Readings in Wildlife Conservation

A title like that can really get you excited, right? I found this used in a bookstore two months ago. It was a collection of essays on different aspects of conservation, compiled by The Wildlife Society from several sources, in 1974. Considering none of the essays are from more recently than 1971, and several are from the 1930s, a lot of it is out of date, but they covered a lot of bases here. And it's interesting to see what people predicted would happen over time, or what areas they felt needed greater focus, viewed from several decades on. Also, it's strange to read essays having to patiently explain carrying capacity and how it isn't a static thing in a habitat, considering that was an extremely basic idea they taught early on in my biology studies. I know it had to start somewhere as a new concept people struggled to grasp, it's just odd to see it in writing.

It isn't only research into different types of management on geese or elk. There's a lengthy section on economics, several of which address trying to determine the value of wildlife for things other than hunting or timber harvest. What's the monetary value of people being able to go to a park and watch birds? Because if you're going to argue for places like that to exist, you're probably going to have to make at least part of the pitch based on dollars.

The are other sections devoted to public relations - hey, I got into wildlife biology so I could be out in nature and not have to deal with the public! The old bait and switch. As well as policy, law enforcement, and the first section is titled "Perspectives". It deals largely with how people think about wildlife, nature, and conservation, as well as how the various authors think people ought to be thinking about those things, and how we need to get them to do so. There's even two short essays in there by Dr. Albert Schweitzer, one titled "Reverence for life" and the other "A Problem of ethics".

Given the ranging topics, it's a mixed bag in how readable or useful I found it. Some of the pieces were terribly dull and I skimmed past them. There are several where the author decries all these other people who just don't get it the way he does. Pretty much all of Aldo Leopold's writing is like that. Everyone else is screwing everything up, and why don't they get it that they should do things the way he thinks they should? Although in a piece on wildlife management in national parks, he uses the phrase, 'Fed bears become bums,' which made me laugh picturing bears riding the rails, bindle full of beans (or honey and fish) over their shoulder.

Still, as a snapshot of what people working in wildlife conservation thought was important and needed to be on the minds of others in their field, it was an interesting find.

'Science has been trying for a generation to classify hawks and owls into 'good' and 'bad' species, the 'good' being those that do more economic good than harm. It seems to me a mistake to call the issue on economic grounds, even sound ones. The basic issues transcends economics. The basic question is whether a hawkless, owl-less countryside is a livable countryside for Americans with eyes to see and ears to hear. Hawks and owls are part of a land mechanism. Shall we discard them because they compete with game and poultry? Can we assume that these competitions which we perceive are more important than the co-operations which we do not perceive?'

What I Bought 6/27/2018

One thing I find frustrating about drawing is my brain continually pictures the things I want to draw from angles and perspectives I am not actually capable of drawing. The part coming up with ideas does not communicate with the part responsible for carrying out those ideas.

Ms. Marvel #31, by G. Willow Wilson, Saladin Ahmed, Rainbow Rowell, Hasan Minhaj (writers), Nico Leon, Gustavo Duarte, Bob Quinn, Elmo Bondoc (artist), Ian Herring (color artist), Joe Caramagna (letterer) - Striped pants is an interesting look. I guess if you can make it work for you.

Kamala's sleepover with Nakia, Zoe, and Mike is interrupted by several things requiring Ms. Marvel's attention, which makes Kamala increasingly frustrated. So she decides to just come clean and reveal her secret identity to her friends. Who admit they already knew, because she's not good at maintaining a secret identity. Ouch.

I'm a little disappointed by the dull thud of "Yeah, we already knew you were a superhero," if only because Kamala's been intermittently stressing over keeping secrets from Nakia since her earliest issues. It doesn't feel like a great payoff for what seemed to be played up as such a big decision for Kamala. I suppose it's part of her personality to stress out over things too much. See also her recent freakout over kissing Red Dagger. The alternative was probably a lot of melodrama of her friends freaking out over being kept in the dark. So this is probably better.

The distractions - each of which is written and drawn by a different art team - are a mixed bag. Lockjaw's arrival is funny, if a bit random. Duarte's art is a different style than the book normally sees, closer to Skottie Young than Alphona or Nico Leon's. But it works for the more silly, madcap aspect of his section. Ian Herring goes with a much different color palette than he normally does, to the point I wondered if he even did the color work for those pages. Then Herring switches to a more faded color scheme for Elmo Bondoc's pages, closer to what Herring used when Adrian Alphona was still drawing the book. Bondoc's art is a little shaky, Miles Morales' head is oddly shaped in more than a few panels. Bob Quinn's was probably closest to Nico Leon's; the linework is heavier, he doesn't showcase that knack for a simplified style for more humorous effect Leon has, but the scene didn't call for it.

As special 50th issues go, this one was solidly fine.

Infinity Countdown: Darkhawk #3, by Chad Bowers and Chris Sims (writers), Gang Hyuk Lim (artist), Travis Lanham (letterer) - Not sure why Evil PhoenixHawk stole the fur trim from Kraven the Hunter's vest, but wannabe cosmic beings are odd like that.

I figured it's only two more issues, might as well stick around for the finish. The spirit of Powell's suit returns to explain the true origin of all those amulets, which involves the Elders of the Universe. The point to all this is to make Powell embrace the true potential of the power he has, somehow, pull himself together, and pursue the other Raptors before they get to Earth. Death's Head is still alive and tagging along, figuring there'll be a big bounty for a giant space bird. Good luck with that.

So much for my prediction on how the story was going to go. I figured Powell's "pattern" was lurking inside the amulet ripped from Darkhawk's chest, and he would be stirred to seize control from Robbie Rider when they attack New York, because the invaders always head for New York, and he sees his fiance running for her life. Darkhawk unlocking true potential and summoning a Darkhawk Gundam was not something I expected.

So in addition to try to connect Darkhawk to the Phoenix, know we're tying his origin to one of the Elders of the Universe. And how did the Primitive Skrull and Shi'ar find their way to Null Space, or the Darkforce Dimension, whichever? This is a lot of needless complication, and it's also resulting in a lot of exposition in this 4-issue mini-series. I like that the Kree Commander briefly mentions they've run into trouble hunting for Infinity Stones, since you could be forgiven for wondering what the hell any of this mini-series has to do with that.

I was going to say Lim drew the Skrulls without wrinkly chins, but I guess we could argue this was far enough back they hadn't evolved that feature. The Shi'ar are almost entirely covered with feathers at this stage, so it's a while ago. There's a few panels in here I can't tell what Lim's going for. On the page where the first Raptor appears, he looks at the other Shi'ar in one panel, then at a bare patch of ground at his feet, then at his arm, then the Skrulls. What's he looking at in the second panel? If it's his feet, then angle needs to be different. We also can't see his head at all, so we can't even try to gauge by an expression. There are a couple others like that, where a different view, or pulling further back might have clarified things. On the other hand, the full-page splash of the Anti-Phoenix looked pretty cool, as enormous birds made of space go.

Sunday Splash Page #24

"Thanks, Captain Buzzkill", in Amethyst (vol. 3) #2, by Keith Giffen (story) and Mindy Newell (script/story), Esteban Maroto (artist), John Costanza (letterer)

After the second volume concluded with issue 16, there was a Special, where Amethyst faced down a particularly irritating Lord of Chaos for the fate of Gemworld. Then this four-issue mini-series, set decades later. The Chaos Lords try again, and Amethyst has to come out of the substance of the world to face them down. It's a natural story to do, since the whole Order vs. Chaos thing is an ongoing struggle.

The part that annoys me is that young fool, who ended up helping Chaos, turns out to be Mordru, the JSA and Legion of Superheroes enemy. Now you know the rest of the story. Or where to find the rest of his story. If that's something that interests you, it doesn't mean much to me.

Amethyst herself is quite different. Older, more confident. There's not really a moment where I thought she was at any risk of losing. She also feels more detached. She's been part of this world and its inhabitants, which has given a certain sense of ownership. Like she isn't fighting or punishing Mordru because she's angry that he hurt and killed people, but because he hurt her stuff. Like someone came to your house and smashed your lawn ornaments. It's also a development that makes sense - she's a Lord of Order now, living on a different plane of existence in her perceptions - but I don't know that it was an improvement.

What I Bought 6/23/2018 - Part 2

For the other book I was looking for from two weeks ago, I have a special bonus. Because I also found the first issue, which I missed when it was initially released in May. Hooray!

Coda #1 and 2, by Simon Spurrier (writer), Matias Bergara (artist), Michael Doig (color assists), Colin Bell (letterer) - For issue #1, I wound up with the Jae Lee cover, who is not one of my favorite artists. The man simply will not draw backgrounds. The characters exist in some bizarre fog world.

The main character, who merely responds "Hm" when asked his name, is a former bard trying to get enough of a magical substance to barter with a mermaid queen for a weapon that will let him rescue his love from a horde of warrior, orc, troll things. The world they live in is either slowly dying, or slowly changing, after one of those Dark Lord types succeeded in destroying everything. Thus, the magic substance is scarce. Hm thought he'd found a source, but couldn't get to it. Now the town that has it is about to be attacked by an entire city of bandits being towed by the final giant in the world.

I read a comment last month somewhere - probably on Wait, What? - where someone said they weren't digging this, because they felt Spurrier had done a much better job building a world that felt fully realized in Spire. I can't argue with that, Spire was good. I think his goal with the two stories is different. Here, he's playing on our familiarity with the genre conventions of the whole Tolkein style sword and sorcery stuff, and making it post-apocalyptic. He can use some shorthand about the world because we already have a general idea of what these worlds are like normally. Coda is what happens if the Ring doesn't get thrown back into Mount Doom, or insert the fantasy world disaster of your choice. It lets Spurrier and Bergara have some fun showing what's become of the different types of characters one might encounter, of how people get by. It's working for me so far.

Bergara's art keeps reminding me of something, but I can't place it. He has a light pencil line, mostly for Hm (with other characters, the linework seems heavier). Maybe it's just because Hm is so quiet most of the time, disinterested in most of what's happening. He's focused on his one goal, and whatever the rest of the people are scrambling for is of no interest. Bergara uses shadow effectively to suggest detail and mood. He can go simple when he needs to exaggerate for effect, or detailed when he wants to really show off a location. The pacing is good - the appearance of the bard's steed was an attention-getter - and the few fight scenes have a good flow from one panel to the next.

With the colors, the remnants of the old world tend to be much brighter and more vivid. The green of the acker, or the lights in the illusion the senile old wizard is casting without realizing it. When those fade, or the characters step into another room, everything is that much duller. Hm's clothes, the walls and buildings, they all pale in comparison. Because people won't let go of what's lost, and tend to buff out the inconvenient aspects of the past, remembering only what suits their narratives.

Hm may very well be guilty of the same thing. The bandit, Notch, certainly thinks so, but there could be reasons why Hm's hope is justified. I want to see what happens, where this goes. Hm is going to have to get between that giant-propelled bandit fortress and the town with all the magic stuff. How he's going to go about it, and how involved he intends to get, I don't know. He said he thinks underdogs are the ones who need to be thrown a bone, but that doesn't mean he'll be the one to do it. Although the city is going to be better defended than the bandits are expecting thanks to him, so maybe he did them a solid already.

Fighting and Frustration As Usual

I found a copy of Marvel vs. Capcom 2 for the XBox somewhere a couple of years ago. I tried it briefly and did horribly, then put it aside until recently. I'm still not any good at it, worse than I was at Marvel vs. Capcom 3, actually. MvC 2 is a 3 vs. 3 fighting game, where you can switch between members of your team at will, or call the ones on the sideline in to perform assist moves, pretty much all the time. I looked for an option to increase the time before you could call in for an assist again, but there was no way to do that. Too bad; sometimes the computer spams the hell out of that. The assist character has barely leapt off-screen before they come barreling back in.

The problem for is, I'd rather it was a 1 vs. 1 fighting game, like Street Fighter. Failing that, more of a free-for-all melee, where all members of both teams are out there at once. Not sure how I would control three characters simultaneously, but maybe that's a multiplayer option, like Super Smash Bros. Then you could try and have one team member hang back, either to recover health or just to keep in reserve, but they might still have to defend themselves. It's really annoying when the computer manages to withdraw a character I've almost knocked out and throw in someone rested.

I'll use that trick when I can, and sometimes I spam assist attacks too, when it feels like my only chance. Although if I've gotten to that point, I'm probably too far gone to pull off a win. I'd like to win. But it isn't really how I like to play.

All that said, when I can actually just fight one character against another, the controls pretty smooth. I put them on the easy setting, so it's not as complicated to do special moves. I'm glad they include that option. As with most fighting game, I try to use all the characters. My Top 20 scores involve 35 of the 56 characters at least once. I tend to do better with characters I'd describe as having good speed, and average ability to deal and take damage. Or maybe those are just the ones I like playing as the most. I can get by with other characters - the description in the previous sentence doesn't match the Hulk, and he's part of 5 of those top 20 scores - but I feel like I'm working against the character's strengths when I do. Getting lucky, or winning in spite of myself.

The character I hate fighting against the most varies. Sakura seems to block everything; I have a lot more trouble beating her than I do Ryu or Ken, who are, in their universe, supposed to be much further along as fighters than she is. Wolverine is set to be so ridiculously fast it's just frustrating. Fortunately, he has a glass jaw, so if I can hit him, he'll drop pretty fast. I know, that doesn't make any sense to me either. Also, they included two Wolverines, one with Adamantium and one without. That seems unnecessary. Iron Man and War Machine both have attacks that frustrate my tendency to jump towards the opponent (I can't seem to get Dashing forward to work well for me). Omega Red's reach get old after a while. Especially when he jumps so you're below him and aren't visible on the screen, then he grabs you and tosses you around. That's not cheap or anything.

The graphics aren't as good as on MvC 3, obviously, but I actually prefer the art style. The later game was more of a CGI style, while this is based off Joe Madureira's art style, I think. It's a little more fluid than the later game's look, which I prefer. I would have been curious to see that game in this one's style. Yeah, I just looked for Joe Mad drawings of Rocket Raccoon and I think that would have looked pretty cool.

The character selection dates the game a bit (I'm sure MvC 3's does as well). Lot fewer X-Men in the later game, while this one is full of them and related characters. You have Wolverine(s), Rogue, Psylocke, Cyclops, Storm. But they also threw in Cable (who is probably disappointed Iron Man brought a bigger gun), Iceman (who I do surprisingly well with), and Marrow. I picked up some post-Onslaught, pre-Grant Morrison X-Men comics last winter, so I remember when they were trying to make Marrow kind of a next wave of X-Men. Still, it's strange to see her in a big licensed fighting game. She wasn't even a character you had to unlock, she was available right from the start. Of course they also threw in Silver Samurai and Spiral, not to mention Blackheart from the Nocenti/Romita Jr. Daredevil run. I know some of these had been in earlier Capcom fighting games, Marvel Super-Heroes, or X-Men vs. Street Fighter, so it isn't a surprise they carried over. Although a lot of them didn't make it to MvC 3.

The game is set up so you get points for playing it. The more rounds and the better your score, the more points you earn. The points are what you use to unlock other characters, artwork, alternate color schemes for the costumes. Trying to get hose last two is what made me hit burn out. Every time you purchase one a gallery, the next one costs a little more. So it takes a little more playing to get enough points to get the next one, a little for the one after that, and so on. Which turned into a grind for no good purpose.

I don't know what the story is exactly. The instruction manual doesn't tell you anything. Some big threat endangering both worlds, I guess. The final boss has three different forms. You beat one, then the next, then the final form. Your characters don't recuperate between those fights, and if one gets knocked out, they're done for the remainder. If I can make it past the second form, I usually do pretty well at winning the whole thing. But the second form takes a toll.

What I Bought 6/23/2018 - Part 1

There wasn't a single comic I wanted that came out last week. I did, however, find all the comics I was still looking for from the week before on a weekend jaunt. So let's look at those instead.

Copperhead #19, by Scott Godlewski (writer/artist), Jay Faerber (writer), Ron Riley (colorist), Thomas Mauer (letterer) - The cover and the final page of the issue mirror each other effectively.

The thing unearthed in the last issue looks like a glowing blue rock. It glows the same color as some antennae on the back of the native species heads. Except the antennae are actually parasites, and the native species are suddenly being very aggressive in approaching the town. Hickory's bosses are excited and pushy, but the artificial humans have a plan of their own, involving some group they belong to, indicated by a tattoo. The sheriff and the Mayor are trying to figure out what Hickory is up to, and Clara is trying to reconnect with Zeke, who is struggling to process that Clara isn't his birth mother, that she killed his mother.

A lot of plates spinning, which, since this is supposedly the last arc, makes a certain amount of sense. If there's going to be any resolution or payoff, it has to happen now. Be interesting to see if Faerber and Godlewski can pull it off, or if they're even planning to do that.

Scott Godlewski, who was artist for the first 10 issues, is back. There's a marked increase in the consistency of characters' sizes and proportions. Budroxificus looks suitably large, even when he isn't drawn to be intimidating. Sheriff Bronson is working with him, and Mister Hickory thinks he's got Boo wrapped around his finger, so neither is intimidated by him, and he isn't drawn in a way that suggests they are. No towering over them imposingly. But he still fills panels, because he's a big Cypabaran (which I just now realize is rearranging "capybara" and that's what he's based on).

Stellar #1, by Joseph Keatinge (writer), Bret Blevins (artist), Rus Wooten (letterer) - That's one way to kill a giant space monster. If only the pilot had buckled his safety belt first. . .

The series, so far, is taking place on a single world devastated in some major war that spread across the galaxy. Civilization hasn't collapsed entirely, but things are in flux, and a lot of people are struggling. The main character, named Stellar, was a super-soldier designed to win the war, and opted to go a different way at some point. Which put her in conflict with others like her. Or she's still in conflict with them. Time may also be unraveling, things are jumping around, so that I'm not always sure how we got from Point A to Point B. Or Stellar is hallucinating on that last page.

Blevins brings an interesting visual approach. It's the ruins of all those 1950s sci-fi pulp covers. The spaceship spaceships, the remains of giant robots and big statues like I remember from the covers of some version of Asimov's Foundation books. It takes something that the reader has some past visual reference for, and shows it as dead, maybe to give a scope of the destruction, or the level of fall from the heights they once were. Blevins is doing the color work as well, and in the flashback sequences, everything is dominated by yellows and oranges, vivid colors. In almost every one of those panels and pages, people are being vaporized, incinerated, or are being presented with the threat of those fates.

The rest of the book is done in cool, blunted shades. Even when it's showing some alien arthropods devouring the remains of some dead giant, the viscera is dull reddish-purple. Stellar wears a monk's robe and hood, concealing the old outfit she still wears underneath. Her face is more lined around the eyes - almost like Blevins made certain some of his initial sketch lines would show through as strain or sleeplessness - and she's paler. On the last page, when it looks as though the battle is starting up again, the oranges and yellows haven't returned, which is why I suspect it's a hallucination, or echo of the actual battle, long finished.

I don't entirely know what is going on, or where Keatinge and Blevins plan to go with it, but I'm intrigued.

In Tasmania - Nicholas Shakespeare

The book starts with Nicholas Shakespeare, having moved to Tasmania from England with his wife not too long ago, learning there's another N. Shakespeare in Tasmania. They live near one of the original European settlements, York Town, when leads Nicholas into talking about Anthony Fenn Kemp, sometimes called the Father of Tasmania (white Tasmania, obviously), who he had recently learned he was related to on his father's side. And it turned out he had relatives in Tasmania on his mother's side as well. And through those bloodlines, he discusses the history of Tasmania from the recorded arrival of Europeans, diverging onto chapters about other people as they become relevant.

As with any book about another person's lineage, some parts will be more interesting than others. I got hopelessly lost trying to keep track of who was related to who by the time I was halfway through the book. And some of it simply wasn't of interest to me. The two sisters that represent the connection on his mother's side I found dull.

In contrast, he spends the middle of the book discussing the fate of the Aborigines that were present on the island when Europeans showed up. That the last Aborigine was believed to die decades ago, but people have, since the 1970s, started to recognize and acknowledge that many people on the island have an Aboriginal ancestor. Which has led to a lot of debate about who can and can't claim that heritage.

The parts about the natural features of the island, and some of the wildlife were extremely interesting to me. But I have another book sitting next to the couch to delve into those topics. Right near the end, he mentions there was a surge in Chinese immigration to the island in the mid-to-late 1800s, due to the presence of tin, which could be mined. That there are the remnants of old homes and shacks in the woods, some of which are still being found. That was something I might want to read more about. Or Jorgen Jorgenson, who came to Tasmania after a (very) brief stint as King of Iceland.

'In the north-west I had come across the hamlets of Paradise and Nowhere Else - after the comment of an early settler who, whenever he saw people cross his property, would tell them they had proceeded far enough. "The track," said Charles Ivory gruffly, "leads nowhere else." And yet the landscape had fought back. I found myself making a list of those who had presumed to rename it:

Tasman - d. in disgrace; Baudin - d. in Mauritius of dysentery; Flinders - d. on the day his Terra Australis was printed; Schouten - allegedly stoned to death; Hellyer - committed suicide; Lorymer - drowned while surveying the north-west coast with Jorgenson; Jorgenson - d. in ditch.'

Fall Isn't Off To A Great Start

In terms of new stuff I'm looking forward to, September's solicitations were real slim. There's a collection called Mooncop by Tom Gauld, coming out through Drawn & Quarterly. Sounds quiet and introspective, but could be cool.

Yeah, that was about it for new stuff. In titles I'll still be buying, there's Seeds, Giant Days, Coda, and Stellar from non-Marvel publishers. I found the first two issues of Coda, and the first issue of Stellar this weekend, and I feel pretty sure I'll still be buying both in September.

Having said that, I hope neither book does something so awful I drop them out of disgust in the next three months. That would be awkward. I already feel a little embarrassed I was so excited for Bubba Ho-Tep and the Cosmic Blood Suckers, and the first issue did not impress. That it was two months late, and they've gone and missed this month as well, isn't helping. Actually, I'm expecting two, maybe three other books to ship in September that were supposed to be done by then, but have run into delays. So that'll pick things up a bit.

At Marvel, nothing much changes. Ms. Marvel is fighting Shocker. He's always good as a one-off villain. And I recall that Kamala's vulnerable to shocks. Granted, that's electricity and he works off vibrations, but maybe it'll result in similar problems. Squirrel Girl's trying an all-silent issue. I wonder if the jokey comments at the bottom of the page will be silent as well? It could work - I remember enjoying a couple of the books from the "Nuff Said" month Marvel did in late 2001. Domino is wrapping up its opening arc, and there's also an annual, which I'm most likely skipping. the Multiple Man mini-series is in its penultimate issue.

Oh, they're doing a collection of the complete run of Chuck Dixon and Eduardo Barreto's Marvel Knights! Which. . . I already have in single issues, but might be relevant to some of your interests!

They're also releasing the final one of this series of one-shots that are really a mini-series about a Squirrel Girl and Ms. Marvel team-up in September. Now each one-shot is selling at 5 bucks a pop. They solicited the collection of all 5 of them this month (to be released in November) for $10 total. Suddenly, all interest in buying the single issues evaporated. Are they really expecting sales figures that high for the single issues? Why am I assuming Marvel has any sort of plan at all?

Sunday Splash Page #23

"Burning Horsefeathers", in Amethyst (vol. 2) #12, by Mindy Newell (writer), Colleen Doran (penciler), Karl Kesel (inker), Carl Gafford (colorist), Agustin Mas (letterer)

After the 12-issue mini-series concluded, there was an Annual that finished the war against Dark Opal. Then the following year, this ongoing started. Having defeated Dark Opal, and with relative peace restored to Gemworld, Amethyst of course encounters new problems. Other old threats reemerge. Her parents' marriage begins to dissolve. Some of the kingdoms experience movements against monarchies. Amy continues struggles with the responsibilities of being the person everyone else looks to and expects things of. She has the notion, as a lot of kids would, that being the boss means getting your way. That's not how it goes, on any level, resulting in her repeatedly fleeing Gemworld to Earth, only to be drawn back for one reason or another.

In the middle of all this, Crisis on the Infinite Earths. In DC's desire to "simplify" their fictional universe, Amethyst learns that Everything She Knew Was Wrong. Gemworld can't simply be its own strange little magic world, it has to be tied into the same Order vs. Chaos stuff as Dr. Fate, and the same goes for Amethyst. 

I don't know if it was done because of an edict from on high that Everything Must Fit Together Now, or the creative team did it themselves to try and keep the book going. I don't think it did the book any favors.

Giant Days Volume 5

I'm surprised that panel of Daisy's reminder to Esther hasn't gone viral. It feels like the kind of thing people would post on tumblr after reading someone posting utterly ignorant nonsense. Trump manages to go five minutes without actively shitting himself, someone posts about how he's "figuring it out", or "pivoting", you post that panel.

Anyway, Volume 5 cover issues 17-20, and as usual, John Allison and Max Sarin, with Liz Fleming (inker), Whitney Cogar (colorist), and Jim Campbell (letterer), keep a lot of threads going. McGraw's dating someone else after breaking up with Susan, and Susan is handling it poorly. Esther and Ed dupe themselves into helping Dean Thompson to sell other peoples' essays to students by modifying select phrases. Daisy has a miserable archaeology field trip due to an overbearing professor. That's all in #17. From there, they have an end-of-first-year dance party, attend a summer music festival, and move into their new, off-campus home. The latter prompts a trip to Ikea for furniture. I have never been to an Ikea, although I'm not sure where the closest one is.

The Internet tells me it's two hours to an Ikea store. That explains that. I'm sure as hell not driving to St. Louis or Kansas City just to buy furniture.

The jokes and good lines are flying in constantly, working beautifully with Sarin, Fleming, and Cogar's art. Every page has some facial expression, posture, visual gag, or detail that I enjoy looking at or get a chuckle from.

My college days were not at all like this, although I'm a largely solitary introvert, which probably explains that. But I kind of wish I had college adventures like these, even though I certainly would have hated them at the time. That's how most of my adventures with Alex go. I'm irritated by the drunks, noise, and crowds, but there always ends up being something memorable.

Thor: Ragnarok

I knew I'd get around to seeing it eventually. Just had to wait until it hit Netflix.

It's a very pretty movie, lots of bright colors. It was overbearing during the intro to the Grandmaster (Jeff Goldblum), but that was intentional. He's extravagant and really irritating, of course the pathway to him would be full of annoying AV work. Actually, I had a similar reaction to the theatrical "tribute" to Loki's sacrifice. No wonder those two got along so well. What a couple of hams.

It's funny, too, all the way through. Chris Hemsworth really does seem better suited to comedy than action hero stuff, physique to the contrary. I still wish his Thor would talk more smack. Maybe it would seem off, given how frequently he gets humiliated in this movie, and he was supposed to learn the whole "humility" thing in the first movie. But I kinda miss Thor bragging and talking shit, even when he's getting his butt kicked. Hemsworth and Hiddleston have good chemistry, where their characters have a certain likeable rhythm and get along, but can't bring themselves to entirely trust each other. Loki continues to not be half as clever as he thinks he is. Tessa Thompson's Valkyrie character is a lot of fun. It's nice to throw someone new into the mix to interact with these characters that are all familiar with each other.

Kind of bummed they offed the Warriors Three so casually. And no Jamie Alexander as Sif at all, kind of a bummer. Guess it's better than her being killed, since I don't expect these Asgardians to do the rebirth thing the way the ones in the comics do.

My brain continued its bizarre pattern of seeing Karl Urban and initially thinking he's Gerard Butler. I still don't know why I constantly get those two confused.

I think the constant humor works against the film in the same way it does in Deadpool 2. Not as badly as it does in that film, since Ragnarok isn't going for nonstop jokes. Banner realizing he lost two whole years of his life while Hulk had the wheel should probably be a bigger deal for him. But it's mostly jokes about his confusion, and how Bruce is not really suited for this situation. I kind of felt the same way about the surprise move to stop Hela at the end. It was a clever move; I figured when the movie used Surtur as a throwaway threat five minutes in that he was going to make a comeback later, but I didn't expect him to be used that way. But it still sort of felt like it was supposed to be funny? Maybe it was Cate Blanchett's "oh crap" look right before the end. Reminds me of the Coyote watching the boulder roll downhill towards him. Or Korg's big speech about home being rendered completely useless two seconds later, although you knew there was a punchline coming.

But the movie goes along at a nice clip, there's almost always something happening or being said to keep my interest. I enjoyed some of the musical choices. The big fight between Thor and Hulk was good. Not my favorite fight scene in a Marvel movie, but not bad at all. Taika Waititi seemed to have a clear idea of the kind of movie he wanted to make, and he mostly pulled it off.

The part where Hela represents Asgard's bloody imperialist past, which Odin subsequently tried to whitewash once he figured he'd conquered enough, that was good. Although I'd always thought it was just that there were 9 Realms, and the Asgardians lived in one of them, not that they ruled all 9. But movies and comics, not the same. We know Odin had warred against the Frost Giants before. He'd no doubt frame it as aggression by them, the Frost Giants being ungrateful for the blessings the Asgardians bestowed upon them. But it's not unlikely they were reacting to past aggression by him. Or maybe the Frost Giants were also a group bent on conquest, the Asgardians were just better at it.

Anyway, I enjoyed the movie. Easily my favorite of the Thor films, which is an admittedly low bar to clear. The movie having vibrant colors was going to give it a big advantage over the other two all by itself.

The Situation Has Not Improved

I was never a fan of the Fraternity of Raptors retcon to Darkhawk's origin. I'm not opposed to the concept of the Raptors themselves. "Secret group working behind the scenes to guide the course of the Shi'ar Empire" is fine. Adding in that they were out of commission for a long time and have reemerged with a kind of "What the fuck happened? We gotta this back on track attitude," attitude isn't a bad touch.

That doesn't mean it was necessary to link Darkhawk's origin to them. I definitely don't think tying him to the same cosmology as the Phoenix is necessary. One thing I enjoy about Marvel's cosmic setting is all the strange and disparate parts moving around out there in the same ballpark. That shared sandbox, all the different creators with different ways of thinking about things put their ideas in the same pot and they more or less coexist.

You got your various star-spanning empires, which are of course all hostile to each other. You have your embodiments of various cosmic concepts. You have your space police force guys. A living planet, complete with facial hair. A group of insane hobbyists who brag about being the last members of their respective species. An entire planet acting as an insane asylum, staffed by talking animals. Inscrutable space gods with heads shaped like coffee mugs. Space truckers, ebings made of pure energy, whatever stuff you want to pull from the '50s sci-fi/horror comics, on and on.

They don't have to be connected to each other. They can be, but it isn't necessary for them to interact. It's a big universe; there's plenty of room for unusual stuff to simply be its own thing. You can get a lot out of taking two characters or settings that occupy different niches and playing them off each other. The dynamics vary depending on what you're combining. Rocket Raccoon is going to interact with that space truck differently than Ronan the Accuser, and they're both going to respond differently to the Phoenix, or Galactus showing up on their doorstep.

Darkhawk's original origin was that the suit was one of five a interstellar gangster press-ganged some scientists into making for him. It's perhaps not the origin you'd expect for a strange amulet that lets you control a powerful suit of armor, but it's not a bad one. There are still criminals in space; they will want ways to deal with enemies or protect themselves from threats. Not all of them are going to go to the trouble of hiring Technet or Death's Head to do it for them. There are countless worlds in the Marvel Universe that have been inhabited, with their own ideas and technologies. Even if they're abandoned now, all their people dead and gone, the things they created might persist. They might be just drifting through space, and every so often, one is going to fall into someone else's hands.

And that's fine. They can just be their own thing, a reminder that there's all sorts of mysteries and secrets out there yet to be discovered. And they aren't always going to be connected to something we already know about.

Conflict

Mr. Mason (Humphrey Bogart) wants to kill his wife, because he's in love with her younger sister. He succeeds, and seems to have covered his bases. Unless, of course, Katherine (Rose Hobart) isn't dead. Maybe their good friend (Sydney Greenstreet) can help. Or maybe he won't.

You've seen this story before, where the murderer is gradually driven nuts by the fear the person they killed isn't actually dead. Watching it, the film gives a clear signal the moment Mason makes a mistake, and who recognizes it. After that, you know what's coming.

Which is fine, if the movie does it in an interesting way. And for the most part it does. It's an early noir film, so lots of long shadows and tight shots. There were a couple in particular that were very nicely done. When Katherine finds a parked car blocking the road and the camera slowly pans right to a figure in the trees, little more than a shadowy outline. There's another when Mason enters a pawn shop to find out what's up with a ticket he received in the mail. And probably several more besides that, but those are the two that stuck out the most.

It's not an essential film as noir or Bogart* movies go, but it's not bad at all.

* Bogart apparently hated filming it because a movie where a husband kills his wife was not the thing for him to be doing at a point when his marriage with his wife was falling apart. The movie was filmed in '43, held up in litigation and not released until '45 - by which time he'd married Lauren Bacall instead - and by then, the studio had him film another movie with basically the same plot but the details changed to try and avoid litigation. He only did that film because he really wanted to work with Barbara Stanwyck. The stuff the TCM people tell you about the movies are sometimes more interesting than the movies they're talking about.

What I Bought 6/13/2018 - Part 2

If I'm going to lose Internet and TV service for an entire weekend, it'd be nice for it to happen when the heat index wasn't going to be over 100. I only want to spend so much time reading or sleeping, you know?

Unbeatable Squirrel Girl #33, by Ryan North (writer), Derek Charm (artist), Rico Renzi (color artist), Travis Lanham (letterer) - I learned last week that apparently alligators can climb trees. I thought rattlesnakes hanging out in trees was terrifying.

The cast make their way through a series of puzzle rooms, dodging death narrowly, including the final room which requires a combination of all their abilities. I did not solve the puzzle in the two minutes. Like I know what a frickin' Enigma machine looks like. They enter the final room and meet the villain who is. . . Mojo II?!

I was actually right? Welp, the world is ending. Spend your kids' college funds on something fun now. Should I be concerned my brain was operating on the same wavelength as Ryan North's?

Mojo II is defeated by a power Tomas had been too embarrassed to admit to having, and a good time is had by all. Until the cops arrest Kraven, and the rest of the group when they protest.

Does the puzzle room thing work in a comic? You can do mysteries, detective stories, where there are clues to decipher. But if you're going to present it as something the audience can try to figure out, I think you have to be a little more clear about what's there. In a Batman comic, for instance, he'd find a clue and explain what he'd found to a convenient exposition sponge. Robin, Gordon, Alfred, etc. North and Charm tried that with the final puzzle, but I couldn't tell what the cords under the countdown clock were supposed to be. I thought they were strings or shoelaces.

It actually was enjoyable to show the cast figuring out the answer, though, so maybe my issue is all the puzzles they breezed through without really showing how they figured out what to do. It makes it feel perfunctory, which it sort of is. Something to fill some pages until the cops can try to arrest Kraven, as part of this story where Doreen and Nancy are trying to keep Kraven from backsliding into villainy. It's getting things in place.

I'm still adjusting to Charm's art. Getting used to his version of Nancy. Something about how he draws Doreen's teeth reminds me of some cartoon about tiny munchkin people from my childhood. Makes her kind of elfin, or pixie like. Otherwise, it's fine. I can follow along with what's happening, what characters are feeling. He's able to sell the humorous moments for the most part. Although I notice Doreen's gone back to her old Squirrel Girl uniform, with the brown jacket. I liked that outfit fine, so no complaints there, just wonder if that's going to be the case going forward, or if she'll use them both interchangeably. Like Spider-Man using the black costume and the red-and-blue.

Sunday Splash Page #22

"Go to School for Five Minutes and the Whole Magic Kingdom Goes to Hell" in Amethyst (vol. 1) #4, by Gary Cohn and Dan Mishkin (writers), Ernie Colon (artist), Tom Ziuko (colorist), John Costanza (letterer)

The various '80s Amethyst series were a major part of my back issue hunts this spring. They just sounded interesting, and it wasn't too many issues to track down. So I don't know anything about why the series came to be or anything like that. DC trying to appeal to a broader audience with a fantasy-based series starring a young female protagonist? That seems. . . remarkably unlike DC or Marvel to do something like that, but the '80s were a crazy time. We were just starting to realize we might not all die in nuclear fire! Anything was possible!

Amy Winston gets to play the child who finds out she has a special destiny, and is transported to a magical land - and also ages up a bit so she can have potential romances with handsome princes without said prince ending up on any federal databases - which she must save a from a dark and malevolent wizard. All the royal houses are based on birthstones, each tends to have certain areas of magic they're proficient in. There's a lot political maneuvering and backstabbing, Amy having to get some confidence, first in her powers, then in her ability to lead others in an uprising.

Ernie Colon with Tom Ziuko's color work, builds a world with a variety of realms, each with their own architecture and ambience. Topaz Keep is wildly different from Castle Amethyst, is different from Lord Garnet's realm, is different from Dark Opal's fortress, etc. Colon's art reminds me a lot of Joe Kubert's, which is never a bad thing. It works extremely well with the colors, where the colors really seem to make each line stand out. The art has a lush or almost lurid feel at times, depending on what mood it needs to evoke, joy or terror.

What I Bought 6/13/2018 - Part 1

Well, I found three of the seven comics coming out this week I wanted. Which is how I figured it'd go. If I go to Columbia this weekend, I might find some more. Also, my Internet is down until probably Monday afternoon. Hooray.

Domino #3, by Gail Simone (writer), David Baldeon and Anthony Piper (artist), Jesus Aburtov (colorist), Clayton Cowles (letterer) - Oh no, Greg Land is trying to draw people with happy smiles. It's one of the most horrifying things in the universe.

Domino tries to take revenge for her presumed dead friends, but screws it up because she wants to "make it hurt" and so uses fists rather than guns. So the villains escape again. At least her friends aren't really dead. Amadeus Cho suspects Diamondback is the traitor, but Domino doesn't want to believe it. Rather than confront her friend, or try to gather more evidence, she decides to go learn to control her power, after lying poorly to her friends. And she's going to learn control from Shang-Chi. Sure, why not? That dude needs to loosen up. But where is his monkey pal? C'mon on Gail Simone, respect CM Punk's very enjoyable story.

It is interesting to see Domino hanging out with this wider cast of characters. I've always associated her pretty strongly with Cable and X-Force. Deadpool, if he happens to be around. She was part of the X-Men while they lived on that island off San Francisco, but I usually forget that. But now we've got her palling around with Amadeus Cho, looking for Shang-Chi, forming a merc team that includes a former member of the Serpent Society/one of Captain America's ex-girlfriends. She's a little more spastic than I'm used to, but I'm used to her hanging around teenagers Cable's leading by the nose, or else Deadpool. She had to be a serious adult in those situations because there weren't any other good options.

The issue has a few flashbacks, colored various shades of grey, of Domino's time as a child being experimented on by creepy doctors trying to bring out her powers. They're surprised when that gets one of them killed. There isn't much to either of them - and we'll see if Topaz is connected to them in some way - but that might be the point. Who cares what their motivations are? They're experimenting on kids, fuck their rationalizations. Jesus Arbutov draws those pages, and it's a very straightforward style. There's bit of someone's style in there I can't place; Cameron Stewart maybe, or Darwyn Cooke. A lot fewer lines than in Baldeon's work on the remainder of the issue, but it's a much quieter setting. Domino's trying to keep herself emotionless, to give the doctors nothing, and the doctors' cheerful or collegial attitudes are fake. Some the emotions aren't real, or are hidden, and the expressions, and colors, are muted.

Baldeon's work, on the other hand, has a lot of emotion. Topaz has an intense scowl on her face in every panel. Domino looks alternately enraged, or depressed, or whatever to an extreme degree. Outlaw is stunned when Domino lies badly about going on a solo mission. The emotions are all BIG emotions. Baldeon draws dark rings around big eyes, which amplifies the emotion, or else a lot of little lines radiating outward.  And it gets the point across; I buy in totally that this Topaz despises Domino, and that Domino is desperate and furious and spooked by all this.

Infinity Countdown: Darkhawk #2, by Chad Bowers and Chris Sims (writers), Gang Hyuk Lim (artist), Travis Lanham (letterer) - What will Darkhawk do without his nightlight?

Chris Powell is, like Domino, not the best at planning. He lets Death's Head fake-capture him and haul him into space to turn over to the Raptors. The Raptors betray Death's Head and blow up his ship. Powell thinks these guys will be pushovers like in that one-shot last fall, but they aren't, and he gets his ass kicked. The lead Raptor unveils some spiel about how the Raptors were originally an artificial version of some cosmic being meant to prey on the Phoenix Force?! Powell's peculiar situation is the perfect opportunity to create that being for real. They rip the amulet from Darkhawk's chest, and give it to Nova's brother Robbie, who eagerly accepts this gift pulled from the dead chest of his brother's friend and teammate, and they head for Earth. I mean, look at that nonsense.

I'm sure Powell is fine. Death's Head, too. It can't be the first time someone betrayed him, although I imagine no one does so twice. The Raptors are headed to Earth, Powell's pattern should still be inside the amulet, his fiance is on Earth, it'll be fine.

I've never thought the "let the bad guys capture you" plan was particularly bright. I suppose if your enemy can be anywhere in the universe it's the simplest way to get them to you, but just based on sheer numbers it seems stupid.

Lim's art is like it was in the first issue. It's very pretty - the panels where Darkhawk spreads his wing, he looks very shiny and cool - but the fight scenes still lack something. The Raptors are beating Darkhawk soundly, but it doesn't really come off from the art. Maybe because it happens so quickly. Once he realizes what he's up against, he gets brought down within a couple of panels, and one of those is a close-up on his face as the visor is cracking (although the glowing eyes just reminded me of ROM as much as anything). Maybe a few less panels of Miri freaking out over Chris bad plan, or less banter between him and Death's Head would have allowed more panels of him getting thoroughly trounced, and that might have helped. Or maybe not.

The Left Hand of God

Humphrey Bogart plays a priest sent to a mission in China in the 1940s. Despite not being a conventional priest, he hits it off with most of the villagers in the region. The doctor assigned to the mission (played by E.G. Marshall), is less pleased, both with Father O'Shea and the locals, but his nurse (Gene Tierney) likes the padre just fine. There's something about O'Shea that isn't on the up and up, and it involves a nearby warlord (played by Lee J. Cobb, who is not Chinese). I don't feel that's too much of a spoiler, since the movie reveals in the first 5 minutes O'Shea is packing heat.

O'Shea is the sort of character Bogart plays very well. A man who has spent a long time focusing on his own interests first and foremost, but who still has the core of a decent guy within him. You see that in some of his interactions with the villagers. He's introduced to the elder of one village, who asks his blessing. O'Shea gives it, then kneels before the man and asks for his blessing.

This is contrasted against Marshall's character. He's been there for some time, and it only seems to have fostered a sense of irritated superiority in him. When a young woman dies in childbirth, he rails against the villagers going to midwives rather than him. He frequently argues the mission should be shut down, because he has only one patient. He doesn't consider that perhaps his attitude makes the villagers feel unwelcome, or that he could try to understand where they're coming from.He just expects them to accept him as an authority and do what he says.

There's a bit of the White Savior aspect in there, where it falls to O'Shea to save the villages from the warlord, but it's mitigated somewhat because a) it really is O'Shea's fault, so it's kind of his mess, and b) we get a few comments that suggest the leaders of the villages are trying to figure out their best option, but don't have the full scoop on what they're up against.

As for the romantic subplot, I feel like I blanked out on most of it. Probably because O'Shea is a priest, neither one of the characters is voicing their interest. They just chat amicably. Which is fine with me, that wasn't what I was watching for anyway. The movie also ends more ambiguously than I expected. There are a few things that I cynically expected the movie would tie up in a neat bow, and it doesn't quite do that. Which was a pleasant surprise.

After Time Working in Government, Most People Want to Go Private Sector

I meant to do another of these made-up team posts a couple of weeks ago, but I've been pressed for time the last three weeks (last three months really), so it was easier to do other, quicker posts. Anyway, this idea this time around was to build a team from a bunch of people used to working for various secretive government organizations, but they'll be operating independently this time. Fortunately, "government teams of people with special abilities" is an extremely common thing in fiction, so it wasn't too hard to come up with a group.

The Leader: Major Motoko Kusanagi (Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex) - The Major's a highly skilled former soldier, now special government investigator type. Her consciousness was transferred over to an advanced cybernetic body sometime earlier in her life (Stand Alone Complex said it was when she was a kid, but I'd imagine the other versions have different takes). So she's much stronger, faster, and more resilient to injury than your average flesh-and-blood person. She can also mentally enter communication networks, or another person's brain, assuming they have any sort of cybernetic hook-up to it (as most people in her world do). The question is whether the team will be operating in a place she can use that. The other team members all hail from fictional universes less technologically advanced than hers. Which could also be a problem if she's injured in the course of their work. There is one person on the team who might be able to handle repairs.

The Major was the field leader for her Section 9 group. On missions, she's serious and focused, not in the mood to hear excuses if someone doesn't carry out their job. She keeps a high standard, and expects the people she leads to do the same. Most of the characters in this team are pretty competent, if erratic in various ways. There may not follow orders, though if they can get the job done without collateral damage, she'll roll with it. She knows when to give someone a confidence boost, and when she can give them some guff for screwing up. She has a dry sense of humor, but she can definitely unwind. She's a private person, which shouldn't be a problem as long as none of the team develop a reason to question her.

If she needs to she can drop out of sight fast. None of the others have any cybernetic parts that could potentially be traced or monitored if they're in her world or a similar one. There's still surveillance all over the place, but she can handle most of that, remotely hacking it. Moving around undetected might be fairly easy in her world, if they're careful. One person on this team might louse that up, though. Assuming she had any say in the roster, she'll have scouted all of them thoroughly, wanting to maintain a high standard. Some of them are questionable in how reliable they are, but she'd be certain she could handle it if she's put them on the team. Of course, if she didn't have any say, that might make it more interesting, figuring out their powers and personalities on the fly, trying not to let the thing rip itself apart in the early stages.

The Rogue: Aoi Miyoshi (Night Raid 1931) - Aoi is the one most likely to irritate the Major. He's not a dishonest, untrustworthy Rogue, he just has his own strong sense of what is right and wrong. Which may not always jibe with the mission. One advantage to them not being connected to a government is they should have more leeway to alter how they handle things if they want. The Major can probably use that judiciously to keep Aoi from getting too out of control. Hey, she likes to freelance, too.

He's impulsive, rushes in without thinking. Relies on charm and wit, and manages it some of the time. He's a bit of a goof, tends to hide his more serious emotions behind that mask. The guy who flirts by playing at being a clumsy oaf trying for charming. He's not as good at it as he thinks, but even if it isn't working to get him in the front door, it might work as a distraction. He can be stubborn and impatient to an irritating degree, which also works for a distraction. Sometimes you need someone to piss off the door guy buy insisting he left his wallet inside and refusing to leave.

He's a telekinetic, limited to manipulating objects he can see. He can only use it for 15 seconds a day, total. It doesn't have to be all at once, he can partition it out over the day, but that's a narrow window to rely on as heavily as he does. It almost got him killed once, when he'd overestimated how much time he had. He's also a decent photographer and a terrible violinist, one of those will probably come in handy at some point.

The Muscle: Seras Victoria (Hellsing) - Seras is a vampire. She wasn't a full-fledged one in the anime, because she hadn't taken any of her sire's blood. In the manga, she did eventually become a full-fledged vampire after feeding on a dying friend so they could win the battle together. Even in the anime, she's strong enough to carry a 30mm cannon around like a toy popgun. In the manga, once she's leveled up, she can destroy dozens of trained Nazi soldier vampires with minimal effort, tearing through them like a scythe. In raw power and speed, she's the top of the mark for this bunch.

Seras works well as part of a team, or individually. She was a police officer before being turned, and afterward, she was part of a military organization dedicated to defending England from supernatural threats. She's used to taking orders, and frankly, the Major is less scary than either Integra or Alucard. She's filled a number of different roles. Long-range support, working as the lead for a unit, or as the one who roams and destroys while everyone else holds the line, or simply as a bodyguard for the boss.

On certain occasions, she performed surveillance. When she wears regular clothes, rather than the Hellsing outfit (in-story there's no reason given why they don't just give her some pants, she wore them as a cop), she can look like a fairly normal person. The red eyes might be unusual, depending on where they are, but that could be special contact lenses. Depending on setting, her British accent might be the biggest issue for blending in.

She's a bit silly at times, although you could chalk some of that up to trying to adjust to a strange circumstance. She's the person who takes things very seriously, and in an effort to not screw up, goes overboard in her response. She can think quickly when she needs to, she'll do her best even if she's scared. She was still young when she was turned, and there's still a certain amount of immaturity to her, although reaching her full potential seemed to take care of some of that. She was hesitant initially about killing what seem to be people (and I imagine she still thinks of herself as a person, so these other vampires must still be people, too), but that's worn off after all the carnage she fought through. She's not kill-happy; she'd just incapacitate a person if that was enough; she has cop training for that. But if she needs to put a 30mm shell through someone, she'll do it. Sometimes an encouraging word is going to work best with her, other times it's gonna be the blunt approach when she gets depressed and starts navel-gazing.

The Lady of Mystery: Miss Deep/Nancy Makuhari (Read or Die) - Nancy's ability is to go intangible, like Shadowcat (the white line in the image on the left is the path of a weapon passing through her). She can at least make objects she's carrying or her clothes phase with her or not as she chooses, but I don't remember seeing her make another person intangible. Maybe it just didn't come up. She's also a kind of clone based on Mata Hari, as part of a group of "geniuses" reborn as clones by another genius seeking to take over the world. Nancy would have easily fit into the Rogue role, but it's going to be hard to figure why she's working with this bunch. What's she getting out of it?

She wasn't much of a team player, considering she betrayed both sides at one point or the other. Even before that, she didn't enjoy being on a team. She hates her codename, she's frustrated by her partner Yomiko's easily distracted air and unprofessional approach. But she's willing to trust the rest of the team is there for a reason, to trust Yomiko does actually have some idea what she's doing. They developed solid teamwork, considering how often they were making up plans on the fly, taking turns being the distraction in their battles. She'll be distant at first, seem like she doesn't even want to be there, then come through in a key moment to save someone's life, confusing everyone for a bit.

The Major's going to know some of Nancy's checkered history. This might be one of those things she keeps from everyone else, figuring it's not going to help if the rest of the team is looking at Nancy with suspicion, trusting she can keep Nancy in line if she needs to. I'm not sure how she'll manage that with a person who turns intangible, but I could see her having some ace up her sleeve. Either that, or she only needs Nancy's help for a certain amount of time, and after that, it doesn't matter so much if she sticks with them or not. At any rate, that could end up being the thing that makes the rest of the team suspicious the Major's hiding things (Aoi and Seras both have experience with people who turned out to not be what they presented themselves), unless Nancy can defuse it. If she cares to.

The Guy with a Motorcycle/Car/Giant Robot? - Norman Burg (The Big O) - The protagonist of the show, Roger Smith, is a Batman-meets-James Bond (with a giant robot). Norman is Alfred-meets-Q. He looks after Roger's house, runs errands, makes sure everything operates exactly as Roger wants it to (until R. Dorothy takes it upon herself to not let Roger sleep in past 11). He's also the one who maintains Roger's car, and his mech. On occasions when Dorothy's android mind was tampered with, Norman knew enough to run a diagnostic on Dorothy to determine what had happened, what could be done to deal with it, and whether she'd be OK. His role was to know whatever skills are necessary to help Roger fulfill his role. Like Alfred.

Let's leave it at what we have there. Norman has some sort of past (which he doesn't recall the details of) as a soldier, is a mechanic and engineer, understands computers to an extent. He's a good motorcyclist. Knows when he can afford to attack, and when to hold back because the risk is too high. He follows orders, and if he disagrees with them, he won't argue openly. He'll opt for the gentle side comment to illustrate where he thinks the person is making a mistake. He might be able to get Aoi to curb some of his more impulsive actions, act as an occasional buffer between him and the Major. He probably won't convince Aoi to tie his tie properly, look a little less slovenly. He's probably going to remind Seras of Walter, who in the manga turned out to be a traitor. That could cause some problems. Walter seemed kindly and helpful, easy to trust. Which is going to make her worried about whether she can trust Norman when he offers to maintain her cannon, or patch her clothes or something. Norman isn't going to press things. He'll do his job quietly, and let the others decide what they think of him.

Best guess on the threat is something combining aspects of all their worlds. Read or Die had self-proclaimed geniuses out to "improve" the world by killing most of the people (the old Ra's al Ghul bit). Big O had giant robots, but also a collective amnesia about all events further back than 40 years ago. Night Raid 1931 had a guy clued in to a vision of the war ahead who could convince others to help him terrify world leaders into bowing to his will, because he hoped to avert that. Ghost in the Shell operates in a world where basically everyone in the world can connect their minds to the Internet. Hellsing had Nazi vampires, and lunatic Catholic soldiers out for another Crusade. Well, they need something to punch on their way to the ultimate problem. Take Night Raid's idea of a terrifying future, but instead of averting it, try to make it reality by accessing people's minds world wide and tampering with how they remember things. Or have one person try to use their vision of the world, and make reality somehow bend to that. That's basically what the Read or Die TV series did though, so maybe not.

The Hitman's Bodyguard

Vladislav Dukhovich (Gary Oldman) is a genocidal dictator on trial at the Hague. Witnesses with evidence of his crimes are sadly lacking, except for hitman Darius Kincaid (Sam Jackson), who is willing to turn evidence in exchange for getting his wife (Salma Hayek) released from prison. He will still be going to jail, though. The Interpol agent (played by Elodie Yung) charged with getting him to the Hague is finding that difficult due to a mole in the agency. So she calls her ex, Michael Bryce (Ryan Reynolds), who plays bodyguard to wealthy people but has fallen on hard times, and basically orders him to get Sam Jackson to the Hague. Death and hilarity ensue.

Sorry, that paragraph just seemed like an easy way to introduce all the relevant players and get the plot, such as it is, out of the way.

The movie isn't going to go on any of the actors' highlight reels. Ryan Reynolds plays his stock kind loud, easily startled character. Sam Jackson is angry, sarcastic, and uses the word "motherfucker" a lot. But, each one's stock character is the sort that would easily irritate and be irritated by the other. So the movie gets mileage out of them getting on each other's nerves. Bryce trying to protect a guy he doesn't like, who doesn't want protecting. Bryce being a meticulous and careful guy, while Kincaid just wants to break stuff and get on with it. Although Bryce proves to be surprisingly good at improvising for someone that hates it so much.

There's nothing really surprising about the plot. There's a big reveal near the end that you can pretty much see coming from a mile off. But the details of the movie are enjoyable. There's a fun chase sequence in Amsterdam involving cars, boats, and a motorcycle. They should have figured out some way to get a helicopter in there, or maybe a hang glider. But they did incorporate shootouts and a fight in a hardware store, so that's pretty good, I guess.

Really though, this is a love story. Sure, there are a lot deaths, but like Deadpool taught us, all good love stories start with a murder. The relationship between Jackson and Hayek is sweet, the one between Bryce and Agent Roussel is a little more iffy, just because there's a lot of bad blood there. But the film shows a genuine recognition by Bryce of his screw-ups, so that works. Yung and Reynolds have decent chemistry, albeit mostly being hostile towards each other.

It's a decent popcorn movie. Nothing deep or special, but a fun way to kill a couple of hours.

What I Bought 6/8/2018

This week coming up there may be as many as 8 comics coming out I want. Whether I can find all of them is another matter. Unfortunately, last week there was only one book that came out I wanted. Why can't all these companies work together to space out the books I want to buy more equitably?

Giant Days #39, by John Allison (writer), Julia Madrigal (artist), Whitney Cogar (color artist), Jim Campbell (letterer) - Here we see Daisy dealing with the crushing horror of having lots of people who want to offer her high-paying jobs. Wait, what?

The entire issue is devoted to a job fair. Daisy is immaculately prepared, and finds herself with job offers pouring in from every direction. Esther is entirely unprepared, and for a time only succeeds in sowing chaos. She may have gotten an offer from MI-6, but she's uncertain whether she's thinking too much about her future or not enough. McGraw's only there because Susan insisted he go, and Susan, who has two more years of schooling to go, is only there to grab all the freebies. I have a coworker like that whenever we attend conferences. Who needs that many pens, key chains, calendars, and assorted crap? And in news most interesting to me, Ed is preparing to return, and Esther has been texting him repeatedly. But Ed isn't replying! I really want the next month's issue right now.

This issue is more focused than most, since it revolves entirely around the recruitment fair, but Allison and Madrigal still use it to advance the characters. Esther is resistant to the realities of what work may be like, and wants something exciting. Except she also thinks she already knows what she'll end up doing, and worries about being locked onto a particular path. Or that her own ability to coast along obliviously will cost her any chance to get off that path once she's on it. Daisy is more realistic about the likelihood she'll be working behind a desk or serving coffee. Then she finds herself besieged by offers, at which point her kind, can-do attitude works against her. She's not much for negotiating, and hates turning people down or disappointing them

I think about which character in this book I'm most like, and it's usually close between Ed and Susan, but I may be more Daisy than I thought. Minus the cheerful attitude. I can't even fake a cheerful attitude convincingly.

When Daisy's portfolio can't hold any more business cards, the sound effect for it bursting open is "BUSINESS!", which I didn't notice until the second read, but amused me. So did Esther's mistaken, but very cool vision, or archaeology. I still see something in Madrigal's artwork that reminds me of Phil Foglio, mostly when one character is looking at another off to one side and smiling. The combination seems familiar. I think Madrigal could afford to get a little more cartoonish at times, go nuts with the characters, exaggerate things, but it's not harming the book any. Her work is very expressive, and sells the humor parts and more serious parts very well. The vacant-eyed zombies in the background as Esther rants, the sparkles around Daisy's resume (and her sniffing it as she worries about Esther).