League of Extraordinary Gentlemen is right up there at the top of my list of favorite graphic novels. It taps into all those things I love so much, the wide array of Victorian and pulp adventure fiction, from H.G. Welles, to Jules Verne, to Edgar Rice Burroughs, and beyond. And of course, one of the coolest characters was Captain Nemo, master of the Nautilus, dashing, suave, and deadly. With Nemo, we follow his daughter, haunted by his shadow and his deeds, as she tries to find her own path in life.
In 1925, Princess Janni Dakkar, the new Nemo, lives as a brigand. When she runs afoul of Aisha and Charles Foster Kane, a chase across the world begins. She blazes a trail across Antarctica and all the strange wonders it hides, from Present Land to the Mountains of Madness.
If you’ve read previous League universe books, you’ll know the drill. It’s sad, dark, full of ugly twists on classic characters. But it’s also thrilling and strange, and challenges the reader to figure out the reference. I know there were several I didn’t get. One of these days, I’m going to have to go back through the whole series with some annotations or something. I know there’s stuff I’m missing, meaning I’m not catching.
I’ve never been a huge fan of Kevin O’Neill’s art, but it gets the job done, and helps to set the whole uncomfortable vibe of Moore’s bent literature rollercoaster. Moore is one of those writers I go back and forth on. He’s written some of my favorite books, but he’s also written stuff I can’t even force my way through. He seems like a colossal jackass, and possibly more in love with himself than his rabid fans are. But he’s also good at capturing the magic of the classic fiction I love so much. Heart of ice is surprisingly upbeat; still kind of a downer, but for this series, it’s relatively positive. I could see this being a really nice companion series to the later stuff involving the League.
Nemo: Heart of Ice Author: Alan Moore Artist: Kevin O’Neill Publisher: Top Shelf Productions ISBN: 978-1-60309-274-6
A flying saucer heading toward the Earth. An American science research post in Antarctica. A Swedish (Norwegian!) helicopter chasing a dog across the ice. Winter rolling in. Thus begins one of the best horror movie, and a darned fine science fiction movie, ever filmed. Like Alien, the movie takes its time, introducing the cast and giving them each a little moment or two to establish personality. A sizable cast of character actors, with a few especially strong stand-outs lend the film a credibility that grounds the cosmic madness laying in wait.
Though originally conceived as a remake of the 50s film, The Thing From Another World, John Carpenter helmed what became a ground-up, serious adaptation of the inspirational short story ‘Who Goes There?’ by John W. Campbell Jr. It gets much more into the concept of the original story, keeps several characters, and captures its atmosphere in ways the 50s film (awesome, though it is) never did. And man, the movie drips in atmosphere. The sequence where Mac and Copper explore the Norwegian camp is beautiful and disturbing. The quiet shots of the American camp dial the paranoia right up. The oppressive snow storm and ever-present cold lend natural danger to moments tinged with unnatural evils.
The script is crackerjack, with the actors all in top form. Interplays between various men produce moments both funny and disquieting. Touching and terrifying. As they begin to realize the true danger of the Thing, friendships and loyalties are tested and the breakdown of civility and trust is as frightening as any monster. Even the people who have been turned might not know they’ve been turned. Copies so perfect they don’t even know (at least not consciously) they’re copies until their alien nature asserts itself. Nasty. There are so many classic moments. Of course, the dog creature, the head falling from the table only to sprout legs and walk away, Wilford Brimley’s axe wielding Down Home Freak-Out, Mac with the dynamite, and Garry tied to that f*&%ing couch. And man, every moment Wilford Brimley is on screen is amazing. He goes for it. Everyone goes for it, but Brimley goes the distance like nobody’s business. He lives that part, and it’s awesome. His disgusted autopsy, his complete meltdown, his noose shadowed apology. All great. I guess Kurt Russell is the star of the film, though it feels more like an ensemble. Always a solid, workman actor, Russell and director Carpenter had by this point established an excellent working relationship. He manages to play a practical, grounded guy who can still keep cool during unprecedented situations. In some ways, the character feels the closest to Russell himself. He’s not the brightest bulb in the chandelier, but he shows up, he does his job, and does it well. He doesn’t have the academic skills, but practical experience out the wahoo.
The effects hold up for a reason. The practical effects were bold and ground breaking, and still look better 30 years later than most CGI done today. It has a realness, a physicality that fools even your reptile brain like CG still rarely can. The use of multiple styles of effects goes a long way. Puppets, stop motion, matte paintings, etc. Great stuff. I do wish there had been a bit more of the previous forms the Thing might have taken. The dialog, and the original story point to some possibilities that could have been pretty cool to see.
Excellent cast, effects, cinematography, and script are made that much better by the haunting, pulsing score by Ennio Morricone, which matches Carpenter’s own musical style so well. It’s not flashy, but like the Thing itself, it gets inside you. Morricone helps set the inevitable, apocalyptic tone. It might just be the final beats of the human heart, before Mankind is brought low by a corrupting alien menace.
This review ended up being hard to write. Not at all because I didn’t have enough to say, but because I have a hard time not talking about it. I think the film is probably both John Carpenter’s and Kurt Russell’s best, though not my favorite (Big Trouble in Little China likely takes that award). And The Thing may well be one of those very rare perfect films. It’s certainly close. A simple essay doesn’t seem like nearly enough to sing the film’s well deserved praises.
A good week, I guess. More comics. More movies. Some Lovecraft dramatizations. Good stuff.
The Black Hole: A science fiction film based on Heart of Darkness? That could be awesome. Sadly, while kind of fascinating, this movie isn’t all that great. It has some fantastic production design and an interesting cast. But the script is only so-so, and the ending doesn’t make a lot of sense. Still, it’s worth a watch. The model work is very good. This came out in the wave of post Star Wars science fiction, but I think owes much more, stylistically, to Forbidden Planet. It feels much more old school. If I didn’t know better, I’d probably assume it was made in the late 60s, not the very early 80s.
Tron Legacy: “Bio-digital jazz, man.” The original Tron was an interesting and ambitious film that presaged films to come, while still being firmly rooted in moviemaking techniques of the past. A strange and wondrous world, existing within the world of computers, peopled by programs of various powers and degrees of sentience. This film extrapolates on those ideas to create a grand adventure, steeped in history and mystery. Gorgeous visuals and a powerful electronica score from dance favorites Daft Punk help carry the viewer into the Grid, where Flynn’s right hand man, C.L.U., has taken over, driving the Creator into the wastelands. His champion, Tron, now serves a new master. The games have evolved, the programs have taken over, and something has emerged that was never intended. With the exception of the fairly bland lead (he’s not bad, just dull), the cast is excellent, selling the insanity of the world and the story. Just a really, really fun film.
Spaced Out: A bit of cheeky goofiness from those blokes in the UK. A bunch of dolts wander onto an alien craft that has stopped off on Earth for some repairs. Culture clashes, biologic surprises, and boobs, boobs, boobs. I can’t say this movie is good. It’s not. But dang, it made me laugh on several occasions. Track-suited letch guy has some of the best scumbag expressions I’ve seen. It does prompt me to ask, why would anyone in a dead-end job with no prospects even think about turning down a ship full of wanton women begging you to travel the galaxy? Just doesn’t make sense. And what’s with the end?
Pride and Prejudice: Oh, those upper class twits. They do get up to such nonsense. Stiff upper lips, social climbing, and the petty difficulties between the rich and the not so rich. A world where honesty and forthrightness are vices. I can’t even imagine what romance must have been like from the inside during this era. I see people going through the motions, but it seems like a religious ceremony; actions with meanings I find obscure. As far as the film goes, it is very pretty, and you can see the early stylistic flourishes of director Joe Wright. And I feel so danged bad for Tom Hollander’s priggish parson. He doesn’t seem like such a bad chap; just horribly awkward. But at least this movie shows the truth. You can be terse, difficult, abrasive, and aloof and women will still find you charming and take the time to see the inner you, so long as you’ve got money.
My mansion makes me charming!
Drive: A quiet loner does what needs to get done. Made vulnerable by feelings for a woman, he gets into some trouble. Not really a new story. But with stylistic flourishes and a slow burn build-up to terror and violence, it rises above the simplicity of its plot to become compelling cinema. Heck, it’s 40 minutes in before you get a hint that the Driver isn’t quite what he seems. It feels like a movie from another era, the late 70s or early 80s. In look, sound, and pacing, it doesn’t feel modern at all. The characters are surprisingly complex and sympathetic, even when they shouldn’t be.
Kiss Kiss, Kill Kill: Wait, Germany had an ‘answer to James Bond?’ I guess so. Kommissar X is the slick 60s hero with all the tricks. But why is he American? The bad dubbing and shoddy quality make it a bit rough. I’d like to see a cleaned up, subtitled version. Except that the movie is also pretty dull and generally not well made. So watching it again isn’t on my ‘to do’ list.
So Darling, So Deadly: “All right, let’s stop talking about bananas.” Kommissar X is back, this time in Asia to paw and leer at a new bunch of women. More bad dubbing. Truly awful music. And lots of awkward action. Then there’s something about a shipment of bananas.
Death is Nimble, Death is Quick: Gah. By the third film, the smarmy shenanigans of Kommissar X have long since warn out their welcome. Germany may have had an answer to James Bond, but it was the wrong one. These movies are craptastic. And did he just make a pass at an elephant? I think he did.
I started watching the Logan’s Run TV show. It’s something I’ve been wanting to watch for a long time, though I’ve heard little but bad about it. Still, Logan’s Run is one of my favorite films and I was curious to see how they tried to translate it. It’s odd seeing the first two thirds of the film cut down and repackaged into the first ten minutes of the first episode. At about that point, things go off in a new direction. Not one I’d take, but potentially interesting none the less. Though, of course, an atomic war made DC look like Southern California (see also, the Planet of the Apes TV series). The design work draws heavily from the film, but is a bit more conservative. And the actors, while OK, are no Michael York and Jenny Agutter.
“I’m good at platonic. It’s my default sexual setting, after nervous.” I finally started season 3 of Bored to Death. Man, I love this show. It’s so much fun. So many evil people trying to do good things. Sort of. The crazy misadventures these folks get into are so nuts. And holy crap, Dick Cavett is still alive?!
On Sunday, as I was waiting to give a brief presentation at my job, I listened to the H.P. Lovecraft Society’s ‘radio drama’ of The Shadow Out of Time. It’s a good adaptation of an awesome story. On the surface, Lovecraft looks like a horror writer, but his work is generally more science fiction. This one features time travel, aliens, archeology, cults, and a grand scope of time.
I also listened to their adaptation of The Dunwich Horror, which was pretty good. Though I didn’t like it quite as much as The Shadow Out of Time. The voice work is mostly good, but there are some wonky bits. The New England accents are spotty, sounding more like North Dakota than Massachusetts. It’s a cool story, though. Danged inbred freaks and their black magic.
The adaptation of At the Mountains of Madness wasn’t quite what I wanted, but I think my love for the story made me a bit more harsh on it that I should be. The radio broadcasts in the first chapter went on too long. What could have been very effective became tiresome. But once it got past that part, things got better. In fact, everything after the radio snippets is excellent. Once it moves into the straight up narrative of what the second party discovered at the camp, and the exploration of the titular mountains, it became nearly as fascinating as the story. Like The Shadow Out of Time, this story does a lot to give Lovecraft’s ‘mythos’ a solid basis, a faux history.
And I managed to listen to the adaptation of The Call of Cthulhu. Another pretty good adaptation. It’s a strange story, and this dramatization kind of revels in its oddness. Told in a collection of flashbacks, narratives, and fragments, it creates a larger story mostly through implication. This isn’t the H.P. Lovecraft Historical Society’s first go at The Call of Cthulhu, of course. They were behind the excellent silent film adaptation from a few years ago.
Continuing with the pile of comics Brad pushed into my hands last week, I read All New X-Men #1. Couldn’t be much less aptly named, as it’s exactly the same as X-Men has always been, going round and round the same idea over and over again with little indication that anything will change or develop in any meaningful way. It feels a bit like watching a soap opera, where every episode features a birth, a death, a court case, a wedding, and an affair. Each issue of X-Men features a good guy working for the bad guys, a bad guy working for the good guys, a thinly veiled social issue, a mutant ready to give up, and some normal humans causing trouble. If my keen sense of Marvel’s stock storytelling is accurate, this arc will end with Beast sacrificing himself in some way to save everyone. Check back in two years and let me know. I won’t be reading to see if I’m right.
Marvel Now! Point One seems to be some kind of set-up for the whole Marvel re-start. It intros several new series and hints at some larger story ideas. What’s up with Miss America and her weird dimension? Who the crap is that alien kid living in Wisconsin? And Forge. He’s crazy, huh? But Nova seems really lame and Ant Man? He doesn’t just seem lame. Bah.
The third issue of The Creep continues the mystery of the missing grandfather and the dead teens. Our ugly, pill-popping hero takes a bus into the country to aid in a missing persons search, wandering the snow covered forest. It’s an odd comic. I want it to be more interesting, but it’s still well written, I guess.
Winter Soldier issue 12 finds my interest in this series waning, to say the least. What I liked about the early issues was the way the Cold War hung over Bucky’s life the way World War II had hung over Captain America. But, though still rooted in that era, its shadow seems to have departed. Instead, we’re subjected to appearances from incongruous members of Marvel’s usual cast. Wolverine, Hawkeye (seriously, Hawkeye? Ugh), and now Daredevil. Groan. I’m done. F this series.
Fantastic Four #1 shows a lot of potential. Getting once more to the core of my problem with comics from the Big Two, a world where Reed Richards exists should probably be a technologic utopia within a decade. That it’s not is part of the whole status quo thing in mainstream comics. Still, with this issue they imply that the Richards about to take a fantastic journey, putting them out in the crazy cosmic universe they should always inhabit. I am curious to see where things go. The Fantastic Four are science fiction characters stuck in a non-sci-fi setting. It looks like this series may take them in the right direction…for a while.
I like Boom! Studios. They publish a lot of interesting comics, frequently some good ones. But, they also put out some dogs. Though I gather it’s achieved some success, I really, really didn’t like Fanboys VS. Zombies, as a recent example. And I felt much the same about Freelancers issue 1. I like girls with guns. But this is brutal. It’s trying to be funny and hip. It’s neither. The art is simplistic when it’s not ugly. And the overall effect is that of a child telling a boring story.
X-O Manowar issue 6 is something I read. I can’t say a lot more than that. The art is fine, but where’s Cary Nord? The writing is meh. The story feels too small. In movies, I have always been frustrated by the budgetary constraints that force the story into the modern era to save money. Well, a comic isn’t constrained by budget. They could be illustrating nearly anything, but instead, we’re on earth in a jungle with a ninja. Yawn. This could be a really fun series, but it’s not.
I read the second John Grimes book by A. Bertram Chandler, To Prime the Pump. Great classic space adventure. Once again it makes me wish there were more examples of this type of science fiction on film or TV. Will Disney’s recent acquisition of the Star Wars franchise help to bring science fiction back into the mainstream?
And I read Avengers: The Children’s Crusade, which I’ll hold off on discussing or posting my review of until after the next meeting of the Justice League of Extraordinary Book Club. I’ll only say that it didn’t win me over to Marvel’s way of doing things.
And man, after watching Tron: Legacy again this week, I got totally hooked on the score for that film again, along with some of the other excellent electronic scores from the last couple years, like Hanna. And it all goes right along with the soundtrack I’ve been building for the story I’ve been working on.
I make no secret of my love of Mike Mignola’s creation. The Conqueror Worm was one of the books to woo me over to comics and I continue to love reading new Hellboy stuff. The art, the atmosphere, and all the wonderful and strange mystery. The second volume of the fantastic Library Edition collections features two short story anthologies, The Chained Coffin and The Right Hand of Doom as well as an extensive sketch gallery and some informative essays.
The short stories have been reassembled into a somewhat chronological order, though as usual with Hellboy, it hops back and forth a great deal. A lot of these stories are simple asides, not necessarily pushing the larger story forward, but building the world and history Hellboy and the B.P.R.D. exist within. But there are seeds (of destruction?) sown. One of my favorite characters, Roger, is named (he’ll play an important role in B.P.R.D.). And of course, The Right Hand of Doom gets a little more into just what Hellboy’s destiny is or may be. That, along with the final story Box Full of Evil do a lot to set the tone and theme of a lot of Hellboy’s future. He was made to end the world, after all.
The stories run the gamut, from humorous stories like Pancakes, which I get a genuine chuckle from every time I read Astaroth’s last line, to the sadness of Goodbye Mister Tod, to the hauntingly beautiful A Christmas Underground. Though referenced, this volume contains very little of the pulp sensibility that got me into Hellboy. No Nazis or masked avengers. But there is that sense of dread and ancient fear you get from folk like Lord Dunsany, Arthur Machen, or of course, Lovecraft. Sometimes this is made more poignant by Hellboy’s naiveté or more grim because of his occasional quiet resignation.
Probably not an ideal place to start with Hellboy, but good stuff all the same. It does a lot to set tone, to create a mood. One gets a sense of the world the characters live in. On the surface, much like our own, but with all those Old World fears lurking in every shadow. Every musty old mansion harboring ghosts and demons, every strange featured merchant carrying horrible secrets from ignored parts of the map, every dark forest filled with hungry eyes and gnashing teeth. Occasional transcendent beauty, surrounded by a mire of corrupting horror. And in the center of it all, a demon who plays at being a man, with a good heart and an evil destiny.
Hellboy Volume 2: The Chained Coffin & The Right Hand of Doom Author & Artist: Mike Mignola Publisher: Dark Horse Books ISBN: 978-1-59307-989-5
Joblo posted the poster and trailer for the upcoming animated film, Ages of Madness inspired by the works of H.P. Lovecraft. You know what that means? More disappointment headed our way! All biting humor aside, I'd love to get a great new work of cinematic Lovecraftian horror but I'm not really inspired by the glimpses of animation seen below. High hopes, but I guess I should withhold judgement until we see something a bit more significant.
I had a pretty fantastic Week in Dork. I followed up my Gunfighter Cineawesome Review with The Ox-Bow Incident and pretty much had my socks blown off. I had been holding off watching the movie till I read the novel, but finally decided that I was too damn lazy to ever read 224 pages...sigh. Now, having checked out the Fonda flick I'm reconsidering my inexplicable apathy towards the book.
The DVD/Blu Ray highlight of the week was definitely Criterion's release of Godzilla. I still haven't delved fully into the disc, having just checked out the dubbed Raymond Burr version of the film, but I am just stoked to finally have this kaiju classic in The Collection.
And the second DVD highlight of the week would be Shout Factory's Lethal Ladies Collection Volume 2. First, it has The Arena. Which is a mondo flick featuring Pam Grier as a Gladiator! Second, it has Fly Me with Kung Fu Stewardesses! Skip down to my mini review below to discover how much damn fun I had with that bit of ridiculous exploitation. I really hope Shout Factory kicks up their Roger Corman Cult Classic Collection release schedule cuz a few discs every three or four month is just not enough.
TV OF THE WEEK!
Twin Peaks Season 1: I had been hankering to rewatch Twin Peaks for some time, and The Auteur Cast's latest series on David Lynch gave me just the right excuse to dive back into the land of Laura Palmer, Log Ladies, Bob, Jaques & Jean Renault, backwards speech dreams, Dianne, and America's finest coffee. When this first aired on television back in 1990 I was 11 years old and could not wrap my tiny little brain around this Lynchian dreamscape. I was definitely aware of the Twin Peaks phenomenon and it seemed like all the adults were raving about this show for about three months--and then it disappeared. Ten years later I discovered the show in college and fell madly in love. Now I've taken it upon my show to introduce my wife to the show, and after a little resistance and the entire run of the first season's 7 episodes, she appears to be hooked. Personally, I've found it very difficult not to spoil the Who Killed Laura Palmer mystery but so far I haven't spoiled a thing. But watching the show through her has made me completely giddy. Possibly you've seen my @VFCinema reaction tweets I've posted over the course of this week. Lotta fun.
Justified Season 3 Episode 2 "Cut Ties": The second ep of the third season may not have had that killer table moment from the premiere, but it did have Carla Gugino reprising her role from the short-lived Karen Sisco...okay, so maybe she has a different name or whatever, but we all know this is Karen Sisco. Seriously, Justified now has Timothy Olyphant AND Carla Gugino!?!? That's just too much pretty for one show to handle. Really looking forward to seeing where this relationship takes us. Plus, "Cut Ties" also introduces us to this season's other Big Bad, Mykelti Williamson as the scary as hell butcher, Limehouse. Season 3 is gearing up to be more of the same--ABSOLUTELY BADASS TV.
They Grow The Hair Big In Twin Peaks
MOVIES OF THE WEEK!
The Ox-Bow Incident: "This Is A Fine Company For A Man To Die With." Just a damn depressing Western. Henry Fonda and Harry Morgan are a couple of ornery drifters who stumble into town and into a bloodthirsty posse after a couple of rustlers kill a local rancher. On the trail, the posse discovers Dana Andrews, Anthony Quinn, and Francis Ford with a herd of the rancher's cattle. Next thing you know, nooses are thrown over the tree and the posse is set for an execution. At just 75 minutes, The Ox-Bow Incident is a tight but swiftly brutal morality play that gets a tad preachy but this choirboy ate it up. A Must See For Fans of the Genre. For further understanding of its genius read my review over at Cineawesome.
The Call of Cthulhu: An effective adaptation of one of HP Lovecraft's most famous creations, this All-New Silent fumbles a bit with a few too many modern-faces but as the fools search where they shouldn't, and the madness spreads into our reality The Call of Cthulhu succeeds in dread where few other adaptations could. And you'll come away from your viewing aching to grab your friends and a camera and Make Your Own Damn Movie.
X The Man With The X-Ray Eyes: "Why Do You Want To See So Much?" Mad Scientist Ray Milland invents some pretty potent eye drops that empower him with X-Ray Vision. When a table of tightwad businessmen refuse to fund his research, he does it anyway thanks to some irresponsible friends and a monkey. Of course the eye drops cause madness and murder and Milland must hide in a freakshow managed by the huckster Don Rickles. Roger Corman had directed 37 films prior to this one, and a bunch of those are better than this...but a bunch of those are also much worse than X. And that's where I'd rank it--Right in The Middle.
Godzilla King of the Monsters: It's an odd experience watching the 1956 American re-edit of the original Gojira. Heaps of narration and wandering Raymond Burr are stuffed into the film as a gateway for English speaking audiences, and even though it holds a certain charm, at the end of the day it just gets in the way of a pretty fantastic monster movie. Let it be said though, that Burr is a professional and gives it his all for his awkward cram sessions. And there's no denying the Rubber Suit Beastie and the utter havoc Godzilla rains upon Tokyo. But this just ain't the proper way to see this film.
Fly Me: "See Stewardesses Battle Kung Fu Killers!" The film opens with three stewardesses boarding a flight from good 'ole U.S.of A. to scary, perverted Hong Kong where each one will be tested in the ways of WTF!?!? One girl spends the majority of the film held hostage, drugged, & nude. Another girl spends the film investigating her disappearance with her policeman lover named Rickshaw (and occasionally karate fighting). And the final girl tries to score with a Bone Specialist Doctor while attempting to ditch her mother in the big city. At the climax all the girls meet in a shoot out/karate beatdown. The film is ridiculous to the point of Zany Wonder and I loved every second of it. Of course, special bonus points awarded to Dick Miller's cabbie with the wandering eyes.
Underworld Awakening: The fourth outing in the tired Underworld franchise regains Kate Beckinsale's catsuited death dealer, and keeps the once-so-crucial hybrid Scott Speedman thankfully out of the limelight. Beckinsale awakens from some sort of deep freeze to a future utopia where humans have cleansed the world of both vampires and werewolves, stating "Mission Accomplished." Groan. Underworld 4 is less of a Suck Fest and more of a Snooze Fest with your only entertainment being provided by your mad MST3K skills of mockery. Or possibly you can start a drinking game at how many times Beckinsale randomly falls from the ceiling--two shots if done in slow mo.
Cover Girl Models: Similar to Fly Me, Cover Girl Models follows three pretty girls who inexplicably get involved in international espionage and awkward karate fights when one model (Pat Anderson, also from Fly Me) wears a dress carrying top secret microfilm stitched into the seam. Unlike Fly Me though, this cheapie exploitation is pretty much dullsville; lacking the quick-fire rapid pace insanity necessary to carry these shenanigans to trash cinema nirvana. And yeah, no Dick Miller, so no bonus points.
The Grey: Imagine Quint's U.S.S. Indianapolis speech from JAWS extended into a feature with the sharks switched for wolves and you start to get an idea of Joe Carnahan's A-Team follow-up, The Grey. A suicidal Liam Neeson says "No Mas" to fanged nature as he goes full-Jack London after his plane crashes somewhere in the winter wilderness of Alaska. Neeson continues his recent trend of mean 'ole badasses, leading the survivors deeper into the savagery of their own hearts. So don't just expect wolf-punching, Carnahan definitely goes a little Mallck metaphysical with the inner monologues and struggles with faith. And, yeah, definitely the first Real Good movie of 2012.
COMIC BOOK OF THE WEEK!
Ultimate Comics Avengers -- Death of Spider-Man: I am way behind on the Marvel Universe let alone the Ultimate Marvel Universe. I was definitely digging Mark Millar & Leinil Yu's run on the series climaxing in the previous trade with Captain America teleporting the Triskelion to an Iranian desert as a means for vaporizing hundreds of Super Vampires. But I gotta say that I was more than a little disappointed with this Epic *meh* Clash between Nick Fury's Avengers and Carol Danvers' New Ultimates. The Puppet Master was way obvious from four trades back, and even while trying to be meta-comenting on the cliches of the Versus comic it still manages to remain a boring cliche. And the Death of Spider-Man business? That really has nothing to do with these characters whatsoever, and feels way out of place when that plot collides here. I'll keep going with the series but this was a bit of a misstep.
