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. 

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.