In a Flash

It’s New Comics Day again!

Really excited about the latest installments of Flashpoint, in spite of myself…

Decided to do up a piece on The Flash….

Slightly different from what I’ve done previously…

The thing about the Flash is all about his speed… Trying very hard to capture his kinetic nature.

It’s also one of my first time experimenting with a non black background. There’s a lot more to consider with regard to the color scheme to make sure that everything “goes”…

There’s also a lot more modeling to be done then the usual works…

Of an Ending and 2 Goodbyes

And so it ends.

For a 4 issue event, Siege lasted 3 issues too long.

I mean it is essentially ONE big BRAWL and Marvel managed to drag it out over the main “Siege” books, “Siege Embedded”, “Siege: Random Marvel character”, “the XXX Avengers” among the OTHER countless tie ins. It is paced less like a brawl than a leisurely game of Bridge played at the local old folk’s home.

Siege IS the BIGGEST damn Mess I’ve ever seen.

I speak as someone who is not above sitting through an entire M Night Shayamalam movie just for the payoff at the end. If anything. the ending of Siege was ALMOST as bad as the whole set up and premise. There was no emotional connection to the *surprise* death at the end of it all. The only thing going for the ending was how conveniently (and sneakily) Marvel (or Brian Michael Bendis) managed to tie up some loose ends in their current continuity. In one fell swoop, Marvel found a way to kill off a character that was too awkward to exist in their little multiverse and at the same time found a purpose and place for a newly resurrected one (who conveniently is gonna be starring in a movie real soon). *cough* Steve *cough* Rogers *cough*

Which brings me to the “death”.

We now have the obligatory heroes send off at the end of the mega crossover. The “send off” issue, besides milking fan boys of our remaining pocket money for the month, serves as a recap of the fine things the “hero” has done and a reminder of why people love him.

In that respect, Siege’s hero send off was staler than the sweat of the boy who had just ingested a gallon of Cheezit (trust me, I know about this subject, sadly) because there just isn’t so much to “remember” *insider nudge nudge wink wink* about this particular character!

It’s exceptionally bad when compared to the “sending off” in Marvel’s other event for the moment – The X-Men’s Second Coming (Insert your own lewd joke here)

It is MY Marvel event for now. To be honest, there is not much of a fight here. It is currently pitted against Siege and… *horrors* World War Hulks. I am a HUGE fan of the Hulk. I even semi enjoyed Ang Lee’s vision of a poetic Hulk. But a Hulked out Marvel universe is too much for me to bear. This shall be a gripe for another day…

The pacing for SC has been superb. The death was really shocking.  The emotional investment I have in it is immense. Added on the whole new team dynamics of the X-Men since the Utopia storyline. I get the feeling I always get from reading my favourite pulps – That there might not be that bright cheery ending at the end of it all. That we are watching the characters go to hell in a fast car, but it is too damn fine a ride for us to look away.

Simply awesome.

Of course, I must point out this week’s fine reference to sunny lil Singapore.

Fear the prowess of Maxwell Lord!!

Do you really talk like that???

Just read a (really old) back issue of Gail Simone’s Birds of Prey. For the most part, I am quite a fan of Gail’s. Her writing on Birds of Prey seldom fail to impress me. The plots are tight and you kind of feel for the characters. (Which isn’t hard, considering the leads are hot (cartoon) babes in tight costumes, fish nets and often caught in compromising positions).

Anyway, I have some particular issues with this particular issue (hur hur). The basic premise was that Black Canary and guest star Ted Grant (Wildcat) were sent on an undercover mission to a drug lord in Singapore.

While they were in Singapore, they interacted with a few locals who basically talk like retards. Here’s an example..

Apparently, Simone got a local to “translate” her script for her, so the speech is rather accurately depicted. And here is the definition of Singlish according to Simone.

I’m not sure how accurate the portrayal of the language is.

But I for one, hopes that nobody speaks like this. I’ll personally give that man a thumping.

While comics are generally not considered international medium, how do you, as a Singaporean feel if you realise that this is the way the “World” looks at you?

Something to chew on…