NB of the Week

Uncanny X-Force #14 - The Dark Angel Saga: Chapter 4
So after surviving the AoA universe and retrieving the Life Seed to save Angel, what does Force get to come back home to? Angel already having ascended to his full form of Archangel, bent on replacing the now dead Apocalypse for essentially world domination. And that's just how the last issue ended.
Archangel and his Horsemen have taken over Cavern-X (The World from Morrison's New X-Men run) and easily take out the members of Force one by one. He has countered Fantomex's misdirection with not even a blink of an eye. Wolverine then slices him a bit which causes Genocide (apparently a new Horseman) to blast off half a Wolverine's freakin' body! Deadpool is an easy target as Famine hits him with "diarrhea mad of sadness and anger". That leaves Psylock. A while back, she was training through scenarios of how to kill Warren if needed. Now is the time. A jump, flip and the slicing of a tendon takes down War and drops him on Famine, taking two with one stone. Through her calculating, inner-dialogue (which is nothing short of a joy to read through), she prepares for Dark Beast by shredding his pectoral muscle as he leaps at her, leaving his arm immobile. However, she can't pull the trigger on Archangel yet. She trows her blade through his chest but purposefully misses his heart by inches. She uses the time to get everyone up and out. However, Warren now holds The World and the Life Seed which means many, many people will die very, very soon. Psylock leaves the others to try and talk sense into what she still thinks is left of Warren in that mind. Nothing matters now though, as Archangel takes Genocide up to a little town where he destroys it and all the people living there. The final page is silent as Archangel flies above the massive explosion, empty faced, Psylock weeps into her hands, Dark Beast holds the Life Seed (seemingly plotting his own scheme for later) and Fantomex standing over a "lifeless" Wolverine, wondering how he's going to save everyone from this one.
Ive said it before and I'll say it again: Rick Remender's writing on this book is absolutely amazing. There has not been one dull moment from the start. His plotting is excellent as the very first story is still playing out and causing much larger problems to this day. Amazing book. If you have any inkling to read comics, this should be one of your top choices. It's that great.

Boobs of the Day

Amy Beth Hayes
I started watching a British show called Misfits tonight. It's about a group of kids who get struck by lightning during community service and develop super-powers, along with more and more people who were around during the storm. Sounds a little cliche but it's surprisingly very good and original (and totally worth watching if you can). In an episode, we have a young lady played by Amy Beth Hayes. I have never seen or heard of her before this episode but she is pretty darned hot. And somehow, you can apparently get away with showing nudity cuz her weather balloons are might nice and all the way out there.
And she's British. British accents are also very hot.

Phoenix

I sit here in the hotel room we are staying in all the way down here in Phoenix, waiting for the temperature to reach triple digits again...
Maybe I'll get some sort of tan...

NB of the Week

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #1
I, like many other children of the 80s, am a pretty big fan of the Ninja Turtles. I was getting the last batch of comics for a number of years but it never came out on time and was $4 an issue so it was one I dropped when I needed to crunch down. Today saw the start of another TMNT book and I was a little excited for it. I decided to give it a shot and see how it went. I was pleasantly surprised with what I read.

Book starts out with Splinter, Leonardo, Donatello and Michelangelo facing off against a cat-humanoid with an eye patch named Old Hob. As the four of them fight (and it was definitely cool seeing Splinter fight), they end up winning (surprise) and we find out that fourth brother, Raphael, has left and is on his own.
We then cut back to eighteen months in the past and we see Stock Gen Research and their new employee, April O'Neil (wait, what?). We then see her big boss man, Baxter Stockman (not a fly?) as he talks to a General Krang about their super-soldier mutagen and the animal test subjects (jigga what?). We then find out that, three months later, April is still testing their pet turtles and the one, friendly rat. Come to find that she has named the four turtles after renaissance painters...
We end the issue with Raphael searching for food and clothing as he is out on his own. While doing this, he stumbles upon a house with a lot of loud ruckus going on. As he gets closer, he comes across a man being physically abusive to his son. A young man named Casey. Raph busts down the door, ready to stop the father.

Turns out that this is a brand new, re-imagining of the Turtles mytho and I'm totally on board. Much as I love the Turtles, their comics have a long history that is very hard to follow unless you read through it all so this is perfect. I'm super psyched to see how old favorites may be reworked into this new version. Point me in the right direction and I'll be there. Great start.

Notable Mentions:
Punisher #2 - More Punisher mayhem and he has still not said a word. Great crime writing and worth every penny.
Uncanny X-Force #13 - After full fisticuffs with Apocalypse Wolverine in the AoA universe, Force gets back to find Archangel waiting for them. A big "A" across his waist. Looks like they're too late.

I Want This

I was looking at a shirt site with some pretty funny stuff (snorgtees.com) and I came across this image. Yeah, I know it's a bit dirty but it was definitely one of my favorites they offer. Go look at the site. They have great stuff.

Boobs of the Day

Cheetara
Anyone else watching the new Thundercats that started up a few weeks ago? It's pretty decent so far and I'm liking it. And I'm kinda digging new Cheetara the most. As a child, I don't remember ever really thinking about her cat-bags as I do now, but that's how things role. You grow up, ya get hair in weird places, ya feel urges you don't understand and you stare at the kitty-litter mounds of fictitious cat/humanoid creatures. The nature of life.
So congratulations, Cheetara. You have the attention of my Snarf anytime you would like.

Double Dose of Trailers

Got two new trailers for ya. The Woman in Black and Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance. Woman actually looks a bit creepy and surprisingly, Spirit of Vengeance doesn't look like complete shit.

Clif-Notes: Conan the Barbarian

As a sad start, I must admit that I have never actually seen a Conan movie before this one. I read some of the comics that Dark Horse started put out in 2004 and it was pretty good stuff for the most part but I never really had a desire to get into him.
Until now.
After watching his father be killed as a child, Conan has sworn vengeance on the man and his army that raided his village and left him alone. Turns out the man responsible, wants a mask that grants unlimited power so that he can resurrect his dead wife.
You've seen the trailers and you should know what to expect. This movie had bad dialogue and cheesy CG at some points and I didn't care. This movie was bloody, violent fun the whole way through, just as it should be.
Jason Momoa was great as the Cimmerian. I had never seen anything of his until Game of Thrones ("You never watched Baywatch or Stargate: Atlantis?!" you ask. No. No I did not. Hard to believe, I know) but it set me up pretty well. In Thrones, Momoa plays Khal Drogo, King of the Dothraki tribe. Even though he didn't speak much, Drogo showed that Momoa was a badass. Full of grunts and killings and everything you could want in a warrior-king. As Conan, he really gets to show some acting. By no means is it the best acting you will ever see in a movie but you get a personality. You like this guy and that's pretty important in a movie that is based off of a lone man seeking revenge.
The baddie being sought is none other than Stephen Lang. A man who, at almost 60, still scares the pee-pee out of me. So much so that I can only refer to my urine as pee-pee. The dude, as with Momoa, somehow brings out awesome acting and scary attitude with his crap dialogue. This guy should probably play the badass villain in everything he touches.
Here's the plain and simple of it: if you don't mind some bad pacing and some crap written speeches, if you love violence and nudity, go see this movie. It was an awesome, fun time that that a lot of movies take for granted. Not everything has to be grand and epic.

NB of the Week

Due to bad timing and poor memory, comic reading was pushed back to today. Either way...

Captain America #2 - American Dreamers: Part 2
Even though I still don't think Bucky is dead, Marvel is moving on like we are supposed to believe it. As everything still goes down in Fear Itself, Steve is back in the suit in the newly, relaunched Captain America, bringing forward old school stories in a way that hasn't been seen for a while. And it's a good thing.
We find Cap, Sharon Carter and Fury taking down a Hyrda op where they have access to the Land of Nowhere. Kid named Jimmy Jupiter could jump to a dimension in between things, where his imagination could create anything and them also be brought back into our world. He was also able to reach into other people's dream from there. As Cap leaps from the their now, shot down carrier, we get some great, old-school, Jim Steranko on Nick Fury type of art (as pictured below). Baddies get away, Cap walks away. Simple enough fighting stuff. However, later that night, as Steve and Sharon sleep, we find out that more is going on as the baddies have now joined in on Cap's dreams and unleashed through them a giant Captain America of their own. We're left with a last page of Steve being grabbed by the giant hand of this Cap, him screaming "You stole my dream!"
Ed Brubaker is a genius writer, especially on Captain America. Front to back, his stuff on Cap the last six years has been brilliant. More so after Steve was "killed". Brubaker was able to switch writing styles flawlessly. You knew this wasn't a Steve Rogers, Captain America book and it absolutely showed in the words and writings of Bucky. Now, four years later, he is back to writing Steve and it has been a great transition again, despite Fear still going at it feeling a bit rushed (the timing of the comic, not the writing itself).
Even with the amazing writing, what really won this issue for me was the incredible art of Steve McNiven. His art is amazing when he's really on but he's one of the many that take so much time and detail, that putting them on an ongoing title hurts their art. After one or two issues, you start seeing how rushed and sloppy it becomes. Not that it's horrible but you know that they are sacrificing quality in order to hit their deadline. This was my fear with McNiven from the start but issue two looked amazing and as stated, his "classic" look in this issue was awesome. The man can draw. Plain and simple.
Cap has always been a favorite of mine so my biased approach may be in full swing here but I don't care. That's why it's my NB and not yours. Go get you some Brubaker Cap and start reading it. It's some of the most consistent, best writing out there.

Clif-Notes: Super

For those that have never heard of this movie, it's a little "indie" movie staring Rainn Wilson, Ellen Page, Live Tyler, Kevin Bacon and Nathan Fillion (hence the "s around the indie).
After Frank's wife (Wilson and Tyler) leaves him for a drug lord (Bacon), he gets spiritual visions from a religious icon (Fillion) and dons a superhero costume in order to fight crime and get his wife back. On this journey, an overzealous comic geek (Page) decides to suit-up and join him on his quest.
At first glance, this just looked like a Kick-Ass rip-off. Fun as it actually looked, I felt like I had seen it. By movie's end, it may not have been the most original movie I had seen but it was no longer the rip-off I had felt it would be. From the start, you know this is all a ploy to get his wife back. He's not really looking to fight crime on a daily basis and isn't the most concern with human life as he does it. He really just wants to kill Kevin Bacon and get Liv Tyler back. Ellen Page is fun as the geek who wants to help. She's super excited for the chance in an almost a.d.d. fashion. And her potty mouth is a little hot to me. She throws out those bombs like they have expiration dates. And she's a bit naughty. She tries to seduce Wilson in one scene (in what can only be described as awkwardly funny) and kinda rapes him. Kinda. It was weird.
And that's probably the best word to describe this movie. Weird. It was funny and the violence was pretty cool too but weird is the best word. I really liked it and if you don't mind the language or Ellen Page "gushing", you should give it a shot.

NB of the Week

The Red Wing #2 (of 4) - Learning to Fall
I'll be honest, this one may be a hard one to describe. It's a future where space pilots fight and travel through time. Issue one saw young Dom trying to follow in his father's footsteps and joining the flight program. Cutting between that story, we also learn the true fate of his father, Robert, in that he was shot down and began traveling back in time, stranding him in the far past.
Issue two starts with Dom finally passing and "getting his wings". Cut back to Robert in what appears to be ancient Mayan land and we find out that for over a year there, he has been teaching their leader to speak, telling each other of their stories and becoming a part of them as he waits to see when he will be rescued, which is when his tracker starts flashing. Excited, he runs out to be greeted only to suddenly look scared. He turns and runs into the forest, knowing that the tracking beam that grabs him was inevitable.
Move back (forward in time) to Dom as he and his friend talk about piloting and how Dom is having a hard time grasping it fully. He begins talking to the man who not only recruited him, but also his father many years ago. He is given the speech about how flying rules don't apply to time and how you have to just let go of what you know and that's the only way to understand it.
Back (into the past) at Robert, he is strapped to a platform by doctor looking figures, while an armored figure threatens with his plans,
"Out harvesters will strip this century bare. We will take and take and take until nothing is left. Until the world here is as the one we came from."
As Robert yells for them to free him, the armored man approaches and begins telling him about the broken future not being what people had promised their sons and daughters it would be. As he opens his masked, we are left with the face of Dom saying.
"Time to answer for your sins, father."
This may not be the best reasoning for you guys, but this book reminds me of the first time I watched Back to the Future. Even through the confusion of time travel and not quite knowing how things were connecting, I still had a sense of a full story. I knew something was coming and I could feel it starting to connect, I just wasn't quite sure how. That's Red Wing for me. Hickman writes a story that is confusing me but also building to a high crescendo and even though I may not see where this is going, I want to be there on the journey when it does. Time travel is always a hard thing to write and an even harder thing to read, but Hickman is pulling it off rather well so far. Two more issues to screw that up, though.

Boobs of the Day

Diora Baird
I watched 30 Days of Night: Dark Days tonight and while it was less than impressive, Miss Baird was in it. Horrible acting aside, she is absolutely gorgeous and the whole time watching this movie, I could only think of her nice scene in Wedding Crashers (look it up. You'll see what I mean). Little do most people know, though, that Miss Baird was also the green-skinned roommate of Uhura in the newest Star Trek. Stare in awe at the beauty that is Diora Baird.

Count Me In

I have the date circled on my metaphorical calendar.

First Hathaway Pic

Another DC picture has been released, this time of Hathaway from Dark Knight Rises. Not really sure how I feel about it. Pretty much "Meh". It doesn't show anything that is amazing. Other than that she is on Batman's bike. I'll hold judgment until I see more.

Punisher Art, As Promised

Here are some pages from the new Punisher, as promised. I hope that everyone else is as in love with this style and feel as I am

Holy Poop

Insert you're own expletive here...

NB of the Week

Punisher #1 - Punisher: One
My biggest complaint with this comic is that I have none of the art to put up to make you salivate as much as I did.
The premise is simple. Frank Castle lost his wife and kids and now takes vengeance on the scum of the Earth as the Punisher.
See? Simple.
New feature, though, is writer Greg Rucka. Rucka is one of the best crime writers out there. From his amazing, nearly three year stint on Detective Comics to his Atticus Kodiak novels, Rucka has established himself as one of the top wordsmiths in crime and noir. Which is exactly why I was excited for him to be on Punisher. Throw in the brilliantly dark and moody art of Marco Checchetto and this issue is a full winner.
In the story, somebody has just killed twenty-seven people, injuring nineteen more. Thankfully, one of the detectives put on the case owes Frank and he is able to get to the killer group first. He appears in one shot or another on only six pages. He speaks not one word the entire issue. He doesn't have to. Everybody involved knows what he is saying without them. I can't help but be reminded of when Rucka relaunched Wolverine back in '03 and he didn't have Wolverine pop his claws until five or six issues in. He has a sense of anticipation in his stories that makes you eager for the shit to finally hit the fan and that fits perfectly for Punisher.
I cannot stress my love for this title enough. I know it's only one issue in but that just shows how much I actually enjoyed it. One issue and I can't wait for the next issue. If you want great Punisher, run and pick up this title. You will not be disappointed.
And as soon as I can get some of the issue's art, I will throw it up and let ya oogle it with me.

Marvel Makes Me Racist

Marvel revealed who the new Spider-Man in Ultimate Spider-Man was and I have to say that my initial response in that I have been cheated.
The replacement is a new character named Miles Morales. A teen who is half-black and half-Hispanic. Here lies my problem. My initial reaction is that Pete was killed so that they could make a big hoopla about having a Spider-Man of color. I'm hoping that's not the big picture and I would love to be wrong, but that's how it first looks. And if that's the case, I think it takes away from Pete's death. To kill off a character just so you can have more ethnicity is crap. I understand the need for more diversity in the characters but there should be reason for it.
That being said, I have read nothing involving this character. Fact of the matter is, he could simply be another kid who saw what happened to Peter and want to make a difference himself. I will try to hold off on full judgment until I actually read what happens. Bendis has made this title amazing for a decade and I have faith that he will continue to do so, no matter what color skin in under the mask. I'm just hoping it was all done for a better reason than "we need more ethnic characters".
So congratulations Marvel. You have finally made me feel racist.

Hulking Out

Marvel's Incredible Hulk is relaunching in October and I may have to start getting it. I love the writing of Jason Aaron and seeing Marc Silvestri on Hulk will be badass. Check out the trailer they made for it.