Short (Shorts)

The characters and story contained herein are owned by Zachary Davis. Any attempt to copy or sell said story without the permission of the author is prohibited.

Well, with that out of the way. I mentioned a long time ago that I had a few short (short) stories that I was thinking about self-publishing via Amazon Kindle or something similar.
I still haven't decided whether any of these are good enough to do such a thing, but figured I'd at least start revealing a few here.

So, enjoy! Expect some type of 'real' blog post in the next few days.

The Elevator

“Well, shit.” The man said as he slammed his fist on the elevator panel.
“Apparently the power went out. How strange that there are no backup generators.” Another said aloud, to no one in particular.
“Heh, you’re not from ‘round here, aren’t you?”
“No, I’m from Dallas. This is only the second time I’ve been here.”
“Well, ain’t that somethin’! Name’s Brian, and you?”
“Alexander.” Instinctively he put his hand out for a handshake. Brian was quick to give him a strong one. It was almost painful to Alexander.
“How ‘bout you, girl? We may be stuck here for a bit. Might as well get to know each other!” Brian said as he looked at the young woman embracing the corner.
“Uh…name?” She said, apparently grasping at the English language. Brian laughed, and caught on to her problem.
“Lessee. My spanish isn’t great, but…” Brian gave a huge smile as he tried. “Meh…yamo…Brian…uh…too?” The girl smiled at his attempt.
“Yes, yes! Uh…name Arissa!” She said, happy that she figured out he meant names.
“Great, well, that’s out of the way.” Brian said as he stared at the shut elevator. “So, Alexander. Any ideas on how to get this thing opened?”
“Why would you think I would know?” Alexander replied.
“Oh, uh, sorry man. Just assumed you were smart or somethin’.” Brian actually looked a bit annoyed at the other man, though no one could tell in the dim emergency lights.
“Well…” Alexander looked around. Then he pulled out his cell phone. “No signal, of course.” Alexander went to the elevator door, and shuffled around for an alarm button.
“No need, man. This place don’t have those speaker things you see in other places. It’s too old.” Brian said.
“Fine. Well, I have no clue. It’s not like I ever bothered to learn how to open a dead elevator.” Alexander replied, shrugging down to the floor.
“Heh. No worries. I’m sure Sam will get it working soon.” Brian said, sitting next to Arissa.
“Who is Sam?” Alexander asked.
“Oh, just the resident handyman. Although some folks have a harsher name for him.” Brian looked at the other man, seeing if he was interested in the knowledge he had to give.
“Sam es trabaja por ciudad de –Ungerford?” Arissa said, apparently interested in the name.
“Sorry girl, I dunno what…uh…traba-hah means, but I caught the word Hungerford. That’s this town, so yes. Or, uh, si!” Brian said. Arissa looked happy, although none of the other men could guess why. Alexander turned to Brian.
“Harsher name?” He was curious as to what Brian meant.
“Hah. Yeah. Wanna know?” Brian said, glad he got the other man’s ear.
“Sure. I’m curious.” Alexander replied.
“Well, nigger-Sam is his name. Or that’s what some of the others say.” Alexander looked shocked.
“That’s something I don’t want to hear again, Brian. It’s not right.” Alexander replied with anger.
“Sorry, man. Was just sayin’.” Brian said, getting angry with the high-and-mighty Alexander. “Anyway, he’ll come around soon. He always checks the elevators when the power goes out.”
“Good. It’s starting to get hot in here.” Alexander said as he slouched down to the floor. An hour passed with no activity other than a few simple gestures between the three. Alexander was starting to get annoyed with the situation. To prevent sweating he took off his suit-jacket. Brian and Arissa looked hot, but hadn’t bothered to change. In anger, Alexander began to bang on the elevator door.
“Hello!” He yelled. “We’re trapped in here!”
“Now calm down, man. You scarin’ the girl!” Brian said, looking at Alexander who was starting to get nervous.
“Problem?” Arissa said, and Brian shook his head.
“Nah, no problemo girl.” Brian replied, smiling. He could tell she was starting to get bored. He was too.
“So, Alexander, what makes you come all the way down here?”
“Well, that’s complicated. And, frankly, it’s no concern to you so I don’t want to bore you with the details.” Alexander shuffled around with his phone. “Jesus, we’ve been stuck in here over an hour. Where is this Sam-guy?” Alexander shouted.
“Maybe he’s stuck somewhere, too. Heh, I dunno. Strange that no one has checked these things yet.”
A loud sound came from the front of the elevator. All three stared, wondering what was happening now. Shortly after the first noise, they spotted a crowbar sticking at the top of the seam. Slowly, the door was pried open.
“Well sorry bout that guy’s. De entire town is dead. Nobody knows what happened, but it ain’t comin’ back anytime soon.” They all stared at the top of the elevator door, where Sam stuck his head through.
“How the hell are we supposed to get up there? I didn’t realized this damned shaft was enclosed in concrete!” Alexander yelled.
“Yeah it’s old. Place been ‘round since before I was born. Anyway, if you three can help lift each other, I can pull de third one up!” Sam said as he wedged the elevator door open.
“Well then, I think it would be gentlemanly of us to help Arissa first, don’t you think…Alex?” Brian said, his face gave a wide smile and his teeth were in full display. Alexander noticed he was missing a few of them. Perturbed that this man called him Alex, he went over to Arissa and motioned her to the door. She smiled as they both offered to lift her up.
“Alright Brian. On the count of three. One! Two! Three!” Alexander said as they lifted her up. Brian noticed something metallic on Alexander’s side and prepared to move himself if needed. Sam grunted as he began to pull her through the small opening. Without paying attention, he accidentally kicked the crowbar, causing the elevator to shut.
“Dammit.” Brian said. Before anything else could be spoken, Alexander pulled out a gun and pointed it to his head.
“Finally got the girl out. Now we can finish this.” Alexander said, but as he pulled the trigger, Brian ducked and the bullet missed his head. Instead it slammed into the side of the elevator wall and the ricochet smacked Alexander in the shoulder. “Argh!” Alexander yelled as Brian knocked him to the floor.
“I knew who you were the moment you came in here, Alex boy!” Brian said, smiling wickedly. They could hear Sam trying to get the elevator opened, but the movements of the two men caused the elevator to shift. They heard Arissa scream as the elevator creaked.
“Looks like we’re trapped in here. Oh well. I smelled you the second you came in here. You gave yourself away when you said this was your second visit here. Last time you came my brother was killed. Shame your technology wasn’t working. Guess that’s cuz my boys wrecked the cell phone towers.” Brian slammed his fist hard into Alexander’s head. The man fell to the floor, unconscious. Brian opened his mouth, and the teeth that were originally missing popped out. He bit Alexander hard on the neck. After he was finished, he propped his body and climbed up to the top. He broke the ceiling hatch and jumped out. All Sam and Arissa heard was a sinister laugh as Brian crawled through the shaft to make his escape.

Folks Are Still Doing This Now?

I do understand that violent movies, games, and etc. can and will affect children, but when does the parent step in and actually, I don't know...parent the child? Mature rated games, rated R movies, even Parental Guidance music requires someone 17 or older to purchase. And yes, some employees at some stores don't enforce this, but the majority does. People need to stop blaming entertainment, and blame the parent that allowed the underage child to have that violent game, movie, or music in the first place.

http://www.gamespot.com/news/oklahama-state-rep-wants-violent-game-tax-6349668

There are two problems with Fourkiller’s statement about games.

1) 1) The man that apparently stole a cop car, and shot people, was actually mentally deranged. In fact, the game Grand Theft Auto had nothing to do with his actions. The man just came unhinged, and since people ignored the warning signs, he went on a slight rampage.

2) 2) The Rockstar game, Bully, is a bit of a misnomer. For starters, it is true you could sort of wreck havoc in the game as a quasi-bully, in truth you were an anti-hero facing off against “snobby rich kids that look down on anyone that has no money.” On top of that, you went against the actual bullies of the school, and even the terrorizing problems the faculty represent.

Now, it is true that Rockstar set themselves up with the title. They gave this game that title on purpose. Rockstar has always done that, though, they try and get a rise out of people.

So, Mr. Fourkiller is a bit worse, though, because he was once a teacher. He should know, BY EXPERIENCE, how hard it is to deal with children (especially those that parents don’t really involve themselves with the situations at hand). So, it seems inexcusable that he blames violent games instead of lack of parenting. Where is the blame against the music you hear on the radio? How about the television shows that depict violence and death (along with sexuality) on a regular basis?

Now, again, there is a LOT of parents that have to work all day. That leaves precious time for their children. The easy argument is to state, “Well, those people shouldn’t have children, obviously!” That isn’t something that is easy to come by. So, it is really easy to provide children with entertainment so that the parent can have some kind of respite from the day. It is so easy to cave in to a child’s demands so that you can just breathe!

And no, I don’t have children; I don’t know what it is like. So I do feel slightly wrong for making statements such as “Parents need to PARENT their children.” It is easy to dismiss any of my statements because I just don’t know. But I was a child in this situation. Thankfully, I had a mother (and grandparents) that explained the violence, and actually went out of their way to insure I knew right from wrong and that I understood the violence and sexuality shown were revealed as fantastical elements and things I should never do in real life.

Also, I had the advantage of being in an age where video games were not that, well, realistic. I had the NES, SNES, and Sega Genesis during my youth. Sure, Mortal Kombat and Doom were pretty violent, but I knew from the get-go it was a fantasy and it never brought about violent rages in me.

The people that are affected by these things are actually affected by a lot more than just games. More than movies and music. The ones that commit horribly violent crimes are more than likely not right in the head, or missed out on the right life lessons usually provided by parents or proper role models.

So I should amend my argument, it’s not just that parents need to PARENT their children, but that society as a whole needs to actually become a true society. We should support each other; provide each other with that role model that inspires us to be our absolute best. On top of that, people need to be a bit more observant. We get those PSA’s all the time about speaking up against bullying, against domestic abuse, against drug abuse. Well, we actually need to do those things. Many times, the extreme violence people commit is avoidable if people would actually speak up when they see danger signs. Unfortunately, people hate being snitches. People hate being confrontational, people don’t like it when others act weird. Instead, we’ll just ignore them or comment about it being their backs in harmful ways.

I’m not saying we are horrible people; it’s just natural for people to back away from things that freak them out. It is so much easier to do that then actually try and see what’s going on. I’ve done it myself a few times, so I know how it is.

Well, I’ve gone off on a tangent. Anyways. Now it is time for the epic conclusion of this blog.

People need to stop blaming entertainment for all of our faults and the ills of the world! Seriously! Or better yet, if you are going to gang up on video games, gang up on all of it. You do realize that at prime time on BROADCAST television we get shows like Criminal Minds, Cold Case, Bones, Law & Order SVU, shows that depict violence, often in a fairly graphic manner. Seeing as all you need is a modern TV, you can see all of this for free.

In contrast, video games are a lot more expensive. Not only do you need to buy the box to play them on, along with said modern TV, but you spend at least $60 for new games. On top of that, there is a rating system in place for games, and most major retailers check ID’s if you look underage for Mature rated games. So there is a proper system in place to prevent kids from playing these games. So on average, who buys these games?

Welllll, remember that whole parents and parenting thing? In most cases, the parent actually comes by the register, buys the game, and hands it to their kid. Now, the latest excuse is “Oh I didn’t know about how the games are rated!”

Really? The box cover art clearly states Grand Theft Auto, or in the case of Gears of War you have the characters with huge chainsaw guns with blood everywhere. Yeah, you sure didn’t know. PAY ATTENTION! Most retailers are awesome enough to post somewhere near the games the ratings explanation. Even better, the registers will beep and show off the words (in capital letters) CUSTOMER OVER AGE 17? Same goes for rated R movies and Parental Guidance music.

So, come on folks. We need to stop blaming entertainment, and focus on ourselves when it comes to searching for the problems we have in society.

Why Must They Die?

Okay, so this blog post has a ton of spoilers. So if you haven’t seen a single superhero movie since Blade came out, then don’t read this blog.

Hah.

Anywho, since Blade came out back in 1998, there have been a total of 25 actual superhero movies. There have been numerous more comic-based movies, but I’m only counting the actual superhero ones here.

Want a list? Erm. Okay. In no particular order; Blade, Blade 2, Blade Trinity, Spider-man, Spider-man 2, Spider-man 3, X-men, X-2, X-men The Last Stand, Fantastic Four, F4: Rise of the Silver Surfer, Daredevil, Wolverine, Iron Man, Iron Man 2, Batman Begins, The Dark Knight, Superman Returns, Hulk, Incredible Hulk, Thor, Green Lantern, Captain America, X-men First Class, and Ghost Rider. (Note: No I am NOT counting Elektra in this list, so don’t ask.)

I’ve noticed a distressing trend in these movies. In sixteen of the movies, the villains (or some of the villains) die. It is kind of strange that the movie writers and directors have chosen to kill off the villains instead of having them return to wreck havoc later. In fact, I find it incredibly annoying. Let’s take a look at how good some of the movies are that keep their villains.

For instance, the X-men series never killed off its mainstay villain, Magneto. Granted they almost took his powers, but that’s beside the point. In each movie (well, not The Last Stand, but that’s not his fault) he becomes a better character BECAUSE he is still around. In the first movie, he squares off against Professor Xavier and his mutant crew. In the second one, we get an awesome team-up, only for him to do his villain thing and betray everyone. It was grand!

Seeing as that’s a great example of keeping your big villains alive, why would so many choose to have them killed? In the Spider-man movies, we lose great villains such as Green Goblin, Doctor Octopus, and even Venom because they decide the best way the story can move on is to kill them. Wouldn’t it have been that much better if in the second movie GG came back, with Doc Ock in tow, to cause a mess for Spidey. Heck they could have added Sandman still, and just leave out the Venom crap and it would have been pure awesomeness in a tin can.

Or worse yet, they have the superhero somewhat kill the villain (even when their coda is to not kill). Want an example? Batman Begins. Anyone that tries to justify Batman saying “I’m not going to kill you, but I won’t save you either.” Is okay, and that leaving Ducard to die on an exploding/crashing train is silly. It kind of defeats the purpose of Batman. He. Doesn’t. Kill. If that is his coda, to just ‘let people die,’ then why didn’t he just drop Joker at the end of The Dark Knight instead of stopping the wire from falling? He could have used the same thought process. Instead we get this huge character flaw that doesn’t jibe with the source material.

I think Hollywood is shooting themselves in the foot by killing off the superhero rogues gallery. Sure, we can have reboots and etcetera that bring them back in a “totally new, but totally the same” way. But why bother killing them in the first place? Usually the first couple of stories that these villains appear in the comics aren’t that great. It’s when they are an established presence in the book that provides better reads for the fans. I just hope the next batch of movies that come out decide to not kill off their villains.

Even better, Marvel is using their big villains for different movies. Thor introduced everyone to Loki (and even made him a bit sympathetic, kudos to Kenneth Branagh and the writing team for that movie). If you watched the trailer for The Avengers (and really, with it being the highest viewed trailer on iTunes, who hasn’t?), then you should know that Loki is the big bad for that movie. Now, this probably isn’t going to happen, but what if his army comprised of other Marvel villains we’ve seen in the movies? Oh wait, the movie can’t. Save for The Abomination, all of the others are dead (Well, I’m not entirely sure on Whiplash, it could be that he’s in prison, when Iron Man and War Machine have their explosive high five I can’t say for certain whether the dude lived or not). That’s a shame too. Wouldn’t it have been grand to see Red Skull and the crazed bald-headed Jeff Bridg..er…Stane back to cause problems for the heroes as well? Oh well.

[Note: Yes, Red Skull’s ‘death’ has obvious back-door logic applied to it. He can easily return thanks to the power of the cosmic cu….er….tesseract.]

Why do they kill off the villains? I think it has something to do with the way writers/directors/producers perceive the audience. Apparently, they assume that in order to have a proper resolution, especially when the villains do something incredibly heinous, they need to die. Otherwise, the audience won’t be satisfied.

Want some great examples that prove this wrong?

Granted, Fantastic Four wasn’t that good of a movie, but instead of killing the main villain, they incase him in metal that he can’t escape out of (oh yeah, that worked brilliantly for the next movie).

The Joker does a heckuva lot more damage that Two-Face does in The Dark Knight, yet in the end he is placed in Arkham Asylum instead of dying. Please note that The Dark Knight is the highest grossing superhero movie ever, proving that audiences will enjoy the movie without the main villain dying.

Hopefully, the next batch of movies that start coming out next year will begin to end this trend of the villain dying. I want Lizard to live in Amazing Spider-man, only to see him in the third movie along with the Sinister Six. Oh, and I want Bane to live too.

A few thoughts from the Mrs.

So every now and then I subject my wife to nerdy things such as comics or video games or superhero movies. Today was one of those days as I had her sit and watch Green Lantern with me. Here are a few of her thoughts:

1)Why must it be a typical jock versus nerd story? [hal the jock versus hector the nerd]

2) If the GLs can fly in space with just their rings, then why does Abin have a ship?

3) Even Ryan Reynolds cannot pull off the tighty whiteys.

4) Why the heck would the guardians, who have been around for billions of years and saw what happens when you try to harness the power of fear, agree to create a fear-powered ring?

5) What was the point of bringing up those memories from Waller and not really explaining it? Did she kill her family or someone else?

6) Why would Sinestro put on the fear ring after they defeated Parallax and how he mentions how great the GL Corps is?

7) She loved the fact that Carol figured out who Green Lantern was, making fun of the fact that mask does not really hide his identity well.

Well that's it for now. Expect a real blogpost tomorrow!

The Summer of (not-so)Super-heroes

Let's start with a primer. I'm not a professional writer (although I'd like to be), and I am not the end-all-be-all when it comes to superheroes (although I do know a lot). That said, I love a good story, and like to think I understand a little as to what constitutes a good one.

So, as my buddies once stated back in May just before Summer really kicked off, "This is THE year of the superhero!" Sadly, that turned out to not be true. Sure, there were some successes, but even those successes were paltry compared to the ones that came before it.

First, let's look at the numbers. All information was pulled off the site boxofficemojo.com. The numbers pulled are domestic box office returns only, I'm being insular and only looking at us 'Mericans. There were five major comic-based movies this summer.
Movie Name Domestic Total Gross Estimated Production Cost Earnings
Thor 181 Million 150 Million 31 Million
Captain America 174 Million 140 Million 34 Million
X-men First Class 146 Million 160 Million -14 Million
Green Lantern 116 Million 200 Million -84 Million
Cowboys & Aliens 99 Million 163 Million -64 Million

Ouch. Even the two winners of the summer didn't win by that much. Not when you compare it to other superhero movies.

Iron Man 318 Million 140 Million 178 Million
Iron Man 2 312 Million 200 Million 112 Million
X-men 157 Million 75 Million 82 Million
X-men 2 214 Million 110 Million 104 Million
Spider-man 403 Million 139 Million 264 Million
Spider-man 2 373 Million 200 Million 173 Million
Batman Begins 205 Million 150 Million 55 Million
Dark Knight 533 Million 185 Million 348 Million

Now, Dark Knight is probably the exception to the rule (as the massive viral campaign and Heath Ledger helped that one skyrocket...the lack of a viral campaign for the next movie is surprisingly shocking seeing as it did so well the first time..but that's a different blog post), but as you can see these past movies have hit it really big.

So what was the problem this time around? Was it the economy, lack of extra funds for a majority of people equals less people in the theaters? Were the latest batch of movies just that crappy?

Both very good questions, and both can be assessed via data. First, lets look at the critic scores (thanks to metacritic site rottentomatoes.com).

Thor (77%), Captain America (78%), X-men First Class (a whopping 87%), Green Lantern (a distressing 27%), Cowboys & Aliens (45%). For similarity lets also compare the other movies shown. Iron Man (astonishing 94%), Iron Man 2 (74%..must have been something to do with the robotic high-five ending), X-men (82%), X-men 2 (88%), Spider-man (89%), Spider-man 2 (93%), Batman Begins (85%), Dark Knight (94%).

So, if we go by those numbers then it must be obvious why they failed, they weren't as critically/mass-appeal loved as the others. But hold on. X-men First Class got an 87% rating. The highest for this year's batch of superhero movies, yet it was one of the ones that wasn't succesful. The two other higher rated ones also didn't get as much money. Iron Man 2 from last year had a lower rating than Thor and Captain America, yet it made almost 100 million more than those two.

Well, what about audience attendance?
Unfortunately one can't get the actual attendance for each movie, but there is a tally of the total attendance for the summer. It stands at 543 Million tickets sold for the summer. To put into context this is the lowest summer attendance since 1997, which stood at 540 million. Yes, this could definitely be a factor in the low sales for these movies. With worries about the economy rising, and consumers' money dwindling, entertainment is one of the first cuts one makes to stay afloat.

But, that is also slightly disproved by major hits such as the Harry Potter movie, the last Transformers movie(..it's funny when they claim a billion dollar franchise is over), and the Pirates movie, not including Hangover 2 and other major hits have performed exceedingly well. Have superheroes already lost their luster?

God, I hope not. But these are distressing numbers.

More than likely it is the combination of both the economy and reviews/word of mouth which has caused this year's movies to dip in sales. As you can see, the two lowly rated movies recieved little returns, even First Class took a small hit comparitively to Green Lantern and Cowboys & Aliens, which were panned by critics everywhere (Apparently there was not enough pathos in one movie, and not enough nudity in the other).

Next year sees the return of Batman, Spider-man, and the appearance of the Avengers. So hopefully there will be a great turnout for these movies. Only time will tell, though.

Anywho, back to this year's movies. According to metacritic rankings, the movies are in the following order: X-men First Class, Captain America, Thor, Cowboys & Aliens, and finally Green Lantern.

Based entirely on my opinion, the list of the order of best to worst movies for this summer would be: Captain America, X-men First Class, Thor, Green Lantern with Cowboys & Aliens trailing off in the distance somewhere.

Yes, I was one of the millions who skipped watching Cowboys & Aliens. Why? The second it was slated as PG-13 I knew it was a skip. The material it was based off of was very graphic, and the movie should have been as well. So like Jonah Hex of last year, when they dropped it to PG-13 (to grab that elusive teenage audience....heh...), I decided it wasn't for me.

So, technically I should take off Cowboys & Aliens on my personal ranking, and Green Lantern should be dead last. Here's the problem; Green Lantern is not as bad as people make it out to be. Sure, Blake Lively has a problem with acting, and it's hard to believe she is a career pilot, and maybe Ryan Reynolds was miscast in the role. BUT, it had a fairly decent(read: standard) plot that made the mythology easy to understand for the casual audience.

There lies its biggest problem. It was afraid to go deep into the alien stuff, almost as if the director, writer, and producers feared the audience wouldn't understand it all. Essentially it's a slap in the face to everyone; you possibly can't understand all the supposed complexities of the Green Lantern mythology so we aren't even going to bother with it.

Loosely based on the comic book story arc Green Lantern: Secret Origin by Geoff Johns (although IGN would disagree and say it follows it too much), the movie tells the story of irresponsibly [late]twenty-something Hal Jordan, a cocky test pilot and slight man-whore, who is chosen by an intergalactic peace-keeping force called the Green Lanterns when his predecessor is killed by an evil alien. Hijinx ensue as Hal Jordan slowly learns that in order to be a great hero, one must overcome fear (but not be fearless, that leads to other problems). It really is a simple simple story. Almost too simple. In fact, even the comic arc had a problem with this and had to introduce another character, Sinestro, to make it compelling.

Here's the problem. Where the comic arc was amazing because of Sinestro's character arc (and the various mythology reveals), the movie fails because it focuses too much on Hal Jordan. This guy, unfortunately, can be an incredible douche, or in the tame movie version; an irresponsible bore. Yeah. Who'd have thought a character played by Ryan Reynolds would be boring. Even he looks like he's just going through the motions as the movie goes along. It is a shame. Without the inclusion of Sinestro to show how each is the opposite side of the same coin, the audience just can't find anything within the movie to fully enjoy.

Honestly, it looks like there was a Sinestro/Hal Jordan buddy-cop-turned-bad movie within this one. There are even character reveals at the end of the movie that hints towards this, but unfortunately someone high up over at WB (or mabye the director himself) freaked out, and thought that there was no way audiences would want to watch aliens interact for two hours. So in came the human element; Hector Hammond, his father, Amanda Waller, and Carol Ferris.

These parts of the story (save for Amanda Waller, which just seem to be a wasteful cameo that does not explain who she really is) are also in the comic version. The problem here is that they waste too much time and don't let these characters seem human. Hector Hammond is used to show an opposite version of Hal Jordan. He isn't attractive, super smart, and is far from the word cocky. In fact, there are moments in the movie where it shows both characters (interspersed by flashes) interacting to almost similar story advances. This would have been ok, and serviceable if it weren't for the fact they don't spend enough time with Hector, so he becomes just a silly freak-villain instead of a tragic, and interesting, one. To make matters worse, the movie focuses too much on another villain (named Paralax...), who wasn't even in the original comic-arc that this movie was based on. To add insult to injury *massive spoiler alert here, but seeing as how the movie bombed I doubt anyone will care* he gets killed at the end, thus ruining any chance of him getting properly used unless there's a reboot.

Regardless, the story is still serviceable. It isn't a train wreck, and I'd reccomend watching this because there is a glimmer of a great story underneath it. At the very least check out the comic it was based on, it is assuredly a great read.

Now, there have been many a WB exec that has claimed they are going forward with a sequel. Sorry folks, there won't be one. (They are saying it to save face and not feel so bad for wasting 200 million dollars). Will there be a reboot of the series? More than likely. Although here's my (unsolicited) opinion for what they should do for another movie.

1. Don't make it a major reboot, go the route of Incredible Hulk (where it starts the movie as if he's been the Hulk for years and the intro credits showed the origin). Heck, they should go ahead and keep Ryan Reynolds, or if they go with a different actor he should be one of the other human GL's.

2. Focus on it more as a space-opera with cop-like procedural settings. The Green Lantern Corps is essentially a universal police force. Let's see more of that. There should be less of a focus on people on Earth and more of a focus on all the other species the Corps can show off.

3. Utilize Sinestro. *Another spoiler*At the end of the first movie, he grabs a yellow power ring (for easy thought just think of it as the evil Green Lantern ring). To most it seems out of the blue. The entire movie he espouses about how great the Green Lantern Corps is only to just grab this other ring? Well, and this goes back to my statement earlier that there were hints of a great movie within, there were brief hints but they weren't that noticeable and so his change seems jarring. Howbout in the Green Lantern Corps (yes that's what they should title the next one), we have a slow burn towards his absolute transformation to evil. We, as the audience, see him turning but his fellow corpsmen and friends don't until it is too late. Brilliant! *hears the clinking sound of two bottles hitting each other in a toasting fashion*

4. For God's sake, if you are going to release the movie in 3D, film the entire movie in 3D. The post-conversion process is lame, and frankly the audience can tell when it is crappy conversion (just look at the dwindling returns for 3D movies this year). It can be a great technology (look at Avatar, just look at it though, the story is too lame for words), but people are being turned off towards it due to the crappy conversions and the super expensive price for said crappy conversion.

5. Stop killing off the villains. This is fodder for another blog post, but too many superhero movies just kill off the villains at the end, which is a horrible idea. That means they can never be utilized again (save for a reboot, or a lame resurrection). The Dark Knight was great BECAUSE the Joker still lived. Thor was amazing BECAUSE Loki was still around at the end. When you build up these incredible villains, its a shame to not be able to use them again because the hero kills them and/or watches them die. (Here's looking at you, Batman).


And that's that for this go around. When Green Lantern hits on DVD and Blu-ray later in October, I recommend people give it a shot. Rent it/stream it. At the very least, it's worth a $1 from some Redbox thingy to watch it once.

Random Rant of the Day: If you buy Transformers Dark of the Moon this Friday you are wasting your money. No special features in any of the versions being released. Just wait 'til October/November when the real release hits and enjoy all the extras that will come with it. If you fall for buying Friday's release, you are just perpetuating movie companies to release barebones versions first, and then re-releasing the full editions later (thus making you pay twice for the same movie).

The (not-so, but totally) New Superman

Well, it's here. The DCnU has finally arrived. I'll get into the details (read: review/thoughts/rants) of Flashpoint later this week. Going to need to let that digest and then re-read, otherwise this will be a book-length rant about how bad they fumbled it. Don't get me wrong, the initial idea is sound; retool the entire DC universe to better pull in new readers, especially those that are getting into the stories via the new movies and want to read something accessible. Whether this idea will work or not will take time, I'm hopeful that it will though.

Anywho, Superman's new reveal has been shown for a few months now. What is really interesting is that it looks very similar to the upcoming movie by Zack Snyder.

Here's a good look of the costume from the latest set.

And here's a good look of his new costume in the comics. They look pretty similar, although the comic one looks more like armor and has brighter colors.

What's the most noticeable difference? No red shorts/outer-underwear. Although if you look at the lines from the art they are still there, just blue instead of red. Personally, they should have just taken the whole underwear thing away and made them pants.

So, what's the current reception to this change? If you look upon the internet, you see a lot of vitriol for this look. Really, the majority of those posts are from the vociferous bunch of comic-fans, and while there are a lot of complaints they don't necesarily reflect all of us.

First off, I would like to address the opinions my wife had. She is most assuredly a non-comic book fan (although she does enjoy most of the movies), and wasn't really impressed with the Superman movies. Well, the first one anyway. What did she think of the costume? She wasn't thrilled, actually, with the live action version. Her main problem was the suit looked way too tight (which I'd figure would be a plus since he is very muscle-y), and it shows off his bulge. She felt uncomfortable and thought that it pull you away from everything else, and makes you want to just turn your head.

Next, I had her take a look at the new costume (along with looking at the older one for comparison) and her comments were very insightful. She admitted to him looking much younger, for starters. Her main problem was the way the costume looks too sci-fi, it looks like he is wearing armor. About the only positive thing she liked about the costume was that they took away his outside-underwear. In total, though, the look just didn't seem like Superman.

Now, for my opinion (you knew it was coming). I actually agree with a lot my wife says. He looks younger (in the old DC I'd say he was late twenties to early thirties, in the DCnU he is no older than twenty-two), and his suit looks like futuristic armor. Like my wife, I understand that its meant to look more alien, but it just doesn't feel like Superman. On top of that, that dog-collar like setup around his neck is just retarded. Also, what the heck is up with the Superman symbol outline on his shoulders? While it is definitely different, it still has a few similarities so you can't mistake this guy for someone else. Regardless, he just doesn't have that timeless look to him anymore.

Now, I'll discuss my thoughts on the new set of stories DC has created with this universe later, right now I just wanted to post some thoughts on my all-time favorite superhero. My final stance on this costume is this; I can see Superman underneath all of the futuristic armor, and while it may be interesting where DC is going with this, I'm just not thrilled with this costume change.

So, for all of my non-comic book readers, let's have a primer on the stance of Superman comics. Before this current reboot, there were a good ten years worth of books to read to get all of the great stories that affected the current Superman. While most of the books were fairly accessible (unlike, admittedly, a bunch of other DC books which strangely aren't getting as heavy a reboot as Superman here), the current run of books did reference stuff from the 90's often. This included the marriage between Lois and Clark, Superman's death, the rise of other Supermen (like Steel, and Superboy), Superman's cousin (Supergirl), and the various mega-events that he has dealt with for the past two decades. That is a LOT for new readers to catch up on, although to be honest it is doable without rebooting it all, (A la Superman: Secret Origin by Geoff Johns and Gary Frank) but this does seem like a viable idea to insure new readers stay. No longer will you have little asterisks besides every other pages' captions stating to read some TPB from something years ago.

Anyway, this was the basic stance of the pre-DCnU Superman:

-Placed in a rocket by his birth-parents on a dying Krypton.

-Lands on Earth, where he is cared for by John and Martha Kent.

-Both adoptive parents were alive well through his career as Superman.

-After establishing himself as Superman, and having various adventures, he comes across mega-villain Doomsday, and after an all-out brawl, both die (don't worry, both get better...)

-Four Supermen come to take his place, one of them turns out to be a villain, the real Supes returns and now you have Superman, Steel, and Superboy (A clone of Superman and Lex Luthor. Oh yes, Conner Kent has two daddies.).

-Fast forward a few years, and now he has found his true cousin, Kara via a large piece of Kryptonite crashing to Earth, reiterate the whole idea of fish-out-of-water stories and there you have it.

-A few crises hit (read: mega-events like Infinite Crisis and Final Crisis and Blackest Night).

-Superman discovers the real Braniac, and with that finds the bottled city of Kandor, which recreates itself on Earth before launching into space and creating a New Krypton in opposite orbit of Earth, oh and Johnathan Kent dies.

-Lots of silly stuff happens and ends with New Krypton blowing up, and Clark and Kara being the only Kryptonians again, so you should just ignore the whole New Krypton thing other than the story kills off his adoptive father.

-Goes on a year-long walkabout around the USA, and finds out (via being an idiotic and depressive fellow) the qualities that make Superman timeless.

Too much stuff, even I'll admit that is a LOT of story for a new reader to go through.

So what has the reboot done?

What we know so far:

-The standard origin still applies, boy from Krypton has great adoptive parents, what's the twist? Before he becomes Superman, both of his adoptive parents die.

-That whole marriage thing? Gone. Right now Clark is a single man and Lois is dating some other guy.

-The costume, of course.

-Everything else has been taken off the board, but Kara is about to reappear for the first time (oh yes, another fish out of water story), and Superboy is still around (as a soulless weapon for the time being).

Not as much to deal with. Should be easier to read for new fans. While I'm not too happy about the changes (I loved that his Earth-parents were still around, and the marriage was one of my favorite things about him. Made him very down-to-earth and relatable), I'll try to give it a shot. If the stories are incredibly good, then it won't matter what the changes are (for the most part), and with both Grant Morrison and George Perez doing writing duties on Superman books, there is a good chance the stories will be decent.

Guess we'll find out.

The DCnU

So, with summer comes the comic companies big event books. Think of them as if they were major summer blockbusters. Generally, only Marvel and DC tend to have these major events (yes, other companies do as well, but they are never as big as these two companies. Obviously, seeing as how Marvel and DC are the biggest comic publishers). Marvel has Fear Itself for this summer, while DC has Flashpoint.

Now, I'll go over Fear Itself at some other point, it still has a few issues left before it's over anyways. Flashpoint, on the other hand, is almost finished. It has one more issue (part five) out this month, and then the whole DC universe gets rebooted.

Well...sort of. Some series are going to practically ignore this reboot, and continue with the stories they've been going over for the past 5-7 years. Yeah. It's a bit confusing. So, to be completely fair one should wait to discuss the bulk of this matter (I.E. how the reboot is going to happen) until after Flashpoint ends. But, for most of the summer DC has done nothing but reveal all the changes that will happen. Needless to say, I'm a bit unhappy with some of their choices.

In order to spruce their comic line-up, starting in September there will be fifty-two issue ones out for DC's line. Every book is getting a brand-spanking new number one. Surely, as Marvel can attest, this will boost both short and long-term sales! Heh.

So, let's go over the fifty-two series (yeah, this is going to be a long post) that DC is starting in September.

Justice League #1 - By Geoff Johns and Jim Lee: Hm. The premiere super-hero team as written by Geoff Johns and drawn by Jim Lee. I'll definitely check this out, as both creators are incredibly good. The problem is, Jim Lee hasn't been known to keep a deadline. To his credit, he oversees a lot of things creative-wise over at DC, but even before his current position, he had trouble keeping to a monthly schedule. So I expect he will draw about four to six issues (enough for the first arc) before a new artist comes on board.

Justice League International #1 - By Dan Jurgens and Aaron Lopresti: Well, initially I thought I was interested in this book. It stars the current JLI crew that were in the bi-monthly series spawned by Blackest Night (the last event book DC did, confused yet?) So this is where this reboot gets sketchy. It apparently will continue the story set up in the previous series. The question is, how does this reconcile with the word 'reboot'? Another problem, Dan Jurgens wasn't the writer for the previous series, and he has known to be a bit sketchy. At least the art will be the same. Well, I'll try it out to see if it will be interesting.

Aquaman #1 - By Geoff Johns and Ivan Reis: The long-awaited new Aquaman series! The main problem this character has, unfortunately, is that pop-culture has begun to hurt the character. Watch Robot Chicken or Family Guy or any other type of pop-culture show, and you'll understand why. In the current pop lexicon, Aquaman is the weakest character DC has. Again, to make matters worse, this is a continuation of a story set up in last year's Blackest Night (and the bi-monthly series Brightest Day). So again, how to reconcile the reboot with a current story? Geoff is usually a great writer, so I'm hopeful that he will figure something out.

Wonder Woman #1 - By Brian Azzarello and Cliff Chiang: The art will be great, at the very least. Looks to be a complete reboot, so I can start on this without knowing the character well (which, sadly, I don't). Brian Azzarello is an interesting choice, though, as usually he only does crime-based stories. The most interesting thing coming out of this series was the pants-change DC has done just weeks before the issue comes out. All summer DC has shown a Wonder Woman costume where she wears pants (read: spandex) that cover her entire legs. It was a way to tie into the Wonder Woman series that was supposed to run this fall. Well, that show never got off the ground (the pilot was god awful, which is a shame), so I suppose DC has decided to give her just very short-shorts to wear. They look like panties. Seriously. I'll try the series out, but this costume change feels like a bad idea.

The Flash #1 - By Francis Manapul and Brian Buccellato: Hm. A new Flash series. Great art, but I'm not convinced that I'm interested enough in Barry Allen. Maybe it's because I'm a 90's kid and grew up on Wally West. Don't think I'll keep up with this series.

Captain Atom #1 - By J.T. Krull and Freddie Williams II: Oh god. This writer (J.T. Krull) still gets work? He was the creator of the horribly bad miniseries Rise of Arsenal. Ok, get this. Arsenal was originally the sidekick of Green Arrow (think Robin Hood, but in current times and he doesn't steal he just shoots people with gimmick-arrows in the name of justice), and waaaaay back when, it was revealed he was a junkie (presumably of heroin). Well, in his drug-addled days he bedded a super villain named Cheshire, and they had a kid. He cleaned up for the sake of the child, and became the hero he was meant to be. Great story, right? DC doesn't like that, they have to be edgy! So a couple of years back there was a miniseries called Cry for Justice (I won't bore you with the details) that had Arsenal's arm cut off, and his child killed during a terrorist attack on a city. So, during recovery he gets hooked onto some new drug, and begins to go on drug-rages against people in the city. During one of his tirades, he begins to beat up a bunch of punkers with, I kid you not, a dead cat. To make things worse, he hallucinates he is beating these guys up with his dead daughter. Yeah. This was by J.T. Krull. Ok, so none of this ties into Captain Atom, I just wanted to point the writer is so god awful that I'm completely skipping this one.

The Fury of Firestorm #1 - By Ethan van Sciver and Gail Simone with Yildiray Cinar: Hrm. Ethan is a great artist, don't know about writing. But he is teaming up with Gail Simone who is a great writer. The problem is, I just don't care about this character. The last few attempts at making this guy interesting (he is a chemist's dream hero, though) have failed. But, it has Gail Simone. Tough one. I'll try out the first issue, hopefully there will be a great hook that will keep me on. I'll explain more about Gail Simone later.

Green Arrow #1 - By J.T. Krull and Dan Jurgens: It has J.T. Krull. I'm skipping.

The Savage Hawkman #1 - By Tony Daniel and Philip Tan: This poor guy. Last year's event started with him finally reconciling with his lost love Shiera, only for both to be brutally murdered and become evil zombie-like henchmen. Yeah, it gets worse. They are resurrected, go through an entire ordeal of dealing with her evil mother only for Shiera to die off again. So, I'm assuming the title is called Savage because he is angry. How edgy. Philip Tan is a pretty bad artist, so I think I'll skip this one on the basis that I won't be able to understand anything.

Mister Terrific #1 - By Eric Wallace and Roger Robinson: The only JSA character (well, besides Hawkman) that will be in the DCnU. Two unknowns will be heading up this book. I really don't know if this will be any good. May wait for the reviews to come in before I try.

DC Universe Presents #1 - By Paul Jenkins and Bernard Chang: Now this is a great idea. Use high profile (or sort-of high profile) creators on not-so popular characters and see what happens. The first arc will be centered on Deadman, who has had a bit of resurgence in the last year. Of course, his last story ended right where he started (annoying a lot of people in the process, wasting a year of story), so maybe cerebral writer Paul Jenkins can do something interesting with him. Definite try.

Action Comics #1 - By Grant Morrison and Rags Morales: And we get to the biggest problem I have with the DCnU; the Superman change. Superman is one of the few main characters that is getting a complete reboot (more on that later). That means, no marriage to Lois Lane (in fact, she'll be dating someone else), none of the current supporting characters, and both of his adopted parents are dead. On the plus side, this is being written by Grant Morrison (writer for All-Star Superman) so it has potential. But I'm seeing red here. Superman is my absolute favorite character, and I've been following him since the Death and Return saga. To see all of that story just erased annoys me to no end. I understand that DC is trying to make him relevant in our current world, but I don't think this was a good idea. Only time will tell if I'm right or not. Skipping and just going to wait for the reviews/trades.

Superman #1 - By George Perez and Jesus Merino: Where Action Comics tells the tale of Superman's debut, Superman will fast forward five years later (which is the current timepoint for all series in the DCnU, superheroes have only been around for half a decade), and show his current interactions with the world. New costume is okay, they got rid of the over-the-pants underwear, but he looks like he has armor on, so it looks a little silly. Another one I'm skipping and just waiting for the reviews and trades.

Superboy #1 - By Scott Lobdell and RB Silva: Well, back in the nineties (I think) Scott Lobdell was a great teen-book writer. He probably would have been great to helm the current Superboy series. Instead, he has to do the reboot. Superboy is no longer the well-rounded character he has been for years, he is back to his creation. Instead of being a sex-crazed teenager (hah) like he was in the nineties, he is a souless weapon that gets free from his restraints. Hrm. Definite skip. Don't think I'm going to even bother with the trades.

Supergirl #1 - By Michael Green, Mike Johnson and Mahmud Asrar: Judging by the cover of the solicit, the art will be nice. Can't say I'm interested in anything else. According to Dan DiDio; take Superman, change into a teenage girl, and strip away any of the human qualities Superman has and you have this series. Skip.

Batman #1 - By Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo: Hah. And here we go. Remember when I said Superman was the only major character to actually get rebooted? Batman isn't so lucky (or maybe he's really lucky). While it is hard to reconcile that all of the major Batman stories for the last few decades happened within five years (yeah, apparently Robin is a harsh intern program. I kid you not, that's how DC explained the multiple Robins within five years), all of his current stories are continuing. I'll read this one, mainly because I like the current Batman stories and Scott Snyder has promised every change will be explained in-story.

Detective Comics #1 - By Tony Daniel and Ryan Winn: Tony Daniel has been doing really well with Batman recently. While I'm not a fan of his artwork, I do like his stories. He has been working on Batman for the last couple of years, ever since Dick Grayson took up the mantle (Oh yeah, Bruce died for a while and his first Robin became Batman. Don't worry, Bruce got better and for the last few months there have been two Batman's....Batmen?), and now he gets to write about the real Batman. Should be interesting.

Batwing #1 - By Judd Winick and Ben Oliver: Ok, so to catch you up on recent events in Batman; Bruce Wayne died for a while, and was replaced by Dick Grayson (the first Robin). He got better, and decided to take his vigilante bad-assness across the globe. While Dick Grayson stays as Batman in Gotham City, Bruce has been globe-trotting and recruiting others to be Batman in their respective region. In Africa, he recruited the first African to be a Batman. His name is Batwing. This is his story. Reboot? Who needs a stinking reboot! This was the handiwork of the crazed Grant Morrison (and it's been pretty awesome), so I'll try this off-shoot series, but it probably won't last a year.

Batman : The Dark Knight #1 - By David Finch with Richard Friend: David Finch. Awful artist. Terrible writer. Skip.

Batman and Robin #1 - By Peter J. Tomasi and Patrick Gleason: Ok, to also recap; before Bruce died it was discovered he had a son with Talia Al Ghul (some genetic cloning thing or something like that, along with sex...can't forget the sex). Well, after Bruce died his son, Damian, became Robin to Dick's Batman. Well now that Bruce is back as the only Batman, he is fighting crime with his genetically enhanced son as Robin. Should be awesome. Picking this one up.

Batgirl #1 - By Gail Simone and Adrian Syaf: So, Gail Simone. For the better part of a decade she has been writing for DC. One of the best writers around (and she happens to be a woman, too). She revitalized the character Barbara Gordon as not only a tech-genius, but a compelling character who happens to be handicapped (Joker shot her years ago). Before being handicapped, she used to be Batgirl. Well, DC has decided to make her Batgirl once again. Which is a bit strange, because I think it may diminish the character, who has proven that being handicapped doesn't conflict with being a great hero. Gail has also gone on record to say this change will be explained in story. Well, as long as it's not some Superboy-Prime punch against a glass-like wall that caused continuity changes, I guess I'll give it a shot.

Batwoman #1 - By J.H. Williams III and Haden Blackman: J.H. is an interesting artist. But the character has been pretty boring, and the last Batwoman storyarc was a confusing mess of art and story (even though everyone claims it was just amazing, I couldn't follow it). So this is a skip.

Nightwing #1 - By Kyle Higgins and Eddy Barrows: Well, if Eddy Barrows weren't the artist I'd pick this up instantly. He is just horrible, though. So I'll wait for the reviews and trades on this one. Dick Grayson, folks, is back as his post-Robin role of Nightwing. Meh.

Catwoman #1 - By Judd Winick and Guillem March: Another meh for me. The problem is I never found Catwoman compelling enough to hold her own series. She was great when there are other co-stars, but even her main series a few years back wasn't that spectacular. Skip.

Birds of Prey #1 - By Duane Swierczynski and Jesus Saiz: The best Birds of Prey, as written by Gail Simone, involved Barbara Gordon leading a team of female superheroes for various stories. It was great. This new version? Not so much. Duane isn't a great writer (if you've read the last series of Marvel's Cable you'd know why). So a total skip for me.

Red Hood and the Outlaws #1 - By Scott Lobdell and Kenneth Rocafort: So Robin II, Jason Todd, leads a rag-tag group of anti-heroes who were originally just plain heroes before the reboot against bad guys. I like the current version of Jason Todd, so this might be interesting. I'll give it a try.

Holy crap, this is a lot of text...

Green Lantern #1 - By Geoff Johns and Doug Mahnke: The continuation of the current story starts here with Sinestro back as a Green Lantern. Screw the reboot! Of course I'll continue this one.

Green Lantern Corps #1 - By Peter Tomasi and Fernando Pasarin: Another continuation of a series, and one that I happen to like so I'll get this one.

Green Lantern: The New Guardians #1 - By Tony Bedard and Tyler Kirkham: A new GL series that focuses on Kyle Rayner and a group of diferent-colored lantern corps members. Should be interesting.

Red Lanterns #1 - By Peter Milligan and Ed Benes: A spin-off from Green Lantern that focuses on the rage-filled Red Lantern Corps. Can't say I'm interested in this one, guess I'll wait for the reviews first.

Justice League Dark #1 - By Peter Milligan and Mikel Janin: Essentially the magic-based team. DC magic has never been interesting to me, so I'll skip.

Swamp Thing #1 - By Scott Snyder and Yanick Paquette: On one hand, it's a character that I just don't find compelling. On the other, it has an all-star team on writing and art. I'll try the first issue.

Animal Man #1 - By Jeff Lemire and Travel Foreman: So, let's make a series based on a character that has never been all that popular except when being done by a specific writer. Hint: Jeff Lemire is not that writer. While he does great with the weird-stuff, I think this will be a fail. Skip.

Frankenstein, Agent of S.H.A.D.E. #1 - By Jeff Lemire and Alberto Ponticelli: Remember when I said Jeff Lemire is great with the weird? Doesn't get any stranger than this. Definite try.

I, Vampire #1 - By Joshua Fialkov and Andrea Sorrentino: Vampire stuff. Based on the solicit it sounds like a cross between Vampire Diaries, Twilight, and True-Blood. Since I like none of those, definite skip. (I'll stick with Scott Snyder's amazing awesome American Vampire series instead).

Resurrection Man #1 - By Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning with Fernando Dagnino: A story about a guy that gets a new superpower everytime he dies. Interesting hook. And it's being written by DnA, so I'm intrigued.

Demon Knights #1 - By Paul Cornell and Diogenes Neves: Another mystic series, so I'll skip.

Stormwatch #1 - By Paul Cornell and Miguel Sepulveda: A Wildstorm series, which was an indie imprint under DC, that is now being folded into DC proper. A group that watches over other superhumans, skip.

Voodoo #1 - By Ron Marz and Sami Basri: Another Wildstorm series that gets new life in DC proper, another book I never read, and according to the solicit its about an anti-hero woman who treks across America and leaves a trail of violence. Obviously, she isn't the real bad guy and is probably chasing something, or being chased by something. Blah. Skip.

Grifter #1 - By Nathan Edmunson and CAFU: Another Wildstorm book. About a guy, who is apparently a badass, killing 'normal' humans. Yeah, who happen to be evil aliens that no one can see. Yeah, just like the original incarnation, actually. And that one performed so well that Wildstorm ended up dying off. Yes, its such a great idea to repeat the premise! I give it six to ten issues before dying off again.

Deathstroke #1 - By Kyle Higgins and Joe Bennett: I like this character. A sorta-evil mercenary that likes to beat up on the Teen Titans from time to time to get them to shut up. I'll try it out.

Suicide Squad #1 - By Adam Glass and Marco Rudy: Take an unknown writer and artist, put them on a concept that only works as a mini, give them a new ongoing, add Harley Quinn from Batman: The Animated Series, mix her with new sluttiness, and you have Suicide Squad. The gov'mint takes villains and offers to commute sentences if they take on crazy missions. Meh.

O.M.A.C. #1 - By Dan DiDio and Keith Giffen: I saw Keith Giffen(a well known writer)'s artwork just recently and loved it. It had a Jack Kirby style but colored with modern tools. I have no idea what this series is about, but based on the art alone I'm trying it out.

Blackhawks #1 - By Mike Costa and Ken Lashley: The original Blackhawks were a mercenary WWII airplane-fighter group. The current team is a military operation that takes on advanced threats. Meh, I'd rather have a WWII-era story instead.

Men of War #1 - By Ivan Brandon and Tom Denerick: Take a WWII comic-hero Sgt. Rock, and place him in the current era facing off against super villains. Yeah, this will work. *Sarcasm*

All-Star Western #1 - By Justin Gray, Jimmy Palmiotti and Moritat: The continuation of the Jonah Hex book, but now he's centered in Gotham City prior to the 1900's. I never read the latest Jonah Hex book, but it has been reviewed really well. I'll try this out to see if it's a good jumping on point or not.

Teen Titans #1 - By Scott Lobdell and Brett Booth: Take Robin III (now known as Red Robin), and a recreated version of teen superheroes, make them more 'edgy', and you have this 90's throwback. Gah. I miss the Teen Titan series that Geoff Johns did back in the early 2000's. Better yet, I miss Young Justice.

Static Shock #1 - By Scott McDaniel and John Rozum: The African-American superhero created by the late Dwayne McDuffie under the Milestone Comics imprint (funded by DC, essentially a bunch of urban writers got tired of seeing just white superheroes that were compelling and having other racial heroes being pretty bad, so they created their own diverse heroes that were just plain awesome). This character was so popular that WB decided to make a cartoon of it way after the comic ended. Well, recently DC finally secured the rights to all of the Milestone characters, and it looks like the only one they are using is Static. Great character, so I'll give it a try.

Hawk and Dove #1 - By Sterling Gates and Rob Liefeld: Wow. Sterling Gates is a pretty bad comic writer. Rob is considered to be a pretty bad comic artist. This should be spectacular. Going to try it out for the train-wreck potential.

Blue Beetle #1 - By Tony Bedard and Ig Guara: The latest incarnation of the Blue Beetle gets rebooted and becomes the only incarnation of the Blue Beetle! Gasp! Essentially a hispanic teen gets fused with an alien scarab and gets to become a superhero. The last series was pretty interesting, so I'll give it a try.

Legion of Superheroes #1 - By Paul Levitz and Franics Portella: A continuation of the latest Legion series, skips the whole reboot stuff. So I'll keep reading, even though Paul's current run has been pretty underwhelming.

Legion Lost #1 - By Fabian Nicieza and Pete Woods: Take a few characters from LOSH, throw them in current rebooted-continuity, watch the explosive fireworks. Looks like this book will service current continuity fans with an outlet for complaining about all the changes, so I'll definitely read it.


Well, there we go. All fifty-two number ones. Whew. It might be interesting, but its a ploy to gain new readers. Unfortunately, it probably won't work. What is really different, though, is that DC will now offer digital versions of their comics the same day as the paper versions. So, DC will be the first to go all in in the digital landscape. It will either secure their dominance in the digital sphere, or be a spectacular failure. Guess we'll find out next summer.

Stay tuned for an analysis on a few current comic arcs, and a look at one of my own upcoming stories, Vigilante.

Volume Three of the Fourth Series During a Seventh Reboot

Well now.

So, I haven't posted anything on this in over a year. So what has happened since then?

Well, I've sorta graduated. (Waiting on the dang diploma....looong story).
I've gotten married. Heck yeah!
Began seriously writing, thanks to a few courses in college.
Read a lot of comics.
Watched a lot of movies.
Played a lot of video games.
Read a few books.

I know, I know. I should be reading more books. But who has the time?

Well, now that school is out, and I'm unfortunately not teaching at the moment, I guess I have more time. So after looking at a few of my friends' blogs, I decided to dust off my ol' one and start talking again.

What shall I talk about?

Well, no idea at the moment. I've decided reviewing old TPB's was kind of boring, so maybe I'll actually do editorials on the latest books, movies, comics, games, etc.

Sooooo, ideas for upcoming posts include;
The current comic situation (read: the DCnU...).
Some previews of my current stories (which will be published, thanks to Amazon, soon).
Current things that strike my interest that I wish to talk about.

Yeah, this should be interested. So, once again, thanks for stopping by, and check back often for some of my random and probably unimportant thoughts.

'Till then, stay frosty my friends!

Exhausted...

Well, I'm sitting here in South Paw at SHSU, finished with all of my school work for the semester, and waiting for my friends to be done so we can head home. I am completely exhausted. The semester was beginning to kick my butt, but thankfully I made it through before I ran out of juice. Summer is going to be even harder this year. Taking both sessions, they will be Monday through Friday. I'm honestly afraid I won't be able to afford it.

Anywho, enough of my worries and the such lets get on to something a bit more fun!

Now, I've read a lot of books since the last time I posted, and I still had a list of books to review from even before then! So, with my list in hand lets get this show on the road!

All Star Superman Vol. 2
Ah, the final six issues of this amazing maxiseries. I was saddened when I finished this book. Why? Because it has been some of the best Superman stories I have ever read. Before this series even came out, I had read and seen Grant Morrison's other work. I had a few worries as he was going into this. He is, by far, one of the most craziest comic scribes around! It worked really well for this series. By ignoring the current continuity, and just telling timeless Superman stories, he was able to mix Golden and Silver age storyline tropes with the touch of modernity. The stories were out there, with all kinds of weird things such as the Bizarro-men, or even Zibarro, the only 'normal' guy on Bizarro World. Or even his tests of strength against Atlas, and the most evil Lex Luthor! Each issue, for the most part, was a one-and-done story, completely self contained yet it still developed an over-reaching story arc for the series as a whole; What would Superman do if he knew he was going to die?
The art was also a treat. I'll be honest, I normally didn't like Frank Quitely's artwork. Reading his issues of New X-men was a bit annoying. His art was scratchy, most people looked fat and had this "I'm better than you" demeanor, and his women were just plain fugly. Now, he still has a problem drawing the women(he likes giving them oval heads, which makes the face look pudgy while the body is built like a supermodel), but his Superman is just amazing. His take on the transformation/differences between Clark Kent and Superman is by far one of the greatest artistic renderings available. Now, I won't say Frank Quitely is the greatest comic-book artist around, he is at least in the top ten.

So, its a great book. A wonderful series. And it sucks that it is over.


Ciao!

Another Round for My Friends Over Here!

Well, I'm now finishing day one of my two day 'weekend.' It sucks, though, as I planned on playing this one game, inFamous, for the two days. Well...that didn't pan out well. I finished it all in one day.

Well. Crap.


Anywho, while I try to figure out what I should do for the next day, here are a few reviews for you!

JLA Vol 5 - Justice For All

Essentially three separate story-arcs within this book. It is actually pretty huge! The main stories by Grant Morrison feature the JSA, and his re imagining 0f the imps from the 5th dimension! From this point, this is basically just 'filler' until Morrison's final arc, which happens to be in the next volume. It was an ok read I suppose. The artist, Howard Porter, has a problem with Wildcat and Batman. As in, he tends to make Wildcat look like Batman waaaay too much.
The other stuff involved in this arc? Kinda blah. They give service to a few of the DC storylines of the day, such as Batman's No Man's Land stuff and Flash's crisis.

So...it was ok....but not great.

Hulk Vol 2 - Red and Green
Ok, ok, now I'm just enjoying this. Its pure crap! It really is, but I can't stop reading. I think I figured out why...Its like a mindless action movie. You just turn off your brain and watch the awesome explosions! The problem is, I think Loeb, the writer, really thinks he is writing an intriguing and mentally captivating book. So a lot of things try to turn your brain back 'on,' but if you do you'll just start to get ticked off due to all the stupid crap in this book.
Arthur Adams and Frank Cho do the art duties for this volume. Essentially, when this book came out monthly, they were actually two stories per book, with Arthur Adams dealing with the story with the main Hulk...and Wendigos....in Vegas.... and then there is Frank Cho doing the art for the Lady Liberators, led by She-Hulk, trying to beat the crap out of the Red Hulk.
Both are awesome artists that were given a story that tailors to their talents. For Arthur, its awesomely stylized fighting and monsters. For Frank Cho..its the cheese factor. He draws almost every Marvel heroine that isn't a mutant. And then throws in one mutant for good measure. Its readable. The art is phenomenal. So I was happy reading this.

Hulk Vol 3 - Hulk No More
Ah...Ed Mcguinnes is back! Its a Hulk team-up of epic proportions! Hulk, Namor, Dr. Strange, and Silver Surfer versus Red Hulk, TigerShark, Terrax, and Mordo!
This happens to have the greatest line said by a villain ever, "This is the most fun I've had with my pants on!"
BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

It was funny, it was stupid, but still a great read mainly thanks to the awesome art.

Well..there you go. Three lovely reviews set in!
Laters.

Can't sleep, clown will eat me...

Well, after listening to the awesome podcast over at House To Astonish, I finally found out why I haven't been able to buy any comics from Amazon.com recently.

Apparently, there was a computer glitch between Diamond Shipping and Amazon, that allowed comics that normally cost around 50-60$ to sell for as low as 8$.

And here is me, slapping myself because I totally missed out on this.

Darn.

Oh well, got some comics today, and read some more within the last time I blogged earlier today, feeling generous in wanting to review some more books.

Annihilation: Conquest Book One
Ah, the sequel to the original Annihilation cosmic event by Marvel. Instead of Keith Giffen being the showrunner this time, you have to dastardly duo of Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning(known as DnA to Marvel). They have a vast knowledge of the Marvel Cosmos, so one shouldn't worry that new guys run the show. Anywho, this new event starts off with the Kree empire rebuilding, with the help of the SpaceKnights(alas, still no ROM). Well, it has Annihilation, and Conquest in its title so obviously things aren't peaceful for long. A new evil alien entity heads in and takes over, the Phalanx. For those that don't know, think Star Trek's Borg, techno-organic beings that are a virus-entity that takes over other life forms. Bad news for the group. Well, book one goes over the prologue, the Star-Lord mini, and the Quasar mini. The Star-Lord mini is like the last event's 'Super-Skrull' mini, a guerrilla-war tactic against the main enemy. But this time its different! There's a living tree-organism and the ever-awesome Rocket Raccoon! Yep! The Quasar mini is fairly meh, at least until the end. Involves the new Quasar going in looking for the Kree savior. Kinda cool when the Kree savior is revealed, but until then its all standard blah blah 'I'm so unsure of myself' crud.
Other than that, a great start to the new cosmic event!

Nova Vol 1 - Annihilation: Conquest
The first 7 issues of this awesome title, and I'm glad I have this book its just amazing. The first couple of issues actually involve Nova, Richard Rider, going back to Earth and dealing with the events of Marvel's Civil War. Key Word: Deals with Iron Man, and lots of explosions! Then, the last 4 issues are the tie-in to Annihilation: Conquest, and since its written by DnA it ties in very well, without revealing too much of the main series. By the way, the artist Sean Chen, I will literally buy anything that has his name attached. He does great with space-alien stuff, and doubly great for armor based costumes. Great read, can't wait to read the next book.

Hulk Vol 1 - Red Hulk
Oh god....I really don't know why I bought this. When I originally read this, it was god-awful. Jeph Loeb has been utter crap in recent years, and this was no different. I still can't understand why I bought this. I guess I wanted to read something 'dumb' with action. Oh wait! I remember! Has the awesome, kinetic-charged, super-muscled art of Ed Mcguinnes. Whew, you don't know muscles until you see his work.
Now, after re-reading this. It wasn't THAT bad. Its bad, don't get me wrong, but its not that bad haha. It is readable, actually, and I think I know why I hated it originally. Horrible plot, bad characterizations, and they went and reverted Hulk to 'dumb' Hulk, fresh off his run of World War Hulk where he was a uber-badass, now he is all "Me no am happy! Me want to be left alone! Hulk is hulk! Hulk smash!" Eugh.

Oh well. Pretty art though.

Ok. Well thats it for now.

Alrighty then...

Well, to make up for not doing reviews Thursday and Friday, I will just do them today and tomorrow.

Anywho, nothing else left to say so I'm just going to get started on them now!

Ultimate X-men Vol 14 - Phoenix?
Yeah, strange title, this is where Robert Kirkman begins his run on the Ultimate X-men series. From what I've read, this is also where the appeal of Ultimate X-men began to dissipate. The problem being, the artwork wasn't anywhere near as good as previously seen, and the writer seems to just jumble up a lot of old X-men stories into one narrative, and it doesn't mesh well.
The first arc deals with Jean's manifestation of the Phoenix force. Previously in Ultimate X-men, it was believed that she doesn't have it, but of course that was a lie to attempt to control her. Now it is coming out in full swing and the entire team has to attempt to reign her in. Its ok stuff, but has no real 'pop' to it, so its boring. The artwork was just fugly too.

Ultimate X-men Vol. 15 - Magical
The ONLY storyline created by Robert Kirkman that wasn't an obvious retelling of a classic X-men story. Just because it was an original storyline doesn't mean its any good, though. The artwork is still just awful. The storyline, which revolves around a mutant who can get anything he desires, is blah as well. There isn't really anything in this book that has any redeeming value.

Ultimate X-men Vol. 16 - Cable
Kirkman's continuation of a mish-mash of classic X-men titles. This one dealing with the time-travelers Cable and Bishop. This time around, Cable has come back in time to kill Professor X, believing it was him that caused all the future problems of the world. Hoo-boy. There is one twist in this book that was actually really interesting, but its revealed in the first issue of the 6 issue arc, which just ruins any of its intrigue. By this point, one gets the feeling that to read Ultimate X-men is to read some weird person's fan-fiction. Artwork still sucks too.

Ultimate X-men Vol. 17 - Sentinels
Ah yes, more mish-mash. This time dealing with newfound sentinels and the morlocks underneath New York. Ugh. I really don't even know why I'm bothering here, it was just a mess. At least Robert Kirkman doesn't write Nightcrawler with that annoying 'German' accent that never works in comics. I.E. 'Vas is dat? Vhat? Etc etc. Art? Don't even bother its dull as well.

Ok, thats it for today, I promise to review some good books tomorrow!