United States 67 - World Comic Book Review

Deviating from Quality

October 21, 2016March 18, 2016 by Neil Raymundo

Transformers: Deviations
IDW Publishing, 16 March 2016
Writer: Brandon Easton
Review by Neil Raymundo, 17 March 2016

Transformers: Deviations is a one-shot published by American comics publisher IDW Publishing as part of its March 2016 “Deviations” event, where the publisher takes existing titles and crafts standalone stories featuring alternate realities, either as a result of one aspect of the franchise being changed (such as gender-swapping a main character) or an important event happening differently. This is what IDW Publishing has done with its title, “Transformers: Deviations”.

Thriller (revisited): Burn the Oracle

May 31, 2022March 17, 2016 by DG Stewart

Thriller 1-8
Writer: Robert Loren Fleming
DC Comics, 1983

Review by DG Stewart, 16 March 2016.

The early 1980s is an interesting time to revisit in respect of prophetic visions. Science fiction writers like William Gibson, Robert Heinlein and others predicted the internet. Gibson also anticipated the rise of the importance of biotechnology. Politics and culture were more difficult to predict – Heinlein in his novel Friday mapped out the Balkanisation of the United States, and Gibson in Neuromancer followed the flock in respect of the inevitability of nuclear war, albeit one tactically confined to a German theatre. Samuel Huntington in his book The Clash of Civilisations and the Remaking of World Order (1996) noted that the antipathy between Christian-based civilisations and Muslim civilisation dates back centuries and vastly overshadows the ideological fight which had occurred (and by that stage concluded) between the West and the Communist bloc. But no writer in the 1980s, peering into the future, seriously considered the perils of xenophobic Islamism as a potential flashpoint. Except one.

In 1983 a talented writer named Robert Loren Fleming had an innovative concept about an extended family of highly usual people, set in the near future. It was entitled Thriller (and pre-dated American pop singer Michael Jackson’s music album of the same name by a month).

The Old Game

October 21, 2016March 9, 2016 by DG Stewart

Black Widow 1
Marvel Comics, May 2016
Writers: Chris Samnee and Mark Waid
Review by DG Stewart, 4 March 2016

In 2006 acclaimed British comic book writer Grant Morrison was engaged by American comic book publisher DC Comics to write a revival of the comic “The Authority”. This arrangement boded well: Mr Morrison is a very popular writer with a quirky and eclectic imagination, and “The Authority” had a cultish following and historically strong sales. But Mr Morrison wrote the comic as a “trade paperback”. A trade paperback is an aggregation of monthly series, usually a collection of a storyline laid out in four or five monthly issues of a title, or five consecutive issues forming part of a greater storyline. As a consequence, issue 1 of Mr Morrison’s version of “The Authority” was devoid of any action, and consisted of the narrative character engaging in such tedium as brushing his teeth. (The subsequent issues was also inexcusably late.) Mr Morrison was so disheartened by scathing reviews that he did not continue with the series. Mr Morrison had made the mistake of writing for the collection, and not for the individual issues.

The Beautiful Fools

October 21, 2016March 9, 2016 by DG Stewart

Bill and Ted Go To Hell 1 (of 4)
Writer: Brian Joines
Boom! Studios, February 2016
Review by DG Stewart, 2 March 2016

American film actor Keanu Reeves made his fame in two quirky films produced by US film company Interscope, entitled, respectively, “Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure” (1989) and “Bill and Ted’s Bogus Adventure” (1991). The two titular characters, using now very dated youth slang which would be incomprehensible to teenagers in 2016, formed a guitar rock band called “Wyld Stallyns”, the philosophy of which would very improbably become the foundation of a future utopia. In the two movies, the characters become romantically involved with two medieval princesses, are killed by evil robot versions of themselves, and travel backwards in time to meet, amongst others, Socrates, Napoleon Bonaparte, and Joan of Arc. This is accomplished with a combination of silliness and beguiling naivety. The movies were, at the time of initial distribution, simultaneously each an instant cult classic, as well as commercial successes. It is fair to say that the movies now generate nostalgia amongst those who grew up in the 1990s, and are impossibly incomprehensible to anyone born after that.