Monday, March 9, 2009
The Opening Credits Of Watchmen
Despite my Feminist issues with how Silhouette's death is portrayed, I cannot deny that this credits sequence is a finely directed piece of art. So if you haven't seen the movie yet - or just want to watch this again - here is the opening which seems to have wowed even those who didn't like the movie that much.
http://youtu.be/4uj_QfMEEr8
Sunday, March 8, 2009
Thoughts On Watchmen: The Movie
How did I feel about it?
Let's do this in good and bad stages. And though this should go without saying, do not click on the links below unless you have read the book AND watched the movie.
THE BAD STUFF
1. Looks Like A Movie, Feels Like A Novel. A Russian Novel...
The biggest problem with the movie? It tries a little too hard to be a faithful adaptation of the book. Now, I know that may sound blasphemous to some and confusing to others but let me explain. It's obvious they put a lot of effort into getting as much of the book as possible on-screen but it doesn't look like much thought was put into exactly what should go on-screen.
Alan Moore himself pointed out the dangers of too-much detail in a film adaptation of a book in a recent interview. Oddly enough, he was talking about League of Extraordinary Gentlemen and not Watchmen but the same principles seem to apply.
"The things I was trying to instill in those books were generally things that were only appropriate to the comics medium. They were only about the comics medium, in a certain sense. To transplant them to the screen is going to chop off a good 30 or 40 percent of the reason why I wanted to do the work in the first place."
This is the grand irony of Watchmen. It is very faithful to the source material but in his efforts to get as much of the source material on screen, director Zack Snyder has created what is effectively a three-hour PowerPoint presentation on the Cliff Notes version of Watchmen.
There's no delicate way around it so let's be blunt - this movie is, at points, a little slow.
I admit that may be because I've read the book and knew what was coming for most of the movie... but I noticed very little gasping or audible reaction from the people around me as the movie went on.
The action-scenes all seem overly long with director Snyder's trade-mark slow-motion effects. Many of the action scenes are extended beyond what we saw in the comics - particularly The Comedian's death, which opens the movie and Veidt's battle with a would-be assassin. And the opening credits scene - while beautifully shot and set - has nothing to do with the main story of the movie though it does give us a lot of sly references to the books, such as the revelation that The Comedian was the true assassin of JFK.
And speaking of the opening credits...
2. I Can't Believe It's Not A Music Video!
There are a LOT of music-video moments throughout the movie, where a dominant song is played over a scene in order to suggest mood or place in time.
The effect works in some scenes, like the opening credits in which we see the history of the 1940's Minutemen heroes laid out to Bob Dylan's The Times They Are A-Changin'. In other points, like when K.C. And The Sunshine Band's Boogie Man blares as The Comedian is shooting protesters during a 1970's flashback, it doesn't. And in the case of Nite Owl/Silk Spectre's overly-long sex-scene - which is set to Leonard Cohen's Hallelujah - the effect is laughably awful.
3. The Devil's In The Details
Like the film-version of The Hitch-Hiker's Guide To The Galaxy from a few years ago, Watchmen tries and fails to achieve a difficult balance between being accessible to those who haven't read the book and devoted fans of the book. There are many images and moments which will mean something to those who have read the book but will be totally meaningless to somebody who hasn't. And the dedicated fans are likely to be annoyed at the minor details which are included in the final film while sacrificing some fairly major ones.
Example #1: The eventually destruction of New York does give us the scene where news-stand owner Bernard and comic-reader Bernie hug desperately in the face of their impending doom. In the book, it is a powerful moment given the slow evolution between the relationship of the two characters and their eventual friendship and the common ground they discover. In the movie, it is two random people who the sharp-eyed viewer may have been spotted in a blink-and-you'll-miss moment during an earlier establishing shot.
Example #2: The details of Walter Kovac's transformation into Rorschach are changed, with Kovacs' killing a kidnapper/murderer with a meat-cleaver to the head rather than by trapping him in a burning building. In the book, this scene is very cinematic and very symbolic as we see the depths of Roraschach's new-found resolve to punish evil as he waits for the building to burn while white smoke billows up and makes random shapes against the black sky. Just killing the man with a cleaver seems... anti-climactic.
4. Sexism Or Satire?
Quite a lot has been written about the lack of Feminist perspective in Watchmen. Certainly the book has a greater percentage of male characters compared to female characters, with only three female superheroes and none of these characters are particularly well developed. Laurie is defined almost entirely by her relationships to the male cast. Her mother Sally is a headcase who fell in love with her attempted rapist, with the implication that she dressed up in a sexy costume to fight crime because "she was asking for it". And all we know of Silhouette and her life comes through another character talking about her death.
This can be explained (and somewhat forgiven) by the fact that one of Alan Moore's goals with Watchmen was to satirize the cliches of Silver Age comics while examining and explaining some of the sillier aspects of those stories. Like why a woman would wear a swimsuit and high-heels to fight crime. But Snyder seems to have missed this angle of the story and - as he did in 300 ironically aggravated the problem with his attempts to ensure more equal-time.
You might recall that in that 300, Snyder introduced a subplot not in the original book where Gorgo, Queen of Sparta, attempted to field more troops to aid her husband through politicking. The problem was that this effort to bring a feminist perspective to 300 was negated when the strong-female icon surrenders her body to the whims of a rapist. In a similar vein, we learn about Silhouette in the opening-credit montage but we get no more information than Moore gave in the brief description Rorschach gave of her life.
How do we learn about Silhouette's life in the movie? Through two scenes with no dialogue. One shows her replacing the sailor in the famous Alfred Eisenstaedt photograph of a sailor kissing a nurse upon his homecoming from WWII. The other shows her and said nurse, bloody and suggestively dressed, stretched out on a bed with "Lesbian Whores" painted in blood on the wall behind them.
Neither of these moments were, it should be noted, in the original book and their addition does nothing save to add unneeded shock value or serve as pornography for a particularly disgusting breed of fan. One supposes they needed something to make up for the cutting of the Kitty Genovese scene.
5. Adrian's Not A Villain! Really!
I don't know if the problem was direction or with actor Matthew Goode... but those who didn't read the book will easily be able to pick out Adrian Veidt as the villain of the piece based on the way that he caries himself and acts. Goode plays Ozymandias as cool and dispassionate to the point of being near-Autistic - a far cry from the ever-smiling charmer of the original book. It was meant to be a shocking surprise that this man could possibly come up with the plan that he did, much less put it into action. The film Ozymandias never smiles and he'd certainly never demean himself by shouting "I Did It" and jumping up and down as his plan succeeds.
THE GOOD STUFF
1. The Ending
It never occurred to me before, but Nite Owl and Silk Spectre's reaction to Adrian's plan succeeding in the book basically comes down to "We're powerless to do anything and there's a bear-skin rug here. Wanna fuck?" In the movie, Nite Owl vents his rage in a much more convincing manner.
2. When The Music Works, It Works.
Distracting as the music is at some points, it is pretty cool that they played the Jimi Hendrix cover of All Along The Watchtower as Night Owl and Rorschach get ready to storm Adrian Veidt's fortress, given that the song was quoted in the book during that scene - "two riders were approaching, the wind began to howl".
There are a few other songs mentioned in the book which are used in the movie, such as Nite Owl's ship playing Billy Holiday's You're My Thrill during the apartment fire scene. And in one of the more few additions that works, a muzak version of Tears For Fears' Everybody Wants To Rule The World plays during the scene where Adrian Viedt meets with several American car company CEOs to discuss his plans for renewable energy. Would that more of the music had been so subtle.
3. Good Production Values
There's no denying that the movie looks amazing. The special effects are dazzling, with Dr. Manhattan being the best CGI creation since Gollum in the Lord of the Rings trilogy. But more than that, the sets... the costumes... the whole package looks marvelous.
4. Definitely Deserves The R-Rating
There were some fears that the movie might be "nerfed" in order to try and get it down to a PG-13 rating. Of course we all know that Dr. Manhattan's glowing blue schwanz has made it into the movie intact. But so did all of the other adult situations, for better or worse. Leave the kids, grandparents and conservative brother-in-law at home if you're going to see this.
5. Rorschach.
Jackie Earle Haley nailed the part, plain and simple.
The Final Word? Out in the theater lobby afterward, I heard one tween say that it was like watching The Passion of The Christ without sub-titles. That seems as good a description of what the movie is like to someone who hasn't read the book as any. And as for those who have read the book - just stay home, reread the book and wait for my review of the even-longer director's cut that is promised for the DVD before spending any money on this.
Let's do this in good and bad stages. And though this should go without saying, do not click on the links below unless you have read the book AND watched the movie.
THE BAD STUFF
1. Looks Like A Movie, Feels Like A Novel. A Russian Novel...
The biggest problem with the movie? It tries a little too hard to be a faithful adaptation of the book. Now, I know that may sound blasphemous to some and confusing to others but let me explain. It's obvious they put a lot of effort into getting as much of the book as possible on-screen but it doesn't look like much thought was put into exactly what should go on-screen.
Alan Moore himself pointed out the dangers of too-much detail in a film adaptation of a book in a recent interview. Oddly enough, he was talking about League of Extraordinary Gentlemen and not Watchmen but the same principles seem to apply.
"The things I was trying to instill in those books were generally things that were only appropriate to the comics medium. They were only about the comics medium, in a certain sense. To transplant them to the screen is going to chop off a good 30 or 40 percent of the reason why I wanted to do the work in the first place."
This is the grand irony of Watchmen. It is very faithful to the source material but in his efforts to get as much of the source material on screen, director Zack Snyder has created what is effectively a three-hour PowerPoint presentation on the Cliff Notes version of Watchmen.
There's no delicate way around it so let's be blunt - this movie is, at points, a little slow.
I admit that may be because I've read the book and knew what was coming for most of the movie... but I noticed very little gasping or audible reaction from the people around me as the movie went on.
The action-scenes all seem overly long with director Snyder's trade-mark slow-motion effects. Many of the action scenes are extended beyond what we saw in the comics - particularly The Comedian's death, which opens the movie and Veidt's battle with a would-be assassin. And the opening credits scene - while beautifully shot and set - has nothing to do with the main story of the movie though it does give us a lot of sly references to the books, such as the revelation that The Comedian was the true assassin of JFK.
And speaking of the opening credits...
2. I Can't Believe It's Not A Music Video!
There are a LOT of music-video moments throughout the movie, where a dominant song is played over a scene in order to suggest mood or place in time.
The effect works in some scenes, like the opening credits in which we see the history of the 1940's Minutemen heroes laid out to Bob Dylan's The Times They Are A-Changin'. In other points, like when K.C. And The Sunshine Band's Boogie Man blares as The Comedian is shooting protesters during a 1970's flashback, it doesn't. And in the case of Nite Owl/Silk Spectre's overly-long sex-scene - which is set to Leonard Cohen's Hallelujah - the effect is laughably awful.
3. The Devil's In The Details
Like the film-version of The Hitch-Hiker's Guide To The Galaxy from a few years ago, Watchmen tries and fails to achieve a difficult balance between being accessible to those who haven't read the book and devoted fans of the book. There are many images and moments which will mean something to those who have read the book but will be totally meaningless to somebody who hasn't. And the dedicated fans are likely to be annoyed at the minor details which are included in the final film while sacrificing some fairly major ones.
Example #1: The eventually destruction of New York does give us the scene where news-stand owner Bernard and comic-reader Bernie hug desperately in the face of their impending doom. In the book, it is a powerful moment given the slow evolution between the relationship of the two characters and their eventual friendship and the common ground they discover. In the movie, it is two random people who the sharp-eyed viewer may have been spotted in a blink-and-you'll-miss moment during an earlier establishing shot.
Example #2: The details of Walter Kovac's transformation into Rorschach are changed, with Kovacs' killing a kidnapper/murderer with a meat-cleaver to the head rather than by trapping him in a burning building. In the book, this scene is very cinematic and very symbolic as we see the depths of Roraschach's new-found resolve to punish evil as he waits for the building to burn while white smoke billows up and makes random shapes against the black sky. Just killing the man with a cleaver seems... anti-climactic.
4. Sexism Or Satire?
Quite a lot has been written about the lack of Feminist perspective in Watchmen. Certainly the book has a greater percentage of male characters compared to female characters, with only three female superheroes and none of these characters are particularly well developed. Laurie is defined almost entirely by her relationships to the male cast. Her mother Sally is a headcase who fell in love with her attempted rapist, with the implication that she dressed up in a sexy costume to fight crime because "she was asking for it". And all we know of Silhouette and her life comes through another character talking about her death.
This can be explained (and somewhat forgiven) by the fact that one of Alan Moore's goals with Watchmen was to satirize the cliches of Silver Age comics while examining and explaining some of the sillier aspects of those stories. Like why a woman would wear a swimsuit and high-heels to fight crime. But Snyder seems to have missed this angle of the story and - as he did in 300 ironically aggravated the problem with his attempts to ensure more equal-time.
You might recall that in that 300, Snyder introduced a subplot not in the original book where Gorgo, Queen of Sparta, attempted to field more troops to aid her husband through politicking. The problem was that this effort to bring a feminist perspective to 300 was negated when the strong-female icon surrenders her body to the whims of a rapist. In a similar vein, we learn about Silhouette in the opening-credit montage but we get no more information than Moore gave in the brief description Rorschach gave of her life.
How do we learn about Silhouette's life in the movie? Through two scenes with no dialogue. One shows her replacing the sailor in the famous Alfred Eisenstaedt photograph of a sailor kissing a nurse upon his homecoming from WWII. The other shows her and said nurse, bloody and suggestively dressed, stretched out on a bed with "Lesbian Whores" painted in blood on the wall behind them.
Neither of these moments were, it should be noted, in the original book and their addition does nothing save to add unneeded shock value or serve as pornography for a particularly disgusting breed of fan. One supposes they needed something to make up for the cutting of the Kitty Genovese scene.
5. Adrian's Not A Villain! Really!
I don't know if the problem was direction or with actor Matthew Goode... but those who didn't read the book will easily be able to pick out Adrian Veidt as the villain of the piece based on the way that he caries himself and acts. Goode plays Ozymandias as cool and dispassionate to the point of being near-Autistic - a far cry from the ever-smiling charmer of the original book. It was meant to be a shocking surprise that this man could possibly come up with the plan that he did, much less put it into action. The film Ozymandias never smiles and he'd certainly never demean himself by shouting "I Did It" and jumping up and down as his plan succeeds.
THE GOOD STUFF
1. The Ending
It never occurred to me before, but Nite Owl and Silk Spectre's reaction to Adrian's plan succeeding in the book basically comes down to "We're powerless to do anything and there's a bear-skin rug here. Wanna fuck?" In the movie, Nite Owl vents his rage in a much more convincing manner.
2. When The Music Works, It Works.
Distracting as the music is at some points, it is pretty cool that they played the Jimi Hendrix cover of All Along The Watchtower as Night Owl and Rorschach get ready to storm Adrian Veidt's fortress, given that the song was quoted in the book during that scene - "two riders were approaching, the wind began to howl".
There are a few other songs mentioned in the book which are used in the movie, such as Nite Owl's ship playing Billy Holiday's You're My Thrill during the apartment fire scene. And in one of the more few additions that works, a muzak version of Tears For Fears' Everybody Wants To Rule The World plays during the scene where Adrian Viedt meets with several American car company CEOs to discuss his plans for renewable energy. Would that more of the music had been so subtle.
3. Good Production Values
There's no denying that the movie looks amazing. The special effects are dazzling, with Dr. Manhattan being the best CGI creation since Gollum in the Lord of the Rings trilogy. But more than that, the sets... the costumes... the whole package looks marvelous.
4. Definitely Deserves The R-Rating
There were some fears that the movie might be "nerfed" in order to try and get it down to a PG-13 rating. Of course we all know that Dr. Manhattan's glowing blue schwanz has made it into the movie intact. But so did all of the other adult situations, for better or worse. Leave the kids, grandparents and conservative brother-in-law at home if you're going to see this.
5. Rorschach.
Jackie Earle Haley nailed the part, plain and simple.
The Final Word? Out in the theater lobby afterward, I heard one tween say that it was like watching The Passion of The Christ without sub-titles. That seems as good a description of what the movie is like to someone who hasn't read the book as any. And as for those who have read the book - just stay home, reread the book and wait for my review of the even-longer director's cut that is promised for the DVD before spending any money on this.
Tuesday, March 3, 2009
The Ages of Comics Defined
Because one person demanded it, a reprint of a column from the days of yore!
I’m often asked, both in e-mail and at work, about the various “ages” of comic books. Ages, in this case, refers to the various eras and epochs that can be used to classify the various defining moments in comic book history. Many newbies to the comics game and even some of the people have been at this a while are confused exactly what terms like “Golden Age” and “Silver Age” mean.
This confusion is well founded, for like most matters in our little hobby, the subject of ages is open to debate. Indeed, it is heavily debated and discussed at length by other scholars and comics historians. Sadly, settling the matter is not nearly as simple as going by the printing size of the comics in question: the criteria used for the design of the “Golden Age”, “Silver Age” and “Current Age” protective bags. Many different events are held up as “the story that changed it all” and such distinctions are made upon a historian’s favorite comic company or character as much as they are any historical relevance to the genre.
With that in mind, here is my guide to the generally accepted ages of comics.
In The Beginning...
Ignoring all discussion of cave paintings being an early form of comic book and the points that many periodicals in the 1800s featured illustrations to go with their short stories, it is generally accepted that the first comics as we know them today were published in the early 1900s. It began when newspaper publishers realized there might be a market for collections of their most popular comics. This lead to the publication of original material in the same format and the art-form began to develop.
The Golden Age: 1938-1949
Perhaps the only point that the majority of scholars agree on is that the release of Superman #1 in 1938 started what is commonly known as the Golden Age of comics. While Superman wasn’t the first vigilante with powers beyond those of an average man, he was the first one to develop a major following and fueled the creation of hundreds of other super-powered heroes.
Superhero books were popular throughout World War II, with heroes such as Captain America fighting Nazi Ubermensch. Still, superheroes were but one genre among many at this time, with war comics depicting ordinary soldiers still just as popular as the adventures of The All Star Squadron. Indeed, after the war ended the superhero genre began to slowly become less popular.
By the start of the 1950’s, all but the most popular of the superheroes had lost their titles. Later writers would parallel this decline of the genre with the McCarthy hearings and say in retro-historical pieces that most of the superheroes retired after WWII rather than give up their secret identities to a dangerous demagogue. It is here, as we enter into the 1950’s, that we encounter our first major point of contention.
The Silver Age: 1956-1970?
The Silver Age came about as a direct result of the creation of the Comics Code Authority, which allowed little leeway in what could and could not be shown in books that might be read by impressionable young children. Faced with the prospect of bloodless westerns and horror comics without horror, many writers and publishers turned to the one genre that still allowed them to show some excitement; superheroes.
Most mark the start of the Silver Age with Showcase #4, published in September 1956. This issue marked the first appearance of Barry Allen, the second man to be called “The Flash”. Allen’s creation came about as a result of a desire to retool some of the old superhero concepts into more scientific models. This mirrored the new emphasis on science and math in the public school system at a time when we were all still worried about the Russians getting an death ray into orbit. This would later lead to revamps of other heroes, such as changing Green Lantern into one of a corps of intergalactic police officers armed with technological rings rather than a train engineer with a magic lamp.
Still others, mostly Marvel Comics fans and devotes of Jack Kirby and Stan Lee, point to Fantastic Four #1 as the true start of the Silver Age. They point out that Fantastic Four was a landmark book, depicting for the first time heroes who really didn’t want to be heroes. Whereas most heroes of that time took great joy in their powers and in serving humanity, the Fantastic Four were composed of…
1. A war veteran turned into a hideous, by most accounts, rock monster.
2. His best friend, a detached scientist who’d rather be in the lab than trading blows with bank robbers.
3. Said scientist’s girlfriend, who wanted nothing more than to be a normal mommy.
4. Said girlfriend’s teenage brother, who was more interested in retooling his car and using his powers to pick up women than he was in saving the world.
Personally, I fall into the former camp. I’ll be the last person in the world to disrespect the contributions that Stan Lee and Jack Kirby made to the genre. Lee was the first writer to try and put real problems and complex personalities into his characters. Kirby was one of the spiritual godfathers to the genre, who revolutionized the way perspective was used in comic panels and no mean writer himself.
Still, it cannot be denied that while The Fantastic Four WERE an important contribution to the tone of the Silver Age, they were created in response to the popularity of the Justice League of America. The Justice League of America was made primarily of retooled Golden Age superheroes, including Barry Allen; The Flash.
Still, as heated as the beginnings of the Silver Age are, there is even greater debate as to what event marks the end of the era. Most those who argue the subject generally agree upon the end of the Silver Age falling within the same rough span of a few years but there is little consensus as to what specific event marked the end of the Silver Age and the age that followed.
I say “the age that followed” because even the name of this age, and its’ very existence is a point of contention among comic historians. There are some who put the end of the Silver Age even further back than the early 70s, marking its end with the death of the hero who they believe started the Silver Age. Barry Allen sacrificed himself to save the universe from being ripped apart at the seams in Crisis on Infinite Earths #8 in early 1986.
1986 would prove to be an important year in the comic industry and the start of the last agreed upon turning point for an age to start with. But that is getting ahead of ourselves, as we still have the most argued upon age to deal with.
The Bronze Age: 1970ish to 1986
The most contentious age of the four rough ages that comics’ history is divided into, this one boasts a number of “beginning” points. The only major agreement between all those who argue one major event over another is that most of the comics of this time began to tell more mature, reality-based stories than anytime since before the introduction of the Comics Code.
Indeed, many of the “starting points” involve books that were published in defiance of CCA guidelines in order to tell a story that could make a difference. Many mark Amazing Spider-Man #96-98 (May 1971), where Stan Lee wrote a subplot about Harry Osborn’s problems with pill-popping and Peter saving his “tripping” friend while wondering how he could do such a thing to himself, as the start of the Bronze Age.
A scant three months later, DC would go one-step further in Green Lantern/Green Arrow #85, when they revealed that Speedy (sidekick to Green Arrow) had become a heroin addict while trying to infiltrate a gang. While Marvel got their anti-drug issue out first, DC won more attention for being more specific about what drugs were involved (heroin vs. “pills”) and in giving the addiction to a teenage superhero rather than the superhero’s best friend.
Green Lantern/Green Arrow itself is held by some as the start of the Bronze Age. The book had been simply Green Lantern until Issue #76, when it was taken over by the new team of writer Dennis “Denny” O’Neil and artist Neal Adams.
O’Neil had the idea of teaming Green Lantern with fellow JLA member Green Arrow, whom he wrote as an idealist liberal like O’Neil himself. He then began to push the genre by doing stories centering upon political issues and moral quandaries. No more would Green Lantern fly off to stop intergalactic bank-robbers; not when he had to reconcile his soul with the difference between upholding law and order and serving justice. Who should he help? The property owner attacked by his renters or the young man arrested for protesting against the landlord who was kicking him out of his home to sell the land for a huge profit?
O’Neil’s work on Batman during these same years is also heralded by some as the start of the Bronze Age. In these years following the release of the purposely campy Batman television series, the Batman comics suffered from the same type of cornball humor and hackneyed plots. With the introduction of new villains such as Ra’s Al Ghul, O’Neil slowly turned Batman back into The Dark Knight Detective with a heavy emphasis on the dark. The giggling criminals were put to the wayside for a bit as Batman was made into a James Bond figure; saving the world through the use of keen intellect, raw cunning and a heck of a lot of wonderful toys.
Still, what is probably the most popular “start” point for the Bronze Age is The Death of Gwen Stacy (Amazing Spider-Man #121, June 1973). Countless writers have marked that event as a major turning point in the life of Peter Parker which still haunts him to this day. Indeed, writer Kurt Busiek based the last issue of his famous “Marvels” mini-series around her death and titled the last chapter “The Day She Died”, paralleling her death with “The Day the Music Died”. As much as the death changed Peter Parker, it would shape the comics-reading public even more. Marvel Comics had broken the unspoken rule that the hero ALWAYS saved the girl at the last moment and it was truly a momentous occasion.
And there are dozens of others points that can and have been argued as the start of this new age of comics. Conan The Barbarian #1 (1970) brought a hero who had no qualms about killing into regular publication for the first time in years. Giant Size X-Men #1 (1975) is often held up, as it introduced the first major superhero team made up of an international cast.
Still, for my money, I have to agree with the infamous Unca Cheeks of the much missed Unca Cheeks Silver Age Comics Site in that the defining end of the Silver Age and start of the Bronze Age had nothing to do with a comic story. It had to do with the movement of a legend.
In 1970, amid arguments of unfair treatment among other problems, artist and writer Jack Kirby would leave Marvel Comics, the company that he had helped found as Timely Comics and helped grow to new heights in the 60’s, in order to continue his work with his former competition at DC Comics. Marvel was never quite the same after Kirby left and DC grew all the richer for his years of experience. While some of Kirby’s creations are looked upon with a fair amount of ridicule today, his creation of ‘The New Gods’ and ‘The Fourth World’ left a heavy mine of material that has been put to good use by countless scribes since. And lets not forget, he created Darkseid who is probably the best new villain Superman has had in the last fifty years.
Still, it is widely agreed that no matter what kicked it off, the Bronze Age did come to a definite end in the mid-80’s with the introduction of the first inter-company crossovers. While crossovers were nothing new at this point, doing a major story featuring dozens of characters from several books was.
Marvel was the first to attempt this with ‘Secret Wars’ (1984), a story in which Spider-Man, The Hulk and several members of the Fantastic Four, Avengers, Defenders and X-Men were pulled from the Earth by a being called The Beyonder, who wished to test the strength of both “good” and “evil” in an epic battle on an abandoned planet.
A year later, DC Comics would publish the twelve-part story ‘Crisis on Infinite Earths’. The story centered upon the villainous Anti-Monitor, ruler of the Anti-Matter Universe, who attempted to destroy the myriad of matter-based realities. Many heroes were killed and numerous Earths destroyed. In the end, only one universe survived and the refuges of the various destroyed worlds were absorbed into the reality of this new Earth.
This was as much a house-cleaning project as it was an attempt to match the success of Secret Wars. DC scrapped the history of numerous alternate Earths in an attempt to make their comics more accessible to new readers who wondered why in some comics Batman was married to Catwoman and in others he wasn’t.
This brings us to 1986 and the books that lead to the creation of the next age of comics.
The Modern Age/The Dark Age: 1986-1996.
There are two books which it is generally agreed ushered in the fourth age of comics: ‘Watchmen’ and ‘The Dark Knight Returns’. Both of these comics were mature, thoughtful and definitely darker looks at the superhero than had ever been seen before. Watchmen was particularly gruesome, having starker portrayals of death, sex and adult subject matter than any mainstream comic beforehand. Still, despite its more graphic content, DKR was all the more shocking as it took two of the most familiar superhero icons in the world (Superman and Batman) and set them to war against one another in a dystopian future.
Both comics were critical and financial successes, inspiring a great deal of commentary from critics outside of the traditional comics-reviewing media. Spurred on by this success, the publishers began trying to market more titles exclusively to adult audiences.
DC had the most success with this, establishing the Vertigo Press imprint to better label their more dangerous properties. This included such notable series as The Sandman and Hellblazer, both of which started out as standard DC titles. Never making the jump to Vertigo, but no less controversial, was Mike Grell’s Green Arrow, which drew sharp criticism and high praise for its’ accurate, if unsettling, portrayals of vigilante justice and the violence involved.
Marvel never had the success with an adults-only imprint that DC did, but this didn’t stop them from trying. As the age progressed, violent heroes like Wolverine and The Punisher became more popular, with the latter hero supporting several titles at the height of his popularity.
The anti-hero as a figure would eventually become the paradigm of choice for many creators and many more traditional heroes had darker sides grafted onto their personalities, no matter how poorly this fit their character, in an attempt to be more “gritty”. In one particularly grievous example, the Green Lantern Hal Jordan, who had been given superhuman powers for being the bravest and most honest of men, would have his background changed so that he had a drunk-driving conviction and was responsible for the death of his best friend.
Image Comics, founded in 1991, would go to press with a stable of original characters made up of almost entirely of anti-heroes. While Image’s comics sold quite well initially, they drew sharp criticism from some for excessive violence and poor writing.
Despite this, many of the more established comic companies began trying to imitate the success of the new kids on the block. Artists with styles similar to the “Big Seven” artists who founded Image Comics were given job preference over the more traditional artists in the hopes of winning over new readers. New gimmicks, such as restarting titles with #1 issues and alternate covers were tried, to win the dollar of the many comics fans getting into a burgeoning collector’s market. And then came what many say was the final nail in the coffin: character death events.
The precedent was there long before even Image was founded. It was 1988 when DC conducted a telephone poll to determine if Jason Todd, a street kid who Bruce Wayne had adopted and trained as the new Robin after the old Robin left for college, should be killed by The Joker as part of an on-going storyline. The fans chose death, with a mere 72 votes out of thousands deciding the world’s most famous sidekick’s fate.
The death of Robin proved to be a sales bonanza even as armchair psychologists decried what such a vote said about our society. They would be strangely quiet some four years later, when DC Comics did it again with a story that came to be known as “The Death of Superman”. Batman was put through a similar ringer, having his back broken and being permanently crippled during the “Knightfall” storyline. While both heroes would eventually recover (Superman was later revealed to be in a coma and Batman was healed by a chi-channeling doctor), the third of the classic DC Comics heroes to undergo a “death event” that year would not be so lucky.
Hal Jordan, whose home town was destroyed during the events of “The Return of Superman”, went mad and wound up destroying The Green Lantern Corps as he tried to get the power he needed to “put things right”. This would eventually lead into ‘Zero Hour’, a sort-of sequel to ‘Crisis on Infinite Earths’ spanning all of the books DC Comics published then and centering around all of the heroes of the universe trying to stop Hal Jordan from using his newfound power from destroying the universe, so that he could rebuild paradise and in-effect, play God.
DC was far from alone in this kind of gimmick-based writing. In what is perhaps the most reviled storyline of all time, it was alleged that the Peter Parker we’d been reading about for years was not really Peter Parker, but a clone of the original who had been “killed” and thought to have been a clone himself before his body was stuck in a smokestack and assumed incinerated. This would eventually and painfully be resolved some years later, but not before Spider-Man’s sales fell to new lows.
In short, writing fell to the wayside in favor of artwork. Gimmicks of both story and artwork ruled the roost. And traditional heroism would be replaced by an “the ends justify the means” attitude.
The Current Age/The Renaissance: 1997 to Present
Some argue that we are still trapped in this era of barbarism. Avengers is soon to start over with a new #1 after several of the team members are due to die as part of the “Avengers Disassembled” storyline. Despite a major crash in the late 90’s, the collector’s market spurred on by several artists still continues albeit it not as strongly. And despite all attempts by decent people everywhere, Youngblood continues to be published as a small-press independent title.
Still, there are some signs that we have truly progressed out of the Modern/Dark Age and that a new movement has begun. Change occurs slowly, of course and as we have seen, there were some long transition periods marking the changes between the various ages. It is my belief that we are now entering a Fifth Age, where we are somewhat the wiser for the mistakes of the Dark Age and ready to move forward with that knowledge to create something new and wonderful as a tribute to our roots. Like the Italians who looked back at the great artistic and scientific achievement of their Roman forebears, we are on the verge of a Comic Book Renaissance.
But what event shall we say marked the beginning of this era? I can think of two to start with...
1. Kingdom Come - 1996. Probably the most influential Elseworlds within the last 10 years, this story was plotted by Mark Waid and Alex Ross as a direct response to the increasing darkness in the comic book industry. If you haven’t read it by now, you really should as the story’s moral about the importance of heroes not stooping to the same methods as the criminals they fight against is more relevant in the post 9-11 era than ever before.
2. Grant Morrison’s JLA - 1997. It all began with a simple idea; why not make the Justice League like it was in the good ol’ days? All the big-name superheroes fighting against major, end-of-the-world disasters, once a month, every month? Simple. To the point. And bloody brilliant when a mad Scotsman named Grant Morrison pulled it off. Best known for his work on various Vertigo mature titles, Morrison showed that it was possible to do a smart, mature modern superhero title with an old-school touch.
So what do you all think? Was the “Dark Age” really all that bad? Is there some story besides Kingdom Come or the new JLA that shows a shift away from the values of the Dark Age? Are we really entering a new age of enlightenment? Or are we, to quote the preacher from Blazing Saddles, “just jerking off?”
Wow. I really need to write an update for this, looking back on the halcyon days when we thought Avengers #500 was the end-all of just how bad Brian Michael Bendis' writing could be.
I’m often asked, both in e-mail and at work, about the various “ages” of comic books. Ages, in this case, refers to the various eras and epochs that can be used to classify the various defining moments in comic book history. Many newbies to the comics game and even some of the people have been at this a while are confused exactly what terms like “Golden Age” and “Silver Age” mean.
This confusion is well founded, for like most matters in our little hobby, the subject of ages is open to debate. Indeed, it is heavily debated and discussed at length by other scholars and comics historians. Sadly, settling the matter is not nearly as simple as going by the printing size of the comics in question: the criteria used for the design of the “Golden Age”, “Silver Age” and “Current Age” protective bags. Many different events are held up as “the story that changed it all” and such distinctions are made upon a historian’s favorite comic company or character as much as they are any historical relevance to the genre.
With that in mind, here is my guide to the generally accepted ages of comics.
In The Beginning...
Ignoring all discussion of cave paintings being an early form of comic book and the points that many periodicals in the 1800s featured illustrations to go with their short stories, it is generally accepted that the first comics as we know them today were published in the early 1900s. It began when newspaper publishers realized there might be a market for collections of their most popular comics. This lead to the publication of original material in the same format and the art-form began to develop.
The Golden Age: 1938-1949
Perhaps the only point that the majority of scholars agree on is that the release of Superman #1 in 1938 started what is commonly known as the Golden Age of comics. While Superman wasn’t the first vigilante with powers beyond those of an average man, he was the first one to develop a major following and fueled the creation of hundreds of other super-powered heroes.
Superhero books were popular throughout World War II, with heroes such as Captain America fighting Nazi Ubermensch. Still, superheroes were but one genre among many at this time, with war comics depicting ordinary soldiers still just as popular as the adventures of The All Star Squadron. Indeed, after the war ended the superhero genre began to slowly become less popular.
By the start of the 1950’s, all but the most popular of the superheroes had lost their titles. Later writers would parallel this decline of the genre with the McCarthy hearings and say in retro-historical pieces that most of the superheroes retired after WWII rather than give up their secret identities to a dangerous demagogue. It is here, as we enter into the 1950’s, that we encounter our first major point of contention.
The Silver Age: 1956-1970?
The Silver Age came about as a direct result of the creation of the Comics Code Authority, which allowed little leeway in what could and could not be shown in books that might be read by impressionable young children. Faced with the prospect of bloodless westerns and horror comics without horror, many writers and publishers turned to the one genre that still allowed them to show some excitement; superheroes.
Most mark the start of the Silver Age with Showcase #4, published in September 1956. This issue marked the first appearance of Barry Allen, the second man to be called “The Flash”. Allen’s creation came about as a result of a desire to retool some of the old superhero concepts into more scientific models. This mirrored the new emphasis on science and math in the public school system at a time when we were all still worried about the Russians getting an death ray into orbit. This would later lead to revamps of other heroes, such as changing Green Lantern into one of a corps of intergalactic police officers armed with technological rings rather than a train engineer with a magic lamp.
Still others, mostly Marvel Comics fans and devotes of Jack Kirby and Stan Lee, point to Fantastic Four #1 as the true start of the Silver Age. They point out that Fantastic Four was a landmark book, depicting for the first time heroes who really didn’t want to be heroes. Whereas most heroes of that time took great joy in their powers and in serving humanity, the Fantastic Four were composed of…
1. A war veteran turned into a hideous, by most accounts, rock monster.
2. His best friend, a detached scientist who’d rather be in the lab than trading blows with bank robbers.
3. Said scientist’s girlfriend, who wanted nothing more than to be a normal mommy.
4. Said girlfriend’s teenage brother, who was more interested in retooling his car and using his powers to pick up women than he was in saving the world.
Personally, I fall into the former camp. I’ll be the last person in the world to disrespect the contributions that Stan Lee and Jack Kirby made to the genre. Lee was the first writer to try and put real problems and complex personalities into his characters. Kirby was one of the spiritual godfathers to the genre, who revolutionized the way perspective was used in comic panels and no mean writer himself.
Still, it cannot be denied that while The Fantastic Four WERE an important contribution to the tone of the Silver Age, they were created in response to the popularity of the Justice League of America. The Justice League of America was made primarily of retooled Golden Age superheroes, including Barry Allen; The Flash.
Still, as heated as the beginnings of the Silver Age are, there is even greater debate as to what event marks the end of the era. Most those who argue the subject generally agree upon the end of the Silver Age falling within the same rough span of a few years but there is little consensus as to what specific event marked the end of the Silver Age and the age that followed.
I say “the age that followed” because even the name of this age, and its’ very existence is a point of contention among comic historians. There are some who put the end of the Silver Age even further back than the early 70s, marking its end with the death of the hero who they believe started the Silver Age. Barry Allen sacrificed himself to save the universe from being ripped apart at the seams in Crisis on Infinite Earths #8 in early 1986.
1986 would prove to be an important year in the comic industry and the start of the last agreed upon turning point for an age to start with. But that is getting ahead of ourselves, as we still have the most argued upon age to deal with.
The Bronze Age: 1970ish to 1986
The most contentious age of the four rough ages that comics’ history is divided into, this one boasts a number of “beginning” points. The only major agreement between all those who argue one major event over another is that most of the comics of this time began to tell more mature, reality-based stories than anytime since before the introduction of the Comics Code.
Indeed, many of the “starting points” involve books that were published in defiance of CCA guidelines in order to tell a story that could make a difference. Many mark Amazing Spider-Man #96-98 (May 1971), where Stan Lee wrote a subplot about Harry Osborn’s problems with pill-popping and Peter saving his “tripping” friend while wondering how he could do such a thing to himself, as the start of the Bronze Age.
A scant three months later, DC would go one-step further in Green Lantern/Green Arrow #85, when they revealed that Speedy (sidekick to Green Arrow) had become a heroin addict while trying to infiltrate a gang. While Marvel got their anti-drug issue out first, DC won more attention for being more specific about what drugs were involved (heroin vs. “pills”) and in giving the addiction to a teenage superhero rather than the superhero’s best friend.
Green Lantern/Green Arrow itself is held by some as the start of the Bronze Age. The book had been simply Green Lantern until Issue #76, when it was taken over by the new team of writer Dennis “Denny” O’Neil and artist Neal Adams.
O’Neil had the idea of teaming Green Lantern with fellow JLA member Green Arrow, whom he wrote as an idealist liberal like O’Neil himself. He then began to push the genre by doing stories centering upon political issues and moral quandaries. No more would Green Lantern fly off to stop intergalactic bank-robbers; not when he had to reconcile his soul with the difference between upholding law and order and serving justice. Who should he help? The property owner attacked by his renters or the young man arrested for protesting against the landlord who was kicking him out of his home to sell the land for a huge profit?
O’Neil’s work on Batman during these same years is also heralded by some as the start of the Bronze Age. In these years following the release of the purposely campy Batman television series, the Batman comics suffered from the same type of cornball humor and hackneyed plots. With the introduction of new villains such as Ra’s Al Ghul, O’Neil slowly turned Batman back into The Dark Knight Detective with a heavy emphasis on the dark. The giggling criminals were put to the wayside for a bit as Batman was made into a James Bond figure; saving the world through the use of keen intellect, raw cunning and a heck of a lot of wonderful toys.
Still, what is probably the most popular “start” point for the Bronze Age is The Death of Gwen Stacy (Amazing Spider-Man #121, June 1973). Countless writers have marked that event as a major turning point in the life of Peter Parker which still haunts him to this day. Indeed, writer Kurt Busiek based the last issue of his famous “Marvels” mini-series around her death and titled the last chapter “The Day She Died”, paralleling her death with “The Day the Music Died”. As much as the death changed Peter Parker, it would shape the comics-reading public even more. Marvel Comics had broken the unspoken rule that the hero ALWAYS saved the girl at the last moment and it was truly a momentous occasion.
And there are dozens of others points that can and have been argued as the start of this new age of comics. Conan The Barbarian #1 (1970) brought a hero who had no qualms about killing into regular publication for the first time in years. Giant Size X-Men #1 (1975) is often held up, as it introduced the first major superhero team made up of an international cast.
Still, for my money, I have to agree with the infamous Unca Cheeks of the much missed Unca Cheeks Silver Age Comics Site in that the defining end of the Silver Age and start of the Bronze Age had nothing to do with a comic story. It had to do with the movement of a legend.
In 1970, amid arguments of unfair treatment among other problems, artist and writer Jack Kirby would leave Marvel Comics, the company that he had helped found as Timely Comics and helped grow to new heights in the 60’s, in order to continue his work with his former competition at DC Comics. Marvel was never quite the same after Kirby left and DC grew all the richer for his years of experience. While some of Kirby’s creations are looked upon with a fair amount of ridicule today, his creation of ‘The New Gods’ and ‘The Fourth World’ left a heavy mine of material that has been put to good use by countless scribes since. And lets not forget, he created Darkseid who is probably the best new villain Superman has had in the last fifty years.
Still, it is widely agreed that no matter what kicked it off, the Bronze Age did come to a definite end in the mid-80’s with the introduction of the first inter-company crossovers. While crossovers were nothing new at this point, doing a major story featuring dozens of characters from several books was.
Marvel was the first to attempt this with ‘Secret Wars’ (1984), a story in which Spider-Man, The Hulk and several members of the Fantastic Four, Avengers, Defenders and X-Men were pulled from the Earth by a being called The Beyonder, who wished to test the strength of both “good” and “evil” in an epic battle on an abandoned planet.
A year later, DC Comics would publish the twelve-part story ‘Crisis on Infinite Earths’. The story centered upon the villainous Anti-Monitor, ruler of the Anti-Matter Universe, who attempted to destroy the myriad of matter-based realities. Many heroes were killed and numerous Earths destroyed. In the end, only one universe survived and the refuges of the various destroyed worlds were absorbed into the reality of this new Earth.
This was as much a house-cleaning project as it was an attempt to match the success of Secret Wars. DC scrapped the history of numerous alternate Earths in an attempt to make their comics more accessible to new readers who wondered why in some comics Batman was married to Catwoman and in others he wasn’t.
This brings us to 1986 and the books that lead to the creation of the next age of comics.
The Modern Age/The Dark Age: 1986-1996.
There are two books which it is generally agreed ushered in the fourth age of comics: ‘Watchmen’ and ‘The Dark Knight Returns’. Both of these comics were mature, thoughtful and definitely darker looks at the superhero than had ever been seen before. Watchmen was particularly gruesome, having starker portrayals of death, sex and adult subject matter than any mainstream comic beforehand. Still, despite its more graphic content, DKR was all the more shocking as it took two of the most familiar superhero icons in the world (Superman and Batman) and set them to war against one another in a dystopian future.
Both comics were critical and financial successes, inspiring a great deal of commentary from critics outside of the traditional comics-reviewing media. Spurred on by this success, the publishers began trying to market more titles exclusively to adult audiences.
DC had the most success with this, establishing the Vertigo Press imprint to better label their more dangerous properties. This included such notable series as The Sandman and Hellblazer, both of which started out as standard DC titles. Never making the jump to Vertigo, but no less controversial, was Mike Grell’s Green Arrow, which drew sharp criticism and high praise for its’ accurate, if unsettling, portrayals of vigilante justice and the violence involved.
Marvel never had the success with an adults-only imprint that DC did, but this didn’t stop them from trying. As the age progressed, violent heroes like Wolverine and The Punisher became more popular, with the latter hero supporting several titles at the height of his popularity.
The anti-hero as a figure would eventually become the paradigm of choice for many creators and many more traditional heroes had darker sides grafted onto their personalities, no matter how poorly this fit their character, in an attempt to be more “gritty”. In one particularly grievous example, the Green Lantern Hal Jordan, who had been given superhuman powers for being the bravest and most honest of men, would have his background changed so that he had a drunk-driving conviction and was responsible for the death of his best friend.
Image Comics, founded in 1991, would go to press with a stable of original characters made up of almost entirely of anti-heroes. While Image’s comics sold quite well initially, they drew sharp criticism from some for excessive violence and poor writing.
Despite this, many of the more established comic companies began trying to imitate the success of the new kids on the block. Artists with styles similar to the “Big Seven” artists who founded Image Comics were given job preference over the more traditional artists in the hopes of winning over new readers. New gimmicks, such as restarting titles with #1 issues and alternate covers were tried, to win the dollar of the many comics fans getting into a burgeoning collector’s market. And then came what many say was the final nail in the coffin: character death events.
The precedent was there long before even Image was founded. It was 1988 when DC conducted a telephone poll to determine if Jason Todd, a street kid who Bruce Wayne had adopted and trained as the new Robin after the old Robin left for college, should be killed by The Joker as part of an on-going storyline. The fans chose death, with a mere 72 votes out of thousands deciding the world’s most famous sidekick’s fate.
The death of Robin proved to be a sales bonanza even as armchair psychologists decried what such a vote said about our society. They would be strangely quiet some four years later, when DC Comics did it again with a story that came to be known as “The Death of Superman”. Batman was put through a similar ringer, having his back broken and being permanently crippled during the “Knightfall” storyline. While both heroes would eventually recover (Superman was later revealed to be in a coma and Batman was healed by a chi-channeling doctor), the third of the classic DC Comics heroes to undergo a “death event” that year would not be so lucky.
Hal Jordan, whose home town was destroyed during the events of “The Return of Superman”, went mad and wound up destroying The Green Lantern Corps as he tried to get the power he needed to “put things right”. This would eventually lead into ‘Zero Hour’, a sort-of sequel to ‘Crisis on Infinite Earths’ spanning all of the books DC Comics published then and centering around all of the heroes of the universe trying to stop Hal Jordan from using his newfound power from destroying the universe, so that he could rebuild paradise and in-effect, play God.
DC was far from alone in this kind of gimmick-based writing. In what is perhaps the most reviled storyline of all time, it was alleged that the Peter Parker we’d been reading about for years was not really Peter Parker, but a clone of the original who had been “killed” and thought to have been a clone himself before his body was stuck in a smokestack and assumed incinerated. This would eventually and painfully be resolved some years later, but not before Spider-Man’s sales fell to new lows.
In short, writing fell to the wayside in favor of artwork. Gimmicks of both story and artwork ruled the roost. And traditional heroism would be replaced by an “the ends justify the means” attitude.
The Current Age/The Renaissance: 1997 to Present
Some argue that we are still trapped in this era of barbarism. Avengers is soon to start over with a new #1 after several of the team members are due to die as part of the “Avengers Disassembled” storyline. Despite a major crash in the late 90’s, the collector’s market spurred on by several artists still continues albeit it not as strongly. And despite all attempts by decent people everywhere, Youngblood continues to be published as a small-press independent title.
Still, there are some signs that we have truly progressed out of the Modern/Dark Age and that a new movement has begun. Change occurs slowly, of course and as we have seen, there were some long transition periods marking the changes between the various ages. It is my belief that we are now entering a Fifth Age, where we are somewhat the wiser for the mistakes of the Dark Age and ready to move forward with that knowledge to create something new and wonderful as a tribute to our roots. Like the Italians who looked back at the great artistic and scientific achievement of their Roman forebears, we are on the verge of a Comic Book Renaissance.
But what event shall we say marked the beginning of this era? I can think of two to start with...
1. Kingdom Come - 1996. Probably the most influential Elseworlds within the last 10 years, this story was plotted by Mark Waid and Alex Ross as a direct response to the increasing darkness in the comic book industry. If you haven’t read it by now, you really should as the story’s moral about the importance of heroes not stooping to the same methods as the criminals they fight against is more relevant in the post 9-11 era than ever before.
2. Grant Morrison’s JLA - 1997. It all began with a simple idea; why not make the Justice League like it was in the good ol’ days? All the big-name superheroes fighting against major, end-of-the-world disasters, once a month, every month? Simple. To the point. And bloody brilliant when a mad Scotsman named Grant Morrison pulled it off. Best known for his work on various Vertigo mature titles, Morrison showed that it was possible to do a smart, mature modern superhero title with an old-school touch.
So what do you all think? Was the “Dark Age” really all that bad? Is there some story besides Kingdom Come or the new JLA that shows a shift away from the values of the Dark Age? Are we really entering a new age of enlightenment? Or are we, to quote the preacher from Blazing Saddles, “just jerking off?”
Wow. I really need to write an update for this, looking back on the halcyon days when we thought Avengers #500 was the end-all of just how bad Brian Michael Bendis' writing could be.
Monday, March 2, 2009
Thoughts on HEROES, Season 4, Chapter 5 - Exposed
Now here's the question... will the title refer to superhumans in general be exposed to the general public, what Nathan's team is doing being exposed or will Nathan's status as a superhuman be exposed to his team?
Last Time: Matt, Peter and Mohinder kidnapped Noah to find out who was backing the government's efforts to capture superhumans. They found out that it was all Nathan's idea, that his field commander Danko is taking over more and more of the show and that Noah - who had signed on only because he thought he would be running things and that they would be containing powered people until they could find a permanent cure - was responsible for saving Daphne's life.
What they didn't find out was that Noah is also a deep-cover agent, working to bring Nathan's group down from within on Angela's behalf.
Mohinder gets captured and is given an ultimatum: help develop the cure or we start killing people, starting with the helpless women we have in custody before we move on to you and your friends.
And hiding out again in Issac's loft, Matt begins to paint the future... conjuring up grim images of a Washington DC in flames and Matt himself with a dynamite vest.
8:00 - Okay. Recap shows Sylar and Luke looking for their dad. Recapping Nathan telling his men about the fugitives, Peter nearly killing Danko, Claire saving the comic book guy Aquaman and Noah getting kicked out of the house. And, oh yes, Daphne is still alive.
8:01 - Heh. I like how Aquaman to be smart enough to realize how silly it is trying to hide out in a strange city with the government having the power and authority they have right now to have found him in the first place. Give Claire points for trying to be Harriet Tubman, though.
8:03 - Nice fake out with Muggles going after the sandwich under the bed. Of course Aquaman bungles it up anyway by making noise inside the closet.
8:04 - And here comes yet another Danko/Nathan dick-waving contest over lethal-force/non-lethal force. With Noah chuckling all the while, with Noah playing the villain by pointing out "They kidnapped me, drugged me, and mind-raped me. What makes you think I won't shoot them myself, orders or no?" as Nathan looks for sympathy from Noah.
8:05 - Heh. Peter being the smart one again... trying to get Matt to stop painting but eventually relenting on saving Daphne as a next step.
8:06 - Hmmm... someone hacking into Mohinder's computer to deliver a message, the address of where Daphne is being held and a warning, telling them that The Feds are coming. Micah being REBEL is looking more and more likely.
8:09 - The geeky guy is the new boyfriend? Yeah, I don't think mom is buying it.
8:10 - No. Mom DEFINITELY isn't buying it. And given everything that's been going on with Noah lying to her... she's REALLY not happy with Claire. Moreso about the lying than endangering them even more by bringing a wanted fugitive into their home.
8:11 - And yeah... Luke doesn't want Sylar to see his dad for some reason. Not that I - or Sylar - cares. And Sylar wants in at some abandoned road stop for some reason.
8:13 - Claire is trying the Peter Parker "we were trying to protect you - that's why we lied" speech. And Sandra is being a LOT less nice about it than Aunt May was when Peter finally told her the truth. And, of course, the Feds are already there. And they're watching Claire, suspecting that she WAS involved in Aquaman Alex's disappearance.
8:14 - "I have a plan. I just haven't thought of it yet." *face palm* Claire, Claire, Claire... when did you absorb the stupid from Peter?
8:15 - Speaking of which - Peter copies Matt's power, figuring they have a better chance infiltrating a building with two mind-controllers than with one mind-controller and a flyer who MIGHT be useful if they can get to the roof to escape. Peter is now officially my favorite character again.
8:16 - And sure enough... Peter is right. Two telepaths are better than one. But they have cameras everywhere and it doesn't take Danko, Nathan and Noah long to figure out what is going on.
8:17 - Of course Matt has this covered and has all the armed guards he and Peter walked past blocking off the hall. Awesome. Wait...Holy crap! This is the second time in as many episodes that the good-guy's plan actually worked! Matt so totally owned that smug nod at the camera monitor.
8:21 - Heh. Sandra is officially the coolest mom ever. Making a fake ID AND giving fashion tips for the fugitive on-the-go.
8:24 - Okay, so Sylar remembers this place and having been there once before. And here comes a B&W flashback. Not that I care.
8:25 - Awww... and he's tearing up the diner to get the toy car he lost so many years ago and now he remembers his father and having been abandoned here. And this is supposed to be poignant, I suppose. But it's just stupid and trite as hell.
8:26 - Ooooooh! Watchmen preview! Now THIS I care about!
8:30 - "How do I look?" Like an even douchier version of Sylar.
8:32 - Ooooh. So close to a kiss there. Bet you felt that, eh Claire?
8:33 - Good thing they don't have powered people in the government team. Cause a telepath would SO see through this ruse in seconds.
8:34 - Yet more evidence that Micah is Rebel. Bad news is that Daphne has been moved to a medical facility. Good news is that Rebel is able to hack the computer and gets all the evidence they need to prove that Nathan's group is doing very, very illegal things onto a drive for Peter. Of course, am I the only one cynical enough to think - especially in light of this news story - that the revelation of illegal incarceration of American citizens wouldn't be nearly that big of a deal?
8:35 - And of course Noah is the one to come up with a plan to deal with Matt; telepath's basic five senses get more easily overwhelmed when they are using their powers. So crank up the sirens and the lights.
8:36 - And... Matt is caught. But Peter gets away... with the evidence. Hopefully Peter will have the sense to go to the media rather than try and trade it to Nathan.
8:37 - And... more B&W flashbacks. Yawn. Yes, we KNEW this was where it Sylar's dad sold him to Sylar's uncle and we all saw this coming from the minute we saw Sylar pull over.
8:38 - Of course Sylar's dad having killed his mom...and having done it the same with with a telekinetic lash to the forehead in the parking lot of said pit stop... that we did NOT see coming.
8:42 - And Angela denies being Rebel or helping them. Or Peter. She also notes that she'd never bite the hand that feeds her with Nathan giving her immunity to what the government is doing. Of course we know that's BS and Nathan seems to be thinking that too.
8:43 - Okay. Peter IS trying a trade - Daphne and Matt for the files - but balancing it against the threat of giving it to the media. Here's hoping that Peter pulls an Ozymandis here and is doing both... or has some other trick up his sleeve.
8:45 - And we're back to the "way too dark" HEROES lighting here. How much you want to bet there is a pool and that Danko's agents aren't nearly as thorough as Bennet is about knowing a target's powers?
8:46 - Can I call it or what? And there is the air-trade kiss that we saw last time in the previews. Nice.
8:47 - Alright Peter! Making the meeting spot a news studio parking lot. Naturally Danko is planning treachery. And I love Noah's "dur-hey" look at Nathan when he says "Remember: Peter can read your thoughts now."
8:48 - Of course Noah remembered that. And of course he gave Peter a warning by thinking it. But Nathan showing up to pull an air-lift and get Peter out of there before Danko could start snipering Peter... that I did not see coming.
8:52 - Yeah. Peter is not buying the whole "you'll be taken care of thing". Of course given what happened the last time he trusted Nathan, can you blame him? And that's ignoring that Peter can read Nathan's mind now and see the BS trail. One touch and Peter is off and flying again.
8:54 - Oh, GO PETER! He did it! He passed the whole thing onto the media anonymously. Looks like the whole thing IS exposed, except the existence of super powers.
8:55 - And HERE is the Sylar we know and love! Giving Luke the smack-around he sorely needs and then letting him live to go back to his mother... because to Luke, that is SO much worse than killing him. And now he wants to find dad... to kill him.
8:57 - And, oh-crap.... THAT is how Matt winds up in a suicide bomber vest in the middle of DC. Danko doped him up and set him up.
8:58 - Still, Claire is feeling good and has done some good. Except...oh shit, there's Eric Doyle - aka The Puppet Master. Somehow he survived the Primatech fire. And now... he's looking to Claire for help, thanks to a tip from Rebel. On the bright side, that means there's a good chance Meredith survived too.
The Final Thoughts: A lot more action than last episode and nearly as good. I'm loving the show again, though I'd be happy with a lot less Sylar being emo. Hopefully this will be the last of it.
Last Time: Matt, Peter and Mohinder kidnapped Noah to find out who was backing the government's efforts to capture superhumans. They found out that it was all Nathan's idea, that his field commander Danko is taking over more and more of the show and that Noah - who had signed on only because he thought he would be running things and that they would be containing powered people until they could find a permanent cure - was responsible for saving Daphne's life.
What they didn't find out was that Noah is also a deep-cover agent, working to bring Nathan's group down from within on Angela's behalf.
Mohinder gets captured and is given an ultimatum: help develop the cure or we start killing people, starting with the helpless women we have in custody before we move on to you and your friends.
And hiding out again in Issac's loft, Matt begins to paint the future... conjuring up grim images of a Washington DC in flames and Matt himself with a dynamite vest.
8:00 - Okay. Recap shows Sylar and Luke looking for their dad. Recapping Nathan telling his men about the fugitives, Peter nearly killing Danko, Claire saving the comic book guy Aquaman and Noah getting kicked out of the house. And, oh yes, Daphne is still alive.
8:01 - Heh. I like how Aquaman to be smart enough to realize how silly it is trying to hide out in a strange city with the government having the power and authority they have right now to have found him in the first place. Give Claire points for trying to be Harriet Tubman, though.
8:03 - Nice fake out with Muggles going after the sandwich under the bed. Of course Aquaman bungles it up anyway by making noise inside the closet.
8:04 - And here comes yet another Danko/Nathan dick-waving contest over lethal-force/non-lethal force. With Noah chuckling all the while, with Noah playing the villain by pointing out "They kidnapped me, drugged me, and mind-raped me. What makes you think I won't shoot them myself, orders or no?" as Nathan looks for sympathy from Noah.
8:05 - Heh. Peter being the smart one again... trying to get Matt to stop painting but eventually relenting on saving Daphne as a next step.
8:06 - Hmmm... someone hacking into Mohinder's computer to deliver a message, the address of where Daphne is being held and a warning, telling them that The Feds are coming. Micah being REBEL is looking more and more likely.
8:09 - The geeky guy is the new boyfriend? Yeah, I don't think mom is buying it.
8:10 - No. Mom DEFINITELY isn't buying it. And given everything that's been going on with Noah lying to her... she's REALLY not happy with Claire. Moreso about the lying than endangering them even more by bringing a wanted fugitive into their home.
8:11 - And yeah... Luke doesn't want Sylar to see his dad for some reason. Not that I - or Sylar - cares. And Sylar wants in at some abandoned road stop for some reason.
8:13 - Claire is trying the Peter Parker "we were trying to protect you - that's why we lied" speech. And Sandra is being a LOT less nice about it than Aunt May was when Peter finally told her the truth. And, of course, the Feds are already there. And they're watching Claire, suspecting that she WAS involved in Aquaman Alex's disappearance.
8:14 - "I have a plan. I just haven't thought of it yet." *face palm* Claire, Claire, Claire... when did you absorb the stupid from Peter?
8:15 - Speaking of which - Peter copies Matt's power, figuring they have a better chance infiltrating a building with two mind-controllers than with one mind-controller and a flyer who MIGHT be useful if they can get to the roof to escape. Peter is now officially my favorite character again.
8:16 - And sure enough... Peter is right. Two telepaths are better than one. But they have cameras everywhere and it doesn't take Danko, Nathan and Noah long to figure out what is going on.
8:17 - Of course Matt has this covered and has all the armed guards he and Peter walked past blocking off the hall. Awesome. Wait...Holy crap! This is the second time in as many episodes that the good-guy's plan actually worked! Matt so totally owned that smug nod at the camera monitor.
8:21 - Heh. Sandra is officially the coolest mom ever. Making a fake ID AND giving fashion tips for the fugitive on-the-go.
8:24 - Okay, so Sylar remembers this place and having been there once before. And here comes a B&W flashback. Not that I care.
8:25 - Awww... and he's tearing up the diner to get the toy car he lost so many years ago and now he remembers his father and having been abandoned here. And this is supposed to be poignant, I suppose. But it's just stupid and trite as hell.
8:26 - Ooooooh! Watchmen preview! Now THIS I care about!
8:30 - "How do I look?" Like an even douchier version of Sylar.
8:32 - Ooooh. So close to a kiss there. Bet you felt that, eh Claire?
8:33 - Good thing they don't have powered people in the government team. Cause a telepath would SO see through this ruse in seconds.
8:34 - Yet more evidence that Micah is Rebel. Bad news is that Daphne has been moved to a medical facility. Good news is that Rebel is able to hack the computer and gets all the evidence they need to prove that Nathan's group is doing very, very illegal things onto a drive for Peter. Of course, am I the only one cynical enough to think - especially in light of this news story - that the revelation of illegal incarceration of American citizens wouldn't be nearly that big of a deal?
8:35 - And of course Noah is the one to come up with a plan to deal with Matt; telepath's basic five senses get more easily overwhelmed when they are using their powers. So crank up the sirens and the lights.
8:36 - And... Matt is caught. But Peter gets away... with the evidence. Hopefully Peter will have the sense to go to the media rather than try and trade it to Nathan.
8:37 - And... more B&W flashbacks. Yawn. Yes, we KNEW this was where it Sylar's dad sold him to Sylar's uncle and we all saw this coming from the minute we saw Sylar pull over.
8:38 - Of course Sylar's dad having killed his mom...and having done it the same with with a telekinetic lash to the forehead in the parking lot of said pit stop... that we did NOT see coming.
8:42 - And Angela denies being Rebel or helping them. Or Peter. She also notes that she'd never bite the hand that feeds her with Nathan giving her immunity to what the government is doing. Of course we know that's BS and Nathan seems to be thinking that too.
8:43 - Okay. Peter IS trying a trade - Daphne and Matt for the files - but balancing it against the threat of giving it to the media. Here's hoping that Peter pulls an Ozymandis here and is doing both... or has some other trick up his sleeve.
8:45 - And we're back to the "way too dark" HEROES lighting here. How much you want to bet there is a pool and that Danko's agents aren't nearly as thorough as Bennet is about knowing a target's powers?
8:46 - Can I call it or what? And there is the air-trade kiss that we saw last time in the previews. Nice.
8:47 - Alright Peter! Making the meeting spot a news studio parking lot. Naturally Danko is planning treachery. And I love Noah's "dur-hey" look at Nathan when he says "Remember: Peter can read your thoughts now."
8:48 - Of course Noah remembered that. And of course he gave Peter a warning by thinking it. But Nathan showing up to pull an air-lift and get Peter out of there before Danko could start snipering Peter... that I did not see coming.
8:52 - Yeah. Peter is not buying the whole "you'll be taken care of thing". Of course given what happened the last time he trusted Nathan, can you blame him? And that's ignoring that Peter can read Nathan's mind now and see the BS trail. One touch and Peter is off and flying again.
8:54 - Oh, GO PETER! He did it! He passed the whole thing onto the media anonymously. Looks like the whole thing IS exposed, except the existence of super powers.
8:55 - And HERE is the Sylar we know and love! Giving Luke the smack-around he sorely needs and then letting him live to go back to his mother... because to Luke, that is SO much worse than killing him. And now he wants to find dad... to kill him.
8:57 - And, oh-crap.... THAT is how Matt winds up in a suicide bomber vest in the middle of DC. Danko doped him up and set him up.
8:58 - Still, Claire is feeling good and has done some good. Except...oh shit, there's Eric Doyle - aka The Puppet Master. Somehow he survived the Primatech fire. And now... he's looking to Claire for help, thanks to a tip from Rebel. On the bright side, that means there's a good chance Meredith survived too.
The Final Thoughts: A lot more action than last episode and nearly as good. I'm loving the show again, though I'd be happy with a lot less Sylar being emo. Hopefully this will be the last of it.
Fast Thoughts - The Week of 2/25/09
CONAN THE CIMMERIAN #8 - A new story arc begins and no more stories of Conan's grandfather. We begin with a gorgeously illustrated retelling of the first chapter of Howard's Black Colossus and continue on to Conan's first time joining an army. Lots of good character moments here, including Conan righting a toppled statue of Mitra - not out of worship or respect but practicality.
Line Of The Issue: "Conan feared no god but Crom. Still, why tempt the ire of another... especially in that god's land?"
GREEN LANTERN #38 - Lots going on here, most of it tying into the War of Light. For those of you keeping score at home...
* A newly single Carol Ferris, while trying to get a hold of Hal, is once again ensnared by the Star Sapphire, becoming one of several Star Sapphire agents for the Zamarons now backing the Violet Lantern Corps of Love.
* Hal Jordan - after being enslaved by the power of a Red Lantern Ring, is able to make projections of red fire. Something that none of the other Red Lanterns were capable of.
* The Blue Lanterns have one rather huge weakness. Their rings only work so long as they have an active Green Lantern to piggy-back off of. So once Hal goes over to the Red Side... poof for the Blue Lanterns.
* Slapping a Blue Lantern Ring on someone wearing a Red Lantern Ring can burn out the Red Ring and restore the person's mind... but Hal is now stuck in some kind of weird power-feedback loop from wearing Blue and Green rings at the same time.
* Sinestro escaped to Qward in the middle of the fight between the Blue Lanterns and the Red Lanterns. He is aware of Mongul's attempts to rebuild The Yellow Lantern Fear Corps on Daxam and plans to fight him for control of the Corps... as soon as he attends to "a family matter" on his home world, which he must tend to immediately thanks to Atrocitus, the Red Lantern leader.
* Though we haven't seen them in any stories yet, John Stewart will apparently be the first to fight The Orange Lanterns of Greed.
So yeah... great stuff!
Line Of The Issue: "Hope is nothing without the Willpower to enact it."
JACK OF FABLES #31 - Wow. Just... wow.
Line Of The Week: "I'd love to say I had some happy memories of the place. But I only had sex there seven times. And aside from the tacos, the food was uniformly terrible. Still, all in all, I DID have sex there seven times. So I guess it wasn't such a bad place."
KNIGHTS OF THE DINNER TABLE #148 - Things continue to build toward Issue #150 as pressure builds on several fronts. Bob has lost his character and Brian is already plotting on how to exploit the loss to his own advantage. The Blackhands continue their disastrous Cattlepunk game. And the riots at Hard 8 over the "new and improved" editon of Hackmaster are quelled... but one staff member may be ready to make the ultimate act of betrayal for the love of the game.
Line Of The Week: "Ya know - when you're driving a thousand head of cattle a thousand miles... Probably not a good idea to DRIVE THEM ON FOOT!!!"
WONDER WOMAN #29 - There's STILL a lot about this book that confuses me. How Cheetah is now almost as fast as The Flash. Why Donna Troy just freaked out and abandoned Diana in mid-fight. And who the hell this new villain Genocide is... or what she is. On the other hand, this comic does feature a one-on-one battle between Ancient Greek God of Thunder and Lightning Zeus and Hawaiian God Of The Heavens, Kāne Milohai... so the parts that confuse me are balanced out by the purely awesome god battle. So yeah... take that for what you will.
Line Of The Issue: "You may give birth to the thunder and lightning, Zeus. But their canvas is mine. And the heavens have fire, as well."
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