Reign of the Supermen #411: Super-Orange

Source: Tiny Titans #48 (2012)
Type: Imaginary storyThe crazy comic book goodness that is Tiny Titans produces this delicious Superman this month, because kids will be kids, and super-kids with idle hands, stick-on capes and lots of fruit will be kids even more.
And it's not all oranges.
And if they need villains:
After reading this issue, I have a few sleepless nights imagining the entire DC Universe as a grocery store. Super-Orange might face Leek Luthor and Brainfoodiac. Batmango vs. the Artichoker or Mr. Freeze (no name change, perfect!). Smile at the adventures of Broccoli Gold and Blueberry Beetle, or hide behind the covers after reading Garth Ennis' Peacher.

What would you put in YOUR shopping bag?

Reign of the Supermen #404: Green Lantern Clark Kent

Source: DC Comics Presents #4 (1979)
Type: LoanerSometimes it seems like Superman's alternate destiny was always to become a Green Lantern. He's always being handed a ring! In this now classic team-up (well, classic... maybe insofar as it's the oldest issue of DCP I own), Hal Jordan crashes into a Metropolis Press Club award ceremony honoring Clark and Lois and throws his ring to Clark before passing out. Well, of course he knows Clark is Superman, but no one else does. By the way, do you know how hard it is to impress Bronze Age Lois Lane?
Pretty damn hard. So Clark uses the ring to create a facsimile of Superman to protect his secret identity.
Pretty impressive. He manages a non-green construct seconds after getting the ring on his finger. Maybe his willpower is greater than Hal's! But does he have the experience? The answer proves to be no when Star Sapphire yanks it off his finger because...
...he wasn't using willpower to keep it there! Is it me, or is that a waste of perfectly good willpower? I gotta defeat these villains, but I also gotta concentrate on not letting the ring on my finger slip. I guess it's a metaphor for marriage. Anywho, the rest of the comic happens and Superman and GL defeat Star Sapphire, though the "killing blow" is Superman's (XP hogger!). Is he gonna make a move on Carol Ferris?
Nope, he's just the best wingman you ever hope to have.

This Week in Geek (5-11/12/11)

Buys

DVD buys this week include the fifth season of 30 Rock, the fourth season of Sarah Jane Adventures, and Peter Greenaway's A Zed and Two Noughts.

"Accomplishments"

DVDs: I finally saw the Green Lantern movie this week and it's a mixed bag. Basically, if you're going to do so much of it in CGI, your sequences probably shouldn't look like video game cut scenes. The Guardians are especially fake-looking, though the hero Lanterns look quite good, as do the action scenes. Ryan Reynolds is not an actor I find particularly engaging or charismatic, and his comedy dialog fell flat for me. The plot itself is gauchely handled, with lots of infodumping to cover concepts that weigh down the movie, like Parallax. And if you're going to make this an obvious first part of a proposed series (because why else set up Sinestro like that?), maybe you should make everything else about the movie is going to be a success. Because if Green Lantern's lackluster performance at the box office prevents the story from being completed, we're left with a lot of dangling plot threads that diminish the achievements of GL "part 1". I don't mean to sound THAT down on it, because I never found it boring or irritating. It's perfectly ok. But its own ambition was to be more than ok, and so it fails. My copy has no special features of note, unless I count the green XBox-type case.

If you're a fan of Spinal Tap, you've got to see Hard Core Logo, in which director Bruce MacDonald takes the same principle, but gives it a more dramatic (but still funny) slant. Hard Core Logo is a Canadian punk band that's gotten back together and allowed their reunion tour to be filmed, and if I hadn't recognized Battlestar Galactica's Callum Keith Rennie (Leoben) as the guitarist, I would not have been able to tell until quite late that this wasn't a real documentary. The film is irreverent and edgy, and I'd call it punk even in the way it's shot. Plus, the music really kicks ass. I've got to get myself a copy of the soundtrack. The DVD includes a useful commentary track and a couple of music videos, one by lead actor and Headstones' front man Hugh Dillon, and the other a sad censored version of Hard Core Logo's Who the Hell You Think You Are? Anyway, I don't want to give too much away, but my recommendation will go as far as putting the film in 2011's Top 5 viewed. So there.

I won Hamlet 2 at this year's Oscar Party pool, and because of my interest in the original play (see my other blog, Hyperion to a Satyr), I put it with the rest of my film collection. Truthfully, it's really not as bad as I was told it was. In fact, it's almost good. Hamlet 2 is basically a parody of those inspirational teacher movies, starring Steve Coogan as a lame drama teacher who tries to save the drama program by putting on a sequel to Hamlet. On the surface, it's one of those quirky comedies that sometimes make the Oscar list, like Little Miss Sunshine or Juno, but some ill-judged gags and coarse language keep it well away from entertainment of that quality. It's too bad too. Catherine Keener's story in this, almost everything about Elisabeth Shue, and the actual Hamlet bits in the final production all point in the proper direction. And then somebody flashes their ass or admit to being molested in a crowded theater and the feeling is lost. I'll have cause to talk about the rather moving Hamlet bits at H2S in between acts. The DVD includes a fairly entertaining commentary track that allows you to track where the director went wrong, deleted scenes, a making of, and a sing-along feature on a couple songs (because the play within the film is a musical, of course).

After our Ed Wood marathon earlier this year, the only thing left in the pink boxed set was a documentary called The Haunted World of Edward D. Wood, Jr. Took me a while, but I got to it, and I must say, it's excellent. Honest, but ultimately loving, it tracks the so-called "worst director of all time"'s life through interviews with the people that worked with him and rare footage and photographs. Vampira is particularly entertaining. The disc also includes Crossroads of Laredo, Wood's first (and unfinished) film, a 25-minute western finally edited and scored, and by turns touching and ridiculously bad. Director Brett Thompson assembles a small group of people to do commentary on both films, as well as on footage of a couple premiere events, and these are as insightful as the films themselves. Additional documents include a couple hundred pictures and drawings, easter eggs on each menu, and an uncut interview with the director for the A&E Biography on his school chum Tim Burton, only relevant because Haunted World acts as a kind of answer to the artistic license shown in Burton's Ed Wood. Consider the record set straight.

He Was a Quiet Man is another film from my Oscar pool win, but this time, it's the kind of thing I might have purchased for myself. Frank Cappello's low-budget quirk of a film about a man about to go postal in an office building (Christian Slater made ordinary-looking) benefits from the director's background as a special effects man. And while some of those effects are done on the cheap, they're sold by the film being highly subjective. Is all this happening? How much of it is real, and how much carried by anxieties or hopes? Visual inventiveness and melodrama go hand in hand and reach a rather poignant climax. A small, but worthy indy picture. The DVD includes an entertaining director's commentary on both the film and its deleted scenes (which include two alternate endings). The making of featurette is a bit longer than a Hollywood featurette, but not that much more useful.

The massacre of the Aztecs done with horned toads and frogs. A mechanical vagina giving birth to a smaller version of itself. Rock and roll machine guns. Just some of the strange and often shocking images in Alejandro Jodorowsky's The Holy Mountain. Undoubtledy his masterpiece, don't expect a straightforward story. On the surface, it is a man's quest for enlightenment, and an indictment of our unenlightened society. But Jodorowsky uses film in a poetic, or in this case, allegorical way, not in a prosaic one. His usual tropes - near constant nudity, amputee actors, and taboo imagery - are all present, laced with symbolism from every mystical tradition. While I'm sure I'd have understood more if I'd been a Kabbalist or something, I'm rather happy with my interpretation, which didn't jar much at all from those nuggets Jodorowsky gives on his commentary track (in Spanish, with subtitles). Even just as a visual experience, it is a clever piece of work, with more things you've never seen before in the first 5 minutes than in any other film ever made. In addition to the excellent director's commentary (which explains some images, but also describes some wild production stories), Jodorowsky lends his voice to a few deleted scenes and an insightful discussion of the Tarot. There's a short feature on the DVD restoration process and a small collection of pictures and script pages (in Spanish). As with El Topo, the entire soundtrack is included as a separate disc on the boxed set collection (72 minutes of varied music, some of it quite good).

Out KFF selection, Benny Chan's Shaolin, is an epic story set at the turn of the last century, in which a defeated warlord who loses everything (Andy Lau) becomes a Shaolin monk and ends up defending the temple from the forces of evil (essentially, people with guns). Nicholas Tse and Wu Jing also star, and Jackie Chan, billed as a "special appearance", does a lot more than expected (even fight a little, though it's his lovable character that makes this so memorable an appearance). Benny Chan is known for a lot of slam-bang Jackie Chan movies in the Police Story mold, and those origins are obvious. Though this is a period piece, there are the equivalent of car chases, emo baddies, and gun fu action. It even ends in absurd and unmotivated pyrotechnics. So it's a good thing the A-story is about Andy Lau, because that man can do no wrong. Everyone but the over-the-top Tse do such a solid, touching job, that it's easy to forgive the film's excesses. I know there's a 2-disc version with making of material, but my 1-disc edition at least has 45 minutes of deleted scenes, restoring a lot of material about either the Shaolin monk Robin Hoods or people's reactions to Andy Lau joining the order. To be frank, I'd have happily lost a couple of action scenes to see many of these in the film itself. So touching. But of course, the film already feels bloated at 131 minutes.

Audio: I finished listening to The Tenth Planet on CD, a story whose only missing episode is the last. Doing the whole story on narrated audio (that narration by Anneke "Polly" Wills) seems like overdoing it, but how else is it going to establish a context for that last ep? Anyway, I can't wait for 2|entertain to give this story the DVD treatment, as it is the first appearance of the Cybermen (which sound very alien on audio) and the last story for William Hartnell's Doctor (the highlight of the disc... at once sad and frightening). As far as the story itself goes, there's a lot of talking (American accents may grate on some) thanks to a large cast of characters) so relatively little of Wills' somewhat stone-faced narration. Ben gets to carry the serial, which is good for any companion. Polly makes coffee (well, that was her shtick, wasn't it?). And it ultimately falls a little apart as the Cyber-planet melts away and the Cybermen self-destruct. All a bit pat, maybe it's why you don't remember it happening in 1984. So I'm putting my first missing Troughton in the CD player next...

Theater: Yes, I go to the theater, but only when a friend of mine is in the play. Cul-de-Sac - text by Nova Scotian playwright Daniel MacIvor, as translated into French (same title though) by Fanny Britt - is an impressive one-man play (what happens when all but one drama student in any given year finally gives up on the Dream) in which my friend and neighbor Ludger Beaulieu played no fewer than 9 characters, 8 of them in the same maverick scene at some point, and he did a great job. Give this kid some work! Cul-de-Sac is an edgy, irreverent, funny, intense, dramatic piece that centers around a controversial murder, while savagely attacking social mores. Also, best use of Jingle Cats ever. It's 100 continuous minutes in the company of a single actor. I would have been impressed if all Ludger had done was learn that incredibly convoluted and energetic text by heart. Of course, he did a lot more and, as they say, left it all on the stage.

Hyperion to a Satyr posts this week:
III.i. The Nunnery Scene - Zeffirelli '90
III.i. The Nunnery Scene - Kline '90

Coast(less) City - A DC Cities Conundrum

If you're a regular reader, you know this blog has more than once explored the question of where DC's fictional cities could be. With the New52, everything is up in the air again, and the Internet has been abuzz for almost a week regarding this page from Josh Fialkov's I, Vampire #3:It looks from this "meanwhile in the various time zones" that goes from East to West, that both Star City and Coast City, both formerly on the West Coast, have been pushed eastward. Now that Green Arrow is back in Seattle, Star City can redefine itself, no problem. In fact, I'd love to see it resituated in Texas (Central Time), as the lone star of the Lone Star State. It's a state with a distinct flavor or four, and a unique environment for a would-be superhero. Perhaps somewhere El Paso's Blue Beetle could move to when he grows up.

The real problem, though, is Coast City now situated in Mountain Time. See, there's no coast in that time zone. Not unless the city's in Mexico, which it clearly isn't. We're left with four possibilities:
-It's a mistake. Ignore it.
-Part of Mexico has been annexed by the U.S. in the New DCU.
-"Coast" is ironic, much like "Greenland" is icy and "Iceland" is green.
-The definition of Coast has been extended to lakeside topography. Maybe Coast City is somehow facing Salt Lake City now.

For me, the missed opportunity was to do away with Coast City altogether. I mean, do we really need it? Hal Jordan's job always took him to some desert base anyway, so why not have him based in Nevada. He's not the defender of a particular city, after all, but of an entire Sector. Eliminating his contextualizing city would have promoted his actual role (and not been too far off the way Green Lantern's world has been portrayed of late). Sometimes I think the trouble with the New DC isn't that too much has changed, but rather that NOT ENOUGH has.

Paper Dolls For Boys: The Super-Friends

Part of a continuing series that proves paper dolls aren't just for girls, these were published in DC's all-ages Super-Friends series between issues 13 and 17. Click to enlarge each. We've got...

Aquaman and his imperial function clothes!Batman, suiting up for capitalism!
The Flash, no ring storage required!
Green Lantern, ready to go to work as as architect!
Superman's full body change!
And Wonder Woman with both princess AND 70s martial artist wear!
Let it be known: Just because there's a princess' dress in there doesn't mean these paper dolls aren't virile as all hell!

New 52: Week 4 Batch 1

Last week! I'm gonna go ahead and use the same format I did for the past three, and start with the best-known names, with the other half-dozen to follow tomorrow. As usual, these capsule reviews are geared towards the potential new readers DC claims it is wooing.

Aquaman #1
One thing Geoff Johns does in this Aquaman relaunch is make it a proper introduction to the character. The powers we don't see in action are at least discussed, his origin is told, Arthur repositions himself as a man who wants to explore his human, not Atlantean, heritage, and all with Ivan Reis' excellent art. Bit heavy-handed however. Most of the information we get because an obnoxious blogger corners Aquaman in a diner (it's tell, don't show), and Johns gets pretty strident (pun not intended) about defending the character. Though there's action and characterization, most of the issue is spent on repeating old Aquaman jokes and deflating them. Telling new readers that they're wrong to denigrate Aquaman only makes sense if you expect new readers that are antagonistic towards the character. For readers who do like Aquaman, they may resent the hell out of being told that Aquaman's no one's favorite and making Arthur suffer the indignity of having that thrown in his face. If you start the series out with Aquaman as a laughing stock, I'm sorry, but you have did him in yourself.
Don't call it a reboot: Unknown. Looks intact, but his history may have been shortened to exclude various eras of his career.
Upgrade? This is pretty much exactly where we left the character in Brightest Day, except the new Aqualad is nowhere to be seen. I hope he shows up later.
Will read? As a card-carrying member of FOAM, I sort of have to. And want to.
Recommended? Aquaman's a badass, and I want new readers to find that out. I just wish Johns hadn't been so gauche in showing it. Hell, new readers will probably get a hoot out of the comedy.

Batman: The Dark Knight #1
Let me tell you how pathetic I find The Dark Knight. First of all, it's a Batman comic designed as a showcase for David Finch. He's an artist I don't like (his perspectives and compositions are as bad as Liefeld's, he just hides them in more intricate detail so many readers won't notice) and an improvised writer, who here gets help from Paul Jenkins (showcase no more). Fans laughed at relaunching this book which took the better part of a year to get to #5, and now it's right back to #1. And this new #1 is just awful. The art is everything I expect it to be, and so is the script. Batman's first person narration is pretentious and overdone. Bruce Wayne swings on ropes without his costume, risking discovery. Anytime a woman shows up, it's a pin-up or ass shot. It's the second Batman book this month to feature an Akrham Asylum break-out, which tells me there's absolutely no editing going on. And don't tell what they've to Two-Face this issue makes him remotely more interesting, because it doesn't. It just comes off as silly.
Don't call it a reboot: Batman Inc. is mentioned, so it's business as usual.
Upgrade? You'd think having help from a co-plotter would help. It doesn't.

Will read? Not a chance.
Recommended? Avoid at all costs. New readers, you want to read Batman and if you have another 3$ in your pocket, Batman and Robin. That's it. You shouldn't even be thinking about picking up Dark Knight.

Flash #1
Francis Manapul is an excellent artist, very well suited to the Flash. I could recommend this book on the art alone. But can he write? Yeah, he can (here with the help of Brian Buccellato). Barry Allen, the fastest man alive, shares superheroics with the wacky world of SF CSI, making this a mystery book as well as a high concept superhero comic. What's here is solid enough, and acts as a pretty good introduction to the character, one I wouldn't mind handing to someone. Longtime fans will gripe at Barry's marriage being undone, Iris West relegated to pesky journalist who bugs Barry, but hasn't really met the Flash yet. For those fans, it's even worse. Barry's on a date with another woman. But as a reboot/relaunch, that's fine. Maybe they can get a will they/won't they dynamic going. Works for half the tv shows out there. What the book needs, however, is a good villain. Like many comics in the New52, the title hero faces off against nameless goons, which again makes me feel like the villains of the new DCU have been short-changed. Certainly makes that cliffhanger stand out as one of the most boring this month.
Don't call it a reboot: Marriage undone, playing the field, probably didn't die in the Crisis and come back. Totally a reboot.
Upgrade? Nah. It's the same series it used to be, without the deeper, richer history and relationships.
Will read? Yes. Enough of a Flash fan to do so, and Manapul's first effort wasn't bad.
Recommended? A solid superhero comic that uses its CSI element better than Johns did in the previous volume. Manapul's art is very nice as well. A good intro overall.

Green Lantern: New Guardians #1
One of DC's more confusing efforts, New Guardians starts with a needless re-origin of Kyle Rayner in a flashback that isn't advertized as such. After that, there's a caption that says "Present day", and when we return to Kyle, he's got a different uniform, but he has to explain to a kid that he's not Hal Jordan. Entirely plausible, but it still makes it feel like Kyle's a rookie, and if you miss that caption (I did, at first), you'll get the feeling Kyle's history's been erased. Hopefully it hasn't, because that would make Tony Bedard's series clash with the rest of GL continuity, one of the few untouched chunks of DC's continuity. Looks like Bedard tried to make New Guardians a better jump-on point for new readers with that origin, but it really isn't. New readers won't really know what the heck is going on with all those colored rings, and like Justice League, the team isn't assembled by the end of the issue. The cover, in fact, acts as a spoiler about who will appear in later issues. The art by Tyler Kirkham is good enough, though derivative of Jim Lee's, and of course, it must include that staple of Lantern comics, gory violence. You only have to wait for page 9 before someone gets graphically disemboweled. So a slow start, though at least it presents an intriguing mystery.
Don't call it a reboot: A small one. Kyle's origin has been tweaked.
Upgrade? Only insofar as Kyle's gotten to lead his own series, whereas he was relegated to sharing the spotlight with two other Earth Lanterns in GLC before.
Will read? I am interested in the Lantern sector of the DCU, so yes. I hope New Guardians starts to move a little faster though.
Recommended? With reservations. New readers are unlikely to understand concepts developed during the War of Light without the help of trade collections despite being thrown a bone with Kyle's origin (which is predicated on some Oan event they won't recognize anyway).

Savage Hawkman #1
Carter Hall is a cryptologist (I guess he helps decipher alien languages or something? he's not a cryptoGRAPHER) who used to be Hawkman. He decides to burn his old wings, but the Nth metal has other ideas. It transforms him into a new-look Hawkman and he must immediately fight the horribly named Morphicus, an evil pile of alien vampiric goo. I didn't think much of Tony Daniel as a Batman writer, but Hawkman's more of a blank slate. Maybe he can do something more original here? It's not a bad start, one that gives the character a new beginning without voiding his past (couldn't have more series in the relaunch gone this route?). Philip Tan's art isn't strong on faces, but is helped along by the painterly colors of Sunny Gho. Tan loses some stiffness when he gets into the more fantastical and action-based scenes, so there's potential there.
Don't call it a reboot: Though some elements have definitely been de-emphasize, it doesn't feel like a reboot. Dialog seems to point to a more or less intact history, though probably without Thanagar in the mix. Let's call it a more streamlined history, then.
Upgrade? Still wondering where the JSA will be, because this is definitely its Hawkman, and not Earth-1's Katar Hol (who I'm kind of missing at this point). The new paradigm still has to prove itself, so I'm not gonna call it an upgrade quite yet.
Will read? Give it a couple more issues. I've been wanting a competent Hawkman series for a while. Is this it?
Recommended? A good jumping on point, with everything you need to understand the series. Doesn't quite stand out as one of the series new readers really should read, but perhaps if it keeps up a kind of Supernatural/X-Files mood, it could find its niche.

Superman #1
George Perez didn't just write this comic, he drew the breakdowns for Jesus Merino's pencils. And it shows. Where a lot of DC's #1s have wide open spaces, a low average for panels per page, and lots of splashes, Perez' Superman is dense almost to the point of claustrophobia. This thing took a lot longer to read than the rest of the line, and I'd call that a good thing. Perez does a lot of things right. For one thing, he successfully tracks how media works these days, turning Lois into a frontline tv news producer, throwing tweets and web exclusives into the mix, all the while keeping old-fashioned guys like Clark and Perry plugging away in the dying print media. That's the real star here, and all the action (a battle against a Kryptonian fire monster) is seen through the news broadcasting process. The soap opera elements recall the late 80s and early 90s, again a good thing, even if I might decry the loss of Superman's marriage (but I'm moving on). Superman isn't THAT brooding, at least not yet. It all seemed justified to me. So it's a hit as far as I'm concerned. If there's a flaw, it's Superman's new costume, and I imagine it's not a coincidence that Perez and Merino often draw him at a distance or in close-up, giving the suit as little play as possible. Other redesigns that look awful: Jimmy's Bieber haircut and the crazy-ass new Daily Planet building. There was talk of making Perry a black man, but it's Morgan Edge who gets a new ethnicity instead. The supporting cast shows a lot of variety, actually, even if the roles were small this time around.
Don't call it a reboot: Completely.
Upgrade? Chris Roberson had brought Superman back from the brink after JMS' false start, so I'm not ready to call it an upgrade, but it's certainly not a DOWNgrade.
Will read? Yes. I liked it more than I thought I would. Reminded me of the franchise's better years. So long as I don't look at the suit directly.
Recommended? A resounding yes. There was a lot of exciting stuff happening, and not just with the superhero - Lois may turn out to be the true protagonist of this book. And you can't beat its content-per-dollar value.

Teen Titans #1
Just horrible. I knew I didn't like the costume redesigns, but I find Brett Booth's artwork disagreeable in general. Generally poor, he has trouble with page layouts, choreography and clarity. But writer Scott Lobdell is more guilty still. Not only does he pull off the New52 trick of taking too much time assembling his team (only three members have speaking roles, despite that being less than half of what's on the cover), but he also writes Teen Titans like it's an X-book. We're told upfront that there's a veritable "plague" of metahuman teenagers. That's not the DC Universe, is it? We meet up with Red Robin who feels the need to assemble these fugitive teens, Kid-Flash who screws up royally on national tv, and Wonder Girl, completely revamped as... well, I can't make sense of who she is really and what her abilities are. So nothing happens much and the Teen Titans don't actually exist by issue's end. Annoying AND ugly.
Don't call it a reboot: Tim Drake was Robin, but his Red Robin series may well have been erased. Wonder Girl's been rebooted entirely. Kid-Flash too, probably. I'm calling it a reboot.
Upgrade? The franchise had had a lot of trouble since, well since Marv Wolfman left it, frankly. Even so, this is a step WAY DOWN from where J.T. Krul left the book last month.
Will read? You can't make me.
Recommended? Not on your life. You do not want to crack this thing open, trust me. Boring, badly drawn and confusing.

The quirkier books I REALLY want to read will be tomorrow (but also Voodoo, so it's not gonna be all roses), I hope you'll come back for that. Of today's crop, Teen Titans and Dark Knight are clear losers, while all the others are imperfect, but pretty solid, Superman especially.

New 52: Week 3 Batch 1

Third week and it's the shortest with 12 new DC #1s, the 13th actually being Justice League which came out on Week Zero (and I mean that in a number of ways). My promise to review every single one, with an eye towards making recommendations for new comics readers, is weighing on me this week, perhaps because I'm far less enthusiastic about the majority of these books. Still, needs must. The more high profile, recognizable titles today. The rest tomorrow. Can you STAND IT?!

Batman #1
Well, this is certainly a better Batman book than Detective Comics, but I still feel some ambivalence towards it. Writer Scott Snyder reintroduces all the elements, including Batman, his rogue's gallery, his three Robins, Gotham City, Commissioner Gordon, Alfred and the Bat-Cave. It's done pretty well, and with enough devices that it's never tedious, even to this tired old comics reader who knows them all. Snyder's Batman is definitely a detective - which is why I can't believe they switched titles on him - but he's also big on gadgets, which wasn't particularly true of Snyder's Dick Grayson Batman. At times, the script reminded me of the 1989 movie, at others, of "The Batman" cartoon. And if Snyder was working with an artist like Jock, as he was on 'tec, it would be firing on all pistons. Instead, we've got Spawn artist Greg Capullo on pencils, and I'm afraid I can't get too enthusiastic about that. His Americanime style is in places too cartoony for the Batman's gritty world, and Capullo has trouble maintaining the relative sizes of characters. His Dick Grayson is a head shorter than Bruce Wayne and looks about 16, but his own book says he just spent a year being Batman. Tim is a head shorter than that, and Damian another head shorter than Time (for a whopping three heads shorter than Batman). And then the new mayoral candidate shows up and he's a 6 inches taller than Bruce... depending on the panel. Capullo provides some good pictures, but it's uneven as a whole, and I'm just not sure he's the best fit for Synder's scripts.
Don't call it a reboot: Batman and his cast look generally younger, but nothing seems particularly out of place.
Upgrade? Snyder on Batman is better than not Snyder on Batman.
Will read? Snyder's building a mystery that interests me. I'm just waiting for the art to change to commit to it.
Recommended? I think that if you're going to read only one Batman book, it'll have to be this one or Batman and Robin. Neither was a homerun for me, but Batman at least does a good job of introducing all the key concepts with art that will likely appeal to people despite my own misgivings. It FEELS like the main book of the franchise.

Catwoman #1
I think Red Lanterns is still the worst book of the New52, but Catwoman certainly gives it a run for its money. The only nice thing I can say is that Guillem March draws some nice cartoon cats. His women, however, are distorted when they're trying to look sexy, and in any case, Judd Winick is having him draw what can only be called a step back for DC and society in general. Selina is consistently falling out of her rubber bondage costume, at least, when she's not showing her "goods" to distract her old pimp, or giving it up to Batman in a fetishistic wet dream that ends with the revelation that Batman is a premature ejaculator. I kid you not. This thing is RANK. Though mostly action-based (if you know what I mean), the story's first person narration is in overdrive and truly annoying. This is the kind of comic that puts in perspective the DC architects' publicized visit to the Maxim offices. It's for that demographic and no one else. And perhaps not even that.
Don't call it a reboot: It's probably not, though it reintroduces the idea of Batman and Catwoman being friends with benefits.
Upgrade? I wasn't reading Gotham City Sirens, but I can't believe it was worse than this!
Will read? If you look through these, you'll find I'm pretty lenient and give most titles at least a second issue. Not this one. No way, no how.
Recommended? Are you just skipping to the end?! Of course I don't recommend it! DC had a recognizable property with the potential for attracting female readers here, but they blew it royally. I feel dirty just having read it.

Green Lantern Corps #1
As with Green Lantern, so with the Green Lantern Corps. The book really hasn't changed its cast, its look or its writer. However, Peter Tomasi does realize this is a first issue, and starts Guy Gardner and John Stewart off on Earth, dealing with their personal lives or lack thereof. It's a good introduction to both, and the start of a new storyline that acts as a jumping-on point, continuity baggage from the previous series kept to a strict minimum. Artist Fernando Pasarin is adept at creating interesting aliens and environments as well. But for all its strengths, the book has the weaknesses it's always had under the Johns/Tomasi reign. Within less than two pages, we get our first decapitation, with more gore to follow. At this point, it's business as usual to the point of being cliché, and worse, it makes the non-Terran Green Lanterns look disposable. It's not even shocking anymore to see them go down in pieces, it's just gratuitous and silly. So if you liked it before, you'll like it again, and if you didn't, ditto.
Don't call it a reboot: It's not. Follows directly from the previous series.
Upgrade? Kif-kif. No change up or down, but I might give "up" the advantage seeing as it's not burdened by the interminable "events" of the past few years.
Will read? Yes, I'll continue to do so despite its excesses. It's still a fairly good book, and it features my two favorite Lanterns.
Recommended? GLC does a good job of introducing its two leads, has solid art and imaginative designs, and sets up its mystery villain fairly well. If you're not a fan of gory violence, you might want to skip it however.

Nightwing #1
Kyle Higgins trained on Dick Grayson's voice in Gates of Gotham (co-written by Scott Snyder) and he does a good job with it here. I like his Nightwing. It's not particularly groundbreaking, but it's solid superhero stuff. By having Dick's old circus come to town, Higgins flirts with the idea of his returning to the trapeze life, and you know, that would be a pretty cool concept for a superhero's secret identity/private life. Pretty sure it won't go passed the first storyline, but in the meantime, it's nice to see Dick in his element (which was one of the strongest elements in the Flashpoint mini-series that featured him). The action is good, and Eddy Barrows is energetic and well-paced. I liked his work on Superman, but he really gets to cut loose here, only infrequently letting his enthusiasm get in the way of clarity (a very minor complaint). The weakness for me was the lack of any recognizable (or well introduced) villain. I don't know who that guy is at the end, but despite being featured in a couple scenes, he looks awfully generic to me. Giving him a name would have gone a long way, you know?
Don't call it a reboot: Dick mentions having been Batman for the past year, so it's not.
Upgrade? From being Batman? Not really. However, the issue makes me believe his being Nightwing again could be a good thing.
Will read? The issue has convinced me to stick around.
Recommended? New comics readers interested in the Batman universe (i.e. Gotham City) shouldn't ignore this book about a former Batman and former Robin. It just might turn out to be a solid monthly action book, which I can't say of every other Gotham book, including some with a higher profile.

Supergirl #1
Supergirl has JUST arrived and she immediately gets into a huge brawl with armored Russians (but not Rocket Reds, for some reason). That's pretty much it. Michael Green and Mike Johnson haven't written much else (despite there being TWO of them). Ok, some first person narration, and it gives you the jist of the Krypton she left, but in small doses. There's no real indication of what the book or character will be like. Here, she's all instinct and believes she's dreaming, so we can't really infer anything from her actions. The only thing that's for certain is that her redesigned costume just doesn't work. Think what you will of its appearance on the cover, it's as good as it gets. The interiors make it clear that even the book's artist Mahmud Asrar can't make those boots and armor joints look anything but awkward. Otherwise, I do like his fluid art, and want to also commend colorist Dave McCaig for some gorgeous work, giving snowbound scenes some variety and texture.
Don't call it a reboot: I have to, because it reboots Supergirl completely.
Upgrade? There's little to go by, but Supergirl had just found her way in the last year or two, so it's a shame to have her reset like that.
Will read? Not a big chance.
Recommended? Sorry no. If only this much happens in the first issue, I can only imagine how quickly the plots will advance.

Wonder Woman #1
Ok, this is a weird one. Wonder Woman has definitely been pushed into the DC Dark corner of the universe, where Swamp Thing and Animal Man dwell. Regardless of whether the book is good or bad, I think asking if that's an appropriate choice for the character has some relevance. Wonder Woman is one of the "Big Three" and is as recognizable as Superman or Batman. Neither of those characters inhabits the same world exactly (one light, one dark), so giving Diana a more supernatural/mythic environment gives her her own sandbox. And yet, the tone here is so dark that you're wondering if she's a superhero anymore. "Wonder Woman fights monsters" is a perfectly good premise, but playing that dark, violent and disturbing may alienate one potential new reader pool, namely young girls. I don't know how many parents would hand Wonder Woman comics to their young girls as a form of empowerment fiction, but Brian Azzarello and Cliff Chiang's story may be too adult for that. Then again, it's a Greco-Roman Buffy the Vampire Slayer and that wasn't particularly nonviolent. And some may claim (as many comics writers have) that WW is impossible to write for, that no one understands the character or her world, or how to make it financially successful. Maybe an important paradigm shift is exactly what's needed. That's my preamble, take it for what it's worth. Me personally? I liked it. I've always loved Chiang's art, and here I feel like Wonder Woman's walked onto the set of Roberson and Alred's I, Zombie. There's a supernatural mystery and strong action, etc., but it could stand to be just a tad less gruesome.
Don't call it a reboot: Too early to tell. Wonder Woman hasn't been herself all year anyway, so it's hard to say if this is an evolution of the character, or a complete revamp.
Upgrade? Anything's better than what JMS weighed down the character with, so the bar wasn't set high. The creative team vaulted over it.
Will read? Yes. DC Dark is turning out to be my favorite corner of the DCU.
Recommended? With strong warnings, yes. If you don't mind the gore and more adult take (i.e. aren't planning to hand it to younger children), it's a strong repositioning of the character in the Buffy mold. The art is easy on the eyes too.

Of that half-dozen, the tasteless Catwoman has a big "DO NOT READ" stamped on it. The best book was probably Wonder Woman, though like Batman, Nightwing and Green Lantern Corps, it comes with caveats attached. Tomorrow might offer a crop of less mitigated reviews, but looking at what's left, I wouldn't be so sure.

New 52: Week 2 Batch 1

Being the reviews of each and every new DC #1, as promised, with an eye towards recommending books for new readers. Half of this week's releases today, half tomorrow. And once again, we'll start with the more high profile titles (by which I mean, those with the most recognizable titles).

Batman and Robin #1
What the hell was that? With Batman's continuity untouched (and this is borne out in the comic), and Peter Tomasi, who'd already written some good stories for the book, I though this would be a no-brainer recommendation. Not so. The thing that made Batman & Robin work as well as it did was that Damian was paired up with Dick Grayson's Batman. It inverted the usual formula, with a darker Robin and a lighter Batman. With Damian's father back in the cowl, a new and less pleasant dynamic is born. Damian's attitude made sense when a "pretender" was Batman. Here, he's just giving his father lip, and that father is BATMAN. Bruce becomes a chiding father who has failed at disciplining his child, which isn't where I want to see the character. Not that Batman/Bruce Wayne is particularly well characterized, enduring as he does Robin disrespecting the memory of his parents while simultaneously planning to pave over Crime Alley. The issue's main plot about stopping terrorists from getting at a nuclear stockpile under a university swimming pool makes absolutely no sense, though the subplot featuring a new villain killing off members of Batman Inc., while probably mystifying to the new readers DC wants, is has more potential. As for the art by Patrick Gleason, I like what he's doing in the front half of the issue, but it looks like he rushed through the back half.
Don't call it a reboot: Looks like continuity's intact on the Batman side of things.
Upgrade? No. Though I'm fine with Dick Grayson returning to his Nightwing persona, he's really what made Damian's Robin work.
Will read? I'm interested in the Batman Inc. stuff, so I'm hoping it gets better.
Recommended? Wish I could, but while better than Detective Comics, this isn't quite as strong a (re)start as I would have hoped. Too dependent on past continuity for newbies, but not sharp enough for fans.

Batwoman #1
This is pretty much exactly what we've been expecting for months. As with J.H. Williams III's Batwoman work in Detective, each issue will be a gorgeous art book. Paired up with co-writer W.Haden Blackman, Williams catches us up to just before Kate's date with police detective Maggie Sawyer, toys with the idea of giving Batwoman a sidekick while giving her father the Colonel the boot (I hope she doesn't), and introduces a new, creepy villain that has its roots in South American myth. For long-time DC fans, there's also an appearance by Chase and Mr. Bones at the D.E.O. While other heroes seem to have been regressed to earlier in their careers, Batwoman actually seems to have gotten more experienced. Did I mention it looks AMAZING?
Don't call it a reboot: The recap makes it clear nothing's changed for Kate.
Upgrade? From WAITING for the book to be released? You bet!
Will read? Oh yes. The story is at least solid, and the evocative, intricate, inventive artwork is worth the cover price alone.
Recommended? Yes. I think old and new readers alike won't be able to resist Williams' art, and as far as variety goes, this is a book filled with women, three of which are gay. It's the kind of thing the new DC should put out, books with distinctive voices.

Green Lantern #1
Geoff Johns and Doug Manke pick the story up where it left off, and they are a very good creative team. The book itself has lots to like, including trademark GL weird aliens and with Sinestro forced to wear the ring again, Hal Jordan having hilarious "anti-adventures" among us normals. It's a good comic, with an intriguing first chapter. But see, it makes me question the whole Relaunch thing. At the end of the War of the Green Lanterns, it would have been dead easy to put a button on volume 5 of Green Lantern by leaving out the Sinestro bit, and then rebooting the franchise like many are forced to do. But Johns is one of the architects of the Relaunch, so his books are untouched. GL has been popular with the comic book fans, I agree, but with a movie in theaters this summer (whatever you may think of it), wouldn't have been smarter to make the franchise more newbie-friendly? Isn't the whole point of the Relaunch to bring in new readers? And wouldn't GL's visibility boost help do that? Sinestro's in the movie, sure, but is it really who you want to try and sell volume 6 to a new generation of fans? Anyway, as someone who was already reading GL, I thought it was a good book, one of the best issues in some time. If I put myself in the shoes of someone coming fresh to the story, I might think it's just not for me.
Don't call it a reboot: It's clearly not, and with so much GL continuity in the mix, therein lies the problem.
Upgrade? It's the same book, renumbered. However, it is a better issue than anything in the War of the Green Lanterns arc.
Will read? Yes, it's still on my pull list.
Recommended? I want to recommend it because Johns and Manke will no doubt continue to do good work on a book they've got a great handle on. If you were maybe thinking of dropping GL, check this out. If you're a potential new reader, I don't think you'll be lost, but realize it's part of a longer story. You might end up looking for trade collections that go as far back as the Sinestro Corps War (which was in 2007).

Legion Lost #1
A half-a-baker's-dozen members of the 31st-century Legion of Super-Heroes track a supervillain through time to our century, and get stranded here. Writer Fabian Nicieza does a fairly good job of introducing all the characters and their powers, except the villain, but he'll be around. A couple of Legionnaires seem to meet their doom, but I'm hoping it's not true. I can't stand it when they kill off Legionnaires. It's a thing with me. But more germane to this conversation, it wouldn't do to introduce characters to a potential new audience only to kill them off immediately. I like all the Legionnaires used here, and the smaller cast should do a world of good to the franchise (the team usually has upwards of 20 active members at any given time). I do wish the premise had been a little stronger. Being lost in the past (our present) isn't anything new. Pete Woods' art has a vaguely manga style that I neither liked nor disliked. Bit busy for my tastes, but he's got his moments. I did object to the lettering for some reason.
Don't call it a reboot: Doesn't seem to be. The future appears unrebooted, and Legion fans know that that's a miracle.
Upgrade? Replacing Adventure Comics' Legion Academy strip, Legion Lost is neither a step up nor a step down, though I think it has more potential than the Academy book.
Will read? Yes, but I'm a Legion junkie.
Recommended? I think the manageable team and recognizable setting might serves as a good introduction to the Legion's world, but the uniqueness of that world has been sacrificed some. That, and this first issue never comes across as anything more than a pretty standard and unimpressive superhero comic.

Red Lanterns #1
To date, the very worst New52 book I've read, and I wouldn't be surprised if no other book could beat it to that bottom spot. Wow. I know Peter Milligan is a better writer than this, and I could have imagined him giving a fun, weird spin on the admittedly icky concept of Rage Lanterns who puke up burning blood. I dunno, something like his X-Statix maybe. Or a full-blown parody of the gory superhero books of the last decade (not that I'm asking for a Lobo revival, you understand). He's playing it too straight, however. Overwrought captions turn the main character Atrocitus into a plodding warrior-poet and even moments which should have played as tongue-in-cheek, like Atrocitus rescuing his cat - just fell flat. And Milligan isn't getting any help from Ed Benes, one of my all-time least favorite artists, who's Image-y stylings can't cover up the fact that he has a tenuous hold on anatomy (unless it's women's buttocks, which he has an unhealthy obsession with). The highlight for me should have been Dex-Starr the Red Lantern cat, but Benes draws him as a small cat-man, with human articulations. But even if the art was good, I don't think the book would be.
Don't call it a reboot: By all accounts follows from whatever Green Lantern arc the Red Lanterns were last seen in.
Upgrade? The book didn't exist before. I wish it didn't exist now.
Will read? No. And you can't make me.
Recommended? Atrocitus? Or ATROCIOUS? Avoid like the plague. It's everything that was worst about the last decade's comics stuck behind a lame monochrome cover.

Superboy #1
The rebooted Superboy is a clone of Superman developped as a weapon by a secret organization called N.O.W.H.E.R.E. What we find out about this new Superboy through his narration may be troubling. For example, he might have no empathy at all, which at least gives his something to grow towards. Writer Scott Lobdell did churn out a couple of very interesting ideas. The virtual reality Smallville as a fragment of Superman's memories manifesting in Superboy's DNA. The red-head Superboy naturally bonds to (a nice wink to the past). And Lois Lane having a mole in NOWHERE. I was less enamoured of links to the Teen Titans (including Rose Wilson's role), but I shouldn't have been surprised since Lobdell is also writing that series. I just think a solo hero should be able to stand on his own. But overall, I was pleasantly surprised by this revamp, though I also recognize it could all spin out of control very quickly too. Time will tell. The art by R.B. Silva has a cute, slick design to it, though characters often look like stiff, shiny mannequins. Still, it's mostly likable.
Don't call it a reboot: Totally a reboot.
Upgrade? Though I was encouraged by what I read here, I will definitely still miss Lemire's take on the book AND the character of Connor. It's hard watching a character you've seen grow up in he comics lobotomized just as he'd come into his own as a hero.
Will read? I'm gonna stick around for a few more issues, though I'm ready to bail if the ship starts sinking.
Recommended? Fans of the previous iteration may give it a pass with my blessing, but new readers will find the start of a completely new story connected to Superman's. It should appeal to SF/conspiracy fans who don't need all their protagonists to be virtuous heroes.

Two good books, one terrible book, and three books that fall somewhere in the middle. Tomorrow we'll look at the other seven released this week, including a few I'm really excited about (Demon Knights, Frankenstein and Resurrection Man) and three (count 'em THREE!) gun-totting anti-heroes (who knew the DCU needed Deadshot, Deathstroke AND Grifter).

This Week in Geek (25-31/07/11)

Buys

Was intrigued by this Iceland/Norway production called The Bothersome Man, so I snagged it.

"Accomplishments"

In theaters: I was expecting Captain America and Bucky, but I wasn't expecting the Howling Commandos and the Human Torch android. I was expecting the Red Skull, but not Arnim Zola and Hydra. I certainly wasn't expecting a visual reference to the Cosmic Cube or a musical number. Not only is Cap a good superhero movie, but a war picture as well, and its got those extra layers for the knowledgeable comic book geek too. I was reminded throughout of how good the G.I. Joe movie might have been, because this is basically that, isn't it? A good G.I. Joe movie. And it's almost disappointing to leave World War II behind for Avengers and any possible sequel, because it really gave Captain America its own identity (which I believe is where the Marvel movies' success lies - Cap as Weird War II movie, Thor as fantasy, etc.). That, and it means we lose Tommy Lee Jones' Colonel Phillips!

DVDs: As far as watching movies at home goes, I went a little more realistic. Ridley Scott's Black Hawk Down recreates the battle of Mogadishu in Somalia, a powerful vision of urban warfare and a true event that changed U.S. policy for the better part of a decade. Many actual soldiers are collapsed into easier to follow characters, and the movie's made changes here and there, but it's essentially what happened. And it's exhausting, which I guess is the point. These soldiers were under unrelenting fire for 18 hours on a mission that should have taken a half hour. Ridley Scott says in the extras that he wanted to recreate the experience, not load the film with back story. He's certainly managed that, and there's no question his visual style fills every frame with something interesting. And if you're interested in recent military history, the DVD package has loads of extras. Three commentary tracks: Ridley Scott & Jerry Bruckheimer (the latter a little political for my tastes, by which I means I don't share his), the writers of both the book and the script, and some of the soldiers who lived through the event. These not only talk about how the film was made, but also sets the record straight where it needs to be. Disc 2 features about 3 hours of making of material from inception to reception, as well as deleted scenes, commented storyboards and pictures and an alternate opening sequence. And then there's Disc 3, which features two separate documentaries on the actual event made for tv (they don't use the same spokespeople nor cover the same ground, so they aren't redundant), a music video, three 10-minute edits of various Q&As, and commentary on a multi-angle sequence. At the risk of telling you too much about one event and film, so to speak, but I was always kept interested.

A big DVD meant I was also gonna watch a bunch of cheapies, with no real extras. It's my last week of vacation, I wanted to empty a bit of the unwatched shelf, you see. The first of these was The Accused, the film that made a star out of Jodie Foster, and this despite top credit going to... Kelly McGillis?! Who the heck? I'm kidding, we all remember her from Witness as well. McGillis plays a D.A. who takes up the case of a girl (Foster) who is gang raped, though because of her less than stellar reputation, is considered a sure loser. This too is based on an actual event, a landmark case from 1983, and it's got some pretty harrowing scenes of rape. McGillis is a bit "tv movie" for my tastes, but Foster is completely believable, at once damaged and sympathetic, and rightly won the Oscar and Golden Globe for Best Actress for it in 1988 (or '89, since they're given the next year).

Next up was an old favorite. The Color of Money is one of my favorite films of all time, and an underrated Scorsese picture if there ever was one. I'm not sure why, but this 25-years-later sequel to The Hustler (itself a fine, but completely different, film) moved with the cracking power of billiard balls. Check the film out again if you haven't in a while, and you'll see crash zooms and quick camera motions on the people as well as the balls. But at the heart of it, The Color of Money is about second chances. Paul Newman's character looks at first to buy himself one, but discovers he would rather earn it. And Tom Cruise is at a point in his career when his trademark energy seemed appropriate. Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio has never been sexier (only slightly because it's the first time I've seen it with nudity). And there's a scene with a young Forest Whitaker that I quote to someone probably once a year. Revisiting it this week, I didn't find it lacking. I wish people paid it more attention.

Green Lantern: Emerald Knights is a sequel to the animated movie First Flight, with Nathan Filion in the lead (voice) role (and come on, he'd make a great Hal Jordan). The main story is that of Krona coming to eradicate Oa, just as Arisia (Elizabeth Moss) enters training. It's a fine excuse to tell many tales of the Green Lantern Corps through the movie, including those of the very first GL, of Kilowog's days as a rookie, of Mogo, and more. After three consecutive GL-related movies that feature versions of Hal's origin story, it's a breath of fresh air to see something else. Most of the stories used are adapted from the comics, some recent, but some as far back as the 80s. They seem fresh here, and the animation is certainly as sharp and action-filled as in any of the WB's releases. The WB continues its streak of Sneak Peaks at other stuff (most notably Batman: Year One), yet nothing on the feature at hand, not even a reprise of its own Sneak Peak. Ah well. Still, a good animated feature for Green Lantern fans.

I think I talked about Superman Returns enough today, so I'll stick to the DVD's special features, all on a second disc. There's a huge making of documentary that follows pre-production and shooting in detail and is quite fun. It never takes itself too seriously, and a lot of screen time is given over to the antics of Bryan Singer, James Marsden (that guy's just funny) and Kevin Spacey (no slouch either). It even ends with a blooper reel. In the inception stages, one might find just where the film went wrong, though it never detracts from the film's achievements. After you're done with those almost 3 hours of documentary, you'll still have 10 deleted scenes and a technical bit that shows how they recreated Marlon Brando's Jor-El for the film. The package as a whole enhances the viewing experience, which is what they're meant to do.

All through July, I've been comparing two versions of the same story each week. This time around, a bit of a change of pace because the two versions could not be more dissimilar, to the point of avoiding comparison altogether. Yes, I watched the first Batman film and the last (or latest, if you will), i.e. The Dark Knight. The Adam West original, filmed between seasons 1 and 2 of the 1960s show, is really all we have to pore over on DVD of that era, at least, until they untangle the rights to the tv show itself. Good thing it's a good example of it, then. Batman and Robin go up against their four greatest nemeses, Joker, Riddler, Penguin and Catwoman (and while I've often professed a preference for Julie Newmar's, Lee Merriweather's will do just fine, thank you) in what can only be termed an absurdist comedy. Batman is a send-up, but not a parody or spoof, which is a thin line to walk, and yet it does so admirably. From the moment that rubber shark takes hold of Batman's leg, you know you'll love this ride filled with flashy vehicles, bizarre detective conclusions and other silliness. The DVD includes a commentary track by Adam West and Burt Ward, but they basically have a good time watching the movie with you. They mention all the best stories in the 15-minute featurette anyway, and more besides. There's also a bit with the Batmobile's designer who has plenty of stories to tell, and a load of behind the scenes pictures.

I spilled a lot of virtual ink about The Dark Knight when it came out (I think everyone did), and I sure don't want to repeat myself. Of course, I wrote about the film after seeing it once on the big screen. Seeing it again, I'm chuffed that bits I'd completely forgotten support my thesis about the film's theme. To me, The Dark Knight has a thematic richness that far outreaches its action sequences. Watch your ears. On my tv, at least, the action BOOMED while the dialog was mixed in much lower. The DVD extras are a mixed bag (isn't this one of those DVDs where they purposely tried to get you to switch to Blu-Ray?) in scope if not in quality. There's an excellent 6-minute piece on the film's music, an interesting 17 minutes more on the evolution of the suit, gadgets and vehicles, and some 45 minutes of entertaining "Gotham Tonight" fake news show webisodes leading up to the film's events. Less interesting are the IMAX sequences, which offer a taller format on action scenes. Not as relevant as discussion on the script or the film's villains, which are sadly missing from this edition.

Kung Fu Friday's selection was The Master AKA 3 Evil Masters, a very strange hybrid indeed. The story is a good one: A martial arts master is severely wounded in a fight with the dreaded "Three Devils" and finds refuge with the most junior student of a martial arts school. In exchange for his help, the master teaches the student a better form of kung fu, which he'll eventually need to defeat the Devils. It's got a well-constructed plot and stellar fight choreography. However, it's also an unforgivably broad comedy, and some of the clowning will definitely turn Western audiences off. And the music sure doesn't help, a collection of cartoon sound effects and intrusive stock music. I say watch it for the action (it's awesome), and grit your teeth when it's trying to be funny. Maybe one to see with a large group of hecklers, it'll make you feel less guilty. The DVD has some photos and trailers, but its main attraction is an 8-minute interview with the Master himself, Chen Kuan Tai, who talks about the film and about his lawsuit with Shaw Brothers.

Audios: Continuing my journey through Doctor Who's lost episodes, I listened to Galaxy 4 this week, a somewhat dull science fiction story starring the 1st Doctor, Vicki and Steven. Nominally about not judging a book by its cover, it's also got space amazons with an intriguing culture and a bunch of bleeping robots who, on audio, bleep a heck of a lot indeed. Long stretches of bleeping. It's meant to be charming, but it's not quite R2-D2. The linking narration is the weakest I've yet heard in the first volume of the Lost Episode sets. It's written well enough, but Peter Purves (Steven) sounds like he has a cold and makes a lot of wet mouth noises. His delivery certainly lacks the tension other narrators (the gold standard for me is William Russell, but Carole Anne Ford is good too) have brought to this set. I'm afraid I'll be stuck with Purves until the end of volume 2, so I hope he picks up the pace a little bit.

New Unauthorized Doctor Who CCG cards: 23 new cards, mostly from A Christmas Carol, though some basic concepts from other places, like the Torchwood Hub, the Sonic Screwdriver and some Dalek cards. We're still a ways from making rudimentary decks to test the engine, but I'm trying to get enough key cards to make a test game possible. I'm confident what I learned in the past half dozen years will serve me well in this 2nd edition though.

Hyperion to a Satyr posts this week:
III.i. Briefings - Branagh '96