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06-21-2021, 02:49 AM | #3231 |
Crimson Guard
Join Date: Nov 2013
Location: Boulder
Posts: 1,572
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issue 248
Single panel opening page reveals that the Red Ninjas... use the Arashikage I-Ching symbol for personal decoration? That's weird. I wonder if they consider themselves the “real” Arashikage but I expect that they know they are not, since they are rebels. Anyway it hints at a connection to their old beliefs. Or it’s just arbitrary detailing from the artist. Silent issue. Dawn throws down with many Red Ninjas, stomping them all. As an even dozen approach in a single panel, Dawn remembers that time there was a silent issue and Snake-Eyes killed a Red Ninja with a concrete trap door of a dungeon. Netho does a nice rendition of the grenade fight on the stairs, and Dawn remembers fighting Storm Shadow. Many pages of Dawn fighting ninjas in silence. I think probably a major reason why the first silent issue worked so well was the simplicity of the art. The art was clean, simple, and every action was unique to each moment. You could follow how the chain in one panel would get wrapped around a body part in the next panel. Every beat lead to the next beat systematically and with a reliable beat. There was some very high-level mastery of simple panel-to-panel storytelling. This version of the attempt at storytelling in that method is bogged down by too many bodies, too much detail, vague and uncertain background details and nonspecific threats. It is beautiful drawings, don't get me wrong. Netho can compose pleasing visuals. However something is missing in the panel-to-panel play of speed lines with blood streaks, the reader's inability to differentiate one ninja from another, and the overall confusion of the imagery. It's more like a fog of relentless violence than a carefully calculated sequence of tactical precision that issue 21 was. This is almost certainly reflected by the script itself, and 21 had the benefit of being primarily a one-man conception so everything was very tight from concept to print. Humorously, a Red Ninja tries to reuse the old grenade trick on Snake-Eyes. That's funny. The panel storytelling beats are better defined during a sequence when Snake-Eyes Dawn has a chain weapon wrapped around her sword, then moments later runs up a wall and descends on a threat. Finally, Firefly appears. Given the seriousness of my criticisms about the storytelling in this issue, I have gone back over it several times and broken it down panel-by-panel to try and understand what it happening here. After having done so, I do believe that what we have here is an overly ambitious script overencumbered by shadows, poor coloring choices, vague backgrounds and too-weak attempts at clarifying characters. Additionally I suspect that if Larry had tried to draw this script as he had done with 21, that he would have realized it wasn’t going to translate well onto the page and he would have reduced the number of bodies in the story. There are actually only two separate although confusing fights in this issue, and a play-by-play flashback to issue 21. The first time we see Dawn, she has already killed no less than four Red Ninjas. Bodycount: four. Then, four more ninjas enter from the ceiling. However, this is poorly conveyed. The reader must REALLY be paying attention to see that it is four ninjas and not three. Three are then shown landing (oh actually you can see the foot of the forth and I just realized that on my third re-read). Then closeup on two of them. Then two, then two, then three, then three, back to two, three, three, three, and four panels of one each. At first they all have hoods, then for two pages none of them have hoods, then again finally all four of them have hoods again. They can be identified by their weapons: sword guy, knife guy, sickle-chain guy, gun guy. It looks like gun guy throws his gun at another ninja, but that’s actually knife guy throwing a knife and gun guy getting hit with a gun from Dawn. In the second and third panel we are looking at sickle guy, but in the fourth panel the camera is behind him now. This camera shift adds to the disorienting confusion of not having clean obvious settings around them to orient the reader. Sickle guy dies first, then sword guy, then for three panels the bodies are all kind of floating and bouncing around oddly. Finally we get close-ups of (I suppose?) all four of the ninjas individually hitting the ground dead (or dying). Sickle guy, sword guy, maybe knife guy because of his shoulder strap (?) and I guess the last must be gun guy. Then Dawn lands. So Dawn started with a leg sweep, then jumped into the air, then landed, and they were all dead. That took ten panels. It’s pretty dense and the camera is all over the place but there IS some continuity there if the reader takes the time to look for it, so Netho was clearly doing the best he could with a complicated script. Bodycount: now up to eight. Then there is a panel where Snake-Eyes Dawn is being rushed by the next (and final) wave of ninjas. There are twelve of them, setting up the second fight of the issue after a brief flashback to issue 21. The establishing shot of this second crowd shows: four sword guys, nunchuck guy, sai guy, trident guy, sickle-ball-chain guy, and a bo staff guy. That’s nine of the twelve identified kinda. Several panels of set-up and posturing, then it starts. There is another guy on a rope, so that might actually make thirteen. Panel one: sword guy, empty-handed guy both die (ten left… or eleven?). Then empty-handed guy, sword guy, and… no, just those two. Thought it was three dead in this panel but the sword guy is still hanging from a rope. Eight left, or nine. Sickle guy and another sword guy attack, both dead. Then comes grenade guy, yeah buddy! Dead. Five left, or six. The sai guy and knife guy attack, except it’s the sai guy and a sword guy in the next panel instead who get killed and used as a human shield against the grenade. Three left, or four (assuming no ninjas were killed off-panel by that grenade). Then sickle guy attacks, killed, sword guy dead by thrown sword, final sword guy puts up a reasonable fight. One left, or two. Sickle kills someone, who may actually just be laying face-down on the floor. The scenario isn’t certain and he’s clearly pretty far away. Zero left, or one. Finally the last sword guy is defeated by running up a wall and jumping over him. He is drawn to be rather large, bigger than the other ninjas. MAYBE HE IS THE RED NINJA LEADER! Just kidding. That’s it then. Either one more than my initial count killed, or zero. I did a write-up of this once before and was pretty upset when it got deleted before I could save it. So I actually read this issue three times to get to this version of my write-up. Before, I was quite sure that there was an error in the number of ninjas killed versus the headcount during the establishing shots. However, in rereading it, there were some subtle things I noticed. In the first fight the number of attackers is established a little better than I thought, but the reader really has to be paying attention to see the out of focus body parts used to identify them all. In the second fight, the number of ninjas increases from twelve to thirteen when a sword guy drops in on a rope, so that fixes my either number confusion. So Netho is doing all that he can to distinguish one ninja from another, but the camera changes don’t help, and it’s really just too many ninjas on screen at once. This issue might have been the same level of mania but more exciting and clear if the script simply had way less combatants who were each more capable independently instead of all being disposable. Its primary a script problem with a little blame on the storytelling. After reading it so many times and breaking it down though, I have way more appreciate for the scope of the battles inside. Final thought: there is one earlier panel which shows an expended shell just touching the floor as the first fight ends. That’s a nice subtle detail. This issue should be understood to last probably no more than two minutes of fighting. It all takes place in bullet-timing and bodies which are damaged are continually shown still falling to the ground. Understanding that makes following it much simpler. Dawn is frequently misunderstood to be killing four people when it’s really only one or two and the other ones are still hovering there on their heels. Bodycount: four plus four plus twelve plus one equals twenty-one. 21! Hmmmmm… certainly not an accident. In the letters page, someone writes in upset about Snake-Eyes having an open mouth during the recent Vietnam flashback. I get it.
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9/1/22 - A Day Which Will Live in Infamy Steevy Maximus - "that Nazi imagery was quaint" |
06-21-2021, 09:30 AM | #3232 |
Bald Master
Join Date: Apr 2011
Location: Wolverine Lake, MI
Posts: 15,123
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Wow—seriously in-depth analyzation, there!
I’m not looking at the issue right now, but what’s wrong with SE’s mouth open, apparently talking/shouting, in the Vietnam flashback? He didn’t lose his voice until much later, after he had joined the Joes.
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06-21-2021, 05:28 PM | #3233 |
Crimson Guard
Join Date: Nov 2013
Location: Boulder
Posts: 1,572
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Quote:
This is in 246. It looks like Netho was doing a Wildman impression. In prior Vietnam flashbacks, his face is pretty obscured and he always just seems pensive. We know that he could speak, but there's something kind of special about him never being shown in dialogue in the flashbacks I feel. Snake-Eyes just seems like he was always quiet and focused, and when the action was happening he focuses on his task. In this flashback he either has his mouth open in multiple panels like he's either terrified or screaming AAAAAAAAAAAAAA, or he has Wolverine-gritted-teeth. But Lonzo and Tommy are actually talking, so it's almost like Snake-Eyes really IS mute or something. And Tommy is narrating for him, and really harping on him to fix his heavy machine gun. Snake-Eyes appears to be somewhat incompetent, maybe Tommy is just mother-henning him but he keeps saying stuff like "no, you have to replace the barrel, it's worn out" and "you need to reload faster." So I don't think the cumulative impression is very good but it's certainly not intentional from any of the creatives. Snake-Eyes looks like a terrified, mute Hunter S. Thompson. I do like that Tommy calls him "Snake-Man." That's cool.
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9/1/22 - A Day Which Will Live in Infamy Steevy Maximus - "that Nazi imagery was quaint" |
06-21-2021, 11:59 PM | #3234 |
Bald Master
Join Date: Apr 2011
Location: Wolverine Lake, MI
Posts: 15,123
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Quote:
Oh it's not super horrible, it just doesn't look right.
This is in 246. It looks like Netho was doing a Wildman impression. In prior Vietnam flashbacks, his face is pretty obscured and he always just seems pensive. We know that he could speak, but there's something kind of special about him never being shown in dialogue in the flashbacks I feel. Snake-Eyes just seems like he was always quiet and focused, and when the action was happening he focuses on his task. In this flashback he either has his mouth open in multiple panels like he's either terrified or screaming AAAAAAAAAAAAAA, or he has Wolverine-gritted-teeth. But Lonzo and Tommy are actually talking, so it's almost like Snake-Eyes really IS mute or something. And Tommy is narrating for him, and really harping on him to fix his heavy machine gun. Snake-Eyes appears to be somewhat incompetent, maybe Tommy is just mother-henning him but he keeps saying stuff like "no, you have to replace the barrel, it's worn out" and "you need to reload faster." So I don't think the cumulative impression is very good but it's certainly not intentional from any of the creatives. Snake-Eyes looks like a terrified, mute Hunter S. Thompson. I do like that Tommy calls him "Snake-Man." That's cool.
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06-22-2021, 07:42 AM | #3235 |
Cyber Warfare Specialist
Join Date: Jul 2015
Location: Somewhere
Posts: 3,661
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Place Holder
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06-22-2021, 07:44 AM | #3236 |
Cyber Warfare Specialist
Join Date: Jul 2015
Location: Somewhere
Posts: 3,661
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Issue #249 is live to discuss. Yo Joe!
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06-22-2021, 12:54 PM | #3237 |
Crimson Guard
Join Date: Nov 2013
Location: Boulder
Posts: 1,572
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issue 249
Harada arrives at the Red Ninja dojo where at least twenty ninjas died confusingly. In this issue it looks like a traditional building, previously it had been depicted more like a warehouse. Again we see the Arashikage hexagram but this time it's upside-down. Harada makes a bad pun. He arms himself with a Red Ninja sword which also has the hexagram on it. Firefly faces off with Dawn, and she calls him out for an incident at a sword-shrine involving Firefly, Snake-Eyes, and Zartan. Is this the death of the Hard-Master or something else? When I think of that event, "sword-shrine" does not come to mind, unless Larry is misremembering something or confusing the Hard Master's "blind-sword" demonstration. If he isn't talking about a previously undisclosed event, Firefly is pretty defensive about only a few people knowing what happened to the Hard Master. Everybody knows about that by now. I’m really not sure if this is a reference to the death of the Hard Master or a lead-in to an unrevealed event similar to the time that Snake-Eyes walked Obake Obaason home and slaughtered a whole opposing clan on the way. Firefly calls upon a small robot drone for aid. Harada gets ready to breach the sealed doors. The Defiant shuttle touches down in Japan, one of my top moments in this new half of ARAH. Hawk has personally escorted the rescue squad by space shuttle. Hawk has blackmailed the Jugglers to clear this op, and they have squared it away with the Japanese government. Budo (Zartan) has joined Snake-Eyes Sean, Stalker, Storm Shadow and Scarlett. I remember being excited to see Budo on an op with this group then later disappointed that it wasn't Budo but equally excited that it was Zartan. It might have been a narrative mess but this would have been an appropriate way to bring back the whole Ninja Force. Harada holds off the police intervention. Dawn destroys the drone. Firefly (who has always sucked) is on the run. And in Darklonia, we see that Black Major is eager to get his own plotline back to the forefront of the story. In the letters page, oh it's a letter from me. Mostly focused on the appearance of lesser-known characters and appreciation for some of the flashback mechanisms being used well, as well as appreciation for the overall meta-story.
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9/1/22 - A Day Which Will Live in Infamy Steevy Maximus - "that Nazi imagery was quaint" |
06-22-2021, 11:12 PM | #3238 |
Grail Knight
Join Date: Feb 2021
Location: Elsewhere
Posts: 954
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I've never understood Hama's treatment of Firefly. You start with possibly the coolest looking action figure of all time, then write a file card that suggests he's every bit as deadly and competent as Snake Eyes...and then make him a chump in the comics. Never made any sense.
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06-23-2021, 12:26 AM | #3239 |
Iron Grenadier
Join Date: Jul 2018
Location: Arizona
Posts: 764
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Quote:
I've never understood Hama's treatment of Firefly. You start with possibly the coolest looking action figure of all time, then write a file card that suggests he's every bit as deadly and competent as Snake Eyes...and then make him a chump in the comics. Never made any sense.
https://comicvine.gamespot.com/gi-jo...ly/4000-76280/ I also thought ARAH 43 showed Scrap Iron and Firefly as pretty ruthless. To the point where I actually liked them less. https://comicvine.gamespot.com/gi-jo...ds/4000-76197/ |
06-24-2021, 01:55 AM | #3240 |
Crimson Guard
Join Date: Nov 2013
Location: Boulder
Posts: 1,572
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Yes, I have always hoped that Firefly would prove more formidable. He has a GREAT design.
I feel like there was potential there earlier on. Most of Larry's male villains swing back and forth between fearsome and incapable though so maybe it's not a Firefly problem.
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9/1/22 - A Day Which Will Live in Infamy Steevy Maximus - "that Nazi imagery was quaint" |
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