Wednesdays are like nerd-Christmas around here. This week’s picks:
Justice #5
If you’re not reading this, you’re dead inside. Go to your local comic shop and get yourself caught up. The first thing you need to know is that it’s an Alex Ross book. Everything’s upside-down–the bad guys are on television, going around the world and helping people. They’re curing diseases, making the lame walk, and turning barren wastelands into lush garden paradises. They’re setting themselves up to be humanity’s saviors, while the good guys are curiously absent. It’s a gorgeous title, and a great read. A
Nextwave #4
I’m surprised this book isn’t being talked about more. You can hear Warren Ellis’ British accent throughout the entire series, which is very cool. It’s about a bunch of second-and-third-tier Marvel heroes who stole a government plane (it might be a spaceship, too, but I’m not sure) and fight against their ex-bosses (the government) who make it their duty to unleash various and sundry bad things on the planet. It’s funny, the art is suitably cartoony, and it’s good to see Machine Man back in action. A-
Hulk #93
This issue (as well as #92) is part of the Planet Hulk miniseries, which is one of the stories that lead up to Marvel’s Civil War. What happened was that The Avengers gave The Hulk the job of repairing a malfunctioning satellite with the surreptitious purpose of sending him to a barren planet where he can’t hurt anybody. His ensuing rampage aboard the spacecraft threw him off-course and landed him on a planet where he is enslaved and made to fight gladiator-style in an alien arena. What I like about this series is that they’re letting The Hulk cut loose. It’s fun, rather than harrowing watching him wreak havoc on this other planet–knowing what we know about The Hulk, and watching his captors find out for themselves. It’s got a different tone than some of the other books leading up to Civil War–and I imagine that he’s going to come back home in the middle of it, which will be something to see, I’m sure. B+
Shaolin Cowboy #5
Honestly, I’m not sure what’s going on in this title. It sure is pretty, though. I love Geof Darrow’s art–it’s complicated and colorful and the pages are nice and thick and bright. There’s a talking horse, and a Chinese cowboy, and a baby that can only be handled with human hands, and two demons that do…something. It’s from Burlyman, so it’s got the Wachowskis’ fingerprints all over it–kung fu, guns, and philosophical demons. B
A few years back, the world was visited with a horrible possibility. It was called Moviemask, and it threatened to change the way we watched movies. The splendid folks (folk? guy? dude?) over at the mighty-mighty Spinnwebe (home of the Dysfunctional Family Circus) had an excellent analysis of the technology and the terrifying marketing potential such technology presented.
We were sorting through our video archives when we found the original Moviemask demo video, which we promptly uploaded to YouTube. Now, we give it to you. Merry Christmas.
“According to the The Hollywood Reporter, it is now safe to report (phew!) that James Cromwell (of Babe fame) has joined the already illustrious cast of Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man 3. Cromwell will take on the role of Captain Stacy, father of the wall-crawler’s love interest, Gwen Stacy, played by Bryce Dallas Howard.
As a loyal Marvelite you already know that in the books, Stacy, a former NYPD captain, who suspects the web-slinger’s true identity, dies a heroic death while saving an innocent child, but Gwen—as would be our hero’s luck—blames Spider-Man. Let’s wait and see how this pans out in the film.”
I’ll get this out of the way right now–I think the third villain in the next Spider-Man movie is going to either be the news media or the people of New York. In the last movie, they built up this feeling of “Yes, we the people of New York City love and appreciate our local superhero,” where there wasn’t so much in the first movie. It felt like a bridge being built somewhere, but it obviously hadn’t been completed yet. You’ll also notice a curious increase in the number of helicopters in the last movie.
My thinking is that (as it happens so often in comic books) the people of New York turn against Spider-Man, probably with the help of the media. We’ll see, I guess, but the word is that “Spiderman will be outnumbered in the next movie.”
Sounds like they were winking when they said that, doesn’t it?
You probably recognize her as the big lady who freaked out and went on a six-and-a-half minute psychotic rant on Trading Spouses. I recognize her as Part Of The Problem(tm). That said, here is my tribute to Lady Darksided and her scary, self-righteous “I’m the Warrior” BS:
Mrs. Perrin, you were issued a challenge, and you failed with miserable, fat, runny colors. Thanks for being part of the hate machine that makes everybody hate Christians.
First of my (so far) two entries in the 700 Hoboes project.
Backstory: John Hodgman is apparently obsessed with hoboes. And werewolves. But mostly hoboes. In his excellent book Areas of My Expertise, there is a listing of 700 hobo names. Just as excellent (No! More excellent!) is the hourlong recording of the list, recited by Hodgman and accompanied on guitar by Jonathan Coulton. What’s even more remarkable about it is that Coulton played for an hour straight, in one long take.
