Wonder Woman is a movie that Inspires

I was feeling so many emotions as the credits rolled on the Wonder Woman Movie.  The most prominent was a renewed sense of hope.  After the US election in 2016 I felt lost.  A man I did not respect and who through his life showed himself to be the opposite of everything I believed in was President.  I saw in this man the opposite of everything I taught the youth and children that had been under my care over the years.  As a Christian Minister I felt like the Gospel message of Love had been stomped upon.

Watching Gal Gadot bring Wonder Woman to life helped me feel a sense of calmness.  I feel the inspiration that has been my guide for so long.  I teach how Love is the strongest thing there is in the universe.  As a Christian I hold to Love as a sacrifice that was made so people had the choice to choose a life of goodness.

I liked having that feeling.  I did understand as well why people had said they were tearing up and crying.  There are two very emotional scenes, well more, but two that affected me.  I felt that this film would have been great for Memorial Day.  While being a film that preaches peace, it never makes the soldiers look bad.  It shows the horrors of WWI.  The backdrop worked well for Diana's origin.

It is an origin that takes all the various incarnations and melds the best parts to give us a strong female to admire and love.  The story works on so many levels.  Patty Jenkins crafted the best film of the year.  She deserves to direct more of the DC movies.  Her take and sense of visuals would do well for DC in making us care more and connecting with non-comicbook people.

Go see this movie.  Take any young women and older girls.  Younger girls can see it safely I think, but it will take some maturation for them to appreciate fully just how special this story and Wonder Woman are.  Wonder Woman really delivers everything a movie should be.

BDS

Greg Rucka's LAZARUS ONE and TWO

 MATURE READER TITLE

One of the best times I had at HeroesCon was listening to Greg Rucka discuss WHITEOUT at a panel.  I sensed some seed of hurt from him in terms of how the mainstream work of the business had dealt with him.  What did show clear was his love of words and crafting a story.  I saw this comic listed after the Con in the back of one of my Witchblade issues.  I failed to remember to have it added to my list and thought I might have missed Issue One.  Luckily both Issues One and Two were available at the shop.

This is really the first time I have gotten into the start of one of Rucka's "Girls" as Forever will now be termed.  I love Queen & Country, especially the novels.  From Batwoman to Perfect Dark Mr. Rucka has a knack for writing strong female leads in his stories.  Forever lives up to that in just two issues of the series.  She also appears to be more than just a human.

The opening to Issue One is very graphic and according to Mr. Rucka the basis for the entire series.  He has a great commentary in the back detailing the journey to this point in the life of this comicbook.  It is all about what our country and the world has and is experiencing.  The future here is one where an even smaller 1% has subjugated the rest of the 99%.  Families own portions of the world and each has their own fiefdoms that provides for a few who do the work while the rest of humanity is known as the "Waste."  Some will say that it could never happen.  To those I say pick up a newspaper and just read every day and see how close this future really is right now.

Advantages to not being able to go to the shop every week has me reading Issue Two right after I finish the first issue.  The foul language increases so I warn all parents out there to know that straight on.  The intrigue also increases.  I found it a more compelling issue.  There are hints as to Forever and her standing in the Family Carlye.  All members are shown.  There appears to be a twin incest thing happening.  Think of Dallas and Game of Thrones being put in a blender and you can start to see the way this world is forming.  Our girl Forever has a sword.  I am a sucker for a gal with a sword.

This is good grown up drama in comicbook form.  Makes me want a LAZARUS novel from Mr. Rucka.  He is outstanding as a writer in whatever form he chooses.  This is a great read and two strong issues to start out a book.

BDS 

Flashback Friday: Elektra Volume:2 EVERYTHING OLD IS NEW AGAIN

Getting back into the schedule I have picked a book that I grabbed to read this week.  Most of my trades are out in the new storage building.  This one missed the traveling.  I picked it up for less than five bucks if I remember correctly, at HeroesCon.  The reason was Elektra as a character and Greg Rucka as a writer.  I did not pick up this as a series.  It was just not what I had money for, but less than five bucks it made the buying cut.

The story is awesome.  Elektra was at the point in her life that she was sick of being violent.  It is a story of her coming to terms with the death that she has dealt over the years.  It is an enjoyable journey of a character that has had these stories written ad naseum.  Greg Rucka shows how he is at another level of writing here with these pages presented.

The only complaint is how the art shifts in the middle and then back to the type of art when we started reading.  I must say that in this formula of writing for the Trade it should be made a fast rule that art should be consistently similar throughout the story that we are given.  Here we have a very grounded and realistic form of art that for what seems to be about two issues becomes an exaggerated cartoonish style.  I thought it was ugly in comparison with the rest of the artwork.  It takes the reader out of the fantasy a bit.

It is a good trade that one should buy if they find it discounted like I did.  It is well worth it for the good story.

BDS

Perfect Dark Second Front

I found this book at the Used Bookstore the other day when I was taking stuff in for store credit.  I was aware of their being a follow up book after the first called Perfect Dark Initial Vector.  I really liked that book and found a graphic novel, Perfect Dark Janus Tears, which I have written about on the Blog.  So to find the continuation of Joanna Dark's adventures was a great surprise the other day.  I read it in about a day and a half.  I guess you could say I devoured the book.

That is a luxury you have when you are poor and part time in your job.  You have little money or time for many avenues of entertainment and long periods where you can just read.  The adventures in a world of hypercorporations is scary when you stop and think how close we are in the world to this type of reality.  Sci Fi has always been close to the truth of reality.  Into this world of computer and monetary connectedness stride Joanna Dark.  She was trained by her father to be the best weapon ever.  Now she is caught in between corporate heads and the children of the man she killed after the death of her father.  Vengeance and manipulation is an undercurrent that constantly moves this book.

The reader is always wondering if the allies Joanna has are really people she can trust as she moves ever forward.  Still, she walks her own line as other think they are guiding her actions.  There is gunfire and battles like nothing one would ever really think possible when you are dealing with corporate dealings.  The battle at the end is insane in more ways than one.  I wish there was a third book.  The book has unanswered questions about Joanna and her dad, her connection to the world she is loose in.  There is more than is being seen about her that would be nice to have a resolution to as a reader.

These books are great and entertaining reads.  One should seek them out.  Greg Rucka is one great novelist, maybe even better novelist than comicbook writer.

BDS

Perfect Dark: Janus' Tears

            Would the name Joanna Dark mean anything to you?  What about the name Perfect Dark?  The Gamers out there probably know that this is a video game.  I have never played it nor have I ever seen it played.  Still, I like the character of Joanna Dark who is the main person of this video game.  The interesting thing is that Greg Rucka did a novelization of the world of Perfect Dark and added flesh and blood to the heroine of the title.  I found the book for a $1 in a local thrift type store.  It is really great.  I loved the way we just step into the life of Joanna and then get a look at a possible future of America and the World.  The scary thing is that our real world is slowly becoming the corporation controlled place of Joanna’s reality.

            When at the Hickory Comic Con I made two purchases before leaving that were the highest single monies I spent that day.  Mainly I bought six dollar’s worth of fifty cent comics at a time.  The find that fits here is the purchase of a Perfect Dark Trade Paperback by Prima Games.  Ten bucks for what originally sold for $19.99 plus tax and I had a continuation of this character to read.  The story is by Eric Trautmann & Jason Carl.  Cold Fuzion Studios handled the art chores.  The complete title is “Perfect Dark:  Janus’ Tears” and the book came out in 2007.  Thanks to the sidebar I also know Greg Rucka wrote a second novel to be on the lookout for in the days ahead.

            This is a fast paced story that is filled with explosions and fighting galore.  Joanna is no shrinking violet and makes the television espionage characters of the past few years look tame.  She is a corporate agent for the Carrington Institute.  From what has been revealed so far in the mythology, they are the one corporation trying to keep the world safe from the others.  Joanna had been a bounty hunter trained by her father, a former cop.  He drilled a strong mindset of training that keeps her alive.  The only rule she has broken is the one about trust and getting close to people.

            She strives to be perfect.  Her level of expertise with all manner of weapons and stuff is staggering.  The artwork here is a good view of the detail placed on her character.  She tries to do what is right during a mission, but she will not hesitate to get down in the gutter if the need arises.  Still, here sense of decency always shines through.  The world she inhabits is accessible here for those aware of the entire back story and to those in the dark.

            I was thrilled to find this Trade and have read the story.  I still have the intro by Greg Rucka and the extras at the end to read.  I am glad I was able to get this book and hope some of you might get the chance to find it one day in your local library or for sale like I did.  Used bookstores would probably be the best place to start.  Good luck.

BDS