Espinasse's Super-Read-Of-The-Week

New Spidey Trailer

2012-02-10T16:37:00.000-08:00

This is actually starting to look really good. Emma Stone looks just about right for Gwen Stacy and Andrew Garfield brings more of the Ditko-Spidey than Tobey Maguire ever did. Also, did I mention that the Lizard is in this one?

In fact, this one got me so hyped about everything Spidey that I just pre-ordered my copy of AMS Omnibus Vol. 2 from Amazon.com! This volume collects the start of the Romita-era. Yes, I did not get the previous volume because I wasn't really a fan of the Ditko-Spidey. But those Romita issues have to be my favourite comics of all time.

Dazed & Confused (or Sweet Intoxication - depending on the time of the day...)

2012-02-09T20:34:00.000-08:00

"A great scholar, in the highest sense of the term, is not one who depends simply on an infinite memory, but also on an infinite and electrical power of combination; bringing together from the four winds, like the Angel of the Resurrection, what else were dust from dead men’s bones, into the unity of breathing life." – Thomas De Quincey

It is interesting that we owe our most significant technological breakthroughs to less noble motives. For example, were it not for wars, we probably would not have seen the great advancements in aviation and telecommunications technology. Well, I’m pretty sure that the advancements would’ve taken place sooner or later but the fact that they did take place so much sooner was because they were first employed in the art of killing and warfare. Similarly pornography in our present decade have given birth to advancements in online payments, age verification technologies, multi-angle DVD technologies; not to mention other "physical" or "cosmetic" advancements when we think of the performers. It almost seemed like without the spilling of blood and seed, there is very little motivation for us to advance as a species technologically. Our constant pursuit of the twin pillars of sex and death drives us to evolve as a species.

I’m typing this in a cybercafe – surrounded by blokes around me who are either gunning down enemy soldiers in "Counter-Strike" or surfing for porn online. The bloke to my right is gay and is browsing through homosexual hook-up sites. This cybercafe becomes, in effect, a microcosm of what humanity is all about. Even a casual observer will notice that there is an untoward obsession with sex and death that is apparently burned into our collective consciousness.

There is a certain intoxication in the celebration of sex and death. Perhaps that was what gave birth to orgiastic religious rituals that often involved the celebrants in an ejaculative, blood-soaked dance involving hierodules and human sacrifice. The ancients called it "enthusiasm" – that means, to be possessed by the sex/death deity. In pop culture, we see the manifestations of these same ancient deities in everything from vampires to femme fatales, from Tomb Raider to James Bond. Sexual attraction meets cold-blooded murder. Seductive come-hither invitations to pleasure followed by exhilaration in death. Like I said, this stuff is intoxicating.

Old time missionaries brought opium and the gospel to savages. The savages rejected the gospel because they couldn't understand it but demanded that the intoxicating opiate be left behind for their enjoyment. Human beings have an elementary need to be intoxicated, to experience the supercharge of the senses or simply to numb them; to "break on thru to the other side" and to be an active participant in the church of electric-ladyland. Some artists and poets work best when they go "under". The Lake poets, for example, were chief among the puffers. Coleridge wrote "Ancient Mariner" and "Kubla Khan" under the influence, I was told. DeQuincey was, of course, that famous "opium eater" whose works are now required reading by literature students! If DeQuincey was living today, it’d not be difficult to imagine him going for the latest designer drugs while browsing anal-rampage sites online. ( "Thou hast the keys of Paradise, O just, subtle, and mighty opium!" – Thomas DeQuincey)

I went looking for Chuck Klosterman. I've yet to get my hands on "Sex, Drugs and Cocoa Puffs". Browsed through a copy in Borders last week but decided to read Mark Twain instead. Interestingly, Twain wrote about intoxication as well. It involved Tom Sawyer and a cat named Peter. I’ll quote the entire passage below:

Tom had become indifferent to persecution by this time. This phase filled the old lady’s heart with consternation. This indifference must be broken up at any cost. Now she heard of Pain-killer for the first time. She ordered a lot at once. She tasted it and was filled with gratitude. It was simply fire in a liquid form. She dropped the water treatment and everything else, and pinned her faith to Pain-killer. She gave Tom a teaspoonful and watched with the deepest anxiety for the result. Her troubles were in- stantly at rest, her soul at peace again; for the “in- difference” was broken up. The boy could not have shown a wilder, heartier interest, if she had built a fire under him.

Tom felt that it was time to wake up; this sort of life might be romantic enough, in his blighted con- dition, but it was getting to have too little sentiment and too much distracting variety about it. So he thought over various plans for relief, and finally hit pon that of professing to be fond of Pain-killer. He asked for it so often that he became a nuisance, and his aunt ended by telling him to help himself and quit bothering her. If it had been Sid, she would have had no misgivings to alloy her delight; but since it was Tom, she watched the bottle clandestinely. She found that the medicine did really diminish, but it did not occur to her that the boy was mending the health of a crack in the sitting-room floor with it.

One day Tom was in the act of dosing the crack when his aunt’s yellow cat came along, purring, ey- ing the teaspoon avariciously, and begging for a taste. Tom said:

“ Don’t ask for it unless you want it, Peter. ”

But Peter signified that he did want it.

“You better make sure.”

Peter was sure.

“Now you’ve asked for it, and I’ll give it to you, because there ain’t anything mean about me; but if you find you don’t like it, you mustn’t blame any- body but your own self.”

Peter was agreeable. So Tom pried his mouth open and poured down the Pain-killer. Peter sprang a couple of yards in the air, and then delivered a war-whoop and set off round and round the room, banging against furniture, upsetting flower-pots, and making general havoc. Next he rose on his hind feet and pranced around, in a frenzy of enjoyment, with his head over his shoulder and his voice pro- claiming his unappeasable happiness. Then he went tearing around the house again spreading chaos and destruction in his path. Aunt Polly entered in time to see him throw a few double summersets, deliver a final mighty hurrah, and sail through the open window, carrying the rest of the flower-pots with him. The old lady stood petrified with astonishment, peering over her glasses; Tom lay on the floor expiring with laughter.

“Tom, what on earth ails that cat?”

“I don’t know, aunt,” gasped the boy.

“Why, I never see anything like it. What did make him act so?”

“Deed I don’t know, Aunt Polly; cats always act so when they’re having a good time.”

Wow! Cats on pain-killers having a good time. Can you believe that? And people think the classics are boring! Where else can you find a junkie cat? Twain is, essentially, the novelist who celebrated youth. As I read "Tom Sawyer", I kept imagining how the novel would read if he’d written it today. I mean, you’ve got Tom, Huck and Jim Harper faking their own deaths to go off and pretend to be pirates. First thing they did was to roll some grass together and started puffing! Then they started boasting about how intoxicating the whole experience was. Jim Harper was about to pass out but he didn’t want to appear like a loser in front of his friends so he came up with some excuse about looking for his knife. Tom also went off and left Huck sitting there by his lonesome. After a while, Huck found them both passed out already. See how "contemporary" the whole thing felt?

The lads came gayly back and went at their sports again with a will, chattering all the time about Tom’s stupendous plan and admiring the genius of it. After a dainty egg and fish dinner, Tom said he wanted to learn to smoke, now. Joe caught at the idea and said he would like to try, too. So Huck made pipes and filled them. These novices had never smoked anything before but cigars made of grape-vine, and they “bit” the tongue, and were not considered manly anyway.

Now they stretched themselves out on their elbows and began to puff, charily, and with slender confidence. The smoke had an unpleasant taste, and they gagged a little, but Tom said:

“Why, it’s just as easy! If I’d a knowed this was all, I’d a learnt long ago.”

“So would I,” said Joe. “It’s just nothing.”

“Why, many a time I’ve looked at people smoking, and thought well I wish I could do that; but I never thought I could,” said Tom.

“That’s just the way with me, hain’t it, Huck? You’ve heard me talk just that way— haven’t you, Huck? I’ll leave it to Huck if I haven’t.”

“Yes— heaps of times,” said Huck.

“Well, I have too,” said Tom; “oh, hundreds of times. Once down by the slaughter-house. Don’t you remember, Huck? Bob Tanner was there, and Johnny Miller, and Jeff Thatcher, when I said it. Don’t you remember, Huck, ’bout me saying that?”

“Yes, that’s so,” said Huck. “That was the day after I lost a white alley. No, ’twas the day before.”

“There— I told you so,” said Tom. “Huck recollects it.”

“I bleeve I could smoke this pipe all day,” said Joe. “I don’t feel sick.”

“Neither do I,” said Tom. “I could smoke it all day. But I bet you Jeff Thatcher couldn’t.”

“Jeff Thatcher! Why, he’d keel over just with two draws. Just let him try it once. He’d see!”

“I bet he would. And Johnny Miller— I wish could see Johnny Miller tackle it once.”

“Oh, don’t I!” said Joe. “Why, I bet you Johnny Miller couldn’t any more do this than nothing. Just one little snifter would fetch him.”

“‘Deed it would, Joe. Say— I wish the boys could see us now.”

“So do I.”

“Say— boys, don’t say anything about it, and some time when they’re around, I’ll come up to you and say, ‘Joe, got a pipe? I want a smoke.’ And you’ll say, kind of careless like, as if it warn’t anything, you’ll say, ‘Yes, I got my old pipe, and another one, but my tobacker ain’t very good.’ And I’ll say, ‘Oh, that’s all right, if it’s strong enough.’ And then you’ll out with the pipes, and we’ll light up just as ca’m, and then just see ‘em look!”

“By jings, that’ll be gay, Tom! I wish it was now!”

“So do I! And when we tell ‘em we learned when we was off pirating, won’t they wish they’d been along?”

“Oh, I reckon not! I’ll just bet they will!”

So the talk ran on. But presently it began to flag a trifle, and grow disjointed. The silences widened; the expectoration marvellously increased. Every pore inside the boys’ cheeks became a spouting fountain; they could scarcely bail out the cellars under their tongues fast enough to prevent an inundation; little overflowings down their throats occurred in spite of all they could do, and sudden retchings followed every time. Both boys were looking very pale and miserable, now. Joe’s pipe dropped from his nerveless fingers. Tom’s followed. Both fountains were going furiously and both pumps bailing with might and main. Joe said feebly:

“I’ve lost my knife. I reckon I better go and find it.”

Tom said, with quivering lips and halting utterance:

“I’ll help you. You go over that way and I’ll hunt around by the spring. No, you needn’t come, Huck— we can find it.”

So Huck sat down again, and waited an hour. Then he found it lonesome, and went to find his comrades. They were wide apart in the woods, both very pale, both fast asleep. But something informed him that if they had had any trouble they had got rid of it.

[Note: The above was also from an older post in an older site I set up about 4 years ago. Over the past several days' reading on LSD and Timothy Leary in the novel "Shift", I remembered that I did write something about intoxicating substances in the past. Dug up the above post and decided to re-post it here.]

My Love-Hate Relationship With The Brits (Part Two)

2012-02-09T20:08:00.000-08:00

On the other hand, Simon Winder's book, "The Man Who Saved Britain" must be one of my all-time favourite books on British history interspersed with Winder's observations on how the James Bond mythos was deliberately weaved as a face-saving exercise at the time when the British Empire was at a decline.

A review of Winder's book I wrote previously (for Visual Bookshelf) went like this: "Simon Winder gives us Bond in context. The book covers the history of post-War Britain and highlights the disillusionment of the average Brit regarding the end of the glorious "British Empire". In the midst of these sentiments, Ian Fleming produced the novels that gave us James Bond - somewhat like a last gasp of the glory that was Britannia. The book is highly entertaining (sometimes even more than the original Bond books and films!) and hilarious. I found myself laughing on every page."

Truth is, Winder is not just hilarious. I found plenty that was useful from this book. Even used some of it in one of my history classes some time back. I was trying to convince my students regarding the importance of studying history. Did a revision of Form One history with them and realized that the main reasons why students hate history are: (i) textbooks are terribly written (if they resembled even 10% of how Simon Winder wrote, everyone'd be studying history); (ii) history teachers are terrible in presenting this stuff; (iii) students end up getting bored and failing to see the relevance of having a well-developed sense of history.

I paraphrased the following passages from Winder's book and the students got the point straightaway:

"Why should we be interested in history? Many people are not. Perhaps the great majority live very thoroughly in the present - children have a horizon only centimetres from their toes, many people through exhaustion and daily need can think little about the past or the future, many others live largely in the future, through religion or ambition, personal or familial. To be interested in the past is both a specific activity and a very vexed one: history is as likely to be a source of toxins as of pleasure..."

The students were pleased to see a history teacher actually trying to understand their frustrations with developing even the remotest interest in studying history. One student even said that they study history simply because the Education Ministry made it compulsory! Another student explained that she could not see the relevance of history since there's no way that we can change the past anyway (sheesh! these kids were smarter than I thought!). I agreed with her and stole another analogy from Simon Winder:

"At some level history really is useless: to comment on history is as wan an activity as yelling at the players in a televised football game: they can't hear you, they don't care and it's already too late. For me this latent sense of horror is always best summed up by the villain in Umberto Eco's medieval fantasy The Name of the Rose, trapped in an underground passage. Nobody rescues him because by the time they can dig him out he will have died of asphyxiation. History and the application of history to the present shares this nightmare, with an almost unbreakable mesh between ourselves and present, unfolding events that cannot be torn through. What value does a reading of history have? Its great value has to be, as a historian recently summed it up, to "criticize, criticize, criticize". For me, nothing can be more valuable than this constant patrolling around an always shifting kaleidoscope of events and decisions, both in themselves (they explain why we are here, doing what we do, earning what we earn) and because their interpretation is in effect a cross-examination of the present and of ourselves."

From there, I took the class on a tour of the ancient past and our methods of discovering the treasures therein. We discussed Oral and Written traditions as well as the role of archaeology in verifying the facts (at the same time, giving them a panoramic view of the developments of civilizations and religion). We discussed the composition of religious books (Bible, Koran, Sanskrit Scriptures), their underlying sources in myths and oral traditions, and how "stories" are what bind the seemingly unrelated facts, events and peoples together. We talked about the Battle of Pellenor Fields (one student is a fantasy buff who's hooked on Tolkien, Eddings, etc.) and the people involved (why are you interested in them?). We then talked about the ancient Srivijaya and Majapahit Kingdoms and their supposed lineage to the Indus Civilization AND the Alexandrian Egyptian/Hellenistic Empires simultaneously. Got them intrigued by all the supposed links between ancient kingdoms and religious traditions. Finally, I showed them the parallels between Animism as a religion and Disney movies as mass entertainment. In other words, we had a ball! Covered three chapters of Form One history, laughed a lot, asked a lot of questions, answered a lot of their queries and had a great time.

As an aside, I told them about the process of recording/interpreting history. Opened my Redaction-Criticism toolbox and brought out the two-headed beast of: (i) selection and (ii) arrangement of facts/events. History is what we make of it - it is to be meditated upon more than to be studied (but of course, for the sake of banal public examinations, the nationally-prescribed method of rote-learning and memorization may be required). Ultimately, it is about people - the human condition, the world as stage. Talked about Herodotus and the quest for a unifying theory of history. The students laughed at the Greek's pessimistic worldview of humans existing simply as the playthings of the gods but started to take it more seriously once they saw the implications of such metaphysics. At that point, I questioned myself whether I'd gone too far? Was it advisable to start developing existential angst in these innocent teenage girls who should really be more interested in dresses, hairpins and boyfriends? I don't know. But the class ended at that point and we moved on to Geography instead...

My Love-Hate Relationship With The Brits (Part One)

2012-02-09T19:59:00.000-08:00

I wrote recently about how John O'Farrell's self-deprecatory history of the British people is the sort of history book that I absolutely adore. Well, my statement must be seen within its proper context - in other words, to be seen in the light of history books that I have discovered to be genuinely barf-inducing!

Case in point: This monster-sized one-volume tome entitled "A History Of The English-Speaking Peoples Since 1900" by Andrew Roberts. It is an ambitious work that attempts to serve as a sequel to the four-volume work by Sir Winston Churchill ("A History Of The English-Speaking Peoples") that traced the histories from their humble beginnings up to January 1st, 1900. Roberts' opinion (which I do share) is that the best and most exciting history of the English-speaking peoples actually BEGAN from January 1st, 1900 rather than ended there. What was "the future" to Churchill is now our "past", seeing as how we have the luxury to examine it from where we are now in 2012. I grabbed the book, headed down to the food-court, gobbled down a beef-pie and started reading. I find much to agree with in the book. There should be no question whatsoever that we cannot understand much about the previous century (or our present, for that matter) without a careful examination of the importance of understanding the English-speaking peoples. In fact, however much we hate to admit it (as I believe readers of Chomsky do), the previous century really must be defined as the Century of the English-Speaking Peoples.

Having said that, Roberts' book is largely flawed. To put it more succinctly, the strengths of the book are also its weaknesses. Roberts go to no small lengths to prove the "greatness" of the English-speaking peoples (UK, US, Australia and Canada - but excluding Ireland, because of their seeming addiction towards self-flagellating regression) and ended up sounding so jingoistic as to sometimes be a turn-off! There is no question that there is much to laud, to applaud even, about the achievements of the English-speaking peoples. I would even go so far as to ascribe a certain undeniable greatness to them. But to read a 800-page defense of their "Manifest Destiny" can be a little too much to take. Perhaps the solution is to read this volume with the other book by John O'Farrell within convenient reach so as to counter the heady-optimism. I often think that the best histories are those that make us critical of ourselves, our nations, our culture. Roberts' self-congratulatory tone throughout makes the book sound, at times, like a ridiculous religious tract written by blind-adherents rather than a work worthy of a true historian. Having said that, the breadth, the ambition and the obvious passion of the author is to be applauded. This will be a good volume to read and re-read, if for no other reason than to see the desperate apologetics of the English-speaking peoples in an age when they actually have to be so desperately apologetic!

Teenage Wasteland Redux

2012-02-09T19:50:00.000-08:00

Teenagers with problems. Teenagers with superpowers that set them apart from the rest of humanity - thus amplifying their problems to the Nth-degree. Sounds familiar? If you've grown up reading "X-Men" (like me), it should and Brian Wood knows that. Wood takes the best of the teenage-angst of Claremont's malfunctioned mutant teenagers and recycles them into 12 short-stories elegantly illustrated by Becky Cloonan into a book called "Demo". The result is not a comic or even a graphic novel (I hate that pretentious nomenclature). It works and feels like an alt musical album with 12 tracks, each one illustrating a particular emotion: acceptance, support, loneliness, escape, lust, love, pain, etc. I read "X-Men: Divided We Stand"and that was something like this work (vignettes or snapshots of characters) but without the magic of Cloonan's art. Cloonan channels the best of Paul Pope, Frank Miller and Guy Davis with a mixture of manga into her work, creating a deeply personal album to cherish for many, many years and rereads to come. By the end of the book, I was screaming: "Mum, when I grow up, I want to marry Becky Cloonan!" Well, not exactly in those words but you get the point... :)

This was originally posted in that now defunct, detonated pub (that still holds some bittersweet memories) set up by three blokes who really should have known better...

Anyway, my wife and daughter recently started reading "Morning Glories" by Nick Spencer - and that kind of reminded me of this post I wrote once upon a time about "Demo" and Becky Cloonan. Decided to repost it here.

History of Modern Britain (especially the exasperating bits...)

2012-02-09T19:31:00.000-08:00

John O'Farrell writes the sort of history books that I can't get enough of. That's probably because I teach my history classes in much the same way that O'Farrell presents historical facts. I'm re-reading his "An Utterly Exasperated History of Modern Britain". This is a sequel to his earlier book that covered 1,000 years of British history up to World War II. This one covers the post-WW2 era up to the present. Reading Bond novels over the past several weeks invariably drawn me back to the Britain of Anthony Eden, Harold Macmillan and (dare I say it) John Profumo (seriously John, was she worth it?).

O'Farrell writes in the self-deprecatory style that he's famous for - the man delights in making fun of his own nation's history. If anything similar is attempted here, the result would be disastrous! But thank God we have John O'Farrell. There's a reason why this book is also titled "60 Years Of Making The Same Stupid Mistakes As Always". Hmm... coming to think of it, perhaps someone really should write a book like that about Malaysia. At least that will (hopefully) stop some people from saying really dumb things like keeping BN in power because it's more advisable to "deal with the devil you know". Really - it's just making the same stupid mistakes as always. But then, it's probably advisable to not take everything seriously and learn to laugh at ourselves the way O'Farrell laughs at the uptight Brits and their follies.

Revisiting "Guardian Devil" and "Parts of a Hole"

2012-02-09T18:25:00.000-08:00

In the late 1990s, Kevin Smith and Joe Quesada teamed up on "Daredevil: Guardian Devil". That work established the Marvel Knights line of books, led to Quesada becoming the Editor-In-Chief at Marvel and was a huge factor in the DD movie finally getting the green light. Love it or hate it, Guardian Devil was an important piece of work at a very specific turning point in comic history.

Here are the interviews with Kevin Smith and Joe Quesada on their seminal work:

Personally, I've always preferred the follow-up story to Guardian Devil. Writer-artist David Mack came on board, taking over from Kevin Smith, and gave us "Parts of a Hole". Joe Quesada continued as artist on the book but with a slightly modified style that is closer to Mack's artistic style. The story Mack gave us was a lot more poignant and examined Matt Murdock's character in a far deeper way. Aside from that, the story introduced Maya Lopez aka Echo (who would later take on the identity of Ronin in the Avengers books - and is last seen hanging out with Moon Knight over on the book by Brian Bendis and Alex Maleev).

David Mack continued on the book after the story but he took on the artistic duties instead. Here's an interview with Mack about his tenure on DD:

Remembering Miller's Classic Works

2012-02-09T18:08:00.000-08:00

I was with my daughter, Moira, at Snowflake Cafe last night. She was reading "Sense & Sensibility" and I was trying to concentrate on "Shift" despite the background noise. A group of insane druggie chicks in the next table were laughing like banshees. Anyway, I asked Moira whether or not she has read any classic Frank Miller and was surprised to find out that she hasn't! I mean, she's read EVERYTHING Batman, the Bendis/Smith/Nocenti Daredevil runs, Will Eisner's Spirit, etc. BUT she's never read Frank Miller. I told myself that something needs to be done. Gotta fix this situation. Maybe get her started on the classic DD, Elektra, then the Dark Knight stuff, followed by Sin City. Probably best to avoid the latest stuff like All Star Batman or Holy Terror though. The short clip above is a quick intro on everything cool about Miller... when Miller was great! :)

And here's Miller talking about his Daredevil runs. Yes, I said "runs". Miller actually did 3 separate runs on the character. First, there was his stint as an artist on Roger MacKenzie's scripts with Miller eventually taking over the book. Then, he came back and did "Born Again" with David Mazzuchelli. Finally, there was the "Man Without Fear" miniseries he did with John Romita Jr. All of them are worth multiple rereadings. :)

2012... The Year So Far...

2012-02-09T17:37:00.000-08:00

It feels good to redesign the banner on this blog. I know that I've hardly been posting anything here since the end of 2011. There are so many things happening in my life now that updating my blog feels like priority number 27 on a list of 11. Firstly, I've got only 3 more months to go before taking my final exams to get my Law Degree. Hence, it's been a crazy several months of 8-10 hours daily study routines. I've been buried under my Conflict of Laws textbook since the end of January (immediately after the Chinese New Year).

Secondly, speaking of the Chinese New Year, I spent an entire week with my in-laws. Took the family back to the south to be with my in-laws and then my brother-in-law's family came back to the city with us for the rest of the week. The trip home was an opportunity to relax and unwind a little - but it soon felt very uneventful and boring. Even the kids were bored out of their minds this time. I don't really know why. It just felt like a dreary experience altogether. Well, the kids got to play with their sparklers and fireworks - but other than that, everything felt dull and dreary - almost like we were all "required" to celebrate the Lunar New Year in a "dutiful" way because that's the way things are.

About the only things that kept me preoccupied were the James Bond novels that I took along with me. I've been collecting the really hard to find hardcover copies of the Bond novels from the 2008 Centenary Editions. They feature breathtakingly beautiful painted covers for each of the 14 novels by Ian Fleming. I got to re-read "Casino Royale" and "From Russia With Love" during the Chinese New Year. Also got to read "You Only Live Twice", "Live And Let Die", "Dr. No" and "Goldfinger" for the first time. Bond novels are at their very best when Bond himself is nothing more than a surrogate for Ian Fleming himself. Throughout the novels, there was very little in the way of "character development" (although a case can certainly be made for "You Only Live Twice" with a grieving Bond getting more and more reckless until finally finding a sweet but all too brief time of serenity in the arms of Kissy Suzuki). The books are also read and enjoyed for its rather strange (or desperate) quality in that Fleming was trying so hard to make his readers believe that England still mattered in the 1950s-1960s when the Empire was being torn to bits with former colonies declaring their independence so quickly within that short span of 15-20 years - not to mention the post-War economic problems that led to rationing and the beginnings of the welfare state. Through all the tough times, one man stood head above the rest and declared (unrealistically, perhaps - but with undeniable gusto) that England still matters and that England still saves the day.

Anyway, I'm pretty much over my Bond-phase now. This week has been taken up with helping my dad to settle some disputes with his partners at the construction site. I was really stressed up for more than a week. Thankfully, the meeting on Wednesday came and went - with rather favourable results. My parents are again on a holiday trip to the Highlands, and my kids are back in school. Thank God that this week is finally coming to an end. It's been a daily routine of studying law in the daytime and working out the defences/arguments for my dad in the evenings. The daily grind left me exhausted and drained. My only distraction came in the form of the Tim Kring novel, "SHIFT". Kring finally left behind the "Heroes" TV series and sat down to give us the first volume (co-written with Dale Peck) of his LSD Trilogy. The basic premise of the novel is that experiments with LSD was behind the assassination of JFK!!! The FBI, CIA, J. Edgar Hoover, Fidel Castro, Cuban missile crisis, and, of course, Timothy Leary, were all thrown in for good measure. At times the novel felt like a gathering of old friends at a reunion ball. But the whole thing is put together so energetically, so chaotically, with not a little bit of arrogance (or self-confidence?) that it's overall a pleasing read. I find myself turning the pages frantically and really, really looking forward to the next book. In the meantime, I should probably also check out Stephen King's "11/22/63" (also on the JFK assassination but with a time-travel twist).

As I'm typing this post, I've got the "Daredevil - Director's Cut" DVD playing in the background. Evanescence is singing and Matt Murdock is trying to persuade Elektra to contain her grief at her father's funeral. She ignores him and goes into her car, telling the driver to start driving. The Director's Cut actually added quite a number of scenes (especially courtroom scenes) that fleshed out the characters of Matt, Foggy, Elektra and the criminal, Mr. Quesada (named after Marvel chief and famed DD artist, of course) quite a bit. Overall, I've always loved this movie despite the fact that it's been universally panned. Of course, as much as I liked this one, there's no way that I'm watching the follow-up "Elektra" movie ever again!!!

I'm taking a break today and really determined to take is slow and easy for a day. Probably reread some old DD comics by Frank Miller or Ann Nocenti... :)

Review: Man On The Ledge

2012-02-09T16:27:00.000-08:00

Saw "Man on the Ledge" yesterday. Not bad but something was missing. I mean, it's essentially a beat-the-system-on-your-own-terms film but the angst that one feels in "Law Abiding Citizen" or the Quixotic-redefinition-of-reality in "The Next Three Days" are all missing. Sam Worthington was simply doing a walk-through the entire film (or more accurately, walking from left to right on the ledge). Elizabeth Banks looked like she's been in one too many films already. Ed Harris looked so old that he's painful to look at - this bloke was Jay Garrick in my mind for many years but now he's more like the can of overnight yogurt at the back of the fridge. Minus the angst, the final "triumph" didn't feel like anything triumphant. It felt more like TGIF than a man triumphing over an unjust accusation that ruined his life... :(

Grayson

2012-01-11T18:11:00.000-08:00

The story of Dick Grayson after the death of Batman. This is the movie that should've been made instead of the crapfest that is the Nolan Dark Knight Trilogy. Check out the really cool, extra-long trailer featuring all sorts of fanboy-pleasing moments. :)

Remember the time when you went absolutely gaga about your favourite comicbook or cartoon characters finally appearing live on the big screen in a film adaptation? Like when Chris Reeve first donned the Superman costume or Michael Keaton first played Batman? With the proliferation of superhero movies these days, that sense of awe/wonder is somewhat gone. I guess the last time I really felt that was when Sam Raimi gave us the first Spidey film or when Hugh Jackman first appeared as Wolverine in the cage match from the first X-Men film.

The Grayson clip above is a fan-made homage to dressing up people to look like your favourite DC heroes and villains. It's more than cosplay. It's a return to the time when comicbook-based movies were designed to appeal to 'outsiders' - more an underground obsession by people who are really into this kind of thing than mainstream big-bucks entertainment. :)

Anyway, check out this article at Playtime Magazine (http://www.playtime-magazine.com/2009/03/watchmen-vs-the-dark-knight/).

At last, someone agrees with me 100% that:

1) Chris Nolan's other works (Memento, The Prestige) are absolutely fantastic.
2) Chris Nolan's Batman films (especially The Dark Knight) are absolute shits.
3) Zack Snyder's Watchmen adaptation is one of the greatest films ever made.
4) Zack Snyder's other works (300, for instance) are absolute shits.

Most people I talk to get the whole thing the other way around. Sigh!!!

Funny thing is, I love almost everything Chris Nolan does (esp. The Prestige and Inception). I also love everything David Goyer does (Dark City, his JSA comicbook collaboration with Geoff Johns). AND I'm a huge Batman fan.

BUT: when Nolan + Goyer + Batman? I don't know. Their take on Batman just brings out the worst feelings from me. There are very few things I hate more than "The Dark Knight". "Batman Begins" I could tolerate, "The Dark Knight" I absolutely loathe.

Infinite Crisis and the New 52

2012-01-10T19:10:00.000-08:00

Re-read "Infinite Crisis" yesterday. Time was, Geoff Johns could craft a superhero epic like no one else. IC was probably the best statement on the pre-New DC 52 Universe. At the time, it gave us hope and promised something better. Heck, even Batman became friendlier post-IC! However, the Nolan films, Grant Morrison and "Final Crisis/RIP" made Batman dark and dour all over again. In the end, DC decided to shelve the entire universe and go for a half-baked reboot instead...

The biggest problem with the New 52 reboot is continuity - it appears that DC will never get their continuity problems properly ironed out. Some books/characters appear to be completely rebooted (e.g. Superman, Cyborg, Wonder Woman) while others seem to be tied to *some* past continuity (e.g. Green Lantern, Batman, Batgirl, Nightwing) - the question is *which* of the past stories are still considered canonical?

My daughter, Moira, and I love several of the new books. Top of the list are Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo's take on "Batman", Gail Simone and Ardian Syaf's "Batgirl" and Brian Azzarello and Cliff Chiang's "Wonder Woman". We buy and read the single issues monthly.

Alas, another book that we buy/read monthly is Geoff Johns and Jim Lee's "Justice League". However, the quality of the book is getting from bad to worse with each issue. Geoff Johns write like an amateur - he tries to write "Bendis-style" by having each character mouth of quips in every panel. The result is something that comes off as amateurish and silly. Maybe it's because there's not much of a story to begin with. I just finished issue 4 and Darkseid finally shows up but so far the series feel like nothing more than a showcase for single characters (e.g. Batman and Green Lantern in issue 1, Superman in issue 2, Wonder Woman in issue 3 and Aquaman in issue 4). Then there's the obligatory "angry black youth" character thrown in for political correctness - namely, Cyborg. We get Cyborg's origin retold and it's 99% identical with his original story (more ably told in the 1980s by Messrs. Wolfman and Perez). Furthermore, the character showcases are so superficial and flimsy compared to how the characters are written in their own regular books. Johns' Batman is a juvenile compared to the complex version written by Snyder. As for Wonder Woman, while Azzarello is reinventing her with every issue (she's no longer made of clay - but is, in fact, the daughter of Zeus and Hippolyta), Johns gives us Wonder Woman who loves fighting and ice-cream (sometimes in that order too!!!). I tell Moira that I buy the book for the artwork - I mean, it's JIM LEE! But even Jim is starting to falter with this book. His characters, in the past, look mighty and iconic. I mean, you pick up a Jim Lee book expecting that - strong figure artwork and iconism. Here, they look skinny and amateurish. Where's the Jim Lee of "Batman: Hush" or "Superman: For Tomorrow"? In those seminal works, Jim's super-detailed artwork, while being super-detailed, gave the panels room to breathe. We sit back in wonder at the man's mastery of the comic artform. But here, his work just feel cluttered. Coupled with Johns' less-than-average writing, the new flagship title of the New 52 comes off feeling like the worst of the early 1990s Image books!!!

Finally, one last gripe - where's the Justice Society? Aside from Hawkman, it doesn't appear that any other Golden Age characters are part of this new continuity! This is a huge mistake that DC is making. By grounding the beginnings of super-heroism in the dark days of the Second World War, DC comics always carry that extra gravitas and a sense of class. Now? They feel nothing more than Image Comics Redux... :(

If (like me), you miss the old pre-reboot DCU, check out the INFINITE CRISIS OMNIBUS coming in mid-2012. It collects the entire sprawling saga in one huge 1,200-page hardcover. The issue reprinted in this giant tome are Day of Vengeance #1-6, Day of Vengeance: Infinite Crisis Special #1, Rann/Thanagar War #1-6, Rann/Thanagar War:Infinite Crisis Special #1, DC Countdown #1, OMAC Project #1-6, Omac Project:Infinite Crisis Special #1, Wonder Woman #219, Villains United:Infinite Crisis Special #1, Villains United #1-6, Infinite Crisis Secret Files 2006 #1, Infinite Crisis #1-7. That's about as complete as we get although I think they should have thrown in the Return of Donna Troy miniseries as well as the relevant issues of JLA and Superman that were tied into the IC epic at the time. Check out the cover artwork above by Jim Lee and see how mighty and godlike his characters used to look compared to the skinny amateurs *pretending* to be the Justice League today. Also, Phil Jimenez's artwork is reason alone to get the book in an oversized hardcover. His super-detailed Perez-styled work must be seen to be believed... :)

Movie Reviews: MI4: Ghost Protocol and Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows

2011-12-26T22:38:00.000-08:00

Watching "MI4: Ghost Protocol" twice with my family was probably the highlight of this year's Christmas. More so because we were actually planning to catch "Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows" instead. In other words, we really weren't expecting much. But it was mind-blowingly good. Easily the best action film that I've seen this year. A perfect film to cap off 2011 - a really good year at the theatres. The storyline is simple enough - we have our nondescript villain planning to "reboot" the world by starting nuclear war (kinda like what the Leader planned to do circa Incredible Hulk #116-117 when you think about it) and Tom Cruise's Ethan Hunt assembling a new team to stop those dastardly plans. Straightforward enough - except the entire adventure took Cruise and gang all the way from Budapest to the Kremlin to Dubai and finally Mumbai. Along the way, we are treated to laughs aplenty, thrill-a-minute action scenes and the most unbelievable stunts ever captured on film - Cruise hanging on one palm 140 stories up the tallest building in the world is unforgettable. Throw in Simon Pegg for laughs and Paula Patton for eye-candy (not to mention a believable action woman at last) and you have a winner in MI4. :)

"Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows", on the other hand, was a bit of a disappointment. Well, the *feel* of the prequel is still there and Robert Downey Jr. plays his hand as the roguish sleuth the way he did in the first movie to perfection here. Jude Law, in fact, did an even better job here as Dr. Watson than he did in the previous movie. Plus we get Professor Moriarty finally and a plot to start a world war (kinda like what the villain in MI4 was aiming for too). That being said, the whole film felt... I don't know... predictable and dreary. No, I don't think the film was bad (it'll likely improve with later viewings on DVD anyway). I think it had a little to do with the uncomfortable chair I was sitting on in the cinema. Oh yes, I was also carrying a baby (my niece) for the 2nd half of the movie (my wife was carrying her for the 1st half). Oh, and we inevitably started comparing it to MI4 (a bit unfairly, I must admit). All in all, it just wasn't as enjoyable as we expected. Especially after MI4. :(

Fall of the Mutants

2011-12-26T22:18:00.001-08:00

I just ordered this monster-sized hardcover from Amazon. It's really an Omnibus but for some inexplicable reasons, Marvel refused to call it one - same thing they did with "Inferno", remember? Anyhow, that's really no biggie since it's close to 900 pages of Mutant Goodness from the 1980s. Why did I get this? Well, "Fall of the Mutants" was a really big deal in the 1980s. It was the biggest event in the X-titles following "Mutant Massacre" and before "Inferno". The truth was, it wasn't really a crossover at all. It was more like a thematic link between the titles showcasing some really dark times in the X-books. In fact, some of the stories got so gloomy that many fans dropped the books at around the same time. For me, I'll always remember picking up the issues of "X-Factor" from a bargain bin in the local supermarket and realising that I'd struck gold! It was RM1 per issue and I got to read about Apocalypse transforming Warren into Death/Archangel and Caliban surrendering himself to the former in exchange for power to exact vengeance upon the Marauders who massacred the Morlocks. Years later, I got to read the whole thing one more time in the softcover reprint - along with the stories of the X-Men's "death" in Dallas fighting the Adversary and the New Mutant's hour of reckoning with the death of Cypher. Like I said, some really dark times. It was probably the end of childhood innocence for a lot of people too (I was about 12 years old when this was published). Anyway, I later gave away my softcover reprint to a friend and got him addicted to X-Men as well. I guess, it's rather apt that I get the hardcover collection (with 3 times more issues included - along with Incredible Hulk #340 - the Peter David scripted, Todd McFarlane drawn 'no holds barred' between Hulk and Wolverine!). Finally, who can ever forget that fantastic promo poster by Alan Davis - see cover image above - that was recently "borrowed" for "Fall of the Hulks"?

Review: The Muppets

2011-12-08T16:31:00.001-08:00

Saw "The Muppets" with my wife, kids, some other kid who snorted like a pig throughout the movie in the row behind me, some other dad who laughed like a camel in heat in the row behind me, and some kids who kept asking when "Big Bird" (from Sesame Street) was going to show up!

Is it the best "Muppets" movie ever? Not really. It's too nostalgic for its own good (yes, we '80s kids really did get to experience all the coolest shit first-hand). I'd probably say that it's as good as it could be. A clear labour of love - The Muppets are far more lovable than The Smurfs and far less irritating than Alvin & The Chipmunks. Jason Segel, like Neil Patrick Harris in "Smurfs" (and here as well), was overshadowed by the Muppets (as it should be) and delivered a very subdued performance (read: no full frontal male nudity this time). Chris Cooper did a rap that had the audience (and the Muppets themselves on-screen) wondering what that was all about?!? Amy Adams looked more like Miss Piggy than Miss Piggy ever did for years.

But who cares about the human actors anyway (oh yes, Jack Black was tied up). We're there to laugh WITH Gonzo and laugh AT Fozzie. We're there to get that heartstring-tugging "AWWWWW" feeling when Kermit sings "The Rainbow Connection" with the divalicious Miss Piggy joining in. We're there to see Animal go nuts on drums. It's the MUPPETS, my friends. For two hours in the cinema, all is right in the world. :)

Review: Immortals

2011-11-11T16:27:00.000-08:00

Saw "Immortals" last night. Shows how malleable Greek myths really are. They can even be filtered through the personal creative vision of Tarsem Singh and still retain considerable Hellenistic flavours. Of course, the overall end-product does feel a tad "off" - what with British actors (Henry Cavill and Frieda Pinto) being directed by Tarsem. Then, were those Titans or Morlocks? Mickey Rourke takes the cake as the baddie. My number complaint is that the local censors butchered the movie. Well, thankfully the bootleg DVD peddlers are performing a much needed community service by upholding the purity of directors' unexpurgated artistic visions! :p

Marjorie Liu Interview

2011-11-02T21:31:00.000-07:00

Marjorie Liu is possibly my favourite comicbook writer for the moment. I have been very impressed with her work on "Dark Wolverine", "Black Widow" and now, "X-23". She's one of those modern-day writers who dare to include some rather disturbing adult themes into the monthly comicbooks she writes. In this interview, Marjorie discusses how Daken (Wolverine's son) uses his pheromone-based sex powers as weapons.

Here, Marjorie discusses the inner darkness of the abused character of X-23 and Black Widow. It's great to have a female writer writing Marvel's female characters. Time was, about the only one who knew how to write in the female voice was Chris Claremont. Thankfully, we are having really good female writers on the books today.

Review: In Time

2011-11-02T19:46:00.000-07:00

Saw "In Time" yesterday (finally had some 'time' to go for a movie - pun intended). The film straddles the line between being philosophical (yes, we get it that Darwinian Capitalism is evil), and being a futuristic 'Bonnie & Clyde' (though obviously the latter half of the film largely abandons the philosophy for the popcorn-fare). For a 2 hour movie, it's passable. In other words, I liked it for what it was but I'm also very frustrated because it could be so much more. Justin Timberlake put in possibly his finest performance to date (after "The Social Network"). At least he didn't make me barf like he did in "Bad Teacher" (where he dry-humped Cameron Diaz). Amanda Seyfried is always lovely to look at but she still lacks the sort of depth that elevates her from a work-in-progress eye-candy to a serious actress. It is what it is - a Hollywood fare that could have been more had it been more gutsy (but, of course, both Justin and Amanda are marketable products from the Capitalistic Hollywood system itself so it's unlikely that the condemnation of the same system will come across as anything more than half-sincere). Or maybe I'm just too cynical to believe the film is all...

After the movie, I came home (and got drenched under the rain) to find a surprise package sitting on my bed. My Amazon package arrived 16 days earlier than the estimated date. "X-Men by Chris Claremont, Marc Silvestri and Jim Lee" omnibus hardcover. The pic above is the actual cover. This book comes immediately after the "Inferno HC" and before the "X-Tinction Agenda HC" (both of which I proudly own as well). Spent the rest of the day immersed in the magic created by Chris Claremont, Marc Silvestri, Rick Leonardi, Jim Lee and Rob Liefeld. The late 1980's X-titles were the best! I finally saw the connection between the Siege Perilous and Buddhism! Really cool stuff Chris wrote - the possibilities (and perils) of living an alternate existence, the challenge (and fears) of trying and trying again in multiple lifetimes until we finally get it right. Wow! :)

Even though it's reached new heights

I rather like the restless nights

It makes me wonder, makes me think

There's more to this I'm on the brink

It's not the fear of what's beyond

... It's just that I might not respond

I have an interest almost craving

Would I like to get too far in?

It can't be all coincidence

Too many things are evident

You tell me you're an unbeliever?

Spiritualist? Well me I'm neither

Wouldn't you like to know the truth

Of what's out there to have the proof

And find out just which side you're on

Where would you end in Heaven or in Hell?

Help me, help me to find my true self without seeing the future

Save me, save me from torturing myself even within my dreams

There's got to be just more to it than this

Or tell me why do we exist

I'd like to think that when I die

I'd get a chance another time

And to return and live again

Reincarnate, play the game

Again and again and again and again

- Infinite Dreams (Iron Maiden)

2011-10-29T20:15:00.000-07:00

Read the justly classic "New Mutants Annual #2" (1985) late last night. It's amazing how much Chris Claremont was able to squeeze into one issue - the continuation of the Betsy Braddock story from Alan Davis' final issues on the UK Captain Britain Magazine where Betsy lost her eyes to Slaymaster's assault, incorporating characters from Ann Nocenti's Longshot miniseries, molding the personality of Doug Ramsey (and introducing Douglock!), plus throwing in Captain Britain and the Mojoverse into the mix! Time was, storytellers told stories - epic tales - done in one issue (with potential story materials for years more to come). Time now, Bendis spent the last 6 issues of Moon Knight doing nothing but set-up! Sigh! Alan Davis was also in really fine form here (inked by the superb Mark Farmer, who will go on to collaborate with Davis on many more classic works). Next up: my all-time favourite single issue comic - Uncanny X-Men Annual #11 (also by Chris and Alan).

Tribute to Louise Simonson (and miscellaneous quick-shot reviews)

2011-10-28T23:11:00.000-07:00

Louise Simonson wrote great comics back in the day (and in her recent revisit to the world of "X-Factor"). While everyone concentrated on the huge plots, Weezie gave us some really moving character beats and POV stuff: Keith trying to get Superman's attention (while missing his mum) by spray painting a giant "S"-logo, Caliban's hesitance and eventual fateful choice to give up his soul in exchange for power from Apocalypse, Lois tearful telephone call to the Kents after the death of Supes, etc. Whether teamed up with her husband, Walt; or frequent collaborator, Jon Bogdanove; Weezie gave us unforgettable character moments that linger with us long after the smoke from the carnage dissolves and the sounds of explosive fights are gone. Simonson made me believe in the drama of comicbook characters - so often written as melodrama by inferior writers. This is superior comic-craft, my friends. :)

(I posted the above on my FB page and got a thank you note from Weezie herself. Here's looking forward to many more years of great writing/artwork from the Simonsons...)

In other news, stuff that I read and enjoyed yesterday include Batman #2 (Scott Snyder is crafting the definitive Gotham tale and the idea behind the sinister Council of Owls is gripping.), Wonder Woman #2 (Azzarello is doing to the Amazons what Snyder is doing to Gotham - with a touch of horror! Glad I'm not the only one who thinks that the Greek pantheon is creepy! Cliff Chiang also continues to wow the crowds with his gorgeous artwork.), Alpha Flight #5 (It's like the creators are channeling the ghost of John Byrne - oh, sorry, you mean Byrne is still around? Oops!!!), and, Jamie Delano's run on "Captain Britain" (Wild, twisty stuff - the "near-rape" of Psylocke was particularly disturbing - by her brother from an alternate universe even!).

I also read Justice League #2 (The book is still disappointing because of Geoff Johns' lousy writing. I picked it up solely for the Jim Lee artwork.) and Moon Knight #5-6 (Why is anyone still buying this series? Bendis is nuts here - writing a C-list nutjob and a deaf stripper having "adventures" together in a pointless manner! Of course, the fact that it's also one of the funniest and silliest superhero adventure comic out there sure doesn't hurt. The overall thing is an acquired taste though. Wacky and fun - but ultimately pointless...)

Forget Arkham City - the definitive Gotham tale is in the monthly title now by Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo. This is career-defining... hell, genre-defining work by the creators! :)

X-Tinction Agenda: Revisited

2011-10-23T18:54:00.000-07:00

The new "X-Tinction Agenda HC" reprints the four issues (UXM #235-238) that first introduced the mutant slave island state of Genosha and served as a prologue to the "Inferno Saga" (aside from the famous crossover itself). I never read those issues when they first came out and they were not included in the original "X-Tinction Agenda TPB". IMHO, those issues were among the most poignant and reflective writings that Chris Claremont produced in the late 1980s - which brought up issues of sovereignty of independent states, an extreme version of positivist law, the horrors of misguided utilitarianism and images reminiscent of the holocaust. Artwork was by Rick Leonardi and Marc Silvestri. Leonardi's artwork actually looked better now in retrospect and Silvestri's pre-Image work was pure dynamism without the tricks of computer colouring. Once again, superior comic-craft!

Updated (28 Oct 2011):

I posted the above on my Facebook page and was very glad to have Chris Claremont himself commenting on the post. Here's what he said:

Chris: It was a whole lot of fun and working with the likes of Marc and, especially, Rick, was a total joy. Rick often inspired me to do my very best; he's among the very best I worked with.

Me: Hi Chris, I find that both artists did their best work collaborating with you on the Uncanny issues. Marc's work was very pure before his Top Cow days. No tricks. Just dynamic figure work and an undeniable energy. Rick, of course, brought out the humour, drama and whimsical elements in a lot of your writings. The problem with the X-titles is that at times they can get a tad too dark (of course, genocide or racial extermination are not exactly bright and sunny topics) but during your long run, you always added in moments that bring a smile to my face - like a simply speech balloon on a sheep ("Baaaa!") or some folks getting swallowed by a demon-possessed mailbox! These things won't work in today's "realism-obsessed" socio-political commentary storyarcs but then we're talking about comic-books ("funny pages") and if we strip them of the "comic", they became dead and dull.

My favourite of your collaborators is, of course, Alan Davis. His signature style is that he makes the readers smile along with the characters he draws (Meggan, Kitty and Doug come to mind). Of course, your light whimsy and British sci-fi/fantasy elements were at their best in your "Excalibur" run. Here's looking forward to many more years of great work from you, Chris. Kudos! :)

Chris: As I've said elsewhere, Alan (& i) pitched an "Excalibur Forever" concept for a mini-series, because we both thought it would be fun. Sadly, Marvel decided to pass; their feeling was that the idea wouldn't sell in the current market. So, while Alan is still going strong there, I'm moving on. I have a prose story coming out in February ("The Ghost of the Superstition Mountains") and a YA novel currently making the publishing rounds, and I'm working on two more projects. More fun in their way, but the publishing side of things takes a bit longer than it did with comics. But hopefully, when all is said & done, they'll be well worth the wait.

Me: I'm sure they'll be worth the wait, Chris. Will keep a lookout for your upcoming works (and tell my friends about them too). Publishers are very cautious these days - most books are never given a chance to take off. An "Excalibur Forever" would've been a fanboy's dream come true. A tiny pocket of fun (like the other "Forever" books) in an otherwise event-orientated, continuity-cluttered publishing line. Alan was allowed to revisit his ClanDestine world some years back though - and threw in some Space Time Caper bits into his mini. I guess that's the most we could hope for "Excalibur"-wise for the time being...

In another post on the "X-Men by Chris Claremont and Jim Lee Volume One HC", Chris also commented and said:

Chris: Looks impressive -but I so wish Logan was allowed to smile on the covers. He doesn't look at all happy.

Me: Thanks, Chris. Especially for all the magic of the past and present. I actually think you are getting better and better. Really enjoyed "X-treme X-Men", "X-Men Forever" and the "New Mutants Forever" (mini). :)

Melvin: (my long-time friend, joining the conversation) Dear Chris, I must admit that the first few volumes of Xtreme were damn good. I actually read it first before Edmund's turn.

Me: Actually Melvin, you read most of X-Treme and Morrison's New X-Men before I did! :)

Chris: Thing was, re "X-treme X-Men," Igor Corday were having a great time, and he was doing wonderful work. But JQ wanted to rearrange the X-concept, which meant folding Ororo and the others back into the main character mix. Our next gig was to be "Excalibur II," and Igor did layouts for the first issue, plus designs galore -- his visual evocation of post-holocaust Hammer Bay was terrifyingly beautiful. Sadly, Marvel had other ideas and he was cut-loose from the project. A shame.

Vintage Toy Commercials from the 1980's

2011-10-18T04:49:00.000-07:00

Avengers - 1st Official Trailer

2011-10-18T04:40:00.000-07:00

First Avengers trailer. Coming in May 2012. Same time as my final law exams. But it's my moral duty to watch this. I mean, c'mon, it's the friggin' Avengers movie directed by Joss Whedon.

White Snake and Other Mythical Characters

2011-10-02T04:45:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, I saw "The Sorcerer and the White Snake" movie (directed by Tony Ching Siu Tung) starring Jet Li as the infamous Buddhist monk-cum-demon-hunter who saw it his mission in life to tear asunder the romance between the beautiful White Snake (Eva Huang) and Hui-Tsin (Raymond Lam). Jet Li looked like an old fart in the film and all his kungfu moves are now performed with the aid of CGI. He doesn't even look like he's capable of wire-fu. These days, it's all CGI-fu for the man who was known as Master Wong Fei-Hong once upon a time in China! Credit goes to him though for portraying the most likable Master Fa Hai so far in cinema history. Most of the time, Fa Hai is such a self-righteous prick that you feel like tearing him to bits - in all the past operatic and/or cinematic versions. Here, he finally learns compassion - especially for his disciple-turned-bat-demon, Nang Yan (played by Wen Zhang with voice-dubbing by Cheung Tat-Ming). Anyway, there's this scene in the film where Jet Li fights a Balrog! I'm not joking. The scene is shot-for-shot identical with the one from "The Two Towers" where Gandalf fights a Balrog all the way into the underworld!!! It was supposed to be a really cool fight scene but I found myself laughing out loud watching it!!!

Eva Huang plays the title character but she really doesn't do much except kissing Raymond Lam underwater, smiling and looking gorgeous (yes, she really is so drop-dead gorgeous that it's worth catching the film just to see her). Other than that, her acting was quite flat. Charlene Choi plays Green Snake and she comes across as a mixture of cute and really irritating. Or maybe it's because Charlene is so typecast - this must be the 8,329th time we see her taking on such a role and she did it better in Jeff Lau's "A Chinese Tall Story" anyway!

Like the recent remake of "A Chinese Ghost Story", this one doesn't look like it'll go down in film history as anything memorable. Unlike that other film though, Tony Ching Siu Tung wasn't trying so hard to invoke his inner Tsui Hark. The result is a light-hearted film that is very beautifully shot (most of the scenes look so beautiful that it's difficult to believe that they did it with a shoestring budget compared to Hollywood productions) with a heart-rending soundtrack. Acting-wise, the best performances actually came from the cameo artistes like Jiang Wu (who played a tortoise-spirit), Chapman To (a toad-spirit), Miriam Yeung (a rabbit-spirit) and Lam Suet (a chicken-spirit). Vivian Hsu also appeared as an evil demon with ice powers like Sub-Zero from "Mortal Kombat" but she never did anything except get beaten by Jet Li and showing the world that she's no longer the young vixen who stole everyone's hearts in the 1990s - she's still pretty but... oh the cruel ravages of time on a beautiful woman.... *sigh*

Secret Wars II Omnibus

2011-09-28T20:33:00.000-07:00

I was finally well enough yesterday morning to get out of my house. It was very good to be under the sun again - except for the fact that the Mall I was heading to was demolished by an explosion at 3am in the morning! I then took the bus down to the city. Picked up Thomas Hobbes' "Leviathan" and the long-awaited "Secret Wars II Omnibus". The latter is now officially the thickest book in my library!!!

Also got a bag-load of the new DC #1s for my daughter, Moira. Looking forward to reading her reviews on them. Check out her blog: Moira's Musings. Oh, and I'm finally bald again... :)

Lunch with Hobbes. He tried convincing me that he was a contemporary of the Bard. I wanted to talk about girls but he kept talking about something to do with the Common Wealthe and how it was the answer to keep us from living lives that are "solitary, poore, nasty, brutish and short". I had absolutely no idea what he was going on about... :(

On Shakespearean Authorship and Salacious Sexuality

2011-09-26T05:37:00.000-07:00

Wrote a scathing review of JL Carrell's novel, "The Shakespeare Secret" some years back. As a novel, it failed miserably - coming off as a Dan-Brown-wannabe. However, I would've liked it a lot if Carrell had simply written an academic text on Shakespearean authorship. It was intriguing enough (which explains how/why I managed to finish it) that it started me off on my own quest as an amateur literary sleuth to find out everything I can on the real William Shakespeare.

Post-Carrell, I read John Michell's "Who Wrote Shakespeare?" - sort of like a "dummies-guide" to all the necessary questions/theories about Shakespearean authorship. Around the time when I was buried in this book, we studied the case of Re Hopkins' Will Trusts [1964] about a testatrix trying to set up a charitable trust to the Francis Bacon Society for the purpose of research into Baconian authorship of the plays/poems/sonnets attributed to Wm. Shakespeare. It felt like serendipity and I was drawn even further into the whole thing (but had to temporarily set it aside because of my law exams...).

For years, I avoided Bill Bryson's book on Shakespeare. Firstly, it was a very popular author being coerced into writing a book on Shakespeare (a project that he was reportedly reluctant to undertake in the first place). Secondly, I'm a sucker for academic works and Bryson's book felt too "layman" for my tastes (yes, I am a snobbish bastard that way). Thirdly, it felt exploitative - like getting Megan Fox to show her naked breasts for 2 seconds in order to sell a really bad movie - since Bill Bryson probably has more fans today than the Bard from Stratford-upon-Avon!!! I finished the book today (light reading in my current weakened mental/physical state) and found it largely enjoyable and surprisingly informative. No, it doesn't answer my many questions on Shakespearean authorship but that was the whole point of the book anyway - to tell readers that all we know about Shakespeare can barely fill a 199-page book! It was, in other words, much ado over (nearly) nothing.

Finally, for some inexplicable reason, my friend, Bryan, is especially interested to find details on the Bard's sexuality and was perhaps rather pleased when I related to him the fact that Bill Bryson believed that Shakespeare was gay (and that the Sonnets were all about homosexual love!). Thankfully, Bryson doesn't get into explicit details (much to Bryan's possible disappointment) because of the scant details available about nearly everything in the Bard's life. It is still a wonder that a writer as famous as old Will is still so largely unknown and that much of what we say about him amounts to nothing more than conjectures or speculations. So, Bryan, the whole thing about the Gay Bard? It's pure speculation (so take it however you will so long as it makes you feel better...). Lol. :)

Next up? Harold Bloom's "Shakespeare: The Invention Of The Human". Taking a week off from law studies. Shakespearean Lit. Crit. feels like taking a mental vacation!!! :)

Birthday Presents

2011-09-25T18:38:00.000-07:00

What I got for b-day presents: The Complete Works of Shakespeare (illustrated 3-hardcovers w/- slipcase) from my wife, a Ding Dang CD, 2 Batman hardcovers and a huge Wolverine poster (+ birthday card) from my kids. What can I say? It's great to be alive!!! :)

Saw "Johnny English Reborn" with my wife last night. James Bond haven't had it this good for more than 10 years. A really fun movie and probably the best spoof of the spy genre since Leslie Nielsen's masterpieces during his heyday. :)

Sooooo many books to read, so little time. Now I've got Shakespeare piled on top of my 4 volumes of H. Rider Haggard and my complete works of Isaac Babel and Tolstoy. Oh, and Lloyd's Jurisprudence is also buried somewhere in there along with Jane Austen's works, parodies and graphic novels. Hence, unsurprisingly, I'm on leave today... :p

Review: Conan The Barbarian

2011-08-26T08:03:00.000-07:00

Once upon a time, there was a writer unlike any other writer. His name was Robert E. Howard. He wrote stories during his painfully short life that gave birth to an entirely new genre in literature called the "Sword & Sorcery" genre. His greatest gifts to the human race were his unforgettable characters: Bran Mak Morn, Kull the Conqueror, Solomon Kane the Puritan, and the greatest of them all, the Cimmerian, Conan the Barbarian. Others after Howard have tried their hand at the "Sword & Sorcery" genre but none have come close to the captivating power of Howard's original stories. Another reason that Howard became so famous was because his stories were mostly published in "Weird Tales" magazine with the notorious cover paintings by Margaret Brundage featuring damsels in various stages of undress! It still strikes me as a great paradox today that Howard, a well-known Fundamentalist Christian, associated himself with that scandalous mag and in fact built his fame in the pages of such questionable publications!

Popular fantasy writers such as L. Sprague de Camp led a generation with his pastiche stories of Conan - especially those bridging the gaps between the original stories of the young Conan and the period when the Barbarian took the crown of Hyborea. Robert Jordan, of the Wheel of Time fame, also wrote half a dozen well-remembered Conan tales. However, the very best version of Conan outside of the Howard originals (as all fans readily agree) were those published by Marvel Comics in the early 1980s - mostly written by Roy Thomas and drawn by a young Barry Windsor-Smith. Howard purists would possibly prefer the later version by John Buscema and also some of the more graceful versions by artists such as P. Craig Russell and most recently, Cary Nord and Tim Truman. (I was happy to finally purchase two versions of the complete Conan stories by Robert E. Howard several years back and also the two volumes collecting the pastiche Conan stories by Robert Jordan recently.)

In the early 1980s, we were also given two film adaptations starring Arnold Schwarzenegger ("Conan the Barbarian" and "Conan the Destroyer"). There was also a "Red Sonja" film starring Brigette Nielsen alongside Arnold. Unknown to many, Howard did not create Red Sonja - although there was a Howard character called "Red Sonia" (or variously spelled "Red Sonya"). The female redhead with the metal bikini was actually an original character created by Roy Thomas (and popularised by artist Frank Thorne, who pushed the envelope with how-much-skin-is-allowed by the archaic Comics Code Authority every month). The Arnold movies are still fondly remembered - especially by fans like myself who grew up with them. In fact, my earliest introductions to the "Sword & Sorcery" tales were via films like the Arnold Conan, Beastmaster, Krull, The Sword and the Sorceror, and Hawkslayer. There were also the de Camp pastiche tales in popular paperbacks along with the "Choose-Your-Own-Adventure" type of gamebooks featuring everyone's favourite Barbarian.

Some of my fondest memories growing up included also my arriving early in my tuition teacher's house to read uncensored copies of the adult "Savage Sword of Conan" magazines published by Marvel. Those were magazine sized comics containing black-and-white original Conan stories and adaptations of stories by Howard and de Camp. As they were considered magazines, they were not governed by the Comics Code Authority. This meant a humongous amount of nubile female flesh in display on the painted covers as well as the interior stories. The writing were also far more sophisticated and matured. More excitingly, the stories featured violence and occultic themes that we were not used to in the monthly coloured comics. In fact, those mags were possibly our first introductions to the parallel themes of sex-and-death that were so intoxicating to us at that tender age. It was the pre-Internet age and porn was not readily available. Thanks to my tuition teacher, we were introduced at that very early age to the wonders of fantasy flesh and all their tantalizing wonders! (The mags are now available in phonebook sized omnibus reprints published by Dark Horse.)

What was the appeal of Conan the Barbarian? Personally, it was that the stories were pure escapism. Howard wasn't so interested in world-building like J.R.R. Tolkien. He was more interested in re-creating what is, to his mind, the pre-historic/pre-civilised world after the Fall of Atlantis and before the era of recorded history. To Howard, he was giving us his version of what the ancient world was like when men were led by evil sorcerors and worshipped Serpent Gods, men lived by the sword and women were tantalizingly courageous or painfully tragic. Robert Howard, like his friend H. P. Lovecraft, were also very interested in researching theories of the ancient world when demons such as Cthulu ruled the world and even wrote about the advent of some rather familiar deities that are still worshipped today (see for example the Howard-penned tale, "Tower of the Elephant") as aliens who were mistaken by the ancients to be gods. In other words, Howard and Lovecraft's stories predated the "ancient aliens" or "alien astronaut" theory propounded by Erich Von Daniken by several decades. They were intrigued by the primordial world that had very different rules from what we know and live by today but in reading them, we can still identify with many of the characteristics that are still intrinsic to our common humanity - which shows that we have not actually "evolved" as much from those harsher times than we would like to believe.

To Howard, essential humanity was "barbaric" and that civilization or laws exist to tame and eventually diminish that essential humanity. He believed that history was cyclical in that men evolved from barbarism to high civilization and then becomes fat/complacent, at which time he falls and starts afresh as barbarians. Howard, though no friend of German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche, ironically parallels the famed thinker by presenting his own version of the "Eternal Recurrence" theory of history. Some lame-brained readers also associate Howard's philosophy with the "noble savage" theory of Jean Jacques Rousseau. That is clearly a mistake. Howard did not feel that his barbarian was a savage untainted by civilization. Rousseau's noble savage was perhaps regarded a "softie" by Howard. His was the life of the sword, of guts, of passion, of blood, of fire and ice, of bone-cracking battles and demon-slaying adventures. Nietzsche's tragic hero would probably have been a more adequate philosophical paradigm to describe Howard's ideal. Edgar Rice Burroughs' "Tarzan" stories were too coloured by the writer's own British colonialist ideals. Howard, thankfully, was not. He was above politics. Howard was interested in what constitutes essential humanity - the essence of man that is still in our hearts, in our blood today despite being suppressed or hidden beneath the veneer of laws and civilization.

All of that brings us to the 2011 film adaptation called "Conan the Barbarian". The poster for the film (seen above) is so promising that my friend and I decided to watch it this morning. It was a mistake that we both regret deeply. Nothing of the greatness of Howard's creation (as discussed above) can be gleaned from this terrible film pretending to be an adaptation and/or a new Conan for the 21st century. In its way, it is possibly as bad as the politically correct James Bond in the new novel (Carte Blanche). It is just so wrong in so many ways.

To be fair, my friend and I had very, very low expectations. We were expecting only a stupid but entertaining film that will leave us both light-hearted (and light-headed) upon stepping out of the cinema. We got STUPID alright, but not stupid in a good way. It was stupid in a "I feel like cutting my wrist" kind of way. By the end of the film, when the director's name appeared in the end credits (Marcus Nispel), my friend remarked, "So this is the bastard responsible for this shit!" We then proceeded to the nearest Old Town Coffeeshop for a smoke and a glass of red-bean brain-freeze to (hopefully) suppress the dreaded after-effects of spending two hours of our lives in a darkened cinema gazing at this piece of hot smelling turd pretending to be a film adaptation of Robert E. Howard's Conan! My friend was trying to measure the awfulness of the film with his GL SCALE (patent pending). You see, in his esteemed opinion, all films should be measured against the awfulness of the Ryan Reynolds "Green Lantern" film. While he conceded that Conan was not as joyless as GL, it was probably even more stupid. GL left him numb. Conan gave us both a headache halfway through and we both left the cinema feeling really angry. I mean, how bad can an adaptation be? At most, you'll feel that it was a wasted opportunity for greatness (e.g. "X-Men Origins: Wolverine" or "Daredevil"). At worst, you'll just be coolly disinterested (e.g. "Elektra"). But not with Conan. After watching this, we were both pissed! To calm ourselves down, we tried to make fun of the film to the best of our abilities. I mean, if we didn't get a philosophy lesson out of it nor any semblance of fun/entertainment, we could at least work up several cheap guffaws, right? So we did that and listed some of the most nonsensical elements from the film. They include:

The villain's name is Khalar Zym (played by Stephen Lang - who should've known better!). "Zym" = King. So the idiot's name is "Khalar". In other words, "belum lawan sudah kalah"!!! How stupid is a villain whose name is synonymous with "LOSER"? (Now, if we had to crack jokes about the villain's name, you know we must be desperate for some laughs, right?)
And what a loser he was. This idiot spent twenty years trying to reassemble the Mask of Acheron. Actually, he was pretty awesome UNTIL HE ASSEMBLED THE STUPID MASK! He was able to kick Conan's ass every single time they fought BEFORE HE PUT ON THE MASK! Then, when he actually put on the mask, he fell to his death. Also, the promised "end-of-the-world" thingy that was supposed to take place should the dreaded mask be assembled and some "pure blood" sacrificed upon it, well, IT DID NOT TAKE PLACE AT ALL. There were just some tremors and Khalar Zym fell to his death! My friend and I both agreed that Khalar Zym should consider legal action against Acheron for false advertising (under ss.13-14 of the Sale of Goods Act 1979)! The product clearly could not deliver on what the manufacturers promised. Blame it all on Morgan Freeman. He was the bloke who told us all how effin' powerful the mask was. Of course, everyone believes anything if Morgan Freeman is the one who sells it. His voice is good enough to make Eskimos invest in refrigerators! So we probably shouldn't blame Khalar Zym for believing in that crap about the stupid mask. After all, Morgan Freeman was probably only the product ambassador. Go sue the manufacturer himself - the Acheron blokes!

Another theory is that the mask did not work because the girl's blood was no longer "pure". After all, we all know that only a virgin's blood is pure and she was no virgin after Conan "knew" her (in the Biblical sense) in a cave late at night. Truth is, we had no idea what he did with her in the cave because of the kind intervention of the Malaysian censors. Therefore, everything that Conan "did" with the girl is in our imagination. However, the Malaysian censors did not see fit to snip off the scene where Conan woke up in the morning and we were treated to his naked butt. I can only imagine the folks watching this in glorious 3D. Hey, it's Jason Momoa (or whatever the *#$% the bloke's name was) showing his naked butt in 3D!!! Speaking of that "incident" in the cave, for some inexplicable reason, the girl decided to go take a walk post-coitus. No explanations were forthcoming. All we got was the girl dressing up and leaving the cave so that she could be conveniently kidnapped by Rose McGowan. This was done so that the insipid plot could progress and Conan would now have a reason for his "quest" - namely, to rescue the stupid girl who decided to leave the cave post-coitus! I mean, c'mon! There's a limit to suspension of disbelief. I can accept that the denizens of Metropolis are so dumb that they cannot recognise Clark Kent as Superman simply because of a pair of glasses. But I simply cannot accept the fact that the stupid girl wandered off to a nearby 7-Eleven to buy some Slurpee following some hot sex (that we were not privy to) at 5am - just to get kidnapped! This movie is just so wrong on so many levels! (Furthermore, the girl was so unattractive that I had to check up Wikipedia to get her name - Tamara (played by Rachel Nichols). What happened to all those nubile babes on the covers of the "Savage Sword" mags that served as fodder for a million masturbatory fantasies? Were the producers so low on budget that they couldn't hire some Euro-Vision Penthouse Pet to stand in for the role? Why, oh why? The least we could have asked for was an opportunity to "cuci mata" a little bit but even that tiny glimmer of pleasure was denied us! Sigh!)

The only other girl in the film was Rose McGowan. No, the topless damsels in the bar do not count because: (1) we never got to see them topless anyway (thanks again to the guardians of public decency, the Malaysian censors), and (2) they were not very interesting anyway (even the ending credits listed them as "topless damsels" - no joke!). Now, if we need to convince you that Rose McGowan is one uber-hot babe, there must be something wrong with you! I mean, have you seen "Devil In The Flesh"? Rose McGowan made tight shorts the number one accessory for sluts of my generation! How about "Charmed"? When she was brought in to replace Shannon Doherty in the TV series, Wednesday nights magically became nights where your pants felt tighter than usual for one hour! Do I even need to mention the savage beast of hotness that was "Grindhouse: Planet Terror"? Who'da thunk it? A babe with an amputated leg replaced with a machine gun can be so hot (in fact, the film literally burned up because of her incendiary hotness). For years, Rose McGowan was the girl of my dreams (and also the dreams of Robert Rodriguez, as I was told). In fact, she is slated to star in the new "Red Sonja" movie as well. But here? She's a freaky witch who has the hots for her own daddy, Khalar Zym! Yes. Can anyone say "incest"? Now, there's hot incest (read anything lately by rgjohn over at Literotica.com?) and there's disgusting, projectile-vomit-inducing-incest. This is the latter. This, my friends, is the unforgiveable sin of the Conan film. I can even forgive the film-makers for screwing with the holy sanctity that is Robert Howard's greatest creation. But I cannot, for the life of me, forgive them for destroying forever any hint of desire I have for Rose McGowan! Yes, I know she was just acting. Yes, I know she only looked hideous (my friend said she looked fat) in the makeup/costume. But once you cross that line, there's no turning back. It's like finding out that your super-hot girlfriend used to be a dude. She's still super-hot but something inside your head tells you that the "wiring" is all wrong!!! After this film, that is how I will look at Rose McGowan. Incestous piece of crap with a stupid French name (Marique). Arrrgh! Why, Rose, why???

About the only cool parts of the film were in the first five to ten minutes where Ron Perlman appeared as Conan's dad. Heck, even the kid Conan was pretty good. The moment Ron died and Conan grew up, the film went to the dogs. The final scene shows Conan dropping Tamara outside her house. This bloke doesn't even have the decency to escort her into the house after having a one-night-stand with her. He just dumps her outside the house and rides off to some broken tombs where he lifted his sword upside down and allowed his internal monologue to ramble on about some shit his dad told him - mastering the sword or some such shit. The movie was loaded with shit-talk. Tamara just got dumped but she said to Conan, "You are a good man for taking me home!" How stupid is the bitch? He's dumping you to go look for other dumb wenches to bed. A good man? Marique was probably the worst offender with the shit-talking. Nearly every scene with her had her saying something like, "I finally snatched the Cimmerian blade and the same Cimmerian blade will now snatch away your life!" What was this lunatic ranting about? Was it supposed to be some poignant or poetic line? Nobody knows.

Lastly, the film also had the worst camera-work that I have ever seen. It was even worse than Tsui Hark's "Seven Swords" (and that was already pretty bad). Every single scene was shot in close-ups - presumably for the 3D effect. The result was messy, chaotic and headache-inducing. I mean, we were really struggling against the headache. With "Cowboys & Aliens", I could at least peacefully doze off. This film wouldn't even afford me the luxury of a peaceful slumber. My friend had to take a break halfway through to go get another can of popcorn. By that point, I couldn't take it any more. Had to fight off the headache by taking out my mobile phone to send meaningless text messages to friends, warning them to stay away from this piece of turd. Actually the costumes, scenery and settings were all pretty decent but the camera work was so choppy that we never got to appreciate them. It was just close-ups all the way. The fighting scenes were so chaotic that we couldn't tell who was fighting whom. Worse still, the stupid fight scenes seemed to drag on forever. The final scene had the villain dying, then not dying, then dying again, then not dying again, then finally falling to his death. Aside from the fighting scenes, even the talking head scenes were filmed in close-ups. The camera zoomed from one face to another back and forth so that it was difficult to follow who was saying what to whom. It was just a dizzying experience that I would never want to repeat. Also, imagine a Conan movie with NO MONSTERS! Yes. The only monster was some giant sotong but we never even got to see the giant sotong - only its tentacles. It's like seeing a girl's shoeless feet and imagining her nude. No sotong. Only tentacles. I know times are bad and the economy is shit but still... I WANT TO SEE SOTONG! Haven't the blokes learned anything from Zack Snyder's "Watchmen"? Fans are still furious that he removed the sotong from the end of the film when Ozymandias unleashed his master-stroke of genocide. How dare they do it again in this film and NOT give us an actual SOTONG?!? This is worse than a prick-tease. This is an unforgiveable SOTONG-TEASE!!!

If you can tolerate all the above, then go watch "Conan The Barbarian". It's playing at a cinema near you...

Birthday Present for Moira

2011-08-24T15:34:00.001-07:00

Absolute DC New Frontier just arrived in the mail. It's a present for my daughter's 14th birthday. She's a DC person and this is the perfect gift for a DC fan-girl's birthday! 'nuff said. :)

Revisiting "X-Tinction Agenda" and "X-Cutioner's Song"

2011-08-23T21:32:00.000-07:00

I just ordered the "X-Cutioner's Song" and "X-Tinction Agenda" hardcovers from Amazon.com. Pure nostalgic madness for comics that felt like a shot of "Comics are the coolest things on God's good earth!" straight to your brain. Stan Lee made comics fun and accessible, Claremont and Miller brought on the angst, but in the late 1980s and early 1990s, none of that mattered. Kids driven into the comicstores following the success of Tim Burton's "Batman" film wanted something COOL. Enter: Jim Lee. And the world was never the same again (yes, I know they say that a lot but it was true for all of us in 1988). In fact, it is still true today. Take a look at the reboot of DC in September 2011. What's the flagship book? Justice League of America. Written by Geoff Johns and drawn by JIM LEE. Like Tom Hanks, Bruce Willis or John Travolta, his name alone on the marquee is enough to draw in the crowds by the droves - early reports indicate that pre-orders alone for the upcoming JLA #1 has exceeded 200,000 copies. Now, 200,000 is really a small number compared to the comics boom in the early 1990s when Jim's signature artwork on a cover alone (even when he did not draw the interiors) sold in the millions. The signature Californian style that he pioneered so influenced an entire generation of creators and readers (the 90's X-Men cartoon on TV was literally Jim Lee's artwork in animation form) that when Jim and gang left Marvel, it was like Marvel had its heart torn out. They had to quickly step in to fill the void left by Jim and brought in Andy Kubert and Brandon Peterson (along with a lagging Art Thibert) to do their best Jim Lee impersonations. The books continued selling. Even Claremont's leaving the X-titles did not leave such an impact on the titles. "X-Cutioner's Song" was the sprawling storyline when the New Boys stepped up to the plate and tried their utmost best to prove to the world that they could boogie in the house that Claremont-Lee built and abandoned. Scott Lobdell and Fabian Nicieza channelled Claremontism by the truckloads and Andy Kubert, Brandon Peterson, Greg Capullo and Jae Lee tied the books together with some really, really oh-my-gosh beautiful artwork to match the best of Jim Lee's output.

It was ambitious. It was loud. It was incoherent (as most of the Nineties were anyway). It was self-important. It was stupid. It was epic. It was relevant (and mostly irrelevant too). It was self-referential. It contained chockful of fanboy-pleasing moments (Wolverine chain-smoked in the pre-Quesada decades!!!). It was absolutely insane and absolutely fun. The recently concluded "Messiah"-trilogy of stories in the X-titles are better plotted and more tightly put together. The editors (led by Nick Lowe) tried to repeat the feel of "X-Cutioner's Song" and to be fair, the whole trilogy did feel somewhat like "X-Cutioner Redux". But it lacked the energy and vitality of the original. It felt like a Queen Reunion Concert with some other 3rd-rate singer trying his best to make people believe that Queen is alive and well - but ends up making you miss the vocals of Freddie Mercury even more. The "Messiah"-trilogy, while overall a pleasingly tight storyline, was nothing compared to the crazy grandeur that was "X-Cutioner's Song". Even when they brought in Stryfe and Apocalypse for a four-way mambo with Cable and Bishop in "Messiah War", (very much what the "X-Cutioner's Song" was all about in a nutshell anyway), it felt tired and uninspired. Stick Cable's ugly mug on a comic drawn by Rob Liefeld or Andy Kubert in those heydays of big guns and even bigger shoulder pads - fanboys start drooling a river outside comic stores. These days, they feel like geriatric old men trying to get together for one last gig before admitting themselves into retirement homes. Like Woodstock. Like Led Zep playing the BBC. Like Queen at Wembley. "X-Cutioner's Song" was an unrepeatable performance. We bought the books. We collected the cards. We argued about who would win the fights. We placed bets. We had our books confiscated by the Sunday School superintendent. We taught that the strange new super hot Asian-chick Psylocke was the best thing since sliced bread. In short, we LIVED the books. We didn't just read them.

"Make Mine Marvel - X-Men: X-Cutioner's Song" By Arune Singh

(from Marvel.com)

For those of us who grew up in the '90s, it seems a pre-requisite that you'd become familiarized with the X-Men at an early age—from the comics, cartoon, games or toys. And if you were a comic fan, you were pulled into a lot of universe-changing crossovers. While some look back at that time period with less than favorable memories, and understandably so in some cases, I can't remember feeling anything less than love for all the big events unfolding across comics' many universes. From "Knightfall" and "The Death & Return Of Superman" at DC to Marvel events such as "Maximum Carnage" and the various "Infinity" epics at Marvel, something was always happening with your favorite characters. You can debate the merits of these stories as much as you like, but the fact is that I loved the events at the time and it's that epic scope in the storytelling that created so many fans. But from the moment X-MEN #1 hit the stands, selling a mind-blowing 8.1 million copies, it became clear to me that my first and only priority was the X-Men. Everything about them, from the social commentary/allegory to the cool back-stories, was perfect for someone entering their teens. And even better, things were happening. More than any other super-hero team I can remember, the X-Men titles not only embraced crossovers, but used them to move storylines forward. Even if I wasn't working at Marvel, I'd be excited for the upcoming "Messiah CompleX" event simply because it's been 10 years since the last X-Men crossover and they've generally been a lot of fun. Just look at the past events: mutants hunted like animals by the Marauders! Wolverine's adamantium removed! Angel turned into a Horseman of Apocalypse! The teaming of X-Factor, X-Men and the New Mutants against a huge threat! Still, there's one X-over, pun intended, that holds a special place in my heart: "The X-Cutioner's Song." The basic premise of this 1992 crossover was that someone, apparently Cable, attempted to assassinate Professor Xavier and set in motion a war within Xavier's students, past and present, over how to deal with Cable. On one side we had X-Force, defending Cable and claiming it couldn't be him, while the rejuvenated X-Men and government-sponsored X-Factor sought to bring Cable to justice. To make things even better, every issue was polybagged with a cool collectible card, and while this makes some people roll their eyes, I always liked those cards. For a relatively new fan, they were an invaluable source of information. So in this 12-part epic we discovered the true villain of the story, saw many characters set on new paths and even somewhat resolved the true identity of Cable (hinted at back in X-Factor #68). The storyline even introduced the Legacy Virus, a fictional allegory to the AIDS epidemic, further adding relevance (and timely commentary) to the plight of mutantkind. Why did this crossover affect me so much? Frankly, it's because "X-Cutioner's Song" was the first X-Men crossover I ever collected and it was the first comic event I ever completely owned…and because it's damn fun. I didn't know much about the X-Men, so each issue of the crossover was a door to a whole new group of soon-to-be-favorite characters. Given the speculators "investing" in comics at the time, it was hard to pick up the final issues of NEW MUTANTS or some newer issues of X-FORCE at a reasonable price, so this crossover was my first real exposure to the X-verse. Everything was big, epic and meaningful because this was an event that had years of build-up—we're already invested in the major players and this story answered some big questions. Plus, this story featured every major X-villain of the day (except the presumed-dead Magneto) in the intertwined group of Stryfe, Apocalypse and Mr. Sinister! The most interesting aspect of that group was the fact that it wasn't a team-up per se—everyone had their own agendas and was constantly seeking to gain the upper hand. No one was a cackling, stereotypical "villain" because everyone had very real and understandable agendas. Stryfe wanted revenge on his "parents." Apocalypse sought to ensure survival of the fittest. Mr. Sinister's motives were a bit more mysterious, but considering his past involvement in X-Men events, his mere presence meant we'd get a clue to his true plans. The team of mutants assembled was a celebration of one of the X-Men's historical high points. We had the cool dual X-Men teams (Blue and Gold Strike Teams!) that encompassed every popular X-person from over the years; an X-Factor team that Peter David shaped into one of the most innovative and enjoyable comics of the '90s; the surprisingly proactive team of New Mutants led by Cable. Just looking at all those teams, you notice one thing they all have in common: growth. The New Mutants graduated into X-Force and developed their own set of views, a hybrid between that of the peaceful Professor X and the soldier mentality of Cable. X-Factor demonstrated how far mutants had come, beginning to work with the government and gaining societal acceptance. Each member of the team had a storied past and they weren't the characters you expected to see together (except for Havok and Polaris). Even the name X-Factor was a nice nod to the original X-Factor team formed by Havok's brother Cyclops. And the X-Men! The X-Men had been torn apart, challenged and split into their own groups—but finally came back together. The best part? They didn't all get along. Cyclops' leadership was challenged. New members such as Gambit and the much-different Psylocke added an element of distrust to the team. Wolverine saw no reason to play by the rules. Every character on the team brought a unique dynamic to the group, not only because so many had been introduced when other members were on board, but also due to the excellent stories involving clusters of these characters produced in the preceding years. It'll be interesting to get feedback and see how other people view this pivotal event in X-Men history. No one's rushing to celebrate the 15th anniversary of X-Cutioner's Song, but at the same time, I've spoken to a lot of people my age (mid '20s) that remember this story fondly. The premise was intriguing. The characters were gripping. And the revelations continue to affect the X-books to this day. I'd be remiss if I didn't take a moment to honor the creators involved with that storyline. Following the departure of heavyweights such as Marc Silvestri, Whilce Portacio, Jim Lee and Chris Claremont, the X-Men could've been in trouble. But Scott Lobdell, Fabian Nicieza, Peter David, Jae Lee, Andy Kubert, Greg Capullo, Brandon Peterson and stepped up and delivered. They coordinated and produced a huge story worthy of being remembered over a decade later and continued to tell bold, compelling stories as the years went on. When I think of the X-Men, it's hard not to remember the guys who implemented some of the biggest changes in X-history. I won't pretend that I don't look back at this story with rose colored glasses and yes, there are valid criticisms I'm ignoring. But y'know what? It doesn't matter to me because "X-Cutioner's Song" is simply a fun, great story to read on a rainy day. What more could I ask for?

Review: 36 Arguments For The Existence Of God

2011-08-21T14:57:00.000-07:00

Rebecca Goldstein wrote the best book I read this year (so far). For some reasons, it's also the fourth or fifth book I read this year on Life in Academia - and it is really as funny and poignant as Elif Batuman's book so that's a good thing. Jonas Elijah Klapper is everything that is wrong with pompous academics that are full of poppycock. Cass Seltzer is what I wish more of the "New Atheists" would (should) be like - emotional, spiritually aware, compassionate, kind and not just coldly cynical. Azarya is a wonder and Roz Margolis is my new (literary) crush! Lol.

It is a cure to the cold, exam-orientated, non-life-of-the-mind that is so common in our local campuses. The entire book is an insane, vibrant and touchingly honest look at people who live the life of the mind.

Oh, did I mention that it's also the best book on religion that I read this year? But, of course, if you're only interested in religion, you'll probably only read the Appendix to the book. Goldstein beautifully shows "unreason" to equally affect the atheists as well as the religious. The poignancy of her fictional meanderings is that there's really nothing very bad about "unreason" since much of what is best about life stems from "unreason" - love, compassion, kindness, and all that jazz that makes us human.

Finally, the most heartbreaking portions of the book (as well as the funniest bits) are her observations on Jewish separatism. Of course, only a true Jew could write that with the understanding that the Jew is the culmination of everything tragic and comic in humanity. With that, she also exorcises the ghost of the "victim-minded" Holocaust-tinged view of Jewishness so prevalent in our shallow times.

Review: Cowboys and Aliens

2011-08-12T19:45:00.000-07:00

Ever had one of those weeks in your life where everything simply slows down and you're just not in the mood for... well, anything? That was the week that I just had. I didn't feel like studying. I didn't feel like working. I didn't even feel like cooking or reading comics. It was just a really, really boring week. Take yesterday, for instance. I went to see Jon Favreau's "Cowboys & Aliens". Here's my take on it.

James Bond, on a mission for Mi6, got abducted by aliens and thrown into the Wild, Wild West. Indiana Jones, on the other hand, found some religious artifact that resulted in him getting sucked into a time portal and landing in the same Wild, Wild West as Bond. Indy, frustrated with losing all his friends and family, decided to spend his time amassing riches instead. Stories were told of his involvement in the Civil War but he considered his whole experience in the war nothing compared to the horrors of being married to a skeletal girl who used to play a kooky lawyer on TV. Anyway, to cut a long story short, Indiana Jones got rich and became an asshole. Thankfully, he's blessed with a son who's an even bigger asshole.

Speaking of Indy's son, that unlucky brat decided to throw a tantrum in town the day Bond walks in. Bond apparently doesn't have any memories of his Mi6 job, M, Q branch or anything else. The only thing in his mind is some girl. Oh, and he's got some kickass bracelet that the director stole from the first Iron Man movie from Tony Stark and attached to Bond's wrist. Without even needing to use the cool techie bracelet, the badass James Bond that we all loved in "Casino Royale" beat up Indy's son so bad, the bloke ended up in prison. Meanwhile, Bond went into the saloon for a drink and was knocked out by Olivia Wilde. Bond then ends up in the same prison as Indy's son.

Some other bloke was drinking by the river and decided to take a piss. He kept grumbling about the Colonel. After a while you realised that he was talking about Indiana Jones. Then UFOs attacked and his friends (plus two dozen cows) were blown to smithereens. The pissing bloke ended up in the river and got all wet - so that you will never know whether he did piss in his pants or not. Anyway, Indy shows up and got mad at the pants-pissing bloke for always calling him "Colonel". Indy also found out about Bond's arrival in town and how his own son is now in prison.

So Indy comes into town just in time for UFOs to also turn up and abduct most of the folks in town - including Indy's son, the bartender's wife and a couple of extras whose total pay multiplied by a thousand still does not come up to even a tenth of what Daniel Craig or Harrison Ford got for appearing in this shithole movie. But that's what Hollywood heroism is all about right? As the hero, you get paid a gazillion bucks to save worthless lowlifes whose total worth aren't even up to the level of what your boots cost. In short, Bond and Indy set out to save the UFO abductees. I was told that E.T. showed up in one scene with Indy and Bond but I wouldn't know because by then I had fallen asleep. Ok, ok, ok... so I didn't really see much of the movie at all - hence I had to make up the story in my mind in order to justify the seven bucks that I spent on the ticket.

I only woke up when Olivia Wilde decided to become Dark Phoenix. It appeared that she got clawed by some nasty alien after being pulled skyhigh by a UFO. Bond carries her into some Red Indian reserve and the effin' Indians decided to throw her into the fire. Seconds later, Olivia Wilde reemerges from the fire buck naked because there was no way in hell that Bond was ever going to appear in a movie without an obligatory nude scene. While everyone was going gaga and thinking "Dark Phoenix", the only thing in my mind was: HOW DID THE UGLY BARTENDER FROM "THE O.C." GROW UP TO BECOME SUCH A HOT BABE? Miracles do exist - and I'm not referring to Olivia Wilde's resurrection. I'm referring to how she's suddenly the hottest property in Hollywood - from Tron Legacy to The Next Three Days to Cowboys and Aliens? All three films pretty much sucked but Olivia Wilde made all three films worth a watch. She is so beautiful that my eyes hurt sometimes looking at her on the big screen. Wow!

The rest of the film, I totally lost track. The only thing in my mind was a naked Olivia Wilde walking out from the flames and to me, that is what Cowboys and Aliens will be to me for all eternity. Who cares about Indy, Bond, UFO abduction or some stupid cattle mutilation anyway? [By now you should've realised that this post was nothing more than an excuse for me to post up some pretty pics of Olivia Wilde right? What do I know about the movie? I fell asleep halfway through. It was a boring piece of turd redeemed only by the ethereal presence of Olivia Wilde... Sigh!]

New Supes and Catwoman

2011-08-09T20:42:00.000-07:00

The above pics are the first-looks at Henry Cavill as Superman (directed by Zack Snyder) and Anne Hathaway as Catwoman (directed by Christopher Nolan). My first reaction? Well, Supes looked somewhat like how Jim Lee drew him in the "Superman: For Tomorrow" run with Brian Azzarello (that I may just pick up in Absolute edition next). But while Jim Lee went for brightness and god-like glory in his run, Zack Snyder seems to have gone for dark and CGI-extremism (again). As for Hathaway, well... that's just NOT Catwoman. Although I must admit that this version of NOT-Catwoman thus fit in with Nolan's version of NOT-Batman in NOT-Gotham-City.

My take? DC should stop trying to go for 21st century cool. DC characters work best as fantasies from our "grandfather's comics". That was why works like Jeph Loeb's "Superman For All Seasons", Darwyn Cooke's "DC New Frontier" and the early episodes of "Smallville" worked so well. They take us back to a time when America looked like Norman Rockwell's paintings. The latter seasons of the Smallville TV show lost that flavour and started to drag. Do we need to see a black-clad Clark dealing with spy-organizations like Checkmate? If I want spy-action, I'll head on over to "Chuck". Same problem with what they're doing in the comics presenty. Blackest Night was over-bloated, pompous and self-important. Flashpoint is simply Age of Apocalypse DC-style or a poor man's version of House of M. No amount of rebooting the entire line of comics will help if DC doesn't realise that it needs to get back to the magic of grandfather-style storytelling and characterization. That means firing Geoff Johns (unless he can rediscover the magic that he used to bring to the pages pre-Infinite Crisis) and kicking Grant Morrison into orbit.

I'm still holding out hope for the upcoming Supes film because I like Zack Snyder quite a lot. I know that most people are divided over the Watchmen film and actually hated Sucker Punch (while loving Snyder's take on 300). Me? I discovered Snyder via Dawn of the Dead, avoided 300 like the plague and absolutely loved both Watchmen and Sucker Punch. So that means my movie sensibilities are largely in variance with the general population and are possibly a little closer to Snyder's visions. As for Chris Nolan, I liked Batman Begins but absolutely loathed The Dark Knight. I'll most likely watch the upcoming The Dark Knight Rises if only just to bitch about it endlessly afterwards... (unless Nolan surprises me with a good turn like he did in The Prestige and Inception).

Review: Rise of the Planet of the Apes

2011-08-09T20:07:00.000-07:00

Saw "Rise of the Planet of the Apes" with my wife last night. It was so-so. I mean, if you can't even remember the names of the characters played by James Franco and Frieda Pinto immediately after the film, it shows that they were merely set pieces. Only Andy Serkis' Caesar (and his ape friends) are memorable - but then, that's the whole point of the movie, I guess. That, and the tip to take along a gorilla when we go out for street demos next. :)

Review: Justice League New Frontier DVD

2011-08-09T00:59:00.000-07:00

I picked up the "Justice League: New Frontier" DVD some years back. Saw it with the kids but wasn't really too excited about it. I think I must've been still sore after the hack job that was "Superman/Doomsday" so I was very cynical about DC's straight-to-video animation films then. Furthermore, I had not read the original graphic novel by Darwyn Cooke although I'd heard so many good things said about that book. Every time I wanted to pick up the graphic novel, the nagging question is - which format to get them in? The softcover TPBs are pretty affordable but they are split into two separate volumes and I was told that Cooke did 13 extra pages of story later on that were not included into the TPBs. Then, when the Absolute Edition hardcover came out, I couldn't afford to get it. When I could afford to get it, they were no longer in stock at the bookstore that I frequent. In other words, the book and I just never got together because of all these cosmic divergences and interruptions.

Anyway, I finally got down to business and ordered the Absolute Edition from Amazon.com this morning. Then I came home and re-watched the animated adaptation with my son, Bertie. Guess what? We both loved it. Halfway through, I kept telling Bertie that this is the BEST Green Lantern story ever. Blackest Night, with all its pomposity and self-importance be damned. This is Hal Jordan. The original man without fear who loves life with so much compassion and mercy that people around him mistook him for a coward. Superman was the Fleischer animated Superman reborn. Authoritative, inspirational and godlike. Batman had the best line when he threatened the Martian Manhunter. Wonder Woman covered in blood after crashing her invisible plane. Flash going on the news to announce his resignation from the superhero biz. McCarthyism. Cold war paranoia. Segregation and racism. John Henry fighting white supremacists. Lois Lane breaking down after reporting the fall of Superman. Ray Palmer introducing the shrink ray. The Blackhawks entering the fray. It was the best animated movie from DC ever made. If they actually made an actual real-life action film like that, they'll blow away all the Marvel Productions. I'm serious.

A story like New Frontier only works for DC. Marvel characters are too "everyman" and "realistic" to fit in. DC characters always come across more like parables and we look back at them with the wistful nostalgia of the 1940s, 1950s and 1960s. Cooke (and the adaptation by Stan Berkowitz) was smart enough to place the characters in precisely that setting. Post-WW2, post-Hiroshima. The start of McCarthyism. Then ending with the "new frontier" America of JFK where anything and everything was possible.

I look forward to reading the original graphic novel. I was told it matches (or even surpasses) the standards set by Watchmen, Dark Knight Returns and Kingdom Come. Well, if the animated feature is any indication, that may just be true.

Review: Chuck (Season 3)

2011-08-08T19:41:00.000-07:00

It sure took me a long time to get here. I watched and enjoyed the first season of "Chuck" about two years ago after I was done with all four seasons of "The O.C." (another series produced by Josh Schwartz). It was fun but a little light and flighty in all. Season two wasn't that much better and I gave up somewhere in the middle - at the "DeLorean" episode or so. Then, last Thursday, suffering from insomnia, I decided to watch the rest of Season Two and was completely blown away by how fantastic the last 8 episodes were. The moment they introduced characters like Mi6 spy Cole Barker, Stephen Bartowski aka ORION (Chuck's dad - played in an eccentric manner by Scott Bakula), Ted Roark (think Steve Jobs but eviller - as played by Chevy Chase) and the Ring, I was totally sold on the series! It was fantastic. Plots to rival the best of Chris Claremont in his heyday and dialogue that would make Bendis envious.

Then I realised that my dad bought the Season Three boxed-set some weeks back. Guess he's a lot smarter than I am this time and he was enjoying the series despite my disinterest. Anyway, I borrowed the DVDs from him and rewatched the last 8 episodes of Season Two with my wife and kids before starting with Season Three. Finished watching all 19 episodes late last night. This third season is unbelievable. Some of the highlights include:

Chuck finally becoming a full-fledged spy and cements his relationship with Sarah.
Morgan finally becoming a spy-in-training, beds a CIA agent (Carina), got dumped by Anna Wu (and then dumps her when she came crawling), and also gets promoted to Assistant Manager of the Burbank Buy More store (before accidentally blowing the entire store up!!!).
Lester and Jeff finally getting somewhere with their "Jeffster" band (with Big Mike as their manager).
Casey has a wife and daughter!!!
Team Bartowski finally becomes a real team of individuals who really care for each other rather than merely being tools of the NSA/CIA.
Kristin Kreuk exits Smallville and ends up in Burbank for a few largely forgettable episodes.
Brandon Routh sucked as Superman but was really good here as the CIA agent turned Ring operative that you'd love to hate. He's still ridiculously good-looking, still terribly wooden and cold (which suits his role here as Daniel Shaw) and you still can't forget that he got his ass handed to him by Scott Pilgrim and here in this TV series by Chuck Bartowski!!! Routh is finished as a tough-guy actor - Dylan Dog anyone? LOL.
Captain Awesome aka Devon Woodcomb goes on mission with Team Bartowski. Oh yes, Ellie also discovers their secret and joins them for their last mission to take down Daniel Shaw (after Shaw kills Stephen Bartowski in the most shocking and heartbreaking turn in the series).
The season closes with Chuck discovering Orion's last will and testament - all pointing to his mum, Mary Bartowski (played by Linda Hamilton in the upcoming season, I was told).

If you're like me and you haven't checked out the entirety of this series, well.. you're in luck. It's the best thing on American TV that mixes fratboy humour, family drama, heart-stopping spy adventures, romance and friendship in a potent combo that stays with you long after you're done with it. Excelsior!

Punisher and Black Spidey

2011-08-03T01:08:00.000-07:00

To stave off my hunger while waiting for the Michelinie/McFarlane ASM Omnibus to be out, I picked up one of the many Punisher Action Figures from Marvel. It's now hanging on my wall. Like how they sculpted this figure to look like how Frank looked in the "Circle of Blood" mini from the 1980s by Steven Grant and Mike Zeck. :)

Oh, and I forgot to mention that the new Ultimate Spidey is a black kid. I kid you not!!! Ok.. actually, he's a half-black, half-Hispanic kid named Miles Morales. Bendis was apparently inspired by Donald Glover's online plea to be cast as Spidey.

Another Eventful Day

2011-08-02T09:45:00.000-07:00

I'm glad to be alive. I really am. My days are so full of delights and surprises that I'm living in a dream. Yesterday, I taught for about 6 hours of Accounts and History. Today, I received my Assignment for the Arbitration Diploma. That being the case, I wasn't in the right frame of mind to get started on the assignment. It is, after all, my off day. So I went out on another book tour. Picked up two more Panini Marvel Pocketbooks reprinting the Gerry Conway run on ASM. Also found the Michelinie/McFarlane ASM Omnibus on Amazon.com.

Aside from that, I started reading Rebecca Goldstein's "36 Arguments For The Existence Of God". Along with A.S. Byatt's "The Virgin In The Garden" and Elif Batuman's "The Possessed", this is the third book that I'm reading this year about people whose lives center around their work within academia! Goldstein is too funny and too intelligent to be a dry-and-dusty academician. She's too witty and too naughty at the same time. She's like a more seasoned Elif but even smarter. I read about 10% of the book and was really impressed by how hilarious and moving the work really was. In a world where the New Atheism is hip and cool (re: Dawkins and Hitchens), Goldstein gives us a work about a psychologist who accidentally gets himself thrown into the New Atheism bandwagon and is dubbed the "atheist with a soul". The entire work is therefore saturated with a certain sublime soulfulness as Cass Seltzer (the protagonist) relives his past and embraces his present while asking some big questions about love, sex, poetry, academia, God, the gods, the universe, Kant, Nietzsche, psychology, game theory, and time. Anyway, the universe must be telling me something. I think my ultimate destiny is in academia as well. That, of flipping burgers while continuing with my passion for music, comics, theology and other eccentric interests.

In the evening, I met up with my wife in the city. She attended a lecture in the General Hospital earlier. We had dinner together. Portugese BBQ seafood cooked with extra spices, vegetable soup and rice. After that, we also picked up two sticks of BBQ duck. Following that, we went into a Chinese Manga shop and bought a classical guitar. Yes, you read that right. The back of the Chinese Manga shop is actually a guitar shop. I haven't played the guitar in 3-4 years and my fingers are all soft and sloppy. It's going to take a while for my fingertips to be hardened and calloused again. Now, the fingers are just knocking into each other and dampening the fretboard. After playing the guitar with my kids for hours, my dad joined in and started serenading. He loves singing oldies and evergreens when I play the guitar. That went on for another hour or two.

Then I finally went upstairs and was delighted to find that my Amazon package had arrived. I guess my mum picked it up for me and left it on my bed. It's the "Dark Avengers Omnibus" collecting the entire series by Brian Michael Bendis and Mike Deodato Jr. The "Dark Reign" event was, to me, the best thing that Bendis and Marvel ever did in the previous decade and it's great to be able to read the flagship book during that particularly dark period in Marvel history in one sitting.

Review: Captain America: The First Avenger

2011-07-31T23:59:00.000-07:00

I watched "Captain America: The First Avenger" with my son, Bertrand, this morning. It was an absolute joy. We packed up our backpacks with Cap comics (I brought along my Jack Kirby Cap Omnibus, Bertie brought along his "Operation Rebirth" TPB and "Madbomb" TPB). Read the books while having breakfast at Subway. After that, we played several rounds of "Street Fighter IV" in the arcades. It was a great morning of father-son geeking out! Lol.

Anyway, the entire movie was a blast. Unlike the other adaptations, this one feels like a comicbook on screen. It was a feast for the comic fanboy. My son and I had a ball identifying characters like Peggy Carter (Sharon's aunt), the Howling Commandos (Dum Dum Dugan, Gabe Jones and Jimmy Woo - credited as Jim Morita), Howard Stark (Tony's dad), Bucky, Arnim Zola, and, of course the Red Skull. They even included a cameo of the Golden Age Human Torch. Throw in Toro and Namor and we'd have the original Invaders line up! Howard Stark also mentioned vibranium, the mythical metal from Wakanda, that was used to make Cap's shield.

Aside from the comicbook trivia, the entire film was very entertaining. Unlike the dreary "Green Lantern" or "Transformers 3", this one was full of hope and joy. You come out of the theater feeling really good about the whole thing (and really looking forward to "The Avengers" - do stay on for the post-credits "Assemble" goodness!!!). Chris Evans did a bang-up job as Cap. He not only moved and fought like Cap, he effectively channelled the spirit of Captain America. Even in the final scenes with Cap plummeting to an icy death, you still felt that he was that skinny kid who got rejected by the army within. Then when Cap finally awakens in the present day, Chris Evans played up the "Rip van Winkle" aspect of the man-out-of-time. It was screen magic. Tommy Lee Jones is also worth a mention as Colonel Phillips. After all, he got the best lines throughout the film. He felt like Patton... but with more heart. Finally, Hugo Weaving actually sizzles as Johann Schmidt aka the Red Skull. Every scene with him was a mixture of comicbooky villainy and epic megalomania.

Will definitely watch it again... and again... and again.... and again.... in the days to come. :)

Review: Wu Xia

2011-07-30T22:15:00.000-07:00

After lacklustre performances in "The Legend of Chen Zhen" and "The Lost Bladesman", I had almost given up on Donnie Yen already. Particularly when the news hit that in a public appearance to meet the fans, he was given a wooden plaque to kick with the insulting words, "Sick Men of East Asia". Fans were there to see his reenactment of the famous scene from Bruce Lee's "Fist of Fury" (a scene that Donnie himself made famous in his Chen Zhen film and TV series). Problem was, Donnie failed to break the plaque even after several embarassing attempts and had to then apologise to the booing fans! Lol.

Now we all know that much of what passes for martial-arts in movies is nothing more than "wire-fu" and ingenious camera-work. That being the case, most of us still fantasize that Jet Li can really kick like Wong Fei-Hung and that Donnie Yen can beat the crap out of the Japs like Ip Man. Therefore, that aforementioned embarassment was akin to a crisis of faith! Thankfully, Peter Chan Ho-Sun is at hand to bring us "Wu Xia". If anything, this film helps to restore my faith in Donnie! Now I can convince myself that Donnie's "failure" to shatter the wooden plaque was all an act. He was concealing his real kung-fu in public, like his character in Wu Xia - Liu Jinxi!!!

Aside from that apologetic defence of the great Donnie Yen, the film is a tribute to the Shaw Bros. classic "One Armed Swordsman" starring Jimmy Wang Yu (who plays a great villain in this one). I went in with very low expectations after the previous disappointing performances. What I got instead was a five-star movie about philosophy (monism), peace, life, love, family and beauty. Takeshi Kaneshiro plays a busybody detective and Tang Wei brings magic to the piece as Donnie's wife in a farming village. In the end, the film is so much more than a martial arts piece. It's a deeply philosophical and heart-rending movie about family life and simple romance.

Highlights From Marvel's Solicitations for October 2011

2011-07-30T21:49:00.000-07:00

For the full solicitations, visit CBR. The below are some of the upcoming collections that caught my eye.

X-MEN BY CHRIS CLAREMONT & JIM LEE OMNIBUS VOL. 2 HC

Written by CHRIS CLAREMONT & MORE
Penciled by JIM LEE & MORE
Covers by JIM LEE
X-Men superstars Chris Claremont and Jim Lee bring their legendary run to an earth-shattering crescendo! The X-Men are shanghaied into outer space to outwit a Skrull infiltration and return Princess Lilandra to the throne — while back on Earth, X-Factor must contend with the return of Apocalypse and the loss of Cyclops’ son, Nathan Christopher! Then, both teams unite to face the menace of the Shadow King, leading into an all-new era as the X-Men evolve once again — becoming more than merely Uncanny! And they’ll need to be in full fighting form when Magneto gains a cult following, Omega Red returns to menace Wolverine, the time-traveling Bishop joins the team, and the alien Brood assimilate Ghost Rider! All this and Mojo, too — or is it Mojo II? — as the X-Men’s most iconic creators catapult the team into the 1990s! Collecting UNCANNY X-MEN (1963) #273-280, X-FACTOR (1986) #63-70, GHOST RIDER (1990) #26-27, and X-MEN (1991) #1-9 and material from #10-11.
880 PGS./Rated A …$125.00

This volume follows in the heels of the first Claremont/Lee omnibus and collects the rest of Jim Lee's work on the X-Men that made the merry mutants the biggest Marvel exports in the early 1990s. It's interesting that it's titled the Claremont/Lee X-Men because at that time Claremont and Lee had a spat, X-editor Bob Harras sided with Jim Lee and Claremont resigned from the book after writing the book for about fifteen years. This book collects the high point of Jim Lee's work including the Shi'ar epic with a Skrull impersonating Charles Xavier, the critical decision when Cyclops had to give up Nathan to be taken to the future (where he grew up into Cable), the Brood Saga featuring Ghost Rider, the coming of Bishop, the Omega Red saga and the final story by Claremont that featured Magneto and the Acolytes.

INVINCIBLE IRON MAN VOL. 2 HC

Written by MATT FRACTION
Penciled by SALVADOR LARROCA & JAMIE MCKELVIE
Cover by SALVADOR LARROCA
He’s outrun Norman Osborn, and kept the database of superhuman secret identities safe and secure. But in doing so, Tony Stark has lost just about everything: his armor, his power — even his very mind. Now, at his absolute lowest point, it will take Tony’s last reservoir of will — and a band of brothers including Thor, Captain America, War Machine and Black Widow — to keep from losing it all and sow the seeds for a brighter tomorrow. Stark Industries’ arms-manufacturing days are over: Tony’s new company, Stark Resilient, is bringing modern tech to the masses without bringing innocent people to their knees. But there’s a competitor on the scene, a mother/daughter team with a very familiar name ready to pick up the slack with an armor called Detroit Steel. They’ve started a deadly game of international intrigue that will bring one of Iron Man’s deadliest foes back into the fray — but for the Hammer girls, that was merely the opening salvo. With War Machine grounded by the Pentagon, Pepper missing the RT-charged heart that made her Rescue and Tony’s Resilient team struggling to put their clean-energy tech into production, they’re about to up the ante. Now, Iron Man’s going to find out just what “resilient” really means. Collecting INVINCIBLE IRON MAN #20-33.
408 PGS./Rated A …$34.99

I'm also very glad that Marvel is putting out the second Invincible Iron Man omnibus by Matt Fraction and Salvador Larroca. I picked up the first volume and was very worried that Marvel would not be publishing a follow-up volume (like they did with the Nova collection). The first volume ends with the mind-wiped Tony Stark rescued and brought to Dr Don Blake. This volume picks up from there and ties into "Siege" as well as the post-Siege Marvel Universe.

X-FORCE VOL. 2 HC

Written by CRAIG KYLE, CHRISTOPHER YOST & ROBERT KIRKMAN
Penciled by CLAYTON CRAIN, MICHAEL CHOI, JASON PEARSON & GABRIELE DELL’OTTO
Cover by CLAYTON CRAIN
An old X-team foe, Bastion, has weaponized the Legacy virus — a scourge that once nearly wiped out all mutantkind — and begun infecting mutants, causing them to self-destruct and resulting in mortal damage to those around them. As X-Force tracks Bastion, the stakes are raised when the mutant-hating robot kidnaps three young mutants very close to the team. And to make matters worse, X-23’s diabolical creators, the Facility, return to claim their “escaped property.” Then, Wolverine fights his way into a Hydra base to save the life of a mutant child! And finally, when Domino is targeted by the infamous Assassin’s Guild, she reluctantly accepts Wolverine's help. The two set about fending off their attackers — and putting the moves on each other. Can the X-Force teammates compete against a murderer’s row of villains while distracted by each other? Collecting X-FORCE (2008) #12-13, #17-20 and ANNUAL #1; and X-FORCE: SEX & VIOLENCE #1-3.
248 PGS./Parental Advisory …$34.99

Speaking of follow-up volumes, there's also the second volume of the Yost/Kyle run on "X-Force" that I am really looking forward to getting. I also have the first volume and was worried that there will not be a follow-up volume seeing as many of the issues have been separately reprinted in premiere hardcovers already. I'm happy with what we're getting here - especially as they threw in the "Sex & Violence" mini into the package as well. :)

AVENGERS/X-MEN: BLOODTIES PREMIERE HC

Written by BOB HARRAS, FABIAN NICIEZA, ROY THOMAS, SCOTT LOBDELL & BEN RAAB
Penciled by STEVE EPTING, ANDY KUBERT, DAVE ROSS, JOHN ROMITA JR., JAN DUURSEMA & JIM CHEUNG
Covers by ANDY KUBERT & STEVE EPTING
The island of Genosha has been a powderkeg since the X-Men overthrew its anti-mutant regime, and it’s finally erupted into full-scale civil war! The president asks Professor X to mediate peace between human and mutant, but the situation is inflamed when Magneto’s treacherous Acolyte Fabian Cortez makes a bid for power by kidnapping Luna, daughter of the Avengers’ Quicksilver and Crystal — and Magneto’s granddaughter! The X-Men and Avengers head for Genosha — but the situation spirals out of control when Magneto’s right-hand man, Exodus, arrives looking to kill Cortez! Can even the X-Men and Avengers combined bring peace to a nation at war, defeat two madmen and save a child caught in the middle? Plus: the secret origin of Exodus and his twisted ties to the Avengers’ Black Knight! Collecting AVENGERS (1963) #368-369, X-MEN (1991) #26, AVENGERS WEST COAST #101, UNCANNY X-MEN (1963) #307 and BLACK KNIGHT: EXODUS.
208 PGS./Rated A …$24.99

After Jim Lee and gang left Marvel in the early 1990s, it was a struggle to prove to the fans that Marvel could still swing it without their superstar artists. This was the volume that proved that the X-Men books were still in good hands - namely, the artistic hands of Andy Kubert who started with a Jim-Lee-inspired look and went on to develop his own style later on. Steve Epting (now known for his fantastic work on "Captain America" and "Fantastic Four") also showed how good he was then when he illustrated the Avengers books written by Bob Harras. More importantly, this storyline had important ramifications for the ongoing developments of Magneto, Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch. It also serves as a sort of prelude into my favourite X-Saga of all time, "Fatal Attractions" (I heard that hardcover collection is also on its way, am I right?).

Awesome Marvel BOX Cosplayers

2011-07-18T20:03:00.000-07:00

This is awesome (and funny) beyond words. Enjoy!!!

Dark Avengers Minimates

2011-07-18T20:00:00.000-07:00

The Dark Avengers was the best thing that Bendis ever came up with. It's right up there with stuff like Ronin (who looked like a muscular guy) turning out to be Echo; or Geldoff, the most original character since Stan Lee debuted the Amazing Spider-Man! Therefore, it's a no-brainer that the Dark Avengers are also available as MINIMATES. My kids will love this...

Clint and Jessica?!?

2011-07-18T19:48:00.000-07:00

The thing about the Marvel Universe is that you don't just read about the characters. You gossip about them as you would people at your place of work or school. Stan Lee has always injected that sort of soap-operaish element into the stories he wrote and the best Marvel writers have always known that perfect balance between world-threatening big superhero showdowns and the tinier (but no less potent) moments of "Scott is sleeping with who?!?". It's why we swoon over Peter Parker and Mary Jane; or Aunt May and Galactus (uh, does anyone else remember that issue when Aunt May became the herald of Galactus?...!!!).

Anyway, the couple of the month is Hawkeye and Spider-Woman. And they look absolutely wrong in that picture above. Hell, she was with his wife (Mockingbird) as fellow captives on the Skrull ship for years! Now she's with her hubby? This is so wrong. But which red-blooded fanboy isn't excited by the prospects of that relationship? For more on this, check out Newsarama's interview with Brian Michael Bendis. Aside from the Clint-Jessica horizontal mambo, Bendis talked about the sci-fi aspects of a Jewish guy getting a blowjob. Honest.

A Tribute To Natasha

2011-07-07T00:32:00.000-07:00

Natasha Romanova.
The Black Widow.
From Russia With Love.
'Nuff Said! ;)

Review: Kirby Genesis #1

2011-07-05T18:29:00.000-07:00

A POV character named 'Kirby' (who is drawn to look like Jay Baruchel) in a book called "Kirby Genesis" featuring a remix/rehash of throwaway characters and concepts by the late Jack Kirby? This book really has no business existing. The occasional fanboy today who knows nothing about Jack 'The King' Kirby would probably pick it up for the Alex Ross artwork. The 1990s fanboy would cheer at the reuniting of the Busiek-Ross juggernaut-tagteam that brought us the seminal "Marvels" miniseries. As for the outsider, the jock who prefers football to nerdy fantasies, the girl who's into the next Kate Hudson romcom, the cynic who's lining up for the next Judd Apatow serving... well, this book has absolutely NOTHING to offer to them. As much as I LOVE this book (and I REALLY, REALLY, REALLY LOVE IT - so does my daughter), I have to admit that this book is for the inner circle of comicbook cultists (or 'True Believers', as Stan Lee would call them). It is for us nerds who know the difference between Silver Star and Captain Victory. It is for the inner crowd who subscribes to the Jack Kirby Collector and knows that Jack did Green Arrow at one time and also books like Kamandi, OMAC, Galactic Commandoes and Devil Dinosaur. It is a book for fanboys who bid for the Kirby adaptation of the 2001 film on eBay and stand up to cheer when the film poster appears on the first page of Kirby Genesis #1. In fact, I showed this comic to a lamebrained reader who got into comics because of Greg Land's artwork in the X-Men books and he said, "No way this is Jack Kirby. Jack Kirby's art is UGLY!!!" Of course, anyone who makes such a statement says more about himself than about Jack's work in general. But then, we live in a world without context where people make statements without the tiniest appreciation for context at all - you know, history, origins, development, pioneers, and all that jazz?

Anyway, on the book itself. Kirby is an awkward teen who is into sci-fi and so obviously has a crush on his childhood neighbour Bobbi, who has since grown up into a babe. Bobbi tries to get Kirby to stop studying and go out for hook-ups. Kirby is reluctant but they go out anyway and next they both witness the advent of the extra-terrestrials. These E.T.s arrive on earth in costumes that look like Jack Kirby's design for the NASA Pioneer probe and Kirby recognises them as such. Alex Ross does the paintjob for the E.T.s while Jack Herbert's pencil work is a sight to behold (think young Neal Adams and you get an idea of the fantastic realism and drama in his work - of course, the irony is that Neal Adams was the anti-thesis of everything Jack Kirby back in the day!!!). Aside from the above, not much else happens. It's only a first issue and Busiek is taking his time to build things up. So far, we still know nothing about these god-like beings who have arrived on earth aside from the fact that they all look AWESOME because of the Kirby-designs redone by Alex Ross' paintjob. And sometimes that it enough. Especially for a first issue that is designed to whet our appetite for more.

Since there's really not that much to talk about as Busiek is taking his time to build things up, the best thing to do is to include some preview pics from the issue below (click to enlarge):

Michael Bay Mind-Mash

2011-07-04T20:33:00.000-07:00

Saw "Pearl Harbor" with my son and daughter before catching "Transformers: Dark of the Moon" in the theatres. I still like every single frame of "Pearl Harbor". My daughter obviously agrees. She was too young to see this film when it was first released so her experience isn't coloured by post-9/11, anti-US sentiments when the film first arrived on our shores those years back. Read her glowing reviews of the film on her blog here.

As for "Transformers 3", well... It was 2.5 hours of my life that I'll never get back. 2.5 hours of noisy dumbness. A film that opens with a butt-shot of a lead actress who looked/acted like a Carlsberg ad model and ends with a battle-weary Optimus Prime staring into the horizon while muttering hero-shit like "We're here to stay!" is stupid Michael Bay no-brainer junkfood.

It was a really dumb story pretending to be sci-fi by including JFK, the Apollo moon-landing, Cold War conspiracies, and the mystery of the dark side of the moon. All of that just for the noisy fight scenes in the end and to showcase the sexiness of Shockwave and Rosie Huntington-Whiteley - at times it's difficult to decide which of the two is sexier... or dumber!

I mean, I HATE Megan Fox but halfway through the film, even I was thinking... Spielberg dumped Megan Fox for THIS?!? Can you believe that her dialogue is even more indecipherable than Bumblebee's garbled TV-speech? Also, the audience is undecided 90% of the time whether to stare at her breasts (which were impressive) or her thick lips (which made her look like a hippo on crack)!!!

And there was no Unicron. I thought they'll include the great planet-eater but no, there was no Unicron... Sigh! Go back to the original cartoons for the read Transformers. Forget this travesty.

Thankfully, my Amazon order of Jane Austen's graphic novel adaptations (Pride & Prejudice, Sense & Sensibility) as well as Jack Kirby's "Silver Star" arrived in the mail yesterday. That will hopefully take my mind off Transformers and free me from unleashing more bile at the Michael Bay crap-fest. I also just picked up "Kirby Genesis #1" and will review it once I've read it... :)

Meeting Flashman... again, for the first time!

2011-07-02T18:36:00.000-07:00

My first encounter with Harry Flashman was in a dingy, old second-hand bookstore in the State of Perak in the closing years of the twentieth century. I was more interested (at that time) in the exploits of Marvel's Merry Mutants than in the misadventures of a lecherous toady from Victorian times. However, his tales of swashbuckling daring and righteous "riding" intrigued me somewhat. During the past months, while I was juggling with my law studies and teaching British colonial history to a bunch of students who really should be elsewhere doing other things, I stumbled upon a copy of "Flashman and the Tiger". It was, I was to later discover, one of the final compilations of the Flashman Papers by George MacDonald Fraser, and unlike the earlier tomes, contained three separate stories instead of one long historical account. As usual, the book was meticulously researched and so entertaining that it must be in some ways illegal or immoral. Anyway, as I was attempting to complete my collection of discount stamps in the local Kinokuniya bookstore yesterday (while trying to explain to a friend that Jane Austen does not write "girly" books), I decided on a whim (as I do most things in life) to really collect and read all twelve extant volumes of the Flashman Papers. Imagine my delight when I found the Everyman's Library edition of three Flashman volumes in a hardcover omnibus. I grabbed that along with a paperback edition of "Flashman's Lady" (that featured everyone's favourite empire-builder and rogue adventurer - Sir James Brooke, the White Rajah of Sarawak). Needless to say, I ended up skipping another two lectures on Arbitration and spent hours reading about the exploits of Harry Flashman from the time when he was expelled from Rugby for being "beastly drunk" to his arrival in Kabul, Afghanistan just in time for the commencement of the First Anglo-Afghan War! This is one rollickin' good series to read and re-read...

Penang Pictures

2011-07-01T08:35:00.000-07:00

May and Ethan in the ferry from Butterworth to Penang Island.

Kermit and Ms Piggy in the Penang Toy Museum.

The KISS display in the Toy Museum.

May and Ethan outside the Penang Museum.

May and Ethan outside the Toy Museum.

The X-Men display at the Toy Museum.

Another Jane Austen Book Tour

2011-07-01T08:04:00.000-07:00

Just came back from another wonderful trip to Penang. Took my wife and son (Ethan) along this time. We visited the Toy Museum and the Penang Museum. Also had lots of great food. Finished Karen Joy Fowler's "The Jane Austen Book Club" in the long bus ride home. The book was enjoyable enough and Fowler is one shrewd, naughty and effortlessly smart novelist. However, this is one rare instance where the film adaptation was actually better than the book!!!

Another HSDS Tour

2011-06-26T05:38:00.000-07:00

It's been years since I went on my annual HSDS pilgrimage. Louis Cha's "Heaven Sword and Dragon Sabre" is my favourite story since I first experienced it as a two-year old kid in Malacca watching the 1978 TV series (starring Adam Cheng and Liza Wang). Since then, I've seen countless other TV and film adaptations of the story and even read the original novel dozens of times. In fact, from 1995 to 2005, I made sure that I reread the novel at least once a year. I just started reading the 3rd edition of the novel (again) three days ago and the best thing is that I find myself totally absorbed by Louis Cha's prose and philosophical insights once again - in fact, one of the best thing about his works is that every time you reread one of them, you discover new things that you missed earlier and then realise that the novel is still the same but it's the reader who has changed because of your own experiences in life and development as a person.

Speaking of HSDS TV series, I just started watching the latest Mainland adaptation (released last year) by Zhang Jizhong. Saw the first 10 episodes yesterday and today. Like all other ZJZ productions, the starting is a bit uneven but once the story starts moving at a steady pace, it's really good. I'm still at the part where Zhang Wuji is a kid. He's just escorted Yang Buhui to Kunlun Mountain and handed her to her dad, Yang Xiao. Then he ended up in the Zhu Manor where the father-daughter tag-team of Zhu Changling and Zhu Jiuzhen try to trick him into revealing the location of Xie Xun (and the Dragon Sabre). My favourite TV adaptation is still the 1986 version starring Tony Leung, Kitty Lai and Sheren Teng. This version by ZJZ should be enjoyed on its own merits without comparing it to the 1986 one. So far, my only real complaint is that the series doesn't have good themesongs or background music. For some weird reason, ZJZ decided to include some weird Italian chant as background music - especially when he shows Zhang Sanfeng in meditation on Mt. Wudang!!! Other than that, everything is acceptable. I especially liked the scenes with Xie Xun - the parting scene when Zhang Wuji left the Ice-Fire Island with his parents once again brought tears to my eyes...

Review: Treasure Inn

2011-06-23T02:11:00.000-07:00

I just came back from a "reading tour". Packed a suitcase of books on Tuesday and headed off for a long journey across five states to read and enjoy the sights. Finally finished Elif Batuman's "The Possessed" and about half of Charles King's "Odessa". The best thing about Batuman's book (aside from introducing me to Isaac Babel and the City of Odessa) is her determination to live her life according to literature. While she is not setting out any systematic philosophy of life in there, her personal philosophy does shine through in every line she writes. Personally, I think the book was an attempt in exorcising her own personal demons (especially a particularly unsettling romantic entanglement that we only learn about in the final chapter of the book) masked in a lot of comedic and absurd episodes centering around Isaac Babel, Leo Tolstoy, Alexander Pushkin, a particularly eventful and funny summer in Samarkand and, of course, Dostoevsky's "The Possessed".

Living one's life according to literature is not a bad idea. I know of far worse ways to live. In fact, it is on this point that I fully agree with Batuman - I have tried (since 1994, at least) to live my life according to the influences I picked up from the books I read. I remember in particular the years 1996 to 2003 wherein I consciously set out to live my life according to values that I absorbed from a concentrated reading of "wuxia" novels in Chinese. Batuman may not be familiar with the wuxia genre but if she is, I bet she'll agree that there are many similarities between that genre and the Russian novels that she immerses herself in.

Speaking of wuxia, I saw Wong Jing's "Treasure Inn" earlier today and enjoyed every minute of it. Now, I wasn't expecting another "Detective Dee" or "Reign of Assassins" - after all, it's Wong Jing!!! - but it turned out better than I expected. Wong Jing wrote and directed the film starring Nic Tse, Nick Cheung, Huang Yi, Charlene Choi, Liu Yang and Kenny Ho. The film is rip-roaringly funny - especially Nick Cheung's scenes, of which I was most pleased with as I'm an old-school fan of his from his comedic days rather than his recent ultra-serious roles. The magic of wuxia is that we all know the formulae - fighters from all around the world fighting each other for a particularly valuable treasure (be it a lost kungfu manual, a weapon, an actual lost treasure or in this movie, a Jade Kwan-Yin statue) - but within such predictable structures, the writers give you memorable characters, Zen-like meditations on the human condition and beautiful love stories. All the elements are present in this movie albeit translated unto the screen via the Wong Jing touch. Unlike other more *serious* wuxia films, this film emphasises the FUN element of wuxia by not taking itself too seriously. At the same time, it doesn't go for parody like so many of the works in the 1990s. In the end, Wong Jing takes us back to the time when Hong Kong cinema was about FUN rather than caught up in its own web of artsy-fartsy self-importance. The film will not win any awards but it will guarantee a great time at the cinema for the whole family.

Coco Freeman (and U2): I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For

2011-06-15T19:16:00.000-07:00

Here's another song that I've grown to really like after listening to it for about 50,000 times over the past 2-3 months in Coffee Bean. Coco Freeman's rendition of the U2 classic beat the original flat. The energy and enthusiasm of his performance is infectious...

Arctic Monkeys: Dancing Shoes

2011-06-15T19:11:00.000-07:00

I am forever condemned to think of this song whenever I think of Land Law or Equity and Trusts. Spent the good part of the past two months studying those two subjects in the local Coffee Bean with this song blasting in the background. It is kind of addictive, don't you agree?

Meeting Jane (Again)

2011-06-14T19:42:00.000-07:00

I wrote the following post in another blog in February 2009 on the day I left a particularly excruciating employment with some really "evil" corporate bosses. Up to this day, when I think of the face of evil, my mind automatically brings up the faces of my ex-bosses. The problem was, I left the employment and bought a collection of Jane Austen novels on the same day. Psychologically, whenever I think of Jane Austen today, I also associate her with the faces of "evil" bosses! I'm really trying to get over all that and simply enjoy Austen for what she is.

I spent the better part of yesterday drafting my CV, negotiating with Credit Officers at the bank to convert my debts into a Fixed-Term Loan, and generally feeling exhilarated at the prospects of being self-employed again. No more punch-in/punch-out work hours. No more corporate sharks playing the "blame" game and shirking responsibilities. No more need to pander to boastful bosses and boot-licking superiors. In other words, no more entanglements in the seriously trivial world of corporate-Machivellianism. Guess I was never made for the corporate world – as my elder sister "prophesied" about me all those years back. I’m amused that I find myself agreeing with her on this, seeing as how we disagree on practically everything else. Mayhaps, she understands me more than I’d like to admit! Anyhow, it’s going to take far more discipline and focus now that I’m a freelance trainer/writer. No more safety net that comes with a secured employment (as if there really was such a thing as "secured employment" – everything comes at a price!). I started sending out my promotional materials to about a dozen potential clients from 6am this morning. Hope to secure several appointments/interviews by later today at least.

In the meantime, I’m happy to start reading "Pride & Prejudice" in my newly-purchased volume of "The Complete Jane Austen". I picked up the Penguin Classics compilation omnibus edition with an introduction by Karen Joy Fowler, the author of "The Jane Austen Book Club". Now, I was under the impression that Austen purists generally abhor omnibus compilations of the novels – preferring to hold each book individually in their tender hands. There was this really comical scene in the film version of "The Jane Austen Book Club" wherein Grigg (the "Austen-virgin" sci-fi geek) showed up for the first club meeting in a local Starbucks with a hardbound omnibus compilation: to the horror of the other club members! The opinions (read: pretensions) of the so-called "purists" matter little to me. I simply can’t wait to dive into the riotous world of Elizabeth Bennet and Mr. Darcy, to laugh at the social follies and the politics of the heart (not to mention, the purse) and simply to celebrate the naturalism of Austen’s prose.

Yes, you know you want this! I’ll be getting dozens of copies for my students… whoever said that Austen’s novels were "girly" or dull?

Pride and Prejudice and Zombies features the original text of Jane Austen’s beloved novel with all-new scenes of bone-crunching zombie action. As our story opens, a mysterious plague has fallen upon the quiet English village of Meryton—and the dead are returning to life! Feisty heroine Elizabeth Bennet is determined to wipe out the zombie menace, but she’s soon distracted by the arrival of the haughty and arrogant Mr. Darcy. What ensues is a delightful comedy of manners with plenty of civilized sparring between the two young lovers—and even more violent sparring on the blood-soaked battlefield as Elizabeth wages war against hordes of flesh-eating undead. Complete with 20 illustrations in the style of C. E. Brock (the original illustrator of Pride and Prejudice), this insanely funny expanded edition will introduce Jane Austen’s classic novel to new legions of fans.

Written by Jane Austen and Seth Grahame-Smith. Available in May 2009.

Finally, here’s something to annoy Jane Austen purists even more than omnibus compilations. Ladies and gentlemen, the Jane Austen Action Figure… place her next to Medieval Spawn or Pirate Spawn and act out your most debauched fantasies!!!

The Real Charlotte Brontë

2011-06-13T17:34:00.000-07:00

Reader, I shagged him
Since her death 150 years ago, Charlotte Brontë has been sanitised as a dull, Gothic drudge. Far from it, says Tanya Gold; the author was a filthy, frustrated, sex-obsessed genius

By Tanya Gold, The Guardian, Friday 25 March 2005

Elizabeth Gaskell is a literary criminal, who, in 1857, perpetrated a heinous act of grave-robbing. Gaskell took Charlotte Brontë, the author of Jane Eyre, the dirtiest, darkest, most depraved fantasy of all time, and, like an angel murdering a succubus, trod on her. In a "biography" called The Life of Charlotte Brontë, published just two years after the author's death, Gaskell stripped Charlotte of her genius and transformed her into a sexless, death-stalked saint.

As the 150th anniversary of her death on March 31 1855 approaches, it is time to rescue Charlotte Brontë. She has been chained, weeping, to a radiator in the Haworth Parsonage, Yorkshire, for too long. Enough of Gaskell's fake miserabilia. Enough of the Brontë industry's veneration of coffins, bonnets and tuberculosis. It is time to exhume the real Charlotte - filthy bitch, grandmother of chick-lit, and friend.

When I first read her at the age of 13, I thought she was another boring Gothic drudge who got lucky. When I returned to her 10 years later, I recognised her. Charlotte was an obscure, ugly parson's daughter, a sometime governess and schoolmistress. Her father Patrick had fought his way from Ireland into Cambridge University and the church. She was toothless, almost penniless and - to Victorian society - worthless. But she dared to transcend her background and her situation. In her novel Jane Eyre, a dark Cinderella tale of a plain, orphaned governess, she dared, baldly, to state her lust.

After I had reread Jane Eyre, I wanted to know what dark genius created this world. I turned to Elizabeth Gaskell's Life, but I could not recognise the sanitised Charlotte she conjured up. Gaskell befriended Charlotte when the novelist was 34 and already a star. Contemporary critics had been appalled by Jane Eyre's "coarseness", but the public was thrilled and Charlotte was a celebrity. Gaskell waspishly described her first sight of Charlotte in a letter: "She is underdeveloped, thin and more than half a head shorter than I ... [with] a reddish face, large mouth and many teeth gone; altogether plain."

Gaskell described her encounters with Charlotte to friends in long, gossipy, gawking letters. "I have so much to say I don't know where to begin ..." And Charlotte noticed Gaskell's need to weaken and infantilise her, writing to her publisher, George Smith, "she seems determined that I shall be a sort of invalid. Why may I not be well like other people?" Gaskell was already hungrily plotting the biography, which she convinced herself was an act of charity. She wanted to rescue her friend from the accusations of "coarseness" and she did not have to wait long: Charlotte died in 1855, nine months after her wedding to Arthur Bell Nicholls.

Gaskell portrays Charlotte as Victim Supreme. She begins to sew her shroud from her first chapter, when she copies out the Brontë grave tablet in Haworth church, voluptuously listing those who died of consumption: Charlotte's mother, Maria, her sisters Maria, Elizabeth, Anne and Emily, and her brother Branwell. Charlotte, Anne and Emily were "shy of meeting even familiar faces". They "never faced their kind voluntarily". The Brontës are shown, with understated relish, as lonely, half-mad spinsters, surrounded by insufferable yokels and the unmentionable stench of death. Under Gaskell's pen, they become the three witches of Haworth and she hurls on the Gothic gloom, ravaging the moorlands and the town for appropriate props. She has a particular fondness for the graveyard outside their front door: "It is," she notes, "terribly full of upright tombstones." She is bewildered by the Brontës. She could never accept they were, quite simply, talented. There had to be a magical mystery at work on those moors ...

Gaskell carefully fillets the letters to match her agenda. Any hint of Charlotte as a sexual being is tossed on to the historical furnace. Charlotte's correspondence with the (married) love of her life, Monsieur Heger of Brussels, is ignored, as is her thwarted romance with George Smith. Gaskell could hardly leave out Charlotte's marriage to Arthur Nicholls - but no doubt she would have liked to. Her biography is the ultimate piece of feminine passive-aggression, a mediocre writer's attempt to reduce the brilliant Miss Brontë to poor, pitiful Miss Brontë. Gaskell wrote the Life as a tragedy, not a triumph. But if Charlotte Brontë's life is a tragedy, what hope is there for the rest of us?

Let me introduce you to the real Charlotte Brontë. She was not a wallflower in mourning. She always wanted to be famous; she pined to be "forever known". Aged 20, she wrote boldly to the Poet Laureate Robert Southey, asking for his opinion of her talents. He replied: "You evidently possess and in no inconsiderable degree what Wordsworth calls 'the faculty of verse'." Then he chides her: "There is a danger of which I would ... warn you. The daydreams in which you habitually indulge are likely to induce a distempered state of mind. Literature cannot be the business of a woman's life and it ought not to be." Charlotte ignored Southey but Gaskell couldn't believe it. She concluded the correspondence "made her put aside, for a time, all idea of literary enterprise".

Charlotte continued in her position as a schoolteacher, which she had already held for a year. But she hated her profession and heartily despised the aggravating brats she was forced to teach. As the children at Roe Head School did their lessons, she wrote in her journal: "I had been toiling for nearly an hour. I sat sinking from irritation and weariness into a kind of lethargy. The thought came over me: am I to spend all the best part of my life in this wretched bondage, forcibly suppressing my rage at the idleness, the apathy and the hyperbolic and most asinine stupidity of these fat headed oafs and on compulsion assuming an air of kindness, patience and assiduity? Must I from day to day sit chained to this chair prisoned within these four bare walls, while the glorious summer suns are burning in heaven and the year is revolving in its richest glow and declaring at the close of every summer day the time I am losing will never come again? Just then a dolt came up with a lesson. I thought I should have vomited." Note to Mrs Gaskell: Charlotte didn't want to kiss those children; she wanted to vomit on them.

Charlotte did not only feel passionate hatred for small children; she felt passionate love for men. Unlike the female eunuch created by Gaskell, she was obsessed with her sensuality. She wrote to a friend: "If you knew my thoughts; the dreams that absorb me; and the fiery imagination that at times eats me up ... you would pity and I daresay despise me." The thwarted lust of a parson's daughter? Gaskell dismisses it as "traces of despondency". In Brussels, studying to become a governess at Heger's school, the virgin became ever more lustful. She wrote obsessive letters to him, begging for his attention. "I would write a book and dedicate it to my literature master - to the only master I have ever had - to you Monsieur." Later she writes: "Day or night I find neither rest nor peace. If I sleep I have tortured dreams in which I see you always severe, always gloomy and annoyed with me. I do not seek to justify myself, I submit to every kind of reproach - all that I know - is that I cannot - that I will not resign myself to losing the friendship of my master completely - I would rather undergo the greatest physical sufferings. If my master withdraws his friendship entirely from me I will be completely without hope ... I cling on to preserving that little interest - I cling on to it as I cling on to life."

When Gaskell heard of these letters she panicked. "I cannot tell you how I should deprecate anything leading to the publication of these letters," she clucked to her publisher.

Charlotte's "master" did not return her love, but Jane Eyre's did. Charlotte's fixation with sex could not be realised in truth - so she realised it in fiction. Jane Eyre has spawned a thousand luscious anti-heroes, and a million Pills & Swoon paperbacks. Her prose is dribbling, watchful and erotic. It's much better than The Story of O, or Naked Plumbers Fix Your Tap. In Jane Eyre she created the men she could not have in the sack: rude, rich, besotted Edward Rochester and beautiful, sadistic St-John Rivers. Both, naturally, beg to marry Jane and Charlotte draws every sigh and blush and wince exquisitely. She writes long, detailed scenarios for her paper lovers. Jane loves to argue with them and she always comes out on top. In the throbbing, climactic scene, after Rochester has teased her (lovingly, of course), she pouts: "Do you think, because I am poor, plain, obscure and little, I am soulless and heartless? You think wrong! I have as much soul as you and full as much heart. And if God have gifted me with some beauty and much wealth, I should have made it as hard for you to leave me as it is now for me to leave you. I am not talking to you now through the medium of custom, conventionalities, nor even of mortal flesh - it is my spirit that addresses your spirit; just as if both had passed though the grave, and we stood at God's feet, equal - as we are."

Rochester melts. "'As we are!' repeated Mr Rochester - 'so,' he added, enclosing me in his arms, gathering me to his breast, pressing his lips on my lips: 'so, Jane!'" The St-John fantasies are filthier yet, as Charlotte's masochism oozes on to the page. "Know me to be what I am," he tells Jane. "A cold, hard man." Jane watches St-John admire a painting of a beautiful woman and the voyeurism excites her; "he breathed low and fast; I stood silent". I know Charlotte had an orgasm as she wiped the ink from her fingers and went to take her father his spectacles.

Charlotte was not only randy; she was rude. She was sent a copy of Jane Austen's Emma and spouted bile all over it. "[Austen] ruffles her reader with nothing vehement, disturbs him by nothing profound," she bitches. "The passions are perfectly unknown to her ... the unseen seat of life and the sentient target of death - this Miss Austen ignores." Later she smacks her more firmly over the bonnet. "Miss Austen is not a poetess. Can there ever be a great artist without poetry?" If Charlotte slagged off Austen - her only real rival in the canon of superb, sex-starved writers - what would she have made of Gaskell's blackwash? I suspect she would have seen it for what it was - the one parasitic shot at immortality of a second-rate writer.

I decide to visit Saint Central - the parsonage museum at Haworth - to see if anything of the real Charlotte remains. Might a leg, or an arm or a finger be sticking out from under Gaskell's smiling tombstone? It doesn't look good for Charlotte. Just nine months after the 150th anniversary of her wedding (there was a mock ceremony, with a shop manager as Mr Nicholls and the villagers as the villagers) the Brontë groupies are excitedly preparing the "celebrations" for the 150th anniversary of her death. A "light installation" is projecting a shadowy grim reaper. Yes - it is Death. It crawls across Patrick's pillows, returns and crawls again. Pictures of the "Brontë waterfall" are gushing noisily over the front of the parsonage. Inside the house are the relics, pristine and pornographic. Charlotte's clothing is imprisoned behind glass: her ghastly wedding bonnet, covered with lace; her gloves; her bag; her spectacles. I can see from the dress that she was a dwarf. A genius indeed, but a dwarf.

In the shop, Gaskell, again, has won. There is every Brontë-branded item the mother of the cult could wish, except, perhaps, enormous golden Bs. I choose a gold fridge magnet, a tea-towel that says "Brontë genius - love, life and literature" and a toy sheep stamped with the word "Brontë". There is a Jane Eyre mouse mat that says, "I am no bird and no net ensnares me; I am a free human being with an independent will." This souvenir disgusts me, but no doubt Mrs Gaskell would love it. In Jane Eyre, Charlotte wrote "independent human being". She did not write "independent mouse mat".

I can find no remnant of the breathing, brilliant novelist in Haworth; it is merely the site of a death cult that weirdly resents its god. I wander up the road to the moors and am surprised they haven't packaged the mud - "Real Brontë Mud!" As the taxi bumps down the famous cobbled street, past the Brontë tea-rooms, the Villette coffee shop, Thornfield sheltered housing (imagine 50 creaking Mr Rochesters) and the Brontë Balti (Brontë special - Chicken Tikka; it's true), I yearn to rip the road signs down and torch the parsonage. This shrine needs desecrating, and I want to watch it burn. I want to see the fridge magnets melt, the tea-towels explode and the wedding bonnet wither. Somewhere, glistening in the ashes, there might remain a copy of Jane Eyre. That is all of Charlotte Brontë that need loiter here.

Graham Hancock: Beyond Atlantis - Secret Advanced Technology

2011-06-10T10:51:00.000-07:00

Graham Hancock: 2012 Conference

2011-06-10T10:43:00.001-07:00

Erich Von Daniken: Odyssey of the Gods

2011-06-10T09:56:00.000-07:00

Aliens, Aliens and More Aliens!!!

2011-06-10T09:34:00.000-07:00

I'm trying to read HLA Hart's "The Concept of Law" for my upcoming Jurisprudence module. Believe me, I really am. Thankfully, I managed to cover the first 8 out of 10 chapters of the book over the past week or so. Aside from the occasional interruptions by work and friends, there are the aliens! By that, I mean the endless alien-themed stuff coming my way.

Yesterday, I went out to study. But my readings were interrupted by a movie poster. Unsurprisingly, I ended up watching the Spielberg-produced, JJ Abrams-written new epic "SUPER 8" with a fellow classmate. The film was awesome. It looked and felt like an 80's Spielberg flick with all the elements of jaw-dropping sense of wonder, celebration of youthful curiosity and a classic sympathetic portrayal of misunderstood earth-trapped E.T. In other words, a "Goonies + E.T." combo for the 21st century. What made the film really, really good is that instead of concentrating on the sci-fi/SFX aspects, Abrams cleverly focused on the characters. In fact, the characters were growing so much on you that you wish that they'll just get the alien out of the way and just focus on the humans. Especially Elle Fanning (Dakota's younger sister) who can REALLY act. I must watch this one again.

Today, I went out early with my wife to study. Yes, I did manage to read some more Jurisprudence but then I was interrupted yet again. This time it was "KIRBY'S GENESIS" issue #0 - the preview issue for the upcoming Kurt Busiek penned, Alex Ross designed series based on characters and concepts by Jack Kirby. I grabbed it from the comicshop behind the cafe that I was studying in. Told myself to hold off reading it until I reached home. I did. After much trepidation and sweaty anticipation. I even went to work and taught about 2 hours of Islamic History. Then I went off for dinner with a friend and we discussed his ongoing romantic entanglements as well as some freak with issues of insecurity and self-esteem. Finally, I had supper with my wife and came home to read the thin copy of the preview issue. It was so good as a preview issue that it's probably the best single issue comic that I've read in months!!! I simply can't wait for the actual series to start. I was expecting the quiet introspection of "Marvels" - after all, it's Busiek and Ross collaborating again. There sure is a promise of that with some human POV characters but as the duo is playing with Kirby-creations, the real draw of the book is the larger-than-life space-opera elements from Silver Star, Captain Victory and numerous Kirby designs of Asgardians and abandoned New Gods concepts. Even more fun is that the whole book came together because of a Kirby drawing in 1971 that he did for the Pioneer 10 project that sent a satellite into outer space to contact some possible alien civilisation out there. Kirby provided a picture of an idealised male and female (see below) but secretly hoped that aliens who possess advanced technology never actually respond to the message and visit heart (or in his mind, "re-visit" earth, since Kirby was very much convinced by the ancient astronauts theory of Erich Von Daniken in the 1970s).

Oh yes, my wife and kids have also gotten me to start watching "V: Season Two"... Morena Baccarin is back in her reptilian form and I cannot be happier to see her again after the jaw-droppingly good first season.

With all the above and my orders of several Von Daniken books, "Atlantis Attacks" and "Silver Star" en route from Amazon.com, it appears that I will still be stuck with more explorations of aliens and the ancient astronauts theories for some time to come. :)

Childhood Tales Revisited

2011-06-04T17:20:00.000-07:00

Finally finished reading the "Acts of Vengeance" omnibus late last night. When I was in Form 1, it felt like every single comic book on the shelves had the "Acts of Vengeance" tag on it. Truth was, the entire crossover lasted only about 4-5 months with the core stories published in August to October 1989 (cover dated Oct-Dec 1989). But then, as a kid, with the nearest comic specialty store located at least 200 miles away, I had to visit the newstands every single day to make sure that I didn't miss a single issue of "The Mighty Thor" or "New Warriors" or "The Amazing Spider-Man". And when I was flipping through all of the single issues in the newstand (with the flakey Mamak casting a displeasing look my way - "Hey, this ain't a library... if you want to read it, buy it!") it felt like every comic featured a different villain from which the title character used to face. Spidey fighting Graviton, Sebastian Shaw, Hulk, Magneto and the Wizard. The Mandarin in the X-Men books. Thor versus the Juggernaut in a battle royale so grand that it launched off into another series called the "New Warriors" (that became a hit with me - it was like my own "Teen Titans" or "New Mutants" - the first series I collected that starred teen characters). I guess what I'm trying to say here is that the magic of comic books (being monthly sequential stories) is that the best of them takes you back to the exact spot in space and time when you first discovered them. No matter how much I dislike the present slew of books (*ahem* Blackest Night *ahem*), I guess for readers today, they are probably as meaningful (or will be in 20-30 years) as stuff like "Acts of Vengeance", "Atlantis Attacks", "Fall of the Mutants" or "The Evolutionary War" were to me when I was a kid.

As for the plot, well there's really not much of a plot. In fact the whole thing was so convoluted that the series ended with an Epilogue where Captain America, Thor and the Vision had to sit down and try to recapitulate everything that happened over the past half a year or so in order to force everything to make sense. You see, during the 1980s, comic books were not written to fit into a coherent whole. In other words, nobody envisioned these monthly floppies would ever be reprinted in a huge hardcover or softcover collection one day. They were simply left as floppies and if you wanted to read the whole shebang, your best bet would be to swap comics with friends, pick up loose issues at conventions or bargain bins, or listen to that stupid showy kid in school boast about how he got every single issue and then humbly asking him for permission to browse through an issue that you missed. There wasn't a core mini-series that tied up the entire thing like we do today with "Civil War" or "Secret Invasion" or "Fear Itself". The thing was just all over the place. It was more like "Dark Reign" where the books were really tied together more thematically than because of a central plot. Unlike "Dark Reign", the series did not end on a bang (ie. "Siege") but with a whimper - Thor figured out that his half-brother Loki was the one who gathered all the villains together to play "Wife Swap" by getting different villains to attack heroes who've never faced them in order to cash in on the strategic advantage and so Thor rounded up the Avengers to provide the smackdown on Loki.

In other words, the whole thing - when you lay it all out in an omnibus collection (or two - as the rest of the crossover issues will be collected in a second omnibus collection) is really an inchoate, disjointed mess. It wasn't a story. It was more like disjointed episodes in about a dozen ongoing TV series but all shared a common theme - namely, "Wife Swap" superhero style. But we swallowed the entire thing hook, line and sinker as kids. We were just caught up in the moment and every single issue was like a precious gem. After all, those were great times. David Michelinie and Todd McFarlane on ASM, John Byrne on West Coast Avengers, Mark Gruenwald pulling double duty on Captain America and Quasar, Tom DeFalco and Ron Frenz on Thor and the beginnings of the Claremont/Lee titanic team-up on Uncanny X-Men. Who cared about the lack of a coherent plot. We just thrilled to Cosmic Powered Spidey laying the smackdown on the grey Hulk (he had it coming, didn't he?) - drawn by Todd McFarlane with such aplomb and gutsiness that we cheered every single crazy panel we read, reread and showed to our friends in Sunday School while everyone else sang "Jesus Wants Me For A Sunbeam".

That being said, the storyline really doesn't work as an omnibus collection. In other words, don't read this thing cover to cover. Read an issue or two. Stop. Reflect on the fun you just had. Then pick up the book and read another issue another day. That was how we experienced it back in the day. And that was how I read this entire collection. Don't complain about it being disjointed - it was put together that way and you get the feeling that the creators were simply making it up as they went along month after month. But boy did they come up with great stories then. In fact, there was so much here to mine that I can argue with any modern fanboy how Millar and Bendis stole plots from here to use over the past seven years at Marvel. Superhero Registration Act? It was done here first. Scarlet Witch going crazy? John Byrne did it here first. Villains united in order to launch of a dark reign? That's what this story is about. The present day writers just did it in a more coherent manner and were guided by tighter editorial control. But what the older stories lacked in coherence and control, they more than made up for with a general sense of spontaneity and fun. Nobody thought that they were producing epics or industry-defining works in 1989 - not after "Watchmen" and "Dark Knight Returns". The creators knew that they were simply doing work-for-hire stuff to put food on the table until hopefully one day, they get their opportunity to sell that life-changing, career-defining script to Marvel or DC that will put them up there with the Moores, Millers and Chaykins. But "Acts of Vengeance" was not it. Neither did they aspire for the whole crossover to be industry-defining or anything. It was simply an excuse to do "Wife Swap" superhero style and let everyone have some fun for 4-5 months.

Next up? ATLANTIS ATTACKS!!! :)

Review: X-Men First Class, Ultimate Thor

2011-06-03T21:29:00.000-07:00

Took my family to see "X-Men: First Class" on Wednesday night at 11:30pm. I wasn't surprised that director Matthew Vaughn and producer Bryan Singer gave us an excellent take on the origins of the entire X-Men franchise by mixing in the frenemy-bromance of Xavier-Magneto against the backdrop of the Cuban Missile Crisis. Everyone cheered at the Hugh "Wolverine" Jackman cameo appearance (where everyone's favourite Canadian uttered 3 golden words to Xavier and Magneto - ironically, the same words that I used against a fellow law student immediately after the exams after putting up with his degenerate bum manners for two whole years). Kevin Bacon was also especially good as the devious Sebastian Shaw although I thought that January Jones' Emma Frost left much to be desired. Emma, in the post-Morrison era, is easily the most complex female character in literature but the film portrayed her as little more than a mutant bimbo who could take on a diamond form. Azazel too wasn't properly fleshed out but that is to be expected since the fulcrum and focus of the entire film is on the Xavier/Magneto tension and philosophical divide. In fact, even the SFX and action took a backseat to the whole Xavier as Martin Luther King Jr. vs Magneto as Malcolm X distinction. And that is not a bad thing at all. In the end, we have a philosophical film disguised as a superhero film that will please long time fans but not those who were simple expecting another cheap popcorn fare. If you are among the latter, I would really recommend watching the dismal "Wolverine Origin" film again and again instead.

I'm generally plagued by lethargy (mixed in with insomnia) still although the exams are over. Had to take some time off yesterday after teaching a class on Form 4 History. Took the kids to Toys 'R' Us and picked up a "Thor" movie action figure for my daughter. She's also presently reading the Straczynski "Thor" Omnibus. She, unlike her siblings, prefers mythological characters with more of a magical/mystical flavour such as Shazam, Hercules and Thor. Also got the "Thor" animated DVD for her last night. Hope to watch that tomorrow or so after we're done with the "Ancient Aliens" DVD set.

Oh yes, my daughter also has the "Ultimate Thor" miniseries by Jonathan Hickman and Carlos Pacheco. I picked up the 4 issues of the series solely on the strength of the creative team. Hickman is doing some very admirable work on FF and Pacheco has been a favourite since his X-Men, FF, Avengers Forever and Superman days. However, I have mixed feelings about this series as a whole. On one hand, Hickman gave us the definitive origin of Ultimate Thor that led into his appearances in the first Ultimates series by Mark Millar and Bryan Hitch. Millar has always deliberately left Thor's origin/identity as something of a mystery. Is he really the god of thunder or is he really just a hippie with some mystical/technological hammer? Hickman's answer in this miniseries is that he is BOTH. Also, he mixes in Nazis, frost giants and rune stones - 3 great flavours that go great together in any story!!! However, at times one gets the feeling that Hickman wasn't really writing the story at all. A lot of it was simply "ultimatizing" characters for the sake of appearing different from the 616-versions. For instance, do we really need Don Blake to be Balder instead of Thor himself? Also, the designs and depictions of the characters were deliberately done to tie-in with the Kenneth Branagh film version so that folks who enjoy this movie can pick up this series for more of the same stuff. But the truth is, folks who enjoy the movie should hopefully pick up some really great and legendary runs by Walt Simonson or Tom DeFalco to really get a feel of what us comic purists have known for years to be the definitive Thor. Disappointingly, while Pacheco's artwork is still head-and-shoulders above many of his peers', the overall effect of his artwork in this book felt a little half-hearted. If you put this book next to Avengers Forever or even Fantastic Four, you would see that it pales in comparison with what Pacheco is really capable of when he puts his heart and mind into it.

UFO Matrix

2011-06-03T21:04:00.000-07:00

I bought the fifth issue of the new "UFO Matrix" magazine last month but I was too busy to read it as I was busy with my exam preparations. I remembered that I was trying to memorise Tort cases and had to resist opening the magazine to read it. That being said, after 4 hours of memorising cases on Nuisance and the rule in Rylands v Fletcher, I cracked open the issue and read the interview with Erich Von Daniken, one of my favourite writers of all time. The ideas presented in his books were very much in line with my own from many years back when I first became intrigued by the mysteries from the Sixth Chapter of the Book of Genesis and the Book of Enoch. My friends and I then researched these matters for ourselves over many years and confirmed that what Von Daniken wrote about in many of his books were largely accurate (though we disagree on the ultimate conclusions of the findings).

Anyway, my wife and I started talking about the Ancient Aliens theory that we have studied for close to two decades again and we decided to also pick up the "Ancient Aliens" DVD Boxed Set (Season One). Watched the first disc last night and the second one this morning. Most of the stuff inside are things that we already know over many years of reading/research into these matters. In fact, it's quite insane to believe that many folks who subscribe to "official" versions of history, science and religion reject these ideas before even examining them. While it's certainly true that many of the conclusions smack of the usual mumbo-jumbo that permeates speculative conspiracy theorising, a lot of the fact-finding are really impeccable. In other words, we don't have to agree on the ultimate conclusions (most of the theorists themselves - e.g. Nick Pope, Graham Hancock, Robert Bauval, Erich Von Daniken, David Icke, Zechariah Sitchin, etc. - are not actually in agreement with each other) but we must not dismiss the evidence with a simply arrogant wave of the hand as most "official" historians, religionists and scientists do today.

"I, Don Quixote, Man of La Mancha..."

2011-05-30T17:18:00.000-07:00

Between The Covers: Elif Batuman

2011-05-30T17:04:00.001-07:00

Elif Batuman and Ben Greenman In Conversation

2011-05-30T17:00:00.000-07:00

On Beaches and Batuman

2011-05-30T15:58:00.000-07:00

My 2nd law examinations are finally over. I felt that this particular exam took more out of me than the previous year's. I felt so drained after my daily 12-hour study sessions. Thankfully it's all over now. Was very relieved after taking the final paper (Land Law) last Friday. After that, I wandered about for 45 minutes in Mid Valley Megamall like a huge burden has been lifted off from my chest and there was just this airy-spacey feel in my head. My friend messaged me to say that she suddenly felt like there's an emptiness, a vacuum in her life - that's understandable: we both exchange about 60-80 messages daily on legal topics and suddenly, it was all over. I then headed off to work. Taught 3 classes: Form 4 and 5 history, Form 5 English. I honestly didn't even know what I was teaching. My head suddenly felt so light after unloading everything on the Land Law paper that I must've been just blabbering gibberish for 5 hours in front of my students! How does one give a tutorial on Hijrah and the beginnings of the Islamic Civilization in Madinah after spending weeks on easements, leases, freehold covenants, adverse possession and mortgages?!?

Anyway, early Saturday morning, my family and I took off for a much deserved holiday in a beach resort. We absolutely enjoyed ourselves. Beautiful surroundings, great food, luscious pools and sandy beaches. Kids enjoyed swimming, water sports, Wii, feeding the animals, chasing a peacock around the place, etc.

Me? I'm still surprised that my head could feel so light... So I started reading again. This time, it's Russian literature with Elif Batuman ("The Possessed"). Wished I had such a book when I was reading Russian lit. about 12-13 years ago. My friends and I were just making things up as we went - Dostoevsky, Tolstoy, Gogol, etc. But then Batuman was probably just discovering the same things then. Only difference was that she had a map and we didn't. She was in academia while we were in Cameron Highlands. I sat by the hospital bed of a dying cancer patient in his late 70s and he told me wonderful things about his own quest of reading everything Russian (in Chinese). He handed me a Chinese translation of Gogol that I still own. Then he lamented that he started off in his quest too late to complete it. The cancer didn't bother him. Not finishing everything Tolstoy wrote did. But then, who can ever finish Tolstoy. Even if one could read everything he wrote, one couldn't actually exhaust his writings. We talked about the resurrection and Ivan Ilyich. We smiled and shook hands. That is the sort of book-camaraderie than I dearly missed.

Came home yesterday afternoon. Weather was hot like hell. It felt strange. In the morning, I was in the sea with my wife and kids. Then I was sitting on a lazy chair and enjoying the sea breeze. In the afternoon, I was rushing for work. Taught Form 4 Accounts to two students who looked like they rather be anywhere else on a Monday afternoon (school holiday) than learning about double-entry and balance sheets with me! After that, I went for dinner and went back to teach two more hours of History. Then my body started aching. Too much swimming for 3 days. A bookish guy like me suffers from a severe lack of physical activities and with the merest physical strain, my muscles start aching and my joints start feeling disjointed. But then, swimming is about the only physical activity that I excel in - what with the thousands of hours swimming with my big sister when we were kids. Anyway, my kids learned to swim during the holiday so I'm very happy about that. My son is even doing underwater hand-stands already.

Anyway, I'm just going to take it real slow and easy today. I've got two days off work - today and tomorrow. Going out to get lots of fruit juices later. Probably pick up the copy of KISS KOMPENDIUM that is selling for only 10% of the cover price in Amcorp Mall. And finish the rest of Elif Batuman's "The Possessed". Did I tell you about how she connected King Kong to Isaac Babel?

Review: THOR

2011-04-30T08:51:00.000-07:00

I was suffering from the effects of sleep deprivation since yesterday. Hardly enough sleep for approximately two weeks. Combine that with 6-8 hours of straight studying daily and my teaching assignments... well, that explains why my head has been throbbing and my tooth aching all the time. Anyway, I decided to take it slow today. Slept for most of the day. Then I finally had some family time. Took the kids out for dinner at KFC followed by "Thor" in the cinema.

Before I went in for the movie, a friend from college told me that the movie sucked. But then his tastes lean more towards stuff like "Avatar" and "Pirates of the Carribean" - films that I absolutely hate with all my soul. What I didn't like was that he assumed I wouldn't like the movie (read: that I have the same abysmal taste in movies!!!). Truth is, I absolutely 100% enjoyed the "Thor" movie. It is, in the opinion of a fan who's been reading Thor for 25 years, the purest adaptation ever made.

Kenneth Branagh understood the Shakespearean-influence in the early Marvel tales and cleverly constructed the film into five Acts sandwiched between a Prologue and an Epilogue:

Prologue: Young Odin leading the charge against the Frost Giants in Jotunheim and the telling his sons Thor and Loki about his exploits.

Act One: Thor, impetuous and proud, led a charge against Jotunheim thinking to impress Odin. He ended up getting banished for his arrogance and insubordination.

Act Two: An out-of-place Thor in Midgard (ie. Earth) meeting Jane Foster. Comedy of errors ensues!

Act Three: Thor realises the error of his ways and regrets his impetuousness.

Act Four: Sif, Fandral, Hogun and Volstagg ends up in Earth as well... with the Destroyer hot on their heels. Thor makes an act of self-sacrifice and finds redemption.

Act Five: Thor's return to Asgard to set things right.

Epilogue: Loki is still around and Nick Fury gets thrown into the mix - preparing viewers for Joss Whedon's Avengers.

Conclusion? A most excellent entry in the series of Marvel adaptations. As Stan Lee would put it - Excelsior! :)

Revisiting "King Solomon's Mines"

2011-04-29T08:54:00.000-07:00

In the midst of my very hectic exam preparations and teaching assignments, about the only entertainment that I can afford is to reread the novels of H. Rider Haggard. I've got this volume that collects his three famous adventure novels - She, King Solomon's Mines and Allan Quatermain. I'm presently rereading King Solomon's Mines and the novel got me so excited that I just placed an order for first three volumes of the complete Quatermain collection (seven volumes in total from Leonaur) from Amazon.com. The books cost more than US$30 per volume and I hope to eventually own/read them all. Nobody does "Lost World" adventures like Haggard did. Too bad up to this day we still haven't got any faithful adaptation of his works. Mostly we get entertaining crap like the above - from the 1950s film starring Deborah Kerr and Stewart Granger. In today's world where we get very faithful adaptations of Tolkien, Lewis and Rowling, it's a crime that no one seems to bother with H. Rider Haggard. I'm hoping that the upcoming John Carter of Mars (based on Edgar Rice Burroughs' novels) will stimulate enough interest for people to check out the novels of Burroughs and Haggard. Then, hopefully, we'll finally get a decent adaptation of King Solomon's Mines that will forever erase the memory and shame of the Richard Chamberlain/Sharon Stone version from our collective consciousness forever!!! :)

Vampirella Archives Volume Two is here!!!

2011-04-27T17:46:00.000-07:00

My copy of "Vampirella Archives Volume Two" arrived in the mail yesterday. Can't wait to read all these classic Warren stories - after my Law exams, that is. :)

Kermit

2011-04-27T17:40:00.000-07:00

My wife's "Kermit The Frog" arrived in the mail 3 days ago. Got it from e-Bay after unsuccessfully looking everywhere for one for many years. Glad she likes it a lot. :)

New Ultimate Spidey?!?

2011-04-20T17:43:00.000-07:00

Ultimate Spidey was shot by the Punisher last week. He took a bullet for Captain America. This week, Marvel announces a new Spidey in a new costume. Is it just me or does Spidey have too many costumes these days that it's difficult to even keep track of them all?

"It will be a huge surprise to me if everyone in the world of comic books isn't talking about the Ultimate Universe because the Ultimate Universe is back to doing what it really does well, which is stuff that could never happen in the regular Marvel Universe," Joe said of what events lie in store after the current "Death of Spider-Man" arc wraps up. (Joe Q was interviewed on CBR TV)

My son, Ethan, recommends "Ultimate Spider-Man #157".

Highlights From The Marvel Solicitations For July 2011

2011-04-17T03:07:00.000-07:00

Check out the latest Marvel solicitations at Newsarama. Amidst the overkill of "Fear Itself"-related titles, I'm most excited about the new ongoing Daredevil, Ghost Rider and Punisher titles. As for the reprint collections, the following are my selections:

X-MEN BY CHRIS CLAREMONT & JIM LEE OMNIBUS VOL. 1 HC

Written by CHRIS CLAREMONT, TERRY AUSTIN, SALLY PASHKOW, PETER SANDERSON & ANN NOCENTI
Penciled by JIM LEE, MARC SILVESTRI, ROB LIEFELD, MIKE VOSBURG, JIM FERN, MARK BAGLEY, RICK LEONARDI, KIERON DWYER, BILL JAASKA, MIKE COLLINS & WHILCE PORTACIO
Covers by JIM LEE
What happens when you combine an industry veteran at the top of his game with a hot, up-and-coming young artist, and let them loose on Marvel’s mightiest mutants? You get a fan-favorite, multi-year X-Men run unequaled in style, pizzazz and wall-to-wall action! It’s Chris Claremont’s most ambitious story arc ever, featuring Jim Lee’s dynamic debut issues and major changes to the X-Men’s status quo! Jubilee debuts just as the X-Men disband, granted new lives by the Siege Perilous! The Reavers enact gruesome revenge on Wolverine and decimate Muir Island, while Psylocke is transformed into a ninja! The Shadow King makes his play for Storm, culminating in the action-packed introduction of Gambit! Wolverine’s hidden past with Captain America and the Black Widow is revealed! And this is just the first volume! Collecting UNCANNY X-MEN #244-269, X-MEN ANNUAL (1970) #13 and CLASSIC X-MEN #39.
704 PGS./Rated A...$125.00
ISBN: 978-0-7851-5822-6
Trim size: oversized

This is really a no-brainer. The Jim Lee run on the X-titles was Marvel's biggest success in the late 1980s/early 1990s. It's time that we get the whole thing in a high-end Omnibus collection. This looks like the first volume collecting everything from the UXM book before Claremont and Lee relaunch the series with a new #1.

Speaking of X-related omnibus, Jason Aaron's Wolverine books are also collected in an omnibus. Other than that, we also get the "X-Cutioner's Song" storyarc in a huge hardcover. That's about time. I no longer have my TPB so I'll probably pick that up. That's still the best Cable-Stryfe-Apocalypse story ever and is most representative of the X-Men in the 1990s.

X-MEN: X-CUTIONER’S SONG HC
Written by SCOTT LOBDELL, PETER DAVID & FABIAN NICIEZA
Penciled by BRANDON PETERSON, JAE LEE, ANDY KUBERT & GREG CAPULLO
Cover by ANDY KUBERT
The X-Men story so big, it took four books to contain it! When Cyclops and Phoenix are kidnapped — and Cable seemingly assassinates Professor X — the X-Men, X-Factor and X-Force go to war...with each other! Witness epic battles around the globe and on the moon as Mr. Sinister’s subtle plan of vengeance on Apocalypse unfolds, and major revelations are made about the true identities of Cable and his twisted doppelganger Stryfe! Featuring blood, angst, sacrifice and great big guns as Marvel’s mutant families dance to the villains’ twisted tune! Collecting UNCANNY X-MEN #294-297, X-FACTOR (1986) #84-86, X-MEN (1991) #14-16, X-FORCE (1991) #16-18 and STRYFE’S STRIKE FILE.
368 PGS./Rated A ...$49.99
ISBN: 978-0-7851-5610-9
Trim size: oversized

Review: Blackest Night

2011-04-07T04:51:00.000-07:00

The DC Universe is in a mess. A terrible mess. I remember the time when I went gaga over everything from DC. Grant Morrison on the JLA, Ron Marz on Green Lantern, Alan Grant, Doug Moench, Chuck Dixon on the Bat-books, Dan Jurgens and later Jeph Loeb on the Superman books, Phil Jimenez and Greg Rucka on Wonder Woman, Geoff Johns and David Goyer on JSA. Somehow everything changed after Brad Meltzer's "Identity Crisis". Since then, it's been event after event and a concerted effort to revive the Silver Age of DC but mixed in with present day sensibilities in the elements of ugly violence, sexuality and metaphysical mess. The Geoff Johns of today is a far cry from his days as the writer for such character-driven books as Stars and S.T.R.I.P.E.S., JSA, Flash, Hawkman and Teen Titans. He's writing more books than ever today and seems to be the driving force over at DC much like Brian Bendis is at Marvel. But the problem is, the present day Geoff SUCKS!!! I'm serious. Everything that I used to admire about his writing just isn't there to be found anymore. I guess the same can be said for James Robinson - who did legendary work on Starman and JSA but whose present work on Justice League is simply a horrible and ugly mess (even with Mark Bagley on art). As for Grant Morrison's Batman? The less said about it the better. I'm prepared to sell my entire set of Morrison Batman to my friend by the end of this month. In other words, the past 5 years of DC comics have left me largely cold and disinterested. I ended up rereading old Silver Age Green Arrow stuff with my daughter Moira and Shazam with my daughter Chloe. In fact, among the best DC stuff published in recent years are the Tiny Titans and Magic of Shazam all-ages books.

Why then did I pick up three Blackest Night hardcovers in two days and read them all in one sitting? I think a lot of it has to do with curiosity. I've heard people saying great stuff about the huge event in the DCU last year. After reading the "Blackest Night", "Blackest Night: Green Lantern" and "Blackest Night: Green Lantern Corps" hardcovers, here are my thoughts:

It's hard to either like or dislike the actual Blackest Night miniseries. If you liked huge universe-breaking events such as Crisis on Infinite Earths or Zero Hour, you may like this one. Time was, I absolutely loved such events that featured a gazillion characters on every page. Time now, I prefer stories to be more character-driven and personal.

In fact, I think Geoff Johns actually shines when he gets down on the character stuff - like the interactions between Barry Allen and Hal Jordan, or Hawkman and Hawkgirl. Problem was, most of those quieter moments soon get buried under the epic, widescreen stuff where you can hardly tell what the hell is really going on. Time was, comics showcased each character's powers very clearly so you could see just how exactly the Flash outwit Mirror Master with a twist on his flash-powers or a convenient Flash Fact. Time now, every page is a showcase for the artist's ability to cram in as much action into a double page splash with the writer peppering the page with explanatory captions or expository dialogue to give the reader a certain semblance of the plot moving ahead. But you get the feeling that the plot will move ahead anyway and there's really little payoff in reading the actual book when you can read the summaries on Wikipedia or something.

The artwork by Ivan Reis (on the Blackest Night series), Doug Mahnke (on the GL issues) and Patrick Gleason (on the GLC series) are really among the best artwork that I have ever seen in a DC Comic. Truth be told, the books are worth buying and keeping simply for the unbelievable artwork and covers. Reis makes everything look pretty and Gleason sure can draw intergalactic war scenes - especially with a Red Lantern Guy Gardner tearing through the Black Lantern hordes. But the artist to take home the cake is Doug Mahnke. His scenes featuring a gigantic Spectre fighting a gigantic Parallax in the middle of Coast City has to be seen to be believed. For my money, Doug Mahnke is probably the best comic artist in the industry right now and Geoff Johns is very lucky to get him on the monthly GL book.

Like I mentioned above, Geoff Johns and company have been working hard to revive the Silver-Agey elements of the DCU over the past several years. They largely succeed when they concentrate on the Silver-Agey elements. For instance, I still get a thrill when the Atom travels through the phone lines to reach Hawkman. I still get a huge excitement whenever the Spectre appears. Also, my favourite scenes in all 3 books involve Sinestro proving that he can really be a hero when he tries to be. I also felt a certain tingle in seeing the return of Aquaman back in the arms of Mera or the return of Shiera Saunders replacing Kendra - who finally remember all her past lives as Hawkgirl. Finally, does anyone else agree with me that Mogo is the greatest Green Lantern of all time? Every scene with Mogo in the GLC book is a gem. Unbelievable sense of wonder in seeing the planet-sized Green Lantern absorb millions of corpses into himself to free them from the control of the Black Lantern.

Problem was, for every Silver-Agey element, we get dozens more pages of comics trying very hard to be mature and sophisticated. We get nonsensical exposition about the Guardians' dirty secrets having to do with how Darkness was the original state of the universe and that the Light (cue in the starting verses of the Book of Genesis) was actually an intruder or coloniser. We get pages after pages of the Black Hand (William Hand) killing his father, mother and two brothers because he's a nihilist. It was distasteful when Jim Starlin did the ultimate nihilist Thanos, but Starlin never went to such extremes of actually showing you the scenes of ugly patricide or matricide. Women the whole world over screamed for Ron Marz's blood when he wrote the scene when Kyle Rayner discovered his girlfriend Alex stuffed into a refridgerator by Major Force. Here, we get pages after pages showing how Major Force broke every bone in Alex's body and then her spine followed by her neck before shoving her into the fridge. Question is, do we really need to see that? Finally, do I need to mention the countless scenes of hearts being pulled out of bodies? Personally, I think readers react best when hearts are figuratively ripped out by a lover's betrayal (e.g. Ray Palmer's sufferings after finding out about Jean Loring's deceptions or Carter Hall's frustration over Kendra Saunder's inability to recall their past lives together). But do we really need to see Hawkman and Hawkgirl getting their hearts literally ripped out? I don't even like Aqualad (or is that Tempest) but even I cringed when he got his heart ripped out!

Final verdict?
Blackest Night miniseries (by Geoff Johns and Ivan Reis): two and a half stars (but primarily for Ivan Reis' pretty artwork rather than Geoff's uneven writing)
Blackest Night: Green Lantern (by Geoff Johns and Doug Mahnke): three and a half stars (but mainly because of the Spectre-Parallax fight and White Lantern Sinestro)
Blackest Night: Green Lantern Corps (by Peter Tomasi and Patrick Gleason): four and a half stars (this title ended up having the best character-scenes - especially Kyle, Guy, Natu, Kilowog and of course, the one and only MOGO!!!)

Green Lantern - Wonder-Con Footage

2011-04-04T23:14:00.000-07:00

I was at the nearby Bookalicious about 30 minutes ago to pick up the Blackest Night hardcover. The guy at the counter asked me if I was looking forward to the upcoming GL movie and I said that I wasn't impressed with the trailer or the selection of Ryan Reynolds to play Hal. He smiled. It was like he knew something that I didn't. Or maybe he was just trying to be friendly and uncontradictory. Anyway, I'm glad that the above video footage from the upcoming film (shown at the current Wonder-Con) changed my mind somewhat about the film. First, we finally get to see more of Oa, Sinestro, Tomar-Re, etc. Next, we get Hal reciting the GL Oath and that alone is worth the price of admission. But most importantly, the film doesn't feel like the silly and flighty nonsense that the first trailer was trying to sell. It feels like it has a certain gravitas to it. Maybe that's because we get to see all 3,600 Green Lanterns gathering before Sinestro as they prepare for war... All in all, I hope the final product is closer in spirit to the above clip than the theatrical trailer.

Vampirella Archives Volume One

2011-03-31T18:32:00.000-07:00

My copy Vampirella Archives Vol. 1 arrived in the mail yesterday. I was getting very worried that the local customs have impounded the book as it features a scantily-clad pontianak! Usually, my orders from Amazon.com take only 2 weeks to arrive but this one took an entire month. Anyway, I'm just glad that it finally arrived. The book is a wonder to behold. Issues 1-7 of the Warren Vampirella Magazine are reprinted in full in their original magazine-sized format (even larger than the Marvel oversized hardcovers - same sized as Dark Horse's Eerie and Creepy Archives). The pages are white, unglossy and thick while the entire book is very beautifully sewn together for durability and elegance. I'm thankful that Dynamite Entertainment bought over the entire Vampirella franchise from now defunct Harris Comics. Products like the Archive line alone is worthy of celebrations. As for the contents, I read the first four stories from issue one last night. The contents are all in stark black & white - even some uninked work (like the Neal Adams one). Vampirella is hardly featured in the book at all aside from her origin story written by Forrest J. Ackerman and drawn in the campy style of the late 1960s by Tom Sutton. She was more like the host of a horror TV show providing the intro and ending comments to each story - think the Crypt-Keeper from "Tales of the Crypt" but prettier and with more sex appeal!!! The rest of the stories in issue one were mostly written by Don Glut. I was particularly impressed by the art of Billy Graham (who penciled and inked some of my favourite Silver Age Marvel stories) on a vampiric-boat story with a very unpredictable ending. My favourite story so far is the werewolf tale illustrated by Reed Crandall in a very movie-esque fashion. The story said more about seduction, tragic romance and the werewolf myth than the entire volume of "Women Who Run With The Wolves".

I just placed orders for the next two volumes in the Vampirella Archives series. Can't wait to read the stories where Vampirella is the actual star - especially those written by Archie Goodwin and illustrated by the one-and-only Jose Gonzalez. :)

This video clip features artwork by Vampirella artists over the decades. So we get bubbly good-girl art by Adam Hughes, pouting and anorexic art by J. Scott Campbell, manga Vampirella, the Harris "Vampire Slayer" costume, and classic Jose Gonzalez artwork. Enjoy.

First Glimpse of New Wonder Woman Adrianne Palicki in Action

2011-03-31T18:09:00.000-07:00

The clip is from an actual filming session for the upcoming Wonder Woman TV show featuring actress Adrianne Palicki in the title role jumping over cars and chasing after a felon. My wife noted the changes to the costume but says that she still can't stand Palicki. :)

The Thunder Strikes Again... For The First Time!

2011-03-29T03:50:00.000-07:00

It's great being a Thor fan these days. What with the movie coming and tons of cool hardcovers, statues, action figures, video games, documentaries and bedsheets (?!?) devoted to the hammer-wielding Asgardian. Now, if you have followed this blog (and others that I write in), you'll know that Thor was my favourite character growing up. In fact, his was the only monthly comic that I collected religiously all the way until I was about 16 years old. (Actually, I still can't believe that we're really getting a real THOR movie! The closest we got as kids was that silly Thor and Hulk feature film...)

However, I found that I lost interest in the character since about 8 years ago. The last time I was really excited about Thor was when I picked up the Walt Simonson Visionaries TPB volume one in the early 2000s. I even bought several books on Norse mythology and then locked myself in the local YMCA for an entire weekend just reading about the Norse gods and frost giants and Ragnarok.

Recently, I picked up the "Acts of Vengeance" omnibus and reread the issues of Thor within that humongous collection. Those were the issues that I read as a kid. Tom DeFalco wrote them and Ron Frenz drew them. Thor (and the New Warriors) took on the Juggernaut. Thor shared a common existence with architect Eric Masterson, Hercules (weakened after the ordeals in the "Under Siege" storyline over in the Avengers title) stayed in Eric's house and befriended Eric's son, Kevin Masterson. Loki was masterminding the entire "Acts of Vengeance" on the Marvel-U and finally, Thor discovered the whole plan with the help of Dr. Strange. I found myself rekindling my love for those childhood tales...

Then came the JMS Thor Omnibus that I finally worked up the courage (and cash) to purchase yesterday morning. I have read many reviews praising the JMS run as the best since Simonson's legendary run in the 1980s. However, I have been hesitant in picking it up. I liked the art by Olivier Coipel in "Siege" where he drew Thor, the Warriors Three, Balder, Asgard, etc. But like I said, I just couldn't find it in me to read Thor again. Especially a Thor that I feared was nothing like the one that I grew up reading every month. Reading the first 8 issues collected in this massive volume (the 2 Fantastic Four issues that served as a prologue to the run and issues 1-6 of the new monthly series), I was pleasantly surprised to see how much I enjoyed the book so far. True enough, it does not really feel like the Thor that I used to know. The Thor I grew up with was more jolly and fun - while noble and classy because he spoke Shakespearean! JMS' Thor is more reflective of the times that we live in (as well as the backdrop of the Marvel-U of the past several years - namely, Civil War, Secret Invasion, Dark Reign, Disassembled, etc.) In fact, in one issue, JMS pushed the "relevance" card too far and had Thor visit the post-Katrina New Orleans. The issue really didn't work because whenever real-world events get pushed into comicbooks, the characters end up looking irrelevant, absurd and plainly out-of-place. Thankfully, JMS was smart enough to quickly move on to a really cool Thor vs. Iron Man scene that fans have been dying for since Iron Man and Mr. Fantastic did the dastardly deed of cloning Thor during "Civil War". It was hugely satisfying to see Tony at the receiving end of Thor's righteous wrath.

However, there is a deep sadness and loneliness in Thor throughout - like I said, the jolly giant thunderer I once knew really wasn't there anymore. JMS tried to inject in some humour using smalltown quirkiness - specifically the friendly but cranky citizens of Oklahoma (where Thor and the newborn Asgardians suddenly moved in as neighbours). This element worked at times when JMS was not going overboard but at times, it descended into self-referential humour that felt unneeded and distracting.

Another thing is that Dr. Don Blake is back but appears to have a separate existence from Thor - while sharing the same body. It's a bit confusing since we know that Don Blake really is Thor (like Sigurd Jarlsson during Simonson's run) and not like Eric Masterson or that bloke during Dan Jurgens' run. However, Don Blake has very little opportunities to shine at all. The irony is that, he displayed far more character and independent existence when he really was Thor but now that he has a separate existence, his personality is subsumed into Thor's! Or maybe what we really need is another love interest like Jane Foster to make Don Blake step out of Thor's shadow for a while. The most interesting thing to happen to Don Blake so far is that he's now a volunteer doctor with "Doctors Without Borders". Other than that, he's mostly a placeholder and we just wait for the moment every issue when he taps the walking stick and transforms into Thor.

All in all, the first part of JMS' run is worth a read. I've been told that things pick up from issue 7. Will write more once I've finished reading the whole book... :)

These Are A Few Of My Favourite Things...

2011-03-26T18:32:00.000-07:00

I skipped the long Trust Law refresher-lectures on Friday evening and the whole of Saturday. Took the family to see "Sucker Punch" on Friday evening. Also found a really cheap copy of "Keats" by Andrew Motion. The book was slightly damaged but I'm not complaining since the apologetic shopkeeper agreed to sell it to me for only RM18.00. A new biography of Keats is always a joy to read. I remember reading 3 other biographies in the late 1990s (Bateman, Coote and Gittings') when I was really nuts about the Romantic poets and wrote long dissertations on "Ode to a Grecian Urn", "Ode to a Nightingale" and "To Autumn". I was told that Andrew Motion enjoys a direct hotline to John Keats in heaven and his biography of the poet was even made into a movie.

Saturday was a day filled with activities. I began the morning with my own studies of Evidence Law (completed three essays). That assuaged my guilt for skipping classes so I took the family out for lunch. We had sandwiches at Subway - I'm getting really addicted to Subway sandwiches but I really wish they cost less here. After that, my wife finally picked up the full Scoutboy uniform for Bertie and I bought the 7A drum-sticks for Moira. We then did some groceries and came home to watch "Secret of the Heart" - the TVB series from the late 1990s starring Gallen Lo, Felix Wong, Amy Kwok, Kathy Chow, Ada Choi, Nick Cheung, Sunny Chan, Paul Chun, Jessica Hsuan Hester and many others. Astro is showing this series now and I got to catch several episodes during my dinner breaks at work. Got smitten by the marvellous plot and characters all over again so I picked up the DVD set. In the evening, we prepared a sumptuous meal made up of Korean ramen noodles, chicken fingers and BBQ pork.

Dancing With Sisyphus

2011-03-26T05:18:00.000-07:00

I had breakfast with Sisyphus yesterday morning. Ended up missing my lectures for the day. Haven't met him for many years. "What have you been up to?", I asked stupidly. He answered, "What else? Still rolling my rock up the mountains daily." It's always great to talk to Sisyphus. He's about the only one left who's still honest. He acknowledges... no, embraces the absurdity of life and even manage to find a little joy in it at times. Camus was wrong. Sisyphus was not tragically absurd. Beckett was right - there is great comedy in absurdity. Sisyphus tells me about how he's giving the middle finger to the gods who cursed him every time he rolls the rock up the mountains with glee and reckless abandonment. The rest of the folks around us are too stupid to laugh because they are too busy being serious about everything (cue in Sotong-Boy, Tomahawk Girl and the pastor who is soooooooo afraid of losing friends!).

I told Sisyphus that I just rediscovered the truth of eternal recurrence and that I'm having a great time reliving my adolescence. He smiled stupidly and started patting his rock like a kindly and benign parent. We started talking about old CDs from 1991. I took out "Two Rooms - Celebrating The Songs Of Elton John And Bernie Taupin". Played "Crocodile Rock" by the Beach Boys and Sisyphus started dancing. Anything with "rock" appears to turn him on immediately. Problem was, Sisyphus couldn't stop something the moment he started doing it. So after the 78th time replaying Crocodile Rock, I started feeling embarassed. At the same time, I was apprehensive about turning off the CD player. You don't offend someone with a huge rock in his arms. Also, have you seen the muscles on the guy? He's spent about 6,000 years rolling that stupid rock.

After that, Sisyphus and I had durians. I was surprised that he could describe the differences between D28 and D88 durians. Apparently, the old bloke really picked up a lot of knowledge over the years of rolling the rock up the mountains. He even told me about how he'd stop for a snack sometimes when the rock rolled down the mountains. The gods looked down and got impatient. He'd open up durians, snack on the tasty fruit and spit the seeds at the skies. But the gods couldn't do anything to him. After all, he continued in his labours with the rock immediately after the snack.

In the evening, Sisyphus and I had coffee together while I told him about my recent misadventures with Sotong-Boy and Tomahawk Girl. He appeared disinterested. I guess even hearing about the antics of such nincompoops was terribly boring to him. Imagine that - it's really quite difficult to imagine anything more boring than rolling a rock up the mountains for all eternity. Several minutes later he explained, "It's not that I'm not interested in them. I just think that they couldn't be bothered to be interested in themselves. Otherwise they will notice the absurdity of their own existence and probably go off to skin a cat or smoke a pipe instead." With that, Sisyphus took out a pipe and lighted it. A girl in the next table stood up and stretched her slim body. Sisyphus whistled like an old lecher. I dropped a quarter into the jukebox and selected Rod Steward's cover version of Elton John's "Your Song". Sisyphus walked over and asked the girl for a dance.

The last song for the evening was "Sloop John B" by the Beach Boys. Sisyphus boogied like it was 1969 all over again. With the end of the song, he declared, "I feel so broke up, I wanna go home..." He went back to his rock and mountain. I went back to my own absurd but endlessly fun existence.

Good Morning Blue Hippo

2011-03-24T18:54:00.000-07:00

Just changed my Facebook profile pic to that of a Blue Hippo. A pastor wrote to me this morning and warned me against alienating people - in response to my criticisms of Sotong-Boy and Tomahawk Girl. I've been told that blue is calming and that hippos are cuddly (though I've never personally tried to cuddle one at the zoo). Being a blue hippo should pacify some folks with tender sensibilities so that they don't alienate me too much. :)