Elizabeth Sandifer

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.…

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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.…

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Well, history continues to happen and to be shit. So does editing and writing, though that’s less shit – the next Last War in Albion chapter is actually almost done with the main text. And I just got the last bit of copyediting back from Jane, so I can finish typesetting Volume 1.

Anyway, I mostly want to use today’s Waffling to plug Noah Berlatsky’s latest, an essay collection entitled Fecund Horror: Slashers, Rape/Revenge, Women in Prison, Zombies, and Other Exploitation Dreck. Noah’s a friend of the blog (we podcasted about Wonder Woman a bit ago) and one of the best critics out there, and I’ve been enjoying the hell out of the book, which takes the tired “trashy exploitation films have something interesting to say” angle and finds fresh new life in it, suggesting that the genre works by “looking wrong” at the world, and that this is a generative and, well, fecund angle to take. It’s a delightfully odd collection, hitting obvious things like I Spit On Your Grave and also totally weird things – the title essay culminates in an enthusiastic paen to the subversive potential of a piece of erotica about wasps that lay mind-controlling eggs in people’s brains. It’s on Amazon here, and worth a look if weird trashy cinema is your thing.

As for discussion, getting back to the appallingly rapid pace of history in 2016, in amidst all the news stories that are (deservedly) getting coverage like Brexit, Black Lives Matter, Trump, the Nice attacks, the coup attempt in Turkey, and whatever fucking awful thing has no doubt happened in the couple hours between my queuing this and it posting, what news are you wishing were getting more attention? What’s interesting and underdiscussed in the world?…

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From worst to best of what I bought, which actually includes things this week. And no, I’m not doing that KFC comic from DC. It’s free, so I can’t buy it, and you can’t buy it for me, so pfft.

Stumptown #10

Phil’s comic pet peeves, number 398 out of a series of fucking infinite length: when writers do near-wordless scripts and then give them to artists who aren’t actually good enough to carry it off. This is a reasonably good story, and there’s some smart, thoughtful writing with a real focus on letting the images tell the story. The probelm is as I said – Justin Greenwood’s not a strong enough artist to convey the information needed clearly. Too often one is left looking at a page going “OK, what’s happening here,” and not in the sense of “what are the storytelling implications of this” but rather in the sense of “is that the same person from three pages ago” or “wait, where are these people?” Letting the pictures tell the story is great and a lovely comics writers trick that I get why everyone likes. But the fact of the matter is that the overwhelming majority of professional artists working in the industry today can’t actually pull it off, and that writers would be better served not triyng to be so damn clever.

Wonder Woman #2

The start of Rucka’s other Wonder Woman storyline, an origin retelling with Nicola Scott. Like any origin retelling it’s overly well-trodden ground, and Rucka neither brings earth-shattering new ideas nor hyper-brilliant style to the task, but it’s still got a bevy of nice, subtle touches that at least remind what Rucka’s strengths on the character are. I remain inherently suspicious of Rebirth and of the first two issues here, but this is at least a perfectly competent and enjoyble comic, which has to be called a result in context.

New Avengers #13

The impending relaunch brings a sense of acceleration to the book, which is generally good for it. The resolution to the ongoing POD subplot is clever and moving, although I find myself rather sharply hoping the character was not then immediately killed. (I trust Ewing more than that, though.) The Songbird plot is good. The army of Dum Dum Duggans remains barmy and clever. And I’m excited to see the Maker finally make his move. All in all, successful rising action.

The Wicked + The Divine #21

Speaking of Rising Action, the penultimate installment of this arc, which fulfills the description “like Shakespeare but with lots more punching” even better than NextWave did. Gillen and McKelvie have maintained FULL TILT quite well with this arc, and the comparative lull of last month’s installment seems considerably more artful given this jump to eleven. Excited to see how many people have their consciousnesses expanded in next month’s conclusion. (There. I finally did a joke other than “mind-blowing.”)

Next Week…

Lazarus #23

Hunt #1

Snotgirl #1

Darth Vader #23

Spider-Man #6

The Ultimates #9…

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The Pex Lives boys are back with The Crusade. And also with “then-current events,” which I don’t actually know when refers to. Dallas? Brexit? The Crusades themselves? Listen here and find out. They also apparently talk about the classic westerns Shane, Johnny Guitar, and The Searchers. 

Also, apparently Jack uploaded himself reading Canto 25 of Dante’s Inferno a few days ago without explanation or mentioning it anywhere. Well we’re mentioning it here. You can listen here.…

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I think it’s symbolic or something. (The weird doors in the background, I mean.)

State of Play

The choir goes off. The board is laid out thusly.

Lions of King’s Landing: Tyrion Lannister, Jaime Lannister, Cersei Lannister

Dragons of Meereen: Daenerys Targaryen

Direwolves of the Wall: Jon Snow

The Mockingbird, Petyr Baelish

The Burning Heart, Melisandre

Archers of the Wall: Samwell Tarly

The Direwolf, Sansa Stark

The Direwolf, Arya Stark

The Dogs, Sandor Clegane

The Shield, Brienne of Tarth

Chains of King’s Landing: Bronn

With the Bear of Meereen, Jorah Mormont

Winterfell, the Dreadfort, and Braavos are abandoned.

The episode is in eleven parts. The first runs four minutes and is set in King’s Landing. It is in sections. The first section is three minutes long; the first image is of an angry Jaime, his dialogue preceding his appearance. The second section is one minute long. The transition is by dialogue, from Jaime talking about who Cersei will choose as her champion to the Mountain

The second part runs five minutes and is set in the Riverlands. The transition is by family, from Gregor to Sandor Clegane.

The third runs three minutes and is set at the Wall. The transition is by family, from Arya Stark to Jon Snow.

The fourth part runs four minutes and is set in King’s Landing. The transition is by hard cut, from Jon and Sam sitting ruefully to Tyrion’s window.

The fifth part runs three minutes and is set in Meereen. The transition is by hard cut, from Tyrion in his cell to the great pyramid.

The sixth part runs four minutes and is set in Dragonstone. The transition is by image, from naked Daario to naked Melisandre.

The seventh part runs three minutes and is set in Meereen. The transition is by hard cut, from Melisandre and Selyse looking into the fire to Daario walking out of Daenerys’s room and getting dressed.

The eighth runs three minutes and is set in the Riverlands. The transition is by hard cut, from Daenerys to a wide shot of the Hound and Arya.

The ninth runs five minutes and is also set in the Riverlands. The transition is by dialogue, with Brienne and Podrick coming to speak of Arya.

The tenth runs five minutes and is set in King’s Landing. The transition is by dialogue, with Podrick having just talked about Tyrion.

The last runs eight minutes and is set in the Eyrie. The transition is by family, from Tyrion to Sansa. The final image is of the Moon Door after Lysa Arryn has taken landing on a snake to new levels.

Analysis

Structurally speaking, the elegant style of play that had been the hallmark of the season pretty much gives out here. “Mockingbird” is a jagged mess of hard cuts and piece-shuffling concerned more with positioning plot lines to be able to handle the existence of a single-location ninth episode than with anything of its own. Thankfully the season’s overall shape from “First of His Name” on, in which episodes are anchored by a sequence of escalating set pieces, largely covers for this lack, making “Mockingbird” a more or less satisfying experience.…

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Ugh. It’s the Gatiss episode.

State of Play

The choir goes off. The board is laid out thusly:

Lions of Kings Landing: Tyrion Lannister, Jaime Lannister, Cersei Lannister, Tywin Lannister

Dragons of Mereen: Daenerys Targaryen

Roses of Kings Landing: Margaery Tyrell

Ships of Braavos: Davos Seaworthy

Burning Hearts of Braavos: Stannis Baratheon

Kraken of the Dreadfort: Theon Greyjoy

Flayed Men of the Dreadfort: Ramsay Snow

Spiders of King’s Landing: Varys

Flowers of King’s Landing: Shae

With the Bear of Mereen, Jorah Mormont

Winterfell is abandoned and in ruins, the Wall is unmanned.

The episode is in four parts. The first runs eight minutes and is set in Bravos. The opening shot is of Stannis’s ship sailing across the Narrow Sea.

The second runs eight minutes and is set at the Dreadfort. The transition is by the concept of ships, from Davos hiring Sallador Sahn to Asha sailing towards the Dreadfort.

The third runs six minutes and is set in Mereen. The transition is by hard cut, from Ramsey’s smiling face to a goat herder.

The fourth runs twenty-five minutes and is set in King’s Landing. The transition is by dialogue, with Daenerys coming up in conversation at the council meeting. The final shot is Tyrion smiling at having landed on a ladder and demanded trial by combat.

Analysis

Like “The Lion and the Rose,” there are several courses of vegetables followed by dessert. The vegetables are much the same – two lengthy sections dealing with Stannis and the Dreadfort. Indeed, so is the dessert – a big King’s Landing set piece, although not quite so big as “The Lion and The Rose” due to significant attrition in the number of available characters. But this is in every regard the more intensive version of the exercise. “The Lion and the Rose” built inexorably to its denouement, inserting two earlier King’s Landing scenes to build to the wedding. “The Laws of Gods and Men,” on the other hand, drops its two slogs consecutively at the start, then offers a palate cleanser in Meereen before plowing into its King’s Landing piece as one single bloc.

This is, of course, slightly unfair to both the Stannis and Ramsay scenes, as they do have several legitimate points of interest. Stannis’s scene, for instance, is the occasion for introducing a new location to the opening credits, which gives it an odd emphasis, even if the weight of Braavos as a location is not entirely clear. (Although it’s notable that Tywin and Arya both talked about it last episode, further emphasizing it as a big deal.) But this is mostly an intellectual curiosity – Stannis is on his way back out of Braavos after eight minutes, and while the location sticks around in the credits for the rest of the season (whereas the Eyrie, curiously, never gets used), nothing of its importance is actually conveyed by the episode, its introduction serving the same purpose as Liam Cunningham’s charisma, namely desperately trying to spice up a dull scene.

The Dreadfort scene is more straightforward in its efforts to make itself engaging, in that it has people hitting each other with swords.…

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First of all, I just want to direct you all to Shana’s post from Friday, because it’s an absolute stunner. Really, everybody’s on form lately, and it’s leaving me itching to finish off Brief Treatise, because I feel like the weak link on my own site. Although the truth is that something fairly fast and easy like Brief Treatise is still useful while I finish up Last War in Albion Volume 1 revisions (which I got the last big part of done this week), typeset Neoreaction a Basilisk, and finally get some work done on the next actual chapter of Last War in Albion. So I’m busy, just not with stuff that goes on the blog weekly.

Still, I’ve been thinking about what I want to do after Brief Treatise and the Super Nintendo Project wrap. I’ve got a Jack-style series in mind called Build High for Happiness, and an ongoing thing called The Proverbs of Hell, both of which should be fun. And perhaps one-offs on things like Mr. Robot season two, which I’m terribly excited for. And probably reviews of The Obelisk Gate and Death’s End when those come out. Those will presumably come before Super Nintendo Project wraps, of course.

Meanwhile, for discussion this week… what do you want that science fiction isn’t providing for you right now? …

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