Washington Post Ultimate Spider-Man Coverage

Here's my write up on my feelings on the death of Ultimate Spider-Man that appeared in the Comic Riffs blog in The Washington Post (which if you're one of my three followers, you know is one of my favorite blogs).

You can read what I wrote here.

Believe it or not, once upon a time I worked for The Washington Post.  For five years actually from 2004-2009.  If you can work somewhere five years straight and it never feels like work, you should consider yourself lucky.  Most people have to play for the Yankees or work for the D.C. government to get that feelings.

I wrote this before I read this issue (which I picked up today, stupidly walking in a suit to Georgetown sweating enough to be mistaken for Patrick Ewing's half Latin love child).  Stay tuned for my write up on what I thought of the issue.

Robin To Be A Playable Character in Batman: Arkham City Video Game

I already had a gut feeling I was going to pick up Batman: Arkham City, the sequel to Batman: Arkham Asylum.  Arkham Asylum is the coolest Batman video game experience there is.  Incredible graphics and gameplay to go along with a great story.  You can't be a Batman fan and not like this game.  Then, I read on one of my favorite websites Superhero Hype, that none other than my already established favorite comic book character of all time Robin, will be in the game as a fully playable character.  And not just any Robin, my favorite Robin, Tim Drake.

It gets better.

Robin's utility belt will have its own unique gadgets and he will possess his own special fighting moves (which I'm sure will include his bow staff, which by the way how cool is it that they included that).  He'll be playable in all challenge maps in the game.

But that's not the best part.

This will all be a part of the "Tim Drake" pack which will be available only here in the states for those who pre-order the game from Best Buy.  And what else comes with this special pack?  A bonus Red Robin character skin which allows you to play the game as Red Robin (read my previous post to remind yourself how big of a Red Robin fan I am).

Playing as Robin or Red Robin in a Batman game?  It's the little things in life that you have to appreciate.

What happened to Red Robin? Nightwing is back.

So we all know by now that DC Comics plans to completely reboot all 52 of their titles come September.  I'll have a write up on this further down the line as we get closer to that date.  I will say that for the most part, this news didn't bother me too much.  Until I saw that A) Red Robin seems to not have a title of his own like he does currently and B) his costume is completely different.  I was completely ok with the re-design up until I saw he no longer had a cowl.

Hey, you want to give a guy feathers for a cape?  Whatever.  He's named after a bird that signifies spring.  You're within your rights.  But where's the cowl?  He's back to wearing a domino mask?  Domino masks are awesome, but he's Red Robin now, as in "I'm no longer Robin the Boy Wonder because I'm all grown up.

This is somewhat of a sore spot for me because Tim Drake (Red Robin's secret identity) is my favorite comic book character of all time.  He was the Robin of my generation.  I remember like it was yesterday being 11 years old and Tim finally convincing Batman he was worthy of being Robin, despite Batman's hesitancy to give anyone that mantle after the Joker murdered the second Robin Jason Todd (don't even get me started on what they've done with him).  I grew up with Tim, and when he gave up being Robin to take on the mantle of Red Robin (and then wear one of the coolest costumes ever designed by Alex Ross from the classic series Kingdom Come) well I was too excited.  Then to top it off, the stories in Red Robin were fantastic.

I don't like the new costume.  Scratch that.  It's cool, but I hate that he lost the cowl.  It made him more grown up.  With the domino mask I feel like they're making him a kid again, which I guess makes sense since in the reboot he'll be appearing in the Teen Titans title.  Something I think his character outgrew as it's obvious he's worthy of his own title.  Who knows, maybe he'll get his own title down the line, or maybe he'll appear in the new Bat books, but either way, I'm not feeling the new look.

It's not all bad news though as the DC reboot will bring Nightwing back into the action in Gotham City. Nightwing of course is the original Robin the Boy Wonder, Dick Grayson, who's been grown up for a while.  He'd taken the reigns as the new Batman after Bruce Wayne's apparent "death", but we all know how death goes in the DC universe.  I still can't believe the rumors that DC was considering killing him off.  Nightwing is DC Comics royalty.  The original Boy Wonder.  Someone who can go toe to toe with Batman because he grew up with him.

 He's a great character and I'm glad he's back and in the proper costume.  But because I guess DC Comics is determined to piss me off with all things "former Boy Wonder" they've changed his color scheme from black and blue, to black and red.  Which looks good I'll admit, so I guess it's change I can believe in.  The red lenses in his mask are clearly taken from the cool mask that X-Force wears over at Marvel.  Which reminds me, I need to catch up on X-Force, because that title rocked.

I swear this is the last GL post

So I just read on one of my facebook buddies pages (who is getting slammed because he liked Green Lantern) that the writers of Green Lantern were the same who wrote the NBC show Heroes and ABC's No Ordinary Family.  If this is true, had I known about that I would have started a boycott before production began on GL.  Where's David Goyer when you really need him.

Green Lantern: The Second Viewing Part 2

So remember that second viewing of Green Lantern I mentioned?  Didn't quite happen.  I had initial plans to see Green Lantern again (if anything to give it one more chance) with my good friend Phil Nance (aka Felipe).  Phil, like myself, is an avid fanboy and an incredible artist.  We're working on a comic book together that may or may not happen depending on whether life allows me to have the mental clarity needed to write something that epic (yes I do have a girlfriend).

The night before Phil texted me with the following:

Phil: We still on for GL tomorrow?
Me: Yeah, what time do you want to meet up?
Phil: Noon.

Needless to say the next day, once 2 pm rolled around, the afternoon viewing was in doubt.  Around 3 pm, I got a call from Phil.

Phil: Sorry man.  I had to catch up on sleep. (editors note: Phil is an artist.  They keep weird hours, drawing whenever the fates permit.  He sometimes goes days without sleep.)
Me: No worries.  We'll catch it another time.  Besides, I've already seen it.
Phil: Yeah, I read some of the reviews and they were all really negative.  I figured sleep was more important.

And that ladies and gentleman, is all you need to know.  Sleep was more important.

Let me start off by saying that I'm not going to be one of the many people who completely bash this movie.  It wasn't a bad movie at all.  It just wasn't that good either.  It just was.  Let's go ahead and get the cons out of the way first.

The movie was way too quick.  Jumping from one scene to the next.  I saw more of Dr. Manhattans penis in Watchmen (great, now I've got that in my head, got to stop writing so impulsively) then I did Hal Jordan (Reynolds) training on Oa and getting to know his fellow Corps members.  You know those scenes from the trailer (and more on the trailers in a sec) with Kilowog and Tomar-Re that got you so pumped up?  Well that's pretty much all you saw of them in the movie.

The guardians are only around for a split second and the most well acted character in the whole movie, Sinestro (played incredibly by Mark Strong) is there just long enough to make his presence known.  Any fan knows what path Sinestro eventually goes down, (slight spoiler here) and this is foreshadowed beautifully in the quick scene after the credits roll, but I was more emotionally invested in Sinestro in the 10 minutes I saw him on screen than I was with the two bad guys (Parallax and Hector Hammond).

Maybe that was the biggest problem to me.  Too much blabbing between Hal and Carol (Blake Lively) and Hal and his comic relief buddy who's name I didn't bother to memorize, and not enough ring slingin''. Which brings me to the script which was cookie cutter at best.  Playing it safe and not really taking any chances.  It was your basic superhero template (guy becomes superhero, guy loves girl, guy conflicted, guy saves girl and world, the end) with not enough character development.

These are fantastic characters.  Hal, Carol (who ends up getting her own ring in the comics), Sinestro, Kilowog, Tomar-Re, the Guardians.  They each deserved more time on screen.  Too often movies are made short so that more viewings can be squeezed in theaters so that more money can be made.  A lot of times this comes at the expense of trying to tell a good story.  The Dark Knight was 2 hours and 32 minutes long.  You think Christopher Nolan gave a damn about keeping it short.  He told the story that had to be told.  A billion dollars later and we're all salivating for The Dark Knight Rises (mmmmmm..... Dark Knight Rises).

I put any problems with the movie on Warner Bros. and not DC Comics (who is owned by Warner Bros.)  DC Comics knows what they have with Green Lantern.  Bottom line is, in the comic book world, Green Lantern has risen into the Mount Rushmore of DC's big three (Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman).  Green Lantern the comic is just as good if not better than anything that's being done by Bats, Supes or WW.  They've got all the material in the world to provide an incredible movie.  Hell, the two animated movies have been great.  How do you make a great cartoon and not an epic movie?  Not sure if a new director is needed here because, well, you can only work with the script that you've got.  New writers maybe?  Maybe let Geoff Johns (Green Lantern comic writer) get more involved?

As previously mentioned, the trailer....well...it was misleading.  The first trailer stunk.  So much so that people were really worried, but WB had a great excuse.  All the CGI wasn't complete so they couldn't show anything.  Then the Wonder Con footage is released and all of a sudden, everyone is pumped.  But the new trailers were misleading.  All the cool stuff, Tomar-Re, Kilowog, what you saw in the trailers was pretty much all you got in the movie.

As you can see, I'm not really saying the movie was bad.  It wasn't.  I just wanted more.  More guardians.  More of the Corp.  More Sinestro.  More emotion.  There's nothing here that can't be fixed and perfected if a sequel is picked up.  And I hope it is because I think everyone would love to see Mark Strong get to really sink his teeth into Sinestro once he's consumed by the "yellow element".

One last gripe.  I didn't dig the score.  The was nothing moving about it.  I can't even remember how it went and hum it in my head.  After X-Men: First Class (which was awesome) I ran home and downloaded the song "Magneto" from the score off of itunes because I couldn't get it out of my head.  Not the case with the GL score, which is crazy when you consider who did the score, Mr. James Newton Howard.

Now to what I liked about the film.

Ryan Reynolds overall as the Green Lantern.  He was a good choice.  Yes he's the same person in every movie, but the ladies like him and he's in shape and funny.  What more could you want for Hal Jordan?  The script held him back, but I liked what I saw, whether he was suited up or not.

The suit itself.  Yes it strayed away from the comic book version, but other than Spider-Man and Thor, have you ever seen a comic book movie where the suits/costumes look just like they do in the comic?  The suit looked alien, just the way it's supposed to.

Sinestro.  He rocked.  May there be tons of him in the sequel.

Oa and the Green Lantern Corps.  So visually appealing for the 30 seconds I saw them.  If there is a sequel, here's hoping they play a bigger part and that we get to meet more of the Corps and actually hear them talk.

The ring itself.  Very cool.  I want one.

Overall, I give the movie 6 power rings out of ten.  It's got potential.  May the force be with those involved with the sequel.

The Dark Knight (Surp)Rises

So here I am minding my own business, reading Pop Candy, one of my favorite pop culture blogs written by Whitney Matheson for USA Today, and I see a link she's posted for a quick write up in Variety on Peter Dinklage.  I click on the link and read a very nice, short write up on Dinklage and the love he has for his character Tyrion Lannister in HBO's epic series Game of Thrones.  And why wouldn't he love the role.  He's rich, a part of a sinister family and gets laid a lot.  Far from what the average little person gets when cast in a role that doesn't involve working for Santa Claus.  Dinklage has quickly become one of my favorite actors as his character always seems to be a few steps ahead of everyone.

*Side note: Game of Thrones is the ish.  Best show on TV.  I'm hooked.  So much so I went and bought the complete book series so I don't have to wait a year between seasons to find out what happens.  Also, when I say ish, I really mean sh**.

As I usually do when linking from a blog, when done reading I see what other stories that particular site has to offer.  As I'm looking at other links, I see something that I have been trying to avoid online since I first heard rumblings of it's arrival.  A huge spoiler from The Dark Knight rises which of course puts a close to Christopher Nolan's Bat-trilogy next July 2012.  The spoiler is in the form of an actor being cast.  That's all I'm going to say.

I closed my eyes quicker than Cyclops without his ruby quartz glasses.  But it was too late.  I saw it.  I ran away from my laptop, somehow thinking that would help, but as you may have guessed, it didn't.  I had seen the warnings from my top Batman info website (Batman on Film) so I had been extra careful not to go to any places that might reveal the spoiler.  Deep down I knew there was no way this wouldn't happen (re: the casting).  It was the only way for the series to really go out with a bang, despite the fact that it includes Catwoman (Anne Hathaway) and Bane (Tom Hardy).

However, I guess I had some sliver of hope that I could go until the movie came out before having my hunch confirmed (unless they plan on putting this person in the trailers, which I doubt they will).  So that's it.  Nothing major.  I go to read something on Game of Thrones by Varitey, linked from Pop Candy and end up having the Bat-secret I had been trying to avoid shoved in my face.  Oh well, I can't be mad at Whitney Mattheson.  It was because of her and her Pop Candy blog that I discovered Y: The Last Man by Brian K. Vaughn and Pia Guerra.  Or as I like to call it, the greatest thing I've ever read.  So I can't stay mad, but boy am I annoyed.

Green Lantern: The Second Viewing.

I will be seeing Green Lantern for the second time during it's opening weekend.  I saw it at midnight on Thursday, and really didn't have a desire to see it again.  However, I promised a good friend I'd take them to see it so we shall see.  I made  the mistake of reading all of the reviews before I saw the movie, something I try not to do for comic book movies so I can just judge for myself.

I'm reserving judgement until I see it a second time.  I'll be with a fellow fanboy who hasn't read any of the reviews and it won't be midnight during the work week so I won't be nearly as sleepy as I was on Thursday night.  I'm interested to see if my opinion will change any after seeing it a second time.  I waited what seems like two years for this movie, ever since Warner Bros. announced that Ryan Reynolds had landed the role of the top cop in sector 2814.

I walked out of the theatre not really knowing what to feel.  So I'll give it one more shot.  And then post my thoughts.