Comic Review: The First Kingdom: The Birth of Tundran

    Admittedly, I’ve never been ‘in the know’ about comics.  While I tried them briefly as a wee lad, I didn’t stick with them, only returning to the medium in my late 20s with Hellboy, Tom Strong, and Metabarons.  However, I’ve always been friends with comic readers, and I’ve often been aware of various books and events in the industry, even if just in passing.  Also, what little interest I ever showed tended to be toward independent, sci-fi/adventure comics.  Yet, somehow, I’d never heard of Jack Katz and his The First Kingdom.  Having been a contemporary of several famous names, including Alex Raymond, Jack Kirby, and Stan Lee, I feel like I should have been more aware of the man and his work.  Anyway, now I am, and I’m glad of it.

    The First Kingdom is not a perfect book, nor is it going to appeal to the average, contemporary comic reader.  There is an old style, similar to that of classic newspaper strips like Flash Gordon or Terry and the Pirates, with a bit of 60s Marvel thrown in.  Sometimes the captions go on and on, and sometimes the word choices are peculiar to say the least (and I’m fairly certain, not always correct).  But this all lends it a strange quality that works here more than it does in something like early issues of The Fantastic Four or Challengers of the Unknown.  The writing style, along with the story itself help to give the whole thing a feeling of a grand myth cycle, like something out of ancient Greece or Scandinavia, or out of Tolkien’s Silmarillion (except this is readable) or The Bible.  You could also argue that Katz’s art has a tendency toward repetitiveness.  It is true, that many of his people look essentially the same, and on occasion I’ve had difficulty keeping one separate from another (especially his females).  And panels and pages often feature lots and lots of characters simply standing around, talking.  However, when the action does break out, when he does exercise his creativity, it can be gorgeous.  His environments and creatures are top notch.  And for those who are upset by the human body, you should know that the book features a good deal of nudity.

    The story is wonderfully grand and operatic.  Long after Earth was burned up in a nuclear war, humanity’s descendants are on their way up again.  Strange gods meddle with their affairs, while a young man breaks with tradition and sets off on a quest to give his people a new and permanent home, but he is destined to meet a violent end.  Epic quests, sinister villains, dangerous monsters, and fickle fate.  The stuff of mythology.  Odd bits of science fiction mix with copious amounts of fantasy, making me again think of the old Flash Gordon strips, as well as the works of people like Edgar Rice Burroughs.  So, while I don’t know that the general comic reader would appreciate this work, I think that fans of Golden Age science fiction, of pulp adventure stories, or of movie serials might really like it.

    I, for one, am excited to find out what happens next in this grand imaginary history.  Many forces are coming together into what should prove to be a dramatic conflict.

The First Kingdom: The Birth of Tundran
Author/Artist: Jack Katz
Publisher: Titan Comics
ISBN: 978-1-78276-010-8

-Matthew J. Constantine

Brad's Week in Dork! (2/16/14-2/22/14)

Slow week.  No real reason.  Just taking it easy.  Gotta recharge my batteries every now and again.  The Academy Awards are right around the corner - I've seen more nominations this year than any other, but there are still a few crucial films I need to hit up before March 2nd (I'm looking at you Frozen).  So far I've avoided the documentary shorts & a couple of foreign films.  Gotta correct that...next week.  Honestly though, the stuff I'm most excited about these days are comic books.  Not satisfied with the completion of Grant Morrison's Supergods (look, it's beautiful madness, but I want more history less peyote), I blitzed through the audiobook of Sean Howe's Marvel Comics The Untold Story.

Just days before I turned the last page, Marvel unleashed the Guardians of the Galaxy trailer...90% of which we saw at last year's Comic Con, but it was still enough to get be jazzed about all things Cosmic and Raccoon.  I ran to my local comic shop, but they were already sold out of the source material.  All my coworkers are gaga for Groot, and I'm starting to hope that the world is ready for the murderous furball.  Doctor Strange is right around the corner, then...Black Panther?  And yet DC is still floundering with their properties.  Marvel is spanking Warner Brothers.  I love it.

The Darjeeling Limited:  A month out from Wes Anderson's new film, The Wife & I are still chugging along his filmography.  When originally released, The Darjeeling Limited was met with lackluster enthusiasm from fans and a tepid critical reception.  Looking back at my own Top Ten Lists of the last several years, I was pleased to see that Darjeeling ranked as my favorite film of 2007.  My opinion has not changed.  As an only child myself, I've always been fascinated with sibling relationships, and even if I don't quite understand the battle for paternal love, I am charmed by how this brotherly war passive aggressively erupts in every one of their actions.  Owen Wilson, Adrien Brody, and Jason Schwartzman may not at all resemble each other physically, but they expertly inhabit one another's mannerisms.  It really is a thrilling performance trilogy, and as they reach their destination and lives are lost and narrative gaps are filled, I find myself emotionally strained in a way that no other Anderson film has managed.  Is it my favorite Wes Anderson?  No.  I gotta go Life Aquatic, Tenenbaums, or Fox, but Darjeeling is close behind.

Marked Woman:  Bette Davis is a carefree mobster's moll who catches the attention of Humphrey Bogart's District Attorney after her sister is stolen of the streets.  Despite the formation of the Hays Code in 1930, an uncredited Michael Curtiz (Casablanca!!!) still manages to deliver plenty of scandalous behavior from this sordid ripped-from-the-headlines tale.  These goons are some real beasts, and Bette Davis takes a helluva scary beating behind closed doors.  Bogart is a bit dry, but that's okay because this is Davis's show and she rocks the woman wronged role.  Maybe not as iconic as some similar films of this era, Marked Woman is a hidden Hollywood gem.

Saga of the Swamp Thing Volume 2 by Alan Moore:  After months and months of pestering, I finally caved to Matt's demands and dove into this classic series.  The first trade took some time getting off it's feet, but by the end I was hooked to the plight of The Green.  In volume 2, Swamp Thing continues to explore what it means to be a Plant with delusions of Manhood, and Moore takes his saga deeper down the rabbit hole of comic book legacy.  My favorite moment from this entry, is when the original Len Wein & Bernie Wrightson stories are used as a gateway into a biblical origin of the House of Mystery.  As Mystery & Secrets collide, I was hooting & hollering to myself.  This is weird, wild stuff.  Is this genius?  Nope.  At least not yet.  But I'm starting to get that tingle that I am certainly reading something special - the hype is earned. The goal is to crank out a volume a week.  Alan Moore is too dang dense to blitz through.  Besides, I want to savor this gothic dread.

Game of Thrones - Season 3:  I am not the world's biggest Game of Thrones fan.  I've never read the books, and I'm not planning to either.  However, every time one of these DVD sets comes out, I stop whatever I'm doing and concentrate on nothing else until the discs have been devoured.  It's TV crack.  Smoke it up!  I don't love every bitty plot point.  I am not too keen on the Jon Snow story - in fact, I find his whiney fumblings around the lust of a wildling to be utterly annoying.  The Mother of Dragons is spending too much damn time wandering the desert.  It's time to get into the action lady!  But then you have the sad, honorable, and patriarchally tortured Tyrion Lannister.   The hell that is Kings Landing owns this show.  If you have a good bone in your body, George RR Martin will crush you.  The good die young here folks, and only villains reap reward.  Last year, all I heard was "Red Wedding, Red Wedding, Red Wedding" from every coworker, friend, and Entertainment Weekly spoiler headline.  So I thought I knew what I was getting into with the third season climax.  But damn...I was not at all prepared for the depths of viciousness Martin had in store.  The Red Wedding might be one of the single most wonderfully hateful acts of fiction I've ever experienced.  Just wow.  Who to root for?  Hard to answer that question in this blood soaked world.

Marvel Comics - The Untold Story by Sean Howe:  "The heroic journeys are forever denied an end."  In this golden age of comic book to silver screen adaptation everyone seems to love the Cameomeister Stan Lee.  Sean Howe's tell-all style approach to the rise, fall, & rise again of Marvel Comics certainly sets its sights on Smiling Stan.  Yep, it's disheartening to read interviews & radio excerpts in which Lee dismisses the medium of comics as a lesser art form to novels and movies.  The book paints a picture of a man who settled into comics because that's what would have him.  Is Stan Lee the godfather of spandex?  Or is he simply the benefactor of opportune nepotism, sneaking his way into cousin Martin Goodman's magazine distributor?  The debate surrounding creator rights is nothing new, and I only have so much sympathy when we're talking royalties in Work-For-Hire art.  You signed a contract, Marvel owns your ass.  But lets give credit where credit is due.  And it is genuinely upsetting to discover that Stan Lee sued Marvel for 10 million dollars after decades of dismissing similar claims from Jack Kirby & Steve Ditko.  This is nothing new for comicbook fanboys; the bitter contempt from his co-creator contemporaries tarnished Stan Lee's shine long ago.  The man is his greatest creation.  Sean Howe spends plenty of time (maybe too much) taking the icon down a peg or two.  My favorite bits are the ones exploring the financial reasoning behind some of our favorite Event Storylines, and the cashgrab desperation driving Marvel to LA LA Land.  A not so inevitable success when you look at blockbuster flops like Howard the Duck or limp direct-to-video releases like Dolph Lundgren's Punisher.  Marvel once touted itself as the four-color Disney, and it's a trip to see Walt's Kingdom gobble them up, but how long will the mass audience be appeased by Robert Downey Jr's Avengers?  Bubbles always burst.  At the very least, Marvel Comics The Untold Story, got me aching for both my own back issues and those not acquired yet.  I seriously need Steve Gerber's rage fueled Destroyer Duck - so much deliciously not-so-hidden Marvel Hate!

Avengers - Earth's Mightiest Heroes Season 1:  The first season takes its time assembling Earth's Mightiest Heroes, using 11 half hour episodes to fully form the roster.  Once gathered, this Saturday Morning Cartoon goes completely bonkers for comic book continuity, borrowing everything from Brian Michael Bendis' New Avengers run to classic arcs like The Kang Dynasty.  The Avengers battle Hydra, Ultron, Enchantress, Klaw, and The Purple Man....yes, THE PURPLE MAN!!  Nerd nirvana here.  Sure, some of the voice cast is cloying with Tony Stark in particular grating the nerves with his Robert Downey Jr impersonation, but the show hits more than it misses.  And with a second season promising even longer story arcs in the form of the Skrulls Secret Invasion and Galactus, Devour of Worlds - I am hooked.  No more picking away at this series, all must be consumed.

The Price of Gold:  I don't care much about the Olympics these days.  I haven't watched a single one in well over a decade.  But in 1994 our family household was overwhelmed with the competition...I'm guessing every family home was that way back then.  Thanks to the bizarre figure skating rivalry story between poor white trash Tonya Harding and ice princess Nancy Kerrigan...and a kneecap hit that spun the media into True Crime bliss.  Part of ESPN's 30 for 30, The Price of Gold attempts to dissect the fervor around the events, but never quite elevates itself beyond a talking heads documentary.  It's certainly interesting to hear what Tonya has to say, and I appreciate Nancy Kerrigan's refusal to participate, but The Price of Gold is little more than a "Remember When."  A footnote for those families that fell victim to the circus, but I don't think a modern audience would find this hour plus doc terribly satisfying.  If anything, this just reaffirms my belief in the utter failure of contemporary TMZ journalism.  Anchorman 2 got it right.

--Brad

Dork Art: Stan The Man

I was listening to a podcast recently discussing the pros & cons of the Stan Lee icon - blah, blah, blah, blah, poor Jack Kirby, poor Steve Ditko.  True.  Fact.  No denying that.  But I gotta love Stan Lee's tenacious whore-mongering.  Stan The Man knows how to make money, and he knows how to do it with a smile on his face.  There never has been and probably never will be a comic book creator as well known as Stan The Man.  Case in point:  Yves José Malgorn's Stan The Man print for Geek-Art's Heroes show at the French Comic Con.

--Brad

Dork Art: Richard Sala's Fin Fang Foom

Sometime back I wrote a review of Richard Sala's The Hidden for Daily Grindhouse.  Since then I've paid a lot of attention to his tumblr.  There you'll find rifts on Nosferatu, Batman, and violent Trekkie girls.  It's a wonderland of weird.  But this Fin Fang Foom is without a doubt the best thing he's ever done...or at least my favorite.  The Kaiju with Purple Pants has always haunted my dreamscape.  He's a Godzilla knockoff created by Stan Lee & Jack Kirby, for a one-shot issue of Strange Tales, that eventually worked his way into Iron Man's rogues gallery.  What's the deal with the purple pants?  Did he steal them from the Hulk?  I have no idea.  But I kinda love them.  And when I see modern artists portray the beast without the pants it kinda upsets me.  I own two statues of Fin Fang Foom and I'm still waiting for him to make an Avengers movie appearance - Hey!  Guardians of the Galaxy is happening!!!  So Fin Fang Foom is a total possibility in this mad world we now occupy.

--Brad

Comic Review: Silver Surfer - Parable

    Here’s the thing.  I really like the Silver Surfer.  I do.  I think he’s a really cool and interesting character.  Buuuuut, you see, Stan Lee wrote a good deal of his stories and Stan Lee is, um, a terrible writer.  Like Wonder Woman, The Fantastic Four, Black Panther, Cat Woman, and so many more, the core concept of the character is sound, but the execution is almost universally bad.  So, being a glutton for punishment, I’ve read a good deal of Surfer comics, usually gritting my teeth while thinking about how awesome it should be, and how not very good it is.  That same thing happened while reading this volume.  Famed European comic artist Moebius, one of the key visual storytellers of the 70s, whose work frequently graced the pages of Heavy Metal issues I’d sneak peaks at when I was a boy, is a perfect match for the cosmic nomad, and there are some beautiful panels.  But Stan…Oh, Stan.

    You see, Stan Lee is an important figure in comics.  That can’t really be debated.  But, like August Derleth in Lovecraft circles and George Lucas & Gene Rodenberry in sci-fi circles, his actual ability in the arena is…not so good.  I must admit that his writing in this volume is much better than what he was doing in the 60s.  Though he crams entirely too many words into each panel, without saying much of anything, he thankfully avoids describing what we can plainly see in gratuitous captions (Check out early Surfer, FF, or Spider-man for panels where the character says what he’s doing, the caption describes the action, and the picture shows you what’s happening.  It’s a visual medium, Stan, we know what’s happening because there’s a picture!).  And as bad as the writing in this is, it’s still better than Chris Claremont.  But his flowery, overly dramatic dialog is painfully silly and out of step.  His heavy handed moralizing isn’t even subtle enough for the worst episodes of original Trek (Eeb planista!).  There’s a phenomena friends and I have come to call the ‘Marvel crowd.’  This is the crowd of people who change opinions and moods on a dime.  You can see them in the awful Spiderman movies, in the Fantastic Four films, and even in non-Marvel films like The Dark Knight.  Occasionally I’ll spot a Marvel crowd in film unrelated to comics at all.  But Marvel Comics have got to be the worst perpetrators of this menace, and Stan Lee seems to be their most fervent perpetrator.  A kind of meta-example of this is the relationship between the X-Men and EVERYONE else in the Marvel Universe.  All normal people hate and fear the X-Men, and want to persecute them.  But few people (unless someone manipulates them…which is extremely easy to do) have any problem whatsoever with the Fantastic Four, Spider-man, or any number of other strange heroes.  That doesn’t make any danged sense.  And that’s plagued Silver Surfer all along.  Everyone hates him.  He villages, stops alien invasions, gets cats out of trees, yet everyone hates him…Um…’cause he’s an alien, er something.  No, it’s because Stan can’t write, and he needs characters to be persecuted so he can slap readers across the face with his ‘shouldn’t we be ashamed of ourselves’ self-hating Liberal mentality.  Parable is all about how people are sheep, anyone with power is evil, the Surfer is like Christ, and Galactus is organized religion.  I even agree with his general thoughts about how religious figureheads are generally power hungry and corrupt, and how some people simply want to be told what to do and what to think, so will go out of their way to put themselves in the power of charismatic leaders.  But the rest of it?  Ugh.

    The volume also contains The Enslavers, written by Lee again, with art by Keith Pollard.  This feels more like classic Surfer stuff, with some nice art, but a pretty silly story.  The villain is pretty lame, and like all too many Silver Surfer stories, it centers around Earth.  But I like the art, and I like that at least sometimes, he gets to do stuff in space.  Considering he’s a ‘cosmic’ character, he spends entirely too much time within Earth’s atmosphere.  The Enslavers sort of feels like a send-off for the Surfer.  Though, honestly, I don’t really know what Marvel has done with him over the years.  He seems to pop up randomly, and there doesn’t seem to be much continuity.

    Here’s hoping that someone with some writing talent and someone with artistic talent will be teamed up in the future on a Silver Surfer project that explores some of the potential in the character, without falling back on Stan Lee’s particular brand of problems.  I do think there’s potential for some compelling and contemplative science fiction stories and philosophical meditations.  Somewhere else I said I wanted a Silver Surfer movie to be a 2001 style trippy flick, and that’s kind of what I want from the comic.  Moebius would have been a great artist to have on that, but Lee was the wrong writer.

Silver Surfer: Parable
Author: Stan Lee
Artists: Moebius and Keith Pollard
Publisher: Marvel Publishing Inc.
ISBN: 978-0-7851-6209-4

-Matt

A Fistful of Marvel Wannabes! (Brad's Picks)

Phase 2 of the Marvel Cinematic Universe begins this weekend with the release of Shane Black's Iron Man 3.  It's a brave new world.  One that's going to include The Guardians of the Galaxy, Ant-Man, & Doctor Strange.  W.  T.  F.   Yes, 2014 is going to see Rocket Raccoon blast onto the big screen and if he's received well by the public than we might be entering an unstoppable black hole of super hero cinema.  Of course, that's a big "IF" and we may still be a long way off till a proper Howard The Duck adaptation.

Iron Man 3, Thor 2, Captain America 2, and Avengers 2 are sure fire successes.  But let's just say they're joined by The Guardians of the Galaxy, Ant-Man, & Dr. Strange.  Where do you go from there.  I say, let's get nuts.  Maybe we hold off a bit till we break out the D-Man blockbuster, but I've got a handful of other crazy characters I'd like to see get the Hollywood treatment.

5.  The Pet Avengers:  Yes, they exist.  When the Inhuman's teleporting dog Lockjaw acquires the Mind Gem from the all powerful Infinity Gauntlet, he gathers a colorful cadre of super pets to seek out the remaining gems while avoiding the terrifying violence of The Mad Titan, Thanos.  The team includes the X-Men confidant Lockheed, Speedball's feline counterpart Hairball, the central park Thunder amphibian Throg, the falcon Redwing, and Aunt May's Ms. Lion.  Special Guest Stars could include the Savage Land's Zabu, Bo the First Dog of the United States, and the Fantastic Four beastie Giganto.  Look, Disney needs to partner Marvel with Pixar.  It's just gotta happen.  DC Comics has had plenty of success with the Direct to DVD animated market, and even if we can't be granted the glory of Pixar, maybe we can get a solid cartoon out of the deal.

4.  Namor - The Submariner:  Since Captain America didn't quite capture the Nazi threat of WWII, let's travel back to the battlefields of the 1940s where Prince Namor can rise from the Earth's oceans to smash Hitler's blitzkrieg domination.  And the best thing about Namor is that when he's done crushing Nazis he's going to inevitably turn on the Allies.  After all his finest characteristic is his hatred and contempt for all land lovers, and through that anger we can get some delightful rage-filled social lecturing.  Once Adolf gets his Inglourious Basterds just deserts and Namor turns tidal waves upon our shores, the good old U S of A can unleash their Human Torch (of the android variety - never mind the flaming Fantastic Fourer) and the two titans of Marvel's Early Days can go mano y mano in a Kaiju-styled flattening of New York City.

3.  Hawkeye:  This is not a cheat.  As much as I love Joss Whedon's Avengers, Jeremy Renner's Hawkeye was easily the most disposable character in the film.  He spent most of the time under the control of Loki & when he finally got free from the pokey stick, Hawkeye spent the rest of the film looking stern as he shot arrows at jet skiing aliens.  The Hawkeye film I want to see stems directly from Matt Fraction & David Aja's current comic series.  Focus on the wannabe hero when he's not being an Avenger.  The guy who passes his time as super of an apartment building, fighting back the small time crime of the track suit mafia, and caring for a pizza scarfing dog.  The great thing about the Marvel Universe is that it can house multiple genres, even within the capes & masks.  Hawkeye is your 90s, quirky post Pulp Fiction crime tale a la 2 Days in the Valley.  And since Marvel doesn't shy away from recasting let's kick Renner outta the picture and bring in Ryan Gosling.  Hmmmm...while I'm dreaming why not bring back Shane Black from Iron Man 3 for the snarky buddy cop banter with teenage sidekick Kate Bishop.

2.  Devil Dinosaur:  Ok, this is just a fantasy.  But you know, before you start saying this will never happen remind yourself that ROCKET RACCOON! will soon be a theatrical reality - a talking raccoon from space who kills aliens with an array of laser rifles!!!!  Dammit, Devil Dinosaur & Moon Boy can happen!  This is not an animated film.  I want a dark, brooding, dead serious Quest For Fire saga.  Sure, that's not really what we got in the original nine issues from Jack Kirby, but I've been on a 2001 kick lately and it's got me craving the savagery of ape men.  Devil Dinosaur could sate that thirst, a boy & his dog story in which DD & Moon Boy go up against the warring clan of the Killer-Folk.  This is goofy stuff, but with Pacific Rim nearly upon us & and a new Godzilla on the horizon, I want Marvel to contribute their Monster Mash movie.

1.  Luke Cage:  Marvel's somewhat pathetic attempt to cash in on the Blaxploitation phenomenon eventually yielded one of their most endearing characters thanks to Brian Michael Bendis's exploration in the pages of Alias & New Avengers.  You look at that picture above and you see a goofy dude in disco duds fighting a ridiculous atomic abomination.  But the Luke Cage film should be a brutal, mean-spirited crime flick.  Think Chinatown PI plot with a 70s Hell Up In Harlem backdrop, and a neighborhood gang war poisoning the citizens with sex & drugs.  Luke Cage encounters some small time crime that leads to Kingpin conspiracies and eventual street fighter showdowns.  Fred Williamson is a few decades too old , but I'm thinking Michael Jai White can shake the comedy of Black Dynamite and step into the real deal.

--Brad

Comic Review: Saga of the Swamp Thing 3 & 4

Book Three

    After the pretty darned amazing second volume of this series, volume three wasn’t quite as impressive.  Still good, with some very good bits, but not up to snuff.  The opening story about Nuke Face is actually kind of annoying and the final story about ghosts of slaves and a soap opera is heavy-handed and not so great.  But comic fans doubtless owe something to this set of issues, as the very popular character John Constantine is introduced in its pages.

    As far as overall story goes, John Constantine, a kind of supernatural investigator, with an ex-punk feel (looking a bit like a young Sting or Billy Idol, but cleaned up), gets wind of something big and bad building in the ethereal realms.  He travels the world, finding clues, until he meets up with our viridian champion.  Swamp Thing himself, having been bodily destroyed by the drink of Nuke Face (the extremely 80s mutant-type environmental allegory), has just re-formed himself out of the Green.  This gets into a new idea, or ability of Swamp Thing.  He learns that his essence isn’t connected to a single body, so much as the entirety of plant life.  And, in keeping with the style of the comic and the attempt to make its hero more rounded and his concerns less typical, he and his lady friend Abby worry about his ability to maintain his humanity (already revealed to be something of an illusion) as he becomes more aware of his very inhuman nature.  Constantine manipulates Alec, the Swamp Thing, into investigating several strange occurrences, including something from his past.  I haven’t read the pre-Alan Moore run of this series, so I don’t know what the details of the original event were.  But there was something about vampires and a dam being broken, drowning a city.  I like that Alec’s past comes back to haunt him.  I generally like when heroes have to face and come to terms with the unintended consequences of their actions.

    Whatever that big something John Constantine is worried about doesn’t seem to have happened by the end of the volume.  There’s a lot of build up, though.  And actually, I think that’s one of the problems with the last story, Southern Change/Strange Fruit.  It feels like the series stalls and all the energy built up with all the threat of this ‘something big’ completely dies.

Book Four

    Reading this book crystallized what had bothered me about Book Three, it was too scattered, lacking a much needed thread.  This volume fixes that, getting on the track of the build up to ‘something big’ and sticking with it.  It opens on a brief story of a drug dealer investigating one of Swamp Thing’s tuber-like growths, but then, John Constantine is back, and it doesn’t jump the rails again, riding into a massive, crazy climactic finale even more off the wall than what happened in Book Two.  Even the slight bump of the Special Crisis Cross-Over issue manages to acknowledge the giant DC shaking event (which I think I understand, but think is largely responsible for me not really digging DC comics in the same way I don’t dig Marvel) doesn’t pull the Swamp Thing away from the growing plot.

    While I sensed the seeds of Alan Moore’s growing style in previous volumes, catching bits of what would become his signature (especially his failings with Book Three), it’s with this volume that I feel like I’m reading the Alan Moore I know from Watchmen and League of Extraordinary Gentlemen.  This is especially true when I think about how long it took me to read.  Even though it’s about the same size as the others, it felt like it was much denser, and took me a long time to read.  There was a lot more packed into the book than before.  Moore tends to be wordy, sometimes for the better (League), sometimes for the worse (first half of Watchmen).  And this book is very, very wordy for a comic.  Looking over the pages, it almost looks like 60s Stan Lee stuff, with lots of dialog and lots of captions.  But, unlike Stan Lee, these don’t serve to describe in excruciating detail what we are seeing in the panel (“I am throwing my hat at you!” “Spiderman throws his hat at the Green Goblin! Excelsior!!!” written in a panel where we see Spiderman throwing his hat at the Green Goblin…Oh, Stan).  Moore’s dialog and captioning add depth to the images, serving to tell a more complex story than just what the images show.  I find I’m generally more into less wordy comics, probably because most of the time wordy ones aren’t well written.  But when Moore is on (and for me, that’s a lot less often than for many comic fans), he does it very well.  The art is fine.  Stylistically it’s not something that blows me away, but within that context, there are a lot of very beautiful images.  And the panel work is exciting and varied, without being muddled or confused.

    If Moore’s run ended with this, it would be a fine exit.  The final act of what I guess is called his “American Gothic” story arc is very good.  Better than its beginning.  And I like these weirder DC characters that get dredged up.  Deadman, Dr. Fate, Mento (what a tool), The Phantom Stranger, The Specter, Zatana and Zatara, Etrigan, and those two weird brothers (Cain and Able, I guess) who used to ‘host’ horror anthology comics.  Crazy.  I guess I just prefer this aspect of DC to the more typical caped crusaders.  This weird stuff is much more my speed.  I’d rather read about Swamp Thing tracking an evil cult to South America than Batman thwarting the dastardly deeds of the Penguin.  I’d rather see The Stranger stand with an army of demons and angels against a Lovecraftian monstrosity before it sweeps away Hell on its way to attack Heaven than see Superman punch Metalo into space.  And I’d rather watch paint dry than see Green Arrow do anything.

Saga of the Swamp Thing: Book Three
Author: Alan Moore
Artists: Stephen Bissette, John Totleben, etc.
Publisher: DC Comics
ISBN: 978-1-4012-2766-1

Saga of the Swamp Thing: Book Four
Author: Alan Moore
Artists: Stephen Bissette, John Totleben, etc.
Publisher: DC Comics
ISBN: 978-1-4012-3018-0

-Matt

Brad's Week in Dork! (5/13/12-5/19/12)

So.  Not quite as an exciting week as last, but how could it possibly live up to my own special brand of Shat Attack V madness?  And there was no way I could keep up that pace of pop culture consumption.  But I kept the Star Trek love going this week finishing out the Next Generation movies and venturing back into the other Franchise spin-off shows.  In just a couple weeks The Wife and I will be in Philadelphia for the Wizard World Con, hobnobbing (ie shelling out cash for autographs) with the five Captains:  William Shatner, Patrick Stewart, Avery Brooks, Kate Mulgrew, and Scott Bakula.

The Wife is more than a little familiar with the original series crew and the Next Generation, but before this week she had never seen an episode of Deep Space Nine, Voyager, or Enterprise.  Since all of Star Trekdom is available on Netflix Instant right now, we thought it would be fun to do a little homework in preparation for the Philly signing.  Started her out on the three spin off pilots and I watched The Best of Both Worlds eps as a springboard into First Contact.

But I guess the most exciting thing this week for me was the acquisition of the new Silver Surfer Parable hardcover from Marvel.  I've always wanted to get my hands on the Moebius series, but the two issue arc has been out of print for some time.  The book is paired with Stan Lee's mediocre Enslavers story, but it's worth the extra few bucks to finally have that gorgeous Moebius art in once place.  But more on that book later.

TV OF THE WEEK!

Hell On Wheels Eps 1-5:  I want to LOVE this show, but so far I think it's O...K.  The cast is definitely a solid assembly.  Anson Mount looks and behaves the part.  I've had a soft spot for Common since Smokin' Aces.  And it's great to see DS9's Colm Meaney playing the a-hole business baron.  But HBO's Deadwood casts a mighty large shadow, and for every nifty plot beat in Hell On Wheels I'm reminded of how amazing Deadwood handled this well worn genre.  I'm happy to watch this show, but it's not great.  And I want it to be great.  But, boy, The Swede sure is terrifying.

Star Trek Deep Space Nine "The Emissary" Parts 1 & 2:  After the Original Series and the movies, DS9 is my favorite Trek.  It's a darker universe and it only gets darker as the series progresses.  Sure, the first season is blanketed with obvious WWII, Civil War, Palestinian/Israel on-the-nose metaphors but the space station as Wild West outpost is such a fun setting to exploit, and even when the show reaches it's eye-rolling heights of condescension I'm completely persuaded by this group of characters.  Sure, Kira yells too damn much in the beginning and Sisko is far too harsh/serious/humorless.  But these characters will grow...and it's good enough until The Dominion shows up in the third season to kick it up a notch.

Star Trek Voyager "Caretaker" Parts 1 & 2:  Now, where I enjoy most if not all of the DS9 crew, I pretty much hate every single character in Voyager.  It remains the only Trek show I've never been able to complete, having watched through the first three seasons twice before...maybe with The Wife in tow I'll actually make it through this time.  But she also doesn't seemed to be enthralled by it either.  Now, I will say that I find Robert Picardo to be charming.  But how can you hate on the Joe Dante stalwart, right?  But this Caretaker nonsense?  And the Klingon pretenders, the Kazon?  Lame, lame, lame.

Star Trek Enterprise "Broken Bow" Parts 1 & 2:  Here's a show that never reached its potential.  It was almost there by the fourth season but then came cancellation.  Bummer.  Scott Bakula & Connor Trinneer have a great friendship on screen, and T'Pol is decent once that stick gets removed from her ass.  Even Dr. Phlox is kinda fun.  But Hoshi?  What an annoying whiney whelp.  And Merriwhether? Uh, is there a point to his gee golly blank slate?  No, there is not.  This show works best when it's exploring the new universe.  It's at its weakest when it's blathering on about the temporal cold ware bologna.  Frankly, I'm just biding my time until the fourth season...or when Jeffery Combs' Andorian pops up.

Star Trek The Next Generation "The Best of Both Worlds" Parts 1 & 2:  Two of the better episodes from The Next Generation.  The Borg are a great villain, and probably the best species to spring from Star Trek post TOS.  Unfortunately, this is the last time (not counting First Contact) where they matter at all.  Cuz once "I Borg" occurs, these monsters are neutered.  But The Best of Both Worlds is about as epic as the television shows ever got.  I still remember the first time I saw it on TV, Picard captured & transformed into a robo zombie.  At the time, I found his whole ordeal to be incredibly upsetting.  And Riker having to battle it out with Shelby as they race to Wolf 359?  It's still pretty intense.  If I had any complaints about the show now it would be that it it wraps everything up too quickly and neatly during the climax.  I wish the mental scarring left behind by Locutus was explored further in the show, rather than waiting for the theatrical experience.  But this was pre LOST, pre Battlestar Galactica and Trek was never allowed that kind of serialized growth.

MOVIES OF THE WEEK!

Star Trek - First Contact:  Not the satisfying Trek sequel I once thought it to be, it's still definitely the best of the Next Gen movies. I wish First Contact took a little more time building the plot and characters before launching into the first Borg Space Battle and the eventual Time Traveling zombie war spearheaded by Alice Krige's floating fleshy halfling. It's nice that Data is less the goofy comic relief as he is in the other Next Gen films, but they should have totally Spocked him at the climax.  As Matt says, this is The Wrath of Khan of Next Gen and it's a fun action film with plenty of Patrick Stewart tommy gun screaming.  Fun, but I will never connect with this crew the way I connect with Kirk, Spock, and Bones.

Exit Through The Gift Shop:  Whether it's bullshit or not, this is a fascinating look into the world of street art and the birth of fanboy wannabe Mister Brainwash. I've never quite understood modern art cuz of my dumb brain but who doesn't love a talking heads documentary, especially one that might be as accurate as Kung Fu Panda. It's definitely entertaining and awkward and I feel for Thierry Guetta's love affair with graffiti artists like Bansky...that is until he starts raking in the dough with his pretender's art show.  But why do I feel so damn manipulated a narrative?  Is this just more Bansky protest art?  Fascinating and I definitely feel 10 x more hipstery once the credits appeared.

Doble Dare:  A solid doc focusing on a couple of female stuntwomen attempting to keep their foothold in the Hollywood machine. Zoe Bell leaves the finale of Xena Warrior Princess and heads into the dreams of Quentin Tarantino's Kill Bill. Seasoned professional Jeannie Epper (Wonder Woman, Robocop, Foxy Brown, Romancing the Stone, EVERY MOVIE EVER!) struggles with the business side while still putting her body in harms way for 2 Fast 2 Furious. I wish the film dove even deeper into this mad world of bodily devastation in which a good portion of your favorite films are actually performed by these faceless warriors, but as is, it's a nice glimpse behind the curtain.

The Avengers:  Celebrated a late Mother's Day with The Avengers, and I was quite pleased to see Mom enjoy the film almost as much as I did.  But has the high faded now that I've seen the film four times? Oh, in some respects a high as strong as the one I experienced after the midnight screening was destined to evaporate a little...but! I'm still amazed and in love with Marvel's blockbuster miracle. The chills are still there when Iron Man, Cap, and Thor clash in the woods or when Hulk declares his secret or when Nick Fury goes for that bazooka. And yeah, it's still my favorite film of 2012 so far.  But a word of warning, we plopped down the extra cash for the 3D and I think it's some of the worst post-converted 3D I've experienced.  Unbearably dark and ineffective.  Stay away from the unnecessary high prices, save those bucks for Piranha 3DD.

Freakonomics:  This might have been a little more informative and thought provoking than my typical T&A heavy exploitation, but it's definitely better than reading a book, right?   I finished this film knowing not to trust my realtor or give a damn about cannon fodder 9th graders not interested in bettering their GPAs....was that the point? Probably not. We all just need to find the right incentives to make this world a better place. Good luck.

Star Trek - Insurrection:  Huh, do I now actually prefer Insurrection to First Contact? Damn. I think so. The plot is very much just an extended episode of The Next Generation with Picard & Crew butting in where they're not welcomed after Data short circuits on a mysterious rejuvenating planet.  The film is filled with much wanted character moments for the cast, and since the story is a little more fluffy the interrupting humor (especially the Data jokes) are less infuriating. And Jonathan Frakes finally gets to command the Enterprise and kick a little ass...uh, the joystick controls though, WTF?  But it's 'bout bloody time Riker got in on the action.  Insurrection might not be the cinematic epic we've come to crave from the series, but it's a solid story told better than the other attempted grandiose Next Gen episodes. And it's nice to see some of that DS9 pessimism in the form of Anthony Zerbe's corrupt Federation Admiral.

Star Trek - Nemesis:  "I'm a mirror for you as well." There might be a few interesting ideas at play here in the final outing for The Next Generation crew, but the execution from both screenwriter John Logan and director Stuart Baird is handled horribly. Maybe all the blame should not be placed at their feet, it's obvious that Paramount slashed the budget again with some of the weakest CG of the franchise, but there are so many eye-rolling groans birthed from this narrative that it genuinely taints this crews previous adventures.  From the introduction of the halfwit android B4 (giving Brent Spiner more awkward laughs) to the over-reaching pursed lipped performance from Tom Hardy to the wasted Nosferatu wannabe Remans. It's all swing, no hits with Nemesis.

Star Trek:  In a lot of ways, my reaction to the 2009 Star Trek was very similar to my reaction to this year's The Avengers. How did they make that work!?!? And the fact that it's so bloody good is a genuine geek miracle! JJ Abrams and his crew of Star Wars fanboys bring their action oriented sensibilities to the Star Trek universe and breathe some much needed life into the rigor-mortised franchise (again, Nemesis...sigh). Yes, this will never own my heart in the same manner as the original series crew, but Christ Pine, Zachary Quinto, and Karl Urban shockingly capture their spirit. Plus, the epic space battles involving the USS Enterprise and the climactic phaser fight in the haul of the Borgged Narada is something we've never seen before in Trek. So give it a rest if you want to whine about lens flares or split hairs over alternative universes. This is a Star Trek film I never thought would bless us, a nearly 200 million dollar human adventure that raises the stakes in a universe that had grown pretty cold after Next Gen tried their best.

COMICS OF THE WEEK!

Silver Surfer - Parable:  "See Now What Such Blind Devotion Has Wrought!" Marvel patriarch Stan Lee and European Art Sensation Moebius team up for this insanely broad story that pits The Silver Surfer and his Power Cosmic against his former master, and current World-Eater, Galactus. Set in the near future, the destroyer of worlds lands in the middle of a nameless city but does not feed upon the masses...instead, the masses turn to Galactus as a new deity, and a new world religion springs around his colossal majesty. Only The Surfer, hiding in hobo rags, knows that Galactus's presence means only death, not salvation. Using the media, he must reveal this anti-God to the world but will the people of Earth simply listen or just offer more threats of violence. It's a ridiculous plot but incredibly enjoyable in that Stan Lee Excelsior kinda way. And I absolutely love Moebius' rendering of the Marvel Universe. It's a trip.

X-O Manowar #1:  Valiant Comics Is Back!  And I'm loving the weird 90s nostalgia that washes over my mind as I turn the pages of this delightful reboot.  It's too early to tell if this comic is going to be any good or not, but there's no denying the beauty of Cary Nord's art and I still dig the premise of 5th Century Visigoth Aric stealing the Manowar suit from spidery faced aliens who worship the armor as a holy relic.  Imagine Excalibur crossed with Iron Man and you've got no idea what this comic is really like.  Hopefully, the modern era of comic storytelling will elevate this series to neo classic heights...but that seems like fanboy dreaming to me.  Fingers crossed.

BPRD - The Devil's Engine #1:  Well, not much to the first issue.  Agent Devon & psychic Fenix are traveling via Train from Texas to the BPRD compound, but it's not going to be a simple ride with a countryside now overrun by all manner of monstrosities.  I'm still not won over to the Fenix character or Agent Devon for that matter, they've done a good job of making him an unlikable twit.  But the other half of this book deals with the Zinco corporation and the resurrection of "The Master."  That's where my interest is piqued.  Supernatural Nazis are surfacing...

Winter Soldier #5:  The first arc of Brubaker's series has come to a close.  It was decent.  Just a glimmer of his amazing Bucky Barnes run in Captain America.  Machine Gun Apes?  Good.  Dr. Doom 3rd Person speechifying?  Sigh.  But the sleeper assassin story could lead to some interesting places and I'll stick around for a little while.  But I miss the love I once felt for this character.

The Shadow #2:  This was probably the last issue of the Garth Ennis series that I'm gonna buy.  It's not bad by any means, but it's not grabbing me either.  Frankly, I just want The Shadow to Shadow it up.  The Lamont Cranston stuff is not engaging me.  It might just read better in trade.  That's where I'll check it out again if I bother at all.

ROAD TRIP OF THE WEEK!

Brian Regan at The Warner Theater:  On Saturday Night, The Wife took me out to see one of her favorite comedians.  She's a stand-up comedy junkie and even though I've enjoyed certain comics in my time, it's a realm I need to be steered in to properly enjoy.  Thankfully I've got her.  Regan offered some serious chuckles with his flailing spider web comedy and plaid shirt shenanigans, but his nice guy humor doesn't grab me in any particular way.  Just a few days have passed and I'm having difficulty recalling his bit.  Still, it was a good time and it's always fun to venture into DC for a show.

--Brad