Man
I have missed reading comics by Mike Baron. Sure, I could raid the long boxes
and dig out out everything from Nexus
to The Grackle—but new Baron is
always welcome in this house. Imagine when the great one offered to send me a review
copy of his newest effort, Q-Ball. Signed,
yet! Of course I jumped at the chance.
Q-Ball
is another outstanding and quirky puzzle piece in the Baron oeuvre. Seems that
our title character is a Detroit native named Curtis Ball, a Merchant Marine
who wanted to see the world and learn the visually cool arts of Kung Fu and stick
fighting, or Escrima. Curtis’s current day job is managing a warehouse in Manila. After
an altercation with a potential client without the correct paperwork, Curtis
discovers a dead body in the warehouse and is forced to battle some vile
gangsters interested in illegal withdrawals from the warehouse stock. This is
not something of which Curtis approves, and he is forced to confront the
miscreants with staggering violence. Digging further into the situation, Curtis
meets, and ends up protecting, Donna Wing, a Chinese national busy exposing
human rights abuses by people who don’t want their rocks turned over.
It’s
an enticing first issue, setting up an intriguing plot and introducing our
players in dramatic ways. The art by Barry McClain Jr. is excellent
storytelling, with clear action and gorgeous, flowing martial arts sequences. The last page left me wanting more and I desperately want to find out what happens next, something every good comic
should do. No decompressed storytelling here, only the beginning of another
epic Bloody Red Baron production. Bring on #2!
Just a note that my article on the comic story "Future Imperfect" starring the Incredible Hulk is published tomorrow in BACK ISSUE #111! I'm really excited about it because I was privileged to interview writer Peter David and one of the greatest artists of all time, George Perez! Also, Future Imperfect, about the Hulk going to a dystopic future to fight an evil version of himself, the Maestro, is probably my favorite Hulk story. This one was really a blast. As editor Michael Eury says, don't ask, just BI it!
From ace writer Mark Evanier's website, a funny story from Jonathan Harris, Dr. Zachary Smith from Lost in Space. It's weird to hear Dr. Smith say the f-word. Here's the link.
Unbelievable.
It really is. I hated the first season of The
Punisher, the show was truly awful. Slowly paced, very little punishing,
story all over the place. However, someone learned from their mistakes and in
the process discovered who the Punisher was. Season Two was the best Marvel
show so far and its last episode was the best single Marvel TV show to date. I’m
not sure what happened, but more like this please.
Recovered
from the events of Season 1, Frank Castle is wandering through the American
Midwest, reveling in his freedom. When mercenaries invade a bar and go after a
teenage girl, Frank steps in to rescue her and gets sucked in to a major
situation. Meanwhile back in New York, Billy Russo, who Frank defeated and
disfigured last season, escapes a mental hospital with help from his smitten
female therapist and goes on a crime rampage. Eventually the two storylines
come together (at least in the same place) and Frank does some major punishing.
What’s
so good is that the producers have finally let Frank Castle just be who he is
meant to be. No evil person is safe. He punishes women, devout religious types,
deranged psychotics and politicians.
The
pacing is a lot better this season, and the story concentrates much more on
Castle and his immediate supporting cast. The girl he saves in the bar, Amy,
becomes a surrogate daughter whom he protects at any cost. And the cost is
high. The story does screech to a halt for a while when all the characters get
to New York, but picks up the pace again quickly. I think in a Punisher show it’s
reasonable that Frank should kill one person in every episode—at least! He does
this in most episodes, a welcome relief from sitting on the sidelines for most
of Season 1. The fights are expertly choreographed, especially Franks’s
hand-to-hand combat with a gym full of Russian gangsters. That was fun, if
brutal, to watch.
There
are very few negatives to this season. Billy, who becomes the villain Jigsaw,
is far too pretty. In the comics, Jigsaw’s face looks like a 1000-piece puzzle.
Billy only has a few scars. They should have gone with a lot more damage. The
pacing was still slow in a few of the episodes, and Frank doesn’t wear his
skull near enough—but those are minor nitpicks. He does wear his chest skull at
all the right times, and the last scene of the show is a triumph right out of
the comics. Thank you Marvel, for finally making an action-filled show that
pulls no punches—literally. The show has already been renewed for Season 3—let’s
hope it is half this good.
Time
to do some blogging again! For the six or seven of my regular readers,
hopefully I’ll have a bit more time this year to share some obsessions and
point out various oddities. First off, a change in the review system. In order
to give more accurate opinions of different media, we’re trying a few new things.
First, the 5-Star review system will change to a grade system, A thru F. Don’t
worry, I don’t think I’m a teacher, doling out the final say to media professionals from my ivory tower. It’s just a
handy way to share an opinion. For the record, I realize that even the worst
media is usually created by people trying their best to entertain—and sometimes
failing miserably. No one sets out to make bad entertainment, but sometimes
things go spectacularly wrong. The only exceptions are when story quality or entertainment
value is booted in favor of an agenda. Doesn’t matter what the agenda is, SJW
or white nationalism, progressive or alt right. If someone is more interested
in pounding me over the head with their
political or cultural message than telling a story, it usually means a bad
story and a low grade will be forthcoming. Given that this is every Marvel comic
book published since 2010, I don’t have hopes for good reviews for Marvel
comics. However, I won’t be reviewing (or reading) many Marvel books, so that
shouldn’t be a problem. I want to like and enjoy pop culture, so I tend to
avoid things that have proven to be toxic. I don’t “hate-watch/read” anything.
I like being happy.
The
other change is just to ask, and answer, a simple question at the end of each
review: Is this movie/comic/TV show worth your valuable ticket price, money or
time? I’ve read mediocre reviews that are not positive or negative that leave
me confused not only whether the writer actually liked the subject; but also was
it worth the time/price? That’s what is important to me when reading reviews,
and I will endeavor to provide it in my own.
Just
remember, this is one man’s view. You are free to differ or see/read/watch
stuff I disliked. It’s all just my Humble Opinion.
