The move

I'm getting ready to move for the first time in 10 years.

This is awesome, and the new place is very sweet, and so is my lovely and talented girlfriend.

However, I have to move my comics.

They have been stowed away in long boxes in closets for a long time. In getting ready to move, I have taken them all out of the long boxes and stacked them up in the middle of the spare room. The pile big. It is heavy. It probably weighs more than a ton. In fact, I'm pretty certain that it does. I own more than a ton of comics.

I'm pretty awed by it, so I can only imagine the dismay my girlfriend has whenever she sees it, as she lives in a very spartan apartment, and I have...stuff.

The move is in two weeks. I've almost got my comics ready. Now to get on to the rest.

Scott Pilgrim Teaser Trailer

Yeah, I'm pretty stoked for this one to come out. Really one of my favorite comics of the past decade, and the movie has me pretty excited.

I was working a roller derby bout a few weeks ago, and one of the skaters for Killamazoo was named "Ramona D Flowers #7EXB". She told me I was the first person to get it.

Kick-Ass

Finally got around to seeing Kick-Ass.

I was hoping to write a big long description of it, but there's really not much to say. It was fun, action-oriented, hyper-violent, and the departures the film made from the comic book were for the best. I think it can be recommended to anyone who knows what they're getting into.

I did think the marketing may have led people to believe it was another "Spider-Man"-esque movie, so I'm sure there were some very shocked parents in the crowd. This movie is bloody and murder-filled. Imagine "300" but with guns and spandex and you start to get the idea.

Chloe Grace Moretz pretty much steals the show for this one as the foul-mouthed Hit-Girl, but everyone's talking about that. I guess that's what'll happen when you make a 10-year old commit a graphic multiple homicide while maintaining a filthy running commentary. Mark Strong was also pretty good as the big bad gang-boss, but that's also pretty much par for the course for him.

The soundtrack was pretty good too, well chosen to accent what's on the screen. Nothing fabulous, but enough to keep you amped up for the next fight.

No, this movie really is what it is, a very glossy shoot-em-up where kids rack up the boy count, so I feel I got what I paid for.

G.I.Joe: Cobra II

I really like reading G.I. Joe comic books. I liked the old Marvel ones, I liked the Image/Devil's Due ones from a while back, and I like the IDW ones that are coming out now.

But I really like G.I. Joe: Cobra.

The first set of six issues showed Chuckles going deep undercover to infiltrate Cobra, and gets as close as the Crimson Twins, Tomax and Xamot. In this new series (issue #2 just came out last week), Chuckles is still on the loose, and the Joes think he's gone off the grid, as his obsession deepens.

Chuckles is a great character to follow. He's part Jason Bourne and part Bruce Wayne at the start of Batman Begins. Very rough and tumble. Flawed and dedicated and interesting to read and easy to root for. He's not Duke or Snake-Eyes or Shipwreck, and his cartoon background was completely forgettable, so the writers do have a good amount of freedom to really make the character their own, and they've made him pretty damned cool.

I really don't want to give away too much, because it's a very well written comic, and full props are due to Christos Gage and Mike Costa who are crafting a suspenseful spy thriller. They play it very smart, and use the fact that most of the readers are Joe fans very slickly in order to improve the work without making it feel like fan service.

Also, a few months ago there was a G.I.Joe Cobra special one-shot comic featuring the Twins that was amongst the best comics of 2009 and I highly recommend tracking down a copy if you're a Joe fan.

The other Joe books are fun and nostalgic and give you what they promise to deliver, but Cobra is a great comic.

Hulk Vs.

I had picked up a copy of the Hulk Vs. DVDs a few weeks ago, but did not watch them right away because I had figured that Marisa would want to watch them with me, at least the Wolverine one. We went out Saturday night and were up late, so yesterday, a lazy Sunday morning, was a good time to slap on some cartoons to watch while having breakfast and before the big gold medal hockey game.

The other Marvel cartoon movies have been okay, but not great. The Ultimate Avengers, Iron Man, and Doctor Strange ones were good, but nothing spectacular, so I went into this one with low expectations, and realizing that anything with the Hulk will have a lot of time on screen of the green guy smashing stuff.

Hulk vs. Wolverine was the first one we watched. First of all, I should note that this DVD had so many trailers on it, that it was getting a little ridiculous. They just kept going and going. They had trailers for movies that had been out for years on it. Marisa got fed up after about the 5th one, and insisted we skip ahead.

The movie probably should have been called Wolverine vs Hulk, as it had to do more with Logan than his foe here. Aside from the headliners, Sabretooth, Omega Red, Lady Deathstrike, the professor from Weapon X and Deadpool were all involved. Wolverine slashes everyone and everything, and kills several guards in the villains compound. (Yeah, there's no doubt that he kills them, claws, blood and screams made that pretty clear.) The plot was very elemental, but the one aspect that elevated this from just a beat 'em up was the dialogue they gave Deadpool. He was funny. Marisa laughed out loud more than once, and I thought he was great. The ending of the movie was a bit of a cop out, not really giving you a clear winner between Hulk and Wolvie, but all in all, it was at least a fun ride.

Hulk vs. Thor was probably a better constructed movie, and flowed a little better in terms of telling the story, but it didn't have the same flair. Set in Asgard, it was also not very Hulk-centric, with The Warriors Three, Balder, Loki and the Enchantress all involved. While this one was a nice story, it didn't have the same pop that the Wolverine one did. It did, however, quite clearly show who won in the fight between the two title characters.

These flicks were worth watching, exactly as we did; hung over on a Sunday morning while having breakfast. It was almost as much fun as the last Hulk movie, not great cinema by any means, but they were a fun violent romp.

Whiteout

A few weeks ago, Marisa and I rented "Whiteout" starring Kate Beckinsale, albeit with low expectations following the poor reviews it had received.

We both quite enjoyed the original comic book by Greg Rucka and Steve Lieber, and I sort of feel dutiful in regards to watching movies based on comic books, so it wasn't a big debate at the video store. We both kind of wanted a fun, popcorn movie.

The comic is a very good comic, and one that is routinely referred to as a "girlfriend book", in that it's one that a fanboy can give to his girlfriend and odds are they'll like it. It has a good story, a decent murder mystery, and two very strong, unique, and not over-sexualized female leads that you can get behind and root for, a US Marshal and a British Intelligence agent. They're tough and smart and are just generally cool characters to read about.

You can read the first issue of the mini-series at Steve Lieber's website.

Okay, so now, you've got this movie. You've got two female leads and one of them is a British Intelligence agent. Kate Beckinsale is signed on. You're thinking "Nice! Who's gonna play the US Marshal?" Yeah, that's where things go wrong. Beckinsale is cast as the American police officer. Seriously. Who get's to play the strong, female British operative? Gabriel Macht (of The Spirit... uh, fame?) of course!

Yeah, the studio decided that a story with two female leads wouldn't work, so not only did they make one of them male, they cast an actress from London and made her the American cop. Macht is...there? He doesn't add tension to the story. He doesn't really add a sexual element. He was more memorable as being awful in The Spirit, compared to the job he did on this film.

The movie chopped up the source material, and didn't evoke the same feeling of tension, isolation, or mystery. The characters were mostly bland, (Tom Skerritt as the Doctor was the exception, but even then, he was mostly just playing Doctor Tom Skerritt) and they sort of spoiled the whole idea of "Whiteout" as girlfriend-friendly by "sexing-up" the only female character left in the story.

I'm a sucker for all things Antarctic, it should be noted. From Scott and Shackleton to the March of the Penguins, if it's about the South Pole, you're already got some leeway with me. I was anxious to see the effect they would use for a whiteout (a blinding, lethal snow storm), and even that was just sort of meh, okay, whatever.

I should have known, if I had done my homework. The director, Domenic Sena, has done such gems as "Swordwish"and "Gone in 60 Seconds". Basically movies that had really good trailers, but you'd never really want to watch.

The movie wasn't awful, as many of the reviews put it. One could sit though it easily enough, sort of on par with an episode of CSI Miami. You know, not great, but it's on, so one might as well watch. My main issue is that the original source materiel was so good, that the movie was just an immense letdown.

In any case, The movie gets a "if it's on the movie channel on a Sunday afternoon while you're folding your laundry, I guess so" rating from me. Otherwise, just read the book.

The Move

Not really a review of anything comic related, but rather a more personal post.

I'm planning on moving in with my girlfriend when our leases expire this July.

This is actually an awesome piece of news, and I'm looking forward to it greatly.

The issue I'm having now is that I have a massive comic book collection, and I am worried about the options I will have in the storage of my books. I currently have close to 2 full bookshelves for my trade paperbacks, and 3 closets full of long boxes, giving me about 60,000 comics. Right now, I have a 3 bedroom apartment all to myself, with lots of room to keep my books as messy as I please, but the girlfriend is a meticulous housekeeper, and I will have to shape up in time for the move. (To be fair, I'm okay with this, and have been purging my clutter regularly over the last few months.)

But I don't know what to do about the comics. I'm not getting rid of them, but I can't keep them they way I am now. I am going to have to research my storage solution options.