Review! Earth 2 #0 (DC)

COVER: Ivan Reis. As always, sweet!
STORY: James Robinson. (SPOILER) Well, we find out that the big three, Superman, WonderWoman,
                and Batman are betrayed by a fellow hero...Terry Sloan!What?! Isn't Terry Sloan Mr. Terrific?
                And isn't he African American? Well he pulls an "Ozymandias" and blows up half the world in
                order to "save it"...WHAT?! Confusion...head hurts...crappy story...sleepy now.
ART: Tomas Giorello. Best thing about this issue.
FINAL FILE: Skip it. 

Review! Team Seven #0 (DC)

COVER: Ken Lashley. A "character jumping through the torn page" cover, this time the whole team. This
                was not the cover originally solicited, not sure why the big change.
STORY: Justin Jordan. This story could have been done in a series of flashbacks during the monthly book
               with more success. As a #0 issue it just feels too "convenient". All we see is the exact moments
               when the Team Seven members are asked to join the team...BORING! Maybe you should have
               shown their first mission together to show off some of those skills and powers.
ART: Jesus Merino. A mix of Dan Jurgens and Mark Bagley, this art is by no means mind-blowing or
          innovative. Just about as middle ground as comic art gets.
FINAL FILE: #0 and Done!...just don't care about this cast..even Deathstroke cant save it.

New one...

...old one.

Review! Jennifer Blood: First Blood #1 (Dynamite)

COVER: Mike Mayhew. I usually enjoy this guys work. It is rather obvious that he uses photo references
                for his paintings. Well, this cover has some things that really bother me. First, what is with that ugly
                right foot of "karate Jennifer"? Then, what is that lump of flesh colored "something" that connects
                her arm and her back on the foreground figure? Last, Mayhew seems to think that adding black
                ink lines to the painting makes it more "comicy"...it doesn't.
STORY: Mike Carroll. This is my first 'Jennifer Blood' comic. Might be my last. It is just too slow and
                not very interesting on how long this woman has waited to get her revenge...and is still waiting.
                Feels like a watered down 'Punisher' story.
ART: Igor Vitorino. His stuff feels like a poor mans Bryan Hitch.
FINAL FILE:#1 and Done!

Review! Supercrooks #1-#4 ( Millerworld/ Icon)

COVERS: Leinil Yu. #1, sweet group shot. #2, nice shot of the Praetorian with all his vices, but what are
                  the two girls on his left looking at? The bottle in his hand or the strange red smudge? #3,
                  Gladiator tease. #4, nice.
STORY: Mark Millar. This will make a killer movie, and Mark knew it when he wrote it. Super powered
                thieves on a final heist just cant miss. One note; Millar prints the series in his 'Clint' magazine but
                do not read issue #2 in the magazine. Read the regular comic book version. There are some
                strange dialogue "mistakes" that where fixed in the comic version. trust me it will make more
                sense.
ART: Leinil Yu. Awesome! Just stinkin AWESOME!
FINAL FILE: Buy, Read, Bag! One of the best this year.

The new addiction of social media.

Into that square
Into that window you continue to stare
Are you even aware?
Real life is in front of you,
passing,
living,
dying
Do you not care?
You will never get back what you do not see
even me
Put down your window,
your square,
if you dare
You are losing yourself
with the shine,
with the dreaming,
with the glare...
coming out of that square.

by Artist221

Review! New Avengers #28 (Marvel)

COVER: Mike Deodato Jr. Some controversy with this cover. The original solicitation had Mockingbird
                on the cover and was later changed to Spiderwoman. Not sure what the mix up was but the cover
                still rocks!
STORY: Brian Michael Bendis. (SPOILER) This is by far the best single comic book issue I have read
               this year. It all starts with Spiderwoman, Hawkeye, and Luke Cage escaping from an X-Men
               prison. They make it all the way to freedom when we see the caption "simulation complete"...
               WHAT?! In one of the most gut wrenching, evil twists ever, we see that all three Avengers are
               actually trapped by Danger of the X-Men and are re-living the fake escape over and over. The
               worst part being that when they reach freedom they wake up and become aware that they will
               be re-living this, helpless to stop the cycle. A little bit of hope can be a dangerous thing.
ART: Mike Deodato Jr.  WOW. This guy has become one of my favorites. His action and lighting is just
           awesome. Look at page #19 and #20. The contrast of the tortured faces of the Avengers and the
           cold emotionless face of the mechanical Danger is bone chilling. One of these three Avengers has got
           to get revenge on Danger some time in the future and I cant wait to see it.
FINAL FILE: Buy it, Read it (twice), Bag it!...read this issue once, then read it again with the
                        knowledge of how it ends and you get a totally new perspective. Genius Bendis!

Review! Green Lantern Annual #1 (DC)

COVER:  Very dramatic cover of a "bleeding" Green Lantern logo on a black background.
STORY: Geoff Johns. (Spoiler Warning!)  So Black Hand is back and the Guardians are insane. There
                is also someone called the 'First Lantern' who was imprisoned and now released by the crazy
                old Guardians. Hal Jordan and Sinestro appear to be killed. The Guardians combine some of their
                skin, ala 'Venom',  into the first of the 'Third Army'.  This new creature quickly turns a security
                guard into the "second" member of the 'Third Army'. One will stay on Earth and the other will go
                off into space to build the rest of the army...WHAT?!
ART: Ethan Van Sciver and Pete Woods. I'm a fan of Ethan's work. He fits great with this title. I do not
          know if he was responsible but the design for the 'Third Army' creatures just sucked! (the idea sucks
          too) Boring design. They look like naked Frankenstein, little grey men,ninja dorks! Not intimidating in
          any way. I guess they needed a simple design because they are gonna draw thousands of these guys
          but come on, try a little bit harder.
FINAL FILE: Buy it, Read it (tongue in cheek), Bag it!

Whats up with the title?

I have been enjoying the story of 'American Muscle' in the title 'Creator Owned Heroes'. My one request is that they explain the title. Creator Steve Niles mentioned that it had to do with the cars they drive in some way but it has not been any important part of the story. It is a post-apocalyptic zombie tale and has little to do with any kind of muscle or American. I just don't think the title fits...yet.

Just a thought...

Picture the world before web based social media as a giant library.
You could walk around and pick and choose the books that you wanted to read.
Now picture that same room but with every book and every page in those books open for you to see all at the same time...
and you cant close your eyes.

To all things there is a season.
The fall is coming.

Film Review! The Expendables 2

I feel cheated. Not because the film was bad but because the timing was wrong. This (and the first one) film was something I would have loved to see as a kid. When the stars where all in their prime. It made me a bit sad to see how old these guys are and it shows on film. Stallone looks so juiced up he belongs on an episode of 'Jersey Shore'...I seriously thought he might explode. There was a few good scenes like when Jason Statham took on some guys in a church and Jet Lee fighting in a kitchen with pots and pans. We did get the usual big bangs and CG blood in buckets. If you like this stuff, enjoy it, they cant be around forever.
Final File: Big film needs big screen...see it in theaters!

Digital tools leads to weak artwork!

I am a firm believer that the artist, not the tools ,makes the art work. With that said I have begun to see a dark trend in comic books lately. With the use of new technology artists are trying out new tools to create their art. Well it may be that there is a learning curve to pass or just a bit of laziness involved but some of the worst art I have come across has been digital.
Look at the cover to 'Age of Apocalypse' #5 by Carlo Barberi and Edgar Delgado. First of all it is a weak cover that looks like it took Carlo about 15 minutes to draw. Then look at the area around her left hand and down around her feet...see anything that should not be there? There are sketch marks of the original layout that where not erased! How much of a hurry was Barberi in to finish this cover that he had no time to get rid of those lines? Could it be that he knew that it was going to be digitally colored and just figured no one would notice? I noticed. Then Delgado took about 10 minutes and put some color on. He also did not notice the unerased marks. Look at the "hole in the fire" to the bottom right. The digital paint strokes are just blatantly obvious...also done without a care ( lets throw in editor Nick Lowe as the last person who should have caught these mistakes but did not...or did he also not care?).
Now look at page one of ' Boba Fett is Dead' #1 by Chris Scalf. This piece was done on Photoshop or some form of digital program that uses layers. He made one layer the ground and painted Boba on a seperate layer. Well, when he combined the layers he was supposed to erase any edges that carried over and not part of the Boba drawing. Follow the edge of Boba and look at his right hand and right leg. You can clearly see where Scalf was too lazy to erase the extra edge from the second layer ( this would have taken him seconds to do) or he just did not care.
Creators, we spend our money to buy your books and the least you could do is put some TLC into the final product. If you don't care enough to give us a good final book why should we care enough to spend our money on it?
( That was only two examples...imagine how many more there are in the tons of books published every month.)

No men in animation?!

Why do all the new animated series like 'Justice League', 'Avengers', and 'Green Lantern' give the characters
teenage voices? They are supposed to be heroic, tough, grown men and they all have the voices of 17 year
olds. Specifically Green Arrow, Iron Man, and Hal Jordan all really irritate me when I hear them talk. I know
there has to be some grown men who can do voice overs to hire. Making them sound so young will not make them more relateable   to kids. I grew up with 'G.I.Joe' and 'Superfriends' when manly heroes had manly voices...lets bring it back. No one wants to hear wimpy voiced heroes!

Review! Anti #1 (12 Gauge)

COVER: Brian Stelfreeze. Good to see Brian's art on the cover. I'm a fan.
STORY: Peter Calloway. Not very groundbreaking. Demons and demon hunters mixed with religion and
                a possible conspiracy. Not new but done well.
ART: Daniel Hillyard. Sometimes you get a penciler that uses two or more inkers and that changes the
           look of the art. The credits do not mention an inker so I have to assume that Daniel inks his own
           stuff. With that said...why dose his art change styles half way through the book? It starts off nice and
           tight with a perfect blend of Travis Charest ( panel #1, page #3 looks like a 'Wildcats' character) and
           Leinil Francis Yu (panel#7, page#9 he even dose the lower eyelashes like Yu). Then on page #13
           Daniel starts to channel Frank Quitely big time ( The bald lieutenant looks just like Lex Luthor from
           ' All Star Superman'). So are they pulling a fast one on us or does Daniel suffer from multiple
           personalities?
FINAL FILE: Buy it (its only $1), Read it...maybe bag it.

Film Review! The Possession

I'm back!...for now. Yosemite might have killed me.
Oh well, on to business.

I hate new horror. It is just never done right. 'The Possession' was just another example of that. I blame all
of it on 'The Ring'. Ever since that crap came out all horror film makers feel that they have to follow a stupid
pattern. Little girl with long dirty hair and gothic makeup+ very loud noise followed by a few notes played
on a piano= SCARY?! This doesn't add up. And since when are moths scary? Put all this together and throw in some uncomfortable scenes of a little girl in too revealing cloths and you get the picture.
Final File: Avoid! Even on CD!