NBC made it official - Heroes has been canceled. What happened?
The first season was far and away the best. We spent most of it meeting the various heroes and learning about their powers and lives. At the same time, the show had an urgency. First, there was the mass-killer Sylar who kept becoming more powerful. At first, Sylar was a shadowy man in a ball cap who killed heroes in a gruesome fashion. There was also HRG and the group that employed him. Finally, there was a future event that would wipe out New York City and the need to stop it.
There were problems in the first season, especially with pacing, but it was worth watching through the end.
The second season had some real problems. The biggest was the writer's strike which caused things to be tied up in a couple of quick, messy episodes. This caused major pacing problems. The addition of some romantic subplots slowed things down even worse. Still, you could give it some slack because of the strike.
Things went very wrong in the third season. They tried too hard to recreate the first season and failed totally. Plot elements like an eclipse removing everyone's powers made no sense. The first half of the third season was called "Book 3 - Heroes and Villains". This meant constantly shuffling who was on which side. By the end of Book 3, the writing staff had been fired.
Book 4 was more promising. The government found out about the heroes and moved to imprison them. Several escaped and spent time on the run. While an improvement, it was not up to the original season.
Season four, aka Book 5 made some improvements. The regular cast was cut way back with the rest appearing just a few times. New characters were added. It was not enough to attract the viewers back.
So what went wrong? Sylar was the biggest problem. He started as a memorable villain. He killed people so that he could steal their powers. He was powerful and scary. Over the rest of the show he alternated between reforming and going back to merciless killer. Between inconsistent characterization and overexposure, he lost his edge. He was no longer scary. Other villains were introduced but none could match Sylar.
There was also too much Claire. A teenage girl who could heal from anything, she kept getting in over her head. Her powers made her a natural victim. And, her relationship with her father, HRG, took the edge off of him.
In fact, most of the cast should have been discarded after the first season. Part of the magic about the first season was meeting these people and seeing what they could do. We got to know them too well. The constant shuffling in Book 3 hurt the characters a lot, too. It might seem like an interesting literary device to make people heroes one week and villains the next but it ruins long-term characterization.
The biggest problem was the need to keep the show fresh. Lost did this by having a plot arc that contained all six seasons but also allowed for seasons that were totally different from each other. Characters were added or killed. Only about half of the cast from the first season made it to the sixth season but new characters have been added along the way.
Lost started dragging when the producers decided where the show was going but were not sure how long they had to stretch it out. Heroes never looked forward any further than the end of the season so it could not build on itself to a conclusion.
That's probably the big lesson here. Continuity dramas need a goal. It is not enough to remember where you have been, you have to have a destination. Characters should grow, not simply change and be discarded when they start to drag down the series.
Tuesday, May 18, 2010
Friday, May 14, 2010
Early Iron Man
I've read over the early Iron Man comics from his origin to his red and gold armor. Most of these were plotted by Stan Lee and drawn by Jack Kirby.
There's no polite way to say this - the Lee/Kirby issues suck. They are formulaic and generic. Each started with Tony Stark introducing some new, impossible weapon - an automatic weapon that could demolish buildings or powered roller skates that can transport troops at 60 MPH. After that, Stark would move on to the real adventure. The stories ran around 14 pages so there wasn't much room for characterization or anything else.
The stories themselves were standard super-hero stories. There was nothing that made them Iron Man stories. It would take less than five minutes to rewrite any of the scripts for any other hero who was stronger than Daredevil. They would even work as Green Lantern or Flash stories.
Things got a lot better when Kirby left and Don Heck took over the art. While Kirby is remembered for his ground-breaking art from the late 1960s, in the early 1960s he could be boring. Heck's artwork was much more dynamic.
Not long after Heck took over the art, several elements were added to the character. Happy Hogan, an out-of-work boxer saved Stark from a race car crash (which was suggested in Iron Man 2) and Stark hired him as a driver and bodyguard. Stark showed Hogan around his plant in Flushing New York next to the site of the 1964 World's Fair (the inspiration for the 1974 Stark Expo in Iron Man 2) and introduced his secretary, Pepper Potts. From that point on, Happy, Pepper, and the plant figured prominently in most stories.
Once the plant was introduced, it became the target for saboteurs - some Communist, some rival munitions makers, and some scientists trying to steel Stark's inventions. Iron Man stopped being a friend of Stark's who happened to be hanging around and became the unofficial protector of the plant.
An unusual story element was Congress. Whenever someone disrupted Stark's plants, Congressmen and other government officials started talking about pulling contracts. This came to a head years later when a senator ordered Stark's plant closed until he testified before Congress (another element in Iron Man 2).
The final element was Iron Man's armor. In his first appearance it was gray. In his second appearance, he heard people react to the armor in fear. Stark's girlfriend at the time (in her only appearance) suggested that he color his armor gold which he immediately did. While this outfit did look like an "iron man", it was also bulky for a super hero. In a one-shot drawn by Steve Ditko, Iron Man decided that he needed a lighter suit.
The Iron Man story finally came into its own. No longer could you use an Iron Man plot for another character. By the time you subtracted all of the Iron Man-specific details you had lost at least half the story.
All of this was in the early 1960s. As the Viet Nam war progressed, readers became uncomfortable with Stark making munitions. Eventually he divested his company of weapons and started making unspecified civilian products.
Note - In an earlier post I mentioned Stark keeping his new armor in a briefcase. I forgot that he also kept his original armor in a briefcase. Somehow he was able to fold the bulky suit up like tinfoil.
There's no polite way to say this - the Lee/Kirby issues suck. They are formulaic and generic. Each started with Tony Stark introducing some new, impossible weapon - an automatic weapon that could demolish buildings or powered roller skates that can transport troops at 60 MPH. After that, Stark would move on to the real adventure. The stories ran around 14 pages so there wasn't much room for characterization or anything else.
The stories themselves were standard super-hero stories. There was nothing that made them Iron Man stories. It would take less than five minutes to rewrite any of the scripts for any other hero who was stronger than Daredevil. They would even work as Green Lantern or Flash stories.
Things got a lot better when Kirby left and Don Heck took over the art. While Kirby is remembered for his ground-breaking art from the late 1960s, in the early 1960s he could be boring. Heck's artwork was much more dynamic.
Not long after Heck took over the art, several elements were added to the character. Happy Hogan, an out-of-work boxer saved Stark from a race car crash (which was suggested in Iron Man 2) and Stark hired him as a driver and bodyguard. Stark showed Hogan around his plant in Flushing New York next to the site of the 1964 World's Fair (the inspiration for the 1974 Stark Expo in Iron Man 2) and introduced his secretary, Pepper Potts. From that point on, Happy, Pepper, and the plant figured prominently in most stories.
Once the plant was introduced, it became the target for saboteurs - some Communist, some rival munitions makers, and some scientists trying to steel Stark's inventions. Iron Man stopped being a friend of Stark's who happened to be hanging around and became the unofficial protector of the plant.
An unusual story element was Congress. Whenever someone disrupted Stark's plants, Congressmen and other government officials started talking about pulling contracts. This came to a head years later when a senator ordered Stark's plant closed until he testified before Congress (another element in Iron Man 2).
The final element was Iron Man's armor. In his first appearance it was gray. In his second appearance, he heard people react to the armor in fear. Stark's girlfriend at the time (in her only appearance) suggested that he color his armor gold which he immediately did. While this outfit did look like an "iron man", it was also bulky for a super hero. In a one-shot drawn by Steve Ditko, Iron Man decided that he needed a lighter suit.
The Iron Man story finally came into its own. No longer could you use an Iron Man plot for another character. By the time you subtracted all of the Iron Man-specific details you had lost at least half the story.
All of this was in the early 1960s. As the Viet Nam war progressed, readers became uncomfortable with Stark making munitions. Eventually he divested his company of weapons and started making unspecified civilian products.
Note - In an earlier post I mentioned Stark keeping his new armor in a briefcase. I forgot that he also kept his original armor in a briefcase. Somehow he was able to fold the bulky suit up like tinfoil.
Wednesday, May 12, 2010
Lost - Jacob and Nameless
We finally know more about where Jacob and the man in black came from. Their mother, a Roman named Claudia, washed up on the island shortly before having a set of twins. Claudia was assisted in her delivery by another woman whose name was not given. Claudia only had one name chosen - Jacob. When a second child was born, she didn't know what to name him. Before she could think of anything, the midwife killed her and raised the boys as her own.
Jacob was loyal, incapable of lying, and wore light colors. His brother was clever and wore black. Sometimes the brother knew things without being told like when he found a game. He also kept secrets and could lie. For some reason he assumed that his (adopted) mother would not let him keep the game.
Claudia appeared to Nameless. I assume that this was a real haunting like Hurley's instead of the Smoke Monster appearing as Claudia. She led nameless to a camp of her people. While Claudia was dressed like a Roman, had a Roman name, and spoke Latin, these people looked like Celts. That puts the episode 2000 years in the past, plus or minus a hundred years or so.
Nameless confronted his mother about their real past and their real mother. Mom admitted the truth and Nameless went off to live with the other people. He didn't like them but they knew things. Mom had shown the boys a glowing cavern. Nameless and the Celts kept digging dry wells until they found it. Then they built the wheel - the one that moves the island through time and space.
Mom didn't like this so she knocked out Nameless, filled in the hole, and killed the rest of the people. We have no idea how she did this but it implied that she had supernatural powers.
She made Jacob her successor guardian of the island, apparently using the same bottle that Jacob gave to Richard centuries later.
Nameless killed Mom. Jacob killed Nameless and sent his body into the glowing cavern. The pillar of smoke erupted from it but Nameless's dead body came out the other side. Does this mean that Smokey was only using Nameless's form the same way that he used Locke's form?
Jacob placed the bodies of his nameless mother and brother in the cavern where they were discovered by Jack and Kate in the third episode.
So, now we know where the wells came from and how Jacob became guardian of the island. We might know where Smoky came from (if Nameless's soul was transforemd into the Smoke Monster). At the very least, we know how he came to look like the man in black. We also know where the in-joke of the white and black pieces representing a giant game came from.
There is probably a lot of symbolism in Mom's loom. She spent a lot of time at it and Jacob took over from her, although his work did not look as good. Before Nameless killed her, he ruined her weaving.
I figured that "Adam and Eve" would be one of those mysteries that was never answered. With only three and a half hours of episodes left, I'm not sure that this was worth the time spent on it.
Jacob was loyal, incapable of lying, and wore light colors. His brother was clever and wore black. Sometimes the brother knew things without being told like when he found a game. He also kept secrets and could lie. For some reason he assumed that his (adopted) mother would not let him keep the game.
Claudia appeared to Nameless. I assume that this was a real haunting like Hurley's instead of the Smoke Monster appearing as Claudia. She led nameless to a camp of her people. While Claudia was dressed like a Roman, had a Roman name, and spoke Latin, these people looked like Celts. That puts the episode 2000 years in the past, plus or minus a hundred years or so.
Nameless confronted his mother about their real past and their real mother. Mom admitted the truth and Nameless went off to live with the other people. He didn't like them but they knew things. Mom had shown the boys a glowing cavern. Nameless and the Celts kept digging dry wells until they found it. Then they built the wheel - the one that moves the island through time and space.
Mom didn't like this so she knocked out Nameless, filled in the hole, and killed the rest of the people. We have no idea how she did this but it implied that she had supernatural powers.
She made Jacob her successor guardian of the island, apparently using the same bottle that Jacob gave to Richard centuries later.
Nameless killed Mom. Jacob killed Nameless and sent his body into the glowing cavern. The pillar of smoke erupted from it but Nameless's dead body came out the other side. Does this mean that Smokey was only using Nameless's form the same way that he used Locke's form?
Jacob placed the bodies of his nameless mother and brother in the cavern where they were discovered by Jack and Kate in the third episode.
So, now we know where the wells came from and how Jacob became guardian of the island. We might know where Smoky came from (if Nameless's soul was transforemd into the Smoke Monster). At the very least, we know how he came to look like the man in black. We also know where the in-joke of the white and black pieces representing a giant game came from.
There is probably a lot of symbolism in Mom's loom. She spent a lot of time at it and Jacob took over from her, although his work did not look as good. Before Nameless killed her, he ruined her weaving.
I figured that "Adam and Eve" would be one of those mysteries that was never answered. With only three and a half hours of episodes left, I'm not sure that this was worth the time spent on it.
Sunday, May 09, 2010
Iron Man 2
It is tough for a sequel to live up to an original like the first Iron Man movie. When they expended the best picture category for the Oscars, Iron Man was given as an example of a picture that should have been nominated but was not.
So, given that baggage, I don't think that the sequel is quite as good as the original. That said it is still a lot of fun.Robert Downey Jr. as Tony Stark continues to be as much fun out of the armor as in it.
The first movie had two sets of villians - a Taliban-like group of terrorists living in caves in Afghanistan and Stark's partner. The new movie has a Russian genius who hates the Stark family and a munitions manufacturer name Justin Hammer.
While the names come from the comic books, the characters are very different. Hammer, in the comics, was a businessman who would enhance supervillians' powers in exchange for a take of their future earnings.
The Russian becomes Whiplash although his name, Anton Vanko, comes from the original Crimson Dynamo. The character is much more dangerous than the comic book version of Whiplash.
In the original book, Stark seems driven to create his Iron Man armor. In this one, he is haunted by his coming demise. The arc reactor that keeps his heart pumping is slowly killing him.
The action has been ramped up. There are more and bigger fights. There is also more laugh-out-loud humor which keeps things going during the slow parts of the plot.
So, given that baggage, I don't think that the sequel is quite as good as the original. That said it is still a lot of fun.Robert Downey Jr. as Tony Stark continues to be as much fun out of the armor as in it.
The first movie had two sets of villians - a Taliban-like group of terrorists living in caves in Afghanistan and Stark's partner. The new movie has a Russian genius who hates the Stark family and a munitions manufacturer name Justin Hammer.
While the names come from the comic books, the characters are very different. Hammer, in the comics, was a businessman who would enhance supervillians' powers in exchange for a take of their future earnings.
The Russian becomes Whiplash although his name, Anton Vanko, comes from the original Crimson Dynamo. The character is much more dangerous than the comic book version of Whiplash.
In the original book, Stark seems driven to create his Iron Man armor. In this one, he is haunted by his coming demise. The arc reactor that keeps his heart pumping is slowly killing him.
The action has been ramped up. There are more and bigger fights. There is also more laugh-out-loud humor which keeps things going during the slow parts of the plot.
Tuesday, May 04, 2010
Chuck - Season 3.5
In its first season, Chuck was good but it always seemed like it should have been better. During the second season it started firing on all cylinders, especially near the end of the season.
At the end of season 2 they shook things up a lot. The original premise was that a slacker computer nerd had a confidential database in his head. He had a pair of agents guarding him and running missions based on the information in his head. There was always some plot contrivance so that he had to come along, even though he was untrained. There was also a long-running almost-romance between Chuck and Sarah, one of the agents.
Season three shook things up. Chuck got a new set of information including abilities and the season was devoted to him becoming a real spy.
Originally NBC ordered a short season of 13 episodes. Part-way through production they expanded the order by six episodes. Apparently the scripts were already in place when the expanded order came through. This resulted in a season 3.5.
At the end of the original season 3, Chuck was finally a real spy and finally got together with Sarah. There was a break of a couple of weeks and things picked up from there.
Often when a series is based on will they/won't they, the series declines when they finally do. Moonlighting and Remmington Steel are prime examples. This is not a hard and fast rule. Cheers had its best days after Sam and Dianne got together.
Chuck seems to have improved again. Instead of concentrating on Chuck's ineptness, it is exploring his relationship with Sarah.
The show has always had a strong supporting cast between Chuck's sister and her husband and his co-workers. This is also continuing as Casey, the other agent tries to train Chuck's best friend, Morgan. While Chuck was a slacker with potential, Morgan is a genuine idiot. This relationship promises to continue any comic relief that was lost when Chuck became competent.
In the meantime, loyal fans formed flash mobs yesterday to try to get the show renewed. With the Leno disaster leaving NBC with a gaping hole in its schedule, the bar may be lowered. At the same time, Chuck's ratings are up a bit so it may make season four, yet.
At the end of season 2 they shook things up a lot. The original premise was that a slacker computer nerd had a confidential database in his head. He had a pair of agents guarding him and running missions based on the information in his head. There was always some plot contrivance so that he had to come along, even though he was untrained. There was also a long-running almost-romance between Chuck and Sarah, one of the agents.
Season three shook things up. Chuck got a new set of information including abilities and the season was devoted to him becoming a real spy.
Originally NBC ordered a short season of 13 episodes. Part-way through production they expanded the order by six episodes. Apparently the scripts were already in place when the expanded order came through. This resulted in a season 3.5.
At the end of the original season 3, Chuck was finally a real spy and finally got together with Sarah. There was a break of a couple of weeks and things picked up from there.
Often when a series is based on will they/won't they, the series declines when they finally do. Moonlighting and Remmington Steel are prime examples. This is not a hard and fast rule. Cheers had its best days after Sam and Dianne got together.
Chuck seems to have improved again. Instead of concentrating on Chuck's ineptness, it is exploring his relationship with Sarah.
The show has always had a strong supporting cast between Chuck's sister and her husband and his co-workers. This is also continuing as Casey, the other agent tries to train Chuck's best friend, Morgan. While Chuck was a slacker with potential, Morgan is a genuine idiot. This relationship promises to continue any comic relief that was lost when Chuck became competent.
In the meantime, loyal fans formed flash mobs yesterday to try to get the show renewed. With the Leno disaster leaving NBC with a gaping hole in its schedule, the bar may be lowered. At the same time, Chuck's ratings are up a bit so it may make season four, yet.
Monday, May 03, 2010
Armor in a Briefcase
"As a little tip of the hat to the fans, I wanted to pull off the suitcase suit," he says. "In the comic book, they have this ridiculous thing where Tony Stark would open up an attache case, throw a glove on, and on the next page, he'd have the whole suit on. How do you make the suitcase suit real? That was another challenge we presented to ourselves." - Jon Favreau
The original version of Iron Man was big and bulky. It had a lot of cast iron pieces and it limited the artist. Stan started improving it immediately. In the first issue, Iron Man was iron gray. In the second issue he noticed that people were nervous around him and, at someone's suggestion, he painted the armor gold (earning the nick-name the "Golden Avenger"). That wasn't good enough and a few months later they redesigned the armor completely. Don Heck had been doing the art with Jack Kirby providing some of the breakdowns. For the redesign, Steve Ditko took over the strip for an issue or two.
The new armor was light and flexible. It had the red chest piece (it actually covered his entire torso) which Stark could wear over the unit keeping his heart beating. To put on the rest of the armor, Stark would pull on a red glove or put a foot through a thick red ring. Golden armor would emerge from this, pulled up his arm or leg by magnets and lock into place in the chest plate. The boots worked the same way. He just stepped on the sole and the boot covered his foot. The mask slid over his head like a hood. The faceplate was hinged and could be raised. It also has larger eyeholes so his expression could be seen through it. The whole assembly was so small and light that he could put it in his attache case and carry it with him. The lock could be set to release tear gas if someone unauthorized opened it. This had to be set separately, allowing someone to steal his armor once.
This remained the basic armor well into the 1980s. There were a few modifications. The face plate became part of the helmet. The pods on his hips grew. The position and size of the unibeam and two smaller plugs moved around.
In the late 1970s, the helmet was redesigned to allow for Stark's nose. It looked ridiculous and Stark quickly returned to the original helmet.
He also went through a phase with red and white armor instead of red and gold. Eventually the armor was redesigned to look more armor-like and began looking like the suit(s) in the movie.
There was a long-running debate in the letter column about the armor. It was flexible when it went on and it had no visible joints so how could it give Stark added strength or even protect him from crushing force?
Eventually a writer threw in the word "polarized" and the debate stopped. Apparently the armor stiffened when a current was applied to it. What is more, it would take different shapes depending on the current, allowing movement.
Something that no one ever commented on is the weight. A thin sheet of high-carbon steel can be pierced by bullets and would weigh something in excess of 100 pounds - not something you could lightly carry with you. Stark's armor is significantly stronger than steel and significantly lighter.
Then there are the batteries. Most of his power was supposed to come from the pods at his hips plus (indestructable?) solar cells in his armor. Batteries that size are more suitable for powering a laptop than a battle suit.
But that's comics. A large portion of disbelief is required.
Tuesday, April 27, 2010
A Lost Rerun?
During its first two years, the most infuriating thing about Lost was the reruns. In a series with strong continuity and constant cliff-hangers, the show lost all momentum when reruns intruded. Sometimes it seemed that they ran more reruns than new episodes. During the second season, they ran through the reruns so fast that they had to show some first season episodes as fill-ins.
Someone started a web site devoted to the question Is Lost a repeat? The site features a single word - either "yes" or "no". The site seemed out of date after ABC pledged that they would never show another rerun, ever again (not counting the times that they showed the prior week's episode at 8:00).
But today the answer is YES.
What happened?
Sweeps month. ABC preferred showing a rerun in April and having the show run an extra week during the May sweeps. Also, they preferred showing double episodes at the beginning and end of the season.
Someone started a web site devoted to the question Is Lost a repeat? The site features a single word - either "yes" or "no". The site seemed out of date after ABC pledged that they would never show another rerun, ever again (not counting the times that they showed the prior week's episode at 8:00).
But today the answer is YES.
What happened?
Sweeps month. ABC preferred showing a rerun in April and having the show run an extra week during the May sweeps. Also, they preferred showing double episodes at the beginning and end of the season.
Sunday, April 18, 2010
How to Train Dragons vs Kick-Ass
How to Train Dragons finished the weekend in a box-office dead heat with Kick-Ass. This is unusual in several ways. First, it was the second weekend in a row with a virtual tie. Second, Dragons was in its 4th weekend and was only number one its first weekend. Now it rose back to the top.
Kick-Ass opened to disappointing numbers. It earned around $20 million when it was expected to earn $25 million.
What happened? I think I have a couple of explanations.
First, How to Train Dragons is a good movie. It is probably benefiting from word-of-mouth. I didn't write about it because we saw it in its third week but it is certainly worth seeing. My wife's comment when we left the theater was, "Why are all the good movies animated?"
Dragons has shown a lot more staying power than most movies. Clash of the Titans, which was number one the last two weeks, dropped to a distant number three.
Then there is Kick-Ass. It got good review, but the reviews make me unlikely to see it. The movie is supposed to be violent and profane. This bothers me because of the age of the cast. It seems troubling that the cast couldn't see the movie without a parent.
For years, studios have been convinced that an R rating helps the box office because the target 20-something audience thinks that anything less is a kid's movie. This is part of why people under 30 tend to use language that makes older people shudder - they took their cues from movies which did not reflect the way that people talked. Over time, the younger generation started talking like the movies.
Regardless, the biggest movies of the 21st century have not been R rated. Maybe the studios will get the message and tone down their content.
Kick-Ass opened to disappointing numbers. It earned around $20 million when it was expected to earn $25 million.
What happened? I think I have a couple of explanations.
First, How to Train Dragons is a good movie. It is probably benefiting from word-of-mouth. I didn't write about it because we saw it in its third week but it is certainly worth seeing. My wife's comment when we left the theater was, "Why are all the good movies animated?"
Dragons has shown a lot more staying power than most movies. Clash of the Titans, which was number one the last two weeks, dropped to a distant number three.
Then there is Kick-Ass. It got good review, but the reviews make me unlikely to see it. The movie is supposed to be violent and profane. This bothers me because of the age of the cast. It seems troubling that the cast couldn't see the movie without a parent.
For years, studios have been convinced that an R rating helps the box office because the target 20-something audience thinks that anything less is a kid's movie. This is part of why people under 30 tend to use language that makes older people shudder - they took their cues from movies which did not reflect the way that people talked. Over time, the younger generation started talking like the movies.
Regardless, the biggest movies of the 21st century have not been R rated. Maybe the studios will get the message and tone down their content.
Monday, April 12, 2010
Tomb of Dracula
As the Silver Age of Comics ca to a close, Marvel and DC were looking for a new hook to bring the readers back. The recent changes to the Comics Code gave them an opportunity - horror comics. Marvel in particular launched a full line of horror comics. They started comic books staring vampires, werewolves, mummies, swamp monsters, zombies, and mummies. Vampires were given the star treatment beginning with Count Dracula himself.
Gerry Conway wrote the first couple of issues. Gene Colon was the artist for the entire run. They took advantage of the more adult setting.
The first issue began with Frank Drake, his best friend, Cliff, and his lover (who had been Cliff's lover) on their way to Drake's castle in Transylvania. Drake's original family name was Dracula. He had run through the family fortune and all he had left was the ancestral Castle Dracula. Cliff suggested opening it to tourists.
It was a dark and stormy night and their car got stuck. A peasant gave them a lift in his carriage. As soon as they arrived, Cliff separated from the group, fell through a rotted floor, and found Dracula's skeletal remains. He removed the stake from Dracula's ribs (of course) and Dracula came back to life. He attacked Cliff then moved on to Frank's girlfriend. Frank used a silver compact to keep Dracula at bay for a while so he flew off and killed a barmaid. The villagers formed a mob, Dracula killed Frank's girlfriend and the villagers set the castle on fire. Frank escaped with his girlfriend's corpse but she came back to life as a vampire.
In the second issue Frank Drake searched the burned-out castle for Dracula. He didn't find him but he did find his friend Cliff, imprisoned a pit. Drake rescues Cliff and steals Dracula's empty coffin and takes it to London. Dracula follows along with Jeanie, Frank's newly vampirized girlfriend. Jeanie tries to seduce Frank but he takes her prisoner and ties her to a chair. She manages to seduce Cliff.
Dracula forced a Transylvanian doctor to treat his pale skin so that he could pass as a human (a point that the colorist missed until issue #4). He traveled to England, picked up a girl in a bar and killed her then attacked Frank and Cliff. Jeanie hypnotizes Cliff who attacks Frank. During the fight, Jeanie is staked and the rising sun forced Dracula to flee.
The issues were poorly written, especially the first one. I remember wondering at the time how much research went into it. Looking back on it - none. Transylvania has not existed in decades. It was part of Romania which was a communist country at the time. Conway and Colon's version of Transylvania was straight from a Universal Picture - full of peasants in 19th century clothing. The plots were trite.
Still, the strip was a huge success. Soon Dracula was staring in a monthly comic, a quarterly double-sized comic, and a monthly, oversized black-and-white magazine.
In issue #3, Archie Goodwin took over for a short time. He introduced a supporting cast - Rachel Van Helsing (the great-granddaughter of that Van Helsing), Quincy Harker (from the novel), and Taj - a mute giant from India. Goodwin had been writing Vampirella where he also introduced Van Helsing descendants. Goodwin answered the question of why Dracula followed his coffin across Europe - it had a bunch of gold coins concealed in the bottom.
Goodwin's writing was better than Conway's. The inking changed from Vince Colletta.to Tom Palmer. At the time Palmer was becoming one of the premier inkers and colorists. The Colon/Palmer team quickly became fan favorites.
More as Marvel posts the digital versions.
Gerry Conway wrote the first couple of issues. Gene Colon was the artist for the entire run. They took advantage of the more adult setting.
The first issue began with Frank Drake, his best friend, Cliff, and his lover (who had been Cliff's lover) on their way to Drake's castle in Transylvania. Drake's original family name was Dracula. He had run through the family fortune and all he had left was the ancestral Castle Dracula. Cliff suggested opening it to tourists.
It was a dark and stormy night and their car got stuck. A peasant gave them a lift in his carriage. As soon as they arrived, Cliff separated from the group, fell through a rotted floor, and found Dracula's skeletal remains. He removed the stake from Dracula's ribs (of course) and Dracula came back to life. He attacked Cliff then moved on to Frank's girlfriend. Frank used a silver compact to keep Dracula at bay for a while so he flew off and killed a barmaid. The villagers formed a mob, Dracula killed Frank's girlfriend and the villagers set the castle on fire. Frank escaped with his girlfriend's corpse but she came back to life as a vampire.
In the second issue Frank Drake searched the burned-out castle for Dracula. He didn't find him but he did find his friend Cliff, imprisoned a pit. Drake rescues Cliff and steals Dracula's empty coffin and takes it to London. Dracula follows along with Jeanie, Frank's newly vampirized girlfriend. Jeanie tries to seduce Frank but he takes her prisoner and ties her to a chair. She manages to seduce Cliff.
Dracula forced a Transylvanian doctor to treat his pale skin so that he could pass as a human (a point that the colorist missed until issue #4). He traveled to England, picked up a girl in a bar and killed her then attacked Frank and Cliff. Jeanie hypnotizes Cliff who attacks Frank. During the fight, Jeanie is staked and the rising sun forced Dracula to flee.
The issues were poorly written, especially the first one. I remember wondering at the time how much research went into it. Looking back on it - none. Transylvania has not existed in decades. It was part of Romania which was a communist country at the time. Conway and Colon's version of Transylvania was straight from a Universal Picture - full of peasants in 19th century clothing. The plots were trite.
Still, the strip was a huge success. Soon Dracula was staring in a monthly comic, a quarterly double-sized comic, and a monthly, oversized black-and-white magazine.
In issue #3, Archie Goodwin took over for a short time. He introduced a supporting cast - Rachel Van Helsing (the great-granddaughter of that Van Helsing), Quincy Harker (from the novel), and Taj - a mute giant from India. Goodwin had been writing Vampirella where he also introduced Van Helsing descendants. Goodwin answered the question of why Dracula followed his coffin across Europe - it had a bunch of gold coins concealed in the bottom.
Goodwin's writing was better than Conway's. The inking changed from Vince Colletta.to Tom Palmer. At the time Palmer was becoming one of the premier inkers and colorists. The Colon/Palmer team quickly became fan favorites.
More as Marvel posts the digital versions.
Friday, April 09, 2010
IPad Anger
In the days preceding the actual release of the IPad we were repeatedly told that the release if this device would be the most significant event of the year. It made the cover of both Newsweek and Time. It was covered on the national news. Every talk show host had one. articles gushed over how it made all other computing obsolete.
The actual device does not live up to its press and some people, including me, dislike Apple's role as gatekeeper for content and the model for content which assumes that you will be buying everything, sometimes for more than retail price. Personally, I resent the pressure to buy a $500 device (which costs more that $1,000 after warranty and extras) so that I can buy content that I get free now.
I've vented on the IPad several times already and I wasn't going to do so again until I saw this post on Huffington. Basically, the author, Daniel Sinker, is offended that some people don't like the IPad and mounts a spirited defence of it.
First, to prove that the virtual keyboard is usable, Sinker used it to write his post. That doesn't convince me. I have used virtual keyboards on other devices and there is no way that you can touch type. You can enter text but it is more of a stunt than proof of anything.
Sinker moves on to the expectation that moving content from paper to the IPad will cause people to start paying for subscriptions again.
Since Steve Jobs made a big presentation on the IPad to the Wall Street Journal, he may have told then to charge more. At minimum he gave them the impression that they could. Jobs made the rounds to Big Media and told them that the IPad was their salvation. That means he made them expect that they could charge their newsstand (not subscription) price for content.
Sinker also dismisses Apple's gatekeeper role:
This is a very strange argument. No, you cannot go into a Japanese restaurant and order latkes but you can go to a different restaurant that does server them. There are no competing stores for IPad apps. If you want a WiFi-finder app or a subscription to Vougue or FHM then you are out of luck. Apple has rejected these, and, since on-line subscriptions to these magazines require Flash, you cannot get them through the web browser, either.
Sinker indirectly bring up another sore point about the IPad but I will have to point it out:
When talks about dragging in content he means that he had to use a real computer to download or rip the content then connect the IPad to his computer with a sync cable and use ITunes to move the files. I have yet to see anyone say that they love ITunes. For a company that is supposed to make things that "just work", ITunes generates a lot of hate. Plus, what's with the cable? Microsoft has supported wireless syncing on the Zune for years.
Sinker finishes with three paragraphs of ranting about how great the IPad is and how it will be transformational in ways that we cannot appreciate, yet. This isn't worth arguing with. He is speculating on things that may or may not happen months or years from now. If these new, unimagined, paradigms emerge then they will speak for themselves. In the meantime, the IPad is still just a toy instead of a serious tool.
The actual device does not live up to its press and some people, including me, dislike Apple's role as gatekeeper for content and the model for content which assumes that you will be buying everything, sometimes for more than retail price. Personally, I resent the pressure to buy a $500 device (which costs more that $1,000 after warranty and extras) so that I can buy content that I get free now.
I've vented on the IPad several times already and I wasn't going to do so again until I saw this post on Huffington. Basically, the author, Daniel Sinker, is offended that some people don't like the IPad and mounts a spirited defence of it.
First, to prove that the virtual keyboard is usable, Sinker used it to write his post. That doesn't convince me. I have used virtual keyboards on other devices and there is no way that you can touch type. You can enter text but it is more of a stunt than proof of anything.
Sinker moves on to the expectation that moving content from paper to the IPad will cause people to start paying for subscriptions again.
In his day-after critique, Jarvis says "it returns us all to their good old days when we just consumed, we didn't create." The "their" in that sentence are big media companies, who are furiously building iPad apps in an attempt to rescue their broken business models. And he's right: the apps these companies have released are for consuming conglomerate content. But what do you expect from a pig but a grunt? It's not Apple's fault that big media companies don't know how to create new things. It's not Steve Jobs who told the Wall Street Journal to charge more for an iPad subscription than a print subscription or Time magazine to make the bizarre decision of releasing a separate app for every issue. Big media has done a great job of making bad decisions for a couple decades -- who'd expect them to stop now?
Since Steve Jobs made a big presentation on the IPad to the Wall Street Journal, he may have told then to charge more. At minimum he gave them the impression that they could. Jobs made the rounds to Big Media and told them that the IPad was their salvation. That means he made them expect that they could charge their newsstand (not subscription) price for content.
Sinker also dismisses Apple's gatekeeper role:
A lot of the "there" there is about control: do we want a gatekeeper to devices we own? It's a valid argument, but one that applies equally to game consoles, mobile phones, most real-world content distribution, and many other corners of life both digital and physical (I can't walk into a Japanese restaurant and order latkes, in the same way I can't upload a Word file to Flickr). But for some, there is a line in in the sand and the iPad, apparently, is one grain too far
This is a very strange argument. No, you cannot go into a Japanese restaurant and order latkes but you can go to a different restaurant that does server them. There are no competing stores for IPad apps. If you want a WiFi-finder app or a subscription to Vougue or FHM then you are out of luck. Apple has rejected these, and, since on-line subscriptions to these magazines require Flash, you cannot get them through the web browser, either.
Sinker indirectly bring up another sore point about the IPad but I will have to point it out:
But the only thing locked down on the iPad are the apps. The web is (wonderfully) wide open. Reading, Listening and Watching, also open -- I can drag in any epub-format books, mp3 audio, or mp4 video that I want. But you can't execute arbitrary code on the iPad. And if you know what that means, my guess is that you've already got a device that can.
When talks about dragging in content he means that he had to use a real computer to download or rip the content then connect the IPad to his computer with a sync cable and use ITunes to move the files. I have yet to see anyone say that they love ITunes. For a company that is supposed to make things that "just work", ITunes generates a lot of hate. Plus, what's with the cable? Microsoft has supported wireless syncing on the Zune for years.
Sinker finishes with three paragraphs of ranting about how great the IPad is and how it will be transformational in ways that we cannot appreciate, yet. This isn't worth arguing with. He is speculating on things that may or may not happen months or years from now. If these new, unimagined, paradigms emerge then they will speak for themselves. In the meantime, the IPad is still just a toy instead of a serious tool.
Wednesday, April 07, 2010
Different Ads
Currently Verizon is running Droid ads fairly often and Apple is running IPhone ads. I noticed a big difference between them. The current IPhone ad has someone deciding to buy the album she is listening to. While she is doing that through her IPhone, it tells her that the group is giving a local concert so she also buys tickets for that. There are a couple of Droid ads but they center around all of the things you can search for with your Droid. Do you see the difference? The IPhone ad is about the things that you can buy with your phone and the Droid ad is about things you can do with your phone.
This isn't surprising. Apple has redefined itself as a company that sells content. Google is still a search company.
This isn't surprising. Apple has redefined itself as a company that sells content. Google is still a search company.
Dick Giordano
Dick Giordano died recently. Wired has a quick overview of his career here.
I became aware of him when he started at DC in the late 1960s. DC was in the process of upgrading itself. Several of the characters had become stodgy, 1950s relics. This included their flagship characters, Superman and Batman. DC had done one upgrade of Batman in the early 1960s but the Adam West TV show ended that. Superman hadn't had a change in style since the 1950s.
DC's overhaul consisted of two parts. One was to bring in new arch-enemies for the characters. This wasn't particularly successful. Who remembers Tera-Man (a cowboy with high-tech alien weapons) or the man with ten eyes (someone grafted his optic nerves and his fingertips together)? Other changes were longer-lasting. Robin graduated and went off to college and Clark Kent was moved from being a newspaper reporter to a news anchor.
The biggest change was in the artwork. Neil Adams and Dick Giordano gave the books a fresh, new look that still influences today's comic artists. The two defined a new house style for DC. Since Giordano was a prolific inker as well as penciller, his influence went further, giving other artists a touch of the new style.
Giordano did a little work for Marvel. The most memorable was an serialized adaption of Dracula that ran in the back of one of the black and white comics that Marvel produced in the mid-1970s. Regrettably, Marvel killed their black and white line before the adaptation was complete.
In the 1980s, Giordano became editor-in-chief of DC during one of its most creative and audacious periods.
I became aware of him when he started at DC in the late 1960s. DC was in the process of upgrading itself. Several of the characters had become stodgy, 1950s relics. This included their flagship characters, Superman and Batman. DC had done one upgrade of Batman in the early 1960s but the Adam West TV show ended that. Superman hadn't had a change in style since the 1950s.
DC's overhaul consisted of two parts. One was to bring in new arch-enemies for the characters. This wasn't particularly successful. Who remembers Tera-Man (a cowboy with high-tech alien weapons) or the man with ten eyes (someone grafted his optic nerves and his fingertips together)? Other changes were longer-lasting. Robin graduated and went off to college and Clark Kent was moved from being a newspaper reporter to a news anchor.
The biggest change was in the artwork. Neil Adams and Dick Giordano gave the books a fresh, new look that still influences today's comic artists. The two defined a new house style for DC. Since Giordano was a prolific inker as well as penciller, his influence went further, giving other artists a touch of the new style.
Giordano did a little work for Marvel. The most memorable was an serialized adaption of Dracula that ran in the back of one of the black and white comics that Marvel produced in the mid-1970s. Regrettably, Marvel killed their black and white line before the adaptation was complete.
In the 1980s, Giordano became editor-in-chief of DC during one of its most creative and audacious periods.
Monday, April 05, 2010
IPad - Reviewing the reviews
Coverage of the IPad has been ... interesting. When the device was first announced several correspondents live-blogged it. Their initial reaction was "it's just a big IPod Touch". While the world waited to get its collective hands on units, a few select journalists got pre-release units. Suddenly the reviews went from positive to glowing, even gushing. The most extreme example I have seen is here. This reviewer believes that we all secretly hate our computers (even ones from Apple). He goes on to insist that the IPad is different. Using it is so natural that anyone can use it without thinking, even a three-year-old or an 80-year-old.
Why the big change? John Dvorak points out that the dying media are clinging to the IPad as their lifeline. Beyond that, Apple was selective in only handing them out to people with a history of Apple boosterism. Put the two together and you have a conflict of interest where the people writing the reviews have already been given units worth hundreds of dollars and their editors are hoping to promote the new business model. No objectivity here.
I can understand why the old media is making the attempt. The Wall Street Journal is an example. You can get their content for free here or you can download their "free" app and pay $3.99/week for the same content. I know which the WSJ wants you to do.
There have been numerous articles that mention reading ebooks and magazines on the IPad. All of them make a point of how the experience mimics the real thing. I think that basing an interface on an older technology is a mistake for several reasons. The biggest one is that newspapers and magazines are laid out like they are because of the limitations of ink on paper. Some people have a fondness for the tactile experience. I suspect that they have associated the media with the experience of reading the content. People who have not been taught this relationship will be confused by it and probably reject it.
Now that people actually have IPads in their hands, people with no vested interest are weighing in. They still call it an impressive device but some are questioning the idea that it is a replacement for notebooks or even netbooks. For example, this article lists 13 glaring shortcomings. To those, I would add the lack of email folders, the lack of tabbed browsing, the lack of handwriting recognition, and the inability to print and its tiny amount of memory. During the gushing phase, some reviewers suggested that the IPad could run business applications. Given these problems, it is hard to see how this could happen.
The bottom line is that the IPad is an expensive toy that hopes to create a niche.
I could afford to buy an IPad but I'm not going to. I really don't know what I would do with it. My Nokia N800 is much smaller and good for checking emails (it supports folders), quick web browsing (including Flash). I can also read ebooks from Project Gutenberg on it.
Most anything else I do is handled quite well by my notebook or my netbook. All of these have more storage available than the starting IPad and I can run the same software on the notebook and netbook. Also, none of them cost what the IPad costs (I got a good deal on the notebook - it came with Vista just as Windows 7 was being rolled out). Given all of that, the IPad would be nothing but an extra toy that I don't need.
Now, if someone would just port an ebook reader to the Zune HD...
UPDATE:
Speaking of the Zune HD, my biggest disappointment was that it could not connect with WiFi that redirects your to a terms of use page. Microsoft just released a firmware update that solved this problem. I verified this at dinner tonight.
Why the big change? John Dvorak points out that the dying media are clinging to the IPad as their lifeline. Beyond that, Apple was selective in only handing them out to people with a history of Apple boosterism. Put the two together and you have a conflict of interest where the people writing the reviews have already been given units worth hundreds of dollars and their editors are hoping to promote the new business model. No objectivity here.
I can understand why the old media is making the attempt. The Wall Street Journal is an example. You can get their content for free here or you can download their "free" app and pay $3.99/week for the same content. I know which the WSJ wants you to do.
There have been numerous articles that mention reading ebooks and magazines on the IPad. All of them make a point of how the experience mimics the real thing. I think that basing an interface on an older technology is a mistake for several reasons. The biggest one is that newspapers and magazines are laid out like they are because of the limitations of ink on paper. Some people have a fondness for the tactile experience. I suspect that they have associated the media with the experience of reading the content. People who have not been taught this relationship will be confused by it and probably reject it.
Now that people actually have IPads in their hands, people with no vested interest are weighing in. They still call it an impressive device but some are questioning the idea that it is a replacement for notebooks or even netbooks. For example, this article lists 13 glaring shortcomings. To those, I would add the lack of email folders, the lack of tabbed browsing, the lack of handwriting recognition, and the inability to print and its tiny amount of memory. During the gushing phase, some reviewers suggested that the IPad could run business applications. Given these problems, it is hard to see how this could happen.
The bottom line is that the IPad is an expensive toy that hopes to create a niche.
I could afford to buy an IPad but I'm not going to. I really don't know what I would do with it. My Nokia N800 is much smaller and good for checking emails (it supports folders), quick web browsing (including Flash). I can also read ebooks from Project Gutenberg on it.
Most anything else I do is handled quite well by my notebook or my netbook. All of these have more storage available than the starting IPad and I can run the same software on the notebook and netbook. Also, none of them cost what the IPad costs (I got a good deal on the notebook - it came with Vista just as Windows 7 was being rolled out). Given all of that, the IPad would be nothing but an extra toy that I don't need.
Now, if someone would just port an ebook reader to the Zune HD...
UPDATE:
Speaking of the Zune HD, my biggest disappointment was that it could not connect with WiFi that redirects your to a terms of use page. Microsoft just released a firmware update that solved this problem. I verified this at dinner tonight.
Friday, April 02, 2010
IPad Mania
The IPads are about to arrive and the press is frantic. Presonally I hope that it fails or is nothing more than a marginal product. I have nothing against the concept but there are two things about the execution that makes me root against it:
First, it is an attempt by Apple to take over computing. Apple has already said what standards they will and will not support. Their various stores have been successful but they have also given Apple enormous power. Jobs can now tell the recording companies what they will charge. Amazon can's do that. They tried to set the price for ebooks at $9.99 but had to back off. Expect to see the ebook price rise to match print editions even though you have much deeper rights with a printed book. You can keep a printed book until it falls apart, you can lend it out, or you can sell it. Try doing any of that with an ebook on a Kindle (or an IPad).
Apple rules its app store with an iron fist. It has no set standards. Developers often have their apps rejected without comment. Even when a reason is given, it is often too cryptic to be useful. Even if an app is accepted, it might be rejected without notice in the future. If you bought an app more than a month ago and Apple rejects it, they will remove it from your phone or pad. They will not notify you that this was done and they will not refund your payment. It just vanishes.
Then there is Flash, Silverlight, Javascript, and other similar technologies. Apple does not allow any of them. The reasons they give are excuses. The real reason is that they want to control content. They do not want you using Flash to watch videos for free when they can sell it to you.
And this brings me to my second reason for wanting the IPad to fail - Apple is trying to monetarize the web. By funneling everything through their stores, they can put micro charges on things that have been free. Newspapers and magazines are overjoyed by this prospect. Most newspapers in the country are going broke. They cannot compete with on-line news sources. They hope that they can sell you content through the IPad that is currently free. Others are also lining up for this gravy train. Marvel Comics announced a new IPad application. 500 titles are currently available. You can read the first three pages of any of them for free and pay $2.00 for the full comic. That may sound like a great deal but there are thousands of comics available through the digital service and the subscription rate is so low that a half dozen comics a month through the IPad is more expensive. I lost count of the number of digital comics I've read in the last three months but it is well over 100. Just catching up on the She-Hulk would have cost more on an IPad than a year's subscription.
If the IPad is a major success then we can expect to see the Internet drained of content and moved over to Apple on a pay-per-view basis. I have my doubts that this will be the salvation of the content producers but once it becomes established it will be like ITunes - you may not like it but it represents too big a market to ignore.
Consider the IPhone apps developers. There are currently something like 150,000 apps available. It costs money to produce all of these apps but only a few make any real money. The real winner here is Apple. As the middleman, they profit regardless of what apps sell.
A few years ago people worried about Microsoft taking over the Internet and locking down content. Now Apple is trying to do the same thing but no one seems to care because of how polished their product.
None of this is new. Apple tried to lock people into the original Mac. For the first year it was produced you violated your warranty if you plugged a non-Apple printer or disk drive into a Mac and the only way to write a program for it was to buy a $10,000 LISA computer. Steve Jobs never got over his desire to control everything. I prefer not to be a co-enabler.
First, it is an attempt by Apple to take over computing. Apple has already said what standards they will and will not support. Their various stores have been successful but they have also given Apple enormous power. Jobs can now tell the recording companies what they will charge. Amazon can's do that. They tried to set the price for ebooks at $9.99 but had to back off. Expect to see the ebook price rise to match print editions even though you have much deeper rights with a printed book. You can keep a printed book until it falls apart, you can lend it out, or you can sell it. Try doing any of that with an ebook on a Kindle (or an IPad).
Apple rules its app store with an iron fist. It has no set standards. Developers often have their apps rejected without comment. Even when a reason is given, it is often too cryptic to be useful. Even if an app is accepted, it might be rejected without notice in the future. If you bought an app more than a month ago and Apple rejects it, they will remove it from your phone or pad. They will not notify you that this was done and they will not refund your payment. It just vanishes.
Then there is Flash, Silverlight, Javascript, and other similar technologies. Apple does not allow any of them. The reasons they give are excuses. The real reason is that they want to control content. They do not want you using Flash to watch videos for free when they can sell it to you.
And this brings me to my second reason for wanting the IPad to fail - Apple is trying to monetarize the web. By funneling everything through their stores, they can put micro charges on things that have been free. Newspapers and magazines are overjoyed by this prospect. Most newspapers in the country are going broke. They cannot compete with on-line news sources. They hope that they can sell you content through the IPad that is currently free. Others are also lining up for this gravy train. Marvel Comics announced a new IPad application. 500 titles are currently available. You can read the first three pages of any of them for free and pay $2.00 for the full comic. That may sound like a great deal but there are thousands of comics available through the digital service and the subscription rate is so low that a half dozen comics a month through the IPad is more expensive. I lost count of the number of digital comics I've read in the last three months but it is well over 100. Just catching up on the She-Hulk would have cost more on an IPad than a year's subscription.
If the IPad is a major success then we can expect to see the Internet drained of content and moved over to Apple on a pay-per-view basis. I have my doubts that this will be the salvation of the content producers but once it becomes established it will be like ITunes - you may not like it but it represents too big a market to ignore.
Consider the IPhone apps developers. There are currently something like 150,000 apps available. It costs money to produce all of these apps but only a few make any real money. The real winner here is Apple. As the middleman, they profit regardless of what apps sell.
A few years ago people worried about Microsoft taking over the Internet and locking down content. Now Apple is trying to do the same thing but no one seems to care because of how polished their product.
None of this is new. Apple tried to lock people into the original Mac. For the first year it was produced you violated your warranty if you plugged a non-Apple printer or disk drive into a Mac and the only way to write a program for it was to buy a $10,000 LISA computer. Steve Jobs never got over his desire to control everything. I prefer not to be a co-enabler.
Tuesday, March 30, 2010
Rick Jones, the Ultimate Sidekick
Marvel Digital has a highlight of Rick Jones's career (if you can call it that). While this covers some of Rick's highlights, it misses a lot. Here's my take.
Rick is one of Marvel's oldest characters and their longest-running supporting character. His first appearance was in Hulk #1. The government was about to test a new atomic weapon (back in the days of above-ground testing) when Bruce Banner spotted someone in range of the blast. He told is assistant to stop the countdown and rushed to get this person to safety. The intruder turned out to be Rick Jones, an orphan who sneaked onto restricted land as a bet. He had no idea of an atomic test. Banner's assistant was a spy and failed to stop the countdown. Banner got Jones to safety but was caught in the radiation from the blast. Banner and Jones were put in an room for observation. When the sun set, Banner changed into the Hulk and escaped. Jones followed, figuring that he owed the Hulk. Their relationship changed a few times during the Hulk's original run. At one point, Rick gained mental control of the Hulk.
Rick formed a group of ham radio enthusiasts called the Teen Brigade. Back then, a lot of people bought high-powered radios. Under favorable weather conditions, the signal could reflect off of the ionosphere and the ham radio operator could talk with people all over the world. When the Hulk was reported to be on a rampage, Rick and the Teen Brigade called the Fantastic Four for help. The god Loki changed the frequency that they were broadcasting on in order to lure Thor into a fight with the Hulk. Iron Man and Ant Man were listening to the same frequency and ended up forming the Avengers. Because of his role in creating the Avengers, Rick was given access to Tony Stark's mansion where the Avengers met.
After Captain America was revived, he mistook Rick for his lost partner, Bucky. Cap took Rick on as an apprentice along with the rest of the Teen Brigade. They managed to save the Avengers from Kang and Count Nefaria. At the same time, Rick used his Avengers ID to have a meeting with the President (I think it was LBJ by that point but he was off-panel) to ask for help for Banner. Banner was imprisoned a couple of times on suspicion of espionage and released thanks to Rick. Later, Banner was shot in the head and apparently killed. Rick stole the body and exposed it to gamma rays, reviving Banner as an intelligent Hulk. When the Hulk vanished and appeared dead, Rick finally confessed Banner's secret.
Rick finally got a chance as Captain America's costumed sidekick for a couple of issues.
During the Kree/Skrull War, Rick was imprisoned with the Kree Supreme Intelligence, a composite being who stimulated Rick's capacity for mutation. For a short time Rick became powerful enough to end hostilities between the two races.
DC comics let the trademark to the name Captain Marvel lapse and Marvel Comics created their own version. Originally he was an alien with divided loyalties sent to spy on Earth. Marvel decided to rework the character, making him more like the original Captain Marvel. The original was a boy who shouted "Shazam" and became the Captain. Marvel's new version was sent into the Negative Zone where he could only be released when someone wearing a pair of "nega bands" traded places with him. This person turned out to be Rick Jones. Rick also started a career as a singer.
The two were eventually separated. At one point, Rick exposed himself to radiation in the hope of gaining super powers. Instead he got cancer and became a supporting character in ROM. After being cured of cancer, Rick returned to the Hulk where he actually became the Hulk for a couple of issues. The Leader drained his "Hulkness" away but Rick remained as a supporting character in the Hulk for years (through most of Peter David's run). Rick fell in love with a Vegas showgirl named Marlo and the two hosted a talk-show for a while.
Captain Marvel's son became the next Captain. He was artificially created and was merged with Rick so that Rick could give him guidance.
When the Red Hulk appeared, some hints were dropped that he was actually Rick. It quickly turned out that Rick was actually the new Abomination.
Rick is one of Marvel's oldest characters and their longest-running supporting character. His first appearance was in Hulk #1. The government was about to test a new atomic weapon (back in the days of above-ground testing) when Bruce Banner spotted someone in range of the blast. He told is assistant to stop the countdown and rushed to get this person to safety. The intruder turned out to be Rick Jones, an orphan who sneaked onto restricted land as a bet. He had no idea of an atomic test. Banner's assistant was a spy and failed to stop the countdown. Banner got Jones to safety but was caught in the radiation from the blast. Banner and Jones were put in an room for observation. When the sun set, Banner changed into the Hulk and escaped. Jones followed, figuring that he owed the Hulk. Their relationship changed a few times during the Hulk's original run. At one point, Rick gained mental control of the Hulk.
Rick formed a group of ham radio enthusiasts called the Teen Brigade. Back then, a lot of people bought high-powered radios. Under favorable weather conditions, the signal could reflect off of the ionosphere and the ham radio operator could talk with people all over the world. When the Hulk was reported to be on a rampage, Rick and the Teen Brigade called the Fantastic Four for help. The god Loki changed the frequency that they were broadcasting on in order to lure Thor into a fight with the Hulk. Iron Man and Ant Man were listening to the same frequency and ended up forming the Avengers. Because of his role in creating the Avengers, Rick was given access to Tony Stark's mansion where the Avengers met.
After Captain America was revived, he mistook Rick for his lost partner, Bucky. Cap took Rick on as an apprentice along with the rest of the Teen Brigade. They managed to save the Avengers from Kang and Count Nefaria. At the same time, Rick used his Avengers ID to have a meeting with the President (I think it was LBJ by that point but he was off-panel) to ask for help for Banner. Banner was imprisoned a couple of times on suspicion of espionage and released thanks to Rick. Later, Banner was shot in the head and apparently killed. Rick stole the body and exposed it to gamma rays, reviving Banner as an intelligent Hulk. When the Hulk vanished and appeared dead, Rick finally confessed Banner's secret.
Rick finally got a chance as Captain America's costumed sidekick for a couple of issues.
During the Kree/Skrull War, Rick was imprisoned with the Kree Supreme Intelligence, a composite being who stimulated Rick's capacity for mutation. For a short time Rick became powerful enough to end hostilities between the two races.
DC comics let the trademark to the name Captain Marvel lapse and Marvel Comics created their own version. Originally he was an alien with divided loyalties sent to spy on Earth. Marvel decided to rework the character, making him more like the original Captain Marvel. The original was a boy who shouted "Shazam" and became the Captain. Marvel's new version was sent into the Negative Zone where he could only be released when someone wearing a pair of "nega bands" traded places with him. This person turned out to be Rick Jones. Rick also started a career as a singer.
The two were eventually separated. At one point, Rick exposed himself to radiation in the hope of gaining super powers. Instead he got cancer and became a supporting character in ROM. After being cured of cancer, Rick returned to the Hulk where he actually became the Hulk for a couple of issues. The Leader drained his "Hulkness" away but Rick remained as a supporting character in the Hulk for years (through most of Peter David's run). Rick fell in love with a Vegas showgirl named Marlo and the two hosted a talk-show for a while.
Captain Marvel's son became the next Captain. He was artificially created and was merged with Rick so that Rick could give him guidance.
When the Red Hulk appeared, some hints were dropped that he was actually Rick. It quickly turned out that Rick was actually the new Abomination.
Friday, March 26, 2010
Lost - Richard's backstory
We finally got the story on Richard. There weren't any real surprises. All of the major points had already been hinted at.
[spoiler alert]
We started out with Richard explaining that the island is Hell. Deja vu. That was a theory floating around in the first season. It's wrong, of course. If the people on the island are dead then there would be no body count - they'd already be dead.
We got our first flashback of the season to Richard (Ricardo) in the 19th century. His wife, Isabella, was dying, probably from Malaria. The closest doctor was hours away and a jerk. He told Richard that he would not travel in a storm at night to save Isabella but he had expensive medicine. Ricardo offered all of his money and Isabella's gold cross (we know it is real gold because it stayed buried for over a century without corroding). While pleading with the doctor, Ricardo accidentally trips him. The doctor hits his head on a table and dies. Ricardo takes the medicine but arrives too late. Isabella is already dead.
While in jail for murder, Ricardo is visited by a priest. He confesses but the priest refuses to give absolution (another jerk). Instead he arranges for Ricardo to be sold as a slave. He is chained in the hold of the Black Rock.
The ship is caught in a storm and a huge wave carries the ship deep inland, smashing Nathan's statue on the way.
The officers decide to kill the slaves before they can revolt. The captain is in the process of doing this when the Smoke Monster appears and kills everyone on deck. It then comes through a hatch and kills the captain but leaves Ricardo, still chained to the hull. Ricardo tries to escape. He is visited by the Smoky appearing as Isabella who tells him that they are in Hell. Later Smoky appears as the Man in Black and releases Ricardo. He gives Ricardo a dagger and sends him to kill the devil (Nathan). The dagger and instructions are the same that Sayid was given.
Nathan seizes Ricardo from behind, disarms him, and convinces him that they are still alive. Nathan explains that the island is like a cork, keeping evil bottled up. Ricardo joins him and Nathan makes him immortal.
Back in the present, Richard is in despair. After devoting decades to serving Nathan, he is left without a purpose. He digs up Isabella's necklace which he buried back in the 19th century and tried to join Locke's side. Instead Hurley shows up along with Isabella's ghost. Richard becomes reconciled.
Several questions remain. Nathan said that he summons people to the island and tests them. Just who is he to be able to do this? The show keeps switching back and forth between science and magic but this seems to have taken it over the edge. In an earlier episode, Smoky referred to his mother. Nathan is looking for a replacement. Are both of these characters regular people who have taken on a supernatural role? What determines who Smoky does and does not kill? What was the effect of destroying the island in the alternate time? Did this release Smoky there?
[spoiler alert]
We started out with Richard explaining that the island is Hell. Deja vu. That was a theory floating around in the first season. It's wrong, of course. If the people on the island are dead then there would be no body count - they'd already be dead.
We got our first flashback of the season to Richard (Ricardo) in the 19th century. His wife, Isabella, was dying, probably from Malaria. The closest doctor was hours away and a jerk. He told Richard that he would not travel in a storm at night to save Isabella but he had expensive medicine. Ricardo offered all of his money and Isabella's gold cross (we know it is real gold because it stayed buried for over a century without corroding). While pleading with the doctor, Ricardo accidentally trips him. The doctor hits his head on a table and dies. Ricardo takes the medicine but arrives too late. Isabella is already dead.
While in jail for murder, Ricardo is visited by a priest. He confesses but the priest refuses to give absolution (another jerk). Instead he arranges for Ricardo to be sold as a slave. He is chained in the hold of the Black Rock.
The ship is caught in a storm and a huge wave carries the ship deep inland, smashing Nathan's statue on the way.
The officers decide to kill the slaves before they can revolt. The captain is in the process of doing this when the Smoke Monster appears and kills everyone on deck. It then comes through a hatch and kills the captain but leaves Ricardo, still chained to the hull. Ricardo tries to escape. He is visited by the Smoky appearing as Isabella who tells him that they are in Hell. Later Smoky appears as the Man in Black and releases Ricardo. He gives Ricardo a dagger and sends him to kill the devil (Nathan). The dagger and instructions are the same that Sayid was given.
Nathan seizes Ricardo from behind, disarms him, and convinces him that they are still alive. Nathan explains that the island is like a cork, keeping evil bottled up. Ricardo joins him and Nathan makes him immortal.
Back in the present, Richard is in despair. After devoting decades to serving Nathan, he is left without a purpose. He digs up Isabella's necklace which he buried back in the 19th century and tried to join Locke's side. Instead Hurley shows up along with Isabella's ghost. Richard becomes reconciled.
Several questions remain. Nathan said that he summons people to the island and tests them. Just who is he to be able to do this? The show keeps switching back and forth between science and magic but this seems to have taken it over the edge. In an earlier episode, Smoky referred to his mother. Nathan is looking for a replacement. Are both of these characters regular people who have taken on a supernatural role? What determines who Smoky does and does not kill? What was the effect of destroying the island in the alternate time? Did this release Smoky there?
Thursday, March 18, 2010
She-Hulk
I took a break from reading old Avengers and Hulk comics and caught up on She-Hulk. I skipped the original series except for the first issue and the second series by John Byrne and picked it up with the third series which started in 2004.
She-Hulk's original series was always a B-character. The rumor was that Marvel only created her on advice of its legal team to secure copyright following the popularity of the Hulk TV show. Stan Lee wrote the first issue then moved on. John Buscema was the artist. This was one of very few comics that Stan wrote in the late 1970s and his last new character. On the other hand, Buscema was often assigned to a book for the first few issues to get it off the ground, then reassigned. Lee and Buscema were responsible for the original run of the Silver Surfer so this pairing was meant to give the character a superstar launch.
It was actually a mediocre effort. To capsulize the plot - fugitive Bruce Banner wanted to spend some time with someone friendly so he went to visit his cousin, Jennifer Walters, a lawyer. While the two were talking, some hit men who were upset about one of Jennifer's clients shot her. after taking shelter in an empty doctor's office, Banner managed to slow the bleeding but she had lost too much blood to survive until medical help arrived. Using knowledge from his early days in college when he wanted to be a doctor instead of a physicist, Banner gave Jennifer a blood transfusion then vanished. Later the thugs made another try at killing Jennifer. The excitement caused her to turn into a female version of the Hulk.
The version of Bruce Banner used was much closer to the TV show than the comic book version. There was even an opening panel about the various names he was known by. He was "Bruce" most of the time but Stan slipped in the early 1960s and called him "Bob" a few times. The TV show thought that Bruce was "too gay" and used "David". He also had to explain to his cousin that he was the Hulk, even though this had been common knowledge in the Marvel Universe for years (but not on the TV show).
As a character, She-Hulk was not as strong as her cousin nor as inhuman looking. She looked like any seven-foot tall woman who worked out regularly and had green skin. She was short-tempered but didn't lose her intellect the way that Banner's Hulk usually did.
She-Hulk's original run was unmemorable and only lasted 25 issues. In the last comic she decided that she preferred being the She-Hulk and would stay that way permanently. Not long after that she joined the Avengers. In 1985 she replaced the Thing in the Fantastic Four which was written and drawn by John Byrne. Byrne loved the character and enhanced her looks some - giving her long wavy hair, a thinner build (except when she was pumped up) and larger breasts. After the Thing returned, Byrne did a She-Hulk comic which included a lot of cheesecake. She also resumed her law career and became a party girl.
Which brings us to the series that I have been reading. After too much partying, the Avengers kicked her out of the mansion. She also lost her job with the prosecutor's office and took a job with a law firm specializing in super hero cases. From there the comic became a cross between a regular superhero comic, Aly McBeal, and Boston Law. Supporting characters included Amazing Andy (the Mad Thinker's Amazing Android), and John Jamison aka the Man-Wolf. While the tone was tongue-in-cheek, the comic took on adult questions such as equating Eros's (aka Starfox) ability to affect pleasure centers with date-rape drugs. She also slept around a lot. A running joke was that she had even slept with the Juggernaut (it turned out that an extra-dimensional duplicate had instead).
During John Byrne's run, She-Hulk often broke the fourth wall and talked directly to the reader. During her run as a lawyer she never did this but the legal department used comic books as reference material. It had long been established that, in the Marvel Universe, comic books were based on real-life character under license. The Comic Code seal meant that they were published under an arm of the government and therefore admissible in court. The ignored retconning and only mentioned continuity problems once.
This version of She-Hulk may have been good in court (and, apparently in bed) but she was easily manipulated. She also had a lot of identity problems. Due to various manipulations she often had trouble changing from Jennifer into She-Hulk. She also changed back in her sleep fairly often which was a surprise to whoever she was sleeping with. Her sexual hi-jinks made her a less-than admirable character. The lawyer phase lasted a dozen issues and was brought back for another 22 issues. After that Peter David took it over and gave the character a new direction. In David's version, Jen was fired and dis-barred and was working as a bounty hunter with a Skrull side-kick. This lasted until issue 36 when she was canceled (again).
There were major continuity problems between She-Hulk's own book and the Hulk where she was a frequent guest-star. This was an editorial mistake. The editors didn't bother to coordinate the two. As a result, Jen was working with Tony Stark and SHIELD when the Red Hulk attacked but had had a major falling out with Stark in her own comic.
Of the two approaches in the 2004-2009 comics, Peter David's was the more conventional and the more entertaining. The legal adventures tended to be a little too far-fetched, even for a Marvel comic.
She-Hulk's original series was always a B-character. The rumor was that Marvel only created her on advice of its legal team to secure copyright following the popularity of the Hulk TV show. Stan Lee wrote the first issue then moved on. John Buscema was the artist. This was one of very few comics that Stan wrote in the late 1970s and his last new character. On the other hand, Buscema was often assigned to a book for the first few issues to get it off the ground, then reassigned. Lee and Buscema were responsible for the original run of the Silver Surfer so this pairing was meant to give the character a superstar launch.
It was actually a mediocre effort. To capsulize the plot - fugitive Bruce Banner wanted to spend some time with someone friendly so he went to visit his cousin, Jennifer Walters, a lawyer. While the two were talking, some hit men who were upset about one of Jennifer's clients shot her. after taking shelter in an empty doctor's office, Banner managed to slow the bleeding but she had lost too much blood to survive until medical help arrived. Using knowledge from his early days in college when he wanted to be a doctor instead of a physicist, Banner gave Jennifer a blood transfusion then vanished. Later the thugs made another try at killing Jennifer. The excitement caused her to turn into a female version of the Hulk.
The version of Bruce Banner used was much closer to the TV show than the comic book version. There was even an opening panel about the various names he was known by. He was "Bruce" most of the time but Stan slipped in the early 1960s and called him "Bob" a few times. The TV show thought that Bruce was "too gay" and used "David". He also had to explain to his cousin that he was the Hulk, even though this had been common knowledge in the Marvel Universe for years (but not on the TV show).
As a character, She-Hulk was not as strong as her cousin nor as inhuman looking. She looked like any seven-foot tall woman who worked out regularly and had green skin. She was short-tempered but didn't lose her intellect the way that Banner's Hulk usually did.
She-Hulk's original run was unmemorable and only lasted 25 issues. In the last comic she decided that she preferred being the She-Hulk and would stay that way permanently. Not long after that she joined the Avengers. In 1985 she replaced the Thing in the Fantastic Four which was written and drawn by John Byrne. Byrne loved the character and enhanced her looks some - giving her long wavy hair, a thinner build (except when she was pumped up) and larger breasts. After the Thing returned, Byrne did a She-Hulk comic which included a lot of cheesecake. She also resumed her law career and became a party girl.
Which brings us to the series that I have been reading. After too much partying, the Avengers kicked her out of the mansion. She also lost her job with the prosecutor's office and took a job with a law firm specializing in super hero cases. From there the comic became a cross between a regular superhero comic, Aly McBeal, and Boston Law. Supporting characters included Amazing Andy (the Mad Thinker's Amazing Android), and John Jamison aka the Man-Wolf. While the tone was tongue-in-cheek, the comic took on adult questions such as equating Eros's (aka Starfox) ability to affect pleasure centers with date-rape drugs. She also slept around a lot. A running joke was that she had even slept with the Juggernaut (it turned out that an extra-dimensional duplicate had instead).
During John Byrne's run, She-Hulk often broke the fourth wall and talked directly to the reader. During her run as a lawyer she never did this but the legal department used comic books as reference material. It had long been established that, in the Marvel Universe, comic books were based on real-life character under license. The Comic Code seal meant that they were published under an arm of the government and therefore admissible in court. The ignored retconning and only mentioned continuity problems once.
This version of She-Hulk may have been good in court (and, apparently in bed) but she was easily manipulated. She also had a lot of identity problems. Due to various manipulations she often had trouble changing from Jennifer into She-Hulk. She also changed back in her sleep fairly often which was a surprise to whoever she was sleeping with. Her sexual hi-jinks made her a less-than admirable character. The lawyer phase lasted a dozen issues and was brought back for another 22 issues. After that Peter David took it over and gave the character a new direction. In David's version, Jen was fired and dis-barred and was working as a bounty hunter with a Skrull side-kick. This lasted until issue 36 when she was canceled (again).
There were major continuity problems between She-Hulk's own book and the Hulk where she was a frequent guest-star. This was an editorial mistake. The editors didn't bother to coordinate the two. As a result, Jen was working with Tony Stark and SHIELD when the Red Hulk attacked but had had a major falling out with Stark in her own comic.
Of the two approaches in the 2004-2009 comics, Peter David's was the more conventional and the more entertaining. The legal adventures tended to be a little too far-fetched, even for a Marvel comic.
Friday, March 12, 2010
Lost's Final Season
I think I know where Lost is going with the final season and how they are going to tie up the series. The whole thing is about finding a successor for Nathan. There have been several references to this.
We now know that some of the survivors are "candidates". They were watched over and prepared from childhood by Nathan. Sometimes he met them in person. Other times he watched from his lighthouse. Each candidate has a number. The current set seems to match Hurley's numbers. There have been others, each one having his own number but most are gone.
This is being opposed by Smoky, the Smoke Monster who now appears as Locke. The real Locke was a candidate - probably a leading one given his rapport with the island. Sawyer/Ford was another candidate but he seems to have switched sides. So has Sayid. I can't believe that Sun or Jin would abandon the other. I'm not sure if Kate is a candidate or not but she is not a leader.
That leaves two candidates - Jack and Hurley. On the surface they are opposites - Hurley is easy-going and hates making decisions while Jack is tightly-wound and can't help being a decision-maker. They have some similarities, too. Hurley talks with the dead. Jack has healed people in seemingly miraculous ways. Both have been psychologically broken and needed the island to heal. Also, since returning to the island, Jack has been mellower and has made fewer bad choices. I suspect that Jack will become Jacob's replacement which will seem like an act of martyrdom - it will seem like it but he was a total screw-up on the outside world and has nothing to return to.
On the other side, Smoky is gathering his own set of candidates. Sawyer and the refugees from the temple have joined him but Ben rejected him.
So what is Smoky and who is (was) Jacob? I think that Smoky is the spirit of the island and wants to be free. Jacob was his jailer. Others have been Smoky's jailer in a line going back to Egypt.
What about Richard? I've always wondered if he came to the island on the Black Rock. The scene between him and Jack seemed to confirm this. It has been implied that he came as a slave and that Jacob freed him and made him ageless and undying (just as Michael was unable to kill himself). The only thing arguing against that is Richard's eye liner which could mean that he was brought to the island by the Egyptians.
Some questions - Ben's people made lists when the original Oceanic flight crashed. Where they doing this as a reflection of Jacob's list? Why do you have to kill your father in order to join Ben's people? Both Ben and Locke has to kill their fathers as an initiation. Was this a way of proving their commitment to the island? They keep insisting that they are the good guys but they have a high body count. Are the "good" because they help contain Smoky?
As for the flash-sideways - they seem to show what people would have been like without the island. I will not say that they seem happier, but they seem more at peace with themselves. Jack managed to keep a marriage together long enough to have a son. Locke worked through his bitterness and seemed to like his father. Ben is capable of self-sacrifice. On the other hand, Sayid is not a nice person in either world.
We now know that some of the survivors are "candidates". They were watched over and prepared from childhood by Nathan. Sometimes he met them in person. Other times he watched from his lighthouse. Each candidate has a number. The current set seems to match Hurley's numbers. There have been others, each one having his own number but most are gone.
This is being opposed by Smoky, the Smoke Monster who now appears as Locke. The real Locke was a candidate - probably a leading one given his rapport with the island. Sawyer/Ford was another candidate but he seems to have switched sides. So has Sayid. I can't believe that Sun or Jin would abandon the other. I'm not sure if Kate is a candidate or not but she is not a leader.
That leaves two candidates - Jack and Hurley. On the surface they are opposites - Hurley is easy-going and hates making decisions while Jack is tightly-wound and can't help being a decision-maker. They have some similarities, too. Hurley talks with the dead. Jack has healed people in seemingly miraculous ways. Both have been psychologically broken and needed the island to heal. Also, since returning to the island, Jack has been mellower and has made fewer bad choices. I suspect that Jack will become Jacob's replacement which will seem like an act of martyrdom - it will seem like it but he was a total screw-up on the outside world and has nothing to return to.
On the other side, Smoky is gathering his own set of candidates. Sawyer and the refugees from the temple have joined him but Ben rejected him.
So what is Smoky and who is (was) Jacob? I think that Smoky is the spirit of the island and wants to be free. Jacob was his jailer. Others have been Smoky's jailer in a line going back to Egypt.
What about Richard? I've always wondered if he came to the island on the Black Rock. The scene between him and Jack seemed to confirm this. It has been implied that he came as a slave and that Jacob freed him and made him ageless and undying (just as Michael was unable to kill himself). The only thing arguing against that is Richard's eye liner which could mean that he was brought to the island by the Egyptians.
Some questions - Ben's people made lists when the original Oceanic flight crashed. Where they doing this as a reflection of Jacob's list? Why do you have to kill your father in order to join Ben's people? Both Ben and Locke has to kill their fathers as an initiation. Was this a way of proving their commitment to the island? They keep insisting that they are the good guys but they have a high body count. Are the "good" because they help contain Smoky?
As for the flash-sideways - they seem to show what people would have been like without the island. I will not say that they seem happier, but they seem more at peace with themselves. Jack managed to keep a marriage together long enough to have a son. Locke worked through his bitterness and seemed to like his father. Ben is capable of self-sacrifice. On the other hand, Sayid is not a nice person in either world.
Thursday, March 04, 2010
Old Avengers/New Avengers
When the Avengers was created it featured most of the unaffiliated heroes in the Marvel Universe - Thor, Hulk, Iron Man, Ant Man, and the Wasp. By issue fifteen, the team was really hitting its stride. The Hulk was long gone, replaced by Captain America. The other characters were better-defined.
Issue #15 was fast-paced. Baron Zemo returned and gathered his Masters of Evil - the Executioner, the Enchantress, the Black Knight, and the Melter. Zemo kidnapped Captain America's sidekick, Rick Jones, and flew to his base in Africa followed by Cap. The other four faced off against the remaining Masters of Evil.
During the fight between Zemo and Cap, Zemo was killed in a rock-slide. This was a point of honor for Stan Lee for years - a villain died and you saw his body so he will stay dead.
In issue #16, everything changed. The fight between the Avengers and the Masters of Evil was wrapped up quickly. After that, Thor left for Asgard for a trial of the gods. Captain America's plane was blown up so he had to walk back to civilization. The remaining three decided that they were tired of being Avengers and that they needed a break. They recruited a trio of replacements. Cap returned in time to be appointed leader of the team.
This was just one of many changes going on in Marvel at the time leading to what I think of as Marvel 2.0. Giant Man's strip in Tales to Astonish was replaced with the Sub-Mariner. The Human Torch and the Thing's strip in Strange Tales was replaced with Nick Fury, Agent of Shield. The Hulk went from a mindless brute to being intelligent (for a while). At the same time, the X-Men and Daredevil went from bi-monthly to monthly comics. They even tried changing the name from "Marvel Comics" to "Marvel Pop Art Productions".
Issue #17 was the first with the new team. In many ways this issue started what we think of as the Avengers. Previously the team had a rotating chairman. From this point forward, it would have an actual leader. This issue introduced the lower level of the Avengers mansion, filled with high-tech crime-fighting equipment. It was the first one that had the Avengers training together (although the X-Men and the Human Torch had been doing training exercises for some time). It was also the first issue where the Avengers had their own custom-built jet.
The issue began with the new members questioning Captain America's leadership. In order to add some power to their ranks, they announced a search to add the Hulk to their ranks. They were given a clue that the Hulk was in the desert. While searching for him, they fell into a trap. The Mole Man decided to kill off the new, weaker team using the Minotaur - a giant creature who would have given the Hulk a fight. The Avengers used teamwork to defeat the Minotaur and the Mole Man, proving that they did not need additional strength. As all of this was happening, a few panels were reprinted from the Hulk's own strip showing where he was while the Avengers searched for him.
This was the strongest issue to date. There was character development and growth. You could see the group become a team.
Issue #15 was fast-paced. Baron Zemo returned and gathered his Masters of Evil - the Executioner, the Enchantress, the Black Knight, and the Melter. Zemo kidnapped Captain America's sidekick, Rick Jones, and flew to his base in Africa followed by Cap. The other four faced off against the remaining Masters of Evil.
During the fight between Zemo and Cap, Zemo was killed in a rock-slide. This was a point of honor for Stan Lee for years - a villain died and you saw his body so he will stay dead.
In issue #16, everything changed. The fight between the Avengers and the Masters of Evil was wrapped up quickly. After that, Thor left for Asgard for a trial of the gods. Captain America's plane was blown up so he had to walk back to civilization. The remaining three decided that they were tired of being Avengers and that they needed a break. They recruited a trio of replacements. Cap returned in time to be appointed leader of the team.
This was just one of many changes going on in Marvel at the time leading to what I think of as Marvel 2.0. Giant Man's strip in Tales to Astonish was replaced with the Sub-Mariner. The Human Torch and the Thing's strip in Strange Tales was replaced with Nick Fury, Agent of Shield. The Hulk went from a mindless brute to being intelligent (for a while). At the same time, the X-Men and Daredevil went from bi-monthly to monthly comics. They even tried changing the name from "Marvel Comics" to "Marvel Pop Art Productions".
Issue #17 was the first with the new team. In many ways this issue started what we think of as the Avengers. Previously the team had a rotating chairman. From this point forward, it would have an actual leader. This issue introduced the lower level of the Avengers mansion, filled with high-tech crime-fighting equipment. It was the first one that had the Avengers training together (although the X-Men and the Human Torch had been doing training exercises for some time). It was also the first issue where the Avengers had their own custom-built jet.
The issue began with the new members questioning Captain America's leadership. In order to add some power to their ranks, they announced a search to add the Hulk to their ranks. They were given a clue that the Hulk was in the desert. While searching for him, they fell into a trap. The Mole Man decided to kill off the new, weaker team using the Minotaur - a giant creature who would have given the Hulk a fight. The Avengers used teamwork to defeat the Minotaur and the Mole Man, proving that they did not need additional strength. As all of this was happening, a few panels were reprinted from the Hulk's own strip showing where he was while the Avengers searched for him.
This was the strongest issue to date. There was character development and growth. You could see the group become a team.
Tuesday, March 02, 2010
Avengers Evolution II
More on the early issues of the Avengers.
It is interesting watching the characters change. In Avengers #1, Iron Man was in his original armor designed by Jack Kirby. By Issue #3 he was in the lighter suit designed by Steve Ditko. The helmet on this one had a faceplate that could swing up (but almost never did). Don Heck modified the armor to the version that was used for another couple of decades in Iron Man's own strip. When he took over the Avengers he updated the armor there, too.
Henry Pym went from Ant Man in the first issue to Giant Man in issue #2. He and the Wasp were still using pills to change size. By issue #8 he and the Wasp were using their cybernetic helmets to change their size. Giant Man's costume also changed. As Ant Man he had a bulky helmet. He swapped this for a lighter helmet that was almost a plain mask when he became Giant Man. He also changed his costume lightly. The original suit had stripes coming over is shoulders and joining a circle with a second circle beneath it. This was changed to alternating white and black stripes that went over his shoulders and down to his belt, almost lie suspenders. When Don Heck took over this stripes became solid black and joined. He got a revised costume with a blue overlay to his costume and helmet in issue #14 only to retire in issue #16.
The Wasp's mask changed several times. I'm not sure if there was ever an official version.
Captain America's shield got some electronics so that he could throw it and control it remotely. He switched back to straps an throwing it quickly.
Thor stayed unchanged.
Power levels changed, also. When Jack Kirby was the artist, Thor seemed to pull powers out of a hat. Iron Man mainly used beams from his palms to make people spin in mid-air although they usually escaped. Giant Man wasn't much stronger than Captain America.
Things changed around when Don Heck took over. Thor's powers were more limited. Iron Man was the one pulling powers out of a hat. Giant Man seemed stronger and used his growth and shrinking powers to maneuver around his opponents. Captain America threw his shield more.
They used Tony Stark's town house for meetings starting in the second issue.
The Avengers did not have a fixed leader. They had a chairmanship that rotated. Even the Wasp got to be in charge. By the 7th issue they had a set of by-laws. They also used Roberts Rules of Order - possibly the only time these were used so extensively in a comic book.
Transportation was interesting. In a couple of really early issues they used a jetcopter. This was probably a regular helicopter with a jet turbine. Helicopters were still pretty new in the 1960s and it looked stock. They also borrowed a submarine from Tony Stark. Later they left transportation to each member. This meant that they arrived at different times, making it easier for the villains.
It is interesting watching the characters change. In Avengers #1, Iron Man was in his original armor designed by Jack Kirby. By Issue #3 he was in the lighter suit designed by Steve Ditko. The helmet on this one had a faceplate that could swing up (but almost never did). Don Heck modified the armor to the version that was used for another couple of decades in Iron Man's own strip. When he took over the Avengers he updated the armor there, too.
Henry Pym went from Ant Man in the first issue to Giant Man in issue #2. He and the Wasp were still using pills to change size. By issue #8 he and the Wasp were using their cybernetic helmets to change their size. Giant Man's costume also changed. As Ant Man he had a bulky helmet. He swapped this for a lighter helmet that was almost a plain mask when he became Giant Man. He also changed his costume lightly. The original suit had stripes coming over is shoulders and joining a circle with a second circle beneath it. This was changed to alternating white and black stripes that went over his shoulders and down to his belt, almost lie suspenders. When Don Heck took over this stripes became solid black and joined. He got a revised costume with a blue overlay to his costume and helmet in issue #14 only to retire in issue #16.
The Wasp's mask changed several times. I'm not sure if there was ever an official version.
Captain America's shield got some electronics so that he could throw it and control it remotely. He switched back to straps an throwing it quickly.
Thor stayed unchanged.
Power levels changed, also. When Jack Kirby was the artist, Thor seemed to pull powers out of a hat. Iron Man mainly used beams from his palms to make people spin in mid-air although they usually escaped. Giant Man wasn't much stronger than Captain America.
Things changed around when Don Heck took over. Thor's powers were more limited. Iron Man was the one pulling powers out of a hat. Giant Man seemed stronger and used his growth and shrinking powers to maneuver around his opponents. Captain America threw his shield more.
They used Tony Stark's town house for meetings starting in the second issue.
The Avengers did not have a fixed leader. They had a chairmanship that rotated. Even the Wasp got to be in charge. By the 7th issue they had a set of by-laws. They also used Roberts Rules of Order - possibly the only time these were used so extensively in a comic book.
Transportation was interesting. In a couple of really early issues they used a jetcopter. This was probably a regular helicopter with a jet turbine. Helicopters were still pretty new in the 1960s and it looked stock. They also borrowed a submarine from Tony Stark. Later they left transportation to each member. This meant that they arrived at different times, making it easier for the villains.
Saturday, February 27, 2010
Who is the Rulk?
The Red Hulk (Rulk) has been around since the latest Hulk reboot. A lot of clues have been dropped about his identity but many of them were "red" herrings. The biggest clue was overshadowed by one of those red herrings.
The two most obvious candidates are Leonard Samson and Thunderbolt Ross. At one point they even showed Samson's coat, irradiated with gamma radiation and stretched out as if someone grew while wearing it.
Both Ross and Samson have appeared with the Rulk.
I haven't spotted many other clues but there are a few. He likes guns. He seems to know a lot about SHIELD LMDs (Life Model Decoys). He knows Samson and Ross.
There is one other clue but it's a negative one. Samson vanished for a few issues when they were dropping strong hints that he was Rulk. At the same time he vanished, a crushed body turned up that was quickly identified as SHIELD agent Clay Quartermain. Almost nothing else was said about this.
So, why kill off a character who has been around since 1967? I don't think that they did. I think that Quartermain is the Rulk. He was with Samson at the time that Rulk appeared. Samson was involved, maybe even responsible. A body, or even a fake body, was planted to explain his absence. He even led a team of Hulkbusters at one point. Who better?
I'd say that you heard it here first but a Google search shows that someone else thought of this a few months ago. He also thinks that Quartermain has green hair when he is himself. This is incorrect. Issue 14 shows four people talking together. One has green hair and the other three are wearing caps. We see one of the figures in a cap go into an alley and change into the Rulk. During the change you can see his hat fall off and it is lying on the street when he finishes his change. Later we see that Samson was the one with green hair (and no cap) and Ross was one of the people with a cap.
Next question - who is the red She-Hulk? She quotes military strategy. She could be Betty Ross, back from the grave. That was my first guess. Her father is a general, after all. It seems too easy.
Since Quartermain is a secondary character that they slipped in, I think that the Red She-Hulk is another secondary character, possibly another member of SHIELD. Her torn outfit looks a little like a SHIELD uniform which supports this. I'm guessing Maria Hill, former deputy director of SHIELD.
The two most obvious candidates are Leonard Samson and Thunderbolt Ross. At one point they even showed Samson's coat, irradiated with gamma radiation and stretched out as if someone grew while wearing it.
Both Ross and Samson have appeared with the Rulk.
I haven't spotted many other clues but there are a few. He likes guns. He seems to know a lot about SHIELD LMDs (Life Model Decoys). He knows Samson and Ross.
There is one other clue but it's a negative one. Samson vanished for a few issues when they were dropping strong hints that he was Rulk. At the same time he vanished, a crushed body turned up that was quickly identified as SHIELD agent Clay Quartermain. Almost nothing else was said about this.
So, why kill off a character who has been around since 1967? I don't think that they did. I think that Quartermain is the Rulk. He was with Samson at the time that Rulk appeared. Samson was involved, maybe even responsible. A body, or even a fake body, was planted to explain his absence. He even led a team of Hulkbusters at one point. Who better?
I'd say that you heard it here first but a Google search shows that someone else thought of this a few months ago. He also thinks that Quartermain has green hair when he is himself. This is incorrect. Issue 14 shows four people talking together. One has green hair and the other three are wearing caps. We see one of the figures in a cap go into an alley and change into the Rulk. During the change you can see his hat fall off and it is lying on the street when he finishes his change. Later we see that Samson was the one with green hair (and no cap) and Ross was one of the people with a cap.
Next question - who is the red She-Hulk? She quotes military strategy. She could be Betty Ross, back from the grave. That was my first guess. Her father is a general, after all. It seems too easy.
Since Quartermain is a secondary character that they slipped in, I think that the Red She-Hulk is another secondary character, possibly another member of SHIELD. Her torn outfit looks a little like a SHIELD uniform which supports this. I'm guessing Maria Hill, former deputy director of SHIELD.
Tuesday, February 23, 2010
Iron Man and Transistors
Every comic book featuring Iron Man from the early 1960s has constant references to transistors. Unless you grew up in the 60s, this will go over your head so I thought I would go into a little detail.
During the first half of the 20th century, electronics used vacuum tubes. These had a few wires inside a glass tube which kept the air out. Air acts as an insulator so they had to have a vacuum. These were big. The smallest ones were as big as a tube of lipstick. The big ones were as big as a light bulb. They took minutes to warm up before they started to work. They were heavy. They needed a lot of power. There was no such thing as a portable radio back then. The best you could get was a car radio which ran off of the car battery (and could run it down if the motor wasn't running).
The transistor changed that. It was tiny, durable, and only used a fraction of the power. Suddenly portable, battery-powered radios and even TVs were possible. Of course, the radios were still the size of a paperback book, AM-only, and they only came with an earphone for one ear but you could carry one around with you for the first time.
So, transistors were a "big" thing.
Now, Stan Lee didn't really understand what a transistor was. He just knew that they were responsible for miniaturization. He figured that you could attach a transistor to a magnet and boost its power. And he was really confused about the relationship between transistors and batteries so Iron Man was constantly "charging his transistors" instead of his batteries.
No one talks about transistors, these days. They were replaced with integrated circuit chips which hold the equivalent of many transistors. If you are carrying a smart phone then you are carrying millions of transistors around with you. That's why the Iron Man movie changed the focus from his transistors to his power source.
During the first half of the 20th century, electronics used vacuum tubes. These had a few wires inside a glass tube which kept the air out. Air acts as an insulator so they had to have a vacuum. These were big. The smallest ones were as big as a tube of lipstick. The big ones were as big as a light bulb. They took minutes to warm up before they started to work. They were heavy. They needed a lot of power. There was no such thing as a portable radio back then. The best you could get was a car radio which ran off of the car battery (and could run it down if the motor wasn't running).
The transistor changed that. It was tiny, durable, and only used a fraction of the power. Suddenly portable, battery-powered radios and even TVs were possible. Of course, the radios were still the size of a paperback book, AM-only, and they only came with an earphone for one ear but you could carry one around with you for the first time.
So, transistors were a "big" thing.
Now, Stan Lee didn't really understand what a transistor was. He just knew that they were responsible for miniaturization. He figured that you could attach a transistor to a magnet and boost its power. And he was really confused about the relationship between transistors and batteries so Iron Man was constantly "charging his transistors" instead of his batteries.
No one talks about transistors, these days. They were replaced with integrated circuit chips which hold the equivalent of many transistors. If you are carrying a smart phone then you are carrying millions of transistors around with you. That's why the Iron Man movie changed the focus from his transistors to his power source.
Friday, February 19, 2010
The Evolution of the Avengers
I've been taking advantage of Marvel's digital comics to reread the early issues of the Avengers. I hadn't read most of these comics since the 1960s so it I have a different perspective.
For now I'm covering issues 1-9. The first eight of these were Lee/Kirby with Don Heck taking over as artist with issue nine.
First, general impressions - Marvel had three team comics during this period - the Fantastic Four, the Avengers, and the X-Men. Even though Lee and Kirby did the early issues of all three, each had a very different feel. They were all pretty early in the overall evolution of Marvel. Pages were broken up into regular panels - four or six to a page. Stories were self-contained but there was some continuity between issues.
The FF and the X-Men were almost families. The Avengers was different because it was a collection of heroes who already had their own books. They barely knew each other and none of them shared his secret identity with the others.
In some ways, the Avengers was a marketing ploy. Each issue introduced all of the characters enough that you could pick up their own books and know what was going on. There was always a couple of panels of Thor as Don Blake, often with his nurse, Jane Foster. You always knew that Iron Man was really Tony Stark and that his armor had to be recharged regularly or he would die. Issues with the Hulk usually included Bruce Banner and often included General "Thunderbolt" Ross and his daughter.
The Avengers spent a lot of time fighting each other and the Sub-Mariner. They joined to fight the Hulk. In issue #2, an alien impersonated different members making them fight some more. In issue #3, the Hulk quit and fought the Avengers, escaped, fought then joined the Sub-Mariner, and finally the two of them fought the Avengers. In issue #4, the Sub-Mariner tossed the piece of ice containing Captain America into the ocean. Later he and some of his Atlanteans fought the Avengers. In issue #5, the Lave Men pushed a "living rock" into the surface world in the South-West. The Hulk appeared and fought the Avengers (again) in the middle of this. Finally, in issue #7, Thor was magically hypnotized into attacking the other Avengers.
Not many memorable characters were invented during this period. Baron Zemo was introduced when Captain America was revived. We first saw him in issue #7 and he died in issue #15 although his son is still around.
Issue #8 finally created a memorable new (sort of) character - Kang the Conqueror. Kang had actually appeared twice before as the FF villain, Rama Tut, but here he was given a new name, costume, and technology. Between his advanced armor and his space/time ship, he was able to take on the Avengers single-handed.
Issue #9 introduced Wonder Man. He died at the end of the issue but came back from the dead several times, even having his own comic book for a while.
Issue #9 also marked the end of Jack Kirby's run and the beginning of Don Heck's. I always thought of Kirby as the superior artist but this issue surprised me. I realized that I have been judging Kirby by his later work. In 1964, Kirby was still a conservative artist. Heck's work was much more dynamic. He did not limit himself to regular panels or angles. It would be another couple of years before Kirby's work changed.
One last thing that struck me was how difficult it was to balance a team with Thor. Often either Thor or Captain America would end up separated from the others. In fact, Thor was much more powerful than the other Avengers put together so most plots had to work around this somehow. I suspect that this was one reason that Stan changed the line-up after a couple of years.
For now I'm covering issues 1-9. The first eight of these were Lee/Kirby with Don Heck taking over as artist with issue nine.
First, general impressions - Marvel had three team comics during this period - the Fantastic Four, the Avengers, and the X-Men. Even though Lee and Kirby did the early issues of all three, each had a very different feel. They were all pretty early in the overall evolution of Marvel. Pages were broken up into regular panels - four or six to a page. Stories were self-contained but there was some continuity between issues.
The FF and the X-Men were almost families. The Avengers was different because it was a collection of heroes who already had their own books. They barely knew each other and none of them shared his secret identity with the others.
In some ways, the Avengers was a marketing ploy. Each issue introduced all of the characters enough that you could pick up their own books and know what was going on. There was always a couple of panels of Thor as Don Blake, often with his nurse, Jane Foster. You always knew that Iron Man was really Tony Stark and that his armor had to be recharged regularly or he would die. Issues with the Hulk usually included Bruce Banner and often included General "Thunderbolt" Ross and his daughter.
The Avengers spent a lot of time fighting each other and the Sub-Mariner. They joined to fight the Hulk. In issue #2, an alien impersonated different members making them fight some more. In issue #3, the Hulk quit and fought the Avengers, escaped, fought then joined the Sub-Mariner, and finally the two of them fought the Avengers. In issue #4, the Sub-Mariner tossed the piece of ice containing Captain America into the ocean. Later he and some of his Atlanteans fought the Avengers. In issue #5, the Lave Men pushed a "living rock" into the surface world in the South-West. The Hulk appeared and fought the Avengers (again) in the middle of this. Finally, in issue #7, Thor was magically hypnotized into attacking the other Avengers.
Not many memorable characters were invented during this period. Baron Zemo was introduced when Captain America was revived. We first saw him in issue #7 and he died in issue #15 although his son is still around.
Issue #8 finally created a memorable new (sort of) character - Kang the Conqueror. Kang had actually appeared twice before as the FF villain, Rama Tut, but here he was given a new name, costume, and technology. Between his advanced armor and his space/time ship, he was able to take on the Avengers single-handed.
Issue #9 introduced Wonder Man. He died at the end of the issue but came back from the dead several times, even having his own comic book for a while.
Issue #9 also marked the end of Jack Kirby's run and the beginning of Don Heck's. I always thought of Kirby as the superior artist but this issue surprised me. I realized that I have been judging Kirby by his later work. In 1964, Kirby was still a conservative artist. Heck's work was much more dynamic. He did not limit himself to regular panels or angles. It would be another couple of years before Kirby's work changed.
One last thing that struck me was how difficult it was to balance a team with Thor. Often either Thor or Captain America would end up separated from the others. In fact, Thor was much more powerful than the other Avengers put together so most plots had to work around this somehow. I suspect that this was one reason that Stan changed the line-up after a couple of years.
Wednesday, February 10, 2010
Lost - the final season
We are three episodes into the final season of Lost. The producers promised no more flashbacks or flashforwards. Instead we get Flashback-and-to-the-sides. We see the surviving cast in "real time" and we see what would have happened to them a few years ago if the flight hadn't crashed. It's hard to say where they are going with this. Will this continue to be a parallel universe, unconnected to the one we've been watching or will they somehow converge at the end? Is this just a way of confirming what Locke/Smoky said - that they all had pitiful lives and were better off on the island? (Not counting all of the ones who died.)
Speaking of Smoky, we now know that he is the second John Locke. We've seen him appear as dead people before. I think that the only time he has previously appeared to multiple people at once was as a horse to Kate and Sawyer (assuming that was him).
We've see the circle of powder that keeps Smoky out before. The first time Locke went to Jacob's cabin he crossed a line of the same powder. We saw the powder again when he tried to find the cabin but it had moved.
Hopefully the people in the temple are related to Ben's people. It would be too weird to have two groups living on the island. Ben's group seemed to support Jacob over Smoky and the temple group seems afraid of Smoky and the island.
Dogen, the head of the temple, said that he was afraid that the island's spirit had sunk into Sayid and tried to poison him because of it. Is this what Locke (the real one) was communicating with? Claire was last seen with Jack's father, Christian. Now, we are told that the island's spirit sunk into her and poisoned her. She seems to have become the new resident mad-woman. There are parallels between Claire and Rousseau, the previous mad-woman. Both had her child taken from her. Both ended up living alone in the jungle. It appears that both spend their spare time setting traps to catch the others.
Speaking of Smoky, we now know that he is the second John Locke. We've seen him appear as dead people before. I think that the only time he has previously appeared to multiple people at once was as a horse to Kate and Sawyer (assuming that was him).
We've see the circle of powder that keeps Smoky out before. The first time Locke went to Jacob's cabin he crossed a line of the same powder. We saw the powder again when he tried to find the cabin but it had moved.
Hopefully the people in the temple are related to Ben's people. It would be too weird to have two groups living on the island. Ben's group seemed to support Jacob over Smoky and the temple group seems afraid of Smoky and the island.
Dogen, the head of the temple, said that he was afraid that the island's spirit had sunk into Sayid and tried to poison him because of it. Is this what Locke (the real one) was communicating with? Claire was last seen with Jack's father, Christian. Now, we are told that the island's spirit sunk into her and poisoned her. She seems to have become the new resident mad-woman. There are parallels between Claire and Rousseau, the previous mad-woman. Both had her child taken from her. Both ended up living alone in the jungle. It appears that both spend their spare time setting traps to catch the others.
Thursday, February 04, 2010
Hero vs Hero
Back in the 1960s, it was a cliche that any time two Marvel heroes met, they had to fight, first. Digging through some of Marvel's Digital Comics, I looked up some examples and I can remember some others.
Marvel started small, adding one character or group at a time. Stan Lee was a genius at cross-promotion. As new heroes were created, they met well established heroes. This exposed the new characters to a wider audience with the idea of increasing sales. It also laid the foundation of the Marvel Universe. DC had a wide variety of characters. Most of them never crossed paths outside of the JLA. At Marvel, most of them lived in New York City so they often made cameo appearances. Spider-Man might be knocked off a lamp post by Thor's jet stream.
My focus here is the more formal appearance. Some of them were straight guest shots. Ant Man was called in when the FF faced a microscopic enemy. More often they were fights.
The Hulk's first appearance with the FF was an obvious cross-over. It happened near the end of the run of the Hulk's original comic. By that point, Bruce Banner would run to his hidden lab and expose himself to gamma rays in order to turn into an intelligent Hulk. In this case, the FF was called in to investigate acts of sabotage. General Thunderbolt Ross was sure that the Hulk was responsible but Banner and Rick Jones insisted that someone else was. After a rocket sled was wrecked (while the Thing was riding it), the FF found a series of caves and tunnels. In one of these they ran into the Hulk and tried to capture him. The battle was pretty evenly matched until a hidden ray knocked out the Hulk. The FF tracked it to Banner's assistant who was a communist saboteur (he even carried a membership card in a subversive organization in his wallet).
A few months later the Hulk was added as a backup to Giant-Man in Tales to Astonish (several early Marvel comics started out as science fiction/horror comics and it was easier to keep the original name and add the hero). The issue before the Hulk was added, he fought with Giant-Man. Here's a bit of trivia for you - this issue was the first time the Hulk said, "The madder I get the stronger I get."
Not a lot happened in this issue. It mainly introduced the cast and set up that the Hulk was now changing when he got angry. Giant-Man and the Wasp went looking for the Hulk to see if he wanted back into the Avengers. Banner assumed that they were hunting him, got angry, and changed into the Hulk. An old Giant-Man villain, the Human Top (now known as Whirlwind) orchestrated the fight and arraigned for the military to fire a nuclear shell at the Hulk, not knowing that Giant-Man was also present. The Hulk caught the shell, threw it in a different direction, and vanished.
When Captain America was added as a backup feature with Iron Man in Tales of Suspense, they had the prerequisite fight. Iron Man was testing the underwater capability of his armor and stumbled across Kraven the Hunter and the Chameleon. He captured Kraven but the Chameleon escaped. Shortly after that, Captain America appeared at Stark's office in a torn costume. He said that he had been captured by the Chameleon who absorbed his memories and planned on attacking the Avengers. Iron Man rushed to the Avenger's mansion to confront the imposer. Of course, the guy in the torn costume was the Chameleon and Iron Man was fighting the real Captain America. Eventually Giant-Man and the Wasp broke up the fight.
Spider-Man ran into the Hulk during his first fight with the Green Goblin. The Goblin convinced a movie director to make a movie in the southwest featuring a fight between Spider-Man and the Goblin along with a trio known as the Enforcers. It was all a trap. Spider-Man and the villains went off to rehearse in a cave. The Enforcers blocked the entrance and attacked. They were quickly subdued but during the fight with the Goblin, the Hulk appeared. They had chosen his cave to fight in. Spider-Man tricked the Hulk into unblocking the cave and escaped, carrying the unconscious Enforcers with him. The Goblin escaped. The most notable thing about this issue was that it clearly established power levels. Spider-Man hit the Hulk as hard as he could and nearly broke his hand. The Hulk wasn't fazed.
The biggest fight/launch was Avengers #1. Thor's enemy, Loki, saw the Hulk and decided that he had a chance of killing Thor. This was during the Hulk's smart phase. Loki use an illusion to lure the Hulk into wrecking a train. The Hulk's friend, Rick Jones, tried contacting the Fantastic Four with a ham radio but Loki changed the frequency of their message to one that Thor was listening to. As it happened, Iron Man and Giant-Man were also listening to the same message. They converged on the Hulk and fought with him until Loki was revealed. Then they decided to form the Avengers.
In Avengers #2, a shape-shifting alien came to earth an assumed the forms of different Avengers, causing them to fight each other again. At the end of the issue the Hulk quit the group. In a later issue joined forces with the Sub-Mariner to fight the remaining Avengers.
The X-Men fought the Fantastic Four. This issue was special to me. It was the first Fantastic Four comic I read and my third Marvel comic. This time the Mad Thinker and the Puppet Master joined forces. Under the Thinker's direction, the Puppet Master took control of Professor X using a radioactive clay doll. The Professor convinced the X-Men that his telepathy had uncovered a plot by the FF to take over the world. He sent the team to approach the FF then attack them. Under the Professor's direction, the X-Men captured Sue and brought her to an island the Thinker had already prepared. The X-Men were clearly outclassed but the Thinker's traps gave them an edge. After the FF was subdued the pair revealed themselves and the Puppet Master used the Professor's telepathy to render the X-Men unconscious. The Beast resisted long enough to crush the Puppet Master's doll. The FF was released and the Thinker and company had to flee.
Thor and the Hulk fought in an issue of Thor. This was a straight "who's strongest" knock-down, drag-out fight. It was actually an extended flashback from a two-panel fight the two had in an early issue of the Avengers (see above). The two got separated from the main fight and Thor wanted to prove who was the better warrior. He asked Odin to be able to fight without his hammer. Odin gave him five minutes. The battle was still going on when the time ran out and Thor recovered his hammer. The implication was that the hammer gave him an edge but the flashback trailed off there. The Hulk and Sub-Mariner vanished before the fight could conclude.
1968 started what I think of as Marvel 2.0. Reed and Sue got married. The Avengers got a new line-up. Tales of Suspense retired the Human Torch and the Thing for Nick Fury, agent of Shield and Tales to Astonish swapped out Giant-Man for the Sub-Mariner. As the lead-in for this, the Sub-Mariner fought Daredevil.
When the character was revived, the Sub-Mariner found that his people had abandoned the city of Atlantis. In FF Annual #1 he found them but they abandoned the new Atlantis because of Manor's divided loyalties. He found them again and assumed his role as ruler. He decided to settle his dispute with the surface world in court and ended up with Matt Murdock (Daredevil) as his attorney. The court ruled that his suit was out of their jurisdiction. At the same time, Namor was informed that there had been a coup. Warlord Krang had seized control of Atlantis. Namor tried to escape. Daredevil fought him and lost but out of respect for a valiant foe, Namor departed peacefully.
When it was decided to give the Silver Surfer his own book, Stan felt that he was too powerful. In an issue of the FF, the Surfer decided to unite humanity by giving them a common enemy. He attacked the Earth. A special missile was sent after him. It was supposed to drain his power then use it to explode, killing him. The FF saved the Surfer from the missile and he called off his attack but was left weakened.
One last fight deserves mention. The Sub-Mariner and the Hulk shared Tales to Astonish for some time. Before they got their own comics, they had one last fight. This one actually had a winner. The Sub-Mariner beat the Hulk by creating a whirlpool around him.
Marvel heroes would continue to fight but this marked the end of promotion through cross-over fight.
Marvel started small, adding one character or group at a time. Stan Lee was a genius at cross-promotion. As new heroes were created, they met well established heroes. This exposed the new characters to a wider audience with the idea of increasing sales. It also laid the foundation of the Marvel Universe. DC had a wide variety of characters. Most of them never crossed paths outside of the JLA. At Marvel, most of them lived in New York City so they often made cameo appearances. Spider-Man might be knocked off a lamp post by Thor's jet stream.
My focus here is the more formal appearance. Some of them were straight guest shots. Ant Man was called in when the FF faced a microscopic enemy. More often they were fights.
The Hulk's first appearance with the FF was an obvious cross-over. It happened near the end of the run of the Hulk's original comic. By that point, Bruce Banner would run to his hidden lab and expose himself to gamma rays in order to turn into an intelligent Hulk. In this case, the FF was called in to investigate acts of sabotage. General Thunderbolt Ross was sure that the Hulk was responsible but Banner and Rick Jones insisted that someone else was. After a rocket sled was wrecked (while the Thing was riding it), the FF found a series of caves and tunnels. In one of these they ran into the Hulk and tried to capture him. The battle was pretty evenly matched until a hidden ray knocked out the Hulk. The FF tracked it to Banner's assistant who was a communist saboteur (he even carried a membership card in a subversive organization in his wallet).
A few months later the Hulk was added as a backup to Giant-Man in Tales to Astonish (several early Marvel comics started out as science fiction/horror comics and it was easier to keep the original name and add the hero). The issue before the Hulk was added, he fought with Giant-Man. Here's a bit of trivia for you - this issue was the first time the Hulk said, "The madder I get the stronger I get."
Not a lot happened in this issue. It mainly introduced the cast and set up that the Hulk was now changing when he got angry. Giant-Man and the Wasp went looking for the Hulk to see if he wanted back into the Avengers. Banner assumed that they were hunting him, got angry, and changed into the Hulk. An old Giant-Man villain, the Human Top (now known as Whirlwind) orchestrated the fight and arraigned for the military to fire a nuclear shell at the Hulk, not knowing that Giant-Man was also present. The Hulk caught the shell, threw it in a different direction, and vanished.
When Captain America was added as a backup feature with Iron Man in Tales of Suspense, they had the prerequisite fight. Iron Man was testing the underwater capability of his armor and stumbled across Kraven the Hunter and the Chameleon. He captured Kraven but the Chameleon escaped. Shortly after that, Captain America appeared at Stark's office in a torn costume. He said that he had been captured by the Chameleon who absorbed his memories and planned on attacking the Avengers. Iron Man rushed to the Avenger's mansion to confront the imposer. Of course, the guy in the torn costume was the Chameleon and Iron Man was fighting the real Captain America. Eventually Giant-Man and the Wasp broke up the fight.
Spider-Man ran into the Hulk during his first fight with the Green Goblin. The Goblin convinced a movie director to make a movie in the southwest featuring a fight between Spider-Man and the Goblin along with a trio known as the Enforcers. It was all a trap. Spider-Man and the villains went off to rehearse in a cave. The Enforcers blocked the entrance and attacked. They were quickly subdued but during the fight with the Goblin, the Hulk appeared. They had chosen his cave to fight in. Spider-Man tricked the Hulk into unblocking the cave and escaped, carrying the unconscious Enforcers with him. The Goblin escaped. The most notable thing about this issue was that it clearly established power levels. Spider-Man hit the Hulk as hard as he could and nearly broke his hand. The Hulk wasn't fazed.
The biggest fight/launch was Avengers #1. Thor's enemy, Loki, saw the Hulk and decided that he had a chance of killing Thor. This was during the Hulk's smart phase. Loki use an illusion to lure the Hulk into wrecking a train. The Hulk's friend, Rick Jones, tried contacting the Fantastic Four with a ham radio but Loki changed the frequency of their message to one that Thor was listening to. As it happened, Iron Man and Giant-Man were also listening to the same message. They converged on the Hulk and fought with him until Loki was revealed. Then they decided to form the Avengers.
In Avengers #2, a shape-shifting alien came to earth an assumed the forms of different Avengers, causing them to fight each other again. At the end of the issue the Hulk quit the group. In a later issue joined forces with the Sub-Mariner to fight the remaining Avengers.
The X-Men fought the Fantastic Four. This issue was special to me. It was the first Fantastic Four comic I read and my third Marvel comic. This time the Mad Thinker and the Puppet Master joined forces. Under the Thinker's direction, the Puppet Master took control of Professor X using a radioactive clay doll. The Professor convinced the X-Men that his telepathy had uncovered a plot by the FF to take over the world. He sent the team to approach the FF then attack them. Under the Professor's direction, the X-Men captured Sue and brought her to an island the Thinker had already prepared. The X-Men were clearly outclassed but the Thinker's traps gave them an edge. After the FF was subdued the pair revealed themselves and the Puppet Master used the Professor's telepathy to render the X-Men unconscious. The Beast resisted long enough to crush the Puppet Master's doll. The FF was released and the Thinker and company had to flee.
Thor and the Hulk fought in an issue of Thor. This was a straight "who's strongest" knock-down, drag-out fight. It was actually an extended flashback from a two-panel fight the two had in an early issue of the Avengers (see above). The two got separated from the main fight and Thor wanted to prove who was the better warrior. He asked Odin to be able to fight without his hammer. Odin gave him five minutes. The battle was still going on when the time ran out and Thor recovered his hammer. The implication was that the hammer gave him an edge but the flashback trailed off there. The Hulk and Sub-Mariner vanished before the fight could conclude.
1968 started what I think of as Marvel 2.0. Reed and Sue got married. The Avengers got a new line-up. Tales of Suspense retired the Human Torch and the Thing for Nick Fury, agent of Shield and Tales to Astonish swapped out Giant-Man for the Sub-Mariner. As the lead-in for this, the Sub-Mariner fought Daredevil.
When the character was revived, the Sub-Mariner found that his people had abandoned the city of Atlantis. In FF Annual #1 he found them but they abandoned the new Atlantis because of Manor's divided loyalties. He found them again and assumed his role as ruler. He decided to settle his dispute with the surface world in court and ended up with Matt Murdock (Daredevil) as his attorney. The court ruled that his suit was out of their jurisdiction. At the same time, Namor was informed that there had been a coup. Warlord Krang had seized control of Atlantis. Namor tried to escape. Daredevil fought him and lost but out of respect for a valiant foe, Namor departed peacefully.
When it was decided to give the Silver Surfer his own book, Stan felt that he was too powerful. In an issue of the FF, the Surfer decided to unite humanity by giving them a common enemy. He attacked the Earth. A special missile was sent after him. It was supposed to drain his power then use it to explode, killing him. The FF saved the Surfer from the missile and he called off his attack but was left weakened.
One last fight deserves mention. The Sub-Mariner and the Hulk shared Tales to Astonish for some time. Before they got their own comics, they had one last fight. This one actually had a winner. The Sub-Mariner beat the Hulk by creating a whirlpool around him.
Marvel heroes would continue to fight but this marked the end of promotion through cross-over fight.
Wednesday, February 03, 2010
Digital Comics
I recently subscribed to Marvels' digital comic books. I also have a couple of DVDs of collections - one for the X-Men and one for the Fantastic Four and the Silver Surfer. I'd like to compare them with each other and with the paper editions.
Comic books were designed to be on paper. There are no two ways about this. This is also the only form that they have any collectible value. That said, there are disadvantages to having them on paper. They take up a lot of room and they require careful storage to keep up their value. Finding an individual issue can be difficult unless you spend a lot of time filing them and you can't carry them everywhere without risking damage.
The biggest disadvantage of comics on paper is that it is expensive and difficult to read issues that you missed.
The DVD collections have scanned comic books in PDF format. Each book is converted to a scanned image, exactly as it appeared including ads and letters pages. This is a fairly pure experience. You see everything as it was. You use your PDF viewer to zoom in and out, up and down.
Marvel's digital comics take a different approach. They are stored in Flash format with navigation buttons at the bottom for going forward and backwards. The Flash animation has been preset to zoom in or out to make the comic easily readable. The images have been cleaned up. There is no yellowing, no folds, no staples, and nothing but the story itself. You do not buy the digital comics. You buy access, either by the month or by the year. As long as your subscription is valid you can read everything in their library which is being added to daily.
I've been using the PDF images for my FF blogging. Last night I read the FF's first meeting with the Hulk and the first four issues of Thor's return from Marvel's Digital Comics. My impression is that the PDF images work fine for older comics but will not be as convenient for newer ones. The old comics stuck pretty much to a six panel per page format. This was later changed to four panels with some oversized panels. On my PCs, the screen is smaller than the original comic so I zoom it to something like the original size then move the page up and down to read. Newer comics mix panel size constantly. One page might be divided with one panel taking up most of the page and a couple of smaller panels inserted on top of it. This does not lend itself as well to the PDFs.
The Digital Comics will zoom in and out, up and down, trying to follow the story while letting you see the layout of the page. This works fairly well although some word balloons are a bit hard to read when it is showing the full page. You can also override this, scolling the page up or down and changing the zoom. Ironically, the Digital Comics have problems with the older issues. The pages might have been divided into six panels per page but the viewer does not always synchronize properly. There were several times that a word balloon was cut off at the top and I had to scroll up. This is only a minor complaint.
Conclusions: All three ways work. If you are more interested in the story than the physical comic then the digital versions are a good choice. If you want to see the most recent issues then you still have to buy your comics on paper. If you want a wide selection that is still incomplete then the Digital Comics are a good choice. If you want a deep selection - everything for a single character then the DVD collections are good. The DVDs have the additional benefit of portability. You can take them anywhere that you take your laptop. The Digital Comics require a network connection.
Note: Don't even think about trying this on an iPad. It doesn't support Flash or external, optical disks.
Comic books were designed to be on paper. There are no two ways about this. This is also the only form that they have any collectible value. That said, there are disadvantages to having them on paper. They take up a lot of room and they require careful storage to keep up their value. Finding an individual issue can be difficult unless you spend a lot of time filing them and you can't carry them everywhere without risking damage.
The biggest disadvantage of comics on paper is that it is expensive and difficult to read issues that you missed.
The DVD collections have scanned comic books in PDF format. Each book is converted to a scanned image, exactly as it appeared including ads and letters pages. This is a fairly pure experience. You see everything as it was. You use your PDF viewer to zoom in and out, up and down.
Marvel's digital comics take a different approach. They are stored in Flash format with navigation buttons at the bottom for going forward and backwards. The Flash animation has been preset to zoom in or out to make the comic easily readable. The images have been cleaned up. There is no yellowing, no folds, no staples, and nothing but the story itself. You do not buy the digital comics. You buy access, either by the month or by the year. As long as your subscription is valid you can read everything in their library which is being added to daily.
I've been using the PDF images for my FF blogging. Last night I read the FF's first meeting with the Hulk and the first four issues of Thor's return from Marvel's Digital Comics. My impression is that the PDF images work fine for older comics but will not be as convenient for newer ones. The old comics stuck pretty much to a six panel per page format. This was later changed to four panels with some oversized panels. On my PCs, the screen is smaller than the original comic so I zoom it to something like the original size then move the page up and down to read. Newer comics mix panel size constantly. One page might be divided with one panel taking up most of the page and a couple of smaller panels inserted on top of it. This does not lend itself as well to the PDFs.
The Digital Comics will zoom in and out, up and down, trying to follow the story while letting you see the layout of the page. This works fairly well although some word balloons are a bit hard to read when it is showing the full page. You can also override this, scolling the page up or down and changing the zoom. Ironically, the Digital Comics have problems with the older issues. The pages might have been divided into six panels per page but the viewer does not always synchronize properly. There were several times that a word balloon was cut off at the top and I had to scroll up. This is only a minor complaint.
Conclusions: All three ways work. If you are more interested in the story than the physical comic then the digital versions are a good choice. If you want to see the most recent issues then you still have to buy your comics on paper. If you want a wide selection that is still incomplete then the Digital Comics are a good choice. If you want a deep selection - everything for a single character then the DVD collections are good. The DVDs have the additional benefit of portability. You can take them anywhere that you take your laptop. The Digital Comics require a network connection.
Note: Don't even think about trying this on an iPad. It doesn't support Flash or external, optical disks.
Tuesday, February 02, 2010
FF Blogging - FF Annual #1
It's been a while since I blogged about old issues of the Fantastic Four.
I started reading the Fantastic Four with FF Annual #2. It was years before I saw the first annual and I think that this was the first time I reread it.
Growing up in the 1960s, Marvel's annuals were a big event. DC put out super-sized collections of reprints but Marvel was too new for that. Their annuals featured a new, extended-length story, a reprint, and some extra material. At a time when DC shoehorned two stories into a regular-sized comic, the extended story was unprecedented. Stan Lee fit extra-large subject matter into the story, in this case, the Prince Namor, Sub Mariner.
The Sub Mariner was the first Golden Age hero that Stan Lee and Jack Kirby revived. The Human Torch found him as a wondering, amnesiac, derelict in FF #3. After giving him a shave and dropping him in the ocean, namor regained his memory and went to rejoin his people. He found their city deserted, apparently due to nuclear testing. He declared war on the human race, starting with New York City and the FF. He also developed a crush on Sue Storm.
At the beginning of the annual, Namor found his people again and took him place as their ruler. Lady Dorma and Warlord Krang were introduced and would go onto become long-time supporting characters in the Sub Mariner's own comic.
The FF combined a vacation with an investigation into some strange sightings at sea. This turned out to be a trap. The Sub Mariner captured them then sent them to the United Nations to deliver his declaration of war. During the UN session, a scientist explained the evolution of Namor's people and the circumstances of his birth. The scientist turned out to the the Sub Mariner in disguise. When the UN rejected his demands, he launched his attack.
New York quickly fell to the Atlantean invaders. The FF captured a few soldiers and Reed figured out how to disrupt the helmets that let them breath out of water. His army fled but the Sub Mariner invaded the FF's headquarters and captured Sue Storm.
The other three followed but were attacked by sea creatures commanded by Namor. They were at a disadvantage and about to fall when a jealous Lady Dorma broke the window of the ship holding Sue. Sue nearly drowned and Namor commandeered the command craft to take her to a human hospital.
When he returned, Namor found that he people had deserted him again because of his divided loyalties.
That's a lot of story! These days it would have been spread over multiple issues and later gathered into a graphic novel.
As a backup, the annual had a reprint story and some pinups.
I started reading the Fantastic Four with FF Annual #2. It was years before I saw the first annual and I think that this was the first time I reread it.
Growing up in the 1960s, Marvel's annuals were a big event. DC put out super-sized collections of reprints but Marvel was too new for that. Their annuals featured a new, extended-length story, a reprint, and some extra material. At a time when DC shoehorned two stories into a regular-sized comic, the extended story was unprecedented. Stan Lee fit extra-large subject matter into the story, in this case, the Prince Namor, Sub Mariner.
The Sub Mariner was the first Golden Age hero that Stan Lee and Jack Kirby revived. The Human Torch found him as a wondering, amnesiac, derelict in FF #3. After giving him a shave and dropping him in the ocean, namor regained his memory and went to rejoin his people. He found their city deserted, apparently due to nuclear testing. He declared war on the human race, starting with New York City and the FF. He also developed a crush on Sue Storm.
At the beginning of the annual, Namor found his people again and took him place as their ruler. Lady Dorma and Warlord Krang were introduced and would go onto become long-time supporting characters in the Sub Mariner's own comic.
The FF combined a vacation with an investigation into some strange sightings at sea. This turned out to be a trap. The Sub Mariner captured them then sent them to the United Nations to deliver his declaration of war. During the UN session, a scientist explained the evolution of Namor's people and the circumstances of his birth. The scientist turned out to the the Sub Mariner in disguise. When the UN rejected his demands, he launched his attack.
New York quickly fell to the Atlantean invaders. The FF captured a few soldiers and Reed figured out how to disrupt the helmets that let them breath out of water. His army fled but the Sub Mariner invaded the FF's headquarters and captured Sue Storm.
The other three followed but were attacked by sea creatures commanded by Namor. They were at a disadvantage and about to fall when a jealous Lady Dorma broke the window of the ship holding Sue. Sue nearly drowned and Namor commandeered the command craft to take her to a human hospital.
When he returned, Namor found that he people had deserted him again because of his divided loyalties.
That's a lot of story! These days it would have been spread over multiple issues and later gathered into a graphic novel.
As a backup, the annual had a reprint story and some pinups.
Thursday, January 28, 2010
iPad Second Impressions
The iPad got a surprising amount of bad press. This was quickly followed by hard-core Apple defenders rebutting the complaints. Wired lists 10 Things Missing From the iPad then dismisses them as nothing anyone would want, anyway. I'm going to take a closer look at Wired's list. I reordered the list and combined four items into one.
Wired has a point about OLED. It would have pushed the price point up too high. More on that later.
People don't really expect to do multiple things on their phone so multitasking wasn't a big deal. Even so, the ability to multitask is a selling point for Droid and Palm. The iPad is supposed to be more than a simple phone so why does it have this restriction? Wired assumes that anyone buying an iPad will be too busy watching movies to want email going in the background (which ties into the next point). Ok, if the iPad is going to be a personal movie device then you might not want email interrupting the movie but what about people who are using it to browse the web. I thought that most people multi-tasked these days.
The lack of a 16:9 proportion argues that the iPad is not primarily meant as a way of watching movies and TV. Wired points out that the logo and the home button are positioned for portrait, not landscape, which also indicates that video is more an afterthought than a goal. The lack of built-in HDMI says the same thing. It is possible that they positioned things the way they did so that the iPad would look like a big iPhone. Microsoft used 16:9 in the Zune HD and it looks fine in portrait and landscape. That makes the proportions really puzzling. It's even more puzzling if you assume that the iPad will mainly be used for web browsing. Most web pages look best in landscape. Did they design it around books? Or was my big iPhone theory correct?
This brings me to the real design factor in the iPad - cost. They wanted it to be cheap so they left a lot out. You can add USB, a keyboard, a camera, and possibly HDMI but you have to pay extra. These extra will add up quickly, too. A USB port and a docking station adds 20% to the base price. I'm betting that Jobs came up with a list of features that the iPad has to have to be considered functional and cut everything else out if it to save money. Some things are available as ad-ins. GPS was eliminated except on the higher-end version that can use cell-phone technology to approximate it. That may explain the 4:3 screen, also. It is probably cheaper than a 16:9. It certainly explains why the iPad is so light on memory. $500 only gets you 16 gig and the most you can get is 64 gig. That's not much for a device that is supposed to become your entertainment hub.
Sacrificing features for price is probably a good idea. A recent survey found that most people would not buy an $800 iPad. A $500 is much more attractive. Still, you really have to wonder how successful it will be as a media device? It's too big to be a dedicated MP3 player and it is pretty expensive as a single-person video player. The ability to download movies and TV shows and play them on your wide-screen TV without having to resort to a second computer or an expensive adapter seems like a missed selling point.
I haven't talked about games yet. The assumption is that this will be a great gaming platform and possibly that is its real intended use. I'm still a little skeptical about that, too. I know that the iPhone has been embraced as a gaming platform but I wonder just how much fun it will be using a 1 1/2 pound game controller. I predict a lot of repetitive stress injuries.
- Flash
- Verizon
- OLED
- Multitasking
- 16:9
- USB, HDMI, Keyboard, Camera
- GPS
Wired has a point about OLED. It would have pushed the price point up too high. More on that later.
People don't really expect to do multiple things on their phone so multitasking wasn't a big deal. Even so, the ability to multitask is a selling point for Droid and Palm. The iPad is supposed to be more than a simple phone so why does it have this restriction? Wired assumes that anyone buying an iPad will be too busy watching movies to want email going in the background (which ties into the next point). Ok, if the iPad is going to be a personal movie device then you might not want email interrupting the movie but what about people who are using it to browse the web. I thought that most people multi-tasked these days.
The lack of a 16:9 proportion argues that the iPad is not primarily meant as a way of watching movies and TV. Wired points out that the logo and the home button are positioned for portrait, not landscape, which also indicates that video is more an afterthought than a goal. The lack of built-in HDMI says the same thing. It is possible that they positioned things the way they did so that the iPad would look like a big iPhone. Microsoft used 16:9 in the Zune HD and it looks fine in portrait and landscape. That makes the proportions really puzzling. It's even more puzzling if you assume that the iPad will mainly be used for web browsing. Most web pages look best in landscape. Did they design it around books? Or was my big iPhone theory correct?
This brings me to the real design factor in the iPad - cost. They wanted it to be cheap so they left a lot out. You can add USB, a keyboard, a camera, and possibly HDMI but you have to pay extra. These extra will add up quickly, too. A USB port and a docking station adds 20% to the base price. I'm betting that Jobs came up with a list of features that the iPad has to have to be considered functional and cut everything else out if it to save money. Some things are available as ad-ins. GPS was eliminated except on the higher-end version that can use cell-phone technology to approximate it. That may explain the 4:3 screen, also. It is probably cheaper than a 16:9. It certainly explains why the iPad is so light on memory. $500 only gets you 16 gig and the most you can get is 64 gig. That's not much for a device that is supposed to become your entertainment hub.
Sacrificing features for price is probably a good idea. A recent survey found that most people would not buy an $800 iPad. A $500 is much more attractive. Still, you really have to wonder how successful it will be as a media device? It's too big to be a dedicated MP3 player and it is pretty expensive as a single-person video player. The ability to download movies and TV shows and play them on your wide-screen TV without having to resort to a second computer or an expensive adapter seems like a missed selling point.
I haven't talked about games yet. The assumption is that this will be a great gaming platform and possibly that is its real intended use. I'm still a little skeptical about that, too. I know that the iPhone has been embraced as a gaming platform but I wonder just how much fun it will be using a 1 1/2 pound game controller. I predict a lot of repetitive stress injuries.
Wednesday, January 27, 2010
iPad Impressions
The Jesus Tablet has finally arrived and it's a big iPhone with a clunky name - the iPad. This is supposed to be the device that saves publishing by convincing us to stop accessing the Internet with our PCs for free and start buying the content for the iPad, instead. It isn't going to happen.
Gizmodo has a list of things that suck with the iPad. I'm going to concentrate on a few important ones.
First, its web browser is crippled. It doesn't run Flash. That means that Youtube needs a special app to work and pages with embedded Youtube videos will not work.
Like the iPhone, it will only do one thing at a time. You can browse or your can check email but don't try to do both.
There's no camera so you cannot do a video chat with anyone either.
People are expecting the iPad to take over ebooks the way that the iPod took over music. It will not. It is too big and too expensive.
I don't expect it to cut into the Netbook market much either. It is lighter but it is missing a lot of functionality and it costs more. I'm using a laptop on my lap right now. The form factor is pretty good. I can type without it falling off of my lap and I don't have to hold it in place to see the screen.
Apple had great success with music and phones but they entered these markets with revolutionary products. Prior to the iPod, MP3 players had very limited memory and hard-to-use controls. Apple was the first to offer a music player that could hold an entire collection instead of a couple of CDs.
The iPhone was the first phone with a big touch screen. Every phone before it had a keypad that took up a lot of space.
The iPad does not offer new functionality. There are other tablets on the market that do more. For the starting price of an iPad, you can get a good notebook with ten times the storage and a full version of Windows 7. For less than the price of an iPad you can get a netbook with a fairly large hard drive, similar screen size and good battery life.
I don't doubt that Apple will sell a lot of iPads - at least a million by the end of the year. But I don't think that it will dominate any markets the way that the iPod and iPhone have done.
Gizmodo has a list of things that suck with the iPad. I'm going to concentrate on a few important ones.
First, its web browser is crippled. It doesn't run Flash. That means that Youtube needs a special app to work and pages with embedded Youtube videos will not work.
Like the iPhone, it will only do one thing at a time. You can browse or your can check email but don't try to do both.
There's no camera so you cannot do a video chat with anyone either.
People are expecting the iPad to take over ebooks the way that the iPod took over music. It will not. It is too big and too expensive.
I don't expect it to cut into the Netbook market much either. It is lighter but it is missing a lot of functionality and it costs more. I'm using a laptop on my lap right now. The form factor is pretty good. I can type without it falling off of my lap and I don't have to hold it in place to see the screen.
Apple had great success with music and phones but they entered these markets with revolutionary products. Prior to the iPod, MP3 players had very limited memory and hard-to-use controls. Apple was the first to offer a music player that could hold an entire collection instead of a couple of CDs.
The iPhone was the first phone with a big touch screen. Every phone before it had a keypad that took up a lot of space.
The iPad does not offer new functionality. There are other tablets on the market that do more. For the starting price of an iPad, you can get a good notebook with ten times the storage and a full version of Windows 7. For less than the price of an iPad you can get a netbook with a fairly large hard drive, similar screen size and good battery life.
I don't doubt that Apple will sell a lot of iPads - at least a million by the end of the year. But I don't think that it will dominate any markets the way that the iPod and iPhone have done.
Thursday, January 21, 2010
The Human Target
I never cared for the Human Target back when it was a back-up strip for Superman. The adventures of a regular guy who would disguise himself as people in danger in order to dodge assassination attempts was a poor fit for Superman and backup strips were usually too short to tell a good story, anyway.
Fox has adapted the strip as an action-adventure show which I like a great deal.
The concept has been totally retooled. The main character (Mark Valley) is now a bodyguard, accompanying the target rather than replacing him. He goes by the name Christopher Chance but it is clear that this is not his real name. In the first couple of episodes, they have dropped hints that Chance has a shady background and may have a death-wish. He is assisted by Winston (Chi McBride playing nearly the same role that he had in Pushing Daisies) and Guerrero (Jackie Earle Haley).
The show is basically an old-fashioned action/adventure/mystery with some comedy thrown in. This used to be a TV staple but now is mainly represented on network TV by Chuck. The two episodes shown so far involved a run-away bullet train and a pilot-less airliner.
I hope that this show gets a decent chance. Fox premiered it on Sunday then moved it to Wednesday at 9 with a special time next week on Tuesday. It may switch places with American Idol and move to 8:00.
Fox has adapted the strip as an action-adventure show which I like a great deal.
The concept has been totally retooled. The main character (Mark Valley) is now a bodyguard, accompanying the target rather than replacing him. He goes by the name Christopher Chance but it is clear that this is not his real name. In the first couple of episodes, they have dropped hints that Chance has a shady background and may have a death-wish. He is assisted by Winston (Chi McBride playing nearly the same role that he had in Pushing Daisies) and Guerrero (Jackie Earle Haley).
The show is basically an old-fashioned action/adventure/mystery with some comedy thrown in. This used to be a TV staple but now is mainly represented on network TV by Chuck. The two episodes shown so far involved a run-away bullet train and a pilot-less airliner.
I hope that this show gets a decent chance. Fox premiered it on Sunday then moved it to Wednesday at 9 with a special time next week on Tuesday. It may switch places with American Idol and move to 8:00.
Tuesday, January 12, 2010
Avatar, Race and Heroes
Is Avatar racist? Many think so. The story has been described as one of a series of movies in which a white westerner abandons his culture and embraces a new one, thereby becoming its savior. The implication is that the alien culture cannot save itself, it has to have a white outsider to save it.
This general plotline has deep roots.
One of the oldest and most common stories is about a young man who leaves home, finds a teacher or mentor, and becomes a hero. This dates back at least a thousand years. George Lukas bragged about using it in the original Star Wars movie.
A refinement of this has the man encountering a totally new culture and embracing it. This is a staple of novels, especially science fiction. Edgar Rice Burroughs used it for most of his heroes. This is the basis of Dune and the historic Japanese novel, Shogun.
The reason this is so common is that it allows the writer to introduce the new culture to us as it is introduced to the hero. The introduction becomes part of the plot.
During the Viet Nam war, a new variation grew up. The idea of a wise primitive culture resisting a cruel, technological culture was introduced. This mirrored the perception of a third world country being able to defeat a superpower.
In this variation, technology and culture have blinded the hero and he must learn the wisdom that his people forgot. The villains are normally either military or industrial with military accompanying them. They are contemptuous of the local culture but, when the final fight comes, the natives easily best the outsiders using their superior insights. Writer Alan Dean Foster made a career out of this as have other writers from the late 1960s and 70s.
This is what I grew up reading and James Cameron was born the same year that I was. You can also see the influence of this in other movies. In Return of the Jedi, Imperial soldiers are overcome by feral teddy bears. In Phantom Menace, a bunch of semi-primitives challenge a droid army. It is no coincidence that Alan Dean Foster wrote the first Star Wars novel.
The message here is debatable. It can be seen as a need for a white savior to rescue cultures that cannot save themselves, no matter how superior they are. An alternate view is that even someone from a decadent western culture can become enlightened if he leaves his culture behind and embraces a new one.
If James Cameron had just left it at that, conservatives would have continued to jeer but that would have been the end of it. The problem is that Cameron couldn't leave it alone. He had to introduce a racial element. When he cast the movie he cast whites as the bad guys and people of other races as the natives. Avatar is not about the superiority of primitive, planet-loving cultures over modern technological civilization. It is about everyone else being superior to whites. But they still need a white guy to save them. If you are sensitive enough then there is something here to offend everyone. Whites - you are evil. Blacks, Indians, Asians - you need whites to save you from other whites.
With it's anti-colonialism and anti-Bush message, Avatar was considered a contender for the Best Picture Oscar but some ham-handed racial casting might turn off enough Academy voters to give the Best Picture to someone else (possibly someone who made a better picture).
This general plotline has deep roots.
One of the oldest and most common stories is about a young man who leaves home, finds a teacher or mentor, and becomes a hero. This dates back at least a thousand years. George Lukas bragged about using it in the original Star Wars movie.
A refinement of this has the man encountering a totally new culture and embracing it. This is a staple of novels, especially science fiction. Edgar Rice Burroughs used it for most of his heroes. This is the basis of Dune and the historic Japanese novel, Shogun.
The reason this is so common is that it allows the writer to introduce the new culture to us as it is introduced to the hero. The introduction becomes part of the plot.
During the Viet Nam war, a new variation grew up. The idea of a wise primitive culture resisting a cruel, technological culture was introduced. This mirrored the perception of a third world country being able to defeat a superpower.
In this variation, technology and culture have blinded the hero and he must learn the wisdom that his people forgot. The villains are normally either military or industrial with military accompanying them. They are contemptuous of the local culture but, when the final fight comes, the natives easily best the outsiders using their superior insights. Writer Alan Dean Foster made a career out of this as have other writers from the late 1960s and 70s.
This is what I grew up reading and James Cameron was born the same year that I was. You can also see the influence of this in other movies. In Return of the Jedi, Imperial soldiers are overcome by feral teddy bears. In Phantom Menace, a bunch of semi-primitives challenge a droid army. It is no coincidence that Alan Dean Foster wrote the first Star Wars novel.
The message here is debatable. It can be seen as a need for a white savior to rescue cultures that cannot save themselves, no matter how superior they are. An alternate view is that even someone from a decadent western culture can become enlightened if he leaves his culture behind and embraces a new one.
If James Cameron had just left it at that, conservatives would have continued to jeer but that would have been the end of it. The problem is that Cameron couldn't leave it alone. He had to introduce a racial element. When he cast the movie he cast whites as the bad guys and people of other races as the natives. Avatar is not about the superiority of primitive, planet-loving cultures over modern technological civilization. It is about everyone else being superior to whites. But they still need a white guy to save them. If you are sensitive enough then there is something here to offend everyone. Whites - you are evil. Blacks, Indians, Asians - you need whites to save you from other whites.
With it's anti-colonialism and anti-Bush message, Avatar was considered a contender for the Best Picture Oscar but some ham-handed racial casting might turn off enough Academy voters to give the Best Picture to someone else (possibly someone who made a better picture).
Monday, January 11, 2010
Doctor Parnassus
Most people know the Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus as Heath Ledger's last film. Forget that. Yes, Ledger is there in an important role but he isn't what makes the movie stand out. It's real claim to fame is that it is Terry Gilliam's return to the type of film-making he did in the 1980s. It is the first movie that he wrote and directed since The Adventures of Baron Munchausen (1988!) and his personal touch shows. Like a Tim Burton movie, there are a number of "Gilliam" images scattered throughout.
The movie is about a series of wagers between Doctor Parnassus, a former Buddhist monk, and Mr. Nick, the devil. Parnassus has a traveling show in which people go through a mirror and enter a world created by a combination of Parnassus's imagination and their own. While there, they are presented with a choice between salvation and perdition. Parnassus and Nick each try to influence the person's choice.
Over the centuries, Parnassus (Christopher Plummer) and Nick (Tom Waits) have made wagers with various stakes. To confuse things, Nick doesn't always want to win. Sometimes he has his sights on a different prize and Parnassus is a means to an end. The result of one of these wagers is that Nick gets to claim Parnassus's daughter, Valentina, at her 16th birthday. As the days are counting down, a new person enters the show - a man they found hanging beneath a bridge. It turned out that he wasn't dead. He had swallowed a tube which kept his windpipe from being crushed. The man's name is Tony, played by Ledger along with Johnny Depp, Jude Law, and Colin Farrell. He seems to offer salvation but he has his own dark secrets.
While the acting is good, the real star of the show are the visuals. Parnassus's traveling wagon unfolds into a fantastic stage with clockwork figures moving back and forth. Other times it has an seemingly unlimited number of doors and hiding places. The Imaginarium itself is ever-changing. Many of the visuals are reminiscent of Baron Muchausen. There is also a dance number by policemen in drag that reminds you that Gilliam started out in Monty Python.
If you liked Baron Munchausen, Brazil and Time Bandits then you will like Parnassus. If they left you confused then so will Parnassus.
The movie is about a series of wagers between Doctor Parnassus, a former Buddhist monk, and Mr. Nick, the devil. Parnassus has a traveling show in which people go through a mirror and enter a world created by a combination of Parnassus's imagination and their own. While there, they are presented with a choice between salvation and perdition. Parnassus and Nick each try to influence the person's choice.
Over the centuries, Parnassus (Christopher Plummer) and Nick (Tom Waits) have made wagers with various stakes. To confuse things, Nick doesn't always want to win. Sometimes he has his sights on a different prize and Parnassus is a means to an end. The result of one of these wagers is that Nick gets to claim Parnassus's daughter, Valentina, at her 16th birthday. As the days are counting down, a new person enters the show - a man they found hanging beneath a bridge. It turned out that he wasn't dead. He had swallowed a tube which kept his windpipe from being crushed. The man's name is Tony, played by Ledger along with Johnny Depp, Jude Law, and Colin Farrell. He seems to offer salvation but he has his own dark secrets.
While the acting is good, the real star of the show are the visuals. Parnassus's traveling wagon unfolds into a fantastic stage with clockwork figures moving back and forth. Other times it has an seemingly unlimited number of doors and hiding places. The Imaginarium itself is ever-changing. Many of the visuals are reminiscent of Baron Muchausen. There is also a dance number by policemen in drag that reminds you that Gilliam started out in Monty Python.
If you liked Baron Munchausen, Brazil and Time Bandits then you will like Parnassus. If they left you confused then so will Parnassus.
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