April 23, 2008
Countdown and Kiss Away $156!
Countdown #1 is the last issue, and I will spoil it for you: nothing much happens! This whole series seemed to be an exercise in how not to write a comic book. Weak characterization, weak plot, stupid events...it seemed little more than an advertisement for events happening in other DC Comics--like "Death of the New Gods". There's no expansion on Darkseid's supposed death from Countdown #2...even though we know he's coming back as the main villian in Final Crisis.
It makes 52 look like a masterpiece. I didn't care for 52 that much at the time, but it had a lot of nice things going for it. Black Adam's character arc was incredible, Doc Magnus shooting the Metal Men from a gun was a touch of Morrison genius, and the ending redeemed both Booster Gold and DC's concept of multiverses being a pretty cool thing.
At the end of Countdown, what happens? Jason Todd is still a murderous jerk...I thought they were going to redeem this little creep? Kyle Rayner--I have no idea what is doing in this series at all. He has a pretty important job in Green Lantern Corps already. And I can't forgive the DC idiots for spoiling Green Lantern's Sinestro Corps War storyline by having Kyle show up before that arc was over--leaving us completely with no suspense about Kyle's fate in Green Lantern. Ray Palmer--the Atom--seems like a pussy, running away to other multiverses when the heat was turned up on Earth-1. Donna Troy--love this character but this ain't the series to showcase her talent. Doesn't it make Donna look dumb to be attracted to super-creepy Jason Todd? Ew.
I can't imagine anyone but a DC completist buying the entire run of Countdown. 52 issues X $3 is equal to $156. Man, for that amount of money, people can buy another entertainment product with solid value. Such as Rock Band ($147 for XBox 360), or a regular edition Sony PSP ($169, but not that far off), Nintendo DS ($130), or a iPod 4GB Nano ($140). Sheesh...and they wonder why no one is reading comics anymore.
Posted by Kid Flash at 2:49 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)1970's Luke Cage: So Sweet, it's Christmas!
Back in the ancient days, I remember when Luke Cage: Hero for Hire premiered to great fanfare. That was the time when films like Shaft and Superfly (which I could not see as they were rated R) were popular. I loved this house ad drawing by John Romita that Stan Lee highlighted in his soapbox.
I really dig the fact that the 1970s version of Luke Cage came out of that Skrull spaceship in Secret Invasion #1. I'm halfway hoping that this is the real deal and the Luke that married Jessica is the Skrull. I know that is impossible...but I can't stop fantasizing. Nuff said.
Posted by Kid Flash at 2:19 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)April 22, 2008
Superman 675: Awesome cover
The cover to Superman 675 is simply one of the best Alex Ross paintings I've ever seen. DC Comics should consider making a poster out of this.
Too bad the story inside is so unappealing. I loved Kurt Busiek's Superman Secret Identity, but I've never gotten into his regular Superman run at all. Reading this story leaves me cold. I'm not looking forward to Trinity in the least. Countdown #1 comes out tomorrow--that's been awful too, but let's see if the last issue redeems it.
Posted by Kid Flash at 12:48 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)April 21, 2008
Hyped Up on Grand Theft Auto IV
I don't know how this happened. I played GTA 3 and GTA Vice City only for a few hours each. I never bought San Andreas or the PSP versions. But now after reading several articles I am obsessed with Grand Theft Auto IV and I've pre-ordered it from Amazon. Part of the reason for this is that I dug out a game from last year--Crackdown for the XBox 360--and started playing it with the help of a guide, map, and several online video tips. What did we ever do without YouTube showing us how to play video games? It made me think, wow, this world is so cool--partly the coolness comes from levelling up your cop character to do Hulk-like jumps throughout the city--how cool is the city in GTA IV going to be?
GameVideos has an analysis of all 4 trailers for the new GTA game. GameTrailers' Bonus Round program has a discussion between Geoff Keighley, Michael Pachter, and others. Speaking of everyone's favortie analyst Pachter, there's a long interview with him on the Official XBox Magazine Podcast about GTA IV--if you are interested on the business side of things, like how much Microsoft paid for GTA IV's exclusive content downloads. Over on EGM Live's 3/31/2008 podcast, you can here Crispin Boyer talk about his visit to Rockstar North in Edinburgh, Scotland--where programmers work without having any action figures on their desks--go figure that out! Finally, I read a very long and interesting interview with Rockstar's Dan Houser on one of Variety's blogs:
That's how we chose New York and once we'd chosen that, in terms of the character, we wanted something that felt fresh and new and not something that was obviously derived from this movie. We also felt over the last few years there hadn't been a great standout gangster movie. Maybe could do something ourselves that would live alongside that stuff. We wanted someone who felt tough but also like an alien. So we began to develop the character of Niko. The idea of this immigrant story began to seem fun and interesting and he was a good character. On the one hand he's an innocent, on the other hand he's battle hardened and world weary. A modern "arriving in America" story felt very interesting to us.
Cool, I am geeked out about this and ready to play. Especially with so many guides and video tips to help out a lame gamer like me. Decisions, decisions...order the Grand Theft Auto IV Special Edition
Addendum: IGN's GTA IV: The City That Never Sleeps.
Addendum: Sam Houser Interview at 1UP.
Posted by Kid Flash at 2:37 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
