December 2004

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Friday December 31, 2004 2:25pm #

Random Non-Sequiters

» I haven't been posting as regularly lately, but this post should keep the few of you reading this site for the comic stuff busy scrolling for a few seconds. I've added quite a bit of poseable plastic to my possesion recently as well that I haven't posted on but I just may do something more with those on this site later. Stay tuned ;)

» I played a round of Heroclix the other day and it was a perfect ending, If you're interested in such things read on a little: The game came down to Batman, Ultimate Captain America and Hal Jordan, each representing the three players in participation, in opposing corners on the rooftop of a small garage set in the center of the board.

Batman took a battle weary Hal Jordan down with a ranged batarang attack. This was followed on in the game by a brilliant flurry attack conquering of Batman by Ultimate Captain America's ranged shield strike that also ended up self-inflicting his own final death click as well; being that the second permitted attack roll was a snake-eye roll. Not a single character was left standing (well except a collection comprised of non-player pieces: billy goat, horse, pig and old woman, but that's another story alltogether) Riotous laughter all the way around the table. Good Game.

» Finally, before getting into the bulk of the post below, let me wish everyone out there a Happy New Years 2005, it's going to look alot like 2004, but you get to write a different year on your checks! So Have Fun!

Comments on Comics

Legion of Super-heroes #1 Waid, Kitson.
"Eat it Grandpa!". Everyone loves the Legion of Superheroes, but noone really wants to read about the Legion of Superheroes. That doesn't look to change anytime soon. I liked this restart issue but y'know it's still too many characters with funny names in a DC future where (as they put it right on page four) we are "... at the dawn of the 31st century, all we, our parents and their parents have ever known is security, stability and order. We're so sick of it, we could scream." Change that, and you lose what the Legion is, keep it and you have nothing to build a story on. I'll pick-up one or two more issues, but this series still seems like a long shot at success.

Adam Strange #4 Diggle, Ferry
I like rocket packs, fin head helmets, Zeta beams and all this stuff. If you're not on board already, go ahead and wait a little and pick-up the trade. If you are on board, you're probably already looking forward to each issue like I am, and you read it as soon as you got home last Wednesday. It's good stuff.

Green Lantern Rebirth #3 Johns, Van Sciver
Heavy on exposition, Geoff Johns lays his Hal Jordan redemption explanation framework bare. Skillfully with great technical grace he introduces a concept to the GL mythos that explains our favorite flyboy GL's meltdown and "feels" right. Of course we all know it's been added on, and this "wasn't the way it was going to be" originally, but I think a few years down the road when you squint at DC history, it will look like this was the "way it was" all along, even if this explanation is about a decade real-time too late. Good Stuff.

Teen Titans #19 Johns, McKone
The last issue of the 3 part Titans/Future Titans arc. Straight-up monthly Superhero comics don't get too much better than this. A solid read, and some great splash panel art. I just read that McKone will be going exclusively to Marvel to do art for FF with JMS. He'll be missed, not being on this title.

» What with the holiday's and all, I haven't blogged the Marvel Comics and Tradepaperbacks Previews Solicitations for March 2005 yet:
ULTIMATE IRON MAN #1 looks like an interesting Ult addition. • as does ULTIMATE SECRET #1 • Ultimate Captain Britain in ULTIMATES 2 #4 • I have no interest in: SPIDER-MAN UNLIMITED #8 but I would like to take this opportunity to say: Don't Draw Spidey's nose in profile, It's a "Mickey's ears from the side" type thing. It shouldn't be done.

Here's some cover picks (and one is a personal pan):

» And while I'm playing catch-up, Let's talk a little about last weeks Wizard. I don't regularly buy this, but this one has a very nice GL cover so natchly I picked it up. I enjoyed the Dido/Quesada interview article, it looks like both companies are going to play it conservative this year and try as hard as possible to sell books based off their leading properties. I'm getting nervous about all this Nightwing talk too. Grayson doesn't seem to me to be a good candidate to use as a villian, I hope they aren't going down that road.

- There was a Batman Begins article. I haven't read much at all about this movie. It's a given that I'm going to see it opening night regardless of anything I read about it. So I figure why bother reading about it and spoiling whatever twist on Bats they come up with.

- DC All Stars, Wizard's big anouncement that of course leaked out on the internet before the mag could get to the stores. My feeling? Eh. More Jim Lee Batman? Obviously I'm going to buy that. Morrison pretty much getting let loose to write Superman the way *he* wants to write it, with Quitely art? Sure I'm going to buy that. Do these comics come accross as anything other than high profile Elseworld's issues? No they don't. They also don't look like they will fit in any sort of continuity with eachother, so that part of my Fanboy persona isn't impressed. At the end of the day, I think a large portion of regular comic collectors want their "issues to count" and I'm not sure that DC is serving that predilection the best they could by stating up front, that continuity-wise, not even in some sort of "All Star Earth" pocket dimention way, these don't.

In the Countdown/up section, whatever it was:
- #13 Thor Relaunch. Nice art and an interesting premise, I'll pick up this one and try it out.
- #18 Alex Ross' New JLA Series. How is this not an "All Star" comic? The concept sounds good and the pencil sketches here were worth the price of the magazine alone. DC should just let Alex Ross be Editor in Chief of his own Pocket DC Universe and be done with it. :)
- #20 JMS on FF. This just doesn't sound good too me. The McKone art sounds like a good fit but JMS' pessimistic writing on Marvel's most optimistic title? I don't know.
- #34 Where's Sinestro. That's a funny page.
- #46 DC's going to try to do something with Shazam again. Shazam is a great character but he doessn't work in a DC universe that has Superman. The only way to make Shazam work would be to resurrect the concept of Earth-S and kick his whole crew back there (or alternatively put him back in the 40s and let him fufill the Golden Age Superman's role in current DCU History).
- #53 Moonknight. I haven't read this character in a decade but I've always liked the look. Just off the top of my head though, Marvel probably could have went a long way putting Moon Knight into the Ultimate Universe instead of that Hawkowl creation in Ultimate Adventures (which I liked however.) Ultimate Moon Knight could work I think. Moon Knight back in the regular Marvel U? Who knows.

Let's Go Surfing

» The Coming World of GPS Big Brother

» Pro-Indie comic creator Jeffrey Brown’s "Uncommisioned" Wolverine: Dying Time. It's an Indie Style Wolverine vs. Zombies Comic. 11 free pages at the bottom of the link.
via Silver Bullet Comic Books

» Ant-Man Movie Script in Development
via The Beat

» Hollywood to make their own superheros. Citing the sucess of Incredibles, the thought is that you don't need to make a superhero movie based on an established Marvel/DC character. Duh. But of course, most Superhero comics are pretty bad. There is no reason to believe that most Superhero movies will fair any better, original, licensed or otherwise.
via The Beat

Wednesday December 29, 2004 7:25am #

» Is today New Comics' Wednesday or does the Holiday last week make it New Comics Thursday this week? Anyone? Anyone? Bueller?

Let's Go Surfing

» Post mortem: Ron Marz on Green Lantern: Homecoming Newsrama Article

» Color Schemer Online Complimentary Color Picking App.

» HCRealm profile on the upcoming Kingdom Come Green Lantern Heroclix figure, 225 points of power.

» Sneak peak at DC Legacy Battlefield Conditions and Bystander Tokens: Jimmy Olson, Dr. Jeremiah Arkham, Ma Hunkle, Radiation Leak, Poor Teamwork.

» Great WIRED article on the creator of BitTorrent, give it a read.

» Have you seen the "Frank Miller's" Sin City Movie Trailer Yet? Very Cool.

» Cleansoftware.org. Nice Freeware Site.
via Tinyapps.org/blog/

Friday December 24, 2004 9:02am #

Tuesday December 21, 2004 7:10am #

» It's always fun to look at the referer logs and see what Google searches have brought people to my site. Today's outstanding google search of the day goes to:

does meijer have pornographic films

uh, no, no they don't. Good Luck with that search.

Sunday December 19, 2004 11:56pm #

» Saw Last Night's(?) "Wake the Dead" Justice League Episode. Pretty good.

» Read Unstable Molecules. Interesting non-superpowered elseworlds type take on the Fantastic Four. Part Eightball, part New Frontier (but pre-dates them both). Different type of read. I enjoyed it.

» Space Ghost #1 - Joe Kelly, Ariel Olivetti. Interesting take on the character. I enjoyed the book but don't think I will continue with the individual issues. Maybe I'll read the Trade sometime down the road.

» Marvel Age - Spider-Man Team-up #3 - Todd Dezago, Nathan Massengill & David Newbold. Featured Kitty Pryde, a favorite character of mine from when I was a kid. this was my first time picking up a "Marvel Age" title. I thought the book was fine enough. Marvel targets this line at kids, and it is well suited for the younger set. I'm not sure if I had kids how I would explain to them that this is a good Spider-man to read but other Spider-man comics are for grown-ups. I would think sooner rather than later kids would want to read the "real" Spider-man comics. Can't argue with the $1.75 price tag compared to average books, Good for seven or eight year olds I think.

» Identity Crisis #7 - Good wrap-up to a good series, let's just hope that DC doesn't go nuts with the dark themes going forward, given this book's sucess.

» New Avengers #1 - Bendis, Finch. I don't pick-up many Marvels, but this one looks like a good one to follow for awhile. Book has a TV show type set-up so far. Super Vilians get broken out of Super Prison, Heroes band together to chase down a different Super villian each story arc??? At least that's where it looks to be going. Fantastic Art.

Saturday December 18, 2004 7:34pm #

Comments on Comics

» DC Comics Previews Solicitaions for March 2005 and DC Direct Previews Solicitations
Comics of Note:
BATMAN CHRONICLES VOL. 1 TP: 11 issues in color, 192pages, $14.95 Begining a series to reprint all of Batman's comics. • SUPERMAN/BATMAN #19 featuring a stand alone Supergirl story • SUPERMAN: STRENGTH #3, final issue of Scott McCloud's prestige format Superman mini • ADAM STRANGE #7 guest starring Darkstars • DC COUNTDOWN #1, the next big DC Event Book • FIRESTORM #11 Nice Cover • GREEN LANTERN: REBIRTH #6, mini wraps up • JLA #112, The JLElite show up in the CSA story. This really sucks because I am trying so hard to pretend that the JLElite don't exist. • JLA CLASSIFIED #5, Super Buddies story continues • TEEN TITANS #22, Identity Crisis tie-in. • THE PACT #1, superteam with Invincible,

» Image Comics Previews Solicitations for March 2005
FLIGHT, VOLUME TWO GN • THE IMAGINARIES #1, looks like a Toy Story kindof thing • INVINCIBLE #22 •

Let's Go Surfing

» A Magneto/Proffesor X Prequel?
via The Beat

» Marvel Legends 9 (IX) Figure Pics

» Blade Trinity Director to helm Flash Movie. I think this is a hard superhero movie to do. Challenges to overcome: The TV show has shown that you really can't do the fake muscle look on Flash. If you stay true to character, then in theory the entire movie should be done in Matrix Bullet time. If they do Wally as mentioned, then you have the plot point of introducing Crisis and or Teen Titans to really do the character justice, none of which is likely to be done.

I think Flash works best in a richly detailed superhero world, and not the segmented off, only one superhero, universes that the movies construct. Plus DC's only ever had maybe two good superhero movies. They are so gonna screw this up.

DC should make a Justice League Movie, then they should spin off the individual "properties" (what a terrible term). That would work so much better.
via FARK

» This Guy is doing a 72 hour comic. Neat self promo.
via Scott Mcloud's Morning Improv

» Desk from a single sheet of plywood

» Mug with built-in cookie holder

» Darth Vader Battle Buddy.

» DC Heroclix Feats: Fortitude, Stunning Blow, Lazurus Pit. DC Heroclix Team Abillities: Calculator, Outsiders, Crime Syndicate.
via HCRealms

» A Bad-Ass Rubberband Gun

» Interesting consumerism article. Fight Club and American Beauty references used as illustrations, What we need to see is that consumption is not about conformity, it’s about distinction. People consume in order to set themselves apart from others. To show that they are cooler (Nike shoes), better connected (the latest nightclub), better informed (single-malt Scotch), morally superior (Guatemalan handcrafts), or just plain richer (bmws). The problem is that all of these comparative preferences generate competitive consumption. “Keeping up with the Joneses,” in today’s world, does not always mean buying a tract home in the suburbs. It means buying a loft downtown, eating at the right restaurants, listening to obscure bands, having a pile of Mountain Equipment Co-op gear and vacationing in Thailand. It doesn’t matter how much people spend on these things, what matters is the competitive structure of the consumption. Once too many people get on the bandwagon, it forces the early adopters to get off, in order to preserve their distinction. This is what generates the cycles of obsolescence and waste that we condemn as “consumerism.” ---snip--- In many cases, competition is an intrinsic feature of the goods that we consume. Economists call these “positional goods”—goods that one person can have only if many others do not. Examples include not only penthouse apartments, but also wilderness hikes and underground music. It is often claimed that a growing economy is like the rising tide that lifts all boats. But a growing economy does not create more antiques, more rare art, or more downtown real estate, it just makes them more expensive. Many of us fail to recognize how much of our consumption is devoted to these positional goods. Furthermore, we are often forced into competitive consumption, just to defend ourselves against the nuisances generated by other people’s consumption. It is unreasonable, for example, for anyone living in a Canadian city to own anything other than a small, fuel-efficient car. At the same time, in many parts of the North America, the number of big SUVs on the road has reached the point where people are forced to think twice before buying a small car. The SUVs make the roads so dangerous for other drivers that everyone has to consider buying a larger car just to protect themselves.

Of course there is heavy irony that this anti-consumerism article is an excerpt from an upcoming book, Rebel Sell, which the end of the article informs you can be bought from Amazon.com

Sunday December 12, 2004 4:46pm #

Comments on Comics

Superman #211 Azzarello and Lee
Nice art, slightly more coherent story. Superman fighting Wonder Woman. Ok if you're into that sort of thing. Not really my deal.

Superman/Batman #15 Loeb, Pacheco
Superman AND Batman figting Wonder Woman in this one. Is this a trend? Does someone want to psycho analyze this? In anycase, this one is better than the Azzarello/Lee story above. The "What If" the Evil Legion bad-guys came back-in-time and raised Superman and Batman story continues. Fans of elseworlds will enjoy this one. Prominent placement of Freedom Force (Why are these WWII heroes still young? Anybody, anybody?). Uncle Sam ends up with the Green Lantern ring in this Timeline and uses it by focussing the "Will of the People", which as these things go is a nice spin. Go back an issue and pick up this run, it's better than you would think given the subject matter.

Supreme Power #13 Straczynski, Frank
I like this book, but it seems to get darker with every issue. Dark in a 90s comics sort of way. Hopefully JMS mixes it up a little down the road and throws some lighter moments into the series.

The Ultimates 2 #1 Millar, Hitch
Good stuff.

JLA #109 Busiek, Garney
Crime Syndicate story continues. There's a feeling of "been there, read this." but it's an ok issue. Better than most of the past year or so's JLA.

Action Comics #822 Austen, Reis
I'm not a regular Superman reader (Superman/Batman fairly non-continuity and non-counting, and the unintelligible Azzarello/Lee's current run not withstanding.) but I picked this one up due to the nice Superman and Superboy cover. You can really feel the new Superman Birthright origin retcon having washed over this issue. Overall not bad, if you liked the recent Superman/Supergirl story in Superman/Batman then you'll enjoy this as well. Only real complaint is that this is probably a one issue story being stretched over more months than it needs to be to accomadate the large feature movie style splash panels. They are very nice splash panels though.

Comments on TV

» I saw The Life and Death of Peter Sellers on HBO last night. Enjoyed the non-traditional movie structure and the breaking of the the 4th wall moments. Interesting film. If you like Indy-feel films, Do see.

Sunday December 12, 2004 1:53am #

Comments on TV

» Tonight's episode of Justice League. Big battle, lots of Superheroes fighting four-legged mouser robots. Best line of the show: "I'm going to need both hands Professor Palmer". Wonder Woman doesn't have pockets, bummer for The Atom ;) Low on plot, but good stuff overall.

Saturday December 11, 2004 1:10pm #

Random Non-Sequiters

» New Justice League Cartoon tonight. I believe that this one is written by Warren Ellis.

Let's Go Surfing

» There is going to be a Babylon 5 movie
via Slashdot

» Charlie and the Chocolate Factory Movie Trailer Depp. Burton. Interesting.

» War of the Worlds Trailer Cruise. Spielberg.

» Heroclix Convention Exclusive: Dark Phoenix

Sunday December 5, 2004 8:24pm #

Word of the Day
existentialism n. - A philosophy that emphasizes the uniqueness and isolation of the individual experience in a hostile or indifferent universe, regards human existence as unexplainable, and stresses freedom of choice and responsibility for the consequences of one's acts.

Sunday December 5, 2004 12:25am #

Random Non-Sequiters

» Tonights' episode of the Justice League was pretty good. It featured updated versions of the Hanna Barbarra owned members of the Superfriends: Samurai, Apache Chief, The Wonder Twins, and Black Vulcan or as they are renamed the Ultimen: Wind Dragon, Long Shadow, Shifter and Downpour, and Juice. Maxwell Lord and Amanda Waller appeared. The Suicide Squad was mentioned. The best part was the exchange between Bats and Waller at the end of the episode. Good Stuff. (Photo lifted from another page)

» Superman Ice Cream with Green Hot Fudge Kryptonite Topping. MMMMMM, Good Stuff.

Let's Go Surfing

» Dodecahedron Calendar
via Boing Boing

» Neat custom Wayne Manor/Batcave Heroclix playset
via HCRealms

» Living to 1000?
via Boing Boing

» Cereality Cereal Bar and Cafe.
via Boing Boing (and someone at work)

» Candy Flavored Cigarettes

» Two neat gadgets Scrolling LED Name Badge and Mustek Personal Media Player
via Think Geek

» Ever wonder how Google works?

» Convention exclusive Large format Fiery Phoenix Heroclix

» Counter top comic racks

I don't spell check! Most of the time the Quotes of the Day are by someone else, and sometimes I misremember them abit... and they are taken out of context. I often state my opinions as facts. I'm aware that can be annoying? Occasionally I edit content on these pages after initially posting them. Sometimes I type the word "Fnck". Flip the "n" over... I don't have a problem with the word myself, I just type it that way to slip it past overzealous work censorship programs. I'm also aware that I spend too much time on the internet.