IGN Holiday Gift Guide 2012

I generated half the content for the Comics and Collectibles section of the IGN Holiday Gift Guide, so check it out so you know the best stuff to get the nerd in your life. Don't miss my favorite entry, the one for Saga.

Why Do We Love Lightsabers?

In my last post I started to talk about Disney buying Star Wars, but I ended up talking about my fascination with lightsabers. I'm sure I'm not the first fanboy that's happened to. But I think I was onto something. What is it about lightsabers that makes everyone go gaga over them? Fans have made countless YouTube videos of the various movie light saber fights, bought or made light saber replicas of their own, and filmed themselves fighting with them against their friends in the backyard.

In the original trilogy, a lightsaber was truly something special. There were only four different sabers in the entire trilogy and only three people who could use them. A majority of the action centered around the use of blasters and space fighter ships, with lightsabers only making an appearance in special encounters. Luke used a blaster most of the time, even after his Jedi training on Dagobah in The Empire Strikes Back. It wasn't until he had mastered his abilities by The Return of the Jedi that he depended on it exclusively.

That was a gross error of the prequels. Everyone had a lightsaber. Even the kids! Although I wager those were non-lethal training sabers, assuming there is such a thing. But lightsabers were so prevalent that they lost their impact as the weapon of a highly skilled warrior. Did you notice how Gandalf rarely used magic in The Lord of the Rings? He hardly seemed like a wizard until that bit with the Balrog in The Fellowship of the Ring, but man when he cut loose it was awe-inspiring. That's why when dozens of Jedi were running across the screen with lightsabers in Attack of the Clones it didn't feel as awesome as it should have. In fact, it felt depressing to see so many "highly skilled warriors" go down while wielding everyone's favorite glowing sword. How special could those Jedi have been if they went down so easy?

Lightsabers go beyond Star Wars as to why they are so loved. Throughout all manner of story and legend, special swords are a recurring theme. Most notable is the Sword in the Stone from Arthurian legend. A special blade with great power destined to be wielded by a single owner. The same sort of feeling came when Obi-Wan Kenobi gave Anakin's lightsaber to Luke. It was a sacred family heirloom. A continuation of a legacy. Something that was unique and important because it was destined to be passed down to Luke when he came of age. And only Luke could wield it because of his predisposition to the Force. It's not the exact same story as King Arthur, but it has the same basic principles.

The list of important swords goes on: Link's Master Sword, Lion-O's Sword of Omens, Aragorn's Narsil reforged into Anduril, Harry Potter's Sword of Gryffindor. But where the lightsaber trumps other blades is how it looks, operates, and cuts. A glowing blade looks cool enough as it is, but imagery of a sword of light can be found dating all the way back to ancient times. Old paintings show angels wielding fiery blades to banish sinners. The lightsaber has religious undertones resonating off of it without even trying.

 
It's sleek and compact silver handle is easy to store and even hide up your sleeve, like we saw Emperor Palpatine do in Revenge of the Sith. And who do you know who hasn't made that "tssch" sound of a lightsaber igniting and the "bzzz" of its laser hum? It's practically alive with sci-fi magic. The lightsaber can cut through anything but another lightsaber, enforcing that its wielder can overcome any obstacle. One who uses a lightsaber can also deflect the laser bolts of lesser men's puny guns. It's a weapon of supreme power in both symbolism and practicality. You can imagine why so many fans, myself included, lost their shit when Darth Maul whipped out a double-bladed lightsaber. All that stuff I just talked about TIMES TWO!

If Episode VII is going to be a success, it's vital that they tone down the lightsabers. Make the movies about something else than different scenarios that call for the characters to whip them out. This problem might solve itself simply based on the fact that Luke is a lone Jedi in the universe. It's hard to say how much time will have passed in between films VI and VII, but even if in that time he set out to rebuild the Jedi Order, there couldn't be more than a handful of Jedi. And all for the better.

Moar Star Wars

Disney bought Star Wars. We're getting Episode VII, which is Episode 7 for those who don't speak Roman. That's huge. The only true Hollywood earthquake in recent memory.

George Lucas gives his toys to a new owner.

But after you get over the initial joy, you think about the poor performance of the prequels. I loved them as a sixth grader, but as the criticism sunk in over the years, it became apparent to anyone that they were storytelling failures. I like things about them, like the Boba Fett-esque Darth Maul, detective Obi-Wan Kenobi, and the ascension and transformation of Emperor Palpatine, but anyone would be hard-pressed to admit that they got everything they wanted from those movies.

Detective Kenobi

I remember back in high school I would watch Episode II again and again. I'd have it on in the background while I was doing homework or talking on AIM. Remember AIM? Yeah me neither. I'm not sure why I watched it so much because the more it seeped into my brain pores, the more it disillusioned me. There was no magic in that movie. I love light sabers as much as any fanboy, yet even though this movie was absolutely packed with them, I never felt impressed. 

That was the one thing that Episode I did right: light sabers. They captured how deadly and precise Jedi could be. I say deadly, but rarely did the Jedi ever kill anything alive. They sliced up a fair few amount of flying bug creatures in Episode II, but those were hardly humanoid. No, Jedi almost exclusively battled cold hard steel robits. That drained a lot of tension from the movies because the fights felt imbalanced. Both sides didn't have something of merit to lose, and the droids were hopelessly outmatched, until a Destroyed rolled up. (Why not produce all Destroyers and other shield-based droids knowing you're going to war with Jedi?) Droids were shown being assembled in mass quantities, while Jedi were slowly trained with patience from youth. That's why the slaughter of the Jedi at the end of Episode II never felt right. These warriors were trained to BLINDLY deflect lasers from CHILDHOOD yet there were dozens of them laying dead on the ground from laser beam death.

BLINDY from CHILDHOOD!

That's why Darth Maul made such an impact: he straight up murdered Qui-Gon Jinn. The character was dull, but Jinn's death meant a lot because it brought a weight to the otherwise dry story. (Did you really care that Naboo had been taken over when we never saw even one Naboobian starve, suffer, or die unfairly?) After a whole movie of meaninglessly destroying droids, a light saber sunk into someone we truly didn't expect to die given how invincible he had been for the entirety of the film. That's a lesson for Episode VII -- get rid of the battle droids, tone down the light sabers, and only bring them out when the characters mean business.

Okay, I totally got away from my point, which was, you might have hated the prequels, but let's say they are a 3 out of 10. Keep in mind that while you think there's nowhere to go but up from there, there's always a chance that Disney will turn in a 2 or a 1.

Okay, that's not what my point was going to be. I'm actually super excited about these movies.

Captain America Goes Sci-fi

I covered the Marvel NOW! press call for Captain America today. Check out what Rick Remender, John Romita Jr, and Tom Brevoort had to say on IGN. That's right, I'm great at typing out what people say.

Quote Me, Again

I was absolutely ecstatic to see that I was quoted on one of my all-time favorite comics, Locke and Key, specifically the back of the Clockworks hardcover. And I can't be mad at the Dancer quote, either. Although, my film criticism professor would flip her lid if she saw that I used "is" in both of them -- the weakest of verbs that can always be replaced by something better. As Rudy Rhod would say, BUTWHOCARES?!

I used to never pay attention to pull quotes, but now every time I pick up a book I seem to find one of mine. As the cashier of my shop pointed out, too bad they always attribute it to IGN without naming the reviewer. I'm the only one who knows I said it, but it's still pretty cool.

Locke and Key: Clockworks

Dancer vol 1

A Comic Book: Team-Up Preview -- Super Duper Trio

Me and some other local creators who all frequent Orlando, Florida's A Comic Shop have been putting together a comics anthology with teamwork and togetherness as a theme which, unsurprisingly, we called A Comic Book: Team-Up. Among many other splendid short comics, it will feature my first ever published comic. We are only distributing the print version locally, but the anthology will soon be available digitally on A Comic Shop's website.

Since my story is only six pages long, providing only a one page preview seemed apt. Shout out to the wonderfully talented Jennifer McKeown for nailing the Power Puff Girls vibe I vehemently demanded with wide eyes, spit flying from my mouth.

Click here for readable size.

Quote Me, Quote Me, Say That You'll Quote Me

At the shop today I saw that I was quoted on four new graphic novels (the ones attributed to IGN below). I had only ever been quoted once before on FF vol 2, so it seemed almost silly to me that there were now this many, three of them released on the same day.

Green Lantern: New Guardians vol 1

It's a strange feeling being a critic and having your review used to promote a book. There's a sense of pride that you get from it at first, but then that quickly fades when you realize that you got one sentence published and the guy who wrote the book has a whole comic's worth.

Venom vol 4

But there are no major awards for comic book journalism, so this is as good as it gets. Right now, I just need to be careful not to wind up like the pull-quote guy on MadTV who says fabulous things about terrible movies just because he loves being quoted.

Mind the Gap vol 1

I, Vampire vol 1