Doctor Sleep

This scene does not occur in the book.

Even though I consider Stephen King one of my favourite authors, I haven't read that many of his books. Night Shift, Carrie, Salem's Lot, Misery, Under The Dome and The Stand are the only ones I've read. Oh, and his excellent On Writing.  That's it. This is something I'm trying to rectify.

So I read Doctor Sleep, a sequel to The Shining, which I haven't read, but have seen the movie. A movie King is not terribly fond of, but which I consider one of my favourite horror films.

 

So, conflict!

Doctor Sleep tells the story of Danny Torrance, the boy with the titular 'Shining' who survived the horrors at the Overlook Hotel in the original novel. Gifted/cursed with psychic powers, he has limited telepathy, can see ghosts, and has an often crippling degree of empathy. The events of the first novel, perhaps coupled with this, have led Dan to a life of alcoholism and drifting, forever trying to dull his powers and escape his past.

Until he reaches rock bottom, makes a few hard decisions, and begins a new life working in a hospice, helping those about to die ease into the next life. For the first time in decades, Dan Torrance is at peace. 

Until a little girl with the same powers he has reaches out to him. And as time passes, Dan realizes the little girl is in danger from others: psychic vampires who feed on children with the Shining.  Suddenly Dan has to protect this little girl from this roving band of child murderers while still dealing with his own issues and ever looming alcoholism.

When I first heard the plot about Doctor Sleep, I had my doubts. It sounded like a B-movie script until I realized most King stories sound like B-movie scripts. What elevates them from that is King's ability to create characters you relate to, and somehow make the more ridiculous aspects of his stories work through the reactions of those characters.

And so it is with Doctor Sleep. The psychic vampires--who call themselves the True Knot--are immortals who live off the soul essence (or 'steam', as they call it) from tortured and dying psychic children. They should be ridicoulous, but King instead makes them innocuous and anonymous. They drive around America in Winnebagos and are the sort of people you wouldn't glance at twice in a Wal-Mart. This makes then even more terrifying than a bunch of slouching goths in bad capes. 

Abra--the little girl with the Shining--is also well written, with all the anger and self indignation of every teenager everywhere. She can defend herself, in her own way, and is in no way portrayed as a victim or helpless child. 

There are a few things that appear in other King books that  he feels fond of: quite a few just 'regular folk', guys in baseball caps and pick up trucks, who are painfully down home but there when you need them in a pinch. They are perhaps the secondary 'normal' people you find in King novels, who are just a bit more normal than the lead characters. It's reassuring that this has continued with King over the years: reg'lar folks dealing with some fucked up shit and dealing with it FINE.

As with the few King books I've read, the ending is, well, okay. It isn't as eye rolling as the one waiting for me at the end of Under The Dome (which I still really enjoyed), but it seemed maybe just a little bit contrived. And that's fine. I loved the book and I fell in love with the characters and the ending was FINE. 

Since I've read the movie varies widely from the novel, I'm dubious about seeing it. But still, this was enjoyable. It's nice to see King still has both the talent and the drive to keep creating on this level. 

We Never Learn Chapter 48

The incredible flirtation adventures of a tutor and the students he tries to teach continue with more inexplicable situations and embarrassments, along with a little bit of personal growth here and there. 

Chapter 48 finds our tutor Nariyuki out on a fake date with fellow cram school student Asumi, whose father suspects the two are not actually dating and is worried his daughter is too focused on school. (Yeah, because that's a problem.) So to ease the old man's mind they go out in a boat on the beach and take fake selfies for her father, which continues the We Never Learn tradition of incredibly creepy fathers with unhealthy obsessions with their daughters.

Continuing with We Never Learn tradition, Nariyuki realizes he's in a boat with an attractive woman in a bikini and suddenly feels uncomfortable. Asumi, as she has always done, torments him, asking him if he prefers the bosoms of his other students. Nariyuki goes into his usual shock. Then the inevitable wave hits the boat, we learn Nariyuki can't swim, and in the process of rescuing him Asumi loses her bikini top, the shaken Nariyuki being held to her now exposed chest.

The rest of the chapter deals with dealing with Asumi's half nakedness and getting back to shore without anyone seeing, which entails a fake make out session to throw off the inexplicable appearance of divers. The chapter ends with a cliffhanger with Nariyuki being confronted with another case of bikinis disappearing.

For a comedy that does not shy away from titillation (clearly), the success of We Never Learn lies with the characters. Despite the torment Asumi puts Nariyuki through, she clearly is fond of him, and he of her. (Asumi is the most adult of the cast, having fallen from the academic path and trying to still become a doctor through cram school and paying her expenses by working at a maid cafe.  With the eternal question of which of these girls Nariyuki will finally settle down with, Asumi seems to be the one best suited for his nervous disposition. )

Not much happens over all, but it's still a solid chapter. Asumi has been a recent addition to the cast, and she is the perfect foil to Nariyuki's deep repression and anxiety. A fun chapter in a fun series. 

Yet Another New Doctor Aphra #1

So here we go again.

Doctor Aphra is getting yet another relaunch, with another very profitable Number One slapped on the cover. This time around Alyssa Wong is handling the writing duties, with Marika Cresta on art. 

The first storyline is entitled Fortune and Fate, and sets up what looks to be a very by the numbers heist with an archaeological twist, since this is Aphra we're talking about. 

The story begins with Aphra and her new crew pillaging the abandoned Hoth base the Rebels escaped from in The Empire Strikes Back. Aphra's ability to plan and, more importantly, to never trust anyone, comes in very handy here. After escaping, Aphra returns to Shadow University on the Outer Rim where she is approached by Detta Yao, a fourth year grad student who wants Aphra's help in liberating some ancient artifacts called the Rings of Vaale. Of course they're cursed. Of course Aphra is interested.

And of course--in pure heist style--the next member of the team they have to recruit (a professor called Eustacia Okaa) has some jagged personal history with Aphra. 

The main villain of the piece is a rich piece of shit called Ronen Tagge, who had tried to recruit Okaa to help him before. (Tagge is related to General Tagge, the Imperial officer Vader choked out for his 'lack of faith' in A New Hope). He wants the Rings as well, but only because he loves to destroy precious art, knowing full well he was the last one to touch them.

The first issue isn't bad. It's clear that Yao is more than the wide eyed student she professes to be. It's also clear the Rings are going to be something other than described. There is a general air of mistrust around everyone, which is how heist set ups should feel. Yet somehow this issue feels like it's smoothing the edges around Aphra, making her more palatable to a new audience. 

One of the things that made Aphra stand out when Kieron Gillen created her was that she was not a nice person. She had two murder droids, for example, and stood by while they tortured people. She's a scam artist.  She's a thief. She assisted Darth Vader with his evil plans and managed to survive her exit interview. She can be pretty damn cold blooded. She isn't a hero. She's out for herself. Which is why she's so refreshing in the rather moral binary make up of the Star Wars universe.

Her moral grayness made her interesting. Yet with this issue, her murder droids are nowhere to be seen. A new droid who seems to major in being cute is introduced. And while Aphra does take the lethal route with a few people in this issue, she still seems far nicer than she's ever been. 

I'm curious to see where this series goes. Will the edges and darkness that make up Aphra be quietly erased, replaced with a more friendly approach? Did someone at Marvel/Disney realize how dark  she and issue a memo? Or will Wong continue on the path set by Gillen and previous writer Sy Spurrier? 

We'll see. Or if Marvel follows suit with titles that don't sell well, we'll never know. At least until the next Number One.

X-Force #8 (2020)

I'm a fan of Domino, the mutant assassin with the power of luck and some weird skin tone issues. But these past few years have been a trial for Domino fans, since the books she is in are either terrible and/or cancelled.

Which brings us to X-Force #8. Domino is back in yet another X-Force book (wasn't the last one cancelled last year? So many Marvel cancellations blur the memory). Will this be the book that breaks the pattern? Will Domino finally be lucky?

So far, Domino has been far from lucky in this run. Kidnapped, tortured, flayed alive, her DNA being used to create a race of Domino killer clones, our girl has had easier times.

Since this is X-Force (generally the darker of all the X-books), things have been grim. But in this issue, Domino starts hitting back, tracking the people who tortured her to Russia. Colossus agrees to accompany her, probably because he's Russian and because apparently he and Domino have a thing? I must have missed that.

The issue started off well, but quickly derailed. Domino taking out another assassin was cool. But when we get back to the new mutant base, there is a weird scene where Colossus apparently advocates Domino commit suicide so she can heal from all the trauma she's suffered.  When did this happen? Colossus has always been a gentle soul, an artist. Now he's offering to help murder a friend.(On the new base--the island Krakoa--no one can die: you just get reborn, brand spanking new.) Domino is all uh-uh about that, and off they go to Russia to deliver vengeance.

Even that's clumsy. In a scene that doesn't appear in the comic, apparently Domino suffers a fatal injury during the battle. From what I gather, she's going to die and will be reborn. But--we never see her getting hurt. She's fine one page, and near death the next. 

Sloppy.

Aside from that, writer Benjamin Percy writes Domino well, but the story isn't clear in many spots. Why didn't more X-Men accompany Domino? Wasn't this a threat to all the X-Men? The island is clogged with mutants--surely someone else could have joined them.Why don't we see how she was hurt? Why is Colossus now the Death Panel for the X-Men? Why did Colossus crash the train? There was no need for that.  And the most important question: how did this get past an editor?

The art here is passable. There is a nice scene with Domino and Colossus fighting on the train against a small cadre of Domino assassins, but it's hurt by the writing, which gives no character to these assassins at all. (We at least had some with the first assassin at the story's beginning, but the others are just figures to be hit and killed.)

So, not an issue to inspire hope. But Marvel has been on a slide for awhile now, and here's more proof of that.