Transformers 3 review

As I sit here; trying to contemplate what to say about Transformers 3, I’m left with a feeling of emptiness.

I’m not empty because of the movie. In fact, I think it’s a great movie. It’s everything I asked for. When people would say that Transformers 2 sucked, I wouldn’t agree with that. There are many great scenes. What was the story trying to accomplish, I don’t know but it’s not that different than what was going on in Trannies 3. I think in lieu of spending a lot of money on the desert and Great Pyramids, we got to see what that money could do to destroy Gotham, I mean Chicago. (You can’t see the river drawbridge scenes without being reminded of TDK or even when Optimus, in full truck and trailer mode, is driving down the same street that the Joker did and then had his truck flipped. That area must be making bank with all the high priced movies shooting there.)

I feel empty because I think Michael Bay is bored. While the story of Trannies 3 was better and more comprehensive it doesn’t compare to the first one where everyone who grew up playing with the toys and watching the shows where completely blown away. He’s bored and just wanted to take this movie out by trying every trick in his book. I want to make sure that I give the writers their due. Unlike many trilogies this one wasn’t something that was a planned arc that would show the growth of these robots. Let’s not confuse it with Star Wars or LOTR. But to the writer’s credit I didn’t see the twist coming from Sentinel Prime and the plot of returning Cybertron was interesting. Where I felt empty was the execution.

Again, I have to say I feel this is a great movie in so many ways. I’ve now seen it twice and felt the same way each time. It was a spectacle to see but the “pops” and build-ups weren’t there. The second time around I saw more of the battles and they did feel longer. Any you must keep in mind that for a 15 second, grand robot fight, every single frame is basically manufactured, rendered and created by computer artist gods. In an actual real life action sequence you’d spend a fraction of the cost and could go on for 20 minutes to even come close to the cost. So I understand that time and financial constraints are what hold back the ultimate battle scenes, which is why you’d rely on a better script and execution to get the “pop” you’d want from the audience.

Make no mistake, watching the freeway scene / the HALO diving and flying through the air / almost every transformation / every hand to hand battle between robots; all where amazing. Including the use of 3D. This is what 3D was made for. This was on par with the excellence of Avatar. While 3D is over used in so many movies, such as Thor where you hardly noticed it and really just added to the ticket price, you got your money’s worth out of the 3D in Transformers 3. I’ll be glad when only a select number of films are made with the intent of having 3D and actually pull off the effects this precisely.

I’ll get back to my point so we can finish this up. With all the great things that can be said about this movie, I feel that it truly is time for Michael Bay to move on. He’s clearly tired of the franchise. I think like any genius he gathered himself and wanted to prove that the second film’s flaws could be fixed. The issue is that the heart as sole where gone. Where I could see passion was in the performance of the great “Dr. Jeong”. He’s great and to add him to the cast was fantastic. The humor of his paranoid character, which ultimately proves correct, was so funny. The other new actors, Malkovich and McDormand, weren’t needed and seemed to be over castings. Ultimately who cares, so they got a few million to be in the film, a drop in the bucket.

I can’t wait to see what Bay does next. He’s proven with these three movies that there is nothing visually that he can’t pull off. Bay has proven to be the lord of the BOOM and can take any script and turn it into a action spectacular, such as Con-Air or The Rock. Unbelievable stories but true escapism for a summer time audience.

Bay’s had to basically create actors from nothing, and I’m not talking about his female leads. I’d like to see him tackle a script that has to work around humans, even if it’s a sci-fi world, and put all the money and talent into what happens around them.

Even though I’m left a little empty and feel as though the director is clearly done with these characters, I can’t wait until Bay’s next project. The same can be said for the Transformer franchise. With the money that it’s making, there’s no way that they don’t do another film or set of films. I think it’s also proven that they can spend the money on special effects and not worry if it will make it’s money back. So imagine the right director that has an unlimited budget and also has a great story to tell. That sets up for a great Trannies 4!!!

I’m already getting excited.

As I told friends going into the movie; all I want to see is big robots transforming and blowing each other up. That’s certainly what I got.

Dwayne McDuffie

To try and pretend that I knew much about Dwayne McDuffie would only be a cruel disrespect of the man. I can’t say that he was my favorite writer ever. I can’t say that I followed him so devoutly as others have stated in recent memorials. But what I can say is that he made an impression on me. The biggest was, it seemed that every DCU animated show that I watched in the last few years always had his name appear somewhere on it. Either as writer, producer or just about any other creative-executive job one could have. He touched many of the shows that I watched and enjoyed.

When I came apparent that this guy was popping up a lot I seemed to remember the name. I went back and discovered that he was around for the comic boom in the ‘90s but was a key person in the Milestone comics, which brought minority characters to the forefront of comics. Again, I bought and read some of the stuff from back in those days but was never overly impressed. Then again, I was mainly looking at the pictures during my comic book development years and never really focused on knew what the writing had to do with comics.

What is true is that Dwayne McDuffie touched and shaped what I was learning to love. Whether I knew it or not, he was part of what I know as comic book lore. Sadly he may never get to know his impact nor the will the people who where impacted by his work know him as well as they should. He may be the reason why you’ll see a black Nick Fury in the upcoming Avengers movie. He may be the reason that DC animated shows and movies are generally better than the competition. His impact will be far greater in the long term than he may have ever realized during his life.

For all of this and including his long work in the industry that I do love, a simple thank you is what I can offer. Thank you for leaving this world with something better than it had before. There are many that work but few that impact. Thank you, Dwayne McDuffie, for everything you’ve meant to comics and the surrounding mediums.

Avengers Prime steak or just Chuck roast?

It does kill me to knock comic books. They give me so much pleasure and I always try to be a glass half full kind of guy when it comes to reviewing. I know it takes so much time and effort to put out just one book that I don't want to beat up on anybody who's out there creating.

I can feel a little better about this next part because there wasn't much creating going on here and if anything, it took some unbelievable skill to make this book even readable.

Avengers Prime, a six part mini series is far from Prime. This isn't even the cheap marinade crap you'll get from the mexican markets. That's actually enjoyable after you wrap it up with some cheese and rice; right off the grill MmMMMMMmmm.

Where do I start? I guess I'll have to list them since i think I can just come up with a bunch really fast:

1) Time to publish
-It'd be one thing if this story came out right after Siege. But in all the other books that these characters are in we've moved on. There is no reason to tell this story, that again (and you'll hear me say this again and again), could have been told in a million other places and ways. This book too 2 months per issue to come out. It's been almost a year since the end of Siege. Hell, Iron Man is onto is 2nd or 3rd new armor by now and Cap's already running an Avengers team AND acting as top cop in the Marvel U.

2) I feel like Marvel is cramming these characters down my throat as the 3 biggest they have.
- I'll get more into this later

3) This story didn't do anything for anyone or any character except for the stupid "super sword".
-After 5 issues we're left with nothing but these guys friends again, which is stupid that they had to go through this adventure to become friends because they really didn't meet back up until issue 4. They should have been forced to be stuck together and through their bickering they found why they're friends and why they have the eternal / spiritual / warrior connection. But after all this nonsense, we now have a "repaired" friendship and a magical all powered sword that's given to a guy with no room to even put it in. He's specifically instructed to put this sword somewhere safe?!!?!? Asgard is lying in ruins, where would this safe place be?

4) Ripping off the readers money by making us think that this has anything to do with anything.
- At least if this was just a One-Shot, I'd have felt like they got 3 - 5 bucks out of me but moved the characters along. NOOOOO, they milked me for 5 issues so that's over $20!!! to do nothing.

5) It trips over itself to get these small character moments in when this could have been done in a one-shot or in the characters books or any of the other Avenger regular books.
- I realized I'm saying this a lot but it's totally true and deserves it's own number as well.

6) I'm even more confused to what the "9 realms" are supposed to be.
- The biggest problem with Thor and what I see is with the upcoming Thor movie is how do you integrate this mystical world of Asgard into the real world? Thor always seems to me to be a device that no one has quite understood how to use. By himself and in a vacuum I like his stories. But trying to make the "god of thunder" and all that goes with it join into the world of humans is just odd. I can believe that an alien baby came along with super powers easier that I can that a Norse god came or was sent to earth for whatever reasons. First you have to believe in a God or Heaven, then you have to believe that instead of God, Ala or Jesus is not real but instead a Viking god from an ancient culture is. It just doesn't add up. Especially when you're trying to tie him into a team of and Industrialist, Spies, Super Soldiers or experiments gone wrong.

7) Not one of the ancillary characters made sense.
- The Elf girl that helps Captain America seems to be the only friendly character in the entire city / area that he winds up in. He's fighting an entire city of ugly warriors but then magically runs into this single hot elf that take him in and helps him? I'm waiting the whole time for her to turn on him, then once I've convinced myself that it will happen she still doesn't. How is she even in this city where everyone but her is ugly and miserable and want's to kill Cap and the legendary Thor?
- Iron man is trapped in this one place where an old man has the power to turn into a crazy Fing Fan Fum dragon. Iron man, whose suit is old and not working and literally ripped off of him somehow survives long enough through his wit and charm? But he's not charming, he's an idiot and why don't these enemies just kill him. I don't recall how he's allowed to escape. Even if they hear and see signs of the god of thunder, Tony's still just human. Kill him, eat him, stab him with something before you go investigating what made that noise.

8) This is supposed to cement in that Thor, Cap and IM are the Big Three like DC has in Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman?
- Has anyone ever heard of Spider-man or the Fantastic Four or Hulk or the X-men... One of the best things about the Marvel Universe is that there are so many stars. I understand this is for marketing purposes because of the upcoming movies. But really, is there any potential movie goer dashing to the comic book store to read the story of these three lost in a mashed up, 9 dimensional world?


The fact that the writing and art keeps you even going is a miracle. I don't know if this means Bendis and Davis are great because someone had to have came up with this idea. I would say that I do enjoy some of the tongue and cheek moments that flesh out the "big 3"'s relationship with each other and the Marvel U, but they are few and far between for a 5 book series. Like I said, we're not talking about Tarantino-like scenes. These one liners could easily be placed in other places. AND I can only think of two or three off the top of my head.

The whole idea and push on this book was stupid and and insult to avid fans and even the poor sap that's maybe just buying a few books every now and then. This is the type of stuff and rip off that pushes people away. I hope it wasn't Bendis' idea, I can almost be positive that it was not because it feels like a total money grab which leads me to believe he was told to do something like this and made it as good as he could. Let's hope that's the case.

Davis' art is very serviceable. That might sound like a slight but it's not. He does a fine job and even on some very impressive 2 page splashes creates some great war scenes with a ton of characters on the page. There's nothing bad at all, but at the same time I was rarely blown away. Again, it was good and I think it serviced this horrible mess just fine.

I'm glad I got that off my chest. It's rare that a book, even a bad one, will get me so worked up. I fall for a lot of these money grabs and unnecessary stories. 90% of the time I don't care and can find enjoyment out of them but this was too much. When I was done I truly felt FUCKED over. (Aren't you all surprised I waited this long to curse!!)

Iron Man's Legacy?

I’ve got stacks. Literally stacks of books built up. I don’t know how because I always seem to be reading but I guess there is just no catching up.

So the other day I started reading Iron Man Legacy. I wasn’t too impressed with the covers. Not that the art was bad, I just didn’t see anything that was going on during the first 6+ issues I had stored up. I liked the design of the last few that I had from the Industrial Age arc, but nothing that was reaching out and telling me that I had to read this book.

This is one of those stupid gifts, one’s procrastinating things where it actually rewards you. I love this book. I don’t understand where this is supposed to take place? Does it revolve around the movies or the current Iron Man books? I don’t know. Either I’m completely out of it or it’s never fully explained, but the best I can do is that these are just a variety of stories from all over Iron Man’s past. Which is cool. You just need to know the basics and the creators will get to tell any story they want, whether it’s when Tony Stark is at the top or bottom of his game. He’s been through so much, there’s tons of unexplored time where you can jump in and tell a story.

I guess if you’re looking for continuity for years to come, this is not the book for you. This is, a few issues, telling a good solid back story to explain a time in the character’s past. I like it.

The “Industrial Revolution” plot that I’m in the middle of is just fun. You get a ton of surprises, such as the Pride in a good role. Being from Los Angeles, I’ve always been disappointed that the west coast gets no real superhero love. The Pride was a great way to explain all of that really quickly and easily. But now that Marvel has this “Pride” I’m glad to see capable hands using them to better stories. The fact that they fear that their territory is being attacked by a broken Stark is great. The fact that they’re own fears will probably what makes Tony stronger in the end is something you can see a mile away but it’s a good footnote. And you can never go wrong with Tony being Tony while the world is crumbling around him. It’s not just that he’s a genius but he truly believes that bad environments can change and be changed if by only one man.

When a cheap little back story can get you to see how Tony sees the world even when every thing has been taken from him, you realize that maybe as much as Tony needs Iron Man…Iron Man needs Tony. Tony sees the ghetto and wants to make it better. not by just buying it up and fixing it but also, if need be, by necessity and doesn’t even realize it. He needs start up cash. He holds a town hall for the entire city and explains how a company can be started, owned, and create it’s own jobs just by the people of the city coming together.

Dealing with the economic market in my real life, I marvel at the simplicity of Tony’s idea is. Maybe it wouldn’t actually work but at least the idea is brought up. people are loosing their jobs and companies are sending the work overseas. What if a town bought a factory and everyone had a small ownership in that factory and that factory would give good jobs out and you wouldn’t need to worry that the factory wasn’t going anywhere because the people of the city owned it. There wasn’t a board that you needed to show yearly growth and how much more profits are this year than last. It’s all there for the people by the people. If only real life was as easy as comic books.

Let’s not forget the art. Steve Kurth is killing it. I see a lot of Frank Quitely in some of these shots. But there is certainly a different style. No shot seems to big for Kurth. I think that I’ve seen a lot of that lately. There seem to be a lot of good artists that get the job done. But not a lot of them can do camera breakdowns with so many in’s and out’s and different page layouts that totally flow. An artist that can give you a close up on Tony’s snarky face and then back out the camera to see an abandoned where house is really stretching the “scene” and can give you that life that sells a joke or makes the comic punch. I like it. Some artists can do the close-up and others can do the backgrounds but to have the same balance and detail to both is rare, especially with the tons of different books out there.

I won’t leave out the writer, Fred Van Lente. He’s doing a great job. Again, it’s not always easy to take a character from different times in their past and create his history. You’ve got to live in the minds of the reader. You’re telling stories about the times in between. We as readers know Tony went from rich to poor. Here it shows one of Tony’s first sober moments and how he starts to regain his wealth. Like I mentioned it also give a chance to see what’s made Tony the person he is today.

Bottom line is read it. Hell, it’s not going to kill you. You could be reading worse and I’m sure you are.

New Cool Artist Find - Annie Wu

Why do I love art so much? It’s because you never know where or when something will hit you in the face and drop you on your ass. I’m doing my normal nothing on the internet and one video leads me to another blog to another website and bam! I find a post of all kinds of artists. One of the first ones is by, get this, a WOMAN…. I know, I couldn’t believe it either!!

Well it’s true, this amazing picture of the JLA is by Annie Wu. From what I can find about her; she’s a young up and coming artist. Well to be honest I haven’t read too much other than her About on her blog, but I’ve looked at some of her other work too. Very clean lines but I want to say kinda dark as well (theme not color). I definitely feel there is a new trend in some of the young art like Annie and dare I say Ryan Ottley that at first I would say is a wave but really is old school, of having fewer lines but more detail.

I was looking at some old Disney animation work from the days of Cinderella and Snow White. Old school animation that had to be good but at the same time had to be able to be drawn over and over so there must be a simplicity to the line but at the same time have detail. I think that’s what I’m loving about Ottley’s work and what I’m seeing here. While in the 90’s we where amazed by all the crosshatching that was disguised at detail, but in many cases was really just covering up what the artist couldn’t do. Knowing how to do a wisp of hair with just two lines is much more impressive than if you draw two straight lines and then crosshatch and shadow the thing to death to make it look wispy.

So here’s to Annie Wu. Check out www.anniewuart.com

Superman : Earth One

I love Superman : Earth One.

Now before you read it, forget everything you know about Superman and all the lore that goes with the character. If you can’t do that, don’t read the book. In fact, don’t read comics in general these days because there is a time and a place for memory and continuity.

Big Blue has never been one of my favorite characters to read. The problem for me is that if he’s unbeatable, there’s no real tension that can be sustained in a Superman series. This sentiment has been said before. I’m not the first one that’s seen the life and death of superman also be his Achilles heal.

If you take away about 99% of what you know about Superman and just start reading this book, I think you’ll find it refreshing. Straczynski tells a great beginning. This is obviously DC greatest statement to Marvel’s Ultimate line. I’ll say the same things to haters of what’s done in the Ultimate line… THIS IS DIFFERENT. I get that it’s hard to separate your brain from the years and years of comics that you’ve consumed but you have to give these stories a chance and give the writers the benefit of the doubt.

If you’d have titled this book Man with Super powers, sold the story in regular story form and gave it no hype; I’m sure it wouldn’t have sold as many books. Likewise I bet there would have been a ground swell about this story and a strong fan base would have been gathering each issue. I think to The Authority. We all knew who Batman and Superman where supposed to be but you take it for granted because it’s called something different and it helps that in Authority they’re gay lovers and it’s made very clear. As a sidebar, check out the first few trades of Authority; they’re great stories with great emerging writing and drawing heavyweights-to-be.

The point is that Earth One is exactly what I’ve been waiting for. A different take on the Superman story. As good as Geoff Johns’ recent run on Superman, his take on Superman Origins and then the combined efforts on New Krypton where recently; they didn’t or can’t give a complete reboot of the superman story. At the end of the day, they’re still beholden to the 70 year legacy of Action Comics and the various Superman books. With Earth one, we have the chance and are given, a new version of Superman is unleashed.

I’ve heard of the complaints. They all seem aesthetic and not about the actual story. The book isn’t some “emo” version of Supes’. It feels like what a kid that’s been tucked away for years might actually feel like when he’s force to leave home for the first time and find his place in the year 2010. Finally it seems that a writer is allowed to show that it’s totally ridiculous for Clark Kent to be at a thriving newspaper. Straczynski gets him in the suit, gets him at the Bugle and gets Lois Lane and all the other characters in and surrounding him. But the tone of this Man of Steel is vastly different. Unsure and in the dark about so much.

I’m not saying this is a masterpiece. There are tiny things that I’d gripe about. Being at the Daily Bugle in the first place is kinda stupid and if they made it a different media type or different job all together, it wouldn’t hurt my feelings. I will say that if he was going to be at a newspaper, the change in all the characters definitely makes it believable. Characters like Perry White are given the 21st century voice that they’ve been needing. Lois and Jimmy are updated. Metropolis has been redone. I don't want to say updated because it's not the beacon of civilization that it currently is in other books. (I've always believed that Metropolis was in fact Chicago, while Gotham is clearly New York.) Even Krypton seems to be given a slightly different back story.

There’s too much that is left unsaid to give a fair thumbs up or down on many of these changes. We’re left with many mysteries such as what our villain says as his end comes. Nothing is mentioned about Lex Luthor, which is also great. We don’t need to crowbar Lex into every story.

It's also not fully clear on why Superman has to go out and make it on his own and "find his way". I understand that's what the Kents wanted for him to do but he's Superman, he could have done anything. If he wanted to be a hermit, no one was going to stop him. The only thing I could think is that you have to keep along the lines somewhere that this is Superman. If you totally rip the S from his chest you're no longer writing a Superman book. There's just certain things you have to go with.

I am slightly worried that Straczynski has a trail of stories that start off great or even beyond great but as we know the end is nearing, they start to loose steam. The first book or so of Rising Stars is some of the best story telling around. But I felt that the end was not equal to the outstanding beginning. Maybe that’s the trouble with writing such a great opening piece, that everything after it has to be as great. There is something said about setting the bar too high. But I don’t feel he did this on book one of Earth One. Like I said, it’s good / bordering on great. But not the most amazing tale ever. There’s room to grow and fail. If the next few books came out and where crap, I’d still think this was a great shot and brave step for DC, who at times is too afraid to let their “big three” be seen in any other light than truth justice and what’s been going on for the past 70 years.

I’ll give this one 4 out of 5 stars. This is a good beginning and a must read for any other fans that want a new variation of the Superman story without loosing who superman is. I think it’s also a good stepping stone for the future and has the possibility of possibility. That’s to say, there’s room to change and directions to go with this Superman that where previously locked away.

Why was Krypton at war? Why was it so bad if Kal-El escaped? Who was the traitor who gave Krypton's enemy the means to destroy it? What didn't Superman learn before the villain's death?

Current Obsession = Ryan Ottley

As I do more to keep all you kiddies up to date on what the Bear likes and don't like, I wanted to point out my current obsession with Ryan Ottley's work. He's the regular artist for Invincible and has just been killing it lately. I went back to the beginning of the series to see if his work has always been this good or if I was just noticing it more.

As you know, he didn't become the regular artist until Trade 2 of the series. Even though his earlier work was solid, it was not nearly what it is today. Nothing is better and more fascinating than to see an artist grow. We are truly lucky that he's been able to work on this book for as long as he has and that he's become (and probably strives) to be one of the great comic artists of our generation.

I looked back at his work and it was definitely raw. You can see that he was holding back. It really wasn't until Trade 5 or 6 when you see him really taking off. Now not only do you pick up Invincible for the great story but I can't wait to see what Ottley has created this time around. He shines when it comes to detail but doesn't give any less effort to when he's doing a two page splash either. In fact it seems with the more confidence he gets the more intricate and bigger pictures he challenges himself and us with. With a recent two page splash he not only has a huge picture of Invincible defeating Conquest but in the background he's got box after box of Invincible head butting Conquest into submission. I find myself taking more time to stare at pictures like these than I would to read a regular page of comic. His simplicity of line and his use of the thickness of those lines, he's able to create detail in a very unusual but simple way. His art is so clean but delivers such detail, it proves you don't need a bunch of cross hatching to create the illusion of detail.

If you're not reading Invincible, start. It's a Kirkman book and it's great, so you'll want to start with Trade 1. But take note of the growth of a great artist in Ryan Ottley. He's going to be around for a while and I certainly won't complain about that.

He can also be found recently doing the pencils for the first few books of Haunt where McFarlane does the inks. Very interesting.