PIKACHU! PLEASE DON'T SUE!
Jul 20, 2019 · 2 minute readA few things.
- That Smith continues to stand by and support Mewes is wonderful.
- When the best bit in the trailer is a less-funny swipe from your earlier work, you’ve probably got problems.
- I stand by my belief that working with the restrictions of broadcast television on Clerks: TAS produced the best material Smith has ever done or will do.
I also have some thoughts on Alan Moore retiring, but they’re mostly ‘at least now we won’t have to suffer a list of references somewhat attached to a fairly mediocre story’ or ‘honest, this HP Lovecraft/hentai crossover is worthy!’ any further. Along with ‘in a post-Savile era, Lost Girls raises more than a few eyebrows’.
And ‘The Invisibles was always better than anything he did anyhow’
Actually, having spent Friday night re-reading Zenith, I think there’s a good case for it being better than Marvelman/Miracleman. Let me count the ways!
- It actually has a satisfying ending (a typical Morrison one, but it does mostly tie everything together), whereas Miracleman #16 is basically ‘and then we created a Utopia, but maybe things aren’t great’.
- Zenith feels much more of its time than Miracleman ever does. Not dated, but definitely an 80s title. Grounding Task Force UK / Cloud 9 in with the 60s counterculture makes it feel more grounded in ‘our’ world.
- One of the villains attempts to fire nuclear missiles whilst clearly being Richard Branson in a Comic Relief t-shirt.
- Peter St. John! Hippy to IEA-sponsored Tory! And he’s the hero!
- Phase 3 does LoEG better than LoEG ever does, with Crisis On Infinite IPC/DC Thompson Earths thrown in for good measure. You’ll never cheer so hard for Billy Whizz to go just that little bit faster1
- While it’s definitely not free from problematic parts (e.g. the pointless Metamaid ‘joke’, even if TNT Tom doesn’t seem too phased by the reveal), there’s nothing as bad as Evelyn Cream in here.
And finally:
Does Miracleman have an Acid House robot riding on a dinosaur? Case closed.
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I also love the meta-joke here that because it’s Crisis, a speedster has to die. Bravo. ↩︎