A poem to start this month's log:
I like books,
as I remember
Here's what I read
In September.
Reading Through the Fantastic Four- #401-416, #1-13 (vol. 2)
Not with a bang, but with a whimper, Fantastic Four ended its first unbroken run of issues at 416, having resolved virtually none of the dangling plot threads Tom DeFalco and Paul Ryan had spent the previous years weaving. Turns out that, with the speculation bubble of 1990s comics suddenly about to burst, Marvel had gotten an offer too good to refuse. For one year they turned over full creative control of most of their major characters—basically everyone but Spider-Man and the X-Men—to the likes of Jim Lee, Rob Liefeld, and their studios, trusting the men who had become stars at Marvel a few years earlier to make their characters relevant again.
The first few issues of the new Fantastic Four, plotted and initially illustrated by Lee with scripting by Brandon Choi, live up to the promise of the year's initiative, titled "Heroes Reborn." Under Lee's creative vision, the FF are reimagined as a younger, more modern family. Their core adversaries—Doctor Doom, Mole Man, Namor—are introduced immediately, and the cosmic threat of Galactus looms in the background. Lee's pencils are sharp and stylized, reminiscent of the work he'd done on X-Men just a few years earlier.
But by the year's midpoint, the book loses steam, and it seems the creators have already mentally moved on to other things. Lee stops doing the art, then the plotting, and by the end is gone altogether. The book is overwhelmed by guest stars in what's supposed to be a brand new universe. The final issue barely even features the titular characters, as Marvel hurriedly tries to explain how the characters will return to the core Marvel Universe.
The 29 issues I read this month are basically the epitome of late-90's comics: sensationalistic, overproduced, messy, and creatively empty. There's potential there, enough to keep you entertained. But it's far from essential reading. If you find these issues in a quarter bin at a garage sale, go for it: that's about what they're worth. Otherwise, don't bother.
BUDGETING FOR A HEALTHY CHURCH: ALIGNING FINANCES WITH BIBLICAL PRIORITIES by Jamie Dunlop
Two books about church budgeting. Woohoo!
The first, Smart Church Finances, was the kind of snoozer I expected. Lots of business principles applied to a church context, lots of generalities, and not a ton of useful information for a church my size. It seemed more suited to a church plant than an established church setting, with lots of basics about setting up new budgets, squaring things with the IRS, etc. Useful for someone, but not for me.
Budgeting for a Healthy Church, on the other hand, was a surprisingly insightful and effective primer on church budgeting, offering a good mix of finance tips and theological background. Its main point was that your budget reflects your faith, and that it tells your church's story, and the book did an excellent job conveying that point from a number of different angles. Upon finishing it, I immediately loaned it to this year's budget chairman so he and I could get on the same page.
Look, books about church finances are never going to be page turners. But if you have to pick on, Budgeting for a Healthy Church is the one I'd recommend.
THE BRIDGE: THE LIFE AND RISE OF BARACK OBAMA by David Remnick
Nearly 14 years after his election as President of the United States, it's difficult to remember how swift, shocking, and historic Barack Obama's rise to power was. For virtually everyone in the country outside Chicago, Obama was totally unknown until his rousing keynote speech a the 2004 Democratic National Convention. Four years later, he was our first African-American president-elect. The work done by everyone from Martin Luther King, Jr. and Fannie Lou Hamer to Barbara Jordan and Jesse Jackson culminated, at least to some degree, in Barack Obama's election to the highest office in the land.
With both terms of the Obama presidency now in the rearview mirror, the rosy picture of a post-racial America that some believed 2008 signaled feels hopelessly naïve. But while the results of the Obama presidency, particularly regarding race relations, are complicated, the man's biography remains a compelling story. And David Remnick's The Bridge, which gives Obama's biography from birth through the 2008 Election Night, is one of the best accounts of that story I've read yet.
It should be noted that Remnick's biography is both sympathetic to Obama personally and uninterested in his policy goals. Remnick, the editor-in-chief of The New Yorker magazine, is an unabashed liberal and a great admirer of Obama. While not completely uncritical, this biography is a hero narrative, not a piece of investigative journalism. But, at least based on my reading of the book, Remnick's admiration is not a partisan one; he spends no time advocating for Obama's policies. While there is an implied understanding that Obama is pursuing the "right" things for America, this book is hardly a Democratic manifesto.
The book's biggest strength winds up being its biggest flaw too: published in 2010, The Bridge is a work of journalism, not history. The upside to this is that, particularly when chronicling the 2008 campaign, Remnick provides a detailed blow-by-blow of what happened, with plenty of compelling anecdotes and juicy quotes. The downside is that the book lacks perspective, particularly in its central conceit that Obama serves as a bridge from the Civil Rights era to a brighter day in America. Had this book been written in 2020 instead of 2010, I have to think Remnick would have steered clear of that narrative.
Nevetheless, The Bridge is a well-written biography that hits the usual beats of the Obama story while filling in gaps that others left out. For those wanting to know more about the 44th president's meteoric rise, this is a great source.
THE DA VINCI CODE by Dan Brown
ESSENTIAL PUNISHER VOL. 1 by Various
Ok, let's get this out of the way: on principle, I don't like the Punisher. A guy who roams the streets of New York with an arsenal of weapons killing criminals is not a superhero, he's a serial killer. There's a reason alt-right wackos have adopted the Punisher skull as a logo.
But he exists, he's got 4 Essentials, so let's do this.
The Punisher is Frank Castle, a Vietnam war vet who returned home only to have his family murdered right in front of him in a mafia hit. Grief-stricken and enraged, Castle vowed to use the rest of his life to hunt down and "punish" (a.k.a. kill) criminals. Basically, he's Batman without the no-killing rule or any hint of campiness.
Volume 1 covers a string of guest appearances in various Spider-Man and Daredevil comics, concluding with his first 5-issue miniseries. It's interesting to watch the character evolve over that time from a fairly standard street-level supervillain to the Dirty-Harry-meets-Rambo action-noir antihero we now think of him as. Also interesting is how Marvel's willingness to show Punisher's lethality changes from his initial appearance in 1978, where he never actually fires a gun, to his 1974 miniseries, where kill shots are shown with abandon.
The highlight is undoubtedly Punisher's two-issue guest appearance in Daredevil, which comes smack dab in the middle of Frank Miller's legendary run on the title. Miller's noir-inflected art and writing style is a perfect match for Punisher, and the character would borrow that tone liberally moving forward. I hope to see more team-ups between the two characters moving forward.
All in all, this introduction to the character is a mixed bag, but an intriguing start for a character often accused of being one-note. I'll be interested to see in volume 2 how Punisher does in an ongoing title.
No comments:
Post a Comment