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January 31, 2006
Silver Surfer meets Jeff Spicoli
The Defenders mini-series by Giffen, DeMatteis, and Maguire wrapped up last week. It was pretty funny, although I think they forced the bickering between Dr. Strange, Hulk, and Namor. How many times do we need to hear that Namor is PRINCE Namor or that he detests Dr. Strange? Those jokes got old for a while. I'll always remember the scene with Hulk boinking Umar. Kevin Maguire's artwork was totally awesome.
We kept waiting for the Silver Surfer to leave the beach bonfire and come to the rescue of the Big Three. It never happened! He partied with the surfer dudes for the entire story--I think this is the first time I've seen Norrin Radd hang out with actual surfers. We got this soliloquy on the last page, which is this weird combination of Stan Lee, Shakespeare, and Gidget...
This is the Silver Surfer's finest speech. "O Dudes and Bettys." Nuff said.
January 30, 2006
Frank Miller Interviewed and Ripped
Comicdom Online has a pretty neat interview with Frank Miller, where he makes no bones about how he views Elektra's status in the Marvel Universe. The interview covers all of Miller's work, except for All Star Batman and Robin...
...which is OK, because writer Christopher Priest rips into ASB&R over on Dwayne McDuffie's message board:
"It is shockingly bad. Self-indulgent and completely hostile to new readers, Batman & Robin seems to be written by someone who hates comics, who hates Batman & Robin and, oddly, who hates DC. I've never read a comic book imbued with so much contempt for itself and for its audience."
Pretty much my own take (see review), although it was the number 1 selling comic for 2005, so what the hell do I know? Nuff said.
Posted by Adam Warlock at 4:17 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)January 29, 2006
Wow Machima: The Internet Is For Porn!
This video is about two months old, but it's worth reposting here, because it just states the obvious reason why the Internet was created. A great job by some World of Warcraft fans, I think they have a future on Broadway.
Believe it not, my niece (she's twenty years old) was the one who showed me this. LOL.
Posted by Kid Flash at 1:21 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)January 27, 2006
Nextwave Lives Up To The Hype!
If Nextwave isn't the pick of the week, I'll buy Cousin Dick the Dukes of Hazzard DVD collection. Very few comic books are funny, and even fewer are hilarious enough to make me laugh out loud, but I did frequently while reading Nextwave. I don't want to quote my favorite lines as it would spoil it for you. High fives to Warren Ellis for bringing back Fin Fang Foom and making it worthwhile. Everytime I see this Godzilla rip-off I roll my eyes, but I actually enjoyed this appearance. I pride myself on near encyclopedic knowledge of super-heroes, but even I had to stretch my memory to figure out who Tabitha (or Tabby as they call her) was; it's Boom Boom from the New Mutants and X-Force! Stuart Immonen's artwork is a real departure--when I first saw the pages I couldn't tell who drew it. It's not Immonen's usual smooth superhero style that we've seen in Superman or Ultimate Fantastic Four. It's more like a fusion of Howard Chaykin, manga, and various British artists like Jim Balkie. It's very good work, clear and crisp storytelling, and the coloring is excellent.
No knowledge of the Marvel Universe is required, although if you know that Dirk Anger is a parody of Nick Fury, it makes the joke better. I think this book can do well with the manga crowd, and maybe they could even turn it into an animated series if they figure out another name for Captain Fuck. My only complaint is that the first issue goes by so quickly and leaves you hungry for more. Go read this, now! Nuff said.
Posted by Kid Flash at 12:33 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)January 26, 2006
Archie's Theme: The 360 Song
Oh my god, this is the greatest video game song ever made. If you remember the movie "Arthur" and the hit Christopher Cross song "Arthur's Theme", well, this fellow Archie has improved on it. Instead of the lyric "If you get caught between the moon and New York City" you get "If you get caught between me and my Xbox 360". The song really summarizes the first two months of the insane 360 launch. Another great line is: "I killed Peter Moore and took his new Xbox 360." Download it now, droogies, it just topped Pac Man Fever. I feel like getting drunk and playing Geometry Wars. Nuff said.
Archie's Theme: The 360 Song.
XBox 360 Crooner (from XBox360Fanboy.com).
January 25, 2006
FX Show “Black. White.” A Ripoff of Lois Lane 106?
If you're watching the Shield on FX network (and if you are not watching it, you really should be), then you've seen the ads for a new reality show called "Black. White.". It's co-produced by Ice Cube. In the promos you see white and black people trading races using Hollywood-style makeup techniques. It's an intriguing idea for a reality show and I am very interested to watch the first episode. Where did they get this idea? Two sources come to mind.
The first is Lois Lane 106, my favorite issue from Lois Lane's entire comic book run. (Keep in mind that this was published in 1970, when civil rights issues were still hot, and DC tried to address them in various ways. ) Titled "I Am Curious (Black)!" (a takeoff on a popular X-rated movie title), Lois takes a trip to Harlem for a story about the neighborhood. She finds herself shut out by the black community. What's an ace reporter to do?
She tells Superman, who takes her to the Fortress of Solitude, and uses a machine to turn her into a black woman. I like how the hair changes into an afro. I think her boobs get a little bigger. Superman's obviously not doing us any favors by keeping this machine all to himself.
After changing her race, Lois discovers how African Americans face discrimination and poverty. Then she confronts Superman and asks if he would marry her now that she is black! Yooww. Teri Hatcher ain't enough for you, Superman, so how about a little Beyonce? His answer is still the same: I can't marry you because you'd be a target for my enemies. In other words, Superman's gonna play the field because it's the swinging 70's and he's wide open, baby!
Of course, I don't believe this is the inspiration for Black White. I doubt Ice Cube read Lois Lane comics from the 1970s. But I bet that Ice Cube did see the classic Eddie Murphy video on Saturday Night Live where he becomes a white man (you can view it here). Murphy discovers that white people get a lot of things for free, like newspapers and bank loans. Parties erupt on buses when the last black person exits (cocktails are served). It's one of the funniest things Murphy has ever done. Nuff said.
Posted by Adam Warlock at 1:18 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)Busiek\Pacheco on Superman, Dini\Morales on Batman
Newsarama reports that Kurt Busiek and Carlos Pacheco will do twelve issues of Superman, after the post-IC story by Busiek and Geoff Johns is finished. There's a quote from Didio about trying to get A-list creators on the top tier books:
""There was an A+ creator that I wanted to work with, and in a meeting with him, told him that I'd love for him to write Superman or Batman, and he told me he just couldn't do it. I asked why not, and he said that he didn't have three years worth of stories in him. I told him I was just looking for six issues, and he was back on board, because he had a great six issue story. I told him that was t he story that I wanted from him. That's what this all is about, I wanted writers and artists to give me their best stories. If we still have juice after the six or twelve issues, then we'll see if we want to do more, but for starters, let's go with a finite number of issues, and your best story."
This shows you how far the industry has come. In the old days, Marvel and DC wanted creative teams to stick around for years. Now as long as they get six issues out of a team, it's sufficient, because a run like that will make a nice trade or hardcover book. Deadlines also matter very little now. Who cares if Ultimates, Defenders, Superman-Batman, etc., are months late? What matters the most to these companies financially is the collected editions.
Paul Dini let us know (through his blog at LiveJournal) that he will "be writing a ton of new Batman comics this year, along with a very special graphic novel starring two DCU darlings near and dear to my heart." Hmmm...could he be referring to Harley and Ivy? Zatanna and Black Canary? If you look at Dini's blog, I am thunderstruck by how much his wife Misty May resembles Zatanna. According to Newsarama, Dini will work on Detective Comics with Rags Morales for 12 issues. They might even put the detective back in Detective.
Looks like Rich Johnston's predictions are falling apart all over the place! He claimed Grant Morrison and Adam Kubert would be the Detective team, and that Mark Waid would write the Flash. Nuff said.
Posted by Adam Warlock at 12:13 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)January 24, 2006
Flash Forward to the TV Writers
Dan Didio spilled the beans (here on Newsarama) about who will take over the writing reins on The Flash when it reboots with a new #1 issue. In case you weren't keeping score, there was plenty of speculation as to who this might be; Mark Waid and Grant Morrison were two of the names mentioned. Who is it really? Danny Bilson and Paul De Meo. Wha-huh? I knew the names right away--they were the producers/creators of the Flash TV series which I reviewed just the other week. Talk about serendipity, getting an 16 year old TV series (which they probably never thought to see another dime from) collected on DVD and then getting to write the comic book series a few weeks later! Ken Lashley will be doing the artwork (click to expand his developmental art work on the right), although it might be cool if Bilson and De Meo were paired with Howard Chaykin (their co-producer on the Flash) as the artist. Lashley is just fine, but Bilson and De Meo had better be freaking outstanding. Interesting comments from Didio on the Flash's role in generational change within the DC Universe. I totally agree. Nuff said.
XBox 360: I Have the Power!
The XBox 360 finally arrived at my house last night. Last week I wrote about the 360 tracker at Ben's Bargains that tells you which sites have it in stock. As soon as I started using that, I found the 360 online. I ordered the mega-bundle from Wal-Mart, which contains the premium XBox package, six games, and various accessories. The price totaled over $900 with tax and shipping. It's outrageous, but I read on a message board that you can return the games and accessories that you don't want to any Wal-Mart store. This is true--I've already returned a number of items from the bundle. You don't get the shipping cost back, but paying an extra $25 doesn't seem so bad compared to people paying $100-$500 more on EBay.
I almost believe in karma, or maybe that everything in life has to be balanced. On the day the XBox came, a few minor things broke in my bathroom. Then I made the mistake of upgrading my Windows XP Pro computer to Windows Media Center. Various things went wrong with that and I spent a lot of time trying to repair it. As a result, I played only a couple of hours of 360 games.
Quick impressions: Project Gotham Racing 3 is fabulous in every way. Perfect Dark Zero has a terrific opening screen, like a James Bond movie, but the game itself is a big letdown. Geometry Wars Retro Evolved is like crack cocaine and Lays potato chips, you can't play just one round. My mission is to crack 100,000 points, the closest I came was 93,000.
I gotta tell you, when that box arrived, I felt like Link uncovering a magic ring in Zelda. Or Dr. Don Blake finding the cane that he would tap on the floor. Or Dolph Lundgren as He-Man, raising the sword: I Have The Power! Isn't it pathetically geeky? Maybe I can calm down now and stop whining about not having the latest toy. Nuff said.
Posted by Kid Flash at 9:58 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)January 23, 2006
Ostrander/Mandrake Interview on The Spectre
I've previously ranted about how much I loved the Fleisher/Aparo version of the Spectre. I've pleaded for a return to that version. Dave from Yet Another Comics Blog took issue with my naming this the all-time greatest Spectre team, since he thinks the John Ostrander/Tom Mandrake run was the best. There's a cool interview with them over at Silver Bullet Comics. I haven't read this series yet, although it's on my reading pile and I'll get to it after I finish getting caught up with Exiles. Those Spectre covers really make me want to read faster. God, I loved Ostrander's Suicide Squad, one of the best DC series ever written. Nuff said.
