Bestiary Alphabetum

A reblog here of a gorgeous piece of work by artist Nathan Sanderson. Bestiary Alphabetum is an A to Z of mythical monsters, illustrated beautifully (and horrifyingly). I've long had a mind to get some talented types to join me in creating something similar. There are even some creatures here that I was unfamiliar with, which doesn't happen too often. Wonderful stuff.

REVIEW: Fantastic Four

I wanted to like this film, I really did. I was highly suspicious of the idea of a dark, gritty, realistic take on the Fantastic Four, the most colourful and inoffensive of the Silver Age comic book heroes. Yes, they faced monstrous threats, and yes, there were tragic elements – Ben Grimm's self-loathing due to his transformation, most notably – but it was essentially cosmic fun in primary colours. So getting Josh Trank to make a dark sci-fi film based on the property did not appeal to me. But then... I read about the production, Trank's vision for the project, saw the trailer which promised a genuinely different look at the franchise. I was ready to enjoy a completely different Fantastic Four. Then the reviews started coming in, and I wanted to enjoy it all the more, because everyone else said that I shouldn't. Unfortunately...


Fantastic Four is a failure. A qualified failure, to be sure, but a failure nonetheless. It's a real pity, because there seems to be a decent film buried in there somewhere. Trank has taken to social media to defend himself, suggesting that the studio hacked the film to pieces, and I can readily believe that. There's clearly a massive chunk of the film missing; as other critics have pointed out, it seems to entirely lack a second act. Or perhaps the second act is there, but the third act was that incoherent last fifteen minutes. I don't know; the whole film is so lopsided it's hard to tell. Nonetheless, Trank cannot be without fault here. The film is grey, slow and uninteresting for far too much of its truncated runtime. The cast, all of whom are perfectly excellent actors, lack the material to show this, and are severely lacking in chemistry. At no point did Sue and Johnny come across as brother and sister, there was no spark between Sue and Reed, supposedly set to one day fall hopelessly in love, and nothing made me believe that Ben would risk his life at a moment's notice for his childhood friend.


The relationships of the Four are the foundation of the comics' appeal. They are a family, joined by blood, marriage, friendship and trust. It's a great idea to see the early days of these relationships, the foundation of this family, but there's really very little sense that this is what we're seeing here. Even the childhood meeting of Ben and Reed, both troubled in different ways and unappreciated by their families, sets this up well but is carried forward poorly. There's no substance to these relationships. The only character who really does anything to hold the dynamic together is Reg E. Cathey as Dr. Franklin Storm, who convinces as a father, or father figure, for Sue, Johnny and Reed, and to a lesser extent, Victor (of whom more later). If it wasn't for his classy performance, it'd be hard to buy into anything we saw these kids accomplish.


Some fans have taken exception to the choice to have much younger versions of the Four than in the original comics, based more closely on the Ultimate Fantastic Four series that retold the characters' origins in a more modern setting. Personally, I feel this works, or at least could work, particularly the updating of their roles as interdimensional explorers, rather than astronauts, which feels very much of its time. However, it's no surprise that the film came out so depressing and dreary. The Ultimate comics line started off as an updated take on a classic romp, and ended up as pretentiously grimdark as Watchmen fan fiction. Aside from a handful of genuinely funny asides, this film is an utterly joyless.


There are elements there that are clear steps in the right direction. Reed is an astonishingly advanced child, far more intelligent than anyone else in his school (admittedly not saying much, considering how breathtakingly stupid the staff there are). As an adult, he's enthusiastic but emotionally illiterate, yet compassionate. Johnny is intelligent and capable but at risk of letting his more anarchic, fun-loving tendencies take over his life. Those are the right traits for these characters. On the other hand, Ben displays very little character once he's grown up, until he is transformed into a CGI behemoth. What a waste of Jamie Bell. Sue is at least characterised as a scientist, contributing to the mission, which is a step up on previous portrayals, but she is also lacking in character, and for Pete's sake, they don't even take her on the mission. I'll say that again: Sue Storm is not included on the mission of discovery that creates the Fantastic Four. Apparently it's a boys only club, since Victor von Doom goes in her place. She gets zapped with powers anyway, but for crying out loud.


There are some very odd decisions in the script, as well. Making Sue a Kosovan orphan, giving Ben an abusive older brother (and forever sullying his catchphrase in the process), making Doom an aggressive emo IT guy. Just really bizarre story choices. At least the purported hacktivist backstory got dropped in production, but how can they get Doom so wrong again? He's really a very simple character. He wants three things: to rule the world and remake it as he sees fit, to prove he's better than Reed, and to win Sue's affections. Simple, easily explainable character traits. How can they get someone as good as Toby Kebbell and lumber him with such a waste of a character, eventually reducing to nothing more than an angry superbeing who wants the destroy the Earth for some ill-defined reason. Possibly revenge, possibly general lunacy, possibly something to do with his political beliefs that really doesn't make any sense. I'm not sure, the last battle was so rushed I lost the plot completely.


Trank intended to make this film a tribute of sorts to the work of David Cronenberg. As a big Cronenberg fan, I was entirely up for this; the Four's transformations are potentially horrifying and it would logically be a nightmarish experience before they got used to them. There's so much material for Ben, in particular, that would benefit from that approach. Apart from some visual nods to such Cronenberg classics as Scanners and The Fly, this approach is clearest in the mutations of the Four after their first catastrophic mission. Even this is woefully underexplored, though. There's clearly so much more material with the Four learning to accept and use their abilities that was excised to get this down to TV movie length. It's a shame, because a lot of what we do see is visually fantastic. Johnny truly is a Human Torch, the fire burning from within his body, while at last the Thing truly looks like a man of rock. Although, god, give him some pants. I have no desire to see the Thing's thing, but being confronted by its absence is almost worse. No wonder he's so angry at Reed. The mission to the other dimension is also visually interesting. Doom goes and pokes a river of what is seemingly some kind of living energy – having seemingly been trained by the Prometheus school of science – causing all the chaos in the first place, but this too is barely explored beyond the cool visuals. This strange otherplace is named Planet Zero, not the Negative Zone as in the comics. Perhaps it is so called because it is, in fact, the zero point between the positive universe as the Negative Zone? Or possibly it's called Zero because there's virtually nothing there. Where the hell's Annihilus when you need him?


After the overblown, chaotic ending, the Four appear to have bonded into a super-team, although there is no sense that they've earned this camaraderie or even really learned to work that well together. No one addresses that Ben has been killing people on behalf of the US military, that Johnny was keen to join him, or that several quite important characters have been killed off. Everyone seems to have forgotten the various betrayals of trust that led them to the situation they are now in. We cut to credits, after which there was a surprising lack of any extra scene or teaser. But then, they probably realised they weren't getting a sequel. Although not unwatchable, and featuring some interesting ideas, this is a grey, dreary take on what was once an exciting property. This should have felt like a rival to Guardians of the Galaxy, not The Dark Knight's embarrassing younger brother. The 2005 film wasn't great, but at least it was fun.



More grim than Grimm, this was a missed opportunity. 

Penguin-style Doctor Who Covers

Just a gorgeous idea for a Tumblr blog.

http://doctorwhopenguin.tumblr.com/

Not to be confused with penguin-style Doctor Who companions, because that would be Frobisher.

REVIEW: Supergirl - pilot episode

So, it's been long enough now since the pilot episode of this series was shown at ComicCon and subsequently leaked onto the internet for me to download it, watch it and give my opinion. I won't post details of how to illegally download it, but it's not exactly difficult to find. Following the previous leak of the extended promo for the series, there's not much left to spoil. That was the shorter cut of this episode, designed to sell the show to the top brass, and frankly it's hard to believe that these leaks are anything other than deliberate PR moves. Anyway, we know when WB haven't planned a leak, because they get pissy about it.


Before watching this, I finally got round to watching The Flash, the CW's second superhero show after Arrow. While Arrow left me a little cold, The Flash was a joy from start to finish, and it's gratifying that two series with such different approaches to their genre can co-exist and crossover. Supergirl, while not a CW series, is, like Arrow and The Flash, the creation of Greg Berlanti and Andrew Kreisberg, so hopes are high. Judging by the first episode, Supergirl is going to follow the formula and feel of The Flash more than anything, embracing the silliness and straightforward heroics of its source material and the sheer fun of the comicbook world. Some turned their noses up at the promo version, due to its focus on the day-to-day working girl life of Kara Danvers, our heroine. Yes, it's all very Devil Wears Prada and that sort of thing, but really, what's the problem with that? The objections to the approach were basically as follows:


“This is a girls' series!” So what? There are plenty of “boys' series” around featuring superheroes, and frankly, while plenty of women enjoy those, there's certainly room for a show that is directed more at female viewers. And anyway, just because a programme is designed for girls, doesn't mean boys can't enjoy it.


“It's sexist.” Nonsense. I can understand this opinion, of course; the idea that a female superhero should be worrying about her bitchy boss and swooning at boys could come across as very sexist. However, it's really not very different to how Clark Kent or Barry Allen spend their personal and office hours. As for Kara spending a great deal of time picking out her outfit: the look's important, and have you seen how much the Flash or Iron Man worry about their look in the field? More than Supergirl, I can tell you. Also, while we're on the subject, the costume is spot-on, and extra marks for explicitly dismissing an extra-revealing sexed-up version during the episode.


“There's not enough superhero stuff.” A fair point, concerning the promo, but the episode as cut for broadcast gets the balance exactly right. After a prologue designed to set up the show's mythology, with a young Kara sent to Earth from the dying Krypton (told with great economy and clarity), some time is spent dealing with the now adult Kara's personal and working life. There's some to-ing and fro-ing between her and her sister, Alex, concerning whether she should use her powers or hide them for her own safety. At about the halfway mark, it's decided: of course she should use her flippin' powers! Get the best friend on board, design an outfit, and go out saving people.


This approach is just right, balancing the necessary origins and development with the need to get this show underway and having fun. It's fast-paced, and while this does necessitate some clunky exposition – a genre-wide failing – it means we're straight on the way to having fun. The promo is basically just the pilot's first half, and while Kara's ordinary girl life is clearly going to continue to be the backbone of the series, her heroic efforts are at the forefront of storytelling. It also looks fantastic, with effects on a par with The Flash, currently the series to beat when it comes to televisuals. Kara's first “mission,” the rescue of a crashing plane, looks as good as anything seen in superhero cinema, and the montage of mini-missions sets up her character and role in the series with ease and style.


The leading lady, Melissa Benoist, is charmingly awkward as Kara, imposingly heroic as Supergirl, and utterly captivating as both. She's also, pleasantly, not absolutely tiny; very slim, by any measure, but tall enough and broad-shouldered enough to convince as a powerful woman who can land a punch on an alien. Standing out among her co-stars is Mehcad Brooks, as James Olson. After years of somewhat nebbishy Jimmy Olsons, this older, sexier, more assured version of the character is a breath of fresh air. He's the one who is confident in the world of superheroics and what it entails, and is someone for Kara to look up to. It took me a little longer to warm to Chyler Leigh and Jeremy Jordan, but by the end of the episode they'd been cemented as fine members of the core cast. Leigh is Alex Danvers, and while it seemed they were setting up an unnecessarily antagonistic relationship between the sisters, resolving this and having her as Kara's contact in the series version of the MiB makes sense, if being a rather convenient bit of plotting. Jordan is Winn Schott, who gets the obligatory friendzone role, and also has the potential to become a villain somewhere along the line for those who know the mythology (more shades of The Flash series there).


David Harewood is perfectly fine and imposing as Hank Henshaw, leader of the alien hunting organisation, but his character is lazily written. He's a simple cypher, a continually abrupt and aggressive boss, who “doesn't trust aliens” and has no other character traits. Hopefully he'll be developed somewhat before his own inevitable turn to villainy. Calista Flockhart isn't particularly good as Kara's boss, the uber-bitchy Cat Grant, but again, she doesn't have much to work with. She just has to stalk her office putting people down. Again, with some actual character development, she might be something. Of the other cast, this episode's minor villain, Vardox, was broadly but entertainingly portrayed by The Mentalist's Owain Yeoman. Even though he does appear to be half-Klingon as portrayed here. Casting Dean Cain and Helen Slater as Kara's adoptive parents is a nice touch, too, continuing a long tradition of recasting stars from Superman and Supergirl productions in small roles alongside their successors.


One problem with the set-up is the big, Superman-shaped shadow cast over it. Throughout the episode we are reminded that Kara is Clark's cousin, and that the Big S is watching over her, this world's number one – maybe only - hero. Unable to properly show the character, he's a vague presence that is unable to fully be resolved in the story. If the series continues to take this approach, viewers are going to wonder where he is and why he isn't actually stepping in to help his cousin deal with increasingly powerful threats. That's another issue: supposedly, a prison ship from the Phantom Zone crashed on Earth ten years ago, and its various escapees have been lying low ever since. While this will keep the series in baddies for the foreseeable, it's very hard to swallow that all these aliens have been keeping quiet and successfully hidden on Earth all this time, especially if most of them are as absurdly aggressive as Vartox.


There's also the question of how this series will tie into other productions. Understandably, its creators are interested in crossing it over with their other shows, and while they're on different networks, ownership issues aren't relevant (CBS co-owns the CW). Something could be worked out, but Supergirl doesn't seem to be part of the Arrowverse, where there are now many, many superheroes, nor do the Arrow and the Flash appear to live in a world protected by Superman. It's also certainly not tied into the current movie version of Superman, with the DC movies seemingly kept very much separate to anything on TV. While I'd love to see a crossover as much as the next geek, it shouldn't be at the cost of maintaining some level of story plausibility.



While there's some definite room for improvement on Supergirl, it's hard to think of a pilot episode that couldn't be said of. With some development of certain characters, and so long as they don't rely on alien-of-the-week for too long, this show could really be something. Great fun, with some real potential. Series proper starts in October. 

Comics Round-Up: August (1)

Tail end of July's releases, with actual August issues to follow. They do keep insisting on publishing cool stuff.

Bombshells #1 (DC)

Considering that this is based on a line of cheesecake statues and posters, it's actually a very strong piece of work. Created by the two Marguerites - writer Bennett and artist Sauvage - this is a feminist take on superheroes, set in a version of the DC world where the first heroes were female. It's clever, taking the anomalous time of WWII as its starting point, where many men were away fighting and women took over their roles in much of society. So Kate Kane is not only Batwoman, she's a batwoman, playing in the Women's Baseball League in the day and fighting crime at night. Her relationship with detective Maggie Sawyer is explored and their views on women in the War, although there's only so much depth it can go into in a single issue. Sauvage's artwork is simply gorgeous. Oh, and Bennett is cheeky enough to have Batwoman swoop in and save the Waynes from the gunman, forever placing her ahead of the grim, cowled one. This is available for download already, for only 69p, with the print run starting mid-August. With more DC heroes to follow in future issues, it's a must.

Ghostbusters: Get Real #2 (IDW)

There's not a great deal of incident here, it's mostly just enjoying the concept and the interaction between the different versions of the characters. Which is just wonderful in itself, really. I tried to explain how wonderful this series was to a friend, who said that of course she watched the Ghostbusters cartoon. After a little confusion, because she really can't be old enough to have seen that, it turns out she watched Extreme Ghostbusters; luckily enough, they appear in this issue, as the god Proteus storms multiple realities with multiple version of the GB team. Pretty much my favourite thing in the world right now.

Lobster Johnson: A Chain Forged in Life (Dark Horse)

Getting the obvious out of the way first: why on Earth do we have a Christmas special in July? With that anomaly aired, this is a good slice of grim noir with the worst of mankind. Troy Nixey's artwork somehow manages to make humans more revolting than any manner of hellbeast. Hellboy in Hell starts up again this summer; until then, this is a fine one-shot.

Mistry, PI #1 (Graphic India)

My random "this looks interesting" pick-up for the month. This is a sort-of Brahman BPRD, set in the streets of Mumbai in a world full of arcane mysteries and inhuman spirits. Ashwin Pande writes, but it's Arjuna Susini's horrifying yet captivating artwork that got my attention and convinced me to take a chance. Paranormal Investigator goes up against demonic forces and hideous monsters (including a truly unpleasant man-spider), with the help of Amos, who is none other than the original Golem of Prague. It has a definite Hellboy vibe but still feels very much its own beast. Some more Indian flavour to the mystical goings-on would be interesting, though.

Avengers Universe #15 (Marvel/Panini)

UK reprints are a great thing to have at a time when the current direction at Marvel is leaving me cold. This issue includes Mighty Avengers  #10-11 and Young Avengers #10-11. Both are far more fun than the actual Avengers run of the time, which means next month will possibly see me jumping off. Mighty sees Luke Cage grilling his father over untold stories, leading to a cool 1970s flashback. (Comicbook chronology never holds water. As with the young Bruce Wayne being saved in 1940s above, in spite of Batman debuting in 1939, here we have Cage's dad as a young man in the same period he made his first appearance.) Shaft-style Blade is awesome, and I'm referring to him as "Spork" from now on. The Bear is better though; a deadly female entity who I can only read with the voice of Jessica Walter for some reason. Young is a very talky instalment, which happens with Gillen from time to time, but is setting up some big things for Kid Loki that bear waiting for. So... yeah, one more issue.

Doctor Who Magazine #489 (Panini)

A new story, "Spirits of the Jungle," starts this month. Jonathan Morris always provides strong, enjoyable adventures, but it's the artwork that makes this one stand out so far. John Ross, who I believe has done work for the Doctor Who Adventures comics for younger fans, has a fun, characterful style and captures the twelfth Doctor very well. It's a straightforward start to a story but looks like it might be going somewhere quite interesting.