The Star Online: Lifestyle: Bookshelf
The Star Online: Lifestyle: Bookshelf |
- A list of the worst-ever storyline in Spider-Man's comic world
- Unauthorised biography about British comedienne Jennifer Saunders
- Love, life and business
| A list of the worst-ever storyline in Spider-Man's comic world Posted: 11 Jan 2013 01:48 AM PST Being a Spider-Man fan can be detrimental to your sanity, as this list of worst-ever Spidey moments proves. WITH great power comes great responsibility. While this saying has shaped the life and deeds of one of comics' most popular icons, it certainly does not seem to apply to his writers.Although the world did not end in 2012, it certainly felt like it to most Spider-Man fans after the perennial underdog hero, Peter Parker, "died" in a final battle with himself (!) in The Amazing Spider-Man #700. The final instalment of the 50-year-old Amazing Spider-Man title had Peter and arch-nemesis Doctor Octopus caught in a Face/Off scenario, with the two swapping minds. Obviously Doc Ock got the better deal – youth, exciting memories and a posse of gals (Aunt May included!) – while Peter got trapped in his arch-nemesis' degenerating body with mere hours to live. Caught in the ultimate death trap and facing a fate that is worse than death, these moments usually end with the hero emerging triumphant, but for once, that was not the case for Peter. While Peter succeeds in staging a final showdown with Doc Ock, he fails to get his body back, and in the end, all he can do is let his memories overwhelm his foe to such an extent that his body's new occupant vows to become a better, "Superior" Spider-Man. "Superior" usually denotes something of better quality, but in this case, a villain with a bowl haircut who spent his career being Spidey's punching bag is surely an inferior substitute. I am not buying Peter's "death", though. As Superman, Batman, Captain America, Bucky (twice!), Johnny Storm, Jean Grey, Jason Todd, Hal Jordan, Oliver Queen, Barry Allen and Wonder Woman have shown, death is never a permanent state in comics. Well, unless you are Uncle Ben or Bruce Wayne's parents. Reinforcing my belief that Peter is merely on sabbatical are potential escape clauses in terms of the brief telepathic exchange moment with the Lizard (ASM #699), or another potential intervention by Mephisto looking to enforce the conditions of his "One More Day" spell. All the same, Peter Parker's knack of winning while still losing is a persistent outcome in most key Spidey milestones, and what numbs fans to this latest fiasco is the fact that there have been Spidey cop-outs in the past that were just as bad or even worse than this idiotic farce. Here are 10 of the lowest, a list that makes us wonder why we continue supporting Marvel's "creative" direction for the Spidey-verse: 1) The Parker Parent Trap (Amazing Spider-Man #386-#388) To commemorate Spidey's 30th anniversary (Amazing Spider-Man #365 in 1992), the creative team thought it would be cool to reunite Peter with his long-presumed-dead superspy parents, Richard and Mary Parker. The plot later took a drastic turn by revealing that his "parents" were actually killer cyborgs used by the Chameleon (with strings pulled by the Green Goblin) to infiltrate Peter's life. Until today, I still can't understand why after all that trouble, the Chameleon still did not find out Peter's secret identity! 2) The Osborne-Stacy Quickie (Amazing Spider-Man #509-#514) The death of Gwen Stacy is a defining moment in the Spider-Man mythos and comic literature, as it offered a turning point in terms of issues like relationships and vengeance. However, trust Marvel (or in this case, J. Michael Straczynski) to complicate things by adding a new, unnecessary dimension to that story, in which Gwen and Norman Osborn – yes, the same Green Goblin who dropped her to her death – supposedly had a tryst before her death. Adding insult to injury was the revelation that she then gave birth to genetically enhanced twins, who matured at an accelerated rate and were duped by Osborn into believing that Peter was really responsible for their mother's death. 3) The Spider Clone Groan (Various Spider-Man titles from 1994-96) Initially, the appearance of a Peter Parker lookalike offered twice the excitement, but the novelty quickly wore off with the appearance of more Peter-permutations, and the rewriting of Spidey mythos via the cloning/resurrections of the Jackal, Gwen Stacy and Norman Osborn! But the worst was yet to come … 4) Reilly Is Spidey? Really? (Spectacular Spider-Man #226) The Clone Saga reached its lowest point here, as Marvel revealed that Ben Reilly was the "real" Peter Parker – and in the process, insults the intelligence of fans who have followed Spidey's adventures for two decades! Despite the reinstatement of Peter as the real deal a few months later (Spider-Man #75), present efforts to elevate Ben Reilly's character just add to the distrust that we Spidey fans will always harbour towards him. 5) One Day Too Far (Amazing Spider-Man #544-#545, Friendly Neighbourhood Spider-Man #24, and Sensational Spider-Man #41) During Civil War, Peter revealed his real identity to the world, which led to his enemies going after his loved ones, and Aunt May getting shot. In the One More Day (OMD) storyline, a desperate Peter and Mary Jane struck a deal with the demon Mephisto, who cast a spell that saved Aunt May's life and erased Peter's secret identity from everyone's memory, but at the cost of the Parkers' marriage. As a result, the subsequent five years of Spider-Man stories have been thrown into doubt because we can't be sure whether Spidey is still caught up in some Mephisto-conjured environment! Also, abruptly dissolving the Parkers' matrimonial bonds was a move that made a mockery of MJ's past contributions to Peter's adventures; and at the same time, overstated the importance of Aunt May's role in his life. 6) One Feeble Moment (Amazing Spider-Man #638-#641) Three years after OMD, Joe Quesada (Marvel's then editor-in-chief) came up with the One Moment In Time (OMIT) storyline, which was a feeble attempt to explain why the Parkers were not married, why Aunt May was still alive, how OMD fit into Marvel continuity, and in the process, showed exactly how Mephisto managed to "assist" the Parkers (downplaying the demon's role significantly). While the art here was great, it turned out to be just a smokescreen, one story arc that is definitely worth OMIT-ting from your must-read list! 8) A Messy Gathering (Sensational Spider-Man #32-#33, Amazing Spider-Man #440-#441, Spider-Man #97-#98, and Spectacular Spider-Man #262-#263) The term "anti-climactic" does not even begin to sum up the disappointing interconnecting Gathering Of Five and Final Chapter story arcs, as Howard Mackie and John Byrne delivered a sloppy clean-up job to facilitate the renumbering of the Spidey titles. The two directionless story arcs evoked the wrath of Spidey fans by "resurrecting" Aunt May with the excuse that the one who died (in Amazing Spider-Man #400) was actually a genetically-altered actress hired by Norman Osborn. Additionally, the much-hyped return of the Parkers' baby daughter did even not materialise. 8) The "Death" of Mary Jane (Amazing Spider-Man, Vol. 2 #13-#29) For months, the subplot of MJ being stalked provided interesting reading… until she was supposedly killed in an airplane explosion and Spidey travelled to Latveria to investigate! The "crime of passion" angle took a ridiculous twist when the stalker was later revealed to be an unnamed mutant telepath who abducted MJ as part of a plan to take over Spidey! 9) Spidey does wheelies! (Amazing Spider-Man #130) What were they thinking? Spider-Man took a break from web-slinging to endorse a Spidermobile (complete with built in web-shooters!) for Corona Motors (his rationale was the usual overdue rent scenario), despite the fact that he couldn't drive! While the buggy did help against Hammerhead and his goons, it proved to be a liability against Mysterio and the Terrible Tinkerer. And that's not all. While Spidey was busy mucking around with his new wheels ... 10) May and Ock forever? (Amazing Spider-Man #131) … Aunt May was getting married to Doctor Octopus! After learning that she inherited a revolutionary atomic processing plant, Doc Ock used his charms to woo Aunt May. With Spidey and Hammerhead playing the wedding crashers' role to perfection. May's loss turned out to be everyone else's gain. Ironically, with the ongoing Doc Ock-is-Peter situation, one wonders how that will impact May's marriage and MJ's status. Does Dan Slott, the writer behind Peter's "death", even understand the implications of what he has wrought? Or is there another saga in the offing to capitalise on this tangled situation? Only time will tell. > Reference sources courtesy of Earth 638 (2nd Floor, Kelana Mall, Jalan SS6/12, Petaling Jaya. Tel: 03-7804 8380. Email: earth638@yahoo.com) |
| Unauthorised biography about British comedienne Jennifer Saunders Posted: 11 Jan 2013 01:16 AM PST Jennifer Saunders: The Biography It isn't easy to write an unauthorised biography about a celebrity who has guarded her privacy fiercely throughout her life. IN early 2012, British comedienne Jennifer Saunders made the unthinkable (and somewhat un-celebrity-like) announcement: "There is an unauthorised biography of me coming out. I urge no one to buy it!" Despite the no buy-in and definite no support for the project from the subject in question, Jennifer Saunders: The Biography still managed to find its way to bookshops by the last quarter of 2012. Like most unauthorised biographies of celebrities, Jennifer Saunders is essentially based on interviews that the subject had given over the course of her career, with some added insight and documentary-style explanation given by the author. Jacky Hyams does not reinvent the biographical wheel. Taking the tried and tested route, Hyams documents Saunders' life story chronologically, dividing the biography into nine chapters, with each chapter devoted to a specific era in Saunders' life and career. Saunders' comedy partner Dawn French had a similar unauthorised biography written about her in 2001; unlike that one, though, Hyams frustratingly does not delve much into Saunders' family life. The closest Hyams gets to shedding some light on her subject's family background is informing readers that Saunders' father was a pilot in the Royal Air Force (the same as French's father), her mother was a biology teacher, and that Saunders has three brothers. My, how revealing ... Trying either to meet the word requirement or defend her credibility, Hyams, like most writers of unauthorised biographies, peppers her book with descriptive writing that could perhaps be passed off as insight into the subject. For instance, setting the tone for her subject's early life story, Hyams writes: "Cheshire, in the north of England, is one of the country's more beautiful counties. Tiny, picturesque, 'blink and you might miss it' rural villages where time seems to have stood still. This rural, bucolic area, around Crowton and Acton Bridge, is where Jennifer Saunders spent her early teenage years. Until the age of 11, she would lead a peripatetic life with her parents and three brothers. Her father's career as an officer in the RAF took the Saunders family all over the country, and, at one point, overseas to Cyprus and Turkey for short periods of time." While the language paints a pretty mental picture, the passage does not provide much insight into the notoriously private Saunders' life. From Saunders' childhood – which Hyams declares to be average, with a couple of former classmates maintaining that Saunders was dreamy and had no aspirations to be the star she is today – the biography trudges through to Saunders' gap year and eventual enrolment into the Central School of Speech and Drama in 1977. Here, readers get a glimpse into how Saunders ended up at that school (her mother filled in the application form and gave Saunders no choice but to attend) and the much publicised first meeting between Saunders and French. Saunders and French's early years as stand-up comediennes in sleazy clubs in London's Soho district, their time with alternative comedy troupe The Comic Strip and meeting their respective husbands (French married Lenny Henry in 1984 and Saunders married Adrian Edmondson a year later) have been publicised numerous times, and it is documented as part of the second chapter of Hyams' book. By the third and fourth chapters, the casual follower of Saunders' career would be able to connect what they are reading with the television shows. Chapter three deals with the 30-year-long French and Saunders series, a superlative sketch show that pokes fun at the celebrity du jour and spoofs cinematic blockbusters and television shows, ranging from Titanic to Baywatch. Here, Hyams digs into the "golden handcuffs" deal Saunders and French signed with the BBC in the late 1990s, the first of its kind. Chapter four, entitled More Bolly, Sweetie, chronicles Absolutely Fabulous, the comedy show that spawned the catch phrase "Sweetie darling" and made getting drunk in designer outfits that are too small a hilarity. While in French's unauthorised biography author Alison Bower went so far as to claim that her subject was jealous of Saunders' success with Absolutely Fabulous, Hyams does not dwell on how Saunders reacted to the phenomenon that was her creation. Instead, Hyams focuses on the interviews that Saunders gave from 1992-1996 while promoting the show and the slew of awards that Saunders and co-star Joanna Lumley picked up. Little is said about the next solo Saunders project, The Life And Times Of Vivienne Vyle, except that the show, a clever spin on daytime television chat shows, was vastly underrated. The closest Hyams gets to penetrating Saunders' privacy is her subject's decision in 2002 to relocate from the hustle and bustle of London to the idyllic countryside of Devon, where Saunders set her next sitcom, Jam And Jerusalem. Hyams observes: "The shift of focus, away from the urban, media-obsessed Ab Fab world, was a certain mirror of (Saunders') own life in the country, where life was so different." As Saunders is a private individual, it comes as no surprise that Hyams was reduced to merely rehashing various media reports about Saunders' breast cancer when news of her health scare became public knowledge in mid-2010, almost a year after Saunders was diagnosed with the cancer. Surprisingly, the only post-cancer project that Hyams focuses heavily on is the Spice Girls musical, Viva Forever!, which at the time of the book's publication had still to have its premiere. (The musical opened on Nov 27, 2012.) Other projects, such as the television series Blandings And Dead Boss, are given the sketchiest of mentions, primarily because Saunders herself did not heavily promote these projects. As a sideline to her public life, Hyams makes mention of Freddie, Saunders' first grandson, whose existence came to public knowledge through Saunders herself while she was promoting Viva Forever! To be fair to Hyams, Saunders is not an easy subject to tackle. Notoriously private, stories about Saunders falling about drunk in public after a night of clubbing are non-existent. Thus it is hard to paint Saunders as anything but a woman who cherishes her privacy and her life with Edmondson, their three daughters and now grandson away from the public glare. She just happens to be a comedienne who created a slew of genuinely funny shows that have stood the test of time. I don't think Jennifer Saunders: The Biography is meant to be anything more serious than the life story about a celebrity. Fans of Saunders will undoubtedly enjoy this book. For the casual follower, this sort of unauthorised biography makes a good starting point, as the book is an easy read and can be devoured within a day. |
| Posted: 10 Jan 2013 04:00 PM PST Happily Ever After ELEANOR Bee has everything planned out: she would move to London, she would become a literary star, and she would not fall in love – not after she has had to live with the aftermath of her parents' divorce. No, Eleanor Bee did not believe in true love. But life has a funny way of catching us unawares, and true love can come in may forms and shapes, not to mention tied to the past in ways that one can never predict. Wisdom From Laughter THIS book offers to tickle your funny bone even while it imparts valuable life lessons. Its collection of 500 jokes as well as illustrations and cartoon drawings sneak in lessons on compassion, common sense and good values while readers are laughing at the hearty jokes mixed with a dash of spice. Laughter, they say, is the best medicine and there are even "laugh clubs" worldwide that gather members to laugh out loud and lower their blood pressure! If you can't get to a club, dip into this book daily for a dose of laughter. Voice Of Islamic Moderation From The Malay World "THE squeaky wheel gets the grease", goes the old saying. Similarly, it is the loud, militant voices of Islam that catch the world's attention through newspaper and TV news reports. Moderate voices are lost in the din, which is why independent Muslim Malay academic Prof Dr Mohd Kamal Hassan produced this book. Written with a mainly non-Muslim audience in mind, the book is aimed at those who are interested in the issue of the peaceful co-existence of the Muslim world and the rest of the globe. The 11 essays hope to counter the tarnishing and demonising of Islam that has occurred since the 9/11 terror incidents in the United States in 2011 and to ease the heightened global tension between the Western and Muslim worlds. Kaleidoscope: The Memoirs of P.G. Lim A REMARKABLE woman's life is recorded in memoirs that are as informative as they are engaging. Born into an important Penang family, Tan Sri P.G. Lim lived an eventful life that saw her make her mark after WWII, first as a fearless lawyer and labour rights champion, and then as a top diplomat representing Malaysia in many Western countries. She was also one of only two women (the other was Tan Sri Dr Aishah Ghani) on the National Consultative Council that was set up in the wake of the May 13 riots in 1969, and the suspension of the Malaysian Parliament. Indeed, Lim was well-known to all of independent Malaysia's prime ministers. Kaleidoscope also shows off the more personal side of Lim, delving into her support for the arts and her voracious appetite for books. You're Rich! TAN Sri Datuk Sir Hiew King is the founder and chairman of the Rimbunan Hijau Group, a timber company founded in 1975 that has since diversified into other areas of business, including media (the group operates the Chinese language newspaper Sin Chiew Daily). This is the man that Forbes reported had a net worth of about US$1.2bil (RM3.649bil) in July 2012. And this is the man for whom the authors of You're Rich! had the opportunity to work. They observed and learned and put together chapters on what they feel are the billionaire's important philosophies in life and business. Learning from the master, the authors eventually ventured into setting up their own businesses and share their experiences in this book. |
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