MUSIC! "Hanna" - the age of rockets (2008)

The Age of Rockets are a small name indie band that I fortuitously stumbled upon in a search for something else several years ago. More accurately, I was looking for something entirely different and they opened. (It was an mc chris show. The Age of Rockets don't really have much musical similarity with the nerdcore rapper who hates being called nerdcore even though that's exactly what he is, but one of their songs, "Elephant & Castle" gets sampled on mc chris's "Reese." Still, it wound up being one of the best openers I've seen outside of the Starlight Mints. EDIT: Just learned that Age of Rockets band leader Andrew Futral produced a few mc chris albums, which is probably why he was picked to open for the funny-voiced rapper.)

Hannah is their second album and shows a rather advanced sound for a small time band with little else striking beforehand. With an orchestral, synth-based sound, it's not hard to draw comparisons to the Postal Service. "Fearsome Though We Are," with its heavy synthesizer and it's chill drum machine mix well with singer Andrew Futral's quiet, breathy vocals to sound like a slowed Postal Service song. The comparisons are surface level only though. The song is immediately followed by "1001 Dirty Tricks to Kill Your  King," which loses most of the signature synth sounds or drum machines and focuses more on the orchestral side of things, instead featuring prominent violins, cellos, and soothing harmonies.

The album is also less pop-based like a Postal Service album tends to be. Of the eleven tracks, only one or two are even really "head bobbing." The aforementioned "Elephant & Castle" has a driving drum line and heavy synthesizer presence, but feels more like a slow-dance song while "Ship to Shore" is the only truly toe-tapping tune, and even then it takes time to build into it, quickly shedding that pop sound before building once more for the finale. The same holds true of the nerdily titled "Avada Kedavre," which slowly builds to the prettiest song on the album, with its quiet, subdued synths and topsy-turvey contradictory lyrics before erupting into the closest thing to a "dance song" on the album.

Futral tends to play around with song structure, staying away from typical musical patterns, instead playing with crescendos and diminuendos, giving new life to each different song. In many ways, Hannah winds up with a very cinematic feel to it.  The album is also very nicely wrapped up with "Stitches to Show Something's Missing," a song that is very similar to the first track, "What Story Down There Awaits Its End?" Musically, it takes on a similar life to the first track. By the end of the song, lyrics are lifted from other songs in the album, giving it a connection to the overall work and a nice sense of closure, culminating in an almost exhausting build up to the finale. (It's almost M83-like.)

It's an ambitious and unique album in an indie world increasingly dancy with its use of synths, making it a welcome change of pace. Hannah is one of the rare gems I've uncovered in my years of attending shows and suffering through unpleasant opening acts.

COMICS! World War Hulk (2007)

One of the more annoying elements about the DC and Marvel universes is their incessant need to have a "summer event," usually that shakes up the foundation of their world. Whether it's Marvel's constant shifting of the paradigm with their events like Civil War or Secret Invasion, or DC retconning, well, everything with Flashpoint, it's not hard to feel a little fatigue with such events.

This is what makes World War Hulk a notch above those aforementioned events! Sure, it doesn't try to shatter the status quo in the way those other titles did. And no, it's not as substantive as those books either. However, World War Hulk stands apart by being pure entertainment. It's fun. It's big without being earth-shattering. More importantly, it does it with a shorter, more direct story (it's just five issues long, so it doesn't drag the way that most other events do). And, if it did have a tie-in with one of your monthly books, it was only a brief distraction from the regular story! Marvel's previous events had a nasty habit of infecting your favorite series. Secret Invasion was the only thing being talked about in any book for the entire year, and Civil War had several issues get delayed which would then mean your monthly books got delayed so as to not spoil the main series.

World War Hulk doesn't need as much backstory as Civil War or Secret Invasion, nor do you need to be aware of much Hulk history like with a lot of X-Men events. Yes, you probably should have read Planet Hulk, but not so much because it enhances the story here; it's more because it's really just a great comic! Any backstory you need to know is presented pretty well throughout the five issues of the main title. There's also a solid "Prologue" issue that lets you in too, if the main series is somehow confusing.

All you really need to know though is that a group of Marvel's smartest heroes used to get together to problem solve the world's biggest troubles in secret. This list included Iron Man, Dr. Strange, Black Bolt of the Inhumans, Reed Richards, and often included Namor and Professor X (apparently, Black Panther doesn't cut it for these guys...) Several years prior, they gathered together (sans Charles Xavier) to figure out the "Hulk problem." Perhaps they had just watched the original Gamera, but they planned on tricking Hulk into a space ship, then blasting him off world. The plan was to shoot him to a peaceful planet where he could live his life in peace.

Only Namor objected (because Namor is awesome) and the plan was executed. There was just one small problem: the rocket ship didn't make it to the intended planet. Instead, it wound up on a brutal planet called Sakaar. Hulk was weakened from the travel and captured by the rulers of the planet. With an obedience disc attached, he was forced to become a gladiator and fight for sport. Eventually, he lead a rebellion and overthrew the oppressive rulers. With popular support, Hulk himself was named king of Sakaar. He took a wife and together they were destined to finally have a peaceful life. That is, until the rocket ship blew up, killing everyone including Hulk's pregnant wife.

That's how we get to the start of World War Hulk. Hulk is fast traveling on a rock-like space ship with his Warbound - his gladiator friends. He has never been more angry and thus, never more powerful. He even attacks one of his Warbound in blind rage, unable to see the alien attackers or his companions. Instead, he only sees Reed Richards, Tony Stark, Black Bolt, and Dr. Strange - the Illuminati who he's sworn vengeance against. It's clear the Hulk is coming to smash like never before.

Starting on the dark side of the moon, he faces off against Black Bolt. This is one of the few missteps of the book. Black Bolt is often regarded as one of the most powerful characters in the Marvel universe. Indeed, they reference this when the Hulk broadcasts a message to the world that they have twenty-four hours to evacuate Manhattan and give up Stark, Richards, and Strange. He concludes the message by holding up Black Bolt's battered body, unclear if he is unconscious or dead. Someone asks, "Who was that?" This, of course, merits Spider-man's response, "Until today, I would have said he's the second most powerful person!"

For all of the epic showdowns in the book, we are really only teased with the Black Bolt/Hulk fight. It happens quickly and takes place mostly outside the pages of the book. We Black Bolt unleash a whisper, which knocks Hulk back. Through the dust, Hulk's imposing figure appears and we know that the fight is about to get heavy. Before we can see it though, we cut away from the moon and show more on Earth. Next thing we know, Black Bolt has lost and we missed the fight. It's a little unfortunate given the high caliber fights we do see. Why do we see more of a less interesting Iron Man vs. Hulk fight when we could have gotten a better, more intriguing Black Bolt vs. Hulk fight?

That's pretty much all you need to know about it though. Each issue features a new Hulk vs. fight. We start off with Hulk showing up and beating Black Bolt, then messaging the entire world. In the second issue, we see him face off against Iron Man in his fairly useless Hulkbuster armor, then against Thunderbolt Ross and his military strikes. Neither of these enemies have a chance of defeating Hulk. Frankly, they'd be lucky to beat just one of his Warbound, each about as strong as the Hulk used to be.

While Hulk's Warbound faces off against the Avengers, the Hulk is busy turning Manhattan into a gladiator arena. His plan is to install obedience discs on all of these heroes and make them fight in the arena like he was forced to. Meanwhile, he's gaining support from many of the regular people. In one scene, a woman calls out Black Bolt for her husband's death during an Inhuman invasion of Washington DC a few years earlier. Then, a relative of Bill Foster calls out Tony Stark for Bill's death during the Civil War. One thing Marvel has always done differently (and better) than DC is showing the heroes in a different light. Some people might appreciate Spider-man, for example, but many will find him a menace. Or how much do you suppose someone would really like the Fantastic Four if their villains kept showing up in New York City to destroy things? There's always collateral to these events, and yet, the heroes never seem to have to face consequences of their mistakes.

Playing out through these issues is the build up to one of the greatest fights in any event: Hulk vs. Dr. Strange. Strange has tendency of being underutilized, but they pull out all the stops here. First, he tries to lure the Bruce Banner persona out through a spell that basically transports them somewhere else. Through conversation, Strange calms Hulk down a bit, trying desperately to convince him that the heroes were not responsible for the bomb in the ship. We think Strange is pulling the strings here, but it turns out that Hulk is really the one in charge. Tricking Strange to take a more corporeal form, he transforms back to his Hulk persona and crushes Strange's hands. This basically renders Strange useless as he can no longer perform gestures for spells. Still, he has one last trick: unleashing the demon Zom. So then a Zom-possessed Strange takes on Hulk and his Warbound, but he starts to lose control of the demon and needs Hulk to stop him. It's a role reversal, and it's one of the better fights.

Of course, nothing can stop Hulk except one of the most poorly treated (yet most interesting) characters: Sentry. The agoraphobic, schizophrenic superhero with the power of a million exploding suns is held on the sidelines for a while. Apart from being the most powerful superhero in the world, he can also lose control and become The Void - the most powerful supervillain in the world. As such, the other heroes like to keep him out of the game. They have no choice here though, with Stark urging him on by saying, "It's time to play god."

Sentry shows up like we've never seen before. He seems to relish the fight. It's the first time he can truly unleash his powers. The interesting thing about the Sentry though is that he was one of Hulk's few friends. It's possible he might have been able to calm Hulk down a bit to the point where conversation could mean something. Instead, thanks to Stark's "play god" comment, Sentry is itching for this fight. The sentiment shows the inherent flaw in the Illumanit's logic with every decision they've made. A group of five people was making decisions that affected the rest of the world and people they knew and loved, but they didn't consult anyone first. They themselves were "playing god" and it was constantly coming back to bite them.

The fight between the Sentry and the Hulk is epic. It lasts most of the final issue and makes it a quick read as a result. The two expend so much energy fighting on this whole other level that both of them slowly revert back to their human forms. It seems like the fight is over until one of Hulk's Warbound tries to stab Bruce in an effort to enrage the beast again and draw Hulk out. Hulk's old buddy Rick Jones steps in the way and is killed instead, which turns out is just as effective a method to get the Hulk out. We then find out that the Warbound knew it wasn't Earth's heroes who planted the bomb that killed Hulk's wife.

The fights are epic here. In this way, it's one of the more visual comic events to happen in years. Though it does have some depth to it, it ultimately functions as a "Hulk vs." event, which is incredibly fun. It's also a bit nice to see some of these heroes finally have to answer for some of their decisions (Iron Man and Reed Richards in particular have a tendency of being let off the hook).

There were a few tie-ins worth checking out as well. Ghost Rider's book (written by Deadpool regular Daniel Way) takes a reprieve from his demon-hunting to face the Hulk. The fight between Hulk and Ghost Rider is surprisingly awesome, but unless you read Ghost Rider regularly, the ramifications are a bit lost. (It turns out that Ghost Rider could potentially defeat Hulk in a fight, but the Spirit of Vengeance doesn't harm innocent people and is also controlled by its human host. The decision to face the Hulk is that of Johnny Blaze. By the end, Blaze no longer seems present and the full power of the Spirit of Vengeance is unleashed upon the world.)

Additionally, there is a pretty fun X-Men miniseries (written by the awesome Christos Gage) where the Hulk fights pretty much every X-Men member in an effort to take Professor X. Even though Xavier wasn't there when the Illuminati decided to launch Hulk into space, Hulk demands to know how he would have voted and punish him accordingly. Xavier admits he would have voted with the others and surrenders peaceably. However, his students refuse and engage in an awesome, three-issue battle with the Hulk. It ultimately comes down to a speech. When Hulk rages on about how he will not stop until they have suffered like he has, a young mutant steps in to reveal just how much the mutant population has already suffered. In many ways, they've suffered worse than Hulk.

Hulk is often presented as the wronged party here, but he also has his moments of unreasonable behavior that makes you think Stark and the others might have been right. Of course, they never intended to launch Hulk to a violent planet, but as they say, "The best laid plans of mice and men often go awry." In some ways, this story is more "grey" than Civil War, which went a little too far to paint the pro-registration side as "villains" even though they had completely legitimate arguments.

Short, epic, and hugely entertaining, World War Hulk is one of the better events from the last decade. It's worth checking out, and because it's not very wordy (it's mostly panels filled with action), it's also a quick read. Writer Greg Pak might be one of the best writers in comics today, knowing exactly what it takes to make a comic book fun. The art is done by John Romita Jr, which is solid, but it seems like you either love it or hate it. (I'm kind of indifferent to JRJR's art.)

You just better be ready for some smashing, because there's a ton of it!