Chained To The Keyboard

I’m happy to report that Superman Returns is a wondrous piece of cinema. It swings giddily between moments of reverence — nay, fetishisation — of Richard Donner’s film, and moments of staggering beauty and emotional resonance.

The critics are fairly united behind it (although poor, old Ebert seems to have missed the point again), and as usual Walter Chaw turns in the smartest review of the bunch.

For the True Fans: Be sure to look out for the reference to 1938’s Action Comics #1, and the Aquaman pyjamas in the second-last scene.

Grant Morrison once said that Superman is more real than you or I, because he was around long before we were born and he’ll be around long after we die. If Bryan Singer keeps directing his films, I see no reason to doubt the truth of that statement.

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*********************SPOILERS*******************************

My pet fanboy theory, which I now feel obligated to share with the world, is that we haven’t seen the last of that giant chunk of contaminated crystal. I’m betting it somehow bonds with some surviving Kryptonian technology, becomes sentient and returns to Earth… as Brainiac.

Maybe I’m crazy. But man, that’d be cool.

I’ve been back from Viet Nam for three whole weeks, and I haven’t gotten around to blogging until now. I wish I could say it’s because I’m swamped with work, but really I just have very little to say.

This will change. Some wondrous and magical things are happening in the next month: Superman Returns will be released, my comic book submission will be finished and sent off to interested parties, and DC will finally get around to publishing Seven Soldiers #1 (Gods willing). So stay tuned for more Superman musings, mini-reviews of Grant Morrison works, and maybe even some stuff about writing.

In the meantime, if you’re stuck for entertainment, Slither is a really excellent film (X-Men 3, on the other hand, was god-awful tripe). And if you’re a comics neophyte, and you somehow wander into a comic store and they won’t let you out without purchasing something, you could do worse than Light Brigade and Flight: Volume 1. The former is a guts-and-glory summer action blockbuster; the latter is a beautiful collection of short stories, all by writer-artists (’cartoonists’).

Until next time…