Books and movies

As you can see, it’s all graphic novels and TPB collections this week—
CINDERELLA: From Fabletown With Love is a spinoff of DC’s Fables series in which Cinderella—Fabletown’s trusted super-spy—investigates who’s smuggling guns into fable worlds in return for magic weapons into the “mundane world” and winds up in an awkward meeting with her Fairy Godmother. The A-plot is good, but the shoe store subplot could have been lifted from Sabrina the Teenage Witch, and I find it implausible that Fable politics invariably wind up on the “right” side of our own wars (anti-Nazi I can see, but why anti-Napoleon?).
WONDER WOMAN CHRONICLES collects the first of the Amazing Amazon’s adventures back in the 1940s, as she comes to America with a message of peace and women’s equality, gets tied up a lot, falls in love and battles the Nazis. Not the best comics work of creator William Marston, but a good start.
GREEN LANTERN CHRONICLES Vol. 3 continues to develop Green Lantern’s universe as he battles Sinestro, allies with the rest of the Green Lantern Corps, teams up with the Flash (as they would do many times through both the Silver and Bronze Ages) and meets the eccentric super-patriot Sonar. One of the best books of its era; it says a lot that even an arch-villain such as Sinestro could be on the shelf for years—after his next appearance, it would be 34 issues before he showed up again; these days, you never let the A-list stay out of action that long.
ESSENTIAL AVENGERS VOL. 4 pits Marvel’s top super-team against the Sons of the Serpent, the Grim Reaper, the crime cartel Zodiac and the American Indian hero Red Wolf before facing the destruction of Earth in the Kree-Skrull War. Meanwhile Hawkeye loses his girlfriend, the Vision and the Scarlet Witch fall in love and the Black Panther ponders his role as a black super-hero. Far from perfect—the Vision/Scarlet Witch romance comes out of nowhere, and Red Wolf is a stock character (and why does Black Widow walk out on Hawkeye exactly?) but some good fun nonetheless.
MARVELS was the Kurt Busiek/Alex Ross early nineties take on the Marvel Universe, following photojournalist Phil Sheldon as he witnesses the birth of the Human Torch, the Sub-Mariner’s war on humanity and then years later, the exploits of the Silver Age, from anti-mutant hysteria to the coming of Galactus and the death of Gwen Stacey (which Busiek sees as a landmark for comics becoming darker). A classic that lives up to its rep.

After enjoying Metropolis, I used some of my Christmas money to buy DESTINY (1921) known more poetically in German as Der Mude Tod (Weary Death). The film has a grieving woman penetrate Death’s fortress in pursuit of her lover; Death agrees to restore him to life if she can thrwart destiny in Saudi Arabia, Venice or China, where three more deaths are about to occur. One I’ve been curious about for years—glad it was wroth the wait. “I am weary of being hated for doing God’s will.”
BLACK SWAN (2010) is Darren Aronofsky’s grim story of repressed ballerina Natalie Portman struggling to land the starring role in Swan Lake despite being bullied by ex-ballerina mother Barbara Hershey, accused of exploiting the casting couch by former prima Winona Ryder and undercut by ambitious Mila Kunis. Powerfully engrossing, though perilously close to pretentious and over the top. “It’ll last a couple of hours, tops.”
THE AMAZING MR. X (1948) is a dull B-movie that could have been much better, as phony psychic Turhan Bey’s scheme to convince grieving Lynne Bari he’s in touch with her dead husband takes a different turn when the scheming not-so-dead spouse turns up and takes over the racket for his own ends. Slow pace and stiff acting bog down what could have been a lot more entertaining “I think it would be best if you first bind my hands.”