Justice League movie part 4- The Man of Steel, and the Superman/Batman Movie.

So it's been a while since I have revisited this, but with Comicon, over the world's largest focus group is over, and the announcement of a Superman/Batman movie is out of the bag, and the Man of Steel is in theatres, I gotta say not just that DC dropped the ball with Man of Steel, but that I am liking the prospect of a Superman/Batman movie less.

So from here on a quick warning the following article includes spoilers, rants and a possible incent to riot. if you want to read on please do but be warned...

Top five most over rated characters in cop culture

Lets be fair, there are some characters who we all love, and some that are just a flash in the pan, but some are pushed and held up as nerd icons and shoved down our collective throats to the point we couldn't care less about their latest exploits, or how cool most people seem to think they are. In short they are over rated.

5- Chuck Norris- Instead of a chin, he has another fist? He invented rap music when his heart started beating? Oh come on! am I the only one who is sick and tired of this has been conservative blowhard schill for the total gym being treated as a godlike being because someone decided to start some of the most dumbass memes on the net? Yeah he's actually a real person, unlike everyone else on this list, I guess being a parody of one's self has it's perks.

Oh and this is the funniest Chuck Norris fact.

4- Drizzt Do'Urden- Anyone who has ever slung a d20 has heard of this jackhole, a renegade of an evil race meant to be foes for your player characters, Drizzt, has turned every munchkin player into a renegade Drow ranger with a dual wield feat for scimitars, assuming their DM will let them get by with it meanwhile R.A. Salvatore pumps out book after book of munchkin mental masturbation, the result? Pissing off DMs everywhere who are sick of hearing it from wannabes.

3- Boba Fett- The Baddest ass Bounty Hunter of the Star Wars Saga? well think about this he is based on the same genetic template as EVERY INCOMPETENT ASS STORM TROOPER!! This also might explain why other than standing around looking cool all he really did is tie up Luke for a second before getting accidentally killed by a blind guy and his pet wookie. Seriously, why is this guy so damn popular again. I get it when I was a kid he was a big mystery one 8 minute shot on the Star Wars Holiday Special, and the first free mail away figure in the Star Wars line, He was a cool enigma, now we know him, we've met his dad, and seen his home, and watched him die like a little bitch, let it go he just ain't all that!

2- Deadpool- Ah yeah, the Merc with a mouth, everyone's favorite rip off of Deathstroke the Terminator, mixed with Ambush Bug. Need I mention he was co created by Rob Liefeld? I understand other writers may have polished this turd into something magical, but to me he's a one trick pony that has been done better by others. but yet the fans love gives us Deadpool the video game, the Deadpool Corps (seriously!?) and The annoying mouthless supermutant in X-men origins, Wolverine which every fanboy has lamented to this day played by Ryan (please stop me from being in a comic based movie) Reynolds.

1- Wolverine- What can I say, I have never understood the attraction. Woo Hoo, he's got knives that come out of his knuckles! WOW what a power! He can regenerate so fast that any heroic sacrifice is anything but, plus he's got unbreakable bones. He's a colossal jerk playing up the "dark loaner" Image to the point of who gives a crap? He's had his origin redone several times to make him "cooler" Still not cool enough, let's give him a son named un-ironically enough "Dark Wolverine" and a daughter called X-23, so we can have our wolverine and our cute dark haired goth girl fantasies all in one. Seriously one of the most over rated characters I have ever run across.

Ready Player One- A review

This is the first review I have done for a novel, on my blog, kinda reminds me of doing book reports as a kid, but that works considering the wellspring of nostalgia about to be unleashed. 

Within minutes of reading this book, I had a pretty good synopsis for the book in mind, and after finishing I still think it sticks. This book is in short, a Cyberpunk retelling of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Now before you think straight rip off and imagine Oompa Loompa's Cybered up on chipware and carrying neural-linked smartguns. There is more to it but it my short explanation is meant to give you a basic gist. The story starts with a poor kid named Wade Owen Watts, (His initials are W.O.W. just like World Of Warcraft, Coincidence? I THINK NOT!) There are a lot of references to sci-fi comics, videogames and music, mostly from the 1980s. an era that is clearly revered by the author of this book, Ernest Cline. Anyway Wade like almost everyone in his dystopic future is involved with OASIS, a combination MMO, Facebook and Internet in the future. Wade is schooled in a virtual classroom, was raised by educational softwares, and when he is not in the massive online universe of OASIS, his life sucks.

But there is hope, The creator of the OASIS is dead. And in his will, he placed a contest to which he offers his fortune to he who can find 3 special keys (copper, jade, and crystal) and challenge the 3 gates. Halliwell the game's creator was obessed with his own past and those things he loved in his teen years making the 1980s a source of fascinations in hopes of finding clues to the prize's (an egg) mysterious whereabouts. Hunters of the egg have formed clans looking over the next 5 years However Wade finds the first one. which after 5 years of fruitless searching his actions ignite a firestorm on the network. An enemy, in the form of a rival company IOI, (the 3 letters almost look like an emoticon for a tie fighter don't they!) who wants the prize to take over Haliwells' fortune and company further monetizing it for their own selfish purposes. They want it bad enough to kill, and thus Wade's life is immediately in danger, both in cyberspace and in real life. 

Overall, this book was a very satisfying read, it's about as tough to read as Jim Butcher's Dresden books. In short You start reading and find it very hard to put down until it's done (hence the reason my British Infantry aren't going to be done by the con this weekend! Thanks Steve!) The only real complaint is as a hardcore geek I felt some of the surprise lost in exposition that I already knew stuff about. such as when they compare the contest to both Atari's adventure easter egg, and the Swordquest series. I wasn't think oh wow I never knew that, I felt more of a yep and then they will link swordquest to the prizes offered for discovering the secrets of the games and that the contest never saw fruition due to Atari's financial woes dropping the games from production. Don't get me wrong this was minor, and still did not ruin the book for me. There are still some damn good twists and turns which I will not spoil here. In the end a good read for any hardcore comic/video game/rpg/1980s geek. I have also heard Warner Bros has picked up the rights for the film. This kind of scares me as the ton of references can make the film a logistical nightmare from Serenity, to Star Wars,to Macross  and Even mentioning Champions, and Shogun Warrior toys. if they make fake proxies it will ruin the point of seeing Max Headroom as the AI for a firefly class ship (Please let the get Matt Frewer back!) but the realities is Fox, Disney, Toei, Marvel hell even hero games will probably want a bit of the action to use their IPs. I hope it works don't get me wrong but this could be the source of some massive (and well placed) Nerd Rage should they mess up this nerdvana of a book.

The Bates Motel: The new Smallville

Recently I have been watching the A&E series Bates Motel regularly and I have to admit it has been a very interesting show. However I cannot help but draw a parallel to another TV series, Smallville, which was the WB's attempt to make Superman young and hip for the kids.

Both shows are origin stories, but there is more to it than that- That would be an easy comparison, I could add Batman Begins or the first Spiderman movie to the similarities. However it has more to do with HOW they made these shows work.


First they are modern retellings of origin stories. Norman's history was originally chronicled in the film psycho 4 with ET star Henry Thomas as the young Norman. The new show does not follow the movie at all really. Firstly Psycho 4 was a period piece meant to completely tie it to the original Hitchcock film, including narration and scenes with Anthony Perkins reprising his role as Norman Bates. I was unsure about if this was meant to supplant or start fresh as the family car was vintage, the houses looked vintage even the home they have before they move, but once Norman whips out an iPhone to listen to some tunes at the bus stop it all becomes clear. This was also true of Smallville, The man of steel's origin has been retold more times on the silver screen than there have been original superman films. and Smallville wanted to basically tell the story of a teen superman without ever resorting to him donning tights or flying, or facing foes that would put the budget into a higher cost than say an episode ofBuffy the vampire slayer. Now the nice thing about Superman is that he does not need a period origin, his powers weren't tied to historical events such as Iron Man's (where the movies had to change China to Afghanistan to make the plot work), Not that it was a bad thing but more of a significant change than what kind of pickup the Kents found Baby Kal-El's rocket in. Thus Pa Kent's Ford F150, makes little difference than the stuetebacker used in the Richard Donner film.

Second the addition of new characters. Smallville was pretty well chronicled, in DC's past. Lana Lang, Pete, young Lex etc. but still the show needed to add quite a bit to make the show more modern from the silver age. The addition of the hip coffee bar, the Talon for example and Chloe, who is essentially a blonde Lois Lane clone who helps to create a love triangle with lana and who spends much of her time snooping around all the weird stuff that happens to young clark. Similarly Norman Bates spends time in a bit of a love triangle. Emma, the young girl with CF follows him around with stars in her eyes, while Norman chases a girl named Bradely. Emma kind of smacks of Chloe, Intrusive, love-struck and likable, In fact Chloe was likable was likable enough to end up being placed into the current DC Continuity Just like Harley Quinn was after her popularity on Batman the Animated Series. Bates Motel also adds Norman's brother and the local cops to the history along with another big similarity the mentor characters.

Emma's father is a local taxidermist, which was Norman's hobby in the original film, in the most recent issue Mr. Decody starts to teach Norman about his profession, setting those who remember the movie up for connecting the new show with the original film and what norman will ultimately become. The same can be seen in Smallville with the wheelchair ridden Doctor Swan (played by the late Christopher Reeves) who teaches clark quite a bit about his alien heritage, and inspires him to become the hero he would later be all in the space of an episode.

Finally the fictional towns of each are hotbeds for the kind of activity that would shape these characters into their future selves. In Smallville the idea that baby Kal El landed during the infamous Smallville meteor shower, plants Kryptonite all over the small Kansas town, and gives rise to many people who gain weird powers from the mystery element. and lead way to the first season following a monster of the week mentality. Kid gets picked on for X, he/she tries to compensate with activity Y somehow gets exposed to Kryptonite and voila, teen Clark has to stop the rampage of the teen who is either full of vindictive rage or just cannot help themselves. Meanwhile in the sleepy northern California town fo the show Bates Motel, we have a massive criminal underground with multiple players and rampant corruption, kind of a Gotham City wrapped in a Maybury shell. Honestly you add Norman's already present mental instability, and mother issues from a crazy mom, and he's lucky he's as well adjusted as he is by the time he kills Janet Leigh. From the secret pot fields to sex slave rings, it has more crime than my own home city of Cedar Rapids, at a size of a town like well Smallville.

All in all it's interesting to see how similar these shows are even though the end product of both towns are so very different. Norman hardly makes it to a nationwide stage like Superman, nor is he noteworthy for saving the world or stopping global catastrophes, Still it is a fascinating show.

and for your listening pleasure,

A few more hardcore geek songs.

MC Mr. Napkins

More MC Mr. Napkins

M.C. Chris

More M.C. Chris

and this is just plain fun...

Marvels big (possible) reveal and why it scares the crap out of me!

with the upcoming marvel big event/crossover/cluster hump called age of Ultron, Marvel has put quite a lot of attention that the minor and relatively lame character of Angella, who first appeared in Spawn, but was created by the talented Mr Gaiman, wold become a part of the Marvel universe, which is either a big middle finger to Macfarlane who was at one point Marvel's golden boy who could do no wrong, but burned that bridge when he, Jim Lee, Rob Liefeld, and a few others left the big publisher, over the fact that the publishers held the rights to characters that they helped create. while there is a lot more to the backstory including Gaiman's beef and Lawsuit with Macfarlane, but that's a story for another time. what I am here to discuss is the theory that Angela's asymilation into the marvel verse is a smokescreen for a bigger change. A change that could bring one of the biggest Indy comic heroes into the Marvel fold. A fan favorite that could blow fans minds, in short, the coming of Marvel Man.

Or Miracle Man, if you prefer. Marvel recently did reprint many of the original Marvel Man stories form the 1950s, and with Gaiman working for them, this book could be a huge boon for Marvel. For those of you who don't know Marvelman/Miracle Man, allow me to explain. When the golden age of comics hit with action #1, every publisher got in the super hero game, and one of the biggest and most popular contenders was Captain Marvel (aka Shazam). For a while US publisher Fawcett, basked in the sales of a hero that eclipsed even Superman's popularity, but D.C. Lawyer end up, squashed Fawcett, and eventually bought the good captain, and his former company lock stock and Barrel, meanwhile Fawcett sold the rights to a UK publisher, to bring their hero to the Brits, but the lawsuit saw The UK affected as well and the up and comic disappeared from British news agents as well as ours. But the crafty publisher made a modified version, who was modeled to be different enough to not get a lawsuit, but like enough to entice fans who were deprived Earth's mightiest mortal. The comic was a hit in the UK, and once a young fan named Alan Moore, did a gritty reboot of Marvelman, it became a fan classic, reprinted by Eclipse here in the USA, it never finished due to Eclipse, going out of business.

So why does this worry me? After all,a fan favorite of the Indy scene can get recognition, fame, and even an action figure by hasbro to proudly display next to my Captain America, or Spider-Man, right? Well that's true, but it also means putting my faith that Marvel/Disney will respect what made Marvel Man as popular as he was. Also, considering how many Marvel fans start their "marvel is better" diatribe with comparing how shitty and overpowered Superman is, and then wax nostalgic about Marvel's more relatable stable of heroes, it is fascinating how much Marvel has a hardon for trying to ape the man of steel, Sentinal, Hyperion, the purchase of Prime and the rest of the Ultraverse from Malibu. Now we have a street cred Superman clone, to add, but how will this work as MM will be expected to fight along side, Deadpool, or Wolvereen? I just don't know, the history of a character like this has somewhat been written. It seems silly even flat out wrong to shoehorn him in to the current continuity of Marvel. How will this work, will they play with his origin to embed him squarely in the Marvel Universe? Was Marvel Man's origin now tied to the trying to recreate the experiment that made Steve Rogers Captain America, as Hulk's now seems to be? I kinda doubt they would just put him in his own book separate from the rest of the Marvel Universe, when a team up with him and the Fantastic four might sell a few more books.

What's more, the story of the Ultraverse is another reason this worries me. after Image came out, and caused quite a stir in the industry some fans realized it was all flash and no substance, (thankfully not true currently, with books like invincible!) and other companies wanted to make a flash too, indy comic maker Malibu started touring their own new stable of heroes, called the Ultraverse, fans were unenthused at the ads and the promises, bud We'd be damned if they didn't deliver. Fun fact, Prime's (their variant on the captain marvel theme) second book was worth a ton more than its first initially becasue malibu like all companies printed a bunch of #1's and didn't anticipate demand for #2 but fans were enthralled! Fun characters, great writing and well done stories even with crossovers, mad the Ultraverse a bit of a staple, then Marvel bought them, up and prettymuch mutliated them, they killed and revamped Mantra, turned Exiles into an X-title, and practically abandon most of the rest of the universe, except for poor Nightman who got bastardized into a bad Glen Larson syndicated TV Show. That being said they were killed mid stream, from popular to forgotten. and while they never quite hit the fame of Miracleman, it's still an example of buying out your foe, and stripping them for parts which seems even more heartless in a creative industry like comic books. Let's hope this isn't the fate of Marvelman!

Justice League movie part 3- Retire the Bat.

This is one of the more radical things I think DC should do for the Justice League movie, but I think it's a big one with 7 recent films, 3 going on 4 cartoon series and innumerable attempts to cash in on his popularity. I am beginning to think see Batman as a greater liability than an asset to the other major DC heroes striking out on their own. There are several reasons for this the first being that Nolan's movies set a bar and tone that whoever they choose to play the dark knight will invariably be judged by.

Even if Christian Bale came back, we still would have issues. For one if he plays a copy of the hyper realistic Batman from the Chris Nolan trilogy, then he would only make the other characters look more cartoony by comparison, something I don't think would benefit the film. If we make him fit the movie move he will just be seen as poor version of a character he nailed in 3 other movies. Which will be the reaction for damn near any actor stepping into his shoes. Whoever is cast as Batman in the Justice League movie will most likely be compared to Val Kilmer or George Clooney's less than stellar performances.

So what do we do, you may ask, I say use Green Arrow in his place. Ollie has the resources, and the same basic abilities, and much like an analogy between Superman and Captain Marvel, puts Billy Batson as same guy different backstory, this holds true for Ollie Queen when compared to Bruce Wayne. Plus Arrow's Sarcastic more heroic do-gooder less spirit of vengance vibe will play well to a comic book film. In fact you could even reference Batman, maybe have Superman suggest that guy from Gotham might be an asset, and have Green Arrow shoot back, I have worked with him he's a bit to lone vigilante for what we are trying to accomplish.

The one obvious down side to using Arrow is comparisons to the Avengers, "Oh sure DC had to put an archer character in to ape Hawkeye" this is why I recommend making him more of an equal in the film. taking Batman's position in the film fully. Maybe the JLA satellite is built by a line item deduction in Queen International's budget, not Wayne Enterprises. I would as I had stated in the previous article in this series cast Nathan Fillion as Green Arrow, he's cocky and self righteous and I think would be a perfect match. This give DC a chance to bank more heroes who haven't been over exposed in the last decade or so and potentially means greater options get demand to make films on these heroes.

DYNAMAN!

While looking over some of the seething nerd rage caused by the League of Extraordinary blogger's assignment this week I saw this little gem http://fortuneandglorydays.blogspot.com/2013/04/league-of-extraordinary-bloggers-i-hate.html?m=0 and it reminded me how disappointed I was when I first saw this show. I worked for the TV Station KJMH at the time (your local Fox Station) and I saw that we were getting a redubbed sentai show and it immediately reminded me of Dynaman!

During USA's Night Flight, Dynaman took a Japanese sentai, or "battle team" action show and dubbed it with pop culture references and Mystery Science Theatre style comedy. They also used a rocking 1980s soundtrack. It was comic gold and somewhat more adult than it's original audience would have been. Led by Doctor Ho, The five good looking Japanese friends from all walks of life faced the evil antics of Bernie Tanaka and Mel Fujitsu. So When fox announced this show I was figuring this may be a slightly tamer version, but no instead we got this crap!

Sad as crap, Let's watch more DYNAMAN!

My big fat beef about the X-men

While I know that Marvel's X-men was for the longest time it's flagship book, and home to it's most popular (if not overhyped) Mutant anti hero wolvereen, who singlehandedly seemed to inspire the move of comics in the 1990s. But i was never the biggest fan of the X-men. I had several friends who downright fanatical for the book, collecting the spin off titles, and keeping track of every twist and turn. but that wasn't me. I actually preferred the Doom Patrol, which is I will admit a hipster response to the X-men's popularity. But what was it about this book that has had so many damn accolades and been a staple of the comics industry since it's inception in 1963. It comes down to the premise, which I believe to be flawed thanks to a plot hole you can drive a mac truck through. It goes like this.

Marvel was best known for being the more topical of the big two comic companies, with DC taking the role of more iconic. They have simple origins, that have no bearing on the times. Superman is an alien orphan sent to earth like a cosmic moses, and Batman became a vigilante after the murder of his parents. Marvel has more complex origins that reflect their times. Iron Man was captured by communists and forced to make weapons building the first iron man suit to escape the hands of his chinese captors. The Hulk was created after a government military nuclear experiment. This is especially true of the X-men. Their origin is stepped in the history of the civil rights movement. and was meant to be an analogy for race relations complete with Professor X being the Martin Luther King of mutants and Magneto their Malcolm-X. And this is the part that bothers me.

Mutants are the feared and hated social class akin to black people of the 1960s. A super hero version of the Watts riots or Rosa Park's historic refusal to sit in back. why is this a problem? simple. Hate, the kind of hate that caused atrocious acts like segregation or counting African Americans as 3/5ths of a person, yet in the Marvel Universe people can be quite selective in their hate. The hate mutants, yet people who look the same and have just as many bizarre powers can be not just accepted, but loved. Case in point in the first X-men movie, Senator Kelly talks about the mutant threat by talking about a girl out there right now that can walk through walls, with someone like that out there how can any of us be safe? she can creep into our homes, or into military complexes.

THIS is the girl they warn us about Kitty Pryde. She's like 5'2" and maybe 90 pounds sopping wet. but because she was, to quote Lady Gaga, born this way, she is hated and feared.

Yet this gal, who is like 7' tall, and has the same property shredding powers as the monster we call the Hulk. is not a threat. Nope, she's a lawyer, a model, a celebrity even though her powers are far more likely to cause injury and collateral damage. Why? Simple because she got her powers from a blood transfusion with her cousin who is the original Hulk.  This is awful convenient and specific hate.

Imagine if real world hate groups like the KKK worked this way. Say they only hate Nigerians (after too many emails from their princes we could almost relate). But no other african culture is treated this way.  Thats right, upon finding out that new family that moved in to that farm in the 1960s Hoss and the boys find out right as they were about to burn a cross in their yard and set fire to it, that the Washington family was originally from Kenya so instead they call out the welcome wagon, bring them pies and casseroles, and welcome them with open arms. God if only hate were this rational. Also why wouldn't heroes hide their true identities. Hell if my kid were a mutant in the Marvel Universe I would tell them to hide their powers until about 18 and then make up some BS story about how she got her powers after being bitten by a radioactive hedgehog, or was chosen by the flying spaghetti monster to be the defender of this quadrant of space. Well, that's my two cents anyway.

gender bent super heroes

Gotta Love em'

5 reasons the New 52 sucks.

I have thought this for some time and keep forgetting to blog it, DC had a string of really good books recently the new Flash, The whole All Stars idea, Green Lantern hit his stride with the sinestro corps war, and even the spectrum lanterns that came after it. I was digging the new Doom Patrol, and even Superman's walk across America. But all good things must come to an end.  However most just end they don't get a painfully directed craptastic reboot that was the last nail in the coffin that made me give up comic collecting with the big two. So what is so bad about revamping the books to attract new readers? I mean some might even consider this a noble calling. Normally I would agree but Jim Lee and the staff at DC had their heads up their collective asses with this reboot. and here are 5 perfect examples.

5-The gay Green Lantern- I want to lead with this only because it may seem crass to complain about moving a character forward in this way as it is an impressive step towards equality. The idea of a gay Green Lantern isn't what bothers me here though. What bothers me is the hows and whys. so far we have had 4 (now 5) Earthborn Green Lanterns. In short more than any other sector Earth has a but ton of Lanterns. Add to this that the real reason for the decision to make a major DC hero gay was to steal the thunder of Marvel's wedding of Northstar, who was originally designed to be gay in the 1980s, but thanks to politics then was temporarily a space elf, until it was socially acceptable for marvel to pat them selves on the back for their forward thinking. Logically speaking in the DC universe Batman would be the logical choice. he has kept the advances of more women away where Superman, had Lois Lane, the Flash has Iris and each GL has had a serious relationship that seems hard to part, So why make a green lantern gay? simple it's a bit of a trick Alan Scott from the new Earth 2 comic line is gay. Allan Scott was the original golden age Green Lantern with a different power source (later ret-conned to connect with current DC) but to make Guy or John or Hal Gay might cause too much of a stir and Batman, no way so let's make it the most obscure version of a major character we can, a reboot of a golden age character in a technically alternate universe where it's effect are not part of current official DC Cannon. Way to show your pride DC!

4- Wait, She can Walk now?- Poor Barbara Gordon was effectively taken out of commission as bat girl in one of the few good examples of a change that stayed in comics. It was a brutal and terrible act, but it was nice not to see a comic company backpedal and say "It was all a dream," or "Now that we've rebooted, let's forget that corner we painted ourself into!" So she's back as batgirl, no real explaination I have heard, and no sign of her replacements.

3- Retconning Crap to fit the Movies- Why is this done other than to legitimize crap that made me so freaking annoyed at the movies. Why is Hal Jordan, serious space cop, now have to sound like he is a warmed over Ryan Reynolds character. Hal was 1000X cooler than that Van Wilder douche but hey if we make him more like Ryan Reynolds in the comic maybe people will forget that he was not a "perfect choice" to play the emerald gladiator. Also way to step up the writing now, I thought I was reading a comic about interesting characters not what would it be like if Van Wilder had a power ring.

2- Costume Changes- I think that it's one thing to subtly change costumes over time, the way many heroes have superman's "S" becoming more diamond shaped and stylized for example but much of the costuming changes here just seem unnecessary with an eye for busing up the look to make them more "futuristic" and at the same time very quickly less classic. then there is the other new superman from Action Comics, WTF man, just WTF.

1- Change, for Change's Sake: When has this ever been a good idea? "Let's make Steele more like Shaquille O'Niel" Yeah gangbusters!  Many writers may have good even great ideas of where to take the DC universe next I really liked the premise of Flashpoint and enjoyed the specral lantern sagas, but to just one day put a whole new coat of paint down and ignore what has come isn't evolution it's a callus and cheap attempt to line your coffers and set up a me too JLA movie with a new continuity that the "Kids" will get Changing Captain Marvel's name to Shazam (awesome now he can't even say his own name without transforming) Making Superman and Wonder Woman DC's new "power couple" and adding all of Jim Lee's Wildstorm characters into DC cannon for no other reason then to net him some more money. This isn't the actions of one of the greatest comic companies of all times, this is corporate market speak destroying what fans hold dear, hence I voted with my wallet and I doubt I am alone there..

What is the Best Fictional city to live in.

So I am kinda curious on this one and would love some feedback, also why does no one comment on these blogs? Seriously, just a couple of words would be nice, tell you what the first person to comment gets a dollar. anyhoo here is my topic, and I would love to hear  your responses which fictional town city would in your mind be the best to live in and why, here are a few examples and my own thoughts.

RAPTURE- Like an Ayn Rand novel gone horribly logical, Rapture is a massive city beneath the waves where the true makers can create a better life, of course now it's a sinking ship full of tweaked out plasmid junkies and ghostly little sisters but you can see whales from your apartment window.
THE PLUS- It's a nice undersea city with a classic 1940s art deco look
THE MINUS- about everything else!

THE CITY OF TOWNSVILLE- It's a sugary sweet answer to living in Gotham City, with a cute cartoony mayor and it's got superheroes (Except after bedtime). It's low on crime high on cuteness.
THE PLUS- It's a great place to raise your kids
THE MINUS- being laughed at because the biggest threat to your city is a monkey with an odd speach pattern.

DOG RIVER, SESCACHEWAN- It's 40 Km from nowhere, meaning that if you are looking for peaceful, this is it, however you only have once place to go to in town and it's the corner gas station and coffee shop.
THE- PLUS- Low crime rate, and sarcastic neighbors.
THE MINUS- As a town in a sitcom, chances are you will be drawn in to no end of cartoony fiascos.

GOTHAM CITY- A hopping nightlife, cool art deco buildings and plenty of high tech facilities, of course there is also an insane crime rate, and a high chance of getting poisoned by Joker gas, Poison Ivy's Toxins or any one of a thousand other supervillian plots.
THE PLUS- Never a dull moment.
THE MINUS- Really, you need this spelled out for you?

SPRINGFIELD- For Small town living with everything from a comic book store, to a gorge, a dam, a tire fire and more, hell springfield has more stuff in it than most large cities. and its full of character to boot.
THE PLUS- It's got it all, seriously is there anything this town doesn't have?
THE MINUS- It's been domed, blown up, and moved trust me this place is anything but peaceful!

any thoughts, any ones you can think of you would rather live in? Let me know.

Five Ways Hollywood drops the ball when it comes to comic based movies

Don't get me wrong there have been some successes, such as the Avengers, the Dark Knight trilogy or even the New Dredd, or Sin City. But for every one of these kind of films that makes you go "Woah, they totally got it right!" there is a Green Lantern, or a Fantastic Four of a Stalone's Judge Dredd to show you how wrong it can go. I blame Hollywood for this, due to a desire to move product rather than treat the source with reverence. Sure movies made from books drop or forget things like Harry Potter ignoring Peeves the poltergeist, and the Hunger Games coming up with a different reason she had the mockingjay pin. but these aren't as big of deal breakers as Making Lawmasters into Flying motorcycles in Judge Dredd, or making Latverian Ruler Doctor Doom into a New Englander. Hollywood often opts for less forgivable transgressions, due in no small part to assuming fans won't care, or that since fans are a smaller (albeit vocal) group, joe six pack will be the real source of money from this picture so no big right? Well wrong, these comics garner such large fanbases because of what they are not the other way round. so if you are listening Hollywood, here is the 5 biggest screw ups normally made and hopefully you can use this as a road map to avoid them in the future (but I don't hold out a ton of hope.)

5- Celebrity Versus Actor- The job title here says it all. Actor. Not celebrity, so why must we rewrite characters to fit their celebrity persona. a good example of this is with Joel Schumacher's horrible Batman films, The Riddler is an intellectual villain who's pathological need to leave clues in the form of riddles could make for a very interesting foe. But hey, we got JIM CARREY, Straight off playing the Mask, Let's make Edward Nigma into a manic comic villain who suits the well known comedy stylings of a multi-million dollar comedy talent. Everyone loved Ace Ventura and Dumb and Dumber, and that's what they expect from Jim Carrey, so instead of a dark serious villain we get a rehashed Jim Carrey routine. Same with casting lovable rogue George Clooney for Batman, gone was the gritty tortured soul of a man who turns his loss of parents into a crusade against crime, and in it's place we get George Clooney, not acting but simply being George Clooney in a benippled batsuit with quips like "This is why Superman works alone." Why was Nolan's Batman a success, ACTING!, look at Cillian Murphy now tagged in Hollywood as a perfect man to play a sociopath, but look at him in the movie he did before Batman Begins, it was called Breakfast on Pluto, and Murphy played about the polar opposite of the Scarecrow in every way, and Liam Niessen played his estranged father, yet on the Batman set you would see none of the tenderness, none of the parental bond, they share in Breakfast on Pluto, instead you get very good straight evil performances that have since cemented Murphy in his celebrity role as a sociopath. 

4- Read the Goddamn book!- Sometimes, yes changes have to be made and believe it or not fans get that. I never heard anyone pitch a fit about the fact that Iron Man's origin now takes place in the middle east instead of China, no Balking at Bryan Singer's X-Men movies at the omission of core X-men and adding Wolverine,Storm and Rogue as X-men before they would have been X-men chronologically. Still often times Hollywood finds a need to change it up. Take the film Kick Ass, where 1 single line of dialogue changed the focus, Dave in the comic attributes his origin to a uinque mix of depression and isolation, in the movie Optimism and Obliviousness, see why that might change things. then we have to turn hit girl into a far more sexualized character (really she's like 12, she never had the need to wear a catholic school girl outfit in the book, why put it in the film even going as far to have Dave's friend remark about her being "hot") Further more Big Daddy was simply Crazy in the book, the story of him being this great cop, and being betrayed was a BS story he told his daughter, he was an accountant he chose to attack Demico, because he needed a villain. Instead Hollywood figures audiences can believe the crazy BS story of him being king of cops, over he's just plain nuts. These changes weren't there because we needed to cut time, (hell quite a bit was added to the film as well). So this isn't the X-men trying to cram 40+years of comics into 2 hours or Iron Man's Communist China simply isn't the big threat it once was. Nope this is just change to make a "better" movie. or because they believe the average movie goer isn't smart enough to get concepts like "he's crazy" 

3- Pointless Name Checking- This one is a stick wicket, when done right it can be effective to imply things from the greater universe of the comic, such as subtly giving an extra a well known minor character's name. Case in point professor Xavier saying "goodbye Kitty" as a young girl scoops up her books and phases through the wall, we get it, SHE'S KITTY PRIDE!!! but as many times this effect can add insult to injury Green Lantern turned space cop Hal Jordan into a caricature of Ryan Reynold's most popular roles and ignored the point of the character (effectively falling into the two traps we just talked about) but we DO get a treat of using Hector Hammond as the villain, as well as seeing some of the extended Jordan family including his brother Jim. What this says is "see we can make obtuse references to the source, thus we MUST know what we are doing." In reality the ability to cut and paste from a wikipedia article does not make one an expert and often times these names can be used improperly Hammond was nothing like the character in the film (other than the oversized head, kind of) but using this name as the villain sure seems like we know what we are talking about more than say using Sinestro, as he his Jordan's most known foe.  In short worry about the big things before you try to BS fans with the little things.

2- Retrograde Modification- Of course even if you do screw something up why not fix it on the back end. This is a relatively new thing but just as annoying. If fans balk at a change simply put it in the book, then it's cannon right? No then you've just screwed up the book on top of screwing up the movie.  Judge Dredd was guilty of this when DC got the US rights and issued a new comic that Mirrored the Stalone film, result? No one liked the US Judge Dredd Comic either! and We see this a lot in Green Lantern the "New 52" initiative at DC turned Hal into a warmed over Ryan Reynolds clone, and took Amanda Waller, a woman who was the female equivalent of Nick Fury for DC who had all the sexual appeal of Nell Carter and since she was played by Angela Basset in the film turned her into a smoking hot Female Nick Fury complete with jumping into the field. My reaction? I quit all DC books after the new 52, shame Green Lantern was one of my all time faves. 

1- Assuming your audience- I once had a film professor tell me that fanboys are just so overcome with joy that a movie is being made about their favorite hero that they won't care if it's wrong. This is flat out wrong. In fact it is the single dumbest thing I have ever heard about fandom. Fans if anything will be very critical, This doesn't mean we won't forgive some things. Everyone can get basic concepts like Venom's origin cannot be told accurately in the course of a movie as we would have to explain secret wars and Spidey's new suit all of which makes the continuity work to put the Avengers on film look like child's play. But tricks and making things for "joe sixpack" instead of for the fans only assumes we must write the lowest common denominator, and that the comic wasn't a fan favorite for anything but a few esthetics that we can easily clone. Fans are smarter than that, hell non fans are smarter than that. If the medium worked the first step is to look at what made it work and treat those parts like sacred cows, don't change huge swaths of it because you think you can sell more toys or excite non fans with a cameo, if it worked then fans will flock because it was right, and non fans will get turned on to it because it was popular for a reason! 

YOU MIGHT BE A SUPER HERO...

I wrote this list along time ago, seemed like something fun to share with the whole community, enjoy...

                                                                             

• If you own more spandex than the US national Gymnastics team
• If you have ever used heat ray vision to make Jiffy Pop™
• If you live in constant fear that your senile aunt will find your web shooters rather than that stack of playboys under your bed.
• If your last girlfriend and you broke up after your clone, bent on revenge tried to kill her.
• If the police contact you via signals in the sky
• If you refer to the threat of alien invasion as the messiest part of the profession.
• If your shopping list includes weapons grade plutonium, or high level mutagens
• If you keep your wallet in your belt right next to your grappling hooks.
• If you have ever put Throws shield well, or Fires plasmatic blasts on your resume.
• If you have come back from the dead more times than Christ.
•  If your other car is a Batmobile.
• When you hear a fire alarm you immediately proceed to the nearest broom closet or phone booth.
• If you are bummed by fact that your latest exploits were relegated to the second page on most major newspapers.
• If Shaving your legs is literally an all day job.
• If you have ever had to suffer through cowl hair or mask hair
• If you are on a first name basis with any herald of Galactus.
• If you are on a first name basis with Galactus
• If you’ve ever been a herald of Galactus
• If you have ever had to train your pets to diffuse bombs or attack thugs.
• If you ever doubled over with laughter while listening to Aquaman complain about his lame ass powers.
• If you feel naked without a layer of reinforced spandex under your clothes.
• If you got your degree from the Xavier school for gifted youngsters.
• If your biggest concern during rush hour traffic is accidentally hitting the weather copter at mach 3,
• If you have ever had to swing home after a hard day of work.
• If you are nigh invulnerable
• If you have a secret origin story
• If your secret origin has ever been rebooted or retconned.
• If after being responsible for a friend’s hair loss he has ever turned on you to become a criminal master mind and your greatest foe.
• If losing your jewelry has an earth-shaking ramification.
• If you have trouble talking about your childhood as your secret origin has been rebooted several times.
• If you are worried that your significant other will find out about you’re alternative lifestyle because they may not understand that with great power comes great responsibility.

If you have two homes one in the city and one called your Fortress of Solitude.