Weekend Update

Gregg Araki

There's a Gregg Araki blogathon going on over at Being Boring. A lot of interesting stuff covering someone who I'd consider one of the most underrated filmmakers working today. Very few people have the uniqueness of vision that Araki does. This is a guy who rarely makes a film that can make it to an R rating, let alone PG-13. So, clearly he's not concerned with commercial success, it's more about his vision. Inspired, I ordered Nowhere from Amazon UK. Once I watch it,, I'll put up a review.

Music Video Shoot

Earlier this week, I shot a video for the song "Yer Warpin' Me" by Nepo. It's a bit weirder than the last video I did, and a bit happier than most of my stuff. That one should be finished by the end of August. The film workshop I'm running also ended. The film we shot there has some potential, but I'm not sure if it'll top the insanity of last year's film, Extracurricular Activities.

Producer Autuers

Though I liked it on the first listen, Justin Timberlake's Sexy Back has been really growing on me. Lately, I've been liking more and more current pop songs, both this and Promiscuous are masterful singles. It's interesting to see the growth of the producer as auteur, Timbaland did both those tracks and the media genuinely gives him as much credit for their quality as they give the artists. It's becoming more a film situation, where the producer is like the writer/director and the artist is like the actor. Most people still go to see the actor's performance, but increasingly people are aware of who's behind the scenes. I know I'm always on the lookout for a new Neptunes track and especially anything from Dan the Automator, who's a clear example of a producer auteur.

Electropop

Along the same lines, I'm really excited by the crystalization of a new music genre for the 00s, eletropop. It's always existed but the success of a song like SexyBack, along with bands like CSS and and Ladytron are evolving this form of really poppy electro songs. Nine Inch Nails fused industrial with pop song structures, but what these songs are doing is making really pop stuff that is based around intense electro beats. Daft Punk are pioneers in this, with their constant use of vocoder. Their last album is full of tracks that foreshadow the hard driving electropop that's cropped up since. If you're looking for more, check out Does it Offend You, Yeah, an unsigned British band that makes tracks that sound like Daft Punk on a bender. I think the reason I like this stuff so much is that it feels new. Most of the rock bands I like today are in some way throwing back to something before, it's like rock as a genre has exhausted itself and can only look to the past for inspiration. But, this electro stuff feels fresher, uncovering new territory.

JLA: Return of the Conqueror (#22-23)

First up, a few words on the Mark Waid fill in issues that preceeded this storyline. I'm not sure why Waid did four issues, I do know that Morrison was way behind with his Invisibles scripts at this time, so he might have taken some time off from JLA to get ahead, but I'm not really sure what the reason for these fill ins was.

Reading the Morrison JLA, I sometimes wonder if I just say it's good because Morrison wrote it. Some of his stories are special, others aren't quite generic, but certainly aren't as unique as his other work. I was think that perhaps anyone could write the craziness that Morrison brings to JLA. Reading the Mark Waid issues makes it quite clear that this isn't true. Waid's first arc is alright, particularly the second issue. However, he's too reliant on rather artificial cliffhangers, having the JLA disappear isn't particularly exciting or threatening at this point.

However, that arc is a sterling example of comics writing next to the awfulness that is "Mystery in Space," an arc that has some really awful writing. The idea was clearly Adam Strange imprisons the JLA, so we do that for an issue, then spend half an issue on backstory of Strange, flagrantly violating show, don't tell. There's no emotional stake in the story and the reveal that Strage isn't actually evil is so unshocking it makes the whole story essentially pointless. Waid's major problem is that he writes the JLA in a traditional narrative way, putting the characters in danger or having them turn evil doesn't work because they're all essentially static. You can't write the JLA like you would normal people.

So, it was refreshing to return to Morrison and one of his stronger stories so far. The opening of this issue, with Michael Haney drawing Superman is a classic Morrison moment. I was actually thinking that this story was Morrison going back to that thematic well one too many times, but he mixes it up from Flex Mentallo and takes a similar setup in a slightly different direction. Morrison views superheroes as an aspirational model for normal humans, in someone like Superman, people can see their potential. In Flex Mentallo we see how an adult can become cynical and lose touch with the magic that these characters once held. Michael, a child, is the one person who can imagine wonder in a world filled with zombies, for Morrison, it's superhero comics that took him out of a boring world and opened his mind up.

When Alan Moore wrote Watchmen he thought it would be the final superhero story, because there was nowhere left to go from there, he had utterly broke down all the concepts traditionally associated with those characters. Morrison's work digs just as deep as Moore, but with the goal of reaffirming the traditional wonder present in the characters, enhancing the concepts rather than destroying them. Flex Mentallo is the best example of that, we go through the grim and gritty real world but by the end emerge in a shiny new world of heroes and wonder. Morrison sees the rejection of wonder as something utterly adolescent, best summed up by the villain in Flex, he sees nothing wrong with maintaining a childlike sense of wonder into adulthood.

This arc had my attention right from the start because of the appearance of Daniel, the new Sandman from Neil Gaiman's series. I'm a huge Sandman fan and it's very cool to see Morrison writing one of Neil's characters and drawing on his concepts. Neil's Sandman run is the second best longform comics work, behind only Morrison's Invisibles, and like Morrison, he's a stunning font of stories and ideas. The appearance of Daniel here is another really cool cameo moment, normally you read something, it ends and that's it, but in the DCU, characters from previous stories can pop up again. It reinforces the idea of the DCU as a sentient entity, people put their ideas in and then those ideas mutate and are carried by others. Along with Daniel come a bunch of tie in references to Sandman, and some really cool visuals. I love the way Porter draws Daniel, and the stuff in The Dreaming is gorgeous.

This story is all about the conflict between childlike wonder and the conformity of boring adulthood. Michael is trying to hold on to his belief, but It is out to crush him and turn him into something like everyone else. It is attacking the world of dreams, the place where stories and imagination come from, if that's destroyed then humanity is lost. What Superman has to do is prove his existence to the boy and as a result validate his beliefs and prevent him from succumbing to It. This conflict between childhood wonder and adult conformity crops up quite a bit in Seven Soldiers, which features numerous children being corrupted by an encroaching adult world. Without the JLA, those children are not saved and wind up messed up by their encounters with adulthood.

Seven Soldiers is largely about the struggles that lesser people have living up to the example set by the Justice League. Read alone, this story has an upbeat ending, however in light of Seven Soldiers, the boy's need for superheroes only makes apparent how lacking others are in comparison.

It's not only Michael who needs Superman, Superman also needs Michael to validate him. On a meta level, this could be read as superheroes only existing because the readers choose to believe them. It's us who give them the powers, changing an image on a piece of paper into a fully formed character in the world of the imagination. The idea that Michael can draw an image on a piece of paper then make it real is what making comics is all about. It's what all of art is about, taking thoughts and making them real, it's all about hypersigils, craftiing the reality that you want by just believing hard enough.

The end of the story reveals that Michael Haney, the boy from the dream, is an adult in real life, which ties in perfectly with the theme of the story. The adult world tried to take his wonder, but deep down he still has the same beliefs he did as a child. The captions say that he has "too vivid an imagination," but he's happy to believe in something and not be like them. This is Morrison justifying the fact that he still writes these stories and rejecting the boring world that looks down on them.

The final page shows Daniel tucking the previously massive It into a small fishbowl. If we read the It as conforming adult force, which quite literally puts people to sleep and destorys their minds, the ending would imply that there will always imaginative storytellers who will make our everyday reality look insignificant by comparison. The whole arc is a tribute to the power of stories, hence the guest appearance by the king of stories, Daniel.

These are classic Morrison themes, but it's always fun to watch them play out. I loved getting to see Daniel again and I think the arc on the whole finds the perfect balance between exploring Morrison's personal favorite themes and doing really cool action stuff. It's my second favorite of his JLA arcs so far, behind only Rock of Ages.

Phoenix @ Bowery Ballroom

Setlist:
Napoleon Says//Long Distance Call//Consolation Prizes//Run Run Run//Rally//Courtesy Laughs//Lost and Found//Everything Is Everything//I'm An Actor//If I Ever Feel Better//Funky Squaredance//Sometimes in the Fall

Encore: Too Young//Second to None

First thing that needs to be said about this show is the ridiculousness of the whole Camel tour ticket system. I had an "Invite" ticket, but when I got there, they claimed that they were full and weren't taking any more invite tickets. If the point of giving out the free invite tickets is to build a good image for Camel, that clearly backfired when a bunch of people were locked out of the show. I ended up buying a scalped ticket off someone because I had gone all the way down there and wanted to see Phoenix. But, it's still ridiculous that they gave out so many more tickets than they could let people in for. Why couldn't they just do regular ticketing, that would make so much more sense.

That said, once you're inside, other than a couple of Camel ads, this show was basically the same as the show I saw in May. Before I get into Phoenix, I'll just mention that The French Kicks were pretty good, but not good enough to make me not want their set to end so we could get to Phoenix. I was right up in the front and it was interesting that right after their set ended, the lead singer came out to yell at two people who were twirling around and shouting after him during the set. That's got to be tough. But, it was good because they left and I was able to move right up to front and center, about a person back from Thomas Mars. I don't think there was a better spot in the whole place.

Since seeing them back in May, the new album has grown on me since then, but with a few exceptions, the old material still outshines the new stuff, especially live. Of the new songs, the highlights were "Long Distance Call," which features some of the classic Phoneix synth sounds and "Lost and Found," which is really smooth and emotional. The opening set closer, "Sometimes in the Fall" was another really well done song, with some nice expansion on the recorded version.

However, for me at least, the joy of a Phoenix live show is seeing the epic versions of their best songs. Basically every song they play off the first two albums is amazing. "Everything is Everything" was a highlight, Thomas Mars hopped into the crowd at one point and they also did a section where the lights were off which was very cool. "I'm an Actor" is fantastic live, it's their heaviest song, becoming almost Zeppelin like with the punishing of that riff. "If You Ever Feel Better" was the other major highlight, probably a seven minute version of the song which flowed seamlessly into "Funky Squaredance." The way they play these songs, stretching them out and transforming them into lengthy jams is phenomenal. I think some of the new album songs would benefit from being altered in this way, I'm hoping when they tour for their next album, they push the third album songs the way they do the older material now.

Because I was right by the stage, I saw the whole setlist before they went on, and I did get a bit impatient waiting for the newer stuff. I hate to be that guy who wants them to play the old songs, but in this case, the old material is just stronger, especially live. Moving forward, if they keep "Long Distance Call" and "Lost and Found," the It's Never Been Like That material will stand with the rest, it's only when they have to go deeper into the weaker tracks that it suffers. But, it's mainly a suffering by comparison, the older songs are just so good that nearly anything would pale in comparison.

The other cool thing about yesterday's show was seeing Sofia Coppola in the audience. The Coppola/Mars child has such a genetic advantage over the rest of the populace, to have two ridiculously talented and good looking parents, plus all those Coppola family connections, it's kind of unfair. But, it was cool to see Sofia there, supporting the band.

I think Phoenix is one of the best live bands in the world. I wish they'd mix up the setlist a bit, but if I was still around, I'd definitely be at the September show, they're just that good. Hearing their live rendition of "Everything is Everything" or "If I Ever Feel Better" is one of the best concert experiences you'll ever have.

JLA: Prometheus Unbound (#16-17)

The crazy, cosmic journey of Rock of Ages ended with the breakup of the JLA. However, that was apparently a short lived thing, since a fill in short story by Christopher Priest features the reformation of the JLA. The story's pretty good, particularly the Batman part, but it's not remarkable. Most people write the JLA as just a bunch of superheroes, it's only Morrison who's able to push them to the level of gods. It doesn't work if you write the JLA like the X-Men, because, unlike the X-Men, they're not particularly interesting as people.

This short also features the art of Yanick Paquette, who would later go on to draw Bulleteer. Partially because of the quality of the pages, his art lacks the slickness of his work on Bulleteer. One of the issues with this story is that it sets up a new status quo where the JLA has twelve members. At this point in the series, the amount of people in the book starts to border on unmanagable. With twelve main people, there's very little room for character development, and the fact that the new members are all lower tier heroes means that the pantheon feeling of the early arcs is diminished. There's potential in having the higher level heroes helping out less powerful people, but there's just too many here.

'Prometheus Unbound' begins with an interesting standalone recounting the origin of lead villain Prometheus. This is actually the strongest issue of the arc, because it makes you understand the villain without actually liking him. The confrontation between Prometheus and Retro allows Morrison to do yet another allegorical examination of the comics marketplace. This could be read as the rise of Image style heroes over classic heroes, but it also shows how classic heroes are creatively bankrupt. Retro could be a dig at Alan Moore's work on Supreme, I'm not sure what the time table on those two series is.

The actual stuff with the JLA is some of Grant's weaker material. It's fun to see Superman's pride while giving the press a tour around the satellite, but soon after the press becomes little more than a tension building device. They have very little role in the end of the story.

It is fun to see some of the lower tier heroes stepping up and defeating Prometheus, but this arc has basically the same structure as the Key storyline, a villain comes out of nowhere with the perfect plan to defeat the Justice League, is about to do so, but is soon defeated. Beyond that, there's very little philosophical or thematic significance to what happens. It's just a straight ahead JLA story.

One of the reasons I don't like Morrison's JLA as much as his other material is that I'm more interested in the soapy character based storytelling of X-Men than the action stylings of the JLA. When Morrison wrote a straight ahead X-Men arc, like Imperial, I really enjoyed it, but I probably wouldn't have particularly liked the JLA equivalent. The JLA storylines that work are the ones where Morrison puts more of his personal interests into the book.

Next up is a guest arc from Mark Waid that will apparently feature more stuff with the New Gods. Then a couple more Morrison issues leading into the One Million crossover.

Weekend Update

Weekend of Phoenix

After buying tickets for Phoenix's show at the Bowery Ballroom, I received an e-mail letting me know that I'm now on the guestlist for their show at Maxwell's. So, I'll be going to both, doing back to back concerts with the same band for the first time. I've heard Maxwell's is pretty small, so it'll be cool to get a chance to see them in a smaller setting, and then I'll catch the bigger show the next day. In other Phoenix news, I found out today that Thomas Mars was the vocalist on Air's 'Playground Love,' one of their best songs. I'll be reporting back on both these shows.

Love and Death

I was sad to see that another 60s musical legend died this week, Arthur Lee, the lead singer of Love. Forever Changes is one of my favorite albums, it's one of those albums that might not have a lot of really well known songs, but has been massively influential, sort of like The Velvet Underground. Belle and Sebastian have songs that sound like they could have been made by Love, 'Waking Up to Us' in particular. All their output still sounds fresh, not like something that's forty years old.

The Miami Vice Reaction

As I mentioned in my review, I loved Miami Vice and I'd consider it easily the best film of the year so far. So, it's been interesting talking to other people who've seen the film and hearing their criticisms. A lot of people are saying that it didn't have enough action, or that it was hard to follow, which seems to be completely missing the point. The plot is irrelevant, you don't need to know what is happening, it's more about the mood you settle into. In this respect, it's a lot like Domino, a film that got lambasted by critics and the public because it went so far into stylistic experimentation. People have a very limited idea of what an action film should be, and they're not prepared to accept these hybrids of art house and action. Vice has more in common with Wong Kar-Wai's Fallen Angels than it does with Mission Impossible III, but people just aren't geared to look at action films as artistic statements. Criticizing Miami Vice for not having enough action is like giving the same criticism to Ashes of Time. If you're looking for a generic action film, it's not going to satisfy, but if you want a really exciting, experimental film, it's the perfect choice.

In the Docket

I've got a bunch of films out of the library right now. Memoirs of a Geisha is something I was interested in seeing when it was out, but never got around to. IT's interesting on two levels, one is to see two of the world's best actresses, Zhang Ziyi and Gong Li, together and speaking English. The other interesting level is the visuals which I've heard were dazzling, even if the film didn't quite make it. I've also got In July, a film by Fatih Akin, who directed the pop masterpiece Head-On. I've got another Altman film, California Split, a Bertolucci, Stealing Beauty, Mike Figgis' Hotel and finally, R. Kelly's Trapped in the Closet: Chapters 1-12. Reviews of the notable films were follow soon.

Tristram Shandy

Earlier this week I watched Michael Winterbottom's Tristram Shandy: A Cock and Bull Story. Both this film and 24 Hour Party People were really entertaining, funny films, but they don't quite make it to greatness. Shandy suffered from the fact that there have been so many projects about making films recently, it's tough to come up with new material. Steve Coogan's funny, but his direct to the camera narration made the film a bit too reminiscent of Party People. I ended up wishing that Gillian Anderson had a bigger part and that the film was just a little bit better. Winterbottom's stuff is always entertaining, but he's never made a masterpiece.

Champagne Saturday

This Saturday, why not make it a Champagne Saturday by checking out my new music video. I think it turned out well, there's a lot of cool color correction and some nice quick cutting at the end. If you check it out, post your comments, I'd love to hear them. Next up for me is more work on my feature, All Good Things, and on Tuesday, I'm shooting a video for the song 'Yer Warpin' Me' by Nepo.

Upcoming Dates of Note

8/6 - Phoenix at Maxwelll's
8/7 - Phoenix at Bowery Ballroom
8/8 - Manderlay on DVD
8/17 - Gnarls Barkley at Summerstage
8/22 - Veronica Mars Season 2 on DVD
8/25 - Idlewild Released
8/29 - Arrested Development Season 3 on DVD
9/22 - Science of Sleep Releated
9/24 - The Flaming Lips at Hammerstein
10/20 - Marie Antoinette Released
11/22 - The Fountain Released

JLA: Rock of Ages (10-15)

I read a smattering of JLA stuff before beginning this whole series readthrough and the one thing I read that I really liked was Rock of Ages. Most of the weaker stories in Grant's JLA run are the ones that are decent superhero stories that just happen to be written by Morrison. The best, like Rock of Ages, are ones where it's a Grant Morrison story that just happens to star the JLA. This was written around the same time as The Invisibles' Hand of Glory arc, in the wake of Morrison's "alien abduction," an experienc that forever changed the direction of his work.

Before the alien abduction, Grant was a great writer, who told some weird stories, but his works didn't have an overarching connecting tissue. It was the abduction experience that gave Morrison the basis for his personal philosophy, the philosophy that informed all his work since. You can see this division quite clearly in The Invisibles, the first few issues explore a lot of things but it's not until the 'Sheman' arc that Morrison's conception of the nature of time becomes clear. As that series develops, his 4-D conception of reality becomes the guiding principle for both the fiction itself and the philosophy that it's trying to bring into reality. Works like The Invisibles and The Filth are a blend of philosophical text and adventure story.

Reading Rock of Ages you can see a lot of the concepts developed in The Invisibles filtered through a different lens, though this series also presents some inconsistencies from the worldview that Morrison forwards in Invis. However, the story doesn't begin with craziness, rather it starts with a pretty basic setup. Lex Luthor has bought the JLA's greatest enemies together to attempt a corporate takeover of the JLA. Despite the appearance of yet another evil version of the Justice League, this is a really nice opener for the arc. It's cool to see Mirror Master return, he was the star of a great single issue story in Morrison's Animal Man. One of the cool things about reading stuff in the DCU is seeing characters from previous runs, it's sort of like seeing an actor you really like pop up unexpectedly in another film. It may not have the same magic as the original appearance, but there's a nice spark of recognition nonetheless.

One of the things you get reading the whole JLA series rather than random excerpts is a better sense of the character development. A lot of the characters here are inert, Superman isn't going to go through a soul wrenching journey of personal discovery. However, we do get to see the younger heroes change. Kyle, despite his vast powers, has to deal with personal unease about his role in the Justice League. One of the scenes that best shows this is the moment where he's arguing with a random guy on the street, insisting that the JLA's just doing their best.

About halfway through the arc, things take a major turn with the appearance of Metron. I first encountered Metron in Seven Soldiers: Mister Miracle, a series that caused me much confusion. However, after reading the TPB of New Gods, I was totally prepared for the excursion into Kirby mythology. Metron is the DC Universe equivalent of John a Dreams, a guy who's able to move through space and time at will, however, Metron chooses to remain in his own form rather than subsume himself to another persona.

Metron sends Green Lantern and Aquaman on a mission to retrieve the Philosopher's Stone from a future reality and they bounce into reality known as Wonder World. While on Wonderworld, Green Lantern comes across the infant universe of Qwewq! This is one of those details that's just mindblowing, the infant universe of Qwewq somehow makes it off Wonderworld and later turns up in Morrison's JLA: Classified arc. Qwewq is infested with the black death, but also given a vaccine in the form of the ultramarines, and it eventually grows up to become Neh-buh-loh from Seven Soldiers. Just think about the journey of this infant universe from this issue to the end of Seven Soldiers. No one else is doing this kind of crazy storytelling, chronicling the growth of an entire universe in the background of a bunch of books. The series of events that will ultimately hold back the Sheeda invasion begins here in Rock of Ages.

After Wonderworld, Green Lantern meets up with Hourman. At the end of this book, Metron gives the philosopher's stone to Hourman, and asks him to keep it safe. However, this event actually takes place before Kyle meets with Hourman. So, Hourman is able to show Kyle the stone, and caution him about Metron's betrayal, because the good Metron travelled to Hourman and gave him the stone. Metron's speeches are all about asking people to transcend 3-dimensional logic and perceive all of time as one flowing entity. To understand the story, you also have to accept that logic because it's the only way you're able to understand why Hourman has the stone earlier in the story, but isn't given it until the end.

One of the best things about this arc is just how dense it is. Morrison's throwing out single issues that other writers would have spend twelve issues on, he's just got that much material. The Wonderworld segment leads into a post apocalyptic drama set in a world that Darkseid has conquered. After turning themselves into pure light information, Flash, Aquaman and Green Lantern turn up in this bad future and have to fix it. Sure, it's a little Days of Future Past, but the fact that this massive universe appears for a single issue adventure means you don't have time to dwell on the cliches.

The way that this arc resolves itself relies on a different conception of time than what Morrison uses in The Invisibles. In The Invisibles, it's impossible for there to be an alternate universe because all time exists simultaneously. If you went back in time five years, the changes you made would already be in place because you exist in a universe where you were five years ago. Figuring out this conception of time took me a long time, but I eventually got it by tracing Ragged Robin's journey. In 1996, the younger version of herself sees the older version of herself on the mesa. There was never a universe where the younger Robin saw no one, older Robin was always there, which means that the future she created through her time travel was the one she grew up in. That's why Jack tells her not to worry when she launches, she's already done everything right.

However, here in Rock of Ages, Metron posits a reality in which the forces of good and the forces of evil duel over the direction of reality and the outcome of each battle shapes the development of our world. One could argue that these Gods are essentially serving the same role as 5-D beings like John a Dreams did in The Invisibles. However, if that's true, then where did the evil Metron come from? If the alternate universe did exist, then it's logical that evil alternate future Metron could trick the JLA, however, if you're using the Invis concept of time, that alternate future would be impossible and the evil Metron could never exist.

To reconcile this, we need to turn to Morrison's idea of hypertime. This is the idea that time is like a river, there's the main river, but also a bunch of smaller bodies of water that branch off from the main flow. Sometimes these smaller rivers just stop, other times they'll connect back to the main river. So, according to this, the reality where Darkseid rules the world would be a small branch off the main river, one that eventually reconnects with the main flow.

Metron talks about the Philosopher's Stone as the Worlogog, an incarnation of all space/time. If we're to believe that the stone is a model of the universe, it would be logical that destruction of that model would lead to a new, incorrect universe. So, by saving the stone, they're quite literally saving the universe and ensuring that time proceeds down a good path. The stone, both visually and conceptually, is exactly like the magic mirror that the Invisibles crew encounters in New Mexico. The idea of a liquid that contains in it all moments of spacetime is one of those things I always struggle to get my head around. In this liquid we see all our experiences modeled, all of reality contained in this one object.

The idea that reality could be modeled in a fixed liquid is in line with Morrison's conception of our universe as a massive life chain flowing down from the first organism on the planet to present humanity. Travelling through this organism, freed of our individuality, we could experience reality through anyone's perception at any time.

The end of this arc has a lot of interesting foreshadowing. Metron indicates that the JLA themselves will be the New Gods, the key figures in the next fight for humanity's future. The idea that the JLA become gods is the critical founding component of Morrison's run. He is elevating them to the status of myth, and building towards a fnal battle on a mythic scale.

This is an arc that's just so nuts you have to love it. This is the first arc that feels uniquely Morrison and it's a great companion piece to the stuff going on in The Invisibles at the same time. I think comics can be proud that their biggest franchise isn't just telling the same story over and over again, this book is exploring intellectual territory that very few stories ever touch.

The New Pornographers @ Summerstage

Setlist (Approximate):
Twin Cinema//Use It//July Jones//Laws Have Changed//Jackie Dressed in Cobras//The Bleeding Heart Show//The Jessica Numbers//Mass Romantic//Testament to Youth in Verse//Miss Teen Wordpower//Bones of An Idol//It's Only Divine Right//Fake Headlines//Graceland//From Blown Speakers//Slow Descent into Alcoholism//Sing Me Spanish Techno

Encore:
Star Bodies//Jackie//Execution Day//Letter from An Occupant

Back in March, I saw The New Pornographers open for Belle & Sebastian. They put on a solid show, but were undercut by the fact that the crowd was mostly just waiting for them to finish. So, I left with the impression that The New Pornographers were one of those bands that does fantastic records, and alright live shows. So, I was actually a bit unsure about going to this show, but I caught a good deal on Craigslist, so off I went.

The two opening bands were pretty solid. The Frames had really sweeping rock, a bit like Doves, but with a violin. They got a really strong crowd response and even did an encore, the first time I've seen an opening band do one. And I also really enjoyed Calexico, despite not being familiar with their work beforehand. They had a wide variety of instruments, cello, two trumpets, xylophone, accordian and the secret weapon, a Mexican singer who dropped some great vocals on a couple of songs. Their two trumpeters were great, doing some really nice team solos. The highlight for me was a cover of Love's "Alone Again Or."

Before getting into the show itself, I'll just note that Summerstage was a really nice venue. The sound quality was great and there was plenty of room. Plus, I got a spot front and center, one person back from the stage. I've been to many shows and I almost always enjoy the ones where I'm front a lot more than ones where I'm drifting around the back. It may be annoying to have to stand in place for a long time, but it's worth it to get there early and secuere a good spot.

With the first notes of their first song, the band wiped away any of my lukewarm feelings about their Nokia show. They ripped into Twin Cinema, speeding it up and turning it into a really tight anthem. One of their best songs, 'Use It' followed, in another fantastic rendition. They had a ton of energy, most of it provided by the drummer. He was playing pretty fast and this forced everyone else to put more energy in to keep pace. This isn't to say that every song was on speed, rather he kept things moving and the energy level high.

It's a huge difference watching a band as a headliner as opposed to being an opening act. Here, everyone was there to see The New Pornographers and that means that people are much more familiar with the songs and will dance or sing along in the audience. I think the crowd's enthusiasm means the band has to raise the bar to match and in this case, they certainly kept things going.

The highlight of the set was "The Bleeding Heart Show." Like a lot of New Porno songs, this one has a lot of segments. There's the subdued opening verses, the speedy, cascading b section ("We quit the room...") until it finally breaks into the wonderful, layered harmonizing of the finale, where "Hey La"s are layered over Kathryn's vocals. It's such a journey, I was completely absorbed in the song and the final segment was absoultely beautiful.

There's a similar structure on my favorite New Pornos song, "A Testament to Youth in Verse," which was another highlight. I love the round of "NoNoNos" that finish the song. The best moments in their work are almost always when vocals are layered, with some of them singing repeated syllables over one person's verse.

The opening of this show was so strong there was bound to be a little dip in the middle, but they roared back for the finale with "Slow Descent into Alcoholism" and "Sing Me Spanish Techno." I love the "Travelling at Godspeed" section of "Spanish Techno," and the way it segues into the "Listening too long to one song..." part. All of their songs have three or four sections that could be incredibly catchy hooks on a song, but combined they become supercatchy monsters.

Between listening to the albums again to get prepped for the show and seeing the show itself, I think it's pretty clear that Twin Cinema is their best album. I think each of their albums has improved on the previous one, but Twin Cinema adds a layer of darkness to the previously sunny world. The songs are still very catchy, but there's a bit more variation in tone and sound. It's a standout album.

For the encore, they broke out one of my favorite tracks off The Electric Version, "Execution Day." It was weird to hear the drummer taking lead vocals, at first his high voice was a bit jarring, but once I got used to it, his vocals were a nice way to mix things up. "Letter From an Occupant" was the perfect set closer, the non-words vocal part of the chorus is phenomenal and I walked out of the venue humming this song.

So, I was really impressed by The New Pornos performance here. They had tons of energy and were totally engaging, dropping most of their best songs, though they're a band where pretty much every song is something I'd want to hear. I'm really glad I saw them a second time and got to see them as headliners, at their best.


And there's the back of my head towards the bottom right of this pic up above.

Clerks II

Kevin Smith is a frustrating filmmaker, someone who came up in the 90s indie movement, but more than most of his contemporaries, he didn't seek artistic achievement, he was looking for mainstream crossover success. Smith's career path can be traced in moves from low budget comfort territory to more ambitious reaches for mainstream acclaim that fail leading to a retreat back to the comfort zone. In the case of Mallrats' failure, this led to what's easily Smith's best film, the hilarious and emotionally devestating Chasing Amy, however the failure of Dogma led to the goofy, utterly meaningless Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back. Bennifer aside, Jersey Girl was a creative failure, a totally generic comedy that lacked Smith's unique voice. When this attempt to reach out to the mainstream failed, he retreated back to make his first official sequel, Clerks II.

The comedy work that I like is usually about using comedy to cover a dark undercurrent, and the best Smith work is like this. The moments in Clerks that work best are when Dante and Randal express their frustration about working at the Quik Stop. Chasing Amy goes even further, using comedy as a way to bring us into the world, then moving into heavy drama in its second half. That film features the best transition between disparate tones I've ever seen in a film, and both halves work equally well.

Clerks II attempts to merge the two Kevin Smith styles, absurd comedy and sincere emotional stuff, however, he doesn't pull it off with the grace he did in Chasing Amy. There's some major flaws, but enough good shines through to make this a worthy sequel and a totally satisfying viewing experience.

However, I'll start with my major issue with the film. The reason Chasing Amy works so well is that the low budget aesthetic makes things seem much more real. When Smith works with a higher budget, he has a tendency to do cartoonish set pieces that take you out of the emotional reality of the film, stuff that's designed to shock, but ends up not quite working.

Basically, any moment of over the top comedy here doesn't work. Most of the stuff with Elias falls flat because the character doesn't feel real. He works as a foil for Randal, but particularly in the 'pillowpants' segment he feels like a total caricature. There's a lot of bits that feel removed from the emotional core of the film and it's like Smith put them in there because he wasn't confident in the film.

Look at the 'ABC' sequence, this is a scene designed to show Dante's attraction to Becky, and it works wonderfully. The slow push ins on the two characters make us realize that Dante clearly loves her and we know she's the right one for him. This moment works so there's no need to go and cut to the goofy footage inside the restaurant and then go to an even more bizarre crane shot mass dance number. This is totally seperate from the reality that the movie created and undermines the point of the scene, which is to show the emotional connection between Dante and Becky.

The other bit that fails because it goes too far over the top is the extended donkey sequence. I feel like Smith was just trying to think of something that would offend people the way the hermaphrodite porn did back in the original, but this sequence just went on too long and wasn't particularly funny, particularly the stuff with Elias, which felt totally unrealistic. Now, one could say that was the point, and in a standard gross out comedy, Elias' reaction would have made total sense. However, it's frustrating because so much of the film is emotionally right on and it touches on some really interesting issues. If some of this goofy stuff was held back, and the film went for a more lo-fi, real aesthetic, this film may have come close to Chasing Amy.

Because of the deadline, the wedding, the film had a strong sense of urgency and a feeling of emotional recklessness. You can believe that all these people would open up in the way they do because the world as they know it is going to end the next day. It feels implausible that two women would be fighting over Dante, but that's something you just have to accept. They do mention the oddness of it a few times, but it still feels a bit off, since this guy seems to have nothing particular to offer. It's weird that Smith chose to cast his own wife as an incarnation of the worst sort of relationship one could fall into, but the character is well used to show how much better off Dante would be with Becky.

The development of their relationship is satisfying, particularly the '1979' sequence, which featured some of Smith's best visual storytelling. It's not the most original sort of montage, but at that moment in the film, it felt totally right. I was genuinely surprised when Becky revealed that she was pregnant and the cake scene was another highlight.

Jay and Silent Bob in this film were a bit off. I think part of it was Smith's performance, he was doing the really goofy Silent Bob of Dogma and JaSBSB, which didn't feel appropriate in the universe of this film. Clerks Silent Bob was much more subdued and that's the sort of performance that was needed here. Jay didn't get that much good material and generally they just felt a bit old to be doing what they were doing. But, I did like the way they came into play in the jail scene at the end of the film.

Despite the love triangle, the real relationship at the film's core was Dante and Randal's. Randal is facing a future without the only person he actually likes and that scares him. The Jason Lee scene and go kart sequence are the critical piece of the character development, he's confronted with just how bad his life is and the only thing that makes it tolerable is leaving. So, he has Dante go karting with him just so they can spend some time together before they leave.

I think the jailcell scene was fantastic and the most notable moment in the film where Anderson and O'Halloran transcend their acting limitations and give a really moving performance. I like the idea that Randal sees what they're doing as a way to get around growing up and living a 'normal life.' People might consider it pathetic to work at Mooby's, but if he's happy, that's enough.

In the end, they buy the Quik Stop and finally have control over their destiny. However, the ending had a slight melancholy to it, with Dante and Randal both realizing that they've totally commited to this life, there's no more chance of escape. I think they're happy, but there's also the awareness that they're now bound there inextricably. The original Clerks was meant to tie in with the Inferno and the ending here brought that association back, they be happy to be there, but they're also trapped.

So, the film ends with both characters realizing that all they really wanted was right there already. One could argue that the film refutes growing up and encourages a permanent adolescent slacker state. However, the fact that Dante and Randal take control of the Quik Stop makes the message more like find what you want to do and take control of it, dont' let society tell you what to do. And, I think that's admirable.

This is a frustrating film because some of it is brilliant, and some of it is just awful. But, generally speaking the goodness shines through and I was really satisfied by the ending. However, it does leave us with the question of where Smith goes from here. With this film, he stopped trying to appeal to the mainstream and just accepted his place at the Quik Stop. So, where does he go from here?

JLA: American Dreams (#5-9)

After the high octane, pop opening that was New World Order, Morrison scales things back a bit for some more tightly focused, short arcs. New World Order functions as a mission statement, showing the new JLA, composed of the world's greatest heroes, fighting huge cosmic threats. In his two longform revisionist mainstream superhero runs, this and X-Men, Morrison used the opening arc as a way of reinvigorating a property that had gotten stale. But where is there left go from there?

The first story in this collection is a nice, if unremarkable storyline about a robot who overcomes her programming to save the world with the JLA. There's a funny bit where the JLA is interviewing new members, but this is one of those stories where the shortness of the piece means that there's just not enough invested to get a really profound emotional impact. But, like a lot of early Transmetropolitan issues, it's satisfying in the way it tells a complete story with some interesting themes in a short time.

The next story is a two parter about a horde of angels invading Earth. My biggest issue with Morrison's JLA is that most of the stories have the same basic structure, some unbelievably massive foe turns up, some of the League are put out of commision, but the rest really to defeat the foe in the end. The most interesting thematic material here is Superman struggling to live up to his own mythology. The whole agenda behind the run was to approach the league as a modern pantheon, so it's logical that Superman would have issues with.

When we reach the end of the story and Superman uses his powers to defeat an Angel and all kinds of huge foes, we see Superman proving his own myth correct. The human part of him may have doubts, but he is able to overcome those human doubts and succeed. One thing that hurts this story is Superman talking about his myth while wearing the stupid electric blue outfit, the classic uniform is intrinsic to the mythology and this goofy outfit undermines some of that.

Next up is 'Elseworlds,' a two plane story in which the JLA is menaced by the Key in the real world, and live through a variety of alternate universes in their mind. I usually enjoy an alternate universe story, but there's always something a bit cheap about them. It's cool to see Batman and Catwoman married, but the fact that it's an 'imaginary story' makes it difficult to engage in the drama of those moments. We're aware it's not happening, so the only interest is in seeing DCU mythology reconfigured. It's interesting, but not particularly illuminating.

I do like Green Arrow's quest to save the JLA, using only goofy arrows. And, the Key's rants, particularly the moment where he says his newfound powers are making him talk to himself, are great. This series is some of Morrison's funniest work, he's simultaneously engaging with the material on a totally straight level and also poking fun at the absurd conventions of the superhero genre. It's like the characters have to play these roles, they subconsciously fall into patterns of behavior dictated by the genre.

This is definitely Morrison's lightest take on the superhero genre, throwing things back to Silver Age style over the top craziness and simple character arcs. Nearly every other superhero has had serious underlying issues, whether it be the acid burnout and petulant adolescence of Flex Mentallo or dark sexual undercurrent of Seven Soldiers, this is the one superhero work that is simple, straight ahead superheroics. Because it's so thematically uncomplicated, I think it's one of Morrison's less satisfying works. It's certainly enjoyable, but with most of Morrison's work, you're not only entertained, you're enlightened.

Of course, a lot of the fun of this is seeing Morrison play with the DC icons. I loved Morrison's X-Men because it took everything great about Claremont's work and hauled it into the present. So, being a huge fan of the X-Men in general, I was able to better appreciate the way Morrison played off character histories. I'm not that familiar with DC, so there's not that inherent sense of excitement that X-Men had.

Still, this was a generally satisfying volume and I'm excited for Rock of Ages next.

Related Posts
Seven Soldiers Wrap Up (6/28/2006)
JLA Classified: 1-3 (7/16/2006)
JLA: New World Order (#1-4) (7/26/2006)

Miami Vice

I just got back from seeing Miami Vice, the year's first truly great film. This is Michael Mann stripping away any attempt to do a traditionally structured narrative and just indulging in his greatest strength, the ability to create an engulfing mood and letting the viewer get lost in it. It's a huge budget action film, but the style is that of an art film, with constant handheld camera and digital grain lending the film a sense of realism that is absent from virtually every other summer blockbuster.

The opening shot of the film dumps you right into the world. There's no character or plot setup because it's not really needed. These guys are undercover vice cops, that's all you need to know. This club isn't the usual highly glamourous Hollywood nightclub, it's more realistic. To some extent this hurts because the nightclub doesn't ascend into the realm of film fantasy, rather it stays down in the real world where video screens are slightly grainy and not everyone dances that well. The music flows nicely though, going from Jay-Z/Linkin Park to an instrumental version of Goldfrapp's 'Strict Machine.'

Watching this film, the first thing that jumps out at you is the digital photography. I know a lot of people are going to crack on the film for its slightly grainy look, and at times the shots just aren't as aesthetically pleasing as they might have been. However, I think on the whole the digital photography works wonders for the film. The camera moves with a freedom that I've rarely seen in film based movies, at least the ones that aren't by Wong Kar-Wai. Mann takes full advantage of the potential of digital to shoot night scenes in low key, realistic lighting and also to move his camera all around, giving us some of the most dynamic, exciting cinematography I've seen in a long time. There's an energy to the film that I feel just wouldn't be possible with traditional film, and if shooting digital freed Mann to create that energy, I'd gladly sacrifice the aesthetic quality of the image.

The way I look at film vs. digital is like this. Imagine you were doing a painting. There's a regular paintbrush and then there's a twentypound paintbrush that makes better looking brushstrokes. You could use this twenty pound brush and get a better looking brush, but it would make it a lot harder to paint. Your options would be limited and I'd rather have the chance to do whatever I wanted with the little brush. That's what digital is like, it gives you more opportunity for experimentation.

The thing that makes this film great is the way that it doesn't give you much background on these characters' lives, rather it puts you in their world and their emotions. If someone was to ask me what Sonny's character traits are, I wouldn't really know. But when he's watching Isabella leaving on the boat at the end of the film, I was feeling exactly what he was feeling. The film puts you in the numb world of an undercover operative and because you experience what they're feeling, it's very easy to empathize with Sonny and Rico, even though we don't really know who they are.

If the film does have some flaws, they're mainly in the opening section. Some of the dialogue was a bit clumsy and the actors didn't seem to be in their characters yet. However, I was still liking the film because I was loving the way Mann shot their car pursuing Alonso and the general nighttime aesthetic of the film.

The character setup here is very economical. The intimacy of the shower scene with Rico and Trudy tells us everything we need to know about their relationship. You could fault the film for not giving us more scenes with the two of them, considering the importance their relationship has to one of the big setpieces of the film. However, this isn't a film about building a world. It's about slipping you into something that's already happening and letting the viewer struggle to keep up with everything that's going on.

The cinematography and music had me engaged right from the start, but the film really takes off when Gong Li's Isabella shows up. I was predisposed to liking her since I've seen her in so many Asian films, however the admiration that her character earns during the film transcends that predisposition. Her relationship with Sonny is the emotional core of the film, and like Neal's relationship with Eady in Heat, we want it to work, but know that it can't. So, it's all about enjoying the moments that they're together.

The scene where they ride a boat to Cuba is one of the highlights of the film. Gong Li's sunglasses are great, and the use of Moby's 'One of These Mornings' is perfect. Mann cuts between closeups of the two actors, building tension with each cut, we're aware of the attraction between them and are just waiting for them to finally get together. The scenes in Cuba are wonderfully filmed, isolating the two of them from the world outside. Isabella cries when they're having sex, she knows that a real relationship isn't possible in her world, so no matter how much she's attracted to him, there's no future. Gong Li still has some issues speaking English, but she still gives a wonderful performance, creating the most emotionally engaging character in the film. Colin Farrell also nails this stuff, this is a great followup to the emotional territory he explored in The New World.

I've already mentioned it a couple of times, but the music in this film was phenomenal. Mann rarely uses music in the way that score is traditionally used, to guide the audience's emotions through a scene. Rather, he uses the music to build an atmosphere that the audience can sink into. Two notable passages are the boat trip to the trailer park and the final cue of the film.

The film is enjoyable on multiple levels, you can watch the story and characters and get caught up in their drama, or you can just watch it as a piece of visual art, enjoying the combination of visuals and music. I got lost in the world of the film, I stayed for a lot of the end credits, and when I finally stepped out of the theater it was like stepping into another world. That's the sign of a great film, when your reality is superceded by the reality that's on screen.

Another really notable acheivement for the film is the sound effects. I've never heard gun shots on screen that sounded like this. The sound really ups the intensity off the action. Mann is an expert at staging big gun battles, just check out Heat to prove that. The thing that stands out about the fights here is the brutality of the violence. People are shot very quickly and the fact that the characters are so nonchalant about it tells us everything we need to know about their world. When Jose quickly kills Isabella's bodyguard, we know that it's going down. Gina's quick execution of Trudy's captor is another notable moment of shockingly quick violence.

The final gunfight is another highlight, working both as a great action sequence and a way of building suspense for the final resolution of Isabella and Sonny's relationship. Her rage after she finds out he's a police officer is fantastic. The final shootout was shot in a really shaky way, with some shots seeming right out of cops. This whole final sequence looks great, with some notable visuals being the blue light on the white bridge, the lights of the city at night and the shaky cam as the action breaks out.

The film concludes not with any sort of rousing denouement. Jose may be dead, but the cartel lives on. We get no sense of what this did in the overall scheme of things, because ultimately that doesn't matter much to these people. They just do their jobs and deal with the costs of those jobs. For Rico, it means Trudy being horribly injured, for Sonny it means giving up love. I mentioned the final music cue before, but it deserves to be noted again. There's a profound sadness as Sonny watches Isabella leaving, both actors say so much with their face. From there, Sonny goes bac to the hospital, he'll continue to do his duty, even though he knows that it'll cost him the chance at a normal personal life. It's a very bold move to end the film on such an unresolved, somber note, but it fits perfectly with the world that Mann built here. We may want Sonny and Isabella to be together, but we need them to be separated because any attempt to stay together just wouldn't be true to the film we'd seen.

This film reminds me a bit of Domino, in the way that it generally puts the narrative aside and instead chooses to focus on creating a filmic experience. Domino succeeds because of the sheer pop excess of everything that happens. This film works more like an action Wong Kar-Wai piece, what's happening isn't important, it's more about what the characters are feeling, building a mood to get lost in. Even though it's brutal and harsh at times, I think it's the warmest Mann film I've seen, and this works as a wonderful companion piece to Heat. Both films are about the sacrifices that professionals must make to do their jobs. It's impossible to be a professional and still have a fulfilling personal life, and the arc of the film is about the characters coming to terms with what they've sacrificed.

I can't reccomend this film highly enough. I was really energized at the end, happy to see a film so stylistically bold and emotionally engaging. This is the sort of piece that couldn't work in any other medium, it uses the ability of film to create a unique world, to put the viewer in a feeling. It's not perfect, but the flaws are insigifcant compared to the film's overall quality.

Weekend Update

Ticket Situation

The ongoing saga of Phoenix tickets is resolved, I bought two off Craigslist. I paid a bit more than I want, but at least I get to the show. They're doing another show here on September 12, but I'll be back at school then. It seems that every year, September and October are full of fantastic shows, while the summer's more fallow. I'm just counting down until next year when I'll be in New York full time. And, it'll be cool to see Phoenix and The New Pornographers next week, they both put on good shows when I saw them earlier this year, though I'm definitely more excited for Phoenix. Hopefully they'll bring back that drummer from the last tour.

The New Film

Today I started production on my new film, All Good Things. This will hopefully be my first feature, which will be cool to have. We shot 11 pages of the 75 page script today and it went very smoothly. Also, I just wrapped up editing on the video I did for Victoria Rocks, I've got to get final approval from her, then I'll put the link on here so you can check it out.

The Fountain Remains Dry

In bad news, The Fountain has been delayed another month. The film is done, why can't they just put it out? I've been waiting for this thing for six years already. It's one thing to delay a film so that the filmmaker can work on it more, it's another to do for marketing reasons or to position a film for Academy Award consideration. I think it would hurt a prestigious film to be released in December, when twelve other prestigious films are being released every week. Whereas if a critically respectable film comes out now, it will stand out. Look at Crash, that's a film that came out in April, was the only respectable film out then and went on to win best picture.

The Colbert Report

I don't usually write about it because it's not particularly suited to analysis, but ever since I've been home from school I've been watching nearly every episode of The Colbert Report. I like The Daily Show but I think it's been eclipsed by its spinoff. The Daily Show usually has a good 10 minutes out of the 22, while Colbert is good for nearly the entire show. The episode last week in which Stephen asks Julian Bond, head of the NAACP, to help him find a new black friend was one of the funniest things I've ever seen. When I saw the first episode, I wasn't sure if the premise could sustain a show, but he's kept up the energy and made it into the most consistently funny show on TV.

The Weekend

This weekend, I'm definitely seeing Miami Vice. On Sunday, I'm shooting more stuff for the film, and on Monday I'm heading into the city to pick up my New Pornographers tickets, which I grabbed cheap off Craigslist. After that, it's back to the workshop for another week of instructing kids on how to make films.

Upcoming Dates of Note

8/3 - New Pornographers at Summerstage
8/7 - Phoenix at Bowery Ballroom
8/8 - Manderlay on DVD
8/15 - Veronica Mars Season 2 on DVD
8/17 - Gnarls Barkley at Summerstage
8/25 - Idlewild Released
8/29 - Arrested Development Season 3 on DVD
9/22 - Science of Sleep Releated
9/24 - The Flaming Lips at Hammerstein
10/20 - Marie Antoinette Released
11/22 - The Fountain Released

JLA: New World Order (#1-4)

After last week's read of JLA Classified, I decided it was time to read Morrison's entire JLA run through. I'd read bits and pieces before, but never went through all the issues in order. After reading this, Zenith will be the only longform Morrison work that I haven't read.

The bits of JLA that I did read were a bit frustrating, I don't think I learned to understand Morrison's approach to the character until I read Seven Soldiers. In reading about the DCU, you usually approach it from the perspective of the most powerful people in the entire universe. I'd read interviews where Grant talks about the way that he saw the seven JLA members as a pantheon, he's essentially telling stories about gods, and as a result, every conflict has to be amped up to a ridiculous level in order to be any sort of threat. Reading a book like JLA is the equivalent of looking at the life of someone like George Bush or Brad Pitt, this isn't an average life and you can't expect average problems.

For the characters in Seven Soldiers, the JLA are gods and even one meeting with them can put you on the convention circuit for years. I think it's more interesting to read about the struggles of ordinary people to become great than reading about great people being great, so I was more drawn to Seven Soldiers. However, once you understand what Morrison's doing with the book, it's a lot easier to enjoy it. Reading this book is all about just enjoying the over the top action, ridiculous concepts and imagery that Grant puts forth.

Grant worked on JLA concurrently with The Invisibles and the book itself feels a lot like Invisibles volume two. The texture of the pages and the quality of the art has a lot in common with Jiminez era Invisibles. Grant has talked about how similar ideas wound up in both works, filtered through their different lenses, particularly in the upcoming Rock of Ages. But, it's just notable to return to the era of that work and get a glimpse of where Grant's mind was at.

The best moments of the series are the really pop moments where we get to see the ridiculous cool of our main heroes. Page 1.3 is a great example of this, a bunch of b-list heroes are scrambling, but on the bottom of the page, calmly moving in we see Superman and are informed that "The big guy's on the case." I think it's misguided to try to write Superman as a regular guy, the whole marketing pitch behind Superman Returns was he may be super, but he still hurts. This book acknowledges that Superman is on a totally different level from other superheroes, let alone normal humans, and lets him revel in that greatness. One of the best moments is where he says "This is Superman" and Superman is written in the title font.

Superman is a great character, but the star of the series is undeniably Batman. This incarnation of Batman is basically the ultimate ninja special ops guy, Jack Bauer on crack. The character is so nasty, he manages to be mofre effective at fighting people than any of the superpowered people on the team.

The thing that Morrison manages to do really well is give each member of the team an iconic moment that makes you understand how far above ordinary people they are. There's the great scene where the Flash opens a lock instantly, Green Lantern asks him how he knew the combination and Flash says I just tried a thousand different combinations until I got to the one that worked. This guy thinks in a totally different way than ordinary people and I imagine Morrison thinking all the time about unique uses for these peoples' powers.

The major issue I have with the arc is the fact that I think it'd be more exciting to have the Hyperclan come in and actually show up the JLA and be proactive in changing the world, rather than turn out to be rather stock villains. The design on the Hyperclan hasn't aged well and it's odd to see a duplicate of The Invisibles' Boy, only with much larger breasts. The story is rather prescient in presenting an Authority-esque superhero team to challenge the old JLA. I'm guessing that the story is meant to be a meta narrative designed to justify the JLA's place in the world. These new Image style heroes can come in and kill people, but ultimately their heroism is a shallow ineffecient one against the real power and moral authority of the JLA. Their solutions are ineffective in the long term, just like no matter how many new comic books come out, the characters in the JLA will almost always outlast the new trendy characters.

But, at the same time it's a bit odd for Morrison to be promoting the conservative, institutional heroes at the JLA over these proactive guys with new ideas. The Hyperclan have more in common with The Invisibles than the JLA does. But, he does always return to the breaking down of dualism. So, this story shows that reckless shows of surface change aren't lasting, as Superman says, you can't force people to become better, they have to do it on themselves, the JLA are just a security measure there to protect people when they fall. So, this is Morrison creating a vision of a utopian policeforce, one that is there to help people grow, not hold them back.

JLA feels less distinctly Morrison than the vast majority of his works. When Morrison started New X-Men there was the sense of a vast change in the universe to date. I haven't read much other JLA, but this feels much more like an amping up of what was already there than a reinvention. He's not out to reinvent the wheel here, rather he's hoping to tell the craziest, poppest superhero stories possible and I think he succeeds.

The read will continue and I'll be blogging it all. So, look for thoughts on American Dreams soon.

Related Posts
Seaguy (4/9/2005)
Seven Soldiers: Wrap Up (6/28/2006)
JLA: Classified #1-3 (7/16/2006)

Altman's Images

At first it started out as Altman week, then I bumped it up to Altman month, but I'm thinking that this may have to be the Summer of Altman! The man's made a lot of films, so I'll have plenty to see to carry me through the next month and a half. Yesterday's stop on the summer of Altsanity was Images, a film that comes from the same weird dreamy mold as 3 Women.

This film is far removed from what's typically considered Altmanesque, there's no overlapping dialogue and only five people in the entire cast. You'd be hard pressed to find a minute of Nashville with only five people in it. I hadn't heard much about this dreamy Altman stuff and it's fascinating to discover these films because they're so ambiguous and challenging. Images takes place in an entirely subjective world, we're immersed in Cathryn's mind and see all her delusions and hallucinations. The film has a lot of horror elements and some impressive scares, but it works because it remains more interested in depicting the character's struggle than scaring the audience. A lot of unsuccessful films fail because they're trying to appeal to the audience rather than staying true to the characters' story. This is particularly true in comedies and horror movies where there's an easy measure of audience reaction. If people aren't laughing or scared, you could think that your film is a failure, or it could mean that the film works on a more subtle level than typical genre fare.

I read an article in the New York Times magazine Sunday about horror films and in it, the Pang brothers were talking about how American audiences need to everything explained. In most of these new wave Asian horror films there is no logical explanation for what happens. A film like The Ring has a great setup, but there's no satisfying answer for the film's mysteries. So, the joy of the film has to be in just experiencing the horror rather than seeking an answer. However, the fact that there's no way to make the horror element make sense doesn't mean that the character arcs shouldn't make sense. A film like A Tale of Two Sisters doesn't fail because the story makes little sense, it fails because the filmmaker puts scares ahead of logical character development. That's the sort of film that could work if it was made by a supreme stylist like Wong Kar-Wai, where the film's so beautiful you don't even care if it makes character or narrative sense. However, it was not.

Anyway, Altman's Images has a lot in common with recent Asian horror films. I think the first appearance of Rene in their apartment is a great scare moment and the overmodulated uniquely 70s sound of Cathryn's scream is viscerally disturbing. However, the film is more about exploring Cathryn's psychosis. She is filled with guilt for cheating on her husband, this guilt is manifested in the hallucination of Rene. Whenever she's alone, this guilt plagues her, blurring the line between fantasy and reality.

Cathryn's vivid imagination is evidenced by the film's narration, a story about a unicorn that she most likely made up during her summers up at the cabin alone when she was younger. Because they're in such an isolated place, her sense of internal tumult is magnified. Everyone she runs into ties into a memory, a piece of her psyche that she doesn't necessarily want to deal with.

Rene lingers in her mind, distracting her from her relationship with Hugh and also magnifying Hugh's inadequecies. When she shoots Rene, she shoots a camera, the instrument used to preserve images. Clearly she's trying to rid herself of unwanted memories, however it's not so easy. Marcel remains, offering her the chance to cheat in the present. By the film's end, she's killing all the hallucinations, trying to lay waste to her demons, and she does that to the hallucination of Marcel.

While at the cabin, Cathryn meets Susannah, a younger incarnation of herself. Meeting Susannah puts her back in the fantasy mindset she held when she was younger, and she turns reality into a stage to play out the imagined narrative. A critical line is when Susannah says that if she doesn't have any friends, she'll make some up to play with. That's essentially what Cathryn has done, create fictional versions of people she knows as a way to deal with her emotional issues.

However, Susannah becomes delusional enough by the end that she sees Hugh as a version of herself and kills him. Her reality and interior world has merged, leading her to believe that she can murder people without consequence. I feel like the version of herself that's also Hugh is meant to be her personal weakness. Hugh is constantly shown as less manly and mature than her other men, a boyish American rather than the European men. Also, she clearly feels that she's remaining weak and allowing Hugh to cheat on her, so all her weakness is mixed up in this version of herself. By killing it, she thinks she can overcome her problems and become stronger, however, she's so gone at this point that she can't tell the difference between reality and delusion.

I don't think the film is as successful as 3 Women, though it was clearly a stopping point on the road to that film. Both films deal with shifting identities in a dreamlike world. The film that this really reminded me of is Lynch's Lost Highway. Both films feature a hero trapped in a lifeless marriage who wanders into a psychological dreamworld built on guilt and shame. Images has a bunch of interesting stylistic touches, the dream montage when Cathryn stands outside the door and the opening with the shifting Cathryns when they first get to the cabin.

I also like the way Altman plays with identity by having all the characters named after other actors in the movie. So, Susannah York plays Cathryn and Cathryn Harrison plays Susannah. I'd imagine it was a confusing set, but it's an interesting meta commentary on the shifting of identities involved in acting.

So, this was another great Altman film. The man was doing all kinds of stuff in the 70s. Next up in my Altman journey will be California Split. And as a bonus, here's my ranking of all the Altman films I've seen.

Nashville
McCabe and Mrs. Miller
3 Women
MASH
A Prarie Home Companion
Images
Short Cuts
The Long Goodbye
The Player
Popeye

Related Posts
Short Cuts (6/10/2005)
McCabe and Mrs. Miller (5/11/2006)
Nashville (7/7/2006)

Elysian Fields @ Joe's Pub

I don't know what an Elysian Fields show would be like at a larger venue like Irving Plaza. Most bands who play live are trying to psych you up, get a big reaction from the crowd, make you sing along and get involved. If your audience just stood there silent, you'd probably be doing something wrong. However, at an Elysian Fields show, that rapt silence is the default mode while they're playing, followed by clapping after they finish. The audience isn't wrapped up in the music becuase they're doing so much, rather it's the minimalism, the skillful playing that draws you into the world of their songs.

This show was even more restrained than the show at Tonic in March. For some songs that worked well, others I found could have used a little bit more. At this show, they played almost exclusively from Bum Raps and Love Taps, their newest album. There was a bit off Dreams that Breathe Your Name, and I don't think anything off of the first two albums. In addition, there were a couple of new tracks, including one they also played at the Tonic show that's about "A Dirty Rotten Bastard who turns you on." That song is a bit more cabaret than their other stuff and it would be interesting to see them go in that direction on a whole album.

The way they were set up here, everything was built around Jennifer's vocals. She carried almost every song, with only occasional moments when the piano and guitar were spotlighted. The highlight of the show was "Passing on the Stairs," with Oren and Jennifer together on vocals backed by an accordian. If I have one complaint about their live show it's that I'd like a drummer backing them on all the tracks, not just occasionally when Oren plays drums. That would make it sound a bit fuller, as it does on the recordings. I wouldn't want heavy drums, rather just something to contribute to the mood they've already created so expertly.

But, the show still works great without that. I like the fact that they keep the focus on the music, rather than on showmanship. Their music creates a moody world and seeing them live lets you get lost in that world.

Related Posts
Lovage: Music to Make Love to Your Old Lady By (11/19/2004)
Elysian Fields @ Tonic (3/18/2006)

Weekend Update

Elysian Fields

I'm heading into the city tonight to see Elysian Fields. I saw them back in March and it was fantastic, I'll write it up after I return tonight.

Comic-Con

The biggest comic book event of the year is going on right now, the San Diego Comicon. The biggest news for me is about Grant Morrison's new projects. When I heard he was revamping The Authority I wasn't too excited. The concept feels a bit 2000 and I was never a huge fan of the characters. However, his new take is brilliant, the Authority go through a dimensional warp and wind up in our world. Then, they set about to change our world for the better, one person at a time. Morrison's usually all about Silver Age craziness, so it's interesting to hear him talking about doing a very realistic series, even incorporating some Soderbergh style. This concept seems to be taken from the end of JLA: Classified, in which the Ultramarines were sent into a world without superheroes. It'll probably be at least a year before it turns up in trade, but I'm still psyched.

Seven Soldiers #1

In other Morrison news, Seven Soldiers #1 has finally been scheduled for release, October 25. It's a long wait, but in the long run it's worth it. I wouldn't want another Igor Kordey on New X-Men job. I'll probably reread the whole series before the release of #1.

Clerks II

I haven't gotten a chance to see Clerks II yet, but I'm going to get there soon and I'll write it up when I do. I rewatched the original Clerks and was a bit underwhelmed. The acting is so awful at some points and a lot of the jokes are very obvious. Jeff Anderson and Jason Mewes save the film however. Mewes is clearly the most talented, natural performer in the film. He's always funny even in the otherwise really weak Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back. Smith has only made one really great movie and that's Chasing Amy, it's still in my all time top 20. The transition from extremely funny comedy to emotionally devestating drama is seamless.

A Scanner Darkly Revisit

I rewatched A Scanner Darkly a few days ago. I really liked the film, but it doesn't match up to the best of Linklater's work. I love the stuff in the house, but the scenes at the police station, with the scramble suits, are less satisfying. It's meant to show the way that these scramble suits remove any individuality, but they also make it very difficult to emotionally relate to the characters. However, the film does close on a wonderful note, Keanu's delivery of "A present for my friends, at Thanksgiving" makes it sound like he's just discovered the key to the universe. Here's my ranking of all Linklater's work:

Waking Life
Before Sunset
Before Sunrise
Dazed and Confused
School of Rock
A Scanner Darkly
Suburbia
Slacker
Tape
Bad News Bears
The Newton Boys

New Gods

I've been reading Jack Kirby's New Gods series. I got the trade because I wanted to better understand Morrison's Mister Miracle series. The book is full of crazy ideas and generally holds up. There's some goofiness, like the constant use of exclamation points and the exposition focused dialogue. Every issue it seemed that Victor Lanza would have to state his name and profession. "I'm Victor Lanza, insurance salesman." "Victor Lanza's the name, insurance salesman." "But I'm just a poor insurance salesman, Victor Lanza!" And so on. But, it's very cool to get the background on everything from the previous series. New Gods overwhelming assault of ideas and concepts was clearly a major influence on Morrison himself.

Music

This week I've been listening to the Scissor Sisters' first album a bunch. I'm regretting not going to Siren Festival last week, I would have loved to have seen them live. The album is a great dance-rock record and even the cover of 'Comfortably Numb' is growing on me.

The other album I've been loving is 'A Night on Earth' by Crazy P. Like Daft Punk, their stuff is a perfect fusion of 70s disco with contemporary house. The album is 75 minutes of great songs, but the highlight is the opening track, Lady T. Check out the video here. This video is fantastic as well, though the version of the song used is a remix, not the album version.

Upcoming Dates of Note
7/22 - Elysian Fields at Joe's Pub
7/28 - Miami Vice released
8/3 - New Pornographers at Summerstage
8/7 - Phoenix at Bowery Ballroom (Hopefully)
8/8 - Manderlay on DVD
8/15 - Veronica Mars Season 2 on DVD
8/17 - Gnarls Barkley at Summerstage
8/29 - Arrested Development Season 3 on DVD
9/22 - Science of Sleep Releated
9/24 - The Flaming Lips at Hammerstein
10/13 - The Fountain Released
10/20 - Marie Antoinette Released

Related Posts
A Scanner Darkly (7/6/2006)

Carnivale: 1x02-1x05

In my review of the pilot, I talked about the fact that this series has a very unconventional structure, based more around mood than a traditional plot or character development. Watching a lot of longform TV shows has changed my perception of narrative cinema. With a few notable exceptions, the character development in a 90-120 minute film feels woefully inadaquete next to the richness that comes from many seasons of a TV show. So, I began to see film as more about conveying mood, creating unique visual/emotional moments. The joy isn't in finding out the plot details, it's about enjoying the story as it unfolds and getting lost in the visuals and music. Films like The New World or Wong Kar-Wai's stuff are all about this.

So, watching Carnivale it's interesting to see a TV show that goes for this same feeling. The show draws on the mystery structure that's driven stuff like Twin Peaks and Lost, however what you take away from it isn't so much what happens as you do the dusty ambience of the depression era. The pacing is very relaxed, but I don't see that as a problem, it's refreshing to see a show that doesn't feel the need to give you a cliffhanger every ten minutes. This kind of pacing just wouldn't be possible on a network.

However, there is narrative progress here and things are getting interesting. I really liked seeing Justin build the church out of Mr. Chin's. What seemed like a random pretty dream sequence in the first episode turns out to have a deeper meaning. One of the most powerful scenes here was the sequence in which Justin confronts Templeton with his sin, the two of them seemingly stepping into a parallel dimension. I'm not sure if the black world he finds himself in ties into the black world that Samson was in in the first scene of the series.

That opening monologue set up a confrontation between good and evil, but at this point it isn't clear where Justin and Ben fall on the continuum. Justin seems to be doing good, by creating the church, but he's also clearly got some issues. Ben's clearly got talents, but there's a lot of potential for him to use those talents for selfish ends.

The show's unique because it's got a lot of supernatural stuff in it, but isn't done in a typically sci-fi way. This doesn't feel like a superhero story, rather it's closer to Unbreakable in that the character has extraordinary powers, but lives in an utterly ordinary, even depressing world. The powers here are treated more as a religious experience than something supernatural. The influence of traditional morality is heavy on the series. Ben is someone who grew up in a very traditional environment and is struggling to function in the world of the Carnivale, where traditional social norms do not apply.

So, I'm liking the series, but I'll need to see a couple more episodes before I can go into major discussion of its themes and character.

Related Posts
Carnivale: 'Milfay' (1x01) (7/16/2006)

Freaks and Geeks: 'Discos and Dragons' (1x18)

It's always an odd feeling watching the end of a longform series. In a great show, particularly one cut down before its time, it's difficult to watch knowing that the end of the series world is approaching. I would have loved to seen a second season, but as a finale, this episode is essentially perfect, capturing everything that's great about the series and providing a nice feeling of closure. This is easily the best episode of the series and one of the best series finales ever made.

The episode is all about confronting the characters with their potential futures. Sam, coming off his breakup with Cindy, feels he has the social capital to transcend geek status, he's just about ready to abandon his friends. The episode revisits the strong sense of discontent with high school life present in the first few episodes. The geek storylines frequently drift into comedy and it's nice to see a more serious undercurrent return here.

The real triumph of the episode is in the way the different storylines weave together, with events in one story setting the direction of the others. Daniel's feeling of intellectual inferiority has been a running theme of the series, most notably in "Tests and Breasts," where he gives a speech about the three sections. Lindsay comes to believe that this is just a stock excuse, but the events of later episodes show that Daniel really does have this insecurity, even if he's not quite motivated enough to do anything about it. Now, having failed at everything he tried, he decides to commit himself to actually doing something. One of the best moments in the episode is Sam looking at Daniel learning how to work the projector.

Daniel's interest in AV stuff and Dungeons and Dragons makes Sam reconsider his move away from them. In some respects it's a bit shallow that Sam would change his opinion just because a cool guy showed interest in D&D, but it makes sense. Coming off the experience with Cindy Sanders, he saw that it's no fun moving from the geek world to the popular world, so Daniel moving into the geek world is the ideal for him. It provides him with the social validation he needs to pursue what he really wants.

And it's a great moment when Daniel wins the D&D game. This is the first time we've seen him actually succeed at something and it's also notably the first time that he drops the cool facade he's had throughout the series. Through the role playing game, he's opened up and found his real self. The last time we see Daniel he's going off to get chips and soda, leaving the geeks to ponder if they've become cool or he's become a geek. I wouldn't say they're quite to cool, but what has happened is they've for the first time found someone in another social circle who they actually like hanging out with and he's accepted them for who they are. That's ultimately what they were seeking the whole series, social validation, and now they have it, so it's a bit easier going forward.

This episode is so good that a storyline that great is actually the weakest of the three stories. The Nick disco storyline finds an incredible mix of hilarity and total sadness. Joel Hodgson goes way over the top as the disco manager, but it works, his facial expression in the first shot of the episode is totally unreal, going so far you just have to laugh. This story looks a low rent Boogie Nights and made me want to see a film starring Jason Segal and John C. Reilly as 70s disco dancers.

And like Boogie Nights, the 70s clothes and music is surface fun on top of a heavy, sad core. Nick is clearly still in love with Lindsay, but has chosen to fully embrace a relationship with Sara, taking up disco dancing to make her happy. With her, he's making all the changes he should have done for Lindsay, stop smoking pot, do what she's interested in. I love the scene where they're dancing in Nick's basement and his not quite convincing claim that he's over Lindsay, and Sara always calling Ken "Kenny" is great.

However, the genius of this story lies in the final conversation between Nick and Lindsay. On the commentary for this episode, Paul Feig talks about the fact that the best writing is all about characters not saying what they mean. Nick and Lindsay have a lot of issues between them, but they don't actually talk about any of it. But, because we know what's between them, we're aware of everything that's going on and when Lindsay walks away, it's clear the Nick may still want her, but he'll never have her. The best shot in the entire series is the tracking shot following Nick into the dance contest. It's a perfect blend of image, music and emotion. The way the light turns blue on him, the slight slow motion and Sara out of focus behind him tells us everything we need to know. Brilliant.

Nick's anger in the dance contest is what makes the scene so effective. It's certainly hilarious, but it also shows us just how mad this guy is. And the subsequent bit with Eugene is one of the funniest things they've ever done. For Nick, the series ends with him looking out, overwhelmed. He's with Sara, but he's also aware that the person he really loved just walked out on him. Of all the characters, he's got the bleakest ending.

The other storyline in the episode forces Lindsay to finally confront her identity. The whole series has dealt with the idea that she's just posing as a freak when in reality, she's still just like Millie. She may claim to be the same as Daniel or Kim, but everyone still holds her to the standards of an A student. The Academic Summit forces her to confront this, the event is something that she "should" be going to, it's an event for smart people to put on their resume to help get into college, and the idea that she wouldn't want to go is alien to a culture that's wholly built around getting into college and excelling academically.

Her parents feel it's ridiculous for her to even consider not going to the summit, but they're ignorant of the fact that Lindsay's discontent with the system is more than adolescent posturing. She is forced to choose between two weeks of academic competition or a week and a half of seeing shows, and she chooses to embrace her freak side, doing what she wants rather than what others expect of her.

The scene with Lindsay at the bus stop is powerful, primarily because we know that we're leaving these characters forever. Lindsay might be back in two weeks, but we never will and that's what lingers. As she leaves on the bus, so do we. And the final scene is a great moment because for the first time we see Lindsay totally happy. She takes off the nice jacket, puts on the army jacket and fully embraces the identity she has chosen.

To some degree, the last episode of Six Feet Under has made every other series finale a bit unsatisfying. That episode gave you everything you want to know allowing for a smooth break from the universe. While not so sweeping, this episode does give you a similar smooth journey out of the universe. I'd have loved to seen more, but I don't really need it. Part of that is because the show isn't concerned with huge plot and character arcs, we've just taken a look in on these people at this moment in their lives, and they will continue after the show is over. There's no loose ends, it's just a world that will continue, but going out on the series' best episode makes it a lot easier to move on.

The show has some flaws, but on the whole, it's one of the most uniquely realistic series ever made. It's easy to see yourself in the characters, and more than any other piece of fiction, this captures a lot of the reality of high school life. And, though it was cut down early, these eighteen episodes are a perfect snapshot of this world. They told the story they set out to tell and it resulted in one of the great TV series of all time.

Related Posts
Freaks and Geeks: 'Pilot' (1x01) (6/26/2006)
Freaks and Geeks: 'Smooching and Mooching' (1x16) (7/15/2006)

JLA Classified #1-3

Going through Seven Soldiers, I came across a bunch of references to Grant's JLA Classified arc, which served as a prelude to the series. So, having read all the Seven Soldiers stuff, I figured it was time to go back and see where it all began. Plus, I'll read anything Morrison does, so it was worth a look.

However, the one Morrison extended run I never got into was JLA. I'm not familiar enough with the DC Universe to follow a lot of what's going on. I'm going to go back and read the entire run through soon, but Classified has both what worked and what didn't in his previous JLA run.

The big issue with Morrison's work on JLA, and the JLA in general, is that these aren't so much characters as icons. As Superman Returns showed, it's very difficult to have narrative tension in a story about a guy who's got virtually no flaws, throw in six more similarly powered people and it's impossible to do a traditional narrative. Also, these aren't characters who develop and go through arcs, they just exist as what they are. This is a major difference from Morrison's work on X-Men, and the Marvel Universe in general, the X-Men are characters who can change, Superman is an icon who remains the same.

So, in building this story, Morrison uses the Ultramarines to create some actual tension. I don't know who these people are, but because they're not the iconic JLA, there is the chance that some bad stuff could happen to them. So, you can have a fairly normal narrative structure with them, they're battling Gorilla Grodd, a rather ridiculous foe, but a threatening one nonetheless.

The reason that Seven Soldiers worked so well is that all those characters are expendable, and also subject to change. The beauty of each Seven Soldiers miniseries is watching the character go through a trial and either claim the role of hero or reject it. There is change and growth for all involved. A JLA story can't do this, so once the main crew shows up the joy of the story is in watching these ridiculously powerful people in action.

I enjoyed the read, I don't think it's one of Morrison's stronger pieces, but I feel like I better understand how to approach the series than I did back when I read snippets of his previous JLA run. It's all about getting lost in the over the top craziness of events and just accepting everything that happens. The main villain is a giant gorilla, and that's one of the saner parts of this story.

The coolest concept in this series is the idea of the JLA being stranded in a world without superheroes. This ties into Flex Mentallo's idea that to escape danger, superheroes hid themselves in our fiction. QWEWQ is likely an analogue for our own reality, I love the idea that the JLA would just bounce through our world, it's just one piece of this massive cosmic reality that they exist in. This ties back into Morrison's idea of hypertime, that time flows like a river and certain universes branch off. So, our reality is just a branch on the river that they move through as well.

This would be interesting enough on its own, but the infant universe is also where the series ties in with the meta-plot of Seven Soldiers. Reading this arc reinforces the coolness of a shared fictional universe. Most stories are self contained, they happen and end. In the DCU you can read the whole Seven Soldiers series then branch out and see how these characters connect to others. It makes it feel like witnessing events from a parallel universe, something Morrison has talked about with his claim that he wants to make the DC Universe sentient. I'm not sure what he meant by that exactly, but I feel like it's commenting on the fact that this universe just moves forward, individual people can contribute ideas, but the universe as a whole is more than just the sum of its individual parts, the sheer weight of stories combines to create a universe that operates by its own rules.

This series gives us our first glimpse of the Sheeda mosquito soldiers. Looking at this in the overall scheme of things, the Sheeda used this moment to test the capabilities of the Earth heroes before beginning their invasion. Ironically, this test may be the thing that ultimately brings about their destruction.

Qwewq is an infant universe, its adult form is Neh-Buh-Loh, beloved Seven Soldiers villain. He's here as an observer and leaves when the test is done. Presumably what happens is Qwewq matures over time and finally becomes an adult sometime in the distant future, at which point the Sheeda have outlasted humans and rule the world. So, he is put to work for Gloriana and sent back in time to observe the JLA in preparation for the upcoming razing of this world.

However, as we see in Frankenstein #4, Neh-Buh-Loh is flawed. In his infant form, he's inhabited by the Black Death, the seed that would lead Neh-Buh-Loh to evil. However, to counteract that, the JLA places the Ultramarines into this world. Their influence is presumably what leads him to spare Misty and send her back in time to Zatanna, and they are also what ultimately weakens Neh-Buh-Loh so that Frankenstein can kill him.

If Misty does play a major role in defeating Gloriana, as I'm guessing/hoping she will, then the Ultramarines will have played a critical role in defeating the Sheeda. It's totally crazy stuff and even though this arc has some issues, you have to admire the sheer torrent of ideas Morrison puts forth in here. I can think of no one in film or TV doing the kind of crazy cosmic stuff that Morrison pulls off here. It works on its own, but it's particularly interesting to me because of the Seven Soldiers connection. The October solicitations are out tomorrow and I'm really hoping that Seven Soldiers #1 is on there, I need to get the conclusion of this story.

In the shorter term, I'll be readiing the whole Morrison JLA run pretty soon, and I'll blog that. And reading this and Seven Soldiers made me want to read 52, so once that comes out in trade, I'll pick it up. I hear it features appearances by Zatanna, Animal Man and some other Morrison characters, the chance to check in and see what's up with them makes it worth reading.

Related Posts
Seven Soldiers: Post Index (6/28/2006)