What the fuck did I just read?
Seriously, with this internet 3.0 shit again?
The only other issue of Morrison’s ginormous Batman run thus far that I’ve felt this way about was Vol.1 #8, which also felt the need to try and make “internet 3.0” a cool thing. Well, this story is better than the last… but how much and does it really matter if it is just a polished turd? Read on and find out!
Well, Batman Inc. is kind of getting short shrift from me this month due to other engagements, so this is a stream of consciousness review and not heavily edited – yet, come on, you know what I’m going to say… but hell, continue on reading anyway!
These are just some quick, unpremeditated thoughts from my experience with Bioshock Infinite so far.
In a word: wow.
I consider the original Bioshock one of the best games I’ve ever played, mostly because I was so incredibly impressed by how well written, and told, the narrative was. The actual first-person shooting mechanics of the game were cut and paste to me; not offering any innovation that I could ascertain, yet also not feeling archaic or clunky either. It played well and felt competent in comparison to my somewhat limited familiarity with the genre. I hadn’t been keeping up with the then current generation of games, but Bioshock really got me back into modern gaming. It was a bold and deep story, the likes of which I had never witnessed in the medium before. It was a rare beast; I could enumerate on its subtleties and themes as I would a novel or a film, something I had never done with a game before.
So, when (ostensibly) the same team and the head creative director of the original Bioshock announced the “real” spiritual successor to that fabulous experience (the sequel Bioshock 2, was not made by the same people and is not considered true canon for the Ken Levine directed series) I was immediately sold.
Since the game was first announced I have carefully kept myself in blackout mode, watching only the (really inspiring) official trailers. Otherwise, I’ve purposefully kept myself in the dark in regards to the game’s nature and narrative. I went into the first Bioshock “blind” and it managed to affect me greatly, so I am eager to recreate that sort of feeling afresh with Bioshock Infinite, hence my many year-long blackout mode.
Did it pay off? Well, again: Wow. Holy shit. Fuck, fuck fuckfuckfuckfuck and one thousand more vulgar expletives which are the only recourse for my reeling mind right now.
Already, only a few hours into the game, I’m absolutely blown away by everything on offer. There have been several jaw-dropping moments in terms of aesthetic and narrative – and if it stays the course I can safely say that as much as the original Bioshock impressed me, Infinite is, well… infinitely better in every conceivable way.
The opening sequence was beautiful, deranged and compelling as any I’ve ever experienced in a game. The mysterious and downright frightening way you begin this game is genius; there is obviously something very peculiar about the main character, Booker Dewitt’s circumstance and disposition far beyond the seemingly banal trope you’re first presented with; “Deliver the girl, wipe away the debt”, etc. An existential meditation on reality and existence is at play here, told through the lenses of religious fanaticism and jingoistic bigotry, yet tantalizingly underpinned by an even larger, and more subtle, narrative involving theoretical physics and quantum mechanics (a field of study I’ve always had a deep attraction to).
At a base level of “set-piece” experiences I have to say, two particular moments really stand out for me so far:
The first was an early scene involving a baptism that struck me as heavily influenced by one of my favorite contemporary films; Paul Thomas Anderson’s There Will Be Blood. The buildup to this moment is incredibly intriguing, stirring, and frankly, rather haunting.
The second is the single most emotionally disturbing moment I’ve ever experienced while playing a video game – something which was revealed so unexpectedly that the only way I can adequately catalog it is to say it is probably the only actual portrayal of the banality of evil ever used in a video game. All I will say to those of you who have played the game so far to suitably clue you into the moment I’m speaking of is “#77”.
Not only is this scene wonderfully written from a structural, narrative-based standpoint, but the way it fits into the larger context of the ‘game’ is brilliant too; it heralds the first “fight” in the game and as such, immediately orients you into Booker’s viewpoint and in one glorious instant bonds you with your avatar in a way that most games cannot manage to achieve throughout their entire durations. In a scene which only lasts a few minutes you are cemented into Booker’s character and the game shifts into a completely new experience than what was expected. It is a medium defining experience and I think it is safe to say that it can be used as definitive proof to end the argument that continues to drag on about whether videogames can be considered art or not.
I grieve for Mr. Levine and the rest of the developers if the media decides to cherry pick this moment and hold it up out of context to further marginalize gaming as a dangerous pastime – yet, in a sense, it could be the best thing to happen to the medium in recent memory. I think exploring this game, and perhaps, the moment I’m speaking of in particular, could once and for all shake people out of their apathy and challenge their predetermined associations with the medium.
In any event, as you can tell, I’m greatly enjoying the experience of Bioshock Infinite so far and I cannot recommend it highly enough. Buy this game and do some thinking with your thumb twiddling.
It is always a pleasure when unique indie projects like Polaris end up gracing my inbox. Being one of the unwashed masses (a film student/filmmaker) it goes without saying that I am a bit of a film nerd – so, when I receive a comic that lovingly mocks Tarkovsky’s Solaris (which is a film I love, btw) in the spirited, jocular voice of Woody Allen (who is a genius man-child which I love, btw) then it’s pretty much my sacred duty to help bring attention to the project.
Click through to read my thoughts on this unique creator-owned work!
Since I’ll now be writing on a variety of topics outside of comic books, such as video games, I figured I’d serve up a bit of a primer; part personal history, part industry assessment and part prediction on the fast approaching next generation of home consoles.
Sony is holding a (not at all) super secretive press conference tomorrow (Feb. 20th), that all signs point to being the reveal of the “PS4”, so I thought now would be a good time to start saying good bye to this current (and longest) console generation.
I joined this generation a bit late. True, I stood in line on launch day to buy a Wii, but I didn’t really join the HD generation until I picked up a second hand 360 a few years into its launch. All I used that 360 for was to play Symphony of the Night, a game I’ve played through at least 15 times in my life… so there wasn’t really much excitement for me attached to the “HD” experience. The first true HD game I really played through on that console was Bioshock, which Blew. My. Fucking. Mind.
Holyshit,Ihavehadthisnightmarebefore!
If you haven’t heard it yet, head over to Kevin Smith’s Smodcast site and listen to the fantastic interview he has up with Grant Morrison. Part one is there now, with part two coming later in the week.
I really enjoyed the discussion and I think a lot of Morrison detractors will find it difficult to continue dismissing him for the eccentricities that they like harping on him for, if they hear him lucidly explain the why and the how of the kookier legends out there concerning his ‘trips’ and whatnot. Sure it is still all a bit… odd, to say the least. But I’ll be damned if I’ve ever heard someone tell a story like that and still come off sounding reasonable and open-minded about the entire thing.
A few highlights:
(@1:06:00) On the story he was telling in ‘Arkham Asylum: A Serious House On Serious Earth‘:
“This is Bruce Wayne, when he goes to bed at 8 in the morning, this is what he dreams every night. That’s it. It wasn’t meant to be, ‘this actually happened’, this is Bruce Wayne’s dreams this is what happens all the time in that man’s head.”
Smith is a bit blown back by hearing this for the first time, surprising himself when he realizes that he never really knew if it was canon or not. Morrison continues:
“But it’s a canon dream, it’s the ultimate dream of Batman so you need to know it because that’s what Bruce dreams like; and it’s horrible and he’s ineffectual in a lot of cases, and everything’s a reflection of himself.”
Then, at the very tail end of the podcast, in a preview for this week’s second part, while discussing Miller’s TDKR, Morrison explains his thoughts on the ‘psychopathic, dark Batman’ that took hold after Miller’s hugely successful novel – and in turn – how he himself sees and writes the character:
“I like things to make sense, and for me, growing up reading Denny O’Neil and all that stuff, Batman for me was a guy who had been all around the world and he’d had all these amazing fetish girls chasing him, he was super rich, he had the best toys in the world and what he’d done is dealt with his trauma in a very unusual way, but it was a way that totally worked for this guy. …He made it work, he didn’t just get drunk, destroy his life and blow the fortune; he made it useful – and I think, okay, we have to accept that if he’s a super martial arts master and master of meditation and he can slow down his breath and survived for an hour in a coffin… people say ‘well, you’re doing Batgod’, to me I’m being real about who this guy would be at this point in his life. I have to acknowledge, this is the fucking Batman, you know, and he can do all this stuff and honestly, you don’t go through courses in Buddhist meditation and come out an asshole at the end… if you do it right, you know.
So I thought Batman was the most sorted, together, humanist icon on the planet – and that’s where I found myself kind of falling out with people who thought he was tortured, or damned, or depressed, or unable to assuage that guilt. I thought … every night he went out, he dealt with that guilt and just ‘okay, I’m making things better’. So I saw him fundamentally positive and mentally positive and able to inspire people.”
That right there encapsulates the Batman that I grew up reading as well – and to me, explains why Morrison’s characterization rings most true for my tastes; I also see Batman as a healthy and positive character and I am in total agreement with Mr. Morrison that, for the character to truly work, he has to be.
The whole interview was a joy and is just some brilliantly fun stuff to listen to – give it a look and be sure to check back later this week on the Smodcast site for part two!
As you can tell, I’ve basically abandoned the site as of late last year. I’ve been very, very busy with a multitude of things and have not had any real time to devote to producing any content here.
I hope to jump back into the groove soon, but it remains to be seen just when this will happen.
The site still lives and traffic is still steady thanks to popular articles and posts of the past, so as always, thank you for reading.
If anyone would like to help out on the site during this downtime, please contact me
Otherwise, I’ll see you all soon.
Every Monday I’ll post a random, but fantastic, page from a Batman comic – this will improve all of our weeks.
No context, no commentary, just:
(Batman/Green Arrow: The Poison Tomorrow – Writer: Dennis O’Neil – Artist: Michael Netzer)
Every Monday I’ll post a random, but fantastic, page from a Batman comic – this will improve all of our weeks.
No context, no commentary, just:
My unbridled love for Grant Morrison’s Batman is very well documented by now, so if you don’t want to hear this giddy cheerleader shout out a long-winded rally for the team, then please, go read some other comic blog… all you’re going to get from here on out is an extended fangasm… because really, this issue deserves it.
Every Monday I’ll post a random, but fantastic, page from a Batman comic – this will improve all of our weeks.
No context, no commentary, just:
(Batman #227 – Writer: Denny O’Neil – Artists: Irv Novick and Dick Giordano)
It’s that time of the year again: time to promote juvenile diabetes! Also time to relish the chance for an increasingly non-secular nation to dip their toes into the dark side and openly venerate ghosts, demons, monsters and all things horrific. Halloween! Fuck yeah!
After trudging through innumerable “sexy ___fillintheblank___” costumes, I thought it may be wise to cut through some of the noise by listing what I’ve found online this year to be the coolest geeky Halloween costumes:
Every Monday I’ll post a random, but fantastic, page from a Batman comic – this will improve all of our weeks.
No context, no commentary, just:
(Batman: Nosferatu – Writers: Randy & Jean-Marc Lofficier – Artist: Ted McKeever)
October 9, 2012 (Aliens, murder and magical mystery!)
Every Monday I’ll post a random, but fantastic, page from a Batman comic – this will improve all of our weeks.
No context, no commentary, just:
(Batman, Hellboy, Starman #1 – Writer: James Robinson – Artist: Mike Mignola)
October 2, 2012 (Classic monsters, universal masters and being in the mood for love)
Every Monday I’ll post a random, but fantastic, page from a Batman comic – this will improve all of our weeks.
No context, no commentary, just:
(Batman Incorporated #0 – Writer: Grant Morrison/Chris Burnham – Artist: Frazier Irving)
Every Monday I’ll post a random, but fantastic, page from a Batman comic – this will improve all of our weeks.
No context, no commentary, just:
(Batman: Earth One – Writer: Geoff Johns – Artist: Gary Frank)
September 18, 2012 (Masks, whips and cross-dressing. Kinky!)
David Halvorson, the one-man-band behind the inspiring symphony that is Armstrong, alerted me to a new project he is working on, this time collaborating with a writer; one Eric Grissom.
Said collaboration has yielded Planet Gigantic. Planet Gigantic is the story of two test tube superheroes, created to be the most powerful… sample collectors in the universe.
Sample Collectors? Yes, it seems the mundane day to day of scientific research is where our heroes have grown up and learned to hone their powers. The mundane is of course, never truly mundane when you have a good writer relaying it to you, and to that end I can say that Grissom seems to be a damn good writer. The dialog in this issue is natural and pertinent – often times writers pile a lot of superfluous dialog into their books because they think it equates to character/story development, when really all it does is come off as a time-suck and, more often than not, does a disservice to the story by derailing the pacing and obscuring the plotting. Grissom though, seems adept at this writing thing, as there are no throwaways here; everything seems germane and advances character and/or plot. We seem to be in good hands.
In this inaugural #0 sneak peek issue we’re thrown right into the fray as our young heroes are introduced to us and quickly set against some insidious odds. It’s clear, concise and paced well. For instance, we’re treated to a very snappy set piece involving giant space-spiders and it all works very well, ramping up the world building, conveying character and advancing the plot all at once – it’s fun, it’s engrossing and it’s all done in a few simple, clean pages. Again, most independent writers I read would have buried the delivery of this moment in tedious exposition to legitimize why these kids are in space, why there are giants spiders and why they’re being attacked… however, Grissom smartly eschews all of that nonsense and places faith in the sophistication of the readers to orient themselves in the fiction. Thank fuck too – I really wish more writers out there held similar standards.
As on Armstrong, Halvorson’s art is just immensely enjoyable to look at – it’s a bit Darwyn Cooke, a bit Bill Watterson, but still wholly his own; Halvorson’s art is crisp, colorful, full of verve and motion is conveyed quite well. There is weight and dimension and everything just rings true. The spell is in firmly place and you’re never once brought out of the world because of some skewed look to something or someone. It’s all very cohesive and enjoyable. Halvorson’s work is already incredibly inventive and retains an inherently effortless charisma to it, so the idea of having those traits let loose and writ large across the expansive backdrop of a sci-fi space opera is quite exciting.
Overall, this is a great preview – it reveals just enough of all the ingredients a good book contains, so that you come away certain that there is a solid series waiting to be unleashed on the world here.
I can’t wait and I’ll definitely follow these guys into issue #1 and beyond. Immensely enjoyable, lighthearted, yet mature and intelligence – the world needs more creator-owned comics like this. Bravo, gentlemen – now give us the series!
Every Monday I’ll post a random, but fantastic, page from a Batman comic – this will improve all of our weeks.
No context, no commentary, just:
(Batman: Through the Looking Glass – Writer: Bruce Jones – Artist: Sam Kieth)
September 11, 2012 (Killer Klowns, Dennis Hopper on a rampage and great music)
Every Monday I’ll post a random, but fantastic, page from a Batman comic – this will improve all of our weeks.
No context, no commentary, just:
(Batman: Night Cries – Writer: Archie Goodwin – Artist: Scott Hampton)
Every Monday I’ll post a random, but fantastic, page from a Batman comic – this will improve all of our weeks.
No context, no commentary, just:
(Batman: The Return of Bruce Wayne #2 – Writer: Grant Morrison – Artist: Frazer Irving)
August 28, 2012 (Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Plastic Zombie Head)
Every Monday I’ll post a random, but fantastic, page from a Batman comic – this will improve all of our weeks.
No context, no commentary, just:
(Batman/Joker: Switch – Writer: Devin Grayson – Artist: John Bolton)
August 21, 2012 (Bowie, dictators and political subversion)
Every Monday I’ll post a random, but fantastic, page from a Batman comic – this will improve all of our weeks.
No context, no commentary, just:
(Batman #668 – Writer: Grant Morrison – Artist: J.H. Williams III)
August 14, 2012 (Turtles, porno gangs, serial killers and emo awkwardness)
Every Monday I’ll post a random, but fantastic, page from a Batman comic – this will improve all of our weeks.
No context, no commentary, just:
(Batman: Mitefall Writer: Alan Grant – Artist: Kevin O’Neill)
Holy disappearing Bat-book! There are SPOILERS after the jump! Since most of you definitely haven’t read this issue yet, I’ll say it again, just to make it perfectly clear:
Notice I’m not calling this a review? That’s because I just cannot find the energy to write a full-on, proper review. I’ve also been trying really hard to not write any negative articles for the site – but after reading the issue a few times and then seeing CBR’s absurdly vague 4 1/2 star corporate ball-licking “review” that didn’t even attempt to mention the story telling, I just couldn’t help it. I felt compelled to rant a bit.
So, please, allow me to level with you right off the bat so that you may either stop reading and/or start writing your hate mail: I think Scott Snyder has successfully completed the worst “big event” Batman story that I have ever read.
Ugli Studios Presents is creator-owned fantasy/horror/sci-fi anthology book. Its inaugural issue contains two different shorts, each co-written by Jason Lenox and David Paul and drawn by Mr. Lenox. For a point of reference think; The Twilight Zone and The Outer Limits, etc. – these are short, succinct stories that present a self-contained tale with some sort of unexpected plot twist or surprise ending. I must confess; I’ve seen every single episode of the original Twilight Zone series and I’ve even read a lot of the original scripts – so to say I enjoy this mode of storytelling would be a bit of an understatement. Unfortunately, as a reviewer this also means I have a high bar set for people to be able to compete with the likes of Rod Serling, Ray Bradbury, etc. That all being the case – I’m here to support and drum up interest for independent comic creators – so I’ll be tempering my sky-high expectations as much as possible while still being a discerning commentator ;)
Onward to the meat:
I present to you the BTAS series bible.
For those unaware of what a “series bible” is:
from Wikipedia
Show bibles are commonly used in television series; new writers and freelancers are often referred to it when writing scripts for the show to ensure continuity with previous episodes; they’re also used by individual writers for books and movies to keep track of details.
BTAS – Series Bible
Right click to ‘save as’ and download and/or read the thing with a left click
What do we have here? Well, we have an independently released creator-owned comic series: Johnny Space Commander, by Sean Parnell.
Mr. Parnell was kind enough to send me issues #1-4 for review purposes, so being the stand-up guy I am, I decided to do just that; read Mr. Parnell’s work and then give you delicate readers of discerning taste, my opinions on said books.
Continue on, you brave explorers of uncharted independent comic lands -
This isn’t a proper review, rather just a quick sketch of what I thought of my most anticipated book of 2012.
I plan on doing full annotations on the whole run, so that will come soon, but for now this is all I have time for before I leave town for a week and wander around the wilderness without computers or cell phones.
Wow.
I came into (heh) “Avengers XXX A Porn Parody” expecting to find the ridiculous level of storytelling shoe-horned between scenes of hardcore porn that I had last witnessed in Axel Braun’s masterful, Spider-Man XXX, and what I got was… really just the hardcore porn part. As bad as the “story” was in Spider-Man XXX, at least it still kind of had a three act structure; it kind of had a plot. Yet in a bold step towards deconstructionism (?), Avengers XXX eschews the notion of plot almost entirely. The film starts out acting as if there is going to be a plot, yet what we’re ultimately left with is a confused mess of incoherent elements contradicting one another and only providing a half-assed two act structure. The film slowly peters out after the opening scenes and it seems as if the writer/director forgot he was supposed to be delivering some geeky adult fun. People randomly namedrop other Marvel characters and deliver their semi-geeky lines like pron robots in a hasty attempt to get to the sex. There’s barely any dialog referencing the comics and they don’t even provide the actors with any ridiculous puns that would be chuckle inducing to comic nerds.
Sure, it is a porno, so why in the hell am I critiquing the story so much? Well, I figure if you’re going to go this far – that is, if you’re going to get some pretty cool costumes and fill your movie with “obscure” heroes that only comic fans will recognize, then you should at least attempt to put them in a fun, tongue in cheek world where you can deliver on the promise of a ‘parody’. The only laughs came from seeing how awfully the actors delivered their lines, and from thinking about how Axel Braun probably takes himself way too seriously and considers himself as some sort of auteur… the Christopher Nolan of the porn world
Anyway – let’s get to it huh? I know you just want a blow by blow account of the action relayed to you in X-rated screen caps, so let’s do it!
I’ve grown oh-so-tired during these past few months with cape books and I’ve been desperately trying to expand my comic genre horizons. As a life-long DC fan the majority of the New 52 leaves me bored, dismayed and actually, more than a bit annoyed. I left Marvel in the 90’s and I’ve never really gone back (Waid’s current Daredevil is fucking great though!) it seems things have become very complicated in the interim; there are a ridiculous amount of Marvel titles out every month and it discombobulates me completely while standing in my LCS, so I’ve never been presented with a good segue back into the universe. However, Image has been my saving grace as of late. They’ve been consistent in putting out unique and well crafted books that have short and snappy runs or are limited series in one way or another.
So, about Secret? Riiiight, well…
Aut viam inveniam aut faciam
This week we are going to break down what we believe to be the best Batman covers from each era of comic book history – so expect this to be broken into four different parts encompassing:
Modern Age (1985 – present)
Today we move on to our final list
This week we are going to break down what we believe to be the best Batman covers from each era of comic book history – so expect this to be broken into four different parts encompassing:
Bronze Age (c.1970 – c.1985)
Today we move on to
This week we are going to break down what we believe to be the best Batman covers from each era of comic book history – so expect this to be broken into four different parts encompassing:
Silver Age (1956 – c.1970)
Today we move on to
This week we are going to break down what we believe to be the best Batman covers from each era of comic book history – so expect this to be broken into four different parts encompassing:
Golden Age (c.1938 – c.1950)
Today however, we shall begin with
This is a bit of an oddity. Back in December of 2011 I was asked to expound upon some general questions I had previously answered for a genial fellow working on a collegiate assignment. The answers I provided were to be worked into some sort of thesis and I was told that the final paper would be passed on to me, so that I could see how my input was put to use. I’ve never seen that paper.
Regardless, I think some of the topics broached here are mildly interesting and I plan to further extrapolate on a few of the answers I provided in the near future; Specifically the notion that the character of Batman stands as an undeniably (and perhaps singular) anti-theistic superhero. I also find it somewhat funny that I make mention of a hypothetical sequel to Moby Dick not being able to ruin the original work, since recently, Alan Moore used the same analogy a bit differently.
In any event, here are some words I wrote about Batman back in December:
Every Monday I’ll post a random, but fantastic, page from a Batman comic – this will improve all of our weeks.
No context, no commentary, just:
*Since I skipped last week I’ve put up a two page splash; it counts for two… so we’re caught up.*
(Batman #68 – Writer: Grant Morrison – Artist: Tony Daniel)
Every Monday I’ll post a random, but fantastic, page from a Batman comic – this will improve all of our weeks.
No context, no commentary, just:
(Batman 428 – Writer: Jim Starlin – Artist: Jim Aparo)
