One Reason of Many

One of the many reason's I love my gal.

She's been under the weather this week. This is a photo of her nightstand:


Stuff to make her feel better.

Merry Christmas everyone!

Death and Cancer?

Looking at the New York Times today, I stumbled across this article on Archie Comics.

I was like, "Sweet, comics news. Archie is always good for a smile."

This is an except:

"In issue No. 6 of “Life With Archie,” which will go on sale Dec. 29, Archie Andrews, the famous redhead from Riverdale, will deal with a death in the extended family. Geraldine Grundy, one of the gang’s high school teachers, will lose her battle with cancer."

Yeah.

They killed Miss Grundy. With Cancer.

Yay fun Archie.

If you want to read about the sad and painful death of a beloved high school teacher, "Life with Archie #6" is on sale now.

Casting rumours: Buffy The Vampire Slayer

Access Hollywood has published an article where Glee's Heather Morris says she's being considered for the role of Buffy Summers.


Here's an excerpt:

“They’re considering me! I found out and I almost peed my pants ‘cause I was so excited!”

“If they make [‘Buffy’] when [‘Glee’] is on hiatus, I don’t even care what I do,” Heather laughed. “I can just run through the shot and do nothing – even if I’m not Buffy!”

I'm not a huge fan of Glee, but from the few episodes I've seen, Morris is easily my favorite part of it. She's odd, and her comic timing is really sharp. He character is dim, so I'll be interested to see if she can get Buffy's Spider-Man-esque witty banter down, but I'd be okay with her as the Slayer.

Honestly, I'm more concerned about the casting of the rest of the Scooby gang than anything else.

Bacon in the Helfire Club

Quoted from the Philadelphia Style :

In X-Men: First Class, slated to open in early June, Bacon plays mutant villain Sebastian Shaw. Although it’s his first major action role (the only thing that comes close, he says, is 2000’s Hollow Man), it’s not a particularly demanding part physically. “I’ll let the younger actors do that,” he laughs. “I’m more one of those sit-in-my-chair-and-destroy-the-world type of guys.”

Kevin Bacon is Sebastian Shaw.

That is...weird.

I really don't have more to say than that. It just seems so very odd.

Marvel: Fear

Marvel has been releasing teasers about their next event. A couple of images, and a short video clip. Other than that, no other details are out yet.

Cyclops in Magneto's uniform is pretty awesome, though.



I guess event comics have been paying off for Marvel. I think it makes them a little harder to follow, because every story is so massive, it can be a little daunting to dive into.

Hellboy and Pets

Found this online.

I debated about posting it. I thought it was funny, but worth sharing?

But I looked at it a few more times. And I laughed. Every time.

I'm not sure what it means or where it's from, but Mike Mignola won so hard with this piece.

Movies: Jonah Hex

Rented Jonah Hex with Marisa this weekend.

I kind of wanted to see it, as the Jonah Hex comics from the 80's (drawn by Keith Giffen) were oddly memorable to me as a 10 year old. They were strange, sci-fi, and violent. Different that some of the other stuff I had read. I know now that this was a bizarre plot where DC Comics took a grizzled western hero and dropped him into a post-apocalyptic future to have zany adventures, but back then? It was a non-stop "what the hell?" ride.

In any case, it has been a pretty weak month at the video store for new releases, and that sort of left us with not much we could agree on, so a flashy western-comic adaptation won out.

I'll say a few things to get started: I like westerns. John Malkovich is usually pretty awesome, and he plays the bad guy in this movie. Megan Fox is a scourge on movie-making and I would rather not see her in films again.

All that being said, Jonah Hex was not a terrible movie. A little awkward at times, but Josh Brolin was decent as the lead. The script needed a few more rewrites in order to even it out a little, but the action scenes were fun enough.

A quick scan of his wiki article confirms that the movie makers decided to give him some odd supernatural powers that he never had in the comics, namely the ability to talk to the dead. Strange decision, but it works well enough, or at least better than the idea to include a science-fiction doomsday weapon that the bad guys try to steal. This is where Jonah Hex, the movie, gets dangerously close to "Wild Wild West".

At least there was no giant spider-robot.

I don't know if I can recommend this movie. I liked parts of it, but it had no flow and I think that it was mostly my fanboy side that helped to overlook the flaws this movie has. Josh Brolin did what he could, but the movie itself was working against him.

Wikipedia says that the public was less forgiving:.

• Jonah Hex severely underperformed, opening at #7 during its debut weekend with only $5,379,365 in 2,825 theaters, averaging $1,904 per theater. In its second weekend the film only managed to gross $1,627,442, falling to #10. The film ended its theatrical run on August 12, 2010, grossing only $10,547,117 in total on a $47 million budget, making it a box office bomb. Due to the film's poor domestic take, it was not widely released internationally, grossing less than $500,000 outside the United States.

Guess there won't be a sequel.

Thor: Poster

Marvel.com has released the first look at the new Thor movie poster.

Here it is:

Not too shabby.

I like Thor, but I've always preferred his adventures in Asgard over his time on Earth. I hope it's more "Iron Man" and less "X-Men Origins: Wolverine".

Casting: Emma Stone as Gwen Stacy

When they cast Emma Stone (from Superbad and Easy A) in the new Spider-Man movie, I thought, like the rest of the internauts, "Ah, she'll be a fun Mary-Jane."

Then it was announced that she will play Gwen Stacy, Peter Parker's first serious girlfriend.

Whaaa?!?

Emma Stone stated she is a natural blonde, and now, after some work from her stylist, I think she at least looks the part.

FreakAngels

Talking about Warren Ellis's "Red" made me think about how much I like his work. He's done all sorts of stuff for Marvel, DC and a lot of independent stuff. I could spend all day breaking it down for you, but I wanted to tell you to go check out "FreakAngels". With artist Paul Duffield, Ellis has been putting out a free web comic now for years.

It's awesome, it's easy to access, and it's free. Go. Read it from the beginning.

Movies: Red

I saw "Red" a few weeks ago.

Heh, that's a great opening line.

But yeah, I went to see it in theaters with Risa. We were in the mood for some light action fare, and it was pretty sparse pickings once we looked at what was playing. The trailers made it look fun enough, so we figured it was worth a shot.

I'm sort of here and there about Bruce Willis. "Die Hard" usually makes up for most failings of his. But it was also a long time ago now. "Surrogates" was pretty weak, his bit roles in "Planet Terror" was nothing special. He's usually pretty busy, but the last thing I remember liking him in was "Sin City", and that was 2005.

But he was not really the scene-stealer of the movie.

That title went to Dame Helen Mirren, who kicked butt all movie long. After playing Queen Elizabeth in "The Queen" a few years ago, she showed that she could also stand her own as a Hollywood action star. Seriously, I could watch her reprise this role all the time. I want to see her versus the Predators now.

The rest of the cast is hit or miss. John Malkovich was quirky and fun, but Morgan Freeman felt like he just mailed it in. Brian Cox was a fun surprise (he's not in any trailers), and Karl Urban was a good foil for the "Red" crew. Mary-Louise Parker was all over the place, but I think that might be because she had Willis to play off of in most of her scenes, and they had no chemistry at all.

The action scenes were fun, the plot was okay, and the laughs were genuine. Red was a good watch, but not a flawless movie. It's based on the comic by Warren Ellis and Cully Hammer, which I haven't read yet, but I'm sure I'll pick it up at some point.

Judge Dredd

First look at Karl Urban (Red, Lord of the Rings) as JD.


Cue "I-Yam-deh-Law!" quotes...now!

Green Lantern

The trailer is out, finally.



I think it looks pretty cool. Is it Batman cool? I dunno, but the suit looks better in motion than early photos suggested, and Ryan Reynolds can carry a movie. I also spotted Kilowog, witch is pretty sweet. Was the bad guy in that trailer Sinestro? I couldn't tell just on looks alone.

Expozine 2010

Risa and I went to Montreal's Expozine yesterday.

Expozine is an independent press and 'zine fair. They usually have a lot of cool magazines, comics, art prints and books for sale.

We went last year and had fun, but this year it was just the two of us, as the rest of our gang couldn't make it at the same time as us.

Positives:

• It was less crowded
  
• It smelled less of damp wool and beard oil (it was raining last year, and the place was packed)
  
• There were more comics

Negatives:

• The booths are still overly crowded
  
• There were less prints for sale
  
• It oddly felt more corporate
  
• Too many people there were there just to be seen

We were there for about an hour, bought a few prints, Risa got a book, and we left.

Joey and Emily from "A Softer World" were there, and I inadvertently brought up some painful memories about Joey's ex-girlfriend before I bought a print (of this strip) and moved on.

Captain America: Movie

CBR has some great hi-res pics from the set of the Captain America movie. Go check them out.

Kick-Ass 2 #1

Story by: Mark Millar
Art by: John Romita Jr., Tom Palmer
Colors by: Dean White
Letters by: Chris Eliopoulos
Cover by: John Romita Jr.

Kick-Ass 2 picks right up where Kick-Ass left off.

Sort of.

It takes elements from the previous comic volume (he did not get the girl, she wants nothing to do with him) and parts of the movie (Hit Girl lives with Marcus now, and not her mother, as was stated in the comics) and just runs with it.

This issue reads a little bit like an epilogue to the previous series, with a few new things tossed in, most notable the introduction of a new hero team.

I expect many in this hero team to be dead by the end of this series.

for my tastes, I like Kick-Ass when it's running on all cylinders. It needs to throttle up and really take things to another level, and so far, this new issue is really just more of the same as what came before. I'm not saying it needs a Gatling-gun rocket-pack, but it needs a little more "oumph", a little more ass kicking.

JRjr is great, as always. The special feature pages showing his breakdowns, the inking process and then the colours was pretty neat, especially in a single issue (as I'd normally find stuff like that in a trade paperback), so props to that.

In any case, more Kick-Ass means a greater likelihood of a sequel movie, and I'd be down with that.

Avengers #6

I just finished reading Avengers #6 last night. It's been a busy week with all the Halloween festivities going on and what not. But I sat down to read this book and now, writing about it, I'm not sure hoe I feel about it.

I'll say this, it is most definitely the 6th and final book in a story arc. This story really felt as if it was written for the trade, wrapping up the story with Kang the Conqueror breaking the timestream and the Avengers winning the day and saving all life as we know it. I just don't think I like the way they did it.

They did it by begging.

Hardly a great conclusion to the first story in "The Heroic Age", is it?

Iron Man and the Avengers begged Ultron to lose a fight and save the universe.

Yup.

I feel bad, because the thing Bendis does best, dialogue and banter, is great in this title. JRjr is always amazing on the pencils. The books reads very well and looks very nice, but still, 6 issues in, and 24$ in the hole, I feel like it might not have been a bad idea to have the Avengers kick off the heroic age of heroes with a better victory than begging Ultron for understanding and trust.

I don't know what to do with this book. the new 3.99$ price point is a lot higher than I really feel comfortable with, and the book just took me for 6 issues to a place where I just feel *bleh*. I mean, it's not like I finished the epic tale of time and war saying "They begged the murder robot to take a dive? That is sooooo cool!" I think this one is going to get dropped from my pull list when next I get to the comic shop.

Dream Cast: Power Man and Iron Fist

I used to love reading in magazines where they would dream up an ideal cast for a movie and fill the roles with current Hollywood actors. I would get all angry if they got one wrong, or get inspired if they nailed one just right. Wizard once cast JLA where they had David Boreanaz as Batman and Bruce Campbell as Superman, and I'm still sad to this day that it never happened.In that spirit, I cast for you "Power Man and Iron Fist: The Movie".

Michael Jai White is Luke Cage


If you haven't seen "Black Dynamite", well, first, go rent it, and then you'll understand how he can handle the campy dialogue a Heroes for Hire script will have in store for him. He was in "The Dark Knight" and he also played Spawn, but really, Power Man is where he belongs.

Tahmoh Penikett as Iron Fist

Penikett was on "Battlestar Galactica" and Joss Whedon's "Dollhouse". I think that he sort of looks like Danny Rand to me. He's got a sort of quiet confidence, an ability to cling to his convictions with a hint of naivete that I think is very much in line with Iron Fist.

Ziyi Zhang as Colleen Wing

After "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon", Ziyi can kick some butt on screen. Colleen Wing is a cool character, too, and offers Ziyi a chance to play hero again on the silver screen.

Alicia Keys as Misty Knight



Alicia Keys was the best thing in "Smokin' Aces". A close second were her booty-shorts. But Keys did show she had a good mix of being a hard-case and human being in that flick, and I think she's be a good Misty. Hard-boiled, but still in love with Danny.

Donnie Yen as Davos, the Steel Phoenix

Man, I love Donnie Yen. He is not in enough movies. He showed up in "Iron Monkey", which is awesome, and then popped up again in "Blade II", where he was severely under used. Davos is a bad dude, but he's also feeling like he is just in his quest for revence against Danny, so there needs to be a bit of sympathy in him. I think Donnie Yen is very emotionally expressive while being stoic. I think he'd be a great foe for the HFH crew.

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That's what I've got. This was fun, and I'll try to do it again sometime.

Legion Leader

Robot 6 told me today that DC Comics was letting the Internet decide who the new leader of the Legion of Super-Heroes would be.

DC has done this before a few times, usually by write in vote, but I think it's a fun little bit of intereaction with the fans. I am a little sad that there is no "other" option, to give guys like "Superboy", "Karate Kid", "Bouncing Boy" or "Rory Fitzpatrick" a shot. It's a shame, too, as the internet is a strange and wonderful place, so who knows what crazy options they could have come up with.

For the record, I voted for Chameleon Boy.

Was the Hulk Gay? - Follow Up

I get a lot of hits on this blog through this post: "Was The Hulk Gay?", which is this weird little story about why Bruce Banner's name was changed to David Banner for the TV show.

(I am referring to the Bill Bixby David Banner, and not the David Banner rap artist who I first discovered in Def Jam's "Fight for NY II" on the XBox. If I was a rapper, I know I'd want to be named after Bill Bixby.)

(Also, David Banner's end-fight taunt from "Fight for NY" is easily the most awesome and most confusing taunt of that game.)

(I have to share it: "I'm from the M I crooked letter, cooked letter I crooked letter, crooked letter I humpback, humpback I make em all die!" That is solid gold, my friends. I love that game.)

Back to the point at hand, I would like to hope that people finding the old post in question are having a similar discussion with their idiot friends. I would really like to think that, because the alternatives are that people a typing "Hulk" and "Gay" together into Google and are not happy to see the irreverant little anecdote from the 70's.

Even if that is the case, I hope they at least read the post before diving back into the gutters of the internet.

New Avengers#5

COVER BY: Stuart Immonen
WRITER: Brian Michael Bendis
PENCILS: Stuart Immonen
INKS: Wade Von Grawbadger
COLORED BY: Laura Jean Martin
LETTERED BY: Neurotic Cartoonist, INC

I just read this issue last night. After taking my girl out for dinner and some shopping, we stopped by the comic shop on the way home so I could pick up my pull list.

My list is a lot smaller these days than it used to be. Two Avengers titles, 3 GI Joes, and a few trades that I have pulled as they are released.

While I did trim the fat a little bit lately, I have kept the books that I really do like, so when it's time to pick up my books, it's usually with a little excitement.

I really like this team of Avengers. I thing the group dynamic is great, and I like the way Brian Bendis has them banter. Specifically in this issue, the dialogue between Damion and Doc Strange is classic.

It's also nice to see Doctor Voodoo step up to bat, finally, after many issues of his insecurity. Wolverine also gets the chance to be the hero for once. I mean, sure, he's always getting the chance to be the "main man" (sorry Lobo), but very rarely in the Avngers pages is he more useful than a blender in the fights they get into.

I'm liking where this title has taken me so far, and I'm looking forward to the next issue.

A Bunch of Tron Stuff.

Spinoff Online has a bit of news regarding my favorite robot DJs and lightcycles, including a pic of Daft Punk all Tron-ed out.

Check it out:

CBR also has a preview up of the new Tron adaptation of the original movie here. Looking pretty good.

Sins Past

Okay, so Amazing Spider-Man issues 509-514 came out a while ago (*ahem* six years), but I just picked it up in trade format on sale last week, and finished it last night.

There is a very good review of the story here, and I agree with most of what the author says, except for the need to have this properly retconned out of the plot.

I think that it was a poor follow-up to the more interesting run dealing with Spider-Man's link to the spiritual world and while Mike Deodato's art was pretty to look at, that no fan really wanted him to draw a panel of Gwen Stacy in the throes of passion with Norman Osborn. Seriously, it was kind of gross.

I don't really get what the goal of this story was, from J. Michael Straczynski's point of view. I thought that it killed a lot of momentum that his book had going following the conclusion of the Ezekiel story. And killed it in such a weird way, by making Gwen the girl in high school who gave it up to one of her closest friends' father.

If they never have another plot line centered around Gwen Stacy again, I'd be happy.

Hot Rods

Yes, this did come up in conversation today.

Such is my life.

Montreal Comicon

Marisa and I went to the Montreal Comicon yesterday. It was at Place Bonaventure, and was only 15$, so we decided to check it out.

We were both a little sad about missing FanExpo, but then we started to hear about the mass over-crowding and long, long lines that Toronto suffered through, so we decided it wasn't such a bad thing that we missed out. Montreal has a smaller con, so we decided just to check it out for a few hours.

It was very low key, as far as cons go. It was also very dealer heavy. Lots of vendors tables. It was also a little crowded, but mostly because of the layout of the tables. They aisles were not wide enough to accommodate people stopped at a table and people trying to walk by. There was alittle too much pushing and shoving for my tastes, especially when I was being shoved by a woman who was using her baby and carriage as a ram to make her way through the crowd.

On the upsides, the con was following the Toronto con for a lot of vendors, and sales were plentiful. I got some nice, hard cover trades for 5-10$. Yay for good sales. I got a nice DC Archives edition of The Teen Titans for 10 bucks.

I also met Larry Hama, and commissioned a sketch from him of Destro, which is pretty damned awesome. Saw Darrick Robertson for a bit, too, and caught glimpses of Brent Spiner, Billy Dee Williams, and Elvira.

All in all, it was a positive experience. I felt like I got good value for the price of admission, and there were no lines anywhere to meet the guests.

Makes Me Sad

I was looking around Box Office Mojo this morning, and this made me sad.

Scott Pilgrim:
Total Lifetime Grosses
Domestic:
$27,040,800
+
Foreign:
$6,173,367
= Worldwide:
$33,214,167


Marmaduke:
Total Lifetime Grosses
Domestic:
$33,579,130
+
Foreign:
$36,000,000
= Worldwide:
$69,579,130

Deadpool

I stopped by my comic shop last week, and I decided it was time for a trimming of my pull list. Deadpool got the chop. So did Deadpool Team Up. And Deadpool Corps.

Honestly, I started rereading Deadpool just towards the end of the Deadpool/Cable run, and I sort of got hung up on it. It was quirky and light. I don't really remember how all of a sudden I had three books on my list. At the price current comics go for, I think that 12$ a month (144$ a year?) for Deadpool was too much. None of the comics were particularly spectacular, and worse, I found myself buying an uber-violent Rob Liefeld comic. It was high time I woke up from that scheme.

Dropping three books from the pull list does leave a bit of a hole in my visits to the shop, however. I don't really think there's that much out there that I'm missing out on, but I'll have to keep a sharp eye out for something new.

Just sort of all over the place on this one

Good morning everyone. I am sleep deprived and a little bored today. I've just been channel surfing the web between bits of working while waiting for that coffee to kick in.

So I thought I would share a few things that I stumbled across today.

Tom Spurgeon wrote a piece over at The Comics Reporter called "25 Emblematic Comics Of The '70s", and his comments on the late 70's X-Men were awesome:

"X-Men #94-128, Chris Claremont and Dave Cockrum And John Byrne, Issues Of A Marvel Comic Book Series
This was the first hit in comics fandom (its sales success until the mid-1980s is debatable) after the nadir of 1970s newsstand sales troubles and its concurrent adherence to old ways of publishing nearly brought to an end the mainstream comic book as we know it. Just being the first hit of modern superhero comics fandom might be enough to recommend it, as would being the most successful re-launch of an old concept with new characters. X-Men crystallized a lot of what was entertaining about 1970s superhero comics into portable formula: the plunge into outright soap opera, the slow-burning subplots where it didn't matter if they were resolved or not, the mysterious characters whose backstory was doled out Lost-style in inconceivably tiny, logic-defying increments, the way that the superhero's mission was recast for all time as one of noble struggle as opposed to good winning the day over evil. It also introduced us to the soon-to-upstage-everyone Wolverine, as inexplicable a character to comics as the Fonz was to television sitcoms. Danny DeVito's star-turn on Taxi a possible exception, never have more young people enjoyed someone with that much back hair."

Good stuff there, though just about anything talking about Claremont and Byrne's X-Men will win me over.

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The only web comic I check in with daily is Questionable Content, by Jeph Jacques. Right now, it's in the middle of some dramatic tension, but it has a tendency to swerve into the absurd as well. Also, it creepily has a was of mirroring my life, day for day. In order to fully get it, you have to start from the beginning, but the art steadily improves as Jeph finds his groove. It's good stuff.

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Dark Horse is reprinting a few of the old, Gold Key "Mighty Samson" comics from the 60's. My uncles read this comic, and my grandfather kept them for years until I was a kid, so even though I'm younger, I read these things growing up. They are seriously weird, and I'm kindo of excited that they're being re-issued. They have a preview here.

Runaways Vol.11

Cover: David Lafuente
Writer: C.B. Cebulski, Kathryn Immonen
Pencils: Sara Pichelli, Patrick Spaziante

I have been a longstanding reader of the Runaways. The Marvel digest format reprinting the books makes it wonderfully affordable, and really is the key factor that keeps me coming back for more, even after a lot of changes to the creative team over the years, from Brian K. Vaughn to Joss Whedon.

The Runaways sort of appeals to me in a way that the New Mutants used to do, as kids in the Marvel Universe, they can act as a tour guide for the MU for newer readers because they also have to be introduced to many facets of the world in which they live.

I'm not all the way through this volume yet, though I am liking it enough to feel comfortable to write about it. The last few books had the kids running all over the place, and through time, and to have them back in the now and without all the crazy Marvel crossovers getting in the way, it feels a lot more like the book I got hooked on and liked so much. the writers do a good job of having the team start to feel a little more like they are Runaways again, while at the same time they keep pumping out the heart-wrenching teen-melodrama that contrasts itself so well against the action and explosions.

Also, I have to show support for anything published in the Marvel Digest format. I wish that Marvel would pump out a few more titles to be collected in this manner. I know that at the very least, my overloaded and sagging bookshelves would appreciate it as much as my wallet does.

11 volumes is a lot, upon reflection. Runaways isn't my favorite comic book. I mean, I do like it, but I don't get really anxious or excited to get the next one. I guess that shows how much I really do like the digest format, as I keep it on my pull list no matter what.

Scott Pilgrim vs The World

You know, I waited a very long time to see this movie.

I was very nervous about it as the development went forward. People were cast and promotional photos were revealed. When I heard it was going to star Michael Cera, I let out a veritable "Hunh. Really?" but I was not really put off the project.

When the trailer came out, I was pretty excited, too. I watched it a few times over, just hungry for more.

Well, I saw it last week, and I was not disappointed. It was what I had hoped it to be, and a little more. Michael Cera was a little bit different than how Scott Pilgrim is to me when I read the books, but he was okay. The rest of the casting was pretty awesome, though. Keiran Culkin as Wallace Wells was especially inspired (though it didn't hurt that he was given some of the best lines of dialogue), and the way that Kim Pine (pictured) and Young Neil looked on screen was spot on.

It's a little sad that the movie isn't doing amazing in the box office, but I also understand that the movie itself is probably terrifying and confusing to most people over the age of 45. I don't mean it to be disparaging, but if you've never really understood how video games appeal to you, then this movie is going to weird you out. It's hard to express this properly, but if you weren't raised on Nintendo, much of the appeal of this movie (and plot, I think) will just be lost on you.

(As an aside, I was watching a movie the other day, something from the 70's or 80's, and I was thinking "This is stupid. This would never happen now because of the mighty power of cellphones.")

Anyway. Scott Pilgrim vs The World delivers. Go see it. It's pretty awesome.

Penny Arcade: The Halls Below

I just finished off the sixth volume of the Penny-Arcade collected editions, The Halls Below. This one collects the 2005 strips.

2005 was not the strongest year in PA to begin with. Switching publishers from Dark Horse to Del Rey was also a mistake, as the book itself just felt... cheaper as I was reading it. There was less insight to the strips, and there were these weird splash pages that really just seemed like filler. Add to the mix that the trade dress is different (so now they don't look like a nice, neat series all lined up on my bookcase), and I should probably have just given this book a pass.

It's a shame, too. Penny-Arcade is one of those comics that you really want to like, and want to like it all the time. Some times it delivers and delivers hard, but other times it is just uninspired and sort of blah. This volume, as I mentioned previously, does have the fantastic Skeletor strip, but in this case, visiting it on the web is more gratifying than holding it in your hands.

Gabe's art is very good throughout the book, though. That's worth noting. If nothing else, the strips are pretty to look at. I just think, that as a whole, I've enjoyed this edition the least so far, and I can't really recommend it. It's not like I get comps anymore, so I always feel bad when I go out and buy a book only to be disappointed as I finish it up. Ah well.

Scott Pilgrim Vs The World

Saw it tonight, and I'll give you a more detailed review later.

I just wanted to say Scott had the most awesome collection of ringer tees.

Some of his t-shirts included:

SP Heart Smashing Pumpkins tee

Zero Smashing Pumpkins tee

Old CBC logo tee

Plumtree tee

Rockband "Bass" logo tee

SARS tee

Fantastic Four 4 1/2 tee (a la Franklin Richards)

I know I'm missing some. Can you help out?

Pilgrim Fist Arcade

I got around to reading the final Scott Pilgrim book. I haven't been to see the movie yet, but I will, probably sometime this week.

I really enjoyed the Scott Pilgrim Series, and I'm glad it ended and really told the complete story of Scott and Ramona Flowers. I just wish that there was some way to recover that feeling I had gotten while reading the first book, of just delighted surprise/ WTF?. The rest of the series was great, but it was a little like watching "Fight Club" for the second time, in that you just didn't have that dawning moment of something amazing happening.

The last book was a little padded out for me, as it was my opinion that Bryan Lee O'Malley used many more splash pages than he had previously. The first book, at least in my memory, was much denser materiel to read through than the last one.

In any case, Scott Pilgrim is now officially "a great series" and I look forward to seeing what O'Malley gets up to next. I always liked "Lost At Sea", so I think that he's not Just a one trick pony.

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I recently had my copies for the first 3 HC Iron Fist books returned to me, and I have been slowly rereading them. Usually just before bed, and maybe an issue at a time. But hot damn, do I love those books. It's a great kung fu action movie in comic form, and that in and of itself is very rare. I've had the 5th book on the shelf waiting for me, but I was putting it off until I could go over the first few books again.

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I have also been reading "Penny Arcade vol. 6" this week. I love Penny Arcade, but this book has been losing steam. Maybe 2005 was just a weak year for the guys. I think I bought this one just to own the Skeletor/Wikipedia strip.

I think that Tycho's commentary has also been weaker in this edition compared to the first five. That's a little sad to me. He's not been catty enough. Not wise and insightful enough.

Even the cover isn't as great as the other volumes. I'm bummed, because I want to love this book, but I can't.

The Goon: Animated

This just about made my day:

Get A Sneak Peek At The Goon Animated Movie

"The much-anticipated film, produced by David Fincher and Blur Studios and written by The Goon creator Eric Powell, stars Paul Giamatti as Franky and Clancy Brown as The Goon. No release date has been announced."

Amazing.

Movie Trailers - Movies Blog

I'm a big fan of the comic, and I didn't really know that this was in the pipeline, so I'm super-stoked to find out about this.

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.