None of you understand. We’re not locked in here with you. We just lost our keys.
Jane’s taking the week off in a push to get Last War in Albion Book One finally out the door, but I realize that I never actually got around to announcing the latest addition to our podcast stable, Pex Lives Xtreme, Kevin’s new sports podcast. Yes, we apparently do sports writing now too. Sports, sex, and Doctor Who. Why do you visit other websites again?
“The State of the Art” surrounds Use of Weapons, both diegetically and in publication. Externally, it was first published as a stand-alone novella in 1989, then became the title piece of a short story collection in 1991. Within the narrative, on the other hand, it takes the form of an account composed by Diziet Sma shortly after the events of Use of Weapons (“The State of the Art” is addressed to someone named Petrain, Use of Weapons has Sma tell Skaffen-Amtiskaw [revealed at the end of “The State of the Art” to be the story’s diegetic editor] to “send a stalling letter to that Petrain guy” before leaving to find Zakalwe) that, among other things, relates the circumstances by which she came to leave Contact (the Culture’s diplomatic service) in favor of Special Circumstances (the more interventionist intelligence service within Contact). It demands, in other words, to be read in context with that novel.
This does it no favors. Use of Weapons is, as mentioned, essentially the last Culture novel, at least in terms of what Banks created the Culture to do. “The State of the Art,” on the other hand, is a joke in which Banks goes and does one of the things that people were always going to ask him about until he’d do, namely have the Culture meet Earth. From the start, this was something the novels quietly resisted, with Consider Phlebas going out of its way in its epilogues to specify that it took place in 1331, so as to emphasize the complete irrelevance of humanity, then preoccupied with the Genkō War and Ibn Battuta’s visit to Kilwa, to its events. The Culture is pointedly not humanity’s future – its utopianism is altogether more abstracted than that.
Still, the possibility lingers tantalizingly, and Banks, a sci-fi guy to his core, made the eminently sensible decision to get it over with. And, inevitably, “The State of the Art” runs through all the obligatory jokes, most of them with delicious wit and charm. The best focus on Li, a member of the Contact expedition to Earth (covertly observing it in 1977) who becomes a die-hard Star Trek fan, attempts to persuade the rest of the team to elect him captain of the ship, which culminates in a campaign speech (while holding a real lightsaber) in which he serves the crew various dishes vat-grown from human cells such as Stewed Idi Amin, General Pinochet Chilli Con Carne and Richard Nixon Burgers, then vows that if elected captain he’ll destroy the planet because it is silly and boring. But there are some other good ones, such as the ship trying and failing to request (via postcard) that the BBC World Service play “Space Oddity” and dedicate it to the Arbitrary.
Other characters, meanwhile, espouse other standard and inevitable positions. One – Dervley Linter – decides he wants to renounce the Culture entirely and live his life as a human, having all of his Culture-specific abilities removed in the process.…
Avatarex #1
Released last week, but I missed it, so here we are. There’s a fundamental perversity to Grant Morrison’s Graphic India work – a company focused on breaking comics out in India whose marketing talks about how “India is home to some of the most creative talent in the world” and then proceeds to hire people like Stan Lee and Grant Morrison to do their comics. And one gets the distinct sense they’re paying out the nose for it too. Morrison has never seemed particularly connected to Hindu mythology – he did one three-issue Vertigo series that tried to be Kirbyesque Hindu mythology and was deeply forgettable, and he talks about it whenever he’s doing press for Graphic India, but this feels like a phoned in version of stuff Morrison has done before, and miles from any sort of organic attempt at Indian comics.
Black Panther #5
A stronger-than-usual issue of this, I suspect elevated by the fact that Chris Sprouse is a better artist than Brian Stelfreeze, but also by the fact that Coates keeps a better focus on the story, can be bothered with repeating exposition, and has a clear sense of what this specific issue is doing, as opposed to just focusing on his arc in general. Which means that the bits he’s always done well – the broad thematics and the monologues about kings and power – actually have a solid platform upon which to rest and can shine. Hopefully this book has turned a corner.
Animosity #1
Another one from last week, grabbed becaue I’ve been meaning to try some of Marguerite Bennett’s indie stuff. Good and unsettling stuff – I really enjoy the wide variety of different perspectives that occur when animals attain sentience, and the core one of “dog loves its human girl” is at once sweet and mildly terrifying in the larger context of an animal world that has (understandably) decided that it’s going to try to kill humanity. This ends up being a “set up the premise” issue rather than a “show what the book will be doing” one, but it’s a damn good hook, and I’ll be following this with interest.
Darth Vader #24
Gillen, having flirted with it before, dives with glee at the third rail of Star Wars and sets about on an issue heavily reconciling the original and prequel trilogies, then offers a mammoth cliffhanger to kick us into the finale (albeit one where it’s hard not to think “oh, Aphra, I see why that looked good on paper, but…”). It’s an issue that it’s just terribly easy to respect the ambition of – more than anything since the “I have a son” scene it offers something that feels substantive and fills a real gap in the story.
Providence #10
Loads of stuff one could fairly have assumed wouldn’t happen until issue #12 instead explodes in ways that make it hard to imagine what Moore is going to do for two more issues. Personally, I have a hard time not being excited about it being totally unclear what Moore is going to do for two issues. …
I’m not going to get into the habit of using my Monday slot for podcasts, but this one’s a big enough deal that I felt like it justified it. I say down with David J Haskins of Bauhaus and Love and Rockets to, in classic Eruditorum Press fashion, talk about absolutely none of that in favor of talking about his magical practice and work with Alan Moore, including V for Vendetta, “March of the Sinister Ducks,” The Moon and Serpent Grand Egyptian Theatre of Marvels, and The Birth Caul. It’s a fun time. You should listen to it here.…
As always, from worst to best of what I bought.
Trees #14
This series has always only barely worked in single issue format, so, shocker of shockers, an eight month delay before the final issue of the arc did not do it any favors. Apparently there’s a third arc planned, which at this point I assume we’ll see shortly after Doktor Sleepless wraps up. I’m sure it’ll read brilliantly in trade, although I suspect I’ll have to reread the first trade to have any appreciation for who the characters who drop in for the finale are. Which is fine, because it’s Ellis and going to be brilliant, but fucking hell this comic is just a terrible fucking idea in issue form.
Klaus #7
There’s a four-issue cut of Klaus that would straightforwardly be among Morrison’s greatest post-Final Crisis works. The fact that this flabby seven issue miniseries is still a strong contender is a depressing commentary on his late career, but let’s not use up all our Last War in Albion snark in comics reviews. (Almost done with Chapter 6, btw.) The final issue of this is actually pretty solid, and if one were to go about politely informing Grant Morrison that he needs an editor this is probably the issue you’d cut the least. If nothing else I appreciated the underplaying of the “Santa Claus cannot die” moment.
Cinema Purgatorio #4
A middling run out for the title comic, a stretch of Modded that has too much to do for it to waste time being clever about it, and typically filler installments of A More Perfect Union and The Vast leave Code Pru as the belle of the ball this month. It’s particularly good this time around, though, and so the whole package balances out nicely, though if I’m being honest $5.99 is probably a bit much for it most months, and especially this month. Not that I’m remotely tempted to even blink at that, but hey.
Normal Part Four
This wraps with a gloriously bleak ending, but also ends up being a bit disjointed, with no shortage of things that were just sort of thrown in because Ellis wanted to riff on them as opposed to because they contributed to the story. The use of a riff on Curtis Yarvin as the cliffhanger for part two grates particularly in this regard, though there’s obviously an element of personal bias there. Still, the ending is heartbreaking and beautiful, the book’s main premise is a hoot, and its main sci-fi idea is a solid bit of plausible horror-technology. Very worth checking this out, either in its “four parts for $1.99 each” digital edition or in the paperback omnibus due in November.
James Bond #8
Yeah, I didn’t expect this to hit the top either, but man, Ellis is absolutely killing with his second arc on this, finding delightful twists on James Bond classics This time it’s “Bond seduces the woman he rescues,” a trope in dire need of being made brilliant by Warren Ellis.…
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| Man, that looks almost as much fun as this blog series has been. |
State of Play
The choir goes off. The board is laid out thusly:
Lions of King’s Landing: Tyrion Lannister, Naime Lannister, Cersei Lannister, Tywin Lannister
Dragons of Meereen: Daenerys Targaryen
Direwolves of the Wall: Jon Snow, Bran Stark
Ships of the Wall: Davos Seaworth
Burning Hearts of the Wall: Stannis Baratheon, Melisandre
Archers of the Wall: Samwell Tarly
The Direwolf, Arya Stark
The Dogs, Sandor Clegane
Paws of the Wall: Tormund Giantsbane
The Shield, Brienne of Tarth
Spiders of King’s Landing: Varys
Flowers of King’s Landing: Shae
Winterfell is abandoned and in ruins, Moat Cailin and Braavos are empty.
The episode is in seven parts. The first runs eleven minutes and is set just at the Wall. The opening image is of Jon’s hair as he walks out of the gate.
The second runs seven minutes and is set in King’s Landing. The transition is by hard cut, from Jon Snow to an infected wound.
The third runs seven minutes and is set in Meereen. The transition is by hard cut, from Jaime and Cersei on the white table to Daenerys.
The fourth runs thirteen minutes and is in two sections; it is set at the Wall. The first section is five minutes long; the transition is by family, from Daenerys to Aemon Targaryen and Jon Snow. The second section is eight minutes long; the transition is by family, from Jon Snow to Bran Stark. It features the death of Jojen Reed, stabbed and then set on fire.
The fifth part runs twelve minutes and is set in the Vale. The transition is by family, from Bran to Arya Stark. It doesn’t feature the death of Sandor Clegane, but it sure looks like it does.
The sixth runs nine minutes minutes and is set in King’s Landing. The transition is by dialogue, from Sandor begging Arya to kill him to Tyrion saying more or less the same thing. It features the deaths of Shae and Tywin, both killed by Tyrion.
The last runs three minutes and is set in the Vale. The transition is by musical cue, with a choral version of the theme song continuing over both scenes, and by image, with both scenes featuring people sailing for Essos. The final image is of Arya landing on a ladder and doing just that.
Analysis
And so we come to the end of this Brief Treatise; I don’t reckon there’s much to be gained writing second essays about Seasons Five and Six, and anyway, this has been a hilarious flop of an essay series that vividly illustrates the maxim that there’s room for two books on any given subject, the first one and the best. It also serves to highlight the problems with using my general critical approach on an in-progress text. A game is, on a very fundamental level, defined by its end state; the ethical and thematic implications of events are ultimately shaped by how the narrative ends in ways that makes analyzing them difficult at best.…
Oof. Rough week. From worst to best of it.
Mechanism #1
Another dud for my “Image #1s” policy. The most immediately obvious problem is an art style that seems to be traced from 3D rendering software, giving all the characters a frustrating woodenness. Two big sci-fi concepts in “a world that’s been invaded by lizard people” and “a world with intelligent robots” are both undersold. The only female character gets fridged. The premise isn’t clear by the end. Generally a trainwreck.
Batgirl #1
An undercooked “the hero tours Asia” concept that’s high on western stereotypes, and that sets up “next month a new location” instead of trying to build on any of the ideas it sets up. Of course the Burnside supporting cast is immediately jettisoned in favor of a bespoke childhood friend of Barbara’s. And you’ve got to raise an eyebrow at the choice of the artist of the Batgirl “Joker variat” cover for the book – not that I particularly blame him for taking a commission DC never should have given, but man, exact wrong book to put him on. Generally speaking this isn’t particularly grating in its badness, but it’s not interesting enough to hook me on a second issue.
Wonder Woman #3
The new take on the Wonder Woman/Cheetah relationship is decently interesting, but this storyline is still longer on mood than event in a way that isn’t giving me much to sink my teeth into and invest in. It’s fine – perfectly competent Wonder Woman. But it feels directionless – after four issues of Rucka on the character, I don’t have a feel for what his take is and it doesn’t feel like anything has happened. Which feels like wasted momentum. Think I may be done with this.
Spider Gwen #10
An utterly unremarkable issue of this often frustrating book. Actually, I kind of like the alternate universe take on Kraven, and there’s a lovely May Parker moment, so as lackluster issues of it go this is better than most, but again, I’m looking at a week of nine comics the bulk of which I was underwhelmed by, and a book that has two mediocre issues for every good one is another obvious candidate to be done with.
Black Panther #4
Individual moments of this – particularly any scenes with T’Challa’s mother – are subtle, intelligent stuff of the sort one wants from this book. But the overall structure is still a mess. I couldn’t actually tell you what happened over the first arc of this book, or who most of the supporting cast is. I don’t think that’s specifically Coates’s fault or Stelfreeze’s so much as a combination, but this just doesn’t have the basic tightness that monthly serialization needs to succeed. I’ll stick with it, but more out of hope than judgment.
The New Avengers #14
In most regards an unremarkable fight book, but man, there’s a really solid demonstration of the difference between a skilled comics writer and an unskilled one here. Any character who’s introduced gets a big moment to either shine or demonstrate what their deal is.…
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| At last, Jon Snow’s four-season long constipation lets up. |
State of Play
The choir goes off. The board is laid out thusly.
Direwolves of the Wall: Jon Snow
Archers of the Wall: Samwell Tarly
Flowers of the Wall: Gilly
Bows of the Wall: Ygritte
Paws of the Wall: Tormund Giantsbane
King’s Landing, Moat Cailin, Winterfell, Braavos, and Meereen are abandoned.
The episode is in one part running forty-seven minutes and set at the Wall; it is divided into sections. The first section is four minutes long; the opening image is of torches atop the wall. The second section is two minutes long; the transition is by image, from an owl to the warg controlling it. The third is fifteen minutes long; the transition is by image, from the fires at Tormund and Ygritte’s camp to the candle by which Samwell is reading. The fourth is two minutes long; the transition is by hard cut, from Jon to Ygritte. The fifth is four minutes long; the transition is by hard cut, from a random guy dying to a giant on a mammoth. The fifth is one minute long; the transition is by hard cut, from Janos Slynt and Gilly staring at each other to Sam and Pyp running through the courtyard. It features the death of Pyp, shot through the neck by Ygritte. The sixth is two minutes long; the transition is by hard cut, from Sam cradling Pip’s corpse to the Wildlings charging the Wall. The seventh is three minutes long; the transition is by hard cut, from Dolorous Edd to Ser Allister fighting in the courtyard. The eighth is three minutes long; the transition is by hard cut, from the bow that Olly finds to the giant trying to break through the gate. The ninth is five minutes long; the transition is by hard cut, from Grenn to Jon and Sam riding down to the courtyard. It features the death of the Magnar of Thenn, hit in the head with an axe by Jon Snow, and Ygritte, shot through the heart by Olly. The eighth is one minute long; the transition is by hard cut, from Jon cradling Ygritte’s body to Wildlings climbing the Wall. The ninth is one minute long; the transition is by hard cut, from Edd on the Wall to Jon walking through the courtyard. The last is four minutes long The transition is by hard cut, from Jon walking away from Tormund to Gilly. The final image is of Jon walking out the gate, with ambiguity as to whether he’s landed on a snake or a ladder.
Analysis
In a very odd way, form follows function: “The Watchers on the Wall” is incredibly brave and incredibly stupid all at once. The plan is straightforward: hire Neil Marshall, director of “Blackwater,” to do another single-location battle episode as the ninth episode showpiece. But this is in no way an automatic recipe for success. “Blackwater” is a heavy-hitter of an episode that’s easy to straight-facedly call the show’s greatest triumph, but much of why it worked was that it was unprecedented.…
From worst to best, with things I didn’t buy marked with a *. If you want me to review something that’s not on my “next week” list, you can either send me a copy or Paypal me/send me a Comixology gift card for the cover price with a note as to what you want me to read. That’s snowspinner; a gmail account.
The Hunt #1
I’m trying all new Image #1s, just because it seems like where things I’m going to be interested in comics-wise are going on. This… is not a recommendation for that plan. A muddled book of the sort that one usually associates with Vertigo after the period where they were meaningfully creator-owned and were thus no longer the first choice of actually good creators. Generic horror tropes, muddy storytelling, and, for good measure, utterly irritating “let’s try to capture an Irish accent” dialogue. A complete mess of a book. The art is pretty, but this is pretty classic “artist decides that he should write his own material when that’s not where his strengths are” comics. Which makes it oddly appropriate for an Image book, if not quite in the right decade.
Spider-Woman #9*
The stuff about Wendigos is smart and funny, and Hopeless’s “Spider-Woman as mom” characterization is as delightful as it was in Spider-Women. Pity Civil War II comes crashing through the door halfway through to be stupid all over the place. I’d probably enjoy an extended run of this where Hopeless was doing his own stories, and may well check it out again if such a thing ever exists, but man, Civil War II is a fucking disaster.
Kim and Kim #1*
Much to love about the aesthetic here; queer punk space bounty hunters yes. But it doesn’t quite click together – it’s very “standard tropes made more diverse,” which is good and valuable, but my interest in standard tropes is a bit low. It fails at one of those crucial first issue tasks of making me care about the characters and concepts. Very pretty, though, and if you want a by-the-numbers queer punk space bounty hunters comic, this is absolutely the one for you.
The Ultimates #9
Some good bits here and there, but even Ewing is having trouble rescuing one of the biggest problems with Civil War II, at least based on its tie-ins, which is that Captain Marvel’s role in it seems to be to just act like a completely unreasonable jerk at all times. Her side is self-evidently the wrong one, and everyone writing the books recognizes that. Her big interaction with Adam in this issue is just awful, hinging on her being horrible to him with no justification whatsoever. Add to that a super rough stitch job between two artists of very different styles and skill levels and you have a weak filler issue. Alas.
Chew #56
Only four more issues of this! Woo! Obviously from it’s ranking it’s not that bad, but man, I am 100% just slogging through to the end of this out of some horrible sunk costs fallacy and not actually caring.…
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| If this were Doctor Who, we’d call it the pizza-faced Oberyn. |
State of Play
The choir goes off. The board is laid out thusly:
Lions of King’s Landing: Tyrion Lannister, Jaime Lannister, Cersei Lannister, 2Tywin Lannister
Dragons of Meereen: Daenerys Targaryen
Direwolves of the Wall: Jon Snow
The Mockingbird, Petyr Baelish
Kraken of Moat Cailin: Theon Greyjoy
Archers of the Wall: Samwell Tarly
The Direwolves, Sansa Stark, Arya Stark
Bows of the Wall: Ygritte
Paws of the Wall: Tormund Giantsbane
Flowers of the Wall: Gilly
Flayed Men of Moat Cailin: Ramsay Snow
Spiders of King’s Landing: Varys
The Dogs, Sandor Clegane
With the Bear of Meereen, Jorah Mormont
Winterfell is abandoned and in ruins, Braavos is empty.
The episode is in eight parts. The first runs six minutes and is in two sections; it is set in and around the Wall. The first section is four minutes long; the opening image is of a thatched hut. The second section is two minutes long; the transition is by dialogue, from Gilly to Samwell talking about how she’s probably dead.
The second part runs five minutes and is set in Meereen. The transition is by hard cut, from Jon Snow drinking morosely to an underwater shot of Grey Worm, and indirectly by family, with Daenerys showing up shortly.
The third runs five minutes and is set in Moat Cailin. The transition is by hard cut, from Grey Worm to an establishing shot of the Bolton camp.
The fourth runs eight minutes and is set in the Eyrie. The transition is by hard cut, from Theon to a slow pan up Littlefinger’s coat.
The fifth runs six minutes and is set in Meereen. The transition is by hard cut, from Littlefinger and company in the Eyrie to the masters being (rather belatedly) removed from their crosses.
The sixth runs three minutes and is set at Moat Cailin. The transition is by image, from a wide shot of Meereen to one of the Bolton forces.
The seventh runs five minutes and is in three sections; it is set in the Eyrie. The first section is one minute long; the transition is by hard cut, from a wide shot of the Boltons riding to Sansa in her chambers. The second section is two minutes long; the transition is by family, from Sansa to Arya Stark. The third section is one minute long; the transition is by dialogue, from Arya laughing at Lyssa Arryn’s death to Robyn and Littlefinger talking about her.
The last part runs eleven minutes and is set in King’s Landing. The transition is by family, from Sansa to Tyrion. The final image is of Tyrion having landed on a snake and been sentenced to death.
Analysis
As with “The Prince of Winterfell” two years prior, the decision to make the ninth episode a single location battle benefits the eighth episode, into which a number of climaxes are shifted. But with the increased number of plots in progress compared to two years ago, this means that two-and-a-half plots resolve outright in this episode, their handling comprising the majority of the episode.…
