Via scans_daily, the most insane thing you’ll see all day. (Click image for full-size.)
The girl in white on the left, of course, is Jesus.
You are currently browsing the monthly archive for March 2008.
Rather light on the actual whining this week, as it was a pretty strong week.
Blue Beetle #25 – Awesome, but not quite as awesome as the previous issue. Still, a no-contest victor for “Book of the Week.” Now it’s time to be nervous about the writer leaving.
Green Lantern #29 – Solid and well-told, but with everything going down in the Green Lantern corner of the DCU, and the countdown to “Blackest Night” already beginning… this is really a bad time to derail the book in favor of retelling Hal Jordan’s origin. Maybe future issues will make the decision seem more sensible, but I’d much rather be exploring the various new Corps that are starting up.
Ultimate Spider-Man #120 – Another very nicely done issue of the only reason I pay any attention to the Ultimate Universe anymore. (Which is rather sad, as not too long ago I was eagerly following Ult. X-Men, Ult. FF, and the Ultimates.) With the events of this issue, I stand by my half-joking prediction that Ult. Spidey is well on his way to being demasked and married.
Wolverine: First Class #1 – Nicely done. You’d have to ask someone who cares for how well it fits into continuity, but on its own merits it’s a well-told done-in-one that establishes a workable status quo for an ongoing series, with nice characterization on Wolverine and Kitty Pryde. No complaints here; I just wonder if the “Wolverine” in the title will make this perform better than the other all ages books in the direct market.
X-Men First Class #10 – This, on the other hand… well, I’ve been disappointed in the past few issues, and this is no change. It’s a competently told, bland, predictable Cyclops spotlight story that does nothing interesting with the character. It continues to feel like there’s been a writer change, as the humor that enlivened earlier issues is almost completely missing in action here, outside the always awesome “recap” pages. I’m probably going to drop this series soon if it doesn’t start turning around.
JAN080177 BLUE BEETLE #25 $2.99 So excited for this one.
JAN080185 GREEN LANTERN #29 $2.99 Is this the start of the “Secret Origin” arc? I’m dubious, but we’ll see…
JAN082144 MARVEL ATLAS #2 (OF 2) $3.99 How can anyone resist? Now if only DC would do an equivalent, at least for the US to establish where all the extra major cities are…
JAN082125 ULTIMATE SPIDER-MAN #120 $2.99
JAN082189 WOLVERINE FIRST CLASS #1 $2.99 Here’s hoping it’s good.
JAN082188 X-MEN FIRST CLASS VOL 2 #10 $2.99 Here’s hoping this one is better than the past couple issues.
First week in a very long time where I’ve bought more Marvel than DC.
Via Chizumatic, I learn of a new anime series called Shina Dark. (Framegrab stolen from Subculture Anime Blog.)
I won’t copy/paste the whole story description, but apparently the basic plot is that the nations of the world send a thousand beautiful maidens to the island realm of the demon lord Exoda in order to fulfill his lusts and stop him from rampaging across the world. Only, it turns out that Exoda (who doesn’t really look that demonic) isn’t all that lustful, but no one wants to accept the “tainted” women back. So Exoda lets them stay on his island and establish the new nation of Shina Dark.
After coining the term “harem horde” to describe this type of show, Steven Den Beste observes:
[T]his is possibly the best explaination I’ve heard for a series setup to explain just why it is that you’ve got a place where there are a thousand bodacious babes and only one guy who doesn’t want any of them. The nations of the world would have picked the most beautiful girls they had to offer as sacrifices.
But it’s still a stupid idea.
Which I more or less agree with. But I’m kind of sad that this core concept is being “wasted” on a harem horde show, because – freed from the constraints and purposes of that genre – I think this “stupid idea” can become a rather good one.
Step One: Exoda, instead of – so far as I can gather from the frame grabs – being essentially a human male serving as male lead for the harem, becomes a truly non-human entity. Even if he occasionally takes human form, he isn’t one, and he isn’t interested in romance with the women any more than he was in sating his non-existent vile lusts on them in the first place. He becomes a disinterested, if vaguely benevolent, landlord.
So, what is our show about, then? The women establishing their new nation and society. There’s some obvious challenges there: each of these women is originally from a different country and culture, probably with some language barriers. Practical skills for settling and uninhabited island are likely to be thin on the ground.
And then we get the internal conflict. Beyond the siple of question of who’s in charge, I can see a lot of distinct factions arising. Some might worship Exoda, others might hate him and even want to kill him. Some might be better off on the island and others might struggle to find a way to return to their old lives. Some might hate the outside world for abandoning them and try pirate raids to get much-needed supplies.
External conflict would come in later in the series, as the nations of the world react to Shina Dark’s rise. Do world powers feel threatened? A world that sends 1000 women to appease a demon is probably not terribly feminist, so that angle can get played too. I imagine a climax with a multi-national fleet sent to destroy Shina Dark and kill or reclaim the women, as all the internal conflicts come to a head…
Hmm. Now I’ve spent much too long and too many words thinking about this. I might need to check out this series when it comes out and see whether it does anything like this with the concept, or whether it just plays out a mostly generic “harem horde’ story.
Sadly, I imagine the latter is much more likely.
As promised:
Batman and the Outsiders #5 – Well, there was one interesting reveal that ought to make a lot of people happy.
Other than that, still solid but unexceptional.
Birds of Prey #116 – Eh. Nothing outrageously bad, but still generally disappointing. The Zinda/Huntress parts were much stronger than the Oracle/Misfit/Black Alice parts, which were just kind of there.
Brave and the Bold #11 – Heh. Ultraman was amusing. (I note, however, that the bizarre insistence on having both the Grant Morrison anti-matter CSA and an only subtly different Earth-3 CSA coexist is already becoming mildly confusing.) Uncertain whether I’ll stay for the next issue.
Checkmate #24 - Huh. So… the Rooks are a bunch of characters I’ve never heard of, and a brief check of Wikipedia reveals nothing to justify the precautions and buildup. Also, the real true evil plan seems significantly less threatening than the distraction for it. I trust Rucka, so it should all hopefully come together next issue.
Robin #172 – Well, there was one interesting reveal that ought to make a lot of people happy. Much like the other Chuck Dixon book this week. I… question the choice of method of reveal, though; since it’s rather anti-climatic to just have her remove her mask randomly after this much buildup in two different books. (Assuming there isn’t another twist coming; although it’s tough to see what it would be, solicitations indicated several more months before the mystery was to be solved.) Other than that, some interesting stuff going on, and the book remains fairly strong.
Sword #6 – Basically an exposition dump, but a fairly interesting one. The religious connotations are… unexpected. Continues to be one of the books I look forward to the most each month.
Order #9 - Sob. The fact that there’s only going to be one more issue of this is a dire injustice; if the whole or most of the team ends up dying to make the villain of the forthcoming Invincible Iron Man book seem more badass, I’ll be rather irked.
(Via The Beat.)
One of the first meaningful posts on this blog was a tangential reply to something Pete Zaitcev wrote, so why not follow that tradition for this soft relaunch?
Over at his new blog, he introduces me to the existence of a fairly significant project to rewrite the Haruhi novels/anime with the genders of all the characters reversed. (Via a link to post on “Moe Check!” ). Pete writes:
I am not amused by the sex swap per se, primarily because I think Ranma squeezed that particular lemon dry back in the 80s…P.S. Truth to be told, Kyonko does play some angles on the swap which Ranma didn’t. Specifically, the favourite joke of Kyonko is how all the relationships and actions become ridiculous after the swap, e.g. Mr. Yuki Nagato inviting Kyonko to his room late in the evening. It’s the schtick advocates of colorblind society enjoy a lot, and it never gets old.
Genderbending fanfic of various sorts is actually one of the more interesting genres to me, and this post made me think about why, which lead into some various thoughts on the different sub-genres of it, which lead to some various thoughts on how I would do it to the Naruto cast (if I wasn’t dreadfully late on finishing the fanfics I’ve actually started). If any readers actually (a) exist, and (b) aren’t completely disturbed by this topic of conversation, then click on the more link for these thoughts. (Minor spoilers for Naruto involved.)
Read the rest of this entry »
One of the things I’ve done while not blogging was pick up the habit of buying American comics. Partly to help make a steadier stream of content, and partly because I do it already on a message board I frequent, here’s what I’m buying this week, with a handful of comments. Sometime this weekend, look for a “Comics Whining” post, where I whine about and nitpick this week’s comics and make you wonder why I buy them in the first place!
JAN080156 BATMAN AND THE OUTSIDERS #5 $2.99
JAN080176 BIRDS OF PREY #116 $2.99 Meh. Not quite digging the current plot arc, but the writer is changing soon, so I might as well keep picking it up.
JAN080178 BRAVE AND THE BOLD #11 $2.99 Intriguing enough team-up – Superman and Ultraman (evil Superman from another world) to drag me in, for this issue at least.
JAN080179 CHECKMATE #24 $2.99 Sob; only one more issue before the dubious creative team change.
JAN080164 ROBIN #172 $2.99 Huh, both Chuck-written Dixon books in one week, the other being BatO.
JAN082087 SWORD #6 $2.99 Yay! I’ll probably do a post sometime about why this book is awesome and all my non-existent readers should buy it.
JAN082176 ORDER #9 $2.99 Sob; only one more issue period.