Archive for November, 2008

Resistance is Futile

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Final Crisis: Resist

The global superspy organization Checkmate is in dire straits — many of their agents, including Mr. Terrific, Sascha Bordeaux, Fire, and former JLA sidekick/teleporter Snapper Carr, are working to secure their Antarctic facility from Darkseid’s forces, when they’re unexpectedly taken down from the inside, leaving only Mr. Terrific, Snapper Carr, the Thinker, and Talen Khalid uncorrupted by the Anti-Life Equation. Snapper’s now the only person able to leave the facility, as he teleports around the world gathering intelligence and striking minor blows for the resistance. Snapper runs into Cheetah, the Wonder Woman villain, a few times — she’s also free from Anti-Life’s influence — and he finally brings her into the Antarctic hideout after he gets his Cat Scratch Fever on with her. Still, after Snapper catches a virus that shuts off his teleportational powers, they’re all trapped in a locked-down base with no way out… unless Mr. Terrific can persuade an old enemy to join the fight.

Verdict: Thumbs up. This is one of the few “Final Crisis” books I’ve seen so far that really makes things look hopeless — we at least see a few characters, namely Fire, Ice, the Titans, and Gorilla Grodd, who’ve been enslaved by Darkseid. So far, I haven’t seen a lot of that in the other books. Also, this story has a lot of really cool espionage elements — appropriate, since Checkmate is an espionage organization.

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Justice Society of America #20

The Earth-2 Justice Society invades Earth-1, with their version of Power Girl in an insane rage to get at our local version of PG. There follows a great deal of fighting, for little real benefit.

Verdict: Thumbs down. Listen, the “Gog” storyline has been going on way, way long enough without adding a mostly-pointless diversion right in the middle.

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Mysticism and Multiplicity

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Madame Xanadu #5

Time keeps moving forward — Nimue is now a fortuneteller in pre-Revolutionary France. She still needs her potions to maintain her youth, but she has the favor of Marie Antoinette. And the fortunetelling system she’s developed — the original Tarot cards — have revealed to her that bad times for France are on the way. After running into the Phantom Stranger again, she flees Paris and tells herself to stay out of trouble, but her sense of loyalty has her returning in an attempt to save the Queen. But can all her spells save her when Marie Antoinette decides she doesn’t want to be saved?

Verdict: Thumbs up. Beautiful art, nice cliffhanger. Decent stuff about Antoinette, too, who from a lot of the bios I’ve seen about her, was probably one of the least awful people in France during that period.

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Franklin Richards: Sons of Geniuses

Chris Eliopoulos and Marc Sumerak continue their stories about the son of Reed and Sue Richards, as we get a look at the various versions of Franklin and H.E.R.B.I.E. scattered around the multiverse, including Superhero Franklins, Monkey Franklin, Alien Franklin, Robot Franklin, Chicken Franklin, and many more.

Verdict: Thumbs up. Very cute story, very cute art. It’s a bit pricey, at $4, but it’s probably worth splurging on it every once in a while.

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Bear Attack!

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The Age of the Sentry #2

I didn’t think I’d keep reading this, but dangit, when your cover features a giant monster called Ursus the Ultra Bear, I am helpless to resist.

We get a couple Silver-Age-style stories here — the first, in which the diabolical Cranio (The Man with the Tri-Level Mind) unleashes Ursus on the world, and the second where Marvel’s superheroes are mysteriously avoiding the Sentry, but what terrifying secret are they hiding?

Verdict: Thumbs up. Good gravy, this is cool. Plot synopses alone cannot demonstrate how cool, amazing, and hilarious this is. Carol Danvers shows up as Sentry’s girl-sidekick, the Sentress, wearing an altered version of her Ms. Marvel costume. Truman Capote antagonizes the Sentry throughout most of the comic, reveals that he has a bear phobia, and flashes back to a scene from “To Kill a Mockingbird.” There’s a character named Harrison Oogar, the Caveman of Wall Street. The Sentry’s superpowered corgi Watchdog pees on a fire hydrant and blows it up. A teaser ad for a Sentry annual includes characters like Zombin Hood, Howie Lovecraft, and X-Rex: Reptile Ranger! It even has a moment of modern-day creepiness that works out fairly well. The whole thing was much fun.

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1985 #6

The final issue of this series, set on an alternate, superhero-less Earth in 1985. Marvel’s supervillains have invaded, and Galactus, Devourer of Worlds, is preparing to, well, devour the world. Luckily, Toby has made it back from the Marvel Universe with all the superheroes in tow, and they make mincemeat of the bad guys. Toby and his dad rush off to the old Wyncham Mansion, where it’s revealed that the brain-damaged Clyde Wyncham was the planet’s lone mutant, able to breach dimensions, control minds, and even raise the dead. He’s the one who brought the villains here, and he’s been controlling them from the beginning. Toby’s dad tries to talk sense to Clyde, but will his efforts come too late?

Verdict: Thumbs up. Much better than I expected it to be, along with a nice, bittersweet ending.

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The Wonderful Wizard of Oz Sketchbook

Looks like Marvel is going to be publishing a comic version of the classic fantasy. This is a promotional giveaway showing off Skottie Young’s artwork and designs for the characters. So there’s no plot, just some nice artwork.

Verdict: Thumbs up. Hey, it’s free! But the art is very nice, too. Looks like just the thing for fantasy-loving kids, and grown-up fans of the Oz books should also enjoy it.

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Here’s to Uncle Forry

Forrest J. Ackerman is dying.

I tried to tell people that all day yesterday, and no one around here has heard of him. That’s just depressing.

Forry Ackerman is a longtime fan of science fiction, fantasy, and horror. He’s been a writer, an editor, a collector, and just an all-around great guy. He’s probably best known for creating and editing the legendary “Famous Monsters of Filmland” magazine, though he’s also the first person to abbreviate “science fiction” down to “sci-fi.” He’s been a literary agent for Ray Bradbury, Isaac Asimov, Hugo Gernsback, Andre Norton, Curt Siodmak, Jack Williamson, and many, many others. He even wrote the first issue of the original “Vampirella” comic book.

His home, which used to be known as the “Ackermansion,” was almost completely dedicated to his colossal collection of priceless sci-fi and horror memorabilia, which included books, film posters, costumes, makeup, masks, props, models, photographs, and much more. At 300,000 items, it was the largest collection of its kind in the world. The collection included models of the Martian spacecraft from “The War of the Worlds,” dinosaurs from “King Kong,” Bela Lugosi’s cape from “Dracula,” the Metalunan mutant from “This Island Earth,” the golden idol from “Raiders of the Lost Ark” and much more. And he’d give free tours of the place, just to give science fiction and film fans a thrill to see all that awesome stuff. Financial troubles in 2002 forced him to downgrade to a smaller house, the mini-Ackermansion.

Forry has been one of the greatest boosters of science fiction and of science fiction fandom ever. Without Forry Ackerman, modern science fiction/horror/fantasy fandom would not exist.

But like I said: Forry Ackerman is dying.

In speaking with Uncle Forry’s caretaker, an amazing gentleman named Joe Moe, I was told that Forry was lucid, peaceful and not even on pain medication, but that he was progressively getting worse – and was ready to move on. However, he was wanting to say his goodbyes to as many of his neice and nephews that he has created in his almost 92 years on this Earth. His 92nd Birthday is this November 22nd.

Many friends of Forry have visited his bedside, hearing one last story, one last pun and to say one last goodbye. Ray Bradbury even flew to his bedside.

And they’re even requesting letters. If you’d like to write Forry, tell him what his work has meant to you, wish him well, here’s the address:

Forrest J. Ackerman
4511 Russell Avenue
Los Angeles, CA  90027

Whether you knew him as Uncle Forry, Dr. Acula, Mr. Science Fiction, or something else, let’s get some cards and letters in the mail, guys. Just to show that not everyone has forgotten Forrest Ackerman.

(Link via Mike Lynch)

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Hail to the Chief?

I figured they wouldn’t be able to resist the temptation…

Marvel Comics has just announced that Stephen Colbert has been elected the President of their version of the United States.

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Why do I get the feeling that Marvel’s America is about to get conquered by Latveria?

UPDATE: Bah, never mind. Marvel’s just being jerks again.

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A Little More Politics for your Post-Election Hangover

DC Universe Decisions #4

The assassin targeting the presidential candidates has finally been identified — it’s Jericho, the Teen Titans’ body-possessor, and he’s somehow turned evil yet again. He’s also managed to take over Green Lantern’s body, so he’s got the Most Powerful Weapon in the Universe sitting on his finger. Luckily, Hal is able to expel him before he does too much damage, and the superhero psychic Mento determines that in the process of jumping from one body to the next, Jericho has managed to acquire traces of the personalities of hundreds of people, and it’s turned him into a psychotic loon. As for all the problems with superheroes endorsing politicians, Superman apparently solves it all by speechifying.

Verdict: Thumbs down. Supes comes across as an opinionless weasel, and the stuff with Jericho was just embarrassing. It was just a year or two that DC worked their tails off to redeem him into a non-villainous character, and now they’ve chucked him back down the hole again. This entire series was pushed as an explicitly political story, and in the end, it just ended up being dull, middle-of-the-road, and afraid to express any strong political opinions at all. What a waste.

Final Crisis: Rage of the Red Lanterns

Okay, Sinestro is going to be executed by the Green Lantern Corps, so they take him back to his home planet of Korugar because… I really don’t know. Anyway, the new Red Lantern Corps, composed of people who can harness great hatred and rage, is on the rise, and their primary attack appears to be vomiting blood on their enemies. Their members include Atrocitus the demon, Laira, a former Green Lantern, and a pretty blue kitty. The Red Lanterns jump into a fight between the Green Lanterns and the Sinestro Corps, and we get our first glimpse of the Blue Lantern.

Verdict: I think I’m going to give this a thumbs down, too. The blood puking is really pretty silly.

The Family Dynamic #3

Troylus, Terran, and Little Wing swing into action against Monstero and quickly find themselves over their heads. Luckily, their parents show up to help take down the villain. Afterwards, at Sloane’s birthday party, it becomes clear that he’s the only person in the family who doesn’t know that his sister and niece are Blackbird and Little Wing. And before anyone can spill the beans to him, a new villain appears — Replik8, a duplicater with a weird beehive hairdo.

Verdict: Ehh, not bad, but not all that great, either. The back-and-forth between the family members is grand fun, and I’m not sure we need quite so many supervillains anyway, especially when they seem to come and go so quickly.

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VOTE!

Spider-Man wants you to vote! Spider-Man is happy to vote! Don’t you want to be happy like Spider-Man?!

Okay, actually, I’m in a really foul mood today. Partly because I wish I had more vacation days, partly because I hate getting my internal clock screwed up by Daylight Savings Time, partly because I know I’m gonna have to stay at the office extra late tonight helping with election returns. Partly because I’m just cranky, and that’s all there is to it.

Partly because I hear people making dumb excuses for skipping voting.

I’m not going to say I vote in every election, ’cause I don’t. When the only thing on the ballot is one city council seat and the railroad commissioner, I’ll probably skip that one.

But come on, when it’s the presidential election, you shouldn’t skip.

“I don’t wanna vote. Voting’s boring. Only losers vote.”

I’m sorry, I can’t actually respond to you. If I respond to you using the language you actually deserve, I’ll be arrested for Using Rude Language That Makes Sailors Weep And Soil Themselves In Utter Horror, which is actually a hangin’ offense in Texas.

“My boss won’t let me off work to vote!”

Yes, actually, he will, ’cause he has to. If he doesn’t let you go vote, he’s breaking the law. So go vote.

“Ohh, but the lines are so long this year! I hate long lines!”

Shut up, shut up, shut up. I swear, whining about lines is just looking to honk me off good. You’ll stand in line to get a box of cheese crackers, a two-liter bottle of root beer, and a bucket of Crisco, you’ll stand in line to get into a club with overpriced drinks and bad music, you’ll stand in line to see the latest under-written blockbuster at the theater, you’ll go park yourself outside Jones Stadium for three days to see Tech beat the Longhorns, but when it comes to getting in line to help pick your leaders, all of a sudden, yer a delicate flower? No, no, you go vote and quitcher whining.

“Um, well, I forgot to register.”

Well, sure enough, there’s no way you’re gonna be able to vote, but now I’m going to have to hit you with the Planet Mars.

“Why bother? There’s no difference between the candidates.”

Oh, I swear, I should kill you six or eight times just on general principles. Was your brain somehow removed by renegade brain surgeons? Do you obtain all your information about current events by staring into the sun and making chicken noises? Are you trying to make me angry enough to insert a porcupine into your urethra?

“One or two votes will never make a difference.”

Oh, hey, the 2000 Election called, and it wants to stab you with a narwhal.

Vote, dang it. Vote! VOTE!

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Politics in Comics: Transmetropolitan

Well, the election is tomorrow. Seems like a great time to talk politics and comics again.

Transmetropolitan” seems like an especially appropriate topic — Warren Ellis and Darick Robertson’s epic and controversial series paid more attention to the subject of presidential politics than any other comic series I’ve ever seen. Our setting was the City — that’s all, just the City — in a cyberpunk and dystopian — but still fairly funny — future. Folks are splicing themselves with alien DNA, you can go into restaurants and eat human flesh, police brutality is the expected norm, and a popular TV show focuses on puppet pornography. Everywhere you turn, there’s sex and violence and more sex and more violence. Into this urban wasteland steps our noble and incorruptible hero:

That’s Spider Jerusalem: rageoholic, atheist, misanthrope, drug abuser, frequent nudist, and righteous journalist.

No, this isn’t your typical hero — there’s a scene where he injects drugs into his eyes, he kills several people, he commits assault and battery quite casually, he hurls grenades off his apartment balcony, he propositions random women for sex, and his weapon of preference is a specialized gun called a bowel disruptor, which does pretty much what you’d expect it to do. But for all that, he’s still the most trustworthy, most moral, and generally best person in the series.

Not sure if he’s the picture-perfect journalist, but if more of them operated like Spider, maybe we’d have more politicians who’d be less willing to lie to the press. Ain’t nothing to make a politico clean up his act like being told, “I know you lied to me, so I’m going to beat you senseless with the fender from a ’58 Chrysler, then I’m going to print an article telling everyone you’re a lying bucket of yak vomit.” Heck, I’d be happy if they left out the horrible beatings, as long as they’d burn sources who lied to ’em.

Anyway, Spider sees the pursuit and revelation of The Truth as an almost religious calling, and there’s nothing that makes him madder than corruption.

Unsurprisingly, this means he runs afoul of these two guys.

Two different presidents, the Beast and the Smiler.

The Beast is a fairly petty tyrant, but at the end of the day, he’s just interested in getting through the day with himself and as many of the American people as possible alive. He’s massively corrupt, and he likes to punish people who go against him. He hates the City, and vice versa. He hates Spider, and vice versa.

In the interest of getting the Beast out of the White House, Spider initially and grudgingly supports Gary Callahan, nicknamed the Smiler because of his rigid and obviously insincere smile. Unfortunately, what Spider initially figures is just your garden-variety politician-grade neurosis is actually full-blown psychopathic megalomania — Callahan is a master manipulator and a complete sociopath. He stages riots, uses and abuses prostitutes, makes deals with really awful people. He kills multiple people, including his wife and kids, because he wants the political sympathy boost that he’d get from their deaths. He hates everyone, particularly Spider, and once elected, he makes it his primary goal to do everything he can to hurt the City, Spider, and the entire human race. In comparison, the Beast almost comes off as a good guy — that’s how rotten Gary Callahan is.

Warren Ellis is a pretty hardcore liberal. (Conservatives and squicky parents should use extreme caution in visiting his website.) It’s pretty clear that he based the Beast on Richard Nixon (though both the Beast and Callahan use Nixon’s “If the President does it, it’s not a crime” philosophy to justify their actions), but there’s quite a bit of dispute on who the Smiler is based on. Some folks think it’s George W. Bush, some folks think it’s John Edwards. I think it’s really unlikely to be Edwards, despite the similarities in appearance, just because when Ellis introduced Callahan, Edwards was a really, really minor politician. I also don’t think he’s based on Bush, for the same reason, but I also think that as the series progressed and Bush became more prominent, the Smiler became more similar to Bush. I think it’s most likely that Ellis based the Smiler on former British prime minister Tony Blair. Ellis is a Brit, after all — seems that he’d base his primary villain on a politician he was more familiar with.

Was there a deeper meaning to the series? Maybe not — part of what made “Transmetropolitan” such a great series is that it’s just a ripping yarn from beginning to end. But I do think that Ellis also believes, like Spider, that we should expect more from our politicians, that we should hold them responsible when they’re exposed as corrupt, whether we initially supported them or not, and that we should elect better people to lead us.

I dunno if Ellis gives a rat’s patoot whether or not you vote. But I do. You should go out and vote tomorrow, if you haven’t voted already, and you should care enough for your country that you give some actual thought into who deserves your vote the most. Not who yer momma wants you to vote for, not who your neighbor wants you to vote for, not who the babbling buffoons on TV want you to vote for. Vote like a grownup — like an honest grownup, not some delusional “I’ll believe whatever bulldada a politician tells me so I can feel good about myself” nitwit — and not a freakin’ sheep. Think about the choice you have to make, because it’s a pretty important choice.

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HOW ‘BOUT THEM RAIDERS!

Ohhh, man!

I try not to blog about sports too often, ’cause who wants to listen to the comic book guy blather about sports, right? But tonight, after Texas Tech’s undefeated Red Raiders met — and beat — the previously undefeated University of Texas Longhorns, ranked Number One in the nation, I think I’m gonna break that rule but good.

I certainly wasn’t sure it would actually happen — those of us who’ve lived in Lubbock long enough have seen the Red Raiders choke on big games way too often. But this was the biggest game Tech has ever had — and they didn’t choke. It was a nailbiter clear to the end, but Tech didn’t choke, they beat the #1 team in the nation, and Lubbock’s gonna be high as a kite for the rest of the week, maybe longer.

Is Tech gonna jump from #7 to #1? I’m not sure I’d bet on that — might be too much of a jump too quickly. But we’re definitely moving up now.

And it weren’t no fluke either, baby. Almost all season long, we’ve been listening to people say Tech is over-rated — usually just before their team gets a slat kicked out of ’em by Mike Leach’s boys. But there’s not anyone left who’s gonna say Tech is over-rated. The Red Raiders were expected to lose to Kansas, and the Raiders stomped ’em. Most folks were expecting the Longhorns to take the win tonight — and though Tech didn’t get a blowout win, they were definitely in charge for nearly the entire game. This is a team that demands that attention and respect be paid.

Sure doesn’t mean the season’s over — Oklahoma State’s gonna be tough. Oklahoma’s gonna be even tougher. Tech can’t relax for a second. But right now, I think I’m gonna go outside and whoop at the stars for a few minutes.

Let’s tie this into comics for a bit, okay? How ’bout with a few nice little cartoons from the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal’s great sports cartoonist, Dirk West.

A bit too rough, maybe? Heh, too bad, Dirk didn’t get many chances to draw beat-up Longhorns, so I’m gonna go find another one. How ’bout this ‘un?

And after a game that wild, don’tcha just want a nice hot bowl of red?

Guns up, baby. Guns. UP.

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