An apology and an announcement

The first is to the owners of two sites linked over on the right. Apparently when I put in the URL I made some typing errors and they weren't working. I want to apologize for the folks who put those sites together and have corrected the problem. From now on it might be wise to actually try the links before making them permanent. :-)

I have purchased a four-day pass to San Diego for this year. I'm working that Thursday but will be wandering around from Friday through Sunday (7/25-27) for at least part of each day. Donna, who doesn't care at all about comics, will not be coming down and will be spending the weekend with friends back in Orange County. I'll be sharing a room in Hotel Circle with a friend on Friday & Saturday nights, so I hope to hit a few of the evening events.

I'm sure to be mentioning this several times before July, but I'm really looking forward to attending the convention for the first time in a decade.

Four-color Fiend: Catching up on Countdown #15 & 14

Only a baker’s dozen issues to go until FINAL CRISIS and things are beginning to pick up. This is just a quick run down on the main COUNTDOWN series and some tie-in books.

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Superman Prime (SP), who we knew previously as Superboy-Prime, has totally lost it. He has captured the former ‘lead’ Monitor and is trying to make him find the ‘perfect’ Earth that SP remembers. Forerunner shows up, momentarily distracting him and the Monitor tricks SP into believing that Earth 51 was his world. SP flies off to confront Monarch, leaving a vengeful Forerunner with the one being she holds responsible for the destruction of her people.

Things are going badly for just about everyone on E-51, where Monarch’s forces have killed almost all super-powered resistance. Surviving Monitors are trying to put up a fight, but aren’t really trained for these kinds of thing so are not doing too well. While Green Lantern Kyle is protecting Ray Palmer, the original Atom tells Kyle what he discovered on this Earth and what he has been doing the past years. Apparently, Earth –51’s Ray Palmer carried a natural immunity to all diseases, so our Ray has isolated that ability and was trying to spread this throughout the multiverse. It’s obvious that Ray and his discovery will probably figure prominently in the up-coming Final Crisis.

Meanwhile, Donna Troy impersonates the evil Wonder Girl and is able to defeat the Insect Queen, thereby gaining the loyalty of her insectoid troops who she leads into battle. Jason Todd joins forces with the murderous E-51 Batman, donning the costume created for his namesake, becoming Red Robin (hey, I don’t make this stuff up, okay?).

Back on Earth-One the depowered Mary Batson, is taken to Queen Hippolyta, the mother of Wonder Woman. Hippolyta is in hiding and with the assistance of Holly & Harley is trying to overthrow the disguised Granny Goodness. I’m going to guess that MB is going to play a role in the next series as well, but hoping she isn’t the little b**** she has been here. I would have to go back and check, but I think she actually killed some folks along the way and should have to pay penance for that.

Overall the series is picking up again and lots of things are happening. I think the mistake was in trying to keep the storyline going for too long and in too many titles. The ARENA series, in particular was a waste and the events there could have been shoehorned into the main series. Paul Dini and the rest of the writers have their work cut out for them, but still have over a dozen issues to bring things to the point at which FC will kick off. Working with such a huge cast they generally do a good job keeping characters mostly consistent, even if they are not exactly the characters we like.

COUNTDOWN: New Gods 80-page Special #1 – Like the Jimmy Olsen special, this reprints books from the Jack Kirby era when The King was introducing his Fourth World concepts. Here we get the first issues of the FOREVER PEOPLE & MISTER MIRACLE, plus NEW GODS #7. These show Superman’s discovery of Supertown (which he visited in the Jimmy Olsen tales); we learn of Mother Box; are introduced to Scott Free as he takes up the mantle of the World’s Greatest Escape Artist; and learn the details of The Pact that ties so much of the books together. All this stuff has been reprinted before and you can reread the entire Kirby epic in the Fourth World Omnibus books DC is now publishing. It’s still nice to sit down and remember how wonderful it all was as we all discovered this for the first time.

COUNTDOWN PRESENTS: Lord Havok & the Extremists #4 – We witness some horrendous attacks and Doctor Diehard decides it may be time to take action against Havok. It is also revealed that President AmeriCommando has made a deal with Monarch, and we all know that that won’t work out in the end. Writer Frank Tieri continues to make this all very interesting, even though this tale takes place early in the Countdown continuity, so we already know some of what is going to happen before it ends. I think things are really going to hit the fan next issue as Havok looses control over his followers.

More comics stuff in a couple of days.

Popcorn for One: CLOVERFIELD

OMG!! I have seen THE best monster I have seen in years. If you like stuff like this you have to take my word for it and spend part of an afternoon being taken for a great ride.

Is this the greatest Giant Monster movie ever made? Well, I suppose depending on how you feel about that kind of thing you could make an argument that it just might be. I do not know if it is going to become a ‘classic’ like the original GODZILLA film, but it may be too soon to tell. From this point on however, I think any film of this type, especially American films in the genre, are going to be compared to what J.J. Abrams, Matt Reeves & Co. have produced.

If you have been reading or viewing any of the stuff that I have linked to here, already I don’t think I’m going to reveal anything you don’t already know. However, and just to play fair I’m going to insert for your benefit:

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Rob Hawkins (played by Michael Stahl-David) has accepted a job in Japan. His brother Jason (Grounded For Life’s Mike Vogel) is throwing him a farewell party and has entrusted a friend Hud (T.J. Miller recently in the sitcom ‘Carpoolers’) to videotape the whole thing. Unknown to Rob & Hud the camera they are using contains video of a day that Jason and their long-time friend Beth (Odette Yustman) spent together, revealing that their relationship had grown beyond friendship. Occasionally, when Hud or someone else pauses the tape, we see what remains of Rob & Beth’s day in Coney Island. I think this is wise, since it adds to our sympathy for both and makes it easier to understand Rob’s motivations later.

During the party, Rob has an argument with Beth, causing her to leave and him to start brooding. Initially the party is disrupted by what many think is an earthquake. Going to the apartment roof, they witness a huge explosion in the mid-town area, followed by a shower of debris, causing them to run down into the street. From that point (about twenty minutes in) the action does not let up for most of the rest of the movie.

Rob, Jason, and Hud along with Jason’s girlfriend Lily (Jessica Lucas) and a party attendee Marlena (Lizzy Caplan), on whom Hud has developed a crush, join thousands of New Yorkers trying to flee the city. They have seen something huge amidst the destruction and even the few news reports they see on various televisions cannot completely reveal what it is. Armed troops are going about the city and it obviously is not safe to remain so the group makes its way to the Brooklyn Bridge as an escape route. While on the bridge Rob gets a phone call from Beth revealing that she has been injured and asking for his help. At this point, other things start to happen, making it unsafe to continue to another borough.

When one of the group is killed the rest try to convince Rob that returning for Beth would be a mistake. The situation continues to change, and we get to see more of the main creature and things, which are apparently parasites, shed from it as it continues to rampage. All of this causes three of them to join Rob in his mission back uptown. Naturally, things go from horrible to down right insane as the military announces that Manhattan may be beyond saving and a ‘final solution’ for the situation may be necessary.

I could probably go on for a half dozen more paragraphs breaking down the movie, but I don’t want to completely ruin all the surprises. Reviews seem mixed, if generally positive, and I think the more negative ones are from reviewers who don’t like anything but melodramas set in Edwardian England. All reviewers no matter if pro or con mention the camera technique, or rather apparent lack thereof, which bothers some folks. I found it amusing that the ticket booth for the theatre where I saw the movie had posted ‘warnings’ that some people might be sensitive to the jarring camera work, even causing motion sickness in some. Personally, I didn’t have that problem, but saw at least three people leave the theatre between a third and half way through, one saying something to the people she was with before getting up.

Some folks are complaining about the ending of the film, but it seems to me that it allows a sequel. Then again, you could let it end in the way it did and the movie would still be good for what it is. Scary, exciting, with likable characters you care about and small touches of humor to keep it from becoming a total downer.

Finally, the fanboy sites seem to agree that this SHOULD have been how the American GODZILLA movie was done. If you see the movie and remember GINO (Godzilla In Name Only, as it has become known) you’ll know what they and me for that matter mean when they say that.

Four stars.
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As most of you know, I like to get to the theatre early enough to catch the previews. Of course, nowadays most movie chains have some kind of pre-movie program that tosses in promos for movies, television shows and a good half dozen commercials for different products. What I enjoy are the actual theatrical trailers, or what we used to call “Coming Attractions” when I was a kid.

There were at least eight, but I’ll only mention those that I remember.

The trailers for HELLBOY 2, IRON MAN & the teaser for the up-coming new STAR TREK all made me want to see the films. The last because I’m a long-time ST fan and have seen all the previous ones at least once. Using the Black Sabbath song ‘Iron Man’ was an easy choice for that trailer, but it so absolutely nails the feeling of what you see. In addition, hearing Leonard Nimoy do the first line from the famous ST opening sent chills.

JUMPER looks like a teen romance with good SFX & Samuel L. Jackson as the heavy. No interest on my part and I didn’t hear anybody reacting as I had with the three other movies. Finally, 10,000 BC looks like they borrowed CGI from Animal Planet’s dinosaur documentaries and the plot from The Rock’s SCORPION KING. Can we say ‘direct to DVD’ within a week, kids?
I got nothing else!

Village Voice CLOVERFIELD REVIEW!

I forget sometimes how much I miss picking up the VILLAGE VOICE every week. I started reading VV, while living in Westport, CT, which was pretty much a bedroom community for richer folks who worked in The City. How the hell I ended up not only working but living there is a long story that you'll have to ask me about over a beer some day.

Anyway, I was curious about what various reviewers besides Ebert were saying about the movie and all but forgot to check out the Voice until I saw it linked over at Rotten Tomatoes. If this isn't a great review than I've never read one, and it is soooooo Village Voice!

Will CLOVERFIELD Be Worth The Hype?

If you don't care about the movie CLOVERFIELD and/or have no plans to see it, you might just want to ignore this.

I have to admit that I'm one of those Kaiju (basically Japanese Big Monster) fans who has bought into the hype for this movie. I've read reviews and spent hours the past week visiting just about every website (official and not) associated with it. This Friday, since I'm scheduled off, I plan on seeing it at the Kaleidoscope Mall theatre in Mission Viejo. I can't recall the last time I was this curious about a movie, especially a 'horror/sf' flick.

If you go over to the IGN site you'll find links to all kinds of stuff. The folks at Bad Robot and Paramount have created a number of 'bogus' sites over the past months where you can see a lot of back story that is not even mentioned in the film. There are video news reports (supposedly from American & European stations) in at least three different languages that report the destruction of an ocean platform. You can find a site for the Japanese drink SLUSHO! and learn about the mysterious source of this fine beverage. In the movie, the lead character has been hired by this firm and the incidents portrayed happen on the night of his 'farewell' party.

In Japan there is a manga prequel being published, some of which you can find online if you search long enough. Hasbro will be coming out with a Cloverfield monster model for around a hundred dollars later this year, but has not released a photo so as not to ruin things. There is already talk by the producers of a sequel and all types of rumors are flying about tie-ins and related products.

I'll let you all know what I think this coming Saturday. I just hope that I'm not disappointed.

(Spoiler: This is one of the film's posters. Look into the clouds to the right of the Statue of Liberty. Is that it?)

Quick update: Just read the Roger Ebert reviw and he gives it 3 stars. Guess that would be a qualified Thumbs Up if he was in the balconey. The review itself is mostly favorable, mentioning as everyone does that the shaky camera work does bother some folks. Only problem I had was that he seems to give away a bit too much of the ending in his very first paragraph. That's a tad sloppy for somebody like Ebert, don't you think?

Four-Color Fiend: Batman - City of Crime TPB

This book reprints the story arc “City of Crime” (CoC) that originally appeared in DETECTIVE COMICS back in 2005-2006. (The headline above will take you to the Wikipedia entry on all things Dave Lapham.)

I had the pleasure to meet David Lapham for the first time back at Comicfest ’93. He was then doing work for Jim Shooter’s Defiant comics, having followed Shooter over from his previous publishing stint at Valiant. David was very enthusiastic and even then you could tell he was a very talented kid with a lot of potential. You never would have guessed talking to him that his career would take off when he stopped doing super-hero stuff and created the very dark STRAY BULLETS (SB) series. Since then he has acquired several industry awards and a solid fan base, both for his writing and work as an artist.

The disturbing elements he brought to SB fit quite well into the Gotham City in which Batman currently resides. Of course, since its inception Gotham has always been the dark twin of Superman’s Metropolis. Probably natural, since the artists and writers who shaped the early versions of both towns based them on the very real New York City, where they worked and many had been raised. If you have spent time in the Big Apple you know all too well that the same bright sunny boulevards of the workday can turn pretty dark and lonely when all those office workers leave for the outer boroughs. I wouldn’t be the first to point out that the neon lights of that city cast pretty dark shadows into which you don’t want to look too carefully.

Lapham’s Dark Knight makes the one Frank Miller brought us seem like Adam West portrayed him. The Batman I grew up with, although he was the World’s Greatest Detective, had a lighter side that the current incarnation seems never to have had. In fact, there are moments in CoC, especially those involving Robin where I was reminded of Rick Veitch’s creepy super-hero satire BRAT PACK. This isn’t necessarily all bad, since Lapham, like Veitch, uses his characters to reveal things about the folks on the four-color page as well as the readers who love them.

There are a series of brutal deaths, many involving pregnant teens and children, which eventually come to the attention of Bruce Wayne. A chance encounter with a young girl, the daughter of an acquaintance of Wayne’s, causes him to put on the cape & cowl when she is found murdered. Initially it seems that her death may be connected to the disappearance of another young girl, whose mother has become a bit of a media celebrity when she comes forth to demand action. As Batman investigates he soon learns that a group called The Body may be the cause of more than a few deaths. Soon two of the Caped Crusader’s well-known enemies, The Penguin and Mister Freeze turn out to have connections with this new group of villains. Things begin unraveling as it becomes apparent that The Body has a much grander goal in mind than making a profit off of the selling of unwanted infants. The wealthy and powerful of Gotham have long ago sold their morals (if not their souls) for what they desire and are more than willing to turn a blind eye to what keeps them where they are.

The story has a mix of super-heroics, police procedural and more than a touch of “Invasion of the Body Snatchers” as the plot progresses. Even Batman finds himself questioning whether what he does can make a difference and if the citizens of Gotham even care. Of course, in the end Bruce does what he must to save those he has vowed to protect even if they are ungrateful for that aid when it comes. Unfortunately, for many it comes too late to do any good.

Dave Lapham wrote the story and provided the layouts. The final art was by penciller Ramon Bachs and inker Nathan Massengil, both of whom do a good job bringing an air of menace to the whole thing. Boy, their interpretation of The Penguin sure ain’t Burgess Meredith!

I highly recommend this book, but warn you that some of the stuff is disturbing and not for younger readers. I also want to warn you ahead of time, but with no Spoilers, that the ending may not be what you want or like. Heck, even I was creeped out by some of this stuff. Four stars.

Four-Color Fiend: Counting Down with Jimmy Olsen & The Atom

Just playing catch-up with some of the latest DC books, as of last week.
As needed we’ll put down some…

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COUNTDOWN #17 picks up right from the last page of #18 where we discovered that Bob the Monitor had used the Challengers (Jason Todd, Donna Troy & Kyle Gaynor) to help him find Ray Palmer (the original Silver Age Atom), only to kill him. We have a battle where Bob kills a number of Earth-51 versions of DC superheroes, currently in their civilian identities. If you remember in the previous issue it was shown that the heroes of this Earth had defeated all of the super-villains so had retired from the dual identity field. Only Bruce Wayne/Batman continued to remain active. We also learn in #16 that this Batman has not renounced the use of deadly force if he finds it necessary. In fact, it looks like Jason Todd may learn this personally in #15 unless something happens pretty quickly.
At the end of #17 Monarch and his minions arrive to begin killing off any super or non-super resistance they encounter. By #16 most of the Monitors (who have begun showing more and more individual traits) have joined with the surviving heroes to battle the invasion. Both sides give no quarter and we see various versions of DC characters fighting, including a ‘dark’ Donna Troy still dressed in her original Wonder Girl outfit. I’m not sure but I think the Earth-51 Zatanna is killed, simply because she gained weight after taking off the net stockings & heels.

Meanwhile, back on Earth-1, Jimmy Olsen is back and sharing his apartment with the female Forager, who looks pretty humanoid coming out of the shower. Seems to be only the upper portion of her face, a bit of carapace and antenna reflect her insectoid origin. Fortunately, the human parts are mostly covered by steam, towel or shadow since we really aren’t interested in how well the art team of Pete Woods, Tom Derenick & Wayne Faucher portrays pink-skinned females.

Issue #17 brings us a slightly different version of the fight between Eclipso and Mary Marvel that we saw in Countdown to Mystery (that I reviewed last time). It seems from this view that point both characters aren’t as chilly and Earth’s atmosphere has taken them down a cup-size or three. Whereas in CtM we learn that the Eclipso entity leaves Jean Loring (as she sinks beneath the waves and is approached by sharks), here we find that dark Mary (who renounced her powers at the last moment to defeat Eclipso) has washed up on the shores of Themyscira. In Mary’s final scene she is confronted by two not very pleased Amazons.

The books aren’t quite train-wrecks but it does seem like things are going at a pace designed just to drag it out for another dozen plus issues. Sadly, I have so much time and money invested at this point that I couldn’t bring myself to give it up.

Countdown Special: Jimmy Olsen 80-page Giant – This book reprints three issues of the old Jimmy Olsen book from when it was written and drawn by Jack Kirby. These issues (Superman’s Pal…Jimmy Olsen #136, 147 & 148) feature encounters with Project Cadmus, the DNAlien, the Newsboy Legion clones and various other Fourth World elements introduced by Kirby into the Superman titles and later the DCU as a whole. Since much of this stuff plays a major part in the current Countdown series it’s probably helpful for new readers and as a refresher for we Old Farts of Fandom who may have forgotten how unique and wonderful it all was at the time. Even if you aren’t picking up the any other Countdown titles (and I don’t know any reason at this point why you would) this is one-shot is fun.

Countdown Special: The Atom 80-page Giant #1 & 2 - As with the J.O. book, these specials reprint past stories which explain some background or at least remind you of why we once cared about these characters. Here we have four stories (originally appearing in Super-Team Family #11-14) written by Gerry Conway that show Ray Palmer’s search for his missing wife Jean Loring, with the aid of his Justice League pals. This was of course before Jean & Ray split and she ended up killing Sue Dibny, so you might find yourself having a bit more sympathy for her here. These stories are typical mid-1970s stuff and typical Conway, who does have his fans they are a nice reminder of the era.

Still have a few books unread that I'll get to ASAP.

WINKY DINK and YOU KIDS TV 28 minutes 1954

My sister Pam and I used to fight over whose turn it was to use the Winky Dink window.

Does the voice of Winky sound familiar?

Four Color Quickie!

I am going to try to give brief comments on the books I picked up on Sunday at Nuclear Comics. If something really catches my eye I'll do something a bit longer.

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In COUNTDOWN Presents Lord Havok & the Extremists #3, we get to see the origin of Tracer. I don't recall much about the character but here he is an Army deserter caught and then experimented on by the government. He gets one of those Weapon Alpha/Wolverine make-overs with claws, healing factor, etc. On one mission he is about to be 'deacativated' by the government, when a mysterious someone in armor (Lord Havok?) saves him and removes an implanted device which would have ended his life. In the final few pages he is ambushed by members of Monarch's super-hero/villain task force and apparently killed. Who knows?

Apparently this is Monarch teaching a lesson to anyone who will not join or bow to him. I expect Lord Havok not to be too happy about all this. The origin of Tracer is said in a footnote to have taken place between COUNTDOWN #29 & 28, but I'm not sure at what point this final scene occurs. To be honest the story is a bit disjointed, probably the poorest issue of this spin off series. Writer Frank Tieri seems to have rushed through this, more intent on giving artist Mark Robinson violent things to draw rather than tell a decent story.

To be honest, I'm only half way through COUNTDOWN TO MYSTERY #4. An online review tells me that it ties into COUNTDOWN #17, which I haven't read yet. Of course, I didn't know that before I began reading the story.

The opening splash has the female Eclipso using her power to grow Double Ds. I mean I don't recall her being like that in other appearances. We kind of see down her blouse, but that's nothing compared to the 'up the skirt' shot (Who knew that Dark Mary Marvel wore a thong?) in panel one of page 2. It also seems that DMM has used the same bra-straining superpower and we also find out that it really is pretty cold in space, if you know what I mean (and I think you do).

I may have more to say about the story by Matthew Sturges later, but the fan-service stuff by artist Stephen Jorges Segovia so called attention to itself that I had to say something.

Are there any women at DC editorial? Does this offend anybody else? Hell, I'm a guy and it bothers me!!!

More as time permits later this week.

What Comics I'm Reading

I was over on Comic Collector Live yesterday updating and checking out the forums. I'm using their software to catalog my books and generally throw in my two cents when I can.

Anyway, one of the threads in the Forums was about what folks are currently reading and their Top Ten picks. Since there are only about a dozen titles that I'm buying at all on a regular basis it was pretty easy to chose ten. It did however remind me that I haven't mentioned comics here in the past couple of weeks. I expect to be hitting Nuclear Comics tomorrow to see what Ken has pulled for me, so I thought I'd just quickly mentioned some of the books on that list.

1) Usagi Yojimbo - Stan Sakai's samurai series, which just happens to feature 'funny animals' in place of feudal Japanese warriors. This book is always recommended.

2) Shadowpact - the DCU series about magical heroes, who haven't crossed the line to Vertigo yet. You can't go wrong with talking chimps!

3) Justice Society of America - probably THE best comic currently being published by DC, at least from what I have seen. Back when I was really into comics the previous incarnation of this book JSA, was a favorite. Looks like Geoff Johns and Alex Ross are doing a story arc that features the SUPERMAN from the KINGDOM COME series on this Earth. Dale Eaglesham and Ruy Jose do a wonderful job with the interior art, with some amazing Alex Ross covers to just about make the books perfect. Highly recommended!

4) Bat Lash - Sergio Aragones, best known for his creation GROO THE WANDERER and the marginal drawings he does for MAD magazine, returns to a western character he co-created a couple of decades ago. Aided by western writer Peter Brandvold and Silver Age artist John Severin, Sergio brings us a six-issue mini retelling the origin of Bat and what set him out on the trail. If you like westerns or just well done non-superhero stuff, I advise you to give the book a try.

5) Groo: Hell on Earth - Sergio Aragones again along with Mark Evanier (doing whatever it is he does). A fun comic with an underlying message about ecology, politics and why nothing ever gets done about either.

Since I find myself still a tad confused with COUNTDOWN and other DCU titles, even after reading INFINITE CRISIS & THE OMAC PROJECT, it seemed the best thing to do was to pick up the TPB collections of 52. I can see why fans were enjoying the book, even with just the first volume read.

Probably more on this sort of stuff on Saturday, if I get the chance.

What I'm Reading

Felt it was about time I posted here, since I haven't since the beginning of the New Year.

I may have something on comics I'll be posting later tonight or tomorrow, depending on how much free time I get here on the Reference Desk. Mostly catching up on comics I've read the past couple of weeks, but haven't gotten around to talking about here.

I have decided to take a short break from reading the books I've been sent by the Joe Bob Briggs folks, since they have not posted a review for almost a year now. They have over a half dozen or more of my reviews 'in house' so I don't think holding off for a month is going to effect anything. John over at the site acknowledges the reviews, but all he can do is send them along to the web master. The books I have left are all copyright 2006, so there's nothing that has to get out ASAP.

The first book I'm reading is a collection of pieces by Jack Cafferty, "It's Getting Ugly Out There!" Some of you may be familiar with him from his daily "Cafferty File" segments on CNN's The Situation Room. Personally, I first encounted the man when he anchored first the Fox Channel 5 nightly news and then WB Channel 11 evening news in New York. Hard to believe the guy who uses the term the '"F" Network' used to work for those fine folks. Then again, maybe not, since he is familiar with how they operate. I'll probably have more to say on this over at PARTING SHOTS when I'm finished.

I'm also going through one of those periods where I'm listening to or reading 'classic' books, either for the first time or again to see if I feel differently about them. I started with a couple of Jack Higgins novels, featuring former IRA member, Sean Dillon who currently works 'black ops' for the British Prime Minister. Higgins is a master at this stuff, after writing over sixty novels. One of the books, BAD COMPANY, was narrated by Patrick MacNee, who always does a wonderful job on these audio adaptations.

As the cover repro above indicates, I'm currently listening to THE ILIAD. This was translated and performed by Stanley Lombardo, with chapter synopses by Susan Sarandon. It had to have been in junior high when I read one of those versions of Homer's classic edited for kids. I was probably inspired by seeing Kirk Douglas in ULYSSES on television one day. I know I read both this and THE ODYSSEY at some point in high school, since I owned both in paperback before I went into the Navy in '69. I also think it's one of the reasons I preferred the Norse gods over the Greeks, as the immortals in Asgard never seemed as petty or whiny as those on Olympus. I'm really enjoying the work and it makes the drive home go pretty quickly.

Four Color Fiend: some good and bad

I’m not going to go into great detail about some of the recent comics I’ve read, but did have a few comments.

I don’t think I’ll be giving anything away, but just in case….

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The main COUNTDOWN series continues to range from two to three stars on my scale. I’m a bit upset that one character I generally like seems to be dead, which I guess I didn’t really think would happen. Of course, the ways things are in the current DCU just about any character (except sadly Joker & Lex Luthor, at least the Earth-One versions) seem to be fair game. Poor Jimmy Olsen continues to have a really hard time on Apokolips; Holly & Harley are still on Themyscira, home of the Amazons, going through training which we learn will lead to being picked as the newest Female Fury for Granny Goodness (in the guise of Athena); meanwhile, we are apparently supposed to feel some sympathy for Mary Marvel, despite her being such a b**** since gaining power from Black Adam.

In related tie-in books:

In the “Search for Ray Palmer” series the ‘Challengers’ are going from one former Elseworld Earth to another. This is my favorite of the tie-in books and hint that some of the alternate DCU characters may have an impact in the upcoming FINAL CRISIS. The “Gotham by Gaslight” Earth brings us not only an alternate Batman, but also a new Blue Beetle whom I anticipate seeing again. Jason seems oddly taken by this world and I wonder if it hints at something in the future. The ‘Red Son’ Earth, with a Communist Superman was rather grim, but I think he will also be appearing in FC, if not before. The four Challengers continue to bicker, but a reason for that is revealed in one of the books.

The series centering on Lord Havok and his team is revealing more about each of the other members. Not being that familiar with their past appearances I don’t know if it changes things revealed earlier. I did find myself beginning to feel sympathy for Gorgon that I didn’t have before. It will be interesting to see how this story develops and finally moves back into the main series.

Finally, I missed the first issue of ARENA, but picked up the second and wasn’t overly impressed. Alternate versions of DCU characters are introduced, some I believe for the first time, and then killed off within a few pages or even panels. It seems a waste, especially with a very likable Blue Beetle who I think could have had potential beyond five pages. Also, as I have said in some forum posts, I’m disturbed by the portrayal of Monarch in this book. While he isn’t likable in the main series, here he seems totally psychotic and brutal to an extreme. It doesn’t seem to me that this could possibly be the person who was once Captain Atom, unless it is eventually revealed (as was the case with Hal Jordan) that there is something/body manipulating him. I may pick up one more issue of this and then drop it, as I doubt that anything of major importance will be revealed here.

I’m not really sure where SALVATION RUN falls into DCU continuity, or into the COUNTDOWN storyline. It appears that characters that are condemned to confinement on this alien planet are also appearing simultaneously in various other books. I’m not reading any SUPERMAN titles, but I doubt if Lex has been written out for the next six months. It’s likely that this will be one of those things explained in footnotes to have occurred between one issue and another of on-going titles. We all remember the original SECRET WARS, of course!

I wasn’t really sure how I felt about the first issue of SR, but found the second issue to have really turned brutal. This was even before the appearance of The Joker, who quickly shows how scary he can be even to other villains. There are now at least two second-rate villains who we won’t be seeing in the future.

After reading VILLAINS UNITED, I was actually willing to give the character Deadshot some points by the end of that series I wasn’t so sure. He was back to being a full-time jerk in COUNTDOWN as he hunted down various villains and shooting one that I liked, as I said. Still I don’t know that I’m comfortable with the Rick Flag tricking Deadshot, and a couple of other Suicide Squad members, into a Boom Tube for transport to the SR planet. I mean Flag is supposed to be one of the good guys, isn’t he?

Nothing to fear but FEARNET itself!

You would think that during the holiday season I would shy away from gore & bloodshed, but you’d be wrong wouldn’t you? Donna had to work on Monday morning, so what better time to get my bit of holiday horror?

Naturally, having FearNet ‘On Demand’ from Cox makes things like that pretty darn easy. I debated watching one of the longer movies, but figured that I’d catch some of the trailers and short films that they have instead. Of the half dozen I watched there are a few I wanted to mention, if not recommend.

The Deadening: What happens after a zombie has bitten you? How do you spend the next few hours waiting for the inevitable change? There are some amusing moments, but also a sense of sadness as the victim realizes what will be happening to him.

Damnation: I can only recommend this if you really want to be creeped out and shocked. A doctor becomes infected by a disease and allows his knowledge to push him into madness. As things grow worse and more depraved his son becomes witness. How will this in turn damn him? I put this up there with ERASERHEAD and HENRY: Portrait of a Serial Killer as films I could do without ever watching again.

Antebody: Seems to be a straightforward police procedural but quickly turns into something different. When a body is discovered and identified, a man and wife find their lives changed. Can you escape your fate?

The Butcher: Your typical serial killer/girl in peril short, that goes by the numbers, including the ‘shock’ ending. The gore is over the top but nothing else to recommend it. This was probably the most disappointing of the shorts I’ve seen so far.

There were a couple of others the names of which I can’t recall. One short deals with two hit men who discover the young boy they are hired to kill is more than he seems. Another about how you might not want to catch one of those cute little fairies after all. There were also a few that were felt like they were from student film makers trying to do a ‘horror’ movie as their end of term project. If you remember the show PROJECT BLUE LIGHT you’ll know what I mean.

Joe Bob Book Review: War Breaker by Jim DeFelice

There hasn't been a new review posted over on the Joe Bob Briggs site since the beginning of the year. Still they keep sending me books and I keep cranking out the reviews. I suppose there are worse ways to spend my free time.

Anyway, here's the latest.

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War Breaker by Jim DeFelice
Leisure Books
ISBN: 0-8439-4601-6

Michael O’Connell was framed and tossed from the CIA, when a mission he was on went badly. It doesn’t help to know where too many of the skeletons are hidden. Of course, when something happens half a world away, the Agency finds they need him again. While he’s not happy about it, O’Connell takes the mission and hopes that this time he’ll come out with enough money to get his flight charter business back in the air.

O’Connell knows the location of some specially modified B-50s in Pakistan. Secretly aided by the CIA, the Pakistan military can use these aircraft to deliver nuclear bombs to targets in India. When war breaks out between these two countries it’s up to O’Connell to stop them from being put to use, one way or another. With the aid of a Korean War veteran and pilot, the embittered James Greeley, the former agent quickly finds that his mission might not be as secret as he thought. Or, there could be another reason he was chosen and it might mean he and Greeley are as expendable as the aircraft.

While author DeFelice centers on the mission of O’Connell and Greeley, he also introduces us to characters on several sides of the conflict. Pakistani pilot Captain Syyid Khan, newly promoted just hopes to keep his fellow squadron members alive and be able to return to his fiancé, until he is taken out of combat and sent on another mission. Lt. General Arjun Singh, a Sikh and commander of the Indian Third Army, sees the war as a chance to regain Lahore the ancestral capital of the Sikhs, now controlled by Pakistan, for his people. Princess Nizam, the current Pakistani Interior Minister, also sees something to be gained from the war, namely regaining her family’s traditional lands. Unfortunately, O’Connell is unaware of any of this, but events occur which affect the lives and goals of all of them.

DeFelice does a good job of introducing all of these characters, some with a bit more substance than others, but all realistic enough to carry the story. If anyone comes off as the “good guy” it is Khan who does what he does out of genuine love for his family, friends and country. Still it’s O’Connell’s tale for the most part and DeFelice keeps the reader guessing until the last couple of chapters if Michael will succeed. With the CIA, you never really do know whom you can trust.

Three stars

Hellboy 2: The Golden Army

I don't know about anybody else, but I'm totally psyched for this movie. I loved the first HELLBOY film and have been waiting for the second installment.

The nice folks over at IGN will be putting up the trailer today at 3:00pm EST/Noon PST. If you click on the headline it will take you to the site where you can view it and more photos from the film.

It's great to see Ron Perlman back as everybody's favorite Nazi-hating, paranormal investigator. Liz Sherman (Selma Blair) & Abe Sapien (Doug Jones) are back along with new team-mate Johann Krauss (seen there in an old fashioned diving suit, which contains his spirit essense).

Four Color Fiend: Day of Vengeance

I was much happier with this purchase than I was with the ‘Seven Soldiers: Silent Knight’ series I reviewed earlier. Of course, as those four issues set me back a dollar each and this trade paperback only cost me ten cents, I really could not’t go wrong could I?

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Day of Vengeance TPB - This collects not only the title mini-series but also three issues of various SUPERMAN comics that lead into it. Considering how important they were to the story I’m really glad that DC did it this way, rather than expecting the reader picking up the TPB to already have read the earlier books. This is going to be really hard to follow so if you aren’t already deeply into the DCU you might want to look away. This is also one of the series that lead into the INFINITE CRISIS mega-crossover event.

Bill Willingham wrote Day of Vengeance with art by Justiniano and Walden Wong. I’m not familiar with either artist, but think they did a good job with a huge cast of characters some of them only for a panel or two. I also want to thank the DC editors for putting a “Who’s who” type of thing at the end of the book naming some of the characters who appear in the bar scenes. Willingham introduces us to the group of magical heroes that will eventually be called The Shadowpact (who later go on to their own series) and who doesn’t love it when artists draw talking chimps?

Even though Willingham does a good job setting things up I think that new readers would be even more confused than I was. It seems that the SPECTRE (God’s “spirit of vengeance” and please don't ask me to explain DCU theology since I have trouble with what passes for that in the 'real world') no longer has a human host (this was initially the mission of murdered police officer Jim Corrigan and later Hal Jordan, the former Green Lantern) to keep him anchored to this world and is slowly going crazy. Eclipso (another immortal being now possessing the former Jean Loring, ex-wife of Ray “The Atom” Palmer and murderer of Sue Dibny) easily manipulates the Spectre. She convinces him that evil can only be ended if all magic is destroyed. In order to do this, naturally, the Spectre goes about killing all those who practice the arts, whether for good or evil, since he sees no difference. To stop this the wizard Shazam, summons his champion Captain Marvel, which leads to a confrontation between CM and an Eclipso-possessed Superman.

DoV picks up from this point, with the Enchantress (not to be confused with the Marvel Comics THOR villainess of the same name) summoning Ragman (who dresses in bits of cloth which contain the souls of murderers and other evil doers he has absorbed) to aid her after she witnessed the Spectre killing hundreds of her fellow magicians. Together they travel to the Oblivion Bar, which may or may not exist in this dimension, but can be entered by hidden doors in many cities. In this place, the magically powered put aside their differences to trade stories and spells. Enchantress (who has gone from villain to hero and then back, depending on the needs of the writer or series) warns those of what she has witnessed and asks for them to join her in going against the Spectre. The majority ignores her, but several do step forward for various reasons.

Besides Ragman, we have the clubs proprietor Jim “The Nightmaster” Rook who carries the mystical Sword of Night; Dan “the Blue Devil” Cassidy, a former Hollywood stuntman/FX wizard/actor, who bargained away his soul for stardom only to become trapped in the form of a demon he played in films, he now works as a bouncer in the club; Eve “Nightshade” Eden (believe it or not) is the daughter of the queen of another dimension who controls darkness & shadow, causing them to take physical form and to allow her to teleport via traveling back to the home of her late mother; and last but by no means least, Bobo “the Detective Chimp”, a trained carnival animal who drank from the Fountain of Youth and became able to speak to any creature, including humans, in their own language. It is Bobo who comes up with the name Shadowpact, which according to the Phantom Stranger (transformed into a small, black mouse for this entire adventure) reveals later that other groups over eons have taken this name, but all have come to bad ends.

Willingham does a good job with all the characters, some of whom I had already been familiar with, but it is Bobo who steals every scene. This is aided of course by Justiniano & Wong doing a great job visually with the chimp in almost every panel in which he appears. Willingham sets up the dynamics of the group and gives each a personality fitting with their past appearances, but allowing growth as they begin to cooperate and form a team. By the end of the story you want to see more of all of them.

It’s Bobo who comes up with a back-up plan that saves the day when the other heroes are quickly finding themselves outclassed by the Spectre. The chimp requests the aid of a teenage girl known as ‘Black Alice’, who has the power to temporarily absorb the magical powers of another. She uses this to weaken the Spectre, and then with Nightshade sends Eclipso into orbit around the sun that inhibits her from using her powers. Later with his powers restored the Spectre travels to the Rock of Eternity (home of Shazam) to continue their battle. Shazam seems to be defeated and the Rock explodes, sending the magical objects stored there falling to Earth along with a stunned Billy Batson (unable to recall his magic word). The story then picks up in INFINITE CRISIS #1, which I’ll review at some later point.

I really enjoyed this, despite being a tad confused by whom certain characters were. In fact, I liked it enough to pick up the latest three issues of the new SHADOWPACT title. I’ll review that later as well.

P.S. In case you were wondering Hal Jordan is back to being the Green Lantern again, at least one of them, but that's a whole other thing which I don't think you care about

Four Color Fiend: Seven Soldiers - Silent Knight

I’m going to quickly cover some of the trade paperback and mini-series I picked up the other week. As usual, in case you don’t already know all of this, there are a lot of:

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SEVEN SOLDERS - Silent Knight #1-4: I generally like Grant Morrison, but I can’t say that I liked this particular series very much. I would have given him the benefit of the doubt, since I haven’t read the other SS books that apparently all tie together. However, if this title is any indication of the rest of the books I think I’ll pass. Even at 50% off this wasn’t worth it.

Anyway, we have another take on a Golden Age character who shares nothing but a name and a connection with King Arthur, although he too is a different from what we expect. This Arthur and his knights lived around 8,000 BC, his kingdom destroyed by race called the Sheeda who according to Wikipedia are not alien but some genetically engineered life from the future. I really didn’t get all that from this series, which I thought implied the Sheeda, were some kind of vampire race, since Wikipedia doesn’t mention this I’ll have to believe that it was all covered in the lead in book. The knight here is Sir Justin/Ystin who with the winged horse, Vanguard is captured by the Sheeda but escapes only to discover that they have been taken to the modern world.

Ystin is unable to speak English and is initially captured by the police for causing a disturbance, but escapes. Vanguard, through some roundabout means finds itself in the hands of Vincenzo, the Undying Don making things even more confusing for this reader. After a series of adventures Ysten, who is revealed in a later issue to actually be a female, is confronted by beings sent by the Sheeda, after which she turns herself in hoping for assistance in locating the missing Vanguard. While in custody the Queen of the Sheeda, in disguise as human, reveals herself then calling forth a troop of her warriors. Lots of people seem to be killed, but you really don’t care about any of them so it doesn’t matter. At this point everthing comes to a halt, and the story is continued in the Seven Soldier series. Given my feelings about this series I don't know that I'll go out of my way to find out what does happen.

While the art of Simone Bianchi is quite nice it is sometimes hard to follow the progress of the action. This is not helped by very dark coloring, which makes it even more difficult to figure out what is going on.

I had planned on reviewing a couple of comic titles but I’ve already gone on much too long on SK, so I’ll save the rest for next time.

Four Color Fiend: Marvel Zombies 2 #2 & other stuff

There are some plot points given away in my MZ2 review, so let’s get those out of the way.

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The elderly, but still active, T’Challa (the Black Panther) has been infected with the zombie virus by The Wasp. As the story opens both of them are in self-imposed isolation in Asteroid M, the last human/mutant outpost. Malcolm, the son of Magneto, feels that in this new situation it is he that should lead the survivors. It looks like things are not going well in an attempted escape by the Panther, aided by the mutant Forge and several others. Just preparing to leave the refuge they are confronted by Malcolm.

Meanwhile, back in space, the Galactus-powered Marvel Zombies, let by Giant Man are bickering amongst themselves. This is triggered by Spider-Man’s “Are we there yet?” It looks as if the MZs are about to take each other apart, when Iron Man reminds them that they were and are friends. Writer Robert Kirkman seems to be bringing the underlying tensions to a head, with Spidey & Luke Cage considering how they might end their flesh-eating ways, while GM, Hulk and some others are just fine with how things are.

At issues end the MZs have finally made their return to Earth. There GM announces his plan to begin raising the survivors as food, some of them to reproduce and keeping the zombies supplied with ‘meat.’ When Forge tries to place a barrier around the non-zombies he unfortunately also traps the undead Shi’ar warrior, Gladiator (a one-time X-Men ally).

Regular MZ artist Sean Phillips does his usual great job making everybody living & undead easily recognizable. As Phillips says in an interview in a recent MARVEL SPOTLIGHT, he purposely does not try to make the zombies funny but allows them to be put in amusing situations, which shows the dark humor of the series. The issue, as you can see in the repro, has a cover by Arthur Suydamn (who is quickly gaining a following for his MZ cover tributes) that copies the cover that showcased the first appearance of the Golden Age Human Torch.

While at Nuclear Comics I picked up the issue of MARVEL SPOTLIGHT, I just mentioned. It focuses on the MZ series, with interviews and art from the creative teams involved in all the appearances of the zombies. There are also a few pages talking about the up-coming “Mystic Arakana” mini-series from Marvel. While not mentioned, it seems that this will do for the Marvel Universe something similar to what DC has been doing since “Days of Vengeance” and the on-going SHADOWPACT series. In other words, it will show how characters like Doctor Strange, Scarlet Witch and her fellow mutant (the aptly named) Magik do what they do.

Oddly enough, thanks to the Friends of the Library bookstore, I was able to buy the “Day of Vengeance” TPB a couple of weeks ago, along with the JLA book collecting the “Crisis of Conscience” storyline and Villains United. I liked DoV enough that I picked up the last three issues of SHADOWPACT and can’t wait to read them. Ragman has been one of my favorite characters since his original series and how can you go wrong with a talking chimp?

Nuclear Comics & Skateshop (Hey, Kenny!) was having their 13th anniversary sale so I bought entire runs of the OMAC PROJECT, SEVEN SOLDIERS: SILENT KNIGHT & INFINITE CRISIS. Trust me, there was plenty more I was tempted to pick up but decided not to go too crazy, as I really want to keep my current collection manageable.

I know I’m about 2-3 years behind the other reviewers and fanboys, but I’m trying to play catch up. I may have a few things to say about each of the series when I get a chance to finally read them.

Zombie Jamboree, Pt. III

This will wrap up my current ranting about zombies, although I have reviews of MARVEL ZOMBIES2 #2 and Marvel Spotlight: Marvel Zombies/Mystic Arcana coming up in a few days.

This whole thing started because of the MZ titles, but also because Cox Cable has begun carrying FearNet in their On Demand tier. I’ve been watching movies, interviews and trailers over there when I get the chance, as Donna really does not like horror/slasher films. I seem to marry women with dissimilar film tastes for some odd reason, but that may be a whole other post.

Anyway, before Halloween FearNet was showing the original NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD, and some other zombie films. One was CHILDREN OF THE LIVING DEAD a low budget flick that unofficially ties itself to the original Romero film. They do this via some dialogue early on where characters explain the history of the ‘problem’ the town has had with the walking dead. Not something the Chamber of Commerce really wants to talk about, but you know how that goes. Folks who don’t know about this little bit of history always seem to decide to settle or build exactly where they shouldn’t.

In this case a used car dealer decides to put his showroom over the town’s old cemetery, but to save money he has his contractor simply dump all the coffins in a mass grave. He has sent his son along to ‘learn the business’, but of course feels that it is not necessary to tell him what Dad is secretly doing. If you have seen any more than a couple of horror movies you know pretty quickly that things are going to turn out badly for at least a few of these folks before the end credits.

This is one of those movies where, as Joe Bob Briggs would say, there is way too much plot getting in the way of the story. Not only do we have the whole zombie thing, but we also have a former serial killer and child molester, Abbot Hayes, who has returned from the dead. He has revived via the zombie bite a group of kids killed in a car crash (which he caused after they defiled the grave of his mother, whom he had killed and whose body he kept). Of course, one of them is the sister of a survivor once rescued from Hayes years before, who now works in the town’s only restaurant and has fallen for the son of the car dealer. By films end, Hayes is leading the original four kids and several dozen other zombies they have created against the contractor’s men and various town folk held up in the restaurant. Plenty of arms, faces and other body parts get chewed, while some zombies get blowed up real good.

The best part of the movie is the very beginning where Tom Savini, the well-known FX master, plays a deputy who kicks major zombie butt before being attacked by Abbot Hayes. Savini was also the stunt coordinator on the film, so the action scenes are the best parts. This is definitely one of those movies that are well served by the fast-forward option in On Demand.

I’ve been having lots of fun with FearNet, both On Demand and over at their website. Check out BURIED ALIVE and the BLOOD TRAILS webisodes that act as a prequel to 30 DAYS OF NIGHT. Hoooo boy,…scary stuff, kids!

Still Counting Down: DC Countdown #23-22

This series is actually starting to pick up as it winds down. I am going to make this short and get right to it. As usual, here we have plenty of….

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Superman Prime (the former Superboy of Earth-Prime) has totally lost it at this point. He kills without mercy and even gets in a bit of torture when he believes it will help him achieve his aim. That is, sadly, his return to the ‘perfect’ Earth that at this point possibly only exists in his mind. In issue #23, we find that he has captured Mr. Mxyzptlk (pronounced, according the imp himself as “Mix-yez-pittle-ik”), and with the unwilling aid of an alternative world’s Zatanna/Annataz is attempting to gain some fifth-dimensional magic for himself. We also learn from Mr. M that he may actually be more than what we thought. He claims he is, in fact, the Joker God who takes on many forms in various cultures (Coyote, Loki, Anasi, etc.). Not sure, I buy it, but writer Paul Dini does toss that idea out there for us to consider. Of course, we are talking about a mischievous little guy who might not be telling the whole truth. In the end, aided by a finally defiant Annataz, Mr. M escapes as Superman Prime destroys his fortress along the Source Wall.

Tom Derenick drew the main story with inks by Wayne Faucher, as with the other artists working on the series they do a nice job with all the characters, plus keep Mary’s butt covered in her brief appearance. There’s also a cute two-page ‘origin’ of the imp by writer Scott Beatty and artist Kyle Baker, which is a light-hearted ending to a rather brutal issue. Speaking of Dark Mary Marvel we get to see her and Eclipso, plus a bunch of Dominators, get blowed up pretty good by Lord Havoc and Monarch’s space fleet.

Unfortunately, we weren’t surprised in issue #22 (since we didn’t see the bodies last issue) to find that MM and Eclipso are still alive. Here we have artists Carlos Magno & Rodney Ramos to thank for an opening page butt shot of Mary, followed by a few more panels of ‘up-the-skirt’ fan service. Mary gets to use the grown up word ‘whore’ and then finally figures out that Eclipso has been using her. An epic battle of two-panels takes place and we now have Dark Mary in possession of the black diamond. We yawn in fear at the prospects. After a nice turn the previous issue, things move along but I’m not as impressed here with the writing by Paul Dini.

We do drop back in on Jimmy Olsen back on Apokolips, where he gets slapped around and whipped before being rescued (up to a point) by Scott “Mister Miracle” Free. Jimmy gives Scott a quick recap of how he got where he is, but the hero is naturally distracted by his own search for his missing wife, Big Barda. Meanwhile, back on our Earth, Trickster and Pied Piper are still making gay jokes until Deadshot shows up and things turn very deadly. That may be in a literal sense for one character at the end of the issue. Wrapping up the issue we have a two-page origin for Deadshot, a character who I find myself going back and forth about, depending on who is writing him on any particular title. Here writer Scott Beatty and Freddie E. Williams II do a decent job giving us an overview of this hero/villain from his first appearance to his current gig with Suicide Squad.

While I've got your attention I wanted to add that, thanks to a sale at Nuclear Comics this past weekend and somebody donating a stack of graphic novels to the Library book sale, I've been able to pick up some DC titles that will help me catch up a bit on where things stand. I'll write a bit more about them in a few days, after I have a chance to read some more.