Friday, October 27, 2006

Marvel Comics' Civil War and politics

I've been through a few "discussions" about Marvel's Civil War storyline and gone on a few rants. A lot of my ranting and raving has focussed on it purely as a comic storyline but during a disagreement I had with some fellow readers online it turned more and more political. For me to type up all the points raised would take too long but the point that has me the most upset at the moment is this...

The government's passing of the registration allows them to force any one they deem to be worthy to sign up. Signing up forces them to become agents of the government. Simply to refuse to sign up is enough to warrant your arrest (with force) and shipping you off without any legal recourse to the Negative Zone (a trip which could lead you to go insane and possibly kill yourself) until you either die or agree to sign. Also, they are free to detain anyone who they think might be withholding information for as long as they like again, without any legal recourse by that person (as they do with a journalist during the storyline).

Yes, it echoes much of what's going on in real life but taken to the next level I believe. After bringing up the issues of the government having the power to simply pick and choose any of its citizens to be put under their control and refusal to do so or simply being suspected of withholding any information relevant to someone they deem of interest puts you behind bars for life (or worse if you're one of the unlucky ones in the Negative Zone) the retort from the other side is "So, the real government does stuff like this all the time. This would be a good thing."

If that attitude doesn't make you worry then I guess I'm just not normal. I've argued with them and ranted until I was blue in the face and I think I'm done with it because they obviously won't see my side. But I just had to rant one more time. :)

Comic Reviews -- October 25th, 2006 -- Spoilers to a minimum

Only two reviews for this week but one of them is for the 6th digest of Runaway (titled "Parental Guidance"). The other is for Civil War: Choosing Sides. And we'll start there...

Civil War: Choosing Sides -- This book was inserted into the Civil War line up late and rushed through production though to be honest, it actually was done fairly well considering. It tells a few short stories about various characters that are somehow involved in Civil War (in varying degrees). But the stories are disjoint and for the most part open ended. Why? Because each of them (with the exception of the Howard the Duck story) is just a teaser for an upcoming series or storyline. Venom's story is a prelude to the revamped Thunderbolts (no big surprise). Ant-Man is for the Irredeemable Ant-Man (which has already started). USAgent... I'll leave that one for now. Iron Fist has his own series coming out. And they even throw a Guiding Light prelude into the mix. Individually, the stories weren't bad and the USAgent story had a few good points in it but it also raised some questions for me). The artwork was good in each. So all in all it wasn't necessarily a bad book but yeah, it did feel like just a promotional thing with previews of what's to come.

Runaways Volume 6: Parental Guidance -- It's been a little while since I read volume 5 (the downside to doing the digest/trade paperback thing) so it took me a minute to remind myself of where everyone's at. I gotta make this quick, work beckons. The art was solid. I really like how this artist deals with the different body types and such. The writing was great, the characters and story were excellent. My only gripe is probably with the digest format as some pages are dark and hard to make out in a smaller format. So I'm currently debating waiting for the next digest or moving to the monthly issues (especially with Whedon taking over). I'll probably still stick with the digests though.

Friday, October 20, 2006

Comic Reviews for October 18th, 2006 -- SPOILERS

Three books this week, Lone Ranger #2, Elephantmen #4, and 1602: Fantastick Four #2. So let's jump right into things.

Lone Ranger #2 -- I did myself the disservice of reading this book too quickly so I had to go back and read it again. The book almost lends itself to a quick read with just how quick the story seems to be moving along and jumping from scene to scene but you really should take the time to enjoy the many elements to the story. Art wise, I found a few panels lacking (most of them featuring the new villain) but overall it was good. And the story is a good one. A lot of interesting stuff going on both in front of the reader and just out of view of the reader. And Tonto, well he's obviously an improvement over the TV version. I can't wait to see more of his character. Overall, still really enjoying this series and eager to see where it goes from here.

Elephantmen #4 -- I've been complaining a lot about the book being cut in half and I was surprised when I got halfway through this book yet the story seemed to keep going. So despite having the double cover (one on the front, one on the back when you flip the book over) it was actually one story. Hip and Ebony are together in the hospital now but the story is mostly made up by the flashback scenes as Ebony talks to Miki (the cab driver from the previous issue). The major flashback involves the story of Tusk and his abuse. The writing and the artwork combine well to really make you feel for Tusk. And when Ebony talks about why Tusk has been kept alive (first by MAPPO and now by their liberators and the doctors) you really do feel for the guy. It was a moving story and a very good book to read.

1602: Fantastick Four #2 -- The weak link for this week's comics. Art-wise it was an improvement over the first issue. Story-wise as well. But I'm still not enjoying it. Sure, I chuckled when the "complex" method of making the ship go turned out to be Ben Grimm slaving away but all the other "jokes" (like Doom actually being the one that comes up with Shakespeare's St Crispin's Day speech or Reed and Sue insisting that his invention be called a "propelsor" instead of "propeller") just made me groan. As did much of the story. I find it weird as I usually like Peter David's work so much but this book is just missing the mark on so many levels for me. So this will definitely be the last issue I pick up.

Minor edit and a minor quibble about Fantastick Four, Sue's invisibility is mentioned twice I believe (once when Reed says that he doubts people would be able to find Sue in order to hang her and I believe Ben mentions how she was able to sneak onboard). They seem to be ignoring the fact that you can see her unborn baby. So it's not like she'd be impossible to spot, just look for a floating fetus.

Wednesday, October 18, 2006

Marvel Comics -- Civil War

Now that Carl has finally read issue 4 of Civil War I feel I can now talk about it more openly. The original storyline seemed to have people split. On the one side, the government is taking away people's civil liberties in the name of protecting its people. On the other side, you have people fighting to protect those civil liberties. Before the series started, I had several "conversations" with people online and offline about this idea. We're now just getting past the half way point (not including all those extra special issues that are going to be coming out after the Civil War series ends) so the story has been flushed out a bit more. Now I'm focussing mostly on the Civil War series itself as I don't read all the other tie in books.

The core of the story remains the same but I can see what has people in a frenzy and it doesn't seem to be that core. It's the actions of the characters. It's the plot devices that are used to push the story. And it's the shipping delays. Ignoring that last one, let's talk about the first two shall we. We'll start with the anti-registration characters that seem to be creating the most buzz:

Tony Stark/Iron Man: Almost seemed to be anti-registration at times in the beginning but quickly became the poster-boy for the pro side. Hired villains to push the registration through. Clearly manipulated anyone he could (*cough* Peter Parker *cough*) for his own agenda. Very quickly made it his mission to hunt down his "friends" and put them in prison. Released several psychotic killers from prison to help him hunt down those friends. And along with Reed he has had a hand in not only cloning Thor but taking away any rights that clone might have by making it a programmed operative (and of course the clone goes off and kills Goliath). And so on and so on.

Reed Richards/Mr Fantastic: Maybe he's being blinded by Tony Stark's charm but let's face it, Reed hasn't been coming off too well. Johnny is beat up and put into a coma. Reed's response "Well, I'm sure someone will contact me if there's a problem." Then he goes off to build a prison for his ex-friends in the negative zone knowing that travelling to the negative zone often leaves people mentally unstable to the point where they are a danger to themselves and others (and a few heroes have already committed suicide there). See above for the Thor clone debacle.

Hmm... that doesn't seem too good for the pro-registration side. But they are doing this for the greater good right? I mean, then we have the government and SHIELD being able to control and police the superheroes. It's not like the government and/or SHIELD have done anything bad is it? Such as:

- Possible connections to Nitro by supplying him with something boost his powers so that the next time he explodes he takes out more people (leading to the 600+ deaths).
- Blackmailing heroes (Wonderman for example) and forcing them to do what they want.
- Detaining journalists, manipulating the media, and trampling the first amendment to hide what they're doing (as seen in Frontline).
- Registering and detaining people who they deem as "unregistered combatants", a term they came up with to be as vague as possible so they could pretty much classify anyone they want as someone who needed to be registered and under their control.
- Orchestrating the death of several pro-registration heroes to make the anti-registration side look bad (Frontline again).
- Employing psychotic mass-murderers to hunt down unregistered combatants.

And a few other goodies. But wait, the anti-registration side must be doing a bunch of bad stuff too right?

Captain America for example, he's been a bit of an arsehole to people. He beat up (but didn't kill) a few SHIELD people (who had pulled guns on him and were told to subdue him). He's gone underground to fight a law he feels is unjust. And when Iron Man said he wanted to talk to Cap, Cap sucker punched him (after Iron Man had tricked Cap and his anti-reg team by faking an emergency).

Okay, but the other anti-reg heroes... ok, they don't really do too much. But let's look at the other two characters creating the talk, Spider-Man and Invisible Woman.

Spidey: Sees Tony Stark as a father figure and goes along with the pro-reg side. He unmasks infront of cameras to show his support. Then, after seeing the Thor clone and the prison he figures "oops, I made a mistake" and tries to switch. Kinda stinks for Aunt May and MJ now doesn't it? They don't have Tony and the Avengers to protect them anymore. You have to wonder if Peter really thought through the whole unmasking since the primary reason for it was their protection. But it was sad to see Peter go along with Tony. Marvel guys were using the term "father figure" and such but really, Peter has been a big boy for a while (and a married one at that, much to Joe Quesada's chagrin) and it's not like him to be so blinded like he was.

Invisible Woman: Again, after seeing the Thor-clone and prisons we have Sue decide "oops, I'm on the wrong side" so after a quick dinner and roll in the hay with Reed she's off to the anti-reg side. But wait, what about the kids? Oh, she'll just leave them with Reed. Now I've flip flopped on that last part (though I don't like to use that term, I prefer to say that I'm continually seeing this story element from different perspectives). The dinner and roll in the hay, that came off really stupid. Yeah, you call the man you love a murderer and a fascist but hey, let's make him happy for one more night? That's lame. But the kids, I've been thinking the most about. My problem, Reed as he's being portrayed here is not a good choice for who to look after the kids. But my first thought was that even with Reed being the jerk, you have to consider the Baxter Building was built to protect them and it's been shown recently that they need that physical protection. The downside (as Carl has pointed out to me because things are portrayed differently in the various books) is that "criminals" (heroes and villains alike) are being taken through there to go to the negative zone (again, this is not how it's shown in Frontline but I digress). So there goes the security of the Baxter Building.

But as I ponder it, the one thing I am most certain of is that the whole thing was horribly done. For Sue to say she's leaving the kids with Reed not because it's best for them but because she's using them in the hopes Reed will realize what an arse he's being and will realize he needs to look after them is a joke. No, it's beyond a joke, it's crap. Her letter and/or accompanying dialogue should have been about what was best for the children. If she came to the conclusion that leaving them in the Baxter Building (with Ben at this point in time) was best for them, then maybe you could argue with her logic but at least she wouldn't be using her own children as a weapon in this war (yes, I do see it that way).

So moving away from characters, let's look at events. Spider-Man unmasking, Invisible Woman leaving, Thor cloned, Goliath dead, ... what do these major events have to do with the main story about hero registration? Not much actually. Spider-Man's unmasking wasn't necessary as nobody required he do it, he just went ahead on his own. Invisible Woman leaving? I guess you could say that this is showing the fractures that can happen when people's beliefs come into play (though with all the stuff the FF has been through it makes you wonder how it could all unravel so easily here). Cloning Thor? The only thing I see this showing is just how bad the pro-registration side is (though the whole point of this story was supposed to be that neither side was in the wrong). Goliath dead? Well, he was only just recently brought back so it had to be for a reason. The only thing these things seem to show is how "evil" the pro-registration side is (again, Marvel claimed neither side would be in the wrong). So the real reason I think they're in there, the "wow" factor. The "I can't believe that just happened factor".

So that's what it's currently boiling down to for me. Marvel is taking a storyline that was supposed to be "brother versus brother in a fight with neither side being right or wrong" and seemingly turning it into "government is evil and has corrupted some heroes turning them evil but the glowing 'rebelion' is fighting them". And they're focus seems to be so much on what they can do to "shake things up" or make comic fans go "wow" that they are losing sight of that core story.

That's not to say that I haven't enjoyed bits and pieces of the series or that I'm giving up on it. I'm just not necessarily liking where the series is going and what eggs/characters it has to break on its way.

I have a lot more thoughts on the series but this rant is too long as it is. So I'll hold off on them for now. Perhaps once the series is done I'll be able to put them more into focus.

Friday, October 13, 2006

Comic Reviews for October 11th, 2006 SPOILERS

Only one book this week, Civil War Frontline #7. And since I got work to do, let's get right to it.

Civil War: Frontline #7 -- First, a recap of the issue. We begin with Ben Uerich's storyline, he's covering the Speedball visitting Congress story (which we know from the previous issue leads to Speedball being shot) but while he's doing so, the media is an uproar. It seems that Tony's recruitment of villains has been leaked and it's now the number one story. And then of course, Speedball is shot. Another story focusses on the other reporter who is being detained and questioned about her meeting with anti-registration heroes. A senator comes in, gives a story about how he's a military hero and attempts to convince the reporter the registration is a good thing and necessary. And the "kicker", he had passed her a note at the beginning and after she accuses him of trying to trick her she opens the note and it says something like "You'll accuse me of trying to trick you." Ooh!! He must be psychic. No, it was obvious she would accuse him of that. When that big reveal was done in the book I thought "What the heck??? That's the big 'oooh' moment??? That sucked!" And that makes her doubt herself? Ok, enough reviewing and back to recapping. We also have the story of Wonder Man who is found in a pile of wreckage surrounded by the Atlanteans that were shown in earlier issues. Flashback and we see that it was the Green Goblin who killed them all and took out Wonder Man (wow! Green Goblin is being shown some respect here for taking out these Atlanteans and Wonder Man in no time at all). By the way, I can't remember the order of the stories so I might be jumping around a bit. We get Speedball's story continue with him being treated on the steps and then loaded into an ambulance while he seems to be narrating a letter to his mother. Then the ambulance takes off without police escort (Hello! This is the guy you are accusing of killing over 600 people, at least give him an escort for his protection and for the people). In the ambulance a bunch of weird stuff happens (with She-Hulk riding along) that seems to be his powers kicking in again. The ambulance crashes. Jump to another setting where we see Osborn meeting with a shadowy figure who is giving him some serum (or something) to block out the nano-stuff that the pro-reg side has been using to keep tabs on him. They discuss some sort of plan and Osborn asks a bunch of questions about why they should trust each other. Then the shadowy figure's mouth is shown when he talks about betrayal from the last person they would suspect (could it be Reed Richards? Or Tony Stark? But I didn't see a mustache). And of course, we get the mirroring of the Green Goblin/Atlantean attack with a battle from history.

All in all, this book has so much potential. It delivers on so many key elements but then fails on others. I'm into each storyline and I'm really intrigued as to what's going on but the format is still bugging the crap out of me. With so many short stories and the jumping around in the timeline I'm trying to piece everything together (like the media going nuts about the villains being recruited yet the police are confused when Wonder Man says it was the Green Goblin in his storyline). And the note that the senator gave the reporter was just lame, lame, lame. I really wish this book was cleaned up a bit in those parts and then it would really good.

Oh, and for those who watched CSI last night. Why the heck did they resort to casting Kevin Federline? He ruined that show for me. Other than him, I really liked it but every scene he was in I cringed. No, it's not because he's Kevin Federline, it's because he has no acting ability.

Tuesday, October 10, 2006

More reviews -- Marvel Zombies and Ultimate Avengers 2 DVD

Maybe I should have titled this blog "The Reviews of Darrell" because that's all I'm posting. Oh well, maybe one day there will be something else to post. Two extra reviews today, one for the Marvel Zombies hardcover collection and the Ultimate Avengers 2 DVD.

Marvel Zombies hardcover -- This series was hugely successful with several printings done of many of the issues that had sold out. And each new printing brought another cover from Arthur Suydam (more about that in a minute). The story was pretty good. It's a another dimension in the Marvel Universe where the heroes and villains have become zombified. They still retain their powers, intellect, etc, etc, but as their urge to eat increases their ability to reason goes down. And after eating, they become more "normal" (at least in personalities, not in body... except Banner who transforms from Zombie-Hulk to Zombie-Banner after eating). The story is actually more interesting than I expected with this twist. And it's what leads us to the Pym/Black Panther/Wasp storyline that could be seen as a more complex situation than you might expect from a book about zombies. Zombie-Spider-Man brings the humour (most of the laughs being directed "at" him in this case, whether it's from him ripping his own leg off and needing to be given rides everywhere they go or his post-feeding guilt rants that everyone is quickly getting tired of). The art is pretty solid. The zombies all seem to be drawn with much of their faces blackened out and their eyes and teeth almost glowing. It gives them a rather evil looking appearance while not trying to gross out the reader (there are other parts of the story that will do that). I was a little worried at first when I was reading the book and there were no covers shown between the issues. The covers were a big part of this book, they were just so good. They were zombified versions of famous covers and you can find them at the bottom of the wikipedia article here. Fortunately, they were all there at the back of the book in their full page glory and the originals were shown in thumbnails. So that was a nice touch. All in all, it was a fun series to read. My only let down was the ending but even that didn't seem to bug me that much.

Ultimate Avengers #2 -- I was rather disappointed in the first DVD they released. I thought it was okay but they missed on a few things (like the Hulk fight, in the previews it was shown to be more like the original Ultimates comic where they fight him in the city, at night, in rain, etc, for the DVD it was brightly daylight and amongst random rubble... that just didn't have the same effect as the Ultimates comic version). And when I saw the preview art for this one I thought Black Panther looked rather lame. So I was actually pleasantly surprised that they did a decent job with this one. It still has the kids cartoon feel to it at parts but in other parts they are still clearly making this for a more mature audience. Pym's story and his relationship with Wasp continued to be amongst the adult portions of the story. I had been warned beforehand not to buy this one looking for a lot of Hulk action but to be honest, I expected as much even before I was warned. The art and animation were nice. The special features were mixed, the clip discussing the Ultimates (featuring artist Bryan Hitch, writer Mark Millar, Editor in Chief Joe Quesada, amongst others) gave a bit more of the behind the scenes to not only the movie version but the comic itself (like the "France" line that led to a bit of a scuffle). The "outtakes" were a bit of a let down and consisted mostly of fart and "Stark's House of Ribs" jokes. But over all, I enjoyed it more than the first.

Friday, October 06, 2006

Comic Reviews for October 4th, 2006 -- SPOILERS

Not a bad week for me, I picked up three books. Incredible Hulk #99, American Splendor #2, and Elephantmen #3. So lets get right to it.

Incredible Hulk #99 -- The story is good, the art is nice looking, and the Hulk is the Hulk (Pak definitely seems to have a good grasp of the character) but (and I hate saying "but" here), there are some things that could be better. I'm sounding like a broken record here but the flow is off. Yet again I find myself going back and forth in the book trying to figure out what I missed. One minute the Hulk is standing with his ragtag team and the next he's a mile off in the middle of a field getting bombs dropped all around him. Fortunately, one of the characters actually points out that he's in the middle of the bombs or I'd never know it. Which leads me to the other example, sometimes the cheesy (and somewhat "classic" sounding) dialogue where a character describes what is happening can help. Having a character say "Wow! The Hulk has created a fissure big enough to swallow the spikes!" would have clarified things (although allowing for the scene to take up more than a small panel might have helped as well). As well, even though the story is good it almost seems to be moving too slowly. Part of this is because so far it's been very predictable. You knew the Red King would do something evil (like releasing the spikes on his own people) and the Lieutenant would turn on him when he did it. I kinda wish Banner would appear from time to time just to shake things up and make this a real Hulk story. So although Planet Hulk has been a nice little excursion for the Hulk, I won't be too sad to see it end.

Elephantmen #3 -- There are two stories in this book so I'll split the review a bit before coming back to the issue as a whole. First up, the Elephant in the Room storyline. It gives a bit more of a glimpse into the world, where animal poachers who are having a tougher time hunting endangered animals are taking it out on the "Elephantmen" (and one actual Elephant-man in particular in this storyline). I'm not a big fan of the art style in this story (reminds me of an exaggerated Jack Kirby style) but it gets the story across pretty well. And the story is pretty good and gives you a bit more insight into the Elephantmen and the issues they have to face (not only from outside but from inside themselves). So that story was good. The second story, titled A Good Look, has Hip (the hippo guy) unconscious and being looked after by a young woman after the fight from the last issue. And that's pretty much it. She babbles a bit, gets a little curious about Hip's ... size and tries to sneak a peek. Hip wakes up at this point and after a moment of embarrassment (which is drawn in a horrible almost anime style that looked totally out of place) she makes a few jokes to lighten up the mood. So yeah, there didn't really seem to be much there except an introduction to the woman. So it seemed to miss the mark slightly. Which brings me to the book as a whole. It's continuing to present two stories in each issue and leaving them entirely disjoint. The story that continues from the previous issue seems to be an afterthought while the other story actually seems to go somewhere (although it does resolve itself to some degree). I just wish this book was presented in a different format. Buying issue after issue of these appearant short stories just isn't my cup of tea even if it is an interesting idea in the big picture.

American Splendor #2 -- I really didn't know what I was getting myself into when I picked up issue 1 of this book and issue 2 was about the same. I mean, if someone had told me that this book was just a bunch of short stories about a guy fixing his toilet, picking up his step-daughter or signing an autograph for a fan at a convention I'd wonder what the point was. Yet somehow, it becomes an adventure more enthralling than many of the superhero stories I've read. Part of it is the way it's written and presented (the art isn't over the top stuff and it's done by several different artists, but for each artist it's simple and it works for the story) but the other part is Harvey. If these events were to happen in anyone else's life they'd be a footnote at best. With Harvey, the simplest things in life become something almost monumental. With the convention story, you're almost screaming at the autograph seeker to just take the bag he was offered. But I'm on the fence as to whether I'll be adding this to my list. As fun as it is to read I just have to watch how many books I'm buying. It'll be a tough decision.

So that's it for me. And unless my copy of Marvel Zombies shows up tonight I won't be having any "surprise" reviews.

Monday, October 02, 2006

Extra comic review

Yep, I said I'd be back to review Pride of Baghdad (and if I didn't say it, I meant to) so here goes. I finished reading it on Friday and spent the weekend thinking about what I was going to say in this review. The hype surrounding this book had it mentioned along side such landmark comics such as Watchmen, V for Vendetta, Dark Knight Returns, etc, etc. It's also going beyond those books by generating media attention from outside the comic world. So that left me thinking, did it deserve the hype? Is it really as good and as ground breaking as those other books? To be honest, those are tough questions to answer.

Before discussing those, let's just go with a straight on review. First up, the art. This book is beautiful. Period. The animals showed a good deal of realism while still allowing for artistic liberties to portray emotions. The backgrounds are simply amazing. It's simple storytelling. Nothing too dynamic or too difficult. Almost like they were gearing this book for people who might not be used to reading comics and would get lost in complex layouts and such. But there's enough dynamic elements to it that you don't get bored with face on shots or anything like that. As someone who dabbles in art myself, I really was amazed by this book on the art side of things. And in when it came to violence (which the book has its fair share of along with mature themes) the art really shocks the reader, as it should for scenes like this.

The writing and story (the meat of the book), when I finished reading this my first thought was "what is the author trying to say about the Iraq war?" Now maybe I missed the point of the book but my interpretation is that it's not quite as simple as that. There are so many themes brought up in this book that I think it would be a disservice to limit its scope to be a comment on a single event in our lives. It provokes so many thoughts and feelings about life that can't be ignored. The final line of the book invokes so much emotion and I can people interpreting it various ways. My interpretation? I think I'll keep that to myself for now. I'd prefer anyone reading it will come to their own conclusions without any bias from my review.

But it's also not the easiest book to read. I mean, it is a book containing talking lions. Lions who communicate and make plans with monkeys and antalope. And if you start to think of these lions as people they turn and do something very lionesque. So it requires an open mind on the reader's part to succeed.

So, did it deserve the hype? After thinking about it for a few days I'd have to go with yes, it did. Whether this book will have the impact on the comic book world that those previously mentioned books did remains to be seen but on its own, this book delivers. Tackling "real" issues like this book does is really nothing new for comics (see V for Vendetta for a quick and easy example although V uses fictional events whereas Pride is based on a true story) and is done often so in some ways, perhaps it doesn't warrant being seen as a "landmark" comic book. But on the other hand, there are elements of the book (the real events for example) that make this book even more important.

Does any of that make sense? Probably not. In the end, we'll have to wait and see what its place in comic book history will be. For now, this book goes down as one of the best graphic novels I've read.