Some thoughts for Tuesday!

So yes, I skipped Sunday...mostly cause myself and my wife Katie just got back from a wedding...and congrats to Jess and Jay!

Some today's blog will talk about my biggest impression and thought about my very first trip to San Diego Comic Con just a few weeks ago.  I should first say that it was thanks to my wife and my Uncle that I was able to go - so thanks to both (especially and more importantly my wife ;)

So the SDCC was great.  Overwhelming but great.  However my biggest problem was not organizational, thought it was at times chaotic at best, was the Marvel area and schedule.  Especially when compared to their chief rival, DC Comics.

So let me explain - the DC area was a carpeted area, where at two corners were signing booths, the other two area were comprised of the DC Collectibles display cases and a stage where they had artists do live demonstrations of their techniques.  In the middle was display cases of the Comedian and Nite Owl costumes from Watchmen and the Arrow costume from Arrow.  Also at one section they had the ability for fans to play the new Injustice game.  Every time I entered, I would recognize one of DC creators, just standing around talking to editors, fans and fans in costumes.  I saw Jim Lee stopping to take a picture with two members of the armed services that had been wounded and had come to the Con.  I had two conversations with one of their co-publishers, and many times, shook hands with some of my favorite writers.  And while I didn't go to all their panels, most were full of their writers and artists who are creating DC's top books.

The Marvel area was impossible to get into.  The main part was the armory of Tony Stark from Iron Man 3, displaying the suits used in Iron Man 1 & 2 and the Avengers.  On the 2nd or 3rd day, the brought out the new armor in Iron Man 3.  To it's sides were the two booths which were very hard to stand on line for.  And the mob in front of the Iron Man 3 display was crazy at all times.  Their signing schedule that I printed out on Tuesday had two of my favorite Marvel writers, but they actually weren't on the schedule to come - so glad I bought their books to be signed.  And finally, none of their 'Architects' that are responsible for their big summer cross-over Avengers vs. X-Men were there.  None.

It seemed to me that 70-80% of DC's writers and artists were at SDCC.  It seemed to me that 20-30% of Marvel writers and artists were there (more artists than writers).

Is Marvel making more and kick-ass movies? Yes.  However, it seems that that was all they cared about at the biggest Comic Book Convention of the year.  Will I still buy Marvel books?  Yes...but not as many as I have been since it seems that I, as a comic book fan, don't matter to them as much as I as a movie fan do.

Thursday - Comics Review

So I'm going to try to do quick reviews of the comics that I have read this week.  I hope that for you reading, this will give you a new perspective and for those who are interested in perhaps picking up or reviewing comics. So here we go....

DC Comics

Aquaman #11 - Very good but very serious.  Geoff Johns has been on a mission to make sure the world knows that Aquaman is a badass.  Peter David & Will Pfeifer, in my opinion already did a good job at that, but Johns continues to do so.  In the tapestry of the New52 - DC's new rebooted continuity,  he is able to weave a tale of intrigue of the sinking of Atlantis, a group of super power individuals that Aquaman was hanging out with before the Justice League, and a intense connection with Black Manta.  A

Green Lantern #11 - Unlike Aquaman, GL hasn't changed that much from before the New52.  At most it streamlined some of the Green Lantern past continuity, the New52 has given us a buddy-buddy cop scenario with what was arch enemies of Sinestro and Hal Jordan.  It also gives the intrigue of what the Guardians of the Universe has planned as well as brings back Black Hand, a big part of the Blackest Night mini-series.  This was a solid issue bridging the last arc about the Indigo Tribe and the next on Black Hand.  A-

Justice League Dark #11 - Just added to my pull list.  Jeff Lemire has done a great job with pairing down the team and tying it into the main Justice League book.  He also uses the ability of the New52 to continuity to tell a great story with some new twists, especially with changing some preconceived notions about characters.  B+

Marvel

I'm going to tackle the non-AvsX Marvel titles for this week.

FF #20 - Fantastic Four and it's sister title, FF (Future Foundation) are very connected -very good but the downside is you really need to buy both books.  But they are awesome.  This issue both deals with the after affects of Hickman's last storyline a few issues ago but also sets up future issues of both titles and perhaps the larger Marvel Universe. B+

Winter Soldier #8 - Another great chapter.  If you enjoy espionage comics set in a world with super-heroes this is the book to buy (in the same vein, check out Secret Warriors by Marvel and Checkmate by DC for other great super-spy tales).  Also great to see Bucky back as Winter Soldier but with all of same concern with the rage that comes with his past actions.  Also, we see a villain who is smarter than Bucky and seems to be at least 10 steps ahead of him....which is really cool to see how he can get out of it.  A

Captain America #15  I have loved Brubaker's Cap, but this feels like the end.  And not in a great way. I hate seeing the Falcon constantly hurt, and I really hope this arc pays off to see Cap take it to Bravo and Queen Hydra.  C+

Uncanny X-Force #28 - A great X book, and better by the unexpected twists that Rick Remender gives to this book.  Really fantastic, and after what we expected with the bomb shell of a certain characters apparent death and the surprise of who is setting the wheels against X-Force in motion, a jump to the future was what was least expected.  A+

Secret Avengers #29 - I truly appreciate that Remender has taken up the Shadow Council that Brubaker set up in his issues and Ellis dealt with tangentially in his.  He ties it into his first arc which was great, and frankly I truly hope to forgot the mess that his arc that tied in AvsX.  By itself, it was ok, but considering it didn't match what was happening in other tie in books, it was at best confusing.  This is a good first issue of what I hope to be a good arc against the Masters of Evil.  B-

First of all, let me tell you that I have really been disappointed with the vast majority of the Avengers vs. X-Men tie-ins, as well as some issues of the main book.  But here's so very quick reviews of the tie-ins for this week:

Wolverine & the X-Men #14 - the best of the A vs. X tie-ins by far, and this is no exception.  Great story of a truly possessed Colossus and shows the issue that many X-Men do and should have about the Phoenix Five's hunting down of Avengers. A-

Avengers #28 - Thunderbolt Ross aka the Red Hulk takes it on himself to kill Cyclops.  It really is an examination of Ross as an Avenger - which is interesting- but in a lot of ways, we all knew where this story was going.  For a Bendis fill in issue it was not bad. C

X-Men Legacy #270  - Good - I'm just tired of Rogue.  She isn't my favorite character and in some ways, its hard for as fan to buy it took some X-Men so long to figure out the problem with the Phoenix Five- especially since Chuck Xavier kind of new the problem in the first issue it happened in.

Tuesday Blog Post Part 2 - the Guardians of the Galaxy

I meant to post this last night but went to bed instead.  Here is part 2:

So one of my favorite recent titles was a book called Guardians of the Galaxy by Marvel.  It was written by two British writer, Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning, who I recent had the pleasure of meeting at the San Diego Comic Con.  They are currently writing Resurrection Man by DC, New Mutants by Marvel and Hypernaturals by Boom! In the GotG, they had the cosmic corner of the Marvel Universe to play with.  Their work on Guardians of the Galaxy was, in my opinion, especially great.  It was group of very quirky characters often thrown into situations that were over there heads.  Really, really good stuff and I recommend picking up the trade paperbacks (for you non-comic readers, a trade paperback is a collection of a comics- usually a story arc that goes anywhere from 5 to 12 issues.

 Marvel Studios at San Diego Comic Con announced their next five movie projects, three of them being sequels to Iron Man, Thor and Captain America, one being an Ant-Man film which has been in development for a long time, and the last is the Guardians.  Many fans believe that this films will tie into the post-credit ending of the Avengers which features the cosmic villain named Thanos who wants to kill eveyone and everything.  The concept art is featured above.

With the release of the Avengers movie, Marvel released an in-continity book called Avengers Assemble, written by long time Avengers writer Brian Michael Bendis and starring the cast of the movie.  The most recent issue, #5, featured the Guardians.  Except they weren't.  Two of the members of the team were dead when last seen, and none of the characters sounded like themselves.  So while it is the Guardians, a team I love and characters that I love, who appeared, it really wasn't.  It was what seemed to be Bendis' version after reading a memo of the different characters but not actually reading any of the issues of GotG by Abnett and Lanning.

I don't want you to think I don't like Bendis.  I do.  I like a lot of writers.  But as a fan, and an aspiring writer, I have to say, that not every writer can or should write every character.  Lots of writers have, recently brought back characters that haven't been used in a long time.  For example, Bendis use of Spider-Woman, or Paul Cornell's writing of the Black Knight are great examples of bringing a character back to the fore-front who haven't used in any substantial way in over a decade. And when you bring a character back, it gives you lee-way to write a character in a more jarring or different way than before.  However, at times, some writers brings back or write a character in a way that takes a character in a new direction, that at times, does not work.  When Grant Morrison wrote the X-Men, I thought his take on Magneto was interesting, but it didn't sound like Magneto.  Matt Fraction writes a great Tony Stark, but his Captain America doesn't sound like Cap.  And Bendis writes Spider-Man and Luke Cage in a great way, but his GotG just doesn't work.

Recently, I read an interview of Greg Rucka where he said that in his cross-over called the Omega Drive with Punisher, Daredevil and Spider-Man, he said that he gave the most of the writing of Spider-Man to Waid, cause he didn't feel comfortable writing Spider-Man.  I wish more writers were like that.

So here's the thing.  Marvel, if you're bringing back GotG, please don't just go with a big name writer, please go with writers who get the characters and will do interesting things with them in cool plots.  I'd love it if you got Abnett and Lanning back, but even if you don't, please get writers who understand their limitations and understand the characters they are writing.

Tuesday Post Part 1- Being a Comic Book Fan

So as many people who know me, and as anyone reading this blog know by now, I am an avid comic book fan.  Mostly I follow comics from the big two (Marvel & DC) with a few exceptions here and there.  As a comic book fan, especially of the big two, I have many favorite characters that have existed for decades upon decades.  Some who are reading this may like books who feature the same protagonist over a large amount of years, even being written by different authors.  Those folks will probably understand better about the issues that many comic fans deal with when a new writer comes onto their favorite title, or a reboot or relaunch or big change happens in a comic universe or comic line.  Recently I was at San Diego Comic Con and at a Marvel panel they made a jab at DC and their propensity to have events that either reboot their history or continuity, or fix some problems that have come up.  Marvel has never done any reboots but have done what is called ret-cons (changing continuity retroactively) to varying degrees.  However, after reflecting on what was said at the Marvel panel, I realized reboots or ret-cons are flamboyant ways to discussing what happens all the time in comics....a new writer does something new with a classic character.

To fans of comic books or even just books as well as television and movies, really two things matter the most: plot and characters.  Some of are more concerned with one over the other, some of us like those two simple, others more complex.  However, it really boils down to those two elements.  I want Bruce Wayne/Batman to sound, think and act in an essential way like the Batman I have been reading for over a decade.  And good writers, will create a plot that engage and challenge those characters in interesting and enticing ways.  Sure, writers will sometimes take a character when they are older or younger than the norm, or might change some part of their back story that might affect the character in a way that hasn't been seen before; for example when DC rebooted it's continuity, they now have a young Superman, who was an orphan by the time he was 18 and starts working for a rival to the Daily Planet.  It's a twist on what is expected, but it doesn't truly change the essential of a character.  Some fans will always be upset at change - no matter how small or how cool or how interesting.  However, most fans get truly upset not at changes or twists, or even the killing of a characters, but when a character they know and love does not act as he/she should.

What do I mean? If Bruce Wayne/Batman starts murdering criminals, that would be a problem.  However, the recent plot twist that he may/may not have a younger brother he never knew about has not been problematic.  And for two reasons.  A.) It does not change the essential of who Bruce Wayne/Batman is and B.) that story was told really well.  Really good writers get away with a lot more when they tell a story very well.

Another example before I go.  Around the same year, the writers of Batman and Captain America decided, without knowing decided to bring back the title characters presumed-dead sidekicks.  One was met with more negative critical reaction than the other.  I liked both. What the Cap story did was make the sidekick a tragic figure, used by forces beyond his control into being a villain.  The Batman story took a not fan loved sidekick and made him into a lethal vigilante.  Both stories had the character act uncharacteristically, but only one gave a journey for that character to redeem those actions that were in large part beyond his control.

Sunday blogging: DKR and Aurora

So, I'm hoping to do posts on Sunday, Tuesdays and Thursdays, and I hope that I keep them small, it'll be easier! ;)  So I hope that Thursdays to be reviewing comics, while Sunday and Tuesdays on more general topics. So I'm going to start with something very topical....

Aurora:

Let me say this: My thoughts and prayers are with all the people who were killed or hurt, at the theatre, and those related to all those hurt, killed or traumatized at the shootings in Aurora.  It is a tragedy.  But as someone who is a voting, concerned human being and citizen, I think the responsibility is on us to try to learn from such tragedy and to try to get some good from something so evil.  I think the obvious issue that will be on the news and talked about by pundits everywhere is guns.  If you asked me 10 years ago, you would get a different answer that you would today about this issue.  For the record, I am ok with the 2nd amendment.  It's not my favorite amendment, but it's there.  However, I think that we as a society and as a country need to come together, all of us, and work out a better solution to the issue.  I think civil liberties, including the 2nd amendment, are very important but so is the concern for the common good and common safety.  And just like we need to have an informed and educated national conversation about how to deal with the complex and complicated issues of national security when it comes to issues of terrorism and foreign threats, we need to have an equally educated and informed conversation about domestic threats and guns is one of those issues when it comes to domestic threats. Do people have the right to own guns?  Yes.  Do people have the right to be concerned about issues of security and common safety?  Yes.  So, instead of craziness and decisiveness on the right and the left, and ramping up the language and partisan bullshit, we need to have the calmer voice of reason from all walks of life, and from both parties and mentalities sit down together and figure out how to compromise and reconcile the concern of both for the good of all.  And while, I admittedly lean left on much and more, I feel that when it comes to guns, we need to be extra cautious. (For those of you who are reading this and are on the right, I feel the same about issues of abortion, so there you go).  I'm more than willing to have systems that provide food and housing and bus passes to people and then crack down on those who abuse those systems, than have the same mentality for the gun control system.  You want to have a shotgun and handgun and rifle?  Fine.  But I think the armor piercing bullets, the grenade launcher is a little much and not needed.  I think have more guns than you have appendages is a little much.  The telos of guns is to kill.  Some might argue protection or for hunting, but it's to kill, really, maybe in the service of protection or to hunt.  So when we are dealing with something whose purpose is such, we need to be extra careful when it comes to background checks and waiting periods, and what kind of weapons and munitions that we sell.  I had a buddy growing up whose father had guns, and educated his children on how to respect and to use guns.  I told him him I wish we had more gun owners who were like that.  I think to exploit this tragedy for ham fisted legislation is not what is needed, nor is to use this moment to ignore the real issues that guns present.  I hope we can rise and be better citizens and human beings about such an important issue.

The second issue that will not get much play in the media but is important, is overwhelming fact that whenever there is a violent act on the level on what happened in Aurora, it's done by a male.  School shootings, lone gun-men, bombers, ect. are almost exclusively done by males.  And of course the overwhelming majority of domestic violence is done males.  I think we also need to have educated and informed conversation about if and why violence is connected with masculinity and if vehicles like the media, such as movies and television only help to encourage and enforce that mentality.  It's a real and important issue that smarter people than me need to be discussing on the national level in front of a national audience.


Finally, and least importantly, the Dark Knight Rises review.  Now I've only seen it once, and while it has some issues (namely transitions) it was really, really good.  It tied a lot back to the Batman Begins, but came the same scope of the Dark Knight.  I think all three movies will truly change the comic book movie genre, and I think the Amazing Spider-Man is the first result of that kind of the movie making.  I wouldn't be surprised if you start to find the Marvel movies, especially the next round of sequels, Iron Man, Thor and Captain America will follow this trilogy to tackle real world issues and focus on story more than one the 'coolness' of bringing a certain character to the 'silver screen'.  I'll probably post more on it after a second or third viewing, but those are my first thoughts after seeing it the first time.

Marvel's Summer Movies

So a friend told me that the thing about blogging is to do it with some frequency....so I figured, to start, Thursdays would be a good day to post, and maybe post more frequently once we get started.  So tomorrow, I see The Dark Knight Rises, and I'm sure I will have a lot to say.  But let me talk about the Avengers and the Amazing Spider-Man which came out earlier this summer.

The Avengers

Here's the thing - I've seen this movie three times.  So I liked it.  A lot.  However, I have to say, each time, I noted that up until the fight where the Hulk gets loose on the Helli-carrier and Loki gets free, it was kinda slow.  Still amazing and Whedon did an amazing job.  My hope is that they have a little more diversity in the next movie.  Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver, two stalwart Avengers are in limbo because the rights to those characters might be owned by Fox.  The next two would Ant-Man/Giant-Man and Wasp, but really, two white people/scientists.  My choice would be Carol Danvers a.k.a. Ms. Marvel/Captain Marvel and the Black Panther.  There is a rumor that Falcon might be in the next Cap movie and he would be a good choice as well.  I also hope that the sequel, and a Justice League movie when/if it happens, would do something different than alien/demonic army attacks at the behest of lone bad-guy.

The Amazing Spider-Man

This was a far superior movie to any of the 1st three as it comes to acting.  Every actor was better, especially Garfield and Stone in their delivery and their chemistry.  McGuire and Dunst look like rank amateurs, especially McGuire.  The CGI and some of the fight scenes were not as finely timed or tuned as the Avengers, and I think many fans were hoping for more when it came to CGI - one could make the comparison that it is equivalent to the other three movies when it comes to action.  And it shouldn't be since it's been almost a decade since the 1st movie.

A New Mandate

So it's been a while......and things have changed.  Happily married, new dog, just came back from my first San Diego Comic Con.  I wrote a screenplay earlier this summer.  And I have decided to re-dedicate myself to blogging.  I'm working on reviews mostly, movies, television, books and comics, though I will be throwing in differing topics such as theology and politics every once in a while.  I'll be working retroactively on movies, posting reviews about the Avengers, the Amazing Spider-Man, Brave and some DVD's I've seen, as well as books I have been reading.  I'll also talk about my experience at SDCC and some general thoughts about comics today, and start working on reviews of specific issues or story arcs in the future.  I know in the past, my posts have rambled on, so I'll be working on shorter, tighter posts and hopefully many of you will enjoy it.  thanks,

Mike