Sunday Splash Page #32

"FATALITY", in Annihilation #6, by Keith Giffen (writer), Andrea DiVito (artist), Laura Villari (color artist), Cory Petit (letterer)

My scanner is just a little too small for double-page splashes, so I didn't quite get all of "This is for the Nova Corps!". There's a couple of single-page splashes in this issue alone I like better. Like the one where we see the Kree can actually shoot their buildings like surface-to-air missiles. But after the page I used for last week's entry, I figured I needed to show the rematch between Nova and Annihilus, and this was the only option.

Anyway, after the mixed bag of the four lead-in mini-series, we got to the main show of what is still my favorite Event Comic. Giffen is good here at ramping up the stakes. Each time the resistance seems like they might be be turning a corner, disaster strikes. When Firelord captures one of Annihilus' admirals (also one of his queens), they learn Annihilus and Thanos have teamed up, and made a deal with two Elder Beings to take down Galactus and the Silver Surfer. Things are bad enough Nova has to not only rely on Ronan as an ally, but Ronan's an essential leader as someone who actually knows something about warfare for the Kree units. And Ronan willingly (if not happily) works with Super-Skrull later on.

DiVito and Villari's artwork is bright and clean. It's not a gritty, bloody war book. There are a few pages that sell the injuries as more severe, but a lot of times injured translates to, "outfit torn, maybe some scratches". Even in scenes like above, I'd describe my reaction more as, "Oh, wow" than "Ouch", if that makes sense. It's a very pretty book, with a lot of very cool, big scenes in it. Most of the characters involved get moments to be awesome or make a key contribution. It made for a nice escape from the dreary mess that was Millar's Civil War.

Setting Goals And Eliminating Distractions

The Shocker is a malleable villain in terms of his personality. He's trying to Big Bad in Jersey City right now in Ms. Marvel. Superior Foes of Spider-Man played him as a fraidy-cat and the butt of all the jokes. At times, he's a frustrated career man, wondering where things went wrong. Other times he's completely terrified of Spider-Man, or out for revenge because he's tired of being terrified of Spider-Man. Sometimes he's muscle-for-hire because it pays the bills.

But he's always aware of the reality of his situation (Part of it, at least. He can't always understand why Spider-Man won't just let him win). Coward Shocker knew what everyone thought of him, but he didn't care. He was just trying to make some money so he could buy a nice house someplace. Having a reputation as a tough guy or a badass wasn't going to make that happen.

Zeb Wells wrote a story in Peter Parker: Spider-Man where Herman teams up with Hydro-Man (this was back when JMS was still writing Amazing Spider-Man). Hydro-Man wants to kill Spider-Man for "respect", but Shocker doesn't give a crap about that. Respect doesn't pay the bills. He has the team-up because he wants to pull a big bank job, get that retirement score, and if Spider-Man shows up and they kill him, fine, whatever.

In that story, he also wonders if coming up with those gauntlets was the worst move he ever made. He had to design a suit to protect himself, which made him less "safecracker", more "super-villain". That's when he starts getting tangled up with super-heroes, instead of cops, and everything went down the tubes.

Also in that story, the two have been working for Hammer Industries where they get salaries and benefits, and Hammer would get a cut of their "extralegal activities" money. When that ends, Shocker's left wondering how he became essentially an office drone. Taking a paycheck from somebody else. He recognizes he lost sight of what he wanted, and immediately begins trying to fix that.

Shocker's a character who knows what he wants, and can recognize what isn't necessary to get it. He doesn't get locked in an endless cycle of revenge. If he decides today he's picking a fight with Spider-Man, then sure, he'll go do that, whether it's for money or just because he's sick and tired of Spider-Man. But he doesn't keep trying to "get" Spidey, only to fail and be thrown in jail, only to break out and try again. He'll reassess, set a different goal, or decide a different approach, and go from there.

His current plan, to actually try to be a World-Threatening (or at least city-threatening) super-villain may seem a little out of his league, but even there, he was realistic about it. He couldn't pull it off in New York City. There are hundreds of super-heroes that would show up, to say nothing of how many super-villain might get cheesed off if Shocker's plans interrupt their nefarious schemes. So he chose a smaller, quieter location. It doesn't really matter if he's "only" the Big Bad of Jersey City, or if his new arch-foe is a teenager (albeit one who's pals with Iron Man and Captain Marvel), just so long as he is a Big Bad, and finally gets an arch-foe of his own. The goals are being achieved, the rest is just details.

Other villains might scoff, but it's the goal he set for himself. Does this mean the Shocker's real gift is not worrying about what other people think of him? (This is where we make the obligatory joke about that being a necessity, given his costume).

Black Panther

This was pretty good. Chadwick Boseman makes T'Challa seem like a very cool guy (the costuming helps, everyone had pretty cool outfits, but T'Challa in particular had some nice formalwear. I'd like to look that cool when I wear my nicer stuff), but the movie surrounds him with all these ladies who will bust his chops at every opportunity to keep him from seeming insufferable.

It's not the only thing they do, since Nakia and Shuri are both the ones who propose the philosophy of how Wakanda should interact with the world that ultimately is going to be followed, and Okoye's choice about which side to take is critical to the final battle, but it's an important role. Even as he's trying to be cool and in control, I'm the king, I'm the Black Panther, I've got this, etc., they all knew him when he was snot-nosed kid, and they know how to have a little fun at his expense. Keeps him from seeming too distant or aloof, and Boseman helps by playing T'Challa as someone who doesn't get sore about it, but mostly enjoys the jokes. He loves that Shuri will complain about traditional garb she has to wear right in the middle of his big ceremony, or flip him off about something.

Lupita Nyong'o (Nakia), Danai Gurira (Okoye), and Letitia Wright (Shuri) were all very cool, all in their ways. Okoye can be sharing a joke with Shuri one minute, and vowing to kill her lover if he doesn't stand down the next. Like, if she aimed a pointed weapon at me in real life, I might pass out. She projects terrifying very well. I like the contrast between her and Nakia. Nakia isn't as tied up in how things have been, which is why she's more insistent on Wakanda being proactive, but she tends to limit herself more, maybe. She thinks of herself as a spy, and is somewhat reluctant to go outside that role, even when she shows a knack for it. In some ways, she has a lot of confidence, but in others, less so. Shuri's a genius, but she's also the youngest, so a little sillier, more enthusiastic about things. Loves to show off all the cool things they've come up with, even if she maybe shouldn't be telling the CIA guy all this stuff. She's a nerd, in the good way, the person who loves to tell other people about the things that interest and excite her.

I do think it's a little strange that a country that is so terribly advanced still has trial by combat to determine their leader, and is otherwise a monarchy, but maybe that's going to change. The movie gives the feeling that even as Wakanda has continued to advance technologically, it hasn't stopped to consider if it needs to change its approach to dealing with the world or handling its business. The way it's been doing things has worked, so why change? By the end, T'Challa's been convinced they need to take a more proactive role, so I wonder if he's going to the last monarch of Wakanda. Shake up the system of government as well.

(The scene when Shuri and Nakia are getting ready to join the fight, and Nakia balks at wearing the armor because that's for Dora Mijae felt kind of similar. Like, only certain select people are supposed to wear that, and she's not one of them so she can. Meanwhile, Shuri's standing there going, "We're going into battle, it's armor, just wear it as protection." Don't get so hung up on the labels.)

I thought all the actors did a really good job. I think I've liked Michael B. Jordan in everything I've seen in him, and his Killmonger was no different. Although I was surprised at a few of his actions, not how ruthless he could be, but more how quick he was to just kill people. It made a certain amount of sense he would eliminate any opposition, but I thought he'd keep people around a little longer until his plans were further along. The "I don't need you anymore" then stab them them approach. Maybe he felt he'd hit that point faster than I did, or maybe once he actually got to Wakanda and got in control, the planning got overridden by the anger that they'd all been sitting in their secret, super-awesome tower, ignoring everything going on in the rest of the world.

(Are we supposed to assume Erik's mother died sometime before his father did? I didn't remember her being mentioned, other than being an American, and I was curious, if she had raised him alone from that point forward, what effect that had one way or the other).

I liked the sequence in the casino, kind of wish the fight had gone on a little longer there, but I guess the car chase set up the way Ross would get to be useful near the end. Chekov's Remote-Control Steering System. Klaue was a fun secondary villain, mostly because of how Andy Serkis plays him, this sort of maniac goofball, who seems to really enjoy being a scenery-chewing bad guy.

Winston Duke seemed to be having a good time as M'Baku, and I just enjoyed how he played that character. Not a bad guy, one who cuts through bullshit, and is ultimately concerned with his people first. The fact he doesn't take the Herb when it's offered, even though it would give him more power, was very surprising. I wonder if he just felt it wouldn't be fair, since T'Challa wasn't truly dead, or he didn't feel like confronting Killmonger himself. Not sure of his chances of winning, or not sure it's a smart idea to put his people in open conflict with Wakanda? Especially since it's unlikely Killmonger would honor any sort of formal challenge at the waterfall, so you'd have to just go to war.

I can't say if it's one of the best movies of the year - I haven't seen many movies from this year - but it's pretty good. Looks good, I liked a lot of the music selection. Like I said, everyone did a good job in their roles, most everyone got a chance to do something cool or badass.

What I Bought 9/2/2018

I found the one book that I wanted that came out last week, eventually, and here it is! I'm not exactly excited to be back at work.

Ms. Marvel #33, by G. Willow Wilson (writer), Nico Leon (artist), Ian Herring (color artist), Joe Caramagna (letterer) - I feel like Kamala's going to land very awkwardly, given the angle her body is at relative to those buildings below her. It's as though she was scaling the side of one of them, and pushed off to lunge at someone.

Kamala's powers are getting increasingly screwed up, but she's still pursuing the Shocker. He's built himself a lair! Complete with absurd, well, "death traps" might be too strong a word, but that would appear to be the intent. Meanwhile, Bruno is back at the school lab trying to finally figure out how the hell Kamala's powers work, along with his weird little Xavier school electronic encyclopedia thing. And there's a vortex in the Shocker's hideout, which is probably also disrupting Kamala's powers somehow. Bruno seems to have gotten results by increasing light wavelengths, so I'm guessing all the vibrational energy from the Shocker's gauntlets is exciting molecules and sending her powers out of control. Just spitballing here.

Even though he's being goofy, I love the Shocker trying to do his version of a Silver Age super-villain. I know the Shocker is a Silver Age super-villain, but he never really did the "lair" thing that I remember. And he's got mad engineering skills - look at the stuff he's coming up with on a five-fingered discount budget - so he can absolutely put together his own place. Although it looked structurally unsound from the outside, and his traps seem to be damaging the inside. Well, he'll get better at it with practice. And Nico Leon's artwork makes it look like he's having fun. The way he's throwing civilians in Kamala's way, or jumping around making her chase him through his version of Home Alone.

Can he be Kamala's arch-nemesis, the way he wants? Spider-Man doesn't need him, he already has plenty of enemies. I like Shocker more than the sentient computer virus or the annoying fascist girl (although it's more fun to watch her get punched in the face).

No Shred of Evidence - Charles Todd

My week away got off to a rocky start when my flight out was delayed. Initially for an hour, then another hour, then three more, then three more, then five more. The airport had a small bookshelf there, this seemed the best option somewhere around the last delay, and when I hadn't finished it I borrowed it for the flight. Figured they owed me the loan of a book, and I dropped it off on my return flight.

Anyway, it's set in England, post-World War I, and a young man is gravely injured and ultimately dies. Four ladies in a rowboat tried to rescue him from drowning, but were in dire straits until a nearby farmer saw what was going on and dove in to help. Except the farmer says the girls were trying to drown the man. There's a gash on the victim's head from an oar falling across it during the rescue, or perhaps they struck him with it to try and finish him off. There were no other witnesses, and the victim never wakens to tell their side. The girls' fathers have enough influence to get a detective from Scotland Yard dragged in to handle the investigation, and that's where Ian Rutledge comes in.

Todd takes the approach that there's little to no definitive evidence. Almost all the evidence could be interpreted in multiple ways, and with characters' motives in question, their stories are as well. Even at the end, when someone who certainly committed some murders is dealt with, there's still no guarantee the ones left are innocent. While the political influence of the families certainly factors in - or else Rutledge wouldn't be there - it's played more that there isn't anything conclusive. Nothing you could hang a conviction on. Which is a recurring thing, Todd trying to go the unexpected route with things. At least, I didn't see the plot thread with the mysterious lady everyone is reluctant to talk about going the direction it did. Although the way it played out felt a little convenient, removed a lot of the internal struggle Rutledge was having, that difficulty in pulling things apart. So it's a mixed bag.

This is roughly the 12th book about Rutledge Todd's written, so a few developments here I'm sure are meant to pay off in future books. Rutledge is also haunted by the memory of one of the soldiers he commanded in the War, who died under circumstances Rutledge is directly responsible for. That felt a little cheesy as a way to show the lingering impact of his war experiences. The times where Rutledge reflects on why he avoids alcohol, or how glad he was his parents never saw him during his time post-breakdown, were more effective at conveying the last effects, and the strain he's gone through.

'He woke with a start, staring blindly at the man from London, not seeing him as he said clearly, "Coward, That's what you are. If you have something to say to me, say it now and be done with it. Or I'll walk on. . ." And then he shouted a name, breaking off as the first blow must have struck, "St. Ives -"'

I'm Back

I actually got back late Saturday, but then most of Sunday was obliterated going to the lake with Alex for a show. Not exactly how I wanted to spend the day, but it may have saved Alex from questionable decisions (according to him), so call it a win.

Anyway, I don't have anything substantive to post, so here's a picture of a couple of moose I saw during my week away.

We were actually on our way out of the park and here are all these cars pulled off along the side of the road. I half expected some idiot to get too close and piss them off. I'm sure they're fairly accustomed to people gawking at them, but some people can't leave well enough alone. That didn't happen while we were there, though.

Sunday Splash Page #31

"Round 1," in Annihilation: Nova #4, by Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning (writers), Kev Walker (penciler), Rick Magyar (inker), Brian Reber (color artist), Cory Petit (letterer)

The point where Abnett and Lanning start writing Nova. Rich lands in the "Kyle Rayner" role as the last member of the Nova Corps, tasked with carrying not only the entire Nova Force, but also the Xandarian Worldmind, which is constantly trying to get him to do what it wants. Which is rarely what Rich wants. Rich, traumatized by the initial attack on the Nova Corps, alternates between revenge and apathy. Or fear, because he's afraid the power is going to drive him nuts (as it did the last person to hold the entire Nova Force). On top of that, he's got Drax the Destroyer and Cammi following him around, telling him to nut up, essentially. Also, Cammi keeps making fun of his helmet and complimenting his butt. That's awkward. This was my intro to her and this version of Drax, and I became a fan of hers pretty quickly.

This was also my introduction to Kev Walker's art, at least as far as I know. It's scratchier here than it is in his more recent stuff. Quasar shows up as a fairly calm, confident hero, but he has as many lines on his face as Robert Redford does these days. At the time, I joked everyone was getting skin damage from all the stray particles and cosmic radiation out there in space. Walker tends to ink his own work now, which probably accounts for the difference. 

I love the version of Annihilus here, though, much more shadowy and ominous than he appears in a lot of other stuff. This looming hulk with spindly limbs, sharp points coming off everywhere, barely illuminated by that Cosmic Rod around his neck. He never really hurries, just advances steadily. He pushes through Quasar's shield with ease. He deals Nova a scarring blow with a casual backhand when he isn't even looking in his direction. It sells him, personally, as a threat far beyond what the Wave itself represents. Drax states the Wave is a hive mind, so you just need to take out the head to stop the whole thing, the head being Annihilus. Yeah, good luck with that.

Giant Days - Volume 6

If I could come up with a tattoo idea like that, I might actually get one. No I wouldn't, because I'd regret it five minutes later. But it's still clever.

Covering issues 21-24, we see the girls' home burglarized, Daisy's relationship with Ingrid kick off, and Susan's father arrives to care for Susan when she takes ill. There are also difficulties with the next-door neighbor, Susan trying to come to grips with McGraw and Emelia's relationship, and Esther's hunt for better part-time employment. We learn the story of what happened to Daisy's parents. I was expecting something a bit more mundane on that one. Perhaps Daisy's family is drawn to a life of wild adventures. In which case, the inaccurate image Esther had of archaeology might not have been as far off as Daisy said.

Also, the final fate of Susan's extremely unhygienic laptop computer! Allison didn't bring that one up constantly, but he'd mention it just enough for the payoff to work.

As always, if the general description sounds mundane, the joy is in the details that Allison and Sarin (with Liz Fleming on inks, Whitney Cogar as colorist, and Jim Campbell as letterist) bring to it. The different approaches the girls take to searching the house when they suspect the burglar might still be there. Esther's attempt at a eulogy for a person she only barely knew at the end of the volume. Ingrid ruining everything, purposefully. Because she's that sort of person. I'm an unpleasant person, but I have the common decency to be antisocial, so as to spare everyone else from having their Good Times spoiled.

I hope more than five people show up at my funeral.

The character death was a surprise, wasn't expecting that at all. Lots of unexpected developments in this volume! And I'd forgotten the story of how Esther got those stuffed ravens in her room. I've said this before, but things move fast in this book. Esther and Susan are ecstatic to see Daisy with Ingrid here, and 6 issues from now they're going to hate her guts, and nearly destroy their tripartite friendship. Actually, Susan seems to be souring on her within one issue, but still tries to be hospitable towards her. Probably a critical mistake.

Maybe it's random, or just selective memory, but it seems like Allison and Sarin brought their "A" game to the page-ending gags for this stretch. That's a normal approach for this book, to have a conversation or scene culminate in some sort of a joke at the bottom of the page. Sometimes it's a one-liner or some other funny dialogue. Other times it's Sarin drawing some sort of reaction shot or other strange thing.

I've raved about Sarin's work on expressions and body language, but I continue to be extremely impressed by it, so what else am I gonna do but rave about it? I wouldn't have thought of that for a 'being of white hot energy', but considering Susan is sick as a dog and use a dangerous number of nicotine patches, it fits she appears to be getting consumed by her power. I pulled over a dozen single panels or two-panel set-up/punchline bits in here because I liked how they looked or they tickled my funny bone, and I left several out.

If I ever get around to scouring my collection for all the panels and pages that I enjoy, Giant Days is going to require a week's worth of effort all on its own. I don't know when I'll get around to it.

The Beyond

The movie centers around a wormhole that abruptly appears near the Earth, and the attempt to figure out what's on the other side. It takes the somewhat interesting approach of not focusing on what is encountered, looking instead at what goes into the mission. Trying to send probes in, trying to come up with a way for humans to survive the journey. Trying to choose people to put through the procedure that will theoretically allow them to survive. Dealing with setbacks.

And once the ship returns, then it's trying to figure out how to get usable information out of the crew, and decide what the information they get really means, and whether they can trust it. This is set against a backdrop of tension due to a bunch of dark spheres that appeared by the dozens on Earth shortly after the wormhole.

The movie is presented as being shot by a film crew following around members of the "Space Agency", and interviewing them and other relevant people over the course of events. Which, considering the film crew was following the head of the Agency as part of shooting some video for employee training, seems suspect? Especially when they get a member of the Department of Defense (with face in shadows and voice distorted) to talk about the Human 2.0 project. The scientists working on said project are allowed to speak on the record about what they're doing, in fairly extensive detail. You would think the government in question - I'm guessing the U.S., because turning wounded soldiers into Robocops to send back into battle seems very much something the U.S. military would do - would demand more details be kept under wraps.

I went in expecting that more of the film would focus on going through the wormhole, and what they find, exploring, problems arise, quick thinking saves the day, that kind of stuff. So I was fairly bored by the film. I appreciate they tried to go a different approach, but sitting and watching people sit and talk about preparing to go into space is not as exciting as watching people actually go into space.

Trying to Branch Out As We Head Towards Winter

The most surprising thing to me in the solicitations for November is that DC actually is putting out a couple of things that caught my attention. No, not the Aquaman-themed Big Event, or the fact that Doomsday Clock is only up to issue 8. If Johns doesn't get on with it, the world is going to end before he finishes this story. Which might be a blessing for all of us.

One item was the Suicide Squad Black Files, a mini-series about a mystic-themed Suicide Squad. The only reason that caught my eye was because Gentleman Ghost is going to be involved with. Hard to go wrong with Gentleman Ghost (I've actually read very few comics with him, but he's just such a cool design). I'm curious how Waller is going to keep a ghost under control. You can't exactly put a bomb in his head.

Problem is, it's a six-issue mini-series (at $5 an issue), where the comic is split between two stories, and the other one is about Kobra trying to take revenge on Katana, which, I don't necessarily have anything against Kobra as a character, but I don't have anything for him, either.

Also, I was looking at the cover to Suicide Squad #48, and is David Williams using Alfred Hitchcock as a visual reference for Waller? Take a look, especially her silhouette, and you be the judge.

The other book of interest was Harley Quinn, where she's going to contend with Minor Disaster, who instead of creating earthquakes and such, makes small, personal disasters. Like texting your ex, and probably getting on stage in front of the entire school in your underpants. Which sounds silly enough to be worth a look.

Marvel is not doing a whole lot. More mini-series, including one about the Black Order, that team of lackeys that run around kissing Thanos' boots. We're going to do a 12-issue mini-series to kill off Old Man Logan. Why? They brought the other Wolverine back, not to mention between his various kids there are like three other Wolverines running around. They're promoting the final issue of Death of the Inhumans with multiple covers depicting Lockjaw being dead. Great plan! Kill the one member of the Royal Family people actually like! I'm not sure what they're going for with the mini-series to celebrate the 20th Anniversary of the Marvel Knights imprint. Daredevil and a bunch of other characters not knowing who they are? Also, going by the solicits I'm starting to suspect Mayday Parker is going to get short shrift in the Spider-Girls mini-series. The focus, based on solicits feels like it's more on the Spider-Girl from the Renew Your Vows universe. I know it was already a dumb idea to consider buying a tie-in mini-series to an event I was otherwise going to entirely ignore, but now I'm stating to suspect it would be an even worse decision than I thought. Maybe I should buy that one about the two Wasps hanging out together instead.

They're restarting Uncanny X-Men with an oversize first issue that costs $8. And it leads into an event called X-Men: Disassembled! Ooh, enticing. Ironheart is getting her own ongoing, written by Eve Ewing, who is an award-winning poet. I don't know which awards, or how that will translate to writing comics, but bringing in new, different writers is a good idea. No snark, not really something I'm into but I hope it does well.

In books I'm definitely reading, there are two Squirrel Girls running around, Ms. Marvel has a new challenge on the horizon, and Domino's got troubles with Morbius. I am. . . indifferent to Morbius, thought I can't really predict how those two will interact, other than I feel like Domino will annoy him a lot. But maybe not!

I feel like there must be a lot of books missing deadlines because I saw at least a few solicitations I'm pretty sure I saw last month. The Punisher for one, West Coast Avengers for another.

On to other publishers! I didn't see the final issue of The Seeds listed. What the hell is it with these Dark Horse mini-series that they can't stay on schedule? I thought the reason it didn't come out until August, after originally being listed for release in March, was to give enough time for them to make sure it was ready. Hopefully it's just a one-month delay. There's also the second volume of a manga called Wandering Island, although it doesn't actually come out until January, but it was in these solicitations, so I mention it here. I bought the first volume two years ago, the premise was pretty interesting, but I had no clue when another volume might emerge.

IDW is releasing the latest Atomic Robo mini-series, Atomic Robo and Dawn of a New Era. I hope the coloring is better than it was in the last mini-series. At Image, turns out Stellar is a six-issue mini-series that is concluding in November. I was not aware of that. Maybe if it does well enough there'll be a follow-up. I don't know if I'm going to end up buying Infinite Dark, but the second issue is out in November. At Boom, Giant Days sees Esther trying to use her "drama field" to improve her love life, which will in no way go poorly, and in Coda, Serka and Hm are going to confront the Whitlord. So we'll see if I'm right about it being poser just wearing a fright suit.

I'm not going to buy this, but I want to mention they're doing an Archie 1941 mini-series, about Archie getting drafted, I assume. They did Archie as horror comics, why not war comics, I guess?

Last month, I mentioned a book called Transdimensional from Michael Gordon and Henrique Pereira. I wasn't sure about its format, because the way I read the solicit I thought it was a different story each issue. Well, the solicit for issue 3 is identical to issue 2, so I'm going to guess it's a 4-issue mini-series about a single story. Which isn't a strike against it, I just figured I should clarify after my confusion last month.

Ogre is another mini-series I mentioned last month, from Source Point Press. I'm still not sure about it, but there's another mini-series, Monstrous, by Gregory Wright and Ken Lamug that I wanted to at least mention. It seems like, after Frankenstein created his first creature, he was dissatisfied enough he turned to robots instead. Meanwhile, the creature went ahead and created more beings like himself. Now creatures and robots are in conflict and this is going to focus on one creature trying to complete a job for a little girl. The execution will be the real test, but I can't say the concept doesn't intrigue.

That Night

Alice (Eliza Dushku) is a 10-year old struggling to figure out romance and how to fit in with other kids. Or at least stop being the one they all pick on. With no other useful people around to help, she fixates on her neighbor across the street, 17-year old Sheryl (Juliette Lewis), trying to imitate the older girl and imagining they're friends. Eventually they do actually talk, and strike up a friendship, especially as Alice tries to help Sheryl maintain her relationship with Rick (C. Thomas Howell), who gets derided as a greaser by all the adults in Alice and Sheryl's suburb.

The movie was released in 1992, and there's times it feels very much of its era, especially when Alice's voiceover explains what she's learned as the end credits music hits. It's also set in 1961, so I always wonder how accurate a picture of the era it is, or whether it's just playing up conflicts for the sake of its narrative. At one point, Rick arrives at Sheryl's home wanting to speak with her (her mother has sent her elsewhere for reasons I won't spoil but you might guess). Rick and his friends won't leave her lawn, so all the neighborhood dads, led by Alice's father, rush over and start a fight, culminating in Rick getting clocked with a shovel. I tend to think of suburban dads as being too much a bunch of weenies for any action beyond passive-agressive looks, or maybe calling the police. Maybe it was different in the '60s.

But parts of it are done very well. Sheryl's conflict late in the movie about who to risk losing builds off losses from earlier in the film. The family situations she, Rick, and Alice have contrast nicely. Alice is not portrayed as one of those movie kids who is way too smart for their age. She does outsmart them, but it's a combination of her being determined, and her parents just underestimating her. They just sort of assume they've told her not to do something, so she won't do it. But her willingness to push back against her parents when they speak ill of Rick and Sheryl felt realistic, as well as how she sees the young lovers as what love is "supposed" to be like, in contrast to her parents, who barely seem to like each other, and have few answers for her questions.

The story is told from Alice's perspective, which makes some of the shots of Sheryl as Alice watches her from across the street kind of odd. It's meant to be Alice seeing Sheryl as this idealized version of what she should try to be, but it comes off as very male gaze when Sheryl's dancing in her room in her bra. I was thinking if they remade the movie today, Alice would probably turn out to be gay, but not really aware of that. She'd be attracted to Sheryl, but not get that, and think it was something else. Especially in the 1960s, when I don't imagine many parents were talking to their kids about homosexuality. Alice's parents get scandalized just finding out the other kids tried to make Alice ask Sheryl about "doing it".

Everyone Knows Somebody

I was going to say this team had a bunch of people who are all independent, prone to just going off and following their own agendas. But that's all the teams I make. I don't gravitate towards characters that like being part of teams. Once I thought about it a little more, each of these characters is the sort who would have a lot of sources or connections. They'd always know somebody that could tell them something or help them out. But each of them would move in different circles, so there wouldn't be too much overlap. Plus their status in those circles would vary.

The Leader: Jet Black (Cowboy Bebop) - Before he was a bounty hunter, Jet was cop, until he was shot in an ambush and lost an arm and leg (later replaced by cybernetic parts). He was a pretty good cop by all accounts (except maybe his ex-wife's). Honest, tough, smart. Not some sort of deductive genius - he has his blinds spots - but he's smart enough. Knows his way around a computer, how to track someone's activity. He's not a hacker on par with Radical Edward, but he does alright most of the time. His trademark was his determination, as he was known as the Black Dog. Once he bites, he doesn't let go.

Jet's contacts would be all his former buddies on the force. They like him pretty well, and are willing to give him what info they can, most of the time. The times they aren't, Jet might know a few secrets they'd prefer not get exposed to the light of day.

He can be grumpy, but he tends to get less extremely angry than his partner, Spike. Spike played relaxed a lot of the time, but when something got to him, it would really set him off. Jet may have just reached the point where he doesn't see the value in reacting like that, or figures he has too many responsibilities to waste time. He's got a ship to keep running, employment opportunities to hunt for, or leads to follow on targets, keeping the ship supplied on an often shoestring budget.

The Rogue: Vash the Stampede (Trigun) - Vash is. . . an idiot. Well, OK, not really. He acts that way, because it's easier. Easier for people to believe he's doing whatever he's doing by accident or pure luck, rather than realize that he's so incredibly skilled he can do these things while acting like a buffoon. This is a man who entered a gunfighting tournament, then was able to make sure no one died by throwing pebbles that diverted the competitors' bullets so they only wounded people, and only one person, sitting right next to him, noticed he was doing it.

Vash is an incredible marksman, in that he can almost always shoot to wound, if he even needs to wound them. A lot of times he can simply disarm opponents. It's fortunate this is a team that for the most part isn't going to mind his resistance to killing. If they're going after bounties, it might be preferable. The biggest issue might be that, because he tends to try using as little force as possible as long as possible, someone else could get hurt in the meantime. He's more than willing to play human shield, but that's not always going to be an option. If someone else on the team gets hurt because Vash was screwing around, there could be hell to pay (although he'll beat himself up about it worse than they will). He's stronger than he looks, fast, with excellent reflexes and sharp senses. His tolerance for alcohol is, unclear. Sometimes he seems like a lightweight, but that might be in comparison to heavy drinkers he's with. Other times, he seems like he's playing opossum. It doesn't seem to slow him down too much regardless.

With Vash, the people he knows could be almost anyone. He's over a century old, and he's helped a lot of people in that time. Little old ladies, sheriffs, young children, bus drivers, single moms. There are entire towns that regard him as a hero who would stick up for him. So, if you need a place to stay (or hide), Vash should have a wealth of options available, although he might resist turning to them if he's worried about their safety.

The Muscle: Sanosuke Sagara (Rurouni Kenshin) - Sano spent his teen years as a fighter-for-hire, taking out his frustration with what the Meiji government did to the Captain of the unit he was part of on anybody he could find that seemed worth the time. Eventually, after meeting Kenshin, he changed his outlook, and now he focuses on fighting people who abuse their power to hurt people with less power. Kenshin was very much about protecting those in harm's way, Sanosuke is more about going at the person causing harm.

To that end, Sanosuke is honest and mostly direct. He's not a bad liar when needed, but if there's no pressing need to lie, he'll say what he thinks and feels. He's impulsive, and can be easily baited into action because, for the most part, he doesn't have anyone to worry about protecting. He's not afraid for himself, so it doesn't matter if challenging some Yakuza is a bad idea or not. Let them try something and see how well it works out. His fighting style is much the same. He comes right at you and you take your best shot. He'll certainly take his. If Vash is going to get injured trying to protect someone on the team, Sano may be the most likely choice, at least early on. I imagine after the first time he does it, and Sanosuke socks him one for treating Sano like a liability, Vash will get the message to just trust him (and Vash will remind Sano of Kenshin in a lot of ways, so they'll probably get along OK eventually).

If Vash doesn't want to risk involving any of his fine, upstanding citizen friends, Sanosuke knows plenty of people of questionable morality that can help. The guys he hangs out with aren't crooks, exactly, but they spend a lot of time hanging around, drinking and gambling. They know who the local bad guys are, they know about what sort of illicit business is going on. While Sanosuke could lean on them if he needed to, he tends to be a pretty fun guy to share a drink with, so people are willing to help him out. They know he has their backs if something comes up.

The Lady of Mystery: Nico Robin (One Piece) - Robin is the character here I know the least, since I kind of gave up on One Piece not long after she showed up. The series was going to be too long, too much of an investment. Just trying to read the online biography I found on her was exhausting.

Anyway, Robin is the calmest member of the team, not easily fazed, unless things get really dire. Vash's idiocy and Sano's temper aren't going to bother her. Even the likelihood Vash will try hitting on her is something she'll handle calmly. She'll be polite, but she's not going to encourage it. I'm not positive if that's indifference. Having seen most every group she's joined end when everyone other than her dies, it may be a necessary cover to avoid attachments. A different approach from Vash playing the fool to disguise his bleeding heart, but leading to the same general point. But it could just be confidence; Robin's likely the strongest person on the team, given her powers. Certainly, she won't hesitate to use that power, up to and including lethal force.

(Vash is probably stronger, given he has enough power to put a hole in a moon, but he almost certainly won't use that power, unless they go up against something that strong. Which I don't think is going to happen, unless his crazy brother is on the loose again. Although some of those admirals in Robin's world are no joke. . .)

As long as Jet shows he knows what he's doing, there shouldn't be any problems there. Robin doesn't seem like she really cares to be in charge as long as she trusts the judgment of whoever is. She has a dark sense of humor, and a vivid imagination to go with it. If one of their teammates gets lost, and they can't hear them anymore, she'll state the person's probably getting strangled, or already been killed and eaten by some monster. Vash is going to be the one most creeped out by that, assuming he isn't already put off by her willingness to snap necks. He'll have to work overtime to end some of these fights before she does in a more permanent fashion.

The thing about Robin that interested me enough to put her on the team was she's a history buff. Her main interest is stone features left over from an old civilization, called Ponyglyphs. I remembered that being her primary reason for throwing in with the Baroque Works criminal organization, a chance to study some that were in a country they were trying to destabilize and take over. I thought having an archaeology expert would be something my teams usually don't have, and bring something a little different to the mix. And I thought she might have all sorts of connections in academic circles, people who were also studying the Ponyglyphs, or other similar subjects. As it turns out, the World Government killed everyone else they knew of that was studying that forbidden subject. Whoops.

But Robin's years of study would, at bare minimum, make her a valuable person to have if you need something deciphered, or to understand what a clue is referencing. If they need to talk to a professor or expert in some historical area, Robin's the best bet to be able to pull that off. Where Sanosuke has a lot of friends who are aware of the criminal underworld, and he has a bit of a rep, Robin was a major criminal for some time (falsely accused, but she stuck with the rep regardless), and was the right hand woman for one of the Seven Warlords of the Sea. Even if those aren't the circles she travels in now, there are plenty of people who know her rep, know what she's capable of. Sano's rep was he'd beat you so badly you saw the aku mark on his shirt for months afterward; Robin's rep is she wiped out six ships and she leaves people twisted and broken in ways they weren't meant to bend.

The Guy with a Car: Kimishima (Scryed) - Kimishima's not in here for his ride, which was a cobbled together mess that couldn't carry the entire team, anyway. Besides, Jet has a spaceship, big enough to hold that car, and Jet's smaller, personal spaceship.

Kimishima is Morgan Freeman's character in The Shawshank Redemption, the man who knows how to get things. He's a scrounger, always hustling. Always looking for job opportunities, always looking for a buck, or something he can sell, or use to fix his car. He's not a fighter, though he'll lend a hand when he needs to. He's got connections, or knows how to make them quickly. He does have a soft spot for more hard luck cases, but only up to a point. He's good at keeping a low profile while more noticeable people (and there are at least a couple on this team) keep everyone else occupied. You need someone to talk their way into a place, or walk around unnoticed in hostile territory? Kimishima's your guy. He'll go in, get what you need, and come back with a half-dozen other useful (or at least interesting) things and the names and numbers of three people that might have work that needs doing or could help down the line.

How they end up together: Vash has been living in secret for a long time, helping in small ways where he can, but trying hard to avoid drawing attention with the sort of city-damaging antics he used to get up to. He has to abandon that because someone pursues a weapon that could endanger the entire planet. Maybe it's his brother, or a government, or some other person out for power, but they're going to tap into the power of the plants, and he figures that's something he needs to handle. He probably encounters Kimishima early on, bums a ride off him, has trouble paying off the debt. And since he keeps wrecking Kimishima's stuff as they get dragged into situations, Kimishima keeps upping the tab, and refusing to call it quits. Plus, he thinks this Vash guy is actually an OK guy, and he shares any bounties they cash in as they go along.

Vash being who he is, can't maintain a low profile, and he accumulates a bounty in his attempts to help others. I'm assuming this is far enough into the future his old $$60 billion bounty was dropped because everyone figured he was dead. That brings in Jet and his new partner, Sano (and a lot of other bounty hunters). They're chasing him, at first, keeping themselves funded by turning in all the criminals they encounter along the way. Sometimes Vash actually catches the crooks, but has to leave them behind when Jet and Sano appear on the horizon in hot pursuit. Other times the three of them team up because they all recognize the criminal needs to be stopped. Eventually they figure out they might as well help this guy who really isn't doing anything wrong other than helping in a way that causes property damage.

Robin gets drawn into all this because the weapon relates to ancient history, and she ran afoul of the big bad while looking for other information in the same ruins. It was a pretty serious battle, one neither one could finish, and he destroyed everything trying to cover his tracks. Which is the sort of thing Robin doesn't forgive, so she's after him, and the others have the means to travel faster than she does, so it makes sense to throw in with them. Especially once she figures out Vash might be a fountain of useful information, assuming she can get it out of him past all the stories about places that served the best pizza toast and locations where he met a particularly pretty girl.

Sunday Splash Page #30

 

"Four-in-One Is Not Enough", in Annihilation: Super Skrull #1, by Javier Grillo-Marxuach (writer), Greg Titus (penciler), Chris Sotomayor (colorist), Joe Caramagna (letterer)

Of the four lead-in Annihilation mini-series, I think this was my favorite. The Annihilation Wave has a planet-destroying weapon (not the same one they'd have later one, though), and the Super-Skrull is desperate to stop it before it reaches the Skrull homeworld. Desperate enough to get Reed Richards' help in reaching the Negative Zone, and desperate enough to seek allies there.

Something Grillo-Marxuach does smartly is he shifts the perspective the story is told from between characters. Often, these stories just come from the main character's perspective, and if he's been a villain up to that point, the story reframes him as more of a hero because it's filtered through his perceptions and justifications. Here, we see him through the eyes of characters who both admire and fear him, and see that he's still (mostly) a vicious, ruthless killer. It just so happens that there's another threat out there much worse. He's the lesser of two evils. And he has an element of self-doubt, having failed so many times, having gone from a decorated warrior to a joke openly scoffed at by regular Skrulls (who should be freaking terrified of this guy who can burst their heads open with a force field whenever he wants). It makes him enough of an underdog that it's possible to root for him.

I don't think I loved Titus' artwork at the time, but looking back, it's fluid enough to suit a shape-shifting character. He's able to draw Super-Skrull utilizing the FF's powers in various ways, and his design for the Harvester of Sorrows, which looks like a giant beehive, is not completely ridiculous for an insect-based army.

And with that, I'm out of town for the week, so if you comment on one of the posts set to go up this week and I don't reply, that's why.

What I Bought 8/17/2018 - Part 2

I'll be out of town all next week, but I'm going to try and have posts ready to go. But in case you comment and I don't comment back, you know why. Or I didn't think I had a good reply.

Coda #4, by Si Spurrier (writer), Matias Bergara (artist), Michael Doig (color assists), Jim Campbell (letterer) - I wound up with the Michael Allred variant, because it was the only copy the store had. Too bad, I really liked Bergara's cover.

The bard explains why the Urken were helping the Whitlords destroy the world, and how disillusionment with how it turned out feeds into Serka's heroic deeds. Since the giant will be passing by Ridgetown in a month, she's determined to deal with it, permanently. She's even more determined when she and Hm visit Murkrone, who lets slip there's a Whitlord (or someone posing as one) controlling the giant. We get a glimpse of her other side, the one the bard is determined to erase. It is impressively terrifying, excellent work by Bergara on that design. A lot of shadow involved, but with enough detail to let your mind do the rest. Of course, even if he succeeds, I'm sure there would be dire consequences, and I'm positive he hasn't bothered to discuss this cockamamie plan with Serka.

So, wheels turning. it's an interesting relationship between the two of them. The street urchin thinks the bard prefers when Serka is away, because then he can just have his "quest" to rescue her. Yet he certainly seems to work hard to keep her around him, and to avoid doing anything that might set her off and send her back into the desert. He insists Serka is the best person he knows, and one who could truly save the world if this "Red Rage" wasn't holding her back. Despite his misgivings about her trying the Angel strategy of atonement through ridiculous acts of heroism, he still points out threats for her to face as they travel. So he does somewhat support her attempts to do go, even as he plays the little devil on her shoulder trying to keep her from getting entangled in these other peoples' lives. So perhaps the little girl was correct, he does struggle with complications, and that's why he wants it to just be the two of them, roaming the world, righting wrongs. At some point we'll need to see Serka's perspective on it. Whatever form it takes, all we have so far is the bard's view. As I typed all that out, it doesn't seem like a great relationship. Not enough honest communication, he thinks she needs "fixing", he seems at least a little terrified of what happens if she gets pissed off enough.

For the opening few pages, as the bard gets poetic with the story, Bergara and Doig opt for a more limited color range. Mostly black and white, a little red for emphasis here and there, and some gray or almost sepia tone to break up the black in places. It's a sharp break from the pleasant shades of pink and other warm colors that mark most of the book. It's actually a little surprisingly how generally cheerful the colors are in a book set in a post-apocalypse world. It's a bit of fantasy, or marking the last vestiges of the old world. Bergara uses shadows well to darken things just a bit where he needs to, mostly with Hm, who is working on his schemes constantly.

Comrade X

I visited my dad over the weekend, and you know what that means: Old movies! Although Turner Classic has gone in a direction with their choices that don't really tickle his fancy. He says it's good they're shining a light on actors most people wouldn't get a chance to see otherwise, but it's not working for him.

Comrade X is a mysterious foreign correspondent in pre-WW2 Soviet Union, who somehow gets out reports on what goes on in the USSR, past the diligent censors. I'm sure that drunken layabout, McKinley B. Thompson (Clark Gable) wouldn't know anything about it. But the valet at the hotel he stays thinks otherwise, and is going to blackmail Thompson into ;eaving Russia, and taking his trolley driver daughter, Theodore (Hedy Lamar) along with him. Of course, to do that requires Thompson convince Theodore he is a died-in-the-wool Communist, and that she would be perfect for spreading their mission in the West.

The movie came out in 1940, and so the Soviet Union is shown in somewhat gentler tones than it would be by the end of the 1940s. Not shown positively, everything is breaking down constantly, with no idea when things will get fixed. Theft is rampant. There are still spies and informers everywhere, ready to report you to the Secret Police, but it's played mostly for laughs, Clark Gable outwitting most of them by getting them drunk, or double-talking his way past them. When the correspondents are informed the previous Minister of Information has died in a "traffic accident", they treat it as a joke, business as usual. They don't seem more than mildly annoyed when told they won't be allowed to send out any stories until Comrade X is hunted down.

You do see darker elements, when that brutal power gets directed at innocent civilians and people who actually believe the government stands for what it says it does. The attempts to erase history by killing everyone who might serve as a reminder of it. Still, most of the film aims to dismiss Communism by depicting it as a laughably incompetent form of government, only successful at terrorizing its people.

Gable gets to play the charming but principled rogue, pretending to be drunk and making witty retorts, ready to get the hell out of Moscow, but not willing to let someone else hang for his actions. Lamar is playing the young idealist who has to learn she bet on the wrong horse, but for a while, she gives as good as she gets with Gable. She has him on the defensive for a decent amount of their interactions.

What I Bought 8/17/2018 - Part 1

With a combination of timing and luck, I've managed to find every comic I wanted this month that's come out. Granting there haven't been that many, with so many books being delayed. Anyway, here's two books at their third issues.

Multiple Man #3, by Matt Rosenberg (writer), Any MacDonald (artist), Tamra Bonvillain (color artist), Travis Lanham (letterer) - Going off the covers we've seen, this is probably the weakest one of this mini-series. It's not bad - Marcos Martin is hard-pressed to do a bad cover - I just don't quite like it as much as the others. The intentionally jumbled nature makes for a mess.

The Madrox army is busting down the doors of the resistance. Jamie gets Forge to build a few time travel bracelets and sends the un-altered versions of those weird Jamie dupes with the powers into the future to do. . . something. Find help, somehow. Then he's captured, and Jamie and Layla's son is executed (Layla is somewhere else, fortunate for Jamies). At least they do that off-panel, although MacDonald isn't really doing graphic violence much anyway. The Mystic Madrox gets one between the eyes and it's a small hole and he falls over. Jamie is brought to Emperor Jamie, they blather at each other, and then the Emperor chops the other Jamie's head off.

I thought Jamie's brilliant plan was going to be to try and absorb the Emperor, the way he did the dupe he fought in Hank's lab. I don't know that it would have worked, if the Emperor is essentially Jamie Prime now, but watching him try it as a big play only to fall flat on his face would have fit with the tone of this book. Think that line from Spaceballs: 'This is why evil will always win, because good is dumb.' This Jamie's a putz. Maybe that's because he's a good dupe produced from an evil Jamie Prime. It's how Emperor Jamie conceives of "good", so any duplicate he creates that's good is a loser. Or Rosenberg just didn't want to write a Jamie that is at all competent.

At one point, Layla's son points out they've lost their Hulk, and Jamie replies: 'Ooooh. The Hulk. That's why he was green. . . I didn't get that for some reason.' At the end of the previous issue, just before Hulk Madrox exploded, Jamie was telling the opposing army they were making a mistake making him angry, which sure as hell sounds like he's making a Hulk reference. He could be making a joke, but it isn't really presented as such, it's more like he's just a moron.

And sometimes that's funny. He tries to block the door with his body, until one of the dupes reminds him what bullets do to doors. His attempts to lie to Emperor Jamie. But there's still that disconnect where the series seems like it wants us to take this at least somewhat seriously - that Emperor Jamie is a Problem and it needs to be fixed - but you can't take this well-meaning duplicate Jamie seriously at all.

Stellar #3, by Joseph Keatinge (writer), Bret Blevins (artist), Rus Wooton (letterer) - What are those little lemurs that have the giant sad eyes? That's what that thing has. Probably knows what happens to the faithful steed in those kinds of settings.

Stellar spends years stranded on her homeworld, just her and that critter on the cover. Then she's attacked by her remaining two friends, altered by Zenith. She's captured and brought to him, and we learn the war that's torn the place apart is actually with an alternate universe. Which Zenith has opened another gateway to, I think. Stellar just wants to go back to the world she was on when the series began, but that's not going to be an option here.

Curious choice to gloss over the years she spends alone in a couple of pages, or maybe to even do that at all. I'm not sure why the time jump was necessary, or what the point of it all is. Stellar doesn't seem noticeably changed, other than her external appearance. She still doesn't want anything to do with Zenith or his plans. She still asks them to leave her alone or she'll kill them. Neither of those points suggests she had come to the conclusion she needed to hunt Zenith down and end things. She wants to leave in peace, and is only involved in whatever is going on when it comes knocking on her door.

It could be the skip forward was to give Zenith a plausible amount of time to get his plans to a certain point. But we don't have any frame of reference for how long it had been since Stellar split off from the group, or how smart Zenith is, so they could have said it took him however long they wanted. We don't have any evidence to contradict it, because about all we know of Zenith is he enjoyed killing with his powers, and Stellar was afraid of him.

Zenith, in addition to modifying a couple of his old teammates with some sort of liquid metal stuff, also found himself some giant robots. Those remind me of the ones from Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow, which was playing off a slightly earlier era of sci-fi/adventure stories than his other designs, but it still looks pretty good. Their design is different enough from Apogee and Aphelion to show that they're something leftover he cobbled together, while the former teammates look more like something he came up with himself. He'd done the same to himself, only he uses it a little better than they do. It looks like solid armor sometimes, and other points it's more fluid. He throws a punch at one point where his fist extends and it flows around Stellar's arm to hit her in the stomach. Blevins blurs and reduces the detail and contrast in those areas to show their less defined nature compared to the more solid parts of Zenith.

Love and Other Demons - Gabriel Garcia Marquez

Sierva Maria is bitten on the ankle by a rabid dog on her 12th birthday. Nothing seems to come of it for months, until she begins convulsing on the floor one day. Her parents, who have ignored her for her entire life, become convinced she's possessed and take her to an abbey, where she's locked up. The priest meant to perform an exorcism instead falls in love with her, and ultimately ruins his life, while failing to save hers.

Most of the (white) adults in the book fail to understand Sierva. Her parents ignored her to wallow in their own problems, and she was raised by the slaves on the property in their cultures. So they understand her quite well. Unfortunately for Sierva, they aren't the ones in control of the situation, and the people who are just want her to be quiet and docile and conform to their expectations. When that fails to happen, she's possessed. I know, hard to believe the Catholic Church would react to a woman showing independence or defiance with accusations that she's a servant of Satan. Quite possibly the least surprising development in a story in human history.

I haven't read anything of Marquez' since I finished Love in the Time of Cholera 5 years ago, but I remember his work fondly enough that I was looking forward to the times when he goes into detail on a character's backstory. With a lot of other writers, this annoys me, especially if they do so late in the book when I'm eager to find out how it ends. But Marquez has a knack for making it not feel like an unnecessary diversion. It always seems relevant to what's happening in that it usually explains something important about the character. Even if the backstory he's describing isn't anything fanciful or exciting, he writes in a way that it's still interesting. He can write about someone having lived a boring, timid life, and make it the most fascinating couple of pages. Leave you wondering how this person could have lived such a dull life.

He's excellent at giving you a couple of sentences of description of a setting or how a person looks, but leaving enough space you can fill it in with your imagination, which I really appreciate. You can tell enough from what he writes to understand the feeling he's going for, and then you can picture what best conveys that for you.

After the immense disappointment I found Gravity's Rainbow, this was a nice bounce back. It's witty when it needs to be, the characters are distinct and memorable, the specifics of how things play out are a surprise but fit with the overall story.

'A frequent request was that she serve as their intermediary with the devil to ask for impossible favors. Sierva Maria would imitate voices from beyond the grave, voices of those who had been decapitated, voices of the spawn of Satan, and many believed her sly deceptions and attested to their truth in the acta. A band of nuns in disguise attacked the cell one evil night, gagged Sierva Maria, and stripped her of the sacred necklaces. It was an ephemeral victory. As they hurried away, the commander of the raiding party stumbled and fell on the dark stairs and fractured her skull. Her companions did not have a moment's peace until they returned the stolen necklaces to their owner. No one disturbed the nights in her cell again.'

The Annual Summer Ballgame Trip Report

Saturday was the Cardinals' annual Hall of Fame game that my dad and I attend each year. This year, the snag was he couldn't get logged into his account to buy tickets, so I had to. We got there over an hour early because he wanted us to stop in town to run some errands on the way, and that actually put us ahead of schedule. Which meant a lot of sitting and trying not to be annoyed by all the announcements over the loudspeaker. Did see about five people get to throw a "first pitch". Rather than have pitcher Austin Gomber catch them, they should have let backup catcher Francisco Pena do it. Yadier Molina has started the last 27 games at catcher, so at least Pena would get some time on the field.

(Frankly, letting your 36-year old catcher start 27 games in a row in the middle of St. Louis summer strikes me as kind of stupid.)

The inductees this year were Harry Breechen, Vince Coleman, and Ray Lankford. I though I heard the announcer refer to Breechen as the "second-greatest lefthander in Cardinals' history," which I assume would mean behind Steve Carlton. Except I don't think Carlton was really phenomenal until after the Cardinals stupidly traded him. Maybe I misheard. I felt kind of bad for Lankford because he doesn't quite have that signature stat you can point to. Breechen won three games in the '46 World Series. Coleman was Rookie of the Year in '85, stole 110 bases that year, led the league in steals every season he was a Cardinal, went to two World Series (even if he missed one because of that damn predatory tarp). The Cardinals' teams of the '90s weren't particularly good, and Ray was just a very good player for a long time. He's in the Top 10 in a lot of categories for the franchise, Top 5 in home runs. He does hold the record for most home runs hit at the previous Busch Stadium, but that's kind of a wonky stat. Anyway, it was a nice ceremony.

As for the game, they were playing the Brewers, with a chance to overtake Milwaukee in the division and in the wild card race. Things got off the a bad start because Miles Mikolas hit the second batter, Lorenzo Cain, who was displeased. My dad and I didn't know this at the time, but that's the third time the Cards have hit Cain this season. And it looks like Paul DeJong got hit the night before, so possibly retaliation? I don't know. Wade Miley was pitching for the Brewers, and in the bottom of the first, threw a pitch low that I guess was close enough to Tyler O'Neill the ump felt it necessary to warn both teams. Miley was visibly annoyed, and so was his manager Craig Counsell who came out, argued, and was ejected.

Travis Shaw led off the top of the second with a solo home run, to the delight of the two Brewers' fans sitting directly in front of me. Marcell Ozuna led off the bottom of the second with a solo home run into Big Mac Land, so tie game.

The bottom of the third was a ridiculous sequence of events. Kolten Wong leads off with a sharply hit single. OK, that's not ridiculous. Mikolas comes up to bat, clearly going to bunt. Miley tries to pick Wong off first, but first baseman Jesus Aguilar was sure Miley was pitching, and had already started rushing towards home to field the bunt. Wong got back to first easily, and was hit on the elbow by the throw. He left the game after the end of the inning. We joked Miley should have been tossed for hitting an opposing player. Hey, the ump warned them (Miley was not thrown out).

Mikolas did bunt, right back to Miley, who threw out Wong at second. Matt Carpenter hit one to Aguilar, who threw out Mikolas at second, but no one from Milwaukee got back to cover first in time, so Carpenter was safe. Molina swung and missed at strike 3, but the catcher missed it and the ball rolled to the backstop. Molina made it to first, and Carpenter advanced to second. O'Neill hits a pop-up into short right that falls in no man's land, Carp scores, Molina advances to third. Aguilar was closest, although I think the ball was going to be out of reach, but it seemed like he pulled his arm back at the last second. Maybe he thought the second baseman was coming in. Ozuna walked, loading the bases, then DeJong hit a 15-hopper through the middle of the infield that scored Molina and O'Neill. Three runs, all coming with two outs, and Wong's single was the only hard hit ball in there. *Shrug*

The Brewers threatened briefly in the sixth, but got nothing. Miley left after 5 innings, and the Cardinals got to reliever Corey Knebel. DeJong was safe on a grounder to short. Orlando Arcia double-clutched before he made the throw, and it short-hopped, and Aguilar couldn't come up with it. They charged the error to Arcia. Jedd Gyorko drew a walk, then Harrison Bader put one on the gap, scoring both of them while he slid into third with a triple. The throw was offline, so he could have gone in standing up, but nothing wrong with having some fun. Cards up 6-1.

(Bader plays all out and he's fast, and the fans love him. I should, but he took over Tommy Pham's spot, so there's some lingering resentment. I never warmed up to Royce Clayton either, after he took Ozzie Smith's job, and don't get me started on Ryan Theriot taking over from Brendan Ryan.)

Mikolas was done after six innings, not a bad idea given the sixth had been a struggle. My dad was not enthused about the bullpen getting involved. I understand his concern, but the bullpen is a lot better since most of the worst relievers are injured (Luke Gregerson), in the minors (Matt Bowman, Tyler Lyons), or on other teams (Greg Holland). Mike Mayers mostly breezed through the 7th. They brought in lefty Chasen Shreve for the 8th, who faced lefty Christian Yelich, who promptly put on over the centerfield fence. He got Cain out, then Moustakas hit a soft liner into center Bader made a pretty great diving play on. The Cardinals got one more in the 8th, after Ozuna collected his second walk, then scored on a double by DeJong. Daniel Poncedeleon threw a quiet 9th, and the Cards win, 7-2.

They've won the last three games we've attended, and 5 of the 7 we've seen in this ballpark. Other notes:

- The Brewers' fans in front of us left in the middle of the 8th. I was glad they didn't have more to cheer about, because I think they'd have been obnoxious. The Cardinals' fans on either side of us also left sometime in the 8th, which was nice since those seats are pretty tiny. My dad was getting cramped, and I wasn't loving my spot, either.

- The people on my right didn't make it to their seats until the third inning (just long enough for me to think I'd have some extra space), then left in the 8th. I'm not complaining, but what the hell's the point of even coming to the game then?

- The Wave tried to start sometime in the top half of the 8th. Boooo.

- The brewers starting catcher tonight was Eric Kratz, who was the Pirates' catcher in the game we attended in 2010. He's hitting significantly better this year than the .125 he was hitting back then. He's still not hitting well, mind you, just better.

- After Cain was plunked, as he slowly walked down the first base line, yelling a few things in the direction of the Cardinals' dugout, Matt Carpenter and Molina took up positions about halfway between the pitchers' mound and the base line. In case he decided to make a sprint for Mikolas (who was pretty much ignoring the whole thing, or giving the impression of it). I'm pretty sure Cain could get past Molina without much effort, but it's worth a chance. Cain gave no impression he was going to do that, though.

- Matt Carpenter has different walk-up music from whatever it was last year that annoyed the hell out of me.

- Jesus Aguilar had a rough game. Struck out looking to end the first, on a pitch he through was high, so he and the ump argued a bit. Couldn't come up with the pop fly in the third (good hustle, though), or that short-hopped throw in the sixth. Struck out swinging to end the 8th, and slammed his bat and helmet to the ground.

- After that second K, my dad wondered if Aguilar would be fined. Apparently MLB stated they weren't going to tolerate that kind of thing this year? I'm not bothered by it, as long as the bat or helmet don't go ricocheting at some weird angle and injury someone. Guy is frustrated with how things are going.

- There was a guy a couple rows in front of us wearing an Oakland Athletics' cap. Kind of random.

- According to Counsell, when he was arguing with the ump, the ump said they knew there would be trouble this series. Counsell asked if that was the case, why wasn't Mikolas ejected? We know how that conversation ended for Counsell. The ump warning both teams so early was a mistake, though, because then he's backed into a corner. If Miley was trying to throw at O'Neill, he did a poor job of it, so why put everybody on edge? Now if anyone loses control of a pitch, both sides may get riled and then the whole thing gets stupid.

- Although Cardinals' infielder Greg Garcia was hit on the ankle in the 8th by Corbin Burnes, and Burnes was not ejected. Doubtful it was intentional. They're into the 6th inning of Sunday's game as I type this, and nobody has been plunked so far, thankfully.

Past trips to the park:
August 2010
August 16, 2014
August 15, 2015
August 27, 2016
April 8, 2017
August 26, 2017

Sunday Splash Page #29

"At Least He's Not Moping", in Annihilation: Silver Surfer #3, by Keith Giffen (writer), Renato Arlem (artist), June Chung (color artist), Cory Petit (letterer)

Just to warn you now, the next couple months of these are going to Annihilation and Annihilation: Conquest related stuff. Expect explosions.

This was one of the four 4-issue mini-series that led into the main Annihilation mini-series, each focused on a different character and getting them to where they needed to be for when the main show started, while kind of fleshing out the scope and direction of the larger story. Here, the Surfer's troubled by the mindless slaughter and devastation of the Annihilation Wave, but is slow to commit himself to fighting it, preferring to be sad about it instead. He's been a party to death on this scale himself, although he eventually rationalizes it that deaths on Galactus' behalf served a purpose. Hey, Annihilus has a purpose to all his killing, too! 

The Surfer finds himself hunted, along with the other heralds, but would end up dealing with an entirely different problem, as he gets sucked into helping Galactus throw down with a couple of elder beings that were inadvertently freed by the Wave and are after Big G for some revenge. And that's how the Surfer wound up back as Galactus' herald for a few years (this series came out in 2006, and that status quo persisted to at least some time in 2009-2010).

This is the only issue I kept. Partially for that double-page splash, and partially because Annihilus' hunter at one point refers to the Surfer as a 'sadly inadequate poltroon', which is just fantastic. So much better than me calling him a "mopey, overgrown hood ornament". I guess Giffen figured he had to have some fun with it. Until I double-checked the credits, I thought it was Alex Maleev on the art chores, but Arlem's style is a bit more sketchy, leans a bit less on shadows. Although this isn't set in a place where shadows would make a ton of sense..

What Kind Of Person Is Clark Kent?

For some reason, I've been thinking about the monologue David Carradine has about Superman in Kill Bill Vol. 2. The one about how Clark Kent is how Superman sees Earthlings, because that's how he behaves to blend in, to disguise himself. Bill describes Clark as weak, bumbling, and a coward.

I don't think a villain in a Quentin Tarantino film is the person to go to for critiques of Superman, but it did make think about how I think of Clark Kent. Firstly, I don't know that Clark is how Superman sees Earthlings so much as he's what Supes thinks is the best way to keep suspicion off him of being Superman. If Superman really meant Clark as a critique of humans, then Clark Kent would act like Steve Lombard (a blowhard who picks on everyone weaker than him), or Luthor (who tries to disguise his jealousy and ego and present a more friendly public face, but can't quite stick the landing.) After all, Clark has almost certainly met more people like those two than he has like himself.

I tend to see Clark as being fairly quiet. Maybe he's shy, maybe he's just comfortable with silence. Good listener, when he isn't distracted. Polite and helpful. Probably helps a lot of people around the office when they need to find some bit of information in the archives, proofreading an article, or just need help lugging some equipment. Even if he slouches while he's Clark, he's still a big guy, grew up on a farm, people aren't going to be that surprised he can carry some boxes. He's probably halfway decent at auto repair, not that he has or needs a car, but I assume he help his parents work on their truck and tractor. He'd know basic engine maintenance, at the least. He'd be pretty popular with a decent amount of his coworkers (my guess is most of them would be in awe or intimidated by Lois, at least initially).

He's not confrontational, takes setbacks and rudeness directed his way in stride. Which might suggest he's laid back, or just calm and patient. Some people perceive it as weakness, others see it as confidence. If he sees someone getting hassled, he may step in, try to mediate. He won't fight (or it won't appear he's fighting), but he won't let the person getting picked on get hurt. People see him as well-meaning, but tell him he should take a self-defense course (including the people he's defending). He can be clumsy, or not, I'm indifferent on that point. If he is clumsy, it probably happens a lot when there's a tense situation and his pratfall provides a distraction.

That covers most of what I can think of at the moment, but I'm not any kind of a Superman expert. So I'd like to hear your thoughts, if you feel like sharing.