Books: Daredevil (2012 - 2013)

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Daredevil
Vol 1
Written by Mark Waid
Art by Paolo M Rivera and Marcos Martin
2012


Available now from Islington Libraries
You can reserve this item for free here:
http://www.library.islington.gov.uk/TalisPrism/

Daredevil
Vol 2
Written by Mark Waid
Art by Paolo M Rivera and Marcos Martin
2013



Available now from Islington Libraries
You can reserve this item for free here:
http://www.library.islington.gov.uk/TalisPrism/

Daredevil
Vol 3
Written by Mark Waid
Art by , Marco Checchetto, Chris Samnee and Khoi Pham
2013



Available now from Islington Libraries
You can reserve this item for free here:
http://www.library.islington.gov.uk/TalisPrism/


From Mark Waid - who (to me) is best known as the guy who wrote the (excellent) Astro City [1] - but (going from the members of the Comic Forum at least) is better known now for all the evil and nasty things he got up to with Irredeemable comes a fresh take [2] on everyone's favourite blind superhero with devil horns and a red leather one-piece: who's also a lawyer and who consistently has the type of relationship problems that even Jeremy Kyle would balk at.

But yes - you know that already from all the glowing reviews and stuff: blah blah blah. What you want is for me to tell you what exactly all the fuss is about with this new-minted-freshly-pressed version of Daredevil (no previous experience necessary - so you can just pick it up and get straight into it)? Well - ok: just take a looks at that cover to Vol 1 - I mean maybe it's a little bit too small on your computer screen (no?) so I'd do a favour and just describe it for you: it's Mr Daredevil all decked out in his fancy red leather jumping around: only what looks like far away like a blank magnolia/vanilla backdrop is actually a cityscape where the building and birds aren't filled in with lines and colours and blah (like a normal thing) but rather they're written in with sounds: so the birds wings all say "flapflapflap" and their heads say "coocoocoo" [3]: all this being the big clue that unlike most of the other Daredevil books that I've encountered on my travels so far [4] is that it's the first Daredevil series to really dig deep into this whole blindness thing [5] and try and represent it on the comic page. 

Of course (and I can't be the only one to ever think this right?) - but it's damn peculiar to have a superhero who seems to have been created as an aspirational figure for the blind seeing how (no duh) comic books are so very much a visual medium [6]. I mean - if you compare it with another differently-abled person [7] anything else would make a lot more sense: like someone whose wheelchair was actually a high powered inspector gadget machine (or whatever), someone whose hyperactivity gave them the ability to walk through walls [8] or (and this is my favourite and someone should make this come true because it so obviously make a really cool comic seeing how it plays to it's strengths): a deaf guy whose has super-developed sense of sight (call him Dareangel or something). Point being if someone is in a wheelchair, or has ADD or is deaf - then they can read and enjoy the comic and (hopefully) feel a bit more empowered. While anyone who's blind it's like: "Oh dude - there's this thing about a blind superhero that you'd really like only - damn - because it's a comic book: you can't - oh well." 

So. Erm. Yeah. Wait. What was I saying?      

Well yeah - so: even tho (for the reasons above) I've got this unshakeable feeling that it's like totally unfair to the blind people out there - it is kind of cool that there's these Daredevil books that take the concept of sightlessness seriously. Previously (from the Daredevil's I read - which I'll be first to admit probably isn't much in the grand scheme of things: but is still probably a dozen more than your general layperson - so) most writers would pay lip-service to the whole blind thing by going in for some detailed description of the sights and sounds of the city (and oh boy - if I had the time I would totally cut and paste all of the grandiose descriptions that have been set down over the years: but come on - you know what I mean right? "I can smell the yellowish chemical tinge of the mustard in their hot dogs from five blocks away." etc): but Waid and his co-conspirators go in for a much more bold "purple vision" which you kinda have to see to really understand: but kind looks like a cool effect from an 80s action movie [9].    

Compared to the crash and bang of all other superhero comics out there: which (as much as I do end up loving some of them) are a little bit electric guitars and crashing drums (especially the previous versions of Daredevil which have always have a particular tendency to pile on the strings in a doom-laden way) this brand new sprightly version of Daredevil comes across more like a piano sonata - light and breezy and almost delicate in the way it plays upon (and subtly upends) it's well-worn clichés. I mean yeah: you've heard the story of good versus evil a bazillion times: but hey - just because I've eaten cake before that doesn't mean that I'm not going to enjoy a few cheeky slices especially if someone knows how to bake all the right ingredients just right: mixing them all up in a concoction that I'm just going to go ahead and describe as simply devilish (ha!). 

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[1] Which I really really really should write a post for: but man - oh well: whatever: maybe in a bit.

[2] Can I get away with saying "fresh take"? Kinda makes me sound like a voice-over for a cheesy mid 90s film trailer: but maybe that's just a problem that exists only in my head?

[3] Which always reminds me of that Bill Hicks joke. But yes. 

[4] Most of which I must say are really damn pretty good and is really (have I said this elsewhere on here?) the only real competition Batman's got in terms of mainstream superhero character comic books that people who don't normally read mainstream superhero character comic books can also enjoy and appreciate: only (for whatever social reasons) - Batman is afforded waaaaaaay more respect by the general public than the blind guy with the white cubs all dressed up in a red leather one-piece (which I guess we can probably blame (as with so many things) on Ben "Smugface" Affeck). But yeah (whatever) my point being: if you're looking for a good time: go read a Daredevil comic (especially if it's one written by Mr Frank Miller or Mr Brian Michael Bendis).  

[5] Of course - I'm sure that this is wrong. And hey - if anyone out there wants to do an "well - actually I'll think you'll find…." then go ahead - knock yourself out. 

[6] I mean - writing has braille right - but (as far as I know - and maybe this is like a whole other: "well - actually I'll think you'll find….") there's not a way that you can make comics for the blind - is there? 

[7] That's the proper - not-offending-anyone way to put it - right? 

[8] Ok - so that one is a bit weak and is basically just The Flash - but whatever: leave me alone.

[9] In fact: it really reminds me of this bit of trivia from John Carpenter's Escape From New York: "The wire-frame computer graphics on the display screens in the glider were not actually computer-generated, as computers capable of 3D wire-frame imaging were too expensive when the film was made. To generate the "wire-frame" images, special effects designers built a model of the city, painted it black, attached bright white tape to the model buildings in an orderly grid, and moved a camera through the model city." But I dunno - maybe that's just me?  

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Links: Comics Alliance Article: Why You Should Be Reading ‘Daredevil’, Comic Book Resources Article: PIPELINE: Why "Mark Waid's 'Daredevil'"?, Comics Should Be Good Article: Would Mark Waid’s Daredevil Just be an Average Superhero Comic Book Back in the Old Days?, PopMatters Article: Mark Waid’s Narrative Multitasking in "Daredevil", Sequart Article: I Once Was Blind: Waid’s Daredevil & How Expectations Can Ruin Even the Best of Things….

Further reading: Daredevil (2001 - 2006), Irredeemable, Astro City, Hawkeye, Richard Stark's Parker,

All comments welcome.

Books: Batman: Batman Incorporated

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Batman Incorporated

Written by Grant Morrison 
Art by Yanick Paquette, Chris Burnham, Michel Lacombe, Scott Clark, Cameron Stewart and Dave Beatty
2013



Available now from Islington Libraries
You can reserve this item for free here:
http://www.library.islington.gov.uk/TalisPrism/


Out of all the "outsider artists" Henry Joseph Darger, Jr. is probably the most well known (he's the only one I've ever heard of anyway). Like it says on the good old Wikipedia: "He has become famous for his posthumously-discovered 15,145-page, single-spaced fantasy manuscript called The Story of the Vivian Girls, in What is known as the Realms of the Unreal, of the Glandeco-Angelinian War Storm, Caused by the Child Slave Rebellion, along with several hundred drawings and watercolor paintings illustrating the story."

If have you no idea what I'm talking about then - well - "outsider art" is art made by (and I realise that this isn't the most sensitive way to put it - but what the hell): crazy people. That is (and this would be the more delicate way to put it) - people who haven't come up through the proper art school channels but instead exist on the fringes of society: you know - insane-asylum inmates and/or children: that type of thing.

But yeah - just the thought of Henry Darger's 15,145-page [1] The Story of the Vivian Girls [2] epic is enough to give me spine the shivers. Just the thought / the concept of something that - well - gargantuan (?) monstrous (?) Brobdingnagian [3] (?) - whatever - it's like something knocking up against inside my brain's funny bone: I like my human endeavour to be human-sized: and once we start going past the 1,000 page mark then I think I start getting a little queasy: does that make sense?

Me and my flatmate where recently talking about this sort of stuff and he mentioned that Milan Kundera (one of his favourite authors) said something about how you should be able to hold a novel in your head [4]: that you know - it shouldn't be too sprawling and crazy or whatever: but rather the whole thing should be neat and tidy with every piece connected in a proper way with every other piece: all of it forming a satisfying compact whole. I think - in my more sober state I would tend to agree with this kind of thinking: everything in it's right place and all that: but (then again) maybe there's more fun to be had in not been so buttoned up all the time.

But I'm zig-zagging here - as I always tend to when it comes to trying to encapsulate my thoughts about Grant Morrison and especially when it comes to his epic Batman saga. I mean: I guess I shouldn't be such a hypocrite seeing how some of my favourite comics are big, long-running series that take ten or so books to tell the whole story (I would write down some examples: but what the hey - they're scattered all around this blog (and I'd feel bad for praising certain series over others - so will leave it to you to find for yourselves....) but they're always (mostly) a lot calmer and tamer in how they come across.... You know what? Fine: I'll give you an example: Neil Gaiman's Sandman series was years in the telling and stretched out (depending on which books you count) into over a dozen books - each filling out a whole Universe of Universes: with hundreds of characters and very different states of being but (you know what?) reading those books never had me reaching for the Henry Darger parallels: so I guess the question is: why is that?

Well: the first thing is the way that Morrison's Batman comes across: (no duh) Bruce Wayne and his alter-ego isn't exactly a smaller-than-life character - nah dude: and so really - the only way to properly capture the right Bat-spirit is to go big and always over-the-top: which means there's not much room for calmness and contemplative: not when there's windows to smash and people like Lord Death Man to fight [5].

Connected to that is the way that he decides to tell the story: still using The Sandman as our base-line: well - even tho that was using all sorts of strange craziness and myths and legends and demons and monsters all mashed together [6]: you can still always make sense of the stuff that's going on - you know? It's clear like a fresh-water lake. Which isn't the way that Grant Morrison plays his Batman (no sir). In fact the feeling I got with reading Batman Incorporated is that it's almost like he's decided to see just how much information he can get into a single unit of space. I mean - one way of thinking about stories that they're all about the careful unloading of information (so: think about how much less The Empire Strikes Back would be if it told you who Luke Skywalker's Dad was in the opening crawl): and while most writer's try their best to unload all small bits at a time: Morrison it seems is on a mission to pack in as much as possible: firing it all in short sharp sweet concentrated laser bursts into the reader's brain so that at time it's like your Marty Mcfly in Back To The Future Part II: watching six TV screens all playing at the same time and yet (somehow) still being able to make sense of them all.

One of the side effects of that is that (for this hapless reader) the first time you read it a whole lot of stuff is going to be whooshing over your head [7]. Luckily for me (and I would suggest this to everyone who wants to attempt to make sense of this book [8]) the fine people at The Mindless Ones website have written some very helpful / charming / funny / interesting annotations that (for me at least) where a huge heap of help - with excellent piece of advice number one going to: "From now on no one is allowed to utter the words ‘hard to follow’, ‘confusing’, ‘unrelated plots’ or the like without having read the comic three times." [9]

So far I've only read  Batman Incorporated twice [10]: but I wouldn't be surprised if I ended up reading a few other dozen times in the future - and yeah: I will say it was much more fun the second time (with lots of cool little details that only pop out once you've been through already: check the poster in front of Catwoman when she's asking "What's the appeal?").

Not to say that the first time round was a drag: in fact - for the first few dozen pages it comes across as the most exhilarating and (hell yes) fun Batcomic Morrison has written so far: I mean - if you wanted to know what all the fuss was about then I would recommend maybe you start with the first half of this book and then (once you get the taste for it) go back to the beginning (that would be Batman and Son) and work your way from there: for me - it's kinda of like the bright sunshine superhero stuff Morrison was doing when he was running The New X-Men or Marvel Boy: so you know: inventive and wild - but still fun and breezy: like a TV show with a pop song soundtrack and a budget as big as the moon .

In addition: well yeah ok - I can't be the only one who always found Batman's provincialism a little bit strange - right? [11] The way he restricted himself to Gotham city at the seeming expense of everywhere else. I mean - what gives? So he's chasing the Joker down a street and all of a sudden they're past the city limits (a big sign saying "You're Now Leaving Gotham City") and the fearsome Dark Knight is like: "oh - sorry. That's as far as go. I'll catch you some other time?" [12] So - if for nothing else: thank heavens then for Grant Morrison for confronting my minor niggle by stepping up to the plate and getting that all nice and fixed.

What else? Well - strangely for a Grant Morrison Batphic Novel that doesn't feature Frank Quitely: the artwork on display here is actually pretty nifty and not at all disappointing and flat: so hooray for that [14] and man - like I said about the compacted information being fired from all directions: there's so much stuff here - Batman does Scalped, Invisible-style fun with secret badges, references to both Borges and Thatcher (amongst others), Invisible robots, motorbikes to the face, carefully manufactured internet conspiracies [15] and a loving attention to detail (I realise that maybe this is old news and something that's probably been the case for years and years: but for me it's the first time I've ever realised that Bruce Wayne's eyebrows are in the shape of a bat: which I've gotta say is such a perfect little touch). And: even tho Batman is always always thinks ahead (Rule one = "Proper Planning and Preparation." after all) so too do the villains (and there's lots of new shiny villains waiting!): which means that when it comes to the crunch it's all very sweaty palms and palpitations.

The book itself puts it best when it has one character exclaim: "Everything is hyper-mega! Everybody have fun!" - and the joy that seeps through the book is so infectious that even Batman seems to be having a better battime ("Hh"): even the henchmen make an effort (which is always nice to see): and man - the dialogue is as succulent and juicy as a freshly picked peach ("He had a skull for a head and clammy fingers!").

So: what you waiting for? Even if there's a chance that you might drown - you should jump in anyway: once you get let the water envelop you and allow yourself to be pulled by it's strange currents then - well: a whole new wild wide world awaits you....

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[1] Ha. Take THAT Infinite Jest.

[2] A name sadly since co-opted by a middling no-mark indie band (oh well).

[3] Thank you online thesaurus: best word ever. Am going to be trying to work it into every sentence I can for the rest of the week ("I want my cup of tea Brobdingnagian please.")

[4] I did do a quick google to see if I could find the exact quote - but nothing came up. Oh well: whatever - maybe my flatmate just made it up trying to sound smart [16].

[5] Also (I was going to try and put this later but maybe it goes best here): and yeah I realise that this might be a bit unfair coming from someone who runs a blog about comics (but still): isn't Batman a little... I dunno - silly? (Oh dear now I've said it huh?): I mean - on the one hand it does make sense - if you're going to write a Batman book then - well - it should be about Batman (obviously): but god - Morrison goes in so deep and unpicks everything with such scalpel-like precision - I mean: it's like reading a Phd on who Batman is and what he can do and what he represents: and ok yeah - on one hand it's very cool and interesting (and man: if you think the Nolan Dark Knight films captured what Batman was about then - please please - read some of these Morrison Batbooks so that you realise just how boring and puddle-deep Christian Bale's interpretation is): but on the other - I mean - all this effort and energy and intelligence expended on something so (well - I'll use the same word again seeing how it fits so well): silly. You know: reading Batman Incorporated will give you lots to think about concerning Batman: but not really that much in terms of human beings or anything like that. Which I guess is why (before I step into the books) I get the feeling that they're just a bit - well: outsider arty: a mental cul-de-sac that leads only to itself - a batlabyrinth that's only aim is to draw you ever further in (It is so very telling that when a character says: "If he didn't exist, well... I guess we'd just have to invent him." he isn't talking about God - he's talking about Batman). Which - yeah: is either something to be feared and to run away from or something to cheer and embrace - and I guess my only preference is constantly flipping between the two.

[6] And - holy moly - if that doesn't pique your interest then let me just come out and say it simply: if you (somehow) haven't read The Sandman in it's entirely already - then you really really really should.

[7] In fact - I would even go so far as to say: as much as I love reading collected editions of stuff: the ideal way to read Morrison's Batrun is probably a single issue at a time: if only in order to allow the time to properly digest things. I mean: even reading it in book form like this it's pretty obvious that each issue has it's own theme and pace and feel - and trying to take them in all together is a bit like trying to eat a week's worth of meals all in the same setting.

[8] And - ok yeah: most of the other Morrison Batbooks too.

[9] Which is taken from here: but - hell - just check all the links below (where it says links). Special mention also going to: ""The image of Bruce pushing at the white of the comic page – the ultimate ground upon which the original four colour process echoed in the doors (check them – magenta, cyan, yellow and black), and therefore all comics, rests – represents our hero travelling beyond the confines of the 2D and scattering across the comic Faculty X style. The higgledypiggeldification of Batman." (from here): and also (very much also): "I like to imagine that in reality the Alzheimer’s riddled, amnesiac Dedalus converses in non-sequiteurs which Batman’s powerful mind, resistant to the last, organises into something resembling sense. But it’s a permeable sense. We’re all at sea here. Dedalus completely inhabits his condition, he owns it, and he balances things out by forcing his enemies onto his very un-level playing field. The psychedelic wall effect captures this completely – the way it’s running in two directions at once, uncertain of where it is." (Which - oh boy: was very helpful in helping me understand what exactly was going on: so thanks for that dudes!).

[10] And just so we have everything nice and clear (in case you want to try and cross-reference with other stuff on the internet or whatever): Islington's version of Batman Incorporated collects Collects Batman Incorporated #1 - 8 and Batman Incorporated: Leviathan Strikes! So you know like.

[11] Yeah yeah yeah: I know - a story about a multimillionaire playboy who dresses up like a giant bat and runs around at night beating up criminals is (like I said above) it's all bit silly (we know we know) - and I'm picking on this relatively minor point and going: "hey - isn't almost insignificant detail like really weird and stuff?" Which is comparable to pointing to a particular spot in the middle of the Pacific and going: "hey - isn't that bit - like - really wet?" But whatever.

[12] Like (just me?) - isn't it a bit strange in The Dark Knight film when he makes that brief excursion to Hong Kong. I mean - on the one hand it was cool to see him leave the confines of Chicago Gotham for a change: but then (when I started to think about it [13]) it's like: but why is he just making an exception for that one guy? You know: I guess the reason they decided to have that scene in the film was to show that there's no escape from the Caped Crusader - but by bringing it up it just made it seem more weird you know? Like someone saying "well i take care of my kids": or (putting it another way / making another point) - if the only reason Bats made an exception for the Hong Kong dude was because he did stuff that affected Gotham - then does that mean that if - say - the Penguin set up shop in Las Vegas and keep all his dealings in Nevada then he'd be safe from the Batman? I dunno.... (Maybe I should stop having a go at the Chris Nolan Batfilms: but I just can't help myself!)

[13] That's probably the best point for you to say: "I think maybe you're over-thinking this stuff." And for me to say: shut your damn face.

[14] Although it's gotta be said that Chris Burnham: does the best Frank Quitely impression I've ever seen: (Kathy Kane isn't the only one biting someone else's style - ha!)

[15] Ok - I know I said I'd stop being mean about the Nolan Batflicks - but godamn - I wish he has managed to be as smart as Morrison in balancing the Bruce Wayne / Batman identity stakes instead of - well: instead of doing this (which I've gotta say is probably one of my favourite youtube things of the year: thanks to Sam for sending me the link!)

[16] (To which he has replied (by email): "I was NOT trying to sound smart! (well, maybe a little...). the full quote is: "In order to make the novel into a polyhistorical illumination of existence, you need to master the technique of ellipsis, the art of condensation. Otherwise, you fall into the trap of endless length. Musil’s The Man Without Qualities is one of the two or three novels that I love most. But don’t ask me to admire its gigantic unfinished expanse! Imagine a castle so huge that the eye cannot take it all in at a glance. Imagine a string quartet that lasts nine hours. There are anthropological limits—human proportions—that should not be breached, such as the limits of memory. When you have finished reading, you should still be able to remember the beginning. If not, the novel loses its shape, its “architectonic clarity” becomes murky". (taken from here) Which I think was basically a parahphrase of where he talks about it in more length in his book 'The Art of the Novel'")

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Links: Mindless Ones Article Batman the Return + Batman Inc = Alpha Adapter, Comics Alliance Article: ‘Batman, Inc.’ #1: Mr. Unknown Is Dead [annotations] / Comics Alliance Article: Batman, Inc. #2 Annotations: Resurrector! / Comics Alliance Article: Batman Incorporated #3: “Scorpion Tango” [annotations] / Mindless Ones Article: Batman Incorporated #3: Annocomments (pp1-3) / Mindless Ones Article: Batman Incorporated #4 Annocommentations / Mindless Ones Mindless Batchat (and Batman Inc #6 Annocommentations) / Mindless Ones Article: Batman Incorporated: Leviathan Strikes! Annocommentations Part 1 / Mindless Ones Article: Batman Incorporated: Leviathan Strikes! Annocommentations Part 2, Mindless Ones Chris Burnham Cheeky Interview.

Preceded by: Batman: Batman and Son, Batman: The Black Glove, Batman: R.I.P., Final Crisis, Batman: Batman and Robin, Batman: The Return of Bruce Wayne, Batman: Time and the Batman.

Further reading: The Invisibles, Scalped, The Authority, Flex Mentallo, Seaguy, Nemesis, X-Men: New X-Men, Marvel Boy, The Sandman.

Profiles: Grant Morrison.

All comments welcome.

Books: Superior

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Superior
Written by Mark Millar
Art by Leinil Francis Yu
2013




Available now from Islington Libraries
You can reserve this item for free here:
http://www.library.islington.gov.uk/TalisPrism/


"I always liked the fact that Superior doesn't kill people. Being a nice guy is what makes him different to Wolverine and all that stuff."

So: yeah. I'll admit it - ever since I saw Man of Steel last week I haven't been able to stop thinking about it - if you're one of the unfortunate few who follow the Islington Comic Forum on facebook then you can probably tell from all the links and stuff I've posted up there (sorry guys) that it's kinda wormed itself into my mind like one of those worms-things from The Wrath of Khan [1] (only - you know: not in a good way).

I don't wanna be mean and end up spoiling it for those of you who haven't had a chance to watch it yet (although - come on! - it's been out for like two weeks already: and what? You telling me that you're life is so fulfilled that you don't have the time to watch a mindlessly violent blockbuster superhero film? HA! I don't believe you...): but I guess if you had to narrow it down to like a single sentence then that sentence would be: Superman isn't supposed to act like that. And another sentence (what the hey) would be: he's supposed to be better (that's what makes him Super silly).

(And - god I know yes - it is incredibly boring to hear a comic book geek bitch and moan in a nasally voice about how "that's not what happened in the comics. That's not what happened in the comics." But there's a difference between making whatever changes to the story and adding blah and taking away the things etc and: well - let me put it this way: how would you feel if you went to see film called Traffic Safety Man and it was all just him running red lights and driving with a mobile phone in one hand and a beer in the other? It's like: damn - if that's what they wanted to do: then why bother making it about Traffic Safety Man? As the end product is pretty much completely antithetical to what the character is supposed to be all about).

Of course - I hashed out a lot of these feelings in the thing that I wrote for Mark Waid and Leinil Francis Yu's [2] Superman: Birthright (link below): although looking back now - the stuff I wrote is pretty much all over the place like a seasick donkey and never really pulls itself together enough to make a cogent point and (man) I am very much temped to go back over and re-write the whole thing [3]: but part of the whole structure of this here blog (which I'm pretty much completely committed to at this point) is that I can't really write follow-ups to stuff I've written before [4]: everything has to be on a book-by-book basis you know?

Except - well - we got a big batch of new comics that came into today and sitting on top of the pile was this book: Superior. And - well - it's like someone pecked inside my brain and decided to make a comic book version of the Man of Steel that gets it all exactly right.

Now. The thing that's so amazing (to me) isn't the fact that someone could make a superhero comic that perfectly managed to distill all the the qualities that make Superman so gross-darn super (I mean - come on: how hard can that be?) but that such a book would come from (like it says on the cover): "From the Writer of Kick Ass" - that is to say: Mark Millar.

For those of you that don't know: Mark Millar is (at this point) the comic book world's version of the Anti-Christ: dirty, depraved and responsible for some of the most heinous comics of the 21st Century so far. I mean - yeah: we all know that comic books are supposed to be slightly seedy and disreputable (that's all part of the allure right?) - but Mr Millar (for the past decade or so) has been pushing those limits further into the ground than anyone has really dared [5]. I mean - read Kick-Ass 2 if you're curious to see how squalid a mainstream comic book can get [6].

Picking up to read Superior was only really to satisfy my curiosity as to just what level of bad Mr Millar was currently operating on: which I guess explains how it managed to sneak in behind me and grab me by the heart.

Make no mistake: I spent the entirety of my first read through of Superior constantly expecting the utter-most worst. Any second now (I told myself) someone is going to say "bring out the gimp" and this whole book is going to descend into some-sort of messed-up torture porn vibe with ball gags and things being shoved into uncomfortable orifices: so I just kind of sat there bracing myself for a massive car-crash of awfulness and so sort of "dude - that is so messed up" that has become Mr Millar's stock-in-trade. But - hey - if you take away anything from all this stuff that I'm writing down - then take this: I don't know how it happened but this book might just be the most palatable book that Mr Millar has gifted the world since his Superman: Red Son all those many years ago [7].

I mean - seeing how Superior first appeared in Mr Millar's "Clint" magazine I guess I just assumed that it  going to do for Superman what Nemesis did to Batman (i.e. make him all messed up and awful and mean): but instead - well: it's almost as if with all the other books he's produced lately - he's managed to flush out his venom and ever-constant-need to show the world that he's no softie [8] and instead crafted a hymn to the power of goodness: truth, justice and all the rest.

Which basically means: that even if you've hated everything Mark Millar has done in the past whatever years - I'd still say you should give this book a shot: and if you want a glimpse into the mind of someone who knows exactly how and why the legend of an all powerful man who can fly has managed to endure across multiple cultures for 75 years - then same thing: pick up and read Superior: it's the best refutation of the Man of Steel I've read all week.

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[1] Looking it up - they're called Ceti-eels "Ceti eels incubate their larvae within the plates of their jointed carapace. Upon emergence, the eel larvae can enter the ear of a larger animal, where it wraps itself around the cerebral cortex. This causes the host extreme pain and renders them extremely susceptible to outside suggestion. Over time, as the larva matures, the subject suffers from madness and eventual death." So know you know.

[2] Who - (yes) check it out - is the exact same Leinil Francis Yu who did the art on Superior. 

[3] And - D'oh - maybe put in something about how The Man of Steel actually borrowed quite a few little plot points and lines of dialogue from Birthright (which is the whole reason why I decided to write about them both together): but - no matter, no matter. Publish and be damned or whatever.

[4] If I did go back and write more stuff then the first thing I'd include would be this article from Comic Alliance (Choice And The Moral Universe Of 'Man Of Steel' [Opinion]) which 1. If you've seen Man of Steel you should totally read and 2. Includes this: "I noticed that every choice Clark Kent made was one a hero like Wolverine might make. Wolverine is the guy who gets to be misanthropic and petty and grim and make it all look cool. But Wolverine is not messianic. Wolverine is not a paragon. Jesus Christ would never wear a "What Would Wolverine Do?" bracelet." Which - well - check the first line of this post and gasp in awe at how I'm making this all join up.

[5] With the only notable exception being Frank Miller (no relation) who (with his book Holy Terror) managed to pip Mark Millar past the post to take home the prize of "Most Morally Repugnant Comic" of - like - the past ten years. Bully for him.

[6] On second thought: urg - don't read Kick-Ass 2. It's rubbish.

[7] And if you don't really know what that means: well - maybe click the link below and read the stuff I wrote about Superman: Red Son or (even better) track down a copy and read it yourself.

[8] I always think of this AV Club Interview when I read any Mark Millar mainly because of this: "I remember a friend of mine saying to me, “Oh, I wonder if you’ll, now that you’ve had a baby, you’ll go all Ian McEwan.” I don’t know if you’re familiar with Ian McEwan—his work used to be very, very harsh, and then he had a baby, and he went quite gentle. “So I wonder if that will happen to you, if you’ll lose your edge.” I was, “Oh my God, no.” So I think I purposefully went the other way, because the next thing I did was The Authority, which turned out to be my breakout project, but also the harshest thing I’ve ever written. I think since then, maybe subconsciously, I’ve always been aware of, “Don’t go soft.” I probably push it a little too much sometimes, so that I don’t seem as if I’ve gone soft."

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Links: Alternative Magazine Review.

Further reading: Superman: Birthright, Kick-Ass, Kiss-Ass 2, Superman: Red Son, Nemesis, Ultimate Comics: Avengers, Ultimate Comics: Avengers vs New Ultimates: Death of Spider-Man, Irredeemable.

Profiles: Mark Millar.

All comments welcome.

Books: Superman: Birthright

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Superman: Birthright
Written by Mark Waid
Art by Leinil Francis Yu
2005




Available now from Islington Libraries
You can reserve this item for free here:
http://www.library.islington.gov.uk/TalisPrism/


So yeah: last night I went to the IMAX and saw Man of Steel on the biggest of big screens and then today I read this book: Superman: Birthright which is (for those of us who know) one of the very few actually pretty good Superman comics out there: you know - one of the ones you can read without feeling like it's sapping a IQ point for every page you read - or at least (oh dear): that's how I liked to remember it...

I mean: everyone knows that the only good Superman comics out there [1] are: Superman: Red Son, Superman: Secret Identity and Superman: All Star Superman - right? Those are the three that you can comfortably hand to any one and not feel like you have to make some kind of excuse as you do it "Or yeah - maybe just ignore the cheesy dialogue" or "I realise that the story doesn't quite hang together" or whatever.

And for me the very telling detail here is that the first two books aren't really "proper" Superman stories - (in that - technically speaking you know: they're not really about the Superman that everyone knows) Superman: Red Son telling the story of what would have happened if Superman's baby rocket ship thingie had crash-landed in the Ukraine instead of Kansas and Superman: Secret Identity telling the story of a whole different Clark Kent (it's kinda complicated to spell it all out and I don't want to spoil it any - so you know: just go read it). And the third on the list - Superman: All Star Superman - whilst being the closet thing to the Superman everyone knows - kinda exists in it's own (beautifully constructed) unique little space. Or - to put it another way - it's not really Grant Morrison telling a Superman story - it's more Superman being used to tell a Grant Morrison one (I don't know if that's the best way to put it - but it's hard to go into detail without falling into talking about pocket universes and parallel worlds and stuff: so maybe I should just leave it).

But yeah - point being: if you're looking for some pure unadulterated Superman comic fun there's not really that many places to turn to [2] and so (or so you would think) thank heavens for the delights of Mark Waid and Leinil Francis Yu and this little book called Superman: Birthright [5].

Except - well.

Well: let me digress (just a little)....

So I realise that this might be a little bit contentious (and yeah - maybe I should do a little bit more research before I occidentally put my foot in anything - but what the hey: this ain't a scholarly text or something like that - it's is a blog right? Which I'd say puts it only one one step above someone chatting nonsense in a pub: so just pretend you're sipping on a pint sitting across from me and roll with me a little here...) but the notion of a god of light isn't exactly a new one: you know - there's Horus, Sol Invictus and - yeah - Jesus - sent from above, powered by the sun, pretty much invincible and all very big on the notions of forgiveness etc.

Now I'm saying this in order to score any cheap shots - (although god knows I sure do love scoring a good cheap shot now and again) - but more to say that if you care to look at things in a certain way [6] there's loads of stuff embedded in the Superman myth that's centuries old and that just to go with a "hey - isn't Superman a lot like Jesus?" thing which Man of Steel traffics in an awful awful lot [7] is kind of setting your sights a little bit too low: like you're only referring to Oasis when you could be referring to The Beatles or something.

Because yeah Superman is old. I mean - this is the month that he celebrates his (goddamn it) 75th anniversary (and my brain is struggling to come up something else that's been around for that long and coming up with nothing so yeah) and - yet - the go to idea with both Birthright and Man of Steel (I'm going to try and bring both of them together a little bit in order to make sure that I can somehow finish writing about this today with it all fresh in my head) is how do we re-invent Superman for a modern audience? How do we make him fresh and dynamic and sexy and new? And I guess that my feeling (having ingested both the film and the comic in the same 24 hour period) is that you can't. I mean - you don't dress up other 75 year olds in revealing-skin-tight outfits because let's face it (sorry 75 year olds) that kind of thing just ain't right. And it's the same thing with stories. You know: when they're done right it's because they're products of their environment and social blah and whatever and trying to retell the same story with a fresh spin when the original people who told it are long since dead seems a little - I dunno - dumb.

I mean - I'm not saying it can't be done: but like I said at the start - all the best Superman stories comics has (at the moment at least) are the ones that approach the issue sideways and don't just keep retreading the basics [8]. I mean - one thought which crossed my mind as a watched Man of Steel was - wouldn't it be easier (and maybe more interesting?) to make a Superman story that was set in 1938? Or would that be a step too far? I mean - at least it would (maybe?) make us feel like we're seeing something that we hadn't already seen before?

Which I guess is what would have made Birthright and Man of Steel feel a little bit - I dunno - significant. So instead of having the legend bend to our circumstances - we should bend to its. And instead of thinking in terms of Jesus (which yeah - I realise for a lot of people is the be all and end all of everything) - it set it's sights more towards the epicness of - yeah: human's worship of the sun (or something) [9]. I don't know.

And I guess what this misses is that - hell - Man of Steel (albeit unintentionally) ends up saying quite a bit about our present head-space as like a global society - namely (I mean - if you want to go there) that life is over-rated and - hey - if someone needs to die in order to make a point about something then: oh well. I guess that's the way it has to be [10]: which (damn) isn't exactly the hopeful message I was expecting to be left with when I left the warm comfort of the IMAX [11].

But - then again: maybe the real problem isn't that enough is being made to properly ground the story (or whatever it is I'm trying to say) and more that - well yeah: it's 2013 and we're all still sitting around and watching multi-million dollar films based on the same story that our grandparents used to read? I mean - I'm not saying that everything needs to be new, new, new all of the time: but yeah - Man of Steel in lots of ways is pretty much the perfect superhero film: it does just about everything that you could want: there's lots of fightings and explosions and large-scale destructions and blah - but to what end? I mean: I felt like this was a film that got to grips with who Superman is much more than the Nolan Batman films - but God: does any of that really matter? I mean: the way that all of us fans react to these blockbuster superhero films is: well - how faithful did it manage to stay to to what has happened before in the comics and the canon and the blah blah blah - when instead it feels like maybe we should be asking: well - did this film do anything to me as a human being? Did it make me appreciate the world in a new way? Did it make me see or feel things in a way that I hadn't before? I mean yeah - ok - I can believe that a man can fly [12] but so what? Why should I care? You know....?

Instead it feels like that the attitude of the people telling these Superman stories is that we're already invested in things and really we're just supposed to admire the small little personal touches that they can to the overall legend - like The Aristocrats [13] but with less swear words and a cape or something. And - man (another totally obvious point yeah): but it's just a bit depressing to realise how much of a male fantasy Superman is. Because we know that every guy harbors the twin feelings of being an outcast and a freak and an alien at the exact same time that they think that (given the right chance) the could be superheroic and all powerful and better and kinder and more good than everyone else around - but (come on) could they not at least try and give things a bit more of a feminine touch so that it doesn't feel like a total sausage fest? (Or - let me put it like this: everyone knows who Jor-El is - but what's Superman's Kryptonian mum called?).

Because - yeah: even tho (having read Birthright a few years back) I remembered it as being a hot and delicious slice of Superman pie - rereading it in the cold light of day (having placed it in my head as "oh yeah - that really cool Superman story that makes it all feel fun and brand-new") I was dis-hearted to realise that it was all just a little bit stale and tasteless.

I mean - maybe part of the reason is that I do get Mark Waid confused (for some reason?) with Kurt Busiek (I have no idea why [14]) so I was thinking that I was going to get something a little bit more canny: I mean - yeah - Mark Waid did write Kingdom Come and the (at times brilliant) Irredeemable - but I guess one of the points I've been circling around is that: if you want to write a Superman story that actually sings (instead of just grunting in a semi-tuneful fashion) - you need someone who's willing to mess around with things a little and - well - Mark Waid doesn't really seem to be that type of writer.

And Leinil Francis Yu (who some of you will recognise from his work on the Ultimate Avengers books) has a very snappy art style with loads of foreshortening happening everywhere at once (so everyone's limbs looks like they're  pointing away in triangles) - but - well: it feels like something that's maybe best for short sharp bursts rather than something made to be sustainable over time (and man - I don't know what it is: but there's something about the way he draws that makes me feel like I'm not getting my full recommended daily dose of iron or something. It's like having something at McDonalds: half an hour later and I'm still hungry).

So - well: yeah - after all that - what have we got? I mean - I'm pleased that I saw Man of Steel because it meant I could entertain myself with some interesting internet reading afterwards [15] and yeah: it's actually pretty impressive how superhero films have finally got to the point where they can wreck some serious devastation and make the end of the world seem like a real possibility (I mean - as much as I love the Sam Raimi Spider-Man films - in terms of action - they felt more like expensive television rather than an epic wide-screen no holds bared film: but maybe that's just me?) and - as an aficionado of what I'd like to call the "cinema of transcendentalism" [16] I did get a kick by the climax that basically got just a little bit abstract with all the white light and all: because - yeah: that's something that I feel film does really well (and that I never really get to see enough of).

But at the end of the day: I guess what I'm trying to say is that - it's the 21st Century and we need some new myths and we're not going to get anywhere if we keep going back to wells that are already long since dry.

And saying that: when the sequel comes out I'm probably going to be first in line at the IMAX again because I'm a stupid idiot.

Oh well.

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[1] I mean - (well yeah) - some people out there might try and argue that Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale's Superman for All Seasons is not a colossal waste of time: but those people would be wrong.

[2] I should admit that actually All Star Superman is probably the best place to turn to for a really good Superman story and that I've kinda stacked the deck a little by saying it's not really a "proper" or whatever and saying that it doesn't really count. But I guess thinking about it - it's more that it's too refined or something maybe? It's like a burger, chips and a milkshake [3] as prepared by a gourmet chef - I mean: yeah - it's refined and tasty and delicious and I've never had a milkshake so finely blended or chips so crisp and a burger so juicy and succulent- but it's cooked so well that it's almost too much you know? Like: sometimes you want a burger, chips and milkshake that's just a little bit cheap and nasty: and that's part of the fun of it? So yeah: All Star Superman is where you should go if you want something upper class and distinctive and something to hold up as one of the pinnacles of what comics can achieve as actual - (oh fine let's just say it) art while -  Superman: Birthright is what you want if you just want something that's going to show you a good time and leave you with a smile on your face: or what we tend to call - just plain old entertainment [4]. Yeah?

[3] My go-to metaphor for superhero comics / films for all the obvious reasons.

[4] Although I wrote that when I was only still a few pages in: and - well yeah: by the time I'd waded all the way in up to my waist I kinda realised that maybe "entertainment" is maybe stretching it just a little bit.... But yeah: let me try and sum up my feeling somewhere up above instead of down in a footnote.

[5] Or - if you're looking for it on the Islington library catalogue "Superman: Birth Right." which makes it sound a little more dogmatic or something somehow.

[6] Reading this Wikipedia page (Jesus Christ in comparative mythology: "For over a century, various authors have drawn a number of parallels between the Christian views of Jesus and other religious or mythical domains. These include Greco-Roman mysteries, ancient Egyptian myths, and more general analogies involving cross-cultural patterns of dying and rising gods in the context of Jesus myth theory.") I discovered the marvellous word "Parallelomania" which basically translates as: "Just coz you see - doesn't mean it's there."

[7] As pretty much everyone else on the internet has already pointed out (there's a reason that this Grantland article is called Jesus Christ Superman) - there's a moment when he steps out of a spaceship and seemingly for no other reason than to be like "oh - hey - check me out I'm just like Jesus" he turns around and does an arms-outstretched Christ pose because - erm - because (?) - because of the wonderful things he does? I don't know. Personally I preferred things when they were a little bit more subtle and referred the whole being tested by the devil in the wilderness thing and having his standing on a Terminator-style desert of skulls. But what can you do?

[8] Although - yeah - credit where it's due: Man of Steel does manage to dole out the basics in a pretty nice way (even if it does end up making itself feel just a little bit like a particularly glossy episode of Lost).

[9] Or in other words Superman that's less Passion of The Christ and more Sunshine crossed with 2001: A Space Odyssey. That's the Superman film that I would like to see.

[10] And oops - Mark Waid is not a fan: "Seriously, back in Metropolis, entire skyscrapers are toppling in slo-mo and the city is a smoking, gray ruin for miles in every direction, it’s Hiroshima, and Michael Bay and Roland Emmerich are somewhere muttering “Too far, man, too far”…"

[11] Also (am I reading too much into this?) - but did they set Superman up as - like - the standard bearer of the forces of Creationism? Check it out: at one point one of the bad guys says "And if there's one thing that History teaches us it's that Evolution always wins." which (seeing how it's a bad guy who says it) kinda lines up Evolution as being boo-worthy and - if that's the case - then: hell yeah - let's hear if for Intelligent Design! (Or in other words:  I would not have been at all surprised if Superman had responded with a punch to the face and a quip like: "Evolution that.")

[12] Although I've got to ask: how exactly does that work exactly? Like is it a physical thing or a mental thing that propels him through the air or what?

[13] ""The Aristocrats" (also known as "The Debonaires" or "The Sophisticates" in some tellings) is an exceptionally transgressive (taboo-defying) dirty joke that has been told by numerous stand-up comedians since the vaudeville era. Over time it has evolved from a clichéd staple of vaudevillian humor into a postmodern anti-joke. Steven Wright has likened it to a secret handshake among comedians, and it is seen as something of a game in which those who tell it try to top each other in terms of shock value. It is thought of as a badge of honor among expert comedians and is notoriously hard to perform successfully. It is rarely told the same way twice, often improvised."

[14] And gosh - looking through who's written what - it's pretty clear that Kurt Busiek (Marvels, Arrowsmith, Astro City and - oh yeah - Superman: Secret Identity) is much more the more talented one: but I guess that doesn't answer why I get them mixed up: maybe it's because they're both kinda B-list when it comes to comic book writing or something? Like - you know: the directors whose names no one ever really remembers (like Andrew Niccol or Peter Weir). 

[15] And if you're the same as me then I would recommend you read this, this and this.

[16] Which - yes - is a term I have just made up now: but basically means - films which stop trying to portray physical reality and instead try to portray mental states (as in: this and this and - yeah ok - this).

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Links: Grovel Review, The Place Where Things You Love Die Review, Comic Book Resources Article: Super-stars (part 1): Mark Waid's "birthright," The Official Origin.

Further reading: Superman: All Star Superman, Superman: Secret Identity, Superman: Red Son, Superior, Irredeemable, Kingdom Come, Ultimate Comics: Avengers, DC Universe: The Stories of Alan Moore.

All comments welcome.

Books: The One

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The One
By Rick Veitch
2003





Available now from Islington Libraries
You can reserve this item for free here:
http://www.library.islington.gov.uk/TalisPrism/


I wish I could somehow make it so that you could read this entire post as if it was being read out in the slightly-stoned, slightly-spaced out, slightly-altogether-strange voice of Keanu Reeves. That voice that seems like it's best suited for a character that calls you up at 2am in the morning and lays you with a few carefully chosen semi-profundities: "Dude - did you realise that we're like: all made of stars?" Because it's that whole kind of view-point that seeps through the pages of this comic like the smell of illicit substances coming from the room next door: you want your cosmic enlightenments mixed with some hardcore superhero punching extravaganzas? Well: if the fact that the book opens with the legend "for the cosmic traveller" doesn't tip you off maybe the Alan Moore introduction will (quote: "a realistic, if satirical appraisal of our global psychosis next to an extravagent utopian fantasy that Timothy Leary and Max Yasgur [1] would have been proud of") [2].

But maybe I should cue you in with some history: as I'm hoping most of you guys already know the big two splashes of modern comic history occurred with the publication of Watchmen and The Dark Knight Returns in the second half of the eighties. I mean - yeah yeah: at this point it's a big fat cliché that they're the ones that gave birth to the idea that "comics weren't just for kids anymore" - but hey: I'd say this is one of those times that the reason it's a cliché is because it's true. But - just because Frank Miller, Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons were the first to the world that it was possible to be a little bit more serious with your sequential art storytelling that doesn't mean that there weren't those who managed to make inroads before it all got paved over by the three-headed juggernaut.

Not that I'm saying that The One is as good or as careful composed as Watchmen and The Dark Knight Returns because (- sorry Rick Veitch): it's not. But (for you film fans out there) it's kinda like the Easy Rider to the Jaws and Star Wars that came after: a bit of a trailblazer or something I guess (although in comic terms The One is a little bit more obscure than Easy Rider: but no matter [3]).

But yeah: first distributed by Epic Comics back in 1985–1986 (which technically I guess means that it wasn't really early to inspire Watchmen or The Dark Knight Returns in any major way: but early enough for Rick Veitch [4] to say (I mean: if he ever wanted) that he got there first) The One (as you should be able to tell from that washing machine detergent style cover up there) has much more on it's mind that your typical superhero comic of the period [5].

(To give you some idea of what you may be getting yourself in for here's a whole bunch of dialogue that caught my eye: "The nuclear bomb is the ultimate information medium." "Mommy? Are they really going to blow up the world?" "His theory is that atomic weapons represent a new universal myth." "The conflict between the higher and lower natures in man. And evolving planetary consciousness and sixties stuff like that.")

But in fact - as weird and as twisted as it can get (and make no mistake: this is a comic that gets plenty weird and twisted) it actually takes the idea of superheroes with a lot more respect and consideration than most other stories of this type: namely in the way that - well: you know how it's always a bit strange how in long running superhero stories the appearance of a being with god-like powers (or if we're talking of the DC and Marvel universes: the appearance of several hundred beings with god-like powers) completely fails to change society in any significant way [6]? What's great about The One is the way that it (not at all subtly) links the notion of superheroes to nuclear weapons and then proclaims (in giant capital letters): what? you think that the advert of a higher power on Earth would somehow leave us physically and psychically un-scarred? HA!  

Of course all of this philosophising isn't as strictly high-brow as it is in modern comics (see in particular Warren Ellis' little unofficial superhero trilogy of Black Summer, No Hero and Supergod) as - well - all of this was all pretty untrodden ground at the point it was made: and so it never manages to feel quite as solid as one would hope and yet (on the other hand) that kind of adds to it's charm. I don't know if this is just me: but the whole book as this kind of rough and ready quality that makes it feel like it was made by a talented sixth former (which is the kind of thing I normally say as a criticism - but here I guess I just mean it more descriptively): there's a fascination with old style rock as the medium through which all our souls will be saved and the superhero fight dialogue (and man I love the way that Veitch draws trains raining from the sky) is peppered with lines like: "Marx tells us to quietly observe the technological advances your greed and avarice drive you to... then to pick out the few ideas that actually hold merit and apply them correctly!" which is (of course) brilliant but also - well - a little precocious. Let me put it this way: everytime I read it I can kinda smell that damp musty odour that you'd get in a bedsit in Brixton which isn't meant so much said to turn you off than to make sure that you should know that you need to be a particular type of person in order to have this turn you on: a little bit crusty, a little bit intellectual and a little bit lefty. And for me: well - that's one of my favourite type of people: but results will differ according to taste.

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[1] Timothy Leary I already knew about (the type of person prone to making such remarks as: "I declare that The Beatles are mutants. Prototypes of evolutionary agents sent by God, endowed with a mysterious power to create a new human species, a young race of laughing freemen.") Max Yasgur on the other hand I had to google: turns out he was a simple dairy farmer who, in 1969, let his land be used for the Woodstock festival so the American version of Michael Eavis basically.

[2] Of course - maybe the fact that the book is called The One means that my brain is tuned to Matrix frequencies but yeah: still - whatever - Keanu Reeves.

[3] In fact - I'm not too sure that I ever would have heard of it without coming across it on the shelves on one of our branches. But then I'm not exactly a comic book historian or anything (I'd never heard of The Adventures of Luther Arkwright until - well: I came across it on the shelves on one of our branches: so yeah -so what do I know?).

[4] Who - funnily enough was working with Alan Moore on Swamp Thing at around the same time as he was doing The One: so maybe he was stealing his brainpowers or something.

[5] Or - hell: let's be honest: more on it's mind that the typical superhero comic now: but oh well.

[6] Of course for those of you who've read it (and I'm assuming that you've all read it): this is one of the many reasons why Watchmen - with it's zeppelins, electric powered cars and crooked President with the oh-so-distinctive nose [7] - feels so "realistic." A world with superheroes is a world that wouldn't look like ours.

[7] Fun fact: if you google "Nixon's nose" you get this IGN article (Watchmen: What Went Wrong): "That's another of the film's downfalls - it reduces a lot of the material into high camp. And what the f**k was going on with Nixon's nose? That should be a new meme, like jumping the shark or nuking the fridge. 'Oh s**t, it's gone Nixon's nose.'"

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Links: Shapescapes Review. 

Further reading: The Programme, Irredeemable, Black Summer, No Hero, Supergod, Supreme Power, The Boys, Swamp Thing, The Adventures of Luther Arkwright, Ex Machina, Neil Gaiman's Midnight Days, Watchmen, Batman: The Dark Knight Returns, Superman: Red Son.

All comments welcome.

Books: The Shadow

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The Shadow
Vol 1: The Fires Of Creation
Written by Garth Ennis
Art by Aaron Campbell
2013



Available now from Islington Libraries
You can reserve this item for free here:
http://www.library.islington.gov.uk/TalisPrism/


All I know about the Shadow is the 1994 film starring Jack Donaghy Alec Baldwin - which I'm guessing I must have seen on it's TV Premier on ITV or BBC1 or whatever (back when it took untold millennia for films to make the journey from the big screen to the small one). Of course - as we all know - nowadays superhero films are basically American's number one export: but all the way back then they were viewed with the same sort of wary eye as films based on computer games [1]: mainly I guess because - one: special effects hadn't really got to the place where you could realistic depict the larger-than-life action scenes that are the lifeblood of the genre and two: well - because they were total rubbish.

And so yeah: if you asked for the sum total of my knowledge about The Shadow I guess I would have mumbled something the evil that lurks in the heart of men (?) said something about the rubbish Jack Donaghy Alec Baldwin film (which in my mind is kinda intermingled with The Rocketeer and the Dick Tracy film: so much so that when I try to picture them I can see Jack Donaghy Alec Baldwin playing all three roles: but what the hey) and then made a "what more do you want from me" kinda shurg and then beckoned you to leave me alone.

So why I am even bothering to write up about this comic? I mean - this is a character who first appeared in 1930 on the radio which - in my mind - means that he's about as ancient as the Greeks, Egyptians and dinosaurs. I mean - at the end of each episode (of the radio thingie) there would be a bit where the Shadow would remind his listeners that "The weed of crime bears bitter fruit. Crime does not pay... The Shadow knows!" which - for this 21st Century kid is about as lame as "Remember kids - winner's don't do drugs!" or whatever it is Captain Planet that used to say [2].

Well - this shouldn't be much of a surprise to anyone paying attention: but obviously the thing that makes things worth reading or not (nine times out of ten) is the writing - and in the case of this book: it's one of my first comic book crushes [3]: Mr "Sweary war-obessed Irishman" aka Garth Ennis.

If you've read any of Garth Ennis' recent work (he started off kinda like a lighted-hearted, young, care-free frat boy with a scatological sense of humour but then slowly grew into a much more bleak, bitter and serious ballader of war stories: namely the first and second world wars - scraping off the bright and shiny paint of the legends and fairytales to expose the hard leaden realities underneath) then you will not be at all surprised to find that the very first line of this supposedly fun, light hearted pulp adventure is: "Between Nineteen thirty-one and nineteen forty-five, Japanese occupation forces killed fifteen million Chinese people."

Wow. Major bummer dude. That's kind of like turning on to watch an episode of Colombo or something - only to see someone being stabbed in horrific close-up and then to see the traumatising effect it has on the victim's friends and family: it's like - yeah: sure - that's the kinda basis of all the genre-fun that we want - but we don't (normally) want to have to confront the actual reality of the situation: we just want the mystery without so much of the murder - you know? The escapist excitement without the awful grisly details. But - of course: what makes Ennis such a gripping read is the way that he likes to mix up his thrills and spills with grit and grime - a gourmet sandwhich with all the trimmings embedded with dirt and bugs  

The strange thing is that - from that stark and brutal opening - the book that switches into a much recognisable pattern of early 20th Century adventure - like an episode of The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles [4] almost: blah blah exposition and same-old same-old and a bunch of situations you've seen a million times before. It's at this point that I started to get concerned: was Garth Ennis phoning it in? Was this just going to be as crappy as what you would normally expect a Shadow comic to be? (Like I think I said: if it wasn't for Ennis' name on the cover - I really don't think I would have bothered to even pick this book up....).

But there wasn't any real need to worry: the first third of the book is just about setting the scene and getting things into place for the mayhem and awfulness that happens later: where one cliché after another is over-turned (or set on fire) and what you thought was merely going to be rip-roaring mutates into something else entirely: and - dotted around here and there - a few typical Ennis touches (one character in particular plays like an ancestor of Cal “a cop on the edge” Hicks from the Jody and T.C one off special The Good Old Boys (as collected in Preacher: Ancient History): which is all to the good).

So yeah - for a superhero whose powers are way way less than super [5]: this is actual a pretty solid reading experience. All of which goes to show - that even the lamest worn-out character can - in the right hands - be grafted on to a story that's well worth your time.

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[1] And for more on that subject I would recommend this fantastic Grantland article: Hollywood Archaeology: The Super Mario Bros. Movie Unearthing a major disaster to learn the lessons held within. 

[2] Oh my god: having a quick look at the Captain Planet and the Planeteers wikipedia page and it sounds amazing (plus: it gets bonus points for the non-ironic use of the word: "edutainment") and I now kinda want to re-watch the special episodes: "The episode titled "Mind Pollution" (1991) was notable in that it did not deal with the environment, but rather with the issue of drug abuse. This was explained by the fact that the characters thought of drug addiction as "pollution of the mind." The episode revolved around an epidemic of a designer drug known as "Bliss" created by Verminous Skumm (which is such a brillant name for a villain: it's like Dickens on an off day going - "yeah fine whatever: we'll just call him Verminous Skumm."). It was also known for being quite a dark episode in the Captain Planet series, as it allowed a scene of Linka's cousin Boris bleeding from his arms (!?!) after jumping through a window and dying from an overdose of the drug." (Note: and on the subject of Captain Planet - for anyone who hasn't seen it already - check out Don Cheadle's take).  

[3] Like I think I may have already said: I first read Preacher at exactly the right age.

[4] Yeah - in the early 1990s they made a TV show of Indiana Jones and - yes - it is almost exactly as awful and boring and bland as can probably imagine.

[5] According to his wikipedia page: "Skilled marksman and martial artist" "Master of disguise" "Master of stealth" "Able to make himself nearly invisible to the naked eye" "Can alter and control a person's thoughts and perceptions" = YAWN.

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Links: Comic Book Resources Review of The Shadow #1, Geeks of Doom Review of The Shadow #3 / The Shadow #4, Comics Beat Article: The Shadow and Garth Ennis – A Review of the First Script.

Further reading: Battlefields, War Stories, The Marvels Project, The Twelve, Alan's War: The Memories of G.I. Alan Cope, Preacher, Turf, Tom Strong, Ministry of Space.

Profiles: Garth Ennis.

All comments welcome.

Books: The Avengers: Secret Avengers: Run the Mission, Don't Get Seen, Save the World

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Secret Avengers: Run the Mission, Don't Get Seen, Save the World
Written by Warren Ellis
Art by Jamie McKelvie, Kev Walker, David Aja, Michael Lark, Alex Maleev, Stuart Immonen
2012



Available now from Islington Libraries
You can reserve this item for free here:
http://www.library.islington.gov.uk/TalisPrism/


Even before I had even started one single word (or image) of Secret Avengers I opened up a new document so I could note down the stuff that came to me as I read it [1] and wrote down: "Good old Warren Ellis." At this point - that's how confident I am that having his name of the front cover of a comic means that - at the very least - it's a book that will be worth the time it takes to read: and - hell - if he's on form: then the sky is much less than the limit.

Of course: seeing how this is a mainstream marvel book (and not even a proper stand-alone one: I mean: at the start I was confused by the fact that it started at issue 16 and wondered if I was missing important story-stuff by starting at the middle [2]: but after deciding: "what the hey" I jumped in and realised that none of this was even an issue: and that the Vol 3 thing is a bit of a misnomer: seeing how it reads as a collection of short stories more than anything else: but we'll get to that in a bit) it's Ellis working for a (what I assume is a fat) paycheck more than trying to set the world on fire: but there's enough here to keep your brain (well - my brain at least) ticking over and twisted in knots: plus the fact that the artwork is (at points) pretty cool (I'd classify it as B-list [3] - which is several letters above the type of thing you normally get in your typical mainstream superhero comics so - you know: that's something at least): or - to put it another way: ok - yeah: it's basically just bubblegum - but it's well made bubblegum: with a lot of interesting flavours.

What that means: it's got a robust vocabulary (which means that you get lots of lovely words like "stellify" and "indubitably." [4]), Ellis' typical gonzo dialogue (with "Where is your Bluddy Steve Jobs Tricknology now, rich yankee pigs with your tight pants?" on one side and "People always forget that a time machine is also a space machine." on the other) with a healthy smattering of ideas (including: how to use city as a bomb)   and a deft touch with superhero characterization (with basically just means everyone gets to say one cool line at some point): like it says in the book: "it's clever and insane at the same time."

What's even better is that (taking a cue from Planetary): each issue is it's own self-contained little story: which means that it's really easy to dip in-and-out (because - you know: reading a whole comic can be such a major chore). In fact - forget Planetary: a much better example would be the short-lived Global Frequency: I mean - all you need to do is swap Miranda Zero for Steve Rogers and it's practically the same - only with the science-fictional volume turned all the way up (hey: I mean - it's superheroes so that's expected - right?): compact little action-adventure tales poking holes in the fabric of the world: short stories that are all quips and teeth.

I mean: for me - if you wanted to know what would make it better then I'd suggest that it cut down on the fighting (and: man - there is a lot of fighting) and ramped up the M C Escher style craziness: but that's just niggles. But like I said at the start: it's Warren Ellis - so (at this point) you should know exactly what it is you're going to get. And - hell: I'm always game for whatever good time he has to show me: even if the next day I can barley recall what it was that we got up to: but that's bubblegum for you.

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[1] Here's my tip for anyone out there thinking of reviewing stuff - it helps a lot if you write down your thoughts are you read it / watch it: trying to remember the things you were thinking of afterwards isn't really a viable option.

[2] And nosing around I discovered that there are two volumes of Secret Avengers that came before this (courtesy of Ed Brubaker): plus a tie-in to the Fear Itself blah: not to mention the Rick Remender series that comes directly after. However: I don't think I'm gonna bother to read either of them (let alone write them up on the blog - so (for the time being) this is as much Secret Avengers insight you're going to get from me: so enjoy it while it lasts.

[3] Notable artists (for me anyway) include: Kev Walker (a 2000AD graduate done good), Michael Lark (best known for his work on Gotham Central: and his lean, mean drawing style), Alex Maleev (the guy who did all the heavy lifting on Bendis' Daredevil run: who's even better at that realism feeling: and messing around with different drawing old-fashioned styles) and Stuart Immonen (who worked on the tail-end Ultimate Spider-man: and whose artwork looks like it would bounce if you threw it up against a wall).

[4] Which - obviously - reminds me of this. 

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Links: Forbidden Planet Blog Review.

Further reading: Global Frequency, Thunderbolts: Faith in Monsters / Caged Angels, The Avengers: The New Avengers: Illuminati, Ultimate Comics: Iron Man: Armor Wars, Gotham Central, Daredevil (2001 - 2006), Ultimate Spider-Man, Planetary, S.H.I.E.L.D..

Profiles: Warren Ellis.

All comments welcome.

Books: Daredevil: Born Again

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Daredevil: Born Again
Written by Frank Miller
Art by David Mazzucchelli
1986




Available now from Islington Libraries
You can reserve this item for free here:
http://www.library.islington.gov.uk/TalisPrism/


I think us comic fans (all the comic fans in the house say "yeah!") can all agree that Batman: Year One is one of the best superhero comics out there. Right guys? I mean - come on: it's got pretty pretty everything - the dark and gritty gloomy atmosphere (that thankfully never skews too dark [1]), a sense of realism that lets you believe in it's premise (without making you realise how gosh-darn silly a man all dressed up like Dracula would be) and a non-stop frantic energy that makes you bounce from page-to-page like a pinball on some kind of unholy mixture of crack coke speed and caffeine [2]: what's not to love?

But for those of those who know - well - they know that before Year One Frank Miller and David Mazzucchelli [3] combined their forces to create a comic that's still rated as one of the best Daredevil stories ever (I realise that that sounds like I'm damning with faint praise - but it's not supposed to: I mean - come on: if you know where to look there are a lot of great Daredevil stories out there - most especially in Brian Michael Bendis' 2001 - 2006 run: which always manages to go out like extra delicious hot cakes when I get them for the Comic Forum meetings....). The late 1980s was a period when a lot of classic epoch-defining comics came out which ended up changing everything for ever (or whatever) but (sadly) one of the inevitable   consequences of all the big love going to the smash-hitters is that - well yeah: there's a few other books that came out at the same time that kinda of got left in the shade a little.

Of course the end of that thought is that Daredevil: Born Again is one of those unsung masterpieces (or - well - unsung in comparison to blah) but - well - the truth is a little bit more tricky than that (damn it).

If I was only going to use one word to describe it then that word would be: immense. Not so much because it has big gigantic spaceships or world-smashing machines or anything like that - no, no, no. This isn't Jack Kirby or Grant Morrison or whatever: nah - the immensity here is of the emotional sort: it's taking your operatic mainstays like: doomed love, existential depression, thwarted something-or-other (thwarted anger? thwarted chances? I dunno -but thwarted is such a good word so - what-the-hey) and - most especially - consuming, all-enveloping, life-defining revenge.

The old Klingon proverb says that revenge is a dish best served cold [4] but - come on - that's not really much of a recipe is it? (Imagine buying a Delia Smith cookbook and that was the total amount of the instructions you were given: it wouldn't be very helpful now - would it?). Thankfully in Born Again Frank Miller and David Mazzucchelli present a culinary masterclass in just how to prepare, spice and season one of the best accounts of superhero-flavoured revenge that I think I've ever seen. I mean - I wasn't the one who was eating it: but I could still feel it in my mouth - fizzling on the tip of my tongue.

Skip past reading the introduction (which reads like the person who wrote it swallowed a thesaurus and it keeps returning on him through his fingers) and just jump straight into the hard-boiled (it is Frank Miller after all [5]) beat-down that awaits within: "Winter hit Manhatten like an unwanted relative. Drops in with no warning and seems to stay forever." and stuff like that.

The other thing you should know is that it's very much front-loaded in terms of the goodness: that is to say - that when it starts (and if you're anything like me) the tautness of - well: pretty much everything (if you could pluck a comic: then it feels like this one would ring out like the bottom note on a cello): the plot, the art, the little character moments: it all joins together to make something that makes me crackle with (I dunno how to say this properly) - artistic electricity?

The first four parts especially especially [6] are spell-binding in their comics-style mastery: check the way that Matt Murdock's [7] sleeping body gets smaller and smaller at the start of each chapter or the two-page scene with Ben Urich on the phone. The way that the backround conversations weave into the throughline. That slow zoom in to his face. And the way it ramps up the colours in his face until realism has been left behind and his skin is red and his eyes are yellow: it's cool is what I'm saying. I mean - yeah: ok - it gets laid on a little thickly at points (at one point Matt's superhuman senses are described as: "a great way to catch all the misery of being alive." - which I know is a bit much but (at the same time) is utterly fantastic - no?).

But then: I dunno - (after all that bliss) towards the end: it hits somekind of wall and starts to deflate a little - a trait which it shares with Batman: Year One (and which I put down to the limits of trying to write something that feels complete within the limits of a franchise where nothing is ever really allowed to change too much [9]  ): I mean - I can see that Frank Miller is trying to write about something about the misuses of patriotism (or something): but the problem is that Matt Murdoch's struggle kinda of gets lost underneath: plus (for me) there's only so many scenes I can take of the Kingpin [10] being mean to his underlings before it all starts to feel a little bit like Dr Evil [11]: but what the hey - it's a fun ride while it lasts.  

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[1] By which - of course I mean - no one gets raped (for those of you that don't know: having someone rape one of your (female) characters was the default option of choice for superhero comics searching for some sort of prestige back in the late 80s and early 90s: because that's the one thing that made Watchmen so great -obviously: and hey (by the same logic) - if you get a mop-top haircut then - yes - you too can be as big as the Beatles).

[2] Yeah - ok: so I googled "drug that makes you jittery." Leave me alone.

[3] Frank Miller on the final page writes: "It's almost criminal how easy David makes it to write a script. He makes a three-dimensional stage of the individual panel, complete in authentic detail, nonetheless uncluttered and utterly readable. He creates actors whose dramatic range is startling, whose best and most compelling moments are wordless. He's talking of writing his own comics. Keep an eye out for them. I will." Little did anyone know but it took over twenty years (!) before David came out with his own book: Asterios Polyp (which you should check out if you haven't already).

[4] "It is very cold in space."

[5] And I bet I know how he likes his eggs.

[6] And just check out the names! Part one: Apocalypse. Part two: Purgatory. Part three: Pariah! (and that exclamination mark is theirs not mine: so you know they're serious business - right? Right).

[7] I'm sure that someone else out there has already pointed this out - but still - isn't it funny how there's this split between superheroes who you (mostly) think of by their superhero names: Superman is mostly referred to as Superman, Batman is Batman, Wonder Woman is Wonder Woman etc: and then there's the slightly lower tier of costumed do-gooders who foreground the human over the super: Peter Parker probably being the most well-known example: where the drama (mostly) comes from the trials and tribulations suffered by the hero when he's not wearing his spandex. Well (in case you didn't know): if you're talking about the comic Daredevil: you're going to find yourself thinking about and referring to "Matt Murdock" an awful lot more than you will "Daredevil" mainly (I guess) because as a rooftop super-ninja vigilante dressing up in a leather devil-horned outfit he's pretty much invincible ("The one relief i can give myself when... it all gets to be too much." [8]) - but as a blind lawyer with a string of ex-girlfriends: well - he's got more weak points: that's for sure - something which Frank Miller knows how to exploit to the maximum.

[8] The less said about that the better.

[9] And no one can ever die.

[10] I don't know if I'm reaching a bit: but I'd say it's notable that the Kingpin (as Matt Murdock's main bad guy nemesis) isn't some freak in clown make-up or somekind of hideous mutant animal thing: nope - he's just a criminal: "The boss of everything bad that makes money in what must be most of the free world.": but with no real further motivations than to increase his revenue stream (no Pinky and the Brain style: "try to take over the world!" for this guy: he'd much rather just control things from behind the scenes).

[11] And if you read the book I'm sure you'll all know which scene I mean (I think - or maybe it's just me).

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Links: Mindless Ones Article: Why I love Daredevil: Born Again: part 1 – depression / Rooftops (or why I love Daredevil Born Again part 2), The Comics Journal Article: Some Thoughts on David Mazzucchelli’s Daredevil: Born Again Artist’s Edition, Comic Book Resources Article: Pipeline: Mazzuchelli's "Daredevil" Reigns Supreme / Revisiting Frank Miller's "Daredevil: Born Again", Wednesday's Haul Article: Apocalypse, Purgatory, Pariah! A visual reading of Miller and Mazzucchelli’s Daredevil: Born Again. 

Further reading: Daredevil (2001 - 2006), Batman: Year One, Batman: The Dark Knight Returns, Elektra: Assassin, Asterios Polyp, The Life and Times of Martha Washington in the Twenty-First Century.

Profiles: Frank Miller.

All comments welcome.