Clandestine Critic

Comics I Bought 9 July 2009

noreply@blogger.com (David) — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 20:55:00 +0000

Time to wrap up talking about my weekly comic purchases for the past few weeks; fortunately, it was a small shop today, so I won't keep you too long.

No Hero #6
The proverbial hits the air movement system, as we find out what Carrick is really doing with his position as sole source of FX7 and the exact state of mind of Joshua Carver, the newest FX7 inductee. This means that Juan Jose Ryp gets to do what he does best, unleashing his hyper-detailed art on the Ellis ultraviolence, and he does a bang up job. I'm not sure about the direction in which Ellis has taken the story, but I'll see it through to the end.

The Unwritten #3
I really don't like the covers – is that just me? Anyway, the contents make up for it. Carey throws in some charming analysis of Frankenstein as well as having Tom finding a link to his past in the family home (that was where Shelley came up with the story, and Milton came up with Paradise Lost – part of what he calls his 'literary GPS bullshit'). Three issues in and this book is shaping up nicely; there's mystery, an intriguing concept and a good execution. I hope it gets the opportunity to continue its story.

Wednesday Comics #1
I wasn't sure about getting this – we don't have 'Sunday funnies' here in the UK to twang at our nostalgia strings, and I've never been a big enough DC fan to try this automatically – but it looked to unusual and interesting not to try. I deliberately made the decision to read this on the tube on my commute home – if you saw someone on the Northern line heading south this evening grappling with the first issue, it could have been me – just to see if I got a reaction out of other commuters. I'm strange like that. It's weird unfolding the book – it's a big thing, printed on traditional newspaper stock (I was expecting slightly glossier stock for some reason) – but I have to admit it looks great. The only trouble with it is the anthology nature of it – some pages work really well, playing with the idea of doing a story one page at a time (Gibbons and Sook on Kamandi or Kerschel and Fletcher on The Flash), whereas some just feel like single pages of an ordinary comic books (Azzarello and Risso on Batman). There is also the hodge-podge nature of the various different art styles – the cuteness of Allred or Galloway or Conner versus the scratchier art of Hueck or Pope. It's a very different thing, something DC should be lauded for – of the two mainstream publishers, they are the ones who experiment the most with what comics can try to do – and I hope it does well for them.

Comics I Bought 3 July 2009

noreply@blogger.com (David) — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 19:10:00 +0000

Finally up to date (ish) with my thoughts on recent comic books with this post, just in time for more new comics to arrive tomorrow. It never ends, but in a good way. On with my ramblings.

Astro City: The Dark Age Book 3 #3
I've always enjoyed Astro City but this series has dragged in parts, not helped by the problems with the schedule. However, this issue sees things happen: we see Apollo Eleven in their missile silo, where they are attacked by Pyramid, Charles and Royal make a move, and the Silver Agent returns (with knowledge of something seriously important about to happen). The art from Anderson is still the same – it works for Astro City but I still don't like the style – but Busiek is doing his usual excellent job, and it's nice to feel like the story is actually reaching somewhere.

Batman and Robin #2
What a cracking opening page – Quitely really is a great artist. The way he moves the story around with his panel transitions are sublime, and his detail and action are fantastic. Not that he does all the work – Morrison tells a lovely story, as Dick Grayson relates to Alfred how the night with Damian went after responding to Gordon's Batsignal. Damian is a psychotic little turd who can't be controlled, and there are some lovely moments between Dick and Alfred. Grant also throws in the first use of 'Kushti' in a mainstream comic book I'm aware of, as well as circus slang ('I rokker the jib, Toby'). Another great issue of excellent comic book entertainment.

The Boys #32
Without going back to issue 31, I'm sure that The Female looked like she was being killed, not just put in a coma. Is she indestructible? Seems a bit of a cop out for Ennis, who likes to kill properly. Not that he doesn't fill this issue with more of his eye-watering violence, when the remaining Boys are attacked by Payback in the fake hospital where The Female has been taken. In between, there is an aside where Starlight is given a new costume that is basically some shoe laces tied together; it's supposed to be a satirical piece about the sexualisation of superheroines in mainstream comic books, along with the use of rape as a character origin. It's a genuine point but it turns very serious halfway through, which mixes the tones and causes a slight narrative wobble. Still, back to the ultraviolence next issue.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer #26
The dialogue in this issue is true to the television series – Jane Espenson was a regular writer on the show (my favourite line being 'We have a submarine?')– but the story doesn't seem as intense as it should, as exciting as it should; the threat in the narrative doesn't come through. All Slayer-related teams are attacked in unison, meaning Twilight is making concerted effort to wipe them out (is the naming of the Big Bad a snub to Stephanie Meyer?), which leads to the Retreat of the title. This gives us the best moment in the book, as they seek out Oz, but it only highlights the fact that comic books are not television because the Oz 'Huh' in response to seeing a submarine appear outside the monastery works because of Seth Green's delivery; on the page, it's flat without that knowledge in your memory. Let's hope this picks up with Oz returning to the mix.

Greek Street #1
If you didn't try a new comic book that was $1 for full colour, 32 pages of story, then I don't know what else can be done for the industry. Whether you like it or not is irrelevant. Which leads to my reaction: I didn't like it very much, even though I appreciated the quality of book itself. The art is good – I've never seen Davide Gianfelice's art before, but he's got a clean, funky, loose style (albeit muddied by the Vertigo house palette of brown), which tells the story and creates characters you care about. I'm not sure about his depiction of Soho – I was raised in London and work near Soho, and it doesn't look the place I know – but that's not important; his work is sharp, visceral and dynamic. But this book is being sold on the name and work of Peter Milligan, a writer who has suffered a ups and downs in his career as his unusual themes have waned in and out of public affection (particularly his attempts at more mainstream work). He is a clever man, who loves his literary allusions, so he's perfect for an updating of the Greek myths in a modern setting. However, the problem I have is that those stories are from a different world and never felt relevant, so trying to change that is going to be hard to gel. This is well written, as a story that sets up its mysteries to keep you wanting to read more, but doesn't provide enough narrative satisfaction to have enjoyed the comic on its own. I'm sorry I didn't like it more, and I hope it does well, but I won't be around for the next issue.

Comics I Bought 29 June 2009

noreply@blogger.com (David) — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 19:15:00 +0000

Putting down wood flooring doesn't leave a lot of time to visit the comic shop and buy the weekly pile, so I had to wait for the next four books to enter my collection. Not that I had the time to read them before that; I was too tired to read anything, which is not something I ever thought would happen.

Detective Comics #854
I've been looking forward to this since I first read about it – a book written by Greg Rucka and drawn by JH Williams III, with a back-up feature about Renee 'The Question' Montoya, also written by Rucka and drawn by Cully Hamner. And it didn't disappoint. Rucka does a great job introducing Kate Kane, the new Batgirl (and we've been waiting for stories about her for a couple of years now), and setting up her status quo, while giving her a focus – namely, shutting down the Religion of Crime, who previously abducted her and tried to carve out her heart; quite a reason. However, the real star is Williams – the art on this book is phenomenal, truly fantastic. The page design is stunning, directing the eye in a dynamic and exciting way but also in a visually arresting manner, with batarang-style panels, and showing the movement of the story within them. There is a sharpness and atmosphere, great camera angles and changes of focus, and the employment of the tools used in his run on Desolation Jones to show violence are also used, in a double-page spread where Batgirl takes down criminals underneath the central image of her kicking two of them in the head at the same time. Fantastic. Then, he uses another style for the story when Batgirl is just Kate Kane again, full of vibrant lights and colours and strong line work, opening up the story to let it breathe. Absolutely amazing. Hamner's art isn't so experimental, but he does a good solid job with his work telling the Question story, as Montoya helps a man whose sister has been taken by the gang he paid to smuggle her over the border. It's only a few pages but it justifies the extra dollar on the price and promises good stories to come. A good package and a good start.

The Literals #3
Over at last. Everything ends happily, thanks to Deus Ex Machina (he prefers 'Dex') and some heroics from Jack's son; Kevin Thorn doesn't rewrite the universe and instead gets his own new universe to do with as he wishes – although, of course, being a writer he doesn't like the blank page. Gary and the sisters stay in our universe, to keep the Jack of Fables character cast consistent, and the Fables characters go back to their book, where I hope they can safely ignore any ramifications of this crossover and go back to their normal quality and story lines. And maybe Bigby will stop looking so much like Wolverine, in his lumberjack shirt and hair style ...

Usagi Yojimbo #121
Fortunately for Usagi Yojimbo, it doesn't do crossovers that disrupt stories – it just keeps up the consistent quality. This story is a done-in-one adventure where Usagi helps an injured bounty hunter after a duel, who the reader doesn't trust, only for Stan Sakai to pull the rug out from under us and reveal another truth. The only problem with the tale is that there is no reason for the bandits not to have killed Usagi when he was unconscious – it's necessary for the resolution but it's a tiny flaw in an otherwise excellent comic book.

X-Factor #45
This comic will always be known for that kiss in it, although the portrayal of Dr Doom – refusing to believe that he has got old – is more interesting, but it's actually not as strong an issue as the previous couple of issues. Peter David keeps things moving, keeps the twists coming, but the dialogue and actual events of the book aren't as sharp; it's not bad, the art seems to be becoming more consistent, but it felt uneven compared to the strong run of comic books leading up to it.

Tomorrow, we'll be up to date with my purchase of weekly new comic books, and I can start catching up with all the library books I've been reading.

Comics I Bought 18 June 2009

noreply@blogger.com (David) — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 21:04:00 +0000

If you follow me on Twitter, you'll know that I spent over a week removing the carpet from our flat and replacing it with laminate flooring; it was a bigger job than we anticipated, and it left me exhausted, and I spent the remaining time off just recovering from it (I'm still exhausted). This means I'm catching up with thoughts on the comics bought and not reviewed in the interim, with each week's haul separated into daily posts so I can keep track.

Captain Britain and MI:13 #14
After the digression that was the annual, this book was back to the Dracula invasion of Britain. Cornell reveals his ace – Plokta gave Dracula his dream come true – and we get back into the twisting and turning of the plot, and our British heroes being stiff of upper lip while plotting their counter attacks and trying to stop Dracula. Even though this book is destined for the scrap heap, it's not for lack of quality, with great dialogue and great characterisation in a great story. There's even time for Killpower from Marvel UK of old and Dr Doom to cameo his evilness. Great stuff.

Ex Machina #43
I find it hard to come up with something about Ex Machina – Vaughan is doing a great job of writing, Harris is doing a great job on art and the story is gripping, as Mayor Hundred comes up with a radical solution to the rat problem, which he thinks is related to an old nemesis. This is a very good comic book that will be missed when it finishes soon, but it's not ending without giving us a good story on the way.

Herogasm #2
I'm reading this because Ennis has promised that this will change the status quo in The Boys but I haven't taken much enjoyment out of these two first issues. The orgy stuff is just silly now – surely one issue was enough? – and McCrea's art still doesn't match his Hitman days. If it wasn't for the fact that the actual target of Butcher's plan is revealed in this issue (as well as the arrival of the Vice-President and the reveal that he is being lined up to be for the top job, and the soliciting of Payback for the storyline currently in The Boys), it would be a bit of a waste, something that is unusual for Ennis. I hope it picks up.

Incognito #4
It's always good to see a new comic from Brubaker and Phillips, and this keeps up the excellent hit rate. This one sees Zack being returned to the power-sapping drugs by the good guys, who want to use him as bait for the bad guys, we learn more about the methods of Professor Zeppelin and about Black Death himself, before Zack is rescued by Ava Destruction, meaning things are going to get hectic next issue. People may want more Criminal, but I'm enjoying this just as much and it's a lot of fun. A great package, as always.

Jack of Fables #35
And that's my last issue of Jack of Fables. If this wasn't part of a calculated effort to make me buy Jack, I might have enjoyed it – there are some nice jokes (including the extra page for Blue Ox: 'This is awkward.'), we get to see Bigby let loose on the Genres and Deus Ex Machina makes an appearance (to let us know how things will be sorted out in the final issue of the crossover) – but I was already antagonistic towards it because of why it exists in the first place. At least it's over and Fables can get back on track now.

Tomorrow, the comics from the week after, just to condense time lines.

Blogcation

noreply@blogger.com (David) — Sun, 21 Jun 2009 18:44:00 +0000

I was hoping to have reviews of this week's comics up before I took an official, planned, no, honest, holiday from blogging for a week or so, but it was not to be. The carpet in the flat needs removing and new floor needs laying, so I need a week to do this (and probably another week after that to recover). I doubt I'll have the energy to read comics or books or watch films or TV, but I definitely won't be able to write about them afterwards. Anyway, you'll be too busy talking about whatever news comes out of HeroesCon, so it won't be too much of a struggle for you. See you soon.

From A Library: Catching Up With Some Trade Paperbacks

noreply@blogger.com (David) — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 21:15:00 +0000

For as long as I've been a member of my local library (about three years now), it has been free to reserve a book using their online system and I have used that to the full – the library is part of the London borough libraries, so I could get books from all over London even if my own didn't have it. If you look at the 'From A Library' tag, you'll see the extent to which I have taken advantage of this. However, as of this month, they are charging £1.20 per book to reserve an item online, which isn't a huge sum but it feels enormous after getting it for free. Therefore, I've been cramming in as many books as I could get my hands on before the deadline. Here are a few.

JLA: That Was Now, This Is Then (JLA: Classified #50–54) by Roger Stern & John Byrne

This is some old school comic books, as if Stern dug up an old script and dusted it off without changing it much. There are narrative captions explaining 'J'onn J'onzz, the justly famed Martian Manhunter from Mars' is 'altering his density ... like a ghost' while the picture shows exactly that. There is ropey dialogue (Wally West: 'I'm just quick – like a flash! Ha! I made a funny' [Erm, no, you didn't]) that feels at least 20 years old; I'm not sure if it's supposed to be deliberately old-fashioned or not. Byrne's art, once cutting-edge, is no more and he seems to deliberately reference old comic book art – like the last page of the second issue, with the disembodied faces of league members shocked at seeing Superman being knocked down by their foe. Byrne is still a good artist, but his stock bodies and faces peek through more than normal, and the grimaces on his characters' faces are starting to look ludicrous. He can design a good page but they've gone overboard for the last issue, where the two different time frames of the story switch and juxtapose and mirror each other to the point of confusion – it's ambitious but slightly annoying. They don't make them like they used to, for a reason.

Red Razors by Mark Millar and Steve Yeowell – so ho-hum, it's not getting a complete entry. For Millar completists and people who want to see Millar's development (if you can call it that) and his early obsession with pop culture infusing everything (I'm sure he gets Yeowell to draw one of the characters like Eminem ...)

Ultimate X-Men Volume 9: The Tempest (Ultimate X-Men #46–49) by Brian K Vaughan and Brandon Peterson

In his proposal at the back of this collection, Vaughan states that he wanted to make Ultimate Sinister 'the scariest character in the Ultimate universe'. I'm afraid he didn't – Sinister is still silly, he just has some defined and dangerous powers. We are led to believe that he hallucinates Apocalypse, who tells him to kill mutants for him, only for the reveal at the end to be that he is supposedly real. Which doesn't work as well as Vaughan believes. The stories in the Ultimate universe are supposed to be new with no link to the old, but they still feel like minor tweaks on old tales: Storm goes leather and gets a haircut, just like in the 616 universe, but here because Beast died; Dazzler is still whiny and annoying, although she is drunken and tattooed; Northstar is still annoying but at least he is allowed to be openly gay now. This is a small story trying to be bigger – Vaughan wanted to create a good impression so people would read Runaways – but it doesn't succeed, particularly the anti-climactic last chapter, which has some preachiness thrown in to remind you of the Claremont days. Peterson provides strong art – slick, smooth, dynamic, pretty, although he draws women's legs too long (there's a panel of Kitty, in a completely inappropriate bikini for swimming laps in the mansion's pool, in which her teenage legs appear to be responsible for three-quarters of her body), but the rest of the work is nice superhero comics.

Ultimate Annuals Volume 1

Ultimate Fantastic Four Annual 1 by Mark Millar and Jae Lee; Ultimate X-Men Annual 1 by Brian K Vaughan and Tom Raney; Ultimate Spider-Man Annual 1 by Brian Michael Bendis and Mark Brook; The Ultimates Annual 1 by Mark Millar and Steve Dillon.

Millar provides two annuals in this collection, both of which are supposed to be more substantial than they actually are, and both of which are worth reading for the art. The Fantastic Four story is the Ultimate Inhumans but it's a bit dull, and it's only Lee's stylings that making it interesting to look at. The Ultimates story is a non-story about Nick Fury, to show how bad ass he is, but as an excuse to examine the behind-the-scenes of the Ultimates world. Dillon's art is the usual high quality but his superhero work never seems as strong as his non-superhero art. The X-Men story is a very silly story about Rogue and Gambit, with Ultimate Juggernaut attacking them and Gambit sacrificing himself to get Juggernaut, which doesn't feel remotely like his character, before Rogue kisses him and then absorbs him (like the 616 universe equivalent with Carol Danvers). Raney's art is okay but but doesn't have the pizazz of his earlier work. The Spider-Man story makes up for all of this by being a totally adorable and charming story that you wouldn't believe came from the computer of Bendis. Kitty Pryde and Peter Parker go on a date and start their relationship, with some superhero hijinks along the way, of course. It is quite, quite delightful and leaves you with a great big smile plastered across your face. Brooks isn't an artist who I've seen before but he does a great job here, especially as he draws his teens as actually teens, rather than small adults.

That's enough to be getting on with. Lots, lots, lots more to follow, so prepare yourself.

Films: Telling You What I've Seen Recently

noreply@blogger.com (David) — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 20:54:00 +0000

Apart from not having the ability to write about films every week, I don't know if I have enough to say for a post dedicated to the film. So here are a few thoughts on films I've been watching in the cinema lately, with more to come (at some point).

State of Play

Although I am British, I never saw the original television mini-series, so I came to this completely fresh. It is a well-made thriller, with a crusading journalist (Russell Crowe with silly long hair and a messy car and desk, apparently requirements for a job in newspapers) helping his former room-mate, Ben Affleck (who are obviously not the same age), who is now a senator whose aide has died while Affleck is heading an investigation into a suspect company with government connections and it leaks that he was having an affair with her, despite being married to the beautiful Robin Wright Penn. It is updated by having a journalist who does the newspaper blog (Rachel McAdams) becoming part of the investigation, and Helen Mirren does her normal accent even though it is set in Washington, DC. There are nice turns from Jason Bateman and Jeff Daniels, in addition to all the leads turning in good performances, and Kevin Macdonald handles everything with aplomb, confirming his move to mainstream cinema after the documentaries and The Last King of Scotland. The only thing that disrupts the flow is the presence of Brennan Brown in a small role – British audiences are so used to his role as the Hollywood Producer in the Orange mobile phone cinema adverts that you expect him to sell you video messaging in the middle of the film.

Rating: DAVE

I Love You, Man

Because I have what is effectively a season ticket to a cinema chain, I try to watch a film in the cinema every week. Times and availabilities of films can affect my choices, which is why I ended up seeing this. It had got okay reviews, and I like Paul Rudd, but I rarely see comedies in the cinema – humour is very subjective, and trying to make everybody happy with jokes is not going to work. It was a similar feeling here – I could tell when the jokes arrived but I didn’t guffaw, and neither did most of the audience. The story was a little different – a man (Paul Rudd) who doesn’t have what the Yanks determine as a ‘best male friend’ (although he has always got on well with females), and therefore no option for best man when he proposes to his girlfriend, meaning he has to find someone to fit the position. After ‘man dates’ that go awry, he finds Sydney (Jason Segel), with whom they bond over the music of Rush, and Rudd spends more time with his new mate than his fiancée, thus providing the film with some sort of dramatic plot device. There are some chuckles here and there, and a surprising number of faces you know (Jaime Pressley, Jon Favreau [who is looking big], JK Simmons, Jane Curtin), but it’s not a film that merits going to the cinema to see it. There are no huge laughs, no big moments, and the story feels forced – Segel’s character is a cipher who just exists for the sake of being in the movie and allowing Rudd to have his story arc. Not awful but not great.

Rating: VID

12 Rounds

In addition to the excuse for I Love You, Man (re: unlimited ticket), this article [LINK] where Shane Black lays down the rules for a good action film is also to blame for me seeing this in the cinema: it is worded in such a way that it makes you think there is a connection between Black and the film. There is not. This is a real throwback to 1980s action flicks, which uses the tropes from such films as Die Hard (ordinary cop has to battle criminal mastermind using one crime to disguise a heist), Die Hard With A Vengeance (criminal mastermind has a personal grudge against cop) and Speed (cop is constantly running around to criminal’s plan – the cop in this film even wears a similar ensemble to Keanu in Speed, with a white t-shirt under an open shirt and dockers). The Die Hard connection is apt because it is directed by Renny Harlin, who directed the lesser Die Hard 2: Die Harder (but he also directed a Shane Black film, The Long Kiss Goodnight, so we can forgive his poor resume), and he throws the camera around and blows things up in a workman-like fashion. The ‘star’ of the film is John Cena – a WWE wrestler who, his backers at WWE hope, is going to be the next Dwayne Johnson. He is not. His acting range includes the screwed-face of anger all the way to showing emotion by closing his eyes and tilting his head downwards. Not for him the charisma of The Rock. The freakiest thing about him is the size of his hands – they’re enormous. When he holds his girlfriend’s head in his hands to kiss her, they are bigger than her head. It’s made worse by the fact that he has to spend a lot of the film with a mobile phone in his hand – it just highlights the great big flappy enormity of his mitts, making it look like he’s holding a child’s toy. The rest of him is big, too – there’s no getting over the fact that he looks like a wrestler. Actually, his facial features had me disconcerted for a while before it hit me, halfway through the film: he looks like a steroid-pumped version of Matt Damon, particularly in The Bourne Identity, with the cropped hair; if you inflated Damon’s head and bone structure, you would have Cena. It’s bizarre. As for the film, it’s pretty mindless nonsense, with an insanely detailed plan from the villain to cover up his even more complicated scheme to rob stuff – you are given an idiotic short-cut as to the level of his planning genius when he identifies the winning moves in a chess game he walks past in the street with one glance before explaining it to the players. I felt sorry for the actress playing his girlfriend, who is kept hostage throughout the film as the impetus for our protagonist to jump through hoops, and it looks like the filmmakers felt the same way because they give her some ‘tough chick’ stuff at the very end of the film – for some reason, she can fly a helicopter, which is key to the villain’s plan. However, as she helps her man take down the crim, she says some of the most stupid things imaginable when you are flying a helicopter as your boyfriend fights your kidnapper in the back, and doesn’t seem to realise that the reason where headphones with communicators in helicopters is because they can’t hear what you are saying due to the noise of the enormous rotors above them. A very silly film that I’m slightly embarrassed to admit I saw on the big screen.

Rating: DA

Comics I Bought 11 June 2009

noreply@blogger.com (David) — Sun, 14 Jun 2009 20:11:00 +0000

More comic book reviews – it's like they keep publishing them on a regular basis or something. At least there are only three this week, I think I can cope with that.

Fables #85
Part 7 of the The Great Fables Crossover, which at least means that this is nearly over. This issue is all about Jack: meeting his son, Jack meeting Bigby and Snow's kids, Jack being revealed as not being the reincarnation of Blue, Jack, Jack, Jack – thank God the next Fables issue will be back to Fables. Jack is so irritating I'm amazed that Willingham and Sturges can bear to write him, let alone think that people want to read him. I don't blame you for trying, guys, but I'm not going to be buying Jack of Fables.

The Unwritten #2
After the excellent first issue, Carey and Gross keep up the good work with a strong second issue: our protagonist, Tommy Taylor, seeks out information to understand what's happening, visiting the woman who was having an affair with his father; another Tommy Taylor novel appears at its publishers; we see hints of bad guys and mystery to the past of Tommy's father. The blurring of reality and fantasy is great, and geography of fiction is fascinating. This is a good comic book – more please.

X-Factor #44
'There's no crying in noir.' Peter David keeps things funny and moving, switching between the future story and the present – I'm not quite sure what happened at the end (are we supposed to recognise the transformation?) but it did ruin the hotness of 'Dirty Sexy Monet'. This is a book that enjoys the month-to-month dynamic of a comic book rather than the 'write for the trade' approach to arcs that are more prevalent, and I'm enjoying proceedings.

DVDs: Telling You What I've Seen Recently

noreply@blogger.com (David) — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 20:08:00 +0000

As I continue to catch up, I turn my attention to some recent DVD viewing. I used to review DVDs more often but have got out of the habit of late, so think of this as a warm up to more (depending on how this turns out).

Twilight

I am now up to date on what the kids are all crazy for now; I mostly saw this because I wanted to know what all the fuss was about, but also because I enjoy genre films and was genuinely interested to see the film. Leaving aside the accusation of setting back feminism many years, the film itself is poorly put together. It feels like a very amateur production, bad music, feeble dialogue, wooden acting, bad make up for the vampires – I was surprised by how weak the movie is. The story itself is slow and uninteresting, with very little going on, and the central characters are so insipid you don't care; Kristen Stewart as Bella is a strong character (intelligent, independent, doesn't care about the high school cliques) but then acts limp and pathetic when in the presence of the dull heartthrob Robert Pattinson. The sad thing is that there is an interesting idea hidden deep, deep in there somewhere, but this film isn't it.

Rating: DA

How To Lose Friends & Alienate People

Funny story: a friend of mine gave me the book as a birthday present, saying that it reminded her of me; the book is about a pompous and annoying English man who loves celebrity and goes to America, makes an arse of himself and returns after getting the boot. Thank you, friend ... I liked the book, despite the author and my friend’s unintentional snub, but the film is only loosely based on the book because it has evolved into a romcom about the ridiculous English person making a tit of himself in New York. I watched it because of Simon Pegg, who is good in it, but it’s nothing more than a by-the-numbers romantic comedy with added cringe. I only laughed at two incidental things (Pegg singing ‘Eng-er-lund!’ at a Fourth Of July party, and the fake trailer for the biopic of Mother Theresa, called Mother Theresa: The Making of a Saint), which isn’t a good hit rate. It’s fairly harmless, but it’s a bit of a failure if the romance and the comedy aren’t doing their jobs.

Rating: VID

The Day The Earth Stood Still

This might be against popular opinion but I thought that Keanu was good as the alien pretending to be human in this updating of the well-known (I’m not sure I’d use the word ‘classic’) 1950s sci fi – you can tell that he’s acting in a different manner to normal, and he gives the distinct impression of something non-human inhabiting the skin of a human. The build-up of the story and the special effects are very good (the spaceship, Gort and the swarm in particular), examining the story from the angle that we humans are destroying the Earth so don’t deserve it, but the film falls down in the emotional turning point, as Klaatu (Keanu) comes to the realisation that humans are worth saving – the film doesn’t sell this moment, so we don’t feel anything or connect to Klaatu’s change. The most annoying thing is the young kid, played by Will Smith’s son Jaden, who really gets on your nerves and wish that his character wasn’t in the film.

Rating: VID

Get Smart

Despite its status in the US, this didn’t really catch on in the UK (as far as I’m aware). I only remember it from the early days of Channel 4 (I think), when I was a teenager and would watch any old rubbish, and Channel 4 used to fill up their daytime schedule with old shows from the 1960s (such as Bewitched, another show that is remembered with sufficient affection that it also got a big-screen remake, although the less said about that piece of dreck the better – Nicole Kidman shows she can’t do comedy, bringing down Will Ferrell with her). This film works around Steve Carrell’s personality rather than a straight updating, with Anne Hathaway, Alan Arkin and Dwayne ‘I must be the villain because I’m not the main character’ Johnson mixing action and laughs to minimal effect. You won’t poke your eyes out for watching it but you’ll never feel the urge to see it again.

Rating: DA

Quantum of Solace

I really enjoyed Casino Royale [LINK] and thought that Daniel Craig made a good Bond, although the film felt like such a reboot, getting away from the traditional elements of the franchise (gadgets, innuendo, villain bases), it doesn’t feel like a ‘proper’ Bond but a new idea in old clothing. Even though I can never get the Joe Cornish (of Adam & Joe fame, now on 6 Music) Song Wars version of Quantum of Solace [LINK] out of my head whenever I hear the title, I was still looking forward to it. The film continues on from Casino Royale, which is a different direction again for the Bond franchise, but it seems to lose a lot of what worked in the first film. Craig is still good in the role, mixing the good looks with the acting chops to take the character into darker territory, and there are well-filmed set pieces – the chase in the early part of the film, ending in dangling from ropes in the old building (How did they film that? It must have been storyboarded to within an inch of its life), is very good – but the moment the film is over, it evaporates from memory, a pretty-looking but inconsequential piece of entertainment that doesn’t hold together as an engaging narrative.

Rating: DA

The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor

Or, How to waste having Jet Li and Michelle Yeoh in your cast. The Mummy films were never great by any stretch of the imagination, but they were enjoyable enough hokum (if you can ignore the horrible CGI in the second). This third film loses all of the appeal in what looks like an attempt to pass on the franchise to the younger generation. However, the son is a charisma-free zone, so there’s no hope of that, and this entry is rather bland, despite having CGI yeti (about the only thing of note in the film). Poor Maria Bello has to step in Rachel ‘I’ve got an Oscar so I don’t do these sort of films any more’ Weisz’s shoes and her accent is strangulated to say the least. Dull and forgettable.

Rating: DA

Comics I Bought 4 June 2009

noreply@blogger.com (David) — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 20:40:00 +0000

Continuing my catch up with posts I should have been doing over the past two weeks, I'm condensing the time frame between the purchases of my comics and 'reviewing' my haul for last week the day after the haul from the week before. A lot of comics

Astro City: The Dark Ages Book Three #2
I like how the cover to this issue has been shaken so much by the punch that, in addition to the title and names being moved, even the Direct Sales bar code is misaligned. Nice touch. Royal Williams is keeping low after the raid on Pyramid by EAGLE and Charles Williams is in danger of being kept out of the loop because he no longer has Royal as an inside man. As always, Busiek tells a good story from street level, although I'm missing on the connections to the Marvel 1970s stories that he's riffing on. I still don't like Brent Anderson's art style, but I can't imagine Astro City without it.

Batman and Robin #1
I liked this: Grant Morrison doing straightforward superhero and Frank Quitely doing his usual stellar job, adds up to good comic books. The idea itself is fun: Dick Grayson taking up the position of Batman and joined by Damian, Bruce Wayne's kid with Talia Al Ghul, as his Robin, with Alfred helping out. It's a good set up, and a good first issue, which is then twisted at the end with some Morrison weirdness to keep us on our toes. I'm glad I decided to buy this in the singles.

The Boys #31
In which we reach a point of no return, as The Female is dealt with under orders from Voight-American. There has been an element of comfort to the series, with the ridiculing of superheroes and the burgeoning relationship between Hughie and Annie, but with the occasional burst of darkness and violence. However, Ennis has turned the road into the endgame and the beginning of everything reaching its inevitable and gruesome conclusion. This issue sees art from the 2000AD stalwart Carlos Ezquerra; like John McCrea in Herogasm, his linework seems to have been softened for this book. Or perhaps I'm too used to his black and white art on Judge Dredd and Strontium Dog.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Tales of the Vampires
I was going to give this a miss because it wasn't part of the Season Eight story arc; however, it was kept aside by my comic shop and I though I'd give it a try. It is based within the framework of the current storyline, where vampires are the hip new thing and accepted in society, and is the story of a boy in a small town and his dealings with local vampires and his desire for more. The art is nice and moody, not the normal slick artwork in a mainstream book, with unusual linework and colouring. I've never read anything by Becky Cloonan or Vasilis Lolos but it's a nice package and I'm glad I picked it up.

Captain Britain and MI:13 Annual #1
Oh dear, what an unpleasant cover, with such disturbing connotations. Unfortunately, Mike Collins' artwork on the interior isn't an antidote to Greg Land's tracing and plastic faces. The main story is about bringing back Meggan to the Marvel universe, just in time for Captain Britain to be cancelled so it won't mean anything. It's the first story that I haven't particularly enjoyed from Paul Cornell; it tries to encapsulate everything about Meggan in a single little story but he doesn't really sell it. This is a shame because I've always liked the character, but I can't object to her return to the fold. The back-up story is more fun – a look at Captain Britain using a cricket match (to balance for the nauseating amount of baseball the X-comics have foisted onto us). Adrian Alphona's art is more palatable than Collins', with his odd angular shapes and anatomy. This is a bitter-sweet experience, an annual for a cancelled series, and with a 50-50 hit rate, but I'm glad that we at least got to have the MI:13 team playing cricket.

Seaguy: Slaves of Mickey Eye #3
Although there are probably levels to this book that I am missing, it is still a very enjoyable and easy to follow narrative, as Seaguy saves the day and gets the girl, with a little help from said girl, She-Beard, and Doc Hero. It's actually rather charming, and leaves you with a smile on your face. Cameron Stewart draws a beautiful comic book, with some lovely linework and exciting action (I loved the smile on Doc Hero's face as he saves the day), meaning you have a complete package.

Comics I Bought 29 May 2009

noreply@blogger.com (David) — Sun, 07 Jun 2009 20:36:00 +0000

And ... I'm back. Apart from my flat writing style and lack of innovative blog content, it is my inability to maintain a regular schedule that has hampered my desire to produce a consistent site. The worse thing is that if I miss a few days due to whatever reason, it makes me feel guilty for not posting and then anxious about my return. It's very complicated and slightly annoying. Not that anyone cares – I know I don't have a readership, but I'm doing this for myself more than anything else, and I do hate to let myself down.

So, to return, let's talk about the comics I've been buying – at least I've been able to buy them and read them while I haven't been blogging.

Ignition City #3
Jet packs! The clichéd line about people being angry about the lack of the things promised us by 1950s sci fi ('Where's my jet pack?!') springs to mind, but it is appropriate in a story about what happened to those men (and women) of tomorrow from yesteryear. The jet pack belongs to the Ignition City marshal, but this issue is mostly a conversation between bar owner (and former space hero) Gayle and Mary, daughter of a recently killed space hero, with a gun fight at the end to keep things spicy. Despite the problems I had with the first issue, this is shaping up nicely and Ellis could write an ongoing series quite easily in this city. The only qualms I have are with the art – it still feels off to me – and the lettering, which is a strange font, made more noticeable by the use of upper and lower case.

The Literals #2
We're past the halfway mark and I can't wait for this crossover to be finished and for Fables to be back on track. I'm getting bored with Kevin Thorn and his writer's block; this issue sees him being 'advised' by Sam and Hansel about what to do (before killing Writer's Block himself, which everybody could see coming), while the story is pepped up with a gunfight between the Genres and the Page sisters, and some jokes about genres and story ('I've always loathed fantasy' as she shoots a unicorn in the head). It's put together well but it's all rather pointless.

Usagi Yojimbo #120
If this was published in another company, reaching issue 120 would be an excuse for a silly anniversary issue extravaganza. Not Usagi Yojimbo: it's business as usual, with another quality issue, with great writing and art. The tale is more slender and the plot twist is more obvious than usual from Stan Sakai, but it's told with such consummate skill and wit and exciting swordplay that you're too busy enjoying it too notice. This is the 25th year of continuing Usagi Yojimbo stories, which means there is the scope for alternating the longer multi-chapter tales with these lighter done-in-one issues, allowing some humour and warmth to infuse into Usagi's life. I don't know how he keeps up the quality, but it's an incredible achievement and Sakai deserves more credit and recognition.

Comics I Bought 21 May 2009

noreply@blogger.com (David) — Sat, 23 May 2009 21:46:00 +0000

This week's comic buying was tinged with the unfortunate but inevitable news of the cancellation of Captain Britain and MI:13. This is nothing new in mainstream comics – a good comic book starring lesser lights in the superhero firmament gets critical praise but not enough people buy it. Some might want to blame Marvel, but it's not their fault if they can't persuade people to buy a good comic, and they are allowing Paul Cornell to finish his story instead of rushing it. On to comics that are still doing okay.

Ex Machina #42
I don't know what to write about Ex Machina every month. Well, I don't know what to write full stop, but that doesn't stop me (unfortunately). Mitchell Hundred is an interesting character, Brian K Vaughan writes an interesting comic (with good dialogue, humour and action) and Tony Harris' art is always good – he does some interesting things with shadows in a dialogue scene, for example. These are all the things that a good comic should have, as well as having a reason to come back each month.

Herogasm #1
In which Garth Ennis indulges in his juvenile sense of humour. It astounds me how someone who can write excellent, profound, intelligent and even moving comic books can produce such adolescent material – look, superheroes all having sex with each other! Tee, hee. I don't know if he thinks that it is what comic book fans want, or if he just uses it as a tool to sell comics. I hope it's just the first issue and we can get to the actual story itself next issue. Things aren't helped by the uninspired art of John McCrea – this isn't the same fun and interesting style he employed in Hitman, which makes this art look even worse.

Jack of Fables #34
Even without Jack in the Jack of Fables, it's still an annoying book. Do Willingham and Sturges actually think it's funny? Let's change Bigby into different animals – that'll make the kids laugh. Apart from discovering the identity of the drooling chap in a straitjacket is Kevin's twin brother, Writer's Block (which is rather nice), there isn't much to this book – nothing really happens, nothing of note occurs apart from Bigby being turned into a little girl. And there's a repeat of the little blue ox thinking nonsense for six panels on a page. I look forward to Fables getting back on track and dealing with its own storylines.

From A Library – Batman: Under The Hood

noreply@blogger.com (David) — Thu, 21 May 2009 21:41:00 +0000

Batman #635–641 (vol. 1) and #645–650 + Annual #25
by Judd Winick and Doug Mahnke, Paul Lee, Shane Davis, Eric Battle

Growing up, there were superheroes who were mostly and definitely dead, not coming back, died in action: Bucky, Barry Allen and Jason Todd. How things change. Now, I know nothing in comics is sacrosanct but it was important that these characters were dead. They had a purpose in their heroism and their end. These things are no longer important when the return can be used as an event in the modern comic book industry. I'm not judging this aspect of the medium I enjoy so much; it's just the way it is. As long as we get a good story out of it (Brubaker's return of Bucky was a delightful surprise), I really don't care. Hell, I didn't care one way or another about Hal Jordan, but Geoff Johns wrote an enjoyable tale about his return to the DC universe, so history schmistory I say.

The important thing here: if you're going to bring back someone from the dead, then (a) it had better be a good story and (b) the manner in which you bring them back from the dead had better be good too (see Brubaker's Bucky for prime example). This was my worry about this story: it was under the control of Judd Winick. I loved Winick's early work – The Adventures of Barry Ween, Boy Genius is quite simply superb – but his superhero work (Green Arrow and Exiles being examples I have read) was never as good. The thought that he would be responsible for such a huge turnaround in the Batman mythos didn't fill me with confidence.

Fortunately, the story in the first volume is well handled: it starts with Batman fighting a villain in a red hood, who is as good a fighter as Batman, who unmasks Batman before unmasking himself to the surprise of Batman. Cut to five weeks earlier: there has been a hostile takeover of Wayne Industries R&D; the Red Hood has taken over the drug trade (offering the dealers protection from Batman and the Black Mask, the gang boss for whom they had been working for). In the course of events, Batman and Nightwing face off against Red Hood and then Amazo (in a well-choreographed fight scene, well narrated and handled). The Red Hood steals kryptonite from the Black Mask just to get the lay of the land, before he beats up the Joker with a crowbar and revealing who he is – something Batman suspected when he contacts Zatanna, Green Arrow and Superman (asking the latter two what it was like coming back from the dead). Then the Red Hood reveals who he is to Batman, providing him with blood and hair so that he can prove who he says he is: Jason Todd, the second Robin, killed by the Joker (or, rather, killed by a public vote), the character that provided the extra guilt for Batman when he is working with new sidekicks.

In the second volume, the story starts out with flashbacks to the early days of Todd, how he became Robin (weren't comics simpler, even back then), what he was like as Robin, how he became dangerous and angry. Then it returns to the present, with Todd destroying the Black Mask's operation and toying with Batman ('I just love to watch you work'). Things get complicated when Deathstroke offers Black Mask a position in The Society, and offers help in the shape of Captain Nazi and the Hyena ('Hyena kind of looks like a girl from the back'), meaning Todd and Batman have to work together. However, the story goes off the rails when an entire issue shows a fight between the Red Hood and Black Mask, which then turns out to be a fake-out – it's not Todd, who has the Joker hostage and wants Batman for the final face off.

The problem with the face off is that resolution is ridiculous and badly handled; Todd is provided with perfect motivation – he is angry with Batman because the Joker is still alive, not for all his other crimes but for killing Todd specifically. This is understandable reason for what he has been doing and how he's been doing it; however, the response from Batman is poor: 'It'd be too damned easy', which is a weak response to the crux of the entire story. It's made worse by the dramatically unsatisfying and poorly choreographed stand-off ending, which ruins the good work preceding it. There is an epilogue which, although nicely drawn by Shane Davis, undermines the entire story by coming up with a really ridiculous explanation of how he came back: Superboy Prime punching the multiverse (or whatever it was) somehow just brought Jason Todd back to life. That's it. Basically, it was magic. No good answer, just a wand wave. The only enjoyable aspect was that he was captured by Talia Al Ghul, who puts him in a Lazarus Pit, which brings back his memory (letting him go with the words: 'You remain unavenged'). But it goes out of the way to tie it in, even linking it into the awful Hush story (in the Clayface fight chapter). Such a shame.

There are good things here. Winick creates a believable and entertaining story for the most part. The way he has Todd operating and Batman reacting works well, and there is lots of humour (something he can overplay, but he balances it well). He is made to look even better by the sterling art of Mahnke – his muscular, moody, dynamic, well-choreographed, expressive art is spectacularly good and perfect for Batman. It is a shame that he doesn't pencil the entire storyline – Shane Davis does some nice fill-in issues, but Paul Lee's art is weak by comparison, and Eric Battle's art is messy, rushed and uninspired next to his work. The first volume in this collection is the strongest, with an emotional connection to Batman, Todd's MO and Manhke's art, but it falls apart in the last half of the second collection, leaving the reader with a sense of a wasted opportunity.

Film Review: Coraline

noreply@blogger.com (David) — Wed, 20 May 2009 21:18:00 +0000

I have film guilt: I wanted to enjoy Coraline more than I actually did. I liked the book and was looking forward to seeing this in the cinema, especially in 3D. However, although the film is technically excellent and a good adaptation, I didn't have fun while watching the film. Does that make me a bad person?

Coraline (Dakota Fanning) is the daughter of two writers who ignore her and her adventurous streak, and are terrible cooks. Having moved to new accommodation – with eccentric neighbours Mrs Spink and Mrs Forcible (two retired burlesque actress, voiced by Jennifer Saunders and Dawn French) and a gymnastic Russian called Mr Bobinsky (Ian McShane) – she discovers a small door that has been bricked up on the other side. When she goes through the door, she find another world, and her other parents – they are fun and caring and pay attention to her and give her lovely food and a lovely room. Except for having buttons for eyes, they would be perfect. Until Coraline's other mother (Teri Hatcher) tells Coraline that, if she wants to stay, she has to sew buttons in her eyes as well.

The film is stunning to look at – Henry Selick's stop-motion animation is a delight; the detail, the imagination, the movement, the character, the exquisiteness make for a visual treat. Even the extra bits of CGI that are used to assist in the dazzle don't detract from the spectacle. The attention to detail is even more impressive when you consider that it has been done for 3D, which involves doing everything twice to give the illusion of 3D. The immersive texture to the film is impressive and there are some lovely 3D touches but the film doesn't really need to be 3D – stop-motion animation has always seemed more immersive anyway, and there is nothing in particular that requires it.

The story is creepy and charming, and the fact that a film has been made with a strong female character in the lead, showing determination and resourcefulness and heroism, is great. But the film itself is slow – I feel such an ungrateful wretch, some sort of attention-deficit child – and lacks much in the way of big laughs or stand-out moments. The cinema had some kids in there and they weren't captivated by it – like the rest of the audience, they were quiet and even popped out halfway, presumably for the toilet, because their interest wasn't being kept. The film is adorable and scary and an amazing feat, it's just not amazing.

Rating: VID

Comics I Bought 14 May 2009

noreply@blogger.com (David) — Sun, 17 May 2009 21:03:00 +0000

The equal opportunity part of me feels slightly bad for only buying comics from the big two this week – last week's haul was two-thirds independent publishers, and no Marvel – but I assuage my guilt slightly with the purchase of a first issue of a Vertigo comic, even though it was only a dollar. I overthink my comic book purchases, don't I?

Captain Britain and MI:13 #13
I'm glad to be buying this in monthly format because it (a) it's great and (b) it isn't selling nearly enough for such a good comic. This issue is a corker because it gets to the 'lowest moment' section of the story: this is the point when the bad guys have done their worse and the good guys look like they don't have a hope of winning. It is an expected part of the narrative but Cornell sells it absolutely perfectly: Dracula's plan and execution are flawless, heroes from outside Britain can't get in, our heroes fight back but are useless against the onslaught. Cornell even kills off the members of the Houses of Parliament, the wish of all British anarchists. I don't know how he plans to turn everything around in the next issue, based on how this one ends, but I can't wait to find out.

Fables #84
Ah, Jack. How much do you annoy me? Let me count the ways ... The crossover continues as Jack takes over Fables for an issue and ruins the tone – blustering, shouting, being smug and incredibly punchable. The way the plot just allows him to walk into the Farm and take over running things was just annoying, and a little clichéd, which is not something I've come to expect from Fables. I like the fact that Jack knows he is being read – I loved the idea with Ambush Bug, Deadpool, She-Hulk – but, unlike those characters, Jack is insufferable prick and that really gets in the way of enjoying the book. It doesn't help that Akins' art doesn't get the Fables' characters quite right; they look slightly off, which is bad timing because it's the only part of the story that is interesting.

X-Factor #43
Peter David keeps the fun coming in X-Factor; the unpredictability, the humour ('Sorry, that wasn't very “noir.” The whole hugging thing.'), the character development, left to his own devices in his little corner of the X-universe, is a delight. Also, the build-up and the kiss itself is really quite moving, which makes me sound really sad but I don't care. It is also an advert for buying a book in the monthly format – the ending to this issue is completely out of left-field. I'm really enjoying this book on a consistent basis, so much so that I almost don't care about the use of two artists.

The Unwritten #1
A 40-page story, which sets up a long-term narrative but also tells a complete and satisfying tale in its own right, all for a dollar? Why doesn't everybody do ongoing series like this? Mike Carey and Peter Gross have created a good book with a strong central premise and great potential for future stories: Tom Taylor is the son of an author who has created the most popular series fantasy books, about a boy wizard called Tommy Taylor who was based on Tom. He now lives on the convention circuit because his father, Wilson, has disappeared and left all the money in trusts he cannot access. Tommy is bitter and angry but things get worse when it seems he may not actually be Wilson's son. And things get more complicated when reality and fantasy seem to merge ... Carey and Gross pack a lot into this first issue, setting up the situation, telling the story, developing their characters and giving us humour and adventure along the way. This series has got legs and I look forward to seeing it get its chance.

Film Review: Star Trek

noreply@blogger.com (David) — Thu, 14 May 2009 21:32:00 +0000

Yes, the world needs another film review for Star Trek. And several days late as well.

Let's get the assessment out of the way first: I really enjoyed Star Trek. It was entertaining, exciting, fun, engaging, pacy without being rushed, spectacular to look at and leaves you with a good feeling as you leave the cinema. It is an excellent reboot of a series that needed something to energise it and sets up the potential for equally good films.

As with most amateur reviews of the film, I am honour-bound to discuss my connection to Star Trek. So, I watched Star Trek growing up and it had an affect on me: there is the possibility that Spock influenced me becoming a scientist (although I'm not one any more) and I have a preference for clamshell mobile phones because they remind me of Trek communicators. However, I am not a Trekkie/Trekker – I don't go beyond being a fan of geek entertainment who enjoys science fiction, so I don't have long-held beliefs in what makes a good Trek film (and my favourite Star Trek film is First Contact). Disclaimer over.

A quick plot synopsis: James T Kirk is born in space as his father dies as a starship captain saving 800 people (including James and his mum); he grows up a rebel, living near where starships are built, until Captain Pike (Bruce Greenwood) dares him to become a cadet at Starfleet academy. Meanwhile, Spock is a rebel in his own way on Vulcan, refusing to join the Science Academy on Vulcan and joining Starfleet because other Vulcans disapprove of his human ancestry. After cheating on the Kobayashi Maru test, written by Spock, Kirk is suspended but he gets brought on board the Enterprise by his friend Bones McCoy when the cadets are promoted to active duty when the planet Vulcan is under threat. The threat is the same ship responsible for the death of Kirk's father: Romulans from the future, who holds Spock responsible for the death of his planet, are destroying Vulcan in retaliation. The same singularity that brought them from the future also brings Spock from the future to the present time. The Enterprise is the only ship to be ready when they arrive at Vulcan, with Spock as First Officer – but when Captain Pike is ordered to meet the Romulans, he promotes Spock to Captain and Kirk to First Officer – setting up the dominoes that will fall to give us the bridge crew of the Enterprise that we all know ...

First off, the good stuff. The film looks fabulous – the Enterprise looks sex-ay in all the right ways, gleaming and shiny and designery, like an Apple-influenced spaceship. The special effects are great and the action are all spot on (and I like the moments in space, which result in an absence of noise). The casting is perfect: the actors who are playing the younger versions of the characters we know channel them without slavishly impersonating them. Chris Pine is Kirk NOT Shatner, which is an important distinction – Shatner has a, ahem, unique acting style, so an impression wouldn't have worked, and Pine acts the cockiness, the bravado, the charm, the arrogance; as Kermode said in his review, the way he sat in the captain's seat WAS Kirk. Zachary Quinto is great as Spock – I've never liked him as an actor on Heroes, but here he is perfect as Spock in intonation and delivery and eyebrow arching. But the best is Karl Urban as Leonard 'Bones' McCoy – the irascibility, the grumpiness, the attitude, the delivery of the snipey aside are just perfect.

The rest of the cast are good: Greenwood does a great Pike, Zoe Saldana is a good Uhura; and Anton Yulchin and John Cho make good Chekov and Sulu, respectively. Simon Pegg is good as Scotty in the sense of being the comic relief – he does comedy with ease and brings real energy to the role. The accent is okay but I could be biased against him knowing that he is English and doing an accent – even though I love Pegg, I have always wondered what it would have been like with an actual Scot in the role, and one who is a huge fan of Star Trek: namely, James McAvoy. But comedy was needed, and Pegg is perfect for that – and he worked with JJ Abrams on Mission: Impossible III.

There are nice in-jokes for Star Trek fans, with some famous lines getting said ('I'm a doctor, not a physicist'; 'Fascinating' 'I'm giving her all she's got, Captain!' 'Are you out of your Vulcan mind?') and references to Trek lore (a mention of Admiral Archer from Enterprise, Sulu and fencing, Chekov not being able to enunciate 'w'), but there is also comedy for non-fans – it's part of the balance that Abrams and screenwriters Robert Orci and Alex Kurtzman tread finely but tremendously successfully, to keep everyone happy with the film they've made. The story is straightforward, even with the time-travel element, and provides all the thrills and action anybody could want. And, at its heart, it is a story about friendship – seemingly the only story in Star Trek: the friendship between Spock and Kirk (which does represent the basis of Trek: complete opposites can come together and become a team for good).

The film is very good but it is not perfect, so let's talk about the bad stuff. From a man who became famous for a television series about a strong female character in Alias, the use of women in the film is rather poor. The character of Uhura was always used badly in the original series, but it was the 1960s, so it has an excuse. In 2009, Uhura and the other women in the film should be used well. However, this is not the case – Kirk's mother is used only to give birth to him and nothing more; Spock's mother (Winona Ryder in ageing make-up – why? Wouldn't it have been easier to have someone of the right age?) has a few lines and only exists to die and instigate Spock's emotions; the emotional backstory for the villain of the piece is not just the death of his entire planet but also because his wife (and kids) died, because women aren't people, they are plot points; and Uhura, who is shown to be a smart, resourceful and independent woman before getting on the Enterprise, ends up with nothing to do on the bridge and only interacts with the story by being Spock's girlfriend. I know that a film is different to a television programme, where you have time to give all characters equal time, and films have to depend on a few main character arcs, but it seems not only a shame but a bit of a miss-step to sideline one of the most famous women in science fiction.

Story-wise, I had a few issues. Not in a Star Trek way, just from a narrative perspective. Using time travel as the plot device and as the way to start Star Trek afresh – basically, this is alternate Earth Star Trek, so they can do anything without worrying about the years of continuity – is a cheat, which is appropriate when we get to see the notorious scene where Kirk cheats on the Kobayashi Maru test (echoing the scene in Wrath of Khan where we learn of this by having Kirk eating an apple). It's a rather clumsy reboot button, and it niggled me. The time travel aspect also ruins the central idea of the Star Trek canon; namely, the friendship between Kirk and Spock. Having been told by the future Spock that they become friends, it removes the development of the relationship in an organic fashion. If fate has already determined it, where's the excitement? Still, Pine and Quinto have good chemistry, working off each other well and playing up the classic elements we know, so it's enough to ignore this element.

There are too many 'plot-driving contrivances' – young Spock, who should put Kirk in the brig for his insubordination, decides to jettison him off the ship onto a nearby ice planet. Where, while escaping from some CGI beasties, Kirk happens to be saved by old Spock from the future (who has been dumped on this planet by the man who hated him so much that he supposedly want him to suffer while he killed his entire planet – surely it would be easier to witness his pain if Spock was actually in the room with him?). And then they happen to meet a young Montgomery Scott on this desolate planet, who happens to have the capability to teleport them onto a ship moving at warp speed (after Spock gives him the final variable to his equation that he hasn't finished yet). It stretches things but you're too busy enjoying the film to care about them at the time – the film is just too entertaining to get in the way. Humour, action, spectacle, excitement, courageous acts, emotional connection – Star Trek has it all, and it a wonderful summer blockbuster film.

Rating: DAVE

Comics I Bought 8 May 2009

noreply@blogger.com (David) — Mon, 11 May 2009 18:00:00 +0000

Too many comics for self-indulgent preamble. Even Ignition City #2 arrived.

Astro City: The Dark Age Book 3 #1
It's been over a year since the last Astro City book, which is a shame when it's such a good book. Brent Anderson's art, although a style I don't like, suits the mood because it feels old, appropriate when this story is set in the 1980s. The Royal brothers are trying to locate the killer of their parents, killed when they were kids; this involves Royal going undercover in an organisation that provides supervillain henchmen, a nice conceit from Kurt Busiek. It's nice to have Astro City back – I'll be buying the individual issues as they come out, even though it will read better as a collection, because Busiek and Astro City warrant it.

The Boys #30
This issue is the pause in the story – Butcher and Wee Hughie have a chat, The Frenchman and The Female share a moment, Mother's Milk fulfils a promise, Hughie and Annie reveal without revealing, and Butcher shows his bastardry in case we'd forgotten. Ennis can write these moments without them being sappy or pointless, and it's a nice breather before the second half of the big story begins. Robertson provides some of his best art – he always worked well with the characterisation of his cast. I'm looking forward to the second half of Ennis' look under the covers of his view of superhero comic book tropes.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer #25
The television series always had quieter and smaller moments, and they could also be rather dull affairs. The sub-plot about Dawn being turned into a giant and a centaur by a thricewise comes to a head when she is turned into a doll (although I didn't recognise her until later in the story) and Buffy sets out to find her. Turns out that it was just a simple spell by Dawn's boyfriend Kenny after she slept with his flatmate, and all she had to do was say sorry for it to end. Ho hum. There are some nice flashes of cultural humour (Buffy: 'Who dresses like Wolverine for fun?' Xander: 'Certainly not me. Any proof you've seen to the contrary could easily have been Photoshopped, and, besides, I was drunk.') and Georges Jeanty provides his strongest art for a while, but this series needs to get back on track and kick it up a notch.

Ignition City #2
Talking of kicking it up a notch, Ellis brings some sizzle to this second issue after the rather pedestrian first issue. Things happen, people interact, interesting ideas flow (the alien language, the harvest-moon songlock), the reasons behind the death start to emerge, history of the city and the people begin to emerge – this is the pace and impact the first issue should have had, especially in a limited series. I've never seen Deadwood, which is part of Ellis' inspiration for this story, so I don't know if there are supposed to be connections that I don't recognise, but it could explain the unusual tone to the book – it has some Ellis touches but it is also distinctly different. Pagliarani's art seems to be even uglier this issue but I don't know if that's deliberate to reflect the atmosphere Ellis wants; it still isn't particularly pleasant to look at unfortunately.

Killer of Demons #3
The final issue of this excellent and enjoyable mini-series is just as good as the first two issues and provides a perfect continuation point for further mini-series. The end to this story involves a real change in status for the universe Yost has created, and the climax even throws in a Fight Club joke. This is funny and entertaining, but Yost just lets Wegener go to town on the hilarious over-the-top violence – his kinetic, visceral, sharp-lined art style is a delight, and makes the killing of demons so much fun, it's almost criminal (if you'll pardon the atrocious pun). This has been a great little series and I can't wait for another series.

Seaguy: Slaves of Mickey Eye #2
This has to be the most quaintly charming and oddball book I've read in a while – El Macho, king of the Bulldressers of Los Huevos! Morrison can do such beautiful little stories when he wants to, and the duping of Seaguy by Doc Hero and the Disney-like corporation is one of those. To do this, he needs the gorgeous art of Cameron Stewart to evoke this dreamlike quality – his Carmen is absolutely beautiful, exactly the sort of vision to entrance a man in a fake world. His bull, El Monstro, is so adorable – dressing a bull in women's clothing is not the sort of thing you expect to see in a comic book from DC. Utterly delightful.

From A Library – Spider-Man: Brand New Day volumes 1 & 2

noreply@blogger.com (David) — Sun, 10 May 2009 21:44:00 +0000

Vol. 1: Free Comic Book Day 2007 (Dan Slott & Phil Jimenez) & Amazing Spider-Man #546–551 (#546–548 Slott & Steve McNiven + Marc Guggenheim & Greg Land, Bob Gale + Phil Winslade, Zeb Wells & Mike Deodato; #549–551 Guggenheim & Salvador Larroca)
Vol. 2: Amazing Spider-Man #552–558 (#552–554 Gale & Jimenez; #555–557 Wells & Chris Bachalo; #558 Gale & Barry Kitson)

There are times I wish I could enjoy stories of Spider-Man but I can't – whenever I read the book, it seems to be the same thing: Peter Parker has a horrible life (no money, job always in trouble, doing the right thing that always leads to his life getting even worse) and the writers seem to enjoy piling on the misery, as if he was responsible for all the hazing they received as a high schoolers. It's the only thing that prevents me from watching the excellent first two Sam Raimi Spider-Man films – let's treat Spidey like shit. I just don't understand it, and I can't get past it when reading Spider-Man comics.

The world of Spider-Man was recently turned upside-down by the One More Day storyline, where the happy and normal(ish) marriage between Peter Parker and Mary Jane Watson is dismantled by Mephisto so that Joe Quesada could have his wish to return Spider-Man back to the way he was originally: the hard-luck hero who could be the reader. Now, I didn't read that story, and have no interest in doing so, but I wanted to see what the new-look Spidey for the new millennium was like. No ties to continuity, no more public identity due to Civil War, no more marriage to a hot supermodel to annoy the Editor-in-Chief. Because I don't let my prejudices get in the way of good comics.

Marvel have got together an interesting team of writers (called the 'Brain Trust': Slott the Marvel man, Guggenheim the TV writer, Gale the film writer and Wells the – I'm not too sure about Wells) to bring cohesion to the series, and have proved the seriousness of the reboot with big name artists: Jimenez, McNiven, Larroca, Bachalo and Kitson are in the big leagues and known for their superhero work. There is now only the one Spider-Man comic, although it is now coming out more frequently, with a concerted effort to make it a major mover in the Marvel universe, but what about the stories themselves?

From what I can see, it seems to be a case of doing the old-style Spidey stories but with a modern sheen. Peter is back to being a single chap with money and job worries who tries to balance normal life with his secret identity – just like it was in the old days – but it's set now and the art looks better. After talking about Jimenez's art recently, it's nice to see it again and he makes for a good fit for Spidey: lithe, dynamic, not excessively muscular, detailed, expressive. McNiven does his usual solid job, taking to Spidey well after his big job on Civil War. Larocca isn't quite as smooth – it seems slightly off, not as fluid, as if he's been working on the mutant books so long that he hasn't found his Spidey legs yet. The most interesting is Bachalo – he brings his usual warped perspective to a snow-bound tale that is not what you would expect from a Spider-Man book, but it works really well for the story, with lots of odd angles and skewed characters surrounding the thin Spider-Man he draws.

Writing-wise, there are different feels for each arc – Slott brings a lot of humour, as expected based on his previous work, and which is very important for Spidey: he has to be the funniest guy in the fight or you're missing the point. Guggenheim brings his TV work to the job, writing good dialogue and juggling the different strands. Gale, although a good writer, isn't funny – his Spidey quips are mundane and ordinary. Wells, despite my initial hesitance, provides the most interesting and different adventure – the mystical influences are not something I associate with the character nor with the direction this new take displays in the previous issues. It might feel more like a Claremont X-Men tale, perhaps, but it's the one that sticks out in the mind compared with the others.

Surveying the two books as a whole, there is evidence of new – Mister Negative (an interesting-looking villain, until we find out that his civilian identity knows Aunt May, which is a throwback), Menace, giving J Jonah Jameson a heart attack, a new editor of the Daily Bugle – but it still harks back to the way things used to be done. Keeping the status quo, doing the same things (Spidey does his best but always comes out worst), even the jaunty narration boxes ('Glad ya made it back, Spidey-fans!', 'There's clearly no way Spidey can get out of this, right?'), which feel like Stan Lee-isms for the Noughties, give the overall impression of 'having your cake and eating it too': everything is exactly the same as you remember, nothing is different, come back to Spider-Man as it was and always should have been, everything is just fine. The phrase 'the illusion of change' never seemed more appropriate. In the first collection, there is a manifesto outlining the 'new' approach to Spider-Man, which basically states it: keep Peter Parker downtrodden, keep him miserable, nothing good ever happens. That's not aspirational, that's depressing and disheartening. I don't want to read that – it's sadistic. Maybe we get the Spider-Man we deserve, but it's the Spider-Man you deserve because I won't be back for more (even though the story finishes on a cliffhanger, something I'm not used to seeing in a collection).

Comic Book Artist: Phil Jimenez

noreply@blogger.com (David) — Thu, 07 May 2009 20:00:00 +0000

Phil Jimenez is the modern day George Perez. And I think he's better than Perez. There, I said it. You may accuse me of heresy if you wish, but I would much rather read a Jimenez-drawn book than a Perez book. They both excel at drawing pages and panels that are filled with characters and detail, with excellent anatomy and an ability to draw beautiful women that are not highly sexualised, which is something rare and special in the modern superhero industry.

Another Perez–Jimenez connection is Wonder Woman – both have written and drawn the character, although the Perez run is perhaps more lauded. Their starts were in opposite camps: Perez made his name at Marvel, whereas Jimenez started out at DC, which is where I immediately think of when I think about his work. Even though Jimenez is now on an exclusive contract at Marvel, and drawing their flagship character as part of the new approach to Spider-man (and he famously drew the infamous Barack Obama cover to Amazing Spider-man), he did work on some Marvel books beforehand – he drew an X-Men mini-series as well as drawing some issues of New X-Men with Grant Morrison.

There is another connection to Morrison – he drew the second 'season' of The Invisibles, Morrison's creator-owned book; this was rather unusual at the time because Jimenez was a superhero artist, working on the likes of the New/Team Titans and Tempest (which he also wrote), but it showed his desire to break out of the mould and try new things. Although he would continue working on superheroes (JLA/Titans, Planetary/Authority, his Wonder Woman run), he also created, wrote and drew Otherworld, a 7-issue mini-series for Vertigo.

The final connection to Perez is when Jimenez was the main penciller on Infinite Crisis, to complement Perez's art on the original Crisis on Infinite Earths – if you want a superstar artist who can actually draw millions of characters in interesting ways, make them look cool and make you care about a huge company-wide crossover, Jimenez is the man to call. Although I didn't enjoy the story, I did like Jimenez's art, which was his usual high quality.

A discussion of Jimenez has to mention his sexuality – as one of the most well-known openly gay comic book creators in the mainstream, Jimenez is a role model for any young gay men wanting to work in comic books, and it's great to see one of the superstar artists in a medium not exactly known for its open-mindedness is allowed to be gay.

For an artist I admire, I don't own a lot of Jimenez-drawn books; I have The Invisibles, the JLA/Titans series, the Planetary/Authority one-shot and the New X-Men issues. I think it stems from not being a great fan of the stuff he's done for the most part – his superhero work at DC has been on properties that don't really interest me. Which is a shame, because I've missed out on a body of work that has superheroes drawn the way they should be: lithe, well proportioned, noble, exquisitely rendered, heroic and pure. His attention to detail in anatomy, design and backgrounds displays craft and love. His men and women are beautiful but not titillating – he's one of the few artists who can draw a sexy woman in a mini-skirt and not make you feel dirty for looking at it. Now, if he can only work on books I want to buy ...

Get a full list of his work at Comic Book Database [LINK] and see some of his art at Comic Art Community gallery [LINK]. There is an out-of-date fan site [LINK] or you can see him in person on YouTube [Part 1/Part 2].

X-Men Origins: Wolverine Poster Does Not Make Sense

noreply@blogger.com (David) — Tue, 05 May 2009 19:47:00 +0000

I know I reviewed the film yesterday, so apologies for continuing to discuss peripheral aspects of the movie. I wanted to point out what I thought was a bit of a discrepancy in the movie poster. The main poster image for X-Men Origins: Wolverine looked something like this (I've used the landscape version for ease of comparison; you can see the portrait version in my review):

Now, the first thing that is wrong with this image (apart from losing the colon that is part of the title for the sake of a prettier-looking setting for the words) is that this is supposed to be the solo film for Wolverine but he is surrounded by people. Not only is it a waste of Hugh Jackman's impressive shape and look, but it is also a mixed message. Wolverine is so popular after three X-Men films that he gets his own film but he apparently needs a supporting cast to entice you to watch this film. Also, the film is supposed to be about the main character you know about, but what about these other people only the fans know about? The free weekly magazine ShortList provided a handy guide to some of these people – they also provide information about people who aren't even on the poster:

Now, I realise that this is a paid-for promotion, but who the hell wrote this rubbish? It's cornier than the poorly written explanations in Previews. For Sabretooth: 'Trust us, this is one family domestic you don't want to get involved in.' I feel dirty just writing that out. Not to mention the mention of a teleportation device for Wade Wilson that is never actually used in the film. And why mention that Gambit is Cajun? Is that a defining characteristic? It's just depressing. But ShortList, in a small item in the magazine, also says that Barry Windsor-Smith was 'one of the men responsible for the X-Men franchise', so facts are something with which they are only on passing terms. In a previous issue, they stated not once but twice that Max Payne was a comic-book adaptation.

The other nonsensical aspect of the X-Men Origins: Wolverine poster is that it has Cyclops and Emma Frost on it. Why are they there? In the film, they are barely on screen for more than a few minutes, yet somehow they warrant a place on the poster? The presence of Kayla Silverfox on the poster also seems odd (much like her presence in the trailers), suggesting her importance and ultimate position in the narrative beyond what should be revealed before the film. The whole composition annoys me and sends out the wrong message about the film: it may be called Wolverine but these people are important as well, even though you have no idea who they are. That's not the way to get people to watch your film.

Film Review – X-Men Origins: Wolverine

noreply@blogger.com (David) — Mon, 04 May 2009 21:47:00 +0000

When I was a teenager, reading Chris Claremont's Uncanny X-Men and thinking Wolverine was a cool character, I never imagined that it would not only be a live-action film but also be a hyped blockbuster to start the summer season. Add to the mix the pirated version being leaked a month before the film and the resultant media commotion, and you have the sort of dream world a comic book could never have envisioned (much like cyberpunk didn't see the mobile phone in their futures). Therefore, it's a shame that the movie itself isn't very good – it is perfectly serviceable entertainment, with some nice action and some humour, but it's just okay and nothing more.

The heart of the problem is the fact that Hugh Jackman is a nice bloke – not that he can't play the Wolverine berserker rage, which he manages fine, but because he is producer on this film and he thinks that the reason he has become a star is because the geeks have supported him in role as Wolverine and he believes that he is repaying the fans by giving them what he thinks they want: the Wolverine origin. As producer and star, he had the clout to influence the direction of the film and he has decided to not take any risks; he has been responsible for a film that never goes beyond the expectations of the fans, who are not the best people to aim for when making a good film.

The other problem is that an origin story is not inherently dramatic unless it's part of a larger story – watching a film where we've already seen three films in the character's future (and the fact that they treat Wolverine as practically immortal, thus eliminating any excitement) means that there has to be something else to care about in the narrative. Otherwise, the film suffers from the tedious and unnecessary tendency of comic books to tie up all elements of any story in a tidy fictional package, connecting all disparate points, dotting the i's and crossing the t's to the extent that it becomes an exercise in continuity masturbation.

The film is essentially the gist of the Origin storyline (Logan kills his dad with his bone claws for the first time) and the Weapon X storyline (Logan gets his adamantium skeleton and claws) with a connecting storyline. The Origin bit happens pre-credits (which is about as important as it should be – I always thought that it was a stupid story [LINK], because Wolverine works best with a mysterious background, but also because the story was rubbish and it only came into being because Marvel decided they had to do it before Hollywood botched it up. Also, the bone claws – really, really, REALLY stupid idea. The credit sequence is actually nicely done – covering Wolverine and Sabretooth's time fighting in wars together (Civil, the First and Second World Wars, Vietnam) before Stryker offers them a position on Team X, doing nasty things for the government, before he finally decides he has enough, and he turns into Lumberjack Wolverine with Kayla Silverfox in the Canadian Rockies. Of course, things can't stay that way, and Logan gets back in with Stryker after Sabretooth starts killing the old members of Weapon X and then Silverfox. When he gets the adamantium bonded to him, things don't turn out quite as smooth as expected, and Wolverine must unleash the animal within.

Good things: Jackman is good as Wolverine; he's pumped up and channels the rage, and he's also charismatic and carries the film. Liev Schreiber as Sabretooth is great – he exudes animal rage and power (even if the extending nails are rather silly. Ryan Reynolds in the few minutes on screen as Wade Wilson is hilarious and looks fantastic – can we get a Reynolds-starring Deadpool film ASAP? The direction of the film is handled well by Gavin Hood, with his first time on a blockbuster, giving the feel of the film a sheen of 1970s style. There are nice touches for the fans (the old couple who find him after he escapes from the Weapon X facility are called the Hudsons, the wife is called Heather) but, the film tries too hard to cater for the fanboys, including providing a reason why Wolverine has no memory when he joins the X-Men (adamantium bullets? Really? He's a healer and you've covered him with an indestructible metal, and that's the best you can come up with?), as well as cameos for Emma Frost and Cyclops for no particularly good reason whatsoever. It's just too much fanboy service and not enough in the service of a good film – even with the piracy, it was always a sure bet that the geeks would give the film a boffo opening weekend, but the returns are going to be low after that because the word of mouth will not see this through afterwards. Which is a great shame, because I wanted this to be good and give Jackman a chance to step up to the big leagues. When asked if I would buy this on DVD when it came out, I said no – which saddens me no end.

Jackman described the illegally leaked copy like 'a Ferrari without the paint job' – based on the final film, he would be lucky to have a decent Toyota.

Rating: VID

Comics I Bought 30 April 2009

noreply@blogger.com (David) — Fri, 01 May 2009 21:17:00 +0000

Tomorrow is Free Comic Book Day but it tends to be more for the US than the UK – the amount paid for shipping the free books over here tends to negate the point of the day. I mention this, apart from bigging up the annual celebration of comic books, because the shipping of comics to the UK affected this week's purchases: Ignition City #2 failed to ship here yet again. Diamond seem to have it in for us – they won't let us enjoy the dark and twisted humour of Warren Ellis, mainly because they can't be bothered (at least, according to the chaps at Gosh!, the best comic shop in the world). This means that I only bought one comic book this week, hence the slightly longer than normal introductory paragraph than normal.

The Literals #1
I can't think of a crossover where a mini-series was created to be the third corner of the triangle of books in the crossover, nor where a new issue one was the third part in the crossover. You've got to give Willingham and Sturges credit for doing something different. This issue deals with the actual reason for the crossover: Kevin Thorn, a Literal with the power to rewrite the universe with his magic quill. When we see him, he seems to be accompanied by a drooling man in a straitjacket: is it Kevin in reality? They both wear glasses. Is he the flip side to the writer as an entity? A dribbling idiot with no point to their life? Kevin wanders around, writing in his notebook, trying to rewrite the universe – except he's got writer's block. He invites the 'family' over – the Genres (who, even though they're supposed to represent the written word, are all represented by cinematic ideals: Western is John Wayne, Blockbuster is Arnold Schwarzenegger, Comedy is Groucho Marx, Noir is Humphrey Bogart. Contradictory, no?) However, they can't help, so he brings along his most inspired creations (are we supposed to recognise them?) to inspire him.

Elsewhere, Bigby, Snow, Gary and Mr Revise are trying to track down Thorn (which also entails the only woman being a bad driver, which I thought was something we were beyond now), nearly getting blown up at Thorn's home in Manhattan before Thorn discovers their quest and rewrites Bigby ... There is also two pages of Jack Frost, Jack's son, who meets a man with a sword through his chest (are we supposed to know him as well?) The book finishes with a six-panel page of somebody ordering lots of food at the diner from the previous issue – is it supposed to be funny? Isn't it a bit of a waste? The book itself seems odd – why does it exist? Couldn't they tell the story in the two ongoing series? If Buckingham can draw this book, which he does well as usual, why the need for another book? It even seems to ignore the advice of the title of the chapter: 'Start as deep in the story as you can'. It seems to meander and take its time to get to a point – Thorn is powerful and a bit mad: what happens next? I hope things pick up in the next instalment.

From A Library: Various Trade Paperbacks

noreply@blogger.com (David) — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 20:42:00 +0000

I have been enjoying the delights of the library's reservation system and reading an odd selection of comic books in trade paperback form. The notes I made on each didn't quite gel into full discussions about them, but I wanted to collect them in one space together, so here they are.

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Super-villain Team-up: MODOK's 11

Issues 1–5 by Fred Van Lente and Francis Portela

I saw this on the shelf in the library and I had to read it because it's such a good idea: MODOK gets a bunch of supervillains together for a heist, with all the double and triple crossing you would expect, and a lovely twist in the end. Van Lente brings a clear and fun approach to the writing of a fun little book – there are some great jokes and he keeps the twisty plot clear and well explained throughout. The art is very nice – Portela has a similar style to Andrea DiVito in places, with good facial expressions, good choreography, clear panel transitions and a nice style. This is a good little story – and there is even a hint of a Watchmen reference, specifically to Jon Osterman when he returns as Doctor Manhattan, with the humanised Living laser. But the best aspect is the humour: 'All hail MODOK!' 'Yes! All hail me!'

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Counter X Volume 1

X-Force #102–109 Plot by Warren Ellis, script by Ian Edginton, art by Whilce Portacio (#107 by Ariel Olivetti, #109 by Enrique Breccia)

I do enjoy the work of Warren Ellis but I can't enjoy everything does: case in point, is the Counter X work. Ellis was given the reins of three titles – X-Man, X-Force and Generation X – and he plotted their direction, leaving the scripting to Steven Grant, Edginton and Brian Wood respectively. They were probably dense notes but, as can be seen from this collection, it doesn't spark – the stories read like someone doing an impersonation of Ellis. The plots are typical Ellis: government stuff goes bad, San Francisco is turned into a centre of mutation, there is a killer with the mutant gene for murder, there is an alien thing that is a very silly MacGuffin. Each issue feels fleeting and insubstantial, with Edginton providing Ellis-like dialogue that borders on the silly. Things are made worse by the art from Portacio – I have an undeserving soft spot for his art from his days on X-Factor, even though I know he is a technically poor artist: he can't maintain likenesses, very odd camera choices, a seeming inability to draw backgrounds (leaving them white instead) and drawing the ugliest and oddest faces around. Tabitha comes off worst, looking like a drag queen at times; Warpath's body size changes from panel to panel, ending up impossibly wide on some pages; Sam seems to age from issue to issue, and Portacio can't even keep Sam's beard shape on the same page. There are some pages, particularly in the action scenes, where you can't even tell what exactly is going on. It's really quite bad – it makes you wish that Olivetti provided more than just the fill-in issue. I can see why this series didn't do so well.

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Green Lantern: No Fear

Green Lantern #1–6 and Secret Files and Origins 2005 by Geoff Johns, Carlos Pacheco, Ethan van Sciver, Darwyn Cooke and Simone Bianchi

Having read and enjoyed the reintroduction of Hal Jordan to the DC universe as a Green Lantern, I thought I'd try the continuing series to see where it goes from there. The book isn't helped by the inability of one artist to stick around for the job – even though Pacheco, Sciver and Bianchi are excellent artists in their own right, their styles jar with each quite drastically, making for an uneven visual feel for the book. It also appears that Johns seems to work better with a complete story than on the serial material – too many balls in the air trying to set up new plots leaves less focus on the main storyline itself.

After the recap of the origin from the Secret Files book, illustrated by Cooke in his very appropriate for the story style, this sees Hal go back to being a test pilot (where his new competition is a woman) and back to Coast City, where he ends up fighting a Manhunter with a Power Battery in its head, the Air Force is rebuilding Abin Sur's ship, he visits Hector Hammon in jail, fights a super-evolved shark and the Black Hand. This is a lot but it still feels uneven and unfocussed.

As mentioned, the artists do good jobs – Pacheco's work is beautiful, soft, classical; Sciver is detailed, content-rich panel; Bianchi is ethereal, painterly, otherworldly – but it makes for a chaotic trade paperback as you jar from one to the next. The other aspect that is unsettling is the violence – the evolved shark has a man's head and arm clearly in his mouth, in Sciver's detailed artwork: why is this necessary? I think we got the point that he'd been eaten when he disappeared under water and the blood appeared ... This isn't awful comics by any means, but it doesn't make me want to read any more issues of the continuing series, so it can't be considered a success.

Film Review: In The Loop

noreply@blogger.com (David) — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 19:20:00 +0000

The list of film spin-offs from British sitcoms is not pretty (see this list at Wikipedia; for the record, I haven't seen the League of Gentlemen film, and I was never a big fan). Apart from the Monty Python boys, even spin-offs from sketch shows haven't been good. Therefore, even though The Thick Of It was an excellent programme, the prospects of the ensuing film being any good were slim. Fortunately, the people behind the film neglected to pay attention their history and have created a great film.

Instead of being a direct translation to cinema, the film takes the most fascinating character, Malcolm Tucker (Peter Capaldi), the Prime Minister's press co-ordinator – i.e. fascistic and bullying spin doctor – and lets him loose on a larger arena: the United States of America. Simon Foster (Tom Hollander) is an incompetent minister who, when asked unscheduled on a radio show about the possibility of war, says that it is 'unforeseeable'. This small oral faux pas inadvertently paves the way to war, as Foster is sent to Washington and New York with his new aide Toby (Chris Addison), who cocks things up even more while trying to do the right thing. Dodgy dossiers, angry constituents (a lovely cameo from Steve Coogan), a peace-loving general (James Gandolfini on fine comic form) and vote-fixing at the UN all add up to an intelligent and scathing satire on politics and war, but without actually mentioning Iraq at all.

Armando Iannucci, along with the team of writers from the television series, have created something extremely special with this extended and expanded story. The scope is larger and the threat greater but it doesn't mean that the focus on the characters is lost. Because it is the wonderfully sweary Tucker, played with demonic glee by Capaldi, who leads the show of an ensemble of good actors playing their parts (along with some improvisation to capture the real feel of the moments). There are parts for actors from the television show in different form (apart from Paul Higgins, who reprises his role as Tucker's right-hand man, the vicious and super-sweary Jamie MacDonald) but it is the vituperative invective that spews forth from his mouth that is the main attraction. The face-off between him and Gandolfini's general is a highlight because Tucker is used to ministers and journalists giving into him but not the general; Tucker gives as good as he gets, but is more angry about being called 'English' by the general than anything else (Tucker is Scottish). Extremely funny, extremely smart, extremely sweary – In The Loop is the sort of British comedy to be proud of, up there with Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz in the list of great recent British comedy films.

Rating: DAVE

Book Review: Every Last Drop

noreply@blogger.com (David) — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 21:10:00 +0000

Or, the fourth Joe Pitt book by Charlie Huston.

Having loved the first three Joe Pitt novels, it goes without saying that I was going to enjoy this book. It is surely the sign of a good book that it entertains you throughout but leaves you almost angry at the end because you want to read more. Of course, this feeling is amplified by the inclusion of 'extras' at the end of the book, which give you the impression that there are more pages to read than there are in the actual story. This frustration is more ironic when the extras are the first chapter in a book you have already read (in this case, The Devil You Know by Mike Carey). Nonetheless, Huston writes the hell out of the next chapter in the life of Joe Pitt, making the wait for the final book in the cycle even more excruciating.

Every Last Drop sees Pitt hiding out in the Bronx, a year after the events of the third book (which precipitated his exile from the island of Manhattan after burnt all this bridges with the only people who cope with his rogue status among the clans of New York). The Bronx is a wilderness in terms of vampyres, and Pitt is scraping by in his bid to survive. Obviously, things change when he is offered an assignment by the head enforcer of The Coalition, Predo, to spy on the girl he helped in one of the earlier novels, who has now formed her own clan with the aim of finding a cure for the vyrus. In doing so, he discovers the secret behind where The Coalition (who have about a thousand members) gets all their blood, which changes everything for everyone for ever ...

The idea behind these books is a great one – hard-boiled noir set in the world of vampirism in the modern day – and the execution is flawless. Huston writes a fully realised world of characters and detail and with a great central protagonist, and he does it with razor-sharp style – if you read the words out loud, you'd probably cut your tongue. To be able to tell such an engrossing tale in such a gripping fashion is quite a skill, and Huston never lets up or loses his way. He even manages this while seemingly handicapping himself by not indicating who is speaking dialogue – he sets it apart with a long dash but there is no 'said Joe Pitt' afterwards. Yet the reader never loses the plot, helped by everyone having identifiable speech patterns and his storytelling ability.

The book is a great chapter in the storyline but it doesn't quite compete on its own terms – it is very much the penultimate book, as plot strands are put into place, people are moved into position, and everyone important to the mythos that Huston has created is given some screen time to find out where they are one year after the last book. There is even time to discover a feral group of vampyres in the Bronx. But the book seems to exist only to reveal the secret of the blood that will initiate the events of the final instalment, which can't arrive fast enough. Again, I look forward to seeing the conclusion of Pitt's story but at the same time wanting more of his adventures. I hope the wait isn't too long.