Keeping it together

[alexsarll]

That was a good week off capped by a great weekend; starting with Pimm's and Peep Show, moving on via Greenwich and Ealing, then lounging around in the local park yesterday. We even got to contribute some local colour to a hip hop video, sitting around on the grass looking middle class with a picnic hamper and plenty of wine while the chap behind us lamented the gun culture on London's streets. The setting seemed slightly incongruous, but his lyrics were fairly conscious so I can only surmise that it was deliberate, pointing out to the kids on Green Lanes that rather than shooting each other, they could just go and sit on a tree stump like he was. Good luck to him.

I'm not quite prepared to go with the 'best superhero film ever' plaudits - for me Burton's two Batman films and Singer's two X-Mens are still to beat - but yes, Iron Man is extremely good. Given this is Marvel's first in-house production, there was a lot riding on it. Obviously, if comics writers are being asked to the set, consulted on the script, bringing the benefit of their experience then the end product is more likely to appeal to people like me than it is when the Hollywood studios start fiddling. But that's not going to do us a lot of good in the long run if the general public stays away. Fortunately, Iron Man appears to be making obscene amounts of money - which not only means that Marvel are likely to continue with this strategy, but that a similar fidelity is likely to roll out across other comics films. And I don't mean fidelity in the unthinking 'no organic webshooters' sense - but fidelity in spirit, not making changes for change's sake. If Stane and Stark are partners? That's fine by me, and I thought Jeff Bridges was a good choice given the circumstances; if I didn't know the story then I wouldn't have instantly realised he was the villain, whereas had John Malkovich got the role it would have been glaringly obvious. Downey, obviously, was perfect for the part of drunken gadabout genius Tony Stark. I don't normally like Gwyneth Coldplay much, but here as in Shakespeare in Love she really won me over; I don't know why she can't do that luminous humanity more often, but if she saves it for the good stuff, I shan't complain.
All of which is important - if you don't get the basics right, then no amount of fan-service is going to salvage proceedings. But once you do have the basics...well, then getting in a reference to the Mandarin, to Rhodey's future as War Machine, to Stane's Iron Monger alias...that all helps. But really, it's the end where the geekiness pays off best. First, the lamest secret identity in the history of lame secret identities (which in my book is pretty much all of them, btw) is referenced, and then swiftly demolished. And then...the post-credits scene. Oh my. written by Bendis, apparently, and it shows. Thinking about it, apart for a few lines of Magneto's, I think I may be prepared to acknowledge this as the best comic book film line ever: "You're part of a wider universe - you just don't know it yet. I'm here to talk to you about the Avengers Initiative."
Although as was pointed out to me, given the Virgin TV ads before the film one might equally expect Samuel L Jackson to announce "I'm here to talk to you about TV on demand."

On my wanderings last week, I managed to fill a few gaps in my comics collection - those last elusive issues of Warren Ellis' Excalibur among them - but I think my favourite finds were a few Dreaming issues. The Dreaming is widely, and for the most part rightly, remembered as a bit of an atrocity - the post-Gaiman Sandman spin-off which flailed around for a while before being turned into the ultimate unintentional Vertigo self-parody by execrable goth Caitlin Kiernan. But before it lost sight of its anthology remit, they got a few stories from better writers, among them Peter Hogan. Peter Hogan is one of those mid-period 2000AD writers whose American career never quite took off - John Smith is the other great example. I'm not going to claim him as a great writer, at least not on this evidence; his stories are a little too pat for that. But they also show great charm, a deft wit, and a better grasp of the unique atmosphere Gaiman conjured for The Sandman than anyone else who's played with those toys. At the very least Hogan should have had a career as a sort of lieutenant to Gaiman, the Millar (as was) or Waid to Gaiman's Morrison.

"I don't want to live in a country that emasculates the BBC," says Stephen Fry. One of England's great treasures defending another; if only there were some reference to or endorsement from Alan Moore it would be three for three.

Comments

[barrysarll.livejournal.com]

Gaiman's other stuff is sort of all over the place, but Signal to Noise, Mr Punch and Violent Cases, all with art by Dave McKean who did Sandman's covers, are very good. Similarly, the Preacher team of Ennis and Dillon first got together on Hellblazer, but I'm not sure whether all of that is in print as collections yet.

[barrysarll.livejournal.com]

Nonono, the BBC's dark days were under Birt. Many things went wrong then, including a total lack of Doctor Who. Things are still a little LCD at times, and the future's unsure, but it's a resurgence nonetheless, if a shaky one.

[braisedbywolves.livejournal.com]

It's worth pointing out that Ennis is also quite a good writer of war comics, though more in the "... is hell" tradition than standard Eagle fare. There's a collection innovatively titled "War Stories Vol I" out, and though it doesn't have Steve Dillon, it makes do with Dave Gibbons, David Lloyd, Gary Erskine and Chris Weston.

[barrysarll.livejournal.com]

Although Battler Britton was very much in the square-jawed manner - and has the added bonus of a hero called Rob Britton.

And then of course there's his Dan Dare, which could hardly be more Eagle...

I do like the War Stories, but I think he's confounded the normal critical expectations by doing his best, most personal and most visceral war stories in the company-owned sandpit, on Punisher.

[stu-n.livejournal.com]

If he enjoys the pulpy side of Preacher, or the folklore side of Sandman, he might like the Hellboy and BPRD books, published by Dark Horse. Lots of collections available.

[barrysarll.livejournal.com]

I read a couple of Hellboy collections and they were exactly the sort of thing I would just read once from the library - and even then, they started getting a bit samey. Although I did enjoy the film, and suspect I'll like the next one even more.

(Bar the last clause, the same applies word-for-word to Sin City)

[beingjdc.livejournal.com]

Any lingering respect I had for the BBC (little) was destroyed on local election night.

[beingjdc.livejournal.com]

Mind you, arguably not at bad as breakdancing Ming Campbell from 2007.

[barrysarll.livejournal.com]

I don't think anybody would claim that they always get it right, but they still manage a much better average than most. And when they do misfire - as here - it's as often as not through the misguided pursuit of 'accessibility' &c - which is only forced on them through the fear that they might lose some or all of the license fee.