The Other 80s Comics Encyclopedia

MARVEL UNIVERSE DELUXE EDITION #12, Marvel Comics, November 1986Marvel Universe Deluxe

Full title: The Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe Deluxe Edition

Strengths: Extremely dense information. Multiple pages per character. Panels picked from the character's entire history. Neat gadget blueprints. It's not the Master Edition.

Weaknesses: Extremely dense information. Purely functional original character art. Not entirely inclusive.

I've attested to a love for DC's Who's Who, but Marvel Universe Deluxe comes real close. It's just not as re-readable as Who's Who is. Not unless you want to get through 66 pages of 8pt Arial a second time. Still, if you like details, MU gives you the exact tonnage any given character can bench press. Of course, this destroys all the best comic book debates, which all start with the words "Who would win a fight between...?" This issue actually includes an editorial on that subject, saying that on any given Sunday, even a member of Power Pack can beat the Hulk (example mine). That essay remains the only thing standing between us and the implosion of the comic book subculture as we know it.

While I always like to see the more obscure characters, MU's format kinda makes sure you'll get a lot of brighter lights in each issue. SIF to SUNSPOT includes Spider-Man, Storm, the Silver Surfer and the Sub-Mariner, but they still manage to slip in the entire Squadron Supreme, the Morlock Sunder, Kung Fu team Sons of the Tiger, and the Sin-Eater, who can shoot a chair to shreds like no other!
The gadgets featured are usually cool, like Spidey's web-shooters and Stilt-Man's legs, but I wonder about the necessity of including Peter Parker's camera, or this:
Gee, thanks for the detailed schematic of the Silver Surfer's groovy board, dudes!

Character artwork is fairly stiff, no more than realistic standing shots with no background. There are some highlights, like anything by Walt Simonson (Sif) or Art Adams (Spiral). Some choices are inspired, like giving Speed Demon to Carmine Infantino, the artist best connected with the Silver Age Flash. Frank Miller's Space Phantom is pretty weird too. But while the original art is generally ordinary, you can always look at the greats from Marvel's past through a variety of reprinted and cleaned-up panels. Some of them are really cool, like this one by Jack Kirby:
Namor hits Iron Man so hard, the air EXPLODES! How great is that? I think Kirby gave other artists permission to draw Namor with exploding fists of fury:
There goes Hercules' freakin' HEAD!!! Of course, sometimes you just can't make a hero look cool no matter how hard you try:
Starfox fighting seaweed? Is that the best they could do? In any case, no matter what issue you pick up, it's chock full of cool stuff.

Star Trek 535: Scientific Method

535. Scientific Method

FORMULA: Schisms + Faces + Distant Origin + Phantasms

WHY WE LIKE IT: The creepy devices.

WHY WE DON'T: The Chakotay-Neelix double act.

REVIEW: Schisms without the kidnapping plot, Scientific Method doesn't manage to sustain its creepy atmosphere throughout, though it does feature some creepy, even disturbing, imagery. The weird Victorian contraptions placed on the crew by the invisible aliens are quite effective at suggesting horror, as are the pins set into Janeway's skull. Unfortunately, there are also attempts at out-of-character comedy amidst the body horror. Chakotay and Neelix competing to see who was disfigured the most doesn't work, for example, though Janeway's massage is a fun visual.

To detect the aliens, Seven's Borg eyepiece is used to turn her into a living I.P. scanner, and it's hard to go wrong with a plot that has the two coolest characters working together independently of the crew. Not that the rest of the crew doesn't have things to do. Paris and B'Elanna's relationship has gone into the passionate, adolescent stage. It suits them. Though they jokingly wonder if the aliens weren't responsible for their arousal, they don't back out (they keep teasing us with a reset button for this one).

A large part of the episode is given over to Janeway's headaches, of course, which serves to heighten her more unreasonable qualities (at least, in this phase of the show). For once, there's a scripted reason for her recklessness, though you might question Voyager's potential to survive the gravitational shear of flying between two pulsars and hoping its momentum can carry it through. Still, a good edgy solution Kirk would have been proud of (in many ways the model they're now going after).

I suppose the Srivani might recall animal testing, but thinking about it makes the episode a heck of a lot more schmaltzy. Not a bad villain at all, though perhaps one-trick Vidiians. Neat designer genes and leech-like ships. Once uncovered, they lose a lot of their magic though.

LESSON: Any character growth this season is due to alien experiments.

REWATCHABILITY - Medium: An interesting and wonderfully creepy premise, but it doesn't sustain its atmosphere long enough to rank higher.

This Week in Geek (19-25/05/08)

Buys'n'Gifts

DVD purchases this week include Boondock Saints, on a strong recommendation from Sniper Ninja Bears artist Bass; Michael Clayton, as part of my usual late Oscar-related pick-ups; and Cloverfield, to insert right next to my Godzilla collection.

And my thanks to my friend Bauble for mailing me some Free Comic Book Day offerings I just couldn't get my hand on at the time.

"Accomplishments"

Borges' protégé Alberto Manguel, who seems to specialize in writing about the literary experience, had impressed me with his History of Reading a few years ago, and now again with The Library at Night. This "history" of libraries and book collections is actually more of a meditation on the concept of libraries, both public and personal. What does our choice of books say about us? What does the way we classify those books? How do they live in our minds? Attention is even given to imaginary libraries, electronic media and the act of book burning. The library as everything. There isn't a page in this book that doesn't contain a fascinating fact, a lucid observation or a well-chosen quote. Man... I really have to get my shelves in order...

Flipped a couple of unusual thrillers this weekend. First was Michael Clayton, a lawyer drama without a courtroom, about a "fixer" (George Clooney) who really needs to get out of a business that is gnawing at his soul. Others around him (like the superb characters played by Tom Wilkinson and Tilda Swinton) have already payed a high price. As much as the acting impressed me, I have to give props to the completely immersive script. It managed to make this world feel absolutely authentic, yet at the same time wasn't afraid to spin into ambiguous lyricism. The DVD has a good commentary track with the director and editor (brothers) that toes the line between being informative and not giving the game away, and a few interesting deleted scenes.

The second was The Machinist, starring a 110-pound Christian Bale as an insomniac who hallucinates a great deal of the movie. I admit to being distracted by the similarities to Fight Club in the premise, but the stronger influences here are German expressionism, Hitchcock and Kafka. What we have here is an atmospheric puzzle movie that doesn't rely on a twist ending, but asks you to figure out what's real at any given time. Very dark, but worth it for Bale's courageous performance and the literary script. The DVD includes a good make of documentary, many deleted/alternate scenes, and a commentary track that shifts between explaining the nuances of the story (sometimes too much) and recounting how they made Barcelona pass for L.A.

On role-playing night last Monday, we finished out little time travel tale back to Camelot. The adventure was largely based on the beats in TimeMaster's The Clash of Kings. Some quicker thinking on the part of some of the players this time, and in the end only 20th-century anglo poetry was erased (from T.S. Eliot on). Oops! Clash of Kings was something of a try-out to see if TimeMaster's set-up was a good avenue for a time travel campaign. I thought it worked well, though some players complained it took them too long to work out the details so that they didn't, y'know, erase their own ancestors by mistake.

In other geekery news, crafted 9 new cards from The Time Warrior for my Unauthorized Doctor Who CCG and got GTA4 up to 28.87%. Go Niko Bellic!

Someone Else's Post of the Week
I've been a big fan of Chris Sims' Invincible Super-Blog's parallel presidential campaign, but you know I would never have voted for Cobra Commander even with Destro on the ticket. But Chris has finally given me someone I CAN vote for!

Encyclopedia Week Begins

Who's Who Vol. IX, DC Comics, November 1985Who's Who

Full title: Who's Who: The Definitive Directory of the DC Universe

Strengths: Rather comprehensive. All original art. Those George Perez covers.

Weaknesses: Sometimes slim on information, especially powers and abilities.

I'm quite the sucker for comics encyclopedias. Any "fictional" encyclopedia, in fact, can get my attention. I think I'll be exploring some of the ones I have lying around the house for the next week or so. Join me in the A to Z, won't you?

In the 80s, Marvel had the Marvel Universe Handbook and DC had Who's Who: The Definitive Directory of the DC Universe. I used to prefer the former, with its anal measurements of how many tons each superhero could lift (I'm anal, so I see this as a good thing), but in the final analysis, it's Who's Who I love.

Face it, you get less detailed information, but you also get more entries for less money, the art pieces are all original, and the covers much crazier. More than that, in Marvel Universe, you sort of had to still be alive to get an entry in the main Handbook (then all the dead guys got one in the Handbook of the Dead issues), but DC doesn't really discriminate.

Take a random issue like Volume IX as an example. Where else but in Who's Who would the likes of the Green Lanterns and Granny Goodness cohabitate with the Golden Gladiator (a hero from ancient Rome), the Ghost Patrol (who fought World War II from beyond the grave) and Gemworld (Amethyst's fantasy world). Any given issue might also have the first true appearance of a character in a DC comic, seeing as the Crisis was going on, and they were being brought in. This is in fact the only DC appearance of the Charlton version of The Ghost.

More than a celebration of DC's characters and concepts, it also celebrates 50 years of artists, and you always get some nice surprises, like the Green Lantern Corps 2-page spread by Brian Bolland, or Gorilla Grodd penciled by classic Flash artist Carmine Infantino and inked by bizarre expressionist Bill Sienkiewicz:
Joe Kubert on Gentleman Ghost, George Perez on Gizmo, Eduardo Barreto on the Global Guardians, Jack Kirby on the Guardian, Gil Kane on Green Lantern, there's plenty to see. And at least one character you've never heard of:
The Grim Ghost gets a whole new name here. All previous appearances were as The Gay Ghost. This isn't mentioned anywhere, but look it up. I guess DC is all about traditional family values. It doesn't say the Global Guardians' Tasmanian Devil is gay either (still in the closet at this point). How a company can have a character called Glorious Godfrey, but still have a straight agenda is beyond me...G.I. Robot! According to this, he was sent to the Pacific with a robot dog AND a robot cat. To counterbalance that entry, if I had to pick the most kickass entry, I'd have to say the Green Man. What?!? Yep. The guy looks like the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles' inbred cousin... until you notice he's kicking a dinosaur in the head in the background art.
Sorry, but for my money, fighting dinosaurs hand-to-hand wins every time. Especially when your greatest power seems to be that you have "poisonous blood" (so the dinosaur would have died anyway) and "stoic calm". Sadly, the Green Man has recently been turned into an Alpha-Lantern in the pages of Green Lantern Corps. Sigh. Resistance is futile. He has been assimilated.

Star Trek 534: The Raven

534. The Raven

FORMULA: Birthright + The Swarm + Brothers

WHY WE LIKE IT: The secret origin of Seven part 1.

WHY WE DON'T: Part 1 is pretty slim.

REVIEW: When she gets a signal from her "origin point", Seven leaves the ship under alien influence in a manner that showcases how she could destroy them all if she wanted to. In other words, she "pulls a Data". Sadly, what could have been the secret origin of Seven of Nine is sorely lacking in new information. We already knew she was assimilated as a child, as were her parents. Though we find out their ship (the Raven) was in the Delta Quadrant, it's not revealed how or why.

It's less an origin story than it is an experience. As part of her integration/humanization arc, it allows her to finally feel fear and negative emotion vis à vis assimilation. Though she still wishes to rejoin the Collective and leave the discomforts of humanity behind, her instincts have changed. I have reservations about the way this is handled though. The repressed memories manifest themselves as strange waking nightmares, including the appearance of a fearsome raven, symbolizing, one later learns, her home ship. This is pretty odd, though I can't say I'm an expert. The scenes where an adult Seven acts the part of the child are visually striking, if at times make it seem like she's suffering from split personality.

Aside from the flashbacks, she does get to do a lot of fun things, including nerve pinch Tuvok and learn to eat with Neelix. (Who's going to teach her about the downside of that?) She engages the Bomar in a brief, but unusual way, playing bumper cars with their ships. The weakest moment is sadly her visit to Leonardo's workshop, in part because he's not there, and in part because it's too long. I don't need much of Janeway's speeches about humanity to carry me through the day. Too much and I get an indigestion.

And speaking of the Bomar, they're the official villains of the piece, yet another Delta Quadrant xenophobic culture that won't let Voyager pass through its territory. The many rules attached to their permission provide some amusement, but Seven forces the issue and Janeway risks war by heading into their space and disabling their ships. I believe in being fair: This isn't one of those instances where Janeway is being absurdly reckless. You know any of the other captains would have done the same to rescue a crew member.

LESSON: There were 3040 species assimilated between the Talaxians and the Vulcans. (Species 218 and 3259 respectively. By the way, we're Species 5618, so the Vulcans were encountered a long time before humans.)

REWATCHABILITY - Medium: Could have been an important Seven episode, but there just isn't enough meat to it.

Spaceknight Saturdays: Rom vs. The House of Mystery

Now that letters have started pouring in about Rom Spaceknight, we can gauge reader approval. Was Rom... before its time? In the nick of time? Already passé? There doesn't seem to be a consensus after the first two issues. If I'm talking about "Space Notes" at all, it's because Bill Mantlo seems to be answering his own mail instead of letting an editor do it. Way to face the music, Young Bill! What's particularly interesting is that he makes an artistic statement about his work:

"My idea of a good comic is that it entertain, that it be fun, and that it be as comprehensible to all my readers from the ages of 7 to 70. I never vary from that goal (though I'm not saying that it's always attained). So there you have my criteria for judging ROM, my work. Let me know if you agree or disagree."

Thanks Bill. I think I'll have to agree with you on principle, and about ROM in particular. Now let's dig into the story, shall we?

Picking up Rom Spaceknight #5 from where #4 left off, the fallen Archie "Firefall" Stryker is carted off by the Dire Wraiths from whose lips he learns Rom wasn't kidding about his being bonded to metal and never again having access to Lil' Archie. And they're hot on Rom's trail, using blind hellhounds and Kirby gestures!
Our heroes escape and take refuge in an old house. But is it safe?
Looks like it. Big and empty. Steve and Brandy fall asleep in each others' arms and Rom puts himself in sleep mode to clean disk, defrag and run Spybot on his systems. Rom is very conscientious that way
In the night, he is visited by a Doctor Strange special guest appearance in a vision that simply serves to tie this house with the one in Strange Tales #120 in a 1964 story you shouldn't be expected to remember as it didn't even get the cover. But in the tradition of Marvel's interconnectivity, it's baaaaa-aaaaack.
Whatever demon Doctor Strange banished in that forgotten classic has returned thanks to the Dire Wraiths' efforts to spring their brethren from limbo. You really have to be careful about which piece of hell you open doors into. Beating Poltergeist by 2 years, Mantlo gives Rom a possessed house to fight. If I may channel puntastic Julie Chen for a second: The tables are turned on Rom!
But then, Rom turns the tables on the table!
Better watch out for that fireplace too! Rom answers fire with fire (neutralizer fire), so the House starts groveling before the power of the Spaceknight! Beg! Beg! Oh, did I forget to mention?
ROM ALREADY GAVE AT THE OFFICE!!!
I wonder if the House would have had more staying power if it'd had foundations. If you'd like an empty lot in rural West Virginia, call your real estate agent. I hear there's something available.
And now, another chapter in the Secret Origin of Rom Spaceknight!

I know I made reference to Rom's indulging in the Love That Dare Not Speak Its Name last week, but he also had a girlfriend. His Shala Bal is Ray-Na, the exotic dancer he's leaving for Spaceknighthood.
Hey Ray-Na, aside from his barracks buddy waiting for him on the down low, SOMEone has to diversify Galador's economy, and war is a lot more lucrative a business than giant floral arrangements. But no matter where camaraderie takes him, he shan't betray his love:
No. Never. Oh Rom, you're such a playa!

Star Trek 533: Revulsion

533. Revulsion

FORMULA: Chimera + Datalore + Aquiel

WHY WE LIKE IT: Seven. The creepy hologram.

WHY WE DON'T: Tuvok's promotion party.

REVIEW: The whole holographic rights thread tends to be a little strident for me, perhaps because the Doctor is too in love with his own voice to make an effective spokesperson (show, don't tell), but Revulsion is more than a segment of that thread. It's also an effective thriller, in no small part thanks to Leland Orser as the deranged hologram Dejaren. I've seen him in a lot of these twitchy, nervous parts (so much so that it's his performance as Lovok that surprises me), and you can easily buy into his obsessive-compulsive behavior and rage.

The teaser is just a touch more gory than necessary, and while it does set up the danger B'Elanna's in, Orser's performance would have been enough. The Doctor reflects on his evolving rights and his own treatment by the crew - as expected - and is somewhat blinded by his natural empathy. The thriller elements are well constructed, though, as with the teaser, a bit obvious. Still, nice tension.

The shipboard B-plot concerns the continuing integration of Seven of Nine, here paired up with Harry to start work on a new astrometrics lab. After his rebuffed friendship overtures in The Gift, he's naturally intimidated, but now by more than her Borg attitude. Male Nurse Tom (a position that allows him the mischief he's good at) correctly diagnoses Harry's crush on her, something she manages to spot as well. Truly a conqueror, she offers Harry exactly what he craves, but maybe things are moving a bit fast. Surely, he'll have the rest of the voyage to regret not living out his fantasy here. These bits are fun enough (with an unforeseen chuckle at the line "Part of the team?!? You sound like Chakotay!").

There are bits for the other characters as well, thanks to Tuvok's promotion to Lt. Commander (or re-promotion, since the first episodes had him at that rank). The roast is pretty dull, actually, full of banal stories and clichéd banter, but there's a nice unbroken shot going around the room, checking on each character. Here we find Tom and B'Elanna giving each other the chance to back out of their love affair, but jumping on each other instead, for example, and the crew interacting in a natural, pleasant atmosphere.

LESSON: Whether you call us solids or organics, we're pretty gross.

REWATCHABILITY - Medium-High: A thriller carried mostly through the guest-star's performance, balanced with a humorous subplot and significant character bits.