The Dark Knight Rises

You can make a comic book come to life on the screen and even take a few commercial liberties with it and have a movie like the Avengers or you can use the brand of a well known comic icon as a vehicle to use as your Trojan horse so make a gangster movie drenched in social commentary. Chris Nolan is not in the 99% no matter the moral of this story. Bat-man on your poster sells tickets you don't even have to have him in the bulk of your film. 1 minute of Bat-man on a cycle in the car garage. Roughly 3 more mins of quick cuts of him on his bike in a chase scene. 3 more minutes cavorting with Cat-woman. So if you are keeping score at home that's only 7 minutes of onscreen Bat-Man in the first hour. Then we get almost 7 minutes of the bat as well as the first awkward Bane vs Bat-man fight which i have seen plenty of pro wrestling better choreographed. The design of the Bat-man suit lends it's self to very restrained and stiff movements...now you see why they wear spandex. I get why Bane is the villain. Nolan wanted a physical threat. Given the insulated nature of his Gotham, Clay Face, Man-Bat or Killer Croc could not fit the no powers rule. Tom Hardy's Bane, grandstands in an annoying Dracula like accent through more of the film than Bale is in the suit. His dialogue is more tell less show, and breaks a few writing rules and not in a creative manner. Anne Hathaway's "Cat-burglar " is more appealing than most characters i n this film and not just because of her costume, in fact she lacks the sexuality that even Halle Barrie's version had. Then a thirty mind lag until Bat-man appears again, subtract about 15 minutes of now Bat-man , and you still have under an hour of Bat-man in the entire two and a half hour movie. Some of the Bat-man scenes in the last hour are just flashes of him piloting the Bat-wing. The bat-wing's chasing Talia Al-Ghul in the climatic build or what should have been a climatic build would have been more exciting if it had played off more genre cliques , it was flat enough as it was and seemed very uninspired. Already speculation around Christopher Nolan's next project might be already swirls the inner webs and I am concerned about his involvement with Man of Steel at this point, as I would not want it to resemble any of his previous project which devolve into over blown bores.Fandom has rallied around Nolan as they try to convince themselves the few creative scraps he casts off are more worthy than taking the time to seek out quality entertainment beyond the multiplex parking lot. While this movie was not as bad as I had fear, I still offended by it's lack of Wayne in costume and the apologetic manner Nolan continued to handle the source material.I am glad his hands are off of this franchise and hope after Man of Steel , his involvement in the super hero genre is non-existent, the way he handles spandexed heroes like a fat girl he doesn't want to be seen talking in public with give me some hope.

A Funny Thing Happened on the way to the Batcave

I will be getting around to my review of the Dark Knight rises, I just hate typing on this iPad, so it,s one of those unless the muse hits and I just gotta get out type things when it comes to using it for a first draft anyway some rather alarming developments. Involving this film and I'm not talking about the shooting which is another blog In and of its self .the studio seems to be surpressing news in regards to the film, first off we have two ddifferent death situations surrounding the movie, not too mention how Christian bale had a melt down and beat up his mom who worked as a clown after filming the last movie, we can refer to as dark knight and the new one arise going forward here. After reading reviews on rotten tomatoes it was clear money changed hands somewhere as their were multiple negative reviews on the site marked as fresh, studios surpressing reviewsis nothing new as. In today's climate something like that effects box office, it's not the first time this has happened. It seems strange to me a bigger deal isnt being made out of how avengers stomped rises, think in geek circles that omething noteworthy even in the dc vs marvel board, but you have to google long and hard to find anything pertaining to you and E online article on five reasons the Avengers is better than Rises and multiple articles sight that it comes in 3rd behind the avengers and a harry potter film, but doesn't point out how big of a deal that Bat-man is being dethroned. What it means is we do not give a fuck about realism in our superheroes and want them closer to the comic books because they are fun and not a deep social commentary, lesson even comic writers could stand to learn from. One thing I used to like about old school rap was when they called whack rappers out, granted most of them went on to become voters in children's movies or producers, it was a form of quality control when these entertainers were more underground. Where is that in comic culture? I seem to remember it existing, as I remember more loyalty in a Beatles vs rolling stones since when it came to marvel vs d/c. ...I think this goes into how new comic culture is less vested in their lotIt's a consumers market and the power of the fan should be speaking volumes. We have a voice and companies listen, don't think message boards on superhero hype aren't taken into consideration as they know we spend our money on their product not because we have to but because we are passionate about the characters. A mainstream or muggle audience won't know the difference if something gels with these characters or not, we do and in the past we were verbal about it, but we have been flooded with movies at this point so it seemed like heroin users we have built up a tolerance , we take the dope not caring bout the quality. I think Marvel gets this and in the media sense is more catering to the fan as far as what marvel studios puts out. Dc on the other hand tried it with Green Lantern too little success and I see them wanting to keep the Nolan ghost attached to future efforts judging from what I have seen of the Man of Steel ,which is going to be a Clark Kent therapy session. Nolan is no Joss Whedon, he could give a shit about the fans who he expects to bow to his artistic vision , and a lot of you do, for reasons unknown as I cant imagine why it's acceptable to be apologetic about making a super hero movie. But when you are tired of the majority of the movie being. About Bruce Wayne and Clark kent and want to see super heroes, wit til it comes on line to waste your time and don't cast an empty vote with your wallet

Comics for the week of ...

Avengers vs X - men # 8 ...one of the better issues of the mini series...it's a powered up Namor vs the avengers, big panel where he breaks the red hulk' s arm, but is taken down by scarlet witch, so I think this is a big win for the avengers and one undoubtedly we should replicated, the issue has hope siding with the avengers but in trades we already know she goes up against scarlet witch. Avengers academy #33 - the great in this book is consistent the sentinel vs Emma frost goes like you know it will with quicksilver coming in to provide the moral support the end makes sense, so following issues I suppose follow the solo outings and. Tie up loose ends, it makes me wonder the reboot fate of the book,odd considering I think it's numbers are good enough Fantastic Four 608- the art is alrite, the story is a boring jumble,I could care less about black panther the character, works best as a side player but even here is appearance feels like a waste of paper, or how wakanda has anything to offer the fantastic four really. Captain Marvel- the first issue with danvers taking on the name and so fr the ms marvel book is superior in every way ashame as she is one of my favorite female characters in the marvel u, the art is not suited for this book, their talent behind it but stylistically it doesn't mesh well. Justice League #11- The art is great as it normally is , the Green Lantern Wonder-woman fight seemed random and out of character but for the most part the book was otherwise solid Wonder-woman- #11- the Hell-boy art continues in a story mired down in it's own mythology in more ways than one, I feel Diana's voice is getting way off here

the Amazing Spider-man Movie

O.k finally got around to seeing a couple weeks later I know, but such is life when you are as broke as I am these days. The question on any one's mind is why another reboot? Money which this film has made so far the obvious answer. Criticism over the "dark" tone flourished, i only saw this in Andrew Garfield's angst ridden over acting. Parker being so belligerent towards his Uncle Ben and Aunt May, seems a little at odd with the character. His mumbling and repetitious attempts to spit words out made him seem autistic. But no more than Tobey McGuire's open mouthed gaping through out the first two Rami Spider films. I enjoyed this movie more than expected, pacing was it's primary problem as the Lizard's cgi rendering did not bother me as much as other reviews I have read. What did bother me was the fact it took the first 45 mins of the film before there was any proper Spider-man. The set up should have happened in the first 15 mins, if an audience can't piece it together in that frame of time, they should be taken into a pasture and shot not coddled in the movie theater, after all they bought a ticket to a movie called the Amazing Spider-man, a well know pop culture figure. J.Jonah Jameson was mysteriously absent and Norman Osborne was kept in the shadows for some so important in Peter's life. The Mary Jane factor stung a little as a supporting role in high school wouldn't have been hard to swing. Since we are on swinging the whole crane lets help spidery part was silly. My other complaint is his mask came off to much, they should have notedfromthe comics to eat or drink he pulls the mask up of his chin. I don't think this is fan boy nitpicking but the finer points of fleshing the character out. It felt almost apologetic towards having. Masked character,when having a secret identity is such. Large part of the character The effects in this movie ad Spider-man moving more fluidly and less rubbery than Rami's, film more wire work less cgi. The lizard got tons of criticism, mine lies in the face there no reason for him not to have a snout and look like the scillary scallery alligator from the Peter rabbit books for as a child the correlation made sense. I also think he looked better in the lab coat, it should have stayed on. Where the movie really hit is marks, the wall crawling looked good, the webbing looked good but could have been used in manners more akin to what we see in the comic. The action was well paced, I hated action movies like the Bourne series where the fight scenes make you dizzy and with Spider-man I have seen this become a problem even with the animated series ..hell the video game makes me dizzy, the point of view scenes where used sparingly. As far as powers go his spider-sense could have been more pronounced as well as his super human strength, I don't think I saw him lift anything heavy to accent this and it could have been more exaggerated when he hit people , as at this point what we were lead to believe is he doesn't know the extent of his powers. Against other superhero movies I would say it is on par with xmen first class and falling just behind the first iron man and captain America whic points out the flaws of the movie as I have more of an emotional invest in the character than in stark or Rogers,spidery falls just behind Thor and hulk for me in terms of marvel. With the money a made the ink is dried on this indeed being a trilogy we can bet on goblin and electro and kraken wouldn't surprise me though a hench man rhino would work and support from the black widow which MIT tie in the kingpin...a white one while we are at it.

Things we learned at Comic Con

So here's ten things we learned from Comic-con, and no not the Alf reboot has been cast but things actually comic book related.

1-The Hulk book, will carry on it's numbering after the reboot, but with the Red-She-Hulk, Better Banner taking over the story line, it will put her against Project Pegasus  and set the tone for a Red-She-hulk bumping head with the marvel u so look for a lot of versus. 
My thoughts- mmm, to close to call, I feel they really haven't explored the Betty Banner side coming through with this character who has been by and large a she-hulk version of the Red -Hulk's attitude, so I would like to see her fleshed out.

2-Spider-man is getting a side kick called Alpha.
My thoughts- this is one of the stupidest things I have heard in a long time and for a character who is the face of Marvel comics, why can't they leave what works in place and stop making stupid mistakes with the character they find themselves trying to go back and cover up..see brand new day and the clone saga.

3.Ant-man & Guardians of the Galaxy are the next films to launch into the Marvel film universe.
My thoughts- Not sure why Ant-man wasn't in the movie instead of Hawkeye in the first place.  Guardians well I have no emotional ties to those characters, so much for suspension of disbelief when you bring talking  trees and racoons into the mix, would rather see Dr.Strange but at least it's not Black Panther.

4.Ben Kingsley is playing the Mandarin in Iron Man 3 -
My thoughts- This is what I expected, Don Cheadle hinted there are going to be more than two villains in the  Iron-man tri-quel as well.

5-Cap and Thor's sequels will be called - Captain America = the winter soldier and Thor- the dark world, so Winter Soldier will obviously be in the next film and Thor will be fighting some dark elves
My thoughts- fine with the concepts though would like to se more earth or cosmic based villains for Thor like the Wrecker the sub-titles however are stupid.

6-D/C- Has exhausted all ideas and will be releasing 0 numbered issues going into origins
My thoughts - see above

7-a 3rd Marvel Ultimate Alliance game is not in the cards , next games rolling out art Avengers Battle for Earth...which spider-man is on the team so stands to reason other new avengers will be along with the movie characters , Dead-Pool merc with a mouth- supposedly r rated and another marvel vs capcom called origins
My thoughts- no need to rush out and buy a more current console

8-Marvel will waster paper with things like baby avengers vs x-babies,  Minimum Carnage -arch/miniseries, and ultimate Iron- man
My thoughts- waste of space

9-the arrow, the green arrow show - will feature deathstroke or at least his mask and china white as the villain and of course Black Canary will be included. darker and more realistic are the words being thrown around to describe how the character is going to be different than the Smallville version and he won't be opposed to killing.
my thoughts- while i will give it a shot , green arrow is a character I barely have an interest in if he is not teaming up with more interesting characters like Super-man or Hawkman


10- the Trailer for Man of Steel looks like we are in for more origin stuff from the Smallville days than we need, though more action than Super-man Returns

My thought- why any Origin at all? 

Comics of July 11th

With the looming reboot looming enthusiasm wanes when reading a title being phased out or how this is effecting the canon as a whole as I read this weeks Marvel books but lets put it aside and try to look at the books a they are
O.k Vs book this week, featured Dare Devil vs Pyslocke and Thor vs Emma Frost, the art on this one was a varied as the results of the story telling,having a draw in the first bout seemed a cop out particularly as we were told there would be clear cut winners, it seemed like the more veteran Daredevil should have taken this one. Emma Frost here was powered up by the Pheonix force though if Thor hurt the Pheonix force when he was fighting it collectivly then it stand to figure divided up into different avatars he would fare better and I suppose he did, while the page of him smashing Emma's diamond form was cool , the pheonix element made the whole thing rather silly

Avenger's Assemble # 5, while I like the art ,just bringing the Gaurdians of the Galaxy does not  a story make, there were other thing like Cap just bringing the Hulk along to bully another soldier, huh really , does that even seem like something he would do?

New Avengers # 28 Now that was pretty good, the three main characters were nailed,  I really  liked Spider- Woamn, if big things are done with her no matter what the re-boot brings Marvel will be missing out, though I'm sure Scarlet Witch is going to be the big female lead after avengers vs x-men. the twist caught me the art killer this one will be a hard one to beat this week.

Uncanny X-force- # 27 this is the most improved book, the masters of evil was ....maybe not the lineup I would have chosen, the shadow ling seemed unneeded as did the ultimate version of blob why not the earth 616 one? Well paced , not the most complelling art but the action balanced it out.

Wolverine & the X-men # 11- Another title down the drain, though there are enough x books and wolverine is already in enough books him self even though he doesn't make a appearence in this one which focuses on Warbird and Gladiator , who gets stomped by the Pheonix force.

Dark Avengers #177- the worst depiction of Skaar I have seen he is drawn to look like an old sea hag. The story is still transitioning over to the title characters I suppose, not wowed with the dark avengers line up hopefully the will just consolidate them with the thunderbolts.

Bat-man & Robin # 11- This veered off course a tad, the focus was askew the villians built up so much last issue became anafter thought , the Robin vs Red Hood was the high light of the book, Bruce didn't do much for me here and went on a very two dimensional tear towards the end.

Suisice Squad # 11- this book picked up some of the slack, wasn't really in the mood to read more d/c today, the story was more in the pocket though the art a little on the weak side.

Comics July 4th and My thoughts on Marvel Now

Well, the fire works of this week have not been pleasent with the new of now marvel doing a relaunch after they publicly said they would not be following d/c's footsteps in this manner. So prepared for them to spit in the fact of canon, using time travel to bring the original X-men back. So with that in mind we are trying to enjoy this week's comics

Avengers vs X-men # 7.- the Full implications of Scarlet Witch being back are glanced at. Hawkeye got fried crispy by a powered up Emma Frost, at this point does the amped Phenoix force really count as them fighting the X-men? Still absurdity aside it was one of the more entertaining comics of the week so not sure what that says about quality over quanity.
Wolverine #310- well.. the art was beautiful ,the story all over the place but il ike where it ended up... I mena if you had to bring Sabertooth back .

and in the quick Amazing Spide man- typical for where it's been heading with the lIzard thing , though this one focused more on the Living Vampire Mobeius, and underused spidey villian in my book.

Iin Hulk we had more Mayan mess with the Alpha Flight it reads much more like a Greg Pak book as as equally messy, nothing happens even amid the action, and how is old Ross macking on this chick, Hulks have bigger libido's not affected by age, i think the red-hulk is going to be a casuality of the re-boot

Action Comics was entertaining, but not memorable aside from his little talk with Bruce Wanye

o.k back to marvel Now

Marvel we have been down this road before, it's where your problems started and after things like brand new day , you haven't learned from past mistakes when you put marketing beyond content, the core fans are going to be your bread and butter after you have sold your movie tickets who is sticking by , cartoons are a better entry point that screwing thing up with re-numbering ,  let d/c foul thing up themselves, these characters have stood the test of time and don't need re-imagining , they need writers capable of thinking outside the sand box yet playing with the toys in new ways  that do not veer from cannon, after all thats what give marvel the human edge over the d/c characters who bat-man aisde struggle to translate well to film for this very reason.

Why does Thor need swords?

Hulk does Hulk need a robot? or any sidekicks for that matter ?

You want nick fury , then keep sam jackson in the ultimate verse.

Fine bring back Grey but time travelling not in the tardis well.. this might be the most intersting part but - X-men and Avngers mixing takes away what defines the characters place in the world.