The Endless Cosmos

Review of Iron Man movie and some Iron Man comics

noreply@blogger.com (Jesse Reese) — Sat, 17 May 2008 01:01:00 +0000

(spoilers!)

So, Iron Man has been out for a couple weekends now and if you are a good American you’ve been out to see it. If not you definitely should. Last week I went to see it with my brother and some friends, and one hour and forty-five minutes into the movie the power went out in the whole theater. We ended up getting a free ticket but I had to watch a bootleg version of the ending off the Internet. It was kind of a bizarre incident actually. One member of the audience volunteered to go tell the theater officials of the mishap but then shouted back in, “the whole theater is blacked out!” After watching a movie featuring a lot of terrorism other members of the audience began to get a little freaked out. It’s kind of a perfect example of how the first hour and forty-five minutes of Iron Man have you sucked into a completely believable world.

From the very first scene it captures your attention. It’s the scene that you’ve watched in all the trailers where Tony is having fun in his Humvee and then it’s attacked by terrorists. When I first saw it in the trailers it convinced me to go see this movie. It’s a good blend of over the top character and reality that is perfect for a comic movie. What you don’t see in the trailer is the continuation of the scene. Tony’s army protectors get out of the Humvee as Tony is completely terrified trying to take hold of the situation. He spouts out lines that you’d hear in the movies, “What’s our situation?” and “How many we got?” The soldiers ignore him as Tony and the audience is plunged into the middle of the chaos of war. There’s no objective only shooting at the enemy. A hand held camera and close-ups of the soldiers help the feel of reality also. Tony watches each solider die not in the glory of battle but quick and real. Stark is taken prisoner and there is a shot of Tony captured by the terrorists that is reminiscent of the beheading videos. Then the ‘IRON MAN’ title screen followed by extended flashback of Tony being the celebrity playboy that we saw in the first couple of minutes. The movie continues to balance out moments of real terror with comedy and actual character development all the way through.

Tony’s character is the most interesting part of the movie. He pretends to be this celebrity jerk, but at his heart he’s part kid and part nerd. The exact combination that appeals to most comics’ fans. It’s also subtle which is important. The next morning after he gets this Vanity Fair reporter in bed he retreats into his basement to work on a hotrod engine and lets his secretary, Pepper Potts, deal with showing her out. He’s at least somewhat concerned for her because he asks how she took it and by working on something mechanical tries to take his mind off of it. It’s important to see how these parts of his personality are there all along because after he’s captured and comes back we see them emerge. When he comes back he’s not completely changed just slightly. One of the weirdest things about the Spiderman movie is how he changes so dramatically after his Uncle dies. Yeah, it’s a major life-altering event but the change in the movie feels way more contrived. He’s shown as a complete shut-in and then as soon as he gets super powers he gets adventurous. Stark is already crazy when the movie starts so when he is testing out experimental technology in his basement and fighting terrorists it’s believable. When he comes back the only thing that changes are his priorities not his personality.

It’s kind of impossible to ignore the political themes in the movie. The terrorists, even though their boss wants to rule Asia, and the soldiers all bring up thoughts of the war in Iraq. Tony’s attitudes of go in blow everyone up from the air and it will be just fine has a similar feeling to the Bush administration’s going into the war. Then things go horribly wrong. Tony finds out that his company has been double-dealing to the enemy. It’s vaguely similar to the war profiteering Halliburton was accused of. Even the dorky guy from the Strategic Homeland Intervention Enforcement Division sounds like a Bush style government official with a needlessly long name and way behind in information. Iron Man has a hopeful vision of the future with a focus on armoring individual solider and corporate responsibility. By the end even the dorky guy is now a S.H.E.I.LD. liaison and in control of Tony’s situation. That’s why the end (spoiler!) when Jeff Bridges goes nuts and becomes Iron Monger sucks so much. It doesn’t make any sense with all the other stuff going on in the movie. It makes thematic sense, but why not just let the terrorist guy pilot it and have Jeff stick around for Iron Man 2? It doesn’t take away from the movies message about corporate greed. If he stuck around to the second one it would be more effective because it would be show how hard it is to get rid of Obidiah Stane type guys.

On to the comics…

Invincible Iron Man #1
By Matt Fraction and Salvador Larroca with Frank D’armata and Stephane Peru

This book was really disappointing. I went in really wanting to get into it and really loving the cover. I haven’t read it yet, but I’ve heard only great things about Fraction’s work on Immortal Iron Fist. So, maybe I hyped it up too much, but I hope Iron Fist is nothing like this.

The most frustrating thing is that this series takes place in the Marvel Universe where there are lots of weird rules. For some reason the space shuttle still exists. In a universe that has a dozen or so Iron Man like suits, a flying aircraft carrier headquarters, and S.H.E.I.L.D agents using some kind of flying squirrel flaps instead of parachutes how does the space shuttle still exist? It makes sense thematically because the theme is that Tony’s suit is about to be replaced by the next generation, and they explain it in the narrative as being around because space flight isn’t privatized but something still doesn’t feel right. The way it just hangs there in the first panel after seeing these future explosions and the Iron Man suit makes it feel something from a different world. It’s such an odd feeling it's like if a DC character suddenly showed up.

The space shuttle is just a nitpick though. There’s a lot going on and a lot of it doesn’t mean anything. The whole point of this issue is going through Tony’s five nightmares. Four of these nightmares are Tony worrying about Iron Man technology, but we never see him worried or scared we just hear about it in the narration. One of the best parts is when we actually do see him worrying about it. He’s completely paranoid about his technology and as S.H.E.I.L.D. director keeps tabs on all the other similar Iron Man suits. Moments like these are totally suppressed by the dialogue and narration. The Tony Stark from the movie is just a dude trying to figure shit out. This Tony Stark is a problem solving superhero and it makes this comic pretty generic.

Iron Man: Viva Las Vegas
By Jon Favreau and Adi Granov

Jon Favreau out-writes Matt Fraction. How about that for a headline? These two issues are the complete opposite of one another. Invincible Iron Man is overwritten while Viva Las Vegas is kind of underwritten. You can read Viva Las Vegas in under five minutes but in this case I prefer underwritten. Favreau stays out of the way and let’s the art do the talking instead of excessive narration.

Adi Granov’s art reminds me a lot of Olevetti. It doesn’t rely as much on computers but every once in a while a wholly computer rendered image will show up. I like the art in here it makes Stark look human and Iron Man invincible. The big problem I have is with the colors. When I first saw the title featuring Las Vegas I thought I’d get Iron Man partying/fighting it up on the strip. This issue focused on the desert of Las Vegas for some reason so a lot of the colors look pretty bland. I guess I was hoping for something like Fantastic Four/ Iron Man: Big in Japan style where the culture/city is partially the focus.

The reason for Stark’s vacation is kind of ridiculous. After Iron Man saves an airliner from a terrorist (see a trend?) the people of the airliner are for some reason ungrateful. Then a panel shows Iron Man flying away from the Eiffel Tower. It’s all in good fun but France jokes are a little played out.

The big threat in the issue is an collection of thousands of lizards inexplicably swarming Las Vegas. The two page spread showing them begging to gather is a little heavy handed but still effective. There’s not much else to talk about which highlights the shortness of this issue. It really has the feeling of a prologue for the next three issues. I’ll probably pick them up.

Also, click here for some really good Iron Man art.

New Comics Round-Up!

noreply@blogger.com (brandon) — Mon, 12 May 2008 03:47:00 +0000

by Brandon Soderberg
Batman: Death Mask #2 by Yoshinori Natsume (DC): When the first issue of 'Death Mask' came out, there were a lot of cynical reviews that obviously stemmed from only reading the first few pages. Reviews mocked the straight-forward sincerity of Natsume for his "Is Bruce or Batman the secret identity?" slant that introduces the story and ignored the comic's effort to mix and merge American and Japanese culture in a way that doesn't simplify either. For (I think) the first time, we're getting Bruce Wayne's training in a foreign country from a foreign perspective.

One of the best scenes in Issue 2 is when Bruce Wayne's sensei discovers him training in the evening- verifying Wayne's training goes beyond "spiritual strength"- and respectfully asks him to leave the dojo. Again, it's basically a scene that's occurred in Batman stories before, but that same story from the perspective of a Japanese gives it some added weight. Wayne's not presented as a horrible American or disrespectful guy (even though he kinda is), what matters is his basic drive to train and become a superhero. In our post-'Watchmen' era of comics, it's fun to highlight heroes' flaws and turn every guy in a cape into a self-involved fuck, but it's great how Natsume retains the Byronic, radical individualism of Bruce Wayne and celebrates the mix of glory-grabbing and selfless sacrifice that turns him into Batman. That duality is also familiar territory but by tossing-in the influence of the Oni-essentially a demon- on the creation of "The Batman", it adds some complexity and was a way for Natsume to make this very American superhero his own.

It's ultimately the entire package that makes 'Death Mask' worth reading anyway. The purposefully low-gloss appeal of the flimsy cover and black and white newsprint, almost double conventional comic-book length (and still only $2.99), and Natsume's art, all make this something engaging and just really fun to hold in your hands. Natsume has tons of fun with the Batman shadow and iconagraphy, doing these sort of filmic, Eisenstein-like visual contrasts. A favorite page, late in the comic, shows Bruce Wayne becoming Batman and does it through some particularly brave claustrophobic frames that focus on the details of the Batsuit- the glove going on, the edge of the cape flapping, just the ears of the mask- before you turn the page to a full-page Batman image. There's also some excellent sumi-e style inking done for certain flashbacks that adds just one more layer to 'Death Mask's narrative style.Cable #3 by Duane Swierczyski & Ariel Olivetti (Marvel): Ariel Olivetti's artwork is presumably, the main appeal of this new 'Cable' series and so it's interesting that the painted, less-foggy Bill Sienkiewicz-like cover is also by Olivetti. I can't help but read it as something of a response or footnote to his CGI-work, indicating that he can do art the "old-fashioned" way too. It also implicitly shows how even when Olivetti's work looks terrible (see pretty much any of his backgrounds, or that damned tractor-trailer), it adds an additional layer and feeling to 'Cable' that more conventional art would not provide.

Like a lot of really good things, Olivetti's art precariously balances the thin-line of being embarrassing and amazing and that's where a story about a big, dopey Liefeld-ian character like Cable taking care of the cutest baby in the world should be. The most rewarding frame might be early-on when the tractor trailer crushing Cable is punctuated by a negative image. It's a simple trick that like, even MS Paint has the capacity to do, and that's sort of what makes Olivetti's art succeed: He uses high-tech tools as simplistically as possible.

The story's unfolding in an episodic way, with pieces of information coming in, but with a lot of down-time and time spent on minor characters that probably won't return or at least, don't feel like they'll continue to be a part of the story. Cable's interaction with the diner waitress is especially effective and underlines Cable's devotion to the baby ("Nobody holds her but me"), his overall bad-ass-ness (he talks her through removing a bullet from him!), and gives a little more background information on why New Jersey 2043 is so fucked-the-fuck-up.

The biggest complaint is how this issue ends the same as Issue One, with another muscle-bound dude with big-guns bursting-in. It's the same feeling I had at the end of Issue One when Bishop showed-up and I faced the reality that a 'Cable' comic was never going to not have Bishop in it at some point. Who this dude with a 'C' on his chest and some vaguely Cyclops-like goggles is will probably end-up paying off, but in a comic that bucks expectations in a lot of ways, it's a little silly to have this trope of some new dude from the future bursting-in every other issue. Like a lot of things though, it's weird the first two times, but if every couple issues there's just one more buff future bad-ass with guns coming back to the future, it might just become awesome. One final thing: Let's just have the characters not curse; this "$@%&" instead of "shit" is absurd.Elephantmen: War Toys #3 by Richard Starkings & Moritat (Image): It's a testament to the breadth and depth of Richard Starkings' 'Elephantmen' universe that the recent 'War Toys' mini-series has felt underwhelming. That somehow, he's developed a series where we'd rather see the Elephantmen wearing suits and trying to deal with not being killing machines more than wanting to see them as killing machines is impressive. 'War Toys' has been interesting but perhaps the most belabored and disinteresting 'Elephantmen' story since that long-ass Neil Gaiman wannabe story in Issue #7. Of course, one of the reasons 'Elephantmen' is so good is because it takes some crazy chances, so complaining too much is to miss the point.

And Issue 3 of 'War Toys' is probably the best of the three anyway. We continue with a French resistance-style soldier named Yvette, who, last issue saw many of her people-including her boyfriend- killed by the MAPPO soldiers, and essentially used the tragedy to stop giving a fuck and slice-up as many of these Elephantmen as possible. This issue shows parts of France graffiti-ed by her name, in dark red (the only color in the black-and-white book), and most shockingly, branded across the forehead of a tied-up Elephantman and across the stomach of another.

The sole red image amongst a bunch of black-and-white images can't help but be a reference to 'Schindler's List' and it's interesting the way they flip the very famous and very obvious image of the girl-in-red from that sentimental, Holocaust classic. The girl-in-red is the most Spielberg-ian aspect of 'Schindler's List', an overt grab for sentimentality that's vaguely arty but ultimately simple-minded. It also reduces the pain and tragedy of the Holocaust to the most maudlin of images- a little blonde girl- and looks like its saying a lot without saying anything and whether it means to or not, suggests that somehow this little girl's death is sadder or more signficant than the other 11,999,999 or so people who died. I bring all this up because it's so interesting how this image of red is flipped in 'War Toys #3'.

In a sense, it's almost as if Yvette is that little blonde girl grown-up, bitter, angry, and no longer giving a fuck. The red in a sea of black and white images no longer represents victimhood and eventually death, but perseverance. There's that famous Kubrick quote to Spielberg about 'Schindler's List': "Think that was about the Holocaust? That was about success, wasn't it? The Holocaust is about six million people who get killed. 'Schindler's List' was about six hundred people who don't." Kubrick's basically right, but what Kubrick conveniently ignores is that almost every narrative is going to be framed around an oddity or the exception because you know, the general sense of the horrible-ness of it all is going to be in there somewhere. Still, it's telling that Starkings focuses on an exception of the type that fights to the death, not a more conventional death or victim of atrocity.

-For further reading on 'Elephantmen', here's my write-up on earlier issues of the series.Madman Atomic Comics #8 by Mike, Laura, & J.L Allred (Image): Okay, so is there anybody who's been basically on top of their game for as long as Mike Allred? Would you expect the comic dude started in like 1992 to pick-up a after like a decade of not doing it and for it to continue to push the series and reader expectations this far? I think it's interesting that around the same time as Marvel decided to totally uproot their 'Spiderman' continuity because they're lazy as fuck and want to start it all over, we have Mike Allred's 'Madman Atomic Comics' #s 6 & 7, which totally embrace a huge change in the series and does it with little fear of alienating readers but at the same time, isn't trying to alienate or piss-off readers (Sorry to be so vague and nebulous but it's way too much of a spoiler to drop...).

After last month's word-less issue, which was not only thematically resonant but just a really fun, experimental thing to do, there's 'Madman Atomic Comics #8', done in two parts, 'Film Flam', a baby-step further into the new world of Madman that Allred's developing, and 'Find a Penny Pick It Up, which merges some of the newer continuity with a pretty-much classic batshit-crazy 'Madman' story from when Dark Horse was publishing the series a decade ago.

In 'Film Flam', we see the power of second-person narration, as we're basically treated to another "origin" type story of Madman/Frank, presumably for new readers, but the second-person narration helps in empathizing with Frank, which after all the shit's that gone down the past few issues, is very affecting for new and veteran readers. In a lot of ways, Frank basically cheated on Joe with It Girl in Issue 6 and although it was nothing physical and just a sort of personal connection and they essentially had no choice, that's the point! Allred finds really fun, roundabout ways to address real-life issues through his weirdo universe and I think he presented how one ends up cheating or messing-up really well through the whole "the four"/Space plot. It's not that Frank wanted to "cheat", he just found himself in the situation and it's like "Up-I guess, I like this person now", which you know, is a lot like how real-world falling in and out of love works. 'Madman' has always been about growing-up and facing reality and with the series' latest direction, it's gotten very-real and the brief 'Film Flam' acts as a way to remind readers of how the series used to be and how far it's gone and how far it's apparently going. The feeling you leave these latest issues of 'Madman' with is one that feels very much like reality and less like fun, comic-book escapism. Getting mad at the direction Allred's taking the series is as fruitless as getting mad at the world for not working-out exactly as you wanted it to.

And, there's still 'Find a Penny...' which as I said, is a return to the old style 'Madman' stories but with the new aspects of plot and continuity stuck in there. After a pretty heady and emotionally challenging seven and a half-issues, it's great to have fun, goofy stuff like an homage to Harold Lloyd and the return of Cheetahman and a Cab Driver acting like a cat and a tree of cows and a Looney Tunes homage with a big eyeball in Frank's mouth.

Kick-Ass #1 and #2

noreply@blogger.com (Jesse Reese) — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 01:27:00 +0000

By Mark Millar and John Romita Jr. with Dean White

Ok, so Kick-Ass isn’t what it would be like if there was a real super hero. Once you get passed that I think that this is a pretty good comic. Thanks to some weird attempt at viral marketing, the book is presented as what it would be like if a real life high school kid tried to be a super hero. The first two issues try and show what this would be like but there are some incongruities that mess it up.

The first three pages of issue one put us into a world that isn’t exactly real. They show a guy jumping off of a building in a super hero outfit trying to fly. This isn’t our title character it’s some other guy who has heard about his exploits. So we are initially started in some alternate future where copycat super heroes are a reality, which calls into question the reality that we are set in. Then we travel back in time to ‘where it all started.’ The main character, David, gives a brief history of his motivations and feelings that led up to him putting on a scuba costume and going out to beat up some vandals. It’s doubtful that a real super hero would even find encounters to fight people. Guys dressing up in suits are kind of a reality already as this article points out. Kick-Ass isn't anything like these super heroes. The setting is the real world but the events that take place are slightly idealized. The real world is way more boring and way less violent.

So the book isn’t what it would be like to be a real super hero but it doesn’t really matter. The underlying psychology of the book and what it says about other comics that makes it really interesting. It’s a comment on a certain type of comic book and a certain type of comic book fan. The main character is one of these type of fans. He’s the kind of fan that thinks Galactus’ costume is stupid and the kind of fan that is drawn into the false grim and gritty reality of certain comics. He reminds me of these kids who come into the YMCA where I work. The other day they brought in comic books and I got really excited and immediately went over to talk to them. They had mostly new comics including an issue of Immortal Iron First. The comic that they were most excited about was this Wolverine Origins comic featuring Deadpool. These two fifth graders told me all about how both Wolverine and Deadpool had healing powers and described to me every ultra violent panel. They really loved the scene when Deadpool was wishing for his fingers to grow back quicker. These are the types of comics that bother me. There is no story to speak of and are just a showcase for basically fan fiction super hero battles. I understand that they are supposed to just be wacky and fun but they usually don’t even achieve that. Kick-Ass makes me understand these kinds comics a little better though. It gets you inside the head of David and why he likes these comics.

The violence in Kick-Ass doesn’t make it cool or appealing at all. The comic seems to try and appeal to those kids who love violence while subtly showing them that there isn’t anything really cool about it. It appeals to them by having a similar character with similar emotions and has half of each issue a bloody fight scene. The fight scenes though aren’t what you would expect out of a normal comic. They show close ups of people getting punched in the face, David punching and kicking from his back on the concrete, and blood everywhere. It gives the scenes an awkward and painful feeling to read. David never looks cool or heroic it’s only the people around him who say things about him. While it may not show the reality of dressing up in tights and trying to be a vigilante the comic shows the reality of violence very well.

The comic also gives you a very real look into David’s life at home. In issue one he reveals that his mother died and the comic shows us a very real shot of her lying on the floor with food spilled all around her. The next panel is what David imagines what his life would look like if it were in comic book form. This panel is meant to show how this comic is not a typical super hero comic but also serves to show how David deals with his problems. He deflects the pain of his mother's death into a joke and then focuses on how it affects his current situation. David deflects his pain into video games and comics but when the pain becomes too much he turns his emotional pain into physical pain. The last panel of issue one shows David laying on the ground in a pool of blood. I think it’s significant that the position that David is lying in resembles his mother’s and also how the blood resembles the spilled food on the kitchen floor. It shows how his acts of violence are directly connected to his grief over the loss of his mother.

In issue two David must recover from the brutal beating he received by the muggers. This is done really well showing the months it takes for a recovery and David’s feelings of guilt over his medical bills. After he recovers fully David burns his comics as a symbolic act to never do anything like that again but on the very next page David suits up and heads out to find some crime. His act of burning the comics then represents his realization that he’s not in the idealized world of comics anymore. He knows exactly what will happen when he goes out and it shows that he’s no longer the kid who was attracted to sitting in class with his suit on but a kid who is attracted to only violence. It implies that he is addicted to violence with references that it has replaced his ‘internet porn addiction’ and when he says, “The beast was friggin’ in me, man.” By showing David addicted to violence, people around him fascinated by violence, and putting the promotion, “sickening violence: just the way you like it!” on the cover the comic comments on the position of violence in society and in comics. Violence is commonplace in both and we do have a fascination for it. By paralleling violence with an addiction and showing it's cruel reality the comic questions our love for violence.

The addiction to violence and his act of disavowing comics also holds interesting implications for the rest of the series. He turns his back on comics here but the first page of issue one implies the series will head in a very comic book like direction with copycat super heroes and David fighting gangsters. I hope it stays in the direction it has been going with David dealing with the death of his mother through destructive means and occasionally commenting on super hero comics in general.

The Death of Captain Marvel

noreply@blogger.com (Jesse Reese) — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 18:20:00 +0000

My water damaged copy

The Death of Captain Marvel easily captures a place in my list of top five best comics. I had been into Starlin for a while and had read so many good things about this book that I decided it was worth buying before even reading. So, I accidentally purchased a water-damaged copy off ebay. Doing something that stupid and depressing is usually enough for me to forget whatever it is I purchased exists. For whatever reason I actually ended up reading it and then crying for most of it. Even though it’s about super heroes, it has completely real and moving moments. After I was finished blubbering my way through, I went back and looked at it again and saw how expertly it was constructed, and I noticed a bunch of new details. So, thanks to the guy who paid it forward and sold his flood damaged but highly readable copy to me on ebay.

As you might be able to figure out The Death of Captain Marvel’s main theme is the death of a super hero. Captain Marvel is wasting away with cancer. When I first heard this, I thought it was kind of stupid. How could cancer kill a super hero? Starlin deals with this by making cancer a cosmic scourge that plagues all the races of the universe. Some call it the ‘inner decay’ and Marvel’s race calls it ‘the blackend.’ Marvel is a Kree and his warlike race has never taken the time to stop and look for a cure for cancer despite its scientific advancements. By giving these explanations Starlin elevates this real world disease and gives it even more weight and impact by having it affect someone with super powers.

Before reading this I really only had a vague clue who Captain Marvel was. Super heroes are often connected to childhood nostalgia and therefore given little respect as art. The Death of Captain Marvel is a perfect example of how a good super hero story can affect even casual comic readers. It doesn’t matter if you grew up reading Captain Marvel comics, what matters is how he is presented in the story and how that shapes your views of him. The super hero community talks about Marvel in such high regard that it creates an emotional connection to him. Spiderman remarks, “I mean, this just can’t be happening. Captain Marvel is one of us. He’s a full blown, card carrying, super hero.” He addresses the common view that super heroes are somehow immune to death and at the same time creates a connection between Marvel and the reader. Captain Marvel has a history with these characters and the reader feels that history. Starlin also begins the book with a brief history of Marvel. He gives us the back-story as part of a memoir that Marvel is writing because he knows his death is imminent. Marvel regrets a lot of things from the past and doesn’t look on the events of his life like any normal human would. The sting of death brings out a lot of emotions in him and those around him. From page one when he is writing his memoirs and especially on page two when Eros comments that Marvel is too young to be writing them, the tension of death hangs over the story.

Starlin does a great job of using the super hero to give interesting insight on how we view the concept of death both on a personal level and as a community. The idea that super heroes are immune to death plays into our own feeling that we will somehow escape death. Marvel says it best, “I just never figured it would happen to me. Deep down inside me I felt that those special things that make me who I am would just live forever.” Starlin reinforces this feeling with the panels by pulling back and showing Marvel surrounded by darkness. In one scene Marvel approaches his friend Eros and asks him to be a good friend to his girlfriend Elysius. The implication of this scene is that Marvel is giving Eros his permission to date her after he is gone. This scene is awkward and captures perfectly the strange way people act when death becomes involved. The scene ends with a wordless panel of Eros crying, adding the random emotion that surrounds death. In another instance, Captain Marvel mentions his helpless feeling saying that he can’t fight his disease because he is a warrior not a doctor. These scenes give a very real picture of the helpless feeling that surrounds death and also are a kind of critique on the super hero genre in general. Starlin seems to be asking what good are people who fight all their lives. There is another scene when the super hero community gathers and the narrator mentions how each hero gathered thinks of how they haven’t looked for a cure of this dreaded disease before one of their own members was struck down by it. Of course this calls into question the value of super heroes and reading comics about them, but what I think it really does is make the super heroes believable. It gives them a touch of reality that they have the same doubts and fears and weaknesses that everyone does. It also makes their efforts to achieve good that much more heroic.

The super hero community is a very important part of the book. They are on the cover of the book and make up a lot of the important scenes. Their presence shows how one person’s death can affect many people. Starlin shows how Marvel’s death affects each person, and he is careful to show many different reactions to the hero’s death. The Thing is like a big uncle that tells stories of the past, Reed Richards works as hard as he can to find a cure, while Spiderman is overcome with emotion. Giving real reactions for different heroes again grounds this story in reality. Marvel's best friend in the story isn't a super hero but a kid named Rick Jones. When Jones comes to see Marvel on his death bed he is in awe of the super heroes asking if he needs to 'take a number' in order to see Marvel. When he goes in and begins to cry, The Thing has to leave the room because he feels awkward and to give them some time alone. The super heroes, who normally defer only to people who are more powerful, give Rick Jones special treatment that sets him above them. The Thing’s reaction isn't as emotional as Rick's but has a special affect on us because we are used to seeing such a popular character battle villains, but not feeling awkward about being in a room.

One of the most affecting scenes is when Marvel tell Elysius about his disease. The wordless panels and their slow pacing nail the surreal feeling of suddenly being confronted with death. The panels of Mentor, Captain Marvel's father figure, looking down on the scene from a balcony and slowly fading away only enhance the feeling of the inevitability of death. He is a master at balancing the huge scope of cosmic powers with everyday moments like this one. The scene puts special emphasis on the relationship between Marvel and Elysius. The page before, Mentor explains their relationship, but it falls completely flat when compared to this scene. This is her first appearance in the book and gives it a weight that carries through to the end when she is constantly by his side when he is on his death bed

Spoiler alert: the last page

The attitude of the comic, and presumably Starlin, towards death and an afterlife plays into the realism running through. Marvel mentions a couple of times that he thinks after he dies that everything will just be over. Drax the Destroyer comes to visit him on his deathbed and tells him he has been across the veil of death and that it wasn’t that bad. Marvel blows him off by telling him he isn’t in a rush to find out. Drax reminds me of a priest coming to comfort the dead, but Marvel, who doesn’t believe in the afterlife, isn’t comforted. Starlin makes it clear that Marvel’s final fight with Thanos is nothing but a coma induced hallucination. Even though it is sort of a dream sequence Marvel seems to come to grips with his death accepting the kiss of death. The sequence ends with his enemy Thanos saying that death is only the beginning, but the book ends with Mentor covering up Marvel’s body saying, “He’s gone.” The book could have easily ended on the optimistic note of a new begining, but instead it ends on the grief of the community Marvel leaves behind. This ending gives me the feeling that it truly was a coma-induced hallucination and that after he truly dies, the grim reality of the situation sinks in. Starlin uses the back page of the book to once again reinforce the community aspect but to give us some closer sense contrasted with the abrupt ending of Mentor not quite hanging the sheet over Marvel.

Comics like this one end up being more real and effecting than comics like The Dark Knight Returns or The Watchmen, which everyone praises for updating the super hero genre and realistic portrayals of characters. Starlin doesn’t have to inject his stories with extra blood or really pissed off characters to achieve realism. He gives each character humanity and tackles a subject that all good works of art deal with on some level. Even if you have to buy some guy’s copy that floated around in his basement you should read this book.

Creator Profile: Jim Starlin

noreply@blogger.com (Jesse Reese) — Tue, 08 Apr 2008 23:47:00 +0000

Art imitates life

Jim Starlin is a well-known legend inside the comics field but unless you have a deep love for space or goatees it's reasonable you've never heard his name. It’s always fun and exciting to discuss new works in comics, but I think even more important, especially in the comics field, to take a look back and acknowledge the greatness of the past.

Starlin was one of a handful of creators in the 80s that helped superhero comics transition from a paragraph of dialogue per panel to a more cinematic design. He took an aesthetic seen in Heavy Metal and Epic Illustrated in the 70s and brought it to the mainstream. In addition to this aesthetic, Starlin is the king of the cosmic story, and was one of the first writers to seriously tackle the death of a superhero. He’s best known for his work on the cosmic crossovers like The Infinity Gauntlet and its many spinoffs, but his best work is in the pages of Dreadstar and the graphic novel The Death of Captain Marvel. He is the writer and artist on both the latter titles and combines serious issues with inventive page designs. These are the projects in his career when he had complete creative control, and his ideas flourish without the boundaries placed upon him by editors and characters with long continuities.

From Dreadstar issue #1

In Dreadstar and The Death of Captain Marvel his inventive work with panels is established. He knows how to make the panels of his comics look interesting but more importantly knows when to use certain types of panels to enhance the story. He strings together wordless panels that have short time spans, like a ship approaching a space station, to give his comics a cinematic feel. This adds to the suspense of a scene and also the realism of the overall comic. Many comic writers mistake realism for gritty badass characters and locations, but adding realism to a comic can be as simple as slowing down the pace and showing the minutiae of the character’s events.

From Dreadstar issue #2

Dreadstar is really where he goes all out playing with pacing and panels. He continues using slow paced wordless panels, but here he begins to really widen his scope. Sometimes he eliminates them completely and sometimes he arranges them in a unique way, like the panels from shown above. This page shows a gunfight between the female hero, Willow, and some would be attackers. They show how gross the guys are that she is fighting, which becomes important when we find out about her sexually abused history. This scene is the first example of how tough she really is. We see close ups of all the players in the gun fight in panels that hang loosely together building the tension. It shows the focus of each gunfighter and we know before they start shooting who will win just by these panels. This is a gunfight but also symbolizes how Willow still struggles and overcomes her past. It's these seemingly little touches that make Starlin's stories and art really interesting to read.

From The Infinity Gauntlet issue #1

As Starlin worked with panels in the late 70's early 80's with The Death of Captain Marvel, Dredstar, and The Infinity Gauntlet he brought the feeling of unpredictability back into the superhero genre by taking it to the cosmic level. In The Infinity Gauntlet, Thanos, literally kills half the population of the universe including half the super heroes on Earth. While readers probably weren't naive enough to think that these heroes were gone forever, we at least had to deal with the fact that these characters were facing something that was bigger than them. The heroes are easily defeated by Thanos' might and we have to watch each as they are killed by Thanos. The super heroes were humbled in a time when their stature were becoming out of control.

Infinity Gauntlet issue #3: The Marvel Cosmology

Comics are at their best when they engage the reader’s imagination and use that engagement to hook the reader emotionally into the story. Comics set in a cosmic setting open up a sense of whimsy that really engages the reader. Superheros had gone into space before but Starlin expanded the entire Marvel Universe. Before the super heroes had been the most powerful beings but Starlin created a new power structure that introduced the Marvel Cosmology. As a kid, or even yesterday, you may have had the classic comics argument with your friends “Who would win if super hero A and super hero B got into a fight?” This inevitably leads to the question “Who could beat anyone in a fight?” The answer usually falls onto the ultra powerful creations of Starlin's cosmos. These are the characters who eat planets for breakfast and can move galaxies around on a whim. Galactus and the Silver Surfer are probably the best known members of this hierarchy of beings. While Starlin didn't create these characters he was obviously heavily inspired by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby's creations. When Galactus first appeared in the pages of of Fantastic Four it changed the rules of the Marvel Universe. Here were beings that showed up on Earth that were battling with each other and weren't concerned at all with the happenings of our planet. Starlin took this idea and ran with it broadening the scope of normal superhero comics by showing that all these beings were interconnected in a hierarchy/community and by taking the focus entirely off of Earth. This really opened the comics he worked on and gave them a feeling that anything could happen. The comics of Lee and Kirby were so exciting because the characters were new and weren't as entrenched in our cultural consciousness. It is completely unthinkable that any of the Fantastic Four would ever die but in the days of Lee and Kirby it was at least a possibility, especially when beings with power that dwarfed the heroes were introduced.

Ever since her face got revealed the game got real.
The Death of Captain Marvel

While he touches on the idea of the death of a super hero in Infinity Gauntlet he explores it in depth in The Death of Captain Marvel. The death of super heroes was something our culture became obsessed with nearly a decade after its publishing. Superman’s death marked an era in comics that wanted to appeal to older readers and thought that realism meant ultra violence. Superman dies a bloody heap in Lois’s arms. Other than as a cultural event, the story of the death of Superman has no real significance in part because readers weren’t naïve enough to think Superman, DC’s most lucrative creation, would remain dead. The Death of Captain Marvel takes the same concept, the death of an iconic figure and its effect on the community, and explores it in detail showing us how these characters are entrenched in our lives. In the book Captain Marvel dies of cancer (don’t worry it’s not a spoiler you know from page 3) unlike Superman who dies from an epic battle. By showing a super hero die from a real disease it creates more of a humbling effect than Superman’s death and unlike Superman, Starlin’s Captain Marvel remained deceased until recently. Today, The Death of Captain Marvel is just as relevant. Many of the best modern comics like All Star Superman, Silver Surfer: Requiem, and Captain America: The Chosen deal with the death of super heroes. These comics take a similar approach as Starlin’s. Each character is dying of some ailment and death is a real and scary concept to these heroes. These characters still exist in some other form but the series that deals with their death all have final issues. So, although their deaths don’t have the same impact on their characters,’ continuity it has a similar impact on the reader because these stories take the death of hero seriously.

Although Starlin’s past work continues to be relevant his current work seems to have trailed off in quality since the mid-80s. There could be any numbers of reasons for this trail off. Possibly, Starlin feels betrayed by the comics industry as a whole. This is a website he links to from his main site. It talks about how modern comics companies care more about merchandising than they do about actual comics. His work on Death of the New Gods reflects this feeling. It’s a concept and genre he is comfortable with but the story just seems like he is putting on paper what the editors are telling him. It’s a shame because comics today seem to be taking a turn back to Starlin’s sensibilities and it probably has a lot to do with work he pioneered.

Lone Cable and Cub

noreply@blogger.com (Jesse Reese) — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 16:55:00 +0000

Cable #1-2 by Duane Swierczynski and Ariel Olivetti

Ok, first off, I hate Cable. For reasons unknown, I never really got into the X-men except for their classic early 90s cartoon. So, all I really knew about Cable is how he marked the beginning of me hating that show, that he was associated with the “cool” hard edge movement in comics at the time, and, of course, his bio, powers, and stats. In addition to all that, I hate time travel, especially in relation to the X-men. It always signaled some needlessly confusing plot, and I always felt that the X-men needed to stay away from the more sci-fi elements and stay grounded in the real world battling oppression from humans. Whew, I feel better now.

All that being said, Cable #1 and #2 are definitely good. You can imagine my surprise as I’m browsing titles in Maryland’s finest comic shop and I see a giant Cable with a miniature baby strapped to his chest. My first thought: ‘just what Cable needs.’ Then I open up to the first page and read the first lines, “New Jersey. 2043 A.D.” and see a full page spread of Cable, cape blowing in the wind, staring across a, somehow gorgeously CGI-rendered, Hudson Bay at the demolished New York City skyline. Now that is how you sell comics.

These comics are another example of a writer and artist team that don’t take themselves too seriously in a good way. They add little whimsical details that give the story an exciting feeling and helps build an immersive unique world. Olivetti doesn’t mind drawing Cable enormous and Swierczynski doesn’t mind throwing in lines like “The superstorm of 2012” or Bishop’s “Nuclear-Powered Battle Ready Arm.” Swierczynki’s dialogue is best when it stays out of the way. The whole “I am trained for this” thread through the first issue was too gimmicky and didn’t fit with the kind of minimal tone of the story. What he does really well is pace the story out. He’s more concerned with pacing and layout than he is about plot. I haven’t read the events leading up to this story and I don’t think they really matter. It’s the same thing that ruins a lot of animes. When the characters start talking to me about what’s going on in the story and not acting it out, it is the quickest way to make something boring. The pacing of these issues really reminded me of a 70s action movie. Something like the Omega Man. A slow boring story and then a flash of realistic violence or some beautiful scenery are staples of movies made in that era (e.g. the sunset shot at the end of that Omega Man clip). Cable #1’s pace is so slow it gives a full page of Cable taking a bandana from a recently killed villain to change a diaper. It has two pages of flashback with six panels and only one dialogue box in each panel. Then it will quickly jump to a realistic action scene or a beautiful full page spread of Cable floating through the time stream. Using beauty, pacing, and realism to full effect are the perfect mix for an intense character driven action plot.

Adding Bishop’s perspective helps give the story an original style. Bishop is basically the villain of the story so far, but Swierczynski writes in his perspective in issue one and by issue two he’s a fully fleshed out character. Showing the similarities between two characters on opposing sides of a conflict is a common technique used in movies and Swierczynski uses it here but without it being too played out. By watching Bishop hop through time Swierczynski may have actual cured my hatred for time travel. He switches time travel from a confusing plot device to a superpower Cable and Bishop possess that really has no weird ramifications. Each instance the characters travel in time it means something important to each. In issue one it means that Cable is willing to give up everything just to save this child. In issue two Bishop’s jumping through time shows his desperate tenacity. By having him in virtually the same position in the panels in this section it shows just how painstaking his search is and highlights his determination and mental toughness. Cable’s jump is beautiful and he is shown floating through a colorful space scene in issue one while Bishop is shown running with a mechanical blue background in issue two. It sets up a dichotomy of hope and heart versus skill that remains in between the lines. Bishop looks at the conflict as finishing a job while Cable sees it as a mission that is intertwined with his destiny.

What really carries these comics are Olivetti’s art. He is just really great although, as my friend Brandon put it, sometimes his backgrounds look like something out of Reboot. His regular style of mixing drawing with computer coloring gives a perfect feel for a character like Cable. The computer elements give it the sci-fi feel it needs and his realistic style feels reminiscent of some great fantasy artist. He blends elements of sci-fi, realism, and fantasy in interesting ways. He makes Cable feel completely human even though he’s blown his size off the charts. Many of the close ups of him in these issues make Cable look like a tired old man who has no clue what he is doing. Occasionally he will give a look of warmth to the baby but mostly just looks pissed off. This really gives him a human element that he’s lacked in the past. Even his size makes sense within the context of the story. He is this solider who is only trained for fighting and by contrasting his size with the baby’s drives home the point that Cable really has no idea how to take care of a child or really anything besides survive. There's a great panel in Cable #1 where Cable awkwardly positions the baby over his shoulder pad to burp her, and he has a look on his face that's like 'I guess this is what you do?' Olvetti’s realistic action scenes aren’t your typical superhero punch and kick. Cable is more likely to use a knife or a hostage enemy’s shotgun to shoot down another than to use any super power. When Cable does go for a kick the movements don’t look super and are just kind of awkward, which plays into the realism the story is going for.

7 Cables and a Bishop

Now, don’t get me wrong, these issues are far from perfect. There are some confusing scenes like when Bishop gets knifed in the side and the knife disappears, and Olivetti sometimes heads into Reboot mode and renders something completely with computers (although that truck Bishop threw in issue two kind of worked right?). Sometimes characters are awkwardly positioned and the dialogue writing isn’t top notch, but it’s important to look at this story for what it is. It’s a sci-fi action story but one that is filled with tension, fully developed characters, and interesting unique ideas woven through. Plus, any story that can get me to change my feelings on Cable and time travel has got to be good.

A Day in the Life of Superman

noreply@blogger.com (Jesse Reese) — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 18:35:00 +0000

All Star Superman #10 “Neverending”

by Grant Morrison and Frank Quietly with Jamie Grant

The concept is simple: an hour by hour account of one of the last days in the life of Superman. Morrison’s execution is complex, jamming the issue chock-full of ideas and jumping forward and backward through the day’s timeline. Superman, when written poorly can become the Man-of-Clichés, and in this issue he acts out cliché ‘live each day like it’s your last.’ Instead giving us the sappy dialogue that could accompany such a plot, Morrison tucks the idea into the background and shows Superman going through his day without ever losing his focus. The whole issue vibrates with an extra tension because of the full page spread of Superman writing his will on page two. Quitely draws huge beads of sweat on his forehead, his suit loose and dumpy, and check out those scary death bones in Superman’s hand. These little touches allow us to confront the reality of Superman wasting away and exhausting himself to death. The quick pacing of the scenes and the monotonous use of a wide rectangular panel give the same feeling and add to growing tension mounting to some grand finale presumably coming in the next two issues. There is so much in here that it’s like the authors had so many ideas they had trouble stuffing them into one issue, but the quick scene changes only add to Superman’s efforts feeling hurried and intense. The jumps between panels are quick are jarring leaving a lot up to the readers imagination.

Scott McCloud talks about the action between panels in his scholarly comic Understanding Comics. He says that the true magic of comics happens in between the panels. If one panel shows an eye open and the next an eye closed we have to imagine that eye blinking. In All Star Superman #10, between the panels we imagine Superman racing from one event to the next, physically exhausting himself to the point we see him reduced to on page two. Since we can feel this tension, it makes us appreciate that true greatness of Superman is that even though he is physically and mentally exhausted he still makes the effort to do good.

One of the most touching moments of the issue is when Superman saves a suicidal girl from jumping off a building. We’ve seen it a hundred times in Superman comics. He swoops in and catches someone in mid-air, but here Superman appears out of nowhere behind the girl and just talks to her. He doesn’t say much just a few affirmations, “It’s never as bad as it seems. You’re much stronger than you think you are. Trust me.” That’s it and the girl turns and hugs Superman. This scene could end up cheesy and cliché ridden but on the previous page in the middle of Superman talking to Lois we see a clip of him as he writes his will. He reveals, in the middle of his conversation with Lois, he is watching 35,000 skin cells die. He is conscious of his death in everything he does. So, when he says the words on the next page they aren’t empty, he is speaking about himself too. The panel and page design also help it avoid cheese. The page has one long panel to the left and a few short boxes on the right. It plays out like a movie with the establishing shot showing her at a distance in a panel that stretches right off the page. Quitely’s artwork shows the cold featureless buildings of Metropolis around her. The next small box brings us in to a close-up and we see the reality of her situation. In the next panel Superman shows up in the same close up blotting out the buildings with his suit. Superman's presence immediately changes the entire scene he enters and the emotions of the girl who he instantly comforts. The next panel pulls us out to a medium shot and the final panel pulls us back to where we started only now Superman is there as she relies on him for the support she needs. You can imagine the camera zooming back. The breaking up of the panels adds something that movies can't though. The cell phone hanging in mid air and the instantaneous appearance of Superman are unique only to comics. These details add up making for a really emotional scene.

One of the major plot points of the issue is Superman’s creation of Earth Q. This world may or may not be our own and so that means in this story Superman may or may not be our God. Thom Young talks about the idea in his review here about how the citizens of Earth Q find in necessary to invent Superman. I think that this is a really interesting idea and definitely goes along with the theme of hope throughout the series showing that even on an Earth without Superman he exists in someway. As for it being our Earth I’m not really sure it matters. I think it functions better as being a window for Superman to see how things will be then being an actual place that he might be able to physically visit. In a story that everything seems is infinitely possible anyway it some how isn’t degrading at all if our existence occurs between a fraction of a second in Superman’s world. Even though Siegal and Shuster may have existed on Earth Q for less than an instant their creation and ideas are never ending.

This is definitely one of the best superhero comics I’ve read. Superhero comics are at their best when they treat everyday issues with sincerity but don’t lose the playfulness of being a comic book. It takes a topic as scary as death and addresses it in real ways and manages to make it seem not that scary. To me that’s quite a feat.