Young Avengers So Far (Spoilers)

YA in a nutshell.

Okay, so Kieron Gillen's run on Journey into Mystery ended a few months ago, and I had a comics fan breakdown. I wasn't even sure I wanted to read Young Avengers, but, alas, here I am. But I'd like to think I'm older and wiser now, able to keep my Yamblr feels at a lofty distance while preparing myself for the possibility that the ultimate YA issue will reveal that the characters we've come to know and love have actually just been crudely assembled felt puppets that Cyclops has been using to amuse himself in X-Men jail or whatever's happening over there. I do still feel that killing off Kid Loki was a dumb move (for various reasons) from a smart person, but at least he's got Damian Wayne for company now.

Young Avengers #3 came out yesterday, and three issues in seemed like a good place to stop and reflect. Despite my apprehension, few make comics as intelligent and charming as Gillen, and it's been easy to be won over by Young Avengers. The very first pages of YA #1, where Kate Bishop (aka Hawkeye, but not the one with the penis) and Noh-Varr (aka Marvel Boy, presumably with a penis) wake up after a hook-up, set the tone with wittiness, ridiculousness, and sex positivity. The sequence in YA #2 where Loki traverses the comic's gutters and breaks through its panels to rescue Billy and Teddy is a delight. Plus the art by Jamie McKelvie is gorgeous, with clean, bold lines that radiate energy. America Chavez (aka Miss America) pouts and fights with style. Billy and Teddy (aka Wiccan and Hulkling) brood and cry like they're posing for Lichtenstein. McKelvie's image of Noh-Varr dancing to an unnamed 1960s "close harmony girl group" was so sexy that it was picked up by some scammy internet ad:

The Hawkeye Initiative is working!

Anyhoo, so what's happened so far? Well, after the last Young Avengers grouping ended in death and disaster, its various members are regrouping. Billy tries to be a good boyfriend by bringing Teddy's dead mom back to life. But the "mom" is actually an inter-dimensional parasite who quickly possesses Billy's parents and sorta-birth mom as well. They go with Loki to Asgard for help, only to be savagely attacked by Loki's birth father and nagged at by America's moms - all of whom were presumably dead.

As YA #3 came to a close, our young heroes had a brief respite at legally thirteen-year-old Loki's favorite club, but before they could finish their plans for world-saving or their underage drinking, the group of fake/possessed parents appeared and captured them...threatening death! Meanwhile, Kate and Noh-Varr are presumably either battling or having brunch with the Skrull after frantically pulling their clothes back on.

Roy Lichtenstein, Do You Know How Lucky You Are?, 1963

Young Avengers has had an entertaining and promising first three issues, and this interview with Comic Book Resources gives some hints at what's to come: shitty jobs, emotional breakdowns, and maybe or maybe-not finding out "what the hell is going on with Loki." So far, we know very little about what has happened between Loki's extreme existential crisis at the end of Journey Into Mystery and his current running around New York like a maybe-malevolent Mimi Marquez.

Young Avengers #4 will be out on April 24.

What we also know so far:
Kieron Gillen loves throwing bear traps at children.

Images:
The club can't even handle them right now: YA #3
Sexy ad: various, obviously, but here it is on Gillen's tumbr.
Teddy crying by a wind machine: YA #1
Beartrapaganza: A+X #5 and YA #3

Much Ado About Whedon

Sorry for the title. We're going to see that title a lot, aren't we?

Anyways, the trailer for Joss Whedon's Much Ado About Nothing was recently released (film opens June 21). There is jazz and all the people look the same except for Coulson a.k.a. Clark Gregg. I'm not crazy about the trailer. Despite the contemporary setting, it looks really, really similar to Kenneth Branagh's 1993 movie version, with a lovely estate playing a character in both. In fact, Whedon has said that his mansion, designed by his wife Kai Cole, inspired the production. On the other hand, we can be assured that this version will not have Keanu Reeves struggling with his lines while being massaged by incredibly good sport and fine Shakespearean actor Richard Clifford. I am looking forward to the film very much, and I'm confident Whedon will do an excellent job with it.

The 1993 cast. Keanu, you tried. Denzel, Emma, and Kenneth were perfect.
Hero, you don't have to marry Wilson from House. Really.

What I am most excited about:

-Clark Gregg as Leonato. He is perfect for Shakespeare. When I was re-reading A Midsummer Night's Dream after watching The Avengers (not related), I couldn't help but think about what I would do if I had to cast all the Avengers actors in Dream (obviously*). Gregg, I thought, would be a perfect Theseus. He's got that ability to play older, dignified, but not flaw-free men.

-Amy Acker and Alexis Denisof as Beatrice and Benedick. I looooove Emma Thompson and Kenneth Branagh in these roles, but I'm also interested to see what this talented pair does with this smart, sharp, secretly-softies couple.

-Nathan Fillion as Dogberry. What Michael Keaton did with Dogberry in the Branagh version was a perfectly valid way to play an Elizabethan/Jacobean clown character (imho), but it felt a little out of place in the film. As we saw in Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog and countless Firefly outtakes, Fillion can do a cheeseball that's a bit more restrained.

-Seeing how feminist Whedon deals with the misogynistic elements in the play. What I find so interesting about Much Ado is that it has one of Shakespeare's most positive couples (Beatrice and Benedick) and one of his worst (Hero and Claudio). I'd never want the text or intention changed, but subtle acting and directing choices can really make a difference (just think of different productions of The Taming of the Shrew). It looks like Whedon's handled that well, as he says that they "stress[ed] the human not the hymen" in the adaptation.



*For the record, here is my cast. I have a lot of time to think on the bus, ok?

Theseus: Clark Gregg. Mr. Regal.
Hippolyta: Gwyneth Paltrow. Mrs. Regal.
Egeus: Stellan Skarsgard. It's Stellan Sarksgard. The Bard's not going to be a problem for him.
Lysander: Jeremy Renner. He'd have a good level of controlled intensity when arguing his case to Theseus.
Hermia: Scarlett Johansson. Small, fierce, pretty.
Helena: Cobie Smulders. Tall, comedy chops.
Demetrius: Chris Evans. Can do the douche thing.
Oberon: Samuel L. Jackson. I'd love to hear him boom, "Ill met by moonlight, proud Titania!"
Titania: Natalie Portman. She was on a computer screen, so she counts. And she could nail this role with storminess and sensuality.
Puck: Tom Hiddleston. He could actually do just about any role in this play, but he'd be fun and awesome as Robin Goodfellow.
Bottom: Robert Downey Jr. Classic ham. Just imagine him doing the Bottom's Dream soliloquy. I'm going to imagine this whenever I'm sad.
Peter Quince: Mark Ruffalo. Mostly for the stuttering prologue scene, bless.

I have no idea what you'd do with Chris Hemsworth. I don't think you could even toss him in one of the workmen roles. Maybe Francis Flute, as a joke when he plays Thisbe? I really have no idea. He'd be a fine Lysander, but I still think Renner'd be better. Let's just go with Francis Flute.

BUT I ACTUALLY HAVE A BEARD!

Django Unchained *SPOILERS*

Kerry Washington in Django Unchained

I finally saw Django Unchained this weekend. I am glad to report that at the showing I went to (at the 4-Star Theatre in San Francisco), there was no inappropriate laughter at the dynamite scene like Cord Jefferson encountered. There is a lot of dark, violent humor in this movie that got lots of laughs, but that scene wasn't it, and rightfully so. 

By turns hilarious and heartbreaking, Django Unchained gets right down to business in the opening. Dr. King Schultz, in his ridiculous traveling dentist wagon pulled by his horse Fritz, meets two slavers and their latest "purchases." He is determined to speak to a slave called Django. Soon the slavers are dead and Django is off with Schultz, a bounty hunter who needs his help finding a trio of white plantation workers. As the two men get to know each other, Django reveals his plans to free his wife from slavery, and Schultz decides to help him.

Christoph Waltz's dentist-turned-bounty-hunter Dr. Schultz is an interesting character. He's fine with shooting down a man in front of his young son, but fairly naive to the horrors of slavery. I thought it was interesting that after his star-making turn in his last Quentin Tarantino film as a Nazi, in this film his desire to help Django rescue his wife from slavery is rooted in his German identity: here is a Siegfried on a quest to save Brunhilde from the dragon, and he must assist. 

As Django, Jamie Foxx makes a glorious hero/anti-hero. His loyalty to his wife is absolute, and his tenderness for her is revealed in his daydreams. He is understandably wary at first in his new "free" world, but you can always sense that confidence and cunning in the background, just waiting for the right moment. And boy, does that moment arrive.

Django and a "special guest."

Broomhilda was the role that everyone was worried about, and well... Kerry Washington is great, but we learn very little about her character. We either see her as Django's mirage (in a gorgeous yellow silk empire-waist dress, naked in a lake, etc.) or being tortured (whipped, branded, locked naked in a hot box). I wrote way back in May about Kara Walker's artwork and the then-forthcoming Django Unchained. Now that the movie's out, I think Broomhilda's depiction was not as bad as it could have been and not as good as it could have been. 

Broomhilda is tortured like Walker's female figures, but we learn little of her psyche. I get that she's the "princess on the mountain," but that's the age-old cop-out, and telling us more about her would have helped, not hurt, the story. Really, all they needed was a flashback scene showing her in non-mirage, non-tortured form. There are already multiple flashback scenes, and one with Broomhilda and Django in happier (relatively) times could have given us some insight into who Broomhilda is and what their marriage is. That said, Washington brought anguish, strength, and the blush of love to the role, and her expressive face helps make up for her lack of lines.

Stephen, Broomhilda, and Cora in Candieland's kitchen.

Speaking of Walker, the one scene that brought her work most to my mind was when Django, in his ridiculous Blue Boy get-up, walks past slave women languidly rocking on swings on his way to kill two men who assaulted him and Broomhilda and who are about to whip another slave. The scene captures the juxtaposition between the natural beauty of the South, the formality of the clothes, and the absolute hideousness of the social system. (BTW, here is an interview with the film's costume designer, Sharen Davis. I hope she finally gets that Oscar!)

And that social system is hideous, and presented in all its dysfunction in the Candie household: depraved, deluded Calvin Candie, who justifies his treatment of slaves with phrenology and admires Alexandre Dumas (whom he doesn't know was the grandson of a black slave); Bligh-like chief of staff Stephen, who proves his loyalty to co-dependent Candie with his harsh treatment of fellow slaves; Lara Lee, Candie's Southern belle sister who surveys and partakes in the inhumanity around her with ladylike giggles; Sheba, a slave who is also Candie's dressed-to-the-nines mistress; Cora, Lara Lee's experienced maid; and Moguy, a groveling yes-man pretty much raised from birth to be Candie's lawyer. 

There's slashfic, isn't there? Not even gonna look, just gonna invoke Rule 34.

The plantation is a structure built to support and benefit Candie, and everyone else exists at his whim. Some fare terribly, like slave D'Artagnan, murdered by dogs, and Broomhilda, used to sexually "reward" slaves and guests alike. Some simply exist in their relatively-privileged-but-not-powerful status quo, like the lowest-level white workers. Stephen, meanwhile, has positioned himself as the Iago of a Richard III. He's quick to object to any questioning of Candie's authority, yet is an expert at communicating "you listen to me, boy" to him without saying anything as overt as "you listen to me, boy." But his "power" has come at an awful price, and even he could be disposed of by his Calvin in an instant.

As with Broomhilda, we could have learned more, even via tidbits, about Sheba and Cora. We learned more about Moguy than about them. The most we get from Cora is the none-too-plaintive tone of her voice when Django tells her to say goodbye to Lara Lee. Sheba's confidence in her standing with Calvin contrasted with Stephen telling her to help with the coffee after Calvin's funeral adds intrigue and suggests how precarious her position is. 

After the first shoot-out in Candieland's Big House, I was really pissed at and disappointed in Schultz. All you had to do was shake Leo's hand and y'all would have been out of there safe and sound! The Caddy was waiting for you! But no, Dr. Schultz has to be all, "Nope, no way I'm leaving here without shooting this representation of the Antebellum South's rich white male privilege!" Because of his actions, he dies and Django and Broomhilda suffer more. But, by the end of the movie, I saw why it had to happen. Django Unchained isn't a realistic drama about a man and woman being freed from slavery within the nation's then-laws. Django and Schultz can't work within the system they despise. When Django violently levels the plantation, it's just as much about symbolically destroying the institution of slavery as it is revenge against individuals. 

Random notes:

-Dr. Schultz's coat. I had lusted after this coat long ago with production stills, and as soon as Christoph Waltz showed up I fell in love all over again. I love this coat. According to the above linked interview with Sharen Davis, it is an "Inverness cape coat."

-The bouncing tooth. OMG. Why was it important that Schultz was previously a dentist? I don't know (if it's so he can be "Dr. King," then ew), but I loved the tooth. 

-As a former horseback rider, I kept hoping they'd explain how Django, who was supposedly not allowed to ride before, is able to get on a horse and go. But, considering Django's also an immediate straight-shooter and weapons expert, you've just gotta take it with a grain of salt. By the time he hops on a bridleless palomino and rides off confidently on a rescue mission, it's clear the movie has just decided he's a badass who can do what he wants at this point. And Foxx totally sells it with his determination. If he has to ride horses and be an expert shot to save Broomhilda, that's what he's going to do. 

Django & Schultz on their horses Tony & Fritz.

-The Ku Klux Klan scene. I had seen this scene compared to Blazing Saddles beforehand, and it didn't disappoint. It is a hilarious kick to the balls of The Birth of a Nation. Sidenote: most hilarious (unintentionally) scene from The Birth of a Nation: when the heroine finds out her fiance is in the KKK because she takes his laundry from him and his frickin' KKK hood falls out. Awkward! 

-Django, when you're finally reunited with your wife with the news that you've come to rescue her, catch her when she faints. Jeez. 

-With all the violence, the scene that was most wrenching to me was when Moguy prepares Broomhilda's bill of sale as the harp is played. A young woman's fate - either to live with her husband in freedom or be sentenced to a life of rape and abuse - is resolved over some paperwork she has no say in.

-I thought Candie's bullet-through-the-flower death would have been a lot more powerful if we hadn't seen a very similar bullet-through-a-Bible-page death earlier. 

-Quentin Tarantino's cameo was distracting. Was this the role Sacha Baron Cohen dropped out of at the last moment, so maybe Tarantino was like, "Fine, I'll just do it myself!"? 

-I was happy to see Broomhilda riding Schultz's horse Fritz at the end. Glad Django didn't forget about Fritz! 

Other Views:
Black Audiences, White Stars, and Django Unchained - Ishmael Reed
Why Samuel L. Jackson's "Uncle Tom" is Tarantino's Best Character Yet - Aisha Harris
Faster, Quentin! Thrill! Thrill! - Roger Ebert
In Defense of Django - Adam Serwer
The Black Woman's Guide to Coping with Django Unchained - Gina McCauley