What Looks Good?

Big week last week -- had a birthday, saw Green Lantern, buying comics.  This week: mostly just buying comics.

Action Comics #902 -- The Reign of the Doomsdays continues!

Batman And The Outsiders #40 -- Ah well, we had a good run.

Justice League of America #58 -- Eclipso just cracked the moon in half.  Awww yeah.

Iron Man 2.0 #6 -- Last issue was pretty rough, hopefully this one is better.

Charmed #11  -- It's all very metatextual at this point as the Charmed Ones try to figure out how to stop Neena from destroying Heaven!

So, what looks good to YOU?

4 Color Cinema: Green Lantern

So this weekend, my house was the rallying point for a bevy of nerds, as we donned our Lantern Corps shirts and ventured to the theater to go see DC's latest big screen effort, Green Lantern.

So what's the verdict?

It's a fun, entertaining movie which delivered what I wanted out of it.

Was it the best superhero movie I have ever seen?  No, not even close.  But it was exciting and kept me entertained, and I am much more eager to rewatch it than something gloomily self-important like The Dark Knight.  It's got a lot of humor and a lot of action, but it's not the super space opera epic which I think the diehard GL fans were hoping for.  It's an odd opening salvo from the newly organized DC Entertainment, unless they want to establish their universe as the lighter one?  I don't know, I'm not privy to that kind of information.

Ryan Reynolds seemed like an odd choice for Hal Jordan but he turns in a strong performance.  He's jokey quite frequently but when its time be serious, he is serious.  He has some good character moments as well.  Mark Strong is dead-on awesome as Sinestro, who is the strongest character in the movie.  At this point in his career, he is the second greatest of the Green Lanterns (after Abin Sur) and he commands respect when ever he is on the screen.  Geoffrey Rush and Michael Clarke Duncan both turn in very good vocal performances as Tomar Re and Killowag, respectively, even though they have fairly small roles.  

Blake Lively doesn't do much for me as Carol Ferris, but she doesn't embarrass herself.  She's got the ice queen thing down but she melts too frequently.  Peter Sarsgaard plays Hector Hammond well enough but the character disappears too soon.  He's got an interesting arc but it's abbreviated.  

I think that is my biggest complaint: the film is too short and somewhat rushed.  Once the story really starts to pick up and start moving, it's already time to get the climax started.  I would have rather had extended out the scenes with Hector and then the final battle by a few minutes apiece and it would have made the film "bigger."  As it stands, while I liked the film I definitely could see the flaws.

Overall, I dug the movie and will pick it up when it gets released on DVD.  But I am not rushing out to go see it again in the theater.

It's The Same Plot With The Same Sad Ending

Thanks to Newsbusters!

What Looks Good?

I'm growing another year older this week, which means it has become that much less social acceptable for me to buy comics.  Well... tough!

Tiny Titans #41 -- Keep on rolling, Tiny Titans.

Godzilla: Gangsters & Goliaths #1 -- The Showa alternative to Kingdom of Monsters?

Invincible Iron Man #505 -- Grey Gargoyle, we hardly knew ya!

Darkwing Duck #13 -- With Duckthulu defeated, what new adventures await?

So, what looks good to YOU?

Challenge Of The Gobots!

Oh it's own now!

CHALLENGE OF THE GOBOTS: THE ORIGINAL MINI-SERIES (1984) From Gobotron to your home, it's the original 5 episode mini-series that brought the GoBots to life. When Cy-kill embarks on his mad quest to conquer the galaxy starting with Earth, only Leader-1 and his band of Guardians stands in his way. The mini-series that launched a legend! Newly remastered from original film elements, Challenge of the GoBots has NEVER looked this good.

While it's great to see the miniseries on DVD, I would much rather have seen an actual season set.  My brother got me a bootleg of this series but an official release would be pretty damn awesome!  And eventually, hopefully, we can get a DVD release of Battle Of The Rock Lords, which I have own on commercial VHS!

Also: Pirates of Dark Water!  And JABBERJAW!

Woo woo woo you know it!  

Everybody's Linking For The Weekend

Frank discusses the ramifications of the new Justice Leagues and their lineups.

Bonus Game!  Martian Manhunter headshot by Jason Ho.

Anj reviews both Stalker #1 and Stalker #2!  Wooo, Ditko/Wood!

Where are Jay Garrick and Wally West?

Aquaman gets housed in a Subway comic book.  Sorry, rob.

And finally, perhaps a preview of what to expect in a future issue of Godzilla: Kingdom of Monsters?  

Unbridled Capitalism: Lefty Pinko Jackwagon Edition

Green Arrow: The Longbow Hunters -- Picked up at Mr. K's for a cool $5 (sort of... I have a lot of trade credit so this didn't cost me anything out of pocket!), this is the second printing of the collected edition of the Mile Grell prestige format Green Arrow mini from 1987.  I know, I know -- I'm a Hawkman booster, what's the deal?  Well, beyond the fact that this series is one of those which is constantly put over as one of those ones "you gotta read," I don't particularly dislike Green Arrow.  I like that he is something of a pompous jerk, and I have grown to enjoy his smarminess over the years.  I liked him a lot on the Justice League cartoon, and was one of the dozen or so who actually likes Cry For Justice.  The fact that Carter and Oliver form the best pair of superhero frenemies I have ever read is icing on the cake.  So I figured if I wanted to read some Green Arrow this was a good place to start.  

Plus I can pass it along to my buddy Adama to read when I am done.  

What Looks Good?

We're hip deep in summertime now, folks, which means movies, comics, and comic book movies!  (That's "coming soon," by the way.)

GI Joe: A Real American Hero #167 -- Kicking it with the old school Red White And Blue.

The Iron Age: Alpha -- That "other" Marvel event book kicks off!

Charmed #10 -- The First Witch is laying siege to the Higher Realm, but what does this have to do with Cole?

glamourpuss #19 -- Dave Sim and Mike Allred together!  Plus the "Salute to Rectangles!"  (??!)

So, what looks good to YOU?

Fair Trade: Battlestar Galactica

Battlestar Galactica -- Like the For Your Eyes Only collection, I have the Marvel paperback version of this story, which reprints issues Marvel Super Special #8, which was later chopped up into issues #1-3 of the ongoing series.  I actually bought this many years ago at the old Eagle Eye thrift store in Brewster, NY, but had never gotten around to reading it until recently.  

I got into the original BSG when I was in high school and the show was a staple on the then-still-called Sci-Fi Channel.  In fact, one of the first DVDs I purchased after buying my first DVD player was the theatrical version of BSG.  (The first DVD?  G.I. Joe: The Movie.)  So I am of course familiar with the story being told here and more prone to enjoy it.  The art is by Ernie Colon and is suitably science fictiony, although the actor likenesses is not very strong.  The Cylons and the various aliens are nifty, more closely resembling how the looked on the show.  The script is by Roger McKenzie, who is clearly working from an earlier draft of the pilot/feature script and series bible.  Elements such as the reptilian Cylon race still being alive were dropped by the time the film was released, and the inclusion of Baltar's execution betrays that he was working from the original script.  Beyond that there is not much new added, but it's a fun and fast paced space opera, which is appropriate because that is the level I have always enjoyed BSG on in the first place.  

Also included are some extra text pieces from the Super Special, detailing the production of the show and the background material on space travel, robots, aliens, and other elements.  This particular paperback has less issues with panel arrangement than FYEO did, but it still crops up from time to time.

As a relic of a media phenomenon what never really caught on, I really dig this paperback.  Not sure if I will break it out to read it once a year or anything but I had a smile on my face as I read it and I am glad it is in the collection.

What Looks Good?

Hard to believe it is June already!  Time keeps on rolling and comics keep on coming!

Flashpoint #2 -- Evidently this book is pretty important now.  (I JUST got the first one for crying out loud.)

Weird Worlds #6 -- This one, not so much, but it's still pretty awesome.

Honey West #4 -- Honey West, B-movie starlet?  Will she be another victim?  Not likely.

Uncle Scrooge #404 -- Not only one of the greatest comics characters of all time but also one of my three greatest fictional Republicans of all time.

So, what looks good to YOU?