Hello and welcome to the 01/28/15 edition of The Comic Shop!
Lots of big news in nerd culture this week!
First.....The trailer for Josh Trank's "Fantastic Four" made it's debut. I have to say it doesn't look all bad, but I think your humble blogger will wait for word-of-mouth and professionally written reviews before I plunk down my small fortune to see it.
Second....Just announced tonight "True Blood" actor Mehcad Brooks will snap pictures as Superman's no. 1 pal Jimmy Olsen on CBSs "Supergirl". I don't know enough about the young man to make a determination, but from the results of "Arrow" & "The Flash" this group knows what they are doing in putting these projects together. In all honesty I'm not the biggest Supergirl fan, but I am looking forward to this series.
Third....Paul Feig confirmed the new Ghostbusters this past week by announcing Kristen Wiig, Melissa McCarthy, Kate McKinnon, and Leslie Jones as the new titular Busters. I don't anticipate even seeing this in all honesty, but I'm sure it will be good by today's comedic standards. Feig's "Bridesmaids" was a runaway hit, and I found it quite enjoyable. I still find this less offensive to my nerd brain than the Ghostbusters 3 ideas that Akroyd was peddling. I'm glad this is the alternative I guess.
Fourth...As a huge Indiana Jones fan I would love to see Chris Pratt put on the fedora, and swing a whip into the next Indy adventure. He's quickly become a legit action star while maintaining his family friendly loveable doofus Andy Dwyer persona from "Parks and Rec". I'm less thrilled by the prospect of this being called a reboot, because in all honesty I feel that is wholly unnecessary. With the Jones movies being based on early cinema serials there is no need (in my mind) to explain continuity changes and the like.
Fifth.....Actor Tyreese Gibson (F&F movies, Transformers series) is petitioning WB hard to play a Green Lantern in a future film. In all fairness to Mr. Gibson I hope WB simply says "pass". This is an actor with limited range and it's not difficult to see that he essentially plays "loud smartass guy" in every movie.
Sixth....I'm as huge a Batman fan as anyone. That said I hope they do not use up an Affleck appearance in "Suicide Squad". Not that it wouldn't be cool to see Batman in the movie, but WB needs to get away from the stigma that they can't do anything successful without Batman involved. "SS" would be a great opportunity for a standalone project to prove that WB can be viable with it's plans for an ongoing shared universe.
Onto the reviews........Spoilers below
Robin returned to duty in "Batman & Robin" in last week's release. While the book itself is of good quality I have some issue with the death and return of Damian Wayne. Not to mentioned we now have a superpowered Robin that completely invalidates Batman. It's one issue in so I will have to see where it goes, but I am not happy with this current creative direction. As a fan of the Snyder style Batman stories it was hard for me to see the fantastical journey of the Dark Knight making an incursion into Apokolips in the HellBat suit to save his son.
The penultimate chapter of Spiderverse took place in "Amazing Spider-man" and I am still quite enjoying the story. I think if had more money to invest in comics I would buy the tie-ins, but I'm happy with the main narrative from Dan Slott in ASM. Lots of crazy ridiculous things happen, but they all seem to make sense in the web that Slott has woven. Bonus points for the fact that my fave SpOCK is a major player in the ongoing saga.
"Grayson" has taken some getting used to for me; however, I have found the last few issues to be rather enjoyable. It is a bit of odd storytelling, but it is quite good. I would still like to see Dick return to his superhero persona, but I think this might be a good way to make him mean more to a wider audience.
I think that's all I wanted to hit on for today....so happy reading and I will see you next time at The Comic Shop!
Wednesday, January 28, 2015
Tuesday, January 13, 2015
Let's pretend I posted this 12 days ago....The Second Annual Shoppie Awards!!!
Hello and Welcome to the abandoned Ames store in Mars Hill, Indiana! We spared no expense in our change of venue from the party room at the local TGI Friday's. Lets get on to the most prestigious awards in comics!!!! (Beware there will be comic and movie spoilers..on with the shitshow)
Most Surprising Face Turn of 2014: Our first award of the night goes to a man that has a hairstyle not unlike my own. In 2014 he stomped out crime in a Norman Osborne-ian fashion. The winner of most surprising face turn right from the pages of Geoff Johns' "Forever Evil" event....drumroll....LEX LUTHOR
Most Surprising Heel Turn of 2014: Not a lot of really strong contenders in this category, but Jason Aaron anted up by revealing that Nick Fury had been straight up murdering living planets, gods, and the Watcher himself in the "Original Sin" event. Honrable Mention goes to the Superior IronMan, but it is only a few issues in.
Best Crossover Event of 2014: A lot of potential in this category, but with the humble bloggers humble funds I did not get to read them all. Therefore my favorite and most recommended would be the aforementioned "Forever Evil" event. The "Trinity War" preamble was also relatively good.
Shooting Star Award (for star making performance in a feature film): Strong contenders in this category. Evan Peters was surprisingly awesome as Quicksilver in "X-men: DOFP", Anthony Mackie stole the show as Falcon in "Captain America: The Winter Soldier", and Chris Pratt showed he had leading man potential as Star Lord in the smash hit "Guardians of the Galaxy". After careful thought and consideration the committee has deemed that Chris Pratt will take home the hardware this year. Not only did he steal the show in "GOTG", but was the lead voice in the surprisingly awesome (and nominated for Best Picture) "Lego Movie".
The Peanut in the Turd Award (good performance in a bad movie): Andrew Garfield's portrayal of Spider-man in the underwhelming "ASM 2" was one of the few bright spots. It wasn't the worst movie I've ever seen, but I think if they would've pulled more focus to Spider-man in this Spider-man sequel it would've been a better received sequel.
The Whoopsie Award: 2015 is the 75th anniversary of the introduction of "The Flash". DC did not realize that this milestone was happening after Superman and Batman in previous years. That is an unacceptable offense for a publisher that has made money off of the scarlet speedsters' television debut and comics. A last minute push of variant covers was too little a mea culpa and does little to relieve the sting of the insult.
The "I've Made a Huge Mistake Award": Just an excuse to give Will Arnett an award here. I really enjoyed his work as Batman in "The Lego Movie", and apparently audiences did as well as work is currently underway on a Lego Batman solo movie. Arnett also wasn't too terrible in the "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" reboot, and he provided some of his droll humor to the movie.
Best Male Performance in a ComicMovie: Going with the safe pick here. Our first double winner of the night.....Chris Pratt! From his role on "Parks and Recreation" Pratt had to drop considerable weight to get himself into heroic shape and he made the necessary sacrifices to do so. He brought a lot of wit and humor to the role, and helped to make something that people weren't sure about into a smash hit.
Best Female Performance in a ComicMovie: Lots of women participated in Comic Movies in 2014, but I felt only one had a consistently strong performance....Scarlett Johansson!! Her role as Natasha Romanoff is portrayed as a strong female lead. One of the refreshing things about "Captain America: The Winter Soldier" is that it had little to no romantic subplot. Widow was Cap's teammate and nothing more, and that is not what your humble blogger expected when the casting was announced for the Cap sequel.
Best Comic Run in 2014: This is out of left field and some people may not particularly care for it, but all of this is a matter of opinion. The award for best comic run of 2014 goes to Jeff Lemire & Andrea Sorrentino's run on "Green Arrow". It is my feeling that the work of these creators is on par with a duo like Scott Snyder/Greg Capullo "Batman", Mark Waid/Chris Samnee "Daredevil", or Dan Slott/Humberto Ramos, etc. "Spider-man". This comic was a little more under the radar, but in their limited run they accomplished a lot with Ollie. Some of the better stories included "The Outsiders War", "The Longbow Hunters", and Ollie's run-ins with Komodo. While it wasn't a direct companion piece to television's "Arrow" it would be a good pick up for any fan of the emerald archer. I will say that any of the previously mentioned titles would also be a good choice for this award, or even anything with Geoff Johns on it would be good.
Hero of the Boob Tube Award (best in TV): Superhero television is a growing goliath with a lot of new projects coming out in the next year or so. In 2014 the best of the boob tube ; however, was the CW television's "Arrow". The 2nd season really brought the lighting and the thunder to the small screen, and made up for some areas that needed improvement from the first season.
Best Movie: Our final award goes to the best Comic Book Movie of 2014. In my opinion the best comic book movie of the year was "Captain America: The Winter Soldier". While "GOTG" and "X-men: DOFP" were excellent movies in their own right I feel that the Cap sequel accomplished a lot more of the big picture stuff. It was basically a reboot of the Marvel Universe that ensured that we wouldn't be given the same set-up for all of these upcoming "Avengers" sequels. Like I mentioned before there was also a breakout performance, and the refreshing lack of romantic interest in the movie. This movie answered questions that we did not know were even going to be asked. I did not know what to expect going in, and while it wasn't a direct adaptation of the source material it was an excellent alternative.
Thank you all for reading and for your continued support of "The Comic Shop Blog"......
Most Surprising Face Turn of 2014: Our first award of the night goes to a man that has a hairstyle not unlike my own. In 2014 he stomped out crime in a Norman Osborne-ian fashion. The winner of most surprising face turn right from the pages of Geoff Johns' "Forever Evil" event....drumroll....LEX LUTHOR
Most Surprising Heel Turn of 2014: Not a lot of really strong contenders in this category, but Jason Aaron anted up by revealing that Nick Fury had been straight up murdering living planets, gods, and the Watcher himself in the "Original Sin" event. Honrable Mention goes to the Superior IronMan, but it is only a few issues in.
Best Crossover Event of 2014: A lot of potential in this category, but with the humble bloggers humble funds I did not get to read them all. Therefore my favorite and most recommended would be the aforementioned "Forever Evil" event. The "Trinity War" preamble was also relatively good.
Shooting Star Award (for star making performance in a feature film): Strong contenders in this category. Evan Peters was surprisingly awesome as Quicksilver in "X-men: DOFP", Anthony Mackie stole the show as Falcon in "Captain America: The Winter Soldier", and Chris Pratt showed he had leading man potential as Star Lord in the smash hit "Guardians of the Galaxy". After careful thought and consideration the committee has deemed that Chris Pratt will take home the hardware this year. Not only did he steal the show in "GOTG", but was the lead voice in the surprisingly awesome (and nominated for Best Picture) "Lego Movie".
The Peanut in the Turd Award (good performance in a bad movie): Andrew Garfield's portrayal of Spider-man in the underwhelming "ASM 2" was one of the few bright spots. It wasn't the worst movie I've ever seen, but I think if they would've pulled more focus to Spider-man in this Spider-man sequel it would've been a better received sequel.
The Whoopsie Award: 2015 is the 75th anniversary of the introduction of "The Flash". DC did not realize that this milestone was happening after Superman and Batman in previous years. That is an unacceptable offense for a publisher that has made money off of the scarlet speedsters' television debut and comics. A last minute push of variant covers was too little a mea culpa and does little to relieve the sting of the insult.
The "I've Made a Huge Mistake Award": Just an excuse to give Will Arnett an award here. I really enjoyed his work as Batman in "The Lego Movie", and apparently audiences did as well as work is currently underway on a Lego Batman solo movie. Arnett also wasn't too terrible in the "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" reboot, and he provided some of his droll humor to the movie.
Best Male Performance in a ComicMovie: Going with the safe pick here. Our first double winner of the night.....Chris Pratt! From his role on "Parks and Recreation" Pratt had to drop considerable weight to get himself into heroic shape and he made the necessary sacrifices to do so. He brought a lot of wit and humor to the role, and helped to make something that people weren't sure about into a smash hit.
Best Female Performance in a ComicMovie: Lots of women participated in Comic Movies in 2014, but I felt only one had a consistently strong performance....Scarlett Johansson!! Her role as Natasha Romanoff is portrayed as a strong female lead. One of the refreshing things about "Captain America: The Winter Soldier" is that it had little to no romantic subplot. Widow was Cap's teammate and nothing more, and that is not what your humble blogger expected when the casting was announced for the Cap sequel.
Best Comic Run in 2014: This is out of left field and some people may not particularly care for it, but all of this is a matter of opinion. The award for best comic run of 2014 goes to Jeff Lemire & Andrea Sorrentino's run on "Green Arrow". It is my feeling that the work of these creators is on par with a duo like Scott Snyder/Greg Capullo "Batman", Mark Waid/Chris Samnee "Daredevil", or Dan Slott/Humberto Ramos, etc. "Spider-man". This comic was a little more under the radar, but in their limited run they accomplished a lot with Ollie. Some of the better stories included "The Outsiders War", "The Longbow Hunters", and Ollie's run-ins with Komodo. While it wasn't a direct companion piece to television's "Arrow" it would be a good pick up for any fan of the emerald archer. I will say that any of the previously mentioned titles would also be a good choice for this award, or even anything with Geoff Johns on it would be good.
Hero of the Boob Tube Award (best in TV): Superhero television is a growing goliath with a lot of new projects coming out in the next year or so. In 2014 the best of the boob tube ; however, was the CW television's "Arrow". The 2nd season really brought the lighting and the thunder to the small screen, and made up for some areas that needed improvement from the first season.
Best Movie: Our final award goes to the best Comic Book Movie of 2014. In my opinion the best comic book movie of the year was "Captain America: The Winter Soldier". While "GOTG" and "X-men: DOFP" were excellent movies in their own right I feel that the Cap sequel accomplished a lot more of the big picture stuff. It was basically a reboot of the Marvel Universe that ensured that we wouldn't be given the same set-up for all of these upcoming "Avengers" sequels. Like I mentioned before there was also a breakout performance, and the refreshing lack of romantic interest in the movie. This movie answered questions that we did not know were even going to be asked. I did not know what to expect going in, and while it wasn't a direct adaptation of the source material it was an excellent alternative.
Thank you all for reading and for your continued support of "The Comic Shop Blog"......
Friday, December 26, 2014
Upon further review Jonathan Liebesman's Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles....
Hello and welcome to an unscheduled appearance of The Comic Shop!
I had a chance last week to check out the new "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" movie. While I find it to be an extremely flawed film I think that it got the essence of the "TMNT" franchise right. Let's bang through this movie in the good, the bad, and the ugly style.
The Good:
Nothing will ever change my love of the Jim Henson crafted suits in the original movie. They were the stuff of "movie magic" legend. If you have the old movie on dvd, or pop it up on netflix take a minute to appreciate the tiny intricate details of the original suits. They are a true work of modern day art and should not ever be forgotten. That said, I did not mind the CGI in the new movie. While CGI is a medium that dates itself faster than old school puppets and wires ever could it gives filmmakers the chance to do things with the characters that would be next to impossible for a guy in a rubber suit.
I also like the individual renderings of the brothers, as they now have more personality than before. It's a little thing but it helps to give further definition to the turtles. In previous movies one major complaint was that Raph was the only one that went through any character development, but that is not the case here.
I'm more surprised to be writing this than you are reading it but I did not mind Megan Fox as April O'neil. While she is not the best actress in the world I didn't think she was any worse at the role than Judith Hoag or Paige Turico. In fact April really was given a lead role in this film and helped to drive the events of the movie. They made some really convenient and odd choices about her history with the turtles and objectified her constantly but that will be filed under UGLY and we will get to that later.
Sure the humor was juvenile at best, but it fits what one would expect from a group of teenagers so it wasn't too out of the ordinary. I thought a lot of it was actually quite good considering the source, but I can see why people would take issue with it. A lot of jokes in the original film were more keyed to the adults in the audience, but this version is complete fan service to the young people.
It was cool to actually see them use their weapons and once again that they each had their own particular set of skills. I really like the team aspect that they each brought something unique to the table. It has what we have come to expect from these types of movies with the team dynamic being done so well in "Avengers" & "Guardians of the Galaxy".
The Bad:
Who in their right mind thought casting Johnny Knoxville as the voice of Leonardo was a good idea? While I could say the same about Corey Feldman's Donatello in the original I thought he actually did a good job of getting down the innate humor of the super intelligent turtle. Knoxville's voice was a constant distraction for your humble blogger, and I found it quite grating as the movie continued on. I would hope in future movies they hire a more nondescript actor to voice the lead turtle, hopefully someone that isn't as much of a jackass.
I did not like the character design of Splinter in this movie one bit. He looked like some kind of rat/dog/horse hybrid, and while plausible due to mutation (I guess) the prehensile tail was a bit much. While what I said about the CGI turtles is still true, because we saw Splinter go toe-to-toe with the Shredder, Splinter is a character (much like Yoda) that was leaps and bounds better as a puppet. I can't really explain it, because it's more of a personal preference.
Speaking of the Shredder, I probably would've filed it under good if their original intent was to have the Oroku Sake Shredder in the movie instead of the Eric Sakks (William Fichtner) reinvention of the character. I love William Fichtner as an actor, and I completely expect him to take the Shredder mantle at some point in this new franchise. I just think the way they shoehorned "japanese guy in the shadows" into the movie was cheap and clumsy.
The Ugly:
First.....This is a pretty full category because there are a LOT of things that I had gripes with. The main problem that I had with the movie was that it falls under the pretty common nowadays problem of having the "sin of convenience". Oh, April had the turtles as pets and they were injected by her father and Eric Sakks with alien ooze to concoct a mutagen that would cure a disease that Sakks planned to release in a false flag attack on NYC. I've written here before that I am absolutely fed up with this lazy version of storytelling. It's hard to explain why April cares about the turtles...lets just make them her pets. It's stupid. Granted it's no worse than a rat learning ninja skills from his owner and then happening upon the turtles and the mutagen in the sewer. A LOT of convenience for my tastes, but I try not to nitpick too heavily because the turtles were created to poke fun at the absurdity of comics in the 80's. It's just frustrating for me that they feel it is necessary to create these emotional and relational tethers between characters. Sometimes in life just random shit happens and people have to react to it, and guess what it makes for interesting stories.
Second.... Sakks' dialogue is about the dimmest crap I have ever heard. He literally says "I want you to drain all of their blood even if it kills them". I'm no scientist, but I'm pretty sure it'll 100% kill them to have no blood. There are many more examples, but this was the first one that came to mind.
Third.... The objectification of April was inappropriate and unnecessary in my mind. We all get that Fox's best attribute is her good looks, but it is not needed in the plot to call constant attention to it. Whether it's Verne (Will Arnett) staring at her ass at an inopportune moment, or April's former pet Mikey oogling her like a horny teen there is wayyy to much of this movie in service to objectifying April's looks.
Fourth...The plot of this movie is an amalgam of the unnecessary parental back story from "Amazing Spider-man", the release of a toxin from a tower to threaten a city from "Amazing Spider-man", the false flag we have the cause & the cure scenario from "Mission Impossible II", "V for Vendetta", and many others. The magic blood from "Star Trek: Into Darkness" also made an appearance. So more or less it seems the writers took all of their ideas from semi-recent movies that they saw.
Wrapping up.....That's all about I have left to say about this film. I have seen sites like Kinja, and Rifftrax call "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" the worst movie of 2014, and I can understand where they are coming from. I will say; however, despite it's faults it captures the essence, and the inherent silliness of the franchise. I went out and bought a cheap copy the week it came out, and I am happy with my decision. Ultimately, dear reader it is up to you what you like and don't like. This was the only remake I saw in 2014 and it was totally worth it for me. Watch it for yourself and make your own decision!
P.S. I took some time on Xmas day to get into the first issue of IDW's mega TMNT-Ghostbusters crossover event, and I loved it. I will have to give IDW some of my money love in the future to catch up with two of my favorite things from my youth.
Happy reading and I will see you next time at The Comic Shop!!
I had a chance last week to check out the new "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" movie. While I find it to be an extremely flawed film I think that it got the essence of the "TMNT" franchise right. Let's bang through this movie in the good, the bad, and the ugly style.
The Good:
Nothing will ever change my love of the Jim Henson crafted suits in the original movie. They were the stuff of "movie magic" legend. If you have the old movie on dvd, or pop it up on netflix take a minute to appreciate the tiny intricate details of the original suits. They are a true work of modern day art and should not ever be forgotten. That said, I did not mind the CGI in the new movie. While CGI is a medium that dates itself faster than old school puppets and wires ever could it gives filmmakers the chance to do things with the characters that would be next to impossible for a guy in a rubber suit.
I also like the individual renderings of the brothers, as they now have more personality than before. It's a little thing but it helps to give further definition to the turtles. In previous movies one major complaint was that Raph was the only one that went through any character development, but that is not the case here.
I'm more surprised to be writing this than you are reading it but I did not mind Megan Fox as April O'neil. While she is not the best actress in the world I didn't think she was any worse at the role than Judith Hoag or Paige Turico. In fact April really was given a lead role in this film and helped to drive the events of the movie. They made some really convenient and odd choices about her history with the turtles and objectified her constantly but that will be filed under UGLY and we will get to that later.
Sure the humor was juvenile at best, but it fits what one would expect from a group of teenagers so it wasn't too out of the ordinary. I thought a lot of it was actually quite good considering the source, but I can see why people would take issue with it. A lot of jokes in the original film were more keyed to the adults in the audience, but this version is complete fan service to the young people.
It was cool to actually see them use their weapons and once again that they each had their own particular set of skills. I really like the team aspect that they each brought something unique to the table. It has what we have come to expect from these types of movies with the team dynamic being done so well in "Avengers" & "Guardians of the Galaxy".
The Bad:
Who in their right mind thought casting Johnny Knoxville as the voice of Leonardo was a good idea? While I could say the same about Corey Feldman's Donatello in the original I thought he actually did a good job of getting down the innate humor of the super intelligent turtle. Knoxville's voice was a constant distraction for your humble blogger, and I found it quite grating as the movie continued on. I would hope in future movies they hire a more nondescript actor to voice the lead turtle, hopefully someone that isn't as much of a jackass.
I did not like the character design of Splinter in this movie one bit. He looked like some kind of rat/dog/horse hybrid, and while plausible due to mutation (I guess) the prehensile tail was a bit much. While what I said about the CGI turtles is still true, because we saw Splinter go toe-to-toe with the Shredder, Splinter is a character (much like Yoda) that was leaps and bounds better as a puppet. I can't really explain it, because it's more of a personal preference.
Speaking of the Shredder, I probably would've filed it under good if their original intent was to have the Oroku Sake Shredder in the movie instead of the Eric Sakks (William Fichtner) reinvention of the character. I love William Fichtner as an actor, and I completely expect him to take the Shredder mantle at some point in this new franchise. I just think the way they shoehorned "japanese guy in the shadows" into the movie was cheap and clumsy.
The Ugly:
First.....This is a pretty full category because there are a LOT of things that I had gripes with. The main problem that I had with the movie was that it falls under the pretty common nowadays problem of having the "sin of convenience". Oh, April had the turtles as pets and they were injected by her father and Eric Sakks with alien ooze to concoct a mutagen that would cure a disease that Sakks planned to release in a false flag attack on NYC. I've written here before that I am absolutely fed up with this lazy version of storytelling. It's hard to explain why April cares about the turtles...lets just make them her pets. It's stupid. Granted it's no worse than a rat learning ninja skills from his owner and then happening upon the turtles and the mutagen in the sewer. A LOT of convenience for my tastes, but I try not to nitpick too heavily because the turtles were created to poke fun at the absurdity of comics in the 80's. It's just frustrating for me that they feel it is necessary to create these emotional and relational tethers between characters. Sometimes in life just random shit happens and people have to react to it, and guess what it makes for interesting stories.
Second.... Sakks' dialogue is about the dimmest crap I have ever heard. He literally says "I want you to drain all of their blood even if it kills them". I'm no scientist, but I'm pretty sure it'll 100% kill them to have no blood. There are many more examples, but this was the first one that came to mind.
Third.... The objectification of April was inappropriate and unnecessary in my mind. We all get that Fox's best attribute is her good looks, but it is not needed in the plot to call constant attention to it. Whether it's Verne (Will Arnett) staring at her ass at an inopportune moment, or April's former pet Mikey oogling her like a horny teen there is wayyy to much of this movie in service to objectifying April's looks.
Fourth...The plot of this movie is an amalgam of the unnecessary parental back story from "Amazing Spider-man", the release of a toxin from a tower to threaten a city from "Amazing Spider-man", the false flag we have the cause & the cure scenario from "Mission Impossible II", "V for Vendetta", and many others. The magic blood from "Star Trek: Into Darkness" also made an appearance. So more or less it seems the writers took all of their ideas from semi-recent movies that they saw.
Wrapping up.....That's all about I have left to say about this film. I have seen sites like Kinja, and Rifftrax call "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" the worst movie of 2014, and I can understand where they are coming from. I will say; however, despite it's faults it captures the essence, and the inherent silliness of the franchise. I went out and bought a cheap copy the week it came out, and I am happy with my decision. Ultimately, dear reader it is up to you what you like and don't like. This was the only remake I saw in 2014 and it was totally worth it for me. Watch it for yourself and make your own decision!
P.S. I took some time on Xmas day to get into the first issue of IDW's mega TMNT-Ghostbusters crossover event, and I loved it. I will have to give IDW some of my money love in the future to catch up with two of my favorite things from my youth.
Happy reading and I will see you next time at The Comic Shop!!
Tuesday, December 16, 2014
Tales from the SpiderVerse and other news of little importance
Hello all and welcome to the 12/16/14 edition of The Comic Shop!
As I mentioned last week the 2nd annual Shoppies are on their way before the year is out so keep an eye out for that.
First....The web (pun unintended) has been set abuzz with rumors and tidbits from the hacked Sony internal e-mails. Much of that news that has gotten fanboy ears to perk up for miles around has to do with discussions to create a shared universe in which Spidey could be an Avenger. While I think it would be a great get for Disney/Marvel I will remain cautiously optimistic.
There are a lot of concerns that would need to be addressed, and Sony would have to get their house in order immediately to have a successful partnership. There was also talk that Avi Arad would have to be dismissed before Disney/Marvel would even enter discussions with Marvel.
Other discussions concerned possibly letting Spidey's rights go back to Marvel, which would still put a superhero with 5 movies to his name back to square one, but I digress.
Probably the juiciest tidbit to come out of the email hack was that Andrew Garfield reportedly was supposed to have shown up to meet investors, but called one hour prior to the meeting to cancel. He was then essentially fired. I hope it comes out that this is not the case, because despite a lot of the faults of the ASM movies Garfield was a solid PP/Spidey in my opinion.
We will see what happens, but I would not count on seeing Spidey sling a web in "Captain America: Civil War" or any other Marvel movie any time soon.
Second.....I have a long tradition here at TCS of being dead wrong about things. I have to say that the mega-Spidey event "Spider-verse" is no exception to this rule. While I was dismissive of it at the outset I picked up the issues to keep my run from TASM #700 going. When I actually read the books I was blown away by a lot of what Dan Slott had brought to the page. This is an actual good event of significance, but most importantly IT IS FUN. Books like this are the reason why I love comics, and continue to read and collect as a 30+ year old man. Like I said the story has serious consequences; however, Slott does not take that fact too seriously in the storytelling. It is a self-aware story that stays away from the Christopher Nolan trap of having to constantly remind everyone how important the story they are reading/watching is.
One example of what I consider fun is when Miles Morales teams up with a young version of Peter Parker to travel through a portal to a universe that is.....The 1960's Spider-man cartoon. "I guess that's the Bugle right there" "How do you know?" "It's the only building that has any writing on it". I'm not one to LOL or overact to things in comics, but this had me in absolute stitches. Just the subtle humor to poke at how absurd the whole thing is. Point being that there are a lot of "events" in comics now, but so far this one has been the right amount of bang for this blogger's buck.
Third.... This may just be the Dad in me, but I saw a post in a comic collecting site where a guy paid $10-$15 to go to see the new Hobbit movie on the off chance that there was a "BvS" trailer. If you pay that much to watch something that will likely be free the next day you are a M-O-R-O-N. I feel like this is something that you shouldn't need to tell another adult, but in case you were wondering yes that is idiotic.
Fourth.... Don't forget in this holiday season that comics, trades, statues, figures, cards, etc. all make really great gifts. You win twice by buying these from your LCS because they are small businesses that will only survive as long as we support them. Let's make sure our local comics guys have a very happy holiday!
Fifth.... It appears that Barbara Gordon's move to Burnside was not without controversy. The transgendered community is outraged by the characterization of a new villain that happens to be transgendered. While Gail Simone was praised for the way she brought in a down to earth "normal" character who was revealed to be trans the new creative team was thrashed because they revealed a fake Batgirl to be a glittered, mascara masked, walking stereotype of a transgendered person. DC has issued a public apology even though segments of the community have stated their support. I really don't have an opinion on the subject.
In the end I think if we focused more on getting to know one another as people instead of determining which groups define us I think our world would be a much better place (this is my Miss America Speech BTW).
Wrapping up...... That's all I really have for today. I will probably get one more post in before the end of the month. Excelsior to you all and I will see you next time at The Comic Shop!
As I mentioned last week the 2nd annual Shoppies are on their way before the year is out so keep an eye out for that.
First....The web (pun unintended) has been set abuzz with rumors and tidbits from the hacked Sony internal e-mails. Much of that news that has gotten fanboy ears to perk up for miles around has to do with discussions to create a shared universe in which Spidey could be an Avenger. While I think it would be a great get for Disney/Marvel I will remain cautiously optimistic.
There are a lot of concerns that would need to be addressed, and Sony would have to get their house in order immediately to have a successful partnership. There was also talk that Avi Arad would have to be dismissed before Disney/Marvel would even enter discussions with Marvel.
Other discussions concerned possibly letting Spidey's rights go back to Marvel, which would still put a superhero with 5 movies to his name back to square one, but I digress.
Probably the juiciest tidbit to come out of the email hack was that Andrew Garfield reportedly was supposed to have shown up to meet investors, but called one hour prior to the meeting to cancel. He was then essentially fired. I hope it comes out that this is not the case, because despite a lot of the faults of the ASM movies Garfield was a solid PP/Spidey in my opinion.
We will see what happens, but I would not count on seeing Spidey sling a web in "Captain America: Civil War" or any other Marvel movie any time soon.
Second.....I have a long tradition here at TCS of being dead wrong about things. I have to say that the mega-Spidey event "Spider-verse" is no exception to this rule. While I was dismissive of it at the outset I picked up the issues to keep my run from TASM #700 going. When I actually read the books I was blown away by a lot of what Dan Slott had brought to the page. This is an actual good event of significance, but most importantly IT IS FUN. Books like this are the reason why I love comics, and continue to read and collect as a 30+ year old man. Like I said the story has serious consequences; however, Slott does not take that fact too seriously in the storytelling. It is a self-aware story that stays away from the Christopher Nolan trap of having to constantly remind everyone how important the story they are reading/watching is.
One example of what I consider fun is when Miles Morales teams up with a young version of Peter Parker to travel through a portal to a universe that is.....The 1960's Spider-man cartoon. "I guess that's the Bugle right there" "How do you know?" "It's the only building that has any writing on it". I'm not one to LOL or overact to things in comics, but this had me in absolute stitches. Just the subtle humor to poke at how absurd the whole thing is. Point being that there are a lot of "events" in comics now, but so far this one has been the right amount of bang for this blogger's buck.
Third.... This may just be the Dad in me, but I saw a post in a comic collecting site where a guy paid $10-$15 to go to see the new Hobbit movie on the off chance that there was a "BvS" trailer. If you pay that much to watch something that will likely be free the next day you are a M-O-R-O-N. I feel like this is something that you shouldn't need to tell another adult, but in case you were wondering yes that is idiotic.
Fourth.... Don't forget in this holiday season that comics, trades, statues, figures, cards, etc. all make really great gifts. You win twice by buying these from your LCS because they are small businesses that will only survive as long as we support them. Let's make sure our local comics guys have a very happy holiday!
Fifth.... It appears that Barbara Gordon's move to Burnside was not without controversy. The transgendered community is outraged by the characterization of a new villain that happens to be transgendered. While Gail Simone was praised for the way she brought in a down to earth "normal" character who was revealed to be trans the new creative team was thrashed because they revealed a fake Batgirl to be a glittered, mascara masked, walking stereotype of a transgendered person. DC has issued a public apology even though segments of the community have stated their support. I really don't have an opinion on the subject.
In the end I think if we focused more on getting to know one another as people instead of determining which groups define us I think our world would be a much better place (this is my Miss America Speech BTW).
Wrapping up...... That's all I really have for today. I will probably get one more post in before the end of the month. Excelsior to you all and I will see you next time at The Comic Shop!
Wednesday, December 10, 2014
Upon further review....rebooting the Marvel Universe & other news.....
Hello and welcome to the 12/11/14 edition of The Comic Shop!
Since most of you know how calendars work you realize that the end of the year is rapidly approaching. That means one thing around these parts the 2nd annual "Shoppies" my year-in-review of all that is good with the two biggest comic publishers on the planet. (I'd love to do indie awards, but with my limited budget I have to be pragmatic about what I try and what I bring home). You can read last year's version here http://gothamcitycomics.blogspot.com/2013/12/big-two-comics-year-in-review-1st.html . I will try to keep with the same categories as before; however, if there are things you would like to see shoot me an email (johnnyleffler1116@gmail.com), post on my FB page (The Comic Shop), or shoot me a tweet (@johnnyboy1116). As have always said if you have something you'd like to discuss I'm willing to post guest submissions as well, and those are the best ways to reach me.
On to the news.......
First....There was a lot of huff and puff on the internet and from your humble blogger as well when Marvel announced the upcoming changes to their comic universe. Lady Thor, FalCaptain America, and Evil Tony Stark gave a lot of people pause. Recently, I had the opportunity to pick up all three of the #1's from the respective reboots and I have to say so far I have a favorable impression.
I think my favorite out of all of them at this point is the "All-New Captain America". Sam Wilson is in many ways drastically different from the previous men that have wielded the shield. Whereas the most recent Cap-lacement Bucky Barnes was not all too dissimilar from Steve Rogers himself Falcon is a stark contrast. Cap & Bucky were both World War II era soldiers that were experimented on, frozen, and then brought into the real world. While there paths diverged a bit with Bucky being a highly skilled assassin, and Cap more or less keeping his hands clean they were virtually different versions of the same character. Sam was raised in Harlem as the son of a minister. He refused religion and his parents supported him and offered him alternatives, and then sadly his father was killed trying to break up a fight. Two years later he loses his mother to a random street crime.
For this reason I have found myself rooting for Sam in his new role as Captain America. I think he embodies the things that we, as Americans, tend to idealize; second chances, overcoming adversity, picking yourself up by your bootstraps, etc & so forth. It doesn't hurt that I absolutely loved Anthony Mackie's take on Falcon in "Captain America: The Winter Soldier" either.
I have to say I'm really only reading "Superior IronMan" because of how much I love Daredevil, and he is a key figure in the first part of the arch.
In all fairness I don't care "who wields the power of Thor", because quite frankly I haven't been the biggest Thor fan in my life. I read quite a bit of the run before the Marvel NOW! relaunch, and I have heard that Jason Aaron did a wonderful job, but it's something I'll have to take a look at later on down the road.
My parting thought on the current state of Marvel is that I applaud their effort to push away from the Marvel Cinematic Universe. It could be easy to serve their film masters, but they have made the bold choice to take the comic line in a different direction. Kudos to the editorial staff and I hope they continue to move forward with the changes even when they have "Avengers: Age of Ultron" on the horizon.
Second.... (POTENTIAL SPOILERS) It's time to discuss where we are with the three shows that I watch religiously that are based on comics "Arrow", "Flash", and "Agents of SHIELD". .................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................
We have reached the midseason break for all three (I believe), and we've got some answers and certainly a whole new slew of questions.
The "Flash"- "Arrow" crossover arch was some really great television in my opinion. The writers did a wonderful job capturing the juxtaposition of the two characters & their teams (for instance Barry's light happy-go-lucky nature vs. Ollie's dark-grizzled nature). I found it very entertaining, and I hope that they do it again at a proper time.
I continue to be impressed by the writing, the cast, and the direction of "The Flash". It is clear to this humble blogger that they understand that Barry is the "hope" character of the DC universe. While the Kryptonian alphabet may most assuredly state that "S" is a symbol for hope I have always felt that hope came in a Flash of lightning.
If we look back at the history of Barry Allen we will se a man that sacrificed his life during the original "Crisis", and no one even knew he did it. Then, when Wally was over his head in the "Final Crisis" event Barry emerged from the speed force to help Wally save the day. Even in "Blackest Night" Barry literally became a symbol of hope as he became a ring bearer for the blue lanterns and helped to defeat Nekron. In the interest of full disclosure my love of "The Flash" goes all the way back to the first tv series with John Wesley Shipp when I insisted on going as Flash that year for halloween, and that I get comics about him etc. and so forth.
I found it fitting that in many ways "The Flash" mid season finale mirrored the mid season finale of the first season of "Arrow". As both heroes found themselves overmatched by a similarly skilled individual (Reverse Flash & the Dark Archer).
"Arrow" has been more of a mixed bag this year because it seems as if they are trying to further define Ollie's character by pitting him against his alter ego "The Arrow". If this weren't enough they have tried to resurrect the mystery angle from the first season, and blend it with the hardcore action from the second season. So far it's been hit or miss, but certainly landing more on the hit portion. I really liked how they introduced and portrayed Captain Boomerang during the FLARROW event, and I hope to see more of the same in the second half of the season.
I follow Katie Cassidy on Instagram and it has been very cool to see her transform herself for this role and her ultimate goal of taking on the mantle of the Black Canary. She has been putting in work at the gym, and it is really awesome to see her take it as seriously as she has. I feel like this season will have a lot of surprises in store, so we will have to wait and see what happens.
Full confession mode again here; I was NOT a fan of Agents of SHIELD when it first hit my television screen. I felt that it was just a cheap, red-headed step-child, discount product of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Everything that happened on the show seemed to be in the background of bigger events and just out of line of the things that actually mattered. This season; however, the crew has used the show to drive upcoming events within the MCU. I don't want to go into too much detail, but suffice to say they have been digging the trenches so to speak for all the big things happening at Marvel. I have to give the crew credit too, for making the characters much more than 2 dimensional ambercrombie models this season. Skye, for one, has been lightyears more interesting than she was in the first go round on the show.
Third (& final for tonight)..... BUYER BEWARE WARNING.... On this very blog I shared that I was interested in the fact that "Arrow" tv writer Andrew Kreisberg was taking over the helm for the New 52's "Green Arrow". While the jury is still out on Kreisberg's contribution only a couple of issues in I have to say that the art is absolutely atrocious. Characters are not even drawn the same from panel to panel, and some even appear to have spontaneous lazy eyes. It is just some of the worst art that I have ever seen. I may give the story one more chance, but you'd be better off spending your hard earned dollars on the Jeff Lemire & Andrea Sorrentino run with the Emerald Archer. Some of there best moments are highlighted HERE ( http://www.comicvine.com/articles/the-best-moments-in-jeff-lemire-andrea-sorrentinos/1100-149723/ ) .
Thanks for reading! I tried to get through my backlogged thoughts, but I still have a lot to go so I will be back as soon as I can! Look for my letter to Dick Grayson here in a few days, and then I'll be back at the end of the month live from the back of an abandoned Ames store for the Shoppie Awards!
Since most of you know how calendars work you realize that the end of the year is rapidly approaching. That means one thing around these parts the 2nd annual "Shoppies" my year-in-review of all that is good with the two biggest comic publishers on the planet. (I'd love to do indie awards, but with my limited budget I have to be pragmatic about what I try and what I bring home). You can read last year's version here http://gothamcitycomics.blogspot.com/2013/12/big-two-comics-year-in-review-1st.html . I will try to keep with the same categories as before; however, if there are things you would like to see shoot me an email (johnnyleffler1116@gmail.com), post on my FB page (The Comic Shop), or shoot me a tweet (@johnnyboy1116). As have always said if you have something you'd like to discuss I'm willing to post guest submissions as well, and those are the best ways to reach me.
On to the news.......
First....There was a lot of huff and puff on the internet and from your humble blogger as well when Marvel announced the upcoming changes to their comic universe. Lady Thor, FalCaptain America, and Evil Tony Stark gave a lot of people pause. Recently, I had the opportunity to pick up all three of the #1's from the respective reboots and I have to say so far I have a favorable impression.
I think my favorite out of all of them at this point is the "All-New Captain America". Sam Wilson is in many ways drastically different from the previous men that have wielded the shield. Whereas the most recent Cap-lacement Bucky Barnes was not all too dissimilar from Steve Rogers himself Falcon is a stark contrast. Cap & Bucky were both World War II era soldiers that were experimented on, frozen, and then brought into the real world. While there paths diverged a bit with Bucky being a highly skilled assassin, and Cap more or less keeping his hands clean they were virtually different versions of the same character. Sam was raised in Harlem as the son of a minister. He refused religion and his parents supported him and offered him alternatives, and then sadly his father was killed trying to break up a fight. Two years later he loses his mother to a random street crime.
For this reason I have found myself rooting for Sam in his new role as Captain America. I think he embodies the things that we, as Americans, tend to idealize; second chances, overcoming adversity, picking yourself up by your bootstraps, etc & so forth. It doesn't hurt that I absolutely loved Anthony Mackie's take on Falcon in "Captain America: The Winter Soldier" either.
I have to say I'm really only reading "Superior IronMan" because of how much I love Daredevil, and he is a key figure in the first part of the arch.
In all fairness I don't care "who wields the power of Thor", because quite frankly I haven't been the biggest Thor fan in my life. I read quite a bit of the run before the Marvel NOW! relaunch, and I have heard that Jason Aaron did a wonderful job, but it's something I'll have to take a look at later on down the road.
My parting thought on the current state of Marvel is that I applaud their effort to push away from the Marvel Cinematic Universe. It could be easy to serve their film masters, but they have made the bold choice to take the comic line in a different direction. Kudos to the editorial staff and I hope they continue to move forward with the changes even when they have "Avengers: Age of Ultron" on the horizon.
Second.... (POTENTIAL SPOILERS) It's time to discuss where we are with the three shows that I watch religiously that are based on comics "Arrow", "Flash", and "Agents of SHIELD". .................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................
We have reached the midseason break for all three (I believe), and we've got some answers and certainly a whole new slew of questions.
The "Flash"- "Arrow" crossover arch was some really great television in my opinion. The writers did a wonderful job capturing the juxtaposition of the two characters & their teams (for instance Barry's light happy-go-lucky nature vs. Ollie's dark-grizzled nature). I found it very entertaining, and I hope that they do it again at a proper time.
I continue to be impressed by the writing, the cast, and the direction of "The Flash". It is clear to this humble blogger that they understand that Barry is the "hope" character of the DC universe. While the Kryptonian alphabet may most assuredly state that "S" is a symbol for hope I have always felt that hope came in a Flash of lightning.
If we look back at the history of Barry Allen we will se a man that sacrificed his life during the original "Crisis", and no one even knew he did it. Then, when Wally was over his head in the "Final Crisis" event Barry emerged from the speed force to help Wally save the day. Even in "Blackest Night" Barry literally became a symbol of hope as he became a ring bearer for the blue lanterns and helped to defeat Nekron. In the interest of full disclosure my love of "The Flash" goes all the way back to the first tv series with John Wesley Shipp when I insisted on going as Flash that year for halloween, and that I get comics about him etc. and so forth.
I found it fitting that in many ways "The Flash" mid season finale mirrored the mid season finale of the first season of "Arrow". As both heroes found themselves overmatched by a similarly skilled individual (Reverse Flash & the Dark Archer).
"Arrow" has been more of a mixed bag this year because it seems as if they are trying to further define Ollie's character by pitting him against his alter ego "The Arrow". If this weren't enough they have tried to resurrect the mystery angle from the first season, and blend it with the hardcore action from the second season. So far it's been hit or miss, but certainly landing more on the hit portion. I really liked how they introduced and portrayed Captain Boomerang during the FLARROW event, and I hope to see more of the same in the second half of the season.
I follow Katie Cassidy on Instagram and it has been very cool to see her transform herself for this role and her ultimate goal of taking on the mantle of the Black Canary. She has been putting in work at the gym, and it is really awesome to see her take it as seriously as she has. I feel like this season will have a lot of surprises in store, so we will have to wait and see what happens.
Full confession mode again here; I was NOT a fan of Agents of SHIELD when it first hit my television screen. I felt that it was just a cheap, red-headed step-child, discount product of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Everything that happened on the show seemed to be in the background of bigger events and just out of line of the things that actually mattered. This season; however, the crew has used the show to drive upcoming events within the MCU. I don't want to go into too much detail, but suffice to say they have been digging the trenches so to speak for all the big things happening at Marvel. I have to give the crew credit too, for making the characters much more than 2 dimensional ambercrombie models this season. Skye, for one, has been lightyears more interesting than she was in the first go round on the show.
Third (& final for tonight)..... BUYER BEWARE WARNING.... On this very blog I shared that I was interested in the fact that "Arrow" tv writer Andrew Kreisberg was taking over the helm for the New 52's "Green Arrow". While the jury is still out on Kreisberg's contribution only a couple of issues in I have to say that the art is absolutely atrocious. Characters are not even drawn the same from panel to panel, and some even appear to have spontaneous lazy eyes. It is just some of the worst art that I have ever seen. I may give the story one more chance, but you'd be better off spending your hard earned dollars on the Jeff Lemire & Andrea Sorrentino run with the Emerald Archer. Some of there best moments are highlighted HERE ( http://www.comicvine.com/articles/the-best-moments-in-jeff-lemire-andrea-sorrentinos/1100-149723/ ) .
Thanks for reading! I tried to get through my backlogged thoughts, but I still have a lot to go so I will be back as soon as I can! Look for my letter to Dick Grayson here in a few days, and then I'll be back at the end of the month live from the back of an abandoned Ames store for the Shoppie Awards!
Tuesday, October 21, 2014
"Flash" & "Arrow" new season thoughts...and more
Hello and Welcome to the 10/21/14 edition of The Comic Shop!
Lots of big comic news hitting the web here in the last few days as mega-distributor Diamond has released previews for what's coming up in the next few months. Big news for "Iron Man", "Uncanny Avengers", "Batman & Robin", and many more. I won't go into it here, but suffice it to say there are plenty of interesting twists coming up, and the info is out there on the web if you want to know.
First.......As you know my last column was regarding my first impressions of Fox's superhero entry "Gotham". I have to say as we sit here after 5 weeks with another 15+ episodes to go I am still on the fence. It's not a bad show and the plan is rather ambitious to try to go ten years with this cast and this premise. I just don't get this obsession with having to have everything be relative in storytelling now.
Not every character has to know one another, and our hero and villain don't have to be old friends to tell a powerful story. Sometimes mystery is good, sometimes it's good to have a stark contrast in ideals & upbringing, & many times the most real danger is what we do not know. Gordon doesn't have to be involved in the Wayne investigation to make the show go.
I also would've been happier with a 20-something Bruce traveling the world while a late 30's Gordon struggled with the corruption in the GCPD. It's a small criticism, but I think it's something that would've made for a more compelling show. What we have gotten to this point is not really that clever and more or less a paint by numbers picture of who will become what villain/hero.
One of the common defenses is that "It's not a Batman show...it's about Gotham". That's not a bad defense, but it has a big hole in it when Bruce and Alfred are shoe horned in to every episode. Like the with the Ballonman and Bruce made the not so subtle realization that Ballonman was a bad vigilante because he killed people. It would've been even more compelling for the creators of the show to have the origins of Gotham itself play a pivotal role in their storytelling. It's just my feelings on it at this point and it is just an opinion.
Second....In contrast I am in absolute love with what they are doing with the new incarnation of "The Flash" on television. It's not the drab, dark, superhero story that we have come to expect from WB. In contrast it is bright and a lot of fun. Grant Gustin was absolutely wronged by the big wigs at WB when they passed him over to play Flash on the big screen, but I digress. This is a fantastic show that introduces a lot of new characters and concepts to the DCTVU, and is a contrast to the dark world of "Arrow" (not that I'm complaining). I am only left to wonder which character they will choose as the third figurehead of this powerful CW alliance. Here's hoping for GL because the three shared so much time and friendship in the pre-52 universe, but it could be difficult to do GL on a TV budget.
Third....Arrow returned for third go-round and it was fantastic as usual. Brandon Routh has stolen the show early on as genius, billionaire, playboy Ray Palmer. Ollie's journey to becoming a true light and hero continues to be the driving force of the show, and each week brings with it a little more character evolution. Along with Mr. Queen the city itself is going to be changed from the Starling name to Star City as it was in the comics. While New 52 Ollie is operating out of the Emerald City, Seattle, Star City played home to the vigilante billionaire for years.
Fourth....It has come to my attention that some of the things that I have suggested on this blog have come to pass (the return of pre-new 52 continuity, x-men television show, the rumored punisher netflix series, and others). So to anyone reading this and benefiting from it in the words of Paulie from "Goodfellas" "Fuck you, pay me".
Fifth.....RDJ has really agitated me in his tour of support for his new film "The Judge". In sequential days he claimed he would return for "Ironman 4" if.....Mel Gibson Directed....if.....Howard Stern produced....that negotiations were underway....and finally that superhero movies were reaching a point of over saturation. This is a man who's career was revitalized by his success as Tony Stark in Ironman, that has made a LOT of money from his appearances in Marvel movies, and has continued to ask for more. I'm not saying he owes the fans anything, but it would be nice if he could just not jerk us around so much.
Sixth....Breaking the BvS rule here, but the Jena Malone news has got me fired up again. <pulls out soap box> WB knows what they are doing. It's as simple as that. Not everyone has to do their movies "the Marvel way". This is a company that has managed the likes of "Harry Potter" and "The Lord of the Rings/Hobbit". They understand how to manage their properties and to make them successful. I know that I have complained about their decisions in the past, but I even have to remind myself sometimes that WB has been around a long time and they have the benefit of experience. They have a bonafide leading man for the Justice League going forward with the A+ star/Director of "Argo" and "The Town", and the leading man of current hit "Gone Girl" in Ben Affleck. I believe in Ben and I hope that you will too.
Seventh.....This one is straight from the rumor mill, but you may have seen by now that Sony has suggested that if "Sinister Six" does not perform well at the box office that they will use that film to reboot Spidey so that he could cross over into the Marvel Cinematic Universe. I love Andrew Garfield as Peter Parker/Spidey, but I think they should not hesitate to make this move. It would bring a proven winner to the Marvel Universe and it would help to legitimize Sony's endeavors. Also it would finally prove to Avi Arad that he is a moron, and that's just good for everybody.
I know I had more to discuss, but I'm spacing on what that might be. Pull list is a little light the next few weeks, but I will be back some time in November to discuss issues as always.
Thanks for reading and I'll see you next time at The Comic Shop!
Lots of big comic news hitting the web here in the last few days as mega-distributor Diamond has released previews for what's coming up in the next few months. Big news for "Iron Man", "Uncanny Avengers", "Batman & Robin", and many more. I won't go into it here, but suffice it to say there are plenty of interesting twists coming up, and the info is out there on the web if you want to know.
First.......As you know my last column was regarding my first impressions of Fox's superhero entry "Gotham". I have to say as we sit here after 5 weeks with another 15+ episodes to go I am still on the fence. It's not a bad show and the plan is rather ambitious to try to go ten years with this cast and this premise. I just don't get this obsession with having to have everything be relative in storytelling now.
Not every character has to know one another, and our hero and villain don't have to be old friends to tell a powerful story. Sometimes mystery is good, sometimes it's good to have a stark contrast in ideals & upbringing, & many times the most real danger is what we do not know. Gordon doesn't have to be involved in the Wayne investigation to make the show go.
I also would've been happier with a 20-something Bruce traveling the world while a late 30's Gordon struggled with the corruption in the GCPD. It's a small criticism, but I think it's something that would've made for a more compelling show. What we have gotten to this point is not really that clever and more or less a paint by numbers picture of who will become what villain/hero.
One of the common defenses is that "It's not a Batman show...it's about Gotham". That's not a bad defense, but it has a big hole in it when Bruce and Alfred are shoe horned in to every episode. Like the with the Ballonman and Bruce made the not so subtle realization that Ballonman was a bad vigilante because he killed people. It would've been even more compelling for the creators of the show to have the origins of Gotham itself play a pivotal role in their storytelling. It's just my feelings on it at this point and it is just an opinion.
Second....In contrast I am in absolute love with what they are doing with the new incarnation of "The Flash" on television. It's not the drab, dark, superhero story that we have come to expect from WB. In contrast it is bright and a lot of fun. Grant Gustin was absolutely wronged by the big wigs at WB when they passed him over to play Flash on the big screen, but I digress. This is a fantastic show that introduces a lot of new characters and concepts to the DCTVU, and is a contrast to the dark world of "Arrow" (not that I'm complaining). I am only left to wonder which character they will choose as the third figurehead of this powerful CW alliance. Here's hoping for GL because the three shared so much time and friendship in the pre-52 universe, but it could be difficult to do GL on a TV budget.
Third....Arrow returned for third go-round and it was fantastic as usual. Brandon Routh has stolen the show early on as genius, billionaire, playboy Ray Palmer. Ollie's journey to becoming a true light and hero continues to be the driving force of the show, and each week brings with it a little more character evolution. Along with Mr. Queen the city itself is going to be changed from the Starling name to Star City as it was in the comics. While New 52 Ollie is operating out of the Emerald City, Seattle, Star City played home to the vigilante billionaire for years.
Fourth....It has come to my attention that some of the things that I have suggested on this blog have come to pass (the return of pre-new 52 continuity, x-men television show, the rumored punisher netflix series, and others). So to anyone reading this and benefiting from it in the words of Paulie from "Goodfellas" "Fuck you, pay me".
Fifth.....RDJ has really agitated me in his tour of support for his new film "The Judge". In sequential days he claimed he would return for "Ironman 4" if.....Mel Gibson Directed....if.....Howard Stern produced....that negotiations were underway....and finally that superhero movies were reaching a point of over saturation. This is a man who's career was revitalized by his success as Tony Stark in Ironman, that has made a LOT of money from his appearances in Marvel movies, and has continued to ask for more. I'm not saying he owes the fans anything, but it would be nice if he could just not jerk us around so much.
Sixth....Breaking the BvS rule here, but the Jena Malone news has got me fired up again. <pulls out soap box> WB knows what they are doing. It's as simple as that. Not everyone has to do their movies "the Marvel way". This is a company that has managed the likes of "Harry Potter" and "The Lord of the Rings/Hobbit". They understand how to manage their properties and to make them successful. I know that I have complained about their decisions in the past, but I even have to remind myself sometimes that WB has been around a long time and they have the benefit of experience. They have a bonafide leading man for the Justice League going forward with the A+ star/Director of "Argo" and "The Town", and the leading man of current hit "Gone Girl" in Ben Affleck. I believe in Ben and I hope that you will too.
Seventh.....This one is straight from the rumor mill, but you may have seen by now that Sony has suggested that if "Sinister Six" does not perform well at the box office that they will use that film to reboot Spidey so that he could cross over into the Marvel Cinematic Universe. I love Andrew Garfield as Peter Parker/Spidey, but I think they should not hesitate to make this move. It would bring a proven winner to the Marvel Universe and it would help to legitimize Sony's endeavors. Also it would finally prove to Avi Arad that he is a moron, and that's just good for everybody.
I know I had more to discuss, but I'm spacing on what that might be. Pull list is a little light the next few weeks, but I will be back some time in November to discuss issues as always.
Thanks for reading and I'll see you next time at The Comic Shop!
Tuesday, September 30, 2014
"Gotham": First Impressions and other morsels
Hello and welcome to an unscheduled edition of The Comic Shop!
FIRST......"Gotham" made it's highly anticipated television debut last week with the second episode airing this previous Monday. I will preface all my thoughts by saying it is EARLY in the life of the show and these are snap judgements and impressions. As with all things I reserve the right to change my opinion based on the strength of future episodes (the "Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D." amendment in The Comic Shop Constitution).
The Good:
I think that overall the performances are on par with most network tv. I think Ben McKenzie carries himself well as Gordon, and he is well suited to carry the brunt of the load for this series. Nobody really stands out at this point per se; however, I did really like the casting of Robin Lord Taylor as a young Oswald Cobblepot. Taylor fits the off beat look of the future Penguin, and it will be interesting to see what develops with his character in the run of the series.
The Bad/Ugly:
My main gripe is that for a series like this the Wayne's are not needed as an integral part of the plot. In my honest opinion I think it does a disservice to have Bruce, Alfred, or even the murder of Thomas and Martha as a central focus in this adaptation.
The thing that makes Batman's origin so powerful is not that it's a mystery that needs to be solved, but that it's a mystery that CAN'T be solved. In several interpretations of the history of Batman "Joe Chill" is a pseudonym for a faceless man. Bruce dons the cowl and wages everlasting war because every criminal is potentially the one that killed his parents. Now obviously this is tweaked with every adaptation of the source material for instance in "The Dark Knight Trilogy" Joe Chill was a flesh-and-blood man that was caught, and in "Batman" Jack Napier would eventually become the clown prince of crime The Joker.
Batman the stoic loner takes on wards like Dick Grayson so that they may find the justice that he never will, so that they do not become a brooding obsessed vigilante like the Batman. In making the Wayne's murder a mystery that is integral to the series the creators have to this point made it a bland intrigue story rather than the origin of the Dark Knight that we all know and love.
In my mind a better narrative for the show would have been to have a twenty-something Bruce Wayne in his travels around the world making sporadic appearances on the show while the main story featured a young Gordon fresh off the train from Chicago fighting corruption in the GCPD.
Like I said it is early in the life of this show and I'm going to give it some honest time, but these are my first impressions and nothing else. Judge it however you wish, because after all this is an opinion piece
SECOND.....I'm mostly done discussing Fox's next adaptation of the "Fantastic Four", but it has been confirmed that in this version Sue will be an adopted sibling of Johnny Storm. Take it as you will.
My honest feeling is that we are just seeing the beginning of an epic pissing contest between Fox and Marvel. As you may have read Marvel is planning on ceasing publication of Fantastic Four in the near future as to not lend support to this project, and there are rumbles they may do that with the X-men as well. I look at this as Fox saying "okay well then we are going to do whatever the hell we want with this adaptation because we can".
Nothing is confirmed at this point, but I think we are starting to see where everyone stands. With a hot property like "X-men: Days of Future Past" hitting the theater last summer one would have expected to see toys, licensed t-shirts, lunch boxes, and everything else under the sun, but because Marvel owns the rights to the license they put the kibosh on that. This all is allegedly due to Marvel wanting the rights back to the X-men & FF properties. Which as you may or may not know only came about because Marvel came on hard times, and needed some quick cash. This lead to the movie rights to X-men and FF being with Fox, and an actual split ownership of Spider-man with Sony.
LASTLY......Depending on your reading habits it could be a light or heavy day at The Comic Book store tomorrow. Lady Thor will be making her debut in the wake of the events of "Original Sin", and Bucky Barnes will become a space ranger due to the same event. Wolverine will continue his march toward death, and the Justice League will fight something or the other. As for your humble blogger I'm looking forward to "Green Arrow" as we pick up with a new arch from the creative team of the successful show "Arrow", and I will trudge through another issue of "Grayson".
Thanks for reading! See you next time at The Comic Shop!
FIRST......"Gotham" made it's highly anticipated television debut last week with the second episode airing this previous Monday. I will preface all my thoughts by saying it is EARLY in the life of the show and these are snap judgements and impressions. As with all things I reserve the right to change my opinion based on the strength of future episodes (the "Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D." amendment in The Comic Shop Constitution).
The Good:
I think that overall the performances are on par with most network tv. I think Ben McKenzie carries himself well as Gordon, and he is well suited to carry the brunt of the load for this series. Nobody really stands out at this point per se; however, I did really like the casting of Robin Lord Taylor as a young Oswald Cobblepot. Taylor fits the off beat look of the future Penguin, and it will be interesting to see what develops with his character in the run of the series.
The Bad/Ugly:
My main gripe is that for a series like this the Wayne's are not needed as an integral part of the plot. In my honest opinion I think it does a disservice to have Bruce, Alfred, or even the murder of Thomas and Martha as a central focus in this adaptation.
The thing that makes Batman's origin so powerful is not that it's a mystery that needs to be solved, but that it's a mystery that CAN'T be solved. In several interpretations of the history of Batman "Joe Chill" is a pseudonym for a faceless man. Bruce dons the cowl and wages everlasting war because every criminal is potentially the one that killed his parents. Now obviously this is tweaked with every adaptation of the source material for instance in "The Dark Knight Trilogy" Joe Chill was a flesh-and-blood man that was caught, and in "Batman" Jack Napier would eventually become the clown prince of crime The Joker.
Batman the stoic loner takes on wards like Dick Grayson so that they may find the justice that he never will, so that they do not become a brooding obsessed vigilante like the Batman. In making the Wayne's murder a mystery that is integral to the series the creators have to this point made it a bland intrigue story rather than the origin of the Dark Knight that we all know and love.
In my mind a better narrative for the show would have been to have a twenty-something Bruce Wayne in his travels around the world making sporadic appearances on the show while the main story featured a young Gordon fresh off the train from Chicago fighting corruption in the GCPD.
Like I said it is early in the life of this show and I'm going to give it some honest time, but these are my first impressions and nothing else. Judge it however you wish, because after all this is an opinion piece
SECOND.....I'm mostly done discussing Fox's next adaptation of the "Fantastic Four", but it has been confirmed that in this version Sue will be an adopted sibling of Johnny Storm. Take it as you will.
My honest feeling is that we are just seeing the beginning of an epic pissing contest between Fox and Marvel. As you may have read Marvel is planning on ceasing publication of Fantastic Four in the near future as to not lend support to this project, and there are rumbles they may do that with the X-men as well. I look at this as Fox saying "okay well then we are going to do whatever the hell we want with this adaptation because we can".
Nothing is confirmed at this point, but I think we are starting to see where everyone stands. With a hot property like "X-men: Days of Future Past" hitting the theater last summer one would have expected to see toys, licensed t-shirts, lunch boxes, and everything else under the sun, but because Marvel owns the rights to the license they put the kibosh on that. This all is allegedly due to Marvel wanting the rights back to the X-men & FF properties. Which as you may or may not know only came about because Marvel came on hard times, and needed some quick cash. This lead to the movie rights to X-men and FF being with Fox, and an actual split ownership of Spider-man with Sony.
LASTLY......Depending on your reading habits it could be a light or heavy day at The Comic Book store tomorrow. Lady Thor will be making her debut in the wake of the events of "Original Sin", and Bucky Barnes will become a space ranger due to the same event. Wolverine will continue his march toward death, and the Justice League will fight something or the other. As for your humble blogger I'm looking forward to "Green Arrow" as we pick up with a new arch from the creative team of the successful show "Arrow", and I will trudge through another issue of "Grayson".
Thanks for reading! See you next time at The Comic Shop!
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