X-Men '92: Thoughts

 I meant to pick up X-Men '97 (forgetting that it was a different format and yet unreleased). So I ended up with X-Men '92. X-Men '92 is a continuation of the X-Men-focused fragment of Battleworld, the pastiche world created by God Emperor Doom from the remnants of the multiverse. Sadly, the only thing Vancean about this pastiche is a lot of Paos in battle. X-Men '92 was a testing ground for the continuing animation of X-Men '97 (which is the why the voices of the voice actors and the characterizations in the comic matched well). Fortunately, too characters and a complicated backstory is par for the course for the X-Men franchise; I'm old enough to remember the spinner racks where, if you missed an issue, or even worse, if the key event occurred in an annual, you just shrugged and read on. The advantage of the comics medium is that you can have far more characters, including short appearances, than you could with an auditory medium. The wordiness in this comic is almost Claremontian, a nice touch.

The story of the X-Men being temporarily tricked and who is good and who is bad being reshuffled is standard X-Men fare, well-written but not revolutionary. The writers and artists took advantage of this limited opportunity to introduce as many of the X-Men characters as possible - with the notable exception of Grant Morrison's X-Men run. There is no Wither or Wallflower here. Perhaps these characters are being held in reserve in favor of X-Force, New Mutants, and Generation X, and would have appeared in the second volume?

Made in Abyss, Season 1: Katabasis Japanese-style

 

I’ll admit, I binge watched Made in Abyss, Season 1. I’d been wanting to watch it for a while, because I like YA protagonists experiencing and overcoming horrifying scenarios, but I was put off by the rumor of Japanese images not conducive to the online reputation of American males. Thus, the opportunity to binge it without extra cost was welcome. You know things are going to become dark when the default idyllic hometown from which the plucky girl protagonist leaves has lax child-labor laws, especially for orphans. The duo of plucky yet emotional child who should not be embarking on life-endangering quests and her ridiculously human robot boy (with plot-convenient amnesia, of course) is as wholesome as animation comes. The animation itself, both of places and bizarre creatures, is Ghibli-esque. The price paid for the descent into the Netherworld (and especially any ascent) is just as excessive as it should be. Facilis descensus Averni indeed.

I am looking forward to Season 2 in 2022. But why are the Japanese so obsessed with still-birth? And why is nobody in this world concerned about the specific timing of the layer with all the skeletons?

Foxy Luvers

In accordance to the familial mandates of Thanksgiving, I consented to accompany my progenitors to The Fantastic Mr. Fox. The difference between those who have a car, however, and those who do not, is greater than most imagined. I cannot claim a surfeit of virtue in this case, since I was briefly the sole passenger on the bus, but the mode of transportation still determines how much consideration is given to time of travel. In short, I arrived ludicrously early at my destination, a situation with which I am intimate. Since it was a familiar situation, I resorted to my default plan: find a coffee shop wherein I might abide. There were several other culinary establishments near the 4-Star, but all of these were either proper restaurants or involved drinking of the Dionysiac kind. I went to Luvers, which (contrary to what might be gleaned from its name) was a coffee shop rather than a business rival for Good Vibrations. Its interior is well-appointed, although I do not know what their usual customer profile is.

As for The Fantastic Mr. Fox, I enjoyed it greatly and did not find any indication of the Uncanny Valley in the stop-motion animation. I must confess that I have never read the book - my preference was The BFG - but one of the endearing traits of Roald Dahl's fiction is his refusal to pander to the "Children's Hour" censors. The anthropomorphised  animals of British fiction are less sentimentalized than their American counterparts, and that tradition shows in Fox. It also lacks the mandatory unqualified victory with which the American audience is besotted - or perhaps the American film industry, since Lord of the Rings made plenty of money.
George Clooney was an excellent choice as the titular Mr. Fox, although one does wonder if there were not less high-profile names who could perform the voice equally well. The bitter antagonism between Ash and Kristofferson, which had been added to the script to lengthen the still short movie, was a realistic portrayal of adolescent strife.