Jerry Juhl Day
Sep 26Jerry Juhl is one of the great minds behind the Muppets. Pay attention to the credits of any classic Muppet Show episode, or any of the great Muppet movies, and you will inevitably see his name.
He died two years ago today, and in honor of him, Muppet fans (which, come on, should be EVERYONE) are encouraged to celebrate Jerry Juhl Day, and do something ABSOLUTELY SILLY.
So here. Happy Jerry Juhl Day.
EW's Top Ten TNG
Sep 25It’s been twenty years since the premiere of Star Trek: The Next Generation?
Shit, I’m old.
To celebrate, Entertainment Weekly has a neat little mini-mag insert to their latest issue, which I have not yet read. However, their top ten episodes of TNG are online. Click the link, if only to peep a shirtless Jean-Luc hanging from the ceiling like the luscious hunk of man meat he is.
Misunderstanding=BEATING THE SHIT OUT OF SOMEONE
Sep 24This is the real legacy of Marvel Comics, and honestly, it’s why that “DON’T TASE ME BRO” bro got his ass tased.
Okay, it isn’t either, but it’s what I’m contemplating as I finally finish up Essential Defenders Vol. 1.
Marvel in the 1970s is an endlessly fascinating place to me; I find I respect the stories of Marvel’s Silver Age far more than I actually ENJOY reading them, which is a common problem I encounter when reaching back into comicdom’s moldy past.
But by the 1970s, the storytelling had reached some strange hybrid bridge era between the histrionic, occasionally formulaic work of the 1960s and the “soap opera with tights” ethos of the 1980s and beyond. In other words, Chris Claremont didn’t reinvent the wheel, ladies and gentleman. He just grabbed the wheel and steered the car full steam in a single direction.
So, the Avengers-Defenders War. I’ve read it lauded in many corners as a high watermark of seventies Marvel, and it is pretty good and pretty fun, but I’m shocked by anyone legitimately believing that it “stands up” in any respectable way. It’s an interesting document of an interesting era, when Steve Englehart was trying to find this middle ground between adolescent superheroics and adolescent melodrama, but it’s not in any way MODERN.
Maybe I’m the only person on the planet who was expecting it to BE modern in the first place. At any rate, it amounts to that classic Marvel staple, outlined in brief in this post’s title, a bunch of superheroes misunderstanding each other and using that as an excuse to fight, fight, fight.
It’s all worth it just to get that one classic pin-up page of the Hulk and Thor locked in combat, a pose they maintain for like an hour in the story (!!!), but I’m not sure this story deserves its own classic hardcover reprint. And I’m ready for Steve Gerber now, please.
Superman: Doomsday
Sep 20I will not cop to actually going out with my hard-earned Benjamins (or even my hard-earned Hamiltons or Washingtons) and purchasing Superman: Doomsday. Instead, I will cop to an illegally-copied version from a friend, created using (gasp!) work computer equipment.
I will also cop to enjoying Superman: Doomsday a great deal. Which shocked me, actually, as the original story has always been one of those cases of a pop culture phenomenon that’s more popular than it has any decent business being.
The comics are…well, they’re dumb. They’re not BAD; they’re just big bang bust-up superhero action lathered with a significant dose of nineties’ comics angst.
The movie takes that big bang bust-up superhero action and surrounds it with a surprisingly compelling emotional core. The movie’s named after the Man of Steel, but it’s a story that dwells almost moreso on the two big double L’s in Superman’s life: Lois Lane and Lex Luthor. James Marsters wrings some oily malevolence from Luthor’s lines, and Anne Heche is…well, she’s amazing as Lois Lane. That sharp edge that you hear in her speaking voice suits Lois PERFECTLY. This is not the fey, demur Lois created in Superman Returns; this is the tough, smart, and sometimes a little bitchy reporter Lois. The strong female character one.
You go into the movie knowing Superman will die, but as soon as he does, the flick takes an unexpected turn. There’s no tale of the four mystery Supermen, and we don’t really see too much of Supes until he’s recuperating. Instead, we follow Lois and Lex as they attempt to figure out why the loss of this man has demolished their lives so much. It’s a neat twist that provides surprising emotional moments without skimping on the fights.
I never thought I’d be saying this, but Superman: Doomsday? Definite rental. Maybe a buy if it’s on sale. Have at it.
