Archive for 2013

X-Treme X-Men Cancelled

Posted in News and Editorials, tagged , , on January 18, 2013| 2 Comments »

X-Treme X-Men Finale Artwork

X-Treme X-Men Finale Artwork

X-Treme X-Men Cancelled

Sucks.

I’ve already commented in my reviews how much I really enjoy the clever writing in this series. It’s smart, it’s funny, it’s everything you want in a comic. So why did it fall below the 20k mark in sales which CBR says lead to it being cancelled?

I’m going to blame the fact that everyone thought it was “a Dazzler title”.

Dazzler leads the team but she doesn’t hog the issues. Logan, Kurt, Sage… all these characters have their share of the lime-light and they all bring something great to the scene. The worlds Pak created had a wonderful sense of depth even if they weren’t necessarily explored. The stories were timely, thoughtful, but not overbearing or on the nose.

I’d jump and whine and complain but I know that won’t do any good.

So while I’m really annoyed as this was one of my favorite titles on my current pull list, at least it does look like it will go out with a bang. I’ve also been introduced to the wonderful writing of Greg Pak, will definitely be on the look out for him in the future.

Goodbye X-Treme X-Men, you join the group of wonderful things ended before their time…

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Review: All-New X-Men #5

Posted in Reviews, tagged , , on January 18, 2013| Leave a Comment »

All-New X-Men #5

All-New X-Men #5

Review: All-New X-Men #5

While Hank is attempting to save… Hank, Jean discovers more about herself than she probably ever wanted to know.

That’s really the crux of this whole issue. The one member of the team who is dead finds out why… and when she does, she doesn’t like what she sees. Granted, no one wants to be dead, but considering everything Jean went through, all the times she died and came back, her relationship with Scott being such as it was… it is enough to terrify anyone… and I’m pretty sure that’s what happened.

Jean is smart, she knows if they go back then the Professor will find out and wipe their minds and they won’t have learned anything from seeing the future. A bunch of people are okay with that but she’s not okay with it. She claims they can do better here, fixing the modern world, but in reality I think she just doesn’t want to die, or at least not in the way it happened, nor after Scott cheated on her.

Speaking of which… after learning her fate through Hank’s memories, Jean wants nothing to do with Scott, told him to stay the hell away from her.

I feel sorry for Scott, I really do, this kid hasn’t done anything wrong. Sure, he’s capable of doing many wrongs but he’s a product of his environment… of events both within and outside his control. There is no guarantee he would go all revolutionary or cheat on Jean if he had the chance to again. Wolverine is all about ‘second chances’ like he did with Quire but apparently that doesn’t extend to Scott who is only lucky Wolvie doesn’t gut him.

I fear that if young Scott goes the way of old Scott they will have no one to blame but themselves.

p.s. on a side note, I hope they drop any idea of Wolverine and Jean hooking up, I know he loved her but this Jean isn’t the same one he knew, but more importantly, she’s jail bait, and while Wolvie doesn’t age, if he hangs around waiting for her to become legal… mucho creepy… but thankfully he looks to have moved on from her and will be hooking up with Storm soon.

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Daily News: 1/17/2013

Posted in News and Editorials, tagged , , , on January 17, 2013| Leave a Comment »

ComicBookMovie – VIDEO: See Melisa Stetten’s  Audition For Gamora In GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY

Newsarama – 10 Marvel Heroes That Should Meet with Their Past-Selves

io9 – Deadpool Shot First: A Collection of Ridiculous Deadpool Crossover Art

Deadpool Vs. Batman by Mike Kevan

Deadpool Vs. Batman by Mike Kevan

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Alphas Cancelled

Posted in News and Editorials, tagged , , , , , , , on January 16, 2013| 1 Comment »

SyFy has cancelled super-powered tv series Alphas after two seasons according to TVLine. This was a very realistic take on the super-power genre where people weren’t mutants, they were basically humans whose natural abilities were just ‘more advanced’ than normal.

Basically Alphas was a low budget Heroes without the mystique. Heroes was a high budget Mutant X without the B-Film style. Mutant X was a television version of the X-Men without the licensing.

All three of these tv shows did really well, Mutant X had three seasons and high ratings but its production company folded not through fault of the show. Heroes went four seasons, gained lots of awards, but was ultimately done in by its own convoluted writing. SyFy didn’t say exactly why Alphas was cancelled though don’t think it was ratings as it seems to be pulling the same numbers as Warehouse 13 during their season finales. But then Warehouse 13 is more marketable and has a smaller cast, not sure about their FX budget as well.

The audience has spoken though, they like their superheroes… especially when they are the more fanciful/magical kind even if they have a ‘reason’ for being super, like being government experiments in Mutant X. Alphas was the most ‘realistic’ and had the worst ratings. This just seems to prove that an X-Men tv series is a no brainer.

You have characters and a style people already love in X-Men that will bring people back, the Animated shows have already proven that X-Men in a serialized capacity sells! In fact, serialized is a much better fit for X-Men than movies simply because you have a huge cast and built in long-arc stories.

Simply make sure you don’t go completely off the reservation like X3 and X:O:W and you have a built in audience who will tune in. Then go a little on the realistic side to save on the FX budget but keep that mystique of super-powers and you’re golden. This can work people!

A girl can dream right?

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Review: Arrow S01E10 “Burned”

Posted in Reviews, tagged , , on January 16, 2013| Leave a Comment »

CW's Arrow

CW’s Arrow

Review: Arrow S01E10 “Burned”

So, let me get this straight. Oliver spends five years surviving on the Island, joining the Russian mafia, and beefing up into a super-archer… but the first time he gets his butt kicked he calls it quits?

Not to mention all the other fails in this episode, not the least of which is why does a cop leave a vital piece of evidence just laying out on his desk.

But again, the show suffers two major pitfalls that are driving me crazy. The first is the villain. Once again it might as well been a common street mugger for all the care that is given the bad guy. I don’t know how big Firefly was in the comics but here he burns some buildings down, gives a little ‘you left me to die speech’, then becomes one with the flame. There is nothing in any of this that makes us care at all about the villain, let alone that Arrow actually does just about nothing to defeat him.

The reason Batman has been so successful in so many other mediums is that great care is given to the villains. They are either made sympathetic or truly scary. They also get a chance to come back and make things even worse. Not so in Arrow. These named characters are made to be fodder.

This might have been forgivable had the main characters not spent the whole episode making speeches. “I have to be this” “I have to do that”. Not only are they making these long speeches but they do them standing still. This makes everything very stagnant and dry. Plus, I’ve said it once and I’ll say it again, if a character has to give a speech to explain how they are feeling and whatnot, then you’ve already failed in basic characterization. We should be shown all this, not told through constant talking.

I really hope this isn’t a sign of what we can expect from Amazon… Wonder Woman needs to be treated better than that.

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Daily News: 1/16/2013

Posted in News and Editorials, tagged , , , , , , on January 16, 2013| Leave a Comment »

ComicBookMovie – Mark Millar Talks X-MEN: DAYS OF  FUTURE PAST And Director Bryan Singer
“Everybody has a list and at first you think ‘I’m going to please everyone’ and  then you realise you’re pleasing no-one by just throwing in ten second cameos,  you know. I think that was the major problem with that first Wolverine movie and  X-Men 3.”

BleedingCool – Possible New Wonder Woman Has Experience At Torchwood, As A Misfit And Of Being Human

BleedingCool – Are We Getting A Heroes For Hire Movie From Marvel?
This is a movie that people have been wanting and talking about for longer than Thor, Guardians, etc…

ComicBookMovie – More From Jaimie Alexander On  WONDER WOMAN, THOR: THE DARK WORLD And Female Superhero Roles

CinemaBlend – Russell Crowe Talks Supersonic Superman In Man Of Steel

ComicBookMovie – Francis Ford Coppola’s Son Wanted To Make A DOCTOR STRANGE Movie
He wanted his cousin Nick Cage… that… might have actually worked…

deviantArt – Princess Avengers – Love the irony of Pocahontas being Captain America.

Princess Avengers: CAPTAIN AMERICA by *ChristopherStoll

Princess Avengers: CAPTAIN AMERICA by *ChristopherStoll

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Review: Morbius #1

Posted in Reviews, tagged , , on January 16, 2013| Leave a Comment »

Morbius #1

Morbius #1 – Skottie Young variant

Review: Morbius: The Living Vampire #1

I admit I only bought X-Treme X-Men for the cover and that turned out to be a really smart move as it has been a top-notch read. I may have done it again with Morbius: The Living Vampire, which I only picked up for the Skottie Young variant. It’s so cute!

I never heard of Morbius as I’m not a Spider-Man follower, nor am I really big into what is now the ‘modern vampire’, but I decided to read it because hey, I have it, might as well, right?

This literally hooked me from the first page.

I love this writer’s style, the first page is black with only a single line of text. He continues this trend by using either a blank black page or set apart white text with things like “Advantages of being Vampire-ish”. It’s different, it’s fluid, quirky, I love it.

Also, and this is of major importance, the writer understands that this is a first issue of a solo series for a character that is not mainstream. Like I said, I had no clue who Morbius is/was before getting this issue… now I do. Joe Keatinge, the writer, walked the fine line of telling us who Morbius is without either becoming a massive info dump, assuming too much of the reader, or assuming too little of the reader. He also gave us just a taste of action and ending on a moderate cliffhanger.

Basically, this is what has been missing from of a lot of the relaunches, especially solo series launches. Too many of the writers act as if they literally are still in the middle of a title which makes it more difficult to capture new readers. Just because readers have a general idea who Tony Stark/Iron Man is doesn’t mean you shouldn’t give us at least a run down of the major things that have happened up to this point. (side note: read the new Iron Man #1 and as a non Iron Man reader I found it very unapproachable)

Sure, the story in Morbius #1 is a tad on the cliché side and a bit tropey, but the single fact that not only does Keatinge mix things up in style but also successfully introduces you to a character is something that can not be ignored. I had this put on my pull list and we’ll see where it goes from here.

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Review: A+X #3

Posted in Reviews, tagged , , , , , , on January 16, 2013| 1 Comment »

A+X #3

A+X #3

Review: A+X #3

I read a review for this issue and found it to be so completely opposite of how I felt about A+X #3 that it was almost comical.

The first story is Storm and Black Panther. Not only does Storm act a bit petty at times (though admits to it) but she really does have classic ‘ex-girlfriend syndrome’ while BP just stands around all ‘well, I did the right thing’ even though he’s the freaking King and basically Batman meaning he can do whatever the hell he wants.

This is only less shameful than their fight in the AvX matchups where Storm declares “maybe if we had children we could have worked things out”. Iron clad proof that there needs to be more female writers on staff.

Course, I then admit to my hypocrisy when I mention the second pair up of Gambit and Hawkeye, two gentlemen who are very easy on the eyes and women just fall all over (and who are currently battling it out for sales of their launched-at-the-same-time solo titles), and just how yummy they are.

Granted, their rescue of a ‘Damsel in Distress’ is pretty cliché and worn, but then this is Gambit and Hawkeye, it’s what they do, this is partly why women love these characters so much. Gambit is the smooth talking badboy while Hawkeye is the beefcake jock. In the end, Hawkeye gets the lady’s attention but Gambit steals it away, again, this is what these guys do. Never has there ever been a more perfect defining moment for either of these guys.

I’m pretty sure the reviewer I mentioned above is a Hawkeye fan-boy and didn’t like that Gambit got one over on him… but if Gambit didn’t, then it wouldn’t be Gambit, or even Hawkeye, the guy who can’t even go out and buy some scotch tape without everything going wrong, and still not get the tape.

Now I’m waiting anxiously for the next issue which sees Captain American paired with Kid Omega… that should be… fun?

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Daily News: 1/15/2013

Posted in News and Editorials, tagged , , , , on January 15, 2013| Leave a Comment »

ComicBookMovie – Mark Millar Shares His Thoughts  On Wolverine’s Role In Future X-MEN Movies
He doesn’t go so far as to say there is such a thing as too much Wolverine… but he does believe in giving the other characters a fair shot. This is the most promising thing he’s said in awhile.

CinemaBlend – Reddit-Inspired Screenplay Rome Sweet Rome Assigned To New Writer
If the internet can inspire a movie… and as previously mentioned a possible reboot of a tv series… then maybe it can inspire an X-Men series? It’s a thought…

ComicBookMovie – ARROW Showrunners On The Show’s  Future, Deadshot And China White Team-Up Confirmed
“We were able to go through the hell of the first seven or eight [episodes] that  I think you have to go to, to sort of calibrate how to make a good episode …” But… they haven’t made a good episode yet!

CinemaBlend – The Hobbit Has Made So Much That New Zealand Wants Its Money Back What this is… I don’t even….

New image from Marvel:

Iron Man 3 - Iron Man and Pepper

Iron Man 3 – Iron Man and Pepper

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Workshop – Parts 1 and 2

Posted in Press Releases, tagged on January 15, 2013| Leave a Comment »

I started a Workshop for Fan Fiction, you can see the tab up at the top. Basically, I’m taking my years of experience in both reading and writing Fan Fiction to help others figure out how to improve their work. I have already posted Parts 1 and 2.

There will be no set posting schedule but I should have one up at the minimum once a month.

Feedback is always welcomed.

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