Category: Obiwomble’s Outlook

What Star Wars Can Learn From Marvel’s Secret Wars 2015

Posted on October 27, 2014by

Announced at the recent New York Comic Con, Secret Wars will be Marvel’s big 2015-16 event. Marvel have followed that up in over the last fortnight with a barrage of teasers for even more events for summer 2015. What does it all mean? For right now, two things are obvious: If you are on the inside of Marvel’s continuity and have been following it for a while, this will look like the most ambitious undertaking ever. If you are on the outside, having kicked the habit and stayed off the books in the main, it will look entirely incomprehensible!

So, what’s the problem with it? The problem with Secret Wars 2015 is it will be a line-wide event, now with an array of satellites, which appear to be specific to each group of titles, but also eras too. The problem is nothing gets to avoid it! The Ultimate books? It is going to cover those too! If you buy into the idea for the event, it sounds great, it sounds like something you want to read. If you do not buy into it? Too bad, you’re going to have to if you keep reading the books up to a certain point in 2015. That’s the problem. This is practically polarizing consumer interest into two directions – towards or away from Marvel’s entire line for a year or longer. (Plus, once you are out of touch with Marvel superheroes for that kind of duration, you may not hop back on-board.) Read More

A Tale of Two Reboots (aka Why You Should Read A New Dawn)

Posted on September 29, 2014by Obiwomble's Outlook

So, Star Wars rebooted huh? Big deal, it’s happened before elsewhere with about as much success and failure. 2010-11 saw two comic companies reboot their superhero lines – Top Cow and DC. Of these two, the DC one was by far the most controversial. The reason for it being that, demonstrated by the comics, the creative teams got two months to wrap up their stories and if they failed to do so? Too bad. More than a few such end issues indicated there were longer plans in place, which were no longer in the picture!

It would be logical then to conclude that post-reboot, no one bought DC comics, much in the way some fans have decided against the new SW post-reboot books. It would, but there’s more than one kind of logic and there’s loyalty to consider. Oh yes, consumer loyalty can well survive a brand reboot, but it tends to be only certain types of loyalty that can do this – namely to a writer or artist. The company name may be mud but there’s a sense that it’s not fair to punish a writer or artist for a reboot they had no ability to affect. Read More

The Empire and Rebels: Causes for Optimism

Posted on September 15, 2014by Obiwomble's Outlook

kallus-imp

I have a copy of A New Dawn on the to-read pile and it’s giving me the evil eye: I did buy it to read it, didn’t I, so what’s taking so long? Some things should be properly appreciated, so no, I’m not going to casually barrel through it at speed. One thing I’m quite confident of is I’m going to like how the Empire is portrayed due to a couple of things: First, John Jackson Miller has an excellent track record and second, the Emperor has an efficiency adviser? That’s genius. Efficiency gurus are a modern-day Bogeyman who are more terrifying due to existing – you can’t bargain or reason them, they feel nothing, they only think in maths equations – in short, a perfect villain.

Despite this there is much trepidation around the show Rebels, particularly where the portrayal of the Empire is concerned. I was never going to be inclined to like the Clone Wars cartoon. The offense was simple but enduring: It steamrollered the 2002-2005 work done in the same era with casual contempt. Rebels, however, is not doing that. No, it has its own time period, it is not setting fire to somebody’s else’s lawn, so what’s the problem? The fear is that the Empire will be rendered as too easily defeated, too incompetent, that it will be a joke. I don’t think that needs to be feared as much as may be thought. Read More

In Defense of CGI

Posted on August 27, 2014by

jabba-cgi

Computer Generated Imagery or, as it’s better known, CGI gets a huge amount of flak from just about everyone. It may have revolutionized filmmaking, it may have opened the doors to unrealized dreams for directors but none of that stops it from getting a regular royal kicking! Now why is that? I am inclined to suggest it is a combination of factors – lazy thinking and fool filmmakers. Together, these two factors form an unholy alchemy into a destructive firestorm of criticism that never fails to repeatedly roast CGI.

First then: Lazy thinking. The charge made against CGI is that it is lazy and unimaginative. This is the sort of charge anyone could come up, no matter their state of being. Drunk as a skunk? You can still slur that CGI is lazy. High as a kite? Hey man, I may be lazing here stoned but it takes a laze to know a laze and that CGI is a laze! This charge falls apart the instant it hits reality. Here’s the world of CGI as the accusers would like it:

CGI Data Monkey hits Run on his computer panel, goes down the pub for a swift couple of pints, comes back a couple of hours later and blam! Work’s done. Read More

Marvel’s Star Wars: Initial Comment

Posted on August 1, 2014by

cassaday

One of the more notable news announcements from the San Diego Comic-Con was the announcement of what Marvel would be doing with the Star Wars license. The immediate response over the next couple of days from the fans was dependent on which fans you talked to. Comic fans were intrigued by the creative teams announced, SW fans far more disappointed with the chronological placement of all stories announced. There was indeed a sense of: The EU-that-was got swept away for this?

What stands out most from Marvel’s announcement is the level of resources they are applying to SW. Canonicity or no canonicity, Marvel know Dark Horse held the license for twenty years and did a hell of a lot with it. They know a lot of stories were told, thus they have to start off big. At the same time Marvel may not have absolute freedom to act as they see fit. Certainly that would explain the apparent timidity of opting to set all their books after the first SW film, when Marvel have a sustained record of being considerably more daring and innovative. This is particularly so when you factor in that JJ Abrams, a very spoiler-averse director, is in charge of Episode VII. It may be, after his involvement with SW ends, that we see a more risky approach by Marvel but that’s eighteen months away. Read More