Author: skoce

What Is Keeping Him Up

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My favorite romance movie is undoubtedly Rocky.  People who have not watched it recently, who have memories of the later Rocky films cluttering their memories of the first, do not tend to think of it as such, but Rocky is a love story.  Rocky’s burgeoning relationship with Adrian is at least as vital to the films plot as boxing is.  But the image of Rocky in pop culture is more about the vibrant, outrageous sequels than the somber and contemplative first movie.  All that anyone usually remembers is that Rocky loses at the end and even that I would say is wrong.  At the end of Rocky, the eponymous lead has won all he ever wanted.
The best and most enduring element of this movie is the title character.  I defy anyone to watch Rocky and not empathize with the beleaguered boxer.  Though I call the movie a romance, as the title would suggest this is very much Rocky’s story.  His romance of Adrian may be the central plot, but the story is told from Rocky’s point of view.  The movie quickly establishes Rocky as a down and nearly out man.  His boxing career is going nowhere and the proprietor of his gym wants him out.  To make ends meet he works as leg breaker for a two-bit loan shark.  Rocky is also show to be honest and an all around good guy.  He clearly works for the loan shark only reluctantly.  Rocky tries to help a young girl who is hanging out with a bad crowd, only to have her throw his advice back in his face.  What Rocky seems most interested in doing is chatting up the shy pet store clerk Adrian.
One of Rocky’s several opposites is his friend Pauley, Adrian’s brother.  He is cruel and dismissive of his sister, though he does care about her.  Where Rocky hates having to work for Gazzo, Pauley wants to do it.  Pauley is sad, pathetic, and mean, but he is one of Rocky’s few friends at the start.  Another is Apollo Creed.  Creed is one of the things that make this first movie so interesting.  There is no villain in this movie, like Clubber Lang or Ivan Drago from later movies.  Apollo is whom Rocky fights at the end, but his portrayal very sympathetically.  He may be cynical, but his cynicism is what lands Rocky his big chance.  Apollo is what Rocky wants to be.  He has a successful boxing career; he is intelligent and eloquent.  He has all the qualities that Rocky wants.  Then there is Mickey.  Mickey is Rocky’s future.  He is what could happen to Rocky forty years down the road, after life gives Rocky it is last few knocks.
The big fight with Apollo comes into the movie late, for most of the film Rocky is trying to woo Adrian.  He spends time coming with bad jokes to tell her.  He stops by her pet store twice everyday.  Adrian is reluctant at first, but after a push from Pauley, she starts seeing Rocky.  Adrian is who Rocky loves, but Rocky mostly wants someone to care about him.  She is incredibly shy and repressed at the beginning, but Rocky is eventually able to draw her out of her shell.  Their deepening relationship takes up most of the first half of the movie.
After Rocky agrees to fight Apollo, all the people who wanted nothing to do with him before come to him for help.  Instead of dismissing them outright, Rocky lets those who can help him help him.  Mickey originally was trying to run Rocky out of his gym, but afterwards he sees Rocky as his last chance to matter, Rocky proves his caliber by agreeing to let Mickey train him.  Once the unforgettable training montage starts, Rocky becomes the greatest sports movie ever.  Despite knowing that he is completely outclassed Rocky knows that this is his last and only chance at mattering and he has to give it his all.  The fight highlights the differences between Rocky and Apollo.  Apollo is a showman; he is putting on a performance for the crowd. Rocky is workmanlike, he simply puts his head down and goes to work.  No one takes Rocky seriously until his is able to down the champion.  After that, Apollo shows his other side, the ruthless fighter.  Rocky just continues as he started.
Possibly my favorite sequence in any film is round fourteen.  Both fighters are exhausted, especially Rocky, but they continue to go at it and one of the announcers, who really help make the fight scene, exclaims, “What is keeping him up?”  That question is the essence of Rocky’s, both the film and the characters, appeal.  He may go down, but he will never stay down.  When Apollo does knock him down everyone expects him to stay down.  Apollo dances victoriously, Mickey tells Rocky to stay down, Adrian finally finds the courage to watch the fight, and music the crescendos as Rocky shows his unbreakable spirit as he climbs to his feet.  Apollo, who despite his early lackadaisical approach is show to be a supreme competitor, stares in disbelief.  After that moment, the outcome of the fight is all but irrelevant.
When the fight does end, it is interesting to note that the judge’s decision is drowned out by Rocky’s cries for Adrian.  The only way the outcome is known is by Apollo’s reaction.  The movie does not hinge on the outcome of the fight, but on Adrian’s joining Rocky in the ring.  Like when he is interviewed after accepting the fight he has no answer about how he intends to fight Apollo, but he does remember to say hi to Adrian on TV.  Adrian proves to always be more important to Rocky than fighting.  And the romance is more important than the boxing.

Rambley Bits

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  • An eternal question has been answered.  Well, maybe not eternal, but it’s been on my mind since at least last week.  What is the difference between a Heath bar and a Skor bar?  I had not realized the Hershey Company made both.  Why would one candy company need 2 separate chocolate covered toffee bars?  To unravel this mystery I gathered a group of candy experts, my brothers B-Dog and Clebob (their names have been changed to protect their anonymity) and we each sampled both bars, washing them down with that greatest of fruit flavored sodas,, Black Cherry.  All three of us came to the same conclusion.  The Skor bar is smoother, while the Heath bar is somewhat nutty, but the Heath bar is far superior in taste.  So if you feel the desire for a chocolate covered toffee bar, go with the Heath.
  • There are many things I wanted to have gotten done in the last week or so, including several half-finished blog posts, that I just haven’t been able to do.  And there is one big reason why:  Dragon Quest 9 for the DS.  DQ9 hits me in most of my video game pleasure centers.  It’s an old school RPG with a job system, a do it yourself party, and good old fashioned adventuring.  Best of all: it’s multiplayer.  It’s DQ with a healthy dash of Diablo and it’s perfect.  Also, a humongous time sink.  A more thorough write-up will come later, but right now I’ve several hundred more hours to put on this baby.
  • I’ve been getting back into my reading lately.  I just finished a reread of Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre.  I really need to read some criticism on it and write something marginally substantial about it or at least a decent review on this here blog.  I really love how the novel combines the classic romance with an eerie fairy tale.  I mean looked at just right this is a downright horrifying novel.  The man keeps a person locked in his attic.  This has always been one of my favorite classic novels.
  • I also reread Francis Burney’s Evelina just before I read Jane Eyre.  An epistolary novel, one written as a series of letters, Evelina is something of a Proto-Austen novel of manners.  At times, this is a bit dull, but if you enjoy the works of Austen and others like her, it is a worthwhile read.  I like it at least.
  • The last book I’ve read recently is The Confession of Fitzwilliam Darcy by Mary Street.  I love spins on classic novels that tell the story from a different characters perspective because they often have interesting ideas or insights about the events of the novel, but this one manages to be pretty dull.  If you want to read Pride and Prejudice from Darcy’s perspective you will probably not be that disappointed, but it is entirely unchallenging.
  • To make myself look a little manlier I’ll write about sports for a little bit.  Specifically the Lebron James signing.  The criticisms against him are bordering on ridiculous.  Except the jilted lover comments from Cleveland.  Hurt feelings are appropriate there for at least a few months.  But he will not be the first great player to play with other great players.  Jordan had Pippen, Magic played with Kareem, and Bird played with Parish, McHale, and Walton.  Even Kobe played with Shaq.  And not the zombie Shaq that has been shuffling around NBA courts for the last few seasons, but prime of his career Shaquille O’Neal.  James playing with Wade and Bosh will not damage his legacy as long as they win.  I do predict a loss in the conference championships for them next year though.  You’ll see.
  • For someone who rests a ridiculous amount of his self-worth on his skills at Mega Man, Mega Man 10 is handing me my ass far too regularly.  I wiped the floor with 9, but 10 is giving me fits.  I’ve only managed to down 2 bosses in over an hour of play.  It’s sad.
  • I have also been playing Zombie Panic in Wonderland.  No, it’s not quite as awesome as its name would indicate, but its still loads of ridiculous fun.  Who wouldn’t want to play as Little Red Riding Hood or Dorothy from Oz as they immolate rotting reanimated corpses with flamethrowers?  Only soulless monsters wouldn’t.
  • So new Futurama continues and even though I’ve not managed to review each episode on my blog here, I have watched and enjoyed greatly each new episode.  It seems to be hitting that great Futurama stride, though there haven’t been any truly great episodes yet. Still middle of the road Futurama is better than 90% of what’s on television, so rejoice at out good fortune of continued animated goodness.
  • Also returning to T.V. is USA’s great detective show Psych.  I love how Shawn is just short of being a complete sociopath, but is reined in just enough to be a likeable and relatable character.  I also loved that they called the inferior knock-off “The Mentalist” on being an inferior rip-off.  With no Monk, Psych is easily the best detective show on T.V.

25 Years of NES Part 5: Super Mario Bros. 2

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Now that Mega Man is taken care of its time to move on to another great sequel Super Mario Brothers 2, the secret best Mario game (If you do not get the reference you should listen to Retronauts).  Super Mario Bro. 2 is a game with a complex history and some of the best platforming on the system.

I know some readers are now crying out that the SMB 2 that I’m writing about is not the “real” SMB 2 and all I have to say is “bullshit.”  Yes, Japan did get an entirely different game named Super Mario Bros. 2 than we did here in the United States, but the one we got is the better version of Super Mario Bros. 2.  Japan’s SMB 2, known locally as the Lost Levels, is warmed over SMB with added spite.  The innovations in that game are terrible things like poison mushrooms and invisible wind bursts.  Our SMB 2, on the other hand, was greatly influential to the future of the Mario series.  Shy Guys and Birdo are enemies that continually show up in the various Mario Parties and Sports games.  Any time the secondary cast of Mario games – Luigi, Peach and Toad – are playable nowadays there is a great chance their controls will be based on their SMB 2 counterparts.  Most importantly the American Super Mario Bros. 2 is a great game with colorful, detailed graphics and solid, if a bit easy, gameplay.  So if any player feels ‘cheated’ by getting this game get over it; this is the real Super Mario Bros. 2.


I feel like I have to explain how SMB 2 came to be.  In Japan the game we know as SMB2 is known as Doki Doki Panic.  I have never played DDP, but I assume it plays about the same as Super Mario Bros. 2.  It was created by Nintendo’s golden boy Shigeru Miyamoto, his involvement is a big reason it feels like later Mario games.  The reason Doki Doki Panic became Mario 2 is that by the time for Nintendo to release a Mario 2 in America, the original Mario 2 would have seemed dated on top of not being any good.  So Nintendo basically did a sprite swap in Doki Doki Panic to make it the real Super Mario Bros 2 and everybody won.

One of the biggest changes from Mario Bros to Mario Bros 2 is that instead of Mario and Luigi being playable and playing identically there are four different unique playable characters.  In addition to Mario and Luigi this game has Peach and Toad.  They all have different abilities.  Well, the same basic moves, they just work in different ways.  Mario is the base character.  His momentum and jumping ability are the normal setting.  Luigi jumps higher than Mario, but he is also much harder to control.  He slides back and forth and is generally infuriating.  Luigi is the expert character; once you learn to control him he makes large parts of the game much easier.  If Luigi is the expert character then Princess Peach is the beginner character; she does not jump quite as high as Luigi but she can float for a limited amount of time before she comes back down.  It makes the jumps all much easier.  Toad’s jumping abilities are not that different from Mario but he can dig really fast and I rarely use him.  Still, having 4 different playable characters adds tons of replay value, which is good because SMB 2 is short.  As in beaten in about an hour short.

Another deviation from the Mario formula is that jumping on enemies head’s does not kill them.  You can ride them or pick them up and throw them, making for interesting but very different gameplay.  And instead of Goombas and Koopa Troopers the game has shy guys and Birdo.

While very different, SMB2 is also very good.  It is more of a puzzle game than other Mario games.  Getting to the end is not the challenge, at least not as much as figuring out how to get there is.  You must find keys guarded by frightening masks.  Passages must be cleared using a limited number of bombs.  Potions that take the player to a shadow area must be thrown in specific areas to get power ups.  All in all it is very different from other Mario games, but Super Mario Bros 2’s uniqueness is a large part of its charm.  There are other strange things in SMB2, though their uniqueness is debatable.  At the risk of spoiling a more than 20 year old game, SMB2 ends with an it was all a dream reveal.  The whole game is Mario’s nightmare.  Another strange thing is Birdo.  Of the manual it to be believed, and being an NES manual it is probably not, then Birdo is some sort of trans character that wishes it was a girl so it could lay eggs.  This is why it shoots eggs out of its nose.  Truly a bewildering creature.  And the 2nd best thing in all of ever (number one of course being Frankenstein’s Monster riding a motorcycle, swinging a sword and quoting Milton) is in this game you pull a turnip out of the ground and it turns into a rocket ship.  Yes, a turnip rocket!

There is no other game like SMB2.  No game has its convoluted history, its puzzley platforming, or the sheer amount of unique weirdness.  Some games may match it in places, but none has them all.  Despite being an entry in a long running franchise, Super Mario Bros 2 is unique.  Even if you do not think it is a good game, in which case you are demonstrably wrong, it’s worth playing just for the novelty of it.  This, the real Super Mario Bros 2 is one of the most fun and individual games on the NES.

pictures from the VG Museum.

Scott’s Almost on Sunday Comic Book Review

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Superman 701: written but JM Straczynski and drawn by Eddy Barrows.

 

Part of me wants to make a spirited defense of this issue against the ridiculous reaction its gotten from around the internet, like I should have done for JMS’s Brave and the Bold 33, but I just can’t bring myself to when it’ll only amount to “it’s not that bad.”  But it’s not that bad.  Superman walks through Philadelphia, helping people along the way.  Most people have chosen to interpret his help as examples of “superdickery” but they really are not.  Superman tells a man his heartburn might be something more, but he doesn’t immediately fly him to a hospital.  So that makes Superman a dick?  He cleans a diner’s storeroom to pay for his lunch; fly’s an obnoxious reporter into the air to prove he still has his powers and cleans some drug dealers out of a neighborhood by lighting their drugs on fire with his heat vision.  All small things and fairly well done.  He also talks a jumper down off a ledge.  Grant Morrison did this better in All-Star Superman, but as that is the best Superman story ever it is forgivable.  The fact that he would have let her jump if that were what she really wanted is good.  He is there to save her if she wants to be saved and his power his convincing her she does.  It ends with Superman jabbering at some dog walker about being a hero.  That part, and much of his talking the woman down are done poorly, but overall Superman 701 is good, if a little disappointing.

Batman 701:  written by Grant Morrison and drawn by Tony Daniel.

 

Morrison continues his brief return to Batman proper by telling a story that doesn’t need to be told.  This and the following issue tell the story of what happened to Batman between the RIP storyline and Final Crisis.  Judging solely on this issue the answer to what happened is “not much.”  Batman escaped the chopper crash and went home to get a call from Superman about the inciting incident of Final Crisis.  I do not mean to say that this is a bad issue, just a pointless one.  If the next one tells a meaningful story ,this one will be fine as the set-up, but as of now I have a hard time forming any feelings about it at all.

Avengers Academy 2:  written by Christos Gage and drawn by Mike McKone.

 

The training of some would be heroes/villains by some third rate heroes continues.  This issue focuses on Finesse, who is basically a young Taskmaster.  I am not sure what to make of this comic.  Hank Pym, the former Ant-man, Giant-man, Goliath, Yellowjacket, and current Wasp, training youngsters who could possibly become villains is a good idea.  Despite his long career as an Avenger, Pym hit’s many marks on the villain checklist. (mad scientist, jealous of the heroes, possibly truly insane)  And the only story anyone remembers about him is that one time he smacked his wife.

(Mini-Rant:  Why can people not forget this story?  It wasn’t that good a story and in it, Pym can barely be called an abusive husband, as he is clearly not in his right mind when he smacks Janet.  His back-story includes multiple mental breakdowns and he is obviously in the midst of one there and not in his right mind.  Not that that wholly excuses his behavior, but crazy makes one not guilty in court.  Spidey wasn’t crazy when he smacked Mary Jane and I am sure I could find other examples of other Superhero husbands being dicks to their wives, but Pym’s only story is wife-beater.)

Still, this issue is okay.  I’m not sure what Finesse wants to learn from Quicksilver, but her struggles to fit in could be interesting.  I can’t say I’m in past the next issue, though.

Batgirl 12: written by Brian Miller and drawn by Lee Garbett and Pere Perez.

 

So ends the first year of Stephanie Brown as Batgirl and it’s been one pretty good year.  This title got off to a fairly rough start, but it has really hit its stride lately.  This was another great issue.  Batgirl and Wendy, the Calculator’s daughter and friend of Oracle, save Oracle and Gotham City from the Calculator and his techno-virus.  A satisfying conclusion to this storyline.  And Wendy gets set up where it was obvious she would be since this comic started; as Oracle’s official protégé Proxy.  I really like how Stephanie’s confidence and competence has grown so far and I’m really looking forward to more of this series.

Booster Gold 34: written by Keith Giffen and JM DeMatteis and drawn by Chris Batista.

 

The writers continue to go back to their glory days with the Justice League International, with great results.  Booster’s sister returns to hear Booster and Rip Hunter talking about getting rid of the little girl Booster saved a couple of issue’s ago and immediately bonds with the girl.  Booster, meanwhile, goes looking for proof of Max Lords existence in the JLI again.  This time he gets roped into a mission with Blue Beetle, Mr. Miracle and Big Barda.  The fact that all three are currently dead is mildly morbid and the writers seem to desperately want Blue Beetle back alive to write a Blue and Gold comic, but it’ll never happen.  By a slim margin over Batgirl, this was the book of the week.  Mostly because it is hilarious and Barda punches out a dragon.  That is hard, nay impossible, to top.

I Must Break You

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Rocky 4

This weekend I started what I hope will become a 4th of July tradition.  I watched Rocky 4, which is of course the one where Rocky wins the Cold War by beating a giant Russian.  It is one of the most American movies of all time and the last true Rocky movie.  Not that Rocky Balboa was bad, but it came out so far after that it feels more like strange coda than part of the series.  Rocky 5 never happened.  Nevertheless, Rocky 4 should have probably been the last movie in the series.  There was nowhere to go but down.  Even Rocky cannot top winning the Cold War.

Rocky 4 is smarter than most people give it credit.  Not that it that smart, or subtle at all, but there is more there than blind patriotism and propaganda.  It is about growing old and how to face that.  There is no one who grows old faster or more publicly than professional athletes do.  All sports fans have seen a favorite player hang on past their prime, winced at the struggles of those who used to be great.  For some, like Bret Favre, while their skills have obviously diminished there are still enough flashes and moments of the player, we used to know and love to make us believe that he still has something left.  Too often, it is just gone and is painful for both players and spectators.  Rocky and now friend Apollo Creed are both dealing with this.  Apollo cannot let go, despite the advice of all those close to him.  Rocky, not quite as old as Apollo, still has something left, but he can see the writing on the wall.  Due to his inability to accept the changes that time has, wrought Apollo pays the ultimate price.  There is also Rocky’s guilt because he did not throw in the towel.  Like Rocky told Mickey in the first movie, Apollo told him not to throw the towel and Rocky let it go.  He did what he would have wanted Creed to do foe him in the same situation, but he say why people do throw in the towel.

On top of the aging issue is the comparison of the USA and USSR.  Apollo is part of America.  He is loud, boisterous and arrogant.  He is also capable and honest, but even the honesty hurts the loud and arrogant part.  Drago is stoic and cold.  He is also just as selfish as Creed.  In their fight, he doesn’t care that it is an exhibition or that he is clearly the better fighter he still is relentless.  Because a resounding victory is helps him and his groups agenda, sportsmanship be damned.  The biggest contrast is in Rocky and Drago’s pre-fight training methods.  Drago has a committee that cares nothing for him and with the most advanced technology available.  Rocky has a few close friends and uses simple training methods.  While Rocky 4 is about as fair as a mid-80ies movie can be, they show the American methods to be better than the Russian ones. Like what actually happened, America wins in the end.

However, while there is this veneer of real issues, Rocky 4 is still a 90-minute movie with about 35 minutes of music montages.  It is still a movie that has Rocky win the Cold War by punching out a giant Russian.  It is not as good as the first two Rockys, but it is possibly the most entertaining movie in the series for repeated viewings.  In the end, Drago turns on his uncaring trainers and the crowd turns on him.  Rocky draws strength from his friends and from the crowd.  Because everybody loves Rocky.

***

Significantly Delayed by the 4th Sunday Comic Book Review

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The week of the 4th of July has really messed up my ability to get together posts for my fledgling blog, but this week I plan to review at least one more season 1 episode if Futurama and the new episode, with a mention of last week’s new ep.  Also at least one more installment of 25 Years of NES and one movie review.  There are many other things near completion that I hope to get out, but we’ll see.  On the the comics.  It was a big week for me buying comics and all in all a good one.
Flash 3:

Written by Geoff Johns and drawn by Francis Manapul and Scott Kolins.
The new Barry Allen Flash series continues to be one of the best books coming out.  This issue continues the Flash’s struggles with the Renegades, doppelgangers of Flash’s Rogues from the future, and with the resurrected, original Captain Boomerang as he escapes from prison.  The art is distinct.   I do not possess the vocabulary or knowledge to accurately describe it, but I do know that it is unlike most other comics.  Johns is also doing a good job of setting up Barry and Iris Allen.  I would agree with the complainers that so far there is no reason the series could not have starred Wally West, but it doesn’t.  There have been 20 years of Wally stories, if the man who writes the best of them wants to write some great Barry stories more power to him.  And these have been 3 really good issues.  Barry is a hero through and through.  Instead of focusing on all of the implications that paint him as a murderer, he is helping someone else who has possibly been wrongly imprisoned.  Iris is helpful and equally busy.  Yes, so far, Barry has acted like Superman, but since DC has Superman doing other stuff, maybe Barry can become the moral center of their universe.
Green Lantern 55:

Written by Geoff Johns and drawn by Doug Mahnke.
It’s big, loud, dumb and almost perfect.  Hal, Carol, Sinestro and Atrocitus fight with Lobo.  The leaders of four of the seven color corps throw power ring constructs all over the place in an over the top fight with one of superhero comic’s most over the top characters.  Lobo is a character, much like Marvel’s Deadpool, that is great in small doses but is easily over used.  His one issue appearance here is definitely a good thing.   Mahnke’s art is as over the top as the story.  This issue is just pure fun.  And the ending with the origin of Dex-Starr is both silly and somewhat touching.  While I was not a huge fan of Blackest Night, the Green Lantern book has come out of it still being great.
Justice Society of America 40:
written by Bill Willingham and drawn Jesus Merino.
This is the rather lackluster end to what has been a pretty good alternate reality story.  Obsidian returns and the JSA beats the bad guys.  I really do not know what to make of this issue.  It seems like it is either the last couple of pages of epilogue from the previous story extended to a full issue or 3 issues condensed down to one because after this James Robinson is taking over for three issues for a JLA/JSA crossover and Willingham could not set up the next story or fully finish this one.  So what is here is a few fun moments and lost of Obsidian monologue telling the reader what happened.  Everyone knows how this was going to end, so the least I expected was to be shown it in an interesting way, not having is flatly recited to me.  Not a good issue.  I’m growing increasing shaky on what is my favorite superhero team, especially since most of the interesting characters, Power Girl, Star Girl, Liberty Bell, Hourman, are going or gone.
Justice League of America 46:
written by James Robinson and drawn by Mark Bagley.
Robinson’s JLA/JSA team-up ramps up.  The story itself is actually pretty good.  The Starheart, a chuck of which is the source of Green Lantern‘s (Alan Scott) powers and through him powers his children Jade and Obsidian, is on Earth and driving many super powered individuals crazy.  It is an interesting start to the team up and a good way to involve both teams.  But his dialogue is terrible.  Jesse Quick, up until recently known as Liberty Bell, only thinks of her dad.  All the time.  Donna Troy rambles idiotically in what I believe is supposed to be funny dialogue.  Mr. Terrific talks down to Power Girl and she takes it.  Any of the instances could be forgotten, but they pile up enough to leave a bad taste in the reader’s mouth.  I’m sticking with this title through the team up out of love for the JSA, my interest in the line-up Robinson has for the JLA and my previous enjoyment of Robinson’s writing in Starman and JSA.  After that, I may drop both Justice team titles.
Thor 611:
written by Kieron Gillen and drawn by Rich Elson.
This is my attempt to get back in to Marvel after a series of terrible events, culminating in the horrendous Dark Reign, thoroughly destroyed most of my interest in the line.  But the “Heroic Age” sounds good, so I’ll look.  And seeing how Thor is the best Marvel hero, I started here.  Not bad.  The Asgardians mourn Loki; they question the leadership of Balder and the Desir plot to destroy the dead Asgardians.  I do know of the bulk of the events from Siege even though I did not read it and I read most of JMS run on the title, so I’m not completely lost.  This issue is not great, but it is pretty good.  If the next issue pays off the set up in this one I’ll be happy, but this is not getting me too excited.
Wonder Woman 600:
So to cap off the month we get Wonder Woman’s big anniversary issue to go along with Superman’s and Batman’s.  It is also the start of Straszynski’s run on the title.  The first story is written by outgoing writer Gail Simone and drawn by the person responsible for Wonder Woman when she was the best George Perez.  It starts with a team up of numerous super heroines to defeat the “Cyber-Sirens.”  It shows how all of them look up to her and how Wonder Woman is the greatest.  Then she skips out on the President to attend Vanessa Kapatellis’ graduation.  I really liked this story.  Perez is one of the best artists in the business and Gail Simone has few misses on her record.  I can’t help but see the end of this as a bit of delayed backlash against the writers who came after Perez (Messner-Loebs and Byrne used other characters, Jimenez destroyed them) that ignored the great supporting cast he set up.  To see Vanessa recovered from the indignities put upon her in bad stories that made both her and Wonder Woman look bad feels great to those who read and loved Perez’s WW.  The next story is written and drawn by Amanda Conner and is the best thing in any book this month.  Power Girl, (I love me some Power Girl, especially drawn by Amanda Conner) Wonder Woman, and Batgirl beat-up Egg-fu (basically super villain Humpty Dumpty) then PG and WW go to PG’s place so WW can tell her what’s bothering her cat.  It’s cute, funny and gives me hope for more WW PG team ups.  Next is Louise Simonson and Eduardo Pansica’s story where Superman and Wonder Woman team up to take down a terrorist who stole Zeus’s lightning.  It’s adequate.  I had to reread it even after taking some review notes to really remember it.  It is followed by Geoff Johns and Scott Kolins’s pointless lead-in to JMS’s story.  This was the most disappointing story because I really wanted to see Johns write Diana.  No writer is better at distilling why a character is cool into one sentence that can be used for years worth of stories.  Sure, his takes are often simplistic, but they lay great groundwork for other he and other writers to build on.  When he’s used Wonder Woman, it was generally in stories that were not about her and she did not feel right.  There was not enough to this story to even get that feeling.  Though the panel of young Diana staring out to sea wanting to see what else was out there was great.  Also in the issue were some great pin-ups by Adam Hughes, Francis Manapul and Phil Jimenez and one truly horrible one by Jock.
Then there is JMS’s highly anticipated debut.  I don’t like it.  The story could have potential.  It is going to end with the majority of her history restored to normal, maybe all of it, but the how could be intriguing.  The marketing is turning me off, as is the new costume.  WW old costume was just as messed up as Superman’s and Batman’s.  They are Superheroes; they are inherently ridiculous.  That is the fun of the stories.  And WW wears a patriotic one-piece bathing suit.  She looked like some sort of magical hooker.  DC decided to change this by making her look like an actual hooker.  They did not take out the suggestive part, they took out the magic that makes it okay.  And it’s not like this an original story.  Writers since Perez, except Simone, have destroyed Themyscira and the Amazons, only to return them with their version.  I see no reason to believe that this will be different of better.

Scott’s Sunday Comic Review

/ skoce / 1 Comment

So sometimes I buy comics (mostly on Thursdays) and because no one is dying to know what i think, I will jot down my thoughts as weekly reviews.  This first week actually contains more comics than I usually buy, but it was a heavy week for me.

Green Lantern Corps 48: This is Tony Bedard’s 2nd issue after taking over for Peter Tomasi and it is okay.  Not as good as Tomasi was, but Tomasi’s GLC was one of the better books over the last few years.  This issue deals with the complete failing of another of the Guardians great plans: the Alpha Lanterns.  Everybody knew that the Alpha Lanterns were going to go bad as soon as they appeared, so their corruption/defection is no surprise.  Still, the execution is pretty good.  Ardian Syaf’s art is not great, but it tolerable.  There are no real twists here, except Cyborg Superman being the one who takes over the Alphas, but this is revealed on the first page.  The only question is when this is resolved are any of the Alpha Lanterns going to be saved?

Justice League: Generation Lost 4:  With issue 4 of this 26 issue story we finally get to the starting point.  Max Lord is losing control of his powers and he has engineered the return of the JLI.  The players are assembled, now lets see what they do.  Like the previous issues, I liked this one.  The fact that it is a set number of issues means that even if the first few issues are slow they are going somewhere.  I was leery of this due to Judd Winick writing because his stuff tends to range from mediocre to terrible, but here he has done a pretty good job.

Superman 700:  This anniversary issue is light on classic feeling moments.  The first story, by James Robinson, is a nice coda to his run on the book.  Nothing great, but enjoyable enough.  The next story is by Dan Jurgens.  A nice story, but has as much Batman and Robin as Superman.  The last is the start of J. Michael Staczynski’s “Grounded” storyline.  The idea of Superman traveling around the United States to get back in touch with the country after spending the last year away is not a bad idea, but how he decides to do this is done in a stupid and off-putting way.  A woman accosts him and asks why he could not help save her husband from his brain tumor because he was too busy saving the world.  So Superman should feel bad because he he can’t save everyone?  That’s hubris.  If that is the point of the story, that Superman needs to feel less responsible for every bad thing that happens it could be good.  And the idea of Superman traveling the country is decent.  But not a good start.  Still a decent anniversary.

Zatanna 2:  This second issue written by Paul Dini and drawn by Stephane Roux is pretty good.  Zatanna fights a dream corrupting imp and the big villain plots.  I really have nothing to say other than this is pretty good.

Power Girl 13:  I was especially leery of Winick’s usually awful writing here, on my previously favorite book.  And the new artist is not Amanda Conner.  Sami Basri’s art is actually very good.   Not Conner good, but nothing is. It is different enough that it feels less disappointing a change than someone who tries to do something similar or generic superhero art.  Winick tries to maintain the humor, but does differently than Gray and Palmiotti.  I did like that is ties PG into Generation Lost and shows why she was such a dick to Booster Gold in the first issue.  I am still scared that he is going to destroy all that the previous writers built, but through one issue it is really good.

Batman: The Return of Bruce Wayne 3:  Pirate Batman!  Well not really, but close enough.  This whole mini-series is slightly less good than it should be, but that does not mean it’s not great.  In this issue Batman sword fights Blackbeard on a bridge made out of bones.   No matter what slight failings it may have, that alone is enough to redeem it.  Not that it really needs redemption.  Yanick Paquette’s art is really good and the plot is coming together nicely.  I am still really excited for more of this, especially because the next issue is cowboy Batman.

Prince of Persia Movie Review

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Prince of Persia is not a very good movie.  It could and should have been better than it was, but due to some truly baffling plot points what could have been an entertaining summer epic is just a mess.  Many viewers will write this off as the inevitable consequence of basing a movie on a video game, but contrary to that this movie is better when is stays close to its video game roots and falls flat when it deviates.  The deviations from the game include obvious twists and drawing heavily on tired influences.  The result is that what could have been the first truly good video game based movie is instead an uninspired and uninteresting amalgam of better movies.

The parts of Prince of Persia that could have made it good are there if the plot had let them.  First, for a summer action movie the acting is actually very good.  The casting was dead on as well.  There were no outstanding performances but neither were there any noticeably poor ones.  The acting was better than expected for a blockbuster.  Also the action scenes were good.  They were clear and well choreographed.  The movie shines when the focus leaves the asinine plot and shows Prince Dastan (Jake Gyllenhal) performing acrobatic parkour feats.  This is something that hews closely to the video game, which was primarily about using the Prince’s acrobatics to traverse the trap filled wreckage of a ruined palace.  In the movie this translates into entertaining and unique action sequences.  Prince of Persia is a joy to look at as well.  The plot of the movie goes to some breathtaking and awe-inspiring places that really make the movie feel epic.  It’s bad that the adventure itself is so dull.

Prince of Persia starts by showing how the titular Prince became such.  Unlike the game, Dastan was not born a Prince.  For some reason the script writers or somebody felt that what PoP really needed was a big dose of Disney’s Aladdin.  In fact he is introduced in a near exact copy of the scene that introduces Aladdin in his movie.  It then moves to the Prince, his two brothers and their uncle debating whether or not to attack a castle that they have been told not to but appears to be conspiring with their enemies.  As soon as the uncle appears on screen he might as well have “villain” tattooed to his forehead.  He looks very much like “Aladdin’s” Jafar.  The uncle, who wants to fight, wins the argument and the battle begins.  During the well done battle scene Dastan acquires a dagger that can control the sand of Time.  He is quickly framed for the death of his father and escapes with the princess of the attacked castle.  This leads to about an hour of the Prince trying to get in touch with his uncle to tell him he was framed, even though it is obvious to everyone in the audience that the uncle is the one who framed him.  The movie plays it as though it is some big twist, but it is really just a waste of time.  How could anyone doubt that Jafar is the bad guy?

The Princess is a troubled character.  At the start she is capable of defending herself and even of killing the Prince when she catches him by surprise.  But as the movie goes along she becomes more and more helpless and useless.  Also introduced are Han Solo and Chewbacca.  Actually it is the leader of a band of gambling thieves and his faithful bodyguard.  Despite being somewhat pointless additions they are entertaining.  Though why it was thought adding Star Wars to an already confused plot was a good idea baffles.

The plot eventually takes the Prince and friends to a place where the dagger can be kept safe, though hit is not clear how considering it has already been found and destroyed.  It is revealed that Jafar wants to use the sands to go back and stop himself from saving his brothers life when they were kids.  The Prince is able to stop him, but only after he has rewound time to before all the bad things in the movie happened.  And he still gets the girl.  In the game it starts with the Sands being unleashed and it follows the Prince’s attempts to fix things.  Rewinding to before it happened is the goal and it costs the Prince his relationship with the Princess.  Instead of the goal, the rewind is a happy accident that was said to cause the destruction of the world in the movie.  It takes something that is convenient in the game and makes it stupidly more so.

Prince of Persia ends up as a messy combination of several better works; Aladdin, Star Wars and the game.  It feels longer than its already bloated runtime, with its stellar action scenes too few and far between when compared to the lame plot.  It is sad that the most glaring flaws of Prince of Persia will be written off as the remains of its video game heritage when in actuality those are the parts that stray furthest from the video game.

**

New Futurama Quick Reviews

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So those of you who don’t watch Comedy Central or have bad taste you might not know that Futurama has been uncanceled and is back on TV as of today.  Sure over the last year of so they put out 4 movies of middling quality, but now its back to the format in which it is best.  So I’m writing quick reviews of tonights pair of episodes

Season 6 (I guess) Episode 1:  Rebirth

It starts with showing how they made it back to Earth after the end of “Into the Wild Green Yonder” (Which I predicted as soon as new episodes were announced.)  Though all except the professor were “killed” during their return, he manages to regenerate all of their bodies.  But Leela remains in a coma and Bender must party all the time to keep his new power source from exploding.   Fry is crazy and builds a robot Leela to replace the real Leela who finally wakens at her funeral.  After much confusion over exactly who is a robot and how dumb Fry is everything goes back to normal.

I liked it.  They main story, about Fry, Leela and Robot Leela was some classic Futurama flavor sci-fi.  The professor had several funny lines, Fry was dumb and the side characters all got a few funny lines.  I liked robot Leela  philosophizing over whether or not she could really feel and Fry not understanding a word of it and Fry building a robot Leela and not realizing it.  Another thing I liked a lot was the return to the classic theme song and not the remixed version from the movies.  Not that it was bad, but with the original theme it feels more like real Futurama.  On the bad side was the party Bender b-story.  It was funny for about 2 minutes and afterwards was annoying.  I think the creators realized this as well because there was really little to his story.  Rebirth also continues a theme that shows up in several Futurama episodes: that each member, except Bender, really doesn’t like themselves.  When there are two Leela’s they do not get along.  The same is true when there are two Frys around.  Overall Rebirth is a not quite great but still very good way to restart the series.

Season 6 Episode 2:  In-a-Gadda-da-Leela

The second episode focuses on Zapp Brannigan.  It starts with the Zapp Brannigan Show, a crappy TV show about the adventures of the incompetent 25-star General.  President Nixon’s Head then tells Brannigan about the destructive Death Sphere that is destroying the universe.   They go to recruit Professor Farnsworth and his new stealth fighter.  Leela and Brannigan go in the one man craft to take out the Death Sphere, also known as V-Giny.  Leela and Brannigan fail to stop the Sphere and end up crashed and incapacitated.   The Professor finds out that the V-Giny is a combined military and censorship probe that destroys vulgar planets.  To save Earth they preach against obscenity.  Zapp treats Leela surprisingly well after their crash and Earth is apparently destroyed.  Until Fry shows up and Zapp’s kindness is shown to actually be more sociopathic than kind.   The V-Giny shows up and forces Leela and Zapp to have sex to save the Earth.  They do.

I have some problems with this episode, most notably that it essentially ends with a rape.  It really seems meanspirited and wrong to force Leela to have sex with Zapp.  Worst of all its not very funny.  Fortunately “The Transcredible Exploits of Zapp Brannigan” is really funny.  As is Wonder Woman’s invisible plane that they fly to the Death Sphere.  It is invisible but Leela and Zap are not.  Zoidberg has a humorous fixation with Parcheesi and bender is a jerk.  But the whole Leela and Zapp in the garden of eden part is about half hilarious and half mean.  Zapp goes from being incompetent and  careless to downright evil, but it is kind of funny until he gets rewarded for it.  Overall I liked the first episode better, but this one was not really bad, it just featured some poor taste.

Most importantly Futurama is back!!  All should be dancing in the streets in celebration.  The only thing better would be the Arrested Development movie actually happening.  But this did happen.  I’m glad they brought back a show that deserved to comeback.  (Family Guy is terrible and has been since a while before it was cancelled.)  The only problem I see is that comedy central probably frees them of some of the restrictions that fox had.  That would seem like a good thing, but judging by the audio commentaries on the DVDs the restrictions actually forced the show to be more clever than vulgar.  Now they don’t have that and I hope my qualms with tonights show is a momentary thing.  It feels lazy and cheap at times.  I hope I am wrong and its not yet a problem but more of a suspicion.  Futurama’s back baby!!!

25 Years of NES: Mega Man 3

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In the last 25 Years of NES I gushed about how Mega Man 2 is nearly perfect.  With that in mind I start with this premise; Mega Man 3 is better.  Mega Man 2 was almost perfect, and there was no way that Mega Man 3 could match it in game play and expect to be considered as good.  But Mega Man 3 does not attempt to match its predecessor.  As good as Mega Man 2 is, Mega Man 3 attempts to expand upon it in nearly every.  Fortunately, for Mega Man 3, and for the players, it succeeds as often as it fails.
MM3 maintains the perfectly tuned controls of MM2 with one change.  It adds the slide.  That is a fairly significant change.  The slide gives Mega Man an added touch of mobility and allows for more intricate level design.  Unlike the new move added to Mega Man 4, the charge shot, the slide actually enhances the game.  Sliding makes Mega Man move faster, or at least appear to move faster, while not changing the baseline game play.  The charge shot from 4 is the reason that Mega Man 3 will be the last Mega Man game to appear in my series of articles.  Not that the later Mega Man games are terrible, but the charge shot changes the flow of game play significantly, and not for the better.  Instead of the smooth run, jump and shoot game play of the first three games, where the special weapons are used throughout the level and not just against the bosses, in Mega Man 4 through 6 the game is stilted charge and wait with sub-weapons used only as boss beaters.  Again, not terrible, but not the high quality of MMs 2&3.  The slide, rather than a drastic change, merely allows for more intricate levels and greater movement.  Though the level design does not really pan out, as the levels in three are not really improved, but they also are not weaker.  The slide is necessary because without something different the levels could not be as good two’s levels.  Mega Man 2 had already taken that move set as far as it could go.
Another more minor change is the greater fleshing out of Mega Man’s world.  Instead of the generic “Items” from 2, 3 has Rush, Mega Man’s faithful robot dog.  Rush transforms into the Rush Jet that, like Item-2 from MM2, allows Mega Man to fly through the stage.  There’s also the Rush coil, a spring that catapults Mega Man to great heights.  And the largely useless Rush Marine, an underwater rush jet that is usefully at most twice.  Rush is not greatly different from MM2’s Items, it is a more colorful, memorable version.  The other addition to the Mega Man Universe is Proto Man, the scarf and shades wearing mysterious rival to the protagonist.  Sure, he’s just Racer-X from Speed Racer, right down to secretly being Mega Man’s brother.   Proto Man shows up in several levels to impede or assist Mega Man’s progress. (Incidentally Proto Man is much more awesome than the X series Zero)  Plus, before you fight him, Proto Man gets his own awesome whistling theme song.  While the story and its twists will never be a reason for playing Mega Man (hint Dr. Wily is behind it.  Always) the mystery of Proto Man is a welcome addition to Mega Man’s world.
As far as Robot Masters go, Mega Man 3 is somewhat weaker than it is predecessor.  Sure, there is Shadow Man, Gemini Man and Magnet Man, who are all interesting enough.  Plus Snake Man, one of the coolest bosses in the series.  But there is also Needle Man and Hard Man, both whom are dick jokes.  And the single lamest boss in Mega Man history: Top Man.  Top Man doesn’t even give you a useful weapon.  The only use for the Top Spin, other than a couple of specific enemies, is to get a look at the Blue Bomber’s paunch.  Overall Mega Man 3’s bosses are good.  They have mostly interesting levels and good sub-weapons.  While they are not quite as good as Mega Man 2’s bosses, at least none of the weapons are as stupidly overpowered as the Metal Blades.
If the game would have simply went from its 8 bosses to Wily’s Castle, then it would have been a slight drop from MM2, but MM3 ups the ante.  Before the castle, there are four more stages to beat.  Each level has 2 of the eight bosses from 2, now in the body of the Doc Robots.  But now the player must figure out their weaknesses with the weapons from 3 instead of those from 2.  Later games in the series would attempt similar tricks to this, but having already seen it in 3 the shock of 4 more levels was just not there.  With no great effect, the games just got 4 levels longer.  But the Doc Robots in MM3 were a shocking new challenge before the final showdown with Wily.
Mega Man 3 succeeds by taking all that was good about its predecessor and giving the player more.  Rush, Proto Man, Doc Robots, the slide.  Mega Man 3 simply gives the player more than Mega Man 2 had.  MM2 is a great game, and all things being equal MM3 could not be better.  But things are not equal.  MM3 has all that its predecessor had plus more.  It is not quite excessive in its growth, but it does hit the tipping point.  Mega Man 3 added all that could be added before the additions stopped improving the game and started muddling it.  In fact, it slightly passes that point.  Capcom was clearly running low on inspiration for bosses. (Hard Man, really?)  The signs if the excesses and stagnation that would doom the rest of the series to mediocrity are present here, but MM3 just avoids those traps.  It is a clear response to its predecessor.  Mega Man 2 is about perfecting a limited skill set.  Mega Man 3 is about adding all that they could to that skill set in an attempt to one up it.  And it succeeds, barely.

images courtesy of the VG museum