Steve Goble

Choose life. (Deuteronomy 30:19)


Co-Creators: Ann Nocenti (writer), Arthur Adams (pencils)

Six-part limited series chronicling the adventures of a guy who doesn't even know his own name, though people seem to call him Longshot a lot, so he doesn't argue.

Struggling in New York to work out who he is, Longshot encounters a whole series of well-conceived characters, only some of whom things go better for as a result.

Spider-Man shows up for a few pages, and just for a change we get the flipside of all those wisecracks he makes while fighting. His quips cut-into Longshot, who thinks he's being cruel. Dr. Strange shows up for the last couple of issues as well, although I don't think his name gets said much.

The villain - a super-egotistical blob called Mojo - is easy to despise too.

Nocenti's packed script and Adams' intricate art work well together to make this a deep take on the Marvel world that requires a fair amount of commitment from the reader. Like a good film-script, there is much that is quotable, although I think the greatest foresight would have to have come from the reporter who asks a film-star, "Do you have an update on what you ate for breakfast?"

I've read the whole thing straight through this morning (took me three hours) and there is an easily believable tone to the whole thing.

Longshot himself comes across as a character with a real lesson to teach. It's never clearly revealed whether he actually has any powers of super-luck or not, but his uncompromising philosophy is a hugely inspiring one:

Longshot: "You can do ANYTHING if you try! Just keep your motives pure, and BELIEVE!"

The most interesting thing about this theory is when it fails. For example, when all those children are there, and he won't fight the monster because he's just not sure whether it would be right.

Great soul-searching stuff.

(with thanks to Herschel)

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4 comment(s):

At 11:31 am, Anonymous Rhett said...

Since you've posted on dodgy Santa before, Steve, I thought you might be interested...

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10610974

:-)

 
At 9:58 pm, Blogger Steve Goble said...

Part of me died when I read this. It's the end of an era. I always thought that if they were to ever make any changes, then they should really have been to make it even dodgier. Taking his teeth out or something.

 
At 2:40 am, Anonymous Rhett said...

Tell me about it. $100, 000 badly spent.

So tell me Steve, how is life? I mean, I do love comic books as much as the next geek, but I need my Steve fix!

 
At 5:14 pm, Blogger Steve Goble said...

You're very kind. Many of us are still suffering withdrawal symptoms from our daily online Rhett fix too. How's it feel, huh? HOW'S IT FEEEEEL? ;)

Know how I'm going to drive more traffic through this blog? I'm going to spam all your old blog-readers by leaving them comments containing hotlinks that promise them cheap online Rhett.

Life is packed, and peaceful, thank you for asking.

Other than that, I'm catching up on reading a lot of comics I bought 25 years ago and never read...

:)

 

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