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Posted: 29 Jul 2011 03:31 AM PDT

THIS is it, the final piece of The Avengers jigsaw puzzle, and arguably the most important one yet. Thor, Iron Man and Hulk (along with Ant Man and Wasp) may be the original founders of the Avengers, but Captain America is its most capable leader, and probably the character that represents the group best.

Captain America: The First Avenger (CA:TFA) may not be the first attempt to transfer the popular Marvel superhero onto the big screen (there have been previous live action incarnations in 1944, 1979 and 1990), but it certainly is the best and most ambitious version of the character so far. So why has it taken so long for Captain America to finally have a movie he can be proud of?

Well, let's put it this way: we believed a billionaire weapons-maker could be a superhero by wearing a super-powered suit of armour. We suspended our disbelief long enough to believe that a mild-mannered scientist could be zapped by gamma rays and become a giant green monster. We've even managed to throw aside all logic and believe that Thor the thunder god actually exists and there is a mythical realm called Asgard out there somewhere.

But are we truly ready to believe that a real soldier would wear a tight, bright red-white-blue suit into battle, armed with nothing but a brightly coloured round shield?

Next to Thor, Captain America was probably the hardest Avenger to bring to the big screen thanks to his star-spangled superhero costume. After all, blue, red and white tights and a winged helmet isn't exactly standard military issue, and neither is a shield made out of vibranium.

In an interview with British magazine Comic Heroes, CA:TFA producer Stephen Broussard said it was a challenge bringing the costume to life. "The challenge – and the fun part – is always interpreting it off the page and making it believable, justifying why a soldier would wear something like that in the field," he said. "It's been something we've had to do in all our films ... whether it's Stark's armour ... the Asgardian costumes ... or Cap's quasi-period Stark-tech outfit."

Another potential stumbling block was the obvious patriotic-slant of the character. Of course, you can't make a movie about a character named Captain America and not include some patriotic American chest-beating in it. But in today's global market, the filmmakers had to take care not to be too in-your-face with the "ra-ra America" stuff.

Fortunately, CA:TFA director Joe Johnston had a convenient way out of that conundrum – they set the movie in World War II, in a time when it was totally acceptable to be patriotic and passionate about fighting for your country.

"One of the benefits of telling a period piece is that the character is so tied to that time period," Broussard told Comic Heroes. "Through the lens of history there's the benefit of right and wrong and it's very easy to understand why they would want to join their country at their time period – why they would want to make a difference."

Set in 1941 during the height of World War II, CA:TFA tells the story of Steve Rogers (Chris Evans), a frail, sickly man who wants nothing more than to enlist in the military and serve his country in the war. Unfortunately, his frail condition automatically disqualifies him from being a soldier. Salvation comes in the form of Dr Abraham Erskine, who has handpicked Rogers to be the first recipient of a "Super Soldier" serum he has created. After receiving the serum and bathed with "Vita-rays" that help stabilise the serum within his body, Rogers' body is enhanced to the pinnacle of human perfection, giving him almost superhuman strength, agility and even limited regenerative powers. Unfortunately, a spy from the dastardly Hydra organisation assassinates Dr Erskine right after the procedure, leaving Rogers as the only super soldier in existence. Led by Johann Schmidt a.k.a. Red Skull (Hugo Weaving), Hydra has harnessed the power of a powerful Asgardian (yes, from Asgard, Thor's home) artefact and is planning to destroy the world with its power, and it's up to Captain America to stop them.

The comics

As far as the story goes, the film pretty much mirrors the origin story from the original 1941 comic (pic), created by the legendary comic writer-artist team Joe Simon and Jack Kirby for Timely Comics (the predecessor of Marvel Comics). Back then, Captain America was created as an intentionally patriotic symbol for a nation taking part in World War II, and his stories often depicted him going up against German Nazis, Japanese and other threats against America. The cover of the first issue of Captain America even depicted the hero punching out Adolf Hitler!

Once the war was over, however, Captain America's popularity began to wane; but the Captain America title soldiered on bravely through major events such as the death of his sidekick Bucky, before ignominiously cancelled in 1950. After an attempt to revive the character in 1954 flopped, the character was (literally) put on ice for almost a decade before he was finally officially reintroduced into the Marvel universe in 1964, through The Avengers #4.

In that issue, the Avengers – made up of Thor, Iron Man, Wasp and Giant Man at the time – found Steve Rogers frozen in ice in the Arctic during a mission. Apparently, Rogers had been in a state of suspended animation for decades, having fallen from a plane into the North Atlantic Ocean during the final days of WWII. Now a man out of his time, but no less powerful, the Captain is accepted into the Avengers and soon ascended to become the team's field leader.

With his initiation into the Avengers, Captain America's popularity was on the rise again. He was subsequently given his own title once more in 1965, and has been a mainstay in Marvel's roster ever since. Over the years, Captain America has battled villains such as Baron Zemo and Red Skull; changed his name several times (which included Nomad, The Captain, to the current Super Soldier), and was even "assassinated" in the aftermath of the major Marvel crossover event Civil War.

After that event, Rogers' former sidekick Bucky Barnes took over the mantle of Captain America. After Rogers was inadvertently "revived", he insisted that Bucky continue on as Captain America. However, all that is set to change once again with the latest crossover event, Fear Itself.

For all his solo adventures, however, Captain America is most prominent when teaming up with the Avengers. Despite joining the team late, he was given founding member status in place of Hulk, and has been at the forefront of the team ever since.

Therefore, it is only apt that the final piece of The Avengers film puzzle is the Sentinel of Liberty himself. Now, that all the major players have already been introduced, we can only wait with bated breath for May 2012, when Captain America finally utters the immortal words: AVENGERS ASSEMBLE!

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Cream of the crop

Posted: 29 Jul 2011 02:08 AM PDT

THE dust has settled at the Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards 2011, presented by Comic-Con International (Comic-Con).

The awards, considered the "Oscars" of comics, ended on an unusual note last Friday night in San Diego, United States, with the Best Graphic Album-New category going to two winners: Jim McCann and Janet Lee's Return Of The Dapper Men (published by Archaia) and Dan Clowes's Wilson (published by Drawn & Quarterly).

The "Eisners," which honour comics' best and brightest, were held as part of Comic-Con, the world's largest comic book and popular arts event.

The Graphic Album category is somewhat comparable to "Best Picture" in the comics industry. Other notable winners included horror novelist Joe Hill for Best Writer (Locke & Key, IDW), Chew (Image) by John Layman and Rob Guillory for Best Continuing Series, Daytripper (Vertigo/DC) by Brazilian brothers Gabriel Bá and Fábio Moon for Best Limited Series, and American Vampire (Vertigo/DC) by Scott Snyder, Stephen King, and Rafael Albuquerque for Best New Series.

Creators who received multiple awards were Hellboy creator Mike Mignola (Best Cover Artist, Best Single Issue for Hellboy: Double Feature Of Evil, published by Dark Horse), famed French cartoonist Jacques Tardi (Best Reality-Based Work and Best US Edition of International Material for It Was The War Of The Trenches, published by Fantagraphics), and artist Skottie Young (Best Adaption from Another Work and Best Penciller/Inker for The Marvelous Land of Oz, published by Marvel).

The publisher taking away the most awards was IDW, with five total, including two for Dave Stevens' The Rocketeer Artist's Edition, in addition to Joe Hill's Best Writer nod and Darwyn Cooke's win for Best Writer/Artist.

DC Comics had four winners plus two shared, along with bragging rights for the Best Comics-Related Book: 75 Years Of DC Comics, by Paul Levitz.

Dark Horse had three winners (including the two for Mignola) plus two shared. Marvel Comics received three trophies, while Archaia and Fantagraphics receive two. Other publishers taking home trophies included BOOM!, Drawn & Quarterly, Image, Scholastic, and VIZ.

Full list of Eisner 2011 winners at (www.comic-con.org/cci/cci_eisners_ main.php).

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State of dream

Posted: 29 Jul 2011 02:07 AM PDT

The Eisner Award-nominated story arcs in The Finder Library: Volume 1 have set the bar for science fiction storytelling, with a lush, intricate world and compelling characters.

WHEN we saw the bulky, 600+ pages of The Finder Library: Volume 1, our first thoughts were, "Holy cow! it's going to take us forever to read through this book before we've digested enough to write about it."

Turns out we'd prove ourselves wrong on both counts.

First, we finished the book much faster than we expected since we simply could not put it down – the stories were just too engrossing.

Second, despite spending over two weeks reading through the pages of Finder, we still have no idea how to describe it. Do we call it a sci-fi story? A fantasy adventure? A human drama? Or something else altogether?

The stories told in Finder are set in an amazing, strange, and almost surreal world where massive domed cities house complex communities of human clans and animal-folk. It's a place where psychics and aboriginal totems exist side-by-side with holograms and AIs; where centaurs can have jobs as taxi drivers; where people can read books by plugging their brain into computers; and where intricate tribal customs are intertwined with the ruthless mechanisms of shadowy corporations.

Finder makes liberal use of elements from the fantasy, science fiction and cyberpunk genres, yet it refuses to be confined to any single one of them.

As a result, the story finds itself in a territory best described as dream-like.

However, despite the exotic setting and fully fleshed out alien/fantasy world, Finder's not an epic tale about good vs evil, nor is it an action-adventure that takes the hero on a journey across the planet to save it.

Instead, in a world full of unexplained wonders and daily mysteries, the real conflict and drama in the Finder stories are very human and personal in nature.

In Sin Eater, the first of the story arcs compiled in the Finder Library, we're introduced to the gruff hero/anti-hero Jaeger and his interactions with a dysfunctional family who live in the strange domed city of Anvard.

Sin Eater is Exhibit A in the case for Finder's compelling storytelling: it stars characters that struggle with internal conflicts, have complex yet believable relationships with one another, face ugly matters such as emotional abuse and, ultimately, grow in the face of challenges.

Plus, as we learn more about Jaeger's odd character and experience the trials of the Grosvenor-Lockhart family, we're also gradually acquainted to the colourful cultures of the citizens of Anvard.

The high quality of storytelling continues in the next two story arcs.

In King Of The Cats, we see Jaeger caught in a conflict between the Ascians, a tribe of humans, and the Nyima, a tribe of feline women.

Talisman is a story about a girl trying to write a story, and its protagonist is a side character introduced in a previous arc.

It's interesting enough to see the story-within-a-story aspect in Talisman, but what we found more interesting was seeing how a character we were previously acquainted with grow up and evolve over three chapters.

Carla Speed McNeil does an astounding job in capturing the reader's imagination with her detailed black-and-white illustrations and the deliberate narrative pacing. Plus, the massive walls of text crammed in between the illustrations really give insight into the world she created.

Wait, wait, don't get scared off by the deluge of printed words – although Finder really puts the "novel" in "graphic novel", it does it really well.

While massive amounts of text would have made most other comics incredibly tiresome to slog through, the well-written dialogues and internal monologues in Finder are really engrossing and only help in drawing you into the world of McNeil's creation.

After reading through several pages hinting at Anvard's hidden history and the customs of the Ascian and Nyima tribes, we're not only filled with a sense of wonder at Finder's intricate story world, but also with a hunger to learn more.

By the time you've gone through the first volume of the Finder Library, you, too, will share the questions that are currently swimming in our head: Who or what created the mysterious domed city of Anvard? What's the true nature of Jaeger's nomadic, unkillable "condition"?

And, more importantly, where can an eager reader find more Finder stories? (At least this one we can answer: visit the artist's website at http://www.lightspeedpress.com/, or the Finder website at http://www.findercomics.com/.)

The Finder Library: Vol 1 is absolutely NOT for readers who are looking for quick, easy to read stories or stories with definite good guys vs bad guys and clear-cut happy endings.

The complicated relationships between the characters alone would drive you bonkers, and the veritable ocean of text will pretty much drive you over the edge with its attention to detail and world-building information.

However, if you're willing to invest a good chunk of your time to get absorbed in really great stories about the lives of interesting people and to see an entire world slowly unfold before you, then we invite you to get lost in Finder.

The Finder Library: Volume 1 (Dark Horse Comics) is available at Kinokuniya KLCC.

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Kredit: www.thestar.com.my

Jumaat, 29 Julai 2011

The Star Online: Lifestyle: Bookshelf

The Star Online: Lifestyle: Bookshelf

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