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

Comic Reviews: Animal Man 1 & 2

Volume 1

    I had a harder time getting into this than the recent Swamp Thing.  Part of it is that the Animal Man character doesn’t capture me at all.  He feels like the victim of decades of bad writing or at least inconsistent writing.  He was a super hero, a stunt man, an actor, and who knows what else.  None of which seems to lend him any depth.  Nor does the tale of his daughter being the avatar of the Red raise any especially interesting story potentials.  In fact, it feels like the same old, same old.  If she were ten years older, it would start smelling of Joss Whedon (he tends to limit his idiot savant/ultimate engines of destruction who only look like unassuming young women to the hormonally confused and terminally hipstery teen years).  Actually, it already smells of Joss Whedon.  His daughter spouted plenty of snarky comments that didn’t befit a kid of four years.

    However, I’m still interested in this whole Green-Red-Rot conflict and what might happen when Animal Man and Swamp Thing come together.  Or, Animal Man’s daughter and Swamp Thing, as she seems to be the real power player here (of course).  In this volume, we’re introduced to the Hunters Three, a triumvirate of hungry monsters looking to get their rotten claws on young Maxine.  Blah, blah, blee, blee, and they’re riding away in an RV with a mystical cat, being chased by a hoard of monsters.  OK.  Sadly, there’s not much to it.

    The art is disgusting.  Now, the art is supposed to be disgusting, but even getting past the content of the images, I found the art distractingly unpleasant.  Characters rarely look the same from panel to panel, and I had to go on costume cues to keep track (Animal Man is even suddenly bald in one panel…though that may be in volume 2).  Large sections looked like the artist spilled his inkwell all over the page and didn’t bother to clean it up.  The four year old girl seems to shift ages from 10 to 30 with every panel (never looking like a four year old).  At least there’s shading, I guess; something that seems to have become hip to skip in a lot of comics.

Volume 2

    Not far into the second volume, I was getting sick and tired of every one of the characters.  Animal Man is a sniveling cry-baby.  His wife is a fickle moron.  His kids are idiots.  And his mother-in-law is an old hag.  While basic plot idea is interesting, I don’t want to read about these people anymore.  It suffers from the same issues too many comics suffer from, especially those that have family dynamics.  The characters seem to spend most of their time bitching and moaning at each other, and not enough focused on what’s happening.  When the hoards of monsters are at the door, it may not be the time to bring up a bunch of family problems.

    I did enjoy the flashback story in the middle, about the Rot incursion in 19th century Canada.  It has a nice Lovecrafty vibe to it at the beginning.  However, it wraps up too quickly and seems to have nothing much to do with anything.

    Otherwise, while the general story builds toward the team-up with Swamp Thing and the eventual war of Rotworld, Buddy’s family becomes somehow more infuriating.  By the end of the volume I felt like I was watching the worst X-Files episodes, where Scully is staring at an alien spaceship and denying that aliens are possible.  Buddy’s wife has got to be about the worst character I’ve read in a good long time.  She’s the worst 70s movie cop-wife, who hates everything her husband does and makes everything imaginable somehow about her (see Vic Mackie’s wife on The Shield for a modern equivalent).  He needs to go to work, she feels abandoned.  He tries to save people from monstrous beings, she demands he walk away.  The apocalypse is happening around them, and she’s upset that he’s not spending enough time at home.  Rotten animal demons just ate a cop in front of her and her kids, and she’s blaming it on her husband’s decision to try to help.  Everybody is trying to protect her daughter, and she’s complaining that she doesn’t want to be involved in other people’s problems.  I’d say throw the bitch to the Rot, but I don’t hate the Rot enough to subject them to her.  Obviously, I would not recommend reading this one.  However, it seems to have a fairly devoted fanbase out there, so maybe there’s something in it for people that I’m not picking up.

Animal Man Volume 1: The Hunt
Author: Jeff Lemire
Artist: Travel Foreman
Publisher: DC Comics
ISBN: 978-1-4012-3507-9

Animal Man Volume 2: Animal Vs. Man
Author: Jeff Lemire
Artist: Travel Foreman, etc.
Publisher: DC Comics
ISBN: 978-1-4012-3800-1

-Matt

Matt’s Week in Dork! (4/28/13-5/6/13)

    Sunday, Ben and I stopped into Comics and Gaming, a new shop in downtown Fairfax.  It seems like a good location, and the folks were friendly.  A bit more magic-focused than I’d like, but that’s what brings in the bread.  It’s nice to have a game store somewhere nearby, though.  The only other one I know of is about 10 or 15 miles away, and frankly, has the smell of death about it.  Maybe I’ll be able to dust off the old tabletop games again, as hosting game night at my place kind of petered out, with everyone being so busy all the time (edit: I went to the Gainesville location later in the week and wanted to reach across the counter and deck the employee, so you never can tell).

Pain & Gain:  “Jesus Christ has blessed me with many gifts; one of them is knocking someone the f&%k out.”  This is the best Michael Bay movie ever.  Hands down.  It’s also probably the best Marky Mark movie.  Three giant dumbass muscle heads stupid their way through a life of crime.  Time and again, you just can’t believe people would be this dumb, and yet… Though I’m quite sure there were plenty of liberties taken, the movie does have to remind you it is based on a true story.  Seriously.  It’s so dumb, but it’s so funny, but it’s so dumb.  Dwayne Johnson is a mad genius.  He’s snorting coke of a stripper’s ass and loving Jesus like it’s his job.  Fantastic.  From what I understand, some things were changed/dropped from the real story of these Three Musketeers of Muscle because they were so stupid and insane the filmmakers figured the viewing audience wouldn’t be able to suspend disbelief.  Truth being once again, stranger than fiction.  Like pretty much all Michael Bay films, it is a bit overlong.  But, unlike most, I wasn’t bored.  It’s kind of like an extended dramatization of a Darwin Awards entry.

I believe in fitness.

    On Sunday afternoon, I burned through the first two volumes of Scott Snyder’s new Swamp Thing series, still riding the high of finishing up Alan Moore’s six volume cycle.  So far, so good.  There are a few things I’m not in love with.  But for DC today, it’s right up at the top.  I’m generally not too impressed with most of what I’ve read from DC’s New 52 (or their other stuff…or from Marvel, for that matter).  But this is good.  Bring on Rotworld, I guess.  And I read another volume of Invincible.  Dang, that’s a fine comic.  So stressful, but so good.  The best superhero comic out there.

Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me:  “Don’t worry momma.  Things won’t get weird.”  Time travel, mojo theft, a fat bastard, a mini-clone, chest hair, and a young Number 2.  The second outing for idiocy’s answer to James Bond, Flint, and Matt Helm strolls back into my cold, dead heart.  These movies are so appallingly stupid, and I love ever ham-fisted and ignorant moment.  Sight gags, references, goofing off.  You have to be kind of smart to be this unbelievably stupid.  And if that statement is correct, they had to be really, really smart to make this film.  I know many don’t like the third film in the franchise, but I think they get better with each movie.  This one is more together, with consistent laughs than the first.  Also, check out the scene that plays during the credits…the one with two Austins.  Yeah, that’s gonna be me after the advent of cloning.  Get ready world.  Get ready.

Doctor Who: The Happiness Patrol:  “I make sweets!”  Like Paradise Towers, this story arc always stuck out in my memories of Sylvester McCoy’s tenure as The Doctor (fooling my memory into believing I liked his years in the role).  Also like that story, this one features an Earth colony turned horrible distopia, with an ultra-80s 2000AD/Max Headroom/Mad Max vibe.  Kandy Man, man.  Holy nuts.  Kandy Man.  Is this a great story?  No.  But it’s so wacky and weird, and the visuals so much fun, it still holds a place in my heart.  So far, the good VS. awful is about 50/50 for the McCoy years.

Star Trek IV The Voyage Home:  “How’d a nice girl like you get to become a…citation biologist?”  The final film in the trilogy within the series, this time we find Kirk and crew hobbling home in a Klingon ship when Earth gets assaulted by an alien probe.  With some rather startling leaps of logic and faith, they head back in time to find some humpback whales who might be able to drive off the probe.  You know.  That old story.  Once they get to San Francisco of the 1980s, it becomes an Escape from Planet of the Apes style ‘aren’t we all crazy?!’ kind of look at then contemporary culture.  The film has all the subtlety of Michael Bay directing a Ke$ha video, but it’s charmingly light hearted, and a nice breath after the heavy stuff in parts II and III.

Breathless:  “Guess I always kinda liked cuttin’ stuff up.”  I’m not sure quite what this movie was aiming for.  Clearly, it’s at least partially an attempt to do a Tarantino film, with all the stylized dialog and weird combination of knowledgeable yet dumb as post kind of petty criminals.  It reminds me a bit of Bound, though it lacks a good deal of that film’s charm.  The Texan idiocy is a bit tough to sit through.  About 30 minutes in, I realized it was going to be one of those ‘one location’ films.  As such, it’s not bad.  But it has some low budget/film school failings.  The dialog is a bit too self aware, the performances a bit too affected.  Still, it’s OK.

Beyond the Black Rainbow:  Looking back, this should probably have been on my top 10 of 2012 (yes, it came out before in Canada, but only became available in the States last year, so I count it).  It reaches back into the late 60s, the 70s, and early 80s, to the Hippie and post-Hippie, New Age, Utopian idealism, science and drug fueled dreaming of transcendent reality shift.  Those folk who wanted to unshackle humanity from its traditions, reach for something new, and become more than human.  The film lives in the dwindling days of their shattered dreams.  This was the stuff I was most fascinated by while watching the middle seasons of Lost, with the Dharma Initiative, those broken dreams of failed seekers.  The sinister side of the quest for perfection.  These people dropped the ceremony and jargon of traditional religion, but held on to the mindset, still trying to fill a nonexistent void with aspirations for a better world forever out of reach.  The operatic and surreal score, as well as the ultra-saturated colors, and intentionally jarring editing create that feel of early David Cronenberg or Don Coscarelli.  It’s simultaneously hypnotic and disquieting, beautiful and grotesque.  If you haunted video stores in the late 80s and early 90s, picking through the weird movies you’d never heard of, hoping to find a lost gem, check this movie out.  That’s the feeling I get when I watch it, like when I saw Lifeforce for the first time, Logan’s Run,  Idaho Transfer, Lightyears, or The Company of Wolves.

    And I read an advanced reader copy of Ashley Cardiff’s upcoming book Night Terrors.  I don’t know if it’s going to be released as a humor book, or a sex book, or just a memoir.  Whatever the case, it’s a danged funny, extremely dirty, and occasionally dark look at becoming an adult in this era.  Cardiff looks at the world in a way not unlike my own, and went through similar growing pains, so I frequently empathized with her in all her awkward and confused glory.

    On Saturday, Brad and I did a comic shop crawl.  Other than one obnoxious jerkwad running a register at the last place we hit up, it was a good time and a good day.  The selection this year seemed a bit sparse, and perhaps a touch uninteresting.  But the turnout seemed good, especially among families with kids.  That’s heartening.  Later on Saturday a fairly large group of us went out to the newly opened Alamo Draft House Theater to see Iron Man 3.  The place seems pretty cool.  They serve you food where you sit.  You’ve got a nice shelf in front of you where you can keep your food.  The prices are competitive (popcorn is fairly cheap for a theater, actually).  And the experience is pretty good.  Can’t wait to go out in a couple weeks to see They Live (with sunglasses and bubblegum).

Iron Man 3:  Did you like the first two Iron Man films?  If so, you should enjoy this.  If not, this won’t change your mind.  I feel similarly lukewarm on all three, though I think they’ve gotten marginally better each installment.  Robert Downey Jr. is less charming in this film, relying instead his impeccable comic timing.  Honestly, the story felt kind of superfluous, with few interesting moments.  The Extremis business has potential, but as was the case when I made a brief attempt at reading an Iron Man comic, it doesn’t work.  There are parts of the beginning and middle that were really interesting, but the final mega-action battle at the shipyard was glaringly uninspired.  The stunts and suit-gags stopped wowing me sometime near the middle of the first film, and they feel like extremely old hat here, like an ancient stand-up comedian dragging out the same jokes night after night.  It’s fun enough popcorn entertainment.  But I still prefer Thor and the first two thirds of Captain America.

-Matt

Comic Review: Swamp Thing 1 & 2

Volume 1

    When DC’s New 52 started, I figured it would be a good time to give a bunch of their characters a try.  One of the first issues I read was for Swamp Thing.  I’d always liked the look of the character, I’d heard some good things about comics from the past, and I’d liked the 80s movie.  But the first issue was pretty dull, featuring Superman for crying out loud.  I figured I’d skip that one.  For some reason, a few months later, I read the ‘issue 0’ when that gimmick flexed through the various New 52 lines, and suddenly I questioned my choice.  I really enjoyed the story, and it was one of the things that pushed me to finally sit down to Alan Moore’s venerated run.  So, here I am, a year or so later, reading the first two trades of Scott Snyder’s new series.  Snyder also wrote one of the other New 52 titles I ended up liking, the Batman: Court of Owls story.  He’s obviously delving back into the early life of Earth’s Green champion here, including Moore’s material.  How it all fits in this weird re-launch of the DC universe, who can say?  But the Green, Red, and Rot could be a very interesting battle.

    While I’m not in love with the art, it’s a heck of a lot better than several of the lines out there.  And it feels like the wacky panel work is trying to capture some of the strange stuff from the classic run.  The stuff with the Rot and its creatures is disgusting.  Really disgusting.  The story is OK, though this reborn Alec Holland is king of a putz.  He Luke Skywalkers up the first volume quite a bit, and I was ready for him to get run over on his way to pick up some power converters.  Abby once again seems to be a more interesting character, with more going on.

Volume 2

    All kinds of crazy stuff happens in the second book of Scott Snyder’s new Swamp Thing.  Abby and the Rot.  Alec and the green.  Some flashback stuff about Arcane and the Un-Men.  Even a flashback to young Alec as a college student on a fieldtrip to Eastern Europe.  But in spite of a couple pretty big things happening, it feels like it’s primarily designed to set up the Rotworld story I think may be going on in the comic (as well as Animal Man) right now.  Shows how much I keep up on current events.

    I’m very curious to see where this series goes, and what connections to some of the other characters it might forge.  There is a brief appearance of Poison Ivy at the end of volume 2 (which seems to be some kind of a time jump forward…or something).  As I was reading Alan Moore’s run, especially when Swamp Thing ended up in Gotham, I kept thinking he and Poison Ivy needed to meet.  Seems someone else thought the same.  And what’s going on with Abby?  I’m assuming that glimpse into the future was from an imperfect vantage point.  This sure has the potential to be one of the better DC titles (granted, there’s not an awful lot of competition).  It’s really their game to botch at this point.  Can Snyder and company take the ideas they’ve introduced and not screw them up?  We’ll see.

Swamp Thing Volume 1: Raise Them Bones
Author: Scott Snyder
Artist: Yanick Paquette
Publisher: DC Comics
ISBN: 978-1-4012-3462-1

Swamp Thing Volume 2: Family Tree
Author: Scott Snyder
Artist: Yanick Paquette
Publisher: DC Comics
ISBN: 978-1-4012-3462-1


-Matt

Comic Review: Saga of the Swamp Thing 5 & 6

Book Five

    After the apocalyptic madness that capped off the fourth volume, I had to wonder where Alan Moore and company would take the characters.  How would they top the events on the shores of Hell?  Hints were dropped during book four; that stuff about a photographer getting some snaps of Abby and the Swamp Thing frolicking.  When authorities get their hands on the pictures, they flip, dragging poor Abby in on morality charges.  But where is the Thing?  As life gets out of hand, Abby bails for the anonymity of Gotham, but things go from bad to worse.

    When the Swamp Thing gets back to the real world, he’s ready to settle down with his lady.  But, finding out she’s held captive in Gotham sends him into a bit of a fit.  What follows is a biological siege of the city and a surprisingly good Swamp Thing VS. Batman story (the use of other series’ characters in Swamp Thing has been less forced than typical of ongoing comics from the Big Two).  With Gotham turned from urban jungle to literal jungle, it’s residents loose their minds.  I like that they draw some attention to the fact that Gotham must be populated by some seriously crazy people, not just the villains and heroes, but the everyday folk.  It takes almost no time for millennia of civilization to be stripped away.  Gotham is like the worst of every city, most obviously New York, like all the worst aspects of Hollywood’s portrayal, with none of the good.  It’s a madhouse of vile people, faceless and hostile.

    In this volume, in spite of her place as something of a damsel in distress while stuck in Gotham, Abby Cable really starts to stand more on her own, becoming a more dimensional character and a stronger person.  I don’t want to get too into some of the plot points (might want to avoid reading the introduction until after reading the book, by the way), but while spending time on her own, she needs the Swamp Thing less and less.  And the Swamp Thing’s blue period is an odd capper for the volume, that does set the tone for what is to come.

Book Six

    Getting into much more science fiction type themes, this book opens with a story that brings back a classic character, Adam Strange.  Here, he’s a pathetic figure, desperately in love but used and abused.  Apparently, artist Rick Vietch was more interested in science fiction, and Moore directed the book in that direction.  On the surface, the Swamp Thing is about the last character that should be traveling the stars.  However, it works better than expected.  Through Strange, we also come into contact with some of the Hawk People and get hints of some intergalactic politics.  From there, the Thing attempts to make a journey to a planet of advanced plant civilization.

    Now, here’s where it gets a bit more Moore than I had anticipated.  Sometime during my reading of book Four or Five, I had chuckled to myself when I thought, “well, finally, an Alan Moore book without a rape.”  Turns out, I jumped the gun.  (Although, thinking back, wasn’t there that implication early on, with Abby curled up in the shower?  Maybe I was simply mistaken, and this series had already featured Moore’s signature).  Seriously, though, what is with Moore and rape?  I’m sure issue 60’s experimental visuals and style won it many fans, as well as some of the more disturbing aspects of the story.  But while there was a profoundly interesting idea, it doesn’t come together, and gets lost in attempts to be ‘ART!!!’

    The last couple of chapters/issues serve as a wrapping up, perhaps a touch too tidily, of many threads from throughout Moore’s run.  From that drugged out hippie turned drugged out environmentalist and the shattered, abused woman Abby had been caring for, to the soulless corporate/government types who messed with Swampy’s Zen thing.  While a touch too pat, the overall conclusion is satisfying, and for Moore especially, somewhat optimistic.

    Looking back over the six volumes of Saga of the Swamp Thing, I have to give Alan Moore and his fellows a good deal of credit for exploring a character I feel has a great deal of story potential in a lot of creative ways.  I understand why this run is considered one of the greats, and it serves as a reminder of why Alan Moore is one of those titans of comic literature.  Of course, I still have major issues with Moore.  I think his general pessimism and contrarianism is often childish, like he’s stuck perpetually at the emotional level of a picked on high school kid.  He’s clearly intellectually impressive, but seems like an emotional cripple.  His world view, which he pores into his work, is so relentlessly downbeat that he often sabotages what could be great stuff.  And he’s so danged wordy.  While that works in Swamp Thing better than usual, it is often his weakest element as a writer.  The first half of Watchmen is the thing I point out so often, because it’s such a glaringly bloated mess.  But again, it’s clear the man’s got talent and brains.  He weaves in so many diverse concepts, from science fiction, to classic myths, to his own weirdass magic (I refuse to spell it with a ‘k’) stuff.

    I enjoyed the heck out of the 80s movie Swamp Thing.  It was a silly, fun film (and Adrianne Barbeau has never been sexier…except maybe in Carnivale, but that was a terrifying, uncomfortable sexiness I’d rather not think about right now).  But after reading this cycle, I would love to see DC/Warner Bros. do a serious take on the character.  There’s plenty here for a trilogy (such an important thing these days).  Movie one, steeped in gothic horror as the Swamp Thing haunts the bayou, causing trouble with folks dumping toxic waste.  Bring in the beauty and the beast love affair between the Thing and Abby (and keep her white hair!).  Movie two, an exploration of Swamp Thing’s power, leading perhaps to a retelling of his Gotham sequence, with Abby in jail and him taking the mantle of Swamp God.  And then movie three, about coming to terms with power, achieving balance, etc.  It could work.  And with today’s special effects technology, the really crazy stuff (including the trippy sex) could actually be achieved.  The problem of course is that I’d want this R rated, and I’m sure they’d never go higher than PG-13.

    Again, this is a classic set of comics for good reason.  It’s worth seeking out.  While not perfect, and occasionally floundering for an issue or two, it’s generally good and not infrequently excellent.  While I’m not in love with the artwork, there are moments of startling beauty and power.  It is a must read for comic fans, especially if you’re sick of spandex.

Saga of the Swamp Thing Book Five
Author: Alan Moore
Artists: Rick Veitch, etc.
Publisher: DC Comics
ISBN: 978-1-4012-3095-1

Saga of the Swamp Thing Book Six
Author: Alan Moore, etc.
Artist: Rick Veitch, etc.
Publisher: DC Comics
ISBN: 978-1-4012-3298-6

-Matt

Matt’s Week in Dork! (4/21/13-4/27/13)

    Not really much of a week for this dork.  Did a bit of reading, a bit of watching, a bit of biking, and a bit of cooking.  But nothing amazing on the nerdy front.

Oblivion:  If you’re looking for a reinvention of the wheel, or a profound and transformative experience, you’ll be sadly disappointed.  If you’re looking for a solid, slick, visually impressive science fiction adventure movie, this has plenty to offer.  It has an epic quality, and draws on some of my favorite elements of the past, with robots, ultra-tech, and a hefty dose of post-apocalypse.  There are a couple ‘twists’ that change the lead character’s journey, but don’t pivot the whole plot.  Sadly, too much was (as is all to often the case) given away in the trailers.  Still, the trailer didn’t give everything away or spoil every dramatic cue.  This is the kind of movie I’d like to see being done on a more regular basis.  This should be an average entry in the genre, but as it’s one of the rare entries, almost by default it’s one of the better.  Though set on Earth, it creates a world unlike our own and doesn’t shy away from the weird ideas that were so common in the literature but commonly absent from film.  Some aspects of the finale could have been handled better, but they weren’t so bad as to mar the overall film.  As I mentioned, it’s visually striking, but also has a good electronica score, reminiscent of the director’s previous film, Tron: Legacy.  And here’s the greatest part of the whole thing: No flippin’ shaky cam!  I could tell what was happening throughout the movie.  The camera stayed a respectable distance and didn’t jitter about to the point I felt sick.  What a welcome change from so many recent movies.

Tron: Legacy:  “You’re messin’ with my whole Zen thing, man.”  Dang it, I don’t get tired of this movie.  After watching Oblivion, I thought I’d throw the director’s first movie back in the DVD player.  He has an excellent visual style and manages to meld computer and practical effects extremely well.  If you ignore the fact that it’s supposed to take place inside a computer network, the world of the Grid would make for an excellent execution of one of those crazy ultra-future worlds you normally only read about in sci-fi novels.  It reminds you that we have the capability of putting beautiful and powerful images on screen when there are artists at work.  And dang, I love that score.  I was going to just throw this in as background noise, but ended up getting sucked in once again.  I’m still frustrated with America for not embracing this movie.

Django Unchained:  “I’m not from the South.”  Christoph Waltz is so devilishly charming in this movie.  A gleefully civilized, deadly bounty hunter.  When he teams up with Jamie Foxx, they make for a fascinating and compelling pair.  The relationship that develops between the two is great, as is the montage type scene of them in the mountains during winter could have been the basis of an awesome movie in its own right.  I could watch a whole movie about that winter.  Every copy of Birth of a Nation and Gone with the Wind should come with a copy of this film.  It’s a great inoculation against their BS.  Dr. Scholtz’s  horror at the madness of slavery and his righteous fury is beautiful to behold.  Django is a stark fist of vengeance on a quest for his wife.  And the blood is worthy of the craziest samurai film.  Those aren’t squibs but hoses and bladders pumping and blasting like a gory water-balloon fight.  And that Fred Williamson smile.  Glorious.

Tokyo Joe:  “We were over 18 when we were 15.”  What a mess.  Poor Joe.  He ran a business in Tokyo, but then that danged war broke out.  So he signed up with Uncle Sam and fought the good fight.  Now he’s back in town, looking to pick up the pieces of his pre-War life in a post-War Japan.  And things aren’t going well.  It’s perfectly understandable why this isn’t one of those Bogart movies you hear people talk about.  It’s enjoyable, but also forgettable.  There are some hints of story, but not much really happens.  It seems like the filmmakers were reaching for threads of Casablanca and some other War tie-in and/or Bogart movies.  But it doesn’t come together.  Still, it was nice to see Asian actors in the roles.  And while forgettable, it’s not bad.

Dishonored Lady:  “I got a rule about women.  They ain’t breaking the law, let ‘em alone.”  A tempting harlot (I think she even votes!  For shame!) lures men by standing around and trying to do her job, sometimes even saying hello.  Things go from bad to worse when every man around her can’t help but be completely seduced by her, even when she’s just having a drink or calling for a cab.  But then the greatest, smoothest, sagest shrink ever to slick back his hair sets her on the straight and narrow by getting her to give up the high life, live in a dive, and paint.  OK.  It’s a weird thing for me to notice, but Hedy Lamarr’s outfits in this movie are kind of ridiculous.  They look like adult versions of a little girl’s ‘pretty little princess’ kind of thing.  She’s a beautiful woman, but she’s dressed like a child.  It’s weird.  The movie is melodramatic crap, really.  But it’s watchable crap.

The Strange Woman:  “A young man of fashion will be very popular in Bangor.”  This time, Hedy Lamarr plays a dreadful child who grows up to be a dreadful woman in Hollywood’s version of my hometown; Bangor, Maine.  She’s a danged devil.  It’s bad when the creepy old perv who marries her seems somewhat sympathetic by comparison.  Yet, somehow they weave in this story, as she’s pitting father against sun, about how she’s a philanthropist trying to clean up the rum-fueled lumberjack/whore riot that is Bangor.  It’s like she’s got a good-evil switch, and some hyperactive kid won’t stop flicking it.  When she’s not making sex-eyes at every strapping young sailor or lumberjack, she’s a tireless champion for the poor.  When she’s not half praying for her older husband to die, she’s staying up with him all night trying to save him from a fever.  She’s so crazy her crazy has crazy.  She’s not the kind of woman your mother warned you about.  She’s the kind of woman the kind of woman your mother warned you about would warn you about.  Bangor looks like a frontier town from a Western.  I think the house I grew up in would already have been standing when this movie took place.  The movie is somewhat difficult to watch.  Lamarr plays such a madwoman that the waves her character makes seem to disrupt everything about the film.  You can’t root for anyone, and only feel those who die are lucky enough to be out of her dastardly clutches.

Emperor:  In the aftermath of Japan’s defeat, an American general with pre-War ties is called upon to help with the occupation.  The movie deals with a lot of cultural confusion, the clash of two very, very different world views.  The cult of the Emperor, a tradition of duty and devotion going back into deep cultural time, being crushed by the an ideology of individualism and personal ambition.  I find Japanese traditionalism to be as inscrutable as religious fundamentalism, for pretty much the same reasons.  As one old soldier says in the film, the Japanese are a people of great selflessness, but also capable of shocking atrocities, and both stem from the same world view.  This too puts me in mind of the deeply religious, who can be at once profoundly kind and appallingly evil.  Matthew Fox has the look of a WWII vet, with his golly-gee good looks made a bit ragged and weathered by hardship.  He puts me in mind of so many of those early 50s movies where the actors looked middle aged, but would only be 25 or 30.  War, smoking, drinking, and hard living.  It’ll get you.

The Shadow Whip:  “If you don’t tell us, you’ll have to face our Serial Bombs.”  The Martial Arts world was a difficult place.  Even more prone to take offence and get the itch for trouble than the typical gunfighter of the Western, the kung fu warrior had to be on constant alert, because a fight could erupt at any moment.  Woe to the innkeeper or clay pot salesman.  I love the superpowers of martial arts masters, those little things that tip you off to their amazing skills.  Walking on powdered snow without making imprints.  Awesome.  I like watching these movies that feature unusual weapons, but I have to admit, the whip doesn’t work all that well.  When fighting large numbers of spearmen, it looks extremely awkward.  It might just be a problem with fight choreography, but I think it’s more than that.  The movie does feature one of my favorite martial arts tropes, the inability or unwillingness to use doors.  Why use a door, when you can burst through a window?  Why use the gate when you can leap over the wall?  This film is fairly typical of the Shaw Bros.  It’s well produced, action packed, perhaps a bit convoluted in plotting.

The Mind Snatchers:  “I don’t care if you’re a girl.  I’ll punch you right in the mouth.”  Christopher Walken looks like he’s maybe 18 in this.  The transfer on this DVD is appalling.  It looks like something recorded off TV with a bad signal.  The fashion and hair in this is shockingly ugly.  Was this the look in Europe at the time?  It makes the worst sins of the Mod movement and the Hippies look like child’s play.  The music is also dreadful, sounding like something off a 70s sitcom.  Walken plays such an insufferable jackass that I kept hoping one of the people he ticked off would just put a bullet in his head.  It reminded me a bit of his performance in Communion, where he’s supposed to be the protagonist, but I kept wanting the aliens to stick a probe in his mouth instead of his ass.  There’s also a hindsight issue with the movie.  It’s basically an anti-science film based on early research on the brain.  The film implies that conditions like schizophrenia are just part of being human, and that treating them is tantamount to removing a person’s humanity.  It relies on the visceral horror of opening the skull and putting wires inside, which it assumes the viewer will be repulsed by.  Of course, 40 years later, great strides have been made in the treatment of many brain related ailments, and yes, sometimes those include putting electrodes inside.  I don’t think that very many of the people who once suffered from serious problems, nor those today who may soon be cured, would feel the same horror.  For example, all those def people now able to hear thanks to cochlear implants.

Birthday Girl:  “Thank you.  I think that’s very fair.”  A lonely dude in England breaks down and tries an online service to find a mail-order Russian bride.  Maybe not a great idea.  But he picks a winner.  She’s pretty and sweet.  Sure, she was supposed to be a non-smoker and speak English, but you can’t have everything, right?  The awkwardness between them is painful but charming.  The bits where they explore John’s kinks are weirdly cute.  (The scene where she’s on the bed, playing with his tie?  Not my cup of tea, but I’d be willing to try a different brew.  Ya dig?).  Maybe things aren’t so bad…then Vincent Cassel and his buddy arrive, and things go bad fast and hard.  I have a weird thing about Nicole Kidman.  Clearly, she’s a beautiful woman.  And sometimes, in some rare movies, I find her very sexy.  But usually, she makes me think of a porcelain doll, something pretty to put on a shelf, but avoid touching for fear of damage or smudge.  This film falls on the sexy side.  Maybe it’s the dark hair?  Or just my natural inclination toward women I clearly know are trouble.  It’s weird having two French guys and an Australian woman play Russians.  But that’s the movies, I guess.  Though it features none of the signature style, the plot of the film could have dropped right out of a classic Noir.  John is the sap, Nadia the femme fatale.  But in spite of everything, it manages to be a cute romance along with the dangerous crime caper.  It also manages to capture some of the pain of being an everyman.  The montage featuring John’s boss reading aloud from his employee review is crushingly accurate and painful.  The corporate speak that manages to makes to make him feel like crap, even though it’s a positive review.  Spot on.

Doctor Who: Ambassadors of Death:  “Right!  Cut it open!”  It’s weird going back and watching stories from this era.  The Doctor is trapped on Earth, with parts of the Tardis set up in a swanky lab.  This story begins with a manned probe returning from Mars, running silent.  What happened 12 hours after the men landed?  Why haven’t the communicated?  Who…or what is in the returning pod?  As a conspiracy builds, you know you’re in for another invasion of Earth story (90% of Jon Pertwee’s stories).  Another issue with many of the Pertwee stories is the color.  It would probably look better in black and white.  The color is uneven, bleeding, faded, and grainy.  This story arc is extremely long.  Seven episodes is long, even for an arc of Pertwee’s era, already frequently over-long.  Even so, I somehow didn’t think it felt as bloated as some others.  It wanders a bit, but remains fairly interesting.

    “Shoot it?  Major, that horror is made of people!”  More Swamp Thing.  I read the final two volumes of Alan Moore’s run on the series.  Darn it, but that’s an interesting character, with a lot of potential.  I’m curious to see what other authors have done with him.  Like where did Rick Veitch go with his sci-fi bent?

-Matt