Comics I Bought 1 November 2010

Another attempt to try to get back up to date, as I talk about the books I bought a few days after they originally came out in comic shops in the UK. A smaller batch than the previous week, so let's get to it.

Beasts of Burden/Hellboy
Confession: despite being a huge Evan Dorkin fan, I didn't buy the original mini-series when it first came out. I will get the trade; I also picked up this one-off crossover to assuage my guilt. This is utterly charming, scary, amusing, exciting, moving and delightful – Dorkin writes a good script (with input from Mike Mignola) about the group of cats and dogs that protect the town of Burden Hill, and Jill Thompson paints a beautiful comic: she draws a good Hellboy but it's the animals that are the attraction, each one very different and individual. The only unusual aspect was the lettering, which looked rather odd to me, but that's not a huge problem overall. I now have to have the original mini-series, and so should you.

Fantastic Four #584
I don't know if it's the mature and solid storytelling and art style of Steve Epting, but this issue of Fantastic Four seems be more balanced, more structured, with more purpose. Jonathan Hickman tells a lovely story of Ben becoming human for a time (after a cure was found by the kids, which will only last for an undetermined number of days once a year) and Johnny being a decent human being (well, mostly – he's still Johnny after all) and showing Ben a good time (including dinner with old friends, who look very much like Stan and Jack …) before an emotional pay-off. There are also plot developments with Sue acting as a referee on Utopia, and the Silver Surfer wanting some answers from Reed about Galactus (a great last page). This is more like what I expected from Hickman.

Incognito: Bad Influences #1
Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips' Incognito was a very enjoyable pulp-inspired story about a former supervillain in witness protection and what happened when things went wrong. It deservedly got this sequel, which is equally entertaining as we see our protagonist Zack now signed on with the good guys. An incident that parallels the Shadow and his network of informers causes Zack's cover to be blown, so it is decided to use him to bring back in an undercover agent who has gone native and is about to become the leader of a terrorist organisation. It's a good set-up for an Incognito story, and Brubaker and Phillips do their usual exemplary job – taut storytelling, great art, excellent narration from the lead character, interesting characters. It's not Criminal, their other creator-owned work, but it's as good.

Usagi Yojimbo #132
Another issue of Usagi Yojimbo means another excellent comic book from Stan Sakai. This issue sees Usagi stumbling across an area he has visited before and a drum builder he helped out; of course, this story isn't just going to be about make a huge drum, and Sakai builds the connection and the threat until the final page of the issue. It is masterful stuff from a master craftsman who maintains a level of quality even in the quieter stories such as this.

Notes On A Film: RED

I can't believe the cast list for an adaptation of a Warren Ellis and Cully Hamner comic book: Bruce Willis, Mary-Louise Parker, John Malkovich, Helen Mirren, Karl Urban, Morgan Freeman, Brian Cox, Richard Dreyfuss, Ernest Borgnine. And room for Julian McMahon. How on earth did this film attract such a collection of well-known faces? The director, Robert Schwentke, must have some allure of which I am unaware – the most famous film he's done is probably last year's The Time Traveller's Wife, so I don't think it can be that.

RED is a silly but enjoyable action comedy film. Loosely based on the comic, it sees Bruce Willis as a retired black-ops CIA agent whose life is quiet in suburbia until his house is attacked in the night by a hit squad. Knowing that his phone has been tapped, he goes to the only person he has been talking to, Mary-Louise Parker, a customer service agent who works for Willis' pension office, knowing that she will be in trouble if he is. Together, they go on the run, Parker somewhat reluctantly at first, as Willis gets the old team back (Malkovich, Freeman, Mirren) to sort out the problem of who is after him, which brings them into conflict with Urban's CIA agent who has been ordered to hunt him down.

RED (an actual acronym, standing for Retired: Extremely Dangerous, stamped on Willis' file) is a nice blend of action set pieces and character comedy. It's funny to see Mirren shooting a massive machine gun, the chemistry between Willis and Parker is charming, Malkovich is suitably nutty, even Borgnine and Dreyfuss have fun with their roles. The action is mostly fun, although Schwentke is not a natural director of fight scenes and gunplay – the scene where we see Willis use his skills for the first time, it shows aftermath and not ability; there is a certain rhythm to the action but it cuts far too much to display believability in the supposed talents of the people involved, using edits to invoke the drama rather than the action itself. The final resolution scene involves too much organisation and detail that is skimmed over in the rapidity of the occurrence; however, the film is entertaining and silly and exciting and a passable way to spend some time but nothing more.

Rating: DVD

[Explanation of my updated film rating system]

Comics I Bought 21 October 2010

After all the effort to get up to date on collecting my thoughts on my weekly comic books, and then life got in the way so I'm back to playing catch-up. A huge haul of comics to get through for this week, so on with the show.

Batman and Robin #15
Frazer Irving draws a great Joker (and Grant Morrison has a lot of fun writing him) and a really good Damian, so this a good-looking comic book. Morrison is bringing everything together in his storyline about Dick Grayson and Damian, and the plans of Doctor Hurt (I really liked the full page shot of Batman and Robin bringing down the villain), so the final page is a really nice treat.

Chaos War #2
The return of a God Squad, with Hercules, Thor, Sersi, Venus and, erm, Galactus? The battle against the Chaos King continues, with things looking grim for our heroes, and we're only on the second issue. Apart from the chat with Eternity and the occasional joke from Amadeus (who seems particularly out of place, with his hypermind not working for the sake of the plot), it's a case of making the villain even more powerful and causing more problems, such as reawakening the dead. Khoi Pham's art seems more appropriate this issue, even with the Chris Bachalo flourishes (like the lines on the nose in a side profile), but it still doesn't feel like normal Hercules from Van Lente and Pak.

Fables #99
Ninety-nine issues and still going strong – an impressive achievement for a Vertigo ongoing series. I know that there are many people who think that Fables should have stopped after the end of the war in issue 75, but I'm not one of them. Bill Willingham is still producing quality stories – he has got all of folklore and fairy tales to work with – and I'm enjoying the machinations of the Dark Man (I like the nice touch that all the people he is using have a connection to Fables people), and it was rather fun seeing him chatting with the North Wind, who was announcing Frau Totenkinder's challenge to a duel. The art from guest artist Inaki Miranda is really good, a slick style with good line in faces (I loved the Dark Man's reaction to the challenge), and there is even a spooky full-page tribute to James Jean's cover to issue 76. Another good issue.

Morning Glories #3
A prologue set in 1490, with the phrase 'The hour of our release draws near' playing an important part, adds to the mystery at the heart of Morning Glories. Casey is trying to discover what has happened to Jade after last issue, and needs a lesson from Ike in how to get what she wants (and drops a Peanuts reference in the process); meanwhile, Jade wakes up to find herself in a part of the school with people in padded rooms, where she meets a violent Spanish girl who dispatches the guards before writing 'The hour of our release draws near' on the wall in blood. This series is doing a nice job of setting up the mystery and keeping the narrative moving, just as long as it remembers to pull the trigger eventually and not go all X-Files on us.

Turf #3
Jonathan Ross and Tommy Lee Edwards certainly pack a lot in each issue of Turf; luckily, there's not quite as much writing in the first issue, but letterer John Workman is still given quite a workout. This has a lot of information exchange, as Eddie Falco learns about the aliens (via an unusual method), we learn about Pete O'Leary (in an old-fashioned comic strip style to contrast with the subject matter), and we learn about the nature of the vampires and the slightly different nature of Dragnomir. There is also planning and fighting and great artwork from Edwards,meaning that Turf is turning out to be a lot more enjoyable than I originally expected.

Vertigo Resurrected #1
It's good to finally have this Warren Ellis-written Hellblazer story published after all this time, even if it has lost its power somewhat in the interim. It's well written and well drawn (by Phil Jimenez), but it doesn't really feel like a proper John Constantine tale. This long-lost story is bolstered by a selection of different short stories from different Vertigo anthologies throughout the years. There is an exquisitely drawn tale from Brian Bolland, a Brian Azzarello story drawn by Esad Ribic (someone who usually does covers), an odd thing from Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely that doesn't really work, the bizarre combination of Garth Ennis and Jim Lee that is four men talking in a car, as well as stories from Steven T Seagle & Tim Sale, Peter Milligan & Eduardo Risso, and a story written and drawn by Bill Willingham. A nice collection, if a little odd, but good as a historic document.

X-Factor #210
This is one of Peter David's in-between issues, where not a lot actually happens. The book has two threads: Rictor and Rahne get the baby checked and there is a mystery involved, and someone called Ballistique (no, I've no idea) is freed from mind blocks by Monet. Not a great issue, but not total rubbish either; just a filler that will presumably have impact later down the line.

From A Library: American Vampire

American Vampire #1–5 by Scott Snyder, Rafael Albuquerque and Stephen King

In a time when libraries in the UK face a difficult future, I just want to reiterate how much I love my local library. The sheer number of graphic novels and collections of comic books I've read via my library is fantastic, and that's only a small portion of what libraries provide. So it was just another in a line of pleasant surprises when this hardback collection appeared on the shelves. I'm a lucky chap.

This is the creator-owned concept from Snyder, a newcomer to the world of comics (and with only a collection of short stories to his name), but he's made a splash sufficient to attract Stephen King to write the back-up feature. The high concept here is that Skinner Sweet is a new kind of vampire, the first created on American soil, and it means that he is not immune to sunlight; he is also stronger and more deadly than his European counterparts (although he is still vulnerable to certain things). Snyder tells the story of a struggling young actress in Los Angeles in the 1920s and how she becomes involved with Skinner Sweet, while King tells the 'origin' story of Sweet in 1880 (under the direction of Snyder's notes). Sweet is an unpleasant character, and King seems have fun writing a thoroughly vicious cowboy story, with some nasty European vampires thrown in. Snyder makes an odd choice of telling a story that is not about the main character, but it is an intriguing tale in its own right, taking in early Hollywood and European vampires trying to run production. It's good stuff; Snyder has a good ability with character and dialogue, and he's created an interesting new version of an old idea, but bringing back the viciousness to vampires.

The other excellent half to this collection is the art from Albuquerque; I thought his art was good before on the likes of Blue Beetle, but he's got even better since then. His lines are sharp and slick, his style oozes atmosphere and moodiness, his Skinner Sweet in full vampire mode is horrific, his action is exciting. He even uses slightly different styles for the different time frames: the cowboy era is deliberately rougher and looser, compared with the slicker style of the 1920s. It adds to a really good book; I think Snyder is on to something here, and I'll be looking out for the next collection to find out more about Skinner Sweet.

Notes On A Film: The Social Network

I was already lined up to like this film: I love the writing of Aaron Sorkin, I love the directing of David Fincher, and the story is inherently interesting. The fact that the film is really, really good is just a bonus. Sorkin's electric dialogue works really well here because all the characters involved are extremely intelligent (most of them are at Harvard, after all), and Fincher is a director who is good (and obsessed) with examining male relationships – women are not part of the cast, even if the idea of women play a central role in the initiation of the story. Add to this a cast that is perfect and excellent, and The Social Network is a wonderfully cinematic experience, which is bizarre when it's a film about people talking or typing on a computer.

The Social Network is a dramatic (i.e. based on fact but not sticking to the complete truth) telling of the creation of Facebook, and the effect it had on the people involved. The story is innately dramatic anyway: Mark Zuckerberg (Jesse Eisenberg) is at Harvard University when he is approached by the Winklevoss twins, star rowers at Harvard, who have an idea for a social network site for Harvard students and need Zuckerberg to do the coding. However, while stalling the twins with other code, Zuckerberg comes up with the idea for Facebook, which he sets up with investment from his friend, Eduardo Saverin (Andrew Garfield), who becomes the CFO of the company. Saverin was an economic student, so he had a traditional approach to finding money for the company; Zuckerberg had bigger ideas, which were fuelled by the arrival of Sean Parker (Justin Timberlake), the founder of Napster, who dazzles Zuckerberg with his pizzazz. This leads to Saverin being edged out of his own company, leading to his lawsuit against Zuckerberg (who his also being sued by the Winklevoss twins for stealing the idea). The film cuts between the lawsuits and the creation of Facebook, and the development and destruction of relationships. And it is utterly exhilarating.

Everything about this film is great: the actors are all excellent, the script is superb and the direction serves the script beautifully. Eisenberg plays Zuckerberg as an incredibly intelligent man who sees all aspects of a brilliant idea, who doesn't mean to deliberately screw people over. Garfield is excellent as Saverin, the real wounded party because of the betrayal of friendship. Timberlake is incredible as Parker, oozing charisma and energy. The Fincher factor of technical wizardry is shown in the portrayal of the identical twins: both parts are played by the same man, Armie Hammer (with a stand-in to play against), and he plays them both brilliantly. The story is completely absorbing; the two hours fly by due to the sparkling dialogue and the way that the film-makers have captured a defining moment of our time.

Rating: DAVE

[Explanation of my updated film rating system]

Book From A Library: The Passage

By Justin Cronin

One of the great things about the internet: it was because of an item I skimmed on io9.com that led to me picking up this book. I hadn't heard of the author before, and I'm not a great fan of reading hardback books, but I was intrigued by the concept and was surprised to see it on the shelves of my local library (and that it was in the general fiction section).

The Passage is a huge book (766 pages) with small type, so it's a huge undertaking before getting into the story itself. And, apparently, it's the first in a trilogy, so we're talking about a lot of words here to tell the complete narrative. However, the prose and the idea were sufficiently entertaining and enthralling to have kept me hooked throughout.

The book starts in the near future, where a virus has been discovered that seems to cure all in illnesses and improve the functioning of the human body, and an FBI agent, Brad Wolgast, is going around the USA to find death-row inmates to sign up to become the first human test subjects for the treatment. When he is asked to bring in a six-year-old girl called Amy to be a subject, he begins to have second thoughts. The true nature of the virus is to turn the subjects into vampires, but a vicious and powerful version that kills to feed (rather than romantic types who glitter), with the exception of Amy. The military post where the experiments are being performed become ground zero for a devastating infection that practically wipes out civilisation in America.

The story jumps forward (after 250 pages of this set up) to 90 years later, and a colony of human survivors in California, who are protected by the large amount of sunshine and electrical lights that sufficiently disorientate the Virals, as they call them, so they can be killed (there is a weak spot above the heart). Cronin introduces us to the people who live there and how they survive, and what happens as some of them discover that the electrical supply for the lights begins to dwindle as the batteries fail. Also, Amy is still alive, although still not much physically developed into teenage years, and how she becomes connected to some of the survivors and the quest for the next stage in survival.

Cronin spends a lot of time with his characters, so you know all you need to know about them for the story, but it never feels like massive exposition dump due to his clear and clean writing style. He is also very atmospheric in his writing – there is a section that is a diary recollection of a survivor in the colony talking about her evacuation from a major city that really evoked the sense of dread and panic; I read this sequence as I was on the tube on my daily commute, filled with people in the middle of London, and it gave me chills as I walked out of the station and imagined what might happen to people in the same situation. It is a very long book but I was constantly engaged with the narrative and the various characters, and could easily kept reading more (the book ends with a conclusion of sorts, but it is obvious that it is only part of the story). There is a lot of world-building but it was done with aplomb, and the nature of the Virals he has created is a sufficiently new twist on the concept (at least to me) to mean that I wanted to read this about this world. I thoroughly enjoyed the book, and look forward to being able to read the rest of the trilogy some time in the near future.

TV: Community

I absolutely love Community: it very quickly became my new favourite sitcom (because I don't have legal access to 30 Rock at the moment), and we get double episodes of it each week on Viva – no, it's not a channel with which I am very familiar either (it's owned by MTV, if that helps) – so I'm very grateful to this bizarre free-to-air channel for this gift they have bestowed upon us.

Community is supposed to be about Jeff (Joel McHale), a former lawyer forced to go to Greendale Community College after the dubious nature of his law degree was discovered, and how he becomes a better person via his association with the Spanish study group he inadvertently forms when he tries to charm his way into the affections of Britta (Gillian Jacobs). However, it quickly becomes apparent that this is a real ensemble comedy. The other members of the group are: Abed (Danny Pudi), the pop culture-obsessed, borderline Asperger's Syndrome film student; Troy (Donald Glover), the former high school quarterback; Annie (Alison Brie), the prim and proper girl who had a crush on Troy in school; Shirley (Yvette Nicole Brown), a recently divorced mother; and Pierce (Chevy Chase), a former tycoon who has been married seven times, who says some of the most casually racist and inappropriate comments in the show. Together they form a fantastic cast who all get laughs in their own way.

Abed gets most of the big laughs with the references to film and television, as well as the meta humour when he refers to himself as if he was a character in a television show (“That's sort of my gimmick, but we did lean on that pretty hard last week. I can lay low for an episode”). The riffing on pop culture is a big aspect of the show, and I've got no problem with it, especially when the show does it so well. It's a very difficult balance to get right, but Community seems to do it with consummate ease. The other aspect is the really sharp dialogue, delivered with exquisite precision and speed, with the characters zinging off each in perfect harmony. Even Chevy Chase is funny, as a pathetic character who is often the butt of jokes, rather than his usual approach of being cocky and falling over.

The show is laugh-out-loud funny on a regular basis (such as Troy's advice to Jeff while preparing him to fight: 'Then you give him the Forest Whitaker eye', before doing that distinct askew look that Whitaker has), but it still manages to have a 'hugging and learning' plot line that doesn't feel trite or annoying, at the same time as ridiculing the mechanics of television shows. That's an amazing ability, and it's down to the writing and the cast; the writing is just amazing, with great lines and silliness, and the cast make it work, both in the humour and caring about them. I adore this sitcom and all the characters in it, and I can't wait for each new episode.

Notes On A Film: Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows Part 1

I am back and I have seen the first part of final Harry Potter film, so I'm going to ramble on about it in a completely biased fashion because I'm a fan of the whole Harry Potter thing (see my collection of Harry Potter-labelled posts for all my previous Harry Potter-related nonsense).

It's strange to discuss a film which is only half a film; I remember hearing stupid people complaining about the end of The Lord Of The Rings because it obviously hadn't ended, but at least that was a narrative arc of sorts. Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows Part 1 is a film without an end, waiting to finish. I'd rather have the whole thing in one sitting, but as I said: I'm a fan.

As a fan, I know the story quite well, so I spent a lot of time noticing which bits were missing. However, Steve Kloves did a great job on the script streamlining a big book into an entertaining narrative without losing the important points. The book had lots of internal stuff about the characters, as well as big chunks of exposition and excerpts from obituaries and biographies, which aren't going to work on film, and lots of non-plot conversations which weren't needed. Despite its long running time, the movie barely wastes much of it.

For those who don't know, the basic plot sees Voldemort in charge of the Ministry of Magic and out to kill Harry; Harry, along with Ron and Hermione, is on a mission to discover the missing horcruxes that contain portions of Voldemort's soul so that they can finally defeat him, as well as the discovery of the Deathly Hallows. This means that the middle third of the movie is the wizarding road trip, as our trio travel around the country to avoid their pursuers while trying to uncover clues to help them on their quest.

The first and third sections have the exciting stuff. After the funny 'seven Harry Potters', when Harry is being relocated from 4 Privet Drive, there is the Death Eater attack in a thunderstorm; there's the escape to Shaftesbury Avenue after the wedding and another attack by two Death Eaters; there is the infiltration of the Ministry of Magic to acquire a horcrux. In the third section, there is the really creepy sequence with Bathilda Bagshot, the destruction of the horcrux, the capture by snatchers and the escape from Malfoy manor, all exciting and really well-done sequences. In between, the film is much slower as our three leads are the only characters on screen; however, I didn't mind this because I wanted to spend time with these characters and see how the story moved along.

As mentioned, there was a lot of little thing eliminated for the sake of a smoother progression. No need for the pre-wedding planning, or the extra visit from Minister for Magic Rufus Scrimgeour (Bill Nighy doing a Welsh accent for some reason), or the settling in to 12 Grimauld Place and getting Kreacher on their side or the long planning of the expedition to the Ministry of Magic. Nor was there time for Lupin's attempt to join the trio on their quest due to his feelings of anguish at having a baby with Tonks (which almost gets mentioned), or setting up the fake Ron to explain why he wasn't at Hogwarts. They don't bother with the separate locations when leaving Privet Drive (so no Ted Tonks or portkeys), going instead straight to The Burrows; Bill Weasley already has his werewolf scars, which were gained in the Death Eater attack. There's no explanation of the trace on saying 'Voldemort' out loud, or why our trio stop saying it; there's no need for the overhearing the group on the run (consisting of Ted Tonks, Griphook and Dean) for another perspective to how things are; the capture by the snatchers happens by accident instead of saying Voldemort's name, and Voldemort isn't called back from visiting Grindelwald when Bellatrix Lestrange has our trio in Malfoy Manor. All of this stuff is not needed for the telling of this section of the story. It's not necessary and not missed, and is only noticed by its absence for people who know the source material. It doesn't ruin the enjoyment of the movie.

David Yates does a good job directing the film, making it darker and more moody, although he still lacks the ability to bring the magical touches I so admire from Alfonso Cuaron's Prisoner of Azkaban. The three leads do a good job of bearing the majority of screen time, with Rupert Grint perhaps outshining Daniel Radcliffe and Emma Watson by the fact of having the slightly lighter role. The adults are barely in it by comparison, but the likes of Jason Isaacs and Alan Rickman and Helena Bonham Carter bringing nice moments to their relatively fleeting presences. The mood is suitably sombre, with only the occasional flash of humour to bring a smile (the Phelps twins get most of the laughs as Fred and George Weasley, with Grint getting some smiles as well). The biggest laugh was of embarrassment, with a bizarre sequence where Harry gets Hermione to dance with him to lighten the mood when they have been on their own for a while and feeling low; it's starts off rather hideously badly with the squirming attempt at dancing, but they just about manage to save it by the end of the scene.

The most beautiful sequence is the animated telling of The Tale of The Three Brothers, which is done in a wonderful folklore/faux-puppetry style that is both appropriate and delightful. The rest of the CGI is pretty impressive – I particularly liked the patronuses, and Kreacher and Dobby were amazingly photo-realistic – and the film as a whole looks good. It makes me want to see the second half right now, to see how they visualise the remainder of the story, which means they must have done a good job. As an adult, I enjoyed it very much, even though some of the kids who had bunked off school to see the 10.30am showing didn't enjoy the more languid pace of the middle section, chatting to themselves because they didn't think much was happening, but everyone knows that kids don't have much of an attention span … This isn't really a review, because they would have to make a complete hash of things for me to dislike it, but if you are a fan then it is a very enjoyable film that makes you eager to see the second half; if you're not a fan, you might not have as much fun.

Rating: DAVE

[Explanation of my updated film rating system]