Thor: The Dark World, perhaps?

Marvel Comics in the early- to mid-eighties was undergoing a transformative time of progressive change. Frank Miller was redefining Daredevil and placing the blind hero up against ninjas. Denny O’Neil catapulted Tony Stark into the ravings of serious alcoholism forcing James Rhodes to wear the suit in Iron Man. Chris Claremont and John Byrne were deep into making the all-new, all-different X-Men become counter-culture saviors. And in Thor, Walt Simonson did away with the Donald Blake identity, replaced the title character entirely with a horse-faced alien and even briefly made the Thunder God a frog. And it was cool.

Walt Simonson’s four-year run on Marvel’s Thor is not only one of the title’s most acclaimed runs, but also one of Simonson’s most known works where not only his art and designs, but his skill as a writer, worked in exemplary union. Simonson has since written and drawn scores of projects, but Thor had always been a highlight. Having Walt Simonson return to Thor? A fanboy dream.

Ragnarok, from IDW, not Marvel, provides such a dream in a certain manner. Simonson writes and draws a different, perhaps more in line with the mythos, Thor adventure taking place in a time of a fallen Asgard, in the post-apocalyptic twilight of the Norse gods. And Simonson’s artwork is amazing. Every panel, every splash page, every call to attention, proves that he is still a master on this or on any of the Nine Realms. And for all of the effort on the art, the writing is merely pedestrian.

Within the pages of Ragnarok, which should have been titled After-Ragnarok, or Ragnarok Aftermath, or The Walking Asgardian, Thor, once presumed dead but really is just missing a lower jaw, has been awoken and begins to take account of the world around him.  For the remaining time, in what is assumed the first of a series of graphic novel collections, he doesn’t do much than get into fights. And c’mon. This is Walt Simonson drawing Thor getting into fights with spectacular, over-the-top action. But there is no intrigue. The action, and the character, simply moves from place to place, from fight to fight. Who knew Ragnarok would be so tedious?

Simonson has a proven his writing chops on multiple occasions. His short, and sometimes overlooked, run on Fantastic Four was as fresh a take on Marvel’s first family as was his time in Asgard. In Ragnarok, the plot goes no deeper than providing an incredible showcase for Simonson’s art. If this series does indeed continue, let’s all pray that reality soon fulfills our dreams.


As always,
theJOE 

The Setting Sun of High Noon

The weight of Glenn Frankel’s second book in looking at the historical Hollywood is truly outlined in High Noon’s sub-title:  The Hollywood Blacklist and the Making of an American Classic. Frankel does provide a deep-dive directorial-style narration into the making of the Gary Cooper/Grace Kelly Western classic High Noon, but this account’s true showdown occurs as Congress and HUAC play the men in black with the artist as the white hat, fading hero pressed into one more battle.

And the weight this book carries is impressive. Frankel intensely presents meticulous research into the time and era of the Red scare, its affect on the Hollywood engine, and the turmoil brought on by the ensuing witch hunts. However, such intensity often comes off with the academia stylings of a research paper that pulls away from the historical narrative of the film’s origin. For a quicker, compelling view into the times of the notorious Hollywood blacklist, one needs only to view the well-done 2015 film Trumbo.

When the eponymous film is in focus, Frankel creates compelling, compassionate characters out of writer Carl Foreman, producer Stanley Kramer, director Fred Zinnemann, editor Elmo Williams, and star Gary Cooper. Each of these men’s desires, and especially fears, are triumphantly captured and endowed with a humanizing  sense of wanting no less than to be free and create. Their stories are strong and wonderful and flawed and real with the end result, the film High Noon, becoming an enduring classic. Frankel’s read, High Noon, unfortunately, becomes so enraptured with the history, that the magic of Hollywood is forgotten for long, dry spells.

Historian purists will certain applaud Frankel’s research. Fans of film might find this book cumbersome. The lawman might finally get his hand at justice, but the sun has already set.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Bloomsbury for the chance at this advance read.

As Always,

theJOE

Video-Game Action; Direct-Release Scripting

Let’s play nice and call Spectral an homage to a heap of sci-fi films and not a mash-up of clichés from all that has come before. A mash-up, yes, but certainly a nice-looking one at that.

 

James Badge Dale, proving he had leading-man chops, as evident from HBO’s The Pacific, stars in first-time director Nic Mathieu’s sci-fi muscle film that provides more hardcore military meat than a Michael Bay Transformers film. Dale plays a scientist invested in designing protective tech for the US Army of the very-near future when he is assigned to accompany a Delta Force unit on the field in Moldova who have encountered, well, ghosts. Ghosts that can fly through walls and humans, the latter of which immediately perishes upon contact.

Mathieu’s constantly-moving camerawork and in-your-face visuals are slick and surprisingly high-quality, thanks to the use of Weta for the F/X work. The story, however, is nothing more than an outline for the big-bang shoot ‘em-ups and creepy apparitions. The Delta Force team members are mostly faceless fodder smacking of, but lacking the charisma of, the marines from Aliens; they even rescue a blonde girl who has been scavenging and hiding out safe from the ghosts in the inner workings of an old factory. Later, when Delta has the chance to regroup and restock, they are luckily holed up with enough provisions and workable gear that would make B.A. Baracus smile with glee, welding torch in hand.

The overall premise of Spectral makes for fun viewing. The film’s a fast-paced video game where the viewer doesn’t mind playing the third person role. And while the story briefly describes the HOW of the ghosts, the WHY is untouched resulting in an unfulfilled feeling as the convenient failsafe stopping the threat is thrown allowing the credits roll. The quick wrap-up makes you think that if there were a couple more available quarters to feed into the slot, the story could continue with a more satisfying ending.

As Always,

theJOE

Douglas Preston and the Raiders of the Lost City

Douglas Preston’s historical/journalistic approach recounting two successful expeditions deep into the Honduras rainforest discovering and mapping the fabled White City aka, and to promote the title, The Lost City Of The Monkey God, unfortunately comes across as a dry, step-by-step account with an added historical element providing the obligatory back story. Discoveries notwithstanding, what was missing was something as wet as the jungle itself, and the narrative suffered as a result.

Not to discount these jungle adventures, as Preston and the teams invading the Central American landscape in search of archaeological destiny face many an obstacle; bugs, parasites, infectious diseases, six-foot-long snakes, a completely hostile environment, threatening narco cartels - not top ingredients for a must-do vacation. The end result cannot be discounted either. Mapping and exploring the White City is an incredible archaeological achievement and Preston writes out every step.

However, it is that literary bite of a fer-de-lance that eludes The Lost City Of The Monkey God. The journalistic report lacks the narrative punch, which is what made David Grann’s The Lost City of Z from 2009 so excitingly successful. Preston’s listing of debates within the archaeological academia and interviews with the infectious diseases team at NIH would certainly make for compelling research papers, but not so much for those jonesing on New World exploration.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Grand Central Publishing for the advance read. A tighter, more focused narrative would have certainly upped the excitement factor for this one.

As Always,

theJOE