Heroes For Hire.

I have half of a post for What If #4 written, so hopefully I'll finish that up tonight and post it tomorrow, but I thought I'd post something today. I was talking with Chris at the show about this new Heroes for Hire run Marvel is putting out, and I haven't picked up any of any of them yet, but from what I've seen online, it's totally out of control. Take the cover off to the left here (Heroes for Hire #13). Wow. I don't know when it's coming out, but I'm going to make a special trip to my comic book store to pick it up. What is that liquid on the Cat's chest? Seriously. I know they intended it to be slime from those tentacles, but c'mon, that's not what it looks like. Totally out of control. But in a good way. This would have never flown in the good old "Comics Code" days.

Star Wars Celebration IV- Revenge of the Bantha Burger

Well, Star Wars Celebration IV has come and left Los Angeles a smoking pile of scrap metal just like scavenging Jawas would have done. It was about what I expected - lots of (somewhat) interesting panels, lots of people in costumes, and lots of people selling the exact same things. The highlights for me were seeing Star Wars in 30 Minutes and the 3D Clone Wars cartoon trailer. To say it looks impressive is an understatement.

I only got one autograph, but went with my brother as he got the rest of his. We took pictures with most of the actors and they were all very nice. I got the signature of Orli Shoshan (Shaak Ti). I didn't get it because she's hot, I got it 'cause Shaak Ti rules! It's just a bonus she's good looking, though I can't understand why Lucas would hire hot girls like her or Amy Allen, then hide them in make-up and costumes.

We went to a panel with Daniel Logan, Temura Morrison and Jeremy Bulloch - the Fett family! It was entertaining - the guys were funny, but to think an actor who walked around in a costume for two movies and didn't say his own lines gets a standing ovation with dozens of flash photographs is a little silly. But I guess that's the point to Star Wars, and moreso, a Star Wars Celebration. Hey look, it really is the little person who hung out in a trash can for six movies - we love your work! Hence why I paid $20 for the autograph of a Jedi that was mostly in the background.

A SW convention is also the only place people would get excited when a Starbucks barista calls out "Order 66 is ready!" Swear to God, I heard it. Well okay, I heard about it. The only merch I walked away with was a Yoda magnet, but there was a dope booth with tons of pop culture t-shirts where I got an Avengers shirt, a GI Joe shirt and an early birthday present of a Captain America sweatshirt. Yeah, I went to Star Wars Celebration IV and all I spent on Star Wars merchandise was $2.50.

I think the people in costumes were one of the more interesting things - a curious thing were people dressed up as V (from V For Vendetta), Captain Jack Sparrow and Barf from Spaceballs. Although, I guess if you made a Barf costume back in 1987, you'd be thankful you had a chance to dust it off. A handful of photos from the event:

The Elvis Trooper:




That's no moon, it's a space station!




Join us and together we will rule the galaxy!




This isn't the mailbox we're looking for.

Star Wars Celebration IV, Part Deux.

Wow, this was a long day. I would say the coolest thing happened was the first thing we did, which was sit and listen a talk about the new The Clone Wars animated series. It was ok, even though they had massive technical difficulties with the mics and the air conditioning didn't kick in until about halfway through the presentation. The best part was that we saw the first public viewing of the trailer for the series, twice. It was dopesauce. I cannot wait for it to start airing on TV, too bad we have to wait about a year and a half for it. The second coolest thing we did was the second thing we did, which was going to see Star Wars in 30 minutes (Choo! Choo!). It's a really good time. While we were waiting in line for something else, I read some of Chris' brother's Dark Horse Star Wars comics, and I guess now I've gotta start collecting them. Thanks, Andy. Jerk. First stop, eBay. Second stop, my local comic shop, which I still haven't stepped foot in yet. Anyways, here are some of the highlights (or lowlights depending on your point of view) in pictoral form for your viewing pleasure:


Yes! I found him! The Elvis Stormtrooper!


I really don't know what happened here...


100% Pure Bantha Beef Burger.


I don't know who's creepier, the people in this photo, or me for taking the picture. I think it's me. Like most guys of my generation, I have a strong and strange attraction to Slave Leia...


Lego Threepio.


Lego R2.


Barf! (And Chris and Kareena)


The Death Star is fully operational...


Lego Chewie.


Dude, Chaka's still in jail, man...


Luke's severed head.


Oh. My. Gawd.


The Man, The Myth, The Legend...


Pesky Jawas.


It was a lot of fun, but I'm offically tired of walking.

Star Wars Celebration IV.

Chris and I are headed off to Star Wars Celebration IV with some friends this morning. I hope we are able to survive somehow. I will try and take my camera in and if we do end up surviving, I will post some pictures tomorrow. This should be a very interesting day.

Iron Man, The Movie.

I guess someone should post something here. Even though I'm not the biggest Iron Man fan (I'm still going to write that 1500 word essay on why he sucks), I am totally excited to see this movie, and it's barely started filming. I think that if any comic book movie is going to benefit from the advances made in CGI, it's going to be a movie about a guy in a suit of armor. From what I've seen so far (just posters and stills) they're doing everything right. I'm not so sure about the choice of the super-villian (the Mandarin), but then again, Shellhead really never had a top notch, big name nemisis. Apparently Iron Monger is going to be in the mix, which I think will be good because Iron Man mainly fought villians in suits of armor, so it'll be good to have that represented in the movie. I just hope they learned from Spidey 3's mistakes and don't try to pack it too full of characters/story. Leave some for the sequel, you know there's gonna be one, especially from what I've seen so far (They could do the alcoholism storyline and maybe throw in Warmachine in the sequel). Special effects are great, but there's no substitute for a good story Favreau, so start there first and worry about the CGI later. Anyways, I haven't seen every comic film made in the last couple of years, but this one (along with any of the X-Men films) I would pay full price and probably go see the first day it's released.

Heroes Finale Thoughts and Series Overview

The first season of Heroes wrapped up last night - I freakin' loved this show all season long and was kinda let down with the finale. I blame Entertainment Weekly for hyping it up: "Heroes creator Tim Kring, saunter[s] onto the set just minutes after writing the final sentence of the season's final episode, in which the show's sprawling, far-flung cast...will finally come together Super Friends-style in an attempt to save New York from being torched by a human A-bomb. 'The fifth act is ridiculous,'' chuckles the 49-year-old Kring. 'It's like a $90 million movie. It's just...big.'" So...where did all that time and money go? The parking meter prop? I was looking forward to a huge climactic battle at the end but the big smackdown barely lasted five minutes.

Maybe I was expecting more out of it, but two specific things that bugged me: 1) No one checked to make sure Sylar was dead. For someone they've been chasing across the country and they know is such a huge threat, I find it ridiculous to believe no one verified his death. You would think both Mohinder and Mr. Bennett would make sure. 2) Peter can fly. So why couldn't he just fly himself up and explode in the sky? He'd crash down and be okay, thanks to Claire's regeneration powers. My guess is that Peter can only use one power at a time, but they have never established that one way or the other.


I love the concept of the show and the originality they bring to it. Comic book movies try to portray their heroes as real life, but this show portrays real life people as heroes. I really like the progression of the characters. Some characters that I hated in the beginning I ended up loving, and vice versa. Take Peter Petrelli. He started off as a whiny bitch but now he's become one of, if not the, most powerful heroes. Hiro is a great character, too - somewhat comic relief, but a serious threat. Niki/Jessica and DL started off cool, but by the end, I wanted all two (three?) of them to die.

One of the things they've really pulled off in the series is the belivability. Mostly, these people aren't experts at using their powers and they do real world things with them. If I could talk to machines, I'd clean out an ATM just like Micah did. Good job, kid. I also enjoy the aspect of (most) heroes having only one power. I think in comics, if a new character showed up and "all they can do" is fly, you'd be let down. But these are all engaging characters and a lot of the powers are balanced. DL could make himself intangible if Nathan tried to fly and ram him, or if Jessica tried to punch him. So it may seem like an average or lame power on the surface but it's cool.

I'm looking forward to next season. And even moreso, next season's catchphrase.

Sidenote: that commercial for the new Fantastic Four movie with the missles coming at Silver Surfer was totally awesome. Way better than whatever Tim Kring used his budget for.

Why Spider-Man 3 Sucks, Part 2.

I just got back from seeing Spidey 3 and yeah, there was some disappointment. I was going into it with low expectations, and left still feeling disappointed. Here are my thoughts, obviously there's a spoiler alert because there are plenty of them ahead:


1. I know there are a lot of hot looking women in New York, but seriously, what was the deal with having smokin' hot chicks in every scene? And I'm not just talking about the Saturday Night Fever scenes, every scene had hot women everywhere. Every scene. Even in the lab where they were controlling the experiment that mutated the Sandman there were there where like three of them in lab coats. C'mon, how about showing some normal looking people? There were no normal people in this movie.

2. Stan Lee. Please stop. Your cameos were cool in the first couple of movies, but it's getting old. We know you're the guy that created all of these characters (or at least you're taking credit for all of them). We know this. Please stop destroying your legacy. I'm begging you. Please.

3. So, if you're made out of sand, how is it physically possible for you to cry? I know Comic Book Physics can pretty much explain anything, but I was laughing out loud at the scene at the end when the Sandman was crying. It was just funny for some reason.

4. Harry/The Green Goblin II. I totally agree with my sidekick Chris, this could have been done so much better. It could have been a whole movie. The amnesia part was lame, and you could see the ending coming from a mile away, you knew he was going to help him and get killed. I called it about an hour before it happened, when he was still "Good Harry". And having the butler tell him about cleaning his Dad's wounds was super lame. Why didn't he step up and do that months (or a movie) ago? I did like the snowboard he got at Marty McFly's garage sale though, that was pretty cool.

5. The scene when they were talking at the French Restaurant was killing me. Just shut up already, both of you. And for some reason, I knew the Bruce Campbell scene was coming, even though I had heard nothing about it. I yelled out Bruce! right after he came onscreen. I thought THAT was a nice cameo. Take some notes, Stan. But, I don't understand why Parker didn't recognize him as the usher that kept him out of MJ's play in the first one. They could have thrown in a "have we met before?" with Bruce's character denying it, and that would have been cool with me.

6. The part at the end where Spidey shows up to fight Venom and the Sandman and he lands for a split second right in front of the American flag was super lame. Seriously? That's what you've got? You can't get any more heavy-handed than that. And, again, it was totally lame.

I would like to see a fourth one, but I think it needs a fresh voice. I love Sam Raimi, but I think he got a little too full of himself and bit off more than he could chew. Too many storylines, too many characters, too many villians. I don't really think there's a word to describe how disjointed this movie was. It was just so choppy. You could tell it was trying to do too much. And two and a half hours? I had a headache by the time I left the theater. I won't be buying it on DVD and it's a good thing I only spent six bucks on it. If you can see it as a matinee for six dollars, I would recommend it, otherwise, wait for it to come on HBO in a coupe of months.