― Chris F. (servoret), Friday, 23 September 2005 05:33 (eighteen years ago) link
― Andrew Farrell (afarrell), Friday, 23 September 2005 10:47 (eighteen years ago) link
Plus, I think it's time for me to do a reread on the last issues of Doom Patrol. The issues after that last Mr. Nobody story arc never sat well with me, but I was flipping through them today and found that I liked them better in the context of thinking about this stuff as of late. The Case/Woch art team maybe wasn't the best, but it still kinda works. Also, I think I'm over resenting GM for the less savory ways that his stance on mental illness in DP #63 can be interpreted ("a world where everything is alive and significant" is not always better than the alternative), especially in light of The Filth.
― Chris F. (servoret), Saturday, 24 September 2005 06:24 (eighteen years ago) link
― Chuck_Tatum (Chuck_Tatum), Saturday, 24 September 2005 14:41 (eighteen years ago) link
― Chuck_Tatum (Chuck_Tatum), Saturday, 24 September 2005 14:56 (eighteen years ago) link
― kit brash (kit brash), Saturday, 24 September 2005 22:32 (eighteen years ago) link
― Chris F. (servoret), Sunday, 25 September 2005 07:04 (eighteen years ago) link
― Chris F. (servoret), Sunday, 25 September 2005 07:20 (eighteen years ago) link
The actual worst part of the Grant DP run was the Happy Harbor sex men story just after the Pentagon stuff (& the TOTALLY CLASSIC Beard Hunter one-off), that was dreadful and really felt like wheels spinning. Then the second brotherhood stuff was OK, the silver age issue was meh, I LIKED the Rebis moon issue though have never convincingly understood it, and after that it was plot plot plot and fite fite fite but those issues do read better now than at the time.
I read a GM thing last night - his "World Shapers" story for Doctor Who Monthly! Not exactly vintage stuff and John Ridgway was having a serious off-day but there were a couple of moments that were immediately Morrison, that thing he does where the reader and character 1 see something big and weird, and then character 2 treats it really matter-of-factly (which of course just increases the sense of wonder for the reader)
― Tom (Groke), Sunday, 25 September 2005 09:07 (eighteen years ago) link
― kit brash (kit brash), Sunday, 25 September 2005 20:56 (eighteen years ago) link
Yeah, agree and agree (the Beard Hunter was the issue that I started back up with!). The Shadowy Mr. Evans was supposed to be Red Jack pt. 2 or something but just came off as a boring manic asshole, Gnostic Christ or not. I guess you're right that the series needed a change of pace anyway, since when GM got back to the Weird Menace thing with those issues, it didn't work anymore (because he was bored with it? There's that Weird Menace red herring/autocritique bit that I think happens right before the Sex Men issues).
― Chris F. (servoret), Monday, 26 September 2005 06:09 (eighteen years ago) link
― Huk-L (Huk-L), Friday, 30 September 2005 13:47 (eighteen years ago) link
1) Your ass must be a beautiful place.2) IT'S ON SON!
― David R. (popshots75`), Friday, 30 September 2005 14:05 (eighteen years ago) link
― Chuck_Tatum (Chuck_Tatum), Friday, 30 September 2005 14:11 (eighteen years ago) link
― Chuck_Tatum (Chuck_Tatum), Friday, 30 September 2005 14:12 (eighteen years ago) link
― Martin Skidmore (Martin Skidmore), Friday, 30 September 2005 15:15 (eighteen years ago) link
― David R. (popshots75`), Friday, 30 September 2005 15:16 (eighteen years ago) link
― Huk-L (Huk-L), Friday, 30 September 2005 15:18 (eighteen years ago) link
― Chris F. (servoret), Friday, 30 September 2005 19:51 (eighteen years ago) link
― iodine (iodine), Friday, 30 September 2005 20:34 (eighteen years ago) link
I am very mad at Quitely for the super package.
― The Ghost of Black Elegance (Dan Perry), Friday, 30 September 2005 20:46 (eighteen years ago) link
― kit brash (kit brash), Friday, 30 September 2005 22:29 (eighteen years ago) link
I just looked at this, and you're beyond right: some chimp has copy-and-pasted an on-model S-shield over the redesigned one that Morrison and Quitely designed! It's Kirby's Superman-faces all over again.
― kit brash (kit brash), Friday, 30 September 2005 22:44 (eighteen years ago) link
― dave k, Saturday, 1 October 2005 13:59 (eighteen years ago) link
― Leeeeeeeeee (Leee), Sunday, 23 October 2005 06:21 (eighteen years ago) link
(And then, destroy, destroy, destroy...)
― Chris Freiberg (Chris F.), Saturday, 15 April 2006 08:43 (eighteen years ago) link
― c(''c) (Leee), Saturday, 15 April 2006 17:14 (eighteen years ago) link
― chap who would dare to be a stone cold thug (chap), Saturday, 15 April 2006 18:10 (eighteen years ago) link
I'm glad you were able to find some good drugs in Mke, Chris. :>
― Jordan (Jordan), Saturday, 15 April 2006 18:41 (eighteen years ago) link
― s1ocki (slutsky), Saturday, 15 April 2006 19:30 (eighteen years ago) link
― c(''c) (Leee), Saturday, 15 April 2006 19:44 (eighteen years ago) link
Amazon dopes hate it b/c it violates narrative conventions: the story interrupts itself halfway through and goes in a completely different direction and it's the most Morrisony JLA trade, in terms of the density, Invisibles references (Darkseid invades in 2012, the same year of the end of earth in Invisibles and Terrence McKenna, etc.) and lyrical weirdness (GL is on the grail quest and, standing in a forest of dead superheroes made out of stone, and he tells the new Hourman that he dreamt he was in a field where all his desires have come true, but then notices that everything is green).
― kenchen, Saturday, 15 April 2006 20:08 (eighteen years ago) link
Yah, this city is great-- I'm so glad that it's my home town! (I'm a Cancer, BTW-- and yes, reading your horoscope in the weekly paper for shits and giggles sometimes is a part of dopey Morrisonmania.) Pt. 2 of My Greatest Adventure today has been even more exciting so far-- I just got back from hiking through the labyrinth at Grant Park down on the South Side. It happens to be the case that one of the Seven Bridges there is down for repairs, so I decided to hack my own way out on the hike back...
― Chris Freiberg (Chris F.), Saturday, 15 April 2006 21:18 (eighteen years ago) link
personally i think the art is awful and the story is terribly paced (no tension, all release) but there's some neat stuff in it for sure.
― s1ocki (slutsky), Saturday, 15 April 2006 21:32 (eighteen years ago) link
― c(''c) (Leee), Saturday, 15 April 2006 21:52 (eighteen years ago) link
― Andrew Farrell (afarrell), Saturday, 15 April 2006 23:43 (eighteen years ago) link
― Daniel_Rf (Daniel_Rf), Sunday, 16 April 2006 10:01 (eighteen years ago) link
― Chris Freiberg (Chris F.), Sunday, 16 April 2006 16:28 (eighteen years ago) link
Yeah, the camp aspect is part of the fun of Grant Morrison, storyteller. I'm reminded of something Morrissey said in interview on the New York Doll DVD-- everybody has one artist that hit them at the right time growing up and who can never disappoint them. GM is certainly it for me, but that doesn't mean that I'd make his comics mandatory reading for everybody on the planet, or even everybody on ILC (though I don't know if there's anyone here who doesn't read his stuff at this point).
― Chris Freiberg (Chris F.), Sunday, 16 April 2006 16:41 (eighteen years ago) link
― The Yellow Kid, Monday, 17 April 2006 04:36 (eighteen years ago) link
Which ones? I wanna read his Batman just because I'm thinking that his take on it is going to avoid the sort of "fascist" exclusion-from-the-human-race thing that Tuomas seems to be so worried about in regards to superheroes. I bet it's going to be fun-- hopefully they're'll be more "Batman thinks of everything" hijinx as well as science closet goodness.
― Chris Freiberg (Chris F.), Monday, 17 April 2006 08:25 (eighteen years ago) link
― Chris Freiberg (Chris F.), Monday, 17 April 2006 08:26 (eighteen years ago) link
Animal ManSeaguyWe3most of New X-Menone trade of Doom Patrolone or two trades of JLAthe first half of the Filthone trade of the InvisiblesArkham Asylum
― The Yellow Kid, Monday, 17 April 2006 18:56 (eighteen years ago) link
In other news, it feels like I'm embarking on a mature reading of DP finally as I wade through this stuff. "Exegesis" is stupid though-- it's better when it's unpacked but still not made explicit. Mum's the word from me on this shite from here on out, except to say that I'm cool with the ending of #63 again.
― Chris Freiberg (Chris F.), Monday, 17 April 2006 22:34 (eighteen years ago) link
Morrison's hit-and-miss for me, so I tend to pick up his comics only if it sounds like an interesting idea. I liked the idea of Seven Soldiers' structure, the 7 interlocking mini-series, but I never heard much about what it was actually about. I tend to only buy comics that I'm definitely interested in - I'm also a cheapskate. I picked up the first issue of Shining Knight after hearing good things, but I didn't think it was all that good, so I stopped there. I'll probably read Seven Soldiers if the library gets the trades, but I'm not going to buy them.
― The Yellow Kid, Tuesday, 18 April 2006 03:49 (eighteen years ago) link
― sheep sheet (serious sheet), Tuesday, 18 April 2006 15:56 (eighteen years ago) link
― chap who would dare to be a stone cold thug (chap), Tuesday, 18 April 2006 16:58 (eighteen years ago) link
― kit brash (kit brash), Tuesday, 18 April 2006 22:53 (eighteen years ago) link
Cover: Note that, as with the other #4 issues in 7S, MM is escaping. ("Free at last": talk about polyvalent.) Note also that the perspective is really wonky: what we are seeing is not an angle shot, but an _angle shot of_ an angle shot--that is, a 2-D look at a 2-D image that has been rotated away from us. The picture plane is really important here, as it is in e.g. Zatanna.
Pg. 1: Young Shilo, before his brother's death, practicing escapism. Hmm. Escapism.
Pg. 2: Crippled, castrated Fisher-King Shilo, ODing on pills.
Pg. 3: Following Shilo's death, Omega shows him another life path (in which Aaron never died and he never became an escape artist).
Pg. 4: This life is zooming toward its conclusion (the kids are older)...
Pg. 5: And faster. Rabbi Dezard is of course Desaad; Shilo's granddaughter is Ms. Miracle... and of course the menorah is a commemoration of a miracle, & of something that lasted much longer than it should have... but Shilo realizes this isn't his life. Death, again, is the escape from the Life Trap.
Pg. 6: Back to Pg. 1 scenario. Several years later, Shilo sees Aaron killed (this is shortly before Shilo was introduced in Jack Kirby's Mister Miracle #15). That _is_ Shilo's real life.
Pg. 7: Sort of Shilo's real life: he and Dina worked on the Slab. But not his real life: he wasn't the warden.
Pg. 8: Oracle is the all-seeing one who appeared in Justice League of America #100-102 (the original Silver Age Seven Soldiers story, also alluded to in Bulleteer #2 etc.). "The spear" may be "the spear that never was thrown" (see Guardian #4 and Bulleteer #4). The chained god was also talked about in Klarion #4 and Guardian #2.
Pg. 9: The God Exterminators are Darkseid and Desaad, of course.
Pg. 10: "Aurakles": cf. Shining Knight 3, and the bit about the Sword of Aurakles.
Pg. 11: Shilo gives his life to free Oracle.
Pg. 12: Mother Box's soul escaped into Shilo, who is still going through "the life trap": one life after another...
Pg. 13: ...like this one: Infinite Crisis, and dead superheroes everywhere. Then a flashback to the Pg. 1/6 scene, then back to the aftermath of IC: Shilo's dead. Then another life trap, in which Shilo's been shot in the head. Back to the Shilo-as-kid scene.
Pg. 14: Much speculation on Barbelith to the effect that "the fundamental force that is restriction" is the comic book page...
Pg. 15:... and the printed page's picture plane is "the prison you can never escape." (Check out the Metron scene in #1 again: lots of freaky picture-plane stuff going on there, of the same kind we see in Zatanna #1 and 4.)
Pg. 16: More "continuities," more deaths for Shilo: drowning in a car; dying as an infant; a heart attack; throwing himself in front of the bullets that killed Aaron; old age... but as he says "you're right here with me," he's in precisely the same pose he was in in MM #1, pg. 3, panel 2.
Pg. 17: "Representing something that's in all of us": superhero comics characters are about escape!
Pg. 18: One more life: Shilo _younger_ than he was when Aaron died, completing his initiation at the hands of Metron. Guilt, as we learned in Shining Knight, is a Sheeda mind destroyer; overcome it and you escape the trap.
Pg. 19: Same dialogue in Panel 1 as in #1 pg. 6. So yes, in the final "continuity" he has been in the black hole for the seven days 7S takes place over, but he's ALSO been having all of these lives during his initiation--which is how e.g. he encountered the cab from Klarion and Jake Jordan making his marriage proposal in MM #3. (Note that he didn't _affect_ any of that stuff, but it was happening; as of now, he was no longer present during those events.) And now his "true life" begins.
Pg. 20: The "big storm" is Hurricane Gloria/Gloriana.
Pg. 21: Back to the pg. 1/6/13 thing: looks like he got out, and his brother bought him that chocolate sundae he promised him. Note that this is the first page of the ENTIRE SERIES that isn't dark and/or dark-bordered, and how this compares to the final pages of previous chapters, all full-page splashes: #1 is in a rotated picture plane (w/ same weird perspective trick as this issue's cover), surrounded by darkness, even!
― Douglas (Douglas), Wednesday, 19 April 2006 00:18 (eighteen years ago) link