A Lightkeeper's Log

Interesting month for Marvel as they're rolling out their new "Now!" line. The angle seems to be "Comic should be fun," with Hulk, Iron Man and Cap all tending towards adventure titles rather then Noir, A+X rather than AvX, and women everywhere. Look at all those women! Women writing things, women drawing things women leading titles. Okay, so it's no where near parity, and really the total of female-characters leading books is three, but still, on ward and up ward, says I!

( MARVEL )

( DC AND DARKHORSE )

The plan was for me to come up and cover for a couple of days until they could find someone else. Then they found someone else. Then the whole coast disappeared into a fog bank. To conclude, I'm here until Monday. At least. Fortunately, I've made arrangements so that food wouldn't be a problem. In retrospect (and I kind knew this all along) it was silly to try to get back home in just a couple of days, but I wanted to see the friends that were visiting from Monday to Friday. Oh well.

In happier news, it looks like interesting things are happening in Ults right now. I hate it when they do this kind of thing in 616, as they always have to boot back to status quo so in the end none of it means anything, but Ults tends to have fall out. Also, they've said the PoV characters are Steve, Miles and Kitty, so \o/.

I was thinking again last night that I really wanted an on the ground PoV piece for the MCU. Especially after Avengers. I don't think that one super soldier in WWII, or a guy in a flying metal suit massively changes the world, and I can see SHIELD hushing up Thor the first time around, but a giant green rage monster fighting a giant blue rage monster and smushing Harlem, and then a full on alien invasion in midtown Manhattan (that killed hundreds if not thousands and caused upwards of $70 billion in property damage) makes the world a very different place then it was before. As the article mentions, for insurance purposes "there is even the potential to classify the event as an 'act of God,' though that designation would be subject to strenuous theological and legal debate."

I know Marvel is doing a short with SHIELD agents trying to find all the bits of alien tech.

(Though to be honest, I just really want White Collar crossover where NYC goes boom in the six weeks Neal is missing, and he rushes home to make sure Peter is all right.)

I realise that I didn't ever do a post on the music festival. It was fantastic all around, I discovered a bunch of new bands, and saw some old favourites. The weather was too hot in the day and too cold at night (we were camping), but there was always swimming in the river and huddling together for warmth.

I've been thinking a lot about the k.d. lang show, and why it worked as well as it did. Part of it is, of course, that she has an absolutely heart-stopping voice and the ability to make it do exactly what she wants, but I think more than that is her stage presence, and what that means. Here is a woman who is something like middle aged, not especially good looking by conventional standards (which are fucked up), somewhat androgenous in dress and presentation, kind of a goofy dancer, singing music in a slightly dated style (she did a couple of Tony Bennett songs that fit right in with the show). There are so many things about her that should be your mum average, but it's not. She completely pwns, and it's not in denial of any of the above, it's completely accepting all of that and saying, Fuck you, societal norms; I'm awesome! And she is. She utterly is. She's out and gay and fabulous, and she wants everyone to know it but doesn't care what they think, and it's just... That's me, up on stage will a million-dollar smile, a voice to die for, and the audience eating out of the palm of my hand. She's so charming, it's alarming how charming I feel.

I'm up to Volume Six of Fullmetal Alchemist and loving it so far. I tried One Piece a while ago, and didn't really connect with it, but this is great. It's got a lovely blend of angst, humour, charm, social commentary and intrigue. I'm pretty much totally invested in all the characters, and what's going to happen next. I've been assured that Roy Mustang is the best, but I don't think I've gotten far enough in to tell. Onward.

Comics this week (ones I couldn't stand to wait to hit town for anyway): Daredevil #15 and Captain Marvel #1. Both, solid, emotionally resounding superhero comics that had angst and joy and humour all in one. They should be handed out and taught.
DD: My reactions on reading (based on what was happening to the character, not a reflection on the writing (though that and the art were amazing)): D: D: D: D: >:[ D: D: :'( :'( ((((MATT)))) -holds breath- .... .... :D :D :D \o/ \o/ \o/ I <3 U, Tony! :D Oh. Fuck. D:
When was the last time you did that reading a 22-page floppy?

CM: Generally I loved it. Carol was just such a badass, and not in a Strong Female Character kind of way, in a brash, vain, resilient, compassionate fighter jock kind of way. She felt like a real person with real friends, and real hear-aches, and I loved her mentor (a new character and you really should check out Kelly Sue DeConnick's literary and real life inspirations for this comic, and Legacies by twtd about said mentor). The monologue at the end may have made me tear up a bit. My only two quibbles were: Too much Spider-Man, they get time together in his comic, and it felt tacked on here, and the colouring was kind of... idk ghoulish? Not a good match with the rest of the art.

Sitting this week out on Master and Commander reread. I read the chapter, but didn't feel up to commenting. We'll see how I feel next week.

The last two weeks of Continuum (not today's episode, which I have not yet seen) have really picked up the show's game. It was great before, but now it feels like the plots starting to hurtle towards the season (series?) finale. The grey areas are growing, master plans are moving forward, and everyone is gearing up for... something. My only quibble is the way police discipline was treated last week. I tend to give cop shows a pass because they're only tangentially connected to reality at best, but somehow having it be the VPD hits me harder. I really don't want to see them being so casual about such things. They've got in enough shit for it in RL lately, that this makes me go :/ at the heroes rather than root for them. Hopefully they will clean up their act in future.

So I watched The Eagle and rather liked it. The plot was pretty light, there were a few too many battle scenes, and a bit too much running about, and the Iraq allegory near the start might have been slightly heavy handed? I guess it's as good a short hand for "empire" as any. Given all that, the story completely rests on the relationship between Marcus and Esca, and they totally sold it. I thought both actors were excellent, and I don't really know why CT gets ragged on so much, and man, all my kinks, right there. The trust issues, the Strong Feelings about Loyalty, the additional trust issues, the bonding, the clash of cultures, the betrayal, the love! Great movie from my fannish perspective (Dad: I'm glad it wasn't any longer).

So then I read the book, The Eagle of the Ninth by Rosemary Sutclif, and I was... kind of underwhelmed? Like it had lots of great background information, and much greater historical accuracy, and an actual girl, and she was fierce and awesome, and a puppy, and a map (which was great, the first scene was in Cornwall, who knew?), and less battle scenes and gaps in logic. So that was great, but they kind of took out the part I actually liked. It just read a lot like a 1960s YA novel (which is is), where the conflict is almost entirely between Team Hero and an External Force. Marcus and Esca iron out their differences so quickly that all the lovely tension and trust issues just isn't there. Plus the original had the characters as rather more generic and likeable (which is why they got on so well so soon), and that was fine, they had fun adventures and I was entertained for a couple hours, but, but, but... that's not what I liked about them in the movie. I wanted to read about them growing into a relationship, and that mostly seemed to happen in the "As the months past" part. Kind of disappointing, really.

I have the next in the series from the library, and will try it but probably won't press on if things don't pick up.

Saw True Grit and liked it a bunch. On a meta level, I kind of want to read the book and see the older version of the film for the meta experience, but on the other hand, I can do about one western a year, and that was it.

From the Marvel's Next Big Thing panel:

The writer promised that Gambit will "get back to his stealing roots, pinching his way across the Marvel universe in every way possible." Asmus' pitch was full of innuendo—"Gambit is going to satisfy you each and every month"—and he said page 1 is "a shower scene, but it's totally in character."

Marjorie Liu got large applause for her "Astonishing X-Men" #51, which saw the wedding of Northstar and his longtime boyfriend Kyle. Liu said the response has been "humbling," adding that "marriage is not the end-all, be-all—they had problems before they got married, and those will be exacerbated." Those problems will ramp up in issue #53, which Asmus joked would feature a "shower scene with Gambit." More seriously, though, editor Jeanine Schaefer said there would be a honeymoon issue.

Singh compared Matt Fraction and David Aja's "Hawkeye" to the Eisner-nominated "Daredevil" relaunch, saying it would be the book of the year. Editor Sana Amanat said there would not be a shower scene, but "he's with his shirt off for most of the series."

From DC's Superman panel:

The next fan to the microphone, dressed as Stephanie Brown, asked if in “Smallville Season 11” Stephanie would be showing up officially or if the rumors she had been taken out were true.

“The first rumor wasn’t known by us and I have not heard of the second in the halls of DC, so I can’t comment,” moderator John Cunningham told her.

“But there was art!” the fan responded.

“Are you going to believe art or are you going to believe us?” Lobdell asked as the audience laughed

Guess which company I currently like better.

ETA: from the Ultimate Marvel Panel

Singh said the "big three" of the Ultimate Universe now were Kitty Pryde, Miles Morales and Steve Rogers, making it have a different feel than the traditional Marvel U.

\o/

Hey, someone made a fanlore profile for Constructs in Progress, that's kind of cool.

Let me vanity search fanlore.

Oh, hey, there's one for Problems in Relativity, too.

Someone made me fanart!

Thank you random person on tumblr! I really like your fanart, and I'm glad you liked my story.

So I was really depressed and inclined to be negative and see everything as negative, and was considering eating worms. So I thought I'd take a step back, which is almost impossible to do while still maintaining gchat to talk to Nenya. So I did end up interacting with a pile of people.

I was allowed to go back to work a week ago Monday, which has been really nice, and has improved my mood immensely. I also assisted a couple medievacs, and made the news with one (because the Air Force guys like to ensure their funding by filing a press release for every single rescue they ever do, which is something I've never, ever done. Also, they're being dramatic, as they had at least half a mile of vis).

I'm getting back into writing, which is good, currently working on a Highlander fic, but then will turn my attention back to things Steve/Tony.

Random fact about Steve's backstory: Depending on how old you think Steve is, up until his early to mid teens, movies were a lot different than we think of old movies being. There wasn't really an enforced rating system until mid 1934, so all kinds of things were got up to on the silver screen. Check out this post for more details. Next time you're writing about Steve's reaction to modern cinema, read up on Pre-Code Movies first.

I'm reading Poor People's Movements: Why They Succeed, How They Fail by Piven and Cloward. It's oldish, from the '70s, and very academic, but very interesting so far. It proposes to cover labour rights movements in the Depression, post-war union movements, the Civil Rights movement, and the welfare reform movement.

Just finished Cold Fire by Kate Elliott, which had fantastic world building but an extremely tiresome will they won't they romance plot that made me want to hit everyone involved with a bored, and the heroine basically did nothing until the last thirty pages. I keep reading this series in the hope that someday Cat will be proactive. So far it's been either reaction or miss-fired action that turned out to be other people manipulating her all the way. Maybe next book. Yes, I will read next book because the world and politics are so fantastically drawn, and the characters have so much potential. If they actually live up to it, book three will be amazing.

Read a bunch of comics, and no particular comment save that the last comic in the Ellis run of Secret Avengers sucked balls, but the penultimate one was amazing, Batwoman and Stormwatch ain't what they used to be but are still well worth reading, and Saucer Country, Astonishing X-Men and Daredevil still rock my socks. Still need to catch up on Demon Knights, Ult Spidey and Green Arrow.

Going to town shortly for doctors' follow ups and to drag Nenya to the Vancouver Island Music Fest

Still watching Continuum, which is still the best show on right now. I'm sad that it's only in Canada though. \o/ Canadian TV! /o\ no one else watches it and it has no fandom!

Oh, and Nenya's doing Babylon 5 recs over at crack_van this month, so be sure to check those out.

So I walked out the door to find...

( Captain America X2 )

Watching Mutant X:
Adam: So we've got to figure out how the members of an elite combat unit listed as killed in action [in a South American drug war] suddenly ended up with New Mutant abilities.

I think this is the first episode I saw, too.

On a more serious note, I'm unfond of the dude running Marvel: She Has No Head! – Dear Marvel: Please Stop Ruining Everything

So apparently we're not getting a Black Widow movie? Or a Captain Marvel one, for that matter. But Ant-Man is a go! I thought the point of our evil Disney Overlords was that they'd cut down on this shit.

Playing Hurry Up and Wait: The Foggy Edition. Wish me luck.

So I was watching that Deeply Excellent clip from The Avengers, which if you haven't seen you really should. Nice call back to Marjorie Liu's last issue of Black Widow.

Anyway, I've noticed that the Clint/Coulson people over on tumblr seem to have taken the fact that Agent Coulson calls Hawkeye "Barton" and Black Widow "Tasha" as proof of ship. Which made me wonder what what Coulson has called everyone else. So I checked (in a cursory kind of way, and totally may have missed some).

He calls Iron Man "Mr Stark"
He calls Pepper Potts "Ms Potts" (Or "Miss Potts," not sure.)
He calls Thor "Donald" (which I find hilarious and really, really hope is in the new film he continues to do so)
He calls Doctor Jane Foster, PhD, "Miss Foster"
He calls Dr. Erik Selvig, PhD, "Dr. Selvig"
He calls Nick Fury "Director Fury"
And Hawkeye "Barton" and Black Widow "Tasha."

Notice something about that. Pepper gets treated same as Tony, but Jane's a PhD, and he doesn't call her "Doctor," ever. He doesn't call Agent Romanoff by either her last name or her title, he uses her first name.

Which is not trying to in any way generate Coulson hate. I like Coulson (though I'd rather have Sharon, because that would have been amazing if she were introduced so early, and only then, after she's been in more movies than he has, do they have a romance). I'm more irritated at the writers.

If you're looking for the Lent post: it's Sunday; Michael didn't post a sermon, and I'm taking the day off.

So apparently it's Kelly Sue DeConnick's mission in life to make me a happy woman. To that end, in July a new ongoing series will start featuring Carol Danvers as Captain Marvel. Follow the link for preview art and an interview with DeConnick.

I just finished the last trade of Steph's Batgirl series, which I got ages ago then never got to reading. Man, was that a lot of fun. I liked how the arc series was interspersed with solo adventures to keep it from getting bogged down in angst. And How she keeps teaming up with people. And just everything in the world. I love all the characters so much. I only wish she'd had more time with Squire in the UK. Oh well. Steph got a twenty-two issue run of excellence, by the same writer with consistent characterisation and plot. I'm sad it's gone, but it's a nice set of trades to own.

Have read the end of Iron Man 2.0 and Avengers: Children's Crusade, Daredevil #8 and #9, Demon Knights #5-7 and Saucer Country #1.

Iron Man 2.0 #12: I think I missed part of the middle? I'm not sure. The story is decompressed to the point that I really think it would be better read in trade, so you can get the whole run through in one sitting instead of a year (with an Event Tie-in in the middle). That said, it's just so wonderful to see superheroes working together and being smart and saving the world. It's wonderful to see Tony and Rhodey interacting and snarking at each other. It's wonderful to read an IC Tony Stark. Can't say as I was a fan of the artists changing every other page.

Avengers: Children's Crusade #9: Meh. I think I kind of lost interest and wondered off on this one. Like by the end I didn't really care what happened. It might be better if reread in trade, but given the ending, I'm unlikely to put the money or energy into that. ( Spoilers )

Daredevil #8 and #9: Loved Foggy getting to be a bit of a legal badass. Enjoyed Matt and Felicia solving/causing crime together. Generally find Peter Parker uninteresting, and am glad he was only in the on issue. Am highly entertained by what Mark Waid thinks the substructure of NYC looks like, especially when they have to pump out the subways to keep them from flooding. Love, love, love the quote: "Which does not, by default, make this a good idea. And may be indicative of why Luke Cage refers to me as a hero to the judgement impaired everywhere." Title continues as it always has and everything a comicbook should be: a judicious abandonment of suspension of disbelief, lots of humour, excellent art, a mystery to solve, and nice compact plots that just zip along.

Demon Knights #5-7: DINOSAURS! This one's getting a little gory, but the characters, which have mostly been in set up mode so far are really showing some interesting facets and developments. I'm especially enjoying Ex's storyline, and how her cultural differences are causing her problems, but not the ones she thought, and how it's the other women who sit her down and try to sort her out. I'm really interested in how the love triangle works (which is almost unheard of for me). And I absolutely wasn't expecting several of the plot twists. On the whole, this is a great first arc, and I'm looking forward to more. I really want to see what happens to these characters. Great art.

Saucer Country #1: This is a comic about the Latina Governor of New Mexico who wants to run for president, but is abducted by greys, then has to find out what's going on while still running a campaign and dealing with the emotional fall out. It's being billed as West Wing meets The X-Files, which seems fair to me. The first issue is all set up, but it very elegantly puts most of the major pieces and characters in place. We get an idea of all the personalities involved, and some idea of how they might move together, but there's still a lot of unknown factors. Like who is that university professor, and why is he talking to hallucinations of the naked people from the Pioneer space probe plaque? Also, the art is gorgeous. Very expressive faces and dynamic panel layouts, and the colours are rich and beautiful.

Finally: