Crushing Krisis

Comic Books, Drag Race, & Life in New Zealand

Archives for May 2015

RuPaul’s Drag Race Power Rankings, S7E12 – “And The Rest Is Drag”

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A dull final challenge did nothing to shake up our ranks, though it did eject Kennedy from what looked like a surefire trip to number three. Here’s where we wind up, with the odds for each girl to take the win.

Here’s where I get to crow a bit – aside Fame’s strong showing in week one and brief Max insurgency, I’ve had Violet and Ginger pegged for the finals all season long, including last week. Furthermore, I’ve been obsessed with Violet since her nude walk of confidence down the runway on week one.

Now that they’ve reached their goals, what are the odds for their wins?

#1 Violet Chachki (avg 1.66, was #1, 1, 3, 1, 3, 2, 4, 1, 1, 1, 1)
Her odds? 8:5

I think everything will be coming up Violet in the finale. She is like an Adore Act / Courtney Delano mashup in many ways (except singing) – young and a little dumb but growing every week, plus fishy and high fashion yet not afraid to make a fool of herself. That’s a pretty compelling combo for Ru the starmaker, and Violet makes for a different kind of winner than we’ve had recently. When it comes down to it, she never left a detail unfinished this entire season – even her arguably weakest moment in the John Waters performance was controlled down to the thrusting choreography.

Why isn’t she a lock? This girl will go down as one of the most dominant queens in the history of the show, but so were the non-lip syncers Alaska and Courtney Act – and neither of them got the win. Sometimes dominant can be boring, and detailed runway looks aren’t everything. More than that, Violet showed a certain lack of imagination as a performer that doesn’t bode well for a champion. Also, there is the specter of Tyra Sanchez still haunting Ru – another fashion-forward and generally flawless young queen who fizzled after taking the crown.

#2 Ginger Minj (avg 1.9, was #2, 2, 1, 2, 1, 1, 1, 2, 2, 3, 4)
Her odds? 2:1

No one has ever walked in the Drag Race door as equipped for the win as Ginger except for perhaps the past two winners, Jinx Monsoon and Bianca Del Rio. Therein lies the problem. Ginger’s no Jinx – a magnetic star of Broadway caliber – and there’s a real risk is that she’s just Bianca Del Rio 2.0 – southern, red-headed, comfortable acting and proficient enough in dancing and singing, and wickedly funny. She might not be an insult comic, but that does sound a heck of a lot like The Return of Hurricane Bianca.

However, Ginger also has the big queen angle working for her as well as her unique “Glamour Toad” look, which was never same-y but always consistent. Its hard to imagine a big queen who will ever be a more beautiful woman and viable winner than Ginger.

Why isn’t she a lock? Ginger has some self-defeating tendencies when faced with a challenge. Her pagaent-centric vision of drag could be a little small-minded for Ru, as evidenced by the final boot of Kennedy. Plus, now that RuPaul has had the chance to see the entire series and fan reaction to it, this might not be the lady she wants to represent her brand for an entire year.

#3 Pearl (avg 6.33, was #4, 5, 6, 6, 5, 7, 8, 10, 9, 7, 6)
Her odds? 8:1

True to her namesake, Pearl is a rare jewel worked up from just a little piece of grit. The problem with that narrative is that Pearl isn’t all that rare or shiny. No final three queen has ever presented fashion as boring, repetitive, and just-plain-busted as Pearl, and finalists have seldom been so weak all across the board when it comes to talent. Yet, there’s no denying Pearl has a certain it factor, and it’s that factor that Mama Ru is so drawn to.

Can she really win? I can imagine some contexts where RuPaul decides neither of the other ladies represent the future of drag, but that involves a major roll of the dice that Pearl keeps growing and pushing the envelope. What’s the risk for Ru taking a chance on a queen on a positive trajectory and beloved by much of the audience? Potentially losing credibility with the hardcore fans of this show, who keep the buzz alive for the looky-loos who arrive each season. Yet, nothing could be worse for the show than this dud season as a whole, so why not end it on a cavalier note?

RuPaul’s Drag Race, S7E12 Recap: And The Rest Is Drag

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Last week on Drag Race, Katya crushed Pearl and Kennedy and went home anyway, ending the show. This week’s episode is just an overlong epilogue, like in Return of the King.

After the Elimination

All four girls are clearly crushed about Katya’s exit, and Kennedy is maybe limping from her energetic lip sync? Ginger cries about it in her interview, while Kennedy takes all of half a second to congratulate Violet on her win before “NEXTing” her. Bold move coming from someone on the precipice of dismissal about two minutes prior. Pearl defends Violet, “Kennedy Davenport, your Hello Kitty was a Hell No, Kitty,” to which Kennedy responds, “This is not a sewing competition.”

What now?

Any time any of the girls utter the phrase, “this is not an XYZ competition,” you know they are high on their own fumes and headed for dismissal. It’s an everything competition – sewing, dancing, acting, being funny, being beautiful. It is clearly labelled as all of those things. The only time I have seen something on the show where it was straight up not that kind of competition is when the girls had to play basketball in All Stars, and they all thought that was hilarious.

Violet, appropriately, comes for Kennedy and Ginger and their hesitance to sew, and Ginger says, “I’m not a seamstress, I don’t know how to sew, but no other bitch on this show has been able to sing like me or act like me.”

What now?!

Did she miss the season with Jinx? Or the one with Courtney and Adore? Or the one with Latrice and Willam? The past three seasons have been lousy with amazing singers and actors. Did she see Darienne’s spectacular meltdown in the acting finale? Hell, even Sharon and Phi Phi turned out to be good singers when they were paired against each other. I can concede that Ginger ranks in the top group of actors on the show of all time alongside Jinx, but it’s not like she’s the obvious theatrical all-time champion. It’s just more huffing her own fumes. [Read more…] about RuPaul’s Drag Race, S7E12 Recap: And The Rest Is Drag

Giant-Sized Surprise

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I recently mentioned in passing to a new colleague that I am a walking X-Men encyclopedia, and he replied he had some valuable X-Men comics. “Maybe a #1?” he said.

I was like, “uh, sure, great.” He’s younger than me, so I thought he might be referring to the 90s relaunch with Jim Lee, copies of which are valued in the low triple-digits … of cents.

Lo and behold, today he walks in with a pristine copy of Giant-Sized X-Men from 1974. It’s just in a normal, cheap mylar bag. Perfectly square spine with a tiny nick on the bottom corner and a white cover. He says, “don’t you want to flip through it?” I was like, “Don’t let me touch that! My hands are not clean enough! I am not qualified to handle a book that valuable!”

Eventually, I gingerly paged through. The pages were yellowed, but with crystal clear colors. I was transfixed by the separation of the yellow of Cyclops’s visor against the blue of his costume. It was beautiful. My hands were shaking a little bit as I put it back in the bag.

I was afraid to sit and read it despite his invitation to do so. I would never read it multiple times! I would never leave it lying open as I recapped it for a message board post or blog. My obsession with it was as an artifact, not a story-delivery-mechanism.

It made me marvel about the state of collected editions, and about this community. When I started collecting almost 25 years ago, I never had any hope of reading those early Uncanny X-Men issues. They were completely inaccessible. I had my Milestone reprint of Giant-Sized X-Men and my prized possessions – a middle-grade set of the original Dark Phoenix Saga my father bought for me at a comic convention. The reprints in “Classic X-Men” aside, I had no hope of reading UXM #94 or #108 or any of those other landmark early Claremont issues.

Yet, here we are today, gamely reading not only the first issues of our storied favorites, but the second, fifth, thirteenth, and twenty-ninth issues. We’re sampling runs of comics that aren’t our favorites in trade or hardcover for the price of one key back issue. Sure, we might wish for them in a different format or have to hunt them across the internet, but today our $100 buys us 30 or more issues of those classic comics, when even at my first convention it might not have yielded a single, low-grade copy of Giant-Size X-Men. And, a new generation of readers has unlimited access to many of these classics on Marvel’s app!

This is certainly the golden age not for comic book collectors but for readers, and I’m very happy to be here for it.

Originally published at the Comic Book Resources forum.

RuPaul’s Drag Race Power Rankings, S7E11 – “Hello, Kitty Girls!”

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This week’s Hello, Kitty challenge only served to solidify last week’s ranking as we head into the penultimate episode, and gave Katya the unfortunate early exit I’d been predicting for weeks. Will this rank hold up next week as we see one last queen depart? We shall soon see.

#1 Violet Chachki (avg 1.7, was #1, 3, 1, 3, 2, 4, 1, 1, 1, 1)
With a second win in a row, seven of eleven weeks ranked #1, long-deserved adulation from the judges panel, and nary a weak spot in sight, Violet appears to have locked up her trip to the finals. She just needs to evade one more week of elimination, which she can likely do even if she gets handed a lip sync. Anyhow, at this stage the only challenge that can slay her would be writing her own comedy and I can’t imagine there’s going to be more of that. She’ll do just fine in the typical “make a Ru video” gauntlet.

#2 Ginger Minj (avg 1.9, was #2, 1, 2, 1, 1, 1, 2, 2, 3, 4)
Ginger has now spent nine consecutive weeks entrenched in my top two. If we’ve been reminded of anything this season, it’s that Ginger is one of the best strategists in the history of the game. She came with all the right skills, and when she’s feeling weak she reduces expectations right up until she hits the runway. What could keep this queen from the top three? Perhaps another dancing challenge, but Pearl would also be felled by that. However, the real question is if she can fairly defeat Violet or Kennedy in a lip sync if it comes down to a Jinx v. Detox style shocker.

#3 Kennedy Davenport (avg 3.2, was #3, 2, 3, 2, 5, 3, 4, 6, 2, 2)
Kennedy maintains her solid #3 spot after a trip to the bottom two and a harsh read from the judges about her unwillingness to change up her style. Why am I so sure she’s going to live through next week? Because she’s going to come out swinging after a trip to the bottom, and after that lip sync she’s now willing to show all of her cards. The only way she could depart is if Ru is forced to have her sync against Violet, who Ru might want to see in the finals just a bit more. However, the editing narrative and the averages both make clear this is going to be a Violet v. Ginger game at the finish-line, with the third girl just there for flavor.

From the start I was sure Katya wasn’t going to be Ru’s idea of a final three girl, and she did have a 4.8 average. Yet, I’m sad to see her exit on schedule this week instead of squeaking into next – it just didn’t feel like her time to go.

#4 Pearl (avg 6.6, was #5, 6, 6, 5, 7, 8, 10, 9, 7, 6)
It was (yet again) Pearl’s turn to go home this week due to a pair of underwhelming looks, but Ru insisted on keeping her in the game. I like Pearl – she’s smart, she’s sassy, she’s fashionable, and she’s growing every week. However, her weak Hello Pearl should have had her facing off against Kennedy with a noble exit. She’s in a harder situation now – she needs to win next week’s challenge or else she is a sure lip sync candidate, and she doesn’t stand a chance against these other girls.

RuPaul’s Drag Race, S7E11 Recap: Hello, Kitty Girls!

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Previously on RuPaul’s Drag Race: we had another busted runway concept and the somewhat unfair dismissal of Trixie.

After the Elimination

Ginger is appropriately both sad about Trixie and congratulatory about Katya and Violet, but then brings up the elephant in the room – now that Miss Fame is gone, Violet is the only girl who has yet to lip sync!

Ginger claims she “just wants to see it,” but it’s hard not to react as if someone is saying they want to see you sent home. Violet fires back, “Ginger, how does it feel to have a weakness? I feel like you’ve been really strong this entire competition – but I felt that I really got to see this week.”

MROWR.

Ginger says she does all her crying after they head home from the work room, and then comes back with her game face on – which Pearl and Kennedy agree to. Nice show of solidarity and strategy there. Ginger does a lot of whining in the work room, but she doesn’t let us see her truly upset.

This was the best intro chat of the season. I think we’re going to see some great interactions in this final five that we probably wouldn’t have had if some of my other favorites like Trixie and Max made it this far. Plus, much as with last season, there are really no under-accomplishing villains – even Pearl on the weaker side has fought for her spot. [Read more…] about RuPaul’s Drag Race, S7E11 Recap: Hello, Kitty Girls!