RHPS/Batman.
Excellent steam-punk Batman thread on Whitechapel. One of my favorites is here, but there are many more. Click through.
Gods and Monsters: Avatar’s Supergod
In the galaxy of high priced comics that emerge every month, few are worth following. At $3.99 per issue, even a mini-series adds up quickly. Warren Ellis’ Supergod is worth it.
As you can tell from the crucified faux-Superman on the cover of Supergod #1, this book is trying to be confrontational. While Ellis does use religion as a jumping-off point, the book is actually very similar to other Superhero deconstruction efforts that became de rigueur with Watchmen and can be seen in many of Ellis’ past titles (The Authority, Black Summer, No Hero, etc). Ellis has thus far kept Supergod original enough to warrant yet another journey over that well trod ground.
As with many Ellis books, bleeding edge science plays a central role, especially the kind that goes horribly wrong. The first page establishes that this will not end well, the narrator revealing that he is making a record of how everyone died. He proceeds to narrate a series of connected stories about various versions of Frankenstein’s monster: men playing (with) God, but using modern tech, unlimited budgets, and the particular blinding zeal that results from religious fanaticism and real-politic in the age of the WMD. The monsters wake, and chaos ensues.
The weakness at the heart of the story is also one of it’s strengths. A story of the scope being told here is difficult to relate from the ground level, so he doesn’t try. We have a narrator who seems to know a little to much (similar to Crecy), and though this allows a certain scope, it also keeps us a step removed. We don’t have a strong character to invest in. The story is being told not from the point of view of a cherished character in the midst of dangerous action, but as an old war story from grumpy uncle Ellis. Of course, an evening with grumpy uncle Ellis is more entertaining than most books out there.
I must take a moment to acknowledge the art of Garrie Gastonny. The colors are rich, the panels clean, and there is a sense of polish that was missing from his painterly-yet-stiff work on Radical’s Calibur.
Supergod is, so far, a tale of gods and monsters, the negligible difference between the two, and how people create them both.
Links for Today Jan 3rd, 2010
In no particular order.
1: Bruce Sterling: State of the World 2010
“Strange and Wonderful predictions of the future (and present) by Bruce Sterling, with input from Jon Lebkowsky and and early prodding by Cory Doctorow”
2: Kenyan witch-hunt targets elders
“The poverty-stricken western district, known as Kenya’s sorcery belt, has seen an increase in mob attacks on individuals and even killings.”
3. French aristocrats break free from sect leader Thierry Tilly
“He is said to have convinced the Védrines family – part of the Protestant nobility of south-west France for 300 years – that they belonged to an ancient order called L’Equilibre du Monde (”the balance of the world”) which has the mission of defending humanity from “supreme evil”. From September 2001, 11 of the Védrines barricaded themselves into the family chateau 100 miles east of Bordeaux, some abandoning successful careers.”
4. Photographs of people across the earth as they welcomed the new year
5. The Greatest Inventions Nikola Tesla Never Created
6. The 15 Dumbest Superhero Retcons Of All Time
7. Gordon Brown to launch £100bn wind energy programme
ColaLife and Iron Man- Using Coca-Cola for the forces of good
“ColaLife is a campaign to get Coca-Cola to open up its distribution channels in developing countries to save lives, especially children’s lives, by carrying much needed ’social products’ such as oral rehydration salts and high-dose vitamin A tablets.”
Nextnature brought this to my attention, but I knew I had seen it somewhere before. I’m not sure if Matt Fraction knew about this, but it seems those at ColaLife are real life super heroes.
Check out these panels from Invincible Iron Man Volume 5, number 4, from Oct 2008.
