Time For A Change?

Haven't been around for a while fr a couple of reasons but mostly (for the last month or so) it's been due to getting promoted in work and just not having the time to write those wonderful, in depth posts you've all come to know and love.

Though it may not seem like it, this blog took up a fair amount of my time. The weekly Cocktail posts alone often took a couple of hours to prepare - scanning the covers of the books, combining them into one picture, typing out the heading and quote, posting that along with my reviews of the comics themselves. Sometimes I could get them done on a Friday afternoon, sometimes I was frantically writing them on the Sunday morning just to meet my self-imposed publishing deadline of 1pm on a Sunday.

I know - it's hard life, isn't it?

Self deprecating sarcasm aside, it's been bugging me that I've let this blog sit without an update for a few weeks. So, in an attempt to aim for brevity, I'm heading off to experiment with Twitter. You can find me over at @CrisisOEP though, at the time of writing, there's nothing there except the bare bones of an account. Hopefully over the next week or two I'll find out whether that's for me or not - if not, I might end up back here anyway!

So, for now at least, this'll be the last post here at the blog. If you tweet and want to come see me, feel free to follow me and I'll return the favour.

One way or another, see you soon folks!

Sin City II Trailer

Damn this looks good:

Been a long time coming but it looks like it'll be worth it.

Forever Evil's Prisoner Revealed

The issue's been out for days and the reveal's been all over the internet but, because I'm a nice guy, be aware that if you click the read more link below, there be spoilers ahead.

Change Ahead?

Haven't had time to go through Previews this month in any great depth - my fault for getting promoted in work and being damn busy, eh? - but I decided to live up to my pledge at the start of the year and step away from DC's new offerings.

I'll probably get Futures End but will probably pass over Secret Origins - new versions of origins of versions of characters I'm not interested in? No thanks.

I'll pick up Justice League United because I like Jeff Lemire's writing but I think the new Sinestro series will end up being one I'll look to get in the trades; I like Cullen Bunn's writing on The Sixth Gun which I've picked up in the collections, but don't feel the urge to get the ongoing.

I will, however, be ordering three new series from Image:

C.O.W.L. simply because the premise of a superhero union intrigues me.

Nailbiter by Joshua Williamson whose work I liked on the (in my opinion) cancelled too soon Voodoo.

Trees because while Warren Ellis's superhero stories aren't that good, Transmetropolitan remains one of my favourite comics ever so I'm willing to give this a go.

Batman vs The Terminator Video

The title of the post pretty much sums this up:

Oh No! Constantine Actor Not From Liverpool!

So the new NBC show Constantine has cast its lead - it's Matt Ryan, a Welsh actor who, according to the linked article there, has been "seen in Criminal Minds, The Tudors, Layer Cake and other reputable productions."

Honestly, I don't really care one way or the other whether the actor happens to come from the same locale as the character they're portraying but David T.G. Riches obviously does. He says in the comments on the linked article:

While he is British he is also Welsh and I see visions of people in the U.K. specifically Londoners who will point out to the Star Trek episode of “Futurama” where Scottie was replaced with Welshie it just wasn’t the same.
True it is better than Keannu Reeves in the role but still was their no one from central England available? Maybe someone from Eastenders, Emmerdale, Law & Order U.K., or any other number of programs loaded with talent pool?

Matt Ryan might be British but "he is also Welsh" which, thanks to a handy line from the excellent Futurama, Mr Riches is able to point out that it just isn't the same as being English. Thank goodness it's not another American like "Keannu Reeves", eh Mr Riches, but still . . . a Welshman playing a character who wasn't Welsh? It's almost unheard of, isn't it?

Apart from Ioan Gruffudd who played Mr Fantastic in the last couple of Fantastic Four films . . . I don't know why they didn't get an American to play that part.

And that Rhys Ifans chap who plays Mycroft Holmes in Elementary . . . I don't know why that didn't get an Englishman to play that part.

And that John Rhys-Davies bloke who played Treebeard in The Lord of The Rings . . . I don't know why they didn't get a real Ent to play that part.

And that Anthony Hopkins fellow who played Hannibal Lecter in several films . . . I don't know why they didn't get a real cannibalistic serial killer to play that part.

Oh wait, yes I do - it's because they can act. You don't need to be from the same place as the character you're portraying, Mr Riches - that's part of the joy of being an actor, having the ability to take on different roles. If you didn't allow Constantine to be anything other than what his creators based him on, there would be only one man for the TV series's main role and that would be Sting:

And he hasn't looked like that since 1979 so unless you have a time machine handy, I guess we can discount him.

Am I, as a Welshman, being overly sensitive here, or was there an implication that Welshman just aren't quite as good as, presumably, Englishmen?

And who wants to be the first to point out that James Doohan who played Scotty (not "Scottie") was Canadian? Another example of an actor playing a role who came from somewhere different from the actor.

Spongemen Squarewatch

Quite possibly the best Watchmen parody I've seen:

Watch till the end for Alan Moore's reaction.

DC's May Solicitations

FUTURES END #1

Five years from now, the DC Universe is reeling from a war with another Earth, leaving the world unprepared for an approaching evil that threatens to destroy the future. Can a time-traveling Batman Beyond help a massive cast of the DCU’s finest avert the impending apocalypse? Find out in this new weekly series that will forever alter the direction of The New 52! In this debut issue of The New 52’s weekly series, Batman Beyond arrives five years later! Grifter turns against humanity! And a Justice League member DIES!

Okay, a new weekly series sounds fun - you got me, DC. I just wish we were past then whole idea of the death of a character being a story hook.

Lack Of Movement

The Movement's due to finish with issue 12 it appears.

I wish I could say I was surprised but, for me, it took far, far too long to find its feet - I haven't enjoyed it that much until the last two issues or so, sticking with it mainly because it's written by Gail Simone whose work I've thoroughly enjoyed in the past. Sadly, it wasn't until issue 7 or 8 that it began to feel like it was written by Simone so I can only assume others didn't stick around that long.

Still, three more to go which should give Simone plenty of time to wrap things up.

I Predict A Lawsuit

Over on Earth-2, the bad Superman - brainwashed or possessed into believing he's the herald of Darkseid - orders his Parademons to destroy all the houses of worship to reinforce his belief that the only god is Darkseid.

I've condensed the captions from the first few panels on to the top of one that made me raise an eyebrow:

Scientology is one of the "fictions they have invented"?

I don't disagree but I'm surprised, knowing how litigious Scientologists can be, that DC let this through. Maybe their defence will be that on Earth-2, it's acknowledged as fiction?

Robin's Double Standards

The recent Worlds' Finest Annual featured the young Helena Wayne as Robin battling some crooks and taking one out in a particularly nasty manner:

That's an iron poker right through the chest and stomach, killing the guy. Self defence could be argued, sure, but she still kills him.

Later on she, Supergirl and Wonder Woman battle Fury who had previously killed someone that Supergirl was sweet on. Fury gets away through a Boom Tube, leaving Robin to report back:

"She's a killer."

Yes, Robin, she is. Just like you.

Martha Wayne's Marvellous Moving Neckline

When the young Thomas Wayne meets Martha for the first time on Earth-2, he probably thinks one thing: CLEAVAGE!

Thankfully, Martha's wearing the latest in mind-reading dresses and quickly sorts out the problem as, in the very next panels . . .

I'm not adverse to a bit of flesh being exposed in the right context but a little consistency would be good.

Reasons Why George Lucas Should Never Write Dialogue

Much as I love Star Wars, the excellent Dark Horse adaptation of George Lucas's rough draft illustrates wonderfully just how terrible he was at dialogue. You know that scene in Attack of the Clones just as Anakin and Padme are being led out to the arena where Padme professes her love:

Anakin: Don't be afraid.
Padme: I'm not afraid to die. I've been dying a little bit each day since you came back into my life.
Anakin: What are you talking about?
Padme: I love you.
Anakin: You love me? I thought we had decided not to fall in love. That we'd be forced to live a lie and that it would destroy our lives.
Padme: I think our lives are about to be destroyed anyway. I truly... deeply... love you and before we die I want you to know.

There's a precursor to that:

And then, just a little later:

Dear lord that's clunky dialogue.

Crime Syndicate / Dr Who Crossover?

At the end of the latest Forever Evil, the Crime Syndicate stand on the shore and look out, scared at the big crack in the sky that Ultraman says is proof that the monster that destroyed their world is coming for them:

Honestly? I saw that and thought of this:

The crack in time from a recent series of Dr Who. Wonder if David Finch and/or Geoff Johns are fans.

I'm A Dick Who Reads Books

From Our Valued Customers

Yeah, that's what it is - it's also my god who will destroy your tiny mind by making you look upon his other dimensional true self sending you into the depths of insanity and despair at the inconsequential nature of your very existence...

But in other news, thanks for the kind comments and the couple of emails following the last post. As you can imagine, things haven't been great here on Earth-Prime but we're getting there and with the funeral and everything now done and dusted we can pick ourselves up and get on with things.

Which means, among other things, getting back to the comics.

Man, I have so many to read right now...

Be back soon!

Won't Be Around For A While

My wonderful mother-in-law passed away due to cancer a few days ago. Obviously comics are kinda taking a back seat right now.

Be good to each other and see you soon.

Who'd Like A Cocktail? #257

The same could be said for many things.

Kryptonian Super Power #523

Comicosity has a preview of Suicide Squad #27 which features Power Girl; as I don't get the monthly title but am a fan of PG, I thought I'd head over there and see what was happening without worrying about spoiling any surprises - like I said, I don't get the title so no worries.

Here's page 2 of the preview:

Dear Lord, the poor woman has no spine! I'm not an artist or a biology student but even I can clearly tell that people do not bend like that! And her legs - surely her right leg (the one closest to us) should be bent at the knee to help support that weight?!

Definitely one of the boobs and butt tag of EscherGirls, I think.

It's Not Who's Who...

...but there's a new Secret Origins series on the horizon:

And just when I'd started to move away from DC.

Bugger.

Moore vs Morrison

You've probably seen what's being billed as the last interview with Alan Moore doing the rounds lately; much of the commentary has focused on the section where he talks about Grant Morrison.

Quite a lot:

(That's a Wordle of the interview I threw together)

In an attempt to be balanced, there's a good article here where Morrison gives his side of the story.

It's a long read and not just about Moore's feelings towards Morrison but, perhaps predictably, that's what the online comic fans have found the juiciest - after all these years, they get Moore's unrestrained thoughts about the man he thinks of "as a Scottish tribute band."

There's no deep insights from me here - I like the writing of both of them, though I'm definitely more of an Alan Moore fan - but this served as a nice intro for me to post the following by Ty Templeton whose blog and cartoons I enjoy every week and who offers his own take on the Moore vs Morrison palaver:

Click the pic to get the rest of it.

Many New Image Series

Been out of the news loop for a week or so (real life - don't ask) but just been doing some catching up, mostly with the announcements from the recent Image Expo, several of which caught my eye:

Scott Snyder announced a new series with artist Jock entitled Wytches

I enjoyed his run on Swamp Thing and like Jock's art so will probably give that a go.

Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips have signed a five-year deal with Image. That deal will see Fatale end with #24, and lead to their next series, The Fade Out, a story based on Hollywood in the 1940s.

Fatale's ending at #24? Just five more issues to go? That's a shame as it's consistently one of my favourite titles.

Joshua Williamson’s Nailbiter, drawn by Mike Henderson, comes in May, and features a small town in Oregon where sixteen of the worst serial killers were born, with an investigation why.

All I've read by Williamson was the short lived Voodoo series which, despite some negative feedback, I thought showed promise. Again, I might look at this.

Kelly Sue DeConnick has a series based on the girl gangs and women in prison movies of the 1960s and 1970s coming called Bitch Planet. It’s not due to debut until Fall 2014.

Well I'm liking her run on Ghost and Pretty Deadly's shaping up nicely so this will almost certainly be on my list.

Bill Willingham and Barry Kitson announced a Fall 2014 debuting series called Restoration. The book sees a world like ours where magic, gods, and the like are suddenly restored on “one very bad day.” The gods decide to unite as one massive pantheon to take over the world and be worshipped once more.

Willingham, Kitson and gods? What's not to like?

Looks like I'm not going to have a problem sticking to my New Year's resolution, eh?

Who'd Like A Cocktail? #256

Batman's a chamomile tea fan. Who knew?

Perusing Previews - January 2014

A bumper issue to start the year which is just as well as I'm stupidly busy with real world stuff like applying for a new job and things so apologies if it goes a little quiet round here.

Still: onward!

Why do you need to show something clearly labelled as a "12 Inch" figure with a ruler next to it? Especially one which is clearly longer than 12 inches?!

Who'd Like A Cocktail? #255

Yeah, you tell . . . hey, hang on, that's what I do . . .

New Year's Resolution: Must Diversify More

Would it surprise anyone that someone who collects, blogs about and annotates comics also has a slight interest in numbers, statistics and graphs? No, didn't think so.

As part of my year's end round-up I found myself wondering about what I'd bought this year in terms of ongoing monthly comics or one-shots. Five minutes later, thanks to the export facility of my comics database and the joys of Excel, I was able to produce this:

That's a break down of how many comics I bought each month by publisher. You can click on it to enlarge it but those tall red columns? That's DC Comics, folks - 90% of the comics I bought in 2013 came from one publisher with Image Comics in second place getting a mere 5%.

I've always been a DC fan - I started reading them as a kid and their characters and series (Green Lantern and the various Justice Leagues in particular) called to me more than Marvel ever did. But that graph shows me that I need to branch out a little more . . . hell, a lot more.

Am I going to go towards Marvel? No, I don't think so. There's only so much convoluted superhero history and continuity I can keep in my brain at any one time and it's still full of pre- and post- Crisis, Zero Hour, Infinite Crisis and the New 52 at the moment.

What I will be looking for, though, is more from other publishers, Image in particular.

Wonder what that graph will look like next year?

The Rock In A DC Movie?

Read this last night: The Rock has met with Warner Bros about something connected with DC Comics and the article contained this paragraph:

The Rock was previously connected to the role of DC Comics villain Black Adam in a proposed "Shazam" film, dating back to 2007. In July 2012, he tweeted that he was "possibly playing" another DC character, Lobo. And of course, there's the 2015 "Man of Steel" sequel, which still hasn't announced any villain role -- and could possibly add another hero alongside Superman (Henry Cavill), Batman (Ben Affleck) and Wonder Woman Gal Gadot).

That last line made me instantly think - the Rock would be perfect (physically at least) as J'onn J'onnz, Martian Manhunter who appears at the end of Superman vs Batman as a lead in to a Justice League film.

Meet back here in a couple of years to see if I'm right.