In this episode, Chris H and Josh P read an email, and boy do they ever stretch it out! Also there's discussion of summer movies and comic books. You know the drill.
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Coast About Heroes - Episode 28
We have a twitter account! For more frequent comic-oriented updates, follow us: TWEET. Also, feel free to email us: aboutheroes 'AT' gmail.com.
In this episode, we go nuts. We talk about Blackest Night and Brightest Day, we talk about nerd problems. We ask "If they tried to abort wolverine, would he just heal himself?", Josh reviews and discusses the Scott Pilgrim Movie. Avengers and Siege are discussed. Iron Man 2 is covered. We're all over the map. It's a good time. Also, emails!
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Coast About Heroes - Episode 27
We have a twitter account! For more frequent comic-oriented updates, follow us: TWEET. Also, feel free to email us: aboutheroes 'AT' gmail.com.
Pretty sweet for a guy making a short! Also, to hell with guys in bunny suits. Never liked 'em.
Teach your kids the alphabet with Wolverine and friends!!!
Good times, that's freaking sweet. Via DeviantArt.
In this episode, talk bout iPads, taxes, Captain America Movie, The Losers (short) Review, The Walking Dead AMC show, Blackest Night, Seige, Brightest Day, Iron Man Movie Trailer, The Return of Bruce Wayne, The Ultimates, Invincible, and tons of other stuff...
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Coast About Heroes - Episode 25
We have a twitter account! For more frequent comic-oriented updates, follow us: TWEET. Also, feel free to email us: aboutheroes 'AT' gmail.com.
X-Men is getting a reboot. Ghost Rider's getting a reboot. Fantastic Four is getting a reboot. There's been talk of Daredevil getting a reboot. Now Spidey's getting the ol' re-boot! So today we're talking about ponies. Wait, no, we're talking about reboots! Like 'em? Don't like 'em? Take a listen? (A little siege-talk at the end as well)
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Coast About Heroes - Episode 21
We have a twitter account! For more frequent comic-oriented updates, follow us: TWEET. Also, feel free to email us: aboutheroes 'AT' gmail.com. And as promised...Tobey is ugly.
We're Back!? But for how long? Stop complaining! It's a 2 hour long special edition! The gang catches up and discusses everything from Christmas gifts, Hate Haiku's, Blackest Night, Batman, Iron Man, Captain America, Thor, Volstagg, Siege, Avatar, all sorts of stuff. New write-in request! Send us some hypothetical questions ala "Who would win in a fight of "X" vs "X"?" and comic book character Haiku's. Any takers?
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Coast About Heroes - Episode 20
We have a twitter account! For more frequent comic-oriented updates, follow us: TWEET (Feel free to check out our haiku contributor as well: SwimDMC). Also, feel free to email us: aboutheroes 'AT' gmail.com.
This piece of Iron-Gonad-Punching humor was shamelessly stolen from our betters over at Cracked.com.
In this episode, we discuss all things comic oriented (or at least the stuff we care about). Deadpool, Punisher, Batman & Robin, War of Light, Green Lantern, Iron Man, and debate the stupidity of Knife-Guns. Also, 10 black super heroes are named. Who'd we miss?
Author: Matt Fraction
Artist: Salvador Larroca
Colors: Stephane Peru & Frank D’Armata
It’s been a long time since we’ve reviewed an Iron Man book here at Aboutheroes. Even though the Knauf brother’s storylines have been really good, for some reason we just talked about the book on the podcast. I really didn’t think there was a need for another Iron Man title, considering the ongoing doesn’t fly off the shelves. But, with a number 1 movie in the world, I figured it would happen sooner or later. This book happens to be Stephane Peru’s last interior colors before he shockingly passed away of a heart attack at the age of 26.
It seems that Tony’s has five nightmares and some are coming to life: 1) Drinking alcohol again after six years of sobriety. 2) The Iron Man armor becoming replicable. 3) Someone other than him or Rhodey will operate the Iron Man. 4) The Iron Man becoming disposable. 5) Someone else other than him making Iron Man 2.0. The issue also focuses on Obadiah Stane’s son Ezekiel, who seems to be a new kind of threat to Stark Enterprises.
Since taken over SHIELD and leading the Mighty Avengers it seems that Iron Man has become more of an authoritarian figure in the Marvel universe, but in this book we get to see more of the lighter side of Tony’s qualities. I love how anyone can just pick up this book and enjoy it. Fraction does an amazing job of touching all the important aspects of Tony’s life from SHIELD to booze and women. Instead of following the main title storyline, the book really does its own thing. This is the Tony Stark that I used to like in my childhood. Not the poorly written piece of evil dictator that Mark Millar wrote him to be. I love the use of Pepper Potts, just the way she was intended to be used in the shortly lived, but great series The Order.
I have been a fan of Larroca’s artworks for years. To me his best work is still in X-treme X-men when he didn’t have an inker and the colors were done right on top of his pencils. He is a very fast and talented artist and has a complete understanding on the way the human body/muscles work. Which brings me to the next point….is it just me or does he seem like he is pulling a Greg Land on some of these pictures and using a light-box? Some of his panels have that photographic style that Land is notorious for over-using and it doesn’t seem like the usual Larroca stuff. I put a page on the left hand side as an example of his possible use of light-boxing. However, the Iron Man armor and action sequences are completely Larroca. The colors are completely amazing and D’Armata does a perfect job finishing Peru’s pages.
Overall, a great first issue for long time readers and a good jumping on point for new readers that are interested in the character. Even though I don’t see the need for another Iron Man series, it’s one that I will be reading monthly. A
It's a post-100 world, folks. We're older and wiser now. It just doesn't show.
We start our episode with a recap of the Cincinnati Botcon and a little talk about the 25th Anniversary Transformers line they previewed at the show. Then we run through some wonderful e-mails and we talk about a few comics from the last two weeks, including Free Comic Book Day X-Men, Blue Beetle 26, Mighty Avengers 12 & New Avengers 40, DC Universe 0 and Green Lantern 30. Then we wrap up the episode with a discussion of the best comic book movie ever filmed, IRON MAN.
So on a post in a community I usually check out, I saw a screen-grab from the Iron Man movie claiming that Captain America's shield was hidden in Tony's Workshop in the scene where Pepper walks in on him trying to get the Iron Man Armor off after his real first Iron-Many adventure. Well...I somehow magically procured a cam-copy of the movie (after paying for myself and 3 friends to see it in theaters) for the sole purpose of checking this out for myself, and I'll be damned...here it is...
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Too hard to see? Here's a closer look. I've gone ahead and darkened out the stuff around it and kinda enhanced the colors a bit painting over the the dull colors to show what they're meant to be seen as...
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And in case you need a reference pic...
I gotta say, I love how they're weaving them all together in small ways like this. My theory is that Tony was using the Cap shield as a reference for material when constructing the Iron Man costume. What else could it be? Anyway, I give this a solid, whole-hearted thumbs up!
Bwaaaaaaaaawwwaawwwwwwwhhhhhhhh......IIIIIIIIIII AM IIIIIIIIIIRONNNNNN MAAAAAAAAAAAAANNNNNNNNNN...DUUHHHH DUHHHH, DUHDUH-DUHHHH, NANANANANANA-NAAAAAA, NA-NA-NAAAA!!!!!
Heh...ok, now I'll start writing. If you've been hiding under a rock for the past week and not hearing things about this movie, let me just say right off the bat, it's amazing. I might even go so far as to criticize you for sitting here reading this if you haven't seen it already, because only so often does a comic book movie come out that is virtually gripe-less, which this movie is. I had no complaints when I saw this film. Wait, hold on, back up, let's do this in somewhat of an orderly fashion shall we? If you haven't seen this movie, stop reading and just go see it. If you still want to sit there and read yet another review, well then, read on true believer.
Iron Man. Not the strongest character out there in comics. In fact, as he stands at the moment, he's somewhat of the George Bush of the Marvel Universe as far as public perception goes. Pretty much nobody likes anything he's been doing lately. Also, he seemed to be a bit of a weird pick when lined up against other heroes, such as Captain America, Thor and so on and so forth. Paired up with a Director who's track record sports Elf and 'Space Jumanji' (a.k.a. Zathura), it did seem as if we had another Fantastic Four scenario on our hands. A Director out of his genre-related depth. I'm so happy to see that this was not the case. Not by a long shot. After being so hurt by the enormous sandy cat-turd by the name of Spider-Man 3, it's really nice to see something on the opposite side of the spectrum. This movie has a broad appeal unlike any other comic book movie. If Iron Man, the comic, had never existed, this would still fly in theaters. It's just plain good.
One of the things that makes / breaks a comic movie from the get go is the actor's portrayal of the character we already know so well as comic book readers. This is why it's so hard to make a good comic book movie. We already know what the character should be like, so if they're off by even the smallest degree, we can sniff it out like a bloodhound can sniff a drop of pee-pee in a silo of water. That being said, this movie nails it. Robert Downey Jr. is so freaking phenomenal. It's just ridiculous. I mean I've enjoyed him in a lot of his recent rolls, Kiss Kiss Bang Bang immediately comes to mind, but he's just been doing really well since he's cleaned up his act a bit, and admittedly, even before all that mess. Obviously he's to be praised in this movie since he's the starring role, but I feel that the supporting cast is going to be somewhat overlooked in the reviews you'll be hearing from other places, so I'm just going to say it. The key supporting characters are all equally well done. Obadiah Stane, James Rhodes and Pepper Potts are all extremely well done, giving this movie not only a bright glimmering figurehead, but a very solid, well built supportive base that allows Mr. Stark to really shine at his best. I want to pick one person out of the lineup that I think out shined the rest, but in all honesty, Gweneth Paltrow, Jeff Bridges and Terrance Howard all did astounding jobs at bringing the characters of the comics to life in such a way that they fill all those slots and gaps in the proverbial Iron Man Armor to really round out this movie in all the ways that make this world our hero lives in a believable one.
The special effects are amazing. As always, Stan Winston delivers like a crazy mofo. This guy's track record is just astounding. It's so good it prompted me to go home last night after seeing the movie and dreaming that I was on set just watching him build things and being amazed while doing so. Terminator, Alien, Predator, Jurassic Park, and of course, Invaders from Mars. What can't this guy make look amazing on film. We'll, the list continues with Iron Man. There are scenes in this movie where you'd swear it's just amazing CG you're looking at but no. They built a freaking Iron Man suit. Actually, they built 4. Mach 1-3 and Iron Monger, and God, they're so cool looking. The transitions of shots between actual models and CG models are literally seamless. The only way I could tell whether or not what I as seeing was CG or not was just what it was doing. If it was heaving a car, it was CG, that's pretty much the only way to tell, haha. My point: they do the Invincible Iron Man proud in this movie.
The movie is over 2 hours long, but it doesn't feel like it. And even if it did, it's just not enough. When this movie was over, I wished I could just jump ahead 2 or 3 years and watch the sequel right there, which is an unmistakably good sign. This movie makes you hunger for more, and obviously, it's bitter sweet, because besides The Dark Knight coming up in 2 months, I don't think we'll see a comic movie of this caliber again in quite some time. So enough of me just waxing praise for this movie, what are you still here for? Get to a theater and watch this. And when you do, make sure you stay after the credits for what will surely give you a geek-gasm that'll have the guys who clean up the theater after the showtime cursing you for all they're worth. A.
Author: Peter David
Penciler: Val Semeiks
Inker: Dave Meikis
Colors: Rob Ro
Despite of what that Mike Deadato cover tells you, there is no wall smashing in this issue. To be honest these last few issues of She-hulk haven’t been action packed. But hell, She-hulk hasn’t been the most super-hero ass stomping book since the days of John Byrne and later Dan Slott. Both concentrated on humor and remained in continuity amongst the Marvel Universe. What Peter David is doing here took a while to get used to, but I’m sure glad that I stayed on the book.
Even though this issue is a wrap up to his six issue story arc, but it really feels like a standalone issue. It seems that Larry Ryan is being blamed for the death of his wife Tanya. Of course we all know that it was Cazon who killed Tanya and Larry had to watch his wife die, not once, but twice. After Jazinda murdered Cazon, Jen and Jaz left in pursuit of Bran. They didn’t expect the authorities to arrest Larry and hold him responsible. After a misunderstanding with a jail cell door, Jen is thrown in with Larry and is forced to call in a favor from an old friend. Mallory Book shows up to defend Larry and with the help of Iron Man is able to get the case dismissed.
I loved this issue; with the return of some old characters that haven’t been seen since Slott left the book, the apology from Iron Man, the whole Al-Len-Town joke from 42nd Street, and the whole courtroom trial, what was not to love about this issue? Jazinda finally decides to share her secret with Jen and the whole conversation that Jen and Mallory share, it was all priceless. But what really sealed the deal was Jen’s feelings towards Iron Man’s apology. Semeik’s art has really improved over the years. The last I saw of his work was an issue of Wolverine in the mid 90’s when Wolverine was turned into an ogre….we won’t go there. His art is expressive and very clean. Each panel is easy to follow. I can’t wait to see where David takes this series, specially the Secret Invasion parts. A
In this episode, we open an Iron Man movie figure, read e-mails from Sanna and Ray, and discuss Justice League of America 19, Captain America 36, Iron Fist 13, Countdown 6, Amazing Spider-Man 554, Iron Man 27 (which leads into the discussion about the Mandarin's rings), Death of the New Gods 7, Robin 172, Checkmate 24 and FX 1. We close with a bit of movie discussion, regarding the upcoming Hulk and Iron Man films, Justice League: The New Frontier and the upcoming Batman animated film, and the finally upcoming Evangelion movies.
So the sheet on which I wrote the show notes is at home, and I'm at work, but I want to go ahead and get the episode up, so I'll update this post later with the notes. I can tell you that 1) the audio on this one is much better and 2) we spend a lot of time talking about the Mandarin's rings.
Writer: Daniel and Charles Knauf
Writer: Brian Michael Bendis
Artist: Frank Cho
Is this book done yet? Please Mr. Cho, stop with your other projects and just crank out issue #6 so Mark Bagley can come on and we can forget your little stint on this book. Hopefully they will find an artist who can keep up with whatever super-fast yuppie is on New Avengers by the time Bagley's arc ends. Marvel, you were really smoking a whole lot of weed when you thought that Frank Cho could keep up with Lenil Yu on New Avengers and that the books could intertwine with each other, as Bendis intended. Instead New Avengers is midway through it's second arc post Civil War and Mighty Avengers isn't even done with it's first. In an ideal world, the Mighty Avengers would be fighting the symbiotes as that ultra-cool Wolverine cover appeared on the racks last week, and instead of asking "where are the heroes during all this?" we would know. Unfortunately for readers and for Marvel the world is never ideal and travesties happen.
The travesty here is that Mighty Avengers was de-railed for months on end because of the speed of the artist. Bendis's story wasn't much in the first two issues, but as issue 3 and 4 hit the stands months ago, it started to pick up and I anticipated the next issue until I remembered that Frank Cho was doing the art. Now, I'm only knocking Cho on his speed for this book, not the quality of his art. He delivers some good work here and his Ares is almost un-matched. In this issue Sentry fights the nude-female Ultron after she killed his wife in the last issue for no particular reason. While doing that the rest of the team fights Iron Man armors that Ultron has commandeered, while Black Widow is in the S.H.I.E.L.D. helicarrier trying to stop Ultron from accessing the launch codes for all the nuclear missles in the world. Yeah, there is a lot going on, and that is what would've made this book fantastic if there weren't 3 months in between issues. Marvel sure knows how to kill momentum on their books. Here, they thought Cho could keep up with Lenil Yu, on Fallen Son, they promised it weekly when it ended up being monthly, and with One More Day it was originally advertised as semi-weekly with the Spidey titles coming throughout one month, where now it was almost a month between installments. This book had so much potential coming out of the gate and now it just feels squandered. Can't they pull a DC and move #6 back until after Bagley's arc is done? Or move it into an annual? I want me some symbiotes. C-
Iron Man's movie armor has been revealed! This obvioiusly just a pre-preduction image, but it's apparently the final design. Click Here for the Entertainment Weekly article that debuted it today.
This is looking to be awesome. Iron Man arrives May 2008.
This image, from USA Today, is a few days old, but it's so awesome I just have to post it here (and I mentioned I would in the podcast).
I am so jonesing for this movie. May 2, 2008, you know where I'll be.
Writers: Daniel & Charles Knauf
Artists: Roberto de la Torre & Johnathan Sibal
Like New Avengers, Iron Man falters this week as well. Last issue was an interesting look into how Tony Stark runs S.H.I.E.L.D. This issue delves away from that, and goes into the Mandarin storyline that was teased last issue. Tony plays detective with the Extremis inventor Maya Hansen into a terrorist group that foiled a S.H.I.E.L.D. mission with some bio-technology that Iron Man can't disable. The portion of the issue that deals with the Mandarin is good, but not the best part of the issue. I'm really interested in Tony leading S.H.I.E.L.D. and having his own red and gold strike force that is almost like their elite officers. If they could turn this book into Rainbow Six type book, great, but Iron Man is no detective. He has other people to do that for him now, he shouldn't be doing it himself unless absolutely necessary. That point is made in the book, though as we see how Tony is having difficulties with his new responsibilies. He's spending too much time investigating, and not leading. Put Tony into his position full-time and this book will improve a good amount. I have a detective book. Two, both are Batman. This is Iron Man. He's about kicking ass. Another thing I like about this book is that the Knaufs don't write Tony as a jerk like Millar and Bendis may do. He's a real person to them, making this my favorite portrayal of Iron Man so far. He's not too cocky or weak, but the right amount of both as a character who has been an Avenger, but also has too much responsibilty now.
Roberto de la Torre is great on this book. If Lenil Yu weren't on New Avengers, I'd say he could do that book as well. His style is a mix of Maleev on the Confession and the best of what Patrick Zircher had on the last arc. No complaints here, though most of the great art moments were found in the last issue, and not here. It's still good nontheless. C+
This week we talk about....
-Spider-Man : One Moment In Time
-Uncanny x-Men
-Hulk/Red Hulk Discussion
-Inception
-Scott Pilgrim (the books & movie)
-The Expendables
-Machete
-Kick-Ass
-Justice League : Generation Lost
-Upcoming Walking Dead tv series
-Sherlock
...even a little Super Mario Bros talk
All this AND MORE!
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