Blast from the Past

I was up in the loft a few days ago, trying to sort through my comics. After about 3 hours I'd got all my issues of Avengers into one box, not in order but its a start.

Gods I have a lot of Comics. I may repeat my sorting if opportunity presents itself.

Anyway, from this I found two small Limited series from a while back that I hadn't read in ages and decided to re-visit them (OK truth be told there was loads I wanted to bring down but the objective was to reduce the number of comics lying around) the 2 series, by happy coincidence, both contained ideas that I wish more had been done with.

First was a 3 issue USAgent Limited series. This was just after the Maximum Security event in 2001 and had John Walker, aka USAgent acting as a member of the Superhuman Tactical Activities Response Squad, or STARS, an agency tasked by the commission to capture escaped Superhuman criminals. With this he also got a Judge Dread inspired costume and a supporting cast. The story is pretty good, in the process of apprehending Machete from a hydra base Agent, his STARS team and a team mate forceably added to the team by a corrupt senator, get caught up in a scheme by the power broker to use an alien to mind control people. Now I first grew to like Agent in Force Works, where he seemed to mellow a little from his normally abrasive self. His character went somewhat backwards, although considering all the guff Marvel threw at him in the intraveneing period its not surprising he was bitter. This showed real potential but sadly the idea was ignored for years and eventually dropped, his next appearance would be calling himself Captain America in the short lived Invaders series. I would have liked to see this continue, it offered some interesting progression for a character forever relegated to second stringer or "Spare Cap" indeed Agent seems the least popular of Marvels spree of second characters such as Thunderstrike and War Machine. Still, with Agent last seen in Omega Flight this is a plot strand that may never be revisited. Shame.

The other was a series called Avataars: Covenant of the Shield, which was a 3 issue prologue to what was hoped would be a 12 issue mini series featuring Medieval knight type versions of Marvel characters. I think the initial thought for this came from the "Heroes Return" Avengers story where all the avengers were converted into medieval versions and made into an honour guard for Morgan Le Fay. Its again an interesting concept, but, being more of an intro it does sacrifice story for attempting to show its versions of as many Marvel characters as possible. Seriously some of them are literally a brief exposition type origin followed by an appearance then off again. Still it was left open and I wonder if there will ever be enough of an interest by a writer to re-visit that setting. Only problem may be that, post Neil Gaiman's 1602 any "Marvel but in the Past" ideas have a hell of a lot to live up to. Still unlike USAgent and STARS I can but hope it appears at some point.

Must go through more comics, judging by the shotgun approach I had to buying comics I wonder how many will be like 1602 and how many will be Megamorphs.

Tarted Up

Quick entry, I've added in a few images to existing articles to make the whole thing look less like a big bank of text, will try to keep an image or so in most posts in future.

Also, finally switched the time to GMT, so now all my time stamps in old posts are wonky. Will probably leave them be, rather than edit them.

War Machine

A quick aside to one of my favorite characters, Jim Rhodes aka War Machine.

See Jim is one of the reasons I got into comics, one of the first comics I owned was a War machine comic and my first serious collection was of his mid 90s series. It has been commented that if you want to get me to buy a series you can do worse than put War Machine or Jim Rhodes in it. Indeed, this is what marvel have done, repeatedly.

There seems to be a fair bit of enthusiasm by writers in the character of Jim Rhodes, as despite loosing his series, and his warwear armour (I Liked it) just before Onslaught, he's seemingly managed to keep some sort of profile in the MU, he was in Iron man when it re-launched, as indeed was War Machine, or an old suit flown by someone else. Later he appeared in "The Crew" an attempt at creating a streetwise team of mismatched heroes (Also featuring Casper Cole aka White Tiger, Junta, and Josiah X) and there was recently a MAX comic set in some form of alternate universe.

However recently he's been all over. After House of M he appeared in a spinnoff mini Sentinel Squad O.N.E. He had been recruited as an instructor for a team of human piloted specialist Sentinels, and even had a normal sized suit of sentinel themed armour. I liked this role a lot. It made a lot of character sense for him to semi-retire to a training role. Indeed this was progressed in The initiative, where he is in charge of Camp Hammond, the training camp for new heroes, and he has been given a new suit of War Machine armour by Stark.

However, his story is far from over, in a recent issue he is defeated by KIA, and has his mask removed against apparently standing instructions, one small shot shows a more cybernetic face and both that and the following issue refer to a "Condition" could Rhodes have been injured during business with ONE, can he ever leave the armour, just how much of him is left.

Come on Marvel, give us a War Machine mini filling in the gaps.

The Invasion Continues

As always, if you're waiting for the trade, I'd not read this one, try my post on U turns, its ranty.

Well, we're now on issue #2 plus we've had 2 issues of Mighty avengers and one of New. First a general opinion, Issue #2 was a bit lacklustre, it served a couple of nice touches but didn't really make the plot shift at all. Essentially it served to let the assembled avengers fight the people who emerged from the ship, and then get scrambled enough that now anyone there could be a skrull. Hawkeye/Ronin was also united with mockingbird who is apparently real. Like I said, would have preferred more movement with the plot, I just hope they won't make a habit of this or the series could really loose its momentum.

Anyway, from these issues and from some previews, some speculation. Fury is gathering young unknowns, so presumably fury knows the Skrulls are only picking important costumed heroes to replace, a nice touch. We know that Duggan, the Countess, Jarvis and Hank Pym are all skrulls, and in New avengers it is strongly implied that Spider-Woman is not just a Skrull but the leader, this could be a red herring but it fits with her strange use of previously unknown powers in Mighty Avengers. One interesting point from New Avengers was a possible clue as to who has been replaced. Basically it is easier to replace people who have murky origins and have died a lot. It doesn't narrow it too much but definitely adds Wolverine as a possibility. Another thought is Norman Osbourne, supposedly killed but suddenly survived, now leading the Thunderbolts, its not too much of a leap. Of course this could also hopefully undo the two kids he allegedly had with Gwen Stacey (Actually Skrulls here's hoping) and I still hope that One More day turns out to be a Skrull plot. Still, rolling along nicely.

U Turn

In a week where Gordon Brown is being berated for a series of U-Turns I do think we're getting to a stage where someone can't win. If you make a decision and stick by it, you're out of touch, stubborn and not listening to the people, but if you change your mind you're weak, or performing a U-Turn and thus similarly unfit. In fact the entire weight of the media seems against you even if you're going to be man enough to admit your mistake.

Someone once said in defence of a U-Turn that "I change my mind as the available facts change, what do you do?" but for some reason we're now indoctrinated to see any change on your path of thought as weakness, rather than admitting that you are a fallible human who has found out some facts that were previously unavailable and are now correcting your stance accordingly. This is why religion is more popular than science, they never change their mind no matter how much contradictory evidence presents itself, unlike that wishy washy science which seems to go out of its way to prove itself wrong.

In politic in particular I think U-Turns should be commended. Isn't the purpose of debate to persuade and present facts. If you listen to the opposition, and they make a good point, why do we lambaste politicians for saying "I never thought of it that way. You have given me much to think about and I may revise my stance on this issue" in the press said politician will now be "Wishy washy, or U-Turning" rather than "Reasonable"

Of course some U-Turns always look better than others. Gordon Brown's half U-Turn on the 10p tax issue (Which isn't quite a U-turn more panicked scrabbling) looks far more like he's realised how bad this looks for him and is trying damage control. Worse are his opponents, who mysteriously have all of a sudden developed a conscience and started rebelling on this despite next to no attention paid when it was discussed months ago. So, in this situation Brown looks like he's trying everything bar saying "Look, it was a bad idea, consider it struck" while everyone else looks like they're just trying to gain a scrap of power.

So, what would a good U-turn look like. Well, imagine Tony Blair, a few years ago, if he said "In light of the immense public feeling regarding going to war with Iraq, I have decided not to proceed" Or with the current ID card fiasco, "You know, these things are going to cost a fortune, and to little or no reasonable gain, so I motion to stop the whole thing" Ok so the latter would get him into serious trouble with the people who have already been promised the lucrative ID card contracts, and the former would have offended his buddy George, but all U-turns have consequences. Brown's litter tax is leaving a hole in his budget to the tune of some 7 million, and no doubt bringing back the 10p tax rate would add more, but realistically, his finances are pretty much stuffed with the upcoming credit crunch so he may as well try for something a bit populist.

In short I think people should be encouraged to change tack as facts unfold. At the moment we seem to want people to stubbornly stick to their guns, even when those guns are wanting for a mind changing metaphor.

Does whatever an Iron Can

I Saw the superlative Iron Man this weekend. It was a gamble, first film that Marvel have self funded, and I think it paid off.



Spoiler hats on kids.



Reviews have been mixed, with comic and SF reviews being positive, and the serious press being lukewarm. The serious reviews bemoan the lack of a big bad through, complaining that what we have is about an hour or so of Stark inventing Armour, then one big fight at the end. I personally think this was the film's strength. A film lead by any other studio would no doubt have balked at Iron Man only facing the Iron Monger ta the end, preferring him to be beaten first, recover from a crisis of confidence and go on to prevail.



So, to me brilliant film. In the opening acts, despite him being an amoral arms dealer, I wanted to be Tony Stark, and after his incarceration you just like him more. Robert Downy Jr really nailed the part. The scenes between him and Pepper Potts (Which I was dubious about) also really worked and they had a definite chemistry.



There was also a lot of succulent meat for us comic fans. Jim Rhodes hinting at War Machine, the 10 rings alluding to the mandarin, and of course SHIELD with the post credits Samuel L Jackson cameo as Nick Fury.



Overall a top film, if this is what Marvel can produce without meddling studios, long may they fund their own films.

Golden Age of TV Sci-Fi

Remember the 90's? Duff whining indie music, teenage angst, the clone saga and empty Hollywood blockbusters. Its possibly the first era where people decided to do a 60's revival rather than have their own era. However it wasn't all dreadful.

TV SF was on something of a roll. The late 80s had brought back Star Trek, but it was through the 90s that things really kicked in. As usual, what helped was the holy grail of any SF TV series, Crossover appeal. For time frame, rather than dredge years up from my memory, think about from the start of The X Files through to the Start of Buffy the vampire slayer, which inadvertently was a factor in the early 2000 slump.

The X Files was a rare beast when it started. It was SF, undoubtedly so, unashamedly so (Lost, I'm looking at you) but it also had a real populist appeal. Helped by being set in the here and now, as opposed to the future, using existing organisations such as the FBI and particularly before it spectacularly exploded in its own mess, featuring a nice mix of Conspiracy madness and urban folklore. The result pulled SF into the mainstream and, as always, everyone wanted a piece. The advantage of this was that for a few years, it was easier to get a genre show commissioned. For the fans we got more space opera, like the Fantastic Deep Space 9, the legendary Babylon 5 plus a few that didn't make it past one season like Space: Above and beyond. People were also experimenting more, we got small town weirdness in American Gothic, a much more SF take on conspiracy theory and alien invasion from Dark Skies, decent episodic stuff from the likes of Sliders, Quantum leap, while starting early really gained prominence, and should really be considered alongside the X files in populist SF and more fun fantasy from Hercules and Xena. Now granted many of these fell by the wayside, but they all lasted their season and most still have followings. Towards the end we had Stargate SG1 who's franchise would be the torch bearer into the next millennium. Weird stuff was even produced like Lexx and the next mold breakers Farscape and of Course Buffy the vampire slayer.

So, what went wrong. Well, SF started getting expensive, Shows like The X Files from its stars, others from the level of effects. Second was the great populist shows going. X files vanished up its own continuity, Quantum leap finished, and X-Files spin off Millennium ended, never having made as big a splash as its parent series (In fact successful spinoffs in the genre are rare, Trek, Stargate, Buffy and Hercules are the only ones). Babylon 5's Crusade series died under the weight of networks seeking something less cerebral and more populist, and indeed that trend continued in the 21st century. Trek was becoming the very definition of bland, with Voyager generally preferring to be TNG 2. We also had Buffy, which broke the mold and re-write the rulebook on what a genre series could do, and naturally started its own brand of imitators, although the quality was far lower. Newtorks also became more nervous about putting money into a series that would flop. Stargate and Farscape aside (Both of which pretty much lived under the threat of an axe) Space opera was considered a no-no, too expensive. In fact the networks also developed an alarming habit of axing shows mid season, so episodes never got shown, we lost a good few good series like Odyssey 5 and Serenity this way, Buffy ran on but its spinoff Angel again was unloved by networks (Surprising since fans and critics were on the whole positive) and when Enterprise failed, Buffy, Angel and Farscape all ended we were looking at slim pickings indeed, Stargate, Andromeda and Charmed.

But now we're in a new golden age, and once again populist SF is at its core. Lost hit out at all, and while it was a little more ashamed of its SF trappings it did prove that people will accept a slow burn series with some pretty tricky concepts. Space opera was back with the remake of Battlestar Galacica and Lost was eventually followed by the superb Heroes. in the UK, where most terrestrial networks had conceded all Genre shows to sky, the BBC relaunched Dr Who, which was so successful that they commissioned two Spinoffs. It also gave a healthy kick to other networks who started making and buying their own series. Variety and experimentation are now rife again, and we have a wealth of great stuff out now aside from the aformenentioned shows we have the fun Chuck and Reaper, the ambitious Sarah Connor Chronicles, the just plain weirdness of Pushing Daises and a bionic woman remake, all available on free to view channels. And a fair few seem to have weathered the writers strike to get second series.

Long may it continue.