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.
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