DVD Reviews: September 2006 Archives

I've a couple of cool new discoveries--new to me, anyway. Comic Book Urban Legends started getting a front page link on CBR. This is part of the Comics Should Be Good blog and it investigates the truth behind long-held comic book industry rumors. It caught my attention a couple of weeks ago when they revealed that Neal Adams had contributed to the "Superman Vs. Spider-Man" treasury edition. I remember even thinking as a kid: yeah, how come Ross Andru suddenly looks like Adams here and there? It turned out that Adams inked Superman on several pages--he shared a studio with Dick Giordiano (Andru's inker) after all! This week, there are tidbits about Grant Morrison's Fantomexcharacter (from New X-Men) and his inspiration, the 1968 film Diabolik. This is the 66th entry and I've got a lot of legends to catch up on.

Alter Ego Comic Cast is a relatively new podcast site (22 episodes to date), but it's extremely well done. The guys who produce this show have a zippy format, where they discuss this week's comics, some industry news, and then launch into an interview with a comic creator. I've heard interviews with Paul Jenkins, Ed Brubaker, Robert Kirkman, etc. These guys ask very good questions, giving you a very unique perspective, and they get right to the point. I have to say that I prefer this podcast (and Word Balloon) over something like Comic Geek Speak, where they are lots of uhms-ahs-dead-silence.

Speaking of Word Balloon, John Siuntres delivers a knockout interview week after week. There is a fascinating two part interview with Ed Brubaker, where he talks in detail about his new Icon series, Criminal, Captain America, Daredevil, Iron Fist, etc. It sounds like Danny Rand will lose his ballerina slippers in the new series. I can't wait to read Criminal. Siuntres has a real coup in his latest interview with Brad Meltzer about the new Justice League of America series. Meltzer's new novel, The Book of Fate, sounds cool, too. Nuff said.

I just finished a 36 hour marathon: The Wire, Seasons 1, 2, and 3. I wouldn't have believe any series could trump Lost, The Shield, or even HBO's own The Sopranos, Deadwood, or Rome--but The Wire does. And the funny thing is, I wanted to give up watching after the very first episode. Now I am such a rabid fan that I will probably sign up for HBO, so I can see Season 4 that starts this Sunday, September 10th.

The Wire moves at an almost glacial pace. David Simon, the creator/head writer/producer behind the series, says it's a novelistic approach. The first season is about the drug wars in Baltimore, Maryland, where a drug lord named Avon Barksdale and his right-hand man, Stringer Bell, have a sophisticated organization of runners that constantly elude the police. While the drug pushers are highly sophisticated, the police are mired in bureaucracy. Only Detective Jimmy McNulty has the balls to talk to a judge, who instigates the need for a specialized team to be formed. The realism in this series--from the drug pushers to the bureaucrats to the police to the kids on the street--is so intense that it will ruin you for other police procedurals. But just like the best novels, once things build to a certain point, the interactions between the characters never stops boiling.

I've never seen a series that humanizes all the players in the drug trade, from the politicians on down. The first season primarily centers on Barksdale and Bell (B&B Enterprises), who make so much money that they've bought real estate in Baltimore's better neighborhoods. At the end of the first season, the police team that made up The Wire is disbanded. The second season centers on criminal activities in Baltimore's shipping docks with the stevedores union. Rather than have the entire team come together in episode one or two, it takes almost half of the episodes before the entire team comes together--and by this time, you're completely hooked into all the minutiae. While the stevedore union saga plays out, Stringer Bell is very active in the background, and takes center stage when Season 3 starts up. I can't really say what the theme of Season 3 is without ruining the surprise, but let's just say it was that kind of Swamp Thing/MiracleMan/V For Vendetta moment, where a writer takes a concept (in this case about the drug trade and police work) and totally flips it around.

You should rent The Wire at the very least--don't give up until you've at least seen episodes 1-4. If you've read James Ellroy, you'll love it--especially if you watch them for the first time on DVD and are able to connect the various events that correlate between the seasons. Nuff said.

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