Heralds and Doctor Who 31/5.11
Jun. 13th, 2010 12:27 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
selenakDouble review time: waywardpug pointed me towards Heralds, a new Marvel five parter - two issues out so far - starring, among others, Emma Frost and Abigail Brand. All the other leads are women as well. I was only familiar with Jennifer Walters, aka She-Hulk before; there are also Val(kyrie) (who sounds like a female verson of Thor (Marvel default speak for Norse gods?), Hellcat, and Monica Rambeau, aka Photon. Heralds is written by Kathryn Immonen; the art for the first issue is very good and by Toni Zonjic; in the second, it's also by someone named Jeff Harrer and not so good. But the writing so far, with one caveat, makes up for it. The basic premise is the good kind of crack: Scott's idea of giving Emma a birthday surprise is a party thrown by the above named ladies - none of them exactly a friend or enemy -, in Las Vegas, and having dumped Emma in their midst, he wisely withdraws; they are mid-snarky dringing binge when the inevitable disaster strikes, while there is also a larger mystery hinted at, so Our Heroines team up, fight and investigate. Kathryn Immonen writes immensely entertaining dialogue for the women, which does not revolve around dating problems and passes the Bechdel Test all the time. (Though I will say the one single exchange about a man one of them is dating cracked me up as well. Val, re: method of transport: "A ride worthy of the warrior, Scott Summers." Emma: "Anyone pursuing that line of thought will be killed." )
I also appreciate the details. (Everyone in the suprise party is wearing silly moustaches when they greet Emma, except for Brand, which, well, she wouldn't!) And the fashion choices; before Our Heroines suit up for the action stuff, they're wearing clothes that are comfortable to relax with (jeans and a sweater for Brand, for example). And the larger mystery intrigues me. So what is the one caveat? The part where S.W.O.R.D. has masses of clones of dead scientists in storage. Now if this was an attempt to keep Abigail Brand morally grey, I'd accept it though I wouldn't like it, because cloning people is usually strict supervillain stuff (well, and Tony Stark & Reed Richards in a moral Civil War crisis), and seems to me a step back beyond even her initial level of ruthlessness (handing over Pjotr Rasputin to Ord for experimentation was awful, but in direct response to a threat to the entire population of the planet, and man, that suddenly sounds familiar if you're a Torchwood watcher.... Anyway, since then she's grown, and growing clones for kicks would be a giant step back. Except that so far, the narrative doesn't really seem to be aware of the problem there, since all the other characters treat fighting clones on the same level as fighting dinosaurs and in the case of Hellcat are positively gleeful about the chance to punch one of them. ("Do you have Oppenheimer? Come on, She-Hulk! First dibs on the bomb-maker!") Yes, dialogue tells us they barely have brain functions and aren't really people (in other words, sci-fi zombies), but I still want to know how and why they were created, and I hope the narrative gives Brand a reason, or otherwise is aware there is a huge ethics problem.
Still, I look forward to the next issue and will look up the women I didn't know before this story in the Marvelverse.
Meanwhile, on Doctor Who, we had what amounts to the traditional fluff outing before finale dramatics. No deep thoughts from me, but a couple of observations:
- clearly, football is to Eleven what Cricket is to Five, i.e. the scriptwriters use a sports skill of the actor's for a scene where the Doctor ends up inadvertendly having to use it and enjoys himself doing so enormously
- and this was not the only time I was reminded of the Five adventure Black Orchid
- the Van Gogh postcards on Craig's fridge were a neat touch after last week
- the machine the Doctor builds out of current-day materials looked like a large version of the one Three whipped up to interfere with the Master's shenanigans in The Time Monster, which works since this week's menace is caused by an attempt at time travel/space ship steering as well
- is Gareth Roberts being cheeky about one of his new bosses' more famous DW scenes or what? (The head-butt to share minds versus the Vulcan-style mindmelding as done in the Moff's Girl in the Fireplace when it's Ten and Reinette)
- Tea as a cure for Craig: Doctor Who's ongoing fondness for tea as a universal remedy is one of those things that make it so delightfully British
- the cat as the Doctor's spy: perfect!
- Amy finding the ring: and Chekov's gun went off. Next week, River!
waywardpug pointed me towards Heralds, a new Marvel five parter - two issues out so far - starring, among others, Emma Frost and Abigail Brand. All the other leads are women as well. I was only familiar with Jennifer Walters, aka She-Hulk before; there are also Val(kyrie) (who sounds like a female verson of Thor (Marvel default speak for Norse gods?), Hellcat, and Monica Rambeau, aka Photon. Heralds is written by Kathryn Immonen; the art for the first issue is very good and by Toni Zonjic; in the second, it's also by someone named Jeff Harrer and not so good. But the writing so far, with one caveat, makes up for it. The basic premise is the good kind of crack: Scott's idea of giving Emma a birthday surprise is a party thrown by the above named ladies - none of them exactly a friend or enemy -, in Las Vegas, and having dumped Emma in their midst, he wisely withdraws; they are mid-snarky dringing binge when the inevitable disaster strikes, while there is also a larger mystery hinted at, so Our Heroines team up, fight and investigate. Kathryn Immonen writes immensely entertaining dialogue for the women, which does not revolve around dating problems and passes the Bechdel Test all the time. (Though I will say the one single exchange about a man one of them is dating cracked me up as well. Val, re: method of transport: "A ride worthy of the warrior, Scott Summers." Emma: "Anyone pursuing that line of thought will be killed." ) I also appreciate the details. (Everyone in the suprise party is wearing silly moustaches when they greet Emma, except for Brand, which, well, she wouldn't!) And the fashion choices; before Our Heroines suit up for the action stuff, they're wearing clothes that are comfortable to relax with (jeans and a sweater for Brand, for example). And the larger mystery intrigues me. So what is the one caveat? The part where S.W.O.R.D. has masses of clones of dead scientists in storage. Now if this was an attempt to keep Abigail Brand morally grey, I'd accept it though I wouldn't like it, because cloning people is usually strict supervillain stuff (well, and Tony Stark & Reed Richards in a moral Civil War crisis), and seems to me a step back beyond even her initial level of ruthlessness (handing over Pjotr Rasputin to Ord for experimentation was awful, but in direct response to a threat to the entire population of the planet, and man, that suddenly sounds familiar if you're a Torchwood watcher.... Anyway, since then she's grown, and growing clones for kicks would be a giant step back. Except that so far, the narrative doesn't really seem to be aware of the problem there, since all the other characters treat fighting clones on the same level as fighting dinosaurs and in the case of Hellcat are positively gleeful about the chance to punch one of them. ("Do you have Oppenheimer? Come on, She-Hulk! First dibs on the bomb-maker!") Yes, dialogue tells us they barely have brain functions and aren't really people (in other words, sci-fi zombies), but I still want to know how and why they were created, and I hope the narrative gives Brand a reason, or otherwise is aware there is a huge ethics problem.
Still, I look forward to the next issue and will look up the women I didn't know before this story in the Marvelverse.
Meanwhile, on Doctor Who, we had what amounts to the traditional fluff outing before finale dramatics. No deep thoughts from me, but a couple of observations:
- clearly, football is to Eleven what Cricket is to Five, i.e. the scriptwriters use a sports skill of the actor's for a scene where the Doctor ends up inadvertendly having to use it and enjoys himself doing so enormously
- and this was not the only time I was reminded of the Five adventure Black Orchid
- the Van Gogh postcards on Craig's fridge were a neat touch after last week
- the machine the Doctor builds out of current-day materials looked like a large version of the one Three whipped up to interfere with the Master's shenanigans in The Time Monster, which works since this week's menace is caused by an attempt at time travel/space ship steering as well
- is Gareth Roberts being cheeky about one of his new bosses' more famous DW scenes or what? (The head-butt to share minds versus the Vulcan-style mindmelding as done in the Moff's Girl in the Fireplace when it's Ten and Reinette)
- Tea as a cure for Craig: Doctor Who's ongoing fondness for tea as a universal remedy is one of those things that make it so delightfully British
- the cat as the Doctor's spy: perfect!
- Amy finding the ring: and Chekov's gun went off. Next week, River!
no subject
Date: 2010-06-13 04:32 pm (UTC)Emma in comfortable lounging wear? What's that, a thong and two sticking plasters?
no subject
Date: 2010-06-13 05:45 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-06-14 05:19 pm (UTC)