Review: Bill Willingham et al: Fables: Wolves

Wolves, the eighth collection of Bill Willingham's Fables, hits the title from several different directions, as well as bringing us into a story of black ops, missing persons, family reunions, and general, all-around intrigue.

Prince Charming, who may not be much of a mayor but is revealing himself to be a first-rate strategic thinker, has decided that it's time for the Fables of Fabletown to take the war back to the Adversary -- now that they know who and where he is. Unfortunately, a key player in PC's plan is missing: Bigby Wolf has taken off for parts unknown. Because of the cubs' shape-changing abilities, which they can't control very well, Snow White has taken them to live at the farm; Bigby, because of past history, is barred from setting foot on the place. Since he's no longer the Sheriff of Fabletown, Bigby has opted to get lost. Prince Charming has, however, the ideal Tourist to hunt him down: Mowgli, who himself was raised by wolves. The good Prince also has something to sweeten the deal for all concerned: Mowgli's reward will be the liberation of his old friend Bagheera from confinement, his sentence for his (unwilling) participation in the ill-fated revolution led by Goldilocks; and Bigby gets to be re-united with Snow and his family -- just how is a surprise. Key in all of this are another of the Prince's undercover agents, Cinderella, Jack's magic beans, and "the Israeli option," a matter of unacceptable consequences.

Along the way we learn that, in spite of his general fearsomeness, Bigby is not good with heights.

We've gotten back to a good, solid, complex story line in this one, with some good character building. Snow White, in particular, reveals new facets -- we see, in the way she deals with her somewhat unruly litter, including maintaining the fiction that their father is in touch via letters, the qualities that made her the very effective Deputy Mayor she was, but she's mellowed. Bigby, likewise, adds a couple of new dimensions, mostly involving his feelings for Snow. Mowgli is the prize here -- he's revealed as a dogged, resourceful tracker of lost Fables, and tough as nails when need be. (He's also about as pretty as it gets.)

There is one part of this story arc that stuck out, and at the risk of spoilery, here it is: Bigby and Snow get married, a huge, lavish affair, with all the Fables who can be found in attendance. Given the time of the original publication (2006), it's hard to think that Willingham is not making a political statement on the religious nature of marriage ("created by God"), which is hard to justify historically. And it doesn't really fit -- it's more than a little out of tune with the characters and the context -- neither Bigby nor Snow are really given to grand public gestures, and given the general spikiness of the characters in general, it's a just a little bit too transparently "feel-good."

There is a wonderful side story detailing Cinderella's work in negotiating the alliance between Fabletown and the Sky Kingdoms. Cinderella is just as prickly and impatient as they come, and as she informs Prince Charming in no uncertain terms, no more diplomatic assignments -- she's had it.

The art is up to the usual standard, and stylistically consistent throughout. This collection also contains maps of Fabletown and the Farm, and a script for issue #50.

(Vertigo, 2006) Collects Fables, #48-51.

Review: Bill Willingham, et al.: Fables: Arabian Nights (and Days)

Yet again, from the late and sorely missed Epinions.

Volume 7 of the collected issues of Bill Willingham's Fables, Arabian Nights (and Days), introduces the Arabian Fables, in the person of Sinbad, who heads a delegation from Baghdad -- but it's the Baghdad of the Homelands, not of this world. The Adversary hasn't penetrated that far yet, and the Arabian Fables are taking care to insure that their flight is not the helter-skelter thing that the Western Fables were forced to suffer. There are negotiations to be undertaken, a task for which Prince Charming, the Mayor, is not particularly well suited; he's forced to call on King Cole, the former Mayor, to take over as chief diplomat. However, there's perfidy afoot that may bring the whole thing to ruin -- but you've got to be really sneaky to get past Frau Totenkinder.

While the dialogue and personalities in this one have most of the sparkle of the earlier volumes, there's a lot of this segment that's plainly expository -- we learn about djinni, for example, from two different sources. And some of the characters -- particularly Sinbad's vizier, Yusuf -- seem to occupy a ground somewhere between stereotype and caricature. The most refreshing parts of the action take place at the Farm -- Boy Blue's sentence for making off with magical artifacts has been commuted to two years' hard labor -- but again, there's a lot of exposition.

There are a couple of subplots that are fairly entertaining, but one is left with the inescapable conclusion that the story's a little thin.

There is, in fact, a side story involving two of Gepetto's wooden puppets, Rodney and June, who fall in love and beg Gepetto to give them real flesh. He agrees, but there's a price to be paid.

The drawing style in the main story is fully consistent with the rest of the series -- no surprise, it's still being penciled by Mark Buckingham. The story of Rodney and June, penciled by Jim Fern, shows a noticeable shift -- it's somewhat more abstract, but still very clean and clear.

All told, I can't really summon up a great deal of enthusiasm for this one; what there is is mostly on the strength of the subplots. The main story just doesn't have that much going for it.

(Vertigo, 2006) Collects Fables #42-47.

Review: Bill Willingham, et al.: Fables: Homelands

I reviewed most of this series at Epinions. Now you get to read the reviews here.

Bill Willingham's Fables: Homelands gives us the adventures of two of Fabletown's denizens who have gone missing: Jack, who is suspected (with good reason -- as Beast points out, Bigby Wolf told him "Always suspect Jack first.") of having made off with the contents of one of the late Bluebeard's treasure rooms; and Boy Blue, who seems to have made off with several of the town's magical artifacts, specifically the Witching Cloak and the Vorpal Sword.

We start off with another of Jack's schemes to make his fortune -- except this time he's starting off with a fortune. He heads to Hollywood to make -- well, with Jack, it's never quite sure what his goals are, since he can't go public -- but he's going to make a splash. He sets himself up as a production company, with layers of front men to keep himself out of the public eye, and begins work on a fantasy trilogy -- the story of Jack. (No one ever said he was short on ego.) He's brought Jill with him on this jaunt. She just wanted to get out and see the world, but winds up living in Jack office in a series of antique dollhouses (she's rather diminutive). She's not real happy about that.

If this is Willingham's take on Hollywood and its workings, it's a little heavy handed. Jack has set himself up to be the biggest shark in an ocean full of them, and pretty well succeeds: we get a picture of Jack's character in this one, and it's not pretty. He's forgotten, though, that there's always payback -- this scheme works out just like the others have.

Boy Blue's goals are somewhat different: he's busily carving his way through the Homelands to get to the Adversary. He wants the Adversary to be history, and he wants Red Riding Hood, the real one, the one he fell in love with. There are a few surprises, but Blue is up to them -- he's a lot sneakier than we thought. And he's working for someone even sneakier than he is.

We also get to meet Mowgli, of Jungle Book fame, who's one of the "Travelers," Fabletown's spies in the mundy world. The new mayor, Prince Charming, has a special job for him.

This one is a lot of fun, from the swashbuckling adventures of Boy Blue in the Homelands to the machinations of the Adversary (and we finally find out who that is) and Prince Charming.

The art is up to the usual standard, and there are even distinct shifts in style when the characters are telling their histories that set off the narrative into a real "once-upon-a-time" mode. There's one thing I haven't mentioned before, and that's the borders around a lot of the pages. They give the feel of an old story book and add a lot to the fairy tale feel of the books.

This volume takes us back to the main narrative, and although the Jack story tends to go on a little too long -- I mean, we know Jack's a creep, right? We don't really need the repetition of just what a piece of work he is -- the Boy Blue story line more than makes up for it. I'm calling it a solid 4.

(Vertigo, 2006) Collects Fables #34-41.

Review: Bill Willingham, et al.: Fables: Mean Seasons

Or, A Year in the Life. Another Epinions orphan.

Bill Willingham's Fables: Mean Seasons focuses mostly on Bigby Wolf and Snow White and their children, and some upheavals in the lives of the Fables of Fabletown.

The first two stories, "Cinderella Libertine" and "Dog Company," give us a view of Bigby's activities now and back when. It seems that Cinderella, after her failed career as a revolutionary (Animal Farm), has gone to work for Bigby, undercover, while Bigby himself is revealed to be no stranger to black ops, blowing a clandestine Nazi operation. (Think Frankenstein Redux.) "The Cruel Hot Summer" brings us back to Snow, who delivers six cubs (much to her surprise) coincidentally with the mayoral election, which results in a landslide for Prince Charming, because of his campaign promises. In "The Long Hard Fall," Snow is at the Farm with the babies and Bigby has made off for parts unknown, while Beauty and Beast, their successors as Deputy Mayor and Sheriff, respectively, of Fabletown, cope as best they can. We learn in "The Dark Killing Winter" that transition to the new administration is not all that smooth: Boy Blue, who knows how everything works, disappears, along with several magical artifacts. And Beast decides, as an act of clemency, to commute Flycatcher's (the Frog Prince) sentence of community service, much to Flycatcher's dismay. We also witness the first of a series of mysterious deaths, which seems somehow connected to a letter from Frau Totenkinder to Snow about her seven children. And in "Until the Spring," we learn that there was indeed a seventh child.

Although it's not clearly defined, in terms of a real "plot," there is an overarching storyline to this volume, but it grows in your awareness rather than being plainly laid out. Fortunately, Willingham's storytelling is engaging enough that I didn't feel the lack. The dialogue, however, sometimes goes flat: it's fairly matter-of-fact to begin with, but the situations are generally enough to carry it. That's not always the case in this collection.

The art, a team effort by Mark Buckingham and Tony Akins, pencils, and Steve Leialoha and Jimmy Palmiotti, inks, maintains its appeal, but once again, is somewhat constrained by the heavy scripting. The babies, though, are adorable.

It's a filler volume, really, a sort of breather before the next chapter of the fight against the Adversary resumes. It's still a good read, but I can't really put it at more than a 3, maybe just a smidge above.

(Vertigo, 2005) Collects Fables #22 and 28-33.

Review: Bill Willingham: Fables: March of the Wooden Soldiers

I found Bill Willingham's Fables series to be more engaging as I worked my way through it. March of the Wooden Soldiers offers an even richer story with layers of deception and intrigue -- not to mention angst and guilt -- and a couple of side stories that continue to fill out the major characters.

We start off with a little history on Boy Blue, Snow White's assistant. Every year, Blue and a group of friends gather for an evening of hard drinking. They were the last to escape the Homelands, but the evening is not marked by celebration: there's a lot of guilt that they escaped while others perished. Blue's story is particularly poignant: the last refugee to reach their final stronghold was Red Riding Hood, and she and Blue fell in love. When the final battle came, he sent her to the ship that was carrying the refugees to safety, while he went back to the battle. Unknown to him, she left the boat and went back to fight at his side, while he, through the gift of his commander's magic cloak, was able to transport himself to the ship after it had left.

And now Red Riding Hood has made it to the Earth. But there's something a little off -- her reaction to meeting Blue again is extreme, and not at all friendly. Bigby, as usual, is suspicious. And then a group of men appear, wanting to buy guns. Lots of guns. And, as it turns out, they're not exactly men.

In the meantime, Snow is pregnant, the result of that little camping trip with Bigby, aided and abetted by Bluebeard's hypnosis. She's not really very happy about it. And Prince Charming, having finished off Bluebeard, is searching his apartment for whatever gold, jewels, silver, or anything else of value hasn't gone to fill the coffers of Fabletown. (Bluebeard died intestate, so his fortune reverted to the government. But Prince Charming isn't really interested in full disclosure.) He has a brilliant idea: he's going to run for Mayor.

Things develop, and Fabletown is under attack by the wooden soldiers of the title. Since Bigby is away on his investigation, Snow takes command of the town's defenses, even enlisting the witches to work in Fabletown's defense -- for free, which doesn't make them happy at all, but their options are limited.

This one is a lot of fun, and I think my favorite in the series so far. The story is multi-layered, there's a lot of intrigue, but nothing you can't figure out if you want to. It's so well done, though, that you don't bother. Willingham's script sucks you right in, and it's really easy to just go with the flow of the story.

Mark Buckingham, Craig Hamilton, and P. Craig Russell penciled this volume, and the visuals are just as appealing as the previous collections. The battle scenes are exceptionally effective, but the whole thing is worth looking at. My one objection to this one, and looking back, to the series as a whole so far, is that Willingham scripts fairly heavily -- there's not a lot of room for the visuals to carry the narrative, and it never gets past the idiom of illustrated story and into true graphic literature, with that particular synergy between the elements.

Collects Fables: The Last Castle, and Fables #19-21 and #2-27.

(Vertigo, 2004)

Review: Bill Willingham: Fables, The Deluxe Edition, Book One

I reviewed most of this series at the late lamented Epinions, although for some reason I never reviewed the first three trade paper backs. Maybe this is why.

Imagine all your favorite (and not-so-favorite) characters from fairy tales, folk tales, and children's literature living in Manhattan right now. (Except for the not-so-human characters, who are living on an extensive farm/estate in upstate New York.) Refugees from their own scattered kingdoms and realms, all conquered by a creature known as the "Adversary," they live in a particular section of town, which they have named "Fabletown." They have their own government and spend a fair amount of effort keeping the "mundys" unaware of their existence. King Cole is the Mayor of Fabletown, and Snow White is his deputy, who manages the day-to-day affairs of the Fables -- the real power behind the throne, so to speak. The Big Bad Wolf, now known as Bigby, is the sheriff. (He has taken on human form for the past few hundred years.)
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The first half of this volume, "Legends in Exile," fills in the background a bit and gives us the first adventure: Jack (of Beanstalk fame) comes huffing into Bigby's office to report a terrible crime: He has been keeping company with Rose Red, Snow's estranged sister, and went over to her place only to discover the apartment a blood-spattered shambles. It's Rose's blood, alright, but there's no trace of her at all. Bigby, being a naturally suspicious sort, immediately comes up with a list of suspects, starting with Jack. The list soon expands to include Snow White and Bluebeard -- one of the few who escaped the Homelands with his fortunes intact.

The second installment, "Animal Farm," finds Snow and Rose (no, she wasn't dead, and no one ever really thought she was) on their way to the Farm on Snow's annual visit. They read the farm to find Weyland Smith, the Administrator, AWOL, and the farm being run by the Three Little Pigs. It soon turns out that there's a revolution brewing, led by Goldilocks and the Three Bears.

I had read this volume of the series as background for a ficlet at Green Man Review, but with the backlog I'd built up of material for review, never went back to it until recently. It's worth following, I think: these are fairy tales for adults, and in many respects probably closer to the originals transcribed by the Brothers Grimm and other collectors than the versions eventually published for children. The characterizations aren't what we might expect -- Snow White is a little rigid, not very sympathetic, and more than a little arrogant (and you'd best not mention the Dwarves in her hearing, if you know what's good for you) -- but the cast is highly entertaining, from the Frog Prince, now in human form, who keeps getting sentenced to community service for eating flies in public, to Beauty and the Beast, whose main marital problem is that the glamor that keeps Beast looking human works more or less, depending on how mad at him Beauty is at any given moment. Reynard the Fox, in "Animal Farm," lives up to his reputation as a trickster, and Goldilocks' relationship with Baby Bear is bound to raise a few eyebrows.

The art is a group effort by Lan Medina, Mark Buckingham, Steve Leialoha, and Craig Hamilton. There's good stylistic consistency throughout, and while layouts tend to hew closely to the standard frame-follows-frame of Western comics, there's a nice openness to the renderings that keeps it from getting monotonous or claustrophobic, even in the crowd scenes.

Collects Fables #1-10.

(Vertigo, 2009)

Review: Joss Whedon: Marvel's The Avengers

I saw Joss Whedon's The Avengers when it opened in Chicago, and immediately went home and pre-ordered the DVD. It arrived on a Thursday; by Sunday I had watched it three times.

S.H.I.E.L.D., under the direction of Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson), is investigating the Tesseract, an alien artifact discovered when the search was on for Captain America (Chris Evans). Progress is being made -- it's potentially a source of unlimited clean energy -- when there appears a disruption, in the form of Loki (Tom Hiddleston), who, after wreaking suitable havoc on the research facility, absconds with the Tesseract, as well as Clint Barton/Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner) and Dr. Selvig (Stellan Skarsgård), lead researcher -- he's managed to subvert them by using a scepter that draws on the Tesseract's power to control their minds. Fury, however, has a back-up, a resource he's held in reserve, even though it -- the "Avengers Initiative" -- has been officially shelved. He starts putting together a team: Steve Rogers/Captain America (Chris Evans); Natasha Romanoff/Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson), who in turn is enlisted to recruit Dr. Bruce Banner/Hulk (Mark Ruffalo); Tony Stark/Iron Man (Robert Downey, Jr.), recruited by Agent Coulson (Clark Gregg) in a very funny scene. Things are going well -- the Avengers manage to capture Loki and are transporting him back to the carrier when Thor (Chris Hemsworth) decides to insert himself into the situation -- he thinks Loki should be returned to Asgard. He's persuaded otherwise.

Meanwhile, Dr. Selvig has set up the Tesseract to act as a bridge for the invasion force. It works. And then the fun starts.

Where to start?

The actors, even though working with comic-book characters, manage to deliver some real people -- they have histories, strengths, vulnerabilities, and hang-ups, and we see them, as opposed to being told about them. Johansson turned out to be my favorite, I think -- she's a superb actress, and did a lot of the physical action herself. (Reportedly, she trained for months for this role -- it shows.) The dialogue is sharp and energetic -- it crackles -- and often very, very funny -- the film is littered with throw-aways that always have me snickering, not to mention some of the physical business that hits you out of the blue. (Hulk is really good for that.) And the best part is watching these spiky personalities make themselves into a team. Very well done.

The effects are spectacular (the S.H.I.E.L.D. carrier is worth watching the film itself) and beautifully done. And the amount of destruction is awesome. (I admit it -- hiding not very far under my surface is this kid who likes to watch things blow up.)

The script itself is good and tight, with a clear story line and enough room for the actors to move around. (Whedon wrote the script, too.) The pace is fast, but the story remains coherent -- cuts make sense and add to the momentum.

The DVD includes English, French and Spanish soundtracks, plus an "English Descriptive Service" that provides narration setting the scene and describing the action in those scenes without dialogue; subtitles in French and Spanish, plus English for the Hearing Impaired; the requisite "sneak previews"; a very interesting featurette of the actors discussing each other -- no dissing, but a good take on the strengths each brought to his or her role (these are obviously people who admire each other's work), with additional commentary by Whedon; and a Director's Commentary by Whedon on just where he was coming from on this one. (It starts off with the question "Why did they pick Whedon to direct this one?" Short answer -- he's one of the best for anything comics. He turns out to be a terrific film director, too.)

Just offhand, I'd say The Avengers deserves every accolade it's received: it's action-packed, it's funny, the characters are well-developed, the effects are terrific -- top marks on every score. (Even the music, although a little bombastic, fits perfectly.)

(Marvel Studios, Paramount Pictures, 2012) Running time: 143 min.

Review: Suguro Chayamachi, Nitro+ CHiRAL: Togainu No Chi, Vol.1

This is another Epinions foundling. I did a lot of BL manga at Epinions; I imagine most of it will be showing up here.

The first volume of Togainu no Chi by Suguro Chayamachi and Nitro+ CHiRAL looks like the beginning to a very good action/adventure series with BL overtones, set in a near-future dystopia that provides an appropriate background to the story.

The apocalypse has come, and Japan is now divided into two nations, Nikkoren and the CFC. In between lies the city of Toshima, more ruins than anything else, home to the Igura, a battle game that's too real for comfort: you can lose everything in this one. Akira, an undefeated champion at another battle game, Bl@ster (in which you are not allowed to kill your opponent), is convicted of murder and given a choice: die in jail or try to survive the Igura. He also has a mission, but that's a secret.

Toshima is run by the underworld bosses and ruled by Arbitro, "Il Re." The winner of the Igura gets to fight the King and take his place -- if he wins. No one has yet. Arbitro has a side business that is the real reason for the Igura: line, a ferociously addictive drug that the crime cartel has now started marketing outside Toshima. That's the real goal: a lucrative business in drugs that doesn't depend on the denizens of Toshima.

We first meet Rin and Motomi, whom Rin calls "Old Man" (he must be all of 30) and who is a non-player -- he makes a living as an informer. Neither is reticent about his preferences in regard to romantic involvements, and it's Rin who first makes the acquaintance of Akira and Keisuke, Akira's friend who followed him into Toshima. In fact, Rin propositions Akira, whose main concern is getting Keisuke to safety, preferably out of the city -- Keisuke is not a fighter. There is also another fighter of whom we only catch glimpses at this point, Shiki, who is somewhat more than deadly and whose purposes are unknown.

The story line here is complex and multifaceted, and this could easily be the beginning of a lengthy series. The setting is rich and coherent and the characters are vividly drawn, both graphically and in their dialogue. Relationships are somewhat ambivalent, particularly that between Rin and Motomi. That between Akira and Keisuke also leaves much unsaid. To be honest, I was somewhat surprised to see the BL elements here -- Togainu no Chi is published by Tokyopop, which normally publishes BL manga under the BLU imprint. But those elements are undeniably there; whether they actually develop into anything is anyone's guess at this point.

Visually, this one is dense, almost tactile. Although the basic format follows shounen conventions, it's not all that strict. The settings are dark, in keeping with the mood of the story, and the visual contrasts are arresting. Characterizations are very well done, and follow a bishounen aesthetic -- men are slender and androgynous, although quite muscular; there are no women (well, one in a flashback). The characters display a lot of individuality.

My one complaint is that the drawing suffers from the format: it's a standard Tokyopop edition, slightly larger than an American mass-market paperback, and the compression of the images to fit the page sometimes leads to them being illegible, or nearly so, especially in action sequences, of which there are many. On the whole, though, the graphics are very strong and quite beautiful.

There's no sex, but a lot of death, little of it pretty. In spite of that, I think it's worth following, at least for adults -- it's gritty enough that I'd hesitate to recommend it for any but older teens. (The publisher rates it at 16+, but I don't know that I'm perfectly comfortable with that.)

(Tokyopop, 2008)

Review: Ed Brubaker, et al: Winter Soldier: The Longest Winter

Another from the now-defunct Epinions. And no, I don't always love comics.

I picked up Ed Brubaker's Winter Soldier: The Longest Winter on one of my periodic trips to the comics store, mostly on the basis of the juicy cover art and the blurb on the back -- this one brings us up to date on Bucky Barnes, Captain America's sidekick who was killed in World War II. Except he wasn't.

The history gets filled in through the first couple of chapters in this collection, while the new story is starting to unfold -- lots of flashbacks here, because the stories are twined together. Let's just say that Bucky Barnes is the man who trained the guys who are part of the problem now. He also has to deal with Dr. Doom; Lucia von Bardas, who was, for a time, prime minister of Latveria, until Doom caught up with her; a mastermind who is behind a plot to plunge the world into war, who also hails from Bucky's past; and a Doombot or two, for good measure. Bucky's working with Natasha Romanov, the Black Widow, on this one, and, as one might expect, Nick Fury's in the know.

Quite frankly, Ed Brubaker's story is a little chaotic at the beginning, although it soon levels off and we have a coherent story line to follow. (Although I have to say, Captain America comes off as a real -- well, he's sort of hair-triggered.) Brubaker's done a good job of filling in the backstory as the present story progresses, and the characterizations, while not as well-developed as we might wish, do add some depth, and after all, it's a comic.

My big problem with this was Butch Guice's art. He uses a rough-edged style, mostly fairly high contrast, and individual frames are often quite dense, even congested. There's a bit more clarity in parts 3-5, where the inking was aided and abetted by Stefano Gaudiano, Brian Thies and Tom Palmer, but there is still the problem of legibility throughout. There are also frames that abruptly shift to a John Bolton-style near-impressionism that I found quite jarring. The color, by Bettie Breitweiser (mostly) wasn't able to overcome the density. Coupled with the sometimes fragmented story line, it's sometimes hard to figure out where we are.

(Marvel, 2013. Collects Winter Soldier #1-5 & Fear Itself #7.1: Captain America.)

Holy Package, Batman!

Batman goes full frontal -- briefly:

Today marks the debut of Batman: Damned #1 by Brian Azzarello and Lee Bermejo, the first book released under DC Black Label. The nascent imprint is aimed at a slightly more mature audience than DC’s mainstream offerings, which was made very apparent when readers caught a glimpse of Bruce Wayne doing the most human thing in the world.

As he enters the Batcave after a night of fighting crime and solving a murder (the Joker’s, no less), Bruce Wayne starts taking off his superhero suit with each step. The camera pulls out to show his nude form from the front, never pulling away, revealing, for the first time ever, Bruce Wayne’s penis.

Of course, DC chickened out after the first print run:

CBR has been informed that, while Black Label is an imprint for mature readers, it was decided Bruce Wayne’s nudity was not additive to the story. Thus, the digital version blacked out the scenes. Additionally, CBR has confirmed that future printings of the issue will use the altered panels.

Not to say that there's a double standard in comics, perhaps reflecting the misogyny of young boys (who, traditionally, are the audience for superhero comics), and not to belabor the fact that the Black Label imprint is for "more mature" audiences, but if you think about it, how often do you see male characters portrayed with the same degree of nudity as female characters? (Not that comics in general are full of nudity, although given the prevalence of spandex. . . . But America in general has a problem with nudity; chalk it up to our "Christian" heritage. And no, I don't consider that attitude at all healthy, in case you were wondering.)

And if you want to know what all the fuss is about without surfing the web:

The full sequence is here.

Review: Geoff Johns, et al.: Superman: The Last Son of Krypton

Another one first published at Epinions and no longer available there:

One of the featured items on Free Comic Book Day at my local comics store was the first chapter of Superman: The Last Son of Krypton. It was interesting enough -- and showed a whole new facet of Superman -- that I checked to see if it was an ongoing series. Turns out, it's two stories that have already been collected.

In "Last Son," a rocket crash-lands in Metropolis, with a sole passenger. The "landing" part is thanks to Superman, who manages to slow it down enough to lessen the destruction. The passenger is a boy who speaks Kryptonese and tends to lift heavy objects without strain. Guess where he's from. Of course, it makes the papers, and suddenly, everyone wants the kid -- starting with Lex Luthor, but General Zod soon makes an appearance.

The second story, "Brainiac," is Superman versus Brainiac, who is busily sucking up all the information in the universe -- and then incinerating the creators. He's been looking for Superman, and now he's found him. That doesn't bode well for Earth.

In some ways, The Last Son of Krypton was a disappointment. What seemed at first like a new take on Superman -- as a father -- snapped right back into formula, first with Zod and his minions, and then with Brainiac. The boy became merely a plot device. It's a shame -- in this universe, Clark Kent and Lois Lane are married, there are lots of visits to Ma and Pa Kent, and there's a lot of potential for building some real humanity into Superman, but the parts never quite connect.

The Brainiac story is pure formula, and little more. Brainiac's dialogue is a reiteration of "You're powerless, you can defeat me, I win," repeated ad nauseam. There's as little character development here as there is in "Last Son" -- if anything, less.

The art saves this one. "Last Son" was drawn by Andy Kubert, and he's about to join my list of top comic artists. Superman is suitably craggy-featured, the boy Christopher is eminently appealing, and the rest of the characters are nicely conceived and rendered. My only objection here is that in some frames, depictions become a little too abstract. There is enough variation in the page layouts to keep things interesting, although in some passages they become so fragmented they're hard to follow.

"Brainiac" was drawn by Gary Frank, with inks by Jon Sibal, and again, the characterizations are apt (although Supergirl, who occupies a strong supporting role, looks a little vapid).

There's an "Epilogue" on this one, drawn, I assume, by Frank. The first portion is completely visual, and is tremendously evocative. (I can't tell you what it portrays, since that's a major spoiler.)

On the whole, Geoff Johns has done better, and I really wish he'd followed up on the opportunity to develop the relationship between Clark/Superman and Christopher without falling back on somewhat shopworn villains.

Coming Attractions: Avengers: Infinity War

Looks like Thanos finally makes his move:

Apparently Captain America's beard is getting the major buzz. It also looks like there are all sorts of new characters from Guardians of the Galaxy and Black Panther.

In theaters, we are told, May 4, 2018.

It's Sunday at Green Man Review

Lots of reviews, but not the one I had hoped to finish. But click on over -- there's still lots of good stuff.

It's "What's New" Day at GMR

Which means newly posted reviews.

And if you're looking for mine, there's one hidden in the introduction this week.

It's Sunday -- You Know What That Means

It's "What's New" day at Green Man Review, and so there are more reviews published.

You know what to do.

Another Reviews Update

It's "What's New" day at Green Man Review, and I have a lot of stuff up, so go on over and take a look -- there's fantasy, art, comics, anime, and music.

Coming Soon to Netflix: "Daredevil"

Daredevil is one of those characters who fascinates me, but the movies don't seem to have done much with him. Let's see if TV can do better:

Meet Matt Murdock. Blinded as a boy but imbued with extraordinary senses, Matt fights injustice by day as a respected lawyer and by night as the masked vigilante known as Daredevil in Hell's Kitchen, New York. He'll do anything to make his city a better place, but at what price?

Coming to Netflix on April 1.

Coming May 1: Avengers: The Age of Ultron

And of course I'm going to go see it. This is billed as a "trailer." Sorry -- it's a teaser:

Review in Brief: Gail Simone, Freddie Williams II: The Movement, #1-12

I’ve been catching up on the monthly comics that I have been following, but not following, if you catch my meaning. (Life has a way of intruding, sometimes.)

Warren Ellis made a comment relative to our fascination with superheroes (from an interview published in Voyage in Noise) to the effect that "we rely on them to save us, when we should be saving ourselves." Gail Simone has taken that idea and run with it in The Movement.

Simone has been one of my favorite comics writers for a while now, ever since I read her Secret Six series. She has a way of making her characters very real – they’re not all sweetness and light, but they’re not morbidly self-absorbed. In The Movement, she brings us a bunch of teenagers with particular abilities who have decided to take Coral City – or their part of it, the “Tweens,” the area between Tenth and Twentieth Streets – back from a corrupt police force and uncaring city government. They wind up taking on not only the police department, but City Hall and ultimately, the man who is actually running things, even though he holds no formal office. Then, they tangle with Batgirl, who comes to Coral City in pursuit of a fugitive – who isn’t really a criminal. And finally, they defeat the Cornea Killer, who has been killing the homeless and taking their eyes.

Simone’s ability with character is in full evidence here, not only with the team members – a group of misfits who’ve banded together as much because they have no place else to go as for any other reason – but, most tellingly, the villain in chief, James Cannon, the aforementioned man who’s really in charge, who ultimately turns out to be a man who bit off more than he could chew – not the Movement, but his chief tool for “cleaning up” his city. (In this and the general setting, the series reminds me somewhat of the TV series Arrow.) Simone also leaves room for some humor, mostly revolving around Mouse, who is one of the more off-the-wall characters I've ever seen.

The story arcs are good and tight, but there’s room for some history as we learn who these kids are and how they got here. Dialogue is sharp and to the point, and even the narration tells us what we need to know and no more.

Freddie Williams II did the art, and it’s right on target – comic realism, leaning a bit toward the comic but not enough to undercut the realism. Chris Sotomayor’s color is apt, a little dark, but it fits the setting and mood. Narrative flow is good – the layouts are not rigid, with a fair amount of overlapping frames, but it’s always clear. All in all, we’re treated to some nice, juicy visuals.

Sadly, the series didn’t get the fan support it deserved – which means, in the world of comic publishing, that sales weren’t good enough – so it ends rather abruptly with #12.

If you’re interested in my reaction to Secret Six, the reviews are at Sleeping Hedgehog – look for Gail Simone under “Reviews: Graphic Lit" in the sidebar.

(DC Comics, 2013-14)

Superheroes in the Movies

Marvel has announced its development schedule for the next few years,and everyone's very excited:

May 6, 2016 — “Captain America: Civil War”
Nov. 4, 2016 — “Doctor Strange”
May 5, 2017 — “Guardians of the Galaxy 2″
July 28, 2017 — “Thor: Ragnarok”
Nov. 3, 2017 — “Black Panther”
May 4, 2018 — “Avengers: Infinity War Part I”
July 6, 2018 — “Captain Marvel”
Nov. 2, 2018 — “Inhumans”
May 3, 2019 — “Avengers: Infinity War Part II”

Part of the excitement, at least in certain quarters, is the fact that Marvel will be headlining two superheroes who are, as this article at HuffPo puts it, not white males.

On Tuesday, you likely saw Twitter freak out when Marvel announced its upcoming development schedule. “What are all of these nerds so excited about?” you maybe asked. “Who is this Carol everyone is tweeting about?" Well, here's the answer: the next five years of our lives will include not one but two non-white-male superheroes, Black Panther and Captain Marvel (aka Carol Danvers). The solidified plans are an impressive contrast to DC's speculative releases, and because it’s about time a genre about otherness started representing superheroes who aren't straight white males.

The discussion surrounding minority superheroes usually boils down to a variation on this: "Who cares about diversity? Everyone will go see these movies anyway." That's why this locked-down Marvel schedule is such awesome news. Sure, DC made its stab at expanding the comic-book universe, but it's not the same. The studio set “Wonder Woman” for release some time in 2017, but didn't provide any specifics; it also cast Ray Fisher as Cyborg, who will make his debut during the face-off of "Batman V. Superman: Dawn of Justice" before coming to a theater near you on his own ... in 2020. (It's a release date so far in the future, Cyborg might actually exist at the point.) Also, does anyone actually give a crap about Cyborg? While we'll have to wait for a solid Apollo and Midnighter film, Tuesday's announcement is a step in the right direction.

There's a good point here -- gods know it's time we started seeing women and minorities in superhero films in other than supporting roles. (And a side note: it's interesting that the second G.I. Joe movie, Retaliation, starred Dwayne Johnson, who took over after they killed off Channing Tatum. Granted, the Joes are not, strictly speaking, superheroes -- their "abilities" come largely from technology -- but lumping them all together into the category "action/adventure with special abilities," it works for me. And that film is not the only one in that super-genre to star a black actor, by a long shot.)

I think, though, the article, and a lot of the reactions, miss a point: There's something to be said for the literal representation of minorities as heroes, but there's a larger message, especially in the Marvel Universe, which came out most obviously in the X-Men movies, was alluded to in The Avengers, and forms a subtext in most of Marvel's superhero films (so far). It was brought home to me in a wonderful scene in Jim Heinberg's Young Avengers comics, in which Billy Kaplan (Wiccan) comes out to his parents as a superhero -- or tries to. Teddy (Hulkling) is there, and Billy's mother jumps to the conclusion that he's finally confessing to being gay, passing out hugs all around while Billy's father welcomes Teddy to the family. The obvious point is that it's OK to be gay, but being a superhero (read "mutant")? Not so much. Or, short answer: these are stories about outsiders.

(By the way, why isn't someone doing a Young Avengers movie? Would beat the hell out of the Twilight spin-offs that have been cluttering up movie screens.)

I suppose, though, that for the movie-going public, some things have to be really, really obvious. And sometimes Hollywood needs a kick in the butt: it seems they can make a movie about minorities, but absorbing them into "mainstream" fare is still a bit of a reach.