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| Thursday, July 2, 2009 12:18 PM |
| The Hulk Thought of the Day |
 by Hulk |
Maybe Hulk should hide out in Mississippi. Apparently, all puny humans so huge there, Hulk might blend in. |
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| Wednesday, July 1, 2009 01:29 PM |
| The Hulk Thought of the Day |
| by Hulk |
Every time Hulk try to swat fly, Hulk end up destroying building. Sigh. |
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| Tuesday, June 30, 2009 07:32 PM |
| The Take |
 by Fëanor |
Fëanor's (semi-)weekly comic book review post.
This post covers new releases from 6/17.
(I should mention that, as usual, this post contains many spoilers.)
Captain America #600
Holy crap is this a big comic book! It took me forever to finish it. It contains six separate stories and a cover gallery in the back. The first story is a reprint called "Origin" by Alex Ross and Paul Dini. It's just a two-page summary of Captain America's origin story, written in simple, rather corny phrases, and in first person from Cap's perspective. It's all done up in red, white, and blue, with your typical Ross-style art (his work is technically impressive, but I'm just not a fan). It's nothing special, but something like this almost had to be included, so okay. Next up is "One Year After" by Ed Brubaker with art by Butch Guice, Howard Chaykin, Rafael Albuquerque, David Aja, and Mitch Breitweiser. This part of the book is itself split up into parts. The important things that Sharon is starting to remember about the day Steve died are suspiciously like retcons, but they're clever and believable, so I'm willing to go along. I was glad to get a look at what the fake Cap has been doing lately - but he apparently hasn't been doing much of anything, and all he has to say is some ancient cliches about how the world was different in his day, and kids these days have no respect. Boring! I was also glad to finally get a look at the "girl without a world" from the Captain America promo ads I've been seeing in all my Marvel comics, but I remain confused as to who she is, exactly. Apparently some young woman from another planet who used to hang out with Cap? But the thing about the secret black Captain America and where he's ended up is sad and moving, and it's rather touching how Patriot welcomes her to join him and the Young Avengers at the vigil for Steve. I particularly like the story about Crossbones and Sin, and how he plows through a bunch of guards to get to her in a twisted romantic gesture. The couple of pages we spend with the Red Skull are fun, as he thinks back on his long and painful relationship with Cap, and suggests there's still more to be revealed about what he did to Steve. And hey, did we already know that he was in one of Zola's robot bodies now? Because I didn't remember that. Creepy! The scene at the vigil at the end of this story is the highlight, however. I love the way Osborn is really blossoming as a character throughout this whole Dark Reign thing; how he cleverly does not turn the vigil into a war zone, but instead manages to use it as a way to make himself look good to the crowd. And the bit where he follows up his show-stealing announcement by bringing out Simon and Garfunkel for a reunion show is really hilarious. Then the big bombshell: Sharon arrives to tell them Steve could still be saved. I think I've said before that I'm not sure how I feel about the idea of them bringing Steve back. On the one hand I like it because I love the character and I'd love to see him return. But on the other hand, dude only just died! I only just got used to Bucky as the new Cap! And I like how Bucky's character is developing now that he's wearing the uniform. Can't anybody stay dead for at least a couple of years around here? Well, anyway, I'll just have to see how they do the resurrection. Maybe it'll be really cool.
The next story, "In Memoriam" (whose title is misspelled as "In Memorium" in the table of contents) is probably the worst one in the book. It's two people having a really clumsy, cheesy conversation that's nothing but thinly veiled backstory and exposition. Blargh. So corny and unsubtle. Roger Stern is the writer, so he is to be blamed (although oddly he also wrote a really good Captain America story in another comic I read this week). It's a shame because Kalman Andrasofszky's art is actually quite good.
Mark Waid provides the words and Dale Eaglesham provides the art for the next story, which is cleverly titled "The Persistence of Memorabilia." Interestingly, Marvel comics about Captain America exist within the Marvel Universe, as well, but in the MU they're fictionalized accounts of real events. It's neat seeing how the auctioning off of the largest collection of Captain America memorabilia in the world brings out many people that Cap helped over the years, hoping to purchase a memory - a piece of the man who touched them. And I'm pretty sure they modeled that old soldier after Stan Lee! Of course, the auction also brings out scumbags and villains. The guy who plans to publish a series of comics painting Steve Rogers as a traitor is a bit ridiculous and over-the-top, but it is fun seeing him get what he deserves. I also love that Tony Stark purchased one of the items.
The next piece is rather odd. It's just a non-fiction essay by Joe Simon, reflecting back on the old days when he and Jack Kirby were working together at Timely. But most of the stuff he has to say about Kirby is not particularly complimentary. He focuses on the guy's absent-mindedness. It is interesting to learn that legal troubles led to the decision to change the shape of Cap's shield to a circle, and how that actually ended up adding to the character and his abilities. But mostly this essay just made me uncomfortable.
The last story in the book is a reprint of a tale called "Red Skull's Deadly Revenge," first published in Captain America Comics #16 in July of 1942, written by Stan Lee with art by Al Avison. This is a pretty cool artifact: an old school Red Skull story! It opens with the Nazi villain busting out of prison in brutal fashion. Next we cut to Steve and Bucky getting into some hijinks at the army base, and then randomly meeting a goofy-looking archer in a beret and short pants doing target practice. But that's no normal archer! It's the Red Skull in disguise! There's a pretty hilarious panel of him prancing along with bow in hand and arrows on his back, screaming threats at America. The Skull ends up horribly wounding Bucky with his arrows, and Cap must rush the boy to a doctor to get him treated. The Skull ambushes and traps Captain America, and then learns his secret identity! Although how he does this is really quite ridiculous. Of course just taking the mask off and looking at Cap's face doesn't do much for him (it's not like Steve Rogers is famous), so he actually takes Cap's wallet out of his back pocket, and learns his enemy's real name from his driver's license! Steve, what the hell?! You carry your wallet and driver's license around with you when you're dressed as Captain America?! That is just plain stupid. Anyway, with Cap imprisoned in the Red Skull's basement, the Skull is free to go on a crime spree. Then, to make things even worse, he steals Cap's uniform and, masquerading as him, steals the nation's defense plans!
At this point, Bucky is finally well enough to get out of bed and go looking for Cap. Naturally he finds his buddy almost immediately and releases him. Then they get spare costumes at a costume shop (heh), and run off after the Red Skull, who's just about to fly back home with America's defense plans. They scare the Skull into falling out of his own plane to his death. The end!
I don't know what the later explanation was for how the Skull survived his tumble to Earth at the end of this story, but I'm sure it was a doozie! This story has a lot of ridiculous moments, and Avison's art is quite odd (his people look gangly and awkward), but it's still fun, and certainly an important and fascinating moment in the history of the conflict between Captain America and the Red Skull.
The last thing in the comic is an impressive and fascinating gallery of what appears to be the cover of every comic ever printed that prominently featured Captain America. I'm amused that for at least a couple of issues during the Golden Age of Timely Comics, Captain America became Captain America's Weird Tales.
So #600 turns out to be a rather uneven collection of Cap stories, featuring moments both powerful and lame. Here's hoping there's more and better to come!
Thumbs Sideways
Captain Britain and MI13 #14
WOW! Paul Cornell totally tricked me. And even though it was a variation on the old "it was all just a dream" gimmick, I still think it was terribly clever and I really enjoyed it. That's because it fits into the plot in a believable fashion, and it doesn't feel lame or unfair; a smart reader probably could have guessed what was going on, just as Dracula did, if he'd been reading more carefully than I was.
It's fascinating to see, not only Dracula's reaction to the deception, but also the heroes' reaction. After all, they just got a glimpse of Dracula's perception of them. Blade is particularly disturbed to realize that Dracula likes fighting him so much that in the Count's ultimate fantasy of victory, Blade was the only one left alive. Of course, besides being disturbed, getting a look at Dracula's vision of ultimate victory also gives the heroes' a glimpse at his strategy and his plan. Good stuff! I love when Pete is about to give Cap his orders, but then breaks off and says, "Nah, I don't need to say a word to you. You're Captain Britain." Cap responds, "I believe we've met," and they fist bump. Heh heh. Awesome. But the good guys have even more cleverness up their sleeves; in another fantastic and exciting sequence a couple of sleeper agents aboard Dracula's vessel are activated and wreak havoc. Excellent. Unfortunately, this doesn't lead to ultimate victory for our heroes. Instead, Doom makes a move that will give Dracula a powerful bargaining chip in the conflict - although Dracula is of two minds about the whole thing: "A gift from [Doom] is a sword - a sword without a hilt!"
A great, great issue of what is shaping up to be a really fantastic series. It's really a shame the thing is canceled. Still, I'm excited to see how it all wraps up.
Thumbs Up
Daily Bugle
This is actually not a comic, but a freebie done up in the style of a newspaper - and printed on newsprint, no less. It's actually quite clever. The premise is that you're looking at the actual issue of the Daily Bugle paper that was released on Friday, October 13th, 1939 on Earth-616. (Btw, I checked and October 13th was indeed a Friday in 1939. Nice touch!) Throughout are references to the mysterious "Marvels" that at the time were just beginning to appear around the world, especially in and around New York City. The writing here is quite subtle and clever; the first article is clearly about Namor the Submariner, but he is never mentioned by name because the reporters didn't know his name at this point, or even whether he was real or not. There are even subtler and cleverer references like this throughout: an article about a new and accomplished female member of the NYPD named Betty Dean; a piece about sightings of a mysterious, beast-like man along the Canadian border (clearly Wolverine, but the artist's sketch accompanying the story shows the man carrying a three-pronged knife because no one has guessed yet that his claws are a part of his body); an article about a young, patriotic artist named Steve Rogers; a piece about a cocky, precocious young kid named Nicholas Fury; a description of a Wild West exhibit containing information on lots of old gunfighters including Kid Colt, the Two-Gun Kid, the Rawhide Kid, and the Masked Raider; then there's the fashion section, with articles about Van Dyne's latest line, the winner of this year's Little Miss Brisket (Miss Patsy Walker), and the latest on the Hanover Agency; intriguing letters to the editor, including one from a patriotic little boy named James Barnes, and another from a man with some rather frightening ideas named Andrew Stryker; and a list of births, which include Ben Parker, Daniel Grimm, and Thaddeus Ross. And that's just a sampling of the stuff I "got;" there are plenty of other little references and allusions in here that went completely over my head. It's a brilliant little in-universe construct and I really enjoy both the concept and the execution.
Thumbs Up
Dark Reign: Young Avengers #2
I love the clever ways comics are doing their recap/credits pages these days. This one does it as a post on a superhero gossip website. I enjoy that Coat of Arms starts the two teams fighting just because that's what happens in comics when two teams meet like this. It's also interesting to see the various surprising connections that exist between these two teams. Coat of Arms knows Speed! And Executioner knows Hawkeye! And the Executioner's mom is... some kind of snake-themed supervillain! Woah! Enchantress wants to be a part of the real Avengers team, and is even more tongue-tied than usual to find herself fighting its members. She's also way more powerful than she realizes, which is intriguing; she's even able to use her power to alter the other team member's viewpoints without them noticing. Some favorite moments: Coat of Arms' triptych of the Green Goblin - "Pop," "Crackle," and a very famous "SNAP!" So wrong, and yet so right. The conversation between Hulkling and Wiccan about Big Zero: "I could do without the one with the I-can't-believe-it's-not-Nazi-tattoos." "Maybe she just likes Cabaret." Melter's disturbing nightmare. And Executioner's creepy relationship with his creepy Mom. Now the plot's taking an interesting turn, with the real Young Avengers demanding that the new ones try out to join the team. This ought to be good.
Really enjoying this series! It's so twisted and clever. Excellent work again, Mr. Cornell!
Thumbs Up
Destroyer #3
Man, this is one brutal and bloody series! And the most brutal character of all is the hero. I mean, dude tortures villains to death for information! And when he gets caught in a trap set by Scar, his arch enemy, he sets one of his own; he lets himself be beat to a bloody pulp by the Scar's henchmen, saving up all his energy and waiting for the right moment to use it on Scar himself. And how does he kill Scar? He rips the dude's arm off with his bare hands and shoves it down his throat. Then he punches him over and over and over until everything in the immediate vicinity is bright red with blood.
This seems like the end of the story, but as Destroyer points out, he's still alive, so nothing's over yet! He's going to kill and keep killing until he can't kill anymore! God bless him.
This was a slightly less interesting issue of this series than the previous ones have been - perhaps because the ending was a bit anticlimactic, and the story had fewer twists - but it was still pretty freaking awesome. I'm confused as to how there can still be two issues left, but I'm looking forward to reading them regardless.
Thumbs Up
Final Crisis: Aftermath - Dance #2
Now our heroes are in Vegas, and are being filmed for their own reality show! But it's all part of another attempt to keep them from realizing what's actually going on in the world - especially what's going on in Japan. Their PR guy says, "Take a look around," and the speedster replies, "I already did. Saw all the rooms. Just now. Not bad. Seen better." I love that guy. The team finds a supervillain nearby, so they attack him, just for the hell of it, but eventually a truce is called ("Not the face! Not the face!") and he actually ends up helping them out. Great scene. Meanwhile, Shiny Happy Aquazon decides to accept the chance to endorse a product, but the thing turns out to be a drug created by Brain Drain to take over the minds of the populace. Luckily the rest of the team swoops in and together they save the day. "Did something unusual happen?" "Nothing too complex. Forced binary fission via sonic death wail." Nice. I'm also still really loving Most Excellent Superbat's constant Twitter commentary. I can't believe this miniseries is so good! Looking forward to the next issue.
Thumbs Up
Incognito #4
Hmm. Turns out the good guys are maybe not so good after all. They've apparently been doing mind-altering surgeries on the bad guys, often lobotomizing them by mistake. But their attempt to alter the mind of Black Death didn't take. (Funny fact: I'm pretty sure Colonel von Chance, the dude with the one bionic eye, is this universe's version of Nick Fury.) At first it seems like Overkill's going to be in even worse shape than before - stuck back into his old life, powerless, just waiting for the bad guys to show up and tear him to pieces. Then an unlikely savior swoops in to take him away from all of that. But is he really any better off with her?
It's a pretty harsh and darkly funny irony that Zack is identified as the guy who knew Farmer best and is asked to say a few words at a memorial for him at work. Zack is the one who got Farmer killed, and he never even knew the guy's first name!
I really love the scenes where the Black Death's lawyer comes to talk to him in prison, and their real conversation occurs telepathically. This time it looks like Black Death has some nasty plans for Zack that involve someone called The Sleeper. He starts laughing menacingly, and one of the guards listening says, "Okay, now that is fucking creepy." Heh. At the end we get a fascinating clue as to how powerful and special the Black Death really is: apparently he's 200 years old and it's taking enough energy to light the eastern seaboard just to keep his powers from working.
Still loving this book! In the back is an interesting essay by Jess Nevins (who's an interesting guy himself; I follow him on Twitter, where he's known, appropriately enough, as @jessnevins). It's about a pulp hero called Operator #5 who had some unique and epic battles with the "Yellow Peril." As usual, a fascinating look at the literary tradition that this comic comes out of.
Thumbs Up
Jack of Fables #35
Poor Old Sam. Turns out he isn't up to destroying the pen after all. Babe gets two pages this issue; he spends the first trashing Snoopy, and the second doing some meta-commentary on how he's not used to having two pages. Then he wanders off. Deux Ex Machina drops in again for a little more tantalizing foreshadowing, there's some further amusing literary parody involving the genres... and then Bigby flies in and gets positively beast-like, tearing the genres to bloody bits! Wow, that was unexpectedly brutal! Anyway, now that that's taken care of, and Frost has joined the team, it's time for a final assault on Ken, which will take place in the last part of the crossover: Literals #3. It's been entertaining, and exciting.
Thumbs Up
Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen Official Movie Adaptation #1
I'm happy to say I did not pay money for this; I got it for free at the preview screening I attended. Stunningly, the comic is even more rushed, clumsy, confusing, and poorly written than the film. For some reason, even though they weren't able to fit the entire plot of the movie into this comic (it ends just as Megatron is resurrected), and there is apparently no follow-up comic (the message on the final page says "To be continued in the movie Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen," and not "To be continued in issue #2"), they apparently were obligated to fit in a certain amount of the story in the 24 pages allotted them, and in order to do so, they cut out details left and right, making things even more puzzling than they already were. It's hard to blame writer Simon Furman too much, as he had little to work with here, but... wow. This is bad.
Thumbs Down
X-Men Origins: Gambit #1
Speaking of bad, here's this comic! I'm fascinated by the character of Gambit - his cool abilities; the fact that he can use playing cards as weapons - but I didn't know a lot about him, so I figured this would be a good comic to pick up. But no. Even though this is supposed to be an origin story, it turns out it's the kind of origin story where you have to already know the character's origin to understand it! It takes huge leaps through time to various selected scenes in Gambit's life, and assumes you'll be able to fill in the blanks yourself. Which would be annoying enough. But then there's the painfully clumsy, melodramatic dialog; the choppy, poorly paced plot; and, perhaps worst of all, Gambit's painfully awful accent. And that's not to mention Gambit's irritating habit of randomly dropping into French occasionally (um, I can't read French! Dick). I've also never been a fan of Mister Sinister. He's just so ridiculous, with his huge cape and his silly makeup.
I'm really disappointed in author Mike Carey. I don't understand how this guy can be such an uneven talent. I know I've read good things by him in the past, but how could somebody who's any good put out a piece of rubbish like this? If he'd settled down and chosen to tell just one story from Gambit's life, and if he'd also taken the time to polish the dialog a lot more than he has, he might have been able to make it interesting and moving. But this comic jumps around so much, and is written so very poorly, you don't even get to know the characters' names before he's moving you on to something else entirely. You don't have time to get involved as a reader, and consequently you don't care about anything that happens. It doesn't help that artists David Yardin and Ibraim Roberson do some pretty clumsy and ugly work, especially on the characters' faces. Just a tremendously bad comic.
Thumbs Down
Young Allies 70th Anniversary Special #1
Yes, it's time for another 70th anniversary one-shot special! This one focuses on some characters I'd never heard of before: a band of regular kids who fought alongside Cap, Bucky, and Toro, and who were known as the Young Allies. Contained in this collection is one new story, followed by reprints of three old stories. The new story is by Roger Stern with art by Paolo Rivera and it's quite moving and excellent. I love the page of old school art that leads into Bucky's flashback to when he first met the Young Allies, followed by another great little flashback about one of their adventures fighting the Red Skull. This story once again brings up the interesting fact, mentioned further up this post, that Marvel comics, including the old ones about Bucky and the Young Allies, are supposed to exist on Earth-616 as well as on our Earth. Bucky and his friends add another interesting dimension to this postmodern concept when they say here that the comics exaggerate the truth, "inventing wild fantasies about us." That's a rather neat way to retcon! Now they can deny and remove from canon any events they don't like from the old comics.
But anyway. Bucky's reunion with his old pals is really quite powerful. It's great seeing the flashback to their final mission together, and then reading a quick catchup on what the Young Allies have been up to since then. Bucky gets a chance to confess all his sins to his old friends, and receives in return a measure of closure and redemption. I have to say I choked up a bit at the very end, when he pours the last of the brandy out, salutes the monument, and says, "It was a privilege to serve with you." Excellent writing by Stern - who manages to include lots of exposition and recapping without being boring - and lovely, classical art by Rivera.
Next up is a vintage ad for the Sentinels of Liberty fan club, then a short text story about the Young Allies by Stan Lee. Wash mentioned in the previous story that he was made out to be some kind of ridiculous stereotype in these old comics, and boy was he right! I'm surprised Marvel had the guts to reprint this story, in which Wash is horribly stereotyped before he's even named: "'Hey, look where you-all am goin'!' cried one of the boys, as he dropped a piece of watermelon out of his hand." Argh! With the watermelon, even! The story itself is a simple and even rather dull adventure involving the Allies overhearing a plot to steal American secrets and thwarting said plot with the help of Captain America. Next up is another ad for the Sentinels of Liberty fan club, and then a comic starring "The School Boy Sleuth, Terry Vance." I'd never heard of this character before, but he turns out to be your typical young amateur detective, who happens to be accompanied by a real live monkey sidekick named Dr. Watson. Like a lot of Golden Age comics, it's a simple, ridiculous story, clumsily plotted, but fun in its own way. The last story in the book is another prose piece by Stan Lee about the Young Allies and Bucky helping Captain America stop people who are trying to steal American secrets. It's practically the same story we already read a handful of pages ago. The very end of the book is more interesting: it's a collection of vintage ads, puzzles, and games, including a wonderful ad for All Winners #4, which starred Captain America, Human Torch, Sub Mariner, Destroyer, and Whizzer. Sweet!
I really enjoyed the modern story in this comic, and the reprints and accompanying material are, as usual, vaguely entertaining, but more interesting as historical curiosities than anything else.
Thumbs Up |
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| Tagged (?): Avengers (Not), Captain America (Not), Captain Britain (Not), Comic books (Not), Ed Brubaker (Not), Fables (Not), Final Crisis (Not), Jack of Fables (Not), Mike Carey (Not), Paul Cornell (Not), The Take (Not), Transformers (Not), X-Men (Not) |
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| Tuesday, June 30, 2009 11:20 AM |
| (Last updated on Tuesday, June 30, 2009 03:41 PM) | | Another Meta Update |
 by Fëanor |
I've rearranged the sidebar slightly and added a new feature: a list of the ten most recent comments, with direct links to each comment and to the post in question. As always, let me know what you think, and thanks for reading!
UPDATE: I made another small change. It'd been bugging me how big and clumsy-looking the "Most Popular Entries" part of the sidebar looked, so I moved the stats on the number of comments and thumbs up down to a new line for each item, and shrank the text of said stats a bit. I was thinking of using icons to indicate "comments" and "thumbs up," but then realized I'd probably just end up ripping off Facebook even more than I already am. |
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| Monday, June 29, 2009 03:43 PM |
| The Hulk Thought of the Day |
| by Hulk |
Hulk feel like a dozen or so deep-fried cheesesteaks, followed by some deep-fried candy bars and some fried ice cream. But maybe Hulk should eat healthier. Can puny humans deep fry salad for Hulk? |
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| Monday, June 29, 2009 02:46 PM |
| (Last updated on Monday, June 29, 2009 03:20 PM) | | On the Viewer - Hulk Vs. |
| by Fëanor |
This DVD contains two short animated films: Hulk vs. Thor and Hulk vs. Wolverine. The former is set near the end of one of Odin's annual, week-long Odinsleeps, when Asgard is vulnerable to the forces of evil. The Frost Giants and other creatures of darkness have failed in their latest attack on the city of the Gods, but Loki has one more trick up his sleeve. With the help of Amora, an enchantress who's angry at Thor because he chose Sif over her, he snatches Bruce Banner from Midgard, separates him from the Hulk, and then magically links his mind with the Hulk's body, putting the God of trickery in control of the jade giant. Then he sends the Hulk to Asgard, where he quickly gets into a knock-down drag-out with Thor, the city's main protector. Even a god of thunder isn't much of a match against a creature of pure power and rage, without even a flicker of humanity left inside him. With Thor lying near death, and Loki's control over Hulk fading, what's to stop Hulk from running wild and destroying Asgard itself?
Hulk vs. Thor is quite fantastic. It doesn't waste time with a lot of unnecessary plot or exposition. It leaves us to work out what Loki and Amora are doing to the Hulk in the opening sequence. Then it gets right into the action, of which there is plenty. Epic beatings galore! At one point Hulk punches Thor all the way through a mountain. That's about when I decided this was an awesome movie. At first Bruce Banner seems to be little more than a whiny and pathetic loser (as Loki cruelly and repeatedly points out), but he becomes more interesting, noble, and tragic when we get a glimpse of what his paradise would be like, and when, at the end, he agrees to take on the burden of the Hulk again and is declared a mighty hero even by the Gods of Asgard themselves. It's a powerful and even rather moving conlusion. Some other things I really enjoyed: the Warriors Three in action; Hela nearly taking Thor; Loki finally getting what he deserves; and Thor saying essentially, "I could fight for Loki's soul... but nah."
Hulk vs. Wolverine opens with Wolverine waking up injured in the middle of a crater in a snowy, mountainous wilderness. As he cracks his shoulder back into place, he says to himself, "What happened?" Then he sees the Hulk hurtling toward him and says, "Oh, yeah." Awesome! Naturally we then jump back in time and see what led Logan here: the Hulk was rampaging along the American/Canadian border so Department H sent Wolverine in to stop the creature or, failing that, kill it. Wolverine has never met the Hulk before, so he's looking forward to the mission. But the Hulk's a bit more than he bargained for. Even worse, it turns out the Hulk was only the bait in a devious trap set by the psychos at Weapon X!
One of my favorite scenes in this movie happens early on, when Wolverine is on the helicopter being flown to the last known location of the Hulk. He's sitting in the shadows and a young soldier is sitting across from him, sweating and throwing him the occasional glance. Finally the soldier can't take it anymore and says, "I know we're not supposed to ask questions, sir, but... who are you?" Logan just tells him, "You don't want to know." Heh heh. Also great: when they get him over top of the site, they ask if they should look for a place to land. "Don't bother," he says, and just jumps out without a parachute.
(UPDATE: I forgot to mention one of my other favorite scenes. Someone asks Wolverine if he has any last words, and he replies, "Yeah. Two." Then he pops his claws: "SNIKT. SNIKT." Nice.)
Like the first movie, this one is short and sweet and loaded with exciting action. Also, it doesn't pull any punches. This is no kids' cartoon. The fights are brutal, and there's plenty of blood and killing. (I always hate it when they put Wolverine in a cartoon and he doesn't scratch anybody with his claws. That's what he does! That's all he does! If you're not going to let him do that, don't put him in your cartoon.) Again, Banner is kind of whiny and pathetic, but Wolverine doesn't sit around and take his crap; at one point he even stabs the good doctor in the stomach to get him to turn back into the Hulk faster! That's rough.
I really enjoyed seeing the whole Weapon X team here: the mysterious Professor, Lady Deathstrike, Omega Red, Deadpool, and Sabretooth. It was also cool getting some quick flashbacks to Wolverine's time at Weapon X. I'm glad they didn't spend a lot of time dealing with Wolverine's complex backstory, though; they made it clear Wolverine had history with these people, and then left it at that.
I'm not usually a big fan of Deadpool, but I have to admit I found him really entertaining in this movie. They make him goofy, but no less frightening or deadly for all that; sure, he tells jokes, but the jokes he tells are about killing babies. And they're funny! (If you enjoy Deadpool, make sure to stay until the credits are over; I discovered by accident that there's a short extra scene starring him tacked on the end that's quite amusing.)
I was thrown off a bit by the slightly inconclusive, pseudo-cliffhanger ending of the movie, but I ultimately decided I liked the way it makes the fight seem like something endless that will never be decided. The movie begins with Hulk and Wolverine fighting, and ends with them fighting, and that seems appropriate, what with it being called Hulk vs. Wolverine and all.
To sum up, I loved this DVD! Both movies are funny, smart, well animated, loaded with action, and true to the spirit of the characters and comics they're adapting. I enjoyed them immensely. The Hulk rules!! |
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| Monday, June 29, 2009 01:49 PM |
| On the Viewer - Wallander: Series 1 |
 by Fëanor |
A show called Wallander has been airing on Masterpiece recently. It's a series of adaptations of detective novels by Henning Mankell about a cop named Kurt Wallander who lives and works in a small Swedish seaside town called Ystad. I can't remember if poppy and I watched the first episode and that's what got her into the books, or if she was already a fan of the books and that's why we watched the first episode, but regardless she's now a fan of both. As for myself, so far I've just seen the TV adaptations, but I've really enjoyed all of them. The first series consists of just three episodes: "Sidetracked," "Firewall," and "One Step Behind." Wallander (Kenneth Branagh) is the epitome of the downtrodden detective. He runs himself ragged for his job, and all he gets in return is people spitting at him and telling him he's no good. His health and his personal life are also a disaster. He eats crap, hardly sleeps at all, his wife left him, he doesn't get along with his father, and he barely sees his daughter. Meanwhile, his job is a dark, brutal nightmare. "Sidetracked" involves a series of bizarre murders in which the victims are scalped. The murders turn out to center on revenge for secret crimes past. Also at the center of the story, both in terms of the murders and in terms of Wallander's own personal drama, is family and all the complexities of love and hate that go along with it. Wallander's father is played here by David Warner. In "Firewall," a seemingly inexplicable murder leads Wallander onto the trail of an international plot involving computer crime. Meanwhile, Wallander's personal life intrudes on the case again; this time his daughter has signed him up on an online dating site. "One Step Behind" is about a series of baffling and seemingly unconnected murders, and this time one of the victims is a colleague of Wallander's. Worst of all, Wallander makes the sad and agonizing discovery that he was the dead man's best friend and didn't even know it.
The series is beautifully filmed and wonderfully acted, especially by Branagh, who consistently turns in really subtle but powerful performances. The writing is also quite subtle and excellent, and the stories always involve both intriguing mysteries and moving drama. "Firewall" does have some plot elements that are perhaps a bit hard to believe, but overall it's still a pretty strong entry. "One Step Behind" is probably my favorite, as it has a particularly powerful, character-driven story that's told with real artistry. The complete series is available on DVD from Netflix, and I recommend you check it out. As a bonus, you can get a sneak peek at the guy who's going to play Loki in the upcoming Thor movie; his name is Tom Hiddleston and he plays one of the younger cops. |
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| Friday, June 26, 2009 04:05 PM |
| The Hulk Thought of the Day |
| by Hulk |
Hulk mentioned before that Hulk have to use huge, specially designed, adamantium-reinforced toilet. But sometimes when Hulk go into Avengers bathroom, someone in Hulk's stall! Even when other stalls empty! Puny humans don't need to use Hulk's toilet, but Hulk do! Toilet only for Hulk!
Even worse, sometimes Hulk find food in bathroom sink. First of all, why puny humans doing dishes in bathroom? That disgusting! Perfectly good sink for that in kitchen. Secondly, food go in trash can, not sink! Sink not have garbage disposal! Maybe food fall in sink by mistake, but then puny humans need to reach in, get food out, and throw in trash can!
Hulk would like to find puny human that keeps doing this. Hulk suspect Wolverine. Hulk never like that guy. |
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| Friday, June 26, 2009 12:23 PM |
| (Last updated on Saturday, June 27, 2009 11:01 AM) | | Early Imperssions of Mario Kart Wii |
 by Fëanor |
I've always enjoyed the Mario Kart racing games, and I'd been planning on getting the Wii iteration of the series for a while, but I was waiting for a good deal, a gift certificate, or for somebody to purchase it for me during an appropriate holiday. Well, a good deal fell in my lap the other day ($30 and no shipping for the game bundle including the Wii Wheel!) so I jumped on it. The game arrived in the mail yesterday and I popped it in. It's very similar to previous entries in the series; it includes the single player Grand Prix mode, the multiplayer race mode, and the battle modes where you compete to collect coins or to pop your opponents' balloons before they pop yours. The single player Vs mode seems oddly pointless; it allows you to race against the computers in any single course from the Grand Prix mode. But it doesn't count toward the Grand Prix, and there's already a Practice mode, if I remember correctly. So why ever play Vs? There's also an online multiplayer mode, but I'm not sure if I want to try that or not; those things always freak me out. Play with strangers online?! Good lord!
The race courses are full of rather clever and inventive hazards. I particularly like the mall course where you have to avoid Miis as they try to park their cars in the parking lot. The items you get now seem less random and more tailored toward how you're doing in the race at the moment. I found when I was well ahead, I never got speed boost items, but as soon as I fell behind I started getting tons of them. The game is also now designed so that you will be using items constantly. There are lots of them lying around, but you can only hold onto one at a time (instead of storing a handful that you could switch between, as in a previous game), and there are constantly hazards occurring that could take that one away from you, so it behooves you to use it instantly instead of being miserly with it. This means you're throwing things at people and having things thrown at you constantly. It's a bit insane and distracting, but fun.
At first I thought the Wii Wheel would be a rather pointless accessory, as it's just a plastic shell to hold your Remote and doesn't really add anything in terms of functionality. But it does add something indefinable to the game play. It's just fun to play a driving game with an actual steering wheel in your hand, just as it can be fun to play a shooting game with the Wii Zapper even though that, too, is just a plastic shell (although I found I was better at shooting zombies in House of the Dead 2 & 3 sans Zapper).
So far I've only beaten the Mushroom and Flower Cup races in the 50cc bracket, and I played some multiplayer rounds with poppy, so I've only just scratched the surface of the game. I'm looking forward to digging deeper. |
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| Thursday, June 25, 2009 07:21 PM |
| On the Viewer - Fringe (Episode 19 - "The Road Not Taken") |
 by Fëanor |
I'm finally getting back to this episode I missed! And there will be spoilers galore, so beware!
We open with Broyles catching everybody up and revealing the new focus of the team: establishing a link between William Bell and ZFT! Meanwhile a frenzied woman tries to ride the bus to the hospital, but she's so hot she's causing a newspaper on the next seat to catch fire spontaneously! And then she herself bursts into flames and explodes! Damn, I forgot how much I love the way Fringe episodes open.
Uh oh! Walter's going to tell Peter the crazy truth - that the ZFT manifesto was typed on the typewriter Walter has. But there's an extra twist! The typewriter belongs to William Bell! There's a connection for you. But Walter can't believe "Belly" is really responsible for the horrible things ZFT has done. He's convinced there's an original copy of the manifesto with a missing chapter on ethics that would absolve Bell entirely.
Anyway, naturally the gang is called to the scene of the spontaneous human combustion.
Peter: "If there's something strange in your neighborhood..."
Walter: "Who you gonna call?!"
Heh. Nice Ghostbusters reference. I'm surprised Walter is aware of the film at all, though.
Walter: "A myth is just an unverified fact."
Woah! There were clearly two burned bodies on the ground, but when Olivia mentions this, Walter corrects her, and suddenly the other one disappears. Was Olivia seeing into a parallel universe or something?
Walter: "Matter is just energy waiting to happen."
Peter disassembled their electron microscope because he needed the parts for a project he's working on?? That's... odd.
Yeah, Olivia's drifting between universes here or something. Broyles' desk is in a different spot, and he tells her there were two victims in the spontaneous combustion case, like she saw originally. Then all the sudden a different Broyles comes in the room, and everything rearranges itself. She must have dropped back into the other universe again. Or maybe her selves are switching bodies?
Oh great, annoying guy who's just here to obstruct the protagonists is back! By which I mean Harris. He's telling them to drop their attempts to link Massive Dynamic and William Bell to the Pattern. Thankfully Broyles just ignores him now. Heh.
Hey, is Charlie taking a dig at Olivia there? He says there must be something wrong with this woman because she's young, attractive, healthy, and there's no evidence she has a boyfriend. That could also describe Olivia! Back off, Charlie!
Wow, woman's bathroom is a mess. Looks like she's been bursting into flames often!
Walter demands Frankenberry! Heh heh.
Now Walter's switching from spontaneous human combustion to pyronkinesis as an explanation for the woman's death. I love this show.
Olivia is breaking into a lawyer's office to search the place. Uh, ever heard of illegal search and seizure?
Oh crap! Olivia shifted into that other universe again. A bunch of buildings were on fire and they were telling people to get into emergency shelters. I'm really enjoying those shifts into other realities. So disturbing and intriguing!
Ah, this is the scene where Walter explains that deja vu is a glimpse into another universe. Now that scene in the next episode where they talk about this concept as if everybody knows it makes a little more sense.
Ha! Clint Howard is playing the dude who runs the conspiracy website! Awesome. He's confirming everything they suspect: Bell and Massive Dynamic are behind it all. The people who are literally flaming out are subjects in secret drug tests - experiments to try to create super soldiers - like Khan Noonyan Singh. Ha! Nice reference. Uh oh, now comes the crazy: he thinks the soldiers are being created to fight a war against renegade Romulans from the future. Hoo boy. Dude thinks he's Spock. Peter handles him well, though; he knows all the right things to say. Nerd!
Ha! Love the way Peter deliberately tweaks Harris.
Parallel universe Charlie is surly and has a scar. Also, over here, half of Boston is in quarantine lockdown! Is it the zombie apocalypse??
Ah ha. The victim had a twin sister in the other universe - and she has one in this universe, too. Only here she's a long lost sister, and still alive. Uh oh! Evil lawyer dude got to her first.
Aww, Peter's secret project was a machine to digitize audio, so Walter could save his old records. That's sweet. Now he's going to use the machine to play back the sounds stored in the window at the woman's apartment. That's insane!! He's a mad scientist, just like his Daddy.
The playback of her kidnapping is very creepy and very cool. And you can hear someone punching in a phone number on it! They've got 'em now.
Holy shit! Didn't see that one coming. When they call the number, the dude on the other end of the phone is Harris!! Awesome.
Harris heads to where they've got the kidnapped girl. "He's losing patience," he says. "We need her active. Get it done." He who? Are we talking William Bell?
YES!!! Pyrokinetic focuses her heat outward - right at Harris! And he blows the hell up! Oh man that was satisfying.
Olivia confronts Walter about the drug trials that he and Bell conducted, that hurt and transformed Olivia and so many other people. He breaks down, but protests he can't remember the details of what he and Bell did, or why they did it. It's a powerful scene.
Nina goes to talk to Broyles late at night about increased sightings of the Observer. And there he is! He shows up at the lab and tells Walter it's time to go, right after Walter finds the other copy of the ZFT manifesto he was looking for, the one with the chapter on ethics. Then Nina gets shot in the elevator.
Wow! I'm really glad I went back and watched this episode. It's quite fantastic. Some powerful emotional and character moments, very cool weird science moments involving parallel universes and pyrokinesis, and then of course the extremely satisfying and well-deserved death of Harris. It is perhaps slightly disappointing that Harris turned out to be an actual villain instead of just a bit of a jerk who had a grudge against Olivia combined with some real and understandable doubts about her sanity and ability. But still. Good times. |
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Welcome to the blog of Jim Genzano, writer, geek, and web developer. For a more detailed run-down of who I am and what goes on here, read this.
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