The Captain Marvel Movie Review!

(Last week I took a lovely spring break day and spent it in the local theater. First I watched Captain Marvel with a chum and later that afternoon I caught the new Shazam movie with another friend. Today and tomorrow I will present my reviews which are spoiler rich so tread gently.)

Captain Marvel was a movie deeply embedded in the rich Marvel mythology and added to that richness with some very sharp and well-defined characters of its own. In fact you might well say that we now know why this whole gaggle of movies is called "The Marvel Universe".

I'm an original Captain Marvel fan and went to this flick with my eyes and ears sharp for reference to Mar-Vell. We got them, but not at all like I imagined. In the cinematic Marvel universe Mar-Vell is a woman portrayed by the gorgeous Annette Bening. She is a Kree who has decided to act against the sprawling military empire of her people by trying to help Skrull refugees and develop faster-than-light technology to do so. She is stopped in her mission on Earth and killed but her Earthling partner Carol Danvers is not, but bereft of memory taken to Hala and made into a warrior. We learn that all this fuss was to tap the FTL energy which had found a home inside the young Danvers. She is made to think she is a Kree and that's where the story begins.

This is not my Captain Marvel by much any means, but there are lots of intriguing echoes as the narrative unwinds. This story is set in the 90's before the events of Iron Man which ignited the Marvel Universe story and we meet younger versions of Nick Fury and Agent Colson. The former is not quite so cynical as he is in the current day, but then that's likely true of most of us.  I loved how he and Carol had a true partnership, she in no fashion even for a second seeking his approval. She is her own woman even when she's not sure who she is.

And that's the grand message here. Captain Marvel is a superhero movie for girls and a great one. The sense of empowerment developed by the end of the tale is enormous and even an old fossil of a male like me could take note of it.

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Ditko's Monsters!

Konga and Gorgo hit the shelves yet again, a pretty nifty trick for two monsters who each starred in one-off feature B-movies over fifty years ago. They survive because each of them luckily fell into the nimble hands of Steve Ditko and Joe Gill, two yeoman talents who worked for the little comic company that could, Charlton. The latest package is a flip-cover affair from Yoe Books.

The two monsters met (sort of) for the first time when in celebration of the great Ditko, Charlton promoted him atop the two monsters in a special issue dubbed Fantastic Giants, another incredible one-off. That comic was one of my earliest acquisitions and no doubt contributes to my abiding love of monsters to this very day. That  special issue brought together the debut appearances of Konga and Gorgo alongside some spectacular horror short-stories drawn by Ditko.

Sadly the new package does include Gorgo #1 but for some reason doesn't give us Konga #1. We get some darn fine Konga stories from issues six and thirteen but the lack of the debut for me makes this handsome two-cover flip book a tiny bit of a disappointment. But that's very very tiny. This one is pure old-fashioned monster-loving fun.

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The King Of Monsters Cometh!

I'm getting very very excited about this latest monster flick. While most folks seem to be dazzled by the last days of the Avengers,I'm looking past them somewhat to see a real world beater take the stage. Be still my heart! I love the Avengers, but I worship Godzilla!

The gang's all here. It's time to dig all those classic monster epics out and watch them all yet again to feed my hungry Kaiju-loving brain. Long live the King!

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The Flames Of Notre Dame!

This was somewhat crummy news and watching the spire crash in was a little unsettling. I was alas, reminded of the twin towers in NYC. Of course the comparison is a weak one, but seeing an iconic structure fall down shakes the timbers of my faith in society a wee bit. We are toying everyday it seems with the moral and ethical pillars which have for the most part maintained us, and to see actual pillars in jeopardy reminds me of that. 

I only a few months ago actually got hold of and watched Charles Laughton's magnificent performance as Victor Hugo's tragic hero, The Hunchback of Notre Dame. He was quite magnificent and all the folks in Paris need to do is tap that Hollywood magic and the old look will rise again and possibly on a crackerjack budget.

And I took the opportunity to watch again the master Lon Chaney in one of his most famous roles. I find I prefer Laughton's more sympathetic presentation, though the spectacle of the Chaney version is eye-popping still. And that concludes my thoughts on Notre Dame for the nonce -- be safe.

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The Marvel Way!

After Jack "King" Kirby left to make his characters sing under his own pen, Stan Lee found a steady replacement in "Big" John Buscema, an imposing artist on the page and in real life. Buscema became the central artist in the Marvel Universe, so much so that when it came time to teach the world the "Marvel Way" it was the stylings of John Buscema which represented.

And here is one of "Big" John's drafts for the cover, pretty close to the final save for the title of the book which was apparently changed. It was a good change. Despite that, Buscema was apparently one of those guys for whom drawing was like breathing, it came naturally.

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John Buscema's Silver Surfer!

I found this tome for relative small money at my local shop, and the price was to good to pass up. Getting to see Big John's work in such a way only increases my life-long adoration for his work. While he had general disdain for his superhero work and there's no doubt that at some level Conan was a work of love, it's his Silver Surfer books which stand out to me when I think of him. He did so many great Avengers issues in several tenures on the book, but issues one through seventeen of this singular book always seemed to bring out the best. Maybe it's because Stan Lee always treasured these so highly and took great pains to husband the Surfer gently into the broader Marvel Universe after the departure of his creator Jack Kirby. Some have said this is some of Stan's best writing and I won't disagree, the melodrama is vibrant and Buscema was the ideal artist to bring it forth. No artist, living or dead, has ever drawn the Surfer's suffering with more potency.

Here are the issues in this over-sized tome of awesomeness.

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Favorite Comic Artist Countdown #1 - John Buscema!

John Buscema has been my favorite comic book artist from the very beginning of my time reading comics. He was ascending in fame and responsibility at Marvel as Jack Kirby, the "King of Comics" withdrew to the warmer climes of a "Fourth World". Buscema would become Marvel's mainstay artist, the guy they tapped to draw all the first issues and major series. He was a supremely gifted illustrator of superheroes and yet by all accounts he hated them, found them foolish looking. He was a man who'd found his inspiration in Hal Foster's Prince Valiant and he thought that legendary comic strip was the peak of comics. He got his chance when he belatedly was given the reins of the Conan the Barbarian comic, at a time when it had proven itself sufficiently successful to warrant an artist of his caliber (and page rate). He stayed with Conan pretty from that day forth and later got a chance to draw Tarzan of the Apes. But he drew other things as well, such as legendary run on the Silver Surfer and had many stints in several different decades of The Avengers. 

He drew them all at one time or another and eventually became the guy who showed us all how to draw the Marvel way. The first thing I think of when I think of Buscema is gravity, no artist I've even seen had such a feel for the way the human form is rooted to the Earth and no artist ever drew that relationship with more force. His heroes lift themselves from the ground with effort and they punch with explosive power. His machines, different from Kirby's, are sinuous and serpentine in their essence. Like Kirby in earlier years, later work by Buscema seems to fade a bit as he's only supplying breakdowns. That's not going to get it for fans like me -- I want the hard stuff, the ass-kicking pure "Big" John Buscema, my absolute favorite comic book artist ever. 

Putting together this list has been enormous fun. It's been interesting to attempt to rank my favorite comic talents (not really all the much possible beyond a handful) because it's made me reflect on what I like in each artist. You might notice some significant names not on the list and that's because some talents are better known as inkers and their impact on me has been as inkers. That list is coming soon to a Dojo near you. Thanks for your attention and patience amigos.

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