Sunday Splash Page #69

"Well, Who Expects to See a Blockbuster These Days?" in Batgirl (vol. 1) #58, by Andersen Gabrych (writer), Ale Garza (penciler), Jesse Delperdang (inker), Wildstorm FX (colorist), Rob Leigh (letterer)

Andersen Gabrych took over as writer from Dylan Horrocks (whose run I only own a few issues of, and it's notable mostly for Batman's attempts to keep boys away from Cass) around the time of the abysmal War Games storyline. I didn't start buying Batgirl until immediately after that, when it crossed over with Robin. Both characters were moving to Bludhaven to take over protecting it for the injured Nightwing. That was my first introduction to the character, and I liked her, liked Garza' art well enough (especially compared to Scott's work on Robin, which had gotten exaggerated to the point it was difficult to follow at times), so I kept buying it post-crossover. Right up through its cancelation at issue 73.

I think the initial idea for this run was pretty solid. Put Cass in an unfamiliar territory, with no consistent back-up. Tim's got his own shit going on, Batsy is Gotham, Cass and Oracle had a falling out over a few different things. She's really on her own, trying to figure out how to be more of a crimefighter and less of someone who patrols randomly and busts the skulls of any crook she happens across. She gets herself a snitch, has to tangle with supervillains, tries to process some of her grief over Spoiler's death, tries to take an interest in the neighborhood she lives in. She rarely showed much interest in things like that before, but she's growing as a person, and she sees it as important to trying to be more like Batman.

Garza handles the art chores for most of the issues. His art is less expressive than Daimon Scott's was, not nearly as exaggerated. Cass seems to spend a lot of time scowling or looking intense. She's really trying to be like Batman. He keeps her as this sort of slim, wiry figure she was when Scott drew her. There's also a lot of times he'll draw her and this small shadow, lurking and flitting about during fights. Really playing up how she can use her quickness to frighten and unnerve criminals in a different way from Batman. Instead of a dark presence looming, she's the indistinct bit of movement you only catch a glimpse of in the corner of your eye.

Eventually, the build to Infinite Crisis intervened and things went to shit. Deathstroke shows up, wanting to use Cass as a test for his daughter Rose. Cass comes to the (ultimately correct) conclusion Lady Shiva is her mother, which sends her on a road trip. She gets briefly tangled up with an OMAC, and then with the League of Assassins, who are using Mr. Freeze for something, by promising he can give Nora a dip in the Lazarus Pit. That didn't exactly end well. Once Infinite Crisis ended, Geoff Johns and Adam Beechen gave us crazy, murdering, possibly-hot-for-Tim Drake Cassandra Cain, running the League of Assassins and just generally doing the "I make the world better by killing evil people" shtick. 

It took a couple of years to fix that mess, and Cass never did regain her spot in the Bat-family hierarchy. They gave her a mini-series to try address things, but let Beechen, the last person anyCass fan wanted anywhere near the character, write it. It was a mess, but at least it got her back in circulation on the good guys' side. Still, it wasn't long before Steph took over as Batgirl, and Grant Morrison had already introduced Damian Wayne as another character raised to be a killer, and he had the advantage of being Batsy's biological kid. It seemed to buy him a lot more wiggle room than Steph or Cass ever got for their mistakes, considering he was an unrepentant killer. Nepotism strikes again!

It could have been worse. They could have left Cass in Bludhaven for when Deathstroke dropped Chemo on the city like a bomb. Wouldn't have put that past Dan Didio or Geoff Johns.

But for the first 6-8 months of Gabrych's run I read, I was really enjoying it, and it got me to track the earlier stuff down, so that's something.

It's the Place to Dump Snapper if You Want to Ignore Him

One of the odder parts of Dial H for Hero #4 was that Snapper Carr had been allowed to take up residence in the Justice League Detroit Headquarters. He says he's there as sort of a caretaker, but Batman built all those creepy robots that do all the work, so what's Snapper there for? No indication the place has been turned into a museum where you might want a human tour guide. And even if it had been, Snapper wasn't associated with the Detroit era. Wouldn't he be at the old Happy Harbor location*?

Which does raise the question of how many of the Justice League's old bases are still intact, and what they do with them. I feel like the original Satellite got destroyed at one point, and I know the one they were using prior to Morrison' JLA run burned up on reentry after the Martians trashed it. I feel like the various JLI/JLE spots are still in place, since I see characters using the old teleporters from time-to-time.

But still, the question of Snapper in Detroit. And what's odder, he says Green Arrow is the one who hooked him up with the gig. It's not hard for me to see Oliver Queen trying to look after Snapper. He certainly wouldn't want another teen (even though I assume Snapper's at least in his mid-20s in the comic) to fall onto the wrong path, possibly get hooked on the smack. Plus, I could see Green Arrow not holding a grudge about that time the Joker tricked Snapper into betraying the League. Oliver is absolutely the sort of guy who would yell about how it was the wake-up call the team needed, and blah, blah, someone punches him in the kisser. Probably Hal, before Canary or one of the team with super-strength does it. Hal's a good friend like.

Of course Ollie, so far as I know, also had no contact with the Detroit years. He was in the middle of his Mike Grell "wearing an actual hood and just using regular pointy arrows" phase at that time, wasn't he? So I wouldn't expect he'd get to have a say in it, other than Green Arrow probably insists of giving his two cents on everything.

I could see Arrow going to one of the team with actual connections to that era and just haranguing them until they agree, just to shut him up. It would have to be Aquaman, wouldn't it? Steel's dead, Vibe's dead, I don't know where Gypsy or Vixen are. or Elongated Man. Zatanna's probably running around with Justice League Dark. If Ollie shows up there running his yap, he's not likely to survive. J'onn is a possibility, assuming the Detroit era is still part of his continuity. I have less idea what's in and what isn't for various DC characters these days than I do for Marvel. I could see J'onn patiently letting Ollie bluster, because he already knows what he wants and why, and then calmly agreeing and offering to help set things up so Snapper can't accidentally cause too much trouble. He's a reasonable fellow like that.

*It's a little odd to me when I think about it that the Justice League's original HQ was a cave. Maybe with Batman involved that makes sense. Easier to go along with his aesthetic demands than fight them, and the coastline location made it easier for Aquaman. But a cave still feels more like a Doom Patrol thing.

Captain Marvel

Spoilers, probably.

It's a solidly enjoyable movie, at minimum, in that way most Marvel movies manage. I feel like a lot - not all, but a lot - of the '90s references are lost on me. Because even though I was certainly alive for that decade, I was unaware of what was popular or trendy at any given time. So even though I know the choice of song is probably important, it doesn't land with any impact.

I feel like the part of the story where "Vers" believes she's a Kree who had lost her memories of the Skrulls killing everyone she cared about, interferes with the part about how Carol Danvers has spent her entire life being told she can't do something because she's a girl. I see how they're supposed to work together, the Kree being just one more group telling her she isn't good enough, but the amnesia bit feels unnecessary. Maybe because it seemed so damn obvious.

Or because I was much more interested in Carol interacting with Maria and Monica Rambeau. Start the movie from the point of her and Maria being pilots and friends and go from there, rather than backtracking around to that eventually. Instead, they'd show us a little of that in flashback, and then here comes some bullcrap with Jude Law to bog everything down.

I liked the effects on the flying and zap powers. The fight scenes are fine. Danvers handles Yon-Rogg at the end exactly how I hoped she would when he tried to goad her. I liked the interactions between Brie Larsen and Sam Jackson. Although you can tell he's a lot older than the Nick Fury he's playing, just from how awkwardly he runs and moves. The cat is cute, makes for some funny moments.

What I Bought 6/29/2019

There were only two new books from the last few months I hadn't managed to find yet, so I ordered those online from my usual place. Tired of the constant nonsense where UPS and USPS can't get on the same page, I finally bit the bullet and went with the next level up on shipping options. The books got here in three days, which is a lot better than, "who the fuck knows," which is what it's been the last several months.

Infinity 8 #11 and 12, by Lewis Trondheim and Kris (writers), Martin Trystram (artist), Trystram and Hubert (colorists), Olivier Vatine (designer) - Gotta love an outfit that works underwater or in outer space.

Patty discovers a mausoleum for a heretofore unknown interstellar confederation that would dwarf the one the people in this story are part of. But, it doesn't appear to have anything to do with why their ship has stalled, so she's told to move on. Meanwhile, Ron has found what he's looking for: a different shrine, dedicated to a bunch of Earth musicians who died at 27. Which he then blows up, killing a bunch of his doped-up Symbolic Guerillas in the process. Because this will make him famous, somehow.

In theory, none of this matters, because the Captain of the ship will cancel this timeline, roll time back eight hours, something like that. Because Patty didn't find an answer to the question of what's happened to the ship. But the Captain could tell her what's going to happen, and she can stop it first, which he says he'll do. The last page, though, after things have been reset, shows Patty walk right past three officers, with no indication they passed on the information. I don't understand that, unless they're happy with how things turned out. The corporate guy Patty was really interested in (a giant talking fish named Led), ended up dead, so maybe that suited their purposes. All Ron's dead followers? Who cares, right? Bunch of deadheads.

I'm not sure what to make of the story. Something about the hollowness of looking for meaning in someone else's work, or that everyone is going to try and exploit everyone? Led seems to be supporting the Guerillas because he thinks he can earn some kind of cred. I don't know if he really wants to look hip, or if it's strictly a cash thing. Like how different beer companies are trying to do cans in various colors for Pride Month as a marketing thing. Mr. Shaser seems to tout a lot of ideas he doesn't really grasp, the dumb teenager who thinks he's the first to think of really obvious ideas. Willing to toss himself away for people who don't care a bit for him, and didn't mean any of the things he took from them. Ron's built up this whole mystique around himself where he pretends to abhor attention, to garner himself attention and fame. Most of the people following him seem to believe in what he says, and they are ultimately expendable. Nobody matters to him, except him.

Trystram has a variety of alien designs, and I like that the security bots in the mausoleum Patty finds don't look very similar to the robots on the ship. Presumably very different cultures behind their creation. The design for Led reminds me of how Doug TeNapel draws fish, at least a little bit. All his women tend to be long and angular, very slim, while the guys vary a lot more. Not a stylistic trait unique to Trystram, but figured I'd mention it. But the action sequences, brief as they are, are pretty smooth, and the pacing is good. After those three panels above, there's a panel of Ron's procession dancing past Moosh while he stands there confused. Then another panel of him standing there as Shaser walks up, and only then does Moosh finally ask what we're all thinking.

Glass

Let's get this out of the way first: The repeated bit where a character explains something that is a common part of comic books, trying to relate that to something going on in the movie? That gets real old real fast. It's like zombie movies where the characters act like they've never seen or heard of zombie movies. Even if you figure the Marvel Cinematic Universe doesn't exist there, they clearly have comic books, so the concepts shouldn't be that foreign, or necessary to belabor so obviously. It ends up giving the impression Shyamalan thinks his story is so intricate the audience needs this kind of hand-holding to follow what's going on.

Granted, you rarely go wrong betting on the under when it comes to our intelligence, but this was a bit much.

That aside (and it's a lot to put aside because it happens a lot), I liked the movie well enough. It doesn't do anything for my impression of the mental health professionals, or the mental health industry, but as my friend observed, those almost always get portrayed badly in movies. I was annoyed with Dr. Staple (Sarah Paulson), right off the bat. She said something about how she specialized in treating people like David Dunn (Bruce Willis), who suffered from delusions of grandeur. And something about how she said it made me think, if that was the case, she needed to be treating herself.

The very end explains her attitude, her absolute confidence in what she's selling. Though you'd think she might notice that the people who are running things now are doing a pretty shitty job of it. Has she seen our world lately? It's a radioactive trash fire. A monkey with epilepsy could hardly do worse.

Ultimately, I wanted more of Elijah (Sam Jackson), David, and Kevin's (James McAvoy) various personalities interacting. That was my biggest complaint. Not even fighting necessarily. The part where they're at least in the same room talking, while Dr. Staple tries to deconstruct them, that was fun.

The movie spends a lot of time with them separated, Dr. Staple talking with them one-on-one, or the threads dealing with the civilian in each of their lives. I really did not care about any of the civilians. I still haven't seen Split, for one thing, so everything with Casey Cooke fell entirely flat for me (I still get the gist of what happened in that movie, there just isn't much emotional impact). Or maybe I felt like it was painted like a tragic romance, but Kevin seems way too old for her. Maybe it was the dialogue. It was a little stilted and clunky at times.

It's not exactly the movie I wanted, but even most of the stuff I didn't think I was interested in was enjoyable.

What I Bought 6/26/2019 - Part 2

Summer has certainly arrived here. It's been around 90 degrees every day since I got back from visiting my friend last week. With the humidity along for the ride, naturally. Blech. I would say bring back spring, but considering the number of people in this state whose homes were underwater this spring, maybe not. Bring on fall!

Magnificent Ms. Marvel #4, by Saladin Ahmed (writer), Minkyu Jung (penciler), Juan Vlasco (inker), Ian Herring (color artist), Joe Carmagna (letterer) - Kamala's parents look completely shell-shocked back there. Just think of it like visiting the American Southwest.

Kamala keeps everyone from dying from being blown up in the air. They make their way to the rebel camp, stopping to protect some innocent people from angry soldier guys. Then the king shows up with more forces, somehow captures Kamala's parents, and then a bunch of those Beast Men arrive through a portal in the sky.

And we learn in a flashback Kamala and Bruno almost kissed, except Kamala noticed her dad walking very closely down the street with a woman who isn't Kamala's mother. Oh no! There's a not at all subtle clue in the flashback to explain what Abu was up to, considering there's only one building shown with its name visible. So I wouldn't worry too much about an infidelity plotline.

Something's off about this whole planet. They were shot down into a forest, but found a series of tunnels running from the palace to the countryside? They emerge into a desert, are led to the rebel base, and are quickly attacked by the King's forces. Kamala's parents should be down somewhere in the base, but are almost immediately captured. Then the beast guys happen to show up then?

 I can't tell if it's just Ahmed's pacing that's throwing me off, or if I'm meant to find something hinky about this. Part of me thinks the whole thing is some elaborate illusion or trick, but I can't decide what the point of that would be. More likely it'll that old saw about there being a traitor among the rebels, although we've hardly met them, so that's not going to have much impact.

What I Bought 6/26/2018 - Part 1

Picked up this week's comics while retrieving my vehicle from the repair shop. Which was only two days ago, but feels like a hundred years. I was half-convinced before I started typing this I bought them over a week ago. Everything is out of whack in my head right now. If things will just remain calm and stable for a few weeks. . .

Dial H for Hero #4, by Sam Humphries (writer), Joe Quinones (artist), Tom Fowler (inker), Jordan Gibson (colorist), Dave Sharpe (letterer) - Miguel has become a hero with the power of having a smartphone screen on his chest! Upgraded Arnim Zola, basically.

Summer and Miguel reach the Detroit Justice League HQ, where they find a bunch of Justice League robots and. . . Snapper Carr. Crap. Snapper insists they hand over the H-Dial to him, but then they're attacked by the robots, which have been modified by Mr. Thunderbolt's spirit, so everyone dials at the same time. Summer ends up as a gorilla filtered through Sin City, Snapper is some Moebius thing, I don't fuckin' know, and Miguel ends up as various newspaper comic strip versions of some kid running around in his underwear pretending to be a hero. Which makes him pretty angry, and leaves him vulnerable to Thunderbolt's suggestions, and everything goes wrong.

Snapper's meant to be a cautionary tale for Miguel, I think. Although Snapper's problem seems to be he doesn't think who he is, is good enough. Miguel seemed to act more like he was owed something. He'd been protecting the H-Dial, why did he get the crappy powers? Although he never tried to do anything, so who knows what his abilities were. Maybe it is a matter of thinking he's not good enough as he is.

Real mix of Justice League-bots there, but other than Vibe-bot, I didn't see many from the Detroit era. I guess Zatanna, although she was Satellite League, too. There's at least 5 of the Giffen/DeMatteis League. Including a Guy Gardner bot, complete with bowl cut! He didn't speak, so I can't determine if he's based off seriously brain-damaged Guy, or regular Guy (who is only a little brain-damaged). For a lot of them, Quinones seems to be using the Timmverse Justice League cartoon look, especially the Flash and Hawkgirl. Which is fine, those are good versions, design-wise. I wonder if Humphries specified any characters, or Quinones just drew whoever he felt like?

Ghost Tree #4, by Bobby Curnow (writer), Simon Gane (artist), Ian Herring and Decka Kinzie (colorists), Chris Mowry (letterer) - I thought initially they were sitting on big balls of yarn, but at least some of them are skulls. Still cute, in an Adams Family way.

Brandt and Arami reminisce, and we learn a little more about the current state of Brandt's marriage. Meanwhile, his grandfather is realizing how badly he handled things in his marriage, and tells Brandt to leave and return to his wife. Brandt's fully aware that he's running from his problems, but doesn't care. Then the demon returns, and tears the guardian spirit in two, before continuing towards the house.

The end of the issue tells us Arami's unfinished business is to be the successor to the guardian spirit. Maybe it burns out a spirit after a time, I don't know, but it seems like she's expected to step up. Was that fate, or just chance? Was she tagged for that purpose from the moment of death (or before it), or she's just the most suitable person who happened to be dead at the time? Can she refuse, and would that leave her trapped as a ghost forever?

And then there's Brandt. His avoiding his problems with his wife. Contrary to what he tells his grandfather, I'm not sure how much he really tried, since it sounds like the two of them never really hashed out their problems. Takes two for that, but typically someone has to make the first step. That said, is what he's doing here that terrible? He has the ability to see these ghosts, maybe it's a fluke, maybe it's for a reason. If he can help them find peace, even while avoiding his own problems, is that a bad thing? You could argue he's choosing to live as a ghost, avoiding his unfinished business, but the assumption seems to be the two of them can and should work things out. His grandfather ignored his wife to interact with ghosts, and that wrong. But if Brandt and his wife don't work together, why try to make it work?

It's a sad issue, but Curnow and Gane still manage to work in a few jokes, plus the gag about the one ghost wanting some noodles. I laughed. Gane draws the little spirits or lights that float around Zero's head as having facial expressions sometimes, which is kind of cute. Zero's little ghost friends. Like the demon's previous appearance, Herring and Kinzie shift the color scheme to more reds and oranges. But the colors don't shift when Zero arrives, because Zero is no longer enough to repel the demon. Zero's color scheme is mostly green and white, so it really stands out against the backgrounds in those panels. Heightens the sense of vulnerability.

A Maze of Death - Philip K. Dick

Fourteen people receive orders to transfer to a new world, letting them escape from what all considered humdrum and useless lives. Except, once on the new world, none of them know what they're supposed to be doing. There are electronic bugs that watch them, and a Building that moves and that they all fear to approach too closely.

Then people start getting murdered.

I don't know that I really cared about any of them, exactly. The character the book opens with is the first to go, and as I found him more likeable than the second character they introduced, that wasn't a great start. Then they start dying so quickly, you hardly have time to get enough sense of them to care. Someone dies and you try to remember if they were the linguist or the theologian, the self-medicator or the one who sleeps around.

But there are aspects of all of their behavior that felt very real. The self-absorption, just wanting to talk about the things they're interested in. The way most of them don't really want to be in charge, but aren't sure about letting anyone else be in charge of them, either. The lies they tell to each other and themselves. Most of the book is from Seth Morley's perspective, and he'll frequently pretend he knows things he doesn't. Mostly to not appear ignorant, but sometimes because he thinks the lie will be comforting.

There's a lot about religion, the relationship between Man and God. Or how people perceive that relationship, the different explanations they come up with for why things work out as they do. The particular hoops you have to jump through to get what you want. The people who believe, the ones who don't, the ones who do but want to pretend they don't because, I guess they're afraid of looking foolish. They can claim they were a skeptic or a believer all along, whichever way it plays out.

'Belsnor said, "I have no faith in prayer that's not electronically augmented. Even Spectowsky admitted that; if a prayer is to be effective it must be electronically transmitted through the network of god-worlds so all Manifestations are reached."'

Fingers Crossed For An Interesting Fall

There were a few more things that caught my eye in the solicits for September than the last few months. Not necessarily good things, but still things.

With Image, there's a graphic novel by Steven Seagle and Moritat called Solstice, about a crazy millionaire dragging his son with him on a search for the Fountain of Youth. There's also a Battle Chasers Anthology. I was still reading Wizard at the time they were either touting that book, or making fun of Joe Madureira for not being able to stop playing video games long enough to get any issues out. I am morbidly curious, though not enough to buy it right off. Definitely the kind of thing you wait until it's available used for cheap.

Dark Horse has Steeple, a new series by Giant Days' creator John Allison, with Sarah Stern as artist or co-artist. I'm not sure on that part. They're both listed as artist. Anyway, I gush ad nauseum over Giant Days, and this sounds odd enough I want to try it. IDW has a Napoleon Dynamite series, only 10 years after that movie ceased being relevant. You know, I never watched that film, never got the appeal.

DC, the most notable thing to me is that Dial H is now a 12-issue mini-series. Unexpected. The artist, however, is "Others", as opposed to Joe Quinones. The art is doing most of the heavy lifting on that book. There's also an Inferior Five mini-series, but it doesn't appear to have any connection to the goofball superhero team. It's five kids dealing with fallout from the Invasion! event from 30 years ago. Man, I've only seen the parts of that that intersected with Suicide Squad or Manhunter. Mostly with DC, I kept seeing solicits for books that have been going for over a year and having no clue they existed. Like Dreaming, or House of Mystery. I'm sure I've seen their solicits before but they made no impression whatsoever.

Besides, sigh, Absolute Carnage, Marvel is releasing a bunch of odd one-shots. An Alpha Flight thing done entirely by Canadian creators, Erik Larsen doing a Spider-Man book, Roger Stern going back to his Avengers run (which I thought was over by the time of Infinity Wars, but according to the solicit, I'm wrong). They're all $5, naturally. There's another Avengers book, led by Blade, dealing with supernatural stuff. Whoo *twirls finger in the air sarcastically*. They're bringing back Crazy, which I've never read, but might be of interest to someone. I feel like so much of Marvel's output is self-aware and poking fun at its own tropes you don't really need an entire magazine devoted to that, but whatever. Moon Knight is going to fight Kang, which should be the shortest damn fight in history. Ms. Marvel is going on a road trip with Zoe and Nakia, and they're going to encounter zombies. Well, it might still be good.

Esther and Daisy are graduating in Giant Days, but still no sign of Smooth Criminals. Great, it's joined Copperhead and The Seeds on the "books Calvin wants to read that dropped off the face of the earth."

There's a book called Tower in the Sea by B. Mure from Avery Hill Publishing about, I think, a young scholar searching for answers to some visions they're having and seeking out the secret magicians. D.P. Filippi and Terry Dodson are doing a book called Muse, about an (attractive) lady hired a tutor to some odd landlords' kid. Which wouldn't normally be my thing, but there's something odd about the manor and the grounds, which means an mystery and/or strange settings. Which are my jam.

Test will be up to issue 4, except issue 1 still hasn't appeared, so maybe not. Viz is releasing the first volume of Way of the Househusband, which is about your stereotypical Yakuza badass who retires to become a stay-at-home husband. I saw a bit of it going around online a few months ago. Him doing laundry, or trying to buy fruit at the grocery and people being terrified because he looks really intense while he politely asks for assistance. Could get old fast, but I figured I'd mention it.

House of Danger

I hadn't realized there were board games based on Choose Your Adventure books, but here we are. It's not a competitive game, as there's only one character. So whether you play by yourself or with others, you control the same character.

The game is split into Chapters, each of which has a goal you have to achieve before you can move to the next Chapter. The story is written out on numbered cards, with the old, "If you want to do {x}, go to Card 27. If you want to do {y}, go to Card 14." When you reach the Chapter's end, you are given the option to go back and investigate places you didn't in the Chapter. The risk being you might be killed. We tried backtracking once in Chapter 1, and were torn apart by Dobermans controlled by a violin-playing chimp.

We didn't backtrack any more after that.

The game gives you two cards that have items on them that can help you. It's always the same two items, but there are many others you can collect as you move through the game. Some of those are one-offs, others can be used as much as you want. The board has two scales on it, Danger Level and Psychic Level. When faced with a Challenge, you have to roll a die and get equal to or higher than the Danger Level to succeed. Psychic Level will enable you to find extra Clues that could come in handy. If you fail a Challenge, the game will tell you to raise the Danger Level a certain number of spaces, and try again. It isn't a 1:1 that the Danger Level increases by, more like 3 spaces to increase by 1. But that could certainly complicate things in a hurry.

I think, if there's more than one person involved, you're supposed to take turns on who rolls the die and who decides which options to take. I was playing with a friend, it was their game, and they handled all the die rolling, and we largely discussed which options to take. It is possible to get a bad ending, as you might expect. In our case, we needed to do more exploring and risk-taking, because we ended up not having some key items.

But it's a fast, easy to learn choice if you want to play something cooperative, or just kill some time solo.

There's Always A Spider-Man, Even If That's Not What They Call Themselves

Spider-Man is a pretty popular character. Not exactly surprising anyone with that statement. Marvel is as aware of that as anyone, so they periodically try to create a new Spider-Man. That mixture of the superheroics with teenage angst. Money/job issues, school issues, relationship problems, and the way that trying to juggle it all plus be a costumed crimefighter creates even more problems. Too busy fighting Shocker to study for chemistry, so they flunk the test, and get their parents on their backs. Which then feeds into itself and creates more problems.

It's never quite worked as well. Lightning in a bottle being difficult to catch twice. Plus, people can kind of tell you're trying to do the same thing they've seen before. Even if they enjoyed it the first time (and enjoy the subsequent attempts), it still isn't likely to have the same impact.

I think Nova (Richard Rider) was the '70s version, Speedball the '80s version (I don't think it'd be Cloak and Dagger), and maybe Darkhawk was the '90s attempt. I'm not sure who it would be in the 2000s. Arana, maybe. (That was actually the original idea for this post, asking if anyone could think of a better choice for the 2000s representative that I was forgetting).

Kamala Khan's this decade's version - it's odd to think she's only existed for 5 years - and I feel like she has the best chance to be something close to an A-lister over the long haul. Maybe that's recency bias, or the fact she's not just another white guy*. Nova's mostly managed to hang around for over 40 years now. Kamala's got a long way to go to match that. She's only on her second writer now, so we'll see if the aspects that seem to resonate stick around or not. All it takes sometimes is one bad creative team to louse up the works, dig a hole so deep subsequent teams spend years trying to get out of it, But I don't remember the others getting on Avengers' rosters as quickly as she did (although for Darkhawk and Speedball the X-Men would have been the big franchise at the time, and neither of them meet the X-gene qualification to receive a call-up).

I don't know why it didn't work for the other three. Maybe because Spider-Man was still there, and even if he was in college by that time, or married, he was still working within the same formula. So why bother with the imitations? Or maybe they didn't change the window dressing enough. I feel like Darkhawk tried a bit (I've not read Nova's first series, or Ditko's Speedball work, so I can't comment). Chris Powell had a bunch of younger siblings to worry about, plus there was the long-running subplot about whether his missing cop dad was dirty or not. But maybe that wasn't enough, or it just didn't work because Spider-Man had changed the landscape and people needed to find new territory.

* The fact they lean into her being a superhero fangirl helps. Superheroes are thing in her world, people would be fans and want to imitate them like we do actors and athletes. She has an enthusiasm for it that encourages the audience to do so as well. It isn't just an escape from the everyday problems like it sometimes is for Spider-Man and the others.

Gets The Rough Part Over With Early, At Least

Something I don't really get in fiction is romantic pairings of two characters that fight and squabble constantly. I don't mean like in romantic comedies where one or both of them make a bad first impression on the other. More like they just bicker all the time. That's "their thing". I feel like I mostly see it with fans proposing it, but I know there have been TV shows and novels like that. All the arguing is just a smokescreen for smouldering sexual tension or whatever.

(Steve Rogers and Tony Stark seem to be a popular one on the fan side. The movie versions I assume, although I can't see that one any more than I can see the comic versions.)

I get the basic theory, I guess. That schoolyard thing where the boy pulls the hair of the girl he likes because he can't just tell her. I just don't get fighting all the time with someone you actually like. And they actually enjoy being challenged by the other person, but it seems like such a hostile starting point.

Granted, my response to being around someone I seem to fight with a lot is. . . to not be around that person any more than necessary. That's how I handle other friends of my friends if I don't like them. I just wander off by myself for awhile when they start getting on my nerves.

(I also do this when the crush of people and noise gets to be too much, whether any specific person is irritating me or not, which makes for a good cover. It's been over a decade since Alex was surprised when I vanish for an hour during a party.)

Obviously avoiding a coworker or teammate can be more difficult, and I guess the idea is work forces the two characters together and they. Actually, I'm not sure. They decide they like each other I guess. I've had coworkers that hooked up before, even a few that got married. I don't recall them bickering a lot before then, though.

The Blue Ice Pilot - Lou Fisher

The story alternates chapters between the past and present of one Larry Wickes, pilot of a ship carrying frozen "warmen" to different colony worlds. In the present, Larry does not want to land on the planet Foy-Rigger, because the last time he was there went really badly. In the past, we see all the things Larry went through after surviving near-death in the Solar Wars to reach the point he could be a pilot on one of these GGI ships, which is all he wanted to do.

The problem with the sequences in the past is, I don't particularly care about them. Fisher played coy about what had gone wrong on Foy-Rigger that made Larry want to avoid it so badly, and I wanted to know the answer. So the chapters in the past were an annoyance. Right at the end they become relevant, when Larry realizes all the shit he ate, all the compromises he made playing by other people's rules to get what he wanted. And how has that worked out for him? The people who make the rules change or break them whenever they see fit.

The universe Fisher sets up is not a happy one. Earth doesn't really seem to have governments any longer, just GGI, which makes most of its money either freezing people and shipping them to colonies as "warmen", or by making bodysacks to bury the dead in mass graves. There's a point where the US/Can government says they intend to increase what GGI has to pay to keep the government funded, and the company essentially sends back a letter saying, "Yeah, we won't be doing that."

Larry considers himself lucky to live in the front section of a bus, and pigeon and dog meat are considered high end fare. The warmen are just whatever random schmoes decide to get themselves frozen to try and escape life on earth, with only whatever military training they already had. They're ostensibly going to protect the colonies from the Stys (a race of aliens no one has ever confirmed seeing), but the colonies are really stockpiling them as deterrents against each other. GGI is only too happy to sell to anyone.

There's also a subplot about two spies from another colony trying to force Larry to divert Foy-Rigger's warmen to their world instead. Which felt like a waste of time since Larry would be glad to get off Foy-Rigger, but he can't. The spies are never presented as any threat to him, at least. he has enough other threats to worry about. I think it's meant to be that he was targeted because he's the most vulnerable, the person involved with no support or protection, even though that's because he has no power or authority to actually do anything. His navigator and supervisor is unconcerned about Larry's safety because the GGI regs say he doesn't have to be. So he isn't. It's easier to just follow their rules and let them decide what he's supposed to think and do.

'He is astounded at the ship's position. But he's the navigator, I tell myself; he should keep better track of where we're supposed to be. It's another example of the stuff I have to put up with. He is all in one a mixed-up navigator and an ugly roommate and an unrelenting nag - and he is, unfortunately, along with GGI, all that I have. I do not have Ronna Mae anymore. I do not have my explo'd Mars shuttle. So that leaves Dobbin.'

Down the Rabbit, er Squirrel Hole I Go

So last month in Squirrel Girl, Ratatoskr had showed up claiming she wanted to team-up with Squirrel Girl to fight the Frost Giants and Malekith. The chaotic squirrel deity also mentioned that it had been working on a team-up with Melissa Morbeck (the wealthy industrialist lady who came up with devices to control animals), but had abandoned that plan.

We saw that Ratatoskr only became aware of what Malekith was up to after Mangog's attack on Asgard inadvertently freed the squirrel from a prison cell. I'm guessing Ratatoskr wasn't able to contact a mortal on Earth in her prison from an Asgardian cell. Maybe that's a mistake, but I'm assuming years of having to deal with Loki and the Enchantress would have convinced the Asgardians to install something to keep people from calling with potential allies.

Which makes me wonder how long this frickin' War of the Realms has been going in their universe. If Ratatoskr couldn't contact Melissa until after escaping Asgard Jail, and that was 26 issues ago, what is that in Marvel time? 13 months? 6 months?

But if Ratatoskr had to escape first, then by the time she made it to Earth, she would have already observed Malekith was going to make everything about him, which she found unacceptable. Why even bother contacting Melissa at that point? But if she made contact while still imprisoned, why Melissa of all people? It's not like she's going to be able to get you out of there. She couldn't even keep herself out of Earth jail, and she's rich.

Of course, we don't have anyone to corroborate Ratatoskr's story. She may have escaped on her own a long time before the War of the Realms started. She's not supposed to be deceiving Squirrel Girl now, but she told her version of events before making any promises to stay on the up and up. Mostly I'm wondering if Doreen can trust that Ratatoskr has actually abandoned the "Team-up with Melissa to get revenge on Squirrel Girl" plan, or if that's still waiting in the wings for after this war is over.

Usually when Doreen's opponents have a change of heart it sticks. In her book, at least (Kraven reverted to type pretty rapidly once Nick Spencer got hold of him). Melissa was one of the few original foes Doreen failed to sway with her speeches, and I could see Ratatoskr being the one that appears to switch sides, but can't or won't maintain it. I think she'd get bored with it.

The Badlanders

Dad got on some kind of Alan Ladd kick. I don't have any strong feelings about him one way or another, but this has Ernest Borgnine in it, and he's usually entertaining.

Ladd's character, a former geologist and mine engineer everyone calls "The Dutchman" gets out of prison early for stopping Borgnine's character from attacking a prison guard. Borgnine gets out when his sentence is up because he didn't successfully attack the guard. Sure, why not?

The two end up in the same town, where things originally went wrong for both of them. Borgnine feels he was swindled out of his land by a now successful gold mining company, and Ladd was framed for stealing a payroll from the same company. But the Dutchman has a plan to get a little payback, as well as some back pay, and he wants Borgnine's help, since there are so few people in town he can trust.

Borgnine's not really up for it, but after he saves a Mexican woman, Anita (played by Katy Jurado) from being assaulted by three guys in broad daylight, they find they have some chemistry, and he decides he can use the money to start fresh somewhere else with her.

The attempt to steal gold from the mine right under everyone's noses doesn't really work out, in a variety of ways, but things mostly pan out. There are some things that are mentioned or hinted at that seem unresolved. The guy who runs the mine is married to the woman who actually owns it (who is described as unattractive, but I don't think we ever see her). He has a mistress, who is interested in the Dutchman, and the feeling is mutual. But nothing ever comes of the whole bit with the unseen wife.

Likewise, the Dutchman is adamant that the town marshal framed him by planting a gold bar in his room. The marshal doesn't really seem to deny it, and gives the Dutchman the old, "be out of town on the next stage" bit. I expected a bit more of a showdown between them, but I guess since the deputy marshal ends up working for the mine guy, the implication is he's the one who framed Dutchman. Although he seems like such a dim bulb it's difficult for me to buy him managing that without screwing it up. Good as a blunt instrument, but not much else.

I enjoy Borgnine's work here. He's a man full of anger at how he was wronged, but he tries to put it aside and pick up by a cowman the way he was before. Only to find no one will let him. And his frustration at being powerless seems to give him some perspective, the opportunity to let his better qualities show through.

What I Bought 6/12/2019

I successfully moved into my new place Friday. Mostly. When we went to get the last of my stuff from what's left of the old place, we found someone had broken in through the kitchen ceiling. Near as I can tell, all they took was the Nintendo 64, since I didn't have room to take it along two weeks ago. I did pack the controllers, cables, and memory cards, but they got the console and the games. Ah well, I got 22 years out of it.

About half of my books, 95% of my comics, and all my games and movies are still at my dad's, along with my bicycle. May be a few weeks before I can get those, so Sunday Splash Page is still on hiatus, contrary to yesterday's entry (one Batgirl trade happened to be in the 5% that randomly got loaded).

But I went back and added scans to all the reviews from the last couple weeks!

Anyway, here's the only book I was after that came out last week, and the last time I checked, there isn't anything I'm interested in coming out this week. Bummer.

Unbeatable Squirrel Girl #45, by Ryan North (writer), Derek Charm (artist), Rico Renzi (color artist), Travis Lanham (letterer) - Just tell them you're full of worms and diseases. Sort of worked for Bilbo, right?

Doreen is unhappy with how Ratatoskr handled things in that town, and when she learns the squirrel is really only interested in causing chaos, because she believes the Earth is already doomed, Doreen calls off the team-up. Doreen tromps off into the snow (and we get two pages of her leaning against a tree reading a Robert Frost poem, which felt random). Rachel mind controls some frost giants until she has a personal epiphany that Squirrel Girl was right about her. Then she mind controls one of the frost giants into taking her to find Doreen, so they can team up again. Which they do. They reach the Frost Giant stronghold, do not succeed in finding any useful intel, but Doreen thinks she has a plan, except they get attacked by Frost Giants. Because they're in a Frost Giant stronghold.

My best guess is Doreen wants Rachel to imitate a Frost Giant to sow discord among them and get them fighting, the way her attempt to be "Rachel" didn't exactly go over well with the locals in the last town. Could be, probably am, entirely wrong about that.

I like that the meanest thing Doreen can think of to say to someone is that her life would be better off if she'd never met them. There are a lot of people I would say that to, but for her, that is a damning statement. So that was funny, and so was the Frost Giants not wanting to talk about anything but frost. It's an easy gag, but it's still funny. Especially when they argue over what type of frost is the best and man, rime frost doesn't even count, Daisy what the hell are you thinking, bringing that mess in here?

The visual of Rachel turning her eyes into binoculars was a little disturbing at first. But then I figured it was the kind of thing Plastic Man would do, and it was helping her to see at long distances, so it's fine. The thing she did with her ears a couple pages later was just bizarre, though. Like I said, the bit with Doreen reading/listening to a Robert Frost poem seemed like an unnecessarily roundabout way to get to her saying, 'And miles to go before I sleep,' but Charm and Renzi draw a pleasant couple of pages of Doreen using her tail as a cushion as she leans against a tree and feeds acorns to a doe.

As far as unnecessary tie-ins to an event I'm not reading go, this one isn't bad. It still works perfectly well as a Squirrel Girl story, which is the most important thing.

Sunday Splash Page #68

"Cass' Hatred of Circuses Was a Source of Strife Between her and Nightwing," in Batgirl #28, by Kelley Puckett (writer), Daimon Scott (penciler), Robert Campanella (inker), Jason Wright (colorist), John Costanza (letterer)

I didn't start buying the Cass Cain Batgirl series until after the abysmal War Games storyline. It was several years after that before I backtracked to the earlier issues, by the original creative team of Kelley Puckett and Daimon Scott.

Puckett and Scott handled most of the first three years of the series (excluding issues done by various fill-in artists, including Phil Noto, who isn't a bad artist, but it's whiplash inducing going from Scott's style to his.)

The first two years deal with Cass gaining the ability to speak, but losing the ability that lets her fight so effectively in the process. Regaining it puts her on a collision course with Lady Shiva, a battle Cass knows she can't win. In among all that is Cass trying to sort out her feelings about her father, the assassin David Cain, Oracle trying to protect Cass and get her to experience the world, and Batman being sort of distant. Trusting Cassandra to figure things out for herself, perhaps. 

(The writers who followed Puckett veered heavily into making Batsy an overbearing dickhead who tries to control Cass and keeps threatening to take the costume away for arbitrary reasons. He does that once during Puckett's run, but it's because Cass has no ability to defend herself, only attack, which is fairly reasonable.)

This is also the start of Cass and Stephanie Brown's friendship, so it has that going for it. There are a few pieces, mostly in the last year of the Puckett/Scott run, that don't really pay off. The three beings in the image above, being one of them. It never does seem to get established who they're controlled by. There are also a lot of issues tying into whatever Bat-event was happening that I didn't care about. Joker: Last Laugh, Bruce Wayne: Murderer, that one where Commissioner Gordon got shot. Puckett and Scott usually do their best to work with those, but the stories aren't about Cass, so it's hard to give a shit.

This stretch of his career is far and away my favorite for Daimon Scott. I actually first encountered his work during Bill Willingham's Robin run, which came several years after this. I wasn't a fan then, because Scott seemed to have gone so far into his own style he couldn't tell a story clearly. You can see some of the same tendencies in this run, but they're more reined in. Full-page splashes don't really do justice to his work on Batgirl, because I think his real skill was in laying out sequences of action. Cass isn't much for talking, she does stuff, fights, moves, and Scott really captures that. Whether it's a fight between her and Shiva, or her barely stifling a yawn sparring with Spoiler, or moving from rooftop to rooftop, Scott captures the sense of how smoothly and easily she can do those things.

Broken Lance

90% of the movie takes place in a flashback, telling us why Joe (Robert Wagner) in the present is asking a picture of Spencer Tracy on a horse what he should do.

Tracy was a big cattleman, but his three sons from his first marriage feel unappreciated and treated less like sons than hired hands. So when dad gets a little out of control with a copper miner polluting the stream that runs through his land, it's only the youngest son, Joe, that offers to take the blame for the fight to save dad. Then the other sons won't agree to paying what's requested in damages so that Joe can appeal the verdict without the mine company contesting it, so the "6-7 months" in jail becomes 3 years.

So Joe is trying to decide whether to pursue vengeance, blaming them for his father's decline and eventual death. If Joe knew the eldest brother (played by Richard Widmark with his usual sneering disdain) disparaged his mother (the princess of a nearby Comanche tribe), the decision might be easier. I'm not sure if Widmark really cares that she's Comanche, so much as just that his dad remarried anyone, and he thinks Joe was the favorite.

However, Widmark knows Tracy doesn't take anyone speaking ill of her, even after he's hobbled by a stroke. And Widmark figures he has the upper hand, so he can afford to thumb his nose at the old man. His father makes his typical proclamation about what will or will not happen, tries to rise from the chair he's in and Widmark just smirks it off. It has all the impact of a gentle breeze or a child's tantrum.

It's a stark contrast to a conversation Spencer Tracy has with the Governor (E.G. Marshall) shortly before the trial over his actions at the mining camp. The Governor tells Tracy to keep Joe away from his daughter. Because Joe is half-Native American. Tracy doesn't say anything for a few moments, just lowers his head and projects this fury, silently, before he erupts. It's a good bit of acting. I know, big surprise, Spencer Tracy can act. The Governor is apologetic for his weakness, though unwilling to back away from it, which was surprising. He basically argues he is too old to change his views, despite the efforts he assures his old friend he's made.

Anyway, Tracy's good, Widmark pitifully conniving, Wagner seethes a lot.

What I Bought 6/6/2019 - Part 2

For all my griping, it could be worse. There are places in the floodplains around town that have been underwater since before the tornado came through. The water was actually receding a bit yesterday, but we're supposed to get rain today. At least the weather this week has been moderate by June in Missouri standards.

So today, we have one first issue, and one book being sad.

Black Cat #1, by Jed Mackay (writer), Travel Foreman (artist), Brian Reber (color artist), Ferran Delgado (letterer) - I ended up grabbing the Travel Foreman cover since there wasn't any difference in price. Definitely wasn't wasting my time with the J. Scott Campbell one.

Felicia attends some big art gala, and uses herself as a distraction so her team can steal a different painting. But Felicia pissed off the Thieves Guild (not clear if it's the same one Gambit is affiliated with, these folks dress like ninjas) so they try to kill her during the getaway, and one of the gala security team may or may not become a recurring antagonist. And the old guy thief the Black Fox shows up, as he hired her to steal the painting, and has some BIG PLAN.

There are also two short back-ups stories. One two-pager by Nao Fuji about Felicia robbing a jewelry exhibit with the help of three cats. One of which initially brings her a dead mouse instead. It's adorable.

The other story (by Mike Dowling as artist, with Mackay, Reber, and Delgado rounding out the creative team) is about the Black Fox cheating at cards against Dracula, in Miami decades ago. Then we find out he tipped off Ulysses Bloodstone as a way to keep Drac occupied and make a quick escape with money. This is also when both of the Fox' students, Felicia's dad and a a guy named Castillo, who I'm assuming will pop up in the present day somehow.

I don't really care about the Thieves' Guild, whether Gambit's involved or not, but I guess as a convenient source of people for Felicia to deal with in fight scenes, they'll suffice. Black Fox as the teacher of Felicia and her father is probably a retcon. But most of the appearances of his I've seen were the Micheline/Larsen ASM era, where he looked about 200 years old, and was surviving by the skin of his teeth.

I don't know if it's Reber's color work or just Foreman and Dowling's styles, but the art on their two sections really reminded me of present-day Howard Chaykin. Not entirely; neither of them is nearly as heavy with their linework as Chaykin. Maybe it's how much time everyone spends dressed in fancy gowns and suits. Chaykin loves drawing that kind of stuff. But there are times where I'm not sure if Foreman went really light on his lines, or Reber's colors just overwhelmed them, and it varies from panel to panel. When she first meets the Thieves' Guild lady, the linework out lining her nose and jawline is so light, it's like someone shot the panel with one of those soft focus lens (or the old put Vaseline on the lens trick). Then next panel, the jawline and nose are both more prominently defined. It's not bad, just kind of distracting.

The fight scene, though brief, was well-laid out and clear enough to follow easily, which was my biggest concern with Foreman as artist, since I wasn't terribly impressed with him on Immortal Iron Fist. Which, granted, was 10 years ago, but some artists progress, and some don't.

Giant Days #51, by John Allison (writer), Max Sarin (artist), Whitney Cogar (colorist), Jim Campbell (letterer) - That's appropriately somber.

McGraw returns from his father's funeral, and Susan has no idea what to do to help. McGraw isn't much of a talker about his feelings, and so it's mostly awkward. Daisy's attempt at consolation ended up with McGraw consoling her, so whoops. However, Esther actually did win the essay contest with the submission she typed entirely on her phone, which means she has enough money to rent a cottage in the countryside for them all. And it's there, abruptly, that McGraw has his emotional breakthrough.

It's a sad issue at times, watching McGraw move in this very reserved manner. Sarin uses a scratchier line for McGraw, makes him look like he's just slightly vibrating with things he's keeping bottled up, and he seems to hold himself more upright, stiff all the time. Allison handles the issue well, people handling loss in different ways, or grief breaking through at times you least expect. You can't force it.

There's a subplot, leading to next issue, about Esther applying for a job with a bank and getting an interview. So now she's off to London for that. I feel like that fact she did write a prize winning essay on the 'Social History of Pubic Hair' should be significant. She clearly has the ability to write, and she's looking at banking? More stable, I guess, but yeesh. She also confused several of her friends by wearing a bright floral print dress while they were at the cottage. She said she wanted to not evoke 'The Infinite' this weekend (read: not be depressing), but I wonder if it's meant to be the start of a shift in Esther. Or a continuation of her trying to get ready to leave school.

Halloween (2018)

The thing I did not know about this movie going in, requiring Alex explain it to me, was that this movie proceeds from the premise there has only been one other Halloween movie. The first one. All the other Halloween movies, Halloween: H20 or whatever, either never occurred, or were in some alternate universe.

The reason this came up was I could not understand why everyone was treating Jamie Lee Curtis like she was nuts for training extensively with firearms, building a home with a high fence, floodlights, and security cameras everywhere, and a freaking hideyhole safe room under the kitchen island. She is convinced Michael Myers will escape and try to kill her again, and I'm sitting there going, "No shit. He's escaped like 7 times, and tried to kill her at least 4 of those times."

But no, according to this movie, Michael never escaped the psychiatric hospital after the first time he was apprehended. She's just been preparing like crazy for the last 40 years out of the belief an almost entirely unresponsive man will escape confinement and try to kill her again. Seems a little stranger that way, although I would not be surprised an experience like that in your teenage years would mess you up.

And it is interesting - and a little painful - to see Curtis play her as unable to put that fear aside for more than a few minutes at a time. Even when she knows her daughter doesn't want her around her granddaughter, and that her granddaughter invited her to a dinner in the hopes it would go well. She can't help excitedly talking about how she saw "the shadow" or the "specter" or something, or trying to give her daughter a gun while complaining about how bad the security of their home is.

I admit I don't get Michael's fixation on her, considering he seems willing to kill nearly any other person he comes across. Old man, podcasters, mechanics, sleazy "Nice Guy" teenager. It seems to me that he should either be killing just anyone, in which case Laurie and her descendants shouldn't matter more than anyone else. Or he should be locked on her and just ignore anyone who doesn't actively try to impede him. But this may be the only Halloween movie I've watched the whole way through, so there may be explanations I don't know.