Just saw Captain America: The First Avenger

... and thus ends the superhero movie summer. It started with Green Hornet, followed by Thor, X-Men: First Class, and then Green Lantern. This is the best year for comic book hero movies over all. I would have a hard time saying that any of these movies were bad and there certainly were a lot of them this year. I know what your saying to your self, "hey, some of those are not that good of movies," but ask yourself were any of them worse than last years Jonah Hex or 2003's Daredevil. 2008 seems to come in for a close second for best year for comic movies clocking in at 6 again but that list includes The Spirit.

In Order from best to worse:
X-Men: First Class
Captain America: the First Avenger
Green Hornet
Thor
Green Lantern

X-men was a surprise to me because i feel like there were major flaws in the previous three or four files. Don't get me wrong they all had some great features, but over all they were not the best movie movies. First Class was just that, it was really a movie; I feel that even if i had know idea who the X-men were previous to the movie I would still be able to enjoy it and feel engaged.

Cap is next because this was just a great action flick, and Marvel Studios just keeps hitting it out of the park. This was a cool movie that gave cap the time he deserved. This is a character that should be just as big as Batman in popular culture, and its about time he got his due. While I'm not a die hard fan of the character I can truly say this movie made me want experience him more.

Yes, Green Hornet is third... hear me out. Again, like the others, this was a cool movie and i love a movie that can mix action and comedy well. I also really liked what they did with the characters and how they approached the story telling. I remember as a kid watching some of the original Green Hornet on reruns, and being under whelmed by the story and only 30 seconds of Bruce Lee fighting you got (as bad ass as it may have been.) This movie though made me want to see what was happening between fights, because it was funny and interesting. I hope they make another.

Thor was really cool. All the people were great, the action was great, and the story was great. While i feel that it was just a stepping stone to the Avengers movie, it was a really really good stepping stone.

Finally, Green Lantern. This was a fun movie, but the most comic booky of the bunch. I feel they really just told the story to fast and had to many wasted opportunities. I'm fine with the Ryan Reynolds and the all cgi costume, but the two enemies and the lack of Oa kinda got me. The fact that they had two enemies in the move is not bad, and they executed it alright, but if they really concentrated on only one instead of both it would have been better. It is about time GL got his brightest day in other media rather than just comics. for the next one i hope they take a page from Justice League and introduce Jon Stewart.

Just finished reading...

The Life And Times of Martha Washington in the Twenty-First Century. This book was recommended to me by a friend who is a Frank Miller fan. I have to say, this is quite the book. It has a great blend of action and absurd comedy dealing with a corrupt incorporated America and how Martha Washington deals with life here over the course of her's. The style of the book changes significantly from the first story to the last, seeing that the book was a compilation of stories written over the course of 20 years totaling over 500 pages. It is cool seeing how Frank Miller and Dave Gibbons styles progress over the years along with the character. The First section of the story i enjoyed somewhat more than the later stories, just because it showed a ridiculous satire of the United States (think a way less serious Watchmen) while she was fighting this dude that tried to kill her, while the later stuff was more Scifi-ee with her fighting a computer program that tried to kill her. I love seeing a character's development from beginning to end and this character literally gives me that, like you see her born and you see her death. Overall this is a really cool story about a girls journey from little project child with no prospects to someone who is a leader and has saved the world on more than one occasion.

DC!!

I know I'm am a little late on this bit of news, but did you hear about the stuff that DC is pulling in September. Yea, of course you have. i heard it from my dad first, and he hasn't read a comic in 25 years. Basically i initially thought "another DC gimic," and now i am thinking that it is something a bit different than that. It was a really short article my dad sent me that summed up to saying all new number ones and day and date digital. immediately i thought Zero Hour and went about my day. Now i have heard more about it online and through CGS, and i am getting more excited.

First and foremost, i want my kids to have funny books when they exist (the kids not comics). I have been getting more and more worried about the survival of comics because they are not pulling in the new readers they need to stay relevant. I did not feel comics or the companies that produced and distributed them could pull in noobs on there own, and that's why i take it upon myself to get comics into new readers hands whenever possible. But, now it seems DC is doing something that hasn't been done since the first Crisis, injecting new life into the DCU by not only relaunching (not rebooting) stories and making it possible to distribute a comic potentially an infinite number of times with the DaD releasing. Thinking about it now i am realizing that they have maximized the amount of new readers they could get by not only releasing the new number ones (which always sell), but doing it with the digital. I can totally see some hippster with an Ipad being like "hey Batman #1 im cool with buying that, i did just by a $200 pair of skinny jeans." But anywho. the whole digital thing can really only help, just look to Amazon with the Kindle and Barns&Noble with the Nook then ask yourself why is Borders bankrupt.

While i know old and current fan will probably get wicked upset about all this, i feel they have little right to. This is comics and continuity is somewhat of a luxury, just look into the DCU's early history and how crazy things were. For older fans continuity left DC 25 years ago, some say they fixed it, other say it made things worse. Now we have another back log of continuity that scares off new readers, confuses casual readers, and annoyed fan boys. Retelling every ones story, if done well, all at once could make the cohesive DCU we have all wanted since the first crisis. New readers I hope can look forward to a universe that makes sense and is more relevant today. If done well this can be a great thing for new fans, old fans, and potential fans alike.

Some things that i am really looking forward to is the Mr. Terrific book and i heard Barbra is coming back as Batgirl. Something that scares me is that i don't know what they are going to do with Tim Drake currently Red Robin formerly Robin. I really hope they keep him around.

But we'll see. I think i will sum all this up with a kinda quote (paraphrased) i heard on CGS. Internet 5/30/11: "DC you have completely screwed all of the DCU especially Batman, Superman, and Wonderman." DC 5/31/11: "Fine Internet have it your way, we will change everything in a very profound way" Internet 5/31/11 +1sec:"NOOOOOOOOOO!!!!"

Static Shock: Special one shot

I had really been looking forward to this book for a few months now. Unfortunately it was very disappointing. The story was way to rushed, it felt like Virgil's uncle got out of jail, hung out with his family, when exercising got kidnapped, saved and then died all in the same day. The art seemed truncated also, it really felt like there were panels missing. In more than one scene the action just seemed to skip, only showing the windup then the fly ball without showing the hit. The best part of the book was the Dwayne McDuffie commemoration in the back. I really really would love to see a new Static book become an ongoing, but if this is the jump off point, this will be a pretty bad first step.

edit: i geuss this was just a commoration thing for Mr. McDuffie and they are pushing back the ongoing to the DC relaunch

Been a little while...

So, like the title says. Haven't really been busy or anything just procrastinating on making posts. But, I have been reading some cool new stuff and trying to stay caught up with my books while trying not to spending a fortune. I have a lot of new ideas for posts that i think will be cool, and news about what i have been up to also.


Well, i have made a lot of progress on my Milestone collecting i mentioned i was starting back in January. I have made substantial gains in Icon, Hardware, and Blood Syndicate, unfortunately not much progress in way of Static; the book that started it all. I just finished getting all 50 issues of Hardware last Sunday and that is pretty exciting. I have read the first 4 issues and its pretty interesting so far. I have less than 15 issues of left to get for both Blood Syndicate and Icon, and way less for Shadow Cabinet and Static. I lucked out and was able to get these books for free, just had to sort comics for a few Saturdays a few hours at a time. (suckers)

Since I last posted I  have read Superior by Mark Millar out through Marvel's Icon line. I had got the first issue when it came out cause it was new and i needed something new. That first issue was meh (not bad not good), but I got the next few issue later during a lite week and they were pretty cool. Issue four leaves me wanting to know more, and I'm a sucker for weird cliff hangers. If i had to describe the book I would say it is Tom Hank's Big meets Shazam; kid is given powers by an unknown force (space monkey) but cannot turn back and has to live with his friend while playing superhero and tyring to let his parents know he is ok. Sound like a meh concept but Millar seems to know were he is going and I'm really digging the art by Leinil Francis Yu. I think I like this series and it could catch on because it doesn't have the normal continuity baggage a lot of comics have today.

Some subject I think I'm going to try and speak on in the future will be, my thought on why we need the actual comic retailers, what i think the future of comics will look like, how are new comic fan made, how has the image of comics and there readers changed over the years, and where is the Black Panther movie.

Wondercon 2011 Green Lantern Footage

Just saw a four minute trailer for the new GL movie and this one hit me a bit harder than the first.(which had left me going meh) I guess they showed this longer clip at wondercon and i can see why. here. This should have been what they showed the first time, you got a lot more action and what the story was about rather than some low rendered cgi and the weird looking friend of Hal.

New Kirman in August -- The Infinite

Just heard about this new The Infinite book by Kirman on Newsarama.com and i think im kinda excited. This is gonna be a time travel book, which in my mind has the potential to be very cool, if it is done well. This is a story about a man (middle left) that goes back in time to train himself (left) to fight the Infinite (time travelling hoard that has taken his future - not pictured)

If this book can keep the time travel straight, and not go all Bill & Ted, but more like Back to the Future it could be cool.