Let's Get Wild

Kids! Before you had Rowling, we had Sendak. . .






































. . . and this was my favorite book of his. Ma got mine from some bookstore in Avenida, I think.

Spike Jonze (way before your time ,kids, so just play along) is making a movie out of it and here's a first peek.
















Drooling now.

Let's Get Lost

Spoilers are on extra mild so even if you haven't made it 'til the season finale yet, this post can still be your friend.






This Fantastic Journey rejig - - -or Gilligan's Island,if you must be snide- - - has been speaking to the geek in me from first cop because how can it not? Plane crashes on an uncharted, mysterious island with polar bears and smoke monsters and secret hatches and possibly with a mind of its own and that's all in Season 1 alone.

It's the multi-flavored wet dream for every boy who's ever had adventures in his head - - - which is every boy. It milks the hook of the tantalizing mystery until it hurts, until you doubt if the payoff will be as sweet as you hope it would be - - - J.J.Abrams' Alias ,after all,was a sad epic of blah when things got more out there and this is even more squirrelly with the out-there.

You stick with it , though, because, halfway through Season 1 , the off-island backstories became more intriguing than the on-island adventures , or at least more fertile to sift for clues - - -this is a show whose every nuance and cranny you pore over to figure out. You stick with it because you actually start caring for this chaingang of failures - - - yeah, even bratty, annoying Claire. You stick with it because it may not be Deadwood but it's damn good TV.

Season 2 is where it all allegedly pear-shaped but see it in one go and there's none of that sag . And Dave has to be the creepiest 45 minutes ever shown on TV now that Chris Carter has gone dark . . . unless you count Season 3's The Man Behind the Curtain.

Season 3 is where everything gets outer-there. The season finale has everything you expect of season finales - - - some answers, more questions,a mulch of clues, even a Last Life in the Universe rip, an impossible vision that makes you tingle, a hug on the beach that makes you cry, a declaration of love that makes you swoon, a skirmish that makes you whoop, a reverse sign of the cross that breaks your heart and possibly, possibly, rescue at last. It was enough. It all could have ended right there.

And then the rattlesnake in the mailbox.

Those final five minutes. . . and suddenly, everything changes. Suddenly, all bets are off.

Suddenly, it's a whole new level of fucked-up.

"I'm sick of lying!"

"We have to g. . ." . . . ahhh, but that would be telling.

Finale's entitled Through The Looking Glass. Make of that what you will. And see you in February.


EDIT: No time for trackback but just stumbled on something Lindelof said about a big clue to everything being embedded in the pilot episode that would only become clear in the series finale . . .and speculation on why they decided to entitle the pilot The Pilot and something about Jack telling Kate he took flying lessons. . . hmmmm. Need to crack open my Season 1 box. Later.

The Quick and The Dead

THE FLASH: FASTEST MAN ALIVE #13
Written by Mark Guggenheim; Art by Tony S. Daniel and Art Thibert; Cover by Tony S. Daniel

SPOILERISH.

But some of us have stopped caring after the Bilson and DeMeo roadkill. This title was one of the few which actually had an OYL story to tell. Bart Allen was speedforced to adulthood; a new life awaited this brash, impulsive speedster trapped in a grown-up's body, an adult's world with actual responsibilities and bills to pay. Did he get kicked-out of the Teen Titans? Did he like where he was? Fact is, Bart as we knew him---Impulse, Kid Flash---disappeared. Grown-up Bart was just...dull. And I dropped the title easily. When DC announced that a new writer would be taking over, I took my chances. I love these Speedsters. I love their point of view; I love how they watch us waste our time. Marc Guggenheim's first issue (with the excellent Tony Daniel) on what would be the last arc of the title immediately brought back the Titans to Bart's life, and an unexpected family member from the future. It felt like a homecoming of sorts. Loose ends effortlessly trimmed. Re-focused storyline: Rogues United vs. The Flash. Which culminates here, in this week's (and arguably this month's) best story.

Tight, heroic, tragic.

The simplicity of Bart's final moments is brutal. Beaten to death. It's not actually shown in detail but the words echo in their subtlety. Depowering a hero is nothing new, but Guggenheim deftly writes it with palpable hope. Palpable desperation. More than his speed, Bart is more loved for his cocky, reckless nature. And in the last few pages, Bart finally becomes the Flash, still reckless, still stubborn, but now, undeniably, a hero.

"A hero is just someone who stands when their legs are gone." Mr. Guggenheim may just be talking about the title itself. Still, thank you.

Thank you for bringing Bart back to us and for giving him the best send-off that a hero could get. *****

Kaya Pala. . .

Galing dito.

Galactic Storm?

Reconceptualization daw kaya ginawang ulap si Galactus - - - at maganda naman daw ang kinalabasan, sabi ng Marvel. (O si Mark Millar lang nagsasabi nun, ang dakilang kampeon ng mga pelikulang may sabit?)


Pero 'di nga, Mr.Avi Arad - - - mas maganda pa dito?






Picture pa lang,astig na . . .pelikula pa?


Dimwit studio execs. Not your fault, Mr.Story.

Probably.

Fantastic Pwe

Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer
Directed by Tim Story
Written by Don Payne and Mark Frost

God help the fanboy in me if the digital hallucinogenics that flesh Norrin Radd out here ever get beneath me, that eyecandy's psyched- - -could use a few trippy minutes more of just the Surfer floating through the Black Forest,of course. God help me more,though, if that should suffice. Kirby took three issues to map out the saga that gets supercompressed into kid size for pea brains here. You lose many things that way. With Oatu out of the picture, exposition is reduced to corny tete-a-tete. No Shalla Bal means the change of heart that reverses apocalypse loses the nuances that made it more inevitable, more rah-rah. And Galactus as a black cloud that's not that impossible to defeat anyway does nothing to up alert levels. Oh and Sue Storm does a Trinity - - -that's inept. Odd that a man named Story has no clue how to tell one. Odder still that you secretly wish for Michael Bay rehab. That way it gets scale and the writing would've sucked less. Fanboys go postal over wrong-footed adaptations for reasons saner than just being anal and having no lives- - - the comics got it right. And with so much to work on laid out on a silver platter, you're either arrogant or stupid if you squander the surplus. Or both. * *

Ch-Ch-Ch-Ch-Changeling

Too swamped to even light out for the grocery to buy coffee so I've not gone for my Jessica Alba fix yet.

I have heard that J. Michael Straczynski has been roped in to write a Silver Surfer spin-off - - maybe they should revive old plans of casting Daniel Day Lewis as Norrin Radd.

Notch up on how bated my breathing will be in wait for this - - -not big on his Fantastic Four run but liked his Rising Stars despite the horrendous art- - -but am more deeply curious about the other thing J.Michael's writing.

The Changeling parses like horror - - - though it isn't a rejig of the same-named Peter Medak classic, one of those brief spasms Hollywood got as creepful as prime J-horror.

Angelina Jolie's in it.

Clint Eastwood's directing.

And I'm so there just became a gross understatement.

It's Not Easy Being Green

Green Arrow #75
Written by Judd Winick; Art and Cover by Scott McDaniel and Andy Owens

From Kevin Smith's (whimsical) epic to Brad Meltzer's nostalgic road trip to Judd Winick's pre-OYL killer cliffhanger over a burning Star City, the relaunched Green Arrow title built up Oliver Queen to be the temperamental, unpredictable, swashbuckling hero that is slowly becoming the man of honor that he wants to be. And this journey all ends with a dud. Not even a whimper of defiance in sight.

The first half of this title finale pits Ollie and the Green Arrow family (Connor, Mia and Dana) against formidable assassins Slade and Merlin. Great team-ups and even greater action, probably the best this title has ever seen under Winick's helm.

Until the Justice League saves them all.

WHICH IS A HUGE DISSERVICE TO THE TITLE AND TO GREEN ARROW. Pissed doesn't even come close. I love these characters. I love Ollie's struggle to be better than his meta counterparts. I love Mia's resolve to find meaning in her disease. And what Winick did to Black Canary, oh boy. The Black Canary on these pages is pre-Simone Birds of Prey. I can't picture someone who trained with Shiva and is the current leader of the League to be easily tackled down to her knees.

And never mind the cover. It looks like this will be dragged out onto the other titles. No answer here.

Three-fourths into this book and I wanted to throw it across the room. Weak. And depressingly so. *

WORLD WAR HULK #1
Written by Greg Pak; Art and Cover by John Romita Jr. with Janson and Strain

I only have one problem in an otherwise smashing issue. Black Bolt. Pak showed us what his whisper could do to Hulk. And in the following panels we see Hulk holding a bloodied, black and blue Black Bolt. (Heh. Black and blue Black Bolt. Now say that five times.) Err...How??? Vulcan death grip? The Iron Man smack down, thanks to Romita's art, was fucking mind-blowing. I wanted Black Bolt's to be as cinematic. I mean he is like the second most powerful being on Earth. Or third. But he's up there. And he deserves strategy and a properly detailed beating.

Two down. And four more issues to go plus a gazillion cross-overs. They're making this out to be the Marvel Universe vs. Hulk. So bring on The Sentry already. ****

Thor has seen the new Fantasticar, err, Fantastic Four movie

The Top 4 Geek-Out Moments in Fantastic Four: The Rise of the Silver Surfer

SPOILERISH

1. Obviously. The Fantasticar! I was cheering inside (way deep inside) when the the Fantasticar bolted out into three pods while Surfer Doom practices his anti-matter cosmic death ray on the foursome.

2. Super Skrull Johnny. Way cool. My head exploded.

3. Silver Surfer. They nailed him. Graceful. Moody. And kinda cute.

4. Galactus. Not as I expected, Galactus as swirling cosmic storm. But, yeah, it works. Watch out for the shadow across Saturn.

Death Race 2008

Rain's being courted for the lead,apparently.

The Wachowskis are not a lost cause but their Speed Racer rejig does nothing for me on paper.

The Rain bit made it semi-interesting but until they proceed with rethinking the rest of the still-Caucasian cast,I'm still iffy.

This, though, may be the first baby step into changing my colors.