Ni Kuang is his usual candid self in the interview above.
[大内密探零零发] Parodies [陸小鳳: 決戰前後]
November 12, 2009 at 12:43 pm (Forbidden City Cop, Gu Long, Luk Siu Fung, TV and Movies, Wuxia)
This is a wonderful parody of the most famous scene from Gu Long’s “Luk Siu Fung” novels featuring the duel of the century between Yip Goo Sing and Sai Moon Chui Shuet. It’s from Stephen Chow’s “Forbidden City Cop“. The below is the original Luk Siu Fung series from TVB starring Adam Cheng:
一生所愛-盧冠廷
November 12, 2009 at 12:31 pm (Journey To The West, Lowell Lo, Music, TV and Movies)
Lowell Lo sings the main theme from Stephen Chow’s “Journey To The West“.
王晶”鹿鼎記2神龍教”訪問
November 12, 2009 at 12:21 pm (Duke of Mount Deer, Royal Tramp, TV and Movies, Wuxia)
Wong Jing comments on Jin Yong’s “Duke of Mount Deer“. People who think that Wong Jing is full of nonsense don’t understand his films. Listen to man himself talk about history, literature, politics, etc.
Here are some highlights from the film adaptation directed by Wong Jing:
Intimate Confessions of a Chinese Courtesan
November 12, 2009 at 12:15 pm (Intimate Confessions of a Chinese Courtesan, TV and Movies)
This is the notorious Shaw Bros. classic directed by Chu Yuen (“Ai Nu“). It’s infamous for being the first Chinese film to openly depict lesbianism. I’m posting it here for a different purpose though – the clip above is dubbed in English. It’s funny as hell seeing Yueh Hwa, Lily Ho and Betty Pei Ti speaking English!
Return Of The Old Joker
November 12, 2009 at 11:57 am (Jin Yong's 3rd Edition Novels, Ni Kuang, Wuxia)
I’m busy doing last minute revisions with my students who will be sitting for their SPM examinations next week. Completed 4 hours of revisions for Principles of Accounts yesterday with five students. Another 3 hours of the same this evening and 4 hours of History on Saturday. Thankfully, I’ll be more free from next week onwards. I’m hoping to get to my own studies. I’ve been working on my lecture assignments for the past two weeks. I’m generally happy with what I have written but I take too long to complete each essay. In the exams, I’ll only be allowed about 45 minutes per essay. Got to work on my time management abilities …
Anyway, I was so glad to pick up the first volume of Ni Kuang’s new essays yesterday. As you know, Ni Kuang retired from the literary world about a decade ago (not long after migrating to San Francisco). After returning to Hong Kong in 2005, he was invited by his friend, Cai Lan, to contribute several pieces to the press. As Cai Lan must have predicted, he soon got addicted to writing again. Reading this book is like meeting an old friend. He still sounds the same. He still talks about the same things. He still tells the same jokes. But I’m just glad that he’s still alive and well on planet earth.
The first volume contains more than 20 essays on Jin Yong’s new edition of wuxia novels. Ni Kuang can be credited for inaugurating the special field of literary criticism called “Jinology” (jin xue) with his five volume commentaries on the popular wuxia novels. Presently, the number one authority on “Jinology” rightly belongs to Chen Mo – a fact that Ni Kuang readily admits in this book. While Chen Mo is usually so lucid and deep in his reflections, he nevertheless lacks Ni Kuang’s candid comments and comedic timing. Reading Ni Kuang’s essays on Jin Yong’s novels left me rolling on the floor laughing. I kept muttering, “He’s still got it! He’s still got it!”
If you can recall, Ni Kuang criticised the previous editions of Jin Yong novels to be inferior when compared to the original version published in the daily papers during the 1950s and 1960s. I’m very glad to note that he’s very, very appreciative of Jin Yong’s latest rewrites. To a certain extent, I believe Jin Yong himself would be relieved to know that his number one fan, critic and lifelong friend appreciates the changes made in the most recent editions.
Here’s hoping that Ni Kuang continues to share his nuggets of wisdom and laughter in future writings. 
Happy Birthday Firefox
November 11, 2009 at 4:11 pm (My Life So Far)
Things are sometimes done with the object intention of provoking a response – however unsanitary shapes such responses may sometimes take. Over the past several weeks, I have very openly pointed out the way the Simonian has been slowly descending into a cesspool of moral filth (which his liberalism justifies in daftly illogical ways) and have in turn earned the furore of his passionate defender, the Pltypus. The demonstrations of their antagonism to me are reminiscent of those once reserved for the Vincit. It’s really not surprising since they think that Vincit and I are the same – pretentious and pompous self-righteous critics parading around with our polished reformed-talk.
Let their judgment of me stand. What can I say in reply? When I spoke in friendly tones previously, the Pltypus crawled all the way to KUL with a borrowed camera to record my words. Now that I speak against him, I’m a dog. When the Simonian spoke against Danny Boy and imagined all sorts of perversions against him, it was well and acceptable. When the Simonian actually indulges in all sorts of perversions himself, he is beyond blame. What tickles my funny bone the most is how their rantings against colonial-masters are really so plastic and fake. The both of them are direct products of Brotherhood-brainwashing. Their very adherence to the simplistic cult of tolerance is evidence of that – everything is tolerated, anything is allowed except for moral interference or criticism. Nothing they say or do is to be open to criticism.
What is even funnier is the way the Pltypus becomes the lapdog to defend the Simonian’s deviationist beliefs. Truth be told, the Pltypus is really a “betul bendul” person who is full of good intentions but doesn’t even know when he’s being played. The Simonian is, for the first time in his life, baring his teeth in antagonistic fervour against my mud-slinging. That is not surprising. His ego is constantly stroked by his entourage of SIN-nincompoops and loose women. Problem is, none of his entourage could string a dozen words together to form a sentence. Therefore, none of them stands up for the Simonian. Enter: the Pltypus, armed with his hip “Ellis-inspired” wordcraft, a thesaurus, a “Pablo” handle and the “copy-and-paste” features. What does he stand to gain in the end? The carnal pleasures are solely the Simonian’s. The Pltypus has no share in them. Satisfaction that he’s standing up for the weaker brother? Tell that to the girls serviced by the Simonian – “Ooooh, he’s not weak. He’s a SUPER-man!” What does the Pltypus stand to gain? For one thing, the Pltypus does not descend to the moral dregs that the Simonian is now familiar with. The Pltypus is all bark and no bite. Hip talk while scared stiff before his bosses, church girls, the government of SIN, and the credit card companies. So I ask again, what does the Pltypus stand to gain?
The Simonian case is evolving (or should I say “devolving”?). Curiouser and curiouser. Once upon a time, he was a creature of logic. Pure thought and devoid of emotions. A logical machine to rival that invented by Charles Babbage. These days, he’s an emotional monster devoid of logic. That he could picture me as the purveyor of war and famine worldwide is testimony of that. Most times, I could be found in the local Delifrance enjoying a chocolate sundae while reading a book of essays by Ni Kuang! His mind is today a picture of Boolean simplicity with no shades of gray. Republican vs Democrat. Conservative vs Liberal. Moral vs Free-experimentation. Intolerant-War-Mongers vs Anything-Goes-Libertines. It’d be more acceptable if he still believed in the presence of the Reptilian Masters (I doubt he does – otherwise, he wouldn’t be smack in the middle of Beltane celebrations). Things that he used to do in the dark, he now does openly without shame – with a smug-look and a shit-eating grin permanently plastered on his face even!
I have little or nothing more to say to either of them. Let them flood my blog with “Pablo”-like comments for all I care. It’s simply more net-traffic that I can use to brag to potential advertisers!
[Note: Jeremiah Blues is over. Truth is, I left long ago. Pltypus, the lead singer no longer sings there. He's too busy playing the advocate for the Simonian to notice the cracks in his own voice...]
Words Of Wisdom
November 10, 2009 at 3:57 pm (My Life So Far)
The Pltypian Sage continues singing his old tune decrying the sins of colonialism and extolling the virtues of the savage. Read his latest piece below:
When the colonials came to land and saw the natives in nature, they were appaled.
They were aghast. They were shocked. For how can it be so that ‘humanity’ can be so savage like in looks and life. I mean, these ’savages’ did not even have proper clothes! And these she’savages walked around with their heaving bossoms abreast for all to ogle. And these bastards-children were all nude and god knows if they know who their parents were. This almost always led the colonials from the land of law and confessions and creeds to denounce the land of savage as immoral and in need of salvation. (Of course, salvation in the name of the colonial pattern of social reform.)
So who cares if the womenfolk of the land had not known a brasseire from a corset since the sun rose? And who cares if the menfolk had no word for ‘territorial rights’ and ‘moraldecorum’ since the river first flowed? and who cares if the childrenfolk grew strong by running in nature au naturel? The colonials gave not a shit. “If yew be not like us, then yew be the devil!” scream the white man to the savage. Then massacre. Then social reform.
Then the artificial build up of the post savage land in the image of the colonials. Then came the churches, then came the schools, then came the bebop and then the land learn a new dance. Then the folks of the land dance. Dancing to the tune that the colonial piper played. Then the folks grow old and the young grew up. Then the land was no different form where the colonials came from.
Then the children of the next generations faught. Then they faught some more. Then came the factions, then came the fools… (and there are many such fools!)
And then they destroy themselves in their filth.
Meanwhile in another land, another colonial party lands. And while the natives stare, the colonials with their laws and their confessions and their creeds got morally aghast….
- G20 is today trying/still trying to teach the poor cuntries of the world how to become the next bankrupt USA.
- Import CEOs from white lands afar are still costing millions in compensation for half-assed work in many local MNCs.
- It is now a given that the new generation are now totally sold out to the next whatever from the land of colonials.
- It is an irony that previous generations of the savage land are now the professors of the colonial doctrine of social reform.
- It is respectable now to accept the moral codes of previous imperialist conqueror as the brand standard for social reform.
“At another part of the world there are these people who calls themselves reformed. And they profess to know the love of GOD. Yeah right. Their heart is so insipid to love. Their religion is a set of letters with no feelings. These are people who massacre in cold blood those who they think are immoral. But what they brand as immoral is only people who are different from them.” -Simon
That’s the Pltypian Sage for you, boys and girls! He’s still speaking up for the Simonian and quoting him with approval. I’d like to think that the Pltypian will be there by the Simonian’s side all the way to the bitter end.
Speaking of the Simonian, he too directed a piece at yours truly (after deleting me off from his Facebook account):
The level of religious dogmatiscism, bigotry and fanaticism is unbearable in the fat boy from Subang.
He is so prejudiced and judgemental, that he posted photos of my friends and myself at his blog. In direct violation of personal space and freedom, he has decided to play big brother to the world. Talk about who is degenerate and satanic? Youre prying into peoples lives, and even my friends are not spared.
Tell me what goes into your sick mind, which is similiar to that of a peeping tom on crack? Do you masturbate to my facebook? That you actually stoop so low as to place pictures of me and my friends on your blog?
You the fat and undersexed pervert from KL is youre reading this im asking you to fuck off. Religious and racial bigot, such as you are responsible for the worlds famine and wars. The very fact of the existence of people in the world brings countless miseries to billions.
And in case you dont get it again, im saying it. Fuck off.
This is the true face of the Simonian, boys and girls. 33 years of pent-up frustration after being pushed around by babies and pink elephants. 33 years of self-deception and cowardice. Now, he’s finally baring his teeth (and his beer belly). Note his unsurpassed logic -> fat + undersexed + masturbating to Facebook = religious and racial bigotry + global famine and wars! Wow! Take note, boys and girls… you learn something new everyday from the Simonian.
In the case of the Pltypus, his flawed reasoning shows forth in every line he writes. With the Simonian, there’s no flawed logic. His logic, in fact, is impeccable. You cannot fault him at all. There he is – in the sewers of no-thought, soaked in the bliss of no-thought. His is the Nirvana of nimcompoopism and alcoholic-intoxication. The Pltypus is his priest. Hmmm… I wonder if the Simonian will be late for his own damnation, as usual… [Forgive the typos: the Simonian's keyboard is still missing the "apostrophe" key!]
British MP George Galloway On War Crimes
November 7, 2009 at 9:00 am (Criminalise War, Current Affairs, English Legal System, Law References, World Conquest)
The definition of murder by Coke CJ in the 17th century (still adhered to in the UK today) is the unlawful killing of a human being within the King’s/Queen’s Peace and the death occurs within a year and a day. The last part of that definition has been dropped off following the Law Reform (Year And A Day Rule) Act 1996. What has not been redefined is that a homicidal act is only considered murder if it occurred within the Queen’s Peace. The Queen, in her exercise of the Royal Prerogative, has the right to declare war and peace with other nations. This definition thus implies that a homicidal act committed during times of war are not to be construed as acts of murder. However, with the manner in which wars are carried out today by strong nations and their military forces targetting civilian targets, resulting in the death of men, women and children by the tens of thousands, perhaps we really do need to question whether murder should only be a crime attributable during times of peace and not also be extended to cover unlawful killings in war – especially in unjust wars hiding behind excuses of “self-defence”.
British MP George Galloway is no stranger to the international community in his calls for an end to wars. He is infamous for his open criticisms of Tony Blair and the misguided Iraq War. He has also led humanitarian missions into Palestine. I was privileged to hear him speak during the recent Criminalise War Conference in Kuala Lumpur. The videos below record the passionate speech he delivered at the conference on how the war mongers are constantly flouting international law by engaging in uncontrolled killings of innocents:
Reviews Galore
November 6, 2009 at 8:50 am (Jennifer's Body, Poker King, TV and Movies, The Time Traveler's Wife)
It’s been a rather less stressful week compared to the previous one. I still ran around from lecture to lecture and spent many hours teaching my students (final prep. before the SPM exams for them). But things felt a little more manageable – except that I had migraine throughout the entire week. At times, I was in so much pain that I couldn’t even read or write. The throbbing pain in my head also kept me up at night when I was trying to sleep. I snuck into the cineplexes for a nap or simply to rest in between lectures/teaching. Saw three movies this week:
i) Poker King
This one starred Louis Koo and Lau Ching Wan as rivals to inherit one of the biggest casinos in Macau. They battled each other at the poker table and outside. This film is commendable for avoiding the usual “supernatural” nonsense about psychic powers (ala’ Stephen Chow) used for gambling and concentrated on the psychological war and the importance of putting up the “poker face” at the table. Stephy Tang was especially cute, Josie Ho was at her coolest, eccentric best and Cherrie In was terribly irritating. Very enjoyable movie overall.
ii) The Time Traveler’s Wife
This one is based on the novel now making its rounds in our popular bookstores. I never liked Eric Bana as an actor. Now, I admit to being prejudiced because I didn’t like Ang Lee’s “Hulk” nor his portrayal of Hector in “Troy”. But given a chance, Bana can really bring the goods – as he does here. The story is about a person with a genetic disorder that results in him slipping along the time-stream. Now, while that seems to be the premise for a sci-fi tale, the film (and I believe, the book as well) decided to avoid its sci-fi-ness by making it about relationships, family and love instead. We see his love story with Clare (played by a sometimes-fragile, sometimes-strong Rachel McAdams) from the time she first met him at 6 to their eventual marriage, miscarriages and finally, his death. Some parts of the film was very emotional but some other parts seemed to drag a bit. The feeling I got was that *something* was missing. I don’t really know what. But that *something* that could have lifted this film from “merely good” to “classic” just wasn’t there.
iii) Jennifer’s Body
This is a film that smacks of the best of teen horror flicks from the 1980s and also made me hate Megan Fox. Miss Fox, if you must know, is everywhere these days. Blame it on the two Transformers movies and slobbering fanboys all over the world. I don’t know what it is with guys these days who go for hot sluts (this is something you gotta ask someone like Simonian). I never liked them. Thankfully, there’s something for everyone in this film. If you’re like me and your tastes swing more towards the attractive nerd, then go watch Amanda Seyfriend in this film that is destined to be a cult classic. It’s got everything in the “cult classic” department – BFFs trying to kill each other, hot slut eating stupid guys (there’s a cautionary tale there somewhere – if you can look beyond Megan Fox’s hotness), Adam Brody as a satanic rocker (yes, that “built as a beanpole guy” from “The O.C.” is actually quite believable in that role) and a return of demonic-projectile-vomiting that is sorely missed since “The Exorcist”. Turn your brains off for 90 minutes and catch this one for some stupid fun.
Samhain-Beltane Celebrations (With The Simonian)
November 3, 2009 at 9:41 am (Spirituality, Unexplained Phenomenon and the Occult)
The Simonian was recently spotted celebrating Samhain-Beltane in the Land of SIN.
See the smug look on the face of the man who proclaimed his individual freedom to be a degenerate!
Smug look is covered but real face is revealed. The Simonian is a monster. Run and hide. Lock your doors. Tell your mothers. The Simonian is coming after you.
This is the monster who proclaimed, “Nobody can go back and start a new beginning, but anyone can start today and make a new ending.“
Sounds surprisingly like the lyrics to Led Zep’s “Stairway to Heaven” don’t you think?
Yes, there are two paths you can go by
But in the long run
There’s still time to change
The road you’re on
There’s always time to change your allegiance from this:
To this:
I have exhausted all avenues of trying to persuade the Simonian to see the error of his ways (not least because I am constantly thwarted by the lamebrained nonsense of the Pltypian Sage). The Simonian consider all my words to him as an attempt at “Vincit-ing” (self-righteous judgment). All the while, he is going from one level of degeneration to the next. Now, he’s even declaring (in his usual faux-philosophical manner) the right of everyman to decide on his own destiny. Next you see him, he’s right in the middle of a Samhain-Beltane celebration. What do you make of it?
David Cameron and the Lisbon Treaty
November 3, 2009 at 9:35 am (Current Affairs, Lisbon Treaty)
The ratification of Lisbon will allow the appointment of a new EU president. Gordon Brown is pushing for Tony Blair to get the job, although other EU leaders are resisting.
In the Commons today, Mr Cameron mocked Mr Brown over his campaign, telling him: “When considering your efforts to get Tony Blair this job, won’t most people in Britain feel this: it is completely unacceptable to see an unelected Prime Minister pushing for an unelected president under a treaty that no one was allowed to vote for?“
Depleted Uranium Bombs
November 2, 2009 at 1:15 pm (Criminalise War, Current Affairs, Israeli-Palestinian Conflict, World Conquest)
Depleted uranium is considered a weapon of mass destruction and is banned for use in warfare by international law, yet the US and Israel use it routinely.
The US military has used thousands of tons of depleted uranium in Yugoslavia, Afghanistan, Kuwait and Iraq sickening civilians and its own soldiers by the tens of thousands.
Depleted uranium contaminates food, water, air and land forever. It’s the ultimate “dirty bomb.”
The Dangers Of A US-Sponsored Nuclear War
November 2, 2009 at 1:09 pm (Criminalise War, Current Affairs, World Conquest)
This is the Chossudovsky speech from the previous conference in 2005. In it he spoke about the fabrications and lies spread by the media that led to the Iraq War.
Criminalise War – Multimedia Presentation and Keynote Address
November 2, 2009 at 1:01 pm (Criminalise War, Current Affairs, Israeli-Palestinian Conflict, Malaysian Politics, World Conquest)
Nobel Prize For Obama and Blair For President?
October 30, 2009 at 10:10 am (Barack Obama, Criminalise War, Current Affairs, Economic Reboot, Federal Reserve System, Israeli-Palestinian Conflict, The Repeaters, U.S. Economic Crisis, World Conquest)
I walked out of the Criminalise War Conference on Wednesday with a lot of righteous indignation at the atrocities committed by war-mongering leaders. Guess what I found at the newstand? The latest issue of Newsweek with the cover story that Tony Blair could well be the President of the European Union! This is the state of the world today. Caligula naming his horse a minister was nothing compared to this insult. Furthermore, the same issue of Newsweek attempted to justify the failures of the Obama Administration to live up to the President’s election-promises as simply a case of upholding checks-and-balances in order to ensure the separation of powers – in other words, the same old tired excuse of “we’d rather be inefficient than totalitarian“. I think that is a blatant sidestepping of the real issues. 212 prisoners are still in Guantanamo Bay. More than 10,000 troops are being deployed to attack Afghanistan and Pakistan. Hundreds died in Peshawar over the past several days of bombings alone. It’s very interesting to note that when it comes to bailing out corporates who turned the world economy into a casino, they are amazingly efficient. Same goes for starting wars and killing men, women and children. But when it comes to saving lives or ending wars, they talk about how the process is long and hard, how the executive must not overstep its boundaries and how Congress and the House of Senate must be given due hearing in order to reform legislations, etc. Lastly, Benyamin Netanyahu and company are billed as peacemakers in the same issue of Newsweek. Does anyone still not realise that the media is controlled? Or are we all just stupid?
Expose War Crimes
October 30, 2009 at 9:38 am (Barack Obama, Criminalise War, Current Affairs, Federal Reserve System, Israeli-Palestinian Conflict, Malaysian Politics, Religion & Politics, The Repeaters, World Conquest)
I was glad that I was among the earliest participants to arrive on Wednesday morning at PWTC for the “Criminalise War International Conference” organised by our very own former PM, Tun Dr. Mahathir’s Perdana Global Peace Organisation. The event is a historic one in that a tribunal has been set up to try the crimes of war-mongering leaders for mass murder, torture and crimes against humanity. The hearings begin this morning. I look forward to the summation tomorrow morning.
Many intellectuals, activists, diplomats and people from all nations of the world were present. I was disappointed that not enough Malaysians turned up for the event (locals are still more concerned about local happenings such as the ongoing MCA debacle, the Perak State Assembly ruffian activities and the collapsed bridge in Kampar). British MP George Galloway very aptly pointed out that the conference is strictly to be defined not in “anti-Jew” terms but in contending against the common enemy that is war. There are as many Jews who are against the Zionist Movement and the militaristic nature of the Israel State. However, the other speaker from India, Mr Gajendra Singh, seemed to disagree and wanted to lay the blame on Jews in general. I’m hoping for clearer and cooler heads to prevail. Not all Jews are supportive of the Zionist war-mongers just as not all Muslims are terrorists (I was very glad to make friends with so many Muslims and had lunch with them together amidst candid conversation and laughter at the conference).
Economist and author, Prof. Michel Chossudovsky, spoke very passionately against the economic forces at work behind war creation – even pointing out the truths that more people should know about the Federal Reserve being a privately owned company creating money out of thin air and “validated and empowered” by wars. I was glad that he even pointed out the Masonic (more accurately, alchemickal) foundations of modern finance – turning lead (worthless pieces of paper) into gold (via the currency system). Former UN Assistant Sec-Gen, Hans Von Sponeck, highlighted the realities of powerful veto nations flouting international law (e.g. the UN Charter) in order to push forward their own aims. What is clear from the proceedings is that it is not just about being against war or supporting peace – it’s about officially pronouncing Bush, Blair, Cheney, Wolfowitz, Zionist leaders, the CIA, Wall Street extreme capitalists, the military industrial complex, etc. as criminals and murderers.
Below is the keynote speech by Tun Dr. Mahathir at the conference. As Malaysians, we are only too aware of the fact that Dr. M may not be a perfect statesman or leader. Not everything that he said or did was looked upon favourably. With that said, we still have to admit that as an international leader tirelessly speaking up against imperialist powers, he is virtually unmatched. For that he should be respected and honoured.
1. As one of the convenors of this conference on the Criminalisation of War, I must express my appreciation for the number of people who have shown enough interest to attend it.
2. I hope and pray that we can take yet another step towards a war-free world, toward making war no longer a solution for disputes between nations, by making it into a crime instead, making those who resort to aggressive war as criminals who must be punished for the crime of the mass killing of people, which is what war is about. If the killing of one person is murder, a crime deserving of the most severe punishment, why must we regard the mass killing of people as legitimate and proper? There is something wrong in a creed that regards the killing of one person as different from the killing of people in their thousands and millions of people. The thousands and millions are made up of single individuals in the final analysis. The mass killing in war cannot be regarded as anything other than the mass murder of individuals who make up the masses. Since individuals are being killed, the fact that the individuals are killed together doesn’t alter the fact that individuals are killed and therefore the killing must still be regarded as the killing of individuals which constitutes murder. And those responsible for the murder of these individuals must therefore be murderers and must be regarded as criminals and punished accordingly.
3. But the vast majority in this so-called modern civilization of ours still distinguish between the killing of an individual and the killings of millions of individuals in the situation called war.
4. One very intelligent individual when asked to join the movement to make war a crime, replied that we have had war for 7000 years and therefore we must accept wars. It is mind-boggling that there can be intelligent people who believe that since something had been done for 7000 years, then it should continue to be done.
5. There must be a lot of things which we have been doing for thousands years which we don’t believe should be done now. Abuse of human rights in its various forms are now not acceptable. Discrimination against women, child labour, public execution, the gibbets, torture, slavery etc etc are no longer acceptable now.
6. It is admitted that there are places where some of these practices are still carried out but generally the civilized world rejects them even if they had been common for thousands of years of their history.
7. So why cannot we reject war? Why cannot we make war a crime, a dastardly crime deserving of the most severe punishment.
8. Because we do not regard war as a crime, the mass killings have not stopped. In the 1st and 2nd World Wars 70 million people were killed. But the world today accepts this with equanimity. They were wars, so the killings were justified.
9. And today we are still seeing people being killed in wars, as the great military powers resort to it to resolve any problem, big and small which they may have with other countries, especially those which are no match for them.
10. 7000 years ago the number of people killed in any war must be very small. This is because the capacity to kill was limited. The weapons would be wooden clubs or sharpened sticks.
11. Then the more “civilized” began to invent new weapons. From stick to stone to ever harder metals. Knives, swords were invented. Sharp edges or points made killing much easier.
12. Bows and arrows followed, extending the reach of the weapons of war. The Chinese invented gun-power but not for killing. Mostly the explosives were for chasing imaginary devils and dragons, which threaten to swallow the moon.
13. The Europeans came across the gun-powder and immediately thought that it could be used in war for throwing projectiles a longer distance than the catapult or bows and arrows.
14. From then on the search for ways to hurl weapons further and further has never stopped. Apart from that the killing power of the missiles had been enhanced continually.
15. Now we can literally throw, shoot or rocket the most destructive weapons right round the globe and beyond. We now have the capacity to literally blow up this whole planet and every living soul on it.
16. The search for the most powerful weapon should really be over. Everyone should now know that a war can actually exterminate the whole of humanity, including the very people who use the nuclear weapons. Using it would amount to mass suicide. Both the victors and their victims would perish. War would therefore be totally counter productive.
17. Imagine a nuclear war with bombs and nuclear warheads being hurled at each other. If there are survivors, radiation would kill them all.
18. Truly war should no longer be an option in the settlement of disputes between nations.
19. But the fact is that the powerful nations of the world were not affected by the devastations in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Mostly they see nuclear weapons as deterrents against attacks against themselves. Far from outlawing nuclear weapons as they did with poison gas, they began developing ever more powerful nuclear weapons and delivery systems.
20. As a result the United States and Soviet Union, France and Britain rushed to acquire the knowledge and the capacities to produce nuclear weapons. During the Cold War years the United States and USSR built up huge arsenals of nuclear warheads. Between them there are more than 20,000 nuclear warheads sufficient to destroy the whole world many times over. China, France and Britain also have huge arsenals of nuclear weapons.
21. Germany and Japan are not allowed to posses nuclear weapons. But Israel, India and Pakistan have nuclear capabilities.
22. There seems to be some basis for the idea of nuclear deterrents. Although the United States appeared ready to use nuclear weapons during the Cuban crisis, in the end it decided to compromise by removing its nuclear missiles in Turkey which was obviously threatening Russia.
23. It was fortunate that both the leaders of these two nuclear powers came to their senses in time. Otherwise the world would have been devastated by nuclear weapons in the arsenals of these two countries.
24. We cannot afford to have this kind of brinkmanship. We cannot live in fear of one or two persons destroying this world and its 6 ½ billion people. We cannot allow our civilization to be terminated by some crazy President.
25. A nuclear deterrent is just too risky and too very dangerous. Maybe it was this thought that prompted the idea of nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation.
26. But all these international resolutions were non-starters because the big nuclear powers blatantly ignored them. As a result we see other countries developing their own nuclear weapons. There is much ado about these countries having nuclear weapons. These countries would be mad to use the few primitive nuclear weapons that they have. Should they do so the powerful nuclear countries would wipe out these countries from the surface of this earth?
27. The real danger is still from the rich and powerful nuclear powers. It is they who must reduce and finally eliminate their nuclear weapons if they want to have the moral ground to enforce the non-proliferation treaty.
28. Unfortunately these great nuclear powers are still developing, testing and producing more nuclear weapons. They talk of safe nuclear bombs, of small nuclear bombs and tactical nuclear bombs. Already they are using depleted uranium in their bombs and missiles which are causing diseases like cancer to spread among hundreds of thousands who had survived their attacks.
29. But they are not stopping there. They have developed bombs to penetrate deep into the ground so that bomb shelters buried deep in the ground would provide no protection.
30. New weapons are being developed as the industrialists see profits in the research and developments of weapons. In this their military has cooperated and played a big role as they would be the only organisation to need and use the new weapons.
31. The industrialists not only produce sophisticated new weapons but they invariably follow up with the defences against the weapons they have developed. Nations, rich and poor have been forced to buy and equip their armed forces with these offensive and defensive weapons or systems.
32. After this the industrialists would come up with a new weapon that could penetrate the defence system they had sold previously.
33. Should the country refuse to buy these the producers would hint at offering the weapons to the potential enemy of the country. Fearing the enemy would posses the weapon, which could penetrate its defence, the country would be forced to acquire the new weapon.
34. Then the industrialist would come up with a new defence system against the weapon they had just sold. Again the buyer would be forced to buy this defence system.
35. And so this would go on endlessly. The industrialist would wax rich even if the weapons would not be used. This is not my imagination. It is happening now even to Malaysia. We have to buy expensive aircrafts and submarines although we don’t expect to go to war with anyone. And we have to upgrade them every now and then.
36. The weapons merchants would try to create an arms race between neighbouring countries or rival countries in order to be able to sell the arms that they produce. The arms race would create fear and tension between countries, yet fearing mutual destruction few of these countries would go to war with each other. Not being used the expenditure on arms would be wasted. The urge to try out these weapons in real life situation would be irresistible. And so proxy wars and wars against weaker nations would be started.
37. But the countries of the world never learn. They would upgrade their weaponry continuously even though they know they have very seldom any use for the weapons.
38. Along the way the industrialists and the military have developed a symbiotic relation. Always desirous of becoming more and more powerful, the military would build a case for the need to develop new weapons against the possibility of attacks by potential enemies whose weapon might be superior.
39. Unable to recoup the money spent the industrialist marketed their weapons to the world. They work hand-in-hand with their Governments, the military, the banks and the media. Together they and their sales talk would be irresistible.
40. The weapons trade has developed and grown until it has become a big part of world trade. The effect of this trade is to impoverish countries which have to continually upgrade their weaponry at considerable cost and the arms race which invariably follows as neighbouring countries compete in upgrading their weaponry.
41. The weapons producing countries are still spending trillions of dollars conceiving, inventing, developing, testing and producing weapons. This is being done at the behest of the military, but often the defence industries would come up with frightening scenarios which could be handled by their latest multimillion dollar weapons. It is not the defence of their countries which they care about. It is the money to be made.
42. Any new scientific discoveries would be thoroughly studied for use in weapons. Thus firecrackers, noxious gases, bacteria, chemicals, metal alloys, new metals, lasers, radio waves, electrical and electronic devices, composite material, carbon fibres, and just about anything would be examined, analysed, studied, tested for applications in weapons, to make the killing of people more efficient.
43. Almost without exception some application would be found for use in killing people. Radio control toy cars and model aeroplanes have now evolved into remotely controlled, unmanned aircrafts, land and sea vehicles to deliver bombs and other explosives and even biological and chemical weapons without risking the lives of the attackers.
44. The technology for Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV) which could carry cameras and radio transmitters has now been applied to full-size military aircrafts. The pilot would be on the ground facing their numerous consoles, monitoring and controlling the aircrafts by radio, programming their flight and releasing their murderous cargo of bombs or firing their rockets. The pilots are not exposed to any danger by the bombs and rockets they fire from hundreds and thousands of miles away. Without the risk of being killed the urge to war and kill is enhanced.
45. The pilot of Enola Gay had to fly his plane thousands of miles to be over Hiroshima city in order to drop his beloved Little Boy to kill 100,000 people and destroy the whole city. He ran the risk of being attacked by enemy fighters and being shot down and killed.
46. The modern pilot can now fly the more sophisticated radio controlled bombers from his base in his country to drop the atomic bomb precisely over the target city. 100,000 people or even a million people would be killed and the whole city totally destroyed, just as was done by the pilot of Enola Gay. And all this can now be done between games of cards or watching a football match over a glass of beer. The pilot risks nothing at all yet the men, women, children, the aged, the sick and the disabled would all be killed and many thousands more wounded, losing their arms and legs, having their abdomen ripped open and their guts spilling on the ground.
47. Hospitals, schools, markets, shopping complexes and buildings of all kinds would be pulverised. Fires would start and a fire-storm would suck up all the oxygen, suffocating the survivors.
48. Even if no nuclear material is used, the power of modern explosives and the size of the mega bombs – each weighing more than 15 tons would do enough damage to devastate whole cities.
49. There would be nowhere to hide. The new bombs and rockets have the ability to pierce through earth and concrete to great depths before exploding so that those in bomb shelters would no longer be safe, be protected from the new weapons.
50. Noxious gases and radiation would kill rescuers, and would be blown for hundreds of miles, killing and spreading diseases of all kinds.
51. The great military powers have all these destructive weapons and delivery systems. They know that they don’t need huge armies to launch their attacks. All they need is a few men manning the consoles and they can literally wipe out hundreds of thousands or millions even of people, devastate whole countries and render them no longer habitable.
52. They have this capacity, they have this power. But they are still researching, developing, testing and producing more and more lethal weapons, gleefully predicting their use in future wars. They cannot conceive of a world at peace.
53. They believe that only they can be trusted with these weapons. The world need not fear them. They are reasonable people, caring people whose respect for human lives cannot be questioned. But are they?
54. They may not use the nuclear weapons and other WMD in their possession yet. But knowing that they have and knowing that no one would dare to attack them, they have shown their willingness to provoke weaker nations and to attack them with their so-called conventional but no less destructive weapons.
55. They claim their use of the power to kill people indiscriminately as making the world safe for democracy. They seem to think that only they as democrats have a right to live, to be safe and secure. It is right and proper to make those who are not democratic unsafe and insecure. It is proper to kill other people in order to promote democracy.
56. They fail to appreciate that the people who are not democratic are also people, are human beings whose right to live are no less than those who are democratic. The people who would be killed are innocent of any crimes against the democratic people, even if their leaders may be dictators. To deprive them of their rights to life must constitute as heinous a crime as the deprivation of the rights to life of innocent democrats.
57. Human rights is not for democratic people only. Every human life is sacred; every person has a right to live. Those who say that only democrats have a right to live in security are no less authoritarian than the dictators the democrats condemn. In fact in many cases authoritarian leaders or rulers have given their people a better life than some democrats whose countries have been made unstable and insecure because of the weaknesses and uncertainties of the democratic systems.
58. What I am saying is sacrilege of course. But if we look at recent events we would not fail to notice that it is the democratic countries which have been quick to use violence, who have violated international laws and shown disregard for the very human rights they so strongly advocated. It is they who resort to wars, to killing people to achieve their national agenda. Truly they are hypocrites.
59. Irrespective of whether the warmongers are democrats or not, we must regard war as a crime. No matter how just may the cause be, wars of aggression must still be regarded as crimes, crimes on a grand scale for that is what war means.
60. I am aware that in struggling to make war a crime we are calling for a radical change in the human mindset and value system. War had been with us since prehistoric times. Whenever human communities came into conflict with each other, they would resort to what we call “war” to resolve their conflicts i.e. they would kill each other so that one of the other of them would be defeated or cease to exist.
61. The primitive people of the past knew no other way but to kill and exterminate the opponents.
62. But today we claim to be no longer primitive. We claim to be civilise. We look upon killing as a heinous crime. We want every country to uphold human rights and the Rule of Law.
63. Besides today the population of the world is ten or more times bigger than the primitive populations of just a few centuries ago. Modern wars kill vast numbers of people. In the two World Wars 70 million people were killed. The number of seriously wounded and maimed for life is countless. And the devastation wrought is beyond imagination as whole cities were wiped out.
64. In the wars of the past, battles were fought on battle fields. The people killed were largely soldiers who had been trained to kill and were equipped to defend themselves.
65. Today everyone, combatants and non-combatants, male or female, the old, the young, the children and the new born, the sick and the incapacitated – all of them would be killed and wounded. They have no means to defend themselves.
66. They may not seek shelter underground even because diabolical new bombs have been designed to penetrate deep into the earth, to pierce concrete and to explode and to destroy the shelter and all in it.
67. Besides killing everyone, the whole country would be devastated, reduced to rubble. Water pipes, barrage and dams, power lines, and power generating plants would all be destroyed.
68. Those who survive the bombs and the missiles would have no food and water, no electricity, no toilets and no shelter of any kind. Disease would spread to decimate more of the survivors.
69. Truly modern war is total war sparing nothing and no one. Our capacities for killing and destroying have passed the limit that the world and its population can bear. We are now capable of wiping out the whole human race and render this planet uninhabitable.
70. Even if the war is limited i.e. confined to a pair of countries or region, it would still be inhuman as in most instances the aggressors would have such superior capacities to kill and destroy that gross injustice would be done. The weaker countries would not be able to defend themselves. Frequently they would be the only one to suffer while the aggressors continue to live in peace and security.
71. And when the war ends with victory for the powerful, only the vanquished would be blamed and punished. The victors would demand reparations although the vanquished had suffered more.
72. There is a need, to uphold justice, a need for the people including the leaders who launch the wars to be made accountable for the death and destruction resulting from their decision, their instruction and their command. It does not matter whether the aggressors win or not. They must be regarded as guilty and their leaders must be tried and punished, punished severely. Only this would deter the aggressive from resorting to war.
73. The United Nations was set up by the victors of 60 years ago and they still control and direct the Untied Nations today. Even the courts are under the control of the victors, in particular the veto powers.
74. For so long as the United Nations and its agencies are under the direction of the victors of 60 years ago, we cannot expect fairness and justice from them for the crimes of killing people in wars.
75. We can only expect fairness and justice if the agencies, in particular the Security Council and the international courts are made up of truly neutral people with no stake in the matters being decided. In particular the courts must be free and independent and must hear all complaints by both the victors and the vanquished without fear or favour.
76. Because we are not going to see such an independent court in the foreseeable future PGPO (the Perdana Global Peace Organization) has taken the initiative to set up a tribunal. We may be accused of being biased but we find reluctance on the part of neutralists to participate in our initiative. There is evidence that even those who are neutral fear retaliation by the powerful.
77. Since we cannot wait for the neutralists the tribunal we have set up is made up of judges who have been trusted to be impartial, fair and just. They will act in accordance with the rules and regulations which have been drawn up and be subjected to international laws as well as natural justice.
78. If the accused persons fail to present themselves then they may appoint counsel to represent them or failing that we will appoint counsels for them.
79. The proceedings of the courts will, as far as possible follow the usual court procedures under the British Common Law System.
80. The Commissioners will determine whether there is a case to be heard. Only if they find that there is will they submit their findings to the Tribunal. Then the victims or their proxies and representatives will present their cases.
81. The rest is up to the tribunal.
82. We may not be able to carry out the sentence passed by the Tribunal. But we hope Governments and NGO’s world wide will take note and try to make the punishment meaningful at least by ostracising the guilty ones.
83. We seek moral force as physical force will not be available to us. But the important thing is to make people everywhere appreciate the horrors of war and the criminal who without fear of any retribution have so carelessly issued orders for hundreds of thousands of innocent people to be killed, many to be tortured and for whole countries to be devastated.
84. We believe that eventually the peoples of the world will come to accept that war is a crime and will condemn the warmongers and regard them as criminals. And when this happens we may see the world becoming a more peaceful place.
85. That is our hope. It will take time for the mindset of the denizens of this planet to change with regard to the nature of war.
86. We may not see this happen in our lifetime, at least for most of us.
87. But the fact that we are not likely to see it in our lifetime must not stop us from this noble struggle. As Confucius said, a journey of thousand miles begins with the fist step. Without taking the first step the journey will never be made at all.
88. What we are doing is to take that first step.
89. God willing other steps will follow. Man must come to their senses some day. It will be a journey worth starting even if it takes a thousand years.
90. May God give us strength to struggle to eliminate the killing of people in the quest for solutions to human conflicts.
91. May Allah help us make war a crime, the worse crime that the human race can be guilty of.
Stop War Crimes – Criminalise War
October 27, 2009 at 12:17 pm (Criminalise War, Current Affairs, Malaysian Politics, The Repeaters, World Conquest)
Perdana Global Peace International Conference, Tribunal & Exhibition “Expose War Crimes – Criminalise War” (28 – 31 October, 2009)
Perdana Global Peace Organisation will organise an international war crimes conference, war crimes tribunal and exhibition with the theme, “Expose War Crimes – Criminalise War” and will be held on:
Date: 28 – 31 October, 2009
Venue: Putra World Trade Centre, Kuala Lumpur
Admission: Free
PGPO Chairman and the fourth Prime Minister of Malaysia, YABhg Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamad will be the Guest of Honour at the Conference and to deliver the keynote address. Other speakers include prominent international peace activists, such as George Galloway (British Member of Parliament), Cynthia McKinney (former US Congresswoman), Michel Chossudovsky (Professor of Economics, University of Ottawa), Hans Von Sponeck and Denis Halliday (Former United Nations Assistant Secretary Generals) and prominent local speakers.
A war crimes exhibition will also be held during the conference to highlight the destruction caused by the invasion in Iraq, including instruments of torture used by the occupying military forces there. The conference will be followed by a war crimes tribunal convened by the Kuala Lumpur Foundation to Criminalise War that will adjudicate testimonies of war crimes committed in Iraq since the US-led invasion in 2003.
Marvel Super Hero Squad
October 24, 2009 at 11:18 am (Avengers, Captain America, Comics, Fantastic Four, Iron Man, Mighty Thor, Spider-Man, TV and Movies, Video Games, Wolverine)
Hey kids, this game and TV show feature your favourite Marvel characters beating up each other and smiling all the time. There’s something about beating up people while smiling that gets to me everything. It’s positively creeeeeeeepy, if you ask me. But they’re darn cute anyway!
Brian Bendis: A Decade At Marvel
October 24, 2009 at 11:09 am (Avengers, Comics, Daredevil, Secret Invasion & Dark Reign, Spider-Man, Ultimate Marvel)
And now, on to something a little less revolting (depending on who you speak to) – IGN’s interview with Brian Michael Bendis marking the creator’s 10-year career at Marvel. I just re-read the Ultron Initiative early this morning (Mighty Avengers #1-6) and liked it quite a lot. It showcased the Avengers in a very “Avengery” manner but clothed (some would say “tainted”) by the usual Bendis hallmarks of decompression and endless-mid-sentence-interruption-smart-aleck-dialogue. Whether you like or hate his style, there’s no denying that Brian Bendis is possibly the most influential comic creator of the decade with his runs on Alias, Ultimate Spidey, Daredevil and the gazillion Avengers books out there. He’s at least at influential in this decade as Chris Claremont, Frank Miller and John Byrne were back in the 1980s. Anyway, hear the man himself speak (boast? brag?) in the interview below (original article at IGN):
With Siege on the horizon, we ask one of the most prolific creators in Marvel history to look back on his tenure – and toward the future.
by Richard George
October 23, 2009 – Nearly ten years ago, the Internet was in an uproar. Some indy creator named Brian Bendis was being charged with revamping and relaunching the X-Men and Spider-Man in a line that would be known as “Ultimate Marvel.” Bendis was also slated to start a run on Daredevil, taking the helm from the highly successful and acclaimed arc by Kevin Smith and Joe Quesada.
Ten years later, Brian Bendis still seems to generate the Internet controversies, albeit in a different manner. Whether it’s disassembling the Avengers, pitting Earth’s heroes against Skrulls or handing the keys over to Norman Osborn, Bendis’s run with the House of Ideas has been accompanied by much fanboy outrage – and an equal amount of commercial and critical success. Above all else, Bendis is responsible for some of the decade’s biggest moments. Who could forget a teenage Peter Parker unmasking to his girlfriend? Or the heart-breaking confession Tony Stark made to the fallen Captain America? The creation of the Illuminati? The shattering of the Scarlet Witch? The New Avengers? And that’s merely scratching the surface.
IGN recently had the chance to chat with Bendis about the past decade, particularly the evolution of the company he has called home for that stretch of time. This interview is equal parts reflection and prediction, as we start with a look to the past and quickly end up discussing what’s around the corner.
Be sure to check out our Siege interview with Bendis if you haven’t already. There’s plenty of great information about Marvel’s major early 2010 event in that article.
IGN Comics: So we’re rapidly approaching a major milestone for you. I wondered if we could look back on your ten years at Marvel. Looking back at that decade with Marvel Comics… what are your first thoughts?
Brian Bendis: Ah, my thoughts are – “Thank god we could fill up a trade!” You ever seen one of those “Best Of” albums with four hits and then six other songs? But I was happy that it was hard to pick. That was a good thing.
IGN Comics: So you’ve personally selected what will be in the trade?
Bendis: You know what? It’s funny. I could leave it up to us or we could go online and let people choose. And I said, you know what… I’m going to choose. –laughs- This is one of those things that, for completely selfish purposes, I’d like to hand to family members and stuff. And I’d really like it to be stuff I’m pretty sure I want in the book. So I did pick. And I was open to suggestions – I put it on my boards to see what peoples’ feelings were. Most of it matched my feelings.
Of course you always get someone going, “Daredevil: Ninja #3 was pretty great!” No it wasn’t. It wasn’t.
You know what, when the date is brought up to you… when the trade is put on the schedule… you can’t help but look back and think of things. Mostly it’s relief. Mostly it’s that I bet on the right horse. You think about business decisions basically – Joe [Quesada] bet on me and I bet on Joe. And what a great decision that was. [Former Marvel publisher] Bill Jemas was very good to me. And sometimes when a guy like that leaves, the next guy might not be as good to you. He might not like your work. And when Dan Buckley came on, the relationship got even better. He’s such a forward thinker and he’s just the kind of boss I always wanted. And so you’re just relieved. The amount of trust I’ve been given, but yet have to earn and feel inspired to earn, you know, I want to do well so everyone does well… it’s a good feeling.
I was talking to some other people about this, particularly with the Disney [acquisition] going on, is when I was first invited to Marvel Knights with David Mack… the place was just coming out of bankruptcy. It was like the garage sale had just happened. It was bad. Lights were off. Stacks of filing cabinets on each other. And I’m sure you have this image in your head, and it’s the one Stan Lee sold us, of the Marvel [production] Bullpen. Then you get there and it looks like someone’s moving out in the middle of the night. It was like, “Stan Lee lied to me!”
But now you go in and it’s full throttle. You go in and it’s exciting, people are running around… it’s fun again. And I’m certainly not taking fun for this, but the arc of growth that went from “Wow, we’re getting a Spider-Man movie” to “Wow, Marvel’s getting its own studio” to “Wow, now we’re Disney” is amazing – shocking, to be honest with you.
IGN Comics: Obviously you mentioned the physical changes to the office and the Bullpen… but has the spirit changed at Marvel? Is it much the same as it always was to you?
Bendis: Yeah, it’s the spirit of Joe and Dan. They really found an amazing team. Joe figured out he wants to be a creative executive. For example Joe has no idea what I make. At all. When I have contract stuff, I do not talk to Joe. Joe is all about the story… and gossip. Dan is the future – he’s Tony Stark, wanting to put Marvel into the future. It’s a great mix and match.
And it was the Bill and Joe show, and the Dan and Joe show. Both shows were very different. The thing that was similar, though, was that they were both very forward thinking. What’s next? What can we do now? What’s it about and why are we doing this? We don’t care if it sells – why should we do this? And I love that. That’s exactly the kind of company we need that has brought out the best work in so many people. I know like I sound like I’m kissing their ass, but this is how I feel.
And I don’t have to work there. But I love to work there. And they brought that out in me.
IGN Comics: I think it’s relatively safe to say you’ve been one of the most influential and successful creators of the past decade…
Bendis: At least in my house! I actually don’t think that’s true, that I’m the most influential… but anyways, continue –
IGN Comics: Well, what I’d like to know is what drives you in the comic book industry? You have other projects in the works like the Powers pilot and you consult with Marvel Studios on films… why comics?
Bendis: I’ve heard other people I admire say things like this, and I think about it, but you don’t really get it until later on in life… but what may seem like a goal or important to other people, say a financial goal or however you rate success, doesn’t mean it necessarily fulfills the creator. It’s hard to explain… but I don’t feel like I’m done. I mean I filled that trade up but…
And listen, you wake up in the morning and you get all these pages from artists… it is juice, man. It is excited. That never gets old. Not a day that goes by where I’m saying, “I write Spider-Man! That’s amazing!” Only my mom seems to appreciate it because I’d walk around the house as Spider-Man. You’d have thought I did write Spider-Man because I walked around the house talking about Spider-Man all day. And it happened.
I think my friend David Mack brought this up. He was here the other day visiting and he said, “You know, it’s funny. You’d sit around all day writing Spider-Man until someone actually put Spider-Man in front of you.” And you just keep doing these things until someone puts it in front of you. There’s a lot of that in my life… I was doing this before anyone noticed. And I’ll continue to do it once they take it away from me. And that will be very sad… when I continue to write Spider-Man after I’ve been fired. I’ll be like Tarzan running around in a retirement home in my loin cloth.
IGN Comics: What would you say is your proudest professional moment or achievement over the past ten years.
Bendis: [really long pause] I think… not f***ing up. I know that’s so generalized but it’s just sticking to my guns and saying that I’d make books that I’d want to read. I had a list of rules that I said I’d stick to. And sticking to those rules has served me well, and I’m glad. I won’t say I’ve done everything perfectly, but in general… yeah. I’m also very proud of the Jinxworld community and my Internet presence. The interaction there has been awesome and very good for me. I don’t suck because they’d yell at me if I do. So that’s been very good.
You know, I’d been hustling for ten years. I had many false starts as anyone in comics, including Spider-Woman and Nick Fury. I kept having to go to the back of the line. I had plenty of these feelings, and in fact I was more comfortable with those than anything related to success.
So when I got Ultimate Spider-Man, I figured it would be six issues and then out. But it wasn’t. Then, with issue #13, which is in that trade, was a moment where I was so thrilled. Because it wasn’t what we had discussed in our meetings. But the characters had sort of dictated the story, where Peter would tell Mary Jane that he was Spider-Man. I was thinking about how when I had a girlfriend at that age, I would have told her – I told her everything. I wouldn’t know to hold back, that she’d be in danger. I just wouldn’t know that. And Bill goes, “Yeah, that sounds great!” And I handed it in, and even though it was a one act play, they were like, “Yeah! Done.” And I said, you know what… this is going to work out. This is good.
Cut to a year later, and I was fired off of Sam & Twitch. And Marvel said, “No, you’ll come do comic books for us.” So I pitch Alias, which was a hard R rating – which was the way it was in my head. I handed it in – the first 11 pages – and I said, “Look, I know you don’t publish stuff like this, but this is just what’s in my head. Let’s talk about it.” And Bill said, “Well why don’t we publish stuff like this? We’re doing an all adults line, and we’re publishing this!” And I said, “You know… this is alright!” So that was another one.
And then when it was time to leave Image, I said that to Dan Buckley, he said, “Hold on. Give me a week.” And he came back with Icon. For those that don’t know Marvel history, that seemed insane. They had never done anything like this. Everyone in the world thought they should and now they still are. From there we’ve had Kick-Ass and Criminal… Powers and Kabuki are still healthy and happy. So these things they’ve done for me, in partnership with me or just in part for me, have been things I’m immensely proud of that people can see publicly.
Other things are tinier items that mean the world to me. Working with Chaykin on Avengers. Or Sienkiewicz. To have people discover their work because they were following the book, like I did when I was younger, and have it be as important to them as it was to me… like when people saw Sienkiewicz’s in Team-Up and said “Wow! Who’s this guy?”… you know, it never occurred to me. I figured people would say “Wow! You get to work with Bill Sienkiewicz!” but some people didn’t know who he was. So getting to introduce him and Chaykin and other people like that to a new audience was a blast. And personally that I got to work with them at all was a shocker. I’ve gotten to work with almost everyone I could have ever hoped to in the pages of Marvel Comics. Romita Sr. Michael Golden. P. Craig Russel. Even George Perez before he re-signed with DC. I mean I worship these people. Other than Walt Simonson, who has been at DC the entire time I’ve been at Marvel…
But, yeah, those are the things you can’t help but be proud of.
And I learned this at McDonalds. If you can’t have fun doing this, then you really shouldn’t be doing anything. I have some friends who work in this business and they’re not having any fun. And I’m like, seriously? Then you’re never, ever, ever… ever going to have fun in your life.
IGN Comics: This is kind of a tangent but you mentioned McDonald’s and I thought of it. That opening sequence in the recent Ultimate Spider-Man #1… perfect. I had to do that type of crap during high school and college…
Bendis: You’re going to see a lot of that! –laughs- I worked there for quite a while and I have a lot of material that, I think I was saving it for some McDonalds “tell all” or something and I eventually thought “you’re never going to do that!” So I’m just getting it all out of my system. And I thought it was hilarious there – and I’m sure you thought it was the same way. There are some people there who say, “Yeah, this is good! I’m going to be a manager!” And then there are the other people going “I gotta get the f*** outta here before I lose my f***ing mind!”
IGN Comics: Well just the whole thing – even the hat remark. “Why don’t you have to wear a hat?” So true. So true. I think I even said that to my boss one time.
Bendis: Yep. My McDonalds was in a really fancy mall in Cleveland – like the fancy, fancy mall. So your flame-retardant, polyester uniform was doubly abhorrent as you walked around the mall on your lunch break. And your crescent-shaped hat hair.
IGN Comics: I was somewhere recently and the McDonalds had these really nice sliding glass doors and real plants inside the eating area and I just thought to myself – “Really? Who are we kidding here…”
Bendis: -laughs- Did you see the Burger King thing today? Burger King announced their new look. It’s a science fiction look and it’s hilarious. I posted it on my Twitter.
IGN Comics: I’ll have to take a look at that…
Bendis: You’ll enjoy it – it’s really funny.
IGN Comics: Back to your decade at Marvel – looking back at the industry as a whole, what are your thoughts on how it has evolved? Are things headed in a positive direction?
Bendis: I think it’s going in an insanely positive direction. I know I’m standing on top of a hill of daffodils waving like an idiot, but I do feel that way. We just did these Barnes & Noble signings for Marvel’s 70th anniversary, and I talked at length to a Barnes & Noble manager who said that the Portland Barnes & Noble was like the fourth largest seller of graphic novels in the country. And the third was the other Portland location. So I kind of live in a utopia of graphic novels, where people really take it seriously. But the interesting thing is a week later the Barnes & Noble changed the location of the graphic novels from the back, with the sci-fi books, to the front with the “big boy” books. I mean, what a change. We had a Borders in town that hid the graphic novels behind the counter like a porno.
It’s a mixture of things. It’s Watchmen, Dark Knight, Iron Man… hearing about Captain America and Civil War… it’s this giant mixture that’s getting people into this. It’s a giant, positive shift. And you have to remember, I swear to God, I was there when they were coming out of bankruptcy. It all feels 1,000 times better from my point of view. Just three weeks ago I was at Marvel Studios! So it’s like, wow, this is much better.
So I do think things are better. As far as the evolution, I think we’re feeling evolution happen again. It’s happening with the digital revolution as it becomes very serious business. I know a lot of people have been working digitally for a long time, but it’s becoming a serious business. That’s going to be a major shift. Will the Apple tablet or the Microsoft one be the game changer? I don’t know, but it feels like something is going to change the game.
I’m not saying that print media will go away. I really don’t want it to. But there’s a shift happening that again seems long run positive because more people will be reading the material. And what’s more important than that?
IGN Comics: So ten years from now do you think we’ll be looking back, saying that digital comics were the big deal?
Bendis: It’ll be Brian Bendis’s “Ten Best Digital Comics”… hopefully.
But yeah, I worry about the growing pains. I worry about… and this isn’t Marvel’s thing, but I came up, and I don’t want to sound like an old rock and roller, but I came up through a system where independent comic books… no one was threatening not to publish. And so it felt to me like… even though my stuff wasn’t selling s***, that no one was stopping me. No one was standing in my way if I wasn’t standing in my way. Everyone I work with was in the same position – Oeming, Mack and the list goes on. And… I want whatever the new generation of comic book creators work with – digital or print – to be allowed to fall on their asses a couple of times and not be kicked out. I know it’s up to those creators not to let falling on their asses stop them from making new comic books, but I don’t want that massive shift to cause casualties [of opportunities].
IGN Comics: When you look at that digital/physical transition, does the success of Spider-Woman reassure you that the transition won’t be as bumpy as it could be? Do you think readers are ready for that type of digital format?
Bendis: Well, there were a few before us – Watchmen and so on. But I wasn’t clear how the audience might jump in. We were going to put out Spider-Woman and we had no idea how it would do. And the next morning I wake up and we were #1. I didn’t even know we’d be on the list. I didn’t know what would happen at all. I was surprised how many people were like – “iTunes, no problem!” and that was really cool. That’s kind of what we were hoping for, to say “go to iTunes” and they did. And then they bought the comic book to see which one they got more out of.
I’m more worried about how bumpy it will be for retailers. And what’s important to me, and I’ve been discussing this at length with anyone who will listen, is that just because you can do something digitally doesn’t mean you should. It has an emotional impact. Comics are a very intimate medium. You’re close to them and in control of a lot [when you're reading them]. And I want to make sure digital comics are as intimate and powerful a storytelling technique as possible. We’re just at the fetal phase with that. I see a lot of motion comics with a lot of wiggling going on, but I don’t know what we’re feeling about that. With Spider-Woman, we were really trying to make sure you were feeling her emotions. So that’s what the next charge has to be – what are we feeling, what are we getting out of this? I can do this but should I be doing this?
IGN Comics: As a creator it has to drastically alter how you think about your storytelling. With a comic book you can think about the reader turning the page – what are they seeing and so on. With digital, that has to be a very different experience, correct?
Bendis: Absolutely and I think back to the ’90s when digital coloring became a standard. Some creators evolved with it and some did not or refused to. And their work looked bizarre. And I’m not just saying change for the times, but look at how your work is being printed.
This is actually a lesson I taught myself with my first comic book. I made a comic book myself, and Caliber Comics put it out, and it came out and I looked at it… I almost vomited I was so upset. What was in my head, and what it looked like on the page, were completely different. And then everything became about… I don’t care what this page looks like or what it looks like in my head, I have to see what it looks like printed. That’s all that matters.
I was sort of friends with John Totleben, who used to work on Swamp Thing, and he was doing immaculate work with Alan Moore. Immaculate. And he’d show me what he was drawing and what was on the printed page, and you couldn’t see any of the stuff he was doing! And he didn’t give a s***! He was like “Ah, I don’t care!” And I was like, “Well that bothers the s*** out of me!” Then only later on when they did the black and white reprints, when paper caught up with him, could you see what he had done. But it was a real thing to me, and I don’t mean to babble on, but that mindset has carried on with me to the digital work.
One thing that’s cool about digital is when they show it to you, when it’s done… it’s exactly how you’ll see it. That’s different than when comic books are printed. I’m seeing it as a PDF, so it’s not the final, final product. The colors always look better on the PDF than they do printed. So if anything it’ll look even more like I hope it will. So, yeah, that’s the mindset that has to go into it. Some of us will have to evolve for the technology. It’ll be easier for the writers, because story is story. But there will be adjustments to make. And there were a lot of adjustments for Spider-Woman. There were a lot of scenes that just had to go. Just didn’t need it.
IGN Comics: You mentioned Marvel’s journey – where they were and where they are now – in the past few years, how has your collaboration with Marvel Studios evolved? I know you consulted with Iron Man, is your role getting bigger with these newer movies?
Bendis: Well the Iron Man thing felt like a one-time deal. It was like, “Hey, would you mind doing this?” And years ago I had a bit of a similar thing where I was asked to come down and watch the Spider-Man movie. And I didn’t know in what context I’d be watching this, and suddenly I’m in Sam Raimi’s office sitting on a couch with Stan Lee and not knowing what the f*** is happening. And that whole day was about “What’s wrong with this?”
With Iron Man they said, “We’re filming in two weeks. You guys come down, and we’ll have a talk.” And that was great, and I thought the idea was so forward thinking that I was praying the movie wouldn’t suck because I liked how they were thinking.
So when I was getting ready to re-sign, the idea to join this creative committee came up. The idea was that Marvel had a lot of movies in the pipeline and they were all within my wheelhouse, with the Avengers, pretty much. They liked Joe and I picking everything to death. And Alan Fine, who’s the president, he’d sit in at the comic book retreats. Jeph Loeb and I would be sitting there screaming at each other as if we’re the jury in a murder trial, and he’d be sitting there going, “I had no idea they were this passionate!” So it was really nice that they wanted me to come in and do this.
I’ll tell you, it’s a really excellent experience. Not only is it geek fun from heaven… you have no idea the many, many times I’ve wanted to get in a time machine and tell the 10 year old me all the cool people I’d meet and all the cool s*** I’d do.
So there are meetings we have where there’s no material attached. Then there are meetings where we have the scripts in – everyone has them, we read them, and we meet in a week. Those, for me, are like going to writing seminars. We’re not talking about me specifically, but I do take a lot out of it and apply it directly to my work. So if someone asks the question about Act II, and if it’s a good question, you can’t help but think about yourself and your work. So really all writers should do this… it benefits my work tremendously.
So now it’s an ongoing concern. Thor’s almost up and running. Captain America is right behind that. And we had our first Avengers meeting that was an absolute blast. So yeah, it’s a lot of fun. It’s a good way to make a living! And what’s great is that you get to do all of the picking and none of the writing – you just hang up when it’s done.
IGN Comics: Could you ever see yourself writing something for Marvel Studios?
Bendis: Well I certainly would love to – I certainly would love to. I’m glad they’re enjoying me in the meetings, because if they weren’t I wouldn’t be asked to go to more. So I’d certainly like to but it’d have to be something everyone agrees is perfectly right for me. So… sure, one day, absolutely.
IGN Comics: We’ve kind of been going through the journey of Marvel in the last decade and I wanted to get your thoughts on the big, big topic of the last couple months. Disney/Marvel – what were your thoughts when you first heard the news? I know you had quite the ball on Twitter. –laughs-
Bendis: Ha! Yeah. You know I woke up too late to really get any of the jokes in. Comedy is timing and if a week later you’re just getting to your “Finding Namor” jokes – it’s over. You had six to ten hours tops for the goofy Disney/Marvel jokes. You know, it happens to the best of us – you think of some good jokes two weeks later. So I think if the merger taught us anything, it was that.
But yeah, I woke up and… I wasn’t panicked since I’m under contract. I know some people were [alarmed] like the sky was falling. So I called up the guys and said, “Hey, what’s going on? Business as usual? Icon still around?” They said “Yep!” and I said “Great!” and that was it.
And [Disney president] Bob Iger went over to [Marvel] publishing and looked everyone in the eye in a room and said, “We didn’t touch Pixar, we’re not touching you.” I mean, what else do you need to hear?
You know, it’s funny. It’s hard to describe to some people. There are always some people that run companies that normal readers wouldn’t even know. Like I mentioned Alan Fine earlier and I don’t know if people would know who he is. He doesn’t go out and do a lot of interviews. There are people like Ike [Perlmutter]… always people like that behind the camera or printer. So far, every time, those people say that Dan and Joe know what they’re doing, let’s let them do it. They turn a profit and the books are good so – go.
IGN Comics: So oddly enough, just as I was going through the last questions here, I got an e-mail from a reader… and he wants to know what’s going on with the Powers pilot that you’ve been working on with FX… basically if it’s still happening or if something squashed it. So for Octavius the IGN Reader and the others… what’s going on?
Bendis: Well, Powers the comic book, I’m happy to be saying, will be relaunching on November 28, and is already heading to the printers. So it might be early. And that will be shipping monthly, so I hope people will check it out.
And Powers, after a decade of feature film development hell, found itself dead as a feature film. My agent called up and said, “You know, it’s not dead as a TV show…” And there was so much money attached to Powers as a feature film you just thought there was no way it could be made unless Jesus came down from Heaven and said he wanted to be Walker. And by Jesus, I mean Will Smith. But none of that applied to a TV show.
So we amazingly sold it to FX the first day we went out – they bought it in the room. And that was great because I love The Shield, and that’s kind of where I wanted it to be. In the interim I wrote a couple drafts and a director named Michael Dinner is attached. He did the Bionic Woman pilot, which is really cool. And he did Son of Anarchy’s pilot as well as Kidnapped, which you should check out on DVD because it never got its full airing on TV. So he’s just a really good TV director.
Shockingly, about a month ago, Kevin Falls signed on as show runner. And I could never be a show runner – I don’t know how to do that first of all and I don’t know if I’d want to. But it was like who would take on the show and let me sit at home and be happy. So Kevin is the Emmy award winning producer of the first four seasons of West Wing and of Sports Night and so that was much higher up on the television food chain than I thought we were going to get. And he’s a fantastic writer.
So I was just in town having a big FX meeting, and issues were being addressed and we’ll see if we get the ol’ pilot green light. But it was a very positive meeting. There are contentious types of meetings that are upsetting and ones where you really want to go make that television show, and that’s how this one ended. And that’s a lot of fun – hopefully it’ll stay that way.
IGN Comics: So your role with Powers, should it be a full series, would be… what? Consultant?
Bendis: That hasn’t been figured out exactly. I have different choices I can make. Right now Kevin would run the show. I’m a producer on the show. They’ve bent over backwards to make sure I’m at meetings. If a pilot gets filmed I’ll make some serious considerations about what I’ll need to do on it.
IGN Comics: In terms of style, tone, content… I take it most of what you’re putting in the book will make it onto a FX show?
Bendis: Yeah. I mean I hate to talk about something that doesn’t exist yet, but… Right now, in Hollywood, with Powers, it can be very hard to keep the focus on the fact that it’s a cop show. I think we’ve done that. It’s a cop show with this interesting angle. Any time people see the superpowers or the costumes, they think they’re making Hancock or something. And that’s not what this is. It isn’t. That was the problem the feature film had in a couple of its incarnations. Some writers were just getting too focused on the superhero element and it’s, no, you’re forgetting things. So that’s what we’re doing. The less superheroes you see the better, I think.
What I’m interested in is creating an environment where… my wife was telling me this, so I’m speaking through her here… but she reads the Dexter books and watches the show. And she says they are very, very different and yet somehow the same. And I read an interview where the author was referring to “their” Dexter and “his” Dexter and very comfortable with [the situation]. This opposed to Alan Moore who is pulling out his beard one hair at a time. And that [Dexter situation] is what I’d like. I’d like that feeling, that both are of an immense quality. You know what I mean? But I’d like to see what the language of Powers is off the page.
I think the reason something like Iron Man or Dark Knight works so well is because it has all the elements that makes it true to the franchise, but it’s not so beholden to the material that it’s cannibalizing something. I think part of the problem with Watchmen was that it was too reverent. Some of those elements fall flat because they weren’t meant to do what you’re trying to get them to do. That dialogue wasn’t meant to be read out loud. It wasn’t supposed to do that. Where Watchmen succeeds is where it works with the new, cinematic elements. That’s where it thrives. It’s exciting. So I think there are a lot of lessons for Powers to learn. And it’s always weird to talk about something that doesn’t exist, but that’s what we’re considering right now. And if anything, Kevin is fifty times more reverential to the material than I am.
Closer Look At The Death Of Teoh Beng Hock
October 24, 2009 at 10:31 am (Current Affairs, Malaysian Politics)
- Announcing a “people-friendly” budget will not wipe this away. Even more so when it’s a budget that feeds the greed of banks by allowing them to charge service fees on top of their usurious interests!!!
- Having the three stooges shake hands and proclaim a “united MCA” means absolutely nothing when the party who is supposed to speak up for Chinese rights say absolutely nothing about Teoh Beng Hock because he was a Pakatan man. (I don’t believe in race-based political parties. In fact, I think they should be abolished. But since they exist, the least they should do is to carry out their supposed duties to protect the rights of races rather than be puppets to the PM. An EGM with more than 2,000 central delegates voting means absolutely nothing. One word from above and the three stooges are shaking hands and smiling for the cameras. What a revolting development…)
- The world is watching us. Will there be a Royal Commission set up to look into the cause of Teoh’s death and the possibilities of it being a homicide? If it is indeed a homicide, will the ones responsible be found guilty and charged? The next move is in the hands of the powers-that-be.
Malaysia stages its own production of “The Three Stooges” at the Malaysian Comedic Association.
From L to R: a former pornstar, the new deputy (whose wife allegedly received a brand new vehicle) and the Superman.
For my money, I still prefer the original:
Problem is, in the minds of the actors above, they view themselves as “The Three Musketeers“:
Truth is, they are more ridiculous than even “The Three Amigos” (and not half as lovely):
If these guys do not make you throw up, I do not know what will do the trick. One day, they are at each other’s throats. The next day, they are smiling for the cameras for the sake of political expediency. Can we trust leaders who change like the weather (all because of one word from the top)? Can we trust leaders who put partisan politics and their own careers (read: egos) above the wellbeing of the people whom they supposedly represent? Can we trust leaders who are so tainted by numerous scandals and accusations? You make up your own mind. As for me and my family, we’re too busy throwing up… 
More Thoughts On The NPP
October 21, 2009 at 12:15 pm (Bible, James D. G. Dunn, N.T. Wright, New Perspective On Paul, New Testament Studies, Spirituality)
I’m almost done with Guy Prentiss Waters’ book on the NPP. I’m glad to say that the book is a good primer and critique on the methods and conclusions of the main proponents of the NPP – Stendahl, Sanders, Dunn and Wright. An online reviewer claimed that Waters largely misunderstood Sanders, Dunn and Wright – claiming that the NPP is actually saying the same things as Biblical Christianity, albeit using different terms! What is interesting is that the NPP actually “sounds” very correct and academically-sound most of the time but their conclusions are actually not all that similar with historic Christian creeds.
This is not surprising as from the 19th century onwards, Biblical scholars have been distancing themselves from confessional Christianity – sometimes more overtly so, sometimes more covertly. Now, as anyone who knows me can testify, I am not a fundamentalist who balk at every instance of “higher” or “lower” criticism of the Biblical books. More often than not, you will find me reading critical commentaries and Bible dictionaries trying to understand the sources, forms and redactionist works done by/on the Biblical books. My beef (if there is one) with the NPP and modern Bible scholars is this: seeking to uphold academic innovations, they have instead abandoned/redefined many of the central doctrines of Biblical-Christianity such as justification, works of the law and faith, the church.
The original intention of wanting to reconstruct a Paul within his first century context was, I believe, reactionary to the confessional churches’ tendency to have Paul speak in a very “Lutheran/Calvin” tone. Now, this is something that we must acknowledge. Sometimes, in traditional mainline churches, we get the impression that Paul belonged in the late medieval age battling the Pope alongside Luther! That there are distinct differences between the Roman Catholicism of Luther’s day and the Judaizers of Paul’s day is undeniable. The NPP therefore, proposed to research into what contituted first century Judaism in Paul’s day in order to understand what Paul was reacting towards in the first place. Like I said, the aim is admirable but the methods and results not so much.
Post-Holocaust Christianity have been trying to build bridges to the Jewish world. This is admirable in and of itself (and very much in keeping with Paul’s original teachings in Romans 9-11) but sometimes it is done in a way that compromises truth (historic truth as much as Biblical ones). Biblical scholars, in particular, tries too hard to atone for anti-semitic interpretations of former generations and ended up with a largely unreal/unhistorical and beautified portrayal of Judaism. Sanders’ covenantal nomism sought to clean up the image of first century Judaism as a religion obsessed with meritorious works. Dunn and Wright, on the other hand, sought to redefine the “works of the law” that Paul was referring to as status-markers (e.g. circumcision, dietary practices) rather than the belief that obedience to the Torah is meritorious unto salvation. The truth of the matter is that while first century Judaism does differ in many important points with late medieval Catholicism, they are both equally in error in the area of believing in a synergistic-works/grace soteriology; i.e. God giving us grace and us cooperating by our obedience to certain codes (moral, ethical or cultic). In other words, both are deeply entrenched in semi-Pelagian beliefs that is best summarised by the “God helps those who help themselves” adage!
With the flawed and biased construction of first century opponents to Pauline Christianity, the NPP then sought to define what Pauline Christianity “really is” in contrast to the former. More often than not, their revisionist conclusions of both history and theology betrays their own aversion to age old Christian doctrines such as the substitutionary death of Christ on the cross, the imputation of Adam’s sin and the imputation of Christ’s righteousness, individual salvation, justification that is all of grace with faith being totally passive and receptive, transformative grace in sanctifying those already justified once-and-for-all, etc.
My thoughts on the NPP (at this stage) is that they are seriously flawed in many areas. While I wouldn’t go as far as to say that they are heretical (after all, the work of the academician and that of the dogmatician is different), I’m hoping that they will amend their views in time. That, of course, has to begin with an acknowledgement that there are grievous flaws in their original methods and results (esp. their biased construction of Judaism in the first century). Aside from that, I also note a general unhealthy tendency in the church today that elevates scholarship and the academia to the platform previously reserved for the priesthood magisterium of Roman Catholicism! We have today, scholars as “little popes” telling us that they have the monopoly of biblical understanding and that we should read our Bibles according to their guidelines!
I mentioned above that the work of the academician and that of the dogmatician is different. By saying that, I am not in agreement to the continued distancing between the university and the church. In the first place, should there even be a differentiation in the two? Should not a person who seeks to understand the Bible be committed solely to finding out what God really wants to say? In our flawed world today, the academician is committed primarily to the ideals of innovative scholarship while the churchman is primarily committed to the traditions/confessions of his denomination. Hence we have a divided church with the academician thinking that the churchman is outmoded/irrelevant and only useful to soothe the consciences of illiterate old ladies in hospitals and prisoners on deathrow. On the other hand, the churchman is constantly battling the academician’s innovative results and branding them heretics (not understanding that critical thinking and creativity is actually to be preferred to non-thinking loyalties). The Christian should above all seek to know the truths of God by studying the Bible and all the confessions and creeds as well as the conclusions and innovations of academia must by subjected to the final authority of the Bible. Expert knowledge is helpful only as extrinsic aids to interpretation. They must never become the rule to how the Bible is to be read. Thankfully, the Holy Spirit continues to undercut the pretensions of popes, priests and scholars by bestowing heavenly light whenever even the humblest child approach Holy Scriptures seeking to know Jesus – heavenly light such as are oftentimes denied to the most innovative academician or the most rigourous dogmatician.
Violent Crimes
October 21, 2009 at 11:04 am (Current Affairs, Malaysian Politics)
I went back to school yesterday. Completed my registration for the UOL LLB programme and set my first examinations for May/June next year. After that, I did my readings on the “Omission” chapter in Criminal Law.
When I was doing some research online, I received a message from a church friend that I had not met for several years. She told me that another church member is now in a coma after suffering an assault two months ago. I could hardly continue my studies after that. The first thought that came to my mind was how peaceable, humble and harmless that Christian brother was – and therefore, how heinous and reprehensible the crime was. Last week, one of my friends from my hometown (we went to school and church together) died after he was stabbed by a robber who wanted to make off with his notebook PC. I had yet to recover from that piece of news when I received news of my other friend in a coma. It’s times like these that you understand the necessity and meaning for eternal punishment.
Today, the government is praising the efforts of the IGP for his contributions to lowering the crime-rate in this country. Personally, I think it’s got more to do with their need to keep the same guy in that post due to some “unfinished business” and political expediency. Crime is on the rise – so much that Australian investors are staying away from this country. Sigh, even Beyonce doesn’t dare to come here for a concert! The IGP is doing his job? Tell that to my dead schoolmate and my comatose friend. Better still, tell that to their grieving family members.
Mike Carey’s “Legacy”
October 21, 2009 at 10:49 am (Comics, X-Continuity, X-Men Legacy)
The past several years have been tumultuous ones for the Marvel Universe’s mutant population. Their ranks have been depleted while their enemies seem to grow stronger in power. Some mutants have been crushed by these changes, while others have risen to meet the challenges of their new environment. One mutant who’s making the most of her current status quo is Rogue, who recently gained control over her mutant ability to absorb powers and memories, and can now touch others without harming them. She was also recently given new purpose when Cyclops tasked her with making sure the younger generation of X-Men are prepared to meet all the challenges that await them.
Rogue’s exploits in her new role are currently being chronicled by writer Mike Carey in the pages of “X-Men: Legacy.” CBR News spoke with Carey about his plans for Rogue, which include pitting her against a villain who’s a dark reflection of herself, reuniting her with a loved one, and fighting to end a powerful threat that arises thanks to the events of the “Necrosha” storyline.
In “X-Men: Legacy Annual” #1 Rogue was tasked with a new mission from Cyclops, and the position really seems to suit her. In the issue, she counseled the young mutant Indra on reconciling the contradictions between his responsibilities as an X-Men and his religious beliefs. “I think to some extent she really takes to her new role because what Cyclops says to her is true. She is the patron saint of ‘been there,’” Carey told CBR News. “She knows what it’s like to be young and vulnerable and have a power that makes you into a pariah. She’s been traumatized and she’s been victimized in every respect. She can empathize with what some of the younger X-Men are going through. That’s part of what she brings to the job.
“Also, in terms of personality, she’s always been one of the most emotionally available and open-hearted X-Men,” Carey continued. “She has this warm quality about her, and I think that’s a great personality trait to have when you work with children or young people.”
In “X-Men: Legacy Annual” #1 Carey kicked off a four part storyline that could be thought of as “X-Men” meets “Silence of the Lambs,” since it pits Rogue against the violent and hungry mutant villain known as Emplate. In the “Annual,” Emplate attacked the X-Men on their new island home of Utopia. Things got personal though for Rogue at the end when Emplate abducted one of her new charges, the young mutant known as Bling.
“We wanted to bring Emplate back because we needed a creepy villain to pop in on Utopia, and he hadn’t been used for a long while. For my money, he was the most interesting villain of the ‘Generation X’ days. He ended up having this convoluted origin, which tied into the very complicated story of the St. Croix family. We refer to it a little bit in this arc, but we didn’t want to stray too far into complicated continuity issues. So we’re mainly extrapolating on the fact that Emplate has to feed on mutants to survive. He’s effectively a vampire who feeds through these mouths in the palm of his hands, and he’s been starving to death since the Decimation [the event that robbed most of the world's mutant population of their abilities] because there haven’t been any new mutants to feed on. He’s looking for someone he can use as long term food stock, and he settles on Bling.”
One of the reasons Carey wanted to pit Rogue against Emplate is because the characters are dark reflections of each other. Rogue gains powers and memories by touching others and a side effect of her powers used to be that she would rip the conscious mind out of whoever she touched, effectively “eating” their personality. This caused Rogue all sorts of emotional pain and grief. Emplate on the other hand, gains powers by physically eating the marrow of other mutants, and he does so unrepentantly.
“There is a scene in ‘Legacy’ #230 where they touch,” Carey revealed. “Emplate is feeding on Rogue, and there’s this very scary short circuit in their powers, where each of them, to some extent, is feeding off the other. You could definitely see Emplate as ‘There but for the grace of God,’ as far as Rogue is concerned.
“The other interesting thing about Emplate is that he’s no longer attached to our dimension. He has a home, which is part fortress and part prison,” Carey continued. “It’s this pocket dimension where he lives after being exiled there by his sisters. So his greatest power is also his greatest weakness. He can’t stay on our dimensional plane. He gets pulled back to this other dimension. That means it’s really hard to fight him, because at any moment, he could make himself insubstantial, pull himself away from this reality so nothing can hurt him.”
In the Annual’s main story, Carey reintroduced X-Men readers to Emplate, but in the back-up story, he revived another plot element from X-Men lore; the fact that Rogue’s on-again, off-again boyfriend, Gambit, had once been turned into Death, one of the servants of the mutant villain known as Apocalypse. In the back-up story, it appeared that that aspect of Gambit’s personality had just been laying dormant, and a telepathic attack brought it out. Gambit was able to bring the Death aspect of his personality back under control by the story’s end, but it appears to be only a matter of time before it returns once more.
“My main reason for putting that plot thread back into play was because, when I reintroduced Gambit en route to ‘Messiah Complex,’ I allowed him to sort of sweep the Death persona under the table. He says, ‘I got by with a little help from my friends.’ So we all know Mister Sinister did something; put some kind of blocks in which suppress the Death powers and personality,” Carey explained. “We also know that Apocalypse used Celestial technology to transform Gambit into Death, and that technology is not easy to get out of you once it’s been implanted. So it’s something that needed to be addressed, or else we needed to pretend it never happened, and it was too important to say it never happened.”
Carey sees Gambit as an integral part of the supporting cast of “X-Men: Legacy,” and the storyline about his Death persona will move forward in the series, just not right away. “‘Legacy’ #228 is in stores this week, and is part two of the four part Emplate arc. Gambit does appear, but he’s part of stuff happening in the background,” Carey revealed. “The story mainly focuses on Rogue and Bling. We won’t fully check in with Gambit again until around issue #233 or #234.”
Bling may be a lesser known X-Men character, but Carey has found her to be quite compelling. “She has this strange life and backstory, which has seldom been touched on,” the writer remarked. “So little of it has been seen or discussed openly. That makes her a really interesting character to revisit and sketch in a little more.”
The presence of another supporting character, Emplate’s sidekick D.O.A., is meant to inject the arc with elements of dark humor. “You can’t play D.O.A. straight, so there is a little strain of dark comedy running through the story, just because he’s there,” Carey explained. “For the most part, though, it’s sort of creepy and darkly atmospheric. After the Annual, all the other parts of the story take place in Emplate’s dimension. You find out a lot more about his home and the other aspects of where he lives, as well as the other entities he shares that dimension with. It’s a nasty place.”
The Emplate arc wraps in November, and in December’s issue #231, the “Necrosha” storyline hits “X-Men: Legacy.” Carey’s portion of the storyline, which runs through “X-Force,” “New Mutants” and “Legacy,” will remind some readers of his work on the adjectiveless “X-Men” series. “It becomes a team book again, for a little while, and what a team! We’ve got some of the X-Men’s heaviest hitters coming together; some really powerful characters,” Carey said. “The threat they’re facing is appallingly powerful as well, though, so they’ll need every single iota of that shared strength and experience to survive it.”
The situation in “X-Men: Legacy” arises as an unintended consequence of the main “Necrosha” storyline, which will be chronicled in “X-Force.” “What we’re dealing with in ‘Legacy’ is part of the fallout from ‘Necrosha.’ The main threat is being dealt with in ‘X-Force,’ but something happens on Muir Island, which has the potential to be catastrophic in its own right. So the X-Men have to divide their forces, while at the same time they defend Utopia against this truly appalling threat.”
Rogue’s journey to Muir Island will bring her face to face with someone she never expected to see again, her deceased foster mother Irene Adler, AKA Destiny. “Rogue’s relationship with her other foster mother, Mystique, is complicated, but I think she feels nothing but love, loyalty, and gratitude towards Destiny. There are a couple of poignant moments when they meet up again,” Carey stated. “That positive parental relationship was part of the appeal of bringing her back, but the main reason she’s brought back is plot driven. You’ll see why she’s brought back in ‘Necrosha,’ and then you’ll see the consequences play out in ‘Legacy.’”
Destiny won’t be the only X-character returning to the fold during the “Legacy” issues of “Necrosha.” “There are two other very important returning characters in the story, besides Destiny,” Carey revealed. “One character will actually be on the team and is an important returning character who we haven’t seen in awhile. The other is the villain, a character the X-Men have fought before, but weren’t expecting to have to fight again.”
For the Emplate and “Necrosha” storylines, Carey is working with two different artists, each with their own style, Daniel Acuna and Clay Mann. “Acuna is the perfect match for the Emplate story. I’ve seen his pages from issue #228, and they are both beautiful and terrifying. He really captures and creates a strong sense of this insane place where Emplate lives, and the insane and scary rules by which it operates,” Carey remarked. “Clay Mann does gorgeous character work on the ‘Necrosha’ tie-in story. His Blindfold is heartrendingly beautiful; so vulnerable and convincing. Acuna has a certain heightened stylized approach, whereas Mann has very detailed and realistic style. I think they’re each perfect matches for the stories that they’re doing.”
Both the Emplate and the Necrosha storylines are firmly rooted in current X-Men continuity, a trend that will continue next year, because after “Necrosha” wraps up, “X-Men: Legacy” will be involved in the recently announced “Second Coming” crossover which runs through four X-titles and brings the “Messiah Trilogy” to a close. “We’ve come back into current X-Men continuity at a very exciting time,” Carey said. “The X-Men are going through some major changes. The stakes are very high for everybody, and the world in which the surviving mutants live is changing radically. Rogue becomes part of all these events, and it’s kind of cool to be expanding on them in this series.”
Coming Attractions From Marvel
October 21, 2009 at 10:44 am (Avengers, Cable, Comics, Iron Man, X-Continuity, X-Men Legacy)
I highlight several books that catch my eye from the Marvel Solicitations every month. Interestingly, I don’t really pick up many of the stuff that I actually highlight. The books are actually picked because they interest me in some ways but sometimes not really enough to make me fork out cash to buy them. Truth is, there are really so many books out these days that it’s difficult to get all of them. In other words, I’ve gotta be selective (of course, being permanently short of cash is another reason). Anyway, here are some highlights from the latest Marvel Solicitations:
CABLE VOL. 3: STRANDED PREMIERE HC
Written by DUANE SWIERCZYNSKI
Penciled by PAUL GULACY & GABRIEL GUZMAN
Cover by DAVE WILKINS
We open literally one second after the shattering conclusion of “Messiah War,” and Cable’s mission to save mutantkind has never looked bleaker. In fact, you can’t even call it a mission anymore… After all he’s been through, after all he’s survived…now all Cable can do now is pray—pray the heavily armed killers roaming the deep future can’t match his survival skills.
Then, with the Earth destroyed, Cable and Hope must venture into space. If Hope is going to make it into adulthood, she’s going to have to do it in the cold, lonely vacuum of space, alone except for dark forces that know she’s coming. Collecting CABLE #16-20.
120 PGS./Rated T+ …$19.99
ISBN: 978-0-7851-4241-6
Trim size: standard
Amazon.com listed this book as a softcover for a long time. I was actually getting worried. Firstly, I’ve been getting the Cable series in the Premiere Hardcover reprints and it’d really suck if suddenly the book went soft (like what DC did with ”The Brave And The Bold” series). Secondly, if a book suddenly becomes a softcover, you can tell that its days are numbered and cancellation is in the near future (like what happened with Peter David’s “She-Hulk“). Thankfully, we’re getting the post-Messianic War issues collected as Vol. 3 of the Cable Premiere Hardcover series…
NEW AVENGERS VOL. 4 HC
Written by BRIAN MICHAEL BENDIS & BRIAN REED
Penciled by LEINIL YU, CARLO PAGULAYAN & JIM CHEUNG
Cover by JIM CHEUNG
In the wake of the superhero Civil War, outlaw Avengers Luke Cage, Spider-Man, Wolverine, Spider-Woman, Dr. Strange and Iron Fist are still fighting the good fight, joined by two new recruits: mistress of mimicry Echo and long-lost Avengers mainstay Hawkeye, now Ronin. But when the heroes uncover evidence of a secret invasion by shape-shifting Skrulls, paranoia starts to tear the team apart. Who can they trust when any one of them might be an alien monster in disguise? Which Avenger betrays the group? And can the embattled rebel Avengers survive when new supernatural crime boss the Hood targets them with an army of super villains? And, join Iron Man, Professor X, Black Bolt, the Sub-Mariner and Mister Fantastic as they take on the threats no one else can handle – and learn of secrets that will forever alter the way they (and you) look at the Marvel Universe! After years spent protecting Earth from harm, it is now when the planet is perhaps at its most endangered – as the Illuminati find themselves at the head of the spear of a Skrull invasion. But can the Illuminati keep themselves from fracturing in the waking moments of this worldwide threat? Collecting NEW AVENGERS #32-37, NEW AVENGERS ANNUAL #2 and ILLUMINATI #1-5.
320 PGS./Rated A …$34.99
ISBN: 978-0-7851-4262-1
Trim size: oversized
For some reasons, I did not pick up the stories collected in this massive hardcover above. They were previously collected in two other TPBs: “New Avengers: The Trust” and “New Avengers: The Illuminati“. It’s good to see Marvel throwing them all into one huge collection as a precursor to “Secret Invasion“. Some of Bendis’ best writing is here – the trust established among the renegade outlawed Avengers every quickly splintered with the discovery of Skrull-lektra. We also get some really fine Leinil Francis Yu art here that flowed seamlessly into “Secret Invasion” (which he also illustrated).
IRON MAN: DEADLY SOLUTIONS PREMIERE HC
Written by KURT BUSIEK with RICHARD HOWELL
Penciled by SEAN CHEN & PATRICK ZIRCHER
Covers by SEAN CHEN
Back from the dead (again), Tony Stark’s rebuilding his corporation from the ground up — but enemies old and new remind him his work is never done! With romance, rivalry and robots to keep him busy, can Iron Man still help Avengers teammate Warbird in her match against Stark’s own worst enemy…the one in a bottle? Guest-starring the Black Widow and James Rhodes, a.k.a. War Machine! Collecting IRON MAN (1998) #1-7.
192 PGS./Rated T+ …$24.99
ISBN: 978-0-7851-4258-4
Trim size: standard
Time was, Marvel got Kurt Busiek to relaunch the Avengers (with George Perez) and Iron Man (with Sean Chen) after the largely unpopular “Heroes Reborn” retcon. In my opinion, Busiek gave us some of the best written comics in Marvel History with those two series. I’m glad to see his “Iron Man” stuff finally reprinted. These are the issues that renewed my love for Tony Stark. I may just pick this up (if my financial situation improves in the coming months)…
Finally, does anyone find that the latest Adi Granov cover to “X-Men Legacy #232” bears a striking resemblance to the classic Harley Quinn and Joker painting by Alex Ross? Tribute or artistic swipe? You decide…
D. A. Carson On The New Perspective On Paul
October 19, 2009 at 8:10 pm (Bible, James D. G. Dunn, N.T. Wright, New Perspective On Paul, New Testament Studies, Spirituality)
I am listening to several lectures by D.A. Carson on the NPP. Carson is very insightful (as usual) in these lectures. He gives a very thorough overview of the NPP from Sanders to Dunn and Wright. Supporters of the NPP may find Carson a tad too critical (again, as usual) but in my opinion, Carson is usually worth a listen simply because he undercuts a lot of our most cherished presumptions.
Check out the lectures and online notes below:
Justification And The New Perspectives On Paul
October 19, 2009 at 12:35 pm (Bible, James D. G. Dunn, N.T. Wright, New Perspective On Paul, New Testament Studies, Reformed Theology, Spirituality)
I picked up Guy Prentiss Waters’ “Justification And The New Perspectives On Paul” from the church library yesterday morning. Over the years, I have read several books and many articles by N. T. Wright and James D. G. Dunn. In other words, I must admit that I have been largely influenced by the proponents of the so-called “New Perspective On Paul” (NPP). A lot of it had to do with my own struggles with the restrictive and self-limiting manner in which a lot of “Reformed” and “Confessional” folks approach Scripture. On the other hand, critical academicians tend to grope in the dark in a chaotic manner by distancing themselves from confessional exegesis of the NT.
Waters was a former student of E. P. Sanders, who can rightly be called the “guy who started it all” when we refer to the NPP. That being the case, Waters is today largely critical of his former teacher and in fact, traces the origins of the NPP to F. C. Baur and Albert Schweitzer. More than 60% of the book consist of Waters’ attempt to define the approaches and conclusions of NPP proponents such as Sanders, Stendahl, Dunn and Wright. He offers a critique in the final two chapters and the book closes with a detailed list of bibliography (with Waters’ own commentaries).
Over the years, I have observed several trends in NT studies centered on Paul:
- Confessional readings of Paul tend to read Luther-Calvin into Paul. At times, Paul no longer sounded like Paul but more like Luther and Calvin! In fact, what passes for orthodoxy among many mainline Reformed Churches is how Paul is used to support the “solas” and the central “justification by faith” teachings.
- By the above, I mean to say that Paul is, more often than not (if we’re honest), not allowed to “speak for himself”. His voice, his concerns, his struggles and finally his doctrines are too coloured, too overshadowed by those of the Reformers.
- Critical readings of Paul tended to move as far away from confessions and creeds as possible. The result is to plunge Bible students into a chaotic mess of contradicting beliefs. Many modern scholars conveniently forget that Luther, Calvin and their later followers were by no means “lightweights” in their Bible-expositions! More than anything, many were men who studied the Scriptures reverentially on their knees. I think of men like Charles Hodge, for instance, and his magisterial commentary on the Book of Romans. I also think of men like Martyn Lloyd-Jones who remained staunchly confessional in his decades-long series of sermons on Romans. Too often, NPP conclusions are noted more for their novelty than for their doctrinal/confession qualities.
Perhaps the solution is not to take one side over the other. I think that the NPP are pointing out the simple “reading Paul in his original context” precept that should be basic to all hermeneutical endeavours. At the same time, the NPP are also responsible for endless disagreements and inaccurate portrayals of what the “original context” of Judaism and Hellenism in the 1st century was like. More often than not, NPP proponents are coloured by their own apologetic attitudes towards less-charitable portrayals of Judaism in the past. Owing to these one-sided portrayals or reconstructions of the 1st century situation, the NPP proponents often hold to flimsy and shifty conclusions on important Biblical doctrines on justification, regeneration, faith, Spirit, Law, etc.
What is encouraging is that Paul is still at the center of debates and that great interest is still focused on the writings of the apostle. Let us read carefully the words of the man who dared to tell people to “follow after him as he follows after Christ”. I hope to write more on this in time…
In the meantime, here’s quick introduction on the NPP:
… and the Best Actor award goes to …
October 19, 2009 at 11:51 am (Current Affairs, Malaysian Politics)
No, I’m not referring to his “performance” in the infamous DVD! 
It’s really a lot of fun to hear the man review Superman OTK’s zero record!
The Saga Of Superman OTK
October 19, 2009 at 11:26 am (Current Affairs, Malaysian Politics, Superman)
As President of the Malaysian Comedy Association, he spent all his time fighting his deputy.
As Transport Minister, he spent all his time taking free plane rides (while the rest of us crammed ourselves in the ever-reliable RapidKL buses).
As the head of the Chinese party, he sued the most outspoken Chinese weekly periodical.
As the man to expose the PKFZ Scandal, he sidestepped the real culprits and instead went after Tycoon Tiong - with the latter turning the tables on him by revealing juicy bits to the media about Superman OTK’s inability to fly without taking free plane rides and the accusations of him taking 10 million ringgit worth of Kryptonian gold!
All the while Superman OTK was fighting his deputy, the folks who supposedly “supported” him were plotting his downfall. They all knew that it was a matter of time before he enraged ARM-NO and former Comedic presidents too much that he’ll find himself in the mud.
Apparently, everyone knew of his eventual downfall but himself! This led to Superman OTK boasting that he will resign should the EGM voters return even a simple majority of no-confidence in his leadership. The expected results (unexpected only to Superman OTK himself) were announced in the EGM and now instead of bowing out gracefully, Superman OTK is trying to go for another EGM (supposedly to gain a fresh mandate for his leadership of the Comedic Association). The problem was, he was so much in a hurry to elect one of his former crony to replace the now-vacant deputy seat – not knowing that the former crony is the real musuh di dalam selimut. Superman OTK’s numero uno foe was never Pornstar Chua. He was fighting the wrong enemy all the time. His supposed supporters and cronies were the real enemies who were patiently awaiting his downfall in order to accelerate their climb to the top by default.
This is the sad saga of Superman OTK. We hear that he’s a man of integrity who wanted to eradicate moral filth from the Comedic Association. We hear he’s a Gu Long fan who wanted nothing more than to be a “knight-errant” fighting corruption in the higher echelons. The tragedy is that he’s so clueless that he doesn’t even know who his real foes are most of the time… and it is the opinion of this humble blogger that he will never learn his lesson – even now with his face in the mud!
This is the short career of a man who wanted to be more than a man – he wanted to be a Superman. As Superman, he flew above the masses of the rakyat and no longer heard the cries from the rakyat. He could only hear the “support” of his cronies. As Superman, he was so high above everyone else that he was no longer even aware of the basic realities of politics – don’t wash your dirty linens in public! Suck up to the right folks. Don’t take free plane rides. Watch out for double-faced followers and supporters. Let the Pornstar drown in his own moral filth – don’t spend all your time and energies attacking him. If you’re going to fight corruption, go all the way to the top – the rakyat will support you. Don’t get sidetracked with petty squabbles with your deputy (if you’re smart, you’d have learnt to make use of your deputy and his supporters to build your own strength rather than sidelining him from all cabinet or party posts). Avoid needless fights with “paikias” with money to spread around to engineer your downfall. Avoid needless lawsuits against popular magazines and news-media groups.
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Al Simmons Goes Bad In “Image United”
October 16, 2009 at 11:33 am (Comics, Image United, Spawn)
Blowing one’s own head off is bound to change a man, but who knew that it could also readjust one’s moral alignment?
That’s the question at the very heart of “Image United,” the upcoming six-issue crossover series written by Robert Kirkman and illustrated by Image Comics founders Erik Larsen, Rob Liefeld, Todd McFarlane, Whilce Portacio, Marc Silvestri and Jim Valentino. At the recent Diamond Retailer Summit in Baltimore, Kirkman made the shocking announcement that the recently deceased “Spawn” protagonist, Al Simmons, is the villain of “Image United,” delivering an emotional sucker punch not only to the characters of the Image Universe, but to longtime readers as well.
Kirkman spoke exclusively with CBR News about Al Simmons’ role in “Image United,” what it means for the book’s characters and how his shocking return will effect the Image Universe in the months to come.
Al’s change from good guy to not-so-good guy is certainly a big surprise, but that’s not the only surprise regarding the character. After all, Simmons recently killed himself in “Spawn” #185, which begs the question: how on Earth is he even alive? The answer, it seems, lies not on the mortal world’s surface, but a few significant strides beneath it.
“Anybody that’s read ‘Spawn’ recently knows that Al Simmons got fed up and, for reasons that are yet to be revealed in that series, he just decided to kill himself,” Kirkman explained. “There is a new Spawn named Jim Downing that’s still learning what’s going on, but nobody really knows what’s been going on with Al Simmons. ‘Image United’ is going to reveal a little bit of that. There are a lot of changes he’s undergone since he technically killed himself — he’s been in Hell and has kind of risen through the ranks of Hell. Time works a little differently there. Now, he’s come back to Earth and he wants to take over.”
With the how out of the way, it’s worth focusing on the why. After nearly two decades as the begrudging hero Spawn, why would Simmons decide to wreak havoc upon the people of Earth? “This is definitely still the Al Simmons we know and love, but he’s grown and evolved a bit more on his crazy journey — this is Al Simmons a little bit ahead of the game,” the writer teased of Al’s motivations. “One thing that makes Al Simmons the perfect villain is that everyone knows Al Simmons. Most people who are going to read ‘Image United’ have read ‘Spawn’ at one point or another and are very familiar with Al’s past and the sacrifices he’s made in trying to get his wife back, and the absolute living hell that he’s wrought upon himself. We’re definitely seeing more of that and what’s driven him to the point that he is at now. It’s a cool thing to have such a well-rounded character as your villain — it’s not just your archetype that’s going to be cackling madly and causing all kind of destruction. This is Al Simmons, and there will definitely be more character development with him in this series.”
Clearly, the return of Al Simmons in this menacing capacity will have a profound effect on the heroes of the Image Universe — but unless they start listening to the panicked prophecies of rookie hero Fortress, they might not live long enough to realize that effect. “Fortress is definitely the character that is aware somehow of what is coming and what Al’s actual plans are,” Kirkman said. “He’s the one running around trying to gather everybody in preparation for Al’s arrival. How he knows this and where he got this information is something we’ll find out along the way.”
But Fortress isn’t the only one destined for a confrontation with the former Spawn. Jim Downing, the current Spawn, is bound to have a bone or two to pick with Simmons. “We’ll definitely be seeing that [confrontation] in the opening sequence of issue #2,” said Kirkman. “We’re getting that out of the way right away. One of the cool things about ‘Image United’ is that this isn’t an A-B-C story. It’s not the bad guy poses a threat, the good guys get together to fight him, the heroes win, and then they all go home. There are a lot of nuances to this story, and a lot of shifts along the way. We do get the confrontation between these guys, and people expect that — people expect Al Simmons to fight Jim Downing — so we get that out of the way right away so we can move onto the things that people don’t expect.”
While fans awaiting “Image United” might not have foreseen the villainous return of Al Simmons, Kirkman said that it was an obvious choice for the story. “When we started talking about ‘Image United,’ Todd was in the early stages of coming back to ‘Spawn’ and doing his story with Al committing suicide,” Kirkman recalled. “When I sat down to plot ‘Image United,’ knowing that that was happening and that there’d be a different Spawn running around, I was trying to think of who would be the best villain that has punch and that the fans would respond to. There are a ton of cool ‘Youngblood,’ ‘Savage Dragon’ and ‘Cyberforce’ villains and whatnot, but there isn’t really any breakout villain that everybody would assume could pose a big world-ending threat that would bring all of these heroes together. Knowing that Al was being taken out of the picture and knowing his history with the series — all that Hell stuff that goes on in ‘Spawn’ — it was a pretty easy jump to come up with Al Simmons as the villain and centering the series around that. It was a no-brainer decision because Al Simmons stood out as the one key villain that would bring a lot of emotional impact to this series. “
Lest you think McFarlane had a problem with his own creation taking such a dramatic turn, don’t be so sure. “Todd’s cool with it; he’s on board,” the writer said. “Todd and I had to have a lot of conversations to make sure that this would jive with everything he’s got coming up in ‘Spawn.’ It will work in seamlessly with that series. It won’t conflict with anything in any way, shape or form. [The other Image founders] are all excited that Todd gets to draw the villain.”
They’re not the only ones excited, as Kirkman himself has the opportunity to write not one, but two different incarnations of Spawn. “It’s almost too much Spawn for any one man to handle,” he laughed. “It’s awesome! It’s really cool. I’ve been reading ‘Spawn’ since 1992, and the recent McFarlane issues with Whilce Portacio, Brian Holguin and all of those guys has been a great run on the series. To be able to spin off of that a little bit with ‘Image United’ is a lot of fun. I’ve always wanted to get my hands on Spawn, so this is exciting for me.”
Beyond having the opportunity to incorporate Simmons into “Image United,” Kirkman is also exploring a different type of story than he’s used to. “This is an old-fashioned ‘I want to rule the world’ type of story, which I don’t think I’ve ever really done — this kind of a straightforward ‘I want to take over the planet’ type of thing,” he described. “It’s fun, because that’s usually a hokey thing. You can’t realistically take over the world. What would you do? But this guy could actually take over the world. He actually has the resources to complete his plan and everything. That’s what ‘Image United’ is all about.”
With the announcement of Al’s involvement in “Image United” out of the way, readers might be wondering what other surprises Kirkman and company have in store for them. According to the writer, this is just the tip of the iceberg. “The thing about the Al Simmons reveal is that it’s just a hint of all the different things that are happening in ‘Image United’ that will effect the titles of the characters that appear in the series,” he explained. “There are going to be little things like Al’s development, his status as the villain in this, that will spin out of ‘Image United’ and live on in new books and in books that are already running. ‘Image United’ is the beginning of a big, big overarching plan in all of these titles.”
The idea of “Image United” having such grand repercussions throughout the Image Universe is undoubtedly exciting for longtime fans of the comic book publisher. Still, there is a reasonable concern that Al’s villainous resurrection is too out of line with the character, no matter how much good it might herald for the future of Image Comics. Those fans shouldn’t worry their own heads off just yet, according to Kirkman.
“I would say that they definitely want to read ‘Image United,’ as all of those concerns will be addressed throughout the series,” he said. “By the end of ‘Image United,’ Al will either still be a bad guy, a good guy again, or really dead. Stay tuned. No fan of Spawn or me or Image Comics or things that are generally cool is going to want to miss this.”
