The Drawing Of The Three

                                                                  creepy dooooooors

On my quest to read more King, I did.

Book Two of The Dark Tower, The Drawing Of The Three finds Roland, the titular gunslinger from the first novel, searching for the companions he needs for his journey to aforementioned Tower. He finds these companions by walking down a beach where he encounters doors. Doors that open to another world and the companions he must recruit. 

Roland does this by walking through these mysterious doors and entering the minds of the people he needs. It's up to him to convince them, one way or another, to return to his world. This has limited success since people generally don't take kindly to another prescence popping into their heads. There is, shall we say, some resistance. 

I wasn't a fan of the the first novel in this series so approached this one with a feeling of resignation. This was a better read because if King can do one thing, it's create likable characters. Eddie Dean, a heroin addict Roland encounters with the first door, is the typical nice guy in a King novel.  Yeah, he's done some shit, but deep down, he's all right. He's a nice contrast to Roland, who still comes off as wooden. Yes, he's awesome with those guns of his, but there doesn't seem to be all that much to Roland outside of achieving his quest and being grim. 

As well, the other companion Roland meets is also interesting, if not even more dangerous than Roland himself. She lights up the book, both good and bad, when she appears. She's a great character caught in a pretty thin story, though.

Roland's world in this novel is really nothing more than the beach with some killer lobsters. As a fantasy world goes, it just feels grey and unimaginitive. The world Roland goes to is our own world, set in different time periods. That's when the book comes to life, with Roland navigating our modern world (being fascinated by so much paper, for example) while also dealing with the people whose minds he has invaded.

The usual King problems exist in Drawing. Scenes of violence that go just that one step too far into cartoon, and some really deep hand-wavium to deal with some pretty complex issues. But when King reigns it in, he can write some wonderful action scenes that also display some deep character writing. By the end of the novel, I couldn't help but be more invested--perhaps not so much with Roland, but with his new companions. I still really could care less about anything Tower related, but the people heading there are interesting.

Vampirella: The Dark Powers #2

                                                                   

                                                                     Sittin' pretty

Who knows what's up with Vampirella these days? Is she a super hero? Is she a horror icon? Is she Red Sonja's bestie? Is she all of these things?

Vampirella: The Dark Powers Vampirella joining a team composed of superheroes from other dimensions. The idea being that this team looks for the appearance of heroes in alternate realities and then recruits them. Vampirella is discovered in the 666 (of course) reality and joins the team. Things don't go well, and with this issue, Vampi tries to quit the team. 

It's a surprisingly fun issue. The other team members seem to be composed of old pulp heroes from the Forties, like Black Terror and Green Llama, and they seem shocked by Vampirella's use of violence. Instead of just punching monsters, for example, Vampirella punches into their chests and rips them up from inside, emerging covered in blood and intestines. Little shocking for old time heroes. 

Dan Abnett is writing this, so it has his usual humour (the team members are discussing how they have to get rid of Vampi from the team and she points out that she's walking right behind them) and nods to Warhammer with giant city sized ships floating through space. Abnett has a fondness for cosmic tales, and it's refreshing to see him not half assing this one. The mix of old time heroes with the monokini Not A Vampire Vampi is a fun contrast.

A fun comic that hopefully more people read. 

 

Web of Black Widow #1

                                                    Maybe the 'Web' will make this one stick

Black Widow is one of those characters Marvel Comics doesn't seem to know what to do with. They seem to smell potential and money with her, but have no clear idea how to make that happen. So what we have are movies that are ten years too late and a series of short lived comic book series that ultimately go nowhere.

Here's another one: Web of Black Widow.

This time around the Repent For Your Past trope is being activated. To achieve this, Widow is going to show a video that shows her killing the competitor of a company that is now successful. A killing that happened years ago when she was working for the Russians while the man who runs the company that benefitted from this murder is a)unaware of the murder and b)is a decent human being. After doing this, she then beats up the security guards who try to capture her for showing the video. Security guards that are a)not evil and b)doing their job. 

It's dumb and lazy. The actual fight scene with the security guards takes place on one page that is more a portrait than an example of sequential art. Again, lazy.

Iron Man is involved mainly because he was at the party where Widow played the video. He acts concerned about Black Widow because this isn't like her or something. She escapes Iron Man because it turns out she's a hologram, but we're not sure when that happens. Iron Man calls Captain America to say something is up.

Yeah, we've just been relieved of $3.99, that's what's up.

Buffy The Vampire Slayer Season 8 Issue #10

 

The Buffyverse is over. Everyone has moved on. The chance to return faded a long time ago. Even Dark Horse Comics gave up on the series. To quote The Smiths: "I know it's over, still I cling."

I loved Buffy The Vampire Slayer. I never went to conventions or really talked all that much about it. I never even wrote fan fiction. I think I bought one novel.  But I was in the National Post reviewing the final episode, for reasons which still elude me. So there was a connection, and I guess there still is.

Read this issue of the Dark Horse series this week, dating back to 2008. This was part of the Season 8 arc of the series, where the excitement was palpable: Joss Whedon was writing! There was no budget constraints! This was going to be the Buffy we had always wanted. Look out! Batten the hatches, boys! Here we go!

Aaaand it wasn't as good as we wanted it to be. Apparently, budget constraints worked for Buffy.  This issue shows some of the problems with Season 8, and shows how some of the best elements of the show did continue on. 

First, the Big Bad: Dawn was turned into a giant. This was because she slept with someone she shouldn't have. They couldn't have done this on the show without it looking cheesy. But here? It just looked kind of stupid. 

The Second Big Bag: The Slayer Army. Instead of having a few Slayers, Buffy would lead an army of these stake wielding hellions. They would rob banks to fund their Slayering. The story was going global! There was no budget! Look out!

But like with Giant Dawn, it broke something. Not a great idea. Buffy is the Slayer, as was Faith. That worked. Having a ton of them? It was kinda like that scene in Attack of The Clones where all the Jedi are fighting on Geonosis. It should have been cool, but it's really just a bunch of assholes running around being a bit mediocre.

But this issue did echo elements that made Buffy great. Like the interaction between Buffy and Willow. Their relationship was the true bedrock of the series. Willow's reveal that she chose Buffy over Tara in terms of resurrection was a big moment in this issue. Which in turn echoes back to one of the most painful parts of the original series, when Willow did resurrect Buffy and the horror that entailed. It was a nice coda to that moment. Joss knew his characters well.

As a comic, Buffy was fine. I gave up on the Dark Horse series after the big pregnancy storyline because I found the resolution cheap and insulting. The comic had no budget, they could take the Buffy storyline anywhere except the place where it might actually change the dynamic. It showed a lack of courage and at worst, a con man's poorly executed trick. 

But I still have all my Buffy comics in my collection, and sometimes I like to dip back into them, and remember better times.