Will You Live To See The "Dawn Of The Gearheads"?

 I didn’t really know how I felt the first time I finished reading the first issue of Scott Morse’s new IDW series Strange Science Fantasy, only that I’d liked it a lot. A second read-through convinced me that I loved it. It feels less like a comic than a piece of unique art that just happens to be in the form of a comic book, if that doesn’t sound too pretentious or off-putting. I’m not saying it’s for everybody—I can almost imagine that, had I been in a different mood when I read it, I might not have cared for it at all—but it most definitely felt like something deeply felt and weirdly personal that had been successfully married to a particular pop sensibility. If that’s not art, then I’m not sure that I know what art is.

 

The first issue of this six-part mini reads like Rebel Without a Cause meets The Road Warrior, as directed by a coked-up Ralph Bakshi and then adapted into an E.C. science fiction comic. In a dystopian drag-racing-obsessed world, a mortally injured gearhead is reborn as The Headlight, an inspiring figure and leader of hot-rodders whose face has been replaced with a helmeted porthole of blazing light. The Headlight and his followers seek to smash the old order and create a new society, enlisting the aid of some technologically tricked-out animals like the “V-Eighp”. Hints of a larger metaphor appear, then are dismissed just as quickly—a guy dressed like a superhero is run down at one point, and The Headlight deals some righteous justice to “the fat cats, those who dined on the muscles of the dreamers”. These blink-and-you’ll-miss-‘em asides linger in your consciousness just enough to give the reader a taste of the artist’s own ideas about this stuff, without hanging around long enough to belabor the point.

 

And the art! Oh man, this is one crazy-looking, gorgeous book. Morse’s animation background informs every panel of this book, from the rubbery forms of both the gearheads and their hot rods, to the shocking vibrancy of the colour scheme. There’s even a one-page strip by Paul Pope! On both a narrative level and a visual level, Strange Science Fantasy is a comic that you experience more than you read. You can’t really sit and think about the story or the characters, because, well, there sort of aren’t any. It’s more like listening to a really great song with totally bizarre lyrics, that you then listen to a few more times trying to figure out just what the hell the songwriter is trying to say. You just don’t know why, but you just know you like it. Or you don’t, as the case may be. Like I said at the top, it’s not for everybody, but it was kind of just what I needed at just the right time, I guess. Does that make sense?

 

This Atlas Don't Shrug!

Reading mainstream superhero comics is becoming a bit of a chore lately—if a comic isn’t part of a line-wide crossover that has two or three good ideas spread out over way too many issues, it’s rife with death, destruction, despair, and misogyny. Often, it’s both. That’s why I’m glad a book like Marvel’s Atlas is around. I don’t read superhero comics to be bummed out, I read ‘em so I can follow the adventures of reformed killer robots, talking dragons, and wisecracking gorillas who occasionally wear Hawaiian shirts.

 Atlas has been around, in one form or another, for some time now. Writer Jeff Parker and Leonard Kirk launched the team (well, re-launched, but more on that in a minute) in a six-issue miniseries a few years back called Agents of Atlas, which introduced the covert superteam comprised of characters who were published separately by Marvel’s 1950s incarnation, when they were called--wait for it--Atlas. The team, made up of Gorilla Man, The Human Robot, Marvel Boy, Venus, Namora, and rejuvenated secret agent Jimmy Woo, had worked together briefly in the Fifties to fight the menace of the Yellow Claw (not really—this back-engineered origin was spun off from an issue of the original What If? series that imagined an Avengers team formed during the Eisenhower administration).

This diverse group reunites to help Jimmy track down his old nemesis, who is behind a globe-spanning science terror organization known only as the Atlas Foundation. However, by the end of that initial miniseries, Jimmy learns that he is the true heir to the Foundation, which dates all the way back to the Mongol Empire; seizing control of his destiny, and with his old comrades in arms, Jimmy sets about trying to change the Foundation from within—a task that may be impossible when the organization he commands is responsible for nurseries full of giant killer plants and orphanages populated by white-haired psychic toddlers.

 

Agents of Atlas appeared again (this time as an ongoing series) in the wake of Marvel’s Secret Invasion crossover, but was sadly cut short after 11 issues. Having that stupid Dark Reign banner on the early issues might have helped out with the initial sales, but that kind of quick sales fix is a short-term solution that hurts a book more in the long run—in my opinion, anyway. Regardless, Marvel’s commitment to this cult favourite has been surprisingly steadfast; the team appeared again in a two-part X-Men vs. Agents of Atlas mini, and then later in a four-part Avengers vs. Atlas series. There was also a recent Marvel Boy three-parter, which filled in the 1950s backstory of the team’s mysterious spaceman. And now, in the wake of yet another crossover (Siege), and with yet another banner (The Heroic Age), the gang is back again, in another ongoing simply titled Atlas. Despite the banner, however, Atlas doesn’t have much to do with the rest of Marvel’s publishing line—it occupies its own cozy corner of the Marvel U, one teeming with secret intrigue, pulp adventure, and mad science to beat the band.

 We’re only two issues in, and so far the new Atlas is loads of fun. The retro adventurers are joined by the current incarnation of 3-D Man (whose predecessor was part of the lineup in the original What If? story, rather than Namora), a fugitive hero trying to unravel the mystery of a cabal of sinister aliens that only he can see. The art by Gabriel Hardman has a gritty quality reminiscent of Michael Lark, but he’s more than capable of handling the otherworldly aspects of Parker’s scripts (like the giant, remote-controlled subterranean golems who appear in issue #2). Elizabeth Breitweiser’s subtly psychedelic colour palette provides the properly glossy finish, and the covers are provided by some of the best in the biz. Terry Dodson turned in a slick montage of the team’s new lineup for the debut issue, and check out Carlos Pacheco’s interpretation of the original 1950s team for issue #2!

 

So, if you’d rather read about mystical hidden cities and electrically-charged zombies than drug-addicted antiheroes and sexually dysfunctional former sidekicks, give Atlas a try. The new series is a great jumping-on point—3-D Man’s entry into the team provides a great point of reference for new readers—but the earlier adventures are available in trade paperback as well. If you’re a fan of Astro City’s wistful approach to gee-whiz superheroics, and The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen’s shared universe of pulp archetypes, or even if you just think a book about a talking ape, an old-timey robot, a love goddess, and a secret agent cruising around in a flying saucer from Uranus (yeah, Gorilla Man laughs at it every time too) sounds like fun, then you’ll find Atlas is where it’s at.

Poor Falcon. (No Spoilers, I Promise)

So, that Marvel Star Wars omnibus from Dark Horse I mentioned in last week's reviews? I basically thought I'd be working on that thing for a month or two, or that I might even have a hard time reading it at all after a point. Turns out I'm nearly finished all 500 pages of it! It was actually kind of tough to tear myself away from it to read new comics this week. I don't know what this says about me--I think it probably has more to do with the irresistible pull of nostalgia than the quality of the comics themselves--but I'm already committing myself to buying the next volume this fall. In the meantime, there are new comics out there too! Every week, it seems!

 

Tom Strong and The Robots of Doom #1: I can’t help but wonder—does Alan Moore have any say in DC/Wildstorms’ continuing use of his America’s Best Comics characters? That’s not to say that there hasn’t been interesting material released without his consent, if that is in fact the case; last year’s Top Ten Season Two miniseries was quite good, and I also enjoyed the first issue of this new Tom Strong four-parter. It doesn’t hurt that in both cases, the original series artist—Gene Ha on the former, and Chris Sprouse on the latter—returned to handle the visuals. Sadly, it’s really hard to get anyone excited about these characters without the involvement of Mr. Moore, and that’s a shame because there’s clearly a lot of life left in his ideas. I don’t know that this new Tom Strong series--in which Tom’s evil Nazi bastard kid Albrecht messes around with the timestream, using an indestructible robot army to win World War II for the Axis—is particularly new reader-friendly, as it builds naturally off of several stories from the book’s original run. Peter Hogan’s script does make a point of dropping some on-the-go introductions of Tom’s cast, like his wife Dhalua, his daughter Tesla, their robotic butler Pneuman, and the family’s intelligent gorilla pal King Solomon, but it’s not long before this group is irrevocably altered by Albrecht’s machinations. Like I said, a bit daunting for newbies, but for old fogies like me who remember that, only a little over a decade ago when we had four or five ongoing superhero (I’m sorry, science hero) comics written by Moore being published at the same time, it’s like visiting with old friends.

 

Tales Designed To Thrizzle #6: I never quite realize how much I miss Michael Kupperman’s roughly-annual blasts of ridiculousness, until a new issue drops and it’s like a breath of fresh, absurd air. In this latest issue, new features like Jungle Princess (which deals with the threats of rhino smuggling and falling magazine ad revenues in equal measure) and All About Drainage share page space with classic Thrizzle bits like Twain & Einstein. My personal favourite strip this time out is Willie Wealth, a Richie Rich parody that calls attention to the serious problem of eating your wealth as though it were food. Thrizzle may not be for everyone—if you don’t enjoy surreal comedy in the vein of Adult Swim’s Aqua Teen Hunger Force or Tim & Eric Awesome Show Great Job, you may want to give this one a wide berth. However, if phrases like “I am farting my way to a beatoff bonanza” makes you giggle uncontrollably for way too long, then you seriously need to get thrizzled.

 Captain America #606: A brand new story arc kicks off this issue, with the current Baron Zemo plotting revenge against the current Captain America. Makes sense, I suppose; killing Bucky at the end of WWII was always the original Baron’s greatest achievement, and now it’s basically  meaningless. I already like this arc better than the previous one, which just sort of petered out at the end. I’ve always loved Baron Zemo, and he makes a great return to villainous form here, assembling a bunch of like-minded badasses to start some trouble. There’s a cool Kirby-inspired throwdown with the Wrecking Crew, and a classy tip of the hat to Steranko in a nightmare sequence later on, but…is it just me, or does somebody on the production end of things have it in for the Falcon? At one point, the top of his head is cut off…

…but that’s far less insulting than the fact that his half of a double-page spread appears to have been cropped out entirely to make room for a Honda ad!

Now obviously, I’m not 100% sure that’s what happened here, but I can’t imagine why Butch Guice would draw his legs in there if the rest of him wasn’t supposed to be visible too. Mighty suspicious.

 

Batman #700: A Grant Morrison comic can be plenty confusing even without the introduction of time travel. But even though the central mystery of this extra-sized anniversary issue, which involves a time-travelling “Maybe Machine”, the Joker’s lost Jokebook, and several incarnations of Batman over the decades (centuries, even), didn’t make a lot of sense, it was still a fun, multi-faceted look at the character’s many iterations over the years. I’m not sure that Tony Daniel was the right artistic choice to illustrate the Biff! Pow! era of Batman’s career—wouldn’t someone with the pop-art sensiblities of, say, Mike Allred have been more appropriate?--but I think he mostly pulls it off.  I also wish Frank Quitely could have drawn the entirety of the present-day Dick Grayson Batman segment (Scott Kolins ably handles the last three pages, but the change in styles is pretty jarring), but it was cool to see Andy Kubert return to the title to revisit the sinister Damian Wayne future-Batman last seen in #666.  As an aside, this issue cemented my enjoyment of Dick as Batman once and for all—the scene where he calls a GCPD officer by his first name and asks how his kid is doing had me grinning.

 

Moving Pictures: This new Top Shelf-published book from Kathryn and Stuart Immonen is one of those books that must be read very carefully—there’s just as much, if not more, going on between the panels as there is within them. Set during the German occupation of France during WWII, Moving Pictures follows a museum curator, a Canadian woman named Ila, as she attempts to hide, and thereby protect, several priceless art pieces from being claimed by the Nazi treasuries. This scheme is made more complicated by her romantic involvement with an officer from the Military Art Commission, who is charged with finding the missing art. The story shifts back and forth in time, beginning with Ila being questioned by Rolf, gradually revealing more about her plot and their relationship in a series of flashbacks. This is a story of historical intrigue that, despite its particular backdrop, avoids the usual imagery of Nazi soldiers, concentration camps, or firearms of any kind; what we don’t see on the page remains just as terrible a threat as it would if we had seen it. That controlled, assured subtlety in Kathryn Immonen’s script elevates Moving Pictures from a simple tale of wartime intrigue into a more complex meditation on the personal and cultural significance of art. Stuart Immonen’s art is equally spare, his characters realized from the simplest of shapes and often defined by the shadows around them. A quietly affecting historical drama, as far removed from the couple’s recent Marvel Comics work as you can imagine.

"Will He Save The Galaxy--Or Destroy It?"

 Somebody better take Marvel Comics’ collective temperature—are they feeling okay? Deadpool didn’t appear in a single comic this week! For that matter, there weren’t any major releases at all in the X-Men franchise (except for Giant-Size X-Men Forever #1…are those crickets I hear?), or Spider-Man (there was a Spider-Girl, and a $1.00 reprint of Amazing Spider-Man #546), or Batman (well, Batman Confidential, and Joker’s Asylum: Riddler), or Superman (a Superman/Batman Annual featuring Batman Beyond doesn’t really count, does it?). It was just one of those weeks that comes along every once in awhile, where the biggest release is a Serenity one-shot. There were only a few things that really excited me this week, but we’ll get to them in a minute; in the meantime, have some random observations on the new comics for the week of June 2, won’t you?

 -The house ads for Marvel’s Shadowland event would seem to indicate that this whole Franken-Castle experiment is coming to an end sooner rather than later—they depict a bearded, but non-monsterized, Punisher blasting Spider-Man with a shotgun. I remain a big fan of the sheer insanity of making the Punisher into a Frankenstein, but I’ll be just as happy to see it end within the next few months. I really enjoyed that first arc, but extending it beyond those six issues might be a mistake (although not as big a mistake as re-titling the book Franken-Castle! That’s just asking for trouble).

 -Is it me, or do Mouse Guard and Mice Templar seem to come out on the same week more often than not?  When they do come out, I mean—both are pretty infrequent.

 -Avengers: The Origin by Joe Casey and Phil Noto is a miniseries that is taking five issues to re-tell a story—Avengers #1 by Lee and Kirby—that took 22 pages to tell in 1963. The same week that the third issue of this re-telling drops, Marvel releases the first issue of Avengers Prime, which reprints a Walt Simonson story from 1989's Avengers #300 that recaps the same events…in seven pages.  It’s the new math, folks. Just go with it.

 -I’m the last LBW contributor to get on board with this, but I have finally gotten caught up with Jeff Lemire’s excellent Vertigo series Sweet Tooth. I opened each new issue with a mixture of excitement and dread, wondering what the hell is going to happen to poor, antler-headed Gus and his hulking protector (maybe?), Jepperd. This week’s issue ten continues to unravel the mystery of Gus’s unnatural existence in another beautifully hand-crafted, heartbreaking issue. A great book, and unlike anything Vertigo’s ever done before.

 

All right, enough of all that. The two things I was most excited about this week had a lot to do with my own personal nostalgia. One was Dark Horse’s brand-spanking new Omnibus reprinting the Marvel Star Wars series. I was kind of embarrassed at how much I was looking forward to this one. The original Star Wars comics were among some of the first comics I owned, and in the days before DVD or VHS, they were how I used to get my required fix of the Force and all that jazz. They were pretty goofy, but I read them until they basically fell apart, and I was pretty excited to revisit them in this new volume. It didn’t hurt that I’ve been on a bit of a kick lately, having just read J.W. Rinzler’s extremely in-depth chronicling of the making of the original movie (this led to me buying the DVD set again—something I swore I would never do!—when I found a copy of the boxed set that contains, as mere second disc extras, mind you, the original, unaltered theatrical releases of the original trilogy). The Omnibus edition of the original Marvel run contains the first 27 issues for 25 bucks, so it’s not much of a financial risk. So far, I’ve only read the first six issues—which adapt the first film—and, surprisingly, they hold up pretty well! I mean, they’re totally ridiculous, of course, as you would expect a mash-up of old-timey Star Wars and Seventies Marvel comics to be. But on the other hand, I love both of those things, so why wouldn’t I love this? I can’t get enough of how scripter Roy Thomas imposed the Marvel style onto George Lucas’s vision; for example, issue five is titled Lo, The Moons of Yavin! The covers are a study in foolishness as well;

 

Seriously, Luke, if you can see the Death Star in the sky above you, you’re done, son! Listen to Han, he knows what he’s talking about. As if to hammer home the Marvelness of these proceedings, Luke even calls Uncle Owen Uncle Ben at one point. Seriously! But still, the art by Howard Chaykin and Steve Leialoha is cool, eschewing the photo-reference overload made popular in most comics adaptations since, and it’s interesting to see how the finer details of the larger Star Wars universe hadn’t been nailed down yet—Jabba the Hutt appears on Tattoine as a yellow, whiskered humanoid (suck it, Special Editions!). I don’t know how much I would recommend this collection for anyone who wasn’t already a Star Wars fan or didn’t grow up reading these comics, but I’m certainly getting a kick out of them; I may have to do a series of posts about the subsequent issues in this collection, if it turns out there’s anything interesting to say about them. They’re a nice historical reminder of a time when the Star Wars universe was still pretty uncharted territory, when pint-sized fans like me were hungry for any new information about all those crazy planets and aliens. Of course, a lot of the characters and ideas that were introduced by writers like Thomas and later, Archie Goodwin and David Michelinie, were eventually paved over to make way for more “official” novels, videogames, cartoons, Special Editions, sequels, and, heaven help us, prequels, but unlike a lot of the revising of history that Lucasfilm has indulged in over the decades, this stuff is still readily available. One final note—was Marvel trying to equate Luke Skywalker with Bat Lash on the cover caption to issue #1?

 

The other big release for me this week was Hawkeye & Mockingbird #1 by Jim McCann and David Lopez (the team who reunited Clint & Bobbi in New Avengers: The Reunion). This new ongoing has the on-again/off-again couple, well, on again, teaming up romantically and superheroically to fight superterrorists and other assorted baddies. I had high hopes for this one, as Hawkeye is one of my all-time favourite characters (and he’s had a rough couple of years, to say the least), and I’m happy to say I wasn’t disappointed. This is a fun, fast-paced issue with lots of action, humour, and intriguing subplots involving Mockingbird’s family history and a potential team-up of two of the pair’s classic nemeses (well, one is a cool new take on a classic one, but still). There are lots of fun shout-outs to stuff like the original 1982 Hawkeye miniseries and the duo’s tenure in the West Coast Avengers, but none of it is impenetrable to new readers—in fact, this double-sized first issue comes with a handy backup feature where the heroes playfully narrate each other’s complex together-and-separate histories. This is good to have on hand, when both of your leads have been dead at least once (twice this decade for Hawkeye!). Unlike the similar Green Arrow/Black Canary series from a few years back, this book doesn’t collapse instantly under the weight of tons of ongoing continuity--McCann’s script hits the ground running in its own direction and has a sense of fun, romantic adventure about it. And I seriously hope someone at Marvel has David Lopez chained down, because this guy has some chops. This is one gorgeous-looking book, all smooth lines and easy-to-follow action.

This is probably my favourite thing to come out of all this Heroic Age jazz right now, and I hope it sticks around for awhile (especially with this particular creative team on board). I do have one small complaint--I'm really tired of seeing the word rape in mainstream superhero comics--Bobbi drops it in reference to her ordeal at the hands of the Phantom Rider back in West Coast Avengers. If you must, it's possible to allude to this stuff without typing what has become the most overused "r" word in comics since "retcon"; Young Avengers Special #1 was a perfect example of this, where we know that something awful happened to Kate BIshop in the past, but it's never explicitly stated or shown. This is a pretty minor complaint, though. It was a pretty great comic otherwise.

Man, Am I Ever Getting Sick Of That Damn Green Arrow Preview: New Comics For May 26th

 It’s felt like the last few weeks have been particularly bleak and dreary in the world of comics, with lots of pain and death and suffering. However, this week’s new releases had a lot more fun stuff going on, and generally made me feel a whole lot better about the industry in general and superhero comics in particular. That’s not to say that some things weren’t depressing (shame on you, Amazing Spider-Man) or horribly violent (can at least one issue of Green Lantern pass without somebody being skeletonized or skinned alive?), but overall, things were looking up.

 

Dazzler #1: A few weeks back, I was pretty hard on 1984’s Dazzler: The Movie graphic novel. I’ll stand by that, but this Women of Marvel one-shot was a much better vehicle for everybody’s favourite disco-themed superheroine. The story involves Arcade (I love that guy!) using a bunch of killer robots, who correspond with a lot of the villains from Dazzler’s solo series, to try and kill the mutant songstress at the behest of her evil sister. There are some fun callbacks to the most ridiculous moments of Dazzler’s book—she once again has to face Dr. Doom and Galactus, albeit robot versions—but most ridiculous of all, she is forced to fight for her life in her original roller-skated, KISS-makeup’d costume. This was written by Jim McCann, who is also going to be scripting the upcoming Hawkeye and Mockingbird ongoing (I got my fingers crossed for that one, and this comic gave me a lot of hope), and drawn with great style by Toronto guys Ramon Perez and Kalman Androsofszky. There’s a short back-up that makes this into a Necrosha tie-in, but the main feature is the reason to check this out.

 

Hey, that's enough outta you!

 Thunderbolts #144: Steve Rogers puts Luke Cage (himself a reformed criminal) in charge of a new team of T-bolts, mostly villains out to redeem themselves in this Heroic Age crossover. The team, made up of old school ‘Bolts like Songbird and Moonstone, as well as newbies like Crossbones and Juggernaut, is an odd mix that might make for some good readin’—strangest of all, Man-Thing is on board, using his connection to the Nexus of All Realities to provide the team’s transportation abilities. Jeff Parker continues his streak of writing great team books for Marvel (once again, if you missed Atlas last week, you need to get on that ASAP), also proving himself to be either a big fan of Aziz Ansari’s stand-up routine or the MTV reality dating show Next, or both—a female prisoner declares of Luke Cage, “If he’s got a neck tattoo, I’m gonna lick it!”. There’s also a great last-page villain reveal that is extra cool for longtime Thunderbolts readers. If Moonstone can just get herself a less slutty outfit, this book will be in great shape.

 

See? That is one trampy getup. 

The Thanos Imperative: Ignition #1: This was maybe not the most new-reader-friendly one-shot, as it builds out of several Annihilation and War/Realm of Kings miniseries, not to mention the ongoing (but maybe now cancelled?) Nova and Guardians of the Galaxy books, but it did make me want to check out the next installment. Apparently, in some of those books, it was revealed that there’s a parallel universe that is slowly bleeding into the Marvel-verse, one where life has triumphed over death I guess? Even so, this happy-sounding place has been dubbed the Cancerverse, so it can’t be that great. Anyway, the denizens of this ‘verse want to invade the Marvel universe and eliminate death, starting with the avatar of death himself, the recently-resurrected Thanos. This was a confusing but intriguing first issue—it practically requires a flow chart to keep track of all its dozens of characters. But once again, the last-page reveal of the avatar of life from the Cancerverse—in other words, the big villain of the upcoming Thanos Imperative miniseries—is a cool shocker that, in retrospect, makes perfect sense.

 

G.I. Joe: Hearts and Minds #1: I haven’t read anything by Max Brooks prior to this, but the author of such bestsellers as World War Z and The Zombie Survival Guide manages to keep the living dead out of this miniseries (so far, anyway), telling two short stories focusing on a Cobra operative and a Joe soldier, respectively. First up, in the better of the two stories, we get a look at what makes cold-blooded mercenary (and lousy poet, if I remember his action figure’s file card correctly) Major Bludd tick, and the second story gives us some background on Joe tracking expert Spirit. Bludd's story contrasts his cold-bloodedness with his surprisingly tragic and decidedly mundane family history, while the Spirit story focuses on how the character hates that everyone just assumes, because of his Native American heritage, that he is an expert tracker...but, of course, he is an expert tracker anyway, hence his surly disposition. I have no idea where this fits in terms of continuity, if there even is such a thing where a bunch of action figures are concerned, but I was able to enjoy it purely based on my nostalgia for the G.I. Joe universe. Next up is Tripwire and Firefly! Man, I hope they get to Beach-Head at some point.

 

Seven Psychopaths #1: This is really getting to be the year of “guys on a mission” stories, what with The Losers, The A-Team, and The Expendables, isn’t it? This new book from Boom! Studios stars a disgraced British Army Colonel in London during the Blitz, who gets a letter from an old guy named Goldschmidt in an insane asylum, advocating the use of a team of certified lunatics to drop into Berlin and assassinate Hitler. That’s so crazy, it just might work! The Colonel springs Goldschmidt and they begin assembling their team, on the premise that these guys (and gals) will be so nutty and unpredictable that the Nazis won’t be able to catch them or stop them—also, that the mystical significance of the number 7, as in there will be seven of them, will give power to their cause. I don’t know where Sean Phillips found time to draw this, between his stints on Criminal and the new Dark Tower series, but I’m glad he did. Fabien Vehlmann's script is tight, and funny too—my favourite part is when Goldschmidt notices that the Colonel’s file on the project is labeled “Seven Psychos”, and he gets all offended by it. I have not idea where this story could be going, but I hope the creators go all Tarantino with it and create their own batshit crazy ending for WWII.

Secret Avengers #1: Not that it took much, but this book really blew the doors off last week’s Avengers relaunch. Like Thunderbolts, this is a totally strange assortment of Marvel characters from different eras and genres (War Machine, Nova, and Moon Knight, together at last?!?), but Ed Brubaker sells it. This shadow-ops team deals with all sorts of crazy threats before they can even become threats, and their varied specialties come in mighty handy. The result is a cool mix of real world (well, Marvel real world) action and cosmic intrigue that has lots of callbacks to old-school House of Ideas. The Serpent Crown? That dastardly Roxxon corporation? Now you’re talking my language, Brubaker! There’s a predictably cheesecakey opening scene where Valkyrie and Black Widow have to go undercover as call girls—the superheroine glass ceiling at work—but otherwise, artist Mike Deodato, who I’m not normally a big fan of, turns in some surprisingly good work here. His shadowy visuals work the conspiracy angle nicely, and he shifts gears ably from “realistic” scenes, like the opening gambit in Dubai, to the trip to Mars in the final pages. Also, Marvel pulls the hat trick for final page bad guy reveals this week, with this issue’s mastermind being the most surprising of the three. Also, I cannot overstate how awesome it is to have the Beast on an Avengers team again. We gotta get Wonder Man in on this so they can be all rowdy ‘til dawn like they used to.

Who wouldn't want to party with those guys?

"I Want You To Stop Me."

It’s not every day you can say that you survived a run-in with a murderous android, yet here I am, alive and well. Yesterday, at Park Lane cinema here in Halifax, I ducked out of work early to attend a special screening of the 1986 thriller The Hitcher, followed up by a Q and A session with star Rutger Hauer. The actor was here in town filming the feature-length adaptation of local director Jason Eisener’s award-winning Grindhouse movie trailer, Hobo With A Shotgun. The screening, part of Jason’s superfun Thrillema series, which screens cult movies with a pre-show reel of crazy genre trailers, raised money for David Brunt, the star of the original Hobo trailer; if you haven’t watched this energetically gory mini-revenge flick yet, check it out here, but be warned—it’s most definitely not safe for work!

 

Hauer, who takes over the role from Brunt for the big-screen adaptation (Brunt has a cameo in the feature version, and was reportedly on set for the bulk of shooting), is probably best known as lead replicant Roy Batty in the 1982 sci-fi classic Blade Runner, but has done about 180 films, including Batman Begins, Sin City, Ladyhawke, Blind Fury, and Wanted Dead or Alive. His role as the enigmatic, homicidal John Ryder in The Hitcher might be his second most famous role behind Roy Batty—the character, a seemingly unstoppable, strangely tormented, almost supernaturally destructive figure really comes alive thanks to Hauer's darkly humourous interpretation, not to mention those piercing blue eyes. Hauer ‘s Q and A afterwards was a real treat; the 66-year old actor clearly loves talking about cinema, slyly dropping F-bombs among praise for his collaborators and insights into his process. He even hung around to sign stuff for the fans afterwards—I got my Blade Runner Limited Edition Gift Set signed by Roy Batty himself! How cool is that?

 

Incidentally, the first thing I saw Hauer in—when I was far too young to be watching it, probably—was a 1981 cop thriller called Nighthawks, which pitted the actor, playing a terrorist named Wulfgar, against a New York cop played by a fully-bearded Sylvester Stallone. Hauer is absolutely ruthless and terrifying in this movie, but it’s also worth watching for the geek-friendly supporting cast of Billy Dee Williams, Lindsay Wagner, and Persis Khambatta. In other words, it not only has Rocky/Rambo fighting Roy Batty, but it also stars Lando Calrissian, the Bionic Woman, and Ilia from Star Trek: The Motion Picture!  A bit obscure, but worth keeping your eyes peeled for (check out the trailer here).