Star Trek 1396: Ghosts, Issue 4

1396. Ghosts, Issue 4

PUBLICATION: Star Trek: The Next Generation - Ghosts #4, IDW Comics, February 2010

CREATORS: Zander Cannon (writer), Javier Aranda and Marc Rueda (artists)

STARDATE: 44751.6 (follows the last issue)

PLOT: While Riker futilely tries to reason with the Dorosshians holding Worf, the Juuletians try to cover their tracks by shooting a Zoor beam at sickbay to take out the craft's survivor. Riker destroys the ship and beams the culprits aboard. Meanwhile, in the white void of the Zoor energy cloud, Picard meets everyone who has been "vaporized" by the Zoor weapon. Together they find the missing limbs of the Zoor craft's survivor anchoring the pocket dimension to the "present". They are the ghosts he sees and hears. His "dead" wife communicates with him and the Enterprise crew coordinates a rescue by technical means...

CONTINUITY: See previous issues (O'Brien). Might Q have taken this vision of death (the white void) from Picard's mind in Tapestry?

DIVERGENCES: See previous issues (stardates).

PANEL OF THE DAY - Time to save money on sets.
REVIEW: It's all coming together now. The timeless void anchored to the craft's survivor is the principal set piece and Picard gets to shine as a diplomat. Not to say the Juuletians aren't bastards, but the Dorosshians are proving to be irritating as hell, both in and out of the void. Riker seems to do well in his scenes with the new Dorosshian leader, but she is so stubborn that those many pages come to naught. Just wheels spinning and eating up the page count. The issue also features the only weak cliffhanger of the series as impending victory is more or less announced. Hopefully, Riker loses patience in the last issue and kicks some alien ass because I really need the catharsis now.

This Week in Geek (27/09-3/10/10)

Buys

Perhaps most in line with today's geekly roundup is Dusted, Mad Norwegian's guide to Buffy the Vampire Slayer (by Lawrence Miles, Lars Pearson and Christa Dickson). More I, Who than About Time, it's still a fine volume that even covers some of the comics and books. A quick glace through the contents shows the authors kinda lost patience with the show during Season 5, but still makes a good companion to the series. The rest of my buys have been DVDs, including Human Target Season 1 and 30 Rock Season 4. In both cases, I started watching and liked what I saw, but they were just scheduled on the wrong nights for me and I lost touch. I knew I was going to catch myself up in DVD format. I also got a couple of Asian films, as is my habit, the Shaw Bros. era Challenge of the Masters and the far more recent The Warlords. Oh and the ubiquitous Iron Man 2 - you can stop spamming me with commercials for it, Mr. Television.

"Accomplishments"

DVDs: I flipped Buffy Season 6 this week, which is probably the weakest of the show's seven seasons despite featuring that gleaming gem that is the musical episode, Once More With Feeling. As with the uneven Season 4, I completely understand the thematic underpinings of the season - life as the "big bad" and Buffy's necessary depression after returning from the afterlife. However, when we compare it to the first three seasons, it's obvious why these stories don't quite do it for most viewers. The show used to be about people who laughed in the face of terrible horrors. In Season 6, it's about people who feel terrible faced with laughable horrors. The Nerd Trio are awful villains who only manage to kill two people accidentally and Willow turns out to be the season ender instead in what has to be the least interesting season ender of the bunch. Again, I GET IT, as you grow up, the things that used to be the end of the world start becoming mere irritants, etc., but it doesn't help make the season any more entertaining. There are still good moments and we love the characters, but the awkward juxtaposition of miserable characters and silly threats, as well as a few missteps along the way, keep the season from achieving even 4's strength. The DVD has some good features though. The commentaries are lackluster except for Whedon's own, and the outtakes are slim at best, but there's an hour-long panel discussion, a tv special looking at the origins and evolution of the show, and an excellent Making of Once More With Feeling.

I also flipped Season 7 (I watched the two back to back, then this week watched the extras, which explains how they both got flipped on the same week) and well, what can I say about the big finish? The First is an awesome enemy and it leads to an epic ending with nice (and/or harrowing) surprises along the way. The arc could have been tighter for me, sticking the potentials and the First in the last half only so that the anticipation doesn't lose momentum, and the finale really needs more of an epilogue to pay tribute to its losses. However, it's a good payoff to the whole series, with the return of Sunnydale High and of a number of old faces. After Season 6, it was a great return to more life-affirming stories with a dash of oh-my-God-no moments. Featurettes include the usual season in review, a talk with the Slayerettes, an awkwardly-edited Joss' best 10, 5 minutes at the wrap party and some better than average outtakes. The big disappointment is that the original 20-minute pilot with a differently cast Willow isn't anywhere in the set.

Kung Fu Friday's first October sequel was Return of the One-Armed Swordsman. I'd watched the first one very early on, when the tradition wasn't well established, so it was everyone else's first time seeing the classic character. Easy to get into, and director Chan Cheh essentially stages an entertaining stuntman massacre with plenty of interesting weapons and strategies, and One-Arm is as badass as can be considering that he's played by a block of wood. This film and its precursor are just about the least homoerotic things Chan Cheh has done, and even have significant female characters. It's all about evisceration, but it's good evisceration. No extras, perhaps because everything was covered in the previous film's release. Still too bad that Dragon Dynasty's latest have been so bare-bones.

RPGs: Final Savage Worlds/Evernight game! Mixed it up a couple ways for the epic, Return of the King finale. First, waged the huge battle with Savage Worlds' mass battle rules, but intercut with scenes from each "general"'s travails. Each player had chosen his "fate" last week (heroic corruption, sacrifice, redemption and victory, though there were other possibilities) and those encounters were designed to at least realize that fate if they so wished (and succeeded). Big hero moment for each player, I must say. Finally, when all was said and done, we created a montage of short narrated scenes over music pulled in a rush from my iPod, giving each character his send-off and laying the groundwork for a sequel if we ever want to return to the world of Evernight... All except for our valiant dwarf priest who sacrificed himself and I must say, had a great death scene. The campaign is dedicated to everyone who's ever dug upwards.

Meanwhile, there's the DC Adventures prep going on. Three characters have already been built for a Time Masters series. Joining Furn's sentient battlesuit, the Emerald Centurion, is Marty's Tritan, a badass epic metal rock fan who found a mystical trident stuck to the keel of a ship - it controls water in various ways. Julien will, for his part, introduce the historical Tesla and his bag of mad electromagnetic inventions, including a powerful forcefield belt and some awesome electroskates. That's just an invitation for Eddison to show up as a villain. Tell me it isn't. I'm hoping to launch next Sunday, so I've got to get one more starter character stated up this week, with less regular players able to make their at a later date.

Live Game Show: This week, I had to organize and host a sort of game show for work (there are worse jobs, right?), a sort of musical jeopardy-type thing with musical clues. I couldn't help but inject a lot of my geerky into it, including an SF & Fantasy category that featured such songs as Do You Wanna Date my Avatar?, the Buffy musical, and Vic Fontaine. The sudden death winning answer (to a Lemon Jelly-related question) was "William Shatner". My fingerprints were all over this.

Hyperion to a Satyr posts this week:
II.i. Reynaldo - BBC '80

Star Trek 1395: Ghosts, Issue 3

1395. Ghosts, Issue 3

PUBLICATION: Star Trek: The Next Generation - Ghosts #3, IDW Comics, January 2010

CREATORS: Zander Cannon (writer), Javier Aranda and Marc Rueda (artists)

STARDATE: 44751.5 (follows the last issue)

PLOT: Worf stands falsely accused of the Dorosshian leader's murder and is held at ransom in exchange for the Juuletian craft being removed from orbit and the Juuletian leaders delivered to them. Picard doesn't deal with terrorists and his show of honor makes the Dorosshians question their tactics. Data comes back from the planet with the whole of the Juuletian archives, extensive though they don't contain any information on the Zoor ore or energy. The Juuletian leaders stop the craft's survivor from revealing its mission was military in nature and silence him with a threat disguised as a prayer. Troi uses Data's new info to bring up the survivor's dead wife, vaporized by Zoor energy years ago and one of the ghosts haunting him. Following Data's clues, an away team finds the original Zoor research lab empty. The new Dorosshian leadership below grows impatient and fires a battery of nuclear missiles at the Juulietian craft and the Enterprise interposes itself, easily protecting it. The ship is however defenseless against a beam of Zoor energy that comes out of nowhere and passes through the Enterprise on its way to the Juuletian craft. Captain Picard is apparently vaporized in the process...

CONTINUITY: See previous issues (O'Brien).

DIVERGENCES: See previous issue (stardates).

PANEL OF THE DAY - Hey! This isn't BSG!
REVIEW: I guess I'd lost track of Data due to the story's denseness - he was in the Juulet Republic all along - but it still uses the character badly. He's only hear to bring even more information to bear as things get revealed on all fronts at once. For example, we're told Geordi has assessed the Juuletian craft as military, just as its survivor lets slip the same thing. The plot has built-in redundancies so that everyone is at the same place at the same thing, even if a quick tap of the combadge would have done the same (I mean, why does Riker have to be informed by Data about Geordi's findings when the latter's been on the ship all along and former's been away?). That said, there are some very cool things in this issue. Worf's defiance and Picard's speech warrior heaven. The prayer as threat. A useful Troi. And that cliffhanger.

What If... Spider-Man's Uncle Ben Had Lived?

Not all What Ifs have to end with the utter destruction of the Marvel Universe. Sometimes, the changes are significant, but don't throw Marvel's publishing schedule out the window. That's the case with #46, a classic Spider-Man story that doesn't shake the characters to its very foundations, but still engages the reader emotionally. Ron Frenz and Sam DeLaRosa do their best Steve Ditko impression too, giving the issue the feel of the original material, only slightly updated with a more modern sensibility.

What If Vol.1 #46 (August 1984)
Based on: Amazing Fantasy #15
The true history: Showboat Spider-Man doesn't stop a criminal when he has the chance and that criminal winds up breaking into his house. Uncle Ben has back pains keeping him awake and he surprises the burglar, getting shot in the process. Spider-Man brings the killer to justice and embarks on a life of crime-fighting in his uncle's honor.
Turning point: What if Uncle Ben didn't have back pains that night?
Story type: Deviated origin
Watcher's mood: Spider-sensing
Altered history: In this version of events, Uncle Ben sleeps soundly and it's Aunt May who gets woken up. She goes downstairs and surprises the burglar and get show for her troubles. Uncle Ben rushes downstairs, but it's too late. Get your hankies out.
As in our reality, Peter Parker finds out, rushes after the crook, realizes it's all his fault, and becomes a crime-fighter. The only difference is that he lives with Ben Parker who is a lot wiser than poor, clueless Aunt May. "Oh, will you change the tablecloth, Peter?"
Though Ben rumbles Peter, he agrees that Spider-Man is a good thing. He feels just as guilty for May's death, having slept through it and all, and helps Pete get through the hard days ahead. Knowing the secret, he can't help but be outraged by J.Jonah Jameson's slanderous Daily Bugle articles. He goes to the Bugle to confront our favorite blowhard and winds up doing the unthinkable.
His appeal to Jameson's morality doesn't quite work. While JJJ doesn't reveal Spidey's identity to the world, he decides to manipulate the Parkers, more or less holding the secret over their heads and using Spider-Man to boost his sales. Peter has to feed him more than photos, and JJJ even sends him on particular missions, often with Uncle Ben's approbation. Eventually, Peter gets sick of being told what to do by a couple of old men and becomes a bum for a while.
Until he's called back into service by a threat from Jameson. So Pete is less than willing to play ball when the Green Goblin kidnaps JJJ, especially since Jonah's astronaut son just got his first batch of powers and is off to save his dad in a hospital skirt. Pete doesn't know that the Goblin wants to extract Spider-Man's identity from JJJ (it's what happens when you let seedier elements deliver threatening messages), so it's all the more poignant when he realizes he's "doing it again".
You know the drill. With great power, blah blah blah. Spider-Man saves JJJ from both the Goblin and his hulking-out son, and tells him he owes him one. The next day's front page doesn't give any credit to Spider-Man for editor's rescue, which could ambiguously be seen as a release from servitude. Pete and his Uncle Ben vow to keep fighting the good fight, together.
Books canceled as a result: None. It would be interesting to see how Peter's life would have gone with a strong patriarch in the family. Might not have had to sell his soul marriage.
These things happen: Uncle Ben is one of those sacred cows who cannot be brought back from the dead. But I thought the same about Barry Allen, so... There's actually a storyline in the 1994 Spider-Man animated series featuring a timeline where Uncle Ben didn't die and Peter became a successful industrialist. Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man had a parallel Uncle Ben visit Peter. Ben is alive in the House of M reality. And in Amazing #500, Pete gets five mystical minutes with his uncle.

Next week: What if Loki Had Found the Hammer of Thor?
My guess: He could finally have built that lovely summer house in Midgard.

Star Trek 1394: Ghosts, Issue 2

1394. Ghosts, Issue 2

PUBLICATION: Star Trek: The Next Generation - Ghosts #2, IDW Comics, December 2009

CREATORS: Zander Cannon (writer), Javier Aranda and Marc Rueda (artists)

STARDATE: 44751.4 (follows the last issue) Is it me, or is time moving very slowly in this story (according to the stardates)?

PLOT: Though Picard has created an armistice of sorts between the Juuletians and the Dorosshians of Allios IV, tensions remain high. While Worf visits the latter's settlements, Riker catches the former trying to take away the machine that made a number of Juuletians disappear. They need to recover the "Zoor ore" that has made their society develop so quickly. Aboard the Enterprise, Picard has locked himself away in his ready room after being spooked by Juuletian surveillance craft survivor who saw him as a ghost. Geordi finds a way do dampen the Zoor energy, preventing the survivor from hallucinating. More lucid now, he claims that one of the elder leaders also appeared to him as a ghost, reciting numbers. As Picard tries to warn that leader he may be in danger, he finds out that Worf's been attacked and captured by Dorosshians. They will kill him unless orbit is cleared of all ships...

CONTINUITY: See previous issue (O'Brien).

DIVERGENCES: The Enterprise-D and the small Juuletian craft are much too visible in the sky from the ground below.

PANEL OF THE DAY - We've never seen a janitor on a starship, have we?
REVIEW: Though I do like the look of the twin alien cities, the art still remains a sore point. Not only does it feature awkward figure work, but also strange choices as to what to show in any given panel. I am warming to the story, however. Cannon really is writing the equivalent of a numbered Star Trek novel, with lots of detail and more scenes than 20some pages usually contain. The mystery of the Zoor energy almost gives itself up (would the missing men be out of phase and register as "ghosts"?), but then that doesn't explain why living people are also seen as ghosts. Almost everyone in the cast is given something to do, except for Data who is conspicuously absent here. He better be on a secret mission, because he really should be working on some of these scientific puzzles instead of, say, Troi. This is one of several missteps the issue makes, including more or less ignoring the previous issue's cliffhanger and making Picard all angsty for no reason. Still, there's a cool Worf sequence where sensors just show lots of people getting wounded below though the fight isn't seen. Counts for something in my book.

Kung Fu Fridays in October

In October this year, it's another bout of Sequelitis! Are you ready to revisit characters you've loved over the past year? (Obviously, I must be talking to the people who come to my house every Friday, but perhaps you've been watching along from afar. I'm not judging you.) So what's on tap exactly?

Return of the One-Armed Swordsman - I watched the original One-Armed alone around the start of this grand experiment in inviting people over. I.e sometimes they didn't come. The first film had some rather primitive martial arts as it was very early in the Shaw Brothers' (and Chan Cheh's) output, but this one promises to be a little more action-packed. And hey, dude fights with only one arm and with a broken sword to boot (wait, is that a mixed metaphor?).

Triad Election - AKA Election 2. We really liked Johnnie To's criminal drama, and since it establishes that the triads have elections every 2 years, the series could go on forever. I'm not sure how many characters would be left by the end, but it's looking like the guys I liked in the first film aren't gonna survive the second.

Royal Tramp II - Continuing on from the point the first film ended, its star Stephen Chow makes the poster this month. Though Royal Tramp is a silly comedy entirely too much about penis jokes, we all agreed we'd gladly rewatch the first film, so have no trouble scheduling the second.

Game of Death II - That's one night that will be devoted to heckling the screen. How Bruce Lee managed to make a film almost a decade after his death will no doubt furnish material. So bad it's good..?

Crime Story - A Police Story by any other name... Jackie Chan doesn't play the same character as in Police Story, but let's face it, it's the same guy with the name filed off. Crime Story promises some of the same thrills and spills as Jackie Chan's other generically-named movies. A fun way to round out the month.

Star Trek 1393: Ghosts, Issue 1

1393. Ghosts, Issue 1

PUBLICATION: Star Trek: The Next Generation - Ghosts #1, IDW Comics, November 2009

CREATORS: Zander Cannon (writer), Javier Aranda and German Torres-Ruiz (artists)

STARDATE: 44751.3 (between Qpid and The Drumhead)

PLOT: The Enterprise-D is at Allios IV, a planet whose Federation application has been held up because of a civil war the Juuletians refuse to admit exists. When Picard's crew rescues a Juuletian in a damaged craft, a survivor with strange wounds and who claims to see ghosts, they also run afoul of the Dorosshians, the other people of the planet, who are enraged that the Juuletians would have a ship above their country. Picard makes the two sides agree to sit at the same table, but accusations of warmongering and spying fly. Aboard the ship, Crusher examines the survivor and finds a strange energy signature, and Geordi pinpoint it as something native to the planet's core. When Picard asks to see the survivor, the latter accuses him of being one of the ghosts...

CONTINUITY: O'Brien is a member of the crew at this point.

DIVERGENCES: None.

PANEL OF THE DAY - No finger-pointing here
REVIEW: Two factions warring on the same planet... feels like a Weinstein script. To be fair, Cannon manages to fit a lot of story in his 20-some pages. We learn about the two warring sides and about strange experiments that may have phased the craft's survivor partially out of the universe. The eponymous ghosts remain a mystery, and if there really is a link to Picard, it may prove to be an interesting one. So an ordinary "episode" - not sure we need another TNG story that feels like one of those numbered novels - but with a solid base at least. The art is incredibly awkward though. I don't think I like it and for me, it sinks the already dull-ish happenings further.