For those of you that did not already know.

Research and Design by: CarInsurance.org

Here is the comprehensive list of all of the Gen 1 Autobots and their respective vehicle modes. Lord knows I am impressed. Many thanks to the people at carinsurance.org for compiling this list. I acknowledge that American cars in the 80s sucked. I spent entirely too much of my early driving life behind the wheel of an Ice Blue 1986 Plymouth Reliant K car so I know the pain of 1980s American cars. But seriously. Only one American brand in the top six. Really? I know Transformers was as popular in Japan as in America but really? Only one American brand. I know hasbro is an American company located in Rhode Island but seriously guys, you can't throw Detroit a bone. Not cool.

Graphic via Gizmodo.
Thanks to them as always

Justic League: Generation Lost # 18 Review

"We're gettin' the band back together, man." Short of Guy Gardner, Crimson Fox, and of course Batman, the original JLI line up has been set for Justice League: Generation Lost. One of the great things about this is that Judd Winick took his time doing it. Too often at the beginning of a "Team Oriented" comic series the characters who will form the team are just thrown together haphazardly or just happen on to one another randomly. I have never heard of it taking 18 issues for a team to be set. Winick obviously has planed ahead here. The member to join this issue was Power Girl. She has been a fixture in this series so far but only as the outsider looking in. Trying to discover the motivations of her fugitive former teammates. She has also been in Captain Atom's "Flash Forwards" when he is blasted forward in time by absorbing too much radiation. Something that has happened twice so far in this run. In this issue Power Girl finally joins the team. Albeit at the end of the issue and after doing battle with her former team. She had been subjugated by Max Lord's mind control. Again Generation Lost balances an action packed issue with plenty of plot that makes this story so compelling. One of the aspects I love about this team building exercise is that it is being orchestrated by Max Lord, the villain of the story. Everything is going along according to his plan. While discussing this issue with one of the Owners of JP Comics and Games I realized that of the two "Brightest Day" bi-weekly series one deals with 12 of the resurrected characters. The other deals with only one. That may be the main reason why Brightest Day comes off as so disjointed while Generation Lost moves smoothly from issue to issue. Max Lord was a master manipulator with out using his mind control powers so now that he is unleashed how much more deadly is he. While the team fought Power Girl, Lord was busy secreted away in the bowels of Checkmate, an international spy agency he recently took over, torturing and experimenting the Blue Beetle. He sees himself working for a greater good of some sort. What that is remains to be seen but his actions show that the belief that the ends justify the means can lead to great evil even with the best of intentions. Max Lord's means are truly evil. It remains to be seen what his ends are.

ThunderCats HO!!!!!!

Yay! Right now the London Toy Fair is going on and although their was an embargo on this image it got out there anyway. More images area available at http://thundercatslair.org/ although how long they will be up there remains to be seen. All I have to say is YES!!!! I can't wait for this. Lion-o's new costume in particular is a great example of how to do a redesign. It maintains the classic feel while adding subtle elements like oh say, pants. Lord knows I loved the original show but I would have a hard time taking seriously a King who wore a ladies one piece swimsuit with the abs cut out. Panthro looks great. I like that they went with the "Juggernaut/Thing" look for him. Let the big guy be the big guy I always say. I am a little less sure about Tigra's costume but I like that they really emphasized the stripes in his redesign. Which brings me to Chitara. Here we have the best example of modernizing the classic look. She maintains her original colors but instead of the leotard she is in much more practical warrior attire. While I am sad that they have apparently decided not to have Wiley-Kit and Wiley-Kat I am still pretty psyched. I have been waiting for a ThunderCats reboot for years and now that it is on the horizon I can't wait. 

This apparenly is the new Spider-man Costume.

Some on set pictures of the new Spider-man costume emerged from the rabbit hole today. Here is the clearest one.

Boy am I not impressed. First of all what is with the silver accents on the feet? I could possibly understand it on the wrists since they have made great hey out of the fact that Peter Parker is going to be using web shooters in this movie, as in the comic, instead of just growing spinnerets in his forearms. Does this indicate he'll be shooting webs out of his feet? Worse yet does it mean that he'll have some kind of technological amplification for his wall crawling abilities? Did the costume department get some kind of bulk deal on sonic welding? Either way I think it looks pretty bad. It looks too much like he is wearing some kind of flip-flop boot. I also dislike the way they have redistributed the red and blue parts of the costume. It recalls the worst aspects of Michael Bay's Optimus Prime. Red creeping in to the blue areas. Blue creeping in to the red areas. No logic to any of it. I see red stripes going up the legs. Fine. They could attach to the red belt area normally on the costume. Oh wait. The belt area is gone and in its place two dagger like points that don't even come around to the front. So instead of getting the "Han Solo, Blood Stripe" look you wind up a strange upside down u that serves only to contour his ass as he swings down 6th Avenue.

And therein lies the heart of the matter. This costume seems to me to be yet another hint at what is really going on with this Spider-man reboot. We may be witnessing the beginning of the twilightification of the superhero. In one of my first posts on this blog I let loose a rant about Superman: Earth One, and how it was not trying to make Superman in to Edward Cullen. While I stand by that I also know that it was marketed like he was and most of the bad criticism came from that. I hate to say it but what they did to Superman with marketing they may be doing to Spider-man whole hog. I mean look at this kid.

Does that look like the nerdy kid in your science class that you knew if you cheated off of him you were guarenteed to ace the test? Does it look like the kid who perseveres over immense hardship, always amazed at how much he has to deal with but never without a quip on the tip of his tongue? No. It looks like the emo jerk sitting at the back of the class wearing black eyeliner and whining about how no one will ever really understand him. I fear this new Spider-man may be designed to rope in the teenage girl demographic at the expense of its core audience. I hope I am wrong but as of right now I have a feeling like this Spider-man will be a major step down.

Geeky art and Awesome Girlfriends.

 

This is an illustration I did of Wonder Woman's new costume. I drew it entirely in Adobe Illustrator CS5. It was done off of a picture of my girlfriend from Halloween.

There has been a lot of chagrin about the new Wonder Woman costume but I think this shows that it is pretty cool. I humbly hope my artwork adds to that coolness.

The Dark Kinght Rises: Anne Hathaway as Catwoman? Tom Hardy as Bane?

In 2005 when Batman Begins came out I was not overtly excited about it. I had seen Christopher Nolan's previous work and while I enjoyed Memento his next movie Insomnia left me a little cold. Also, and this is the real rub of it, I felt Hollywood would never get a better hold on Batman then it did in 1989 with Tim Burton's interpretation. Even that did not compare with Kevin Conroy and Paul Dini's work on Batman: The Animated Series which outside of the comics themselves has been, for me at least, the definitive version of the character. I thought that the true depth of the character was beyond Hollywood's grasp.

Then the movie came out. When I saw it I remember walking out of the movie thinking "Finally, they got it right." While Batman as a character is widely open to interpretation this was the first time that they had gotten the core of the character almost perfect. From Christian Bale's performance to Nolan's direction and script it was almost pitch perfect.

When The Dark Knight came out I dropped the almost. It was by far the greatest, deepest and most complex superhero movie that had ever been made. Growling Batman voices aside Bale brought the depth and pain of Bruce Wayne to the screen while maintaining an appropriately heroic demeanor during even the most gut wrenching of scenes. The interrogation scene between Batman and the Joker is in my opinion one of the greatest scenes ever committed to film. Which brings me to Heath Ledger. The greatness of his performance as the Joker can only be outweighed by the tragedy of his untimely death.

This gives The Dark Knight Rises an awful lot to live up to and with this casting call I am not sure they are up to the task. At least if the rumors I have heard are true. Both Anne Hathaway and Tom Hardy are great actors and will bring the chops necessary to make this movie live up to its predecessors. I am not entirely sure about Hathaway as Catwoman. I know she has been in a variety of roles and has the chops to play Selina Kyle. She just feels a little too "Girl Next Door" to put out the heat required for Catwoman. I don't fear for that though. In fact I am sure she relishes the opportunity to do exactly that and prove me wrong. These are the things I do fear for. I fear for the script. I fear for the fact that The Dark Knight was left so powerfully with the set up for a continuing struggle between Batman and The Joker and now that obviously can't happen. I fear the rumors that Catwoman may be acting primarily as a hero filling in for Batman and not as a Jewel Thief. (Actually that rumor was so outrageous I don't believe it for a second) Mostly I fear that Bane, while badass is no substitute for the Joker. There is only one Batman villain that even comes close on that count. So for The Dark Knight Rises I hold out hope that one of these days soon a rumor will pop up that Liam Neeson has been secreted in to the set. Only Ras' Al Ghul can bring this series full circle.

I hope that Christopher Nolan has the foresight to know that. He has said this will be his last Batman movie. I hope that he finishes his story and sets up for a reboot instead of setting up the franchise to be passed on to another creative team. All great stories need a beginning, a middle and an end. That is rule number 2. I hope Nolan and his team know enough to follow it.

Just for the record. Rule number 1 is; Given any amount of time to prepare Batman always wins.

Geek Fashion: BWAHAHAHAH!!

This is awesome on so many levels I can't even go in to it and still make it to work on time.

Available today only for $9 at teefury.