Comic Review: The Stuff of Legend Free Comic Book Day reprint

    For 2016’s Free Comic Book Day, The 3rd World Studios re-printed their first FCBD preview of The Stuff of Legend. They have a new volume coming out soon, and wanted to get the name back out there, I guess.

    It’s a book that’s been floating around for a while. I may have even snagged that first preview comic at a previous FCBD. I never read it, if I did. So, going through it today, I found it enjoyable, but not exceptional. I like the art quite a bit. But with a story set in a very, very Toy Story type universe, I couldn’t help but be constantly reminded of the Pixar classic. Does the series branch off and do its own thing? I don’t know. Maybe I’ll find out one of these days. However, I wasn’t left desperate for more. It’s fine. Just not my thing, maybe.

-Matthew J. Constantine

Comic Review: Valiant 2016 Free Comic Book Day Preview

    The Valiant Comics re-launch from a few years ago had me really excited...for a few months. It was nice to see a bunch of titles launching from someone other than Marvel and DC, characters with some history and fanbase, but enough freedom to tell new stories. Plus, Cary Nord doing art for X-O Manowar?! Yes!!!  Sadly, like Nord’s time on the comic, my interest did not last. X-O Manowar spiraled out of my interest with the introduction of stupidly 90s character Ninjak and the loss of Nord’s art. Bloodshot seemed vaguely interesting, but not quite enough to keep me reading. Really, Archer & Armstrong was the best, but I drifted away from that, too.

    They’ve kept going without my business, and keep putting things out that almost make me want to start reading them again. Now, with their “Summer of 4001AD” line, my interest is piqued again. I like science fiction stuff. Are they boosting their characters into the future? What’s going on? Well, this sample preview doesn’t really tell me. But there are a few interesting things. I don’t know anything about Rai, but he looks kinda like a Japanese Bloodshot. OK. He’s running around in a futuristic dystopia filled with virtual reality and a blasted Earth. Sure. Sounds good. The very short bit from Divinity II adds to my desire to read Divinity. Seems like some crazy, Grant Morrison type mega-Science Fiction, and you know I’m there for that. Archer & Armstrong looks sufficiently weird and funny that I’m sure I’d be enjoying it if I’d stuck around. Faith seems as one-trick as ever. I’ve not read anything from it before, and I know it gets a lot of praise, but so far as I can tell its lone selling point is a “plus-size” woman superhero as the lead. I hope there’s more to that in the actual comic, but there isn’t in the preview. And the sample of Bloodshot remains almost interesting enough to want to read it. Almost.

    This preview did for me much what walking through a comic shop does with Valiant. It makes me curious to see what they’re doing, but not curious enough to drop any money on their books. Though I’d buy a trade of Divinity if I saw it.

-Matthew J. Constantine

Comic Review: Avatarex FCBD Preview

    Grant Morrison is an odd cat, and a prolific comic writer. And he seems to have a very wide field of interest. With Avatarex: Destroyer of Darkness, he and artist Jeevan J. Kang are taking on Indian mythology, filtering it through big-idea science fiction.

    The Free Comic Book Day preview issue is intriguing. I like the art, which is very modern in style, but has something of a high-Kriby content. However, it really is little more than a taste, a sample of the mood, but not much of a sense of the overall comic. So, we’ll see. But for now, I am curious.

-Matthew J. Constantine

Comic Review: ROM Issue 0

    Legal issues. Legal issues suck for fans who just want to enjoy a thing. Be it music rights, or what have you. Rom was a comic I used to pick through when I was a kid. I think one of my brothers read it. I’m sure I snagged a few issues out of the 3 for a dollar bin at Pro Libris in Bangor, ME. I liked the look of the character. I liked the space battles. Only later did I find out there were legal battles behind the scenes. This or that person or company owned this or that element. Blah, blah, blah. Fast-forward a long, long time, and IDW has managed to get it all sorted out, bringing Rom back to comics just in time for 2016’s Free Comic Book Day.

    Unfortunately, I immediately got a Stan Lee era Silver Surfer vibe. He’s a Space Knight! So, he’s now on contemporary Earth fighting alien invaders. Production budget isn’t an issue on a comic book, so setting a cosmic comic on contemporary Earth is almost as baffling as it is infuriating. Also, the dialog isn’t great. It’s not terrible. I mean, it’s not Stan Lee awful. But Rom references his various tools by name in a way you usually get in Saturday morning cartoons. “My ENERGY ANALYZER will reveal all.” Sigh. The art is OK. Rom’s design is a touch more Japanese-mecha looking, but not as much as usually happens with these newer redesigns.

    So, I’m glad the character is back in rotation. I’m glad the legal issues have been worked out. Now, maybe they can put a better team on it some time.

-Matthew J. Constantine

Comic Review: Planetoid

    A quick flip through this book at the comic shop made me take note, but I didn’t have any spare cash, so I moved on.  However, last Free Comic Book Day, while doing the usual shop crawl with co-Dork Brad, I spotted it again.  I try to buy something at each shop I visit on that day (kinda part of the whole point), so I picked this up.  I’ve been in a slightly more pronounced science fiction mood than usual this past couple weeks, so I sat down to read this one.

    I love this kind of thing.  A guy crash lands on a planet that seems like one giant junk-heap, ruin.  It reminds me a bit of the city/world/ship from Morbus Gravis.  Creatures and people scraping out a living on the surface of this hostile world.  And nasty robot killing machines doing who knows what.  Yup.  Cool.  The story does not go in the direction I anticipated, and the way it does play out is very cool.  This volume works perfectly well as a stand alone, but it makes me want to see more.

    The art isn’t necessarily amazing, but it’s good.  Sometimes very good.  And some of the concepts are awesome.  A good combination, creating some very evocative moments.  And it's competently written.  Having read a few critically lauded comics recently where I found the writing to be atrocious, competency is nice.  It's not Shakespeare, but the words flow and the dialog works.  Author/artist Ken Garing has crafted something very cool here, and I'm excited to see what comes next.  This is a setting that begs for more stories.  For science fiction fans, this is book is highly recommended.

Planetoid
Author/Artist: Ken Garing
Publisher: Image Comics
ISBN: 978-1-60706-813-6

-Matthew J. Constantine

Matt’s Week in Dork! (4/27/14-5/3/14)

    Life has been pretty swell for this Dork. 

Transcendence:  Oh, man.  Where to begin.  There was so much potential for telling a good story here.  All missed.  I’ll just start with the biggest problem the movie has.  It’s really, really, really boring.  I mean, BORING.  No, it didn’t need fistfights, or explosions, or more CGI.  It just needed characters one could care about, and a plot that was at all engaging.  Unfortunately, this film is populated by idiot scientists; the kind that are all too common in film, and frustratingly, almost the rule in science fiction.  Even the Luddite terrorists don’t make much sense.  Nobody seems willing to act, to accomplish anything.  There seems to be little growth in character, simply an alteration in behavior as demanded by the advancement of the carbon-copy plot.  And what about those actors.  Depp is fine, I guess.  Frankly, he seemed to be phoning it in.  Rebecca Hall is kind of annoying, but no more so than usual.  Kate Mara…Oh, man.  Kate Mara.  Every danged time she opens her mouth, she spews forth grown inducing dialog and the worst way.  She speaks like a child actor, wooden and stupid.  It’s awful.  Worse still, about 20 minutes into the movie, her character stops being important…but that’s when she becomes a major character…even though she does NOTHING.  So crappy.  Sadly, I’m with everyone else on this one.  This movie is crap.  Hire writers.  Do some research.  Make better films.  This sort of thing is, really, inexcusable.

I need to make better choices.

Welcome to the Jungle:  I didn’t have high hopes for this film, and it isn’t good.  But, Jean Claude Van Damme is extremely funny and by far the best part of the movie.  Otherwise, it’s a bunch of tired sitcom level jokes with the raunchiness of straight to video.  The characters are all stock, mostly played by actors who play essentially the same characters on crappy TV shows.  Honestly, when JCVD is off screen, which is far too often, it drags.  Worth checking out if you don’t have to expend any effort, but pretty much exclusively for the Belgian wonder.

Small Apartments:  This is one of those very odd, small comedies that gets lots of weird actors together in one place and has a lot of fun.  I don’t know that it’s great, but it’s sure different.  And it’s got a lot of bits I really liked, and performances I really liked.  For crying out loud, Johnny Knoxville was good.  What’s that about?  Definitely one to check out if you’re in the mood for something a little bit out there, kind of dark, kind of funny, and certainly not like everything else.

The man loves his Moxie.

    Watched a bunch more of Mad Men’s second season.  It’s a darned fine show.  The awful behavior is fascinating.  And Don Draper.  He’s just so darned cool.

    On Wednesday night, we headed out to The Alamo for a Spaghetti Western and spaghetti dinner (though I was not up to the spaghetti that night).  Here’s hoping we’ll be seeing a lot more of these events there (and from the schedule, it looks like we will).

The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly:  “More feeling.”  A sprawling journey through Hell for three men looking for some gold.  To say this movie takes its time would be like saying deep space is a bit chilly.  Shots and whole scenes that are held for extremely long times and a meandering story may make it a challenge for some viewers.  But I love their weird Odyssey.  And when they start to stumble upon the soulless, listless combatants of the Civil War, the obviously not American setting gives it a haunting, displaced feel that really does seem like some horrible limbo or hell.  It’s almost certainly too long, the dubbing is kind of wonderfully bad, and many bits can be quite jarring.  But it’s a mad kind of wonderful.  Eastwood, Wallach, and Van Cleef are all great.  And that whole ending…nice.  This is top notch Western/Fantasy.

Mothra Vs. Godzilla:  I think this is the beginning of the wonder and madness the Godzilla films became known for.  It’s super weird, and awesome.  The twin fairies, a giant peace-loving moth, money hungry developers, and plucky reporters.  It’s not my favorite of the series, but it’s chronologically the first one I really love.

    Brad and I went on a mad comic book shop crawl on Saturday (Free Comic Book Day).  Third Eye Comics out in MD, Phoenix (aka Laughing Ogre) out in Ashburn, Big Planet in Vienna, Phoenix again in Fairfax, and The Comic Shop at the Fair Oaks Mall.  In keeping with the spirit of the day (supporting local comic shops), I made sure to find something to buy in each place.  I don’t know if it was timing, or what, but one frustration was that all the shops we hit seemed to have the same handful of titles, in spite of there being nearly 60 different free comics produced.  The awesome thing was that every shop we went to seemed full of people (really, really full in some cases), and people were buying stuff.  Awesome.  After all that madness, Brad and I hooked up with Lisa and headed out to The Alamo again for one of their Late Night shows.

Mad Max:  “They say people don’t believe in heroes anymore.”  The world is going to hell, with only Max and a few of his Bronze brothers keeping civilization's light alive.  I love this glimpse into an ugly, entropic future where civilization wasn’t destroyed by some catastrophic event; it simply ran out of juice.  It’s an ugly, uncomfortable films, with jarring music and nasty characters.  It doesn’t have an easy climax, or a happy ending.  It’s brutal and mean.  It features one of the all time best film endings.

    Other than my list of anticipated Summer films (here), that’s it for this week.  I’m going to try to spend Sunday on my couch, reading comics and watching movies.  Let’s see how that works out.

-Matt

Brad's Week in Dork! (4/28/13-5/4/13)

This was a good one.  Yes, I did finally score a copy of Martin Scorsese's New York New York, but I decided to get focused - devoting almost my entire attention upon comic books and comic book movies.    Iron Man 3 launched the summer season, and as stated a few weeks back, Shane Black's entry into the Marvel Universe had my curiosity all a flutter.  The king of the 1980s buddy cop dynamic backing the canned frontman of Marvel's Avengers?  What can the man who wrote Lethal Weapon & Last Action Hero offer the bombastics of Super Hero cinema?  Well, I'm happy to report that he succeeds in carrying the weight of The Avengers, and Robert Downey Jr discovers new depths to plummet Tony Stark.  It's a damn solid sequel.

It's been almost a year since I attended AvengersFest, and I was really craving another spandex lead-in to the next Marvel Blockbuster.  Rather than killing a day with a bombardment of heroics, I spread the Marvel mania across the week, allowing each entry its proper space to soak into the brain (as if it wasn't addled enough).  As you'll see below, films I used to place above others have slipped, and films I once scoffed have taken the top spot in my heart.  Don't worry, The Avengers still rules my fanboygasms.  The other great thing about devoting this week to costumed shenanigans was that it would also climax in Free Comic Book Day, the ultimate celebration of the four color form.  And, oh yeah, The Alamo Drafthouse DC has finally landed in the neighborhood.  Time to Happy Dance.

Iron Man:  "You think you're the only super hero in the world?" The Marvel Cinematic Universe is unleashed with what is, for the most part, a rather routine super hero origin story. But to crap on ol' Shellhead would be unfair. Where was the genre in 2008? Richard Donner's Superman. Tim Burton's Batman. Bryan Singer's X-Men. Sam Raimi's Spider-Man. Christopher Nolan's Batman Begins (the best of the bunch). And a bevy of flicks not even worth mentioning other than to belittle or vehemently scorn (I'm looking at you Ghost Rider). What Jon Favreau's Iron Man really offered was a fresh personality. Robert Downey Jr's Tony Stark is undoubtably charming - the Marvel James Bond - bedding ladies & knocking down the rogues out to cause global trouble. The film doesn't excite so much on the rewatches. It's got solid action, an endearing relationship in Gwyneth Paltrow's Pepper Potts, and a decent enough baddie in Jeff Bridges's bushy beard. But as The Avengers Initiative post-credit tag promises, Iron Man is simply a stepping stone into a comic book kingdom popcorn audiences were just simply not aware of, but one fanboys had been craving for decades.

Kiss Kiss Bang Bang:  "I want you to picture a bullet inside your head!" Having supplied most of my boob tube youth with its bitter snark, screenwriter Shane Black steps behind the camera to show all the pretenders how its really done. Robert Downey Jr leaps out of movie jail with this perfectly biting jackass performance. Tony Stark is born in Harry Lockhart, small time crook turned actor turned gumshoe. Kiss Kiss Bang Bang is a mean little miracle of a meta comedy - a film that expertly mixes chuckles & violence, more so than the best of Lethal Weapons or the smiling hate of The Last Boy Scout. Val Kilmer delivers his final hurrah of charm as PI Gay Perry, the Abbott to Downey's Costello...or is he Costello to Downey's Abbott. Whatever. They're beautiful together.  It's all winks, but they're seriously strong winks.  "For all you good people in the midwest, sorry we said 'Fuck' so much."

Iron Man 2:  This film gets dumped on as a meandering mess of improvisation and world building, and yes, the strain is certainly felt during drunken party brawling & "Please Exit The Donut" S.H.I.E.L.D encounters, but in the aftermath of The Avengers' blockbusting success Iron Man 2 is an entertaining brick in Marvel's castle. Tony Stark's descent into ego, triggered by the first film's "I Am Iron Man" climax, is a fresh idea not previously explored in the movies.  And Robert Downey Jr manages to keep the audience on his side even when he's behaving like an absolute ass.  It helps that Sam Rockwell's Justin Hammer is prancing on the stage around him, squirming & slithering his way to nebbish villainy. He's certainly more engaging than Mickey Rourke's whip cracking behemoth; if anyone gets the short end of the stick in this film it is certainly the big bad. He's relegated to two half-ass cgi encounters, and is mostly used as a slobbering foil to Sam Rockwell's bewilderment. Iron Man 2 is far from a cohesive picture, but I still find it more enjoyable to the run-of-a-mill origin of the first film. It's a dip into Marvel crazy. A hint of something bigger; something never attempted before in Hollywood.

Homicide - Life on the Street Season 5:  Introduced at the tail end of the last season, Erik Dellums's Luther Mahoney takes over season 5 as the looming crime boss of Baltimore.  He's a monster for sure.  Suave, cool, all confidence.  His smile is as violent as any drive-by shooting.  Reed Diamond's Detective Kellerman begins his slippery descent into hell with arson corruption charges and concludes the season with a gun pointed at the kingpin.  He was one of my favorite new characters of last season, but Kellerman eventually morphs into the most despicable and utterly pathetic Detective of the series.  How his partner Lewis manages to scrape the filth from his coat is beyond me - the most baffling, but acceptable television script doctoring, I guess.  Other highlights from the season are the past villains in the "Prison Riot" reunion,  Elijah Wood's boarding school killer ("The True Test"), and the climactic investigation into Detective Beau Felton's suicide...or murder?  Of the seasons I've rewatched so far, this is easily my favorite.  Kellerman's internal struggle, the straining Pembleton marriage, and the parade of casually evil killings make this one of the most tense, and painful runs of television.  Just the way I like my Homicide.

Detective Comics #20:  Seven issues into his run and writer John Layman brings his Emperor Penguin arc to a conclusion...or at least an end to a beginning.  His run on Detective has been plagued with crossovers ("Death of the Family" & "Requiem"), but when it's not distracted it's been exceptional and this single issue might be the highlight.  Goon turned pooh-bah, Ignatius Ogilvy had a good run of it and his mixing of the Man-Bat syrum with both Poison Ivy's toxin & Bane's venom transformed him into an exceptional Silver Age villain for the New 52.  'Course the real Penguin is not going to sit by and let his empire be stolen, and even if Ogilvy appears down for the count I'm betting Layman's got dastardly plans for his new creation.  I'm totally on board.

Hawkeye #10:  ITMOD favorite Francesco Francavilla stops by for a fill-in story surrounding the background of the killer Clown.  From what I've gathered we've never encountered this guy before but he certainly seems familiar.  And I'm still pissed about last issue's Grills finale.  Looks like Matt Fraction is building to some serious drama amongst all this lighthearted entertainment, and I'm happy to see the larger arc starting to form.  This issue sees another perspective on The Bros, and Kate Bishop takes more of the spotlight from Barton.  Sure, this is David Aja's book, but Francavilla is always a treat.  His art is a little in contrast to Aja's, but it's beautiful, colorful yet moody work.  He can fill in anytime.

Age of Ultron #7:  Logan & Sue Storm return from the Hank Pym murdered past to discover yet another age, but this one birthed from their own devious actions.  I've enjoyed this series pretty much from the beginning, but I certainly haven't loved it.  This is really the first issue that perked my alternative realities interest - one eyed Colonel America, Cyclops Cable, holey Ben Grimm,  Iron Man's armada - but I'm afraid they spent too much time in the first half reveling in the devastation and now that the book is getting crazy it's gonna rush a climax.  Only three issues left, a whole lotta story leftover.

Indestructible Hulk #7:  I'm still waiting for Mark Waid to kick ass on this book.  I was hoping the departure of "serious" artist Leinil Yu & the return of demi-god Walt Simonson would bring some much needed levity to the story.  As much fun as it was to see the "Hulk Worthy" last issue, the revelation of Thor's Mjolnir manipulation got a sad shrug outta this reader.  It's a fun enough tale, but it doesn't take the adventure to the next level the way Waid's Daredevil or his Rocketeer managed to do on a monthly basis.  So-so.

Iron Man #9:  God Dammit!  I'm still reading this crappy title!  If anything, this Week In Dork should prove to you that I can seriously love Tony Stark.  What Robert Downey Jr & company have proved is that Stark can be a fascinatingly flawed individual.  Through the years I have not followed every action of the Marvel Comics character, but I've enjoyed his tenure in Brian Michael Bendis' Avengers & I really liked what Mark Millar did with him in Civil War.  And since I've been loving Matt Fraction's work in Hawkeye & FF, I think it's time I devoured his Incredible Iron Man run.  But I gotta say, this Marvel Now Kieron Gillen incarnation is just the absolute pits.  Stark travels the Cosmos in search of Celestial killer 451, he teams up with the ridiculous Death's Head & avoids the Guardians of the Galaxy.  How does this all tie into "The Secret Origin of Tony Stark?"  SPOILERS if you care...Well, a robot knew his dad once.  Lame.  Gillen is dragging Tony all over the place with this book and maybe we're starting to discover an arc here, but I really don't care.  I've given you nine lukewarm months, Marvel.  And cuz I'm a sap and I want to love this character so damn much, I'm probably going to give you nine more.  I should vote with my dollars and drop this sucker, but I'm a dope - a fanboy, and I'm gonna keep reading and keep bitching until it gets worse or better.  God dammit!

Green Arrow #20:  Holy Cow, now this book is kick ass.  But unlike Iron Man I've never delved into the world of Oliver Queen before...well, there is that appearance in Frank Miller's The Dark Knight Returns and I think I read Kevin Smith's short run some time back but I don't remember a dang thing about it.  As Fraction is doing in Hawkeye, writer Jeff Lemire is making me care for a character I once thought of as nothing more than a boring Robin Hood wannabe.  I still don't quite get Queen.  He's another rich playboy playing vigilante.  But Lemire is definitely putting this costumed hero through the wringer.  The purple archer Komodo is taking the good boy to task, beating, bashing, torturing his way to Oliver Queen's soul.  And then there's the mysterious starfish-eyed Magus.  What's his deal?  Mysterious seems to be equalling sinister, but we'll see.  And as violent as Lemire's script can be, artist Andrea Sorrentino's panels are just as vicious - selling the plight when the mystery is not enough.

Thor:  "It's a good look." This is the key film in Marvel's march towards The Avengers. Here we move beyond the "reality" of science based heroes (Iron Man, Hulk) and into the realm of batshit fantasy. If Thor had failed in its depictions of Asgard, Frost Giants, & Rainbow Bridges than The Mighty Myth would have remained an outcast of the super group. However, Kenneth Branagh and screenwriters Miller, Stentz, & Payne sell the insanity of such a universe with high adventure grounded in humor. Littlest pet shops, Renaissance Fair jabs, Asgardian butt shots. Not to mention Chris Hemsworth's smile. Those supernatural pearly whites are enough to make the manliest fanboys (as if those exist) swoon. And with the exception of a shoehorned Hawkeye, the S.H.I.E.L.D. presence feels organic to the script and Clark Gregg succeeds in bringing the band together. There are bits to quibble - budgetary constraints result in a claustrophobic small town setting with Asgard not getting its due, the climactic architectural devastation results with the wrong folks on the wrong sides, and it's more charm than Badass. But I'd also say that Thor is the one film post-Iron Man 1 and pre-Avengers that feels the most solid; it's certainly the only building block that could exist on its own. A shock given my original blase attitude towards the whacky classical icon's existence in the superhero realm.

Captain America - The First Avenger:  Probably the most frustrating film in the series, Captain America never quite sells its period setting or the grandness of its adventure. Still the first half of the film, the origin story, is a real corker. Chris Evans excels as scrawny Steve Rodgers, a kid sick of sitting on the sidelines as the global bully Adolf Hitler consumes the best of American youth. When Stanley Tucci's exiled scientist offers him a seat in his man machine, puny Steve Rodgers is evolved into the super human Captain America. There is heart in their conversations over good nature, and the film peaks with their final moment together. From that point in the film we get glimpses of iconic WWII battlescapes, and a series of tepid montages that tease rather than exhilarate. Monstrous CGI Tanks and a running stream of blue screens gives the entire proceedings an artificial taste, the threat of World War nothing more than a first person shooter. The Red Skull's Hydra hides the evil of the nazis, stripping the story of history as well as cinema's greatest villain, and diluting the triumph of our hero. When the two rivals finally meet in the unfriendly skies, their conflict is as satisfying as those montages. Quick. Fleeting. Just another link to The Avengers.

Photo Stolen from The Birchmere's Facebook Page.  Thanks.

John Hodgman @ The Birchmere:  I'm not a fan like The Wife, but I've always found "something" tremendously appealing about Hodgman's brand of humor.  He works the nerd crowd - hipstery, but you know, in a good way.  He comes on stage flashing his ridiculous amount of showbiz swag, taking pot shots at himself and the celebrity world he sometimes inhabits.  He makes references to Ayn Rand as quickly as he does Battlestar Galactica - flaunting his cred as wildly as he does his AWEsome mustache.  He's not a barrel-laughs kinda guy, but I found myself eating up the show with the rest of his crowd.  He's a goofball in the same vein as Jim Gaffigan, but instead of feeling the comfort of a fellow Hot Pockets devouring buffoon, I am fully aware listening to his comedy that this man is far smarter than I am.  But that can be a comfort too.  A level of nerdom to strive towards.

The Avengers:  "That's my secret Captain, I'm always angry." After a half dozen rewatches I have yet to tire of the comic book joy overflowing from the screen in this crowning achievement of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Years in the making, The Avengers is the Damn Yankees of Super Hero movies. Nothing quite like it has ever been attempted before, and thankfully this big beast succeeds where it surely could have floundered. Joss Whedon dips his pen into the Marvel U and scrawls the quintessential Avengers campaign. Two mad scientists, a super soldier, a god, and a couple of grunts. Toss them into a floating aircraft carrier and you're going to get a kerfuffle, especially when you've got Loki and his mind gem space stick influencing matters - that's the cliche done right. You've seen these beats before, but never executed so perfectly or with so much reverence to the source material. Is it just fan servicing? Probably. But dammit, I'm the fan here and I'm uncontrollably delighted when Iron Man bounces repulser beams off of Cap's shield or when Banner announces his control of The Hulk. And I absolutely dig the downfall of Tom Hiddleston's Loki. (SPOILERS folks, but why the hell haven't you seen this film already?) He may be the cock of the walk, but in the end he's just a whiney brat taken out by Hawkeye's arrow & the Hulk's smashing rage. A pawn in The Mad Titan's invasion of Earth. Thanos!?!?! What's next, Rocket Raccoon? Oh wait...

Free Comic Book Day:  Woke up too damn early on Saturday morning, but it's that time of year again! FCBD!!!!  Matt & I did our annual Comic Shop crawl through the Northern Virginia area.  First stop was Laughing Ogre (formerly Phoenix Comics & Toys) in Fairfax.  They had a serious line of kids, adults, & hipsters (the bad kind this time) waiting to get inside.  They also put up a three book limit - snagged Marvel's Infinity, 2000 AD's Judge Dredd, & the weak Snyder/Lee Superman Unchained preview.  A couple cosplayers lurked inside: Venom & Scarecrow were buddies, there was a Sharon Carter Agent 13, and Black Widow actually worked the counter.  Next on the crawl was Big Planet Comics in Vienna.  That's my shop.  And they're the best.  They allowed one of each of the Free Comic Book Day selections and I took them up on that promise.  Scored almost everything including Pippi Longstocking, Prince Valiant, and Marble Season.  Why the hell not, right?  Not as much cosplay here - a lone Winter Soldier guarded the entrance.  From there we went to the Laughing Ogre mothership is Sterling - things were dying down, upped their take to five books a customer.  No cosplay.  Then a late lunch break and a final trip out to Gainsville to Comics & Gaming.  They had a massive selection of Free Comics dating back several years.  Grabbed some Bone & Archies.  And, of course, along the way Matt & I made sure to support the local businesses; paying our hard earned cash for books like Jonathan Hickman's The Manhattan Project, Lincoln Washington Free Man, and Scott C's Double Fine Action Comics.  Overall, the Free Comic Book Day selections don't seem as strong as last year's but I have yet to really mull them over.  The free stuff is not really the point anyway.  It's about getting the rest of the world excited about funny books.  Haven't talked to my guys yet, but this year seemed to be a success.  Each store was hopping.  Hopefully some money was flowing their way too.

The Alamo Drafthouse DC:  And how do you perfectly cap off an amazing Free Comic Book Day?  Well, how about Iron Man 3 at the Grand Opening of Washington DC's very own Alamo Drafthouse!?!?!?!?  Hell to the yeah!...Ok...so it really wasn't the Grand Opening, we missed that by one afternoon.  And Alamo Drafthouse DC is actually Alamo Drafthouse Loudon, VA but semantics shmantics.  Nearly five years ago, I visited Austin's original Drafthouse for a screening of Spider-Man 3.  Whatever my opinion of that film I can at least say that they offered an amazing experience filled with specialized programming and delicious & deadly food.  I'm happy to report that The Alamo has been expertly transported to NOVA.  I totally dug the pre-show entertainment filled with classic (& not-so-classic) Iron Man cartoons, a weirdo Ben Kingsley Prada ad, the Don Cheadle Captain Planet Funny or Die video, and Robert Downey Jr's insane hut hut hut hut bark from god know's what movie.  The food was great.  Ordered a Royale w/Cheese & a Mexican Vanilla milkshake.  Rocked my tastebud world.  Sure, it takes a little getting used to all the servers dashing down the aisles, but once you do it's a blast to chow down on your burger while Tony Stark tinkers on screen.  And the No Talking/Texting mantra is seriously appreciated.  The Alamo Drafthouse has a reverence for cinema and its patrons drink the kool-aid.  Frankly, I'm not sure why I would want to see a movie anywhere else at this point.  They're gonna be getting a whole helluva lot of my business going forward.  But what about the flick in question....

Iron Man 3:  "Do you want an empty life?" After The Battle of New York (aka The Avengers), Tony Stark is a mess of stress and anxiety. He's an insomniac; what little sleep he does achieve is plagued with nightmares of wormholes & alien invaders. He spends the rest of his time tinkering in the basement, and alienating his all-too-understanding girlfriend. Shane Black takes the reigns from Jon Favreau and properly progresses the emotional chinks in Stark's armor - Robert Downey Jr is the master of character flaws and he brings the genius, billionaire, playboy philanthropist to his logical breaking point in this third and most successful Iron Man entry. Really the only place to go after the apocalypse of The Avengers is inward - it's not go big or go home, it's take a beating and keep on ticking cinema. Stepping out of the silver age, Ben Kingsley's The Mandarin hates America & its fortune cookie lies, but the Marvel team cleverly sheds the yellow peril Fu Man Chu slander and makes room for Guy Pearce's demonic A.I.M CEO. Sam Rockwell's Justin Hammer might have been the funhouse mirror version of Tony Stark, but Pearce's Aldrich Killian is Stark's Anti-Christ. He doesn't quite steal the show from Kingsley's theatrics, but it's a pleasure to hate on Pearce. Iron Man 3 is not The Empire Strikes Back of the franchise. There is some serious brooding to help elevate the turmoil, but Shane Black puts in plenty of his patented banter. Whether he's bouncing off Happy Hogan, Gwyneth Paltrow, a bullied kid, or Don Cheadle, Tony Stark is scoring plenty of classic 80s chuckles. And speaking of Don Cheadle! His rebranded Iron Patriot finally gets some decent screentime, bracing his badass muscles and going back-to-back with Stark at the climax. He's earned a spot in Avengers 2 as far as I'm concerned, and I'm certainly ready for the next phase of Marvel: Thor 2, Cap 2, and the madness of The Guardians.  Bring it.

--Brad

Brad's Week in Dork! (4/29/12-5/5/12)

This Week in Dork involved a lot of waiting...or just killing time until the Friday midnight screening of The Avengers.  If you recall, The Avengers was only #4 on my Fistful of Summer Anticipation 2012, but halfway through my Thursday shift at work I felt this tingling sensation take over my body.  The Avengers was real.  And I was going to see it on the big screen.  That's madness.

But at 830PM I walked outta work and down the street to the movie theater to find my buddies Darren & Bryan already in line for the movie.  I joined them along with a few other hundred comic book nerds and we spent the next several hours chatting movies and the Marvel universe.  There were a lot of cosplayers and Whedonites and we had a blast geeking it up as a community.  Then 12AM hit and we all saw the movie.  And it was better than I had hoped...right now, it sits as my favorite film of 2012 and The Dark Knight Rises (or any other film) will have to work pretty damn hard to topple it.


TV OF THE WEEK!

Star Trek episodes 6-10, 14-16:  Watched a lot of Star Trek in preparation for next week's Shat Attack. So much so that I don't feel like doing episode breakdowns for this week in dork.  A lot of good stuff with "Balance of Terror" and "Shore Leave" being the highlights.  McCoy is such a dog in "Shore Leave."  The man might plaster on the eyeliner but he can bag the ladies with the best of them (i.e. J.T.K.)  And I love how freaking mysterious the Romulans are when they first appear in "Balance of Terror."  When you first see those pointy ears and the crew of the Enterprise starts to look slanty at Spock--that's just creepy messed up.  Don't even get me started on that A-bag at helm.

The Avengers - Earth's Mightiest Heroes episodes 1-8:  Well, this show is nowhere near as good as the best DC Animated stuff, but it's on par with some of the latest Justice League straight-to-dvds and it's far superior to anything else Marvel has put out on the animated front.  The first batch of episodes provide for various origins of the key characters that will eventually form The Avengers.  I particularly enjoyed the Captain America and Thor eps and as I finished my week with the two-parter "Breakout", loosely inspired by the first New Avengers arc from Brian Michael Bendis, I began to see some serious potential for the show.  It's very geeky (again, not Brave & the Bold geeky but close enough) and it was a great way to prepare for Joss Whedon's film.

MOVIE OF THE WEEK!

The Furies:  "I hope you can chew what you just bit off." Barbara Stanwyck and Walter Huston battle it out as father and daughter in this hotbed Western melodrama. Anthony Mann's The Furies is one of those special films where all the players are vile beasts to one another and as each back is stabbed (or face scissored) there is great delight in their wretched and ultimately deadly antics. As usual, Stanwyck spits hate better than most and Huston has a brilliant swagger to his a-hole patriarch. When the credits role I dare you to be pleased with either demon.  As usual, here's more ramblings for my latest Western review over at cineAWESOME!

The Raven:  Before I ever sat in the theater, The Raven had at least two strikes against it. 1. There was no way that John Cusack's Edgar Allen Poe was going to be as oafishly amazing as Jeffery Combs' version from the Masters of Horror episode, The Black Cat. 2. There was no way it was going to surpass the goofy wizard showdown oddity of the Roger Corman directed film of the same name. But when the film opened with Cusack channeling the craziest Nicholas Cage and screaming with boozy brutishness I thought that maybe, just maybe, this serial killer hunting Raven would be kinda fun. And then the film just kept puttering about with the Poe killings, never quite engaging this viewer with the thrill of the hunt. It's elementary investigation with an obvious conclusion that takes far too much time to reach. And poor Alice Eve wallowing in the premature burial that is her character.

Haywire:  I was sorta lukewarm on my theatrical experience of Haywire, but after giving the blu ray a spin, I found this jazzy cool espionage actioner to be a lot of fun. Steven Soderbergh's red cameras definitely translate a lot better in HD and the quiet action layered with David Holmes' hipster score feels slick and artificial in a perfectly cinematic way. Gina Carano is a little wooden, as is Channing Tatum, but they get the job done. And the Michael Fassbender hotel room brawl is the frontrunner for 2012's best fight sequence.

Mission Impossible:  Under the direction of Brian DePalma, the first Mission Impossible film feels a little too clinical for my summer blockbuster desires and the unwinding of the conspiracy definitely looses excitement on repeat viewings, but the antsy team building exercises of painfully cocky Tom Cruise & Co is oddly endearing (especially his relationship with Ving Rhames' Luther) even when things get back stabby. And I still say the helicopter/train tunnel climax is exciting, even when the CG reveals itself to be utterly wonky.

Mission Impossible 2:  It's not the ridiculous motorcycle fu or the tired use of white doves that brings out the hate for the second Mission Impossible film, no...what is absolutely unforgivable is how unbelievably boring John Woo's entry in the franchise eventually becomes; after two hours of meandering, this viewer was ready for a nap. From the "Look How Cool I Am" mountain climbing credits to the flamenco cliff face car dancing, MI:2 lingers too damn much when it should be racing towards a fistpunching pummeling climax.

The People vs George Lucas:  Well, this was a raw viewing experience. A somewhat self-depricating look into the culture of fandom surrounding the love/hate relationship some nerds (like myself) have with the corporation known as George Lucas, the one-time filmmaker who created the Star Wars empire. I, and apparently a whole lotta other folks, owe my entire love affair with cinema to Star Wars and it was seriously tainted by the 1999 premier of the dreadful Phantom Menace. But how can a love turn so angry? Why can't I let it go? The People vs George Lucas is kinda like a trip to the psychologist. Watch this documentary fanboy, and work out your pathetic issues.

The Avengers:  Ok. I'm not going to be able to talk about The Avengers without venturing into the fanboy squeals of hyperbole. It's a miracle of cinema. The five previous films from Marvel Studios were barely a glimmer of the promise that's delivered with Joss Whedon's epic. Frankly, The Avengers is the First Comic Book Movie. In that moviegoers are finally given a film in which Iconic Superheroes are doing crazy Superheroic shit that comic readers have been blathering on about for decades. From giant "I'm Always Angry" Hulk Smashing to Captain America bouncing Iron Man's repulsers off his shield to Tony Stark and Bruce Banner chatting up science on the floating Helicarrier. There are such pure comic book moments in this summer blockbuster that I found myself welling up at it's beauty...that's embarrassing to say but it's true. Waving my geek flag proudly here. I wasn't at Mann's Chinese Theater in 1977 when Star Wars screened, but I have a feeling that the fanboys born there felt something akin to what I felt at 3AM Friday morning as a I stumbled back out into the real world. How can any other film in 2012 compete with that.

COMIC EVENT OF THE WEEK!

I didn't get much comic book reading this week, but that shouldn't be a problem for next week.  Saturday was the annual Free Comic Book Day and The Wife, Matt, and our buddy Robert hit up a bunch of shops in celebration.  Snagged a lot of interesting looking free swag including the first ever FCBD Hardcover Mouse Guard anthology, X-O Manowar, Graphic Elvis, Top Shelf Kids Club, Spider-Man Season One, Serenity, the Image anthology, Avengers Age of Ultron, The Avengers, The New 52, Atomic Robo, Super Dinosaur, and After Watchmen.

But it's not just about the free stuff.  FCBD should also be about supporting local business so I did my part and blew quite a bit of cash on the new Knightfall omnibus, the Abe Sapien Devil Does Not Jest trade, and Tom Scioli's American Barbarian.  Plus a Goon tee shirt and a SGT Fury & His Howling Commandos poster.  So much good stuff.  Can't wait to crack into it.

The Haul!

And Just One Week Till...

--Brad