Quick reminder that TESTAMENT can get pretty explicit!
Original solicitation copy for TESTAMENT #3:
“Dr. Green's troops abduct the catatonic protesters — including Jake's former love Miriam — for ‘reprogramming.’ Jake recklessly chases them on a motorcycle, only to plunge violently off a cliff. Still, the gods won't let his story end. They have plans for him — and his pupil Dinah, who may be linked to a long line of powerful ‘virgins.’”
And now for some scattered thoughts and observations!
As someone coming at this story as an outsider to the Biblical tradition, I must once again ask, what the fuck is up with that Lot story?!
Rushkoff’s Chapter Three (#3) Notes gives some contextualization, but it remains pretty wild that the book that gets bandied about as the moral barometer of civilization has weird incest porn in it!
I’m not sure that I understand the resonance between Jake/Dinah & Lot/Daughter #2, these seem to be two very different relationships and situations, but maybe it’s as simple as Astarte manifesting and influencing events through sexual activity?
Discourse around the sex work taboo seems appropriate here, but I also vaguely remember it becoming much more pronounced as the series continues, so can take it or leave it at this early juncture.
I like the idea that since Jake doesn’t have a RFID tag the soldiers can’t perceive him, despite him essentially being right in front of them. There’s something to the idea that as authoritarian control invades digital technology and environments that they cede much more valuable ground in the real world.
The story logic of the world seems to be expanding in both its mythic and sci-fi capacity, with divine interventions and giant cybernetic bug monsters!
Liam Sharp’s art this issue is especially tight and seems very in sync with Jamie Grant’s colors. The mixed media look is coming together nicely.
The motorcycle jumping scene has got to be inspired by Steve McQueen’s stunt in The Great Escape, right?
Last week I went to see Dogma in Kevin Smith’s movie theatre, complete with a Q & A so long that I tapped out long before he did! The connection being Dogma is another modern story told in a world where the Bible is literally true and real, but also up for reinterpretation.
Last week I went to see Dogma in Kevin Smith’s movie theatre, complete with a Q & A so long that I tapped out long before he did! The connection being Dogma is another modern story told in a world where the Bible is literally true and real, but also up for reinterpretation.
And really the central thesis of the movie is basically just the Catma of Maybe Logic:
"He said mankind got it all wrong by taking a good idea and building a belief structure on it."
"I think it's better to have ideas. You can change an idea. Changing a belief is trickier..."
Rufus: “Are you saying you believe?” · Bethany: “No. But I have a good idea.”
And we’ll be back on July 22nd, for issue #4
same TESTAMENT time, same Jechidah channel :)))
And the day after that is MAYBE DAY 2025!
"He said mankind got it all wrong by taking a good idea and building a belief structure on it."
"I think it's better to have ideas. You can change an idea. Changing a belief is trickier..."
Rufus: “Are you saying you believe?” · Bethany: “No. But I have a good idea.”
And we’ll be back on July 22nd, for issue #4
same TESTAMENT time, same Jechidah channel :)))
And the day after that is MAYBE DAY 2025!
This year featuring such in person events as
Man, I just hate it when I’m finally about to have sex with my teen crush of many years in a cool Volkswagen 70s minibus, only to be cockblocked by a giant insect-machine sent by the fascist military-industrial complex that my father is part of…
ReplyDeleteI found it quite comical that this would be shown right after “But this is wrong. We should be watching…”
Comical as well, although more in a WTF way, was Lot’s daughters complaining of boredom and missing the city and its people, seeing what type of people those were…
The idea that the daughters used to be priestesses involved in sex rituals appears quite nice to me at first. It would make Sodom evil and depraved ONLY when perceived through the reality-tunnel of the Abrahamic god, who condemn this type of behavior. I guess it also makes Lot offering his daughters to the people of Sodom a tiny bit less outrageous since, you know, the girls were used to it…
But I am not sure if this reading really holds up, as one of the daughters says that they were “released from the bondage of Sodom”, making it sound like they were sex slaves rather than priestesses. She could have adopted her father new belief system and changed her mind about her former situation, but then why is she missing the good ol’ days of ritual rape?
And then there’s the “let’s get Daddy drunk so we can put his seeds into our belly and make sure our lineage will not die out” episode. Very practical of these women to be so future-oriented but, like with Adam, Eve and the snake, the man conveniently just happens to be an innocent victim of his circumstances, while the females are being the twisted-minded ones.
I’d say that if Lot can still get an erection, he probably wasn’t THAT passed out drunk...
I note that the beer on tap is called Titanic Ale. An appropriate drink for a collapsing civilization.
Interesting and prescient that a 2006 comic book would have someone say “we’re getting on the e-trade expressway, I mean the old L.I.E.” Sure, Jake is talking about a motorway, but this sounds to me a lot like dissing GAFAM before some of those were even a thing. The Internet has often been dubbed ‘the information highway.’
I like that Tyrone has a nerdy action figures collection of archetypal situations. Something akin to a Kevin Smith version of Tarot, maybe.
I have not seen Dogma in almost 20 years. Would you say that it stands the test of time, Bobby?
Great thought on authoritarian digital control versus real world!
And as Amos puts it during the bar scene, “there’s a war going on.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ykFM4f_TtfE