Netflix Catch-Up: Arrow Season 1

Courtesy of CW

Arrow is a new and interesting take on the Oliver Queen - Green Arrow story.  For this iteration Queen was stranded on an island for five years after the yacht he was on with his father and others went down.  His time on the island changed him; from the vapid, partying playboy he was into a dark, vengeance seeking night stalker.

The show, in and of itself, has intriguing stories that happen along the way.  Seeing Queen leaping around, shooting arrows by the dozens with precision and accuracy is neat - those moments are like the comics come alive (without the boxing glove arrow - I know, it was my favorite too dammit!).  But the majority of the show leaves much to be desired.

My biggest issue with the show is really two issues - first: the cast; it's way too daytime soap drama acting with the pouty faces and furrowed brows.  Then there's sub-plots.  The overall story makes sense: Ollie's dad was in with some bad people who were doing to do bad things to the city - he leaves Ollie a list of names to guide him on his quest to right past wrongs.  The sub-plots with all the "romance" and "character growth" is bad, just...bad.

Courtesy of CW

I realize that it's hard to write a show that's one-hundred percent about the hero character doing hero stuff (I remember Lois and Clark) but being a CW show, Arrow goes too far in the opposite direction.  Additionally, it's like the writers oftentimes were trying to inject some "comic style writing" into the show with cheesy one-liners and bad puns but they just fall flat and make the show look like it's written for children.

Those things being said - the show is entertaining and one thing the writers are really good at is leaving you at an episode ending cliff-hanger.  The end of season one's final episode is the culmination of it all.

This isn't a show I would seek out and watch religiously on a weekly basis but as a Netflix binge-watching show it suits a lot of needs.  It's worth checking out; if only to watch Emily Bett Rickards in hot nerd glasses talking all techy.

When season two is posted I'm sure I'll watch; hopefully the acting improves with time...but I don't have the highest of hopes. For now, watch a trailer for Season One here and see for yourself:

Bin Fodder - Superman for All Seasons

Welcome to this week’s edition of Bin Fodder!  Today I’m going in a new direction and diverging from my previous posts that dealt specifically in the realm of independent comics.  That’s right, I’m going mainstream.  And what better way to do it than with the oldest and greatest comic book hero in the world, Superman?

With such a grand legacy to the character it was important, for my purposes and the true nature and idea of what this ongoing feature is all about, to pick a storyline that wasn’t so engrained in the continuity of the title.  Additionally, this allowed me to choose a story that isn’t necessarily so mainstream either.  Granted, Superman: For All Seasons is written by Jeph Loeb with art by Tim Sale, a duo who have teamed up on a number of epic stories; Batman: The Long Halloween comes to mind.

This is Superman with a twist.  Unlike traditional stories or adventures it’s not told from the perspective of the hero himself or purely through the dialogue of the scenes as they play out.  Each comic in the four-part miniseries is told from a different perspective.  

Courtesy of DC Comics

Issue one, titled Spring, has Pa Kent playing the role of narrator.  This is really interesting and gives the reader insight into the mind of a character not usually used with regularity (outside the sometimes overbearing role of Mr. Kent on the television show Smallville).  The issue focuses on the time leading up to when Clark left home to Metropolis en route to becoming Superman.  It shows how the Kents struggled with understanding their son’s miraculous powers and how a young Clark Kent struggled to understand what he was capable of and how even he, the would-be man of steel, was humbled in his youth.

Courtesy of DC Comics

Issue two, titled Summer, is set with Lois Lane as the narrator.  The issue really delves into the psyche of someone who loves and adores Superman not just as an idea but as a man, a super man.  She freely admits that she’s lost perspective when it comes to the Man of Steel.  Her objectivity has been compromised by a caped new-age prince charming who, instead of riding a white steed and wearing a crown of gold, flies through the skies under his own power and has a crown of perfectly coiffed hair. 

Courtesy of DC Comics

Issue three, titled Fall, sees the villainy pick-up with Lex Luthor as thenarrator.  It’s well known that Luthor is Superman’s ultimate villain: smart and cunning, rich and powerful.  It’s quite intriguing to see the world of Superman through the eyes of its truest villain.  He views the city of Metropolis as his own, as like a woman he’s invested his life in and built up from nothing to being the jewel of the world.  Superman is a threat to all that he has struggled to achieve and Luthor sets out to destroy him.  Luthor creates a plague that affects all the people of Metropolis.  They are all dying and only he has the cure.  His plan is to leave Superman in a world without fanfare, without people to scream his name and cheer his accomplishments.  The illness doesn’t affect Superman and when he approaches Luthor regarding help to cure it, at the behest of S.T.A.R. Labs, Superman is confronted by the poisonous thoughts that he himself is the cause of the disease.

Courtesy of DC Comics

Issue four, titled Winter, is narrated by Lana Lang and sees Superman returned to Smallville and his role as Clark Kent.  He has run from the idea that he may have potentially hurt people in Metropolis by being around them.  Luthor had poisoned his mind deeply and he went home to get some clarity.  Lana, after learning of Clark’s secret at the end of their senior year in high school, had set off to explore the world.  The issue delves into her own issues surrounding what feelings she has always harbored for Clark, how she dealt with them after leaving Smallville, and what they would always be.

I have always liked storylines that go outside normal continuity for a number of reasons.  Not the least of these is the ability for the writer to really explore an aspect of the character or the universe as a whole that has never been looked at before.  In the case of Superman: For All Seasons Loeb did an excellent job of taking a new perspective on telling a Superman story, which is not something that’s easy to do.  One cannot ignore that in the overall realm of Superman stories ingenuity must be appreciated for what it is.  For that reason it receives a grade of (insert three and one half-stars).  The overall story could have been better.  The art was very Tim Sale and gave an interesting look to the character of Clark but the Superman art seemed a little off.  I think the concept is outstanding and the story is really good but not fantastic.

I highly recommend the read for any Superman fan out there who has not yet read this and for anyone looking for a Superman book that’s not burdened by seventy-plus years of required continuity knowledge to understand (which isn’t entirely true since Crisis on Infinite Earths reset continuity in the 80s, but I digress). 

Superman: For All Seasons is a quality read and definitely worth your time and hard-earned money.

So, my friends, go Bin Diving and find this and other gems!

Until next time,

This is Bin Fodder Guru Tim Blacksmith signing off!

He IS the Man of Steel

It is important to note straight away that the following account of Man of Steel will include spoilers.  I’m calling them out now because I won’t later.  If you haven’t seen it yet, I recommend stopping now.

And now…on with the rant, I mean show.

Superman is probably the most iconic super hero character in the history of the industry.  He is one of, if not thee, oldest characters in comics dating back to 1938.  When I was a kid I was exposed to the original Richard Donner Superman movies (and those other two that shall not be named or spoken of…god damn battles inside elevators on the moon…).  But as I became a fan of comics Superman was not a character I was drawn towards.  I could blame a lack of exposure, which is certainly possible.  My growth in appreciation of the art form took place in the early nineties when companies like Image were breaking out and doing new things which everyone was excited about.

But in the end, one of my best friends is the biggest Superman fan I know, and yet I still rarely picked up a book and when I did I failed to be impressed by it.  The nineties were a tumultuous time for the man with the S on his chest; he died…took multiple colored energy forms…was reborn…and then it got weird.

I was always one of those ordinary detractors; “Superman isn’t an interesting character”, “Superman is impossible to beat, how can you even write a good Superman story?”

But then something wonderful happened, Greg Rucka took up the mantle of Superman and by god if he didn’t make him awesome.  The run Rucka had on Superman is still the best in-continuity story I have ever read (for those comic-novices out there: the comics’ universe has a general continuity structure where events happen and are remembered and spoken about.  Then there are alternate realities where stories occur but are not part of the main thread, see: Superman – Red Son). 

This opened my eyes to a whole new reality when it came to Superman.  He could be vulnerable, make mistakes, be…human.  What a grand and glorious notion!  One I am sure is not original, even for writers of Superman, but Rucka did it so well. 

So, why did I just spend the first five paragraphs of my review of the Man of Steel movie not talking about the movie?  Because it’s important that when I say that if you didn’t like this movie for any reason other than simply not enjoying that took place and instead do not like it for reasons pertaining to the way the characters were portrayed or how you thought they should have been portrayed separately…and then I tell you to SHUT THE FUCK UP AND STOP TALKING you will know that I am speaking from a position of knowledge and strength.

Man of Steel was a masterful movie.  It reignited what had truly become a dead movie franchise.  I am one of the few people who actually enjoyed Superman Returns but it wasn’t new; it was a tired attempt to recreate what was done before without any originality.  This movie, THIS ONE is worthy of our adulation and praise.  THIS movie is worthy of sequels and co-op tie-ins.  What the world of comic fans has been clamoring for these many years has finally come to fruition.  And its popularity cannot be denied.

I realize that the detractors are the hardcore fans.  They are the same people that would probably (and stupidly) say that I am a hypocrite because I hated the new Star Wars movies and hated how Lucas twisted what the original three told us with half truths, lies and misdirection’s to fulfill his desire to CGI a giant penis on the screen for 400 minutes and see if he could get away with it (he did, by the way). 

But in reality this movie does none of those things.  Man of Steel takes into account so many things from Superman’s history – all 75 damn years of it – and says to fans: I am something different than you know, I am the real world’s Superman.  And when he kills Zod (see…told you there were spoilers) he instantly and immediately is filled with rage and pain and regret.  But he knew, he KNEW, that it was the only way.  Zod told him what he intended to do in order to recreate Krypton.

The film is visually dynamic; the scenes on Krypton erupt at you like the flash of a neutron bomb.  But instead of having waves of radiation and death roll over you; its beauty and wonderment.  Portraying Krypton as both a technologically advanced world (flying ships, ethereal technology) but also as a culture tied to its history (ostentatious clothing and the riding of winged beasts).  

The history of how Clark Kent becomes Superman is one that is rarely shown even in glimpses.  In the original Donner films the young man travels to the north pole (inexplicably and without direction other than the pulsing of a glowing crystal) and then hurls it into the water to create his fortress.  The film doesn’t even explore how the hell he got there!  What an adventure that must have been…oh, wait…we have that adventure now! 

Man of Steel is by no means perfect.  It’s not a master stroke of filmography that will soon be replacing Citizen Kane in every pretentious hipster riddled film class in America.  But as a sci-fi, comic book movie it is hard to beat and we have those involved to thank.  Nolan took Batman under his wing and made that franchise great again.  It rose like a phoenix from the ashes of nippled-costumes and boots with ice skates built into them.  Man of Steel is the affirmation that we as a people can trust Hollywood to make good comic book movies again…maybe, at least a little.

In a society of people looking for the bad in everything and loathsome of their own lives enough to spend hours watching the tawdry lives of others we should all be jumping for joy that a film of worth and value has found its way out of the muck to brighten our days.  I am pleased that Man of Steel has done so well at the box office and that more is to come.  It is a good sign for the DC Universe.  Now we just need that Lobo movie to get off the ground! (hah…that was for you Williams!)

I hope you enjoyed this rant.

Tb

Catching up...

Hey everyone...sorry it's been like a week since my last post. It's part settling into the new job, part trying to be really productive and part trying to be restful in my downtime since it's such a different environment than I've been in for a long while. However, I will hopefully be more in-tune with my blogging in the near future, so for you faithful readers (of my spurtiness) I thank you, and for those of you who long for more of a constant stream of my blatherings, I am working to achieve that for you.

So for now here's what I can tell you...there's four pages of my script up on the Ape Entertainment web publishing page. If you click HERE it'll link you to the first page and you can click Next at the bottom of the page you can continue on through what's posted thus far. Rate it below the "About the Creators" portion of the page if you like it! I really appreciate feedback too, so any comments you have lay'em on me.

Ok, on to new business. I wrote my first pitch for an established comic this past week. I really like the concept I came up with and I think it could be really good for the property. Now, of course you're curious what property it is and all that jazz, but I'm not really able to share that here just yet. We'll see how it goes and then of course if it gets approved I'll have more to share! But I'd like to explore the concept. A lot of independent comic creators strive to reach the pinnacle of working for DC or Marvel. (note that DC gets a hyperlink where Marvel does not...don't really like Marvel these days, so they can suck it) I think indie people aspire to have works published with Image or Dark Horse or Oni Press because of the Independent Comics companies out there, those are three of the biggest. But they're different in the sense that they're more attainable. Each of them will, from time to time if not on a regular basis, accept submissions from outside creative teams to publish creator owned projects. Now, of course, they're only going to take the best of the best and those who fall short will feel slighted (since most creative people feel that their work is superior to all others and the opinions of those that disagree with them are flawed in some way) and that's entirely the wrong way to go about things.

I can't even tell you how many times I've sat in a room with Matt or Eric or any number of other creative people and discussed ideas for stories where we didn't all see it from the same perspective and we would sometimes even get to the point of arguing over how our take on it was better. Having an open discourse is key, that's number one. Number two is just as important and that's this: learn from those who have achieved more than you. Their advice may not be perfect and in the end it may not even help you, but if you refuse to even allow for the possibility that someone that's attained something you hope to could give you help by offering their perspective then you've already failed. Ask Questions. If someone doesn't like your idea, find out what they don't like and ask for their thoughts on how it could be better. Their specific suggestion may not work for you, but it's likely that having someone else provide input will get your creative juices flowing and you can build off it.

Man...I tend to get on a soapbox kinda often in these blogs don't I? Not really sorry about that, since blogs are supposed to be about expression of personal thoughts and ideas and this is the one I am having right now. But back to where I got kinda sidetracked: taking an established property and trying to make it your own, for at least an issue. It's important to have a good grasp on the characters, it helps if you're not trying to write Batman or Superman who have about a BAJILLION issues to their name with almost as many takes on their personality traits and skills and etc and etc. But when it's characters that are less defined it allows you to pick up on one or two key character traits and either work with them or work against them. In my concept I take the fact that the three friends are incredibly close and I explore what could drive them apart, if even slightly, and how that could happen and what the one that was on his own would do. The concept itself has a lot of potential and after bringing it to the creator of the property he and I had a great conversation about it. He had some ideas for tweaks to the story but overall he really liked it! So now...I move on to first draft scripting. Woohoo!

Hmmm...what else...uhmm...well, I got some new characters sketches for the project I'm working on with Shawn Atkins and the direction is good. We've got some work to do but overall I'm loving his stuff. More to come on that.

For now...hope you enjoyed today's post; hope you read my UFO story and hope you continue to be one of my readers. Share the love if you like it!!! I'm proud to say I've had readers from Russia now, I'm officially Global! Scary thought.

Peace,

Tim