Captain Britian - Before Excalibur!

Captain Britain as first designed in the late 70's was not quite the hit Marvel hoped for. I personally always liked that original look, but it's safe to say that his original adventures despite some good talent were less than stellar. But the 80's changed all that. 

It began in a book called Daredevils where Alan Davis took hold of the character. Joined by writer Alan Moore and others he recreated Captain Britain, making him more physically imposing. While I like the original look, there's no doubt this revision is better, more powerful. The world in which Brian Braddock lived was also transformed, becoming less like a British version of Peter Parker's and into something and quite evocative. 

Following on after that shake up the Captain was given a slot in The Mighty World of Marvel for a short spell before getting his own title once again. Writer Jamie Delano came aboard and the Captain Britian stories bloomed into full flower. The tradition of weirdness which had marked the earlier efforts in Daredevils was continued in this new book and made even more so. Enemies spilled out from across multiple dimensions, bringing both life and death to those around the Braddock clan. We learn dark secrets that some of the family hold. Death is not an uncommon visitor in the book, which plays for high stakes all the time. The Brian Braddock gets a strange love interest in the werewoman Meagan, a strange creature who comes into her full powers as the series continues. We encounter other "Captains" from other places, some with murderous intent. Brian's sister Betsey even becomes Captain Britain for a short time. 

Below are the covers by Alan Davis for this potent run of the series. 

The series does find an ending with old foes finding some peace. New missions are given to those who have lost their way and Captain Britain seems for a brief time to have found some measure of contentment. 

This collection features the blurb "Before Excalibur" and while the issue above is not in the collection, it is clearly the purpose of the trade to put into readers' hands those Captain Britian stories which will impact the fledgling Brit X-team. It was a time when Marvel was all about all things X-Men, and squeezing Captain Britian into that frame was better than losing him all together. 

Rip Off

MiracleMan Book Three: Olympus!

In some way this third book of the Miracleman sage by Alan Moore and new artist John Totleben is the most elegant of the fractious run. The series was gifted from the start with wonderful artwork, but the stories which comprise this collection are so exceedingly fine that they feel more like art than artwork,if that makes any sense. The story of Miracleman has moved to its night ultimate phase, the threads of the story are drawing to a close in many ways. 

We meet the alien race which was the source of Miracleman's powers by dint of some of that species falling into the hands of mankind through accident. They are the "Qys", a race that changes forms at will, and with dramatic results. We encounter the gorgeous Miraclewoman, a creature like Miracleman but truth told more at ease with her powers. We follow the much put-upon Liz Moran who must leave to save her sanity after the birth of Winter, the child which she and Miracleman parented. Winter, a mere baby but full of self-awareness and great power too makes decisions which. We see the return of Kid Miracleman with ferocious results. The Warpsmiths are on hand to assist to the last with great cost. Even Michael Moran, Miracleman's other self makes a momentous decision. These are serious stories of a world transformed by the superhumans who inhabit it, both for ill and good. I'm sorry it took me so long to find these tales, but then maybe I only now ready to fully appreciate them. 

Below are the covers for the stories which appeared originally from Eclipse Comics. 

Above is the cover for the Eclipse collection of these stories. The cover is incredibly compelling. Below are the covers for the Marvel reprints of the series from several years ago. 

Rip Off

Judge Dredd - Judgment Is Coming!

We live in such a rich comic-book-inspired movie environment these days that there's no way I'm going to catch every one of these on the big screen. In fact, I've taken to mostly waiting to see them when they eventually hit the small screen. Such it was with Dredd, the most recent adaptation of the justly famous British comic book character. It was a hoot and a half!

Karl Urban  (quickly becoming my favorite actor next to Ray Stevenson, and who gives us the perfectly pitched performance as Doctor McCoy in the new Star Trek movies) plays the role of Dredd and he does the thing which the part most requires, he never comes out from under the helmet, not once. I admire that immensely. It shows a commitment to the character that not all actors have (see below). Urban is properly gruff and grim and his Judge Dredd has all the characteristics I expected, raw violence and some slight brutal humor. It's easy for this character to be derailed by a too smarmy performance, and that Urban never does.

Judge Anderson, a rookie psychic judge is the connection for the audience, the new face who confronts the violent world of the mega-blocks and who must kill or die to fulfill her mission of delivering justice to the people. She's a character who sees the contradictions of the Judges and who seems always on the edge of accepting the legitimacy of the law as defined in Mega-City. Olivia Thirlby is darn good in a very demanding role.

Other Judges appear in this story of Dredd and Anderson facing down Ma-Ma a heinous drug baroness who rules "Peach Trees", the mega-block where almost all the action is situated. They are ineffective or corrupt, leaving Dredd and Anderson alone together to deliver "justice".

Unlike its 90's predecessor starring Sly Stallone as the infamous Judge Dredd, the new movie has no obvious comedy relief. There is absurdity galore and even cruel brutal satire in some few moments, but never would you say this movie plays it for laughs. I always thought for all its weaknesses that Stallone looked very good in the helmet and in those moments when he has it on that movie holds together. It's when it comes off and we get a more "humane" Dredd that the story begins to skid out of control (not including Rob Snyder who should've been killed early and often). The decision by the director and Urban to never show Dredd's face, in keeping with the comic, is key to making this new Dredd movie more effective.

Let there be no doubt. This is a seriously and sometimes hideously violent movie. People are killed left, right and center as Dredd and charge try to stay alive. The word that kept coming to mind as I watched this movie was "relentless". The violence is relentless and harsh and graphic. The story is relentless, confined within a single building for almost all of its duration. The villain Ma-Ma is relentless in her attempts to kill Dredd and maintain her willful control of the block. And finally Dredd himself is relentless, always moving forward in one way or another to fulfill his obligations as "the Law".

NOTE: This is a Dojo Revised Classic Post. 

Rip Off

Judge Dredd - In The Future, One Man Is The Law!

Judge Dredd starring Sylvester Stallone is very much a movie of its time. That time was the 90's when the world was just becoming accustomed to comic book movies, while at the same time savoring the latest bombastic Arnold Schwarenegger flicker. This movie is blend of both, a comic book movie that does some limited justice to its source but at the same time giving 90's audiences the slick action they'd come to expect. 

Sadly, the limited justice leaves a lot of Judge Dredd the comic on the cutting room floor. The number one complaint is that Sly takes off the helmet way too much. Watching it again, I realized he wore it more than I remember and when it was off the plot was served. It's the fact this is a story in which Dredd is not officially a judge for quite a while. 

Armand Assante as the villain "Rico" was wildly over the top yet still compelling. He was turbocharging his performance but still hitting the necessary notes. Max Von Sydow was quite good as a noble elder judge and Jurgen Prochnow gave his typical bad guy performance. Diane Lane was lovely and her bit well enough, but the attempts to link her romantically to Dredd fell flat. Rob Schnieder is pretty good and isn't on screen enough to drag the whole kaboodle down with his comedic touches. 

The ending of the movie is horrible, full bluster and nonsense. It does hurt the overall movie since it leaves a bad taste in the viewer's mouth at just the wrong time. As a movie attempting to translate the Judge Dredd comic to the big screen, this one starts well but loses steam steadily throughout. As a typical action film of its time, it performs pretty well. After seeing again after many years it was better overall than I remembered. 

Tomorrow the Dojo takes a look at the much better Judge Dredd movie. 

Rip Off

Judge Dredd - The Complete Case Files 01!

It is not uncommon for folks in modern society to feel uncomfortable with the relative lives of leisure they lead and come to fear that villains will arise to strip them of their comforts. Fear of crime is a constant in the modern world, even when relatively speaking such threats are minimal. Sensational reporting often seeks to instigate fear in the population for the furtherance of some political agenda. That is happening right now in the United States as despite many indicators that life is reasonably prosperous and safe, voices scream that crime is on the rampage. Often that crime is given an ethnic source to further inflame the listeners or readers. So, it's not uncommon that a cry goes out for people and institutions to combat this criminal element. In the United States that has led to grotesque numbers of people in prisons, far greater numbers than any other industrialized nation and most of the others as well. It has given us police forces who resembles soldiers more than peacekeeping officers. The message is carried forth on radio, television and in films such the vintage Death Wish series among many others. And it peeks its head up in comics as well. 

I first became aware of Judge Dredd when the direct sales market blossomed in the early 80's and reprints of Dredd stories were packaged as monthly comics Eagle Comics. The cold unrelenting cop of the future fit in well with the general tone of fear which was promoted by the Reagan administration among others. New York City was desolate and riddled with crime, a symbol it seemed of what was rotting away across the nation and perhaps the world. An officer with the mission to intervene, arrest, judge and execute was an extreme notion, but not one which stood far off the vigilante sentiment which can often overcome a people. I next encountered Judge Dredd in the movies, with Sly Stallone in the lead role. More on that tomorrow. 

I didn't really get to savor the unhinged adventures of Judge Dredd until several years ago when reprints of the original 2000 AD stories were brought to the market in Judge Dread - The Original Case Files. These were the stories in chronological order and allowed the reader to experience the development of this most successful character as it happened, almost. 

The premise is that Dredd and the other Judges are a necessary evil, a means to an end. That end is law and order and not necessarily justice. Dredd wears black because he's in essence a bad guy harnessed by the government desperate for control to do its bidding. 

Dredd is not featured on that many covers in the first year of his run in 2000 AD. He shared the book with a great many other features, but slowly and relentlessly like his hunt for lawbreakers in the stories, Dredd began to seized control. His adventures, whether episodic one-offs or lengthy sagas such as the story of Mega City's war against a robot revolution, each installment features lots of action. He is assisted from time to time by the loyal robot Walter who even gets a few pages in this collection for his own light-hearted misadventures. 

Another lengthy tale takes Judge Dredd to the Moon to enforce law in Luna City 1. In an environment even more harsh than Earth's, a place where even air is a commodity the criminals are even more desperate. Eventually Dredd returns to Mega City to continue the war on crime which rages even down to this modern day. Tomorrow, I begin a look at Judge Dredd's cinematic experiences. 

Rip Off