Hi there everyone. Hope you all survived the holiday weekend intact. I know I said I would do this over the weekend, but I got sidetracked (again). So here we go. I have 2 weeks worth of books to talk about. Not sure if this will become the pattern du jour or not.
DC
Action 859- 2nd part of the "Legion" arc. Turns out that in the future, they teach Superman's history differently then we know it. I like the twist that Geoff Johns has given this and that has me wanting to see more. Unfortunately, it will be with Gary Frank's art. I've liked Frank's art in the past, but this has him diving into Lu territory (see: Avengers). Lots of lines on the faces, almost like it wasn't cleaned up properly. He's earned a grace period from me, but not a long one.
All Star Superman 9- Now this is my vote for comic of the year. I don't care how many issues come out of a book, if it's well done, its a nominee. Grant Morrison bring Kryptonian astronauts to Earth and weaves a great story. Frank Quitely has done a great job with just about every hero he has tackled and does a phenomenal job with the art here. This is what most books should strive for; imagination and heroism on a grand scale.
Detective 838 and Nightwing 138- I lump these in together only because they are both part of the "Ra's al Ghul" crossover. Nightwing becomes involved in the arc by Batman asking for his help in protecting Robin and Damien (Bat's son) at the cave. The bad guys get away with the kids when Nightwing is forced to make a life and death decision. Robin is confronted by Ra's, who tempts him with an offer. Batman arrives and the battles commences. Ra's forces Bats to choose between his ward and his child. OK, this has been a pretty good crossover, but man, the artwork in Detective is REALLY bad, and takes you out of the story somewhat. The writers have handled this crossover about as well as can be expected. No major plot holes (so far) and the chapters flow from one to the next.
Flash 234- I wish that this team would continue on the book for a while. Mark Waid is a writer born to do Flash stories, and Freddie Williams gives the book a great look. As for the story, it turns out that Jai overheard the conversation last issue between Wally and the JLA. He may not have long to live, apparently and he's hiding the fact that he knows from his parents, something we can all identify with (hiding something from your parents). Wally develops a new power that allows him to get the kids and pull them to him. Not alot in plot movement here, but still a nice story, and you have to scroll down to "A Fitting Tribute" for my thoughts on whats in the back of the book.
World of Warcraft1- see post below. I think you guys should give it a try. It's not just for WoW fans, any fan of sword and sorcery type of things might like it.
Marvel-
Captain America 32- Most of the issue is the inner monologue of Sharon Carter as she struggles with the crap that the Red Skull and Dr. Faustus has done to her. Bucky fights his programming and tries to convince Sharon to get away. Unable to break free on her own, she throws Bucky out of a plane to distract the Falcon and Black Widow, who have discovered the hideout. I'm not sure if I liked this issue or not, since it bordered on Bendisitis. Not much action, lots of talking without saying much of anything. But Steve Epting's art keeps you focused so that if Ed Brubaker has an off issue, you still enjoy it.
New Avengers 36- I really don't have alot to say about this, except that you give us one of the hottest woman in the Marvel Universe (Spider-Woman) in the shower and actually find a way to make it unattractive? I call Shanangans!
Punisher 52- If the last page is for real (so to speak) this issue will go down as one of the most savage in Punisher history, and man is that saying something. I will not reveal it, since I am not sure who is reading this, and some people may have kids in the room or weak stomachs. But suffice to say that Barracuda performs an act so heinous, that if true, cements his place as one of the sickest, most twisted villains in comics today.
Thor 4- You know the saying; "the cheese stands alone"? Well, I guess that me. I have really liked what they have done with Thor. Putting him into real life situations to find his lost comrades is something I didn't expect and yes, you saw it coming a mile away, but it still didn't take away from the book, in my opinion. I have also enjoyed Oliver Coipel's art. He gives Thor a majestic presence that is required of the hero.
Wolverine 59- Wolvie battles to return to the earthly plane. Yawn. Fights a lot of versions of himself to get there, whoopie.
World War Hulk 5- The end of the big story line. Again "cheese" here. I am a fan of John Romita Junior's art and I understand the criticism that has been leveled at him over the past year. But this was really kinda cool. We finally get to see a couple of heroes at full power unleashed on each other. The Sentry was an unknown coming into the battle and he threw punches with the Hulk like Frasier/Ali. There has been speculation as to how they were going to end this, and I for one liked it. Hulk going down the only way he knows, fighting and destroying whatever is in front of him. I am not sure about the aftermath (won't give anything away here) and I am not crazy about taking the Hulk out of his own book. Marvel had the formula work once with Captain America, but don't look for lightning to strike twice.
OK that's it. Hope you liked this. If you did or didn't, please leave me a post. I really would like some input on things, and trust me, I read them all and will not ignore any.
Tuesday, November 27, 2007
Friday, November 23, 2007
A Fitting Tribute
Hey there all. Hope that Thanksgiving has treated you well. As you lay there in a turkey induced haze, I found something I want to share with you.
I have mentioned a couple of times about the sudden loss of Mike Wieringo earlier this year. Marvel put a very nice tribute to him in all their books with the team that he did for several issues, the Fantastic Four. Well, if you have followed his career, you know that Mike got his big break drawing the Flash for DC. This week, Flash 234 came out and while the issue was OK (I'll do some reviews later on in the weekend, promise) there was something really special in the back.
Mark Waid, the writer who has crafted some of the best Flash stories and who worked with Mike, and Brian Augustyn, the inker (I believe) during that run, put a very nice tribute to him in the book. While I wish that it would go into every DC book, it's fitting that it would be in Flash.
The added touch of putting in some of his artwork was very nice and took me back to when they were working on the book. The run they had was a defining one as far as I'm concerned. It's a rare thing to see the writer and artist work together for long periods of time and so harmonious in their direction.
Well, thats it for now. There will be reviews coming for this book, World War Hulk, and others so keep an eye out!
I have mentioned a couple of times about the sudden loss of Mike Wieringo earlier this year. Marvel put a very nice tribute to him in all their books with the team that he did for several issues, the Fantastic Four. Well, if you have followed his career, you know that Mike got his big break drawing the Flash for DC. This week, Flash 234 came out and while the issue was OK (I'll do some reviews later on in the weekend, promise) there was something really special in the back.
Mark Waid, the writer who has crafted some of the best Flash stories and who worked with Mike, and Brian Augustyn, the inker (I believe) during that run, put a very nice tribute to him in the book. While I wish that it would go into every DC book, it's fitting that it would be in Flash.
The added touch of putting in some of his artwork was very nice and took me back to when they were working on the book. The run they had was a defining one as far as I'm concerned. It's a rare thing to see the writer and artist work together for long periods of time and so harmonious in their direction.
Well, thats it for now. There will be reviews coming for this book, World War Hulk, and others so keep an eye out!
Wednesday, November 21, 2007
World of Warcraft #1- a review
Hey gang. I am not sure if I will be able to do the show on Sunday, so I wanted to share a review with you to tide you over for the holiday. Consider me a your first turkey of the weekend.
I am a major WoW (World of Warcraft) fan. Both my wife and I play the game and enjoy the friends we have made. When this book was first announced, I had my reservations. This is based on a MMORPG (if you don't know what that is, find someone between the age of 15 to 25 to tell you) so everyone experience is different. You could line up 50 people and none of them would have the same look, feel or drive to the game. So how would DC and Wildstorm try and convince people to read it?
Well, for starters, they got Walter Simonson to write it. If you are old enough to remember his run on THOR, then you know that he can handle mythology rather well. In this issue he does not disappoint. He begins to flesh out the characters right from the beginning and handles the mythology that Blizzard (the company behind WoW) has put into their characters with a nice deftness. He introduces us to a human character with no name and places him in the middle of Horde territory. His fighting skill is shown right away and while he has memory of who he is or how he got there, he is captured by Rehgar, the orc Shaman. He is put into a cage with Broll, a Night Elf druid; and Valeera, a Blood Elf rogue. They train for a competition to begin at Dire Maul so they must learn to work as a team, an issue since Night and Blood elves are mortal enemies. The human rallies the team against another composed of the Horde races of Undead, Tauren, and Troll. It is he who saves the others and establishes himself as the hero of the opening arc.
The artwork is handled by Ludo Lullabi. It is apparent to me that he is influenced by Humberto Ramos, as his style is very manga-esque. He gives the characters a sense of proportion in both height and stature that is in the game. I had a friend look over the book the other night and he loved the way the fight at the end of the book flowed with an energy and style to it. I agree, the battle in the training area is frenetic, the same as it would be if you were playing the game.
So, what do I think? Well, I think that I could hand this book to someone who is not a WoW fan, never played the game, and they might like it. If it was their sort of thing. Fans of Conan would probably dig it. On the negative side, I had my feelings sort of validated. Of the characters they introduced in this issue, 3 of them (the shaman, druid and rogue) have been made into the first wave of figures, coincidentally by DC direct. On second thought, it's not a coincidence at all. But I would give it a solid B for a first issue and of course I will stick with it. I would recommend it to anyone looking for something both mainstream and slightly off the beaten path.
I am a major WoW (World of Warcraft) fan. Both my wife and I play the game and enjoy the friends we have made. When this book was first announced, I had my reservations. This is based on a MMORPG (if you don't know what that is, find someone between the age of 15 to 25 to tell you) so everyone experience is different. You could line up 50 people and none of them would have the same look, feel or drive to the game. So how would DC and Wildstorm try and convince people to read it?
Well, for starters, they got Walter Simonson to write it. If you are old enough to remember his run on THOR, then you know that he can handle mythology rather well. In this issue he does not disappoint. He begins to flesh out the characters right from the beginning and handles the mythology that Blizzard (the company behind WoW) has put into their characters with a nice deftness. He introduces us to a human character with no name and places him in the middle of Horde territory. His fighting skill is shown right away and while he has memory of who he is or how he got there, he is captured by Rehgar, the orc Shaman. He is put into a cage with Broll, a Night Elf druid; and Valeera, a Blood Elf rogue. They train for a competition to begin at Dire Maul so they must learn to work as a team, an issue since Night and Blood elves are mortal enemies. The human rallies the team against another composed of the Horde races of Undead, Tauren, and Troll. It is he who saves the others and establishes himself as the hero of the opening arc.
The artwork is handled by Ludo Lullabi. It is apparent to me that he is influenced by Humberto Ramos, as his style is very manga-esque. He gives the characters a sense of proportion in both height and stature that is in the game. I had a friend look over the book the other night and he loved the way the fight at the end of the book flowed with an energy and style to it. I agree, the battle in the training area is frenetic, the same as it would be if you were playing the game.
So, what do I think? Well, I think that I could hand this book to someone who is not a WoW fan, never played the game, and they might like it. If it was their sort of thing. Fans of Conan would probably dig it. On the negative side, I had my feelings sort of validated. Of the characters they introduced in this issue, 3 of them (the shaman, druid and rogue) have been made into the first wave of figures, coincidentally by DC direct. On second thought, it's not a coincidence at all. But I would give it a solid B for a first issue and of course I will stick with it. I would recommend it to anyone looking for something both mainstream and slightly off the beaten path.
Thursday, November 8, 2007
A Friend is.....
...someone who laughs at the bad jokes and cries with you at the sad moments.
...someone who will tell you if you suck, but will defend you to someone else who thinks that.
...someone who can laugh at themselves when they do something stupid and not get mad when you laugh hysterically.
...someone who laughs hysterically when you do something stupid, but feels your pain and humiliation.
...someone who you can talk to about anything, and not feel like you have to censor yourself.
...someone who can look past your faults and see the real person hiding underneath it all.
...someone who will point out your faults and do it in a way that they're not busting your balls.
...someone who enjoys your company, no matter who stupid you look.
...someone who tells you "you look great" when you couldn't look like a bigger dork.
...maybe not the most important person in your life, but someone who you can't think about without smiling. Or laughing.
...hopefully someone who makes you want to be a better friend and a better person.
Just something that's been rattling around in my head. Hope you like it.
...someone who will tell you if you suck, but will defend you to someone else who thinks that.
...someone who can laugh at themselves when they do something stupid and not get mad when you laugh hysterically.
...someone who laughs hysterically when you do something stupid, but feels your pain and humiliation.
...someone who you can talk to about anything, and not feel like you have to censor yourself.
...someone who can look past your faults and see the real person hiding underneath it all.
...someone who will point out your faults and do it in a way that they're not busting your balls.
...someone who enjoys your company, no matter who stupid you look.
...someone who tells you "you look great" when you couldn't look like a bigger dork.
...maybe not the most important person in your life, but someone who you can't think about without smiling. Or laughing.
...hopefully someone who makes you want to be a better friend and a better person.
Just something that's been rattling around in my head. Hope you like it.
Saturday, November 3, 2007
The problem with "Heroes"
I was going to take the weekend off from posting, but I got to thinking about why HEROES went from being really liked to seemingly reviled in a space of a few months. I still like the show. It has had it's good and bad moments. But I think I may have stumbled upon a couple of things that are causing people to flip on it.
First off, they have kept the core cast while adding new members. This is often a tricky proposition. People loved the characters and want to see them grow more, but not adding new people to the mix can make the show get stale fast. There was a real organic sense of things coming together, the lives of the good and bad guys crisscrossing and intersecting. It built up to something, and it felt like it was leading to that, for the most part. While some of the new characters have been decent, it takes away from the characters that made the show good.
Next, we have the pop culture factor. Any show that becomes big and has people parodying it will always have backlash. It's inevitable. I defy you to name me a show that was big that didn't take some sort of hit. Especially in this day and age, things are chewed up and spit out so fast we never get a time to enjoy it.
Finally, we have the tired factor. LOST went through this as well. I don't know if they still are, I have never watched the show. The first season there were so many surprises (George Takei and Stan Lee cameos among them) and plot threads left that you had to watch to see where things were going next. This season, the plot has been all over the place. There is no real connection to each other and what is happening. The shocks seem almost for shocks sake and have no real effect on what is happening. I think the writer's are mostly to blame for this. I understand the producers had them cranking out scripts so that when they went on strike, the show could continue. Obviously, they didn't really put their heart and soul into from the looks of it. I also single out Tim Kring, the creator. It looks like he has been spending more time taking congratulatory bows and prepping the DVD sales then working on the show. He could take a lesson from Joss Whedon. You can tell with Joss's shows when he was involved and when he was just a cursory presence. The shows (Angel and Buffy) soared and were terrific when he was active. When he wasn't, they suffered. They weren't awful, but the quality suffered.
So there you have it. A dissection for you guys. You have rode me for a while about how bad this show is, and now I have explained to you as to why I think it's not as good. I still would take this over most of the other things out there. I mean, have you watched that new Bionic Woman? Sheesh. Oh, yeah one more things. SHAWN!!! Go get the newest issue of Wizard. I PROMISE you won't be disappointed. Your girl is in there and smoking hot!
First off, they have kept the core cast while adding new members. This is often a tricky proposition. People loved the characters and want to see them grow more, but not adding new people to the mix can make the show get stale fast. There was a real organic sense of things coming together, the lives of the good and bad guys crisscrossing and intersecting. It built up to something, and it felt like it was leading to that, for the most part. While some of the new characters have been decent, it takes away from the characters that made the show good.
Next, we have the pop culture factor. Any show that becomes big and has people parodying it will always have backlash. It's inevitable. I defy you to name me a show that was big that didn't take some sort of hit. Especially in this day and age, things are chewed up and spit out so fast we never get a time to enjoy it.
Finally, we have the tired factor. LOST went through this as well. I don't know if they still are, I have never watched the show. The first season there were so many surprises (George Takei and Stan Lee cameos among them) and plot threads left that you had to watch to see where things were going next. This season, the plot has been all over the place. There is no real connection to each other and what is happening. The shocks seem almost for shocks sake and have no real effect on what is happening. I think the writer's are mostly to blame for this. I understand the producers had them cranking out scripts so that when they went on strike, the show could continue. Obviously, they didn't really put their heart and soul into from the looks of it. I also single out Tim Kring, the creator. It looks like he has been spending more time taking congratulatory bows and prepping the DVD sales then working on the show. He could take a lesson from Joss Whedon. You can tell with Joss's shows when he was involved and when he was just a cursory presence. The shows (Angel and Buffy) soared and were terrific when he was active. When he wasn't, they suffered. They weren't awful, but the quality suffered.
So there you have it. A dissection for you guys. You have rode me for a while about how bad this show is, and now I have explained to you as to why I think it's not as good. I still would take this over most of the other things out there. I mean, have you watched that new Bionic Woman? Sheesh. Oh, yeah one more things. SHAWN!!! Go get the newest issue of Wizard. I PROMISE you won't be disappointed. Your girl is in there and smoking hot!
Friday, November 2, 2007
Quick Hits
It's Friday, so I thought I would empty the garbage can that is my brain.
Some SMALLVILLE news. Looks like Black Canary is coming. She is supposed to be hired by Lex to kill Green Arrow, who will be returning shortly. Last night's episode was pretty good. It carried on the tradition of former "Super" people showing up, with Helen Slater (the god-awful Supergirl movie) playing Clark's birth mother, Lara. I'm not sure how the impending writer's strike will affect the show, but it explains why we haven't seen any reruns. Yet.
My master, Joss Whedon (if you read PvP, you know the reference) is returning to both comics and TV. The newest solicit for the Buffy comic has him returning to write. He is also planning to write a series called "Dollhouse" starring Eliza Dushku. You may remember her from Buffy as the slayer Faith. The premise sounds cool, with people gaining powers and having their minds wiped after missions. I know that I am not doing justice to the story, but I'm sure there will be more details to come.
The Ravens return to the field this week on Monday night which, quite frankly, scares the bejeezus out of me. I am a major fan, but I am also a realist. It's the perfect storm of bad things. It's Monday night, which means they are the only game on; National TV (well, ESPN) which they sometimes have bad showings; and an away game in Pittsburgh. Yes, they won there last year and they have had success on the national stage, but I feel this team is at a crossroads. This game sets the tone for the 2nd half of the season. If they win, terrific. Joy to the freaking world. All I ask is that they don't embarass themselves they way they have at times.
On a final note, I have a question. Is there someone in your life you can't do without? I don't mean love per se, but someone who does things that get you through your day? Have you ever tried to think about what your life would be like without them? Sort of deep for a friday, but I told you I was emptying my brain. Have a safe weekend all!
Some SMALLVILLE news. Looks like Black Canary is coming. She is supposed to be hired by Lex to kill Green Arrow, who will be returning shortly. Last night's episode was pretty good. It carried on the tradition of former "Super" people showing up, with Helen Slater (the god-awful Supergirl movie) playing Clark's birth mother, Lara. I'm not sure how the impending writer's strike will affect the show, but it explains why we haven't seen any reruns. Yet.
My master, Joss Whedon (if you read PvP, you know the reference) is returning to both comics and TV. The newest solicit for the Buffy comic has him returning to write. He is also planning to write a series called "Dollhouse" starring Eliza Dushku. You may remember her from Buffy as the slayer Faith. The premise sounds cool, with people gaining powers and having their minds wiped after missions. I know that I am not doing justice to the story, but I'm sure there will be more details to come.
The Ravens return to the field this week on Monday night which, quite frankly, scares the bejeezus out of me. I am a major fan, but I am also a realist. It's the perfect storm of bad things. It's Monday night, which means they are the only game on; National TV (well, ESPN) which they sometimes have bad showings; and an away game in Pittsburgh. Yes, they won there last year and they have had success on the national stage, but I feel this team is at a crossroads. This game sets the tone for the 2nd half of the season. If they win, terrific. Joy to the freaking world. All I ask is that they don't embarass themselves they way they have at times.
On a final note, I have a question. Is there someone in your life you can't do without? I don't mean love per se, but someone who does things that get you through your day? Have you ever tried to think about what your life would be like without them? Sort of deep for a friday, but I told you I was emptying my brain. Have a safe weekend all!
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