Kung Fu Friday Moments: Learning Drunken Kung Fu

Starting a collection of favorite kung fu moments from the past two+ years' worth of our weekly Kung Fu Fridays, as nostalgia or discovery, according to each person's background.

And let's start at the very beginning. For me, that was June 26th 2009. I had watched Lau Kar-Leung's Heroes of the East (AKA Shaolin vs. Ninja) early in the evening, and when the roommates walked in, I just had to watch it with them all over again. It wasn't the first time I'd done exactly that (it was John Woo's Hard-Boiled a few months earlier), but that summer's first Friday, a tradition was cemented. And every Friday since (give or take a holiday here and there), I and a variable number of friends have been watching a (usually action) film from Asia. You've seen the posters, now experience the moving images themselves. Now, I had a hard time picking just one moment from Heroes of the East because its bloodless feud between my man Gordon Liu and a cadre of Japanese masters over which country is better (the only way to save a Chinese-Japanese marriage, incidentally), is wall-to-wall awesome, biased though it is. You-tube has most of the fights, so I'll let you discover them, but I've picked the drunken kung fu vs. karate fight that best illustrates the angled vs. direct approaches of each nation's martial arts. And as a preface, the training sequence featuring the director himself as Liu's drunken teacher:

You WILL believe it's that easy to learn. In fact, I still use some of those moves in playfighting, earning me my KFF nickname, Drunken Master. And now the fight:

Gordon also kicks the ass of katana, sai, spear, nunchucks, judo and ninja masters. Check it out wherever you can get browsable video (under "Heroes of the East"). It's damn near the most perfect pure martial arts movie and it's available from Dragon Dynasty.

Reign of the Supermen #380: Kingdom Come Lethargic Lad

Source: Lethargic Lad #3 (1996)
Type: SpoofAnd now key panel comparisons between Kingdom Come... and Kingdom Stayed Where It Was:
You're welcome.

Today, the Part of Steve Rogers Will Be Played by Neil Patrick Harris

Germaine to my current interests (from Amazing Spider-Man #673 by Dan Slott and Stefano Caselli).

Reign of the Supermen #379: Kingdom Come Superman

Source: Kingdom Come #1-4 (1996), The Kingdom #1-2 (1999)
Type: ElseworldsIt's a future where the superheroes of our youth have given way to the anti-heroes of the 90s... Where fighting amongst themselves has become the main activity of "heroes" (stop me if this sounds familiar)... Indeed, where Superman had to retire because it just wasn't worth it anymore, not after the Joker killed Lois and somebody sliced Captain Atom open, turning Kansas into a radioactive wasteland...
Yeah, that's not a real farm. That's a holodeck inside the Fortress of Solitude. Wonder Woman makes him come out of retirement because anti-hero Magog and his pals are out of control. Superhuman war ensues, and the United Nations drop the bomb on the battlefield, leaving few survivors. It could go either way. Superman could have done something he'd have regretted, but instead he leads the remaining heroes towards a new trust between them and humanity. First order of business, plowing Kansas some new farm land.
Oh, and getting married to Wonder Woman. In their twilight years, they've finally found each other (sorry, Arthur-Diana shippers!).

The Kingdom #1 and 2 take us beyond "ever after", to the birth of their son Jonathan, who'll become THIS guy.
Yeah, never heard of him either.

NB: Kingdom Come Superman is not to be confused with the Earth-22 Superman (see Reign next week).

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!

Reign of the Supermen #378: Quizmaster

Source: L.E.G.I.O.N.'94 Annual #5 (1994)
Type: Elseworlds/SpoofIn spoofing the famous cover of Adventure Comics #247 (the first Legion of Super-Heroes story), Tom Peyer and Curt Swan turned Superboy into an aging game show host dressed in the recognizable red and blues. In the process of turning a contemporary L.E.G.I.O.N. story into a Silver Age tale of the LSH, the guys have a lot of fun. My favorite bit is Stealth/Silent Girl's dialog in the following panel:
We leave the tv studio after that, and the realm of Reign, but let's just say the story retold is the one in which Stealth mates with, then kills, Vril Dox. In our world, he had a clone body ready. In the Elseworlds, he had to be zapped by electric rods. No really, DC's got to put some of these Annual stories into trades.

Star Trek #1422: Where No Man Has Gone Before Part 2 (Reboot)

1422. Where No Man Has Gone Before Part 2 (Reboot)

PUBLICATION: Star Trek #2, IDW Comics, October 2011

CREATORS: Mike Johnson (writer), Stephen Molnar (artist)

STARDATE: 1313.1 (follows previous issue)

PLOT: Gary Mitchell's ESP powers are growing to dangerous levels, so the crew imprisons him on Delta Vega while Scotty conducts repairs. Mitchell escapes and kills Kelso, so Kirk tracks him down in the desert. During their confrontation, Spock sneaks up from the back and neck pinches Mitchell. When Mitchell temporarily becomes human again, he asks to be killed and Kirk obliges. Mitchell and Kelso get a burial in space near the Great Barrier and Spock offers to become Kirk's new chess opponent.

CONTINUITY: Though there are a number of divergences, the issue is based on the second half of the classic episode "Where No Man Has Gone Before" and so features Gary Mitchell, Lee Kelso and Delta Vega. Among the illusions created by Mitchell, we see the bar and the Academy classroom again (Star Trek movie).

DIVERGENCES: Mitchell kills Kelso by forcing him to shoot himself with a phaser, not by strangling him with cables. Other divergences are a result of the J.J. Abrams continuity.

PANEL OF THE DAY - Captain Kirk's Awkward Sleeping Positions #1
REVIEW: While Part 1's set-up was too close to the original to feel like anything other than a subtle What If, Part 2 does much better. There's a sense that Johnson is actually retelling the story from the same bullet points instead of the episode as aired. Case in point, Mitchell's powers are slightly different from the episode's, allowing him to tie into the reboot Kirk's history through illusions. By reminding us of the film, he avoids simply remaking Where No Man Has Gone Before with different likenesses (though I must say Molnar does a great job). And with Elizabeth Denner out of play, it advances the Kirk-Spock relationship to have the Vulcan save Kirk's life. He definitely earns his place into the chess game, and his friendship with the captain (as opposed to the done deal of the television series). Sure, it's a little less epic than two gods battling, but since they were both guest-stars, who cares? The comic stretches out character moments instead, like Kelso's death (much more horrible, but there's more reaction to it too). And it's the characterization that drives the changes in story. This younger, brasher Kirk doesn't hesitate to shoot Mitchell the first time, but it hurts him to do so just as much. By not drawing out the action an extra beat, Johnson allows Mitchell and Kelso to get proper Starfleet burials, neatly eschewing the ridiculous tombstone bit in the original story. So while I hope IDW does a few original stories with its Trek license (perhaps in mini-series), after two issues, I have to admit I like the classics retold idea.