NB of the Week

Masters of the Universe: The Origin of Skeletor #1
Written By - Joshua Hale Fialkov
Drawn By - Frazer Irving
To go along with the mini that DC has used to launch the MoTU property, they have decided to start some one-shots that retell character origins (though He-Man and Skeletor may actually be the only two planned) and they could have started off with a better one.
 The issue begins with the extremely gnarly (yeah, I just used the word gnarly) shot of Keldor's face beginning to burn off, no word at all as to how it actually happened. Through the burning the issue, we get flashbacks of him as a child, along with 1/2-brother to Randor. As the bastard child of the king and a "sub-human", Keldor has no claim to the throne, even as the first born son. As a soldier of Hordak comes for the prince, Keldor defends his brother. Even though Rando wants to give credit to Keldor as it should be, Keldor lets the king give to Randor, as with everything else in life. As the current, burning Keldor slums his way to the throne room, he is met by King Randor. Having lost all hope of ever being help by the kingdom, Keldor stabs his brother as he tries to help him, claiming "we shant meet again". As Keldor disappears with the bloody knife (needing the blood of Randor for some reason), we see he has went for the aid of the evil Hordak. In a scene strait from Star Wars, Hordak has turned Keldor into his apprentice, the sworn enemy of the Kingdom Eternia: Skeletor!
The issue's first two pages set the mood perfectly;
"And so this is the death of Keldor. First son of King Miro, brother to King Randor.
The Scientist.
The Scholar.
The General.
The obvious heir to the throne of Eternia. The half-breed bastard child of a king and a creature the world has deemed sub-human. I fancy other names for myself.
Keldor the Mighty.
Keldor the Destroyer.
Keldor the King.
Instead it will be Keldor the Fallen. Keldor the Weak. Keldor the Liar.
Keldor the Betrayer.
I will make this right. I will fix my legacy."
Not only was this an amazing retooling of Skeletor's origin, but the writing and art were flippin' pinpoint. each word added more hatred to the fallen son Keldor. Each page brought to life the grim world that he lives in. If this is what DC has in store for the Masters of the Universe world, count me in. and if they decide to put Fialkov onto an ongoing for it, they will get my money each issue.

New Wars to Come

It was announced to day that Disney has bought Lucasfilm for $4.05 billion & stock. Along with Star Wars, this now gives Disney not only STar Wars but films like Indiana Jones. More over, Episode VII is now slated for a 2015 release, with VIII and IX planned for every two or three years after that. Lucas himself will still serve as creative consultant for the movies.
"For the past 35 years, one of my greatest pleasures has been to see Star Wars passed from one generation to the next," Lucas is quoted in Disney's press release. "It's now time for me to pass Star Wars on to a new generation of filmmakers. I've always believed that Star Wars could live beyond me, and I thought it was important to set up the transition during my lifetime. I'm confident that with Lucasfilm under the leadership of Kathleen Kennedy, and having a new home within the Disney organization, Star Wars will certainly live on and flourish for many generations to come."
Disney, having bought Marvel, may have new plans in store for the Dark Horse comic lines but no word was given.
I may be one of the few, but I'm all for new Wars in most any way and the fact that new blood is gonna be behind it can't be a bad thing.

Trailer Watch: Evil Dead

Truth be told, I have never been the biggest fan of the original Evil Dead trilogy. Not that they're bad or anything, I've just never got into 'em like everyone else. This new one, however, has my spine all tingly. This looks damn awesome.
(Tis the Red Band trailer that follows, which is a bit vulgar and quite bloody & disturbing towards the end . Watch at your own risk...)

Boobs of the Day

Jennifer Carpenter
Miss Carpenter is here for one reason: Debra Morgan. While she has a weird beauty to me (including a slightly lazy eye...), the character Deb Morgan from Showtime's Dexter wins me over. She's a tough as nails, take no shit kinda woman. And I curse in respect of her. Her foul mouth is the kinda talk that puts sailors to shame and it's a huge part of why she's hot to me. That and her amazing body. While her teletubbies may not be the largest ever, her tight, flat stomach makes 'em that much more eye-catching. Watch the show at some point. Hopefully you see what I mean.

NB of the Week

Run Down Time
SPOILS AHEAD AS ALWAYS

Artifacts #22 - Blood Rites: Part 1
Tom Judge is still trying to find the place in this new universe for the 13 Artifacts. Working for the FBI, Judge gets the call to check out a murder, which turns out to be the first in a group of sacrifices. The one behind it all? Satan. I think. Or at least a big demon that Judge is familiar with. Marz's writing is amazing and the painting of Stjepan Sejic is breath-taking. Literally. I choked.

Avengers #32 - End Times: 2
An emergency signal from an Avenger's beacon has come in but it's an old one. And it's coming from Inner Space (not the movie). And it's location is the exact spot where The Wasp was killed. And that's because it's her signal from Inner Space and she's still alive. Not a real big surprise but it's good to have her back.

Captain America #19
Steve visits William Burnside (the Cap from the 50s while Steve was frozen) to try and relieve him of his burden. His fight is done and it's time to get the rest he deserves while others take the weight of it. And with that good bye, we get the final issue of Ed Brubaker's brilliant eight year run on Cap. It's been an amazing ride and this farewell is no disappointment.

FF #23 - Run
Another finale to a great series, Older Franklin from the future does his best to give the while family a great sendoff before he finally leaves them. A lot of good wrap-ups for Hickman's run on the Future Foundation. It's a shame Fraction is changing it completely for the relaunch (a team now consisting of Ant-Man, She-Hulk, Medusa and Miss Thing - a lady in a Thing suit...)

Punisher: War Zone #1 (of 5)
With the last issue of regular Punisher, Frank has been framed for the murder of some cops. Spider-Man feels it's time the Avengers finally step in a show that it's not alright for him to continue killing. Yeah, good luck with that message, Spidey. Rucka begins his last story before Punisher gets messed up and joins the new Thunderbolts (consisting of Red Hulk, Deadpool and Elektra... Yay.)

Red Lanterns #13 - Eyes Without a Face
After her family is killed and she's taken by a gang as a slave, a young lady finds her hatred to be enough to call the Red Lanterns to come and find her the justice she seeks (in awesome, brutal fashion). Too bad the Third Army comes along and try to stops them. This is the concept I've been waiting for. They sold me this book based on the premise that the Red Lanterns would be seeking justice for the rage they felt from everywhere and this is it. Awesome issue and I hope it stays down this path.

Secret Avengers #33 - Rise of the Descendants
Remender begins to bring the series to it's end (before another relaunch) in loud, Remender fashion. Father and his robot followers are taking everything they need in order to finally see his master plan finally happen. Can the Secret Avengers stop it before it's too late? Probably.

Ultimates #17 - United We Stand: Part Two
Turns out Thor's son, Modi has an Infinity Gem (or at least the Mind Gem, not quite sure if the Infinity Gems all exist in the Ultimate-verse) and he uses it to his fullest, taking control of many civilians and his dear old daddy. Can Cap and the Avengers stop Thor and his son before Modi remakes America as his new Asgard? Probably.

Bowie Can Suck It

It's a bit surprising to me how beautiful I found this but that's what it is. Beautiful and graceful and just amazing.

The Voice of an Angel

I was watching The Soup the other day and heard part of this song. Needless to say I ran out and found it immediately in order to spread it further. Enjoy the music of the heavens.

NB of the Week

Hawkeye #3 - Cherry
Written By - Matt Fraction
Drawn By - David Aja
As a matter of perspective, I own 4 issues of the Vision, 15 of Black Widow, 21 of the Sentry, 67 of Iron Man, 141 of Hulk, 143 of Thor and 161 of Captain America. Hell, I even have five issues of She-Hulk and she is literally just Hulk with boobs (though that's not as bad when I put it like that...). Including this issue #3, I now have three issues of a solo Haweye. It half pleases and half pains me to admit that this is easily the best 'Avengers' book being put out right now.
Each issue has been simple, one-shot stories setting up the man behind the mask and it's an approach that's nailing it outta the park. In this issue, we get Clint as he shows us the many mistakes one man can make in a day. Sexy ladies. Sex with ladies. Trick arrows. Track-suit bad guys (apparently a common thing to wear) who call every one "Bro". Not to mention the best placed censor ever in a comic (as shown at the bottom).
Matt Fraction has made Hawkeye a relevant Avenger again. He's always been a second-rate, team player in my book. I enjoyed him in the movie and am more than willing to give him chances but it's never worked for me like it does here. He's an every-man like no other Avenger can be and Fraction makes him somebody you want to relate to. I read elsewhere that he is the Han Solo or the Mal Reynolds of the team and I couldn't agree more. You want to hear the crazy tales he spouts, not caring if they're even true or not.
It's quick, it's witty, it's brilliant story-telling. This is everything that a character like Hawkeye can be and I'm hoping that my collection number on him does nothing but grow for a long time (assuming they don't change writers on us).

Boobs of the Day

Genesis Rodriguez
I got to watch Will Ferrell's Casa de mi Padre and while I found it quite humorous, I couldn't stop looking at the lead female, Miss Rodriguez. Smokin' hot and full of those lovely curves I enjoy oh so much. I'll let her be the salsa on my chip any day (is that racist?).

Clif-Notes: Argo

Ben Affleck should stick to directing and his acting should be limited to only those movies. I said it with The Town and Argo just reaffirms it.
During the Iranian revolution in 1979, amid all the American hostages taken, six were able to sneak out the back and were lucky enough to find shelter in the Canadian Ambassador's house. Ten months later, the government calls on a CIA extractor (Ben Affleck) to concoct a plan to get in there and get em out before they are found and killed. His idea? He comes in, posing as a movie producer and gets them out as they all pretend to be part of the movie crew. It's based on a real story that was classified until Clinton declassified it in 1997.
This was an amazing movie. I'm not one to get down into the crevices of how a movie is made or what technicalities are there but whatever was used, absolutely worked. Tense is probably the best word to describe Argo. I felt scared and nervous throughout the movie for these characters. Every corner was looked at with skepticism, every stare from another person was terrifying. It was a movie where you could just feel the tension and every word could be that last spark that sets the entire plan ablaze.
And the dark humor was perfectly placed. There weren't that many people in the theater and I was probably the youngest one in the bunch but I was the only one laughing. At all. Through the entire movie. Apparently you're not allowed to laugh at lynch mobs but that's exactly what should happen.
Plain and simple, see this movie. It was great. I'm not the best wordsmith so those are about how well I can say it. Amazing. Awesome. Totally sweet.
And if you don't wanna see the movie, to take a phrase from the movie, you can Argo-Fuck-Yourself.

NB of the Week

SPOILERS AHEAD. ESPECIALLY FOR THE ENDING OF AVENGERS VS X-MEN!!!!!

Cool Concept of the Week:
Gold and Blue X-Teams
While not the best issue of the week, Ultimate X-Men was still pretty damn good. I've said how awesome it's been since Brian Wood took over and this just adds to that. Any fan of the X-Men in the 90s knows about the Gold and Blue teams (almost meaningless titles that essentially "separated" the X-Men further than the different titles did). As we join Kitty in her fight to liberate mutants from their death camps and fight for the life they deserve, she has James (Wolverine's son, if ya don't remember) and Iceman leading separate operations in order to clear all fronts. The code names for their teams? Yup. Welcome back Gold and Blue.

-One Last Warning for Spoils-
Book of the Week:
Uncanny Avengers #1 - New Union
Written By - Rick Remender
Drawn By - John Cassaday
Yeah Cyclops became the dominant host for the Phoenix (even if he meant well). Yeah he ostracized mutants even further by trying to control the whole planet (even if he meant well). Yeah he killed Professor X for trying to stop him (...even if he meant well?). Yeah he's in custody and proud of what he did (alright, the dude completely lost it). But Captain America feels he did one thing right:
He made Cap see that they hadn't done enough to help the mutant population.
As Marvel "changed" the landscape of the Marvel-U, they figured it was a perfect time to show DC how a relaunch is supposed to go. They aren't reinventing their history or changing major stories. No, they're just changing teams around, including writers and artists. To kick things off, they sent out their newest flagship book, Uncanny Avengers where mutants and Avengers alike work together to try and repair the shitstorm Cyclops started and to make a more cohesive team.
Book starts with a shadowy figure removing some body's brain and spouting out some cool, old-school diatribe about killing all mutants. They said that Red Skull from the 40s was the first villain so we assume it's him. Later, after visiting his brother, Havok is met by Captain America and Thor, asking him to lead their new team. They feel he's the perfect candidate and the only one who should. After the three of them stop an attack by old x-villain Avalanche, who appears to have had some sorta head surgery... (though he killed himself so they didn't really stop him, per se), Alex joins. We next see Scarlett Witch putting flowers at the grave of Xavier as Rogue pops in to tell her off. None of this would have happened had she not gone crazy and killed most the mutants. However, before too much arguing can happen, they're attacked by some weirdo people things that blow shit up. We see them walk away carrying Rogue and Wanda as well as a third body. We know both ladies are on the UA team so it's safe to assume they live. End of the book, we cut back to the shadowy figure going on again. As we turn to the last page, we do indeed see that it is Red Skull but it also comes with a good kicker. Strapped down in front of him is the body of Charles Xavier. In his hand, Xavier's brain.
"With the brain of Charles Xavier, the Red Skull will eradicate the mutant menace!"
Yeah. That happened.

What the hell, man?! Great albeit a bit plain first issue and then a Nazi skull-face dude holding the brain of Professor X and claiming he's gonna kill all mutants?! Makes perfect sense and is amazing! Most of all was how "plain" this book actually was. Nothing big happened other than that last page and yet I loved every page. Remender is perfect. Cassaday is perfect. This book is a great start to a "new" Marvel-U and I couldn't be more excited to see what the other new books bring.

Sweet Art

I saw some real cool Avengers pics today in which they were imagined as fantasy versions of themselves. The artist is on Deviant under theDURRRRIAN and you should absolutely look his stuff up. On his page are full versions of each of these so go do it and support his stuff somehow. Loki and Hawkeye are probably my favorites.

Brain Tunes

Papa Roach - Where Did the Angels Go
Papa Roach is a band that I claim I have never seen if asked. I wanna laugh at them when I see 'em and cry at myself for liking them. Either way, I'm loving their newest cd, The Connection. This is becoming one of my favorites from it so bare through it or I may cry.

Clif-Notes: Dredd

The only word that can accurately describe the new version of Judge Dredd is badass. That's all there is to it and that's all you need to know.
While paired with a new rookie with psychic abilities, Judge Dredd and newbie Judge Anderson check out a murder scene where three men have been skinned and thrown off a building ledge. Problem is that the housing building (hundreds of floors tall and the living space for thousands of people) is essentially ran by the ruthless MaMa who also makes the new drug SloMo there. Having one of her men for questioning and knowing what a Judge's interrogation would mean, she puts out a hit on the two Judges. Now they have to find a way to survive until they can either get out or kill their way free.
If you want a movie with ridiculous violence or ear-popping explosions, this is your movie. Could be one of the better action movies I've come across all year. And it's not just mindless violence. I mean, it kind of is but not fully. It's a "smart" movie. There's a lot of those little things that you see that show just how much detail they actually put into the fighting and the logistics behind things.
This movie was plain awesome. Lots of shit got shot and died and I Karl Urban had a moment that makes me want to see him as the new Batman (if in fact one is needed). I'm assuming that the movie will not be out for long as it didn't do very well at the boxoffice but if you get the chance, see it. You shouldn't be disappointed.

NB of the Week

Before Watchmen: Rorschach #2 (of 4)
Written By - Brian Azzarello
Drawn By - Lee Bermejo
 Through it's up and it's downs, all the minis that are in the Before Watchmen line have been fun looks into the characters of the beloved original series. While some have had their slow starts and others have be grand beginnings, none stand out for me as much as Rorschach.
When it comes to a plot, Rorschach stands one of the most basic. Evil is afoot and it stands to the crazy one to stop the vile that is in the streets. Plot is nothing new here. However, the creators on this title are the winning point. Bermejo's art is dark and gritty and rough and it makes the hatred that Rorschach feels for humanity all that more grim. His crisp lines make you feel the jointed and almost simple vision that Rorschach himself sees everything in. It's very easy to tell who the scum are.
Added with it are the equally gritty and grim words by Brian Azzarello, who may be one of the most macabre writers in the genre. Every journal entry from Rorschach screams out in the black poetry that Moore practically created for comics those 25 years ago:
"Undeniable fact that everyone denies is that at its heart, the world is a cold place. It doesnt care whether you live or die, or how you live or how you die. To the world, you don't matter. You dont matter to the person sitting next to you. They wont give their life for you. They shouldn't. Accepting this truth was liberating. Gave me clarity. Gave me a mission. I understand there are two kinds of people in this world. Victims...
And me."
As great as I have found these minis so far, nobody has nailed it the way these two have on Rorschach. I can only hope that everything ends as well as I feel it has began.