[Yep, we’re still on a word count, apparently, so this is in two parts. Sheesh oh man. You can find the full column, from 8 August 2015, here, although, as usual with these late-era CSBG posts, it’s all jacked up. Sigh. Believe me, I’m as frustrated as you are! Enjoy!]
I actually didn’t read any comics this week at all. But that doesn’t mean we were lacking for comics-related nerdy entertainment.
We mostly checked in with a lot of movies and TV that we normally wouldn’t have gotten to enjoy but for the kindness of friends, or occasionally strangers who supplied review copies. Anyway, all of these efforts have been piling up in my maybe-that’s-worth-a-column mention file. So here’s the rundown on the lot, capsule-review style.
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Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation. There’s five of these movies at this point, which means that this series is kind of its own thing now and not really beholden to the original television show. But the interesting part — well, to me, because I am a huge fan of the original — is that, even with all the Tom Cruise running and jumping and clenched-teeth pyrotechnic stunt work, each successive entry in the series moves the movies closer to the approach of the old show. The original Impossible Missions Force were completely ruthless and manipulative, specializing in the ornately-plotted setup. I don’t want to spoil anything, but in between all the stunts, there is an actual plot here that’s structured that way, except it’s more dueling good-guy and bad-guy ornate setups, which adds to the fun. I appreciated all the little nods to old-school IMF tactics — particularly the final act, which will make any fan of the TV series vibrate with glee. They even preserved my very favorite bit from the old show … what my friends and I have always called the Jim Phelps Goodbye Wave.
The Goodbye Wave goes like this. Back in the day, when the IMF had bamboozled the evil dictator or the head of the secret police or whoever into believing something so insane it was ridiculous (At one point or another, the team persuaded bad guys that they had been in a coma for decades and had awakened in a post-apocalypse America, that the Fountain of Youth was real, that they were being haunted by the vengeful ghosts of their victims … I could go on and on) … anyway, then the trap would snap shut and the villain would be sputtering something like “No! No! I never touched the money! It was real, I SAW HIM DIE!!” as he was being hauled away in chains, usually to be executed by his own lieutenants. Then the camera would pull back and reveal the assembled Impossible Missions Force looking on in grim triumph. No, Dmitri, it was all fake, you’re just a MORON. Buh-bye.
I LOVE THAT. It’s so wonderfully cathartic. John Rogers used the Goodbye Wave moment a lot in Leverage, as well, for you younger folks. I loved it there too. But it was Jim Phelps and the original IMF that raised it to an art form.
This latest Mission: Impossible movie is great fun and you can almost characterize it as James Bond and Emma Peel versus the IMF, which is kind of cool in a meta way. But what I loved most about it was how much the third act felt like the original TV show, up to and including when the Goodbye Wave showed up at the end. It’s embarrassing to admit how happy that made me. Even more than the theme music or the rubber masks or the this-message-will-self-destruct-in-five-seconds tropes that you have to include to call it Mission: Impossible, it’s the Goodbye Wave that makes it my Mission: Impossible. And this one has it. Thumbs up.
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Supergirl. I am so completely not the target audience for this show, but I loved it anyway. Mostly because all I could think was how much all my 6th and 7th grade Young Authors girls will adore it. Comics purists will find a lot to like as well, though I admit recoiling at a couple of things established in the premise.
First, apparently the space warp that young Kara Zor-El’s ship passed through on its way to Earth somehow breached the Phantom Zone and brought through a shipload of superpowered criminals to Earth as well, leading to the formation of the DEO to combat them. My gut reaction was instantly, That’s too many Kryptonians on Earth. I understand the need to provide worthy adversaries for our heroine to battle, and the Big Bad for season one looks like fun. But … it still annoys me. I didn’t like all the Kryptonian survivors that kept getting added in the comics, I didn’t like it on Lois and Clark or Smallville, and I don’t like it here. Superman, Supergirl, Krypto, and the bottle city of Kandor (with everyone there de-powered and trapped at their tiny size.) THAT’S IT. That’s my arbitrary cap on the number of Kryptonian survivors you’re allowed in your Super series, whether it’s comics or movies or TV or whatever. After that, you lose me. You get too carried away with survivors and pretty soon the only Kryptonians who actually died when the planet blew up were Jor-El, Lara, and the Science Council.
In fairness, this show seems to posit that not all these powered criminals are actually Kryptonian, but then that instantly raises the question of how Krypton, a civilization that had just cracked spaceflight and was barely at the prototype stage, somehow got so many alien visitors incarcerated in their prison without cannibalizing their ships and tech at the very least.
My other quibble was how many people know Kara Danvers is a superpowered Kryptonian. Counting them off, there’s her adoptive sister, her best friend at work, Jimmy (“James!”) Olsen, Hank Henshaw and the DEO (and thus by implication the entire U.S. government covert intelligence community) … and all this after Calista Flockhart’s Cat Grant has directed her entire reporting staff to go get the dirt on this new super girl. How long before some radar operator in Henshaw’s crew spills it? Or something like that. I can buy that it’s possible for Kara to maintain a dual identity, even with just a pair of glasses — after all, Clark Kent manages to do it. But even so, the identity’s not going to stay secret very long, especially since it will doubtless prove irresistible to have the new Supergirl encounter Cat Grant in person. The idea that Cat wouldn’t recognize her harassed intern Kara without her glasses just is impossible to believe, despite the decades of Perry White and Lois Lane exhibiting a similar lack of visual acuity.
But that’s just nitpicking. This is a breezy, delightful romp of a superhero show and sitting here poking holes in the narrative is just my comics-nerd reflexes showing. The important part is that it’s tremendously entertaining and everyone looks to be having a wonderful time. All the fun that was missing from Man of Steel? They took it and put it in this show. God bless Greg Berlanti and his crew for understanding that you can embrace the silly stuff in a superhero’s fictional history and make it work. (Vartox is in this, for God’s sake. VARTOX!) Also, I really dug seeing Dean Cain and Helen Slater as Mr. and Mrs. Danvers, and I hope they’ll be back as the series progresses. Julie and I are definitely in for this one when it starts in the fall. You should be too, most especially if you have an eleven-year-old girl in your family to watch it with. Here’s the extended trailer, which spoils damn near the whole pilot, really. Fair warning. But it certainly will give you the flavor of the thing. [Edit: The link Greg used is dead, so that’s a trailer for Season One. I don’t know how much of the pilot it spoils, but, come on, if you wanted to watch the show, you would have done so already!]
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[More later. This sucks! I’m so sorry!]
Rogue Nation is still my favorite Mission: Impossible, and it’s one of the best film franchises. Most of this is probably down to McQuarrie taking the reins, and the wonderful Rebecca Ferguson as Ilsa Faust.
Supergirl started pretty good but petered off over time, like almost all of the CW DC shows.
I gave up on the Mission Impossible films at the start. I was seriously underwhelmed by the first one and just skipped everyone after that. This is the only one that sounds like it might be worth checking out for something other than a stunt.
I never did get to see much of Supergirl. A few episodes here or there. The various DC tv series were much better than film attempts (actual character development!); but, they always seemed a little to teen romance oriented to make me want to watch everything. The Flash was a bit more fun; but, even that didn’t suck me in that deeply. Working a lot of evenings also sapped a lot of interest in any tv.. I just got to the point where I was more interested in gonzo fun stuff, like Archer and The Venture Brothers, rather than DC or Marvel adaptations.
III and Rogue Nation were the best but the series as a whole underwhelms despite the jaw-dropping stunts. Part of the problem is that in almost every film someone uses the directive-on-tape as either a trap for Ethan or their lying — the team have to be flipping idiots not to suspect that every time now (“the tape is a lie” was a common freelance scriptwriting pitch — the producers knew that would destroy the premise).
Going up against “the Syndicate” in Rogue Nation is probably an in-joke as it was the TV show’s alternative to saying “the Mafia” and bringing on the wrath of Italian Americans.