Number Three: Reservoir Dogs (1992)

Let me first start of by clearing something up. This is the first movie I have on the list (and there will be others to be sure) that is seemingly out of chronological order. Well it's not! Even though Quentin Tarantino's Reservior Dogs made the rounds of the festival circuit in '91, and I'm sure many of you had seen it before me, I had my first taste in 1994 on Superchannel in my parents basement. I clearly remember walking by as Harvey Keitel was telling us about Madonna's big dick coming out of his ear and I was entranced. I sat down and devoured the entire experience as though there no other options available.

Being fourteen, I'm quite sure the violence and foul language was attractive, but there was something more. While many could rightly point out the clever dialog, or rich characters, marvel at the clever use of scene chronology as the narrative jumps from the present to the past in one monologue where Tim Roth recites his "commode story", or even the wit of a heist movie that never shows the heist and in fact only refers to it in past tense, I had a wholly different experience. I finished this fantastic story, (as if I could leave halfway through!) and faced my parents who had somehow materialized during the film. (I didn't notice when, they could have been there the entire time for all I knew!) My mother turned to me and said in an incredulous tone, "You liked that?" What a question! Of course I had! Didn't she? Had she missed something? And this was an awakening. I could see clearly that something had quality where my parents could not. Sure, when you're a child, you're enamored with all kinds of fun that adults allow with a smirk or a dull nod as you try to fill them in on your afternoon exploits in the woods behind your house. This was something else. This was adult fare that they couldn't seem to relate to, but I could. It spoke to my generation and not theirs.

I'm sure a person could make this same list with music albums, and while music holds a special place for me as well, this list could only be movies for me. Reservoir Dogs showed me that dialog could be more effective than explosions. In a world where actions speak louder than words, Tarantino proved otherwise.

Number Two: The Crow (1994)

Let's jump ahead a couple of years. Hostage on one of those bizarre vacations your parents drag their children to, I'm holed up in some hotel in a town that is now completely unmemorable and as evening loomed and dinner was ordered, choices flashed across the screen of which Pay-Per-View movie we would choose. There was no actual choice of course. In fact, none of the other movies even register in my mind anymore. I saw a preview for the Crow! That was the only movie we could watch. And watch I did. It had everything; the tragic hero, the emotional core, the timeless dialogue and music that I couldn't believe was in the world and I was missing it! Now, even though I loved comic books, at fourteen, I had yet to experience the personal journey that is the original source for the movie, the graphic novel by James O'Barr. It didn't matter. Alex Proyas (the director) had perfectly captured every nuance of what a comic book hero was. His graphic sensibilities, gave the visual nature of the Crow a comic feel more potent than Sin City and without using any of the CG technology we rely on today. Sure as a more mature film buff I now know that Proyas's rain soaked dystopia was heavily influenced, like so many, by Ridley Scott's Blade Runner, but I had no idea. To me, this was a revelation. I had no idea you could make a movie like this. (Perhaps this is a phrase I should refrain from using here on out as any movie that failed to do so would not be eligible for this list. Unlike Batman this movie didn't feel like a movie at all. Keaton and Nicholson were larger than life, but the movie had so many winks and nods to the audience, you couldn't help but know it was a Hollywood blockbuster. This was different. Sure I know who Brandon Lee and Tony Todd, Michael Wincott, etc. are now, but at that time, these weren't actors. I hadn't seen them in twelve other productions. These were characters and their rich world of cool, tempered by pain and suffering was something I had never seen before and I was hooked. I still love the Crow for all these reasons. It holds a special place in my heart, introduced me to heavy, rock, alternative music and a brilliant smash of kung fu, superhero, voodoo and the thick bleary eyed haze of revenge that will never leave me. As an aside, Proyas' second effort Dark City took his aesthetic to an entirely new level for me and is, I think, the stronger movie, but the Crow was the only movie that could have made this list.

The Top Ten Movie That Changed My Life

Before I take you through what is surely one of the most self-indulgent lists ever devised by a critic, I think it would be only pertinent to share a little of the person who has picked these movies. After all, a review is only worth its weight when viewed in the context of the man or woman who wrote it. Why would you care if I did or didn't like Transformers unless you had some insight into who it was that was telling you the sub-level of quality it strove for.

Warning:If you have little stomach for nostalgic masturbation, you may skip the following paragraph if you wish.

So a bit about me; I could regale you with the crazy number of DVDs adorning my walls, or that I review movies for a podcast site, shamelessly plugging my efforts on a weekly basis. I could tell you about how I own my own business selling comics in a well to do store in Metrotown Mall and spend most of my day talking about toys, comics and the great unifying force of cinema. As impressive as you might find all of these tawdry facts, the only thing that really should matter is how much I love movies. I'll watch two movies a day, one with my wife and one after she falls asleep. I'll annoy the crap out of friends and family with steady over-analysis of any movie I've recently seen and as sad as it seems, I quietly feed my broad love of genre films of which I can't seem to find peers to share with. Sure, I have friends who love horror flicks and I know a character or two who can wax enthusiastically at a myriad of kung fu movies, but I find people who love blaxploitation, noir, or have a frothing appreciation for the films of Steve McQueen few and far between. How enamored I am with film could possibly be due to my parents, as most things deeply rooted in one's self usually are. Both full time workers, and myself being a latch-key-kid, I would while away the hours from three-thirty to six in front of the TV. Sure, I would go out if there was someone to play with, but being an only child, come rain or shine, I could always rely on the boob tube to be there and take me to other worlds, where the rules of cliched friendships backed by soppy scores and riotous laugh tracks showed me what the moral majority thought we should all aspire to be or not to be. This is starting to sound like the Cable Guy now, right? Well my "babysitter" didn't take my sense of self away from me. This isn't some sad story of an abandoned child, neglected and left to fend for himself in front of a television. Come six-thirty, my parents would be home and dinner would be made and more often than not, we'd repair to the living room to watch a movie. My parents were avid renters and I can still remember our first VCR (also rented) that had the remote still attached via a six foot chord across the room. My father has taught me many valuable things in his lifetime, but one possibly unintended value I gleaned was the enjoyment of movies. After VCRs became the household staple for everyone, my father had already jerry rigged two together and started bootlegging copies of anything that came into our house. Then with the advent of "SuperChannel" the whole process became even easier. We had hundreds of movies. Everything from Hollywood blockbusters like "Ghostbusters" to long forgotten gems like "Crossroads" (and shame on you if you're thinking Britney Spears and not Ralph Machio). By the time highschool rolled around I was skipping school and staying at home to watch movies all day. Sure I got into all the other trouble that teenage boys do at the right ages, but there was always time for a movie. It wasn't until the end of high school and beginning of real life that I started to appreciate movies for all they could offer. I was raised on the action flicks of Arnold Schwarzenegger and Van Damme and comedies of John Candy and Dan Aykroyd and while these movies were surely great and entertaining films, there were other elements of film that I was missing. Key elements that separated me from the sick and deviant cinephile I've now become. The artistry of my father's favorites weren't fully appreciated until later in my life. Blade Runner was a lot of talking and too dark and mature for me to understand. Aliens was a great ride, but the technical achievements in creating the world it did, or the strength in the story and characters were certainly all enjoyed but not yet analyzed and fully understood.

So as I sit back now, admiring my extensive DVD collection, I wondered which are the films that brought me to where I am today? This is the heart of essay. It's not meant to show the world how encyclopedic my knowledge is by referencing little-known movies. Nor is it intended to run down the easily over hyped "best" of anything. These movies can have their flaws and their strengths that may or may not be addressed herein, but what this list covers are the movies seminal films that brought me along my way to appreciating movies the way I do today. Each one stands out in it's own way, teaching me something about the craft of movie making or about myself. There will be movies that most people would think are sorely missed off a list for someone from my generation, such as Star Wars. Who wasn't influenced by this supernova of a film? While it may be on your list, it won't be on mine for the simple fact that Star Wars is a part of who I am. It's a part of the world and is inescapable. I'm not trying to be unique, but for as long as I can remember, there has always been Star Wars. I was too young to remember the first time I saw it and therefore while I'm sure it has shaped me and my appreciation of movies, Star Wars is as the Earth. It was always there and will always be.

On the flip side, I considered putting Phantom Menace or Batman and Robin on the list. Both certainly had their effect on me and I can remember both experiences of watching them for
the first time in the theater and wondering how these things could have come to be. In Batman and Robin I saw for the first time how wrong a film maker could be in their vision. How every decision they made led them down a darker road and how sad it was that it could not be undone. In Phantom Menace I saw the awesome legend of of film hero George Lucas reduced to facts that should have been apparent to anybody. He is just a man. And like anyone else he is capable of mistakes. There was no way a new Star Wars movie could have been disappointing until the credits rolled and I found myself wondering what had just happened. Obviously, these feelings have since occurred time and time again, but those were the first. That's what this list is about, sure, but I want to stay on the positive side and share with you the movies that enriched my life and carried my love of movies to a deeper place than it had been before. So here we go in a roughly chronological order to keep things orderly.

Number One: Batman (1989)

I'm nine and going to the movies for the first time. I had never experienced anything like it before. The grandeur, the scope, the snacks or popcorn and fountain pop. A lobby filled with colorful posters for other movies, but mostly promoting the movie of the year, Batman!

Maybe it was the sugaring sweet snacks or maybe the thrilling dive into deep caverns and trenches that the camera takes in the opening sequence only to pull back and reveal the monolithic bat-symbol, but the whole experience seemed too much and I spent half the movie in the bathroom, being motion sick. But that didn't stop any of the impact coming through.
Here was a real superhero movie! A costume like none I had seen. In fact, a costume that set a standard still followed by superhero movies today. That was the last time anyone took the idea of spandex seriously, if they ever had. The art direction, the score, the darkness and yet still maintaining the ability to communicate with this nine year old boy. The world acknowledged the movie rightly for what it was: a classic and it left it's mark. Sure I didn't dare go back to a movie theater until '92 when the sequel came out, but I also never forgot that feeling of seeing it for the first time.

Stuck In Maui!!!

I had some stuff I wanted to post while I was shanghai-ed by life to Maui -yeah, I know, what a drag! I wanted to post a top ten list of movies that changed my world. It would have covered all ten days that I was out here, but due to an annoyingly stupid business center here that does not seem to allow copy and paste functions, I'll have to wait until I get back!

Until then, you'll all have to suffer with the meager leavings I have set up for the A3U Podcast site itself. There should be another kick ass movie review with Mike and Sean Yang up in a couple days and I just posted a DVD Vault review on Rogue. I'll post another DVD Vault review in a day or two.

Sorry for the crappy blogging!

Amazing Spiderman: Brand New Day (Marvel)

Did they really do it? Has Marvel actually delivered on their promise to bring Spiderman back from the land of “Who Cares”? The events of One More Day were so controversial and many still know if they agree with such a DC-like continuity screw up situation, but now with the first so many new Amazing Spiderman issues out, we can all judge for ourselves. Let’s over view:

So in One More Day Peter has Mephisto change history and wipe out his relationship with MJ. Why? Cuz the mutherfucker deals in human suffering, that’s why! It was a trade to save Aunt May’s life. Not a decision many would make, but it serves to bring us to where marvel editorial wanted to be; a brand new day for Spidey! Now he isn’t and has never been married, he still lives with Aunt May and is a photographer for the Daily Bugle again or still… whatever.

The choices made by Marvel and Peter have been weak and quite frankly disappointing for fans who have invested in ol’ Web Head for the last twenty or thirty years. Many would have preferred to see clever writers finding ways to make Spidey cool again without simply taking him back in time to when he was at his most popular and copying that shtick. More interesting however is this; the lame shtick works! It’s been a long time since a Spiderman book felt like a Spiderman book and it looks as though those days may be back. Cancelling the other Spider-titles and consolidating them all into one book that comes out three times a month is a brilliant move. Pete’s soap opera style life is something that people want to read every week and now they have it. The new format of the book brings more of the regular supporting cast of characters back into play and already has a mystery brewing amidst the constant myriad of sky high action scenes! Once again you’re getting caught up in Pete’s life and caring about all the nuances of what makes his life work, from his friends to his work to his family and love life, it simply feels like Marvel has injected life back into Spidey’s book.

As much as I wanted to read this book and shake my head in disgust of what they’ve done to the Wall Crawler, I simply couldn’t. In this case the ends justified the means, I have my Spiderman back! And if anyone dares to doubt the direction of the writers and whether or not they know what they’re doing, there’s a six page Spider-mandate by Editor Tom Brevoort outlining to the writers what makes Spiderman great and how they should use those elements to bring him back. This document is a holy grail for Spiderman and any writer thinking of putting pen to paper on this book should be forced to adhere to its sage council. Thumbs up!

Green Lantern: In Brightest Day (DC)

With “In Brightest Day”, DC squeezes a unique collection of ring slinging adventures between two covers. With all of Geoff Johns epic GL tales lately and his next big arc “The Blackest Night” poised on the horizon to take the DCU by storm, one might think this is the newest book of Hal Jordan’s exploits. Not so. The greatest stories told about the Green Lantern in decades are easily Johns’ resurrection of Hal Jordan in “Rebirth” and his subsequent battles in “the Sinstro Corps War” books. With that in mind, it makes complete sense to tap into that and bring readers a book like “In Brightest Day”.

This is a book comprised of thirteen Lantern stories handpicked by Johns’ that span the entire history of the Corps itself. Each story has a commentary by Johns that precedes it, to tell you why he picked it and if any, it’s significance in the Green Lantern mythos. From the charming stories at the beginning of Hal’s career, to the birth of each of the Corps greatest heroes, John Stewart, Guy Gardner, Kyle Rayner, Mogo, etc. this book gives old fans a great tome of the best collected adventures and fan favorite moments, while newer fans can see some the history of the book and fill in gaps in their knowledge to see some of what has come before, what makes the series great. Throw in some Alan Moore stories and you’ve just kicked up to some next level shit!

The book is thoroughly enjoyable and has ties and hints as to what lies ahead in the Blackest Night. Johns’ commentaries give great perspective of why you’re reading these particular stories and more insight into his feelings of the Corps and the various characters. This book packs a lot in and doesn’t disappoint, unless you were looking for more Geoff Johns stories. The only thing missing was a good Kilowog story!

Friday the 13th Recap (Wildstorm)

Friday the 13^th Vol.2

More mutilation and savage murders fill the second book of Wildstorm’s Friday the 13^th series! Rather than a standalone story collected from the issues of one miniseries, this book is a collection of smaller stories, comprised of single or two issue arcs. These stories range from greatly stylized and fun to poorly conceptualized and bizarre, but they all share two things; the man in the hockey mask and bloody violence!

The first story is one that sheds light on Mrs. Voorhees’ history of how she got to where we find her in the first issue. It shows Jason’s father and young Jason himself and while this is supposed to give us more insight into what makes them killers or give us more psychological reasoning behind their reign of terror, instead it serves to actually discredit Jason’s story and the tragedy of their motives. For instance, while Jason is a boy, he’s shown as being cruel to animals and torturing them to death. This is written by someone who doesn’t understand that Jason is actually the hero in his story, back from the dead on a misguided quest for vengeance against those who helped cause his drowning through their negligence. Mrs. Voorhees may be crazy, but it is an insanity brought on by grief and anger from the loss of her boy. She’s on a similar path for retribution, but showing that she was always crazy, simply takes away from the tragedy of their story. When you watch a Jason movie, you root for him to kill people, this story is simply ridiculous.

As the other tales go on they get better. There’s a one issue story nicely stylized by artist Andy B. even if the story is a little silly and misplaced in a Friday the 13^th book. In “Badland”, the third story, writer Ron Marz and artist Mike Huddleston tell a two issue story that flash back and forth between a snowy Jason story of today and a similar revenge tale a hundred years ago. The lines in the art are as crisp and solid as Marz’s storyline. This story lends credibility to the theory that the lake is the source of evil or retribution.

In the last and best story in the trade, Jason Aaron and Adam Archer spin us a wicked tale called, “How I Spent My Summer.” Over two issues we see a similarly disfigured boy set upon by Jason at another camp and spared. Jason recognizes their shared pain and takes care of the child in his own way. There’s much more to the story, but it is a perfect demonstration of a writer understanding the mechanics of Jason Voorhees. Unlike the first story, Aaron gives Jason sympathy and makes him the hero. This is perfect because while watching the Friday movies we all cheer for a homicidal maniac and that is the same dynamic that is needed in these books. Adam Archer who previously drew the first volume in its entirety is the perfect artist for any Jason book. His rendering of Jason takes him beyond being simply “a man in a hockey mask” and gives him the spirit of Kane Hodder. This story is worth the price of admission alone.

From good to bad, this book should have something for everyone’s sensibilities. Always welcome around Halloween, I hope Wildstorm has more in store for us by next year. Despite any distaste over the first story, it’s undeniable that, this book becomes more enjoyable as you read it!

Friday the 13^th Volume 1

How completely sweet is it when all the right components come together at the right time and place with such synergy that a miracle is born? I’m not talking about the birth of old JC, far from it! Jason might actually be the anti-christ, but good god I love him! The event I’m talking about is a horror comic based on a movie franchise “getting it right”!

In the kitchen, the chefs; writers Justin Gray and Jimmy Palmiotti and artist extraordinaire Adam Archer cook up a culinary delight with all the right ingredients. Let’s see, a splash of blood here, a pinch of nudity there, a simple and yet pitch perfect plot of stupid teenagers boiled to perfection in a hot pot of tension and terror! Point of fact, I won’t even touch on the plot of this book, if you’ve seen a Friday the 13^th movie, you don’t need a recap of these events; teenagers fixing up a camp for the next year’s brats? Been there, done that! But that’s what a Jason movie is about! Within that basic framework are the characters that pull you along with the story and make this such an interesting read. Well, that and the nudity.

Machetes in the face, brains bashed out and severed heads flying around will keep all hard core gore hounds with their eyes glued to the page! With artwork, that has already been covered when I reviewed the second volume, by Adam Archer you have what will possible the best Friday the 13^th graphic novel to ever come out. Now while I know that the competition isn’t too stiff, any fan of the movies would be remiss to pass it up!

Short Memories!

Here we go again! Is it some misguided need to get a good movie that has people foaming at the mouth for flicks that are most likely going to be as crappy as they sound? Maybe it’s sadomasochism and people just enjoy punishing themselves when they go to a sequel of an over rated piece of shit movie, only to be let down again. But wait! It gets better!

These same people come out of the theatre telling you how great the movie was? Yes that’s a question! I can’t believe it happens and I want to know why! Let me give you some examples; Phantom Menace sucked terribly right? But everyone lined up for Attack of the Clones and then when that sucked, they lined up for Revenge of the Sith.

Spiderman is easily one of the most over rated piece of crap movies that has little more to offer than some web slinging in quickly lost-luster CG and Mary Jane in a wet down. I was disappointed, but when I told people I thought it was crap, they scorned me. Sure enough, a couple years later those same people are telling me that the new Spidey will be way better than the first one, which apparently now is only, “okay”. The same thing happened with the third!

This leads me to point out a couple of movies that I want to put down for posterity. These aren’t revelations, more a wakeup call. I don’t intend to have the memory of a Harry Knowles or the legions that follow him blindly. Time doesn’t make Phantom Menace suck, Geoge Lucas did and that was in 98 when it was released. (God, with a 4^th Indy, will old George forever be the punching bag?) And the nominees for “movies you should realize suck immediately” are;

Transformers. Where to begin? Inconsistencies in whether or not the robots are clumsy, cute, fountain crushing klutzes or back flipping, missile dodging, mechanical ninjas is only one aspect to how bad this movie was. And people want to hate on Shia? Fine, his performance in this flick was weak, but look at the material for god’s sake!

Hellboy 2. I don’t want to hear about how cute it was that Hellboy and Abe got drunk and crooned together! That sucked! Come on people, Pan’s Labyrinth good, Hellboy 2 bad! From a weak ass plot to missing the tone of HB completely, this movie missed the mark on all targets with the exception of production design.

Incredible Hulk. So many people thought this movie was better than the Ang Lee’s movie and while that’s certainly up for argument in my opinion, we shouldn’t be afraid to call it for what it was. I agree it wasn’t a complete waste of time, but when you have a main villain with absolutely no motivation, you have to own up to it! Tim Roth is a fantastic actor, but he nothing to work with here! I don’t care what was left on the cutting room floor, if it’s not edited back in then it’s not part of the movie. Add Liv-she’s-hot-but-useless-in-this-movie-Tyler and you have some pretty questionable film making here. The movie was great until she was introduced. From that point on, every cliché was painful, from the drop out of the helicopter in slow-mo to the meeting on the bridge in the rain I wanted to gag myself and end it!

300. I don’t get the appeal of this flick at all. I guess it’s the fact that it’s a Gladiator wannabe film with Sin City-like visuals. Big fat deal! If I wanted watch Gladiator, I’d do just that and forget about the flat and boring one dimensional movie that was 300. At the very least Gladiator had depth in its emotional core, while 300 was a movie that tried to convince you that Spartans were badass by parading them up and down in loin cloths for two hours and yet as soon as one of them dies, his father is all crying like a little bitch! Talk about inconsistency! I hope movies like this are few and far between. While Sin City was a novel way of bringing that comic to life it mirrors the Matrix bullet time effect; just because it was cool in one movie, doesn’t make it cool to put it in a hundred other flicks! Anyway, I think my opinion has already been proven on this one, since I haven’t heard anyone even talk about this piece in the last six months. Flash in the pan.

Punisher. They're already rebooting this franchise, so I don't want to hear about how this movie was cool! It wasn't! Only in Hollywood could some shmuck think that amping up a character's origin by killing every single family member instead of just his wife and kid is a more intense story! If your wife and kid are killed, that's hardcore, if I tack on your uncle Billy and second cousin Jeanie, who gives a shit? And let's not get started on the whole, "I'm the Punisher so I'm going to psychologically punish you by planting parking tickets in your wife's car" bit. Two words; weak sauce! The Punisher takes off your knee caps with a sawed-off, not manipulate you into turning on your best friend!

Well I guess that’s it off the top of my head. I’m tired and I’m sure tomorrow will bring an entirely new crop of half assed movies for me to gripe about. I’m also sure that there are more out there I should have remembered, but that’s all for now.

Catwoman: Crime Pays TPB (DC)

Before getting into this trade, you open to a page that catches you up on all the plot threads that have entangled Selina for the past many months and think to yourself, “This is too much. I’ve jumped on board at the wrong time.” Not true. Within the first couple pages Will Pfeifer makes this story easily accessible to anyone who wants to give it a try.

The book is sharp. As much fun as it is to watch the current Catwoman fly through air or skulk on rooftops like a slinky ninja, it’s the combination of Pfeifer’s fast paced story that leaps from issue to issue interspersed with fun cliffhangers and the crisp lines of David Lopez’s pencils that make the series such a fast ride. There are plenty of cameos in the book as well, giving Selina a lot to play off of. Everyone from the Calculator to Batman, the Joker, Superman, Mirror Master, Lex Luthor, Cheetah, Captain Cold, Green Lantern… I mean, you name them and they’re in there somewhere!

Now to be honest, my preconceived notion of a Catwoman story is a crime story, or a noir story. I simply believe that a thriller is the best platform for Selina Kyle to do her thing and while the book certainly starts off that way, two issues in, the story takes a bizarre left turn and ends up on a planet billions of light years away from Earth! While this does allow for some cool moments in the book, like our favorite jewel thief kicking the collective asses of the entire Justice League, I just didn’t feel like it was a story that belonged in a Catwoman book.

That being said, I might also point out that this book doesn’t wrap up its story by the end, so a second volume could bring us back down to Earth, both literally and figuratively. Having to deal with the big story plots of previous issues didn’t interrupt the flow of this story or confuse me and Pfiefer does a great job bringing you up to speed so you don’t get lost along the way. In fact the second issue has a perfectly succinct recap in twelve words on one page that was nice to read. (Some books can fill pages with recaps that have you bored to tears.) So bottom line; I’ll check out the next volume, but I’ll be hoping for more cat ninja, less intergalactic mayhem!

Crossed #1 (Avatar)

Hot off their work on the ass-kicking book “Chronicles of Wormwood”, Garth Ennis and Jacen Burrows reform like Voltron to bring you their next piece of nastiness! Crossed is horror series about a Zombie-like apocalypse wherein the monsters just seem to be some sick and depraved humans. It isn’t clear in the first issue what the specifics about these crazies are, except to say this, “Them some sick mutherfuckers.” While I could be talking about the creators of the book, I’m in fact referring to the depraved, slaughtering, sodomizing band of psychos that are over running the pages of this first issue. Is it a viral rage or a voodoo curse? Simple mass hysteria? We may never know, but as long as the entrails keep coming out in a sloppy mess, I won’t care.

Getting the critical stuff out of the way, the book doesn’t give you a definitive main character that you attach to in its twenty some-odd pages, but that being said, it doesn’t matter too much. This first issue sets a tone for whatever comes next. This book has so much room to open up and with Garth Ennis at the helm, it shouldn’t disappoint. While it could have had more of a hook to pull you in story and character wise, Ennis and Burrows rely instead on a level of carnage and mayhem they know will bring you back next month.

As a first issue this could have been stronger, but as a promise of wicked things to come, it seduces. This is a book for homicidal maniacs and the people who love them.

Death of Captain America Vol.2 (Marvel)

Brubaker continues to shatter all preconceived notions of what a lame book Captain America can be! As only a truly great writer can, Brubaker takes watershed moments like the resurrection of Bucky and the death of Cap himself and turns them from shocking publicity stunts into instant classic moments that will define this character and series for the next fifty years!

Having killed off Cap in issue twenty-five, the series continues with just as much riveting action as before, proving that the cast of characters surrounding Cap are just as well defined as our hero. Volume two escalates the tension as the Red Skull’s plans to throw the world into chaos start riots in the streets and Bucky makes the decision to carry the shield and become the new Captain America! This is easily one of the best comics on the shelves today. You’ll be shocked by how good it is!

Also highly recommended is the Captain America Omnibus HC. It’s pricey, but collects the first twenty five issues and a couple specials in an over sized format that will catch you up on what’s going on and what everybody’s talking about in proper style.

Justice League of America: The Tornado’s Path TPB (DC)

As DC reboots the Justice League and Batman, Superman and Wonder Woman attempt to handpick the new roster. Throughout the book we’re constantly flashing back to the big three summing up each of DC’s big hitters, providing commentary of what they think of each character. Alongside this plot is a story that casts Red Tornado back into the spotlight as he is given a human body for the first time, but before he can come to terms with what that means, someone steals his old body and it takes DC best to track it down.

Despite the big moments and witty banter between Bats, Supes and Diana, the book is missing something that stops it from being truly great. Maybe it’s the random nature of the cast of characters that are thrown together in the story which is then reflected at the end of the story when the final choice for the team is decided by coincidence. That cop out ending just seems to be a lame excuse to throw Brad Meltzer’s favorite characters together. Now to be fair, that is at the heart of the team up, but at the same time you can’t help but shake the bitter taste of being led down a road where Meltzer takes away from your investment of choices for the team line up by metaphorically shrugging as saying, “whatever”. Other problems with the book could be argued that people who don’t know Red Tornado will find themselves asking why they should care. More attention to new readers and giving more history to Tornado and his origin probably would have helped to clear that up.

On the positive side, the book has a large scope outfitted with the proper talent to bring it to life. Ed Benes brings all of the power of a Jim Lee with none of the stiffness of the superstar artist. While there are many seemingly odd tangent stories running free at the beginning of the book, by the time they tie together, the team fight against one of their most feared villains of all time! These big moments work perfectly, if only there was more cohesion in the overall plot the book would really soar. Other moments that are especially sweet while reading, is the interaction between Hal Jordan the Green Lantern and Arsenal (Green Arrow’s sidekick) who, by the end of the book, dons his new Red Arrow costume for the first time. It’s probably the best moment in the book, bar none.

There are a lot of throwback moments for older fans of the Justice League that are lost on newer readers. This could ignite interest in readers to go find those older stories or read up on the characters they’re not familiar with, but I think that’s a little optimistic. Still fun, the Tornado’s Path is better to look at than to read, but is still good fun.

Young Avengers Presents TPB (Marvel)

If you’ve read the previous two volumes of Young Avengers you know how freaking sweet this series is, but for the uninitiated, don’t be fooled by the name. Young Avengers volumes one and two were some of the best and innovative new superhero series Marvel’s produced in quite some time. Giving us all new characters (something seldom seen in comics these days) and strong writing, Young Avengers takes a stupid name and proves that you can’t judge a book by its cover.

The question now is whether the third book lives up to its previous entries. Alan Heinberg who wrote the two previous series, is not writing this entry but is rumored to still be waiting in the wings for his availability to open up so he may continue on the next chapter. Instead, this book gives us six separate chapters, each dealing with a different member and what they’ve been doing since the Civil War. Marvel’s Civil War was an event that split the team with some of the group leaving to become part of the government sanctioned “Initiative”. This books gives us many great moments for the team and more insight into their characters as so is a welcome addition to the canon. Even super star writers Ed Brubaker and Matt Fraction lend a hand to writing two of the stories as well as Kevin Grevioux (star and writer of the underworld movies), so despite Heinberg’s absence there is no lack of talent in the house.

I enjoyed the book quite a bit, but missed the cohesive nature of a full story arc. This book gives us a great intermission before the next chapter in the Young Avengers saga. Don’t sleep on this title. It’s a sleeping tiger that should get over looked, much like Runaways. So if you like Runaways you’ll like Young Avengers, from the big Marvel style stories to the fast pacing and genius twists, Young Avengers comes fully loaded!

Sentences: The Life of MF Grimm (Vertigo)

Originally, when I picked up Sentences: the Life of MF Grimm I thought, “Finally, real hip hop being put into a graphic novel in a real way.” This was something I had always wanted to see. I love the mixing, the crossing over of cultures, pop cultures and mediums. I love to see visceral producers like the RZA making music for movies like Kill Bill or Ghost Dog. Taking music that I love and movies or comics and putting the two together is nothing less than thrilling. But I wasn’t truly prepared for what fit between the covers.

I confess, I love seeing DMX in movies with Seagal or Jet Li. Sure those movies aren’t as good as Belly, but I enjoyed the pop corn sensibility, the heightened pulp sense of reality, like a superhero movie or a two hour music video with cool action scenes. None of that is real. It’s a part of hip hop now, rappers making their way to the big screen, hustling whatever way they can to make money and that’s a part of the game as well, but that’s not at the heart of hip hop. In Sentences, Percy Carey (MF Grimm) paints his story in words, the way rappers spit, but without bling and posturing. He shows us an unvarnished story of his life coming up in NY and coming to Cali to rap, the bullshit that you get caught up in along the way and how he survived it all.

Grimm gives comics the credibility they deserve by not pandering to music video theatrics or gangster movie clichés. His thoughts are clear and honest and his story powerful. Almost more a confession than a contrived adventure, Carey uses Ronald Wimberly’s “Boondocks”-styled artwork as the beat for his words to flow over. This book was such a fast read; the pages seemed to melt away.

You can’t deny this book. Sure it was cool to see him toe to toe with Dre, Suge, Snoop and 2pac in their cameos, but the brilliance of the book goes deeper. I love hip hop, the culture, the music, I truly do. But I read this book and learned that even if I love the music, as a white kid from the suburbs I can never truly understand it.

Immortal Iron Fist Vol.2

Like Captain America before him, Danny Rand, the Immortal Iron Fist is getting the Brubaker touch! Working together with writer Matt Fraction the duo are redefining Iron Fist’s legacy in the new series. It’s just as important to note however, that this in no way means that they are rewriting the history. Instead both writers are showing the reader why this character and his world are now and always have been cool. As it should be (with a book like Iron Fist), this martial arts, pulp masterpiece is a must for all Kung Fu fans. The second volume focuses itself around a tournament in the mystical city of K’un-lun –a city that only appears every seven years. The tournament takes place at a time when K’un-lun merges with the other six capitol cities of heaven, where each city provides a champion –a living weapon, much like Iron Fist himself. The style of the book is a perfect love note to all the kun fu movies you’ve never seen, right down to the subtitling of each move a fighter makes, like “Burning Chi Thunderfoot” or “Mistress Of All Agonies”. As the tournament speeds to its inevitable conclusion, Iron Fist must deal with the foes and allies of his past and foil a mad Hydra plot to destroy the city! If you like what Geoff Johns is doing for Green Lantern, then pick up Iron Fist, you won’t be disappointed!

Black Summer TPB (Avatar)

From Juan Jose Ryp’s detailed pencil work to both the large plot arcs and small character moments of Warren Ellis’ writing, Black Summer drives full throttle down your throat! This book reflects the current political climate, telling its story with a wicked acidic tongue.

When one of America’s superheroes gets tired of the way the current government has been doing things and decides to massacre the President and his administration to make the country free again, it puts his old allies in hot water! As the world turns a discerning eye toward anybody with super powers, they find themselves on the run, swept up in a revolution they wanted no part of.

Black Summer is what Warren Ellis does best! Along the current trend of books like the Boys, where superheroes are put into a more likely and realistic perspective, (with a cynical edge of course), Ellis creates a new world of super powered people all his own. He uses science-fiction technology to explain the various powers and how they all evolved while providing full servings of ultra violence, humor, political commentary and more gore than the MPAA would allow in an X-Rated movie! From beginning to end it’s Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride, with nary a place to catch your breath! Think of Rising Stars on crack.

It’s nice to see a publisher like Avatar continuing to give creators like Ellis and Ennis a place to tell their special brand of warped stories. Black Summer reads like the next best comic book movie that you’d love to see on the big screen. The only problem is that you’d lose Ryp’s sensational artwork!

Madame Mirage TPB (Top Cow)

How does one even start to explain what Paul Dini does? Is it the rich feeling of old 1950’s pulp fiction he brings to his stories? Maybe it’s the concise story telling that provides what so many new writers seem to miss; full arcs to their stories that deliver satisfaction throughout. He’s not rewriting the book with Madame Mirage. Instead, he’s delivering a story that seems as though it’s always been there. Like a song you hear for the first time that resonates so perfectly inside you, you can’t help but feel that you’ve been listening to it for years, Madame Mirage was the book I’ve been reading in my head since I was watching cartoons in my parents living room.

Set in a stylized future, Madame Mirage is a fun revenge story about a shape changing, ever illusive femme fatale character set to bring down the organized crime world that hurt her. She has all the threat of a Batman, while giving the reader a magical quality to her powers that adds to her mystery, until Dini decides to let us look behind the curtain. As she takes down a cadre of henchmen and villains (including “Dude”, a great throwback to 90’s surfer lackeys with dialog you haven’t seen since Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles or Bill and Ted) you get her back story and once you’re brought on board, you can’t wait for her to fulfill her mission of bloody redemption.

As if there needed to be more incentive than its cool premise and solid writing for you to pick this book up, it happens to be drawn by one of the most dynamic artists working today; Kenneth Rocafort. He’s been puttering around the Top Cow offices for a while now working on titles like Hunter/Killer and recently Jonathan Hickman’s Pilot Season offering, the Core. Each page is a dynamic flurry of events in a well defined hyper-reality with bright and saturated colors giving you all the eye candy you could want. Madame Mirage is highly entertaining and charming to the last page.

Ultimate Power TPB

What a line up! Where before have you seen such a dynamic team of super people with the strength to destroy the world? I’m not talking about the Ultimates or the Fantastic Four or the X-Men, Spiderman or Squadron Supreme, despite the fact that all of them feature heavily in this book! Who could be a more formidable team up than Marvel most elite? Try a writing team comprised of superstars Brian Michael Bendis, Jeph Loeb and J. Michael Straczynski! Together they pen a tale where two of Marvel’s parallel universes collide with awesome force after Reed Richards sends out a probe that accidentally kills tens of millions on an alternate Earth! Squadron Supreme comes to arrest young Richards and take him back to fix the crazy destruction he’s caused, but only if they can escape before his friends can jump in and beat down the Squad. Complete with wicked bone crunching match ups between Thor and Hyperion, Iron Man and Spectrum and a head spinning battle between the speedsters Quicksilver and Blur, Ultimate Power packs mad punches from a nine issue miniseries into one wicked volume. Fair warning goes out to all those who are not fans of artist Greg Land whose notorious use of blatent photo “references” taints the book with empty pin-up-girl expressions and hollow poses that make characters often look like underwear models than hard core superheroes. Only a mild speed bump on an otherwise worthy edition to the Ultimate universe, the big bangs, old school crossover sensibilities and Jack Kirby-esque adventure is a fast paced read that delivers.

Dead, She Said #1-3 (IDW)

Cross film noir with horror humor and you have a good slice of what makes Dead, She Said. Add to that some of the most beautifully rendered guts and entrails by comics legend Bernie Wrightson and you have a great read. Steve Niles proves once again that beyond a great gimmick idea like 30 Days of Night, there is a fantastic horror writer that only needs to be let off the chain. When a detective wakes at a crime scene to find out that he was the victim of a brutal killing (but never died), he must track down who wants him dead or deader before his body completely decomposes on him.

As if the concept wasn’t clever enough, the series is filled with funny bits of dark comedy one could only find in a book about a rotting body. Issue three is a little short on plot and ends a little abruptly, but the journey to get there is well worth the price of admission.

X-Force #1-6

Let’s see… Wolverine has two ongoing titles and he’s in the X-Men and in The New Avengers! Then is it a stroke of genius to make him the leader of his own team in the new X-Force or overexposure for a played out character? The first six issues give a lot of bang for their buck. The new X-Force is a black ops squad that comes in for particularly brutal missions when the X-Men don’t want to get their hands bloody. Their first mission is to track down a mutant-hate cult called the Purifiers, but when they steal Angel’s wings, turning back into Archangel and set him off on a bloody killing spree, all bets are off.

This is a book that should have been created years ago. No nonsense killing machines that are set free to do what they do best, the team consists of Wolverine, X-23, Warpath and Wolfsbane. There isn’t too much plot going on, but that isn’t what I would expect from this book. Despite the lack of swearing and sex, I still find it amazing that the level of blood and gore in this book doesn’t instantly make it a MAX title. My only real criticism would come from not being a diehard X-Men fan. There are a bunch of villains that are dropped into the book over the first six issues who you are expected to know; Mathew Risman, the Purifiers, Bastion, Reverend Craig, Stryker and the Leper Queen. Hard core fans may be able to stay in the loop, but your casual reader may feel left out. Be that as it may, the story is easy to navigate otherwise, the art is sensational and there are enough cool moments to keep you wondering where the next six issues are going.

Samurai: Legend #1 (Marvel)

In an industry filled with so many cookie cutter styles and so much emphasis on the stagnant superhero genre, it’s refreshing to see Marvel breathing new life into comics with Soleil, a company in collaboration with Marvel that will be bringing Europe’s top titles overseas for the first time! You may have seen some of their other launch titles on the stands already such as; Skydoll, Universal War One and Scourge of the Gods. Now with Samurai, artist Frederic Genet and Jean-Francois Di Giorgio are unleashing their wicked series for the first time in the west!

Not since the seventies has the European market been given a fresh new face in North America and given a chance to show the west what they can do. In similar energies, Samurai brings a new meshed aesthetic of American, European and Japanese visuals to readers. It’s hard to believe that one man could put so much detail and effort into each page and each panel, and yet Genet never lets up! There are pages with no less than thirteen panels all of which are clear and concise and easily comparable to most fully rendered comic pages other artists offer with half as many panels. This makes a story of a wandering Samurai searching for his brother and enigmatic prophesies pursued by dangerous warlords all the more enticing. The creators say of their series that, “It is closer to history and a world connected to reality. We try above all, to make our series give a felling of the Japanese atmosphere; our aim is to make the reader travel through in this special ambiance as we would travel with the movies of Kurosawa.” Not since Crossgen’s “the Path” have we seen a serious Samurai comic and I hope it doesn’t go unnoticed by the fans.

Like all of Soleil’s titles, the original French format of 48 page stories is unedited and sold for a price tag of $5.99, the same price you would normally pay for an annual. This first issue is a worthy purchase to anyone who loves great art and samurais that will hopefully stay up on this high level as the series continues.

Abe Sapien: The Drowning TPB

With “the Drowning”, Mignola takes all the promise and potential of Abe Sapien in his own miniseries and gives us a simple story that could have been so much more. Rather than making this a continuation of his development in BPRD, uncovering his origins and his past, we instead get a sort “year one” concept of Abe’s first solo mission for the bureau without Hellboy.

There are some interesting concepts in the first issue dealing with their doubts of whether or not he is capable of leading a team and in many ways this should have been a “coming of age” style piece that showed some kind of growth for him throughout. There are a few moments where you can see Mignola attempting to touch this subject matter but it comes across as shallow, barely even broaching the subject. Instead, Abe is more of a passive character that lets the demons and monsters of the story wash over him. He deals with them accordingly in order to accomplish his mission, but there aren’t many character moments for him to shine.

That being said, there is a bevy of mystical miscreants and powers of darkness that provide a colorful background for the story. Here, Mignola is in his element. He dives through folklore and mashes together myths and legends to create new gothic tapestries like a fish takes to water. As with all other books in the Hellboy universe not drawn by Mignola himself, I felt that much of the weak elements of the story would have been over looked had you his beautiful artwork to soak up. In his place, Jason Shawn Alexander takes up the pencil chores and does a brilliant job if not in a completely 180 degree direction from Mignola’s simplicity. Unlike Duncan Fegredo who has taken up the task of drawing Hellboy’s newest adventures, Alexander doesn’t have many parallels in his style to Mignola. He masters the mood however and is a definite asset to the book.

I had hoped for more, but in the overview I found the book fun and fast if not only a scratch on the surface of Abe Sapien.

Welcome to Hoxford

In this book, if you run with the pack, you're either killing people because you're sick in the head, or hungry.

More love for Ben Templesmith! If you’re not reading Wormwood Gentleman Corpse, you’re hurting yourself and you don’t even know it! Well brace yourself people because the man has done it again. In Welcome to Hoxford, Templesmith both writes and provides the art for a series about a group of prisoners brought to a special prison to be food for a clan of werewolves. What more do you need? Do you root for the evil werewolves or the convicted and insane inmates of Hoxford?

The name should be no mystery to you by now, but for the uninitiated, Templesmith is one half of the team that created 30 Days of Night. His sketchy, schizophrenic styling’s are like the best remembrances of acid without having to come down. Rising from the renown he gained of “30 days” he has proven himself to be an accomplished writer as well, with his own series Wormwood: Gentleman Corpse being far more entertaining than the Alaskan vampire tales he crafted with writer Steve Niles. Moving from vampires to monsters to werewolves, Templesmith is harvesting the underworld to build his library and right now, Welcome to Hoxford is leading the pack.

The Core #1

Top Cow’s new science-fiction series is some serious fun! Turning the pages you can feel shades of Star Wars and Farscape in this new imaginary landscape. But beyond that, artist Kenneth Rockafort brings his own flavor. A distinct master craftsman, Rockafort’s style evokes Conan artist Cary Nord, a sense of video games aesthetics seen in games like Metroid and most surprisingly of all; a ghost of European graphic artists like Phillipe Drulet whose works helped pave the way for Heavy Metal magazine. Any fan of Lone Sloane couldn’t help but acknowledge the similarity in style to the Core’s characters and abstract design with a knowing smile.

The first issue starts a story of a Chamberlain’s son who passes an initiation into a special team of black ops military. He begins to learn the interstellar politics of the alien federation with which Earth has allied itself, while on a covert mission to rescue a trade dignitary from negotiations gone awry. Teamed with a motley crew of different species he hopes he can survive long enough to prove his usefulness. While seemingly simple in terms of plot, the story is riddled with facts and details from this world that help to flesh it out. Writer Jonathan Hickman (Nightly news, Pax Romana) is the newest name in cutting edge comics, cutting a path through other bland titles and is quickly earning a name for himself alongside people like Warren Ellis for unique visions, varied material and sheer volume of output.

I hope the Core continues as strongly as it has started because it’s still early in the game and if Hickman and Rockafort can maintain it, this book promises to be out of this world.

Welcome to My Blog of Know-It-All-ness... and good grammar!

So here we go! Too many people come into the store and ask my opinion on all the books that have ever existed! (There are many) They'd like my candid thoughts on Superman:Red Son or whether Joss Whedon's Runaways issues lived up to the hype, or why they were collected in that stupid format? I mean, it's not big enough to fit with the big books and not small enough for the little ones... whatever, this is not the place for my rantings. Actually, it IS, isn't it? In fact, that's all you're going to get here.

I will post reviews on books, new and old, issues that I checked out and issues that I have with the industry, movies and random thoughts of a generally geeky nature. Now that doesn't mean I'll be posting Buffy fanfic crap or posting the latest rumors of Shia LeBuef's next movie. Instead, I'll try to post reviews and thoughts that may share different books or movies that you might not have known about, beef that I and many other fans may have with decisions made by industry professionals. (like Whedon's Runaways format, what a stupid and greedy ploy.) It would be my fondest hope that you would come to this blog to look for something new to read, or to be warned off of over-hyped crap that you were thinking about buying.

Some of the reviews I post will also be getting published over at www.thickonline.com a hip hop site, while other articles, such as this one will be written explicitly for this blog alone. I've read more than one man's share of comics and have seen more movies than than you could shake a stick at Lucas for Indy 4... wow, that sentence really got away from me! Trust me people, read my reasons and find out for yourself whether I know what I'm talking about or not. Then ask yourself, "Why wasn't I reading this before?"