Welcome, dear readers, to our regular letter column; a series of missives from and to the internet, delivered by a series of tubes. We welcome your comments and questions. About anything! We’ll answer it, and at least one of us will take you seriously. Maybe.
Your questions can be about comics. This is a comics site, so we answer questions about comics. That’s pretty simple. We also answer questions about other media that have a relation to comics, like Batman movies or hard-hitting questions about the video game Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions. But we also answer other questions, too! Maybe you want to know whether you can properly dry age steak in your fridge at home (you can’t). We’d answer that. Or maybe you want to have a firm ranking of all the classic Backstreet Boys singles! We’d answer that, too! We have a lot of opinions about stuff. It would be silly for you not to avail yourself of them! After all, you don’t want to look silly when somebody asks you about home dry aging, do you? Of course you don’t. You’re a person of class and taste, judging from the fact that you’re reading this and not Bleeding Cool.
You’re welcome, internet.
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Jay (@jayrunham) asks: What did you guys think of the new Batman shot from Zack Snyder?
James: Uh, not very much?
If that sounds dismissive, it’s because it is. Not of the movie, though. I’m not even being dismissive of the question, though apologies if it ends up sounding like I am. The simple reality is that Zack Snyder posted a moody, grainy, black-and-white picture of Ben Affleck as Batman standing next to the upcoming film iteration of the Batmobile. I don’t have a lot of thoughts about it because there’s not a lot to think about. The picture isn’t even clear. Are those veins on Batman’s costume? Or are those actually folds from a The Dark Knight Returns-esque fabric pattern? Who knows. Who cares. It’s a mediocre press image. I looked at it and thought, “Okay, that’s basically a press image from the Arkham ___ video game series, I guess the next two years will give more information.”
Because here’s the thing: it’s just too damn early to get either excited or upset about anything that comes out. That photo just is. It doesn’t need a qualifier.
Brandon: I think it was put out as a taste of what the new movie will feel like, and hey! A DC superhero movie is going for a dark and serious vibe. Surprise! That said, you know I’m gonna watch it, and they know I’m gonna watch it. So there’s that.
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Josh (@joshbazin) asks: Two Songs Enter, One Song Leaves: “Toxic” vs. “Call Me Maybe.”
James: This… is a tough question to answer, because I’d call those songs two of the best bubblegum pop songs of the last decade. “Call Me Maybe” was my official 2012 Summer Jam pick, and it’s made for hot summer days shouting it in the car, as well as cool summer nights sitting around the fire. It’s bright, anthemic and basically summer in three minutes and thirteen seconds. It’s really wonderful. “Toxic,” on the other hand, is a thumping club masterpiece with a shockingly varied instrumentation, from the keening synths to the Bollywood strings to the 70s spy movie reverb guitar. It is basically the song that, in my second year of university, single-handedly tore down my pretensions about “high” and “low” music and severed my assholish devotion to “indie.” The song is so good it literally changed my life. It came up in conversation with my cool DJ/musician friend Eric as we were practicing for a Spanish oral exam and by the end of the conversation I was born again in the thumping beats of Queen Britney.
I might have to give this to “Toxic” for that reason! “Call Me Maybe” is a perfect summer song, but “Toxic” was a life-changer.
Brandon: At this point, I’ve probably listened to both in equal measure. I enjoy “Call Me Maybe” quite a bit, as anyone who has wandered through the store has noted over the past couple of years, but… man, I really do have to give it to “Toxic”. For all the fun of “Call Me Maybe”, the hooks are fairly simple. “Toxic” was a pretty ballsy mix of styles that ended up working quite beautifully together, and… whelp, you just can’t beat those strings. You really can’t.
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Brittany (@britl) asks: What was your favourite Godzilla movie? Was it Son of Godzilla? Was it because he was adorable?
James: My favourite is probably still the 1954 original, if only because it’s the scariest one. The series evolved into giant kaiju battles pretty soon afterward, and that original, representing the ever-present spectre of atomic annihilation so soon after Hiroshima, still holds up as a serious movie to this day in that way.
That said, I am also a total mark for giant silly kaiju fights and I love a lot of the other movies in the series, too. My all-time second favourite is probably Destroy All Monsters, if only because it introduced Monsterland/Monster Island to the franchise and an island where kaiju live in peace but also occasionally destroy shit is maybe the third greatest subgenre of all time (behind Teen Feelings and Action Archetype With a High Concept Twist). I mean, that’s basically Jurassic Park right there.
My third favourite Godzilla movie is probably Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla. I enjoy the theme of nature vs. technology that the central conflict fundamentally represents, sure. I also love that the movie is one hundred percent batshit insane.
Brandon: My experience with Godzilla is fairly limited, having seen very little of all. In the past year, Devin R. Bruce lent me his Criterion edition of the original, which included both the American cut, and the original Japanese version. Watching those as a compare and contrast was pretty fascinating. I mean, of course the original was about “the bomb”, in some way shape or form, and the ideas both cultures had about it. Pretty great to see both takes.
I also enjoy “Godzilla vs. Bambi”.
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Brittles continues: Why doesn’t anyone seem to love Mothra and the faerie twins who summon her?
James: Actually, a lot of people love Mothra. Out of all the Toho monsters, she’s had the second highest number of movie appearances, with 13. She is, objectively, one of the most popular kaiju, so I’m not sure where the “why doesn’t anyone seem to love Mothra” thing comes from. Mothra is a strong number two.
I mean, though, I can see why Mora and Moll, the faeries, don’t get to claim that much popularity themselves. In kaiju movies, any of the people (or people-like magical beings) are always going to be less popular because they’re never the focus. It’s like wanting a rich story about the parents in a teen feelings movie. Nobody’s there to see Randy Quaid.
Brandon: If there is a backlash against Mothra, its probably because of the character’s popularity, or frequent appearances. That said, I love me some Mothra. How could you not??
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Brit-Brit gets to the point: Should I buy the Godzilla collection of movies from Amazon?
James: Brittany. Britney. How can you even think for a second about NOT buying that? And then lending it to me? For shame.
Brandon: I say “buy”. What’s the worst that could happen? Well, beyond some super ironic “death by kaiju” action. Because we all DO live in apartments…
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Scott (@scottowilliams) asks: What lyric or pop culture quote best sums up your life right now?
James:
“December boys got it bad”
-Big Star, “September Gurls”
The funny thing is that the song itself is a bittersweet eulogy for a failed relationship, but for me, the meaning is completely the opposite. I’m a December Boy. I’ve got it bad for a September Gurl. Things are going well. I relate more to that isolated lyric as an admission of pure emotion, matched more with the jangling guitars and crisp melody than the actual context. I hear that lyric, with that guitar, and it just reminds me about how good I feel.
The best part is, if things don’t go well down the line, I can stick with the same song! Big Star is useful for all occasions.
Brandon: Man, I don’t even know anymore. All the lyrics I really identified with strongly came from an era of my life rife with all of that heartache and whatnot. It’s pretty easy to latch yourself to a song in the doldrums, but when you’re happy… I dunno. I find that when I’m happy, I find that I graviate more to songs than lines. A good line will wreck you while you’re vulnerable to it, but otherwise, I find I’m just nodding and admiring the craft. That said, I’m partial to:
“wanna write one for you // the unwritable girl // who sleeps in my hand // in this interstate world”
- Gregory Alan Isakov, “Unwritable girl”
It’s not quite the intent of his song, but I like it from a whole… being in love with a person I couldn’t hope to make up, kind of sense. With someone who is living, and breathing and real, and far exceeds any fiction or form of perfection I could dream.
We done got mushy on y’all.
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That’s it for the one hundred and forty-second instalment of Um, Actually. Check in every Monday and Thursday for a brand new column. If you have anything you’d like answered, hit up our contact page! If you submit anything via Twitter – to @blogaboutcomics, @Leask, or @soupytoasterson – remember to include the hashtag #UMACTUALLY so that we don’t lose it. Remember: you can ask us anything. Seriously, anything.
