External Linkage

Yep, there's the rest of it. Coverage for the Trinity of Terrors is up, including reviews for four movies, including the already posted Survival of the Dead.

http://www.brutalashell.com/2009/11/weekend-wrap-up-fangorias-trinity-of-terrors/

External Linkage

Review for Surival of the Dead, George A Romero's newest, up at BrutalasHell.com. Get ready for a heartache. Aw, shit, you're used to this by now.

http://www.brutalashell.com/2009/11/film-review-survival-of-the-dead/

I expect the rest of the con's info to follow.

(Images courtesy mPRm)

Sweet Christmas!

A quick venting:

I was contemplating today, Powerman and Iron Fist.

This thought process was brought on, I should add, by the forthcoming Heroclix set, Hammer of Thor. I'm excited as Hell to see Heroclix return after a one-year hiatus and changing of corporate masters. Even though Thor isn't exactly my bag, new clix, new excuses to hang out with my nerdy compatriots... delicious. Thinking of team concepts, I began to ponder how awesome Iron Fist is in that game, and how great he and Luke are together on their Heroes for Hire piece... but how poor Luke is on his own.

Furthermore, I started thinking about how much I like Iron Fist as a concept, even if his book has never been consistently worth buying. The white guy learning martial arts secrets, the focusing of his spirit into his hand... knowing a few martial artists, and how much racism there actually is in those traditions, and how hard it is for white guys to learn the most venerated techniques... well, either way Iron Fist has some story potential and is a cool idea, if not perfectly executed.

Of course, one can't think of Iron Fist without thinking of his unlikely brother-in-arms, Luke Cage, the Hero for Hire, Power Man. For years, he's been a joke of a character; yellow, flowing blowse and tiara for a costume, strange 'black' eumphemisms, and he's pretty far down on the power totem pole, strictly street level. It wasn't until the 90's Cage series that he got a decent make-over, and even then the writing wasn't anything to shout about.

But the more I thought about it, the more I realized that I also enjoyed Luke Cage as a concept. A man done wrong by the legal system. A hardened man with a chip on his shoulder, and yet a heart of gold. A man selling his power to those who can afford it, yet refusing to serve evil masters. A man who fights to protect neighborhoods most of the Marvel-verse never even visit. Recently, Luke has become the leader of the New Avengers; here's a C-list hero, not terribly powerful, not formally educated, not experienced with team-play, suddenly being forced to step up to helm the Earth's Mightiest because only he had the Chocolate Salty Balls to do it. He's a guy who never realized he even had the potential, and he's forced to re-examine himself daily as he steps to up plate, swinging away at one of the biggest jobs in the Marvel U. None of these concepts are poor.

And yet, I can barely stand to read the character.

I have to figure, it must be because white guys write him.

Luke has always been Black. I mean, that's obvious from the colored pages of the funny books; I mean that his being black has always been the selling point of his magazine. Luke is one of the few black characters to headline his own book, he fights in the ghetto, he's an ex-con, he talks 'like a black man'. Basically Luke has always been there to fill the role of the American black man in Marvel. He's the token. Black Panther doesn't really count because he's an African citizen, Luke is America's black man.

But has a black guy ever written Luke Cage? Research tells me that his initial Inker was Billy Graham, one of the few black men wroking in comics at the time, initial writing and pencils done by the decidedly white Archie Goodwin (who's name could NOT be more white) and George Tuska. Later Roy Thomas and John Romita Sr. would assist in the book's creation. Why not Ron Wilson on pencils? One of Marvel's most prolific artists of the 70's, a black creator, and a pretty cool guy, I'm sure he could have added a little more pathos to Luke Cage.

Instead, we got a guy with a decent conceptual creation, someone beat on by 'the man' who is looking to clear his name and lives in the shitty part of town, given the power to do something about it thanks to a freak accident, (Hell, some real social commentary could have been dropped here, much like the 30's Superman who went around beating up drunk husbands and dead-beat bosses.) who basically lives his life like he's perpetually in a blaxploitation movie. The cookie phrases, the Foxy Brown ladies of interest, the ridiculous street-pimp super villains... its no wonder Luke's book faded with the glory days of Shaft, and needed to be teamed up with a white Bruce Lee.

The problem remains today. I appreciate that Brian Bendis has put Luke into a position of power, where he has to reexamine himself and his potential to reshape the world, but still, Luke comes off as a white guy trying to sound like a black man. That is, disingenuous. The fake slang, the hokey tough-guy act, the attempt to try to deliver pathos at being one of Marvel's 3 or 4 black characters (two of which were married simply because there were no other black characters for them to hook up with) without actually knowing what it is to be black, it all rings false.

Now, I realize that comics are an industry predominantly controlled by whites and Asians, but there are plenty of really creative talents from all ethnic backgrounds out there; so why can we not see Luke Cage in the hands of a black writer with some real writing chops?

I, for one, would like to see what story potential Luke REALLY has, rather than being a flavor of the week parody of Blaxploitation, or some sort of Kanye video reject. Spidey seems fleshed out because all of the writers have been in his shoes before, lets get someone behind the wheel of Luke's book who knows what it is to live in his world.

Above: Marvel's depiction of a heroic, modern black man. I guess I shouldn't expect much from a company who's depiction of Europe still revolves around Gypsies, wooden cottages, and villagers in leder-hosen chasing monsters with pitch-forks and torches.