As part of the SBG's Countdown to Ambush Bug, we have been keeping a careful eye on activities associated with one Keith Giffen, plotter and artist of Ambush Bug, but also of another Countdown-titled title, i.e. Countdown. This week, the great and mighty Darkseid showed up on Mary Marvel's couch, apparently pooped from an intense HeroClix tournament.
Keith Giffen plotted this, probably by providing breakdowns for the artwork. But it seemed all too familiar. Who ELSE has Darkseid visited for free cable?
That's right, Ambush Bug. Consider it foreshadowing. If Giffen is going to recycle his greatest hits from Ambush Bug, might I make a special request? Here's the one I want to see before Final Crisis:
The true meaning of evil expertly laid out on a single page...Fast food cashier by day, HeroClixer by night, and watching daytime tv in between. Darkseid's just a regular, everyday, normal guy.
486. Cold FireFORMULA: Caretaker + Where No Man Has Gone BeforeWHY WE LIKE IT: The fire effects.WHY WE DON'T: Voyager thinking it's a horror program.REVIEW: The unusual recap of the pilot in Majel Barrett's best computer voice makes it clear we're going to see the Caretaker's mate (Suspiria), and the episode doesn't disappoint on that front. It disappoints on every other front however.First off, the chance to get back home plays second fiddle to an exploration of Kes' growing mental powers. Tuvok has been helping her, but when they encounter Suspiria's Ocampa enclave, she gets a crash course in telekinesis, pyrokinesis and uhm, plantokinesis. Suddenly, her abilities grow uncomfortably powerful and uncontrollable. Now, I won't pretend to be an expert, except that I've read way too many superhero comics not to understand super powers, and the way patronizing Tanis explains is simply incoherent. Sometimes, it's a zen explanation. Others, he's got her imagining objects at the molecular level. I'm not even sure of what to make of the acid trip he takes her on.Sadly, there's not real decision to make since the Suspiria's Ocampa are basically a cult waiting for rapture and vampires to boot. They are evil. Suspiria later manifests as a little girl. Why? Because it's creepier that way. By that point, Cold Fire is a horror show, with blood dripping from floating bodies and Tuvok getting boiled alive. Oh the effects are cool enough, from the slow fire spinning towards Kes to the bright plant life to Tuvok's green corpuscles firing away, but effects are nothing without a proper story, and the atmosphere just doesn't support the kind of story they wanted to tell.If at least this adventure meant anything, but it doesn't. Janeway vows to find Suspiria again, but heads away from her array and she's naturally never heard from again. Kes' powers revert to their normal levels, one supposes because of Suspiria's absence (can't have been Tanis' influence because he lets her melt his brain), so yeah, reset! And I haven't said anything yet, but I'm already tired of Jennifer Lien's performance as the waifish Ocampa. Must be the perma-smile.LESSON: Dead remains can act as a compass? Well, pass the pancreas!REWATCHABILITY - Medium-Low: At first I thought this would hit Medium because it felt like something "important", but it really isn't. An incoherent mess they hit the reset button on anyway.
Buys
Warning: Splurging ahead. Last weekend, I got on a David Mamet trip for some reason and realized I only have a couple of his films in my library (Spartan and State & Main). So I started ordering more. His first, House of Game, is the only one that made it to my house before Friday. I also got Donnie Darko, because I'm apparently the only person on Earth who hasn't seen it yet, and The Machinist (with an emaciated Christian Bale), which I've been eying for a while.
Two Doctor Who DVDs came in. First up was The Time Warrior (Sarah Jane Smith's first adventure with the 3rd Doctor), which has been too long coming in my opinion. I guess we're going to see all the Sontaran stories issued this year thanks to their reappearance in New Who Series 4. Then there's Timelash with the 6th Doctor, apparently one of the very worst stories ever made. Never seen it, but I hope it matches the hype. I'm most excited by the Doctor Who Series 3 soundtrack however. The first track has already become a personal theme song that I am happy to hum for the next 3 months whenever I walk into a room.
Over the weekend, my pal Bauble came down to Moncton and wanted to inspect the newer comic book store in town (The Comics Hunter). I'd never been because it's a bit far from home, but I'll have to find my way there more regularly now that I've broken the seal, as it were. Great service, extremely large inventory, and personal connections made with the clerk right off the bat. I bought a couple of Showcase Presents: Brave and the Bold vol.2 and Superman Family vol.2 (with the Tubby Lois story). I can also now say that I ended RomQuest(TM) in one go. They had all 75 issues I was missing and a good prices too. Expect some Spaceknight content soon."Accomplishments"
I flipped exactly one DVD, though that's not much of an achievement considering it had no real extras. The movie is Wong Kar-Wai's directorial debut, As Tears Go By, starring a couple of my favorite Chinese stars, Andy Lau and Maggie "can do no wrong" Cheung. It's pretty rough compared to his other films, but it's still a good tragedy. The music definitely dates it. The 80s were one cheesy decade, weren't they? Took the better part of the week to get the Chinese version of Berlin's Take My Breath Away out of my head! Arrgh!Early in the week, I also produced a half-dozen cards for my Unauthorized Doctor Who CCG, including Captain Jack, Martha and the Master. The new series started in the UK this weekend. I can't wait to see what they have cooking this year.
Someone Else's Post of the Week
Of all the April Fool's blog mutations, my favorite was Comics Should Be Fun's riff on the classic Star Trek episode "Mirror, Mirror". You should definitely keep clicking "To be continued" to see what an evil stuffed bull would do with a comics blog.
Despite being better identified with Spider-Man and Supergirl, Jim Mooney also worked, if ever briefly, on Aquaman. Mr. Mooney passed away a few days ago and so I dedicate this past week to his memory. Though I looked, I could not find another artist who has drawn Aquaman riding not the classic whale, porpoise or giant seahorse, but an octopus:
And I will eventually write my Master's thesis on why octopi made Aquaman rock oh so hard.Thanks for the pictures Jim, and say hi to your friend Steve Gerber for us.
485. TattooFORMULA: The Chase + Journey's EndWHY WE LIKE IT: Uhm... Chakotay's butt crack?WHY WE DON'T: Booooring.REVIEW: For some reason, Delta Quadrant cultures have an obsession with far away Earth. After finding out UFO abductions are DQ-related, we discover that the the Rubber Tree People of the Amazon are DQ aliens too! And they influenced Amerind cultures for centuries until Europeans spoiled everything! It's another factoid come to life. Might as well throw in the concept of racial memory too.At least it attempts to put a bit more flesh on Chakotay's back story, by showing that he used to reject the ways of his tribe, and only joined the Maquis (and got the tattoo) to honor his father. Using flashback sequences is an interesting choice, but unfortunately, the young actor who plays Chakotay is robotic at best. Henry Darrow as his father is good, but he can't save these sequences, which I found to be more confusing than not. It's not clear, for example, if their quest takes place on Earth or not. The hawk would indicate it is, but does that mean there are alien beings in the Amazon and no sensor's ever spotted them? The mention of a Captain Sulu who sponsored Chakotay for the Academy is likewise mystifying. And the link to the Rubber Tree People further muddles the origins of Chakotay's tribe.It's another episode where Chakotay uses pacifism to resolve his dilemmas, and that's fine, but it also makes for a rather boring story. Having him consistently face off against the aggressive Tuvok is an interesting juxtaposition however (the warlike Vulcan and the peaceful human). But once again, this is an episode that plays like a supernatural story, with sky spirits, unexplainable weather (as Voyager heads into an atmosphere once again), and Native American mysticism. More X-Files than Star Trek.The subplot is a rather silly bit where the Doctor learns a lesson in empathy when he gives himself a holographic disease and acts just as much like a big baby as he claims the rest of the crew does. Robert Picardo knows how to work the comedy, and Kes throws in a little twist, but it is what it is. At least they follow up on Ensign Wildman's pregnancy.LESSON: In the future, tattoos will be that depressingly uncool thing your dad has.REWATCHABILITY - Medium-Low: Tries to be important, but the iffy premise can't survive a boring and slow-moving plot.
SUPER FRIENDS #1, DC Comics, May 2008
Can Aquaman really rock in a comic in which no one is allowed to throw a punch? The answer, my friends, is a resounding, non-violent, inspirational and educational YES!That comic is the recent Super-Friends #1, featuring the not-quite-Tiny-but- still-rather-cutesy Justice League and the fearsome power-thieving android known as Amazo. As with the Brain in Thursday's Rockin' Review, Amazo neglects to copy Aquaman's powers, something he will come to regret. In the Super-Friends, everyone has a function: Superman is strong, Green Lantern is brave, Wonder Woman is compassionate, Batman is booksmart, but Aquaman... Aquaman is clever!
Can Lil' Arthur really manipulate Lil' Ivo's greatest creation like that?
Yes, and teach the kids a valuable lesson about dropping a toaster in the bathtub at the same time.
484. Persistence of VisionFORMULA: Sub Rosa + Night Terrors + Where No One Has Gone BeforeWHY WE LIKE IT: The shot of Vulcan.WHY WE DON'T: The gross horror make-up. The ending.REVIEW: One of the things I found distasteful about Voyager when it originally aired (and still do) is how they tried to make it more edgy by using gratuitous sex and gore. This episode has a touch of sex (we'll come back to that), but it's the gross, foaming make-up effects that are really disgusting. Horror is always scarier when it's in your imagination, and moving from the gothic horror tropes of this episode's early scenes to the Fangoria stuff at the end is definitely a tonal mistake.The story uses (I think for the last time) Janeway's holonovel. It's clear her nerves are frayed (though she habitually snaps at and ignores Neelix and the Doctor, so that's not really a clue) and for a minute, you might actually believe she's hallucinating due to stress. Except it's Star Trek, so you know there's an alien influence at work. The explanation about malfunctioning holo-emitters sending parts of her program all over the ship might have been more original, I don't know (in the fight between alternate reality and holodeck malfunction, there is no clear winner).The Bothan xenophobe(s) eventually get(s) to everyone except the Doctor, and in a sense, it makes this episode Voyager's Naked Time/Now. Not quite as entertaining a way to do it, but it still gives us tidbits about the characters' inner lives, what matters to them. Unfortunately, there's a lot of self-evident things in here, such as Paris' oft-mentioned father, Janeway's boyfriend, and Libby. The only revelation is B'Elanna's crush on Chakotay, which comes out of the blue a little bit, and IS NEVER MENTIONED AGAIN! What a waste.And then there's that ending. I'm fine with Kes surviving to the end, what with her mental powers and all, but I'm just not sure how to interpret what comes next. The alien, who may or may not have been working alone, gets defeated, but then isn't really there. Then how was he pushing buttons while Kes was incapacitated? It's played as a ghost story to the end, with thoroughly unsatisfying results.LESSON: The love that dare not speak its name is between a half-Klingon and an Native American.REWATCHABILITY - Low: Maddening unanswered questions, and the only scene of note gets ignored for the rest of the series. Might as well think of this one as another episode that didn't happen.
Keith Giffen plotted this, probably by providing breakdowns for the artwork. But it seemed all too familiar. Who ELSE has Darkseid visited for free cable?
That's right, Ambush Bug. Consider it foreshadowing. If Giffen is going to recycle his greatest hits from Ambush Bug, might I make a special request? Here's the one I want to see before Final Crisis:
The true meaning of evil expertly laid out on a single page...
