Mice Templar #4

Like many young adults, I consumed the Redwall series of books by Brian Jacques. The stories took place in a quasi medieval setting and featured mice, otters and other critters fighting wars against hordes of rats and other nefarious creatures.

Based on those fond memories, and on the cute title, I bought The Mice Templar #4 on a whim.

I love the art. It manages to be both cartoony and serious at the same time. Floppy eared mice fight to the death and discuss honor and religion. I was a bit lost on the plot, though. Jumping on at this point means I don't know much of what is going on. I'm going to try and follow this one though.

Batman Inc #6

I love Grant Morrison's run on Batman. It's one of the best stories by a single author on a company owned property in a long time. And as much as I want to love every single issue of Batman Inc, the sixth issue feels like a holding pattern.

We just finished getting introduced to Dr. Daedalus, meeting our main cast and learning a bit about the new enemy, Leviathan in the last five issues. This feels like a bridge issue. A pause while the action starts up again in number seven.

Not that it is bad. The art is great, reminiscent of Frank Quitely's art on Batman and Robin. Cassie is back and in action in Hong Kong. Red Robin joins the Outsiders. And Batman starts assembling his master plan. The reader just doesn't get to know what the plan is. And again, in the overall scheme of things, that's okay. All of Morrison's reveals so far have been great. But it feels like a bridge issue.

If this were any other comic, I would have thought the Average Joes were a cute addition. I would have liked seeing Batman trolling people on an Internet message board. And those are nice touches, but not enough to carry a whole issue.

Morrison has sometimes been accused of writing "for the trade." Having issues that only seem great when you read the whole story line together. Batman Inc #6 suffers from a bit of this. It's still enjoyable, but probably the weakest issue so far of Batman Inc. If you have been following Batman Inc steadily, then by all means pick it up. If you're looking for a jumping on point though, this isn't it.

Free Comic Book Day #3

Amazing Spider Man- I actually got a couple laughs out of this. The art is fresh and although I have no idea where Spider-Man's current continuity is supposed to be at I enjoyed it. And it has Shang-Chi! Where has that guy been?

Kung-Fu Panda- Cute story, but I didn't really find it funny.

Richie Rich- Lame, no real adult appeal.

Baltimore- Mignola's art is great as always. Vampires feel a bit played out but seeing the story from a civilian's perspective, instead of the hunter, made it interesting. I would pick this up.

Green Lantern Secret Origins: A reprint of a story I've read before, that wasn't that good the first time. Yawn.

Flashpoint: A crossover starring Barry Allen. Something about a messed up timeline. Presumably the end will involve the restoration of the canon timeline. Double yawn.

The Tick: Who doesn't love the Tick? I should really pick up a trade or two of the Tick.

Captain America and Thor: An all ages Cap/Thor book. Shameless summer movie tie in? Odds point to yes.

Super-Dinosaur- This was pretty awesome.

Daredevil Reborn #4

Andy Diggle burnt Matt Murdock's life to the ground in Shadowland, and now he wraps up the four issue mini-series meant to transition the character into a new ongoing series. Daredevil Reborn #4 intentionally parallels Frank Miller's origin story in Man Without Fear. Matt dons a block costume and a wields a baton, using it to deflect an enemies bullet at the climax of the story. It is pretty undeniable that Miller's influence is more stark than probably any other writer's take on a character they didn't create themselves, and most Daredevil fiction always ends up aping Miller at some point.

The standard arc for poor Murdock, post Born Again, is for the writer to torture him relentlessly, drive him to the brink of madness and let him crawl on his fingernails back to a functioning human being. Kevin Smith copied it studiously to ill results in Guardian Devil, Bendis inverted it a bit by having Murdock declare himself Kingpin in his moment of rage, and Brubaker broke his marriage up to pitch him into a massive depression. Andy Diggle, deciding that our intrepid hero hadn't suffered enough, turned him evil, had him get possessed by a demon and utterly ruined his life. At the end of Shadowland, Murdock packs his bags and leaves Hell's Kitchen in disgrace.

Throughout Reborn, the reader keeps waiting for something climatic and life affirming to happen. Matt confronts some backwoods arms dealers and only when he meets their super powered crime boss, Calavera does the story start to show potential. Striking an iconic pose as a white skinned dealer of evil, Calavera forces Matt to confront his inner demons, shoots him in the head and pushes him off of a cliff. That's where issue four opens up.

Matt has inexplicably survived. He's a superhero so we knew he was going to survive. The interesting part of the scenario is trying to figure out how Matt will get out of this. The answer remains a mystery. Matt pulls himself out of a river, bleeding from his head, and wonders how he is still alive. So does the reader. Is this the "rebirth" we've been waiting for? Mysterious is one thing, but this feels lazy.

Calavera has the power to bring out the darkness in people's souls. His use of this power on Matt lasts only a single panel. Murdock easily defeats his enemies and is back in Foggy's apartment by the end, promising that they will get their practice back, presumably bringing everything back to the status quo.

The whole series was disappointing, and the last issue lands with a wet thud.

Hal Boredom

Hal Jordan is played by Ryan Reynolds in the Green Lantern movie, and there is a new set of Green Lantern animated shorts coming out featuring him prominently. I, for one, find Hal Jordan to be an insufferably boring character. I read all of Geoff Johns' run on Green Lantern up through the end of Blackest Night before finally realizing that nothing interesting about the title had anything to do with Jordan.

Having never read the original John Broome stories, I couldn't say whether they are sublimely awesome or not. Maybe they are are work of art comporable to the 7 Seven Wonders of the World.

What I have read leaves me yawning enthusiastically. Jordan is a courageous hero who plays by his own rules and always gets the girl. He never seems to suffer any personal or emotional trauma. In other words, he is the same as every character in every action movie and pretty much every superhero that was never re-tooled for the Modern Age.

DC seems to struggle with what to do with Jordan, who has a paradoxical combination of ultimate power and a total lack of personality. Dennis O'Neil teamed him up with Green Arrow quite extensively, Jordan playing the straight man to Green Arrow's radicalism. O'Neil also created John Stewart, intended to be Jordan's back up in the Corps.

Deciding that a Green Lantern with recognizable character traits would appeal to a younger audience, DC had Hal try and blow up the universe, murdering the entirety of the Green Lantern Corps in the process. Kyle Rayner stepped in to the black and green spandex.

In another failed attempt to make Jordan interesting, he became the new Spectre, on a mission of redemption after trying to kill everyone and become God. This petered out a little after two years.

Geoff Johns decided that the world need Hal again, because straight white men with type A personalities were becoming a rare commodity in the comics industry. It turns out murdering all of his comrades and trying to erase existence only happened because he was possessed by an evil space entity. Apparently, someone forget to tell God, who let him become the Spectre to redeem himself. Or maybe God thought that was funny, Hal redeeming himself for things that weren't his fault.

As all characters and situations in continuity must revert to some arbitrarily chosen point in the status quo, so too did Green Lantern. Hal came back to life, was forgiven by everyone, become a fighter pilot again and started dating attractive women without missing a beat.

So it goes in the comics industry.

Free Comic Book Day #2: Witches and Wizards

I had no idea what to expect when I picked up Witches and Wizards. It appears to be an anime, written by some one named James Patterson, who apparently writes young adult. It's drawn and styled like mange, but created to read left to right. The plot seems to involve Nazis hunting down magic users, and our heroes are a family of witches targeted by the "New Order".

The purpose of the free preview is to get a person to buy more of that series. I don't plan on checking this one out, although I didn't have any real problem with it. It just seemed very conventional.

Free Comic Book Day #1: The Darkness

Never read any of the Darkness before, though I am vaguely aware of the concept. The Darkness free preview was fairly interesting. My impressions from afar of the Darkness was a humorless 90's "demons, guns and tits" type of character. That feeling was entirely dispelled, but I find myself tempted to buy a trade or two and see if further interest develops.

Jennifer Blood

After having read the first three issues of Jennifer Blood, I am disappointed to report it as thoroughly second tier Ennis work. The concept comes across as a one joke premise, a joke we already get after the first page of the first issue. While reading Jennifer Blood, I can't help but imagine the story as a series of re-tooled Punisher scripts.

The "woman we all thought was dead" concept reminds of the Punisher: Widowmaker storyline. The disembowelment by automobile brings to mind the Punisher disemboweling a gangster in The Slavers. The villains, mobsters from the "Old Country" remind again, of the Slavers and every other Punisher story. While doing reconnaissance, she accidentally catches a disgusting display of public sex between an old man and his porn star wife. The Punisher ruefully admits he wishes he hadn't seen "the money shot" while spying on a gangster cheating with his boss's girlfriend in the MAX series. Drowning her enemies aboard their yacht brings to mind the Punisher sinking the cruise ship full of evil shareholders in Barracuda.

The harmless doap of a husband recalls Soap from the Marvel Knights run, and Jennifer imagining how she could kill the philandering husband has shades of Frank Castle attacking a man who left his wife in In the Beginning. And so it goes. Some interesting threads seem in the work. Just what did happen to her? Will the no good husband across the street try to blackmail her? But ultimately it feels like Ennis has done this material before, and better, in every imaginable configuration in his lengthy run on the Punisher.

Deus Ex

Deus Ex was recently listed as the best game of all time by PC Gamer. What makes it so great? Part of it is the interactivity. Each level gives oppurtunities for stealth, action, or some combination of the two. Do I sneak through the air vents? Stun my enemies unconscious? Or just rush in and aim for the head? A door is locked. Do I blow it up with explosives, or pick the lock? A computer... do I hack it or find the log in?

A player could complete each level with speed if desired, or instead spend hours exploring every nook and cranny. But what really seperates Deus Ex from other great games is the actual content of it. Most video games are meaningless. At the end of the day, they are ultimately about nothing. Deus Ex is different.

The player is presented with a world that has the same problems as ours, only exagerated. A ruling elite, a violent underclass, terrorism, national security. The ending of the game allows one to make a choice. Do I compromise with the system and try to improve it from within? Should I conquer the system and force peace and prosperity with my gentle, yet iron, hand? Or blow it all to hell, destroying civilization but ensuring human freedom?

I natually chose the latter, but the beauty of the game's three endings is each choice has it's ups and downs. Joining the system, as your in game brother warns you, will lead to a return of "20th Century capitalism" a system of monied elites protected by the tax code and the like. But it is the safest option. You know what will happen.

Installing a worldwide ruler is a scary, off putting idea. And yet, if I were that ruler, couldn't I make it work? And preserving human freedom by destroying civilization en masse sounds good, but would likely cause death and suffering on a massive scale in the short term.

If our main moral principle is to do no harm, the "Anarchist Ending" is out. Too many people would be inevitably hurt. Trying to do the most good for the most people would likely lead us to the benevolent dictator route, as most people suffer deprivation and worse under "20th century capitalism". Respect for autonomy means we would have to refuse to make a choice, because all options involve affecting others without their permission.

But which is the just option? An argument could be made for each ending. And that is an amazing thing for a video game.

Prospects

Currently Reading: Homage to Catalonia by George Orwell

Just Finished Reading: Year 501: The Conquest Continues by Noam Chomsky

Watching: Mushi-shi

Mad Men Season 4

Comics I'm Following:

Hellblazer

Batman Inc.

Daredevil: Reborn

Game: Jade Empire

Just Finished Playing: Deus Ex

Collecting:
Legend of the Burning Sands CCG

Goldstein is dead

On Sunday, U.S. special forces stormed a compound in Pakistan where bin Laden was staying. Bin Laden and several of his cohorts went down fighting, and the body was washed and buried at sea, apparently Muslim custom for a corpse that cannot be received by family.

Celebrations erupted around America, as people crowded the front of the White House and set off fireworks. Where does this leave us?

Osama was obviously a rat fucker of the highest order. The terrorist attack on 9/11 killed 2,750 people, including his various bombings and the thousands of civilians massacred by the bin Laden headed 055 Brigade after the Taliban took power in Afghanistan, the total death toll for this one man's endeavours could approach 10,000.

The unfortunate part of his death is it won't change much. Al Queada was loosely organized, using a sort of franchise model. Bin Laden was largely a symbolic leader and his death is a symbolic victory only. His goal was to draw America into a larger world conflict, get new recruits and make us spend huge amounts of money to fight against hastily trained fanatics with old AK-47s.

Considering the tens of billions, if not hundreds of billions, spent in the war in Afghanistan, the 15-30,000 dead civilians and the ten years of growing terrorist activity it took to catch him, bin Laden may be having the last laugh in Hell. The US military complex and American Nationalists play right into the hands of bin Laden and the people like him.

Kryptonians steal our jobs

In a recent issue of Action Comics, Superman threatens to renounce his US citizen ship. I won't comment on the story in any way, I don't follow Superman very closely and don't plan to do so in the near future. The interesting part for me is the reaction by American nationalists. Apparently, people who otherwise have no interest in comic books or Superman in general find the idea absurd.

From the article: "Does he believe in British interventionism or Swiss neutrality?" Last wrote. "You see where I'm going with this: If Superman doesn't believe in America, then he doesn't believe in anything."

Nationalists seem to ascribe to a curious and unspoken notion that popular culture owes some kind of allegiance to the nation it originates from. That Superman, who is an alien, would not be a diligent representation of American values (whatever those are) seems to break some kind of unwritten agreement. Of course, Superman must be a icon of America's benevolence! He is after all, written by Americans and published in America. That someone could write a story of an alien super being with god like powers, created by two Jewish writers, one from Canada and one from America, without having him bow obediently to the flag is an apparent violation of cultural loyalty.

Nationalist writers can be pictured scouring fiction for any deviances from the party line, so as to publicize and denounce things they otherwise don't care about. Not entirely dissimilar, perhaps, in attitude from Soviet censors.

Another example would be blog posts and message board discussion of Wonder Woman's costume change. She has lost her star and stripes themed swimsuit for a pair of pants and a leather jacket. Again, that a character who is culturally Greek and from a fictional matriarchal utopia should stop dressing like a Miss America contestant is seen as a grave affront.

I can't think of any reasons for those who don't read comics to get outraged by such things other than a thin skinned cultural sensibility that all things must ultimately came second to America, the nation, the state, the culture or whatever institution the term "America" is considered synonymous with. This sensibility is based in deluded nationalism and is entirely without merit.