Best Wednesday Ever: 1/20/2010

I'm a little bit late this week. I would apologize to you loyal reader, but I don't think there is anyone to apologize TO. So lets look at what was awesome this week...

Blackest Night: The Flash #2
Another example of the brilliance of Geoff Johns, the second issue of Blackest Night: Flash is a fast, and extremely fun ride. Similar to his previous run on the title, this miniseries has a unique voice, but at the same time feels like the only way a Flash comic SHOULD be written. This issue has made Barry Allen the most realistic, and my favorite of the new Guardians so far. Also, Blackest Night: Flash has achieved what only a select few of these tie-ins have:  it lives on its own, as a very well written comic, but also provides a unique perspective to the events of the main series. If this is a primer for the new Flash series written by Johns, then definitely sign me up. 

Green Lantern Corps #44 
Don't. F&*K. With. Mogo.
I loved seeing the planet-sized GL not only socialize, but kick ass and take names. The only question I have now is: where the hell was the big guy during the Sinestro Corps War? Still...this makes me wonder what purpose the Guardians really had for Mogo, and what might be in store in the future.


Starman #81
I never read Starman, but I've always heard it was good. Still, I enjoyed the issue, and was especially taken aback by the rich and wonderful artwork. Fernando Dagnino is an artist that I would definitely seek out, and I hope he can get into a more regular assignment. Maybe a bat-family book?

Futurama: Top 5 episodes

Yesterday, I finally bought the 4th volume of Futurama. While watching the first disk, I was taken by how GOOD this series was/is. It saddens me to watch shows like Family Guy, American Dad, or the Simpsons on TV, while this show is currently left to viewings on DVD and reruns. Recently, a light has appeared at the end of the tunnel, in Comedy Central's plan to start creating new episodes. If these shows are even half as good as the old, it will continue to be one of the best animated shows, or shows period, in recent memory. 

 For those of you who  are unfamiliar with the show, I've put together my top five episodes for your enjoyment. Check em out. You'll love them. And if you don't, that's fine, just keep it to yourself.

5. Three Hundred Big Boys
A very clever episode later in the history of the show, 300 Big Boys celebrates the huge cast that Futurama had been developing, similar to its spiritual prequel the Simpsons. Due to a military conquest, the entire planet Earth receives a Tax Refund of 300 dollars (in the form of a Richard Nixon $300 fun-bill). Of course, in true Futurama style, every character spends the money on something ridiculous, espeically Fry, who drinks enough coffee to speed his metabolism, and achieve a type of superspeed. The running tally of coffee throughout the episode is hilarious, and watching each story suddenly collide in the climax makes this a classic Futurama example.

Fry as the GOD of Caffeine

4. Parasites Lost 
Like so many other episodes of Futurama, this one begins with Fry doing something ridiculous, and the hilarity that ensues. In this case, Fry decides to eat a egg-salad sandwich from a gas station bathroom, which happens to be chock full of microscopic parasites. What follows is a hilarious send-up to the classic Fantastic Voyage, as the Planet Express crew shrink down to travel into Fry's body and destroy the infestation. Another reason this episode is one of my favorites, is that it really is the beginning of the story arc of Fry and Leela's growing relationship, which continues for the rest of the series.

Fry's worms. In a sandwich near you.

3. Roswell that Ends Well
Only on Futurama could you have the main characters go back in time while watching a super-nova, cause the Roswell crash, and then one of them becomes their OWN GRANDFATHER. 

 Fry's Grandma, Mildred. I'd hit it.....but then, it's not my Grandma.

Fry is.....unbelievable. People talk about how Peter Griffin, Bart Simpson, or Eric Cartman are depraved, horrible examples of human beings.....but only Phillip J. Fry is his own FREAKIN grandfather. And we love every hilarious minute of it. Another highlight is Leela and the Professor trying to hideout in the past, and Zoidberg's alien autopsy, and interacting with President Truman. This ridiculous-ness is only possible on a show like Futurama, and that's why we love it.

2. The Why of Fry
Another episode that continues the continuity of the series, The Why of Fry travels back in time to the fateful night that Fry was frozen to travel to the 30th century. We find out that it was plan all along by the Nibblonians to battle the Brains. See, since Fry was his OWN GRANDFATHER, he lacked the Delta brainwave (a special kind of retarded I guess), and would be invisible to the Brains. So, I guess the first thing we should do when we invent Time Travel, is have some guys travel back in time, and become their own grandfathers. You know, just in case. One of my favorite jokes in the entire series is seeing  Fry escape the InfoSphere on Scooty Puff Sr. Classic Futurama silliness.

 

Scooty Puff Jr. top, Scooty Puff Sr. bottom. Who said Paradoxes couldn't be fun?

1. Time Keeps on Slippin'
This has been one of my favorite episodes ever since it first aired. Like all the best Futurama episodes, it combines a hilarious, ridiculous premise (The Harlem Globetrotters being alien conquerors for example), with a classic Sci-Fi topic (in this case a hole in the space-time continuum). I enjoy watching the alien basketball game every time I see the episode, and wish some of the Professors Atomic Monsters would return in a future episode. 

The future of the NBA? If only....

Again, like most of the great Futurama episodes, this one ends with heart, as Fry realizes how he got Leela to marry him in one of the time-jumps. Their relationship has really become a central part of the series, and is way more compelling than Ross and Rachal, or JD and Elliot, which is high praise considering those are two of my favorite shows as well.

Best Wednesday Ever: 1/13/2010

I've been meaning to start writing some comic book reviews....and I decided every Thursday (or so) I'll explain to you, my humble and illustrious readers, why this past Wednesday was the best ever. So let us begin.

 This week, the first book I picked up was Invicible Iron Man #22.  I have to say that I have really been enjoying this book, and it has impressed me on a number of levels. At first, I was hesitant, due to the creative team. The art team I was not familiar with...it was reall Fraction that I wasn't sure about it. I've never been a big fan of him, and his writing always seemed a bit....complicated, I guess.

Also, the idea of a new book surrounding Iron Man was a little weird. Two years ago, Tony Stark was pretty much the DICK of the Marvel U. And I didn't like him anymore at the time than the rest of the fanboys. I didn't think there was anything interesting about the character -- and I didn't see anywhere to go with him. I'll admit now that I was very wrong.

Fraction has done an amazing job of finding the human aspects of Tony Stark (and yes I know how trite and stereotypical that sounds). Throughout this book, Tony has been full of issues, foibles, phobias, and flaws. He has the unique position of being one of the smartest men in the Marvel Universe (except possibly Reed Richards), and at the same time being in charge of everything. And yet, even he was second guessing, and failing, and struggling with his responsibilities. 

Eventually, the events of Secret Invasion collided with this character study, and the book took a turn, definitely for the better. To protect his immense knowledge from Norman Osborn, Tony decided to actually erase his BRAIN. More than any other superhero, Tony's brain is truly his greatest asset, and the source of his abilities. Tony, in order to protect his friends, and his world, basically sacrificed everything that he identified as himself.

And this is where the true strength of this book came out of. Fraction began to examine who Tony Stark would be if he wasn't the mega-genius, the CEO, and the director of SHIELD. And he was still Iron Man. Tony Stark is basically a guy who has decided to help the world, and others, however he can, and with whatever resources he has. He just happens to have a few million more than us. 

Recently, a group of characters have gathered around a comatose and braindead Tony Stark to help rescue him, and this supporting cast has really gives this comic an additional level, and has made me very excited to see where this comic heads in the next few issues. I realize Dark Reign is about to end (which makes me sad), but I hope this book gains some more deserved notoriety because of it.

DVR Flashback: Deep Impact is reTARDed.....

So I saw Deep Impact was scheduled this past weekend, and decided to DVR it for later. Tonight I finally got around to watching it. Now, it had been awhile since I had seen this movie. And it was on TNT, so I shouldn't have expected anything amazing. But my god, this was ridiculous. How was this movie ever made?

So, for those of you who haven't seen this movie, you might want to check out the wiki entry, just to give yourself a bit of background. Now that the whole "plot" issue is out of the way, let's talk about all the unbelievable situations (you know, besides the earth being destroyed by a comet the size of manhattan) present in this modern movie masterpiece....

The movie (I refuse to call it a film) starts with Elijah Wood discovering a comet on an outing with his Astronomy Club. It appears as a bright dot, and we are told that his telescope is so weak that it might just "be a satellite", according to his teacher (Mike O'Malley, but unfortunately Mo is not his assitent. That alone would have made this movie worthwhile, but I digress...). They forward it to a scientist, who has the normal "OH SHIT" moment, this time with Mozart in the background instead of the REM featured in Independence Day, which I think added a bit of class. Good choice Spielberg.

Well, of course, the scientist, due to stupid driving by him, and a redneck trucker (more on that later), dies in a firey crash. Fast forward a year later, and Tia Leoni is trying to track down a story in Washington DC and accidently stumbles upon the comet heading towards Earth. This part of the movie is stupid, and I would fast forward through it if you can. The major issue I have with this, however, is that the President decides to reveal the existance of the comet to the nation, and the rest of the world. Now, it's been a year since Frodo happened to glance up and catch the comet. However, it appears that NO ONE else, anywhere in the ENTIRE world has happened to see it. In a year. WTF.

Alright, so someone in President Morgan Freeman's cabinet I guess saw Armageddon, and a joint US and Russian spaceship is built to travel to the comet and blow it up. You know, since it worked so well in that movie. So normal situation, the astronauts land on the comet, use too much fuel, and barely make it down. They then proceed to plant some nukes, in order to blow up the comet. Now, the comet is spinning, so it basically has a day of 14 hours. During the entire mission, there is a countdown, and everyone is aware of it. Each of the spacesuits is fitted with a polarizing visor- those gold things you see in all the images of astronauts you've seen. EVER. Now, these badasses go out without they're visor's down.

Visors? Where we're going we don't need ..... visors.

Now, if only they had all put their visors down at the same time as Doc Brown. But no, they don't. And of course, at the last minute, the sun rises (who saw THAT coming. Yeah, totally different from Earth). Now, at any point, they could have all put down their visors, but they don't, and the asshole astronaut looks right into the sun, and goes blind. Oh, and he gets all humble and stuff. But who cares about that. NASA gave you a visor for a REASON douche.

The bombs blow up, and of course it doesn't work. Instead, there are TWO comets now. Just like a government project, everything just got worse. From this point on, there are about 8 weeks left, and Freeman gets on the TV, and tells everyone we're screwed. But no worries, there are caves in Missouri that will hold about 1,000,000 peeps, who will be picked by lottery. So, we find out Frodo and his family have been chosen, which is great for him.

Hey, Kid! You accidentally discovered the end of all things. So, guess what! You win a spot in our special bunker to help continue the human race. OH! bring your family along too. No, don't worry, all those scientists working on cancer cures, and jetpacks and stuff will do just fine.

So, Frodo decides to marry his 15 year old girlfriend so she can also be saved. No one in either family seems to have a problem with it, and there isn't even a discussion. All of sudden, two middle school kids are getting married. Awesome. Then when the time comes to leave for the bunker, she refuses to leave her family, which makes the shotgun wedding completely UNECESSARY and stupid. Frodo travels all the way to the caves, and THEN decides to leave his family, safety, and a future, to travel back across the country BY HIMSELF, and rescue his "WIFE". What the hell kind of parents are these? You know, they should all die, because they are keeping the human race down.

It's the moment of impact, and we're back in DC at the television studio. The fact that the comet is coming has been known for a year, 2 if you count the government. But these people wait until the DAY of the impact before they decide to leave costal cities. Like, ummmm....DC? A later shot shows NYC, filled with people, even after the President anounced the comet was going to hit the northern atlantic. Again, this is survival of the fittest at work, trying to weed out stupidity in the human race. Denver should be now be a GIGANTIC settlement, on the level of Mumbai or Beijing. But what do I know, I'm just trying to survive.

I think I've bitched about this movie enough. Basically, it was quite the dissapointment. I originally was going to give this movie a 2.7/10, but then I heard the FINAL WORDS that asshole astronaut said to his new son. I quote:

"That's a mighty powerful rocket you have there"

Fuck it. 11/10. Touche Deep Impact. Touche.

Poignant....

I wanted to share this.


America Is F*cked.......(Graphically at least) from Jess Gibson on Vimeo.

Americana is slowly dying.....and it makes me very sad.

The New Year

Some new year's resolutions.....

1. Stop wasting time. Yes there are more details to that....but suffice it to say that that should cover it.

2. Save some money. Now considering that I have started to owe an extra 250 bucks in student loans per month, this will be no easy feat....but still. As long as I don't have to give up my comic books.

3. Weigh 215 pounds. Self explanatory.

4. Get work on Coroflot. Just in case.

5. Ask **** to dinner. Repeat.

6. Learn to play a song on an instrument. Possibly your keytar.

7. Finish my awesome barber chair.

8. Paint 5 paintings. First will be hellboy.

9. Write page-by-page outlines for the two graphic novels that are bouncing around in my head. Next year, #9 will be to send them to Image.

10. Blog more.

And here is a late X-mas present: AWESOME NEW VIDEO GAME


Crayon Physics Deluxe from Petri Purho on Vimeo.

peace.

JSA and the question of faith

Okay, I often hear comments along the lines of "comics are for kids, right?"

psh....whatev.

Steve at Clifton Comics recently convinced me to buy about 10 issues of Justice Society. And I read them all in about 45 minutes. It was awesome.



For any of you in the know with comics, this latest storyline of JSA has been pretty much a sequel (or prequel) of Kingdom Come. So basically a Superman from an alternate Earth has been sent to OUR Earth (or I guess I should say Earth 1....do we have a number for our Earth?) in order to prevent the apocalypse of the superheroes. Easier said than done.

In Kingdom Come we were introduced to Magog, who was the Herald of Gog. Well now we have finally met Gog (right).....and he's basically God.

Okay, maybe not God. But at least A god. He can do anything. Basically.

But the JSA discover (through the new Sandman...who might have some of the coolest powers ever.) that he is forming a Symbiotic relationship with the Earth....which will eventually destroy it. So they have to kill God.

Now, the killing God concept.....I've seen that done before. Specifically in The Authority, but also somewhat in Earth X, both of which were awesome. And let's face it....killing God has a whole mess of deep psychological sources to it......let's not get into that.

Besides, Gog is A god. Not THE god. In fact, he used to be pals with a bunch of other "god-like" beings. They're all dead now. So let's look past the blasphemy issues then.

And this brings me back to my point. Comics are definitely an artform that has moved beyond it's original routes as a medium mainly geared towards children. This Gog storyline has had some heavy concepts. Concepts well beyond the scope of a child's perceptions. It deals with the concept of faith, and where does our faith really come from. And not just faith in a deity....but faith in ourselves. And faith in each other.

Good Gog....did I seriously just say that?

The one story I thought was very powerful was the sub-plot with Dr.Mid-nite. For those of you who don't know, Doc is blind. And a physician. And a devote Christian. Gog is all powerful....and so he "fixes" him. Gives him his sight back. Here is someone with an affliction who has been a faithful person all his life, and never had the need, nor the expectation, of God to fix his "problem". And now...here comes this new god...and instantly rewards him....for really nothing at all.

The question this brings up then is faith more powerful WITHOUT proof? Does proof in itself detract from faith? I mean what is so amazing about BELIEVING the sky is blue, for example, when I can just look up and see it? Am I really making a conviction of any sort? So when some of the JSAers decide to take up and follow Gog (only AFTER he proves himself mind you)....what are they really doing? Do they "believe?" Or are they just seeing? And what the hell is so special about that?

Now, I am not a very religious person. I would consider myself a spiritual person, but when I use that term, I mean that I trust in morals, and humanity. I guess I'm not spiritual, that doesn't make sense. The very source of the word suggests something otherworldly. I'll decide on what word describes what I mean and get back to you.

But while I don't consider myself religious, I do respect those people who have faith. And I contend that true faith does not need any proof, or any evidence, and in fact (this I think is the most important part) does not even LOOK for it.

I saw a thing on Facebook the other day. It was one of those YouTube videos where people just show scrolling text telling a story, with music behind it. (OKay, side note. WTF?!?! why would you use a visual, kinetic medium to write a bunch of TEXT. Good Gog....I could have read it about 50 times faster than it was playing. Just write the damn thing down, don't waste your time pretending to be a "film-maker". Sheesh)

Anyway, it was a story about some kid who stood up for his faith, and that meant a piece of chalk didn't break. That's right. A piece of chalk did not fall on the floor, but happened to fall in the perfect way so as to not break. And this was supposed to be the ultimate "proof" of faith.

Okay. Let's think about that.

Your God decides to show himself to you by...saving a piece of chalk. Instead of....you know....maybe a person? Or the planet? OR a DOG?!?! maybe something that actually breathes? What the hell does that prove? And why do you need proof?

You need proof because your faith is not that strong. But you're afraid to admit it. The truly faithful people don't need proof because they have.....wait for it......FAITH. duh.

See? All of this came straight from reading a comic book. Proof enough for you (haha....)?

Speaking of Proof....maybe I'll talk about that book the next time.

-C