It occurred to me while watching Tony Hawk's "What's In My Bag" on the Amoeba music YouTube channel that it's been quite some time since I gave The Clash's Sandinista! a fair shake.
I had this on vinyl in a former life, and while I LOVE some of the songs on it, a double-double album or whatever it is just seems inherently ridiculous. Granted, London Calling is possibly the best double album ever (The Wall is better conceptually, but not necessarily when taken song-by-song), so if anyone was going to pull off an exponential attempt on the concept, The Clash was smart money.
However, Sandinista! always felt a bit too long, the 'sides' and even tracks often a bit too disparate. I mean, "The Magnificent Seven" to "Hitsville UK" to the idle reggae of "Junco Partner"? And that happens a couple of times, this kind of "reggae segue" that feels a bit forced. There are obviously reggae elements on London Calling, but it's all mixed into the songwriting in a way that those moments feel elegant and natural. They've always felt a bit ostentatious to me on Sandinista!.
My point here is it's been quite some time since I've actually listened to the record, and people change. So that's one of my current musical missions for the foreseeable future.
Watch:
I had successfully avoided the trailer for Predator: Killer of Killers before its release this weekend, so going into it blind the other night was a super treat! I'm pretty hard on animation - unless it's Cowboy Bebop or Transformers '86 I don't generally take to it. This, however, blew me away.
I will say, I preferred the animation in the first two segments, but the third one had HEART, so I was still completely "in." I love that we've had to travel almost 40 years to finally get good entries into the cinematic Predator universe. Sure, there are things about several of the other movies I dig, but overall, every movie after the original film has always been a disappointment. Maybe that's just because the original was so damn good, or maybe it's because, as a sequel, Dark Horse's Concrete Jungle has always reigned supreme in my mind.
This four-issue mini-series is a perfect follow-up to the original film, and while it's clear it was a kind of road map for the eventual Predator 2, the film leaves out many of the best parts. Regardless of all this now-ancient history, Dan Trachtenberg has really proved to be the savior the franchise needed, and I can't wait for Predator: Badlands, due out later this year.
I think the best thing that ever happened to Predator was moving to different timelines and now, even different worlds like the Dark Horse comics did long ago.
Read:
I ended up picking up more than I was planning to at the comic shop last Wednesday, but when I saw Jonathan Hickman had turned his attention to the cosmic end of the Marvel Universe, I was instantly intrigued.
Like a lot of 80s comics readers, I read The Infinity Gauntlet as it came out and fell instantly under its sway. This led to dabbling with The Silver Surfer around the same time (I remember the 50th issue being a big deal, but I no longer have that or really remember why). However, trying to keep up with 1992's Gauntlet follow-up Operation Galactic Storm* - a weekly event that ran through pretty much all the Marvel titles I didn't read at the time kind of broke me on the cosmic end of Marvel. I think at the time, my 16-year-old self thought this series was going to be my road into the bigger Universe, only I really didn't connect with any of the titles or the event in general, and I largely stayed away from 'cosmic Marvel' ever since.
Until...
Part of Hickman's Krakoa-era was Al Ewing's S.W.O.R.D. - a cosmic X-Men title that I adored and led directly into the events of Planet-sized X-Men and X-Men: Red, still probably the best Marvel series I've read in decades, and which definitely played with the cosmic end of things.
It's the little I picked up in these titles that has me most interested in modern cosmic Marvel continuity and the first issue of Imperial delivered. There's no shortage on political intrigue here, but played across the stars, Hickman makes the old 'game-of-thrones' concept feel fresh and thrilling. The story encompasses a myriad of cosmic empires I know (Sh'iar; Kree-Skrull) as well as many more I don't (who are those Horse-people???). We also get some familiar faces for a newbie like me; Hulk mourning a son I didn't know he had, Nova and Starlord trying to head whatever is happening off at the pass, as well as a lot of folks I'm completely unacquainted with. So many agendas, so many allegiances - secret or otherwise - and two mysterious chess players who are (apparently) controlling everything. Oh yeah, and Wakanda involved in a nefarious plot to derail peace in the universe?
It's a lot, and I'm really only treading water with the continuity, but it's Hickman and it has a certain charge to it and I'm in.
* Cringe at that title!
Playlist:
Black Sabbath - Sabbath Bloody Sabbath
Black Sabbath - Technical Ecstasy
Ozzie Osbourne - Patient No. 9
Turnstile - NEVER ENOUGH
Damone - From the Attic
Turnstile - GLOW ON
The Dillinger Escape Plan - One of Us is the Killer
Mastodon - Once More 'Round the Sun
Television - Marquee Moon
Johnny Thunders & The Heartbreakers - L.A.M.F.: The Lost '77 Mixes
The Clash - Sandinista!
Card:
From Jonathan Grimm's Hand of Doom Tarot, which you can buy HERE.
• Page of Wands
• VI: The Lovers
• Queen of Cups
Inexperience can be overcome with partnership.
