Pop Culture thoughts..

or ramblings as it were (see? and you thought the blog title made no sense).

-First off, the party was great as usual Jim. You really know how to throw a shindig. (OK, that wasn't really pop culture, but it's my blog dang it!)

-The Harry Potter movie. Man, there is a big divide between those who have read the book (a lot apparently) and those who haven't (myself included). Those who didn't read the book seem to enjoy the movie for the most part. Nice story, good character development, and the story seemed to move forward organically. To those who read the book, opinions vary from an OK movie to an outright travesty that J.K. Rowling herself should rise up and slay Warner Bros. for putting this out. All I can say to those die hard Potterheads is the same thing I have said to the comic fans who are highly offended at certain changes in their favorite stories or characters: LIGHTEN THE HELL UP!!!! Cripes, if they included everything you wanted in the movie, we would have been sitting there for close to 6 hours. Changes have to be made in order to put a good coherent story on the screen. There was this same hue and cry from the comic world over the Watchmen movie over the epic disaster at the end. It worked in the movie and made sense. End of story. If it doesn't work as a movie, it would flop epically and only the fans, large and vocal you may be, would be the only ones enjoying the movie and the studios would not make another. From what I gather, the overall story and major plot points (who is the prince, what the deuce is a horcrux) did not suffer nor did the death of Dumbledore seem diminished. At least to me they didn't.

-I must pass along condolences to the family and fans of Steve McNair. I am a huge Ravens fan, and while I hated them playing against him, I respected his talent and desire. I remember being stoked when they signed him, thinking he was the final piece to the puzzle. For the 2 years he was here, he did not disappoint. He was a leader that the team needed on that side of the ball and commanded respect from his peers. It was truly shocking how he died, and I guess that we always seem to be that when someone we put on a pedestal so high becomes human after all. On a side note, there seems to be a lot of teeth gnashing about the fact the Derrick Mason announced his retirement suddenly last week, but not from me. He was very close to McNair, and the fact that his friend was taken so suddenly and relatively young had to play a part in it. All I can say is, for the fans and the team, give him some room. Let him grieve, and for God's sake, don't badger the man. I would think that we would want him to remember his time here fondly, not that we wouldn't let up on him.

-On to some comics. Everyone seems to be geeking on the new weekly by DC called Wednesday Comics. It's been a different take on comics and while I am enjoying it, I am also enjoying the fact that it's only 13 weeks long. The weekly comics have been a steadily progression downhill for DC. 52 was fantastic for the most part; Countdown was OK, but started to weaken to the end; and Trinity was a waste of Mark Bagley's talent, in my opinion.
The Blackest Night debuted this week and has just blown everything else away. Geoff Johns has become a masterful storyteller in my book, laying the foundation for this some 3 years before it was even announced. Ivan Reis' art looks tremendous and hopefully he can keep that standard up for the coming months.
Is it me, or is DC doing a much better job in handling it's universe than Marvel? The Batman universe relaunch has been really, really good and the Superman universe has some interesting things headed down the pike. What I find fascinating is that The Blackest Night will impact these characters, but in a mini-series, not in the core books. This is great. Not only will we not have to have an interruption of a story for a 2 issue "event" that may or may not have an impact on the book down the road, it will be up to the reader of those books if they want to pick up said minis. I have also heard that you don't have to pick up any of these in order to enjoy the main event, but I have heard that before. However, as long as it's Johns at the helm, I'm willing to give him the benefit of the doubt. As for Marvel, this "Dark Reign" has taken over a ton of books but also has left some, like Thor and Captain America, alone for the most part. I personally am not happy reading about "Dark Wolverine". He was already dark in my book, they just lightened him up too much for the movie. Not all that comes out of Marvel is bad; Greg Pak is returning to Hulk as of issue 601. This got me back on the book, since I loved his work on "Planet Hulk" and dropped it as soon as he left it in Jeph Loeb's hands(ugh). The bad news is that with JMS (you know who he is) going over to DC, Thor will probably start to suffer. He did a terrific job on the relaunch and crafted stories that were really fun to read. I can only hope that he will return in time to this character he so carefully and artfully rebooted.

Well, that's about it for now. Please feel free to comment, good or bad on anything stated here. I promise to read any and all. Be good and take care of each other.

Later!