Black Summer
Jun 14I’ve always liked Warren Ellis enough to forgive the things he does that drive me nuts – which is to say for every prig that gleefully picks up on his “underwear pervert” term, he is still cashing in on my goodwill towards Planetary. Were we ever to meet (unlikely) it would probably start with a beer and end in a fist-fight, with both side declaring it a total success.
This time, Ellis has written Black Summer – the story itself lays things out pretty clear. In short, the most powerful member of America’s premiere team of science-heroes, comes to an uneasy conclusion – what’s the point of working to make the world a better, safer place, when the nation is complicit in an illegal war? And his solution is that the country has to be rebooted, and he will start the process by taking out the Honcho Supremo of the executive branch, a handful of right-hand men, and tells the country to ponder, get their shit together, and go back to the polls (pencil and paper this time.)
And if that isn’t a clear enough allegory, Ellis’ letter at the back of the issue makes it pretty clear that as a Mad-dog Englishman, the world today wears on him as much as anyone, and Marvel’s Civil War was perhaps a little too coy in its message. Ergo, Black Summer.
If you like Planetary, or the early Authority, or the Doctorow Power Fantasy that is Transmetropolitan, I’m going to recommend Black Summer – don’t know how far this bird will fly (for example – issue #0 alternate cover. Holy shit), but I’ll watch.
Jesus, Ellis. There are easier ways to keep your file in the active pile.
No, no, no, yes, no – Thanks a bunch USA Today.
Jun 13So, the discussion of women in comics got co-opted today in order to pimp the new Fantastic Four movie, and it’s enough to make grown man who happens to like reading comics cry. Comic fandom just got sucker punched by marketing execs.
Everyone had a look at the USA Today article? Here we go.
Ding Ding – and in this corner, The Strongest One There Is
Jun 13As I’ve said before, the past year of turning the bulk of the Marvel Universe into pricks I could care less about, has created a strong desire in me to see them all beaten to snot. And with issue one of World War Hulk coming out today, it’s time to smash.
The heroes we loved as kids, because they stood for all the right things and had the strength to back those principles, are now the focus of new story themes – the fear of a world where we can’t protect our children, the fear that the people of power who used to protect us are now following agendas we have no say in, and in the name of protecting us, are make dark, dark choices. They don’t stand for what we’d like to do ourselves, they now stand for what we don’t want to see happen, are afraid is happening, and we don’t think we can affect the change needed to keep it happening.
The list of heroes that are still fighting this shift in heroic principle is short. And the one that got the shaft hardest is now back. And the retribution starts here.
Hawkeye Pierce on the Zombie Apocalypse
Jun 07Poking around the World War Z website, I made a strange discovery – if you go to the world map and click on Tao, New Mexico, you’ll hear a snippet of the book as read by Alan Alda. The site doesn’t say it’s him, but trust me, it’s Alda. After 34 years of M*A*S*H repeats (lovingly, I should clarify), I’d know that voice anywhere.
I can only assume that it’s taken from the audiobook version. I’m not a big fan of audiobooks – but given that this is an entire book collecting various first-person recollections of the war against the zombies, I think I might like this audiobook. I’ve downloaded their 10 part, expurgated podcast of the audiobook, so I guess I’ll know soon enough.
Plus, y’know, Hawkeye Pierce is in it, so it’s kind of hard to resist. I wonder who else will put in a vocal cameo.
[update] Thanks to Mark, I had to find out who the entire cast was. Max Brooks is on it, but then Brooks is a regular voice actor in Saturday morning cartoons, so that’s not a surprise.
Max Brooks as Max Brooks
Alan Alda as Arthur Sinclair
Carl Reiner as Jurgen Warbrunn
Jurgen Prochnow as Philip Adler
Waleed Zuiater as Saladin Kader
Dean Edwards as Joe Muhammad
Michelle “Mrs. Max Brooks and playwright” Kholos as Jesika Hendricks
Maz Jobrani as Ahmed Farahnakian
Mark Hamill as Todd Wainio
Henry Rollins as T. Sean Collins
Eamonn “Hey, It’s That Guy!” Walker as David Allen Forbes
and Xolelwa Azania
Ajay Naidu as Ajay Shah
John Turturro as Seryosha Garcia Alvarez
Dennis “Hey, It’s That Guy Too!” Boutsikaris as General Travis D’Ambrosia
Becky Ann Baker as Christina Eliopolis
Steve Park as Kwang Jingshu (I know the name, but a NASCAR driver is confusing google)
Frank “New York Theatre Dude – no good links” Kamai as Nury Televaldi and Tomonaga Ijiro
Rob Reiner as “The Whacko”
John McElroy as Ernesto Olguin (not sure – Speed Network dude?)
Portrait of a Prick
May 31For starters, the guy’s choosen nickname means, to paraphrase the Urban Dictionary, a socially unskilled, heavy-handed, self-important prick.
His involvement with WoW suggests that it is his entire life, as evidenced by his character and that he sells items on eBay. Everything about his account suggests that he does not play the game for any sense of wonder, or thrill of the gameplay. Everything points to a drive for in-game status.
And a guy like that will always hate someone else having something he can’t and a guy like that will always beak off when a normal human would know to keep their mouth shut, assuming they actually felt it important to have an opinion on the wishes of a dying kid in the first place.
I’m with Matt – see you in hell, you malignant knob.
[UPDATE] Blizzard just deleted his posts. Five bucks says he’ll beak off over that now.
