My wife took a lot of photos at Omar and Melanie's wedding. While they tend to focus on me and my family, there are a number of photos of the wedding party, the groom and the beautiful bride. You can check them out at the Flickr.
The not-too-common but done often enough trend of anime between-the-movie filler content continues with this month's release of the Gotham Knight DVD. Much like it's predecessors, like the Matrix animes and those Van Helsing / Chronicles of Riddick animated DVDs, this is not essential viewing material for the movie, but is it something you're going to want to watch if you're a Batman Begins fan, foaming at the mouth in anticipation for the Dark Knight in just a few short weeks.
This collection of shorts, all done by different artists / crews, bridges the gap between Begins and Dark Knight, showing a bit of the Batman cracking down on those ever-present cowardly superstitious types in his not-so-fair city of Gotham. They do a good job of throwing in some goodies here and there to keep things interesting, because what is Batman without his Rogues gallery? Aside from the usual mobsters and thugs, we're treated with appearances from Scarecrow, Killer Croc and Deadshot. It's cool because these are characters that just wouldn't fit in the world of the new Bat movies. It's sort of a way comic nerds can have their cake and eat it too, since the Begins movies are just too deeply rooted in reality to have a guy like Killer Croc running around in them.
So actually getting down to the critique, this is a pretty enjoyable package they're offering up here. Multiple different takes on the Dark Knight, whether it be from skater kid bystanders, Gotham Cops, or the Bat's own perspective, you really do come out of this with some more background on the man behind the mask. And speaking of representaton of character, they brought back the only man to ever truly capture the voice of the Bat perfectly (in my opinion, but I know I'm not alone here,) Kevin Conroy. Also, the essential man behind the Bat-toon, Bruce Timm is back in the Producing chair. If you're new to the animated aspect of the Batman, I'll just lay it down for you and tell you, it's hard to do wrong with those two on-board. That being said, I feel this could have been better, but it isn't bad. This could be due to unfair judging on my part, but I'll let you decide for yourself.
The format of this collection of shorts is what really holds me back from giving it a solid thumbs up. Since they decided to make it a collection of shorts by different people, they don't really do the story aspect that well. It's just a bunch of one-two punches here and there in different scenarios. The stories don't all add up to something. They bleed into each other a bit here and there, but no story has a feeling of a completed story arc at the end of it. Now, again, this could be an unfair judgement because it isn't meant to be the next movie itself, it's just a glimpse at what happens between the movies. Either way, just because it didn't give me a warm "Story Over" feeling in my tummy when it was all said and done doesn't mean that the journey from beginning to end wasn't a fun one.
This movie had some fun moments, whether it be kids' overactive imagination portraying Batman as a Robot, Spirit, or actual Man-Bat creature, or just watching the Bat take on villains like Croc, Scarecrow and Deadshot while jacking up mobsters and hoods all over the place, helping out Lieutenant Gordon and getting help from Lucius Fox. This movie is worth dropping that hour and a half of your life that you'd otherwise spend sitting on your couch watching an CSI marathon or whatever. The scenes that really make it are when Croc and Bats meet up and have it out and then when the Bat takes on Deadshot. There's gold in them scenes, kids. Anyway, long story short, I give this a B-, It's definetly worth a watch, just don't buy it. Do what my friends and I are gonna do. Get tickets to the midnight screening of the Dark Knight, rent this, and then before you all go to the movie, set aside a few hours to all get together and re-watch Begins, then watch this,then get you jollies in the theater watching what reviews are already calling one of, if not the best movie of the summer. Happy watching kiddies. Until next time!
So....I have to say I'm shocked that I haven't read this anywhere, but I have some pretty substantial Iron Man 2 news to reveal, and all parties involved in the production of the second movie have been amazingly sneaky about this...
Well let me catch you up to speed in case you don't troll the nerd lairs of the internet that cover subjects like comic movies and whatnot. Pretty soon after they released Iron Man Terrance Howard (who played James Rhodes aka War Machine-to-be) and asked him when they were going to start filming the second film, which Marvel slated to release in 2010 paired with Thor. He responded saying he hoped to start filming withing a few months' time. This was cool to hear because the sooner they start shooting, the sooner we can start to scrounge up all sorts of set reports and images and see how the movie is shaping up. Well a few days after John Favreau came out and said in an interview that he had no idea where Terrance had heard of this shooting schedule and that he wasn't even sure he was going to be able to adhere to the ambitious schedule Marvel had laid out for him. His reason for this was because it took 3 years to make the first movie and he wanted to make sure that it was going to be a good movie, thus needed to be able to take that necessary time. This was understandable but still disheartening to hear. Well my friends, it seems that is all a ruse.
While I was talking to a friend of mine yesterday, catching up on how he's doing, he relayed an interesting story to me that occurred while he was shooting a music video for a friend of his in Griffith Park (where the Hollywood sign is). A park employee was showing them where they were going to be shooting, and while walking past a certain trail, the park employee asked them politely to be quite in that particular area. They asked him why and he said "Iron Man 2 has been shooting here for three weeks." Apparently Tony Stark's new humble abode is going to situated right on the other side of the hill where the Hollywood sign resides. So, understandably, my friend gets excited and starts asking questions. The park guide said that the previous weeks had seen a lot of Iron Man suit tests and even mentioned that he had seen what looked like a "Stealth Iron Man Suit" that had a lot of black on it. WAR MACHIIIIINE!!!!!!!! Well apparently this all went down a little over 2 months ago, so that would mean they've been filming Iron Man 2 for about 3 months now. I find this amazing since nobody seems to be saying anything about it. Now I know what you're saying, my friends didn't see anything themselves, this guy could have been just messing with them. Well earlier that day while walking along a road down toward the bottom of the hill they saw none other than Robert Downey Jr. drive by in a limo. Sounds good enough for me, I'm gonna call this one of the sneakiest moves in geek film history. I love Favreau for already being in production on this thing.
They must have known how good this movie was going to do in theaters and started pre-production for this as soon as principle photography was wrapped on the first movie. I have a personal theory. If you recall when the movie was first being discussed, Favreau said that the Mandarin was going to be the villain in the movie. It's possible that they just beefed up the original script they had and cut it in two. Think about where the last movie ended. He beat Iron Monger and then confessed to being Iron Man. BAM. End of movie. It wasn't a bad ending, it just wasn't a huge definitive ending. I think they fleshed it out and doubled down on production ala Lord of the Rings of Pirates 2 and 3. Yay for Favreau. Yay for Iron Man! Yay for nerds everywhere, for the Iron Man Cometh....again!!!!
Before Omar and Melanie leave for their honeymoon, they graced us with their presence for this podcast, in which we chat about Trinity 2 & 3, Booster Gold 10, Gotham Underground 9, Salvation Run 7, Titans 3, Skarr Son of Hulk 1, Gen X 2, Invincible 50, Wolverine 66, Kickass 3, and thoughts on collecting, buying and selling comics.
Today Melanie Given and Omar Valdivieso will take the plunge, get hitched, tie the knot, unite, cross the t's, dot the i's, slap the cat, dress the flamingo, and get MARRIED!!!
Since they couldn't invite all of their fans (but believe me they wanted to!...presents!!!), I thought this post would be a good place to "sign the guest book" via the interweb!!!
Congratulations Omar and Melanie!!!
So here it is. The Jade Giant returns to theaters in a reboot only 5 years after the previous film, and this time they seemed to have cued into what the Hulk is really about. Smashing stuff. What I felt were the major flaws of the last film were that the Hulk only ever really fought 3 mutant dogs (one of them being a freaking poodle...), and Nick Nolte as the Absorbing Man, who wasn't anything other than somewhat of a glorified Parasite. That's awful. I understood that what the Ang Lee was trying to really display the conflicted character of Bruce Banner / the Hulk by focusing on his child abuse and anger issues, but that's only one side of the coin that is the Hulk. The other side, which is the shinier, more brain-dead and broadly appealing side is the fact that he's A GIANT EXTREMELY STRONG BALL OF PUNY noun SMASHING RAGE. Neglecting that is a stupid mistake. Louis Leterrier (who showed up at the beginning of the showing my friend and I attended in person to thank us for going on opening night, :-D) definitely didn't make this mistake. The Hulk smashes in this movie. He does it big and he does it a lot. Every act of this movie has at least one Hulk action sequence that's amazing for just turning your brain off and watching. And at the end, HE FIGHTS A GUY WHO CAN TAKE HIM ON. Congratulations Mr. Leterrier. You've figured out what makes an entertaining Hulk Movie.
Now make no mistake, this is no Iron Man. Not saying it isn't good, but it just isn't great. I was worried about this movie kinda doing what happened when Disney pulled the theme-park ride-movie summer, when they came out with Pirates of the Caribbean and then a few months later they came out with the Haunted Mansion, leading with the superior movie and then using that as a hook to get people into the other, weaker movie. This isn't the case with the Hulk. It does a good job of standing on it's own and being a fun movie. It's a Blockbuster. It's pretty to look at and has some cool action sequences in it. The acting is decent. I'd actually wish I could say better since Edward Norton (Banner) is one of my favorite actors, but this movie just wasn't the kind of movie that showcases acting skills. It's just all about the explosions and the projectile forklifts.
The movie is faithful to the old tv show more than it is the comic, but not in a way that necessarily detracts from the comic-core. The flashback sequence that shows the Hulk's origin is pretty much a shot for shot recreation of the intro to the tv show, which is fun. Also, David Banner is an alias Bruce uses at one point in the movie. The "Lonely Man" theme even pops up. These are just a few call-backs to the show, but the best one is the playful riff on the "You wouldn't like me when I'm angry" line, but I won't spoil it for you.
Man, this review is scattershot, let me try to reel it in: This movie is what a hulk movie should be. It's big, it's bombastic, it's got a lot of the Hulk tearing things up and fighting things that are actually able to go toe-to-toe against him. The acting is good, the special effects are great, it's faithful to it's origins and is worthy of a Hulk fan's approval. They even drop the seeds for The Leader! The only thing I had a huge problem with was the end to the Hulk / Abomination fight at the climax of the movie. It isn't bad, but it could have been a whole lot better. But it is good. And it will tide any comic geek over until the main course of the summer when the Dark Knight opens up. I give this movie a solid B, but I have to say it's on the "Fun to Watch" scale, not the "All around fantastic movie" scale, like you'd find a movie like Fight Club on.
It's no secret that we've had trouble actually getting the group together for the podcast. After two or three aborted attempts at meeting this week, we decided to do the whole thing with spit and duct tape - that's right, we did a whole podcast via Skype. But the good news is that we got Jeff to join us for this one!
It starts with a bit of an e-mail shuffle, then Jeff announces a contest. From there, we start into our rants, hitting Manhunter 31, Trinity 1 & 2, the last 2 episodes of Doctor Who, Justice Society of America 16, Secret Invasion 3...
AND THEN SKYPE CRAPS OUT AND WE HAVE TO RECONNECT
...and then we continue on to Avengers-Invaders 2, some toy talk about Iron Man, Transformers Animated, DC Infinite Heroes, Invincible Iron Man 2, Wolverine, Cable 4, Young X-Men 4, and we cap it off with Buffy 15.
This review was submitted by Spidey
I love Martial Art movies. Anything with Sonny Chiba, Bruce Lee and Donnie Yen I'll eat up. There's just something about a good ass kicking that gets the blood running and puts you in this fantasy like real world where anything can happen, I love that. I also love me some Animation, The Incredibles has to be my all time favorite American Animated movie, But I have never liked Dream Works Animation movies. I hate Shrek with every fiber of my pathetic mortal soul and anything else they tried just never felt 'right'. Until now that is.
Kung Fu Panda is about the laziest animal in all of the Valley of Peace, a Enthusiastic Fan boy-Panda named Po, who is just a geek that dreams of becoming like one of his Martial Art Heroes. But when he is chosen to be the next Dragon Warrior his dream becomes reality and is soon put through hellacious Training to stop the vengeful and treacherous snow leopard Tai Lung, who escapes from Prison after hearing the new Dragon Warrior has been chosen, to Claim what he thinks is his Birthright.
Now I absolutely love this Movie. Call me a sucker for Anthropomorphic Martial artists but this movie just works. The animation is beautiful and fluid, the Action scenes
are enough for me to geek out over, the Story is pretty decent and the Comedy ain't bad. I actually found myself laughing quite a lot during the movie for it being a kid's movie. Jack Black plays our protagonist, now I really don't like him outside Tenacious D, but he's actually funny in this film. He fits the Character of Po very well, as do all the other Voice actors, not once was I less than 100% convinced this is what the characters would sound like.
If you like Kung Fu or animation at the slightest, Do yourself a favor and Go watch it, you won't be disappointed. Also, Please support this movie before Hulk completely and utterly Smashes(Pun intended, hehe) it at the Box office. This Film deserves a sequel, much like The Incredibles (Come on Mr. Bird!) And it actually is probably now my Favorite American Animated Movie.
A
Writer: Jeph Loeb
Artists: Art Adams, Frank Cho, Herb Trimpe
Wow, this was unecessary. $5.00 for 24 new pages of art, reprints of Incredible Hulk 180 & 181, and Avengers 83, which didn't even have the Hulk in it! Art Adams does the first 8 pages, which sees the Red Hulk kill a Wendigo for some reason, and does nothing to advance the whole story happening over in Loeb's Hulk book. Frank Cho does the next 8 pages to show us the missing bits from Hulk where She-Hulk got grabbed by the Red Hulk. Again, nothing new to see here. Herb Trimpe's 8 pages are a review of the old Abomination's history, nothing new here. I got more value out of reading the reprints, which is a two-part Wendigo story and introduces Wolverine, than I did of the new stuff. I want to know who the Red Hulk is already. Drop some hints here and there Loeb! I know you're just gonna drop it on us, but lay some clues please! And if you want us to buy 24 pages of new Red Hulk stuff, put something new in it! Read this issue in the shop, and put it back on the shelf. F
Writer: Grant Morrison
Artists: Tony Daniel and Sandy Florea
Excuse me while I pick up my brain bits off the floor, as my mind was blown away with this issue. For any that jumped on to R.I.P. with 676 and thought it was a little lackluster, go back and get this issue. Morrison really moves things forward here, from the villains' plans to utterly cripple Batman and Bruce Wayne, Bruce's relationship with Jezebel Jet, and Batman's sanity itself. The issue opens with Batman trying to dig up the Black Glove, going nuts on some hoods in the sewer. We then see the Club of Villains, who are mostly new to the Bat-Universe, but have appeared in Morrison's run or have been referenced previously. The guy in the Lucha Libre mask is from the 3 issue arc Morrison did with J.H. Williams a while back, Scorpiana was referenced in that same arc (she's in the silvery outfit). And apparently Dr. Hurt was in the isolation arc with the Devil Batman that Tony Daniel just wrapped up prior to this. I need to go back and reread all those issues. Morrison has definately been laying some plans since he came on the book, and this is not very new reader friendly, but it could be, because a lot of these villains had little to do with the previous arcs in Batman. Meanwhile, Commisioner Gordon is arguing with the mayor (I think) about some secrets about Bruce Wayne's parents coming out in the press. And these are damning secrets and allegations, as well as a huge one about Thomas Wayne, if it is true. At the same time, Bruce's new love interest is questioning Bruce's sanity, and if she wants to be a part of this life. And it all falls apart in the few pages. Morrison is definately deconstructing Batman, on all levels.
On the art side, I think Tony Daniel has finally arrived, with this issue. Some of his stuff on previous issues looked a little stiff and wierd, but I think he's finally gotten into his groove with this issue. If you're not reading Batman right now, you should be, so go get 676 and this issue at the very least, you might be a little confused, but you'll enjoy the ride. ZURR EN ARRH! A+
This review was submitted by Hero 004
Publisher: Dark Horse
Writer: Joss Whedon/Brett Matthews
Artists: Will Conrad- Pencils, Michelle Madison-Colors
Serenity is one of my favorite movies. It's one of those films that I suggest to everyone, even if they're not into science fiction. It takes watching the fantastic preceding TV series, Firefly, to truly appreciate the cinematic level that Joss Whedon takes his genre-Defying story with the feature film. Serenity is so one of a kind, in fact, that the chances for a sequel look very dim. So when a three issue comic miniseries taking place in between the Show and movie, written by Whedon himself, and containing 150 pages shows up as the likes of Serenity: better Days, I am very much down for some satisfaction of my craving for more story.
Review
At the start of Issue one, we find Mal and crew on a typical job robbing a museum, before being bombarded by an alliance-built , artificially intelligent roadster/robot and at the crew finds themselves in a freeway chase. With some gun work from Jayne and a sneak attack from Kaylee, the weapon is shutdown and in the Serenity crew's hands. Meanwhile Inara is having sex with a client, but picturing Mal. The Client ends up being an Alliance War veteran and hunter of "Dust Devils", independent terrorists who were radical about their views even after the alliance won. The crew decides to sell the weapon to a guy who tips them off to a hidden stash of money within a Buddhist temple as payment. When they get there, they find that there is a lot more than they expected: they're rich.
Issue two picks up with some comedic fantasies from the crew on what they're going to do with they're wealth. They end up kicking it off with a vacation, checking into a high class hotel. The Client that Inara was within the previous issue finds out that Mal was a Dust Devil and asks for another night with her in order to get to him. Meanwhile the alliance has found Serenity's location through tracing microchips that were scattered onto the crew's bodies by the weapon. When Malcom goes to check on Inara, he's knocked out by the Dust Devil Hunter and the crew finds out that someone is after them.
Issue three begins with Mal getting the crap beaten out of him by the hunter. Zoe being the first mate is now in charge of the ship with Mal captured and she reveals to the crew that she is in fact the Dust Devil that the hunters are after, not Malcom. Despite reluctance from the rest, Zoe transmits a message across the whole planet revealing that she is the Dust Devil and orders them to bring Malcom back to Serenity. They show up with guns and Jayne is as always up on a cliff sniping. However, an explosion none of them were expecting throws them all off as they're all being attacked by the Alliance. Mal and the hunter have to team up in order to pull off a way to destroy the Alliance ship. They succeed, but the Dust Devil hunting crew ends up making off with all of the Serenity crew's new found wealth. The conclusion features a classic talk between Inara and Malcom. She confronts him on the fact that the whole crew is upset about losing the money except for him. Inara figures out that Mal purposely hid the money poorly so that it would be stolen with fear that the wealth would split the crew up and ruin what he considers a perfect life already captaining Serenity.
Thoughts
I absolutely loved reading this, it felt just like watching an episode of Firefly. The robot stuff at the beginning threw me off a bit at first, but it ended up leading into the bigger story very quick in the same format as the TV series/film. Everyone is in character the whole way through, reading the dialogue can put a smile on any Brown Coat's face as it takes you right back to the charm of each individual member of the crew. In Better Days they are put in a very different scenario with getting rich for a while, but they react to things just as they always do and in new ways that are just as exciting. The ending was so perfect to me. What Mal did with the money is a perfect example of the brutal presentation of his soft side. Conrad's art is awesome, a clean comic style showing the beautiful futuristic scenery of Joss Whedon's universe. What can be really appreciated is his accurate depiction of the characters. They look perfectly transitioned in his close ups while fun and comic booky in between. You'll find that Better Days feels more like a sequel to Firefly than a prequel to Serenity, putting them in another adventure rather than leading into the film. This is the second Serenity miniseries; I certainly hope Whedon and Dark Horse give us another. There is character development in this book, but I'd also like to see more that flows into the movie's. Inara has left Serenity by the time of the movie, and it's talked about at the end of the show, maybe another series will focus on her leaving. Wherever Serenity flies from here, I am phenomenally happy with this miniseries. A+
What would make you think there might not be a podcast this week? Shame on you.
Since we've finally been able to coordinate enough to get a few of us together in the same place at the same time, we were able to talk about Final Crisis 1 and Batman 677 (which led into a 'discussion' about Grant Morrison's storytelling), Giant-Size Astonishing X-Men, Uncanny X-Men 498, 1985 1, All-Star Superman 11, X-Force 4, and of course, Indiana Jones and the Unnecessarily Long Film Title. Enjoy.
Before Omar and Melanie leave for their honeymoon, they graced us with their presence for this podcast, in which we chat about Trinity 2 & 3, Booster Gold 10, Gotham Underground 9, Salvation Run 7, Titans 3, Skarr Son of Hulk 1, Gen X 2, Invincible 50, Wolverine 66, Kickass 3, and thoughts on collecting, buying and selling comics.
About Heroes has been published at http://aboutheroes.com since December 14, 2005. Version 2.0 launched October 4, 2007. About Heroes is licensed under a Creative Commons License, which means you can reuse our original content, but only if you give us credit, and only if you're not selling it. All characters, unless otherwise specified, are © of their owners, who are not us.
Site design by Dan Hancock.
