Luby’s Review: X-Men Origins: Wolverine

So, I finally watched the copy of X-Men Origins: Wolverine that was gathering dust on my DvD shelf. And I went into it with dampened hopes and shattered allusions, having heard virtually universal negative criticism. So I have to say, it wasn’t that bad. Honestly, it wasn’t. True, there were some abysmal moments: The fight between Logan and the Blob, the ENTIRE fake-wife deal, and the final villain. But, I don’t really think any of that are out of place in a comic-themed movie. Fact is, if the entire film was animated and they left in all the costumes, nothing would be a bit out of place! Face it, the movies are written this way because that’s the way comics are! I’ve seen even worse stuff out of Marvel in the 90’s. In the last 5 years or so, all their stuff is trying to be so high brow and mature (mostly because kids rarely read comics, more adults do) but their roots are still a bit childish, so take the lumps with the good. All-in-all, the end was bad. The final Deadpool was stupid. But the wars were a cool touch, and the whole thing taking place in the 80’s or so was kinda cool, after all, he is supposed to be about 125, so hes got a lot of  time to take from. The retconing was as to be expected, as with all comic movies. But is wasn’t so bad as “I’m the Juggernaut, bitch” That was shameful. Wolverine was just okay, not fantastic, which is what most people seemed to expect.

Seriously, lowball your expectations people. Less disappointment that way.

Luby’s Review: 6 out of 10

Luby’s Review: Hard-Boiled (Graphic Novel)

Geoff Darrow is insane!

I’d read about Hard-Boiled (not related to the supremely awesome John Woo film) but had never actually read it…

Until now. Frank Miller’s story is a kind of mix between pre-matrix Matrix themes, the Terminator, and Blade Runner all mixed in with an obsessive compulsive’s worst nightmare! Geoff Darrow is the over-the top artist who draws everything, and I do mean, EVERYTHING! EVERYTHING is rendered snd drawn, EVERYTHING! The level of detail and wide scope of the shots and angles are overwhelming.

SEE!!! And that ain’t nothin’!

Those very rare simple shots look somehow wrong. All-in-all its a damn good piece of comic art, but not for the soft-hearted, chock full of horrific violence and deviant sex.

If you liked Sin City and Blade Runner, you’ll probably love Hard-Boiled.

8 out of 10
~Luby

Luby’s Review: House (Graphic Novel)

The House Graphic Novel is an angst/horror book put out by Fantagraphics. It’s a darksome little tale about a trio of teens visiting an old half-sunken mansion and the horrible things that happen there. Its entirely sinlent, no dialogue or captions or text of any kind, really. The book is basically a kind of window into the mental breakdown of all three of the characters as terrible events mount up on each of them as the book progresses.

There is no happy ending.

In its progression I found that the time dealt with seemed to shorten the farther into the book you got, this mostly has to do with the pacing. There are wide angle and panoramic shots used in the beginning, but shorten up to quick panels, up to 9-12 in a page which chops up the time into smaller, quicker chunks. The real gimmick, other than the silence is the tonal masking. Masking is a sequential tool often used to define a character against its environment, or vice versa. Tintin, for instance, is well-known for realistic  and complex backgrounds, but simple, cartoony figures; Cerebus does the same. House is a but is of different take: the mood is dark and serious, but the characters are cartoony. There is no way it would have sold as well or been as well received if the art matched the story and was photorealistic. Sure it would have sold on art alone, lots of comics do, but it would have lost quite a bit in the translation and been fairly difficult to read and appreciate. As it is, it is a tough read, very dark.

Not my cup of tea, but
6 out of 10
~Luby

Luby’s Review: Tom Strong (Collected Edition, book 1)

Tom Strong is boss!

I really enjoyed reading Tom Strong. It had adventure, action, mystery, all with that delightful pulp feel of the 40s. The origin is wonderfully preposterous in that simply-explained (hey, that makes sense, kind of way). Born in 1900, the child Tom is raised in a high-gravity chamber on a jungle island where all his meals are augmented with a special root which “promotes longevity and higher brain functions” His father is a super-brilliant scientist with peak-human physical conditioning, his DNA contribution, specialized tutoring program, special root, and high-gravity chamber cimbine to make a super-brilliant, physically perfect, super-strong, ageless “science hero”: Tom Strong; a lot like Doc Savage, but more even more extreme. I really like the later issues where he engages his enemies not just physically, but mentally and has long conversations as he deduces his enemies plans and weaknesses. In the issue Aztec Nights, its narrated from his point of view and there are some cool descriptions about his he has complete mastery of his brain and shuts down portions of it to avoid discraction and how he activates and manipulates his endorphine levels to minimize feelings of pain.  There’s lots of neato science and pseudo-science throughout, very cool. And he has a helicopter backpack, I know it sounds like a lame inspector gadget ripoff, but its still pretty cool. His own super-brain manufactured space-age science as far back as the 40’s, so by 99, when the comic takes place, they have massive technological advancements. Its like a comic-version of Sky Captain with an extra 50 years of advancement tacked on. Its a decent book, and is has a neat family element, and Tom actually has a degree of character that shows through in his intereactions with his family.

All this and a talking monkey!

8 out of 10

Luby’s Review: Hellboy, the Right Hand of Doom

Let me begin by stating in no uncertain terms, I like Hellboy. Very rarely do we have such a good creepy, horror-tinged corpus of work which becomes mainstream. I like his work, by and large.

So, the Right Hand of Doom, is a kind of collection of short stories written and illustrated by Mignola to explain the back story of Hellboy, more specifically, his giant stone hand. Since it is repeatedly alluded to that Hellboy is the Beast of the Apocolypse, and will bring about the end of the world, his hand is also alluded to be the key to that end. Hellboy, in common character spits out the occasional skeptical remark or “oh crap” in between various strangeness intersperced with villans going on and on about what they’re going to do w/his power and what he should be doing w/it. All in all, its alright. But there is very little suspense, or intrigue, as is par for the course w/Hellboy. There is less emphasis on character and dialogue, and much more on imagery and esoteric weirdness. I chose dialogue, even though I already stated that there are speeches made by the villans to Hellboy at various points, and they are just that, speeches. It feels like they are talking more to themselves, or to the reader, than to Hellboy. This is exasserbated when Hellboy tosses out the odd skeptical comment like “oh yeah?” and the like. He seems uninterested what they have to say. I guess keeping them talking distracts them, I imagine that would be useful when fighting monsters, keeping them distrcted. That is one of the charms (?) of Mignola’s horror comics, they are full of creepiness and dark imagery and subject matter, but they rarely have emotional moments. I guess when they do, this makes them more poiniant, such as Roger’s almost sacrifice in Conquerer Worm, or the story told to Hellboy by the dead alien (I happened to very much enjoy that, makes me wonder why Mignola can’t do it more often).  But by this detachment, I don’t care much for the charactes, as I can’t identify with them. Odd, because they are such blank slates, they shoudl be ripe for projection, but they don’t seem to need any. Its less a story about “What’s gonna happen to Hellboy now?” and more about ” What weird things are going to happen now?”

Maybe I’m being to harsh, but I felt that the movie gave more character to the character than all the comics I’d seen.

6 out of 10