FUCK YEAH, PROP 8 OVERTURNED
Let's start with the many comics I've read since I put down Scott Pilgrim's Finest Hour...
Jeffrey Rowland is a genius. This is not a term I use lightly, nor one I would think the man would ever self-apply. I consider him such not necessarily because he has a towering intellect- though it is no doubt above that of the majority of people (not that that's saying much...)- but because he thinks and conveys his thoughts in a way that sets himself apart from so many others. He talks about the real world often, but he integrates an imagined version of his own life into the work in such a seamless fashion, which speaks volumes to how he looks at our world. And when when we're allowed to see his thoughts on his work in "A Dangerous Obsession", we see an entirely different side of him- at times serious and thought-provoking, but never preachy or plodding in his storytelling. And that's the biggest achievement of this book. He tells a story, using the style we've known for years. I can't wait for the next chapter- I just hope it's part of the same novel.
Considering how amazing the first hardcover of UFF was, I went into the second volume with a mix of excitement and trepidation. I get the feeling the first volume isn't ever going to get topped in any future volume, but for superhero fare, the Four (and most of what I've read coming out of the Ultimate universe) do a damn fine job of keeping the bar raised high for other books. In a way they do cheat, what with having years of material to cull from... But hey, good art imitates, great art steals.
The second Avengers series to be written by Brian Bendis post-Disassembled, The Mighty Avengers sees Tony Stark forming his own Avengers team in the wake of Civil War as the anti-registration New Avengers continue to pursue street-level justice. I had already picked up the second hardcover collection a few months earlier, so the first one was at the top of my list of books to buy when I went to SDCC. The first story arc alone involves Tony Stark being turned into Ultron as a hot chick and the god of war getting in a fight with a Starktech suit. The rest of the first volume is at least as awesome as that. Unfortunately, the issues in the second hardcover- mostly a Secret Invasion tie-in- that don't deal with the formation of Nick Fury's Secret Warriors (which seemed a tad out of place in an Avengers book, but then any superhero book with Bendis' name on it gives him carte blanche to date himself) tell tales of various Skrulls and how they gathered information and infiltrated our governments. It's not bad by any standard, but I would have much rather seen how the invasion affected the Avengers rather than how the Skrulls got there in the first place. They can shape-shift. It's not that hard to imagine how they snuck in. Overall though, another great read from BMB.
I had already indulged in the first two volumes of the adventures of the Merc with a Mouth and Mr. Messiah wannabe, but seeing as how the 8 trades comprising the run of Cable & Deadpool were going out of print at a steady rate and the three ultimate collections were looking mighty pretty... what with their thick spines and high page count. *snaps out of it* Anyhoo, the last story arc in the book deals with Deadpool accidentally killing a middle eastern dude and then going dimension-hopping to look for Cable- something that apparently happened in a long-since out-of-print and very short-lived X-Force and Cable series which I'm not going to bother looking for. The book remains as witty as it ever was, and it manages to advance the stories of its main characters while making fun of everything else that's happening in the Marvel U and utilizing characters you were almost entirely certain were dead at least a year ago.
As a quick aside, I was just skimming the Scott Pilgrim TVTropes page (enormous spoilers within, btw) and it is very clear that there were Tropers in the audience at SDCC taking notes.
Moving on, recent films!
I saw Salt late last week, and it played like a female version of the Wolverine movie- even had Liev Schreiber! It was a solid action/political thriller, and I'm hoping they make at least one sequel- if only because strong female leads in action movies are in short supply and it would be just the boost the Ghost in the Shell live-action movie needs to get greenlit.
And on Sunday I trekked out to Cupertino and saw Despicable Me with yuan-18. I had heard a lot of good things about this, and I was not disappointed. The animation is great (didn't see it in 3D, though I saw a lot of bits where it was obvious they were shooting for that) and the characters are utterly lovable- check it out if you haven't already!
Jeffrey Rowland is a genius. This is not a term I use lightly, nor one I would think the man would ever self-apply. I consider him such not necessarily because he has a towering intellect- though it is no doubt above that of the majority of people (not that that's saying much...)- but because he thinks and conveys his thoughts in a way that sets himself apart from so many others. He talks about the real world often, but he integrates an imagined version of his own life into the work in such a seamless fashion, which speaks volumes to how he looks at our world. And when when we're allowed to see his thoughts on his work in "A Dangerous Obsession", we see an entirely different side of him- at times serious and thought-provoking, but never preachy or plodding in his storytelling. And that's the biggest achievement of this book. He tells a story, using the style we've known for years. I can't wait for the next chapter- I just hope it's part of the same novel.
Considering how amazing the first hardcover of UFF was, I went into the second volume with a mix of excitement and trepidation. I get the feeling the first volume isn't ever going to get topped in any future volume, but for superhero fare, the Four (and most of what I've read coming out of the Ultimate universe) do a damn fine job of keeping the bar raised high for other books. In a way they do cheat, what with having years of material to cull from... But hey, good art imitates, great art steals.
The second Avengers series to be written by Brian Bendis post-Disassembled, The Mighty Avengers sees Tony Stark forming his own Avengers team in the wake of Civil War as the anti-registration New Avengers continue to pursue street-level justice. I had already picked up the second hardcover collection a few months earlier, so the first one was at the top of my list of books to buy when I went to SDCC. The first story arc alone involves Tony Stark being turned into Ultron as a hot chick and the god of war getting in a fight with a Starktech suit. The rest of the first volume is at least as awesome as that. Unfortunately, the issues in the second hardcover- mostly a Secret Invasion tie-in- that don't deal with the formation of Nick Fury's Secret Warriors (which seemed a tad out of place in an Avengers book, but then any superhero book with Bendis' name on it gives him carte blanche to date himself) tell tales of various Skrulls and how they gathered information and infiltrated our governments. It's not bad by any standard, but I would have much rather seen how the invasion affected the Avengers rather than how the Skrulls got there in the first place. They can shape-shift. It's not that hard to imagine how they snuck in. Overall though, another great read from BMB.
I had already indulged in the first two volumes of the adventures of the Merc with a Mouth and Mr. Messiah wannabe, but seeing as how the 8 trades comprising the run of Cable & Deadpool were going out of print at a steady rate and the three ultimate collections were looking mighty pretty... what with their thick spines and high page count. *snaps out of it* Anyhoo, the last story arc in the book deals with Deadpool accidentally killing a middle eastern dude and then going dimension-hopping to look for Cable- something that apparently happened in a long-since out-of-print and very short-lived X-Force and Cable series which I'm not going to bother looking for. The book remains as witty as it ever was, and it manages to advance the stories of its main characters while making fun of everything else that's happening in the Marvel U and utilizing characters you were almost entirely certain were dead at least a year ago.
As a quick aside, I was just skimming the Scott Pilgrim TVTropes page (enormous spoilers within, btw) and it is very clear that there were Tropers in the audience at SDCC taking notes.
Moving on, recent films!
I saw Salt late last week, and it played like a female version of the Wolverine movie- even had Liev Schreiber! It was a solid action/political thriller, and I'm hoping they make at least one sequel- if only because strong female leads in action movies are in short supply and it would be just the boost the Ghost in the Shell live-action movie needs to get greenlit.
And on Sunday I trekked out to Cupertino and saw Despicable Me with yuan-18. I had heard a lot of good things about this, and I was not disappointed. The animation is great (didn't see it in 3D, though I saw a lot of bits where it was obvious they were shooting for that) and the characters are utterly lovable- check it out if you haven't already!