DC Comics/Top Cow crossovers.

 Batman Darkness was the first in a series of crossovers between DC Comics and Top Cow. The Darkness is a comic about Jackie Estacado, a NYC mobster who has supernatural power to summon gremlin like demons. This crossover features him and his adopted father Franki Franchetti attempting expand their territory into Gotham City. Along the way Frankie has many humorous encounters with Two Face, Catwoman, and Killer Croc. Much to Frankie’s annoyance, he gets no respect in Gotham. Meanwhile Jackie’s love interest, Jenny Romano is in Gotham doing a charity event in crime alley, leading to friction between him and Bruce Wayne and Jackie wanting to get the goods on his potential romantic rival. The theme of the story is how both Jackie and Bruce Wayne are orphans, and both embraced Darkness in some way. The difference between the two is that Bruce Wayne still had someone who believed in him, that someone being Alfred. Some Easter Eggs include a nod to the Superman “You’ve got me, who’s got you?” line. The demons at one point say “nah nah nah nah nah nah nah nah” referencing the old Batman song, and there’s a mention of FBI agent Carla Denton who is from the Darkness comics.

Darkness Superman works around the conceit that Superman is always off fighting monsters and aliens (the story mentions he just stopped an alien threat) and doesn’t have as much time to catch smaller scale criminals. Hence the mafia is able to operate in Metropolis under Superman’s radar. This leads to a situation where Lois is kidnapped, and The Darkness attempts to make Superman an offer he can’t refuse. There’s a reference to the previous Batman story.

JLA Cyberforce has the two teams fight each other than an unexpected threat. Batman and Cyblade have the hots for each other, and Martian Manhunter comes into a situation where he finds great piece of mind. That was an interesting touch.

JLA Witchblade has Kenneth Irons and Lex Luthor manipulating things from behind the scenes, but in a nice touch never encountering the titular teams. Sarah Pezzini, the current Witchblade holder, is friends with Barbara Gordon/Batgirl (Their dads met at a cop seminar in NYC). Sara is seriously injured and Barbara takes her to JLA headquarters. The Witchblade ends up infecting Oracle and Huntress, while Aquaman discovers via his Atlantean library that the Witchblade goes back to the Age of Arion (Which has to do with the ancient Atlantis of the DC universe). The Witchblade ultimate possesses Wonder Woman who goes beserk and takes on the JLA.

All four crossovers were entertaining and made a point of playing off both the similarities and differences of the characters. The four stories being presumably linked was a good touch that future crossovers could take note of.

 

 

 

 

Wildcats X-men Comic Book Crossover

Wildcats/X-men was a series of crossovers between the Marvel Mutants and the Jim Lee created team from Wildstorm/Image. There were four books, one for the Golden Age of comics, one for Silver Age, Modern Age, and the future.

The Golden Age story is naturally set in World War Two. The colors in the book are black white and red giving it a nice WWII gritty atmosphere.  Wolverine and Zannah from the Wildcats fight a Nazi/Daemonite alliance that attempts to re-awaken and ancient Daemonite. (Daemonites are aliens that have secretly inhabited Earth for a while. They can posses people, and are the main villains for WIldcats.) Wolverine is portrayed as the more heroic of the two and Zannah has no qualms about seeing people as expendable. 

The Silver Age is probably the strongest story of the four. Nick Fury of S.H.I.E.L.D. recruits Grifter on a mission to stop an alien invasion that is an alliance between the Daemonites and the alien race from X-men comics called the Brood. S.H.I.E.L.D. provides Grifters iconic red mask, which is presented as a James Bond era gadget. Along the way Grifter has a flirtatious encounter with Jean Grey. She is traveling to Australia for a modeling gig, and is upset that Cyclops did not say goodbye to her. Gets accidentally mixed up in the alien schemes, which involve X-men foe Mr. Sinister who made a Daemonite/Brood hybrid. Along the way there are references to 60s icons like Lennon, Dylan, and Jagger. On the comic book end there’s a reference to Jean Grey’s silver age costume, and Team Seven from the Wildstorm Universe. Also we get some nice banter about the nature of teamwork vs working alone.  

Grifter and Jean meet again in the Modern Age. Here the second X-men team and the Wildcats meet in England. The X-men are investigating the disappearance of a mutant possibly being connected to the Hellfire club. The Wildcats are investigating a connection with the Hellfire club and the Daemonites. Nightcrawler mistakes Warpath for Wolverine, and Warpath thinks Nightcrawler to be a Daemonite. Wolverine meets Zannah again and Jean notes that Grifter has now joined a team. 

The Dark Age is a dark future where the Daemonites merged with Sentinel technology and taken over Earth. Many of the heroes from both Marvel and Image are now dead. Wolverine, Grifter, and some others lead the resistance. Their plot involves time travel elements from the X-men and has some consequences involving both teams that leads to an interesting ending.

Wildcats/X-men showed an interesting way to present a crossover. It would be interesting to see a a Marvel/DC crossover using the same mechanics of covering different eras. Given DC now owns Wildstorm it would be fun to see a Golden Age story focusing primarily on DC characters, followed by a Silver Age story with Marvel characters, culminating in a 90s era story with Wildstorm and possibly Ultraverse which is now owned by Marvel.

Popeye Meets the Man Who Hated Laughter.

Popeye Meets the Man who Hated Laughter.

           Popeye meets the Man who Hated Laughter was a 1 hour cartoon special that aired on ABC in 1972 as part of The ABC Saturday Superstar Series. It is notable for crossing over various characters that were owned by King Features Syndicate. It’s also notable for being able to cross action adventure characters like The Phantom and Flash Gordon with humor based characters like Beetle Bailey and Blondie.

           What brings them together is the villain, Morbid Grimsbee. Apparently he’s won the meanie award 6 times, and wants to be the first 7 time winner. His assistant is Brutus from Popeye. His plan is to trick everyone to board a ship, the S.S. Hilarious. So the comedic characters board the ship thinking they’re going on a pleasure cruise and get some interaction with each other. Soon the ship self-destructs, and the characters are imprisoned on an island with Morbid Grimsbee. As the ship goes down Olive Oil makes Popeye save her clothes and not his spinach, hence Popeye is not able to save the day.

           Soon the President of the United States realizes that the Sunday morning cartoon characters have been captured. Since this is a national emergency he summons the Phantom, Flash Gordon, Mandrake the Magician, Steve Canyon, and Lothar to the White House. These men form a rescue team and head to the island, but soon they are captured themselves. We get a few action sequences out of this with Flash and the Phantom. At one point the Phantom wrestles some kind of large cat, it might have been a jaguar. ALso Mandrake summons Prince Valiant from the past to assist them.

           However it is the comedic characters who end up saving the day, as they use their talents to make Grimsbee laugh, leading to a change of heart. The danger is not over as a volcano on the island erupts, forcing everyone to flee on Grimsbee’s Yellow Submarine. (King Features co-produced the Beatles cartoon Yellow Submarine). While under the sea they find Popeye’s spinach, allowing him to save the day from one last obstacle.

           In terms of crossovers Popeye Meets the Man who Hated Laughter is notable for bringing straight action adventure characters together with comedic characters. It’s also notable for the first animated appearance of Flash Gordon, Steve Canyon, Tim  Tyler, and the Phantom. In a way foreshadows the Defenders of the Earth cartoon of the 1980s, which had Flash, the Phantom, and Mandrake the Magician team up to fight Flash Gordon’s enemy Ming the Merciless.

Characters from the following strips appear in the show.

Barney Google and Snuffy Smith, Blondie, Beetle Bailey, Bringing Up Father, Flash Gordon, Henry, Hi and Lois, The Katzenjammer Kids, Little Iodine, The Little King, Mandrake the Magician, The Phantom, Popeye. Prince Valiant, Quincy, Steve Canyon, Tiger, Tim Tyler’s Luck

Source http://popeye.wikia.com/wiki/Popeye_Meets_the_Man_Who_Hated_Laughter

Wreck it Ralph

Wreck it Ralph is a Disney animated film which crosses over several video game characters, and is the first film to my knowledge to do so. At a particular arcade set in the world of this movie, the various characters live in the world of their own arcade game, and also share a world together and can visit each other while the arcade is closed. This shared world has its own rules. If an arcade is unplugged, the characters essentially become homeless, as is the fate of Q*bert. Glitches exist, which are mistakes in the computer programming. Characters that are glitches cannot leave their game. Characters always regenerate immediately if they die in their own game, but not if they die in a different game.

The main story focuses on the titular character, who was designed to be a villain, wanting to get respect. He goes on a quest to get his respect which mostly involves two other fictitious games. The first being a Halo-like first person shooter called Hero’s Duty. The second, where most of the narrative takes place, is a racing game called Sugar Rush. Along the way he finds out the secret history of the world of Sugar Rush, as well as the hidden past of the world within the arcade.

It’s a great concept, thought out and executed well. The kids in the arcade have roles in the story as well. I’d be curious to see where else this goes in future installments, regarding both other games and kids in the real world.

The crossover characters do no per say play a main role in the actual story, but are mostly seen in the background. Some games have their characters present, others are mentioned in passing in the dialogue or other references/sight gags. Those games are as follows;

 Altered Beast

Dance Dance Revolution

Dig Dug

Final Fantasy

Frogger

Metal Gear

Pac-man

Paperboy

Pong

Q*bert

Qix

Sonic the Hedgehog

Street Fighter

Super Mario Brothers

Tapper

Tomb Raider

Rise of the Gaurdians

Rise of the Gaurdians is almost like the Avengers or even the Expendables for elementary kids. It’s the story of Santa Clause, Jack Frost, the Easter Bunny, Mr. Sandman, and the Tooth Fairy teaming up to fight the boogey man.

Jack Frost is the introductory character. He gets recruited by the Man in the Moon to be the new Guardian. The conceit of this movie is that the Guardians protect children and get their strength from the beliefs of children. Apparently the Boogeyman ruled during the Dark Ages until Santa Clause and the other Guardians fought him off. Now (for some reason) he is back and wants revenge.

Santa is a sword wielding Russian tough guy, the Easter Bunny is a cynical Australian, and the Sandman doesn’t speak, but communicates through his sand. Jack Frost plays the reluctant hero. He’s encountered the group before, and doesn’t get along with the Easter Bunny. He’s upset because people don’t believe in him, and he’s spent his existence being invisible to humans. This angst leaves him vulnerable to seduction by the Boogey man, who tries to pass himself off as a sympathetic character. Jack Frost also has a secret past he’s unaware of, but that revelation is slightly underwhelming.
Rise of the Guardians is a good standard adventure for kids. I’d be curious what they would do with a sequel, specifically who they would face besides the boogeyman.

Also I must add that I saw this in 4D. Years ago I saw the third Narnia movie Voyage of the Dawn Treader in 4D, and the 4D was really stupid. The seat would vibrate a little and it was annoying. The 4D in Rise of the Guardians was great (and the 3D was actually good too for a change). The seats would move around as the characters flew through the air and sometimes it was almost like being on a roller coaster. There were other effects with the seats and lighting effects etc. At the end of the movie there is a scene where a bunch of sand is in the air and it’s kind of like fireworks. During that scene, in the actual theater bubbles shot out through the walls and filled the air. That was just magical. All in all a very worthwhile experience.

League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: Century 2009 (Spoilers)

Century 2009 concludes the century trilogy, where Mina Murray, Alan Quatermain, and Orlando find the Moonchild/Anti-Christ that we’ve heard about in the last two installments. The climax of this story leaves us with interesting questions about the nature of the world of LXG, this world’s potential, and Moore’s own view on contemporary culture as well as creative issues in the comic book community.

Before that I want to mention a few pop culture references. We see a grown Jack Nemo threatening to start WWIII. We also get a 90 year old James Bond (a despicable man we met in the Black Dossier) now suffering from cirrhosis, emphysema, and syphilis. He’s kept alive to suffer as punishment to those he’s wronged before. We also get a glimpse of J3, and J6, basically the Bond’s of Roger Moore and Daniel Craig.

Back to the main story. The gang finds out that the Anti-Christ, for all intents and purposes, is Harry Potter. They go to what is essentially Hogwarts where it’s revealed that Harry Potter’s adventures were all arranged to get him ready for his destiny. Potter is not at the school now, the final battle takes place at his home.

The gang fights off Potter but it’s not going so well when, a character who is basically Jesus Christ shows up to save the day. So we get Harry Potter vs. Jesus Christ.

From a Christian perspective, could this be considered blasphemy? This brings to question the dynamics of the world of LXG. In the closing monologue of Black Dossier I believe it is suggested that some of the characters know they’re in a world of fiction. When Mina and Orlando arrive at Hogwarts the land is in ruins, and the two characters speculate that this area is like London’s dream-time  and that there could be a symbiotic relationship between the worlds of fiction and the real world. Mina says “maybe this magical landscape mirrors the real world.”

Orlando supposes it could also be the opposite. Saying “If our magical landscape, our art and fairy-tales and fictions… if that goes bad, maybe the material world follows suit.”

Back to Jesus, during the battle the Jesus character says “I have many great responsibilities,, foremost amongst these , however, is my concern for children. I am concerned regarding their wellbeing, and the healthy development of their imaginations.” Could it be that Jesus entered the world of fiction to save it from a pop culture Anti-Christ?

Another notion I would like to address, something I saw coming, was the view Alan seems to have of modern culture. Part of this is covered in a previous blog here http://jemurr.wordpress.com/2009/04/26/death-of-the-imagination-not/

Years ago Alan was quoted as saying (the full quote is in the link above) that this LXG story would be about the decay of the imagination. Mina in this story says “It’s not just the poverty, people were desperately poor in 1910. But at least they felt things had a purpose. How did culture fall apart in barely a hundred years.”

Orlando answers, “By becoming irrelevant, same as always.”

The irony is Alan Moore openly admits to knowing very little of contemporary culture. In this article linked below, which I also quoted in the above blog

http://www.comicbookresources.com/?page=article&id=20812.

he says.

“I know absolutely nothing about contemporary culture. I am cut off from most inputs. I’m not connected to the internet in any way, I watch very little television.”

It is interesting to consider that Victorian England and England of 1969 in the world of LXG were both so vibrant, rich, and lively, and Moore’s world of 2009 is bleak and depressing. Yet he admits knowing little to nothing of today’s culture. You could make the argument that the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen is the height of Baby Boomer arrogance, that it proclaims 1969 as the epitome of Western Popular Culture, and following that everything fell into oblivion.

On a less serious note, the saga of LXG is basically the story of British popular culture. There’s nothing wrong with Moore writing what he knows, and he certainly knows this. However I would have liked to have seen this world incorporate other popular culture as well, such as that of Asia, and naturally America. Planetery did a great job of this. Also, after Watchmen, Moore grew tired of writing super heroes. Caped adventurers did exist in the world of LXG, but they were more of an annoying fad. It would have been fun to see a good superhero adventure set in this world.

Finally, Harry Potter is the Anti-Christ and fights Jesus Christ, but no one should be allowed to touch Watchmen….

League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: Century 1969

Century: 1969 opens with a British Pop Star murdered by members of a mysterious cult. Evidently this is related to an attempt to bring the Moonchild/antichrist into the world which was detailed in the previous edition. Quatermain, Mina, and Orlando are contacted by the Blazing World (this is just mentioned in passing) to try stopping it again. Along the way we briefly meet the daughter of Captain Nemo, who we met in the last chapter. She is now a grandmother.

Oliver Haddo, the Aleister Crowley type character from the last edition has apparently died but his presence is still felt in the narrative. Norton, the time traveling prisoner of London also appears giving more cryptic information, among other things that they’ll meet again in 2009 and by then it will be too late. (The third edition of Century is set in 2009.)

Apparently a recent attempt to make an anti-christ failed. A reference to the novel/film Rosemary’s baby is made, it’s mentioned that the devil child was stillborn. The gang manages to stop another ritual from taking place, but it’s not exactly what they think, and has dire consequences for Mina. Her fate is a chilling consequence of being immortal. The closing scene leaves us in the early 70s/punk era, with the group now in shambles.

The prose story Minions of the Moon continues, and the preceding narrative gives us a hint of where these stories are coming from. We get a wide range of fictional references from the Frankenstein Monster to the fiction of H.G. Wells to the B movie classic Amazon Women on the Moon.

At this point the this story is much more reliant on prior knowledge of the previous edition, as well as the Black Dossier, and the pop culture references in general.

I don’t get as many of the pop cultural references in this edition, but there’s one I’d like to mention. One of the more obscure novels referenced in this story is Vril: The Power of the Coming Race, published in 1871 by Edward Bulwer Lytotton. It is about a underground race of beings that have mastered this energy called Vril. The book has a sort of cult following and some allege that the Nazi party believed Vril to be real. Anyway, there’s one scene in Century 1969 where there’s a live sex show featuring a woman and a creature from this novel. I happened to have read this novel, and know that the Vril were not portrayed as hedonistic. Hence I’m curious why Moore chose to portray these creatures in such a way. I’m sure there are plenty of other fictional creatures to be used for hedonism, like those of the Shaver mysteries for example.

My review of book one below.

http://jemurr.wordpress.com/2009/07/10/league-of-ext-gentlemen-century-1910-a-late-review/

Review of book three coming soon.

Jason Vs Freddy Vs Ash.

Jason vs Freddy vs Ash has an interesting origin. The 6 issue comic book series was in fact originally a screenplay to a potential Freddy vs Jason sequel. The film project got scrapped, partly due to Evil Dead creator Sam Raimi wanting to remake Evil Dead (which to date hasn’t happened yet). Wildstorm and Dynamite comics joined to adapt the screenplay into comic book form.

The first issue opens with the surviving characters from Jason vs Freddy returning to Crystal Lake 5 years later for closure. We get a recap of the last movie before finding Jason still alive and the two other characters soon aren’t. Meanwhile Ash Williams is brought in to the local department store (The Super Mega Ultra S Mart) to help out during the Holiday Season. The main plot of the book is that Freddy is trapped in Jason’s mind, where he discovers the Necronomicon is in the old Vorhees house. (This references Jason Goes to Hell, the Final Friday) Freddy wants Jason to get the Necronomicon and use it’s power to bring Freddy back. In a twisted Pinoccchio type fashion Freddy promises to turn Jason into a normal boy.

Hence the three lead characters all get some good interaction with each other meanwhile hapless youngsters get hacked to death. Ash and Freddy have a great initial encounter where Ash dreams of having his hand back. The funniest scene is perhaps the dreamlike sequence where Freddy poses as a teacher and scolds a young Jason in failing to get the book. Another scene with Freddy and Pamela Vorhees is wickedly twisted. The Christmas season leads to some unique scenes of Jason killing in the Christmas spirit. Later Jason imitates Ash with a machete hand ala/Ash’s chainsaw hand.

There’s also a few acknowledgments of the previous films of all 3 series. Jason’s copy cat killer in (F13 Part 5) is mentioned, and a character speculates another copy cat killer was in New York. (It was really Jason in New York, which was part 8, but the character wouldn’t know that). Jason’s killings in Springwood (Freddy’s Home) are also mentioned. Freddy knows nothing of the Deadites (The demons from the Evil Dead series), but Ash speculates Jason is a Deadite. It’s also revealed that Pamela Vorhess read the Necronomicon to a young Jason and it’s hinted that the same book brought Jason back to life.

The art in the gory scenes is a little goofy, but maybe that’s the point. Most of the character designs are good but I remember one panel where the anatomy was off and one character actually looked deformed. Ash has a forced exposition scene early on talking about the Necronomicon but other than that the story flows well.All in all it’s a fun crossover story that I’d recommend for slasher fans.

 

League of Ext. Gentlemen: Century 1910, a late review.

LOEG Century: 1910, is the first chapter of the third editon of the League. (Last years Black Dossier was just a supplement) While the first two editions were originally 12 issue mini-series, Century is/will be three small graphic novels. Part 2 will be released next year, and part 3 the year after that.

The story opens (In the year 1910 of course) with supernatural Detective Thomas Carnacki having a dream about a cult, as well as a strange woman on an island, that we know to be Captain Nemo’s daughter. He awakes to discuss the dream with gentlemen theif Mr. Raffles, and soon Mina Murray, Quatermain, and Orlando  arrive.

Mr Raffles and Carnacki are both from turn of the century British fiction. Mina and Quatermain are the common characters throughout the series. Both are now immortal after bathing in a secret African pool. Quatermain is now young again, and poses as the son of the supposedly dead Allan Quatermain. Parts of the story deal with the pressures Allan and Mina feel from being immortal, and subequently having to change identities.

Orlando is harder to explain, basically a gender changing immortal, whose life was detailed in Black Dossier, having met or actually was many of history’s great warriors.  Orlando in this story is male, very vain, and annoying. His team mates don’t believe his stories of founding London or actually having Excalibur.  One funny scene early on is him bemoaning having to shave, saying it’s worse than a woman having her period. Another laugh out loud moment is when arouses the anger of the group by smarting off to Mina. Quatermain tells him his words were the stupidest thing he ever said. His response is “Oh I don’t know, there was “Oh look, a wonderful horse.” That was at Troy.” Hilarious.

Other funny moments are Raffles making a comment to Quatermain (not knowing he’s immortal) about how everybody dies eventually. Also Mina notes she used to not be superstitious, which is why she now wears a scarf. (Dracula) One nice touch is a kitchy reproduction of the Nautilus, made for tourists.

Anyway there’s two stories going on here. One is the mystical villain Haddo, (A composite character of the fictional versions of real life occultist Aleister Crowley) getting preparing to bring the Moonchild into the world. The Moonchild being something akin to the anti-christ.

The other story is Janni reluctantly taking the mantle of her father Captain Nemo.  This also intermixes with the return of Jack the Ripper. These parts of the story are told in song, sung by some older woman who watches Janni, but herself seems unnoticed. It’s interesting that at first we assume the song is about Janni, but it’s actually about Jack. The plot threads sort of run into each other by the end. There’s a nice twist here or there, but the story’s strong points are in it’s character moments.

Of course we see other fictional characters in this story. There’s references to The Lost World, and in one panel we see Popeye.  We also meet Andrew Norton, who I believe is a modern fictional character who travels through time but can only stay in London.

Finally there are a few short prose pieces in the back, under the heading of Minions of the Moon. We get references to the Stone Monolith from 2001 the Space Oddyssey, as well as the erotic tale The Story of O.  We also learn that during the 60s Mina posed as the hero Vull the Invisible, in a failed attempt to form a superhero team called the Seven Stars. Finally the team is off to the moon to stop a war between two Lunar races and they see a frozen Moriarty flying through space. (from volume one)

It’s a little tricky to review this by itself, as it’s like reviewing the opening chapter of a book.  By now some of it’s good moments require reading the previous editions. My guess is the whole of century will be greater than the sum of it’s part. I’m looking forward to future editions and am curious for the Moonchild and Minions of the Moon stories. 4/5 stars. Until next year, Excelsior!