Two Out of Three Ain't Bad - A Look Back at Star Wars: Crimson Empire

This column normally takes a look at obscure comics. For every every sixth month, instead of taking a look at a comic that nobody talks about, this special edition will take a look at a comic I feel not enough people talk about.

                                                         

Star Wars: Crimson Empire by Mike Richardson, Randy Stradley and Paul Gulacy – 1998 – 2012

Contains Massive Spoilers

What's cooler than the Emperor’s Imperial Guard?

Crimson Empire was a mid-nineties Star Wars Expanded Universe comic following the exploits of Kir Kanos, last of the Imperial Guard. It was followed by a sequel in 1999, Council of Blood and after nearly a decade and a half, finally concluded in 2012 with Empire Lost. Crimson Empire is an all time classic, and Council of Blood, in my opinion anyway, manages to outdo even that. Empire Lost? Not so much. I'm going to take a look back at all three books, talk about what makes the first two so great in the face of their weaknesses, and why Empire Lost failed to escape it's own.

But first, a little history.

Crimson Empire was a follow up to Tom Veitch and Cam Kennedy's Dark Empire, one of Dark Horses' Star Wars mainstays at the time. Dark Empire was framed as the official continuation of the Skywalker saga, with a plot that saw the resurrection of the Emperor in a clone body, and Luke's flirtation with the Dark Side. It was well revived at the time, but fans clashed over Timothy Zahn's Thrawn Trilogy, which also framed itself as the official continuation of the Skywalker saga, albeit in a different way.

While Dark Empire and the Thrawn Trilogy don't directly contradict each other, and supposedly both slip into the EU time-line seamlessly, they do feel like they're from alternative universes. Dark Empire drew heavily from science-fantasy, with an anything-goes kind of attitude to the force that brought us talking trees and ancient tribes. Thrawn on the other hand was much more interested in the military aspect of the setting, exploring the politics of a post Return of the Jedi universe.

This was even reflected in the artwork, where Empire had a fantastical, almost concept-art inspired style to it, Thrawn's artwork was crisp and detailed, with every character, ship and blaster drawn like you were almost looking at stills from the films.

To put it bluntly, Dark Empire was interested in the Stars, and the Thrawn Trilogy more interested in the Wars.

I still prefer Dark Empire, but only by a very slim margin. In the end, it was Zahn's approach that won out, and the EU would embrace more detailed and coherent world-building instead of the kitchen sink approach, and do away with the more 'Space-fantasy' inspired aesthetics.

Out of this came Crimson Empire. While obstensively a follow up to Dark Empire, it has more in common with the Thrawn books. The artwork is crisp and brand loyal, and the story is concerned with the minutiae of the Imperial Guard's back-story.

And from this approach comes Crimson Empire's two most prominent characters, Kir Kanos and Mirith Sinn. Kanos is a gruff, brooding, reluctant anti-hero, Mirith is a smoking hot, red-headed femme-fatale with a dark past and a penchant for latex catsuits.

If you're a fan of the Star Wars EU, you'll probably notice those descriptions not only match that of Kyle Katarn and Mara Jade, but also a dozen other EU characters I could name. Despite feeling cool and expansive at the time, the Star Wars Expanded universe really suffered from a lot of it's writers having similar tastes, and as such is rotten with brooding badasses and sexy seductresses. Heck, if you only had a passing familiarity with the characters, you'd be mistaken for thinking that it is Mara Jade on the front cover of Council of Blood.

Now this didn't bother me at the time of course, but going by today standards it's easy to see Crimson Empire starting on the back-foot, with a bunch of character archetypes that are far too common even now. That Crimson Empire is still a classic, though, is because it shines through in spite of these limitations.

Crimson Empire's story is a fairly straightforward one, Carnor Jax, one of the Empire's last Imperial Guard, has manipulated his way to the throne by conspiring against the clone Emperor and killing off his compatriots. He didn't reckon, however, on his old sparring buddy Kir Kanos surviving. So Kanos teams up with the rebels in an 'enemy-of-my-enemy' alliance to finally bring Jax to justice.

It's a standard revenge plot used to info-dump some back-story about the Imperial Guard through flashback. Nothing particularly complex or new. Ultimately, it's safe to say that Crimson Empire has more style than substance.

But what style it has. From Jax's dark-lord design, to General Antilles Super Star Destroyer emblazoned with Rebel Alliance sigils, to the Emperor being overly polite to his prospective trainees while Vader berates them in a wonderful good-cop/bad-cop routine, to Jax and Kanos' final, issue-long duel, and Dave Dorman's amazing, amazing covers, there isn't a moment when pure style isn't just bleeding out of the page.

Stradely's artwork is just incredible, where even just a close up on some leather gloves can become visceral and vivid. If it wasn't for some incredibly unfortunate moments with Sinn's boobs I'd say the book had some of the best artwork of all time.

With a grim and uncompromising ending, Crimson Empire may not be the most original of stories, but the writing and artwork have such style that it burns itself into your memory like the burning Empire sigil on the cover. It's a book as cool and badass as the legendary Imperial Guard long deserved.

Of course there was no way a story as badass and memorable as Crimson Empire wouldn't be commissioned for a sequel. While Jax had been brought to justice, his conspirators on the Imperial Council still lived, and it would be up to Kanos to track them down and bring them to justice too.

It would have been easy for Council of Blood to simply repeat the revenge plot of Crimson Empire, but Richardson and Stradley had more loftier ambitions in mind. Council of Blood instead focuses more on showing us an Empire in decline, with the major villains of the Star Wars films now long gone and the rest slowly being undone by backstabbing and bureaucracy.

The whole experience has a great feeling to it. The Imperial's situation is reminiscent of a receding Eastern Roman Empire slowly becoming Byzantium. The story is chock full of characters with ulterior motives and goals, including the self appointed 'Emperor' Xandel Carivus, sleazy Hutt Grappa, the sympathetic ally Baron D'Asta and the first appearance of Nom Anor, herald of the Yuuzhan Vong.

Despite the story having a sharp focus along a closely nit series of plot-lines, the Star Wars world has never felt bigger, drawing inspiration from both the same hard science-fiction and pulp fantasies that the original films did. The Vong's presence here is particularity interesting, since Anor's intentions are never revealed within the comic itself, surrounding the character with an air of mystery and dread.

With this expanded focus, Council of Blood brings with it the depth that Crimson Empire lacked. The titular council is made up of believable and well rounded individuals with their own goals and motivations on display. Plus there are a lot of cool little details in how it serves as a companion piece to Crimson Empire, like how in the original Carnor Jax's elite guard were simply black armoured stormtroopers, exposing Jax's arrogance and pride at being that last of the 'true' Imperial Guard. Come Council of Blood, the fact that Carivus' own men do wear the red of the Imperial Guard slyly hints at his attempts to subvert the Imperial pecking order.

But if you thought that all these wider themes would mean that style would take a back seat you'd be sorely mistaken. This really shines through when it comes to the characters. Grappa is spiteful, petty and melodramatic in ways Jabba never was, and his Zanibar allies feel genuinely fucked-up frightening. Gulacy's art is even better this time around, and the space battles and combat really sing with intensity. It's everything you could possible want in a Star Wars comic and it fits nicely into six solid issues.

You might have noticed that I haven't mentioned either Kanos or Sinn in my praises for Council of Blood, and that's mainly due to the story being more of an ensemble piece. This is no bad thing though, Kanos and Sinn spend most of the plot being manipulated into place by other characters, and Kanos is at his best when he's just getting out his blade and cutting folks up as his bounty hunter alter-ego Kenix Kil.

Council of Blood wraps up nicely, if less spectacularly than Crimson Empire with Kanos flying off into the stars, still loyal to the dead Emperor. It would be a bittersweet and fine ending for most stories, but seeds were sown for a third in the trilogy, and the EU's tendency to reference and interconnect everything leaves the story in an odd place, with no mention of Kanos in the EU after his vow to kill Luke Skywalker.

I suspect Richardson and Stradley asked writers to hold off using Kanos in other stories, with the intent of concluding his story on their own terms. Kanos would show up, however, in a couple of short comics, though I've only read one, which deals with Kanos' time as a bounty hunter, and it doesn't really add anything to the main canon of the trilogy.

So Kanos would hang around in continuity limbo until 2012, and I was ecstatic to find out we'd get to see the end of his journey in Empire Lost. The hype only increased when I looked at the back of the book and saw what appeared to be him tussling with New Republic versions of the Senate Guard from the Prequel Trilogy.

“Cool,” I thought, “It looks like Kanos is going to be doing battle with his metaphorical successors. That's interesting, resonant and a symbolic way to round off the trilogy.”

As it turns out, these guys never actually show up in the comic.

The moment you open the book something just feels... off. Gulacy's art, once the shining star of the series, looks awful here. I'm not sure if the problem is Gulacy doing his own inks this time around or if Michael Bartolo's digital colours are a bad fit for his style, but the whole thing is a mess. The characters look wooden, stiff and uncanny. There are some seriously questionable panel compositions that look melodramatic and comical, but overall the art is just bad, bad, bad.

The disappointments wouldn't stop there though, because the problems of the 90's era EU would finally be coming home to roost.

A few pages in we're finally reunited with Kanos, who looks more like Commander Shepard from Mass Effect here, and this only cements my lack of enthusiasm.

See, I could go on an extremely long rant about how the default male option from a sci-fi RPG saga represents everything wrong with the diversity of character we have in storytelling today, but it'd take me too long. So let me put it like this:

When I started reading Empire Lost, I expected seeing Kanos again would be like coming home to an old friend. Like slipping on a comfortable old jacket. But after years of characters like John Shepard, Marcus Fenix, Kyle Katarn, Alex Mason, Christian Walker, latter day John McClain, Bill Roenick and many, many other gruff, brooding white guys, Kanos just didn't hold any appeal for me any more. It's like going back to the old café you used to get breakfasts from as a kid and realising that the breakfasts don't taste all that different from the millions you've eaten at Denny's.

This wouldn't be too bad if Empire Lost handled Kanos like Council of Blood did, but this is the character's swan song, so it's got to give an emotionally satisfying ending to what feels more like a collection of tropes in armour than an actual character.

Empire Lost's biggest problem of all is the weird intersection it sits between the original Star Wars Trilogy, the Prequel Trilogy, the 90's EU and the 00's EU, all of which have their own themes and aesthetics that struggle against each other.

This is most prominently seen in the use of Luke, Leia and Han. In Crimson Empire and Council of Blood, the Skywalker clan never appear, spoken only of in hushed whispers. This gave them a mythical sort of status that loomed large over Kanos' street-level adventures. Seeing Kanos and Sinn interact face to face with Luke and Leia just kind of feels at odds with the story Crimson Empire wants to tell. Mirith Sinn dressed in a leather fetish catsuit standing next to Carrie Fisher as classic Leia can't really get any weirder.

There's loads of other issues like this. Prolonged foreshadowing to the New Jedi Order series sits awkwardly in the plot. Boba Fett shows up to confront Kanos, which should have led to an awesome showdown, but instead only serves as a pointless cameo. Having a rogue Imperial fleet using Prequel-Era ships sounds like a cool idea, but seems to serve no more purpose than the Fett cameo. Finally, all references to the Dark Empire series have been dropped in favour of nods to the Thrawn saga instead.

All this clutter leads to Empire Lost lacking an identity of its own, when it's preceding books both had a strong unity of vision. It's a shame too, because Empire Lost is filled with good ideas. The main villain, Devin was a former assassin for the Emperor, and his back-story is a mirror to Kanos'. However, Devin is just kind of pulled out of nowhere with little foreshadowing, and fails to serve as the 'Evil Kanos' that the plot needs him to be.

Still, there are moments where that familiar style still shines through. The first panel we see Kanos back in full regalia sent a shiver down my spine, and the final battle between the classic Imperials and Devin's prequel-era splinter group is a great thing to behold. Another nice detail I like is Han and Leia's war weariness and their optimistic relief that an end to the conflict is finally in sight. This is kind of sad in light of where the Star Wars galaxy was to go after the story's conclusion.

Even so, the whole book fails as a satisfying ending for Kanos. The original Crimson Empire was framed as a tragedy. A story of a good man bound by a code of honour that drives him to acts of violence in the name of an evil regime. If ever there was to be a fitting end to Kanos' tale, it should have been his own death, by his own hand, or in a final misguided confrontation with Luke.

Instead, we get Kanos' redemption. Now don't get me wrong, I would still have been happy with Kanos turning from the Emperor and renouncing his original vows if it was written well, but in Empire Lost this all happens far too quickly and easily. Where the previous books hinted at Kanos' doubts, he still had a ways to go at the end of Council of Blood. Here though? It just takes one conversation with Devin for Kanos to throw down his arms and turn to the New Republic. It doesn't feel earned, and smacks more of a reluctance to tell a more daring tale.

In the end, Empire Lost just sleepwalks along to a conclusion. While it is interesting to see the Republic win the battle that finally closes the book on Palpatine's Empire, it could have been so much more solid than this. The demands of Empire Lost to serve as a satisfying conclusion were much higher than that of both Crimson Empire and Council of Blood, and it misses the mark horribly. I can't even say that the art saves it.

I don't know if I'd have been happier without Empire Lost. On the one hand it's nice to finally find out just what happened to Kir Kanos and Mirith Sinn, but soon enough the new mandate from Disney hitting the continuity reboot button would render that little titbit mostly irrelevant anyway.

Still, in the words of Meatloaf, two out of three ain't bad. The entire Crimson Empire saga has been re-released by Marvel now, and it's well worth the entire package. So what if Empire Lost is a disappointing ending? Crimson Empire and Council of Blood still stand up well today, and that's worth any trade off in my opinion.

Crimson Empire is a mixed bag in every respect, but the good outweighs the negatives so much that I still think they're some of the best Star Wars comics ever written. Maybe one day we'll see a retelling of the saga in the new Marvel continuity (now there's an idea to play around with), but until then, if you want to see a gripping tale where the legendary Imperial Guard are rendered as power-armoured space-ninjas, then Crimson Empire's got your back.

                                                     

Jack Harvey 2017. Star Wars: Crimson Empire is (c) Disney/Marvel/Dark Horse where appropriate. Images used under fair use.

Obscure Comic of the Month - Eve: True Stories

Obscure Comic of the Month takes a detailed look at a little known entry from my personal comic book collection. Some will be from major publishers, others self published projects, Original Graphic Novels, issues and Manga. What they'll all have in common though, is that I've rarely, if ever, seen anybody talk about them.

                                                    

Eve: True Stories by Daniel Way, Tomm Coker, Alejandro Aragon, Federico Dallocchoi and Daniel Warren Johnson – Dark Horse Comics 2014.

Contains Spoilers

In the early hours of February 5, 2009, one man single-handedly destroyed the powerful Band of Brothers alliance and brought an end to the largest war the sci-fi universe of Eve Online had ever seen. Writer Daniel Way and artists Tomm Coker, Alejandro Aragon, Federico Dallocchoi and Daniel Warren Johnson tell a stranger-than-fiction tale inspired by actual player-driven events from the first decade of Eve Online!

Eve: True Stories is probably the worst comic I've ever read.

Maybe that's why I never see anyone talk about it.

In case you've been living under a rock for the last ten years, I'll quickly introduce the appeal of Eve Online. Most MMO games like World of Warcraft take place in what is essentially a glorified theme park. A place where you and your friends can go and experience pre-made, pre-generated stories in an unchanging world. The world of Eve, however, is almost entirely user-run. This means that all your jobs, quests, events and adventures are motivated by real people with actual in-game stakes involved.

This has led to some fascinating events over the last few years, with greed and clashing egos leading to re-drawing of borderlines and ripples through the in-game economy. For a good report of this kind of thing, I highly recommend Rock Paper Shotgun's report on the recent bloodbath.

Naturally, there's a lot about the Eve world that appeals to me, but alas, I've never had the time to invest. So I was thrilled to hear that Dark Horse was planning on adapting some of these events to the format of my chosen medium. Comics! What a great idea!

What a great idea indeed.

Right from the get go, this comic has problems. Though we cut straight to the action, no time is taken to introduce the setting. No clarification is given to the political climate or what exactly it is these factions are fighting over. Terminology and lore gets thrown about with little to no clarification. We hear talk of 'stargates' and 'modules' but never told the scope or importance of these things.

And the visuals fare no better. The space battles are cluttered, chaotic affairs. It's difficult to really tell what's going on, and while I'm sure the ships are accurate representations of how they appear in the game, there's no clear design style to clue us in to who is who. Ships clash without any real idea which side is which or what their goal is.

A Band of Brothers board meeting sequence attempts to serve as the set up for the story, but fails to really clarify anything. Is the Band a governmental body? A coalition? Are Goonswarm a rival kingdom or merely pirates? All this information is readily available online, true, but the flow of the story is ruined by how much the writers assume we already know.

Both the design and personality of the cast lacks clarity. Again, it's difficult keeping track of who is who, especially as this tale involves secret identities. After this brief set-up we're back to the space battles again, and the plot is quickly lost amongst the chaos.

This comic has such lofty ambitions. It wants to be Game of Thrones, House of Cards, Breaking Bad, and all based on REAL EVENTS! Yet it crams in all these twists and turns and double-crosses so fast that you can't take it in, that's even if you find time to care at all.

I'm never given a reason to care or question what happens to the Band of Brothers. I get no joy at watching The Mittani manipulate the players because I have no sense of what drives him. There's no satisfaction in watching Kasimar be outsmarted because I'm never given a reason to want it.

 

Haargoth lacks motivation as a protagonist. Kasimir's personality is all over the place. The reveal that The Mittani was watching the whole time falls flat because no time is spent investing in him. The plot trundles along weightlessly.

On top of that, each issue changes artist. While this isn't an uncommon practice for big publishers, this is the worst example of it I've seen. Keeping track of characters and factions is made all the more difficult due to several art-shifts over the course of the plot.

The writing too seems to be unclear on what tone it wants to take. One scene in particular really stuck with me when I first read it. Near the end, as Haargoth pulls off his double-cross, Kasimar, in a rage, grabs a female comms-officer by the throat and proceeds to throttle her. Her face swells, and tears run down her cheeks. In the next panel he slams her head violently onto a computer screen. 

The whole scene is uncomfortable, and I have to question it's purpose. Is it to make us hate Kasimar? It it to give the reader a reason to root for Goonswarm? If it is, it's too little too late, but the decision to do that through violence against women is... troubling. I don't know if Way's work normally has any subconscious misogynist undertones, but the fact that the only other significant women in the comic are a waitress in a form fitting dress and a background sidekick leads me to wonder.

Likewise, the sexy spy-catsuit lady on the cover of the book is nowhere to be seen.

The story ends abruptly, with no epilogue or clarity on the scale of the outcome. It's a stale, sterile comic. It's grim, but with little grit behind it. It's 'real' without any sense of reality. It's probably the worst comic I've ever read.

So what happened? Dark Horse is usually competent when it comes to video game spin-offs. The whole thing smells of a rush job to me. Condensing such complex source material to three issues was the biggest mistake. Re-framing the whole thing as a rollicking space adventure rather defeats the point.

Shoving a bunch of separate artists on the job says to me that Dark Horse had no confidence in the project. Daniel Way didn't seem to have his heart in it either. It's a shame, because these Eve Online tales deserve better. Just have another read of that RPS article as your proof that these tales can be re-told in a clear and understandable way. Dark Horse should have given it the time and focus it needed.

Instead we're left with this mess. A forgotten and half remembered comic that nobody seems to have a good thing to say about, least of all me.

                                                             

Jack Harvey 2016. Eve True Stories (c) 2014 Dark Horse Comics. Eve Online (c) CCP. Images used under Fair Use.

Correction One of...

When you start writing about stuff on a regular basis you're bound to make mistakes, miss important information or just not have access to certain facts. So here is the first of what hopefully won't be too many corrections.

In my piece on Maxwell Strangewell, I noted that I hadn't seen The Fillbach Brothers produce anything since 2009. Well, the Brothers themselves got in touch to let me know that they've actually been working on several books under First Comics (Who coincidently also released Necessary Monsters, a book I'll be taking a look at in a future column.). I also said that Strangewell was a good foundation to build on, so Cadaver Dogs of Winter and Lives look like particular stand outs.

Thanks for that guys, I'll be sure to check those out, and I encourage my readers to do so too.

In other news, that important thing I mentioned won't be much longer I swear.

Obscure Comic of the Month - Maxwell Strangewell

This is the first of a monthly feature which takes a detailed look at an obscure entry from my personal comic book collection. Some will be from major publishers, others self published projects, Original Graphic Novels, issues and Manga. What they'll all have in common though, is that I've rarely, if ever, seen anybody talk about them.

                                                              

Maxwell Strangewell by The Fillbach Brothers – Dark Horse Books 2007

Contains minor spoilers for the first third of the book.

Photographer Anna Gilmour discovers a ten-foot-tall alien immediately after his fall to earth. He can't speak, but communicates through telepathic empathy, and Anna introduces him to her father as “Max.” Their home is soon beset by a sea of beatific Tibetan monks, alien assassins in disguise, and heavy weapons fire! Max might not know who he is, but a lot of others sure seem to. Before the final act, Anna and Max encounter a prophecy, the man in the moon, an entire race of alien accountants, and the Revolver - an innocuous-looking jogger responsible for keeping the world spinning.

I first picked up Maxwell Strangewell during my final year of university. It was around this time that I had finally decided to take my interest in comics seriously. To really explore the medium I'd fallen in love with. Up to this point I'd only really experienced Cape Comics, 2000ad and a few Vertigo titles.

I really wanted to explore further afield, didn't really have a starting point. Instead, exploring further afield mostly meant digging through the indy section of Worlds Apart Liverpool and going with my gut. Maxwell Strangewell was a promising prospect; a standalone story by creators I'd never heard of. Even better, it was about the size of the Alien vs Predator anthology I was buying at the same time, but twice as cheap.

It was a joy to read, and once I finished it all I could think was “Why does nobody ever talk about this? Why does nobody know about Maxwell Strangewell?”

It's been years now, and I never found my answer. But my repertoire of graphic storytelling has grown exponentially since then. It's hard to look back at something like Maxwell Strangewell without wondering if it's all rose tinted glasses now. That's what made me pick for the first of this series of columns.

So what of the book itself? Well, our first page starts with a quote by Robert Frost. Yes, it is that one about the road not travelled. So far, so predicable. Softening the blow is another quote, this time by Douglas Adams. It's fitting that the book should start with an Adams quote, considering how reminiscent the story is of The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy. The book owes a great deal to Adams, being a spiritual successor of sorts. It's not the only influence though. The story opens immediately with an homage to the light tunnel scene from 2001: A Space Odyssey.

It's interesting how quickly the story hits the ground running with it's fantastical elements. Anna finds Max, (A character that seems to be one part Morpheus from Gaiman's Sandman and one part David Bowie's The Man Who Fell to Earth.) and she and her father immediately accept that he is an extra-terrestrial. It's refreshing, and a good thing too, since the story has a lot of diverging plot lines to get through. Doing the whole ET thing would have stifled the story's momentum.

Before long the plot follows Anna and a pair of monks on their way to find out what Max really is as a bunch of evil alien factions fight to obtain his power. Anna's dad is separated from her and instead teams up with rogue FBI agent Jerkins and a moon man. There's a lot of plot going on at any given time, but each is following it's own thread, so never feels overcomplicated. It also gives you more bang for your buck. You can never get bored since it'll jump from one thing to the next before you get the chance.

Let's talk characters. Max's design is a little uninspired to be honest, but he's more of a mobile MacGuffin than anything else. Ironically this makes him the least interesting part of the cast. During an early part of the story, he's flipping through TV channels, reacting to different visuals. He reacts badly to Adolf Hitler, and fondly to Charlie Chaplin. The duality is notable, but decidedly non-committal.

It's hardly interesting to see a character react unfavourably to Adolf Hitler of all people. What would Max have thought of George Bush I wonder? (He would have been in office at the time remember?). Indeed, the whole story lacks any kind of strong moral or allegorical statement, instead leaving us with a generic 'love everyone message'. That's not necessarily a bad thing, but with a story that owes so much to writers like Douglas Adams, it certainly takes the bite out of it.

Anna too is pretty much white bread. She's the nicest character in the cast, and her arc mainly consists of getting over her mother's death. Pretty much all the characters are archetypes, but that's okay, it serves the humour and the visuals. There are a few weak links as a result though.

Two characters, Jerkins and Ringo, are cut from the same cloth. They're both 'no nonsense badasses who need to get over themselves'. I think it's worth noting that there's a bit of gay subtext between Ringo and his partner Phelp. They're represented as nothing more than 'buds' in the story, and I don't think they were supposed to be read as gay, but it's a massive oversight that could have helped differentiate Ringo from Jerkins more. There are a lot of moments like this. Missed opportunities that could have added a more interesting dynamic to the characters.

Easily the best character is Lobscrum, the tiny, one eyed, foul mouthed alien pilgrim. He's mostly there for comic relief, but damn it if the comic isn't worth reading for Lobscrum alone.

The plot has a lot of high concept stuff going on. It's about coming to terms with death, mostly, but also about the nature of love, greed, pettiness and war. It's no massive philosophical text, but it wants to speak about higher truths in, once again, the same way Douglas Adams did.

It's mostly successful at it too, having an almost filmic quality to the work. (The Fillbach brothers are credited as 'directors' at the end.) The art is clean, functional, and expressive. It's perfect for the story being told and it reminds me a lot of Paul Grist and a lot of 2000ad Future Shocks. The artwork alone gives you a whole cavalcade of wild and interesting aliens. Not a single page is wasted, each giving you something a new and mind boggling spectacle of alien ships and weird dimensions.

I'm happy to say it is still a joy to read. And it's ending hit me in exactly the same way it did all those years ago.

Why then, is Maxwell Strangewell not regarded as a modern classic?

Maxwell Strangewell was published under Dark Horse Books, not Dark Horse Comics, which probably meant it didn't get the promotion you'd otherwise expect. The Fillbach Brothers have a fairly small back catalogue and haven't produced anything since 2009. It sucks, because Maxwell Strangewell feels like a great foundation to build from. Maybe they'll surface again with something that does, who knows.

The answer is simple in hindsight. Maxwell Strangewell is a great comic, but there's just nothing that interesting about it. It lacks a central conceit with which to make it noteworthy. It owes too much to Douglas Adams, and it doesn't do anything to build on that inspiration.

Maxwell Stangewell is a book I love. I'd never sell it, and I'll likely revisit it again in years to come. But it's a book that truly struggles to find an identity and stand out. Why talk about Maxwell Strangewell, when there are so many wilder, greater, weirder comics out there?

It's an obscure classic. No more, no less.

                                                                 

Jack Harvey 2015. Maxwell Strangewell (c) 2007 Matthew Fillbach and Sean Fillbach. Images used under Fair Use.

Of New York Comic Con 2014

 

 

This year marked the third time I have visited the great New York comic convention. As always it was well organised, easy to get around, and had a great roster of events (coincidently I spoke to several people who have done San Diego in the past, and stated they much prefer the New York con).

I had a great time, met some people I admire and grabbed a lot of swag (my wallet hurts). However, this time I have decided to write a summary of some of the news and announcements that broke at the con. It bulks out my blog and is good practice if I want to write more about this kind of stuff in the future.

So, in the name of amateur journalism, here is the scoop.

• 2000ad Panel and Booth: Not much big news broke this year but it has been made clear that there is a lot of IDW stuff scheduled for future release. I also had a few words with the 2000ad staffers about the possibility of releasing the complete Friday era Rogue Trooper strips, since the first book, The War Machine, has just come out. They say there's no plans at the moment, but it's a possibility, and then I begged them. I have no shame. Also, I won a Judge Dredd badge from a Dredd off at the panel. I am the law.
• Image Booth: For some reason the next volume of Mind the Gap isn't out until next year. Couldn't find out why though. Also, despite Nowhere Men volume 1 being a volume 1, there are no future releases of that title planned. Odd. At least we have Rat Queens next month though.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• Ron Pearlman: Big Ron was there plugging his autobiography, Easy Street, which is a very personal work, and it was clear he put a lot of his heart into it. He talked at length about emotional struggles in his youth, working with Del Toro, The Name of the Rose, and Fallout. Looks like an interesting read, Ron asked that you pick it up retail full price so he gets more moolah out of it.
• Dark Horse Comics: Dark Horse are planning an Aliens – Prometheus – Predator – AVP cross through series and by golly does it look fucking amazing. The creative team is pretty tight and want to emphasise a greater focus on horror than action. It certainly harkens back to Dark Horse's golden age of Alien comics. A particular highlight is the Predator series, following an Ahab like Predator in search of his white whale.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• Star Wars Rebels - Episode 1 Screening: I've never really had a liking for the Star Wars animated series. Generally speaking the art style just rubs me up the wrong way and Rebels is no difference. That being said, it's a real thrill to see classic Stormtroopers and Tie Fighters in action again, and the villain, The Inquisitor, is spectacular. I'm not really warming to the main character though. The whole 'brash Jedi apprentice who needs to get over himself' is a story we've seen done to death over the years, and the rest of the main cast are far more interesting. We'll see how if pans out.
• Constantine Pilot Screening: I was prepared to be disappointed but I can tell you now that I can't wait for this series in full. Matt Ryan absolutely nails is as John, and he really feels like the character has been lifted out of the comics. The show manages to incorporate the punky chaotic vibes of Hellblazer and it certainly gets off to a good start. It's far from perfect of course, and I was a tad annoyed that they've decided to make Chaz American in this adaptation, but overall the jobs a good un'. In the after show panel Goyer revealed that they'd be adapting several of the classic story arcs (Dangerous Habits, yessssss) as well as incorporating some of the supernatural stuff from the DCU proper, which should make for an interesting hybrid. I find Goyer can come across as a bit of a prick sometimes, but he certainly seems to understand what he needs to do here, so colour me optimistic.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• Killing Floor 2 First Look – I never really played much of the original Killing Floor, it was an enjoyable but frustratingly amateurish romp through a bunch of maps. KF2 polishes the game up in places, and the Unreal engine has never looked so good. The new close combat system is really charming, little things like drawing your sword counting as an attack against enemies really help it stand out from the crowd. Beyond that, the team are adding more maps and more perks, so it looks as though there's not going to be too much change to the formula. Expect a business as usual wave shooter with some new toys to play through it with. Sometimes, that's all you need to do.

And that's about that. I may revisit some more areas in detail further down the line (particularly Constantine), but for now that's all the scoop I gathered in between buying t-shirts and prints. So, see you next year I guess?

Get Mad: Why Its okay to be Angry

We've all been there. Something pisses us off, we complain about it and then someone else says we shouldn't complain and instead should give thanks for being so fortunate. Don't like the food? Be happy you've got food, some parts of the world they'd kill for what you've got. Dad messing up your plans by insisting you give him a lift into town? He's been chauffeuring you around all your life, show some fucking gratitude.

It gets brought up a lot. First world problems some people call it, to suggest that you shouldn't complain about trivial little things when there are people fighting for survival. They wouldn't even be able to conceive why you'd think something like that was an issue. You've got a roof over your head, money in the bank, and food in the cupboard, why the hell are you getting so worked up about the possibility that the new Star Wars films are going to disregard the expanded universe painted by its spin offs?

My name is Jack Harvey, I'm angry that the new Star Wars films are going to disregard its expanded universe. I get angry about a lot of trivial little things, and I'm going to tell you why thats okay.

A little background for this first example, but I'll get through this as quick as I can. George Lucas originally planned the Star Wars series to be nine films. The initial trilogy, the prequels and a follow up. After the original trilogy his creative process kind of got bogged down by turning the whole thing into a media empire, hence it wasn't till many decades later that we got to see the prequels. After years of tinkering, critical displacement and fan backlash Lucas was pretty much done with the Hollywood machine, handing the whole thing over to Disney and moving on to smaller projects/and or retiring, and who could blame him?

Star Wars was always bigger than the films though, and during all this many great, and not so great, writers fleshed out Lucas' world in ways the films couldn't even attempt to cover. As a result, the further adventures of Luke and co has been told in depth by the books, comics and games. There are plenty of sources online where you can find a detailed break down of events, but I'll run through how the story unfolds real quick. Sorry for the info dump and do bear in mind light spoilers are in effect.

After the fall of the empire Luke Skywalker essentially sets about bringing back the Jedi order, while Leia, Han, Chewie and a cavalcade of side characters go about bringing the rest of the galaxy together. This does not run smoothly, at all. Luke ends up flirting whith the dark side thanks to the Emperor having a bunch of back up clone bodies. After that they have to deal with the remnants of the empire still causing trouble, namely this blue skinned badass called Admiral Thrawn. Along the way Luke meets this choice babe (literally the best way of describing the character) called Mara Jade who he falls in love with.

So numerous adventures and escapades continue over the years. Leia and Han have kids, Luke and Mara have kids, the republic is on the up and up, the Jedi comes back. Everyone lives happily ever after right?

No. This is when the shit hits the fan and everything goes batshit crazy.

The whole universe essentially gets invaded by a bunch of sado-masochistic fascist aliens. Oh, and they're not affected by the force either so forget about all that. They basically turn up like the Romans in Gaul, forcing the republic and the empire and finally put aside their differences and set up a galactic alliance. Characters die, planets explode, kids turn over to the dark side and you can never go back.

Then a century later we follow the adventures of Luke's junkie descendant being used as a pawn in a Game of Thrones style civil war.

Thats pretty much the gist of it, and theres other great stuff like Jedi space truckers, rogue imperial guards and Boba Fett being Boba Fett.

So naturally, when they announce the new films I think “Oh man, I hope they don't plan on contradicting all the comics and games and books with the new films!”. Yet, lo and behold, Abrams and co come along and say they're not to concerned about trying to stick to the boundaries of the spin offs. When I hear this, I get mad. Real mad. Boycott Mad.

Now fair play to the new films, there is a logic in this. If you have the time I suggest you take a look at Bob “Moviebob” Chipman's justification. He's a pretty clever guy, if you're not following him, you should be. The video is about five minutes long, its okay, I'll wait.

TheBig Picture – Contunuity Wars

Done? Good. Now Bob sums it up pretty well there. Trying to accommodate the expanded universe would be logistical suicide, and it would also stifle the new team's freedom, maybe even preventing them from creating something truly great. It makes no sense in getting mad over it right?

Wrong.

I got mad, I'm still mad to a degree. I understand why they're doing it but I still won't be happy. Why? Because I'm human. Because It's my basic human right to want something. Because I don't want to go and see a Star Wars film which goes; “Remember Mara Jade? Tough, she doesn't exist any more, now watch Luke fall in love with some other woman. Remember how Boba Fett came back from the dead? Tough, he's dead again. Remember the Vong invasion?” etc etc.

It's selfish sure, but hey, why can't we be a little selfish now and again? This Star Wars film isn't for me, it isn't for die hards who have obsessed over the spin offs for years on end. The new Star Wars is for new viewers and fans who never went much further than the films. When it's put that way, why wouldn't it be justified to be just a little bit pissed off?

See this is just one example, there are many other little things that piss me off in the worlds of film, TV, games and comics. I get mad when games drop certain characters to cameo levels in sequels. I get mad when a film of a comic changes something for one reason or another. I get mad when a certain part of the fanbase gets favored over me. I get mad when comics reboot back to the start and throw out the things I liked. I get mad and that's okay.

Why was Kelly Chambers relegated to such a tiny role in Mass Effect 3? I get why Pepper and Tony get together in the films, it makes sense in the context of the story, but damn it I always loved Pepper and Happy as a couple. I'm an old skool (sic) Doctor Who fan and I never liked Rose Tyler, so it makes me fucking rage whenever she's treated as THE MOST IMPORTANT COMPANION. Also I don't like it when the Doctor kisses people. Never ever ever talk to me about the Power Girl comics coming to an end and then being restarted without bringing back Terra. I cry myself to sleep about that sometimes.

Every one of those examples has a good reason why it was done, but that still doesn't make things easier. I'm still angry. I'm still angry about a lot of those things. I'm sure you can think of a lot of examples for yourself, and upon bringing it up with a friend get told; “Well they had to do it that way,” or “It makes sense that they did that though,” or “They're a business, they exist to make money,”. You can concede defeat, shrug your shoulders and accept that argument and try to repress the rage.

I'm here today to tell you that you don't have to.

No matter how trivial, no matter how pointless, no matter what arguments there are to the contrary, It is your human right to feel this way. If someone tries to talk you down, argue your point. Get online and let the world know what you think. Stand on the rooftops and shout it to the heavens. You are angry about something, you have a right to let that be known. You deserve to feel that way.

Now, before you say that this attitude is going to cause a toxic atmosphere lets put it into a bit of perspective. Just because you have the right to get mad, doesn't mean you have the right to take it out on others, nor should it give you a sense of entitlement that everything should be your way all the time. Its your opinion, there is no right or wrong answer. Remember the first law of the internet:

I don't like Rose Tyler, but in no way does this reflect my opinion of Billie Piper, who I'm sure is a wonderful person and has done some great stuff over the years. Put me up against a Rose Tyler fan and I'll explain why I feel this way but I won't think that I'm a better person than they are, or think that it gives me an excuse to call them a moron or an idiot.

Remember, you have a right to get mad. You don't have the right to be a dick about it.

Getting angry should provoke debate, it should seek to create discussion. Getting mad should ultimately lead to refining the art form into something enjoyed by everybody. It's an important part of the evolutionarily process of popular culture. Raging can lead to pointing out flaws that others may not have previously noticed. Anger shouldn't stifle creativity, it should encourage it.

And sometimes it can change things. Another example; 2012 saw the release of Mass Effect 3, the final installment of a computer/video game series which garnered a dedicated fan base due to its detailed focus on the relationships between the main character and the game's cast, through romance, friendships and rivalries. The series is pretty damn solid, the storyline is hardly the most original but the characters and setting really drew you in. It created a hell of a lot of emotional investment with its players, who would later go on to be some of the most dedicated fans you'd ever see.

And the ending did not go down well. At. All.

ME3's ending has a lot of problems and different people tend to have different opinions on why. Minor spoilers in effect, many felt that it was too grim in comparison with the optimism shown in the rest of the series. Some felt it was too brief for a game that, up until this point, spent so much time making you face the consequences of your actions. Some just wanted blue alien space babies.

For my money, the endings real fault is that it doesn't match the tone and themes that were the focus of the games. It's as if you went to watch Star Trek with the last five minutes of Blade Runner. Up until that point you were watching a campy sci-fi actioner and all of a sudden you're being asked to meditate on what it really means to be human, what it really means to have a soul. It comes out of nowhere, It really does feel like somebody got the script mixed up with something else.

So many, myself included, got mad. We discussed why we got mad and word spread so fast and so loud that the writers had to go back and release a DLC to 'fix' the ending. I'm still not sure if caving was the right thing to do, or if the writers should have stuck to their guns. Plus the DLC didn't really change that much, just elevated it from 'bad' to 'acceptable', but it goes to show that when people get mad other people listen. Were they acting like a bunch of entitled little shits? Maybe, but when you've got a billion people acting like entitled little shits it gets you to thinking that maybe they have a point.

Getting mad can do good in many ways. You may think it pointless being pissed off about one little thing in a video game that only you seem to care about, but hey, that guy in the pub you were talking to about it may one day go on to be a video game developer, and he may remember what you said and think; “Is this action justified or is it just going to piss people off?”. You could be sitting there moaning about this or that change to a character in a comic book film and this might be overheard by someone who one day goes to work on a comic book adaption and say; “We need to keep this character the way they are in the comic, it's just going to piss fans off if you change it.”

And it can run deeper than that. I'm pissed off that every book, film and game I pick up these days seems to star white heterosexual male. Gimmie a change guys. As someone who wants to get into writing, I make it a conscious choice to create a protagonist who doesn't fit this mold. Why would I want to write about a white heterosexual male? There are plenty of good stories out there about those characters already.

And people will say to you; “If only you could get as passionate about important things instead of your stupid hobby,” well screw them because who's to say you won't? You've had the practice, one day you might really want to make a difference about something important. It could be about the poor treatment of migrant workers, or womens rights, or poverty or the cure for cancer. Remember that time you got so angry that you got a video game company to admit they were wrong and change the ending of a game? You've had the practice, one day, those skills might really come in handy.

Get angry. It may seem selfish, it may seem childish, but it's your right, and one day you might do something good with it.

In closing, here is an abridged list of trivial (and some less trivial) things that I'm angry about:

The new Star Wars films are going to disregard the expanded universe.

Kelly Chambers having such a tiny role in Mass Effect 3 and not getting a proper romance

Jack not being an f/f romance in Mass Effect 2.

Morrigan not being an f/f romance in Dragon Age.

DC finishing the Power Girl series and then restarting it without Terra as a character.

The Doctor having lots of romantic interests in Doctor Who.

Pretty much anything Games Workshop does.

Allicorn Twilight.

People who insist a humanized Twilight can't have a dark complexion.

Default male Shepard being the focus of all the marketing for the Mass Effect series.

Male Shepard being the intended protagonist of a proposed Mass Effect film.

People who read manga but refuse to even touch a comic book.

When western properties make an official anime spin off film when the style is unsuitable.

That there are never major gay characters (barring a few exceptions) in anything Star Wars related.

Superman and Wonder Woman being in a relationship when they have never had any chemistry.

Changing the ending of the Surrogates film.

Rose Tyler.

That Native American Indians never get to star in anything outside westerns.

Jonny Depp is playing Tonto.

That the Drive-By Truckers aren't bigger.

That Laurie J Marks' Elemental Logic series is so obscure.

Fans of Doctor Who who have no intention of watching any of the original series.

That Paul McGann never got a Doctor Who series.

Unreal Tournament 3 losing everything that made the series great to work on better graphics in a game where nobody cares about graphics.

The lack of Planescape: Torment fan art.

Brian Blessed not being cast as Odin in Thor.

DRM.

No development on Half Life 3.

The new Command and Conquer not having a single player mode.

That nobody makes traditionally animated films anymore.

That they changed Deadpool's character completely in X:Men Origins: Wolverine.

That nobody makes expansion packs any more.

That Dark Messiah never got a sequel.

The affinity system in Dragons Dogma.

Despite the success of The Avengers people still keep fucking up superhero adaptions.

It taking a year for each Game of Thrones season coming out on DVD.

Adventure Time and Regular Show not being out on DVD in the UK.

The IDW Dungeons and Dragons comic being canceled.

4^th Edition Dungeons and Dragons rules.

Tieflings in 4^th Edition Dungeons and Dragons.