Let Me Gush About X-23!

Illustration by Mike Choi and Jesus Arburtov

        It's been a while since I've created a written installment to the "Excuse Me While I Gush" line, but this is so worth it.  Today's the 15th anniversary of my favorite X-Men character.  While I grew up watching episodes of the Saban TV show, what appealed to me more in the X-Men franchise was when creative teams would make more character driven stories.  As an undiagnosed Aspie, I was relating to stories which showed the pros and cons of their genetics, and how their abilities affect their everyday activities.  While Chris Claremont, Ann Nocenti, and Peter David would get deep into their characters' senses of identity, that approach seemed to pick up after "Dream's End".  "The Morrison Era"  started just as the first live action movie was released, and brought created a new look for the X-line.  Whether you read Uncanny, Ultimate, X-Treme, or New X-Men (especially X-Statix),    readers and creators were sharing this focus on how superpowers around affected the characters' personal lives.  I loved it.  

Illustration by Alan Davis, Mark Farmer,
and Chris Chuckry

        That brings us to "X-Men: Evolution".  It was the second animated X-Men television series, and it interpreted the characters in a wide age range.  Some were adults, some were teens, and I think that some were "tweens".  Some people continue to have a problem with X-Men characters as teens, but I feel that it gets back to the heart of the franchise.  They live at a school, Stan Lee wrote the Silver Age X-Men as teens, and his inspiration (Wilmar Shiras's "Children of the Atom") was about teens not yet old enough to even drive a car.  Back in, Shiras's book, the school has been the students home and where they learned to use their abilities while they attended school with the general public for the sake of transparency.  X-Men: Evolution got closer to that idea than most X-projects.  

        The first season gave us a core cast, and the second season additionally introduced  new students.  Beast and Wolverine (two of the adults in school) had different techniques when teaching the students how to hone their abilities.  While Wolverine tended to be more curt, Beast generally put forth a more jovial and personable side.  In a third season episode written by Craig Kyle, and with a teleplay by him and Chris Yost), the school would receive a little visitor.  "X23" (later known as Laura Kinney, the hyphenated "X-23", and temporarily "Wolverine") had been spying on these students.  A terrorist agency (in the show, she was created by Hydra) stole a sample of the original Wolverine's DNA, and through having to improvise with a damaged Y chromosome, they created a little female clone with two adamantium coated claws in each hand and one in each foot.  This youngster who could've been 13 or 14 years old was created to kill.  From the cloning of a chromosome, through her grueling upbringing, and right to this point where she's escaped.  This girl feels great envy for these students who get to enjoy their childhood, and (with good reason) blames Wolverine for her living such a tortured life.  She infiltrates the school, and takes part in a masterful fight scene with Wolverine.  From that first episode, we could see that she wasn't just a female Wolverine.  She has a background with so much repression, is socially underdeveloped, and has been conditioned to finely calculate her every decision.  X-23 was a huge hit.  She would then team up with Wolverine to combat Omega Red in another episode, and would make a cameo appearance when the series' epilogue showed what the future held.  

        Six months after X-23's television debut, she first appeared in the comics.  For that reason, NYX #3 remains an important comic issue for me.  This series about mutant runaways in New York introduced Laura as a troubled teen who escaped from her life as an assassin, but could only find work as a prostitute specializing in edgeplay.  Yes, Joe Quesada and Josh Middleton picked an intense way to introduce this equally intense character to Marvel's 616 universe.  The protagonists of NYX eventually freed Laura from an abusive pimp, an she remained with the team through the book's run.  

Illustration by Josh Middleton

        It wasn't until following a post-Morrison revamp of the X-books when X-23 would join the X-teams.  Chris Claremont had reunited with Alan Davis in their collaboration on Uncanny X-Men, and a Storm-led team would meet this young woman at a nightclub.  Laura had adopted this awesome costume which combined Wolverine's old color scheme of brown and gold with his "Savage Land" adornment of bones and claws.  Laura started getting more socially adjusted, and found something of a role model (for that time) in a newly-resurrected Psylocke.  

        It would be another revamp of the X-titles that would bring Laura home to her creators (Kyle & Yost).  After the world changing "House of M" event, a series about students at the Xavier school changed hands from the husband & wife writing team of Nunzio DeFilippis and Christina Weir to Craig Kyle & Chris Yost.   They changed this book into a new book titled "New X-Men" with an explosive new story.  Students were killed, and X-23 was enrolled at the school.  She became good friends with Cessily "Mercury" Kincaid (whose mercurial body couldn't be physically harmed if Laura was to go through an emotional meltdown).   She had a romance with a young telekinetic, got her heart broken, and was helped by Cessily when the teenage experience was far more than Laura could experience at the time.  

        This series led up to the "Messiah Complex" crossover event.  Laura's ex-boyfriend (Julian) lost both of his hands when the students were attacked by Lady Deathstrike, and while he recovered, the heroine would join a team trackers seeking the missing X-character Cable.  This story importantly introduced Hope Summers, but also included a wonderful face-off between Deathstrike and X-23.  Yuriko underestimated the clone of Wolverine, and didn't expect a foot-claw to tear through some vital parts of of her cyborg physiology.  A great deal of that tracking team would become a new X-Force team of assassins led by Wolverine.  This series would included more proof of how Kyle & Yost remain the gold standard for writing X-23's character.  The brutality of X-Force was something

Illustration by Mike Choi

that Laura was trying to escape from, and the emotional toll pulled her back into harming herself.  It wasn't until the end of that book's run when Wolverine saw his mistake in taking advantage of Laura's experience as an assassin.  

        It was afterward that we got into an "X-23" series by Marjorie Liu where where Laura traveled the globe, worked with both Gambit and Wolverine's illegitimate son Daken, and revealed that she had been adopted by Wolverine, becoming his "daughter".  This was the third "X-23" solo series.  The first two (both written by Kyle & Yost) told the traumatic story of her origin and when she went to live with her late mother's family in San Francisco.  

At this point the X-books and I were reaching a temporary parting of ways.  The writing was getting less "slice of life" and I wasn't always able to afford the comics.  From what I've gathered, she teamed up with a time-displaced team of teenage X-Men, and partook in an Avengers Academy.  This period led into a rebranding when Laura was marketed as the "All-New Wolverine".  Personally, I didn't care that much for the new series.  My dislike wasn't that much about her becoming a "Wolverine".  Though she was already a hit with her own codename.  Reading some of Tom Taylor's work, I just feel that his writing style didn't do that great of a job in depicting a famously broody woman who expressed a small fraction of what she internalized.  In the first six issues, there was no internal monologuing, while she was talking more than even your friendly neighborhood Spider-Man.  It was when preparing for this blog post that I started reading stories of X-23 again, and I find her current writer (Mariko Tamaki) to be maybe the best writer for the character since Kyle & Yost.  The first issue (which was released shortly before this anniversary) coincidentally approached her birthday.  She also has become a mentor to Gabby (one of a series of clones based on Laura).  This pint-sized character from Taylor's solo book is putting Laura in a position where she must grow up a little more, while not necessarily what defines her as "Laura Kinney".  For a while, I was uncomfortable with seeing X-23 getting presented as a more physically developed young woman.  That sexualizing of characters is a common problem with young females in comics, and given Laura's incomplete childhood, it was tough for me to see.  I'm starting to feel that many of these superhero teens grow up at some point.  Even Jubilee now has an adoptive child.  As long as Laura's defining traits remain respected and intact, I find cautiously find it appropriate for her to grow up.

There's one last subject that I would like to touch on.  It's the film "Logan".  What was meant as a farewell to Patrick Stewart and Hugh Jackman in the live action movies, also introduced the talented Dafne Keen as X-23.  This depiction made her into a weaponized child on the run from a facility in Mexico.  Utilizing acting abilities which left Sir Patrick astonished bilingual skills that come from her  time living in both Spain and England, this youngster (not yet even 13 years old) gave a performance which I thought was Oscar worthy.  Even after Disney has bought the live action rights to all of the X-characters, I sincerely hope that Keen will get to reprise her role in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

Bone Vol. 3 "Eyes of the Storm"

Tonight, I'm writing about the second volume of Jeff Smith's Bone (published through Dark Horse Comics and Scholastic's Graphix imprint).  In this post some parts of the past volume's story will be revealed so...

SPOILERS

In this post, I talk about "Eyes of the Storm."  It's the title given to the third volume of Jeff Smith's Bone.  After the calamity of the cow race, The story takes a turn for the more serious.  There's more adventure, mysticism, and a good deal of revelations as we start to learn some of the backstory.

Now, the volume is pretty much split in half.  After repairing the farm and the cottage, Lucius takes Smiley Bone and Phoney Bone back to the Barrelhaven Tavern so that they can continue working off their debts.  One Bone stays behind with Thorn and Gran'ma Ben as they take care of the chores.  With the ominous title we get the feeling that things won't be going well.  Fone Bone and Thorn continue talking about their dreams.  They don'y why the dreams have become so strange all of a sudden or why the Red Dragon is conscious of what's going on in their dreams.  (Please don't ask why a character in this medieval setting is reading a Herman Melville book, because I'm not sure who understands that angle.)  ...  The two continue speaking about the dreams, and how they can teach us about the past and the future.  As they tend to a garden, Thorn teaches Fone about her grandmother's cultural traditions.  For example, using special stones as protections from "ghost circles."  Ghost circles are places where the barrier between the physical and the spirit worlds is especially thin.  They're places where you feel a chill that's almost unexplainable.

They get caught in a rainstorm and take cover while discussing their dreams.  Fone Bone's dream is a reenactment of Moby Dick, and the strange thing is that the dragon comes up out of the ocean.  For Thorn, it's different.  We realize that the dreams are of her when she was younger, but nobody can tell who the hooded people are that are hiding her in a mountainside with dragons.  What's stranger is that an evil person in a hood uses Fone Bone's visage to try tricking young Thorn.  Gran'ma walks in having heard them speaking of subjects that were forbidden, and she runs angrily in to the woods.  

For the length of story so far, the only problem for the other main characters was Smiley's pestering Lucius and Phoney.  Through Smiley Bone's persistence, we learn that Lucius once had a significant other, but she didn't want to marry him.  The vulnerability was cut short as they're attacked by the rat creatures.  The same thing happens to Fone Bone, Thorn, and Gran'Ma Ben.  Against the wishes of Lucius and Gran'ma (who we've learned has the first name "Rose), the Red Dragon comes to their aid in both encounters.  

Lucius takes Fone Bone's cousins to the tavern, and Phoney devises a new gamble about bar management.  Sure that the villagers won't take kindly to a stranger who had just tried swindling them, Lucius agrees.  But then, Phoney starts using the concept of dragons and the villagers' fears to start gaining the people's financial support.

Back at Gran'ma Ben's cottage, she discloses to Thorn and Fone Bone, that she and her granddaughter  are members of the royal Harvester family of the valley.  Thorn's dreams were of her family fleeing and taking cover in the dragons' stronghold of Deren Gard.  Gran'ma Ben claims that she was the traitor who got Thorn's parents killed.  Unbeknownst to them, we see updates passed from the rat creatures, to Kingdom, to an aged person in hood (the lord of the locusts), to another person.  

That is indeed one of the longest volumes of Bone.  As someone with a strong interest in mysticism, my interest in this story grows stronger.  For anyone who believes in multiple planes of existence, it seems perfectly logical that their may be ghost circles.  Then, there's the importance of dreams.  When we experience dreams, they often have some sort of meaning.  I also can't be the only one who wakes up in the morning, and searches some things up on the internet to see if the dreamscape and physical world match up.

To see the accompanying YouTube video follow this link.

Excuse Me While I Gush About Bone Vol. 2 (The Great Cow Race)

Tonight, I'm writing about the second volume of Jeff Smith's Bone (published through Dark Horse Comics and Scholastic's Graphix imprint).  In this post some parts of the past volume's story will be revealed so...

SPOILERS

As this volume kicks off, Gran'ma Ben, Thorn, and Fone Bone have had a rough night.  Thorn was having a vision in her sleep, and was awoken by a siege on her grandmother's cottage.  Kingdom's horde of rat creatures had come to the farm, ransacking the place.  As far as we know, the Bones are the only main characters who've encountered the rat creatures, so who knows what they want, aside from the one with the star on his chest (Phoney Bone).  

Gran'Ma Ben, Fone Bone, and Thorn run off to the nearby valley of Barrelhaven, and we meet Gran'Ma's old friend Lucius (the owner of the Barrelhaven Tavern).  We do find Phoney and Smiley.  Both of Fone Bone's cousins are now working off a tab at Lucius's place.  

Thorn's visions persist, and we learn about some of the big attractions of Barrelhaven.  There's a cow race where people place bets on the entries.  It's sort of like the running of the bulls in Pamplona, but more competitive.  There's also only one human running with the cattle (Gran'Ma Ben is more than your average senior citizen).  We learn more about Smiley and Phoney in that Phoney's leading a scheme to scam gamblers out of their money .  From this, we begin to get a good idea of how the cousins were run out of Boneville.  We also see that Fone Bone can have a little jealous streak.  When a honeycomb peddler at the bazaar starts hitting on Thorn and insults Fone, the Bone decides to forage for honey on his own, running into a swarm of giant bees.

We see another run-in with the rat creatures in the race (and a quiche joke), and all ends well.  Lucius joins Thorn, Gran'Ma Ben, and the Bones in returning to the farm.  We even get a quick comical vignette about Lucius and Smiley mending the roof.

Getting further into the story, I'm coming to really enjoy Bone.  Volume 2 shows us the larger world that the tale takes place in.  We meet more characters, and curiosity about Thorn's dreams continues to loom.  It also shows us what everyday life is like in this world.  There is more action and combat to come, but this adds dimension to the characters.  Just like in superhero books, I think that it's important to show what the characters are doing when they are (and aren't) in action.  

You can check out the accompanying Excuse Me While I Gush webisode here.

Excuse Me While I Gush About Bone Vol. 1 (Out From Boneville).

I'm beginning a new approach to this series (both on the Blogger and YouTube platforms).  For each feature, there will be a video on my YouTube channel where I gush in a more concise manner.  It will have a companion in my written blogs, where I go more in depth.

I decided that what had gotten me first following comics.  It was Jeff Smith's Bone.  While some of
my peers got into X-Men and Batman comics first because of the Saturday morning cartoons (which I do enjoy). I was more of a Disney fan.  I grew up in a time where there were Disney cartoons that were syndicated on the local WSBK 38 television station.  Next to the digest size Archie comics at the supermarket checkouts were these little Disney magazines called "Disney Adventures."

In 1997,  Disney Adventures was doing something that stood out to me.  I found an old Disney Adventures from December 1997 (the cover story was an interview where Robin Williams was promoting Flubber).   In there with the likes of Timon & Pumbaa and Recess was a passage from a comic that didn't seem in any way connected to Disney.  Looking through the masthead tonight, I'm realizing how Bone got in there.  Bone is primarily for DC's Dark Horse imprint, and at the time, Heidi MacDonald was the editor at Dark Horse and the Disney Adventures comics section.

The Bone features in Disney Adventures abruptly ended, and I didn't begin to catch up with the series until I was graduating from college.  About 10 years after Bone was featured in Disney Adventures, the Graphix imprint at Scholastic started releasing volumes of the complete series.  It took time for Graphix to release all 9 volumes, and I was tempted to buy the Dark Horse paperback collection.  The problem with the Dark Horse book that I found was that it was in black & white.  Remembering how beautiful Bone looked in color, I held out for Graphix.

This post is just promoting the first volume, so I won't reveal too much.  Titled "Out From Boneville",  we're introduced to three Bone creatures named Fone Bone, Phoney Bone, and Smiley Bone.  They're being run out of Boneville for reasons that we don't know, and get caught up in a swarm of locusts.  Losing track of his cousins, Fone Bone finds shelter in a forest.  He camps there fora few seasons, befriending  the local animals and trying to avoid Kingdok's rat creatures.  He learns from these little animals of a kind young woman (Thorn) who lives in a cottage with her grandmother.  Thorn takes him in so that he has a place to stay while looking for his cousins.  The gritty farmwork that Gran'ma Ben leads Thorn and eventually two bones through isn't for everyone.  Towards the end, we find out that Thorn has some mystical gifts, but that is at the hectic climax of the first volume.

I love the Bone books, and I think that many will too.  It's sort of like if you combined the Redwall novels, the Tolkien books, and the comic medium.  Maybe some of the Legend of Zelda series.  Over the course of the story, you see the see the art style get a little less rounded as the stories intensify.  There's even a fun little story about two rat creature partners who are trying to catch the (small mammals), and one insists on putting Fone Bone in a sophisticated little quiche.  I used to work at a supermarket with some fellow comic fans, and on the weekends, a variety of quiches were in the prepared foods hot bar.  Parodying an old Disney song, I would sing:

"Let's all eat with the rat creatures eat.  

Quiche. 

Quiche. Quiche.

Quiche. Quiche."

You can check out the accompanying "Excuse Me While I Gush" video by clicking here.  I'm going to continue with the Bone segments before getting into the superhero books.  I got into the X-Books during the Morrison era (thanks to Bryan Singer's first X-Men film), and will lead into the stories with some Generation X, and a big crossover event.

Gushing about the Muppets

When I started preparing to blog about The Muppets, it was to be a post for last fall.  It was early November when I was so moved by this episode about Kermit overcoming anxiety and finding a way to decompress.  Throughout the series there were many nods to Jim Henson and the legacy he created, but this one episode seemed to particularly focus on Muppets history.  The girl Kermit was seeing gave him some flowers that she pointed out as the state flower where Kermit's from (They were Magnolias.  Guess who was from Mississippi.).  Kermit consults with Rowlf (another one of Henson's oldest Muppet characters).  After learning about finding a way to relax, he rebuilt his Los
Angeles backyard into a swamp and played "Rainbow Connection".  I wanted to apply my own artistic style to this blog post, and as a starving artist, other matters got in the way.

When the show came back from its winter hiatus, the format seemed a little different.  They were trying to win over youth support.  I feel that the problem was that my generation (and younger people) were more familiar with Muppets playing other characters, and rarely see them as performers at work.  I'd like to think that Aziz Ansari's PR character overstepping his bounds in trying to build ratings was a light hearted joke about the dire situation.

When I was born, Sesame Street had been on the air for fifteen years, and the original Muppet Show (a series about puppets creating a vaudeville style variety show) had already run its course.  I was almost one month old when the Muppets Take Manhattan came out (I came upon it through VHS).  There were successful Henson shows like Sesame Street, Muppet Babies, and Fraggle Rock that while great products, seemed to reinforce the idea that Muppets only were for children.  There are people who still revere the Jim Henson Company's contributions to Star Wars, the Labyrinth, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, the Dark Crystal, and Never-ending Story, but I feel like it's a select few who can recognize the Grover-ness in Yoda's voice when Frank Oz is at the mic.  In the 90's, there some swings, misses, hits, and home runs.  Despite the heartbreaking finale of Dinosaurs,  the company focused on lightened interpretations of novels and a more all ages version of the Muppet Show which aired on ABC's TGIF.  The short-lived Muppets Tonight was entertaining, but it wasn't as strong as its predecessor.  There was no Vincent Price or Alice Cooper, no Milton Berle providing lyrics to "the Entertainer", or Mummenschanz. I've heard that the original Muppet Show had reruns on cable (many of us didn't have TNT or Nickelodeon back then).  While I loved the Muppet Christmas Carol and Muppet Treasure Island, these were more like stage productions that we only saw from the seats.   With the movies, we were watching the stories depicted by our favorite actors (who in a meta way were played by our true favorite actors).  We grew up less able to open our eyes to the possibility that those actors had lives when not playing another character (when Kermit isn't playing Bob Cratchit for example).  There was a Muppets from Space and a Muppets take on the Wizard of Oz, but let's not pretend that those movies was on par with Jim's films.

In 2004, Disney acquired the rights to the Muppet characters, and production department called the Muppets Studio was established.  There were music videos where the Muppets would cover songs like Queen's "Bohemian Rhapsody".  The first three seasons of the original Muppet Show were released on DVD, and I couldn't believe how awesome it was.  I was one of those illustration students watching Animal and Rita Moreno play "Fever", I embraced the optical illusion when Muppet ghosts sang the Beatles' "I'm Looking Through You", and I got to watch the special features where Jim Henson, Frank Oz, and the crew are meticulously planning out each show.  It was a few years later that the Muppets Studio began a big resurgence.  In 2008, the Muppets had a wonderful holiday special on ABC (there was a bear joke that I doubt younger viewers would understand).  Then, cast members of Sesame Street had appearances on Scrubs after ABC picked up Bill Lawrence's medical sitcom.  Then, it was in the Muppets, a movie co-written by and starring Jason Segel where we followed a Muppet who felt (no pun intended) out of place in human society.   In 2014, there was the Muppets Most Wanted with Tina Fey, Ty Burrell, and Ricky Gervais. Not only were these productions shaking off the rust and portraying the Muppets as performers in their own right, but people of all ages could relate to the story.  By the way, who doesn't love Tina Fey's "the Big House" performance?

But... then... Disney and Bill Prady tried making a workplace comedy about the Muppets.  It was like a modern take on the Muppets' old variety show, but following the NBC workplace mockumentaries (the Office, 30 Rock, and Parks & Rec), the Muppets allowed a documentary crew to follow their lives behind the scenes.  Fozzy had a girlfriend whose parents didn't approve of their relationship, Gonzo moved in with Rizzo and Pepé after a fight with Carmella the chicken, and scandalously Kermit broke up with Miss Piggy.  People are still talking about how shocking the breakup was (as if these two characters were real celebrities).  Unbelievably, life was imitating art.    People hated that Miss Piggy was portrayed as an insecure diva that the world's favorite frog couldn't always tolerate, BUT THAT"S WHO SHE"S ALWAYS BEEN, dating back to her earliest performances.  This mockumentary was pulling back the curtain to display what could be behind the scenes, and people were resenting the show for doing so.

In my eyes, this was a masterful idea.  I would nerd out with some friends (one my age, and one's a retired chaplain who loves puppetry) over what's being done with the Muppet Show.  And... the "Rainbow Connection" episode moved me to tears.

Last Thursday, the series got cancelled (something even us fans could see coming).  I really hope the Muppets dust themselves off and continue with this muppetry Renaissance.  "Avenue Q" has shown that adults can embrace sophisticated puppet shows directed towards them.  But, the American viewers may not be ready for a modern answer to the Muppets Show.  David Grohl jamming with Dr. Teeth & the Electric Mayhem is not enough to keep a show on the air if the prime demographic's refusing to watch.  I look forward to another Muppets movie now that I've seen the kind of work that can be created.  Maybe, a series can be developed for the European market before reaching the America's (Jim Henson turned to London when the American TV industry was doubtful about Primetime puppet show).  I also really enjoyed the Jim Henson Company's reality TV competitions and the Thanksgiving movie that premiered on Lifetime channel last year.  Mainstream  Henson Company shows still seem primarily directed towards children's programing, but I've been reading about the "Henson Alternative" banner.  Though I don't have Fusion Channel anymore, I'm able to watch No, You Shut Up! (like a puppets and humans answer to the Daily Show) and there's a surreal web series called Neil's Puppet Dreams.  

So, have fun, and enjoy these puppet shows no matter what your age.  Me?  I'm going to continue to support both Muppets Studio and the Jim Henson Company in the ways that I can and enjoy what their productions.

The Value of a Mask

Today's post is about a somewhat famous DC story by Brad Meltzer and Rags Morales.  That's right, I'm reviewing "Identity Crisis".  It falls into the category of whodunits, but the emotions and characters roles give depth as the culprit tries getting out of trouble.  Getting deeper, the story's about secret identities and how a character's family are vulnerable when their identity's revealed.

So, ............. SPOILERS.

Let me start off with saying that this is mostly that the catalyst of the story is the death of Sue Dibny.  Her husband (Ralph) is the Elongated Man, and a reserve member of the Justice League.  He's not one of the higher profile superheroes, but he's seen some action.  Ralph tells a Justice League rookie about his perfect marriage (the chemistry is modeled after Rob and Laura's in the Dick Van Dyke Show).    We understand that when Ralph made his secret identity public, his private life and family became all the more vulnerable.  As the investigation begins, a very moving funeral is shown.  In an internal monologue, Oliver Queen points out problems of a service open to the public.  There are people who care about  the heroes, those who will gawk at the spectacle, and all the while, these masked individuals just want privacy to grieve.  Before the public eye, they must even mourn in costume, protecting their lives at home.

An interesting thing about this book is that you get internal monologue from so many different characters, but very little neutral narrations.  It's all color coded so that you know who's thinking what, but you're also following their train of thought from knee-jerk assumptions to answers that start making sense.

We see that one of Ralph's teammates, (Ray Palmer) has divorced his wife, and learn that these two heroes were on a team with a dark secret.  For the sake of protecting their loved one's this group had crossed a line that someone like Superman wouldn't condone.  Sue was part of what led to this dark secret, so the surviving members of the team believed that her murderer must have been this augmented villain seeking vengeance.  While planning their next move, Wally West and Kyle Rayner confront them.  Queen notes how similar these two are to the two deceased members of this scandalous group (Hal Jordan and Barry Allen).   This group of superheroes seek out Dr. Light on this suspicion as Charles McNider discovers in the autopsy that Light didn't do it.

From here, we start looking at some other private lives.  Tim Drake just recently telling his father
about being a Robin, and the Suicide Squad explaining talking about how Captain Boomerang is low on the totem pole.  After Ray's ex-wife is supposedly attacked, an investigation of the attempted murder led to a dead end, because the most likely culprit was incapable of committing the act.  Fearing for their family's safety Tim Drake spends more time with his father, Ray spends more time with his ex-wife (Jean), and Captain Boomerang meets a long-lost son who wants to follow in his father's footsteps.

Oliver seeks out the advice from Hal Jordan's spirit.  In his afterlife, Jordan is now "the Spectre", spirit of vengeance.  Jordan as pained that he knows who is behind this, but he is not allowed to interfere.

Wally goes to Oliver and seeks further truth about this Justice League secret.  Light wasn't the only one altered for the protection of families, so was BATMAN.  This team believed that Batman knew too much, and could possibly tell Superman.  Oliver explains to Barry how masks such as his protects sons, daughters, wives, husbands, parents, and other people in the lives of the superheroes.

Other superheroes' loved ones are getting targeted, up and down the DCU hierarchy.  Lois Lane and Jack Drake.  Tim Drake is called out to patrol as an obligation to justice, giving his father a way to communicate with Oracle (acting as a Justice League dispatcher).  A mysterious source provides him with a handgun, giving him reason to fear for his life.  When Jack's aware of an intruder invading the house, Oracle tries assisting him, while getting Bruce and Tim to the scene.  It's not soon enough.  Captain Boomerang appears, Jack shoots him, and a dying Boomerang kills Jack.  In a storytelling technique that stretches this sequence we see the tension in the eyes of Oracle, Batman, Tim, Jack, Captain Boomerang, and Boomerang's son.

Seeing his partner orphaned spurs Batman to go on his own investigation of Drake's murder.  The suicide squad is trying to make sense of their teammate's death and who called in the hit Captain Boomerang was supposed to carry out.  Ray and Jean are getting closer through the course of the story, and Jean let's slip a detail of the Drake murder that hadn't been released.  This is as Bruce Wayne is analyzing evidence, and the autopsy team of Michael Holt and Dr. Midnight have found footprints on Sue Dibny's brain matching an Atom suit.  As the heroes close in on Jean's guilt, she tries to explain to Ray how she did it for superheroes' personal lives.  Ray is so distraught by this that he goes on a sabbatical after dropping his wife off at Arkham.  Tim shuts himself off from Dick Grayson (a former Robin who knows what he's going through).  Oliver bonds with his son.  Captain Boomerang's son takes up the mantle.  Then, in the epilogue, we see a horribly damaged Ralph Dibny self-medicating and unable to accept the loss of his wife.

This was a great but extremely sad book.  Morales captures so much emotion in a single panel, that you can see how deeply the pain is striking the hearts of the characters.  Ralph just comes apart at the funeral in more ways than one.  He normally has flexibility powers like those of Plastic Man, or Mr.

Fantastic, but at a time such emotional trauma, he can't keep his form.  There's another panel with a ton of impact when Tim Drake finds his father's body.  Bruce holds him trying to shelter his partner from the pain, but Tim looks out toward the viewer horrified.

I think that Meltzer writes a great argument about the privacy of superheroes.  He writes from both sides of the argument.  How an exposed secret identity puts heroes' families at risk, and how far the superheroes can justify taking action to protect their secret identities.  There are some elements that I didn't notice until reading it a second time.  The first thing was how envy may have first compelled Jean.  The fact that her relationship with a Justice League member had fallen apart while the Dibnys' marriage was idyllic.  Also, re-reading the story you can relate to what Hal Jordan is going through.  You know who's behind Sue's murder and the killer's reasoning, but all you can do is read and watch as the story follows through until the characters find the answer for themselves.

I'd definitely recommend this book.  In my opinion, it was one of the great comics tragedies, and it has a moral to the story.  In the book, Meltzer and the characters start asking "Who benefits?".  You start wondering as you see relationships flourishing, but by the end the answer is that nobody benefits.  Neither the villains or the heroes.  All these people can do afterwards is try to carry on with their lives.

Clone Wars. No, the Other Series.

With all due respect to George Lucas, Star Wars: Episode II left fans still searching for something of quality that fans can be enthusiastic about.  This was years before Dave Filoni started working with Star Wars properties, and Cartoon Network show creator Genndy Tartakovsky was picked.  Tartakovsky was one of CN's CalArts guys, and in the past, he created Dexter's Laboratory and Samurai Jack.  In the DVD special features, Lucas says that he liked Tartakovsky because he liked the anime visual style that Samurai Jack aimed for.  Watching Dexter's Lab shorts like "Dim", viewers can see that Tartakovsky is also a great storyteller with the animated medium.

In 2003, fans were treated to "Star Wars: Clone Wars".  Today's post is reviewing the first season.  Uniquely, this consisted of episodes about 3 minutes long.  They would premiere during the afternoon, re-air that night, and then become available online.  Talking about the air times reminds me of my first semester of art school.  A bunch of us would come back from a morning studio course, grab lunch, watch Clone Wars, and then be ready for the next class.

 It had action drama, big and smaller stars, and it bridged Episodes II and III.  The show was so successful that when the combined first two seasons got nominated for an Emmy, they aced it.

So the series was primarily about Anakin's change in character between the two films.  We watch his relationship with Obi-Wan, Padme, and the Jedi Order in large.  We watch Count Dooku (Darth Tyranus) find an apprentice in Asajj Ventress.  We also saw different parts of the universe \affected by the Clone Wars conflict.  In these little side stories, you get to see Yoda, Mace, Luminara, Kit Fisto, and other Jedi get the spotlight.

While the story's main focus is about the separatists' strange fixation on Anakin, my favorite part was the side stories.  I was learning about lesser known knights and their padwans.  There's an episode where Kit Fisto, (an amphibious Jedi knight) rescues Mon Calamari from evil attacking droids (I had never seen force bubbles or a lightsaber in water).  Mon Calamri is the homeworld of Admiral Akbar.  I learned about the planet of Illum when Luminara Unduli was teaching young Barriss Offee about the importance of a lightsaber crystal.    In another episode, there was this awesome battle when Mace Windu takes on a who batallion of droids.  There's this scene where he jumps on an aerial droid, punches his fist into the machine, and uses the force to hijack and ride it.

When it came to the cast, many minor characters were brought into this story. Some characters would have brief appearances like an R4 unit that flew with Anakin and a jousting villain called "Durge" on a speeder.  What I think is cooler is that Filoni would later take characters like Ventress, Luminara, and Barris, and build on their rich stories.

This show was incredible, especially given that it was probably the best thing that happened to Star Wars since Return of the Jedi.  I have great respect for what Kathleen Kennedy, Dave Filoni, Greg Weisman, and J.J. Abrams have done with Star Wars, but I think Tartakovsky's series deserves more respect (even if it's no longer canon).  Disney's done an awesome job with the framchise. but I'd like to see Buena Vista put Star Wars: Clone Wars DVDs back into print.  Until then, you can find them secondhand, and sometimes on YouTube.  Since his Clone Wars series, Tartakovsky created a short lived series for Cartoon Network, a sci-fi teen drama called Sym-Bionic Titan, and has been directing the Hotel Transylvania series, along with some other animation and storyboarding jobs.

Tartakovsky's take on Star Wars deserves to be appreciated.

Cory Matthews and More.

Usually, I write about comics, or sci-fi, or animation, but I thought, "Heck, why not dork out about this great show on Disney Channel?".  I grew up in a time where fewer people had cable, and more teens watched the networks.  ABC, had a Friday night block called TGIF that gravitated more to shows about teens during the mid-90's.  There were still some great family shows on later versions of TGIF like "George Lopez", "8 Simple Rules", and "Last Man Standing", but there was a certain magic about those late 90's shows where theme nights could even cause crossover cameos.  Tonight I'm writing about what's come from Boy Meets World.    Me and my peers loved the characters from that show, watched the reruns on Disney properties during college, and even wrote fanfic about what happened after Cory, Topanga, Shawn, and Eric left for New York.  The spin-off ison Disney Channel Friday nights, so check it out.

I've been watching Girl Meets World since the pilot aired.  There was a ton of hype going into it's premiere, and I wasn't disappointed.  It's got more comedy, and can get a little more zany than Boy Meets World, but that's something of a staple for mainstream Disney Channel shows.  Girl Meets World stands out from the pack, not just by involving characters that older fans loved, but also by teaching the audience great lessons.  I'm 31, and am learning some stuff from this show.  Part of me wishes that something like this had come across earlier but that would rush the Boy Meets World continuity.  In terms of content, this is like 2 parts "Wonder Years", 1 part "Boy meets World" and 1 part "iCarly".  I feel that the lessons taught are meant to reach a wider age demographic.  There's a Shawn and Angela episode (with an appearance by Chet), and the whole episode is about moving on in their adult lives and opening their hearts to being parts of families.  There's an episode where Mr. Turner makes his big return and is a proponent for graphic novels in a school curriculum.  There are stories about the importance of friendship, the importance of different types of people, standing up to bullies, autism, and other strong subjects.  Michael Jacobs and his team approach these topics with so much respect, skill, and good intentions, that I'm left stunned.  Something from the show that I often reference when talking sprituality (I attend a Unitarian church pretty often), I used a great quote from Girl Meets World season 1 that is very inclusive and I guess Universalist without using that specific term.  One of the lead characters said that he believed in "A guiding hand that has your best interest at heart.".  I use that when discussing theology with other people my age, and they often like and agree with this description.  It's afterward that I point out how it's from a show on Disney Channel.  

So that's what I have to say about the lessons right now (I could gush some more, and I probably will at some point in the future).  The show is primarily about the daughter of Cory and Topanga (Riley), family, and her circle of friends.  The circle is a little wider than it was in Boy Meets World.  You have Maya (the creative with an atypical homelife), Farkle (the quirky son of Minkus), Lucas (a boy who teeters between platonic and romantic chemistry with Maya and Riley), and Lucas's friend (Zay).  Riley has a little brother looking at the world from a younger perspective, Cory is her class's teacher (inspired by Feeney) and has so far taught the class two years, and Topanaga's a lawyer who bought a small cafe to preserve the original owner's legacy.  That cafe's sort of this new show's Chubby's.  That brings me to the recurring characters (I know.  *gush, gush, gush*).  Jackée Harry plays an eccentric businesswoman.  Harley Keiner works at the school and has become a positive influence on students. Shawn, and Eric are recurring, and you get Cheryl Texiera playing Maya's hardworking single mom.  Come to think of it , I'd include Mr. Feeney as a recurring character too.  He's appeared once or twice in each of the two seasons so far, and for the adults both in the show and watching the show, its great to know that he's still available to offer some pearls of wisdom.  This season, he gets a great moment with Riley, Maya, Corey, Shawn, and Topanga, in his famous garden.  At this point, I guess it's evident that I have a sappy sentimental side in addition to dorky, geeky, and whimsical.  That's a combination that I see in Riley, and there's a handful of characters (adults and teens) that I can relate to in ways.  The episode that just aired this weekend, involved a bully who went to great lengths to put Riley down for being that unique and happy.  Riley's struggle to even tell her friends the way the harassment made her feel reminded me of some experiences I've endured.  It was so touching and inspiring that I felt compelled to use my blog to help get the word out to more Boy Meets World fans.    This is a little slice of TGIF that can appeal to all.  If adults are finding positive inspiration from shows like My Little Pony, why not check out this show too?  

There's also another series I sometimes catch on Disney Channel Friday nights.  I don't get Disney XD, so this is where I go for Star Wars: Rebels.  It's a hit show in between Episodes III and IV.  When Rebels had great performance on Cable, it's pilot even got a network screening on ABC one Sunday night with a special Darth Vader intro.  New Rebels episodes are coming this October, and hopefully, they'll soon be on Disney Channel Friday nights to come.  So come watch, come DVR these shows.  

Once again, TGIF.

Carrying on Batman Beyond.

Today, I'm writing about some comics that have continued a great animated saga that originated in the Timm-verse.  Batman Beyond.  Batman Beyond came from Warner Bros. pulling Bruce Timm, Paul Dini, and their gang away from BTAS to do something futuristic.  It had a great run, and chilling animated movie before getting mixed into the Justice League Unlimited series.  What I'm writing about is the comics that emerged a few years ago.  This first one was called "10,000 Clowns", and was created by Adam Beechen and Norm Breyfogle.

This series begins while Terry McGinnis is beginning college.  The lead story is about an international rally of "Jokerz" occurring in New Gotham.  Prior people see in Batman Beyond, fans have grown familiar with Joker's cult following through the street gangs, but who would've thought that this obsession would reach this far.  Then there are stories that tie into this.  We learn much more about Dana's homelife (she's Terry's high school girlfriend).  A grandson of the notorious Joe Chill

emerges having a role in Terry's past and now trying to do some good in the world.  Lastly, we learn about what years of superheroin has done to Bruce Wayne's health.

The descendent of Joe Chill has an interesting backstory and he will later be a great help to Batman, but it's not my favorite of the story components.  I like see some strong emotion in a story, and we get this in Dana's family.  Dana was one of the starring characters in everything Batman Beyond before this, but I don't think her family was ever shown.  Something happens at home for her causing great tension and causes her to withdraw from Terry's life.  It's in the darkest hours and most action chaotic times that Dick Grayson comes to Terry's aid and Bruce Wayne comes to the rescue of Dana's family.

It was all very touching, and the scale of the story reminded me of "Return of the Joker".  This starts bringing Barbara Gordon and Dick Grayson back into the fold as members of the Batfamily.  There's a scene that hints at classic DC characters who will be in stories to come.  There's even a longtime Bill Finger character who suddenly pops up in the futuristic landscape, helps, and then disappears just as mysteriously (yet to be seen again).

Kyle Higgins will eventually take up the lore with Batman Beyond 2.0, and I love both writers' continuations of what Finger, Dini, Timm, and others had set before them.

A New Webhead

Today, I'm reviewing this first trade paperback installment of Brian Michael Bendis's Miles Morales, from Ultimate Spider-Man to Amazing Spider-Man.  The story puts a new face behind the mask, but also gives this Spider-Man a few more abilities (a "venom sting and the ability to turn invisible).  I had originally dropped the Ultimate books from my reading list when Ultimate New York got flooded, killing off a slew of characters, but until then, I read some awesome books by the likes of Jeph Loeb, Brian K. Vaughan, and Mark Millar.

Looking back at '02 when the line was first started, I remember opening my first issue of Ultimate X-Men.  The concept was re-invisioning the Marvel U into characters more relatable to the demographic (at that time, generation Y).  Parallels were drawn and little tweeks were made.  I'd strongly suggest finding a copy of Ultimate Avengers: the Movie, an awesomely animated feature preceding the live action Avengers by six years.


This synopsis glosses over the story, so SPOILERS.


So here, I'm talking about the newest person with infected spider-blood.  Despite coming from a good household with loving parents, Miles has a very negative influence in his life, an uncle (a geared up Marvel villain) who charismatically appeals to the young teen.  When Norman Osborne tried to have the Parker radioactive spider replicated, the lab animal slipped away into Miles's uncle's bag during a break-in at the lab.

During another forbidden visit to his uncle's apartment, Miles gets bitten by this new spider and gets endowed with abilities similar to Parker's.  Like Peter Parker and Kamala Kahn, he comes from a lifestyle of being studious but not that popular.  As a recently accepted student at a school for the intellectually gifted.  I feel that this place of academic focus will not just help him in school, but in dealing with the abilities he discovers, and the extraordinary matters he encounters once having joined the Ultimates.

I think that there are bigger differences between Morales than merely race (the uncle differentiates Parker as "white Spider-Man").  Parker had been orphaned, and raised by a kindly aunt and uncle, with the uncle famously dying early in Parker's origin story.  Morales is also a gifted only child, but he's got both parents through this book.  Unlike the legendary Ben Parker, the uncle who influences this Spider-Man is a manipulative gangster who wants to use Miles to get himself further in the underworld.

By the end of the trade, both uncles have met their demise, but I was still yet to see how that affected Miles's relationship with his parents.  There was also a schoolmate blatantly watching as Miles confides in his best friend, and we don't see (at least in this book) what comes from it.

Inevitably Miles was going to join the mainstream "616" Marvel dimension after Secret Wars.  First the 616 Spider-Man gets stuck in the Ultimate dimension.  I thought that it was a little lame that when comparing characters in their counterparts, some differences that he pointed out were very plain, and in other characters it was more subtle.  I thought it was well written the way that he interacted with a grieving Aunt May, and learning that the Ultimate Gwen hadn't died, but in the comparisons between the Ultimates and their counterparts....  He notices that this Nick Fury is black, but not that this Tony Stark resembles  Robert Downey, Jr. much more closely?  At once point, he compares the two by calling the Ultimate Fury cooler, but when asked to describe the 616 Fury, all that Parker can offer is that Fury's "white"?  Is it some closely guarded secret that unlike this Fury, the 616 one is a cigar chomping older guy who goes stomping around in the SHIELD action uniform and  has a son that strongly resembles Ultimate Fury?  Storywise, it was a setback in my eyes to see scientist good at spotting details,  make comparisons on such a basic level.

When it comes to the art, I liked Sara Pichelli's drafting ability, but am uncomfortable with how many times she uses spread layouts.  I understand that she comes to comics with more a filmmaking perspective, but when presenting multiple panels to a reader at once, it can be difficult reading three

consecutive spreads in a comic medium where normally people read one page at a time.  Call it opportunist or excessive to use consecutive spreads, I've asked around and am not the only one who has found this layout pattern a little confusing.  It had me wishing that Chris Samnee had gotten a larger share of issues to illustrate in this book.  I do like Pichelli's giving Miles's mask wider eyes than Parker's.  It's like a caricature of the wide-eyed innocence innocence that Morales has compared to Parker and that the adult head is larger in relation to the eyes than an adolescent's.

I'd definitely suggest this book to other readers because it creates a great new character I look forward to reading more of in the future.  Later this year a 616 Spider-Man title by Bendis and Pichelli will launch, but I hope Pichelli goes easy on the spreads this time around.  As a reader, I'd like to put more focus on taking in the story than trying to figure out the sequence in which I should be taking it in.

Here, try.  These are three consecutive spreads, that are get bookended with one page layouts.

X-Men.... In Space.

Today, I'm writing about "Rise and Fall of the Shi'Ar Empire by Ed Brusker, Billy Tan, and Clayton Henry.  Those of you just familiar with the Saban series may remember the X-Men's missions that involved the Shi'Ar imperium.  They were the one's with the facial markings and big black hairlike feathers.

SPOILERS    -    The lead in is the story of "Deadly Genesis"     -     SPOILERS

Leading into this story, there was the House of M event and the subsequent mutant decimation.  This surge of mutant energy not only triggered a return of Apocalypse but also unearthed a dark secret from Xavier's past.  In the 70's Wolverine and Storm's first X-Men team was created to rescue a  first team who had been captured by a living continent called Krakoa.  Before Wolverine, Nightcrawler, Colossus, etc.. were recruited, Xavier had sent in a a another team.  That's right, there were others all this time.  Xavier had lost contact with them, and other X-Men who would encounter with Krakoa would be oblivious to this team.  Two members had somehow survived this time in a dormant status.  Vulcan (the third Summers brother) and Darwin (a mutant who's ability to adapt in any way that would mean survival) had combined into one being, with Vulcan taking control.  Like his brothers, Vulcan's abilities involve absorbing energy and letting it loose.  With House of M, and Decimation, he took on so much energy that he became an "omega level" mutant with this heightened power he acted out in vengeance with devastating results.  This didn't end with Earth, and a remorseful Xavier leads a team to try saving the Shi'Ar some grief.


Going into  House of M, what we knew of Cyclops and Havok's origin was that they were of an Alaska family where the father was a pilot.  During a family flight, the small plane encountered some malevolent Shi'ar craft.  Scott and Alex parachuted down, but the parents were abducted.  the father (who became the space pirate "Corsair") would later escape, but after seeing Emperor D'Ken kill his wife.  It turns out that the wife was pregnant.  The third Summers brother was torn from the womb and put an accelerated incubator until he was of ripe for enslavement.  He would later escape, but now Vulcan wants payback.

Xavier puts together a team to go to space hoping to stop Vulcan, and they gain some allies along the way.  A recurring theme that I noticed is that most of these characters are either seeking vengeance deep down, seeking atonement, or have shown great acts of forgiveness.  Wrapped in the stargates and space fleets of sci-fi, the story started out as one focusing on mistakes and damage control.  As Vulcan continues on his quest, we see this turn into a political conflict.

One of D'Ken's sisters had been the empress for a long time, but trouble was brewing as rebels started trying to bring back a more warlike imperial regime.  There's a handful of coups, killings, melees, and a wedding.  We learn about the history of the Shi'Ar royal lineage, and how different individuals have tied to rule in different styles.  Unfortunately, after a violent climax, we don't see much resolution as much of the staff gets prematurely sent back to Earth.  Despite this arc being promoted as a big saga of an event, I feel that this was more an awesome chapter of a bigger story.  Afterward, Brubaker would write one more story for Uncanny X-Men prior to Messiah Complex, while the story of Vulcan continued in a string of limited series by other creative teams.  I had tried following it, but honestly, the story got too exhausting for me.  I looked into what happened once the dust settled.  some of the leaders from the story have been killed off and eventually, the head of the Imperial Guard is appointed the new Emperor.    As of now in the books, Gladiator still leads the imperium, but many of the deaths from this larger story have already been retconned with means like a cyborg resurrection.

In terms of the art, I think it was thoroughly awesome, but I loved the covers by John Watson.  They had a sense of realism in the anatomy, costume, and landscapes.  It reminded me of Alex Ross or the Leyendecker brothers.

The book was an enjoyable adventure, but I've definitely read better from Brusker.  Wait until I start posting about Gotham Central.

Monumental News in Comics

News broke today that's prompted a special second post for the day.  Warner Bros. and DC Comics will start giving Bill Finger credit as co-creator of Batman after 76 years.  The original 1939 contract gave credit only to Bob Kane, but support behind Finger has been slowly building in recent decades.  I've been making sure to mention him in many of my Batman-related posts.  

You will be able to see his name included along side Kane's starting halfway through the second season of Gotham and Batman vs. Superman.  We have this man to thank for so many characters throughout DC and even Wildcat and Lana Lang (Smallville anyone?).   

Thank you D.C. for acknowledging Mr. Finger's contributions, and congratulations to Bill Finger's family.

Batman and Robin (Not the Movie)

Today, I'm talking about another Batman project from Jim Lee.  This time, he was teamed with Frank Miller to create All Star Batman & Robin the Boy Wonder.  It was meant to accompany the acclaimed All Star Superman from Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely, but went down a bumpy road.


The story is about when Dick Grayson first joined Bruce and Alfred.  Through the course of the story, we get to see some pretty big figures from the DCU.  Wonder Woman, Superman, Plastic Man, Hal Jordan, Catwoman, Black Canary (possibly a combinations of Dinahs I and II), Joker, Vicki Vale, and Jimmy Olsen all show up in the series.  I don't know why Olsen's working in Gotham in this series, but that's a mere detail given that I'm reviewing the book as a whole.  Some stories come to rest by the last issue and some are left open-ended (with fans waiting for the series to come back).  Beyond the crude language and very dark violence, I think that the primary story in the series is Bruce Wayne learning how to be a propper role model to a young ward.

SPOILERS

It isn't until the end that Bruce allows Dick to try making peace with his family's demise.  Until that point, Batman was all for turning Grayson into a figure of vengeance.  That's not healthy and in the last issue, it's too dangerous even for Batman to allow.



So some of things I liked even just for aesthetic was the industrial design of some of the equipment.  Having the police driving in retro style squad cars with cherry top sirens only added to the feel of old school corruption behind the badge.  Batman makes a point to say that police elsewhere can be trusted and so can one man with the GCPD (Gordon), but in general the Gotham cops were very corrupt.  The first Batmobile we see goes with the vibe of Raymond Loewy era automobiles, looking like a 60's Ferrari but with a lone batwing on the back like during the Bill Finger days.  Then the Batmobile turns into a jet fighter and then a submarine, and the ever heightening contrast in technology makes it seem all the more apparent how far advanced Wayne's technology is.

Something else that stood out to me about this book is script.  This is a very wordy book, and I can accept that.  There's a lot of play between dialogue and monologue (external and internal) and a little of what I'd like to call "nonologue".  Just to get nonologue out of the way, its what I'm using to describe the expression of information that is more universal and transcends language barriers.  It's

the ambience in a scene or how the panels are composed.  With a cinematic approach, illustrators can convey things that would otherwise need to be summed up in words.  The creative team did that in many ways through this book.  You take in the overwhelming expanse of the Batcave with a six-page spread.  Many of the characters in the Bat-books are very private people.  Thinkers, but private thinkers so there is a lot of inner monologue to be expected.  Like what Gail Simone does in Birds of Prey, you can usually tell whose inner monologue is whose by how it is presented.  Font, color, background, texture, the shape of cell containing the script, ....  It's when Black Canary gets introduced that you get a lot of  play with this.  She works in a bar and is getting all these rude catcalls from the patrons.  As the internal monologue rolls, you see it get interrupted repeatedly by different characters making gestures towards her.  It shows that she's a private thinker but us conscious of these customers' lines to the point where they push her past the tipping point.  Then you get a whole lot of external monologue and martial arts.  She's dressed like Dinah I, but but we get hints from what her talking does to people that maybe this is a more subtle "canary cry" of Dinah II.  Dialogue also causes some issues beginning with this issue.  It's the one issue where we see the Gordon household.  Barbara has a very dirty internal monologue that often includes a word that could have been cut down to b$ or more.  Miller doesn't mince words with this language.  When I picked this up on it's first Wednesday of sales, the book had slipped past DC's censorship.  In the hardcover, there's black lines through the word everywhere it appears.  The other problem I had with dialogue in the end of the book was in the final issue that seemed out of character even for a Miller Batman portrayal.

All throughout the book, Batman is sniping at Superman for what he stands for, what abilities he has, and what he does with them.  So who does he go toe-to-toe with in the last issue?  Hal Jordan.  A dumbed down Hal Jordan.  With the first few pages we get that this GL is the butt of jokes.  The unexplained weakness towards the color yellow, a corny personality, silver age, and the Comics Code approved gimmicks for his ring constructs.  It feels like Miller is going out of his way to make Jordan more of a subject to ridicule than actually pitting Batman against someone who could be a credible rival as far as heroes go.  Then the dynamic duo trap him with a confrontation where everything in the room aside from the GL is yellow.  Even the lemonade that Batman offers.  I get the humor, but since when does Batman work so hard on a gag?  It reminds me of the very thought out practical jokes Jim and Dwight would play on each other in the American version of the Office.  Lastly, there's the fact that Batman has so much external script (monologue or dialogue) in this scene with Jordan.  Especially with Miller's iconically dark and broody Batman, why is he so talkative?  I like the absurd creativity of the yellow room gag, but I think my favorite part of the issue was after Robin had severely injured Jordan (more than Batman would've wanted).  It's then that Batman pulls back his yellow cowl and uses some medical skills he had picked up.  Chromatically, you gets some nonologue, in how the humor of the yellow palette gets disrupted by the seriousness of the matter at hand, how Batman starts speaking to Robin, and his concentration on saving Jordan's life.  It's a great visual technique.  Before this concluding issue there's some extensive scenes showing a sadistic killing by Joker.  Joker's behind one of the greater stories in this series, but I think that giving this  big chunk of book to show a killing irrelevant to the main plot was originally meant to do more than just show how demented a person he can be.

I'd still recommend this book to Batman fans, but it's a messy last few issues that keep this from being a great series in my eyes.  Hopefully Miller and Lee get back together to create a sequel book to this.  The publishing schedule was sporadic like Alex Ross's Justice, and Joe Quesada's NYX, and I'd gladly want to read what  they put together to end the story as they had intended.

Classic GI Joe: Reviewing the First Volume of IDW's Reprints.

Today I gush..... about G.I. Joe.  Not so much the Sunbow animated series, the movies, or the original toys, but the Comic series started by Larry Hama at Marvel that debuted in June 1982.  Sitting next to me is the first volume of IDW's releasing the Marvel run.  Before IDW got the rights to publish G.I. Joe books the properties had been published at a few other houses since leaving Marvel.  IDW has since reprinted most of the stories, but I'm displeased that the stories from Devil's Due and Image got "disavowed" from continuity.

I'll get into those in good time, but today, I'm writing about Classic G.I. Joe Volume #1.  If I remember correctly, 1982 was when Hasbro started producing 3 3/4".  A character would later be created as the original "Joe", but one of the driving motivations between this line was to see G.I. Joe as an elite military unit rather than an individual.  At Marvel Comics, Larry Hama was tasked to lead the creation of a comic series that would act as a companion to the toy line.  Hama himself, is a Vietnam veteran and could provide insight into details of protocol, equipment, and procedure.  These volumes are evenly divided to contain about 10 issues each, so you can get a few adventures in one trade and maybe get a story that straddles a pair of volumes.  The series opens with a one-shot where a nuclear physicist is kidnapped by a terrorist organization and is taken to their island.  The scientist  and was on her way to testify before Congress about how was supposedly unaware that she had been working on a "Doomsday Project".  When she's taken, you first see the elite squad that will be sent to her rescue. They're not to enthusiastic about saving someone with such a negative reputation, but those are the orders.  Something I really like about these early books is that the soldier's dress code was primarily much more uniform.  The exceptions were Snake-Eyes (a ninja who endured disfiguring injuries during a prior mission) and Scarlett (another martial arts specialist who grew up in a family that ran a karate school).  In some ways it can be seen as sexist that it took a few years to have more female Joes.  In other ways it could be seen as progressive, given that until recently, female soldiers hadn't graduated into the US military elite forces like the rangers and SEALS.

Some of the other stories in this volume deal with Cobra cells that had been established in the U.S. and a militia that Cobra had been supporting.  There are also missions that take the Joes abroad.  Sometimes, they are protecting diplomats and foreign leaders.  There's also a continuing rivalry with their Soviet counterparts,  (the Oktober Guard).  Current events of the time play a big role in the book.  Cold War tension can be found as sometimes the G.I. Joe team and the October Guard would work together and other times they'd be in competition for a certain goal.  There's also a lot of wonder in NASA's space shuttle program (it's interesting to see how how much optimism there was in these shuttles before that sobering day in 1986).

Something that I'd like to emphasize in looking back at these early stories is that I like seeing the series at its essence before there were characters with big personalities and outlandish appearances.  I like Roadblock, but in my opinion, he's not as awesome as Stalker.  Stalker's one of my favorite G.I. Joe characters.  I'm not entirely sure why he didn't get much attention in the animated series or any of the movies.

I'd suggest these classics to people who grew up with G.I. Joes in your comics, on your TV, or mixed into your toys.  I view this series as an 80's Marvel counterpart to the stories of Sgt. Rock that Robert Kanigher and Joe Kubert created at DC in 1959.

Gushing About a Birds of Prey Trade.

Today, I'm writing about the book that first got me reading Gail Simone's comics.  "Of Like Minds".  It's where she brought Huntress into the fold with Oracle and Black Canary (this canary I think of as Dinah II).   The combination of Oracle, Huntress, and Black Canary had been seen the prior year in DC's attempt at a Birds of Prey live action series.  The TV show's huntress was based on a different version, but I do wonder if that cast affected the lineup for Simone's book.  Honestly, I love them both.

SPOILERS - This is a light synopsis.

What brings this trio together is a blackmailer who is well trained in computers and martial arts.  This man (Savant) honed his skills to become a superhero like Batman, but would fight criminals for the wrong reasons.  In ways, he was a darker counterpart to Oracle.  He and his companion (Creote) worked in the trade of information dealing and blackmail.  Oracle had become an obsession of Savant's through the cyber realm.  He was familiar with her online presence and technical abilities, but trying to discover

who she is in physical reality (he name, family, etc.) was an obsession of his.

Helena is helping the Birds of Prey on some missions when Dinah gets caught by Savant and Creote.  They tried covering all the bases in preventing Dinah's escape.  She had devastating fractures in each leg, her esophagus and trachea were swollen after taking a calculated hit.  On top of all this, she was handcuffed to the frame of a bed.  Someone assisting Savant under duress was able to help Dinah in small ways.  The ways that she helps herself are just grueling, hardcore, and creative, but it makes you wonder what Dinah wouldn't do when desperate enough to get out of a bad situation.  With Barbara at their base of operations leading the team, Helena comes to Dinah's rescue after solving her case.   As he and Creote are being apprehended, Savant reveals how high profile some of his victims are.  One is a U.S. senator who wants that information concealed no matter what.  When one of the birds pays the senator a quick visit, she sees just how intimidating he can be, and that he has it out for the whole Birds of Prey unit.  He uses his political might as leverage to try getting the Birds to hand over the information.

The trade closes with the senator trying to put the squeeze on more of the people involved with the incident at Savant's estate.  Savant escapes from prison in the process, and we see a temporarily handicapped Dinah II come to Helena's rescue.


Dabbled through these stories are showings of the Birds' lifestyles.  Little traits that make them all the more real and relatable.  Eating fast food while sitting on a scanner for one thing (It annoys Barbara, but Dinah sees some logic in it.).   Through the course of these books, we get to learn about the character's day jobs, Helena's family history in organized crime, possible romantic relationships, and the relationship that Dinah and Barbara have with Jim Gordon.  You even get to see other superheroes in the Birds' social circle appear for different reasons.  Cassandra Cain (one of the Batgirls pre-Flashpoint) and some other DCU martial artists pitch in to help Dinah stay trained while in a wheelchair.
 
Through this series, one of my favorite characters has been Dinah II.  I often refer to her as "Dinah II" because her mother was a different Black Canary named Dinah.  As she fall out of the picture, her old teammates (silver age guys like Ted "Wildcat" Grant) help Dinah II to follow in her footsteps.  Something that seemed very significant in Dinah II's character is that she tried not to rely on her metahuman "canary cry".  For her, it was much more about ingenuity, tricks picked up from her teammates, and mastery in martial arts.

I'd definitely recommend this book to other comic fans.  There's something about these early stories of Simone's Birds where the core cast was smaller and other superheroes and antiheroes would just be passing through.  Something else I enjoy about these books is that they're print on paper that's like a newsprint heavier than your your average newspaper stock.  It can't convey all the types of hi-def. art created today, but it's sturdy.  Living in a city with lots of humidity, rain, and snow, glossy comic pages tend to buckle even when protected.