This is Entry 33: Brian on the Aisle #2

This go around I review the movie: Iron Man. To quote the woman a few rows in front of me at the end of the movie: "Hells Yeah!"

But before I talk about the movie, let's talk about the previews: I saw 4 action drama trailers: The Hulk, The Spirit, Indiana Jones, The Dark Knight & 2 Comedies: The Love Guru with Mike Meyers & Don't Mess with Zohan! with Adam Sandler. All except for Zohan look good. It might be good it's got the Apatow seal of approval! But it could be crap. :)

But I'm getting off track, I'm here to talk about IRON MAN! I'll try to keep this spoiler free. I took in a matinee showing with around roughly 20 to 30 people (these were just the people I saw in front of me, to the left & to the right. I'm not sure how many were behind me). I was the first person in the Theater seeing as I was an half hour early ( I miss estimated bus travel time but I didn't want to be late). So, we get through the cool previews & on to the main flick. It... was... Awesome!!!!! This comes from a guy who's never read any Iron Man characters.

The way it started out was great & continued to be so through out the film. You had your humor, your action, your geeky bits (They managed to fit in a Roxxon reference for gosh sakes!) The Actors all played their parts well, no one felt ill chosen for their roles. I look forward to Iron Man II & I know the perfect villain to show up since an appearance by him has been set up here in this film. Your take the terrorist group's name from the film, use some comic knowledge & who do you get? Yup, that guy! He would be perfect, you have to change a few things to fit with the era. But they did that anyways.

So the movie ended on a high note, the credits started to role & people were leaving?!?! I almost felt like yelling at them: "Where are you going? There is movie movie coming up after the credits!" And there was. It could have gone in the middle of the credits, there was a perfect spot for it, too! But it was at the very end. It, much like a film, was Awesome! The other 4 people who saw it also seemed to like it too. It was the first step to a real Marvel style shared universe, I won't tell you what happened. You could probably find out about it somewhere on the net but it left me wanting more. I await The Hulk later this summer & IM2 later on. So, I give the movie 4 suits of armor out of 5! (I hardly give anything a 5, so a 4 is pretty darn great).

Until next time: Save me a seat & Stay Jazzy!

-Brian

This is Entry 32: FCBD 2008!

It was a most glorious day that I was engaged in for most of the day. It's started around 11 a.m. & I wasn't done with it until 9 p.m. (I was done getting stuff by 2:30 p.m. & spent the rest of the time reading). I got 29 comics for free! Most of them were from the smaller companies.

Books I enjoyed:
- Bongo Comics Free-For-All (they made their book smaller this year, not sure why).
- Ape Entertainment's Cartoona Plaooza (The Go-Go Gorilla & the Jungle Crew was the best of the stories, Monstroids the second). Ape Entertainment are the same people who put out the super cool mini series Bizarre New World, I recommend picking it up.
-Red 5 Comics' Atomic Robo, it's about this robot secret agent that was made by Nikola Tesla. The story has shades of The Amazing Screw-On Head & some shades of Hellboy, both from Mike Mignola. I may try to find some of the Atomic Robo comics or wait for the the trade paperback. It comes out in June.
- Speaking of Hellboy, Dark Horse put on a book of him. The funniest part is on the inside cover, Bill Morrison (known for his work on all things Simpson related) drew the cast of Futurama as the cast of Hellboy. I really like Dr. Zoidberg as Lobster Johnson & Leela as Liz Sherman.
- Rude Dude Comics put out a book hyping the coming of The Moth, a retro themed book. It harkens back to an age long past: the late 1960's. The art reminded me of Darwyn Cookes' art, who is known for his retro takes of the DCU.
- Marvel put out 2 new books: Marvel Adventures: Iron Man & Hulk & Spider-Man and an X-Men book. The MA:IM&H&S-M book was co-written by Jeff Parker. Frequent readers of the blog should know that I enjoy the work of Mister Parker. The Trio fight The Mandarin! The X-Book was an ok read, I don't read a lot of the main X-Titles so I disn't really know what was going on. It kind of reminded me of a few episodes of Doctor Who: They have to defeat a giant monster that lives underground. I will say this about the art: Greg Land know how to draw one heck of a Emma Frost!
- Each year Gemstone Publishing puts out a different Disney book & this year Gyro Gearloose got the the spotlight shown on him. Now I don't have a lot exposure to the pantheon of the Disney characters beyond a few comics & some of the late 90's cartoons but I have a soft spot for Gyro.
- Archie Comics put out 2 books one about "Archie's Pal" Jughead (in the back was a cool quick over view of the company) & a reprinting the first issue of Sonic the Hedgehog from 1993. This comic took me back, I wasn't into video games growing up but I did read some of the comics based off of them (Nintendo also put out a series of comics in the early 90's), Sonic was one of those, I still have those comics.
- Renaissance Press put out another Amelia Rules! book, It's a cute book about a girl named... Amelia & her group of friends & family.

There were more, this is only about half. But I don't have all that much to say about the rest.

Now I went to 3 stories & spent varying degrees of time at each. The one I spent the most at was one with a sale I wanted to check out. The sale was they were selling comics by the pound. There was a flat rate: 7 dollars buys you 1 pound. But the cool part was you got to choose what was in your pound & how many you wanted. The rummage sale, as one employee called it, was in the basement: 1 concrete room, boxes & boxes of comics to go through. It was Awesome!

I bought 3 pounds, could have bought more but I had spent an hour looking around plus there was ECCC the next so I didn't want to burn myself out. So out of the 3 pounds that I have stuff to sat about:

DC Books:
- Speed Force #1, a Compilation book of different heroes connected to that force. I'll tell you now ever so often I but the random Flash related book. I'll probably do that next week, too.
- The 1st issues of Superboy The Comic Book! Well, no duh! But this is comic relates to the TV show. Yeah, I didn't know there was one either.
- Mr. Mxyzptlk #1 from the New Year's Evil five week event from 10 years ago. Mxy's has to save the 5th dimension from a 10th dimension being. He goes looking through various DC books looking for help, the book definitely breaks the fourth wall!
- I picked up 2 issues of the short lived Chronos series, from what I've read: it was a cool read. I like time travel stuff. This book is about the second Chronos, not the first one who was a foe the Atom.

Marvel Books:
- Marvel Riot #1, a humor book in the vein of Not Brand Ecch!. This issue makes fun of the Age of Apocalypse mini-series. There was a somewhat funny if not drawn out to long joke about X-Man's name (I'm X-Man, you mean I'm a Woman? No, your not an Ex-man but X-Man!)
- Daredevil 2099, nowthis book isn't connected to the 2099 books of the mid 90's but a part of a 5th week event from 2004 where the books from the Marvel Knights imprint are set in the future. It's an interesting book & the twist at the end is an good one.
- I picked up 2 issues based off of The Avengers: United They Stand cartoon from '99. I didn't think that cartoon was all that bad. Sure so of the costumes were a little bad. But I will say this about their toy line: They produced a top notc Ultron figure! I'm happy to display it with the rest of my figures.
-I picked 5 of the books from the 2000 mini-series Heroes Reborn. Wait a minute, you may be telling yourself: HR happened before that & was multiple books! Yes, but I'm talking about the event that revisited that world after all the heroes had gone home. The world was post-Apocalyptical & I enjoy stories set into worlds. I will have to re-get one of the issues because the issue I got had a few of the pages ripped out. :(

Other Companies
- I got most of the books from the Alan Moore mini-series 1963, which was done in the style of Marvel Comic from the early 60's. They even came fake ads! I'm only missing 2 books! Well, 2 books plus the one they never made. :)

Also I bought a cool Justice League: The New Frontier T-Shirt.

That is all.

Next post we'll return to our normal review format of stuff I buy weekly. Then is the review for the Emerald City ComiCon or the Iron Man (not sure if I see it this week).

So come back for those & as always: Stay Jazzy!

-Brian

This is Entry 31: Comics!

Well, my grand experiment didn't live up to what I wanted it to. It's mostly my fault, I just didn't keep it going. Ironically enough I stopped just a day short of my sister's birthday (That would be an easy post to do). So I'm back a few 2 weeks later & I'm back to finish off the big ol' pile of Marvel that I have. I'm doing it now since next month is a busy month.

Next weekend is Free Comic Book Day which means I'll have a tone of new stuff to blog about. The weekend after that is the 6th annual Emerald City ComiCon. Then a week after that I'm going for a week or more. Then it's basically June. So, I'm going to try to hit everything I want to but I'll probably won't. I should really plan out what I want to say before I type all this out but I never do. This is off the top of my head, People! I'm free styling!

Let's start off with a "graphic novel": Earth X Trilogy Companion, a collection of sketches, background info, covers, the apparently rare Earth X 1/2 issue (I have 2 of them) & some other stuff. Most of it I've seen before & own some of it. Then why buy the book? I like Alex Ross' pencil/sketch work more then I like his fully painted stuff. It just looks cooler to me so that's why I bought the book.

New Stuff:

-Annihilation Conquest, the really cool space drama, finished up. Issue 5 (of the 6) helps explain how there was an Ultron here & over in Mighty Avengers a few issues back.

Favorite panel of issue 5:



I think that would make a great battle cry, like "Spoon!" or "Touch the Liver, Lick the Goat!" are.

Issue 6 nicely wraps up everything. I've never thought Warlock (from New Mutants fame was scary but he kind of is here). There some great lines in there. The end fight is a little lack luster but still cool. The very end segaways nicely into full up series/spin off series called Guardians of the Galaxy which will be drawn by a one Mr. Paul Pelletier, I really like his art. So, that's got me excited & I like the characters. The series is going to be written by the same people who did this series which is nice.

Next up is the muchly delayed 29th issue of Runaways, I only vaguely knew what is going on with the book. The art is nice, the writing is (as you would guess with Joss Whedon) but the only think that is kind of sucky is that there are huge gaps in between issues. Next issue (when ever that comes out) is the last of this story line, maybe it will pick up after that i.e. ship more frequently.

Now I hadn't read much of Young Avengers or the other issues of this series (Young Avengers presents...) but I like/liked Vision. So I picked this up to look at. It's good some nice art (I wouldn't mind seeing more of Mark Brooks' art). But I was a bit lost given my only passing knowledge of the series. The story it present may continue next issue, if it does I may pick it up.

X-Men First Class #11 is an odd issue. It a sort of a mishmash of concepts & characters. It also marks the first appearance & maybe only appearance of a new team: The Continuiteens! It's a fun read, but then most of what writer Jeff Parker has written that I've read are a fun read.

So I Issues 2-5 of New Exiles in my pile. Issues 2-4 cover the team getting it's last member; Gambit. But not the one we know but an a blond Atlantean Gambit who's parents a black Namor & Sue Storm. Yeah, I know. The character is ok & I'm sure why they had to name him Gambit (the only similarities between the 2 are they talk like there from New Orleans but this version is from Africa). I'm skipping over most of the story which makes this all make sense, sort of. Side Note: In Issue 4 we get to see a blue skinned female Atlantean (who is also Gambit's sister), she reminded me a little of a Namora (former member of the Exiles). I liked her.

The story that starts in Issue 5 is one that I enjoyed. I've been a bit wary of the book the last few issues of Exiles & the first couple of New Exiles haven't been all that exciting to me. But if they start being more like the story in 5 I'll keep the book.

Next up in the final issue of Penance: Relentless. Now I liked this series & the character, some people I know don't like character. But this was a nice conclusion, it was basically just one big fight between him & Nitro. Now that can be a bad thing sometimes but the way this one played out was wonderful. Probably one of the better fights I've read all year.

Next up is Captain America: still a good book. But I want to talk about the book just one character from the book: Black Widow, more particularly her hair. In Captain America she has long hair:



But in Mighty Avengers she has short hair:



What the? I know they are 2 different book with different writers & artists but you'd think that if they used the same character in both she'd have the same hair style. She is wearing the same costume!

Next I'd like to talk about 3 issues of Mighty Avengers: Issues 9, 10 & 12.

Issue 9 is a amazing it's done in 3 types of art: it's starts off painted, goes to regular art & end is done to look like an old comic book. Also there is a 6 page fight scene in this issue, not text just glorious art.

Issue 10 continues on with the old comic feel & is done perfectly.

Issue 12 is one I have problem with. It ties in with the "Secret Invasion that's going on. Now I didn't have a problem with that but this issue feature none of the Mighty Avengers. They aren't on the cover (It's a skrull recreation of Avengers, vol. 1 #4) & there are none inside (well, Spider-Woman shows up but that's about it). It's all about where Nick Fury has been for the last few years, he disappeared after the most resent "Secret War". The story was ok, the art was a bit to dark for my tastes

One back issue I'll talk about: Ultimate Marvel Team-Up #14 which feature a team up between Ultimate Spider-Man & a appearance by Ultimate Black Widow before she showed up in The Ultimates (or Ultimate Avengers if you will). She also looks different here then in her Ultimates appearances. But this I can let slide, they hadn't decided on her final look yet since her hair color changes from the cover to the inside.

2 Non Marvel books:
- The Brave & The Bold finished up it's first story arc with Issue 12 & I look forward to seeing what the next arc is.
- I'm thinking of dropping Doctor Who, not the classic version but the current version. It's Issue 3 & I'm still not liking it. I'll give it a another issue or two. I've thought about dropping New Exiles but it finally picked up at issue 5.

Side Note: New Episodes of Doctor Who started to air. SCI-FI Channel, 9 p.m.

So, next post will most likely be FCBD (Free Comic Book Day) related. Stay Tuned for that.

And as always: Stay Jazzy!

-Brian

This is Entry 30: Comics!

Ok, here it is. I'm going to finally blog about all the comics I've built up over the last month or so. This might the first of a multipart posting. I don't know, depends on how much I want to write this time. I of course have the 3 major sections: DC Comics, Marvel Comics & smaller press stuff.

Let's do something a little different this time, let's start off with the "smaller press stuff" pile. Also they are the smallest pile of the three.

The first up is a first for this blog, it's a comic from the Bongo Comics Group, the people who bring up The Simpsons Comics, Futurama Comics & a few years a go produced the really cool mini series: Heroes Anonymous (if you can find it, I hight recommend you check it out). The comics I picked up was Simpsons Super Spectacular #6, it's a book that pokes fun at Comic Books themselves. It hits some points right on the head. Added Bonus', Bonuses', Boni, whatever: The characters from the Radioactive Man comics get some play here. Also, almost every super hero identity that a Simpsons character has assumed over the years in the comics is also here.

Next up: Umbrella Academy #6, it's the last issue of this interesting mini-series. But in reading the the letter column at the end, there will a 2nd series. So, yippie to that!

Lastly from this section are Doctor Who Comics. IDW Press is currently putting out 2 Who related series: Doctor Who Classics which feature reprints from the 1970's with Tom Baker as The Doctor & the simply titled Doctor Who, featuring the current Doctor (as played by David Tennant). As I've posted before the Classic Who book has at least one panel that is laugh out loud funny, both in context but even funnier out of context. I have 2 issues & here are there panels:

Issue 4 presented us with these 2 Panels (I edited out 1 panel, hence the white part):



Issue 4 also has a fun little story called "Time Slip" where The Doctor got caught in some space slime creature thing that reverted him back through his previous incarnations. The art's a bit odd but it's a fun story.

Issue 5 had these 2 panels, I like them both:



The book featuring the current Doctor is good. The first 3 pages of Issue 1 give you a nice quick overview of who The Doctor is, but I think you'd already know if you were going to be picking this book up. The 2 issues I've read so far are on par with ok episodes of the TV show, nothing all that truly awesome but all still pick up the book.

So, that's for the smaller press stuff. Who to talk about next. DC or Marvel? Marvel or DC? A question that has plagued Nerdom for decades. Hmmmm....

Ok, Let's just go for



Why? It comes alphabetically first. That's why!

So, we have the last two issues of the most kick ass storyline I've read all year: Superman and the Legion of Super-Heroes(Action Comics #857-863). Issue 862 has a the update to a personal favorite team of mine: The Legion of Substitute-Heroes. I've always been a fan of the somewhat out of the normal. The conclusion was good, a bit lack lust but at the end there was a 2 page ad to for something to look forward to: Superman & the Legion of Super-Heroes Vs. Superman-Prime & the Legion of Super-Villians. You know who writing it? Geoff Johns, the same guy who wrote this LSH story. you know who's drawing it? George Perez! Wahoo! It looks like it's going to be awesome!

Next up is the book I don't know why I buy but still do: All-Star Batman & Robin the Boy Wonder. This issue is pretty much one long fights between Bats & Hal Jordan, The Green Lantern. There is a lot of yellow in this, for obvious reasons. :)

Next up: Justice Society of America. I'm still not sure I like the whole "Thy Kingdom Come" storyline that's going on. I liked Kingdom Come, even the sequel had some good parts. But I'm not sure about this. It seems to have been set up for the last few issues & not enough action. At least in #14 we got some fighting & with it came more KC connections.

The next 2 book on down the pile are issues of The Brave & the Bold, Issue 10 featured was split into 2 parts. Part 1: Superman & the Silent Knight. Part 2: Aquaman & the orginal Teen Titans (Robin, Wonder Girl, Kid Flash & Aqualad). Issue 11 is an interesting team up of Superman with his Earth 3 counterpart of Ultraman. The best part of the issues was Mixyezpitelik, the Earth 3 counterpart to Mr. Mxyzptlk.

Were almost there, I'm half way down my DC pile. Then there is the Marvel & we're down (for now). Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha!

Much like I'm not sure about the KC story line in JSA, I'm not sure about having Blue Beetle in Booster Gold. (Added Bonus, Issue #8 has Anthro in it, who part of the the kick ass miniseries: Doctor 13: Architecture & Morality). Speaking of Blue Beetle & Booster Gold, Issue 43 of Justice League Unlimited is about them & is a fun issue.

A few posts back I talk about Tangent Comics (Entry 20, to be exact), well that universe is back & in it's own 12 issue Mini-Series, called Tangent: Superman's Reign. I have the first issue & it look good, so I pick up 2.

Recently the animated version of the kick butt mini series DC: The New Frontier came out with a slightly different title (Justice League: The New Frontier) so to celebrate/cash in on that, DC released a Special book with a few new stories in that dimension/time period. Best Parts: Rip Hunter's introduction & the 1st story.

And now a word from Julius Schwartz:


(This panel was from the Ambush Bug Nothing Special)

I picked up one of DC's Secret Files And Origins books, this one features Superman's Villains (circa 1998). There was one thing that I was a bit funny. In the Super-Villains Time Line, it claims that 4 years ago Crisis on Infinite Earths happened. What? That happened in '85 not '94. In '94 you, being Superman kicked the bucket & not in '97 as this time line claims. Man, DC needs to figure how to tell time. :)

Lastly, is issue 31 of Cartoons, Cartoons, series featuring many of the Cartoon Network's cartoons. This issues covers story is Ed, Edd & Eddy. I do so love me some Ed, Edd & Eddy.

Well, I think this post is long enough. I shall hold off on Marvel until next entry.

Stay Jazzy!

-Brian

This is Entry 29: Blank Entry

This Entry has been intentionally left blank for your protection. Please do not post any comments to this entry for it may invalidate this Blog.

Thank you & as always Stay Jazzy!

-The Management (i.e. Brian).

This is Entry 28: Blog Experiment, Part 2

New-ish content. It's not mine but a really funny guys' content. I present to you: The Road. Enjoy.

This is Entry 27: Blog Experiment, Part 1

Or: Part 1 of the Experiment

Well, today I wanted to share with some photography. I had a wonderful picture all lined up for you all. But the site I upload all my pic's to so I can post them on the web is being a little troublesome. So, there is no photography. :(

But I might be back later today with something as as today's new content. We'll see.

Stay Jazzy!

-Brian

This is Entry 26: Blog Experiment

In honor of this Blog's 9 month anniversary starting today... well maybe Tomorrow, but this week: I'd like to try something.

I'd like to put up more content here on the ol' Blog. So, everyday this week there will be something new. This will count as today's new post, I know but this is a new post. But the rest of the week I'll start to work on the pile of Comics that I yet to ramble on about (I've got like weeks worth of stuff to go over). But, that won't be all: I do some photography, so prepare for the artist side of me to make it's self known here on the Blog. There might be other stuff, so stay tuned.

Tune in tomorrow for the start of this experiment! Let's hope I make it to Friday. :)

As always: Stay Jazzy!

-Brian

This is Entry 25: FCBD

In one months' time, lo there shall come a holiday!
A most glorious holiday that all good little geek boys & girls wait for all year!
It's a most glorious Saturday where one can go into their local participating ye olde Comic Book shoppe.
Once there ye can pick up many a printed page for no cents on the dollar!
Yes, for nothing excluding the the cost of getting thy hence!
But a word of warning to ye: get thy there early for a line doth form & ye may miss out on some cool printed pages!
This Holiday shall happen on one day every year: The first Saturday of every May & shall be called by one name:



The Event's official website: http://www.freecomicbookday.com

This is Post 24: Update!

It's been a month & it would be time for another post but I just haven't gotten around to it. Now I do have a large pile o' Comics to share with you. There has been so much goodness, so much in fact I'm thinking of doing a multi-part posting.

The Posting will be forth coming.

Stay Tuned & Stay Jazzy.

-Brian