Bargain Bag – Wolverine: Manifest Destiny

Wolverine: Manifest Destiny #1–4 by Jason Aaron, Stephen Segovia and Paco Diaz Luque

A Wolverine mini-series that is essentially a love note to wushu movies (and Bruce Lee in particular – individual chapters are called 'Enter The Wolverine' and 'The Way Of The Black Dragon'), written by Jason Aaron? For only £4 from the Gosh! pack sale shelf? Yes, thank you.

This is silly but in a deliberate way, and it's a lot of fun. The X-Men have moved to San Francisco and Wolverine has his memory back, so he remembers an incident in the San Francisco Chinatown from fifty years ago that needs to be resolved. Which means it's time for lots of kung fu references, an appearance from The Sons Of The Tiger (Marvel martial arts heroes from the 1970s), Logan being trained by his old shifu, Master Po (the catch-up text at the beginning of issue 3 gets it wrong by calling him 'sensei', which I guess I means that Aaron didn't write it), and lots of action.

Aaron is obviously a kung fu movie fans because there are some great bits in this story – someone who can punch you in the soul, the martial arts schools of this Chinatown (The Dim Mak Fighting Academy, The Hung Gar Kung Fu Club, The Wu-Tang Boxing society, The One-Armed Swordsmen), the storyline of honour and who is in charge of the Black Dragon gang. There is some great dialogue (Wolverine: 'You have any idea how many ninjas I've killed over the years?' Po: 'Ninjas are unskilled imbeciles. Any fool can kill a ninja. My dog could kill a ninja.') and some nice throwbacks (Nightcrawler asks: 'This isn't about my mother again, is it?', referring to Aaron's Get Mystique story). It's just a lot of fun.

The art is mostly handled by Segovia, who has a really nice style, a bit like a looser Francis Leinil Yu (which is a good thing), but it's a poor show if he can't handle the pencilling duties for a four-issue mini-series on his own – he is helped out by Luque in the last two issues, who is a good artist but perhaps a bit more of a 1990s vibe to his work, not quite as expressive or as inventive as Segovia. It's disheartening when a mini-series can't have the same art on four issues, and also slightly off-putting; it would have made the series even better.

Wolverine: Get Mystique

Wolverine #62–65 by Jason Aaron and Ron Garney

Scalped is one of the best comics being published at the moment (I obviously love it), which means I feel duty-bound to try out other comics written by Aaron. This was another Gosh! sale pack (£3 for four issues), and the combo of Aaron and Garney on a Wolverine story seemed like an intriguing mix.

This uses the classic Wolverine story device of going back into his past and having someone playing a role in his life that was never revealed before but that has an effect on his present. In this case, it reveals how he and Mystique met in 1921 (is Mystique really that old?) and the hijinx that ensued in Kansas; in the present, Logan is going after Mystique because she sold the X-men out in whatever storyline just happened, but now it's personal.

The thing that's really good about this story is the handle Aaron has on Wolverine: he conveys that grimness. The description in issue 63 about what it's like to get shot by everyone and all the different sorts of guns is just perfect, and the scene in issue 64 where he blows himself up to get to Mystique is another great demonstration of how he gets the character: 'It hurts like hell being me.' He also provides a good story and setting to allow Wolverine to be Wolverine, something that all the guest appearances and memberships of other teams has diluted; quite impressive.

Garney does a good job on art: he gets the messy, brutal, raw and ugly side to Wolverine and his art reflects that reality but without losing the atmosphere necessary for superheroic action to work – Garney can also draw spandex well, so he can draw both Logan and Mystique in both situations. He is also a good storyteller, so the plot is easy to follow even though it jumps back and forth between the past and present.

The story is enjoyable and the way it's told is a blast, but the ending seems to wimp out. I know that Marvel won't kill Mystique, but it feels like losing out when the build-up has been so strong. I'm also not quite sure why Mystique has to fight Logan while she is naked in the final issue (Garney does well, but it's not as if a mainstream book can really do nudity), and I find it hard to believe that Mystique is firstly that old and secondly that she can hold her own against Wolverine and his claws. But these are small niggles compared with the good job Aaron does with such an important Marvel property.

Guy Gardner: Collateral Damage

Guy Gardner: Collateral Damage #1 and #2 by Howard Chaykin

In addition to the Gosh! half-price sale, Gosh! also collect comics together to sell in a single bag on a bargain shelf. This can range from mini-series, to several issues in a run that form an arc, or as in this example, two issues of a prestige format series – I picked this up for £2.

I have always liked the art (and writing) of Howard Chaykin; at an impressionable age, I got a British comic book magazine from a newsagent that reprinted his revival of The Shadow and the connection was made. I will read books which I wouldn't normally just because of his art and this was no exception.

The character of Guy Gardner is a perfect choice for Chaykin: as described in the book, 'Guy is smug, arrogant, sexist, specist, and just plain obnoxious'; and 'a deeply embittered, self-centred arrogant ass', who just happens to have one of the most powerful weapons in the universe. It's a great combination, and it gives ample opportunity for Chaykin to have fun with the dialogue, with Gardner spouting some awful stuff, but done in such a way that you can't help but laugh at the same time as being appalled at him.

Concerning the plot, it's something about a war in space between two genocidal species and Gardner being brought in as a neutral arbiter to broker peace talks by G'nort, another Green Lantern, but I can't say it was particularly engaging; it was just a vehicle for Chaykin to draw Gardner in sharp suits, when he isn't in the spandex, and large-breasted women. You either like Chaykin's style (lots of teeth-closed grimaces, legs splayed wide apart while jumping, close-ups of eyes) or you don't (and I do), but you have to had admire his sense of design – the first five double-page spreads, with two-thirds of the spread as a large shot, then three equal-sized panels on the right with the same visuals of faces, then a wide shot, then a close-up of the face again in the final panel, each spread for five different characters. It's impressive, as are some of the shots of the Warriors bar, although he doesn't get G'nort right – G'nort is a canine alien creature, and Chaykin's version looks quite odd; also, his other aliens look like humans who have been coloured incorrectly.

I wouldn't call this one of Chaykin's better works – since his return to drawing comics regularly again, he's been more prolific but also more relaxed than his younger, more fiery self, having more fun without necessarily making any particular point. It's well done and fun, but nothing more.

Manhunter: Street Justice TPB

Manhunter #1–5 by Marc Andreyko and Jesus Saiz

I just don't just buy Marvel trades, honest; I know that the last week of posts (and previous posts about trades) might suggest otherwise, but I'm not a Marvel zombie. I have a Marvel tendency because of growing up reading Chris Claremont's The Uncanny X-Men – my affections will always be influenced by first impressions. But I do read a wide variety of different publishers.

Today's entry is the result of a recent half-price sale of collections from Gosh! (the greatest comic shop in the world) – there's nothing like money off to tempt me to try something out. In fact, I'd previously tried to acquire this to read via my local library's reservation system, but it seemed that the only copy in London had either disappeared or been destroyed, because they couldn't get it for me. C'est la vie.

I'd been trying to get this book because the comic book blogosphere had mentioned the quality of the series, usually an indicator of at least a good read. Also, the concept of a non-superpowered woman as the lead character in an ongoing series, who is a novel creation (albeit using the name of a DC franchise) in the DC universe sounds very interesting.

Kate Spencer is a federal prosecutor in Los Angeles who loses a murder trial against Copperhead, a meta-villain, on the grounds of his suffering from a 'genetic anomaly', so she decides to take a power-enhancing suit and a power rod of some sort from the special evidence room and dispense justice for herself. The stories are quite realistic and brutal – Copperhead kills and eats his victims, and Kate kills Copperhead after he escapes from custody. And there is a point to the story: in a world where villains keep getting away with murder and escaping from prisons to commit the same atrocities again and again, where does it end? I like the idea, I like the setting and I like the choice of using Kate as the protagonist.

The main draw to the book is the character of Kate, because she's a real person – she is divorced, has a son she doesn't see enough, smokes too many cigarettes and who is dedicated to her job (perhaps to the detriment of her outside life). She is a fully realised woman with flaws and attitude and troubles. However, for me, the balance between character flaws and being an annoyance is a very fine one, one that this book veers into the latter. I don't like Kate, and I don't want to read stories about her. I enjoyed the scenario that Andreyko is building up for the character, with the introduction of Dylan, the former 'most sought-after “go-to” tech guy for psychotic killers' who went into witness protection but now acts as Kate's technical advisor. The fact that the story was set in LA was also a draw: a DC book set in a real city, away from the main fictional cities of the other heroes, is definitely a unique selling point. But Kate just irked me, so much so that I don't care about her presumed journey towards being a better person.

The other main draw is the art of Saiz – he's really good, without being unduly flashy. Kate looks like a real woman, even when she's wearing the suit; there's no cheesecake, and there's a grounded realism to the artwork, which means that it can live in the real world of LA but not lose the atmosphere when superheroes and supervillains appear for the dynamic action.

I can see why this book had its fans – it's very good and different and interesting – but I'm not really bothered to read any more (which is seemingly something that happened to the low-selling series itself when it was cancelled, twice). Sorry, Manhunter.

Fantastic Four: World's Greatest TPB

Fantastic Four #554–561 by Mark Millar and Bryan Hitch

A confession: I think I bought this book because it was such a bargain on Amazon. I got it for ~£6.50 – for eight issues, that's a great bargain, and I couldn't resist. I hadn't really read reviews for the individual comics, but I thought that it was going to be fine – the Fantastic Four done by the team who did the (good) Ultimates stories had to be good, right?

The first thing that should have been an indicator was the art – take the cover of the trade to the right (which is the same as issue #554). Fingerless gloves? Really? Hitch's art has previously been a thing of beauty – the huge panels and sweep of The Authority and The Ultimates, the clean lines, the beautiful people – but this seems muddy and inconsistent, with harsh facial lines, silly costume redesign for the team and lots of dark panels of confusing action. If there is a book that demands a clean line, it's the Fantastic Four – the world's greatest team needs great art to show the purity of the ideas, not the gritty realism of rough and ready pencil work. I know that I shouldn't begrudge an artist from developing his style, and I think that Hitch has been changing his style constantly since his early days as an Alan Davis clone, getting away from Davis' purer line work, but it seems the wrong choice for this book and almost ugly in places.

The other aspect of the book is Millar himself. You know what to expect from a Millar book – broad strokes, pop cultural references that date the work as soon as its published, sweeping plots that are fun but collapse under close scrutiny (which he thinks have never been done before and will completely redefine an old franchise). However, his style doesn't seem to gel together for the Fantastic Four. He is a good writer and has a good handle on the characters (although the Fantastic Four are the most well-defined and distinctive team in the Marvel universe), but the attempt to do large seems to get lost in explaining the ideas. The juxtaposition of the real world problem of the earth's ecosystem with the fantastical solution of a replacement earth seems a little demeaning, and a bit silly. The 'CAP' robot is also a silly idea, which is shown to be powerful in a silly way, by having a double-page spread of fallen heroes before the FF can help, and the final anime-inspired fight seems particularly silly. The second storyline, which involves some future heroes and wonderfully improbable plotting (as Johnny says: 'Now way. You guys mugged Galactus and used his power to boot up your time machine?'), results in an entirely silly alternate world status quo, which led to a mini-series by the British television writer/director (Ultraviolet, Apparitions, Doctor Who) Joe Ahearne that had its run cut short because it was selling so low (and apparently not very good) and Jonathan Hickman having to wipe under the carpet in his current run on Fantastic Four.

I think the problem with this was the lack of heart to the story, no feeling of emotional truth (if that can be said of a comic book about the first superhero family of the Marvel universe). I'm not sure I can explain that feeling very well, but if it doesn't ring true then I can't buy into it and enjoy the fun. I didn't feel any connection to it, despite the best attempts of the creators involved. At least I didn't spend too much money on it ...

Secret Warriors – Nick Fury: Agent Of Nothing TPB

Secret Warriors # 1–6 by Jonathan Hickman and Stefano Caselli (with Brian Michael Bendis on plot)

Although I haven't read Hickman's Image works, I've been enjoying his Fantastic Four run (even if it has turned into a pawn-moving exercise in the latest issues) and the first issue of S.H.I.E.L.D. was a very interesting look at a legacy concept for Marvel. I'm also a fan of espionage stories when done well – Greg Rucka's Queen and Country and Ed Brubaker's Captain America are good examples – so I was more than amenable enough to take a chance on this book.

This is a very good book – even though the secret warriors were created by Bendis, and he is responsible for the story, Hickman does the heavy lifting and does a great job. The necessary elements are present: clandestine wars, conspiracies, double-dealing, undercover agents, hard choices, sacrifices and secrets. Nick Fury has returned from the cold and is now fighting a very specific war – the reveal at the end of the first issue is perhaps a little extreme (everything he knew is a lie) but is also extremely plausible and a great set-up for a series. There is a lot going on in the series but never to the detriment of the storytelling or the clarity of the narrative (unless when being deliberately obtuse); there are also a lot of characters in the book – in addition to Fury, there are his secret warriors, his allies of old (the Contessa, Dum Dum Dugan and Gabriel Jones from the Howling Commandos), not to mention the bad guys: Baron Strucker, Kraken, Madame Hydra, Viper, The Hive and Gorgon). However, everyone is clearly identifiable and recognisable.

A good espionage story needs a good artist to help keep things on track, and Caselli is just the man for the job. He is an Italian artist, which means he has that European vibe to his superhero work, sort of like a funkier Carlos Pacheco, with a big and bold style that fills the page and really good facial work. This is important for the dialogue scenes – he and Hickman make this aspect of the book just as important as the action – but his muscular style does a great job on the fight scenes, with a real sense of dynamism and power.

I really like this book, not only for the espionage angle, but also for the characters themselves. The secret warriors are an intriguing and likeable bunch in the middle of something much bigger than anything they knew before. I particularly liked the latest addition, Eden Fesi from Australia (a nice touch that he was being mentored by Gateway), who has a great attitude: 'Total mayhem – I kicked a guy in the face! Best day ever.' Another good aspect of the book is the dialogue – Hickman has a great sense for a good line ('Howling Commandos only retire when they're good and damned ready'; Gabe: What are you going to feel when you put a bullet in one of those men, Nick?' Nick: 'Recoil.'; Fury to the president on respect for the White House: 'That !#$%'s lost its luster.'). Another thing I like is the explanation of elements of the book – we see Strucker self-destructing a base containing over 15,000 loyal servants of Hydra, demonstrating his ruthlessness, but Hickman also talks about how Hydra is constantly recruiting, especially from college campuses, where their indoctrination techniques work well on those with a 'do-gooder mentality'. It's nice touches like this, fleshing out the story, which help to make this a complete package.

Dark Avengers: Assemble TPB

Dark Avengers #1–6 by Brian Michael Bendis and Mike Deodato

I rather liked Warren Ellis' 12-issue run on Thunderbolts, which is effectively what the Dark Avengers are: the Thunderbolts masquerading as the Avengers. Bendis has always admired Ellis as a writer, so working on the same concept was probably a lot of fun for him. He even got the same artist as Ellis in Deodato, just to keep things consistent. And it is actually rather fun – Bendis seems to enjoy writing an evil but intelligent Norman Osborn, and the book is full of dialogue that is enjoyable to read. The characters drive the interactions, and there is some interesting stuff going on, such as the relationship between Osborn and the Sentry, as Osborn manipulates the mental instability of Bob Reed.

With such a strong central concept to work with, and interesting characters to use, it seems a very odd choice for the first 'action' story to be about Morgana attacking Dr Doom – it seems completely out of place for the tone of the book, and the introduction of magic into the setting creates an odd mixture. It just doesn't feel right, especially with a villain in Morgana who can die but effectively come back to life by a waving of the hand (or visiting the past or something). Not that the action is handled badly; on the contrary, Deodato does a great job on the book in all aspects, from the many pages of talking heads to the monsters and the big pages of superhero (or, rather, supervillain as superhero) action. Admittedly, he does like to draw his curvy ladies and their curvy posteriors (and why does Morgana have high heels in the past?), but he is a perfect choice for this title and is a very talented artist, doing a great job of drawing people's facial expressions to tell the story, even if he does draw Norman Osborn as Tommy Lee Jones.

For me, the draw here is the dialogue. The characters talk to each other; Bendis must love writing the dialogue for Osborn, because he writes pages and pages of it, particularly with the Sentry, but also with Victoria Hand, Osborn's new Deputy Director. There is also humorous stuff – Bullseye, on arriving in the Avengers Tower: 'You know, it's too bad I killed my mother in high school ... she would have loved this. Joking. She wouldn't a' cared.', or saying to Osborn: 'Hey ... what's with your hair anyhow?' – which is something I like to have in my comic books.

There are two strange things about this book: firstly, it is obviously a limited series (even before knowing that it ends at the culmination of the Siege storyline); because the team is tied directly to Osborn, it cannot survive when he is eventually taken down. I've got no problem with that – even good ideas can run out of steam – but it feels strange reading the book when it's set out as if it's an ongoing series. The other strange thing is reading this book and seeing the connection to the New Avengers trade I discussed yesterday; there are scenes in both books that reflect each other, something Bendis has been doing a lot of late (particularly when he was writing Secret Invasion, The New Avengers and The Mighty Avengers at the same time). It reminds me of a time when Marvel books were more connected but it's not something I'm used to seeing in the 'trade paperback' age of comic books. However, I thought this collection was a good read with good art, and I want to read more.

The New Avengers: Search For The Sorcerer Supreme

The New Avengers #51–54 by Brian Michael Bendis, Billy Tan and Chris Bachalo

Time to catch up with more trade paperbacks I purchased over the course of the months in which I wasn't blogging regularly. Today, the latest New Avengers paperback collection. I have been enjoying the odd mix of stories that Bendis has been creating in The New Avengers, but not enough to continue reading a monthly comic series with no extra pages or material for $3.99. Therefore, it seemed a good time to become a trade-waiter on one of Marvel's top selling titles.

Bendis talks a very good comic – his interviews about the thinking behind his storylines are always fascinating and show that his stories always come from character, but his plotting doesn't always get across the strength of his ideas in the final execution. Take for example this collection: it is basically about the passing of the title of Sorcerer Supreme from Dr Strange to Brother Voodoo. This is a great concept – it shakes up the status quo for Stephen Strange and is an interesting way to examine his character and what being Sorcerer Supreme meant to him and what it means to the Marvel universe when the powers are transferred. It also sets up an intriguing situation for Brother Voodoo, being the novice in charge of the most powerful magical tools in the Marvel universe, and needing Strange as a mentor. However, the resulting four-issue story doesn't reflect all of this.

Bendis works best when it comes to dialogue – I know people typecast him for it, but his ability to have characters speak to each other is really good, like the very silly but still enjoyable banter when Spider-Man reveals who he is and Jessica Jones recognises him, much to Luke Cage's dismay – but the action stuff seems to be paying lip service to the Marvel way of doing things: there must be fight scenes. It doesn't help that the artists aren't the best for the job. Tan is mostly flash over substance, with only adequate storytelling skills, excessive lines and a slightly strange look to his characters' faces. The only good sections come at the end with the Brother Voodoo section. Bachalo is a good artist – some of his panel designs and dialogue scenes are very good – but he has a tendency to draw overly complicated and obscure panels, making reading the comic book a chore rather than a pleasure.

There was another odd reaction to this book: the fact that it was only four issues. I've become so used to trades containing at least five issues that I felt short-changed by this collection. It's good that Bendis didn't drag the story out just for the sake of filling a larger trade (although it was probably more to do with the Dark Reign/Siege timelines than anything else) but I felt that I should get a more satisfying chunk of comic books for my money. We comic book fans are so hard to please ...

Blogging Defeat

I must concede defeat: today, I cannot keep my promise of writing something for the blog every day.

I'd hoped I would have a pre-prepared post kept aside for emergencies such as these but alas, no.

However, it should be pointed out that I wasn't just sunning myself in the glorious sunshine that has been basking over London today, causing our local common to be littered with the dazzling white flesh of sun worshippers, burning their exposed flabby bodies and possibly causing skin cancer.

No, the reason I didn't have the time to write anything for the blog is that I was doing a favour for a friend and editing their dissertation, because I am a nice bloke like that. I did this for most of the day in the aforementioned glorious sunshine, but that didn't stop me from checking it thoroughly for spelling and grammatical errors, consistency, use of abbreviations, sense, flow and most tiresome of all the references (which were Harvard style, which is really annoying to check that they are all cited and in the reference list). Sympathy and cakes to the usual address.

Therefore, please feel free to find your internet entertainment elsewhere, or perhaps watch the finale of that Lost programme I've heard so much about ...

Comedy: Live Recording Of Clare In The Community

It was only when I was fact-checking for this post (yes, hard to believe, I know, but I do try …) that I discovered that Clare In The Community is now in its sixth year and sixth series – it’s an impressive achievement for a radio sitcom about a social worker who gets worked up about other people’s problems while ignoring her own. It’s a very funny show with a strong cast, and I’ve always wondered why it wasn’t on television. In fact, a pilot was filmed in 2002, before the radio show, with Julia Sawalha in the lead role, but it was never broadcast. The strangest fact I discovered was that Clare In The Community started out life (and continues to this day) as a cartoon strip in The Guardian, written by Harry Venning (who co-writes the radio scripts with David Ramsden). Isn't the internet great?

I've listened to the show for a few years but I'd never got round to going to a live recording before. My lovely girlfriend snagged tickets to remedy this. As with the live recording of The Now Show, there was a large queue of people waiting long before we were allowed into the building – Clare In The Community has quite a following. This is not surprising because it is really good – I was amazed it hadn't transferred to television before. However, it is very much a radio comedy – there are some jokes in the show that can only work on radio, and it is much the better for it.

The best thing about the live recording, apart from the fun of being there as it happens, was putting faces to voices. I knew Clare was played to perfection by Sally Phillips (of Smack The Pony fame) and Nina Conti played her Scottish co-worked Meggan (although I didn't realise that she also played the Eastern European nanny, which was impressive), but I could finally see the face of Brian, her long-suffering teacher boyfriend (Alex Lowe), and her work colleagues Helen (Liza Tarbuck) and Ray (Richard Lumsden). There was a new addition to the cast this year – another social worker: Libby, the lesbian Australian. I recognised as an Australian comedienne who had done a set on Russell Howard's Good News Extra, but my Google-Fu has failed me in locating her name. Sigh ...

[Edit: Sean Prower, from The British Comedy Guide, emailed to tell me that the name of the comedian is Sarah Kendall. Thanks, Sean. Among the things he has written on the site, he wrote the entry for Clare In The Community. Go read it to thank him for me.]

We were treated to two episodes, both of which were excellent – the quality of writing was very sharp and the performances were great; it was very funny, and funny watching people trying not to laugh while performing the show, especially when they know a particularly good bit was coming up. Sally Phillips seemed to be enjoying herself even more than the others. It was impressive seeing the cast doubling up – all of them apart from Phillips and Tarbuck did at least two different voices during the night, although special credit must go to Conti for her performance in the second episode, which saw her switching between the two voices (both of which are not her own natural accent) in alternating scenes with aplomb.

The shows were very funny – there was even a joke playing on the Gordon Brown 'Bigotgate' incident – so much so that, of the few extra takes that were needed after the initial recording, one of the retakes was because the audience was laughing too much, ruining the rhythm of the joke and putting Phillips of the timing of the punchline. Admittedly, the crowd was full of fans – the producer offered to give people a quick introduction to the show, but the audience reaction told her she didn't need to do it – but everyone had a very enjoyable evening, and I can't wait until they start broadcasting the episodes on Radio 4 to relive the experience again.

It’s A London Thing

[Writing about television programmes really takes it out of me, so you'll have to wait for the final post in the current run, because it will take a bit more time to get it all together. So, here's something completely unrelated.]

I was born and bred in London and, with the exceptions of living and working in three other cities, I’ve spent most of my life in London. I’m supposed to be of an age where I move further away from the city, even to another county, but I find it impossible to do when London is such a great place, with so much to do and so much to offer.

Take for example a recent Saturday. Without having to get up too early, my girlfriend and I travel to the Barbican, the wonderfully odd and interesting art centre in the City of London, to see a free art installation – the Céleste Boursier-Mougenot commission for The Curve gallery. To quote the website, it is ‘a walk-through aviary for a flock of zebra finches, furnished with electric guitars and other instruments and objects’. We arrived about 20 minutes before it opened and there was already a queue, but we were in the first batch of people admitted to the exhibit and it was a joy. The point of the installation is the music created by the birds, but that wasn't the most appealing factor. What I got out of it was being so close to these tiny little birds, mostly oblivious to the people walking around them. In fact, if you stood in the correct place in the hall, the birds would land on you, especially women with handbags on their shoulder, with all the perches created by the material. It was so easy to wander around, being close to the birds as they sat on guitar strings or tried to build a nest on the bridge of another guitar, you completely lose track of time as you became enchanted by the proximity and the connection to nature.

After a refreshing beverage and wandering around the ‘lakeside’ terrace of the Barbican – the sun was shining on old London town, and the combination of water and old buildings and new buildings was quite beautiful – we walked up to Islington to visit the large Cass Arts there before hopping on a bus to take us to King’s Cross for lunch. In a side road off the Euston Road, away from the normal food areas, is Snazz Sichuan. Sichuan food is one of the latest ‘new’ cuisines to hit London recently, but this is not the recent for our decision to go there – having recently discovered My Old Place near Liverpool Street, we’ve been looking for any place in London that serves this fiery Chinese food. My Old Place is a small, unspectacular-looking restaurant that closes from 2 pm to 5 pm, even on the weekends, but it serves some amazing food – the dry-fried chicken with chillies authentic style is the most amazing taste sensation I’ve ever had, and they do dry fried green beans in chilli that is fantastic – so we’ve been looking for other places because we felt guilty about going to the same place all the time. Snazz Sichuan looks more like a fancy restaurant – we were sat in booths in the window, although it was fairly empty for a Saturday around 1.30pm – but it still serves extremely spicy food. A hearty meal of dandan noodles, dumplings in chilli sauce, their version of the dry fried chicken (but with a cumin-containing flour coating the chicken), and ‘hot and numbing beef in fiery soup’ filled our stomachs and spiced up our mouths, although they didn’t use as much Sichuan peppercorns as My Old Place.

The next stop for the day was fortunately a few steps away – the Magnificent Maps exhibit at the British Library. The library itself is impressive enough, but the exhibition of old maps (some dating back to the 1400s) and even the largest atlas in the world was very impressive, especially as it was free – the proximity of both Euston and King’s Cross stations meant that there were a lot of people in the exhibit, dragging their luggage around with them. I would suggest going at a quieter time to fully appreciate the pieces on display. The maps and globes show the history of the map and its use in displaying wealth, power and changing history, and is a fascinating look at the way they have been used.

[You can get the female perspective of this day over at the blog of my long-suffering and lovely girlfriend Kim, who has to put up with me dragging her around lovely London.]

Now, tell me – after a day like that, when we didn’t even take full advantage of the city, how can we possibly leave London?

TV: Veronica Mars

I can’t remember the last time there was such a disconnect between the material in the first episode and the time and location at which it was aired – Veronica Mars was shown on E4 last summer (around July 2009) at about 8am every week day, as part of the channel’s youth programming. The first episode contains the rather grisly death of the lead character’s best friend and the drugging/date-raping of the lead character at a high school party – and they say comic books aren’t kid-friendly any more … This is not the sort of material you might expect from a supposedly teen-orientated show; fortunately, the rest of the series wasn’t quite as depressing as that first episode, with the exception of the episode later in the series where the date rape is focussed on: E4 made a specific point of airing this episode at a post-watershed time.

The rest of Veronica Mars was much more entertaining than my first paragraph suggests – in fact, the first season was one of the most enjoyable programmes around. Veronica (Kristen Bell, who is fantastic throughout, able to handle the serious emotional stuff along with the sassy attitude and throwing out pop cultural references with aplomb) is a great female lead character – she’s suffered the death of her best friend, the local shaming of her father, the abandonment by her mother and ostracism from her influential social group at school, but she is still a decent, hard-working, concerned individual who tries to do the right thing. And she’s really funny.

Where to start on what it’s all about? Set in the fictional town of Neptune, California, Veronica is a high school student who is also a private investigator of sorts, working with her father, Keith (Enrico Colantoni, who is fantastic in this; probably my favourite character, he has a strong moral sense of duty and honour, loves his daughter and encourages her to be all she can, and is really funny), who is now a private investigator after being sacked from the position of sheriff after he arrested the most powerful man in town for the murder of his own daughter, Lilly Kane (played by Amanda Seyfried before she hit big in Mamma Mia!, and who was so good in the flashback scenes that she appeared more and more throughout the first series), which was also the reason why she was ostracised at high school – she was part of the in-crowd when she was dating Lily’s brother, Duncan, so she was hated by everyone else before being hated by the in-crowd. Throughout the first series, she solves a ‘mystery of the week’ at school or for friends while investigating the murder of her best friend after discovering evidence that the man who confessed to the killing may be innocent.

The set-up is the basis for a really fun show: the playful banter, the character interaction and the pop cultural riffing made for entertaining television. For the most part, and with the exceptions of the more miserable parts (the murders, the date rape, a school bus going off a cliff, the rape storyline in the third season, etc.), the show was a lot of fun. Veronica nearly always has an answer for everything, preferably with a geeky reference (although how she was able to develop such an intimate knowledge of film/television/comics while she was working so hard at school and learning how to be a detective ...), something which the rest of the characters joined in with as well. It was no wonder that Joss Whedon was such a fan – a feisty teenage blonde girl who fights crime with slang dialogue and a team of support characters: sound familiar? He liked it so much he even appeared in the show in the second season, as did Kevin Smith, who appeared as a convenience store clerk in the second season. Others appeared in the show to boost its cool credentials – the Buffy connection is bolstered by recurring roles for Charisma Carpenter and Alyson Hannigan – and there were other stars appearing: Steve Guttenberg, Harry Hamlin (as an Oscar-winning, A-list actor), Ed Begley Jr, and Laura San Giacomo (for a Just Shoot Me reunion with Colantoni that was rather lovely).

The show wasn't perfect – the soap opera antics of teenage relationships did get in the way of things. Veronica was in a relationship with the more normal Duncan (although they made him chemically unbalanced to spice things up later on) but then ended up in a relationship with 'bad boy' Logan, son of Hamlin's actor and who had been going out with Lilly, something that weakened his character from a sarcastic and arrogant rich boy into a whining wuss. The other characters also got into various relationships (Keith nearly had some, but Veronica seemed to make him feel guilty and he would stop it), but never quite as annoying as Veronica's. Another aspect at which the show tried but eventually failed was showing diversity – Veronica's best friend was a black guy called Wallace, who was around in the first season but faded into the background later on; Veronica also was friends, sort of, with Eli (aka Weevil), the head of the local Latino biker gang (thus providing an in-road to the criminal side of local life), who again was prominent in the first two seasons but who had to be forcibly inserted into the third series to keep continuum.

The series did suffer as it went on – the first series was a complete entity unto itself, with an overall mystery that was successfully and grippingly concluded. The second series set up another mystery for the series (the school bus going off a cliff) but also included further complications to the mystery of the first series, thus slightly invalidating the completeness of the first series. The third series suffered the Buffy curse when they went to college and the series didn't work as organically as before; I'm not against shows trying new things but it seemed to twist on itself in order to keep the cast together in the same local college, and it never regained its rhythm, not helped by a decision to have smaller mysteries over shorter arcs in order to keep the dwindling ratings from collapsing. But the show seemed to lose some of its spark all round, with the clever pop culture references becoming just reciting of dialogue from films line-for-line instead of sly asides, and the aforementioned banality of the Veronica–Logan relationship (and don't get me started on the incredible irritation that was the Piz character).

But when Veronica Mars was on form, it was one of the best shows around. Good mysteries, a clever examination of the different cliques in a California high school, a great father–daughter relationship, really funny dialogue, hip cultural references but without being annoying, and a central character who was believable, delightful, three-dimensional, human and a delight to be in her company – Kristen Bell deservedly became a star because of this performance and is the main reason why people want to see a Veronica Mars film. The idea of her as an FBI agent sounds too good to miss. I'm glad that E4 decided to put the entire series on throughout last summer because, overall, it was more enjoyable than not. Hell, I even liked the theme tune. If you haven't watched the show, do yourself a favour and check it out; my discussion of it doesn't do it justice.

Comedy: Chris Addison at The Bloomsbury Theatre

[I interrupt my catching up on television programmes to talk about something that isn't a television programme, but at least it's about someone who has been in television programmes.]

Chris Addison has a slightly bigger profile than Lucy Porter, who I saw last month – he plays Ollie in The Thick Of It (and a similar character in the film In The Loop), he starred in and co-wrote a sitcom, Lab Rats (which I thought was rather rubbish, to be honest), he has had columns in The Guardian and The Evening Standard, and he hosts a radio show called 7 Day Sunday on Radio 5 Live. All this goes some way to explain why the same theatre was completely full, rather than half-full for Lucy Porter.

Addison’s approach to comedy has a lecture style, as can be heard in the radio adaptations of two of his Edinburgh shows (several of which were Perrier nominated), The Ape That Got Lucky and Civilisation. He is intelligent, cares about big ideas and is passionate about the state of the world and politics. This was his first live tour in five years, so it didn’t have a particular theme, it was just aiming to provide an entertaining show that reflected him – he didn’t have a warm-up act, and he did a two-hour show, including a short Q&A at the end. The first half was about his physicality or, rather, lack of it, as he talked about his spindly frame and the torturous experiences of sport at school and his lack of coordination now, even to the extent that he was admitting to his rubbishness at sex (he is married with a child, and deliberately didn’t do any baby material).

Having humiliated and belittled himself in the first half, Addison allowed himself to humiliate and belittle others in the second half, from a point of superiority; targets included women who wear Ugg boots, people who watch ITV news, politicians, people who report the news (particularly the use of incidental music behind news pieces; there was mocking of Channel 4 news because some of the team was in the audience, including presenter Krishnan Guru-Murthy), stupid people in general and the Conservatives – the show was the night before the General Election, and Addison made a point of telling people to vote (although he knew that he was preaching to the converted because his audience is middle-class people who are aware of the issues, much like he is himself; as he joked, the audience was so middle class, he was embarrassed he hadn’t brought a bottle of wine with him), even if they might disagree with his politics.

Addison was blisteringly funny – sharp, hilarious, well thought out, clear and with a point, running around the stage in his student garb of a colourful shirt, jeans and pumps, even though he is 38 years old (he’s only a couple of years younger than me, so perhaps we have a lot in common, with a lot of the same cultural touchstones in life). He was confident on stage, although he did have some odd tics, like scratching under his right arm and behind his ear (not sure if that was the mike equipment), tending to stand slightly sideways to the audience on occasion, not really looking towards the left side of the auditorium, and a disconcerting tic of looking away from the audience when he’d delivered a particularly good line. But that’s just me being all critique-y – he gave a terrific performance of really funny, intelligent material that I would heartily recommend people see. If you can’t get to see him live, you can follow him on Twitter at www.twitter.com/mrchrisaddison, where some of his tweets ended up in the show.

TV: True Blood

True Blood is one of the most all-round entertaining shows I’ve seen in a while. It has everything – sex, death, humour, horror, the supernatural, a serial killer, prejudice, telepathy, violence, shocking moments and tension. It’s an impressive achievement, especially when you consider it’s about vampires; Alan Ball (the creator of Six Feet Under and writer of American Beauty, not the squeaky-voiced English footballer who became Manchester City manager, thus inspiring the greatest football chant in the world: ‘Maybe, we should have got Liam Brady, but after all, you’re my Alan Ball’, sung to the tune of Wonderwall) has done a wonderful job of adapting a book into an entertaining, (relatively) mainstream drama about a love story between a telepath and a vampire.

In the world of True Blood, vampires not only exist but have recently come out to the world, saying that they should have various rights, especially as they don’t need to drink human blood to survive (they can survive on the artificial version, Tru Blood, available to buy at the local convenience store); however, the prejudice between humans and vampires is still strong, especially as these vampires are mostly the vampires of the Dracula version – they are faster and stronger than humans, they burn in sunlight, they can ‘glamour’ humans, they can be controlled with silver, and they sprout fangs when they want to feed on humans for their blood. This is an interesting enough set-up for a show, but then we meet the star: Sookie Stackhouse (Anna Paquin), a young woman working as a waitress at a bar in Bon Temps, Louisiana, who can hear people’s thoughts, meaning she’s not had a boyfriend for very long (hearing their horny thoughts is off-putting). She falls in love instantly with Bill Compton (Steve Moyer, who does a great job on the accent; I would never have guessed he was English), a vampire who was turned during the Civil War and who is ‘mainstreaming’ – mixing with humans and surviving on Tru Blood; he reciprocates the feeling. This moment is conveyed beautifully – it should be cheesy, but the acting and the production as their eyes meet and emotions run over their faces to swelling music is genuinely believable and magical. It should be noted that Paquin and Moyer are now engaged in real life.

If this wasn’t enough for a series, there is the additional element of a serial killer, who seemingly only kills women, and women who have been involved with Sookie’s dim but buff brother, Jason, who is a ladies’ man with a total lack of self-awareness. This is the storyline that covers this first season, although it becomes relegated to a lesser sub-plot at later stages of the season when there are other storylines to consider. And there is a lot happening in this series – there is ‘V’, the latest drug of choice, which happens to be vampire blood; there’s the background to the vampire hierarchy in the region, when we meet the vampire sheriff, who owns the local vampire bar where humans flock; there is the mystery of Sam, the owner of Merlotte’s bar where Sookie works (and for whom Sam holds a torch); there is the politics involved as vampires try to acquire their rights, and the religious groups who oppose them; not to mention the ‘exorcism’ of another character’s alcoholic mother. You keep coming back each episode because there is a great cliffhanger at the end of each of the episodes before the finale (and even the finale sets up things for the next series), something that very few programmes are able to do well any more.

The other aspect that is impressive is the characters – there are a lot of people in this show but each one is a fully rounded individual who plays an important part in the show. The best supporting character is Tara, Sookie’s best friend since they were children; she is a force of nature who also happens to get the majority of the best lines, doesn’t stand for any shit, speaks up for herself at every opportunity, and unfortunately still holds a torch for Jason even though he doesn’t see her that way, despite the fact that she is gorgeous (interestingly, the character in the book was white but Ball changed her to a black character, which incensed fans of the books, but they should get over themselves because Tara is fantastic). There is Tara’s cousin, Lafayette, a large black gay man who works as a chef in the bar, who is a hustler on the side and also deals in V to a small clientèle, and who also doesn’t take any shit – he shouts ‘Who ordered the Aids burger?’ in the bar when encountering some homophobic rednecks. There is bar owner Sam, with his mystery; Jason, who makes us almost care about an egotistic, racist, homophobic, prejudiced redneck idiot; there is a great turn from Stephen Root as a gay, introverted vampire who provides the vampire blood for Lafayette; and the wonderfully schizoid character of Amy (played by Lizzy Caplan, who I finally recognised as the ‘nerdy’ friend of Lindsay Lohan in Mean Girls), a seemingly hippy girl who Jason falls for, before she shows her steelier side when they kidnap Root’s character for his blood. All of these are believable and three-dimensional, and they’re not event the two main characters, who are more than the description of ‘telepath’ or ‘vampire’.

Then there is the sex. Vampire stories are about sex, obviously, but True Blood admits it and includes lashings of nudity and sex, while still being sexy. This is a very adult drama – the language is full of expletives, there is a lot of blood and gore (sometimes very shocking), and there is death as well. An aside: the only troubling factor about the whole show is the murders of the women; I know that it probably was the storyline from the book, and there is a reason for it, but it felt slightly unpleasant that the deaths of women was the central plot device. However, True Blood is an excellent piece of quality drama, as you would expect from HBO, but what's even better is that it is firmly in the supernatural section of the entertainment market. I can't wait until Channel 4 starts showing the second series.

TV: Misfits

I’ve been catching up on the comic books and trade paperbacks I bought and the films I saw last year, but I've neglected the television shows I watched and liked last year. Talking about Heroes and FlashForward the other day got me thinking that I should mention programmes that deserve a mention. First up, Misfits.

I can imagine that the pitch meeting for Misfits involved the phrase ‘Skins meets Heroes’ at some point, but that description doesn’t do it justice. Yes, it’s about Asbo teenagers who get super powers but the programme (created and written by Howard Overman), which is well written, well produced and extremely funny while having some dark moments, is so good that it becomes its own descriptor, instead of a mash-up concept.

In a community centre in south-east London, some young offenders are reluctantly doing their community service when a strange electrical storm passes overhead and they are hit with lightning. They soon learn that the storm has given them powers, with the exception of mouthy Nathan: Alisha, a very pretty girl who knows it, discovers that her touch causes sexual frenzy in people; Curtis, a once Olympic-hopeful athlete who got caught with cocaine, can turn back time; Simon, a quiet loner who is ignored by people, can become invisible; Kelly, a chav with the Dagenham Facelift hairstyle, can hear people’s thoughts (and her dog’s thoughts, which was hilarious). Their probation worker also gains powers, but it turns him into a strong, crazed killer – he murders a young offender who wasn’t hit by the storm, and tries to kill the rest of them, but they survive and accidentally kill him. Realising that the situation looks bad, they dispose of the bodies and promise to keep it a secret, thus cementing the bond between them.

This is a classic superhero origin story, but done with a subversive approach. The group even have superhero costumes, of a sort, as they are all wearing orange jumpsuits as part when doing their community service. They have a reason to stick together; however, instead of a noble goal, they are hiding a justified manslaughter. Fortunately, they don’t have a super-powered arch-nemesis, but there are other problems: the girlfriend of the probation worker wants to know why he’s disappeared; other people seem to be developing superpowers (did they get them from the storm, or interacting with the misfits?); what is Nathan’s super power, apart from mouthiness?

The programme looks and sounds really good – it’s shot well and has a great soundtrack, and the choice of superpowers means they don’t have to worry about CGI: apart from a bit of speeded-up film for Simon turning invisible, none of the powers requires camera trickery in the way Heroes did. On the issue of powers, the way they reflect aspects of the characters is a really nice touch, further enriching the characters, who might be mistaken for one-dimensional at first (which is perhaps the point – the stereotyping of Asbo teens is something this programme rails against). The powers are hinted at in the excellent animated opening credit sequence – lines emanating from Kelly’s mind, Simon losing his shadow as he walks, Curtis’s shadow runs backwards – which shows the attention to detail in every aspect of the programme.

There are six episodes in the first season – a second series has been commissioned by Channel 4 (although I think it’s only been shown on E4 so far) – with each having an emphasis on one of the characters but still including them all. The episode where Curtis uses his time powers to alter his past, so that his girlfriend doesn’t go to jail for cocaine possession, is a particular stand out, and Nathan is the stand-out character because he gets the best lines of dialogue (Probation worker: "If you've got any questions, just ask." Nathan, instantly: "If a bear and a shark had a fight – who would win?"). There are also moments of darkness and depth in the shows, refusing to ignore all the aspects of life and death and how people interact in society. The characters develop over the course of the six episodes – Kelly softens from her more aggressive early self, Alisha develops a non-physical relationship with Curtis, Simon discovers that these people are his friends, and even Nathan calms down a bit and thinks of other people. And there’s a mystery for the next series: who is the mysterious ‘superhoodie’ on the bike who saves Nathan in the sixth episode?

Another aspect to the show was the new media inclusion – apart from the very good official site, nearly all the main characters have Twitter accounts, Alisha has a Tumblr blog, and Simon has Facebook and YouTube pages – which is another example of the level of dedication to a great show. Looking forward to the second series.

More Geek Habits

Talking about my geek viewing habits got me thinking about other habits of the geek, at least from my own perspective and how it affects the geek life.

One aspect touched on in having to watch every episode of something, even if you don't like it, is the completion factor. When the geek finds something, you have to have it all. You can't just dip in – you have to find everything you missed and try to see it in the right order. For example, the first episodes of the Battlestar Galactica I saw were at the beginning of the first full season and I only discovered that there was an introductory mini-series when I realised how awesome it was. So I had to see the mini-series, even though I was already on the journey that the mini-series initiated.

The completion factor is a very important part of the comic book collector – how many times have you heard about fans of Spider-man who have to have every comic book in the various Spider-man series, who buys the book even though they might hate a particular storyline/creator just because they don't want to ruin their collection? Why would people spend money on things they hate? Because they're a geek.

There are variations on this – when you find a comic book creator you like, you may need to buy all of their comics, even if it's a fill-in issue of Ghost Rider (in this case, a Warren Ellis-written comic); or you can buy all the merchandise associated with a certain character (I don't do this – I never understand those guys, say in Comics Should Be Good's Shelf Porn series, who have lots of action figures of the same character); or you can be a Star Trek fan and find yourself buying all the different versions of the DVDs that Paramount think they can get away with.

The collecting and compiling gene is an important part of the geek make-up. I recall doing one of those career tests (when I was deciding I didn't want to be a scientist any more) that are supposed to be able to work out what job area you should be doing; a lot of my answers suggested librarian/database type. It's part of you that has to put your DVDs into alphabetical order (after trying out a TV/film split, or by genre), or working out how to sort through your longboxes of comics – do you go by publisher or character or (in my case) by creator? And then you have to have spreadsheets documenting all of this so that you can quickly reference everything – I have a spreadsheet of my comics in alphabetical order, with the name of writer, artist, the type of series and the publisher. I also have spreadsheets listing my DVDs and books. Just because.

Another factor is the collecting things that you believe define you, to reflect how you see yourself and how you think others see you. This can be t-shirts or bags or a phone skins or any piece of merchandise that can be seen in public (the collection is not to be displayed to the world, only to people worthy of seeing – those who can appreciate it, or close family members who understand the obsession. The most perfect object should be something that only someone in the know will understand – I want to buy the Genca Pura Olive Oil t-shirt from Last Exit To Nowhere because only people who love The Godfather will get the reference, a tenet that particular t-shirt company is based on.

Another geek habit is writing a blog on your geek habits in an obsessive daily manner. But that's a post for another time ...

The Stubborn Viewing Habits of The Geek

Is there something inherent to the genetics of the genre fan that provides the pig-headed determination to keep watching a series to the very end, even if the show isn’t as enjoyable as it used to be? Is it an ersatz faith, believing in the show despite the problems? Is it because genre shows never used to be so prevalent before, and it’s a loyalty issue? Is it the fact that it will provide ample opportunity for passionate complaining about how it isn’t as good as it used to be? Or is it just plain stupidity, a lack of critical faculty when it comes to the type of entertainment you enjoy?

I know that I have a dedication to seeing something through to the end in other aspects of life – unless something is completely without any redeeming features at all, I will watch a film or a sitcom or an episode of a programme or read a book or whatever until it is finished, believing that I owe the creators the benefit of the doubt because they’ve gone to the effort of making it in the first place. But this determination seems to extend further when it comes to watching an extended sci-fi-based television series.

The example, and the impetus for these thoughts, is Heroes – this is a show that stopped being good in the final episode of the first season, when it totally ruined the rest of the otherwise good series. I’ve kept watching it and watching it, and I don’t really know why – the villain of the recent series, Samuel, with that really annoying American version of an Irish accent and the stupid triangle of facial hair under the chin, was perhaps the most irritating so far (and, when he tries to kill thousands of people, after killing hundreds of people in a small town, his big comedown is … falling to his knees and realising he can’t kill them? What kind of denouement is that?); we see that the regular Claremont story of telepaths stuck in someone’s mind with a wall to represent a block REALLY doesn’t work on television; it seems that television is no different to comic books because nobody actually cuts off Sylar’s head after all the killings; the dialogue had got so wooden (Sylar actually saying the words ‘It’s a Brave New World’ at the end without laughing his arse off was impressive), I was feeling sorry for the actors for having to look serious while being forced to speak it, as if somebody was holding a gun to their puppy or something. It's actually quite a relief that they've finally cancelled it ...

Anyway, my point – why do I keep watching? I have continued to watch FlashForward, despite it not being very entertaining, if only because the central idea is actually rather interesting and I want to see if they can come through on the promise; I will admit that the second half of the season has picked up a little, remembering that things HAVE TO ACTUALLY HAPPEN for people to become engaged with the programme, but it can still fall back into lazy episodes where nothing happens until the last two minutes. It’s so frustrating, but I’ve set my series link and I will watch it until the end of the first, and now final, season (as it has got the chop, too).

Is it just because I have an affinity with programmes that use a sci-fi or paranormal element? These are not the only things I watch on television – see my thoughts on The Wire or various comedy/other programmes – but I feel duty-bound to try out new stuff that veers into the geek niche. There are always things that keep me sufficiently interested – FlashForward has a great central idea, of people having visions of their futures; Heroes has glimpses of common comic book tropes that survive the transition to moving pictures that make me smile even while the rest of the story makes me frown or get angry – but why is that enough to allow me to persevere through the hardships? I don’t think I’m a sadomasochist …

Notes On A Film: Solomon Kane

Solomon Kane was created by Robert E Howard a few years before he created Conan, and appeared in pulp magazines of the time (and in some comic books for Marvel in the 1970s). I mention this because I have read neither and didn’t have any knowledge of the character before watching the film. I like a slice of sword and sorcery, I like to watch smaller non-Hollywood films, and I’ve always thought that James Purefoy was a good actor who should have been a bigger name (even though the first film I remember seeing him in was Maybe Baby by Ben Elton, where his character was doing some of the worst taijiquan I’ve ever seen on celluloid).

The two main attributes to the film are Purefoy as Solomon Kane, and the gritty and atmospheric mood in which the film percolates, as created by director/writer Michael J Bassett – the film is set in the early 1600s and feels authentic (although it feels sometimes as if it is set several hundred years earlier). Kane starts the film as a mercenary fighting for Queen Elizabeth I, attacking and defeating the inhabitants of an Ottoman fortress. However, when he and his crew reach the throne room, most of them are killed and he is told by a demon that his soul has been damned and will go to hell. He escapes, vowing to avoid this fate, which he does by joining an English monastery; however, the abbot eventually expels him and Kane returns to his ancestral home. After a brush with some ruffians (who don’t kill him, because he has to stay alive for the film), he falls in with a family of puritans heading to the New World (headed by a particularly craggy-looking Pete Postlethwaite), who subsequently get attacked; Postlethwaite and his son are killed, the wife spared and the daughter taken, and Postlethwaite handily tells Kane that his soul will be redeemed if he saves his daughter (although how Postlethwaite would know that is unclear; it would sound like the desperate plea of a dying man …). So Kane decides to take up his violent ways again after swearing never to do so.

This is effectively the origin story of Kane (the film is the first of a hoped-for trilogy), a theme which is very popular at the moment with superheroes and their ilk. This means that there isn’t as much action as you might expect but more brooding and talking. The action that does occur is well choreographed and sufficiently bloody – Purefoy is a talented swordsman after his years in the theatre, and there is a good visceral quality to the fight scenes. There are some familiar faces in supporting roles, such as Mackenzie Crook as a deranged priest with a strange flock, Jason Flemyng as Malachi, the ultimate villain of the piece (a priest who became a sorcerer), and Max Von Sydow as Kane's father, and the film is sufficiently entertaining and sufficiently good for what it is, but nothing more than that.

I don’t want to appear harsh about the film because I quite enjoyed it, but it’s not a film about which you would enthuse because of great moments or that it does something you haven’t seen before, but it is good as a piece of well-done genre entertainment. There are things that get in the way of suspending disbelief – why did the ruffians not kill Kane in the first section? Why would the soldiers of Malachi attempt to kill Kane by crucifying him (thus allowing him the opportunity to escape) instead of just killing him outright? And even waving the nebulous concept of ‘magic’ around doesn’t make me believe that someone who forces his hands over the rusty nails that have been banged through them, leaving great holes in them, can be cured by an old pagan crone – he’s going to have big chunks of the middle of his palms missing at best. Also, the CGI-heavy finale seems at loggerheads with the rest of the realistic approach to the movie – the theological basis for the origin seems to give way to Dark Magic for no discernible reason, nor explain why Kane’s soul is so special that a demon from hell is summoned to retrieve it (meaning the scale of the fight against the demon for Kane seems completely implausible, meaning the denouement has no narrative satisfaction). But I’m probably being excessively picky for the sake of writing about it – I would be interested in seeing a sequel to this, where we would get to see much more of Kane kicking arse and taking names, even though I don’t think that it will ever happen.

Rating: DVD

[See here for my updated film rating system]

Notes On A Film: Percy Jackson And The Lightning Thief

One good thing: at least the UK title wasn't as silly as the American title (Percy Jackson & The Olympians: The Lightning Thief), which sounds like the tour name for a disco band.

I wanted to see this film because anything that takes an interesting modern spin on Greek mythology (and keeps it alive and fresh) is fine with me, and also because it was an adaptation of a book – it's usually a sign that the story has been worked out in advance, and there won't be any messing around with the narrative flow in the editing suite because they don't know what they've got. However, I didn't realise the parallels to the Harry Potter films would be so embarrassingly obvious ...

Chris Columbus brought the first two Harry Potter films to uninspired but faithful life, and he's used exactly the same template to create another adaptation of a series of books about a boy who finds out he is magical. Percy Jackson (Logan Lerman) has a tough family life (his mother, Catherine Keener, is married to the slobbish Joe Pantoliano, who treats Percy badly); he discovers he has magical heritage (he is the son of Poseidon, Kevin McKidd), so goes to a special school (a summer camp for demigods hilariously called Camp Half-Blood, run by the centaur Chiron, Pierce Brosnan), and has a best friend who provides the humour (but with a difference, because he's a sassy black kid who is also a satyr, which the Americans insist on pronouncing incorrectly as 'say-ter' throughout the whole film), as well as a beautiful girl friend who is the best student in the camp (but with the difference of her as the potential love interest; the only problem with the Harry Potter films is that Emma Watson is far too pretty for Rupert Grint, and she and Daniel Radcliffe look so much more like a couple), and they go on an adventure that is against school rules. It's like they did it deliberately as in-joke for people who like to spot these things.

One of the smart things they did in the Harry Potter films was to cast good actors in the adult character roles, making the best of minor roles because the kids are in the entire film. This film makes the same smart decision by picking actors who have lots of fun in their roles: Uma Thurman is wonderful as Medusa, Steve Coogan is hilarious as Hades, Rosario Dawson is delightfully sexy as Persephone, and Brosnan has lots of fun as a centaur, something he realises while playing the role. This is to counter the fact that the kids are quite bland, which is to be expected – most American teens on film are identikit and devoid of character anyway, so what're you gonna do?

The film goes for the mainstream blockbuster experience, so fight scenes aren't too scary, the narrative feels not quite formulaic but more obviously novelistic (moving from one chapter to the next without smooth transition, something you wouldn't notice reading the book), the Greek gods are watered down to wipe away the rough edges of rape and death, and the whole thing boils down to father issues and how wonderful family is (an obsession in American mainstream entertainment). However, Columbus keeps things ticking along, there are nice pieces of Greek mythology thrown in (including a Hydra, a Minotaur and a Fury), and it's inoffensive entertainment with good CGI and some fun action. And, for bonus points, instead of using 'For The Love Of Money' by The O'Jays when our three heroes end up in Las Vegas (as nearly all other films and television programmes do), they use the fantastic 'A Little Less Conversation' by Elvis Presley, as first used by Steven Soderbergh in Ocean's 11. In summary: not great but not bad.

Rating: DVD

[See here for my updated film rating system]

Notes On A Film: Youth In Revolt

The basic gist of this film is boiled down to 'teen romantic comedy' meets Fight Club – Michael Cera plays Nick Twisp, who invents a cigarette-smoking, thin moustache-wearing, smooth-talking alter ego called François Dillinger so that he can impress a girl. Therefore, the film needs a good central performance or, rather, two performances; fortunately, Cera is up to the task – he distinguishes the two characters through his acting (and not just the moustache), and he does a really good job of a strong leading role.

The film, adapted from a huge novel, is an absurdist and entertaining film, as the Dillinger persona causes Twisp to do more outrageous things in order to win her heart, eventually turning Twisp into a wanted criminal for the actions that ensue. It has a dark and bizarre logic that runs through it, even as events run more and more out of control, with a rich vein of black humour and intelligence running though it.

One of the nice aspects of the film is the cast – Steve Buscemi, Ray Liotta, Fred Willard, M Emmet Walsh, Justin Long, Zack Galifianakis all have small parts but they make their characters believable and three-dimensional, enriching the film with their presence. It's odd to see them in such a small indie film, but they don't destroy the balance of the reality the film creates.

The film is good but it doesn't stretch to great; it's a delicate balance between absurd/quirky and slightly annoying or implausible, something that I don't think that the director Miguel Arteta achieves. His milieu seems to celebrate an awkwardness – Chuck & Buck and The Good Girl celebrate the alien quality of their central characters and situations – and I always feel that I don't want to see them again, even if I enjoyed them enough the first time round.

Rating: DVD

[See here for my updated film rating system]

Comics I Bought 28 January 2010

The last week of comic books from January, and there's a lot to get through, so no time for pithy introductions.

Astro City: The Dark Age Book 4 #1
Although Kurt Busiek packs a lot into this book, I've got a little fatigued by The Dark Age – the Swamp Thing-like character raises a smile, but I think I shall have to come back to this long-form story at a later stage so that I can appreciate its quality because I'm just getting a little fed-up with it. Sorry, Mr Busiek.

Batman and Robin #7
Thank you, Cameron Stewart, for drawing Batman and Robin and helping us forget the artist on the previous three issues – what was his name again? (See what I did there?) Stewart is a great artist who works really well with Grant Morrison, and the action scenes in London in the first section of the book are just fantastic. Morrison has a lot of fun here – Basement 101 is the prison for the UK's para-criminals in the Tower of London; the uber-Cockney dialogue ('She'll have his Davinas for earrings.'); the Squire and the Knight making a welcomed return. This is just really, really enjoyable and I can't wait to read the next issue.

Detective Comics #861
I almost feel sorry for Jock, having to follow JH Williams III on Detective Comics, where he has done some of the best superhero comic book art of this year, but Jock is up to the task in his own right – his gritty, muscular stylings are perfect for the Greg Rucka urban realism of Batwoman (and Batman). He does his own thing for most of the issue, but the double-page spread in the middle of the book of Batwoman and Batman does feel like a Williams-inspired page. The book is still worth the extra money with the Second Feature taking an interesting turn with the Huntress and the Question using questionable tactics to obtain information, so definitely a keeper for the moment.

Fantastic Four #575
There are three beautiful images in this book from Dale Eaglesham: the full page of the buried Galactus from the future; the gates to the abandoned city of the High Evolutionary; and the final page of the inside of the abandoned city of the High Evolutionary. However, they serve an issue where nothing happens – it's all information disguised as a story; Hickman even having to resort to a a final page that is purely exposition, just presented in a fancy format. It's a slightly worrying direction for the book to take, and makes me wonder where it's heading.

X-Factor #201
Bing Cansino provides some inconsistent guest pencils to this issue (there is no inker listed in the credits, which might explain the unusual quality to the art), which seems a strange choice after relaunching X-Factor, but what do I know. The story is quieter than the previous issue, albeit with The Thing thrown in to keep things dynamic, and stays more with the banter that is Peter David's forte, and exploring the mystery that David set up in the last issue – I did enjoy the working through of the ideas and the clues – and a delightfully surprising last page turn of events. I hope the book has seen a bump with the renumbering because it certainly deserves to continue.

Comics I Bought 21 January 2010

More comics from the past, although not all of them (I still hadn't read all of my back issues of Incredible Hercules at the time issue 140 came out this week, and I hadn't caught up on Agents of Atlas yet, so I couldn't start on Avengers vs Agents of Atlas mini-series that began this week). Let's talk about the others I did allow myself to actually read.

Fables #92
There were a lot of things to put me off this issue: it has David Lapham as guest artist (he's a good artist, and does a good job of drawing the full variety of the Fables background cast); it has baseball as the central basis of the story (you Americans and mythologising of baseball ...); and it apparently riffs on a famous poem I've never heard of before. However, Bill Willingham keeps me hooked with the development of the relationship of Ambrose and Red Riding Hood (and the image of Ambrose hiding his erection) and an ending that sets up a problem for the kingdom of Haven.

Joe The Barbarian #1
Do Vertigo really need to sell the first issue of a new Grant Morrison creator-owned mini-series for $1? Were the sales on Seaguy that bad? This is a very straightforward story for Morrison: an artistic teenage boy is home alone and starts to have a hypoglycaemic reaction and starts to hallucinate his toys coming to life. That's all, but the story is sold on the art by Sean Murphy. There is very little dialogue and no exposition – the fact that his father was a soldier who was killed in the services is only revealed through art – and we learn everything from the art, including set-up for the journey of the narrative. That's a lot of pressure on his shoulders but Murphy is more than up to the task; his art has little touches of Chris Bachalo before he went too far up the deliberately obscure path, and it's delightful and has great storytelling skill.

Spider-Woman #5
Alex Maleev's artwork continues to be the draw in this book; although sometimes his people can look ugly, or the action doesn't flow quite as organically as it could, he can draw some beautiful images, particularly some of the close-up panels of Jessica's face, which are exquisite. Very little actually happens in this issue: Jessica gets herself back inside the police station, mostly to get her costume back, and then she escapes. That's about it; not a satisfying narrative chunk, and the thought of Jessica fighting the Thunderbolts in the next issue doesn't induce excitement the way it should, because Maleev's costume work doesn't always look as good as his non-costume character work. Pull your finger out, Bendis, and get on with it.

Starman #81
I might have mentioned before that I haven't paying any attention to the Blackest Night crossover, so there has to be a good reason for me to buy a crossover book. That reason was James Robinson writing Starman again. The rather clever idea with these books is that dead characters are coming back to life, thus providing an excuse to revisit old books by doing an issue with the next issue number. Starman finished with issue 80 back in 2001, and was one of my favourite series on the 1990s, as Robinson introduced me to the concept of legacy superheroes in Jack Knight. This issue doesn't have Jack but his brother David, who died in the first issue of Starman, thus causing Jack to take up the mantle; now he is back and killing in Opal City again, and The Shade (the other great character from Robinson's run on Starman) deals with him eventually, with his wonderfully dry delivery of Oscar Wildisms ('Apologies for the tardiness. I couldn't find my spats.'). Beneath the lovely Tony Harris cover, Fernando Dagnino provides pencils but it's the inking from Bill Sienkiewicz that is the real draw: it's wonderful to see his moody, atmospheric stylings on interior artwork again. I really enjoyed this, suggesting that Robinson still has got what it takes.

Comics I Bought 14 January 2010

Another visit to the past, as I discuss the comic books I purchased in the second week of January. Still got four months of weekly hauls to go before I get up to date – it's nice to have a goal to aim towards.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer #31
The series has been in a bit of a malaise recently, and the book was dropping down my list of 'must reads'; it didn't help that Georges Jeanty's ability to keep consistency to the likenesses of characters has been waning, thus making it tricky to work out who was who in some instances. This issue sees the return of Joss Whedon to writing the issue, rather than just his role as 'showrunner', and at least the dialogue is razor sharp again; this issue felt like a proper issue of Buffy again. The award for best scene (and dialogue and characterisation) goes to the scene where Buffy tells Xander she has some feelings for him, after seeing him with Dawn, and Xander tells her like it is – it's absolutely perfect and feels so right, and I was laughing out loud again (Xander: 'I'm a potential romantic interest! I'm on the list—right after being gay. I rate almost as good as trying to change your sexual orientation. You went—through gay—to me.'). A very enjoyable issue.

Strange #3
I still don't care for Emma Rios' style, but she is more than capable of handling the jump from normal to the surreal and a comedic twist that is required from Mark Waid's well-constructed Dr Strange story. This involves a demon contacting Stephen about another demon who is breaking the rules of magic in order to gain as many souls as possible – a metaphor for modern bankers? – from the mothers of daughters in beauty pageants, a target ripe for mocking as well as sympathy. This is good stuff, but I still have the nagging feeling that it's a holding pattern rather than a genuine new direction for Strange.

The Unwritten #9
The Unwritten continues to be one of those really good books that seem to fly under the radar – this issue manages to pack in the excitement of mercenaries coming to kill Tom Taylor, while he tries to escape from prison with Lizzie (who knows more than is going on) and ignore the magic that is going on around him (the appearance of Roland, Mingus the winged-cat from the books and his use of the magical doorknob). There is also real tragedy, which brings about another axis of the fictional/reality instability in this comic book, which is one of the main premises driving the story. All this and even a note about the real Roland of the story. Mike Carey and Peter Gross are doing a great job on a wonderful series.

Comics I Bought 7 January 2010

After some tired rambling about politics and comic books, it's time for some thoughts on specific comic books, as I return to talking about the weekly haul of books from the month of January this year.

The Boys #38
The origin of The Female by Ennis and Robertson – she was a Japanese girl who accidentally drank an unstable synthetic copy of Compound V as a baby (Ennis has the Japanese scientist talk with strange Englishisms, a rare error on his part) and kept as a guinea pig while they studied her to gain information about her blood. Eventually she escaped and was located by The Boys – at a time when they still had the elusive Mallory as part of the team (Robertson makes sure to draw him so we can't see his face), and he is responsible for making sure that The Female is treated like a human being. It's a small tale in the big picture, but it's well told and necessary.

Doom Patrol #6
'Things got weird. Weirder.' This was the line used to describe the Grant Morrison Doom Patrol run, as we get a potted history of the team through the eyes of Larry Trainor aka Negative Man. It's one of the problems with having a book that has been revamped so many times and had so many different interpretations – something that happens a lot at DC. Giffen and Clark do a good job, but it feels like a lot of effort for little reward (unless other people got more out of it than I did). The Metal Men Second Feature sees the return of Kevin Maguire to art duties, and it's a joy to see his facial expressions, comedy timing and ability to cram vast amounts of detail beneath the mountains of dialogue, but the strip seems to have lost momentum and I'm not enjoying it as much as the earlier issues. This book is heading into category of possibly being dropped.

Nation X: X-Factor
Or 'Why X-Factor Isn't Part Of Utopia'. I can't remember the last time there was a special issue to explain why a book wasn't part of a crossover with the rest of the family of books, but the best person to actually make this work is Peter David. He uses the majority of the story to have fun with the members of X-Factor meeting old friends (and jokes, such as Longshot and Alison 'Dazzler' Blaire hooking up, the interaction of Shatterstar with old friends) and his usual witty banter. The only odd part is the introduction of Crone, Scribe of the Others – a slightly annoying character with inscrutable powers and a special book; an off-kilter addition to an otherwise enjoyable non-story.

Stumptown #2
Greg Rucka and Matthew Southworth continue the high quality of the first issue by producing a great second issue – our heroine Dex gets some great dialogue, bantering with the doctor who is fixing her up after last issue, and we meet her friend in the police department, as well as the trouble with the police. The book is mostly conversations, so Southworth has to do a great job to make it visually interesting, and he does it well. This book is developing really well, and I hope it keeps up a regular schedule.