Somnopolis

I’m having a lot of fun reading the black ‘n’ white collections of DC books, so on a whim I snapped this one up in Kinokuniya. All I have to go on where Booster is concerned is what little of the ‘bwahaha’ JLI era I have read and his actions in the prelude to Infinite Crisis, where he embezzled funds from Blue Beetle and then goes hat in hand to Max Lord to beg. Pretty low trough for him there. Afterwards there was 52, with a more repentant Booster trying to make amends, but not before a disastrous publicity stunt.

Now he’s a hero out of time, more so than before, whose heroic acts are not noticed by anyone as he secretly tries to fix events that have occured in the timestream. Dan Jurgens has returned to his solo title, so I thought it would be fun to see what the 80s book he wrote would be like.

I was pleasantly surprised. It’s witty, smart, there’s an ongoing subplot with Booster trying to upstage Superman in his own city and the timetravelling huckster is pretty damn heroic! Yes he is challenged by other heroes, including Supes and the Legion, of being a thief and a crook trying to hide his past, but as Booster points out, he came to the present to try and be a better person. He is sincere in his attempts to make amends, just not above making a couple of dollars here and there…..ok a couple of million.

Also Jurgens had already introduced something that I thought Giffen only came up with in the Formerly Known As… series, namely that Booster is not above flirting with, shall we say, more mature ladies. Apparently in the future age differences are not as big a taboo. Although when we finally see his future Gotham hometown, it’s not a world away from Judge Dredd’s Megacity 1. Occasional derivative notes aside, I thought this was an entertaining and surprising book.

Now to the sad news. Jurgens sets Booster up with a warm supporting cast, including Dirk Davis, his daughter, tech assistant Jack Soo and Goldstar PA Trixie Collins. Dirk, Trixie and Booster even had an unrealized love triangle brewing. Then there is a sudden switch in tone of the books. I would trace it first to a disastrous encounter with the aliens of Dimension X (after finishing Showcase Teen Titans vol 2 the other week it was a surprise to see them again so soon). Then John Byrne portrayed Booster in a very unflattering way during a brief two-parter. The final nail in the coffin was that bloody Manhunter crossover, which tore through the supporting cast, as of course one of them had to be a traitor.

Here’s what annoys me. My impression of Booster until now was that he was a huckster loser. I’m bothered because it seems the character has been pidgeon-holed as too silly due to his association with the JLI. I think there still is decent mileage in the idea of a self-proclaimed ‘capitalist superhero’, which Jurgens did a good job of exploring.

Perhaps some took his rivalry with Superman too seriously? It’s a shame, because this is a great book. I’m looking forward to reading his new adventures under Jurgens. And did I imagine it, or did he end the book with a Vonnegut quote?

I have finally cracked and will be buying a PS3 later in the year so that I can enjoy Tim Schafer’s latest title Brutal Legend. Darn you Mr Schafer!

In the meantime though I have discovered another combination of nerdy matters and heavy metal music. Now bands like Rush and Brock Samson’s favourite band Led Zeppelin have riffed of J.R.R. Tolkien’s the Lord of the Rings books a few times in the past -

- would either of them have dared to write an entire album about the Silmarillion?

Blind Guardian did.

In fact they’ve gone one better and are about to release an album based on Robert Jordan’s interminable Wheel of Time series. They have also composed music inspired by Michael Moorcock and George R.R. Martin. I gotta say I’m impressed. Below is a track from the new album. The artwork featured comes from the Dabel Brother’s comic series based on Jordan’s The Eye of the World, with pencils by Chase Conley.

So I’m reading the infamous ‘revamp Superman’ pitch by Tom Peyer, Grant Morrison, Mark Millar and Mark Waid (here) and I notice the following line.

We believe that the four of us understand the new face of Superman: a forward-looking, intelligent, enthusiastic hero retooled to address the challenges of the next thousand years

The next ‘thousand years’, you say? Isn’t that the projected amount of time for a …..Reich? Oh my goodness!

Der Ubermensch!!!

Just kidding. I’m sure it was unintentional. A thousand Nietzsche scholars just cried out in their sleep.

You look at someone like Trinity from the “Matrix” movies, and you see a woman who can be strong, sexy, dangerous and modern. Why can’t Wonder Woman be those things? – J. Michael Straczynski, taken from his Comic Book Resources interview.

Oh dear. DC comics announced some time ago that Gail Simone’s run on Wonder Woman would end by issue 600. I felt this was a real shame, as Simone had done some sterling work on the title. Wonder Woman is a character who has bounced from revamp to revamp, her history and mythology becoming increasingly confused. Creator William Moulton Marston pitched her as a female Superman and included hints of fetish culture in her character (he was an interesting man). This was toned down by later writers and indeed in the 70s she was stripped of all her powers and became Diana Prince, fashioned after The Avengers Emma Peel. This too would be revamped, after Gloria Steinem complained about how a feminist icon had been, if you will, ‘emasculated’. Then there was the George Perez revamp from the 80s with the focus on Greco-Roman myth; the more recent take by literary luminary Jodi Picoult, which returned the Diana Prince persona and pitched a Wonder Woman who could not figure out how to use a petrol pump. As a character she’s been up and down and all around, so it was a relief when Gail Simone took over the book and tried to integrate all of the above into a more progressive, forward-looking take on the Amazon princess.

But guess what? Turns out – they’re doing another revamp. And they’ve hired J. M. Straczynski no less to do the job. Above is a promotional sketch by artist Jim Lee, his take on a more modern and practical superheroine, designed to fit into a more urban setting. As per JMS’ interview:

I also wanted it functional. As so many female fans have said over the years, “How does she fight in that without all her parts popping out? Where does she keep stuff?” She can keep or shed the jacket, there are pockets, it’s tough and serious looking while still attractive. It’s a Wonder Woman designed for the 21st century. Not to get all “Project Runway” on this, but what woman wears the same outfit for 60 years without at least accessorizing?

Personally, I think it looks like Joss Whedon’s Fray (who himself pitched a Wonder Woman film script that was rejected).

Which is to say, it’s just another kick-ass heroine in an urban setting. Now while I didn’t agree with Perez’s over-reliance on the Greco-Roman aesthetic, I have always thought that what makes Diana special is that she comes from a completely different world. I also feel that Amazon culture should be just as alien to us as Superman’s Kryptonian heritage. It should be another civilization with its own traditions and technology, that just happens to coexist with our own.

This revamp risks making Wonder Woman herself derivative of less well-known DC properties, such as Black Canary and Huntress, urban vigilantes who happen to feature in another Gail Simone book, Birds of Prey.

Beyond the Jim Lee redesign though, the other objection I have to this is it’s so familiar to JMS’ previous work. If you’re a fan of his television work, or comic book career you start to notice some recurring themes. First off, he introduces religious/mystical aspects to most of his characters. Peter Parker is a science student who happened to be bitten by an irradiated spider that gave him superpowers. Under Straczynski it was revealed that Parker was always destined to be Spider-Man has he was the bearer of the mystical spider totem. He’s fond of conspiracies. Babylon 5 was a key example of this, with an overarching storyline that featured the heroes fighting against a vast political plot to enslave the galaxy. Then there’s his take on ‘gritty realism’, all dark alleys and looming abandoned buildings. I foresee plenty of this in Wonder Woman’s future. Midnight Nation sketched an America of shadowy cities and towns, that also turned into an overwrought religious allegory.

His Wonder Woman pitch contains all of these elements, with a time travel plot to handwave away Diana’s current status quo; a conspiracy behind the destruction of her home Paradise Island, led by a mysterious figure controlling the foes hunting for the now young and vulnerable Amazon; and finally the much proclaimed ‘urban setting’.

We learn that Paradise Island fell when Diana was just a child, when the gods withdrew their protection. Hippolyta and many of the other Amazons died in a last-ditch defense against an army with weapons that could kill even them, while some of her guards and handmaids smuggled a young Diana off the island. She was thus raised in an urban setting, but with a foot in both worlds, courtesy of her guardians and teachers from Paradise Island. They expect her to retake Paradise Island, defeat the army that’s still hunting for the escaped Amazons (and Diana in particular), and restore all her people to their previous glory. This is a lot to ask of someone who has no recollection of that world, and obviously has no idea about the timeline shift.

So gone is the proud warrior/ambassador to Man’s World. Now Wonder Woman is just another confused and angry hero with an attitude and undefined abilities. That’s enough of a premise to string readers along until the next inevitable revamp. Christ on a bike. The reaction from fans has not been entirely positive (here and here).

Thankfully others are having fun with this, including artist Chris Samnee, who has his own take on the controversy – as well as some good news for Aquaman!

THEN

courtesy of aintitcool.com

NOW

We’re getting there.

Cyriaque Lamar has a piece on io9 regarding Moore’s latest example of ‘curmudgeony behaviour’. I’m reposting here the same videos that are featured  in the article.

Second part -

So there we have it. Alan Moore has refused to continue working with Gorillaz on a collaborative project. Apparently initially Damon Albarn’s gang of cartoon freaks had approached the Northampton Magus to write a piece on superheroes that they would set to music.

What were they thinking? Did they want to enter into a ’superhero musical arms race’ with Bono and the hEdge?

Moore dismissed this idea and offered to work with Gorillaz on an opera on Elizabethan occultist John Dee.

John Dee - not a superhero

Maybe it seems Dee is too obscure a subject for Albarn and party to work on. Well isn’t this the same chap who wrote an opera about a monkey god trapped beneath a mountain? Also Moore mentions that while he wasn’t paid for the work he did on the Dee project, he did offer a quid pro quo arrangment to the lads to contribute something to his Dodgem Logic fanzine. Taken from an interview with Mustard magazine -

What do you have planned for future issues of Dodgem Logic?

We’ve got a lot of good stuff coming up in the second issue. Melinda’s doing an article on Burlesque and a brilliant local photographer, Mitch Jenkinson, who’s going to be doing our cover, is doing an inside spread with some of the local Burlesque ladies. That should be a pretty good-looking issue.

Then the issue after that we’ve hopefully got Gorillaz onboard. They came down to Northampton last week because we’re planning for me to do the libretto on their next opera project. Being an opportunist, I of course asked them if they’d be prepared to contribute some pages to Dodgem Logic. Rather than just doing an interview with them, I thought it would be interesting to hand over a few pages for them to curate.

See none of Moore’s behaviour seems unreasonable to me. He appears to suffer from this insistence on assuming the best in people, but thankfully is not happy to wait for them to make good on their promises. As has been pointed out, if more creators had the same degree of self-assurance, perhaps they wouldn’t be as exploited by the Big Two (Marvel/DC) and the many sharks that swarm around the independent comics industry. This is why Moore is regarded as highly as he is.

The man’s not a curmudgeon, he’s a creator who knows his price. Any comparison to Iago is entirely unintended.

The dust-jacket for Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely’s Batman & Robin carries a number of quotes from admiring reviews, including one from Entertainment Weekly that simply says ‘Clever’.

Morrison could never be accused of being anything but. Rebooting the Batman franchise in the aftermath of his Final Crisis title, Bruce Wayne is missing in the time-stream and presumed dead; former ward Dick Grayson has taken over the role of the Bat and Damian Wayne has become a new Robin. The book introduces yet another grotesque villain to Gotham known as Professor Pyg and former side-kick Jason Todd returns, now having assumed the villainous moniker of the Red Hood, as a bloodthirsty vigilante traumatised by his resurrection.

Notice anything? See for a series reboot Batman and Robin is surprisingly unfriendly to new readers. I passed on the trade to my brother-in-law after I finished it. While he was impressed by the excellent Quitely art (with his usual tropes of thin-lipped men and unflattering female body-types present and accounted for) he was frankly confused by Wayne’s ‘death’, the identity of the Red Hood and why it was important, not to mention the revelation that Batman had a son.

Unfortunately this is inevitable given that Batman and Robin is not so much a reboot as a continuation of Morrison’s run on the main book (now written by artist Tony Daniel). Dick Grayson is a rueful Batman, self-conscious about wearing his mentor’s mask. He also has a great deal of difficulty trying to rein in the willful Damian Wayne, who has inherited his father’s single-mindedness and intimidating intelligence. His Robin is not a side-kick, so much as a Batman-in-waiting. After all, Bruce used to fight crime dressed as the more colourful hero before he was inspired to become the Bat. As we discover when Jason reappears, some Robins aren’t worthy of the role.

This reversal of the usual Batman and Robin dynamic – the former doubting his abilities, with a young side-kick who is his intellectual superior – should prove to be a interesting interlude. Morrison is also writing The Return of Bruce Wayne, applying a two-tiered approach. Batman and Robin is a story about living up to the legend, whereas Return… riffs on the numerous literary and historical influences that go into the Batman character.

When asked to elaborate on the plot [...] Morrison said this: “Each of the stories is a twist on a different “pulp hero” genre — so there’s the caveman story, the witchhunter/Puritan adventurer thing, the pirate Batman, the cowboy, the P.I. — as a nod toward those mad old 1950s comics with Caveman Batman and Viking Batman adventures. It’s Bruce Wayne’s ultimate challenge — Batman vs. history itself!”

Which brings us back to that ‘clever’, remark. This book is most certainly a detailed study of what makes Batman work as a concept, but I’m not sure if beyond the discursive intensity of Morrison’s writing there’s a story in all this world-building and revamping of the franchise. It almost invites the inevitable wiping of the slate, which followed the writer’s similarly intelligent deconstruction of the X-Men title for Marvel Comics.

For me the most interesting moment in the first six issues is Alfred Pennyworth encouraging Dick to treat his time as Batman as a performance, in keeping with his past as a circus performer. Not only does this reflect the origins of the character, it injects a note of fun and excitement into the dark core of the Batman role. Morrison continues this approach with (literal) freakshow villains, an antagonist known as Flamingo who is part Zorro/part Purple Rain era Prince and in the tragic Red Hood we see the exorcised nihilism that had come to infect the Bat-books since Frank Miller’s dour Dark Knight Returns.

So while Morrison can still come off as something of a smartass at times, with his Professor Pyg(malion) and eliptical plot progression, he also brings a sense of fun to the Bat that for the most part, outside of the Paul Dini cartoon at least, has been missing for some time. On balance chalk this one up as a win.

Folks – I have a list. On this list are a number of items that I have been hunting down for quite some time. Some movie titles, comics and novels. Mostly rare, no longer commercially available, or far too expensive to purchase. Flex Mentallo Grant Morrison’s pseudo-autobiographical metaphor for the comic book industry was one such. Lanark, which I reviewed here, was another. El Topo was a welcome surprise when it received a re-release on dvd after years of been buried by Allen Klein.

Which brings me to Strangehaven, Gary Spencer Millidge’s self-published comic set in an otherwordly Devonshire town. Eerie atmospherics, comparisons to Twin Peaks and an irregular release schedule (there hasn’t been an issue since 2005) combined to make this comic a rare and much desired curio. Thanks to Kings Comics in Sydney – I now have the first trade of the book.

I’ll give it a proper write up once I’ve dived in.

Yes it appears Michael Bay will be enlisting the aid of South Park’s Underpants Gnomes once more to wield their magic over his career and produce yet another megahit.

Already the cries of anger can be heard in the Uncanny Valleys of Fandom as the news has arrived that he will be directing Peter Laird’s napkin-creation Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

And I say…..so? It’s not as if the original cartoon and/or comic was Ibsen. Who cares, let the Bearded One fuck the frame one more time and blow up New York’s sewers.

Deadline broke the story here:

EXCLUSIVE: Paramount Pictures and Nickelodeon have brought Michael Bay and his Platinum Dunes partners Brad Fuller and Andrew Form on to produce Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, the live-action film that reboots the film series launched by New Line in 1990. Bay, Fuller and Form will  produce with Galen Walker and Scott Mednick.

The producers will begin meetings with writers in the next few weeks. The deal puts Bay in the center of two Paramount franchises, as he started production May 17 on Transformers 3, and is zeroing in on Rosie Huntington-Whitely to replace Megan Fox as love interest for Shia LaBeouf. TMNT, a co-production between Paramount and Nickelodeon, is an outgrowth of the $60 million acquisition made by Nick last October for global rights to the entire Turtles franchise. Right around the same time, Paramount made a first look deal with the Platinum Dunes partners, who will generate genre projects but also want to expand their scope. While they’ve already set up several projects including a Rob Cohen-remake of Fright Night, the Turtles film puts them into new territory.

Yes I complain about Michael Bay an awful lot on this site. That’s because he’s a terrible film-maker. BUT he makes movies lots of people go see, so he’s doing something right. The argument goes that he’s rooting through the childhood’s of 30-something cinema audiences to find properties that their feelings of nostalgia will compel them to see. If that’s the case – stop placing so much value on nostalgia. Yes I watched the Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles cartoon when I was 10. I remembering sand-papering my skateboard and drawing a crude picture of a turtle on it (see Peter Laird and I have a lot in common).

That was twenty years ago! So I guess the Underpants Gnomes won’t be sucking me into this one.

Some nice work courtesy of Cliff Chiang, in aid of a charity auction for Heroes Con

It occurs to  me that I haven’t written much about comics of late. Not that I haven’t wanted to. There was the Ryan Choi controversy. My love of the Jodoverse refuses to die and a new Scott Pilgrim book is on the horizon.

Let me just assemble my thoughts and I’ll get back to you.