Villains United #1-2

Writer: Gail Simone

Artist: Dale Eaglesham



Spoilers here, for this book, and the Crisis stuff happening at DC all year...



Great fun, this is! And a switcheroo, within the first issue, to boot. This is the story, long overdue in the DCU, of villains getting organized. Why haven't they been this militant and prepared? Becuase, as seen in the previous Identity Crisis mini-series event, the JLA have been very naughty, in a polarized, good vs. bad superhero world, by mindwiping bad nasties they've captured. And they got Bats too. That's the gist of it anyway. I haven't read it all yet. But anyway, here we have the major Earth-based villains of the DCU organizing under former President Luthor (only in comics could a merciless international villain steal the Presidency, then lose it, putting aww shucks Pete Ross in the hot seat, and when it's all done with, back to the status quo. They should be calling him President Luthor until he's dead, as far as I'm concerned. That would be cool. Superman screaming "I'll eat your liver, MISTER PRESIDENT! Let Lois Goooooooooo!")



OK, I digressed. The book follows the recuitment of several villains of all grades, one by one considering, and then agreeing to join up. Except for one:



Catman.



Plenty of wry humor in here, cynicism voiced through the characters verbally berating each other, and it's totally appropriate. It adds just enough relaism to these loony designs, many of which should have never made it through the first, or rather second, Crisis in the 80s... and frankly, it's fun to watch characters bickerlike real people, whether it's Bendis' Avengers, or Simone's Villains here. The self-referential awareness of how lame some of these characters are, combined with Englesham's uncanny ability to draw even the silliest designs in a wickedly cool way, make for a nice sense of plausibility here. It would be like the movie version of Riddler to step out of the shadows in his green question-marked tights and declare "What...the...FUCK!?!?"



Anyway, it's good stuff. And the switch is that this book isn't about Luthor's villain's guild at all, but rather, a smaller group, many of which who declined Luthor's offer. They've been recruited by the mysterious Mockingbird, in order to perform certain Suicide Squad-esque tasks, the penalty for failure being, unfortunately, assassination by one of your own. This is how Exiles should be. Talk about paranoia.



One of my favorites of the current batch of revitalized DCU series!



10/10 Clicks!



Here's a nice interview with writer Gail Simone on the series:

http://www.newsarama.com/forums/showthr ... adid=28500

Related posts:

1. Villains United #6
2. Villains United #3
3. Infinite Crisis Mega-Review: Villains United

Authority: Revolution #7

Writer: Ed Brubaker

Artist: Dustin Nguyen



This issue is all about Jennies. Jennies, Jennies, Jennies. We learn that Jennie Sparks, spirit of the 20th century, was merely one in an infinitely long line of reincarnated semi-goddesses linked in some spiritual way, to the Roman calender. Or something. Anyway, we see Apollo raising young Jenny [New] alone, while, when she's not being coddled, she's actually slipping into the weird nether-world of the Doctors, where the spirits of all the previous Doctors are milling around, distressed because, for the first time, the last Doctor's essence has not joined them (Authority's Doctor having apparenrtly suicided with a drug overdose, despite supposedly being sober.) From here, young Jenny travels to the nether-world of nutty Jenny spririts, wher eshe meets several of the other Jennies of centuries past, which is primarily an excuse for Nguyen to riff on the Jenny design in various forms, at least two of which being nude, and one of which, feral. We also meet Jenny Quantum, the spirit of the 21st century, which, in some strange fugue-state rationalization, is Future HER. They bullshit a bit, and young Jenny takes an extremely abbreviated journey through the Cliff Notes version of Alan Moore's Promethea, pulled along, hand-in-hand, by Jenny Quantum. And then, just like that, she reappears in her bedroom, now a teenage Jenny Quantum, and in walks Dad.



I may have described it flippantly, but I actually enjoyed it. I think Ed Brubaker's having fun with the cyclical concept alluded to in the Authority stories Warren Ellis crafted, and while this issue relied too heavily on themes from other periodicals, I think it was a worthwhile effort, and certainly set up interest for the new, kinda-hot, alterna-Jennie we now get to see.



7/10 Clicks



8/10 Clicks

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1. Authority: Revolution #10
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3. Authority: Revolution #1

Seven Soldiers of Victory #0

Writer: Grant Morrison

Artist: JH Williams



OK, I'll say this right now: Seven Soldiers is nuts. Morrison hatched this event at DC prior to the recent announcement that he would basically be Bendis-ing the DCU with his own 'editorial consulting' and, given how he's now doing All-Star Superman, knee-deep in the ancillary titles under this project, and working his way into others as well, re-reading this book again reminds me of that initial thought: how can he get away with this at DC?! Of course, that was pre-"DC Spin" logo, so all bets are off.



This, like the whole Seven Soldiers event, is very loosely based on the idea of Morrison ripping old 40's properties out of DC's toy chest and revamping them for a post-millenium post-teen audience. He freely admits in interviews that his interest in this stuff is one part retro comic enthusiasm on his part, as a reader, and one part flaming nuclear-cored ego, as he delights in the concept of pulling the tackiest characters out and reworking them, to great success and praise, as proof of his ability to shoeshine any shit into...er... something shinier. I give him credit for honesty, because it's obvious that's what's behind this anyway. So, this is one of two bookends that are intended to sandwich the four, four-issue, mini-series released over the next year (Klarion, Zatarra, Shining Knight, Manhattan Guardian,) followed by another issue wrapping things up. Suffice to say, nothing in this issue seems to relate to anything in the mini-series that follow it. And also, even if you DO recognize the classic characters represented, or re-envisioned, in this book, it's not really necessary. Of the original Seven Soldiers, only the Vigilante remains, and he's an ole timer. Not in a rippled-abs and grey hair JSA kinda way, either. The rest of the gang are new versions: Little Boy Blue, Alias the Spider, The Whip, Dyna-Mite, Merry the Girl of 1,000 Gimmicks...hmmm, someone's missing. There's some headgames happening in this script, and you really have to just let things unfold and enjoy the ride through his usual bag of tricks, including all of the spacetime meta-metaphysics, the crazy logic, the self-referential dialog, and the unforseen dire reality-shattering events. Also, to be honest, reading through this book reminds me that, with very few exceptions, I'll read pretty much anything he dishes out. Love or hate the concept, I'll likely be entertained. Or at least impressed. Worth a read.



8/10 Clicks

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1. Seven Soldiers Mega-Review: JLA: Classified
2. Seven Soldiers Mega-Review: Shining Knight
3. Seven Soldiers Mega-Review: Zatanna

Planetary #22

Writer: Warren Ellis

Artist: John Cassaday



Planetary is a tough read. It's complicated, it's nuanced, it doesn't do the work for the reader, and what's worse, it's massively behind schedule and sporatically released, so you practically have to reread Planetary before reading the new issue. That said, I love it to death. The conceit here, that the Planetary story is a construct designed to be a framework for Ellis to riff on drug-addled runimnations of pulp fiction, is a very clever one. And I follow both the story at face value, and the little reference game of determining what classic is being revamped, in every issue. This time we have Elijah Snow torturing William Leather, one of the Four, the Planetary gang's nemeses, in order to extract some information relevant to the larger story of the series. But the flashbacks give us what boils down to Ellis doing the Lone Ranger. Here, it's the Dead Ranger, who's bullets only wound men of shame, and who, apparently, sired the Shadow, which is pretty damn clever. As usual, Ellis' retelling of a classic standard is hugely entertaining, and Cassaday's art makes the action extremely textured and cool. I still contend that his work here is a scale factor better than his costume antics over on Astonishing X-Men, which is a huge praise, given how good the Mervel book is. After each issue of Planetary, I get this pang in the gut, like watching the season finale of a really good show, not really knowing if it will be back in the fall, and in any event, saddened that you have to wait several months regardless. But it's still worth it.



10/10 Clicks!

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You knew it was coming.



Jesse Sullivan, bionic man -- article one

Includes a set of useful links to figure out how this madness actually works.



Jesse Sullivan, bionic man -- article two

Has better pictures.



IronLung out.

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This one's so fun, I give it to you thrice...



:::



LONDON - Three paintings by a chimpanzee named Congo were sold at auction in London to an American buyer for a total of 14,400 pounds (26,250 dollars, 21,610 euros), many times the estimated price.



A 1957 painting by Congo the chimpanzee. Three paintings by Congo were sold at auction in London to an American buyer for a total of 14,400 pounds (26,250 dollars, 21,610 euros), many times the estimated price



Congo's works went under the hammer in a sale that included works by French impressionist Pierre-Auguste Renoir, French cubist Fernand Leger and US pop artist Andy Warhol.



Presale estimates had put their price at between 600 and 800 pounds.



The buyer, Howard Hong, said he was a great fan of modern and contemporary painting.



Nicknamed "the Cezanne of the ape world" Congo turned out more than 400 paintings and drawings under the encouragement of anthropologist Desmond Morris.



Morris championed the theory that chimps had artistic sensibilities and put on a show of Congo's works in the 1950s.



Picasso is said to have had a Congo painting in his studio, in a style described as belonging to "the abstract expressionist school".



"I doubt whether any work by a chimpanzee has ever been auctioned before," Howard Ruthkowski, modern and contemporary art specialist at auctioneer Bonhams, said before the sale.



:::



Chimp’s art outsells Renoir, Warhol



Monkey business proved to be lucrative Monday when paintings by Congo the chimpanzee sold at auction for more than $25,000.







The three abstract, tempera paintings were auctioned at Bonhams in London alongside works by impressionist master Renoir and pop art provocateur Andy Warhol.



But while Warhol’s and Renoir’s work didn’t sell, bidders lavished attention on Congo’s paintings.



An American bidder named Howard Hong, who described himself as an “enthusiast of modern and contemporary painting,” purchased the lot of paintings for $26,352, including a buyer’s premium.



The sale price surpassed predictions that priced the paintings between $1,000-$1,500.



“We had no idea what these things were worth,” said Howard Rutkowski, director of modern and contemporary art at Bonhams. “We just put them in for our own amusement.”



Congo, born in 1954, produced about 400 drawings and paintings between ages 2 and 4. He died in 1964 of tuberculosis.



His artwork provoked reactions ranging from scorn to skepticism among critics of the time, but Pablo Picasso is reported to have hung a Congo painting on his studio wall after receiving it as a gift.



“There’s no precedent for things like this having been sold before,” Rutkowski said.



:::



Chimp's art fetches £14,000





Like so many artists, Congo spent most of his life being misunderstood. Although Picasso is reputed to have framed one of his works and hung it in his studio, most people dismissed the diminutive painter as nothing more than a brush-wielding chimp.



But Congo, who was indeed a brush-wielding chimp, had the last laugh yesterday as three of his paintings sold for more than £14,000.



The chimpanzee, a regular guest on Desmond Morris's Zoo Time programme, produced about 400 drawings and paintings in the late 1950s. His abstract doodlings convinced the animal behaviourist that chimps could understand the elements behind human art.



The three pieces up for auction at Bonhams in London were painted by Congo in 1957 and were estimated to fetch between £600 and £800 in a sale which included works by Renoir and Andy Warhol. But they fetched £14,400, including buyer's premium.



They were bought by an American man named Howard Hong, who described himself as an "enthusiast of modern and contemporary painting".



A spokesman for the auction house said the chimp's artworks had attracted a "fantastic" amount of interest. Howard Rutkowski, director of modern and contemporary art at Bonhams, previously said: "I would sincerely doubt that chimpanzee art has ever been auctioned before ... I'm sure other auction houses think this is completely mad."

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This is the first of two reviews to hit you like a Tumbler in the face.



OK, HERE'S WHAT I THOUGHT, AND IT'S LADEN WITH SPOILERS, CAUSE I'M NOT GONNA TRIP OFF WHAT I SAY, SO TURN BACK NOW IF YOU DON'T WANT TO HEAR ANYTHING OTHER THAN THAT IT WAS TOTALLY WORTH THE $16.50 IMAX TICKET.



The two things that always define Batman to me are motivation and intimidation. First, as Wayne, motivation. The core that drives him, his parent's murder, the NEED to rid Gotham of crime. Christian Bale gave Bruce Wayne an emotionally desolate vibe, where having his security torn away from him in his youth made him marginal -- exploring the world from just a bit outside, wondering why everyone puts up with it continuing to degrade as it does.



The child who was aware of the positivity that his family brought to the world, and who admired them for it, losing them at just the moment that the consciousness of who they were dawned on him. He made you believe that Wayne was empty and angry and now experiencing feeling and emotion by changing the things that are not touched in the underbelly of the world, as the Batman -- the only remaining place inside where he can feel. It's fucking amazing. Bale rocks.



Beyond his motivation and contributing to his intimidation was his training, and that got you right past any doubts you had about "How could he...?" He's begun training himself, but is given an opportunity to make that training all it can be by Ra's Al Ghul, who he finds way up in the Nepalese mountains or whatever, thanks to the direction of Rousseau -- a seemingly misplaced Englishman, following young Wayne through his trials by fire in the Chinese prison system. It's really cool how Rousseau comes to Wayne, tells him he can see what he's trying to do, and that he has a better way for him to realize his need for justice in the dark corners. The training sessions are not integral to the flow of the film, but they are fucking wicked cool, and are DEMANDED for your understanding of how a guy can take a beating like the Batman does, daily, and keep coming back without trepidation or hesitation. ... Robots -- he's a ninja. Yes, Batman is a ninja, and it's a deceptively simple way of grinding into your understanding how this guy is invisible, deadly, and frightening. Fuck. Yeah. A. Men. Ninja. Batman. Rocks.







I got a little offtrack there, so let me get back to intimidation. When Bruce Wayne would talk to someone, it was constructed as flighty and aloof and blase; but the Batman always verged on slipping into rage. That was where it was at, man. When Batman would confront someone, to some degrees even those that he trusted, he was always kind of talking through his teeth, spittle on the verge of flying from his clenched jaw, grating the words in his throat like a 15-year smoker. He would just appear out of nowhere. He was always watching you dead on. He totally intimidated you, even as a viewer in the security of your $16.50 IMAX seat. Batman did not fuck around. When he wanted an answer, he would get it out of you. He looked at you straight in the eyes, aware of everything that you're doing. He fucks with your mind, man, and that will get anyone got. So take that angry, vehement, strong tone and manner, and add to it movement that draws you away from your attacker, short flights straight up from where you were standing, and a blur of black that leaves you unarmed and strung upside down from a fire escape, and you are talking about some serious fear, my friends, SERIOUS FUCKING FEAR. I'm not saying the movie scared me, it didn't. I'm saying that it conveyed to the audience what it would feel like to be wanted by the Batman. A flash of noise, misdirection, and something outside your peripheral view, closing in, till just when you turn to it, it's behind you, lifting you off the ground and into the night sky. That would be fucking scary as shit. And I don't know if it was because of the 80-foot screen or the black-clad hero in the middle of the night, but the filming of the one-on-one action scenes took on such a blur of movement that by the time all was said and done, you found yourself going, "Holy fuck, what happened?" ... just like the criminals woulda been doing. Sweet. And I don't want to forget Batman's use of ... bats. This was new in this movie, and it just pushed it right over the top, in a good way. To have a giant bat man chasing you, and all of a sudden here comes about a thousand bats, too -- man, that shit was CRAZY.







These things all cemented the believable reality. In so many other films, other Batmans included, you're always just presented with a reality and there's no backup to it. This film did not do that. It painstakingly stopped you at every turn when you'd want to think, "How can this be?" A huge contributing factor in this film is Batman's external support structure. It's always been just Alfred, as far as I've ever known, and that's always been cool, but to go just a hair outside of that being the sole connective tissue between Batman and Wayne is to bring all of the possibility of a Batman into sharp, clear focus.







Consider Lucius Fox. I have no idea what this character's background is, so purists forgive me, but to have another soul which Wayne can go to in times of Batman's need is to allow for the possiblity of a bulletproof suit, an electrically-charged gliding surface, and a turbo-boost havin' tank. And the relationship between Fox and Wayne was dope as shit because they revealed it to each other through not revealing it to each other. It's like Fox knew ... and Wayne knew Fox knew ... but that's enough said between them. It lent itself to comic inuendos which drove not lame-ass humour needs, but a real relationship between one guy who'd been beat down and another who wanted beat-down dudes to rise up. And it finally explained how a guy could acquire paramilitary technology without anyone wondering it too far.







As long as I'm on character development and connective tissue, let me get back to Alfred. Alfred was not the back-seat feather-duster of other movies. Alfred was a servant to a name and an ideal, and in many instances, was the only reason for the continued existence of both that AND the Batman. Alfred was a servant of the old school, baby. If Master Bruce was in a pinch, Alfred would swing with a motherfucker till he was free to move on by himself. He was a saviour to the saviour. A fucking good ole boy with a Cockney lilt. And he was family, and that was the thing. He was the thing that Bruce Wayne thought he'd lost and was fighting to keep from letting go of. It brought humanity to the story in such a cool way.







The idea of trying to bring a love interest to the story did not go as far with me as it probably intended to, but at least it didn't develop or become a turning point. Insert static, carbon-copy girlfriend-of-dreams footage here, where young Bruce and Rachel play together in the back yard, and cut to glisten-eyed girl of 26 who is just strong enough to know that her love can never be imagined by a playboy billionaire when she's trying to single-handedly rid the city of Organized Crime. Unfortunately, Katie Holmes kept being Katie Holmes to me, a young, seemingly naive, pretty face, lost amongst a sea of characters, rather than immersing herself into whatever the Rachel Dawes character was, which was, as I understood it, a young, fiesty, streetwise, tough, no-bullshit, strong urban woman with a profession that was futile enough to keep her pluggin along, feet in the bureaucratic mud, stimulating her intelligence and sense of competition in order to keep her feeling alive. But. She was just a throwaway with a 3-foot stare.







Gordon kicked ass, though. I don't know if it was because it was Gary Oldman, who can pretty much pull off anything he understands the motivation behind, but this guy brought me to a new reality in the Batman world, the last honest cop. I dug this character in any of the comics I read in which he appeared, and in this movie, he really jumped out at me as the reluctant foothold on the real. He was the guy who knew the rules and regs, and who knew that sometimes they had to get tweaked a little in order to hold to their original ideals, and was, as such, terribly aware of how to work the right wrongs against the ... wrong wrongs? ... but yet, within his own broad set of morals. It was pretty inspired, and certainly not lost on me.







The way the Scarecrow was realized was incredible. It was a truly terrifying concept, and that's what the Scarecrow is about -- the terrifying. The translation was direct -- Dr. Jonathan Crane uses fear-inducing hallucinogens and the persona of "The Scarecrow" to control and manipulate, well, pretty much everyone around him. And he's trying to do this just as a precursor to the plunging of the entirety of Gotham into a total reign of fear for ANOTHER, BADDER villain, conveniently kept from all until just the right moment. Fuck, man, I'm not spoiling that one for you. You gotta see that one yourself. It's good.



A stellar factor in this film seeming so dark and adult and real was Gotham itself. The Gotham urbanscape was shown from a bunch of different angles -- high, low, etc. -- and every one of them was so awesome. This Gotham had an island of slums, reminiscent of old Hong Kong ghettoes, where everything had a slick coating of ... just ... vile. Where steam rose from the streets to dry the clothes hanging in the alleys. Where people were stacked on top of one another in decaying tenements, always just a river away from the seeming gleam of downtown Gotham. It was phenomenal to show that though the town was in a state of deterioration in general, the slums remained the worst part of it, ignored socially, and thanks to being on an island, geographically as well. One of my favorite things.



Look, overall, this movie was phenomenal. It was real and gritty and it made you feel sympathetic/empathetic etc., either as a Wayne, a Batman, a tired old man, a cheeky little girl, or a street thug. You felt what it was to be all of those in relation to the reality presented you at different times. I think that it runs a good chance of crossing over beyond the comic fans, who I'm sure it will generally please, the movie buffs, who I'm sure it will generally please, and the common summer-blockbuster fan, who will have their fill of fun, as well.







And as for the Tumbler? Haha. That motherfucker is bad ass. Im'a put it to you this way, the Tumbler is involved in a chase scene that comes damn close to topping Bullit AND The French Connection. Check it.



9/10 Clanks.



IronLung out.

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OK, it's been too long at this point, but really there's only one thing to talk about anyway...the return of everybody's favorite assassin (especially wrongrobot's) MANDY! I have to admit there were a few moments when they first introduced these 2 new characters at the last minute that I was pissed - one more random plot twist at the very end, just because they couldn't figure out how to end things. And it took a few minutes to register who the girl was. But then (I think I was channeling wrongrobot) it all clicked. And none of the plot stuff mattered anymore. I'm still not sure what she had to do with anything, but it was a good tieback to the previous seasons. And I hear wrongrobot has talked the future mrs. bot into wearing that mini and thigh holster on the wedding night. so everyone's happy.



well, except jack of course, who now has to go on the run from the chinese. and i was so sure tony was gonna buy it in the end, and that michelle was gonna kill herself in the car right before the phone call to tell her tony was alive...but it all turned out warm and fuzzy in the end.



i'll have to question everything bad happening to LA though. why send the missile a thousand extra miles...they were right next to chicago! but then again, there was Mandy...



and finally an official 24 will be back next season at the end of the finale. with Mandy?



9 whirrs...

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Powers Vol.2 #11

Writer: Brian Michael Bendis

Artist: Michael Avon Oeming



This issue is Avon Oeming's sandbox. Very little dialog, lots of atmosphere, and lots and lots of pacing issues. He's trying to work through Deena Pilgrim's personal horror at a terrible crime she has committed, and the emotional overload it brings, from shock to horror and on to self-loathing. Multiple panel spreads of Deena staring at things and glowering and feeling alone, lots of great panels of the world closing in on her, with color being used to isolate and alienate her. Avon Oeming spends several pages showing us Deena working through the physical, technical numbers of cleansing a crime scene and disposing of evidence, based on her years of experience on the other side of the tape. It's extremely engaging to watch. We see some pretty classic film imagery as she covers up her crime, and then feel the crushing burden of guilt as she returns to work and can't tell her parnter what she's done... and then, right on cue, the phone call from a frantic family-member of her missing ex-boyfriend, and her vocal denial of involvement, in front of her partner, which will certainly come up again later, Walker being no idiot in general. But the best part here is the final page. Somehow, through all of that, after talking with this woman on the phone and lying through her teeth... Deena... smiles. And drinks a Coke. This added something to her struggle, somehow, a layer of additional complexity that I wasn't expecting. Deena's changing, into what we don't yet know. But it's an interesting direction for the book. And pacing issues aside in this issue, it was still classic Powers, and beautiful.



9/10 Clicks

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Battle Hymn #3

Writer: B. Clay Moore

Artist: Jeremy haun



I'm very, very concerned. One of my favorite books may be culled! This brilliant mini was originally announced as a 5-part series, which was bad enough. But at the end of issue #3, the teaser for the next issue describes it as "the thrilling conclusion." That's not right, Maritess!!!



I love this book. It's WWII superheroes with a cynical, modern spin, and it's knee-deep in conspiracy, betrayal and mystery. Jeremy Haun's art is greatly improved from his Paradigm book, which was already quite compelling as it was. The colors by Dave Bryant have landed this book in my "influences" pile for my own work. The atmosphere is pre-dawn, foggy Los Angeles, and with every page you turn, you expect the shit to hit the fan... and in this issue, it certainly does. And the way this memorable scene is executed is amazing... the pacing is perfect. Now, the last page is textbook perfect for an ominous cliffhanger, and it made me sputter with rage that the story could not continue. Sputter! Rage!



I guess it would be redundant to grade this issue:

10/10 Clicks!

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