something out, which means a 50-50 shot at best, but we'll see.<br /></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiTrudxH8Hafctpy9onGU_yGh7eRKjVF1W0myzuz7tdavlKbfba602vdutG1_0Qvraq3VRaT5d9QRox6sPyVEMeazGj4v2Mw3RXVCWBgoBo9vm-JpD_MAtcZ5D3P5jecOP3pE-s4aeFbUHAdJzgl8JQUq0hNsEQswoFEBtjlmKAAuqs8Cn_up8oZQ/s450/Power%20Pack%20Into%20the%20Storm%202.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="450" data-original-width="296" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiTrudxH8Hafctpy9onGU_yGh7eRKjVF1W0myzuz7tdavlKbfba602vdutG1_0Qvraq3VRaT5d9QRox6sPyVEMeazGj4v2Mw3RXVCWBgoBo9vm-JpD_MAtcZ5D3P5jecOP3pE-s4aeFbUHAdJzgl8JQUq0hNsEQswoFEBtjlmKAAuqs8Cn_up8oZQ/w131-h200/Power%20Pack%20Into%20the%20Storm%202.jpg" width="131" /></a></div><i>Power Pack: Into the Storm #2</i>, by Louise Simonson (writer), June Brigman (artist), Roy Richardson (inker), Nolan Woodard (color artist), Travis Lanham (letterer) - Scourge of the Space Jellyfish!<p></p><p>Djinna, Kofi and the Pack try to escape from Djinna's angry relative Mayhem. They only manage it because an angry Brood Queen shows up, also after the Power kids, and attacks Mayhem. So when the X-Men defeated the Brood that one time, did they free all those giant space whales the Brood used as ships? Because B'rute (great name) has got a ship that looks like a fish (maybe one of those Devonian fish with the heavy bone plating over their heads), but it's made of metal.</p><p>The kids flee to a planet with heavy atmospheric storms to hide in while Franklin's dream self uses Friday to reach the X-Men and ask for help. It's a little goofy in that Storm meets him, but he asks her to get ahold of Wolverine and Kitty, and she goes to do that, rather than just rounding up whatever X-Men are at hand. By the time Franklin returns to his body, the ship is under attack by giant space jellyfish. The ship blows up, seemingly with Franklin still inside. Oops.</p><p>I'm sure it's a fakeout - the Brood caught up so I imagine they're involved - but it's a little weird Franklin's talking to everyone in his dream self, saying he'll wake himself up and jump out of the ship, rather than having simply done it.<br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5kDaS507bt2F-C-cCxBXVdwBb7QSZgY-eGq37kKFB8IeklywqLTuJpBHzCmBWc38-9oIzWJEZF10NtKMKy5kwKIP-vezLllyXlqiKpuJbJXbIHZu6YyT9dOL61QyT6yHVwSMQMs000rzS9fFwVYrdDHyXhfeGtCtfZxRT95ME8_OIlDNYWI9kEg/s600/IMG_20240301_0001.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="324" data-original-width="600" height="216" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5kDaS507bt2F-C-cCxBXVdwBb7QSZgY-eGq37kKFB8IeklywqLTuJpBHzCmBWc38-9oIzWJEZF10NtKMKy5kwKIP-vezLllyXlqiKpuJbJXbIHZu6YyT9dOL61QyT6yHVwSMQMs000rzS9fFwVYrdDHyXhfeGtCtfZxRT95ME8_OIlDNYWI9kEg/w400-h216/IMG_20240301_0001.jpg" title="The angriest ship in the universe." width="400" /></a></div><p></p><p>Most of the issue is the kids talking about their parents and their expectations. Kofi's dad expects him to follow the rules, which Kofi seems to have trouble doing. Djinna's a disappointment to her mother because she's not a good fighter, so she suspects she was only allowed to attend the academy on the chance she might learn how to make some decent weapons. The Power kids are keeping it a secret from their parents, with the aid of a spell that makes their parents not notice weird stuff, although their mom still freaks out, which seems troubling. And Franklin's parents tried to lock his powers away (so he doesn't rewrite reality in a fit of pique, but still.)</p><p>All of them are trying to meet expectations, but also be themselves. Which requires doing stuff on the sly, as in this mini-series. Which means there's no safety net when things go wrong. Having the Fantastic Four around to help deal with space jellyfish probably would have been handy.<br /></p>CalvinPitthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11815632086057048846noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19932777.post-5954715870951140412024-03-05T10:42:00.085-06:002024-03-05T10:42:00.130-06:00London Fields (2018)<p>Samson Young (Billy Bob Thornton, looking more like 10 miles of bad road than usual) accepts an apartment swap offer from a much more successful writer and moves to London. He meets a local drunk loser who fancies himself a darts pro named Keith, and his more well-to-do drinking chum, Guy. All three of them are entranced by Nicola (Amber Heard) when she steps into the pub, Young in no small part because she lives directly above him, and because she's had a vision of her death, including the one responsible.</p><p>Young smells a novel, so much of the movie is his overwrought narration of Nicola leading both Guy and Keith around by the nose. For Guy, she plays the naive innocent he can protect with stories of a lost friend from the orphanage. All dressed in white and big sad eyes. Being a good dad and husband is too complicated and lengthy. He wants to help someone in one quick, simple way, and then get some as a reward. Keith she greets in her underwear, sex toys prominently displayed. He can't help being a useless sleaze, barely interested in his own daughter or wife, too caught up in dreams of making it big in professional darts. The money Guy gives Nicola, thinking he's helping her help people in Burma, she gives to Keith so he doesn't get a railroad spike hammered through his nuts by some jackass (Johnny Depp) he borrowed money from to pay off a person he borrowed money from to pay off <i>another</i> person he borrowed money from.<br /></p><p>Young makes the occasional suggestion Nicola just leave town, but he doesn't press, never forces the issue. It's clear she's playing him, too. He might even know it and just doesn't care. He's got his own ticking clock. So she lets him paper a room with her notebooks and sketches like it's a conspiracy board, and put a microphone under her floorboards, and he tries to turn her slow-motion car crash into some last bit of success for him.</p><p>Nicola's games are designed to wreck the two lovers, until one of them finally snaps. Which is why it never seems likely either will actually do it. Too obvious. I toyed with the idea it was going to be the British author (Jason Isaacs), who we mostly see through the several photos of himself he has around his apartment, and hear in the various condescending voicemails he leaves Young. He and Nicola knew each other, too, and she might actually have cared for him. Hard to believe from what we see of him, but maybe he's so obviously self-centered and egocentric it was refreshing to her. He didn't project any expectations onto her because he barely thought about her at all? </p><p>I think (though I'm not sure) this may have been a final gift from her to him, based on the ending. Or he's just an unscrupulous piece of shit. Either/or. For a while, I was toying with the idea this whole weird game was in Young's head. Something he cooked up under the influence of the many pills he's taking, and he just applied his ideas to people he met in the neighborhood. Turns out not to be the case.</p><p>It's not a movie where there's really anyone I like or care for. Nicola's too resigned to her fate, leaving wreckage in her wake just to reach an outcome she's concluded is inevitable. Keith's so greasy I'm amazed he doesn't accidentally light himself on fire, and Guy's a complete putz. Young is as resigned as Nicola to his fate, but chooses to be a spectator to the carnage. It's all just abstract suffering to him, plot point A creating tense conversation B. Isaacs' character is so full of himself it's amazing his head fits through doors. There's no one to really hang onto or root for, because there's not a one of them I can see myself wanting to be around for more than five minutes. Just hurry up and burn their lives to the ground already.<br /></p>CalvinPitthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11815632086057048846noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19932777.post-34757192886917628142024-03-04T10:45:00.080-06:002024-03-04T10:45:00.130-06:00What I Bought 2/24/2024 - Part 2<p>A couple of months late, but I really did want to have the entire mini-series, so let's look at the third issue, after I've already read 4 and 5.</p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgpudZKG0FG_wrZmJYc0NsRSlHXTWr8mUjQAO1ioQAo7FWKCTz_xYvJpTy8FCc-fIXlMk_RDCnjySIRfhUzUs4CrBwoM7Xh848kEQhoWEnNHk_z04GvTVwoUyMvyxXHCIYtV5L-Ribyzhb7Oc22l8oVEkv5RAGkgPyKjzzI175nNlaNn8ZaEmEQOw/s450/Midnite%20Western%20Theatre%20Witch%20Trial%203.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="450" data-original-width="300" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgpudZKG0FG_wrZmJYc0NsRSlHXTWr8mUjQAO1ioQAo7FWKCTz_xYvJpTy8FCc-fIXlMk_RDCnjySIRfhUzUs4CrBwoM7Xh848kEQhoWEnNHk_z04GvTVwoUyMvyxXHCIYtV5L-Ribyzhb7Oc22l8oVEkv5RAGkgPyKjzzI175nNlaNn8ZaEmEQOw/w133-h200/Midnite%20Western%20Theatre%20Witch%20Trial%203.jpg" width="133" /></a></div><i>Midnight Western Theatre: Witch Trial #3</i>, by Louis Southard (writer), Butch Mapa (artist), Sean Peacock (colorist), Buddy Beaudoin (letterer) - Crystals, pendants, daggers and candles. Looking to be one heck of a party.<p></p><p>After he failed attempt to drive Corson away, Sarah tries to get Ortensia ready to get the hell out of town. Ortensia is not inclined to listen, feeling Sarah's been controlling her entire life. Sarah explains what Corson gave her, and what he took, when he approached her centuries ago, but it's unclear if Ortensia fully buys it. I think she does, and she's just frustrated she can't get clear of this life of killing. That's how I'm reading the almost pouting look she gives, combined with her "I think that I hate you, Sarah."</p><p>Sarah goes for the horses and meet a posse of the New West's common clay. You know, morons. They aren't much against her, and maybe, after Corson made her feel like a helpless child again, she drags it out longer than necessary. Revels in her power against the outmatched goobers Corson sent to die. Maybe if she just turned them all to stone right off, she could get the horses and ride with Ortensia.</p><p>Or maybe not, because Corson steps into the barn, brushes off her attack, and snaps her neck. Notably, Ortensia does reject him before the Plague Doctor shows up and does, whatever lightshow he did to get her out of there. So at least some of what Sarah told Ortensia sunk in, and while unconscious, she sees a vision of herself as she will be. The Woman in Black. Not sure how to interpret that. It isn't how the Plague Doctor would see her, so it doesn't feel like strictly a function of his spell, but if the spell bent time in some way, maybe she glimpsed her future.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1v9CXDa0XiVGpu8wbVhCBgjWuArEWnHjih8uqHnhnJmLSK_ljA-PzE6eD4zbchtwFNICHDJ7TbPCWButGnQ11mIvy-nsVGkbr9FkI5ZBpjBLMLiWPvbmY1sEIcPScXRvDToNURXDBbryfNUKuL3-NYSUu693myPG_emTgPOFObPF7Nm9lpxYOdg/s600/IMG_20240228_0001.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="410" data-original-width="600" height="274" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1v9CXDa0XiVGpu8wbVhCBgjWuArEWnHjih8uqHnhnJmLSK_ljA-PzE6eD4zbchtwFNICHDJ7TbPCWButGnQ11mIvy-nsVGkbr9FkI5ZBpjBLMLiWPvbmY1sEIcPScXRvDToNURXDBbryfNUKuL3-NYSUu693myPG_emTgPOFObPF7Nm9lpxYOdg/w400-h274/IMG_20240228_0001.jpg" title="The joys of parenting." width="400" /></a></div><p></p><p>Other than Ortensia being wary of Corson even before figuring out he killed Sarah, most of this could be inferred from the subsequent issues. The most interesting bit is at the start of the issue, which is set a few years earlier, highlighting a brief spat between Ortensia and Sarah. It shows Ortensia still thinks of her dead father and her family back East, and that Sarah's not at all sure what she's doing. She actually says <i>"Whew"</i> when Ortensia says that no, she doesn't want to talk about it being her father's birthday. When your response is something I would say, you might be a bad parent.</p><p>The part I found really interesting, in light of things we learn in issue 4, is when Sarah tells her she can't wait to see Ortensia grow up and become the person she was always meant to be. That could be taken a lot of ways, but I keep thinking of the revelation that Sarah and the Plague Doctor have known of Ortensia's coming for years, were looking for her, and had their own ideas of what she was going to become.</p><p>It also makes one of the last things she tells Ortensia before going for the horses more significant. She tells Ortensia to wait there and, <i>'think about who <b>you</b> are and what <b>you</b> want.'</i> The font does bold both "you"s, so Sarah really emphasized them. Was it just something she said, to make Ortensia feel like she was getting a choice, or to emphasize the notion Corson wouldn't offer her that option? Or had Sarah's opinion changed in the three years since the flashback, and she was thinking of how to help Ortensia avert becoming what she's "destined" to become?</p><p>Based on Ortensia's conversation with the Plague Doctor at the end of the mini-series, she's definitely not of the mind that it's the last option. But she's still angry with a lot of people, so I'm curious if her opinion on things changed by the time of the original mini-series.<br /></p>CalvinPitthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11815632086057048846noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19932777.post-28975252718427317592024-03-03T10:30:00.053-06:002024-03-03T10:30:00.146-06:00Sunday Splash Page #312<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqn-2e1mKTmnZsQ58bVOcqRsq6-rg42mh2FgDhc23Yp4svzk6snfpkTY45sRw9fA1XaPpSwgE3-oXpkzpo1Pr5vi8Twcw75qNgk9Dnqktg3r-5a1ba6-bV6lmwyooyDxrTx1M5Ltry4I1_icH4gRtjY67EtUWCZn6lvWFJNBwfII7Ep9nzpPcHnA/s800/IMG_20240112_0006.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="491" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqn-2e1mKTmnZsQ58bVOcqRsq6-rg42mh2FgDhc23Yp4svzk6snfpkTY45sRw9fA1XaPpSwgE3-oXpkzpo1Pr5vi8Twcw75qNgk9Dnqktg3r-5a1ba6-bV6lmwyooyDxrTx1M5Ltry4I1_icH4gRtjY67EtUWCZn6lvWFJNBwfII7Ep9nzpPcHnA/w392-h640/IMG_20240112_0006.jpg" title="Shadow-Wolf versus Giant Jock, this Sunday-Sunday-Sunday!" width="392" /></a> </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><i>"Big Time Smackdown," in <b>Locke and Key: Crown of Shadows #4</b>, by Joe Hill (writer), Gabriel Rodriguez (artist), Jay Fotos (colorist), Robbie Robbins (letterer)</i></div><p><i>Crown of Shadows</i> sees Dodge becoming more aggressive in his search for the Omega Key. But with his attempts to push things forward come setbacks. Sam Lesser is still hanging around Keyhouse as a ghost, but is no longer inclined to help Dodge. When he tries to keep Kinsey isolated by ridiculing her new friends Jamal and Scot (the Quentin Quire or Spider Jerusalem lookalike I mentioned last week), it backfires because Kinsey doesn't fear losing social standing by hanging out with, gasp, uncool people, while Dodge can't manage the same. (Which is kind of funny, since he's supposed to be past that kind of thing.)<br /></p><p>He manages to infiltrate the house again later and unlock the Crown of Shadows, but not only does this fail to get him the location of the Omega Key (because none of the Locke kids no where it is), he ends up losing the crown in a half-issue, all-splash page fight against a giant Tyler. Between that and Dodge using the crown to create a variety of shadow creatures, Rodriguez seems to be having a lot of fun in this mini-series. Dodge only barely gets away with the Wellhouse Key, but fails to reclaim the Head Key. (It also stiffens the resolve of Tyler and Kinsey to fight him off, even if they don't know the true face of their enemy.)</p><p>Unfortunately, the Locke family is doing a pretty good job messing themselves up by this point. Tyler's attempts to impress Jordan by letting her submit his ethics paper backfires, because just jamming the book in your skull doesn't bring comprehension of the material, or teach a person how to write a proper paper. Unless you also jammed a book on writing proper academic papers in there, too, but Tyler didn't. Kinsey's removal of her fear nearly gets herself and her best friend Jackie killed alongside Scot and Jamal by going to investigate something at the bottom of a rickety staircase in a water-filled cavern. </p><p>And their mother's use of alcohol to try and cope with her grief and loss comes to a head in a spectacularly uncomfortable sequence where she thinks she's successfully resurrected her husband, and instead is putting the moves on Tyler. That, was really an unpleasant scene to read on a lot of levels, but does lead to one important reveal.<br /></p>CalvinPitthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11815632086057048846noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19932777.post-8303484759580475612024-03-02T14:00:00.095-06:002024-03-02T14:00:00.155-06:00Saturday Splash Page #114<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7nCHMdSXXCzm6RD5Y0XkrDmuvrM2nTqoTRUceZOzRL3D5s9MdGGBZtGVv7zTEki0V4_vxK7JhjS4q4y_5goHgJzJuDJbNBGKB_vplo225Eg2eljXmcWZO8t8-VPL5Au3Q7_qGJf12_KIe3bSNXVlXrQm1KQ2_g2jTGWEqmlWEfZM4nj8kfp46XA/s800/IMG_20231222_0008.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="528" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7nCHMdSXXCzm6RD5Y0XkrDmuvrM2nTqoTRUceZOzRL3D5s9MdGGBZtGVv7zTEki0V4_vxK7JhjS4q4y_5goHgJzJuDJbNBGKB_vplo225Eg2eljXmcWZO8t8-VPL5Au3Q7_qGJf12_KIe3bSNXVlXrQm1KQ2_g2jTGWEqmlWEfZM4nj8kfp46XA/w422-h640/IMG_20231222_0008.jpg" title="Just back the van over him and be done with it." width="422" /></a> </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><i>"Snare," in <b>Suicide Squad: War Crimes #1</b>, by John Ostrander (writer), Gus Vazquez and Carlos Rodriguez (artists), Gabe Eltaeb (colorist), Nate Piekos (letterer)</i></div><p>Starting with the New 52, DC has kept up a steady string of Suicide Squad ongoing series. I tried the New 52's version, which started the trend of having Harley Quinn on the team (with the added bonus of her now looking like an Insane Clown Posse groupie), and of giving Amanda Waller the body of Halle Berry (DC eventually pulled its head from its ass and fixed that "development.") It also started the trend of trying to make Waller more ruthless.</p><p>Unfortunately, having her torture prospective Squad members to see if they'll talk, then dropping them out of a plane into a mission immediately after the torture without offering any medical treatment mostly succeeded in making her look like a sadistic moron. This is known in superhero comics as "The Maria Hill."</p><p>So, yeah, I dropped that shitshow after 3 issues (even faster than the New 52 <i>Grifter</i> series, which managed to take a concept I was very interested in, and bore the hell out of me) and stayed away from all subsequent attempts. Except this one-shot from 2016, written by Ostrander.</p><p>George Carmody, essentially a stand-in for the now thankfully deceased Donald Rumsfeld, gets abducted by a team of European super-mercs who intend for him to stand trial for war crimes. Oh, if wishes were horses. The U.S. can't be invading the Netherlands to retrieve him, and he'll air a lot of dirty laundry if he's not rescued, so, enter the Squad. Ostrander uses a mix of classic characters - Deadshot, Flag, Boomerbutt - movie characters - Harley and El Diablo - and Mad Dog, who couldn't have "cannon fodder" stamped on his head more clearly if he was a Firestorm villain.</p><p>I'm not clear on whether Flag is the designated good guy or a crook himself, due to what seem like some miscommunication between Ostrander, Vazquez, and Rodriguez. There's a few other sequences in the back half of the book that don't really flow well or make a lot of sense.</p><p>The mission has its usual level of disaster, as the fairly clever plan they have is thrown into disarray by another group trying to rescue Carmody. Boomerbutt demonstrates his classic level of shitheeling, but also that he's a not to be taken lightly, since he's the one who ultimately saves the mission when it's going south. Out of self-interest in not having his skull exploded, naturally. Harley beats Shado at one point - somehow, as we don't see it, just that "crazy" trumps "martial arts" - and is otherwise mostly goofy. Silly comments and getting excited to drive an ambulance and run the siren.</p><p>The story ends with a very satisfying twist, that makes the Squad feel like they were kind of pointless, but makes sense from a certain POV. Namely, Waller's.<br /></p>CalvinPitthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11815632086057048846noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19932777.post-40031583457233915622024-03-01T09:43:00.091-06:002024-03-01T09:43:00.145-06:00What I Bought 2/24/2024 - Part 1<p>Welcome to March, hurrah, hurrah. See what that brings us. Starting things off with the first two issues of a mini-series.<br /></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEin2wdxf5k6g_zaxpBzzZIeeX_oMdaAwCCOSEb92W3WRHopZsy9x52C1fr0Dn-bpFfCl2xoc-iQxMxULAaCY8dkxwkVU-312x6KTN0m-ZhaUbbi7h8OAd7EuXRngPSHme_qQVsFTvIcggPa3TqVLIykQYrP7lkphyphenhyphengy3dcggWG3wyzElcmSb1wddg/s450/Deer%20Editor%201.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="450" data-original-width="294" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEin2wdxf5k6g_zaxpBzzZIeeX_oMdaAwCCOSEb92W3WRHopZsy9x52C1fr0Dn-bpFfCl2xoc-iQxMxULAaCY8dkxwkVU-312x6KTN0m-ZhaUbbi7h8OAd7EuXRngPSHme_qQVsFTvIcggPa3TqVLIykQYrP7lkphyphenhyphengy3dcggWG3wyzElcmSb1wddg/w131-h200/Deer%20Editor%201.jpg" width="131" /></a></div><i>Deer Editor #1 and 2</i>, by Ryan Lindsay (writer), Sami Kivela (artist), Lauren Affe (colorist), Jim Campbell (letterer) - On these mean streets, you need the instincts to run directly into the side of a car that would rather avoid you.<p></p><p>Bucky's the editor of a newspaper. He's also a deer, or a man with the head of a deer. Not totally sure which. Kivela gives him hooves, but the digits are able to move and operate like fingers. Bucky gets a call from a coroner about a man who was acting strangely before he was hit by a car. That leads to a bar, which leads to a dead press secretary for the mayor.</p><p>As these things usually do, Bucky soon finds himself encountering various lantern-jawed, dimwitted goons with a taste for punching until they get keys that open lockers at bus stations. Bucky thinks it's a simple land grab, real estate scheme. Buy them up, kill the ones who hold out, sell the land for quick bucks. A private equity twist on the Wild West classic.</p><p>It turns out to be something much stranger. The mayor and a bunch of his friends are vampires, which we actually learn via Bucky's sub-editor, who Lindsay chooses to follow for the first half of the second issue, as Bucky is missing for three months. The second half of the issue covers what he's been up to (getting tortured), before the mayor makes the standard "work for us," spiel.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2yXXpOvbAP9USWWCmbwGSiX-eUO_reLGz_IolXN3SC5-vY8N4ViHzqzd18pIBiUDWR2Na2pxNs0czLESHt56tVv_y1R7BZx3r2vDoYmyzUOawDPg4D-R5WHFR533aMe1-utM8tnTzqONEEJHqNIbwBxeXoozKU1dZ1si7v52xacrkpSVnU3jAJA/s600/IMG_20240225_0001.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="273" data-original-width="600" height="183" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2yXXpOvbAP9USWWCmbwGSiX-eUO_reLGz_IolXN3SC5-vY8N4ViHzqzd18pIBiUDWR2Na2pxNs0czLESHt56tVv_y1R7BZx3r2vDoYmyzUOawDPg4D-R5WHFR533aMe1-utM8tnTzqONEEJHqNIbwBxeXoozKU1dZ1si7v52xacrkpSVnU3jAJA/w400-h183/IMG_20240225_0001.jpg" title="Definitely said in his best Austin powers impression." width="400" /></a></div><p></p><p>That leads to a nice little fight scene, which I thought maybe Affe would take as an opportunity to shift away from the blue-and-white color scheme, but no. You could make a good argument it didn't really change anything. The mayor's still in charge, Bucky's still an opposing force, the end result is yet to be seen.</p><p>The mayor said in the first issue, knowledge isn't power, power is power. Which is the deep insight one expects of a public official. Bucky noted the mayor is a creep that rules with threats and intimidation (and we've certainly seen that's true), but he makes the trains run on time, so the populace doesn't care. Guess we'll see if that holds through to the end.<br /></p>CalvinPitthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11815632086057048846noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19932777.post-20785781899366570072024-02-29T10:30:00.236-06:002024-02-29T10:30:00.147-06:00United They Kick Ass, Divided the World Burns<p><i>Indivisible</i> starts with 4 warriors fighting a god that's intent on destroying the world. After that battle, we switch to a girl named Ajna, who lives in a village in a forest with her demanding and emotionally stunted father. He's always on her to "remember her defense" during training. Until he dies in an attack by the armies of Ravannavar. Someone didn't take his own advice! Ajna's confronted by one of the soldiers, a swordsman named Dhar, and defeats him.</p><p>Dhar's sucked into her mind, an (initially) unwilling passenger as Ajna sets out to take revenge on Ravannavar. She meets many more characters along the way, with a variety of designs (based on a wide variety of cultures), backstories and combat styles. From Leilani, a girl from with a Pacific Islander look who's following a prophecy she's supposed to save the world and carrying a sword ringed with shark teeth, to Zebei, who looks like (I think) a Mongolian archer who protects a city/monastery in the mountains, there are 19 other characters who can potentially join up with Ajna as fighters, plus several more that offer services from hints, upgrades, combat training and alternate costumes. Some are mandatory, others are only unlocked if you speak to them and do whatever's needed.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyKRmSBeZlZ88BH9e4g_rEGxLiaGbkPKQ7Waydelcp5a4uWxAVTF8IgN8qrDAtTG75KcBsC-cADuqkEH3WwBxt1XIL7PtFERj8O5lqz6NHJieUriuN85s4z2nXAA9ahsY5QehOjMbLYFhCIwtx4XkThpfBo4x84p-NJaNzjcJ7mUBDRaa8zPdomQ/s1076/all-out%20attack.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="605" data-original-width="1076" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyKRmSBeZlZ88BH9e4g_rEGxLiaGbkPKQ7Waydelcp5a4uWxAVTF8IgN8qrDAtTG75KcBsC-cADuqkEH3WwBxt1XIL7PtFERj8O5lqz6NHJieUriuN85s4z2nXAA9ahsY5QehOjMbLYFhCIwtx4XkThpfBo4x84p-NJaNzjcJ7mUBDRaa8zPdomQ/w400-h225/all-out%20attack.jpg" title="Ajna's crew hate self-driving cars." width="400" /></a></div><p></p><p>The gameplay's a mixture of things, but always side-scrolling. The battles are RPG-style, where you have a party of up to 4 characters. Whether a character can attack is based on whether there's at least one filled circle beneath them. Different characters recharge those at different speeds, and different attacks - basically depending on whether you press up, down, or nothing on the controller when you attack - take longer or shorter times (something I didn't know until I read it online earlier this week.) Certain attacks build up your "iddhi" or spiritual energy (that bar in the upper left corner), which can be used for more powerful moves.</p><p>Blocking drains iddhi, especially the more characters you have blocking simultaneously, and the longer they're doing it. The game will show you the path of an attack and who's being targeted, but it's still sneaky. The enemy may move closer to strike the person in the rear of your party, but the path of the attack means it also hits the character in front if you aren't on the ball (each character's assigned one of the 4 buttons for their attacks and it also activates blocking.) If you time it right, you can even get a little health back instead, so there's an element of awareness beyond just reflexes to it.</p><p>When you aren't fighting, you're platforming. Spiked pits, spiked walls, spiked ceilings, electrified signs and floors. Platforms that crumble within seconds of your touching them, narrow passages to slide through. The plot requires a lot of backtracking and revisiting of locations, and there are little red gems scattered about to help make it worth the while. Collect enough, you can upgrade your offensive or defensive abilities, but many of them will be in places you can't reach the first time through. As the game progresses, you pick up new skills to reach those places, and brother, do you need them.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjeHsdvW9-SATDaAFWMpXpQiOKl6bkM6kyUjMGFY6ibkbKNDjrlB3Iy04i9DZduZLMZ7qqQOOIjHD36legylelZ2SILux6HcmWfCM6OY5jLHgcfQ8yaBhq8Q-CVID0VseBb3U1BLGX6nrVWdaBlF7FtqZd_ky3BNTpNDXQgEng1vX4WWu19ntCSrw/s1076/timing%20is%20key.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="605" data-original-width="1076" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjeHsdvW9-SATDaAFWMpXpQiOKl6bkM6kyUjMGFY6ibkbKNDjrlB3Iy04i9DZduZLMZ7qqQOOIjHD36legylelZ2SILux6HcmWfCM6OY5jLHgcfQ8yaBhq8Q-CVID0VseBb3U1BLGX6nrVWdaBlF7FtqZd_ky3BNTpNDXQgEng1vX4WWu19ntCSrw/w400-h225/timing%20is%20key.jpg" title="Extreme Elimination (of my patience) Challenge." width="400" /></a></div><p></p><p>This game delights in making you chain numerous skills, especially in the long, <i>long</i> climb to the final boss. Taking the above image as an example (and far from the most challenging.) Use the spear to pogo across the spiked floor to the right wall. Wall jump between the right wall and those glowing blocks (which will begin to crack and crumble once you touch them). Reach the faulty stone platform. From there you might be able to use one of your skills, or a combination, to go straight up, past the spiked platform to another glowy, fragile block. Or you can use a combination of skills to reach the left wall and scale between it and the vertical blocks there. That gives you a chance to pogo across the spiked platforms to the glowy block.</p><p>It's a lot, is what I'm getting at. Fortunately, the game is generous with the save points, even if it doesn't feel like it when you have to make it through 2 or 3 of these horror chambers in a row. Also, there's usually more than 1 way to make it across, so if you find yourself more adept with certain skills than others, you can still cobble together a strategy.</p><p>OK, so that's how it plays, what's it all in service of? The story has an obvious arc. Ajna's very angry and very stubborn. She keeps bulling ahead, getting goaded until she loses her temper, and the situation does not improve. Ravannavar is actually trying to unleash the sealed-up god who created the world (that was <i>after</i> she destroyed the last one, which she had also created after the one she destroyed prior to that, and so on.) Ajna inadvertently helps bring this about, but she just keeps taking the same approach - charge ahead and punch whatever tries to stop her. You can see how it's going to go a mile away, and the game only reinforces it the more the other characters point out that maybe she ought to listen to other people.</p><p>Which is a little frustrating, that you can see it but not turn her away. Instead of her guilting Thorani into sticking with them on this quest, stay in Tai Krung and help with the plague that's set in. Stay in the Iron Kingdom and try to deal with the slime burying everything. Actually work on finding Quadira's missing brother. After playing a game like <i>The Outer Worlds</i>, the lack of control feels stifling. But I remind myself I'm not playing as me, watching all this crap happen to other people. I'm playing as Ajna, who's angry and mourning her dad and guilty about things unsaid and hoping if she just keeps going she can fix everything she messed up.</p><p>The back half of the game, after that all blows up in her face, is a bit more satisfying. You get the option to help all the people she's gathered to her with various business of their own. This can vary from helping Kampan recover the gold stolen from her by the King of Thieves, to helping Razmi destroy the demon sealed within her lantern before it kills the spirit of her tiger friend in there.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgeIiqEXNDtAS-LPwpzT56ErYJtWxmg8lqzylN3c6dwWFoxnef3PGBDqpO340wQCffGtlWRBcyjpFYL29zsH12QYJ3HPUboEkPT_4wsMgjvVXFyc0rjvHzqNPKC-r2VuTBqGRQlalPMszfMpMqzY0uU5rDvkbu-T7Qka0N4oGBTVcAbIlH_M-mpyQ/s600/playing%20with%20fire.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="337" data-original-width="600" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgeIiqEXNDtAS-LPwpzT56ErYJtWxmg8lqzylN3c6dwWFoxnef3PGBDqpO340wQCffGtlWRBcyjpFYL29zsH12QYJ3HPUboEkPT_4wsMgjvVXFyc0rjvHzqNPKC-r2VuTBqGRQlalPMszfMpMqzY0uU5rDvkbu-T7Qka0N4oGBTVcAbIlH_M-mpyQ/w400-h225/playing%20with%20fire.jpg" title="Razmi's the best. That is all." width="400" /></a></div><p></p><p>The downside to these is they involve a <i>lot</i> of backtracking, and it's a lengthy process. Wherever you need to go for the first part of a quest is inevitably far away from any portal or exit to reach whatever place you need to go next. In many cases, you're only in a location long enough for a single conversation, then it's lots of running and jumping to get to another exit. But, those aren't required to do, though it gives Ajna a chance to level up some more, and boosts the strength of each friend as you complete their quest. It boils down to how much of a completist you are (I definitely was this time), and how much the idea of helping these other characters matters to you (quite a lot in my case.)</p><p>And the game wants you to care. In addition to letting the other characters get involved in conversations Ajna's having, you can venture to Ajna's "Inner Realm", where these characters all hang out when not helping you fight. There you can just, talk to them. About silly things, usually, like Razmi's question about the weird dark thing she'd seen slithering around in Ajna's mind (which comes as a complete surprise to Ajna), or Baozhai's awkward attempts to flirt with Thorani by talking about making beer. But it builds their personalities, making them more distinct while creating a sense of unity between Ajna and them. That despite the differences, and several of the characters get frustrated with Ajna, they're all in this together.</p><p>It worked on me. I helped them with all their quests, and near the end, when Ajna concludes she has to finish this alone, I took the chance offered to say good-bye to each one. Watching each character fade as they're released from her mind was a melancholy feeling. I almost didn't want to win, because it meant it was all going to be over. Razmi's good-bye, which I saved for last, got to me. Big surprise, the darkly sarcastic loner who loves to read and burn things was my favorite character.<br /></p><p>For a game I bought on a complete whim based on the back of the case, <i>Indivisible</i> worked out really well.<br /></p>CalvinPitthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11815632086057048846noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19932777.post-69151497706566604702024-02-28T15:23:00.086-06:002024-02-28T15:23:00.246-06:00May's Low on Turbulence<p>Continuing recent trends, the May solicits didn't have a lot outside Marvel that did much for me. And Marvel's too busy with some vampire-themed crossover to release anything new I give a crap about. With the cost of things going up, maybe it's in my wallet's best interests.<br /></p><p><b>What's coming out that's new?</b> Aaron Wroblewski and Ezequiel Rubio Lancho have <i>Blood and Fire</i> coming out through Red 5, about the civil war in 16th century Japan that signaled the rise of the Tokugawa Shogunate. The solicit doesn't give any sense of what approach they're going to take to that event, beyond that it will be violent, but it might be worth a look. At least worth checking subsequent solicits for further information.</p><p>Sticking with civil wars, Dark Horse has the tpb of <i>Yellow</i>, by Jay Martin, about a soldier trying to escape a second American civil war, and the decisions he makes along the way. <br /></p><p>Yen Press has <i>Penguin Highway</i> by Tomihiko Morimi and Keito Yano, about some kids trying to solve the mystery of why a bunch of penguins showed up in their town, and where they vanished to. That's just random enough to be interesting!</p><p><b>What's ending in May?</b> <i>Night Thrasher</i> and <i>Power Pack: Into the Storm</i> will both be wrapping up.<br /></p><p><b>And, what's left?</b> Marvel's got three mini-series at issue 3: <i>Black Widow and Hawkeye</i>, <i>Ms. Marvel: Mutant Menace</i>, and <i>Jackpot and Black Cat</i>. <i>Fantastic Four</i> will focus on Ben and Johnny working at the same part-time job, <i>Vengeance of the Moon Knight</i> has the Shroud, I mean Moon Knight still targeting the previous Moon Knight's supporting cast. I thought he said he'd leave them be in issue 2, but I guess he called that off after they went after him. And in <i>Deadpool</i>, Wade decides to have Taskmaster run a boutique mercenary agency(?) for him.</p><p>Boom! has issue 2 of <i>Blow Away</i>, and Mad Cave has the second issue of <i>Morning Star</i>, and one of the kids has gone missing in the woods. It's fine; let it be a learning experience for the little rugrat. Nature is great for that! Scout also has issue 3 of <i>Rogues</i>. At least they didn't solicit another issue of <i>A Haunting on Mars</i>. We should be up to issue 3 now, but there's not been a sign of issue 2 yet.</p><p>And on the manga front, <i>Zom 100</i> volume 14 ensures I fall ever further behind on that book, while Seven Seas solicited volume 10 of <i>Precarious Woman Executive Miss Black General</i>, but it doesn't actually come out until August.<br /></p>CalvinPitthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11815632086057048846noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19932777.post-7973430404254880862024-02-27T15:34:00.151-06:002024-02-27T15:34:00.133-06:00Everything Everywhere All At Once (2022)<p>Evelyn's (Michelle Yeoh) running a failing laundromat with her husband (Ke Huy Quan), who she feels doesn't take anything seriously enough. She's caring for her aged and distant father (James Hong), she's losing her daughter (Stephanie Hsu) whether she realizes it or not. Oh, and the laundry's in dutch with the IRS (as represented by Jamie Lee Curtis' character.)</p><p>In the midst of all that, Waymond starts acting weird, claiming he's a version of him from another universe, who need Evelyn's help to save the entire multiverse from the Jobu Teriyaki. Jay-ne-ne Topeka? Klatuu verada niktu? It's a person whose mind has fragmented across the multiverse and is trying to pull the entire thing into a void of destruction and ruin. Evelyn has to fix it, by drawing on the abilities of other Evelyns, assuming she can avoid having her own mind shattered by the experience.</p><p>I did not expect this movie to be as funny as it is. The weird, random stuff people have to do to build the connection to a different version of them. Like eating chapstick. The whole "Raccacoonie" running gag had me doubled over laughing. The bit where Evelyn and her daughter are rocks, because it's a universe where no life ever developed. Waymond beating up security guards with his fanny pack - or is it a utility pouch? Let's ask Cable. Even the part where Evelyn falls into the same line of thinking as the Jobu Tupaki, falls into nihilism, and we see her destroying happiness, hers and others, across multiple universes, because the way she goes about some of it is just funny.</p><p>The movie plays a bit with the notion of an infinite multiverse, mostly in the form of the "hot dog fingers" reality, but also the universes with no life. Kind of would have like to see one without even any planets, just swirling forms of energy or something. Minor thing. And of course the big question of whether anything you do matters if there's a universe out there somewhere for every decision you could ever make. Maybe you didn't take that trip to Tuscany, but there's a (better tanned and more fluent in Italian) version of you who did, so did it matter what you chose?</p><p>I like the "ending" in the middle of the movie, before things resume. The fact it does address that feeling of the meaninglessness of existence, before offering an answer as to why it does matter. That Evelyn starts out treating the whole situation as a nuisance, just another thing her silly husband dragged her into. Then it's an escape, a way to feel control, or feel like a better version of herself. Then it's a way to save her daughter, but Evelyn sees it as something in opposition she has to fight. That doesn't work, of course. It's like another excuse, way to avoid the real issue.</p><p>Also appreciate that the resolution doesn't come with her just telling her daughter all these positive things, but when she's totally honest. Even with stuff that's critical. Does that mean Waymond was right about starting divorce papers as a way to bring about a real conversation? You have to mark the fault lines before you can try bridging them?</p><p>If either was going to win Best Supporting Actress, I would have gone with Stephanie Hsu over Jamie Lee Curtis. Hsu's role was the more complex and impressive bit of work. The frustrated and exhausted daughter, getting dragged down by expectations she can't meet (or doesn't want to) from someone she doesn't think has any business criticizing her. Repeat that experience hundreds, thousands, millions of times, and see how hopeless it leaves you. How everything is just a joke at that point.</p><p>Yeoh and Quan get to take different approaches to dealing with connecting to other versions of themselves. Quan's always a separate guy, separate experiences, even when the "Alphaverse" Waymond is inhabiting Evelyn's Waymond. Different posture, different ways of speaking to her (Alphaverse Waymond is much more assertive), but that similar compassion. It's take real skill to say, <i>"You can do anything, because you're so bad at everything,"</i> and not come off like a dick.</p><p>Yeoh's always the same Evelyn, but she gets to see how the other Evelyn's lived, inhabit their lives for a minute. So there's that element of confusion, or envy, before she snaps back to her life, which she feels is slowly grinding her to paste. She moves like she's checked out during the early stages of the movie, just going through the motions, then slowly comes to life as she gets into the multiverse stuff. You can see her getting cocky when she thinks she's got a handle on it, right up to the point she finds out who the Jobu Tupaki is.</p><p>Anyway, it's very good. Shocking, right?<br /></p>CalvinPitthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11815632086057048846noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19932777.post-44328226640628503712024-02-26T10:30:00.104-06:002024-02-26T10:30:00.133-06:00Overheated Iron Doesn't Last<p><i>Iron Fist: The Living Weapon - Rage</i> finds Danny Rand drifting through life, haunted by unfulfilled promises. Lots of panels of him staring blankly into space, or just going through the motions of his day-to-day life. He keeps thinking of his parents' deaths in the mountains near K'un-Lun, how he trained and killed a dragon to gain the power to come back to New York and take revenge.</p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3QyDS3qxkMwbNzch6NVAINomMUCKS0E4zvgSuY3MAmjKcE-8CjiLMV7Of28Ooa_dbeINbHOapY0nO2kOAxDs_d1ThuQg9ADBN2HzmdHh2MiR7EJk02kbBLp9tAzSPLud4BYet4QAUcmsaO-Vsm_dABxjTeXxqbdaeLUCsh6c0YTiS2NKG9myt6A/s600/IMG_20240220_0001.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="348" data-original-width="600" height="233" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3QyDS3qxkMwbNzch6NVAINomMUCKS0E4zvgSuY3MAmjKcE-8CjiLMV7Of28Ooa_dbeINbHOapY0nO2kOAxDs_d1ThuQg9ADBN2HzmdHh2MiR7EJk02kbBLp9tAzSPLud4BYet4QAUcmsaO-Vsm_dABxjTeXxqbdaeLUCsh6c0YTiS2NKG9myt6A/w400-h233/IMG_20240220_0001.jpg" title="Iron Fist knows he's teeth must be unto a thing like iron if he hopes to defeat plaque buildup." width="400" /></a></div>Except the Howard Meachum he found was a shattered man, having already broken himself waiting for the sword to fall. So what did Danny get? A company he doesn't care about, a skyscraper that was destroyed some indeterminate time ago (~5 years ago our time, at the end of <i>Immortal Iron Fist</i>) he just leaves standing as a wreck, a mystic city he's supposed to protect that he never visits.<p></p><p>That last one's a problem, because the city comes under attack from a new foe, that's also an old foe. Or a couple of old foes perhaps. Danny doesn't know a thing about it until a small child shows up with a big package strapped to her back, begging him to return.</p><p>That. . .does not go well, in a lot of ways.</p><p>Kaare Andrews takes a real scorched earth approach to, basically everything from <i>Immortal Iron Fist</i>. Lei Kung the Thunderer is the new Yu-Ti? Nope, he dead. The new Thunderer, just one of many girls Lei Kung was training in secret to overthrow the previous Yu-Ti, gets perfunctorily blinded by Davos, who, the last we saw him, was trying to make amends by guarding the dragon egg until it was ready to hatch into the next Shou-Lao. Well, he backslid in record time.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCRj5YISCrRRCOMTkeY8yAqEk23MyGURJ-VUpuDH2nHQC_qu6bjeH3yqkEHacdzsi7cV6BKtH4QkT6opo1b0N3sQHi9p8gyeJ1YU112nNH0_6bRBvLeovkn9GurLkWGYmDV9bGqUWTTeq4jdW6__FlrMLStrXbR3ipKqohAyRUvdLAzq_NU85ZMw/s600/IMG_20240220_0002.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="345" data-original-width="600" height="230" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCRj5YISCrRRCOMTkeY8yAqEk23MyGURJ-VUpuDH2nHQC_qu6bjeH3yqkEHacdzsi7cV6BKtH4QkT6opo1b0N3sQHi9p8gyeJ1YU112nNH0_6bRBvLeovkn9GurLkWGYmDV9bGqUWTTeq4jdW6__FlrMLStrXbR3ipKqohAyRUvdLAzq_NU85ZMw/w400-h230/IMG_20240220_0002.jpg" title="Good thing he found a healthy outlet for his grief!" width="400" /></a></div><p></p><p>The new dragon, somehow already very large, is beheaded. The city is burned to the ground. Davos chases the child to earth and slaughters a bunch of cops and other people in a hospital. John Aman, the Prince of Orphans, is hanging out in K'un-Lun when Danny gets there, even though a) he's the Immortal Weapon to an entirely different city, and b) he apparently didn't do shit to stop the burning and murdering.</p><p>He does expect Danny to take over as Yu-Ti, though what good that would do while the enemy is still out there I don't know. Moot point, as Danny destroys the Tree of Immortality in a fit of, you guessed it, rage. Danny's abdicating all responsibility to anything other than beating the shit out of people, but he failed at that, so what's left?<br /></p><p>Andrews draws and colors the book, and definitely goes for stylish for effect. Characters as dark
outlines against backgrounds of solid color. Lots of close-up panels on a
fist striking someone, or blood spattering, or bones breaking, often
colored like a photo negative. The fact Danny gets broken to pieces, forcing him to essentially pull himself back together from scratch, doesn't do much to dispel the <i>Dark Knight Returns</i> vibe the art gives me. The bit where the word "DEATH" is in the background, and sometimes are the panels themselves is a nice touch. The attempt to bring a real style to it works, I'm just less sure of the story that style is in service to. <br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjADfO8S8i_JrpFV47pZ5IYthVG0BCHUkw3jMwlQePMUuDbqgKC6ogQc_s4R-nKNyVASIl1MvHkTZlt3dHi-PAm0Gp43GyU4knutL065TfXiAqkiog0thJKEUp4wwu6IkKWjnrVILkKRjO-2EjqNNjP0H4YKIOnRI-BLW8bgovg-33N4iBAOXG3rA/s600/IMG_20240220_0003.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="362" data-original-width="600" height="241" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjADfO8S8i_JrpFV47pZ5IYthVG0BCHUkw3jMwlQePMUuDbqgKC6ogQc_s4R-nKNyVASIl1MvHkTZlt3dHi-PAm0Gp43GyU4knutL065TfXiAqkiog0thJKEUp4wwu6IkKWjnrVILkKRjO-2EjqNNjP0H4YKIOnRI-BLW8bgovg-33N4iBAOXG3rA/w400-h241/IMG_20240220_0003.jpg" title="That's a greenstick fracture." width="400" /></a></div><p></p><p>Oh, and Andrews throws in that Danny suppressed memories of his mother having an affair with Harold Meachum prior to the journey into the mountains. Not sure what that added, other than some additional destruction of innocence. Andrews does repeated flashbacks that show that, actually, Danny was bullied by the other kids under the Thunderer's tutelage, and kind of a crybaby unless you taunted him about his mother. In which case he turned into a berserker. To be fair, Duane Swierczynski did the same thing in his initial arc of <i>Immortal Iron Fist</i>, having Danny kill a thing that killed Iron Fists by essentially just fighting like a pissed-off child.<br /></p>CalvinPitthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11815632086057048846noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19932777.post-72288655396583598102024-02-25T11:30:00.054-06:002024-02-25T11:30:00.249-06:00Sunday Splash Page #311<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhDfRFV7yOUKUh0ELjt1BS3P_WrKyPUtOMw9Gj3gGDLzZ4QR0ruk1WrX9t8cTLCEdF4ugGztWNzpFcGdzWeFH_ZVNwANmcnM34GRn5_ZBBHdiZA_4dyeN2LdToUxtrptHXzWJxyKbZz1Ckm9weFyBv2VUgMR2K6aIe-Zw0UvVkb_IMxLEvwryjqYw/s800/IMG_20240112_0003.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="493" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhDfRFV7yOUKUh0ELjt1BS3P_WrKyPUtOMw9Gj3gGDLzZ4QR0ruk1WrX9t8cTLCEdF4ugGztWNzpFcGdzWeFH_ZVNwANmcnM34GRn5_ZBBHdiZA_4dyeN2LdToUxtrptHXzWJxyKbZz1Ckm9weFyBv2VUgMR2K6aIe-Zw0UvVkb_IMxLEvwryjqYw/w394-h640/IMG_20240112_0003.jpg" title="Drinks are supposed to be for RELEASING your demons, not containing them." width="394" /></a> </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><i>"Keep Things Bottled Up," in <b>Locke and Key: Head Games #3</b>, by Joe Hill (writer), Gabriel Rodriguez (artist), Jay Fotos (colorist), Robbie Robbins (letterer)</i></div><p><i>Welcome to Lovecraft</i> ended with Sam Lesser dead, but the creature from the wellhouse on the loose, and posing as a student at Tyler and Kinsey's school. In <i>Head Games</i>, we find out the creature was once a friend of the Locke's father, Luke Carvaggio, or "Dodge."</p><p>Even 30 years hasn't been long enough for all memories to fade, so much of this mini-series is Dodge trying to cover his tracks, killing or otherwise incapacitating people who might recognize him and ask inconvenient questions. He's not very smooth at it - his attempt to make the death of a teacher look like suicide is seen through within minutes - but there's no way to easily tie any of it to him.</p><p>And the introduction of the Head Key makes thing a lot simpler for him, unfortunately. The key unlocks the top of a person's head, allowing them to take out or put in anything they want. There's even a nice bit of magic where the person using the key is able to look down into their head, so they aren't groping around blindly.</p><p>This lets Rodriguez draw some weird scenes, as we get a look inside both Bode and Tyler's heads. Some of the memories are true to life, such as Tyler's of him standing over his father's casket (plus or minus Sam Lesser whispering over his shoulder.) Bode's are much brighter and more fanciful, like some grand amusement park where everything is exaggerated. His conception of the creature in the wellhouse is therefore too off-base for the other Locke kids to recognize Dodge (or "Zack" as he's going by).</p><p>Likewise, Tyler's attempt to catch up on his schoolwork backfires because just stuffing a book about Machiavelli into your skull so you have all the information, doesn't mean you can craft a coherent essay. That said, it's interesting how Hill filters these actions, and Kinsey's removal of both her fear and ability to cry, are based on a desire to be able to jumpstart their lives. Tyler's sick of everybody looking at him with pity when he admits he hasn't done his homework, and he wants to play hockey, because it's something normal and people seem to want him around. And Kinsey's tired of crying and being sad and afraid to make friends with anyone, so she makes it so she can't be.</p><p>(She also catches the eye of a guy who looks like he thinks Quentin Quire was a fashion icon, but that'll become more relevant later.) <br /></p><p>These are predictably bad ideas, but I can't say I wouldn't have jumped at the chance to do the same thing in my teen years. Hell, I'd probably give serious thought to removing my capacity to feel fear right now.<br /></p>CalvinPitthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11815632086057048846noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19932777.post-72601516481081671692024-02-24T15:00:00.080-06:002024-02-24T15:00:00.358-06:00Saturday Splash Page #113<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhkMTmeLrh6oqjVMAE1HYnCdbaKqJlPMQ9sG0wwdSQLrjA6rNUZ0sYQp1rvANALpAoYaNmWWBYH-ty0l5Y-zC-ysWf0wWYxUJnmJ8G1G57nQ4DzbdFohLuiui0pkwF1ldn8i4ZB6cYFbkl78WbskvBwrbu-WKKPmZ2KU-GIlEkmfLFcTUiZ-Xmtig/s800/IMG_20231222_0007.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="517" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhkMTmeLrh6oqjVMAE1HYnCdbaKqJlPMQ9sG0wwdSQLrjA6rNUZ0sYQp1rvANALpAoYaNmWWBYH-ty0l5Y-zC-ysWf0wWYxUJnmJ8G1G57nQ4DzbdFohLuiui0pkwF1ldn8i4ZB6cYFbkl78WbskvBwrbu-WKKPmZ2KU-GIlEkmfLFcTUiZ-Xmtig/w414-h640/IMG_20231222_0007.jpg" title="In 4 pages, Waller will tell Eiling she's coming after him, and he runs like a punk-ass." width="414" /></a> </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><i>"Big Talk," in <b>Suicide Squad: Raise the Flag #8</b>, by John Ostrander (writer), Javi Pina (penciler), Robin Riggs (penciler/inker), Jason Wright (colorist), Rob Leigh (letterer)</i></div><p>The Squad got another ongoing series in 2001, written by Keith Giffen, about a Suicide Squad commanded by General Frank (formerly Sgt.) Rock. It lasted a year, and I rarely hear much good about it. Or much about it at all, really. In late 2007, John Ostrander came back with an 8-issue mini-series that revolved around, of all things, the return of Rick Flag. Curious, since Flag rather emphatically died setting off a small nuclear device in the Jihad's mountainside base a couple of years into the original <i>Suicide Squad</i>.</p><p>But he and Rustam wound up in Skartaris (yep, from Mike Grell's <i>Warlord</i>), and Flag eventually got back to the world. The Squad he returns to is back to be run by Waller, but she's gotten a bit nastier, which is terrifying. The explosive bracelets are gone, replaced with little bombs implanted at the base of your skull. Although it turns out Waller has one herself, implanted a long time ago, and only one person knows that code.</p><p>I don't really buy that. One of the major reasons things went the way they did for Flag in the first volume of <i>Suicide Squad</i> was because Waller didn't trust him, and therefore didn't confide in him. He didn't get any support from her, and acted on incomplete information to try and save the Squad. On the other hand, it would be like the Wall to put her life in the hands of a guy she largely dislikes and who feels the same way about her.</p><p>Javi Pina and Robin Riggs are the penciler/inker team, and their work is very clean, easy to read and follow. The action makes senses, the emotion is there. It's in my wheelhouse for the sort of general look I like, but I'm not sure it's right for this book. McDonnell had the squared-off, strongly outlined look that made everyone look rough and ragged, plus the hard shadows that could swallow characters up. Isherwood was a lot smoother, but also added a lot of detail to the faces, playing up the wrinkles or the bags under the eyes, the toll of the work. That's not really present here. It's good superhero comic art, but maybe not good <i>Suicide Squad</i> art. <br /></p><p>Ostrander adds some other elements to the mix. Former General Wade Eiling, now the near-unstoppable Shaggy Man as one of the Squad's newest "recruits." Plastique, who betrayed the team in the first story arc is back, unaware this isn't her first term of service (because Waller had her mindwiped after Plastique betrayed them, before accepting the more upstanding personnel's objections and shelving that.) Boomerbutt is dead - thanks, Brad Meltzer, you fucking putz - and in his place is his son, Owen. The one with super-speed. Like his dad, he manages to get on Deadshot's bad side.</p><p>There's also the usual assortment of second and third-string villains, like Windfall from Force of Nature, or Twisted Sister. They're there primarily for the body count, but Ostrander remembers to give them enough focus so we have some idea of what they're like, so that we might actually care if they die or not.<br /></p>CalvinPitthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11815632086057048846noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19932777.post-20758126342960927992024-02-23T15:06:00.099-06:002024-02-23T15:06:00.143-06:00Random Back Issues #124 - Guardians of the Galaxy #15<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5ypst_W59yYRWYQqhZJDfbonTTN0LeGIDmnl7X7f9FSA1M0PiFfSsSXMV4A5luSZyhSvJUd2qMPM4kZclvdarTeawiidfOwVSarEVbZs2DwUoxdeCObHZeOQ6pCVwKa51oO-iPBOYGgw3nIScgtA4pg-Sm3ZwHInoaqPpfNkQzky50zN8fbW3Pw/s600/IMG_20240219_0001.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="406" data-original-width="600" height="271" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5ypst_W59yYRWYQqhZJDfbonTTN0LeGIDmnl7X7f9FSA1M0PiFfSsSXMV4A5luSZyhSvJUd2qMPM4kZclvdarTeawiidfOwVSarEVbZs2DwUoxdeCObHZeOQ6pCVwKa51oO-iPBOYGgw3nIScgtA4pg-Sm3ZwHInoaqPpfNkQzky50zN8fbW3Pw/w400-h271/IMG_20240219_0001.jpg" title="The Slobbery Tongue of God." width="400" /></a></div>Pity we never got a proper team-up.<br /><p></p><p>We're smack in the middle of <b>War of Kings</b>, aka the War of Stupid Assholes, and so are the Guardians. The team tried splitting up and approaching the respective rulers, Black Bolt and Vulcan, separately about ending the war before they tore apart space-time.</p><p>Vulcan's a psychopath, so that was a no-go. Worse, the Imperial Guard has a mage who tagged Adam Warlock with some sort of "witch-mark" that allows them to track him back to Knowhere. The Inhumans were no more receptive, and then Phyla-Vell took Crystal hostage when the Guardians left. And the Inhumans have a teleporting dog that allows them to follow.</p><p>Beseiged from both sides, Warlock and Cosmo's shields fall. Mantis and Star-Lord convinced Crystal the threat of universal destruction is real, but Black Bolt doesn't care. He grabs Crystal, and the Inhumans bounce like the useless jackasses they are. Which still leaves two-thirds of the Guardians hounded by the Imperial Guard.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLr7pq8HbuVvfrVb3VH2TBVcApGya2n-ToeM62ZCRatjTOUpHUbyJD4_cJk4qzP9zNjQ0rmVII2QpuZV1ExuJQxnf-4k0rsSwcQDbsQVfwnE3-tXiQpwLHlTmCKt2yX0mbKyJXAdomc9aWk5EiHAskB5yUkkRVJZiT5k8xjKr3alRgvn_vZWgtMA/s600/IMG_20240219_0002.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="470" data-original-width="600" height="314" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLr7pq8HbuVvfrVb3VH2TBVcApGya2n-ToeM62ZCRatjTOUpHUbyJD4_cJk4qzP9zNjQ0rmVII2QpuZV1ExuJQxnf-4k0rsSwcQDbsQVfwnE3-tXiQpwLHlTmCKt2yX0mbKyJXAdomc9aWk5EiHAskB5yUkkRVJZiT5k8xjKr3alRgvn_vZWgtMA/w400-h314/IMG_20240219_0002.jpg" title="Political C.Y.A. means the Guardians are S.O.L." width="400" /></a></div><p></p><p>The Guardians scatter - that is literally how Star-Lord describes his plan, "Scatter!" - unable to communicate because Oracle is somehow a stronger telepath than Cosmo, Mantis and Moondragon combined. Sounds like bullshit to me, but whatever. Star-Lord appeals to the ruling council on Knowhere, and the Luminals (essentially the Avengers of planet Xanth) for help, but is told to surrender for everyone else's benefit. Yeah, surrender to the tender mercies of people who serve Vulcan.</p><p>Mentor, the Brainiac-5 of the Imperial Guard, plans to take control of Knowhere and its ability to send forces anywhere to strike directly at the Inhumans, but the Guardians rally. Gamora and Phyla aren't down with "Scatter!" as a strategy and opt to hack their way through the Shi'ar. The mage and some other soldiers use the mark to track Warlock, but he's able to transfer it to her. When the soldiers use their enchanted weapons, they track the mark and kill her. Nifty, and all it took was Warlock's skin turning purple, which, combined with him rending the soldiers limb from limb certainly isn't concerning!</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4Ao9iOl_oFsFzKFGnY3wrkJ05xvf3sejz6sT8lWQU8cbnVRgIkAPzM634QIqvJoo-uxpF_5r8GdgVx7LMZT-gbiaIUdJFK_a-HAVX_MhKuoszzScn_9fwSVPzzbuTmhrCb1j_2Sde0MG0YQa9YTP1BHV5pthapzwJ3acwx_tteaqYdFHOX1WBEg/s600/IMG_20240219_0003.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="442" data-original-width="600" height="295" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4Ao9iOl_oFsFzKFGnY3wrkJ05xvf3sejz6sT8lWQU8cbnVRgIkAPzM634QIqvJoo-uxpF_5r8GdgVx7LMZT-gbiaIUdJFK_a-HAVX_MhKuoszzScn_9fwSVPzzbuTmhrCb1j_2Sde0MG0YQa9YTP1BHV5pthapzwJ3acwx_tteaqYdFHOX1WBEg/w400-h295/IMG_20240219_0003.jpg" title="Like Jim Starlin, Warlock likes to break other people's toys." width="400" /></a></div><p></p><p>Mentor loses the Continuum Cortex when the remaining third of the Guardians - Rocket, Groot, Drax and Major Victory - 'port in. Rocket gets a little feral, clawing up Mentor's face while telling him they just reinstalled Lilandra on the throne. Even with Phyla, Gamora and Warlock joining the fray, Mentor has a good laugh as he runs with his oversized dome between his legs. Lilandra's just been assassinated (by a Raptor in Darkhawk's armor.) The bad news doesn't stop there, as Knowhere comes alive to warn Adam the fate of all existence depends on him. All existence is pretty fucked, then.</p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzM66_9g-VEUN-G2ItUKYYg7TkjLKg6IFnPgARMkHYnjFXGyDOC-HzPtPiEI2odbWv20zy1JagnIkkiGPL1MY3azAStEebGESWRiVxY4gI_m2o4SGVLDLnNciJ9RL8HELFpD9NjrYz9_3Ba7Usa9otTM3r3CDWX9srYpsPsQUXJEW1vplZ3fYIQg/s600/IMG_20240219_0004.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="329" data-original-width="600" height="219" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzM66_9g-VEUN-G2ItUKYYg7TkjLKg6IFnPgARMkHYnjFXGyDOC-HzPtPiEI2odbWv20zy1JagnIkkiGPL1MY3azAStEebGESWRiVxY4gI_m2o4SGVLDLnNciJ9RL8HELFpD9NjrYz9_3Ba7Usa9otTM3r3CDWX9srYpsPsQUXJEW1vplZ3fYIQg/w400-h219/IMG_20240219_0004.jpg" title="You know you suck when Rocket doesn't even deem you worth shooting with an unfeasibly large gun." width="400" /></a></div>Oh, and the Starhawk the Guardians have had prisoner for several issues was able to manipulate the freshly-resurrected Moondragon into releasing her, and has vanished, taking Mantis, Cosmo, Star-Lord, Bug and Jack Flag along for the ride.<br /><p></p><p>{5th longbox, 36th comic, <i>Guardians of the Galaxy (vol. 2) #15</i>, by Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning (writer), Brad Walker (penciler), Victor Olizaba and Livesay (inker), Jay David Ramos (colorist), Chris Eliopoulos (letterer)}<br /></p>CalvinPitthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11815632086057048846noreply@blogger.com0