The Jeff Recommends: Good Comics

So enough whinging and moaning about Civil War. There are a number of worthwhile, interesting, fun comics out there for your perusal, even if they don't get the same level of attention as the mega-events. Here are some.

Truth, Justin, and the American Way is by Scott Kurtz (of PVP fame) Aaron Williams (Nodwick) and Giuseppe Ferrario. You liked the old TV show, The Greatest American Hero? This is that book. Indeed, it exists in TV-Land of the 80s, and has cameos of every sitcom and action star of that era. Five issues, it just wrapped up, and they really should do a trade (Image Comics).

Nextwave by Warren Ellis (Writer) has also wrapped up with 12 issues and needs a trade as well, is just brain-melting goodness. The concept is that a group of lower-tier heroes (Machine Man, Bloodstone's daughter, Boom-Boom from the New Mutants, the black female Captain Marvel) discover the corporation they are working for is evil and strike back. It sounds serious, but it really isn't, taking massive swings at all that comics holds dear, from SHIELD to Forbush Man to Elvis MODOKs. Good for what ails you (Marvel).

New Universal, also by Warren Ellis exumes the corpse of one of Marvel's frequent attempts to open up a new universe, in particular, their New Universe from the 80s. The original was painful in places at the time (it was touted as "The World Outside Your Window", and then they blew up Pittsburgh), the new version is getting off the blocks and looks interesting. (Marvel).

Helmet of Fate, a little miniseries of four unrelated issues that is supposed to set up DC's magic in its post infinity-crisis era. The best of the group are Sargon the Sorceror and Black Alice. Detective Chimp was fun, but pretty much set up as a funny funny-book.(DC)

Brave and the Bold How can I recommend a book (by Mark Waid, words, and George Perez, pictures) after one issue? Well, its like this - A long while ago, in comics time, Hal (Green Lantern) Jordan went a little nuts, turned into a villain, and offed the rest of the Green Lanterns, among other crimes. He got better, but there were trust issues with the JLA, in particular Bruce (Batman) Wayne. So I was dubious about a teamup book launching with these two. And much to my surprise, there wasn't a word about the psycho-history, instead an old-school mystery and punch-em-up that rewards the silver-haired fans of days of yore.

Daredevil and Immortal Iron Fist, both currently by Ed Brubaker, but Daredevil has some good earlier stuff by Brian Bendis. Here's a great example of pushing the heroes beyond their comfort zones and forging new territory. Over in Daredevil Matt Murdock is outed as a superhero in a fine old style, and gives Daredevil a new starting point without either negating the change or the character. Over in Iron Fist (about three issues in), Brubaker turns the 70s kung fu champion into a line of legacy heroes. I really disliked the retcon this writer pulled on the X-Men (short version, Professor X IS a jerk), but here he shines. (Marvel)

Welcome to Tranquility Twin Peaks weirdness in a town of retired superheroes. Nice off the beaten track stuff from Gail Simone, who wrote the Black Alice book. (Wildstorm)

The Spirit (Jeff Loeb, writer)Three issues in, go looking for the previous ones. There is no character so identified with his creator as the Spirit, and this series both gives its props to the master, Will Eisner, but does not copy. All the tales are excellent and accessible, and around issue three, we get an origin story. (DC)

Girl Genius Available only as collections and worth hunting down, this great series is now running as a web comic that you can follow Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. I mention it here because it looks like it is just starting a new arc. Danger! Romance! Mad Science! (Studio Foglio).

So there ARE good comics - they just don't get the attention of "mega-events" from their companies.

More later,

Stay, Al, Stay!

So an irresponsible online poster (that would be CNN), unleashed the rumor that, upon winning the Oscar for An Inconvenient Truth, Al Gore would announce his intention to run for President, despite his repeated dousings of cold water on the idea previously.

While Mr. Gore is capable of making up his own mind, I hope he doesn't run.

I mean, right now, Al Gore has all the benefits of being a former President of the US without having to have actually gone through the pain and agony of actually BEING the President of the US. He's been able to focus on issues that matter to him and carries with him the gravitas of his office. He's been able to make jokes without becoming a viagra punchline. His daughters have steady jobs as opposed to well-thumbed files at the National Enquirer. He has a sense of gravitas from a media that gave him grief when he was veep. Why would he want to give up all that, for the chance to literally clean up after the Elephant at the circus?

The moment Gore declares, the Right Wing Pundits go into full howl, and the mere fact that past few years have been a cavalcade of graft, incompetence, and corruption, they will dig as deeply as they need to. Remember - Al was once present at a fundraiser where there may have been funds raised! Boo! Oh, and he's boring, remember? Right now he catches the occasional potshot, but gets to revel in the fact that he has been right on his issues all along. An inconvenient truth, indeed.

And indeed I think a big part of the appeal of an Al Gore Candidacy is that he is unavailable. "You had your chance", the left can sniff. "You don't deserve him" (Like we deserve what we ended up with). It is also a bolt hole for voters - allowing them to say "I would have voted for Al, but as a second choice I will settle for Hil/Barry/John-Boy/Mitt". It is a failsafe device, since all your supporters don't have to worry about actually dealing with the fact that you might win, and what happens then.

No, enjoy the moment, Al. You can put on a few pounds or grow a beard and the national media does not flip out. You can have a life and actually have an effect on the world around you. It is very strange that our former Democratic Presidents have a more active public life than our former Republicans, and you've got that already. Savor the moment, and best of luck tonight.

More later,

Steve Shafer

So, long-time friend Steve Shafer (That's him on the left) celebrated his 50th birthday this afternoon with a party that involved a large group of his friends taking to Lake Union in small boats on a scavenger hunt.

Let me explain.

Steve's lovely bride, Kelly, made arrangements with the Seattle Electric Boat Company for a party, in groups of 10 or so we all took electric boats (about twenty feet in length), given a camera and a list of things to find. The ship named after Tolkien's first novel (Hobbit), the ship named after the Norse goddess of love (Freya, though we never found it), count the smokestacks on the top of a local genetics building or the dishes on top of Channel 13.

We thought we did very well, in part since we had me and my Lovely Bride, a champion navigator, and a lot of people who were long-term natives of Seattle. And despite a rather hairy moment with a landing seaplane (we zigged and it zigged in our direction, we zagged and it zagged back), we thought we did pretty well. Alas, the other boats ALSO had long-term natives, and we didn't even place (mind you, we were CONVINCED we had found everything correctly, which may have just been madness of the sea).

Still, we had a great time, and wish Steve a most merry birthday at the half-century mark, and promised we would spread his adorable mug, complete with pirate hat, far and wide. Such in the gift of the Internets.

More later,

Comics: Uncivil War

So it is two in the morning, and I am up with an upset stomach and I THINK it was something I ate as opposed to the wrap-up of the Marvel Civil War mega-event, but why take chances? This is presented in spoiler-vision (TM) means that I go on with this intro until I reach the point that I get past the cut-off of the RSS feeds, just so I don't give anything away to those who really want to be, uh, surprised.

OK, here's the short version - at least it wrapped up sooner than the Iraqi Civil War, but unfortunately, just about as neatly.

The concept which let up to this dog's breakfast is pretty interesting - there is a superhero disaster in which innocents are killed. A group of superheroes, including the supposedly smartest guys on the planet, decide the best answer is to register all superheroes and reveal their identities. Those that don't go along are hunted down and thrown into a Gitmo in the Negative Zone. Iron Man leads the pro-registration group, while Captain America leads the rebel forces. I've said before, it is not a left-versus-right argument, but rather one of head versus heart - the thinking heroes against the feeling heroes. Spider-Man starts in one camp and ends up in the other.

And the thinking heroes have been at a disadvantage since they are forced into all sorts of twisted rationalizations to support this Very Bad Idea, often going back on their very core ethics in order to pull it off (Mr. Fantastic, who STOLE A ROCKET at the start of his career, stressed the importance of obeying laws, even bad ones. Tony Stark, whose technology seems to go rogue more often than his employees get lunch breaks, thinks superheroes have too much power). Also, the pro-registration guys have to fight Captain America. How can Captain America be wrong? Over the course of this much-delayed event, Spider-Man is outed, Thor comes back as an insane clone, the dead original Captain Marvel returns, heroes die messily, and supervillains are put in positions of trust and authority.

Through it all, continuity was a hash, as characters who fled to Canada or France were suddenly back in the mix, characters who were dead were suddenly living, and characters who backed one ethos suddenly were on the other team. There was some good writing in all this in the required tie-ins- the Black Panther books provided a refreshing island of sanity and McDuffie, the new FF writer, came up with a better reason for Mr. F to be such an ass that was in keeping with his background (Reed Richards invents psychohistory and discovers that unless they do this, humanity dies. OK, then. What's Tony's excuse?). But in general it has been a slow, painful crawl through broken glass. I ended up dropping books, a rarity for me during the fever of a crossover.

And how does it end up? With a big superhero battle with each side upping the stakes. Cap's side breaks into Camp 42, Tony's side is waiting for them, Cap's side breaks out the prisoners to help them, Tony's side tries to trap them, Cap's side has Cloak (I think he was dead, once), teleport everyone to downtown Manhattan, Cap's side takes another turn as the Atlanteans attack, Tony's side brings in the New Superheroes they've been cobbling together, including the Cloned Thor, Hercules kills Cloned Thor making a Dan Quayle-era quote, etc .... And it all comes to down to Captain America and Iron Man brawling together.

And Captain America almost wins, except a group of New Yorkers stop him, and he realizes that in the battle they are being the very threat that Tony's registration forces worry about. So he surrenders.

And there you have it. Head beats heart. Brains beat emotions. Smarts beat feeling because feeling cannot rationalize away its crimes and smarts can. Bleah.

There is a long epilogue after that of Reed writing to get Sue back, which has a bit of a magic wand approach, though the words are undercut by what is being shown. There is an "Amnesty" for all the rebels (meaning what - they get to register? Wasn't that what they were fighting in the first place?) Everyone loves the idea of an extradimensional prison for malcontents outside due process. Tony Stark is made director of SHIELD, since there's no chance of him losing control of THAT technology. Fifty new superhero teams are formed, one for every state (controlled by the state legislatures? The national government?(Though they do show one of my favorite under-used teams of the 80s, the Rangers)).Cap becomes Nelson Mandela, penned up in a cell (while all the other rebels freed and supervillains get on the teams? Huh?). And there is an aside that underground rebellion continues, with Cap's former allies making up the "cool-kid" Rebel Avengers (Luke Cage, Spidey, Wolverine, and Doc Strange, for Galactus's sake), while the "recognized, official Avengers consists of Iron Man, the female version of Captian Marvel, the female version of the Hulk, and uh, some other guys who never got permanent books of their own. We're not stacking the deck here at all.

Oh, and the prison was called "42' (a play on DC's 52) because it was the 42nd Great Idea that Reed came up with make the world a safer place. 43 is cleaning up SHIELD, which apparently involves humiliating the former director. Man, I'd love to see the rest of that list - #35 was to alienate every black hero in the Marvel Universe. #36 was to clone Thor but make him more amoral. #37 was to kill off a black hero just to show they mean business. I thinking screwing up Peter Parker's life had to be in the first dozen, because Spider-Man obviously wasn't suffering enough for the rest of humanity to survive. Ooo! And Tony hiring the Titanium Man to attack Congress to make his point. THAT has to be in the first five! I bet they had to drop universal health care in order to get that in.

End result? Frustration, and a grisly curiosity about where this open-ended disaster is going next The answer is - THE RECONSTRUCTION, I mean, THE INITIATIVE. I applaud attempts to put heroes outside their comfort zones and to create events that do have long-lasting effects on the continuity of their universes. But I would not use this series to support either concept as a good idea.

More later (Nope, stomach still hurts),

Random Notes from the National Desk

Sometimes things just happen too fast to make serious fun of:

On Monday, there was a news blip about how the third-in-line to the throne of England was preparing for deployment in his Grandma's Army. And on a Tuesday we have the sudden announcement that the British Army has won the war (their part of it, anyway) and is going to go home.

It turns out that a big Terrorist Financier is also a big GOP donor. The fact that the NRCC is recommending withholding judgment should be a note to all other Terrorist Financiers - give to the Republicans and we won't forget about due process when you get caught. I swear, every time I think the modern GOP has hit bottom (Outing a CIA Agent, Supporting a sexual predator congressman, shooting an elderly man in the face), it punches through the floor and drops another hundred feet. What's left? Selling indulgences?

Of course, the scandal the Republicans are desperately trying to get traction on is the fact that the Speaker of the House gets a (Homeland-Security mandated) plane. By this point in the non-scandal, all they have left is that the Speaker's plane is larger than the previous Speaker's plane. Yep, let me say it again: The pale males at the GOP and FOX have plane envy.

And speaking of humor, last week a member of the NBA said something stupid about gay Americans. Hey, we don't pay these guys way too much money for their brains. Now while superstar Charles Barkley is kissing refs on the lips to show support for the gay community, George Takei unleashes this video, which not only makes Jimmy Kimmel's latenight show relevant, but puts Sulu up there with Shatner in establishing a new career in taking shots at his own image.

I swear, this is why I'll never write comedy. I just can't keep up with reality.

More later,

Barenaked Ladies

I apologise for posting something that some may not be able to read (It is a YouTube Video), but this made me smile, because:

A) Despite my advanced years, I found it to be a great tune.

and

B) Despite my advanced years, I recognized a lot of the YouTube acts featured on the video, like Dancing Matt and the Mentos guys.

More later,

Blogger Busted

So I'm not posting as much at the moment. Part of it is the workload, but part of it is the nature of Blogger itself.

Last year, Blogger was bought by Google, who promised to "improve" the service. So far, the improvements seem to be similar to the ones AMC brought to Harley-Davidson, or CBS brought to the Fender Stratocaster guitar (or more locally, New Times brought to the now-undead Seattle Weekly). After a few months of warnings, my old blogger account no longer functioned, and I had to create a Google account in order to access my blog.

This is followed by the discovery, after making the irreversible change, that the new system does not support my current Mac browser, Safari (yes, I can get another browser, but see the top paragraph - I'm a little busy at the moment). So if I blog, it is off the portable - very doable, but I have other things I do with it.

And then, through arcana of the new process, I am writing in a default New York font, then having to change it all over to Verdana when I am done. Again, there is probably a better way, but it is not particularly elegant at the moment.

So I am muddling through,and pushing off reviews and comments for later. And thinking seriously about picking up another service. Any recommendations?

More later (I hope),

In the 21st Century

So this morning I am talking to a friend in Hing Hay Park in the International District, next to a pagoda made in Shanghai. I'm in Hing Hay park. My friend is in Brooklyn. Somewhere in the ether between us communication occurs.

While I'm on the phone, a group of young people come up the street, with cymbals and drums. They stop at a flower shop, six of them dress up as dragons, and they set off firecrackers. I start to explain what must sound like gunfire and he breaks in "I understand. Happy New Year".

I think it is finally sinking in that I'm in a different century now.

No flying cars, though.

More later,

Politics

Three items, spanning from national to local:

Item One: Blogroller Nikchick posted an entry on our relentless drumbeat to an Iranian War, as well as submitted it to own local paper, the P-I. Her original entry is here, and the letter column version is here. Good going, Nicole.

Item Two: One of the downsides of continual democracy is that elections pop up like mushrooms after the rain. There was one for the King County Conservation District yesterday, and word percolated out through the blogs. Usually these get really low numbers of votes, but in this case there was a pretty hefty turnout at the limited number of open polls.

Item Three: The Sonics have announced they want to move to Renton, provided we give them tons of money. The location they are looking at is at a narrow spot between the Renton Highlands and the lake (and, as noted by the P-I, not for sale at the moment). Two roads run near that patch of land going North/South - I-405 and Lake Washington Blvd. If this goes through I despair of ever being able to commute home from work ever again.

More later,

While I Was Gone ...

When I was on the road I had limited Internet (WiFi only from the hotel lobby) and Media acess (TV was out in the room). As a result, my news consisted of the front page of the USA Today left at in the elevator lobby. So I missed a few things ....

...An astronaut flew into a jealous rage and went a little crazy, getting more press ink than any of the shuttle missions she went on.

...A former Playboy Playmate who had an outrageous life experienced an outrageous death, getting more press ink than all the shuttle astronauts who ever flew.

...Several candidates declared that they wanted the most unwanted job in the world - cleaning up the mess left by the current administration.

... Republican sources announced, and the media duly reported, that the new, Democrat, Speaker of the House demanded an Air Force Jet to get back to her home district. Then it was revealed that her Republican predecessor got the same deal, and that Homeland Security demanded it, not her. Leaving the only controversy being why the media would report such a thing as "news".

...The head of the Cartoon Network resigned after a major American city spazzed out, confusing guerilla marketing with guerilla infiltration. Namely, a promotion for Aqua Teen Hunger Force (hey, I don't make these up) was suspected as being a terrorist lite-brite. Similar devices were found in the Seattle area, whose local governments reacted badly by merely removing the devices and not panicking, and as a result not getting a cool two mill for their overeaction (well, I hope we learned an important lesson there).

... And yeah, other people noticed that at $2 million, the corporate prank was still cheaper than buying time at the Superbowl (where the only commercial I remember is Robert Goulet sneaking into your office and messing with your stuff).

...The court marshal of a US Soldier who refused to deploy to Iraq was declared a mistrial, even though said soldier was not allowed to offer a defense. This, of course, got less column space than a crazy astronaut or a dead playmate.

...We had extreme weather in upstate New York in the form of very heavy snow, which allowed people to sniff about global warming while conveniently ignoring an example of catastrophic climate change.

... We seem to have succeeded in Iraq while I was gone, since we're now busy planning to attack Iran.

... Apparently things are going real well in Afghanistan, too. There hasn't been any news on that at all. We must have caught that Osama guy, and I just missed it.

Then again, maybe I should just check into another hotel for a week.

More later,

Voice of Thunder

So while I was in New York, my hotel caught fire.

I was dreaming of designing a game about a spider going up a water spout, chased by cats and avoiding drops, when I was roused from my sleep by a voice over the loudspeaker:

Attention Residents! There is No Danger! Do not evacuate!

This was at four in the morning. Needless to say, I was suddenly very awake.

Attention Residents! There is No Danger! Do not evacuate!

And at that point, I was aware that I had a loudspeaker in my room. And for some reason, this did not make me feel particularly secure.

Attention Residents! This is the Head of Hotel Security! There is No Danger! Please stay in your rooms.

OK, let me roll over and go back to sleep!

Attention Residents! This is the Head of Hotel Security! There has been a small fire on the 2nd floor. The fire department has been called. There is No Danger! Do not evacuate!

And now I heard the sound of water running, in the walls. It was the reason I was dreaming of water downspouts. It sounded like a river. And somewhere in the distance the peeping of a fire alarm. And in the air, the faint smell of .... smoke?

Attention Residents! This is the Head of Hotel Security! There has been a small fire on the 2nd floor. The fire department has it under control. There is No Danger! Please stay in your rooms.

So I stayed, in particular since the Voice of Thunder was going off every minute, I was not getting back to sleep. And every time I thought I would, it went off again.

Attention Residents! This is the Head of Hotel Security! A burst pipe has caused a small fire on the 2nd floor. The fire department has it under control There is No Danger! Do not evacuate!

So why are you telling me this? I am 21 floors above it?

Attention Residents! This is the Head of Hotel Security! A burst pipe on the 29th floor has caused a small fire on the 2nd floor. The fire department has put the fire out! There is No Danger! Do not evacuate!

Well, that explains the water in the walls, at least.

And so it went throughout the early morning hours.

Attention Residents! This is the Head of Hotel Security! Have you ever wondered if you've chosen the correct path in your life?

OK, they didn't say that, but it went on forever, repeating itself in case someone might have missed the previous twenty reports. Finally, it abated, and they let the people who apparently ignored the warnings and came down go back to their rooms (Yeah, they announced that as well).

And in the morning the power was out for half of the hotel, the elevators were on manual, and there was the smell of smoke in the air.

Of the Voice of Thunder, however, there was no sign. I think he went home to bed.

More later,

Hole in the Heart

So I am in New York City. The whys and wherefores do not matter, and, to be honest, I can’t discuss what I’m up to at the moment. But the discussions and meetings had a hole, about three hours in size, large enough to allow a trip into the frigid outside world beyond the hotel. I had not been in the city for about a decade, and while much is the same, some things have changed - more flatscreens everywhere, the Toy Building is going condo, and Times Square is more brilliant and gaudy than ever.

So I went to Ground Zero to pay my respects. It’s been a decade since I’ve been here.

When I came into the city earlier in the week it was just after twilight, and the Empire State and Chrysler buildings were lit up, dominating their neighbors. I’ve never been a native New Yorker, but New York is in the national blood – its locations are familiaf to us. The city and its various districts and boroughs belong to the national consciousness (unlike LA, where all of its locations are punchlines, but that’s another tale). Anyway, coming into the city from JFK I could not help but smile from the strange warmth and familiarity that it gave off.

And then I looked towards the south, and there was a hole in the skyline, and my throat got thick and my eyes watered a little. There is still a hole in the heart of Manhattan.

I got on the E train to go downtown this afternoon. “We don’t give change” said the woman at the booth. “I’m new here,” I said. “You go to that machine and you can get a single ride pass. It costs two dollar. We don’t give change. The machines work. Those idiots say they don’t, but they don’t know nothing. They work, just follow the directions.” And the machines worked and spat out a ticket and I descended into the subway and caught the E train to the last stop.

Now a decade ago I would be shameless in my open distain, even hatred, of the World Trade Center. And I would not be alone in that opinion – they were ugly buildings, buck teeth planted at the end of the island, far from the true heart of Manhattan. They weren’t elegant in appearance, like the Empire State, or even novel in design, like the Sears Tower in Chicago. They were ugly. brutish buildings, and to make matters worse, their first movie appearance was with Tom Hanks in the horrible, horrible movie “Mazes and Monsters”. So I have no love for the towers. But now they are gone and the hole is left and I miss them.

And subway let out right on the edge of the construction. A heritage sign along the road still talks about them in present tense, as an engineering marvel. The site itself has been excavated, and the foundations and infrastructure are already going in, including the rail lines. You can navigate around the entire site, so I paced around it, alongside a damaged building still being deconstructed, along the various fences and windows, through the Winter Garden, and along the north side. I was not alone - there were others, still surprised, and shocked, and angry and sad, who came to see and picture the structure as it was and as it may yet be (and just a note – the models of the planned structures look a lot better in three-dimensions than the artistic renditions I’ve seen).

And in the end I got back on the subway going north and a pair of hiphoppers danced and panhandled and got out at the gaudy Time Square where a group of young girls under watchful police eyes were waiting for someone named Hillary to finish taping an interview with MTV. But there was one other thing at the site.

On other of the pedestrian overpasses, an artist had put in an installation called “Floodwall” It was nothing but drawers – simple drawers, wooden, warped, and water-damaged, from chests and closets that once held simple things, all on end, all along the length of the passage. The only thing odd about these peeling, bleached, wooden drawers was that they were from New Orleans, rescued from the rubble of Katrina, brought north and laid out in a vista along the side of Ground Zero.

There is a hole in the heart of Manhattan. There are other holes in the heart of America.

Update: It has been noted that actually, the 1976 version of King Kong predates the 1982 release of Mazes and Monsters (Thanks, Bradon!). Rather than just make the change above into "one of the first film appearences" or something similarly weaselly, I will just not the change here, since it allows me to state again that Mazes and Monsters really blew chunks.

Make Levees, Not War

So I have been very, very busy of late, both in the office and on my own time, and haven't done a lot of posting. But I came across this, first on the Pittsburgh Press site, then at the P-I (though nothing from the Seattle Times). In short, it says that a lot of levees need repaired.

The article, pretty much identical in the Press and the P-I, makes a passing reference to the fact that a lot of the sites are located in Washington State, though this seems to just be passed on without much comment by our local press. This is particularly interesting since, if you check out the pdfed list, you find that a lot of the areas of concern, where maintenance of the levees has been turned over to local authorities and since lapsed, are along the Cedar and Green Rivers.

These rivers are very close to here, like just down the hill from us. And indeed, both are rivers that had historically different and often random paths before the authorities channeled and leveed them into submission. The Green is particular was known for frequent flooding, and the region now occupied by WotC, the big Southcenter Mall, and the upcoming Federal Reserve Bank, were all regularly flooded (there was a racetrack in this area once, and I have seen pictures of it underwater).

But just because the local waterway was once tamed does not mean it stays tamed, and the heavy rains of the past few years have given concern. Now the feds are voicing the same concern, to the tune that the locals either have to get on the ball, or those in the floodplains will have to pony up for flood plain insurance.

Given that a lot of large businesses (commercial and light industry) are now in the path of the Green, I have a feeling that we will be hearing about this again in the near future.

More later,