The Weekly Round-Up: 09/29/10

Another week, another stack of comics and this week had some really good comics! So let's get started with this week's first book

We'll start off with a book I didn't think I'd ever be reading: Hulk! Yes, the one with the big red guy. The one that had Jeph Loeb's name on it until very recently. Well, I decided to give Jeff Parker's run on the book a chance; the guy is doing well on Atlas and Thunderbolts, so I can't go wrong here, right? Well, it could, but luckily for me it didn't. The issue itself is a pretty good jumping on point; Rulk's now under the watch of Bruce Banner and Steve Rogers, so that means he's playing on the good guy's side, whether he wants to or not. Of course the real surprise here is the art, which I thought was going to be the delicious Ed McGuinness art on the cover (the cover actually states otherwise, but I'm an idiot.) At first that put me off a little; the art by Mr. Hardman is so much different from the McGuinness art, but after a few pages of comic I found that I actually love Mr. Hardman's stuff just as much. There's also an A-Bomb (and I will go on record by saying that that name is stupid and should go back to the 90's where it belongs) back-up, and a one page story featuring three different hulks. The (ugh) A-Bomb back-up is a fun little story, with nice cartoon-y art by Mark Robinson (writer is still Parker). The one-page hulk story is written by Audrey Loeb with Dario Brizuela on art, and that story will fit right in with those of you who love the mini-marvel stories. Overall, if you've been avoiding the Red Hulk like it was red tide, you might actually find yourself surprised with this one. Give it a shot!

Meanwhile, over at DC, Paul Cornell is tearing it up on Action Comics; his Lex Luthor story is getting more and more fun with each issue. This issue has the mortal enemy of Superman facing down one of the Flash's greatest foes, Gorilla Grodd and what a fight it is! Luthor pulls some impressive stunts and Grodd goes the Venom route and eats brains (FOR THEIR DELICIOUS, DELICIOUS KNOWLEDGE!). And the whole thing ends with a guest appearance that will knock your socks off! (...unless the internet already spoiled it for you.)Of course that's only 1/3 of the issue; there's also the start to what is looking to be one of the most unusual second features yet as Jimmy Olsen, Superman's pal gets his own stories told. No Superman here, though; this story is following the events in the life of Jimmy Olsen during Superman's time on New Krypton! Oh, and Chloe Sullivan from Smallville is in it. One of the few things I really enjoyed about Smallville up to the end was Chloe, so I was really happy to see her showing up here. Overall, this is a fantastic book and is easily one of the best things DC is putting out right now!

Amazing Spider-Man #644 continues the finale of "Brand New Day" with "Origin of Species part-3" and boy does it have some great moments. Spidey continues to face off a huge gauntlet (oh, hey, I see what I did there) of his greatest foes and he does so while protecting a baby! Favorite moments from this include: Spidey getting rid of the Rhino using logic, Spidey beating Mysterio with logic, and Spidey beating up Vulture and Freak with, you guessed it, clever decoys! Okay, that joke was bad, but this issue had some pretty good LOL moments, like Doctor Octopus' "Octo-tracers" and the Chamelion pulling one over on Spidey. With one more issue left in this story, Mark Waid continues to build the grand finale that Brand New Day deserves and I'm excited to see how it all ends.

And finally, Brian Michael Bendis' Powers continues in Powers #6. Bendis' fantastic little series about police officers dealing with super power related crime is a pretty good series, and this issue has flash backs, twists and turns, a dead god, and a last page that will have long-time readers doing a double take. If you aren't reading this series yet, this is a good issue to give it a shot with. If you are reading, then I don't have to tell you twice. If you're only reading this one in trade, then I'm not going to spoil much more than I already have.

Overall, while this is a light week for me, it's a pretty good week. I found a new book, and got three issues of books I'm already really enjoying. And I'm not done yet! I've got the final issue of Atlas and a Pilot Season one-shot from Top Cow to talk about later this week, but for now I've got a cold and I feel like being lazy for a bit!

Catfish and Expectations

Sometimes I find myself wondering if knowing as much about movies as I often do before I see them changes the way I feel about the movie. When I saw Kick-Ass, my favorite parts were the parts I did not see coming at all, most of which were different from what was in the comic. Knowing Darth Vader was Luke's father totally took away all the impact of that scene in Empire. When I knew Two Face was in the Dark Knight, the scene where Rachael dies almost lost all it's suspense for me. It was shocking, but I still knew she was going to die. In a way knowing so much sort of ruined my total enjoyment of these films. So when a friend asked on facebook if anyone wanted to go see Catfish, a movie I knew almost nothing about, I decided to go for it.

Now, to say I went into this with absolutely no expectations would be a lie. While googling the theater we were going to, I found out that it was listed under the genre of "Thriller". So Immediately my mind started making up possible scenarios. Is this a movie about a guy in a rubber catfish outfit chasing around a group of young teens and killing them? Is this about some crazed friend getting revenge on an old fishing buddy who betrayed him? What could the title "Catfish" have to do with any of this at all? Honestly, I've got to applaud Universal for doing this "don't let anyone tell you what it is" campaign because I was totally surprised with what the movie was about. And I enjoyed it. A lot. In fact, I want to see it again.

Now, I'm not going to tell anyone what this is about. I'm not doing it to "make the movie better", but because this is a movie that I think a lot of people should see. I want people to go into this with no expectations or perhaps with minimal expectations, since I've already mentioned the genre being "thriller". I'd have left that part out, but it was so integral to my experience. Still, go see it knowing as little as possible, because I think it's important for everyone to see at least one movie knowing as little as possible before hand.

Still, if you decide to go and spoil this movie for yourself, I won't blame you. Hell, it's not like knowing will ruin the movie. But whatever you do, go see this movie. I've seen a good chunk of movies in the theaters this year, but out of all of them I enjoyed this one most of all. Now I think I'll go into more movies with minimal expectations.

Pokémon, the Internet, and International Release Crap!

About a week ago the latest game in the Pokémon series Pokémon Black and White came out in Japan. It's the 5th non-remake title in the main series and it sold like hotcakes. Here in USA, the game is slated for release in "Spring 2011", which means we're going to be waiting at least 6 months to buy this game. But that doesn't mean you have to wait to play it.

Last weekend anyone who wanted to could download the ROM of this game and play it on their computers, free of charge. Again, nothing is really surprising about this if you know you're way around the internet. What was surprising was that Game Freak, the company that makes these games, fixed the game so that any illegally downloaded ROM of the game has experience points locked out, leaving you with Pokémon incapable of leveling up and getting stronger. This was quickly fixed, and a patched version of the game was available before this week was halfway over. Then, last night, a patch for ROMs of Black version came out which changed the game (partially) into English. Mind you, there are probably a ton of grammatical, all of this has been accomplished within the course of a week. Give it two more and you should be able to get both games in English. Meanwhile the official release is still six months away.

Am I the only one that thinks that this insane? Huge releases on the Xbox 360 and the PS3 can see GLOBAL release within WEEKS. Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker was out within a span of about 6 weeks of it's Japanese release. Resident Evil 5 was out in North America, Japan, and Europe within a week. Pokémon Black and White is going to take 6 months to get translated? And that's not even taking into account Europe and any other market outside of the United States and Japan. Meanwhile, various internet groups have gotten around the one big anti-piracy trick and are right now in the middle of translating the whole thing into English. Two weeks from now, if they're keeping pace, they could probably have the whole of both game translated into English. And it's going to take Nintendo and Game Freak at least SIX WHOLE MONTHS to get fully translated versions of the game out for purchase? Within the next 6 minutes, you could probably go onto 4chan and find everything you'd need to download to play a partially English version of the game. In weeks, probably a fully translated version. This just baffles me.

Now, I'm willing to admit that I'm being a tad bit critical here. The target audience of this game (children, for the five people who don't know that) probably has no idea this game even exists yet and as such does not care. There's probably a huge list of Pokémon names that need to be changed on top of other localizations, not to mention setting up stuff for all the internet integrated features (there's a lot), and a massive amount of beta testing to be done. But that doesn't change that fact that all of this could've been done months ago. Hell, this would probably be a great release for the holidays. And in this day and age where anything is readily available for free (albeit illegal) distribution, there's no reason why major markets should be waiting as long as they are for this kind of stuff.

(Note: I do not condone piracy, nor do I endorse it. Pay for your crap like everyone else, even if that means you're not going to be playing it for a few months.)

THORSDAY, Part Three: THORSDAY EVERYDAY!

Hey kids, guess what time it is! That's right it's time for THE THORSDAY REVIEW OF AWESOMENESS! What's that? "But it can't be Thorsday because Thorsday is a Thursday pun!" GUESS WHAT POOZERS, THORSDAY IS TOO POWERFUL TO BE JUST ONE DAY SO IT TAKES THEM ALL! Friday? THORSDAY! Saturday? THORSDAY! Christmas Day? THORSMAS DAY! So let's stop whining like little babies and man up because it's THOR TIME!

Today we look at Thor #615, which is the start of Matt Fraction's run on the series, which promises to be awesome. And if you look to your right, you'll see the cover for this issue. I really like this cover; Thor's standing in a heroic pose, looking up to the skies as is to signify that we're about to start up the winding road filled with all kinds of awesome adventure. Behind him stands Asgard, surrounded by dark ominous clouds, signifying that the Siege and fall of Asgard is over and it's time to start picking up the pieces. It's a new beginning and this cover does an awesome job of showing us that. It gets me excited and pumped for what's about to come up after it. And I'm glad to say that the content itself does not disappoint.

This first issue is a bit all over the place; We've got an off screen Asgardian talking with a scientist with a warning about the dangers of Asgard being on Earth, sweet little aliens getting decimated by meaner, planet conquering aliens, and Thor reminiscing on Loki before he heads off to give Balder a much needed pep-talk. Still, it manages to be a good start to a promising run on the book. There isn't much action, but Fraction's got some big threads starting here and I'm excited to see where it all goes. And it isn't all action and danger that's good, there's a hilarious little dialog between Thor and Daniel Blake as well as a funny, if not slightly predictable last page reveal. There's also some heartwarming moments, such as Thor's dialog with Balder. This isn't anything new; Fraction's done this same kind of stuff on Invincible Iron Man, but that doesn't stop this from being good.

My one complaint with Fraction's Invincible Iron Man is that the Larroca art is terrible; with Thor I absolutely cannot complain. The art here is awesome; the beautiful little planet of the doomed little aliens, the sheer savagery of the invader aliens, and a gorgeous two page spread of Thor looking over the fallen Asgard are all fantastic examples of Mr. Ferry's outstanding artistic abilities. This book is simply beautiful. Another visual pleasure is that the lettering here looks like it was done by hand. In a day and age where lettering is done on computers, it's kind of nice to see a comic look like it was lettered by hand. It's one of the things I love about Jeff Smith's comics and now it's one of the things I'm going to love about Thor.

If this issue is anything to go by, it looks like Thor is about to go to some very exciting places. If you haven't picked this issue up yet, you're really missing out because this is tied for my pick of the week!

The Weekly Round-Up: 09/22/10

Alrighty folks, if there's one thing I've learned from my summer of useless blogging, it's this; I like doing multiple review in one post. Let's face it; I don't review much outside of the stuff I'm already reading. I may occasionally pick up something new, but that only happens every once in a blue moon. Meanwhile I want to talk about what I'm reading and what I'm reading is stuff I've talked about at length multiple times. And since (a) piracy is wrong and (b) I'm not getting any review copies, it seems I'm just stuck writing about the same things over and over. Now then, ONTO THE WANK!

So first up this week is the book that should be the main Justice League book, Justice League: Generation Lost. First off, let's talk about that cover. Goddamn is that a sexy cover. If I ever saw that cover at a bar, I'd buy it a drink and then I'd try to hit on it, only to fail and end up back at home in a puddle of shame. That's how sexy this cover is. If I have one gripe with this cover it's that it's more misleading than the first Bleach Opening-a-majig. Batman appears in this long enough to give us a hint at just how powerful Max's trick is working. It's actually one of the cooler parts of the issue.

As far as the rest of the story in this issue goes: pretty standard. We get the team figuring out what they're going to do next (hunt down all of Max's little bases to see what they can find) and we see what Max is up to (tricking Magog into working for him). Still, there are three really cool moments in this issue: a nice moment between Fire and Ice, the already mentioned scene with Batman, where he and Power Girl show us just how powerful Max's world wide mindfudgery can be, and the final page, which has the appearance of an awesome group of characters that I'm not spoiling for you. Honestly, if you aren't reading this book right now, then you should be, because it's freaking awesome.

Meanwhile, back in Marvel Land, Jonathan Hickman is tearing it up on the Fantastic Four. And this time, he's got STEVE EPTING on art duty, as we start up "Three" which promises to kill one of the FF. Now before I get to what I liked, I do have to say that I'm disappointed in Hickman for doing the whole "Someone dies" story: not only is this a tired cliché, but it's the hook to a story that Mark Millar did on his run on FF, which was the run before this. Still, that being said, this isn't bad for a tired cliché story that the previous writer already covered. We've got a great little scene between Valeria and Doctor Doom, we've got the FF doing their fantastical thing and fighting against fantastical baddies, and we've got hints of something happening involving Doom, Reed, and third guy that I have yet to recognize hooked up to some weird machine. It's all over the place, yet I had no time following what was happening save that part with the weird machine. And much like Justice League, this issue closes with an "OH S#!%" moment, which got me really excited for what's next.

Art wise, Steve Epting is off to a nice start, with the high point being that last page. His art is definitely a big factor in the crazy awesomeness of the last page and his art is just all around good. I look forward to next issue, which will have Ben Grimm de-Thinging, which promises to be heartwarming. (I can't even tell if I'm being sarcastic here)

And while I didn't bother to scan their covers, the Ultimate Universe got it's monthly dose of Bendis with the release of both "Ultimate Mystery #3" and "Ultimate (Comics) Spider-Man #14". Ultimate Mystery continues to be a pretty great Spider-Woman and Fantastic Four tale. We get to see the new Ultimate FF smack down the Ultimate Nova, while Jessica continues her infiltration of Roxxon. We also finally get to meet the guy behind the attacks from Ultimate Enemy, and if it is who I think it is, then holy crap Bendis really pulled one over on me. Still, I can't advise anyone to buy this in issues, because this is just gonna read better in trade. But definitely pick it up in trade, because this is pretty awesome.

Meanwhile, Ultimate Spider-man ends "Tainted Love" and what an ending it is. The (boy)Chameleon faces off against Johnny Storm and Iceman in a fight that does nothing but satisfy. The Creepy Chameleon sibs end up getting their comeuppance, which involves one of the coolest displays of the human torch powers that I've ever seen. Still, the status quo of the Ultimate Spider-man story is once again shaken and it looks like Pete's gonna be single again. Oh, and did I mention that David Lafuente is a beast, because he is.

Finally we've got The Flash #5, which may or may not feature a typo: the chapter title reads "Dastardly Death of the Rogues Part Four", though I do believe this story started in issue #1, which would make this part 5. Again, it may not be, but I'm too lazy to look this type of thing up.

The issue itself is pretty good, with The Rogues and the Renegades facing off over who gets the Flash. There are some really cool Rogues moments here, like Mirror Master escaping an attack from the Flash by hiding in the little wings on his cowl and the reveal of what is hidden in Scudders giant "Break In Case of Flash" mirror. There's also twist I actually did not see coming and it's a big one. And for those of you who either listen to Tom vs. the Flash or are familiar with silver age Flash, there's a reference to the fact that time cops are always dicks who only care about their era.

Much like Lafuente, Francis Manapul is owning the art in this book. While we don't get any huge awesome Flash sequences where we get to see the Flash doing his thing, we do get a full page spread of the Rogues and Renegades fighting, there's the sequence with the Flash getting trapped in Scudder's big trap, and an awesome page where we get to see the Weather Wizard show off his weather wizardry! This may not be the best book DC is putting out at the moment, but it certainly is the best looking book they're putting out right now. (Joe the Barbarian is a very close second!)

Tomorrow (maybe!): I take a look at Thor #615 as I do a THORSDAY REVIEW OF THOR-Y GOODNESS of the first issue of Matt Fraction's run on the book! And (maybe!) then I'll talk about Avengers and the Infinity Gauntlet, by two of my favorite Brians: Brian Clevinger and Brian Churilla!

Jadusable and Majora's (Haunted) Mask

I've never been much of a fan of Horror movies or scary stories of any kind; don't get me wrong, when the good ones come along, I enjoy getting a good scare. Still, for the most part, when something comes along and claims to be the next big scary thing, I usually just shake my head and chuckle because I know I'll just end up getting bored or irritated with whatever new crap Hollywood is trying to paint as scary. But like I said earlier, when a good one comes along, I definitely love getting that chill down my back. Well I think I found myself that special little something.

About a week ago, I was browsing one of the chans (If you don't know what they are, then you're a better person for it) when I came across screencap of a post made of 4chan's /x/ board. In it, a young college sophomore going under the name "Jadusable" (not sure if that was the name he posted as on 4chan, but it is his Youtube name) talks about a copy of "The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask" that he bought at a yard sale. If you haven't heard the story yet, you can read it all here: http://tinyurl.com/2ckcygv (though the final part may not be up yet as of this posting, it is supposed to go up today.) I'd do my best to recount the tale, but I think you'd do much better to just read the entire thing yourself. And the posts themselves are one thing, but coupled with the youtube videos that have been posted, everything is suddenly just that much more creepy.

The video and the posts aren't exactly the type of thing I'll be losing sleep anytime soon, but they are the type of thing that keep me feeling uneasy as I read and watch it all. On the surface, it's easily the backwards music, the Link statue, and that goddamn Happy Mask Salesman that get me feeling creeped out. But there's still one thing that really gets me feeling creeped out; the general buggy-ness of the whole thing. Now, anyone who's played their fair share of games has come across this at least once; for whatever reason, something in the game just goes crazy and you get a character flailing around or even getting stuck floating in the sky. So when you look at this video and you see the city textures missing, or Link's upper body spazzing, etc. happening, the video seems that much more within the realm of possibility.

And that's why it gets so creepy; this all feels genuine. Jadusable could have easily had each of these encounters end with Link getting dismembered brutally and continuing on in the next video slightly more brutalized or sad looking. He could have easily talked about "secret cutscenes" where Link, terrorized by what's going on around him, commits a brutally realistic suicide. But no, this just looks like the game is bugging out and I find myself with that lingering feeling in my mind that maybe Jadusable really did have a haunted copy of Majora's Mask and maybe this is all actually happening.

And that's what I love about this; even though I know this is fake and I've seen some of the evidence to debunk it all, I still get that feeling in my gut and that chill down my spine whenever I watch one of the new videos. Mind you, I've only watched these videos once a piece, so it's entirely possible that the next time I watch all of these things I'll get bored with them and realize that I was just being an idiot all along. But what matters to me is that I got that right kind of chill and I've enjoyed this first time experiencing it all. Jadusable did a great job with this and I'm glad that I got to see it and that I even got to share it all with you. Now if you'll excuse me, I have to go see if that final video has been posted yet.

THORSday, Part Two: THOR HARDER

Two Thor comics are out on a Thursday? Looks like it's time to do another THORSDAY DOUBLE REVIEW! That's right, I'm following up my blog post about how I want to do more than just reviews by giving you maggots a DOUBLE REVIEW! That's the power of two reviews and they're multiplied my THE POWER OF THOR! Did you feel that? That was your soul exploding from the sheer awesomeness of the THORSDAY DOUBLE REVIEW MULTIPLIED BY THE POWER OF THOR!

I'll start you off with Thor 614, which is the final chapter in Kieron Gillen's awesome run on the book. Thor is in Hell and he's summoning the Disir (read: zombie viking chicks) to save Tyr and Hela from getting eaten alive. Needless to say, he wins, and the way he does so is pretty damn brutal. Doug Braithwaite just killed it on the art here and for that I can only give my thanks, because this is how a story about Thor adventuring through Hell should look. Overall this was a great end to an overall awesome run. If I ever reread this story again I'm gonna have to put together an awesome Metal playlist so that I can have the proper backgroung music for something of this magnitude (sorry Scott Pilgrim soundtrack, but you just don't work as well for Thor books!)

Meanwhile, Thor: The Mighty Avenger, continues to be the smash hit of the Summer, as well as one of the books I look forward to the most with each new issue. If you're looking for a place to start reading Thor, this is it; it's out of continuity enough that anyone can pick it up and read it, but it's so well crafted that any seasoned comic fan will just fall in love with it.

This issue we find Thor meeting up with his old friends the Warrior Three and they go out drinking. Then hilarity ensues and I mean actual hilarity; there's a scene where Thor and the Warriors Three are fighting this issue's guest star where there's a dog pile that is just pure comedy gold. Aiding it all is Chris Samnee's fantastic art. If you aren't buying this book, you're missing out, because this is easily in the top five best books that Marvel is putting out right now.

So there we have it; THE THORSDAY DOUBLE REVIEW OF THOR-Y GOODNESS, MULTIPLIED BY THE POWER OF THOR! Don't worry, I'm sure your soul can be put back together and even if it can't, go buy some more Thor, you damn Thor junkies!

The Pig's Pen: The Returnening of Much Unimportance

Ah September, I am hardly prepared for you. I always know when you're coming and yet every year I'm surprised that you've arrived as soon as you have. What does this have to do with anything? Well, other than me taking the second half of August off, nothing really. Actually I'm pretty sure it has nothing to do with that either. Jeez, this intro paragraph sucks; let's start over!

Howdy small reader base, it is I, that guy with that blog that you are currently reading. As you may or may not have noticed, I took a large chunk of August and some of September off. I'd rationalize that string of inactivity, but this isn't a job and I honestly hold no obligations to anyone, so suck it. Now enough about me and more about the unimportant(er) stuff; the site!

During my couch potato sabbatical I had some time to think between long bouts of watching Scooby Doo and Psych and I decided that it was time to make a change to this little blogamajig. I've decided that I'm going to do more than just reviews of comic books, I will talk about my opinion on things in non-review form and not just about comic books. No, this doesn't mean I'll start talking about things that matter; there are millions of idiots on whatever news outlet you choose to accept lies from who do that everyday. No I will continue to talk about and review things that do not matter at all and I may even get a little bit (more) irrelevant.

So what do I hope to accomplish by making such radical changes? Absolutely nothing of any sort of value in any way, shape, or form. One again, suck it, this is my blog and I won't sully it's non-existent name by making it matter. Now, if you'll excuse me, I've got some hot wing flavored pretzel pieces that aren't going to sit on the couch an eat themselves.