Spider-Gwen, Vol. 0: Most Wanted? (2015)

Into the Spider-Verse was the push I needed to loop back around and check out Spider-Gwen proper.  Having now checked out the introductory volume of the comic, I realize I’ll need to backtrack again at some point (the Edge of Spider-Verse comic that debuted Spider-Gwen is the jumping-off point for their parallel-worlds spider-team-up but doesn’t actually show their adventure together,) but I’ve at least got a better look at the character herself and the particular New York she inhabits.

Gwen Stacy, the against-her-best-efforts-infamous Spider-Woman, is still reeling from the death of her close friend Peter Parker, which she was mistakenly blamed for.  As the police hunt for her, her father – a police captain who knows her secret – does his best to protect her without condoning her vigilante work.  But of course, it’s not enough for Gwen to have enemies on just one side of thee law; she’s attracted the attention of Kingpin, who sics the Vulture on her.

This comic feels like it’s still figuring itself out, but it makes a good start here.  I like that it has some edge and angst to it.  Gwen’s personal life is a total mess – her relationship with her dad is strained, she’s been alienating her friends, and she’s plagued with guilt over the constant reminders she sees of Peter’s death, even though it wasn’t her fault.  (Side note:  I also didn’t expect Gwen Stacy to swear so much – comic-book symbol bleeps, but still.)  We only got Gwen’s origin story in quick flashes, and so we’ve pretty much gone straight to “being a superhero puts the weight of the world on your shoulders and can really mess you up.”

But, like Into the Spider-Verse proves, no matter how different they are, all spider-people have the same heart.  And so, Gwen keeps fighting the good fight.  Even when she’s not sure if she can, that doesn’t stop her from trying.  The police are out to get her, the media is painting her as a dangerous menace (J. Jonah Jameson, it seems, is a muckraking dick on every Earth,) and she has villains banging down her door.  But Gwen is a hero, and so she leans into the storm, regardless of the danger to herself.

Luckily, she’s not going it entirely alone.  The ongoing storyline with her dad is a pretty good one, a classic “I don’t love what you’re doing, but I love you and I’ll be damned if anyone hurts you on my watch” dynamic.  It’s an easy bet that their relationship is going to be central to the comic, and it’ll be interesting to see how they both continue to navigate this change in their understanding of each other.  Plus, Gwen gets a little extra moral support from the memory of a fellow spider-friend (further reason to check out the spider-verse team-up comic!)

As I was reading, I had to remind myself that it’s set in a parallel Earth beyond the whole “Gwen Stacy is the one who got bitten by the radioactive spider” thing.  In other words, that’s not the only aspect that’s different.  This volume starts playing with that, with appearances from some familiar comic-book characters in unexpected ways.  That’s definitely something I look forward to seeing more of in future installments.

Oh yeah, and her suit is amazing.  Peter Parker’s spider suit is iconic, but Gwen’s is gorgeous.  I love it so hard.

Live from Lincoln Center: Annaleigh Ashford (2019)

This is the first Live from Lincoln Center concert in which I wasn’t really all that familiar with the performer.  I definitely knew the name Annaleigh Ashford and I was reminded that she co-starred in the recent Sunday in the Park with George revival with Jake Gyllenhaal, but I don’t have any cast recordings that feature her and I couldn’t tell you much of anything else that she’s been in.  Hers was probably the most eclectic Live from Lincoln Center concert so far (even more than Andrew Rannells’s!), but I enjoyed it quite a bit.

For starters, Ashford spent a lot of time interacting with the audience.  She told a few very long anecdotes, she gave us a “tour of the neighborhood” via the view from the window, and she engaged the audience in “Karaoke Cabaret” with Alanis Morrisette’s “Hand in My Pocket,” with her backup dancers holding up signs to instruct the audience when to sing along, tap out percussion, or perform various actions (mime smoking a cigarette, kiss your neighbor, hold up a peace sign, etc.)  She also staked a claim on having performed the first “death drop” ever featured on PBS.  All of this admittedly cut into her singing time (I’d say she did the least songs of any Lincoln Center concert so far,) but I still liked it, as the stories, bits, and asides told me a lot about who she is as an entertainer.  On the whole, she was very winning, and she kept me engaged.

As for the songs themselves, they were all over the place.  She opened with “One Night Only” from Dreamgirls, which led into a New-York-in-the-Studio-54-era-‘70s medly that heavily featured Donna Summer songs.  That was immediately followed by a pair of Mr. Rogers songs, at which point I stopped trying to figure out what Ashford was about musically.  “Children Will Listen” from Into the Woods made the cut, along with a nice performance of “Come Rain or Come Shine” following a tribute to her late Judy-Garland-obsessed voice teacher.  There was the aforementioned Alanis Morrisette song and a duet from Sunday with Jake Gyllenhaal (“Move On,” of course – I know it’s an incredible song, but honestly, just once I’d kill to hear a pair do “We Do Not Belong Together.)  There was a medley put together more thematically than stylistically, pairing “Another Hundred People” from Company with Elton John’s “Mona Lisas and Mad Hatters” as both being songs about New York City; really enjoyed that one.

I won’t claim that it all fit together, but despite that, it still worked.  Being pretty unfamiliar with Ashford’s voice, I thought she sounded great throughout, from the pop to the Broadway and back, and the whirlwind variety of song choices suited the quirky humor and playfulness she brought to the evening.  Certainly not one I’ll forget anytime soon!

Character Highlight: Kamelion (Doctor Who)

Of all the Doctor’s companions, I have the least to say about Kamelion.  His time on the show is one of the shortest, as he’s barely in more episodes than Katarina, but he also has far less discernible personality than she does.  What’s more, he spends most of his limited tenure not being himself (if you’re not familiar, you’ll see what I mean in a second.)  Kamelion-related spoilers.

The Fifth Doctor, Tegan, and Turlough first encounter Kamelion in the 13^th century, at the court of King John.  The Doctor is perplexed to find the king there at all, since history places him somewhere else at the time of their arrival, and what’s more, the king is behaving erratically.  Of course, our heroes discover that he’s not King John at all:  he’s Kamelion.

A shapeshifting robot more prone to psychic interference than an Ood, Kamelion was brought to this era as part of the Master’s plan to prevent the creation of the Magna Carta.  All in a day’s evil work for the Master, but as we know, the Doctor is no stranger to thwarting the Master’s plans, and the two engage in a psychic battle for Kamelion.  The Doctor, no surprise, is able to break the Master’s control over Kamelion and takes him on board the TARDIS, recognizing despite the trouble the robot caused that it wasn’t actually his doing.

After which, Kamelion disappears for the next five stories, only to be destroyed in his second and final serial.  He’s again coopted by the Master, this time made to masquerade as the villainous Time Lord himself, but with Peri’s help, he’s able to resist the Master’s control just long enough to ask the Doctor to deactivate him, so he’ll never be used against others again.  Farewell, Kamelion, we hardly knew ye.

From a practical standpoint, Kamelion was a big misfire that the show decided to ignore until it could be dispatched.  The robot prop wasn’t made in-house, so the production team didn’t really know how it worked, and the software designer who made it move died unexpectedly.  So, the show was left with a robot prop they didn’t make and no comprehensive operating notes from the one guy who knew how to program it.  All this added up to one uncooperative robot prop, and it malfunctioned endlessly during Kamelion’s brief time on the show.  Even considering the fact that most of his screentime involved actors playing him instead, as different people he’d shapeshifted into, the prop caused too many problems to make the character worth keeping around.

So no, this was an experiment by the show that didn’t work, and Kamelion always looked really silly and clunky in action.  But I still appreciate the show for trying it out; it reflects classic Who’s penchant for trying new things (even if they were beyond the means of the BBC’s production budget,) branching out instead of just sticking with the basic companion format.