Neil Gaiman teleports Marvel’s best-known and well-loved characters to the dark London of the 16th Century. The court of Elizabeth I is amicable to magic, but the queen is old and sickly and has no heir. James of Scotland, who supports The Inquisitor in his torture of “witchbreeds”, may take the throne – and what will become of Carlos Javier’s students, then?
Meanwhile, the weather brings red skies and curious lightnings, and the good doctor Stephen Strange is sensing that England – and the world – is about to end.
I liked this one. Gaiman in his afterword said there were people who didn’t like it – and when these people didn’t like it, “they really didn’t like it” – but I had such a kick out of guessing which character corresponds to the, well let’s say modern-day, Marvel superhero. It wasn’t that hard, but it was such fun. For example, Scotius Somerisle? Any guesses?
The Elongated Man is on a stakeout with a younger companion. While waiting for a crime to occur, they begin talking about his wife, Sue. “She’s my lady,” he says. Hours later, Sue is found dead.
You’ve heard of this before: a comic hero loses a loved one, is devastated, thinks of revenge. But this one really got to me. Heartbreaking and touching.
It’s quite a decent whodunit too, with an excellent fight sequence involving Deathstroke and the members of the JLA.
Joss Whedon, in his introduction, says Brad Meltzer shines a light on these well-known DC characters, and shows us what has always been there: “Humanity.”
Journalists! A perverse government! Investigation! Data-gathering! Bowel disruptors!
Excellent series. Special thanks to Jaykie for lending me copies.
Orayt. Planetary naman. ;)
Collage Me This
Tearing things up = therapy = FUN.
No, really. Try it. Did me wonders.
(So yeah, picture resolutions are shitty. Let me go find a digicam, then maybe I can upload these again.)
Gig Book Contest Awards er Brunch
I almost said “awards night”. But these are writers for children, so let’s be clean and nice and alcohol-free.
Awarding was on Oct. 10, at 10 a.m. There were ten winners. See what they did there? :p
Didn’t have cam. Will ask Andrea and Kate for the pictures later. (Thank you pala to Andrea’s parents for letting me hitch. If I had gone there alone, I would have gotten lost. For sure.)
Comment: They spelled saguisag wrong, though. It should be sagisag (symbol). Unless it’s someone’s surname.
I believe I’ve already shared this picture at my Multiply account.
Budjette Tan invented the term. “Balut eggs”: those moments when Filipinos (or something Pinoy) suddenly pops up in foreign movies, TV shows, novels, and comic books.
He writes, More and more frequently, Balut Eggs have been popping up in the panels of American comic books. Read more here.
In Marvel’s “Black Panther,” one of Mephisto’s minions says, “Kumusta ka na?” (How have you been?) What’s up with these Tagalog-speaking demons?
In “The Copybook Tales,” written by Fil-Canadian J. Torres, the lead character gets a call from his young brother who refers to him as “Kuya (older brother).” Torres’ upcoming graphic novel is called “Lola (Grandma)” (also published by Oni Press) and it’s about stories told to him by his own lola; stories about supernatural creatures in the Philippines.
Lynda Barry’s “One Hundred!Demons!” has an entire chapter devoted to her Filipino speaking-grandmother, where she spells out the dialogue phonetically. You’ve got to read it out loud to understand what they’re talking about. She’s even got a chapter where she compares her boyfriend to “kuto (louse).”
In the DC Comics epic “Kingdom Come,” Superman crashes into the United Nations building, sending people into a panic, with someone in the crowd blurting out: “NANDIYAN NA ANG SIVA ULO! PAPATAYIN NIYA ULO! (Here comes the madman! He’ll kill us all!)” Now that was either a typo or some Filipino dialect that we’re not aware of … Or the guy was so shocked and surprised that he forgot how to speak Filipino properly.
One of the earliest Balut Eggs I can remember is that spotted in an issue of “Uncanny X-Men,” drawn by Filipino comic artist Whilce Portacio. In that story, we see Colossus wearing a jacket with the word “MAKULIT” written on the back, as well as the Philippine flag. This, of course, got all the Pinoy fanboys excited. It was Whilce winking at us, telling everyone that there’s a Pinoy in the Marvel bullpen.
We were all hoping that he’d introduce a Filipino mutant in the team, but that didn’t happen. He did, however, place a Pinoy, front and center, on the “Wetworks” team. That guy is Grail, one of the team’s top assassins, a martial artist and an expert in Escrima, Arnis de Mano, and Kali. His real name is Joel Alonday (named after a friend of Whilce).
Years later, Whilce introduced the world to more characters and creatures from the Philippines through the comic book “Stone,” which stars the amulet-wielding Gerry Alan (named after Filipino comic book artist Gerry Alanguilan).. Thanks to “Stone,” the Western audience got their tongues all in a twist trying to pronounce words like manananggal, duwende and tikbalang (Filipino ghouls and goblins). The story is even set in the Philippines and shows familiar landmarks like Megamall.
Around the time Whilce and Gerry were drawing “Stone,” Leinil Francis Yu and Edgar Tadeo started drawing “Wolverine.” In one scene, Yu snuck in a bottle of White Castle Whisky, being drunk by one of Wolverine’s enemies.
In an “X-Men Annual,” also drawn by Yu, we got to see our favorite mutants munching on Chow King take-out food. (Which is weird, because the X-Men were supposedly in Hong Kong. Maybe Chow King had a mutant delivery guy who could teleport!)
Most recently, in “Secret Invasion,” Yu drew President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo as one of the people who welcomed the invading Skrulls to our planet. We also got to see Captain Marvel and Marvel Boy fight in the parking lot of Ali Mall. It would’ve been interesting to see the MMDA try to arrest them for traffic obstruction.
Danny Boyle’s name sounded familiar; only later was I able to check his filmography. I loved The Beach (butt-nekkid Leonardo DiCaprio!) (and Tilda Swinton!), and 28 Days Later (butt-nekkid Cillian Murphy!) . With Slumdog Millionaire Boyle dealt with, well, something more feel-good. Yes, feel-good. The characters even (SPOILER ALERT) dance in the end (END SPOILER ALERT).
The film has predictable elements (love, rags-to-riches, a bunch of bad guys, “It’s our destiny” drivel) made exciting and unique by crazy camerawork and music. As Roger Ebert has very wonderfully put it, Slumdog is “dramatic proof that a movie is about how it tells itself”. To be sure. :)
(Although I keep thinking: if a foreigner made a film about Filipinos with the Philippines as its setting, will I like it? Will I even accept it? Honestly, probably not – although I still can’t explain why I found it okay to read Butler write through the eyes of a Vietnamese. Anyway, I think Danny Boyle has a kind heart. I applaud him and his crew for at least doing something.)
(Also: I think the kids are too cute for words. Hee.)
all in the family (or jamal, latika and salim in various incarnations)at the oscars
(Photos from Rotten Tomatoes, Daily Mail, and the Huffington Post.)
Push
Watched it during the weekend. Just wanted to kick off my shoes and watch something decidedly non-Oscar, haha. I enjoyed watching it, how about you? I’m thinking maybe I just dropped my expectations before entering the cinema. Dropped it like even if Chris Evans and Dakota Fanning just sat in front of the camera I’d still think I saw something worthwhile.
But, I liked the colors and the cinematography. I particularly enjoyed watching Dakota perform. Her characters should get drunk more.
"i'm thirteen!"
(Photos from Rotten Tomatoes.)
Y: The Last Man
The series’ premise (all the men of the world die to a plague of unknown cause, with Yorick left as the only male alive) didn’t exactly tickle my fancy, but when I started reading it (special thanks to Kate and Andrea) I found it difficult to stop.
I’ve just finished the series and now I’m missing Yorick and 355 and the other characters terribly. Highly recommended. I’d grab you and strap you down and force you to read if I could.
(Photo from DC Comics.)
Arkham Asylum
A one-shot graphic novel by Grant Morrison, illustrated by frequent Gaiman collaborator, Dave McKean. Excellent artwork, just excellent – brings several frames of the latter Sandman collections to mind (notably Endless Nights). This novel (if I recall the news reports correctly) was used as the late Heath Ledger’s inspiration for his take on the Joker in The Dark Knight. Here the Joker tells Batman: “Enjoy yourself out there…in the asylum.”
Ledger totally nailed it.
This graphic novel shows Joker squeezing Batman’s tush – that was fun. Robin is only mentioned (“is he already shaving?”), but I would really, really love to read/watch a good story with Robin in it, anything to remove the Schumacher aftertaste.
Eliza Victoria 