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Saturday, April 05, 2003 ( 4/05/2003 09:44:00 PM ) Bill S. FOR ALL WHO REMEMBER GEORGE LAZENBY (AND DAVID NIVEN) – Took the print Entertainment Weekly’s Great American Pop Culture Quiz today (April 11 issue) and – thanx to some high point bonus questions – scored a 94. According to the test, this makes me a “pop culture savant.” Biggest problem areas for Mister Test Anxiety? Rap music and teevee soaps. . . # | ( 4/05/2003 09:37:00 PM ) Bill S. I KNOW THE ANSWER GUS’D GIVE – Writing the preceding posting, I also found myself pondering. Is Marvel’s seeming inability to put out even a kids’ funnybook without connecting it to the line’s established characters: a.) reflective of the current regime’s lockstep merchandizing mindset?# | ( 4/05/2003 09:28:00 PM ) Bill S. FACE FRONT, TRUE BELIEVERS! – Reading Gail Simone & Jason Lethcoe’s sweetly silly kid books, Marvelous Adventures of Gus Beezer this week, I was sent into one of those meta-universe revelries that only a lifetime of exposure to superhero comics can induce. A series of humor comics centered on a jug-eared pre-teen Marvel fanatic, Beezer features cameos by the Hulk, Spider-Man and X-Men. The Beezerverse is a world where Marvel characters co-exist alongside the comics documenting their exploits, a conceit that hearkens back to the very earliest Stan Lee collabs with Steve Ditko and Jack Kirby. In an early Fantastic Four, for instance, we saw the supergroup visiting Marvel Comics’ office to confab with Stan and Jack. Gus (who also shows off his own homemade superhero comics) is such a Marvelhead that he speaks in the narrative cadences of vintage chatty Stan (“This is the most senses-shattering taste-tempting loaf of meat you’ve ever made, Mom!”) Which got me wondering: how had pre-teen Gus internalized a writing style that is no longer used in real-world Marvel Comics? Could it be that in the Beezerverse Stan Lee is still writing Marvels? And Jack Kirby still alive and drawing ‘em? It’s pretty to think so. # | ( 4/05/2003 04:19:00 PM ) Bill S. WHERE HAVE YOU GONE, BUDDY COLE? – Favorite Google referral of the week: “blowsy babes,” a phrase used in my review of From Hell, though I bet that wasn’t what my Googler was lookin’ for. . . # | ( 4/05/2003 08:56:00 AM ) Bill S. NO VOLUME ONE-AND-A-HALF? – In follow-up to my “Comics Catch-up” review of Marvel’s recent hardback Daredevil books, I should note that Volume One of the “Marvel Knights” reprints has since been released. (For some reason – perhaps the more recent material was easier to cobble together? – the company rushed Volume Two out alongside the movie release last February.) Book One features Daredevil #1 – 11 and 13 – 15: Kevin Smith & Joe Quesada’s “Guardian Devil” storyline and David Mack & Quesada’s “Parts Of A Hole.” In addition to that solitary stand-alone issue (#12) it also leaves out close to a year’s worth of issues that occurred before the Brian Michael Bendis/Alex Maleev books repped in Volume Two. Which I guess bodes ill for their chances at showing up in hardback any time soon. # | ( 4/05/2003 07:51:00 AM ) Bill S. SCARY IF TRUE DEPT. – I don’t read a ton of political writing. But among the political websites I do regularly visit, the one that seems to connect best with me both politically and personally is Joshua Marshall’s Talking Points Memo. This week Marshall links to a Washington Monthly column of his that does the best job I’ve seen laying out the neo-conservative agenda behind our administration’s war in Iraq. It’s a talking point I’ve read elsewhere (the basic idea being that Iraq is only the first step in a strategic campaign of “Democratic Imperialism”), and it’s hard to pooh-pooh when you’ve already got admin voices like Rumsfeld test driving threats against countries like Syria. But to work, the strategy requires a series of lies and deceptions so profound it makes conservative bete noir Bill Clinton look like a kid caught stealing candy in comparison. Reading stuff like this, I find myself hoping that the writer is being partisan and alarmist even when the ongoing evidence seems to be bearing ‘em out. # | Friday, April 04, 2003 ( 4/04/2003 01:33:00 PM ) Bill S. GOBLIN TOSSES SPIDEY GIRLFRIEND OFF BRIDGE! FILM AT ELEVEN! – Of all the moments in the Amazing Spider-Man’s four-decade career, two have proven the most problematic among longtime readers. First was the notorious Spider Clone Saga of the nineties (where it was revealed that the character we’d long believed to be Peter Parker was, in fact, his clone), a stroke of disbelief assault on par with the moment Bobby Ewing stepped out of that Dallas shower. Second was the death of Spidey girlfriend Gwen Stacy back in 1971 at the hands of longtime nemesis Norman “Green Goblin” Osborne. The latter event has been so long a part of the character’s mythology (at least once a year some spider scribe devotes a sequence to our hero mourning and remembering her – most recently in Jeph Loeb & Tim Sale’s Spider-Man: Blue) that more recent readers may not know what a misstep it appeared at the time. By offing Gwen, writer Gerry Conway had totally skewed the series’ long-standing gimme. The central moment in Peter Parker’s life, after all, was when his egocentric inaction led to the death of his beloved Uncle Ben. Yet here we had a hero committed to altruistic action whose girlfriend died anyway, despite his strenuous attempt to save her. To many readers it appeared that Conway – striving for shock and pseudo-realism – had needlessly violated the superhero’s basic reason for being. The move clearly changed the way readers would view the character. I thought of that earlier reader reaction while reading volume two of the new Ultimate Spider-Man hardback. I’ve expressed my reservations about Marvel’s Ultimate books in the past, but I can understand their appeal to a writer wishing to correct some of the inevitable dubious decisions that can take place when a single character is treated by so many Divers Hands over the years. In volume two, writer Brian Michael Bendis and artist Mark Bagley “return” to the top of the bridge where Gwen was tossed to her death – and change both the heroine and the outcome. For those unfamiliar with it, Ultimate Spider-Man is the flagship title in the Marvel line’s alterna-series: a re-telling of the webspinner’s teen years set in modern times and revamped to accommodate more contempo sensibilities and sci-fi conventions (so where, for instance, our original hero was bitten by a radioactive spider in his Stan Lee/Steve Ditko incarnation, the Ultimate Spidey is transformed by a biochemically altered spider during a class tour of Osborne Industries research facilities – mere radioactivity being insufficient these days to do the job.) The brainchild of garrulous company president Bill Jemas, Ultimate Spider-Man was designed to return the character to his adolescent roots. Theoretically, this was worked to grab those readers uninterested in the more adult edition currently swingin’ through Marvel’s established Amazing Spider-Man title (currently handled by J. Michael Straczynski & John Romita Jr.), though in practice it appears as if the two books remain neck-in-neck when it comes to comic shop pre-orders. (Straczynski has been clearly enjoying his run on the title and built his own cluster of loyalists in the process.) Be that as it may, Ultimate Spider-Man remains one of the struggling comic line’s better sellers, which means we’ve got plenty years of teen angst ahead of us in the Ultimate Universe. Volume two reprints from issues #14-27, and it introduces us to several rehauled versions of established cast members: macho wilderness man Kraven the Hunter (now a slightly comical Animal Planet type), multi-armed Doctor Octopus (now a vengeance-driven madman) plus Gwen Stacy (punkrock grrl this time out.) But – more to the point – it also brings back Norman Osborne’s Green Goblin, briefly seen in volume one as a Hulkish monster, now somewhat more articulate. And it takes us to the Queensboro Bridge: with the Goblin (aware of Spider-Man’s Peter Parker identity) kidnapping Parker girlfriend Mary Jane Watson and throwing her off that bridge. This time, our hero’s rescue efforts are more in keeping with those of the movie Spider-Man. Not that Bendis and Bagley don’t mess around with our expectations, of course. They stage the scene much the same way Conway and artist Gil Kane did in Amazing Spider-Man #121, down to giving us a full-page shot of our hero tearfully holding the limp body of his beloved. But unlike the original series, MJ has been established as Peter’s girlfriend early (originally, the character was an unseen standing joke for several years, not showing her face ‘til issue #42), even being made privy to his secret identity. The ground rules have changed, so why not the outcome? To this reader, at least, this one revision of Spidey history is more satisfying. As a comics scripter, Bendis is primarily known for wordy, character-driven noirish hero comics (Powers, Alias, and the current Daredevil). With Ultimate Spider-Man, he adopts a much less dense writing style, leaving room for multi-page battle scenes and lots of knowing glances between PP and MJ. In general, the approach works, though at times when delving into the high school milieu, there’s an unmistakable whiff of After-School Special to the whole proceedings. And though Bendis raves about him in the book’s intro, to these normal-sized peepers, Bagley’s big-eyed drawing style frequently sacrifices slick competence for expressiveness. Those caveats aside, Ultimate Spider-Man: Volume Two still tallies up as a strong example of professionally produced superhero comics. Which in the end is all that matters, Original or Ultimate Universe bedamned. We’ve crossed the Ultimate bridge and made it to the other side intact: if we can keep away from the Spider Clones, we should be set. # | ( 4/04/2003 06:45:00 AM ) Bill S. “THE ANNOYING VIRGIN HAS A POINT!” – fx just concluded its first replay of last season’s Buffy The Vampire Slayer, and after re-watching a good number of the eps in order, a couple of thoughts occur. Thought one: that for all the fannish plaints about how dark and directionless the season was, there were plenty of great goofy eps, too (e.g., the one where a misdirected Willow spell has everyone forgetting who they are and the one where Buffy gets stuck in a time loop at The Magic Box – plus the musical, of course). Connected thought two: that from the season premiere (where Willow kills a deer to bring Buffy back from the dead), our fave Wiccan’s trajectory into Big Baditude is carefully and convincingly crafted throughout the entire season. Watching it all with viewer hindsight, the whole thing comes off tighter than I would’ve guessed based on simple memory. # | Thursday, April 03, 2003 ( 4/03/2003 06:19:00 AM ) Bill S. THE RETURN OF SKIP – Heading on the road today, so I’ve only got time to direct your attention to Elayne Riggs’ bashing of the current Angel plotline. I think she’s being harsher on the show than necessary (slamming one character’s assertion that everything which has happened on the series to date was pre-ordained, for instance, requires that you take a lying demon’s words as absolute truth – which I’m not inclined to do), but I suspect she’s not the only viewer with this perspective. I also have less trouble with son Connor’s irrational adolescent behavior when I remind myself that this kid has had minimal parenting (kidnapped and reared in a hell dimension by a lunatic demon hunter is not what I’d call being nurtured!) Which is why the appearance of vampire mother Darla’s ghost(?) last night played such an important part in the story. I continue to be amused by the fact that the demons on Angel (and Buffy TVS) frequently get some of the funniest, most jaundiced lines. There’s an undertone of outsider humor to characters like Lorne or Skip that’s deftly used to enhance the action without breaking it apart. It’s one of those elements that keeps me coming back to Mutant Enemy productions even when its writers seem to’ve led their stories into a cul-de-sac. NOTE: For some reason Elayne's archive shortcut links don't work when I set 'em up above. (So I'm not the only one who's been having difficulties with the furshlugginer Blogger archives.) The germane post is "Yankees 3, Angel 0." # | Wednesday, April 02, 2003 ( 4/02/2003 09:55:00 AM ) Bill S. WHEN BEING A COLLECTOR CAN BE REALLY HARD – I see from Newsarama that after repeated haphazard attempts at doing a hardback archival series of its early superhero titles, Marvel is planning to put out a new run this year on a more consistent schedule. Good news for those fans frustrated by the last round of Marvel Masterworks reissues – which included such dubious decisions as the issuance of two volumes devoted to runs of Fantastic Four that were years apart from each other – but it has to be frustrating to those who already shelled out good money ($35 - 50) for even earlier archival sets. Reportedly, the new books'll correct the wonky coloring that characterized many of the line’s first run of reissues. Me, I only have a limited number of the Masterworks books, so I’m not feeling too discommoded. Still, this is very reminiscent of moments I’ve experienced in CD collecting: like when my sets of Elvis Costello and Ramones discs suddenly became overshadowed by their superior Rhino re-packagings. As a fannish collector, you’re faced with the question, “How much do I wanna pay for something that I already kind of have?” (Thanks to Neilalien for the link.) # | ( 4/02/2003 07:57:00 AM ) Bill S. MORE FUN WITH JACK & KIM – Now that the big ol’ newcular device threatening L.A. on Fox's 24 has been detonated over the desert, the show’s clearly floundering to main its initial intensity level. As last night’s ep emphasized, the current Damoclean sword is whether hero Jack Bauer can prevent the president from being suckered into a Middle Eastern war. Considering we’re already in a Middle Eastern war, this plotline just can’t have the same dramatic urgency as the atomic destruction of the Entertainment Capital of the World. At least Bauer daughter Kim (trapped in a gas station hostage situation) managed to get through the night without doing something phenomenally stoopid. Also nice to see professional smarmy guy Gregg (Body Double) Henry adding a touch of sleaze to the proceedings . . . # | Tuesday, April 01, 2003 ( 4/01/2003 08:29:00 PM ) Bill S. OUR FIRST REVIEW FOR APRIL – Not since Linda and Richard Thompson drove their marriage into the wall of death has there been a folk-rock duo disc as compelling as Lynne and Dick Cheney’s Shoot Out the Rights (RyteconDisc). A prime collection of socially Darwinistic ditties, Shoot shows the pair playin’ to their press-established strengths: Dick’s crotchety “I’m-right-and-you-pissant-punks-can’t-tell-me-different” lyrics melded to Lynne’s supportive background vocals, a musical and philosophical range that runs from A and back again, the best sidemen that stock options can buy. It all comes to together for these elder statesfolk of Old School Capitalist Acousticity. Some nay-sayers may contend that Dick has been coasting on his rep for hard-nosed competence, that when you actually listen to the songs the whole thing falls apart. As a lead, Cheney may come across as a constipated incontinent ethically bankrupt toad with decaying testicles and a predilection for dry humping illegal aliens – but in these times of musical tribulation, who can afford to be too critical? Like most pop critics, I only pay attention to the lyrics, anyway, so I haven’t really bothered to put the disc on my CD player. I have glanced at the words in the booklet, though, and, well, they speak for themselves. Take these lines from “A Man On The Right”: All them writersThere’s more, of course. “The Wall Street Slide,” “Two Right Feet,” “Hocus Pocus (The Warhawk Song),” “Privatize Me In The Dark,” and a surprising recitation entitled “Screw Salman Rushdie – Let’s Have A Fatwah On Neal Pollack!” Lots of simple homespun folk to sing around the country club or bunker campfire and hum to yourself when yer doin' an all-nighter shreddin’ documents. And, oh yeah, the li’l woman looks pretty hot on the back photo’s tribute to another hep singin’ couple, too. Who’d have thought these two could’ve pulled off a remake of the cover to Two Virgins? # | ( 4/01/2003 07:59:00 AM ) Bill S. NICE CLOSING, JIMMY! – Hard to pick which was the more interesting element on last night’s The Practice: the sight of Smallville’s Pete Ross (Sam Jones III) as a young career criminal charged with murder or the episode’s explicit condemnation of the Ashcroft Regime’s attempts to force the death penalty on states like Massachusetts that don’t have it. (Remember the days when political conservatives were in favor of state’s rights?) Perhaps the show’s writer(s) should venture into politics more often: aside from a rote subplot about Bobby and Lindsey’s Marriage In Trouble, this was one of the best eps this show’s run in the last two years. . . # | Monday, March 31, 2003 ( 3/31/2003 12:43:00 PM ) Bill S. LIKE THE KENNEDYS . . . ONLY WITHOUT THE MONEY – Oh joy, another wacky Fox family comedy! Watching Fox’s Bad Luck Sunday (not as visually spiffy as the retro Beene-vision debut Sunday that the net gave us two weeks ago), I’m still unsure if this most recent theme night referred to the hapless leads of premiering series The Pitts or to the network itself. The creation of two former Simpsons writers (in the future, every sitcom writer will be a former Simpsons writer!), Mike Thacker & Julie Thacker-Sully, The Pitts is a comedy that tells the tale of a preternaturally unlucky family. Perky dad Bob Pitts (Dylan Baker) and wife Liz (Kellie Waymire) run a Mail Boxes & More, Plus store with the unnaturally optimistic mien of Saturday Night Live’s old Scotch Tape store entrepreneurs. First time we see son Petey (David Henrie), he’s being exorcised by a priest (“Petey was already a handful,” his parents note, “no need to add Satan to the mix.”), while teen daughter Faith (Lizzy Caplan) agonizes over the fact that no boy’ll ask her out – simply because her last date had his car swallowed up by the earth. You haven’t seen such a one-joke family comedy since the glory days of The Munsters. Sunday’s ep clearly established the show’s limited parameters: Ma & Pa Pitts hire a babysitter (Melissa Petervan) who turns out to be Bob’s old spurned high school prom date. Naturally, she’s a standard issue psychopath who plans to kill Liz and take her place. She locks Mom, kids and family dog in a large steamer trunk and then prepares to seduce nebbishy Bob. The final slapstick confrontation ends with an amusing parody of the bathtub scene from Fatal Attraction. “My parents hired a psycho nanny,” Faith tells the young altar boy who’s come to ask her to the prom just as the cops lead the soaking wet would-be murderess off to jail. (Asked if he fears the “Pitts Curse,” the boy blithely answers, “What’s the worst thing that can happen to an altar boy?”) Just another typical day for the Pitts. Cartoony stuff – and some of it elicits a few good chortles (as when Nanny Shelly in full-blown nutcase mode threatens to epilady Dad’s legs). But I find it telling that this living breathing family is much less believable and multifaceted than either the Simpsons or Hills. They’re sketch characters: the kinds of comic figures that’ll amuse you for a five-minute SNL bit but definitely wear out their welcome after five more minutes. That Fox is sending the Pitts out to carry a half season’s worth of sitcoms strikes me as Worse Luck than anything you’ll ever see on their show. UPDATE: Venturing into the reviews linked on TV Barn this afternoon, I see that Aaron Barnhart makes a similar Munsters comparison. The KC Star critic hooks more fully into the show, though, which could be attributed to the fact that he’s viewed more than one ep and gotten into the show's rhythm. Time will tell just who has fell (and who's been left behind) . . . # | Sunday, March 30, 2003 ( 3/30/2003 07:44:00 AM ) Bill S. “YOU GONNA FIGURE OUT A WORM?” – Though I like a good cheesy giant tunneling worm movie as much as the next guy, I’ve gotta admit I’ve only watched the first of the movie series that’s the basis for Sci-Fi’s Tremors: The Series. I enjoyed that initial outing for its tongue-in-cheek tone and canny use of low-budget conventions, but I couldn’t really see the need for a return to it. Sure, Michael Gross’ right-wing wacko Burt Gummer was amusing the first time (particularly since we all knew the actor as soft-speakin’ liberal dad on Family Ties), but too much exposure to the guy could be deadening – like remaking First Blood with Dale Gribble in the lead. So if any of the honchos at Sci-Fi had asked me about the wisdom of buying a new series based on the S.S. Wilson & Brent Maddock creations, I’d have said (after first chastising ‘em for not holding onto Mystery Science Theatre), “Why bother? The setting is restrictive; the monsters may look cool but have minimal personality; and there’s only a limited number of times you can make the word ‘Assblaster’ sound funny (I don’t know what that exact number is, but I’m sure it exists.)” But that’s why I’m not living in Hollywood, pulling down the big bucks, because they went and shot the show, anyway. Like the first flick, Tremors: The Series is set in Perfection, Nevada (the name’s ironic, kids!), a desert hellhole plagued by all manner of tunneling monsters – Graboids, Shriekers and Assblasters, for starts – with a minimal human population of rugged individualist types, all eager to somehow profit from the creatures’ presence. Gross’ Gummer has made a small living starring in survivalist videos, while onetime hippie Nancy Sterngood (Welcome Back Kotter’s Marcia Strassman, returning to the persona that once led to her recording the Summer of Love single, “The Flower Children”) crafts and sells sculptures of the area beasties. Town newcomer Tyler Reed (Victor Browne) has shown up after purchasing Desert Jack’s Graboid Adventures from one of the earlier movie characters – and has dreams of pulling in big bucks with this tourist attraction. (Yeah, the guy’s a sucker, but he’s a former race car driver, so he’s good for a fast-pace getaway.) The entire area ringing Perfection has been placed under government supervision by the Department of the Interior, since its biggest baddest giant worm, El Blanco, is an endangered species. As a result, we get the inevitable Big Gummint bureaucrat, W.D. Twitchell (Dean Norris), skulking around the desolate town. That last bit of plotwork seems a bit – oh, I dunno, dated (Can you see the Bush Administration giving a rat’s ass about an ugly monster that’s an endangered species? Particularly when there are developers around, eager to turn the area into New Reno?) But, clearly, scripters Wilson & Maddock mean us to see the denizens of Perfection as pioneer entrepreneurs, striving to both live alongside and exploit the area’s larger-than-life inhabitants. Also part of Perfection’s population: a canny shopkeep (Lela Lee) and a former chorus girl/present rancher (Gladise Jiminez). Thirty years ago, you probably would’ve seen Barbara Stanwyck in the cast, but today the best we can do is stars from old sitcoms. The show’s debut, first broadcast last Friday, pretty much established the rules of the game: lots of bits with folks standing around talking about dangerous the area monsters are, interspersed with scenes of the ground trembling or moving towards our characters like something out of a Bugs Bunny cartoon, plus the sporadic puppety monster attack. Half of the jokes are at the expense of “anti-social paramilitary paranoid” Gummer, but none of ‘em are as bright or surreal as the ones offered weekly on King of the Hill. Can Sci-Fi make this series fly? I personally doubt it, but, then, I only expected John Edward to be good for a twelve-week run. I should never underestimate the draw of a big worm. . . # | |
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