Does it only take five days in suburbia to completely re-sensitize me? Am I generally desensitized? I figure that living in NYC with daily doses of the rudeness of life I’d be well entrenched in my senses. I surely have very emotional reactions to my morning commute on the subway. My feeling of dreariness today seems pronounced and I’m well in touch with its correlation to a yearning for sunshine and warmth. I find myself well practiced in all of my emotions – on a daily basis. Wouldn’t that make me appropriately sensitive?
Why all the questions you ask? Because since my return, just three days ago, on more than two occasions I’ve shrieked out loud at an occurrence on television that was, yes, surprising. But I don’t think I would have normally shrieked. Or jumped. Or needed some time to recover.
Hawkeye # 1
Written by Andy Diggle
Art by Tom Raney & Scott Hanna
Published by Marvel Comics
And then it happened again, in the reaction I had when I came to the end of Hawkeye. You guys….I LOVE this comic book!! I’m jumping in and reading three this week, and would you believe that between the three of them the super hero (ish) comic book was my favorite?!
Let me start from the beginning.
I started with Hawkeye, reading that first panel of “Avengers – ASSEMBLE!” thinking that it was familiar. Ah, yes. I read Dark Avengers a while back. As I was reading this comic I couldn’t quite remember the meat and potatoes of Dark Avengers. They were dark? I could vaguely grasp at the memory of it, the way one might struggle to remember a dream from the night before. It comes in these whispered waves of memory that are just beyond your mind's grasp. That’s exactly what kept happening to me. So that when I saw and read Norman saying, “the eyes of the world are on me…” blah blah blah, I was like, “Oh yeah. That guy’s a dick! Total egomaniac. And wasn’t he doing something crazy when last I read about him?”
As I continued to read the things that Hawkeye would say, like, “Speak for yourself, Ares. Personally, I’m not exactly the ‘All For One’ type,” and “Good news, bad news. Good news is Hawkeye doesn’t kill people in cold blood. [And the bad news?] I’m not Hawkeye.” I started thinking, “Hey…something’s fishy here.”
And for the first time I started having a little Virgin Read argument in my head. Like, must I be SO virginal? If I don’t quite get what’s going on, yet want to, must I just sit here all “whoa as me! I don’t know what’s going on!” I mean, there IS the internet. I could wikipedia-up anything I might want to know to learn what’s going on if I really want to. Wouldn’t that be another way to measure a comic? It’s so engaging that although one can’t follow what’s happening, one will do the research to find out what’s going on so one can better enjoy the comic?” These were my thoughts. My actual thoughts too, not ones I'm making up for you. The only time I make up thoughts is when I had to review that Captain America comic, because all I wanted to talk about was how gross it would feel to have a metal arm grab you during sex.
Anyway, Hawkeye. It gets better. Because just as it’s (re)revealed that Hawkeye is actually Bullseye, and I’m wondering, “who is Bullseye again?”, it is shown to me. No need for wikipedia. No need to do research. I clearly get that Bullseye can kill anyone with anything and is always, um, on target. HA. Okay, sorry.
And that was when the re-sensitized Nina Stone came into play. Sure, I found it a little over the top that he massacred those guys who were presumably going to rape that lady. But I was shocked by what came next. I shrieked out loud, pulled my knees to my chest and looked around the room with my jaw dropped (no one was home. Why did I do that?), all because Hawkeye had shoved a pen into the woman's eye right after she asked for his autograph for her son.
I mean, if you didn’t know what kind of person Bullseye was before, well. You do now.
And….for all that craziness, to see the cliffhanger? A news helicopter witnessing the whole thing, broadcasting it live? “Hawkeye” wreaking havoc and killing folks – well, that’s just good shit. I really dug this! So, I ask you? Is it a fluke? Would I have enjoyed it so much without having my suburban sabbatical?
Ignition City # 1
Written by Warren Ellis
Art by Gianluca Pagliarani & Chris Drier
Published by Avatar
Which brings me to my next comic this week: Ignition City.
This seems like it would be my usual kind of pick if I always had the option. It's not a super-hero comic. Female protagonist. Historical. Historical? Well, it looked like it was.
So, yeah, it’s a little confusing because it’s futuristically set in the past. That makes it hard to, well, believe in. By giving it a date – February 1956 -- my mind latches onto things it already knows about that era. It’s post war. And, I lived in Berlin for a number of months at one time, so when you draw a picture of it, I start looking around to see what I recognize.
Well, in this picture, nothing. Because there are things floating in the air. Things that seem to defy physical normality because they look like cement (so do the cars).
You know what though? That’s okay. All of that did, in fact, intrigue me. Feeling disoriented often makes one curious. And that’s what I was. I get it, it's alternate historical fiction. That's a genre, right?
But the little things bothered me along the way. I can only guess that they bothered me because I never really came across anything to really latch onto. Maybe it’s the other way around. Little things bothered me, which would take me out of the story so that I never DID latch on. The first conversation that occurs at the beginning of the book? Mr. Crabb asks Mary, “what has crawled up your arse and died today, gel?” I only, just now, while typing this figured out that “gel” is supposed to be “girl” said with an accent. But not much else he says is written that way. So in the back of my mind, for those five pages I’m thinking, “what is ‘gel?” Is that some slang term I’m not up on? If it's an accent, does it only impact three or four words a year?"
Likewise, the two characters seem like chums. Old friends. Why else would Mr. Crabb ask her a question in that manner? I mean, only if he knew her well would he know how she behaves most days and would be able to register that today, something has “crawled up her arse and died.” But later she, familiarly calls him Lionel and he corrects her with, “Buster. Everyone calls me Buster.” From the way they’re talking you’d think they’d known each other.
What’s my point? None really. That's part of the problem--there's nothing in here that's worth grabbing onto, and so all I grabbed was the stuff that struck me as "not working."
Here’s a weird reaction I had. When she started crying about her dad, I had the reaction as if I were watching a bad actress try and cry on stage. THIS IS A COMIC BOOK! It’s not real?! Not remotely. And still it made me feel uncomfortable because the crying looked forced and fake. How could that be? I mean--in a television show, it makes sense. Everybody wants to get home, you're all tired, the actress can't seem to get it, maybe editing will fix it...but seriously, these are drawings. Draw it right. Put less silly flying cement stuff in the air, draw some non-fake crying. Get a calendar if scheduling your time is so hard.
While I'm reading this, trying to care, I got bored and started trying to figure out the timeline. She left when she was 16, hadn’t seen her mother in 8 (making her 24 now?), But she hadn’t seen her dad since she was, like, ten? When he left? Or….I don’t know. While reading it, it just didn’t seem to make sense. Can't they work this out on scratch paper first? The numbers and stuff?
Oh, Ignition City. I mean, this is a first issue. Maybe a lot of this is just setting the scene for the next four issues. I don't know, I couldn't tell you. It doesn't work, that's for sure. Everything is just disjointed and confusing. Any need for the explicit shit scene? I understand that we, the audience, needed to be made aware of the whole food pill thing. I'm sure it's really important. But really? This is how? That's sort of lame.
One clothing thing: someone please explain to me what she’s wearing? I feel like they’ve gone to all the trouble to draw her in trousers and button up shirts (of course, always defining the breasts and the butt for us. Many a breast and ass shot, thank you, i'm wet now, don't know what to do with myself.) But why like this? A sudden midriff revealing…blouse? What is that? Is that travel wear? And we know they wore nothing of the kind in 1956. But nothing about this story is a true relection of 1956, so why should the clothing be, right? Well, wait. Why did fashion jump ahead with space travel?
I read the whole thing. I suppose I was introduced to characters who will matter more later. The story will be about her father and his ties to all these people. But, like I said, I was so preoccupied with these weird instances that I never got invested. It just ends abruptly (with bulging buttocks). I can’t explain it, but something about the way it was drawn and written I kept flipping the pages of the book thinking that it couldn't just stop like it does. There must be one more final page or more of a cliffhanger than these two women shaking hands and he one saying, 'I’m Gayle. Your Pa used to drink here. And you’re not going to like a goddamn thing I have to say." But there isn't. It's just this. And no matter how much I've typed about it just now? It's not a whole lot.
It’s like Opposite Day around here or something. My taste has completely flip-flopped. Am I supposed to wear a tie tomorrow?
Redbird # 1.5
By Dan Zettwoch
Published by Dan Zettwoch
This little comic made me feel like I was getting inside a boy’s head. Remember these electric car sets? I always wanted one. But it was clear to me, when I was growing up, what a girl toy was and what a boy toy was. I mean, it’s not that I couldn’t get a boy toy – I had match box cars and a match box city – but what was clear was that if I got the boy toy, that’s all I was getting. I wanted both. Both girl and boy toys. ALL toys. Gimme gimme gimme!
Anyways, this was hilarious. The dialogue back and forth was spot on--presumably, two boys are racing their cars before going to Sunday School. I knew these guys. I loved how things were drawn showing all the household items that were holding up and directing the track like toy robots holding up the track, and a book as a bridge. Wrestling action figures marking the hairpin turn, and “music alley” made by the track going over an electronic keyboard. This was awesome. Now, here comes the Spoiler. So stop reading if you think you’re gonna pick this baby up. And it’s delightful, so…you really should, although I'm not sure where you get these things. Ask my husband. Anyway, SPOILER. But, when I got to the end and realized the kid was playing by himself? Do you know, I got really sad?! How weird am I? Should I bring up that whole re-sensitized thing again?
I don’t know why I felt sad for him. I mean, I used to talk to myself and have “competitions” between my left foot and my right foot. They were very jealous of each other and would compete to see who’s shoe would get tied first. (Just….I don’t know. I don’t know. But it’s true.)
So, why should I feel bad for this kid, playing alone with his car set, pretending to be another guy as well? Well, because he was so good at it! And it meant that one of them, doesn’t really exist.
Lord, whats with me?!
-Nina Stone, 2009
You're 100% right about the art on Ignition City. I was very psyched to read that book - it was sold as 40s science fiction meets Deadwood - and the art is so bad that it took me two times to get through the damn thing.
Posted by: Sean Witzke | 2009.04.14 at 22:05
Ignition City's boob and butt shots jumped out at me too, posed & straining like a romance novel cover. The artist's work on the last Ellis book, Athertic Mechanics, was much stronger.
I don't know why I keep buying these first issues, trying to break up the trade parade on the nightstand I guess.
Ellis has fallen into Madlibs territory for me, high concept with character blanks to be filled in by "smoking, bastard, trenchcoats, arse, shite, etc."
Posted by: seth hurley | 2009.04.14 at 22:23
Deadwood? Seriously? Whoever came up with that comparison needs to slow down on the drinking.
The Madlibs thing is pretty apt--I don't believe Nina has read any Ellis before, and I was curious if what I read as 'repetitive Ellis sameness' would come across to her, not having the background. I was pleasantly surprised that she disliked it on a much deeper level.
Posted by: Tucker Stone | 2009.04.14 at 22:50
Ellis has been posting chunks of script for like 2 years. Yeah, it was 3 years ago where he mentioned that he wrote it coming off of an episode of Deadwood - http://www.warrenellis.com/?p=2797
The research stuff for it was very interesting. Buster Crabbe is the name of both the actor who played Buck Rogers and a real historical figure for instance. I think its kind of been a great idea so long for me that any execution would be a failure. And the art is bad even for Avatar.
Posted by: Sean Witzke | 2009.04.14 at 23:18
"Gel" is a fairly-standard spelling in Britain for an upper-class pronunciation of "girl" (it shows up on wiktionary, for example).Spelling it that way tells British readers a lot about the class of the character.
Posted by: Andrew Hickey | 2009.04.15 at 05:44
Nina, you're awesome. I say that all the time, but these reviews are just the bee's knees. You do such a good job of describing what you get out of a reading experience, that I feel like I get more out of these reviews than from people that are more familiar with the material. For instance, I would have pretty much just ignored Hawkeye, but you make it sound pretty intriguing, maybe just from bringing a fresh perspective. And while I've read a good amount of Warren Ellis books and comics published by Avatar, seeing the reaction from somebody new to the work is great. And Zettwoch, I dig the Zettwoch. Is that a minicomic or something? I should try to find that one.
Okay, now I'm off to spend all day reading Tucker's book about Azzarello...
Posted by: Matthew J. Brady | 2009.04.15 at 10:03
However if you read it as gel, the awesome stuff I used to spike my hair with when it was short, it's pretty damn funny. “What has crawled up your arse and died today, gel?” Ha! I really do crack myself up. It's fun to be me.
Posted by: Sarah Engelman | 2009.04.15 at 10:22
"Draw it right. Put less silly flying cement stuff in the air, draw some non-fake crying. Get a calendar if scheduling your time is so hard."
Beautiful.
Posted by: MarkAndrew | 2009.04.15 at 23:07
I'm British, yet I always misread 'gel' (meaning 'girl') as 'gel' (meaning what it is spelled like, which is 'gel' as in 'hair gel'). Could they not spell it 'gehl' or something?
Oh, I don't know.
Also, Ellis is terrible at pacing the endings of things. They always end really abruptly and unsatisfyingly (well, maybe not 'always', though I can't think of any examples right now).
It's good to hear he's moved beyond writing grumpy British people talking like they hate each other, though.
Posted by: Thrullsss | 2009.04.16 at 09:21
Hey, the Zettwoch book is available from catastrophe shop.
http://www.usscatastrophe.com/store/vs.html
It's only a buck, but i've never gone to that site without finding about 18 more things worth picking up.
Posted by: Tucker Stone | 2009.04.16 at 23:52