As a big fan of the Dark Horse Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic comics, I was excited to find that John Jackson Miller had done a run on Invincible Iron Man. I found the issues on Marvel's Complete Invincible Iron Man DVD-ROM, and I really enjoyed Miller's take on Tony Stark.
It's a mix of classic Iron Man techno-fantasy-adventure with elements of The West Wing. Tony Stark gets himself named U.S. Secretary of Defense after finding out that the military has used some legal loophole to open Stark Industries' closed patents and exploit his technology. Because they're working on the tech behind closed doors and rushing the jobs using contractors who don't understand the theories behind the mechanics, things are going wrong and people are getting killed.
Tony being Tony, he can't just halt production of the weapons, he has to go farther to try to fix the problem. He gets a bunch of U.S. Senators together and claims that as Secretary of Defense he can make it so that nobody ever has to die in war again.
It's a big crazy comic book idea, but it's just the kind of idealism I love - and with how fast technology changes, it really isn't that hard to believe that people could create technology for war that could be non-lethal but effective. Miller also has Tony making the important points about why war needs to change this way - especially in a world where violence doesn't just beget violence, it begets terrorism, fanaticism, and immeasurable collateral damage.
Miller sells it because, like all great Iron Man writers, he suggests technology that doesn't feel too far-fetched or is based on the kinds of things scientists have theorized today.
- JC
JC: "Honey, have you seen my soapbox?"
RD: "Did you check under your feet?"
Saturday, February 28, 2009
Monday, February 23, 2009
Farscape #2
I mentioned the Angel IDW series recently and referred to tie-in comics that have the whiff of fanfic. Farscape (Rockne O'Bannon and Keith R.A. DeCandido) is very much what I was talking about. It's an uneven blend of really great moments - those times where they just nail the characterization and it feels like you're watching the show - and the moments that feel like you're reading fanfic, complete with popular bits of dialogue quoted in an in-jokey sort of way.
Sometimes it's even disappointing because of the good parts. There's a scene where John and Aeryn are arguing over who is going to stay behind and watch their son and who will go on the rescue mission. Neither wants to stay behind, and at this point in the Farscape story John is as much a warrior as Aeryn. Ultimately they decide to take the kid with them, realizing that their life is dangerous no matter where they go, and something could just as well happen to the baby if he stays on the ship.
As encouraging as it is to see the characters being smart and acknowledging their history, the baby on board turns out to be an excuse to put the kid in jeopardy at the hands of a completely predictable "surprise" villain. Scorpius just has to jump into the plot and try to use the baby against Crichton. Scorpy written well is usually more calculating than evil, so I'm assuming he has plots within plots, but at the end of issue #2, he's just another babynapper.
While I hope there's something more going on, it's frustrating to see J&A's intelligent decision used to put them into a situation they should have seen coming. It feels like they're smart up until the writer gets lazy and can't think of a good way for the bad guys to be smarter.
It's also quite possible that my memories of the TV incarnation are somewhat idealized. This is one of the shows and fandoms that has been extremely important in my life for many reasons - the person typing this post being one of them. [He said it, not me. But ask him how we met sometime. Pure geek love. - RD] I said in my first post that I don't claim to be objective, which applies even more so to Farscape.
I'm still enjoying the series overall, but it's not something I could recommend to someone who doesn't already love these characters. For the moments it gives me the same pure joy that the show once did, it's worth it.
- JC
Sometimes it's even disappointing because of the good parts. There's a scene where John and Aeryn are arguing over who is going to stay behind and watch their son and who will go on the rescue mission. Neither wants to stay behind, and at this point in the Farscape story John is as much a warrior as Aeryn. Ultimately they decide to take the kid with them, realizing that their life is dangerous no matter where they go, and something could just as well happen to the baby if he stays on the ship.
As encouraging as it is to see the characters being smart and acknowledging their history, the baby on board turns out to be an excuse to put the kid in jeopardy at the hands of a completely predictable "surprise" villain. Scorpius just has to jump into the plot and try to use the baby against Crichton. Scorpy written well is usually more calculating than evil, so I'm assuming he has plots within plots, but at the end of issue #2, he's just another babynapper.
While I hope there's something more going on, it's frustrating to see J&A's intelligent decision used to put them into a situation they should have seen coming. It feels like they're smart up until the writer gets lazy and can't think of a good way for the bad guys to be smarter.
It's also quite possible that my memories of the TV incarnation are somewhat idealized. This is one of the shows and fandoms that has been extremely important in my life for many reasons - the person typing this post being one of them. [He said it, not me. But ask him how we met sometime. Pure geek love. - RD] I said in my first post that I don't claim to be objective, which applies even more so to Farscape.
I'm still enjoying the series overall, but it's not something I could recommend to someone who doesn't already love these characters. For the moments it gives me the same pure joy that the show once did, it's worth it.
- JC
Tuesday, February 17, 2009
Secret Warriors #1
Brian Michael Bendis and Jonathan Hickman's new series Secret Warriors was advertised with the promise of "a secret that will break the internet [sic] into tiny little pieces." (via) As it turns out, the secret has a lot of possibilities for a superhero/spy comic book, but the execution is a little shaky at this point.
The story is told in a non-linear format, but basically Nick Fury, the former head of S.H.I.E.L.D, goes back to an old secret base and hacks a computer to find out that H.Y.D.R.A, long-time enemy of S.H.I.E.L.D, has apparently infiltrated and may secretly have been running S.H.I.E.L.D before it disbanded. And now H.Y.D.R.A. may be running H.A.M.M.E.R, which replaced S.H.I.E.L.D and is under control of the U.S. government. (I'm going to stop typing the dots in the acronyms now, because I feel stupid. - RD)
My question: why is Nick Fury just finding out about this now? If all he needed to access the secret database in the secret SHIELD base was his secret username and secret password, as badass and super-spy as he's supposed to be, why doesn't he know all this until after the fact? SHIELD doesn't even exist anymore. Fury's final line of the comic, "I've been working for the bad guys the whole time," is a nice cliffhanger, but unless they can give me a good reason why he didn't have access to the database, or how the HYDRA involvement was hidden even from the head of the organization, I don't buy it.
Later, Nick Fury breaks into the White House to talk with the President - presumably Obama, but kept in shadow throughout - to tell him all about these old SHIELD bases and the information and/or technology still in them. Fury then rejoins his spy kids and tells them to stake out one of the old bases. HYDRA agents are expected to appear and do their best to collect intel from the base. If HAMMER shows up, Fury says, it's proof that the administration is on the up-and-up, without HYDRA control.
I don't follow this logic. Double bluffs happen all the time in spy world. Nick Fury should expect them with his morning coffee. The President could easily send HAMMER agents as well as or in place of HYDRA agents, if in fact both agencies are run by the same people. It would actually be easier to send HAMMER in whether the good guys are corrupt or not. HAMMER has been reacquiring SHIELD technology since they took over, so they would cause far less comment if they simply moved in and set up shop. The presence of both organizations means nothing; the President, knowing that Nick Fury informed him of the SHIELD base for a reason, would assume that Fury would be watching him and send HAMMER agents regardless of HYDRA's involvement. This is Espionage 101, and I just can't believe that Fury hasn't already thought this through.
I'd like to see where it goes, and I expect a lot from this writing team. In the future, I hope the story explains itself a little better.
- JC
The story is told in a non-linear format, but basically Nick Fury, the former head of S.H.I.E.L.D, goes back to an old secret base and hacks a computer to find out that H.Y.D.R.A, long-time enemy of S.H.I.E.L.D, has apparently infiltrated and may secretly have been running S.H.I.E.L.D before it disbanded. And now H.Y.D.R.A. may be running H.A.M.M.E.R, which replaced S.H.I.E.L.D and is under control of the U.S. government. (I'm going to stop typing the dots in the acronyms now, because I feel stupid. - RD)
My question: why is Nick Fury just finding out about this now? If all he needed to access the secret database in the secret SHIELD base was his secret username and secret password, as badass and super-spy as he's supposed to be, why doesn't he know all this until after the fact? SHIELD doesn't even exist anymore. Fury's final line of the comic, "I've been working for the bad guys the whole time," is a nice cliffhanger, but unless they can give me a good reason why he didn't have access to the database, or how the HYDRA involvement was hidden even from the head of the organization, I don't buy it.
Later, Nick Fury breaks into the White House to talk with the President - presumably Obama, but kept in shadow throughout - to tell him all about these old SHIELD bases and the information and/or technology still in them. Fury then rejoins his spy kids and tells them to stake out one of the old bases. HYDRA agents are expected to appear and do their best to collect intel from the base. If HAMMER shows up, Fury says, it's proof that the administration is on the up-and-up, without HYDRA control.
I don't follow this logic. Double bluffs happen all the time in spy world. Nick Fury should expect them with his morning coffee. The President could easily send HAMMER agents as well as or in place of HYDRA agents, if in fact both agencies are run by the same people. It would actually be easier to send HAMMER in whether the good guys are corrupt or not. HAMMER has been reacquiring SHIELD technology since they took over, so they would cause far less comment if they simply moved in and set up shop. The presence of both organizations means nothing; the President, knowing that Nick Fury informed him of the SHIELD base for a reason, would assume that Fury would be watching him and send HAMMER agents regardless of HYDRA's involvement. This is Espionage 101, and I just can't believe that Fury hasn't already thought this through.
I'd like to see where it goes, and I expect a lot from this writing team. In the future, I hope the story explains itself a little better.
- JC
Thursday, February 12, 2009
Batman #686
In part 1 of "Whatever Happened to the Caped Crusader?" Neil Gaiman examines Batman as a myth to get at the essence of the man.
Typical, really. Whether he's finding the humanity in the Dream King (the Sandman epic) or using mythic plots as metaphors for universal issues between children and parents (Coraline, Mirrormask), Gaiman stories always seem to exist at that intersection between our stories and ourselves. They remind us that life really is larger than life. And who is larger than life than the Batman, a hero without super powers who nonetheless can defeat every other hero and villain in the DC Universe?
Of course, "Whatever Happened..." opens with Batman at last beaten - dead as a result of some convoluted storyline I haven't actually followed. But the how doesn't matter, and the circumstances presented here are strange in any case. Batman's friends and foes are gathered for his funeral, an open-casket affair with Batman (not Bruce Wayne) on display. Their ages and costumes keep shifting, and there's an unseen man - Bruce's ghost? - talking to an unseen woman in the caption boxes, insisting none of this can be real. Will the story turn out to be a dream? Is this what the world looks like when Bruce Wayne is crossing to the other side - in the company of Sandman's Death, perhaps? (Though I suspect the latter is a little too obvious, a little too 'fanwank' for a writer of Gaiman's subleties.)
What matters are the stories being told. Here, in the first half of the two part adventure, Selina Kyle and Alfred the Butler each stand up before the crowd, telling their versions of the Life and Death of the Batman.
Selina tells how as Catwoman, the Batman convinced her to go straight, to use her guile and cunning and sheer bad-@$$ery to help clean up Gotham, only to wind up a lonely old woman running a cat shelter. When Batman comes to her for help, years after their last encounter, she allows him to die, telling him it's because she loves him. "But that's Robin Hood's death..." the ghost of Bruce says.
Alfred tells how Batman's famed rogues gallery, all those colorful, maniacal villains he fought, were nothing but thespian flim-flam. Alfred saw his master going quietly mad, and having been an actor before he buttled, he called on his old theatrical troupe to create wild foes for the Batman to vanquish, to make Bruce Wayne feel like his life mattered. But when Alfred at last confesses the truth to master Bruce, the Batman doesn't turn in his cape and cowl. Even if all the evil's he's fought has been a lie, there's still evil out there that needs fighting. "Somewhere the joke is much worse than this one, and it's on everybody, not just me," he says. And he rides quixotically back out into the night - and is immediately shot in the face by one of his "fake" villains. What we pretend to be, we become, for better and for worse.
Selina and Alfred's tales may conflict, yet both are tragedies about a man who can't quit. The mission is all for Batman, and no matter how hard the people who care about him most may try, he will not be diverted. Love can't make him turn away, nor can lies, nor can reason.
Only death might stop him, and I do say might. I suspect we'll find out in Part 2.
- JC
Typical, really. Whether he's finding the humanity in the Dream King (the Sandman epic) or using mythic plots as metaphors for universal issues between children and parents (Coraline, Mirrormask), Gaiman stories always seem to exist at that intersection between our stories and ourselves. They remind us that life really is larger than life. And who is larger than life than the Batman, a hero without super powers who nonetheless can defeat every other hero and villain in the DC Universe?
Of course, "Whatever Happened..." opens with Batman at last beaten - dead as a result of some convoluted storyline I haven't actually followed. But the how doesn't matter, and the circumstances presented here are strange in any case. Batman's friends and foes are gathered for his funeral, an open-casket affair with Batman (not Bruce Wayne) on display. Their ages and costumes keep shifting, and there's an unseen man - Bruce's ghost? - talking to an unseen woman in the caption boxes, insisting none of this can be real. Will the story turn out to be a dream? Is this what the world looks like when Bruce Wayne is crossing to the other side - in the company of Sandman's Death, perhaps? (Though I suspect the latter is a little too obvious, a little too 'fanwank' for a writer of Gaiman's subleties.)
What matters are the stories being told. Here, in the first half of the two part adventure, Selina Kyle and Alfred the Butler each stand up before the crowd, telling their versions of the Life and Death of the Batman.
Selina tells how as Catwoman, the Batman convinced her to go straight, to use her guile and cunning and sheer bad-@$$ery to help clean up Gotham, only to wind up a lonely old woman running a cat shelter. When Batman comes to her for help, years after their last encounter, she allows him to die, telling him it's because she loves him. "But that's Robin Hood's death..." the ghost of Bruce says.
Alfred tells how Batman's famed rogues gallery, all those colorful, maniacal villains he fought, were nothing but thespian flim-flam. Alfred saw his master going quietly mad, and having been an actor before he buttled, he called on his old theatrical troupe to create wild foes for the Batman to vanquish, to make Bruce Wayne feel like his life mattered. But when Alfred at last confesses the truth to master Bruce, the Batman doesn't turn in his cape and cowl. Even if all the evil's he's fought has been a lie, there's still evil out there that needs fighting. "Somewhere the joke is much worse than this one, and it's on everybody, not just me," he says. And he rides quixotically back out into the night - and is immediately shot in the face by one of his "fake" villains. What we pretend to be, we become, for better and for worse.
Selina and Alfred's tales may conflict, yet both are tragedies about a man who can't quit. The mission is all for Batman, and no matter how hard the people who care about him most may try, he will not be diverted. Love can't make him turn away, nor can lies, nor can reason.
Only death might stop him, and I do say might. I suspect we'll find out in Part 2.
- JC
Tuesday, February 10, 2009
X-Men: The Complete Onslaught Epic
Marvel recently published a four-volume graphic novel set of the massive 1990s Onslaught Epic (Scott Lobdell & Mark Waid, various), and there's a really cool idea there, buried under everything that can go wrong with a crossover.
The basic germ of it all is the idea that Professor X's pent up frustration (caused by human bigotry and furthured by mutant stupidity that made the situation worse) actually creates a psychic entity. Onslaught, as it is called, is a powerful being who tries to take every dark thought Xavier has ever had and go conqure the world with them.
For complicated plot reasons, there are elements of Magneto in Onslaught. The idea was that Xavier used his abilities to shut down Magneto's mind after some of the villain's crazier antics, during which a dark part of Magneto's psyche was absorbed into Xavier's mind. It was this act of crossing the line and controlling his friend's thoughts that brought Onslaught into being. This is one of the ways in which a really interesting idea begins to fall apart; Xavier didn't need a part of Magneto to have his own dark side - the story is stronger if Onslaught is born purely of Prof. X's own frustrations.
Side note: it's also interesting that current X-comics have no problem showing that Xavier is no saint; practically every storyline is revealing some horrible secret he's kept from the X-Men. But back in the '90s if a writer wanted to make an evil being come out of Professor X, they had to get Magneto into his head first. Visually, Magneto's dark taint on Xavier's psyche was represented as a little demon on the psychic plane. Now that's just overkill.
The real problem is that once Onslaught arrives and begins his takeover of the Marvel Universe, the story becomes a really generic crossover. For some poorly developed reasons, Onslaught unleashes Sentinals across the Marvel world, and the middle two volumes of the epic - which doesn't include every issue of the storyline, just those that the compilers thought were important - is full of Marvel characters randomly fighting Sentinals. Spider-Man fights them. Hulk fights them. The heroic Green Goblin, who didn't even last very long, fights them as well. The Fantastic Four fight them. And then someone got the brilliant idea to turn the storyline into a launching pad for another convoluted plotline called Heroes Reborn.
What should have been a story about the X-Men and the frustration of their founder and Xavier's dream falling apart became a story about every hero ever bravely sacrificing himself in a lot of sound and fury. All so Marvel could temporarily reboot all the Avengers and Fantastic Four comics and have really popular artists draw new versions of the characters' origins.
I doubt that's what the Onslaught story was initially meant to be. The final volume in the epic has pages from the story pitch that outlined Onslaught's motivation and plan, and it bears little resemblance to the current story. Originally, the dark entity's goal was to force the entire human race into one giant telepathic hive mind, which would not only destroy free will but also original thought. I suspect some editor saw that as too convoluted. Instead Onslaught decides that humans have no right to live for the way they've treated mutants, and mutants have no right to live for failing to stand up for themselves. Onslaught becomes a bog-standard nihilist, which is simply boring. I prefer villains who have motivation, not those who are simply destrutctive because they're insane.
I would love to see an Ultimate version of this storyline that's closer to the original, with Xavier's frustration at small-mindedness and intolerance becoming a force that the X-Men have to fight. The idea that the world's most powerful psychic, no matter how benevolent he seems, must have within him the temptation to force everyone to think as he does still seems very much worth exploring.
All that said, it was great hanging out with the '90s X-Men for a bit. I miss that family dynamic. These days they're all so mired in angst all the time, and we rarely get to see them just goofing off as friends do, getting Beast stuck in the bathtub or making the pancakes go ka-blooey.
- JC
The basic germ of it all is the idea that Professor X's pent up frustration (caused by human bigotry and furthured by mutant stupidity that made the situation worse) actually creates a psychic entity. Onslaught, as it is called, is a powerful being who tries to take every dark thought Xavier has ever had and go conqure the world with them.
For complicated plot reasons, there are elements of Magneto in Onslaught. The idea was that Xavier used his abilities to shut down Magneto's mind after some of the villain's crazier antics, during which a dark part of Magneto's psyche was absorbed into Xavier's mind. It was this act of crossing the line and controlling his friend's thoughts that brought Onslaught into being. This is one of the ways in which a really interesting idea begins to fall apart; Xavier didn't need a part of Magneto to have his own dark side - the story is stronger if Onslaught is born purely of Prof. X's own frustrations.
Side note: it's also interesting that current X-comics have no problem showing that Xavier is no saint; practically every storyline is revealing some horrible secret he's kept from the X-Men. But back in the '90s if a writer wanted to make an evil being come out of Professor X, they had to get Magneto into his head first. Visually, Magneto's dark taint on Xavier's psyche was represented as a little demon on the psychic plane. Now that's just overkill.
The real problem is that once Onslaught arrives and begins his takeover of the Marvel Universe, the story becomes a really generic crossover. For some poorly developed reasons, Onslaught unleashes Sentinals across the Marvel world, and the middle two volumes of the epic - which doesn't include every issue of the storyline, just those that the compilers thought were important - is full of Marvel characters randomly fighting Sentinals. Spider-Man fights them. Hulk fights them. The heroic Green Goblin, who didn't even last very long, fights them as well. The Fantastic Four fight them. And then someone got the brilliant idea to turn the storyline into a launching pad for another convoluted plotline called Heroes Reborn.
What should have been a story about the X-Men and the frustration of their founder and Xavier's dream falling apart became a story about every hero ever bravely sacrificing himself in a lot of sound and fury. All so Marvel could temporarily reboot all the Avengers and Fantastic Four comics and have really popular artists draw new versions of the characters' origins.
I doubt that's what the Onslaught story was initially meant to be. The final volume in the epic has pages from the story pitch that outlined Onslaught's motivation and plan, and it bears little resemblance to the current story. Originally, the dark entity's goal was to force the entire human race into one giant telepathic hive mind, which would not only destroy free will but also original thought. I suspect some editor saw that as too convoluted. Instead Onslaught decides that humans have no right to live for the way they've treated mutants, and mutants have no right to live for failing to stand up for themselves. Onslaught becomes a bog-standard nihilist, which is simply boring. I prefer villains who have motivation, not those who are simply destrutctive because they're insane.
I would love to see an Ultimate version of this storyline that's closer to the original, with Xavier's frustration at small-mindedness and intolerance becoming a force that the X-Men have to fight. The idea that the world's most powerful psychic, no matter how benevolent he seems, must have within him the temptation to force everyone to think as he does still seems very much worth exploring.
All that said, it was great hanging out with the '90s X-Men for a bit. I miss that family dynamic. These days they're all so mired in angst all the time, and we rarely get to see them just goofing off as friends do, getting Beast stuck in the bathtub or making the pancakes go ka-blooey.
- JC
Wednesday, February 4, 2009
Dark Avengers #1
In Dark Avengers, Brian Michael Bendis essentially reinvents the original Thunderbolts with a twist.
Plot-wise, Dark Avengers #1 is the first twenty minutes or so of a two-hour TV pilot episode. We've got the players on the board, and hints of who they are and what they want. What happens next is the story, but so far the set-up is more than solid.
- JC
When Kurt Busiek created the Thunderbolts, they were a team of Marvel villains pretending to be a new team of heroes. It was meant to be a Cunning Plan, Pinky & the Brain style -- only many of the villains found, for right or wrong reasons, they actually liked being heroes and the way the public reacted to them in that role. In time, the team became a legitimate and U.S. government-sanctioned avenue for villains seeking to reform and do time in public service. Not to mention villains who'd just rather be out there kicking other bad guys' butts than rotting in prison.
Norman 'Green Goblin' Osborn became a Thunderbolt during the Civil War event, and soon after maneuvered his way into command of the entire Thunderbolt program. Now, in the wake of Secret Invasion, he's been put in charge of the H.A.M.M.E.R that was S.H.I.E.L.D, giving him oversight of not just the Thunderbolts, but the Avengers Initiative as well.
So here's the twist: Norman takes some of the most vicious killers currently serving as Thunderbolts and turns them into the official Avengers for the U.S. of A. He does this by giving them the identities of established heroes that the public already knows and loves. Moonstone is Ms. Marvel. Wolverine's unhinged son Daken stands in for his dad. Venom becomes the Amazing Spider-Man. Bullseye, the psychopath who murdered two women Daredevil loved, is now Hawkeye. Up is down and black is white.
There's a fantastic two-page spread where the new Avengers are introduced to the public, with a neat trick you can really only pull off on a comic book page. As the name of each ersatz hero is called out, we see it printed in the colorful logo used on the cover of the original hero's comic. It really drives home the identity theft, the stunt that Norman Osborn is pulling on the public.
Not only do we have the old Thunderbolts questions hanging over this team -- how many truly want to be heroes? How many will discover that want over time? Can they overcome their own pasts and darker instincts? -- but we also have to wonder how long it will take the citizens of Marvel America to realize these aren't the heroes they know and love, and how they'll react when they figure it out.
Of course, not every member of the team is a pretender. Ares and the Sentry, two former Mighty Avengers, have stayed with Osborn. Ares, the actual Roman God of War, doesn't really care who's telling him to fight or why, so long as there are battles to be fought. The Sentry is more or less Marvel's schizophrenic version of Superman, and it's hinted that Osborn is manipulating his fractured mental state in some way to keep him around. I hadn't thought about it before Bendis brought them together in this book, but really the Sentry and Osborn's Green Goblin are two sides of the same coin. Osborn has also displayed signs of a schizophrenic disorder, as well as a possible multiple personality; when he started out committing crimes as the Goblin, he supposedly didn't know he was doing it. If Osborn is at all stable or integrated now, he's achieved that mostly by giving in to his darker impulses. Can the Sentry resist such a role model? Let's hope so.
And then there's the Iron Patriot, the new amalgam of Captain America and Iron Man. I have to admit Bendis had me completely faked out on this one. After the end of New Avengers #48, I was expecting to see Luke Cage in that armor, betraying his own teammates to make good on his promise to pay Osborn any price for help in finding his kidnapped child. (For a moment or two, I even entertained the notion that the new Ms. Marvel might be Jessica Jones, stealing the sobriquet of her best friend as part of the same Faustian bargain.) But no -- the Patriot is Osborn himself, because anything Tony Stark can do, Osborn must now prove he can do better. How did I not see that coming?
Plot-wise, Dark Avengers #1 is the first twenty minutes or so of a two-hour TV pilot episode. We've got the players on the board, and hints of who they are and what they want. What happens next is the story, but so far the set-up is more than solid.
- JC
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