X-Men Teh Anime – Better than the general concept has any right to be

Grandma, what a big....arm span you haveLook who showed up

NOTE: This show is two episodes in at the time of review.

This show is far better than its other Marvel anime predescessors Wolverine and Iron Man, but that’s hardly a great feat. Now, since Wolverine is better than Iron Man (which not only had bad Stark characterization but mysteriously transported him to Japan to pair with an annoying genki girl for no good reason), one might deduce that the production teams are learning from their mistakes as they go along. I’m not too sure how valid that reasoning is, because I think all three shows were done in parallel at least in terms of general conceptualization. Still, what IS clear is that X-Men not only has a better character designer, the animation budget on display so far seems more well padded as well, which makes the first 2 eps a real treat especially when everything X-Men was previously under the aegis of western animators. I think the best explanation that fits the facts is that this particular series is meant to drum up momentum for the upcoming First Class film, which would explain the bigger resources used.

The show leverages on the Whedon created character Armor, who due to her Japanese ancestry makes for a easy (and plausible) plot reason to move the X-Men team to Japan on a rescue mission. (For obvious practical reasons this is a general requirement to bankroll this project, like with the two other sister shows) In this continuity she hasn’t met any of the senior X-Men before being swirled up in the U-Men main plot, who are the boogeys here. The series jumpstarts a bit from the end of the movie franchise with the death of Jean Grey, and retains the annoying Emoclops Summers from the same source. Now complaining about writers mauling Scott’ in mainstream Marvel continuity is a lost cause, some fans are still bitter with the shacking up with Emma, but generally speaking the Scott of the anime is the worst offender in terms of character assassination for the poor guy since the Dark Phoenix saga. If you get me, a notorious Lamerine (see?) hater, siding with the furry Canadian over Mr Optic Man it just goes to show how far the character has sunk. Now, anime shows have no issue with emotastic main leads, but it’s generally hard to carry the writing concept for a Western-centric franchise. Team dynamic stories do tend to ride this kind of development better though, so let’s hope he snaps out of it, especially with Ms Frost appearing. Then again, considering how Frost is used in the plot here, it might make things worse.

There are other minor things to point out, such as Storm being way too genteel or seriously nerfed in the powers department, all significant problems for a character that de facto led the X-Men for long stretches in the 00 years. Now, I have a sinking suspicion that all these changes are due to the traditional Japanese writer mindset, as presumably Frost is there to round out the tough nails girl quota and everyone with ovaries has to be written otherwise to please the otakus back home. This might be fatal down the road, or it might not. Still, Wolverine, Beast and ol’ Xavier are pretty spot on, which is encouraging. I found particular amusement in Wolverine, since he’s pretty much Takamura from Hajime no Ippo in terms of writing and acting, which is due to them sharing the same voice actor. (I was half-expecting the DYNAMITE PUNCHCLAWS song) In terms of the technical aspects, I’m pleased to see episode 2 maintaining the level of art design and animation, which gives me hope the quality won’t fall off a cliff by mid-show. Hopefully this will be the one gem that allows more superhero shows from the West to crossover into the Japanese animation world, and usher in more quality efforts in the future.

UPDATE: I was making ribald jokes on Emma having obtained a Better Bodies mod, but turns out there’s precedent in mainstream Marvel products. Ah well, she’s pretty much the rich man’s Power Girl now. Or a rich man’s ojou, judging from the cliche hair twirls.

Now then, can someone do the same for Greg Land?

This. is. really. amazing. to watch. We’re witnessing someone with very low levels of morality going about his business. Amongst the many, MANY fake items in his portfolio is the claim that he actually worked on Calvin and Hobbes. Not only is this the most laughable lie ever, the sheer chutzpah of that claim, considering that C&H has a far larger fanbase than most comics and most fans are familiar with Watterson’s rather unique views towards artistic merchandising, is breathtaking in its audacity. There is a lot of divided opinion on whether he’s clever (for pulling the scam successfully for this long) or stupid (for having the scam being so utterly dependent on the credulity, ignorance and sheer apathy of his victims), but my personal opinion is that the mentality of the small-time shyster/gambler is responsible, because once something bold works, you’re inclined to repeat it and perhaps even escalate it many times once you become increasingly convinced of your invulnerability and/or cleverness. The psychology of crowds also plays a part, because it’s far more likely a solitary person witnessing an accident will call the police, as opposed to a crowd of 20-30 gawkers. And the crowd doesn’t get bigger than at a convention.

Now that the gig is up, his Deviantart page has been closed after being mercilessly swamped by unforgiving trollage. His personal site is also down for the count. It’s probably for the better, since the quality of his commision items is really hard to reconcile with his claimed body of work. I think someone said it best that Granito would have gone without any fear of comeuppance if he haunted Etsy instead, considering the rather blasé attitude that site has towards mass producers and out and out design-stealing fraudsters, like Regretsy has repeatedly shown. But it’s probably beyond his meagre artistic skills to manage more than a tracing, considering most of the craft peddled on Etsy is of the 3D variant.

UPDATE: Hey hey, someone mirrored his site.

Will the REAL Wonder Woman please stand up?

Just a small followup to my fellow blogger’s post on this, it seems NBC has a slight functional sense of shame and has revamped the costume, somewhat. Still this is all just turd polishing when the basic work of finding the right actress has been screwed up so horribly, because there is no way Palicki resembles the Rucka-era Wonder Woman, probably the sole reason the character picked up popularity this decade.

The original costume was so ridiculous that it got massively panned by anyone with vaguely functional eyes, but it’s made even sadder when the problems could have been mitigated if they had given any thought at all to the costume during the brainstorming process. It had the worst of both worlds, basically taking the current alternative costume used now on JMS’ run in the comic (which to be fair, had a mixed reaction too, but it was nowhere near the kerfuffle NBC received for their attempt), but changing the costume in terms of coloring and highlights to try to appeal to classic fans. As usual, it pleased no one.

After the shock at seeing the costume for the first time died down, fans consoled themselves with thought exercises in trying to find an optimal design, where the most promising ideas usually came from cosplayers and convention folks. Others lamented on what could be with various other actresses in the role, such as Cobie Smulders, who clearly is a better fit for the Adam Hughes ideal than Palicki.

Needless to say, all this ranting is rather academic, and serves only to allow the fandom to blow off steam. The show is almost assured of bombing, since they can neither get the costume, main character casting nor the choice of director right. Still NBC is desperate, and more importantly, committed at this late stage, which just serves to give the coming trainwreck a tragicomic quality.

New era in more ways than one at Marvel?

Axel Alonso’s promotion to editor-in-chief at Marvel slipped me by. Still, I cannot understand anyone actually defending outgoing Quesada’s reign as EIC at Marvel….any rebounding of company fortunes has more to do with the shrewd handling of the film franchise rights of Marvel properties rather than any outstanding work done on the actual comics for the main part. Even beyond the large picture stuff like allowing Bendis to almost singlehandedly destroy the X-Men material with House of M as well as the string of Avengers-centric mega-event fiascos that followed, the man was responsible for some pretty odious stuff like his support of the Greg Land Formerly Known as an Artist(tm) (complete with hilarious admission of his light box mastery.) Most importantly, and the biggest bugbear for Spidey fans, his unleashing of One More Day/Brand New Day was one of the most spectacularly hamfisted (say would say childishly spiteful) attempts at retconning in the recent history of mainstream Western comics.

So, I guess the main point is that Axel Alonso can hardly do any worse. A lot of people point to his tenure as X-Men editor, but the majority of the damage was already done before he took over and its clear Marvel’s focus has shifted from the X-Men as the main selling point for the company. There’s also a two-way feedback loop involved with the film projects, with the X-Men films generally seen as taking a hit in quality from X3 onwards and being propped up by Wolverine, which ironically used to be a strong, legitimate concern that was laid at the door of the comic properties. There is also suspicion that readers were burnt out on the mutant equality premise, which was rehashed so many times that it seemed near-necromantic.

Going forward post-Siege Marvel is making things simple with the Heroic Age material, and while reactions are mixed the approach is probably more beneficial for attracting new readers rather than stimulating the entrenched fanbase. Alonso will probably have his work cut out for him, and he is/was heavily involved in the HA conceptualization so this is an important test for the company going forward.

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And what a time it is for this to coincide with their falling off the movie gravy-train…

Yes, it was the comics equivalent of a black hole, in case this is your first year into reading stuff from the Big 2.

The sad, sad situation of DC trying their mega-event sales pitch is the same response from Marvel (the trifecta of House of M, Civil War and [later]World War Hulk), and bhoi, was the execution FUBARed totally. With House of M, at least it was a simple concept structured correctly and decently plotted, albeit somewhat of a pointless exercise. CW, on the other hand, is a massive clusterfuck that shits on decades on characterization (or more bluntly, assassination) and doesn’t even give the reader the courtesy of a proper payoff. There’s also the salient fact that Spidey might really have jumped the shark as a concept, and there’s the unpalatable suggestion of YET another hammed-up ressurection down the line.

If someone had told me 6-7 months ago that Marvel could fuck up worse than DC did with ICrisis, I would have shaken my head sadly and patronized the talking loon. There’s really no sugar-coating it, unless WWH does massive retconning or our favorite green basher rends our new Director of S.H.I.E.L.D limb from limb, we’ll looking at a box full of turds here. Ironically, the gravy-train that DC launched (and what probably invoked CW as a response), 52, is doing reasonably well as a vehicle that’s refreshingly Supes, Bats or Diana free. Pretty decent fare, by normal DC or Marvel standards, that is. Folks are not exactly expecting Ross+Waid, merely hoping for a better effort than SHIT-.

P.S: I certainly wouldn’t want to the person screening Millar’s “fan” mail. Maybe Bush can appoint him Director of Comics Affairs?

P.P.S: Don’t read Frontline unless you like the idea of Cap being pissed upon, to add insult to injury. Well done, Marvel.

“Somebody should come up with parody blogs for superheroes…”

Not like its an entirely original idea, but here we go.

Hulk
Small child throw stones at Hulk. Call Hulk ugly. Hulk sad.

Batman
Ran drug dealing scum off the piers. Harvey seems normal…for now. Tim filling out nicely.

Peter Parker
Called out Felicia’s name during sex with MJ…she wouldn’t listen. Now I’m sleeping on the cold, cold floor.

Robin
He’s looking at me in THAT way. Again.

Reed Richards
I…I think Susan has a thing for that aquatic creep. Are not my abilities enough for her?

Frank Castle
Scum killed so far: 573. Must remember to update counter tommorrow.

The Atom
Rode in Wonder Woman’s bosom again. Doesn’t suspect a thing. A superhero’s life is full of peaks and troughs….currently it’s all peaks. Hehe.

Batgirl
Tried a Pinky and the Brain joke on Batman today. Not even a twitch, sigh.

Wonder Woman
Clark hitting on me again, jerk. Felt his x-ray vision.

Got tied up again today. Cursed Lasso kept slipping out of my fingers…Clark suggests it might be a subconscious reflex. Must explore this with Cassandra when we are alone.

Alfred
I caught Master Bruce trying to sneak into Master Grayson’s room again. Twice in a week…I better call Miss Kyle before things go further.

Jean Grey
Was Logan’s pheromones that made me do it.

Optimus Prime
Running low on energon…again. Contingency plan: cannibalize Bumblebee.

Tony Stark
Note to self, change underwear before suiting up.

Aquaman
Talked to the squid again. BORIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIING! Been waiting for the JLA signal for weeks….still nothing.

Galactus
Ate a small moon…it was barely filling. Surfer was whining as usual, he never stops. Ever. SO AGGRAVATING! He started crying when I called him chromedome again, like I care about his feelings.

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Amazon Swag: November 2006

My Amazon order arrived late last week. I am a happy and contented man.

Clockwise from top left, a pair of Ayreon albums, “Into the Electric Castle” and “Actual Fantasy Revisited”, Frameshift “An Absence of Empathy”, “Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence After the Long Goodbye” and the pièce de résistance, “The Absolute Sandman, Volume 1”.