My Favorite Comic Storylines: Kingdom Come

Totalitarian vision of a dystopic future

Imagine a future where a new generation of super-heroes conduct themselves no better than super-villains. Imagine a future where the line between good and evil is blurred beyond distinction. Imagine a future where the old guard is pushed aside, and chaos reigns supreme. Imagine a future where an aging preacher's prophetic visions can lead to the world's apocalyptic destruction or its ultimate salvation.

Mark Waid and Alex Ross' chef-d'oeuvre moves forward 20 years from the present, into the time where Superman and his colleagues have either turned their backs at the world or operate under the cloak of subterfuge. In their stead, a new generation of super-heroes emerge, more violent and heavy-handed than their predecessors ever were. Wonder Woman coaxes a tragedy-laden Superman out of retirement to lead the restoration of peace and order throughout the world. Slowly, with the help of their now-aged colleagues and protegees, they keep the new batch of super-heroes and super villains in line by literally muscling their way through.

Unfortunately, their totalitarian approach is viewed with much suspicion by both non-powered colleagues and villains. The faction led by Batman insists that the methodology of Superman's Justice League is no different than what he is battling against. Luthor and his cohorts, on the other hand, prepare to counter the Justice League with their most formidable weapon: a Mr. Mind-controlled Captain Marvel.

The great battle meets head-on as Luthor unleashes Captain Marvel on the Gulag, the fort where the Justice League has incarcerated the super-villains. In the escalating melee, the head of the United Nations decides to aim a nuclear warhead to obliterate the meta-humans --- heroes and villains alike --- once and for all. It is only through the valiant self-sacrifice of Captain Marvel that some meta-humans survive the outcome of the great holocaust.

An enraged Superman returns to the United Nations, followed the surviving meta-humans. He is then made to realize the complex situation of masked crusading: that they cannot live in the world and live above and apart from it. In the ensuing epilogue, poignant scenes are depicted on how they fully integrate themselves as members of a kinder and better human/meta-human society.

The Kingdom Come whole saga  is complex, rich, and multi-layered in its approach to narration. Waid frames it within the perspective of Norman McCay, an aging minister plagued with prophetic visions of a catastrophic future. He is guided through the story by the Specter, who acts both as a commentator and judge to the unfolding events. But the Biblical allusions do not stop with the avenging angel imagery. The entire narrative is replete with Biblical references, specifically to those of the Book of Revelations. It's hard press to miss the symbolism of Superman as the militant Messiah, the savior who shall bring war in order to make peace.

Equally stupendous is Ross' contribution to the series.  His painted artwork gives a stunning feel to the series' visual design. Each panel was of photo-realistic quality; reading through series is akin to viewing a very gorgeous album.  It was my first encounter with Alex Ross' work, and I've been a fan ever since.

All in all, the series is certainly a worthwhile read, both  as a comic book series and as a literary work of fiction.  It most surely will stand the test of time because of the relevant themes and situations presented.  Perhaps this what really classic comic story lines are: they still remain pertinent to the reader's experience years after they were written.

My Favorite Comic Storylines: Crisis on Infinite Earths

 

Iconoclastic image: the death of Supergirl

 "Worlds live! Worlds die!"

By 1985, the continuity of DC was a convoluted mess. Multiple and alternative earths were established to explain continuity lapses, but even then, editorial feared that the whole multiverse concept was already too complicated. Therefore, they decreed that a major revision of some sort had to be made.  This monumental task of house-cleaning was handed over to then-hot New Teen Titans creative team of Marv Wolfman and George Perez. Thus, the complex saga spanning over 12 issues was born.

The whole narrative hinges on intrinsic duality of nature: for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. The Monitor has his own antithesis blatantly and unimaginatively named the Anti-Monitor, and their machinations causes catastrophic repercussions across the multiverse. The Monitor is killed in the middle of the series, but the superheroes from the remaining 5 Earths take up the cudgels against the Anti-Monitor. In one clean sweep, the battle between the Specter and the Anti-Monitor at the dawn of time unleashes unimaginable energies that cause the remaining Earths to be recreated into a single Earth. On this new Earth, various histories, locations, and elements were incorporated from the previously surviving Earths. Fittingly, Superman of the now non-existent Earth-2 then delivers the coup de grâce on the Anti-Monitor. Kal-L (emphasis on the L, not El), along with his wife Lois Lane and the Superboy of Earth-Prime, go off to live happily ever after in the paradise provided by Alexander Luthor of Earth-3.

Muddy mess all tidied up, ey?

Not quite.

The resulting cannon-fodder notwithstanding (including major characters from Earth-1 such as Supergirl, the Flash, and Wonder Woman), the aftermath of the Crisis provided a fresh start for DC. They cashed on heavily on the opportunity to launch new titles and to update various storylines.

In some aspects, they were very successful. Case in point was with the character of Wonder Woman. She didn't die after all, but was de-evolved into clay, and the time table re-set on her along with the Amazons. George Perez headed the creative team that launched her into the new (and single) DC-verse, strengthened the ties of her Greek mythological origins, and provided a very plausible insight into her ironic characterization as the warrior-princess seeking peace in a man's world.

On the other hand, while John Byrne's re-imagining of the Man of Steel was initially received with unanimous praise, it spawned massive continuity glitches in its wake. This time, there are no Kryptonian survivors from the barren and sterile planet save for a lone baby space-warped to Earth in a birthing matrix. He grows up with the Kents somewhere in Middle America as a normal kid and teenager. No superheroic capers for Clark Kent, and he only dons the Superman costume in his adulthood.

That would've worked out fine, except for one, not so-slight problem: the Legion of Superheroes. A huge fan-favorite title enjoying brisk sales, the whole concept hinged on the idea of teenagers, 1,000 years in the future, forming a band of heroes with the exploits of Superboy as their inspiration. But wait, Byrne said that there was no Boy of Steel anymore, right? The resultant explanation of Byrne involving pocket Earths and dimension hopping proved too much of a headache to handle for both the editorial staff and the readers. Sales quickly plummeted, and several years later the title had to completely re-booted from scratch to provide new origins for the group.

But taking the opus as it is, Crisis on Infinite Earths stands the test of time in its majestic breadth of story-telling. True, Wolfman's dialogue may sound awkward and clunky at times, but that can be attributed to the writing style of the period. The George Perez look may also be anachronistic from the modern point of view, but for my money's worth, no artist approaches him in terms of detailing something even as minute as the background. And with literally cast of thousands, he makes a breath-taking and magnificent job in each panel and spread of the comic book. His artwork is even more spruced up by the inks of the veterans Dick Giordano, Jerry Ordway, and Mike DeCarlo, formidable artists on their own right.

Scatch My Itch

Eternal Wanderer is having an itch lately. It bothers him so much that he keeps on tossing and turning at night. He's seeking a way to relieve himself because the insatiable craving is building up big, big time. He fears he might lose control any moment.

You see, Eternal Wanderer is having a severe case of techie gadget itch.

hahahahahaha

He's thinking of junking his white Macbook for a new 15 inch Macbook Pro. He's actually been salivating at the thought of acquiring the unibody model ever since it came out last year. The battery life longer, about 7 hrs or so compared to the paltry 2.5 hours of the older Macbooks. Plus the new Macbooks have a dvd writer and SD card-reader already built in, as opposed to the older model.

The downside? It's gonna set him back by roughly 113 grand. Throw in about 40K, and he can already buy a decent second-hand car. Or at 113K, he can get a cool Windows-based laptop, and rig up 3 powerful desktops, as well.

Speaking of desktops, Eternal Wanderer is also thinking of doing an upgrade with his desktop. He loves his desktop since he works it like there's no tomorrow. He learned the hard (and expensive) way of not abusing a laptop by leaving it powered-on for weeks at a time. A year and P14,ooo bucks later, he realized that desktops are still the way to go for everyday, heavy duty usage. His current, more than two years old desktop is respectable enough: a 2.66 Core2Duo with 2 GB RAM and a 500 GB HD running on an XP SP3 operating system. But now, he's down to prolly the last 15 GB of HD space, so a new 1.5 TB HD is in order (am I a hard dicks disk slut or what?). And since Eternal Wanderer is a coke-sniffing, speed-lovin' junkie, he's thinking of jacking off up his RAM to 3 GB, maybe even 4 GB if he shifts into a 64-bit o.s. He might also change processors to either a Core i5 or i7, so he can have a good, if not unnecessary, reason to shift into the new Windows 7 o.s.

Of course, that's roughly gonna cost him 25K.

Crap.

Maybe EB is right. Eternal Wanderer, at the very least, should change the battery of his trusty old N73. For just a thousand bucks , he can enjoy hours of talking dirty and nasteeh pleasure with his friends without having to plug in the cell in EW's Grand Canyon the charger every time lolz!

P.S. Eternal Wanderer wants to strangle the love spear of Cubao Boy for buying the new Snow Leopard o.s. of Mac. Grrrrrr!

My Favorite Comic Storylines: Dark Phoenix Saga

 Jean Grey: redemption through ultimate sacrifice

The story is simple enough: Jean Grey, a young telepathic/telekenetic mutant, literally rises from the ashes and finds her psionic abilities magnified beyond belief. Though her powers are held back by a series of psychic circuit-breakers, the dam is slowly being chipped away at. She is manipulated and pushed over the edge by the Hellfire Club, until she finally bursts in raptor-shaped flames to become a dark god-like being, voracious in thirst for raw energy.

In order to satiate her quench, she consumes a far-flung star system populated with inhabited worlds. Consequently, the Shi-Ar empire seeks retribution and hounds her futilely through the vast expanse of space. She returns to Earth, and in a battle of the highest psychic order, Professor Xavier manages to re-bind the mental circuit breakers. She is eventually put on trial by the Shi-Ar, to which Xavier counters with a rebuttal via a battle-challenge.

On the moon, Jean Grey and the X-men make their last stand. When she sees Cyclops struck down, the rebound psychic barriers crumble apart, and she slowly transforms into the dark godling once again. But she realizes that the duality of her persona would haunt her for all eternity, and riddled with the guilt of having taken billions of lives, she chooses to annihilate herself while still in a vulnerable phase of transition.

The theme of redemption through self-sacrifice and the idea that absolute power corrupts were huge concepts for me as a kid. It held, and still holds, a fascinating sway over me. I can remember buying the trade paperback when I was around 11 or 12 yrs old, and patiently reading it through in one sitting. Revisiting it as an adult, the dialogue seems to be a tad bit stilted and dated in style and flow. However, the basic narrative remains intact, and ultimately, powerfully moving. Whatever his writing faults are, Chris Claremont remains the definitive writer of the X-men for me. John Byrne, inked over by Terry Austin, is at his classic best. I will always associate his artwork with his early impressive runs on the Avengers, X-Men, Fantastic Four, and Alpha Flight.

Yes, Believe It or Not, I Actually Read Books

Eternal Wanderer loves to read. He loves to read newspapers. He loves to read comics. He loves to read books. He loves to read so much that he can't even poop without bringing a reading material.

Oooops. TMI.

Here's some of the books Eternal Wanderer has recently tried out:

A friend of his in college was gushing about Ayn Rand. She told Eternal Wanderer to check out Rand's novels. Being the dumb blond that he is, he innocently asked if it had anything to do with beautiful parks and fountains. She gave him what-an-airhead stare and walked out on him.

Years later, Eternal Wanderer is still a dumb blond. But now, he thanks to the book reader Stanza, he's been downloading e-books like crazy. One of the books he downloaded was Fountainhead. He picked up to courage to read it, and found himself thoroughly enjoying the novel. It practically read like good soap-opera stuff, albeit of the wordy kind. But in the last 1/3 of the book, he was got a migraine. The courtroom monologue of Howard Roark, the main character, was a little bit too much for Eternal Wanderer. It was major word puke. Eternal Wanderer wondered, "Why didn't Howard Roark simply say 'Fuck y'all. I'm an individual, so stuff it!'"

Of course, that line of reasoning would've put Howard Roark in jail for the rest of his life.

Eternal Wanderer is tickled pink at his own dumb blondness.

Eternal Wanderer is a sword slut. He goes into ecstatic throes whenever swords are concerned. He considers himself an expert handling swords of all lengths, widths, thicknesses, and sizes. He opines the bigger swords are, the better to play with. Nothing would please Eternal Wanderer more than if somebody dangles a sword before him.

With an enticing title "Dark Sword," how could Eternal Wanderer refuse to read such a book?

It was an enjoyable romp in the hay. Joram's sword very much delighted Eternal Wanderer. He even spent nights of torrid fantasy with the thoughts of caressing Joram's long and turgid sword. But it was the idea of the Technomancers (people who derived their magic through death) that gave him pause. He thought, "If I kill all roaches in the house, can it make my lashes magically curl up permanently? Do I have to do it myself, or can I just call in pest control? No, wait, if I call in pest control, it's their lashes that might be magically curled up permanently! We wouldn't want that, would we?"

Eternal Wanderer is amazed with the dumb blond ideas he can think of.

Eternal Wanderer digs magic realism. He has devoured a lot of those South American novelists which features interactive ghosts, seductive cooking, love potions, and their ilk. He thinks that the idea of magic treated as an everyday occurrence is such a fascinating idea.

Since he really adored the lush narrative of Gabriel Garcia-Marquez's Love in Time of Cholera, he decided to give 100 Years of Solitude a go. It was going on fine maybe until about the fourth generation. By that time, he almost completely lost it. The characters' names were all the same, and it was confusing the heck out of him. Eternal Wanderer even had to whip out a paper and write down who was who just so that he could keep track with all the characters.

It was then he realized that Garcia-Marquez was trying to emphasize the cyclical nature of of life. The flaws and sins of the (fore)fathers continue to haunt the children, generation after generation. Because of this, the past, present, and future are bound with one another in an inevitable spiraling towards an uncertain fate.

Whoa.

Eternal Wanderer just had a verbal and philosophical fart!

My, my, my. There may still be hope for the dumb blond Eternal Wanderer, after all.

Heehee

Some Tenents that Eternal Wanderer Lives By 1

"Go placidly amid the noise and the haste,
and remember what peace there may be in silence."

In a world that is full of noise and distraction, it is always good to have some downtime for myself. Silence is telling me something, and I have to listen to it.

"As far as possible, without surrender,
be on good terms with all persons."

Keeping good relations with as much people as possible is always a wise thing to do.

"Speak your truth quietly and clearly;"

I have my own story to tell, and I tell my story without forcing it upon others.

"and listen to others,
even to the dull and the ignorant;
they too have their story."

There is always something to learn from others by listening. The moment I stop listening to them is the moment I cease to grow as a person.

"Avoid loud and aggressive persons;
they are vexatious to the spirit."

If it is not my story to tell, then I do not share it. Rumor mongering and gossiping are the best ways not to earn other people's trust.

"If you compare yourself with others,
you may become vain or bitter,
for always there will be greater and lesser persons than yourself."

I measure myself not against what others possess or have achieved, but with my own personal goals and accomplishments in life. It is my own life to live, after all.

"Enjoy your achievements as well as your plans."

What I have done in my field is something I wouldn't have traded for anything in the world. It was a good run, and now it's time to move on to other endeavors.

"Keep interested in your own career, however humble;
it is a real possession in the changing fortunes of time."

I define my work. It does not define me. I can be content with whatever I am in because I know I am the master of my own ship.

"Exercise caution in your business affairs,
for the world is full of trickery."

Trust has to be earned. Always.

"But let this not blind you to what virtue there is;
many persons strive for high ideals,
and everywhere life is full of heroism."

I believe in the inherent goodness in people unless proven otherwise.

Listahan

Mga kailangan kong gawin:

1. Paliguan si Musa (aso kong Rhodesian Ridgeback). Nangangamoy Musa na kama ko. Oo, Spice, kasama ko si Musa matulog sa kama. Though ang gusto ko talaga, ikaw sana katabi ko ;)




2. Bumili ng baterya ng cordless phone. Di ko tuloy magamit yung Magic Jack na binigay sa akin. San ba nakakabili nun?




3. I-text yung middle blocker namin na maglaro sya sa Sabado para kumpleto kami. Tama si Trip. Ang hirap magbuo ng team para makapaglaro ng volleyball.




4. Bumili ng oven at mga kagamitan pang-bake. Gusto ko talagang matuto magbake ng cake. Seryoso ako. At balak namin ng tropa magluto ng turkey. Yun tipong lalagyan pa ng bacon sa ilalim nung balat para self-basting ang effect. Panalo! Weird ba ang trip namin?

5. Tapusin ang mga librong binabasa ko. Nakatapos ako ng tatlo last week, at itong week inumpisahan ko naman yung Elven nation trilogy. Geek alert!!!





6. Mag-walking kasama si Pkf at Ting Ting Cojuangco sa Ateneo bago sila mag-ensayo. Maghahanap na rin ng makakalantarin doon. Wahahahahahaha




7. Magluto ng adobo na maraming bawang at gamit yung sukang iloko na binili ko nung Holy Week. Sabi nila, masarap daw ang timpla ng adobo pag gumamit ng sukang iloko :D




8. Linisan ng maigi ang kotse. Sumisigaw na sya sa akin, "HUGASAN MO NAMAN AKO, PARANG AWA MO NA!"




9. Bumili ng bagong cross-trainers. Apat na taon ko nang ginagamit yung Nike Max Air ko. Loshang na loshang na sya. Gusto ko sana yung 360, kaso sabi ni Cubao Boy, madali daw pumutok yung ilalim.

10. Maghanap ng jowa....Etchozzzz.

Five Simple Things I've Learned from Playing Volleyball

"One point¹ at a time lang tayo, o. Kung magkamali, bawi kaagad!"

There's no use dwelling on past mistakes. Just let it go. Don't worry too much with the future, too. Just stay in the moment, stay in the now. Each moment is fleeting and transitory in nature. Once it's gone, you can never bring it back to savor it.


"Kung yung block e nasa harap mo na, pa-check² mo na lang sa kamay. Gawan mo ng paraan!."

No one said that life would definitely be one smooth ride. Obstacles will always be encountered. What matters is that you do something about it. Wag titiklop, wag dadagain, wag papatalo. Walang rebanse³ in real life, walang take two. Think of it very well, and just do it!


"Cover⁴ your spikers. And your blockers as well."

It's all about trust and support. That you'll be there for the people who mean something to you. That those very same people would also be there for you. Kung san ka masaya, suportahan ta ka. Well, as long as you don't step on other people in the process hehehehe


"Talk! Talk! Talk! Bawal tahimik sa loob ng court!"

Open communication is one of the fundamentals in any kind of relationship. Being honest is always the best policy, whether is brutally delivered, or said in a gentle manner. You deserve that from them as much as they deserve it from you.


"There are no bad 1st⁵ balls. Only bad setters."

I take full command responsibility with the choices I make. I can't lay the blame on other people, and neither can I blame external factors. At the end of the day, it's still me who will have to decide. It's my life after all. Integrity will back up and follow through these choices that I make. Hopefully.


-----
¹ The rally point system makes it easy to get a point. Just don't make a mistake, and force the other team to make a mistake.
² The act of hitting the ball off the hands of the opponent's block.
³ In the parlance of pustahang laro, it's the last and determining set. Sometimes, the stakes are raised even higher.
⁴ Staying underneath the your spiker to be able to get the ball just in case it gets blocked back into your own court. Covering your own blocker means rushing in behind them just in case the opponent decides to tip the ball instead of spiking it hard.
⁵ This works on the premise that no matter how the ball is badly received or dug, a really good setter should still be able to give the ball properly to his spikers.