Archive for sdlaw
By day, a mild mannered lawyer, by night, a mild mannered father who obsesses about heroes, lost, and many other high quality programming. Check out sdlaw@twitter.com. Soon to be blogging. Also on Facebook as Eric Siegler.
Commentary - Graphic Novel Chapter 119-Under The Bridge Pt. 1
Finally, I am rewarded for my patience with 1) a favoured GN writer, Harison Wilcox, who has written the Kill Squad series, War Buddies 5, Molly’s Dream, and Super Heroics (peter the superhero/villain) 2) an artist, Dennis Calero, who although never having drawn a GN seems to have a realistic drawing style that both reminds me of Jason Badower’s ability to capture the show characters and yet is different in a much darker style that matches the current story line of Nathan and 3) A story which we can directly identify as a bridge from volume 3 to volume 4. I have two complaints however minor they may be. First, it is difficult to follow the two perspectives and two, I hate story lines that dont resolve and I have to wait at least a week to find out the next step.
Regardless, I enjoyed this comic. The art completely captures the character dichotomy between criminal who thinks he is innocent and guard who just determined he wasted his life and seems close to suicidal. It took me several readings to determine who was speaking and who were the characters but once I grasped it, I realized how brilliant Wilcox and Calero wove it together. I am not quite certain whether Perrin is a porcupine or a tree man but I lean toward the former. Nor do I have any clue what Donald’s power is. Is he a smoke man who can turn himself into smoke and get out of tight places as you could interpret from page 6, or is he invulnerable as the line “I was meant to survive” and “god made me like this” might allude to. I also do not know what happened to Perrin. Did he kill himself, did Donald explode and kill him, or kill him other ways? Did he escape unbenownst to Donald?
This novel expertly leaves as many questions as it answers and leaves quite a bit open for speculation. To some, this could signify that the writer and artist did not succeed in selling the story accurately to the reader. However, I am optimistic and I prefer to see it as the writer and artist did exactly what they were supposed to do and we are meant to speculate until part two comes out next week.
Till then, we wait some more.
Commentary for Graphic Novel 118 - Red Eye 2 of 2
I like David Wohl. He has a storied resume including a long history at Marvel. His only other Graphic Novel though was the Ben Franklin story which was simply filler, unnecessary and completely out of character of the heroesverse. I also have to question why they would change writers (from one scab writer to another) in the middle of a two part series. Either Krul had other commitments or they wanted to go in a different direction. David Wohl’s current career path has him making movies/television out of video games. I can’t say I agree with him that making movies or TV shows based on video games is a good thing but hey, I can see where it makes money even though some of the worst movies/shows of all time have been based on a video game. The reason is that video games are not really about creating believable stories but more about the action. This comic book left the same taste in my mouth that every movie I have ever seen based on a video game has left in my mouth, specifically this comic story is also superficial and unnecessary and well, just not believable.
I won’t repeat my comments re: Marcus To from last week. Suffice it to say that this week is exactly what I have come to expect from Marcus, an attempt at capturing the character which is just cartoonish enough to remind me of manga.
Commentary GN 117 - Red Eye Part 1
J.T. Krul, authored three or four of the “scab” comics during the writer’s strike. I call them scab comics because a) the writers strike was going on and one of the largest issues was the internet content; and b) because the authors of Behind the Eclipse, in episode 10 of this season (12/10/2008), Aron Coliete and Joe Pokaski have stated that they did not have control of the content of those GN’s and did use the “scab” word. Still, J.T. Krul has a resume including Spiderman and some other top comics so we have to give him some credit. In addition, the writers strike is over and here he is writing a new GN in the continuity arc. I did fall for the thought bubble trick and for at least the first few panels thought Red Eye was thinking so kudos for that.
Volume Three In a Nutshell
This article contains spoilers for those who haven’t watched the entire volume 3 yet. It also has some speculation and is not simply a recap.
Volume 3 began with Peter, future Peter that is. We start with a future where everyone is powered, Claire works for Pinehurst and is shooting Peter. Peter has to stop it from being revealed that there are powered people in the world and the mutants are being hunted so he goes back in time to kill Nathan so he won’t reveal his powers to the world. Volume three ends with Nathan revealing people with powers to the President and then starting a campaign to hunt mutants. So despite everything Peter sets in motion, the basic result is the same and perhaps accelerated as people now know of the powers and are hunting them.
This article is not going to be a simple recap of all episodes. Rather, I intend to highlight important facts and order events into an easy to understand grouping. Before I begin though, I will put in my two cents about this season. I liked this season. I thought it was better than season two and not quite as good as season one. I also felt it had potential to be better. Looking back, it truly feels like the writers took 1000 ideas, threw them against the wall in the first few episodes and then realized they had too much for a 13 episode arc so they hurriedly weeded out the less important ones. There was so much hype over 12 villans but several were killed at the first meeting, some we didn’t see until the last episode, and only 2, Knox and Flint made it to the end of the arc. I got the feeling they had wanted to do more with these villans but decided to streamline the story a bit. The writers also admitted that they have waffled on Gabriel, attempting to make him good and then switching at the end. It almost seemed like a waste of time except that Zachary Quinto is such a good actor that he made the story work. Here is hoping that Volume 4 is more focused yet keeps up the energy.
Commentary for Graphic Novel 116 - Stuck in the Middle
I should have listened to Jason Badower’s blog. For several days he has been saying that he wrote a lead in to the recruit series. Logically, I should have read the GN before watching the first episode. However, I stumbled on the episode first and of course, like a kid in a candy store, I couldn’t resist taking a peak. Thus, when I got to the GN, I already knew much of how it would end which likely skewed my enjoyment a little bit. My dad lives in Fort Lee New Jersey, not that that is relevant. Even the title is appropriate as this novel seems to be stuck in the middle between the show and the webisode and doesn’t really have much of a stand alone identity. It didn’t help that the webisode was put up a few hours before the GN.
Jim Martin - Wrote Going Postal, plus GN’s Quarantine, Into the Wild and now Stuck in the Middle. He has been involved in Heroes since at least episode 14 of season 1 so he knows the material. It doesn’t take Jim long for the connection from the 50 marines to Ms. Mills (the recruit). And apparently the gentleman who on page 2 is going to save the world, is also a peeping tom. I think we all saw the fall coming, just didn’t know how or when or why. Jim wants us to think this guy is the stereotypical alpha male who is sexist and a pervert. Soon, Nathan and Tracy cause the fall as they talk about hiding the truth about the serum from the marines. Just like Humpty Dumpty, down he comes. Of course, the last line of the book is the foreshadow for the recruit. I have read many a comic book, novel, and script. I’ve watched thousands of cartoons, television shows, movies and let me tell you, whenever someone says the words “what, you think one of …. is going to … ” it means it is going to happen. And so it will in the Recruit series. Sure enough in the first few seconds of the Recruit, they find a four-pack of serum.
Jason Badower - I can’t say enough good things about Jason. Of all the GN artists, I think he captures the images of the cast better than anyone. When he drew Elle, she looked like Elle. When he draws Nathan and Tracy, they clearly look like Nathan and Tracy. And when he draws naked women in a shower, they look like naked women in a shower. He says he didn’t have a model but if that’s true, he has a good imagination because he nails it. I hope that he continues to do GN’s for a long time! The box scene reminds me of Tony Hawk Pro Skater
Commentary for Graphic Novel 115 - “Truths”
I have to say that I loved this weeks GN Chapter 115 “Truths” It was a poignant and insightful look into Arthur Petrelli. It could have taken the easy route and made him a likeable if misguided putz. It could have also taken the cop out route and revealed some dream worse than Peter’s vision of the future which would make Arthur look like a savior. Nope, the writer’s stuck to their guns and made him remain a jerk at the end. Albeit a Jerk with some kind of plan that involves brother versus brother and a bunch of artificially powered idiots flying around. Kudos also that this was timed so well and released right after we just saw the death blow being dealt.
That said, Zach and Peter handle this novel perfectly. Zach, who has written many recent GN’s such as Root and Branch 2-3, Our lady of Blessed Acceleration, Playing With Fire, and Foresight to name them all, is a master of thought bubbles and this novel is completely based on thought. Peter, who looks a little like someone I saw in the movie replacements or maybe a bit like Hurley, has worked on ten brides and Donna’s Big Date 1-2. Peter’s gritty tone really captures the imminent death blow awaiting Arthur and the tension of the short story. The blurred out faces really give a sort of surreal quality to accompany the last moment of Arthur’s life.
I have to admit I spent an inordinate amount of my precious time scanning each photo and trying to see if some miniscule clue into how Arthur discovered his powers was in there. I am obsessed with this question and even emailed Behind the Eclipse to ask although it was too late for this week. We’ve got the picture of the 12, a wedding photo presumably of Arthur and Angela but drawn just vague enough that I think it could even be Hiro’s parents. (See what the writers have done to me, I am digging even when there is an easy answer.) I love the soup with the gun in it. Obviously a dream interpretation of poisoned soup although I would have gone with the black skull myself.
