My Collections, Part 3: Starman of 1951

Not a lot to show here. The Starman of 1951 was a throwaway character in an early issue of Detective Comics (#247 from September 1957). Spoiler alert, it's an alternate hero Batman poses as...for some reason. I don't have this comic, although I'm always searching eBay for a complete, cheap issue.

During James Robinson's Starman series, he brought in ALL characters who have ever used the name Starman. Now, he couldn't actually bring in Batman as a former Starman, so he retconned the character into Dr. Mid-Nite posing as the character while...well, y'know, go read the comics. Seriously, it's worth it.

These are the few appearances and pieces of artwork I have. The art pieces are from sets mentioned in the last post.

What You Should Have Read #66

Comic Books Released Sept. 12, 2012

THERE WILL BE SPOILERS, SO PROCEED WITH CAUTION!!

Avengers Assemble #7 - First off, I'm dropping this title as soon as Bendis and Bagley wrap up their run. Bendis has not been wowing me with his Avengers work since AvX started. Marvel NOW, rather than serving as a jumping-on point, is providing me with a number of options for shorting my hold list. This series has been better than Avengers or New Avengers, but not by much. I think Bendis is leaving the franchise at just the right time, if not a bit late. There was a lot of ambiguity in the issue, and things just happening. None of the normal human Avengers died in the vacuum of space. Thanos used a cosmic cube to "destroy" cosmic beings then apparently became "reality." I did enjoy the art, though. Bagley's work is reliably pleasing.

Avengers vs. X-Men #11 - I had hopes for this series. High hopes. With the lackluster beginning, I was hoping it would end strong. My hopes were bolstered with a somewhat more engaging middle, but now, nope. Although it reads like two characters COULD have died, only one actually did. And you know what? Big whoop. Seriously, Professor X has been redundant for quite some time, at least as long as the mutants moved to Utopia, probably longer. He has no allegiance to Wolverine's "side" or Cyclops' "side." He no longer teaches or leads mutants. He's not fighting for tolerance or mutant rights. Hell, except for that Legion story a while back, I can't even remember the last time he showed up in a book. Sure, he's Scott's father figure, but even that's something that's been put on the back burner since at least Schism. The only way this would carry any weight for me is if there would have been a build-up sprinkled throughout AvX at least and ideally through some of the X-books. As it stands, the dude just falls down. Hell, I had to read the "AvX Commentary Track" on Comic Book Resources to confirm that he actually WAS dead. Other than Wolverine telling Hulk to throw him, there is no reaction other than people just standing around. Hell, Magneto being taken down got more of a reaction than Charlie's death. And really, how many times has Xavier been killed? And is it actually possible to kill one of the greatest telepaths in the Marvel Universe? Dollars to donuts he's alive somewhere on the astral plane, just waiting for the next big X-Men crossover to happen so he can return. So no, I don't like. It's cheap, it's easy, and really, it's sloppy.

Batman #0 - As much as I'm loving Snyder and Capullo's Batman, I think the gem of this issue was the back-up. It starts out as the "origin" of the Bat Signal, but we're also treated to a brief glimpse into the pasts of Tim, Jason and Dick...and it all comes back to the Bat Signal. I did like the main story, but I was a bit taken aback by Bruce's non-reaction to the death of the bank employees. I thought he'd at least berate himself a bit when he got back "home." Nope. Just more dead people in Gotham. Other than that, though, good script by Snyder and good-looking art by Capullo. Can't wait to see where the Red Hood Gang pops up after (or during?) the upcoming Joker story.

Journey into Mystery #643 - So, what do you really think is going on here? Is Loki back to his evil ways, or is this another scheme within a scheme within a scheme? Regardless of the answer to the former, I'm sure latter is still true. Whatever the reasoning and whatever the outcome, I'm ready to end my close association with the Asgardians. It was a fun and surprising run, something I never thought I'd buy regularly, but my interest is starting to wane, despite the best efforts of Mr. Gillen.

New Avengers #30 - Although Iron Fist was nowhere to be seen in this comic (remember when the covers teased a scene from the comic? A plot point? I miss those days), this was a passable tie-in to AvX. And really, it had as much to do with the main AvX story as this week's Wolverine and the X-Men. The ending was pretty predictable, and truthfully it was a long time coming. I'm okay with Luke quitting the Avengers and focusing on his family. What does a man with indestructible skin do after something like this, though? Private security? Security guard? Is he actually qualified to do anything? If Avengers Academy were still open I'd think he would make a good teacher. It'll be interesting to see where Luke goes from here.

Shade #12 - This was an extremely verbose issue, but it did the one thing I've wanted since I started reading Starman, but I didn't think we'd get it with this limited series: The Shade's origin. This was a good story for those whose introduction to the Shade was this series. For those of us who consider Starman the best thing they've ever read, there were some great nods to the series. Charles Dickens. Culp. Piers Ludlow. Had Deathstroke not been included in the beginning of this series, I'd assume this was set in the pre-New 52 DC universe. As it stands, I don't see how it can be in DC's new continuity. The JSA never existed, so Jack Knight's legacy wasn't there. Don't care, though. It was a great series, and I hope we see some more in the future. We need to learn about Scathach. My only problem with the issue was the Shade's journal entries. Maybe it was just me, but the script was difficult to read. With the amount of writing on the page, though, I don't think any attempt at making it slightly more readable would have worked. It would have covered up too much of Gene Ha's beautiful artwork.

Uncanny X-Force #31 - This is by far my favorite incarnation of X-Force, and I've been around since the beginning. I really came down on Betty's side with this issue. Why not kill Daken? Just 'cause he's Wolverine's son? What is different about his situation? Like she said, they're ready to kill Evan because of what he MIGHT do, but Daken roams free despite all he's already done. Wolverine doesn't even like him, right? Doesn't think there's any chance of rehabilitation?

Wolverine and the X-Men #16 - This is a very loose tie-in issue to AvX, but that doesn't mean it's a bad issue. In fact, that might make it better. Killgore's takeover of the Hellfire Club is explained, and as much as I disliked the little tyke and his gang when they were first introduced, I enjoyed the story. A lot. I liked Emma and Scott's reaction to how evil the kids really are. I liked the prison break. I liked Killgore's origin. Yup, that means I liked the book.

What You Should Have Read #64

Comic Book Reviews 

for the Week of June 13, 2012

I thought this week’s issue of Amazing Spider-Man was a good ending to the “Ends of the Earth” storyline. We got some good scenes with Mysterio. The Rhino with nothing to live for was truly a man to be afraid of. Doc Ock, as always, was defeated by his own hubris. Two things stuck with me, though. First, the Rhino. When did the Rhino stop being stupid? He was always just muscle that screwed everything up. He wasn’t a joke because he was so powerful, but I always got the impression that he could barely string two thoughts together. He was always a lackey, and his Russian background was either forgotten or ignored. Then, after Brand New Day, he’s VERY Russian and seems to be of average intelligence. What happened? I hit up Wikipedia, and it mentioned a Tangled Web story where he regained his intelligence but ended up having it taken away because it ultimately bored him. So really, what happened? The other thing had to do with the ending. Who exactly was Spidey upset about? He said, “Someone died.” By my count, there are four characters who might have died during this storyline: two from the Ends of the Earth one-shot and two from this issue. I guess that’ll be explained in next week’s issue of Avenging Spider-Man.

There is very little I’m enjoying about the Avengers side of the “Avengers vs. X-Men” crossover. This week’s issue of Avengers did nothing to change that. My complaints against focusing on Noh-Varr remain: nothing has been done with him to get us to care about him. Now he’s not allowed back on Earth. Big whoop. Also, why was he accepted so easily by the Kree? He’s not from this universe. I really liked Grant Morrison’s Marvel Boy mini, but the character has just been absorbed into continuity and left to grow stale. I’ll not shed a tear if we never see Noh-Varr/Marvel Boy/Protector again.

On to Avengers Assemble, which I AM enjoying. Maybe I’ve just got a soft spot in my heart for Bendis/Bagley collaborations. Although I don’t necessarily like WHY this specific team of Avengers has their own book, I am enjoying the story. My biggest gripe with this issue specifically ties into this week’s Amazing Spider-Man. In it, Thor, whose mind was being controlled by Doc Ock, could no longer lift his hammer. But in this issue, Hulk, whose mind was being controlled by Thanos, COULD lift Thor’s hammer. Bit of a continuity gaffe there, considering I don’t think Hulk has lifted Mjolnir even in his right mind.

There’s not much I can say about this week’s Batman without spoiling something that probably shouldn’t be spoiled if you haven’t read the issue yet. Personally, I loved it, but I can understand how long-time Batman fans might be put off a bit. This is a BIG thing, and I think Snyder is doing a wonderful job at making this Batman his own. He’s also done a great job of pulling his version of Owlman over into DC’s new continuity. I can’t wait to see how this ends next month. I ended up getting the regular cover for this issue, but I thought long and hard about picking up the Rafael Albuquerque variant. With as much as I’m loving this book, though, I’ve decided that it’s good enough to warrant me buying a copy of each cover in the future, as long as the variant is being sold for cover price.

I’m enjoying Robinson’s Earth 2, but I’m LOVING The Shade. It’s not a superhero book, although there are powers and “good” vs. “evil.” It’s not necessarily an origin book, although we are learning things about the Shade’s past. What this IS is a great story. It’s a great character on a quest. This is also Robinson at his best. Like I said, I’m enjoying Earth 2, and I really think it’ll get even better as the book goes on, but that’s a book that HAS to have some high-adrenaline action to keep it moving. Not so with The Shade. It’s a bit of a wordy book, but that’s perfectly alright. The words draw you into the wonderful pictures that adorn each issue. This issue had wonderful artwork by Frazer Irving. The faces are full of expression, the backgrounds are wonderfully textured, and the pages are expertly set up. I did have to go back to see if we’ve seen Dudley before, because it seems like we should know him, but I guess not. It just seems as if this is the Caldecott that’s gone after the Shade. I can’t wait to see WHY ol’ Dickie was targeted by his…great great grandson? I also bought both versions of this book, the Tony Harris cover and the Frazer Irving cover. If I can buy a variant cover for regular cover price, I’ll usually go that route unless I just really like the regular cover better. But in some instances, I want to lend as much support as possible to a book, so I’ll buy the regular cover AND the variants. I want the Shade to get another limited series after this, so I’ll buy all the covers as long as my LCS makes them available for cover price.

The comic I was most looking forward to this week was Spider-Men, and it didn’t disappoint. I never thought there needed to be a crossover between the 616 Marvel Universe and the Ultimate Marvel Universe, but so far I like what little interaction we’ve had with the 616 Spidey in the Ultimate New York. Bendis is a great Spider-Man writer, and I bet I wouldn’t have enjoyed his run on the Avengers titles as much had Spidey not been included, and now he’s finally getting his chance to write a solo 616 Web-Slinger story. The biggest question for me to come out of this issue is how long Mysterio has known about the Ultimate Universe (and tangentially, when this takes place in relation to “Ends of the Earth”). The best thing about the issue was the short interaction between Peter and the mugging victim he rescued. Bendis was able to get his “poor taste” running gag in the issue, and that was a gag I’ve loved in the new Ultimate Spider-Man book. Is it wrong that I want the next issue to consist of nothing but 9-panel pages of Pete and Miles talking with each other?

Ennis is really cleaning house with this last storyline in The Boys. Two of the team’s supporters are now gone, either directly or indirectly dispatched by Butcher. Hughie and MM are starting to piece together that Butcher has finally cracked and that some superpowered shit is hitting an incredibly massive fan. This isn’t shaping up to be a happy ending for anybody.

There’s a LOT of stuff going on in Uncanny X-Force. You’ve got two separate people after Fantomex, and I think it might be safe to say that they aren’t working together. Nightcrawler and Wolverine have been brought down by clones of Omega Red, and Wade, well, Wade has some fun with homemade assassin program at White Sky. Then you’ve got some X-kids on a field trip in Genosha, and it looks like they’re being tailed by Sabertooth. Also, Kitty’s father was in Genosha when the Sentinels destroyed it? Why? And it looks like Amahl Farouk is still alive and kicking, and I’d like to see that explained. I was under the impression that that body of the Shadow King was dead and gone. Also, bonus points for the Arrested Development reference. That’s quite a bit to absorb, but it’s still less confusing that the Otherworld adventure from a few issues ago.

My back issue buys this week were Amazing Spider-Man #s 661 and 662.

It looks like next week is an all Marvel week for me:

Avengers vs. X-Men #6

Dark Avengers #176

Invincible Iron Man #519

Journey into Mystery #640

New Avengers #27

X-Factor #238

And now for something a little different. I subscribe to a daily emailer called Daily Steal. They usually have some damn fine deals, although I haven’t bought much at all from them. A couple of weeks ago, though, they had a listing for some comic books. The pitch was 50-65 comics plus a handful of trading cards with a total value of $500…for only $29.95! Plus, it was Free Shipping Friday! Now, they had some stock pictures of various ‘90s comics (the only one that I can recall was Superman #75), so I knew not to expect much, but I was curious as to what this site thought $500 worth of comic books looked like. And, worst comes to worst, I bought a bunch of comics for $.60/book.

Here are my unbox videos from this purchase. Don’t expect this to ever happen again, because I generally don’t like these types of videos, but I wanted this experience recorded for posterity. And spoiler, there was nowhere near $500 worth of comics in this badly packaged box. Every single issue included would be lucky to find itself in a quarter bin at any reputable comic shop.

Also, huge apologies for the bad synching between the audio and the video. I have no idea how that happened.

What You Should Have Read #62

Comic Book Reviews 

for the Week of May 30, 2012

I was thoroughly disappointed with the Amazing Spider-Man annual. It wasn’t badly written and the art was fine. I just don’t think it was a tale that needed to be told. How many times has Peter already been through the “It’s a Wonderful Life” story? Is this a story that needs to be told over and over again? And the twist is that everybody’s life actually IS better without him? That’s awful. Dan Slott is wrapping up “Ends of the Earth” in a couple of weeks. I would have thought this would have been a great opportunity to end the story on a grand scale and almost guarantee better sales numbers for the annual.

Now, Batman Annual #1 was the way to do an annual. It loosely tied into the story running through all the Bat-family books. Mr. Freeze got an updated origin, and I’m not 100% sure what the differences are between this origin and his last one. I wasn’t a fan of the Bat-books before I checked out Scott Snyder’s new series. He seems relatively close to the Freeze from Batman: The Animated Series, which is the version of Batman I know best. Close, but a bit more badass. THIS is how you do an annual. Regular writer, “new” character, current storyline tie-in…I’m glad I started picking up this title.

I finally got around to picking up DC’s Free Comic Book Day offering, and I liked it for the most part. I enjoyed the new origins of three classic but seldom used DC characters (I fully believe that Pandora is supposed to be the Crimson Avenger, so I’m counter her as a classic character), although the Question gave me pause. I always thought part of his charm or allure was that he was just a regular guy. This new origin is vastly different. And it looks like we’re getting a definitive origin for the Phantom Stranger, and it borrows a bit from one of the origins Alan Moore gave him (assuming I’m right in saying that the Stranger is Judas). We also get a look at seven wizards with lightning bolts on them. These guys HAVE to play a part in the creation of the new Shazam/Captain Marvel. I also enjoyed looking around the Black Room. A buddy and I noted the Haunted Tank, the Psycho Pirate’s mask, something that might be the helmet of Big Barda or another New God, the Demon’s armor, the Spear of Destiny, and something that I’m hoping is either the Painting that Ate Paris or the demonic poster from James Robinson’s Starman series. It looks like the new DC universe is going to be a very interesting place.

The ending to “Exiled” in this week’s New Mutants was very satisfying. Although this did seem more like an Asgardian book than a mutant book. The Disir were given a logical new purpose. Mephisto and Loki are at odds again. All of the Asgardians have their memories back. And Sigurd ran away again, although his reprieve was short indeed. I was happy enough reading about these “new” mutants during the crossover, but it looks like my time with them has ended.

The biggest problem I had with Wolverine & the X-Men was the lack of continuity between this issue and Avengers vs. X-Men #4. In that comic, Wolverine told Hope that he called Captain America while she was sleeping in the back of the jet. Here, though, he calls Cap after they’ve been attacked by and defeated an assassin squad of Shi’ar death commandos. That’s not a tiny gaffe. Other than that, though, the issue worked for me. Art and story were top notch, and it still remains my favorite X-Men book (but X-Factor is my favorite mutant book).

My back issue purchases this week were Amazing Spider-Man #s 669 and 670. I also picked up the DC/Cartoon Network FCBD issue for my son. He’s really getting into Young Justice, so he loved the issue.

Nextweek’s planned purchases:

Earth 2 #2

Boys #67

Secret #2

Avengers vs. X-Men #5

Dark Avengers #175

Invincible Iron Man #518

Journey into Mystery #639

Ultimate Comics Spider-Man #11

X-Factor #237

What You Should Have Read #59

Reviews for Comics Released May 9, 2012

Between my new issues and a handful of back issues, this was a big week for me. Let’s get right to the reviews.

Bendis and Bagley together is usually a no-brainer for me, but I’m getting very tired of Bendis and his Avengers, but that’s something I’ll get to with my New Avengers review. I’ve got no problems with Bagley’s art here. It’s solid and clean, and it’s what I expect from him. He’s not a superstar artist, but he’s dependable, and you always know what you’re going to get. I’m giving a bit of an internal eye roll, though, that this title even exists. I mean, I get the reason for it, but titles created solely in order to cash in on something rather than because the creators want to do a particular story, well, I find that those tend to come off as a bit flat and emotionless. This team of Avengers consists of the characters from the movie, including Maria Hill (no Cheese…excuse me, Agent Coulson…yet, but I’m sure he’s not far behind). Hell, even the last page smacks of MOVIE CROSS PROMOTION!!! That said, I’m enjoying this title more than either of the other Avengers titles at the moment. Just because I don’t like the reason for something doesn’t mean I can’t enjoy the finished product.

  

I’ve never been able to get into Batman as a solo character. I loved what Morrison and Waid did with him during their JLA runs, but I’ve never been able to get into any of his solo series. I decided to give it a try with DC’s reboot since I liked both Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo. Although I enjoyed the first issue, I just couldn’t keep with it so I dropped it. After reading nothing but rave reviews, I decided to pick it up again this week, and I double-dipped by picking up the previous issue so I could get in on the ground floor of “Night of the Owls.” Dammit, looks like I’ve got to go back and pick up some back issues, because I’m officially hooked. I like that Bruce, while still a genius detective, is pretty damn tough. He’s a fighter, and not the kind who uses specially place nerve punches to quickly take out an opponent. He’s a brawler. I’m also enjoying the back-up stories with art by Snyder’s American Vampire cohort Rafael Albuquerque. Issue eight had an Alfred-focused story, and issue nine focused on Alfred’s dad. I’m loving this bit of history, and it makes me all the more eager to snatch up issues two through seven (my buddy bought the hardcover collection yesterday, and I’ll probably borrow that before I can pick up the single issues) of the series to see what else Snyder has done with Batman’s world and Gotham. It makes me think about James Robinson’s Starman, and that’s high praise indeed, since it’s my favorite series. If Snyder is going to continually give us a history lesson and make Gotham an actual “character” (and not just a dark collection of warehouses and alleyways) like Robinson did with Opal City, then sign me up. I do hope I can enjoy the current storyline without having to get the other tie-in issues. So far it looks like I’ll be able to. The flow between issues eight and nine was smooth, and a small blurb let me know that I can read about one of Bruce’s side missions over in Detective Comics, but it didn’t look like it had any bearing on the thread that’s running through Batman. So yay! I’m reading a Batman book, and that brings my New DC tally up to three!

I wasn’t able to hit up a comic book store last weekend to participate in Free Comic Book Day. Had it been the weekend that my kids’ mother had them, then I totally would have, but it wasn’t, so I couldn’t. My LCS had a few copies of Dark Horse’s contribution, though, and I grabbed one on my way out of the store. A Serenity story written by Zack Whedon? Yup, I’m in. And it was pretty awesome. It was short and sweet, and it really captured the voices of all the characters. I could totally see this as the opening of a new episode…and now I’m sad. The Star Wars story was good, too, but it felt extremely similar to the Serenity story.

I’m always surprised that enjoy Journey into Mystery so much. I’ve never been a fan of Thor or his supporting cast, and while I tended to enjoy J. Michael Stracyznski’s series, I was never really blown away by it. Kieron Gillen makes everyone so likeable, even “villains.” This issue gets a smidge confusing, but it’s explained away well enough. It’s part two of a crossover with the New Mutants (almost as bad of a name Cougar Town) that began with last week’s Exiled one-shot. There are a bunch of plotlines coming together, and it’s neat to see them all lead back to the same place. As excited I am to finally be involved in Batman’s world, I’m also excited to be learning about this new-to-me corner of the Marvel Universe.

I am disappointed in the current storyline in New Avengers. I assume there will be a decent payoff, but wow, Bendis is not doing his best work here. First of all, there is not a single appearance by an Avenger, new or otherwise, in this book. At least we got a panel or two of Iron Fist last issue. Between the Kree stuff going on in Secret Avengers and the K’un L’un stuff going on here, it looks as if the mythology of the Phoenix is being rewritten as to have a larger connection with the mystically cosmic part of the Marvel Universe. I guess that’s okay. It’s something you have to come to grips with in comics. Retcons happen. The Kree stuff makes sense. This, though…this just feels forced. And hey, let’s throw Leonardo da Vinci into the mix, too. Jonathan Hickman’s S.H.I.E.L.D. was confusing enough, but it mostly existed in a vacuum. Sure, Nathaniel Richards and Howard Stark showed up, as did the Brood and Galactus, but I was okay with that. The story, while trying to give S.H.I.E.L.D. a larger history in the Marvel Universe (unnecessary), was surprisingly insular. It didn’t (at least it hasn’t yet, and I don’t know what additional plans there are for the series) have any interactions with any regular Marvel characters and instead dealt more with inserting various classical thinkers and scientists into Marvel’s history. One of the main characters was da Vinci, and now Bendis has brought him over and shoehorned him into this crossover. After the wonderful Osborn stories, the past two issue of this series has really killed my enjoyment of the title. This storyline is back-up material at best.

Wolverine and his hit squad are having a hard time of late. This is a team that shouldn’t work. The characters don’t work well together. There are too many conflicting personalities, ideals, and motives. But writer Rick Remender does a wonderful job of smoothly making this dysfunctional team succeed where they have to. I love Deadpool here, more so than in his regular series. I like him playing off of other characters rather than just his internal monologues. I’ve said it before and I’ll keep saying it, he and Fantomex need a spin-off road-trip mini-series. The team is down to a skeleton crew for this issue, but Wolvie isn’t worried since he’s assuming the mission will be a cakewalk. Of course it doesn’t turn out like that. After a bit of a confusing stumble with the Captain Britain stuff, I’m back on board with where it looks like this book is going: massive murder, moral conflicts, and the eventual wringing of hands and pulling of hair.

Wolverine and the X-Men is still my favorite post-Schism X-book. It’s weird to see Wolverine in the role of headmaster, but it works, and the kids are all amazing. There’s a bit of dissention in the ranks this issue, and it doesn’t seem forced at all. Jason Aaron does a good job of explaining why certain characters make certain decisions. So far I’m enjoying this little slice of the Avengers vs. X-Men crossover than anything else happening with it. I also like that Aaron isn’t abandoning current plot threads to focus on the crossover. We still get a good dose of Angel and Genesis and even a bit of Quentin and Idie.

I also picked up a couple of back issues for my collection, and I picked up a few issues for my oldest son. We sat on the floor of my comic book room (read: my walk-in closet) bagging and boarding our new issues. I got him Justice League Adventures #s 2 and 3 and I ended up getting:

Amazing Spider-Man #656 (Captain America 70^th Anniversary variant cover)

Amazing Spider-Man #665 (I Am Captain America variant cover)

Amazing Spider-Man #671 (my favorite cover in quite some time)

Justice League Adventures #1 (it actually came with my son’s grab pack, but I kept it because of the Alex Ross cover)

Ultimate Comics Spider-Man #4

Here are the new comics I’m expecting to get next week:

Shade #8

Locke and Key: Clockworks #6

Amazing Spider-Man: Ends of Earth #1

Avengers #26

Avengers vs. X-Men #4

Fantastic Four #605.1

Invincible Iron Man #517

New Mutants #42

Thunderbolts #174

X-Factor #236

The Dark Knight Rises - Official Trailer #3 [HD]

Between this, The Avengers, and Amazing Spider-Man, this is going to be an incredibly awesome summer of movies for comic book fans. I've already got my tickets for an IMAX 3D showing of the Avengers on Friday. Yay! And as much of a Spider-Man fan as I am (c'mon, I named my first kid after him), I'm more excited about The Dark Knight Rises than ASM. When I watch the trailers for this movie, I get the feeling that I HAVE to see the movie. With Spider-Man, I just really WANT to see it.

What You Should Have Seen #21

I've got a friend who is constantly at a loss whenever certain movies are referenced between me and other mutual friends at work. It came to a head a couple of weeks ago, so two friends and I came up with a list of 100 movies that this girl has to watch by the end of the year. These are cinema classics or the highest examples of film. These are movies we all love and reference, most of them constantly.

So I don't come across as hypocritical, I'm going to watch the movies on this list that I haven't seen. I can't expect her to watch all of these if I haven't seen them all myself.

So here's her list. It is in no particular order. The highlighted movies are the ones I haven't seen yet.

Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring

Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers

Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King

The Matrix

Alien

Aliens 

Star Trek II

Star Trek III

Star Trek IV

Star Trek VI

Star Wars, Episode IV: A New Hope

Star Wars, Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back

Star Wars, Episode VI: Return of the Jedi

Heat

Unforgiven

The Godfather, Part I

The Godfather, Part II

Goodfellas

Sling Blade

The Usual Suspects

The Professional 

Terminator

Terminator 2: Judgment Day

Reservoir Dogs

L.A. Confidential

Full Metal Jacket

The Sting

Gran Torino

Snatch

No Country for Old Men

Platoon

Donnie Darko

The Thing (1982)

Night of the Living Dead (1968)

Dawn of the Dead (1978)

The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance

Amelie

The Untouchables

The Omen (1976)

Tombstone

The Ghost and The Darkness

Open Range

First Blood

Lonesome Dove

The Last of the Mohicans

Watchmen

Batman (1991) 

Batman Begins 

There Will Be Blood

Boogie Nights

Army of Darkness

Downfall

The Road to Perdition

Swingers

12 Monkeys

High Plains Drifter

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

Rob Roy

Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid

Rain Man

National Lampoon's Animal House

Mulholland Dr. 

Spaceballs

Blazing Saddles

Grosse Point Blank 

Saving Private Ryan

Dazed and Confused

RoboCop

The Blues Brothers

Glengarry Glen Ross

Ghost Dog: Way of the Samurai

This is Spinal Tap

The Muppet Movie

American History X

Bad Santa

Blade Runner

Clerks

Clash of the Titans (1981)

Shaun of the Dead

The Wrestler

The Whole 9 Yards

Zombieland

The Thomas Crown Affair

Hudson Hawk

Scott Pilgrim vs. The World

Predator

Hellboy 

Airplane! 

The Machinist 

The Jerk 

From Dust 'til Dawn

Desperado

Explorers

EuroTrip

Equilibrium

Robin Hood: Men in Tights

Young Frankenstein

The Fifth Element

Dogma

Thor 

The Rocketeer

Also, in case you've forgotten: When I can remember to add this to the bottom of my posts, I’m going to whore myself out with an impassioned plea: click on the ads. PLEASE click on the ads. I don’t care if you exit out of it immediately or actually look around. This isn’t some professional blog where I believe in the products I’m shilling. These are automatic ads placed by Google. But when you click ads, I get a little bit of money, and as a single father of three, every penny from every source helps...especially with Christmas bills looming on the horizon. So I’m going to keep this tiny bit of begging at the bottom of my posts, and I hope you’ll take an extra 10 seconds after reading my blog to click on an ad. The only thing it costs you is time. :) Thanks so much!

Every Major Batman Costume

This infographic of all the major Batman costumes is nice and all, but I'd almost buy a poster of this if it included every costume, the major ones AND one-off/alternate timeline ones.

batman-infographic.jpg (1174×4281)

Picture taken from ScreenRant.com and made by Benjamin Andrew Moore.

The Dark Knight Rises - Movie Trailers - iTunes

I'm REALLY looking forward to this movie, but this trailer didn't do it for me like the first trailer for the previous movie. Also, I don't like Bane's look. Granted, his comic book look is incredibly silly, but that damn mask he's wearing looks awful. Still, I'll be seeing this on IMAX.

To watch more, visit tag

The Dark Knight Rises - Movie Trailers - iTunes

What You Should Have Read #43

Last Week’s Comic Book Awesomeness

Fables #109 – I’m glad the Vertigo books, or at least this one that I read, weren’t affected by the reboot. That would have been a huge shame, but this wonderful book remains unspoiled. I’m loving the instruction of the children and their very childlike reaction to what’s happening to them. Ambrose is being singled out, and his reaction to flying is priceless. I’m sure the same would happen to me if I could fly on my own.

Invincible Iron Man #508 – I’m really going to miss Tony’s interactions with the dwarves when Fear Itself is over. Those guys are $&#)# great.

DC’s New 52: Week 3

Batman #1 – Well, this might well be the title that brings me into the Bat Family. Although I have followed him in quite some time, I’ve been a fan of Greg Capullo since his run on “X-Force” decades ago. I followed him to “Spawn” but lost track of him once I gave up on that series. Scott Snyder is one of two comic professionals I’ve ever “spoken” with (I’m counting the extremely brief back-and-forth we had on the blog when “American Vampire” first came out as a conversation), and I’ve been enjoying pretty much all of his work lately. So I was really hoping they’d be able to make me enjoy a Batman book…and they did. Capullos art resembles his “X-Force” work more than his Spawn work, which at times I found to be just plain ugly. His work now seems very reminiscent of Mike Parobek (although with more texture lines added), who brought a very simple but unique style to the early ‘90s incarnation of :The Justice Society of America” and DC’s !mpact title “The Fly.” Snyder did a great job of making this book, who’s continuity changed very little after the reboot I believe, very new-reader friendly. The facial recognition program quickly introduced us to some major players, and Bruce’s speech let us know (as if anybody reading comics doesn’t know) his past. And, since he is a detective, we’re left with a wondrous murder mystery. So yes, I’m very happy with this book, and I’m proud to be following a little corner of the Bat Universe. Thank you, Misters Snyder and Capullo.

Blue Beetle #1 – After reading this issue, I kind of want to go back and reread the previous series. I never had a real connection with Ted Kord, so I accepted Jaime as the new Blue Beetle pretty easily. I remember that he was introduced during Infinite Crisis, but I don’t remember how or what he did. All I remember is that I really enjoyed his solo series. It was a great mixture of humor, action and teen angst, the things that really drew me to Spider-Man so many years ago. If I remember correctly, the broad strokes of this Blue Beetle’s origin are the same; it’s just some details that are different. I’m okay with that for now, but as it stands I don’t see myself giving this title more than another issue or two. While the characters may be the same, the book doesn’t have the same feel of the previous series. The action is there, and the angst is there, but it’s just not the same.

Wonder Woman #1 – Holy shit. I’ve never liked Wonder Woman. I’ve never read a Wonder Woman solo story that I’ve liked, and I’ve really never cared about her in any team-ups or Justice League stories I’ve read that include her. I really liked this issue, though. As with Batman, it was a really good jumping-on point. Although she really does have a huge history, you don’t need to know it here. Actually, Diana seems like a side character in her own book. This looks like it’s going to be about God-level family squabble of which Diana is going to insert herself. It read a lot like a darker Hercules book over at Marvel, and maybe that’s why I liked it. Azzarello did a wonderful job at making this a creepy book, and I’m really looking forward to where he’s going to take it.

 Probably for the rest of the month I’m going to whore myself out with an impassioned plea: click on the ads. PLEASE click on the ads. I don’t care if you exit it out of it immediately or actually look around. This isn’t some professional blog where I believe in the products I’m shilling. These are automatic ads placed by Google. But my experiment this weekend proved to me that I actually AM making a spot of cash whenever the ads are clicked. So I’m going to put this little disclaimer on the bottom of all my posts for the next month or so, and I hope you’ll take an extra 10 seconds after reading my blog to click on an ad. Thanks so much!