Happy Black Friday! This is usually a throwaway post, because none of y’all are at work, so you don’t need a distraction. That said, I have a streak to maintain, so here’s your mini post. Yup, in true Black Friday tradition, I’m about to disappoint you with something that didn’t turn out like it was advertised!
I haven’t watched a ton that you don’t already know about. I’m gearing up for Sunday’s season finale of The Chair Company on HBO. I’m glad it got picked up for a second season, but I was sort of hoping it was just a miniseries. I mean, how long are they gonna drag out this concept? Plus, I’m beginning to see the downside of my Tim Robinson marathon from last month, as I keep confusing events from The Chair Company with events from Friendship. I’m not sure if anyone noticed, but there’s a running joke in both that he keeps losing/destroying his cell phones. It happened this week, and I was like “Oh, he’s gonna have to visit that guy who got him high on the toad venom!” Nope. That was Friendship. Anyway, excited to see how the season wraps up.
I know all the “Cool Kids” love to talk about how The Simpsons sucks, but I still love it. While a bit late (I guess we can blame the animation timeline), this week’s episode, “The Day of the Jack-Up”, was an homage to M. Night Shyamalan’s Trap, and it was really good. They even managed to get some ridicule in there for K-pop groups and the Vegas Sphere. Either way, I like how the first 20 years of the show were basically “Bart’s a fun screw-up, but he’s got no future”, but they’ve since pivoted to more of a “Bart’s way more intelligent than he wants you to think, and we’re in trouble if that isn’t channeled into something positive.” This episode dealt with the latter, and it’s worth checking out if you’ve got Hulu.
Run The Numbers
I’m slowly chipping away at the comic and book count, but we’re coming down to the wire! I’ve really got to stop reading trade paperbacks at this point, as that goal has long been met. Still, we’re gonna talk about 2 of those today, as well as a comic.
First up, I read 1776 #1 by Marvel, and I have no clue why this miniseries was approved. A lot of folks don’t realize that Marvel has a Custom Projects division, and they’re the ones who organize collaborations with brands, such as the NHL and MLB, and the division was behind the controversial convention-exclusive Northrop Grumman comic. Well, 1776 is a mass market miniseries, with a prominent writer in J. Michael Straczynski, but this feels like a collaboration between Marvel and a big city history museum. Maybe not any museum in New York, but perhaps Boston or Providence. Somewhere that makes you think “Colonies”. It’s so bad in so many ways that “education” is really the only justifiable reason for its existence.
Similar to 2003’s Neil Gaiman-penned Marvel 1602, this series finds the “marquee” Marvel heroes transported back to the days of the American Revolution. Unlike 1602, which played it straight, this has a goofy vibe to it. Basically, sorceress Morgan Le Fay decides that the best way to defeat the Avengers is to prevent America from ever being formed. So, she goes back in time, in order to help the British win the war. In order to stop her, historical sorcerer Cagliostro sends the ghost of Benjamin Franklin to the present, to warn Doctor Strange that some Time Shenanigans are afoot. Strange, then, sends Tony Stark, Steve Rogers, Bruce Banner, Peter Parker, and Clea (Notice that Sue Storm is on the cover, as Clea would make passersby go “Who’s this bitch?” So far, however, Sue ain’t in the book. Unless she’s invisible) back in time to stop Le Fay. Usually in these situations, however, they don’t have their powers or anything. They have to make do with the resources available to them in that era. Not here! Tony is zipping from the battlefield to Philadelphia to warn Congress of England’s plans, armor and all. The only interesting thing the story suggests is when Banner asks if it would be so bad if the British won. He goes on to lay out that the British abolished slavery before the US, and suggests that a lot of America’s triumphs could have been achieved by the British eventually. Rogers doesn’t like that traitor talk, but it does offer a different way of looking at the situation.
And don’t get me started on the art, which I’d just call “passable”. It’s a slapdash affair, as there are no real discerning characteristics of Bruce Banner. We see a white guy jogging, a portal opens up, and suddenly he’s in 1776. When the other Avengers arrive, we know Tony, because he’s got the facial hair. We know Steve, because he’s the blond. We know Peter, because he won’t shut up. But we don’t know who Banner is, only that Hulk is on the cover, so maybe it’s Hulk? It’s not clear when this would take place, so I guess this is one of those eras when Hulk lets Banner transform back to his human form. Either way, that character is never identified, even though Peter takes his insults and berating. It’s not until their plan calls for the Hulk that we’re like “Oh, that’s who that’s supposed to be!” Anyway, you can totally skip this unless you’ve got a history buff comic fan in your life, who wants to point out all the inaccuracies.
Next up, I read Absolute Martian Manhunter Vol. 1: Martian Vision, and it was EXCELLENT. My biggest gripe with the Absolute books is they still don’t seem have to nailed down a unified vibe for that universe. Absolute Batman has a dark, grimy Gotham, which is par for the course. Absolute Superman had him in South America, which seemed even more “Third Worldy” than usual. Meanwhile, once Absolute Wonder Woman makes her way to Man’s World, you wouldn’t really know that something was wrong with this universe. It’s the same with Absolute Martian Manhunter, in that he doesn’t seem like he lives in a world inhabited by other heroes or superbeings.
When the story begins, we’re introduced to FBI agent John Jones, nicknamed “The Martian” by one of his colleagues, because he seems to lack feeling or emotion. Johns and his family have just moved to this city, which is a melting pot of immigrants and refugees. John’s wife, Bridget (Bridget Jones. I love that!), is upset because he never explained their need to move, and he had accepted the transfer without consulting here. They have a non-verbal preteen son, and John seemingly throws himself into his work to avoid having to deal with all that. One day, John’s in a coffee shop targeted by a suicide bomber, and he’s seemingly the only survivor. Everyone wants him to take time off, but he insists on continuing to work. Well, he starts seeing things. Eventually, he realizes that his visions are the work of a green being, who claims to have saved him from the explosion. As a result, however, the are now intertwined. So, John can use the Martian’s power to read minds or, better yet, solve cases. As the summer wears on, the evil White Martian enacts plans designed to turn the melting pot against itself. Cultural differences and old grudges flare up, with violent results. So, John has to figure all of this out, with the help of his newfound “partner”, while also trying to keep his marriage from imploding.
While John isn’t emotive, he’s still a character that you can understand. He says a lot by saying little. You can also understand Bridget’s perspective, and I love the “Milquetoast Married To A Smokeshow” trope. It’s like “Have you SEEN her, John?! If you don’t take care of her someone else will!” I’ll be interested to see how, if any, connection is made between this series and the rest of the Absolute DC books, but I highly recommend this book!
Finally, I read a series I’d never even heard of, which was offered as a Hoopla Bonus Borrow this month. John Carpenter’s Tales of Science Fiction is a series of comics put out by a publisher called Storm King Comics. They’re a collaboration between that John Carpenter and his wife, writer/producer Sandy King. Basically, he puts his name on them via the title, but the work is submitted by other writers. In this case, writer Duane Swierczynski (X-Men: Messiah War and Birds of Prey) teamed with artist Jason Felix on the five-issue miniseries Redhead. Now, here’s where I point out that this was released as a 5-issue miniseries, yet I’ve never heard of these books, nor seen them in shops. So, I don’t know if Storm King sells direct to consumers, or if this is a convention-exclusive project or what. At some point, however, there were 5 issues, and they’re all collected here, in John Carpenter’s Tales of Science Fiction: Redhead.
I’d recently wondered what had happened to Swierczynski, as he’d been pretty prolific in the late 00s. He explains his absence in the introduction, as his teenage daughter had been fighting a battle with Leukemia. She lost that battle in October 2018, and that experience is what led him to write this story. His daughter hadn’t been able to control and master her disease, so he created a character who would.
In Redhead, we’re introduced to Marnie Young, who’s something of a nonentity in her own life. No one notices here, she has no social life, and her abundance of allergies keeps her on medication and restricts her diet. Well, one night at a mandatory work gathering, she looks up at the stars through a telescope, and faints. When she wakes up, she’s in a hospital room, filled with dead doctors and nurses. Over a loudspeaker, she is told by a CDC rep that they believe she is highly contagious, and that she has an affliction where she kills anyone within three feet of her. They have to keep inventing new ways to help her, as her infection radius continues to increase. So, what we have is Marnie on the run, trying to avoid killing innocents within her radius, but also trying to stay alive, as the government wants to capture her and weaponize her. Eventually, she is contacted by a mysterious benefactor who wants to help her escape. He has some theories on what’s happening to her, and he has arranged a haven for her in the desert – if only she can get to it.
A lot of the time, I’ll say “I’ve read this before”, but I can’t say that here. It feels original, even if it’s got familiar aspects to it. The pacing is weird, as the 5 issues at times feel rushed, where there are other points where the story feels decompressed. We find out some important stuff about her powers, only for the story to end when it was about to get really good. Given it doesn’t seem anyone really knows about this series, I can’t tell if it did well enough for a sequel, or if this was just a thinly veiled pitch to Hollywood. I mean, I’d watch this movie/series, and the art style – a sort of photo-realistic painting method – doesn’t make me think “comic”. The idea here was to make this as “real life” as possible, leading me to believe this is how Carpenter is now approaching new live action projects. Anyway, it’s definitely worth seeking out, but I’d love to know if more is going to be done with the world established here, as the story is far from over.
Things You Might Have Missed This Week
- Crikey! Robert Irwin, son of the late Crocodile Hunter Steve Irwin, won season 34 of Dancing with the Stars
- ABC announced that the Scrubs revival will debut Wednesday, February 25th. Gotta say: They all look great!
- Stranger Things season 5 FINALLY debuted, crashing Netflix in the process. Ya know, they could fix this problem, but I’m sure they prefer telling everyone “It was so popular that it broke the site!” Still, this is clearly an infrastructure problem.
- This administration is clearly using its power responsibly, as it is being reported that Paramount is being pressured to produce Rush Hour 4, as a comeback vehicle for controversial (and, I guess blacklisted?) producer Brett Ratner. I guess it pays to have friends in low places
- There was an Everybody Loves Raymond reunion on CBS this week, but it was the kind I hate, where the cast members just watch old clips and reminisce, but you never really learn many behind-the-scenes secrets, nor does it amount to much more than a Sweeps Week timeslot filler.
Prior to yesterday’s Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, most of us didn’t know who Mr. Fantasy was. Today, following the parade, most of us still don’t know, but we at least know he exists. Seemingly coming out of nowhere, viewers were bewildered when the frightening creature writhed over a pirate ship float, performing a song called “Catapult”. Immediately, we were all asking “Who is this?!”
I can’t say we were put at ease, however, when we discovered the Truth? You see, it is rumored that Mr. Fantasy is actually the alter ego of New Zealand-born Riverdale star KJ Apa. The character posted his first TikTok video in August, and has amassed over a million followers, while releasing two funk-infused singles. How he managed to get a gig like the parade is bewildering, but Taylor Momsen was also there, and she’s supposed to be retired, so I guess it just comes down to who ya know. The thing we’re all probably wondering, however, is whether Mr. Fantasy will be the next Childish Gambino OR the next Chris Gaines. Only time will tell. For now, however, Mr. Fantasy had the West Week Ever.
