Ez’s Comments (group member since Jun 07, 2014)

Ez’s comments from the The Masks and More Book Club group.

.... Even if does delay Thor:Ragnarok, which some of us were rather looking forward to.

Because we just want to watch the World (tree) burn.

Christopher Reeve. No one else will do. All others are mere shadows and gussets.

Getting quite the Quatermass Experiment vibe from Orbiter, which is of course a good thing.

For anyone who hasn't seen it and is interested, the original is from 1953 and excellent but the Beeb did a live remake back in 2005 with David Tennant.

Also really looking forward to this; Vertigo's my favourite publishing house.

Off topic, but when it comes to films there is that old (wrong)cliché that no-one wants a female lead, and the same old terrible films get cited as examples. Me, I'm succumbing to super-hero fatigue, but I'm still excited for something out of the ordinary, and yes, that means a female driven film!

So just as I make a concerted effort to support diversity in films (assuming it wasn't a stinker like Halle Berry's Catwoman), I do the same with comics. Story first, but I do have agenda as to how I spend my precious pennies and it isn't propping up the patriarchy.

Actually, you know scratch that... I sometimes do go deliberately looking for diversity!

I backed My So-Called Secret Identity on kickstarter because it sounds like it's doing great things, and I started reading Ms Marvel partly because I really liked her style in a couple of the Avengers books, and because she was (rightly reputed) to be a top-notch lady character.

So I mostly look for a good story, except when I don't.

The point about more diversity not less still stands.

I love Gail Simone's twitter feed, Red Sonja is on my to-read pile. However, I'm hesitant to boil my reading material down to stats; I don't read that many titles (Marvel U pass excepted), and I don't make a deliberate effort to seek out diversity. That said, the percentages are pretty good...

The comics I choose, I choose predominately because I believe the writer has an interesting story to tell, regardless of the background of the main character: a well written character can speak to everyone.

However, it never hurts to find someone who explicitly represents at least some of your background, especially when said background is marginalised; or a character written with such complexity and depth that they open your eyes to situations different (and maybe not so different) from your own. More diversity, not less!

There's an interesting interview with Brian Michael Bendis here...
http://www.vulture.com/2014/04/comics...
... that tackles Marvel's push for greater inclusivity:

"Now, you can't make these decisions [to be more inclusive] consciously, because then you're just writing in reaction to things, and that doesn't work out, dramatically. But subconsciously, if you look at the world around you and see your readers, you go, I wanna write something that I know is true. So you start writing women better and you write people outside of your experience better, because you look at pages of other people's comics and you don't recognize it as the world around you...

It's [fellow Marvel writers] Matt Fraction and Kelly Sue DeConnick and Ed Brubaker and others who fight the good fight and put characters out there that don't represent everyone, but all of them put together represent more of the world that we live in. And the response you get back is something else, boy oh boy."



Peace out.

It's got a closed arc and its almost over, so pretty soon you can sit down and read through the whole thing.

There's some serious art evolution, it's a little rough around the edges to start, but the story is excellent and the characters (a super villain and his hench-person) are funny, touching, wonderful. Also, the comic has some of the nicest comments you'll read on the Internet.

Great stuff, ta Alex. I've got 29 days left... I bet I can read most* of them!

Complete tangent, but, Alex, I know you read Lumberjanes are you reading Noelle Stevenson's(aka Gingerhaze) web-comic, Nimona? It's so good.


*All. Bwhahahaha!

I'v read Hawkeye/Hawkguy - really looking forward to vol. 3 coming out soon! It lives up to all the praise it's getting. He is very well realised, and has real depth. Also, I'm getting the purple Hawkeye chucks, can't not. I'm so smitten by the dude.

Will check out the Black Widow run and put Captain Marvel on the list!

Yo folks,

I'm taking advantage of the a Marvel Unlimited SDCC promo, since Comixology and ill advised late night one-click purchases are bankcrupting me.

I'm currently chugging through the Bendis run on New Avengers. Any other recommendations?

Finally got round to Fatale! Some gorgeous art work - beautifully selected colour palettes, and I loved how close ups of Jo's face went all out with Golden Age of Hollywood glamour.

When it comes to plot: I kinda wanted more from the story, probably unfairly so given the medium and the pacing, which was very consistent, deftly handling multiple decades. There's lots to ruminate over,and big mysteries that I'm sure will pay off in time, but even so I found myself slightly unsatisfied with the self contained opening arc. I'm probably a bit to use to devouring pulp horror novels in one go.

Fatale reminded me a lot of James Ellroy's L.A Quartet, but y'know, with cultists, and I'd be more than happy to keep on reading to see what happens.

Raymond Chandler is great: have you tried any Dashiel Hammett? The Maltese Falcon is his most famous (and such a great film), but there's lots more good stuff in his bibliography.

1950s LA (oh, the suits, the suits), noire, pulp horror! Yup, sounds like it's my kind of story.

I'm going to slate it for the coming weekend.