A common issue with a lot of Jonathan Hickman’s early work is the sense that he’s not so much exploring the ideas and implications of his fiction as he’s gesturing towards them. This is certainly an issue with many an early writer, but it’s more pronounced with Hickman. And nowhere is this more pronounced than in Red Mass for Mars. The plot is a rather straight forward tale of “Alien invaders are coming to conquer the Earth, boo-hoo we’re all going to die. Wait! The superheroes will save us!” that you’ve seen time and time again. Thin plots can work wonders for exploring ideas. [Read more…] about Hickmania 4.1: A Red Mass For Mars Review!
Marvel Then! Secret Avengers – The Symbolic Value of Superhero Iconography in Relation to the World
On May 6, 2015, the Marvel Universe came to an abrupt and dissatisfying end. There were a number of reasons for its ending (some of which require understanding the mystical implications of Donald Trump deciding to run for President of the United States), but one of them must be understood through the context of a work which concluded exactly one week prior. A book about destroying the universe and replacing it with a better one. I am, of course, talking about Aleš Kot and Michael Walsh’s Secret Avengers.
Ed Brubaker and Mike Deodata created The Secret Avengers as a black ops team of superheroes who would take on missions that the world must never know happened. Described as more of an action based book rather than a character one, inspiration for this book is often cited as Jim Sterenko’s SHIELD work. Other runs include work by Nick Spencer, Warren Ellis, and Rick Remender, who took the spy craft nature of the concept in different directions. Kot, meanwhile, had their own ideas. [Read more…] about Marvel Then! Secret Avengers – The Symbolic Value of Superhero Iconography in Relation to the World
You Can (Not) Parallax: A Case for Heroes in Crisis
The first thing we must address regarding Heroes in Crisis is that it is a ruin. It’s a six issue miniseries stretched out into nine issues, and it shows. There are several points in the narrative where it’s clear that the wheels are spinning, everyone’s just waiting to get to the bit where Wally West confesses everything. I’m tempted to argue that the series would have been better suited for a more Columbo-esque structure where the reader is aware of who did it and the rest of the series is spent finding out why, rather than having that why provided over the course of an issue long monologue.
But, as with all ruins, what doesn’t work, what caused the ruin, is often the least interesting part. What’s more interesting, however, is what a ruin can show us. What we can find within the ruin that shows us what it could have been. Not that it was secretly good (though I’m quite aware that some are invested in that project), but rather what hidden depths can be found by taking what’s there seriously. [Read more…] about You Can (Not) Parallax: A Case for Heroes in Crisis
Better Than Stranger Things: Proctor Valley Road Review!
Horror Cinema is rarely kind to the people who make it.
The genre is often seen as a lower artform of ill repute where those who make it, at best, get a reputation for three films while their larger work is ignored as garbage. The best case scenario for many a horror filmmaker is to remake the same film over and over again for a quickly dwindling audience. Even filmmakers like John Carpenter or George Romero are left scrambling for budgets because no one wants to support their endeavors.
But perhaps the filmmaker most hurt by this reputation and systemic failure is Tobe Hooper. For many people, Hooper is the madman who did The Texas Chain Saw Massacre and then nothing else because he was too much of a wild card to actually make a real movie. Some might see him as the guy credited for Steven Spielberg’s Poltergeist. Both of these are largely inaccurate claims to make about Hooper that only limit his range as a filmmaker. [Read more…] about Better Than Stranger Things: Proctor Valley Road Review!
The World That’s Coming: OMAC by Jack Kirby
They say that the 60s ended when the Manson family killed a couple of celebrities. They say a lot of things that aren’t true. Certainly, the moment in history was one of horror and brutality that would come to define a lot of what was to follow. But the 60s were long dead by the time the Manson family entered 10500 Cielo Drive. One could more sensibly argue that the 60’s ended in May of 1968, when the youth movement of France was brutally slaughtered by the police, ending the young generation. You could also argue that it ended in 1969, but not with Manson’s family killing Sharon Tate, but with Ronald Regan ordering troops to open fire upon hippies at a public park. Or perhaps it died with Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X.
The New Gods experiment was, in many ways, an attempt by Jack Kirby to keep the dream of the 60s alive and well into the 70s. That the core of this dream came in the form of The Forever People, the first of Kirby’s series to get canceled, speaks to how many people had faith in the dream. OMAC
, in many regards, is Kirby reckoning with the 70s. And it’s a bleak picture.
But it’s not bleak enough. [Read more…] about The World That’s Coming: OMAC by Jack Kirby