New Avengers: Breakout (#1-#6)

Ignore the contrived crossover that lead to this. Forget it ever happened. Erase it out of your memory. What you have left can be described in just one word. Kickass.

Breakout can be summarised as Setup leading to Fight leading to Team. A three step process to forming the new Avengers (Or should that be New Avengers? Nevermind). A team that comprises of Captain America, Iron Man, Spider-Man, Spider-Woman, Luke Cage, The Sentry, and Wolverine. The first two are logical, and essential choices. Cap for the leadership, and Tony for the moolah/pad. They're returning members, senior Avengers now. As for the others, as far as I know, this is their first time on the team.

I really can't wrap my head around the fact that Spider-Man is on an Avengers team. He doesn't come across as a team player, and secondly, with his day job and all the other stuff that keeps happening to him every other minute, I'm surprised he has time to even look at the other members. I have to say though, Bendis writes him well. He mouths some of the funniest lines I've read in recent times. Heck, the way he plays off the other team members is probably the only reason I'll read him in the team. He makes a great mascot. In fact, the Luke Cage - Spidey banter reminds me of the Flash-GL (Kyle) relation from Grant Morrison's JLA. Good stuff, this.

Luke Cage, I don't know much about. He has unbreakable skin, and superhuman strength. I'm not sure he's invincible. So I doubt he could actually survive a fall off the top of a skyscraper. Good thing he did, because it leads to one of my favourite moments in the book - Luke Cage in the lift. Hah, little moments like that make the book.

Spider-Woman is in the book because, well, I guess an all male team would get too boring to look at? Finch draws a hot Jessica Drew. Smokin'! As for the remaining two, The Sentry's not in here for long, and Wolverine meets the team mid-way.

So it's a very contrived team, but the story leading up to it is some seriously explosive stuff. Breakout is essentially a two-parter, six-issue long slugfest - The Ryker Island episode, and the Savage Land episode.

Electro is hired to break someone out of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s maximum-security prison on Ryker Island, and he does that by overloading the prison security systems. As luck would have it, Matt "Daredevil" Murdock, Foggy Nelson, Luke Cage, and Jessica "Spider-Woman" Drew are on the island to meet The Sentry. The man who, according to Reed Richards, may be the most powerful person on Earth. Cap America flies in on a chopper, and Spider-Man hitches a ride. Whoo-hoo! And the s#@t hit the roof! Spidey gets his arm broken (which is mysteriously fixed by #4), and the heroes get their collective asses kicked. Cutting a long story short, the heroes win, but not before discovering that half the inmates have escaped. The Cap and Tony decide that fate has brought them together, and since they fought well together, they should become the New Avengers. ?? Yup, just like that, outta the blue, the team is formed again. They haven't approached The Sentry yet, and only Daredevil declines to join. Good move, Matt.

So from there, it's on to the Savage Land, because the target of the breakout was Karl Lycos, the terrible Sauron! Tremble, mortals!! Wolverine is on the island, and after his little tumble with Spider-Woman, the customary heroes-meet-then-fight-then-team-up moment of the story, they move on ahead. After they take down Sauron, they are attacked by S.H.I.E.L.D. and "a" Black Widow. They discover that S.H.I.E.L.D. has been mining vibranium, illegally stockpiling weapons material.

So that's it, the team's formed, but the story's just beginning. There's still things I don't like, but I'm thinking I'm not gonna sweat the small stuff. After all, it's a great read, and it's got one helluva good artist on it, David Finch. This team may not last, but while it does, I sure as hell hope it's all as kickass as this.

Crawling From The Wreckage

Sometimes I just want to get to work on Grant Morrison with a pair of scissors.

"Orqwith." Really? "The City of Bone, the City of Miracles... has spread like ripples in a pond from one central point - the Quadrivium (is that even a word? - ed. i.e. me) which is itself the terrestrial image of the Gods of the Crossroads."

Do you feel stupid? Like you can never understand just what the heck he's throwing at you? Like he's making up stuff that's not real, but is real really, because it's written?

Yes, he makes me feel stupid. And then he hooks me. "In the serious light of stained glass and volatile candles, two priests meditate. One is a liar, the other, an honest man. And they are waiting to answer the Question that will unmake the world."

Wow. Just plain wow. Tell me. How. Can you. Resist that?

Even when you think that he may privately be laughing at you. Us. Everyone. Heh. He is just making stuff up, right? These are stories, words put together to form vague meanings. I can read between the lines. Actually, I don't need to. He's pretty straight forward. "It's kind of divination, like casting the runes or reading the flight of birds. Only with words." Very eloquent eh? Hehe, the horrible truth of existance is, "some stories have. No. Meaning." Live with it.

Putting aside that herb, I think of the meme thing. Warren Ellis has used similar fundas twice. In transmetropolis (don't ask me where, 60 issues X 22 pages is a lot to thumb through. And in Global Frequency. Issue 4, i believe). I'm not so sure i like memes. It lead to a lot of crap on the blogosphere.

Last story. Blah. Did not enjoy. Not like ape-faced girl. Not like Joshua Clay. But is okay. Good exists with bad, like yin and yan. Or yang, too tired to check.

Now, leave me be. Trades 2 and 3. Await for me.

P.s. read up on memes and the Feigenbaum Constant, which, frankly, i'm not sure is the same as Fiegenbaum's Sequence of Imaginary Numbers. Let me know if you know.
Also, some guy has has created an Orqwith page modelled on the CIA's World Factbook. Worth checking out.

May Comix Shopping

15 buck issues

Astonishing X-Men #3 - Gifted 3 - Joss Whedon / John Cassaday

Avengers #17 - Chaos 3 - Brian Michael Bendis / David Finch / Danny Miki

Electra: The Hand #3 - The First Faults - Akira Yoshida / Christian Gossett / Jonathan Glapion

Green Lantern Rebirth #3 - Yellow - Geoff Johns / Ethan Van Scriver / Prentis Rollins

Justice League Adventures #26 - Strange Days 2 - Ken Rothstein / Chris Jones / Dan Davies

Marvel Team Up #2 - Golden Child 2 - Robert Kirkman / Scott Kolins

Planetary #3 - Dead Gunfighters - Warren Ellis / John Cassaday

Spectacular Spiderman #32 - Countdown 2 - Paul Jenkins / Humberto Ramos / Wayne Faucher

Teen Titans #6 - War and Peace - Geoff Johns / Mike McKone / Marlo Alquiza

Tomb Of Dracula #3 - Robert Rodi & Bruce Jones / Jamie Tolagson / Tom Palmer & Scott Koblish

Ultimate Fantastic Four #6 - Brian Michael Bendis / Adam Kubert / John Dell & Danny Miki

Double sized 25 buck issues

Another Nail #2

Amazing Spiderman #14 - Happy Birthday 1/2 - J. Michael Strackzynski / John Romia jr. / Scott Hanna

Batman #32 - Broken City 5/6 - Brian Azzarello / Eduardo Risso

Fantastic Four #14 - Hereafter 2/3 - Mark Waid / Mike Wieringo / Karl Kesel

Spiderman India #1 - Jeevan K. Kang / Gotham Studios Asia

Wolverine #7 - Return of the Native 3/4 - Greg Rucka / Darick Robertson / Jimmy Palmiotti & Tom Palmer

Michael Crichton - Prey

I had been pretty curious to read Prey ever since I'd heard about it. However, I only bought the book a few months back, and never got around to reading it, until now. I don't know why I waited so long, because I'm surprised by how quickly this novel hooked me. I started it today morning, around 11, and now, five hours and one visit to the doctor later, I'm done.

This is a book about a nanotechnology experiment gone horribly wrong. I'm pretty sure everyone has atleast heard of nanotechnology, if not understood it (My favourite, and first, reference is SuperPatriot and the cans of nanobots he carries around, but that's a story for another day). If it sounds alien, then this isn't the best place to start, because the nanotech here isn't exactly the friendliest of tech, and If you're looking forward to understanding the technology behind it, well I'm not sure how much Chrichton has made up, but most of it kinda went over my head. It's still a fascinating read, no matter where your interests lie, because like most of his other novels, what the protagonists do with the tech is just as fascinating as the tech itself.

The blurb at the back of the novel is quite fine in it's description of the novel. However, its ominous tone is a bit misleading. See, the novel itself isn't very scary. There are a few deaths, and the last few chapters are quite tense, but the horrors of rogue nanobots running (or rather, swarming) amuck in a civilian population are only implied, and after reading this, I'm sure most of us won't have any troubles visualising that.

And this is precisely the kind of creepy that scares me the most, because everything depicted here could actually be happening right now, someplace, somewhere. It doesn't rely on luck or fate or running across supernatural interference, but rather, it's the highly volatile, often stupidly self-destructing nature of human beings that acts as the prime catalyst for the whole darn mess.

For every fire-breathing dragon, there's the righteous knight; for every blood-sucking vampire, there's the holy water and wooden stake; for every lycanthrope there's the silver bullet; but for every moronic homosapien with more power than he can control, there's only another homosapien to muck things up. We are doomed.

April Comics Shopping

I was going to post this about two weeks back, but the operation and net disconnection ensured that wouldn't happen as planned.

Anyway, I've decided that I'm going to make a list of all the comics that I buy every month and post it here. They're all published by Gotham Entertainment, and since they're the only ones who bring us any comics at all, I've decided to overlook the fact that ocassionally a book will have no story title and/or credits listed inside at all. We get two types of monthlies, the 15 rupees issue, which is essential one 22 page comic, and the 25 rupees issue, which is double sized, 44 pages. Mostly. Sometimes it's a 36 page issue, but what the heck, who's counting..

15 buck issues

Astonishing X-Men #2 - Gifted 2 - Joss Whedon / John Cassaday
Avengers #16 - Chaos 2 - Brian Michael Bendis / David Finch / Danny Miki
Conan #22 - Flame Winds of Lost Khitai - Roy Thomas / John Buscema & Ernie Chan
Electra: The Hand #2 - The First Blow - Akira Yoshida / Christian Gossett / Jonathan Glapion
Fantastic Four #13 - Hereafter 1 - Mark Waid / Mike Wieringo / Karl Kesel
Green Lantern Rebirth #2 - Enemies Within - Geoff Johns / Ethan Van Scriver / Prentis Rollins
Justice League Adventures #25 - Strange Days - Ken Rothstein / Chris Jones / Dan Davies
Marvel Team Up #1 - Golden Child 1 - Robert Kirkman / Scott Kolins
Planetary #2 - Island - Warren Ellis / John Cassaday
Spectacular Spiderman #31 - Countdown 1 - Paul Jenkins / Humberto Ramos / Wayne Faucher
Tarzan #30 - Tarzan and Superman
Teen Titans #5 - Clash Of The Ten Titans - Geoff Johns / Mike McKone / Marlo Alquiza
Tomb Of Dracula #2 - Robert Rodi & Bruce Jones / Jamie Tolagson / Tom Palmer & Scott Koblish
Ultimate Fantastic Four #5 - The Fantastic - Brian Michael Bendis / Adam Kubert / John Dell & Danny Miki

Double sized 25 buck issues

Amazing Spiderman #13 - Unintended Consequences / The Revolution Within - Fiona Avery & J. Michael Strackzynski / John Romia jr. / Scott Hanna
Another Nail #1
Batman #31 - Broken City 3/4 - Brian Azzarello / Eduardo Risso
JLA #13 - Kingdom Come 4 - Mark Waid / Alex Ross
Thundercats #16 - Thundercats/Superman
Wolverine #6 - Return of the Native 1/2 - Greg Rucka / Darick Robertson

Iron Man #2, Ultimates 2 #5, Fables #36

I wish Warren Ellis would realise that he's writing for a comic, and not a movie. The slow, deliberate pace of Iron Man #2, coupled with the absolutely lack of any sound effects makes me feel that I'm watching a movie with the volume on mute, and subtitles on. That's not a particularly good feeling. This is quite similar to his Ultimate Secret #1, with the first few pages having some dialogues and the rest just a big fight scene, one that doesn't even conclude here.

I'm not a fan of Adi Granov's art either. While rendering a great Iron Man armour, I just can't get into how he portrays his humans. I don't know if it's the fact they seem creepy, like stuffed mannequins, or if that this photo-realism reminds me of all those photo-romance magazines that were so repulsive when I was a kid (and most likely still are), but whatever the reason, Granov's art just doesn't cut it for me.

It's not all bad though. The Iron Man armour has some interesting moves, the Extremis explanation sounds fairly interesting, and the villain seems like a believable threat. For all that they have, maybe they should take a cue from Millar and Hitch's work on the Ultimates vol 2. Mark Millar is have a much better run this time round, and while Hitch's pencils aren't as polished as they were in the first series, as a team, they are kickin' the combined ass of Ellis and Granov (I realy shouldn't be comparing the two teams, and if at all, it should be Ultimates 2 vs Ultimate Iron Man, but since i can't see the second issue of the latter anywhere, I'll settle for the 616 Iron Man).

Ultimates v2 #5 has everything a big blockbuster movie could hope to have; a fantastic cast, the oppressed good guy whom everyone's cheering for, the self-righteous government hicks who take on the good guy, the sneaky snakey slimy character who's secretly manipulating everything from behind the scenes, and finally, most importantly, the magnificent, large scale spectacular action that seems totally real, and full of life and danger and just oozes adrenaline. Ok, that's a little overboard, and i'm dissapointed that Captain America is still standing when the dust settles, but what the heck, it was a great issue nevertheless.

However, for pure comic book madness, nothing beats Fables #36! The Jack-in-Hollywood storyline was entertaining, no doubts about it, but this is the real deal! Our first real glimpse of the homelands! The book is usually as much Willingham's as it is Buckingham's (seems like a made-for-each-other duo, if there ever were one), but not this time around, because wow, Buckingham has really outdone himself! From the lush green serenity on the opening pages to the foul, desolate route to the Imperial Throne World, the environment is stunningly rendered. The larger-than-life comic book effect is in full flow here, with the varied fauna on display: the tax-collecting goblin duo, the beasts of burden at the gates, and the diabolically intimidating dragon who meets Boy Blue. Ah yes, Little Boy Blue, not so little anymore. He is, infact, surprisingly dashing as the goblin-terrorising Black Knight. Yes, I know what you're thinking, "Shouldn't he be the Blue Knight?". The goblins thought so too, you know, and well, it got them killed. So I'd shut up, if I were you, and just wait for the next issue!!

Hack/Slash : Comic Book Carnage

Somewhere in the beginning of the story, Cassie makes an observation : "Slashers love a good ironic kill... The smoker gets burned alive, the slut gets stuffed in the outhouse toilet, the cook serves the students as school lunch... Killing the horror writer in the shower, "Psycho" style... Well, it doesn't get more ironic than that."

And that love of irony seems to be the primary motivating factor behind setting this story in a comic book convention. Granted, this particular story works out best in a Comic Book Convention, the deranged fan killing off writers and artists who have decided to take a character, and in the words of Niles, "..Kinda throw a new dark angle onto the character... To introduce him to a whole new mature audience". But the problem here is that Tim Seeley hasn't used the setting to it's complete potential. The whole comic convention comes off as a private shindig thrown by Steve Niles, Robert Kirkman, Skottie Young, and Messy Stench (I've never heard of her. Infact, when I saw her name on the cover, I thought it just a joke, kinda letting us know what to expect inside. Lotsa blood and guts, a messy stench, that kinda thing. I've also never seen her movie "Death By Boobjob". Damn.), promoting the new Wunderkind comic by their Young Buck Entertainment company. The premise isn't really milked to it's fullest potential, and you get the feeling that these killings would have had the same effect if they'd been committed at a mall or any other generic setting.

The big reveal as to who the slasher is, kinda fell flat on it's face for me. There just wasn't enough dramatic tension or build-up to it. Ofcourse, you have the usual rabid fan around, accusing Young Buck of ripping off his idea, and vowing revenge, but that was a blatant and unsuccessful attempt at misdirection.

Nevertheless, as generic as the plot and setting is, it's the script that's the clear winner here. The book is peppered with some great one-liners, such as Cassie's "..Our diet is gonna kill us long before a slasher does.." and Vlad's "Hurrm... I am very popular today" at the convention; which pretty much had me in splits. Tim has got most of the characterisations down pat. Like when Carrie attempts to hit on Skottie, at first that just seems waaay out of character for her, but then you realise, even with all the hacking and slashing she regularly does, she's only eighteen (or somewhere closeby). Ofcourse, when it comes to Skottie Young and Robert Kirkman and the others, I'm no authority, but atleast they don't appear as caricatures.

The art by Federica Manfredi is another major plus point. It's pretty darn good. Though the perspective seems kinda off at times, Cassie, Vlad and all the other human characters are not only very expressive, but also greatly distinct from one another. She does it all, right from the youth of Cassie, to the macabre Slasher fiend. I'd really love to see her on a lot more mainstream project.

Hah, as for Whizzar world, I can seen why Tim didn't just use "Wizard World". They've been portrayed here as the worst example of P.T.Barnum's "The Show Must Go On" types. Shit, the two employees with that wide toothy grin were actually much more creepier than the Slasher at the end. Maybe Seeley will end up giving us a "The Walking Wizard Dead" eh? Or maybe Kirkman. Wait, he's dead. *Sign*. I'm so unfunny, Mark Millar should be writing about me...

THE END

Ultimate Secret #1

Taking Blood of the Demon #1 as an example, I came across a fair bunch of characters whom I'd never read about before. Yet, I found the book to be pretty easy to get into, and quite accessible. Unfortunately, I can't say the same for Ultimate Secret #1.

The silver guy in the lead, his armour has quite a striking design. But, just who is he? Reading the book, I'd never have found out. Thanks to the chat rooms and forums I lurk on, I learned that he was, infact, Captain Marvel. Well, I remember thinking, didn't he have those negation bands on his wrist? Aah, I see, out here they've been replaced with some kind of a cosmic wrist-watch. Cute, but unfortunately, it's already been done, and done much better, back in the pages of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles' crossover with Cerebus. Remember Lord Simultaneous, and the Digital Cosmic Quartz? As I said, much better. Warren Ellis was beaten by nearly 20 years. You don't see that often.

That apart, I don't think anyone needed the nerdy science fiction. Save the unnecessary dialogue for the movie. Out here, we need plot. The two page monologue on how the space shuttle is powered served absolutely no purpose in the story, and just came across as Warren Ellis showing off his scientific acumen. And padding. Yes. Throwaway jokes and splash pages do not a comic book make. And yet, ironically, that was the only time the book was engrossing, because the rest of the issue was dull, dreary, and beset by inertia. Hence, in this issue, we learned that the Kree are stealing a top-secret, experimental space shuttle.

The art is pretty good, nicely detailed, but the fight at the end is pretty poorly depicted, and there isn't much flow between the panels.

So a six page introductory setup is stretched out into an whole issue, and not a very interesting one at that either. Poor stuff.

Ultimates 2 #4

What an insufferable bastard. Mark Millar has turned the usually lovable Captain America into an arrogant, self-righteous prick. And the man who should really be the one with all the ego, the man who believes himself to be a bloody God, for crying out loud, is the peace-loving, quite one. And he is about to pay.

The Ultimates have been ordered to take down Thor for his refusal to toe the line. The Ultimates and what army? Now lets see, who all does the Ultimates comprise of at this point?
The WASP, who can shrink down to the size of a wasp, and sting. Ok, next.
BLACK WIDOW, a Russian superspy, with no superhuman powers. A walkover. Less, even. Next.
HAWKEYE, expert marksman, with a bow and arrow. He might just about squeeze in a dirty shot when he's being totally ignored, but I really doubt it.
QUICKSILVER, superspeedster. Naah, Thor already got him. So his speed does jack for him.
The SCARLET WITCH, apparently with powers of chaos magic. Now this is a wild card. I haven't been reading the Ultimate X-Men series, so I don't know if she's displayed any of her abilities there, but if it really is magic, then frankly, she'd be unstoppable.

On to the heavy hitters. IRON MAN is included here rather reluctantly. His armour isn't nearly as powerful as it looks. Plus he needs a 100-man support crew everytime he deploys. Way to go to totally destroy any effectiveness the armour might have had. It's more of a joke really, a super-powered toy that the filthy rich would play with.
GIANT MAN. No wait, he's out. Heck, he was even taken down by the Cap, albeit in a totally unbelievable fashion. What, growing 10 storeys high make you slower than a turtle with arthritis??
Finally, CAPTAIN AMERICA. The Ultimate Cap is much, much stronger than his 616 counterpart. He's also much more ruthless. But he's still human. Lightning will kill him.
So THOR has no competition. Ofcourse, we know absolutely nothing about the European Super-Soldiers, and neither, I'm betting, does Thor. This should definitely be interesting. I can't wait to see the Norse Thunder God beat the snot out of the Cap, and everyone else too.

So what actually happened in #4? Well, Tony proposes to Natasha (who gets an Iron Woman armour), Thor intervenes when peaceful protestors are about to be brutalizes by armed forces, the Ultimates meet the Super-Soldiers from the European Defence Initiative, and we learn of Thor's supposed origin as the Norwegian candidate for the program.

On a side note, anyone see the parallel here with Black Panther #2? The Ultimates are slowly being manoeuvered into a political tool, to be used as a weapon against those, who go against the interests of the American Government. In Black Panther #2, Klaw and his villainous partner are sanctioned to take out the Black Panther, just because the Government "perceives" a threat to American Interests from the regime change in Wakanda. Scary.

Yarva Etrigan Daemonicus, aka, Blood of the Demon #1

John Byrne revamps the Demon! This was something I'd been looking forward to, and I must say I wasn't disappointed. It's a very action oriented issue, quite graphically violent at that, and it's setting itself up for a great story.

It's a pretty accessible issue. There's a quick two page recap of Etrigan's origin in the beginning, something very rare among the six-issue origin books of today. The story begins with Jason Blood being methodically, and quite ingeniously, tortured. Someone is after the secret of Etrigan. After a lackey's goof-up, the villain dumps Blood away, believing him to be dead. Surprise, he isn't! If he were, it wouldn't be much of a revival, would it? Anyway, he's found, taken to the hospital, escapes the cops, gets back to his pad, and return's to the villain's den to do some serious butt kicking. And, in a very interesting, and central, plot development, he's finally free of Merlin's control and influence. He's on a rampage, with a vengeance.

This book has a very old school feel to it. No lengthy set-ups, no decompression of any sort, and no unnecessary flashy pinups or double spreads. Will Pfieffer does a decent job on the scripting, though I'm hoping he had a more active role in actually developing the plot. The art is fairly good too. Like I said, nothing flashy, but Byrne has a very good sense of panels and layouts, and wastes no space anywhere. Thankfully, he's isn't handling the inks. That job falls upon Nekros(?!).

Oh, and the Demon rhymes no more. While that was quite a unique quality, it also made him seem like a goofball at times, which he most definetely isn't here. All in all, a very engrossing read, and something to look forward to.

Comic Talk - The real Bruce Campbell, + All Star Comix!

So Bruce Campbell is now a comic book writer. This is cool, the man seems to have a real sense of humour, judging from his various interviews. And yes, BMW Film's The Hire - Precious Cargo was written by him, and not some other bloke with the same name. He's writing a 6-issue comic, adapted from the script of Man with the Screaming Brain, his latest movie. It tells the story of "a wealthy American businessman determined to exploit the crippled economy of a former Soviet state now torn between communist roots and capitalist greed. Campbell’s character hits on the wrong gypsy girl and lands in the grip of a mad scientist determined to get rich off a twisted brain-transplant scheme". Very, very interesting.

On the other hand, the two All Star comics haven't done much for me. Frank Miller will be writing All-Star Batman & Robin, with art by Jim Lee. All-Star Superman will be written by Grant Morrison and drawn by Frank Quitely. Huh. Two Franks. Heh. Umm, yeah, nevermind that..

Neither of the two artists excite me. Jim Lee draws human beings that are waaay too perfect, and Quitely makes they seem, well, for want of a better word, pudgy (he atleast does some great backgrounds and environments, and now, animals too). But the art as a whole isn't a major factor, as I've always been more heavily influenced in my decisions by the writer. Which is why I'm surprised that Morrison chose Superman. Back in his JLA days, he pretty much whipped Big Blue around, and elevated Batman into some kind of Man-God. Under his pen, that was a lot of fun, and gave the impression that he really favoured Batman a lot more than Supes. I'm not sure if Superman is an ideal title for him, and heck, given his taste in stories, Green Lantern was one, huge empty canvas for him. Nevertheless, I'm curious as hell to find out what he's planned for Big Blue. Nuggets like "Well, we deal with the entire origin sequence using four panels on page one of our first issue" and "I've created Krull, an evolved dinosaur dictator who rules a monstrous civilization at the center of the earth" give me some hope. You should really read the entire interview here.

As for the Dark Knight, I can't remember the last time I was even remotely interested in what's been happening in his world. And sadly, I've always been a BatFan, never a Superman lover...

On a side note, when I did a word check on this post, Blogger suggested replacing "batfan" with "bedpan".. Strangely ironic, eh?

Rich Johnston on Waid and Kitson's Legion #2

I just read Rich Johnston's new column at HeroRealm, where he will review one comic a week. He starts with Mark Waid and Barry Kitson's Legion of Superheroes #2.

Somewhere in between, while talking about the Legion's motives, Johnston comes up with an interesting point. He says that civilization, where comfort is taken for granted, produces brats. While that is entirely possible, he further argues that civilization produces --only-- brats, and nothing else. And since in the Legion's time, it's been a thousand years of peace, "these kids should be the vilest snotrags in the galaxy".

In an otherwise well written critique, that was one point I didn't agree with, because I'm not quite sure whether war and peace have anything to do with producing brats. The chances of meeting a savage ruffian during times of war are just as much as meeting one when the white flag is flying. I would rather say the case for juvenile delinquency begins closer to home. Snobbish and arrogant parents will inevitably produce bratty kids, just as parents who are pushovers will probably have either very meek, or very rebellious angry-at-the-world kids. It's pretty close to type-slotting, but I choose to believe that the influence of an upbringing on the psyche of a child is more powerful than that of a society that is engulfed in war or blanketed by blissful peace.

Nevertheless, I am glad to have another column that I can look forward to reading every week. I's have been happier if it wasn't restricted to just one comic per week, but you know what they say, better one than none...