G.I. Joe vs. G.I.Joe Part 1: the series

As you may be aware, the original episodes of G.I.Joe are now available on DVD and BluRay, at your local DVD store. Now, according to[url=http://www.biffbampop.com/2010/04/dvd-tuesday-with-scotty-g_27.html]BiffBamPop (bottom of the review)[/url], the show did not hold up well over time. While I normally hold a special place in my heart for those guys, in this case would I agree or part ways?

Maybe the poor review was due to the 2009 feature film, which I hadn't seen but had heard poor reviews, especially regarding the Iron Man suits in the car chase; and having seen other beloved stories become movies, just how disappointing the Transformers franchise had been. In short, I didn't want to ruin another childhood memory with adult thinking, during a movie that really wasn't meant for me but a different age group, so I admit I gave it a miss.

That is, until a kindly brother-in-law reintroduced me to the cartoon through a well-timed gift. It was an opportunity to answer the burning question of whether or not shows were better "way back when", to get to know a program that was a staple of my formative years. In fact, laugh all you want, but the "knowing is half the battle" moral or lesson at the end of every episode did have an effect on my thinking and safety around traffic. This sort of show is powerful for kids, and I felt it was time to take a good look at it, and myself. And, for a kicker, I wanted to compare it to the 2009 movie.

The first half of the series does not disappoint! The initial show was a mini-series movie, followed by another miniseries, both five episodes-worth, and then regular one-shot episodes. The writers kept the show fairly grounded: GI Joe was an American special forces squad that hunted a terrorist organization called Cobra. It was about espionage, politics, and action, and while there were a few suspensions of disbelief (genetically modified monsters, or the occasional magical tomb guardian), the action was great and the characters engaging.

The Joes were about trying hard and never giving up, about being unconventional and part of a team. Moreover, every one of them had their own personality, more than just a set of clothes and a haircut; even, no, especially the villains had interpersonal dynamics that made them fun to watch. Cobra Commander's power struggle with Destro, Destro's dislike for Zartan, and the twins Tomax and Xamot who were as much about corporate greed as they were about global terrorism. Librally peppered with love triangles and well-timed (not simply instinctive) betrayals among the villains, the show kept hitting hard with entertainment.
Cobra truly was menacing, and the plots were genuine examples of social injustice, global terror and humanitarian issues. I think I missed that growing up, but at least initially it was sophisticated stuff slipped under the radar.

As a fan of kitch, and of the original James Bond films, I really enjoyed it. As the series went on, some of the plots become more outlandish: Cobra Commander seems to use television a lot, and about forty-five episodes in they attempt mind control by dressing up as a rock band. That, in fact, is the first dud episode in over forty, and I've never seen that before.
Moreover, there were episodes that could have been duds, but that ninja-flipped over them. Example: the Christmas episode. Cobra invents a shrink-ray and hides inside the donation toys the Joes had collected for Orphans, in order to grow to normal size and take over Joe HQ. Could the episode have been terrible? yes. Was it? Strangely not, turning what could have devolved into a laugh-riot for yuks into a serious plot.

While I'm not done the series, I do have questions:

1) How good was the movie? (well, I watched it and will get to that next)

2) What about the second half? (I recall growing up someone names Sgt. Slaughter showing up, as a GI Joe of all people...)

The Review #2: The Immortal Iron Fist

The Immortal Iron Fist

I have the good fortune of knowing a lot of people with a lot of comics, and for some reason they give them to me to read. One of them is the man behind Pages N Pages books, Steven Palter, which you can see in the links here on Fireinthedust, and the most recent book was so good I decided to review it: Ed Brubaker’s The Immortal Iron Fist: the last Iron Fist story.

Let me clear one thing up: I really hope this isn’t really the last Iron Fist story. In fact, I highly doubt it will be the last one because of the ending, which I refuse to spoil for you here, or because there is a sequel to this on Brubaker’s site; and I think what they really mean is that it’s a story about the last of the Iron Fists, a number of heroes who have appeared throughout history using their kung fu to fight evil, specifically the most recent and (we expect) Last Iron Fist named Danny Rand. If Marvel promises not to give him a follow-up sidekick, say a spunky teenage daughter he didn’t know about (from, like, that time in Madripore fans never heard about before she showed up), then yes, he will be the last Iron Fist. Clear? Crystal? Okay, good.

This particular story is written by Marvel All-star Ed Brubaker, one of the people who changed Marvel’s tone from a series of four-colors to multiple shades of grey. From back to his work on a run on Catwoman to more recent runs on titles like the Death of Captain America (and the current Rebirth run), Ed Brubaker has a knack for interesting takes on characters who don’t normally take the spotlight and blowing away the expectations of his audience. Example from a different story: Brubaker took Cap’s old sidekick Bucky (who we all thought was dead) and brought him back and made him a good read. If an author can take a character known as Bucky and make him a reasonable modern character, give his other stuff a look.

Iron Fist has been a lower-tier character in the Marvel universe since I showed up decades ago, one who I remembered as having little yellow slippers, a lime green suit and a massive yellow disco collar, and whose only powers were being a white guy with kung fu powers, and having a really hard fist… an “iron” fist. Considering he was one of those heroes who fought drug dealers rather than super aliens, I took a quick step back and enjoyed my X-men. Even since those initial “un-counters”, he would pop up in larger Marvel events, stand near more powerful characters like Wolverine or Spiderman, fail to dodge laser fire from some villain, and be very glad that Wolverine/Spiderman showed up “just in time”. If you’re familiar with Dazzler, yellow shirt Luke Cage, and Power Pack, you have an idea of my original take on Iron Fist.

That said, having this book plopped on my lap and seeing Brubaker on the cover was enough to kick me into intensive reading mode. I’d been pleasantly surprised a number of times by him, and by my friend’s choices, and this book was no different. Stories like this challenge my taste in genres and let me get to know other character types than ones I might gravitate towards. It really makes reading comics exciting, this sort of exploration, so I recommend taking a leap and seeing where you find yourself next time you’re in the trade section of your comic store.

Iron Fist starts off in a personal fight with the forces of Hydra, that secret organization of evil minions whose purpose is total world domination, total world destruction, or preferably a little of both. Think Specter from the Bond films, but a rabid doomsday cult. Hydra minions are attempting to kill the hero, and their front companies are trying to buy out his personal assets in the form of the massive corporation his dead father left to him. (Yes, he’s a crime fighter who uses his fists against criminals and villains, and he’s fabulously rich, which we’ve seen before; which is more viable for a hero who spends little time working a day job and more time training for kung fu crime fighting, than one who doesn’t; which Brubaker didn’t make up, it was in previous stories; so we forgive and allow it to be a good premise for a good story, which it actually does.)

We discover, however, not only that Iron Fist’s power is being tapped into by someone else in New York, draining him, but that this person is another Iron Fist. The book begins with a flashback to an older version of Iron Fist in ancient China, and we see other short examples of different Iron Fists throughout history. So, with Hydra tracking him down, led by an old foe, Iron Fist meets up with his predecessor and discovers more and more about his powers and his past. This leads us through an explosive series of encounters, an exciting climax, and setting up certain events for the next phase of the series.

The whole story has a feeling like Brubaker is setting up an ongoing series. In this case, I think Iron Fist is Marvel’s attempt to create a martial arts title, but in the vein of old Blacksploitation movies. His best friend is Luke Cage, another street-level hero, and his old girlfriend is a straight-talking Foxy Cleopatra-type, complete with afro. Iron Fist (despite being around for years) learns of the full potential of his powers from an old master, fights a whole pile of minions, some weird mystical stork ladies, and a few more kung fu tropes thrown in there for good measure. This then picks up and leaves us not so much at the end of this story, but rather the conclusion with a bridge to the next one. While I would have liked it better if I’d had a copy of the next book handy at the end of this one, for what it is Brubaker does a good job: he gives only what he needs to create a franchise and tell a story without crowding the quality of each page. Somehow I get to enjoy the human moments of the story while still revelling in the ninjas-vs-secret agents-vs-kung fu action.

This in the gritty streetlight of the Brubaker/Bendis-crafted Marvel grime-and-crime genre, which means they took all the tropes and filled them with characters who think and feel like real people. The art is as naturalistic as it’s possible to be with characters who leap across rooftops and have magic kung fu, to emphasize the realism of everything that’s going on. Stories include things like hostile takeovers and lawsuits in modern comics, which is a great challenge to throw at rich characters like Batman, Iron Man or Iron Fist, if only to break the illusion that lots of money makes a person invulnerable. This is great, because when a character runs into something over the top, like a magic book of secrets, it has even more gravitas because of the contrast with the still-exciting-and-believable mundane challenges. It’s the kind of story Marvel has been telling for a few years now, and I’m still a big fan of the style.

I think it’s a success, and I’ll give it a solid 3.9 out of 5 on my scale, which includes classics like Watchmen as a comparison: it made me like a character I normally wouldn’t have gone near; it made me want to get the next in the story; it was entertaining. I genuinely mean that last part, so if you are looking for something new, pick it up. Heck, if you just love martial arts, or spies, or good writing, it’s a good book. It’s a fantastic example of what a regular run comic should be.

The Review #1: Camelot 3000

I'm a very lucky person because I not only love comics, I am loved by people with access to comics who like giving me things. Christmas rolled around, and my best man/brother-in-law Andrew Burns (of biffbampop.com) was kind enough to bestow upon me the gift of a hardcover trade paperback. The two of us have a habit of reading comics and taking them apart as a work of art, analyzing and rediscovering the artist's work after reading and re-reading a particular book. Some serious opinions are formed as, admittedly, very different books strike us in very different ways; I don't know that we'll ever agree on anything per se, except that there is a mutual passion for what's often called "geek culture", and that a gift of a book/trade/movie/etc. can be a very dangerous thing.

Now, I don't know that he'd read it on his own, but I decided to make this the first offering of my blog's ongoing pop-culture series "The Review". I'd like to dedicate it to Andrew, for the gift; and to my wife, who'd prefer I shut up about this stuff and write a blog already.

Camelot 3000 by Mike W. Barr and Brian Bolland

This book is a classic that everyone should get a copy of, and I mean that as a very demanding comics-reader. The only aspect I didn’t like was that it ended too quickly, read: that it wasn’t a few thousand pages longer. The art is classic and clean, and over the course of the book you get to know enough about every character to believe they are real just enough that what happens to them affects you. Not only that but it is for its time groundbreaking work for character creation and development, in the way Green lantern/Green arrow tackled social issues like heroin addiction. All of it is set in the future and starring some of literature-past’s greatest characters, wielding ray guns and swords against the alien hordes of Morgan LeFey. Okay, that sounds hokey and unlikely, but it really is comics at its best.

The story begins with Earth invaded by aliens in the year 3000. England in particular is under attack, the people killed or escaping to France. In Britain’s hour of need we see young Tom, a local teen running from a group of aliens, stumble across the tomb of Arthur and waking the once and future king. Arthur takes up the cause and they find Merlin, who wakes up the spirits of the other knights of the round table in their reincarnated bodies here in the future. The catch is that the bodies they’ve woken up in have their own lives in the year 3000, some very different from those they knew in the past.

One of the many gems of this story is the dilemma of Sir Tristan, a manly knight in the body of a beautiful woman. This is in fact the earliest story I can think of sympathetically exploring the question of gender identity. Tristan rails against the situation, proclaiming that “I’m a man, I just have the body of a woman”. This came out in 1983, so while now we have characters like Batwoman as active homosexuals, we have never had a character whose major motivation was shame over their gender and from that a desire to have a sex change operation. Maybe the topic wouldn’t be as well accepted if the women involved weren’t drawn for comics. Perhaps this isn’t your personal cup of tea. It doesn’t devolve into a righteous soap box, however, and the development of this particular character keeps the dramatic tension high.

The struggle for identity in a strange world is what challenges all the characters, more so than a mere alien invasion. The characters are living history suddenly finding themselves in different bodies and in a world that has left them behind. Each of the knights is trying to play by the old rules which, they find, no longer apply: the love triangle between Arthur, Guinevere and Sir Lancelot is still there, but complicated by the fact that Arthur and Guinevere are no longer married, until, that is, Arthur uses his royal right to chose his own bride…

The author, Mike W. Barr, uses the actual stories from the Arthur myth as a firm foundation to build upon. Throughout the story we are referred to events in the old days, including the love triangle of the king, his queen and his best knight Lancelot, the Grail quest, and other familiar stories. These motivate the story, but don’t eclipse the here and now: we see the characters have escaped to burdens of earlier restrictions, such as Guinevere’s marriage to Arthur preventing her love of Lancelot, which the author and artist exploit well by showing Arthur’s alienation: now he has nothing to fall back on, no law of the land, no marriage, and still not her love. Even better, Barr builds up more tension from this dilemma, crafting a new tale that makes perfect sense, given the circumstances. This is just one example, and to his credit Barr takes the time to develop all his cast of characters and their sub-plots, no matter how small. The stories show just how human, how frail and vulnerable, each of these characters is. Considering the limited space of even a Maxi-series, I’m amazed at how well this worked out.

I can’t leave without making a big deal about Brian Bolland’s artwork. It is phenomenal, and takes attention to detail and precise technique and makes them fun to look at. It’s an older style, and the coloring is certainly from the ‘80s, but I genuinely think it holds up. He has knights with swords wearing a laser-gun in a holster on their hips, and makes it look natural. The sketchbook material at the back allows great insight into some aspects of his creative process, and that was a treat. Really, even if you are unable to have fun while reading a comic book, the art technique itself is just plain well done and Bolland conveys a lot more than one might imagine from just reading words on a page.

I give it 4.5 out of 5 stars, and I firmly place it on the list of should-reads. The historical significance of this book on comics history, the quality of the art, and how well it worked out as a project are too good an example of how to do a comic book to pass up. I took off the half-of-a-mark because if this is a perfect comic book then I’ve found it and have to stop… and I’m not ready to do that just yet. Seriously, though, it is hard to nit-pick on this one, as Barr keeps the pace up and doesn’t rush. I personally like more twists and turns in a plot, and a good side-swipe in the plot is a must for a full mark, but everything else plus the historical context really did it for me. Also, I don't think a hidden reveal plot twist would really work for this story, simple because one of its tasks was to take the myths we already know and replay them in the future, while resolving the unhappy parts in this new version. Also, I just like space and fantasy, and this is a phenomenal example.