Let’s start with the big one then, eh? The one everyone — including the publisher — thought would be a good idea to spoil for themselves and everyone else going in (:sigh:)…
- BATMAN INCORPORATED #8.
This issue picks up right where the last one left off: with Damien Wayne suited up as Robin, Grayson and Gordon facing a mob of indoctrinated Leviathan, and Bruce trapped in a safe at the bottom of a pool atop Wayne Tower. If this scenario sounds familiar, it is… and Morrison played with the idea of Batman being trapped in a safe one too many times before last issue. See, Talia knows he’ll get out. Eventually. It’s just what he does. Her plan is to have him take enough to get out that he can’t stop what’s to transpire underneath him, in the corridors of his corporate headquarters. What does transpire is insane. I can’t believe — after all the time he’s spent molding him into such a likeable, cunning, loyal person — Morrison would have the gall to do this. The big moment is handled well, especially the art. This is some of the best art we’ve seen from Burnham on the title yet, at least those couple pages. It is brutal. It is colorful. It is shocking. But I have a sneaking suspicion Morrison is not done yet with that particular character. On top of the big moment, we’re getting imagery from all over M’s run from the past 7-ish years: the girl Ellie who Batman gave a job at Wayne Ent., the ouroboro symbol, the Dick/Damien double punch, Ninja Man-Bats, there’s even a bit of Black Glove. If you’re just interested in seeing the big moment though, and have not been following the run, please… just stick to Scott Snyder.
- AVENGERS #4-6
It’s a little hard to review these as a whole. In a way, each of these issues of Jonathan Hickman’s iteration of The Avengers are actually stand-alone tales; introductory type one-offs that detail the rise of some of his more obscure team members (with overarching threads weaving throughout). The first issue tells the wonderful, other-worldly story of Hyperion… a rather obscure character from Marvel’s back-catalog. This is apparently another version from another alternate Universe. Hickman has been quoted as saying this character is very important to the long, three-year plan he has for his run on the title. The second (#5) takes us back to Grant Morrison’s run on New X-Men (ironically enough), which I actually just reread last month. Another big-scope, outer-space tale of an Iowa farm girl discovering sentient technology, putting it on, and becoming the first human member of an Imperial guard of an alien race. Another relative unknown from Marvel’s back issues that Hickman would apparently like to use in his run. Then we come to Tamera Devoux of number 6, a brand new character for Hickman’s story. We learn that Tamera was in a car crash and suffered amnesia, and lost her baby girl. The Universe herself has possessed her. When asked why, the Universe replies, “Because she is broken. Because she is dying. Just as I am.” The art on all three is handled by Adam Kubert, who I’m familiar with cause he opened Morrison’s Batman run back in 2006. He does wonderful work. But these covers are making me crave some Dustin Weaver Avengers stuff. Handled intelligently, as always from Hickman. And the end of 6 sees the “White Event” at hand. So things should pick back up here in 7.
“A privately-owned unmanned US space capsule arrived at the International Space Station on Sunday, bringing to the space outpost food, scientific materials and other crucial equipment.
The capsule named Dragon was captured—with the help of a robotic arm – by NASA Expedition 34 Commander Kevin Ford and Flight Engineer Tom Marshburn, 5:31 am EST (1031 GMT), when the ISS was over northern Ukraine, US space officials said. The craft, owned by SpaceX corporation, will now be inspected via cameras, brought to the Earth-facing port of the ISS’s Harmony module and bolted into place by commands from mission control.“
- I have a shitload of comics to read. I AM EXCITE. I’ll have reviews up here this week. Also I hate how nobody gave a fuck about Morrison’s Batman for the past year until a major character got whacked, and now advanced orders for the next issue are selling out.
“Present Shock is a big concept with profound implications for culture, politics and business. A simple visualization (borrowed from Adrian Bejan’s theories of flow systems) is to think of time as a river flowing at a certain pace. Below a certain threshold, the movements of things on the river are fairly linear and predictable. You launch a barge in the river here and three days later you have drifted to there. This is historical progress as we have come to know it over the millennia But when the speed of the flow increases beyond that threshold, the river becomes turbulent, non-linear, unpredictable. Such is the state of time in 2012.
What does this mean? Rushkoff breaks up “presentism” into five symptoms or challenges and matches each with constructive solutions for pressing the pause button. The “aha-moment-per-page ratio in Present Shock is high. Once you identify these concepts for yourself, you will start to see them everywhere.”
- So I’m a regular reader of comics. At any given time I’ve got anywhere from 5-10 books on my pull list at the shop. But for some reason I have never read any Avengers stuff (I don’t read too much superhero stuff besides some classics and/or products of great writers). I was simultaneously trepidations and excited to jump into the deep end when I heard Jonathan Hickman (a writer who’s creator-owned work I follow) would be writing not one, but two, Avengers books. And though I firmly stand on the side of the “New Avengers/Illuminati”, I did catch up on the regular “Avengers” title last night. I read a lot of slightly negative things about the 2nd and 3rd issues of the book, which I don’t really understand because the quality is almost exactly the same as the first. But a lot of readers of comics — and your fanboys who don’t read comics — don’t have the best taste. Anyways I’m hoping these “Creators”, these spectacularly complex and borderline sympathetic villains, are revisited later on during Hickman’s run… perhaps reigniting the evolution of Mars and thus far surpassing Earth?
- An article on Wired is garnering quite a bit of views: Inside The Battle of Hoth. It basically takes a satirically serious look at the strategies employed by both the Empire and the Rebellion during the big first set-piece of Empire. But after reading this article, you’ll realize how inept and incoherent a military strategy the Empire employed in their best chance at wiping out 90% of the Rebellion with one stroke.
- Wow… so you know how sometimes you hear the argument, “Wind power? Wind?? Why on Earth would use hundreds year old technology to power anything in the 21st century?”. Well I just read on Phys.org that new information from Australia states — obviously in certain regions — wind is cheaper and generates as much or more energy as traditional forms. The study found that down under wind cost $80 per MWh (that’s “Megawatt Hour” or one million watts/hour), whereas it costs $116 for the same amount from a new gas plant, and $143 for the same amount of energy from a new coal plant. Coal is much higher, however, because of the government’s carbon tax… but the article notes that even without any sort of carbon tax, Coal comes down to the Gas plant numbers (still not close to Wind’s $80/MWh). Apparently this can be mostly attributed to the cost of renewables (mostly wind and solar) dropping hard in the past few years and the cost of traditional forms of energy continuing to increase. The article also notes that, “large solar photovoltaic installations will be cheaper than coal or gas by 2020, and solar thermal and biomass systems will be at least competitive by 2030.”
- I generally don’t like to talk about my life on here — me smart, doing this 2nd — but a little update on the current batch of tunes:
I have 22 songs, about 70% of which are “done” but not done-done. Before you think “wait… that’s like an hour and 20 minutes worth of music”, most of the songs are between 2 and 2.5 minutes. The first song, and two others (so far), are between 1 and 2 minutes. And the last song will probably clock in at about 5 or 6. Why am I doing this? It was sort of sparked by listening to Kareem Riggins’ excellent piece of work last Fall, “Alone Together“. The album is 34 tracks, only 8 of which break the 2 minute mark. When I heard this album straight through for the first time it had been a few months since I’d wrapped an album I called “Hills Run Red“; a western concept album that had 3 tracks: the first two were 16.5 and the last was 20 mins. So when I was getting to about track 23 on “Alone Together” I thought… “dang, maybe I should do something like this?” At the very least it would provide a new challenge for me, and if people think a song sucks at least it’ll be over soon. Ha. And it isn’t like I’m self-imposing rules, saying “all songs need to be 2:15 long”, hence the minute long tracks and the much longer track. I just was quite inspired by “Alone Together” (and, before I knew it, El-P’s “megggamixxx3″), how the song comes together, shows you what it’s got, and moves on. Also, for as proud as I am of some of the arrangements and instrumentation on “Hills“, I was going to go back to a more sample based album anyhow, and you have to be really good (much, much better than me) at sampling to make 5 minute tracks and have them stay fresh and never get dull. So yeah. Also, I would say a good 80% of the samples (for the song foundation; I’m not counting using Dinah Washington or someone like that for vocals, which I’m doing a lot on this) are classical samples. Mostly, from these two records:
But there’s still synths, too. And I have a concept, but I’m not sure yet the level of how obvious it’ll be. I dunno, I’M EXCITED. I guess so, Rambles McGee.
Brian K. Vaughan and Fiona Staple’s space opera/love story has been consistently good since it’s debut last Spring on Image Comics. And it isn’t just me saying this: all over the net and in stores across the country people who have been entrenched in comics their entire lives are saying the same thing. What makes it so good? It delivers on everything only comics can do (unique, high-concept, bizarre), whilst also delivering everything a good novel or film does (beautiful, hopeful, funny, witty, with healthy helpings of heart). In this issue a character who has been mentioned before makes her proper debut appearance and definitely throws another piece into the puzzle, as she is someone with a personal connection to the new family that everyone is after. Upon second reading I’m seeing some parallels between this new, pseudo family in the corridors of The Will’s ship and the title family. And I’m starting to feel like I know Gwendolyn and Will as well as I do the main characters. Both are written and drawn with care, and definitely not painted as “bad guys”. They are real people, each with something that’s driving their hearts and actions. Staples draws brilliant expressions and gestures. She’s one of those artists that is neither highly stylized or highly detailed, just spot on. Whether it’s action or subtle conversation she’ll get the proportions and angles perfect. And Vaughan is of course a wonderful craftsman of character. Everything in this book breathes. Anyone who’s into comics even just a little owes it to themselves to at least give SAGA a try.
- NEW AVENGERS #2
While the lineup of Jonathan Hickman’s other — more popular — Avengers book just continues to expand, New Avengers is taking the opposite path, focusing solely on a very select few of the best minds of the Marvel Universe to tackle massive, mind-bending problems that have no easy solution. What’s happening in the pages of this book (only 2 issues in, mind you) is the reuniting of the think-tank type organization known as ‘The Illuminati‘: Reed Richards, Tony Stark, Namor, Black Bolt, Dr. Strange, a dead Charles Xavier, and Black Panther. The first issue saw a mysterious and other-worldly figure show up in Wakanda (Black Panther’s home country in Africa), to announce the destruction of Earth a result of a collision with another planet looming in the sky. What’s going on here is somewhat explained in the pages of this issue, though not entirely because even this team of geniuses does not understand this fully. Hickman uses his design skills (if he isn’t making money off of side graphics design gigs he should be) to present the high concept through the eyes of Reed. It’s heavy stuff, but the chart (for lack of a better word) Reed uses spells it out plainly. The team makes a decision to — if it comes to this — destroy another planet to save their own, at the behest of some of the more honorable and/or idealistic characters like Cap and Black Panther. It’s an interesting moral dilemma, and I’d like to see more of this type of conversation from this book. So far and for the immediate future it’s drawn by Steve Epting who does amazing work all the time. I still remember the days of Warren Ellis’ Thunderbolts and just being blown away by Epting’s work. I typically don’t read big superhero stuff like this, but I am very excited to see where this goes.
- THE MASSIVE #8
The Massive is easily the most plausible and realistic of these three books I’m writing about today, and I can’t stress enough how smart it is in the context of the World we live in now. When baby-boomers tell me that they haven’t seen such uneasiness and unrest in the world in their lifetimes (including the 60s) that they’re seeing now, I know that there’s something special going on with the human race. It isn’t good or bad, it’s beyond those terms. It’s beyond all previous applications of what we thought we knew. Transitional phase. The Massive takes these gigantic problems we face and cranks them forwards until they’ve snapped, and now the world is on full-on reset mode. Culturally, geographically, morally. And the organization known as “Ninth Wave” — who had in 2004 blockaded a gulf with their sister ships to protest one of the big energy companies, to give you an idea of what they do — is struggling to find their place in the new world that has emerged from the rubble of the old one. The current arc, this is part 2 of 3, sees the crew stumbling upon an abandoned oil rig in the middle of the Indian Ocean, where an ex-terrorist has supposedly found a new purpose and creating a thriving community on the decks of said rig. While they’re anchored a storm hits, and the entire rig gets put on lockdown. In this issue we really get to see new sides of the crew of Ninth Wave, beyond its leader Cal and his right hand (trigger) man Mag. Each of them have their own ideas of what their purpose is in a post-Crash society, and that is highlighted here. It’s looking as if this arc will usher in a change in the organization, for good or bad.
- This was a while ago but I forgot to share it and would like to now:
Papa John’s PR Firm Targets Bloggers. So remember when Papa John’s founder John Schnatter said that because of the “Affordable Care Act” said pizzas would have to go up in price 10-15 cents and that stores would have to close down and that people’s job’s would be cut? Well… a PR firm called Sitrick and Co. is now claiming Schnatter never said anything about the closures or lost jobs, and that the price thing was a mischaracterization of a quote from an investor call Schnatter made. Here’s the Politico article. I would never presume to tell anyone what to think about anything, especially this bill cause it is massively complicated. That’s not what this is about. This is about that ongoing struggle of power vs. freedom of information. A struggle that has been happening for a long, long time, though the internet has certainly amplified it like never before.
Aaron Swartz believed in the freedom of information.
“To call someone “deranged” or “mad” is to marginalize them, to declare that they are “not one of us.” Indeed, it is to say that he or she is not really human at all. As an adult with Asperger’s syndrome who has been marginalized all her life, I feel very uncomfortable when anyone, even someone unsavory, is summarily written out of the human race. I wonder if these sanctimonious pundits realize that the most devastating instances of mass carnage (a.k.a. “wars”) have been planned and executed by neurotypicals just like themselves who were perfectly sane—unless you consider “drunk with power” a cognizable mental disorder.
Recently it was reported that Adam Lanza, the shooter in the Connecticut elementary school massacre, may have had Asperger’s syndrome. Now it is the autism community’s turn to recoil in horror and declare that no, he could not have possibly been one of us; the Autism Society has issued a press release stating that “it is imperative to remove autism from this tragic story.”
- The Legend of Zelda: Hyrule Historiais, shockingly, the number one book on Amazon right now. It’s also number one on Barnes & Noble’s website, and something called Indigo. Here’s the BleedingCool post about it. I remember reading about this when it was announced, being that Dark Horse put it out and I’m pretty in-tune with what’s happening with the mainstream comic book publishers. Here’s the book’s official website.
- The classic P.O.S. album “Audition” turned seven years old yesterday. Just to give you an idea of what we’re dealing with here:
-Apparently Facebook, which as you know went public (in a much hyped disaster), made 2 cents per user last month. There’s of course a lot going on there with all sorts of complexities to a social networking giant like FB… but it does not seem like a viable business model.
- All this Jenny/Jimmy Olsen stuff is hilarious! Go ahead, google “jenny jimmy olsen” and watch the news feed explode. I’ll wait. Comic Book Resources – who I follow on Facebook — recently took a leap into the deep end and asked their “friends” how they feel about it. The cries of outrage were astounding. It’s as if The Supreme Court decided to strip the Constitution of the 4th Amendment. Now, to CBR’s credit they recently posted an article supporting the idea… or at least one of their writers did. I do see some amount of irony (granted, it isn’t exactly the same thing but it’s close; race and gender are just barriers) in that the fanboys unequivocally came to the aid of Idris Elba when white supremacist groups lost their shit because he was playing Heimdall, a Norse God, in Thor. Having Jimmy Olsen be a chick isn’t much different than having the gatekeeper of Asgard be a black dude: she can have the exact same personality, she can do the exact same things as before. I know, I know, “then why change it??” Well I’m not one of the screenwriters or filmmakers so I can’t really answer that. But I’m sure they have some reason. These things aren’t just random.
- Perhaps Blade Runner should have taken place in future Bejing, not L.A:
Here’s a good article about China’s government facing resistance in their efforts to cut emissions. Resistance from, of all things in a “socialist” society, state-owned corporations, private corporations, and “local interests”. Doesn’t sound much like Communism to me.
- Even when the major television networks or film studios aren’t directly adapting comic book properties, they’re often times stealing them. Such is the case with a new show set to debut on ABC. Funny thing is, they passed the option to adapt the comic they’re lifting from. Heavily, to say the least. Just another way for the people with the ideas to get screwed, I guess. And ABC has a history of this too, they borrowed (again, heavily) concepts from Bill Willingham’s “Fables” to create a show called “Once Upon A Time”. Oh yeah, and that was after they declined the “Fables” pitch. This new show I shall not name, but it seems to be ripping off a great new comic series from Image called “Revival”.
- Just woke up to this is my Twitterfeed:
RHYMEFEST:
“If all y’all think the Mega Church is so bad how does it fill it’s seats with do many people if it has no value?”
Yep, cause the value of things is always directly dependent on the amount of people that like said thing. Annnnnd unfollow.
I’ve been going on an unfriending, unfollowing, fuckin’ delousing tear of late. It’s great! Instead of getting in pointless and dumb arguments with people over social networking for the stupid shit they say, or share, or like, I just hit that one button. Problem solved. The people I debate with are people I care about and don’t want to unfriend.
- I’m super digging the idea of Brian Wood writing an all female X-Men team. I haven’t been dedicated (“cared” is probably what I really mean) to an on-going X-Men book since Joss Whedon’s Astonishing, so perhaps Brian and amazing artist Olivier Coipel can bring mutants back into my life. And let’s be real… the females of the X-Verse are in a lot of ways more interesting and rounded than the men. At least when they’re written well and not drawn as pieces of meat for drooling, way too old fanboys.
- Local (to me) rap group Atmosphere recently announced a new “Welcome to MN” tour. But that’s not what I wanna share. What I wanna share is the song they’ve created with each of the opening acts on the tour, it’s called “It Ain’t The Prettiest”:
- Hope you had a good first holiday. I will be in Chicago for New Year’s Eve, so this will likely be my last post until next week. 2013, damn I’m getting old.
- Wow… so it turns out Quentin Tarentino has similar taste to me! That makes me feel warm and fuzzy. Okay, I openly admit to not knowing who, much less seeing any of his flicks, William Witney is. Apparently he was a director who also worked at Republic Pictures with John Ford, and QT has quite an affinity for the guy. I watched Stagecoach in a film class once. And although I can respect certain scenes for plowing the way for action flicks (particularly the open range chase scene), I really found the entire thing lacking when sandwiched between movies like M or Rules of the Game. Not to be a dick or a snob about it or anything, but like it’s just an action movie from 1939. A damn good action, but still. Nothing more, nothing less. So I’ve always sort of thought John Ford wasn’t as greats as THE greats. Even Searchers and The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance… they’re just sorta boring.
I thought I was on my own… the “John Ford is just an early version of Gore Verbinski” theory. In a recent interview Tarentino talked about American Western movies (as Django Unchained is modeled off of non-American Westerns, particularly Spaghettis) for TheRoot. In it he talks about how Whitney is one of his American Western heroes, and how John Ford is a racist pile of shit. And here I thought I was the only one, silly me.
- Speaking of The Root, they’ve got an impartial and practical article up right now in the aftermath of the Sandy Hook shootings, and the media’s coverage of the event and what to do about it. Mental health in schools being the major focus.
- I’m loving the Saga #8 cover. It speaks volumes about the character. Saga is easily one of the best new comics of the last few years. Out of all the comics I read — a large variety — Saga is one of the books I consistently look forward to.
“For many years, I have been writing and following resistance movements and the new economic policy. I’ve always found that the chances of coming upon despair are much greater in middle-class households, than on the ground where people are actually fighting. Middle-class people have the choice between hope and despair, just like they have the choice between shampoo for dry hair and oily hair; they have the choice between doing politics and interior design. People who are fighting don’t have a choice; they are fighting and they are focused and they know what they are doing. They are arguing with each other a lot, of course, but that’s all right.”
It should come as absolutely no surprise by now, but Grant Morrison once again introduces a concept — a revelation — in his years spanning Batman run that ties back to the very beginning. As in… 2006. It turns out the first thing he wrote was all part of the current villain’s (“Leviaithan”) master plan to finally destroy the city. In a very strange way. Those who wished back in 2006 that the Batman of #666, Damien Wayne’s unethical, brutal Batman of the future, would return get their way here. The dystopian scenario, of utter annihilation, is actually a vision of Bruce’s. A nightmare ala the dreams he was having back in the “Three Ghosts of Batman” storyline. It will be very interesting to see how the whole thing ends from here on out. Morrison is one clever writer, arguably one of the best… but Chris Burnham destroys this issue. He crushes it. His work is just paranoid and chaotic enough to capture the madness inside these pages: loose, fluid, dynamic. The colors are spot on as well, compliments of Nathan Fairbairn. If you can’t tell I really, really liked this issue. Love the direction while at the same time the throw back to Morrison’s previous installments. And super-mega bonus points for bringing back “the hole in things”… Dr. Hurt in such a unique way.
- SAGA #7
After a month off, one of the best new books of 2012 came soaring back last week with one of the biggest challenges Marko, Allana, and their child have faced thus far: grandparents. And if that sounds a little strange but oddly familiar it should, that is basically the tag line for this Image book from excellent and becoming legendary writer Brian K. Vaughan and not so upcoming artist Fiona Staples. The last page of the first arc (now available in trade paperback form) introduced Marko’s parents into the fold, that is expanded upon here by delving into the families past, as narrated brilliantly by the baby herself. Saga continues to show massive amounts of heart for being so otherworldly and just plain bizarre (see: Page 16… eww). I’m loving the world the creators have introduced, and continue to show us more bits and pieces and the series moves forward. I really hope Marko and his mom can track down the disembodied ghost teenager babysitter Izabel, I like her. If that sounds a little too weird for you then I’d steer clear.
- FURYmax #7
I get the feeling that I’m one of very few people actually reading this book. Which is really too bad, cause it’s Garth Ennis. And Garth Ennis really knows how to write historical fiction and characters like Fury and Castle, this is very much so his book. He’s been destined to do return to this character ever since Hollywood refused to adapt a Nick Fury movie to theaters on account of how he was writing the character at the time: a piece of shit, degenerate alcoholic who is but isn’t haunted by the people he’s killed and the shit he’s seen, and is essentially waiting to die. What’s even more fitting is how this book is structured (aging Fury in a hotel room somewhere, recording tapes seemingly for a memoir of some kind, drinking whiskey and recounting his militaristic career with little to no nostalgia) in relation to the new, movie and Ultimate verse, Sam Jackson inspired Nick Fury. The eyepatch wearing, old, white, bastard Nick Fury is aging out. He’s a dinosaur. A relic of America’s 20th Century military industrial complex that doesn’t recognize the world today, not that his was any better. This issue sees Fury going back to Vietnam, this time paired up with Frank Castle to track down a Northern General who’s “increasing performance by 30%”. Morally ambiguous, historical, simple… this is something everyone should be reading.
