selenak

Turns out the funeral on Tuesday was also covered by the New York Times. I like my photos better, she says smugly.

I continue to be grateful to everyone who provides me with links to fanfiction goodness so I can catch up whenever I have the time, the online access, or both. (Which is going to be limited until I'm back in Germany, aka on the 23rd. 22nd is departure day, and as mentioned, it takes almost 24 hours, driving to and from the airports included.) I also had the chance to read the newest Astonishing X-Men, Warren Ellis' debut in the title, and the two first issues of The Eternals written by the Knaufs, following Neil Gaiman's run, so in order not to let this journal become too monomanical about Bali, here are short reviews.

likeadeuce compared Warren Ellis' writing in this issue with the first chapter of a novel as opposed to Joss Whedon writing his issues like tv episodes. I'm not sure about the tv episodes - an issue like #14 would probably feature more action and less introspection into personal hells if it were a tv episode (even The Body had the obligatory vampire fight) - but the difference in writerly voice is certainly noticable, and I also agree that Ellis' type of writing doesn't immediately evoke the dissecting, wondering, debating, raving response Joss' AXM issues do. (Otoh, having read Ellis' Iron Man: Extremis as a trade collection, I certainly had those impulses, though I'm told the individual issues when they were appearing were as far apart and delayed as the Whedonian ones for AXM were.) It's definitely interesting, though, and I think I'll stick with the title. Some observations:

- San Francisco, huh? So much superhero action seems to be moving to the West Coast. New Yorkers are probably relieved.
- am very amused at the laid back San Francisco cops, so used to weirdness, so comfortable working with the X-men, so anti-cliché
- not too happy with the Storm-Emma scene; it a) just doesn't fit with Emma's reaction to Kitty in #14, which makes me suspect Ellis when writing this was told the bare facts of what would be
happening in JW's final issue but hadn't read the actual script, and b) smacks of replay. Otoh, I do get the point was to tell the reader Emma/Ororo wouldn't be a replay of Emma/Kitty.
- otoh, Storm being so utterly bored with the happily married life as a queen and wanting to the return to the X-Men because of the joys of in-team fighting? Cracks me up.
- why does Scott call Hank "Henry" all of a sudden? Did he do that since their teenage days? He definitely didn't in Joss' AXM
- speaking of Scott's teenage days, Logan's observation re: Warren were fun, too
- and speaking of modes of address, though she's not in this issue Hank settled one thing I was wondering about for me, which is how he calls/thinks of Agent Brand now by referring to her as "Abigail". This I like. Somehow it fits the verbose Dr. McCoy would call her by her full name, no abrivation, and the old fashion-ness of Abigail is such a great contrast to "Brand".
- Ellis does a great job with Hisako; I'm glad he continues to use her
- trust Ellis the socially conscious to come up with a third world country that's used as a garbage dump for Alien debris and hopelessly polluted because of that. The fact our mystery plot leads there makes me hope my beloved Abigail Brand will soon be back as well. Given off planet stuff is her field.
- Ellis, whom are you kidding with letting Emma only now get adjusted to waking up early due to living with Scott? She's been teaching at Xavier's for longer than that, and before that was teaching in Genosha. Never mind Emma's supervillain life style, as a teacher she had to get up early whether good or bad.

The Eternals were reintroduced to the Marvelverse in a miniseries by Neil Gaiman. Which is now continued by Daniel and Charles Knauf, after they finished their Iron Man run. By and large, I liked their issues, though one scene in particular gave me bad second season of Carnivale flashbacks (yes, Daniel K., this still remains unforgiven!). Otoh, the context was quite different, and it didn't distract from the main stuff, which was good. On to a bullet point review.

To get the one scene that caused a bad flashback out of the way first: it was the one featuring the not-yet-activated Eternal Legba in his human preacher identity, who after a fiery sermon ravishes one of his faithful. Aside from the obvious cliché, this painfully reminded me of Justin Crowe's 180% turnaround in season 2, from man who flogs himself at mere sexual thoughts to serial rapist of maids. Mind you, a more subtle parallel to second season Justin isn't Legba, either before or after activation, but Druig. Gaiman wrote him as a sadistic cynic; the Knaufs give him an inner monologue of disgust as the stink and fleshliness of the human race and a sense of being called. It's not something that wouldn't fit with the character as set up by Gaiman, but it's definitely something the Knaufs added. Also, they make the Stalinist Russia parallel which was already there way more explicit.

- San Francisco, encore: like I said, all the action is there these days. It was good to see the Order cameo, as this is supposed to be their turf
- I'm a bit dissappointed to see Sersi in her Eternal costume, because one of the crucial points of Gaiman's miniseries was that she was the one Eternal who didn't regain her memories and in the end chose not to, because she had seen Mark Curry/Makkari lose his human self that way and wanted to keep hers; by contrast, these two issues give the impression Sersi has become a full Eternal again, and that very Gaiman frivolous human charm she had is gone
- Otoh, Sersi's two scenes with Tony Stark were excellent continuity to where Gaiman had left her, and I like both her being a sort of liason between human (registered) superheroes, represented by Tony, and the Eternals, and the more personal level this gets to when she asks him about addiction because of what's happening with Makkari; Tony's reply shows the Knaufs came straight from writing his main title
- very promising debate between Thena and Ikaris about whether or not to use Druig's brainwashing methods to recruit other Eternals; I do love it when heroes are faced with these questions and when the reaction is neither an easy "no way" nor a Jack Bauerian "scruples are for softies"
- Ajak: a male Kai Winn and thus proof one or both Knaufs are DS9 fans, y/n? (Given that Ron Moore co-wrote s1 of Carnivale with Daniel Knauf, I'm thinking yes. At any rate, Ajak's bitterness about his god not speaking to him despite having spend a lifetime of service but talking to the ~~Emissary~~ intruder Makkari instead was ever so familiar. Which is not a criticism: I loved Winn's storyline.