Jeph Loeb's writing was never that good, but somehow he got the opportunity to work with great artists and entire comics publishing companies let him Jeph Loeb's writing was never that good, but somehow he got the opportunity to work with great artists and entire comics publishing companies let him do whatever he wanted so that ended up with iconic stories.
That's what Hush is: Batman illustrated by Jim Lee in a storyline allowed to use every iconic character. So of course it was a hit. The art is excellent, among Jim Lee's very best even if the skintight look is a little too 90s for the modern era.
In a mystery that didn't make sense (seriously, the Joker is allowed to just go free because "Harvey Dent" got his lawyer license back??) Batman goes on a tour meeting all the best villains and side characters. He teams up with/fights Catwoman, Superman, and Nightwing. One by one he faces off against Poison Ivy, the Riddler, Ra's al Ghul, the Riddler, and Scarecrow.
I won't spoil the ending revealing who was the mastermind Hush, nor will I hint at the retcons, but what was exciting at the time turned out to be disappointing upon rereading. Still, this is a pretty good self-contained Batman book to recommend to comic novices who just like to see cool drawings and read about their favorite film and television hero. ...more
Elle Reeve is still famous for her viral 2017 Vice video about the Charlottesville white supremacist rally, nearly a decade later, which is sadly stilElle Reeve is still famous for her viral 2017 Vice video about the Charlottesville white supremacist rally, nearly a decade later, which is sadly still extremely relevant.
Her new book Black Pill: How I Witnessed the Darkest Corners of the Internet Come to Life, Poison Society, and Capture American Politics is a deep dive into all the background of that day, and its aftermath. And moreover, it’s about the background and aftermath of all that has happened to the entirety of America (and the world) in this unfortunate era.
The book starts with a surprisingly personal tale of the journalist’s childhood—of when Reeve’s childhood neighbor stalked and harassed her family. There’s a direct line, she explains, from how she learned to deal with that at a young age and to how she later made a career out of interacting with extremists.
When it gets to the modern internet era, there is an exploration of incel culture featuring interviews with Fred Brannon, the disabled programmer who founded 8kun and even had a connection to the start of the QAnon movement. Brannon disavows his earlier work, and is very open about his regrets from those wild days of the internet when they didn’t know being offensive and “ironic� online would lead to such horrific real-world repercussions. There’s also a very frank discussion of sexuality, not only about how these people felt as older virgins but also about how they felt when they first had sex and didn’t get to be a part of the incel community anymore. A fascinating and counter-intuitive perspective.
The book then continues into the culture of abject white supremacy, and it is grim. She interviews Richard Spencer and others of the alt right, getting into all their crackpot theories and hateful ideology. It gets dark. Some of the worst of it isn’t even the racism, but the sexism, because as she explains they never quite got their fascist revolution and chance to play out their racist fantasies: So therefore, they rather focused on controlling the women in their personal lives. I thought I knew a lot but I had never before heard the term “white sharia,� and just how much they hate women having any freedoms. It’s a strange thing that so many racist women joined the movement, because they thought it would benefit them, and then felt oppressed by these abusive men, which happened again and again.
Eventually, that movement seemed vindicated by the 2016 election and then comes the terrible Unite the Right rally of the following year which ended in a deadly car attack. This is when Reeve focuses on interviewing Christopher Cantwell, who incriminated himself so much in the famous Vice report and later became known as the Crying Nazi after his life fell apart. He is a very disturbed individual, with emotional and addiction problems, which feels like a sort of vindication to learn.
Reeve warns, however, that it’s not enough to think of these people as losers. Many of them are quite smart in fact, at least by some metrics. The simple truth of it is that it doesn’t matter if they are losers, many so-called losers don’t become domestic terrorists, and it doesn’t matter if they are smart as many smart people don’t become vicious extremists online. The important thing is to analyze the big picture and understand why the internet and society as a whole has driven so many people in this direction. Brennon, sadly, speaks of how wrong he was when he envisioned his website as a way for “unlimited� free speech to lead to positive ideas, and instead it turned into a nightmare of shitposting in which only the worst of humanity got the most attention�
While most of the awful characters in this book get their comeuppance, such as Richard Spencer who loses everything and faces devastating legal consequences, it’s hardly a happy ending. Yes, these figures specifically ultimately lost everything and completely failed at becoming part of the mainstream. But that’s little comfort at this point.
The book was published before the most recent election, when it seemed that January 6th, 2021 was the worst it could get. Now we are on an even darker path influenced by these people blackpilled on the internet, and while many of the outright fascists didn’t get any material benefits it sure seems like their ideas are majorly influencing this current government.
Personally, I don’t know how Elle Reeve could stand to be around them and get so much information from these people. But I’m glad she did, because it is necessary to learn in order to fight back.
No doubt she’ll have to write another book when this administration is over and America needs to do some serious soul-searching, and indeed she will be uniquely qualified to understand what the hell has happened....more
Another Transformers reboot, darker and yet more 'classic comic book-y' at the same time.
With so many TF comics out there, it's not bad to have a newAnother Transformers reboot, darker and yet more 'classic comic book-y' at the same time.
With so many TF comics out there, it's not bad to have a new modern version take the premise seriously and also do something different. The art is less anime/mecha inspired, but very dynamic with its action storytelling.
The new series is very accessible for new readers, and of course old school fans will enjoy...more
Jim Starlin's 2000s output continues, with this somewhat random Thanos vs. Hulk story. I guess Starlin really wanted to draw Hulk.
The art is good, somJim Starlin's 2000s output continues, with this somewhat random Thanos vs. Hulk story. I guess Starlin really wanted to draw Hulk.
The art is good, some of Starlin's best (although his legacy is more of a writer than artist) and the 70s-era artist surprisingly holds up well with modern flashier comics. It's also interesting to see Starlin explore the 21st century Marvel cosmic universe, with Annihilus as the villain and some of the latter Guardians of the Galaxy status quo.
Ultimately though, it's a rather unnecessary story about the Hulk being kidnapped by aliens and Thanos shoehorned in. That's okay, comics can be fun for fun's sake and not everything has to be the most epic stakes ever. Starlin has many classics in his repertoire, which everyone should read, while this story is mainly just for completists. ...more
A solid Superman story that takes the character back to the Golden Age progressive roots, while at the same time very relevant in for the current natiA solid Superman story that takes the character back to the Golden Age progressive roots, while at the same time very relevant in for the current nativist MAGA-era.
Eerily relevant, in fact. This is a reinterpretation of a classic Superman radio drama in which the original superhero indeed smashed the Klan. (To those naysayers who say comics are "too political" these days: learn some actual history of the genre.) The radio serials were very important to the mythology back then, also introducing such elements as kryptonite and the flight ability. This new edition also references the Fleischer animation styles, something old school fans will appreciate.
The real heart of the story is Gene Luen Yang's take on a Chinese immigrant family which feels semi-autobiographical. As they are attacked by bigoted nationalists, the narrative overlaps with Clark's storyline as he is of course literally an illegal alien.
I look forward to reading the rest of these volumes and seeing how the story unfolds. The great thing about the superhero genre is the timelessness; these stories can be told and retold again and again teaching valuable lessons to new generations...
A near perfect all-ages Superman story with an important message of empathy and tolerance, marketed for young readers but definitely an enjoyable arc for both kids and adults....more
Robert Anton Wilson was a man frighteningly ahead of his time.
The co-author of the seminal Illuminatus! Trilogy is sadly missed in these days of too mRobert Anton Wilson was a man frighteningly ahead of his time.
The co-author of the seminal Illuminatus! Trilogy is sadly missed in these days of too many conspiracy theories. The radical agnostic understood how to satirize the phenomenon and never take it too seriously. That’s something that has been sorely lacking in the current era, in which misinformation and post-ironic memes are taken with the utmost certainty by at least half the population, and nobody quite knows how to handle it while society seemingly falls apart.
If only more of us read Robert Anton Wilson. The premier psychedelic philosopher of the 1970s and 80s, who wrote many illuminating guides on self-programming such as Cosmic Trigger and Prometheus Rising, he got it. One wonders how he would have interpreted the modern world where conspiracy theories have become mainstream. Unfortunately, Wilson was always something of an underground figure. Perhaps he will soon be remembered and further studied, and the world will be better off for it.
If so, the biography Chapel Perilous has done a tremendous service for future readers by cataloging his life and works. Gabriel Kennedy, also known as rapper Prop Anon, has written the authoritative book on the subject. Through laborious original research, Kennedy has assembled the stories of RAW’s birth in New York, throughout his years as a struggling writer and Playboy magazine editor, on to the backstories of the writing of Illuminatus! and of when he left America to move to Ireland, and ends at his death in California in the 21st century.
There is much about his family life, from his loving marriage to Arlen to the tragedies of his murdered daughter and son who struggled with mental health. For such an important writer of the occult, it’s disheartening to learn of his personal and financial struggles. Bob never quite got it together in his life, at least by the metric of money, but he left an important legacy.
Chapel Perilous is a serious scholarly work, full of citations and features a list of RAW’s published articles never before compiled, and it is also very readable and entertaining. There are many fascinating vignettes: Like that time he met Philip K. Dick, his relationship with Timothy Leary, along with introductions to figures like Aleister Crowley who inspired him and then introductions to later punk movements like Chaos Magic which RAW directly inspired. It’s a broad education within this book, and hopefully will inspire readers to learn more.
There are also some criticisms of the writer, which are fair and noteworthy. Was his hostility towards second-wave feminism valid, or is that something that has aged badly? Was it hypocritical for a self-described “libertarian� to take government welfare? These are questions worth asking, as nobody should ever be above criticism, and Bob would surely agree.
Robert Anton Wilson has long been one of my own favorite authors, and I have found there was still much I didn’t know about him. For example, his more well-known (though still underground) novels like Schrödinger's Cat Trilogy are among my favorites, yet I wasn’t aware of the historical books about the Illuminati until reading Chapel Perilous. And moreover, I wasn’t aware of the degree of his personal suffering, which indeed is the inspiration for the title of this biography. Perhaps we are all going through a Chapel Perilous in this harsh world, on the long road to enlightenment�
The forewards to the book are written by Grant Morrison, the legendary trippy comic writer of conspiracy saga Invisibles which was inspired by Illuminatus! and more, and Douglas Rushkoff the tech writer who has been warning about the dangers of consolidated information technology for years—and host of the essential RAW-esque Team Human podcast.
Frankly this book should really be more well-known. I do not know if it will be a runaway hit, perhaps not, but it’s all on record now should readers care to know. Gabriel Kennedy did the world a profound kindness by writing this definitive biography, so that the next generation of truth-seekers can keep learn from this great mind who never stopped questioning.
Chapel Perilous: The Life & Thought Crimes of Robert Anton Wilson is available on Amazon and is currently free for Kindle Unlimited....more
There are a lot of excellent Daredevil graphic novels out there, and this is one of them. The first volume from writer Chip Zdarsky, it has the perfecThere are a lot of excellent Daredevil graphic novels out there, and this is one of them. The first volume from writer Chip Zdarsky, it has the perfect tone with gorgeous art. Readers who are fans of the streaming series can also see some influence, such as the part when he debates over morality with the Punisher...
One of the most interesting storylines of the recent era was having Wilson Fisk as mayor of NYC, which is a major factor from the start. That's just one of the many angles in which Matt Murdock's life is ruined and he further suffers, as the character goes. This is how it should be, and there are original takes herein, so one can see why Zdarsky is such a fan-favorite writer. ...more
High-quality graphic novel that introduces the new Superman status quo (secret identity is back, apparently, I didn't realize it was previously gone aHigh-quality graphic novel that introduces the new Superman status quo (secret identity is back, apparently, I didn't realize it was previously gone actually). The cast-of-characters includes lots of the Superman family of heroes, Lois is the editor in chief of the Planet, and Lex Luthor is also reimagined in an original way as more of a reformed villain and scientific genius rather than business mogul--although everything that came before does count. A good story utilizing the others from the rogue's gallery, such as Live Wire and Parasite, and then it leads into the epic House of Brainiac... ...more
A surprisingly good collection that's only published because of a very bad movie.
Mostly because it contains the classic 80s Spidey vs Juggernaut storyA surprisingly good collection that's only published because of a very bad movie.
Mostly because it contains the classic 80s Spidey vs Juggernaut story illustrated by John Romita Jr. There's also the awkward first appearance of Madame Web, and some 2010 stories written by Dan Slott who is good.
So don't judge by the stupid movie, enjoy this little Marvel-verse book with some fun old Spider-Mans!...more
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