Blog Post #23 First Steps of a Superheroine

The popularity of superhero tales since the success to Iron Man (2008) has finally led to the demand to have more variety in who gets to be a hero. Female heroes like Wonder Woman (Gal Gadot) and anti-heroes like Harley Quinn (Margot Robbie) are now being given life on the silver screen. These two are significant not only for being the first positively effective attempts to adapt female comic book characters to the screen after disasters like Elektra (2005) and because, personality-wise, they are seen as polar opposites.

Until recently in the comics, Harley Quinn has been the abused girlfriend of the Joker who never leaves him even though it is her undoing. However, one of the canonized steps to her progression past that point is her time with Suicide Squad so her being the film Suicide Squad (2016) might imply that later portrayals can go past her abusive past and go towards the more multi-faceted individual she becomes outside of Batman’s and Joker’s shadows. Wonder Woman’s presence in Batman vs Superman: Dawn of Justice (2016) is considered one of the few positive traits shown in the film with her own upcoming film in 2017 being not only the make or break of the DC Universe film franchise but also the possible future of solo-female heroes since the progress shown in shows like Jessica Jones (2015), Supergirl (2015), and Agent Carter (2014-15). 

Superheroes tales are not going away so the best thing to do with them is to enable their fantastic possibilities to help show that women can be the heroes of their own stories.

Blog Post #22 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out Of The Shadows (Review)

The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles have always been an interesting enigma when it comes to standing out in a way that’s uniquely their own. In that regard, above all other factors, this film might be straightforward in its plot it does remind the audience why the the four ninjas have stood the test of time.

Unlike the first film in this rebooted series, the characters are the focus with more time invested in the main characters and not just in how much CGI it takes to animate four tank-like turtles. Even April O’Neil (Megan Fox) was able to shine with actual personality, showing herself to be resourceful and have her actions actually move the story along. Granted part of what got the plot moving was her being disguised as a sexy schoolgirl type to get intel but not by seduction, mainly by distraction and only for the one scene. The rest of the film shows she is treated with a great level of respect by the other heroes in the story as a confidant and determined individual who wishes to help and can. The one person who struggles to be helpful, but learns quickly, is Casey Jones (Superhero veteran actor Stephen Amell, a police officer who wants to be a detective but decides to be a
vigilante when nothing else works. Together, they have to battle Shredder (Brian Tee) with his mutated henchmen, Bebop (Gary Anthony Williams) and Rocksteady (Sheamsu of WWE fame). The second conflict in the film is whether or not the four turtles wish to leave the shadows and be seen as more than monsters, be recognized as the heroes they are. While this might feel routine compared to the dramatic gravitas expected from superhero tales, the film feels like a proper story to tell with the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

The comic book medium is capable of telling all kinds of stories, from gritty tales like Daredevil and Jessica Jones, to horror like The Walking Dead, and even the comical space adventure like Guardians of the Galaxy there has always been variety. As a result, while this is not a Shakespearean masterpiece, the point of the Ninja Turtles is for a kind of freedom where they can crazy, silly, and stand out as being unique by combining action with the bizarre in a way all their own.

Four out of Five (The rating will be different depending on what people want out of films like this and if they even want films like this to be considered movies in the first place. Megan Fox and Stephen Amell rise to the occasion with fleshed out characters that aren’t treated as simply things to have CGI turtles interact with. A fun film that remind people why the turtles are fun in the first place.)

Blog Post #21 X-Men Apocalypse Critique

One major thing to take from the movie is the question of if this can be seen as a continuation or if the story is too fractured to bother.

Thanks to the events in X-Men: Days of Futures Past (2014) is that the canon from the previous movies besides X-Men: First Class (2011) no longer matters except in the ways history repeats. In that regard, this movie can be seen as utilizing all of the various elements from the franchise and uniting them into a solid narrative meant to establish the highlights that define the destinies of the X-Men.

The film does a strong job creating motivation and enough characterization for each person to help the audience understand where everyone stands on the battlefield. The conflict is legitimately apocalyptic but through difficult times great things can be achieved by those who embrace their best selves to become something more. That is ultimately what the X-Men have always stood for, more than any other super hero team in comics, they choose to be great not just for the world but for themselves. In that regard, the film did put a great deal of focus on the idea that all of the students could rise to the occasion. Needless to say Quicksilver (Evan Peters) stole the show with an amazing scene that needs to be seen to be believed.

So while this was pretty much a series of chaotic scenes stringed together to build towards a grand fight, unlike the Avengers or any of the solo hero tales, the X-Men fought for the right to make their own future and not just to save the world. Time will tell where the story goes from here but ultimately the X-Men have finally created a future worth fighting for and their here to stay.

4.5 out of 5 (Solid special effects but a bit more focus on character interaction with the main cast could strengthen it even more since the X-Men are a family and not just a super hero team).

Blog Post #20 Fun Home, from Graphic Novel to Musical

The adaptation of Alison Bechdel’s graphic novel Fun Home in a Broadway Musical honored the source material and expressed in song the possible emotions of each family member, including Alison’s father and the author herself at the many different stages of her life. The best kind of adaptation of any work as it transitions from it’s initial medium into another is one that acknowledges that not every detail can make the journey but enough familiar pieces should be found.

In that regard, the transition was pretty much seem less, with an added curious twist that the musical acts as Bechdel’s expression of interpreting her memories in her childhood to early college years as she makes the graphic novel. Besides being an analysis of her possible father’s personality as she tries to come to terms with his suicide as she contemplates how they were both gay, the musical also expresses her awakening as she embraces the reality that she’s a lesbian. In that regard the song sung after having sex with Joan “Changing My Major” was one of the more uplifting and significant songs in the musical because despite everything else that follows this moment became one of the most positive moments in the author’s life. The other moment, matching comedic bliss in earlier parts to the greater tragedy that motivated this graphic novel is the fact that Alison and her father never fully talked about their shared connection about being gay. The musical expressed this by having the present Alison in the car seat with her father instead of her college-age self because this is the moment where he goes back to the most and wishes she could have the talk they never got, since that was the last night they met face to face. Near the end,  a way of interpreting the final lines of song and dialogue in the play reflects the same idea as the graphic novel, that ultimately Alison comes to terms with everything in her past, including her father’s own sexuality and death, so that she can both remember and honor him by fully embracing the life of a gay woman in a way that her father never got to realize as a gay man.

Fans of the graphic novel will enjoy the musical but ultimately the story is well expressed of a woman coming to terms with her past in a way that reflects how everyone must remember their family in one form or another, as comic or song, in order to move towards their future.

Blog Post #19 Comic Book Splash-Page Analysis (Creating a Romance)

Two pages in the graphic novel Batwoman: Elegy written by Greg Rucka and drawn by J.H. Williams III establishes the immediate connection and budding romance between Kate Kane and Maggie Sawyer. 

The structure of the scene has a lack of panels in the conventional sense and instead focuses on the dance between Kate and Maggie. The scene’s progression goes from the left to the right, showing more of the two women as time progresses to illustrate that by the end of the dance they are both comfortable with the other. Singular panels in the form of musical notes point four distinct moments; the first shows Kate’s step-mother’s clear disapproval vs her cousin’s clear approval, the next picture show’s Maggie’s hand finding a more personal hold on Kate’s waist, the third shows both their hands which implies to the reader that they are comfortably familiar with the feel of their skin touching, and the final note shows the conclusion to their introductory explanation of the charms of a being openly gay with Kate slyly implying she would not mind Maggie asking for her number. Through the progression of the dialogue, the note pictures, and the increase in size while a song worth dancing to as a couple plays helps establish for the reader that romance is in the air for the two women.

The colors are clearly bright despite being a Gothic tale in a superhero comic with little to no shadows to help convey a lighter tone in visual as well as in story. The main themes brought up through the dialogue are the concept of struggling to find ones identity and the challenges to connect with others, both are obstacles that become non-existent when Kate meets Maggie unlike the rest of the story. The result of this visual is that while this relationship has little to no affect on the overall story’s outcome, it does create a distinct moment where interested readers will be left curious as to how such a relationship will progress since it was displayed too clearly for it not to be intentional for later progress in Kate’s story.

Personally, this scene is impressive because few comic books at the time, even in ongoing series rarely devote so much focus to a romance, sometimes a panel or two but a full splash page dedicated to something besides an action scene makes the moment that much more significant for the characters and creates a ‘canon’ where this is a moment that’s important to the overall story of Kate Kane, the moment she finds true love.

Blog Post #18 Captain America: Civil War (How they went right where Batman vs Superman went wrong)

Drama expresses conflict and action films are an aggressive version of this with a greater focus on spectacle, especially visual chaos. Despite this, there are ways to do a stronger job expressing this depending on how its done. Just from reviews as well as overall opinion, when it comes to a clash of hero against hero, Captain America: Civil War (2016) succeeded where Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice (2016) failed. While both feature a similar conflict, and even though the Marvel film had a greater number of heroes, the thing that carries more weight in any film is the story.

Both films discuss the concept of heroes being held accountable for the destruction caused by them saving the world. However, conflict is only as good as the motivation behind it. In that regard, Captain America (Chris Evans) and Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.) have good points on both ends, Cap wants to make sure they maintain responsibility while Tony believe they need to be accountable. Batman (Ben Affleck) and Superman (Henry Cavill) are only fighting because they believe one or the other are threats and everything in their film simply exists to force the two to fight. Cap and Tony each have allies on their sides but each of them also have deeper motivations and personalities that help them to have a reason to fight and something worth fighting for. The greatest factor is the fact that ultimately, the film is not built up to be only about the fight. The third Captain America film is a culmination of all the stories before it and results in both the next step and fallout for what eventually had to happen, a conflict of interest. No matter how amazing the special effects, there must always be a method to the madness so that the character’s actions become something worth seeing through to the end. Cape or no cape, drama can be strong with good characters woven into the tale.

Blog Post #17 Free Comic Book Day

The first Saturday in May has a special celebration for all fans of comic books, Free Comic Book Day. I attended the event for first Saturday in May, 2016, and it was very nice. I went to Smithtown’s Fourth World Comics about an hour before it opened and saw a line had formed and was growing quickly. The event was held in many different comic book locations, the charm of it was that many different mainstream and independent companies handed out free copies of their product for anyone to pick. An added incentive at Fourth World was that they had DC Comic writers Scott Snyder and Peter J. Tomasi who have written both the current run of Batman as well as Batman and Robin. They were there to sign any trades or floppies written by either author for free. It is a day dedicated to and for all fans of the medium.

Another added bonus came in the form of other forms of fan-related memorability. Two men arrived in a black, Chevy Impala, in attire that resembled the two brothers Sam and Dean Winchester from the popular television series  Supernatural, and two battle-hardened storm troopers with an authentic Darth Vader came to have pictures taken of the two groups. One of the cooler moments in the morning was when a father brought his young boy, dressed in a little Batman costume, who became ecstatic at seeing Darth Vader who proceeded to high-five the small child. That is ultimately the embodiment of what such a moment means for the overall concept of what it means to be a fan of popular culture. There are stories that have lasted decades with fantastic ideas, characters, and new stories are being made from those works as well as unique tales that take those qualities to make something different. Above all is a love of stories no matter how old or how new the one experiencing it and if libraries find ways to incorporate that passion into the things found shelves not will this improve circulation but increase an overall love of the thing that keeps libraries and comic book stores in business, the love of a good story.

A Pathfinder for Superheroes

Tales of Heroes and saving the World

Blog Post #15 Flipping the Script (How simple narratives change and create whole different experience)

Whether it’s a superhero story of hero beasts up bad guy and saves the day or a tale of young romance which usually leads to the girl finding the right guy there are narratives people enjoy that often repeated. However, this is not the case in Ryan North’s The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl Vol 1:Squirrel Power and Raina Telgemeier’s Drama where the narratives change course and a completely different story is revealed.

Ryan North’s graphic novel for Marvel Comics features the adventures of Doreen Green, Squirrel Girl, whose powers are superhuman strength, agility, a bushy tail, and the ability to communicate with and command all squirrels on the planet. She presents herself as a completely different superhero when she battles Kraven the hunter, a villain who has tried to kill Spiderman multiple times, and contemplates how to beat while tossing him in the air to think clearly and eventually convinces him to not hurt anyone and instead simply go after greater beasts in the deep ocean (issue 1) as well win over Galactus, devour of worlds, through friendship to spare Earth from his destructive hunger (issue 4). She defeats villains through the power of compromise and friendship and defeated the infamous Dr. Doom by having he be swarmed by squirrels, she conquers evil in a way no other hero has ever tried to and succeeds to protect her amazing title.

The graphic novel Drama is a story that should end up with the girl getting the right guy but twists into a sweet tale of understanding and friendship. After losing the chance to be the boy of her dreams, Callie instead focuses on helping with the school play and in the process becomes good friends in twin brother Justin and Jesse. As their friendship grows Callie discovers that Justin is gay and becomes a confidant for him (p. 64-67) and the two of them cheer on Jesse when he overcomes his stage fright to save the play by filling in for the lead actresses role in the big romantic number and kiss (p. 182-188) but just as Callie starts to have feelings for Jesse she discovers on at the big dance that he too is gay and was spending the night with the lead actor from the play who he believes might be bi-sexual (p. 208-211, 220-223). So while Callie doesn’t end with  guy to love she gets good friends and an opportunity to grow. These graphic novels show that their are no simple narratives,  even comic books can switch stories during the course of the story.

Blog Post #14 A Place of Music and Hope in a time of War (How the Graphic Novel Mike’s Place shows a different Israel)

Jack Baxter, Joshua Faudem, and Koren Shadmi work together to illustrate the story of tragedy and hope after a terrorist bombing in a graphic novel called Mike’s Place. The major rule of Mike’s Place which resides on the Tel Aviv beachfront in Israel is never to discuss politics. This is expressed in the graphic novel so that the people who come see as the owner explains to a journalist who soon does a documentary about the Bar  what he calls “the real Israel- the best part of the middle east” (p. 17). The graphic novel uses actual footage from the documentary and narrates the making of the documentary that would eventually be called Blues by the Beach, recreating the interviews with the various employees and owners of the Bar. It shows everyone’s story as multifaceted individuals who are living their lives until one night when a suicide bomber detonates his explosive vest right in front of the establishment after being blocked from charging in by the bouncer (p. 78-83). Many people were injured in the explosion but only three died from their injuries, among the dead was Dominique Hass who was in a relationship with the founder of the Bar, Gal Ganzman, and had been the first employee hired.

The graphic novel is split into five acts with a quote from the Qur’an at the start of each act, a quote that expresses love, compassion, and ultimately expresses how such violence conducted in its name contradicts the religion entirely.There are certain liberties taken in the form of making the second bomber drop his vest out of shock and guilt (p.86-87). Whether this is true or not is debatable, but otherwise the information found in the graphic novel is a factual retelling of a community who stays strong in hard times. They reopen the Bar seven days after the bombing because it is important to have place beyond the politics and chaos of the middle east. This is a graphic novel telling a story not of pro-Israel or anti-war but people, people who live, die, and unite happily in a love good company and music.