DC Exhibition: Dawn of Super Heroes

So, I'd seen the ads, I'd seen people's posts about it on Facebook and I decided that I had to go and see it for myself, so off I jolly well trotted to the O2 at North Greenwich at 12 O'clock today to go and see the DC heroes on display. And jolly glad I am that I did cos it was fab. 

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The venue was pretty quiet today which was nice, I could take my time poring over all the cool vintage art from 80 years of comics action. All the great names I knew from my collecting days and even a fair few I'd not heard of were on display. I was fascinated with the way it was put together with annotations in the borders and with the lettering and page banners etc all applied on top of the drawn page. You could see the alterations made as well and penciled guidelines. 

I love the older comics with their hokey stories and dated notions of romance, they have a kind of naive innocence of a bygone era that always tickles me.

If you are more interested in the movies rather than their source material then you shouldn't be upset as there are a wealth of props, models, costumes, concept art and storyboards from all the DC hero films and even some focus on the old 60's and animated Batman shows. The display rooms were divided by characters with focus on the more recent crop of movies. So Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Suicide Squad & The Justice League all got plenty of coverage. I would have liked a Green Lantern dedicated room as well but with the unfair negative feedback that movie got there was no chance of that!

Upon entering the exhibition you can get an audio exhibition guide which was easy enough to use and gave some fascinating insight into the comics world. My only real gripe was the lighting which was very muted. The info plaques were black with the white text on them in pretty small font and it made them hard to read. I also missed a load of the audio guide number prompts probably due to the lack of light also. (Although I am not sure if that was the fault of the light's dimness or my own!) Perhaps I was too enraptured by the art to notice the numbers.

Another small gripe but probably only specific to old bums with flat feet like me was that there could've been a few more seats to park weary butts in for a while.

Anyway, in summary I thoroughly enjoyed my couple of hours and thought it was excellent value for money. If it sounds like your cuppa tea the exhibit runs till September the 9th. 

Click HERE for more info.

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Trinity - Vol.1 Better Together

As mentioned before I had to quit buying comics a little while back due to various reasons and so now I only get to read new books after people buy stuff for me off of my Christmas and birthday lists. Here's the 1st of 4 books my dad picked up for me this year. I just tell him to go to my old comic book shop near where he lives and ask for any new DC books from the last couple of years. I am not up to date with current events anymore but I kind of think this is a re-re-launch of the DC Universe!! I swear they were just relaunching it when I had to quit and this is another rebirth since then, I could be wrong! 

There was a previous run of Trinity books featuring the 3 premier DC heroes back when I was still collecting. I think it was a weekly book, following on from the 52 comic run I believe. So I am used to seeing the 3 characters in a series together. However reading this with the stuff that has changed the whole chemistry seems different than it did before. In the old books they were old friends, here it seems a bit less certain, like they are not quite so familiar with each other. It seems as if this is a pretty new Superman as far as Batman & Wonder Woman are concerned. This Supes looks like the old fellow to me but I think there was a younger,  brasher, less compassionate version for a while. I think that Wonder Woman was in a relationship with that version of the hero and that he died! This new guy is married to Lois Lane and they have a son who's about 10 years old! I don't know if the story is told anywhere of his 1st decade and I know I won't be able to afford to buy all the books I am missing to find out! Still it makes for fun reading to pick up what titbits of information I can to find out what has transpired since last I read them. 

I don't want to post any spoilers or plot stuff too much, so I will keep it vague. Something odd starts happening to the team; is it some kind of weird time distortion? They start seeing visions or have they been transported in time somehow. All three travel together to significant events in each of their respective pasts. In each location they travel to a part of the characters histories is explored and realisation of essential truths about their characters are made and important threads from their lives are resolved. Basically it's a way to get to know what drives them and to get a view of what makes them what they are. There is also a lot of side chat, where the dynamics of their relationships with each other are explored. It's basically reintroducing the characters to the readers again in a clever way. I must be a bit of a comics nut or else this plot device has been used a few too many times but I figured out what was causing the events to happen before the reveal. 

This volume collects together issues 1 - 6 of the series, it was written and partially drawn by Francis Manapul, a name I am not familiar with, I imagine they are a new force on the scene as I don't recall the name at all. I enjoyed the read, it had cool characterization, nice action, great art but I saw it more of a re-introduction to the characters and their interplay and was more of a taste of things to come really. Now we know how they all are with each other, future stories can concentrate on further development and kicking the butts of some new super villains. I notice that Vol. 2 is available also with a pretty kick butt cover so that's going on my wishlist. :)

Diana, where can people buy these Trinity Volumes from??

      

Saga by Brian K. Vaughan & Fiona Staples

I had to stop buying comic books regularly a couple of years back for various reasons so for birthdays and Christmas it is always nice to get something new. I added these randomly to my Amazon wishlist and my girlfriend picked them up for me. I'd not heard of them before, I'd not even really read a review of them. I recognised the writer name from somewhere and the art looked cool enough. To be honest I thought it was by the same guy who did Fables and that with what looked like an angel and a demon it would be similar to those books which I own quite a few of and enjoyed a lot. It turned out that my silly brain was wrong anyway, Fables is by Bill Willingham, this is Brian K. Vaughan but it's not a problem as he did the Y: The Last Man books that I own the set of and they are cool as heck so it's all good.

As I said with 1st appearances I was expecting a story of an angel and a demon on the run from hell & heaven, something similar to an old Hellblazer run of comics and I'm pretty sure that angel/demon love story on the run is almost a bit of a trope by now. It turned out I was wrong anyway it's not a supernatural tale at all, although it does have magic in it, these are aliens. The winged woman is Alana from Landfall and Marko the horned fellow is from Landfall's moon Wreath. The two races have been at war for an unspecified but extremely long time. The races hatred has spread across the solar system with their war being  outsourced to encompass many worlds whilst the original protagonists planets have returned to relative peace.

Our story starts on the planet Cleave with the birth of the narrator who is Alana & Marko's daughter. We hear everything from her point of view as though she is reminiscing sometime in the future. It's quite an unusual move and implies that whatever happens she survives but I can't help wondering if there is going to be some almighty twist in there somewhere somehow. Since having my mind blown over the narrator of an old book called Enigma I don't take anything for granted anymore when it comes to these cunning comic book writers. Within minutes of her birth agents from both their planets turn up to apprehend them only to kill each other's forces whilst our new parents and child escape. She's deserted from her planet's army and freed him, a prisoner who she was supposed to be guarding and both of their people's want them eliminated and their child captured. Wreath hire freelancers The Will and The Stalk to track them down and Landfall send Prince Robot IV. Things escalate, new allies and enemies are made and people from their past are introduced and the story of how they met, fell in love and then went on the run is soon revealed in flashbacks. There is a lot more history to come in future books I am sure as we learn more about these characters. It's not just the main protagonists with a story, most of the supporting cast have well realised motivation and history as well, making for a cast of characters that are engaging and interesting and make you invest emotionally in them. There is a character that speaks just one word, not much to get you to be interested in them you'd think but you'd be wrong, when they get into some serious peril I was thinking, "Oh no!! Don't kill them!! Not.......(no spoilers here)"

The exciting thing too for me is that this is a new world created for this story, it doesn't exist in an already extant comic book universe so we don't know what it's rules are yet. There is magic we've seen that and learnt a couple of it's rules in this world. We know there's all kinds of aliens beings and strange creatures and ghosts, the universe is a BIG place and they are abroad in it pursued by two groups both intent on their capture and/or deaths. Surviving won't be easy especially as Marko is a conscientious objector who has vowed to never use violence again. Nobody is safe, any character could potentially die, you can't take anything for granted in this book.

The book is aimed for an older audience, with nudity, mature themes, sex and some gore too. There is a giant that pops up at one time and it's quite a sight!! Let's just say that if he was from a Grimm's fairy tale his catchphrase would be Fee Fie Scro-tum and I'll let you imagine the rest.

I see there are about 8 books of this on sale already and I am going to be adding them to my future wants list for sure. This is the kind of book you end up recommending to friends, family and fellow geeks. I will be lending these to my big brother for sure. 

Saga, it may share it's name with a holiday company that caters for older folk but this is no sedate trip to Majorca, this is a thrill ride across the galaxy and I can't wait to see what scrapes they get into along the way.