How to Beat the High Cost of Living (1980)

Jane (Susan Saint James), Louise (Jessica Lange), and Elaine (Jane Curtin) have money problems. They also have men problems, but the two are unfortunately interconnected. Elaine's husband took off with a 19-year-old, leaving her with a house and (all the attendant bills), but no cash (he cleaned out their bank accounts and stole all her jewelry from the safe-deposit box.) Louise keeps getting "loans" from her veterinarian husband to keep her antique store afloat, but the IRS has gotten suspicious of multiple years of interest-free loans and Albert's in deep financial shit if he doesn't sue her. The child support from Jane's loser ex can't cover raising two kids, and her current boyfriend just keeps talking about how he needs $25,000 so he can buy the hardware store he works at.

More accurately, he needs $24,943, because he's got $57 in the bank. Almost there!

Frustrated and hemmed in by this lack of cash, Elaine hits on the idea of stealing all the money brought in during the big anniversary sales event at the local mall. So the remainder of the film is the run-up to the heist, both the planning and execution, and all the complications that arise from the 3 of them being broke.

The movie leverages certain things it sets up with regards to the guys in their lives. Elaine's husband is an architect, and just so happened to design the mall. Which means she finds the point of entry in his blueprints. Jane's boyfriend works at the hardware store they rob for equipment, because Jane can just sneak the key out of his pants after they finish making out.

Louise? Her husband being a vet doesn't really factor in, but her situation seems different from Elaine or Jane's to an extent where it doesn't entirely feel like she fits. The other two, the guys in their lives either just took the money and ran (Elaine), or are full of excuses for why they can't help (Jane.) Albert has, according to the IRS, given Louise over $36,000 in "loans" (whether he calls it a loan or a gift depends on whether he's talking to the IRS or Louise, though Louise insists they're loans) to keep her business afloat. It is clearly not a viable business, but rather than change her approach, or try something else if she wants independence, she just keeps asking for money she insists she'll pay back.

It isn't great his solution is to sue her and have her declare bankruptcy to settle the whole thing, but if he wasn't giving her money for who knows how long, she'd have declared bankruptcy already.

That aside, I laughed more than I expected. The movie portrays all three women as long on grit, but maybe a little short on skill and trying to learn fast. Elaine's idea that they need to prove they're psychologically capable of a robbery, with Jane trying to stick up the grocery store, was pretty funny. I thought the follow-up heist of a canoe was just them setting their sights lower. "OK, robbing a grocery store failed. Let's see if you can steal a canoe that's only guarded by one bored guy in a clapboard shack." But no! The canoe is actually integral to the heist.

There's a funny bit when they rob the hardware store, where things are going smoothly until Jane can't control her Mom instincts, and another when they're planning the heist during one of Jane's kids' baseball games, and they casually tack on the cost of dental bills for Jane's ex after her dad punches him out for arguing calls, then go back to making plans. It feels like Elaine and Louise are the driving forces - maybe because they don't have any kids that will lose a mom if they get arrested - but a fair amount of the humor is around Jane maybe not being in the right mindset for all this. She's going to do it, but she's got a lot of other stuff on her mind, where the other two are more locked in. 

What I Bought 12/3/2025 - Part 2

Thursday last week, my car wouldn't start. And I was supposed to meet my coworkers at one of our work vehicles at a specific time. Not being certain they'd check their office phones beforehand, I was left to bike to work. Which I've done before, but not when it's 15 degrees (-9 Celsius). And then there was still the mess of trying to get home, get a new battery, install the new battery, which resulted in my losing two hex nuts somewhere underneath the engine. Just an exhausting day.

Batgirl #14, by Tate Brombal (writer), Stephen Segovia (artist), Rain Beredo (colorist), Tom Napolitano (letterer) - Fighting ninjas under the stars with a woman you unsuccessfully tried to blow up once. How. . .inconvenient?

The attack is kind of a mess, as everyone seems to have their own irons in the fire. Cass' attempt to kill Kalden is interrupted by Tenji, Kalden somehow unaware of all this when the art makes it look like Cass was already on the downward arc of her leap, sword drawn, when deflected. Then Cassandra veers off again, because she spots their shapeshifter ally trying to steal the holy seed pods of the blue poppies for Nyssa. Again, how shocking the al'Ghul was not open about her plans. Then Tenji spots something down a dark tunnel (we aren't shown what) that spooks him, but he gets spotted.

End result? Angel Breaker does manage to blow up a supply of the blue flowers, though I'm dubious it's all of them, and Cass cuts up the seed pods so Nysssa won't get those. But there's a mole in the ranks, and the Unburied still have some big plan they'll get to eventually.

Amid all this, Cassandra is being hounded by a vision of her mother. Encouraging her to take revenge, to abandon her brother when he's overwhelmed. And as they flee, with chaos on their heels and the folks just carving out an existence in this cave system, Shiva calls Cass a Destroyer. I would think Cass knows about hallucinations, but she keeps acting like this is actually Shiva. Getting surprised when she decides to respond, and Shiva's not around. So I don't know if this is guilt, or something one of the Unburied is doing to her.

If it is an attack, what's the goal? Wreck her confidence, drive her nuts, make her a truly lethal weapon Either way, she is definitely drawing a lot of blood with that sword of Shiva's, which is not encouraging.

Fantastic Four #6, by Ryan North (writer), Humberto Ramos (penciler), Victor Olazaba (inker), Edgar Delgado (colorist), Joe Caramagna (letterer) - Another day, another batch of tentacles swarming from a hole in the air.

As per the solicitation, aliens show up with a device to stop Earth's rotations, creating extreme environmental conditions they love. The Invisible Woman handles that in 6 pages by tricking them into retreating by making it look like she can do the same thing, easily, with her powers. This brings Maria Hill - 

BOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

Sorry about that, reflex. She has an offer for the FF to help build a new version of SHIELD, focused on helping people with superpowers figure out how to use them to make the world a better place. Which, as everyone in the conversation notes, sounds a lot less like SHIELD, and more like Hickman's "Future Foundation." Also, not clear on why the FF need any help to start that up again.

Around the dinner table, the FF for some reason debate whether to trust Maria Hill - BOOOOOOOOO! - who has never had an idea that actually worked or, for that matter, one that was worth a damn. Thankfully, the Wizard breaks into their lab, freeing us from Ryan North's attempts to get me to take M - that character seriously. Even having hacked all Reed's stuff, the Wizard barely lasts any longer than the aliens. Because he's a loser. Reed can't figure out how the Wizard could break his encryptions, as they're somehow based on cosmic background radiation to generate truly random numbers.

Yeah, man, I don't know. Might as well say a sorcerer generates the numbers. Point being, the radiation is somehow not random any longer, and there's a message in it. From Galactus. About Sue.

Not a great issue for Ben. He can't clobber the aliens' machine. Hill - BOOOOOOO! - dismisses him as the only member of the Four that couldn't end all life on the planet. Excuse you, the Thing could definitely punch a dormant super-volcano hard enough to make it erupt, causing a mass extinction event! And then he gets sucker-punched by the FF's old robot receptionist, which Ramos depicts as having knocked off a chunk of Ben's rocky hide. Based on where she punched him, I thought she's knocked off part of his jaw, but apparently not, so I have no idea where it came from. 

Sunday Splash Page #404

"Hellcats and Dogs," in Patsy Walker: Hellcat #3, by Kathryn Immonen (writer), David Lafuente (artist), John Rauch (color artist), Dave and Natalie Lanphear (letterer)

Patsy Walker gets sent to Alaska as part of the Initiative. Proving what a genius Tony Stark is, he only sends one hero to the biggest state in the U.S., and it's one who can't fly, teleport, or run fast. At least Patsy didn't have to worry about a having a Skrull infiltrator as a teammate!

What Patsy does have is an ability to sense magic and a nose for trouble. She's quickly on the trail of some suspicious bears, who lead her to a group of shamen (sha-women? Google says "shamaness," assuming I can trust it, which I probably can't), who task Patsy (or as they dub her, "Double-clawed Cat Full of Red Hellfire with Her Head Against the Wind and Comes Not Quietly from the Great Sea Road") with recovering their daughter, Ssangyong, from the terrible beast that has taken her.

It's a quest then, complete with an assortment of allies and an irritating guide that, like Navi in Ocarina of Time, Patsy just wishes would shut the hell up. With magic involved there are rules and traditions, but Immonen writes a Patsy Walker who is both well aware of these things, and confident/flighty enough to interpret those rules as she sees fit. At one point, to draw out an ally she requires but pissed off earlier, Patsy is told to 'lie by a grave.' Once the grave is located, Patsy stands atop it and announces that everyone loves her. Which is, of course, a lie, and the angry, antlered bear appears.

Things are not what they seem, the young girl (whose parents named her after a car, ouch) less an abductee and more a runaway. In a way, this makes Patsy even more qualified to help, as she's well-acquainted with an overbearing parent who tries to control your life. Two, if you count Moondragon's "mentoring," which mostly took the form of berating Patsy, if what I saw in Defenders was any indication. So she can try to reach Ssangyong through some oblique references to her own poor life choices and, when that fails, get frustrated, slug the girl, and haul her out like a sack of potatoes.

This was my favorite mini-series of 2008 (though the last issue got delayed and didn't come out until January '09.) It was funny and absurd. Crossing a chasm via a bridge made of little white rabbits, or Patsy arguing with herself about Iron Man blaming her for burning down Alaska. Lafuente's art is exaggerated without getting too loose or uncontrolled. You can tell who you're looking at or that Patsy's dealing with, even if circumstances alter them. He's got a good eye for detail in the clothes or the settings - Ssangyong's living in the wreck of an old sailing ship at the base of some frozen tower, with a Sasquatch who wears plaid pants and suspenders. (Phil's a real sweetie.)

Immonen's Patsy Walker is so many things, though I think most of all she simply follows her whims. If some creepy guy in a bar is bothering her, and dares her to chuck her mug at him, she'll do it without blinking. If the local guide is reluctant to help, she slides a big wad of SHIELD's cash at him to change the attitude.

She's able to adapt quickly or brush off disappointments. When Iron Man calls, she asks if she'll be assigned to Miami. He corrects her that it would be Florida, which causes her to shriek ecstatically until he tells her she's going to Alaska. One panel of a devastated Patsy, staring into space in a dress she's modeling for her neighbor, and then she's over it, asking who else is on the team and envisioning her and Beast skiing together in a daydream where Lafuente exaggerates his art a bit more for imagination effect. Did she want to apologize to the antlered bear, or track down the water lemming that kept smacking her in the face? No, but she needed them for the quest so she got over it.

(And when the bear demands she properly bury the dead body she lied beside, she tricks the wolf into attacking the bear to create the grave via impact crater. Again, she knows how things work, and knows how to bend the rules to her advantage without breaking them.)

The mini-series ended with Patsy's managing to broker a truce between Ssangyong and her mothers, and Ssangyong warning Patsy that she's got more magic inside her than she realizes. Immonen never got the opportunity to explore that, but another writer would. 

Saturday Splash Page #206

"Descent Into Danger," in The Rocketeer Adventure Magazine #3, by Dave Stevens (writer/artist), Laura Martin (color artist), Carrie Spiegle (letterer)

Over the years, Dave Stevens' The Rocketeer bounced through a lot of different titles and publishers. It started as a back-up feature in 2 issues of Starslayer (but I used an example from Ostrander and Truman's GrimJack back-ups for Saturday Splash Page #127.) Then there were a couple of chapters - but no splash pages - in Pacific Presents. The Rocketeer Special Edition, published through Eclipse, did have a splash page, of Cliff Secord's girlfriend Betty (who Stevens based on Bettie Page) in the near-buff, which I didn't feel entirely comfortable using for an entry.

Which brings us, finally, to The Rocketeer Adventure Magazine, a total of 3 issues published across two companies (Comico and Dark Horse) and 7 years. By this point, hotshot pilot Cliff Secord's kept both the experimental rocket and a new plane out of the hands of the Nazis. He's also royally brassed off Betty by sending two of the guys working for the rocket's creator on a wild goose chase to the door of the photographer "helping" Betty with her career (leading to the previously mentioned risque splash page.) Betty leaves with "Marco" for New York, with plans to fly to Europe, so Cliff hauls himself from a hospital bed, steals the rocket again, causes a big fire in the process of refueling it, and sets after her.

That's the thing about Secord as written by Stevens: He's kind of an idiot, but in a different way from how Bill Campbell played him in the movie, where he was well-meaning, but more a big lummox. Stevens' Cliff is a smaller guy, kind of a stringbean. Not the prototypical 90-pound weakling, but on the wiry side. He's jealous, insecure, petty, and short-tempered. His mouth (and his fists) tend to outrun his brain, to his detriment and others'. He doesn't trust Marco, which is smart, but expresses it in such a way as to both steamroll Betty's opinions and makes it seem like a lack of trust in her. For her part, Betty isn't shy about expressing her frustration with Cliff, though she usually ends up having to talk to herself or Cliff's mechanic, Peevy. (Cliff has a knack for making himself scarce when he's pissed her off.)

That said, Cliff also, when people are in trouble, doesn't hesitate to throw the rocket on his back and go save someone. Admittedly, most of the problems he deals with in Stevens' stories are those of his own creation. People after the rocket, people after him for stuff he did in his younger days with a traveling circus. Still, he tries to help! He's just not, you know, terribly good at it, which is how he gets beat up all the time. Betty does ultimately care about Cliff and not want to see him hurt, when she can get a chance to tell him. So it's not a constant state of war between the two.

Stevens, having created a character and setting out of the pulp era, uses other pulp characters, albeit without ever calling them by name. The creator of the rocket is Doc Savage, (though Peevy is convinced the two guys after the rocket, who are in Savage's Circle of Associates or whatever, actually work for Howard Hughes.) In New York, Cliff crashes with an old pilot friend of his, who works for a mysterious figure named "Jonas." Jonas tends to appear from nowhere, knows all kinds of things he shouldn't about what lurks in the hearts of men (including evil), seems to change appearance in the blink of an eye, and likes to carry two automatic pistols. Again, never mentioned by name, but come on, even if I don't know doodley-squat about Doc Savage, I know the Shadow when I see him.

What I Bought 12/3/2025 - Part 1

I actually ordered these books two weeks ago, but the package spent a solid week going from Kansas City to. . . Kansas City. Then it dicked around who knows where for another three days before finally showing up here. But at least it arrived, and we can close out the last of November's books.

Bronze Faces #6, by Shobo and Shof (writers), Alexandre Tefenkgi (artist), Lee Loughridge (color artist), Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou (letterer) - The rose in the damaged eye is a nice touch. 

A lot of the issue is focused on Sango returning to Nigeria for a big exhibition of the bronzes at a museum. So she sees the way Ogiso was seized on by seemingly everyone. Everyone singing Timi's song, everyone talking about Ogiso and what they accomplished. And Gbonka's used it to launch a greater political career. The Scotland Yard detective obviously let Gbonka and her crew take Timi's body, and then retired, because she's hanging around just, chilling at the exhibition.

Sango and Gbonka try and have one last conversation, and it goes miserably. Sango admits she should have been there for Timi's burial, and Gbonka agrees, for him and for her, and this somehow sets Sango off. It feels like that thing where people project what they know about themselves on others. Sango tends to put her desires and interests above everyone else. If she wants something she goes for it. If she doesn't want to deal with someone, she just shoves them aside. We get a flashback to what seems to have caused the rift and it's a case where something bad happened and Sango basically said, "fuck this, I'm out of here."

So maybe Sango takes Gbonka's words as proof she's doing the same. That Sango let down Gbonka, and that was just not acceptable, because it's all about what Gbonka, with her big plans to build up Nigeria, that are important. It's acceptable to use Timi's song as a rallying cry, even after his death, or borrow Sango's designs for the museum, because Gbonka's higher purpose makes it so.

In Sango's eyes, it's justifications for selfishness, but I guess we're not meant to agree with that, as she's shown repeatedly losing her temper at all sorts of people. Tefenkgi draws her at various times as a giant, who towers over a cab driver she's berating, or as spitting fire at Gbonka (who calmly walks through it and tells her she can never come back.)

I think the fact Sango's not from Nigeria originally factors in somehow, but I'm not clear enough on ethnic divisions in West African societies to grasp it. I was under the impression a lot of African nations are made of many different groups that got told they were a country when whatever European country colonized that area departed, regardless of the sometimes centuries-old tensions that existed. But maybe the idea is that, through the Benin Bronzes, Gbonka is creating a national identity for Nigeria that transcends those barriers. So Sango's unwillingness to buy in or get with the program means she has no place in it? Taking back the bronzes was never about anything like that for her.

Hector Plasm: Hunt for Bigfoot #2, by Benito Cereno (writer), Derek Hunter (artist/letterer), Spencer Holt (colorist) - I feel like the living, warthog skin cloak is actually more terrifying than the Bigfoot. 

Hector manages to convince the sheriff he didn't kill the new victim, and the victim's spirit says Bigfoot did it. They find a bloody footprint, but only one. A search in the woods reveals no trail, but a strange stone arrangement that Hector says gives off bad vibes. Hunter and Holt illustrate this with, jagged, crown-shaped panels that arc over and around the arrangement, spanning the panels Hector and Lip are in.

Hector starts to suspect Lip is behind this to raise the profile of their museum, but this would seem to be blown out of the water when the Bigfoot attacks Lip that night, and nearly tears their arm off. And this is a spot where the way Image printed the book entirely fucks it up, because pages 11 and 12 are laid out so you read the top row of panels across the two pages, as Bigfoot closes on Lip and grabs their arm, then the bottom row, as Bigfoot starts to swing Lip around and Hector rushes to the rescue.

Except the comic is set up where you have to turn the page to get from 11 to 12, completely breaking the flow of the book. I read page 11, flipped to page 12, paused, muttered, "what the hell?" Flipped back to 11, then back to 12, focusing on the top half. Then repeating the process for the bottom half. Feels like something that could have been avoided. (The issue is also only 17 pages, but the first issue was 24, so they're still averaging 20.5 pages per issue.)

Also, Bigfoot's a ghost, which is actually probably a relief for Hector, since he's got more experience dealing with those. 

The Only Way Out of the Nightmare is Through

In Among the Sleep, you play as a toddler who receives a teddy bear for his birthday. The bear comes to life, at least when no one else is around. Which means you aren't alone when you wake up that night and your crib is tipped over. Making your way downstairs through a dark house to your mother's room, you find she's missing.

From there, the game sends you to a peculiar cabin where you feed items that represent memories of your mother into a machine to open a door that takes you to different, nightmarish realms. The goal is always to find another memory and get closer to finding your mother. Sometimes it's a matter of finding your way where you need to go. Others it's about finding something you need to proceed. Maybe there's a sealed door and you have to find the item that acts as the key. Or you have to manipulate the environment to reach a higher path. Find some stuff to put on one end of a seesaw to raise the other end. Very late in the game, like, final level late, it adds the ability to throw stuff so you can knock over jars that hold things you need.

As you move through the game, there are towering, shadowy beings that will appear from time to time. Sometimes you just hear an inarticulate bellow, but on other occasions, you can see them roaming about. One part of a level, you're in some sort of library in a swamp. (In a nice touch, the words on the spines of the books are unintelligible because the kid can't read yet.) The shadow is roaming the aisles, and so you have to pick your spots, ducking from beneath one bookcase to the next without being spotted. (The toddler is significantly faster when he crawls than toddles.)

Later, you're moving through twisted hallways filled with bottles. When you knock one down, and despite my best efforts, I did knock some down, the shadow will emerge, raging. You have to get to one of the cubbyholes or hiding spots that are too small for the shadow to enter. Sometimes, the presence of the shadow frightens the kid badly enough his vision starts to blur and shake. You can press a button to hug Teddy, but while that casts a glow on your surroundings, I'm not sure it does much to alleviate the fear. But I'm also not sure the fear does much to inhibit your movements, though I usually tried to stay hidden and still when those moments happened.

It's pretty clear, even before the search for mama begins, there's something going on here. Your house is full of boxes, there are scribblings of the kids you find as you progress, and it's always just the kid and his mom. Eventually, there are half-photographs of a guy. Ominous! For a while, I thought Teddy was going to turn out to be some evil thing, considering he kept encouraging me to chuck these memories into the machine. It turns out to be more mundane, and more disturbing. Yeah, the end of the game is a real kick in the head I did not see coming. And then it's over, and I was left sitting there thinking, 'Did that just happen? Is that it?' Very abrupt.

Fantastic Four: First Steps (2025)

Alex had us watch Thunderbolts* as a precursor to this, due to the post-credits scene. I don't really think that was necessary, but it wasn't like T'bolts was a slog to watch, so why not? As for this, set in its own universe (and in the '60s) four years after the FF received their powers, they've become beloved heroes and celebrities. Now Sue (Vanessa Kirby) and Reed (Pedro Pascal) are expecting their first kid! Which is when the Silver Surfer (Julia Garner) shows up to tell Earth, Galactus will be coming to eat their planet soon.

So, I like the visual aesthetic of the movie, even if the '60s aren't an era I have some massive fondness for. It looks different, distinctive, from all the other Marvel stuff, and that's nice. Let the creative talent's styles and influences show through. (Also, I suspect Reed likes to write things out on a chalkboard anyway, but being in an era before ubiquitous computers means it's not that strange he's doing a lot of calculations by hand.) 

I like they dispensed with the origin, trusting us to understand enough from the TV show intro. I like that the team went into space to try and stop Galactus before he got close, and the whole faster-than-light chase, escape around the neutron star, sequence. It felt right for the Fantastic Four, not winning by overpowering their opponent, but outsmarting them and leveraging their group's individual skills (Ben's piloting, Johnny's adjusting to shooting in a wormhole.)

I was expecting Ben Grimm's voice to be gruffer, but Ebon Moss-Bachrach is also playing a Ben who seems content with his circumstances. He's not wandering rainy streets in a trenchcoat bemoaning his fate, and even tells Reed not to beat himself up about what happened. This version is in a much better headspace than any of the prior film versions, though maybe that's why it feels like he got the least focus. (The rock beard thing was freaky however, and I did not like it.)

A lot of the film is, naturally, focused on Reed and Sue, as new parents of a child that's going to be far more than they thought, and who might be able to save the world, if they're willing to give him up. Reed having to learn to deal with the uncertainty and unknowable parts of raising a tiny human. Sue, probably putting that experience at the UN to good use, keeping the others focused and working to some sort of solution. Don't let Reed get too far into the impossibilities of things, take the time to listen to Johnny when he thinks he's on to something, even if it isn't clear what.

(I sort of like Reed and Sue's big fight isn't because Reed actually suggests giving up Franklin to save the world, but because Sue can tell he's at least run the math on the idea before rejecting it, instead of just categorically concluding, "No way." Reed of course presents it as how his brain works, assessing potential threats and vectors, then trying to devise countermeasures.) 

But Johnny (Joseph Quinn) gets this whole thread about deciphering the Surfer's native language. Instead of just being a shallow attempt to more successfully flirt with the shiny alien, it's ultimately a way to understand her, to reach her, and maybe turn her to their side. Admittedly, turn her with guilt over all the worlds that died because she brought Galactus there, but they were already going far afield from the Surfer switching sides because the nobility or kindness of Earthlings touches their soul, so why not? Given that, it does feel like The Thing doesn't get much time.

Reed's initial solution on how to, if not defeat Galactus, at least escape him, caught me by complete surprise. I'm not sure how he was going to account for the loss of tides when the Moon presumably got left behind, but they were on a tight schedule. Certain corners had to be cut. I also wasn't expecting the film's take on Galactus' ship or how he devoured worlds. It was a little more Darkseid than I would have figured. Maybe that was just the giant, burning maw in the center of the drill. So I don't know if I loved it as visualization for Galactus' process, but it was definitely an effective visual. That whole part where Reed detects the Surfer within the alien world and then boom! Here's a massive ship tunneling out like a worm from an apple. It really depicts the scale at which this threat is operating and how different this is from Mole Man, or Red Ghost and the Super-Apes.