Green Arrow (New 52), Volume 4: The Kill Machine (DC Comics, 2014)

Reprinted from issues #17-24 and 23.1 (2013) by Jeff Lemire and Andrea Sorrentino

Green Arrow has never been a character I really followed. I liked him well enough in the context of Green Lantern's “hard travellin'” partner in the classic Denny O'Neil/Neal Adams stories of ca. 1970 (which I didn't really read many of or appreciate at all until much later, but I was only eight years old), in the context of the Justice League (especially as Hawkman's political opposite – although I was always far more on Hawkman's conservative side than Green Arrow's liberal side), even occasionally in his own stories (e.g, The Longbow Hunters), but beyond that, not so much. It was mainly as a second-tier character that he worked best for me. I had no interest in the new, beardless, younger Green Arrow of the series which came in with the New 52 in 2011, and frankly found him an uninteresting character those times he did appear in titles I did get. Green Arrow can be interesting – I particularly liked him in the Smallville TV series, and when I first heard that the CW was developing a [Green] Arrow follow-up, I was quite disappointed that it would be an entirely new reimagining of the character with no connection to Smallville. I've written elsewhere of my revulsion at the debut of Arrow in 2012 [LINK], but in the same place of my giving it a second chance at the end of the first season such that it became one of my most highly anticipated shows through the second season. It's surprisingly good, with a rather broad appeal. I was surprised along the way to find that my parish priest watches it, as well as our parish liturgical director and his wife (who are avid archers themselves); my wife doesn't actually follow it, but she will watch it with me if she happens to be in the room; the show is a runaway success by CW standards.

Star Wars: The Thrawn Trilogy (Dark Horse, 2009)

Reprinted from three six-issue comic-book miniseries (1995, 1998, and 1999) based on the prose novels by Timothy Zahn (1991-1993), adapted by scripter Mike Baron and various artists

I was there, nigh on two and a half decades past, when Star Wars seemed a fad of the past after a dearth of several years in the late 1980s after the completion of the “trilogy” with the appearance of Return of the Jedi in 1983. Little if any merchandising was being published when suddenly there appeared in 1991 a new novel, Heir to the Empire. I was there … but I didn't actually pick it up until it appeared in paperback the next summer, and read it during that bit of a lull in my graduate studies between finishing up my M.A. thesis and beginning my doctoral studies. I thoroughly enjoyed it, of course, picked up the paperbacks of the sequels – Dark Force Rising and The Last Command – as they appeared in paperback the next two summers. Together, they told one long, fast paced, intricate story that basically created what came to be known as the Star Wars Expanded Universe. Characters, worlds, concepts, a history spanning millennia would be elaborated by many other creators in both prose and comics – some even being “canonized” by incorporation into the revived film series, most notably the Imperial Capital of Coruscant, which was first named and described in Heir to the Empire.

Shazam! (DC 2013, The New 52!)

By Geoff Johns and Gary Frank. Reprinted from Justice League #7-11, 0, 14-16, 18-21 (2012-2013)

Well, nobody's more surprised than me that I ended up buying this collection, and in hardcover to boot! From the very beginning of the New 52 version of The Hero Formerly Known As Captain Marvel, I found so many things to dislike about Geoff Johns' portrayal, mainly centering on the surly characterization he imparted to Billy Batson, which seemed very much a stereotypical obnoxious brat just like his similar and nearly simultaneous portrayal of young Bruce Wayne in Batman: Earth One. That wasn't the only aspect of the “updating” of the story that I didn't care for, to be sure. The new Dr. Sivana, bulked up and looking more like a cheap Lex Luthor knock-off, also rubbed me the wrong way. And the mess just seemed to get worse and worse as month after month of the back-up series appeared in the pages of Justice League, what with Billy and Freddy first attempting to capitalize on Billy's new powers to make money, then considering Billy's new adult appearance as a way for them to get alcohol. For someone like me, who loves the simple, almost childlike wonder and charm of the original Captain Marvel, which has, however imperfectly, informed most of DC's portrayals of the character hitherto (Dark Mary Marvel and subsequent developments being lamentable departures from that model, essentially exceptions that prove the rule), it seemed like these newest horrors were just going from bad to worse. It was heartbreaking.

And then...

Wonder Woman, vol. 3: Iron (DC, 2013 – The New 52)

By Brian Azzarello and Cliff Chiang. Reprints issues #0, 13-18.

It's actually been several weeks since I read this volume, as part of my new luxury of reading the current month's batch of comics quicker and leaving time to pick up various collections. I think I read it early in Thanksgiving week, but the latter part of that week's family activities followed by the next two weeks finishing up the fall semester, with all the papers and final exam grading which that entails, as well as my son's soccer season kicking off (pardon the pun) and a fairly miserable head cold over the past week left little or no time for blogging. This will likely be a short entry – no worries about spoilers!

I've mentioned several times how my regard for this series has shifted radically, from high to low, and back to high with a realization that, for me at least, Azzarello's tale is much more readable and enjoyable in large chunks, which led me to drop the monthlies after the first dozen or so to wait for the collections. This is the first volume to pick up after the point I had gotten to about a year or so ago. It took a little review to get back set to proceed, but once I settled into it I really enjoyed this batch of stories. It definitely is not your standard super-hero fare, and doesn't mesh very well in terms of tone with Diana's other appearances in the new DCU even though it is during this period, especially with the re-introduction of the New Gods in the pages of this book, that it becomes clear that the events of this book are indeed contemporaneous with the rest of the DCU. But taken on its own terms, and with the possible exception of the introduction of Orion of the New Gods into the story, Azzarello is crafting a tale that is considerably more mythic – no pun intended – than your standard, run-of-the-mill super-hero fare, one that easily stands on its own. It's complemented very well by Chiang's straightforward artistic style. This series has been polarizing among Wonder Woman fans – my own reaction has run the gamut – but I think it will ultimately go down as one of the high points in the character's long history. I'm definitely looking forward to future volumes.

I liked this one so much, indeed, that I have already pulled out the previous twelve issues and prepped them for library-binding – one of the thinnest volumes I've ever had bound, but I would like to have those issues standing beside this one and future collections in this series.

Cheers! – and Thanks for reading!

Green Lantern: Rise of the Third Army (DC 2013)

By Geoff Johns et al. (reprinting various issues, see below)

Like a couple of other DC series, I like Green Lantern – and indeed much of the Lantern'verse corner of the DC nUniverse – very much … in collected format. Readers of this blog may in fact remember how I chose to drop back to collected format with the advent of the New 52 after “burning out” on monthlies and repeated Lantern'verse-wide events in the months beforehand, but when I acquired and read Green Lantern vol. 1: Sinestro, the first New 52 collection, I enjoyed it so much [link] that I jumped back into the monthlies – for just a couple months that quickly reminded me that the series indeed reads much better in collected format.

Then a few months back came the realization that with the return of Lantern'verse-wide events, DC was going to collect the four franchise titles (GL, GL Corps, New Guardians, and Red Lanterns) both in their separate titles and in “compendium” volumes centered around the event and interweaving the four titles' issues to (presumably) tell the entire multifaceted story. I initially decided to just stick with the collections for the two titles I was interested in (GL and GLC), but then accidentally neglected to pre-order the next GL volume. Finally, a few weeks ago, I was in Barnes and Noble and, seeing this “compendium” volume, I impulsively bought it.

Of course, an effect of me, relatively speaking, whizzing through my monthlies that I received early in November was that for the first time in a while I was actually able to get to a pretty vast and growing backlog of collections that I have accumulated. (I actually got through several in the past couple of weeks, what with also being off for Thanksgiving week.) Rise of the Third Army was the first.

Richard Stark's Parker: The Hunter (2010)

Adapted and Illustrated by Darwyn Cooke

A high-stakes master thief is betrayed by an associate at the conclusion of the heist he has just led them in accomplishing. Left for dead, then captured and imprisoned, he returns years later to cut a swath of death and destruction in his single-minded quest for revenge – and his rightful cut of the score.

Art by Darwyn Cooke

If that sounds familiar, perhaps you've seen the 1999 Mel Gibson movie, Payback. Or perhaps the 1967 Lee Marvin cult classic, Point Blank. In neither of those adaptations of The Hunter, the 1962 novel that launched a 24-book series, nor any other of the several films that were licensed out of other books from that series, did the protagonist go under his rightful name, however. It's a testament to the quality of the early drafts of Darwyn Cooke's graphic novel version that Donald Westlake, the author behind the Richard Stark pseudonym, was so impressed that he allowed it to become the first version outside his own prose to retain the character's one-word name. Although Westlake died before he could see Cooke's finished product, I am certain that he would be just as pleased and have no second thoughts. (Apparently the author's estate is not so protective of the “Parker” name, however, as there is currently in the works a movie version of a later novel, Flashfire, to be released in 2013 simply as Parker, starring Jason Statham.)

Frank Miller, Sin City:
That Yellow Bastard

This graphic novel, published as a hardcover with the dimensions and feel not of a comic book but rather of a regular novel, is indeed good stuff. Cooke's spare, somewhat retro style, here accompanied by a minimum of a single color as greyish-blue highlights in a manner much like Frank Miller's Sin City or the wonderful renditions of Shawn Martinbrough (penciller) and Steve Mitchell (inker) in the early-2000's run of Greg Rucka's Batman feature in Detective Comics, is perfect in conveying both the stark brutality and the proper early-1960s setting of The Hunter. It's raw, both in terms of violence and sex. Parker is not a hero by any stretch of the imagination. But he is a compelling character who sweeps the reader along with him and whom you want to succeed, if only because his opponents are just as if not more reprehensible than is he. It's easy to see how appropriate is the inclusion of Parker in Wikipedia's list of Characters in pulp fiction.

Shawn Martinbrough,
Detective Comics #745

Since the appearance of this first volume, two more have appeared – The Outfit and The Score; according to Wikipedia (which lists The Hunter as having appeared in July 2009, but I'm going with the title page imprint of 2010), Cooke has one more graphic-novel adaptation of a Parker novel in the pipeline. I definitely will be reading them all. And that will still leave me about twenty prose novels to track down and enjoy, as I doubtless will.

Cheers!, and Thanks for reading!

Green Lantern, Volume 1: Sinestro (2012)

By Geoff Johns and Doug Mahnke ( = Green Lantern #1-6, Nov 2011-Apr 2012)

This is the first – and so far only – “New 52” DC collected edition that I have purchased. It's a series that I had enjoyed back in the pre-Flashpoint days, but had gotten a bit burned out on of late, what with several major “events” centered around it in quick succession (The Sinestro Corps War, Blackest Night, to a slightly lesser degree Brightest Day, and War of the Lanterns – the last of which I found frankly incomprehensible) as well as a multiplicity of titles (in addition to the main title, there was also Green Lantern Corps and Green Lantern: Emerald Warriors), and therefore with the announcement of the “Reboot/Relaunch” – which would expand the franchise to four titles – I decided to bow out entirely and maybe pick up the trades. I will admit I kind of missed the ring-slinger, and so a few months ago when I decided to drop Wonder Woman I replaced it with GL with issue #11 or so. From the solicitation information it looks like that will be right after the end of a story arc. But at least for now I'm only getting the main GL title and will try not to get lured back into buying all the franchise titles.

As an example of the varying degree to which DC titles were a simple “Relaunch” as opposed to a “Reboot” last year, unlike, say, Superman, there was really very little perceptible change in the status quo for Green Lantern. The story takes up pretty much from before – when Hal Jordan was stripped of his power ring and it chose his long-time opponent Sinestro. Almost immediately the newest Green Lantern finds himself in opposition to his old yellow-ring Sinestro Corps. Whatever his personal feelings toward Hal, he recognizes Hal's skill and that he needs him as an ally. Hal, meanwhile, is on the rocks with his personal and civilian professional life – managing to piss off sometime girl-friend/boss Carol Ferris again even as she gives him another chance for the umpteenth time. Whereupon Sinestro appears and bestows upon Hal a new ring – of his own creation – recruiting him on a mission to destroy the Sinestro Corps, which, he claims, has “every single one … given in to [their] sadistic urges instead of adhering to the code of conduct [he – Sinestro] created,” turned against him, and enslaved Sinestro's home world of Korugar. A “code of conduct,” I might elaborate, based on the power of fear!

Hal jumps at the chance to wear a ring again and signs on immediately – No, not really – There's an issue of rather acrimonious give and take between the old enemies, but ultimately he does agree. Why? As Sinestro puts it, “Because even if you're incapable of it, you always try to do the right thing. And the right thing is to free my world and avoid the bloodbath that would happen if the rest of the Green Lantern Corps attempted to get involved. … Not to mention... … the ring is all you have.” Hal and Sinestro head to Korugar to face the Yellow Corps. Meanwhile, in a short aside, we see that the other Guardians of the Universe have basically emotionally lobotomized Ganthet – who proposes a new plan for “a Third Army.” The original Manhunters were the Guardians' first effort at enforcing law and order on the Universe; after the Manhunters went rogue, the Green Lanterns were the second. They consider the Lanterns to be just as dismal a failure. Hence, the “Third Army.” Not coincidentally, I'm sure, there is an upcoming Green Lantern “event” entitled so.

On Korugar, Hal completely in-character ignores Sinestro's orders and barges in to what looks like a bad end, disintegrated in the giant Yellow Power Battery that powers the Sinestro Corps. Except that's not what happens. It's actually a dimensional transporter that spits Hal back out rather than transporting him anywhere. He's captured and imprisoned in a cell that drains his ring energy. With a chance to manifest one last ring construct, he gets one last look at Carol before his image of her fades away and his ring goes dark. Sinestro is also overwhelmed and captured, tortured, and ultimately imprisoned – in a cell with a former ally from his days as the Green Lantern of Korugar. They carry on a spirited debate because she – as do the Korugarians – remember the dictatorial means by which he meant to impose law and order on the world. Hal overhears them, realizes Sinestro can hear him, and convinces Sinestro to create a hundred rings like his own for the Korugarians in the cell with him. This doesn't seem like such a hot plan when the Korugarians at once turn on Sinestro – but he and Hal manage to convince them to work together with themselves and they succeed in destroying the Sinestro Corps.

Then Sinestro sends Hal back to Earth, with his new ring as promised … but he didn't promise to give him any way to recharge it. Read the fine print, boy. This time, Hal seems reconciled to a new life without the ring. He and Carol even enjoy a renewed relationship – as Sinestro, in the midst of seeking and destroying the remnants of his old Yellow Corps, witnesses a vision of things to come and realizes that he still needs Hal's help. So it's back to Earth, interrupting Hal and Carol in bed with the ring zipping back onto his finger – “I can't get it off!” – “Because it is my will,” thunders Sinestro through the window. – “Find someone else to be your sidekick,” Hal spits back at him – “I'm done being Green Lantern.” – “No, Jordan. … Unfortunately, you are far from done.”

It's a good, fast-paced story, much like the early years of Geoff Johns' run resurrecting Hal Jordan as the Green Lantern of Earth. In fact, my main problem with it has absolutely nothing to do with this comic. It has everything to do with the fact that, a common writer notwithstanding, I see no possible way this story and especially the characterization of Hal Jordan here can be reconciled with the presentation of Hal in Geoff Johns' Justice League. It wouldn't be a problem if I were talking about differences between this Hal and the one in JL #1-6 – that initial arc of JL, after all, took place five years in the past. That would have been plenty of time for the over-the-top immature jerk we see there to have developed into the hero we see here. Sure, he's still hot-headed and impulsive here, but nothing like what comes across almost as a caricature there. But then with issue #7, Justice League jumps to the present – and Hal still seems like a bad, over-the-top caricature. And then there's the chronology. Hal as Green Lantern seems pretty much tied to Sinestro now – it's Sinestro's will that manifest's his ring and indeed powers it – but Sinestro's nowhere to be found in the pages of Justice League. And both stories come from the pen of Geoff Johns. – Huh? – Wha?!

But I don't want to end on such a sour note. As a Green Lantern story in and of itself, I found this volume very satisfying. I like Hal, I even like Sinestro – the mortal enemies as buddy-cops motif is quite entertaining at times – and I'm even interested to see where we're going from here. I'm certainly hoping, however, that there is minimal need to pick up the other Lantern titles in order to follow the upcoming “Third Army” story arc. I really have no desire to pick up the Red Lanterns title, and not much more desire to pick up whatever is the title of the “Multicolored Corps” series. I don't even have the motivation to look it's proper title up! But this was a good book.

Filling out this volume is also a gallery of alternate covers, sketches, and thumbnails of pencils for selected pages throughout the first six issues. Only the alternate covers are of any interest to me.

Cheers, and Thanks for Reading!

Live and Let Die (1954)

By Ian Fleming (James Bond 007 vol. 2 [ previous volume here ])

As is well known, the order of the James Bond series of films is totally different from that of the original novels. And my own fleeting hope a few years back that with the release of the 2006 Daniel Craig version of Casino Royale showing a James Bond near the beginning of his career we might actually have a total reboot that would indeed remake the movies based on the books in their proper order did not prove out … but that's a separate story. The point is that this second James Bond novel was the eighth to be filmed (“officially” – i.e, not counting the parody production of Casino Royale from 1967), way down in 1973, more than a decade into the film series. Another oddity is that with this one we still haven't gotten to a novel that became a film starring “my” James Bond, Sean Connery. … But that's a separate story as well, except that in what few comments I make relating this book to the movie of the same name I may be referring to Roger Moore.

I actually finished this book a couple of weeks ago, but all kinds of things got in the way of me sitting down to write up a post about it except for the introductory paragraph above. And when I checked my Notes app on my iPhone where I customarily jot down my thoughts as I read, the page seems to have disappeared. So I'm winging it from memory from here on out. And frankly, my memory sucks, but here goes. Mainly I'm lacking the specific examples and quotations I had intended to use.

I'm not absolutely sure this
 is Solitaire – I just wanted to
include a picture of Jane Seymour!

It's another great read, this time with the action beginning in the United States. “Mr. Big” is a Harlem crime lord and agent of SMERSH who has seized a recently discovered treasure trove from a British pirate of the Caribbean and is smuggling the coins into the US to finance SMERSH's operations there. Mr. Big has cultivated an identity as a Voodoo god incarnate to intimidate a vast network of African Americans as well as a white Caribbean psychic named Solitaire into his service. In short order Solitaire has defected to Bond but is recaptured by Mr. Big in Florida. The climax comes in Jamaica, where Mr. Big comes to a grisly end.

Perhaps the most jarring element in this novel for the modern reader is the overt racism that pervades it. African Americans as well as black Caribbeans are portrayed almost uniformly as childish caricatures who hold Mr. Big in gibbering superstitious awe. It's quite embarrassing, really. Perhaps this novel should come with a warning similar to that included at the beginning of the pulp reprints published by Sanctum Books (The Shadow, Doc Savage, etc.): “These stories are works of their time. Consequently, the text is reprinted intact in his original, historical form, including occasional out-of-date ethnic and cultural stereotyping.” The film is characterized by Wikipedia as part of the “blaxploitation” era of the early 1970s, but frankly the racism inherent in that genre is nothing compared to that which spilled from the pen of Ian Fleming here!

In very broad strokes, once again the stories of the novel and the movie are similar. But only in very broad strokes. (Again, the late 1950s newspaper comic strip adaptation of the novel reprinted in The James Bond Omnibus [ see my review of Casino Royale ] is very faithful but condensed, as well as toned down both in sex and violence.) The motivation and goods smuggled by Mr. Big are drugs in the movie, for one thing. Most interesting to me, however, is how a couple of the more memorable scenes from this novel did not make it into the movie of the same name, although they ended up being used in later James Bond movies. First – and this surprised me because he has been such an omnipresent character in the films (although played by even more actors than played James Bond himself!) – this is where James' CIA friend Felix Leiter is half-eaten by a shark and left to be found by Bond with the taunting note, “He disagreed with something that ate him.” He survives although he loses an arm and a leg. In the films, however, Leiter would continue as an ally to James Bond for another decade and a half or so, until 1989's Licence to Kill (and of course, be “rebooted” hale and whole for 2006's Casino Royale). Secondly, at the end of the novel, Bond and Solitaire are dragged behind a ship across a coral reef in shark- and barracuda-infested waters, a sequence that would remain unfilmed until four movies later, 1981's For Your Eyes Only.

Cheers!, and Thanks for reading!

Casino Royale (1953)

By Ian Fleming

A few weeks ago our local parish library had its annual fundraising book sale, which my wife and I like to hit. Great deals can be had. Among my finds this year was an all-but-complete set of Ian Fleming's James Bond novels in excellent condition, recent Penguin paperbacks. They were 50 cents apiece. I grabbed them. I was missing two – including this first volume in the series – but the very next day my son had a soccer game in Alexandria so I checked at Hastings there. I paid more for Casino Royale than I did for all the others put together! Compulsive completist that I am, that evening I placed an order through Abebooks.com for the other missing volume, and within a few days an all-but-pristine full set perched proudly on my bookshelf. I just recently got around to starting it.

It's not the first time I read one of the original novels that inspired the cultural phenomenon that is the 007 movies – or at least attempted to read one. Many years ago, when the movie Moonraker came out, after picking up the movie adaptation which is basically a transcription of the script into prose, I attempted the original novel upon which it was based. I did not get very far into it. The James Bond movies are notoriously different from the books, often bearing no resemblance to the original beyond the title. This was especially the case with the immediately post-Star Wars Moonraker. And I never really felt drawn to the originals for a very long time after that.

A couple of years ago, however, I did happen across a curious volume in Books-a-Million – a compendium of black-and-white newspaper strips from the 1950s that, as far as I can tell thus far, very faithfully adapt the original novels into graphic format. The James Bond Omnibus, “Volume 001,” looks to contain comic strip versions of about the first half of the book series, through Thunderball, including the various short stories as well as the novels, in the order they were published. I read through about half the volume, as I recall, before my attention drifted to other things. I always kept meaning to get back to it, and gave thought to delving into the original novels, but never got around to it. So many books! – So little time!

Then I came upon the library book-sale find. My immediate excitement was doubtless augmented by the synchronicity that I had just started reading Bronze Shaped as Clay, which of course includes a thinly-veiled James Bond as a major character. As indicated above, I grabbed them – along with an interesting albeit thin hardcover, For Your Eyes Only: Ian Fleming + James Bond by Ben MacIntyre, which I found on a different table. This latter book is heavily illustrated, sort of a semi-coffee-table book overview of the life of Ian Fleming heavily geared toward the writer's most famous creation.* It's a fascinating story. My point is, everything seemed to come together, and as soon as I cleared out some other backlogged reading intentions I started Casino Royale.

I'm not going to engage in a full-blown review here. Suffice it to say that if you have seen the 2006 film with Daniel Craig, you know the basic story – although there are considerable changes in detail as well as additons to the story, the central plot is there more or less intact: Agent 007's battle over a casino card-table with Le Chiffre, an agent of the enemy; his reluctant attraction to yet ultimate betrayal by a beautifuly fellow agent, Vesper Lynd; even the harrowing torture that he suffers at the hands of Le Chiffre (although the most memorable line from that scene, Bond's defiant “Now the whole world's gonna know you died scratching my balls!,” is nowhere to be found). I already suspected from the comic strip adaptation that those beats would be there, pardon the pun. That adaptation is very accurate, with only minor differences necessary to condense the story as well as tone it down a bit.

Art by John McLusky
for Daily Express

This was quite an enjoyable read and I look forward to continuing the series. There is something special about seeing characters such as this in their original settings. In this case, the story is very much informed by the still-fresh memories of World War II in the context of deepening 1950s Cold War tensions. And here we see a much more down-to-earth, human Bond than the virtual super-hero he became in the movies. He's less “cool,” less sure of himself, indeed less likable, with less of the boyish roguishness. It's one major difference between the motion picture medium and prose that the latter allows the reader to have considerable insight into the core of the character – depending on the author's intent as well as skill, of course, and Ian Fleming was a natural storyteller. That can be good – or it can, as in this case, lay bare an uglier side of our hero's nature. One thing that I've heard commented on through the years is that the literary James Bond is colder, with a real misogynistic streak to him. That is very much the case. He has definite negative feelings toward the very idea of women engaging in his line of work. How much of that was Fleming and reflective of the time in which he wrote as opposed to the character he was drawing I could not say, but I know I was a bit taken aback by the punch line, so to speak, of Bond reflecting on his growing feelings for Vesper near the end of the book, before the climax:

“He found her companionship easy and unexacting. There was something enigmatic about her which was a constant stimulus. She gave little of her real personality away and he felt that however long they were together there would always be a private room inside her which he could never invade. She was thoughtful and full of consideration without being slavish and without compromising her arrogant spirit. And now he knew that she was profoundly, excitingly sensual, but that the conquest of her body, because of the central privacy in her, would each time have the sweet tang of rape” (pp. 158-159).

Uh-huhhh....

Anyway, despite the lack of CGI-worthy pyrotechnics and a diabolical world-threatening super-villain – evil though he be, Le Chiffre is in the context of the larger world very much a small fish – this is an engaging little character drama that leaves me wanting more. And, similar to the movie, the book's conclusion sets up what must have been a central overarching conflict in Fleming's novels as the ambiguous character of Vesper Lynd and her fate give Bond a driving purpose going forward – to hunt down and destroy SMERSH.

Cheers! – and thanks for reading!

* * *

* Fleming's only other creation, for a single children's book, was – I kid you not! – Chitty-Chitty-Bang-Bang.

Richard Castle's Deadly Storm: A Derrick Storm Mystery (Marvel-ABC Studios 2011)

I mainly started watching the ABC series Castle for Nathan Fillion – like any fanboy, I've really liked him ever since his brilliant portrayal of Malcolm Reynolds in Joss Whedon's Firefly. And Stana Katic ain't bad to look at, either.  I can't say I've been terribly faithful in watching it. I tend to drop in and out, finding it a pleasant diversion that usually doesn't have any overarching story arc that compels me not to miss a week. I go through phases. Often, it's one of my summer shows.

Anyway, the premise – in case you don't know – is that Fillion's character, Richard Castle, is a best-selling crime novelist who, through connections with the New York City mayor, becomes a continuing ride-along, sort of an unofficial partner to homicide detective Kate Beckett (Katic's character) for research in developing his newest main character, Nikki Heat, the heroine of such works as Naked Heat and Heat Wave. There quickly develops, of course, a sexual tension between Castle and Beckett that is generally expressed through amiable sarcasm and bickering reminiscent of the old Bruce Willis-Cybill Shepherd TV series Moonlighting.

Richard Castle and Kate Beckett

In a brilliant multimedia move, the Nikki Heat novels have been appearing in real life (ghost-written, of course) since early in the series' television run. In what I at least consider an even more brilliant move, one of Castle's earlier series of books, the Derrick Storm novels, have been adapted into graphic novel format. Well, at least that's how it's portrayed in the TV series, as a plot point. Of course, it's really a (sort-of) ghost-written “adaptation” of a non-existent book, but the result is sort of the same – a graphic novel that duplicates something of the flavor of the Castle television series, albeit with different characters.

The authors (“of the adaptation”) are Brian Michael Bendis and Kelly Sue DeConnick; art is by Lan Medina. It's a pretty solid story that basically sets up private detective Derrick Storm as a quasi recruit into the CIA. One thing I like is how the character of Storm is written to closely duplicate the voice of Rick Castle in the television series. You can practically hear Nathan Fillion's speaking the words you are reading. Overall, the mood is very much like an episode of the series. There is the beautiful CIA agent who ends up saddled with this amateur, sexual tension and bickering resulting. But it departs from the generally light-hearted style of the TV series toward the end when tragedy strikes ….

… and inadvertently messes up a lot of the carefully crafted verisimilitude that is designed into this volume. By which I mean, the conceit that this is a product of the character we watch on TV is maintained through lists of Castle's “other books” on the front flyleaf; an introduction wherein Castle tells how his first heroes and inspiration for writing were found in comic books and consequently how gratified he is to find his work adapted into that format by “the remarkably talented Brian Michael Bendis and Kelly Sue DeConnick,” “brought to life beautifully by Lan Medina's artwork”; and several pages of plot-blurbs and cover images for his other novels – which is where it breaks down, because obviously whoever wrote the blurbs for the “other” Derrick Storm novels hadn't actually read this one! They are absolutely inconsistent with the tragic plot twist at the end of Deadly Storm which leaves a major character unavailable to play a central role in all those later stories.

Unless, this being comics, after all, we have a bit of retconning or rebooting going on here as well!

It's a faux pas that would not detract from the reader's enjoyment of the story itself, unless said reader has (as I did) already perused those blurbs for “later” stories before finishing this one, with the result being a sudden “Huh--? Wha--?” and a feeling of being played wrongly. I also wonder how Bendis and DeConnick intend to write their way out of that box in subsequent Derrick Storm graphic novels which have already been announced, given what seems to have been a very positive reception for this one. Just from reading various comic creators' blogs as well as comic-related message boards it's been apparent that Castle has a substantial fan overlap with the comic book community – probably like me many from our ranks were drawn to it by Nathan Fillion. But hopefully there have been some fans of the show who were not already comic readers who have been drawn into the graphic novel format by this book. That can only be a good thing.

In any case, I found this a very good little read, a bit different from your typical comic book fare. I recommend it as well as the Castle TV show that is its source to comic fans who may not have discovered them already, as well as anyone else.

Cheers, and Thanks for reading!

Sweets: A New Orleans Crime Story (Image, 2011)

By Kody Chamberlain

I picked this up from Chamberlain's table at New Orleans Comic Con a couple months ago and just read it last week. I really enjoyed it, both on its own terms as a gritty murder mystery, and as an atmospheric snapshot of New Orleans in the antediluvian days when Hurricane Katrina was bearing down on the city. Chamberlain is an independent comic creator who I think has a lot of potential and a bright future ahead of him. I would love to see him on one of the more down-to-earth, street-level Batman titles. Maybe this story being awarded the 2011 Spinetingler Award for Best Mystery/Crime Comic or Graphic Novel will make the powers-that-be sit up and take notice of him.

Cheers!

Superman Earth One (2010)

Let me begin by stating right up front that I am not a big fan of J. Michael Straczynski. To be sure, I consider Babylon 5 to have been a brilliant television series marred in its ultimate execution only by forces beyond Straczynski's control (the uncertainty surrounding whether he would be allowed a fifth season as his story structure demanded compelling him to wrap up the major driving plot-lines at the end of the fourth season before finding out that the series would get that fifth year). And I have read other things by him that I have greatly enjoyed – the first two of three volumes of Rising Stars (the third, however, so ruining the series as a whole for me that I gave all three away), some of the issues of the six-year run of Spider-Man that he did. But far too often I've found that JMS, in my opinion, gets a little too carried away with his own importance and lapses into preachiness to the detriment of the story he's trying to tell. He also has – Spider-Man notwithstanding – a notorious tendency to leave projects unfinished for extended periods. Rising Stars was one such delayed project, and when he returned to it after several years his vision had obviously changed – such that the last volume became nothing more than a left-wing anti-George Bush diatribe, even to the extent of changing certain story elements that had been established earlier rendering the end inconsistent and basically incomprehensible. Few books have actually made me angry upon completion, but that was the case with Rising Stars volume three. I have not read his current Wonder Woman stuff; I have read his current run on Superman and found the earlier issues (which he plotted and wrote) far too self-important and yes, “preachy,” while the later issues (resulting from another of his instances of not sticking with a project, in this case necessitating a shift in writer because you can't just leave Superman with an extensive gap in publication!) in which the scripting duties were taken over by Chris Roberson (based to some unknown degree on JMS's plot) have been far superior, recapturing some of the magic of the greatest superhero of all. Basically, my practice has been that if JMS takes over a title that I read I will at least give it a chance – I don't just reject it out of hand – but conversely his name on a project is not in itself going to be a draw for me. (That's exactly why I was reading the current JMS Superman run but not Wonder Woman – I was already reading Superman but not Wonder Woman.)

Having said all of which, when Superman Earth One, an out-of-continuity “reimagining” of the Superman legend, was published with great hoopla last year, I passed on it. I figured I would get it sooner or later. I did hear all kinds of good things about it. Well, “sooner or later” is here. One of the things I like about the Science Fiction Book Club is various deals and specials that are occasionally offered, such as a couple weeks ago “Buy 2 at Regular Club Price and Get the 3^rd for $1.99.” And for a lot of these kinds of items the “Book Club Editions” are indistinguishable from the Publisher's Edition. So I pre-ordered the latest Dresden Files novel, Ghost Story (to be published next – err, I guess it's later this month now – July), along with Alex Ross's Project Superpowers vol. 1 from Dynamite Comics – and Superman Earth One. I got the two graphic novels a couple days ago.

Straight up: I really liked Superman Earth One. Here we have a very realistic portrayal of a 21st-century Superman, how the self-centered youth culture of the past couple of generations conflicts with the sacrificing ethos of the Kents that so famously formed Clark Kent into a hero. It was not inevitable. This Clark is a young man unsure what to do with his life. He is somewhat emotionally scarred by his ever-present sense of being different and isolated since a very young age, now tempted to focus his powers on being happy. No, it's not the easy contrast of a diametrically opposite character from what we're used to. This Clark was raised by the Kents, after all. He is a good person.  But other influences and the effects of a lifetime in hiding, of self-denial, have also gone into his formation. In the end, of course, when necessity arises in the form of an alien invasion, he does make the right choice and takes up the mantle of hero.

There are many nice touches throughout this story, showing that JMS has given a lifetime of thought to a rationale for the idea of Superman. My favorite was Clark's exchange with his mother, when she presents him with the costume she has fashioned for him from the red, blue, and yellow blankets: “Isn't it a bit too … I dunno … colorful?” he asks. - “I tried every dye I could,” she answers. “But the material from the ship doesn't change colors. In the long run, it's a good thing … People will be looking at the colors instead of your face.” - “Wouldn't it be easier if I had a mask or something?” - “Yes, it would … But you can't ever wear a mask.” - “Why not?” - “When people see what you can do, when they see how powerful you are, they're going to be terrified. A mask would only add to that. They'll need to see your face, so they can see that there's no evil in it … to see the gentleness and decency in you … and know that they have nothing to fear. The mask – the mask is what you'll have to wear the rest of the time.” There are other such gems and character pieces throughout.

I don't have any idea if such was the intent, or how much this graphic novel will influence the movie that is currently in production, but this story as presented would make a perfectly good Superman movie … in most respects. The weakest element is the villain, not so much in concept, (highlight the following to see spoiler) that his people destroyed Krypton and he is here to finish the job, but rather in design. Although Shane Davis' pencils as inked by Sandra Hope are very nice, at times beautiful, the design of “Tyrell” (not that hot a name, either) is pretty bad and would come off looking downright stupid in live action. I've seen him referred to as a combination of the DC anti-hero (actually, I'm not sure he's even that much a “hero”) Lobo with the members of the rock band Kiss. But my first thought was that it was a male version of the DC villainess Silver Banshee. Either way – FAIL. And that wasn't quite the only artistic faux pas. Sometimes certain pages were just too static, looking more like posed pin-up shots than natural snapshots of action. I'm thinking first of when we first see Superman “standing” in the sky in full costumed glory; then when he has just re-energized after being rescued from red sun radiation by Lois and Jim (not Jimmy, not in this book). Otherwise, however,“beautiful” as I described it above applies very well, not least because of the superb coloring work of Barbara Ciardo – generally muted, natural, but with a decent pop when appropriate.

Although I'm very interested to see what Grant Morrison has in mind for Action Comics #1 come September, which will apparently tell the new origin of Superman and hence the beginning of the age of super-heroes for the new post-Flashpoint “DcnU,” part of me almost wishes that this were that story. It does lay a perfectly good foundation that begs to be followed up. (It shows that a good "tweaking" of the iconic costume is possible without the somewhat radical redesign seen in the early images for September.  [I'm rather conflicted about the red Speedos - they are both essential to that iconic appearance and perhaps the most ridiculed element.  Personally, I would prefer they stay, for Superman alone.])  Reportedly JMS and Shane Davis are hard at work on a sequel – that was in fact the purported reason given when the writer bailed on the regular Superman title as well as Wonder Woman, to allow him to focus his energies on volume two. And there are obviously unanswered questions to be resolved – (highlight the following to see spoilers) Why did the unnamed enemy who gave the Dherons the means to destroy Krypton do so? - Why was there the condition that the Dherons should let no single Kryptonian survive, compelling Tyrell's long hunt that led him to Earth? I have a theory – the one time we see that enemy, in silhouette, although we can't see the top of his head I bet it's bald.... In any case, I'm pretty sure I'll be getting Superman Earth One, Volume Two, “sooner” rather than “later.”  J. Michael Straczynski has, to a degree, redeemed himself in my eyes. There's no doubt he can be a great writer.  I still have my doubts as to whether he can really stick with a regularly scheduled project to the end, and I sincerely hope he doesn't try to turn later volumes into a forum for some “message,” but for now I'm looking forward to seeing how this story will progress.

Cheers!

Planetary, vol. 3: Leaving the Twentieth Century

By Warren Ellis and John Cassaday, collecting the series #13-18 (2001-2004)

Again, since I started this blog while I was in the process of reading through this 27-issue series collected in four paperback volumes, I'm going to play a little catch-up here. I'm not going to try to analyze the series as a whole. For one thing, I'm not but three-quarters of the way through it. And I don't pretend to have “gotten” all the subtleties, references, and themes in this deep series. Oddly enough, as far as I've found, it has not been annotated fully. There have been a couple of abortive attempts that don't seem to have gotten very far:

• James Enelow's Planetary Annotations
• Travis Hedge Coke's notes in his Unimarginable! Prehensile!! Perambulations!!! blog
• John Bojaciuk's Explorer of the Unknown blog

• The Planetary Appreciation Page does have some great resources for understanding the story and references as well.

The basic overview “blurb” is this, from the back of both the first and second volumes:

This is Planetary: Three people who walk the world for strangeness and wonder, uncovering things others wish were left uncovered. They are the mystery archaeologists, explorers of the planet's secret history, charting the unseen borders of a fantastic world.

Of course, a conflict has emerged. In the first and second volumes great mystery surrounds exactly who the character Elijah Snow is and who the “Fourth Man” behind Planetary is. But there also develops an ongoing struggle between Planetary and a group called The Four that ratchets up in the third volume. Along the way a number of other characters and events appear from the last century or so, basically the twentieth (Planetary launched as a series in 1999; Elijah Snow is a very well-preserved 99 years old, having been born on 1 January 1900). Particularly those other characters (and even The Four) have analogues in various fictional genres and works of that same century … characters from before the twentieth century actually appear under their own names. I imagine much of that had to do with copyright issues.

Anyway, what I'm going to do here is break down the first three volumes by original issue and focus on the main character references:

Vol. 1 – All Over the World and Other Stories

#1: “All Over the World.” First we meet our main characters, put forward here as a three-person field team working for a mysterious “Fourth Man”: Elijah Snow, Jakita Wagner, and “the Drummer.” All three have some kind of super-power: Snow can manipulate and lower temperatures; Wagner is super-strong, -fast, and -tough; the Drummer is some kind of electronic savant who can communicate directly with computers and electronic systems. Then the balance of the issue reveals the existence of a band of super-humans in the 1930s and 1940s who are analogues mainly of old pulp heroes (and villains): The only one who is discovered still alive is Doc Brass [Doc Savage], but there was also one Hark [Fu Manchu], Jimmy [Operator No. 5], an Aviator [G-8], Edison [Tom Swift], Lord Blackstock [Tarzan], and a black-cloaked figure whose name is not given, I believe [The Shadow or The Spider]. All had vanished in 1945, it now turns out defeating an attack on our world by another universe's analogues of the Justice League, individually unnamed but clearly Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Flash, Green Lantern, Martian Manhunter, and Aquaman. The issue ends with an exchange that becomes one of the catch-phrases of the series: “It's a strange world.” “Let's keep it that way.”

#2: “Island.” Basically a riff of the old Japanese monster movies, centered around Monster Island and its creatures such as Godzilla, Rodan, and so forth.

#3: “Dead Gunfighters.” An homage to Chinese action movies, in which our heroes meet a ghost cop in Hong Kong.

#4: “Strange Harbours.” Introduces a character named James Wilder (is it a coincidence that this is one of the names postulated by Philip Jose Farmer as the “real” name of Doc Savage in Doc Savage: His Apocalyptic Life? I doubt it, but I don't know the connection) who is transformed by some kind of interdimensional ship into some kind of science-fiction techno-art-deco Captain Marvel (the real one, i.e. “Shazam!”).

#5: “The Good Doctor.” Juxtaposes a sedate comic-illustrated conversation between Elijah Snow and Doc Brass with prose pages recounting the latter's career in pulp-magazine form. The cover is an homage to the 1960s paperback reprints of Doc Savage, complete with a faux James Bama cover. This issue also brings in a character named Jenny Sparks from the Wildstorm series The Authority (which I've not read – shock – horror!), about the anti-hero Justice League of the Wildstorm universe.

#6: “4.” Introduces the main “villains” - or at least opponents of Planetary (I'm not sure that things are entirely as they seem, and won't be until I've finished the series as a whole. I'm not reading ahead in any of the resources). They are analogues of Marvel Comics' Fantastic Four – Randall Dowling (Reed Richards), Kim Suskind (Susan Storm), William Leather (Johnny Storm), and Jacob Greene (Benjamin Grimm). These are The Four – and at least through the third volume they are portrayed as really bad news. They have powers much like those of their prototypes, the most different being Dowling who can “expand his mind,” i.e. read and influence others' minds as well as being super-intelligent (but with no morals to go with it).

The volume ends with the “Planetary Preview” which was actually published first, as an insert or backup to other Wildstorm titles: “Nuclear Spring.” Basically tells another version of the story of Marvel Comics' The Hulk. As always, it's given its own twist in this setting. My main quibble is the placement – right back to back with another Marvel Comics riff. Obviously it couldn't go first without diluting the introduction of Elijah Snow in issue #1, but if I were editing this collection I would have put it in immediately after, between #1 and #2. Oh well.

Vol 2 – The Fourth Man

#7: “To Be in England, in the Summertime.” Other than its cover's resemblance to the style of Wildstorm's sister imprint published by DC Comics, Vertigo, I can't make any real connections here beyond the name of a character introduced here, Jack Carter. That was the name of the character played by Michael Caine in Get Carter, a 1971 British crime-revenge film.

#8: “The Day the Earth Turned Slower.” As is obvious from the title, it's a riff on 1950s science-fiction films. The issue cover's great – fifty-foot woman, giant ants, Martians attacking – all at once.

#9: “Planet Fiction.” Tells the story of an earlier Planetary mission in which a previous field team member (whom Snow replaced – well that's the implication) Ambrose Chase was killed. (He also was super-powered, able to disrupt reality.)

#10: “Magic and Loss.” Members of The Four wipe out analogues of Superman, Wonder Woman, and Green Lantern before they can emerge on the Earth, appropriating their technologies for themselves. (This sounds very much like the plot for Planetary/JLA: Terra Occulta, which I already increasingly want to forget I ever read.  [Note:  I did read it a few days ago and had a blog entry for it, but frankly don't consider rewritng it worth the trouble.])

#11: “Cold World.” John Stone, Agent of S.T.O.R.M., is obviously Marvel's Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. - complete with a Steranko-esque cover. In this story, however, Elijah Snow announces, “I know who the Fourth Man is.”

#12: “Memory Cloud.” Elijah Snow reveals that he himself is the Fourth Man. He was rendered amnesiac by The Four, sacrificing himself to save his team, but was found by them. He is now recovered and ready to take on The Four. The issue (and volume) ends with him projecting a huge icy “4” spanning Central Park in New York City – symbolically the opposite of the traditional flaming “4” left as a trail in the sky by the Human Torch.

Vol. 3 – Leaving the Twentieth Century

#13: “Century.” Retrospective of Elijah Snow's early adventures including his becoming an apprentice of Sherlock Holmes and kicking Count Dracula in the nuts. Really.

#14: “Zero Point.” Another retrospective, in which the Mighty Thor's hammer Mjolnir leads Snow into the confrontation with The Four that left him amnesiac.

#15: “Creation.” Plays off Australian aboriginal myth, centering around Ayres Rock and the concept of the Dreamtime.

#16: “Hark.” Amanda Hark, the daughter of Doc Brass's 1940s ally Hark, enters into an uneasy alliance with Snow.

#17: “Opak-Re.” Equals the lost city of Opar – this is a tale of a younger Elijah Snow encountering Lord Blackstock in a mysterious lost city in Africa – which hosts a super-scientific but reclusive people. We find out that Jakita Wagner is actually Blackstock's daughter by a woman of Opak-Re, rescued by Snow.

#18: “The Gun Club.” Tells the real fate of the crew shot into space in Jules Verne's From the Earth to the Moon. Their capsule was lost in a 150-year orbit that eventually came back to its point of origin – and brought it to the attention of The Four, which gives Planetary the chance to capture one of their number, William Leather.

And so the third volume ends.


But I can't let this blog entry end without praising the art of John Cassaday.  He is one of the most technically perfect draftsmen working in comics today, and he can tell a story too.  To illustrate this, I've chosen two images:  One of the main characters, basically the cover of issue #1, and one big montage that is also available as a wallpaper:

Cheers!

(And with that, thank God, I've reconstructed more or less what this blog looked like before I carelessly deleted everything.  Luckily, for this last entry I had it saved, html and all, as a separate file.)