Best of What I Read This Week

Nova # 22 "The Rapture"

Writers: Dan Abnett & Andy Lanning

Artist: Andrea DeVito

Two weeks in a row, the Marvel cosmic stuff hits it out of the park.

Many people I speak to just can't get into Nova stating that it's the poor man's Green Lantern Corps. And at it's core (*rimshot*) it is. The last several issues has focused on other Nova Corps members than Richard Rider (the star of the book), but this issue in particular, is a recruitment drive, based on the events of issue 21 (no spoilers here, go out and buy it!).

And while similarities can be drawn towards Green Lantern, Nova is definitely it's own animal. Worldmind (the "brain" of the Nova Corps) is recruiting thousands of new members and some may say there is a more sinister motive to it all. This issue focuses on both sides of the coin, the reactions of the new members and those who are not and further explanation of what Worldmind is up to.

This issue does a great job of not only rewarding those who have been following Nova since the beginning of this current run, but also if this is your first issue of the book.

Watchmen the Video Game!

As the Watchmen movie release date looms closer (March 6th), it becomes more difficult to avoid anything about it.

Last year, after I saw the Iron Man trailer around January, I did my best to cut myself off from all other promotion for the movie so I can see the film without much being spoiled.

I've been trying my best to avoid any and all things related to Watchmen however, the fine folks over at http://www.comiccritics.com sucked me in with a review (of sorts) of the Watchmen video game for the Wii. Check it out on their front page.

DVD Documentary Review: Heckler

I'm a huge fan of documentaries. Whether it be things I love (Word Wars) things I have no interest in (Air Guitar Nation) or things that will chill you to the bone (the Bridge) I can't get enough of them.

Over the weekend, I watched Heckler. The premise as explained to me was comedians dealings with hecklers over the years. Based on this I was very excited to watch it.

However, while a good idea for a documentary, too many of the scenes were fake or staged, almost bordering on pathetic. There are several scenes of Jamie Kennedy (the host of sorts) bombing on stage that are very obviously not real. There were scenes of another comic (whose name escapes me) where they took scenes of his actual stand up and edited in separate scenes of him getting the better of said hecklers. These scenes are very poorly edited it, as evident by the lighting and angles used. Very poor film work.

When these incidents are compared to scenes of actual comics (Bill Hicks, Andrew Dice Clay, Bill Maher and others) dealing with actual hecklers, it made the ‘staged’ scenes seem even more fake and the phony scenes took away from the specialness of the real scenes.

Then, like half way through, the focus changes from the stand up aspect to film and internet critics. I think by focusing on just the stand up end of things, they could have made a very compelling film. Instead, by half the doc focusing on essentially the bashing of movie critics and the internet as a whole, it ends up uneven and unsatisfying.

Recommendation to avoid.

Best of What I Read This Week

Guardians of the Galaxy # 10


Last issue, Jack Flagg proclaimed "I hate this cosmic stuff" and two years ago, I was in the same camp. I just never could get into or care about any Marvel or DC cosmic stuff. Gimmie Daredevil fighting ninjas or Superman smashing robots on earth and I was all set.

After much online lauding, I tried some of the Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning cosmic stuff, starting with Annihilation and fell in love with it. I realized regardless of where it's happening, good characterization is good characterization.

One of the main folks I gravitated to was Peter Quill (aka Star Lord). Just a regular guy with no powers doing his best in a world populated by Thanoses and Silver Surfers. Currently, he's the disposed leaders of the Guardians of the Galaxy and this issue has Mr. Quill and the aforementioned Jack Flagg fending off an attack from Blastaar, the ruler of the Negative Zone.

See, back in Civil War (remember that?), Tony Stark and Reed Richards built a prison in Negative Zone to place any unregistered heroes and villains. With Secret Invasion said and done, it's mostly populated by villains. By taking over said prison gives Blastaar a direct pipeline to Earth, which is a VERY bad thing. The rest of the Guardians are on their way to help, but will they get there in time?

This issue also continues the build towards the next big cosmic event, War of Kings. It makes me very happy that these group of events are a) written by the same group to keep things coherent, b) don't crossover into forty books and c) is a very enjoyable read. If you read this and Nova (also written by Abnett and Lanning) you can get a great entry for the Marvel cosmic world.

Beginning of a Horrible Thing

Based on the time frame of starting this, I should have an iPhone around 2012. This is a pre-emptive web presence for somethings that may or may not happen. In addition of the the MySpace and Facebook, now there is this.

This will mostly be used for any opinions, thoughts, etc. or things I'm doing that I feel like passing along to the general public.

It's all downhill from here folks!