Ironing out the Problem

So, the Iron Man teaser has been around for a while, but for those of you who have yet to see it, here it is:



Now, I know that, according to what I said in an earlier post, I should be responding to this trailer with "Mass excitement." And I probably would be in most circumstances. I mean, the non-Home-Improvement costume looks awesome. But for some reason that I couldn't put my finger on, something about that trailer didn't sit right with me.

Then it hit me.

Here is a trailer from Ghost Rider, a movie that I and most of the surface world thoroughly didn't enjoy.



I hope the similarities between the two trailers speak for themselves (the one main difference being that the Iron Man trailer is only a "teaser" and therefore doesn't show as much). There was another Ghost Rider trailer where protagonist Johnny Blaze is told, like with Iron Man's Tony Stark, "You should [be dead]," as well as a similar ending (a prolonged CGI shot of the hero speeding in a particular direction), but I thought the similarities were more palpable in this one.

The fact that Iron Man's trailer is even remotely comparable to Ghost Rider's is, frankly, not good. Don't get me wrong, I'm still going to line up at midnight to see it on opening night, dressed appropriately, but I won't be happy about it.

...no high five?

Aaron's Pick of the Week: One Bad Mother- Shut Your Mouth!

For the week of October 10:

Punisher #51

by Ennis (w) and Parlov (a)

A lot of times, when I try to explain my love of comic books to other people, a question that I am often met with is "Comic books... aren't they just violent stories about two people beating the shit out of each other?" to which I reply that comics have been misleadingly portrayed in the mass media and that actually, comic books deal with a plethora of genres, many of which are nuanced works of profound introspection, working with an array of subtleties.

Punisher #51 is about two guys who beat the shit out of each other. And it's totally awesome.

I should start by saying that, until recently, I've never much liked Frank Castle (aka the Punisher). He always struck me as embodying the worst of your shlocky action movies, from the hypocritical moral stance to the cheesy one-liners. I never saw much entertainment in suspending my disbelief enough to accept that a single person armed with just one revolver could take out a hundred armed goons. But then I heard that Garth (Preacher) Ennis, a writer who I enjoy immensely, was on the book, so I figured "what the hell."

And what can I say? Ennis made a believer out of me. I think this is probably because of Ennis' talent to (among countless other things) breathe "cool" into anything he writes. He could write a 22 page story about an old lady crossing the street and it'd be more kick-ass than 90% of the other comics out there. Now, when the Punisher takes out hundreds of armed goons, I don't think, "oh, come on!" Instead, I think, "Fuck Yeah!"

However, this issue is unique because, rather than take on a hundred armed goons, here he goes one-on-one with the inordinately bad-ass Barracuda.

The Punisher is unique in the Marvel Universe in two ways. For starters, he doesn't have superpowers, which means he defeats his villains using a combination of cunning, his war-hardened combat skills, and a shitload of guns (I don't think Spider-man's ever even held a gun before in his life).

Second of all, the Punisher is unique because, when he defeats a villain, he doesn't send them to Ryker's Prison or The Raft. He kills them. There's no way around it; if you do something bad, the Punisher will kill you.

This presents a problem in terms of establishing arch enemies, as the average Punisher villain has a lifespan of about six issues. Still, Ennis has managed to come as close to a nemesis as possible in Barracuda, a "bad-ass motherfucker" in the truest (well, not literally) sense of the word who, in the hands of a less talented writer, would come across as a racist stereotype, inflated to a monstrous degree (well, he still sort of does, but Ennis makes it work). Barracuda managed to survive his first run-in with the Punisher (issues #31-36) by the sole virtue of being incredibly difficult to kill. He returns in this arc, shy several fingers and an eye, to make Castle's life a (short-lived) living hell.

Issue #51 makes this part two of the "Long Cold Dark" arc. Structurally, Ennis' stories have generally followed the same six-issue format, making this the part where the Punisher "barely escapes alive, realizing that he may be in for the fight of his life." Still, despite the almost formulaic plot of the comic, its delivery is anything but. Watching Barracuda torment the Punisher in the opening of this issue, I was surprised at how palpable Castle's helplessness felt.

Unlike the typical superhero brawl, the fight scene itself didn't consist of a single super-power - no eye-lasers or plasma beams. And the fight was all the more brutal for it. Instead of adamantium claws, the characters used fists, teeth, a knife, a chair, and an open window. Watching the aftermath was truly cringe-worthy.

Perhaps my favourite thing about this comic as a whole is Ennis' ability, time and time again, to give the reader a real sense of how high the stakes are. Reading this comic not only left me quite caught up in the moment, but dreading the events that will no doubt unfold in the issues to follow.

Punisher #51 is highly recommended to people who want a balls-to-the-walls action story, and think that super-heroes are too "kiddy." It is NOT recommended to people who, say, find Hot Stuff a little racy.


Not recommended:

Ghost Rider #16: Uninteresting, hard to follow, and bland. Makes me think back to the Ghost Rider movie as "the good ol' days."

Coming now, to a links list to the right of this text...

The Comic Book Syndicate was a video podcast that focused on the various aspects of comic book geekery, from reviews to debates to guides on collecting. It was funny, interesting, and, perhaps most importantly, clearly came from the purest of fanboy hearts. What's more, it was put out, according to their site, by "4 of Windsor's leading costumed champions" (this is especially true if you frequent Rogue's Gallery, as I do).

Here's an excerpt from one of their shows, where they discuss bringing characters back from the dead (NOTE: many references might go over the heads of nonthusiasts, but even if this is the case for you, there is still a lot to enjoy):




You may have noticed I used the past tense when describing the Comic Book Syndicate. That's because they're not strictly a podcast anymore.

They're now a television show.

From what I understand, they've been picked up by A-Channel Cogeco Cable 11 and will premiere on said channel TOMORROW, Friday the 5th of October, at 11pm. If you're like me and usually spend Friday nights sitting on your mattress, rocking back and forth, I suggest checking the Comic Book Syndicate out.

-A

P.S. If the link I provided gives you trouble with loading the videos, you can access shittier versions (pixelation-wise) of the show on youtube.