Platypus Reviews: A Legion Lost Retrospective

Today saw the last issue of Legion Lost, another New 52 launch title, hit comic book shops and the cancellation leaves me with conflicted feelings towards the title. On one hand, it was nice to have a second Legion of Super-Heroes title for the first time in twelve years, but the title was scarcely above average at best and mediocre most months. Not that there was anything with the concept: a team of legionnaires chase an anti-human terrorist who wants to change the past by mutating the humans of our era, but everything goes to hell when their arrival ends with two legionnaires dead and their advance technology inert. A concept that shares similarities with James Cameron’s the Terminator and the deaths of the two legionnaires ramped up the stakes. So where did the title go wrong?

I am afraid that the title was doomed from the beginning and I am, quite frankly, surprised that Legion Lost was not a victim of the first and second New 52 cullings. The Legion of Super-Heroes, similar the New Teen Titans, was a niche title since the seventies after the apex of the team’s popular Adventure Comics run in the sixties. Legion fans have an eye for minutia for continuity and obscure characters who made a single appearance like Legion rejects and the like. If you never had picked up a Legion title before the New 52, chances are that you would find the first issue confusing and chaotic. If you had no idea of who Dawnstar, Wildfire, Timber Wolf, or especially Chameleon Girl and Gates were you had no reason to even care that a time travel accident left them stranded in the 21^st century. Writer Fabian Nicieza did not give much of an introduction to these characters nor did he establish their personalities to make an uninitiated audience care.

Things did get better over the next five issues when things calmed down enough to show tensions between the time-lost legionnaires. Especially team leader Tyroc who had to deal with the always hotheaded and belligerent Wildfire or Timber Wolf who (appropriates) broke off from the crew to hunt for their target. Likewise with Dawnstar who seemed emotionally distant from her teammates, which led to a rift between her and longtime love interest, Wildfire that I always found forced because Geoff Johns pulled on this plot thread in Legion of Three Worlds. Combine that with the fact that they were persona non grata in the 21^st century, survival became a concern, especially when unidentified metahumans tended to attract unwanted attention from the US government and the secretive team of metahuman operatives Stormwatch.  However, two events sent the title sliding into mediocrity: the departure of Fabian Nicieza and “the Culling” crossover with the Teen Titans. Not that to knock on Tom DeFalco’s skills as a writer but “the Culling” was a needless diversion from the main storyline and some of the names he used (like “Psy-Kill” and the “Meta-American”) sounded like a villain from an early 90s Image comic penned by Rob Liefeld. So the conclusion to the first arc ended on a whimper rather than with any meaningful resolution, so the title dithered on to its final issue.

Not that there were not any interesting plot developments. I found the Echo division of the Science Police (the 31^st century version of the FBI, or the Mounties if you are Canadian like me), who monitored the timeline and sent denizens of the future to past eras as part of a Witness Relocation Program intriguing. Even the revelation that Chameleon Girl was an SP spy was a clever touch considering that the character infiltrated the Legion back in the eighties during Levitz’s acclaimed run on the title. Even, her superior, Captain Nathaniel Adym (any relation?) had a sinister presence as her superior who ordered her to make sure the stranded legionnaires fulfilled their destiny. And then a space barbarian and his talking dragon show up to threaten Earth for no reason other than he just can.

Seriously, an evil, celestial version of He-Man and Battlecat are the final villains the stranded legionnaires face in their own title. To quote a certain contributor to That Guy With the Glasses, “I could not make this shit up if I tried.”

To sum up the plot that the last issues in as few words at possible: the ersatz He-Man sets up a force field and builds a machine. Captain Atom—I mean, Adym decides to blow up ersatz He-Man with a singularity bomb that will destroy half of North America to “save quintillions.” The Ravagers, Superboy, and even Harvest from “the Culling” join the fray. Then Gates teleports ersatz He-Man, his space dragon, and the bomb into the nearest black hole to eliminate the threat; all the legionnaires are alive at the end and there was much rejoicing!

Except when telepathic goldfish, Tellus, reveals that ersatz He-Man’s intended “to communicate” to an unrevealed presence with his machine and not to destroy the Earth as they first thought. So the stranded legionnaires will be waiting for whoever was at the end of ersatz He-Man’s call and the final issue ends with, “Never the end!”

I know I am glossing over more that a few details, but does it really matter at this point? I cannot help but feel that these sixteen issues were a waste of my time because despite the compelling story elements Nicieza and DeFalco offered me as a reader, the bad far outweighed the good and DC could not bother to give us long-suffering readers any resolution other than the promise that these Legionnaires may make an appearance in a future issue of Teen Titans or The Ravagers? I would rather have had DeFalco take them back to the 31^st century where they would receive the attention they deserve than have them sit around and wait for Harvest or whoever to show up. In the end it feels like a waste. A waste of my money, a waste of my time, and a waste of my patience with DC after the New 52 nearly burned up the last of my good will.

But at least The Flash has been a compelling read and a visual treat, but please do not tell any Wally West fans that I said that.

Platypus Reviews: Green Lantern #15

 

I expressed my cautious optimism for the new Green Lantern, Simon Baz, when I reviewed Green Lantern #0 three months ago and I can now assuredly say that his arc has gone off the rails. Structurally, Green Lantern #0 had a much tighter focus but Green Lantern #15 is cluster-bombed and offensive wreck of comic book. Allow me to make this clear, I like Simon Baz. I like that he is trying to capture the terrorist that planted the bomb in the van he stole, even when a fugitive on the run from both the federal authorities and the Justice League. However, one revelation irreversibly soured me on this arc. The terrorist that “set” Simon up? He is a white male and presumably a survivalist or part of a militia judging by the arsenal in said terrorist’s basement and the “an American hero” comment he makes in the issue is equally frustrating.

Before anyone accuses my statements as racist, that is not my intent. My issue with this comic book is that it reinforces “us vs. them” mentality I see in today’s race relations. European males maintained a political and cultural hegemony for centuries, I get it; I know that there are more than enough homegrown terrorists in Middle America as evidenced by Adam Lanza’s killing spree in the recent Newtown tragedy. Geoff Johns scraped the bottom of the bottom of the barrel when he used the “angry racist white man” stereotype in Green Lantern #15 and it shows. Personally, I was hoping that the terrorist(s) in this issue were Muslim Arabs. Not because I believe all Muslims and Arabs are terrorists but because I believe that Johns wasted an opportunity to rise above petty politics and show Simon Baz as the hero he can be.

Martin Luther King Jr. said nearly a half century ago, “I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.” My main issue with the “us vs. them” mentality is that it leaves no room for the subtle grays in between. There is good and bad in every human regardless of race, ethnicity, or creed and it is through our decisions where reveal the true content of our character. While Simon Baz is a car thief, he also cares deeply for his family, feels a deep sense of responsibility over his mistakes, and places the safety of others over his own needs. Had the terrorists he was searching for been Arab-American, I believe that his better traits would have shone through his skin color and he would have risen above the negative stereotypes associated with his community. However, Johns chose the intellectually lazy route that I see has grown prevalent in mainstream American culture. Just like one cannot strengthen the weak by weakening the strong, one cannot valorize a minority by demonizing the majority. I find it unproductive in any meaningful dialogue.

The lack of focus in Green Lantern #15 only exacerbates the problems I see in this issue. In addition to the Simon Baz arc, there is also the Hal Jordan/Sinestro subplot and the subplot involving the Guardians of the Universe and the First Lantern, which do not receive much attention because only so much plot can fit in twenty-two pages. With the supposedly cosmic scope of Green Lantern and the Guardians’ scheme to extinguish free will in the universe, Simon Baz’s storyline feels forced and extraneous to the Rise of the Third Army “event.” That is also my biggest problem with Green Lantern and its sister titles, everything feels like a build-up to the next intra-line event. In the span of five years there was Sinestro Corps, Blackest Night, Brightest Day, War of the Green Lanterns, and now Rise of the Third Army, which feels like the build-up for the next big crossover. Personally, I have had enough of this nonsense, Green Lantern is not enjoyable as it was earlier in Geoff Johns’ run and it has gotten formulaic to the point of repetition, the race/ethnic relations undertones make it insulting.

In some ways, I believe the drop in quality is endemic to what I see in the New 52 (and the Marvel Now initiative to a lesser degree.) Despite, the repeated claims that this reboot is a “fresh” new start to the DC Universe, most of it is stale as week-old bread and buildup to Trinity War feels like the same intra-company crossover, but that is another rant for another day.

Platypus Reviews: Wreck-It Ralph

 

Imagine if a certain nameless studio combined the premise of 1995’s Toy Story with themes from 1989’s Who Framed Roger Rabbit, slap on a video game veneer, and Wreck-It Ralph would be the end result. Remember when video arcades used to be a common sight in shopping centers or as standalone establishments? As a child of the late eighties and early nineties, I remember when there used to be an arcade at my local shopping mall and even the neighborhood Seven-Eleven had an arcade cabinet near the back, so Wreck-It Ralph is a fond trip down memory lane for me. The set-up is simple: characters from arcade classics like Q*Bert, Street Fighter II, and even Dance Dance Revolution come to life when the lights go off to have a drink and Tappers (you might need to wikipedia that one.) For “bad guys” like the titular character, it is not a charmed life because everyone hates and shuns you what is simply a regular nine-to-five job for them.

Wreck-It Ralph is a dyed-in-the-wool Disney animated feature, which a blessing and a curse. Without spoiling many plot details, it amounts to: hero feels something is missing in his life and goes on quest to find it, hero is diverted from his quest and meets foil (often love interest), hero and foil become close friends, villain engineers misunderstanding that reverses the hero’s, and so forth. If you know your Disney films, you are not going to find anything particularly original here so Wreck-It Ralph relies largely on video game references for humor or to stoke nostalgia for hawk-eyed viewers. Personally, I love Sonic the Hedgehog’s voice cameo as public service announcement. YouTube junkies and old-school Sonic fans would recognize it as a tribute to the “Sonic Sez” segments from the Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog animated series of the nineties. The production team even managed to sneak some sound effects one might find familiar; the weapon charging sound from Mega Man X was used for Calhoun’s weapon almost makes up for the snub the Blue Bomber got when they removed Dr. Wily from the final cut, almost. Believe me, a seasoned gamer will have no problem finding the Easter eggs in this film.

Oddly enough, I did not mind Wreck-It Ralph being a completely CGI film in a market that is saturated with CGI film that all look similar to each other. Even the humans in most Pixar films look like the animators rendered them with the same art style. Wreck-It Ralph avoids this shortcoming through the variety art styles used. Ralph and his antagonist, Fix-It Felix Jr., possess this cartoon-like look complete with exaggerated anatomy and features could have easily been a Nintendo game back in 1985. The denizens of “Sugar Rush” all have this deformed anime look, which should not be to surprising since an actual J-Pop band composed and played the theme to this “game”. Calhoun, who hails from a first-person shooter in the vein of Halo, has the most realistic anatomy of the cast. The variety of different styles as well as the art styles borrowed from Sega, Capcom, and the 8-bit pixilated aesthetic the animators slavishly emulated provides a contrast I find lacking in other CGI films. Believe me, you will want to stay through the credits if you want the film to give you a real nostalgia trip.

As for the voice acting, I would say Jane Lynch was the main stand out to me. Her husky voice gave Calhoun’s lines added weight, especially in the middle of a bug war when she’s screaming metaphors at the player. Imagine you shoved Sue Sylvester into a disk drive and spliced her with a dash of Gunnery Sergeant Hartman for good measure. I also give major props to Alan Tudyk for his rendition of A-class jerk, King Candy. If you vaguely remember the voice but cannot remember where from, it is an imitation of the late Ed Wynn, who voiced the Mad Hatter in Disney’s animated Alice in Wonderland. It was a fitting tribute to the Walt-era films.

So what is my final verdict on Wreck-It Ralph? It will not get any awards for its largely formulaic plot but its charm comes from its characters, humor, and nostalgia factor. Generation Xers and Millennials owe to themselves to see this film if they want to see an interesting take on a childhood staple. It was definitely work the thirteen bucks I paid, plus the five-dollar frozen yougurt.

Platypus Reviews: Pokémon Black and White 2

 

Something about the phrase “Gotta Catch ‘Em All” still resonates in me nearly fifteen years after the release of the seminal Nintendo Game Boy classics, Pokémon Red and Blue. Enough for me to spend nearly seventy bucks every time Nintendo and Game Freak release the latest iteration of those pocket-sized critters and Pokémon Black and White 2 is no exception. That should sound rather sad for a man who is pushing thirty but there is much to appreciate about the series when it comes to the fundamentals of its core concept. Very little about Pokémon has changed throughout its history, Game Freak may have tweaked the mechanics of the game itself but you still play the role of the silent protagonist who embarks on a journey, confronts a villainous organization, encounter a creature of legend and become the champion. However, Game Freak used this plot to the point of monotony despite the changing themes of Land/Sea/Air of Pokémon Ruby and Sapphire and Time/Space/Antimatter of Diamond and Pearl.

This imperfection is particularly evident in Black and White 2 because the game itself is a direct continuation of Black and White with no new pokémon (aside from the new Kyurem and Kami trio forms) or significant alterations to the gameplay. So what made Black and White 2 good enough to take up twenty-five hours of my life that could have been better devoted to other endeavours? It is primal storytelling at its finest. Pokémon, from its first generation to the current fifth, evokes Joseph Campbell’s Hero With A Thousand Faces and the “monomyth”, or as Campbell himself eloquently says,

“A hero ventures forth from the world of common day into a region of supernatural wonder: fabulous forces are there encountered and a decisive victory is won: the hero comes back from this mysterious adventure with the power to bestow boons on his fellow man.”

What makes Campbell’s observation particularly poignant is that YOU are the protagonist of the game. You pick your partners for the journey, you participate in the battles between good and evil, you encounter these fabulous forces, and stand victorious each time you unseat the champion. Whereas most video games focus on characters like Mario, Kratos, or Master Chief, Pokémon elevates the player to the heroic figure in a fashion few other games can accomplish. No matter how repetitive the plots of each iteration of Pokémon get, I am instantly sucked into that world the moment I turn on the game and the only way to get me out is to pry my Nintendo DS from my cold, dead hands (with apologies to Charlton Heston.)

What makes Pokémon Black and White 2 stand out from the previous games is that it picks up where its predecessor left off, something that Game Freak has not done since Gold and Silver twelve years ago, and even takes you to unexplored areas of the Unova region. Black and White 2 even exceeds the original Black and White in that the journey is not has linear. Whereas Black and White was a continuous line from the starting town to Victory Road, Black and White 2 has the player zigzagging around the map, especially in the latter half of the game. The sprites are more animated, which adds more life to the experience, and the plot involving Kyurem as well as the frequent references to the previous game make the experience of Black and White 2 feel more complete. Almost like everything in Unova has come full circle.

Would I recommend this game to everyone? If your main criticism of the series is its repetitious nature, then you will not find anything new in Black and White 2. In some ways I agree that the Pokémon series is not living up to its potential when the concept lends itself to other genres like the MMORPG. However, the game, despites its flaws, appeals to those who appreciate mythology like myself. So as long as the world of Pokémon calls me for adventure, I will answer every time.

Platypus Reviews: Green Lantern #0

I picked up a copy of Green Lantern #0 this afternoon so I would at least give my impressions of it to see if the backlash I mentioned in my previous post is warranted. To put it in simple terms: it is, to a degree. There are parts of Simon Baz’s character that I like; he possesses a degree in automotive engineering and was involved in a street racing accident that killed his brother-in-law so he took auto theft to give the proceeds to his widowed sister and nephew. There are some parallels to Hal Jordan from Emerald Dawn where Hal drove while intoxicated and critically injured a friend in an automobile accident. There is much to work with Simon’s character here, he is a young man that made a deadly mistake and is trying to atone for it as a Robin Hood-like character, though not in the Green Arrow vein. Simon unwittingly jacks a van that contains a bomb and drives it into an abandoned factory to save innocent lives…

…and that is when Geoff Johns drops the anvil on my head.

For those who have never visited TV Tropes, the “anvil” I refer to is shorthand for anvilicious, which the site defines as:

“A portmanteau of anvil and delicious, anvilicious describes a writer's and/or director's use of an artistic element, be it line of dialogue, visual motif, or plot point, to so obviously or unsubtly convey a particular message that they may as well etch it onto an anvil and drop it on your head.”

The frequent references to 9-11, the backlash against Arab-Americans, the harassment, and the increased airport security was heavy-handed enough, but Simon’s “vacation” to Guantanamo Bay is what had a flock of canaries circling around my head for the bus ride home. Then came the interrogation where Simon protests that he was, “A car thief, not a terrorist” and the "advanced interrogation techniques", which struck me as pedantic and condescending to the reader. To be honest, I expected better from Geoff Johns. This issue would be much better if he focused on Simon’s positive qualities and had not used him a rhetorical device to lecture us on how the United States government is so bigoted towards Muslims. If you are a new reader, I suggest avoiding this issue. If you are a collector, I would say pick it up if you are following Rise of the Third Army.

And thus the Magical Platypus commanded, "Thou shalt not drop anvils on thine neighbors head. For it is often painful and sometimes a poor literary device." (Rule #42)