In 1963, a crack advertising firm was sent to New York by a series of economic factors for a crime they didn't commit. These men and women promptly escaped from being bought by McCann Advertising and escaped back to Madison Avenue. Today, still sought after by many clients, they survive on clients like Jaguar, 1960s-era angst, and meaning gazes into the middle distance. If you have a problem, if you need something sold, maybe you can hire . . .THE MAD MEN
[Shame on you, Internet, for not having a Youtube of Mad Men in the style of the "A-Team" intro for me to slot in here. However, feel free to imagine it being here and being totally awesome.]
Last week was a pretty grim episode, wasn't it? I mean, sure, it has the awesomeness of having Trudy utterly humble Pete in ways that even the Iron Sheik wouldn't unleash on someone, and Don torpedoing Herb the Jagoff's attempt to get all the ads to feature him, but . . .yeah. Bleak stuff, even for Mad Men.
This week, the title of the episode is "To Have and To Hold," which is the title of the soap that Megan's on. Does this mean something? Let's find out.
"TO HAVE AND TO HOLD"
"We're sitting here waiting for the phone to ring: this IS high school."
We open with that rarest of things--a continuing plot thread from last week (this early, it's quite the thing) Pete and Don have a clandestine meeting (in Pete's hellaciously depressing apartment in the city) with the Heinz Ketchup rep from last week--the one that the Bean rep lost his shit about in an epic "If you so much as look at him, I'll kill all three of us" wobbly. They make plans to work in secret on a spec project to woo Heinz to SCDP, and Don puts Stan in a windowless room to work on the campaign, which so far seems to be Don and Stan hitting a joint and debating what a hot dog really wants on it.
This leads to another baller-move Draper presentation, followed quickly by Peggy's presentation (so much for secrecy) and a wonderful scene where Draper's crew sits with Peggy's crew and learns they've both lost, and even though they're rivals, there's a quiet moment of understanding between the two of them--as small firms, they fight over the scraps.
Well, right before Ken Cosgrove comes in and tells them their secret project has cost them the Heinz beans. Nothing wagered, nothing gained, but a little wagered and everything's lost.
That might be important later.
Meanwhile, Joan gets a visitor--Kate (who I think was her roommate from way back in Season 1? I may be wrong there) She's repping for Mary Kay, but planning to interview with Avon because women competing with women is really rough. This is contrasted with Joan, who's now a partner at SCDP (with all the gnashing of teeth the memory of that entails) and Joan's mom--who, you'll recall spent most of Season 4 punching holes in her boat is actually proud of her, because she has money and power.
Think on that--we'll come back to it a little later. In the meantime, take a shot of Johnnie Walker.
Meanwhile, Dawn (Don's secretary that they hired to take the curse off being construed as racist last season) gets a subplot, which is pretty stunning on its own, but more for the knock-on effect. She punches fellow secretary Scarlet's time card so she can skip out on five hours worth of work, and this draws the attention of Joan, who inflicts her DEATH STARE on both of them, forces out the truth, and she fires Scarlet on the spot, threatening to do the same to Dawn.
Unfortunately, Scarlet's Harry Crane's secretary and fuck-buddy and this touches off Harry Crane's molting from "homunculus with ridiculous sideburns" to "Omega-level asshole" and he storms into a meeting of the partners, demanding a partnership, as he's just dreamed up an idea to help Dow Chemical (who SCDP DID get it seems) to prop up their sagging image, as it's been suffering given that they're y'know, dumping napalm on people at this time in history. The trouble is, baller moves like that are beyond Harry's ken, and he's not quite smart enough to know that, and continues to run his mouth even after he gets a fat commission check threatening that he's going to fuck off an ply his trade elsewhere. Cooper dismisses his theatrics with laser-guided insults and Roger manages to up even his usual level of withering contempt.
Joan, meanwhile, is done with this shit, and the only thing you can do when that happens is a girl's night out. So she and Kate go to a single's bar, then another, which primarily consists of drinking and picking up guys, and Joan looks rather OVER the whole damn thing. This culminates in a great scene where, the day after, Joan and Kate are talking about where Joan in and how Kate admires her. Joan, knowing what got her there, doesn't see anything special about what she's done or where she is, but Kate tells her it's there--it's available, and she can take it.
That might be important later.
But hey, that soap opera thing with Megan? She's got a big role and a love scene, which weirds Don out a bit, but not as much as when a dinner with Megan's work friends turns into an invitation to an orgy. Don's expression is pretty damn priceless as they stammer out a polite declination, but it's just a hilariously awkward scene. Don doesn't swing that way, it seems.
It would get in the way of his cheating, after all. He accosts Sylvia in the elevator and hits the "stop" switch (Can you DO that in elevators without getting in trouble? Because they do it on TV all the time) and they make plans for some canoodling. There is an added layer of irony in the fact that Megan is playing at having an affair while Don is having an affair.
Irony, however, is something that happens to other people, and Don is an asshole about it, all but calling Megan a whore for kissing guys for money . . .and then Don tottles off and bangs Sylvia, who at least gets a pointed shot at Don by saying she prays for him to find peace. Good luck sister--that search has been on for years now.
This was a pretty good episode, and felt a lot more thematically "together" than most episodes this early in the season. Joan's story was touching and sad and paralleled Don's--like him, it seems she's never happy even when she has what she "wanted." Megan's not happy because she can't make Don happy and the firm can;t be happy with Heinz baked beans, and lose everything when they get greedy.
Again, that might be important later.
And that's it for this week. Join us next week when Pete takes up playing with Tinkertoys, Roger can't stop making Devil's Mountain with his mashed potatoes, and Bert Cooper drops acid and insists that everything be bolted down and would you please use the chains this time. All this and more is guaranteed NOT to happen in the next exciting episode, "The Flood." Wear your hip waders!
Sunday, April 21, 2013
Sunday, April 14, 2013
MAD MEN 6.3--"The Collaborators"
It's time once again for Mad Men! One of the most highly-regarded television shows of our time by some, an excuse for good-looking people to look mopey and broody to others and for the person who writes this blog, a handy and reasonably easy excuse to have regular content on Sunday nights. Last week--Betty suggested her husband get in on a little rape, Don thought about Death, went to Hawaii and came home and banged Lindsay Weir and Peggy cracked the whip in an effort to sell headphones and everyone looks hideous because it's 1968 and facial hair and ridiculous jackets stalk our land like two giant stalking things. This week, it's still 1968, and what are our people up to? Let's find out!
"THE COLLABORATORS"
"He's demanding the unreasonable. How does that make him any different from anyone else who walks through that door?"
Our story begins with Pete and Trudy entertaining the folks back in the suburbs. The guys flirt with Trudy, because despite Community not being invented for nearly 50 years, they know what they like, and they like what they see. Meanwhile, Pete, resplendent in a jacket that makes me think 1868 is the year fashion gave up and went home early, sets up a rendezvous in his apartment in the city.
This is paid off with a scene with Don making time to go bang Lindsay Weir again. Apparently, the notion that Don and Megan was going to have dinner with the doctor and his wife got his loins in a tizzy, and so he goes to her apartment for a quick tumble.
This leads to a rather telling moment during their pillow-talk, when Don flashes back to the day his mom dropped him off at a whorehouse (which, this being Depression-era, is about as sexy as dying of scurvy) and the man of the house laying down the law about how it is. It's a small scene, yet explains so much, as does the follow-up scene at the end of the episode. Don is deeply fucked up. In other news--water is wet and fire is hot. Keep breathing.
During the pillow talk, meanwhile Lindsay (OK, her name's Sylvia, but I only really know her from Freaks & Geeks) and Don grapple with the guilt they feel over what they're doing. Don tries to talk about it in his favourite terms--"It never happened." But unlike before, when drawing a line under the past promised a new beginning and a new outlook, now Don uses it is a blanket excuse to escape and do what he wants to do.
It's like he's become Bobbie Barrett. He enjoys being bad, then being good when he's home. Lindsay even says he seems to enjoy not only the sex, but the fact he's putting one over on Megan and the doctor guy.
The notion of lying and lying to oneself to keep the Jenga tower of lies you build from falling over is further underlined when Megan confesses to Sylvia that she's miscarried, and what's more, given what being on maternity leave could do to her career, she's not all that sorry it went down that. And yet she is. Sylvia tries the whole "you wouldn't be a good person if you didn't feel bad despite how hard you're trying to tell yourself that you don't feel bad" spiel, which only seems to make Megan sadder, and causes her to bow out of the dinner.
Meanwhile, Peggy fails once again to get the people working under her to do their best work--too much scaring, not enough encouragement. During a phone call with Stan, he explains to her that it's a bit of an ask to expect the people who work under you to like you (best case scenario, they respect you) During their shop-talking, Peggy tells Ted Chaough about something going on with Heinz at SCDP, which let's talk about right now.
Don and the boys take a meeting with the guy from Heinz beans, who brought along the head of the ketchup branch. This leads to the beans guy throwing the Ketchup guy out and ranting about how much he hates the ketchup guy and makes a veiled threat that he'll burn his bridges at SCDP before he lets them near ketchup.
Stan tells this to Peggy, who mentions it to Chaough, who parlays it into a meeting with the ketchup guy. This puts Peggy in an uncomfortable position, as this is now her actively hurting SCDP. Chaough reminds her that wars are won through the exchange of secrets (as this is all taking place during the Tet Offensive, war is much on everyone's mind) Peggy at least has the good sense to feel icky about the prospect.
But dear readers, none of that compares with what an appalling ass Pete makes of himself. His little afternoon delight wit the neighbour spirals into a nightmare--her husband beats her and sends her to Pete, and the whole mess comes out in front of Trudy, who's finally had enough of this bullshit (she was willing to accept his philandering, but not fouling their own nest) and throws Pete out. Pete replies with his usual wormy bravado. You know . . .you'd think that when his little dalliance last season needed shock therapy to erase Pete from her brain he would take that as a sign. And yet, you would be wrong.
Meanwhile, things are not so rosy with Jaguar. Herb the icky ass Jaguar rep comes in and tries to brace Joan, who drops him with a precision insult and not all the Bactine in the world will salve that SICK BURN. Herb wants the agency to pitch his Jaguar bosses for more local radio spots highlighting his dealership rather than the marque. Don, hating him, hating what it took to get Jaguar, and hating the whole idea does, in what was the one decent thing he did the whole episode, does a shittier job of selling the Jaguar bosses on Herb's idea than Han Solo did trying to convince the guy on the radio everything was fine in the Death Star jail.
There's a whole current this episode of secrets being destructive, but secrets being power, and secrets being key to winning the war. Chaugh tells Peggy secrets win wars, Doctor guy tells Don they're losing the war, and Don and Roger liken appeasing Herb to the Munich conference. The notion of secrets being part of war also links up the notion that they're also as destructive as any weapon can be.
Roger mentions to Don, after his performance, that "[Don] had a choice between war or dishonour and chose dishonour. You still might get war." Pete got his war. Don may yet get his.
And that's all for this week. Join us next week when Don invents robot pants, Roger does his best to beat the world record for Donkey Kong despite the fact that it hasn't been invented yet, Joan builds a TARDIS, and Bert Cooper learns the secrets of Caste Grayskull at last. All of these things are virtually guaranteed not to happen in an episode they just had to call "To Have and To Hold." C'mon. All the cool kids are doing it.
"THE COLLABORATORS"
"He's demanding the unreasonable. How does that make him any different from anyone else who walks through that door?"
Our story begins with Pete and Trudy entertaining the folks back in the suburbs. The guys flirt with Trudy, because despite Community not being invented for nearly 50 years, they know what they like, and they like what they see. Meanwhile, Pete, resplendent in a jacket that makes me think 1868 is the year fashion gave up and went home early, sets up a rendezvous in his apartment in the city.
This is paid off with a scene with Don making time to go bang Lindsay Weir again. Apparently, the notion that Don and Megan was going to have dinner with the doctor and his wife got his loins in a tizzy, and so he goes to her apartment for a quick tumble.
This leads to a rather telling moment during their pillow-talk, when Don flashes back to the day his mom dropped him off at a whorehouse (which, this being Depression-era, is about as sexy as dying of scurvy) and the man of the house laying down the law about how it is. It's a small scene, yet explains so much, as does the follow-up scene at the end of the episode. Don is deeply fucked up. In other news--water is wet and fire is hot. Keep breathing.
During the pillow talk, meanwhile Lindsay (OK, her name's Sylvia, but I only really know her from Freaks & Geeks) and Don grapple with the guilt they feel over what they're doing. Don tries to talk about it in his favourite terms--"It never happened." But unlike before, when drawing a line under the past promised a new beginning and a new outlook, now Don uses it is a blanket excuse to escape and do what he wants to do.
It's like he's become Bobbie Barrett. He enjoys being bad, then being good when he's home. Lindsay even says he seems to enjoy not only the sex, but the fact he's putting one over on Megan and the doctor guy.
The notion of lying and lying to oneself to keep the Jenga tower of lies you build from falling over is further underlined when Megan confesses to Sylvia that she's miscarried, and what's more, given what being on maternity leave could do to her career, she's not all that sorry it went down that. And yet she is. Sylvia tries the whole "you wouldn't be a good person if you didn't feel bad despite how hard you're trying to tell yourself that you don't feel bad" spiel, which only seems to make Megan sadder, and causes her to bow out of the dinner.
Meanwhile, Peggy fails once again to get the people working under her to do their best work--too much scaring, not enough encouragement. During a phone call with Stan, he explains to her that it's a bit of an ask to expect the people who work under you to like you (best case scenario, they respect you) During their shop-talking, Peggy tells Ted Chaough about something going on with Heinz at SCDP, which let's talk about right now.
Don and the boys take a meeting with the guy from Heinz beans, who brought along the head of the ketchup branch. This leads to the beans guy throwing the Ketchup guy out and ranting about how much he hates the ketchup guy and makes a veiled threat that he'll burn his bridges at SCDP before he lets them near ketchup.
Stan tells this to Peggy, who mentions it to Chaough, who parlays it into a meeting with the ketchup guy. This puts Peggy in an uncomfortable position, as this is now her actively hurting SCDP. Chaough reminds her that wars are won through the exchange of secrets (as this is all taking place during the Tet Offensive, war is much on everyone's mind) Peggy at least has the good sense to feel icky about the prospect.
But dear readers, none of that compares with what an appalling ass Pete makes of himself. His little afternoon delight wit the neighbour spirals into a nightmare--her husband beats her and sends her to Pete, and the whole mess comes out in front of Trudy, who's finally had enough of this bullshit (she was willing to accept his philandering, but not fouling their own nest) and throws Pete out. Pete replies with his usual wormy bravado. You know . . .you'd think that when his little dalliance last season needed shock therapy to erase Pete from her brain he would take that as a sign. And yet, you would be wrong.
Meanwhile, things are not so rosy with Jaguar. Herb the icky ass Jaguar rep comes in and tries to brace Joan, who drops him with a precision insult and not all the Bactine in the world will salve that SICK BURN. Herb wants the agency to pitch his Jaguar bosses for more local radio spots highlighting his dealership rather than the marque. Don, hating him, hating what it took to get Jaguar, and hating the whole idea does, in what was the one decent thing he did the whole episode, does a shittier job of selling the Jaguar bosses on Herb's idea than Han Solo did trying to convince the guy on the radio everything was fine in the Death Star jail.
There's a whole current this episode of secrets being destructive, but secrets being power, and secrets being key to winning the war. Chaugh tells Peggy secrets win wars, Doctor guy tells Don they're losing the war, and Don and Roger liken appeasing Herb to the Munich conference. The notion of secrets being part of war also links up the notion that they're also as destructive as any weapon can be.
Roger mentions to Don, after his performance, that "[Don] had a choice between war or dishonour and chose dishonour. You still might get war." Pete got his war. Don may yet get his.
And that's all for this week. Join us next week when Don invents robot pants, Roger does his best to beat the world record for Donkey Kong despite the fact that it hasn't been invented yet, Joan builds a TARDIS, and Bert Cooper learns the secrets of Caste Grayskull at last. All of these things are virtually guaranteed not to happen in an episode they just had to call "To Have and To Hold." C'mon. All the cool kids are doing it.
Friday, April 12, 2013
Just Sayin--The News Roundup Edition
Hi all. Just a brief pop-round in-between Mad Men reviews and not having any new comics to talk about that I might highlight some things that spoke to me in the last couple weeks.
In the recently returning Comics of the Weak, the dynamite duo of Tucker and Abhay pondered the issue of the day with regards to the comics and Abhay weighed in on the whole Rick Remender "Alex Summers ain't down with the word 'mutant' tempest in a teacup that raged across the internet for a couple days and just as swiftly stopped, but not before this little gem from Abhay about how fans and pros interact:
Elsewhere, Gavok from 4thletter spells out my problems with the new 52 Captain Marvel/Shazam stuff with an elegant, concise, pointed explanation of it:
Obviously, we don't see eye to eye about that last part, but in the interest of proving these aren't all just to parrot my views, I'm leaving it in the quote.
Graeme McMillian, like me, wonders why the hell it's 2013 and we are still meant to give a crap about Hank Pym (non clit-punching scene category)
And finally, we end as we began, as Abhay, in part a rather great series of reviews, examines some trends he finds maddening in comics.
In the recently returning Comics of the Weak, the dynamite duo of Tucker and Abhay pondered the issue of the day with regards to the comics and Abhay weighed in on the whole Rick Remender "Alex Summers ain't down with the word 'mutant' tempest in a teacup that raged across the internet for a couple days and just as swiftly stopped, but not before this little gem from Abhay about how fans and pros interact:
"Remender denies responsibility, and relentlessly blames comic fans:
at first the horrible fans misinterpreting his words, and then the
horrible fans who spurred him to tweet in a way that was misunderstood.
That’s just comic pro SOP. “None of these characters mean anything! Read all about them!” Comic fans didn’t write that speech– comic fans are only for being pissed on. The blame goes to them, regardless.
Elsewhere, Gavok from 4thletter spells out my problems with the new 52 Captain Marvel/Shazam stuff with an elegant, concise, pointed explanation of it:
"Post-Flashpoint, the character is simply known as Shazam. He doesn’t
have his own series yet, but has appeared in the pages of the current
Justice League comic. The big change is that teenaged Billy Batson is a
tremendous asshole and only got the power because he told the wizard
that pure-hearted people don’t exist and the wizard was just like,
“Welp, good enough.” While Black Adam is out there, ready to fight him,
Captain Marvel and his buddy Freddy Freeman intend to use his newfound
abilities for profit. So far it’s pretty great."
Obviously, we don't see eye to eye about that last part, but in the interest of proving these aren't all just to parrot my views, I'm leaving it in the quote.
Graeme McMillian, like me, wonders why the hell it's 2013 and we are still meant to give a crap about Hank Pym (non clit-punching scene category)
"Hank has no central personality traits that the creators who handle him
can seem to agree on, and that’s plagued him throughout his existence –
It’s also, I’d argue, why his hitting Jan has become the defining fact
of his character despite numerous attempts to rehabilitate him; at least
it’s something unique that people remember about him outside of “he
messes with his size a lot and created Ultron.” But even since then:
We’ve seen him suicidal and then come to terms with his position in
life, then come to terms with it again and reclaim former identities to
express that, and then again and again. Is he the (somewhat jerky,
infallible) Scientist Supreme, still, or a (sensitive, emotionally
aware) teacher at Avengers Academy?"
And finally, we end as we began, as Abhay, in part a rather great series of reviews, examines some trends he finds maddening in comics.
"What is all this, do you think, this insistence upon surrender? Why,
this persistent message that to do anything but surrender to the status
quo makes one a figure of mockery? What makes comics so eager to trumpet
fake heroics, phony, ersatz heroics, but so dismissive of protest, of
an actual examples of courage from the least powerful among us? Is it
just the particulars of the “creative community” involved, a
community that never fought for each other, that routinely betrays its
greatest artists, a community whose heroes suffocated communal effort in
their womb? Why would we expect any better…? Or is it more than that?
Maybe it’s just young people, just youth itself and youth’s silly hopes
and impractical dreams of a better tomorrow, that comics find so
laughable. Comic books: middle-aged men, to the rescue!"
Sunday, April 7, 2013
MAD MEN 6.01-02 "The Doorway"
And here we shake off the long hibernation of a moribund time trying to pretend to be a comics blog and failing by returning to Witless Prattle's inexplicably popular traffic-generating reviews of the popular show of the day, now beginning it's penultimate season.
Last season, things got dark and stayed there. For those of you who came in late, Roger dropped acid, Peggy quit and went on to a new job, Don got his tooth pulled and struggled being married to a young Quebecois with the most splendidly assholish parents in history, Pete got the crap beat out of him twice, and Lane, who beat the crap out of Pete, hung himself, and that wasn't even the saddest thing that happened--that was Joan being pimped out for the Jaguar account (though she was smart enough to work it to where she was made full partner in the firm for it)
Also, Betty got fat for awhile because the show struggles with what to do with her now and this was a desperate flail at keeping her in orbit.
That's what got us here. Let's get ramblin'.
"THE DOORWAY"
"One day I'll be the man who can't sleep and talks to strangers."
We pick up on someone looking over someone else, and, one assumes, is having someone checking his vitals. That gets filled in a bit later, but is only one of the cornucopia of morbidity that erupts. While Don and Megan celebrate their anniversary in glorious Hawaii (a working vacation for Don featuring more Jessica Pare fanservice than you could zou bisou bisou at) and Don's reading Dante's Inferno, because it's gonna be that kind of season, it seems.
Stricken by late-night angst, Don wanders down to the bar and runs into a solider on leave from Vietnam, who's come to Hawaii for his wedding. As inevitably happens when confronted by poignant reminders of his real past Don is pretty awkward and aloof, but gets roped into standing in at his wedding, despite committing the unforgivable sin of wearing a crazy-ass late '50s jacket with leis in a way that says "I'm gonna throw up."
This has an ironic echo later on.
Turns out ever since the commercial, Megan's had a decent amount of success--she's got on a soap opera and is popular enough to be badgered for an autograph whilst on location. She comes back to some frustration, however, when she's given a script for one scene upon her return and it seems she's being put on the bus. Things turn around some when she lucks into the role of being a scheming bitch on a soap opera (really seems like it'd be Betty's thing, but who am I to judge?) and seems to thrive in the role.
Meanwhile, Betty is . . .odd. She gets a ticket for reckless driving, asks Henry if she wants to rape Sally's new friend Sandy (who gets and almost Ginsbergian level of "Hey! Please care about this new character that we're going to spend ten minutes with") and has a tense conversation with her about her future and Betty's past. It's good they can talk, even after the whole rape thing from before. I tell you what, you stop eating whipped cream right out of the can, and you just go crazy, I guess.
I'd like to think Betty's bitter because with Cersei Lannister on the scene she's no longer TV's #1 bitch. But that's idle speculation. Meanwhile, Sally is following in the footsteps of her mother and eviscerating people with wildfire sarcasm. It's good to see her come into her own.
Upon hearing that Sandy's headed off to New York City (in a rather squalid corner of the Village--it's rather gone downhill since Midge's days) and I hope no one was having dinner during that part of the episode. Betty gets confronted with the extreme deprivation there and handles it in her usual "you assholes brought this on yourself" kinda way she gets when people don't give her her way. She dyes her hair dark because that's the best way to deal with feeling disconnected with what's going on in the world, of course.
Meanwhile, Roger's in therapy now--either the LSD had less than the desired effect, or he's moved on to further vistas of self-improvement in the usual Roger way, which means he's performing in his usual vapid, narcissistic, sarcastic sort of way for his shrink while still complaining about his dwindling options. When later confronted with the fact of his long-lived mother's demise, Roger acts about the way you'd expect him to act--bitching about how this will inconvenience him personally.
This is a set-up for his mother's funeral, which ends as all good funerals should--with Don puking into a garbage can, as he's gotten into a weird, existential drunkenness. Apparently his doorman was the one who collapsed and nearly died and he's kind of fascinated by the notion of dying, having run into the army guy in Hawaii, convinced as he was that married guys live longer. Yeah, ask Greg Harris about that.
Don's brush with mortality is a lot for him to take, no least because the private's lighter seems to almost follow him, as if it were reminding him that death is not very far away.
Roger, meanwhile, is grappling with feeling like he's teetering on the abyss. His first wife, Mona, tries to explain to him that people do care about him and he shouldn't disappear up his own backside being so self-centered, and Roger kinda attempts to reconnect, but . . .well, that's a big wall to hurdle. It's not helped by his daughter immediately trying to persuade him to invest in a refrigerated truck scheme.
Everyone wants something always, it seems.
Roger finally shatters when he gets one tragedy too many--his shoeshine man dies, and on top of everything and his fears that he's peaked and now his life is only going to be one long series of goodbyes, and everything that's happening seems to be confirming his worst fears.
Peggy, now in charge at CGC, deals with a crisis--the headphone company she's done a Superbowl ad for, echoing a bit from Julius Caesar, now seems somewhat less than judicious given the war in Vietnam has now given us the indelible image of GI's cutting the ears off Vietcong. To her credit, she's a good deal more diplomatic than she was when Heinz nixed her ad, in that she's not yelling so much, but she hasn't quite mastered veiling her contempt all that much, especially with her almost Don-esque viciousness with her subordinates. Nevertheless, she seems to be thriving in her new job, and that's something to see.
There's a great moment when, in the throes of crisis mode, Peggy puts it together and comes up with an alternate idea for the headphone ad. Her boss loves it, and speaks glowingly about it.Peggy's really coming into her own, but while she has Don's agility (well, the agility Don usually has) she lacks the wisdom to know when not to drive the help too much. That said, she really did seem to need that career move after all.
Don, back in his element at the office (now with swank new staircase!) is . . .not in his element anymore. Now he seems a little distant than before, and Pete and the underlings at the office (Good Christ, Stan's beard, Ginsberg's mustache and whatever the hell Harry Crane molted into--late 60's fashion is almost more eerie than Betty's rape-happiness) seem to be more open in their contempt. Given that things seem to be going well for the firm in general (apparently they got Dow chemical after all) the question is was this due to Don or is this kind of thing happening without him and he's drifting into another, more distant, orbit?
Meanwhile, Don screws up the purpose of his Hawaii trip--the presentation to the client goes rather badly when the ad he suggests doesn't include the hotel and suggests a suicide attempt. Don seems rather flabbergasted that such a thing would occur to anyone, flails about a lot, and even Roger and Pete look on him with withering contempt.
Given what we discover in the punchline to all this--the relationship with their neighbors, his interest in Dante, and oh yeah, Don's banging his neighbor's wife--they're probably right to be disappointed. Don says he'd like to stop doing this, but feels like he's locked into the things he does.
As the timeline for this two-hour episode is really fragmented, the episode seems a lot more concerned with asking questions than answering them, which is no great revelation for Mad Men--this early in the season, the writers delight in playing with space, time, and perception. The first act of these seasons always does this kinda thing, then the middle third is short stories featuring the characters before things wrap up by tugging at a few disparate threads. While this may be annoying to folks used to a tightly-plotted arc, Mad Men trusts that you'll be interested enough just seeing the characters interact as things slowly unfold.
Sometimes it even works.
And that's all for this week. For you newcomers, I will explain how we do things here--owing to AMC's policy of taking a simple proposition of a "Next time on Mad Men!" and, perhaps in homage to William S. Burroughs or Negativland, cut the thing up into such an incoherent mess as to be utterly opaque. So in general, we just make shit up here as to what happens next week. With that in mind, join us next week as Don declares whoever passes sentence should swing the sword, Pete gets slapped by a midget, and Joan has a lot of names to offer up to the Red God. Join us next week for "The Collaborators." It's a momentary diversion on the road to the grave!
Last season, things got dark and stayed there. For those of you who came in late, Roger dropped acid, Peggy quit and went on to a new job, Don got his tooth pulled and struggled being married to a young Quebecois with the most splendidly assholish parents in history, Pete got the crap beat out of him twice, and Lane, who beat the crap out of Pete, hung himself, and that wasn't even the saddest thing that happened--that was Joan being pimped out for the Jaguar account (though she was smart enough to work it to where she was made full partner in the firm for it)
Also, Betty got fat for awhile because the show struggles with what to do with her now and this was a desperate flail at keeping her in orbit.
That's what got us here. Let's get ramblin'.
"THE DOORWAY"
"One day I'll be the man who can't sleep and talks to strangers."
We pick up on someone looking over someone else, and, one assumes, is having someone checking his vitals. That gets filled in a bit later, but is only one of the cornucopia of morbidity that erupts. While Don and Megan celebrate their anniversary in glorious Hawaii (a working vacation for Don featuring more Jessica Pare fanservice than you could zou bisou bisou at) and Don's reading Dante's Inferno, because it's gonna be that kind of season, it seems.
Stricken by late-night angst, Don wanders down to the bar and runs into a solider on leave from Vietnam, who's come to Hawaii for his wedding. As inevitably happens when confronted by poignant reminders of his real past Don is pretty awkward and aloof, but gets roped into standing in at his wedding, despite committing the unforgivable sin of wearing a crazy-ass late '50s jacket with leis in a way that says "I'm gonna throw up."
This has an ironic echo later on.
Turns out ever since the commercial, Megan's had a decent amount of success--she's got on a soap opera and is popular enough to be badgered for an autograph whilst on location. She comes back to some frustration, however, when she's given a script for one scene upon her return and it seems she's being put on the bus. Things turn around some when she lucks into the role of being a scheming bitch on a soap opera (really seems like it'd be Betty's thing, but who am I to judge?) and seems to thrive in the role.
Meanwhile, Betty is . . .odd. She gets a ticket for reckless driving, asks Henry if she wants to rape Sally's new friend Sandy (who gets and almost Ginsbergian level of "Hey! Please care about this new character that we're going to spend ten minutes with") and has a tense conversation with her about her future and Betty's past. It's good they can talk, even after the whole rape thing from before. I tell you what, you stop eating whipped cream right out of the can, and you just go crazy, I guess.
I'd like to think Betty's bitter because with Cersei Lannister on the scene she's no longer TV's #1 bitch. But that's idle speculation. Meanwhile, Sally is following in the footsteps of her mother and eviscerating people with wildfire sarcasm. It's good to see her come into her own.
Upon hearing that Sandy's headed off to New York City (in a rather squalid corner of the Village--it's rather gone downhill since Midge's days) and I hope no one was having dinner during that part of the episode. Betty gets confronted with the extreme deprivation there and handles it in her usual "you assholes brought this on yourself" kinda way she gets when people don't give her her way. She dyes her hair dark because that's the best way to deal with feeling disconnected with what's going on in the world, of course.
Meanwhile, Roger's in therapy now--either the LSD had less than the desired effect, or he's moved on to further vistas of self-improvement in the usual Roger way, which means he's performing in his usual vapid, narcissistic, sarcastic sort of way for his shrink while still complaining about his dwindling options. When later confronted with the fact of his long-lived mother's demise, Roger acts about the way you'd expect him to act--bitching about how this will inconvenience him personally.
This is a set-up for his mother's funeral, which ends as all good funerals should--with Don puking into a garbage can, as he's gotten into a weird, existential drunkenness. Apparently his doorman was the one who collapsed and nearly died and he's kind of fascinated by the notion of dying, having run into the army guy in Hawaii, convinced as he was that married guys live longer. Yeah, ask Greg Harris about that.
Don's brush with mortality is a lot for him to take, no least because the private's lighter seems to almost follow him, as if it were reminding him that death is not very far away.
Roger, meanwhile, is grappling with feeling like he's teetering on the abyss. His first wife, Mona, tries to explain to him that people do care about him and he shouldn't disappear up his own backside being so self-centered, and Roger kinda attempts to reconnect, but . . .well, that's a big wall to hurdle. It's not helped by his daughter immediately trying to persuade him to invest in a refrigerated truck scheme.
Everyone wants something always, it seems.
Roger finally shatters when he gets one tragedy too many--his shoeshine man dies, and on top of everything and his fears that he's peaked and now his life is only going to be one long series of goodbyes, and everything that's happening seems to be confirming his worst fears.
Peggy, now in charge at CGC, deals with a crisis--the headphone company she's done a Superbowl ad for, echoing a bit from Julius Caesar, now seems somewhat less than judicious given the war in Vietnam has now given us the indelible image of GI's cutting the ears off Vietcong. To her credit, she's a good deal more diplomatic than she was when Heinz nixed her ad, in that she's not yelling so much, but she hasn't quite mastered veiling her contempt all that much, especially with her almost Don-esque viciousness with her subordinates. Nevertheless, she seems to be thriving in her new job, and that's something to see.
There's a great moment when, in the throes of crisis mode, Peggy puts it together and comes up with an alternate idea for the headphone ad. Her boss loves it, and speaks glowingly about it.Peggy's really coming into her own, but while she has Don's agility (well, the agility Don usually has) she lacks the wisdom to know when not to drive the help too much. That said, she really did seem to need that career move after all.
Don, back in his element at the office (now with swank new staircase!) is . . .not in his element anymore. Now he seems a little distant than before, and Pete and the underlings at the office (Good Christ, Stan's beard, Ginsberg's mustache and whatever the hell Harry Crane molted into--late 60's fashion is almost more eerie than Betty's rape-happiness) seem to be more open in their contempt. Given that things seem to be going well for the firm in general (apparently they got Dow chemical after all) the question is was this due to Don or is this kind of thing happening without him and he's drifting into another, more distant, orbit?
Meanwhile, Don screws up the purpose of his Hawaii trip--the presentation to the client goes rather badly when the ad he suggests doesn't include the hotel and suggests a suicide attempt. Don seems rather flabbergasted that such a thing would occur to anyone, flails about a lot, and even Roger and Pete look on him with withering contempt.
Given what we discover in the punchline to all this--the relationship with their neighbors, his interest in Dante, and oh yeah, Don's banging his neighbor's wife--they're probably right to be disappointed. Don says he'd like to stop doing this, but feels like he's locked into the things he does.
As the timeline for this two-hour episode is really fragmented, the episode seems a lot more concerned with asking questions than answering them, which is no great revelation for Mad Men--this early in the season, the writers delight in playing with space, time, and perception. The first act of these seasons always does this kinda thing, then the middle third is short stories featuring the characters before things wrap up by tugging at a few disparate threads. While this may be annoying to folks used to a tightly-plotted arc, Mad Men trusts that you'll be interested enough just seeing the characters interact as things slowly unfold.
Sometimes it even works.
And that's all for this week. For you newcomers, I will explain how we do things here--owing to AMC's policy of taking a simple proposition of a "Next time on Mad Men!" and, perhaps in homage to William S. Burroughs or Negativland, cut the thing up into such an incoherent mess as to be utterly opaque. So in general, we just make shit up here as to what happens next week. With that in mind, join us next week as Don declares whoever passes sentence should swing the sword, Pete gets slapped by a midget, and Joan has a lot of names to offer up to the Red God. Join us next week for "The Collaborators." It's a momentary diversion on the road to the grave!
Wednesday, March 20, 2013
Hiatus Hernia
Sorry for the vast amount of radio silence--not much in comics really excites anymore. How many different ways can one say "Oh God, Justice League is awful, Batwoman's going nowhere, et al" before it gets so utterly rote and boring? Couple that with the general fed uppedness I've had about the whole scene and that translated into me not really wanting to write anything about comics.
At least until fate took a hand and dropped anther month's shipment of comics on my doorstep, and while they are in fact the usual assortment, enough was new in the pile that that felt sufficiently motivated to comment on them, and in the name of doing that very thing . . .let's do that very thing.
BATWOMAN #17--Exactly five issues after I stopped giving a shit, turned off all emotional investment in the excruciatingly decompressed story (paced in such a way that even Brian Michael Bendis might term "lackadaisical" the Medusa storyline ends, and ends in a way that was barely comprehensible, pretty to look at, and any critical thoughts I have about it are generally overridden just because I'm happy the fucking thing is over at last.
I was rather impressed that all the attention the book got was for Kate and Maggie possibly getting married (not that it's not a momentous thing, but given what usually conspires to prevent comic book marriages, my hopes that it won't either be quietly ignored or deleted in some way that makes the minimum amount of sense whilst insulting one's intelligence in the maximum amount), when the bit that happens after was a LOT more intriguing a cliffhanger.
Of course, given how they handled the first storyline in the book, it may be issue #39 before any forward plot momentum happens, but I'm trying to stay positive in spite of all reason and evidence.
PROPHET #34--I put these two together, because Prophet manages the leisurely pace without feeling like 22 pages of an inert mass, and I thought it might be instructive to consider it and Batwoman in contrast with one another.
Whereas Batwoman achieved a certain plot level early on, then put it in park for a dozen issues, blithely spinning its wheels and refusing to move, Prophet manages to tell a short story in every issue that's visually different, possessed of enough variety to differentiate the various chapters, and providing a kaleidoscopic picture of a very interesting fictional universe. Even if we're not making forward progress, we're making peripheral progress, and it's working
Not bad for Rob Liefeld's original Jesus-loving, shoulderpad-wearing, man from the future.
GLORY 33--Penultimate issue time, and holy shit this was . . .something. I mean, it was good, don't get me wrong. I just don't know how to react to the fact that Joe Keatinge wheeled out damn near every extant Rob Liefeld character from the entire history of Image to Awesome to . . .geez. That level of scholarship borders on the scary, but also awesome. For that one person in San Leandro California who wanted to see the return of Psilence--your day has come.
Ross Campbell draws what is essentially an issue-long battle featuring people wrecking shit, wrecking monsters, wrecking each other, and culminates with a final scene I . . .did not see coming, and good on them for having the guts to do it with the proper gravity--it's not done for sensationalism, it's just swift, brutal, and shocking, and made me really want to see how it all wraps up next issue.
I hate that this wasn't selling, but they've done a good job of making this feel like an earned ending that wasn't rushed to wrap up with the deadline. Keatinge and Campbell did a great job with this series, and I hope this series gains enough traction as people discover it and raises their profile.
HARBINGER #8--In the unreviewed issue #7 we had the last of the "classic" Harbinger group introduced in Torque, who was substantially different from the original and the whole issue was. . .quite weird, but in an interesting sort of way.
This issue, in the fallout from being ambushed by Harada and being rounded up, we stick with the one free member of the resistance, Zephyr and get more of a peek into her life up to this point, and what it's like to find out you have superpowers and you're the child of two geeks.
One of the more interesting things about this iteration of Harbinger is the amount of sublimated elements of the original series and makes them explicit. For several issues now, Kris has been the de facto leader of the group despite being the least powerful (in comparison to Peter, who is the most powerful and totally sidelined) and now Zephyr steps up and decides to spring Peter from Harada's goons.
While you don't really need to know all that has gone before to appreciate how these pieces have been re-arranged, it does add an extra layer to it. I continue to enjoy this book, as it does a great job of rotating in various character features without stalling the plot or skimping on action.
JUSTICE LEAGUE #17-- "Throne of Atlantis" concludes this issue, and there's really only one reaction any right thinking person should have about it:
The nicest thing I can say about "Throne of Atlantis" was that it only lasted three issues, and the extra-sized utterly incoherent conclusion forced out the Shazam backup, but even this is tinged with sadness, as "Throne of Atlantis" is so senseless, it makes senseless violence seems sensible and logical.
Insofar as I have been able to determine there as a point to any of this mess is that Vulko, a member of Aquaman's supporting cast that if you don't read Aquaman you don;t give a shit about, took advantage of Ocean Master's bro-crush on Aquaman and made Ocean Master invade the surface world and then Aquaman has to beat up Ocean Master and take the throne back and somehow this takes three issues to resolve because Geoff Johns isn't even trying anymore.
I know a lot of people have said that Aquaman is the new 52's big success, but I'm sorry, no he's not--we're just in that phase where DC is writing him like Namor, and he's been trapped so long in Boring Whitebread Classic Mode that this seems interesting--nor has he ever been.
It's time--past time--to cut our losses and do something else.
I live in hope that one day comic fans will realise that just because something's been around for 50 years doesn't mean it has to stay around forever. When that day happens, I will be able to wander into a comic store and see racks free of Hawkman, or Aquaman, or even, if I am very good and this is the best of all possible worlds, Hank Pym. That someday I will see the accumulated half-century of blather jettisoned of its less relevant bits that no longer speak to non-anoraks (or even anoraks like me who've given up) and maybe there will be some room for growth and thought to flourish. Not much--I'm not that naive--just maybe a little shoot or blade of grass between the cold, gritty, pavement stones on the road to hell.
I didn't care for this book, and I continue not to care for this book, but I enjoy reviewing it all the same. There is something about its nihilistic bleakness, its mean pointlessness, and its utter barren artlessness that is a perfect crystallization of everything stupid and reductive that makes me philosophical. It's like a peyote button, only less healthy, less reputable, yet far more legal.
At least until fate took a hand and dropped anther month's shipment of comics on my doorstep, and while they are in fact the usual assortment, enough was new in the pile that that felt sufficiently motivated to comment on them, and in the name of doing that very thing . . .let's do that very thing.
BATWOMAN #17--Exactly five issues after I stopped giving a shit, turned off all emotional investment in the excruciatingly decompressed story (paced in such a way that even Brian Michael Bendis might term "lackadaisical" the Medusa storyline ends, and ends in a way that was barely comprehensible, pretty to look at, and any critical thoughts I have about it are generally overridden just because I'm happy the fucking thing is over at last.
I was rather impressed that all the attention the book got was for Kate and Maggie possibly getting married (not that it's not a momentous thing, but given what usually conspires to prevent comic book marriages, my hopes that it won't either be quietly ignored or deleted in some way that makes the minimum amount of sense whilst insulting one's intelligence in the maximum amount), when the bit that happens after was a LOT more intriguing a cliffhanger.
Of course, given how they handled the first storyline in the book, it may be issue #39 before any forward plot momentum happens, but I'm trying to stay positive in spite of all reason and evidence.
PROPHET #34--I put these two together, because Prophet manages the leisurely pace without feeling like 22 pages of an inert mass, and I thought it might be instructive to consider it and Batwoman in contrast with one another.
Whereas Batwoman achieved a certain plot level early on, then put it in park for a dozen issues, blithely spinning its wheels and refusing to move, Prophet manages to tell a short story in every issue that's visually different, possessed of enough variety to differentiate the various chapters, and providing a kaleidoscopic picture of a very interesting fictional universe. Even if we're not making forward progress, we're making peripheral progress, and it's working
Not bad for Rob Liefeld's original Jesus-loving, shoulderpad-wearing, man from the future.
GLORY 33--Penultimate issue time, and holy shit this was . . .something. I mean, it was good, don't get me wrong. I just don't know how to react to the fact that Joe Keatinge wheeled out damn near every extant Rob Liefeld character from the entire history of Image to Awesome to . . .geez. That level of scholarship borders on the scary, but also awesome. For that one person in San Leandro California who wanted to see the return of Psilence--your day has come.
Ross Campbell draws what is essentially an issue-long battle featuring people wrecking shit, wrecking monsters, wrecking each other, and culminates with a final scene I . . .did not see coming, and good on them for having the guts to do it with the proper gravity--it's not done for sensationalism, it's just swift, brutal, and shocking, and made me really want to see how it all wraps up next issue.
I hate that this wasn't selling, but they've done a good job of making this feel like an earned ending that wasn't rushed to wrap up with the deadline. Keatinge and Campbell did a great job with this series, and I hope this series gains enough traction as people discover it and raises their profile.
HARBINGER #8--In the unreviewed issue #7 we had the last of the "classic" Harbinger group introduced in Torque, who was substantially different from the original and the whole issue was. . .quite weird, but in an interesting sort of way.
This issue, in the fallout from being ambushed by Harada and being rounded up, we stick with the one free member of the resistance, Zephyr and get more of a peek into her life up to this point, and what it's like to find out you have superpowers and you're the child of two geeks.
One of the more interesting things about this iteration of Harbinger is the amount of sublimated elements of the original series and makes them explicit. For several issues now, Kris has been the de facto leader of the group despite being the least powerful (in comparison to Peter, who is the most powerful and totally sidelined) and now Zephyr steps up and decides to spring Peter from Harada's goons.
While you don't really need to know all that has gone before to appreciate how these pieces have been re-arranged, it does add an extra layer to it. I continue to enjoy this book, as it does a great job of rotating in various character features without stalling the plot or skimping on action.
JUSTICE LEAGUE #17-- "Throne of Atlantis" concludes this issue, and there's really only one reaction any right thinking person should have about it:
The nicest thing I can say about "Throne of Atlantis" was that it only lasted three issues, and the extra-sized utterly incoherent conclusion forced out the Shazam backup, but even this is tinged with sadness, as "Throne of Atlantis" is so senseless, it makes senseless violence seems sensible and logical.
Insofar as I have been able to determine there as a point to any of this mess is that Vulko, a member of Aquaman's supporting cast that if you don't read Aquaman you don;t give a shit about, took advantage of Ocean Master's bro-crush on Aquaman and made Ocean Master invade the surface world and then Aquaman has to beat up Ocean Master and take the throne back and somehow this takes three issues to resolve because Geoff Johns isn't even trying anymore.
I know a lot of people have said that Aquaman is the new 52's big success, but I'm sorry, no he's not--we're just in that phase where DC is writing him like Namor, and he's been trapped so long in Boring Whitebread Classic Mode that this seems interesting--nor has he ever been.
It's time--past time--to cut our losses and do something else.
I live in hope that one day comic fans will realise that just because something's been around for 50 years doesn't mean it has to stay around forever. When that day happens, I will be able to wander into a comic store and see racks free of Hawkman, or Aquaman, or even, if I am very good and this is the best of all possible worlds, Hank Pym. That someday I will see the accumulated half-century of blather jettisoned of its less relevant bits that no longer speak to non-anoraks (or even anoraks like me who've given up) and maybe there will be some room for growth and thought to flourish. Not much--I'm not that naive--just maybe a little shoot or blade of grass between the cold, gritty, pavement stones on the road to hell.
I didn't care for this book, and I continue not to care for this book, but I enjoy reviewing it all the same. There is something about its nihilistic bleakness, its mean pointlessness, and its utter barren artlessness that is a perfect crystallization of everything stupid and reductive that makes me philosophical. It's like a peyote button, only less healthy, less reputable, yet far more legal.
Wednesday, February 13, 2013
I Read This--EMPOWERED: HELL BENT OR HEAVEN SENT
I've written about Empowered a lot here (so much so I've gone through and tagged all the posts for easy access for the next time I talk about Empowered) but haven't yet, to my knowledge (and the blog's search capabilities) said anything about the one-shots Adam Warren periodically runs in between releases of the larger book that usually riff on a piece of the universe he's built up around the titular bondage-prone heroine.
Part of the reason I haven't is due to the fact that I've never thought to when I sit down to blog (and you would think, given how hard up I am for content, that it would be a "gimmie") and partly the other reason is that they're more entertaining in theory than in practice--technically accomplished (Warren chooses artists for these that match his style, but add some of their own to it as he tends not to draw the entirety of these one-shots).The first one-shot "The Wench With A Million Sighs" was ostensibly an analysis of Empowered by fan-favorite character Caged Demonwolf, who Warren had already overexposed and walloped into the ground in an earlier volume. The second, "Ten Question For The Maidman" featured his Batman riff in a featured role, and while in theory it should have been funnier than it was, it didn't quite get there.
The most recent one-shot "Hell Bent or Heaven Sent" is the strongest of the one-shots so far, as it features an air-tight concept, some genuinely amusing conceits, and manages to make a pointed comment on the ever-present "male gaze" in superhero comics a literal story point, and if one were so disposed, one might also read guest artist Ryan Kinnard's (he of the quasi-infamous MAX Phoenix book that was blog-fodder a few years and that, all things considered, is best forgotten) presence as an added layer of commentary, if one so wanted to do that, though it might be carrying things too far.
The plot of the story involves Empowered being introduced to the Superhomeys storage vault--one of the many places they teleport all their debris, junk, decommissioned weaponry and God only knows what else. The vault is overseen by legendary "douchemecha" (I love this book if only for coining that phrase) Mechanismo (who talks like Razor Ramon, which is just damn funny, no matter what), who got his powers from an alien female robot and can't understand the operating system that runs it all. This leads to him just randomly clicking on stuff just to accomplish something close to what he wants, which leads to the crisis this issue, because he exports his porn cache out and, since it's a nanotechnology plague, Empowered is alone against a very smutty version of a Grey Goo Bomb.
There's a lot of good bits in here (apparently superpowered mechs spend all their time scanning bits of girls they like and merging them in Photoshop, which explains a whole lot about superheroes and Photoshop users, now that I think about it.) and allows Kinnard to do what he does best--draw sexy ladies attacking Our Heroine whilst shouting "SEXY TIME!"
One must play to one's skill set.
The whole thing is clever enough and manages (for the most part) to have it's smutty cake while commenting/eating it too, and it's clever without being too impressed with itself, which, in some points along the way with Empowered, Warren sis guilty of doing. Thankfully, things keep moving at a sufficiently brisk pace to where that's not an issue here.
Which is good--however, the story doesn't "end" as much as "stops suddenly," It's odd, when you consider that the main books of Empowered are collections of short stories with common plot threads and seldom run for longer than the length of this book. I'm not sure what happened in this instance, but it's a shame the ending is stronger.
But of the three one-shots, it's the best-realised so far, and the one that feels closest to Empowered's core preoccupations, and as such, it's well worth your time and four bucks in a way that say, Justice League, isn't.
Part of the reason I haven't is due to the fact that I've never thought to when I sit down to blog (and you would think, given how hard up I am for content, that it would be a "gimmie") and partly the other reason is that they're more entertaining in theory than in practice--technically accomplished (Warren chooses artists for these that match his style, but add some of their own to it as he tends not to draw the entirety of these one-shots).The first one-shot "The Wench With A Million Sighs" was ostensibly an analysis of Empowered by fan-favorite character Caged Demonwolf, who Warren had already overexposed and walloped into the ground in an earlier volume. The second, "Ten Question For The Maidman" featured his Batman riff in a featured role, and while in theory it should have been funnier than it was, it didn't quite get there.
The most recent one-shot "Hell Bent or Heaven Sent" is the strongest of the one-shots so far, as it features an air-tight concept, some genuinely amusing conceits, and manages to make a pointed comment on the ever-present "male gaze" in superhero comics a literal story point, and if one were so disposed, one might also read guest artist Ryan Kinnard's (he of the quasi-infamous MAX Phoenix book that was blog-fodder a few years and that, all things considered, is best forgotten) presence as an added layer of commentary, if one so wanted to do that, though it might be carrying things too far.
The plot of the story involves Empowered being introduced to the Superhomeys storage vault--one of the many places they teleport all their debris, junk, decommissioned weaponry and God only knows what else. The vault is overseen by legendary "douchemecha" (I love this book if only for coining that phrase) Mechanismo (who talks like Razor Ramon, which is just damn funny, no matter what), who got his powers from an alien female robot and can't understand the operating system that runs it all. This leads to him just randomly clicking on stuff just to accomplish something close to what he wants, which leads to the crisis this issue, because he exports his porn cache out and, since it's a nanotechnology plague, Empowered is alone against a very smutty version of a Grey Goo Bomb.
There's a lot of good bits in here (apparently superpowered mechs spend all their time scanning bits of girls they like and merging them in Photoshop, which explains a whole lot about superheroes and Photoshop users, now that I think about it.) and allows Kinnard to do what he does best--draw sexy ladies attacking Our Heroine whilst shouting "SEXY TIME!"
One must play to one's skill set.
The whole thing is clever enough and manages (for the most part) to have it's smutty cake while commenting/eating it too, and it's clever without being too impressed with itself, which, in some points along the way with Empowered, Warren sis guilty of doing. Thankfully, things keep moving at a sufficiently brisk pace to where that's not an issue here.
Which is good--however, the story doesn't "end" as much as "stops suddenly," It's odd, when you consider that the main books of Empowered are collections of short stories with common plot threads and seldom run for longer than the length of this book. I'm not sure what happened in this instance, but it's a shame the ending is stronger.
But of the three one-shots, it's the best-realised so far, and the one that feels closest to Empowered's core preoccupations, and as such, it's well worth your time and four bucks in a way that say, Justice League, isn't.
Wednesday, February 6, 2013
Just Sayin': Master Plan?
So I stumbled upon this think piece today that suggests that DC's utterly slipshod, occasionally horrible, and generally ropey new 52 is actually a willful act of temporary self-sabotage so they can shed their audience of die-hard fans who've been with DC for years and chase after a younger, sexier, more sociopathic demographic.
I don't buy a word of it. While I agree that DC Comics urgently needs an audience other than myself, There are several points where it falls apart for me:
1. DC Comics has never shown an ability to plan anything comprehensively, not even a lunch order to the Chinese place down the street.
2. Intentionally sabotaging yourself in halfhearted pursuit of rewards to be determined at a later date is stupid.
3. If you get rid of all the die-hards who are positively obsessed with the minutiae of DC continuity and yet still seem to hate-buy all the books, are you going to put a bullet in Geoff Johns' head just to show you're serious? Because you're not exactly innocent from exploiting this particular obsession when it's convenient for you to do so guys, and by giving him the keys to the caddy, it's something you institutionalized.
4. What the hell kinda way is that to motivate someone, Coach Lombardi? "Now get out there and SUCK!"
5. There are two tracks of logic I follow on this, and both of them are horrible. Either DC Comics is conducting a long, epic, troll of the last remnants of comic fans, or this is really the best they can do.
I don't buy a word of it. While I agree that DC Comics urgently needs an audience other than myself, There are several points where it falls apart for me:
1. DC Comics has never shown an ability to plan anything comprehensively, not even a lunch order to the Chinese place down the street.
2. Intentionally sabotaging yourself in halfhearted pursuit of rewards to be determined at a later date is stupid.
3. If you get rid of all the die-hards who are positively obsessed with the minutiae of DC continuity and yet still seem to hate-buy all the books, are you going to put a bullet in Geoff Johns' head just to show you're serious? Because you're not exactly innocent from exploiting this particular obsession when it's convenient for you to do so guys, and by giving him the keys to the caddy, it's something you institutionalized.
4. What the hell kinda way is that to motivate someone, Coach Lombardi? "Now get out there and SUCK!"
5. There are two tracks of logic I follow on this, and both of them are horrible. Either DC Comics is conducting a long, epic, troll of the last remnants of comic fans, or this is really the best they can do.
Friday, February 1, 2013
The Witless Prattle Winter 2013 Viewing Guide!
Well, it seemed like people like to hear what I'm watching on TV (the notion I am a tastemaker is proof the world and indeed, the entire universe, has probably leapt off the track in a fundamental, irrevocable way) and I figured I'd let this lay morbid long enough (those Justice League posts grind the soul out of you, you know) so I thought, in the name of generating easy content providing you with new and insightful critical thoughts on the pop culture of our day.
This then, is a rundown of the shows I'm following here in the first quarter of 2013:
AMERICAN DAD: I am endlessly fascinated by the notion that American dad has about two seasons worth of episodes in the can that they can roll out at will despite being pre-empted, forgotten and shoved aside for one-hour Family Guy episodes (usually dreadful) or an extra episode of The Cleveland Show (The Caddyshack 2 of spin-offs--let's just pretend it never happened) It's the Anti-South Park, in terms of how it feels about timeliness.
This is to its benefit, as it's not hidebound by doing feeling like it has to be au courant (which it tried to do early on and it was just god-awful then) and so can pursue any lunatic tangent they feel, whether said tangent is a quadriplegic with telekinesis or just providing and excuse for Patrick Stewart to be utterly batshit insane and hilarity, typically results.
Naturally, this is the one that no one watches so much so . . .yeah. Leave it to me to back the winner.
TRON: UPRISING: Bit of a cheat this one, as it aired its last episode last Sunday, but I thought it was worth a mention all the same. This show kinda spun its wheels in place at the mid-season break (it felt very much like the final episode had come ten episodes before it actually did) but this turned into a pretty interesting show, expanding on the story in between the first and second movies (and probably having more story and more depth than both combined--I mean, I love the movies but they sure as heck aren't deep)
Naturally, they ran it at midnight on Sunday and have no cancelled it because no one was watching. Is that a tautology or a truism? I'm not sure.
JUSTIFIED: Last week, Justified had an interesting master villain for the season in in Robert Quarles, who met one of the most bizarre fates possible in a TV show. This year it seems there's a larger plot but no apparent master villain (to be be fair, after three seasons, that would get a bit rote if they didn't change it up) and in the meantime it gives us some time to see our nominal protagonist and antagonists--Raylan Givens and arch-nemesis/occasional ally Boyd Crowder deal with the fallout of certain seismic changes in their lives and situations.
I'm kinda curious to see how this plot they're developing plays out, though it is some curious commonality that it's a cold case from the early 80's, considering . . .
THE AMERICANS: . . .this show, which debuted this week, also takes place in the early 80's. I was intrigued by the premise (KGB sleeper agents in 1981 America) and despite the fact that the lead character is Felicity (" . . .on the WB," I find myself adding silently. If you're too young to get that, yo're a young punk and I hate you) she's actually pretty damn awesome in this (I respect anyone who punts someone's head through drywall) and the pilot really impressed me.
Barring one thing--while I appreciate these kinds of elements are there to prove to us that these people are Tough Bastards who work for Evil People, was it necessary to have KGBelicity raped by her superior on-camera just so we'd have a character connection when she kills him twenty years later while he's trying to defect? That's . . .well, it feels too easy and I guess I was hoping for more nuance.
They're the KGB. If you know even a little bit about them, you know what kind of hard-asses they are.
That said, it's got an interesting dynamic--KGBelicity is all gung-ho about killing people for the KGB, and her husband (whom she was pared up with in what it is assumed is a loveless arranged marriage for the sake of their cover) is quite impressed with the amenities of the west.
I'm intrigued to see where this goes--the mise en scene is quite interesting (the Soviets reaction to Regan being installed in the pilot was telling and adds some tension, knowing as we do that the USSR will be very different come the end of the decade) and for all my wisecracks, KGBelicity is an ass-kicker par excellence.
ARCHER: Speaking of spies (man, this made for a great segue trifecta) The several parts spy comedy/office comedy/meditation on collective madness recently returned for its fourth season this month, and it's said that this season will be a bit more serialised, and I can see a little of that. My main thing was--would it be funny?
As of last week's episode, featuring one of the best final two minutes in the show's history, I can safely say . . .most definitely.
GREEN LANTERN: THE ANIMATED SERIES: Initially, I really hated this damn show, because Hal Jordan is a deeply boring character crammed full of undeserved smugness and a 1960s, boring-ass, Chuck Yeager manque who come across as a self-absorbed asshole sixty years removed from that milieu.
The show won me over by doing what the comics did long ago--by generally allowing Hal to do the heavy lifting with regards to plot so the other characters can be far more interesting and overshadow his milquetoast ass. See also: why do you think there are five Green Lanterns from Earth in the comics, all of whom, even undercooked though they may be, are far more interesting than Hal Jordan by several orders of magnitude.
This has been recently cancelled to the surprise of no one (as it was made to tie-in to a movie no one liked enough to want to see any more of) and while it's kind of a shame it's being dropped just as it hits it's stride it's . . .enjoyable enough, but I won't miss it that much.
YOUNG JUSTICE: You'll hear a lot of stuff about Young Justice being cancelled, because holy GOD are people angry about this. They're . . .well, everyone's entitled to their opinion, but Young Justice really dropped off for me in this season.
I hated the multi-year jump they did at the beginning of the season (it's a bullshit way to kick over the table without doing it logically and I hate it so much.) and far too much of the consequences of decisions made in that time-jump (which we were mostly left out of seeing) were driving the story, which is a bit like trying to go on a road trip without tires--you can kinda do it, but you will face many problems brought on by a fundamental absence of very necessary things.
Couple this with the fact that one of the major driving plots as of late happens entirely because no one is willing to have a conversation with people who should probably know about things so they don't screw them up and . . .yeah. It's OK, like Green Lantern's OK, but this was not the new Justice League Unlimited, nor was it the panacea for lapsed DC fans who hated the new 52--it was a generally not-terrible DC cartoon that was a passable way to kill a half-hour.
And that's what's on the docket for winter. Pretty soon Mad Men will return (and so will my reviews--I have no idea why people love my writeups SO MUCH, but they do) and the last few Breaking Bad episodes will also unspool. So there's that going for us, which is nice.
This then, is a rundown of the shows I'm following here in the first quarter of 2013:
AMERICAN DAD: I am endlessly fascinated by the notion that American dad has about two seasons worth of episodes in the can that they can roll out at will despite being pre-empted, forgotten and shoved aside for one-hour Family Guy episodes (usually dreadful) or an extra episode of The Cleveland Show (The Caddyshack 2 of spin-offs--let's just pretend it never happened) It's the Anti-South Park, in terms of how it feels about timeliness.
This is to its benefit, as it's not hidebound by doing feeling like it has to be au courant (which it tried to do early on and it was just god-awful then) and so can pursue any lunatic tangent they feel, whether said tangent is a quadriplegic with telekinesis or just providing and excuse for Patrick Stewart to be utterly batshit insane and hilarity, typically results.
Naturally, this is the one that no one watches so much so . . .yeah. Leave it to me to back the winner.
TRON: UPRISING: Bit of a cheat this one, as it aired its last episode last Sunday, but I thought it was worth a mention all the same. This show kinda spun its wheels in place at the mid-season break (it felt very much like the final episode had come ten episodes before it actually did) but this turned into a pretty interesting show, expanding on the story in between the first and second movies (and probably having more story and more depth than both combined--I mean, I love the movies but they sure as heck aren't deep)
Naturally, they ran it at midnight on Sunday and have no cancelled it because no one was watching. Is that a tautology or a truism? I'm not sure.
JUSTIFIED: Last week, Justified had an interesting master villain for the season in in Robert Quarles, who met one of the most bizarre fates possible in a TV show. This year it seems there's a larger plot but no apparent master villain (to be be fair, after three seasons, that would get a bit rote if they didn't change it up) and in the meantime it gives us some time to see our nominal protagonist and antagonists--Raylan Givens and arch-nemesis/occasional ally Boyd Crowder deal with the fallout of certain seismic changes in their lives and situations.
I'm kinda curious to see how this plot they're developing plays out, though it is some curious commonality that it's a cold case from the early 80's, considering . . .
THE AMERICANS: . . .this show, which debuted this week, also takes place in the early 80's. I was intrigued by the premise (KGB sleeper agents in 1981 America) and despite the fact that the lead character is Felicity (" . . .on the WB," I find myself adding silently. If you're too young to get that, yo're a young punk and I hate you) she's actually pretty damn awesome in this (I respect anyone who punts someone's head through drywall) and the pilot really impressed me.
Barring one thing--while I appreciate these kinds of elements are there to prove to us that these people are Tough Bastards who work for Evil People, was it necessary to have KGBelicity raped by her superior on-camera just so we'd have a character connection when she kills him twenty years later while he's trying to defect? That's . . .well, it feels too easy and I guess I was hoping for more nuance.
They're the KGB. If you know even a little bit about them, you know what kind of hard-asses they are.
That said, it's got an interesting dynamic--KGBelicity is all gung-ho about killing people for the KGB, and her husband (whom she was pared up with in what it is assumed is a loveless arranged marriage for the sake of their cover) is quite impressed with the amenities of the west.
I'm intrigued to see where this goes--the mise en scene is quite interesting (the Soviets reaction to Regan being installed in the pilot was telling and adds some tension, knowing as we do that the USSR will be very different come the end of the decade) and for all my wisecracks, KGBelicity is an ass-kicker par excellence.
ARCHER: Speaking of spies (man, this made for a great segue trifecta) The several parts spy comedy/office comedy/meditation on collective madness recently returned for its fourth season this month, and it's said that this season will be a bit more serialised, and I can see a little of that. My main thing was--would it be funny?
As of last week's episode, featuring one of the best final two minutes in the show's history, I can safely say . . .most definitely.
GREEN LANTERN: THE ANIMATED SERIES: Initially, I really hated this damn show, because Hal Jordan is a deeply boring character crammed full of undeserved smugness and a 1960s, boring-ass, Chuck Yeager manque who come across as a self-absorbed asshole sixty years removed from that milieu.
The show won me over by doing what the comics did long ago--by generally allowing Hal to do the heavy lifting with regards to plot so the other characters can be far more interesting and overshadow his milquetoast ass. See also: why do you think there are five Green Lanterns from Earth in the comics, all of whom, even undercooked though they may be, are far more interesting than Hal Jordan by several orders of magnitude.
This has been recently cancelled to the surprise of no one (as it was made to tie-in to a movie no one liked enough to want to see any more of) and while it's kind of a shame it's being dropped just as it hits it's stride it's . . .enjoyable enough, but I won't miss it that much.
YOUNG JUSTICE: You'll hear a lot of stuff about Young Justice being cancelled, because holy GOD are people angry about this. They're . . .well, everyone's entitled to their opinion, but Young Justice really dropped off for me in this season.
I hated the multi-year jump they did at the beginning of the season (it's a bullshit way to kick over the table without doing it logically and I hate it so much.) and far too much of the consequences of decisions made in that time-jump (which we were mostly left out of seeing) were driving the story, which is a bit like trying to go on a road trip without tires--you can kinda do it, but you will face many problems brought on by a fundamental absence of very necessary things.
Couple this with the fact that one of the major driving plots as of late happens entirely because no one is willing to have a conversation with people who should probably know about things so they don't screw them up and . . .yeah. It's OK, like Green Lantern's OK, but this was not the new Justice League Unlimited, nor was it the panacea for lapsed DC fans who hated the new 52--it was a generally not-terrible DC cartoon that was a passable way to kill a half-hour.
And that's what's on the docket for winter. Pretty soon Mad Men will return (and so will my reviews--I have no idea why people love my writeups SO MUCH, but they do) and the last few Breaking Bad episodes will also unspool. So there's that going for us, which is nice.
Wednesday, January 9, 2013
These Are The Comics That Try Men's Souls
Well, it's that time once again, friends and neighbors, that time when we once again address my most recent haul of comics in our usual terms--typically hateful and hurtful ones, in most cases, and then we sometimes say something positive and it's so weird because well, we just don;t usually do that and then it's totally this odd kinda thing and yeah I better get on with it already.
JUSTICE LEAGUE #15--There are people who say that the big success story of the new 52 is the new take on Aquaman, and these people are of course utterly wrong because of the following two reasons:
1) People should, at their bare minimum, aim higher than "a take on Aquaman." Unless they're taking a piss on Aquaman comics. That's cool--I bet they're really absorbent.
2) It's not that new or fresh a take on Aquaman, guys. Here, let me drop some science on you: There are two basic takes on Aquaman as a character, and the fact that there are only two should tell you something right there. The first (also known as DC's standard operating procedure, which is "do the same thing over and over again and hope that it comes out this time and HOW do you define 'insanity' again?") involves wading into Aquaman's brain-meltingly dull backstory, his stupid mise-en-scene, and the passel of ciphers called his supporting cast.
When that (inevitably) fails, they go with option 2, which is to turn him into the Sub-Mariner. Again. And that's what the new take is, essentially--Aquaman's an asshole, and he knows all your Aquaman jokes. There. I saved you reading fifteen issues of a book I also did not read because it's freakin' Aquaman and we all have better things to do, even those of us with nothing to do.
So, why all the Aquaman bile? Very simply, this issue begins the "Throne of Atlantis" story, because the only thing more exciting than reading about Aquaman is reading about Atlantis declaring war on the surface world. Only this time it's lead by Aquaman's dumb-ass brother Ocean Master and he's trying to drown people with tsunamis.
It's a great big bland bowl of gruel that's as blank as a fart. Subplots tick over--Cyborg tries to convince us that Geoff Johns had an idea beyond "so they can't all be white? All right, stick Cyborg in. He's black, right?" By giving him a whole page of him chewing over his daddy issues by talking to a TV screen (did you remember he had daddy issues? I know, I forgot too! Also I did not care!) and oh my god seriously Geoff Johns be more I hate you.
Oh, and Superman and Wonder Woman continue their relationship--which I remind you is written with all the passion of a five year old stripping his sister's Barbie and Ken doll's doll-ass nekkid and grinding them against one another, as Superman explains why he wears the glasses as Clark Kent and holy shit I did not buy this metaphor when Mark Waid did it in Kingdom Come and I am not buying it here.
But god dammit, this being a Geoff Johns Joint, I guess we HAD TO HAVE the Secret Origin of Clark Ken's Glasses in the New 52. I would like to think that Roy Thomas would have had more self-control than this. I would like to think that.
In the name of saying something positive about this issue--and there is--Ivan Reis steps in as the new regular penciller. I like his stuff a lot, and he acquits himself well with the action and character moments. The weaknesses here are primarily at the writing and conceptual levels.
Meanwhile, in the never-ending and never-interesting Shazam backup, Billy Batson finally manages to do some good in the most dickmosnterish way possible because of course he does. How many years has this backup been going on? Six issues? It feels like the halfway mark with Cerebus--the back Dave-Sim-is-wayyyy-off-his-nut half, only that was more exciting and more even-handed with regards to gender politics.
Geoff Johns ends the story the only way he knows how to end stories going back to JSA--with a full-page reveal of the last page with Black Adam finally finding Shazam and Shazam getting a goooooood look at Adam's junk. Seriously, this is like his thing--every damn book, it seems he does this--full page splash, hero on the ground or looking up, villain looming as the focus of the page and saying one or two words that are supposed to be ominous and cliffhangery but . . .aren't.
I don't care for this comic, but it's fascinating in a way that it takes the white light of everything I hate about big two superhero comics and prisms it out into a neat rainbow of joyless mediocrity where craft is insignificant, talent elusive, and the overall feeling is one of sadness.
EVAN DORKIN'S HOUSE OF FUN--I enjoyed the "Broken Robot" strips and "Least Beloved Ultraman Monsters (According To Some Very Agitated Men On An Internet Message Board)" way more than I probably should. I also chuckled at the Milk and Cheese strips because, well, I would, wouldn't I? Didn't really care much for the Eltingville stuff, which seemed to go on a bit too long at the end, but in all, a lot of good zany, occasionally angry fun. It's not Tales Designed To Thrizzle, but it will do in a pinch.
BATWOMAN #15--Well, this issue doesn't move the plot ahead one iota, the join between J.H. Williams III's framing sequence and Trevor McCarthy's interior pages is very plain despite McCarthy trying to keep it in line with Williams' "gritty" line style, buuuut . . .I still kinda liked this one. It's mostly told from the perspective of Maggie Sawyer, Kate's love interest, and while there are some bits where the notes ring a little shrill, if the overplot for the last year and change is not really fussed with making a lot of sense, then this kind of more interior story is less grating, if you ask me.
J.H. Williams is leaving Batwoman soon, (as with the banana stand, there's always money in Sandman) and while that's sad, I've felt quite a bit lately that I want to like the book more than i actually like the book. Stylistically it's very interesting, but not much else. So I'm intrigued to see how (and if) it continues with some fresh blood added to the equation.
Unless it's Jim Balent, in which case I can only imagine the amount of stroke victims that will be checked into our nation's hospitals following the announcement.
GLORY #31--Heading towards the finale, and while the expected outcome of all this would be a prolonged fight with Glory and Nanaja's father, Keatinge subverts our expectations and the main conflict takes places over a rather contentious (and hilarious) breakfast.
Ross Campbell does his usual wonderful job with it all, drawing powerful people in really expressive ways, and I really like Ulises Farinas' guest turn in this issue--his art has some similarities with Campbell's (most notably the "heft" he gives the action scenes) but the work is blockier, more illustrative, and he is quite a find.
I will really miss this book when it's gone.
PROPHET#32--I wonder if the reason people keep falling back on comparing Prophet to Heavy Metal is because it's very difficult to encapsulate what it's trying to evoke in terms other than that--Prophet tends to tell these expansive, quiet, lonely existential stories with mind-bogglingly weird images and makes no effort to ground it in any sort of identifiable reality the reader might recognise but has this identifiable logic that a reader can get into, with a little effort.
It's a very strange book, but quite enjoyable.
HARBINGER #7--People have said that this book is far more decompressed than the original, and to an extent, they're right--measured against the original, we're on issue #4 or so versus #7 of the new version. But two things make this OK here--for one thing, we're getting much more character with team members as we add them along--this issue, it's Flamingo, who got pretty short shrift in the original (her character was hastily sketched in as "promiscuous bad girl trying to be good") and how they relate to themselves and the group.
Also, the bits with Zephyr in the strip club were damned funny.
This felt like it was still moving forward--subplots tick over, and Kris has taken full charge and has a plan to create a resistance force against Harada. Shes more overtly Machiavellian in this version, and it's far more interesting as opposed to the original version--greying both sides like this makes for an intriguing story.
I have no real ending for this, but I suppose if I were Geoff Johns, this post would end with me floored while Per Degaton or someone floated above me saying something horrible like "I have no pants on under my uniform and you will stare at my time-tossed red man-bush," but really, that is not a thing I would do to you. Plus, I think it's more clever and post-modern when these posts just stop abru
JUSTICE LEAGUE #15--There are people who say that the big success story of the new 52 is the new take on Aquaman, and these people are of course utterly wrong because of the following two reasons:
1) People should, at their bare minimum, aim higher than "a take on Aquaman." Unless they're taking a piss on Aquaman comics. That's cool--I bet they're really absorbent.
2) It's not that new or fresh a take on Aquaman, guys. Here, let me drop some science on you: There are two basic takes on Aquaman as a character, and the fact that there are only two should tell you something right there. The first (also known as DC's standard operating procedure, which is "do the same thing over and over again and hope that it comes out this time and HOW do you define 'insanity' again?") involves wading into Aquaman's brain-meltingly dull backstory, his stupid mise-en-scene, and the passel of ciphers called his supporting cast.
When that (inevitably) fails, they go with option 2, which is to turn him into the Sub-Mariner. Again. And that's what the new take is, essentially--Aquaman's an asshole, and he knows all your Aquaman jokes. There. I saved you reading fifteen issues of a book I also did not read because it's freakin' Aquaman and we all have better things to do, even those of us with nothing to do.
So, why all the Aquaman bile? Very simply, this issue begins the "Throne of Atlantis" story, because the only thing more exciting than reading about Aquaman is reading about Atlantis declaring war on the surface world. Only this time it's lead by Aquaman's dumb-ass brother Ocean Master and he's trying to drown people with tsunamis.
It's a great big bland bowl of gruel that's as blank as a fart. Subplots tick over--Cyborg tries to convince us that Geoff Johns had an idea beyond "so they can't all be white? All right, stick Cyborg in. He's black, right?" By giving him a whole page of him chewing over his daddy issues by talking to a TV screen (did you remember he had daddy issues? I know, I forgot too! Also I did not care!) and oh my god seriously Geoff Johns be more I hate you.
Oh, and Superman and Wonder Woman continue their relationship--which I remind you is written with all the passion of a five year old stripping his sister's Barbie and Ken doll's doll-ass nekkid and grinding them against one another, as Superman explains why he wears the glasses as Clark Kent and holy shit I did not buy this metaphor when Mark Waid did it in Kingdom Come and I am not buying it here.
But god dammit, this being a Geoff Johns Joint, I guess we HAD TO HAVE the Secret Origin of Clark Ken's Glasses in the New 52. I would like to think that Roy Thomas would have had more self-control than this. I would like to think that.
In the name of saying something positive about this issue--and there is--Ivan Reis steps in as the new regular penciller. I like his stuff a lot, and he acquits himself well with the action and character moments. The weaknesses here are primarily at the writing and conceptual levels.
Meanwhile, in the never-ending and never-interesting Shazam backup, Billy Batson finally manages to do some good in the most dickmosnterish way possible because of course he does. How many years has this backup been going on? Six issues? It feels like the halfway mark with Cerebus--the back Dave-Sim-is-wayyyy-off-his-nut half, only that was more exciting and more even-handed with regards to gender politics.
Geoff Johns ends the story the only way he knows how to end stories going back to JSA--with a full-page reveal of the last page with Black Adam finally finding Shazam and Shazam getting a goooooood look at Adam's junk. Seriously, this is like his thing--every damn book, it seems he does this--full page splash, hero on the ground or looking up, villain looming as the focus of the page and saying one or two words that are supposed to be ominous and cliffhangery but . . .aren't.
I don't care for this comic, but it's fascinating in a way that it takes the white light of everything I hate about big two superhero comics and prisms it out into a neat rainbow of joyless mediocrity where craft is insignificant, talent elusive, and the overall feeling is one of sadness.
EVAN DORKIN'S HOUSE OF FUN--I enjoyed the "Broken Robot" strips and "Least Beloved Ultraman Monsters (According To Some Very Agitated Men On An Internet Message Board)" way more than I probably should. I also chuckled at the Milk and Cheese strips because, well, I would, wouldn't I? Didn't really care much for the Eltingville stuff, which seemed to go on a bit too long at the end, but in all, a lot of good zany, occasionally angry fun. It's not Tales Designed To Thrizzle, but it will do in a pinch.
BATWOMAN #15--Well, this issue doesn't move the plot ahead one iota, the join between J.H. Williams III's framing sequence and Trevor McCarthy's interior pages is very plain despite McCarthy trying to keep it in line with Williams' "gritty" line style, buuuut . . .I still kinda liked this one. It's mostly told from the perspective of Maggie Sawyer, Kate's love interest, and while there are some bits where the notes ring a little shrill, if the overplot for the last year and change is not really fussed with making a lot of sense, then this kind of more interior story is less grating, if you ask me.
J.H. Williams is leaving Batwoman soon, (as with the banana stand, there's always money in Sandman) and while that's sad, I've felt quite a bit lately that I want to like the book more than i actually like the book. Stylistically it's very interesting, but not much else. So I'm intrigued to see how (and if) it continues with some fresh blood added to the equation.
Unless it's Jim Balent, in which case I can only imagine the amount of stroke victims that will be checked into our nation's hospitals following the announcement.
GLORY #31--Heading towards the finale, and while the expected outcome of all this would be a prolonged fight with Glory and Nanaja's father, Keatinge subverts our expectations and the main conflict takes places over a rather contentious (and hilarious) breakfast.
Ross Campbell does his usual wonderful job with it all, drawing powerful people in really expressive ways, and I really like Ulises Farinas' guest turn in this issue--his art has some similarities with Campbell's (most notably the "heft" he gives the action scenes) but the work is blockier, more illustrative, and he is quite a find.
I will really miss this book when it's gone.
PROPHET#32--I wonder if the reason people keep falling back on comparing Prophet to Heavy Metal is because it's very difficult to encapsulate what it's trying to evoke in terms other than that--Prophet tends to tell these expansive, quiet, lonely existential stories with mind-bogglingly weird images and makes no effort to ground it in any sort of identifiable reality the reader might recognise but has this identifiable logic that a reader can get into, with a little effort.
It's a very strange book, but quite enjoyable.
HARBINGER #7--People have said that this book is far more decompressed than the original, and to an extent, they're right--measured against the original, we're on issue #4 or so versus #7 of the new version. But two things make this OK here--for one thing, we're getting much more character with team members as we add them along--this issue, it's Flamingo, who got pretty short shrift in the original (her character was hastily sketched in as "promiscuous bad girl trying to be good") and how they relate to themselves and the group.
Also, the bits with Zephyr in the strip club were damned funny.
This felt like it was still moving forward--subplots tick over, and Kris has taken full charge and has a plan to create a resistance force against Harada. Shes more overtly Machiavellian in this version, and it's far more interesting as opposed to the original version--greying both sides like this makes for an intriguing story.
I have no real ending for this, but I suppose if I were Geoff Johns, this post would end with me floored while Per Degaton or someone floated above me saying something horrible like "I have no pants on under my uniform and you will stare at my time-tossed red man-bush," but really, that is not a thing I would do to you. Plus, I think it's more clever and post-modern when these posts just stop abru
Monday, January 7, 2013
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