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December 31, 2005
We have become Bendis ass-kissers!
We are becoming a trio of Bendis ass-kissers here. First we are raving about Daredevil and now we like New Avengers. Yeah, it's uneven in places, but I like what he's doing with Spider-Woman. The latest issue, drawn by Frank Cho, explains the whole mystery behind Jessica's double-agent thing. It involves Nick Fury. Lucky for Bendis, Secret War #5 came out last week so we know what the hell they are talking about. Fury is still in hiding and all the major players of the Secret War need to help him out. We also see how Jessica got her powers back and this was a great little dilemna that Bendis put her in. It's not an instant boost; Jessica has to suffer through surgery. She got a slight power boost because she can fly, not just glide. I also liked Bendis' work on Spider-Woman: Origin. The bit with her mad scientist father was great. (How come Bova, the High Evolutionary's assistant, looks like a human?) This whole return of Spider-Woman really boggles the mind. She's the last hero that I thought would get a second chance. I liked the Chris Claremont issues of her original title. Claremont did a great job building her up into a cool heroine and the art by Steve Leialoha was pretty cool, too. Of course, back then, Jessica had a pretty normal sized chest. I guess when she got her powers rejuvenated by Hydra, they also gave her a boob job. Nuff said.
December 30, 2005
Daredevil and Night Nurse
Night Nurse has been popping up in Bendis' Daredevil run. She's back in Daredevil 80, which is quite excellent. If you're not that familar with early 70s Marvel Comics, you may not know that Night Nurse actually had her own comic series in 1972! It only lasted for 4 issues and it was targeted towards the female/romance audience. At the time, there were a lot of popular doctor shows on television like Marcus Welby M.D. and Medical Center. You have to give Marvel credit for trying to bring in the General Hospital crowd. Night Nurse was written by then Editor-In-Chief Roy Thomas' wife, Jean Thomas. The character's name was Linda Carter--no lie, and it was before the Wonder Woman TV series. She didn't treat superheroes and didn't live in New York City. I suppose things changed as she got older, including her hair color.
Bendis is really wrapping up a great story in Daredevil. Next issue is the conclusion and I can't see how it will end. Will the Avengers step in and somehow get Matt a pardon? Will S.H.I.E.L.D. try to recruit Matt again? Matt's life is about as destroyed as it was during Miller's Born Again arc. That's really something. Nuff said.
Posted by Kid Flash at 5:19 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)Michael Golden: A Retrospective and a Gallery
After writing about his Doctor Strange work, I realized that Michael Golden doesn't have much of an Internet presence. He's an artist of great renown among industry veterans, but I suspect that today's fans don't much about him. He's worked so infrequently over the past 25 years; Golden doesn't have a website, nor does he attend conventions that often. Here's a little retrospective, with some suggestions for you to hunt in the back issue bins. I'll include a couple of pictures here, but I've got scans of nearly everything that I mention in the Michael Golden Gallery.
I first noticed Golden in Batman Family (issues #15-20, circa 1978). His fluid, cartoony art style was a breath of fresh air, along with his dynamic panel layout. He drew some Man-Bat stories, the one shown above guest stars the Demon and Morgaine Le Fey. Golden soon graduated to the main Batman feature and became one of my favorite Batman artists of the time, along with Marshall Rogers. In 1984, Golden returned to the character in Batman Special #1. "The Player on the Other Side" was one of the best Batman stories of the decade. Written by Mike Barr, it told the story of a villain called the Wrath. The Wrath had the inverse origin of Batman: his parents were criminals, killed by James Gordon as a young cop. The Wrath grows up to be a master criminal who seeks revenge on Gordon and the Gotham Police. The fight scene between Batman and the Wrath was pretty exciting, and about the only thing wrong with the story is that the Wrath died at the conclusion. DC should have kept him around as a new adversary for Batman. This story has been reprinted in the anthology "Batman in the Eighties".
Marvel helped make Michael Golden a big name when they gave him a new series called the Micronauts. Based on a toy line, writer Bill Mantlo weaved a mythology around the central characters that was reminiscent of the Star Wars films. A band of freedom fighters who opposed the darkly evil Baron Karza, the Micronauts escaped tyranny by flying into the Marvel Universe-where they happened to only be a few inches tall! In the hands of a lesser artist, this series probably wouldn't have taken off. Mantlo's fun script coupled with Golden's dynamic visuals made it a big hit for Marvel. Golden lasted for a total of thirteen issues before taking off for greener pastures.
Golden's assorted Marvel work are hard to find, but they are unique gems and worth the hunt. Marvel Fanfare was a series aimed at the direct market (comic shops), printed on slick paper, and the early forerunner of today's high tech comics. Michael Golden's artwork graced the first two issues with a story that featured Spider-Man and Angel (of the X-Men) venturing into the Savage Land. Chris Claremont was the writer, who again teamed with Golden in Avengers Annual #10. This featured the Avengers teaming up with Spider-Woman to fight the new Brotherhood of Evil-and it also introduced a new mutant woman called Rogue. Later, Golden tackled a less serious subject when he took on Howard the Duck in his new black and white magazine. Howard the Duck Magazine #5 had a story where Howard met Dracula. The nerdy nebbish Howard H. Howard from Tomb of Dracula also makes an appearance to help Howard resist Dracula's charms. Howard the Duck Magazine #6 features Howard returning to Duckworld along with Beverly. The artwork is black and white in both stories, but it is really great stuff, especially with Bob McLeod providing excellent ink and tone embellishment.
I had all but forgotten Michael Golden's greatest work until I read a comment to the Doctor Strange article. In 1986, Golden teamed with a writer named Doug Murray to produce The 'Nam. This series chronicled the life of a soldier in the Vietnam War. With no superheroes or fantasy at all, it was a very daring series for Marvel to publish. Golden worked on 'Nam 1-13 and his work had never been cleaner or more vivid. The stories are very realistic, since Murray was a Vietnam vet who wrote from his experience as well as his friends. Private Marks arrives in Vietnam and reports to his First Sergeant, who regards him suspiciously. Marks is too naïve to know that the Sergeant is expecting a bribe in return for a cushy job. Since he fails that test, Marks is sent to a unit involved in front line patrols. In issue #3, Marks and his buddies get a day off in Saigon, but it proves almost more dangerous than the patrols. My favorite story was in issue #7, where they present a story on a Viet Cong guide who switched sides to help the Americans. Murray presents the VC point of view, and while it may be too brief in twenty two pages, you have to give him kudos for trying to explain the motivations of North Vietnam.
As far as I know, Golden hasn't worked too much in the past ten years. He's done some covers at DC for series like Nightwing. He did a Spartan X 4-issue mini-series for Topps that was a black and white kung-fu story for the Jackie Chan crowd. This year he drew Birds of Prey 66 in a style that slightly morphed into Alex Toth for a tale about the first Black Canary. I just wish he could do a project that would really show off his skills and be collected to show future generations. In the meantime, we have these assorted gems and the Golden Gallery. Nuff said.
See also:
Michael Golden Gallery
Michael Golden Wikipedia Entry
Doug Murray Interview on the Nam
December 29, 2005
Coupling: The Funniest Comedy Ever Made on TV
Coupling has to be one of the best comedies ever made for television. Stephen Moffat, the creator and writer, has taken a tired premise about singles searching for sex and made it fresh. The freshening comes from a variety of storytelling devices (playing with time, multiple points of view) and having characters really behave like they do in real life. Don't confuse this with the awful American version that NBC tried a few years ago. The BBC version must be experienced with the original cast. One of my favorite episodes is "Inferno", where the main character, Steve, accidentally leaves a porn tape in the VCR. Susan, his hot new girlfriend, comes over to clean the house and sees the video. This all culminates in a hilarious dinner party, where Steve defends all mankind in a passionate speech about why men need to watch porn or look at other women, even though they are happy with their current partner.
My favorite character on Coupling is Jeff, played by Richard Coyle. Jeff is the ultimate spastic, nervous as hell around women and spouting out nonsense around them. He's essentially helpless when keywords like breasts or vagina are spoken aloud. My favorite episode, "The Man With Two Legs", has Jeff finally talking to the girl of his dreams on the train. Jeff is so nervous, talking about her fine legs, that he blurts out that he only has one leg. Rather than leading to disaster, it actually turns her on! "This is the curse of Jeff Murdock. I meet the woman of my dreams and I can't take my trousers off." There are so many classic Jeffisms throughout the series. His term for the Nudity Buffer ("When you first see an attractive woman, you've got a nudity buffer of maybe, 5 minutes before you've fully mapped out what she looks like naked") became the name for one of Fanboy Radio's Message Board ops.
Coupling fans will sympathize with my predicament: I had watched the first three seasons of Coupling on PBS. I watched up until the point when Steve and Susan discover they will have a baby. The other characters (Jeff, Jane, Sally, Patrick) all have dangling plotlines that need to be carried over. I didn't watch Coupling Season 4 until I popped in the DVD last night…and Jeff isn't in the first episode. Steve talks to him on the phone; Jeff is on a plane to the island of Lesbos (and yeah he probably thought it was like Paradise Island). There's a new character called Oliver, a geek who owns a comics\science fiction shop called Hellmouths. He's OK, but he's no Jeff. So I'm hoping, maybe Richard Coyle just took a vacation? Suffered the flu? Injured his leg? I watch episodes 2, 3, and 4, no Jeff at all. He's gone. What the fuck? It's like watching Seinfeld and suddenly Kramer is gone. After searching today on the Internet, I found out that Richard Coyle left the series because he was afraid of getting typecast as the Big Dummy. Which is what happened to Michael Richards, who played Kramer on Seinfeld, except that he made so much money from Seinfeld that he can afford not to work. Of course, the BBC doesn't pay Seinfeld type salaries and royalties, so Coyle took off without even doing a farewell episode.
The fourth season is still worth watching, even though it's not as good as the first three. Sally and Patrick get more screen time and provide the bulk of the laughs as Patrick finally gets tamed. (Another classic episode from the earlier seasons is "The Cupboard of Patrick's Love".) Steve (who is starting to look a bit old) and Susan's baby nervousness is a bit tiresome. It's surprising that Moffat didn't concentrate more on Jane, the crazy nympho bimbo who sleeps with just about anyone. Regardless of how it ends, I still think Coupling is one of the funniest shows ever made. It's still on PBS and BBC America infrequently, and you can rent the DVDs at NetFlix. Nuff said.
See also:
Stephen Moffat Interview on Season Four
Richard Coyle Interview on London Theater and Leaving Coupling
December 28, 2005
Doctor Strange Gallery now open
One of my favorite Marvel characters has always been Dr. Strange. He was the coolest character back in the day, yet no one seems to have a good handle on him now. Stan Lee and Steve Ditko had an excellent run, and I loved the subsequent efforts of Roy Thomas, Gene Colan, Steve Englehart, Frank Brunner, Roger Stern, Marshall Rogers, and Paul Smith. I've put together the Dr. Strange Gallery, featuring my favorite covers from Doc's many adventures. In addition, I've come uploaded some scans of a Dr. Strange portfolio by Michael Golden. This was sold on a limited basis in the 80s and is long out of print. Golden drew a wonderful issue of Dr. Strange written by Roger Stern, issue 55, published in 1982. I suppose given Golden's low volume of output, we were lucky to have that one issue. I've put some other gems in here from Brunner, Rogers, Smith, and Colan. Nuff said.
Posted by Kid Flash at 3:58 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)Robby Reed's comments on Infinite Crisis #3
Robby Reed, from the excellent Dial B for Blog, posted his review and comments on Infinite Crisis #3. He does such a great job dissecting this issue and he's right on many points. Phil Jiminez does put too much detail into his artwork and it is hard to figure out what's happening in the action scenes. Who was that guy Aquaman killed? And there are so many guest appearances from various mini-series (Shadowpact, Rann-Thanagar, etc.) that don't really advance the main story. Good catch on that Jim Aparo Adventure Comics cover being used in an IC panel. Nuff said.
Posted by Adam Warlock at 1:57 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)December 27, 2005
She-Hulk 100 cover an homage to Starlin
Earlier this month I wrote about the greatness of She-Hulk, written by Dan Slott. This week She-Hulk 100 goes on sale, 100 pages of material for $3.99. Newsarama has an interview with Slott about the issue. There's a great double page spread by Mike Mayhew that depicts She-Hulk in various costumes (I love the 80s leg warmers) getting replaced through history by the Time Variance Authority. Slott is correct, that will make a great Windows desktop.
No doubt by now you have seen the cover to She Hulk 100. This is painted by Greg Horn, who mentions it here on his site.
As Horn says, this cover is really an homage to Jim Starlin's classic Iron Man 100 cover. Starlin drew this cover in 1977 for Shellhead's anniversary, and I thought it was the single best Iron Man drawing I had ever seen. The interior work by George Tuska was decent but it couldn't match Starlin's depiction. I wished for many years in vain that Starlin would one day write or draw Iron Man.
I hope that the interior of She Hulk 100 will mention that the cover was inspired by Jim Starlin. I've seen a lot of classic covers re-painted and no mention of the original source. Back in the 80s, I remember Walt Simonson getting pissed because Art Adams had taken a Kirby Thor drawing as his inspiration for an X-Men annual cover (with Storm in place of Thor). He made a good point in the trade magazines, that original artists need to be credited. Nuff said.
Posted by Adam Warlock at 6:02 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)December 26, 2005
X-Factor: Great first issue by Peter David
Wow. I'm one of those people who hardly enjoy the mainstream X-Men titles nowadays. With the exception of Morrison and Whedon's runs, I think they are constantly or regurgitating old plotlines. Chris Claremont has a right to do it; he came up with those plotlines 20-30 years ago. Other people don't. When I heard about the new X-Factor series starting, I wasn't too excited.
But I just read the first issue and it's outstanding. This is the Peter David I love. Great writing, funny dialogue, and a wonderful premise. Instead of a bunch of mutants getting together to fight super-villains, these third-tier characters have banded together to form a detective agency. Madrox the Multiple Man is the leader, and David's got an interesting take on his powers. Each version has a slightly different personality profile, which may be competing with the Jamie Madrox Prime. To fund his new detective agency, Madrox goes on a hot TV game show. Other characters include Siryn (Banshee's daughter), Rahne, and Strong Guy, Marvel's most powerful lunkhead. I always thought Strong Guy reminded me of Megaton Man.
Ryan Sook's artwork is really suited to this story. Best origin/introduction that I've read in quite a while. I hope their first adventure is just as good. Nuff said.
December 22, 2005
Infinite Crisis 3 and Relics of Multiverses Past
Infinite Crisis #3 came out yesterday and it was the first new comic that I read. I love the scene between Batman from our Earth and the Superman from Earth-1. Seems like the first time we've seen Bats cry in a while. Just like I told you, droogies, Batman was much cooler on Earth-2. I think the other players from that cave may be evil, but Superman I seems innocent so far. I also liked the Luthor vs. Luthor fight scene. Some of the surprising things that we saw on the last double-page spread made me research a few things from the original Crisis.
What was that thing in the cave? A rocket, embedded in the ground? An extended version of the old Legion clubhouse? Nope. It was one of the Monitor's vibrational tuning forks. He used these things to help merge various universes into one cohesive entity when the Anti-Monitor went on his universe-killing rampage. Somehow Alexander Luthor must have gotten a hold of one and started plugging heroes around the perimeter in order to power it up or something. And where did that carcass of the Anti-Monitor come from?
In Crisis #12, the heroes from all universes had their big showdown with the Anti-Monitor. First, they went to Qward, where the Anti-Monitor had fashioned this enormous body-armor that withstood a lot of punishment from the collective might of DC's finest. In the end, the body crashed down hard on Qward. The heroes thought they had won, but it turned out that the Anti-Monitor had just abandoned this husk and turned into a form made out of pure energy. In Infinite Crisis, somehow Alexander Luthor retrieved this carcass and has mounted it on the vibrational fork. To what end, we don't know. To revive the Anti-Monitor? To use it's residual energy to locate and revive Earth-1?
Here's another thing from the past Crisis that might be back. Ever since the end of the Rann-Thanagar War, we've been wondering what's up with that rift in space. In this issue, the heroes say that the rift is in the center of the universe. This might have been mentioned before, but it escaped me until now. Flashback to Crisis #10, where the Anti-Monitor stuck his hand through a similar rift in order to destroy the multiverses. This actually goes back even further, to an issue of Green Lantern, where Kronos observed a hand in this rift causing the birth of the DC Universes. Look at the way this rift is drawn/painted in Infinite Crisis 3 and compare it to the panel above...they look very similar to me, although IF3 has a more high-tech depiction.
Will a hand arise out of this rift? Will it collapse or expand the universe? It will be interesting to find out. Nuff said.
Posted by Kid Flash at 3:42 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)December 21, 2005
Nip/Tuck Carves Out a Grisly, Loopy Season Finale
Spoilers for Season 3 Finale ahead. In any given Nip/Tuck episode, there's a fare amount of blood and gore. It's gotten so bad that my wife, unable to stomach the realistic surgery scenes, gave up watching it a long time ago. In last night's finale (season three), Ryan Murphy outdid himself with scene after scene of mutilation. I thought the episode was scarier than the recent Texas Chainsaw Massacre remake. By the time it was over, we had: a finger cut off; a penis cut off; two bags of silicone removed from breasts without anesthesia; and about 11 people with their faces slashed.
The suspense for the two-part finale was built around the Slasher, the mime-like mutilator who went around destroying Dr. Troy and X handiwork for almost two years. I was surprised they kept the quest for the Slasher's identity running for so long. He first appeared midway through NT's second season, first attacking Sean and then Christian in the season ender. I assumed when Season 3 opened that this would quickly be resolved. NT's writers must have decided to prolong the story when they realized that the Slasher is the perfect anti-thesis to McNamara/Troy's practice. Everything that the doctors do to preserve or enhance physical beauty is undone by the Slasher. Every dramatic show needs a villain and in a show about plastic surgery, this is the one.
FX and Ryan Murphy milked this as much as possible. The Carver had his own blog on MySpace. People gossiped about who the Carver was. A lot of people thought it must be Dr. Quentin Costa, the new surgeon with plenty of problems and bad behavior. I never thought it was Costa for the following reasons: 1) He joined the cast in Season 3 and the Carver story started back in Season 2; 2) All the clues were being laid out for Costa like a trail of red herrings; 3) It just seemed way too simple if it was Costa. During the finale, I had jumped to the conclusion that the Carver was a woman: Dr. Liz Cruz, the anesthesiologist who put up with the bad boy doctors for far too long. Liz made perverted sense to me, because she had access to all the patient records and could order the drug the Carver used to incapacitate his victims.
But Murphy pulled a bait and switch. It was Costa all along. We saw his face, just before Costa went totally super-villain and bound McNamara/Troy to upright hospital gurneys (making them look a bit crucified). After a set of expository speeches, where Costa reveals his mad philosophy for destroying beauty, he sets upon torturing the doctors. Sean gets his pinkie chopped off. Before any more digits are clipped, Christian offers himself as a victim. You may think it shows us that Christian loves Sean, but I think it's because he loves money: he knows the practice can't survive without Sean's masterful hands! Carver/Costa agrees to Christian's offer, but only if he ups the ante by taking off an entire hand. The Carver tries to make Christian lop his own hand off (I remember Hannibal Lecter did the same thing) when Detective Kit (Rhona Mitra) shoots Costa in the back. I was a bit surprised there wasn't much blood from that bullet. Later, we find that Detective Tit-Kit is actually the Carver's sister. The shooting was faked. The Carver escaped from the morgue, and by the show's end he's in Spain with Kit sipping sangria and looking for his next victim.
By this point, Nip/Tuck is like a traffic accident. It's horrible but I can't stop watching. Even those scenes with Sean's stupid son, Matt, and his involvement with the racist blonde girl. Matt was forced at gunpoint to chop off the penis of a transsexual, which was terrible, but I had a feeling that Murphy came up with this to intercut with the Carver torturing the doctors. The plot holes are just so big that even a show like Buffy has more connection to reality. How can Kit shoot the Carver without having a team of forensic specialists come in and examine the body? How did the Florida police allow Kit to come in, take over the Carver investigation, and fuck all the suspects? How come McNamara/Troy uncover the Kit-Carver connection and not the Florida police? When I was watching this, it reminded me of that Denise Richards movie, Wild Things. The one where you get about five different revelations at the end and they are all so crazy.
The amazing shit is that by the final scene, everything is reset back to the beginning of episode one. Sean and Julia might be reunited thanks to the baby. Matt's tired of transsexuals and racists and wants a little normalcy at home. And Christian? He's the one I feel sorry for, he lost his masterpiece, Kimber. Even though he repaired Kimber's injuries, her mind is either better or worse because of the Carver (depending on your POV). I suppose I'll have to watch next year and see if she comes back. Nuff said.
Posted by Kid Flash at 1:16 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
