Lil’ Jesus: Zeno’s Dead

This is the third Lil’ Jesus comic, and probably the last for a while.  If I have time in the future I might do more, the Infancy Gospels are filled with further adventures of the divine tyke.

Lil’ Jesus: Easy as A…

The adventures of Lil’ Jesus continue…

Lil’ Jesus: The Infancy Gospel of Thomas 3.1

I came across the Infancy Gospel of Thomas for the first time a few weeks ago and it inspired me to produce this little piece of Calvin and Hobbes-esque blasphemy.  I’ve done three strips so far, I’ll post them over the next few days…

Black Panther: A Review

I grew up on X-Men, and spent last year addicted to The Justice League, so I’m a major fan of cartoon superheroes. Hence I was surprised that I hadn’t heard about of Marvel’s adaptation of their Black Panther until Arturo R. García at Racialicious posted earlier in the week wondering why it hadn’t aired in the US yet.  For a bit of background, BET, or Black Entertainment Television, is an American channel whose programs are aimed at an African-American demographic, and Black Panther, dating from an era when every almost black character had to have their origins signaled in their name, is one of the first African superheroes to show up in mainstream comics, and therefore an obvious choice for them to adapt into cartoon form.  Not so obvious was the choice to premier it recently here in Australia on a channel called ABC3 which I didn’t even realise existed until this week.  Luckily, shadowgostra has the whole six episode miniseries on his youtube channel, so I was able to watch it; here follows my spoiler filled review.

The first thing that struck me  was the animation.  A lot of people have commented on how it looks like a motion comic:  The animators have taken drawings by the excellent John Romita Junior and tweaked them, apparently using a program something like Flash, so that mostly static drawings come to life, talking, fighting, leaping from buildings, et cetera. At first the effect is disconcerting, especially if you were expecting something like the slick Bruce Timm produced DC cartoons, but the effect grew on me.  It gives the series an extremely distinctive style, and for the most part the format doesn’t constrain the action, which is tense and fluid.  Remember that many of Japanese anime’s distinctive features were developed in response to low budgets and short deadlines, and Western animation is now imitating these very idiosyncrasies.

After the animation, and the very cool theme tune (glitchy, high-octane mbube), the next thing that sticks out is how adult the whole thing is, which is possibly part of the reason why it hasn’t aired in the US.  The Black Panther is the king of a fictional African nation called Wakanda, and the plot (based largely on a recent comic arc by Reginald Hudlin) centres on the machinations of the US, led by Condoleeza Rice-alike Dondi Reese, and Belgian super-mercenary Klaw, as they try to plunder Wakanda’s mineral and technological wealth.  From the get-go, this involves a great deal of violence: the first minute has invaders being speared, beheaded and their heads staked in the ground.  The Black Panther is a satisfyingly baddass, righteous crusader, but unlike most cartoon heroes, he doesn’t scruple to kill when necessary, and spends most of the series seeking bloody revenge against the man who killed his father.

So fine, kids are used to violence these days; what might be more awkward for parents watching it with them is the scene in which a pair of villains visit a brothel, where the girls have apparently seen Pretty Woman as they “don’t kiss”.  Hmm.  Then there’s the politics of the show; heavy handed attacks on former colonial powers – Britain, America, Belgium, and France –  and corrupt African leaders -in the guise of President Mbutu of Wakanda’s neighbour Niganda. The villains are unprincipled racists, from the US general who calls the Wakandans “spear-throwing savages”, to the Vatican-sponsored Black Knight who declared God is helping him bring Christianity to pagan Africa, to the Russian Radioactive Man who calls the Black Panther’s sister a monkey (just before she slices him in two satisfying pieces).

Now, this is a genre show, and complaining about heavy handed writing in a superhero cartoon is like complaining about faster than light travel in sci-fi; I enjoyed the world of Black Panther, politics and all.  They’ve created an ‘ideal’ Africa, one that can look down on the materialism and sordid history of the West, and fight back on its own terms, and the conceit works. But I’m significantly to the left of most Americans, and I wonder how it will go down when/if it does finally air in its home country.  One of the major plot points involves the American military recycling its mounting war dead as cyborg zombies, complete with a scene of them rising from flag-draped coffins.  From what I know of American patriotism I predict this will not go down well.

So if you’re a comic loving leftie you may well love it, even if your knowledge of the Black Panther is as minimal as mine.  It’s a fresh look at the Marvel universe (Storm actually has an African accent for once), and after six episodes I’m still hungry for more.  If you don’t like comics, or lean to the right, you probably won’t like it, but in either case you should probably rethink your life. (J/K)

I award Black Panther 7.5 retractable claws out of ten.

Iron Man Review- Is it awesome?

About a week ago I got a call from my friend who works at Greater Union cinemas, asking me if I wanted to see the premier of the new Iron Man film. I said yes (followed by about 20 exclamation marks). I should probably start this review off with a confession- I love comics. I love superheroes. And I love films based on superheroes.

Only problem is that most superhero films are, basically, crap. They’re guilty pleasures for me- Spiderman was okay, The Hulk was interesting, X-Men started well but nose-dived at 3- the problem is that when it comes to live action, it’s hard to avoid something that looks like a big budget version of Power Rangers. In my opinion, the most successful adaptations have been animated- The Incredibles and Bruce Timm’s Batman and Justice League series and- wait, before I get into my uber geeky dissection of the film I should tell you it’s awesome. Probably the best live action superhero film I’ve ever seen, and my friend (not a comics fan, although she has been known to enjoy a bit of R Crumb) loved it too.

Why was it the best? It’s partly the concept- the idea of a superhero in a robotic suit is more plausible than gamma rays and spider bites and kids from Krypton, and translates beautifully on the screen, the visuals inspired by the very excellent art of Adi Granov. The special effects are fantastic, with action scenes that reminded me of the awesomeness (expect a lot of that word, I had a big weekend and I’m running on caffeine) of Transformers and the Terminator films.

But unlike those blockbusters, this film has both a heart and a brain. Iron Man was originally written in 1963, the year that America entered the Vietnam War; as Tony Stark he was a millionaire playboy, inventor and arms dealer who created his suit after being captured by the Viet Cong during a weapons test. In 2008, with America is embroiled in the eighth year of a war many are comparing to Vietnam, this film has a very contemporary subtext.

Superheroes are an especially American mythology, combining that nation’s superpower status with its earnest desire to do good; Iron Man turns what was a straightforward comic about one man battling the Red Menace into a surprisingly nuanced meditation on the arms industry and the great responsibility that comes with great power. Stark is a lone dreamer in the mould of Thomas Edison, whose idealistic genius is contrasted with the amoral corporation which sells weapons to terrorists behind his back. He represents the American interventionist dream, fighting only to save lives and undo his past wrongs, using über-advanced computer targeting to take out hostage-grabbing villains with their guns to children’s heads; but living in the shadow of the nuclear bomb his father created.

But if that’s not your thing, don’t worry, the film never bashes you over the head with its point, and there’s plenty else to enjoy

If you’re a geek like me you’ll love the references to SHIELD (no Samuel L Jackson Nick Fury unfortunately), an appearance by the butler Jarvis as a computerised voice, the Moneypenny-esque tension between Pepper Pots and her boss- a little love story that walks the line between too much and too little very nicely, the cover story involving Iron Man as Tony Stark’s bodyguard, and a cameo by Stan Lee, without which no Marvel adaptation would be complete. (And I may have seen Condoleeza Rice in the background in a ballroom scene, but that can’t be right, can it…?)

For non-geeks, the plotting is tight, the pace is gripping and cast is… um, awesome. Robert Downey Jr puts his charisma to good use in the title role, alternately as a loose-living playboy with foreshades of alcoholism and a brooding hero out to do good while he still can. In several scenes he convincingly delivers dialogue to robotic arms, which is something of a feat. Gwyneth Paltrow is a nice counterpoint as Pepper Potts- haven’t seen her in anything in a while, but she gets some of the best scenes, and avoids being the token Love Interest for the most part. Jeff Bridges, The Dude from The Big Lebowski, is miles away from that role, but makes a great villain.

I was going to attempt a deconstruction of the themes in the film, but I think it’s getting too late for that, and they’re not too hard to spot. So I’ll just give you my final thought and rating.

FINAL THOUGHT

I’m not much of an Iron Man expert- I knew him mainly from The Ultimates- but I’ve taken advantage of my Marvel Online subscription in the last few hours to read the first dozen or so comics with him in them, and the film is very faithful to them- updating the action from Vietnam to Afghanistan, of course, even reproducing the original hulking, grey armour as Iron Man Mark I. Unless director Jon Favreau was lying to me, the screening here in Sydney which I just got back from was one of the first in the world; and I think there’s something fitting given the similarities between Iron Man and Australia’s favourite outlaw, Ned Kelly.

Iron Man and Ned Kelly- Separated at Birth?

RATING: 9/10

Being in the same theatre as Robert Downey Jr, Naomi Watts and Rove McManus is probably responsible for some of my gushing, but I’m hard pressed to think how this film could have been better, something that is very rare for me. I’m happy that I finally have a live-action superhero movie which delivers on all levels. If the public at large loved it half as much as I did, I’ll still love it twice as much. And I’ll be able to look forward to a sequel.