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All-Star Superman

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Aha! I am Klarion

18:53 / 20.05.08

I am no Moore-hater. I love most of his work. But I thought the 3-D section in the book seemed like sleepy-time tea.

I am not a huge fan of 3d sections. They seem very kitschy to me.

The Natural Way

19:08 / 20.05.08

You do understand that that was kind of the point? the futurism of the fifties? The 3D cinema? Not to mention that it underlined the fact that we were literally supposed to be travelling to another dimension. The way it lifted us out of the post-war, drab utilitarianism of the decade and the spies with their broooown tank tops, shirts and ties.... And the fact that loads of it was really pretty, impressive and clever... The Nyarlothep bit? Anyone?

Weirdos, I say. Weirdos.

19:34 / 20.05.08

I loved that book, but Moore still has those very rational and clear-headed high-brow hang-ups of needing to justify every turn he makes (which can be much of the goodness in his books). Morrison has that "let's fucking go already!" sense of (/using the) irrationality (or lack of hesitation -- that at times can screw some things up) that can add to the stories (but subtract to the ideas he's trying to present, when in interviews or prose).

Imagine that same League dimensional play with Flex + ASS10 + Invisies + others. Oh yeah... I wouldn't even need the 3d glasses, baby. They should just work together already. Can't they see? Can't they see what they're holding out on all of us? Holding out on each other?

Moore, Morrison: I made you a bed. Now fuckwrite.

Hallo, Paper Spaceboy

20:06 / 20.05.08

Moore has become crystalline in his old age. It's a bit like Margaret Atwood; highly structured to the point of alarmingly cool temperature. I haven't really been able to relate emotionally to Moore characters since Promethea ended.

Whereas, I can relate to everyone in A*S. I'll probably feel sorry for stupid old Solaris. Morrison is good at immediate gasping idea-fire and emotional resonance. Moore is better with structure and intrticate backstory and world-building.

23:17 / 20.05.08

just imagine if the 3D section was in ASS #12. if Quitely already evokes tridimensionality in his usual work - were we to experience 4D?

Aha! I am Klarion

02:32 / 21.05.08

I "got" the whole rationale behind the 3D. To clarify, when I said I did not like the 3D sections because they feel kitschy, I meant that they seem so in the sense of being clumsy inserted into the materials and ruin, for me, some of the beauty of the book. And rather than just having the book in and of itself (ignoring the irony of the intertextual nature of the work), you have to now keep hold of those bloody glasses.

While Moore may have trippy fun by reminding us how bendy and playful our mediums can be (like drawing a bridge on the TV screen with an oil-pencil or tossing toilet paper on-stage at a blue-man group concert), I just found it annoying. The surly old fucker could have just as well put sand-paper on the covers (I exaggerate, of course).

Plus it hurts my i's and crosses my t's. The fucking glasses give me a head-ache (and not a good, I just took something chemical kind of head-ache).

For a throw away one-shot, I might be down, but not for a hardcover. That's what I am saying.

Aha! I am Klarion

02:36 / 21.05.08

p.s. There is still emotionality in Moore, but Black Dossier is more intellectual and concerned with aesthetics and complexity in its working. It's a structural "problem" and not any slacking on Moore's part.

06:00 / 21.05.08

What Papers and Zibarro said. I can totally see where The Natural Way is coming from, but for me, the heavy intellectual discourse coupled with the stylistic conceit of using Shakespearean meter diluted the emotional punch of the ending for me. I love Black Dossier, but I guess I wanted more of how the characters felt rather than a wordy soliloquy on the metatextual implications of the book at its ending. Plus, my feeling is with 3D sections, it'd be more effective to celebrate the spectacle of the stunt rather than bogging it down with heavy wordage.

I mean, that's a lot of what I like about ASS. When the pictures talk, GM lets them do the talking. And that's what I'm hoping for with this upcoming 3D section. (OK, that's me, Bad Drilon out!)

Sean the frumious Bandersnatch

06:13 / 21.05.08

OMG though, that cover made me spill pudding on the ground because it looked so exciting.

Hallo, Paper Spaceboy

16:24 / 23.05.08

Well, all indicators point to the Eleven coming out on Wednesday (my day will open like a dream with Kal-El in there, and a back massage appointment in the afternoon), so I'm wondering about what we're going to see. The counterpoint to Ten, specifically Clark Kent's last day? Kal leaving the business of day-to-day crisis management to people like Green Lantern, Wonder Woman, Batman, and the Flash while he sets about covering Clark's bases, maybe finally getting 'round to having that chat with Lois (Ha!), maybe asking Perry for some vacation time, catching lunch with Olsen? Because I could use some Daily Planet action, and we haven't really gotten anything substantial in a while (difficult to parse, exactly, because of the long gaps between chapters).

Janean Patience

16:37 / 23.05.08

That cover made me spill pudding on the ground

I hope that's not a euphemism.

17:32 / 23.05.08

I'm biting my lip here. I don't want to be an ASStease.

Sorry. I wouldn't even have posted anything, but the term ASStease (that's ASStease) was too good to pass up.

ASStease.

Hallo, Paper Spaceboy

17:58 / 23.05.08

Jog has a pretty sweet analysis of the cover to A*S Twelve, and how it relates to previous covers in the series and the idea of Superman mirrors. I like the idea of an evil sun for an evil Superman.

20:44 / 24.05.08

ALLSTAR11PREVIEW

Hallo, Paper Spaceboy

21:23 / 24.05.08

*jumps up and down, squealing, incessantly, back arched and muttering strange ideas*

21:54 / 24.05.08

Luthor seems more and more like the old wacko scientist Gene Hackman impersonated in the first movies.

and Supes more convinced he can't find a cure. so sad.

Hallo, Paper Spaceboy

22:14 / 24.05.08

You know, even though Lex is supposed to be the reverse of Superman in this, I keep thinking he's the reverse of Lois Lane.

13:52 / 25.05.08

A real sense of dread, fear and jeopardy invoked with Luthor's creepy survival of the electric chair: "I told you! EVERYTHING'S GOING TO BE DIFFERENT NOW!!" Yikes. I always feel that one of the marks of a great story is that even though you know our hero will win, the story creates a genuine sense of fear/peril, as if for a few moments we, the reader/viewer have genuine moments of 'holy shit, our hero might actually FAIL and the bad guys might actually WIN!' This intro/preview accomplishes that for me.

The Natural Way

18:55 / 25.05.08

I like the idea implcit in the first scene, that in some kind of dark, inverted origin story kinda way the electricity might be the finishing touch to Lex's serum. All he needs is a lightning bolt to complete the process and turn him into a superman.

Hallo, Paper Spaceboy

02:13 / 26.05.08

Which is the essential flaw in old Lex's argument -- "Think of all the amazing things I could accomplish without him in my way!" -- He plays lip service to the potential of humanity without Kal standing in the way, but he still has to make himself super in the end.

As an aside, I believe Robot 7 was the malfunctioning unit from #2. I wonder if there's some small significance in that detail (maybe just an echo with Clark's malfunctioning body).

17:34 / 26.05.08

Good point. Super-sentience?

Another detail I like is how Kal, after hearing about his imminent death, has started accomplishing more and more in what little time he has left. Look at what's now in the Armoury/Superman Museum: the robot's arm, broken off by Bar-El, Lana's photo that saved Kansas and the future, Morrisey's poetry, Superwoman's costume, Leo's solarnaut suit, and so on.

And I love the Bizarro Zoo. Giraffodile!

Hallo, Paper Spaceboy

18:40 / 26.05.08

The Bizarro Zoo is a nice background detail, filling in some of what went on during that particular adventure.

Robot 7 achieving super-sentience would be interesting, particularly as another iteration of the Superman Legacy jive. Imagine if the second Superman in the dynasty were a robot, holding over until Quintum (and/or Lois/Kara Zor-El) can catch up on the genetic side.

19:38 / 26.05.08

It'd be riffing further back to when Supes used robot doubles to 'protect Lois'.

Horrible feeling that Luthor is going to bring the beef to Kal's doorstep, in this issue or the last, with the reminder (in the form of the robot's arm) that anyone can enter the fortress if they're strong enough to lift Thor's Key.

Hallo, Paper Spaceboy

20:13 / 26.05.08

That's a pretty good point -- the key and the Fortress have been heavily foregrounded in A*S, so it seems fairly natural that Lex would (claim to) pull an Elijah Snow and take advantage of his abilities to "liberate" all that knowledge and super-science for the "betterment" of mankind (i.e. himself).

20:26 / 26.05.08

Loved that little detail with the Phantom Zone window and Bar-El policing the Kryptonian criminals. It's like so many Super-plans have been set in motion already. Oh and I can't shake the feeling that Baby Sun-Eater's gonna play a pivotal role in taking down Solaris; seems like more seeding in this issue with the sweet "cleaning of the stables" bit.

Hallo, Paper Spaceboy

20:32 / 26.05.08

Cleaning the stables! Ha! Didn't catch that at all.

20:41 / 26.05.08

Very good points from both of yous. Sun-Eater so comin' back like Incredible Journey.

Loving that the first pages of this issue utterly tip the balance in Lex's favour. We've been led to think, from the first or second issue, that Lex is going to die before Superman is, that they're both in the same stygian gondola. Now Luthor has walked away from his own execution, and gained the power of a god.

And Superman is still dying.

Now, I know (or think I know) that Kal is going to come out of it all golden skinned and yin-yang fishes but kudos to George for making the stakes feel so high.

Random thought: for some reason I've assumed SuperLex only has the basic Kryptonian package deal (flight, strength, heat vision, cold breath) but not the new electric powers.

Ah. There's the thought. SuperLex might (as Pigs suspected) have been triggered via his electrocution. Superman's exciting new electric powers might be his undoing, seeing as he gave them to Kal via his sunbath. Which'd be poetic.

I am the excite.

Hallo, Paper Spaceboy

19:48 / 27.05.08

Sun-Eater so comin' back like Incredible Journey.

Well, Mozzingham did write We3, after all.

Now, I know (or think I know) that Kal is going to come out of it all golden skinned and yin-yang fishes but kudos to George for making the stakes feel so high.

This has, as has been said before, proven to be on the best aspects of A*S -- that Mozzbottom has spent the entire time setting up the outright success of Superman's eleventh hour revelation, whatever it is, but still made it feel as though it could go either way. We suspect Superman might fail when we're all but told he's going to win. Particularly given that Superman is always "boring" because he's "too powerful."

Lex always authors his own downfall, doesn't he? I wonder if he realizes that, by acquiring superpowers of his own, he's proving Superman's point for him? Humanity's higher aspirations, possible future, evolutionary advancement...

I am the excite.

I can't stop my infernal squealing.

20:41 / 27.05.08

Oh christ. You know when Superman releases the Sun-Eater back into the wild void at the start of the Bizarro issue, and it keeps grabbing his leg in a supposedly affectionate "I nots go back" manner? What if it's not playful? What if the Sun-Eater is just an instinctual beast? What if the Sun-Eater (like in my pet-snake-wants-to-eat-owner story) just wants to eat Kal-El, because his over-charged body smells like a sun?

Alread has precedent in Parasite's dialogue during the riot issue, "Like a suuuunnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn".

And:

"What does it eat?"
"Suns! What else?!"

My money's on the Sun-Eater being used like a medieval leech. A... parasite... if you will. Oh ho!

20:44 / 27.05.08

I miss Trips. Wish I read more.

Hallo, Paper Spaceboy

21:42 / 27.05.08

Oh that Superman! Leave it to him to use leeches to cure all ills. Next up, rehab for Lex using the Iron Maiden!

Oh that Superman.

(I just had the most alarming 80-page Giant Special Silver Age flash a moment ago)

22:33 / 27.05.08

I miss Trips.

I never went away. Unless I'm a Skrull? Or am I?

Or am I?

The Natural Way

23:46 / 27.05.08

Hey! Americans!

Do you know what a bunch of fucks you are, that you get to stroll on down the comix shop today and pick up three Morrison books, while everyone in the UK has to wait till Friday?

Grr. Fuck off bank holidays!

Hallo, Paper Spaceboy

00:02 / 28.05.08

I seem to recall that this kind of delayed A*S action happens quite a lot.

01:08 / 28.05.08

I am so ecstatic about that very same thing: three Mozzer books in one day. What a week it shall be!! Calooh, callay!

I like the super-leech idea for the extra solar energy.

>> I like the idea implcit in the first scene, that in some kind of dark, inverted origin story

Right - Supes gets his powers from a yellow sun, maybe the evil sun Solaris helps Lex get HIS powers.

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