French Lesson: Batman and Robin's Trip to France

I almost don't have to tell you by this point: English translated into very bad French in comics is a MAJOR pet peeve of mine. Not only because I'm a francophone myself, but because we live in a Global Village where such resources should be easy to find for writers and artists. Not software resources, HUMAN resources. People who speak and write French. And hey, American comic book people, RIGHT HERE ON YOUR CONTINENT! Alpha Flight has shown that IT'S POSSIBLE to do a language justice, so why don't you want to play the game, Batman and Robin #26?



In this story written by David Hine and drawn by Greg Tocchini, Batman and Robin meet up with France's own Batman, Nightrunner. The Louvre has been turned into an artistic disaster zone the liked of which France hasn't seen since Mr. Nobody and the Brotherhood of Dada ate Paris with a painting. That's all well and good. A problem crops up when Hine introduces Skin Talker, a crazy supervillain whose skin can manifest posthypnotic commands... all in French. If you can call it French.The first dermatographic, for example, strings together three words in a call to orgy. I guess it's not meant to a coherent message, but even in that, it's flawed. "Tuer" and "Manger" are simple enough. "Kill" and "Eat". Of course, if they're commands, they should be in the imperative "Tuez" and "Mangez". So it's really more "To kill" and "To eat", which makes less sense. The third word, "Bisou" is completely ridiculous. It's baby talk for a kiss, most often used to refer to a goodbye kiss on the cheek (like saying "kiss kiss!"), but not a verb. I think the intent is to make the hypnotized victims have sex, as "bisou" comes from "baiser", which (in France especially) is a verb that can mean that as well as "to kiss". How the translation came about is a mystery to me.



Skin Talker's next message is syntactically challenged:

"Fais ce que voudras" is missing a subject there. It means "Do what you want", but there's no "tu" ("you"), and the verb is in the future tense, so he's just telling us to "Do what would be wanted". Whatever that means. The phrase does occur in such works as Dumas' Three Musketeers. It is an archaism that means "Do what you will". What I find strange is that Dick Grayson Batman still knows how to translate it:



"Do what thou wilt"? First of all, French doesn't even have an archaic equivalent to those "Shakespearean" pronouns. If we accept that "Fais ce que voudras" is an archaic/poetic phrase (and it is), why wouldn't Dick translate it into modern English? If I hand him some Latin, does he translate it into Olde English? So it's strange. Doing a little research, the first relevant hit for "Fais ce que voudras" is Celine Dion's 1986 single "Fais ce que tu voudras", which Wikipedia translates as "Do What Thou Wilt" (does she have an English version of the song?). Are we to believe Hine's French comes from Celine Dion songs? And that he still forgot a pronoun? Better to believe he's a Dumas fan... but then I call foul on Dick's spot translation.



Writer David Hine takes me to task in the Comments. Check it out.

Alpha Flight #2 - A Canadian Perspective

While I know it's the not case, sometimes it's like the creators of a comic have read the blog and reacted to these modest words of mine. Alpha Flight #2 is just such a wish fulfillment issue - and not just because certain Alphans are subjected to ideal visions by the Unity Party. No, we also have the return of Puck, a personal favorite and sorely missing from the resurrected cast in their Chaos War mini-series. I wonder why. Was he always planned as a surprise rescuer in this series, or did fan support win him a place after all? Because Pak and Van Lente seem to know what to do with him. He's been to Hell and back, or at least THINKS he has, which makes for a fun new iteration of the character. But it doesn't stop there! Alpha Flight #2, cleverly entitled "Born of the First of July", also dispels some of my criticisms of past issues. So let's just how well they did with their depiction of Canada this time...

Enfin! French-Canadian French!
This is, without a doubt, the greatest improvement on the series, and apparently all thanks to Mrs. Eaglesham. While Northstar is still dropping a "Sapristi" here and there (but by now, it's his own personal patois and part of his character), Aurora speaks in the French-Canadian vernacular for the first time and it's awesome!
I don't think I've ever even READ an American comic with Québécois in it - not Alpha Flight, not Plastique's appearances in DC Comics - but hell, I'm happy when it doesn't look like they used Babel Fish! Here, Aurora says "Allumez les lumières" ("Turn on the lights"), the correct French for the occasion, whatever country you're from, but then she drops a "Mautadit" in there. That is uniquely French-Canadian. Its closest English translation is "darn", but with more frustration thrown in (the longer the curse word, the more frustration it carries - FACT!). It is derived from "Maudit" which is literally "Damn", but as with every curse word in the French-Canadian language (and there are MANY, most of them deformed Catholicism-related words), it has a softer form you can say in front of the children. "Mautadit" is such a form, though "Maudit" is no more offensive than "Damn" today, and makes sense for a girl who was brought up by nuns. Weird to see it inserted in English like that, and because "lights"' French equivalent is a feminine word, I personally would have feminized the epithet to "Mautadites", but it's a minor point. For the first time hearing Aurora's Quebec accent filled me with joy.

It's the LAW!
Last time we spoke, I questioned Prime Minister Cody's use of the Emergencies Act to suspend the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, since that document explicitly states it cannot do so. Well, my interpretation is the same as that of the Leader of the Opposition, so I wasn't out in left field!
I should have realized Cody wasn't following the Emergencies Act to the letter. Nice fix, Pak&Van Lente! At least I didn't get a rifle butt in the face like the Opposition Leader did. Ouch! Other legal matters in the book, like the Hudsons' appearance before the Family Court of the Superior Court of Justice are generally well handled, though the lawyers should be wearing black robes and white neck tabs when appearing in a Superior Court. The judge's red sash is correct, however.

Our Home and Native Land
The writers once again use the size of the country to their advantage. We see such locations as Ottawa (Alpha HQ and the Residence of the Leader of the Opposition - not a look-alike for any real party leader by the way), Vancouver (still recovering from Attuma's attack), Calgary (a Natural Resources Canada building - a real Department), and the Hôptital Général de Montréal, an early teaching hospital connected to McGill University (which makes it an English-language hospital), and currently designated as a level one trauma center, which certainly fits with Northstar's boyfriend being there for injuries sustained last issue.

So aside from one minor hiccup, things are looking wonderfully Canadian from where I'm sitting! But if your patch of the Mosaic wasn't so well represented (or was, and you want to share in the love), don't be afraid to use the comments section!

This Week in Geek (11-17/07/11)

Buys

Bargain bin DVD buys this week include John Carpenter's Starman, Children of Men and Charlie Wilson's War. In the geekier, normally priced corner, we have Hong Kong cinema's 14 Amazons, Doctor Who's The Gunfighters and The Awakening, and Spooks Season 9 (see below).

"Accomplishments"

DVDs: Last week, I compared two versions of Romeo & Juliet. This week, I watched two versions of True Grit (I'm gonna make it a weekly thing this July). Now, I saw the 2010 Cohen Bros. version last Christmas, but I admit I'd never seen the John Wayne original. Though I prefer the new one, it's damn close. Kim Darby makes an excellent Mattie Ross, and the dialog is rich an interesting (as per the novel). The choice of which scenes to render is slightly different, so the two movies make good companions, and John Wayne is charismatic and sympathetic. Well, he would be. His presence really makes the story about him more than about Mattie, though Darby does hold her own. There are two weaknesses in my opinion: One is that the DVD transfer is rather soft in places, which is not something I usually comment on, but the lack of crispness did distract from the beautiful Colorado vistas (standing in for Arkansas, of all places). The other is Glen Campbell as LeBoeuf. Wow, what a wooden performance, and he's unfortunately much more present than Matt Damon's LeBoeuf in the 2010 version. The DVD includes a loving commentary track with a handful of experts, and strong featurettes on the script, the locations and working with the Duke, and a slightly flighty one on the heroes and villains of the true West.

Revisiting the Cohens' True Grit with the 1969 original just before it at times made me wonder if they weren't inspired to make it by the original rather than the novel. Why? Because you can see the seeds of the, say, LeBoeuf's dullness in Glen Campbell. In fact, the things that seem odd in 1969's adaptation, like the sort of awkwardness of the language, are heightened in 2010's. It's like the Cohens saw the original and found a lot of their obsessions in there: Sincerely unintelligent characters, awkwardness, a sense of never knowing what genre you're in. Of course, that might all be in the book too. It's not like we'd ever get a straight answer from the Cohens anyway (but when I notice that both scenes with Mattie running a horse through a river have her emerging bone dry, I have to wonder). The DVD has some good extras focusing on Mattie's casting, assembling the cast, costumes and locations (this time, Texas subs in for Arkansas - will the state never catch a break?).

I'm a big fan of The Prisoner, but I had up to this point neglected to watch the last boxed set (I got into it too early, and those damn A&E DVDs were split into large separate boxes with only 3-4 episodes each). Well, having seen the last three episodes, I can understand why - as the liner notes reveal - people were knocking at McGoohan's door to throw insults and fists at him. The last three are some of the most BIZARRE and surreal episodes of the whole series, indeed very strongly suggesting a psychological basis for the entire thing (I was reminded of Neon Genesis Evangelion or Cube, for example). Let's just say that while I can intellectually appreciate surrealism, it doesn't really turn my crank, and I much prefer the Orwellian "played for straight" installments. This package also includes commentary over behind the scenes footage (interesting), the usual photos and trivia tests, and a very badly written one-hour "Prisoner Video Companion" that acts as an introduction for Prisoner virgins, then promptly spoils all the surprises as if for hardcore fans. The second half does point out things to watch out for, as a Video Companion should do, but the over-long extended clips make this a painfully padded experience.

Spooks, or as we have to call it in North America, MI-5 (so that people don't think it's anything like Ghostbusters) just released its 9th series. The cast remains fluid, with two new additions, but Richard Armitage is thankfully charismatic as Lucas North and manages to hold the boat afloat despite having only one prior season under his belt. And of course, the main arc is all about him (with Harry and Ruth of course providing the series' anchor, as usual). The newbies are Sophia Myles (which SBG readers probably know as Doctor Who's Madame de Pompadour) and Max Brown. Neither are given much depth - Spooks is a primarily a plot-driven show - but they are both pleasant action heroes. So 8 taut action thrillers in the usual style, worthy of the series as a whole. I was especially interested in the new Home Secretary, member of a Coalition government, who, as if thematically motivated, seems ever reader to kow-tow to other countries. A weaker United Kingdom, so a slightly different dynamic controlling the action. No extras, which is too bad because we should be allowed to get to know new cast members, no?

Bastille Day was last Thursday, so I thought it would be nice to watch some French language films. It's my mother tongue, after all, but I've never been much into French cinema. And considering my choice was the Three Colors trilogy from Polish director Krzysztof Kieślowski, I guess I'm still not. I'd seen the trilogy when it was first released on video in the early 90s, and not since, but wow, I found them even more beautiful today and it makes me want to seek out Kieślowski other work. The three films, all made the same year (Kieślowski died of exhaustion a couple years later), each feature a different color of the French flag (as palette and theme) and a corresponding part of the French motto (Liberty, Equality, Fraternity), each stars a well-known and wonderful French actress, each takes place in a different country of the recently unified Europe, and each is visually (and musically) gorgeous, elliptical, inventive and thematically intricate. In Bleu, Juliette Binoche plays the wife of a composer who loses her entire family in an accident. She cuts herself off from life, but do events conspire to bring her back into the fold? It's a subtle and intriguing performance in a film filled with silences and editorial flair. Sad but hopeful. Just wonderful. The DVD extras surprised me. The DVD box doesn't mention anything, but it's actually filled to the gills. All three films have the same impressive package, in fact. A film expert (and friend of Kieślowski's) takes us through the various images and themes of the film in the commentary track, and the many English-language features on the film and Kieślowski's career take a scholarly point of view on the material. Interviews in French supplement the extras (with subtitles), so French collaborators aren't cut off. Each film also features an editorial "lesson" with Kieślowski himself (in Polish with French and English subtitles) which are just a treasure. In addition, Bleu presents a 15-minute student film of Kieślowski's that is primitive in comparison to his mature work, but in which you can see certain seeds being sewn.

I remember Blanc being a disappointment back in the day, and perhaps that's because Julie Delpy doesn't feature a heck of a lot. The protagonist is her ex-husband, a Polish hairdresser played by Zbigniew Zamachowski who pathetically continues to love her, but is forced to return to newly-capitalistic Poland. He wants revenge for his many humiliations, but will he get it and does he even really want it? Zamachowski is actually quite wonderful, supplying a comic performance filled with pathos. In fact, I fell in love with all the Polish actors here. As in Bleu, Kieślowski is driving a story that feels completely fresh and unpredictable to an ambiguous, lyrical ending. The color white doesn't quite provide the same powerful palette as either blue or red, but the director concentrates instead on its thematic properties - a man and a country that are "blanks". Again, a strong battery of interviews, insightful commentary and Kieślowski's editorial lessons. Kieślowski has even more to say here, thanks to some behind the scenes footage intercut with a vintage interview. Three short student films complete the package, but these are very early, and largely uninteresting works.

Rouge reunites Kieślowski with Irène Jacob, with whom he worked with on The Double Life of Veronique (the film that made her a star), and takes place in her native Geneva. She plays a storm-tossed, kind-hearted model who, through chance (and chance is a huge theme in Red), meets a bitter retired judge (Jean-Louis Trintignant) who spies on his neighbors and has a strange prescience. Through their stories we discover a thick web of coincidence and mirror images that makes this last part of the trilogy the most mysterious and intriguing. If Blue was a subverted tragedy, and White a dark, dry comedy, Red is less easy to classify. To me, it is a fable, one of pure movie making, that uses images in a way that would, to most readers of this blog, be reminiscent of the way Moore and Gibbon do in Watchmen. The ironic intricacies of the film make it my favorite of the three. Irène Jacob simply breaks my heart in every frame. The DVD package includes, in addition to the usual material, behind the scenes footage and interviews conducted in Cannes (the Festival - outrageously - snubbed the film). All three films are interconnected, not just due to character cameos, but thematically as well, through recurring patterns. I see Three Colors as a single oeuvre, a wonderful (there's that word again, I've exhausted it) triptych that's artful rather than "artsy" (i.e. it is still quite accessible even though poetic).

1985's Hong Kong Godfather looks like the Shaw Brothers' attempt to remake Golden Harvest's Police Story: It has a Jackie Chan lookalike, a hanging-from-a-bus sequence, and a fight finale in the same glassy shopping mall. Instead of a stunt-filled cop thriller, however, it's a bloody, exploitative Triad war picture. Does it work? Yes, but mostly if you're heckling the screen (which is a perfectly fine way to enjoy some of these movies). The main draw is the Godfather himself played by Bruce Lee's Dr. No-ish nemesis in Enter the Dragon, Shih Chien. There'a also a dog called Stallone that has to be seen to be believed. But it's not for the faint-hearted. There's gratuitous nudity throughout and a LOT of (magenta and orange) blood splatter. And of course, it ends in tragedy because crime cannot pay in Chinese cinema. Dark, but accidentally darkly comical. Hey, that's a recommendation for you grindhouse fans out there.

Books: Julian Barnes' Arthur & George (2005) is a wonderful novel, I think of interest to Sherlock Holmes fans. The novel is told from the points of view of both Arthur Conan Doyle and George Edalji, the half-Indian solicitor who was wrongfully convicted of the "Great Wyrley Outrages", a series of animal mutilations in a rural area. The lives of both men are contrasted, Barnes using a different style for each (Doyle's is literary, while the simpler George is all present tense) and they in fact do not meet until late in the book. Awesomely researched, lightly comic and a real page turner when you get to the trial and Doyle's later investigations, Barnes produces here tw superb character studies based on available sources. I haven't enjoyed one of his novels this much since, oh, my very first touch of Barnes (and I've nearly read them all), A History of the World in 10½ Chapters.

Audio: Another Bastille Day-relevant media intake. The Reign of Terror is Doctor Who narrated audio of a 1st Doctor adventure set in the French Revolution. The narration is done by Carole Ann Ford (Susan) and she does it well. Now, it shows here that the audios aren't really coordinated with the DVD releases, because The Reign of Terror will come out some time next year on DVD. Of its 6 episodes, only 2 are missing, and these will be remade with animation. The audio boxed sets cover all missing stories, whether parts of it exist or not, and so Reign is included (it also has The Crusade, for example). No real problem, as the narration gives it a book-on-tape quality that makes it more than listening to tv with your eyes closed. As for the story itself, it's a thing of many parts. There are some playful scenes in which the Doctor manipulates the hell out of French officials, vicious and violent turns from the revolutionaries, and comparatively disappointing appearances by historical figures who can't be deviated from history (of course). Also, plenty of padding. You know the kind I mean. Captured, escape, captured again. It'll still be an interesting one to revisit on DVD.

New Unauthorized Doctor Who CCG cards: Kept working on templates this week, and just about happy with them. Should start churning out new cards soon.

Hyperion to a Satyr posts this week:
II.ii. O, what a rogue and peasant slave am I - Hamlet 2000
II.ii. O, what a rogue and peasant slave am I - Fodor (2007)
II.ii. O, what a rogue and peasant slave am I - Tennant (2009)
II.ii. O, what a rogue and peasant slave am I - Slings & Arrows

The Original Alpha Flight #1: A Canadian Perspective

Happy Canada, everyone! I've got the day off!

So... it's all very well to criticize Pak and Van Lente for their portrayal of Canada in the new Alpha Flight series, but hold on!

How did Canadian-raised John Byrne actually DO in HIS depiction of Canada in the original Alpha Flight series?

Set the way-back machine to 1983 and find out...

Geography
To his credit does create an "iconic" Canada in the first issue. One of the iconic things about the country is that it's so BIG and that most of it has a low population density. So he has us zoom a 1000 miles here, a 1000 miles there, all across the country to meet up with each of the heroes. Guardian (here still "Vindicator") is in Ottawa, flying out of the Parliament Hill HQ . Marrina is in weather worn Newfoundland, Puck in urban Toronto, and Sasquatch in British Columbia's redwood forests. Shaman is working in a clinic in the Sarcee Reserve just out of Calgary, Alberta, and since Byrne is from this region, no surprise that it looks right. I'm not so sure about Aurora's school for girls in "La Valle, Québec", which, for all its Swiss chalets looks like it's part of Latveria.
Plus, there's the added difficulty of placing La Valle on a map. It's clearly not urban enough to be a spelling corruption of Laval (which is on Montreal island), but there are several La-Valle-de-Something in the province. Hard to really gauge the architecture then. Puck tries to reach the team via Mansfield Airbase, which looks military here, but is just an airport as far as I know.

The bulk of the action (a battle against the Inuit god Tundra) takes place in the Northwest Territories - likely not what has become Nunavut because Byrne describes it as north and west of Calgary. However, according to the CBC, the appearance of Tundra screws with the northern lights up in Resolute Bay which IS in today's Nunavut. Not really a problem, Tundra's disruption could be seen miles away. Certainly, while the ocean isn't far from the location, it doesn't look like it's happening on the arctic islands which are almost all part of Nunavut. Byrne uses the word Esquimaux to refer to the Native people of this land, an accepted if odd spelling of Eskimo, and here, the comic shows its age. The word is now considered both inappropriate and derogatory, as it's akin to the Greek's "barbarian", a word used by Algonquins to mean "eaters of raw meat" or by Montagnais to refer to any outsider. The proper term for Arctic Natives is Inuit or Innu. The fashion in Canada now is to use the proper Native language pronunciation for tribes, rather than their Western spelling corruptions, so the latter is probably more correct, just as my area's "Micmac Indians" are now referred to as Mi'kmaq (pronounced something like "Mìgmaw").

And finally, a little treat for Google Mappers: Mac and Heather's street address! 138 Laurier drive in Ottawa. Let's look it up... Oops! It doesn't exist! There's a Laurier AVENUE (both East and West), but pictures don't look at all like the Hudsons' residential area. Almost making me doubt the existence of Avengers Mansion...

Politics
Just a week after the X-Men incident (Alpha's first appearance), Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau disbands Alpha Flight. Maybe the whole "Department H under Parliament" didn't sit well with him, who knows? It's an odd place to start the series, shaking up a status quo that never really existed. We don't really find out why this is happening, but Trudeau seems apologetic and remains on good terms with Mac. We do find out in that panel that Alpha Flight are RCMP auxiliaries and that they'll keep national policing powers. In any case, Trudeau looks like himself, so that's fine. Speaking of Prime Ministers though, look at this!
Gary Cody! I probably haven't cracked these comics open since I read them, wow, almost 30 years ago, so I didn't recognize the leader of the Unity Party as a recurring character! Cody was Alpha's official liaison with the government, here disagreeing with the government's decision to close down Department H. He would eventually get his claws into Alpha and manipulate the team, but would get his comeuppance when the villain Bedlam would effectively lobotomize him. So if you think something supervillainous is in the works re: our new PM, you have good reason to think so.

French
Byrne has an interesting take on the use of French in the comic. Instead of bracketed "translated from the French" speech bubbles (or French sentences outright), he puts a French word here and there into what you understand to be conversations between all francophones. It's a symbolic way to do it and it mostly works. Except that his French is pretty terrible. On page 9, Aurora calls her students "mon petites" instead of "mes petites", using the masculine singular possessive instead of the feminine plural. Later, the French couple living at 138A Laurier has similar gender problems - the wife is called François, which is a man's name. Françoise is what Byrne meant.

Even when the French is fine, it's still not Canadian French, something that's a lot more obvious here than in the current series. Interjections like Sapristi, Sacre Bleu, and Nom du nom are Frenchism, not things you'd hear from Quebeckers (which the Beaubiers are) or other French Canadians. The little girls all call Aurora "Mam'selle", an attempt at making "Mademoiselle" (Miss) more colloquial, except that French Canadian schoolchildren are more likely to call any female grown-up, especially a teacher, "Madame". It just sounds slightly wrong, as if we're in France.

Byrne's off to a good start regardless (I think I'll continue to do a retro-piece as a companion to my new Alpha reviews), at least achieving an iconic depiction of Canada and like Van Lente and Pak, focusing on the characters more than the geography (except when the geography comes alive and punches superheroes, of course!).

Alpha Flight #1: A Canadian Perspective

To get you ready for tomorrow's Canada Day celebrations, here's a follow-up to my Canadian Perspective article on Alpha Flight #0.1. As you may remember (and if you don't, just follow that link), my love for both Canada's only superhero team and Fred Van Lente's writing didn't prevent me from finding flaws in the comic's depiction of Canada. How did Van Lente and Pak do with the following issue? Why, REALLY WELL, actually! Before we get into specifics, let me just rave about how fun the issue was. The Fear Itself crossover wasn't bothersome, acting as a background action piece. The characters were distinctive and had chemistry together, the only real personality reboot being Marrina, who went from boring back under Byrne's pen to crazy funny here. And Box robots at the end? Awesome. At this point, I'm already disappointed Alpha Flight is only an 8-issue mini-series. But how did the issue manage the depiction of Canada? That's what we're interested in.

Geography
The action takes place in four locations and all of them are fairly depicted. First is Attuma's attack on Vancouver where we can't really see the city under all that water, but the journalist in the piece works for Channel 4, a very real station broadcasting out of B.C. I'm not surprised Guardian calls her "miss" (he probably doesn't get the channel in Ottawa, and oh yeah, he's been dead for a few years), and a little more so that Vindicator (I hate that name, how about we agree to my calling her Heather?) DOES know her by name. Maybe Sasquatch is always going on about her or something. And I do find it sweet and silly that Vancouver is described as being on the Pacific Coast and Newfoundland on the Atlantic Coast, because, well, that's obvious to me. From summers spent in Texas when I was a teenager, I got the impression kids were taught Canadian geography at some point (it's easy, only 10 provinces!) I'm not offended by it, but now I want to see New York specifically labeled as being on the Atlantic Coast.

The Newfoundland location is Cape Race, where Guardian teleports Attuma, and while the cliff is probably a bit higher than normal in the comic, I think Eaglesham (finally a Canadian on this project!) got it right. Montreal shows up again as Northstar's residence, and Alpha Flight later returns to its HQ in Ottawa. Taking its cue from Torchwood, it seems the team is housed right in the middle of politician/tourist country.
See?
That's the fun of the Marvel Universe. I can visit superhero haunts if I really want to.

Politics
The previous issue ended with the fictional Unity Party winning the Canadian election, presumably through some form of mind control. Here we find out they've formed a Coalition Government. This makes perfect sense. Even with supervillain shenanigans (that's still unproven), it's doubtful a newcomer to the political scene would win a majority government. So Gary Cody, the new Prime Minister, has had to ally himself with other parties to GET a majority and actually pass some legislation. And if mind control DOES have something to do with it, it would be easy to create such alliances. Problems do crop up later, however, when Cody invokes the Emergencies Act in the wake of Feat Itself (riots, Americans rushing our borders, etc.). This is akin to declaring martial law, but Cody takes it way too far here:
In point of fact, the Emergencies Act specifically state that any temporary laws made under the Act are subject to the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. I don't know enough legalese to gauge if the measures he mentions are legal under the Act (arrest without warrant, detain without charges), but that part looks about right, or at least works within the context of a comic book story. A minor point - Cody says his "administration has decided, with the full support of Parliament..." which really sounds like an American formulation. The President has an administration that gets support from Congress. But I've seen the words used in Canada too, and I've more than once condemned Harper for trying to govern "American-style" (i.e. as a "President" rather than as a member of Parliament, of which he's been rather contemptuous).

This issue also makes the point that Alpha Flight are prohibited from electioneering, but that Cody nevertheless tried to get Guardian on his posters.

French
As you know, I've particularly sensitive to the use of French in American comics. While I still long for the day Quebec characters actually sound like they have the proper accent and vernacular, the French here is again impeccable. There's a lot more of it than in #0.1, as Aurora and Northstar often revert to their native tongue. Misters Pak and Van Lente? That sound you hear is my applause. Now if the twins moved away from "International French" and closer to some kind of patois, I'd be doing somersaults. "Sapristi", while not unheard of in French Canada, still smacks of the other side of the pond, for example. There's also an off-putting inference that the rest of Alpha Flight don't speak or understand French (not clear, but I got that impression from Northstar addressing his sister in French about private matters, and switching to English when she refuses to go for a private chat). As Federal employees AND national heroes, I would have expected them to all be bilingual. If they were real, I'd positively DEMAND it. Francophones want to be rescued in their language of choice, it's just how we are.

I should also mention Premier Cody's television address. The card prefacing his speech is in both official languages yes, but Canadian tradition (as tedious as even French Canadians find it) is to speak in both languages, alternating between the two over the course of the speech. There's a simple justification for the flub: Parts of the speech ARE in French but superimposed with simultaneous (albeit hesitant) translation. Bilingual Canadians all find this annoying and keep switching to the the channel of the appropriate language just so we don't have to hear the droning translation.

What aboot the stuff that doesn't fit those categories, hoser?
First, I don't know anyone who uses the word "hoser", mr. subtitle.

There are a number of Canadian touches in the book. My favorite is Snowbird turning into an arctic dinosaur.
Remember, Snowbird can only change into animals native to above the permafrost line, but I don't think I've ever seen her morph into a long extinct animal that might lived on that territory back before the continents shifted. It's the kind of cool awesomeness I expect from this writing team.

A CBC poll is mentioned. The CBC is the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, Canada's state owned television and radio. They do put out polls. One of these says 53% of Canadians believe Northstar hates Canada for... We don't hear what. In the original series, he had ties to the Quebec Liberation Front, so his crankiness at the rest of Canada is not surprising. He's probably still a Sovereignist (not to use the other S word).

Guardian chastises Marrina for her warcry ("Die, Earth scum!"), saying Canadians have a reputation for politeness to uphold, which is quite the cliché. As part of superhero banter, it's really not disturbing. I accept the national reputation, but I think perhaps we're more polite to visitors than we are to each other. If anything, it shows Guardian has a sense of humor about his Canadian heritage, and that he's at least reflected on it, wearing, as he does, the national symbol.

Finally, Marrina hopes Fear Itself won't cancel a Mother, Mother concert she's got tickets for. Mother, Mother is a Canadian indie band out of British Columbia. Though the concert could be anywhere, the recent hammer wielder attack was in their home province, which might have put the kibosh on the show. We'll likely never find out since Marrina will probably have to fight a bunch of Box robots anyway.

So in conclusion, a VAST improvement over the .1 issue. By concentrating on the characters and their dynamic, you might think the writers avoided talking out of turn about Canada and the rest of its citizens, but as you can see, there's a lot of Canada in there. Though I wasn't convinced the whole Unity Party thread was a great way to go, it does paint Canadians as inherently political, and we are. I'm not saying everyone thinks about politics (the usual demographics put their hands over their ears and go la la la I can't hear you at the mere mention of politics), but everyone's got an opinion on Quebec, bilingualism, and our relationship to our neighbor to the South. In Canada, politics go through a linguistic filter (in French Canada, the U.S.' influence is more often than not spoken of in terms of it being a huge English-speaking juggernaut), and the often polarizing language issues in this country mean we are pretty much born political. I'll let you know how issue 2 stacks up, but I do invite fellow Canadians to submit their opinions. Like I've said before, one lone Canadian does not a complete Canadian perspective make.

Cat of the Geek #114: Hercule

Name: Hercule (in English, Hercules)
Stomping Grounds: French comic strip Pif & Hercule (in English, Spiff & Hercules) first in communist newspapers, then in Pif Gadget magazine as well as his own mag, Super Hercule. There was a short-lived animated series as well.
Side: The Proletariat
Breed: Tuxedo cat
Cat Powers: Selling communism to your kids through the power of plastic gadgets. Hooliganism.
Skills: Eat 4, Sleep 4, Mischief 9, Wit 5, Gadget demonstration 5
Cat Weaknesses: Making trouble. That annoying friendship with a yellow dog. An open facial wound that will just not heal.

Alpha Flight 0.1: A Canadian Perspective

Let me preface by saying I'm glad to see Alpha Flight up and running again, and with the original cast (except for Puck - booooooo!!!) to boot. I'm equally juiced that Canada's premiere (read: only) super-hero team is being handled by Greg Pak & Fred Van Lente, two writers who very seldom do wrong in my book. However, neither of these guys is Canadian, and... it shows? Well, that's what the present article aims to uncover. What did they get right? What did they get wrong? And fellow Canadians, don't be shy about chiming in. It's a big country and I've never been west of Winnipeg or east of Antigonish.

Election Day. So to start with, the story takes place on May 2nd, which indeed was the date of Canada's last election. Though the Marvel Universe claims to be OUR universe, except with superheroes, it's gotten farther and farther away from it in recent years. So while Obama is the president of Marvel's USA, and there seems to be an economic crisis, etc., Canada just elected a completely fictional party. That's fine, it's a comic book trope, and since our elections aren't on a fixed time table, you could conceivably put a fictional parliament in power, defeat it and have another election a few months after the last. And if you want to be political about it, the so-called Unity Party could be a sly pastiche of the current Conservative party in power. [Short history: When Alpha Flight started, there were really only three parties expected to win seats at the Federal level - the Conservatives (akin to the US' Republicans), the Liberals (similar to Democrats) and the New Democratic Party (bit more to the left). Eventually came the rise of more regional parties - the Bloc Quebecois in Quebec and the more right wing Reform party in the West. Reform tried to grow in size and changed its name to the Alliance, and when the Conservatives were soundly defeated by the Liberals, the Alliance absorbed the Conservatives and took their name, finally establishing enough of a foothold to win an election. Though until the last election, they were always a minority government. Prime Minister Harper's reputation is 1) that he's a robot and 2) that he is Canada's answer to George W. Bush, complete with media smokescreens, military agendas and let's cut taxes at the expense of social programs policies.] So this Unity Party could represent the current Conservative regime if you like (though quite possibly the writers never intended it). The leader is undoubtedly a supervillain in disguise (robot or otherwise), the party's name refers to an alliance of parties, and no one can understand why people would vote for them.

Now let's look at the top of the first page:
Montreal. Yeah, this is where we get in trouble. Now YES, Montreal has the largest concentration of English-speaking people (Anglophones) in Quebec, so this exchange could definitely be held in English. We'll have to accept that Officer Mackenzie has that Scottish name because, well, that's Snowbird's secret identity. Again, no reason why someone with that surname shouldn't live in Montreal. What IS wrong in this picture is the English-only sign in the window. In Quebec, Bill 101 prohibits the use of English-only signage (or any non-French language signage), and in fact, bilingual signage that uses a non-French language more prominently. Super-hypnosis or not, there's no way a federal party would try to win seats out of Quebec by using English signage. Because this is comics, I would expect an iconic representation of Canada, so I have to question the use of Montreal in this sequence as opposed to another Canadian city. Citizens of Quebec seeking unity (as opposed to sovereignty) is not iconic. It's entire possible, especially in the more multi-cultural city of Montreal, but it feels wrong on an iconic level. Like having a scene all about pedestrians in Los Angeles ;-).
Grand-Lac Victoria Indian Settlement. Exists and is situated in Quebec, near Val-d'Or. The reservation is home to the French-speaking (oops) Algonquin community of Kitcisakik. Its 430 inhabitants do not actually have a hospital.
La Grande Dam Power Station. Exists, in the sparsely populated North of Quebec, off James Bay. It is NOT anywhere near the St.Lawrence River!
Canada's SWAT Teams. Police departments in Canadian cities of course have SWAT Teams, but they aren't called that. For example, Toronto has an Emergency Task Force, while Vancouver has an Emergency Response Team. As we're in Quebec here, that truck should be marked G.T.I. (Groupe tactique d'intervention). AmCan, if it had referred to a real company, would either produces ball bearings or, since this is Montreal, work in imports or offer financial services. The AmCan energy conglomerate seen here is fictional.
The French. The entire book could be "translated from the French", dissipating my Quebec-centric criticisms. However, there is actual French dialog in the book, so there's no universal translator at work. And it's some of the best French I've ever seen in an American comic! On this blog, I grumble a lot about bad French in comics. It's like DC and Marvel have Babel Fish on staff. Terrible! But Alpha Flight 0.1 contains absolutely NO errors, horrendous syntax nor bad grammar. This is nothing short of an achievement! Yes, I realize there are just a couple of sentences. (I do have to say Purple Girl/Persuasion is lucky everyone understands her commands in English... why yes, I have been known to beat a dead horse.)

I'm happy to see the original Alpha Flight back for another run, but I'll be keeping my eye open for more discrepancies between my Canada and Marvel's. And you too can be an unofficial member of the Comic Book RCMP (ou de la GRC de la b.d.). If anything bugged or enchanted you about the comic, or if my this very post contains inaccuracies, report it in the comments section!

Analogies

is to
as
is to
Discuss.

So I'm Enjoying My Acadian Holiday When...

Happy August 15th, everybody! It's the Acadian National Holiday, something we French-Canadians from Atlantic Canada observe, usually with high-starch foods and zwing-zwing music. But it's early yet and I'm just reading comics. THIS is the sort of thing that drives me CRAZY:Paris Tribune, so I assume that's meant to be a French headline in Last Family of Krypton #1. Hello, Babel Fish! Geez, four words and you couldn't translate them properly? Look, comic book writers, I volunteer to translate your smatterings of French dialogue, ok? Just send me an email. Cripes!

Ok, so obviously, it means Space Family Saga Continues, and I know that because it's almost written in English there. In actual French, it would probably read La saga de la famille de l'espace continue. Right now, the words are nonsense, as if I said Family. Space. Brick. Tofu. The way French syntax works, it reads like Saga Family Space Continues, and Continues has a grammatical mistake (there's no S at the end of third person verbs). GAH!!!!

/Rant

Cat of the Geek #45: Poussy

Name: Poussy
Stomping Grounds: Poussy (by Smurf creator Peyo)
Side: Good
Breed: Tuxedo Cat
Cat Powers: So naive, it's endearing.
Skills: Eat 9, Sleep 5, Mischief 8, Wit 2, Traps 3
Cat Weaknesses: The name is a little embarrassing for the international markets. Cannot talk, unlike many of his comic strip colleagues.

Star Trek 1126: Ill Wind, Part Four

1126. Ill Wind, Part Four

PUBLICATION: Star Trek: The Next Generation: Ill Wind #4, DC Comics, January 1996

CREATORS: Diane Duane (writer), Ken Save and Pablo Marcos (artists)

STARDATE: 47962.6 (follows the last issue)

PLOT: The Mestral's consort tries to convince her at gunpoint to stop her racing ways. In fact, she's so uncontrollable, he's agreed to hand her over to a faction to be brainwashed. She keeps an open channel to the Enterprise throughout and Riker arrives with the cavalry. A faction ship attacks, but is stopped by the Enterprise, and the star goes crazy, ripping the sailship open, but transporters save everyone in time. Troi then feels an awakening from the star itself as a giant radioactive bird flies out of it and heads to parts unknown. Finally, the Mestral renounces racing, what with her crew dead, her planet factionned, and her consort a traitor.

CONTINUITY: Duane doesn't go the full 9 yards by naming the creature the Great Bird of the Galaxy (see the New Frontier books for a more brazen author).

DIVERGENCES: None.

PANEL OF THE DAY - My pet peeve rears its ugly head: French expressions that don't make sense. ("Tonnerre!" is proper, though I don't know anyone who uses it, and spelled right...)
REVIEW: Save and Marcos finish off the art duties on the mini-series, and they're probably the best match yet, though not by a huge margin. In any case, it's the story that's problematic. I mean, what was it about? The Mestral story was obviously the A-plot, but it ends with the non sequitur of the giant bird, after which many many pages are used up DISCUSSING its appearance. Who won this leg of the race isn't revealed, even though it took up most of the first three issues. A very detailed backdrop, but it doesn't pay off. Red herrings all. The series meandered aimlessly far more than it sprinted to the finish line. I'd like to thank the amiable Ms. Duane for stopping by and commenting on yesterday's review though. There was a lot to like in Ill Wind, but the series may have taken on more story than it could realistically tell.

Who Rocks Doctor Who? Bill Bailey Does!

So Tuesday I was all about the remixed Doctor Who theme song, and my friend Julie pointed me in a fun direction. UK comedian Bill Bailey, best known to some of us as Bilbo on Spaced, has a 60s Belgian lounge version of the song, with almost nonsense lyrics in almost pidgin French. It is ridiculous AWESOME!

LISTEN TO A CLEAN VERSION

Or as part of a comedy show, after the bits with the 80s Doctor Who incidental music:

Top 5 Spaceships From Comics

Tuesday, it was all about spaceships from movies and tv, but as I was compiling my list, I kept thinking about great spaceships from comics. Instead of enlarging the criteria for tv/movie ships, I decided comic book ships deserved their own post. I mean, check these out!

5. XB 982 (Valérian) I don't know how many Yanks know about the adventures of Valerian, space-time agent, and his lovely assistant Laureline, but I've always been enchanted by Christin and Mézières' imaginative sci-fi series. The XB 982 is definitely in the Millenium Falcon mold, though it predates Star Wars by about 8 years, and thanks to its ability to jump through both space AND time, it's a TARDIS with style and a bay window.

4. Brainiac's skull ship (DC Comics)
You gotta respect Brainiac's massive ego. His ship is in the shape of his own HEAD. With tentacles. And there's nothing that can't be made better by tentacles (except Japanese romance comics).

3. Galactus' ship (Marvel Comics)
I quite like its moebius loop, "infinity" shape, but it's the fact it's the size of a solar system that does it for me. They say we can see the International Space Station from Earth with the naked eye. Well...

2. Scuttlebutt (Marvel Comics)
Beta Ray Bill, the alien goat version of Thor, has only one companion - this flying, talking warship. In the style of many an anime spaceship, it nonetheless distinguished itself by being drawn by Walt Simonson. So you know it usually comes accompanied by the bestest sound effects.

1. Lunar rocket (Tintin)
On the Moon a good 11 years before Apollo 11, the rocket that brought Tintin to our satellite and back is an iconic beauty. Not only does it have a great retro look and an awesome paint job, but it's the only lunar craft that comes with equipped with a spacesuit specifically designed for man's best friend. And after a good golf game, really, what else would man want to do on the Moon, but take a walk with his dog and cruelly perhaps, make him fetch.

Perhaps you have other sequential art favorites. You know how to leave a comment.

The French Canadian Geek Experience

For my 2000th post (already!), and coming off Canada Day, I thought I might delve into my geekly roots a little. A geek is a geek is a geek, but history and geography does shape and mold the KIND of geek we become, and for my "ethnic" group, at least, there is a shared set of geek values. I'm French-Canadian, you see, and that has made a great deal of difference.

French-Canadians, whether Acadian (as I am), Quebequois, Franco-Ontarian or the rarer FCs to the West, have a number of geekly touchstones that bring them together, often transcendent of age so long as we're talking about under-40s.

The first is bande dessinée (or b.d.), what we call "comics" in English, but usually of higher quality (better production values and often, better craftsmanship) than their more disposable American cousins. Tintin, Asterix, Achilles Talon, Valerian, Spirou, Lucky Luke, Les Schtroumpfs, Les Tuniques Bleues, Buck Danny, Boule et Bill, and many many more. Most have been translated, and some have had a measure of success in the States and English Canada, but it's not even a question for French readers. If every English-speaking child has read at least one Archie in his or her life, then every French-speaking child in the West has read a Tintin or an Asterix. Probably more.

And if you're asking me to choose between Archie's recycled Happy Days jokes and Hergé, well... You're not really asking me that, are you? No. No you are not.

Tintin is not a "bathroom reader" or a stack of floppies. It's finely crafted comic art, hardbound to last. Your son will read your copy, and your grandson. And it won't ever require you to put it in a clear plastic bag either. Does this cultural background mean Francophones are more generally exposed to a stronger comics aesthetic? Does it make them better able to appreciate the form? Does the greater variety of content make them more open to that variety?

And this isn't to say that Anglo-centric comics are bad. I read a ton of them every week, and some of them are really quite excellent. I wouldn't take anything away from Eisner or Kirby or Kubert either. I think they're wonderful. But my pre-second language years weren't filled with superheroes, which has certainly informed my tastes.

The other Francophone universal constant seems to lie in certain specific anime series, translated into French and broadcast on our side of the ocean(s) for years. I watched these religiously through the 70s and though I thought they weren't on anymore, 20-somethings and 17 year olds I meet have all seen them. My brother-in-law is right this minute showing episodes to his young children, even if the violence might seem harsh by today's Care Bear-modified standards.

The golden jewel of these is Goldorak (which Americans may have seen as UFO Robot Grendizer). People in the English-speaking world I've spoken to about this have told me it's just another giant robot show surfing the wave of that particular craze, but French Canadians know the warcries for each of the robot's myriad weapons, let me tell you. Goldorak was so popular here that teenage singing sensation Nathalie Simard (think Céline Dion with a children's show instead of Vegas) even remade one of the title songs and put it on an album. Goldorak is extremely culturally significant for us.

But there are others. Albator is a great, strange, and tragic favorite (you might know it as Captain Harlock), as is Demetan, the brutal story of a frog navigating the catfish's underworld of the pond. He always wound up getting the crap beat out of him by the crayfish for some reason. Lots of sci-fi for the boys: Capitaine Flam (Captain Future), Ulysse-31, La Bataille des Planètes (Battle of the Planets has at least made a dent in the American market, as has Astro-Boy, which we only know as Astro). But beautiful stories for girls as well: Candy (a Russian tragedy that always ran after Goldorak and that I peevishly admit to watching - I probably cried too, I'm such a nancy-boy) - Belle et Sebastien, and Heidi. Coming in late so that the younger set universally love them, but I might not have a particular attraction to them: Rémi Sans Famille, Cités d'Or, Le Petit Castor, and others.

So while English-language channels brought us the flavor of the time, whether the somewhat static yet still exciting adventure cartoons of the 70s and early 80s, or the pacified 30-minute toy adverts of later days, French channels were filled with all manner of product made or translated in France. Cartoons from both Europe and Japan also came from different time periods. There's no such thing as "new programming" in translated markets, which also accounts for a certain time delay on television shows I might have watched. For example, though I wasn't born when Time Tunnel first aired, I was quite able to watch and enjoy it in translation. Same with cartoons.

Again, language, history and geography allowed me to experience a wider panorama of "geek material" much sooner than I might on my own power. You could say my culture ENABLES geekdom by putting the tools at our disposal. I don't know how this compares to others' experiences however. Perhaps cable stations (rarely in French, and unheard of when I was growing up) probably served the same function as the needs of translation for English-speaking geeks.

But I'd like to hear it from you! Did your (pop) cultural background help you become a geek? Or was it hard work and completely isolating?