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https://blacknerdproblems.com/once-future-vol-1-review/
Writer: Kieron Gillen / Artist: Dan Mora, Tamra Bonvillain / Boom! Studios
There is something intrinsically appealing about a retelling or reinterpretation of a familiar myth. The stories we often learned in our childhood imprint on us and become a benchmark, a standard, a constant reference. Putting aside for just a moment the Eurocentric nature of my middle school and high school curriculum, I do have a fondness for Arthurian legend: King Arthur and the Round Table, the exploits and endeavors of brave knights fighting for their liege. Which is why I was so interested when I heard about Kieron Gillen providing his own iteration of the story with Once & Future.
Once & Future checks a lot of boxes when it comes to a story that I’m willing to invest in immediately: dark subversion of familiar tale, an examination of legacy within a familial context, and a predominantly fantasy facade with accents of horror. The opening of the volume has a sort of classic film vibe, where a merchant shows his wares to an interested customer, only to find that the said customer will not be paying in the conventional way and that said customer is almost certainly a bad person.
Gillen, alongside Mora’s illustration and Bonvillain’s colors, set the dark tone of the series right out of the gate. Then he immediately pivots to a much calmer scene: a nursing home featuring one of two protagonists, Bridgette. Bridgette is listening to the news with the rest of the residents before she hears a series of buzzwords that immediately catch her attention. She proceeds to ditch the orderly to go do something about it, which leads us to another scene shift to the other principle character: her grandson, Duncan.
We meet Duncan in an almost sitcom like fashion, wide eyed and arms raised in frantic apology. And when he gets the literal call to adventure from his grandmother, he finds himself suddenly made aware of his previously unknown legacy and the strange task he has as an inheritance. In essence, the prototypical arc of the hero’s journey. But just because the start of the story resembles the classics doesn’t mean the rest of the story does.
For one thing, Gillen’s signature humor and sardonic wit bleeds through the page. The sharp tongue of Bridgette clashes wildly against the everyday everyman’s bewilderment of Duncan. This dynamic carries the opening sequences as the grander myth arcs that differentiate the story are put into motion. We know how this of the story goes, but by the time we get to the end of the first chapter and Gillen’s re-contextualizing of the Arthurian legend in a Brexit-riddled timeline, that’s when things go off the rail in the best way.
The name King Arthur has an distinctive aura surrounding the myth. Gillen cleverly reminds us, the readers, that the King Arthur didn’t just unite the Britons, he waged war against a European empire and crushed it. This is a tale where King Arthur and his followers are straight villainous, and I love it. Because it is true to how history and myths are made. We sanitize the unsavory parts of the story. It speaks to the complicated history of British expansion. And because, it kind of just tracks with how the rest of the world is going.
Much like Duncan has this vision of King Arthur, we too get a chance to unravel the foundations of the myth and explore the parts of the story that are glossed over. Duncan, under the mentorship of his grandmother, becomes an intriguing character and I’ll let his arc speak for itself when you find time to pick up a copy of the book. Plus, the kinship facet to the story is a also a crucial and endearing element that I don’t want to spoil too much on, but know that is there.
And that’s just from the textual standpoint. From a visual stand point, Once & Future looks incredible. Mora’s characters and monster design is incredible and Bonvillain’s colors are a perfect compliment to the tone of the story. Each page has distinctive visual cues that make it very easy to track the actions and the scenes changes, something that I appreciate as someone who can occasionally speed past pages in excitement. But the way each page is structured draws the eye and lets them linger and languish in the beautifully dark fantasy world.
Once & Future‘s first volume is an exhilarating read. It’s a story that reflects the strange timeline we currently reside in and also provides a new take on the Arthurian myth that feels…. warranted. It warrants a read for all of you fantasy comic fans out there. It really does.
9.2 “Knights of a Kingly Court” out of 10
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Writer: Kieron Gillen / Artist: Dan Mora, Tamra Bonvillain / Boom! Studios
There is something intrinsically appealing about a retelling or reinterpretation of a familiar myth. The stories we often learned in our childhood imprint on us and become a benchmark, a standard, a constant reference. Putting aside for just a moment the Eurocentric nature of my middle school and high school curriculum, I do have a fondness for Arthurian legend: King Arthur and the Round Table, the exploits and endeavors of brave knights fighting for their liege. Which is why I was so interested when I heard about Kieron Gillen providing his own iteration of the story with Once & Future.
Once & Future checks a lot of boxes when it comes to a story that I’m willing to invest in immediately: dark subversion of familiar tale, an examination of legacy within a familial context, and a predominantly fantasy facade with accents of horror. The opening of the volume has a sort of classic film vibe, where a merchant shows his wares to an interested customer, only to find that the said customer will not be paying in the conventional way and that said customer is almost certainly a bad person.
Gillen, alongside Mora’s illustration and Bonvillain’s colors, set the dark tone of the series right out of the gate. Then he immediately pivots to a much calmer scene: a nursing home featuring one of two protagonists, Bridgette. Bridgette is listening to the news with the rest of the residents before she hears a series of buzzwords that immediately catch her attention. She proceeds to ditch the orderly to go do something about it, which leads us to another scene shift to the other principle character: her grandson, Duncan.
We meet Duncan in an almost sitcom like fashion, wide eyed and arms raised in frantic apology. And when he gets the literal call to adventure from his grandmother, he finds himself suddenly made aware of his previously unknown legacy and the strange task he has as an inheritance. In essence, the prototypical arc of the hero’s journey. But just because the start of the story resembles the classics doesn’t mean the rest of the story does.
For one thing, Gillen’s signature humor and sardonic wit bleeds through the page. The sharp tongue of Bridgette clashes wildly against the everyday everyman’s bewilderment of Duncan. This dynamic carries the opening sequences as the grander myth arcs that differentiate the story are put into motion. We know how this of the story goes, but by the time we get to the end of the first chapter and Gillen’s re-contextualizing of the Arthurian legend in a Brexit-riddled timeline, that’s when things go off the rail in the best way.
The name King Arthur has an distinctive aura surrounding the myth. Gillen cleverly reminds us, the readers, that the King Arthur didn’t just unite the Britons, he waged war against a European empire and crushed it. This is a tale where King Arthur and his followers are straight villainous, and I love it. Because it is true to how history and myths are made. We sanitize the unsavory parts of the story. It speaks to the complicated history of British expansion. And because, it kind of just tracks with how the rest of the world is going.
Much like Duncan has this vision of King Arthur, we too get a chance to unravel the foundations of the myth and explore the parts of the story that are glossed over. Duncan, under the mentorship of his grandmother, becomes an intriguing character and I’ll let his arc speak for itself when you find time to pick up a copy of the book. Plus, the kinship facet to the story is a also a crucial and endearing element that I don’t want to spoil too much on, but know that is there.
And that’s just from the textual standpoint. From a visual stand point, Once & Future looks incredible. Mora’s characters and monster design is incredible and Bonvillain’s colors are a perfect compliment to the tone of the story. Each page has distinctive visual cues that make it very easy to track the actions and the scenes changes, something that I appreciate as someone who can occasionally speed past pages in excitement. But the way each page is structured draws the eye and lets them linger and languish in the beautifully dark fantasy world.
Once & Future‘s first volume is an exhilarating read. It’s a story that reflects the strange timeline we currently reside in and also provides a new take on the Arthurian myth that feels…. warranted. It warrants a read for all of you fantasy comic fans out there. It really does.
9.2 “Knights of a Kingly Court” out of 10
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Writers: S.D Perry & Matthew K. Manning / Artist: Ming Doyle / Colorist: Scott Holladay / DC Comics
That Rona is in full effect causing the comics industry to freeze up for the time being. But don’t worry, BNP got you. Just because there aren’t any new comics coming out doesn’t mean there isn’t a lot of incredible material you might have missed over the years.
One such book is Anatomy of a Metahuman. This book is a DC comics Encyclopedia that doubles as a medical journal on some of the universe’s most powerful beings.
I don’t know about you, but when I was growing up, I loved those giant five-pound superhero encyclopedias that had an image and a paragraph or two about every single character within the universe in alphabetical order. I would spend hours rustling through the pages and learning about obscure heroes like Arm-Fall-Off Boy who has the ability to detach his limbs and use them as blunt weapons, or Condiment Man, who uses weapons to shoot condiments at people. I couldn’t get enough.
I might even use it as reference material for in-depth arguments with my friends. This was pre-internet, at least in the way that we know it now, so a book like this was the place I’d go to get all my information.
Anatomy of a Metahuman takes that idea and applies a tinge of creativity to it. Essentially, this book is made up of the stitched together notes that Batman has on some of the most powerful characters in the DC Universe. They’re like reference notes that he can either refer to or share with others in the event that one of these individuals ever becomes a problem. It mimics handwriting and everything.
In the 150-page book, we get massive deep dives into the likes of Cyborg, Martian Manhunter Doomsday, and The Cheetah to name a few.
There are notes on the pages along with anatomical breakdowns. But the aspect that really sells the book for me is that it shows us that Batman doesn’t have all the answers for everything like we might think he does. But it does show us how he uses deductive reasoning to appear like he’s always a few steps ahead. Within his very meticulous scribbles are indisputable facts about every individual, like how Cyborg is made up of promethium skin grafts and metal-ceramic alloys. But then he asks himself questions like “Does Cyborg’s exposed skin render those spots weak?” “Is that even skin or just Synthetic facsimile?” You can easily spend an afternoon poring over the pages. It’s a really in-depth dive into how Batman’s mind works as well as how these heroes work with their varying power sets and biological differences.
If you want to learn about characters but in a way that injects a bit more into its experience than a Wikipedia summary would, this might be the type of book you need for your bookshelf.
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The post BNP at Home Recommends: Anatomy of a Metahuman appeared first on Black Nerd Problems.
Nintendo and LEGO go together like Mario and Luigi.
So it’s no surprise that the two mega makers have joined forces to create an IRL take on the classic Super Mario platform adventure.
Neither a video game nor a traditional brick-based set, the upcoming LEGO Super Mario features an interactive plumber who races against the clock, collects coins, and faces big bads.
“We are very excited to bring Mario into the physical world through interactive and social LEGO play,” according to Julia Goldin, chief marketing officer and executive vice president of the LEGO Group.
A match made in a child’s imagination, it’s a wonder the companies haven’t teamed up before.
“With this experience we will help millions of kids with love for Mario to engage and play in a completely new way, where they are in control of creating and playing games with their favorite character,” Goldin said.
“By seamlessly incorporating the latest digital technology,” she continued, “LEGO Super Mario is a highly social, interactive, and collaborative experience for kids.”
The fact that LEGO is marketing this product primarily to children is their first mistake: I know a number of grown adults who would happily spend afternoons constructing an IRL Mario landscape, crushing Goombas, and avoiding fire pits.
“I have always liked LEGO products and how they help children use their imagination to play,” Takashi Tezuka, executive officer and game producer at Nintendo, said in a statement.
“The new product we created together with the LEGO Group seeks to combine two different styles of play,” he continued. “One where you freely build the world of Mario and the other where you play with Mario in the very world that you have created.”
LEGO Super Mario is expected to launch later this year. There is no word yet on pricing.
More on Geek.com:
- These Are the ‘Coolest’ Lego In the Universe
- The Lego Ideas International Space Station Is Out of This World
- The Most Amazing LEGO Projects Ever Made
- Toy Tuesday: The Best Super Mario Bros Toys