Tags: Video of the day
1. Oh, God, please . . . No (Part One). There’s actual development on a Hancock 2. As if you didn’t get enough sleep during Hancock 1.
2. Blackest Night #5. Just a mention: Finally, something happens! This is the first time that I’ve read a BN story—and I’ve read ‘em all so far—where, when I was done, I couldn’t wait to see what happens next.
3. D.C.’s Ultimate Universe. I’m not enough of a comic-book nerd to know who came up with the idea of alternate superhero universes first, DC or Marvel, but I suspect it was DC. Alternate universes, in my opinion, have always been kind of stupid and lame—at least when they merge. Sure, sometimes they can produce cool stories, most recently when the JLA met their evil counterparts (one of the last few good JLA storylines, in my view), but usually alternate universes are the only thing that aggravate me more than time travel. As good as the art in DC’s various universe crises has been, the stories have been confusing gonzo gang bangs that come off as excuses to move units. They aren’t art. Marvel did a good alternate-reality job with the “What If?” series because they didn’t try to merge it with our own universe. When that happens, it’s a suckfest. Jeph Loeb even ruined the Ultimates with some kind of alternate universe crap that I couldn’t make any sense out of at all. I was happy when Marvel launched Ultimates not as an alternate universe, but as a reimagining of Marvel stories. There was no need for Uatu or other means to crowbar it into the bigger Marvel U.
Well, DC recently unveiled its plan to publish a new series of “Earth One” graphic novels that will basically reboot its two major characters (which is a good thing, because Bats is dead and Supes is in exile, so fans of these heroes really have nowhere to go these days). The publishing schedule seems to be 2 of each title per year. If DC devotes quality talent (and it looks like they are) and doesn’t try to mix this in with their “regular” universe, then this idea could have potential. Maybe even lead to a new line of regular books—not just graphic novels. Superman: Earth One will be by J. Michael Straczynski (who did a great job rebooting Spider-Man and Thor) with art by Shane Davis and Batman: Earth One will be by Geoff “I can do every DC comic in the universe because I don’t need sleep and Grant Morrison sucks anyway” Johns, with Gary “I’m Geoff’s muse” Frank. The bad news is, they’re starting with origin tales. How many more Superman origins really need to be told? And isn’t Geoff Johns already doing on of these? Oh, well. I’m still hopeful.
4. Oh, God, please . . . No (Part Two). There’s buzz that Smallville will get another season. Although a pack of wolverines with axes in their teeth pooping out poisonous snakes couldn’t keep me away from the January 20th Geoff Johns penned 2 hour Justice Society special, this season has been remarkably dull. Especially in light of how the show really bounced back last season. It’s like they’ve run out of things to say. Which they have, really, and D.C.’s fault. Let him wear the suit already! It’s not going to damage the vitality of your movie franchise (which, let’s be real, is anemic as it is)!
5. There’s probably nobody working at Marvel whose work I enjoy reading more than Mark Millar, and both of his collaborations with Steve McNiven (Civil War and Old Man Logan) have been genius. Now, they’re back together . . . On an indie project! You’ll remember that after Millar worked with (my favorite artist) John Romita, Jr., on the best Wolverine story ever (“Enemy of the State”), they teamed up on the creator-owned project, “Kick Ass,” which will be a household name next year when the movie comes out. Based on that track record, Nemesis should be awesome. It will be published by Marvel, like Kick Ass, but it’s fully independent. The basic idea is billed as a filthy rich anarchist who tries to take down the government. Kind of V for Vendetta meets Batman. Based on what I’ve read, it appears that there will be no superpowers involved, just raw guns-and-fists, and tech.
6. Ronin. Sylvain White, the director of the movie adaptation of DC/Vertigo’s, The Losers, is developing a movie version of Frank Miller’s brilliant and prescient 1983 miniseries. Can’t wait. This is one of those books I always thought needed to be made into a moving picture. Which gives me an idea for a post about comics that should be movies/TV shows. I think I’ll write that post! Watch this space for details!
Tags: Blackest Night, Frank Miller, Grant Morrison Sucks, Movies, Superheroes, The Caped Crusader, Wolverine, Zombies
I don’t post singles here. Don’t send me all your singles. I don’t post singles.
But here’s a single. Curly Castro’s take on Asher Roth’s “I Love College.” It’s brilliant. Roth’s song is stupid and lame, but the beat is nice. Castro turns it into a workingman’s anthem–the anti-college song. Roth, wake up and stop taking your life for granted.
Tags: Fuck that spoiled bitch Asher Roth, Hip Hop, Video of the day
Tips & Compliments is one of those simple, midwestern albums that makes you want to be quiet and smile. It’s a record that at first wanted to dismiss as being typical–I hear dozens of new albums every month, and they’ve got to grab me quick–but something about “Elizabethtown” made me want to stay. Maybe it was the shades of Bruce Hornsby, a guy who I don’t think has ever gotten his due. Songs like “Skinny Trees Of Mississippi” and “Everybody Else” made me glad I did. Matt Harlan’s debut is a fine record–one he should be proud of. The lyrics are excellent, and the must seems country until you get to the folkier parts, and then, at once, classification and genre doesn’t seem to matter. Suddenly, the listener is filled with the urge to see this Houston man play live.
Eye of the Tiger-Josh Joplin(mediafire)
Ronan Keating- Fairytale Of New York (Pogues)
Ain’t No Chimneys in the Projects-Sharon and the Dap Kings (Follow link)
Santa Claus is Coming to Town-Bob Walkenhorst
My Beerdrunk Soul is Sadder Than 100 Dead Christmas Trees-Joy Formidable (Follow link)
Whether you like the songs I posted today or not, be grateful I didn’t post Mama Doni’s Greatest Hits . . . .
Tags: Picture of the day, X-Mas
Tags: Batman, Superheroes, Television, Video of the day
Seeing as the X universe has morphed into a creature of its own with its myriad of books, tie-ins and minis, I thought now would be as good a time as any to delve into where things stand in the aforementioned realm of all your fave X-Men, Women, Children, Pets, Etc. Now seems especially apropos, seeing as the mutant population has a new home base, having been chased out of both the X-Mansion and the entirety of San Francisco.
Let’s get this out of the way now. Consider everything that follows spoilers for roughly the past year or so of all X-Men titles and related books. If you want to find out for yourself, read something else. I will tell you this, though—the X books are as good or better as they have been in years, so enjoy.
By way of a chronological sorting out, I’m going to pick up right after the Messiah Complex arc. The main reason I’m choosing this period, quite frankly, is because it’s where I first started re-reading the X-titles after a roughly 10 year hiatus. Cable has just taken Hope into the future. Hope is the first mutant born following M-Day, when the Scarlett Witch used her crazy assed powers to essentially erase mutantkind. While a handful of characters retain their powers, thousands, if not millions, of mutants were de-powered. Hank “Beast” McCoy is in the process of virtually selling his soul to find a solution to the problem, trying everything from science to dark magic in the process. Scott “Cyclops” Summers is becoming the true leader of the mutant race, supplanting the previous figureheads of Professor X and Magneto. Fearing the worst for his race, Cyclops puts together a new X-Force, the black ops wing of the X-Men whose sole purposes is to take out anyone perceived as a threat to mutants. Flash forward a bit and Norman Osborne and the Dark Reign storyline weaves majorly into the main tapestry of all the books, resulting in a seeming split of the team that has the White Queen, Emma Frost (currently a “good guy” AND an X-Man), joining Osborne’s inner circle of high powered criminals and leading a “Dark X-Men” team independent and opposed to Scott’s group. Oh yeah, and just to keep things interesting, the New Mutants come back together and X-Factor, the splinter team of mutant detectives that has various and numerous X-Men who “never quite found a place in the main titles” characters, has some of the biggest shocks and turns of any X-book out there.
Sweet Jebus, that’s a lot to digest right there. Let’s see if we can’t keep this in digestible chunks.
First off, the Cable books haven’t been too shabby. The storyline is basic. Hope is perceived to be the “hope” of mutantkind, as she’s the first child born with powers since the aforementioned Scarlett Witch shit fit. Bishop, as you may recall, comes from a dystopian future himself. Whereas all the “current timeline” characters see her as the future, Bishop believes she’s going to be responsible for the eventual final destruction of all mutants. At least, that’s how he remembers it. This, quite frankly, is why I hate time travel storylines, but whatevs. Hope has grown to her early teen years by now. Bishop continues to trace them through history, or more accurately, the future (as Cable’s teleportation device was damaged and can only leap forward now). Hope still hasn’t shown her full mutant ability to date, though there have been a couple of power surges that hint at some type of Omega class stuff on the horizon. The biggest gripe I have with this book is that it’s time to do something with the premise already. These rather large fights between Bishop and Cable keep happening, but something occurs at the last second that causes everyone to port to safety. We get it already, now decide what’s next. The best stories have been the interludes in the chase, where you get a book or two focusing on something other than Bishop’s relentless pursuit. Plus, let’s be honest, everyone is waiting for Hope’s powers to emerge and for her to start doing whatever it is she’s supposed to be doing to save mutantkind. I did recently hear a rather interesting rumor that the big reveal from this storyline eventually will be that Hope is, in fact, Jean Gray. If that happens, I, for one, will be pissed. Enough of the cross pollinating time travel shit already. By the time it’s all said and done, every single X-Man is going to end up meeting, screwing and then killing his/her future self. It makes my brain hurt just thinking about it.
Hank McCoy, aka The Beast, has made no real meaningful progress in his search to save mutants through science. He’s hit up everyone from Doom to the High Evolutionary, but nobody has a solution. From a reader’s point of view, however, his scientific quest has led to him putting together a think tank that’s played more than a bit role in the Astonishing storyline. You’ve got one of my favorite Alpha Flight forgottens, Jeffery Madison, Yuriko Takiguchi and Doctor Nemesis. They’ve added an interesting counterweight to the usual goings-on of the X-teams, even injecting a touch of comedy relief here and there, which is always a welcome thing. Takiguchi, robotic genius and co-creator of Red Ronin just died of natural causes, so it’s likely he’ll stay that way. It’s only if you get killed/blown up/decapitated by a bad guy that seems to incur reincarnation (see: Psylocke, repeatedly). Nemesis has a prolonged lifespan and enhanced immune system as well as being ridiculously smart. He can also detect Nazi clones and has his twin-hypo pistols. One of my dealers, Drew, gave me that description, which pretty much perfectly sums things up there.
Scott has really come into his own as a leader. As the race dwindles lower and lower, he’s stepped up to protect his people. He first
found them sanctuary in San Francisco when the X Mansion was destroyed for the four millionth time. Cyclops has come to embody the cause and is going to lengths he admits are beyond the moral limits he felt at one time. However, with mutants being snuffed out left and right, he’s taken a “kill or be killed” attitude and it’s advanced the storyline immeasurably.
One of those results has been the killer X-Force. You’ve got Wolverine and X-23, so you know it’s going to be a bloody book. Throw in Thunderbird and Wolfsbane. Both had to deal with 
reservations about killing, but the way it was handled was done beautifully, adding nuance to the characters while explaining how grim things have become for their kind. Add the psycho version of Angel just to keep things exciting. Oh yeah, and then throw Elixir in there so that if anyone too important is in danger of dying, he can fix them. But the kicker of the team is the inclusion of old, old school villain, the Teleporter. To get the former enemy to join, they put a tumor on his brain and tell him that only by staying on the team and helping will Elixir save his life. That’s fucking hardcore there, kid. Yes, it’s got all the blood and gore you could possibly want, but the stories have been incredibly strong thus far, too.
Then we come to the Dark Reign tie-in. It’s affecting the entire Marvel Universe, but arguably nowhere more so than in the X Books. Sure, you could just as easily argue the same thing for the Avengers, but bear with me for a minute. Once Osborne firmly established himself as the leader of H.A.M.M.E.R., he chose as one of his first acts to put together a cabal of extremely powerful villains to work with (or sometimes seemingly for) him. As a representative of the mutants, he went with Emma Frost. Her criminal background obviously helped her make his short list. When things reach riot level in San Francisco between the mutants and regular folks living there, Osborne ups the ante by creating his own “Dark” X-Men to act as his police force on the ground. And who should he hand pick to lead the team? That’s right, Emma again. It appears that Emma has betrayed Scott and her former teammates to capitulate to Osborne’s demands, but of course it turns out she really was just a double agent all along. Once she realizes that Osborne is trying to eradicate mutants himself, she jumps back to the “real” X-Men. She brings other blasts from the past Cloak & Dagger with her, but as of yet, they haven’t played into the on-going series yet. Wait, I take that back. I believe Scott has had Cloak teleport something for the team one time; possibly a pizza delivery, but I’m guessing that’s just my stomach talking now. Two “main” things occurred as a result of this crossover. Cyclops has the X-Men dredge Magneto’s former fortress, Asteroid M, out of the ocean, raise it like an island, make it livable again and declare it an independent mutant nation. Secondly, they piss off Osborne to no end and make his dreaded “list” of folks he’s going to do some serious damage to. There were some decent fights in this storyline, particularly once the Dark Avengers were pulled into the fray, but it really only seemed to serve to move the team out of San Fran and into sovereign 
nation territory. Oh, and there was some interesting fall out/make up between Scott and Emma, since neither apparently had ever bothered to tell the other what their individual game plans were. Slight oversight, that.
Oh yeah, and X-Factor has seen the most fucked up birth/death in the history of comics between Maddox the Multiple Man and Siryn, deceased X-Man Banshee’s daughter. X-Factor, for those confused, started as a book for the original X-Men to find and help mutants with their burgeoning powers. Now, it’s a mutant detective team comprised of a bunch of lesser Xs. Maddox gets sent to the future to try to help track Cable and Hope when he meets a grown-up Lyla and gets it on with her (You may recall that Lyla is about 13 when she meets Maddox, which makes the whole falling in love and getting it on thing kind of icky, but who am I?) Shatterstar, from the old X-Force (confused yet; that X-Force was a different black ops team in the 90s led by Cable) comes from somewhere to rekindle his bond with Rictor, drawing up all sorts of homophobia issues for his team mates. And the New Mutants just reformed, but the only thing that’s really happened so far is Dani kicking Sam’s ass because he’s worried about her not having powers (the same exact storyline that happened with Cyclops and Storm when she temporarily was depowered many moons ago).
Which brings us to roughly today. Currently, the main story arc deals with a number of dead mutants coming back to life from a mutated strain of the techno-virus first introduced by Warlock in the early 90s. My original thought was that this was a clear and obvious rip-off of Blackest Night, but one of my comic dealers pointed out that this is the middle of a three year arc, so allegedly this is just coincidental.
Confused yet? Clearly, a lot has been going on lately. That’s not automatically a good thing in comics, but I’m relieved and delighted to say the storylines and overall arcs for all the books have been incredible. Adding Warren Ellis certainly didn’t hurt the overall effort. Maybe it’s the seeming return/revamping of a bunch of late 80s/early 90s characters/themes, but the titles have returned to my favorite reads recently. Assuming they don’t ruin the New Mutants, while things may not be looking so hot for the mutant race, they’ve seldom been better for their readers.
Tags: Filthy Muties
