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Post by codystarbuck on Aug 23, 2023 16:23:42 GMT -5
League of Extraordinary Gentlemen #6 The cover acts to recap the past several issues, while also paying homage to traditional British comics. Jess Nevin's annotations page presents an example of Little Sparks, a comic from 1920, with the same layout. Inside, there is a fake ad for the Young Helper's League, which was an actual group, established in 1891, by Dr Thomas Bernardo. Creative Team: Alan Moore-writer, Kevin O'Neill-art, Bill Oakley-letters, Benedict Dimagmaliw-colors, Scott Dunbier-editor Synopsis: Professor Moriarty in on the deck of his airship, powered by Cavorite. he waxes poetic about this moment, the culmination of his destiny, to a sergeant, covered in Masonic symbology. They approach the area of Hackney, Shoreditch, Wapping, and Limehouse and Moriarty orders the sergeant to commence bombardment.  Mina and Allan observe from below and see the horror as it rains down on the civilians below, in some of the poorer sections of London. We see an old man, the Artful Dodger, direct some of his young lads to go underground, into the sewers, for safety. Mina and Allan return to the Nautilus, where Captain Nemo has inflated the Victoria, the balloon bequeathed to him by Prof Ferguson (5 Weeks in a Balloon). It is with this conveyance that they will attempt to reach and stop Moriarty. Meanwhile, the Devil Doctor, the unofficial master of Limehouse, is not taking things in stride. He launches his own defense and counter-attack.....  The League go aloft in the balloon and are able to get enar Moriarty's airship, without raising alarm. They catch the rigging with a grapple and moor themselves and board the airship, armed with revolvers and automatic-firing harpoon guns, of Nemo's devising. Mina tells Dr Jeckyll that it is time to release Mr Hyde, as the observe Moriarty's men distracted by combat with the boarding Si-Fan assassins of Fu Manchu. He is reluctant and she slaps him until he grows angry enough to change and Hyde brabs her wrist and yells at her. Allan starts to warn Hyde, but Mina handles the situation with more skill....  They move to grab theCavorite and Hyde breaks open the door to the chamber where it is stored. Nemo unleashes his harpoon gun and Mina and Allan are horrified by the mass slaughter it brings. Alan remarks that Nemo is worse than Hyde, in terms of his bloodlust. They leave the scene to climb upwards to where the Cavorite is housed. They come up on deck and find they are facing Moriarty, who orders his sergeant to throw Mina over the side. Allan shoves her to the deck, then lets loose with his harpoon gun. Moriarty's men go down, but he calmly pulls out a revolver and shoots Allan in the shoulder, causing him to drop the weapon. He has his pistol to Allan's head, when Mina picks up a wrench and smashes the container housing the Cavorite. It starts to fly away and Moriarty turns and leaps upon it, before it is lost.....  Moriarty is carried off into the sky. Allan asks what is keeping them aloft and Mina realizes they will crash and orders everyone back to the balloon. They find Griffin there, trying to saw through the mooring rope, though he claims he didn't know if they would return. The League boards and they cut loose. Mina yells for Hyde to jump for it and he does, though his weight drags down the balloon. Bodies fall from the sky, as the airship plummets toward the East End. Hyde's weight is too much and the balloon is following suit. Min tells Allan to hold her, to his amazement. They crash into the Thames, but survive, where they are rescued by the Nautilus. Later, we see the League back at the British Museum (with a crowd outside that includes Tom brown, of Tom Brown's School Days, and Ally Sloper, of Ally Sloper's Half-Holiday, a proto-Victorian cartoon (more of an illustrated book, but one of the pioneer comic strip works). There, they are in conference with Mycroft Holmes, representing the British government. he commends them and asks them to stay on, at double the previous salary offered by Moriarty. Mina asks about Campion Bond and Holmes says he will remain, as it is useful to have a subordinate whose treachery is known. He departs and Allan suggests they are being paid a lot to stand around and Mina supposes there will be plenty to do, as the scene switches to a rural landscape, as men observe a meteor crashing to the earth. Allan and The Sundered Veil ends, as Allan and his cohorts prevent the crossing of the creatures from Cthulhu's dimension. Thoughts: Exciting ending (well wort the wait) to a terrific tale of pulp adventure and post-modern satire. Some of the attack on the East End is an homage to HG Wells' The War in the Air, which tells the story of an aerial attack on Britain, and the war that accompanies it. It is a fairly prescient tale of the wars to come. It was published in 1908, before the First World War demonstrated the use of airplanes and dirigible bombers. The Artful Dodger is depicted as an old man, mirroring the role of Fagin, in Oliver Twist. He has taken over as the warden and master of the group of street urchins who continue the tradtion of thievery that he practiced, under Fagin. Jess Nevin's page points out that Dodger went to Australia, at the end of Oliver Twist; so, he must have come back later in life. The Masonic imagery on Moriarty's men includes a noose, which is part of an initiation into the First Degree. Freemasonry has a long association with the British government and the police force, which adds to conspiracy theories around them, especially the Jack the Ripper murders. This has fueled such theories as the Masons being behind the murders to cover up an illegitimate child of Prince Albert Victor, Duke of Clarence, theVII and a known womanizer (like his father). The film Murder By Decree, directed by Bob Clark (of Porky's and A Christmas Story fame), features such a conspiracy, investigated by Sherlock Holmes and Dr Watson (Christopher Plummer and James Mason, in excellent performances). There is little to no evidence to support such an idea, nor to link the royal physician, Sir William Gull to the murders, as the film and theories suggest (and Patricia Cornwell's theories about Walter Sickert). In the scenes of the war kite attack by the Si-Fan, there is an homage to Bull Blitzspear, from Kevon O'Neil's Nemesis the Warlock (done with Pat Mills). Also, the two named urchins in Dodger's group are homages to characters from the soap opera Eastenders. Before he changes, Jeckyll remarks that Hyde is now taller than him, when previously he was shown to be smaller, in Robert Louis Stevenson's work. This addresses the visual error of the character design, to suggest he has grown with his evil, which has some suggestion in the work. Griffin continues his treachery and Hyde remarks upon it, before the scene at the balloon. They will have a reckoning. Hyde proves to be a far more rounded character here, as he responds to Mina. Some readers suggested she had vampiric mersmerizing powers, but that is dismissed, as it is more down to her treating Hyde with a level of respect, echoing the Hulk's friendship with Rick Jones and some others. Mina's comments about the horror's of Nemo's automatic weapon echo those of period observers of the new machine guns, from maxim and Gatling, and the slaughter they brought. Those weapons would have a major effect on the battles of WW1, as did artillery, in the slaughter of the trenches. Machine guns seriously upped the firepower of a small unit and their power can be seen in the Battle of Guadalcanal, in WW2, when the Marines employed their machine guns to stop the Japanese counter-attacks, leading to John Basilone winning the Medal of Honor. At one point in the battle, he had to move dead bodies out of the way to give a clearer field of fire. Victorians, away from the battlefield, looked upon such weapons and unsporting; but, when faced with massed enemies, such as the Zulus or the Boers, in South Africa, they didn't seem to mind, or in WW1, when they were used by the "brave Tommies," against the "evil Hun." Funny how that works. Nemo is depicted with fanatical bloodlust, as he unloads on Moriarty's men (all white Englishmen), as he says "Come Forward! Come Forward men of England! Tell the gods that Nemo sent you."  Captain Nemo, as originally conceived by Jules Verne, as a Polish patriot, who fought against Tsarist Russia and other imperial powers. However, because of the popularity of his works in Russia, his publisher persuaded him to make Nemo more mysterious. It is only in the sequel, Mysterious Island, that Nemo is identified as Prince Dakkar, and Indian, who took part in the Sepoy Rebellion. There is nothing to indicate an ethnicity other than European, in the original 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea; but, even after Mysterious Island, he was portrayed as European, rather than a Hindu prince. Dakkar is supposed to be from Bundelkhand, in Northern India. Verne also used Bundelkhand as the home of the character, Princess Aouda, in Around the World in 80 Days. Moore & O'Neill depict Nemo as a Hindu (referring to Mohameddans, in the first issue), with Hindu decorative motifs on the Nautilus and his intense hatred of the British and the Raj. That fits within the nature of Nemo as an outlaw, as in 20,000 Leagues, as well as the backstory of being involved in the Sepoy uprising, in Mysterious Island, while taking more care with his ethnic appearance and religion. Thus, the LOEG film (horribly mis-spelled as LXG, because everyone knows "extraordinary" begins with an X, rather than an E) was the first time Nemo was portrayed as an Indian, to my knowledge. Just about the only thing they got right. One of the more developed aspects of the League is that they aren't exactly heroes and all sides have their good and bad points, reflected a more complex and truer outlook on the material and reality. Verne's writing tended to have more shades of gray than some other Victorian Era writers, particularly those with stout English heroes (or American dime novels); but, Moore presents everything, from the institutionalized racism and class separations, to the political and socio-economic issues, to the idiosyncrasies of the popular literature of the era. he also mixes "high" literature with "low," pulling characters from both. At the end, in the British Museum, we soo easter eggs that include a bust of Baron Munchausen, the box that carries Cyrano de Bergerac to the Moon, in one of his writings, The Huge Hunter, a steam powered android from Edward Ellis' "The Huge Hunter, or The Steam Man of the Prairies," from the 45th issue of Beadle's American Novel; a fairy in a glass jar, with the label Cottingly (referring to the Cottingly Fairy Hoax, which suckered Sir Arthur Conan Doyle). A police constable is seen with the number 49, which is a reference to a radio series, "PC49," which spawned a few movies, as well. When we see the meteor crashing to earth, one of the observers is depicted as John Bull, the symbol of England, while the scene matches Van Gogh's "Starry Night." The letters page is the usual playing around with the period language; but, the gist of is why the long delay between issues. Then, there is a section of "Answers in Brief" where a reference is made to the removal of issue #5 , because of an actual Victorian ad for "Marvel Whirling Spray Device," a feminine hygiene applicator, which really existed. DC got cold feet and pulled it, then reprinted the issue with the product re-titled the Amaze Whirling Spray. The Answers in Brief segment is titled "Accidental Hysterectomy" and acts as if it is a response to a complaint about the product, saying "No, the publishers cannot accept legal responsibility for any of the items advertised in these pages." and then follows with an answer to a third point, ""well, for G__'s sake woman, what did you expect from a company with a name like that?" One response is title "Boyish Comradery" makes reference to a "game," called "biscuit," that you can just Google to learn what it entails. Suffice to say it is not a game played by young women. That wraps up the first mini-series, which really blew me away when it was published, despite the delays. Moore and O'Neill delivered a masterpiece of pulp adventure and satire, that was a feast for the eye and the brain, filled with references to lead you down all kinds of literary and popular rabbit holes. Jess Nevins created a website to provide annotations for it (and other comics, including Top Ten and Kingdom Come), which led me to his other works, such as his guides to Victorian literary characters (novels and things like penny dreadfuls), pulp characters, and more. That, in turn, led me to the Wold Newton website and other metafictions (I had read tarzan Alive! and Doc Savage, His Apocalyptic Life, from Phillip Jose Farmer, but not his other pastiches, like The Peerless Peer or Barnstormer of Oz), including the Tales of the Shadowmen anthologies, with all kinds of French pulp characters, plus characters from other sources; as well as Kim newman's Anno Dracula series and greater universe, with his other works. Next time we look at the league, it will be for Volume 2, where they adapt and expand HG Wells' The War of the Worlds. This one goes nuts with the easter eggs.
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Post by mikelmidnight on Aug 25, 2023 11:13:31 GMT -5
Thus, the LOEG film (horribly mis-spelled as LXG, because everyone knows "extraordinary" begins with an X, rather than an E) was the first time Nemo was portrayed as an Indian, to my knowledge. Just about the only thing they got right. Almost. There's the 1916 version. |
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Post by codystarbuck on Aug 25, 2023 21:11:19 GMT -5
Thus, the LOEG film (horribly mis-spelled as LXG, because everyone knows "extraordinary" begins with an X, rather than an E) was the first time Nemo was portrayed as an Indian, to my knowledge. Just about the only thing they got right. Almost. There's the 1916 version.Still played by a white guy, though. I mean actually portrayed by an actor of Asian descent, not a European in Asian drag. |
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Post by rberman on Aug 30, 2023 16:55:40 GMT -5
On Top 10, I really enjoyed the writing, and especially the zillion Easter Eggs in the art. Gene Ha has become a favorite ever since. He did a ten minute sketch card head shot of Shock-Headed Peter for me at Dragon Con 2019, and I often use it for an avatar online.  Here are links for my reviews of the first eight issues from the Top 10 thread we had back in 2018: #1#2#3#4#5#6#7#8With Promethea, I recognized and appreciated what Moore was doing. His attention to detail is always exemplary, and JH Williams' layouts were simply spectacular, as they always are. He is one of the best artists working then and now. Moore's dialogue in this series tended toward the didactic though. Grant Morrison, always looking for an opportunity to brattily poke Moore, satirized both Swamp Thing and Promethea repeatedly in Seven Soldiers, including the use of JHWIII as artist, a "magic mystery tour" through alternate dimensions, and a jibe that Moore's explanations of magick were "preachy."   |
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Post by codystarbuck on Aug 31, 2023 11:18:12 GMT -5
With Moore, I find that he has more of a literary quality and a sincerity comes through his work. With Morrison, I often feel like he is talking bollox, following whatever Moore, Moorcock or someone else is doing, then throwing stones at glass houses. I like some of his work; but, with a chunk of it, I prefer the original works he has co-opted. Both of them play to the crowd in interviews and public appearances; but I feel like Moore does it less within his comics. I also think he is a much better writer; but, that is a subjective thing.
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Post by commond on Aug 31, 2023 18:09:56 GMT -5
That last issue of Promethea was borderline unreadable. Readers shouldn't have to struggle to read a comic book. On a more positive note, Top 10 #8 was a beautiful story.
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Post by codystarbuck on Sept 4, 2023 15:53:50 GMT -5
Promethea #9 Creative Team: Alan Moore-writer, JH Williams III-pencils, Mick Gray-inks, Todd Klein-letters, Jeromy Cox-letters, Scott Dunbier-editor Synopsis: In the wake of the battle at the hospital, Bennie Solomon's organization is falling apart. We see why....  Promethea is looking for information on The Temple, the group who hired Solomon to hit the hospital and Promethea. This is no longer Sophie finding her way around; she is stronger, more confident and she is pissed! They give up the only info they have: the name Henry Royce. We then learn that the scene is being related by Sophie, to Stacia, after the fact. They are brought to a chapel, at the hospital, where Barbara's dead body, lies in state...... Man.....typing that sentence hit close to home......... Sophie is upset that barbara's body is still and lifeless, with her eyes still open. There is a funeral, attended only by a few relatives, Sophie, and Kenneth, of the 5 Swell Guys. Sophie tried checking the Immateria, to talk to Barbara, but she is told that Barbara has "gone beyond," to be with her husband, Steve. She is no longer a presence in the Immateria. Bill tells her that she should forget Barbara, but Sophie cannot. She goes to see Jack Faust. Faust is surprised to see her, as he has a concealment spell. It wasn't very hard for Sophie....  Sophie wants Faust to teach her about magick. He says there is a price: sex with Promethea. Henry Royce has a dream, of being at his mother's funeral and seeing the body of Promethea in the coffin, which speaks to him and he wakes up, in terror. Sophie and Styacia head for Burleigh Drive, where Sophie has traced Royce, from the Immateria, through the dream he had. Stacia is scared and pleads with Sophie to turn around and Sophie transforms to Promethea and leaves Stacia behind. She enters the Royce compound and finds the Temple....what's left of it.....  The man, Teddy, grabs the holy relic spear, which killed Promethea's father and uses it to threaten her, but he doesn't have the will and breaks down, as she appears to resemble his daughter. Promthea then goes to confront the rest of the Temple....  Promthea realizes they are innocent, just as the original Promethea was and spares them, showing them the wonder of the Immateria, as she goes...   We next see Sophie at Faust's shop, saying he has a deal. Thoughts: So, Sophie and Promethea are solidly bonded and Sophie is more confident as Promethea and herself, having been through her baptism of fire. Now, she is looking to end the war and she isn't playing nice. Stacia is scared and has good right to be so: power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Sophie finds herself facing a warning, that following a path of violence could bring horror to innocents, as it did the original Promethea. She needs wisdom to guide her, so that she doesn't cross that line. She has the Immateria; but she needs more than just their knowledge, which is where Faust comes in. So, like Goethe's Faust, Sophie makes a deal with the devil: Jack Faust. She will learn about magick, from him, at the cost of letting him have sex with Promethea. I kind of suspect we are getting into Alan's personal life, here! We get some background details, via news reports. The mayor is acting more decisive and the Deadly Doll appears dead; but, that has happened before. The art continues to be the real selling point, for me, as JH Williams does some spectacular stuff, with the pages There are elements of Howard Chakin's media information dumps, from American Flagg, mixed with Alphonse Mucha Art Nouveau stylings, mixed with some superhero stylings, mixed with some Virgil Finlay, mixed with a whole lot of other things. Moore is still teasing us, with a lot of stuff going on in the background, which will play out down the road, like the 5 Swell Guys and the Deadly Doll, Kenneth's obsession with Sophie, the Mayor and more. As a booklover and former bookseller, I especially enjoyed the vision of fairytale and storybook characters, including The Cat in the Hat and the monsters of Where the Wild things Are, as well as Alice in Wonderland, the Pied Piper, King Arthur & Merlin, and Goldilocks and the 3 Bears. Could have used some Robert McCloskey and Virginia Lee Burton, though.
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Post by codystarbuck on Sept 10, 2023 17:19:28 GMT -5
Tom Strong #9 Very European lettering and cover. Creative Team: Alan Moore-writer, Paul Chadwick and Chris Sprouse & Al Gordon-art, Todd Klein-letters, Matt Hollingsworth-colors, Scott Dunbier-editor Synopsis: Tom Strong is headed to Attabar Teru, when he is idverted by a communication from archeologists, in Guatemala. They have unearthed a large crustacian shell of bones of some gigantic creature. Tom explores the surrounding and finds an untouched Mayan temple. He goes inside toe xplore and finds things covered in a viscous substance, then gets attacked by some squidgy creature.... The creature oozes a pseduopod over Tom's head and communicates its story.  It was part of a larger sentient starship, which came down in Guatemala and was detached from the mothership and found by the Mayans, who built the temple around it and treated it like a god. Tom returns to the archeological team, takes a section of the mothership, which they found and brings it back to the creature, who builds a new ship and is finally able to go back to the stars. Tom gets to Attabar Teru, where Daghlua and her father await and she retells the story of her coming of age vision ordeal, which she held in the volcano home of Tom, while he was away. There, she had a vision of the feathered serpent, from earlier in the series.....  She is offered a chance to see beyond a mystery and turns it down, then wakes up to find that what she thought was a cosmic serpent was a sparking cable. However, it might have been the serpent, disguising itself as a sparking cable, or something. Either way, it takes hallucinogenics to find out, so toke up! Back In Millennium City, Tesla deals with Kid tilt, who can warp space. Tesla and King Solomon play some b-ball, when the Stronghold is turned on its side, like in Little Nemo.  She goes out to investigate and finds the whole city on its side and some teenage girl, in one ugly outfit, calling herself Kid Tilt. She is the daughter of science villain King Tilt, who Tom Strong put in jail....  She is trying to be like her father and she is all twisted up and kicks Tesla off the side of a building. She manages to land on one of the city's cable cars and Kid Tilt shows up and says it will be a great match, since they are similar and same age, though Tesla reminds us that she is technically a sexagenarian. Tesla grabs her and suddenly, like most teenagers, KT decides she doesn't like this prank so much when it comes with a price....  KT doesn't like facing the consequences of her actions and starts whining and Tesla makes her fix the city. Then, she faces Tom and Dahlua and has to explain the mess in the Stronghold.....  Thoughts: Overall, a pretty lightweight issue that mostly serves as character development. We see Tom show that he uses brains more than brawn and tries to communicate with alien species, before punching them. It is a somewhat cliched "lost traveler" story, but well deone. The living mothership and its excavation reminds me of the film Quatermass and the Pit, where an alien craft is unearthed whil working on a subway tunnel and it causes strange phenomena, which brings Professor Quatermass (the proto-Doctor Who) into the picture. It was adapted from the original BBC serial, as were the other Quatermass films, but spares us having Brian Donlevy and has Andrew Keir, instead. The Dahlua story is the usual vision quest stuff, where someone undergoes a ritual involving a hallucinogen and visions that will define their future. Again, it brings up movies, like A Man Called Horse (with the Sun ceremony, which is pretty nasty) and The Trial of Billy Jack, where he undergoes a vision quest; but, not so much Vision Quest, where Matthew Modine tries to drop weight to wrestle the big champion and get laid by Linda Fiorentino. I think it is mainly the presence of Madonna, in a house band, that removes that film and the others. Well, that and the amateur wrestling. It all boils down to did Dahlua see the same space serpent that Tom meets with the space Aztecs or did she really see a shorted cable? Can't say the story really makes me care. The Tesla story is a bit of fun and plays up the inherited mantle angle, except Tesla is not your usual teenager, thanks to goloka. There has already been discussion here how that doesn't really work, as Tesla is portrayed as a teenager, but is supposed to have the experience of a seasoned adult. This kind of contrasts Tesla's "teenage" personality with a real teen. tesla is a teen, relative to her folks, so she is more mature than her "peers" or the average civilian, yet still a child to her parents and she kind of plays it up for them. I consider it more of an affectation than a character trait. Call it rationalization, if you like; but, I like the Tesla stories and the character. It is Alan Moore having his cake and eating it, too; but, he's a good enough writer that I don't care. I just wait for the next story. Plus, tesla and King Solomon make a great duo. It's a shame they never had a crossover with Art Adams' Monkeyman and O'Brien. Would have been interesting (though Adams did do jonni Furute, for tom Strong's Terrific Tales). Nothing earthshattering, nothing horrible. Mostly filling time.
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Post by codystarbuck on Sept 18, 2023 23:55:19 GMT -5
Top 10 #9 Creative Team: Alan Moore-writer, Gene Ha & Zander Cannon-art, Todd Klein-letters, Alex Sinclair-colors, Scoot Dunbier-editor Synopsis: We open with Duane "Dust Devil" Bodine and "Shock-Headed Pete" Cheney stop by to check in with the Ex-Verminator, who is dealing with the infestation in the apartment of Duane's mother. His mother is driving him nuts, at his place and he hopes to be able to move her back home soon. However, the problem has reached new stages, as the introduction of Atomi-cats, to handle the Ultra-Mice, has led to a Cosmic showdown.....  (Note the mice versions of Batman & Robin, Superman and Wonder Woman, as well as Hercules and Atomic Mouse, Mighty Mouse and Danger Mouse, plus Galacti-Puss and Cos-Mouse, whose silhouette seems familiar). Duane just gives up and heads home. As they head down the street, passed Adult theaters, playing Journey into Mammary, right next door to Amazing Adult Fantasy Gifts, we see a flying pink elephant and the Forever People, crossed with the Clampetts, from the Beverly Hillbillies. Forever Hillbillies? Duane recaps the mounting pressure from M'rggla Qualtz's former colleagues in the Seven Sentinels, who are putting pressure on Captain Traynor for her release. They also pass by Sgt Kemlo "Hyperdog" Caesar, making out with prostitute Annette "Neural Nette" Duvale, while out on their date. Pete seems particularly disturbed by it. Meanwhile, Captain "Jetlad" Traynor has a chat with M'rggla Qualtz, after her little mind probe. He tells her to but out and that her freinds are working on freeing her. She says she is somewhat precognitive and has forseen someone killing her, first, possibly her "friends." Traynor finds that hard to believe; but, she says they may not want to see her stand trial and mentions a "show-reel" and "Super Chickens."  She also reveals that she knows that Captain Traynor is gay and why she seems to have no affect on him, of all of the males at the station (and Jackie Phantom, who is also gay and susceptible to her glamor). Meanwhile, Detective John "King Peacock" Corbeau arrives at his destination, in a parallel dimension, where the Roman Empire is still in power, and inhabited by a lot of familiar individuals.....  (including several versions of Hercules) He is goes through customs, with a satyr, who keeps calling him a "Nubie" and then alerts the Praetorian Guard that their transfer officer has arrived. They soon arrive: Hercula, a female alternate of Hercules, and Briareus, a 3-faced and limbed gladiator. They make fun of the goat man and say that Commissioner Ultima sent word down about his arrival. They question whether he minds being called a Nubian and he says no, then Hercula remarks that they are mostly slaves, in this reality. They meet Centurion Midas, who calls John the "champion" of Parallel 10 and seems to think he is there for something other than following up a lead about the radioactive material that Prof Gromolko had. he says the guards will show him to the "arena." We have an interlude of Jackie Phantom and Synaesthesia Jackson having a chat, as they get dressed for their shift, then head for breakfast in the canteen. They discuss having the hots for their partners, which is unrequited, as King Peacock (Synaesthesia's partner) is married and his Satanic religion is strict about it and Peregrine (Jackie Phantom's partner) is a Born Again Christian and Married, and straight, despite appearances. Back at Grand Central, King Peacock finds that he is really being brought to a gladiatorial arena and he is expected to fight, as the champion from Parallel Ten. He isn't happy. Hercula claims that Commissioner Ultima said he was there for the Inter-Dimensional Games and whose word should they believe? King Peacock smells a rat. He protests and asks to call his precinct, if he is a prisoner. Hercula says he is a combatant, not a prisoner and no call. She then realizes that it doesn't make sense and goes to check on the prohibition about the call. John gets acquainted with Technozoic, the robotic apatosaur champion, from Precinct 7. Back in Neopolis, we see a Hawkwoman feeding her hawklings and a trio of giants at Kolossal Koffee (Clint Barton as Goliath, Elasti-Girl and Harvey Comics' Stumbo). At the 10th Precinct House, Smax and Toybox bring in a perp for illegal use of a signalling device (firing off a flare) and put him in the cell next to the illegal dimensional jumper who caused the big cosmic road accident, previously. There is a shift change and Hector "Monsoon" Lopez takes over at the desk and Caesar goes outside and meets Annette, as the Hamburglar walks past him, on the station steps. Back at Grand Central, the games have begun and are being observed by Mars and Ares (from Wonder Woman), Asterix & Obelix, Queen Hipollyta and a brunette Etta Candy, the Borden's cow, Marvin the Martian and K-9, Comicus, Josephus and (History of the World Part I), the skeletons from Jason & the Argonauts, and Ceres is vending popcorn, created from the strands of grain she carries.  Technozoic returns from defeating Kid Sisyphus and his Living Boulder and King peacock is called to fight Gina "The Caryatid" Marconi, of Precinct 1 and still no word from Commissioner Ultima. Gina is a living giant statue and tries to stomp King Peacock and calls him "Nubian trash." He responds by demonstrating what "talking to Satan" does for him.   John is declared the winner and moves to the semi-finals. Technozoic congratulates him and Hercula says no joy on the call. Technozoic thinks they will fight each other, so that one of the home team gladiators is in the finals. John also learns that everything is "to the death" from now on. In Neopolis, at a club called Eternals (with a Celestial's head, as the building), Speed Buggy's crew, the Hair Bear Bunch, Marvin (of the Junior Super Friends) and one of Sailor Moon's friends wait to go inside. In the precinct house, Synaesthesia goes to see Captain Traynor about her troubled feelings and the lack of communication with King Peacock. She wonders if there is cosmic interference and Traynor says a fax about Commissioner Ultima's inspection tour came through okay. He says he will contact Grand Central about king Peacock. At grand Central, John and Technozoic face each other and John tries to reason withhim; but he isn't listening. John is forced to defend himself and he terminates Technozoic and advances to the finals, to meet either Smartacus or Ben Her. Back on Neopolis, Batman, Midnighter, Night Owl and Morbius are walking along the street and Midnighter hides his face as Apollo passes by. Girl One picks up partner Irma Geddon and they head for work. As they leave, Irma's husband, Ron, a precog, has a vision of death that involves irma and Sung -Li. In the background a news report mentions a serialized memoir of Grant "Blue Jay" Garland and his time both in the band Sidekix and as a Junior Partner, which he alleges will be shocking. Thoughts: A lot of shady things going down here, as King Peacock is shanghaied into the gladiatorial tournament, seemingly on Commissioner Ultima's orders. She is removing herself from the scene to inspect Top Ten and has been confrontational, previously, with captain Traynor. meanwhile, M'Rggla Qualz believes she is going to be murdered soon, possibly by her former partners, the Seven Sentinels. We also have her cryptic comments about a show-reel and Super Chickens. Then, there are cryptic comments about Grant Garlands forthcoming "revelations," about being a sidekick to a major hero and Ron's premonition of death, surrounding Irma Geddon. Lot of reasons to come back for the next issue. Meanwhile, King Peacock gets the main focus, as we see what his abilities are. It seems that he can detect the flaw or weakness in an opponent, through communication with his "god/devil". He doesn't want to fight, but he defends himself admirably. It would seem that he is being set up to die in the arena, to prevent him from following up his lead and that Commissioner Ultima is somehow involved. We also get the sense that this world thinks itself greater than others and that Commissioner Ultima may see herself above the laws that the officers of Top Ten enforce. Lots of fun easter eggs, as Gene Ha and Zander Cannon fill the pges with cameos and fun graffiti, like Ego, the Living Billboard, the aforementioned bat characters and Hanna-Barbera pastiches, not to mention the awesome cosmic battle between Galacti-Puss and Cos-Mouse. My favorite cameos were Danger Mouse (complete with eyepatch) and Marvin the Martian and K-9 (the Martian dog, in a couple of cartoons). The various Hercules were fun, too, with the Marvel version, the Walt Simonson Hercules, from DC, the Steve Reeves version, and Mighty Hercules, from the 1960s cartoon series. They left out the one from the Filmation Space Sentinels/Freedom Force. When King Peacock meets the gladiators, in the training room, we see a pair with wolves tattooed on their chests who are obviously Romulus and Remus. Briareus is a reference to the Greek monster of a hundred hands and 50 heads. The manga and anime series, Appleseed, features a cybernetic cop, called Briareos, who is named for the mythological figure. At one point, at the station house, the NYPD Blue characters pass by, in superhero gear. My Hero Zero, from Multiplication Rock (the first run of cartoons for Schoolhouse Rock) appears on the opening splash page. Alan Moore appears as a slave, on the city street, as King Peacock and his escorts head to their chariot, pulled by hippocampuses. There are two minotaur gang members (MWA, presumably for Minotaurs With Attitude), roughing up what appears to be an elderly Xena. So, we have 3 more issues (and a graphic novel) and something big is about to go down, aside fromKing Peacock trying to stay alive, in the finals. ps Gene Ha said the Forever People/Clampetts mash-up was the Foreverly Hillbillies.
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Post by commond on Sept 26, 2023 18:22:52 GMT -5
Top 10 continues to be a joy to read. Each issue feels like a countdown to the series ending, which is a bummer, but they're chock-full of great stuff.
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Post by codystarbuck on Sept 26, 2023 21:16:03 GMT -5
League was my favorite, because I was a sucker for Michael Moorcock and Phillip Jose Falmer and the whole Wold Newton thing. Tom Strong was a close second, because of the nods to pulp traditions and because he was a thinking man's hero. However, Top 10 slowly grew on me, until the Godz issue, where it pretty much became my favorite reading, whenever League was between issues.
Gene Ha leapt to the top, as favorite artist, though (well, Ha and Xander Cannon). I was already quite taken by his guest art in the Times Past Starman stories and Top 10 cemented that.
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Post by codystarbuck on Sept 28, 2023 14:10:46 GMT -5
Promethea #10 No one ever homages Beatles 1. Creative Team: Alan Moore-writer, JK Williams III & Mick Gray-art, Todd Klein-letters, Jeromy N Cox-colors, Scott Dunbier-editor Synopsis:Sophie/Promethea and Jack have sex. Thoughts: There is very little I can show and quite frankly, this issue is nothing more than a lot of pseudo-philosophical/esoteric piffle about the horizontal mambo. Moore throws some humorous moments in there, like Jack losing his train of babble, as Promthea makes like Gypsy Rose Lee....  Then, since this is DC and everyone involved is too afraid to be honest and adult about it, we get the old Hollywood standby of juxtaposed imagery, though with a more Arthurian bent......  This is the kind of stuff that English majors and philosophy students spout in hopes of getting laid. However, Jack doesn't have a condom for his "wand" and Promethea is neither procured anything from an apothecary or seen her gynecologist about anything to "gird her loins." In the end, they wake up as Sophie and old Jack and its awkward and he loans her books about Magick and Stacia is waiting for her and pretty much calls it like it is.....  I'm no prude and have purchased plenty of adult/erotic comics (Hey, now....we aren't talking long boxes' worth, or anything like that!); but most were more honest than this. Magick being about sex and stuff is the kind of thing some charlatan "guru" spouts, while giving his script about "enlightenment: and then working his way through all of the dim bulb followers who will buy into that. This kind of thing and his talk of magick and snake gods is why I say Moore puts on a persona for interviews, just as Grant Morrison does when he spouts about psychedelics and similar garbage. It sounds way cooler than writing stories about guys who wear shorts over tights and punch each other, no matter how complex the stories or characters. They grew up reading people like William S Burroughs and Moorcock and wondered why they weren't getting as much (well, the name, for a start). Both are great writers; but, to me, it seems they aspire to be great characters. Anyway, this issue exemplifies why I skipped this series when it came out: esoteric mumbo-jumbo that interrupts what could have been a cool story. Maybe Moore will get back to that story, now.
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Post by codystarbuck on Oct 4, 2023 14:46:37 GMT -5
Tom Strong #10 Creative Team: Alan Moore-writer, Gary Gianni and Chris Sprouse & AlGordon-art, Todd Klein-letters, matt Holingsworth-colors, Scott Dunbier-editor. This is split into three stories, two featuring Tom and one with Tesla. It also features Moore messing with a multi-verse. Synopsis: Tom Strong gets some nookie, with Greta Gabriel (8 times!), before driving off to meet Fingel parallax and test fly his "necro-gyro," which will transport him into the world of the dead (Scottsdale?)  "Tom Strong and His Phantom Auto-Gyro" Tom travel's to the ghost of the old town and a club of scientists, including Foster Parallax, Nancy Saveen, and his parents, Sinclair Strong and Susan Whittaker. Susan is the intended of Foster Parallax; but she has the hots for the more confident and charismatic Sinclair. Tom is ambivalent about his father; but, in seeing his mother's beauty, he wants to touch her, since he barely ever knew her touch, before her death. However, he is driven off by hordes of the dead and barely makes it back to Fingel's, crashlanding the necro-gyro. Fingel asks if he brought back a message from the other side and Tom answers, "Yes; leave us alone." "Funnyland" Tom Strong, while using his Searchboard, to travel across dimensions, finds himself in a bizarre, brightly colored world of talking animals.  They seem a bit unruly and he finds himself fending off their attacks, until he is decked by a somewhat familiar form.....  ...named Warren Strong. Tom calms Warren down and explains he is from a parallel dimension, where Warren is part of a hominoid species. Warren is busy tracking down a Science Predator and Tom follows along and saves him from a literal trap, baited with massive bio-engineered carrots. The trap was planted by Basil Saveen, Warren's evil nemesis, whose giant robot Huntertron, has the dwop on them....  ......HEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHE........................... (Great Shades of John Willie..........Bunny Bondage!) Basil orders the robot to blast them with his shotgun; but, the quick-thinking Warren and Tom jam the huge carrots into the twin barrels and the robot blows itself apart. Ain't he a stinker? Tom grabs Basil, while Warren frees Patience, his leporine lover. Basil is put into stocks, where the local hens toss their unborn children at him for baking cousins into pies.  Tom returns to his reality, where Tesla asks about the other-dimensional beings. "Too Many Teslas" After talking to her father, Tesla sneaks back to the lab and decides to take the Searchboard for a joyride, despite Pneuman's reservations. Unfortunately, her parallel dimension counterparts are doing the exact same thing and they all turn up in Tesla's reality, inside the lab.  There is Tekla Strong, from a tech-oriented dimension, Twyla Strong, a Science Villain, the superhero Tesla Terrific, Two-Gun Tesla, Tesla of the Tigers, Tezzi Teen and Tesla Without a Cause. They start arguing and fighting, until Tom returns to the lab for some parental discipline....  He is then joined by his counterparts, who are there to drag their daughter's home to face the music....  Thoughts: Mostly a filler issue, with Moore playing around a bit, before starting a new, extended storyline (and one of my favorites). The opening story is done in the style of a pul novel, complete with text and illustrations, with plenty of creepy imagery to satisfy any horror fan. Gianni is great for this kind of thing, as seen in his own Monstermen series (where he co-opted the Franco-Belgian criminal, Le Choc, to be a monster hunter). The second piece is my favorite, as Moore tries his hands at funny animal omics, in the vein of the old Fawcett series, and their companion series, Hoppy the Marvel Bunny. He also makes some commentary on the structure, as Tom learns that comedy trumps physics in this world, just as in the Looney Tune world. Remember, you will always stay in the air until you look down and see the ground far below. Oh, and if you can't remember the correct notes for "All Those Endearing Young Charms," just abandon it....don't try to tap it out. (Man, I loathe those DePatie-Freleng Road Runner cartoons!) The last story is just mucking about for the sake of more alternate Toms and Teslas, mostly to set up the next issue, more than anything else. We end up with a 2000 AD style verison, a science villain version, a superhero version, a western hero version, a jungle her version, a teen comedy version, and a teen angst version (though Moore got the father wrong for Rebel Without a Cause, since James Dean's father was played by Jim Backus (By George!), as a weak, ineffectual man. At least he didn't insert Paula Abdul into it.* Thin issue, with a bit of fun in the middle, with the funny animals, and not much else of note. *After leaving the military, I decided I wanted to teach and was taking classes towards certification, including an Adolescent Psychology course, where we watched Rebel Without a Cause. During a break, in the middle, one of the younger students (we were a mix of kids out of high school and older adults furthering their education, in night classes) uttered, "That's just like that Paula Abdul video." I just shook my head. "Where do you think they got the idea for the video?" That's when I knew I was in trouble. As it was, I soon found myself bored with sitting in a classroom, going through the motions to get the required course credits to do a job I already had plenty of qualifications to do, but not the bureaucratic rubber stamps. Also, at the rate I could take courses, I was looking at 5 years or more to get certified. I didn't fancy the idea of becoming a rookie teacher in my 30s and getting underpaid to do a job I would end up hating, due to the nonsense that gets heaped onto Education, by government and outsiders. And that was before No Child Left Behind or Common Core. In the end, I figured I would be much happier working as a manager for a bookstore and was (until the last few years of it). As it was, I heard the nightmare stories from a few of my part-time booksellers, who were teachers, trying to make some extra money (since they were grossly under-paid, which shows the value placed on education, in this country...but that is for another forum. If I had to spend my time prepping kids to take standardized tests, to feed public money into Kaplan and Princeton review, I would have gone mad.
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Post by codystarbuck on Oct 17, 2023 17:36:25 GMT -5
Promethea #11 You want "widescreen" comics? You got 'em! Creative Team: Alan Moore-off-kilter writer, JH Williams III & Mick Gray-sideways art, Todd Klein-Dutch Angle letters, Jeremy Cox-swirling colors, Scott Dunbier-trying to make sense of it all. This entire issue was done in a "landscape" format (wide than tall), instead of the usual "portrait" format (taller than wide). The pages were designed to be read like a calendar, so that when you flip the page up (along the long edge axis), the material on the opposite side of the page is in the same orientation. That means they had to be printed in a reverse orientation, with the opposite side upside down, so that when you flip the page over, it appears rightside up. Normally, in a portrait format, your pages, on either side, will have the same orientation, since you flip left to right; but, you are now rotating your axis 90 degrees, ,necessitating rotating the opposite side 180 degrees. You'd be amazed at how often I have to correct this in jobs submitted to us for printing, when the final product is meant to be in a landscape format. You either have to have opposite sides be in reverse of one another, for rotating along the long edge; or, you have to have the item rotate along the short edge, with both sides in the same orientation. We get a lot of business presentations submitted to us, for printing, in multiples and people sometimes don't realize that they have set up their pages incorrectly, for double-sided printing and we have to fix it; or, they are creating a landscape item to be folded, like a brochure, but have set up their double sided printing as if it were a portrait format flyer, instead of a landscape brochure. It gets more complicated when people want folded booklets, like funeral programs or member directories and don't realize that a folded sheet of paper now has 4 sides, instead of two and their page count must be divisible by 4, to have it read correctly. We often have to insert blank pages to get it to read correctly, but, that either means putting them at the end of the thing, which can cause a problem if there is material for the back cover, or we have to place it somewhere else in the thing to keep the reading flow correct, when it is opened up. We sometimes get people who provide us two page spreads, to be folded as a booklet; but, they screw up the page order. They will have page one next to page 2, in a 12 page booklet, instead of page 1 next to page 12. The panels of each side are at opposite ends, until they meet in the middle (take the staples out of a comic or magazine and mix up the pages and then try to put it back together, without page numbers and see what I mean). We've had to crop out individual panels and recombine them as single, sequential pages, then impose them into a booklet template, to get them to read properly. It's a lot of work when you start getting beyond a 4 or 8 page booklet. It is pretty rare that we are working with someone who knows what they are doing and we are just loading their files and printing, rather than fixing an incorrect set-up. I run proofs for graphic art students and they don't seem to get much instruction about printing technology and the requirements and wonder why their proofs don't come out right (using RGB color format instead of CMYK, not allowing for the flip of the paper when centering an image for double-side printing, like a business card; incorrect page ordering, etc...) Anyway, superheroes and the New Millennium...... Synopsis: It's December 31 and Stacia and Sophie (and the rest of New York) are partying like it's 1999........ Apparently, that involves women rubbing up against each other and up angles, to make people look taller. I'm not sure about the purple sky, though. Up on the orbital satellite, the High 5, the 5 Swell Guys are monitoring things, while Stan gets Platform 5 fixed up to get down there, incase something happens. So far, everything is calm, but Marv expresses concern about "elastigel" technology, which consists of polymer gel material, with micro-computers conforming them to different shapes, which is now used in everything from fashion to Marv's mobility chair....  Bob is all bandaged up, because, apparently, he got a little frisky, with some mistletoe (while under the influence) with Roger, who didn't take kindly to it and kicked the @#$% out of him. Lest we forget, Roger was born male and transformed into a female form, against his will and he hasn't reconciled with the change. Stan finally has the platform ready and they ride it down to Earth and the celebration. Meanwhile, Stacia and Sophie are busting each other's chops, while Stacia raves about her new elastigel jacket, when the countdown comes and the New Millennium arrives. Then, anything with elastigel goes completely haywaire....  Sophie transforms into Promethea and works to stop the mass, which has coalesced into a larger form, a sort of Millennium Slug. It attacks a polic saucer, which is monitoring things and is especially interested in Promethea, until the creature smashes into them and she must rescue them. The 5 Swell Guys meet up with her and Roger is rather belligerent; but Marv is more cooperatiove and they work out a plan of attack, using heat. Promethea uses her caduceus to generate fire and Stan cobbles up a heat ray and applies it, as they try to herd the mass into the river, away from people. However, the mass rebels and they are in trouble. Kenneth (the one who entered Sophie's dreams, like a voyeur) suggests that communication might be the answer, since computer code is simply another language. Promethea is impressed and applies this theory and speaks to the mass, in computer code....  She is able to talk it into forming a different, more benign structure, then break apart and it forms a winged caduceus, then breaks down into globules, which then dissipate, like bath beads. 4 out of 5 Swell Guys are impressed, but not Roger, who passes it off as "beginner's luck." Promethea then decides to take Bill's (the male-to-female Promethea) advice, about "talking to the snakes," about magic. She then engages in conversation with the serpents of the caduceus, who state they are Mac and Mike, though which is which gets confusing.  They ultimately agree and Promethea passes into another dimension, to discover the "magic circus of the mind." Thoughts: I will admit, up front, that I kind of dread reviewing each new Promethea, as I have a low threshhold for esoteric mumbo-jumbo, which means all of Moore's talk of magic or Warren Ellis' "snowflake" or Grant Morrison's similar junk. I don't begin to believe I understand everything, but, I can tell when someone is trying to con me and most of the mystical nonsense comes across as just that. It's also why I have never really warmed to magical characters, as their powers seem to be whatever is convenient for the plot. Promethea has tread in this area, a lot, especially her powers. Moore hasn't really set up rules that govern things and consistently followed them, like Ursula Le Guin, in her Earthsea Saga. There, true names gave power over something or someone and the search for the true name drove the fight against something in opposition. Too often, the magical hero just manifests the answer, without a quest to earn it or a logical path of discovery. I immediately zone out when writers start talking about tarots and other divination, or similar esoteric things, as it sounds like they have smoked too much weed or ate too many mushrooms, or whatever their substance of choice was. It just comes off as lazy writing, to me. With that said (in greatest curmudgeonly fashion), Moore's skill with characters keeps pulling my interest back; which makes Promethea a frustrating experience. I tend to zone out when he goes mystical, but liven up for the character interactions, especially with the 5 Swell Guys. He has doled out hints and I want to know more about them than I want to see Sophie pursue her quest for knowledge and development, as Promethea. Call it the more science-based interest I have or just that it is more familiar adventure hero dynamics; but, I find them far more interesting than Sophie. Roger's story is one I am really anxious to see played out and explored, because I find his gender dysphoria fascinating. I have worked with one openly transgendered person and though I was extremely curious to hear their story, I never asked questions, as I felt it wasn't my business; and, as a manager, it could be construed as treating them differently than other members of my team. So, I just focused on treating them like everyone else. Still, I have a curiosity, which has always led me to read what I can dig up on a subject of interest. I have had a curiosity about gender dysphoria, in its forms, since first encountering the subject, in my teen years, seeing things like a talk show, where the guests were cross dressers (or, as labeled then, transvestites) as well as another, with the star of the touring version of La Cage aux Folles, talking about the show and its plot and also preparing to put on their costume and perform a number from the show. it was fascinating to see the actor make the transformation, via make-up (they skipped showing you padding and such, before donning their costume, as they were wearing parts of it, under a robe, before doing the make-up, hair and costume headpiece). Then, there are things like Tootsie or the American version of La Cage, The Birdcage, and films like The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert, To Wong Foo and Trans-America and Boys Don't Cry. Working in a bookstore, for 20 years, head several interesting books cross my path and I read them. So, I find Roger's story to be far more compelling than Sophie's journey, which is not that different than what I have seen before, apart from Moore's own perceptions of magic. Roger is a character who had his gender switched, by others, not someone who felt born in the wrong skin and sought surgical correction. This has been done before, in comics, in Mike Barr and Brian Bolland's Camelot 3000, where Tristram is reborn as a woman and must deal with life as a woman, after a previous life as a womanizer, while also encountering his reborn love, Isolde. Then, there was the Ultraverse character, Mantra (also from Mike Barr), with a similar thing, of a warrior reborn in female form. Camelot 3000 plays around a little with Tristram, but ultimately resolves the issue rather conveniently, like the ending of a Star Trek episode, in a nice, neat little package. Mantra added a husband and two kids to the host body for the reborn warrior, now in a woman's body, with a latent talent for sorcery. Obviously, Barr was interested in exploring this dynamic, of a male suddenly finding themselves reborn, in a female body, and having to learn to live as a woman and deal with their own past, as a male and their relations with and attitudes towards women. Roger has that element to him/her. There is also the question of, can Roger be changed back or is this permanent; and, if so, can she now live as a female and make peace with the change and have a happy life. Roger would also have to deal with physical and emotional attraction, bringing up new questions. Sexuality would become an issue, potentially, because if Roger, in current female form, finds herself attracted to a male, does that imply she was closeted, in male form/ Conversely, if still primarily attracted to women, is she now a lesbian? Or, is it not that simple and are such labels far more fluid than we admit? To me, there are far more story possibilities, and more interesting ones, in Roger's life, than Sophie's, as presented so far. Sophie's connection to the past Promethea is the most interesting element, for me and what sustained me through the journey of discovery about magic. The trist with Jack Faust just seemed like an excuse to add a sexual dynamic to things, given Moore's own Bohemian personal relationships. It smacks a little too much of the guru sleeping around with the flock, to me. Had there been a more extended story to tell, with a relationship between Sophie and Jack, lasting over several issues, I might have felt different. Personally, I find that the 5 Swell Guys fits in better with the elements and characters of the other ABC books...more than Promethea, which makes this series feel more like another world, even though the society that transformed Roger also appears in a flashback story, in Tom Strong (which I will get to, when the issue comes around). Promethea feels more liek one of those alternate worlds where people from Neopolis travel to, via inter-dimensional gates, as seen in King Peacock's journey to the Roman-based reality, in pursuit of a lead in the Gromolko case. Thus, the gist of this is that, quite frankly, the only thing that is keeping me form just summarizing the rest of Promethea is a desire to see the 5 Swell Guys story play out (as I know, from reference material, that the backstory gets expanded) and I want to see the Doll again. Other than that, I am not really interested in Sophie's further journey and might end up fast-forwarding through issues, for my own sanity. It's part of why I have not read the entirety of Moore's Swamp Thing and why this book wasn't on my reading list, and why characters like Dr Strange never did much for me. The League's Black Dossier had a similar end result, as I lost interest in the story, once it turned into an esoteric journey with the Golliwog. Thankfully, Moore pulled back from that in later League stories; otherwise, that would have been a very small experiment, to me, that started well and then fell apart. So, fair warning; but, expect me to look at any 5 Swell Guys material with deep interest and any time Sophie focus on real things and not magical abstracts. Otherwise, my ouija board might spell out "%@#$ this!"....but with fewer symbols.
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Post by mikelmidnight on Oct 18, 2023 11:16:09 GMT -5
The last story is just mucking about for the sake of more alternate Toms and Teslas, mostly to set up the next issue, more than anything else. We end up with a 2000 AD style verison, a science villain version, a superhero version, a western hero version, a jungle her version, a teen comedy version, and a teen angst version (though Moore got the father wrong for Rebel Without a Cause, since James Dean's father was played by Jim Backus (By George!), as a weak, ineffectual man. At least he didn't insert Paula Abdul into it.* More than anything else, I this story made me sad that Moore had never written a JLA/JSA teamup, as he obviously loved the old multiverse. I thought it a shame we never got stories about these alternate Toms. Not a whole issue, but even a four=page backup starring some of the more absurd ones would have been a treat. |
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