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Post by Dizzy D on Jul 6, 2020 5:32:34 GMT -5
Ennio Morricone died aged 91 from injuries sustained in a fall. Morricone is mostly known for his music scores, especially the many movies by Sergio Leone (Once Upon A Time in the West, The Good, The Bad and the Ugly, For a Few Dollars More), but also classics like John Carpenter's The Thing, The Untouchables and many many more. He was credited for over 500 movies and TV shows as the composer.
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Post by Dizzy D on Jul 3, 2020 4:08:55 GMT -5
I think Ellis picked the Fantastic Four because it fit the theme of the whole Planetary series: Richards creates tons of inventions that he then keeps locked away in his lab and it never seemed to affect the world outside the Baxter Building. Other heroes have done some inventions, but I think Reed Richards is probably the most prolific inventor/superhero in comics that keeps creating these amazing inventions that only exist for a single story. So thematically you have somebody 'burying' amazing things vs. our archaeologists of the amazing.
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Post by Dizzy D on Jul 2, 2020 4:52:12 GMT -5
Masters of the Universe has had comics published by Mattel (in-house), DC, Panini, Marvel (Star), Image, Dark Horse and then DC again.
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Post by Dizzy D on Jun 18, 2020 2:05:06 GMT -5
I always tend to give Brubaker the credit for that Iron Fist run, solely on the basis that I like most of Brubaker's work, and I like very little of Fraction's, so I assume he was the driving force on the plot. It's actually pretty much the other way around: they did the work 50/50 for the first six issues, but afterwards Marvel wanted Brubaker to step away to and focus on his other titles, so they did the basic plot together, then Fraction would do the complete first draft and Brubaker edited some scenes.
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Post by Dizzy D on Jan 12, 2020 7:19:23 GMT -5
Favourite comics I've read the last year and general 2019 thoughts (keeping European and manga out of it): - Dark Horse: Invisible Kingdom. Love Ward's artwork and the writing is very promising, hopefully it gets the success it deserves. Miscellaneous Dark Horse thoughts: + Happy to see Matt Wagner moving Grendel forward once again in his new series, the last Grendel things were all revisiting Hunter Rose, but this one seems to be the end of the Grendel timeline. I hope Wagner is OK, suddenly tying up your two main series after years (Mage and Grendel) is a bit foreboding. + Empowered is still good, but I don't think that much happened last year. - Critical Role came out earlier in digital format, but was now printed. Weird to see it at Dark Horse with IDW having the license for D&D, you'd expect that Wizards of the Coast would want a piece of that. Don't like Matt Colville as a writer though. + There was another Beasts of Burden series this year, which I still love. - Fell out of BPRD/Hellboy, so can't really tell how those titles were this year. - DC Comics: Harleen. Very happy that Sejic got a chance to do this and hope he gets to do a sequel on Harley/Ivy (which was his original webcomic). Miscellaneous DC comics thoughts: + Legion of Superheroes is back. I'm not completely in love with it, but I like it better than the Johns and new52 versions and it's just 2 issues in. Interested enough to see where it's going. - Deathstroke ending: This was basically the main DC title I was still following and it had some dips this year (especially with DC dragging all its titles into the usual crossovers again). I did like the final issue though. + Wildstorm finished and I loved the whole series. - Wildcats delayed or cancelled. ~ Far Sector: Really excited for this, but I missed the singles, so I'll have to wait for trade. + Doom Patrol: Didn't like Milkwars, but the series itself I still enjoy a lot.
- Inferior Five: I was expecting something completely different. Dropped it after 1 issue.
- Image Comics: Fairlady. Several comics I loved this year, but wanted to give this one a mention. Sadly cancelled already, because nobody else was buying it. Standalone detective stories in a fantasy setting. I especially love the issue where she is hired to find out the ending to a book.
Miscellaneous Image thoughts: - Walking Dead: Only read the first 2 trades (were bundled together) and decided that I hate Kirkman's writing, but I had to mention it, because it's one of the biggest titles ever. I do have to give him credit for ending the series without announcing it earlier. + Die: Gillen and Haas doing the old Dungeons and Dragons cartoon. I am still planning to play the included RPG with my usual D&D group as a one/two-shot one day. + Crowded: Came out last year, but I got the trades. Really, really love this series. In the future, an app exist that allows people to crowdsource assassination contracts on people. The main character is targetted and hires a bodyguard to protect herself.
+ Wicked and Divine ended and I liked the ending. ~ Assasin Nation: Liked the concept and a lot of the characters, but was disappointed when certain character were written out so soon.
~ Sea of Stars looked interesting, but didn't get a chance yet to check it out, waiting for the first trade. + Still enjoying Gideon Falls. + Sunstone: Mercy. Would have been my Image comic of the year if Fairlady was not cancelled. ~ Reaver: another one I'm waiting for trade. I generally like Justin Jordan's work, so interested where this is going.
- Marvel Comics: New Mutants, but this one needs a caveat. The series has two creative teams with each their own storyline. The Hickman/Reis I really like, the other time I don't care for. + House of X/Power of X: A much needed shot of adrenaline for the X-Men series.
+ Marauders: I like New Mutants a bit more, but Marauders is more consistent. (Also like Excalibur, didn't care for X-Force or Fallen Angels). ~ Loki: Not bad, but after Gillen/Ewing Loki series I was hoping for more. Already cancelled, so nevermind. + Silver Surfer: Black. Loved it for Tradd Moore's artwork. + Grand Designs: X-Men GD was wrapped up, Fantastic Four Grand Design came out and was great fun. ~ Death's Head: not amazing, but happy to see that at least somebody remembers Marvel UK. + New X-statix: plus an upcoming spin-off. Completely unrelated to anything going on with Hickman's X-Men series as far as I can tell, but X-statix always was its own thing (even with the occassional appearance by Wolverine or Professor X).
Other publishers: Boom: Still buying Buffy for my sister. No clue how it is, but I haven't heard her cursing loudly, so it's probably allright. IDW: After IDW's great Transformers series ended in 2019, I gave the new series a shot, but it just lacked all the worldbuilding and complexity the old series had by this point. Not for me.
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Post by Dizzy D on Dec 20, 2019 6:50:00 GMT -5
Read the ones in bold.
20th Century Boys by Naoki Urasawa (Viz): Read it, love it... But it's not 2010-2019 (I guess they go for the english translation. Afterlife With Archie by Robert Aguirre-Sacasa, Francesco Francavilla, and Jack Morelli (Archie). Should have read it, but Archie never was big here and I don't think I saw any of the issues here. All-New Wolverine by Tom Taylor (Marvel): Read it, really like the series, don't think it's quite Best of 2010s though. It's a solid comicbook though with a lot of character development for Laura Kinley from Mr. Fuzzity Murder Stabbity Clone to being an individual rounded character. Archival Quality by Ivy Noelle Weir and Christina “Steenz” Stewart (Oni) The Art of Charlie Chan Hock Chye by Sonny Liew (Abrams) Basquiat by Julian Voloj and Søren Mosdal (SelfMadeHero) Batman: The Black Mirror by Scott Snyder (DC) Batman: The Court of Owls by Scott Snyder (DC): Read, did not particularly care for it, but I'm so over Batman. Beautiful Darkness by Fabien Vehlmann and Kerascoët (D&Q) Becoming Unbecoming by Una (Arsenal Pulp) The Best We Could Do by Thi Bui (Abrams) Big Kids by Michael DeForge (D&Q) Bitch Planet by Kelly Sue DeConnick, Valentine DeLandro, Cris Peters, Kelly Fitzpatrick, and Clayton Cowles (Image) Read the first trade, but did not care too much for it. It's not bad, just not for me. The Black Hammer Universe by Jeff Lemire and Dean Ormston (Dark Horse): Still on my backlist. Boxers & Saints by Gene Luen Yang and Lark Pien (First Second) Brazen by Pénélope Bagieu (First Second) Building Stories by Chris Ware (Pantheon) Clyde Fans by Seth (D&Q) Copra by Michel Fiffe (Self-published/Bergen Street/Image) Criminal by Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips, with Elizabeth Breitweiser (Icon/Image): One of my favourite series of the last decade (though again, it started in the 2000s). Even at its worst, it's still very very good. Daredevil by Mark Waid, Chris Samnee, Javier Rodriguez, Matt Wilson, and Joe Caramagna (Marvel): Like it, but more for the art than the writing. Not a big Waid fan. Daytripper by Gabriel Bá and Fábio Moon (DC/Vertigo) Read it and absolutely love it. Dotter of Her Father’s Eyes by Mary M. Talbot and Bryan Talbot (Jonathan Cape/Dark Horse) The Encyclopedia of Early Earth by Isabel Greenberg (Jonathan Cape/Little, Brown) The End of the F@(U$*#+g World by Charles Forsman (Fantagraphics) Exit Stage Left: The Snagglepuss Chronicles by Mark Russell (DC): Read it, it's good but the Flintstones was better IMHO. Fatherland: A Family History by Nina Bunjevac (Jonathan Cape/Liveright) The Fifth Beatle by Vivek Tiwary, Andrew Robinson and Kyle Baker (Dark Horse) Frontier #7 by Jillian Tamaki (Youth in Decline) Gawain’s Girlfriend and the Green Knight by Polly Guo (Webcomic) Generous Bosom by Conor Stechshulte (Breakdown) Giant Days by John Allison, Max Sarin, and Lissa Treiman (BOOM! Suudios!) Girl Town by Carolyn Nowak (Top Shelf) Goodnight Punpun by Inio Asano (Viz) Guts by Raina Telgemeier with Braden Lamb (Scholastic) Hark! A Vagrant by Kate Beaton (D&Q) Hawkeye by Matt Fraction and David Aja (Marvel): Read it and love it. Hellboy in Hell by Mike Mignola with Dave Stewart and Clem Robins (Dark Horse): Solid. Was sad that it ended and it was not really the way I wanted the story to end, but still solid. Here by Richard McGuire (Pantheon) Hilda & The Black Hound by Luke Pearson (NoBrow/Flying Eye Books) Hip Hop Family Tree by Ed Piskor (Fantagraphics): Read it and love it. The Hospital Suite by John Porcellino (D&Q) Hot Comb by Ebony Flowers (D&Q) House of X / Powers of X by Jonathan Hickman (Marvel): I'm a big fan of this series, but again would not put it as best of the decade. It gives a new direction to the whole X-line and it has given a lot of energy to a title that needed it, but for best of a decade I think it should work as an isolated work and this is not that: this is a setup for a lot of series. How To Be Happy by Eleanor Davis (Fantagraphics) How to Understand Israel in 60 Days or Less by Sarah Glidden (DC/Vertigo/D&Q) Hyperbole and a Half by Allie Brosh (Touchstone) The Immortal Hulk by Al Ewing and Joe Bennett (Marvel): Love it, still curious if it sticks the landing (always hesitant to put ongoing series on a best off list). Is This How You See Me? by Jaime Hernandez (Fantagraphics) It Never Happened Again by Sam Alden (Uncivilized) The Last Look Trilogy by Charles Burns (Pantheon) Laura Dean Keeps Breaking Up With Me by Mariko Tamaki and Rosemary Valerio-O’Connell (First Second) Lore Olympus by Rachel Smythe (Webtoon) The Love Bunglers by Jaime Hernandez (Fantagraphics) Lumberjanes by various (BOOM! Studios): Fun series, really good at what it does. The March Trilogy by Rep. John Lewis, Andrew Aydin and Nate Powell (Top Shelf): As a non-American,always interesting to read historic comics about another country. Definitely worthy of inclusion. Mister Miracle by Tom King, Mitch Gerads, and Clayton Cowles (DC): There are things I really like about it, there are things I don't like about it. Think it's one of those, not for me. Monstress by Marjorie Liu, Sana Takeda, and Rus Wooton (Image): Like the art more than the story, but it's perfectly aimed at its audience. Ms. Marvel by G. Willow Wilson (Marvel): Another series that is perfectly aimed at its audience. The Multiversity by Grant Morrison (DC) My Favorite Thing Is Monsters by Emil Ferris (Fantagraphics) My Friend Dahmer by Derf Backderf (Abrams) My Hero Academia by Kohei Horikoshi, Caleb Cook, and John Hunt (VIZ): I know it's very popular, but is this just another Shonen series or is there more to it? My Lesbian Experience With Loneliness by Kabi Nagata, Jocylene Allen, and Lianne Sentar (Seven Seas) The Nao of Brown by Glyn Dillon (Abrams) The Nib by Matt Bors and various (online) Nimona by Noelle Stevenson (HarperCollins) O Human Star by Blue Delliquanti (Webcomic) On a Sunbeam by Tillie Walden (First Second) The Oven by Sophie Goldstein (AdHouse) Prince of Cats by Ron Wimberly (DC/Vertigo/Image) The Private Eye by Brian K. Vaughan, Marcos Martin, and Muntsa Vicente (Panel Syndicate/Image) The Property by Rutu Modan (D&)Q The River At Night by Kevin Huizenga (D&Q) Rock Candy Mountain by Kyle Starks and Chris Schweizer (Image) Sabrina by Nick Drnaso (D&Q) Saga by Brian K. Vaughan, and Fiona Staples (Image): Read it, love it. Scott Pilgrim’s Finest Hour by Bryan Lee O’Malley (Oni) Sex Criminals by Matt Fraction and Chip Zdarsky (Image): Read it, love it. Sex Fantasy by Sophia Foster Dimino (Koyama Press) A Silent Voice by Yoshitoki Olma and Steven LeCroy (Kodansha) Silver Surfer by Dan Slott and Michael Allred (Marvel): I quite dislike Slott's writing, but Allred's art won me over. Smile by Raina Telgemeier (Scholastic) Southern Bastards by Jason Aaron and Jason Latour (Image): I think the first trade is perfect. Kinda disappointed with the series going forward though. Spider-Gwen by Jason Latour and Robbi Rodriguez (Marvel) Sunburning by Keiler Robert (Koyama) Super Late Bloomer by Julia Kaye (Andrews McMeel) This One Summer by Mariko Tamaki and Jillian Tamaki (First Second) Thor by Jason Aaron (Marvel): Solid run on a longrunning title. Through the Woods by Emily Carroll (S&S/McElderberry) The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl by Ryan North and Erica Henderson (Marvel): Not my thing, but happy that it exists. Upgrade Soul by Ezra Claytan Daniels (Lion Forge) The Vision by Tom King (Marvel) The Walking Dead #193 by Robert Kirkman and Charlie Adlard (Image) The Wicked + The Divine by Kieron Gillen and Jamie McKelvie (Image): I disliked the first issue when I first read it, I really started to like the series a bit in though. The Wilds by Vita Ayala and Emily Pearson (Black Mask) The Witch Boy Trilogy by Molly Knox Ostertag (Scholastic) Why Art? By Eleanor Davis (Fantagraphics) Young Frances by Hartley Lin (AdHouse) Your Black Friend and Other Strangers by Ben Passmore (Silver Sprocket)
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Post by Dizzy D on Dec 5, 2019 10:59:34 GMT -5
Fantastic Four Grand Design #2
This is a 2 issue series, the second issue is everything from the coming of Galactus to Days of Future Past (and once again we get a timeloop to the actual FF timeline like X-Men GD looped back to a new timeline that followed the actual X-Men Series).
Like the issue before it, this one is dense. It takes plenty of liberties and moves beyond the Lee&Kirby years (the original Secret Wars, Days of Future Past, the Thing cartoon and many more get their short appearance).
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Post by Dizzy D on Dec 5, 2019 7:23:12 GMT -5
Short version of all the New X-Men titles, ranked best to worst (all in my opinion of course):
1. New Mutants: The (no longer really) kids go into space to get Cannonball and his family and show them Krakoa, the new home to all of mutantkind. It has the best art, characters have good interaction and it's just fun people having space adventures. Most of these know each other for years now and are very close. Chamber and Mondo take the roles of Magma and Warlock in the original line-up, but they fit in with the team.
2. Marauders: Kate Pryde can't use the Krakoa portals for a so far unknown reason, so she has taken the role of shipping mutants safely from all over the world to Krakoa and getting supplies for the island. She also has been offered a role in the new Hellfire Club where she and Emma Frost are countering Sebastian Shaw's influence. It's still worldbuilding so far, but I like the characters and the art.
3. Excalibur: Glad to have the ... I don't want to say old, because that is blond/precognitive Betsy.. 80s X-Men Betsy Braddock (?) back again. War between the magic of Otherworlds and the mutants of Krakoa starts. Betsy in actual armour again is nice to see. I'm interested in Apocalypse new role. The rest of the cast did not do much yet, but I always liked the 80s Captain Britain mythos, so this ranked high for me.
4. Regular X-Men: It's a series of standalones and mostly setup so far. I'm liking what I read, but wonder if there is going to be more of a structure to it. I've dropped this one and might switch to trades if it gets really good reviews.
5. X-Force: Read it, but didn't like it. The whole plot was about assassins killing Xavier, while Powers of X/House of X went a long way into establishing that mutants had found a way around death to force writers into establishing different stakes than just "character x will die". It might go somewhere, but I won't be there for the rest of the trip.
6. Fallen Angels: Psylocke (now Kwannon, not Elisabeth Braddock) does not feel at home on Krakoa and grabs some other misfits (X-23 and young Cable) to stop some evil guy outside Krakoa. I gave it a browse, so might miss a lot, but it just felt needlessly dark and depressing. Laura had grown beyond this in her previous series.
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Post by Dizzy D on Dec 2, 2019 12:58:22 GMT -5
It's been over a year, but I've still been reading European comics, just never got around to posting about them here, so a quick view of a lot of comics this year:
Cafe Noir: Series by the makers of Cognac (mentioned before; Brahy, Postec & Corbeyran) about the Fair Trade Coffee trade. I liked the subject matter of Cognac better (my father enjoys a good glass of Cognac every Sunday and has also enjoyed the series), but Cafe Noir is the better story. Cognac's history and production of the liquor was mostly incidental to the story, window-dressing around a pretty straightforward murder story. In Cafe Noir, the coffee trade is the center of the story: the antagonist of the story owns a company that deals in Fair Trade Coffee, but wants to increase its profits. They can't pay the Colombian farmers less, without losing the valuable Fair Trade mark, so he comes up with another plan. By some of the same creators I also started Chateaux Bourdeaux (guess which that one is about), which is more akin to Cafe Noir than Cognac.
The Atom Agency by Yann and Schwartz. Do you like Gil Jourdan? This is apparently *exactly* the same thing. I haven't read much Gil Jourdan, but it's still very good on its own. Atom (that is his first name) is a private detective against the wishes of his father, the chief of police. Assisted by a smart and wilfull secretary and a loyal boxer, he solves crime. It's a period piece and a fun adventure/detective story.
Spirou by Emile Bravo: Bravo returns to Spirou to follow up on his standalone story from 10 years (has it been 10 years already?) Belgium is occupied by Germany, food is becoming more and more scarce and people are not aware yet of the atrocities that are about to happen. My main issue with Bravo's first work (the role of Spip, the squirrel) is side-stepped: Spip is just a regular squirrel here, so we can focus on the depression of the occupation with occassional glimmers of humanity and dark moments of betrayal by former friends and neighbours. Recommended, but not light reading IMHO.
Speaking of Spirou, after Zorglub, The Count of Champignac get his spin-off. It's also a WWII period piece; the brilliant Count, still a young man, is recruited by the British Secret Service to work on cracking the Enigma device. A mixture of real history with fantasy, it doesn't really require any Spirou knowledge. The Count could have been any character. Overall, I found it just OK at best.
Brian Bones: Roadmaster: I liked Atom Agency so much, I picked another comic with a yellow cover and an old car on it. An insurance agent is sent to investigate a car accident. Three accidents on the same piece of road where a driver apparently fell asleep behind the wheel. Sadly, I found this one pretty weak. I can't really recall anything but disappointment about it. The creative team are veterans at the genre though, maybe somebody else likes it better.
Zibeline by Aouamri, Hautiere and Goddyn. Young Tannicia is transported to another world after being used in a ritual by Voodoo Priests. This world is filled with intelligent humanoid animals. A group of animals decide to protect the young girl and help her find her way home. She is adopted by them, taking the name Zibeline. It's pretty good, but I think it's aimed at a younger audience.
Apart from these, many series I followed continued and this month especially seems to be Jean van Hamme tribute month: new issues of series he started like Largo Winch, Thorgal and XIII among others. I've stopped following XIII (they committed the big sin, by suggesting that XIII might regain his memories due to new therapy. Nope, XIII's memories forever being gone is *key* to the series as far as I am concerned) and Thorgal (the current plot was extended too much). I did like the latest Largo Winch, but it might be a jumping off point for me as well; it's a good place to end the series.
I'm pretty sure I read more European comics, but those were mostly back issues of series I was already following.
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Post by Dizzy D on Nov 25, 2019 11:45:01 GMT -5
Have debated whether to do this and if to do this where I would put it.
So, here it is:
Fantastic Four Grand Design #1 by Tom Scioli
This is not going to be an annotation post, there are many here who would be far far better at this thing. X-Men was always the title I grew up with and the number of Fantastic Four comics I have are limited to only a few runs (mostly Hickman... please put away those pitchforks). Anyway this is Tom Scioli doing the same thing as Ed Piskor did for the X-Men: a retelling of the early adventures of a Marvel title, streamlining it to a single narrative. Where Piskor's story ran from Lee&Kirby's X-Men till Claremont&(another)Lee's final X-Men issue, as those were the comics he grew up with, this one will be Tom Scioli doing Lee&Kirby's Fantastic Four. As far as I can tell, this will be just 2 issues and only limited to Lee&Kirby, but X-Men Grand Design were in the end 3 series of 2 comics each, so who knows? I'm not daring to go into the woods of Comic Journalism to find out exactly what Scioli is planning.
The biggest hurdle this project faces, in my honest opinion, is that Piskor's project works because the X-Men at its core works on a single premise: mutants are born with powers and humanity feels threatened. Excising all parts that do not fit that overall narrative therefore makes a decent amount of sense. The Fantastic Four on the other hand, are explorers and scientist, encountering and even creating new places and creatures every time. Slimming it down seems opposed to the big idea behind the comic. Scioli does an admirable job of making it all work though.
I recently complained about Mark Waid's History of the Marvel Universe. Despite liking the art in it, it's not a real comic book; there is little to no sequential storytelling and nearly every panel, while good-looking on its own, is an isolated idea, narrated by a box of text. Why do I like FF and X-Men Grand Design then and not History? Because there is sequential art here. Scioli pulls of 20-30 panels each page and spends his first 2 pages on 4 explorers leaving their planet in a rocket ship that is hit by cosmic radiation. This journey is more ill-fated than we expect though: the ship crashes, killing 3 of the four and leaving the last one dying of radiation disease. The man's death is observed by the silent Watcher, who after long deliberation, finally takes pity on the dying man. Uatu, no longer a Watcher, but now an Actor, summons his wondrous devices to heal the last explorer. Filled with radiation and/or the power of the Watcher's machines, the man stands up, now as tall as the Watcher and a familiar purple and pink armour forms around him. The Watcher looks on pleased: he has saved a life, what is the worst that could happen?
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Post by Dizzy D on Oct 1, 2019 11:28:15 GMT -5
Harleen #1 Written by Stjepan Šejić Art by Stjepan ŠejićThis is a copy of a post I've written on another site and does not really fit the usual format, but I wanted to talk about this comic. Format: It's part 1 of 3 (far as I can tell the whole series will be coming out monthly and then collected). It's a graphic novel in a European softcover format (well sorta, there is no standard European comic format, so this one is a bit shorter (to be clear, I'm talking about height/width not pagelength.) than most that I have), so it's larger than standard American comics. 64 pages, no ads whatsoever unless you count issue 2 coming in October at the end. Summary: It's the story of Harleen looking for a grant for her research (with a few flashbacks to her college time and beyond), getting hired at Arkham up to her first interview with the Joker. It's all Harleen before she became Harley Quinn in this issue, so no wacky hi-jinks at all. Just an idealistic young woman, who has made some bad decisions in the past, trying to get a job to prove her theories, but haunted by nightmares. Plot: Spoilers though basically this is all familiar territory for most of us, I guess. Still spoiled for long: I will be doing my best to sticking to using Harleen for the young Dr. Quinzel and Harley after she has been changed by the Joker/current version, but I may slip from time to time.
In this first issue, Harleen is an idealistic researcher, having done research on American soldiers turning war criminal and is working on a theory about prolonged high stress environments have the fight or flight response overruling empathy till it actually breaks any empathy within a person. She wants to research this further, hoping to find a way to if not cure it, at least predict it/diagnose the early stages and prevent people vulnerable to this behaviour from escalating. Sadly for her, no company seems to think that there is any money in this, so no research money is available.
Harleen is also young (well 30 years by the time the story starts), depressed, single with only 1 friend around (a friend from college who has less scruples but still is a good friend to her). There is the bit with Harleen sleeping with one of her college professors so she has a reputation for sleeping around to raise her grades, but the reputation is unearned: the story establishes that she was already top of the class for the relationship began and that she was just not interested in her fellow students, finding them immature (also one of her later employers points out that she had great grades in *all* classes and they had some of the same teachers (including one crotchety old woman) and knew that Harleen had to put in some real work to pass those classes). Still it was a mistake and she is paying for it, especially as one of the girls that spread the rumours is working at her current place of employment.
After a night drinking with her friend from college, Harleen runs into the Joker and gang stealing weapons. The Joker points his gun at her, but decides not to shoot her (he just thought it was funnier if she would have nightmares for the rest of her life of this moment than the single shot). Batman then arrives on the scene and fights the Joker and the pretty brutal fight is a big part of Harleen's nightmares for the coming months. She does get a bit of good news; Lucius Fox, on behalf of the Wayne Corporation tells her that he believes that her ideas have merit and that Wayne is very interested in ways to reduce crime so she has her money, Wayne has invested in Arkham, so she will have access to Arkham.
So Harleen can go to Arkham to interview criminals to find any that match her theory (quick cameos of a lot of the main Batman rogue gallery including Ivy. Ivy and Harleen don't connect in the one-panel interview, while the original fan comic this thing is based upon is Harley telling this story to Ivy, so if that narrative device was worked in here, I'd have expected some reaction from Harleen to Ivy in the narration. Oh and Ivy is absolutely unqualified for her research; Ivy's problem is not that she lacks empathy, she feels the pain of all plants around her and Harleen taking notes on dead trees does *not* endear her to Ivy. She still has nightmares about her first encounter with the Joker, so she tries to avoid him, but finally decides to look into him. Interviews by other doctors, she realizes that he lies to all of them, displaying a different persona to each of them for his own amusement, but a video of Joker outside a courtroom being accused by the relative of some victim shows her what she believes to be the real Joker and he fits her theory perfectly. Still she does not want to meet him again.
It's only when DA Harvey Dent approaches her and tells her to drop her research, because he thinks it will prove an easy way out for many criminals in Gotham. Harleen is infuriated and fueled by her anger, she finally has worked up the courage to interview the Joker. It seems that the Joker realizes that he can't play the usual games with her as she tells him that she looked through the previous interviews. He asks her to call him Jay and she, thinking that she can control this situation, agrees to call him Mister Jay from now on.
To be continued... Opinion:If you read bits of the original fan webcomic by Šejić: this is a complete rewrite/rework, while probably still hitting the same themes (the web comic was mostly short scenes further along in the relationship between Joker and Harley and mostly Harley coming to grips with her mistakes and moving on with Ivy. This first issue is all about establishing who Harleen Quinzel was before meeting the Joker: not a bad person, but haunted by a mistake she made and a traumatic experience and the frustrating experiences she has with her co-workers and the people at Arkham, all building up to her making her greatest mistake. I really liked it (and I usually care little for Harley (at least the Deadpool-lite version that many current writers have made of her) and even less for the Joker) and am eagerly awaiting the next issues.
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Post by Dizzy D on Sept 5, 2019 7:23:03 GMT -5
I'm wondering about G.I. Joe, I know that IDW continued the series from the Marvel series and numbering at one point, but I don't know if that was this exact series. (Then again IIRC the Marvel series ended at 155, so I think these are all actually published by IDW.)
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Post by Dizzy D on Sept 4, 2019 4:49:08 GMT -5
My favourites: Conan the Barbarian- Not the Conan of the books, but a movie I love. Even better with the commentary (the scene where Conan is chased by dogs and falls in a hole, Arnold was actually bit and fell down, nearly breaking his hand. All the while cheered on by the director for excellent acting.)
Willow- A better Hobbit movie than the actual Hobbit movies.
Princess Bride- So many great elements. My brother never could make it through it, finding it too cheesy, but it only endears it more to me. The book is also fantastic (and different).
Other movies mentioned: Highlander- Like the movie, but still think it's a joke played on Sean Connery: after decades of being terrible at accents, he finally gets a script for a movie starring a Scottish guy. Then gets to hear that a Frenchman will be playing that part and he will be an Egyptian Spaniard living in Japan.
Hawk the Slayer- All I know about it, is the running joke in Spaced. (Simon Pegg's character works in a comic store. The best way to infuriate the owner Bill Bailey is to say "Hawk the Slayer is rubbish.")
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Post by Dizzy D on Aug 31, 2019 13:57:16 GMT -5
You're both right, I'm being too conservative. I think she should play Leiko Wu and Fah Lo Suee in the MoKF. Now that’s starting to sound like a proper comic-book continuity! Leiko and Fah Lo Suee can be time-displaced clones who resemble a purple-haired mutant from an alternate universe!
To stick even closer to the comics, I posit that every single female character in the Marvel Universe barring Aunt May should be played by one actress, but wearing different wigs.
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Post by Dizzy D on Aug 25, 2019 9:26:46 GMT -5
Probably the translation then, can't recall having any problems following this story myself.
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