The Sculptor

Here is a review by Paul: http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1269008384

The Quest For Hyperviolence. A review of Man of Steel.

The Story of Superman is, I would venture, a very well known one. For those who aren't familiar the next two paragraphs will give an executive summary.

Kal-El is sent to Earth, as an infant, by his his parents, Jor-El and Lara, to save him from the impending destruction of their planet, Krypton. Krypton is a planet populated with technologically advanced inhabitants whose technology cannot prevent its' ultimate demise. Kal-El's ship crash lands in a field in Kansas where he is found by a barren farm couple, Jonathan and Martha Kent. The Kents rename him as Clark Kent and raise him as their own child.

It is while he grows up in Smallvile, Kansas with the Kents that Clark learns many virtuous lessons about human behavior. Most notably he learns about fairness, justice, modesty and protecting loved ones. It is also the time where his abilities or powers from his Kryptonian physiology begin to develop and his Kryptonian heritage is revealed to him. His ship from Krypton has been saved by the Kents and Clark is able to begin learning about Krypton's cultures and way of life. Eventually, Clark outgrows Smallville life and moves to the "big city" of Metropolis, where he lands a job as reporter at a major metropolitan newspaper, The Daily Planet. He becomes Superman while saving a large group of people from a disaster. Covering this event is Lois Lane, star reporter, who then wants to find out all she can about the intriguing and powerful man.

Man of Steel as a movie is another reintroduction to this origin. The movie adds many elements to the Krypton legend. Most notably that Kal-El is the first naturally born Kryptonian child in a millenia. It also introduces us to Zod, a Kryptonian general whose army of followers try to stage a coup under the guise of saving Krypton from destruction. Caught in the chaos of the coup Jor-El winds up at odds with Zod. With all this additional Kryptonian drama, Kal-El is still sent to Earth with his Kryptonian father's advanced knowledge and Krypton still blows up. (If this is a shock to you, then you must have been surprised that the luxury liner sank in Titanic.)

Then the movie cuts to a man, who we must assume is Kal-El/Clark Kent on a fishing vessel in rough seas. Crisis comes about and our hero is forced to take action to save people on a burning oil rig and risk revealing himself to the world. He does this despite his memories of his foster father spouting a platitude about not using his powers in public and making people afraid of him.  He then goes off looking for another place to be anonymous and winds up saving Lois Lane, while figuring out that he has been essentially wearing an Kryptonian USB drive, which just happens to fit in a socket in a mysterious building and allows him to access the knowledge of his birth father.

In an effort to move the plot forward we are treated to the Kryptonian army of Zod makes itself known and demands that Kal-El turn himself in. To figure out what to do our hero he visits his foster mother on the family farm. While there he shares memories about his foster father's advice/platitudes that amount to little more than "don't open a jar of peanut butter at the peanut-free allergy table" and his mother helps him find his fighting duds from Krypton.

From this point on, it is all about fighting, generating epic damage and proving to the Armed Forces who is the threat. It gets there by advice from USB Jor-El, Lois Lane defying the Kryptonian army and memories of the final sacrifice made by Jonathan Kent so that his son will not have to use his powers publicly.

The movie climaxes with a carnage porn battle in which Superman and Zod face off, mano y mano. This battle gets resolved but, whether you agree with it or not, it is done with all the grace and style of someone opening a jar of peanut butter.

This movie has a lot of sparkle and dazzle, but ultimately lands with a thud. It disrespects several of the core values and lessons from fathers while degrading mother's contributions all to get the muscle bound protagonist in to action. This movie ultimately emasculates both the 'super' and the 'man' in attempting to give us a more modern (read dark and gritty) version of Superman.

Billboards

Written by Clifford Meth with Illustrations by Dave Gutierrez

IDW Publishing $14.99, ISBN: 978-1-60010422-0

Reviewed by Paul Ewert

Billboards is a satiric short story collection from Clifford Meth. This quirky set of speculative fiction stories reminds us that the winds of popularity, politics and commerce are dangerous ways to orient one’s moral compass.

The title story, Billboards, gives us the tale of two people who are making money effortlessly by being physical advertisements for corporations thanks to biometric tattooing. It latches on to the vain attention-getting behaviors used to attract mass media interest like a rabid pit bull. The main characters are enjoyable and caught in contradiction after contradiction. They use carefully crafted laissez-faire methods and attitudes to get an unsuspecting public to notice them and by default their corporate brands. Yet their true laissez-faire relationship creates a situation that drops opposing corporate objectives between them. Their efforts to resolve this conflict draw a very stark and unorthodox resolution.

Dave Gutierrez provides illustrations for Billboards. Each of his illustrations helps underscore an element of Meth’s story, thus adding the visual depth to the world of Billboards.

Queers is another fine story in the collection. In it Meth takes the stereotypical American family and turns it upside down then turns it inside out. This short story could be described as an American version of Gerd Bratenberg’s Egalia’s Daughters with a coming of age twist. It is a wonderful reminder of the battle between popular morality and being true to your own self.

Other stories in the collection introduce us to the hyper-cerebral billionaire CEO Jonah Zwillman, a coming out story as written by the Olympian gods, an encounter with an angelic succubus and a writer drunk on power he has over a devoted fan.

This is the kind of book that takes you away from your daily worries and brings you in the back door of the looking glass. You find yourself thinking your know how Meth will resolve the story, but he surprises you with thoughtful resolve.