The Star Online: Lifestyle: Bookshelf
The Star Online: Lifestyle: Bookshelf |
| Posted: 24 May 2013 12:25 AM PDT You've read the comics, you've watched the movies. Now hear about Marvel's television shows from its head of TV, Jeph Loeb. JEPH Loeb has been writing comic books for more than 20 years (winning four Eisner awards along the way), and has written both Marvel and DC Comics' most famous superheroes. He has also been heavily involved in television, having worked as a writer and producer on shows such as Heroes, Smallville and Lost. With such credentials, it was no surprise when Marvel appointed him its head of television in 2010. "I was given an amazing opportunity to combine the two sides of what I spent my entire career doing – telling stories in TV or in comic book form," he said during a phone interview from Los Angeles. One of Loeb's jobs is to make sure Marvel's shows, animated or otherwise, are not just rehashes of old comic book stories. "The stories (on the TV shows) shouldn't just be retelling stories that people who have read the comic books know. Our viewers need to know that these are bold new adventures that they are watching, not old ones," he said. "They should have the same feeling, emotion and fun and adventure, but they need the kind of spark that the original stories have without feeling like animated versions of comic books. Otherwise they wouldn't have their own identity." Case in point, popular animated series Ultimate Spider-Man, which will be airing its second season on Disney XD (Astro CH617) soon. According to Loeb, what makes the show a little different from the comics is the fact that in the show, Peter Parker is just 15 years old, and has only been Spider-Man for about a year. "The over-arcing story (in Ultimate Spider-Man) is that of Peter trying to become the ultimate (hero) he can be," he said. "In Season One, this was all brand new to Peter. He was getting used to working with S.H.I.E.L.D. and with tech." Loeb added that while the theme of the first season was "with great power comes great responsibility", with Season Two it's more like "with great responsibility comes great power". "He now has to learn how to be a team leader and accept the fact that he is responsible not just to himself, but also to the four young heroes (Nova, White Tiger, Iron Fist and Power Man) who are with him," said Loeb. "The fun of Season Two is you'll get to see some of the classic Spider-Man villains, like Electro, the Rhino, and Kraven the Hunter ... characters that you've known about for years, but who will be showing up in Ultimate Spider-Man for the first time." Other than Ultimate Spider-Man, Marvel will also be rolling out two other animated series this year – Hulk And The Agents of S.M.A.S.H., as well as Marvel Avengers Assemble. And that's not all; a live-action series, Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., has also been picked up by US network ABC, and will begin airing in September. The show is a spin-off from last year's The Avengers, and has Clark Gregg reprising his role as Agent Phil Coulson (yes, Coulson lives!), who leads a team of S.H.I.E.L.D. agents who "work the cases that S.H.I.E.L.D. has not classified – the strange, the unknown". Since his introduction in the Marvel motion pictures, Coulson has become a mainstay in the Marvel universe, popping up in some of the new Marvel Now comics, as well as playing a big part in Ultimate Spider-Man. "We (the TV arm of Marvel) really do like taking things from our publishing and motion picture cousins! It really has been a wonderful experience working with Clark Gregg, who does the voice for Phil Coulson in Ultimate Spider-Man," said Loeb, who refused to divulge any more information on the upcoming series. "We've shot a pilot with Joss Whedon writing and directing, and Clark Gregg plays a big role in the show. How that is possible (seeing that Coulson supposedly died at the hands of Loki in The Avengers) … well, you have to wait and see!" Besides his new TV-related responsibilities, Loeb continues to write for comics, most notably the new ongoing Nova series, which he says is the same Nova that is part of Spider-Man's young team of heroes on the TV show. "The comic book is (about) his origin. In Ultimate Spider-Man, he has clearly been Nova for a while – he understands his powers, and is very comfortable being a superhero," said Loeb. "In the comic book, he has just discovered that there is even such a thing as a 'Nova'! We are taking real care to tell that story in a way that you get really invested in him from the comic point of view, and still have fun with him on the show!" Still, despite the increasing popularity of characters like Spider-Man, the Avengers and Hulk thanks to the movies and TV shows, Loeb doesn't think these characters will one day outlive the comic book format. According to him, no matter how many great TV shows or movies Marvel does, it still can't begin to compare to the fact that Marvel, as a comic-book publisher, has been around for 70 years and puts out about a hundred titles a month. "It is a library of storytelling that's continued to grow and evolve, with new characters and situations that continually allow us to keep telling stories about our heroes in new worlds and new environments, with new adventures," he said. "This is a wonderful opportunity for us to be able to explore things in every format; whether it's comics, movies or TV ... it doesn't really matter. We're a company that continues to work together as one universe, and it is a very exciting time not just to work in Marvel but also to be a Marvel fan." ■ Ultimate Spider-Man Season Two premieres this Sunday at 10am on Disney XD (Astro CH 617). |
| Posted: 24 May 2013 01:14 AM PDT Jupiter's Legacy #1 Publisher: Image Comics Writer: Mark Millar Artist: Frank Quitely IT IS quite common to see superheroes fighting to save the world, presidents and even rock stars. Heck, I have even read about heroes fighting gingivitis and osteoporosis. In fact, I seriously thought I had seen it all – that is, until I read Jupiter's Legacy. It is, after all, the brainchild of Mark Millar, who we can always expect to add a whole new dimension to the usual superhero tale. He certainly delivers here. Eschewing the usual save-the-world premise, Millar introduces a different breed of heroes, ones who earned their battle scars by overcoming troubles from throughout history such as the Great Depression, WWII and Watergate. The main protagonist is the Utopian, a Superman-like character who has been the world's saviour since the Great Depression. No, he did not crash-land on Earth in a space pod, nor was he bitten by a radioactive spider or bombarded by gamma rays. He was a Wall Street casualty named Sheldon Sampson who lost his entire fortune in a single day. He figured that salvation for him lay in the form of a mysterious island, which he regarded as the solution to the world's problems. Fortunately for him, he wasn't alone in believing that the way to prevent America's free market infrastructure from becoming one big soup kitchen resided on this mythical island. Accompanied by his old college buddies and his brother, he eventually found the island, and they all came back as superheroes whose boundless idealism inspired the best in everyone they met. As the Utopian, Sheldon is like a Superman-Captain America combo who only sees good in people, and strives to inspire others to achieve greatness. However, human beings are a truly unique species, and unsurprisingly, not everyone (including his kids) shares Sheldon's beliefs. Fast-forward to the present day, and the world that Sheldon has saved on countless occasions is in just as bad shape as it was during the Great Depression. America and the global economy are hanging by a thread, the Euro-zone is haemorrhaging money, and although Sheldon still believes that the president, economists and the country's elected representatives know best, his teammates beg to differ. To make things worse, even Sheldon's children and the next generation of superheroes feel that the days of good fighting evil are over, as there are other invisible but equally devastating challenges in play. While we are used to reading about superheroes thwarting alien invasions or saving Earth from a world devourer's menu, pitting them against real-life challenges like economic recessions and politics certainly offers a fresh perspective to saving the world. There may be the usual good vs evil slugfest in this premiere issue, but even the approach and outcome of the fight turns out to be very unique indeed. Frank Quitely's art here is phenomenal as usual and perfect for this generations-spanning tale. Quitely is no stranger to epic superhero tales – he has worked with Grant Morrison on the acclaimed WE3 and All-Star Superman, as well as with Millar on The Authority. Meanwhile, Millar has made epics out of The Ultimates, The Authority, Superior and Red Son, and the winning formula from those books is also part of Jupiter's Legacy. The Utopian's team is akin to the Ultimates and the Authority's best quality (or their worst, some might argue), in that they have no qualms about the end justifying the means. Equally deserving of sharing centre-stage is Sheldon's brother Walter, who clearly sees how modern-day ills are afflicting society. While he has been supportive of his brother's vision from Day One, only one of them has evolved to cope with today's challenges, and a showdown between the brothers is inevitable. Overall, Jupiter's Legacy is like a modern-day take on DC's Kingdom Come. In that epic Elseworlds four-parter, Superman was constantly criticised for his outdated methods, and it was largely felt that society's ills required a more drastic approach. Similarly, here, the Utopian's belief in the political and economic system – the same one that gave birth to the Great Depression and the current global financial crisis – deserves undivided respect and trust. Stud or stooge, we can't wait to see how the next nine issues will determine his fate. ■ Comic courtesy of Earth 638 (2nd Floor, Kelana Mall, Jalan SS6/12, Petaling Jaya. Tel: 03-78048380. Email: Earth638@yahoo.com) |
| Posted: 24 May 2013 03:28 AM PDT Terry Pratchett mixes fantasy with history in this young adult book set in Victorian London. Dodger Author: Terry Pratchett Publisher: Doubleday, 368 pages THE Dodger is a tosher, a sewer scavenger who navigates the city's underbelly looking for coins, shiny baubles and other lost treasures. One dark and stormy night, our artful hero comes across a young damsel in distress leaping from a carriage, and proceeds to save her from two louts who were about to do unspeakable things to her. In the process, the young lad is sucked into a world of trouble, one that is of a significantly higher class (and better smelling) than he is used to, as he tries to help the girl escape her troubles with the help of a well-spoken journalist/writer named ... Charlie Dickens. Yes, Charles Dickens himself is a character in a book that sees him meeting and helping Dodger, a character from Oliver Twist, a book by the real Charles Dickens. And if that wasn't mind-warping enough for you, the Dodger also meets other real and fictional characters, such as the throat-slitting barber Sweeney Todd, former British Prime Minster Robert Peel (the real man founded the London police force), and heiress Angela Burdett-Coutts (who, according to Pratchett's acknowledgements, was "the richest woman in the world at the time, apart from a queen here or there"). This may not be one of Pratchett's books from the more popular Discworld series, but the world it occupies is also a fantasy world of sorts, populated by well-known literary names and characters co-existing in an early Victorian-age London that somehow reminds one of Discworld's sprawling Ankh Morpokh metropolis (with cleaner sewers, if that is even possible). It's such a wonderfully warped yet artfully constructed little world that I wouldn't have been surprised if some alien tripods showed up and blow up London only for the city to be saved by the Nautilus, emerging from the depths of the Thames River (Oh wait, I think that's something from Alan Moore's League Of Extraordinary Gentlemen). To Pratchett's credit, he doesn't turn Dodger into a how-many-famous-people-and-characters-can-I-stuff-into-this-book exercise. Of all his standalone, non-Discworld books, I probably enjoyed this one the most – the somewhat philosophical Nation (2008), though entertaining, hardly registered in my mind after I had finished it, while his collaboration with Stephen Baxter, The Long Earth (2012), was more memorable for not being a typical Pratchett book than anything else. With Dodger, Pratchett's writing is funnier, and the jokes come a lot more naturally. It actually feels like he is having loads of fun with his characters, especially the titular hero. Sharp, streetwise, and artful, of course, Dodger is a main character who is instantly likeable and whom you will immediately want to root for. His rise from street urchin to the upper echelons of society is a journey you desperately want him to complete, even though it sometimes feels as though Pratchett is making it way too easy for him. While the author admits in his acknowledgements that "certain tweaks were needed to get people in the right place at the right time", probably only historical nitpickers will begrudge him this artistic license. This is, after all, a "fantasy based on a reality", a "historical fantasy, and certainly not a historical novel", which Pratchett wrote to get people interested in that fascinating era. If that was his main objective, then he certainly succeeded. While reading the book, I was constantly researching names that popped up, just to see what their real-life counterparts did. And while the Victorian slang he uses in the dialogue was a little challenging at times, it added to the authenticity of the era and made the story that much more engrossing (not to mention the use of the word "richards" to describe er ... human excrement made for some hilarious sentences). Dodger feels like a calming reassurance from the ailing Pratchett, who is suffering from early-onset Alzheimer's disease. With this book (and the next Discworld book, Raising Steam, to be published later this year), it feels like he is telling us that yes, he is still around, and yes, he is still writing, pretty well too. So don't write him off just yet, thank you very much. |
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