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[personal profile] shadowkat
Was a bit on the chilly side in my apartment this morning and last night - not because I don't get heat, but whenever there's a blast of wind - it will hiss right through my windows and chill the apartment. Spent three hours after the company holiday party, shrinkwrapping two of the windows (the worst of the bunch) which helped a bit. Also alerted my landlord to the problem this morning. (Shrinkwrapping - is basically taking plastic, cutting it to fit the size and shape of the window, cutting a hole for the window blind puller/opener, pushing the plastic against doublesided scotch tape, using a blowdryer to shrink the plastic so it holds and becomes an additional layer of insulation. Not perfect, but better than taping plastic bags and towels to the windows - which is what I used to do. You can buy shrinkwrap kits in your local hardware store. A work colleague told me about this - although my brother, I'd noticed was also doing it. Bro got all the handyman genes in the family, they skipped over my Dad entirely, whom I take after.)

Finally picked up and read part II of the latest Bryan Lynch/Stephen Mooney - Angel/Spike comic that everyone was grousing over several weeks back. I can see why they didn't like it, it is not by any stretch of the imagination Bryan Lynch, or Stephen Mooney for that matter, best work and that, I'm afraid, is putting it politely.

Angel/Spike comic reminds me a lot of Lynch's Zombie comic, wherein Lynch attempts to pull of the Whedon snark banter and Whedon's specific brand of satirical ironic wit, genre parody, and fails miserably. (I did not like the Zombie comic and gave up on right quick.) There are moments, scant ones, that Lynch appears to almost pull it off...but he plays it too safe, and as a result the jokes fall flat. I don't think Lynch quite gets the character of Angel. A lot of people don't. I have yet to read a fanfic or comic that fits what I saw on the series...Lynch in some respects comes closest. But in others is off the mark. Angel, admittedly, is a tough character to write - most writers either make him too heroic (and lose sight of the complex subtext which made the character fascinating and tragically humorous) or too petty/self-absorbed/holier than thou/what-have you - failing to see the positive side, or what made him compelling for many viewers - why people rooted for him. Few seem to hit the character dead on. Of the Mutant Enemy Writers - I think David Fury, Jeff Bell, Joss Whedon, and Tim Minear were the best regarding Angel. Greenwalt, Denight, Petrie and Craft and Fain had a tendency to romanticize him. Noxon on Buffy, made him sexy and gave him edge. Fury didn't romanticize anyone - he was a humor writer, it went against the grain. And of course David Boreanze - who, while I'm admittedly ambivalent about the actor, did manage to portray the contradictions.

It's a shame, because the set-up has oodles of comic potential, not to mention deft commentary on our prevalent pop culture of hero/celebrity worship and no more so than at a fan convention - where people literally worship fictional heroes. Everyone in the comic, except for Groo and Angel (who perceive themselves as the most heroic thing since Superman took flight or sliced bread was invented) is the hero and/or villian they wish they could be or fantasize about, failing to see that they are most likely heros on their own. Add to this - Spike is dressed up as Angel, and now as a result of the spell, thinks he is Angel, and Angel has to witness it. Done right - this could have been a deft critique of Angel, Angel's own need to be a champion, what a champion is, and how our culture perceives it. It could also have been incredibly funny. (Makes me sort of wish that Minear/Fury or Whedon had tried it.)

Unfortunately, it's neither - funny or a deft critique. Just sort of bland and a bit stupid. Spike's actions make little sense. His great plan for saving the day is to get hold of a loudspeaker and tell all the wouldbe heroes to work together, be heroes, and track down the device causing all of this. Which Angel states, he would never do, well he would but more subtly and this is clearly Spike's interpretation of what he would do. I can't see Spike doing it. Nor Angel for that matter. And the banter is flat, almost forced. Partly because Lynch decides to split up Spike and Angel and spend most of his time following a whiny Angel around. (Angel is whining about Spike pretending to be him and the fact that everyone wants to kill him, and has lost their minds. He can be funny at times, usually in regards to Spike, but mostly he's just whiny - which I guess is Lynch's attempt at brooding??) I don't know why Lynch chose to follow Jeremy and Angel over Groo and Spike thinking he's Angel? My guess is the Spike/Groo teamup seemed funny on paper, but once Lynch attempted to write dialogue and banter, it did not fly and he got stuck? Groo and Spike as two romaticized versions of the Angel as White Knight are hilarious - but only if you have a straight man along for the ride. Get rid of the straight man and the humor falls flat.

We learn nothing new about either Angel or Spike in this episode. Angel sees himself as the hero, knows Spike is one too, even if Spike refuses to admit it and thinks poorly of himself. Okay, got that at the end of Angel After the Fall, heck I got that at Not Fade Away (except it was a bit more sarcastic and humorous and less straight-up) - why the constant repetition? The jokes are tired and have been done before. Groo's comment that Spike is now Spangel and Angel protestation that he'll never go by that...is not that funny, because it's too obvious. Lynch is better when the jokes are more understated, more subtextual - like they were in Spike After the Fall or Spike:Aslym. It's almost as if he doesn't trust the reader to get it, or worse, he's bragging - see how funny I am? Aren't I nifty? Aren't I the cats pajamas? Maybe it's just me, but the moment someone tells me how great they are, I start hunting the imperfections and feel this overwhelming urge to point them out..call it tall poppy syndrom.

I prefer Lynch when he is self-deprecating. This braggart bit is becoming borish. Also Angel in this two-parter, was written rather flatly - making me miss the series. I'm not sure that Lynch picked up on Whedon et al's ironic subtext on Angel. Whedon really doesn't like straight up heroes, he has a tendency to cut them down to size. It's a common thread in all his stories, starting with Toy Story.

As for Mooney, well...at least I can tell who the characters are - granted their costumes help and Spike/Angel/Groo do have specific traits that are probably easier to draw than Satsu, Kennedy, Willow, Buffy, Andrew, OZ, Riley, Giles, and a million plus slayers. That said, I'm not a Mooney fan. Not a Jeanty fan either, but I like Jeanty better than Mooney, except for the fact I can't always tell who is who in Jeanty's books, which can make the read a bit headach inducing. I'm not sure this is entirely Jeanty's fault - he has been asked to illustrate a book with epic battle sequences in what can best be described as bubblegum art style. I feel at times as if I'm watching the Powder Puff Girls or Archie Comics as drawn by the folks behind My Little Poney.



Also picked up Joss Whedon's Sugarshock comic from Dark Horse Presents. Fabio is a rather fascinating illustrator and far better than Jeanty. I loved his edgy punk style. Reminiscent of Jai Lee (who only X-men readers would be familar with.) The story and banter? Rather hilarious in places and quite indecipherable, not to mention head-scratching, in others. Whedon apparently has a thing regarding Vikings? Or he thinks Vikings is humorous? I keep catching references to Norse mythology and Norse gods in Whedon's stories - not sure what is up with that - except it may or may not be an indirect reference to the Marvel comics universe - which also used the Norse mythology quite a bit. In Marvel comics - the gods are the Norse ones - Odin, Loki, etc. Not the Roman or Greek Gods. And the characters were always resulting with them. The devil/trickester/tempter in Marvel - was Loki - the god of Lies. While Thor - was the Hercules character. (The thing about mythology is the names and setting may change, but the gist stays more or less the same.). Was never quite sure why Marvel went with Norse mythology over the more popular and prevalent Greek - except maybe because it was less prevalent and popular and therefor not ahem, overdone? At any rate, Norse and Tibetan gods appear in Buffy, and are referenced here. The Abraham Lincoln joke was I felt borderline offensive or it just went over my head, possibly both. White male comic geek jokes about racism and slavery, I'm sorry, don't work. When you joke about another culture or ethnicity or race or sexual orientation that is not yours and/or their painful past and your culture's painful short-comings regarding it, it can, if you aren't careful, come across as a bit off-color or crass - particularly when it is a culture that has historically been woefully underrepresented in the medium that you are writing in and to a degree woefully underrepresented by you, ie. a minority. Dandelion got on my nerves. She felt like an inside joke about Magna comics, which again I'm not sure works for the reasons stated above. But Robot Phil made me laugh really hard (the bit about the legs had me roaring with laughter). This comic more or less underlined what was wrong with Lynch's Angel/Spike, etc snark banter in Angel After the Fall and this two-parter. OTOH - I will admit there were places where I wanted to say, okay, I get it, you are hammering the joke over the head and other places in which I thought, uhm, maybe Whedon is spending far too much time on his own fanboard, whedonesque.

Other two purchases were Ex Deus Machina - Dirty Tricks by Brian K Vaughn and Tony Harris, and Scott McCloud's Understanding Comics (which appears to be a comic in of itself, with it's own sly wit.) Wanted to buy Atreis Polypos (I think that's the name of the thing), which the comic book reading group that I've joined is reading next month - but alas it's only in hard cover, thus too rich (as in too expensive) and too big for my blood.

When I get back from my vacation, will pick up the Buffy comics, or wait until January and get the Willow one shot and the next installment in the series at the same time. Word has it that the Twilight reveal will come in Feb. But I'm not holding my breath. Also from the interviews...I'm starting to suspect that it is either Giles, Buffy, Xander or Dawn. Because anyone else would be rather low-key, and not be the brilliant reveal they are hollering about.
Can't see how it's going to be brilliant. The main problem I'm having with the comics and why I don't like them as well as the tv series is they lack dramatic irony. That subtle and often witty irony that Whedon excels at. I'm not sure why. Maybe it is harder to pull off in comics?
Comics as Meltzer states in his most recent interview aren't really set up to be told in the same manner as a tv series. Dragging a story thread or thematic story arc over the course of 44 issues in 9 months is not quite the same as doing it over the course of 22 episodes in 30-40 months. Comic book writers are sort of like short story anthologists. Television writers in contrast...tend to do novels. Comics don't really work well as long novels, they work better as episodic stories, with a developing arc behind it. Here we have a novel stretched out over the course of 35 episodes and in a culture that is used to getting stories and information quickly. This probably worked better during the days of Charles Dickens or in the 1980s, not so much now in the age of the internet and text messaging. People have shorter attention spans now, and shorter memories. The information age has made us woefully impatient, forgetful, and with a dreadfully short attention span.

Date: 2009-12-13 05:11 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] angearia.livejournal.com
It's almost as if he doesn't trust the reader to get it, or worse, he's bragging - see how funny I am? Aren't I nifty? Aren't I the cats pajamas? Maybe it's just me, but the moment someone tells me how great they are, I start hunting the imperfections and feel this overwhelming urge to point them out..call it tall poppy syndrom.

I prefer Lynch when he is self-deprecating. This braggart bit is becoming borish.


You're not going to be horribly surprised that I 100% agree with you, right? I also felt that the jokes about canon felt like a bit of braggart's touch - like he was making fun of the fans who care about it. That we're out of touch with reality for caring. It didn't feel like the sort of Whedon camaraderie of geek culture - it felt like a put down.

And I agree, he doesn't seem to get Angel either. And the jokes just fell flat. It's disappointing. Angel's lost his edge as a hero that could go either way. *sigh*

And I don't know if it's the close-to-Angel effect or Lynch himself, but Spike seems to lose all his insight when written by Lynch. And that insight is a hallmark of Spike's character - it's what made the fight scene in Destiny so epic as a battle of fists and of words. What Spike said about Angel cut deep, too. I feel like Lynch's messed and narrow POV are even more pronounced because we're seeing Lynch's view of Angel (shallow, straight up hero type) as perceived through Lynch's non-insightful Spike.

Date: 2009-12-14 03:21 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] shadowkat67.livejournal.com
Spike, oddly, is insightful in Lynch's other comics. Or at least I thought he was. It's just this one that he seems incredibly off. It may have something to do with whose pov we are in? Lynch seems a bit uncomfortable with Angel - which may explain, why he is going back to just doing Spike after this issue and the Angel Annual (where he basically makes fun of the movie industry, which being a screenwriter he has a legitimate ax to grind. Hollywood screenwriting can be painful. A lot of screenwriters appear to moonlight as comic book writers...because it's more gratifying.)

Hate to say this, but when it comes to the comics? I prefer Lynch's take on Spike to everyone elses. (rather hated Peter David - who made the character incredibly bland). But I also happen to be a fan of noir and the Hellblazer comics featuring John Constantine - which is more or less the direction Lynch seems to be taking Spike. And I like Lynch's new characters.

It's just this two parter that did not work for me. I have no idea if this was just a snafu, or if the Spike series will be like it. Will have to wait and see. Much as I'm waiting and seeing on the Buffy comics...was the lacklustre and somewhat dull Retreat a snafu or a trend? Will Meltzer do better than he has in the past? I don't know.

Date: 2009-12-13 06:34 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] 2maggie2.livejournal.com
It's been a relief to give up on Lynch and spare the change. The premise on this one sounded good and I almost bought it -- but I knew Lynch's view on Angel (and hence on Spike) would just raise my blood pressure. Agree this has all gone to Lynch's head in a way that lessons whatever charms he had back for the two Spike books (which I liked just fine).

I'm off to ponder whether there's any genre subversion going on in the comics. What you write here makes me think that maybe that's what's been missing for me. Maybe Joss has decided that comics don't work for that sort of story telling, which is too bad. I just rewatched his commentary on season 1 Buffy where he says the mission statement (one of many he cites) is that things are not what they seem. That was also the opening line of Dollhouse. But so far in these books, everything apparently is exactly what it seems. Here's hoping that changes. I'm trying not to prejudge whether the Twilight reveal can pay off the build-up. I rather suspect that's going to depend a lot on the extent to which things really are not as they seem.

Date: 2009-12-14 03:05 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] shadowkat67.livejournal.com
Comics can be layered - Alan Moore's Watchmen comes to mind,
as does Neil Gaiman's Sandman series, as well as Blood Orchid, and Red Son (a variation of the Superman tale that takes place in Russia).

I don't know if there is any genre subversion going on...I do know that Whedon is basing his Buffy comics on a specific comic genre - known as the female magna and US version of female magna action comics. I've read a couple of Japanese magna and seen a couple of the cartoons - most notably Sailor Moon (see icon), Vampire Killer D, and Power Puff Girls. In these comics - the female heroes look like adolescents and look alike. There's a lot of relationship trauma, and jokes much like we see here. Sugarshock is a good example of Japanese Magna comics. (I may be using the wrong term, it's been a while since I read them.) But his take on the genre, does not feel subversive. Then again, I don't know enough about it - to tell one way or the other. He does appear to be commenting on the superhero genre in general - and that may be the trope he is subverting. In that genre - we do get outlandship plot twists that come out of nowhere. And old friends that are suddenly villians. (In X-Men - Wolverine was revealed as the masked villian, when he was still part of the team - there were two Wolverines - the good guy who we'd been following turned out to be an alien dupe, while the bad guy was a brainwashed Wolverine -leading me to believe that you may be right and Twilight is Xander. Also comics bring back characters who obviously died with little explanation - a la Warren. ) So it is possible he is making fun of the genre, then again, I could very well be reading more into it than there is. I can't tell.

Lynch? I will probably still get his Spike series or at the very least check it out - but I'm admittedly less enthralled/excited about it than I was before this two-parter. I've given up on the Angel comics entirely.

Date: 2009-12-13 05:30 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] embers-log.livejournal.com
Well I really thought Brian Lynch's comic book convention comic was hysterically funny, and I had loved Sugarshock (but I read it almost a year ago when it was online, I haven't reread it so I'm not sure I discuss it without a reread). So I guess we're coming from vastly different POVs and now I hesitate to tell you that I adored Scott McCloud's book, which I found insightful and helpful, because you must think we won't like any of the same things!

I'm glad you got your window's sealed up, it really does help hold the heat in... and prevent those nasty cold drafts. Stay warm!

Date: 2009-12-14 02:43 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] shadowkat67.livejournal.com
now I hesitate to tell you that I adored Scott McCloud's book, which I found insightful and helpful, because you must think we won't like any of the same things!

Not at all. Today I went to a discussion group and watched two people vehmentally disagree, after the group, I realized they were close friends.

I think we are bound to disagree on certain things, since we are coming at things from vastly different places at times. Also, we don't always share the same sense of humor. ;-)

We also agree on a lot of things.

I like Ex Deus Machina after all, just not runaways.
And I enjoyed Firefly and Dollhouse, but found Dr. Horrible to be campy and over the top. Mileage varies.
(shrugs).

I've been thinking lately that part of life is learning how to get along with and respect and appreciate people whose views vary from my own. One of the best bosses I've had, a lovely woman, hates Obama and loves Bush. (sigh). We don't discuss it. Life is too short. (grin)

Thanks on the warm bit. It has gotten a wee bit warmer today. Rained all day. But tis warmer. Am hoping for a mild winter, but I don't think I'll get it and may have to invest in more shrinkwrap, and possibly a thermal blanket.

Date: 2009-12-14 03:45 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] embers-log.livejournal.com
it has finally gotten above freezing here, but I had damaged my hands by scrapping off the car in wet gloves (they are all cracked and sore even days later)... I really do hate this bitterly cold weather! I'm going to head back down to Texas in January (after spending the holidays w/my brother).

Luckily I'm having fun w/all my old friends!

Definitely get the thermal blanket and stay warm, and I hope you have a lovely Christmas!
(I'm sure I'll be seeing you here on line, or at least I hope so!).

(deleted comment)

Date: 2009-12-14 03:27 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] shadowkat67.livejournal.com
I dropped my subscription to the Angel comics and gave the ones I had to masq, who I think may like them better than I did. (I'm admittedly ambivalent on Angel. ) I just get Lynch's comics - and only those that feature Spike or Gunn/Illyria - who I think he writes and depicts rather well, mileage will of course vary on this.

On Sugarshock? It reminds me a lot of Sailor Moon and some of the Japanese Magna comics that I read way back in the early 1990s, before Buffy hit the movie screens. (Was a huge anime/Japanese comic fan back in the early 90s.) Actually the Buffy comics remind me a great deal of those comics. I enjoyed Sugarshock.

Date: 2009-12-14 11:06 am (UTC)
shapinglight: (Default)
From: [personal profile] shapinglight
I see you've ended up feeling pretty much the same way as me about the Lynch two-parter (not helped by Mooney's rather poor art). I'm still going to read the Spike comic (if it ever turns up) but am now so leery of Lynch's simplified take on Angel that instead of looking forward to the character turning up in the Spike book, I'm rather dreading it. :(

Date: 2009-12-14 05:01 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] shadowkat67.livejournal.com
I'm still going to read the Spike comic (if it ever turns up) but am now so leery of Lynch's simplified take on Angel that instead of looking forward to the character turning up in the Spike book, I'm rather dreading it. :(

Exactly. Feel much the same way.

Date: 2009-12-14 07:26 pm (UTC)
shapinglight: (Default)
From: [personal profile] shapinglight
I've also just read a review of the first Angel comic written by Bill Willingham, and it does rather read as if Spike is still stuck in the comic relief role. I'll see what I think, but can't say I'm looking forward to it terribly much.

Date: 2009-12-15 02:00 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] shadowkat67.livejournal.com
Can't say that sounds very appealing. Bit dull actually.
I'll save my money and skip. Thanks for the update.

Date: 2009-12-15 01:30 pm (UTC)
shapinglight: (Default)
From: [personal profile] shapinglight
I might write a review of it since it's the first issue.
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