Articles by Goblin
I admit it: I am a fan of the 2004 Punisher film. Was it cinematic gold? No, of course not. But it was dark (as much so as Miami allows), gritty and it showed a real regression of Frank Castle into the Punisher. And yes, I even laughed at Spacker Dave.
However, there are too many elements in the new Punisher: War Zone film that have me worried. Chief among these is the fact that Tom Jane refused to come back if they didn't improve the script and who's that wearing the skull? Some guy from HBO's Rome.
(No offense to Ray Stevenson, who wasn't bad in Rome, but Tom Jane is just who I see as the >Punisher now.)
Lexi Alexander's film brings Frank to Hell's Kitchen, New York and pits him against Jigsaw and the NYPD in the form of Det. Soap. Even Microchip, Punisher's sidekick from the 90s pops up. While the movie seems to have the right ingredients, I'm going to remain cautious about getting my hopes up.
Hit the jump for the teaser poster (which is actually pretty good) from UGO.com and a couple of new images from the film (which are not so good).
The film opens December 5th.
When a story falls between the cracks, it ends up in the sewer and gets swallowed up by the Pink Kryptonite AGGROgato!
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BAM! ... We start off this week's column with a novel idea: Apparently, comics are good.
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BAM! ... Next we jump up and over to Africa to see just what their comic strips look like.
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BAM! ... Then we come back to see what Mazda is doing to remember the bad strips of yesteryear.
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BAM! ... Jono sends us a tip about a certain mutant furball who will be appearing in X-Men Origins: Magneto!
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BAM! ... The always interesting Todd Klein talks about his days working for Fantagraphics.
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BAM! ... and finally this week - seperated at birth?
Last week I told all of you fine folks about the Men of the DCU contest being held at Comics Worth Reading. Well, the deadline is tomorrow (Thursday, May 15th) so if any of you guys are working on entry, be sure to send it in soon.
While you put the finishing touches on your masterpiece, you can check out the newest entry in the contest.
The Eagle Awards have come and gone for this year. The winners were announced recently at the Bristol International Comic Expo and the winners are decidedly more mainstream heavy this year. Granted, they're the lower end of the mainstream (Iron FIst, for example), but the Big Two had a larger presence than normal.
Not sure what the Eagle Awards are about? Let's fill you in!
INTRODUCED in 1976, the Eagles are the comics industry's longest established awards. Acknowledged as the pre-eminent international prizes, they have been featured on the covers of leading US and UK titles across the last 30 years. Unique in that they reflect the people's choice, the Eagle Awards comprise of two distinct stages.
The awards are for items published within the calendar year of 2007.
Hit the jump for the full list of winners.
Boy Meets Hero is a web comic-turned print comic that focuses on a realistic gay couple who just happen to have superpowers. It's a neat little strip that doesn't pander to stereotypes, which is reason enough to read it soetimes. It invokes a lot of the old school Marvel days of the 60s.
Newsarama's Best Shots reviews recently took a look at Boy Meets Hero and had some kind words to say. Here's a snippet:
Happily romance is not all dead in our modern grim and gritty comic world thanks to the fantastically terrific Boy Meets Hero. Created, written, drawn, colored and lettered with aplomb by real life dynamic duo Chayne Avery and Russell Garcia, Boy Meets Hero happily heralds back to those awesome days of old where the super character's dating life and romantic foibles were just as exciting as the latest battle with any old arch supervillain.
You can check out the entire review after the jump.
You can get a second opinion on the series over at Prism Comics.
Our resident head honcho brought you news of the upcoming Ultimate Origins event Marvel has planned to coincide with the Ultimatum series that promises to alter the Ultimate line for the foreseeable future.
Some would say the whole line is pointless now. The line was originally conceived as a way to attract new readers to the industry. Since the books were starting from scratch, they would not have a backlog of continuity for these new readers to keep track of. The problem is that as we near the decade mark on the Ultimate Universe, it now has its own continuity. Ultimate Spider-man especially has a great deal of story invested in itself and while it tends to do an excellent job in using this history well, it somewhat defeats the purpose of the line.
So Marvel has a few options on its hands. They can continue things as normal and lose more readers as the Ultimate books slip lower down the sales charts. They can cancel the whole line outright, which seems unlikely given that they do still sell (for now), especially Ultimate Spider-Man. Trim the fat by canceling a book or two (Ultimate Fantastic Four, I'm looking at you) and continuing the line in a series of limited series such as Ultimate Iron Man.
Most likely though, Marvel will use Ultimate Origins and Ultimatum to reshift the focus of the books into a tighter, more cohesive universe. The books have been mostly stand-alone with only some crossover up to this point. Given that these two series focus on several Ultimate books, this is a definite possibility.
So all that meandering was to eventually say that Major Spoilers has three of the four covers for Ultimate Origins #1. There is a 50/50 split for the Simone Bianchi and Gabrielle Dell'Otto covers with two variants provided by Michael Turner (one a sketch variant). Check out the gallery below to see more Wolverine than you can shake a stick at.
We all know that there are several gay characters among the Big Two. When discussing homosexuals in comics, the same characters are trotted out ad infinitum: Northstar, Batwoman, Midnighter & Apollo, Ultimate Colussus, Renee Montoya and a few others. There are other gay characters as well, but they're either relegated to the third string (whether they were there before the outing or not) or the storyline where their homosexuality is discussed is more or less removed from the canon.
We all remember the debacle Marvel had on their hands with the Rawhide Kid a few years ago. His stint with being gay didn't even last to the end of the selfsame limited series! At this point the Marvel MAX series about the Kid's being gay has become more of a joke than anything. Even at the time, there was more discussion about why Marvel made this 50 year old character gay than people who actually bought the book.
Obviously, Rawhide Kid's sexuality was a publicity stunt. It didn't work then, but that doesn't stop companies from trying again. I think most people would agree that DC tried a similar tactic with Batwoman. it was certainly nowhere near as egregious as Marvel's attempt years previous, it was a media ploy nonetheless. The fact that good stories have come from it is a step in the right direction, but her sexuality was a reason for DC to get in the papers and little else.
Should a character's sexuality be a focal point of an ad campaign? Should it be the focal point of a book? If it doesn't take center stage, will it invariably fall to the wayside and simply be a footnote in that character's Wikipedia article?
There are characters who have had it done right. The New X-Men's Anole is gay and deals with it from time to time, but it is hardly referenced every time he is on panel. Mystique has preyed on both men and women and reveled in it, using sex as more of a end to her means than anything (though she did seem to have a relationship with the precog Destiny as they were raising a young Rogue). Even John Constantine of Hellblazer has admitted to a "a boy friend or two."
I realize I've only mentioned characters from and DC and this time it's a good thing. Smaller publishers tend to have no problem in centering homosexual characters in their books and spotlighting their lifestyles without making it propaganda. Strangers in Paradise is a perfect example of this, allowing homosexual characters to exist without propping up that soapbox.
So the question this week is this:
Do Marvel and DC do enough to promote legitimate homosexual characters and relationships? Should they be used as publicity stunts until there is wider acceptance? Or does a character's sexuality, be it straight, gay or otherwise, not factor into this in the first place?
When a story falls between the cracks, it ends up in the sewer and gets swallowed up by the Pink Kryptonite AGGROgator!
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BAM! ... Tony Z. just can't wait for an animated internet show about four women. Sadly, it's not Sex and the City: the Animated Series.
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BAM! ... Brendan Jones's fantastic web comic Breakfast of the Gods gets a shout-out and an in-depth review by Sean Kleefield's blog.
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BAM! ... X-Force: now with puppies!
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BAM! ... The Fortress of Fortitude has a great article up about creator's rights and how they relate to the corporate world of the Big Two.
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BAM! ... The ever lovin' blue-eyed Heidi MacDonald talks up the next generation of New York's School of Visual Arts and the interesting statistics about their comic art program.
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BAM! ... And finally, who wants some German sneakers?
If you're a regular reader 'round these parts you've no doubt heard me proclaim the greatness that is Comic Foundry magazine. it's a well rounded magazine that is as much about superheros and tights as it is about Manga and indie books. The new issue will be out in June and while I'm still excited about it, the cover story is definitely NOT the reason I am.
Why an interview with G4's Blair Butler is a good thing is beyond me. She is the most boring and awkward personality on the network and it pains me to see her get all the comic related presentations. She's as wooden as Johnny is a homicidal maniac and she just sucks the life out of every interview she conducts.
While I'll be gladly waiting for the issue to arrive in my mailbox this June, i will most definitely be skipping that particular article.
Your usual host for our Thursday morning quarterbacking is currently incapacitated (maybe if he had a Mac instead of Vista, ha!) so it's up to your intrepid sociopath to pumpkin bomb some reviews on your bad selves.
The name of the game this week is undoubtedly Secret Invasion. The first two issues have met with resounding success in the blogosphere and even satellite books such as New Avengers and Mighty Avengers are sharing in the basking warmth of those damn, dirty Skrulls. But let's not count out the Whedonverse as both Buffy and Angel: After the Fall have new issues out this week (from different publishers, strangely enough).
What's on deck this week?
1. Secret Invasion #2
2. Mighty Avengers #13
3. Iron Man: Viva Las Vegas #1
4. Buffy: Season Eight #14
5. Nova #13
6. X-Factor: The Quick and the Dead
7. Invincible Iron Man #1
8. The Boys #18
9. Thunderbolts: Reason in Madness
10. Angel: After the Fall #7
11. Logan #3
12. Cable #3
13. Midnighter #18
Did we make the right calls? Check out the reviews and let us know!
CBR has the first look at the Steve McNiven variant cover for next month's Secret Invasion #3. It's very much a cool image and I may pass up the painted cover for it, even though I hate mixing covers for this sort of collection.
Has the Thing ever looked so forlorn before?
Hit the thumbnail below for the fullsize image of Fury in all his gun-totin' glory.
While no contracts have been signed either eay (and we're still a ways away from that), it seems that writer/director Jon Favreau may not be coming back to work on the nxt Iron Man as everyone had assumed. He's been saying for some time now that he would love to come back and complete what he saw as a trilogy.
In Favreau's story arc, the second film would have Tony turning 40 and deal with his mid-life crisis by turning to the sauce. The second film was always supposed to be a reworking of the seminal Demon in a Bottle storyline. It's a defining work for the character and speaks to who Tony Stark is (both losing and regaining control).
The only problem is that the first IM film was TOO successful. it seems that Marvel is eying Iron Man as a family franchise. Makes sense given the children's bed sheets and inflatable bath toys being advertised with Iron Man on them. Of course, a film dealing with alcoholism isn't exactly going to be hauling the nine year olds in by the truck load. As adept as Favreau is at making kids movies (he directed both Elf and Zathura), he always stated that he saw Iron Man as an adult film, just with a few fight scenes thrown in. Tony's battlr with the drink certainly fits that mold, but what if both he and Marvel Studios are unwilling to budge? It's ultimately Marvel's call, but if Favreau was so integral to the first Iron Man (and he was), what would a sequel out of his hands look like?
Head over to CHUD for the full story.
"Oh Lois, you SO don't want to know!"
Comic of the Week
Frater Mine by Sean McGrath and Juan Romera
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