I have to give the highest recommendation these early Chris Claremont X-Men comics, however flawed some of them may be, because of the huge positive iI have to give the highest recommendation these early Chris Claremont X-Men comics, however flawed some of them may be, because of the huge positive impact Claremont on the superhero genre. These are classics for very good reason, and was the pinnacle of Marvel for years.
It all started with Giant-Size X-Men # 1, (which I believe was only co-scripted by Claremont), which soft rebooted the franchise from a failing Silver Age teen book to a new diverse collection of superpowered heroes from all over the world. The introduction of Storm cannot be understated, it was a huge step. Having a Russian character in Colossus as well, and Nightcrawler was cool and of course Wolverine became the breakout star.
In the earliest issues, it was still very much a Bronze Age 70s comic with tons of exclamation points and not much subtlety. But there was a hint of the greatness that was to come. Dave Cockrum's art showed a lot of energy and creativity with the new designs, but mostly it was about fighting supervillains. And many of the early villains were forgettable, B-listers from the rest of the Marvel universe. Who remembers that it was actually Count Neferia and his Ani-Men that killed Thunderbolt? (There's a couple of skippable few fillers in here too.)
Soon though, the best of the Silver Age returned with the Sentinels and Magneto. There were other homages that were nostalgic at the time, such fighting fake versions of the original X-Men more than once. Juggernaut's a cool villain as well.
As much as Claremont is of course responsible for all of this, he was often best at taking characters others created and doing good work with them--with the exception here of Kitty Pryde. He wrote Cyclops excellently, who's usually the protagonist, and made conflicts with Professor X among other plotlines. Banshee was there a lot, who doesn't feel as essential now compared to the others, but do note he was from the old pre-Claremont days.
When it got really good, was when Jean Grey came back to the group and transformed into the Phoenix. That led to a cosmic saga with Lilandra and the Shi'ar alien empire. The science fiction element got more and more ambitious. Then, in the climax, John Byrne illustrated and it got really really good.
John Byrne and Chris Claremont made for one of the greatest comic writer-artist teams of all time. It reads as good as any modern comic, with detailed penciling and clear storytelling. In this run, it was hit after hit. The mystery of Wolverine's origin explored with Alpha Flight, lost in the Savage Land, and Proteus. Then, the evil Hellfire Club and at last: The Dark Phoenix Saga!
It was an unparalleled era, bringing sophistication to American comics like never before seen in the late 1970s. The dystopian Days of Future Past as well, later on. However, as great and timeless as these were, upon rereading there were certain patterns that emerged. The X-Men were easily brainwashed, and were defeated and captured all the time. It's kind of refreshing, compared to how overly powerful mutants are these days, as there were more stakes backs then when it didn't feel like it was easy to win any conflict. It's just that it gets kind of repetitive when reading fast in reprints instead of once a month. And they supposedly died a whole lot, with everyone actually believing that, which seems incredibly naive today.
This is really required reading. You can't be a superhero fan and not know X-Men by Claremont, and this is where it started. For some reason though, as huge as this omnibus edition is, it doesn't include the finale of the Dark Phoenix Saga which feels less complete. Not sure whey they made that choice, these books are huge no matter what. In any case, this review is most of all about Claremont, and Cockrum and then Byrne, and that's why it fully earns 5/5....more
Elle Reeve is still famous for her viral 2017 Vice video about the Charlottesville white supremacist rally, nearly a decade later, which is sadly stilElle Reeve is still famous for her viral 2017 Vice video about the Charlottesville white supremacist rally, nearly a decade later, which is sadly still extremely relevant.
Her new book Black Pill: How I Witnessed the Darkest Corners of the Internet Come to Life, Poison Society, and Capture American Politics is a deep dive into all the background of that day, and its aftermath. And moreover, it’s about the background and aftermath of all that has happened to the entirety of America (and the world) in this unfortunate era.
The book starts with a surprisingly personal tale of the journalist’s childhood—of when Reeve’s childhood neighbor stalked and harassed her family. There’s a direct line, she explains, from how she learned to deal with that at a young age and to how she later made a career out of interacting with extremists.
When it gets to the modern internet era, there is an exploration of incel culture featuring interviews with Fred Brannon, the disabled programmer who founded 8kun and even had a connection to the start of the QAnon movement. Brannon disavows his earlier work, and is very open about his regrets from those wild days of the internet when they didn’t know being offensive and “ironic” online would lead to such horrific real-world repercussions. There’s also a very frank discussion of sexuality, not only about how these people felt as older virgins but also about how they felt when they first had sex and didn’t get to be a part of the incel community anymore. A fascinating and counter-intuitive perspective.
The book then continues into the culture of abject white supremacy, and it is grim. She interviews Richard Spencer and others of the alt right, getting into all their crackpot theories and hateful ideology. It gets dark. Some of the worst of it isn’t even the racism, but the sexism, because as she explains they never quite got their fascist revolution and chance to play out their racist fantasies: So therefore, they rather focused on controlling the women in their personal lives. I thought I knew a lot but I had never before heard the term “white sharia,” and just how much they hate women having any freedoms. It’s a strange thing that so many racist women joined the movement, because they thought it would benefit them, and then felt oppressed by these abusive men, which happened again and again.
Eventually, that movement seemed vindicated by the 2016 election and then comes the terrible Unite the Right rally of the following year which ended in a deadly car attack. This is when Reeve focuses on interviewing Christopher Cantwell, who incriminated himself so much in the famous Vice report and later became known as the Crying Nazi after his life fell apart. He is a very disturbed individual, with emotional and addiction problems, which feels like a sort of vindication to learn.
Reeve warns, however, that it’s not enough to think of these people as losers. Many of them are quite smart in fact, at least by some metrics. The simple truth of it is that it doesn’t matter if they are losers, many so-called losers don’t become domestic terrorists, and it doesn’t matter if they are smart as many smart people don’t become vicious extremists online. The important thing is to analyze the big picture and understand why the internet and society as a whole has driven so many people in this direction. Brennon, sadly, speaks of how wrong he was when he envisioned his website as a way for “unlimited” free speech to lead to positive ideas, and instead it turned into a nightmare of shitposting in which only the worst of humanity got the most attention…
While most of the awful characters in this book get their comeuppance, such as Richard Spencer who loses everything and faces devastating legal consequences, it’s hardly a happy ending. Yes, these figures specifically ultimately lost everything and completely failed at becoming part of the mainstream. But that’s little comfort at this point.
The book was published before the most recent election, when it seemed that January 6th, 2021 was the worst it could get. Now we are on an even darker path influenced by these people blackpilled on the internet, and while many of the outright fascists didn’t get any material benefits it sure seems like their ideas are majorly influencing this current government.
Personally, I don’t know how Elle Reeve could stand to be around them and get so much information from these people. But I’m glad she did, because it is necessary to learn in order to fight back.
No doubt she’ll have to write another book when this administration is over and America needs to do some serious soul-searching, and indeed she will be uniquely qualified to understand what the hell has happened....more
Like all of these epic crossovers, not for the novices. A good read if into the illustrious Grant Morrison, such as their 90s JLA, continuing into theLike all of these epic crossovers, not for the novices. A good read if into the illustrious Grant Morrison, such as their 90s JLA, continuing into the continuity clusterf*ck that is the 21st Century DC. Post-Infinite Crisis, but a more linear story (even though there's some weird non-linear stuff--it is Morrison). The whole end of the world, this time focusing on Darkseid and Kirby's New Gods but the Seven Soldiers versions. It may not have been the last of the Crises, but it was the climax of the Batman RIP and Superman Beyond was awesome too. Nobody does DC cosmic like Grant!...more
Doctor Aphra is a character who came out of the Marvel Star Wars comic books, the first of the new Darth Vader series by noted writer Kieron Gillen spDoctor Aphra is a character who came out of the Marvel Star Wars comic books, the first of the new Darth Vader series by noted writer Kieron Gillen specifically, and this audio drama is an adaptation of those first arcs in which she works for Lord Vader and occasionally bumps into the likes of Luke, Han, and Leia...
It's interesting to revisit these stories from her point of view. She is a fun character, a sort of evil Indiana Jones type, galivanting rogue archeologist not quite bad enough to prevent fans to root for her. The part where she says "weapons don't belong in a museum, they belong in an armory" is genuinely funny! She's also queer, and there's more of that in the original material, which is interesting enough. It is a shame she isn't "live action-worthy" as of yet, though she did get her own comic series eventually.
(Also, her droid companions Triple-Zero and Bee Tee are essentially homicidal versions of Threepio and Artoo. And that's hilarious.)
As far as Star Wars audio dramas available on Audible--not merely audiobooks because these have a full cast with special effects etc.--this is much better than the High Republic era one Tempest Runner. But not quite as good as the prequel era drama Dooku: Jedi Lost, which fleshed out more original backstory to a more intriguing character. Doctor Aphra as a retelling of better comics doesn't quite justify itself, even with the format of her narrating a recording summing up all her adventures. It's just not as good and I'd rather recommend reading the comics.
Of the performances, the Darth Vader parts are pretty well done. With the altered voice and all. Then when Luke, Han, and Leia show up it's not as well done, but that's a tall order to get those celebrity voice impersonations right. I think I did spot a continuity mistake: Boba Fett has been retconned to have a New Zealand accent now hasn't he? How very nerdy of me to notice.
For fans of audiobooks and Star Wars spinoffs, this was worth listening to in a completist kinda way. Yet I'd certainly recommend Gillen's Darth Vader series more, or the Vader Down crossover, which are quality stories even for readers who aren't superfans.
Honestly, I'm still waiting to find a Star Wars audio drama that utilizes the medium well. Guess the space opera works best on the screen, followed by comics, then distantly followed by novels. This isn't the medium that really works....more
Yuval Harari's latest book is probably his best since Sapiens, and potentially much more important.
The popular historian has often said that history Yuval Harari's latest book is probably his best since Sapiens, and potentially much more important.
The popular historian has often said that history is the study of change. And it is with this view that he breaks down how important information networks have been throughout history, and then goes on to speculate how new technologies could become extremely life-altering. Specifically, the bulk of the book is a focus on the dangers of AI.
There's a fascinating history lesson in the first third, which Harari as always excels at. Taking the complex histories of various religions and then the printing press and the scientific method and more, and presenting these in ways easy for the layman reader to understand and process at a Big Picture scale.
The majority of the chapters are more about modernity and computers. In that vein, many examples are given, which are not so much future possibilities as they are records of what has already gone wrong when social media upends entire societies around the world: The genocide in Myanmar is explained at length, to highlight that these are not just hypothetical situations. We can also see how populism came about, making something coherent out of all the nationalist ideologies around the globe which do tend to be contradictory, giving the reader perhaps an overly fair assessment of why they've been so appealing to voters.
Harari certainly talks a lot about misinformation, and how it's been so prevalent with the rise of engagement-driven algorithms which are incentivized to bring out the worst in people. Frankly, at times it's a bit frustrating how he doesn't call a spade a spade and blame the right-wing specifically for this. There have been many studies proving those on the political right are far more likely to share misinformation online, but Harari has a style of being "above it all" and won't quite say that outright. Either way, there is something happening with this current phenomenon of information and communication breaking down, and it does need to be objectively studied.
Another valid criticism is a lack of analysis about capitalism. It is kind of assumed that democracy is a superior form of government, whether philosophically a Kantian or a utilitarian, which I of course agree with. But contrasting with lengthy examples of oppression in, say, Stalin's Soviet Union or religious fundamentalism in Iran, capitalism as the system causing what is now happening is only passingly mentioned. Which is a shame, because it is rather obvious that tech companies are already breaking down society so much precisely because of the profit motive.
By the end of the book, what leaves the biggest impressions are warnings about the future of AI, which will most likely exacerbate all these issues. There are the obligatory positive potentials mentioned, in healthcare for example, yet we all know there is much to fear. The list of worse-case scenarios about how AI could destroy both democracies and dictatorships--and then become the worst imaginable dictatorship, these go on and on. It is indeed frightening.
Something Harari explains well is the "garbage in, garbage out" principle, about how we must be skeptical of machine learning and language models because human biases are inherent in the data they collect. Moreover, as we grow more dependent on AI, which version of human nature will win out... Will we be able to remain skeptical, or will we end up trusting these seemingly godlike technologies as infallible? So, if it's the latter, how dangerous will that become?
The overall question of the whole thesis, is whether or not democracy be able to survive the tumultuous 21st century. Harari speaks of how dictatorships tend to fall because of rigid institutions and lack of reality-based communication, and how democracy has major advantages due to self-correcting mechanisms and the ability to adapt.
With the rush of current events that have occurred since this book was published, in this year, does that seem to apply to the United States anymore?
Unfortunately, it's hard to imagine many reasons for optimism any longer.
Harari does repeatedly say that history and technology are not deterministic. That there are many paths that may appear, and there's no reason to believe there's only one way it has to be.
But is this a good thing or a bad thing? The assumption that more information will inevitably lead to more truth, is something he calls the naïve view. He's not wrong; this perspective supporting the free-for-all online doesn't seem to be working out at all. And a major example in history before was the printing press. Everyone thinks that more books inevitably led to the enlightenment and science and an eventual higher standard of living. But that wasn't necessarily destiny, in fact. One of the first best-seller books in those easy days when the technology was new, was the Hammer of Witches. A psychotic and perverted treatise pandering to sick fantasies, kind of like QAnon, which brought about an era of witch burnings in Europe. Perhaps it's only an accident of history that the printing press later seemed to have worked out better for at least some of humanity.
With that in mind, we should definitely be working much harder to create more self-correcting mechanisms to fight against AI and algorithms gone awry. Before it's too late. Very tragically, that's not something rapidly aging government officials holding on to power are interested in whatsoever, or even barely understand. The tech giants and the ultra-wealthy influencing so much seem to have the opposite view, that they should empower computers and informational chaos even more, just on the chance they might make even more money.
It feels bleak, there's no other way to put it.
Whether or not Nexus by Yuval Harari is perfect or not, it is vital that the mainstream learn about these issues one way or the other. Read more, study more, get other perspectives. If this book by a popular nonfiction author is the way to get more people thinking, then that's what it takes.
I recommend it very much, and most of all I hope at least some of these ideas trickle up to those in power so we can face what's coming and against all odds, somehow, finally create a better world....more
Ta-Nehisi Coates is a crucial writer for this era we find ourselves in now, in this chaotic year of 2024.
When so much seems to be going wrong in the wTa-Nehisi Coates is a crucial writer for this era we find ourselves in now, in this chaotic year of 2024.
When so much seems to be going wrong in the world, it’s important to have writers and artists lay out how the world is (and how the world should be), to interpret and express the contradictions and horrors of America, and of the world America has made.
For some activists who are very tuned into certain current events, Coates’ book The Message won’t quite say anything new. But that isn’t really the point. It’s not a history book—it’s not meant to be a scholarly review of everything racist within America and in those countries propped up by American support.
Rather, The Message is a personal book by a writer who overlays these issues through the filter of his own experiences. And that is where its true value lies.
This memoir is made up of three essays, each more powerful than the last. In the first, Coates goes to Senegal to reflect on his African heritage. It’s a fascinating insight, and he gets into his own inner conflict over his lifelong connection to his very name. It’s a perspective on the African American experience not often explored: How Black African nationalism inspired his parents to give him the name Ta-Nehisi, and how he has had questioned the validity of that.
The theme of racial pride by way of imagining past empires, some real and some fictional, it’s something he goes back to again and again. It gives the reader much to think about.
At least there is some optimism as he finds himself pleasantly surprised by the development in Senegal. Even as that surprise comes with his own reckonings for being so instinctively pessimistic beforehand. If nothing else, it’s an excellent travelogue about a country seldom written about.
The second essay is extremely topical, and more directly focused on the land of his own birth, in which he goes to South Carolina to visit those who have used his previous works to fight against censorship. It’s a study on how America has rewritten its own history for the sake of white supremacy, and how America continues to do so right now in so many Southern states. Sadly, in the wake of the last election, moral panics about DEI and CRT are as relevant as ever. Sometimes these fights are won, and Coates indeed speaks of how inspirational the power of writing can be, but overall there is a sense that the forces of justice are currently losing.
In fact, there’s a feeling of profound sorrow prevalent in this book. A sense of loss, and even guilt, as Coates travels the world and finds so much failure in these systems that we live by. And that brings us to the final essay: He goes to Palestine. It covers more than half the book, and the majority of the discourse Coates is currently going through as well.
It gets deep. Coates has strong things to say about Israel and the occupation. A careful and meticulous writer, his is a is a very well-thought out book that does not try to be bombastic. It is admittedly not meant to be some overarching and objective history lesson. As Coates explains, there are already plenty of Israeli points of views in the West. He is instead seeking out a chance to tell the Palestinian side, as fairly as possible.
There is plenty of research herein. Coates can be a serious journalist when he needs to be. But again, the most poignant of these writings is simply the stories of going to Palestine and Israel, to Hebron and the settlements and East Jerusalem, and then explaining what happened there with humanity and empathy.
When criticism of Israel comes up, there are always those who immediately bring up the Holocaust. And not without cause, it is certainly part of the context of the history of Zionism. So let me say that Coates does write very much about the history of anti-Semitism, of the legacy of the Holocaust and Nazis and of how Jews were absolutely singled out throughout the racist era of Europe in the 1800s and beyond. He goes back to this repeatedly throughout the book, quoting the early Zionists and contrasting on the sad irony of how so many did support colonialism and how so many white supremacists have supported Zionism.
“Your oppression won’t save you,” is a key line. It doesn’t just refer to the Jews of history and the Israelis of today. It’s something that refers to everyone. The ultimate tragedy of history is that those who were oppressed often become the oppressors to others. He even mentions Liberia as an example, as no group is spared this lesson.
Coates also writes about his guilt concerning his explosive 2014 Atlantic article, ‘The Case for Reparations.’ He then used postwar German reparations given to Israel as an example in his case, and now realizes how wrong he was for expecting nation-states to be accurate representatives on the suffering of individuals. He was never an expert on international affairs, and had always thought it was too complex to delve into. (I happen to think he’s too hard on himself with all the guilt, it’s unfortunate but he’s hardly unique in that. It’s ultimately a positive thing to grow and change as one learns more.)
There is much writing about writing. As said, these are major world issues but this is still a personal memoir. He regrets putting so much faith in journalism, in expecting the institution of the Atlantic to truly make a difference. He speaks of his other books as his children, with plenty of flaws therein, and wonders if he has been true to himself all along with his mainstream writing career.
Sadly, The Message has proven to be perhaps his timeliest book. Written before October 7th of last year and the subsequent—and brutal—Gaza war, it now matters so much. Personally, I’ve found his current media tour in promoting this book and discussing its controversies to be invaluable in bringing these issues to the forefront.
Much has been already been written by others comparing the Israeli occupation of Palestine to the system of apartheid. And Coates does do his homework and researches well, speaking of Bantustans and ties to South Africa during the latter country’s oppressive past. Plenty of dates and quotes showing the history of Zionism and the development of the modern state of Israel. But what the book is truly about, is simply the people he meets and listens to. Simply the telling of their stories—and an ending on a final note lamenting the lack of Palestinian voices in the world of journalism.
As a Black man from America, Coates cannot help but liken the occupation to Jim Crow. The comparisons are valid, and inevitable.
At last, Coates returns to the themes from earlier in the book. About the narratives people tell themselves to justify who they are and what they have done.
“What I saw in the city of David was so familiar to me. The search for self in the mythic past, filled with kings, and sanctified by an approximation of science.”
It’s not just about Israel. It’s about African Americans, it’s about pride and what could have been if history went another way. It’s about Ta-Nehisi Coates’ own life, and it’s about the stories that were told to oppress his people and other peoples over the centuries.
Just when I thought there was no more Stephenson worth reading, and went back and read this book co-written by Nicole Galland and enjoyed it so much. Just when I thought there was no more Stephenson worth reading, and went back and read this book co-written by Nicole Galland and enjoyed it so much.
The Rise and Fall of D.O.D.O. is such a hilarious and clever take on historical fiction, with treatises on how magic might really work with regards to the many worlds theory of quantum physics, full of time travel and witches, and lots of government bureaucracy. Been a pleasure to read...more
Bret Easton Ellis was, of course, one of the great young American authors of the 80s and every early 90s. However, his 21st century output has been veBret Easton Ellis was, of course, one of the great young American authors of the 80s and every early 90s. However, his 21st century output has been very sparse and honestly he is not the writer he once was.
From the beginning, there have been certain themes that have arisen in Ellis's works: the overlap of privilege and violence. Along with metafictional writing, in which 2005's Lunar Park the protagonist was the author himself (and his breakout Less Than Zero was always considered semi-autobiographical), and we have the formula for his new novel: The Shards.
It's an overwritten tome about his life as an upper-crust teenager in Los Angeles in 1981, full of queer experiences as well as high school drama that unfolded for the aspiring writer as he navigated the adult world for the first time. It was a time at the private school Buckley, when apparently everyone constantly took copious amounts of drugs and had almost no consequences. Parents were basically nonexistent. And the parts about the process writing of writing his first novel are genuinely interesting. Then, after hundreds of pages about him cheating on his girlfriend with men--including with his girlfriend's film producer father, which was rather proto-Me Too--a subplot about a serial killer and a mysterious troubled new student eventually takes over the narrative. By the climax, with much unreliable narration herein, there's so much death and it's a complete bloody and intense horrorshow.
Ellis writes with excellent precision, he's an experienced author in total control of his voice and has always been a master of prose in this sense. He also drags on too much, a common problem with older established writers who don't get edited anymore, and the book did not need to be at that length.
It doesn't have the power of American Psycho, it won't be remembered as an iconic novel. It is a pretty good read for fans of Bret Easton Ellis who have waited a long time to read something new. He writes about what he knows, himself, and his descriptions of Southern California go on for quite a while. When he gets into driving from this road to that road, comparisons to the SNL sketch 'The Californians' are inevitable.
No literary masterpiece. Like it or not, that era is over for Ellis. But I am glad to read his new works and for me as a fan it was worth getting into his world again. And for such a personal, memoir-eque book, one does wonder which parts are true and which are embellished... and we can only hope that the violent murdering sections are but imagination......more
I'm a sucker for cult shows, and Keith Reniere inspired multiple documentary series.
Yet it still feels like such a mystery as to why so many people foI'm a sucker for cult shows, and Keith Reniere inspired multiple documentary series.
Yet it still feels like such a mystery as to why so many people followed this strange and obvious fraud. One never really gets to know what drove him, how anyone could find him charismatic, and what his philosophy even coherently meant.
Perhaps there's nothing there. Just a compulsive liar getting away with as much as he could until he went so far that he finally landed in jail.
Toni Natalie's book is a helpful resource on understanding his earlier years, before the branding and abuse headline with C-list celebrities. She was his ex back in the 90s, when he was but a simple pyramid scheme con artist. She tells many personal things about herself, from her own troubled childhood to sorrid details about her relationship with this awful man, which does give the memoir heart. Even though it's apparently not possible to ever figure out anything deep that drove Reneire.
Natalie went through a terrible time of abuse and legal harassment throughout the 2000s, highlighting the cruelty of this cult and its very brainwashed followers.
I found it an excellent supplemental read if one wants to learn more. An in-depth, scholarly biography of Keith Reneire will probably never be written, because there is a limit on how much to say. He lied constantly and was a depraved sex addict, that was it. All the self-help fake genius jargon was meaninglessly complex in the end. This book does as good a job as can be by expanding on the subject, by someone with intimate knowledge. I'm glad Toni Natalie told her traumatizing tale, and it was brave to do so....more
Superheroes are hard to translate into prose. The genre works best in comics, secondly in animation. (and a distant third in film but most of which arSuperheroes are hard to translate into prose. The genre works best in comics, secondly in animation. (and a distant third in film but most of which are actually bad).
This Deadpool novel is a worthy effort, combining the humor of the character with his fourth-wall breaking narration to make something quite entertaining.--and that almost works as an audiobook too. So it does as well as it can, but ultimately I'd rather read a comic or even watch a movie.
Also, should have had more R rated humor. That's what we expect of the character these days. Still, the author is very clever and witty, a whole lot of references therein. All in all a worthy effort, if you're a big Deadpool fan then I guess worth a read....more