schmevil

Superhero

Avengers: Oh Cap, don't cry!
Cable & Deadpool: When Deadpool met Cap, got inspired (as one does), and for his trouble, was shot in the head.
Cable & Deadpool: Half a page from Cable & Deadpool #5
Deadpool: Deadpool Paper Dolls
Deadpool: Deadpool vs Widdle Wade: Sumo Style
Iron Man: Iron Man vs. Mandarin
New Mutants: When Wade met Nathan (and Domino... kind of)
She-Hulk: 1 page from Savage She-Hulk #1

Horror

Hack/Slash: The Comicon Killer
Hack/Slash: Land of the Lost Toys

Western

Webcomic

John Campbell: John Campbell anyone?

Other

Some New Kind of Slaughter
I Am Looking For... Intersections of Comics and Art

Week continues to suck. What to do? Wonder Woman picspam OMG!

( Read more... )

So over on CBR, folks are talking about Carol's effectiveness, or lack thereof, as a leader. I said:

Carol is a good leader as written by Brian Reed, and most other writers. She's a bad leader as written by Bendis. His Carol is probably the most indecisive and mild she's ever been. Brian Reed, for all his other flaws, understands that Carol is supposed to be (as the slogan goes), the hard-hitting, high-flying Ms. Marvel and he's increasingly showing her to be the smart, aggressive, never-back-down kind of woman she's always been. He's also, very smartly, had her do a lot of introspection, examining her motives and methods.

I've talked before about Reed's issues on Ms. Marvel, but I strongly believe his treatment of the character is improving. In recent issues Carol has been less wracked by indecision and far more effective. She's starting to win a few, which is so important for this character. At the same time, he's not letting her get away with her more negative impulses - she's questioned her ethics and her tactics, and she's started to face the parts of herself she's ignored for a long time. Reed hasn't stopped throwing her curveballs, but she's getting better at hitting them.

I also said:

I'm starting to think that she needs to get away from Bendis to shine. Even more than she needs to get away from Tony. Under Bendis she's been marginalized as a leader, called a fat cow by Doctor Doom, and shown to be willing to abandon a group of her friends in the middle of a fire fight, in order to protect one friend. Of course, it's possible to put a positive spin on all of this, but I'm having trouble.

I really want Bendis to throw the character a bone during Secret Invasion. Not least because his record with the female characters he chooses to write about is looking pretty grim. Jessica Jones spent most of her time in NA supporting her husband and not doing much else. When she finally gets some agency, it's to take her baby away from Luke. Echo was a non-entity, until Bendis hooked her up with Clint - suddenly she's interesting? The Wasp is just sort of there and in a recent issue she even disappears completely, without explanation. Spider-Woman, well, you know.

Black Widow is the only female character in the Avengers books who gets to consistently be a superhero. I tend to think that's partly because she's a street-level character and a sexy superspy, two of Bendis' favourite types to work with.

When you look at it this way, Carol's ineffectiveness is hardly surprising.

And Carol is a largely ineffective leader in the Mighty Avengers. Her teammates make and execute their own plans, and command seems to rotate from issue to issue. Tony is constantly undermining her, and she hasn't confronted him about it after, what? Twelve issues? She seems baffled by battles as they're unfolding around her, and is constantly surprised. This is frankly bizarre, considering she's a former Air Force major, who operated both as a fighter pilot, and with special ops. She's also been director of security for NASA, headed the superhuman branch of Homeland Security, and currently runs an anti-terrorist strike team through SHIELD. Oh yeah, and in her brief civilian career, she ran a magazine.

This is not a character who should have trouble with command.

Granted, the Mighty Avengers is just stacked with strong personalities, but I don't recall a leader having this much trouble since Black Widow's tenure as chairman. And before that, Scarlet Witch. Hey wait a second, do you think that maybe there's a connection?! What's really vexing is that under Busiek and Johns, Carol ran missions as an Avengers field leader and not only was she good at it, no one questioned her abilities. There is a difference, obviously, between temporary and fulltime command, and yeah the transition can be difficult. I would feel a lot better about Bendis' portrayal of Carol, if he showed her struggling with and then working on her self-doubt, rather than constantly showing her as being inadequate, and knowing she's inadequate.

Please, Gods of Comcis, let Bendis have some awesome plan for Carol. Power of positive thinking, people. POSITIVE THINKING.

***

Yesterday I posted some pages from She-Hulk #29, in which we finally find out why Jen got disbarred. I'm mostly satisfied with the explanation, and interested in seeing where PAD takes it.

Proving once again that She-Hulk fans are the best fans (WHY AREN'T YOU READING THIS BOOK?!), posters took the opportunity to geek about: case law, language usage, puns relating to both birds and breasts, and ninja zombie nazi gorillas riding pirate dinosaurs with jetpacks and rocket boots. OMG.

I also posted some scans from Transhuman #2, and it continues to be very, very cool. Jonathan Hickman is telling the story of the development of the transhumanism industry. He frames it within a documentary film about the two companies that first had major breakthroughs. He follows them from initial research, to development, human trials and even their search for funding. It's a really smart book that interrogates the relationship between science and business, tackles all the big ethical questions without getting heavy-handed, and sends up genre conventions.

Remember the test monkeys? (WHY AREN'T YOU READING THIS BOOK?!)

1. I updated my list of Essential Ms. Marvel with some new scan posts. Next I want to concentrate on tracking down articles and interviews. Does anyone have a functional link to the essay "The Rape of Ms. Marvel"? I've read it in the past but recently, it seems like every link is dead.

***

2. Continuing from last post on the Iron Man movie, here are the links to the next three interviews in the CBR series.

I Am (Friends With) Iron Man - with Terrence Howard
I Am (Directing) Iron Man - with Jon Favreau
I Am (Producing) Iron Man - with Kevin Feige

***



3. Tori Amos' Comic Book Tattoo
Through her many real and apocryphal connections to “The Sandman” -- Amos wrote the introduction to “Death: The High Cost of Living,” references author Neil Gaiman and the Dream King in her music, and is generally thought to be the inspiration for Delirium -- Amos is known to comics fans as one of us. She aims to prove it with the help of editor Rantz Hoseley and Image Comics, who will this summer release “Comic Book Tattoo,” a nearly 500-page deluxe-packaged anthology featuring some of comics’ brightest talents including David Mack, Mike Dringenberg, Jonathan Hickman, Carla Speed McNeil, Laurenn McCubbin, Kelly Sue DeConnick, Ivan Brandon, Callum Watt, Neil Kleid, Christopher Mitten, Elzabeth Genco, Chris Arrant, and Daniel Heard -- all of whom turn in new work inspired by the music of Tori Amos.

It's like fanfic

I'm really excited about this project. The preview art (there's more of it in the link) looks lovely, and I just like the idea of it. I'm not a Tori fanatic but I think that her music has the potential to inspire some really fascinating and beautiful stories - her lyrics sometimes don't make much sense, which I think is an advantage here. Instead of just illustrating stories, they'll be creating stories.

***

4. tammylee linked to an article about artists, and what it takes to succeed in the business. As a non-artist I'm always interested to learn more about what goes on behind the scenes, the creative process and the business of art. I was particularly interested to learn about the job (and importance of) the inker.

Props to:

batcookies for posting Tigra's history

bluefall for posting When Wondy Was Awesome

5thbeatle and everyone else who posted during Mary-Jane Week and Black Cat Week

everyone who posted during Huntress Week, and there was a lot of you

and finally, everyone who's been part of the recent Oracle/Batgirl mania

It's been an amazing couple of months, where every time I checked scans_daily there would be at least one post of women in comics being unabashedly awesome. No Heroes for Hentai tentacle pron, thinly veiled misogyny, self-hate or nastiness. Just women (and men) celebrating female characters for their strength (both physical and moral) and humanity.

So, yay!

For posterity: Batman gets PWNED.

Oh Wally.

I'm seriously considering a layout incorporating this:



Oh the lolz. And speaking of lolz, have you ever actually read lj's 404 error messages? Refresh it a few times.

***

And now for an update on my favourite line of physics/computing research, quantum computing.

"For the first time the components that underlie quantum computing's great potential – qubits – have been linked on chips like those in conventional computers. Two US research teams used superconducting circuits to make two of the quantum components linked by a quantum information cable or bus.

The bits that work together on calculations in a normal computer can exist in two states – either 0 or 1. But qubits can inhabit both at once, allowing them to process many calculations simultaneously when they get together.

Qubits can be made in different ways, but so far most schemes don't lend themselves to mass manufacture. Putting them onto chips like those in conventional computers could unlock the economies of scale that have driven the rise of electronic computing."

Saswato Das
09/26/2007
The New Scientist

Quantum computing is of particular interest to the NSA because it's believed that it could revolutionize codebreaking. Commercially, I don't know - just ridiculously fast computers? Personally I'm in it for the Holy-Shit-Cool factor.

***

I'm so forwarding this to every one of my poor, bastard friends who are running Vista. Not because I want to see them cry, although that would be entertaining.

"The first indication that Microsoft should abandon Vista is its poor sales figures. According to a recent report titled "Windows Vista Still Underperforming in U.S. Retail" from NPD, Vista sales are significantly behind XP sales during its early days. Even worse for Redmond, some are reverting to XP, citing issues with compatibility and overall design. And if that wasn't enough, Macs continue to surge and with the impending release of Leopard, Microsoft may be in for a rough holiday season.

With each passing day, it's becoming blatantly clear that Microsoft released Vista too early and the company's continual mistakes and promises that can't be kept are further annoying the Windows faithful."

Don Reisinger
09/26/2007
The Digital Home

Oh Rescue Me.

"I got a girl. She's in a wheelchair, but she has the sweetest ass."

"How can you tell?"

"Sometimes I stand her up."

AND

*spritz*

"Hey!"

"¥ou had a little like, baby thing on you. *waves hand in front of nose* And anyway it's Curious, by Britney Spears."

"Yeah, well. Mystery's over. She's a whore."

A couple of episodes are available on Showcase's site. I don't exactly know how to write a plug for this show, because I think that by now most interested parties are already watching. And (though I understand it not!) some of those (weird) non-watchers must have been put off by the violence, nudity and course language. (Weirdos).

So - Dennis Leary, people. Dennis Leary as a post-9/11 traumatized, alcoholic firefighter. Everything about this show is quintessential Leary, from the blisteringly vicious humor to the constant, roiling emotional violence that underlies everything, and often literally, physically explodes onto the screen. The most recent episode tackled euthanasia, man-dating, gay marriage, father-daughter feuding and suicide. While the storylines can reach almost absurdist heights, the show retains a such a high degree of emotional realism that it continues to be bitingly relevant.

And just come the fuck on - people! Dennis Fucking Leary.

Love.

***

Speaking of love - is it wrong to want to marry a teaser trailer of a superhero movie? Because I more than kind of want to. I've been excited about the upcoming Iron Man movie since it's been announced but the state of comic book movies being what it is (oh Sam Raimi - why!?!), my excitement was tempered by uh, about a metric tonne of doubt.

Since seeing the footage from Comic Con (since removed from YouTube) and this new teaser, my cautiously optimistic excitement has morphed into holyshitIthinkIwetmyself-fangirl!excitement. Much to my embarrassment. But this movie is going to be FUN, which is more than can be said for Spiderman 3, Superman Returns, X3 or *choke* Ghost Rider. It's going to be fun because Jon Favreau and Robert Downey Jr understand the character and the story they're telling. Because they're interested in telling an emotionally and politically relevant story, one that appeals to kids (because there's freakin wicked flying robots and shit) and grownups (because there's freakin wicked flying robots and shit, amongst other things).

Watch the trailer - RDJ nails it. It's not a Tony Stark to end all Tony Starks but it's a damn good interpretation of my favourite alcoholic, womanizing, arms dealing genius, and one that has the potential to be very successful with audiences right now. It's funny, it's topical and it's damn pretty.

Marvel made the right choice, starting out with Iron Man as their first picture. The potential for big big office and serious reputation building in terms of production values and ability to attract talent is there, along with the obvious, and important franchise possibilities. Iron Man is nowhwere near as recognizable a character as Spiderman or the X-Men, but we're not talking Hell Boy. And the concept requires such a minimal suspension of disbelief that it's downright accessible. Engineering genius dude builds some awesome armor and eventually, after some soul searching, uses it to fight evil. Done. The science fiction elements also make it an easy sell, and the fact that it's basically a story about a guy and the best (flying) car (with energy weapons) ever, makes it less embarrassing for non-fen to appreciate.

And importantly, Tony Stark is such a complete guy's guy. He's the kind of guy that other guys have man-crushes on, and also the kind of guy they desperately hope will never, ever meet their girlfriends. He's the kind of guy that sells tickets.

***

So I finally picked up Iron Man #21. I was spoiled for it, because spoilers are so utterly ubiquitous these days, but it was still a solid read. I particularly liked this image:



This is a ghostly Captain American that visits Tony in a dream. He has an almost circuit-like webbing of veins across his face and his neck is marred by a never-healed wound. The right side of his face is in shadow and the left is a muddy grey. One shining, glassy blue eye stares at Tony.

Context: Tony's working on deciphering some script, trying to figure out it's significance. Cap shows up in his dream, they fight. Cap subdues Tony, then pushes back his mask and asks him to listen. He gives Tony the answer.

I like that dream Cap seems to represent all of Tony's conflicted feelings toward Cap - hostility, anger, guilt, respect, regret, admiration and love. I like that we get a sense of how important he continues to be to Tony, and how Tony continues to rely on the idea of him. I also like that De Le Torre and the Knaufs are unafraid of the potential for a homoerotic reading of that sequence. ;-)

The rest of the book continues to explore the question of "Who's behind the machine?" as one character puts it. Who's behind the terrorist organization? Who's behind the political machine that put Tony into SHIELD and the SHRA into action? Who's behind the armor? There's a nice Ghost in the Shell quality to this very thoughtful issue.

Anyway, this wants to turn into a post about identity and technology, but I want to go to bed, so I'm calling this post.

Expired. Natural causes. 2:19 AM. God rest ye.