Archive for the ‘General’ Category
The apology fans needed from Marvel
January 4, 2011The good, and the bad, of 2010.
January 3, 2011Oh my God. New Years Eve is here, and with that, comes a new year! Like you already didn’t know! Ok, let’s get on with the show:
The Good:
-Tron: Legacy in IMAX 3D. And fuck you if you didn’t like it.
-Kevin Keller, the gay guy in the Archie universe. It’s about time Archie got more color in there!
-Kick Ass was fucking amazing. I’ve never had so much fun in a theater before. EVER.
-Batman came back! Yaaaay!
-The Brightest Day spin-offs. Flash! Birds of Prey! Yes I’m so happy!!
The Bad:
-Iron Man 2: While the movie did have it’s highlights, over all I was let down by the sequal which seemed to have been rushed out.
-What seems like a million Batman titles: No human being who still reads modern comics should be subjected to this crap. And it’s not just Batman; Deadpool, for example, also has a million titles. It’s expensive, the stories seem to be hot or miss (usually miss), and again, expensive.
-Jonah Hex: I almost forgot this movie came out this year. That’s how bad it was.
-The Transformers 3 teaser: While I like it, even I can honestly say that it looks terrible and jeebus they are on the fucking moon.
-The Brightest Day main title: Such a pain in the ass to read every two weeks. While some of it was good, the majority of it made me want to rip my eyes and lungs out and beat them against a wall. This came out waaaaay too soon. Should have been held off for a little while longer.
-Lauren
*I wrote this a week ago, while still in 2010, but never posted it. My bad.
XxX Holic
December 8, 2010When I was younger, so much younger than today, I ate up everything CLAMP put out. X/1999 came out while I was in elementary school, and I thought it was brilliant. But I was like 9, and I thought lots of stupid things when I was 9.
However, XxX Holic is borderline brilliant, if only for the art. Much like everything else CLAMP draws, the art is painstakingly detailed, and a real feast for the eyes. The story is pretty good. Not life shatteringly good, but still good to make you want to read the whole series. The story revolves around a young man named Watanuki who is followed, and generally annoyed, by ghosts. While coming home from school one day, he is lured by his legs to enter a very Japanese style looking house. There he meets the beautiful, long haired Yuko, who says she can get rid of these spirits, but for a price. Thus, Watanuki becomes her part-time helper, and his spirit problems seem to vanish.
The plot is honestly much more involved, and even crosses over with another CLAMP title., Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle. Both are really excellent manga. Would you be lost throughout XxX without reading Tsubasa? Maybe. I wasn’t. But it doesn’t hurt to pick up the other series either. I probably would not suggest this series if you’re not into manga. While CLAMP is good, if you’re used to reading Batman, you probably won’t get into anything CLAMP does. (However, if you do, then that’s awesome.)
-Lauren
The Last Suckbender
November 22, 2010Oh my God why did someone say M Night Shamalamalama could make an Avatar: The Last Airbender movie. Why did someone think he doing it would be a good idea?
Ok, so basically the first movie (oh God we have to endure more of this shit) follows book one, I guess. We meet the two main “kids”, Katara and Sokka. Katara is a water bender, and Sokka is not. Sokka also has the bad luck of being played by one of those fucking glittery Twilight vampires, so his suck level increased by that much. The two find Aang and Appa under the ice, and free him. Somehow they take him back to their village, and neglect to tell him that the Fire Nation has taken over and is being bad and evil and stuff. Eventually Prince Zuko, played by the kid from Slumdog Millionaire (how the hell do you go from THAT, to THIS, is beyond me), who kidnaps Aang.
Beyond that, there’s really no use going into the detail of what happens. The pacing in this movie is fucking terrible. Katara narrates through most of the film, which means M. Night rolled out of actually showing pacing, plot, a story, anything that wasn’t this. They skimmed over a few details, ignored some, and called Aang Ung through the whole film. Ung rhymes with dung, which is what this movie was: a steaming pile of dung.
The CG was hit or miss. When the elements were being used, they looked pretty awesome. But then when you saw Appa fly, it looked stupid. The costumes were also pretty sweet, but reminded me of some cosplay level stuff. Not saying cosplay can’t be good, but there’s a difference between cosplay and theater quality.
Overall, please avoid this movie. A dinner date to Red Lobster with Aquaman would be more exciting, and we all know Aquaman is as exciting as a dead fish.
-Lauren
Batgirl, oh Batgirl.
October 22, 2010So for those of you who don’t know, I also write for UberScoop.com. I do weekly reviews of comics, or comic related things such as movies. Basically it’s no different from what I do here. That being said, this week I wrote about the one shot Batgirl issue where Bruce Wayne returns: http://uberscoop.com/2010/10/22/road-hom-ourselves-a-new-batgirl/
Needless to say, I didn’t like that issue, and Gotham City Sirens is also going in the Oh-God-This-Is-Going-To-Suck-Worse route with the return of that jackass Bruce Wayne. I’m a little surprised I could be a little mad about Batman coming back; He was my childhood hero, and I have the Batman logo tattooed on me (and I thought about getting it done for 3 years before doing it, and I’m very happy with it). So why would I be mad that he’s back?
I’m not mad that he’s back, really. But the way he’s come back as some messiah and everyone’s life is full of roses again is stupid. What if Catwoman moved on? As I said in the Batgirl review, Batgirl didn’t need a “test”. This God-like treatment he’s getting is stupid. And hard to read. I mean, sure, comics in general are pretty silly when you think about it, but this is just beyond the realms of normal silly-ness.
Hopefully in a year or so, everything will be normal. Sort of. As normal as a man wearing underwear over his tights can be.
-Lauren
Who knew Archie was so liberal?
September 21, 2010Coming out this December, Archie #616 will feature both the President, as well as Alaska’s own Sarah Palin. A quick blip from Archiecomics.com tells us “President Barack Obama and famed politician Sarah Palin get involved as Student Government campaigns spiral out of control at Riverdale High! The race between Archie and Reggie gets hot as campaign chaos reaches to the top, forcing an impromptu visit from these big-name politicos, who get pulled into the fray!”
Ok, the President I can understand, but Palin didn’t even finish out her term in Alaska. But I see where they are coming from; Grab the liberal, African-American President, and the conservative, white woman, who are both into politics and CRAZY SHIT HAPPENS.
However, much like when Kevin was introduced (you know, the gay kid in Riverdale.) people are going crazy over a comic book! Somehow this is pushing the liberal agenda on our youth, and really, won’t someone think of the children? I’ve been to schools where they do in fact push an agenda on to children. I find that more deplorable than a comic book you can simply say ‘no’ too. Is Archie even pushing a liberal agenda? I don’t think so. Before the 08 election I saw no sign of them telling readers to vote for either McCain or Obama. Sure, Veronica got to meet Obama, but that was after he was president. I’m sure if McCain was elected, he would be in the Archie universe somewhere. And if you’re still under the impression that having a gay character is pushing the liberal agenda (I guess all gay people are liberal), I have news for you: That’s not pushing any kind of political agenda. It’s pushing the including-all-people agenda. It might not be a real agenda, but it should be, because that is what this shit is.
I’m glad Archie is moving forward into modern times. I can safely say I have Archie books from the 40’s and 50’s where they were anything but politically correct. They have indeed come a long way, and I can’t wait to see where they go from here.
-Lauren
If Batman was to replace Joe Flacco…
September 20, 2010Maybe the Ravens would have a perfect season.
Brightest Day still continues to be a challenge for me to get through. The new Namor series has been good so far (so I’ll review it soon). Of course it’s one issue in…so really time will tell. Two new Batman comics are due out this fall, to go along with the 50 other Batman titles already out. Hey, Marvel and DC, I don’t think your target audience is as rich as you might think, so maybe you could knock it off with the 15 titles for one character shit?
-Lauren
Damn you, Iron Man!
September 8, 2010Frequent readers of this blog know that I get heated when non comic book people blame comic books for the problems in society, specifically with our children. Nancy King being the most recent, claiming that if teachers are being cut from schools, kids will start reading (READING) comics.
Recently, the Philly Inquirer’s staff reporter Tirdad Derakhshani did a story on how comic book characters are piss poor role models. Tirdad sites that our children–specifically boys because we all know girls don’t read comics–are being brainwashed into thinking they have to be macho, violent, aggressive assholes in society. This is all comes from Sharon Lamb, a psychologist in Boston. If you’re wondering what her actual credentials are, I couldn’t tell you. I’m going off of this report.
Lamb claims that today’s supermen and woman are much different then the ones of yesteryear. Violent, sarcastic, and selfish. It also helps define gender roles.
“There is no doubt that children establish an understanding of what it means to be a girl or what it means to be a boy to a large extent from the media,” …Lamb says from her office in Boston. “Kids depend on stereotypes of gender to define themselves” and the role they play in society.” However, parent’s also help with gender roles. I can’t count the times when I hear a parent say–rather harmlessly–to a young boy “Don’t cry. Big boys don’t cry.” Or a father telling his young son to man up. Yet when a girl cries it’s ok, girls should be more open about their feelings. I can say that from personal experience as I am A) a girl and B) have parent’s.
Media as a whole has been supporting gender roles since the invention of media itself. If we look back at advertisements from the 1800s through early 1900s, women are always shown as being soft, delicate creatures. Ad’s selling bars of soap claim the soap is as soft as a woman (or something asinine like that). The idea that media may have had a heavier hand in showing gender roles is also asinine. Do you know who comes up with said advertisements? Men and women who both grew up with those idea’s instilled in them by their mothers and fathers, who got that idea from their own parents, ect ect.
The other issue NO ONE apparently brings up, is that parents are the bottom line. Some people argue that if you don’t have kids, it’s hard to understand. I babysit on the side so I have some idea of what being responsible means. I also know plenty of parents who have a heavy hand on what their kid watches/reads/whatever. Older kids might be harder to control, but if your 4-year-old son is reading a modern Batman comic, that’s your own fault. You ultimately have the power of saying ‘no’. My mom and dad said ‘no’ to me HUNDREDS of times in my young life. No to Happy Meals, comic books, toys, and video games. But even if a violent film slipped in, my mom or dad would ALWAYS tell me that shit wasn’t real. I might have played Mortal Kombat in middle school, but I can safely say I am not ripping out people’s spines after a grueling match to the death.
Another part which irked me, was this. “Lamb asserts that today’s heroes are motivated by selfish desires, including the desire for vengeance, and not justice and the common good.” Batman became Batman because he had a desire to avenge his parents death. And in the early Action comics was a piece of shit who killed people. Both characters who not “wholesome” until a few years after they were created. “A perfect example, says Tappan, is Iron Man hero Tony Stark, an arms manufacturer and randy playboy who fights terrorists and other evildoers but seems more concerned with self-promotion and self-aggrandizement than justice.” He was also an alcoholic. He also does fight for America, as he managed to destroy a terrorist group who had HIS own weapons. He became Iron Man because he felt he needed to defend America from terrorists. I thought that was pretty obvious since he stated it in the movie but what the fuck do I know, I don’t have a degree in this shit.
“Superheroes “used to be the underdog, or at least had to fight against powerful obstacles. And they could fail,” says Arcudi, author of the superhero graphic novel A God Somewhere.” Superman wasn’t actually an underdog, neither was Batman. The foe’s golden age characters had to fight were also more real than Lex Luthor. For example, a theme in many GA books was fighting Hitler or the Japanese. The books were propaganda for America’s youth, but can we really argue against that? No. Especially when Captain America Comics #1 has Captain America punching Hitler. And really, who doesn’t love a good Captain America punching Hitler cover?
My point is, and I’ll say this again and again, parents! YOU ARE THE MOST POWERFUL INFLUENCE IN YOUR KIDS LIFE. Flex that power and stop blaming everyone else. If you allow your kid to read modern comics, fine, but they need to know these books are works of fiction. At the end of the day, your kid will listen to you, and they’ll turn out ok.
-Lauren
Propaganda and comic books
August 11, 2010Propaganda and comic books go together like paper and glue. Comics have that magical way of keeping anyone’s attention to get a message across. The message varies, from telling kids to stay in school, to getting people to hate a group of people, and everything in between. Propaganda in itself is not a bad thing. Yet after WW2 and Hitler’s (or well, Goebbels) insane amount of Nazi propaganda, the word has taken a negative connotation.
For the most part western society has done a good job of not using stereotypes in comics and cartoons anymore. Does it still exist? Of course it does, just look at South Park or Family Guy. However our society for the most part has become overtly sensitive to such things, but not that long ago society was not as polite.
Up until American’s learned of the Holocaust during WW2, negative stereotypes of the Jews was largely accepted in American society. We can’t ignore the portrayal of the Japanese during this war, who were shown as yellow, buck toothed devils. During the silver age of comics, Hal Jordan had a very stereotyped Asian side-kick named Pie-Face. And let’s not forget how women were treated. Poor Sue Storm, even though she is a super hero, her power is invisibility, which is how majority of women were treated in comics (as well as society). Then again we have such powerful ladies such as Wonder Woman (and yet, her weakness is being tied up) and Catwoman (whose weakness is Batman).
This all leads me to this book: “Comic Art Propaganda” by Fredrik Stromberg. This book just came out last month, and let me tell you. It’s amazing. This might just be one of the best books about comic books to come out in a long time.
-Lauren
Comic Book movies and the nerds who hate them
August 6, 2010The short of it is, we are a small fraction of people compared to the masses. They make movies for the masses.
The long of it is, should companies cater to nerds? If they did every movie would have to be ret-conned at some point since comic books are constantly changing the history of every character. So what’s a director to do? Movies such as The Dark Knight and Iron Man 1 have proved that you can take a character with a long and complex history, and make it simple and yet totally amazing. If these movies were to mimic–truly mimic–the comics they are based off of, they would die a terrible death, or wind up like Batman and Robin.
So should nerds just swallow that delicious pride and move on? No, then life wouldn’t have that spice. However, sometimes we do need to realize these movies are made to make money. Therefore they must be made to appeal to a wider audience. The Dark Knight proved to be a juggernaut of a comic book film to non comic book fans. Iron Man 1 was also amazing, yet Iron Man 2 wasn’t as great, because of Marvel constantly interjecting into making of it.
Which leads me to my next point. Marvel really should have taken a note from the DC/Nolan relationship and let Favreau alone. Iron man 1 did amazingly well, so why screw with a good thing? Ok, sure, he did ask for more money, but he created a solid, money-making movie. So what the fuck, Marvel? Must you screw with everything? Yes, I guess so, otherwise you wouldn’t be Marvel.
-Lauren
Girls With Comics 