incorrigibly frivolous (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
usuallyhats) wrote2012-08-06 01:07 pm
usuallyhats) wrote2012-08-06 01:07 pm
just a lot of words really
1) Trailer for the animated Dark Knight Returns (part 1)! I wasn't exactly excited about this when I first heard about it, because I dimly remember not being that thrilled by The Dark Knight Returns when I read it about a decade ago, but this trailer has got me enthused by being mostly focused on Carrie Kelly. A girl Robin that Batman describes as "perfect"? YES PLEASE.
2) Some comics I have read recently:
3) Still working on reading all the Booker and Orange prize winners. Had some trouble with 1999's Booker winner, Disgrace, since I entirely loathed the protagonist. I think I was meant to dislike him, but it's hard to read something when you just keep thinking "go away, go away, GO AWAY" at the point of view character. Amsterdam, the 1998 winner, I enjoyed a bit more, but it was let down by the preposterous ending. The closer I got to the end of the book, the more I thought "oh no, that can't be where this is going, that would just be TOO STUPID", but indeed it was where it was going. Shouldn't there be some kind of minimum plausibility standard for prize-winning realist fiction?
The 1998 Orange Prize winner, Larry's Party, was much better. It was full of warmth and affection, and it made all the characters seem like people in their own right, not just cut-outs orbiting the protagonist. It also helped that it didn't treat Larry's life as being Fraught With Special Meaning And Importance: his life is meaningful and important, yes, but only because everyone's is.
4) My things from the library pile includes a lot of Shakespeare-related books at the moment, inspired by reading James Shapiro's excellent Contested Will. The only one I've managed to read so far is The Lodger: Shakespeare on Silver Street, which does a great job of taking a lot of small pieces of evidence and using them to build up a convincing picture of the milieu Shakespeare might have inhabited.
2) Some comics I have read recently:
- Power Girl: Old Friends: I thought this series wasn't nearly as good after the Gray/Palmiotti/Conner team left, but it picked up a bit towards the end and I really liked the last two issues. (Also, I really loved the Gray/Palmiotti/Conner run, so "not as good as that" is not as damning as it sounds.) The penultimate issue was slightly obvious in its "yay girl power!" stuff, but its heart was in the right place, and I loved that there was a bit of diversity of body shape and ethnicity amongst the Power Girl cosplayers. And the scene where the main fangirl character got to the front of the queue and started off into a whole speech about what PG meant to her, only to get in a muddle and tail off with "...I forgot what I was going to say" was adorable. The last issue was a great showcase of what Power Girl can do, and I laughed a lot at this exchange between her and the villain: "Do you know what most vulnerable part of the body is?"/"...er, the heart?"/"No, you idiot, the back of the knee." *kicks* As closing lines go, "We have all the time in the world" is a bit clichéd, and it's not a patch on "it's only the end if you want it to be", but still, sadness. One thing I did really like about the art was how physically imposing Power Girl is; I've only seen scans of World's Finest, but that seems to be less the case there, which makes me sad.
- Batman: Cataclysm was a bit of a slog, to be honest, though I did enjoy a) finding out that the Drakes apparently lived next door to Wayne Manor (!) and Tim had a secret tunnel to allow him to sneak out for Robining purposes (!!), and b) Dick Grayson running through Bludhaven, tearing his clothes off as he went, hee. I did feel it needed more hugs, overall. But I did enjoy the Huntress/Spoiler team-up, which is what I was reading it for, so that was ok. I liked that even in just one issue, there was space for their relationship to be fairly complicated - some things they had in common, some things they clashed over - and am now even sadder that neither character is around any more. :(
- I've also been (slowly) catching up with Greg Rucka's run on Wonder Woman, which is just as amazing as I'd heard. I love Wonder Woman so much: her strength, her serenity, her clear-eyed compassion and her determination to do the right thing, whatever the personal cost. ♥
3) Still working on reading all the Booker and Orange prize winners. Had some trouble with 1999's Booker winner, Disgrace, since I entirely loathed the protagonist. I think I was meant to dislike him, but it's hard to read something when you just keep thinking "go away, go away, GO AWAY" at the point of view character. Amsterdam, the 1998 winner, I enjoyed a bit more, but it was let down by the preposterous ending. The closer I got to the end of the book, the more I thought "oh no, that can't be where this is going, that would just be TOO STUPID", but indeed it was where it was going. Shouldn't there be some kind of minimum plausibility standard for prize-winning realist fiction?
The 1998 Orange Prize winner, Larry's Party, was much better. It was full of warmth and affection, and it made all the characters seem like people in their own right, not just cut-outs orbiting the protagonist. It also helped that it didn't treat Larry's life as being Fraught With Special Meaning And Importance: his life is meaningful and important, yes, but only because everyone's is.
4) My things from the library pile includes a lot of Shakespeare-related books at the moment, inspired by reading James Shapiro's excellent Contested Will. The only one I've managed to read so far is The Lodger: Shakespeare on Silver Street, which does a great job of taking a lot of small pieces of evidence and using them to build up a convincing picture of the milieu Shakespeare might have inhabited.
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I've requested it.
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Also, I have a lot of residual Batman happy-feels after seeing The Dark Knight Rises, and I was thinking of looking into some of the New 52 continuity. Probably some kind of Bat-family comic, although I've heard good things about the current Wonder Woman run. Do you have any suggestions? I'm thinking maybe Batwoman or Batgirl?
ETA: Also, I keep hearing wonderful things about Stephanie Brown as Batgirl. What would be some good collected runs of hers I could look for?
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I haven't actually read any of the new 52 stuff! (Combination of grumpiness at some of the things it's done and the fact that the trades are only just coming out.) But I've heard that Batwoman's great - I'm definitely planning to pick it up at some point. I'm not reading Batgirl, because I'm sad that Barbara isn't Oracle and neither Cass or Steph are Batgirl, and also it looks a bit glum for my taste, but I think a lot of people who are reading it are really enjoying it, so it might be worth a try! I don't like Wonder Woman's new origins, but apparently other than that it's really good? I like what I've seen of the art on that one. Batman's supposed to be worth reading, too. Birds of Prey and Demon Knights also sound good!
STEPH! Her whole run as Batgirl was excellent. There's only three collections - Batgirl Rising, The Flood and The Lesson - and they're all worth reading.
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I read Batwoman: Elegy last summer, and I liked what I saw flipping through the New 52 back issues in my local comic shop. I was annoyed though that apparently Batwoman is not a subscription title--if I'm going to keep up with an ongoing series, that would seem to be the most practical way to do it, and it would save a little money.
Thanks for all the tips! Your tumblr is what really pushed me over the edge with Steph. I tried really hard to find her trades for sale online, but apparently they're going out of print and the first one is already getting really expensive most places. I bought the first four issues of her series as digital comics instead, because I could get them for $1.99 each, and I LOVE it so far. The third issue, where she beats the Scarecrow and Barbara really starts rooting for her and she gets her own costume, made me so very happy. And I love how adorkable she is, and how they deal with serious issues but keep things light-hearted, and how she gets to look tough and not just sleek or sexy or something.
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Your tumblr is what really pushed me over the edge with Steph.
YAY! :D Such a shame that the trades are going out of print (and wow, the first one is really going for ridiculous amounts of money), they're so great. Really glad you're enjoying it! Barbara's support of Steph is wonderful - just having someone on her side means so much to Steph. ♥ It's so fundamentally about joy and hope and possibility, I love it. (Hurray for digital comics - I've been catching up with Gotham Knights and old issues of Birds of Prey that way!)
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Which are all great things to be about, especially in the Bat-Universe where so much of it is hopelessness and fear and an old grudge. :D
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