DC: New 52 Thoughts (Part 3)

Detective Comics #1

I don't know how to described Detective Comics #1, I don't want say I hated it or I didn't like it, so I guess I'm gonna say I didn't enjoy it much. Tony S. Daniel has previously wrote Batman when Dick Grayson had taking over the mantle, this is he's first time ever writing Bruce Wayne as Batman, and I have to say it came off a little to strongly almost like a teenage boy's fan-fiction with Batman saying self-righteous stuff like "I own the night.", "I AM Gotham.", and yes even "I'm Batman.", Batman doesn't need that rhetoric, this is Detective Comics, and I did not see or read The World's Greatest Detective in it. I enjoyed Daniel's writing and art in Battle for The Cowl, but here it seemed mediocre to me, the one thing I did like the most in the book was the Joker's portrayal and will probably get a couple more issues to see where he's story goes after issue 1's unique ending. 

Flash #1-2

Now these were good, I have wanted to read Francis Manapul and Brian Buccellato's work on Flash for a while now, having heard nothing but great things about their work, now I have to say it is true. My only prior Flash reading was Flash: Rebirth, but I have to say I enjoyed these issues just as much, Manapul really knows how to write a guy who is constantly on the move in both body and mind, which Buccellato perfectly complements in he's extraordinary amazing artwork, usage of paneling, coloring, sound effects, and word placement you haven't seen anywhere else before, truly a visual pleasure. This is one of the New 52 titles where we don't exactly know where Barry is on the timeline in the new universe at the time of these issues, there's no mention of Justice League, but seems like he's been the Flash for a while, and the biggest question did Barry ever die in the Crisis of Infinite Earths if that Crisis still happened in this new continuity, so I'll be continuing to pick this up, and will be sure to track down Manapul and Buccellato's pre-Flashpoint run.

Justice League #1-6

ZOMG! Jim Lee's art is awesome, you end up just staring a page or spread long after reading all the word bubbles, trying to absorb every detail penned by that man with your eyes, if your a Jim Lee fan, even if you don't regularly buy DC, track down these six issues, they are a true visual feast. Now the story, the story was alright, Apokolips is invading at a time when the world doesn't trust being's with superpowers, said beings come together to battle invading force, defeat them and their master Darkseid, world calls them a team and heroes, sprinkled with the origin of Cyborg in between fights in the first few issues, not exactly what I would call an instant classic. Batman and Flash were the best portrayed, Aquaman had a couple cool moments, but Green Lantern was way too cocky, and Superman just liked to punch and throw things, same with Wonder Woman but with a sword, but I guess you can just chalk it all up to it being early in their careers on their way to becoming better heroes and developing characteristically, yeah.

Now I just want to say I don't think Cyborg should of been a founding member of the Justice League, I don't have anything against Cyborg, or him being on the Justice League at all, I've liked Cyborg ever since I watched the old 80's Galactic Guardians cartoon were he was a member of the Justice League. I mean they could of put any other superhero as the seventh or just had the six, remove Cyborg's origin, and have it that it was Green Lantern, and he's ring that reversed the Mother Boxes, problem solved. Why am I so against Cyborg being a founding member, not only because him being on the JL since he's cybernization means there hasn't been time for him to be on the Teen Titans and be friends Nightwing, Beast Boy, Raven, Starfire, and them, but also because he's taking the place of of one of my favorite DC superheroes who has always been one of the founding member in all previous incarnations, Martian Manhunter, and I refuse to pick up the Stormwatch comic they put him in. 

New Transformers: Fall of Cybertron Trailer

Oh yeah, and we have the official release date of August 28th, sweet. Game is definitely looking to be an epic telling of the last days of Cybertron and hopefully leads into and sets up a third game. Wonder if we'll get a new song from Stan Bush on this one too.

Mass Effect: Paragon Lost Teaser

Not much of a teaser, mostly character sketches we've already seen online just to official Mass Effect music, and the title revealed. I hope this movies does really, cause I would like to see another one along the lines of The Animatrix, Batman: Gotham Knights, and Halo Legends, different tales each with a different art style by different production companies, each tale would be a different version of Shepherd. Can't wait to hear when this is going out on Blu-Ray, Anime + Mass Effect = Liquified Brain.

DC: New 52 Thoughts (Part 2)

Batman #1-2

Written by Scott Snyder and drawn by Greg Capullo, Batman is 2nd favorite New 52 book, Snyder knows how to write Batman and he's Bat-Family, every characterization is dead-on with great comradery, and Capullo's Batman can only be described as a perfect visual balance of Dark Knight and Cape Crusader. I'm loving this Court of Owls story, and new enemy in the form of Talon, both are new and don't seem like cheap throw away enemies we'll never see or hear from again, but looks to be a major threat that can stick around for great stories later. I have heard, and now I completely agree that this the best Batman book out of the four new titles, I highly recommend tracking down #1 and reading this book.

Batman Beyond Unlimited #1

Technically not a New 52 title, but it did just come out, I sadly missed the two previous Batman Beyond series, so I was glad I was able to get this new #1. An over 40 page book continuing were the previous Beyond series left off splits between a solo Batman adventure, and a team-up with the Justice League Unlimited is a fantastic read for fans of the original TV series cause as you read you hear the voices from the show in your head. Dustin Nguyen, who did the covers for the last two Batman Beyond series not only does interior work on the JLU story but also co-wrote it, he's art and Norm Breyfogle's art in the solo story both greatly blend animated stylization with comic detailing given this book a uniqueness among other books out now. 

Deathstroke #1

Deathstroke wasn't bad, but also wasn't great either, story is decent and the art isn't horrible. I don't know who design Slade's new armor though, I personally don't think the world's most bad ass martial arts expert mercenary would ware big clunky armor, I really miss he's old costume. I'm a huge fan of Deathstroke The Terminator, he's full title that I wish was the complete title of this book, and picked it up just cause it's he's book, and I can't wait to see Rob Liefeld's work when he takes over writing and drawing with issue 9.

DC: New 52 Thoughts (Part 1)

So as a comic book collector for the last 20 years I have always devoted myself to being a hardcore Marvel fan, and even though I liked characters like Batman, Superman, and Green Lantern I refused to buy any DC comics and only bought my favorite Marvel books because I always felt Marvel had the better writers and artist, and better and more relatable heroes. It wasn't until I heard Batman was gonna die in Final Crisis did I ever buy my first DC comic, I couldn't get just that one issue, I had to have the whole story so I tracked down all seven issues, and it was cool seeing Hal Jordan as Green Lantern in that story so then I started getting the trade paperbacks of Hal's return and adventures following, I now have 16 Green Lantern trades, 13 Batman trades, 11 Superman trades, and 10 others. So I decided to track down the number 1's of some of DC's New 52's that I thought sounded and liked good, so here's what I've got in the last couple months, and what I'm thinking of them spread across four installments.

Action Comics #1-4 & 7

Action Comics has to be my 3rd favorite DC book I got so far, I'm loving Grant Morrison's early Superman tale, how he's slowly getting more powerful every time he pushes he's powers and how he's nowhere near being the beloved and trusted by all guardian of Metropolis but he is starting to be in the lower income communities by standing up against corruption and fighting for those stepped and forgotten in the ever growing City of Tomorrow. I highly enjoy Rags Morales's art, well except how he draws Lex Luthor, I don't like he's face, I just can't take him as an evil genius, other then him everyone and everything else looks great. I have said I don't like a lot of the new relaunch costumes especially Superman's, but I do want to say I do like the origin on Supe's new costume, how it was a  preserved plain white indestructible Kryptonian uniform on Brainiac's ship, and when he put it on and attached his cape it turned into the blue and red battlesuit complete with House of El symbol on the chest, that was cool. 

Action Comics #5-6 

Hopefully when DC collects Morrison's and Morales's opening Brainiac story in trade paperback/hardcover they do not include these two issues and only include issues 1-4, and 7 and 8 because these two issues totally don't have anything to do with that story. Issue 5 retells Kryptons's destruction and baby Kal-El's escape and being found by Ma and Pa Kent, I want to say I don't mind the new retelling and I loved seeing it in Adam Kubert's artwork, but it was really for just setting up that Clark's spaceship was sentient and to lead in to the blender of wackiness that is issue 6. First of all I want to say I love everything I've ever read by Grant Morrison, but I do not know what to think of this issue, it the most contorted and compressed random filler story I have ever read, like the story could of been a decent tale if told over 3 or 4 issues but all that barely comprehensible insanity in one issue is brain damaging.

 Aquaman #1-3

My hat off to Geoff Johns and Ivan Reis once again, they are an amazing team, they truly know how to flesh out a hero in conversations and quick personal flashbacks to make a character more than just powers and a costume. It's nice seeing Aquaman kicking ass, and doing he's best to deal with people giving him crap, who are ignorant of he's powers and background, definitely adds some laughs. I also like how this is one of the New 52's that isn't effected by the Post-Flashpoint reboot, and is exactly where Arthur and Mera left off at the end of Brightest Day, definitely a book I'm gonna follow as long as Johns and Reis is onboard.

Battestar Galactica: Blood & Chrome Wonder-Con Footage

SO SAY WE ALL!

YES! The return of Battlestar Galactica, haven't heard any news about it in a while, almost thought it was canceled, thank you SyFy. Young Bill Adama, metal Cyclons being badass, alien planets, space dog fights once again, this looks great, I can not wait to watch this. BSG was the greatest show on TV when it was on, right now the greatest show is The Walking Dead, but Blood & Chrome looks like it's going to give Walking Dead a run for it's money. I do wish they used the original Led Zeppelin version of Immigrant Song instead of that lackluster cover version though.

John Carter Review

John Carter is a great movie, everyone should go see this movie while it's in theaters, I give it 10 out of 10 Martian Jewels. I'm not saying this is the next Star Wars or anything but could definitely be Disney's next Pirates of The Caribbean, it has everything for everyone in the whole family from out of this world action, to drama that makes you really feel for the characters, and even has plenty of laughs, just wait 'til you see John's faithful companion, you'll want one your self. Great casting, I was amazed how many actors that I knew were in this one movie, all were superb in their roles, and I love how they fit in Edgar Rice Burroughs, the original author of the John Carter of Mars books, as John Carter's nephew and it's he's uncle's stories and inspiration that lead him to write the very books at the time that he did write them, that was cool.

With movies like Tron: Legacy and John Carter becoming trilogies then Disney is on it's way to becoming a Summer Blockbuster contender, can not wait for John Carter: Gods of Mars.

3rd Battleship Trailer

Oh yeah, I'll definitely be seeing this in theaters. I almost forgot Rihanna was in this movie, but hey we all know why we're really going to go see this movie, Liam Neeson. Something I saw in the first trailer and you see more off in this one are some of the aliens bombs look like the pegs from the actual board game, great homage there. I wonder who is gonna say the "You sunk my battleship!" line?

Gundam Unicorn Episode 4 Review

Episode 4: "At The Bottom of the Gravity Well"
With this episode we're now 2/3's through the six episode OVA series, and just like the previous three episodes it has the most glorious Mecha combat action you won't see anywhere else, graphic mech violence and environment destruction right on par with the new Evangelion movies. Even more mobile suits from past series, and even suits never seen in animation before appear for the huge battle in this episode like the Nemo, Guncannon Detector, Aqua GM, and GM Semi-Striker on the Earth Federation side, while Zeon suits like the Capule from ZZ Gundam, and the Zogok, Juaggu, and Dwadge only ever seen in MS Variation books were all pleasures to see in action. My two favorite suits that dished out some awesome damage on the field were the Earth Federation's Byarlant Custom for taking out the most enemy suits single handily while most GMs and Nemos got easily slaughtered and Zeon's Efreet Schneid just for being one of my personal favorite side story Zeon MS and he's cool ninja kills he got in.

This episode focuses alot on why the Earth Federation and Remnants of Zeon hate each other and continue fighting and how it is continuous cycle of revenge for revenge, and hints of what might be in Laplace's box. I felt Riddhe's sudden feelings for Mineva came out of nowhere, I mean there was just no evidence, and suddenly after he's father say he must of fallen for her to bring her there he suddenly starts to believe it, WTH? I also want to say again I really wish they could of got Michael Kopsa to voice Full Frontal cause he gave a speech in this episode and he sounded more like Zechs Merquise from Gundam Wing, I know he is not Char but he is suppose to give off the appearance that he is, which in the Japanese audio both characters are voiced by the same voice actor perfectly portraying that, just something lost in dubbing I guess I'm going to have to live with.

If you love brain cell exploding cliffhangers, episode 4 ends with the RX-0 Unicorn Gundam "Banshee" being airdropped in, making this the last thing you see before the credits:

Episode 5 "Black Unicorn" will be out on Blu-Ray in June

You can see my review of the previous three Gundam Unicorn episodes here

Ultimate Spider-Man TV Spot and Clip

This looks... wait for it... Amazing. I could not stand to watch a single episode of The Specular Spider-Man cartoon, just the previews for it didn't intrigue me, and I found the art style used too childish and just plain ugly. Ultimate Spider-Man looks like they're bringing in Pete's Spidey humor, and going for anime-like visual gags for some great laughs, I can't wait. This and season 2 of Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes starting on the same day, it's going to be a good hour of Marvel action every week, looks like Marvel animation is starting to rival DC weekly TV offerings. Now we just need a new great X-Men animated series, perhaps take a cue from the new First Class movie, and go for a younger Professor X teaching a small group of X-Men and maybe even animate the stories of the old school 60's comics in a modern setting, yeah.



This clip just shows Nick Fury is Bad Ass in any universe and/or TV show or movie.

Marvel Universe Thanos

Thanos, The Mad Titan, lover of Death, and enemy not just too heroes like Captain Marvel and Silver Surfer but the entire Marvel Omniverse. I've always wanted a Thanos action figure, I never had the old 90's Fantastic Four figure and I have always wanted the Marvel Select Thanos but now I finally have the Masterlord himself in the 3 3/4 scale. Thanos is basically the Darkseid of the Marvel Universe an unkillable higher being of unimagined power but always seeking more, and obsessed with death.

Thanos uses the same big bulk body used by Juggernaut and Apocalypse with a new head, forearms, lower legs, and added on soft plastic pieces to complete he's costume. The detail on Thanos is out of this world, I mean he's gloves and boots are comic accurate, hell he has tread shapes on the bottom of he's boots, and he's head capture he's mug dead on, which has the perfect unpleased sneer. The blue parts of he's body have a black airbrushing to bring out the details of he's muscles and I love the color Hasbro came up with for he's gloves, boots, collar, and trimming, it's neither yellow, orange, or gold, but an ultimate combination of them all, it's amazing to look at in hand.

Thanos comes with the one thing he will always be associated with, he's crowning achievement he can never out-do, The Inifinity Gauntlet, and an additional regular glove hand to interchange. Beside the Infinity Gautlet, there's not many other accessories he could of came with, perhaps maybe a Cosmic Cube or he's Space Throne would be cool. I highly recommend Thanos to all Marvel Universe collectors, he is easily one of top favorites from them so far right up there with Cable, keep'em coming Hasbro.

R.I.P. Ralph McQuarrie

Ralph Angus McQuarrie (June 13, 1929 – March 3, 2012)

It was sad for me to learn the other day that Ralph McQuarrie, the man 2nd most responsible for creating the universe of the original Star Wars Trilogy had died. Ralph McQuarrie was the Concept Artist and Production Illustrator for the original 1977 film, essentially single handily designing what places, vehicles, and characters based on George Lucas's descriptions. Thanks to he's artwork and designs George was able to visual sell he's story to the Fox studio executives and provided a basis for set, model, prop and costume creation for film production. My thoughts and condolences go out to McQuarrie's family and friends, he will be missed, and he's astonishing contributions to the entertainment world will never be forgotten.

 

Ralph on the set of Empire Strikes Back as he's walk on cameo as Rebel General Pharl McQuarrie

Best of 2011

I know it 2 months in to 2012, but it only now hit me to sit down and make a quick list of my favorite things that came out of 2011.

Best Movie of 2011: X-Men: First Class 

If you read my review for the movie then you know I hold First Class as a damn near perfect example of a comic book team/friends/family brought to life realistically but still holds the core fundamentals and characteristics that you love and value.

Best TV Series: 

Stargate Universe & Terra Nova

SGU's first season was kinda rough, it was leaning towards being a Battlestar Galactica clone, and the emotional/indie/alternative song at the end of episode really annoyed me, but season 2 really found it's feet, we got better character development and the action was upped, it started to be it's own original show, then it got cancelled, damn you SyFy. I got say Terra Nova also was the best TV series, I mean come on: Time Travel, Dinosaurs, and Stephen Lang, it really turned out to be a great family drama in a sci-fi setting kinda like a modern Lost In Space, I really do hope Fox renews it for a second season.

Best Video Game: Deus Ex: Human Revolution

I know I haven't written a review for this game, but trust me I've tried, but I find it extremely difficult to summarize what I like about this game, which is everything. I LOVE this game, I haven't fallen for a game this hard since the first Mass Effect. If you haven't played this game yet, disregard anything bad you've heard and go buy or rent it right now, it is awesome, it has a little bit of everything for everybody from FPS, to stealth, to role playing with a deep engaging story, and spectacular graphics.

 Best Anime: 

Gundam Episode 3 &4  & Gundam AGE

Didn't watch much new anime in 2011, but as a huge Gundam fan you know I watched the new Gundam Unicorn OVAs and started watching Gundam AGE the latest TV series. Episodes 3 and 4 of Unicorn were freaking mind numbly beautiful and action packed as the previous two. Gundam AGE is unique in being a new ongoing series in being more aimed toward a younger audience with more colorful character designs, and not being as violent or psychologically damaging to characters but still conveys the same message about the atrocities of War, reasons to fight, and relationships made during as all the others. The Second Generation of the story is upping the action and testing the lines between friendship and enemy, it almost feels like a completely new Gundam show, nice going Bandai, keep it up.

Best Album: Rise Against-Endgame

I really like Rise Against and a lot of their songs, but I can say I don't like every single song off their previous five albums, but with Engame I love all twelve songs on it, I always listen to the album straight through. I mean I can't pick just one favorite song off the album, I think all twelve are equally perfect, and they are now my top 12 favorite songs from Rise Against. 

Best Action Figure: Marvel Universe Cable

Yep, my favorite cyborg mutant and the one figure the started me collecting the 3 3/4 inch scale Marvel Universe is my favorite action figures of 2011. Articulation, sculpt, accessories, paint, all make Cable THE Marvel Universe figure in which all others are compared to.

It's only two months in to 2012, and I know I already have two movies fighting for #1, and the best video game already picked. Now let's what else 2012 brings me...