Mutopia X #1

Writer: David Hine

Artist: Lan Medina



Ismael Ortega is a human cop paired with the very mutant Bishop, patrolling "District X" the NY slum for mutants who, I guess, got tired of the Morlock Tunnels. Ortega's wife left him, he's not doing swell, and things suck. Blinding flash, House of M style, and up is down, black is white, and suddenly, things are very different: Ortega's a superstar cop, his big partner respects him, and the world of District X is suddenly Beverly Hills. Ortega wants for nothing, as his wife is back, everything's perfect, and Lan Medina's pencils are very clean.



But OK, fine, I understand the flippity-floo in the House of M reality warping event is supposed to be sudden, but Hine doesn't have to maintain the same pace of weird hyper-speed plotting after the world changes, but he does. No sooner does our human narrative element get everything he wants, the cops are off to perform security detail...er... for a shape-shifting Britney Spears type popstar, and of course there's a Sapien Liberation Front (or whatever they call themselves) attack at the club, and Ortega, who was inexplicably gawking at the hottie singer, hurls himself on top of her breasts to protect her from the light and blurry force-line effects and vague crowd flip-out, as Medina's pencils take a real dive in the second half of th ebook. And I guess his wife sees this on live television, with the diving and the breasts and the gawking, and is pissed. Issue ends with promised threats of more ham-fisted human domestic terrorism, and while I wasn't reading District X before, after reading this issue, I'm going to do whatver is the opposite of reading it in the future. GAHHH!



1/10 Clicks

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I was hashing this over with Monkeybites, a notorious lurker on this here forum, just last night at chateau de WrongRobot, and thought I'd post my first ever fantasy dream cast for a notoriously on-again, off-again TV to Movie translation, the ever-lovin A-Team.

Here's my picks...



For Hannibal -- Bruno. You know he loves it when a plan comes together. I've seen some dream castings that place Mel Gibson in this role, and I think he's a great pick, but I like to go a little against the grain.

For BA Baracus -- The Cube. I could totally see him getting knock-out drops slipped into his joint by the team so they can get his ass on a plane or a chopper. Plus, he's a relatively big, black, badass. And that's really the only prerequisite.

For Howlin Mad Murdoch -- Bruce Campbell. Again, I've seen posts and dream castings that throw Jim Carrey into this role, cause, well, he kind of IS howling mad. But that was too easy of a pick. And frankly, Bruce Campbell is the man.

For the Faceman -- Matt Damon. He can do comedy, action, drama, and just about every other goddamn thing he puts his mind to. Plus, he's a pretty boy badass. Which would be a nice change from the old Faceman who couldn't fight his way out of a wet paper bag.

Bring it.

IronLung out.

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And that's that.

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You knew it had to happen, and it did...



Click hereto become acquainted with Repliee Q1, a highly human-like robot, which at the current time only has mobility in its upper body. [Insert completely appropriate sexual joke here.]







The Osaka University Intelligent Robotics Laboratory website seems to not work right now, but keep checking back here.Once the perverts (read : me and mine) are done downloading all the images, you should be able to get access.



IronLung out.

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This is an earlier report on the at-the-time in-development CAMEL ROBOT JOCKEYS intended to be used as replacements from children that were used previously. Clearly, there's some sort of Star Wars connection here.





"Qatar is set to substitute robots for jockeys in camel races, a favorite sport in the oil-rich Gulf region which has faced widespread criticism over the use of child jockeys from the Indian subcontinent.



But the sport’s supremo in Doha insists Qatar never abused child camel jockeys in the first place and that the plan to use “robot-jockeys” within the coming year was not in response to protests by human rights groups.



“We have successfully completed three phases in the production of the robot,” the president of the organizing committee of camel races in this Gulf state said.



“We are awaiting a visit by the engineers handling the project to start the fourth, and probably last, phase,” said Sheikh Hamad bin Jassem bin Faisal al-Thani.



He said the robot was being developed by a Swiss company but would not disclose further details, citing the terms of the contract with the unnamed firm. The robots are expected to be ready in 2005.



Sheikh Hamad announced last March that robot-jockeys had been used in a camel race for the first time and the practice would be repeated.



Gulf Arab monarchies are trying to bring order to the national sport in the face of protests over the trafficking of young children from the subcontinent as jockeys.



The US State Department and human rights groups have raised the alarm over the exploitation of children by traffickers who pay impoverished parents a paltry sum or simply resort to kidnapping their victims.



The children, mostly from Bangladesh, Sri Lanka or Pakistan, are then smuggled into the oil-rich Gulf states.



They are often starved by employers to keep them light and maximize their racing potential. Mounting camels three times their height, the children - some as young as six - face the risk of being thrown off or trampled.



Officials in Qatar’s organizing committee of camel races have been proudly circulating sketches of the robots, which suggest the final product will be a much more advanced version of the one used on a trial basis earlier this year.



One of the sketches shows a human-shaped robot in the saddle, while another features a remote control device to command the ‘jockey’ to make hand movements to direct the camel.



According to Sheikh Hamad, the Swiss company was paid around 1.37 million dollars to produce the robots, which will cost just under 5,500 dollars apiece.



“The committee will buy 100 robots and rent them out at prices subsidized by the government,” he said.



But Sheikh Hamad refuted claims that Qatar had abused or trafficked child jockeys.



“Our leadership seeks to make Qatar a state of law which upholds human rights, and we will never allow ourselves to act in a way that runs counter to this,” he said.



Defying critics to produce evidence of rights abuses, Sheikh Hamad said there were no Asian jockeys in the gas-rich Gulf state.



“All are Sudanese, who entered the country legally” accompanied by their parents or other legal guardians, he maintained.



There are some 100 youths aged nine to over 20 who are either professional camel jockeys or undergoing training in Qatar. Only jockeys aged 14 or more are allowed to take part in races.



An official said last month that Qatar was drafting a bill that would ban hiring people under 18 as jockeys for camel races. The legislation should be ready next April.



Camel owner Saqr al-Marrikhi said he was prepared to “appear before any (tribunal) in the world and own up to my responsibility if it is proven that we exploit children” in any way.



“I’m a father. Would I allow anyone to exploit my son?” said Mohammad Saad, a Sudanese national accompanying his 12-year-old son to a school for child jockeys.



Qatar’s main camel race carries a prize of more than 190,000 dollars, 10 percent of which goes to the parent or guardian of the jockey, who also gets a monthly salary of up to 400 dollars."



http://sabbah.biz/mt/archives/2004/10/2 ... mel-races/



:::



And you can see current video of them in action here:



[url]javascript:oMvsLink('00','8d6a24e7-b766-40b7-882d-ef28a0d201bf','','','','','',false,false,'News_Comment%20-%20Analysis')[/url]



If that doesn't work, look for "Robot Camel Jockeys" on the Countdown with Keith Olbermann page:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3036677/

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Kitty Pryde: Shadow & Flame #1

Writer: Akira Yoshida

Artist: Paul Smith



I was pretty enthusiastic about this project when it was announced: Kitty Pryde and Lockheed back in Japan, channeling elements of the X-Men arc that brought me on board twenty years or so ago...plus a chance to improve on her mini-series with poor art and a decent concept, which bugged the hell out of me at the time. Plus again, PAUL SMITH drawing X-Men, and Kitty, again! And let's not forget the subject matter: hot asian chicks, phasing through structural sections, dragons and ninjas!



Yet, it blows! The dialog is forced and self-referential, the premise the loosest of all I've read the last year (someone sent me a note! I'm off to Japan to experience what, fuckall that I know) and in a surprising plot twist, while the layouts are familiar, and the art is recognizable, something terrible has happened in inks. While Smith's simple linework was so clean and strong back in the day, here the inks are scratchy and awkward, sometimes disfiguring women's faces. It's really disappointing stuff. I'm no stranger to ruining my own art through inking, but this is even worse because of the missed potential.



The ninjas come to late, if at all, and we even have a Japanese X-Files type agent involved, whom the script and sloppy inking manage to transform into a totally unappealing character. In the end, this just feels like a ghost of a much better book that we never met while it was alive.



I'm out.



4/10 Clicks

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Ex Machina #13

Writer: Brian K. Vaughn

Artist: Tony Harris



Ex Machina's new arc continues to intrigue me. Mayor Hundred is stuck in jury duty, deliberating over a rather NY-ish case involving a deli owner being sued over a bag of shit in his salad bar. A Desert Storm vet is on the jury, seemingly enamored with the Mayor, though edgily, so to speak, angling for a confrontation with him over his Gulf War Syndrome. There's some excellent panel construction going on here, moreso than we usually see from Harris, who's normal focus is on the foreground figures he details so naturally. There's a great shot of Hundred on the cell phone in the foreground, the vet in the background, looking to the far right near our viewing position, where a jar containing scissors is conspicuously positioned. Very cool.



Meanwhile, the NYPD continue to try and capture the Johnny-Come-Lately Great Machine imposter, and almost capture it before it escapes. After interrogating Kremlin to no avail, they retreat to follow him as he meets up with others in Hundred's former entourage as they investigate this other jetpacked costumed vigilante on their own. And we see that the lead cop on the case is not only after the vigilante/android/imposter, but Hundred's accomplices as well.



I admit to being a little bit confused by the timeline in this issue, but I'm rolling with it. I still love this new design for the suit, and Harris performs top notch pencilling as usual, Feister's inks and Mettler's colors being vital components of the finished work. Lastly, the return to the comic store in flashback introduces a childhood bond between young Mitch and Ray, who we see later and can only assume is somehow involved in the current storyline as well... no signs of profusive bleeding on him, though. Yet.



8/10 Clicks

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Gotham Central #33

Writers: Greg Rucka and Ed Brubaker

Artist: Kano



This is the first chapter of a multi-issue arc that may be the title's swan song, now that virtually everyone involved in this stellar project hav finally announced new directions for their future commitments. It's a bittersweet problem, because while I'm excited about what they are moving on to do, such as Michael Lark on Pulse, or Ed Brubaker and Greg Rucka on multiple excellent titles, I fear for the survival of this niche book without the creators at the helm. Gotham Central has always been about regular cops working cases involving, or despite, superhero involvement. Think of it like Powers crossed with Law and Order. The only way DC believes it can sustain a readership is to plaster the book with recognizable costumes, but the title's been it's best when dealing with some pretty tertiary properties, and sometimes, with no cape involved at all, save perhaps for a certain Dark Detective watching their progress from above.



This arc is setting us up for something big. It begins, as the cover art shows, with the discovery of what appears to be a very dead Robin, who's cause of death, according to the coroner, is "cement poisoning." It's obvious this isn't the real Robin, but rather some sort of imposter, but the age and gear is right on the money, and there are signs of multiple healed injuries in his past. So who is he, and what's the deal?



The investigation reveals that Batman is not enjoying the respect of the good cops of Gotham. EVeryone seems to hate or mistrust him now, and I apparently missed something in the Batbooks that would cause this to be. I doubt the GCPD know something the JLA don't about Batman's activities. But anyway, Batman warns the cops to stay out of his way, and soon, when visiting Arkham Asylum, they discover that the A-list inmates have been beaten to shit, apparently by Batman on an interrogation spree, which is obviously inconsistent with Bats' methods or reasoning. He simply doesn't HAVE to resort to such violence in interrogation, and frankly, since everyone, including him, knows it's not the real Robin... why?



The issue closes with a surprise confrontation at the Penguin's nightclub, and an even more susprising final panel, that's probably one of Kano's best. We are too skeptical to believe what we see, but regardless, it's compelling. Very interesting procedural stuff, for the crime fiction crowd, like me, and interesting developments in Gotham all around.



9/10 Clicks

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Authority: Revolution #10

Writer: Ed Brubaker

Artist: Dustin Nguyen



Last issue, Jenny Quantum, now delightfully teen-alt-hottie, rescued the new Doctor from his year-long imprisonment by team-creator-and-nemesis Henry Badmotherfucker Bendix, and we learned that Bendix's latest sextoy is a reincarnated Spirit of Violence, Rose Tattoo (those of us who've read this title back in it's Stormwatch incarnation recall a certain other version of this character) who was the groupie that sucked off the previous Doctor with drugged-up oral tissue, causing an overdose. Now we see Bendix, in this issue, ramping up his plans, once he discovers that the former suicide bomber Habib, the new Doctor, has been stolen. We also see a potential plot point, his callous condescension to the young Rose.



Bendix hands asses to everyone here. It's a tense issue, as he not only controls the Carrier now, but apparently always did, as it is revealed that much of the mysterious, unexplained foundation behind Ellis' Authority run was a result of Bendix's advance planning... and not just any Bendix... but the only other version of the man existing in another dimension. It seems that the Bendices, so to speak, traded places at some point in the timestream, so the one that got murderified was the original earth-Bendix, and THIS bad ass is one from a much more advanced, and disturbing, version of their reality. He's not fucking around. He uses the Carrier, his old one apparently, to shunt members of the team off into different terrains that work against their natural weaknesses... Apollo's off to a sunless world where he's given some powerful clones to fight, in order to drain his life energy in the process. Jenny and the Doctor are sent... to BFE... for awhile... and Shen and the Engineer are off chasing Rose Tattoo somewhere, until they discover the true nature of her toxic kiss. Hawksmoor gets worked over in the Sahara, and then just when Jenny and the Doctor reappear, Bendix pulls a final whammy... he somehow has control of Midnighter, who's been the unlikely soul of the team throughout this miniseries, and uses him to take out his own adoptive daughter. And now he's gunnin' for the rest of them.



Two issues left, and what entertained me most was not the increasingly rubbery, unfocused faces Nguyen's been drawing, not the mysterious shadows and imaginary muscle groups, not the dodgy John Byrne hands... but the fact that Brubaker has done the impossible: he's made the reader care about the fates of the Authority, self-admitted bastards all, and given us a scenario where they seem in genuine peril. Granted, Seth's attack at the end of the original Authority was pretty dramatic, but between being overshadowed by DC's censoring of the book, and the last minute use of nice-guy artist Art Adams for the final arc's pencils, ill-fitting with the tone of the violent, dark storyline, this time around the scene has more urgency.



8/10 Clicks

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New Avengers #7

Writer: Brian Michael Bendis

Artist: Steve McNiven



I'll cop to it right now: this one is a mixed bag of highs and lows. But in the end, the great points outweigh the questionable trip to SaSKETCHawan... and by that I mean, DODGE City... and by that I mean the small town of aLAMEo... I hope you're following along.



This is the first issue of what they are calling the SENTRY arc, and yet the component of the book dedicated to this storyline occurs at the very end. So we'll focus on the rest of it to begin with. We see Tony Stark conversing remotely with Jessica Drew in costume, who's announcing that she's taking a few teammates across town to apprehend one of the escaped super-cons from the prison outbreak of the series' first few issues. No mention who it is. We see some great details here, and I don't just mean marveling at...Spider-Woman's...costume... but also that Stark uses a virtual reality interface in this armor, something akin to Wild Palms or Neuromancer than anything else. Whethe ror not he's projecting his own avatar as a hunky naked billionaire, I don't know. But it's an incredibly cool scene. We're also seeing that Stark is keeping in communication with other splinter teams within the New Avengers organization, as they split up to deal with different things... that, for you military studies people, is called the Principle of Communication, and it's critical to tactical warfare. It's one more indicator that Stark is thinking about the team leadership as a logistical exercise, not just about barking orders in the firld. At any rate, on the one hand, this reference is Bendis being organized, helping us keep track of what's going on with characters we're not seeing at present, which is a nice realism point, and on the other hand, setting up a future arc to be explored. So off Stark goes to a secret meeting of a cabal of powered leaders, or representatives, of the marvel Universe... in some ways, they seem to represent the heads of state of different factions, character types or groups or whatever, but also, they represent different leadership styles as well. Reed Richards is present, as is Professor X, Black Bolt, Doctor Strange and Namor. It's a great scene. Each character has personality, and we get a strong sense of the interconnected Marvel Universe's super-fraternity, in a way we haven't seen in years, and certainly an example of what I hoped the Bendisification of Marvel would allow. These other members of the community are there to discuss the rebirth of the recently disbanded Avengers, and the implications. Namor's tone is especially appropriate. It amounts to "I don't care who you're shacking up with... what about the the mess you made!" as the only part of this that affects his bottom line are the villains released by the prison outbreak, and I suppose their trips to the beach or whatever, stepping on starfish or something.



Meanwhile, we see Spider-Woman, Spider-Man, Luke Cage and Wolverine all converging on their latest target, the Wrecker, who has returned home to reclaim his possessions sold off while he was in prison. This little slice of crime fiction is brilliant and creepy. And when the Avengers attack him, he more than holds his own. He's never appeared this proficient in the past. I know there's some continuity issues here, as the entire Wrecking Crew was shown in Runaways #1, and they were all sharing his power level among them, and they weren't in prison, and they weren't very good. Here, he's at full strength, and it's the first time in years that I'm seeing a fight shown in comics that reminded me of my old Marvel RPG game experiences. Multiple scenes of Wolverine being smashed into the distance... it's really just a vivid, visceral battle. And it all ends up landing on Drew's shoulders. Another high point was the way Spider-Man, possibly beginning to feel out of his element here, uses his webs as distraction, in concert with the attack of a teammate. This was impressively logical. And I guess, the whole sequence is slugfest-free, atypical for comics. What I mean by this is that it's not a bunch of splash panels of characters two and three thick, hurtling vaguely against a foe with a lot of force lines around them, with no apparent effect. This feels like real combat.



Let me quickly comment about the production of the art here. Steve McNiven, who originally started out as a Cross-Gen fill-in artist, most recently of the brilliant Ultimate Secret series... was pulled from his work on that title in order to do this arc... and man, despite my frustration at having to put Secret on hold... his work is incredible. Friends who see my Hitch pages on display at the oft always ask if he's an influence on my art, and while this is true from a design/composition perspective, THIS guy is the closest thing on the market to what I WANT to be doing. His character designs, his detail work, the expressions, the pacing... it's just beautiful to me. There's this great splash page of Iron Man joining the cabal referenced above. Check it out:







Anyway, between McNiven and inker Morales, the production here is the best Avengers work I've ever seen. I'd pray to any god around for him to be permanent... but hey. We'll take what we can get.









SPOILER:



Lastly, we have the Sentry thing. This is the wildcard in this arc, and possibly, Bendis' entire plan for this title. The other half of the team have converged upon the recently-discovered Sentry, who has burrowed into some hideaway, wigging out and being crazy. They approach him, as he's rambling about elements of the Sentry comic from last year. For those not following the genesis of this character, it's been a real 4th wall exercise. Marvel released character sketches of the Sentry out on the internet, claiming to have found a secret character from Marvel's golden age, an old Stan Lee classic that never made it to print, with back story and all. They announced Paul Jenkins would be updating and writing a mini-series, introducing the character. In that series, however, we learn, according to the Sentry's POV, that the guy has been existing this entire time, and was wiped from memory from the Marvel U in a retcon WITHIN MARVEL CONTINUITY, along the lines of those films we see crop up where the character wakes up and their life, or their kids or whatever, never existed according to the rest of the world, and they have to question their own sanity. Here, the Marvel U characters finally remember, or appear to, that Sentry has been fighting a universe-threatening bad nasty other-half, called the Void, and his epic struggle with this foe has been forgotten. Anyway, in New Avengers #1, they find Sentry locked up and whacko, in super-prison. Before they can get to why they're there to see him, bad nastiness happens and the series' 1,000mph pace begins. But here, as these same heroes confront a babbling, seemingly insane Sentry, they reveal that everything he says, about killing his wife, about the Void, about the mind-wipes, etc. is all fictional... and they hold up.... Sentry #1. The same mini-series from last year. So the lizard eats it's tail, here. The first book claimed his secret past was real, and the Marvel U continuity was false. The character's existence at Marvel was fabricated for the event. Now, we learn that his reality is false, and the comic we were reading... exists int he Marvel U itself. And they introduce gaping writer PAUL JENKINS.... to be continued.



If that seems confusing, it is. I secretly like it, even though I have concerns. But as usual, Benids has a plan, despite the lack of faith the internet community offers.

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