Monday, August 30, 2010
On hiatus.
I'm taking a break for a while from this blog. I'm going out of town and need to be devoting my energy elsewhere. Sorry if you got excited, I'll be back with plenty to talk about soon enough. Meanwhile, if you're curious to what I am doing out of town, check out this blog.
Tuesday, August 24, 2010
Blandest Day *SPOILERS*
**** WARNING!!! THERE WILL BE SPOILERS. IF YOU DO NOT CARE ABOUT HAVING ANY PLOT HAPPENING IN BLACKEST NIGHT OR BRIGHTEST DAY RUINED FOR YOU, READ NO FURTHER! THE SAME GOES IF YOU ENJOY GOOD WRITING! *****
Well here we are again. I apologize about putting off the posts, I do intend to write at more regular intervals, things are just kind of hectic right now with school starting up again.
Covering the tail end of last year and the beginning of this year DC comics ran a crossover entitled "Blackest Night." It was originally intended to be self contained within the Green Lantern family of comics much like the excellent Sinestro Corps War. DC smelling the gold mine they were sitting on decided to branch this out and make it a company-wide shindig. While most of the meat of the story took place in the self-titled limited series and in the Green Lantern titles, the potatoes were scattered all over the DCU. In a nutshell, the darkness that existed before the big bang was tired of life and wanted to end it all, so it send it's champion Nekron to eliminate all life and light in the universe. To accomplish this, Nekron brought back to life tons of dead super heroes and villains just itching to sell comics. Of course in the end the heroes save the day, and just like Saint Walker said, all was well.
Or was it?
While I felt Blackest Night started incredibly strong, around issue #5 it kind of started to slack. While I did enjoy the overall story, it seemed to be that each issue had one big "OMFGDIDYOUSEEWHATTHEYDIDTHERE?!?!?!?!?!" moment and some filler in-between. Probably the biggest shocker was the resurrection of 12 characters in Blackest Night #8. And thus the Brightest Day began:
At that point you could color me super excited. Firestorm is one of my favorite DC characters, and there's something about that classic Aquaman look that you can't deny. Unfortunately, Brightest Day has been no Blackest Night. Spread out over 52 weeks, Brightest Day ships twice a month for 26 issues total. We are now at issue 8 as of last week, and nothing of significance has happened. That's right, we're over a 1/3 of the way through and we just NOW learned what the characters were brought back to do. Brightest Day is also being used as a banner to spear head some other comic books that skirt around the edges of the main story: Green Lantern, Green Lantern Corps, Emerald Warriors, Green Arrow, Titans, Flash, Birds of Prey, and Justice League: Generation Lost.
Part of the problem is I feel that there's just too much going on for a 26 issue limited series. While the issue of Max Lord is mainly being taken care of in the Generation Lost comic, there are still 11 other characters whose stories have to be crammed into less than 30 pages. Each issue so far gives you just enough to pique your interest and then it lets you down. Just when things get interesting we are forced to go to another storyline. I think it would have worked better as a 52 issue series, but that probably would have been too much for Geoff Johns to handle. I'm just wondering if Mr. Johns is stretching himself thin and this grandiose story he has created is going to fizzle out with a whimper instead of the bang I know he can deliver.
I will say that issue #8 was a departure as it was focused mainly on a handful of characters. The writing and pacing felt tighter than the previous 7, it remains to be seen if the series will keep it up. If so, kudos to DC for pulling off another killer storyline courtesy of the Green Lantern mythos. If not, this reader won't be surprised.
Well here we are again. I apologize about putting off the posts, I do intend to write at more regular intervals, things are just kind of hectic right now with school starting up again.
Covering the tail end of last year and the beginning of this year DC comics ran a crossover entitled "Blackest Night." It was originally intended to be self contained within the Green Lantern family of comics much like the excellent Sinestro Corps War. DC smelling the gold mine they were sitting on decided to branch this out and make it a company-wide shindig. While most of the meat of the story took place in the self-titled limited series and in the Green Lantern titles, the potatoes were scattered all over the DCU. In a nutshell, the darkness that existed before the big bang was tired of life and wanted to end it all, so it send it's champion Nekron to eliminate all life and light in the universe. To accomplish this, Nekron brought back to life tons of dead super heroes and villains just itching to sell comics. Of course in the end the heroes save the day, and just like Saint Walker said, all was well.
Or was it?
While I felt Blackest Night started incredibly strong, around issue #5 it kind of started to slack. While I did enjoy the overall story, it seemed to be that each issue had one big "OMFGDIDYOUSEEWHATTHEYDIDTHERE?!?!?!?!?!" moment and some filler in-between. Probably the biggest shocker was the resurrection of 12 characters in Blackest Night #8. And thus the Brightest Day began:
At that point you could color me super excited. Firestorm is one of my favorite DC characters, and there's something about that classic Aquaman look that you can't deny. Unfortunately, Brightest Day has been no Blackest Night. Spread out over 52 weeks, Brightest Day ships twice a month for 26 issues total. We are now at issue 8 as of last week, and nothing of significance has happened. That's right, we're over a 1/3 of the way through and we just NOW learned what the characters were brought back to do. Brightest Day is also being used as a banner to spear head some other comic books that skirt around the edges of the main story: Green Lantern, Green Lantern Corps, Emerald Warriors, Green Arrow, Titans, Flash, Birds of Prey, and Justice League: Generation Lost.
Part of the problem is I feel that there's just too much going on for a 26 issue limited series. While the issue of Max Lord is mainly being taken care of in the Generation Lost comic, there are still 11 other characters whose stories have to be crammed into less than 30 pages. Each issue so far gives you just enough to pique your interest and then it lets you down. Just when things get interesting we are forced to go to another storyline. I think it would have worked better as a 52 issue series, but that probably would have been too much for Geoff Johns to handle. I'm just wondering if Mr. Johns is stretching himself thin and this grandiose story he has created is going to fizzle out with a whimper instead of the bang I know he can deliver.
I will say that issue #8 was a departure as it was focused mainly on a handful of characters. The writing and pacing felt tighter than the previous 7, it remains to be seen if the series will keep it up. If so, kudos to DC for pulling off another killer storyline courtesy of the Green Lantern mythos. If not, this reader won't be surprised.
Wednesday, August 18, 2010
I say thee, NAY!
Well, I have to start this post off by congratulating myself on putting off my first actual post for three days, so go me. I'm probably going to be messing around with the design and layout as well over the next few weeks, so if something works, or doesn't, just let me know. But anywhoo, on to the crap you don't care about.
Today we're going to dip our toes into the magical world of comic adaptations. Specifically, the new Thor movie coming out next year. Let me go ahead and get out of the way the fact that I am an unapologetic DC fan boy, but I'll be damned if this trailer doesn't give me shivers:
Sorry, I tried to embed the video, but it says the content is deleted when I do it. For your inconvenience, here's a link to the video. Thanks for the FAIL alltrailers.net
Now this is how you get someone excited about a comic book movie! Especially if it is for a character that doesn't quite carry the name recognition of Spider-Man, Superman, or Batman. The trailer makes it seem like the movie is going to be an epic, from the grandeur of Asgard to the hi-jinks of the Norse Gods on Earth.
Now before I had said that I'm a DC fan boy, that doesn't mean that I totally ignore Marvel comics. While growing up, there was a second hand bookstore that sold comics on the cheap, most were Marvel, and most were from the 60's and 70's. The comics were often in horrible condition with the covers missing, but that didn't matter to this strapping young lad. So when I see things like the Destroyer and Loki's helmet in this trailer, my inner child is squealing with glee. There's been some rumbling on the internet in the message boards and comment sections about the costumes. I myself don't quite get the discontent, as you can just see the Kirby influence on them. I find it admirable that the costume designers are paying respect to the man that helped bring to life countless of iconic characters, so kudos to them! But that's the problem with fan boys, they are impossible to please.
Next year is already shaping up to be a pretty good year for the comic movie. You have Thor, Captain America, and the Green Lantern movie. I'm sure there's more, but that's all I'm concerned about. I'll probably actually do a post about the Green Lantern movie here in the near future, as GL is my favorite super hero. For that reason alone I am heaping all kinds of unwarranted and unrealistic expectations on that movie. But back to Thor, color me excited. I'm sure my friends will get sick of me talking about how excited I am for it until it is finally released.
Today we're going to dip our toes into the magical world of comic adaptations. Specifically, the new Thor movie coming out next year. Let me go ahead and get out of the way the fact that I am an unapologetic DC fan boy, but I'll be damned if this trailer doesn't give me shivers:
Sorry, I tried to embed the video, but it says the content is deleted when I do it. For your inconvenience, here's a link to the video. Thanks for the FAIL alltrailers.net
Now this is how you get someone excited about a comic book movie! Especially if it is for a character that doesn't quite carry the name recognition of Spider-Man, Superman, or Batman. The trailer makes it seem like the movie is going to be an epic, from the grandeur of Asgard to the hi-jinks of the Norse Gods on Earth.
Now before I had said that I'm a DC fan boy, that doesn't mean that I totally ignore Marvel comics. While growing up, there was a second hand bookstore that sold comics on the cheap, most were Marvel, and most were from the 60's and 70's. The comics were often in horrible condition with the covers missing, but that didn't matter to this strapping young lad. So when I see things like the Destroyer and Loki's helmet in this trailer, my inner child is squealing with glee. There's been some rumbling on the internet in the message boards and comment sections about the costumes. I myself don't quite get the discontent, as you can just see the Kirby influence on them. I find it admirable that the costume designers are paying respect to the man that helped bring to life countless of iconic characters, so kudos to them! But that's the problem with fan boys, they are impossible to please.
Next year is already shaping up to be a pretty good year for the comic movie. You have Thor, Captain America, and the Green Lantern movie. I'm sure there's more, but that's all I'm concerned about. I'll probably actually do a post about the Green Lantern movie here in the near future, as GL is my favorite super hero. For that reason alone I am heaping all kinds of unwarranted and unrealistic expectations on that movie. But back to Thor, color me excited. I'm sure my friends will get sick of me talking about how excited I am for it until it is finally released.
Friday, August 13, 2010
An introduction, of sorts.
Greetings programs, welcome to This Title is an Obscure Reference, because the internet NEEDS another pop culture blog with a sarcastic bent.
After being inspired by my good friend Wes (who runs an excellent music blog you can find here ), I've decided to join the masses of the blogging world who feel that their opinion somewhat matters in the big picture. I'm hoping that my little slice of the internet will provide you with a little entertainment, giving you a place to laugh, cry, and kiss five minutes goodbye.
I plan on covering a variety of topics, such as movies, music, comics, and other such nerdery. Expect reviews, slices of life, and opinions on current affairs.
So, this is me...
After being inspired by my good friend Wes (who runs an excellent music blog you can find here ), I've decided to join the masses of the blogging world who feel that their opinion somewhat matters in the big picture. I'm hoping that my little slice of the internet will provide you with a little entertainment, giving you a place to laugh, cry, and kiss five minutes goodbye.
I plan on covering a variety of topics, such as movies, music, comics, and other such nerdery. Expect reviews, slices of life, and opinions on current affairs.
So, this is me...
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