52 Week 18 (#18) DC comics

Well, this series is always pleasing, I enjoy dipping into what happened to the different characters over the missing year. First off we have Timothy Trench, one of the Croatoan society members becoming liquid wearing the Dr Fate helmet. A mystery only Ralph Dibney (the Elongated man) can solve. In the other story we have Renee Montoya, and the question in Khandaq getting medals from Black Adam for saving the wedding party from the bomber last issue, of course Renee is more interested in dying and having her way with comely lasses than medals. Black Adam freaks out, almost kills her until Isis intervenes, they need to get on Intergang… Now Intergang means more to me than criminals, and advanced technology, Intergang was always the fleshy earthly hand of Darkseid the one major exclusion from the crisis. I think we are building towards something here. We also have Booster Golds funeral, and maybe replacement, but honestly, I don’t want to continue with the whole killing, and raping, and driving crazy the fun characters in the DC universe anymore.

X-Men - Phoenix Warsong #1 Marvel Comics

What is a cuckoo? That is the question this comic poses. The Stepford Cuckoos have been in the mansion for awhile now, an enigma. Starting out as five telepathic girls that grew so much alike they were as one. The first part of the book is interesting, showing the girls, showing how powerful they are becoming, and raising the prospect of what they are. The girls are a plant, eggs laid in the nest of the X-Men, and for all intents and purposes it looks like they were laid by phoenix… or something that wants them to think its phoenix. You see in nature, the Cuckoo lays its eggs in another bird’s nest, when the birds hatch they have similar markings, and can imitate the false mothers begging call. Instinctively they drive the birds real children out of the nest, pushing chicks and eggs out of the nest. So are the cuckoo’s eggs of the phoenix? Or are they something that is assuming its plumage and begging call?

The Boys #2 DC comics (Wildstorm)

Now, the Wildstorm Universe, which has been my favourite hunting ground for awhile has had a bit of a soft reboot. One of the new series to come out of this is the boys. The premise is basically a group of people who keep the heroes in check, or punish them when they do bad, or even just randomly smack one down just cause. This issue is pretty much an intro issue, setting up the main players, and getting across that they don’t care, and how violent and dangerous they are. The everyman character, who I am positive is based on Simon Pegg, is being sort of seduced into joining this group of sociopaths. I haven’t seen anything extraordinary yet, but I am going to give this book a shot for another little while. Hopefully it goes somewhere good, in Wildstorm fashion.

Beyond! #3 Marvel Comics

The even comic that’s not really an event… I’m actually enjoying Beyond!. The few issues I’ve read have me wondering where they are going. Of course the series is just an attempt to bring deathlok back to the mainstream. The heroes, minus one dead Spiderman have a pretty badass fight with dragon man who isn’t holding back. They meet up with deathlok, who goes through a constant argument with his inner computer trying to figure a way to save all the heroes, and to defeat dragonman. I think there is something fishy going on with Deathlok. He recounts that he’s been on the beyonders world for years, and a lot of heroes have been chewed up and spit out, including recurring secret wars that no one knows about. The scenes with “dead spidey” are pretty cool, thought they might just run with a marvel zombies type thing, but it went another way. The series has me interested in what happens next.

Y: The last man # 49 DC comics (vertigo)

The end is near for Yorick and his growing group of followers. At this point they are in China, and Rose, Dr Mann’s Aussie GF finally wakes up after her shish kebobing at the hands of the senior Dr Mann. Most of the issue is setting up the end. Getting all the characters into the spot they need to be. Yorick, Rose, Dr Mann, and 355 are in China. Hero, Ciba, Natalya and the babies are in NY boarding a steam liner being chased by the last desperate arms of the amazons, of course Alter is spying on them. Most of the issue is talking heads, just exchanging ideas. Things like the cloning aspect, and how Ampersand has to have babies. Pretty interesting discussion on how Yorick is going to be the basis for the new human race… Things get interesting towards the end when Rose reveals her true colour, and the good DR has another bout of illness leading to a bad situation… Morphogenic field? Hmm…

The thing that Y the last man has done to me in the last few years of reading it is simple. They made me care about the characters. I want to see Dr Mann survive, I want Yorick and Beth to get togeather. It’s all going to end soon, they reveal of what happened with the plague, and what is in store for the characters.. I am really looking forawrd to, and dreading the rest of the series.

Jericho CBS Premiers Sept 20

Pilot
First aired: 9/20/2006Writer: Stephen Chbosky Director: Jon Turteltaub Guest star: Alicia Coppola (Mimi), Kristen Rodriguez (Lisa Whalley), Bob Stephenson (Jimmy), Richard Speight, Jr. (Bill), Clare Carey (Mary Bailey), Vic Polizos (Shep Cale), Darby Stanchfield (Ann Green), Beth Grant (Gracie Leigh) , Taylor Nichols (Norman Perry), Leon Russom (Sheriff), Joey King (Sally), Joseph Castanon (Woody), Germaine De Leon (Alvie), Beau Dremann (Irate Father), Steve Hibbert (Business Man), Helena Barrett (Clerk), Madison Pettis (Stacie Clemons), Mackenzie Hannigan (Lucas), Al Vincente (EMT Crew Chief), Marlene Forte (Teresa Clemons), Thom Williams (Burly Man), Robert C. Koch (Riley), Bruce Bohne (Old Man Oliver), Princess Lucaj (Sara, PD Radio Operator), Stevie Walsh Junior (Danny), Ariel Winter (Julie), Alex Carter (Fire Chief), Tiffany Thornton (Staphanie Lancaster)

Pssst! I have a secret.

I’ve seen the first episode of CBS’s new series Jericho.

(from CBS's press release) JERICHO is a drama about what happens when a nuclear mushroom cloud suddenly appears on the horizon, plunging the residents of a small, peaceful Kansas town into chaos, leaving them completely isolated and wondering if they're the only Americans left alive. Fear of the unknown propels Jericho into social, psychological and physical mayhem when all communication and power is shut down. The town starts to come apart at the seams as terror, anger and confusion bring out the very worst in some residents. Jake Green, the prodigal son of the town's mayor, becomes a reluctant hero when a school bus crashes as a result of the explosion. Mayor Johnston Green is conflicted with the return of his estranged son, but is called to action when the town begins to riot. Johnston’s wife, Gail, is the strong, savvy first lady of the town who runs interference between her husband and her favorite son. Attempting to usurp the mayor’s power is Johnston’s political adversary Gray Anderson, who is not above putting his personal agenda before the welfare of the very community he wants to lead. Though the cloud appears in the distance, it affects all the residents in Jericho, including Dale Turner, the 16-year-old trailer park kid everybody picks on who finds himself in a position that could change his status; Robert Hawkins, a mysterious stranger who seems to be a jack-of-all-trades as he steps in to help restore order; Heather Lisinski, a pretty, young school teacher on the bus with her students returning from a class trip when the glare from the explosion causes a terrible accident; Emily Sullivan, Jake's high school sweetheart who lives outside of town and innocently goes about her business unaware of the catastrophe, Bonnie Richmond, a pretty 17-year-old who is hearing impaired; and Bonnie’s older brother Stanley, Jake’s best friend from childhood and an avid car lover who works on the family farm. In this time of crisis, as sensible people become paranoid, personal agendas take over and well-kept secrets threaten to be revealed, some people will find an inner strength they never knew they had and the most unlikely heroes will emerge.

Skeet Ulrich as Jake Green
Ashley Scott as Emily Sullivan
Sprague Grayden as Heather Lisinski
Kenneth Mitchell as Eric Green
Lennie James as Robert Hawkins
Michael Gaston as Gray Anderson
Erik Knudsen as Dale Turner
Gerald McRaney as Mayor Green
Pamela Reed as Gail Green

The first episode had a lot of promise. Skeet Ulrich plays the lead, the sort of black sheep rebel rouser who left town years ago without word. He arrives back in Jericho full of secrets, and a different answer to his whereabouts for everyone who asks. The town is a sort of nice small town in the desert type of place. After awhile of the usual homecoming, and recrimination all hell breaks loose. We get no warning; we get nothing, nothing but a mushroom cloud on the horizon. This is actually very well done, and the immediate consequences of the blast are what fuel the rest of the episode.

People start to panic, there is no communication, no one knows what is going on… I’m not going to spoil it for you, I am just going to tell you things you’ve seen in various clips on the web… OF course when you see the episodes and realize, that the clips sort of misled you, that its not as clear cut as you were first led to believe. It’s pretty awesome actually. So, in the confusion a school bus of children is missing, so are various other residents of Jericho. The mayor tries to calm the people, and sends the police to find the bus, and well.. They do… sort of.

We set Jake Green up as a hero pretty early on, but there is something dark in his past, where was he? Why was he being so mysterious? And they ay we find out that Atlanta is gone, that was a nice little WTF moment right then and there. Pretty awesome.

I give this ep a 5 star on the premise, the setup, and the acting. I will leave it to CBS to see where it goes from here.

The show will premiere on September 20, 2006 on CBS.
Wednesday nights at 8 PM

30 days Of night

Well, it looks like I'm going back to Barrow... OK, awhile ago you should know there was this kickass little graphic novel called 30 Days of night. You might have heard of it? Anyway the basica premise was this. Vampires are real. They find out about this little town called Barrow Alaska, they also find out that once a year Barrow has a night that lasts over 30 days... Can we say buffet?

The book, a little indy publisher book, with this insane artwork sort of caught the attention of a few loyal readers, and of course spawned a number of sequals, and put that particular comic company on the map. Now we have the live action movie.

Right now it's in production, and there isn't much news. Just that Josh Hartnett is the lead, and David Slade is directing. There are some Embedded flash videos of the production, not much, just location shots, things like building the sets. It's going to be a fun ride, and I hope they get the atmosphere down pat on this one. It's one of those books that you cuddle up with on a nice dark and stormy night.

Here is the link to the production stuff Linkage!

World Trade Center

World Trade Center (2006)2hr 5min - Rated PG-13 - Drama
Starring: Nicolas Cage, Michael Pena, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Maria Bello, Stephen Dorff Directed by: Oliver Stone
This is not the usual sort of hollywood movie. In a good way though. The characters were more realistic, and the way the story unfolded was believable. To start with, we all remember that day. The confusion, the stories that were flying around about what happened. It's all there, this movie nails that feeling on the head. It really amazed me how accurate they got that.
Now, in a normal movie it would have went like this, hour of setup, geting the characters established, yada yada, etc etc. Then the tower would come into play at the halway point. the rest of the movie would be some sort of heroic struggle (superman heroic, not quit desperation heroic) then we would have the rescue and a tearful hugging of the wife.
That is not how World Trade Center worked. The setup is brief, and we get a taste of how the characters lives work. Then before we have time to get into our popcorn all hell breaks loose. The characters are bussed to the disaster site, and they know nothing. My friend kept saying for them not to do stuff, but all I kept saying was, "they don't know"
They aren't in the tower that long to get their bearings and things go from disasterous to insane. The towers collapse... well one of them. Of course the characters don't know this. Through the whole movie you do understand how little they know about what is going on. Usthe viewers at the other end of five years later can rhyme off they events as they go by, but the characters are in the dark...
the rest of the movie alternates between the families going nuts over what is happening, and the main characters trapped under the rubble. The movie went by very very quickly. I.. well enjoyed wouldn't be the right mood would it? It was a good movie, and I would watch it again. The acting was good, even Cage who has a tendancy to sort of wander sometimes. I particularly enjoyed Michael Pena's and Maggie Gyllenhaal's performance.

X-men #190 Marvel Comics

Yaaaaaaaaaawn. Ok, it wasn’t that bad, but Marvel always seems to want to introduce these new threats, the neo, the omega sentinels, etc etc. Now they have this new group called the Children of the Vault… Now, I understand that to get new and different threats they have to do this, and lately with the new rule or “no more mutants” (which I hated btw) they have to dance around a bit to do it, but come on? Please. Just lift this insane mutant phobic restriction on mutants, go back to the heyday or mutant town, and mutant stars just get it over with dammit!

Did like two things however, Northstar and aurora kicked ass completely and utterly. Although, I don’t think their mission is worthwhile, killing Sabertooth? Oh, btw, he sucks too, why don’t they duck over to exiles and see how ole Creed should be written? Which was good, and they are finally getting around to letting Bobby have some cool powers. I was beginning to think that his powers rocked as long as he wasn’t using them.

BTW, loved the cover.

Walking Dead #30 Image Comics

Walking dead was pretty good this week. It had a nice little twist at the ending that took a second read to truly get, (or maybe I’m dense?) Rick, and crew are still being held prisoner by the governor, and the people back home at the prison are freaking out about them being gone. We have some good scenes at how the mental fraying is beginning. I’ve said sicne they started to settle down that once the threat seemed external to their day to day lives they would start to pick up on being people. We have Lori and her “suitor” being misunderstood again. And the prospect of a post zombie movie night, I am willing to bet that night of the living dead doesn’t get a showing…

The final scene kind of pissed me off, using Ricks reactions that way sucked. I think Kirkman is trying to do something even darker to Rick. Not that he hasn’t already been coming undone like cheap pantyhose lately. Of course, I would too, but in a more sensible way. When are they going to start to look at the dead like a flood and not an enemy?

Rush #1 DC comics

Rush City has a pretty basic premise. This guy had a major trauma, he wants to prevent other people from having similar trauma in their lives, so he tries to prevent it. His tagline, you lose someone you love, I will find them. Of course to do that he has a souped up car.

The first issue, is a nice little continuation of the #0 that came out a bit ago. We have the main character trying to find a lost little girl, the trick is that she has diabetes, and unless we get to her in 24 hours she will die. So we have a lot of Rush beating up on the usual lowlifes, and a few car chases. The girl, turns out, fell into the hands of some pedo trash, but couldn’t get any money for her cause she was “sick” Rush, rushes to the rescue. Heh. And saves her.

The book was ok, nothing to write home about, good setup of the premise, and possibly a good book. The only thing that has me worried was the last scene, the setup of some sort of car based supervillian named gearhead… “I am my car” pfft, that so sucks. They had a sort of good little alternate vibe, could have stayed clear of the capes, and kept it reality based, but nooo they had to throw in gearhead. Sigh….

So, I’m giving this a hopeful 3 stars out of 5, just cause its new, and I have hope.