She’s getting ready for her TV debut … and so am I

Stumptown Vol. 1 hardcover (The Case of the Girl Who Took her Shampoo (But Left her Mini)
Oni Press
Creators: Greg Rucka, Matthew Southworth, Lee Loughridge and Rico Renzi
Release date: March 2011

In case you haven’t yet heard, Greg Rucka’s and Matthew Southworth’s creation Stumptown is headed to ABC as a television pilot sometime this next season. The pilot will star Cobie Smulders as the main protagonist, Portland, Oregon, private investigator Dex Parios.

I don’t have any experience with Southworth’s art, at least not that I can recall, but Rucka is one of my favorite writers. I have followed his comics work on titles like Gotham Central, Batman, Adventures of Superman, Wonder Woman and Queen and Country, even following that last series into some of his prose work. He is well known as a writer who can easily handle strong female characters. I can’t argue with that assessment, but I think he handles most of the characters he writes with skill and an ear for dialogue and consistent characterization.

I purchased this first volume of Stumptown a couple years ago with a few other independent graphic novels Rucka authored with the intent of trying them out. They went on that ever-growing “sometime” pile and stayed there. That is, until the announcement of the new pilot made me decide to move this particular hardcover to the top of the stack. It did not disappoint.

Dex is a typical P.I. in the vein of Jim Rockford of television’s “The Rockford Files”; she has a good heart, a lot of brains, a quick wit and really crappy luck. That crappy luck extends to the gambling table, where Dex has racked up quite a debt to the house at the beginning of this story. The owner of the casino, Sue-Lynne Suppa, agrees to forgive Dex’s debt if Dex will find Sue-Lynne's missing granddaughter. This first hardcover includes all four issues of the initial Stumptown series as Dex tries to track down the missing 18-year-old despite opposition from several sides. Players in opposition to Dex seem to know immediately the case Dex is investigating before she has any chance to uncover who or why someone might want to harm the missing girl. Rucka weaves an engaging whodunit that takes readers along for the ride as Dex tries to finally make sense of the forces lined up against her.

Southworth’s art is dark and moody, which suits a title like this one, without being “muddy” like some dark comics can tend to get. Loughridge’s and Renzi’s colors help with the atmosphere, as well. They keep the color palette simple and sparse, except when a few carefully placed bright colors are needed to emphasize a dramatic panel or two.

If you haven’t tried Stumptown and like P.I. fiction, I heartily recommend this volume. I plan to seek out the subsequent three volumes in the very near future, and I also plan to give “Stumptown” a watch on television when it debuts.

I miss you, bro

“Marvel’s The Punisher” Season 2
Netflix
January 2019
 

Shawn died in 2000, nearly 20 years ago now. He was a son, a husband, a musician, a Marine, a prankster, a police officer, and he was my younger brother. He was 28 at the time of his death, so in just one more short decade, he will have been gone as long as he lived.

Time has passed. Life goes on. And there are many days when he doesn’t cross my mind at all. That’s life. But there are also random things that will bring his memory to the front of my mind.

One of the losses I feel most consistently on behalf of my brother are movies and television properties that he would have loved but missed. He was a huge Star Wars fan, yet he never got to see the second and third prequel films or the more recently realized but long-rumored sequels. He very much enjoyed “Phantom Menace,” and I have no reason to doubt he would have been thrilled by and enjoyed all of the films to follow.

The plethora of comic book films is another thing I think he’d have enjoyed. He was always more a Marvel fan than I was growing up. I remember crying when I saw “X-Men” in the theater for the first time in 2000 because he wouldn’t get to experience it, and he was always a huge Wolverine fan. The “Spider-Man” films began in 2002. Then the modern Marvel cinematic age began in 2008 with “Iron Man.” I think he would have loved the explosion of films since then from the various “Avengers” and “Captain America” films to “Black Panther” and “Infinity War.”

Another of my brother’s favorite comic book characters was always Frank Castle, the Punisher, and I’ve been thinking of my brother as I watch Netflix’s second season of "Marvel's The Punisher," starring Jon Bernthal. This is a phenomenal show, and everyone involved deserves kudos for the excellent product they have created.

The Punisher first appeared in Marvel Comics in Amazing Spider-Man No. 129 and was created by writer Gerry Conway and artists John Romita Sr. and Ross Andru. The character went on to appear in various other titles for several years before starring in his own limited series in the mid-1980s. At the peak of the Punisher’s popularity in the late 80s and early 1990s, he starred in three concurrent monthly titles: The Punisher, The Punisher War Journal and The Punisher War Zone. There was also a short-lived black-and-white Punisher Magazine and other limited series and one-shots at various points along the way.

Shawn collected most of these titles by a number of creators, but the book that struck a chord with me was War Journal. This title, initially written by Carl Potts and illustrated by Jim Lee, would later feature creators such as Mike Baron, Mark Texeira, Chuck Dixon, Steven Grant, Tod Smith, Ron Wagner and others. Potts and Dixon stand out in my mind the most when I think back about favorite issues.

I’m not as familiar with Billy “Jigsaw” Russo, although I know he also existed in the comics. I’m not certain if the comic Jigsaw played a role in the deaths of Frank Castle’s family as he does in Ben Barnes’ portrayal of the character in the Netflix series. If not, the inclusion of that detail helps bring the two characters’ lives full circle in the show.

As far as I know, most of the other characters in the Netflix version of the Punisher are original to the program, but may have been portrayed in comics in some form or fashion. But I love how the ancillary characters add to the show’s drama. Karen Page and Brett Mahoney show up from the cast of Netflix’s “Daredevil” to add cohesion to the shared universe. And Curtis Hoyle, Dinah Madani and Krista Dumont add dimension to the proceedings of both seasons of the show.

Netflix’s “The Punisher” is definitely more gritty and bloody than I typically like my comics stories, but so was the Netflix version of Daredevil. Both worked well in the realities established for the series, and the visceral visuals of the programs don’t glorify violence. Rather they use it to emphasize the physical and emotional toll of these peoples’ lives and choices.

Jon Bernthal does an exceptional job of bringing Frank Castle to life in this series. The later comic series added some nuance and character beats to what could have easily been a one-note, disposable caricature. Bernthal and his supporting cast help do the same with the on-screen Punisher. Bernthal portrays an efficient killing machine on a deadly mission, to be sure. But he also shows Frank’s caring side without turning the brutal vigilante into a parody of the original creation.

I can watch this show for what it is and enjoy it. I tend to think Shawn would have seen it as a more pure expression of the character than some of the various movie attempts. Believing my brother would have liked the show adds a level of appreciation to watching it. But it also makes me sad that my brother will never be able to see one of his “heroes” brought to life on the small screen in such an effective way.

I’m also very sad all of these Netflix Marvel shows have been canceled due to business concerns and we won’t get more of this version of the Punisher, Daredevil or Jessica Jones.

Now That's How You Do a Crossover

"Crisis On Earth X"
The CW's Arrowverse
Release Date: Nov. 27-28, 2017

Previous crossovers within the shows of the Arrowverse of CW shows have had some truly great moments, but this year's megacrossover was by far the best to date. In the past, the individual shows very much retained their own individual feel, leaving each chapter feeling like merely a special episode of "Supergirl," "The Flash," "Legends of Tomorrow" or "Arrow" with cameos, but the overall storyline would feel a bit disjointed.

This year's crossover event felt like four hour-long chapters of a single storyline that happened to star characters from each of the aforementioned shows. Even the intros and outros were specially created to contain elements from all four shows as a unified entity. Without an episode guide to indicate which hour belonged to which series, it was very hard to tell that they weren't a new unified show, which is as it should be for a project like this.

I confess, I haven't been keeping up with "Supergirl" this season; I just haven't had time to watch everything, and that show has fallen by the wayside. But the writers did a great job of briefly bringing viewers up to speed on the relevant status quo of each series without belaboring things, so I knew everything I needed to know about the "Supergirl" participants and where they were at coming into the crossover, without feeling like I was getting unnecessary exposition about the other shows I knew more about.

I also felt like there was a lot of character and plot development in this crossover for the individual series. Viewers of the next episodes of "The Flash," "Arrow" and "Legends" will definitely have some changes from the crossover to be addressed. I didn't see as much change in the characters from "Supergirl," but again, maybe that is because I'm not current on that show right now.

If there was a weak spot in the whole thing, I'd have to say it was the absence of some of the "Legends" cast until the very end. But let's be honest, this was a massive cast of regulars and new characters to service. I can't blame the creators involved for giving some of the "Legends" a little less to do until the big finale.

Now, a lot of what I've read since watching the crossover indicates that it was a lot of work coordinating on the part of the creators, crews and staffs of each show to pull this type of thing off. I'm sure it was. But the effort was well worth it for this kind of finished product. If all of the shows continue on, I hope this can continue to be an annual tradition, and that this quality level can be maintained.

Nasty. Raw. Brutal. Excellent.

We've talked here before about characterization and it's importance to story-telling. The characters have to be people the reader cares about for reading and enjoying to occur. The characters that populate Image Comics' Walking Dead series by Robert Kirkman, Tony Moore, Charlie Adlard and Cliff Rathburn literally come alive with their characterizations.

The series, for those unfamiliar with it, involves a cop who wakes up from a coma to find no one around but zombies. He has no idea where the zombies came from or what the heck is going on, but he sets out to track down his family and finds other survivors among the many Walking Dead. But this is more than just a typical zombie horror-fest. Kirkman describes the book as "the zombie movie that never ends," focusing not so much on the zombies themselves, but the living folk trying to stay that way. "I want to explore how people deal with extreme situations and how these events CHANGE them," he adds. "This is a very character driven endeavor."

Is it ever.

I'd heard good things about the book and was curious to try it. When I read rave reviews for something online, it is often hit or miss whether or not I will like it, and I DON'T care so much for zombie movies. So I decided to really give the series a try if I was going to try it at all. I bought the first three trades, collecting all of the first 18 issues of the series. If at the end of that, I still didn't like it, no one could say I hadn't given it a chance. I read all three trades in one weekend.
I could hardly put it down. The drama is intense. The action is exciting. The artwork and the gray tones are brilliant. And, as promised, the writing focuses on strong characters you come to care about as they try to survive in this world they barely understand. There are zombies, but they are more minor characters, almost scenery sometimes, for the main characters to play against.

Those first three trades were so good, I quickly found the fourth and fifth collections. I just read those two in two sittings recently, only pausing in between to go to work, and that only because my wife insisted I must. I have the next six trades -- Nos. 6-11 on order. When they get here, I fully expect to devour them hungrily and then die from waiting the many long months before the 12th collection is released.

This book is awesome! Check it out!!

And do so quickly, before these characters invade your television set in Ocotber. That's right! If you haven't already heard, Kirkman is involved with the production of making The Walking Dead into an hour-long drama series for AMC. The show doesn't even begin shooting until this summer, but AMC has already pledged to debut the show in October during their Halloween-season programming.

Make Mine Marvel ... Once In A While

Most of the people I know in and around this part of Oklahoma and Arkansas seem to have grown up with Marvel Comics and much prefer that stable of heroes out of the Big Two comics publishers. A lot of that affinity seems to stem from the time those folks got interested in comics and a number of Marvel characters on television when they were young. I suppose my preferences come from much the same sources, but took the opposite turn.

Somehow, I managed to miss the first, somewhat crude by today’s standards, launch of Marvel superhero cartoons in the late 1960s and early 1970s. But I did watch the Batman and Wonder Woman and Superman live-action shows when they were on in first-run or syndication. And I never missed the Superfriends among my Saturday-morning TV viewing. Sure, there was also the live-action Incredible Hulk and Spider-Man shows and Spider-man and His Amazing Friends later on. I’m not ignorant of the Marvel characters, but DC’s group was always the ones I knew and loved just a bit more.

That preference is reflected in my collection, especially during the mid-1980s when I discovered my first-ever Comics Specialty Shop. I had a number of single issues of DC Comics from the grocery store as a small child, things like Superman Family or Batman Family, maybe some World’s Finest and Justice League of America. Even an occasional issue of Spider-man, some based on his appearances on The Electric Company, that PBS series for kids too old for Sesame Street. Sadly, many of those silver-age comics are no longer in my possession because smaller children don’t always take care of things like their parents might wish they would. At this time, besides TV, my only other contact with the world of superheroes were some copies of Superman, Action and Adventure (staring the Legion of Super-Heroes) comics while awaiting my turn at the barber shop. Once in a while, they’d also have some Turok, Son of Stone, too. But it was rare that I owned or read any two issues in consecutive order of any title.

The yearning for that to change came about in the early 1980s when I discovered The New Teen Titans annual #2, a story I’ve related here before and won’t bore you with again. But the desire was not matched immediately with access. That wouldn’t come until a few years later when a friend of mine at school introduced me to that all-important comic shop. I was just in time to snatch up every new issue of DC’s Crisis on Infinite Earths. Of course, I also followed the Teen Titans titles at the time. I tried some other books which I no longer own like DC Challenge and a Rip Hunter, Time Master re-vamp. From Marvel, I tried some Spider-man and Captain America issues, but my favorite title from them was Squadron Supreme, an alternate version of DC’s Justice League. And forget other titles like Jon Sable or Warlord from the time; I knew nothing about them and didn’t try that much new back then. My passion for those titles is somewhat more recent (Thank God for back-issue sales, right?).

Anyway, this lengthy introduction is not meant to bash Marvel, but rather to explain why there aren’t that many Marvel titles in these retro-reviews posts. That just wasn’t my preference then, and while I really like some of their characters, Marvel is still second in my own personal rankings. So, there really aren’t going to be many Marvel titles this far back in my collection. In an effort to make some small amends for that, here are a few Marvel comics I DO have.

The Amazing Spider-Man: The Death of Jean DeWolff tpb (Marvel Comics, 1990) — This collection written by Peter David and illustrated by Rich Buckler was originally published as Peter Parker, the Spectacular Spider-man #107-110 from 1985-86. I’ve never seen or read any of the other stories featuring Jean DeWolff, but this story makes me think of her as an early precursor to Maggie Sawyer over at DC (there I go again, relating it all to DC). DeWolff is a police captain appearing in a number of previous issues of Spider titles apparently. She was created by Peter David according to the forward in this collection, and though she hadn’t been around long, she was gaining fans. This story, obviously, kills her off. Apparently, that caused some furor at the time because of DeWolff’s popularity. Further angering her shocked fans, she doesn’t die at the end of the story in heroic battle or sacrificing herself to save another like so many characters in comics. She dies off-panel at the very beginning of the story. And it takes not just Spidey, but also Daredevil, to help unearth the true identity of her killer, at first only known as the enigmatic Sin-Eater. The story is a compelling one even if you’re not familiar with DeWolff, and features some nods to classic Spider-man history.

The Thing 33-36 (Marvel Comics, 1986) — These are the last four issues of Thing’s solo series, and in all honesty, I was a little disappointed in them, mostly because there is no final resolution. Obviously, Ben continues to be a character in the Marvel Universe. I didn’t expect them to kill him off, or even necessarily reunite him with the Fantastic Four, but this tale just leaves the reader hanging unless you want to go buy other books.

When last we checked in with Ben Grimm, he was wrestling in the newly formed Unlimited Class Wrestling Federation, and was only beginning to wonder where all of the extremely powerful brawlers in the UCWF had been coming from. Before this, all of the other wrestlers shown have been male. Issue #33 shows readers that there is, in fact, a female division, and the champion female UCWF wrestler wants to challenge her male counterpart, Thing. Along the way, we learn that Sharon, the woman Ben is currently interested in, is interested in joining the female UCWF and we again hear the mysterious name, the Power Broker, the individual responsible for powering up many of the competitors. Ben is concerned about Sharon’s plans and tries to stop her. Further complicating things is the fact that Sharon does not share Ben’s feelings.

Ben vows to finally check out this Power Broker person, but is side-tracked in Issue #34 by the appearance of the Sphinx, a villain from Marvel Two-In-One, and the re-appearance of the Puppet Master. Ben manages to make peace with the latter and defeats the former, but along the way, the dizzy spells he has been suffering from grow worse. These spells were first introduced a few issues before.

Issue #35 has Sharon going to the Power Broker, now revealed to be Dr. Malus, a villain I’m not familiar with. He augments volunteers for a price, but then manipulates them into doing his bidding. Unless of course, the aumentation process fails. Those poor, mutated souls are locked away in a dungeon. Sharon is successfully augmented, despite a change of heart on her part, and becomes the all-new Ms. Marvel, or at least a version of the character that I don’t remember seeing anywhere else, so I’m assuming hers was short-lived. She also meets a new friend, Army Lt. Michael Lynch, whose rank changes a couple times in the story, and the two instantly have chemistry. That added to the fact that Sharon has already gone to the Power Broker angers Ben, who storms the Power Broker’s lair only to find it abandoned. First, all of the other augmented wrestlers are against Ben and Sharon. But then, they all join forces to hunt Malus down. That is, until Ben starts to change.

The final issue has Sharon take Ben to the hospital, but of course, normal physicians have no clue what to do for the Thing. Ben continues to mutate painfully, a condition reported on in the news and attracting the attention of She-Hulk, Ben’s replacement in the FF. Shulkie travels to California to see what is up only to clash with the new Ms. Marvel, who thinks Ben wouldn’t want to see She-Hulk. Ben, who doesn’t want to see anybody, breaks out of the hospital and disappears. The end. A teaser on the last page says to check out West Coast Avengers #10 for more. Don’t have that book. If anybody knows for sure what happens after this to Thing, feel free to let me know. Most of the illustrations of Ben in this issue are vague, but a few seem to show some points, so I’m thinking maybe this is how he adopts the pointed rocky appearance he had for a while, but it seems like that happened in the 90s. A hint on the letters page also says he will soon be joining a team but doesn’t reveal what team. I wonder if this is when he does, ultimately, rejoin the FF, but again, I don’t know for sure. Little help?

The Invasion Surfaces at the Threshold

I said this wouldn't always be about comics. Today I keep my word as we shift gears to television. Specifically, the almost completed 2005-06 sci-fi offerings by the three big networks. At the beginning of the fall 2005, each of the three had its own sci-fi "aliens are among us" series for public consumption. I'll try to keep spoilers to a minimum, but I imagine most anyone reading this has already watched at least some of these programs.

CBS gave us Threshold -- my early favorite of the bunch. The premise was an alien object appeared in the sky over the ocean and "infected" those within sight and hearing range. Most people, being "incompatible" with the alien signal quickly died rather gruesome deaths, but a few were changed into alien agents whose main objective now became to infect others. The title refers to one of many government-sanctioned contingency plans. The government taps the author of the Threshold protocols -- Molly Caffrey, if memory serves -- and she assembles a small team of experts to covertly track down the "infectees" and stop the before they can spread the alien virus.

Threshold had a number of things going for it. Not least of which was a premise that lends itself well to continuing episodic television. We don't know the exact agenda, or even the true nature, of the aliens involved; that's the longer running mystery that keeps audiences coming back week after week as secrets are slowly revealed over two or three seasons. Meanwhile, each week, our heroes on the Threshold team track the infectees, stop massive plots to spread the alien virus through videos, the Internet or television, bicker and squabble among themselves, etc. The show had some very intelligent writing, some thought-provoking ideas, a good cast of actors, and a sustainable, TV-friendly premise. naturally, it died very quickly, first suffering from a floating schedule, then being absent for almost a month, and then finally, just never coming back.

NBC's take doesn't actually deal with aliens at all, although viewers couldn't be sure of that when Surface premiered. I wasn't sure about this series initially, but it has grown on me quite rapidly. This one involves the "discovery" of a new amphibious, vertebrate animal, living mostly under the sea. But these creatures can be very deadly. And very quickly after stumbling upon them, Laura Daughtrey, a young marine biologist and single mother has her life turned upside down by mysterious men trying to keep her quiet. Daughtrey is joined by Ridge, a good-ol' boy from down south, who has lost his brother to the creatures in a diving accident. And there's also Miles, a teenager who finds one of the creatures and takes it as a pet.

The animation on the creatures is very good. Again, a very good cast and good, consistent writing are present on this series. Especially the scenes between Miles and his creature, Nimrod, can be very engaging. My biggest fear for this show is whether or not it can be sustained for multiple seasons. Throughout the course of the show, we have learned quite a bit about the creatures and their origins. There are still mysteries unsolved, but it almost seems as if a future season would have to explore other aspects of the company or group of scientists who have genetically engineered these creatures. To be sure, we have seen hints that other creations of this conglomerate exist. But the show might lose some cohesion by switching to a new creature, and possibly even new investigators, in a new season. The attachments viewers have for Miles, Ridge and Daughtrey would be lost that way. But I'm not sure there will be anywhere left to go with these amphibians' story once this season is over. Things right now seem aimed at coming to a very large impasse. And, in fact, the future of this show beyond this season is still up in the air according to NBC.

The last of these shows is ABC's Invasion. Twinkling lights from the sky descend on a Florida community during a hurricane, and quite a few of the townsfolk just aren't quite the same afterwards in this series written, directed, produced, etc. by Shaun Cassidy.

I admit I watch this show every week. Apparently a lot of people do as this one has the strongest ratings of the three, and is the only one, so far, to definitely make it to a season two. I am afraid, however, that Invasion's status is due more to the fact that it follows ABC's blockbuster Lost each week and enjoys a large carry-over audience than anything else.

When I first heard that Shaun Cassidy had such a large hand in creating this show, I wanted it to be good. I'm old enough to have grown up with Shaun Cassidy singing on the radio and playing Joe Hardy on the Hardy Boys Mysteries. Good for him. I hope his show does well. But the writing isn't good or consistent. I want to like the characters in this show, and the premise is sound, but every week the writing seems to flounder, giving the actors nothing to hold onto. One of the primaries is Larkin, a journalist and pregnant mother-to-be, who has been shown as a dedicated person who will do what is necessary to get a story out to the public. And when she starts to suspect something strange going on, and finds signs of a military cover-up, she is willing to risk her own life to snoop around. A few weeks later, she seems to have forgotten all about investigating, even going so far as to get upset with her husband when he is trying to dig around and find out what is going on. hey, anybody can change his or her mind, right? I can roll with that once, maybe. Until a couple weeks later, when she is willing to risk her marriage to dig some more and expose secrets she only half understands herself. That's just one example. The dialogue often seems unnatural. People who seem to know all about what is going on may suddenly be in the dark themselves.

Lost is a good example of a show that keeps a viewer guessing with twists and turns, but still maintains that sense that the writers know exactly where they are ultimately going with everything. Invasion is the opposite, meandering at times as if the creator is trying to figure it all out as much as we are. That's not good.

It may not look like it, but I welcome comments from anyone who cares to offer them. Just click on the "#" after each post to leave comments until I (or most likely my wife) can figure out why the word "comment" isn't showing.