2012

If the world is going to come to an end in 2012, then it looks like we'll be going out in style.

They've just announced that the third Batman movie by C. Nolan will be out in 2012. I've got my thoughts on whether they can build on such a great movie which the Dark Knight was, but that's for a later discussion.

So far, slated to come out is Spider-Man 4, Star Trek 2, and (keep your fingers crossed for this one) The Avengers movie. It could be an all out war at the box office if all these movies come out in 2012. And frankly it's a war I'd like to see.

S.W.O.R.D. #3

I love this book. I think it's great for all the reasons that other books fail. It's a spin off, which usually means that the company is just trying to get some more money from an event. To me this one works. It's funny, the characters are new and have tons of room to grow. This book can even link the marvel space stuff to the earth stuff.

SWORD is like the port authority of the world. Think Men in Black but without Will Smith, oh and funny with more sci-fi parts. All the things you want without the mind wipe jokes.

But I just read that this might get canceled. It would be a real shame if this title does get canceled. So far it's been fun and exciting. I urge you to pick this title up, even just to see Lockheed kick some ass. And who doesn't like to see a cat sized dragon taking on a SWAT team of HAMMER agents?

Lastly I have to say that the art was a little weird at first. The way they drew Beast was more of a blue cow than the cat Beast we've grown to love. But now I like it. It fits the tone of the writing and it just all works. I wish Marvel would give this title some time to grow. I've seen them give much worse titles a lot longer to linger to a slow death. Let's not jump ship after the first arc.

Avatar Review

When I first heard about this movie, so many years ago, I said it sounded stupid. I kept thinking of that anime Avatar crap and couldn't get those images out of my mind. Then I started to hear bits and pieces of what the movie was truly about. Still, it wasn't making my blood heat up.

But, and you can ask many people about this, I said that I didn't want to hear anything more about this movie until it comes out. This was a James Cameron movie. The man who brought us Aliens, T1, T2, The Abyss (all of which could easily be in my top 10 or 2o influential movies) and to some extent Titanic. I never liked Titanic but could certainly appreciate it for the special effects and scope of the movie. Even though I didn't care for the story, and knew the ending, you now see how the path of special effects changed once that movie came out.

So having said all this, I didn't want to know anything and would take faith that JC (huh, never thought of that connection before) would know what he's doing.

Avatar proves he does. The movie is spectacular. I wouldn't call the story ground breaking or some of the ideas and designs so new that it will change the way people think, but the execution. This movie does what Titanic did, changes the path of special effects and opens doors to what future film makers and story tellers can do.

The film is a good, solid film which is what is needed to hold up with the eye candy that would make a fat kid cum. The love story and themes of technology vs nature are all strong and well done. This wasn't My Life where I'm crying half way through the movie. The 3D worked well. Once I even found myself jumping at an effect. What made the 3D good was that it didn't try to be a 3D movie. No gimmicks just, come see this world and get immersed in this world, which you do.

Another masterpiece by a master. A film maker that doesn't take crap, knows what he wants, has a clear vision and makes that vision come to life. At the end of the day, that's what I'll remember. It's what inspires me to create and pisses me off that I'm not creating as much. At the end, all I kept thinking was, what's holding me back. Now I know that no matter what I think of is possible. And to not limit myself to what I know can be done, but take my ideas further because technology can make them attainable.

It's a great movie and will make Billions. But better yet, it will make better film makers and inspire better films. James Cameron is a limit breaker. It reminds me of the Matrix where the young child tells Neo, there is no spoon (which is the secret of the Matrix). Avatar reminds us and tells us that there is no spoon. Once you understand that, you're mind will be free.

Let's see what all the hub-bub is about

Any of you who know me, knows that I hate the Watchmen. Ok, I feel a geek sniper aiming in on me now.

Maybe it's because I read it so long after it came out, I feel current writers are taking what Moore did to higher and better levels. Or maybe I prefer more superheros in my super hero books. Or maybe I just like good books and so many have been persuaded over the years to say this is a great book when it's really not.

Either way, I don't like Watchmen. I do like when people tell me the story and what it's all about and the intricacies inside the book, but I couldn't even stay awake reading Watchmen. Instead of Ambien, I'd read a few pages of Watchmen and I'd be out like a light.

Never the less, this weekend on HBO is the movie's big premier. I've already got it set to record. I'm sure there are some really good points and I'm a fan of Zack Snyder so in a way I am looking forward to watching the Watchmen. The long asked question will be answered this Saturday. Who watches the Watchmen, well... the BEAR will be. I'll let you know how it was.

Necrosha, again WTF?!?!

Ok, I know I've been a little negative lately. I've done a lot of reading over the past few weeks with all the days off. So I've been catching up. In full disclosure I usually wait for the Trades to come out for X-Men books. The ones that I get monthly would be X-Force, Cable and Astonishing X-men. I think those have been real quality and don't always flow with the regular series, especially Astonishing X-men.

But I just don't get this Necrosha story. It seems like Marvel was looking at what DC was doing and said we need to have something like the Black Lantern story. First off, there are many things that I inherently don't think are plausible, and for a comic that really bad.

1) They're very wishy washy on trying to explain M-Day and the rise of all these dead X-Men.

2) Most of the "dead mutants" no one cares about. That's been a problem and a gift by the Marvel teams. The popular mutants don't die. Remember M-day and Ice man lost his powers. Well, you can have that so magically he got them back in some half assed explanation ASAP. Magneto's dead and powerless, I don't think so... I can go on. So these mutants that are coming back alive, I have no idea who or they are nor do I care.

Luckily Cable and Ast. X-Men aren't really involved in this story so their books are still solid. But take X-Force. Great idea. Cyclops own personal hit squad. Going after the humans that would have them dead!! I love it. And let's not forget about the art. Crain is putting together some amazing work and has the talent to really do something special. But with such abstract and never seen before art, you really need a simple good story to go along with it or it just confuses me even more.

This is early in the scope of the Necrosha story so I'll give it a chance and maybe the regular books, when they come out in trade form, will tie this together for me. For now, I think they're wasting their Writer's talents as well as their Artist's talents with a wacky story that doesn't seem to be anything we need. The X-men have enough issues with their new island home, moving to the west coast, waiting for the return of Cable and Hope.... Just keep it simple and tell some simple arcs until we get deep into what is surly going to be a big year for the X-men either in 2010 or 2011 (I just get that feeling once the Dark Reign / Siege is over).

What the ?#@$%? happen to SW #10?

You're not going to find a bigger fan of the new Secret Warriors book than me. I've loved it and truly enjoyed it each month. It has been one of the few books that I still get excited when it's in my stack.

Now maybe it's just me, but what the fuck is up with #10? I loved the whole idea leading up to this issue but I can't make heads or tails of what's going on. I feel like I've missed #9 or something. I'm going to have to go back and check out the previous few issues to make sure I'm not missing anything. The art sucks compared to the other issues and most of this book is a re-telling of a couple of different books. I've still never grasped the fact that Ares and Hercules are on earth and are supposed to be "gods" that are somehow not apart of Asgard and Thor's mythos, it's like they've got separate religions and faiths going on at the same time. But that's fine because you've got other types of "gods" like in the Iron Fist books or Dr. Strange. I've accepted that there are just "gods" and all types of "gods", it don't make sense but I'll go with it.

But I want Nick Fury to be kicking as and taking names. It feels like in one issue we've gotten away from Fury's storyline and into some strange direction about the god of fear and how he comes to be, which really isn't explained well. It touches on two swords and I can't tell what is what? Then at the end Ares says that the kid has to die anyway? What the fuck?!?!

I don't mind deep stories but I'm a comic book reader. If I wanted to have to figure stuff out and look deep into a story to understand it, I'd read a big book with no pictures. I'm not giving up on the series or anything but to plunk down $2.99 for a recap and some pages of shit I don't understand, well that's not fair. Especially when the book has been so good. It's not like one of those books you buy and you know it's going to be shit but you buy it anyway just in case or maybe you'll get around to reading it. I expect this book to be good in the way that when you're done, you're pissed and want more. Now I'm just confused and don't know what to do next, like after you lose your virginity. Again, maybe it's just me. We'll see what #11 brings us.

Batman and Robin #6

So we've gotten a good dose of this book. There is definitely something to be said about how Morrison and Quitely work together. Tan is an above average artist but the book has lost something since issue #3.

Morrison's ability to bring up and insert crazy characters into a story and make them relevant is part of his greatness and what can make him annoying and makes me run away at times. What see many reviews missing is that Damien (sp? - the new Robin) is starting to become likable in his crazy way. Being a brat is one thing but it was getting tired. Now he's getting some fleshing out and growth, which I like.

I'm waiting for the trades of the new Batman books since his "death" (spoiler alert!!) so I'm not up to what's happening in the other books, but Batman and Robin is doing good for me. I just hope that now Morrison has had his fun with Dr. Pyg and this Flamingo guy, he can focus on them or Jason Todd or even an established villain and tell a story.

I don't mean to ramble but one of the things that I liked from the RIP crap were all these odd villains. Now just do something with them. I think this is a problem with comics in general, is that they are always trying to lead into the next thing. There seems to be a fight to never have a third and final act. We can never had a conclusion because the stories have to roll into each other. I don't feel that's true. I think you can have a story that actually has a clear cut finish and then in the next month start something new. That's what I think is the biggest failure of DC in the last few years. With both Crisis arcs and Batman RIP mixed in, it just goes and goes and goes. It's OK to have a 3 or 6 book arc that ends and then we start something new. I think that would resolve a lot of these issues of endings not paying off. To me, comics have gotten great at building stories up. Then after months or in TPB we never get a real good ending, where you put the book down and then say, "that was a great story". I think that's why I like The Long Halloween, is because it ends. Same as the movie, The Dark Knight. Sure they leave a few things where they can take the next arc or come back to it one day, but there's an ending.

I don't need everything to roll into the next summer event.

Sorry it took so long to get this latest post up. I know the one or possibly two people that read this have been wonder where I've been. I could probably just email my mother with this info and the same amount of people would have read it.