Weekend Update

Why isn't this movie out yet?!?

Still from "My Name Is Bruce"

My Inner 8-Year-Old is Very Happy.


Set in 1959/1960 (when I was actually 8), this is not just a great adaptation of a great comic, but a great piece of animation on its own. And if you want chills, then hearing excerpts from Kennedy's New Frontier speech at the end is positively cryogenic.

Sirk de Soleil. My cousin John has this fascination for Douglas Sirk (cough) understatement of the century (cough), and he's channelled this jones into a play that takes the mighty oaks of Joe Orton and Charles Busch and whittles them down into a swizzle stick that could have stirred a gimlet in North Beach circa the year Written on the Wind came out. Stylized, goofy, campy, clever, knowing and dumb (and usually at the same time), it's still about two you-must-kill-your-darlings monologues too long for its own good. But hey--it's a work-in-progress. It'll get done again at some point. And when it does, check it out.

Seven Types of Continuity: Part Two

Casanova #9. Continuing the craziness in this delirious mash-up of Moorcock's Jerry Cornelius with Nick Fury Agent of SHIELD, the foxy blonde with the six arms at the end of last issue is revealed to be Sasa Lisi, the Girl from M.O.T.T. and she's looking for the answer to the question "When is Casanova Quinn?" Meanwhile, Cass' sister Zephyr gets a new potential love interest and a new assignment: eliminate everyone who knows anything about the H-Element Project, including (dum dum du-u-u-u-u-um) Daddy Cornelius, head of E.M.P.I.R.E. As usual, the five-page text epilogue by author Matt Fraction boogaloos all over the place as it delivers sources, references, and (cough) are you listening, DC (cough) footnotes. Also as usual, I finish reading this and feel like I need to re-read issues 1-8 again because I'm a little lost.

Welcome to Tranquility #10. Things do not look good for Wildstorm's home of ex-heroes. The dead are popping up all over the place, Satan's talk-show host is gathering the two sidekicks he needs to make up the three that all the zuvembies have been nattering about for three issues, and it turns out that the Greatest Story Ever Told is actually a Bronze Age funnybook. This will all make sense if you've been buying the title, which would not be the case if this was written by anyone else but Gail Simone. There's a bright Alan Moore ABC glow to this title; it's like Planetary crossed with Carl Barks. Unlike a lot of stuff I read, I have no frigging idea where Ms. Simone is going with this story or how she's going to resolve it, but it sure is a fun ride.


Justice Society of America #9. He's ba-a-a-ack. As usual if you're new to DC, you will have no idea who I'm talking about. But since this character's appearance was previewed on the last page of issue #1, it's no surprise to anyone who's been picking up the title. A definite prologue issue, with the Leaguers banding together to combat a low-key disaster (a building fire) that turns out to be a lot less mundane than arson. And (spoiler alert) here's Kal-L with his weird-shaped S, wondering where he is. He's not the only one. Doesn't anybody stay dead in the DCVerse besides Bruce Wayne's parents? (I'm waiting for the Judd Winick retcon on that one.) If anybody else but Geoff Johns was writing this I'd be worried. And since this is probably going to turn into a Countdown tie-in, I'm prepared to be totally ticked off.