Remarkable

Free Form Comments

2009-11-25T11:44:00.002-05:00

Say whatever you want to in the comments to this post -- random, off topic thoughts, ideas, suggestions, questions, recommendations, criticisms (which can be anonymous), surveys, introductions if you have never commented before, personal news, self-promotion, requests to be added to the blog roll and so on. If I forget, remind me. Remember these comments can be directed at all the readers, not just me.

ALSO. You can use this space to re-ask me questions you asked me before that I failed to answer because I was too busy.

AND you can use this space to comment on posts that are old enough that no one is reading the comments threads anymore.

You do not have to have a blogger account or gmail account to post a comment -- you can write a comment, write your name at the bottom of your comment like an e mail, and then post using the "anonymous" option.

WRITING FOR THIS BLOG. If I see a big free form comment that deserves more attention, I will pull it and make it its own post, with a label on the post and on the sidebar that will always link to all the posts you write for this blog. I am always looking for reviews of games, tv, movies, music, books and iPhone apps.

Uncanny X-Men 246

2009-11-24T11:23:00.002-05:00

[Jason Powell continues his issue by issue look at Claremont's X-Men run in a series that has become downright EPIC.]

“The Day of Other Lights”

“The Day of Other Lights” is a modest offering – mostly a character piece, which only hints at the impending chaos of Claremont’s final, massively ambitious overplot. The opening sequence is significant in bringing back the bizarre “Seige Perilous” concept to the series (which had more or less been ignored after Claremont introduced it a year earlier, in Uncanny X-Men #229). Readers are reminded – through a hallucinogenic montage of Dazzler’s possible other lives -- that the Seige functions as a dispenser of instant karma. (Why Alison is sitting in the catacombs, in a bikini, holding the crystal in the first place, we are never quite sure … perhaps artist Marc Silvestri’s penchant for T&A is to blame?)

The scene recalls Uncanny X-Men Annual #11, in which each member of the cast was given a chance to live out their fantasy lives. The Seige Perilous concept takes this a step farther, suggesting that the characters’ actual realities can change by stepping through the portal. That seed will bear fruit in five issues’ time.

A nicely rendered scene between Ororo and Logan follows, with the latter written out of the comic for four issues. As Ba pointed out, the “Havok/Wolverine: Meltdown” miniseries by Louise and Walt Simonson (with painted art by Jon J Muth and Kent Williams) slots chronologically between the last issue and this one, thanks to the dialogue opening a space for it. We get a delightful little joke from Claremont and Silvestri here, as Logan uses hair gel that he bought while he and Havok were “on the road.” The gel makes the points of Wolverine’s unique hairstyle droop comically, thus mimicking the character’s stylized portrayal in “Meltdown.” He sees himself in the mirror, comments that the hairdo somehow looked better at the time, and proceeds to wash the gel out. This is one of Claremont’s funnier bits, and a canny use of humor to paint over the ever-growing ridiculousness of Wolverine’s multiple appearances in various different superhero titles every month. It’s nice that Claremont is able to poke fun while still retaining Logan’s basic integrity as a character in the core series. (The previous issue contains a similar bit, wherein Ororo comments on Wolverine’s “frequent absences, to which Logan replies dryly, “I’m here when you need me.”)

A possible example of Bob Harras’ editorial influence is that – starting with this issue and continuing through to the end of the run – Claremont increasingly revisits the classic X-Men “riffs” (begun with Lee/Kirby, codified by Thomas/Adams, and finally cemented by Claremont/Byrne). The most direct and simple of those riffs is The Sentinels. As a gigantic metaphor for the “prejudice” theme that always informs the series to some degree, the Sentinels make the perfect go-to when any X-writer needs to hard-focus on the comic’s basic point. As “mutant-hunting robots”, they never require much narrative justification for showing up, nor much explanation to new readers for what they are … and they immediately anchor any X-Men story, no matter how strange and unfamiliar other elements may be. (This is why they show up in so many key X-Men stories: The only Lee/Kirby X-Men three-parter; the first full Thomas/Adams arc; the first major Claremont/Cockrum epic, the first issue of Millar’s “Ultimate X-Men”; the second major arc in “X-Men Forever,” etc.)

Thus, it’s no accident that the villain of issue 246 is a Sentinel. Satisfyingly, Claremont also brings back Nimrod, one of the major plot-danglers left over from before “Mutant Massacre.” Nimrod was originally rather blatant in its derivation by Claremont from two sources: Alan Moore’s Fury and James Cameron’s “Terminator.” Fair enough, since both of those characters owed a debt to Claremont and Byrne’s “Days of Future Past.” To keep readers from forgetting the story that came first, Claremont throws in Sebastian Shaw and Senator Robert Kelly, both major players from the original “Future Past” two-parter.

Amusingly, when Nimrod first appears on panel in Uncanny #246, this time both the milieu and the character’s dialogue are clear riffs on “RoboCop.” The elision ends up working well, since Claremont had already been teasing in Nimrod’s previous appearances at the character becoming less robotic and more “human,” which is the same dichotomy explored in Paul Verhoeven’s film. For contrast, Claremont also brings in Mastermold, the original Lee/Kirby Sentinel recently resurrected by the Simonsons in X-Factor, to play the “ED-209” to Nimrod’s Murphy. (Meaningless synchronicity: 209 was the last issue of Uncanny to feature Nimrod.) Claremont’s twist on the source material is to have the two robots merge into a single entity.

The issue’s cliffhanger -- Rogue about to be killed -- is typical superhero comic-book fare, and indeed, no one would be shocked to learn that the X-Men show up to save her on the opening splash of the next issue. However, Uncanny X-Men #246 teases that one member of the team dies in the next issue, and it does turn out to be Rogue. (Not that she stays “dead” for all that long.) Thematically this seems a little off, given that Dazzler was the one having visions of death in the story’s opening. Apparently, Dazzler was the one slated to die, but Marc Silvestri – a fan of blonde bombshells, presumably – objected. Instead Dazzler ends up being Rogue’s “killer” (sort of), a clever twist on the meaning of her “death” hallucinations that arguably improves on the original idea.

Mister Miracle #10

2009-11-23T23:13:00.003-05:00

[Andy Bentley continues his issue by issue look at Jack Kirby's New Gods. I make a comment below about Morrison.]

“The Mister Miracle to Be!”

As I opened the fourth and final Omnibus of Jack Kirby’s Fourth world, I was taken aback by the table of contents. There were no less than 9 Mister Miracle stories and only one remaining Forever People and The New Gods titles. I quickly turned to the introduction by Paul Levitz, who recently stepped down from the office of President and Publisher of DC Comics. Paul wrote a concise and affectionate letter about Kirby and his work at DC Comics. Levitz reinforced the fact that Kirby was the first to plan a series of interwoven titles rather than have the connections made after the fact ala the Marvel universe. He also praised Kirby for his imaginative storyboarding - something I believe Kirby learned through his love of film. The letter reinvigorated my spirit and I plunged into the first Mister Miracle issue. Unfortunately, the story did not live up to Levitz’ send off.

The story feels disjointed from the series as a whole. It involves Mr. Miracle, Big Barda and her female furies being thrown into a sci-fi spy battle already in progress. The World Protective League (The bad guys) are planning to blackmail the world with a Orbital Plague Bomb (or ORB) and believe Mr. Miracle to be part of their adversaries, The All Nations League (The good Guys). The World Protective League is run by a disembodied head known only as “The Head” who uses his psychic powers to determine Mr. Miracle is an escape artist. Mr. Miracle evades his traps and grabs him, hoping to stop the ORB from detonating. The Head uses his telekinetic (or magnetic?) powers to direct Mr. Miracle into the ORB which will soon blast off and detonate, releasing the toxic germs. However, The Head becomes attached to the bomb and it appears the both of them are killed by the explosion. Mr. Miracle has, of course, escaped and is back on the ground with Barda. Barda and her Furies were busy escaping their prison along with Mike McCracken, a captured All-Nations agent. They all return home to find that Ted Brown, the son of the original Mister Miracle, has returned home and is conveniently looking for an act to manage. Oberon remarks that his friends from Apokolips would be a perfect fit.

After the battle on Apokolips, the battle with the World Protective League is an unnecessary sidetrack. None of the lead characters reference the events from the issues past on Apokolips. The henchmen in the league look akin to the henchmen in A.I.M., a Marvel Comics terrorist organization and Mike McCracken’s chauvinistic ways are similar to Steve Trevor, Wonder Woman’s on again off again beau. Mr. Miracle’s escape goes unexplained and the reveal of the long lost son of the first Mister Miracle is cliche at best.

I needed answers, so I turned to the afterword by Mark Evanier. I’ve come to the conclusion that the idea of reading these books unaffected by their age is unfeasible and learning about the circumstances of their creation is more insightful. To summarize, DC’s sales weren’t good, especially for the Fourth World tales. They asked Kirby for some ideas and selected Kamandi and The Demon as solid candidates. Kirby planned to start these series and then hand them off to a capable creator, but DC thought otherwise. This put Kirby’s output at 5 books and not even the King could handle a workload that size. So DC decided to put the Forever People and The New Gods on ice. This devastated Kirby. The Fourth World allowed Kirby to work through a lot of emotional experiences throughout his life: religious persecution, war, love of friends and family and his career at Marvel. Evanier even states that he took out his anger at Richard Nixon through Darkseid, something I’d never caught onto. These books were the most personal project he’d ever created and to see people not respond to them was painful. So Jack was allowed to keep Mister Miracle, but the damage was done and there was no way to condense the saga of The Fourth World into one title. That is why we have the World Protective League versus The All Nation’s League.

I went back and reread the issue and the turmoil is apparent, even from the opening page. It almost feels like the characters Jack could salvage are dumped into a completely different comic. My hope is that Kirby gets back into some sort of groove over the next dozen issues or so, but I’m less optimistic after this first issue.
Final Musings

-Evanier’s chronology is a bit fuzzy so there’s certainly a chance that this issue was completed before Jack got the call that the books were cancelled. But Kirby did know sales weren’t good and Evanier says he had to course correct Mister Miracle into a “stand alone super hero title” which this certainly feels like.

-The afterword mentions that Neal Adam’s and Denny O’Niel’s groundbreaking Green Lantern/Green Arrow series was cancelled earlier in the year The Fourth World ended. What exactly WERE comic readers buying in 1972?!

-Even though I got little out of this issue, I have a hunch a young Matt Fraction did. The sci-fi spy angle seems very reminiscent of early issues of Fraction’s series, Casanova

-The disembodied head is a staple of science fiction. It’s an interesting commentary on humans and how we view what makes us individuals

-It’s a bit of a pyrrhic victory, but it looks like Mister Miracle is gonna put on that magic show I requested in the last column.

[Right around the first few issues of the fourth volume I will admit it -- I just gave up on it. I knew no good end was in sight and felt like I had gotten what there was to get out of it. Andy -- you will have to let me know if I should finish this volume. One thing I do want to say about Mr. Miracle -- isn't it interesting that Morrison makes him the spirit of survival itself, since in a way he is the only survivor of Kirby's New Gods, the one who survived the gutting of the series the longest. It would be over-reading if Morrison did not explicitly make DC editorial into villains in his work.]

Johns v Moore, and comfort reading

2009-11-20T16:39:00.003-05:00

More than a week ago Scott posted on an Alan Moore quote on Blackest night and the comments just exploded into nearly 100. I said I would respond but thought the best way to do so would be to grab some of the stuff I wanted to respond to, put it here, and make a new post out of it, while also directing people to that huge and great conversation. Here are the key highlights.

Patrick writes

Couldn't you make the same critique of virtually any Alan Moore story? He wrote Watchmen based on some Charlton comic published twenty years earlier, or Lost Girls is just slashfic based on books published a hundred years ago. Because it's high culture stuff Moore's generally riffing on, he gets away with it, but I see a ton of similarities between Johns endlessly referencing the stuff he likes in the DCU in his books and Moore endlessly referencing whatever he likes in League of Extraordinary Gentlemen.

Plok Says

Is Lost Girls really "just slashfic"? Is Watchmen really described at all well just by saying it's "based on" the Charlton comics?

Patrick says
It's not just that, there's other issues in there, but those works are as much based on the existing works that Moore drew on as Johns's Green Lantern stuff is on the comics that Moore wrote. I think it gets down to the difference between high and low culture, that if you copy a foreign film, it's an homage, if you copy a current film, it's stealing. People have different attitudes towards different pieces of culture, so Moore drawing on the power of cultural icons in Lost Girls is treated differently than Johns doing the same in Blackest Night because Peter Pan has a different cultural position than Green Lantern does.

But, looking at where pop culture is now, you could argue that Moore's riffing on obscure Victorian characters is much more insider-y and self indulgent than Johns doing similar things with DC's big characters. Who do more people know, Batman or Allan Quatermain? That's not to say that Johns comics are necessarily more accessible, and by no means better than League, but it's to say that conceptually I think he and Moore are doing the same thing. There's nothing wrong with doing that thing, but it's hypocritical to criticize Johns for doing it when he gets so excited about referencing all these obscure works in League.

Plok says
I think if you want to compare Batman and Allen Quatermain, you should also compare Dr. Jekyll with, say, Hector Hammond...just to keep the scales balanced. But more to the point, I don't think it's enough to say Johns and Moore are doing the same thing in mining old cultural seams for their own purposes, without at least nodding to what those purposes are...how much is Geoff Johns really repurposing what he references? Moore looks at the sublimation of sexuality in children's stories, Johns has Green Lantern fight Sinestro again...I don't think it's crazy to call that a difference of kind, and not degree.

Kenny says
Johns' comics are like warm milk and cookies on a cold day. I don't see anything wrong with that. Sometimes I feel a little out of step with the readers of this blog, because you all really seem to crave the dynamic, interesting, and experimental comics. I think that's cool, and I enjoy them too, but I also don't eschew just straight forward superhero books either. Maybe I'm just a lazy reader, but I don't feel the need to be challenged every time I read. Sometimes I just want to see what's happening with Superman.

Johns gives me those kinds of comics. Pretty damn good ones, at that. They're melodramatic in a more refined Claremont-fashion, and fan-fic-ish, but that's just what I need sometimes.

I do think Johns fails at bringing forth any big ideas, like Moore, Morrison, Miller, or the complexity of an Azzarello, Ennis, or Ellis, but I think he's really great at what he does do -- delivering the pure essence of characters in fun stories.

Christian writes
Geoff Johns writes stuff for the melodrama, the action and the quotable quips. Sadly, he's not the best at it. On a purely idea-based level, they seem primarily based in the mindset of a thirteen year old. The idea for the different emotions and the different lantern corps cemented that for me. His stuff is never really "interesting" in the way that Fraction's or Morrison's work is, and craftwise, he's pretty by-the-numbers. Geoff Johns has never ever surprised me, and because so much of his character-work is based on the reader's previous fondness for the characters (when did Johns actually do some honest to God characterbuilding?), a lot of it rings hollow to me.

When plok writes of Johns "how much is Geoff Johns really repurposing what he references?" this to me is the key issue here. What I want to see in creative work is not the old again (Barry Allen and Hal Jordan back in costume) or the radically new (some edgy modern art thing that eschews basic aesthetics altogether) -- what I want to see, basically always, is something new made out of something old in such a way that I can SEE some links between the old thing and the new thing, and contemplate the degree and VALUE of the revision. Because you know if the universe is COMPLETELY EMPTY and you are sailing though it in a flying saucer just for the fun of it how are you supposed to know you are moving at all without something to MOVE AGAINST.
Claremont has been such a great thing to look at on this blog because he is so often shaking up that status quo and using motifs to call readers attention to the difference between where he has been and where he is going -- when he created the ALL NEW ALL DIFFERENT X-Men he really KEPT it ALL NEW AND ALL DIFFERENT over the years almost to a fault -- there was never anywhere to rest, which I really kind of admire. It all just keeps changing and building.

When Moore draws on literary history in League it CAN be empty, just empty reference and game playing (and I felt this for a good deal of Black Dossier, which I do not think I ever did read all the way through) but at the heart of it he is doing something analogous to what a literary critic does when he writes an essay on Victorian Literature -- putting different texts next to each other to tell us what new thing can be learned from the juxtaposition. Sometimes it is going to be nothing, but some times you are going to realize just how much has changed in our categories of high-culture and pop-culture and what is considered what and who comes out of what, and what is the background of what, what leads up to what and what points the way to what. And he has a lot to SAY about these things, though like me blogging there are stretches where he is talking when he maybe should not be.

Patrick says "That's not to say that Johns comics are necessarily more accessible, and by no means better than League, but it's to say that conceptually I think he and Moore are doing the same thing." Conceptually they may be doing the same thing but people saying they are not may just be expressing themselves badly -- the effects, the accomplishment, the aesthetic power is the thing people are reacting to, not the basic concept. They are just looking to justify the aesthetic experience with reference to conceptual categories that are kind of beside the point. As if I were to look at a painting and say "my god Picasso must be a great artist because he had the best PAINT" I am just grasping in the dark to express the thing here. The thought that Picasso is good is right but the justification is off. Moore is a good writer and Johns is not, and the fact that they are engaged in similar artistic modes should not be an issue.

Kenny defends Johns unchallenging writing, and I wrote a whole paragraph about how the aim of art should be to take us from simple pleasure to complex pleasure and Johns keeps us all from growing and how I totally agree with Christian's assessment of Johns. But I deleted it because I just don't know why I find it unacceptable to read Johns when we could be reading Morrison, but I am perfectly happy to veg out watching comfort shows like Frasier when I could be watching the Sopranos. I too sometimes just want my milk and cookies -- but for some reason I get angry at adequate comics while accepting -- and even really liking -- a lot of adequate television. I find it frustrating to end with a kind of "to each his own" mentality, but on this one, it is all I have got. Sometimes I just have no idea why I am doing what I am doing.

Re-live the Wire in 10 minutes

2009-11-19T15:58:00.000-05:00

Via Kevin Church and Poor Mojo. Very satisfying.

Free Form Comments

2009-11-18T22:39:00.001-05:00

The Third Age

2009-11-17T18:31:00.003-05:00

[Jason Powell takes a look at Patrick Meaney's new webseries.]

Today, Nov. 17, marks the online debut of a new webseries entitled “The Third Age,” co-created by Patrick Meaney. Patrick is a gentleman, scholar, blogger, author and fellow Claremont enthusiast. It seemed appropriate to bump the usual Tuesday Claremont review for a review of “The Third Age,” especially since Patrick was kind enough to give me a sneak preview of the first seven webisodes.

A stylized sci-fi thriller, “The Third Age” will be serialized over 26 eight-minute installments, the first few of which cut back and forth between two parallel threads: A depressive low-level drug-dealer meets a beautiful, enigmatic woman called “Morning” and finds himself unwilling to part with her; meanwhile, an ambitious scientist pursues unorthodox methods as he attempts to create a chemical substance that will take humanity into a new phase. A narrative link between these two threads exists from the start, but only over time are the details made explicit. (The cliffhanger in Episode 7 drops a large bombshell in this regard. Clever to make that the last one I was allowed to see, Patrick. Now I’m hooked.)

Patrick is a fan of Grant Morrison and Alan Moore, and one can see their influence in the show’s idea-driven sci-fi. Since the budget for “The Third Age” is – I presume – not huge, the show’s appeal is primarily cerebral. The scientist’s method in creating a new drug, for example, strikes me as Morrison-esque (although note that I have not read a lot of Morrison, so I could be way off here). I won’t spoil the details, but it’s a pleasingly wild premise, one of many surprising, well-executed conceptual twists that the series contains. The seventh episode reminded me of “Promethea,” with its invocations of the spheres of the Quaballah, and this one too ends with a brilliant turn of the plot that I never saw coming.

The cast comprises some very charismatic performers, who generally keep matters realistic, and their delivery low-key. It’s a shrewd directorial choice, as it sells the viewer completely on the plot’s many elements of fantasy. Proceedings seem grounded and gritty, and entirely plausible. Ted Spencer’s characterization of the scientist is particularly noteworthy, as he guides the viewer through several hallucinogenic bits of text with a canny lack of reverence or awe. It should all seem mad, but instead it is almost chillingly matter-of-fact.

Meaney and his collaborator, Jordan Rennert, maintain visual interest through various simple, yet shrewdly deployed, cinematographic tricks. While their actors anchor the proceedings in psychological realism, the visuals often melt into kaleidoscopic dream-like effects, suggesting a cosmic, un-earthly significance to the text – which the characters themselves are often only dimly aware of, if at all.

“The Third Age” enjoys a rough-hewn production style, overall. On the website, producer Amber Yoder discusses the creators’ collective enjoyment of “free-form, run and gun, guerrilla style” filmmaking, and that is all in the series’ favor. The show’s combination of mad mythology and gritty verite makes for a consistently appealing aesthetic experience, and Meaney and co. are creative enough to maintain our interest with a new twist – visual, textual or conceptual, if not all three – in each successive chapter. This is a potential epic in the making, and anyone reading this can get it in right on the ground floor. The story begins today!

Lost Revisited - Season 2

2009-11-16T23:44:00.003-05:00

[Andy Bentley continues his revisiting of LOST. I make a brief comment below.]

Space Ghost: But why, Warren?
Warren: Well... (laughs) (dramatic sting music) Never mind why. The past is just the future that already happened. Now come on over here and I'll cradle you.
-Space Ghost Coast to Coast, September 4, 1998

To recap, our survivors of Oceanic 815 have been scattered. Jin, Michael, and Sawyer have had their ship destroyed and Walt abducted by “The Others”. Charlie, Claire, Sun, Shannon and Sayid are at the beach camp and Jack, Kate, Locke and Hurley are standing over the blast door looking down at.....

The Hatch

The Hatch leads down to an underground station known as The Swan which will replace the waterfall camp as the other main setting on the island. The station was once one of many outposts for the DHARMA initiative, a 1970’s research outfit that was exploring the island’s “unique properties”. DHARMA loses a bit of it’s mystique and mystery after seeing this past season, but the discovery of it’s remnants is still excellent - particularly the orientation film. The film is spooky with it’s institutional look, weird synth soundtrack and it’s deliberate omitted scene. The fact that it’s all from 30 years ago gives the mystery more heft. The Station provides many modern conveniences including running water for a bathroom and shower, music, literature, processed food, and unfortunately a fresh set of guns and ammo. These modern conveniences are a large part of the survivor’s desire for rescue. With them satiated, the second season becomes less about survival and rescue, and more about the mystery of the island and it’s inhabitants. However the most significant aspect of The Swan is...

The Button

Jack, Kate and Locke all end up down in the Swan where they meet a man named Desmond Hume (more on Des’ next season). Desmond explains he has been entering in the same numbers printed on the hatch every 108 minutes in order to “save the world”. Desmond is gone by the 3rd episode, leaving the button pushing duties in the survivor’s hands. This test of faith is based on Pascal's Wager and variations of this riddle have been seen throughout film and literature. The button brings the science/faith conflict between Jack and Locke to a full boil and the two spend most of the season bickering like an old married couple. I was even toying with the idea of editing footage of the two bickering to the Odd Couple theme music . Their conflict is particularly aggravating because of Jack’s stubborn nature. Towards the end of the season, the conflict of the button shifts to Locke and Mr. Eko. Mr. Echo is one of.....

The Tailies (Ana Lucia Cortez, Bernard Nadler, Libby Smith, Mr. Eko)

The missing tail section of the plane is brought up towards the end of the 1st season - something I caught only on my second viewing. The crash and subsequent survival of the people in the tail section is told over the first half of the second season, cumulating in the excellent flashback episode The Other 48 Days. The plight of the tailies is like a bizarro version of the first season of LOST with Anna Lucia and Mr. Eko taking on the roles of Jack and Locke. Whereas our 815 propers had time to bond and rebuild before the Other (Ethan) kidnapped Claire, The tailies are attacked the night of the crash and have three adults abducted. This infects the group with a sense of paranoia that is personified by Ana Lucia, a former cop who feels guilt over murdering the man who shot her and by proxy, killed her unborn baby. Her fears are ultimately justified when they discover they have also been infiltrated with an Other. They discover a DHARMA station as well (the Arrow) however it lacks the furnishings and supplies found in the Swan. The editing of the scenes in The Other 48 days ads to the bleak and cold nature of the tailies story with scenes ending abruptly with a hard cut to black. The tailies were not received well by the audience in part due to Ana Lucia’s abrasive nature. More importantly, they shifted the focus off our main cast which were already divided. By the end of the season, Ana and Libby are dead and Mr Eko isn’t far behind. Considering the larger mythology of the show, Ana and Libby do not seem to be a factor, although many still debate Libby’s appearance in the same mental facility Hurley was in. Mr Eko, however, appears to be being groomed to be a major player in unraveling the mysteries of the island. His faith is old testament where Locke’s is more new age. He is the only person to encounter the smoke monster, stare it down and remain untouched. The smoke monster sits out a lot of the season, but in this scene, the camera brings us inside the phantom where images of Eko’s past flicker in and out. It’s hinted that because Eko has made peace with the evil he has done and his role in his brother’s death, the monster willingly retreats. That is, until next season.

The 815ers

After five seasons, I’m under the impression that certain characters need to, as MJ says, ask the man in the mirror to make that change. Two seasons in, only John Locke seems willing to take that spiritual plunge.

Jack is still stubborn and unwilling to accept the fantastic elements of the island.

Kate has moments where she begins to settle, but has an emotional breakdown midseason where she feels smothered by the island and needs to escape.

Sawyer bonds with Michael and Jin on their perilous journey back to camp and is greeted with warmth upon his return. Because he feels unworthy of these emotions, he hijacks the guns in an elaborate con, causing even Kate to despise her attraction towards him.

Both Hurley and Sayid find comfort in the love of a woman, only to have it taken away by death. The two become emotionally distant and fall back on familiar crutches

Jin and Sun are a bit of an oddity. Jin seems to have become a better man on the island, thriving in the fishing trade of his father while Sun tends to her garden. The couple still have the usual conflicts in marriage, but it’s a far cry from the emotional turmoil the two had in the show’s opening.

Charlie and Michael are not very endearing. Both are self centered and possessive. Charlie continues to struggle with addiction while Michael becomes obsessed with rescuing Walt. You get the sense that Michael is not rescuing Walt out of love but merely overcompensating for his absence in Walt’s youth. Michael’s betrayal at the end of the season was shocking the first time around and is still an excellent swerve on a repeated viewing. That brings us to...

John Locke

This time around, I realized how heavily the hatch affects John. He stops hunting and spend almost the entire season within the hatch and must rely on others to bring him news from above. His faith is challenged by a number of characters, including Mr. Eko who takes him on a spiritual journey to the site of Boone’s death which is John’s first major failure on the island There, they discover yet another station (The Pearl) which was built for observing many sections of the island, including the Swan station. John interprets this as confirmation that the button is a hoax and he vows to end the charade. Once he does, he realizes the button was quite real as electromagnetic forces begin to whip objects through the room. In a great scene he looks at Mr. Eko with panic in his eyes and says: "I was wrong". Although Mr. Eko has quite an effect on John Locke, no one affects him more throughout the series than....

Henry Gale/Benjamin Linus

Henry Gale is like a shot of adrenaline for the series. He is captured in one of Russo’s traps and essentially presented to Sayid who takes him to The Swan for interrogation. Gale has a fairly tight alibi as a marooned balloonist but Sayid believes he is an Other in disguise. Michael Emerson (the actor portraying Gale) does an amazing job of playing the character ambiguously to the point where I still believed him even though I knew the truth. Once his lie is revealed, he becomes much more menacing and manipulative, amping up John’s distrust of Jack as a co-leader.

By the end of the season, our group has again become scattered. Michael is reunited with Walt after betraying his friends and the two sail toward rescue. Jack, Kate, Sawyer and Hurley are brought as prisoners to The Others camp where Henry Gale is back in control. The remaining characters are on the beach save for Locke, Eko and Desmond who are all at The Swan. Locke destroys the button and a Huge electromagnetic power surge shoots out from the island, destroying the Hatch.

The second season contains many symmetrical elements, foreshadowing the cyclic nature LOST is evolving into. Stories are told from one perspective, then told from another. Desmond appears only in the first and final few episodes. As described above, many of our characters begin to change, only to revert to their original demeanor.

There are many great moments in the second season, but it does take a while to build momentum. Watching the two seasons back to back, the reveal of The Others seems drawn out and the story arc involving Locke, Charlie and Claire seems out of place for Locke in particular. The flashbacks weren’t as impactfull as the first season as well. Does LOST fall into a sophomore slump? Not really, but there are a few stumbles here and there. If I were to sum up the season in one or two words, I would say ‘trust’ or ‘faith’.

Final Observations

With all his knowledge, I’d have to assume Ben was aware of the EM energy housed near the island. Why would he allow that to be governed by Desmond (a character Ben has had very little interaction with) or the 815ers?
Was Ben really on his way to see John? Did he want to get captured?
One thing that was lacking the second time around was this claustrophobic feeling the Others gave me. Watching the 815ers get beat over and over by them was like having my head held underwater. They were so arrogant and assuming (especially Ms. Klugh) that I was dying for some retribution. Next season....

Top 5 moments
Michael shooting Ana Lucia and Libby
The Swan Orientation film
The opening and closing scene to the 1st episode with Desmond
The lockdown and subsequent reveal of the map to Locke
The reuniting of Jin/Sun and Bernard/Rose

[I remember Season two as my favorite -- the cold open of the first episode of the season is one of my favorite moments on television, ever. Dharma was particularly fascinating, and I even liked Anna Lucia, though clearly I was the only one. Mr. Eko was especially important because he added another level to the faith/science conflict because faith itself was split into pagan and Christian factions -- but alas the Eko Locke conflict that should have been central to a middle season never emerged. One of the great lost LOST stories. How do we feel about LOST having a direction at this point? It seemed like they did NOT, and only got a clear direction and arc for the show into season 3, but the first two seasons remain especially amazing because they are so open -- many people felt they were stalling, but I felt like anything could happen. Now, options seem limited for the 815ers, and I miss my old show.]

Alan Moore on Blackest Night and the reusing of ideas in comics

2009-11-12T23:44:00.003-05:00

[My friend Brad called Geoff Johns on Blackest Night "the Michael Bay of comics." Then Scott sends me this. I always thought Blackest Night had to join Planetary, New X-Men and Event Horizon on a chart of great ideas badly executed. Now I see that Blackest Night was not even Johns' idea. I make a brief comment below.]

The following is a quote from Alan Moore that’s been circulating online regarding Blackest Night:

I was noticing that DC seems to have based one of its latest crossovers [Blackest Night] in Green Lantern based on a couple of eight-page stories that I did 25 or 30 years ago. I would have thought that would seem kind of desperate and humiliating, When I have said in interviews that it doesn't look like the American comic book industry has had an idea of its own in the past 20 or 30 years, I was just being mean. I didn't expect the companies concerned to more or less say, "Yeah, he's right. Let's see if we can find another one of his stories from 30 years ago to turn into some spectacular saga." It's tragic. The comics that I read as a kid that inspired me were full of ideas. They didn't need some upstart from England to come over there and tell them how to do comics. They'd got plenty of ideas of their own. But these days, I increasingly get a sense of the comics industry going through my trashcan like raccoons in the dead of the night.

(the story in question is ‘Tygers’ and can be found in both the DC Universe Stories of Alan Moore and a Blackest Night tie-in collection)

I thought I would throw this out to the blog and see what you guys thought and if any of you had been keeping up with the Blackest Night crossover. Also, Moore seems to be bemoaning the idea of building upon old story ideas but, isn’t that what superhero comics have always done? Geoff and I have discussed before that one of the fun things about comics was their often convoluted mythologies and how there are all these stories and characters bouncing around out there for different creators to play with. In fact, Morrison, a favorite among us here on the blog, does this ALL THE TIME. Where would his Batman run be without the far out silver-age tales that he drew from to create his ‘black casebook’ (there’s even a collection of these stories available now under the title of ‘The Black Casebook’), the results there were mixed, but he has done the same thing in many of his other works from Animal Man to All Star Superman to Final Crisis; he takes old, long forgotten plot points and builds on them and, while the results can sometimes be mixed, they always seem to be an original twist on an old idea. So, where does Geoff Johns fail where Morrison Succeeds? Is it that Johns’ reusing of these old plot points is too ‘straight’? I’ve often commented that Johns’ work seems like glorified fan-fiction (I’ve also stated that, in a fan driven medium like comics, I’m not sure that’s really such a bad thing) so, it seems to me, that, while Morrison tries to take these old ideas and build them into interesting concept, sometimes turning them on their ear to reveal something that we hadn’t previously thought of before regarding the character or their world, Johns seems to play them more for the (melo?)drama and, of course, the action. As in most of his work, he isn’t seeking to reveal something new about the characters so much as reinforce their most obvious traits (at least that’s what I’ve gotten out of the stuff that I’ve read from his JSA, GL and Flash stuff). Anyway, just throwing it out there, what do you guys think? Discuss.

[Morrison put Scott with the White Queen in a serious and effective way and (for however long it lasts) someone else as Batman (yeah it's not good, but at least he is trying to move things forward). Johns just keeps rolling back to the "classics" -- Hal Jordan as Green Lantern AGAIN, Barry Alan as the Flash AGAIN.]

Free Form Comments

2009-11-11T09:13:00.000-05:00

Uncanny X-Men #245

2009-11-10T12:28:00.002-05:00

[Jason Powell continues his issue by issue look at Claremont's X-Men Run]

“Men”

Another complaint about Claremont (there are so very many) is that his brand of superhero feminism was less than it should have been, because he “cheated” by making his female characters into powerhouses. A letter was published in Uncanny late in the run, opining that Claremont had only three males -- Xavier, Magneto and Wolverine – who could stand alongside the females in terms of raw power.

I honestly have a hard time not seeing a bit of sexism in this complaint as well. Are males so threatened by powerful females that they can’t even stomach having a bunch of them in a comic book? If X-Men is filled with powerhouse women, we must surely view this in relation to the rest of the superhero landscape, which is dominated by scores of powerful males.

In any case, grist for the sexists’ complaints on this front can be found in “Men.” The masculine counterpart to the previous issue’s “Ladies’ Night,” Uncanny #245 gives a bit of short shrift to the males. While “Ladies Night” was light in tone, it boasted strong characterization and slick artwork. And while the villains were a joke, they at least were given some weight via their connection to the series’ “persecution” theme. Indeed, the entire “M Squad” premise even served as an epilogue to the original premise of Bob Layton’s X-Factor.

The dudes don’t fare so well. The guys’ night out becomes a complete joke – the story is not just light, but an out and out parody (of a DC story, no less!). Havok gets to angst a bit about Lorna and Madelyne (and it is charmingly done), but other than that there is very little psychological insight into the characters here. And while the ladies never looked sexier thanks to Silvestri, the men …. well, they are drawn by guest-penciller Rob Liefeld. Not a name that really needs any explication these days.

So, complain away, men’s rights activists. “Ladies Night” was a tour de force, and “Men” is a joke. Claremont’s priorities are plain.

Despite all that, this issue is genuinely funny. Claremont clearly enjoys making fun of himself. The “Jean Bomb” is a rather brilliant bit – even people from other planets are making clones of Jean Grey!!! (A letter writer would actually complain about this element, criticizing Claremont for doing another Jean-clone story!) And the thread about the one member of the invasion force who researches Earth and learns that it’s filled with superheroes – and is, thus, a terrible choice for invasion – is rather inspired. (It’s also a call-back to a scene from one of Claremont’s earliest X-Men issues, back during the Cockrum days. Read Pages 2 and 3 of this issue, then re-read Uncanny #105 and you’ll see the one I mean.)

And there is probably no more laugh-out-loud funny line in the entire Claremontian catalogue than the lead alien’s comment on the Sydney Opera House: “Its shape offends me.”

Meanwhile, Liefeld turns out to be a perfect choice for this material. Inked by Dan Green – who keeps a sheen of professionalism over everything, as always – Liefeld’s wacky proportions and insane anatomy highlight the comedy perfectly.
I don’t know what Australians would have thought of this issue – Claremont goes for some pretty broad stereotypical humor here. That said, it is not without its shrewd touches. Their lackadaisical reaction to the invasion is interesting; by most accounts Australia is a generally laid back country, and that’s at least partly the result of its unique geographical circumstances. They really aren’t used to being invaded.

And while it’s an obvious touch, I do laugh at Havok’s Crocodile Dundee paraphrase, “Those aren’t blasters. THIS is a blaster.”

(Meanwhile, apropos of nothing, Page 24 is obliquely prescient, juxtaposing Dan Quayle’s name and Murphy Brown’s in the same panel, only two word-balloons apart. This was February of 1989; Quayle’s famous “Murphy Brown” speech was still over three years away!)

Issues 244 and 245 occupy a strange little niche in the history of Claremont’s run – a pair of light, fun, mostly self-contained stories, cleansing the palette after the gigantic “Inferno” and letting readers catch their collective breath before Claremont would begin his final, doomed overplot. Few comics in Claremont’s run function this way. (“Kitty’s Fairy Tale” being the most noteworthy up to now.) It’s also the only time that a pair of Claremont issues act as genderized counterparts of each other, explicitly splitting the team right in half along the gender divide. Not many other superhero comics could do this if they wanted to, because the males almost always outnumber the females. Not in a Claremont series, though – bless him!

The New Gods #10

2009-11-09T22:31:00.002-05:00

[Andy Bentley continues his issue by issue look at Jack Kirby's New Gods.]

“Earth...The Doomed Dominion!”

New Gods #10 brings Mantis and his army of bugs to Earth which validates Orion’s warnings to the police department of impending doom. The conclusion to the battle is rather simple with a few interesting details.

As Mantis begins the march of the oppressed bugs towards Earth, the defector Forager is already there and causing quite a stir. He has pinched some food from a local bakery and is bounding across the city with the police in pursuit. My thoughts immediately drifted to Spider-Man who also crawls around in a half red suit, often on the wrong side of the law. Eventually the police capture him and take him to police HQ where Orion and Lightray are being detained. Forager recognizes Orion who greets Forager with disgust. Forager proclaims he is not a bug, and one of them. He removes his mask to reveal his human visage which convinces Lightray. This clears up some of my confusion on race and species on New Genesis, but also raises some more questions. However there’s no time for that with Mantis approaching. The district attorney orders the trio to stay, but Lightray whisks them away in a flash of light. The three hide above on a rooftop until Mantis and his horde approach. The battle begin in a kinetic splash page between Mantis and Orion and Forager and the bugs. Lightray realizes the numbers are against them and flies off to look for another option. I’m again struck by how well Orion and Lightray compliment one another. If the New Gods do in fact exist after Final Crisis, I’d like to request an Orion - Lightray book. Lightray discovers a Sonic R&D building which houses a transmitter that can reach the entire city. He requests their services to transmit a special frequency that only the bugs can hear. This turns the tide of the battle as Mantis and the bugs double over in pain, clutching their ears. They return to New Genesis via a boom tube as Orion, Lightray and Forager stand triumphant.

The issue wrapped up rather quickly without addressing some topics I assumed were coming. I was expecting to learn whether Mantis was acting on his own accord or if this was a distraction set up by Darkseid. The prejudice shown by New Genesis towards the bugs in the first issue seemed cruel, yet there was no admonishment of this behavior in this issue. The sonic ray was a bit convenient, but demonstrated Lightray’s intelligence. Lightray would be a great candidate to end the battle between New Genesis and Apokolips.

This issue marks the end of the penultimate Omnibus. The stories within this collection featured some of the most powerful work from Kirby at DC which made the more average ones that tougher to navigate through. Stories like “The Pact!” and “Himon!” offered exciting background to the current battle and fleshed out characters making them more dynamic and identifiable. This momentum often didn’t carry over to subsequent issues. By the third Omnibus, I was ready for the battle to advance towards direct conflict between the two planets rather than the small skirmishes we’ve seen before. These expectations are again a product of my perspective as a reader of dated material. to me, Kirby is spinning his wheels but as Mark Evanier mentions in the afterword: Kirby imagined a much longer series than the one it ultimately became. So he’s plotting for maybe over 100 issues when in reality it doesn’t get to that number. And why wouldn’t he? All the characters he created at Marvel were about 10 years old and still amazingly popular.

Sales of the Fourth World titles were not nearly as robust as Spider-Man or Fantastic Four. Evanier mentions a key factor was distribution of the books which was still limited primarily to newspaper stands. This hindered a series like The Fourth World which carried story elements over from issue to issue. Kirby’s cartoonish style is another factor. Readers have seen his style many times over while Neal Adam’s more realistic work in the pages of Deadman and soon Batman are completely new and groundbreaking in the early 1970’s. Kirby’s pencils may have been considered passe by some readers back then. For me, discovering comics in the 90’s Image era postponed my appreciation of Kirby’s work a good 10-15 years.

Looking forward to the final chapter, I’m excited, but nervous. I do not know how this series ends. I’ve heard rumors it gets messy, which would make sense given the sales numbers on the books. My hope is that Orion battles Darkseid, Miracle finally puts on that magic show, and that the Forever People... well one more funny outfit on Big Bear should suffice.

Rememberance of Comics Past: Marvel's Star Wars

2009-11-06T00:32:00.003-05:00

[Scott continues his series. He would like to remind everyone that the 'Rememberance of Comics Past' banner is open to anyone who would like to revisit a favorite comic of their childhood, whether it be a series or just a single issue]

Princess Leia flying her very own Y-Wing with C-3PO as her co-pilot, Lando Calrisian: Master of Disguise, Mandalorians with Scottish accents, Luke Skywalker with a companion who is, basically, a telepathic bunny rabbit known as a Hoojib…. Where did I get all of this? From some fever dream I had as the result of eating too much Hawaiian Pizza and falling asleep watching a Star Wars marathon on Spike TV? Nope. These stories all actually happened in Marvel’s Star Wars comics of the late seventies and early 80’s.

The series, which picked up as a continuation of Marvel’s adaptation of the original Star Wars and lasted from 1977-1986 and actually helped keep Marvel afloat in a sales slump, pre-dated the strict canonical continuity that exists today in the ‘Expanded Star Wars Universe’. For the record, as big a Star Wars fan as I am, I never really got into the ‘Expanded Universe’; I’ve only read one Star Wars novel and I picked it up because, looking at the description, it seemed to be an adaptation of Conrad’s Heart of Darkness only with Mace Windu (which it totally was, still not really worth the read though). On the DVD commentary of the original Star Wars (I’m a purist so it’s always ‘Star Wars’ to me… not ‘A New Hope’) George Lucas himself pointed out that one of the beauties of the movies was that you were sort of thrown into this strange world without any real explanation of what was going on; you were given just enough information so you understood what was going on but the rest was sort of left up to your imagination (Ironically, he would later spend three whole films explaining what was going on).

In the years following the original films up through the prequel trilogy, a ‘canon’ of events was eventually established. Ultimately, this canon was all at the whim of the big G with the stories he wanted to tell in his films taking precedence above the stories others may wish to tell. However, in between the original films, Marvel was given only two directives: Never allow Luke to directly confront Darth Vader and Don’t Depict The Clone Wars in any real detail.

As a result, the stories from this period are much closer to the original Space Opera genre that inspired the franchise to begin with; these stories have a lot more in common with old Flash Gordon strips than with what most people have come to associate with Star Wars. There is no meditation on the nature of good and evil, no explanation of the various socio-political workings of the galactic senate; we simply follow our heroes from adventure to adventure on one strange new world to another.

The stories in the particular volumes that I own (which collects issues 68-107; late 1982 to 1986) aren’t GREAT by any means; while earlier periods in the series had been handled comics legends like Archie Goodwin, Howard Chaykin and Carmine Infantino (even Chris Claremont contributed a few scripts), by this point, the series had been entrusted to industry workhorses like Dave Micheline and Ron Frenz (I chose these particular volumes based, not on creative talent, but because I remember owning a few of the actual issues when I was a kid). Still, they are a lot of fun.

Not only were the stories in these volumes different in tone, but the overall visual of the Star Wars universe we see here is very different. Today, the Star Wars universe has a clearly established architecture and design sensibility that most artist telling stories in the ‘Expanded Canon’ today tend to adhere to. However, the artist during this period have a lot more freedom of creating the look of the Star Wars universe; sure, the familiar designs of key crafts and technology are there but when new ships and technology are introduced, the designs are very different from what we’re used to seeing in the films.
The result of this is that the Marvel comic series is sort of an ‘Alternate’ Star Wars universe; the Earth-2 Star Wars if you will. Writers were also free to, without making any modifications to key characters, tell whatever kind of story they liked; one story contributed by Ann Nocenti seems like it could have very easily been a repurposed Conan or Red Sonja script, just with a lightsaber and a spaceship thrown in.

One of the things that always appealed to me about the Star Wars universe was the possibility of the stories you could tell. This was, in part, what was so genius about the toy line: they made figures of EVERY character no matter how miniscule their role (also, it’s important to remember that while every summer blockbuster now has toys and other merchandise attached to it, Star Wars was the first film to fully realize and take advantage of this marketing technique). Around the time of the prequels, Lucas was accused of making movies “Just to sell toys,” a trend that has reached horrendous proportions as we have movies like GI Joe and Transformers that are literally based on toy lines. However, if one looks back at the way the original Star Wars was marketed, it was just the opposite: the toys were used to sell the movies. I know I had plenty of the toys before I ever saw one of the movies (In fact, as my Dad tells the story, I used to simply call them “Space Men” and, only later, did I discover that these “Space Men” had a movie). As a kid, you could build a whole little universe with these toys. You didn’t just act out scenes from the movies, you created your own new adventures and you weren’t bound by continuity or the whims of George Lucas.

To a lesser extent, the Marvel Star Wars series was also a part of this marketing of imagination.

Free Form Comments

2009-11-04T22:31:00.001-05:00

Uncanny X-Men #244

2009-11-03T10:56:00.003-05:00

[Jason Powell continues his issue by issue look at Claremont's X-Men run. Can you believe how far he has gotten?]

“Ladies’ Night”

Claremont wrote Uncanny X-Men for 17 years, and it has now been 18 (and counting) since he stopped (the first time). His accomplishment and his status in the industry has unsurprisingly diminished – which is partly why I started doing this blog in the first place – but two decades ago, as the writer of the #1 comic-book of virtually the entire 1980s, Claremont loomed large on the comics scene. Even The Comics Journal, which tried its best to ignore superhero material as much as it could, had plenty to say about Claremont’s work. It was as hard to ignore back then as it seems to be easy to ignore now.

Thus, a review of any comic-book with female protagonists would garner the inevitable comparison to Claremont, whose X-Men work was populated with so many well formulated female characters. “These are real women,” the Journal would rhapsodize about whatever black-and-white indy book had won their hearts. “Not men with breasts, like Claremont writes.” The implication being that Claremont’s women are simply superheroes who happen to be girls, but aren’t readily distinguishable in any meaningful way from their male counterparts.

Uncanny X-Men #244 sees the four female members of the team go shopping at the mall, get makeovers and haircuts, try on dresses for each other, and then enjoy the stylings of a male stripper.

True, this is the most extreme example in the X-canon of girls acting girly under Claremont’s pen, and it is not as if shopping and perms represent a particularly nuanced portrayal of late-20th-century femininity. Still … saying that Claremont didn’t write women as women? That’s a tad ridiculous.

It strikes me as particularly sexist on the part of the people levying the original criticism, personally. Women who want to be superheroes are not realistic? Only men are willing to put on uniforms and fight for principles? (Claremont has noted in interviews that his own mother served during wartime.)

Claremont’s population of the X-canon with so many formidable females remains one of his most worthwhile and lasting contributions. (Anecdotal sidenote: A female friend of mine has actually commented to me that when watching superhero cartoons with her son, she is struck by the fact that X-Men is one of the few in which the female characters actually fight alongside the men. In the comparable Spider-Man cartoons, she wryly commented, the girls are generally there to argue over who will take Peter Parker to the prom.) Even the actresses in the X-Men films commented on how impressed they were to learn that this particular superhero franchise had so many good female roles. It’s sad in a way that even in 2009, this is still anomalous. But it speaks to how rare and how significant Claremont’s attitude was.

As for “Ladies’ Night” itself, Claremont very much enjoys the “weaker” sex as the four gals in the cast – Storm, Rogue, Psylocke and Dazzler – head to the mall and in a roundabout way, recruit a fifth: Jubilee.

A character who would prosper quite a bit in the 90s, Jubilee is not quite familiar in her debut issue. A few months down the track, the character starts speaking in some rather outré slang – Claremont’s attempt to make her the Carrie Kelly to Wolverine’s “Dark Knight” – but here, she seems quite a bit more mature and down-to-earth, more of a latter-day Kitty Pryde.
The issue is also notable for a speech made by Dazzler midway through, in which Claremont gets a bit meta. Alison actually comments on the cyclical nature of the X-Men’s existence, all but spelling out the fact that every year they seem to get involved in some gigantic world-changing crossover. She says that all the characters are in danger of being “reduced” to “stereotyped cypher[s]” [sic]. This seems to be Claremont lamenting the direction of the franchise, with everything geared towards the gigantic fall crossovers, the editorially mandated mega-plots making characterization (Claremont’s hallmark) a secondary concern.

“We fight, we save the world, we die, we get resurrected, we rest up, and then start the whole stupid cycle over again,” Dazzler says. “But where in that eternal Moebius loop do we get to live?”

Thus, this issue and the next comprise an opening one-two punch in Claremont’s attempt to get his characters out of the pressure-cooker and let them live, and breathe. The villains (a parody of Ghostbusters, portrayed by writers of the Wild Cards series, to which Claremont contributed around the same time this issue was published) are a joke. The obligatory fight – while excitingly illustrated by Silvestri and Green, as always – is perfunctory. The fun is in the characterization, as Claremont presents a surprisingly authentic girls-night-out montage. It’s sort of a superhero Sex in the City, well ahead of its time. (In more ways than one: As I write this, Marvel is putting out a comic-book that actually totes itself as a superhero Sex and the City, which in 2009 is decidedly behind the times.)

I had a brief exchange recently with Neil Shyminsky about how the Genoshan arc of issues 235-238 is the thematic conclusion of Claremont’s run, at least in terms of the politics. The X-Men become, in that story, as revolutionary as they can become – a full 180 degrees from the counterrevolutionary stance of Lee and Kirby’s first issue. Then “Inferno” is the conclusion of the run in terms of the major long-running plot threads. A massive amount of momentum comes to a breathtaking finale over the course of 1988.

Now it’s 1989, and Claremont is free to do whatever he likes. “Ladies Night,” with its deft characterization, charming story, jokey-joke villains and pitch-perfect delivery, feels like the sun coming out after a massive, cataclysmic storm. Claremont clearly relishes this new sense of release from pressure and sense of new possibilities. That he can so unashamedly indulge his enjoyment of the feminine members of the cast is icing on the cake.

The Forever People #10

2009-11-02T11:42:00.005-05:00

[Andy Bentley continues his issue by issue look at Jack Kirby's New Gods.]

“The Scavengers!”

Deadman overstays his welcome in this second issue of his team up with the Forever People. Kirby’s apathy towards the character shows in the story’s flaws in continuity and resolution. DC editorial foisted this team up upon Kirby and it proves editorial must respect the boundaries of creative.

We open on a quasi-futuristic carjacking complete with magnetic boots and ejector seats. The criminals are a group known as The Scavengers and they have a Diabolik-type feel with mysterious code names and wild technology. They’re run by the director who bears more than a passing resemblance to the Batman villain, Humpty dumpty. He also has a hook for a right hand, implying he is the true killer Deadman is seeking out. The Scavengers have been scouting The Forever People for their super powers which in turn reveals Deadman’s resurrection to the Director.

The Forever People have been split into two camps. Beautiful Dreamer and Big Bear have gotten jobs to pay rent to their new friend/landlord Mrs Magruder while the rest are hard at work creating a body for Deadman. The same Deadman who was already made corporeal through a combination of Serafin’s cartridges at the end of the last issue. I can only assume that this is a more permanent solution for Mr. Boston Brand. The “follower” body is left downstairs where a Scavenger agent quickly snaps it up. Mother Box alerts the Forever People to this act of thievery (she’s like a cosmic LoJack!) and they’re off to retrieve it. The story moves to The Scavenger’s lair where they’re testing the limits to the follower body. Wanting to avoid a haunting by the real Deadman, the Director orders the body destroyed. But before they can do so, Deadman leaps into the follower body and the battle is on. How did he and the Forever People track down the Scavengers? Well, that was mother box again however Kirby seemingly forgot to address this until B. Dreamer offhandedly mentions it in the last panel of the comic!

The colorful battle between The Scavengers advanced weapons and the Forever People and Deadman skills lasts several panels until both the Director and his manager are both captured. Deadman seemingly has accomplished his goal of finding his true killer, however DC comics wants Deadman to last beyond this team up. The Director explains that The Scavengers have several satellite units with men who have a hook for their right hand (that must be a difficult position to fill). Our heroes accept this on face value and Deadman is setup once again for a myriad of future appearances in the DC universe. Well not just yet. Serafin gives Deadman the blue cartridge in order to make the bond between his spirit and follower body permanent. Why they couldn’t have kept him corporeal with the red and blue cartridges from the last issue is beyond me. We might have to take that conundrum to The Source Wall.

Final Musings

-One way to improve this issue would have been to have the weapons The Scavengers use be supplied or originate from Apokolips. It would provide a personal connection to the Forever People rather than have them basically be sidekicks in a Deadman story.

-The last page has an add for “A NEW KIRBY BLOCKBUSTER”, The Demon! Translation: The Fourth World titles aren’t gonna be around that much longer

-I still get a kick out of Big Bear. Especially seeing him in a chauffeur outfit

James on Watchmen / Savage Critics on Dark Knight Strikes Again (comment pull quote, link)

2009-10-29T23:33:00.005-04:00

James wrote in the Free Form Comments

Watchmen, bloody Watchmen. Finally read my Absolute Edition, after what, 2 years? 3? (Actually, I haven't read all the scripts and stuff in the back, yet. It's a lot of book.)

It's a beautiful edition. There's recoloured versions of the regular trade now, but they don't come close to the quality of print and paper in the Absolute, and you can't imagine how different the art looks at this size. Proper gorge'.

I can't remember if I've linked to Andrew Rilstone's Watchmen essay before, but it's the best analysis I've read since Geoff's, check it out. He says he admires the comic, but can't bring himself to love it - a view I think Geoff shares, and one I've always resisted. It's not just a clinical literary exercise! It's a rollicking good story in its own right! Isn't it?

Rilstone talks a lot about Watchmen's strengths in terms of the subtext - the gags, the games, the meta-commentary and connections, aimed directly at any superhero fan/buff/historian's sweet-spot - suggesting that there's not a lot there for the uninitiated, that the face-value reading comes up lacking. I've always defended Watchmen's story in those terms, insisting that, for me at least, it's both. It's the repurposed Charlton characters AND the brave new "really real" superhero universe. The post-Vietnam Captain America AND the compelling whodunit. The Batmen spanning the political spectrum AND the magical blue willy-man.

I didn't come back to Watchmen expecting my opinion to change particularly - the book's just been in my head since all the movie (I never saw) stuff, and one really should use the nice birthday presents one receives. But my opinion did change. It was a bit of a slog, at times. Part of that was me recognising Moore's limitations as a (then) youngish writer, as highlighted Rilstone. Part of it, I think, was down to the format; big fancy hardcovers are nice, but they're nowhere near as portable or physically accessible as a little ol' magazine or paperback. So, yeah: slog. Maybe I was wrong all along, and it works better as an intricate in-joke much better than it does a Proper Story, if it even works on that level at all.

I got into it again at the end there, though. I think I'm in love with that ending, no doubt spurred on by my contrarian streak and some people's problems with it. But: no doubt about it - I'm down one Favourite Comic Book. It's quite liberating, really. I'm tempted to pop Casanova into its spot, but it's been a while, and - though I'm obsessive and anal enough to enjoy lists and categorisation as much as the next nerd - favourites aren't really all that helpful, are they?

Neither was this - sorry if it looked like I was going to make some points, or offer some insights for a second there. As usual, I'm Just Talking.

[Well we are all just talking, yeah? I would like to say a long thing about how I feel about Watchmen but a while back I turned in an essay called "The Limits of Watchmen" that looks at -- well exactly what the title says. I will direct you there when the book it is in sees print. Tim Callahan will too as I think he is in there as well.]

[James says this on the blog, and then BAM the same day the Savage Critics write about Dark Knight Strikes Again. Just thought I would link.]

Free Form Comments

2009-10-28T22:12:00.001-04:00

Uncanny X-Men #243

2009-10-27T12:39:00.003-04:00

[Jason Powell continues his issue by issue look at Claremont's X-Men.]

“Inferno: Part the Fourth — Ashes”

The previous issue ended with a cool and sexy cliffhanger, as Dark Madelyne stood atop a tower -- Dark Havok by her side, Jean Grey her prisoner, and her own baby about to be sacrificed. From there, Claremont passed the narrative baton to the Simonsons, who turned in a pretty ugly issue, both visually and textually. But, it did at least offer a definitive origin of Madelyne Pryor, every loose end accounted for and every old plot thread addressed. (Claremont is rarely as neat and tidy.)

X-Factor #38 is a faintly depressing comic in terms of production value – but, from there we bounce back to Uncanny X-Men, and we get a gorgeous splash page of Madelyne Pryor, whose cape is a black Phoenix bird, every fold of which is gorgeously rendered by guest-inker Hilary Barta. Claremont’s narration is comfortingly baroque (with Madelyne described as a clone grown from “a clutch of stolen cells” – lovely); Silvestri’s figure-work is beautiful … ah, all is right with the world.

Patrick Meaney has called Madelyne’s transformation to demon-goddess nothing less than “character assassination.” It’s hard to argue the point during the opening sequence here, as – even in death – Madelyne is completely unrepentant, still attempting to kill the X-Men. Claremont and Simonson (and probably editor Bob Harras too) are still so intent on redeeming Scott’s abandonment of Maddie that they seem hell-bent on ridding her of all redeeming qualities. When Mr. Sinister starts rampaging through Jean’s mind, smashing her memories as if they’re made of glass, it can be viewed as a metaphor for what “X”-editorial is doing to readers’ memories of the “real” Madelyne, the heroic woman, loving mother, suffering wife.
I don’t care; I still love bitch-goddess Maddie. Especially when Claremont gives her lines like, “[He] calls himself Mr. Sinister. His hobby’s cloning redheads.”

Anyway, so Madelyne remains a villain to her last dying moment. (Actually, she seems to redeem herself at the last second, but she also seems to have become Jean at that point? Matters are a bit opaque here.) Cut to: the second half of the issue, as the X-Men track down Mr. Sinister, and learn that he has moved from his Nebraska base to Charles Xavier’s School for Gifted Youngsters. Claremont is bringing us full circle for this, his last contribution to the “Inferno” crossover. (It’s not only that; the text at the beginning notes that this is also the 25-year anniversary issue of the series, and the “150th issue of the new X-Men” – which makes it also Claremont’s 150th issue.)

The story of “Ashes” jumps around quite a bit – it functions weirdly as the penultimate chapter in the “Inferno” crossover (odd considering that the “Inferno” ended with Madelyne’s death at the end of the previous installment). But there is something else going on here. This issue has less significance to the “Inferno” chronology as it does to Claremont’s personal “X”-chronology.

Consider: Claremont takes us on a somewhat nostalgic tour of the “X”-mythos Continuity references abound: A tour inside Jean Grey’s mental space gives us some highlights (including a fashion-show of all her costumes, which is suitably Claremontian). We’re taken back to the School for Gifted Youngsters (not occupied by the X-Men since Uncanny 221, over a year and a half ago). Wolverine ruminates briefly over a picture of him and Mariko. Even more recent X-riffs are reprised, like Psylocke vs. Sabretooth. (I’m struck by the foresight demonstrated by Claremont in seeming to recognize that particular story as a riff destined to be replayed by other writers after him.)

It’s also amusing the way Silvestri has rendered “Inferno”’s apparent effect on Storm’s full-body leather costume – which is to say, it’s been torn to shreds, and now looks more like the original black-bikini design by Cockrum. Plus ce change …

Claremont’s writing in Uncanny 243 is as fluid as anything from this period, but matters here remain rather subdued throughout. Compared to the previous issue, this story – with its nostalgic turns and somewhat perfunctory action sequences – seems almost quaint.

Still, it contains some intriguing turns. Psylocke, for example, wonders whether “the changes [to the X-Men] wrought by ‘Inferno’ … were more than cosmetic.” This is a fascinating development that Claremont will kinda-sorta explore over the next few months before dropping it (perhaps at Bob Harras’ behest).

The climactic destruction of Xavier’s mansion is also quite exciting. Granted, Claremont has done this particular bit before (Uncanny #154), but the execution is a bit punchier this time around. Plus, it seems likely that Claremont intended it to stick this time. He wanted to kill Charles off and put Gateway in charge of the team. Destroying Charles’ mansion was no doubt meant as a very deliberate step in wiping away the old X-Men paradigm, and perhaps even a foreshadowing of what was to happen to Xavier himself.

Didn’t work out that way, in the event, but to end this milestone issue by blowing up the “school for gifted youngsters” is still very dramatically effective. The reason being: This 150th issue of Claremont’s run is also – in many ways – his final.

(Patrick Meaney uses a TV-based analogy to discuss this: He calls “Fall of the Mutants” the “series finale” of Claremont’s X-Men, while “Inferno” is the motion picture made a couple years later to resolve the final loose ends.)

Indeed, “Inferno” culminates so many of Claremont’s threads, and with such finality, that it does effectively become the climax of the story he began telling 13 years earlier. (Even the demonic-invasion trope provides an almost perfect book-end. The first X-Men story that Claremont wrote himself, sans a guiding plot by Len Wein, was Uncanny #96, about a demon invading the Earth.)

Claremont didn’t realize it at the time, but this is it. “Inferno” is the big, show-stopper finale. What follows is three years of curtain calls.

Mister Miracle #9

2009-10-27T00:31:00.004-04:00

[Andy Bentley continues his issue by issue look at Jack Kirby's New Gods. I am not going to lie to you. I literally just forgot to blog today, which is why this is going up after midnight. Sorry.]

“Himon!”

Like “The Pact!” before it, “Himon!” opens with a note from Mr. Kirby thanking us, the readers, for indulging his efforts on this issue. I’m at a loss as to what I’m indulging, as I found Himon to be as enjoyable as “The Pact!” before it. Kirby finally gives us the details of Scott Free’s escape from Apokolips which delves heavily into freedom of creative expression- something that if you have been following along, is a common theme in Kirby’s work at DC.

“Himon!” takes place after “The Pact!” but before the first issue of Mr. Miracle. The prologue sets up the issue’s villain, Willik, who is in the slums of Apokolips looking the legendary peaceful objector to Darkseid’s regime named Himon. Willik rounds up the people of the area and demands Himon step forth. Believing Darkseid’s subjects would willingly die for his regime, he sets the entire crowd afire to weed out the rabble rouser. With this act (and one further in the story), Willik becomes a more dangerous villain that any of Darkseid’s colorful flunkies we have seen before. His costume is not flashy, he has no gimmick or powers, yet he proves he will murder innocents for Darkseid rather than just threaten it. Kirby’s Fourth World is often said to have one foot in the past and one in the future. Willik is the villain of the future.

Himon is rooted out, but disappears with gadgetry familiar to the likes we’ve seen from Mr. Miracle. He reappears in a dilapidated residence where he has been tutoring youths who are interested in creating and exploring rather than just blindly serving Darkseid. Among them is a conflicted Scott Free. Scott has excelled in Granny’s ranks and is on the fast track to Darkseid’s elite, yet there is an instinct buried that makes him question this authority. His thoughts are interrupted by the sudden appearance of Big Barda. Barda is there to collect a Auralie, a young fury in training that would rather explore the art of dance with Himon. Barda chastises Scott for besmirching his rank with the likes of Himon and storms out with Auralie. Soon after, an angry mob is upon them and Himon and his pupils use their custom made mother boxes to “phase out” as to not be detected. Kreetin, one of Himon’s less skilled pupils, cannot get his device to function and is caught. The benevolent Himon sacrifices himself for the boy who slinks off into the shadows. Kreetin is met by Metron who scolds him for his behavior and it is suggested that Himon, like Scott, originates from New Genesis.

Himon is placed in an elaborate death trap, the likes of which he has been escaping for some time now. This constant escape from death is what has built him up as a legend amongst the people of Apokolips. He escapes this one as well and makes his way to Metron. Through conversation, the reader learns that the two consider themselves equals and have been guiding Scott Free together - like Yoda and Obi Wan guide Luke in The Empire Strikes Back. Himon regrettably admits to creating the X-element that bore the boom tube which was co-opted by Darkseid. Himon argues to push Scott further however Metron believes Scott must come to this conclusion himself.

The next page reveals that Kreetin was picked up by Williks men. He’s brought before Willik, accused of fraternizing with Himon, and executed for such actions. He’s then hung up by his shirt on a chandelier of other dead suspected followers of Himon. Again Kirby appears to be referencing the persecution of Jews and Jewish sympathizers in WWII. Scott and Barda are brought in front of Willik next. Willik is suspicious of Scott’s allegiance and reveals to Barda that Scott has been growing out his hair despite Granny’s rules. This is a great piece of business as it relates to the rigid restrictions of hair in the US military and the fashion of the 70’s to grow your hair longer than what is usually accepted. Barda is not there to be accused but rather for Willik’s amusement. Willik savors Barda’s horrified reaction when he reveals that he’s shocked her pupil Auralie to death to punish her for publicly dancing. This is the most tagnible and violent act Kirby has written so far. Scott and Barda lunge forth in anger as Willik and are met by Himon (in disguise as Willik’s servant) who leads them briskly out of the building. Himon replaced Willik’s dinner with a Bomb which destroys the building and seemingly kills Willik. Himon gives one last pep talk to Scott, explaining that the source which speaks through the mother box is power enough to combat Darkseid and that Darkseid fears Scott because he is a free thinker. When asked what he dreams, Scott says he hears a voice asking Izaya to sing which readers know are the final words of the departed wife of High father from “The Pact!”.

The last and most powerful scene occurs some time later in the midst of Scott’s successful escape from Apokolips. With only his Aerodiscs (and a little help from Barda and her Furies), he is able to evade all of Darkseid’s minions. At this point, the gravity becomes locally increased and Scott is forced to crawl towards the opening boom tube that beckons him. Metron and Himon stand to each side. Himon rooting him on while Metron sits silently.

Then, the devil himself appears.

Darkseid stands behind Scott, with Kirby crackle fizzing behind him. Darkseid’s voice booms above them with some pride over he effort that it took Scott to get there. Darkseid offers Scott one more chance to stay yet Scott continues to crawl towards the open boom tube. “LET ME BE SCOTT FREE -- AND FIND MYSELF!” Scott shouts and he jumps forth into the unknown. Metron and Himon begin to phase out but leave Darkseid with a proclamation: the war will end with a battle between Orion and Darkseid in Armaghetto, the slum the issue opened on.

The strengths of this issue are not unlike those of “The Pact!”. Both provide backstory with key details to the universe Kirby has created and give a tangible motivation for Scott Free and High Father. Scott’s motivation to be independent is an easily identifiable one for the teenagers that were reading comics in this era. Part of the evolution into adulthood is to cast off your parents and become an independent individual and this transition can often be a painful one. But the most significant addition to the saga is the demonstration the evil of Apokolips at an intimate level. We’ve heard of the past war between the planets and we’ve seen Darkseid and his followers intimidate and instill fear. But we’ve never seen what happens if you cross them and the murder of Himon’s followers gives you that perspective. You can learn of a car bombing, or a plane crash and certainly feel remorse, but you won’t feel a fraction of what you would feel if you were to learn about the people who lost their lives during a tragedy.

Himon gives us an endgame to the saga in the prophesied battle between Orion and Darkseid. I’ve heard rumors that Kirby’s Fourth World fades away rather than burning out. Let’s hope we at least get to see this battle in the final volume.

Final Musings

I’m still a bit confused by Himon’s motivations. Is he on Apoklips only to motivate Scott Free to escape? He knows his escape will break the truce, is the ensuing war a means to an end to setup the Orion/Darkseid battle?

I’m also still confused as to the allegiance of the female furies. They’ve defied Darkseid’s regime by order of their captain several times now. shouldn’t some punishment be dealt out?

Himon looked way too human and quirky to not be a caricature of someone Kirby knew. Sure enough, he was modeled after Shel dorf, founder of the San Diego Comic Con.

This appearance of Metron is a good segway back into the He-Man/Kirby connection discussed a while back. I found the 1st appearance of Zodak on the cartoon and put it up on youtube here.

Zodak is a cosmic enforcer who does not interfere in the conflicts at hand and rides through space on a flying chair. Oy ve. Further research into the matter revealed that this characterization seems to have come from the early DC comics of the Masters of the Universe.

On a similar note, Darkseid’s offer to Scott is so close to Vader’s offer to Luke in Empire it’s uncanny.

In “The Pact!” Darkseid says Desaad gave him the X-element. I hope we get to see how it was passed from Himon to Desaad.

Armagetto is so silly it almost verges on clever. If Klingon’s have their own language, I think Kirby should have his own as well.

Twin Peaks, Season 2 Episode 22: THE END

2009-10-23T15:56:00.002-04:00

By Jill Duffy, girl reporter [completing her episode by episode look at Twin Peaks. I make a brief comment below.]

“And now, an ending. Where there was once one, there are now two. Or were there always two? What is a reflection? A chance to see two? When there are chances for reflections, there can always be two or more. Only when we are everywhere will there be just one. It has been a pleasure speaking to you.” –The Log Lady

When the Log Lady speaks her parting words about duplicity, sameness, and reflection to introduce this final episode of Twin Peaks, I honestly wonder what she wants us to think about.

There is no obvious answer, but the two “twos” that come to mind first are Bob and his “host” (Leland, for example), and Laura and Maddy.

Let’s start with Bob. We haven’t seen much of Bob lately at all. Then there’s Leland, who came apart at the seams and finally died a few episodes back. Maddy has been dead for quite some time, and Laura was never seen alive on the show ever.

I never really thought about that until now. Laura Palmer isn’t really on the show.

I guess for Laura at though, her absence was her presence. Her whole role in the show was that she was dead at the start of it.

But in this final episode, directed by David Lynch, many of these people come back.

What Happens

The show gets off on a roll. There’s some turmoil in the beginning about Pete and a stolen truck—just enough to establish a conspiracy and pick up some momentum. Pete thinks Margaret, The Log Lady, stole his truck, but it was actually Windom Earle disguised as Margaret. (More Bugs Bunny stuff for you right there!)

Earle has kidnapped Annie and is taking her to the woods in the stolen truck. His plan is to invoke fear in her, because he needs fear in order to open the gateway to the Black Lodge and the other side.

I feel like it’s strange to watch Annie at first in this scene because she’s almost cold. But something else about her seems strong, like she is deliberately trying to not show fear so that Earle can’t get what he’s after. None of that is explicit, and maybe it wasn’t even intended, but that’s how I felt about her performance.

Annie at first repeats prayer (she used to be in a convent, if you recall) and talks to her captor rationally. But aggressively, Earle makes her submit and forces into a circle of sycamore tree. The moment she steps into the circle, she becomes totally washed over.

A flashlight shines on Annie in the darkness, with high contrast, and she looks a little like Laura at a glance. Then she and Windom walk behind a red curtain that appears in the backdrop. They just slip behind it and disappear in the woods. I can’t imagine what that moment must have been like to see on television when this episode first aired.

Meanwhile. . .

Nadine and Mike suffer head trauma, which causes Nadine to come back to full consciousness and adulthood again. She back in reality, but she’s also back to her frail and crazy self.

I don’t like the Nadine thing ending this way. It’s sad to see her acting like a hysterical woman, screaming about drape runners again, when she had become such a strong and fearless young woman.

It’s strange that this scene is butted up against the one with Annie, as two women who were momentarily strong are not anymore.

As for Donna, she has learned that Ben Horne is her biological father. There’s a confrontation, and Doc Hayward goes berserk, punching Horne hard and causing him to spin, stumble, and crack his head open on the fireplace. Doc Hayward falls to his knees, shaking his fists and head in anger, or in frustration at being overcome by emotion or darkness enough to knock another man out cold. That was totally unexpected. Doc Hayward is the last person you’d ever suspect to lose his cool, or worse, be overtaken by Bob—and there’s a hint from the music cues and the level of gore in this scene that maybe that’s what’s about to happen.

Back In The Woods. . .

Cooper goes to the woods, in pursuit of Windom Earle and Annie, with Harry, but says he has to go forward alone. The lighting uses a lot of flashlights, and there’s a lot of handheld camera work. It’s very Blair Witch Project, only less nauseating.

Cooper finds the circle of 12 sycamore trees, sees a pool of oil, and just like that, slips behind the same red curtains where Earle and Annie disappeared.

Harry seems to look on. Can Harry see the curtain? When the camera is from his perspective, it’s there, though I’m not 100 percent convinced he can see it. Maybe he sees Coop just disappear into a little strike of light.

Behind the Curtain. . .

Behind the curtain, the dim spot-flashlight lighting changes and we get strobe instead. There’s an old singer with an old-fashioned mic with heavy reverb. The little man is there.

We see the little stage area of two couches and a statue where Laura once appeared with the Little Man in Cooper’s dream.

The red room is what’s memorable about Twin Peaks, so I understand why Lynch and Frost want to end the series here. But it is odd that so much time has passed since Twin Peaks took place in the red room. This is riveting for television, and what I think makes it riveting is returning to this magical and special place that was never explained to us. We get to return to this place that we wanted to know more about.

Seriously, riveting! The characters in this show go into another dimension, where there are strobe lights, murdered high school girls, a midget—and!—this isn’t even the first time they go to this place! There are people on the outside, namely Harry now, waiting for the characters to return to the normal world. Usually if this kind of alternate universe were taking place in a television show or movie, no one but the character experiencing it would know so that we, the audience, would always have to wonder if the entire experience were only some allusion or delusion.

In Twin Peaks, though, we have Harry, Hawk, Margaret, and Briggs to back up the story. We had the one-armed man Mike. We had the little boy who made the creamed corn disappear. All the corroborated stories tell us, “This is really happening!” This place really exists.

At daylight, Andy and Harry are waiting for Cooper to reemerge. It’s been about 10 hours, they say.

Again, Meanwhile. . .

Audrey goes into a bank and handcuffs herself to the local Savings and Loan to protest its investment in Ghostwood.

There’s an excruciatingly old man working at the bank. I like the old geezer cameos, like the one in Cooper’s hotel room after he has been shot. They walk as if they need a walker or cane, but can manage to take just a few steps on their own... just a few more… just a few more. They limp along at a hilariously slow pace.

In the bank vault, we get a lot of Lynchian shots, where we watch, in one continuous shot, the old man walk way down a hallway, fetch a glass of water, and then walk all the way back to Audrey, and then walk another stretch to put the glass down, and then pace around some more.

This long distance shot, which is still in effect when Andrew and Pete show up, puts a huge amount of distance between us and them. It also, though, tells us that the action is due to move back our way any moment now.

Andrew has come to the bank because he has a key from Eckhart that is, apparently, for a safety deposit box. Andrew finds the box, opens it, and inside there is a note—“Got you, Andrew”—and a bomb that immediately blows the whole place to smithereens. We can only assume everyone is dead.

At the R&R Diner, Shelly and Bobby are hanging out. Sarah, Laura’s mother, and Dr. Jacoby enter looking for Briggs and his wife, telling them they have an urgent message. Sarah sits down and tells Briggs, in a crazy demonic whisper, “I’m in the Black Lodge with Dale Cooper.”

Who is channeling Sarah to say this? Is it Bob? Windom Earle? The midget? Laura? Suddenly, there is a shot of the red room hallway, and voice saying, “I’ve waited for you.”

We are now 31 minutes into this 49-minute show, if you can believe it. I can’t. That’s why I made a note of it.

In the red room, Laura arrives. The elderly hotel porter arrives. The giant arrives and says, “One and the same,” as people continue to appear and disappear or turn into someone else.

One unique thing about Twin Peaks that I’ve harped on before is how explicit the show is in getting across some of its messages. When Bob inhabited Leland, nothing was left up to interpretation. We saw and heard several times how Bob took over Leland’s body. There was never any doubt in anyone’s mind about what was happening.

Now, however, what the hell is going on?

It’s kind of great. What could be creepier? And again, I can’t believe this was ever on prime time.

Cooper picks up a cup of coffee. It’s fake and the liquid is fake, and doesn’t pour. He rights it, tips again, and now it pours like normal. He rights it again, pours again, and now it pours like molasses. Cooper is experimenting in the world, I think, testing things out to see what happens. The problem is, objects do not seem to have fixed properties, much like how people morphed into one another only moments before.

The Little Man says, “Wow Bob, wow,” and “Fire walk with me.” Then more strobes.

Cooper exits to the hallway, through the curtains, and parts the curtains on the other side only to find a replica of the room he was just in, except devoid of people. He returns to the first room, and the Little Man yells at him, “Wrong way.”

He exits again, goes back to the second room again, and finds the Little Man there this time, yelling and gyrating. He says, “Another friend,” and we see a silhouette coming from behind the curtains. It’s Maddy. She says, “Watch out for my cousin.”

Cooper goes to the first room.

It’s empty.

Then the Little Man appears, but his eyes are messed up. He says, “Doppleganger.”

Laura appears, also with messed up vampire eyes. She screeches and screams, blood curdling, for a long time. Cooper runs away. Now he’s bleeding. He goes back and forth between the two rooms so much that I lose track of which was the first room and which was the second. Where are people good, and where are they bad?

He enters one again. Each time it’s different. Now he sees Caroline dead on the floor lying next to his own body double. She rises and it becomes Annie, with a bloody and punctured throat.

He exits, reenters. Annie is there. “I saw the face of the man who killed me. It was my husband.” Then Annie becomes Caroline, then Annie again, then Laura, then Windom. He says, “If you give me your soul, then I’ll let Annie live.” And Windom seems to take his soul. Then fire. Then Bob tortures Windom.

Bob tells Cooper to go, that Earle is “wrong.” “He can’t ask for your soul. I will take his.” As Bob laughs like crazy, Cooper flees the room, toward the camera. Then there is a shadowy figure behind the curtain at the opposite end of the room, and in through the curtains comes Cooper, now with messed up eyes, and he joins Bob in laughing.

We are 45 minutes in. I can’t believe how much happens in this episode in only 45 minutes.
Leland appears with the cataract eyes, and colored hair again (remember his hair went white). He says, “I did not kill anybody."

Another Cooper appears in the same shot. Cooper 1 leaves. Cooper 2 approaches Leland. Cooper 2 has an evil grin. Cooper 2 goes after Cooper 1.

The two Coopers run in circles, as much as where they are can be said to put them in circles. The evil Coop catches up with the good one just as we cut to the woods and see Harry waking, and yelling out to Cooper, who is now in the ground in the sycamore circle. Annie is there as well, knocked out, with a bloody face.

This is the 47 minute mark.

Cooper wakes up in the hotel room. Harry and Doc Hayward are there. He says several times that he needs to brush his teeth and goes alone into the bathroom. Something is off about him. Obviously, he’s upset, and that’s an understatement.
Once in the bathroom, he squeezes toothpaste into the sink, then raises his head at the mirror and smashes it into it, bloodying his face, cracking the mirror. As he lifts his face, it’s Bob’s reflection. In a maniac’s mocking voice, he repeats, “How’s Annie? How’s Annie? How’s Annie?” and laughs at himself. And that’s how it ends, at 49 minutes: Bob takes over Cooper.

Last Rites

I don’t know what to make of it. I’m glad the show is over because I wouldn’t have wanted a season three in which Bob manifests as Cooper. What would have been the plot? Waiting for Cooper to kill Annie or Audrey or some other young girl? That would have been too dark, too grim, and too much of a stretch with Cooper’s character.

I think Cooper already became someone that I wasn’t as crazy about in season two when he fully became a community member of Twin Peaks. In season one, he is an outsider, hanging upside down in his hotel as part of his daily exercises, making voice recordings to Diane, his secretary back at home base, in short, a kooky guy who has brought his kooky ways to this small town, which he then learns has its own kooky ways.

Knowing that at the end of this episode, there is no more Twin Peaks the television program, I think it works to end it this way. Having Cooper be overtaken by Bob works only if it isn’t explained or followed through on. It works because we don’t know what will happen next.

[I kind of disagree about not knowing what will happen next, but I am in the minority on this. I think that just like in Lost Highway the whole thing comes full circle. Next up: a beautiful young girl is murdered, and the person who did it is the person you would least expect: someone who loved her very much. I think this is partly why when Lynch does the Fire Walk With Me movie it does not really advance anything -- it just acts as a prequel, not really revealing much.]

[Also: Thank you very much Jill Duffy!]

FlashForward

2009-10-22T19:46:00.003-04:00

Some spoilers for LOST season 5.

I got into a conversation today with Brad who I had not talked to in a while and we discussed Flashforward: we discovered that we had the exact same reaction. We liked the first episode, but immediately put it on the burn pile because of the second one. Flashforward is a great premise: everyone on earth gets a glimpse of 6 months in the future, and then has to grapple with what it means, and how it happened. Just the neatness with which you can describe the thing shows that people are working hard to make this thing work. It makes a calculated full frontal assault on the throne of LOST at ABC, which goes off the air in May. Not just with the casting of Lost's Penny and eventually Charlie, but with that opening sequence which introduces our main man just as Lost did.

And just like LOST it will "flash" between two time periods, focusing on individual characters while investigating a larger mystery. And it also takes us back to the early days of Lost where the sci-fi stuff was on the back-burner, much more balanced with straight drama elements. (A sister of a friend of mine who watched the first season or two of Lost and then gave up on it was very taken aback when she heard recently that characters were time traveling, and while I did get sucked into the silliness of donkey wheels and whatnot I can also sympathize).

The first episode of FlashForward was pretty good, with nice character moments.

(notice in the background, behind the car, a billboard for LOST's Oceanic Airlines and their perfect safety record, a hint about season 6: this show could not want to replace LOST more).

And in this clip you can see a call back to that nice character moment as well as a that last minute reveal that sets up the larger mystery, just like the monster did on LOST.

I was not super clear why Seth McFarlane was in the show:

But it was pretty good so I watched the second ep. And I got hit first with this, a "comedy" moment. I mean a lot of these serial dramas do quickly forget their sense of humor, or never had one (I am looking at you BSG), so in theory I like the idea of putting something light in the show. I even in theory like the careen from the high concept of the flashforward to the reality that maybe a powerful man was on the toilet at the moment he was jumped forward to, and thus lacks the important life changing vision that others got. But this is a disaster:

This is a scene more appropriate to Dumb and Dummer, as it takes the usual "I, a DUDE, have to put my mouth on the lips of this DUDE" and doubles up for potty humor as well. (There is also a strange echo of Sports Night of all things, where Issac, also the boss, also black, missed the world changing "GIANTS WIN THE PENNANT" moment because he was in the bathroom).

Doubling up gay panic with potty humor is already too much, but then THIS. The cliche is unbelievable.

Oh, how creepy all those doll limbs are! Notice the IRONY of how they should be happy toys for little girls but just make everything seem even more creepy here by suggesting dismemberment and horrors in the context of children. Wonder how long it must have taken our evil mastermind to MAKE AN ALARM SYSTEM OUT OF THEIR DOLL LAUGH BOXES FOR MAXIMUM CREEPY EFFECT. (When I was a kid I was always amazed that guys with mohawks were supposed to be considered tough: the image of them at the mirror every morning fixing their hair kind of wrecks the effect they are going for; I have a hard time taking seriously a bad guy who goes in for this kind of foolishness).

As Brad pointed out -- Flashforward is like LOST by way of CSI. No good.

Free Form Comments

2009-10-21T20:42:00.002-04:00

Uncanny X-Men #242

2009-10-20T14:21:00.002-04:00

[Jason Powell continues his issue by issue look at Claremont's X-Men. An especially good entry here, in its look at Cyclops and Havok.]

“Inferno: Part the Third — Burn”

In 1988, Marc Silvestri and Dan Green earned a place in X-Men history, drawing the first issue of Uncanny X-Men since 1969 that featured the original five members of the team as the chief protagonists. They are even the main focus of the cover, charging towards the reader heroically while Storm, Wolverine and Havok loom above them like villains. The entire first half of Uncanny #242 sees the current X-Men – the ones who had spent all of 1988 being terrifying and alien – taken to that extreme. They are being influenced (albeit not outright possessed) by a demonic invasion, and further manipulated by Madelyne Pryor, and as such end up acting more as antagonists; while the pure-hearted, Silver Age X-Men seem somehow immune to “Inferno”’s psychological effects. This is a nice twist on Claremont’s part.

The “new X-Men vs. old X-Men” story here is, oddly enough, a first. There were a couple such issues back during Claremont’s earliest days, but in both of those cases, the “old X-Men” who showed up were imposters – robots, in one case; illusions in the other. This is the first time in the franchise’s history that the “real” Silver Age X-Men fight the “real” new X-Men.

Claremont has also said in an interview that, when the X-Factor series first debuted, there was an editorial edict that forbade any of the X-Men encountering any of X-Factor for the first full year of the latter’s existence. That (somewhat arbitrary) divide lasted three years, so the clash depicted here constitutes another of the “Inferno” crossover’s many “FINALLY!” moments (i.e., “Finally, the truth about Madelyne”; “finally, revenge against the Marauders”; “finally, the X-Men meet Mr. Sinister”; “finally, the conclusion to the Illyana saga”; etc.). Finally – X-Factor meet the X-Men!!! Again, say what you want about “Inferno,” but it was a genuinely culminating event for the X-franchise at this time. For all its hype and excess, it delivered a lot of resolutions and revelations. This puts “Inferno” at a sharp contrast against latter-day crossover events, which are just as hyped and just as excessive, but ultimately deliver nothing conclusive, other than a lead-in to the next, equally “important” crossover.
Uncanny X-Men #242 allows Claremont to write the resurrected Jean Grey for the first time. Significantly, not long after X-Factor debuted, Claremont began writing new stories set in the past, for the reprint-series “Classic X-Men.” He used that opportunity to seed new wrinkles on certain relationships. One such was to suggest that Jean Grey had – from Day One – a profound, “primal” sexual attraction to Wolverine. The payoff for that ret-conned revelation comes right on Page 1 of “Inferno: Part the Third,” which gorgeously depicts a passionate kiss between Jean and Logan.

A few pages later, Wolverine says to Jean, “My senses tell me you loved that kiss … an’ you want more.” This puts me in mind of what Geoff wrote about Morrison’s New X-Men Annual:

“Sex is brought up twice more in this book, both time to great effect:

Wolverine: So ... you need some company after this gig?
Domino: Can't hide from the man with hypersenses, huh? No strings animal passion, Logan, and you're paying for the drinks.
Wolverine: The Professor hands out platinum credit cards to his teaching staff.
Domino: First things first, honey ... Ninja business.

It takes only a split second to realize why his hypersenses are telling him she wants to have sex, and right in that moment you know the X-Men should never go back again. We don't lose the ninja stuff, but it's working on a fun, sexy, and dangerous new level.”

Hmmmm.

Now, granted, I am a comic-book geek, and – as such – a virgin who knows nothing about female biology, but am I right in thinking that this is another time where Morrison’s “new level” is not really all that new? [ed. note -- Yes. Yes you are. You win again Powell.]

Indeed, “fun, sexy and dangerous” are all words I would use to describe Uncanny #242.

1.) FUN: Claremont seems more than willing to acknowledge the silliness of “Inferno”’s premise: Revealing that Madelyne is a clone of Jean, only three years after John Byrne’s ret-con that Phoenix was also a clone of Jean. Thus, we get more than a couple jokes about it in this issue. My favorite is this bit, between Longshot and Dazzler, when the latter sees Jean Grey being threatened by demons:

Dazzler: “Red’s in trouble.”
Longshot: “Theirs or ours?”
Dazzler: “Theirs. Could probably use a hand.”
Longshot: “What’d she ever do for us?”

2.) SEXY: I understand the criticisms of Madelyne’s transformation from good-hearted woman to demon goddess. Intellectually I realize that my defense of the whole transformation doesn’t have a leg to stand on. Yet every time I read “Inferno,” I become enamored of evil Madelyne. She is hell on wheels (literally at one point), and her rage is so damn righteous. Plus, Silvestri and Green’s visualization is amazingly statuesque. What can I say? I know it’s just lines on paper, but I just love this lady. So she turned Jean’s parents into demons – they were boring anyway. So she wants to kill that baby? Why not, he was an annoying little distraction. (And four years later he’s going to be transformed, via ret-con, into a Liefeld character. A LIEFELD CHARACTER. Snuffing the little brat out now would’ve been a mercy killing.)

Claremont also creates a beautiful little moment on Page 25, wherein the Goblin Queen façade cracks, and Maddie speaks as her old self. It’s disarming, charming and unexpected, and it makes me love Madelyne that much more.

Meanwhile, it’s quite nice the way Claremont writes Jean as being just as bad-ass as Madelyne (logical, given their connection). Marvel Girl gets some great tough-gal dialogue as well: “What are we waiting for, lover?! We were the original X-Men. Past time we showed these cheap copies what that means!” (She doesn’t know yet that Madelyne is a literal “copy.”)

3.) DANGEROUS. As far back as Uncanny 219, Claremont was working a rather shrewd little bit of parallelism between Havok and Cyclops. Both of them abandon their female counterparts, who in turn are targeted by the Marauders. The parallel lines then change and become intersecting (like the lines of an “X”) when Claremont positions Alex and Madelyne as lovers. It is a very soap-opera swerve, but I love that the melodrama is given such an epic tone and sweep in Uncanny 242, as Alex confronts his brother with such fury. “You forfeited every right you had when you walked out on her,” Havok says. “You swore an oath, Scott – and you LIED!” There is a nice subtext at work here – Alex is confronting his own guilt as well. The entire affair takes on a heightened quality, like something out of a Greek tragedy. Claremont has played with the “brother vs. brother” trope before with Alex and Scott (as far back as issue 96), but back then it was all pretty safe and comic-booky. Here, the conflict still owes much to classically comic-booky tropes, but the battle itself – particularly the one between Scott and Alex – is girded with a powerful emotional component that make the stakes seem exponentially higher.

(Meanwhile, I think it’s great that Havok’s clothing gets stripped down until he is dressed in a version -- only slightly different -- of Madelyne’s very revealing goblin raiment. Both the gals and the guys get sexy in this issue!)

The story ends as these things typically do, with the two hero-teams realizing it was all a “misunderstanding,” and they team up to fight the real bad guy. What I enjoy about this iteration is that the transition is so very fluid. The X-Men and X-Factor just sort of start working together instead of fighting, without any fanfare. It is almost as if they cannot help themselves from drifting into being on the same side, which is lovely.

LOST revisited - Season 1

2009-10-19T21:11:00.002-04:00

[Andy Bentley takes a look at the first season of LOST. I make a brief comment at the bottom.]

“Its comin' back around again” - R.A.T.M. People of the Sun

In the summer of 2004, I obtained the screener copy of the first two episodes of LOST. I was intrigued by the concept, particularly the sci-fi aspect to the show. But it also had a lot of hollywood gloss to it and I doubted the show would ever move beyond the island. When I saw the creepy title sequence had survived the summer and made it to broadcast, my respect for the show grew. By the time I saw Walkabout, the episode which cleverly reveals Locke’s paralysis in the final moments, I was completely hooked. I’ve watched all the episodes in real time week-to-week which is something I now rarely do. Many of my friends have blown through a season or three and then felt helpless to be at the mercy of ABC’s scheduling. With all of us losties now eagerly awaiting February 2010, I thought it would be a good time to revisit the show: 1 season a month.

First seasons feels a little incongruent to a show as a whole and Lost is no exception. The actors feel a bit less genuine in the 1st 12 episodes or so but soon settle into their characters. Many of the people we follow from the crash try desperately to rid themselves of their past lives but all end up back where they started. Let’s go over the principal players:

Jack Shepard

We open on Jack’s eyes and follow him on his mad dash to help the survivors from the crash. This perspective anoints Jack the lead character in this ensemble, even if he isn’t always the 815ers leader or even a good one. Jack puts on a confident and strong persona post crash, but as the season progresses we begin to see cracks in the facade. He becomes frustrated quickly, he loses his temper, and is stubborn in his beliefs. Most of his anxiety stems from his deceased father, who was a surgeon like him.

John Locke

Locke sees the crash as a blessing from the island for he believes it has repaired his broken legs. He takes on the persona of a hunter and a guru who is confident and has answers. However his insecurities from his past life resurface in the final 3rd of the season with the discovery of the mysterious hatch. He becomes frustrated with a lack of answers becomes reckless and skittish. Jack calls him out on this and in the last 2 episodes, we begin to see the science/faith conflict that will factor heavily into the second season and the series as a whole.

James “Sawyer” Ford

Sawyer is racked with guilt for killing an innocent man in Australia and feels the need to be punished or even to die. He provokes the other survivors ruthlessly and he endures a lot of pain. His evolution throughout the series is an interesting one. I once thought his character operated on the Fonzie principle (or Spike from Buffy) where if you defanged him, he lost all relevance. But after the last season, I believe he has more dimensions than that. He begins to help people for free and work towards survival. But mainly he just makes eyes at.....

Kate Austin

Upon re watching, I was struck by how unlikeable Kate’s character is. She is a liar, a manipulator, and often goes behind people’s backs to get what she wants which is to run away from her miserable life. She has become a fugitive for robbery, accessory to murder and other charges. Despite all this, she has the two alpha males on the island vying for her attention. Jack wants to redeem her where Sawyer sees her as a kindred spirit.

Sayid Jarrah

Take out the the “y” and “i” in his name and you have the character. He’s also the most competent and respectful character in the first season and probably would’ve been a stronger leader than Jack. Watching his early appearances made me even sadder about his fate in the past season.

Charlie Pace

Charlie comes off as the most cliche of the characters in the first season, being a washed up rock star with a heroin addiction who hits on every principal female in the first three episodes. He soon develops beyond this but his relationship with Claire is a bit off. She turns down his romantic advances, she’s abducted and has amnesia, and so he befriends her again under the guise of caring for the baby.
Michael & Walt.

Michael was a whiny jerk in ’04 and still is a second time around. He is full of self pity, and wrongly accuses several survivors of deeds they did not commit. Watching his life off island spiral downwards does give the character some empathy, but not enough to where I respect him. Walt only goes spooky near the end of this season, giving us little insight into the phantom he becomes for the remainder of the show.

Jin & Sun

Jin’s masochistic and violent behavior seems a little off after seeing his character for 5 years, but it’s this change in character which earns those emotions when he tearfully apologizes to Sun before leaving on the raft. Of all the married couples, they are the ones that have the most exposure and their bond is a backbone of the show. Even Jacob says their love is special *wink*.

Hugo “Hurley” Reyes

Wow, Hurley used to be happy and funny! A bit of an exaggeration, but a sad Hugo is not a fun Hugo. I hope he will find some peace in this final season.

Boone and Shannon

Don’t belong on this show and the writers knew it.

Much of the first season is spent fleshing out the main characters and surviving in the wilderness. The metaphysical elements are seen here and there, most can be chalked up to interpretation, coincidence, or heat exhaustion. It isn’t until the last 4 or 5 episodes (#19 is the first Cuse/Lindelof script) that the show pushes further into the sci-fi/drama genre. The smoke monster is the recurring threat and is first heard 20 minutes into the pilot episode. Most of the excitement of the first season is the reveal of the 815ers past lives before the crash.

The cyclic nature of the show lends itself well to repeated viewings. Rousseau’s ramblings at a captured Sayid make a lot more sense now, as does the numbers and Claire’s psychic reading/abduction. Claire’s dream before her abduction seems to relate heavily to the shows current status. She sees Lock flipping Tarot cards with one eye black and the other white. He chastises her for giving up the baby and says that they all will pay the price. The baby is not the cause of all the heartache on the show, but after this second viewing, I can’t help going back to one of my older theories that the Shepard family must have some greater connection to the island.

I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention the amazing score by Michael Giacchino which fuels the emotions felt from the show. Twin Peaks is the only other example I’ve seen where music has such a heavy influence. Two particular examples are the death of Boone and the raft setting sail towards rescue. The swelling string, the quiet piano, and the throbbing low dulcet tones all give the show a pedigree and a style unto itself. Can you image what the show would feel like if they had inserted popular music into the soundtrack?

By then end of the season, our characters have been revealed, and a variety of unexplainable events have been laid out. Access of the island has been denied by the newly revealed “other” people, and the characters and the show are left with no other option. The must travel down the proverbial rabbit hole that is the hatch and explore these mysteries if they ever want to return to their lives after the crash.

Final Musings

-Jacks awakening in season one is amazingly similar to his return in season 5.

-Knowing what we know now, what would have happened if Locke was taken underground by the smoke monster?

-The next three episodes after Charlie gives up Heroin should have had him sweating, curled up in a ball and green in the face. I understand it’s TV, but still.

-When asked why she named the baby Aaron, Claire doesn’t have an answer. The biblical Aaron is a descendant of Jacob. I’m keeping that Shepard-bloodline theory!

[The fundamental genius of the first season of LOST is how well it tapped into the fantasy that animates so many really good movies and TV shows: the idea that you can start over. This is why Locke is really the central character for me -- because of all of them he is the one who embraces this idea: everyone wants to get back, but as someone says to Kate in a much later season What exactly are you trying to get back TO? The fact that you can be reborn in this mysterious and exciting background all the better, but it is the chance to be made new, and not the monster, that is the central thing. Later seasons got farther and farther away from this concept of rebirth, partly because of the structure: the more you found out about each character the more that past would come back to haunt them. John Locke managed to blow up that sub and dispatch his dad but other characters were not so lucky. The show seems heading for a space where we will learn how everyone is connected to the island, which is to say it will end with this sense that this rebirth has somehow failed. I will keep thinking about this in future posts.]