Conventioneering

East Windsor show the other day,here is some of the bounty I picked up.

Detective Comics #745,nothing special about this other than it was 50 cents and the Dave johnson cover is sick.

An issue I have always wanted,a historic cover.Decent shape,got it for $12.

I'm slowly but surely putting the America's Elite Joe series together,here is #17.

I have been half heartedly putting together the Giffen/Dematteis JLA stuff,couldn't let this great cover go for 50 cents.

A FF special one shot that I never saw at my shop,picked it up for a buck.

I have every issue of DD series 2 from 9 to it's end.In the last two shows I went to I found both 4 and 5 for a buck a piece.

More to come!

30 Second Movie Review:Warrior

Once in a while a movie hits all the right notes with me and succeeds on every level.

Joel Edgerton and Tom Hardy play estranged brothers,both at opposite points in their lives who enter a Mixed Martial Arts tournament for different reasons.Nick Nolte reminds us that he is a great actor and not just a real life punchline as the troubled,yet recovering father of the two.

This movie is about forgiveness,and relies heavily on the theme of catharsis,and what it takes for these men to repair the damage the past has done.Oh,and the fight scenes are damn well awesome.

This is easily one of the best films I have seen in the last two years,instant classic status.

Wow....

I feared they couldn't do an Avengers film right because the scope would be too big.Whedon may have handled that.

30 Second Movie Review:Fright Night

A superb remake!Of a horror film!That doesn't usually work out too well as we have seen from "Prom Night"to "Black Christmas".And the original "Fright Night"was a good film on it's own.

 Colin Farrell plays Jerry,a vampire who has just moved into Charley's neighborhood,leaving a trail of disappearances in his wake.Charley is played by the great young actor Anton Yelchin,and does a fantastic job of going from doubter to believer to take action hero mode in the span of the film.And no I didn't ruin the is he or isn't he a vampire aspect of the film,because they establish early on that he is,and there is really no game of cat and mouse past the first half hour.Once Jerry comes out as you may,the film becomes an extended chase scene between predator and prey.Along the way the great David Tennant plays Peter Vincent,Vegas magician and Occult expert who begrudgingly helps Charley.

Great gore,lots of humor and a great cast keep this version worthy of the original,and helps it stand on it's own.

30 Second Movie Review:Ghost Rider:Spirit Of Vengeance

The makers of Crank,and Gamer take on GR in a sequel no one asked for.

I love the Crank films,and think that the directing duo of Neveldine/Taylor are dynamic and unusual,and I was quite excited to see what they could do with this.Turns out they put together a totally different sequel that still doesn't quite work,just in different ways then the predecessor.The first was too tame for the character and just felt too homogenized by trying to get the family out to see it.GR should be a scary,intimidating figure,instead we were left kind of flat.The most memorable thing in the first is that Nic Cage put his own spin on the Johnny Blaze character,making him an outright Nic Cage weirdo.

He turns it up to 11 here.There are some really cool moments in this film,but nothing that connects into a great movie.The action is better as is the imagery and FX,but we are left with another rudderless story.I can't deny that I enjoyed the film as I watched it,but it was like eating a McDonald's burger....it tasted good but your not going to think about it later on.I also accidentally saw this in 3D,not realizing that it was only available in 3D at my local theatre...post 3D transfer,nothing worth seeing here.I figure the next time we hear of a Ghost Rider movie it will be one of those inevitable reboots with a new cast,and let's hope they take notes from Neveldine/Taylor on visual tone but have someone else write the script.

Single Issue Standout

Warren Ellis took over Secret Avengers for a handful of issues recently and delivered an excellent,high concept,high action series of stand alone stories.#20,his penultimate issue on the title features Black Widow prominently,and shines a light on a very cool character who gets lost in the shuffle too often in this and other books she appears in.

The issue starts with the Avengers in the midst of a firefight with members of the Shadow Council when suddenly Steve Rogers is shot down and killed as are the rest of the team,except for Widow,who uses a device in War Machine's armor to transport her to safety.The machine flings her back in time to before the assault,and thats where the issue really starts to kick ass.

Widow spends the rest of the issue trying to set up every event that will lead her back to the present,and also try to figure out how to avoid her friend's demise and save the day.She can't just go forward in time and help herself,because that would collapse the space time continuum,y'know the usual time travel headache.

We follow Widow as she sets out to have the time machine that she will eventually use in the future be invented,reverse engineer the weapons that the Avengers were defenseless against and generally move back and forth in time setting up the correct sequence of events.The storytelling is brilliant and the outcome is more enjoyable because you see every piece fall into place.Alex Maleev's art is gritty and at one point he uses the style of old newspaper comic strips to tell a chunk of story,and it's welcome,not distracting.Right down to the John Cassaday cover tributing Jim Steranko's famous S.H.I.E.L.D. covers this issue is well worth the time even if you don't read the series.

I'm In

The teaser trailer lost me,this one just won me over

Musical Interlude:Genesis

Possibly my favorite Genesis song,live and awesom in 1980

I Just Don't Know

Well it is official.DC will be unleashing a slew of Watchmen prequel miniseries focusing on the various characters.I have mixed feelings,mostly in the negative.I like the creators involved(Brian Azzarello,Darwyn Cooke,Jae Lee,amongst others)so my confidence level in them delivering an interesting story isn't the problem.The problem is do we need to know more about these characters.I have read the original multiples times and feel that despite not seeing much of these characters prior history,I knew them pretty well.That is thanks to Alan Moore's writing.We were told what these characters represented at one point,we see who and where they are now,and we see the resolve to their story.I didn't need to know what happened to Neo at the end of The Matrix,and when I did I was let down.I never wanted to find out that Boba Fett is just a Stormtrooper with better training,I was fine without it.I am going to read these books,because I know that they can't taint my love for the original,and I also know that the odds of them adding anything to my Watchmen experience is slim.I will read them because of a morbid curiosity.I will read them because I went and saw all 3 SW prequels,and I saw the third Matrix after having my ass kicked by the second.I will read them because I can't take a hint.