Filed under: Action, Warner Brothers, Celebrities and Controversy, Fandom, Newsstand, Comic/Superhero/Geek, Remakes and Sequels

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It’s pretty amusing that Brad Meltzer’s one-shot, Last Will and Testament, shipped the same week as Superman Beyond, because this is also very much a meta-fictive text, although one can debate exactly what Meltzer is trying to say with the meta-fictive commentary - you can see it as a bit of an apology for Identity Crisis, but since Meltzer clearly is not sorry for Identity Crisis at all, it is better seen as closure of the Identity Crisis mentality, and perhaps not coincidentally (although I think it is a coincidence, as the Identity Crisis closure stuff is not really THAT important in the comic) it happens to be a good comic book.

The main thrust of the comic is essentially a re-do of Countdown to Infinite Crisis #1, only if Blue Beetle doesn’t get his head blown off at the end.

It is the minor hero attempting to play a role besides cannon fodder.

It stars Geo-Force in an attempt to bring down Deathstroke the Terminator for the death of Geo-Force’s sister (and the recent problems with Geo-Force’s powers, which has really been one of the worst designed subplots, as it has barely been addressed since Meltzer first brought it up, and now he finally comes back a year or so later to address it as though it has been on the front burner for all this time).

In a lot of ways, this comic reads like the love letter Identity Crisis was billed as, and I think there’s an EXCELLENT reason for that, as this book is about the comics that Meltzer ACTUALLY grew up reading (as opposed to the Silver Age comics that were around before he was born, let alone reading comics) - Marv Wolfman and George Perez’s Teen Titans and Mike Barr’s Outsiders - mostly the Titans.

Intermixed with Geo-Force’s hunt for Deathstroke (this is all going down during Final Crisis, where there is just the mood that SOMEthing dark is going to be happening, and it is affecting every DC hero) are two notable stories…

1. Rocky from the Challengers of the Unknown has, since Identity Crisis, taken on a role of a confessor for superheroes (it is actually quite cheezy, but at least it leads to some good dialogue)

2. We see various shots of various heroes coming to grips with the incoming darkness, and almost all of these scenes are drawn by the legendary Joe Kubert, whose son Adam draws the rest of the comic (and does a pretty good job, even if he takes some odd design liberties that I do not think helps the story - he’s a bit too bombastic for what is really more of a slow-paced comic). The senior Kubert pages are GORGEOUS, including this super sweet homage to the cover of Batman #1, where Batman, Robin and Nightwing swing into action and we see Batman and Nightwing re-enact the cover to Batman #1, with Robin swinging behind them. Very nice.

But most of the comic is just showing us Geo-Force - his background, his past, his thoughts on his sister, his interaction with his former Outsiders teammate, Black Lightning, and his hatred for Slade Wilson.

Meltzer is drawing on a lot of Titans and Outsiders’ continuity for this story, and it leads to a strong fight between Geo-Force and Deathstroke.

As bloody and as dark as this comic was, it ended up being a happy tale - and one of the better Meltzer comics I’ve read.

Recommended.

Superman Beyond #1, while being a Final Crisis tie-in (and an important one at that) is really more similar to Batman R.I.P. in style, in that with Final Crisis, Morrison appears to be trying to be a bit less opaque with the story, while in RIP and this issue, he does no such thing, and when you throw in some godawful 3-D scenes, the result may be a bit reasonably off-putting.

It is still pretty darn awesome, though.

Essentially, this book, while being a huge bombastic journey presented at breakneck speed with absolutely thrilling Doug Mahnke artwork (some of the best work he’s done, but to be honest, most of his work is excellent, so it’s kind of hard to differentiate - suffice to say, it’s really good), is more aptly noted as meta-fictive text.

Perhaps I am reading it wrong, but it really appears as though Morrison is commenting on the role of the continuity-driven fan (and the stories done in response to said fans) in the destruction of the original multiverse. Originally, there was just one organic multiverse where everything happened (sounds like Hypertime, no?), but then a flaw was entered into the system, and that flaw directly led to both the original Crisis and now the current situation - what would that flaw be? I think Morrison is saying that that flaw was the idea of continuity, the idea that a multiverse “couldn’t work” that it “needed to be more realistic and make sense,” hence Crisis on Infinite Earths (and later Zero Hour and still later, Infinite Crisis).

Meanwhile, Morrison also plays with the notion that basically, every superhero is a variation of Superman as Superman was THE original superhero, and everything springs out of him.

Then we get into the whole deal with the visit to Limbo (which Morrison also did in Animal Man) - I was pleasantly surprised to see a lot of the Bloodlines heroes represented - I imagine that was Mahnke’s idea, I have a hard time believing Morrison remembers any of the Bloodlines heroes (save for that one Irish fellow who would not be in limbo). Merryman is handled brilliantly, especially when he says something that is a lot like Brian Azzarello’s Doctor 13 series, where the characters have to almost argue for their relevance. It’s poignant stuff, even while it is a joke.

There’s a bunch of intriguing discussions about the nature of stories the malleability and never-ending nature of them, as you can always retell a story, etc.

The biggest drawback of the story to me was the terrible 3-D stuff - I don’t think it really aided the narrative that much at all, and it sure did not help the artwork, as it did not even look cool. Not cool!!

This is a fascinating text that I think will greatly reward multiple re-reads, much like RIP does.

However, I do have to admit that while fascinating, it can be a bit off-putting, almost like a challenge from Morrison to his readers, and for the most part, I’d prefer a bit more clarity.

Still, as a whole - a very good comic book.

Recommended.

• At August 28, 2008, Blackjak wrote:

  Thanks for the review Brian...

  I was originally going to pass on this off-shoot of FC, but from your review, I'm ...

Après avoir autopublié 2 mini comics, Matthew Forsythe est enfin édité. L’éditeur indépendant canadien Drawn and Quarterly a en effet signé Ojingogo, Å“uvre poétique  et muette de leur compatriote 2 fois nommé dans la catégorie Best digital comic des Eisner Awards. En attendant la disponibilité de l’ouvrage en Europe, vous pouvez toujours vous délecter des planches en ligne ou même télécharger une version iPod.

Filed under: PC, Sony PlayStation 3, Microsoft Xbox 360, Action, Video

Continue reading Dead Space Animated Comic: Issue 5

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I am sure that the folks in Cupertino thought the whole idea of the App Store for the iPhone would be a great idea and in fact has proven to be a great money maker. At the same time though it has also turned out to be one of their biggest headaches that just doesn’t seem to want to go away. While some developers have been making money hand over fist others have been dealing with long approval wait periods or just having their applications pulled. Often those being pulled are being left in limbo as to why and what needs to be done to get back on the marketplace.

The most recent incident of an application being pulled though is raising the specter of Apple censorship; or at least applying their own moral judgement of whether an application can be listed. Such is the case of Infurious Comics and their Comic Reader that was meant for easier distribution and reading of web comics on the iPhone. Where they got in hot water with Apple though is that the application comes with a free issue of Infurious’ web comic Murderdrome an admittedly dark and bloody comic.

The big problem I have with this whole thing is that I am torn on how to re-act to this kerfuffle because on one hand Apple is totally within their legal right to have pulled the application. As it states right in the iPhone SDK

Applications must not contain any obscene, pornographic, offensive or defamatory content or materials of any kind (text, graphics, images, photographs, etc.), or other content or materials that in Apple’s reasonable judgement may be found objectionable by iPhone or iPod touch users.

Where Apple is going to have a really hard time with this is because of the ambiguity of the statement. Who is going to decide what is obscene or offensive? Does Apple in its role as a hardware and software provider have the right to dictate what a 3rd party creates for sale with their software to be played back through their hardware which they have sold. I am sure that one could say that as the provider of the store by which these applications are sold they have the right to set the conditions of any sale.

That said though the only reason that the Comic Reader application was pulled was because of the free comic that came with it. so in all reality Infurious Comics could put the application back for sale but without the comic and it should be acceptable. However this is where come to the second part of the problem – the distribution of the comics produced by Infurious of which I imagine Murderdrome would be one of many. From what I have gathered once the Comic Reader is installed then the user would be able to buy more comics from the iTunes stores but this would then raise the possibility of the comic begin banned from there as well.

During all this Apple is also having to deal with people who are not happy about the idea that the company has built in a kill switch into the iPhone software that would allow them to remotely remove software on the iPhone for whatever reason they deem fit. Now you tie in this possibility of becoming a censor of material available via iTunes and Apple could be facing some serious backlash from its customers. Especially considering as pointed out by Philip Elmer-DeWitt in his post Apple 2.0 on Fortune that iTunes already carries movies that would technically run hit this censorship wall the same way that Infurious has

By Wednesday morning, the post had drawn dozens of responses — all sharply critical of Apple — and PJ Holden’s cause had been picked up by half-dozen sympathetic bloggers (see Techmeme).

Murderdrome’s most energetic defense was posted by blogger Mike Cane, who rattled off (with live links) several equally violent works of fiction published without fuss or warning on the iTunes store, including South Park, Reservoir Dogs and Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels.

I can understand why Infurious ran afoul of Apple this way and why in some ways Apple is totally within its right to do what they have done consider the language of their SDK but are they really ready for the reaction? On top of that if they do stand by this action without finding a workable solution to the problem are they setting themselves up to become an Internet censorship board? Al I know is that this isn’t a position that I would want to find myself in.

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Filed under: Action, Horror, Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Deals, Celebrities and Controversy, Comic/Superhero/Geek, Religious, Western

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Lies, Damn Lies, and Statistics - 17 July 2005

The Lies We Tell Kids - 16 March 2006

RIAA Goes After Another Dead Person ... And His Children - 14 August 2006

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• Sin City video game scheduled to be released next year
• Sin City Game will be using Unreal Engine 3

• Sin City video game scheduled to be released next year
• Sin City Game will be using Unreal Engine 3

En plus d’envahir les écrans de cinéma avec les adaptations de toutes leurs licences de comic book (Spider-Man, Iron Man, Hulk, Les 4 Fantastiques...), la Marvel s’associe avec le studio nippon Madhouse pour le lancement de quatre séries animées de 12 épisodes. On sait pour l’instant que Iron Man et Wolverine auront droits à leur propre série, il reste donc deux options. On verrait bien Blade, dont l’univers et le personnage colleraient parfaitement avec celui de la japanime (d’ailleurs le second opus s’en inspirait ouvertement). La diffusion est prévue pour 2010. Ci-dessous le premier visuel de Iron Man :

(Source : ANN)