Archive for January, 2010
The last season of Lost starts in 4 days, and I simply can’t wait!
In the meantime, here’s a very interesting theory on the nature of Jabob, and what the show may be all about. I’d say spoiler warning, except that like all things speculative about Lost, this is just that: another speculation.
This would be great news, if I trusted any of the people involved. Which I don’t.
http://www.usatoday.com/life/comics/2010-01-27-marvel27_ST_N.htm
I’ll believe it when Luke Cage gets the yellow silk shirt and headband back. Maybe not then, either.
There’s really nothing wrong with donuts. In fact, if you were to ask any nutritionist, dietician, or physician, they would almost certainly tell you that it’s completely fine to eat donuts once in a while, in moderation.
And there is the key. Moderation. Once in a while. Maybe some donuts on Wednesday after the weekly staff meeting and Sunday after church. Whatever. But…moderation.
And this is my problem with the film “Avatar” and, really, most of what is commonly called “pop culture” in general. There is absolutely no moderation. At all. Ever. It’s donuts, every day, all the time, without end. Bad enough in itself, but then these “donuts” are followed by hoarse and increasingly impassioned defensive statements justifying the all-donut diet.
Take, for instance, any blog post or web site article about, oh, say Power Girl’s massive and barely covered breasts. Or Mike Deodato’s Wonder Woman, running around in a thong. Or Batwoman as a lesbian. Or company-wide crossovers like “Civil War” or “Blackest Night” or “Siege” and so on. Regardless…and I do mean REGARDLESS…of what the articles say, what cogent and thoughtful points they might make, what intelligent content lies in each, these will be shouted down by the unending collected screams of fandom bellowing “It’s just entertainment!!! It’s not supposed to be serious!!! It’s fantasy!!! It’s not supposed to be like the real world!!!” And so on. Ad nauseam.
First, those defenses ring true. Comic books, and movies, and television shows, and nearly all popular media really are, for the most part, entertainment oriented. And (this is a very important point here) there is nothing wrong with mindless, enjoyable, fluffy, pretty-colors entertainment like “Avatar” or Power Girl or “Firefly” or Halo. But it’s like donuts. In moderation.
Think about that.
Because I am really very curious about how many of those that post comments to web sites and blogs defending Power Girl’s ridiculous rack or “Avatar’s” completely insipid and uninspired narrative wrapped up in pretty candy-colored special effects or Call of Duty 2: Modern Warfare (or whatever the hell it’s called) murder simulation disguised as a videogame ALSO fill out their reading and viewing diet with more complex, nuanced, challenging novels and films and poetry and art. I really am.
Because, really (nothing personal, Dara) I’m fairly confident that an awful lot of those who contributed to the billion dollar plus box office gross of “Avatar” haven’t seen, and have no interest in seeing, “Citizen Kane.” Or “Apocalypse Now.” Or “The Big Sleep.” Or “To Kill A Mockingbird.” Or…well, you get the idea. But I bet nearly all of them saw gems like “G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra” and “Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen.” Which is, incidentally, the worst-reviewed film ever to earn over $100 million at the box office. And I bet a lot of them have played the fuck out of Halo 3 and Mass Effect.
So that’s my biggest problem. With “Avatar.” With pop culture. There is nothing, and I mean NOTHING wrong with liking “Avatar” or “Transformers” or “Lost” or “Firefly” or WWE wrestling or “Tarot, Witch of the Black Rose” comic books, or Jonas Brothers or “Spongebob Squarepants” or “Blackest Night” or Halo. Those are, probably, all very entertaining in a mindlessly enjoyable way and we really do all need that, once in a while.
In moderation.
But it seems like that’s becoming all any of us consume anymore. We don’t want challenges. We don’t want anything different. We don’t want anything unexpected. We want donuts over and over and over again. And now the donuts, all of them, come with product placement and vast multi-platformed marketing and merchandising tie-ins to monopolize even more of our mental real estate.
I find it a little strange, and honestly a little disappointing, that on a blog like this where so many of us are quick to attack “Blackest Night” or “Civil War” or fandom in general for being bland, predictable, catering to the lowest common intellectual denominator and the highest possible profit lines that we are so willing to swallow swill like “Avatar” with the defense “The story was lame but it was just so entertaining.” Is that all we expect anymore? To paraphrase Duncan Jones, director of the film “Moon” and one of the few intelligently dissenting voices on “Avatar,” was there really ever any instance in “Avatar” where you didn’t know pretty much exactly what was going to happen next?
If this post offends any of my good friends in Panel, I sincerely apologize. I am not a tastemaker, a critic or a final arbiter of intellectual worth. I have been, probably fairly accurately, called a pretentious douchebag hipster elitist. But man, I just can’t fathom this constant 24/7 diet of donuts Americans are gobbling down now, in every medium possible.
Speaking of Looker, over on his blog Every Day is Like Wednesday, friend-of-the-ferret Caleb Mozzocco posted this Outsiders cover image:
…and this observation:
“Er, Looker’s body looks really, really long in this image, right? It’s not just me, is it?”
No, Caleb, it’s not just you.
So I gave in to the hype and went and saw the much-talked about movie, Avatar. Despite my aversion to over-hyped “blockbuster” movies, I have to say I was very impressed and thoroughly entertained. Not that the story is that deep. It’s not. Take any historical story of what we did to the Native Americans (or any other European colonial power did to any other indigenous people) and you have the basic story of Avatar. And given how widely this joke has circulated on the Internet, I’m obviously not the first one to make that call:
But the amazing vistas, well-done 3D effects, and the movie’s visuals as a whole overcame its many flaws to make it a very entertaining and satisfying movie overall. The jungle scenes were truly gorgeous, and I give him props for going with that crazy color pallette of neon blues, purples, and orange. While in some spots it was so colorful that it looked like a video game, for the most part I was easily able to suspend my disbelief and immerse myself in the world created in the movie. I also thought the voice acting, particularly by Zoe Saldana, was strong. And Stephen Lang was cast perfectly as the main bad guy, Colonel Miles Quaritch.
But speaking of the bad guy, that’s one of the areas where Cameron’s writing fell way short of the mark. He’s written as such a one-dimensional “jarhead” character; one you’ve seen in dozens of other movies. And Cameron’s political allegory was really ham fisted. There’s really no need to actually use the phrases “preemptive strike”, “shock and awe” and “we’ll fight terror with terror”. Yes, James, we get it.
This isn’t a “deep” movie, and it doesn’t deliver subtle political and social commentary. But it does entertain in a big way, and didn’t insult my intelligence at every turn. Movie studios like us to believe that “you have to see it on the big screen” applies to every piece of crap they churn out. But this is one of the very few where I’d agree with that sentiment. Definitely see it in 3D, preferably IMAX.
My brother asked me if I wanted to catch a movie at the El Cheapo theater last week, and needing a break, I said yes. So all I lost was 1.5 hours of my life (he paid the $1 for my ticket). But…
Q. What do you get when you have a movie written by the creator/writer/producer of Babylon 5, directed by the guy who directed V For Vendetta, and produced by the guys who wrote/directed/produced The Matrix trilogy?
A. One of the worst movies ever made: Ninja Assassin. Horrid mess of a story, cliched dialogue, cheesy special effects, and about 15,000 gallons of computer generated blood. If you took the plot of a 1980s straight-to-video ninja flick, added in 1990s computer generated special effects, and then presented it all with third-rate, Quentin Tarantino-wannabe violence, you’d get this flick. Supposedly it cost $40 million to make this ridiculous exercise in anime violence done in live action. Honestly, they could have made it for $40 and gotten the same results. (According to Wikipedia, JMS re-wrote some other writer’s first draft script in 53 hours, as a favor to the Wachowski brothers. Still no excuse, but it goes a long way to explain the hot mess.) Avoid at all costs. Seriously.
That “Eighth Deadly Sin” story has an 18-page backup story, “Blacker than Black,” written by Mandy McMurray (who?) with art by Kelley Jones(yay!)
The story’s workmanlike — it shows an aspiring vampire-themed serial killer called The Stygian getting obsessed with Barbara Gordon. Naturally, she calls in Looker, an extremely powerful telepath-turned vampire. There’s some kind of subplot with a wrongfully accused man, that really ought to fit into 18 pages, but it doesn’t quite get across.
Caleb‘s given me a new appreciation of Kelley Jones, though, and he doesn’t disappoint here. I think Jones deserves some kind of special Eisner for making Looker look cool.
You heard me. Looker.
Andy was talking about Eric Canete’s work at a recent PANEL meeting, so I thought I’d post the link to his blog. There’s so much gorgeous eye candy there, it’s hard to pick just a couple of samples to post here…
I really like Eric’s art; it has a Ted McKeever flavor to it, but he’s definitely his own artist. I absolutely love his crazy perspectives, and just the sense of motion he infuses in every piece. He’s done a lot of work in animation (Aeon Flux, The Batman, Justice League Unlimited, etc.), but it’s nice to see his decidedly un-mainstream style on some mainstream Marvel books, like Spider-man:
He’ll be doing a Luke Cage 4-issue limited series with writer John Arcudi:
Like a nerd, I watched just about everything on *Green Lantern: First Flight (thanks CML). Including the short explanation of Blackest Night that saved me a kagillion dollars in following it in the single issues. I’m puzzled as to why DC picked the Free Comic Book Day book to be the lead-in to their mega series. The series clearly rewards people who already know the continuity while losing any new readers who go in baffled. I thought the point of FCBD was to attract new readers, not scare them away. This year is the War with Supermen arc, while a better pick than last year’s book, still somewhat defeats the purpose of FCBD. It’d be smarter to go away with a simple ‘done-in-one’.
Not to totally hate on Blackest Night, I thought the concept was strong. Not strong enough to follow it in the singles. Then again, I know enough about the DC back story to enjoy it. I’m the kind of reader that hates crossover series. Example: I liked Superman until it began to lead into the Death of Superman arc. (haven’t picked it up since then)
*Green Lantern: First Flight was pretty good… for a library dvd.
We now interrupt this comics-related blog for an unsolicited endorsement for a shoe retailer:
I have a heck of a time finding shoes that fit me, due to my girly feet (size 7.5). So, when I couldn’t find a pair of hiking boots after visiting half a dozen different stores, I decided to order a pair online from Zappos. Found a pair I liked in my size, placed the order, and got it in the mail today.
One problem: despite being the right size, they’re a bit too tight.
Needless to say, I was pretty annoyed. So I called them up to see how to return my order and exchange it for a bigger size, fully expecting an aggravating 20 minutes of navigating a convoluted voicemail system, arguing with a customer service rep, and then having the privilege of standing in line at a post office.
But I’m here to say I had one of the best customer service experiences that I can remember in a long time. I got through to a rep right away, they put in my exchange right away, upgraded me to next-day shipping (their shipping is free, by the way), showed me how to print out a pre-paid return label (again, standard) and refunded me $20 because the boot had gone on sale since last week when I originally ordered it.
Now that’s how you take care of customers!
So. Zappos.com. Great selection. Free shipping. And awesome customer service.
‘Nuff said.
Once again, PANELista Craig Bogart supplies this edition of 7 covers. Craig writes:
“Next to Steve Gerber, my biggest influence in writing the Ineffables: Bob Burden’s Flaming Carrot. In searching online for covers to select, I was pleasantly surprised to see there are a handful of appearances by the character I missed the first time around– the hazards of collecting in the dark days before the internet, I guess. Sadly, I did get the TMNT crossover with the MacFarlane cover when it came out… Included here also is the Carrot’s first appearance in Visions #1, the one with the Neal Adams cover.”
I have to say, a lot of comics would be made more enjoyable with the cover copy “This Flame, This Carrot”.