Unwritten

Unwritten 10-24

I’ve reached the end of the issues I own (minus the upcoming crossover with Fables, which doesn’t count), and I think I know why past me stayed with it for twenty four issues, and why he stopped buying.  

I stayed for the mysteries - What’s the deal with Tom Taylor?  Is he real? Did Wilson Taylor somehow manifest his fictional creation into a living, breathing person?  The arc that ran through the eighteenth issue builds up to the release of the long-awaited fourteenth Tommy Taylor novel.  Mike Carey effectively ratchets up the tension as the plot gets closer and closer to that point, while keeping all of the details murky the whole time; I never knew why the release was important, the stakes that were involved, or what was going to happen.  I knew the novel was a fake, that the cabal of bad guys was waiting for Wilson to turn up, and that was about it. And I was perfectly happy with that arrangement. The not-knowing is what made the experience exciting, and I was looking forward to the grand reveal.  

The book release itself didn’t disappoint.  The publication of the piece of crap not-written-by-Wilson novel was a smokescreen, lulling the Cabal (the enigmatic bad buys) into a false sense of victory while the true novel was being printed in secret.  Sweet fake, I thoroughly enjoyed that. But everything else completely let me down. Wilson gets his head cut off, Tom casts a spell in the real world, the Cabal gets a leadership change, and Tom sets off on his next quest.  It all sounds exciting, but it just sets up more questions without giving me any kind of satisfying resolution.

Carey and Peter Gross do give us an ambitious Choose Your Own Adventure issue, but after the initial novelty wears off, it just becomes a pain in the ass to read.  Way too much flipping for what is at its heart a very basic story.

The subsequent Leviathan story arc completely falls apart for me, and totally understand why I tapped out.  Where the book release plot felt like it was leading to something big, with a propulsive wave pushing it along, this one was inert from the get go.  Tom’s looking for a whale, but doesn’t know why. Once he gets trapped in the whale, he looks for a way out, but at a lackadaisical pace. There’s no urgency to any of it.  Tom’s just waiting for something to happen to him, and that’s boring to follow.

Other things worth mentioning:

In issue 12, Wilson Taylor exiles one of his associates into a Winnie-the-Pooh analog world.  Pauly Bruckner is now Mr. Bun, and he’s not happy about it. Imagine a self-aware Avenue Q puppet trapped in the sanitized world of Sesame Street, and you’ll have a pretty good idea of how his life is going.  He swears and struggles to find a way out, only to find himself banished to an even worse fate at the end of the issue.

I thought that was the end of it, but twelve issues later, he reappears amidst a group of literary talking animals who’ve left their stories in search of the Maker.  They’re climbing an endless stairway, chasing a vague promise of something better. Mr. Bun usurps leadership of the wandering collective (like Napoleon in Animal Farm) until he finds a way out of that world as well.  Carey clearly has bigger plans for this character, and I’m a little curious to know how this thread ties itself off.  

I can't hear the name "Mr. Bun" without thinking of this.

Speaking of, I just discovered Readcomics.io, which somehow has a ton of comics available to read for free.  It’s not comprehensive, but I might use it to see how Unfollow and Unwritten finish up.  I’m certainly not going to buy any more of those issues.

This might be Peter Gross’ best work.  The art has a level of detail and refinement that I don’t normally see in his usually minimal style.  

From Lucifer.  It's really good, but there's an economy to the linework that doesn't suggest what you see in Unwritten below.

Regret buying: No

Would buy again: No

Would read again: Yes

Rating: Nice, trending towards Fine by the end.

Unwritten

Unwritten 1-9

Here we go with another Mike Carey series.  As with my reread of Lucifer, I remember pretty much nothing about this series.  I also remember thinking it was pretty good the first time around.  But past me stopped buying Unwritten after 24 issues, so something must have gone off the rails.  Let’s find out what I was thinking!

The premise for this series is bonkers.  Wilson Taylor is the author of the Tommy Taylor books.  Substitute Tommy Taylor for Harry Potter, and you’ll have an idea of what they’re about.  Wilson used his son Tom as the inspiration for his title character. After writing fourteen Tommy Taylor novels, Wilson disappeared, leaving the real life Tom alone in the world with a ton of unresolved daddy issues.  Tom makes a living on the convention circuit, living off the fame his father created for him, resenting it the entire time.

Things get strange when a graduate student named Lizzie Hexam reveals to the world that Tom might not really be Wilson’s son.  The resulting backlash in the court of public opinion sendsTom off on a journey of self-discovery, accompanied by a major dose of weird shit.  

Calling out some of the neater stuff:

Lizzie Hexam goes on to play a major role in the title as one of Tom’s sidekicks.  She’s working at the behest of Wilson, and it appears as if she’s the actual Lizzie Hexam from Charles Dickens’ novel, somehow brought to life.  I love the manner in which she communicates with Wilson, through the medium of books:

So cool. And in a more extreme method:

In the second story arc, we’re introduced to two siblings who’ve taken their fandom of Tommy Taylor to an unhealthy level.  They take it just a little bit to seriously, and believe in it just a little too much. Sure, aspects of the novel have begun manifesting themselves in the real world, but these kids aren’t going to be casting spells with their wands.  They don’t learn their lesson until it’s too late, and the mixture of desperation, hope, and realization on their faces is absolutely heartwrenching. Peter Gross nails that panel.

So fucking cruel.

Unfollow, Sugar

Sugar TPB 1

It looks like this run of alternative romance comics by the Sejic/Hawkins/Cheung collective has to have titles that start with ‘S’.  Not that it really matters. I was sold at “companion book to both Sunstone and Swing.”  After previous covering BSDM and swinging, this time around it’s the world of sugar daddies and babies.  

What I like about all of these titles is that at their core, they’re still romances.  Everything else is really no different from the hook in any other rom com - “Boy bets that he can transform the school nerd into prom queen.  Falling in love was never part of the plan.” “Girl agrees to be a divorcee’s girlfriend for 3000 dollars a month in order to pay for college.  Falling in love was never part of the plan.” It’s all the same. And these are good romances. The protagonists are realistic, the art is beautiful, and I hate that I have to wait until next summer to read the next trade.    

Unfollow 1-10

The premise is so promising: The dying inventor of Chirper (read: Twitter) randomly selects 140 characters to evenly divide his fortune upon his death.  Twist: If one of the beneficiaries dies, their inheritance is redistributed among the remaining survivors. Let the killings commence.

It started off strong, until the weird elements outweighed the interesting ones.  All the masked killers, delusional religious killers, and delusional cult leaders (okay, only one of each) drowned out the aspects that I wanted to read about - How would less insane people handle the situation?  Who would hide? Who would kill? Who would invest their money in mutual funds? I’ll never know. The series only lasted for 8 more issues, but I don’t care enough to find out what happens.

Regret buying: No

Would buy again: No

Would read again: No

Rating: Fine (Cutting)

Transmetropolitan, Twilight Children

Transmetropolitan 1,4,5,6,21,25,26

Transmetropolitan is generally considered to be Warren Ellis’ magnum opus.  I could never get into it. I recognize the craft behind it, but it’s too much unfiltered Ellis for me.  Spider Jerusalem never reads likes anything more than an avatar for Ellis, a mouthpiece that allows him to spout out whatever he wants to rant about that month.  Not to say that it isn’t usually entertaining, but I always feel like someone’s been screaming right in my face after I’ve finished an issue. Reading the seven issues that I own in one sitting left me exhausted, and not in a good way.  

But there’s no doubt that Ellis created a legend with Spider.  The image of him lighting up is iconic of that era of comics.

Regret buying: No

Would buy again: No

Would read again: Yes

Rating: Fine

Twilight Children 1-4

I’ll buy anything by Darwyn Cooke.  This is the one time it’s bitten me in the ass.  Twilight Children is an absolute piece of garbage from a story point of view.  It starts off with an interesting enough mystery, but goes off the rails by the third issue and concludes with an incoherent mess of a finale. I blame Gilbert Hernandez for the writing.  Only Cooke’s art kept me from hating this miniseries. I would never have believed that I’d cut something by him from my collection, but I never want to put my brain through this again.  And as pretty as it is, Cooke’s done better stuff. This won’t be missed.

Regret buying: Yes

Would buy again: No

Would read again: No

Rating: Disliked (Cutting)

Museum of Pop Culture, Slash and Burn, Swamp Thing, West Coast Avengers, Action Comics, Walk Through Hell, Runaways

Museum of Pop Culture
I was in Seattle for PAX this weekend, and I stopped by the Museum of Pop Culture.  Aside from just sounding like an awesome place, they’re in the middle of showing a Marvel exhibit, providing extra incentive.

Wow.  This place was full of the most precious artifacts.  The amount of original comic art hanging on the walls blew my mind.  And these weren’t just random pages, these were pieces of history – The cover of Giant-Size X-Men 1.  The final three pages of the death of Gwen Stacy.  Bullseye’s magic trick. The cover of Iron Man 1.  The cover of the end of the Dark Phoenix Saga.  Frank Miller’s Wolverine covers.  An insane Bill Sienkiewicz New Mutants collage.  It was surreal looking at these works of art which I’ve now known for decades.  They’re practically holy relics for me. I felt like a kid again, rediscovering something that I’ve loved for years.

On top of that, the museum was packed with other treasures – Costumes from the Marvel movies.  Actual copies of Amazing Fantasy 15, Fantastic Four 1, and Marvel Comics 1.  Greedo’s mask.  Costumes from The Princess Bride.  Hicks’ armor and pulse rifle.  The placeholder cards Richard Garfield used to playtest Magic: The Gathering before it was first published.  The helmet John Cleese wore as the insulting French soldier.

I love going to museums and appreciating the craft and skill of our planet’s greatest artists.  There’s unmatched beauty and culture filling the halls of the Getty, the Met, the V&A Museum, and all the rest.  (Haven’t been to the Louvre yet…) But while I admit that they are objectively better than the things I just saw, none of them triggered the pure joy in my heart the way that Miller and Romita’s linework did today.  A magical experience.

Some new comics from the last two weeks:

West Coast Avengers 1

Let’s not kid ourselves, this is flat out the next volume of Kelly Thompson’s Hawkeye comic.  Which is why I picked it up. If building a team around Kate Bishop is what it takes to get more of her on the shelf, I’m totally fine with it.  It’s even sillier than the previous go-around with Gwenpool, land sharks, and giant Tigra, but Thompson makes it all work. Plus, she gifts the world with the introduction of BRODOK, so A+ from me.

His head's intentionally too big.  Perfect.

Action Comics 1002

Below average Bendis, but not bad enough that I’m thinking about dropping it yet.

A Walk Through Hell 4

Tons and tons of backstory recapping.  It doesn’t fit together all that well, but I’m still intrigued enough to give it at least another issue.  (No idea how long this mini is supposed to last.)

Runaways 12

I have a colleague at work who was inspired to read the Brian K Vaughan run of Runaways after really liking the tv show.  (Which I still have to watch.) After he got through those, I told him to skip everything after and jump right to the Rainbow Rowell issues.  Reading her latest offering, I’m still feeling confident in my recommendation. I love where she’s taking all of these characters. Their personalities and relationships are so very strong, enabling issues like this one, where there’s no real plot to speak of, just interactions.  I could read this quality of stuff for quite some time.

Kris Anka does some phenomenal work here, too.

Back to Vertigo Box 3:

Slash and Burn 1-2

A firefighter who’s a closet pyromaniac.  That’s the hook. The story’s fine, and Max Dunbar does good work as a rich man’s Howard Porter.  But it’s nothing that I’d go out of my way to read or buy, even though I’d gladly revisit it. If I ever come across it at a bookstore, I’d probably pull it off the shelf to see how it all turns out.

Regret buying: No

Would buy again: No

Would read again: Yes

Rating: Fine

Swamp Thing 3

I probably bought this because I read a good review of it.  Gah, what a piece of trash. Tefe Holland plays a supporting role in this story about an aspiring writer on a crabbing ship.  The author’s stuck on how to finish his book until he realizes that killing everyone on board will somehow free him from his writer’s block.  It’s a ridiculous premise that had me rolling my eyes and hating the issue. A faster drop there’s never been.

Regret buying: Yes

Would buy again: No

Would read again: No

Rating: Hated (Cutting)

Commuter

Commuter

I knew I watched one more action movie on the flight back from Germany, but I could not for the life of me remember what it was until just yesterday.  Which is really all you need to know about The Commuter.  It’s perfectly diverting during the viewing, but literally forgettable immediately after viewing.  Liam Neeson does the thing he’s done so well since Taken, kicking ass and solving mysteries at a more advanced age than the usual action star.  He’s the movie version of Bob Lee Swagger from Stephen Hunter’s novels (not the movie or tv shows starring much younger iterations).  

Aside: I’d love to see Bob Lee Swagger movies with a properly aged Bob Lee.  Clint Eastwood circa Unforgiven would have been perfect.  Nowadays? I don’t know. Neeson would need to lose the accent and add a lot more years wasted to alcohol’ to his performance.

A fine plane movie, worth your time if you don’t have to pay money for the experience.

Regret watching? No

Would watch again? No

Would buy on DVD? No

Rating: Fine

I was listening to The Incomparables’ podcasts about the MCU, and they talked about how Ronin was the worst Marvel movie villain.  Which made me wonder how I would rank them. Here we go, with the worst first:

1. Abomination (Hulk)
2. Malekith (Thor 2)
3. Ronin (Guardians 1)
4. Ego (Guardians 2)
5. Kaecilius (Doctor Strange)
6. Aldrich Killian (Iron Man 3)
7. Red Skull (Captain America 1)
8. Yellowjacket (Ant-Man)
9. Whiplash (Iron Man 2)
10. Loki (Thor)
11. Ultron (Avengers 2)
12. Obadiah Stane (Iron Man 1)
13. Hela (Thor 3)
14. Sonny Burch (Ant Man/Wasp)
15. Vulture (Spider-Man)
16. Alexander Pierce(Captain America 2)
17. Killmonger (Black Panther)
18. Helmut Zemo (Captain America 3)
19. Loki (Avengers 1)
20. Thanos (Avengers 3)

The top nine or so are truly boring.  It’s a damning indictment of their blandness that I remembered a bunch of them by the actor’s name, not the character’s.  Also, only one female in the bunch. What’s up with that?

I love that Sonny Burch cracks the top 10 of best villains.  

Crazy Rich Asians

Crazy Rich Asians

I was skeptical when I first heard about this movie.  Everyone made a big deal about how this was the first all-Asian Hollywood movie cast since Joy Luck Club, but the romantic comedy aspect of it worried me.  Our (yes, it’s going to be ‘us’ and ‘our’ from here on out) first shot in 20+ years, and this was the best we could do?  A frothy piece of fluff?

Which isn’t to say that I didn’t want the movie to blow expectations and the box office out of the water.  We are completely underrepresented in pop culture, and any movement in the right direction is a good thing.  How well the film did felt like it would be a referendum on the viability of an other culture in mainstream American media in the same way as Black Panther earlier this year.    

I’m happy to say that CRA’s been exceeding all financial projections going into its third week, and that it’s a wonderful movie on top of it.  I laughed, teared up, winced at the harsh putdowns, and squeed at all the right places. Things I loved:

Constance Wu!  I don’t watch Fresh Off the Boat, so this is my first real exposure to her work.  She’s so very good in this, adroitly handling the myriad of emotions she’s feeling and the situations she’s dealt.  There’s nothing manic or pixie about her, but she’s a dream nonetheless.

Awkwafina!  I just about lost it when I saw her Walk of Shame outfit.  She’s absolutely delightful throughout, and she needs her own show.  I don’t know how to best showcase her comedic abilities (it would be hard to not make it too broad), but when properly deployed, they are devastatingly funny.  

The food!  I want to go to the Singapore night market.  

The lifestyle.  Can’t say I didn’t want to try it out after watching it.  OMG did they really flood the aisle for the bridal procession?

The shirtless guys.  Dayum. Hottest torsos this side of Chris Hemsworth in Thor:Ragnarok.

Gemma Chan.  Astrid needs her own movie.  

The mother/girlfriend conflict.  There was so much truth in it. For a culture that places such a premium on politeness and keeping face to the outside world, we are horribly harsh when our own families are involved.  Michelle Yeoh’s smackdown of Rachel on the stairs and the ease with which the grandmother was willing to cast Nick out of the family was completely believable.

The mother’s dimensions.  I’m so pleased that she didn’t come across as a one-note villain.  Michelle Yeoh (always awesome) refused to play her as the unreasonable demanding mother.  I totally understood her point of view, and while the viewers are naturally going to side with Rachel, I could sympathize with Eleanor as well.  

Rachel’s relationship with her mother.  For all of Eleanor’s love for her son, would anyone argue that it’s healthier than Kerry’s for her daughter?

Most of the supporting cast.  Ken Jeong’s over-the-topness actually works for once.  Awkwafina’s awkward brother somehow comes across as hilarious and not pervy.  (Even though he totally is.) Oliver. The gossiping aunties.

The romantic parts.  Totally misty-eyed at their shared moment during the wedding and the final airplane scene.  

Things I didn’t like:

Nick really gets away with a lot.  The “I wanted you to love me for me and not my money” defense fell apart once he decided to introduce her to his family.  His honest naivety barely gives him a pass. (Gah, I’m totally mixing tenses in this. More so than usual.)

I get that the movie’s about Rachel and her journey to find her inner strength.  Her test of wills with Eleanor has to be the main thrust of the story. But I would have liked to see more from Nick’s point of view.  Being caught in the middle between the two main women in his life is a horrible place to be, and being privy to that struggle would have been interesting.  It’s a lot more difficult to handle than it appears on the surface, and I think the film could have done it justice.

Mega props to Crazy Rich Asians.  May the sequel be just as good if not better, and may the inevitable Asian-centric films that follow not ruin the goodwill engendered by this movie’s success.  

Regret watching? No

Would watch again? Yes

Would buy on DVD? Yes

Rating: Really good