A look at Eric Stephenson's speech at COMICSpro
Comic Book Classics
On this blog I will post my analysis for comic books and related materials like movies, games, television, etc. I may even have a stray thought that has nothing to do with comic books I might like to discuss....beware.
Sunday, April 27, 2014
Sunday, February 16, 2014
Sunday, January 19, 2014
Friday, December 27, 2013
Shock Suspenstories: Hate!
The review for EC Comics' Shock Suspenstories #5 is up, but it's to big for Blogger. Go to the link below to watch the review. Enjoy
Watch here
Watch here
Monday, December 16, 2013
Fantastic Four: The Galactus Trilogy
Here's my first video review, sorry about the sound quality but if you use headphones it should be fine. All images and music are the property of their respective owners. I own nothing. Enjoy.
Tuesday, December 10, 2013
Swamp Thing Annual #2
It may be fate or
coincidence that I’m reviewing this comic; Alan Moore’s tirade in The Guardian
for the most part has been kinda brushed off as the ranting of an old man
yelling at clouds. He did have some thought provoking points but there was one
comment he made about comic book characters being written for seven and eight
year olds. However, the title we’re looking at today is not just for kids…I had
to look over my shoulder just now, I was sure I was being stalked by a white
rabbit.
Swamp Thing Annual #2 from 1985 was the
climax in one of the first storylines written by Alan Moore when he took over
the book in Saga of the Swamp Thing#20,
he put Swampy through the ringer and made compelling and thoughtful drama out
of the idea of the search for self, mixing it with a healthy dose of hell borne
adversaries along with one long time enemy who broke out of hell to gain
revenge, that being Anton Arcane. Arcane failed in his campaign to destroy Swamp
Thing so as a consolation prize he stole the soul of Swampy’s love Abby, who
just so happens to also be Arcane’s niece.
So this is where we
pick up, with Swamp Thing looking over Abby’s lifeless body placed in a patch
of grass in the swamp. He makes the decision to follow the trail to retrieve
Abby’s soul from hell, hence the title of the story “Down Amongst the Dead Men”.
Or Swamp Thing goes to Hell, which ever you prefer.
Who would you go through hell for? |
One of the many abilities that Swamp Thing has discovered since the revelation of his identity( which I’ll get to later on in this review) is to be able to travel through dimensions, and he uses this ability to enter the realm of purgatory where he comes across a woman who has just died and is looking for her son. Happily her son finds her and takes her into a bright light, once the light fades we meet Swampy’s first guide through the nether realms: Boston Brand, better known as Deadman.
Deadman leads
Swamp Things across purgatory and along the way seeing all sorts of shades and
poltergeists that David Cronenburg
probably would have cast in a few of his films. Swamp Thing tells Boston
of his quest to retrieve Abby’s soul and Deadman’s reply is that if she hasn’t
gone into the lights and gone in the other direction, then it’s best to forget
about her. I don’t think anyone was expecting a cheery, upbeat response from
someone called Deadman, where you?
The bright light
once again appears and from that light comes a stranger, The Phantom Stranger
to be more accurate. Swamp Thing and Phantom Stranger had met before and seem
to be on friendly enough terms that he’s willing to lead Swampy into the light
and guide him through the Heavenly Realms. With this we leave Deadman behind as
he wishes him “rotsa ruck”. As I was reading this story for this review I couldn’t
help but imagine the fourth Doctor Tom baker’s booming voice as the Stranger’s.
It certainly made it more enjoyable for me and gave what he was saying a lot
more weight, at least in my mind and yes I thought the 50th
anniversary episode was awesome too, moving on.
As The Phantom
Stranger guides Swamp Thing amongst the green rolling hills of Heaven which
kind of remind me of Germany they come across an unexpected person, none other
than Alec Holland. Okay this is where I need to explain what I meant before
about the revelation of Swamp Thing’s true identity. If you followed the
character since its inception we’d had always been told that Alec Holland was
actually Swamp Thing who was burned in a chemical fire and reborn in the green
muck of the swamp to become what we see today. This was the identity that was
in canon before Alan Moore took over and was kinda restored with the 2011
relaunch of the DC Universe which included a new Swamp Thing book which I
highly recommend.
When Moore took
over, he changed things up drastically by reveling that Swamp Thing was not nor
never was Alec Holland but a creature that had Holland’s memories but was never
a man. It was this revelation than began Swampy’s experimentation with his
abilities such as the ability to transverse dimensions, it also led to Swamp
Thing finding Holland’s corpse and finally laying it to rest. Pretty deep for a
kid’s story, huh Alan? By the way, even after that revelation Abby still
insists on calling Swampy Alec so in the name of variety I’ll start doing the
same.
don't you hate when you get those floaty things in your eye first thing in the morning? |
So after this
meeting the pair move on and realize that Abby’s soul was indeed dragged to
hell by Arcane, so this means having to go through the gate keeper between the
two sides. The world goes dark, but light comes when the eyes of The Spectre
open. He recognizes the Stranger and is surprised to see Alec, having believed
that the elementals were all dead. The pair ask The Spectre to let them pass to
retrieve Abby’s soul but get stonewalled because of The Spectre’s desire to
keep the balance, that someone coming back to life could disrupt the balance
even if that soul (like Abby’s) was wrongfully taken. Alec is ready to rage but
the Stranger stops him and ask The Spectre if that included Jim Corrigan, the
man who died and returned to life to become The Spectre. Charmed by the clever
question he allows the pair to pass into the next realm, Hell Awaits.
Alec and the
Stranger cross over into a realm of chaos, a land of rotting life and bones.
This is not a land of fire but a land of perpetual dying; this is hell as
imagined by Alan Moore. Again I say, so much for kid’s stories. Alec is
resolved to continue and the pair is met by Etrigan the Demon, a character we
saw earlier in the story arc. After some verbal parrying between Etrigan and
the Stranger the demon offers to guide Alec through Hell for a price, the white
flower in the Phantom Stranger’s lapel which blooms as brightly as Abby whom
the demon has seen to which all parties agree and Alec goes with Etrigan
leaving the Stranger behind who is trying to say that this is against the rules
to which Etrigan replies: “The rules? And if I break these rules, pray tell
shall I be punished? Sent, perhaps, to Hell?” I have to agree that following
the rules seems pretty pointless from here on. Bye, Bye Stranger, see you in
Trinity War!
As Etrigan leads
Alec through the lands they come across many demons, but soon they come across
Arcane who has become a kind of hatchery for insect eggs and Abby’s soul is not
far now. The pair finally comes across her soul being picked at by a horde of
demons. Swamp Thing attacks and rescues Abby which doesn’t sit right with any
of them including Arcane who might be a bit pissed that he has been robbed of
his revenge. The demons led by Arcane chase the trio through hell, but Etrigan
is able to slow them down with the use of his hellfire. Soon they get to a
point where Etrigan can open a door out of Hell and begins the incantation to
open the rift. I have to mention that symbol floating in the air that the Demon
uses looks suspiciously like the insignia from V for Vendetta, a little subtle
cross promotion perhaps?
The rift is open
and just before they can leave Alec finds Arcane chomping on his ankle to try
to keep them from leaving. But Alec shakes him off and leaves Hell with Abby’s
soul. Swamp Thing wakes up back in the swamp and Abby opens her eyes to see
snow has fallen in the swamp and that Alec is crying, happy to have her back
and alive.
Beautiful |
Alan Moore’s run
on Swamp Thing in the 1980s was one of the watershed marks in comics, it’s a
highly recommended series that reinvented its main character, brought a more
literary feel to comics, and this issue is a high example of how great this series
was. When I read news about the Justice League Dark movie that Guillermo Del
Toro supposedly has planned this is the story I imagine could be that movie. A
lot of Moore’s stories have been transferred to the big screen and they’ve been
anywhere from decent to really bad, see League of Extraordinary Gentleman for
proof of that. If this was the story that would get the treatment I think it
would finally do justice to an Alan Moore work and I do believe that Del Toro
is more than capable to make this happen. Sure it would be banking on the
nostalgia of comics past, but the argument that it was made for kids would get
thrown out in a hurry.
Tuesday, December 3, 2013
Amazing Spider-Man #309
For the first
review of the new direction I decided to start off with a very particular issue
of Amazing Spider-Man. At first glance it’s a very unassuming and seemingly cliché
damsel in distress story and it debuts villains that weren’t used very much
after this story. In spite of this, the
story is actually very well written, doesn’t go where you would expect it to,
and is the very first comic I remember ever reading.
Amazing
Spider-Man issue no.309 was written by David Michelinie and drawn by Todd McFarlane
and released in November 1998. It was part of a story arc where Peter Parker
was traveling around the country to promote “Webs”, a book of the picture he
had taken of himself as Spider-Man. Along the way, Spidey had to face some
familiar foes like The Prowler and The Chameleon. Back in NYC, Mary Jane
Watson-Parker is currently working on the soap opera Secret Hospital and
putting the finishing touches on the couples’ new condo which is owned by a
well off fan of MJ’s named Jonathon Caesar who has a big obsession with the
spunky redhead. It’s when Peter is
in Chicago promoting “Webs” that Caesar makes his move and kidnaps Mary Jane,
holding her in a secret room of the building. Peter has been frantic in his
search for the whereabouts of his missing wife and it’s here that the story
opens with Spidey getting into a fight in a local boxing gym with a low level
mob enforcer with the catchy name of Manslaughter Marsdale. After going a short
round, Spidey interrogates and threatens Marsdale for information which he doesn’t
have.
Having gotten
nowhere, Spidey leaves to brood about how Mary Jane’s disappearance must be a
plot by one of Spider-Man’s many foes to get to him. Contrary to that thought,
we find Mary Jane having dinner against her will with her kidnapper Jonathon
Caesar who is proving to be very unstable in his obession with her. Between the collage of photos of MJ
and his threats to cut her face up if she tries to escape, now that I think
about it unstable is being generous.
Caesar is informed
by his bodyguards that Spider-Man is searching for Mary Jane and based on that
information decides to hire some specialists to deal with the web-slinger. The
next morning and with nothing else to go on Peter goes to the Daily Bugle and
gets the brush off from J. Jonah Jameson who in spite of his gruff demeanor is
keeping an ear out for any information about Mary Jane’s whereabouts. He says
this in front of his secretary Glory Grant who comments that JJJ must have a
heart after all, but he brushes it off by saying there could be a story in
this. Long time readers of Spider-Man will know that in spite of Jonah making
Peter’s life as Spider-Man a living hell and being near disrespectful of Peter
himself, the funny thing is he does actually care about him. This scene could
just be chalked up to him saving face.
After this Peter
goes to visit Daily Bugle editor Robbie Robertson who’s lying in traction in
the hospital. There was a storyline running concurrently with this one in The
Spectacular Spider-Man where Robbie was visited by an old friend who had become
an up-and-coming mob boss named Tombstone. Tombstone wanted Robbie to join his
organization and when he refused his old friend decided to let it go, but not
before breaking Robbie’s back. This scene harkens back to that storyline and
Robbie relates to Peter the feeling of helplessness brought on by his current
situation, a feeling that with MJ’s kidnapping Peter can relate to.
Looking in on Mary Jane and her tribulations with Caesar, we’re introduced to his hiredassassins Styx
And I got Cable's old guns for half off too |
As Spidey tries to
get to a better ground away from civilians Stone blasts him with gas,sonics, and then a strobe burst that blinds him. I’m surprised he didn’t break
out the gun that fires turtle shells. Back at the apartment Mary Jane finally
makes her escape, first she tries using a broken lamp to electrocute Caesar who
is standing in a puddle of melted ice, but Caesar is wearing rubber soles so MJ
clocks him with the broken lamp. Caesar’s bodyguards come in and since they don’t
have rubber soles the trick works this time, the shock knocks them cold and
Mary Jane escapes taking one of their guns with her.
Back at the fight
Spidey’s bouncing around avoiding what Stone’s throwing at him, Stone then hits
Spider-Man with a heat beam and then coats the ground with an adhesive gel that
traps him when he hits the ground. As Stone continues blasting Spidey, Styx
moves in for the kill only to be stopped by…..Mary Jane Watson-Parker who comes
in guns blazing and runs Styx and Stone off saving her husband’s webbed butt. I
know it’s cliché at this point in 2013 but I can’t help but give MJ a “you go
girl” for saving Peter aka the damsel in distress.
Reunited, the pair calls
the police and Caesar and his bodyguards are arrested and led away. As they
head inside, Peter begins putting himself through a guilt trip about not being
there to protect Mary Jane which she immediately grinds to a halt saying that
this would have happened no matter who she was married to, and that the whole
point of their relationship is that they’re both their for each other no matter
who’s in trouble because according to MJ, that’s what love is all about.
Whine to Jack Kirby that you can't write this and see where that gets you |
My memories of this
story were at best vague, but in rereading it for this review I found this to
actually be a really good story. Mary Jane goes from victim to hero and proves
that she’s more than capable of taking care of herself. David Michelinie to me
is the best writer in the Spider-Man books to have ever written Mary Jane’s
character during the marriage era of the book. He writes MJ not as the female
lead sitting on the couch waiting for her super hero husband to come home or
the traditional damsel in distress but
as a strong, capable woman with her own life and ambitions outside of her
relationship with Peter. I’ve heard about how some writers don’t like writing
Mary Jane because they didn’t know what to do with her during this period but
Michelinie proves that to be utter crap and just the whining of uninspired
writers. J. Michael Straczynski can also be credited as someone who wrote MJ’s
character just as well, focusing on her career as an actress of both stage and
screen. However, his involvement in the infamous “One More Day” storyline
tarnishes that for me and for many others who are fans of Mary Jane and want to
see the marriage restored.
This is a story I
would recommend for anyone who wanted to get into reading Spider-Man, it’s a
good self-contained story that while it doesn’t show Spidey in all his glory it
does show how well the dynamic between him and MJ can really be when you have a
writer who actually tries and doesn’t give in to cliché tropes. Once again,
David Michelinie, I salute you sir and thank you for writing the very issue
that got me into reading Spider-Man.
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