Meet the Battles

Alex Ross, eminent comic book painter, released this recently.

It's a battle between two characters of extreme martial renown, accepting the idea that the perception of each has been magnificently exaggerated. Batman's like The Beatles for comic books. Despite relatively humble beginnings, he's been raised to a position of glory that threatens to eclipse reality. Like them, he's also incredibly versatile, and he's good enough to avoid making such impossible praise seem unearned. If a value approaches infinity, a lot of people are just going to call it infinite.

On the other hand, I'd compare Boba Fett to Brian Jones. He still has some inherent greatness, but he never really got a chance to thoroughly fulfill the legend ascribed to him. He had a good look and some clear talent, and he definitely took some actions that put some balls into a rolling motion, but he was removed from the board before he could comfortably display the full breadth of his skills. 

Bonus Question! Batman versus Boba Fett?

I'm pretty sure that I just answered this.  

Magnetic Vibes

The ending of "Kubo" reminded me of one of those "X-Men" stories where Magneto contracts amnesia somehow and gets inadvertently rehabilitated into a fresh, ostensibly powerless civilian who finally finds in his new existence the happiness that had so persisently eluded the fraught man he formerly was. Until something brings his memories back at a later point and sets him on a path of havoc. But the movie ended before that second part. Which probably suited this film better. For one thing, it didn't seem to involve Chris Claremont. But at least the idea's out there if there's some desperate call for a sequel.

Bonus Question! 

Chris Claremont versus Chris Carter!

Battle of dangling tangly plot threads!

Even if I didn't have a warmer spot in the heart for Claremont, I'd probably give it to him for sheer length. From the Seventies to the early Nineties without a break. That dude's stories grew some serious vines.

Antler Room Show! 15th!

Playing at the newly reopened Antler Room with a band from Japan! MunizO! Check them out if you want. Or don't. You'll hear them at the show anyway. Right after us!

Thursday night. The 15th. Antler Room.

146 Front Street West. Mwah!

Dancing on the Sand

Olympics, man. Like . . . Even when the most affluent countries host, they tend to lose a lot of money from constructing arenas that will probably not ever be terribly relevant again. It's just pageantry. Which is fine. If you can afford it. But if it's supposed to be some avenue to bolster the public face of a lesser country on the world stage, then it shouldn't really fall to them to pay for the whole thing. Right? Wouldn't it actually be cheaper to lift the facilities from some old host and drop them in Rio? And then hire a team of local painters? But then you just hire locals to construct everything. Which is great! When a financially unstable government isn't forced to pay for it. But aren't all governments financially unstable? Technically? I suppose so. But there are tiers!

Bonus Question!

Best Rio? That singing bird. 

Shows on the 1st and 2nd!

We'll be opening up for Lew Phillips on the inaugural day of September.

At!

Free! Times! Cafe!

320 College. 9:30 in the eve.

Check out his stuff if you like.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?list=RDEMpykAJ5BW9HEH51QHwqSYJA&params=OAI%253D&v=8fKch6HZ1CY

You already know us. And you shall know us then.

Oh! And if you can't see us then, we'll be playing with the same dude at The Central on the following day. That's a Friday! 603 Markham Street.

You know Honest Ed's? It's basically right there. Come around 5:30. It'll be a swishy afternoon.

So. Free Times Cafe. Thursday. 9:30.

The Central. Friday. 5:30.

Come to one. Or the other!

Or both!

That's what we're doing.

Some Kind Of

Despite the fact that it was the first DC movie in four years that wasn't directed by Zack Snyder, "Suicide Squad" was the one that reminded me of "Sucker Punch". In good ways. That's still my favourite of his works, and this film carried some of those same madcap sensibilities with a patchy polish and a firm reluctance to justify itself. These are qualities I can admire in a movie. It also had an able cast with a willingness to commit, which hauled the picture along when it might otherwise have stumbled. The fact that all of them always seemed to have something to do helped. That was one thing about "Dawn of Justice". At times it felt like a series of portraits. They were exquisitely painted, but the models didn't always get the chance to express themselves as they might have liked. Well . . . Except Jesse Eisenberg.

In the same way that the best parts of the 2005 "Fantastic Four" movie felt as though they came straight from the mind of Johnny Storm, I think that a case could be made for the idea that this is the kind of film the Joker would produce. It doesn't always know where it's going, but it's not going to be swayed from getting there, and it endeavours against the odds to have a good time on the way. And he obviously gives himself the best outfits.

Bonus Question!

Harley Quinn versus Babydoll! Battle of heroic mental patients! 

Well, it's obviously going to be a dance battle, and I'm going to give it to Baby because that's basically her superpower. 

Waylabar Show on the 18th

Hey, people and assorted things of all other varieties! Hot Apollo's opening a night of acoustical musical majesty at the Waylabar on the 18th of August. 996 Queen Street. East! 

8:15. 

Summery Secrets and Civil Sequels

Marvel's comic event for the summer, "Civil War II",  is swinging its strides right now. The fact that it's being helmed by Bendis, who's probably been a favourite for me since those early days before I even noticed things like writing credits, definitely doesn't hurt. At the very least, it's actually in the Marvel universe I love. I had a surprising amount of fun with some of the "Secret Wars" books from last year, but the fact that they were essentially alternate universe tales  made them feel like an interruption. I might have been more receptive if they'd been released in addition to the regular books instead of replacing them, but that hardly seems tenable. Right? I don't know. Numbers, man.

But I really liked Marvel's delivery on their oft mentioned pizza analogy for "Secret Wars". Their spokesman likened the event's ultimate effects on the Marvel universe to smashing two pies together and keeping what sticks, but it felt more like scraping a few choice toppings from some old, slightly mouldy pizzas onto the inexplicably fresh main one.

"Hey, I think that we can save these anchovies."

And that anchovy's name was Miles Morales.

Bonus Question!

Best pizza topping?

Pineapples! Not on pizza. But pineapples are just really good generally.  

August 2nd! A Show!

People of every pursuasion! The magnifical might of Hot Apollo again finds its way to a Torontonian stage! On the inaugural Tuesday of August, we shall be working our wizardry at The Linsmore. Right beside Greenwood Station! Music starts at 8:00. Come on out and see us. And the other bands! I guess. 

1298 Danforth Avenue. 

Sunday Even at the Tennessee

Guys! People! Everyone!

We're playing another sweet set of swishy rock-and-roll glory with Mr. Jr. on Sunday at the Tennessee. That's 1554 Queen Street West. We're on at 8:30! That's totally convenient if Monday's a thing for you!

Come on out!

Mysterious M

I recently finished "Theatre of the Gods". Quite joyous. If you can imagine a version of "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" by Thomas Pynchon, you're pretty close. Honestly, I'd be more interested by Douglas Adams's take on "Gravity's Rainbow", but this was a satisfactory experience in its own right. Fantastical space adventures are rarely unwelcome.

But the lead's first initial was never revealed. That is an annoyance. No deliberate mystery. He was just recurrently referred to by "M. Francisco Fabrigas". I'd be willing to consider the "Monsieur" possibility, but there was an instance where "Master" was placed at the front of the whole thing, and such tautological inelegance seems highly improbable.

Baron Zemo's another example in recent cognition. What's Helmut's middle name? What does the J stand for? Shall he repeat that famed Homeric journey to an arguably anticlimactic revelation? Why are these things put there?

You know how some people have that thing where they don't almost automatically enjoy the vast majority of the entertainment they consume? I think that this initial niggle might be what I have instead.

Bonus Question!

Is the space pope reptilian?

This one does not appear to be. He does have his own battle fleet, though.

Hatchet Plans

I recently saw "Maggie's Plan".

Bill Hader used the phrase "like a hatchet" to describe the face of the relative of a prospective sperm donor. Not for him. For a friend. Not that . . . You know. There'd be nothing wrong with that. It wouldn't be eminently practical, but uses could be found for it.

Anyway, I'd always heard the term "hatchet face" in reference to visages that were supposed to seem as though they'd been mauled by hatchets. When I'm asked to imagine a face that actually resembles a hatchet, it's much more benign. I picture something like Ben Kingsley.

The film also discussed the potential damage that could befall a child through growing up in a loveless marriage. I realise that this idea is not one in which I have faith. I can't say that I ever scrutinised it, but if I were asked, I would not say that passion was a defining characteristic of my parents' relationship through most of my acquaintance of them. Despite that, our household was always filled with love, and they certainly functioned as companions to each other. But I'm inclined to think that the important thing for the child is recipience of love from each parent. If the parents can get along around each other, is that not sufficient? It doesn't just keep the marriage intact; it keeps the right sort of emotions around. You know how some people only work as friends in the company of a mutual connection? It's like that. The Earth has a great relationship with the sun and moon, but those two propably wouldn't have much to do with each other in the planet's absence. Despite that apathy, the union they form with Earth succeeds brilliantly, and the planet thrives in the glow of both. 

Bonus Question! 

Best plan? 

The one that was always. 

Dancing on the Tables of My Childhood

When I first realised that the premier pilot of "The Force Awakens" was portraying Apocalypse, there was a part of me that basically just wanted to see Poe Dameron with vague omnipotence and blue lips. Instead, the interpretation was closer to full Palpatine, and it worked deliciously.

I think that this film might have been the weakest showing for Scott's glasses, but I suppose that Oakley hadn't quite achieved market dominance in the Eighties. However, I think that this visor might be the best of the series. It evens out.

But Nightcrawler got to be himself! Really, it's a role that looks on paper like a fitting role for Alan Cumming's brand of witty panache, but the direction of the movie in which he appeared suppressed that aspect of the character. Not the case here. This Nightcrawler was the one I loved in most other incarnations. Man, it was the one who danced on the table in the opening credits of every episode of "X-Men: Evolution". Who cares if Angel got turned into Billy Idol? For one thing, that was glorious in its own right. For another, we got classic Kurt Wagner. That's a win, babe.

For all the haranguing about the division of intellectual property between Marvel Studios and other production houses, one would assume that Pizza Dog's rights would be tied to Hawkeye. Yet this Fox film explicitly features a dog mainly identifiable by his attachment to pizza. Way to slide one beneath the lawyers, Fox! Living up to that name!

Speaking of things that fall under the vast umbrella of Disney! That moment with Quicksilver and his mother? "I'm not afraid." "You should be." Totally reminiscent of "The Empire Strikes Back"? And Peter was totally staring off with Skywalker face as the scene ended. And then the next one began with some of the students in a discussion about the showing of "Return of the Jedi" they'd just viewed. And the activation of Cerebro looks like hyperspace. But that last one's a bit of a stretch.

Anyway, I'll never get tired of hearing Xavier's refrain of "old friend" with Magneto. Keep on feeling, Chuck. Your love is beautiful.

Bonus Question!

What are you calling right now?

Next film opens with an X-Mansion baseball game. Calling it right now.

Fresh Coats

Despite its probable roots in DC’s tendency to pick at the scabs of its patchy continuity, the whole Rebirth thing is feeling like fun. When I was first getting into comics, I read Marvel almost exclusively, and what I’d heard of the Crisis on Infinite Earths sounded abhorrent. I could support the idea of streamlining a  messy, inconsistently managed narrative multiverse, but the execution, which occurred right in the middle of things, seemed to lack any elegant coherency. Rebirth has some of the aspects that contributed to my distaste for the Crisis, and it probably has some wholly original elements of fatuity, but none of that makes it unpleasant as it’s coming to me. 

Incidentally, the incorporation of Doctor Manhattan doesn’t seem like the most sensible move, but it’s only a caber’s toss from the induction of Shade the Changing Man and Stormwatch into Prime Earth, and the former was one of my favourites when I first began reading the New 52. Bring in Morpheus  while you’re at it. Who cares? Dudes in mysterious jackets. Always a good time.

Bonus Question!

Shade versus Joseph! Madness Vest versus Dreamcoat!

One interprets dreams. The other draws power from them. Personally, I’d give it to the Changing Man.

Hot Apollo at Global Village Festival

Hot Apollo's coming to the Global Village Festival at Mel Lastman Square in a blaze of rock-and-roll grandeur. Catch us on Stage 2 at 4:30 on the 24th of June. A Friday! 

And then you can see us do a shorter set at 6:30 on Stage 1 on the same day if you're still around.  

And I think that there are 49 other bands to keep your ears alert until 10:00 or 11:00 on the following day.

But the main takeaway here is our thing at 4:30 on Stage 2 on the 24th. It's at Mel Lastman Square. Aeow!

http://www.globalvillagefestival.ca/program

Noice Gois

“The Nice Guys”. Watched. Shane Black, yeah? “Kiss Kiss Bang Bang” was probably the first of his movies I saw, though I don’t think that I really knew the name until “Iron Man 3”. The former was also my first experience with Robert Downey, and it could be fair to say that it had the greatest influence on my desire to see this film. A lot of Black’s works contain points of resonance with each other, but “The Nice Guys” felt to me like a particularly worthy successor to the one with the kisses and the bangs. But it’s set in the Seventies instead of Christmas. A fair chunk of it takes place at a discotheque, though, and disco is almost like the Christmas of music. I’m not talking about Christmas music. That’s music about Christmas.

I missed the very beginning. I’m not sure, but I think that it contained a narration of some sort. I say this because the film concluded with one that appeared to be a continuation of a monologue of which I was unaware. Not much was lost to me from this, but it felt momentarily odd.

Actually, the last 90 seconds might have been around Christmas. I think that there were some decorations in that last scene.

Bonus Question!

Hanukkah of music? Jazz.

Ghost Mom

I recently saw. "Mother's Day". I do enjoy these big ensemble holiday films. Never stop making them. If you run out of popular holidays, you can reach back to some old Roman traditions or something. Those guys had loads of holidays. I've heard some theorise that that was what precipitated the downfall of their empire. Make a Lemuria movie or something. Finding love and ritually warding against household ghosts with all the stars who happened to be on hand. It's a good time.

Bonus Question! 

Best nonexistent holiday movie? 

"Leap Dave Williams". Seriously. How was that never made? It had the things that made my kindergarten self a Jim Carrey fanatic. Seeing those brief snippets was like hearing a clip from a fictional song in a movie that wasn't on the soundtrack. Like the B-52's' "Bedrock Twitch". Make that too! Put it on the "Leap Dave Williams" soundtrack! Who even cares? 

Machx10

I was first introduced to Abner Jenkins and his sweet flying armour when he was called Mach-III. This was towards the end of the first Thunderbolts run, and he was temporarily black at the time for some reason, but that's beside the point. Was it some surgical disguise thing? Like that thing with Rob Downey in that war movie? That dude played Iron Man, and that seems to be what Jenkins tries to do. But with wings. Which is weird. He's flown similarly functional suits without them in his villainous Beetle persona.

Anyway. The number in the name didn't really mean much to me at the time. It seemed random. I didn't see why a number was necessary, and that particular one seemed less authoritative than 1 or something. But 1 was indeed where it started. Apparently, he kept changing his name to keep up with the iterations of his suit. That includes the ones that happened even during his absences from comics. This means that he's been called Mach-VII despite the fact that he's never appeared as Mach-VI. And those Roman numerals can really get messy when they're part of a name that's already less succinct than it should be.

But now he's Mach-X. Which . . . That could solve things? Maybe? It's not necessarily a number. Wolverine was Weapon X for ages before Grant Morrison decided that that was actually a number in reference to the tenth iteration of the Weapon Plus program, and it still sounds iconic. Actually, that might've been revealed in the first Morrison comic I ever read. I think that I picked it up in a convenience store on some road trip because choices were slim.

But anyway. Mach-X. If you don't say "Mach-Ten", it sounds decent enough. Maybe that's in a way that harkens back to the indulgences of the Nineties, but that's acceptable. Just . . . Just leave it there. If you can't bring yourself to drop the numerals altogether, you've got to end it there. You seemed to skip VIII and IX to get to this point. Just be the best Mach-Ecks you can be, and leave it at that. We don't even have to talk about that thing with your wings and doors.

Nick Spencer might, though.

Bonus Question!

Best redundant wings?

Seraphs, man. You don't need three pairs of those things. Even if you need one or two to hide your face, you still have spares.

Gods of Wherever

"Gods of Egypt". I saw that business. I don't really speak to the politics of it, but I can imagine that the casting of a bunch of white dudes could have been encouraged if this film came about in an attempt to make something in the tradition of those fantastical Greek epics with a fresher roster in place of the relatively pale Olympians everyone knows. And then they just used the cast they would have employed for those guys. Perhaps evidenced by the presence of Gerard Butler? Catapulted to the higher tiers of fame by his epitaphic portrayal of a royal Spartan legend? Oh, and he was also in "Olympus Has Fallen", but I think that that title was largely allegorical. It's actually about Washington or something. If it's not, the recently released sequel "London Has Fallen" seems like a serious downward move. London's a great city, but Olympus is the home of gods, and while Buckingham may be gorgeous, deification of royalty isn't much of a relevant thing at the moment. 

Anyway, that casting theory may be an overly convolute one.

More probable is the attempt of some racist aspect of the universe to twist karmic workings around in order to compensate for use of a black actor in the role of a deity who was known as the White God even among pasty Northmen. But Idris Elba rocked Bifrost with his Heimdall. And Set's persona is filled with similar aplomb by Kurt Russell. Or whomever.

Bonus Question!

Most colourful flesh of Egypt?

I always thought that Osiris looked good in green. It might have even made up for the textural damage a couple of deaths must have done.

But that mess is emphasised here by a morbid pallor instead. Oh, well.

Actually, I was brought to mind of Hades in Egyptian cosplay. That works too.  I suppose that it's only fair. Horus seems to have raided Zeus's laundry hamper for this outing. Seriously, that stuff'd be fit for releasing some krakens after a light wash.

All the Biomes

Zootopia actually looks like a delightful place. That city had all the biomes, man.

And the film had Jason Bateman in an uncharacteristically roguish role. But he's not the first Bluth to change his surname to "Wilde". There was that Will Arnett series "Running Wilde", which took its title from Arnett's aspiring philanthropist. Maybe he and Bateman still bear some familial connection across worlds. 

I also happened to watch "Teen Witch" recently. That can probably be related back to Jason Bateman too. I remember hearing that it was supposed to be more closely linked to "Teen Wolf", and the sequel to that masterpiece gave the dude one of his first big roles. But I only saw the briefest snippet of that while I was flipping through channels years ago. Flipping through channels happens to be something I last did years ago.

Anyway, I noticed that the older witch, Madame Serena, was played by an actor by the name of Zelda Rubinstein. There's nothing wrong with a witch called Serena, but "Zelda" has always seemed to stick out as a default name for female practitioners of magic. It feels like a slight shame to disguise that. 

Bonus Question!

Zelda Spellman versus Princess Zelda?

The Spellmans are a venerable clan, and there'll be no denying, and Zelda was particularly assiduous in her studies, but the princess is a recurrently reincarnated goddess in humanoid form. Giving her the win.