Update 12/26/07.

Apparently, Marvel moved their new releases to Friday this week. I was all excited because today was new-release Wednesday, but then I checked my list and new stuff comes out on Friday. Oh well.

Anyways, I haven't been reading that Captain America series, but I do know that they're about to reveal who will be the guy to take Steve Rogers place. Here's a rundown of the six finalists. Personally, I hope it's Hawkeye.

Marvel also wrote a pretty neat article on Frank Miller's Daredevil run.

They also released a new pic of Iron Man from the movie. Can't wait until May 2nd.

Comics I plan to buy on Friday: House of M: Avengers #3, and X-Men #206. I'm thinking of getting Hulk Vs. Fin Fang Foom #1 (we'll see if it passes the flip test) and New Warriors #7. I'll try and post what I've bought in the last couple of weeks tomorrow.

Heroes: Season Two Thoughts

Heroes wrapped up its first second season story arc "Generations" and here I am with a late review. Creator Tim Kring has noted some of the missteps made so far this year, which is good. Hopefully he recognized it on its own, rather than from constant complaints of the fans. The finale was rather satisfying, although it leaves me with a new complaint about Elle and Adam.

I realize the show is called Heroes, but this show needs villains. What do comic book heroes do? They fight villains! They don't take 8 issues to drive to America. Adam is a very intriguing character, especially when he revealed his motivations for releasing the Shanti virus. Elle was mildly annoying but at least she had a cool power. The whole "fighting back against her father" and "wanting to prove herself" felt too rushed. Just let her be a badass chick that electrocutes people and gets away with it for a while. Bonus idea: her superhero name should be ElectroCUTE. Crap, did I just violate WGA rules by posting that idea for Mr. Kring?

Same thing with Matt's Dad - here was this badass villain who was supposed to be more badass than Sylar, and he gets shut out pretty quick. I like how they put him away, but again, it felt rushed.

Here's hoping the show gets back on the right track whenever this strike ends.

December Reads.

So I've been going to a comic book store lately and buying some stuff. So here's what I've been reading, it's pretty much all Marvel:

Fantastic Four #552: I bought this on a whim and was pleasantly surprised. I even went back and bought the issue before this one because it's a three-part story. The main reason I bought it was because the cover was awesome and it passed the flip test (i.e. - there was a lot of action). Who doesn't want to see a Doctor Doom from the future battle it out with the Thing for five pages? I know I do. It was fun to see them beating the crap out of each other. Overall, it was very entertaining and left on a cliffhanger, so I'm in at least for another issue. I'll probably even buy a couple of issues after that to see what the next story arc is like. This was a really fun issue, like I said, I enjoyed it a lot.

House of M: Avengers: I bought the first two issues and can't wait for the third. When I was buying it, one of the owners of the store said that he was surprised by it and that he liked it. He also said that it was very "wordy" which is unlike most Marvel books. He also said he was a big Luke Cage fan. Basically, all of those reasons were exactly why I wanted to check this book out. It's set in the House of M storyline, and Luke Cage puts together a team of "sapiens" to fight injustices set upon the humans by the mutant community, because the the House of M Universe, humans are the minority. It's a very interesting idea, and it's about to get even more interesting when the Punisher enters the story on the side of the mutants. Thumbs up, check it out.

Mighty Avengers: Awhile back, I bought a run of X-Men comics and the dude threw in the first two issues of this series. So a couple of weeks ago, I bought the three issues I was missing to get up to speed. I might review the first issue, because there is a funny part that involves Iron Man and Ms. Marvel trying to talk Ares (aka: The God of War) into quitting his construction job and joining their new Avengers team. Ares has a sun to support, he needs steady pay, health insurance and a 401k. The series is pretty interesting, it makes use of a lot of thought balloons, which I thought died in the mid-90s. If you like the Avengers, I think you'll like this new spin on the team.

Moon Knight Annual #1: I was disappointed with this one, mainly because I've been reading the Moon Knight series and was really impressed by the early couple of issues, which were written by Charlie Huston and drawn by David Finch. They changed creative teams a couple of times, but I think Hudson is back to co-plot it, starting with issue #14. So I'm a little excited about that, because the first story arc was really, really good. This Annual, however, was pretty boring and didn't really add anything to the current storyline. The only thing it seemed to get across was that it reinforced Moon Knight's sole motivation: Vengeance. I was very disappointed.

Uncanny X-Men #493: I liked this issue a lot. I've been on the fence about this whole "Messiah Complex" crossover, but this is the issue that made me a fan. Especially the second to last page and the last page. I can't wait for that new X-Force series to begin in February. It's got some of my favorite characters involved. The other thing about this issue that won me over was Cyclops' character development as well as his relationship with Wolverine. I was never a big Cyclops fan, mainly because I thought he was an arrogant jerk and I thought the constant fighting between Cyke and Logan was annoying. Scott has finally settled into a major leadership role involving all of the X-Men teams, and Logan seems to be ok with his leadership, while Scott seems to listen to Wolvie's advice. It's a nice little departure from their previous long-standing relationship. More about Scott's leadership involving the X-Men in the next paragraph.

X-Factor #26: I was excited about this because it was a continuation from the last Uncanny X-Men issue, and it basically is the first issue to feature the new X-Force. Basically the team is; lead by Wolverine, with Warpath, Wolfsbane, Hepzibah, Caliban and X-23 as team members. As I said in the last paragraph, I can't wait for their new series to launch in February, because I love the concept behind the team. So, back to Scott, one of the things I was reading about when the whole "Messiah Complex" was getting ready to launch was a quote from one of the editors that basically said that, "Cyclops will unify the X-Men in a way they haven’t been for years", and this was really evident in this issue of X-Factor. Scott and Professor X have an argument over Cyke's decision to form X-Force and to have them track down Cable. Scott ends up hinting at the fact that the Professor might have to leave if he doesn't stop questioning his decisions. He basically tells him to let him do what he trained him to do, which is lead. I really don't like the way Professor X has been treated/written in the last couple of years, but I do like the way Cyke has been handled. He has gone from one of the X-Men I hated the most, to one that I now at least can tolerate. Anyways, these two issues in a row (Uncanny X-Men #493 and X-Factor #26) were really, very good, and I hope the rest of the Messiah Complex lives up to the hype.

Wolverine #60: I wasn't overwhelmed by the story or the art, it seemed like a transition issue, it felt like it was setting things up for the next couple of issues. I'm intrigued, and I think I'll see where it goes. I bought the last ten issues on eBay because ::SPOILER ALERT:: Wolvie killed Sabertooth and I wanted to see how that was handled. Overall, it was just an ok issue, I'm interested to see where it goes. That's about it for now. Overall, I'm pretty excited to read comics again, there's a lot going on and there are some really great writers and artists working together right now. I don't think I've been this excited to go to a comic book store since the late 80s/early 90s.

Marvel Digital Comics.

This is probably old news, but a few weeks ago, Marvel released a Digital Comics section to their website. They had been beta testing this for a few months and had been offering select comics to view for free (they're still doing this as a tease to get you to subscribe, they have 250 comics that you can view for free). They finally launched a subscription site and apparently, it crashed their servers within a few hours. They've got all of the bugs worked out and it's working fine right now. It's pretty interesting, I used it when it was free and it wasn't so great on my laptop, zooming in and reading kind of doesn't do it for me, but on a larger monitor (like my desktop computer) it was fine.

They have two plans, an Annual Subscription ($59.88/year) and a Monthly Subscription ($9.99/month). They have over 2500 comics ready to be viewed, the only problem is, they have a scattered selection. LIke they only have 9 X-Men comics available from #142-416. That's a huge gap. I think they're adding stuff all the time, and they've mainly focused on starting with the really old stuff, so there's some cool stuff available. Like, Amazing Fantasy #15 (the first appearance of Spider-Man). Or, the first 50+ issues of the original Avengers series. And the first 60+ issues of the Uncanny X-Men.

I haven't bought a subscription yet, I don't know how much I'd use it. I think it's a great idea and it would be interesting for people that have stopped collecting and don't want to go bak and buy back issues. I am also wondering what DC is going to do in response.

Excalibur #5. 1988.

And we're back. This was supposed to be the third part in my Arcade epic, but then I got busy with work and other stuff and didn't have any time to scan/write. Well, here it is in all it's glory.

This one (like most of the early Excalibur issues) was written and drawn by the almighty duo of Chris Claremont and Alan Davis. Through a bizarre series of events, the team had found themselves in Arcade's Murderworld and have had their bodies swapped with those of The Crazy Gang. Also, Captain Britain's ex-girlfriend, Courtney Ross was kidnapped by Arcade and was being tortured in a fashion that only Arcade can manage. If that doesn't catch you up, here's a two page spread with everyone involved.

So at some point, Shadowcat phases through the control board disrupting the computer system that runs the place. Then later, Kitty hacks into the system to give her control over Murderworld. This is not a good situation for Arcade, because he is forced to enter his own Murderworld and try and survive it. Hilarity ensues.

First off, Jester (who is in Nightcrawler's body) tries to kill Courtney Ross with the old "tablesaw with a long conveyor belt" routine (Are you serious Claremont? I know this was supposed to be a fun story, but you're digging into Wile E. Coyote's bag of tricks? Yikes). Well, for probably the millionth time in a row, this trick doesn't work and Nightcrawler (who is in Jester's body) starts fighting with Jester (who is in Nightcrawler's body) while Courtney is allowed to escape. She then finds Arcade rather quickly and slugs him in the mouth.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, Miss Locke and Mr. Chambers are trying to lure Lockheed away from his post of guarding the control board (see the panel to the right). Mr. Chambers gets burnt but Miss Locke turns on the charm and they escape off panel.

Choas ensues, a special performance by The Cat's Laughing occurs (I think this was Kitty's favourite band) and eventually, everyone is restored to their rightful bodies. Oh yeah, and Arcade is arrested. Everyone wins, except for the reader, because Arcade was written into the story. I'm sure the reason why Miss Locke and Mr. Chambers escaped was so they can break Arcade out of jail. He should have gotten the chair. Sorry, but that's just how I feel. So that's about it, hope it was worth the wait.

30 Days of Night - Review

I have zero knowledge of the comic other than the basic premise, so I don't know how accurate this film is to the source. I still enjoyed it immensely. It's a dark and bloody movie - exactly what I'd expect out of vampires invading a town in Alaska where the sun doesn't shine for 30 days. Josh Hartnett and the always gorgeous Melissa George star as an estranged couple and leaders of the town's survivors. Most everyone bails on the town for the month, with only a handful of people sticking around.

One thing I loved is when they showed what day it is, so it's an establishing shot "Day 22 " and you see less and less people. You know they only have to hang on for 8 more days. Creepy. I wasn't sure about the ending right after I saw it, but given time, I think I like it. The end is a bit comic booky but it works. I highly recommend this flick.

Worst Avengers Line-Up Ever

I collected Avengers kind of off and on but I think this may go on record as the worst Avengers line up ever. First off, it's only five people. The Avengers should have at least 6-7 people 'cause you know people get their regular days off, so you have to have some flexibility in there. Secondly, two of the five people are members of the Fantastic Four. I don't buy the idea that you can be in two superhero groups at the same time. Certainly not high profile groups like the FF and the Avengers. Mister Fantastic and the Invisible Woman were kind of weak characters back then anyway. Thor is there, he's good. Steve Rogers is going under his The Captain alias at this point and rounding out Earth's Mightiest Heroes is...Gilgamesh, the Forgotten One! He was forgotten before he showed up and I guarantee he's been long since forgotten. Apparently he hasn't been seen in recent years and is presumed dead. Oh, and this just in...no one gives a crap anyway. This issue deals with the Inferno crossover which kind of creeped me out as a 11-year old nice Catholic boy. I think they righted the line-up a few issues later but for a while, this team sucked. The only way this team could have been a worse line up is if Starfox and Dr. Druid were on it.