It's been a little while since I posted a Fantasy Film... this one has been in progress since the old Monkey Plus Robot Reviews blog, though back then, when the film adaptation was still floating around as a Darren Aronofsky project, the casting choices were a bit different. These are my 2006 casting selections...



Rorschach- William H Macy: I like the idea that at the end of the day, his lined, somewhat Pug-ish face with some of that desparate eye-bulging like we've seen in Fargo and others, would be a nice shock to the audience after watching him vaulting over fences and kicking down doors for 2 hours...



Silk Spectre- Jill Hennesey: For some, she may remain the pinnacle of brunette hotness, but I see her as a pretty girl agen forward who hasn't transitioned to comfort with her 40s yet, still trying to have the caked on makeup and abs of steel going on to look younger and hotter like her modeling days. And like many women intheir 40s, she'd look much more attractive if she owned up to her age. Spectre's character was all about these issues.



Night Owl- Oliver Platt: Owl was very much a super-sized over-the-hill nebbeshy minor player who found himself taking on a front seat role in the Watchmen conflict, findhing himself and earning the interest and respect of his peers in the process. Platt has that mixture of charm and self-deprecation that could work well here.



Ozymandias- Brad Pitt: I originally thought Juse Law, but this was colored by his literal bronzing in Ripley, and his vocal claims to the character in interviews last year. But Ozymandias is the perfect man, the blonde, steely-eyed smiling devil, so superior that he can barely snap out of his detachment in order to interface with the others. Watch Pitt in Meet Joe Black...



Dr. Manhattan- Ken Watanabe: We've seen him sculpted and bald, so that goes a long way to begin with. But Watanabe is also a great non-verbal actor, necessary for the role.



Comedian- Mel Gibson: I'm seeing Mel in his Mad Max type get-up, stubbly and unshowered, glassy eyed from booze, and at his current age. Then out the window.



:::



What do you think? Who would you cast?

Related posts:

1. Iron Man- R3 Fantasy Film
2. Runaways- R3 Fantasy Film
3. Losers- R3 Fantasy Film

I waited and waited for this to be collected, and finally they did so, but only after making headway into the follow-up event, Infinite Crisis on Critical Infinite Earths! So, kinda pissed that some of the fallout from this mini-series, which fed the current hoopla at DC, is already out of the bag. However, I read this series with an eye on how the story was crafted, rather than anticipating plot twists and big reveals, and I'm happy to say that in the end, the story wasn't spoiled for me as much as I thought.



For those six of you comics readers out there who haven't read this, it was the series that led up to this summer's Infinite Crisis event. Wayyy too much continuity back-story to explain what THAT means, but in a nutshell, events starting from the fallout of this series, Identity Crisis, pave the road to what's happening in DC continuity now.



Seltzer’s script is remarkable, being an outsider’s take on decades of continuity, and brings a level of realism and tension to many relationships in the DC universe that we take for granted. Obviously, and I say this because it was widely reported as the shot-heard-round-the-internet that solicited a fair amount of backlash from die-hards fearing a return to the unpleasant 80’s grungy comics where someone died, got strung out, or did something ill, in ever issue, there’s a fairly big plot element that occurs straight away, setting the tone for the rest of the book and certainly letting the reader know that this was going to be an urgently psychological story. Just for the hell of it, I’m not going to load this up with spoiler material, just in case, but I will say that I was impressed by the way they chose to show this event, and the heroes’ response to it. As I understand it now, it wasn’t originally intended to be the precursor to the Crisis stuff this summer, but rather a self-contained story, investigating the dark, ethically-vague steps these heroes have taken in order to deal with the menace of their greater foes. It was pretty clever, the act that they had done, revealed here towards the end of the book, and it was a nice touch, using this as the excuse and rationale for why so many golden- and silver-aged villains acted so loony in the funny books in the day. The ramifications, had this truly been a standalone book, would have been significant by themselves. But folded into the greater issues in the DCU in the subsequent year, including most directly, the Villains United series, these issues in Identity Crisis completely changed how we see the DC heroes. Giving them such a serious, somber secret was an interesting way to inject some complexity into these characters, and as it was played up at the end of OMAC and in other events leading up to the Crisis stuff underway now, this book is even more relevant now that it’s part of a larger story, the break-up of the ‘trinity’ of the DCU: Wonder Woman, Batman and Superman, characters which have grown to realize very different ethics over the last twenty years of continuity. In fact, the writer’s retreat concept of exposing this and separating them a bit, pitting them against each other in terms of ideology, was a sound one. One aspect of this that troubled me a bit was that Seltzer’s script attempts to make these characters address very serious, real-world crime and punishment issues, when the roots of super-heroes and how we perceive their quaint simplicity today, are in an escapist fantasy not suited for exploring realistic concepts like these. The implied conceit here, much like the whole attempt to rationalize super-heroes in a more realistic comic continuity by making them spring forth from the pages of comics WITHIN the comic world, is lop-sided. We accept these stories, and the existence of these characters, as a priori. When we attempt to then rationalize them against the sillier escapist aspects of their storylines, we undermine our basic collective acceptance of their existence in the first place. But that’s fine; these are issues I struggle with in my own comic stuff, so I get that.



Rags Morales put out his best work EVER on this book, and it shows. The money shot early on, referred to earlier, was dead-on beautiful, and some of the sequential work throughout, including scenes with Boomerang’s and Robin’s loved ones, were extremely well plotted and executed, and I was routinely impressed with choices made in what to show, what to imply, and how simply and evenly the action unfolded. I was rarely lost, despite not having the best background in DCU continuity, and the book, between art, script, and concept, holds up for the casual reader, which is a huge accomplishment, as this certainly sounded like a geekfest project when it was first announced. I was somewhat underwhelmed by the choice to use Mike Turner for cover art, as the illustrations both gave away spoiler material, and were the wrong fit for the tone of the story.



Best thing about the hardcover edition, though, is the background material at the end, the “DVD Extras” component. Now, let me preface by saying that I’m a huge fan of seeing the development stuff. Schematic sketches, back-story on process, creator opinion about the end result. And it’s all here, including a cover gallery and cut-outs from each creator’s most memorable aspect of the book. It’s fantastic reading material, and actually added to my appreciation of the project where I otherwise wouldn’t have predicted it would. And I, for one, appreciated seeing that the creators weren’t afraid to air their laundry about the process, as many unfortunately are, so wedded to the final package that they can’t admit that it’s a product OF process rather than a completely pre-visualized end-result executed without flaw or effort.



Finally, I should mention that this was one of those books that gave me a creepy vibe of familiarity, as it includes some content that is similar to my own developing work, FInit-e. First of all, it’s told in non-linear time, with a framing structure similar to mine. It also tells the story of a single event through different eyes, as mine does. And lastly, the DVD Extras took me by surprise. I’ve been keeping up with some behind-the-scenes annotation as I go on my comic, and I thought it was kind of an uncommon bonus, Alan Moore annotation sites notwithstanding. So, not that I can complain when mine ain’t even OUT, but it was a little bit jarring to see some of the similarities.



8/10 Clicks

Related posts:

1. Infinite Crisis #2
2. Infinite Crisis #1
3. Infinite Crisis Mega-Review: Countdown To Infinite Crisis

This episode was a comparably mellow one, after the clue-laden events of previous weeks. But then again, even the mellowest episodes last season had details we later flashed back to and thought “OHHHH FUUU---!” because, you know, we’re not supposed to be swearing in front of the Mrs. Bot. Anyway, this was another return to the past for Jin and Sun, exploring how they met, through Jin’s above-caste job as a doorman for a prestigious South Korean hotel. I was actually pretty happy with this episode, though I know Lung wasn’t having it. It was nice to see Sun in her element on the dating scene, even if it was pre-arranged and harsh, and she got slapped in a most unrealistic manner, figuratively speaking. I’d be hard pressed to find many guys, racists notwithstanding, who wouldn’t eat their own left arms in order to spend some time with her. But anyway, her would-be lover spoke of a relationship overseas with an American graduate student. Hello, Hanso Foundation anyone? I was amused to read online that some Korean-speaking viewers pointed out that Jin and her guy’s dialog translated to something like: "monkey eat tomato on bread with eagle cherry, how do you do, big dog, small cat."



Some other tidbits… we see yet another Dharma logo variant this episode. The Swan and the Arrow are both constellations with their origins/stories involving the God Apollo. Apollo as in Apollo candy?







In the MegaLottoJackpot link [http://megalottojackpot.com/ ], you’ll see, along with Hurley witnessing his life change in a heartbeat, a new Dharma logo with a cat motif. Hm.



But that’s not ALL the lotto site has to offer. Rock those hidden textlinks! ‘dream’ yields a mystery site, with a cheesy brand tag [http://www.zombo.com/ ]. ‘Travel’ kicks you back to the Oceanic Air site. ‘Job’ gives you that maddening Hanso site… and ‘stuff’ gets you a site selling pop culture trinkets. [http://www.millionaireplayboy.com/ ] which is, I think, another reference to the cultural phenomenon of the show’s fanbase. In fact, more and more we see references to the major LOST theories being floated. The Hanso site has pretty much all of them covered under the project history section, from genetic twins to immortality. And one of the most obtuse links on the site yields this image:







Huh.



If you go back and view the Hanso site, that dead Java link to the Dharma Initiative now loads a page, but tantalizingly never finishes the load. I think it’s a deliberate thing, done to wig us out. I’ve tried it several days in a row.







I still wonder about the hints that have not been explored from last season. Adam and Eve, and the Black and White Pebbles found in the leather bag. The Transmission Tower that the French Woman changed the message at, was playing Hurley's numbers. The Black Rock, Pirate Ship or Slaver ship? Are the pebbles representing two different psychological stressor groups for survivors? Hmmmm.



And how bad ass was ‘Shaft’ this episode? That guy has a face I want to draw, which doesn’t happen very often. Awesome glare.



One last thing: my favorite detail of the episode. What was the hotel called?



Seoul Gateway.



Nice nod to the purgatory theorists.



8/10 Clicks

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1. Lost- Season 2: Orientation [Ep. 3]
2. Lost- Season 2: Adrift [Ep2]
3. Lost, Season 2: Ep. 19 "S.O.S."

Golems are great. Fathers of the robot, but with the cool factor of being enchanted clay and saviors of the Israelites and what not... I love em!



A professional associate just sent me pics of the Glema Cafe in Prague.

I'd almost be tempted to pull a WR Hearst and go dig up that tilework in the middle of the night and return to the States to plant it in my sunken-level home theater floor...

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This I scanned from the laughably bluntly demographically-focused SYNC Magazine:







I thought Vlad and TSparhawk should get a look at my place befroe coming to the city to visit...

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I don't recall any longer just how I got on the Uberbot mailing list. I know they have a store,physically, somewhere in Florida. Or at least they did, before the hurricanes. I know they sell similar product to Things From Another World. I think they may even have live bands and promotion and other hipness going on.



The reason they aren't Junkmailed is that their emails come with tight Very Robotic Graphics... such as this latest one. Sweet.

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Ultimate Secret #3

Writer: Warren Ellis

Artist: Tom Raney



I was a big fan of Raney's admittedly uneven but certainly enthusiastic work, back in his Stormwatch 'Change or Die' days. I loved the vivid quality to his pencils and how they took inks, and his general ability to convey a lot of action without overdoing it with the FX. But most of what I've seen since then has underwhelmed me. He's never figured out how to keep eyes tracking on the same target, and his faces are often uneven and out of proportion. All problems I have to, to be sure, but hey.



The big grouse I have here is that I'm hugely into Steve McNiven, and he was pulled from this project to do New Avengers. Now, good for me on that title, but bad for me here. This book is so late at this point, it doesn't even seem relavent anymore. What's even more confusing, he's showing us an Iron Man armor we haven't seen quite this way before. It looks to be the next-gen armor we were promised from Hith's early sketches for Ultimates 2, but never have seen to date. What's more confusing, over on Ultimate iron man I think it was, the cover of the previous issue showed the armor SHIELD has been using for their generic powered armoer soldiers in Ultimates 2. Wha huh?

But anyway, contextual irregulairities, continuity problems, lateness, and iffy art aside, Ellis' script is still as sharp as ever. As Fury puts a team of heroes together to address this looming alien threat from Gah Lak Tus, we see some great interaction between the lusty lothario Stark and young Sue Storm, as well as between Mar Vell and Danvers. All very cool. The plan is half-baked, but Ellis makes it SOUND reasonable, I guess, though there's a scene towards the end that seems to dispute what we've been told about the capabilities of the enemy as Mar Vell has revealed it. But this could be by design. There's also another spacey name mentioned, Yahn Rgg, but I couldn't decipher this one to mainstream Marvel continuity. Could be just me. I also liked the short exchange between Black Widow and Hawkeye, poo-pooing all the young supers in spandex around them in favor of old school skillsets. Very nice tough.



8/10 Clicks

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1. Ulimate Secret #4
2. Ultimate Secret #1-2
3. Review: Ultimate Armor Wars No.4 of 4

Losers #28

Writer: Andy Diggle

Artist: Colin Wilson



The what-the-fuckery continues on this otherwise brilliant title, as the final stretch of this final arc is underway. The Losers have rescued Pooch, by using a remote bomb detonation robot to kill Rocque, their former teammate and most unpleasant nemesis, as he was busy cutting their wheelman's fingers off... and as they retreat from the battlefield in a stolen Osprey helo, Max, the rogue CIA spook, threatens the US with a show of lethal force, detonating a nuclear device. Near enough to the Losers' helicopter, you see, to crash it, but far enough to allow them to stumble out and gaze at the pretty colors of their retinas melting. I'll reserve judgment on this plot device until next issue, but in general, I'm not a fan of heroes narrowly evading the effects of nuclear weaponry. It seems juvenile to discount the larger ramifications of such a detonation. But what do I know Maybe the Losers will be suffering from radiation poisoning soon enough. Maybe they'll start looking peached and disoriented as their organs liquify.



Problem is, I wouldn't KNOW, because for some reason, Colin WIlson's art has gone to shit. When he first took over for Jock, his work had a gritty urgency to it, but enough detail and style to seem consistent on the book. I remember praising him early on. But now, it's the same sort of haphazard rough scribbling that's bugged me from other artists when a series is wrapping against it's will, like Human Target and X-Statics showed us. It feels...half-assed. I have no idea what stresses he's under, and there may very well be a good reason. But it's disappointing, when we know we only get two more issues of this wonderful series, and they feel... squandered.



6/10 Clicks

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Gotham Central #36

Writer: Greg Rucka/ Ed Brubaker

Artist: Kano



This final episode in the Robin Killings arc was satisfyingly underwhelming. I appreciate this aspect of the comic personally. It doesn't have to be a slam bam shocker every issue. The slow burn procedural aspect of this book lends itself to such a mundane result to a murder spree that we've seen in recent issues, multiple hunky teens in Robin costumes that have clearly not been Robins themselves, but more disturbing, have been elaborately costumed to look like the young hero.

The central conflict in this book has always been the struggle the GCPD has had with Batman's involvement in their investigations. The concept that a masked vigilante is a necessary means to bringing in these powered criminals rubs most of them the wrong way, and a few of the detectives especially so. It makes them question their value, and their faith in the system. What I like about this is that if you take away the superhero business, it's already hard ENOUGH to have faith in the judicial system. Routine police procedurals run on that sort of existential crisis fuel for seasons. So add the capes to the whole thing and it makes the detectives seem even less relavent. Beat cops are around to round up the bruised and battered villains found hung from their own weapons off of lightpoles... but what do the detectives do?



Of course, it's a thrill when a hero or powered villain appear in Gotham Central. They are presented in an alien light, with suspicion and dislike from many of the cops, though not all, and it's an interesting viewpoint I always enjoy being explored. The fact that Batman must be brought in to gleam from the confessed killer the location of the latest Robin victim prsumed to be still living, makes for a great sequence, one of the more compelling Batman scenes I can think of, certainly a page from what made Batman Begins work so well at capturing Year One's mythos. It's a great image. More impotantly, though, we see Batman actively encourage the little details that propogate his mistique to the powerless common underworld, like cutting the lights and dropping down from somewhere in the interrogation room and being a general bad ass. This is the attention to detail I love from these guys.



8/10 Clicks

Related posts:

1. Gotham Central #33
2. Gotham Central #16-18
3. Gotham Central #10-11

Powers Vol.2 #13 (vol.1 #51)

Writer: Brian Michael Bendis

Artist: Michael Avon Oeming



Powers' greatest strength is how it uses the super-powered world as a means to explore how normal people react to extraordinary situations. The people in Powers we see, whether criminals hopped up on magic bracelets, witnesses fearing retribution from super thugs, to innocent bystanders, are saying and doing many of the same things we see on Law and Order or any police procedural, when facing something unnerving and dangerous in their lives. Just like the briefcase in 100 Bullets, or the kids who find a body in L&O, each character reacts a different way. Our cops investigate the crimes, but get caught up in the issues just like anyone else, and their impartiality and objectivity is often in question.



Powers is going through a very interesting period right now. Walker seems to be in a lonely phase, making feeble emotional connections, and missing some serious warning signs in his partner, Deena, largely because of a forced effort to keep some emotional distance from her. Deena, on the other hand, is in a downward spiral: she contracted forbidden powers from a perp, making her what she's always sort of despised (and feared in Walker, I think, the super-powered chick world he's livid in, in which she believes she can't compete on a sexual level.. at least that's my interpretation) and has stumbled into a string of bad circumstances underscored with worse decisions. She killed her ex in self-defense, and disposed of the body in order to hide the WAY he died... at the hands of her POWERS. She's becoming loose and violent on the crime scenes, and seems to be unraveling.



This issue, we see some powered individual fall out of the sky on, or through, a suburban civilian on the sidewalk. Great Avon Oeming double-pages here, many of them. Brilliant atmosphere. Then, when investigating, the detectives discover this guy had a secret... not the power-porn on his computer... but a closet full of capes and glowing shit. Aha! Closet suburban Power! Meanwhile, Deena's been looking up Bad Nasties on file, theoretically investigating the source of her own power...



The art and script this issue is top notch as usual. The colors really make the book, however. Just as he punctuates muted landscapes with fire and lightning effects, Peter Pantazis makes the appearance of the Triples, arrested for a double homicide (good one) and being ushered through the squadroom, punch by giving us a great visual contrast: typical, muted police station and garishly violet-clothed blonde bombshell triplets. Great looking characters, too.



10/10 Clicks!

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3. Powers Vol. 2 #1

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