Day 03 - A comic that is underrated.

Day 03 - A comic that is underrated.

Avengers: The Initiative. But let me explain.

This is a tough one for me to answer because I'm very mainstream (I rarely go outside Marvel and DC's top books) so my reference points aren't obscure for the most part. This is a book that I thought everyone was getting, as I was loving it, that nobody I knew seemed to be reading.

"Avengers: the Initiative" was a new series that came straight out of Marvel's "Civil War" storyline. As being a superhero became a paid government job, that meant there needed to be a training facility to go along with the "Avengers Initiative" (one super-team in every U.S. state). The book focused highly on a core dozen recruits as well as putting the spotlight on B-list characters like "Taskmaster" and making them not only relevant but kind of kickass.

This book has long been cancelled (due only to storylines moving on) and a lot of people who now read "Avengers Academy" (it's direct off-shoot series) were either avid readers of "Initiative" or were the people who didn't get it and heard it was good so they jumped on board when "Academy" came along.

"Avengers: Initiative" followed the story of a traning ground for teenage heroes just learning about their powers. Their drill sergeant was "Taskmaster", an on-again-off-again villain of, yep, The Avengers. He has the ability to mimic any physical move he sees, be that playing the piano or the perfect roundhouse kick. He also has a skull for a face (even though it's just a mask, it looks cool).

This series was a great read for the mix of little personal stories of the characters dealing with their abilities and being thrown into battle too soon, while the backdrop stories of the goings-on and lead-up to the "Secret Invasion" story was the best place to follow the entire Marvel Universe. Also, Tigra slept with the Skrull Hank Pym, tee hee!

- Jeff

30 Day Comic Book Challenge Day 02 - Your favourite character

Day 02 - Your favourite character.

Predictable but my answer is "Spider-Man".

I weighed a number of runner-ups and many 10th rate characters who I really like but don't love. I realized that a lot of characters I've really liked in the past have only been good when handled by certain writers or how they reacted to certain story elements: "The Spectre" during the Ostrander/Mandrake series, "Daredevil" under Bendis or Maleev and "Yorick" from "Y the Last Man" are all great characters that held my interest but never quite sparked me the way Spidey does.

If you read yesterday's challenge, you saw that my first comic ever was Amazing Spider-Man #207, so maybe that plays a role in my almost cliche choice of Spider-Man as my favourite character. And if you've heard me rant and rave about the awful mistakes made with Peter revealing his identity, only to have that plot twist washed away after the horrid "One More Day" storyline ending with a worldwide 'memory wipe' in "Moment in Time"(just know that it happened and don't ask me for details or I might smash something).

Despite these horrible tales (Clone Saga, anyone?) Spider-Man remains the classic "everyman" in comics. Where Green Lantern might say something like "I've only got once chance at this!..." and then he succeeds, ol' Spidey will also say "I've only got one chance at this!..." and then his webline snaps and he's fucked. And his webline snapped because he didn't have time to make a stronger batch this time around or was too busy saving an orphan to remember the Vulture has razors on his wings to cut the weblin with.

Spider-Man's sense of responsibility is also something everyone can relate to, be it your job, your family or your own personal goals. His every action is dictated by his first mistake in the costume that cost his Uncle Ben his life and from there on, there is no need to justify why he leaps out the window to help whoever's screaming in the street (even if he's watching the Stanley Cup finals!). No other character seems to have that drive or guilty conscience and Spider-Man doesn't ram his ideals down Wolverine's throat as opposed to simply pushing him out of the way so he can save the day without killing the henchmen.

After the recent "Big Time" storyline, I'm actually damn happy to see Peter Parker get a well-paying job. It only makes sense with him being on par with Tony Stark, Otto Octavius and even Reed Richards when it comes to scientific intelligence! Peter is now a key researcher at Horizon Labs making over $100,000 a year (I'm assuming from his "Look at all those zeroes" comment with his first paycheck). He owns his own condo and has plenty of cash to make all kinds of new web fluids, as well as justifying all those crazy-ass Spider-Man action figures out there with him actually owning multiple Spidey-Suits! Maybe he'll even make a new Spider-Mobile.

Spider-Man will always be relatable to everyone. He's perpetually in his early 20's (as we all see ourselves, don't we?) and blames himself for all his mistakes (don't we all) and never seems to get a break....until recently....

Spider-Man is a member of The Avengers and has replaced the deceased Human Torch on the Fantastic Four (now called the "Future Foundation"). He's fighting side-by-side with heroes and saving the planet every other day so it's hard for anyone to call him a "menace" anymore. I do think he's paid his dues and having him be a down-on-his-luck loser isn't necessary anymore. With The Big Bang Theory burning up the ratings, it's pretty obvious that 'geek is chic' isn't just a trend, it's a kickass new reality and Spider-Man fits in just fine.

- Jeff

30 Day Comic Book Challenge: Day 1 - Your 1st Comic Book

Day 01 - Your first comic book.

IT'S A TIE: Amazing Spider-Man #207 & Crisis on Infinite Earths #12

The first two comic books I ever bought vary greatly on their scale of importance. Amazing Spider-Man #207 is practically a 'filler' issue where Spidey fights an angry stage magician named Mesmero while Crisis on Infinite Earths #12 was obliterating and re-writing the very fabric of the DC Universe after almost 50 years of history and literally involved every character to ever appear in a DC published comic book!

Despite their obvious differences, and also due to them, I loved each one to death.

Amazing Spider-Man #207...was just a simple story of Peter Parker screwing up his love life while trying to do the right thing. The climax of the story was a theatre filled with gasoline, hypnotized victims on the stage while Spider-Man was forced to juggle flammable juggling balls while balancing on stilts (if he dropped the balls, it would ignite the gas and kill everyone except Mesmero who was wearing an inflammable suit). Spidey's simple solution? Throw the balls UP and smash them on the ceiling, jump off the stilts and punch the bad guy in the face. Done and done. I still have this issue and will never part with it and, officially, I do count this as my 'first comic' if only in respect that I no longer have my copy of...

Crisis on Infinite Earths #12!...how do I explain this book to a non-comic reader? It was the final issue of a 12-part story that literally took the entire DC Universe line of heroes, villains, alternate timelines, mirrored Earths, reverse dimensions, dopplegangers, origins, continuity...you name it!...it took them and basically started from scratch. But not SO from scratch that it was "Day One", so to speak. Batman, Superman and all them had still been around for, say, 5 years doing their thing but the history of what "actually" happened in that time was relatively different. They kept much of the same plot details with the main characters (Krypton, the Wayne's deaths, etc) but took multiple characters who lived all those decades in alternate Earths and put everyone on the same timeline.

Make sense? No? Try being a comic book fan!

Imagine if you took the original Star Wars Trilogy (aka - "Star Wars" to most people) and completely re-did the whole thing. Let's say Luke and Leia met just as they did but it never turns out that they're related at all and there's a totally different history for Leia. Now let's say Alderaan had PLENTY of weapons and instead of simply being blown up, there was a huge space fight (where it likely got blown up afterwards anyway).
Basically, "Crisis" took the idea of "What If..." and made it "This is How it is Now..."

Anyway, this was a HUGE book at the time and it was probably the worst possible choice I could have made at the age of 12 to jump head first into the biggest story to EVER hit comic books in their entire history. But it included everyone (even multiples of many!) and the heroes were dying left right and center and the ones who weren't dying were shitting their pants they were so scared! I had never seen anything like it. The Anti-Monitor became my bogey-man, the scariest villain ever, he wiped out entire universes! The next time I saw him was in an issue of The Flash about a DECADE later, he was a surprise on the last page and I literally yelled "Holy shit! The Anti-Monitor!".

The difference between these two books really put comics into perspective for me right off the bat and I'm very glad I had them both to view as guidelines. I understood immediately if I wanted a simple story that there were plenty of options and if I wanted something universe-spanning to blow my mind that there was that, too!

- Jeff

Aquaman Loses His Hand....AGAIN!

So Arthur Curry (Aquaman to his friends...and enemies) was killed by a zombie of his dead son (whilst Aquaman was in the midst of being cursed and mutated by some kind of gypsy/god/demon or something) and hadn't been heard of since. Then the "Blackest Night" story came along and introduced us to the White Lantern, the origin of all life in the universe. This lantern, seemingly having a conscience of it's own, gave life back to dead heroes and villains (Aquaman, Hawkman & Hawkgirl to name a few) for it's own unknown purposes.

Anyway, Aquaman is back in action for about a week, with this new body and two hands (he had long ago lost his right hand to pirahna several years ago). So he blinks in the middle of a fight with Black Manta and Manta chops his hand off!

How could you fuck that up twice? Is Batman going to let Bane break his back again? Is Superman going to let Doomsday beat him to death again? Am I actually comparing Aquaman to Batman & Superman?

I've actually been defending Aquaman for years, he gets a bad rep. Let's face it, he's pretty useless but he's one hell of an underdog. If anyone is going to be underestimated, it's him. And if anyone can save the day at the last second, it's probably going to be him because the bad guy just isn't paying him any attention!

However, losing your hand A) to fish...when you have the ability to control FISH and B) getting it back and then GETTING IT CHOPPED OFF AGAIN is definitely a big demerit in the coolness factor. Granted, pirahna are the one fish he can't control...but that's no excuse.

Many episodes of "Super Friends" involved the heroes having to rescue Aquaman but it's pretty clear that nobody can save Aquaman from himself.

10/10 - How to Train Your Dragon

In my life of movie watching, very few films get the coveted 10/10 rating (The Iron Giant and The Incredibles being the other two) and rarely is it on a movie I was barely looking forward to. Though Rotten Tomatoes has How to Train Your Dragon at 98%, I was still kind of 'meh' about it.

Pardon the horrible pun, but the only 'hiccup' in this film is the main character (because his name is "Hiccup"). This movie simply has it all; memorable characters, piles of action and a 'boy and his dragon' story.

Probably the most significant thing was that I brought Brooke along to see it as her first movie. More of a test than anything else, I didn't expect an 18-month-old to last 2 hours and was expecting to be forced to leave halfway through. Luckily, the pace of the film kept her attention, as well as the fact that I told her the main dragon was a "puppy", which seemed to work pretty good (judging by her "It's a puppy!" every 4 minutes). She slept through the last 15 minutes, which was too bad because it was pretty intense.

The movie begins right away with a ten minute action sequence that introduces all the main characters, including the village itself, with a casual but informative voiceover. From then on it takes you along for a wonderful weave of the life of a young boy who doesn't belong. It deals with his job/role in the village, his father/son relationship, his love for the village hottie and his desire for medieval 'street cred'. Mocked as the only viking who is forever unable to kill a dragon (the village's only calling) he soon finds he isn't necessarily unable, but unwilling.

By befriending a dragon, Hiccup gets torn between their growing relationship and following through with his viking training back at the village. His secret life gives the film some classic moments that we've seen many times before; their first flight with inspiring music and visuals, hiding the dragon/alien/monster from the family and the classic misunderstanding once everything is found out.

There is some great voicework, fantastic animation (in action sequences as well as simple body language) and plenty of hilarious throwaway lines. The characters are in awe when they should be in awe, they're scared when they should be scared and they run like hell when they think they might get killed.

The movie doesn't pull any punches despite being a fun family film and easily just shot itself up to one of my favourite movies of all time. Extremely highly recommended.

Wow, a blog, cool!

Oh yeah, I have a blog! Between working full time, a full time business and performing in improv shows while finding a little time for my family, I seem to have completely forgotten!

Well I like to review movies on here and I have seen a bunch so I'll do a quick review of as many as I can remember in absolutely no order whatsoever:

Sherlock Holmes: Elementary indeed. Though entertaining at face value, the film doesn't have any drive for a series. It didn't leave me wanting more which it felt like it was trying to do. The only odd twist seems to be that at the ripe age of his late fourties, Holmes is yet to even meet his arch-nemesis, Moriarty, yet. I did enjoy the innocent bromance going on between Holmes and Watson, however. It was subtly in your face the entire film and speaks very true to people my age losing their old selves and old lifestyles to love and family elsewhere.

Avatar: Amazing! Superb! Epic! Fantastic!......these are words that have been used to describe a fairly decent achievement in a CGI film. Though entertaining and action-packed, the story lost me when they named the element they are trying to mine "unobtanium"...I can only assume it's from the latin "difikult2getis". This, for me, laid the film in a cartoon-danger/character reality where everyone was a one dimensional character with one driving force. The general, for example, never once stopped to think about his actions and when the lead tycoon guy DID stop to think about his actions, he made all the wrong decisions after thinking about it! It's also improbable that nobody ever thought to attack the red flying creature from above before this new guy came along.

500 Days of Summer: Absolutely worth watching, an extremely charming comedy jumping back and forth within a 500-day span of a relationship. And Cobra Commander is in it! Speaking of which....

GI Joe: Did I already review this one? Oh well, stupid as expected but if I were 14 years old I'd have watched it ten times in the theatre. Lots of action but when ships explode little guys in parachutes didn't appear, it was weird.

Whip It: Not as amazing as I was expecting, but still a nice little movie. Drew Barrymore should have stayed behind the camera though because every time she was on screen I wanted to punch her character in the face.

Dora the Explorer Saves the Puppies: An interesting twist in where Dora and Boots need to save 100 puppies but need 100 keys and get the kids to count to 100 with them! Also good to see Swiper expanding his plans to Wile E Coyote-like extremes rather than just walking up and grabbing stuff out of Dora's hands.
What? I have a kid, I've seen this one twice now, it needed reviewing and now I've done it.

2012: I've never seen so many sequences where the lead characters JUST get away in time. Once or twice in a film is suspenseful, fifty times in one film is just irritating. Also, when communications go down globally in your story...you should keep the communications down globally in your story!! It makes it seem a little more real!

Anyway, that's all I can think of off the top of my head. I'll be back soon with more reviews and news.

Oh My God Joyce DeWitt, NOOOOO!

From the Kansas Star newspaper: For anyone who saw Joyce DeWitt in the recent New Theatre show "Hats!" or just always liked her from "Three's Company, here's some bad news (and an even worse mug shot): She was busted July 4 for suspicion of DUI in El Segundo, Calif.

Police Sgt. Dean Howard told E! that "an officer saw DeWitt drive a vehicle past a barricade intended to control vehicular traffic near a park. As the officer spoke with DeWitt, he observed signs and symptoms of alcohol intoxication."

DeWitt, 60, was arrested at about 4:30 p.m. after field sobriety tests.

I heard about this on News1130 yesterday. It was a breaking news alert! It wasn't even during the Entertainment portion or anything. Joyce DeWitt getting a DUI was nation-wide news!?! 99% of people don't even know who the hell she is! Pee Wee Herman masturbating in a public movie theatre, that's news. Janet from Three's Company driving drunk is just something I assumed has been happening anyway since 1989.