Foyle's War 2.3 - War Games

Plot: Sir Reginald runs Empire & European Foods, and is ecstatic at the news his son Simon brings from Switzerland, that the company will have all sorts of contracts to supply various fats on the continent, no matter who wins the war. Not everyone is so happy, including Sir Reginald's secretary Agnes, but she can barely make a mysterious phone call before she goes plummeting out the window. Before long, a barrister named Beck visits the cottage of a pair of siblings, Lucy and Harry. They're hard up for money, and Beck leverages that to get Harry to break into Sir Reginald's house. Harry makes it into the safe, but can only make off with a shiny silver box before he has to run, with a load of buckshot in his shoulder as a parting gift from Simon.

So now Harry's got all sorts of problems. Sir Reginald and Simon are looking for the thief. Foyle and Milner are looking for the thief, and Harry's the only ace safecracker in the area. He's hidden the box somewhere, which has got Beck trying to threaten him. And by pulling that job, Harry broke his word to a couple of old partners, Mike and Albert, and they want their cut (for something they had nothing to do with). So it's not terribly surprising when Harry, while taking part in a war game exercise as part of the local Home Guard, winds up dead, shot in the head at point blank range, but only on the third shot.

Foyle's got other problems. Not playing referee for the war game; that was easy. But the British Army unit playing the invaders is lead by a Captain Devlin, who was Foyle's sergeant before Milner. Devlin has some history with Harry Markham as well, and wasn't too happy to see him out of prison. And a squad of tow-headed troublemakers are stealing anything that isn't nailed down for salvage, leading Foyle to put them under Sam's command just to get them off his back.

Foyle is able to learn from Lucy that Mr. Beck came to visit Harry. Beck eventually spills the beans on what he's after, and it involves the forced rapid departure from Germany by Beck and his wife, who has since died. Sir Reginald's family was involved, and Beck wanted to bring them down before the mysterious Ms. Pierce insists he embark on a mission. Maybe some chocolate-crazy kids can lend a hand.

Quote of the Episode: Foyle - 'This is the second salvage collection I've missed. They've got me down as a fifth columnist.'

Does Foyle go fishing? No, his greatest recreation was watching the Home Guard get thoroughly humiliated.

What Sam can do: Justify her and the kids helping themselves to the snacks for the war games. Though, given how quickly the Home Guard got rolled, I'm not certain what they learned, keeping up the strength of salvage-seekers may be more vital.

Other: There's a whole subplot about Sir Reginald's unhappy marriage to his second wife. She's not privy to all this mess going on with her husband and his son, and when she tries to ask, he keeps telling her it doesn't concern her. She ultimately leaves, at least in part because there's no room for her in this house. Good timing, as it turns out.

So Foyle is pretty standoffish towards Devlin, and not in his typical way, where he isn't someone who easily gets jovial with people. It ultimately turns out that Harry was out of prison because Devlin tried planting evidence, and it was painfully obvious, so Foyle was forced to drop the burglary charge, and Harry was only guilty of breaking and entering or something like that. All this comes out with Foyle finally holding forth after Devlin continues to not admit what he did. Foyle has this great, "Really?!" expression at times like this, where he's weary and incredulous all at once. Just can't believe this guy who worked with him for however long is going to try and play dumb with him.

Gotta love Mike and Albert, expecting a cut of a heist they weren't involved in, claiming 'all for one' when they hung Harry out to dry on that last job that landed him in prison. Couple of real winners there.

Emily Blunt, who starred in that movie Sicario I think, plays Lucy Markham. Not a huge role, but as the one person Harry would sort of confide in, Lucy does prove key. And she gets to fend off Simon's creepy, piss-poor attempts to first bribe, then charm, finally intimidate her into helping him find what he wants.

This is the first appearance of Ellie Haddington as Ms. Pierce, but it won't be the last. She's involved in intelligence and espionage, and as a result of the dirty dealings frequently resorted to, she and Foyle will cross paths again. I like Pierce. For one thing, when she walks outdoors, she has this deliberate thing she does with an umbrella she uses like a cane. It's an affectation, but a stylish one, which counts for something. Beyond that, Pierce is kind of like Amanda Waller. She can play dirty, but she has some principles. They sometimes match Foyle's, and sometimes they don't. So they can be allies, or antagonists. Pierce will use Foyle for her purposes, and sometimes he can get her to help.

Recurring theme of people trying to hide their pasts. Devlin and Sir Reginald most prominently. Neither one exactly thinks they did anything wrong, but neither wants the hassle of explaining it to others. Harry isn't trying to hide it so much as half-heartedly run from it. Simon is going along with his father, but just barely, because he's a true believer, rather than an opportunist. Beck doesn't ignore his past, and doesn't want Sir Reginald to be able to either, but he tries hard to conceal it from everyone else.

Reginald has this quote where he tells Foyle about how business is bigger than war, and will go on after it. Foyle's response is an excellently delivered, 'Well, thank you for that fascinating insight.' Which is more polite than "fuck you," but translates to roughly the same thing.

Maybe I'll Get Back To Heroclix Soon

Normally in mid-September I do a post looking at what DC-themed sets of Heroclix came out in the last year, and whether any of the unclixed characters I'd like to get were made. Then I repeat it with Marvel a month later. I missed last month's post, but given it's been years since I played the game regularly with anyone, it hardly seemed a big loss. But, as mentioned earlier this week, maybe that could change in the near future. Possibly, but what the hell. Let's do a twofer.

DC

DC hasn't had a set since February, but there was a Superman/Wonder Woman set last fall, with a lot of Fourth World characters as a subtheme, as well as a decent number of Wonder Woman villains. Then in February, in rapid succession there was a Worlds' Finest set, followed a couple of weeks later with Batman vs. Superman. The movie-themed one doesn't interest me, but Worlds' Finest at least had Doom patrol and Metal Men subthemes, among others. Got our first Ragman since 2006, and Negative Man got made for the first time ever (Doom Patrol fans have been screaming for him for years. They made Negative Woman back in 2007, in the Origins set, I think). So, at least some updated versions of characters I like, but what about the ones still awaiting their turn? Let's check my list:

1. Sand
2. Terra (Atlee)
3. Enemy Ace
4. The Unknown Soldier
5. Grace

Swing and a miss. Not really a surprise, although I thought maybe Grace, as a member of the Outsiders, would make it in Worlds' Finest. I feel like Atlee being positioned as a friend to both Power Girl and Starfire ought to get her a shot here eventually, but who knows. Given the Justice Society is largely on the outs at DC these days, not much reason to expect old Sandy the Golden Boy any time soon.

Marvel

Let's start with the list, just to take care of that:

1. Silhouette
2. Stacy X
3. SHIELD Agent Derek Khanata
4. Umm, shoot, I really should have refreshed my list after Rage and Triathlon got crossed off last year.

Marvelwise, there was a Captain America: Civil War set, an Uncanny X-Men set, a Superior Foes of Spider-Man set, and some "storyline organized play" set arranged around the comic book Civil War. That last one produced Silhouette, so I can't complain too much. The X-Men set was more '80s focused, so no Stacy X. Plenty of Marauders and members of Freedom Force, if you were the person dying for Super Sabre and Stonewall. I know, I'm one to talk.

The Superior Foes set really filled out the Serpent Society, which wasn't something I was exactly pining for, but I can appreciate it. The ability to field an army of moderately priced, snake-themed villains is appealing. Plus they did their first new Boomerang since the very first Marvel set, which was like 15 years ago. They even made a Nightwatch heroclix. Nightwatch being the kind-of a Spwan rip-off they put into the Spider-Man books for a hot minute in the '90s. Definitely not something I was asking for, but credit for digging deep.

So, characters to add to the list. They made a Devil Dinosaur in the last year, they could make a Moon Girl to go with him. If Jennifer Walters' assistant Angie (and her partner Hei Hei's) power were better defined, I'd say throw them in. Oh, let's get a Madcap, or a Slapstick. or both. They could go ahead and make a new Stingray. I know I wasn't a fan of the Mercs for Money, but that was because Duggan failed to give me any reason to care, not because I necessarily think they're worthless characters.

Except Solo, but they already gave him a Heroclix, so too late to close that barn door.

Or Negasonic Teenage Warhead. They brought her back to the comics after the Deadpool movie, so I assume it's just a matter of time. Or the Ghost of Ben Franklin.

No Margin for Error - Dwight R. Messimer

In the mid-1920s, General Billy Mitchell was pushing for the Navy's air arm to be folded into a single, independent air arm. The Navy didn't want this, and were desperate for some public relations coup to prove how great their air service was. They settled on a nonstop flight from California to Hawaii, and then the trouble starts.

The seaplanes they plan to use aren't certain to have sufficient range, but they add some new carburetors that are supposed to improve fuel efficiency, but the project is in such a rush they don't have time to actually test the modifications to see if that's true. Or, rather, they don't take the time. But they're all sure they'll have a 20-30 knot tailwind, so that'll make up the difference, right? As long as it materializes. They can barely get the three seaplanes in the air for test flights, and find all sorts of mechanical issues.

So the flight is a pretty serious failure, with one plane never getting in the air, one having to emergency land, and the third runs out of gas over 400 miles short of its goal. And because the radio operator on the nearest observation ship was an incompetent dope, the search party is looking in entirely the wrong place. So the second half of the story is the crew on PN9-1 trying to survive while they either figure some way to communicate with the ships or else steer their seaplane to the island of Kauai.

Messimer argues the total failure, combined with the crash of the airship Shenandoah on a flight across the country at the same time, actually helped save the Navy's air service. It brings things to a head, where President Coolidge appoints a board to decide whether all aviation should be under a single independent government heading or not. The conclusion is "not", which was for the best, but it seems curious for the Navy to benefit for such a cock-up that was brought on by placing a desire for headlines above common sense and proper preperation.

What I Bought 10/12/2016 - Part 2

Nothing like having a question about some movie we're watching and not wanting to ask because I know my dad will launch into some overly long, ten-minute dissertation on the thing.

Blue Beetle #1, Keith Giffen (story and script), Scott Kolins (story and artist), Romulo Fajardo Jr. (colorist), Josh Reed (letterer) - Seems like more of a Spider-Man pose there than one for a character that can fly.

Curious issue. Jaime relates a dream he had to Brenda of Dr. Fate fighting a giant beetle. Brenda is extremely acerbic and not helpful. Then Ted ropes Jaime into investigating a tip from a super-powered street gang, concerning a bunch of missing kids. One of whom Jaime runs into, and the kid now has shadow-melting powers. Jaime fights him off, but then the aforementioned super-powered street gang shows up.

For some reason, Giffen and Kolins are writing this so no one gives Jaime any sort of straight answer. Brenda is unhelpful, Ted's assistant and Ted both ignore any questions he ask, not to mention any objections he has. Overall, it makes Jaime look like a dope that's letting everyone herd him around. Like, refuse to keep going along with Ted until he produces some concrete answers.

The high point was probably Ted making a brief allusion to knowing Nightshade (as an example of someone with shadow powers) from his own time as a superhero. I had thought this Ted was a superhero wannabe, but it sounds like he was the Blue Beetle at some point. Which improves the chances of Booster showing up sometime soon, which ought to be good.

I like the designs for the Posse, especially the vibrating reddish guy, and the purple, Candlejack looking guy with the glowing weapon thing. We'll see if it translates once they get into action, but they make for interesting visuals, at least. I don't entirely like how he draws Blue Beetle, his lines make the suit look odd somehow, like the elements don't fit. I do like how the suit morphs, expands, gets more sharp as the situation grows more desperate. Plays into that dream, with a giant beetle monster fighting Dr. Fate.

The potential is there for me to enjoy this book, but toning down the antagonism between the characters that are supposed to be friends would be a help.

Deadman: Dark Mansion of Forbidden Love #1, by Sarah Vaughn (writer), Lan Medina (illustrator), Jose Villarubia (color artist), Janice Chiang (letterer) - That's not really good attire to be roaming through a massive yard at night with a candelabra.

Glencourt Manor is the "dark mansion" in question. It has the ghost of a young woman named Adelia Ruskin in it, as well as something else, an oozing dark shadow. Berenice is living there with Nathan, who is trying to get some novel written. But Nathan's health isn't great, and Berenice sees ghosts, so this isn't the best place for either of them. And into all this flied Boston Brand, only to find himself on unfamliar ground. Berenice can see him, not that she wants to. The house has trapped him, where he can't escape, and sometimes can't pass through objects. There's also Berenice's friend, Sam, who Boston can't possess for some reason. And by the end of the issue, Boston and Adelia vanish together, leaving a confused Berenice alone.

So there are a lot of mysteries in here, which is fine with me. Gives me something to mull over, whether they're interconnected or not, coming up with strange theories. I don't know if the book is meant as a Gothic horror story, or Gothic romance, or both. Nathan seems like the soulful, deeply troubled pretty boy, and Berenice the kind, but shy and uncertain heroine. Except Berenice is shy at least in part because she tries to shut out the spirits she can see around her. Not sure how Sam or Boston fit in, but we're up against the limits of what I understand of the genre.

Most of the colors Villarubia uses are fairly muted, kind of mundane. Which makes the parts where he steps outside that all the more effective. The bright yellow when Boston meets resistance to his passing through something. The pitch black shadow. I think Adelia is drawn in by Lan Medina, then not colored in, similar to what Declan Shalvey did in Moon Knight. Makes her seem disconnected from the whole thing in a way none of the other characters are. Which is interesting, since you'd think she'd be distinctly connected to the place she's haunting.

Medina does a solid job with the figure work. There are a few places characters seem a little stiff, but overall, the expressions are good, and when Medina gets a chance to draw more of the house, and use it to create a sense of looming threat, he does it well. The panel of her helping Nathan down the hall of doors, with the hall curving out of sight at the end, that one worked really well. Not sure why, some sense of the hall extending on forever, and endless string of identical doors that Berenice could see if she only went around the bend a little further.

And I like how for the first half of the book, written from Berenice's perspective, we see Boston flying around the manor, testing the place, and she has no idea what's going on. We understand why Boston Brand would show up, but she doesn't know him, and the issue shows him a lot with Berenice watching him from a distance. Even though he might be close to us, it helps put the reader in the mindset of seeing it how she is. Bizarre, something she can't understand, and doesn't want to get close enough to that she could.

The Clearing

I stumbled across The Clearing when there was nothing else on one night. Willem Dafoe kidnaps a wealthy businessman, played by Robert Redford, to hold him for ransom. The movie alternates between scenes of Dafoe marching Redford through the woods at gunpoint, and what Redford's family are up to.

Most of the family scenes involve Helen Mirren, who is playing Redford's wife. She has called in the FBI, but the decision on whether to follow their advice keeps mostly resting with her. Demand to hear from Redford or not, stall for time or not, while also trying to keep anyone in the family from losing it.

Redford's character has a reputation for remembering everyone's names and faces, which makes them feel special when they deal with him. And he tries being personable with Dafoe, but it's somewhat hindered because they had met previously, and Redford doesn't remember him. Even so, they chat a bit, compare lives, but when it doesn't get Redford anywhere, he finally loses patience and tears into Dafoe verbally. It's hard to blame him, but it does feel a bit like the man with everything criticizing someone for not being as determined as skilled as him (Redford even pulls out the, "Nobody ever helped me/I did everything myself" line, which I tend to always suspect as bullshit). But credit for not developing Stockholm Syndrome.

On the home front, Mirren takes the approach of trying to keep things pretty much business as usual. There aren't any hysterics, no outbursts, even when she figures out her husband had not broken off an affair he was having. She seems to have resolved to maintain composure, probably for herself as much as her children. She has to continue as if he will return. They even celebrate the grandchild's first birthday as planned. It's impressive, if a little sad, because I can't quite tell what kind of toll holding that in takes on her. Maybe it's the best way for her, to focus on how she feels about him, versus what she fears may have happened.

What I Bought 10/12/2016 - Part 1

I might, here in the next month, actually be able to resume weekly comic reviews. Maybe. It won't go back to the early days, when I'd cram like 5 shitty reviews into one post, but I would like to get back to it being a more regular feature again.

Deadpool #19 and 20, by Gerry Duggan (writer), Scott Koblish (artist, #19), Matteo Lolli (artist, #20), Guru eFX (colorist, #20), Nick Filardi (colorist, #19), Joe Sabino (letterer) - When I first saw that cover as a preview, the girl's blue-tinted hair made me think Wade was hanging out with a ghost. Old Ben Franklin sent someone to keep an eye on him or something. But no.

Issue 19 is a return to 2099. The first round between the Daughters of Deadpool ends inconclusively, Warda successfully escaping, but Ellie having rescued Wade and Preston. Warda still has one of her mother's WMDs, an Elder Beast sealed within one of those glass coffins, and demands her mother or else she'll unleash it on an unsuspecting populace. Wade gives Ellie the location her buried Shiklah, and goes looking for back-up, in the form of what I'm assuming is an extremely old-ass Danny Rand. I guess it could be his successor, there's enough time between now and 2099 for that person to be a wizened geezer too.

So a set-up issue. Lots of talking around things we haven't seen yet, which gets frustrating. The scene where Ellie is reunited with Preston and Wade was sweet, even if she still won't call him "dad". I feel like Koblish's design for Wade's outfit, the coat with the really high collar, is a lot like the one Flint Henry used in the Jim Twilley issues of GrimJack, which involved catching up with the character after a jump of a couple of centuries. Could be a coincidence, though. I like how Koblish is doing page layouts. He uses a lot of small panels swinding their way between two or three larger ones. Allows for a lot of close-up panels for reaction shots, but also establishing setting or allowing for action shots. I feel like the smaller panels are supposed to give a sense of rapid-fire pace, before hitting the larger ones and pausing for a moment to take it in, but honestly, I always feel like I'm bullshitting when I talk about how page layouts effect pacing. I see a lot of people mention it in reviews, but I've never noticed it much myself. It's like a series of notes at a frequency I can't hear. But it's probably there. Plus, all the small panels made turning to that full-page spread reunion shot more effective for how much space it gets.

Issue 20 returns to the present, with Wade wanting to mope on the ruins of his home, only to find a young woman named Danielle preparing to end her life. Which puts Wade in the position of trying to keep her from doing that. So he opts to bring her along with him as he does some pro bono charity work. Meaning he beats the shit out of crappy people he'd received letters about doing crappy stuff. Geez Wade, Captain America had an entire hotline back in the '80s, and you're still relying on snail mail?

This does temporarily raise her mood, eventually, and then Wade brings her to the hospital to try and receive help. Because Wade is at least aware enough to recognize he isn't a trained medical professional. Wade has several lines here that are probably not things he should say, which makes them kind of hilarious? Telling Danielle she should probably go a few blocks down to Parker Industries if she wants to fling herself to death, or that he was bitten by a sad, radioactive clown. Telling her not to be presumptuous because he doesn't care yet, or that she's terrible at knowing what people are going to say next. Booing her for doing a poor job kicking a guy who steals from his elderly neighbors. And the fact that anytime he's going to bust through a door, he knocks first and yells, "Sexy maids!"

Hey, that would get me to come to the door to see what's happening.

Matteo Lolli takes over art chores for this arc. His strongest point is probably the expressions he gives Wade. The exaggerated frown as he relates his sad clown, or the big toothy grin as he admits people say he makes them uncomfortable. That grin would definitely make me uncomfortable. Lolli doesn't get to draw much fighting, but he does well with what he does. Though I wanted to see those hackers actually get a chance to attack Wade with a keyboard, just to see how that worked out for them. I mean, I know it would have ended horribly, but the specifics would have been fun. Although I think when Wade breaks the arm of a guy with a gun, he breaks the left one, but in the panel before, the guy was holding the gun in his right. Little thing, but noticeable.

Foyle's War 2.2 - Among the Few

Plot: Foyle departs a boring committee meeting, but eager as he and Sam are to return to Hastings, they have to wait for a checkpoint. But a lorry driver named Fred Pierce isn't interested in waiting, and leads them in a high-speed chase that ends when he wrecks and the wooden barrels full of stolen petrol he had ignite and kill him. Fred had connections to a local Mr. Big, Frank Gannon, which means this is no one-time occurrence. Stealing petrol in no laughing matter in war, and the only depot in the area is Bexhill, run by a Michael Bennett, a rather lecherous old sod who spends a lot of time barely concealing his drooling over the lady lorry drivers, to his wife's consternation. However, his system for sending out fuel shipments seems solid enough. So it's time for Sam to go undercover! Hot diggety!

Slight problem: Andrew Foyle - who is out of that whole thing testing the radar net and flying fighter patrol over France - is dating one of the girls who works at the depot, Violet. Vi thinks they're pretty serious, despite Andrew never even introducing her to his father. The best lie Andrew can come up with to cover their knowing each other is that he and Sam used to date. Because that's what your girlfriend wants to hear, especially when Andrew comes to Sam's defense at the pub (when an attempt at asking a Sean O'Halloran some questions goes poorly). Andrew's wingman, Rex, is dating Connie, who is the one training Sam as a driver (it's no mean feat to find your way around the countryside when there are no road signs). Things aren't all peaches and cream there, either, culminating in Connie having a complete breakdown in the middle of the pub a few days after the brawl. Andrew offers to take her home, and the next morning, she's found dead in the staircase. And when Foyle and Milner investigate, they find a picture of Andrew in Connie's diary.

All that leads to some unpleasant conversations between the two Foyle men, and an equally unhappy one between Andrew and Violet later. Meanwhile, Sam is being pulled out of her undercover assignment, but when both the Bennetts leave their office, she can't resist the chance to rifle through their safe. Too bad that's when someone brings in a bomb.

Quote of the Episode: Rex - 'No secrets between Andrew and me.'

Does Foyle Go Fishing? Nope.

Things Sam can do: A passable job as a lorry driver, despite not being adept at the lingo or having the appropriate stench of petrol, according to O'Halloran. Pretty decent at being observant, she picked up the safe combination watching from the corner of her eye.

Other: Interesting vocab for the week, "Conkers". Andrew also calls O'Halloran a "bog dweller", but that's not very nice, so let it pass. At least Andrew's commander chewed him out for starting a brawl. Gee, Andrew, I can't imagine why some of the Irish might not be all on board with helping the English. Granted that they could hardly expect better from the Nazis, but people are endlessly capable of self-deception, right? Or too wrapped up in anger to care.

Probably a lot of spoilers below.

I had a recollection of Sam surviving the bomb by using the safe, but that was inaccurate. Not sure why I thought it was the case, probably conflating it with something else. But hiding behind a table, waiting for the bomb to go off, that has to suck.

Andrew is only 22, and one of the most experienced pilots in his wing. Him, Rex, and Douglas, the last of whom can join the growing list of boys who tried hitting on Sam and went down in flames.

This is probably one of Sam's more successful attempts at undercover work. She did nearly get killed, but the person wasn't trying to specifically do that, which is better than most of the time.

Frank Gannon made the claim that he might be a criminal, but he was 100% English. He was apparently less sincere than the mob boss Valentine in The Rocketeer. Near the end, when Foyle shows up to confront Gannon with certain truths (and arrest him for stealing petrol), Gannon starts in with these pleasantries, and Foyle just looks so bored by the whole thing. He doesn't actually roll his eyes, but that impression boils off him in waves.

So one big reveal in Connie is pregnant, and while searching her room, Foyle and Milner find bicarbonate of soda, which Milner mentions Jane is also using. He's somewhat disconcerted when Foyle reveals Connie was 4 months pregnant, and perhaps Milner should ask Jane. Although Foyle actually phrases it as 'I should.' Which is a phrase he uses frequently, rather than "I would." Which I find curious.

The other big reveal is that Rex was actually into Andrew, and using Connie as a beard, is the term I think. The photo in her diary was one Rex was carrying that she found during the brawl. The story doesn't dwell on it much. Not on how much Rex may struggle with his feelings, how Andrew would have reacted to knowing, what it was like for Connie. It's just kind of a thing she figures out which adds more pressure to her already tense mindset.

Nobody Bats A Thousand

I've stopped picking up Black Widow. The skill of the people involved was obvious, but it didn't interest me. The Black Widow is a character I can sometimes appreciate, but isn't one I seem to have any innate affection for. I picked up the Marjorie Liu-written Black Widow series from several years ago in a back issue search, and it was much the same: Well-done, but nothing I regretted not buying when it came out.

Of course, you could say the same for my feelings on several characters, including Daredevil, but I loved Waid and Samnee's (plus plenty of other talented artists and colorists) work with old Hornhead. The difference is, there it felt like they were going against the routine. All those years of Murdock's life being an unending string of misery and woe, and they opted to instead have him fight against that. Which didn't always work, but he made the effort. Let his friends in, leaned on them when he needed to, kept smiling in the face of hardship, refusing as much as possible to let it drag him down. I've already read a run where Matt was shattered and flew from the wreckage he made with his tail between his legs - it was Ann Nocenti and John Romita Jr.'s run on the title. Didn't really need to see it again, because I wasn't likely to enjoy a sequel more.

And Waid/Samnee mostly avoided falling into the same old "fights ninjas/the Hand" deal most writers since Frank Miller seem compelled to do (Nocenti being one exception). Ikari is close, but unique enough to be interesting. Instead he's fighting bizarre echoes of Klaw, or the Spot. Teaming up with the Silver Surfer, or going after the Book of the Darkhold with Satanna and Werewolf by Night. Even when he does go to the well of Kingpin or Bullseye, he uses Fisk as someone Murdock turns to out of desperation as a savior, and Bullseye as someone trying to use his gift for hitting any target to strike at Daredevil from the shadows. It's at least somewhat an inversion of the norm (although Fisk and DD have had this co-dependent do-si-do going on for years).

Black Widow felt pretty much like every Black Widow story I can remember reading. Natasha's past comes back to haunt her in some way. It's always the Red Room striking at her, or another of their products trying to exceed her, or some awful misdeed coming home to roost. Doesn't make it a bad approach to take, but it isn't one that's struck a chord with me yet, despite a number of writers and artists trying.

Hotel for Dogs (2009)

For some reason, my dad had auto-tuned his TV to Hotel for Dogs. Based on the opening credits, I was horrified and wanting to change the channel back to what he was watching before, that movie with Kevin Costner about the Cuban Missile Crisis. That's saying something, given my antipathy for Costner.

The movie gets somewhat better after that. Pair of siblings in foster care, trying to keep their dog safe from Animal Control on the sly, find an abandoned hotel with two dogs already living in it. With the help of three other teens they repurpose the entire hotel as a place for stray dogs. Eventually they're found out, the siblings are sent to separate foster situations, the dogs are all locked up, and the kids must stage an attempted rescue to get the dogs across the county line.

I honestly can't remember any of the teens' names, though I remember Don Cheadle as the Child Services Guy Who Cares A Lot was "Bernie". I assume my dad was watching it mostly for all the different dogs, and the humor involving them outwitting various members of the establishment (can dumbasses working for Animal Control be The Establishment?)

We were both amused by the range of devices the younger of the two siblings kept cobbling together from random crap. My dad was mildly concerned the kid would become a super-villain, and if he had stayed in that foster home where his sister wasn't around, he probably would have. Just delved deeper into his odd creations as an escape and grown more bitter. I was hoping in the big conclusion at the hotel, the kids were going to lure the police and Animal Control inside, then get them tangled up in the various contraptions like some up-scaled Home Alone scenario. That would have livened things up.

A Few Weeks Early For This Sort Of Thing

There are plenty of things to enjoy about being a ghost, if you're of the mind to enjoy it. Some like spying on people the best, or scaring them. Others enjoying the flying, or the invisibility. Some just like being able to break stuff knowing no one can stop them.

For me, it's being able to move through objects. Not because of how it feels; there's only a vague half-sensation most of the time. I'm more aware I'm passing through a wall because I see that it's happening. I'm on one side, then I'm in the wall, and then I'm on the other side. Moving through a living being is more noticeable, because you can feel the heat of them (yeah, even with reptiles. They're still warmer than I am). You can even pick up some of their emotions, it's like a tingling in what used to be my scalp. Although other spirits say it reminds them of a Charley horse, or getting butterflies in your stomach.

But I was always concerned with getting where I needed to go. Didn't want to be late, hated getting held up by weather or road construction. Most of the places I was trying to get weren't really that important, but I was determined to be there as soon as possible. Not any sort of problem now. Nothing can get in my way now. That I don't have anywhere in particular to be is beside the point. Anywhere I want to be, I can be. It'll get old, the spirits who have been here longer insist it all gets old, but that, too, is beside the point. It's a trick that hasn't gotten old yet, and I'm sure I'll take care of what's keeping me here before it does.

Just as soon as I can figure out what that is. I don't remember having any pressing business. Unless not wanting to be dead counts. I wanted to keep going, even if there wasn't anything concrete I wanted to get to. Maybe that was enough.

Gun the Man Down (1956)

Gun The Man Down is a mid-50s B-western. I'd say it's most notable for featuring James Arness, right around the time Gunsmoke was starting, and Angie Dickinson before Rio Bravo. Arness was part of a three-man gang, and he was wounded during a bank robbery. The other two guys, Matt and Ralph, leave him behind and take Janice (Dickinson), who was dating Rem, along with them. Rem refuses to say who his compadres were, because he wants to hunt them down himself. A year in jail later, he gets his chance.

It's an 80 minute movie, and at least an hour of it is Arness in the town his old pals have set up shop in, letting them sweat and try to find some way out. There was a brief scene where he meets a gun-for-hire who tips him off where to go, that I thought was simply going to be filler, or a cheap way to get Rem from point A to point B. But the bad guys ultimately hire Mr. Billy Deal to try and deal with Rem, which leads to this long scene of Billy slowly moving through town, looking for Rem. It's shot so that scenes of Billy (with townspeople scurrying out of the way), are alternated with Matt, Ralph, and Janice waiting tensely in their saloon, following Billy's progress by the sounds of his spurs. I think it goes over the line from being effective to overly drawn out, but it's a good attempt.

There's of course a subplot about Janice and Rem, whether she actually loved him, if she still loves him, that sort of thing. Prior to meeting Rem, Janice had been a dance hall girl/con artist, but she was ready to settle down with Rem as a rancher's wife. Partway through, my sympathies were against Rem, because he did seem to judge her, to treat it as "That's the kind of girl you are,", while Matt seemed understanding of the things Janice had done to survive as a young woman alone in the West. Of course, then Matt twists it to undermine her sense of self-worth, that she's just in it for money, same as him, and if she tries to get high and mighty and walk away from him, she'll end up in the same place with another man soon enough. So that's an abuser approach of, "you don't deserve anyone better than me", so no winner there. But Janice did point out that while Rem wanted to be a rancher, a theoretically reputable position, he wanted to get the money for it by robbing a bank and ruining the lives of a bunch of innocent townspeople. Little absurd for him to be scowling at her for taking the easy route.

And watching all this is a sheriff who I can't quite figure out. He doesn't like what Matt and Ralph have done to his town, because booze and gambling are awful, everyone should just sit in their shitty homes and read the Bible by candlelight I guess, but if Rem kills them, he's still going to arrest him. But he's still giving Rem a lot of signals that he won't mind them being gone. I think he's supposed to be principled, in that Matt hadn't done anything illegal so he couldn't be thrown out, regardless of the sheriff's feelings, but it feels a little crooked. Like he really wants the dirty work done in such a way his hands are clean.

Little Annoyances Build Up

There are two things in the comics/fandom realm that are annoying me lately. Actually probably a lot more than two, but these are the ones that drift to the forefront most often.

One is, when a book is swiftly canceled, for people working in comics to blame the audience for not pre-ordering the book. This came up last month, I think, when Marvel's recent Nighthawk book, to the surprise of pretty much no one, died a quick death.

The other thing is when writers try for some big shake-up/shock ending to the first issue, and people react poorly. Then you get other fans telling the first group, "it's probably a fake out" or to "give it time". Recent examples being Nick Spencer's "Captain America works for HYDRA" thing, and again with last week's first issue of Jessica Jones. It isn't the cheap "everything you knew is wrong" aspect of it, I'm used to that, and hell, there's probably been a fair number of those I've enjoyed over the years. The goal is to hook the reader, sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. It's the insistence the audience owes the creative team another issue, or another five or fifteen.

The common thread is this placing of all responsibility on the audience. It's the audience's job, apparently, to make a book a success by buying a copy based on some flimsy information about who is working on it (which may change by the time the book is released, to say nothing of all those "TBA" artists) and whatever nonsense the solicitation text might provide (if you get anything more than "CLASSIFIED"). They won't even see this book for another two or three months, but they must agree to pony up for it right now. If the writer goes for some lame twist, the fans are again responsible for giving up more time and money until they see if some decent explanation or payoff is provided.

Of course, people pre-order books that get canceled all the time. If you've ever pre-ordered comics, then you've probably had something you were reading canceled. In 2009, Marvel canceled 6 different series I was pre-ordering. Someone was pre-ordering Nighthawk, for all the good it did them. Even if I could get every person who reads this blog to pre-order a book I asked them to, it probably wouldn't tilt the needle enough to do anything. Point being, telling fans who are dismayed a book they enjoyed would have survived if they'd only pre-ordered is a load of crap, because odds are, those people already were pre-ordering, or would have if they could. I'm not expecting these creators to fix the Direct Market, however you would do that, but punching down isn't going to help either. Of course, punching down is comics' favorite pastime, from companies towards creators, and creators towards fans, or creators with more tenure towards less-secure ones, or large groups of fans towards more marginalized sections, so maybe it's no surprise.

As for the second irritant, a writer can't tailor their story to appeal to everyone, I know that. Some people are not going to enjoy what the writer or artist does. Sometimes that's going to build slowly, that gradually dawning realization this book just isn't clicking. Nick Spencer's Ant-Man stuff is like that. There are parts I enjoy, but the whole didn't come together in a way I could get with. The idea Spencer and Rosanas were somehow owed my eternal patience and money while they moved things along is absurd. They had their chance to get me to stay, they failed, that's how it goes. Better luck next time. There's a million things out there to read, watch, play, or listen to. Expecting people to keep throwing away money on something they don't like or that actively angers them, just because the creative team haven't finished revealing their brilliance, is nuts.

Yeah, the audience can cop to the fact they're making judgments based on one issue, or five, or however many they gave the book, but beyond that? I figure if someone says, "I'm not buying Jessica Jones because I don't like that Bendis appears to have broken up Jess and Luke's happy marriage," that's fair. Bendis chose to go that route (or give the appearance of going that route), they can choose to walk away because that was something they enjoyed. A person can choose to give a creative team a second chance, but they don't owe it to them. The saying is "let the buyer beware", not "let the buyer shut and keep giving us money for shit."

Foyle's War 2.1 - Fifty Ships

Plot: The home Sam has been living in gets bombed by the Germans. She's OK, but the other young woman living there is killed, and Sam is without a place to stay. So her various attempts to find someplace to bunk down, without Foyle being aware of them (for various reasons), will be a recurring bit through the episode. Of more immediate importance is that the fire brigade guys steal some of the landlady's jewels and antique coins. We know who they are, and Foyle and Milner pretty quickly figure out they're the guilty party, even if finding the stash of loot takes time, so that's not much of a mystery.

However, one of the men in the group, Kenny Hunter, is having second thoughts. He just wants enough money to go to an aeronautical school, and his wreck of a father, Richard, is no help. But then Richard sees a newspaper headline touting the arrival of a major American industrialist, Howard Paige, to the area. Paige made a fortune with some syncromesh gear system for automobiles, but now he's a maor advocate of the U.S. entering the war on England's side. He's staying at the home of a local magistrate and acquaintance from his Oxford days, Arthur Lewes, who invites Foyle to dinner, as well as the local doctor, Dr. Redmund, and his wife. As it turns out, Foyle and Elizabeth Lewes know each other from before she got married, though Arthur doesn't seem to know it.

As Sam drives Foyle to the dinner, Richard is leaving in a bit of a state. That evening, several things happen. Someone signals with a flashlight to a submarine off the coast, and someone from that submarine rows himself to shore. And two shots are heard on the shore, and someone runs past a car with a news photographer sleeping inside. The next morning, Richard is found dead, and the man from the boat was found in a pub at 10 a.m., trying to order a beer (against local laws apparently). Hans Maier claims to be Dutch, but no one is buying that, and he seems curious about Foyle. Despite Dr. Redmund's assessment that Richard was a wreck of person with little reason to live, and even Kenny's opinion that his father was a worthless drunk, Foyle doubts it was a suicide. That photographer, Colin Morton, might have some useful information, but he's hauled away in the middle of the night. Fortunate Foyle has another witness who can't be dragged away, because he's already in custody.

Ultimately though, this is not a time where Foyle's desire to see justice carried out can win the day. Not that he's going to give up on it, he's just going to have to wait.

Quote of the Episode: Foyle - 'And no war has lasted forever, and neither will this one. A year, maybe ten, but it will end. And when it does, you will still be a thief, a liar, and a murderer. And I will not have forgotten, and wherever you are, I will find you.'

Does Foyle go fishing? No.

Things Sam can do: Cook Coq au vin, minus the vin. Used up all Milner's bacon in the process, though. She can take apart a gearbox, although she's not much good at putting them back together.

Other: I may have to start a section for words or phrases I enjoy, or ones that confused me. Let's see, this week there was 'haichi', which seemed to refer to people getting bombed? "Trekker" referred to people who took to sleeping in their cars in the countryside because they were afraid of being bombed in their homes. Sam used the term "diggety-boo" at one point.

Jane Milner returned from her trip to Wales. Unfortunately, she did so while Sam was there, and had convinced Milner to dance a bit in the kitchen with her. That was awkward, though Milner claims he was able to explain things to Jane. I have my doubts.

Hans Maier ends up being key to solving the murder, and asks Foyle to somehow get in touch with his family in Germany. He provides a clue which leads to the person who signaled with the flashlight, and Foyle passes the message along to them, opting not to arrest them. OK, so spoiler here: The person who was signaling was Dr. Redmund's wife, Eve, who is a cousin of Hans'. She only did it the one time, because he was family. But after Foyle leaves, her husband just lays into her. Not just the fact he backhands her, which he does, but he's vicious with his words. He tells her essentially, she no longer exists to him, that she can stay or go, but if she tries to speak to him, he'll leave. And sure enough, when she tries, he shushes her, and walks out of the room.

Now for me, I think she came out ahead. Redmund's a dick. Guy completely buys into that idea of keeping barriers between social classes, clearly thinks he's at the top of the heap, and thinks awful highly of his intelligence for a guy who can't put on cuff links without assistance. But Eve cares about him (or is afraid to be alone), and he knows that, but does this anyway. Devastates her, and took some real glee in it. Like, he was smiling when he shushed her. It's sick.

I used the quote I did because it will become relevant in a few seasons. The war is going to end, and Foyle is going to pursue the guilty party, though I don't think we ever get to see it. We do hear about how it played out, at least a bit.

I had the impression firearms were scare in Britain, but Richard Hunter had one, and so do a lot of other people. Maybe it's like Hot Fuzz said, it's the countryside, everyone and their mum is packing 'round here.

On a list of things we learned about Foyle this week, that his father was a sergeant in the police, and so Foyle followed in his footsteps. At the same time, Foyle assumes Andrew will not follow in his. Sound assumption there. Speaking of Andrew, apparently he debated at Oxford on the topic, 'Modern patriotism is a false emotion.' I'm guessing there was a girl involved.

Getting What He Wants, Losing What He Needs

One of the recurring problems for Deadpool is he gains acceptance and friends, only to lose them. Somehow, some way, Wade will wreck what he's worked hard to achieve. Usually it happens by him behaving in a selfish or unthinking matter. Now it's happening because he's actually trying to be a hero.

I've wanted Deadpool to get some respect, or at least understanding from the heroes of the Marvel Universe. He's wanted to be one of them since at least part way through Cable/Deadpool, but he's frequently rejected in what are staggering double standards. Sure, the X-Men will let repeated would-be world conquerors like Namor and Magneto hang out with them, or people will huge body counts like Mystique or the Juggernaut, who rarely express regret for their actions, and often revert to full villainy before long. But Deadpool can get lost. Spider-Man will extend understanding to Harry Osborn over his mental problems, support Sandman in his efforts to reform, be on the Avengers with Wolverine (who has a body count bigger than some wars), but can't tolerate being around Deadpool. It was frustrating.

But the worm had finally turned. Wade is on an Avengers team, put there by Steve Rogers, before Rogers became a HYDRA mole. He seems to be winning over teammates like Rogue and Quicksilver, and seemed to have made friends with both Logan and Nightcrawler before that. And, his brief, self-described pity party in issue 18, he's really committed to trying to be an Avenger. Provided an HQ, funded the team, dedicated to finding the Red Skull and retrieving Xavier's brain. None of that erases his morally questionable actions from the past, but he's at least making an effort to be a proper good guy.

So naturally, everything else in his life is falling apart. Funding the Avengers cost him his Mercs for Money (though it seems he's just going to hire more). His friend Michael sacrificed himself stopping an assault on the Monster Metropolis, and Wade had to stand there and watch. His daughter doesn't call him "dad" any longer. Her adoptive mother is pissed at him, his wife is fed up with him (maybe?) All the friends and loved ones he'd made over the previous volume of his book are falling away from him. Wade hasn't - and maybe can't - manage the juggling act Peter Parker and a lot of other heroes have mastered, where they can do the hero gig, but still be there enough for the people they care about that they don't alienate them entirely.

The saddest part of it is, Deadpool knows it's happening, but he can't fix it. He doesn't really want to be alone, but he thinks being around him is bad news, and he doesn't want those people to be hurt. So he tries to watch over them from a distance. Obviously that isn't working, and it's unclear if he can bring himself to change his approach, or if the situation is even salvageable. I have to think that if Wade made a real effort to be around for Eleanor and Shiklah, things would improve, but I think he's convinced himself being an Avenger is what he has to do, and everything else is getting left behind.

Trouble with the Curve (2012)

My dad really wanted me to watch Trouble with the Curve. I guess he figured I'd like it because of Clint Eastwood, which is admittedly not a big stretch on his part. But a movie where the grumpy old scout teaches those punk kids about how their durn computers can't help you measure a ballplayer? I've read enough shitty columns by hack sportswriters with that exact same message to last a lifetime.

But I guess the movie is at least as much about his daughter Mickey, played by Amy Adams, trying to reconnect with her dad, while looking after him on a scouting trip. I think Eastwood must have some regrets about not being there for his kid in real life, because this isn't the first movie where this has been an issue. It was a fairly big part of Absolute Power, and his daughter (played by Laura Linney) was a lawyer in that movie, too, just like Adams. Although in that case his character seemed more interested in maintaining contact than Linney's, and here it's the reverse. Mickey still gets frustrated with her dad, his complete inability to talk with her about anything other than baseball, and would probably be a lot better off if she could stop giving a damn about him entirely, but that's not in the cards.

I'm not sure what to make of the fact Adams seems to only find happiness when she abandons most everything she had built up, and seemingly starts a new career as a scout/agent, and finds a new boyfriend in the person of a former ballplayer (played by Justin Timberlake) her father had scouted and signed. Baseball was something she grew up loving, but distanced herself from it when it appeared her father cared more about it than her. So she became a lawyer, worked all the time, became a vegetarian (?), but none of it really makes her happy. Her bosses at her law firm were apparently looking for any excuse to pass her over for being a partner in favor of some kissass. So she's going to enter the not at all male-dominated field of professional baseball, where I'm sure her skills will not be disrespected or doubted because she's a woman.

There's also the fact Mickey finds out from her dad she was nearly molested by some creepy groundskeeper or something when she was 6, which seems like it should be a bigger deal for her. She had already admitted she's been in therapy for over a decade, just trying to get over feeling like it was her fault her dad was never around. This seems like something that would be kind of significant, but it's mostly about how that was one of the things that convinced Gus he wasn't a good dad (he had been distracted talking to a player, letting her wander off, and was dealing with the recent death of his wife).

Actually, the idea of Gus trying to cope with that loss, and not being able to do it and raise a small girl, that could be something, but that molestation thing was unnecessary. I had thought, given Gus' recurring nightmares about the horse running the bases, that the problem was Mickey had nearly been run over because he wasn't paying attention, which seems like it might have been enough. Kid almost dies on top of wife dying, yeah that could cause a person to break. As it stands, it's one more awful thing for Mickey, but framed entirely through how it affected Gus.

All that said, Eastwood and Adams had a good back-and-forth. Not a huge surprise; Adams is a top-notch actress, and Eastwood is good within a certain range. And at this stage, it's not too hard for him to play an older man, feeling his body and mind betraying him, seeing the mistakes he's made. I'm not as sure about Adams and Timberlake's chemistry, but it grows over the course of the film. Since their characters are supposed to get slowly more comfortable with each other, that's a good approach.

There'll Be A Lot Of Sarcasm With This Bunch

Time for another fantasy team lineup post! It's a little late for my every other month schedule, but my schedule has been a mess lately (and may continue to be for the next few weeks), so it was tricky finding the time to sit down and work on it. Enough excuses, let's do this. Last time was the Legion of Angry Characters from the XBox 360. This is going to be based on more characters from my games on the 360, but I wanted to branch out a bit, try to grab a few more supporting characters, a few that are a little less typical. See if that works.

The Leader: Cortana (Halo 4) - I understand that Cortana came back in Halo 5 as a sort-of antagonist after her possible death at the end of Halo 4, but let's just ignore that. Her program degraded, but the Forerunner's technology gave her access to something to help counteract it, but not until she's wound up somewhere else. Or her program fell apart entirely, and she was only able to pull part of herself together over time.

Cortana is smart and resourceful, and has a certain amount of curiosity combined with an unwillingness to take things at face value. This was apparent in the first Halo, when she nosed through the memory banks of the system on the ringworld and figured the Caretaker wasn't being entirely upfront with master Chief about the plan he was pushing to stop the Flood (namely, it was leaving out the part where the plan would destroy that entire section of the galaxy). She figured this out, and then was able to devise a different plan to deal with the threat without wiping out entire star systems.

But Cortana hasn't necessarily been a leader. She gathers information, and offers a course of action, but commanding officers were fully capable of ignoring her (to their detriment, usually). One of the advantages she had before was Master Chief trusted her implicitly. If she told him something was so, he believed her. This group doesn't know her from Adam to start, and now she has to convince them to do what she wants. She can be pretty blunt with people when she thinks they're being stupid. She's going to get impatient with them, they're going to get impatient with her. And depending on whose world she winds up in, there may not be the kind of information network she's used to having access to. If the place they're at doesn't have radio transmissions, or any kind of computer networks, how much is that going to impair her?

The Rogue: Trip (Enslaved: Odyssey to the West) - Trip's the tinkerer of the bunch. Cortana's smarter, but Trip's the one who'll build something for the team if it's needed. She's curious about how things work, and usually pretty good at pulling them apart and repurposing them for her ends. She's fairly brave all things considered, and seems to have a pretty good sense of her limitations (she knew she needed someone with Monkey's physical skills to get home, for example). She has this wrist-computer thing, it's possible Cortana took up residence in it as she was pulling herself together. Or she's inside the insectile drone thing Trip used for recon. Which could be a real problem if Trip just decides to go off and do her own thing all of the sudden, and drags the leader along for the ride.

Because Trip is the one most likely to wreck the entire team, or get herself killed by her teammates. She's consistently selfish, and once she decides something needs to happen, has little compunction about using people for it. She wouldn't help Monkey escape at the start of the game, but once he managed it himself, she was fine slapping a slave headband on him and making him help get her home. Once he did that and they found her home destroyed, she broke her promise to release him so he could help her take revenge. This doesn't mean she won't help the rest of the team out, but it's likely it'll be in service of her own interests.

The Muscle: Rubi Malone (Wet) - Fine, there's still one angry, violent person on the team. Rubi's a gun for hire, good with swords or guns, and quite the acrobat. She also drinks like a fish and swears like something that swears a lot. As a mercenary, she's not much of an altruist, so there's a question of how she got into this (none of the rest of the team have much in the way of money). On the other hand, revenge is a concept she's quite familiar with, so she could be after someone who double-crossed her, or loused up some job she was on.

She's the one most likely to kill Trip if she tries anything, and it's questionable how well she's going to work as part of a team. She has associates, but they're the sort who provide her with information on where the person she needs to find is, then get the hell out of the way. That's probably not going to work here, and there's no telling what'll happen if she goes into one of her rampage modes. I don't know how well she's going to handle taking orders. It might work fine; she's used to having people give her specific instructions for completing jobs, but it's hard to say. I can't picture her making friends with anyone on this team, but as long as they get the job done. . .

If they can keep her stocked up with some halfway decent booze, that might smooth things over.

The Guy of Mystery: Khan (Metro 2033/Metro Last Light) - Khan's ostensibly part of the Rangers, but spends most of his time roaming the tunnels and outposts that make up the Metros. Which is no mean feat considering the dangers: Hideous beasts, giant insects, ghosts, a strange orb of light that floats along incinerating anything in his path. But he seems to handle it fine. The peculiarities of it are old hat to him now, and he takes them in stride. He's capable of defending himself, but doesn't resort to violence unnecessarily. He's an optimist, doing his bit to protect humanity, seemingly sure people can come to some understanding with their strange world, if they'll make the effort.

He's comfortable in his world, so let's throw him into a new circumstance. I don't expect the idea of alternate universes to shake him, but I'm curious how he'd react to a different world. One where he doesn't have to wear a gas mask to walk on the surface, or worry about massive, leather-winged beasts descending from the sky to rip him to shreds. Would he fight more fiercely to protect a world like that from ending up like his, or would he take things in stride, what will be, will be? Khan's a big believer in people having destinies or a specific purpose, and he may wear on everyone else's nerves if he espouses that too often. They're trying to stop some threat, and he's arguing that they're making a mistake by trying to do that. Even though he was very helpful to Artyom in the two games, there were more than a couple of times I wanted to shoot him because I was sic of being told what I should have done, or have to do, or whatever.

If Trip does lead the team into disaster, or use them, Khan's the one most likely to defend her, either because he figures she deserves the chance to atone, or because he accepts it as her destiny. Neither of which is likely to pass muster with Rubi.

The Lady with a Boat: Judith (Tales of Vesperia) - In this case the boat is a giant flying creature that resembles a whale (but doesn't do well in water). She and Ba'ul met when they were both young and had narrowly survived a huge battle. Rubi doesn't like flying at all, so that'll be an issue. On the other hand, Judith is the most physically powerful member of the team, and she enjoys fighting, so those two might hit it off anyway.

In terms of personality, Judith can be pretty closed off. She keeps her true thoughts and feelings to herself, only occasionally offering some sort of commentary. If something is bothering her, she'll try to handle it herself, without letting anyone else in on it. She tends to hang on the periphery of group scenes, taking everything in. Then she'll step in abruptly to question someone's motives or actions. She may not even disagree with what they're doing or proposing. I think it's because she spent a lot of time by herself settling on a course of action, and she thinks other people ought to really consider what they're doing, and why they're doing it.

I'm not sure anyone on this group is going to be easy to control, as they're all comfortable just going their own way, but Judith is probably the one who'll question Cortana the most, just because. I don't think any of them will necessarily object to following an AI because of what she is, at least. Rubi ought to be familiar with the concept from pop culture, Khan and Judith will probably just equate her with some kind of spirit, Trip will probably have the best understanding of what Cortana is, and she might have some concerns give robots under the control of a supposedly benevolent program are what killed her friends, but having Cortana in a computer on her wrist might give Trip a sense of control over the situation.

Batman Game With 50% Less Batman

I picked up the first episode in Telltale series Batman game on XBox Live last weekend. Probably should have done some research on the game first, but it was only 5 bucks, which just so happened to be roughly how much money I had on the account. So, impulse buy. It's been a year since I was on XBox Live, cut me some slack.

So, Batman game. As far as Episode One goes, Bats has his first encounter with Catwoman, stealing something from Mayor Hill's office. Bruce is also funding Harvey Dent's mayoral campaign, but has attracted the attention of Carmine Falcone. Also, there are reports Bruce's parents were in bed with Falcone, and someone stole a bunch of psychotropic drugs from a warehouse. Sooooo they're hijacking the plot to Batman Begins? At they establish that Batman's "scary voice" is a voice modulator, rather than him comically trying to do a scary voice himself.

As for the gameplay, the Batman sections are almost all Quick-time Events. You know, pull the control stick left when it says, or hit X on command. So it's my least favorite parts of Resident Evil 4, all the damn time! They make it look like a cut scene movie, so I want to watch, but I can't watch and keep ready for the commands as they pop up, so I don't get to really see what it is I'm making him do.

But a lot of the game is spent as Bruce Wayne talking to people, where you're given responses to choose from. Which you choose can have repercussions later in the game. Like when Falcone came to my fundraiser for Dent, the game let me choose to shake his hand or not. I figured Bruce would be polite, but that meant there were photos of The Handshake to put on TV when the reports about Bruce's parents came out, which means a p.r. hit. Which is kind of an interesting touch to the game play, but unless I shell out for the other episodes, I probably won't know what impact it would have.

The game provides some similar options when you're Batman, but it's about whether to break a guy's arm or not while interrogating him, or what to do with Falcone when you catch him. I opted against arm-breaking, but did impale Falcone on some rebar as part of my  "Save the brutality for the assholes in charge" approach. But I felt bad about it after, so that makes it OK, right?

Anyway, it only took a few hours to play the entire episode, but I can't see myself picking up the rest of the game. It's not what I'd call a fun Batman experience.

The Butts Being Kicked Belong To Actors, The Nuts Are, Well Nuts

I would like to see Squirrel Girl's extremely disappointing blind date, Brad, become a recurring character in Unbeatable Squirrel Girl. Not a primary one, not showing up every issue, but periodically, as a background nuisance.

He doesn't even have to physically appear in the story. Let Doreen and Nancy find a flyer on campus for some meeting he and other superhero truthers are organizing about how fake monsters are designed to keep the public from focusing on income inequality, or the continued watering down of beer. Or she stumbles across message board posts by him. Someone posting they were totally able to grab some girl hero's tail and it didn't come off, it must be real, and Brad replying that costumers have really good glue, bro. Posting images from different creative teams and claiming the changes in looks are behavior are proof it's a different person in the costume, and it's a marketing ploy to trick people into joining the CIA or something.

I originally thought of it as being Squirrel Girl's version of the "Elf with a gun" plotline From The Defenders, but that's not a good comparison. The whole point of the elf was specifically that there was no larger point to it, it was emblematic of random bizarre shit that happens. Whereas I guess Brad would be proof of the human capacity for self-deception. So the better comparison would be that Brad becomes Doreen's J. Jonah Jameson. A constant background irritant she can't handle by any of her preferred methods.

Foyle's War 1.4 - Eagle Day

Plot: During an air raid, the home of one Joyce Davies is destroyed, with her husband Graham inside. Curiously though, Graham was already dead when it happened, because he'd been stabbed. And while it's quickly clear Joyce has been having an affair, this provides her a solid alibi. Plus, a member of the local Home Guard recalls a man approaching him on the street that night and asking for Graham's house. Perhaps the necklace the victim has clenched in his hand is the key, or maybe it was Graham's job transporting priceless pieces of art from a collection into a safe spot in the countryside. His employer, Austin Carmichael, doesn't think so, but since when can you trust a dead man's boss? And what does the elderly couple in the nearby village have to do with it all?

On a happier note, Andrew is home from training, and he's been posted to a base nearby. He's going to help discover the gaps in Britain radar net by doing low-level and night flying exercises, and he'll get to live at home while doing so. Once Andrew learns what he'll be doing (and that he gets to fly a Spitfire to do it), he's quite excited, but he quickly notices a curious air around the base. While he and one of the radar operators, Anne Roberts, hit it off immediately, Anne keeps tiptoeing around something that happened concerning another of the operators there, a Lucy.

But Andrew has problems of his own, and I'm not talking about the poor first impression he made on Sam. The friend who gave him a lift home, Bruce Leighton-Morris is being investigated by Special Branch, which means Andrew's being investigated. His C.O., Keller, and the commander of the base, Alastair Graeme, are not too pleased once they realize Andrew's dad is a Detective Chief Superintendent, and one with a reputation no less. And that's going to make it hard for even Foyle to protect him.

And on top of all that, Sam's father the vicar has come to town to try and convince, nay, order, Sam to come home. Listen old man, I promised the courts I wouldn't punch a holy man again, but you're testing me.

Quote of the Episode: Foyle - 'Why have you brought us to shelter in a fuel dump, Andrew?'

Does Foyle go fishing? Nope. There is no time for recreational activities this week.

Things Sam can't do: Flirt convincingly, apparently. She tries chatting up Graeme, and gets swiftly figured out, and he even gropes her as a final insult.

Other: I really wanted to use Sam's line to Andrew when he immediately tries charming her: 'I see you don't hold back. You've obviously been well-trained by the RAF.' Her continued unwillingness to take crap from guys who think they're smooth is a real joy. And it puts on Andrew on his heels and on the defensive right off the bat. One thing that becomes clear in this issue is Andrew doesn't think when it comes to women, not beyond his next one-liner at any rate. It turns, "there was this girl. . ." is the default explanation for anything Andrew does that's off questionable intelligence. Certainly he lacks his father's ability to be discreet, to rebuke someone without directly saying it. Although he uses "Wizard!" as a one-word phrase to describe how quickly the Spitfire climbs (as in, you gain altitude like magic), and I thought that was a pretty nifty phrase.

Anyway, the quote. I was planning to use that one, but I couldn't pass up that Foyle quote from the end of the episode. The context makes it so it tickles me too much.

This is Sam's first attempt at trying to go undercover to help Foyle, but it definitely won't be the last. Unfortunately, most of them don't go much better than this one, although they tend to involve less sexual harassment and more threats against her life. Throughout the series, I keep wondering why Foyle doesn't take a little time to coach Sam, since he keeps letting her help like this.

Still, it's a disheartening scene, and not just because Graeme so easily sees through her act and humiliates her. It's Sam's last-ditch shot to do something "important", something to prove to her father that her work here has worth. The old man doesn't think driving a police officer around is all that important, although he then contradicts that by commenting on the fact she's getting mixed up in all these murders. Solving murders isn't important? But of course he doesn't feel she's performing a vital role, never mind that a) Foyle doesn't drive, and b) Milner can't drive yet, and c) there's such a shortage of drivers, which is what necessitated Sam being transferred from the MTC in the first place.

But of course the whole thing is just an excuse to drag her back under his control because he's worried she'll develop "loose morals" and start sleeping around or something. And her mother isn't well, and he needs help caring for her. Well shit vicar, isn't that what your "flock" is for? Aren't you supposed to be inspiring your community to feats of compassion and charity, like helping an older man care for his sickly wife? Really slacking off there, old man.

The guy keeping an eye on Bruce and Andrew is Henderson, Special Branch, and even just from the way he says "Special Branch", you can tell he's smug shit. Just expects people to fall down and be bulldozed by him and his stupid badge. Blech. I was very happy that when he asked Andrew to get in the car, Andrew refused and at least forced Henderson to put him under arrest. Which Henderson was only to willing to do, but at least make him do it openly, don't let him pretend to be friendly when he's really a douche.

Graeme is played by Roger Allam, who I recognized as Royalton from the Wachowskis' Speed Racer film. He's been in lots of other things, he even played Walt Disney in RKO 281, the HBO film about Orson Welles trying to get Citizen Kane made my dad enjoys so much, but that's what I recognized him from right off.

When Andrew takes Anne out for a picnic - wasting no time - he brings along ginger beer. That's a thing? It sounds vile, although I am admittedly not much of a fan of ginger, and even less so of beer. And I suppose I shouldn't be surprised. Alex is a big fan of that cinnamon whiskey stuff, so why not ginger beer.

Early in the episode, Andrew and his father have a brief conversation about Foyle's service in the First World War, which is something I was curious about after last week's episode, when Raymond Brooks went on at length about his experiences as Passchendaele. So Foyle volunteered, went in as a private, and came out as what he says was called 'a temporary officer and gentleman'. Andrew asks if he killed people, and it's about then Sam knocks on the door. Foyle, not one to keep people waiting, ignores it to mull over his answer, then responds. I wonder if he was reluctantly pulling those memories back up, or if thinking about it was making him face the possibilities of losing Andrew more bluntly than he allowed himself normally. But I like how they did it, because my first thought was Foyle was going to use Sam's arrival to dodge the question, but he doesn't. He thinks it's important to give Andrew something.

On a somewhat different note, we learn in this episode Mrs. Foyle has been dead for 8 years, and even Andrew thinks his father should perhaps start looking for someone else. Foyle doesn't seem terribly interested, and in fact, pointedly changes the subject back to finding out what Andrew is allowed to tell him about his work (not a lot).

What I Bought - 9/27/2016

Five new comics came out for me this week. I had three the first three weeks combined, two of which we covered on Wednesday. Today is for the other one, plus one comic left over from August. These came in with an order I made from the shop I most frequently buy from now, along with a lot of odds and ends. Which are my favorite kinds of orders to make. Last issue I needed of Weird World of Jack Staff, last issue I needed of Joe Kubert Presents, last few issues of the Len Kaminski Creeper series, majority of a couple of other brief series from late '90s/early 2000s Marvel.

Wynonna Earp #7, by Beau Smith (writer), Chris Evenhuis (artist), Jay Fotos (colorist), Christa Miesner (letterer) - Nothing against Evenhuis' cover, but I couldn't pass up Wynonna walking away smirking with her prize from the shooting gallery.

Wynonna demands some time off, so Agent Dolls gives her a week's vacation. Valdez asks to come along, and Wynonna lacking any wheels of her own, agrees. They lend a hand to a lady who then offers to let them stay at her ranch. Meanwhile, the Del Rey Cartel is preparing to free its imprisoned members from the Black Badge division's custody.

It's mostly a set-up issue, putting pieces in place, both for the impending assault on the Black Badge compound, and whatever will end up happening at that ranch. It has to rely on the little flourishes to carry it, and there are enough of those. I appreciated the insights into Valdez' character. Not just the stuff about how she got her tattoo and its significance, but the fact she bought herself a jeep at some point in the past and has carefully maintained it ever since. Or the fact she's seen Thelma and Louise. Those sorts of things can say something about a character in a more natural way then long expository paragraphs.

There are times Smith tries too hard to be glib and it just comes off clunky. Valdez commenting about a holiday, then clarifying the vacation, not the cowboy, confused the heck out of me. And there's a point where Wynonna pistol whips a biker and tells him to "Heel!" but in the same breath explains she means the one with two e's, not the one with an "a" (heal). Throws me off because I snap out of the story with how awkward it is. Some of the one-liners land. Valdez has a good one about cholesterol, like bullets, has little effect on her. I laughed at that. So other than those brief hiccups, the dialogue is smooth, he advances the plot some, there's some silly moments since this is supposed to be a fun road trip story, it works.

Evenhuis and Fotos continue to do a solid job on the art. There's a part on the first page where, as Wynonna is reminding Dolls (and us) of everything she's gone through, the panels are set up so that as she mentions Valdez, we see her at the bar in the background, but in the next panel, as she mentions Doc Holliday, Wynonna has begun to pace the room and so she's moved a bit, revealing Holliday was at the bar next to Valdez, but blocked from view in the first panel. Nothing particularly special about it, but I like how it's providing the information needed as needed, and Wynonna's pacing and gesturing felt natural, given how excitable she can get.

There's also the one-page flashback that tells how Valdez earned her tattoos. Fotos shifts from the mostly light, pleasant and bright colors used through the issue, to these deep reds and oranges. Appropriate for a page about a war that took place ages ago. The color scheme put me in mind of how Apokolips was presented in the '90s Superman cartoon, if that helps. And Evenhuis goes much heavier on the inks on that page, making for much starker shadows than normal. The first panel actually made me think of Mike Mignola, in how much shadows are used to suggest facial features. It's very effective for how much it stands out in the issue.

Atomic Robo: The Temple of Od #2, by Brian Clevinger (writer), Scott Wegener (artist), Anthony Clark (colorist), Jeff Powell (letterer/designer) - Robo, straighten out your helmet and goggles! Try to be knocked senseless with a little dignity!

So Robo and Helen are captured and taken to the secret research base. That's one way to get inside. Fortunately, the Ghost Bandits see an opportunity for massive profit and stage a surprise attack. Of course, they're the ones surprised once they encounter the Odic Force-powered Japanese soldiers, but it serves as a chance for Robo and Helen to elude their captors and find Dr. Lu. They find him, they escape, despite the doctor's pleas they destroy the lab first. The lab which contains a "reactor", which Lieutenant Ichiro claims is not a weapon at all. But Lu sure seems certain Japan will use what's in the lab to create hundreds of super-powered soldiers.

"One raid, three fortunes" is how the leader of the Ghost Bandits sells his men on the attack, and that is a pretty great rallying cry. I also liked his assessment during the battle: 'We're losing too many trucks. Also my hat. Retreat!' Hats are important. And Wegener draws them as having this cobbled together trucks with machine guns attached to the top and skulls painted on them, like a slightly more restrained Road Warrior gang or something. It's a good look.

The art is more variable than I can recall. There are some panels in the back half of this issue where Wegener goes very low on details for faces. Just a couple blank circles for eyes and maybe a couple lines to denote the mouth or nose. And then the page before or after, he'll have done some really excellent work. He and Anthony Clark combined for some of the best-looking stuff I've seen on Atomic Robo in this issue. There's one panel of Robo and Helen trapped under some rubble where the panel is very tight in one them and both the lighting effects and shadows (the light come from Robo's eyes), and the detail Wegener works into Helen's face are really outstanding.

There's also one panel that covers the progression of Robo fighting two of those super-soldiers simultaneously. Like there's four different snippets of the fight within a single panel, building up to the action in the next one. The work there is pretty detailed, nice uses of the green energy coming off their fists to guide the eye across the panel. I don't know if I've ever seen Wegener try that before in a fight scene. Maybe the more detailed pages put him behind schedule and he had to skimp a little on other pages.

Project Seven Alpha - Leland Shanle

Project Seven Alpha is story that uses the attempts by the U.S. Army air Force to keep forces in China going by flying in supplies over the Himalayas via converted DC-3 commercial airliners, flown by American Airlines pilots, operating out of Burma. That part really happened, and was critical as the Japanese forces swept down through Southeast Asia and took control of the seas and skies, meaning Burma, and later India, were the only paths in.

Shanle tries to work the story through the two top officers of the group of pilots, J.T. and Charles Henry, both of them World War I fighter pilots, both of whom struggle with the return to combat, and the danger the men under their command are facing. For Charles it's even more acute, since his son also volunteered and is normally his co-pilot. Nothing too ground-breaking there. The story even has the requisite section where the crews get some R&R and crash a stuffy Governor's Ball.

Shanle's a retired Navy aviator, and a current airline pilot, so he knows his stuff about flying, and works in a lot of technical detail about keys to flying in formation, or how to throttle the engines properly. Unfortunately, at times he overdoes it a bit and it kind of sucks the life from the narrative. One of the DC-3s is jumped by a Zero, but due to the cargo pilot's greater experience, he's able to elude the fighter until its pilot overreaches and crashes. But Shanle is busy explaining about the drag on the wing in tight, low-speed turns, and angles of approach, and it saps the scene of any suspense.

What I Bought 9/21/16

I managed to pick up a couple of books last week. Not everything I needed, but the rest will be here later in the week. Course, it all adds up to a measly 4 books. Everything waited until this week to come out.

Deadpool #18, by Gerry Duggan (writer), Mike Hawthorne and Brian Level (pencilers), Terry Pallot (inker), Jordie Bellaire and Rochelle Rosenberg (colorists) - People lining up to injure Wade, something everyone can get behind, event he people who don't like Deadpool. Actually, those folks are probably trying to figure out where that line is.

Wade and Shiklah have a big knockdown, drag out fight over their relationship, all the way from Shiklah's bedchambers to the street. The fight brings out a lot of the problems in their marriage that were readily apparent from the start. Like how marrying the first guy you see after being asleep for thousands of years possibly isn't a good idea. And that Deadpool is not a reliable partner. But it's unclear if things are over or not. Even Wade can't figure it out, so he goes to the remains of his Avengers' teams HQ, which was also his cool building with the speakeasy in it. Runs into Rogue there, and takes her to see Eleanor. Explains his daughter is a mutant, and Rogue promises the kid will have her in her corner. Meanwhile, Madcap is still putting things together for his plan.

The thing I finally realized this issue is that Duggan and Hawthorne are having Wade get into a fight every issue of this tie-in, but they're all pointless, unnecessary fights. He and T'Challa didn't need to fight; Wade hadn't hurt Ulysses and he was leaving. Wade and the Mercs should have focused on getting out of the vault instead of killing each other, and definitely shouldn't have continued the fight while cops showed up. Wade couldn't pay them, so just let them leave. And then after all the fighting, they have to ride the same train home. Now this fight with Shiklah, which I don't know what's going to happen. It's all stupid fighting for no purpose, which is pretty much Civil War II in a nutshell. Bravo, Deadpool creative team.

I didn't enjoy this fight as much as the previous couple. It isn't badly drawn, Hawthorne's still doing good work, but it doesn't have as many clever bits to it as the previous fight. That and I was sad to see a married couple having a falling out. Why won't Marvel let any characters stay married?! Still, there were a couple of parts I enjoyed. The expressions Wade has on the page where the fight ends, first when Shiklah proposes they go back to bed, the one with a wolfman minus a head in it. that's a bit weird even for Deadpool (and it confirms Jack Russell won't stay dead, if you're one of his 4 fans). And the expression in the last panel on the page, as he declines. He just looks so sad and tired, which is never a good sign when it comes to Wade. Then the part in the subway when Wade thinks Shiklah is threatening his loved ones and flips out for a minute. And the fact she immediately recognizes why he flipped out, and even raises the possibility it wasn't simply poor phrasing. That was a little chilling.

Brian Level takes over art chores halfway through. There's just a bit of a shift in how Wade's drawn that I mostly notice around his mask, the lines on it not being as defined as usual, or the shape being slightly different, that makes me think that. Otherwise it's a pretty smooth transition, and I don't know if that's due to Level shaping his style to mimic Hawthorne's, or if Terry Pallot's inks are doing it. The colors shift somewhat, Wade's costume seems brighter than in the earlier pages, but otherwise, it's a smooth transition. There are times Level really nails some of the body language Hawthorne typically gives Wade. The pose Deadpool makes when he tries to lean against Rogue's closet door, for example.

I gotta say, I still hate Civil War II, but this has been a solid tie-in. Definitely the best one I've seen by Gerry Duggan over his time writing Deadpool.

Patsy Walker, aka Hellcat #10, by Kate Leth (writer), Brittney L. Williams (artist), Megan Wilson (colorist), Clayton Cowles (letterer) - Why the heck are Boomerang and Shocker there? Nothing better to do than watch exes arm wrestle in a bar?

Daimon dumped Patsy into the hands of Belial, a lord of lies. And this wasn't Daimon actually trying to help Patsy, he really did get duped by Hedy. Maybe that hellfire on his head is cooking his brain. Belial tries to get Patsy to buy into embracing her rage and taking control of her full power and cutting loose, which does sound fun, but Patsy is uninterested. She gets Belial to bring her back to earth by daring him to prove he has powers somewhere outside Hell, at which point Jubilee breaks his face, and Daimon banishes him. Then the boys apologize and the day is saved, while the Black Cat prepares to get Hellcat out of her way.

But Felicia, I'm pretty sure Patsy was Hellcat before you showed up in comics, and I know Greer Grant was wearing that costume as the Cat before you came along. So they can't really be biting your style, can they? That's not even getting into the fact her costume is yellow and blue, and yours is black with a little white fringe. That's like saying iron First is biting the Hulk's style because they both have green in their color palettes. So becoming a crime boss hasn't made Felicia smarter, clearly.

I've been trying to figure out what seems so different about Williams' art in the scene in Belial's realm. Some of it is Wilson's colors, I'm sure. Things seem more washed out. The colors are lighter, but not as rich. But it seems like Williams isn't doing any shading around the characters. What I mean is, in places where Patsy's hair should be casting a shadow across her face, it doesn't. It's as though everything lacks a certain level of detail, because it's just a surface illusion. Belial is going with easy, obvious stuff, the simple conclusions someone could draw if they wanted to to make a person feel bad, without looking at the deeper levels of who people are and why they do stuff.

Or it could be Williams is trying to use a style more similar to what would have been in those books starring Patsy and her friends from back in the day. Some of the peculiar background effects, like how the shadows in her mom's hospital room are a lot of narrow black lines, close together. Or the static on TV backdrops that appear a couple of times. Those seem like techniques more common to much older comics, and so maybe Williams and Wilson are trying to put things in that style.

The Man Who Didn't Shoot Hitler - David Johnson

The story is that Hitler claimed to Neville Chamberlain when they met in Munich, that during World War I he had been part of a German unit under fire from British soldiers, and while the Germans, including Hitler fell back, a British soldier could have shot him, but did not. And Hitler had a copy of a painting by Matania hanging in a room where they met depiciting the Green Howards (a British unit) in combat, and pointed to a soldier in the front, claiming that was the man who spared his life. That man just so happened to be Henry Tandey VC, the most decorated British private soldier of the war.

As it turns out, the story is probably completely bunk. Hitler generally seems to be referring to the battle during which Tandey received the Victoria Cross, among other honors (in fact, he got a certificate explaining he wouldn't receive any further medals for bravery because there weren't any left to give him), but a) that battle was in 1918, and the painting is of a battle from 1914, b) as far as Johnson can discern Hitler probably wasn't even with his unit at the time of that battle, and if he was, they were 50 miles away, and c) Hitler was a regimental dispatch runner and wouldn't have been close to the front lines anyway. Oh, and the version of Tandey in the painting apparently bears no resemblance to the actual person.

Johnson saves the discussion of this legend, the theories on how and why it came about, and how Tandey responded to it (mostly dismissing it by remarking he didn't remember seeing anyone like Hitler, though his response varied some over the decades) for the end of the book. The first three-quarters are devoted to the rest of Tandey's life, as best as Johnson can reconstruct it. He doesn't have much to go on, as Tandey was fairly private, and only sporadically close to his family. It's especially notable in the chapter on World War I, as Johnson has no diary or letters home to work from, only a couple of times where Tandey has written something or been interviewed that was featured in a newspaper. Beyond that, he discusses the general life of frontline infantry during the war, and draws inferences from there. Which seems a little dodgy, when he's quoting from other soldiers letters home as to how soldiers felt about the possibility of death, and then musing on Tandey's based on this.

He does discuss Hitler's upbringing a bit, as a compare/contrast to Tandey's, which he continues through the Great War. What's interesting in that part, though, is where he points out the revisions Hitler made to his wartime experiences, versus what the surviving records suggest is more accurate. this also helps establish a basic timeline where he can look for other points in the war when the two could have possibly crossed paths so Tandey could unwittingly spare him.

Ultimately, I think the fact Tandey is such a private person works heavily against the book. There isn't much to work with, because he isn't the kind of person to write volumes of correspondence (or the people he sent it to didn't care enough to keep it), so a lot of the book is guesswork and supposition. Which makes it harder to be drawn into the sections about Tandey's life, which made it harder to stick around until Johnson got to the hook of the book. Fortunately it's only about 170 pages, so you can still reach that section quickly enough.

'Henry may also have resorted to another much-used method of lice control, involving running his fingernail through the seams of his clothing. The lice were referred to as 'chats' and their removal became known as 'chatting' - the men would sit together 'chatting'.'