Justice League: Generation Lost #16 Review

This issue of "Generation Lost" was one of the most action packed of a very action oriented series. Once again Maxwell Lord has used his mind control powers to throw our heroes up against an elite fighting force while he moves his plan forward from the background. This week the league goes up against "The Creature Commandos" a group of warriors engineered during World War II to emulate the popular horror movie monsters of they day. While the rest of the league battles these monster-warriors Fire and Ice are at the back of the battle where Fire has been shot in the stomach and is bleeding to death. This weeks great heroic moment goes to Blue Beetle. He singlehandedly saved Fire. Their was also a great moment between Fire and Ice where Fire laments the shadier things she has done in her life. Her Fear is palpable when she declares that she is thinks she is going to hell. Though there was a lot of great battles here this issue was more of a transitional one and therefore only gets a 3 out of a possible 5 stars. I really look forward to seeing this series collected in to a single volume. It probably will read much better as a single work then as installments. That said it does not suffer at all from the inconsistencies of its bi-weekly counterpart "Brightest Day" which has been hit or miss. I hold this series to a higher standard because it has been so consistently good so far. Transitional issues are invertible in any kind of serial storytelling but as a whole this story still excites me more than most of what I am currently reading.

Red State Trailer: A departure for Kevin Smith

Well this is certainly not Mallrats but this looks pretty good. I have not seen a horror movie in a long time but I think I'll go see this one.

(Via Smodcast.com)

Spiderman: Turn off the Dark as interepreted by Apple Daily.

I love these guys.
(Via Gizmodo)

Batman Inc #2 Review

This issue concludes the first regular story arc of the Batman Incorporated era. It was pretty sweet. First off I loved the dynamic between Bruce and Selina. The first issue had a pretty unsubtle moment that without showing it, which would put this issue in the "for mature readers" category, let the reader know that currently Batman and Catwoman are having regular casual sex. At the time it seemed a little on the nose for my tastes but I really like where this relationship is going. I think that this is something that will develop over a long time through all of Grant Morrison's books and I think that is a good thing. Lord knows Morrison is the master of the long play. The story centers on Jiro Osamu's journey from the assistant to Japan's Mr. Unknown to the new Japanese Batman. The villain of the story, Lord Death Man was visually pretty cool. He was reasonably bad ass and Jiro's battle with him is made cooler because of that. He was no Joker certainly but driving a car through a noodle restaurant just to up his body count is pretty cold. Again this book was pretty unsubtle on that count as well. Yanick Paquette's artwork was pretty blatant during this scene. In that one panel I count two people dead from gunshot wounds and one spread between the bumper and the wheel well of the car. It even get's a, "YOU SICK, TWISTED MONSTER!" from Batman himself. This book pulls no punches. Because of that I am giving it my highest rating so far. It gets a 4.25 stars out of a possible 5. My only major disappointment was the lacking of a defining moment for Jiro. Their were a few shots at this but these seemed to be more like field goals then a good long bomb touchdown. I am looking forward to his development as a character in the future as well as the rest of the emerging Batman Corps. Good art and great story that develops both main and ancillary characters makes for a great book and I can't wait for the next issue.

Neil Gaiman's great Poem, "Nicholas Was..."

I have had a copy of this poem for ages. I first read it in his great anthology "Smoke and Mirros." On of the many graphic novels I lost to Girlfriends in college. Tragic. Luckily, the video is even better. Dark but better.
Merry Christmas.


39 Degrees North: Christmas Card 2010 from 39 Degrees North on Vimeo.

Ho Ho Ho

(Via io9)

Tron: Legacy brings zen to computing.

First off let me say that for a movie whose first trailer came before its script this movie was still pretty freaking sweet. That is not to say that it is Shakespeare or even Alan Moore but its pretty great for what it is. So what is it? It's the 3D wizard of oz. Literally. The movie starts out in 2d and only goes to 3d when they get to the computer world. I had no idea that is how they would handle it but in retrospect it was a pretty cool idea. Their are references to the original movie aplenty and yes, we do find out what happens to Tron himself. He actually appears all over the movie although most of the time he is masked. We do get a pretty sweet flashback scene in which we see a de-aged Bruce Boxleitner do battle with the CGI Jeff Bridges that is Clu. The movies villain. Clu is a great villain in the tradition of Darth Vader and Sinestro. The villain who sees himself as the champion of order and because of that eradicates freedom. He even goes so far as to commit a genocide against the Isos. A new breed of program that spring spontaneously from the grid. They are the fulcrum of this story. Artificial Intelligence born from the system itself. Not created by the users. Kevin Flynn, the creator of the grid, sees them as its ultimate evolutionary end. Jeff Bridges brings some Dudeariffic zen to this role that was not in the original movie but I am cool with that. I can even forgive his over use of the exclamation, "Man!"  Clu, Flynn's creation also played by Bridges but digitally de-aged, sees the Isos as a corruption. Something to be cleansed from the grid. The story's protagonist is Sam Flynn. Kevin's son who has been left without a father while his has been imprisoned inside his own creation. We learn of this computer generated world thorough Sam's eyes as he is forced into many of the same scenarios his father faced twenty years ago. Tron: Legacy is original enough to stand on its own although it does owe a lot not only to its predecessor but also to The Matrix movies. Much of the style of this movie was borrowed from there. The story kept me guessing and although the ending was mildly disappointing in a few ways I am still really glad they made this movie. It builds wonderfully on my childhood memories. It does not just exploit them as a way to separate me from my fourteen bucks. Take note Mr. Bay.

More Good News.

I am going to see Tron: Legacy tonight. Look for the review here tomorrow. YAY!