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Blog Bits  No new content today, just a bit of housecleaning.  I've been pretty busy, so the posting has been sparse, and it is likely to continue like this for the next few weeks, we have my son's birthday this weekend, then fall break, then my daughter's birthday which won't leave much time for posting.  November will be a bit light as well thanks to a lot of travel for work, but I'll try to maintain at least a weekly schedule.  Next real blog post will probably be sometime the week of October 10th.  See you then.

Superman #6, Detective Comics #^^ (First Two-Face) and a mini-review of Inception

COMIC COMMENTARY


Modern Marvels

Superman #6: I've really enjoyed the "rebirth. Revamp" of recent DC books.  It feels like we are in a new renaissance of DC comics.  No where has this been more evident than in the Superman books.  This month's issue wrapped up the Eradicator storyline, sets up a new Superboy that is in its own way unique, and gives us the book's focus on Superman and his son.  Everything that was missing for the past 4 years that shows that this take is doing it right can be summed up in a single image:

Golden Age Greats

Detective Comics #66: When you list the upper-echelon of Batman's villains, Two-Face is always in the top 5.  So it was a pleasant surprise to get to his first appearance.  Almost everything we would think of as classic Two-Face is here: scarred face/scarred coin, basing crimes on "twos', you an even read the animosity between him and Robin here by applying a modern reader's sensibilities since Robin thwarts most of his attempts on Batman's life.  The solution of plastic surgery is mentioned, then discarded, as the only surgeon skilled enough is out of country due to the war.  The only notable differences are that his last name here is Kent, not Dent.  This was also notable for being a continuing story.  Early strips were modeled after newspaper strips, but other than a villain appearing to die or escape in one issue and come back in the next, this is the first time I think there has been a definitive "To be continued".  Also of note is a Boy Commando tale where a reporter from the far future has a mummy relate a wartime tale of a conflict between Nazis and the Boy Commandos in Egypt.  Yeah, I'll repeat that: a mummy tales a reporter in a space age future about a battle in WWII.


MOVIE MADNESS

Inception: I just watched Inception for the first time.  I found it to be really interesting and visually really creative.  I enjoyed it on its surface, but I think those trying to find multiple layers and readings on the film to parallel the multiple layers of dream presented in the film are trying to hard, and while many reviewers at the time tried to present it as an extremely complex narrative, I think on the whole it was relatively simple (but then multiple earths, timelines, etc. are my bread and butter so what do I know).  My really only complaint with this film was Marion Cotilliard.  I don't know if I've seen her in anything else, but she really grates on the nerves here as Mal.

Black Dragons, Black Panthers, and Podcasts

This one is an amalgamation of the past few days due to birthday celebrations and all-day work conferences.

COMIC COMMENTARY

Golden Age Greats 

All-Star Comics #12  The JSA, recently renamed the Justice Battalion splits up to save varying inventors and their inventors from the Black Dragon Society and are brought back together in the end to save Johnny Thunder and round up the leaders.  This is the same Black Dragon Society that was name-checked in the recent Atom strip in All-American on-sale the same month.  I noticed that the Sandman strip was not by Kirby and Simon which is unusual for the normal art team to not do their character's All-Star installment.




Silver Age Spotlight

Fantastic Four #52  Reed and team are lured to Wakanda to by King T'Challa in order to prove his readiness for something.  Lee and Kirby have been on a role since the beginning of the Frightful Four trilogy round #36.  This is the first one that wasn't bad, but hasn't lived up to its recent peers, especially the stellar #51.  I think what lets it down for me is Lee's dialogue.  The Panther is mister smug pants, "Ha, Ha I'm so smart and better because you can't defeat me because I laid traps."  Its bit like Kraven and Spider-Man.  Let me prove I am your better by ensuring a less than even playing field.  The story also ends abruptly for T'Challa to tell why he really wants them here in a forced cliff-hanger.  I really like that Black Panther has the classic full face mask here and not the Avengers half-mask.  I thought it was a more recent design aesthetic, but I should have trusted Kirby's design sense to have come up with it first.

PODCAST PROPS

Give Me Those Star Trek #1 The Cage click here to download Siskoid and Gene Hendricks examine the Star Trek Pilot, The Cage and muse what it might have been like if that was the Pilot that went to series.  A strong debut for the podcast.  My personal opinion is that it would have been a lot more serious Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea type of show and lasted 2-3 series.  I just don't think the type of cast would have allowed for the type of stories that made Star Trek a classic.

Film and Water Podcast: High Fidelity click here to download The episode makes me want to watch this movie.  I think I saw the latter half one night on cable when I woke up in the middle of the night one night.  It was also intersting to hear Rob have a guest on who had the same appreciation for the film, but who had different interpretations and take aways from different scenes

Palace of Glittering Delights: Enterprise  click here to download Andrew Leyland covers a recent watch-thru of key Enterprise episodes in honor of the 50the anniversary of Star Trek.  I've never seen Enterprise and this makes me want to check it out.  I think it would be interesting to watch it as kind of a Trek continuity order (ie watch Enterprise, then Star Trek TOS, then Star Trek Animated. etc.).  I do agree with Andy about the unsuitability for older shows to be binge watched, and I've started mixing and matching nights of TV from old series for fun and variety.

Also, I've listened to Jay and Miles X-Plain the X-Men episodes 103-105.  I may discuss them in more detail later, but I wanted to focus on some shows that haven't received as much coverage from me.

Podcast Reactions (Jay and Miles X-Plain the X-Men and Fantasticast

PODCAST PROPS

Jay and Miles X-Plain the X-Men #101: I’m Not Bad, I’m Drawn That Way click here to download

Jay and Miles look at the Gossamyr storyline from New Mutants.  This storyline I have a particular relationship with because this was where my subscription to New Mutants kicked in.  After a few years of getting the Sears Marvel packs for Christmas from the annual Sears Wish List Christmas catalog, I asked for subscriptions one year to all of the X-books running at the time.  Honestly, it was a bit of a letdown and led to some buyer’s remorse.  Luckily it was followed by Inferno and a great Asgard storyline.  My recollection and read of Gossamyr was different from Jay’s.  The take presented on the episode was one of a creature from a manipulative society who couldn’t help but repeat learned behavior and didn’t understand what was wrong.  I think Gossamyr was explicitly and propsefully playing the New Mutants against each other and knew exactly what she was doing.  While I agree that it was tragic, I think there was some irony in Gossamyr seeing her family fall prey to a physical manipulation and exploitation to mirror the emotional manipulation she was bringing against the team.

The Fantasticast #195: Fantastic Four #155, Battle Royale click here to download

There is no such thing as a bad Fantasticast episode.   Andy and Stephen are about 100 issues ahead of my Marvel Silver Age reading, but I always make sure to listen when a new episode drops.  They touched a bit on how underused Medusa feels during this period.  I think it is because of a fundamental problem with the character on this particular team:  She brings nothing to the table except for gender.  I don’t mean that to come off as sexist, but once Reed stops keeping to the lab worrying and agonizing over Sue she doesn’t have unique skillset.  It’s like the tropes in RPGs and multi-player videogames that themselves were influenced by comics.  To make a workable unit and give everyone a chance to shine, everyone needs a unique skillset.  It’s normally some variation of the following: strong person, technical person/utility player, stealthy person, skilled fighter/stealth, long distance blaster, healing/defense.  Now look at the FF:  Strong person?  Thing.  Technical person/utility player: Reed and to a lesser extent Sue and Johnny with the versatile ways they use their powers.  Skilled fighter? Ben Stealth? Sue Long Distance Blaster? Johnny with Sue to a lesser extent Healing/Defense? Sue.  Each is good at multiple things but stands out in one thing.  Medusa?  She doesn’t replace the function Sue played re: defense and stealth.  She isn’t as strong or as good of a fighter as Ben and she isn’t as versatile as Reed.  Once Sue is reintroduced and Crystal marries Quicksilver, she stops being the confidant of the male characters, and they do nothing to make her relatable to any female readers that might exist.  She has no relationships, no background other than being an Inhuman [which never revolves around her], nothing.  She is literally there just to fill a fourth spot.

    Oh, and Colorforms, sweet, glorious Colorforms, the little semi-magnetic clings you could create scenes with on a little easel.  The easel would have a backdrop, and there would be clings of characters, props, and sound effects.  Colorforms and Shrinkydinks made up a good bit of my childhood.

 

Comics (Carnage, Howard the Duck), The Avengers Season 1 Episode 6, and Dr. Jeckyll and Mr. Hyde(1920)

COMIC COMMENTARY

Modern Material

A busy Labor Day meant I read less than usual.

Carnage #11: I can’t lie, I follow this series solely because of the writer, Gerry Conway.  I can’t recommend this issue because it is a transitional issue so while there is good character work, not much happens to move the plot forward.  Carnage has been played as a horror title before, but usually in a splatterfest, gore kind of way.  Conway plays against type and drops Carnage in a supernatural world that takes more from Lovecraft than Eli Roth.  He’s also playing with several interesting characters not used anywhere in the Marvel universe like John Jameson, Eddie Brock, and Victoria Montessi.

Howard the Duck #10:  This felt like the prelude to a series wrap-up in advance of a series cancellation.  It’s a shame because this has been one of the better humor books from Marvel.  Things get meta as Howard discovers his series has been a guerilla filmed reality show for the Mojoverse and meets his writer and artist (or their stand-ins) who try to cover the fact that they’ve been taking bribes from Mojo to alter the course of Howard’s life.  With Howard having been used for both social commentary and pop culture parody, pairing Howard with Mojo to comment on reality TV and comment on some current Marvel trends is a natural fit.  Chip and Joe never goes so far as to bite the hands that feeds it, so it isn’t as biting as Gerber’s work, but still refreshing and funny.

TELEVISION TIDBITS

“Girl on the Trapeze” The Avengers Season 1, Episode 6: Dr. Keel and his nurse Carol become embroiled in a kidnapping plot as they try to unravel the mystery of the woman who jumped in the Thames.  If you only known the Avengers as that spy show with the man in a bowler and a kick-ass female sidekick, more so if you only thought that the Avengers was a Marvel comic.  Airing on ITV from 1962-1968, the Avengers did not start out as most fans of the series would have expected.  The star of the series was Ian Hendry who teamed with secret agent John Steed played by Patrick MacNee to help Steed solve difficult cases as one of Steed’s expert amateurs.  Almost none of the first season exists due to a short season because of a strike and the practice of wiping videotapes to reuse them.  This one of two episodes from that first season to survive.

     The episode is a bit atypical in that it doesn’t feature Steed, but it reinforces that Ian Hendry is the star.  The episode is a mystery that becomes a political thriller with a circus as a backdrop.  There is a lot of tension in the script by Dennis Spooner, and I enjoyed it thoroughly.  The only criticism is that the plan seems overly complex for a group of foreign agents operating in the UK because the purpose of the plot seems to change.  The kidnapped girl was at the wrong place/wrong time to visit the defecting trapeze artist who was murdered, and the murderers are using her to cover the murder (they have a VISA for 46 people so they need 46 to leave without suspicion).  However, by the end the kidnapping was the purpose of the plot in order to blackmail her defecting father to return.  It makes logical sense that a potential defector would reach out to someone who successfully had defected, it just caught me off-guard when the switch was revealed.  The episode doesn’t make a big deal out of it or call attention to it in the way that it was staged, it just made start to question the complexity of the plot.

MOVIE MADNESS

Dr. Jeckyll and Mr. Hyde (1920): This silent classic stars John Barrymore as both Jeckyll and Hyde.  I assume most readers will be familiar with the basics of the story through pop culture osmosis if nothing else.  Barrymore is a highlight with an extremely magnetic stage presence.  Brandon Hurst is also notable as the lecherous George Carew.  I found this to be a bit of a struggle until the Hyde transformation because the print I viewed did not have an orchestral score.  I find that my ability to stay engaged in a silent film depends on the number of title cards and the presence of a score of some kind to engage the audial sense.  Barrymore’s first Hyde transformation is awesome as a single long take achieved by facial contortion and not makeup.  Makeup does get used and becomes more explicit as a Dorian Gray approach is applied to Hyde, his visage becoming uglier and more monstrous as he engages in more depraved activity.  I also like the glimpses we get into the vices.  When Carew tempts Jeckyll and puts him on the track to becoming Hyde, it involves a particular dance hall girl.  Hyde is shown to seduce her, throw her out, and she later appears in an opium den as Hyde picks up another lover.  It was really an effective way of showing events that are only hinted at in the novella.