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Red Skies and Black Lanterns-- thoughst on Green Lantern Corps #42

There's a major event that happens at the end of Green Lantern Corps #42 but I can't tell if it's a real event or just a red herring.  I'll try to avoid spoilers for the time being because I don't want to talk about the event itself but about everything leading up to it and why I'm finding I just don't care.  The primary reason that the ending of GLC #42 rings hollow to me is the writing of Peter Tomasi.

When Green Lantern Corp first relaunched out of Green Lantern: Rebirth, I really liked the title as it was being written by Dave Gibbons.  When written well, the Green Lantern Corp can be a rich tapestry, with a wide array of characters and missions.  In those early days of the relaunch, we were able to get to know the characters.  Some were mortal enemies, some were brothers in arms and one or two were spoiled princesses.  But, as much as you can in a book involving magical green rings and little blue men, you got to know and like the characters.

For the past 2-3 years, Green Lantern Corps has been in event mode.  Ever since Sinestro Corp War, the book has been barrelling forward, under constant attack and hardly giving any of the characters anytime to do more than fight.  It beels like for the last year, Oa, the Corps home planet, has been under constant attack.  All Tomasi has basically written is "and then the Green Lanterns battle the Sinestro Corp for the fate of Oa" or "and then the Green Lanterns battle the Black Lanterns for the fate of Oa."  We've been told over and over here, in Green Lantern and in Blackest Night that Oa is so important but we haven't been shown it lately.  The book has been in continuous battle mode and it's getting really tiring.

The only bit of character development that's been able to happen during all of this is with Soranik Natu, who we've found out is the daughter of Sinestro and is in love with Kyle Rayner.  Of all the Lanterns, she's the only one who's really been allowed to develop in the series.  She's been given the beginnings of a story while all the other characters have only been given plot points.  For the longest time in this book, everyone else has been cannon fodder.  Hopefully either during this story or after Blackest Night, Soranik will be given a larger spotlight and her full story can be told.  At this point, I'm all for abandoning the rest of the Corp and just focusing on her.

At least they've got a nice artist drawing this storytelling mess.  Since the beginning of this series, Patrick Gleason has defined the modern Green Lantern story, even more so than Ethan Van Sciver or Ivan Reiss.  With him on GLC and Doug Mahnke on Green Lantern, there's a nice visual continuity between the two books.  Both are rugged, solid artists who draw nice superheroes.   Honestly, I think this is how I want my superheroes of the next decade to look. 

Because the status quo of Green Lantern Corps now is almost the same as it was two years ago, it's hard to view this as an integral part of Blackest Night.  Sure there's been a lot of Black Lanterns fighting Green Lanterns but this almost has the feeling of a "red skies" crossover, where they sky turns red (or in this case black) and we're told that "yes, this has something to do with the main series."  So there is a big event in this issue.  So what?  Tomasi hasn't really given us any reason to care about these characters or what's happening other than that they tie into Blackest Night. 


@ Pop Syndicate-- Stumptown #1

"In Dex, Rucka gets to explore the screw up character again, like he used to be able to do with Atticus.  Most of Rucka’s characters have their own personal issues but Dex doesn’t seem as skilled,super or as rigidly strong as Kate Kane, Tara Chase are or as Atticus has become.  Dex is almost the most normally screwed up of Rucka’s characters.  Knowing how he writes, I’m sure that there’s some dark secret to her past but for now she’s just a down-on-her-luck PI, taking extra care of her brother, trying to figure out where her next dollar is coming from.  When she’s made an offer she can’t refuse, she does the right thing and doesn’t refuse it.  She may not like working for Sue Lynne and may think there’s more here than just a missing person case but she can’t afford to say “no” to this job.  She may be screwed up but she understands that she has just enough responsibility that she can’t turn this job down."

You can read the full review here.

After all of the crime and noir stories out this year, it's nice to see the beginning of a good detective story.  In the review, I called this the spiritual cousin of Criminal and then went on to talk more about the art but even Rucka's story is a nice mirror of Brubaker's writing.  Remember when the two of them were trading off arcs on Gotham Central, when one had the day shift and the other had the night shift?  I almost get the same vibe off of this book, compared to Criminal.  I hope Stumptown gets to last a while and that Rucka and Southworth are able to make this some kind of lasting series.

Weekly Comic Shopping List 11/11/09

  • Blood Song A Silent Ballad GN Dark Horse Edition-- I've got the original version of this book and all I can say is that everyone needs to check out Eric Drooker.  I've got three of his books (Blood, Flood and an illustrated collection of Allen Ginsberg poetry) and they're just stunning.

  • Green Lantern Agent Orange HC (Blackest Night Prelude)-- The road to Blackest Night continues.  More Phillip Tan artwork.  More Geoff Johns world building.  I hope after Blackest Night we can just get some Green Lantern stories that aren't part of a larger narrative.  Green Lantern has a limited shelf life on my shopping list.  Once Blackest Night is done, I may just end up thinking that Johns' story is done and drop the book.

  • Spider-Man: Died in Your Arms Tonight HC--  Speaking of books that I'm dropping... The bloom is off of the Spider-Man books.  There are more titles and the art has just gotten more generic.  It was artists like Salvador Larocca, Javier Pulido, Mike McKone and even John Romita Jr. who invigorated Spidey post OMD.  Now I have no idea who the guy is who drew the American Son arc and I don't really care.  After this volume, I'll have 11 nice Spider-Man books up on my bookshelf and I'll be happy with the variety of stories and art in them. 

  • Luna Park HC-- Since Desolation Jones is awol, this may be a great chance to catch up on Daniel Zezelj artwork.  That reminds me that I have to pick up the last volume of Azzarello's Loveless sometime, which I think also has some Zezelj artwork.  Honestly though, I think I may be crime-comiced out this year.  Don't know if I can handle another one.

  • Grimjack Manx Cat #4
  • Starstruck Vol 2 #3-- Weren't these comics supposed to be out last week?

  • Beast GN-- Marian Churchill's art was an odd beast on Elephantmen.  She's got a softer, more restrained Paul Pope thing going on. 

  • Phonogram 2 Singles Club #5--  Here's probably the book I'm looking forward to the most this week because it's going to take me somewhere I really want to go.  I may not understand all of the musical references but I don't care.  I really liked the first Phonogram mini about magic but Singles Club is magic.   Never mind.  I just read on Bleeding Cool that this issue had to be pulped because of a bad barcode and now will be out next week.  That just sucks!


Meet the new Don Draper, same as the old Don Draper? Thoughts on Mad Men: Shut the Door, Have a Seat

Reading the various recaps and reviews of Mad Men around the internet, I'm struck by the number of different ways that people interpret this series.  I still readily admit that I've only seen 2/3rds of the series and still have to catch up with most of the second season but I think one of the strengths of this show is how open to interpretation it is.  A glance here, a throwaway line there and a sexual tryst over in the corner can mean so many different things on this show.  Rarely is a pipe just a pipe on Mad Men. 

For the last couple of episodes, I've been wondering who Don Draper is now?  Betsy has completely humbled and broken down Don Draper at home.  Conrad Hilton has played with Don, simultaneously embracing him and shoving him down to put him in his place.  His once prominent position at Sterling Cooper has been reduced to begging and borrowing just to replace an art director.  The once proud, man about town has become something new.  Actually, maybe he's become something old, more resembling his childhood self, Dick Whitman, and is on the road to becoming the man Dick Whitman should have been.

In the end, the third season of Mad Men has been about family.  To me, there's little that separates the suburban bedroom drama of Don and Betsy from the work-place drama of Sterling Cooper.  The main difference is the definition of family in both settings.  In the suburb of Ossining, Don is the head of the family.  He's the husband and the rest of the family is supposed to fall in line behind him.  In Sterling Cooper, he's one of a band of brothers and sisters.  While he's still a leader, there's a different reason for it.  In his actual family, he's presumed to be the leader because he's the husband.  That's just the way it is.  But when his family dissolves right in front of him, you can see him lose that powerful position.  He doesn't know what to say to his kids Sally and Bobby as Betsy tells them that Don is moving out of the house.  For once, the man who's job it is to know what to say to sell an idea or a feeling just doesn't have the words to talk to his own children.  What happens in Ossining is no longer his.  It's no longer under his control.  Justifiably, Betsy has taken that away from him with very little of a fight put up. 

Maybe it's the lessons of his marriage that drive Don into the next step of his professional life.  Learning the news that Sterling Cooper is to be sold and that Don will most likely be just another cog in a much larger corporate machine for the next three years, he begins planning and plotting.  This isn't the Don Draper who disappeared during his child's birthday party only to show up hours later with a puppy.  Nor is it the Don who gets conned and drugged by a couple of alleged draft dodgers as he's running away from home again.  In the past, when the going has gotten tough, we've seen Don run away and it looked so easy for him to do it again but something's different now.  Confronting Cooper about the sale, Don forcefully admits "I want to build something."  That's a different tune from the man who has always been ready to leave Don Draper's life at a moments notice.  But now at home and at work, Don isn't so much given the opportunity to run away as he is being shown the door and told get out.  Betsy has told him to leave, Connie has told him to leave and Don is sure that the new bosses will tell him, Burt Cooper and Roger Sterling to leave as soon as their contracts are done.  At the best, Don will just be another person bought and sold by the new company. 

Looking back on it now, it's funny how much trouble that contract caused for Don.  He didn't want to sign it because it tied him down to Sterling Cooper.  He never wanted a contract because he'd always have an opening to leave, to just walk away.  He always felt like that is what gave him his power.  The contract was just the first step towards Don having to make real and true commitments.  As we've seen by his infidelities, his marriage wasn't real but for some reason, that contract looked much more imposing to him than his vows had.  A three year contract looked to have a stronger hold on him than the vows "to death do we part."  And maybe that's why, in the end, Don has built a new family when his old family looks lost to him.

Make no mistake about it, the new Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce advertising agency is more of a family at this point than a business.  At the core, Don and Roger are true brothers.  They don't always get along but in the end, they realize how much they need each other.  Their road this season has been rough, with both of them wanting to cut off any contact with the other at various points.  It takes a lot for Don to basically come to Roger, hat in hand, and tell him that he can't figure out how to move on from Sterling Cooper without Roger.  As much as he needs Roger's money, he needs his expertise and probably even needs Roger's guiding touch.  Roger and Don are the yin and yang of Sterling Cooper.  In an earlier episode this season, Burt Cooper told Don that everyone wants to see "Martin and Lewis" back together again.  I've just got to say that seeing Don and Roger, sitting at a bar, talking about Don's marriage was a great scene and shows that no matter how much they argue and proclaim to hate one another, the two of them work so well together.  Martin and Lewis now have to build something.

Seeing Don, Roger, Burt and Lane set up shop in a hotel room perfectly reflects the new ad agency that they're setting up.  There's no front doors, no receptionists, no break room and no private offices.  There's only people; them, Pete, Joan, Harry and Peggy.  A lot of the online commentary so far as pointed out how Ken Cosgrove, Paul Kinsey and even Salvatore Romano are absent.  I loved the Monday morning scene, after Sterling Cooper has been cleared out by Don and Roger, as Ken and Paul realize that they've been left behind.  There's a reason that they're at Sterling Cooper on Monday morning while Peggy and Pete are with Don; they don't have the hunger or desire that Peggy and Pete have.  It's not just a hunger on a professional level but on a personal one.  All Peggy and Pete have ever wanted is a place to fit in, a place of their own and to be loved and appreciated as much as they want to love and appreciate others.  And really, isn't that what Don and Roger both want?  Don't they want to be loved?  Even Burt Cooper, who could easily retire, is driven by the fact that he doesn't want to left behind as a relic of the past.  Or Lane Pryce who doesn't want to be another cog in the PPL machine?  We may see more of Paul and Ken in the future but they'll never belong at the new agency as much as Joan, Pete or Peggy do. 

There's a strange parallel drawn between Paul and Ken and Don's own children Bobby and Sally.  With all of the maneuverings of the grown ups, it's the kids that are left behind, in uncertain positions.  In our final shots of all these characters, they've been left behind in the care of others, either in the uncertain arms of PPL, Sterling Cooper's British masters or in Carla, the loving housekeeper of the Drapers.  The parents are all gone and they've taken some of the kids with them in both situations.  Acrimonious divorces and separations have ripped these small worlds of Sterling Cooper and Ossining apart and further divided them.  In the end, Paul, Ken, Bobby and Sally are left questioning what could they have done better?  What could they have done to prevent this or to go with the parent that they want.  But in both situations, we see that there are innocent (or relatively innocent) sons and daughters left behind.

While the new advertising agency has an air of excitement and purpose, you've got to wonder about Betsy's future, abandoning her husband and seemingly ready to find protection in another man, Henry Francis.  Francis is everything that Don isn't, both in the best and worst ways.  Henry may never cheat on Betsy but he also won't be taking her to Rome, playing romantic games to spark up their love.  Henry offers safety but with little spark.  Maybe that's what Betsy needs now but how long will that satisfy her?  How long until she wants to be something more than Betsy homemaker?  At least Don occasionally offered her the opportunity to be desirable. 

Shut the door.  Have a seat.  Doors were definitely shut with this last episode but, interesting enough, not locked.  Roger tells Don not to bother locking the door at Sterling Cooper.  Is that somehow leaving the door open for the future?  Will Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce somehow make a return and buy up their old firm somewhere down the line?  Is the door locked behind Don and Betsy's marriage or is there still some chance of reconciliation there?  More importantly, with this new stage in his life, it's another chance for Don to redefine himself.  Will he begin valuing his relationships with his co-workers more?  With his family?  Don is now part of something, he's given himself over to other people in a way that he has never done before.  He's lost his father, his wife, his children.  How tightly will he hold onto his future?

Art Appreciation-- Greg Rucka & Matthew Southworth's Stumptown #1

I'm working on my actual review for Stumptown #1 by Greg Rucka and Matthew Southworth but since I read the issue last week, I've been trying to wrap my head around the first 2-page spread that shows Dex getting shot under a bridge.  That isn't any kind of spoiler since it happens within the first 5 pages of the book but Rucka and Southworth do something that's kind of stumped (pun probably intended) me.

I really like how the scene is staged underneath this expansive bridge.  They give it a feeling of a small event in a much larger world even though the event is actually pretty big and shocking.  There are four inset panels, slowing down time to show Dex's fall into the water.  At the same time, there are 13 more inset panels to show the flight of a bird from underneath the bridge to the top of one of the towers.  Those 13 panels are perplexing because they don't fit in with a lot of the other storytelling in this book.  Does the time it takes for the bird to fly to the tower equal the time it takes for Dex to be shot and fall?  Or, since more of the bird's flight is over the final two panels, is that how much time she's lying there in the water? 

I think the big misstep in those bird panels is making the background white in most of them.  It really sets those panels apart from the rest of the page, calling attention to them.  I'm pretty sure that the birds are supposed to represent a short but not quick passage of time but they would have worked a lot better if the white backgrounds had been the same bluish tint that the sky was.


Stumptown45

Ponyo DVD-- why do I have to wait until March?

I don't get a chance to see many movies in the movie theater so take this with a grain of salt but Hayao Miyazaki's Ponyo has been one of my favorite films out in quite a while.  It was an imaginative movie filled with some great visuals.  Needless to say, I've been waiting for the DVD for a bit and now the news is coming that it won't be out until next March.  But if I can get my hands on a stuffed Ponyo, the wait may well be worth it.

Ponyo

@ Pop Syndicate-- Detective Comics #858

"J.H. Williams III is a chameleon when it comes to his artwork.  For Kate’s childhood, Williams adapts a style very reminiscent of David Mazzuchelli’s Batman: Year One artwork.  It seems like an obvious choice if you’re going to be telling the origins of the new Batwoman to make it look like Batman’s origin but there’s more than mere copying going on here.  As we’ve seen already during this run on Detective (and elsewhere like Promethea and Seven Soldiers,) Williams uses his artwork to invoke memories and sensations in the readers.  The way he adapts styles is more than simply aping another artists look; it’s a deliberate choice by Williams to make his artwork suggestive and more in tune with the story.  By mimicking Mazzuchelli’s simpler, more immediate style, Williams grounds Kate’s background more in reality.  They hyper-intense style he uses when Kate’s Batwoman wouldn’t work here.  Through his artwork, Williams is separating the world of Kate Kane and Batwoman.  It will be interesting to see if the varying styles collide anywhere down the line."

You can read the full review here.

Because everyone is focusing more on Williams' artwork (which deserves all of the accolades it gets,) most of my review tries to concentrate on Greg Rucka's writing, which I think is some of his strongest writing yet.  I'm not a huge fan of when Rucka works on super-heroes but this is like Checkmate, using superheroes but folding them up in Rucka's strengths as a storyteller.  I may not have Queen & Country or Tara Chace right now but Detective's Kate Kane is a welcome substitute.

Weekly Comic Shopping List 11/4/09

What a small week this week which isn't bad.  I've actually only got 4 single issues and 2 possible graphic novels that I may pick up if I ever get the chance to.  I'm kind of glad I've got Freakangels V3 and BPRD V11 on order to read this week if the US postal service ever get the books to me.

  • Sweet Tooth #3-- I wasn't too sure about this series after the first issue but the second issue made me a believer.  It took a bit for me to realize that this wasn't the Essex County books or The Nobody but more of a post-apocalyptical road story with a tinge of Lemire's moody styling.  Once you can get past the idea that there's no hockey or even Canada in this book, it's dang good.  

  • Criminal Omnibus HC--Well, here's your third opportunity to catch Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips' excellent Criminal series.  So here's the first three trades with a ton of extra stuff.  Now I can handle that the trade paperbacks don't have the little essay about noir movies in them but I really miss seeing Sean Phillips' original issue covers.  For me, more Sean Phillips' artwork is the really selling point of this collection.

  • Stumptown #1-- Rucka doing his take on The Rockford Files?  I'm there for that.  After last week's excellent Detective Comics, I'm really looking forward to this type of story that seems to fit so well with Rucka's style.  

  • Grimjack: The Manx Cat #4
  • Starstruck #3--  Really enjoying IDW's presentation of these two classic titles, even if I still don't have any idea of what's happening in Starstruck. 

  • Johnny Cash I See A Darkness TP-- Reinhard Kleist's artwork looks phenomenal.  Looking at this website, I'd like to check out a book of his stuff sometime so I guess a book about a boy named Sue wouldn't be a bad place to begin.

The assassination of Don Draper-- thoughts on Mad Men: The Grown Ups

It's odd watching a reproduction of a 1963 black & white television broadcast on a big LCD High Def television in stereo surround sound.  We've come to expect television to perfectly mimic the appearance life.  Things like misadjusted vertical holds and bad tuners are a thing of the past.  If our television screen started just randomly rolling up or down, it would almost be the end of the world now.

The grainy, lousy images of Walter Cronkite announcing to the world that President John F. Kennedy may be one of the first tragic American experiences that America has shared via the television set.  Since then, at least in my lifetime, we've had both the Challenger and the Columbia space shuttles, the assassination attempt on President Ronald Reagan's life and September 11th, 2001.  Watching the characters in Mad Men huddle around the television for news, for information and for consolation, we see ourselves whether we were alive or not in 1963.  Instantly, we know how Don Draper, Burt Cooper and Pete Campbell feel, how lost and small their world suddenly becomes as television tells them that today is a completely different day than yesterday.

But today is always different than yesterday.  In the last episode, The Gypsy and the Hobo, "today" was different because Betsy learned about Dick Whitman and who her husband really was.  While Don's world was turned upside down, it was Betsy who maybe finally saw the world she lived in clearly for the first time ever.  But one personal tragedy for Betsy is followed up by a national tragedy as a President is killed on live television.  Not only a President, but days later, his assassin is also killed on live television.  In a short span of time, Betsy Draper's life is utterly torn down; everything that she believed in and felt safe in has crumbled around her.  Starting with the death of her father, she's seen everything and everyone she believed in literally or symbolically die.

She married Don Draper but now she knows that she's married to Dick Whitman.  For all intents and purposes, Don is dead to her.  She killed him when she opened the desk drawer and found the shoe box containing Dick Whitman's life.  I'm still surprised by those that think that the last episode ended on a hopeful note.  I read it more as both Betsy and Don felt trapped.  They went on with their lives, unable to speak to one another other than on the most basic levels of human communication.  It was Halloween and when a neighbor jokingly asked who they were supposed to be, the answer was that they were masquerading as a happy suburban family.  What could be farther from the truth?  When have Don or Betsy ever really been happy?  This season for Betsy has been tragedy compounded by more tragedy.  She gasps "What's going on?" after seeing Lee Harvey Oswald gunned down and that's the real question.  What's going on in her world? 

Don moves through this episode almost like a ghost.  When the baby starts crying in the middle of the night, Betsy gets up and is shocked to find that Don is already up, cradling baby Gene in rocking chair trying to get him to sleep.  After last episode, Don just looks different; he looks smaller and diminished.  When he's on screen this episode, you've got to ask yourself are you watching Don Draper or are you watching Dick Whitman?  He barely reacts to Kennedy's assassination because he's still in shock and doesn't know what to do.  Today is still different for him than yesterday because yesterday he was Don Draper, dashing advertising man about town.  Today it's impossible to look at him as anyone other than Dick Draper, desperately craving the love and affection of the people who despise him. 

Today isn't yesterday.  Today, Lyndon B. Johnson is President.  Today, Pete is not the VP of Sales Account.  Roger made his decisions with Mona, leaving Joan in his yesterdays. Peggy isn't the new young innocent secretary at Sterling Cooper that she was just a handful of yesterdays ago, wanting the same kind of love and attention that Don desired.  Today, Betsy tells Don that she doesn't love him.  Today, Betsy was proposed to by another man, a fatherly figure who we have no reason to doubt the sincerity of.  Today, Don is only just Dick Whitman.  Tomorrow, as they say,will be another day but it will never be today.  And the real heartbreak is that tomorrow will never be yesterday.

@ Pop Syndicate-- Blackest Night #4

"For a Green Lantern-centric event, there’s a distinct lack of Green Lanterns in Blackest Night #4.  The first three issues of this series were more of a buddy event, having Green Lantern and the Flash team up to fight zombified versions of their friends and teammates.  Geoff Johns started out this massive event with the comic book equivalent of a buddy cop film plot.  You almost expect the Flash, as he’s getting pummeled by an undead Martian Manhunter, to mumble “I’m getting too old for this *#$%.” even as Green Lantern is off dislocating his own shoulder all in the name of justice and impressing the women.  There were some other superheroes showing up but the Atom and Mera, Aquaman’s wife, are far from the headliners that Green Lantern and Flash are.  Add in a catchy guitar-driven soundtrack and possibly even Gary Busey and you’d have the makings of a classic comic book here.  Well, instead of going for Lethal Weapon, Geoff Johns and Ivan Reiss try to take their story to the more creepy side of superheroes."

To read the full review, click here

I don't really know where the Lethal Weapon thing came from but as I was writing it, I realized that there is a connection; Richard Donner.  Donner is Johns' one time boss and former writing partner and the director of Lethal Weapon.  So I guess this isn't as far out there as it seems.

I'm still enjoying Blackest Night for what it is but I'm hoping something big (something other than Necron) happens soon.  We're four months into the thing and all it's been about so far is build up.  That, my friends, is what we call a big tease.  Both in Blackest Night and in Green Lantern, Johns is teasing and titillating us.  "Ooh, look, it's a dead Hawkman" or "You resurrected Abin Sur!  You Bastards!" has been all about teasing us.  Even releasing the identity of the big bad a couple of months ago?  You guess it-- tease. 

Blackest Night is a different beast than The Sinestro Corp War was but it felt like things moved at a brisker pace in that earlier story.  We saw different locales and different bad guys at this point in Sinestro Corp War.  The thing by this point actually felt a slight bit multi-faceted.  So far, Blackest Night has been surprisingly narrow and restrained.  It's showing us some skin but not showing us everything.

And I still think it was a mistake breaking up the Briggs and Martaugh of the DCU.