Captain America: The Winter Soldier

The real concern when considering the unstoppable Marvel movie juggernaut is, when will it end and how? There are literally billions of dollars tied up in Thor, Iron Man, Captain America and the rest of the coterie.  So one has to wonder when, if ever, the studio will pull the plug in order to preserve the overall quality?  A serious question when you realise that some characters are signed up for a nine movie contract.
   
With that being said I approached Captain America: The Winter Soldier with a fair amount of excitement. From initial reviews and the trailer it looked like we were in store for a more rounded and engaging outing in comparison to the first film, a film I am still not particularly fond of.  There might have even been a certain wilful naivete on my part, having been mortified by the disaster that Man Of Steel would turn out to be after an apparently solid trailer and reaction.  Therefore I wanted The Winter Soldier to be a success if only to stave off becoming any more jaded to the comic book universe as a whole.  Whether that be DC, Marvel, Dark Horse or the funny pages.
             

Some heroes are prettier than others, eh?

Following the Avengers there was always the likelihood that one superhero wasn't going to be enough to sate an audience, at least not without a stellar story line, that it would feel like taking a step back.  A little like Thor: The Dark World turned out.  An entertaining, but uninspired walk around the Marvel block.  The Winter Soldier on the other hand delivers on both counts, treating us not only to the stars and stripes Captain himself, but Natasha Romanoff, assassin, spy and all round composite badass.  This is then capped with a tight narrative that is not only better than it's predecessor, but actively builds upon it.  It almost makes you think the execs and producers have some kind of plan for the series.  Crazy.
                             

It's quite clear from the off that the writers wanted to develop the Cap beyond his origin story, beyond being a clean cut goody who wouldn't put a toe wrong.  We did get a little of this in Whedon's tour de force, but it was fleeting and only hinted at a rebellious streak rather than featuring it.  In the Winter Soldier we get a more in depth look at Rogers as he tries to adapt to modern life, at one point pulling out a list of films, music and events he needs to catch up on after his sixty years on ice.  It's a nice touch that highlights the man out of time element.  We are further drawn to his sense of displacement and loss when he visits the museum exhibition depicting himself and his team during the Second World War, and by a conversation with the now dying Peggy Carter.  It all instils a sympathy for Rogers that was sorely lacking in the Avengers, in which his age was more of a joke than genuine character trait.

Air superiority is a serious SHIELD consideration.

                                   
This all blends seamlessly with the main plot and the Captain's increasing disillusionment with the way in which SHIELD operates.  As he says to Samuel L. Jackson's Nick Fury, "This isn't freedom, it's fear."  While he's talking about the helicarrier weapon systems, it sums up the juxtaposition between the murky world in which characters such as Black Widow live, breathe and take lunch, and the star spangled honesty that Rogers perceives himself as hailing from.  It's a clash of ideologies between the old and the new, acting as a fairly accurate allegory for the modern world.  It poses the question, how far would you go to maintain order?  How many principles and how many decent men would you sacrifice for the greater good?  I actually think it's the most grown up and well executed Marvel film to date.

In a surprise turn the relationship between Captain America and Black Widow was one of the film's highlights.  There was a genuine chemistry on screen as they played off one another, their differences making for an ensemble team that proves highly effective.  Given Romanoff's Russian background I had been hoping for a closer tie in with the Winter Soldier himself, for what there is proves to be little more than a token story. Although with the amount of self doubt and treachery that plays throughout the film, perhaps it was best to avoid anymore tangled subplots.  To ask for more could be construed as plain greedy and we do get to see the two face off in a classically well executed set piece.  So don't worry, there's action aplenty to compliment the story.
     
The Winter Soldier is a film that plays well upon it's connections, whether that be to the Marvel lore, between Captain America and SHIELD or the modern world and how we respond to threats in reality.  It doesn't molly coddle the viewer with special effects and quippy one liners (although there are plenty to be had) instead of asking questions that you might not expect from a comic book movie.  Steve Rogers in many ways serves as a mirror to an idealism that could be said to no longer exist, maybe it never did.  When you faced your enemies head on, when morality was less clouded by the intricacies of politics and extremism.  He is a straight shooter in a time when double speak and harsh action are the norm and in that sense it's hard not to love him.  He's honourable, he fights for what he thinks is right and most of all, he's human.  Sure he's beefed up with super human strength but his doubts, his worries and the traits that define him are undeniably mortal.  Unlike Thor or even Iron Man, he's grounded and serves as an empathetic vehicle for the stories trials and challenges.  Not to oversell it or anything.  Overall then this latest Marvel outing is a must see, if only so you can say you were there when comic movies took a leap forward, or there when they piqued.  Either way, this isn't one to miss.

The Resurrection of Abnett - The Bequin Trilogy: Pariah

Being the flagship writer for an entire sci-fi sub genre must be stressful. Not only do you have to please your fans, but your paymasters, loan sharks and own grandmother. So I've always cut Dan Abnett a little bit of slack as usually he comes through guns a'blazin' and delivers a riveting read. But lately his powers have been clouded by violent warp storms, hiding his prestigious talent for wholesale, literary destruction behind a few novels that haven't been quite up to scratch. Those being Prospero Burns, which suffers from some severe pacing issues, Salvations Reach, which stretches the realms of believability even in the 41st Millenium and Know No Fear, which was just too darn short and lacking in solid character development. Then again it was about the Ultramarines, so Dan really had his work cut out from the start.


Due to this recent bout of strife I've therefore been a bit shy of the blackest of libraries, instead focussing on my love of video games and fantasy Blood Bowl league. So when I picked up Pariah the other day it was without much enthusiasm, my telltale banter with the surprisingly well informed cashier falling flat on it's face despite his shared love of all that is grim and dark. Mentioning the current disillusionment with the 40k universe proved a greater error than originally supposed, for of my £10 gift card none was returned to me. Instead the diabolical fan boy destroyed it before my eyes, following up with a less than sincere apology, that was about as convincing as Hitler's shrug following his violation of the Munich Agreement. But I digress.
Ravenor vs Eisenhorn is, for all intents and purposes, a giant wet dream on the lining of that fan boy's over stretched boxers. It is the culmination of not one, but two of the Black Library's most iconic sci-fi sagas and by god if that didn't scare the living shit out of me. A failure would likely have sounded the death knell of my years long affair with Orks, Space Marines and those funky dressing Eldar. So it is with a solemn hand on heart that I can announce not only did Pariah exceed extremely low expectations, but announce Abnett's return to form.


One of the finest aspects of his writing has always been in setting the scene, in creating his own world within a copy-written universe. It's where a lot of 40k novels fall down, getting caught in the image of endless battlefields and sacrificial stock characters. In both Ravenor and Eisenhorn we are treated to a plethora of different worlds and cultures that showcase the weird and wonderful. Ranging from secret Mechanicus bases to dilapidated manors that sound like something straight out of a Steven King novel. And Pariah is no exception, the entire story taking place within the living, breathing city of Queen Mab. A monarch gone to seed but still possessing a glimmer of her old charm. Which is where our main protagonist Alizebeth Bequin finds her playground as not only an Inquisitorial agent in training, but as one of those rarest of creatures, a pariah. A walking hole in the world.


Of course anyone familiar with Abnett's earlier works will recognise this name immediately, harking back to the original Eisenhorn novels.  It's not the only blast from the past to make an appearance, with the nefarious Cognitae and many a character from the previous outings popping by to say hello. Obviously we can't go into too much detail without screaming spoilers, so you'll just have to take my word for it that the stroll down memory lane is a worthwhile one. It should be stated however, that the majority of the novel is fixated on launching the trilogy and introducing the characters involved. It is not a nostalgia roller coaster from start to finish, but rather more subtle. It's actually very well done, allowing the reader to play detective in figuring out not only the motivations of certain characters, but who they actually are in the grander scheme of things. For sure nothing is ever as it seems, the entire story line infused with Inquisitorial levels of duplicity.


As Bequin moves through the plot, becoming steadily more suspicious of everyone around her we are left with a certain level of paranoia as to what we as readers can trust. For unlike Alizebeth we know that something catastrophic is in the offing, that a chaotic element could at any moment reveal itself. In this regard the novel fails partially in it's suspense by being a tad predictable. It is perhaps a failing that was unavoidable, for being the final part of Abnett's universe many of his deceptions have been accordingly demonstrated in his other novels. For while we may not know exactly what the deception is, we are still braced for it. It should be said that this foreknowledge of possible events doesn't effect the story a great deal, Abnett executing a number of twists that even the sharpest among us are unlikely to foresee. It rather serves as a reminder that like Gregor Eisenhorn himself, the series is certainly a little played out and frayed around the edges in it's execution.


So I think I'll leave things here for now, for fear of treading on anybody's toes. The most important thing to take away is that Pariah is a worthy successor/continuation to the Eisenhorn/Ravenor saga. It's almost like Abnett reset his internal writing clock to the days when the Horus Heresy wasn't the centre of the Black Library's world and the potential for innovation was more forthcoming. Less dictated by the strictures of Games Workshop's premier series. It's clever, it keeps you guessing and reads like a mystery novel at a time when the genre has pulled a little too violently towards explosions and spectacle. Whether the next two novels can maintain the same level of intrigue is open to the forum. Certainly the next book will reveal more of the story and the potential staying power of Abnett as not only a successful Black Library author, but a good one at that.