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Marvel Comics Review: Amazing Spider-Man #602
Posted by David Torres Categories: Reviews, Marvel Comics,
Rating: ***
Another okay issue of Amazing Spider-Man. After getting back into reading Spider-Man with Amazing Spider-Man Annual #36, I was looking forward to a lot of good Spider-Man stories again. However, since Amazing Spider-Man comes out three times a month, there are numerous writers who work on the book to keep this thing going. So far Mark Waid didn’t thrill me last week and this week Fred Van Lente doesn’t wow me either - although I thought it was better than last week.
This issue is part one of the return of the Chameleon storyline. In a very dark turn for the character, the Chameleon is preying on innocent nobodies in the city, creating a mask of their face to steal their identity and then lowering them down strapped to a chair into pit of acid where their flesh burns off their body. Sick and cool at the same time. I don’t remember the Chameleon being this evil.
Click to continue reading Marvel Comics Review: Amazing Spider-Man #602
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Contest: HP dv6 notebook, HP Mini 110 netbook, Timbuk2 bag, more!
Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Accessories, Announcements, Features, Hot Deals, PC / Laptop,
We realize that it’s been a few weeks since our last giveaway, so we are back with a vengeance this time around. As part of HP’s Back to School: Better Together campaign, we are a part of 25 different sites that are giving away a bunch of portable computing technology to one lucky winner. So, what’s up for grabs? Take a look:
- One HP dv6 notebook: Intel Core 2 Duo P7350, Windows Vista Ultimate, 4GB RAM, 500 GB Hard Drive, Blu-ray drive
- One HP Mini 110 netbook: Intel Atom 270, Windows XP, 1GB RAM, 10-inch display
- A customized Gear Live Timbuk2 bag
- Syncables software pre-installed on the notebooks, for hassle-free synchronization between the two
Sounds good, right? We’ve made entering super-easy. Here’s how to throw your name into the hat:
- Become a Fan of Gear Live on Facebook
- Follow Gear Live on Twitter
- Send out the following update to your Twitter account: “Hey @gearlive - Count me in on the HP Notebook giveaway! http://bit.ly/hp-giveaway #gearlive” (Click here to tweet this now)
That’s it! Our contest runs from today through August 20, at 11:59 PM PDT. As long as you’ve completed the above requirements by that time, you are entered. The winner will be picked randomly, and contacted through Facebook messaging, and will need to respond within 48 hours, or else another random entry will be selected as the winner. This contest is open to anyone, as long as you live on planet Earth, so you non-US residents, feel free to play along.
Rating: **
This issue of Red Robin is pretty weak. The only reason I didn’t give this issue a lower grade is because I like the overall plot of the story of Tim Wayne searching for Bruce Wayne. I’ve also read a hell of a lot worse over the years in my comic book reading. As we know from the previous issues, Ra’s al Ghul is the only other person who believes Tim that Bruce Wayne is really alive. At the end of the last issue, Tim agrees to join up with Ra’s in his search.
Tim’s investigation takes him to a museum in Berlin. While he’s there, Tim discovers something we don’t see, but his reaction causes him to say, “Oh my God it’s true.” I don’t think that he’s found the information he needs to prove Bruce is alive, but I’m curious as to what it is he found. At the museum, he runs into the Wild Huntsman, a character I never heard of before. Tim has his back to the wall with the Huntsman, when Ra’s al Ghul’s League of Assassins arrive to back him up.
The story has some flashbacks as we see Wonder Girl meeting up with Tim at a cemetery. She tells him that she’s here to give him some comfort when he tells her he knows Bruce is alive. She doesn’t believe him, and he leaves. She then contacts Dick and tells him that Tim needs help.
Click to continue reading DC Comics Review: Red Robin #3
Rating: ** 1/2*
Judd Winick’s run on Batman continues. In the last issue, we saw that Two-Face has realized that the current Batman battling in the streets of Gotham is not the same Batman that he’s faced over the years. This Batman likes to smile, which is something the previous Batman was not fond of doing. In this issue, the battle to be the number one crime boss continues. Two-Face is feeding the new Batman intel on the Penguin’s operations; the issue opens with Batman taking out a secret Penguin casino.
The Penguin is obviously not happy as we see him complain to a mysterious figure. I think the person is the Black Mask, but I’m not 100% sure. The Penguin decides he needs help in taking on the Batman. To help him with this problem, the mysterious figure has some muscle for the Penguin in the shape of genetically-enhanced soldier.
Batman continues his patrol in Gotham when the soldier attacks Batman (with some help from Clayface). We end there.
I wanted to mention one other scene that I thought was very touching with Dick Grayson and Alfred. Alfred talks about how his role was to stand in Bruce’s shadow and be his aid in the fight against crime. He wasn’t sure he could do it without Bruce, but he feels Dick makes it easier since he is a person closer to the “light” than Bruce. Alfred talks to Dick about how before the darkness came for Bruce on that night, Bruce was a very good artist when he was a little, but all that changed after his parents’ deaths. We see a flashback to a young Bruce drawing. I would love to see DC follow-up on this little detail and make it a part of the Batman mythos. Sherlock Holmes used to play the violin for relaxation—maybe when Bruce returns he could draw for relaxation.
Click to continue reading DC Comics Review: Batman #689
DC Comics Review: Blackest Night: Batman #1
Posted by David Torres Categories: Reviews, DC Comics,
Rating: ***
The Blackest Night storyline continues in this separate three issue mini-series entitled Blackest Night: Batman. This series will focus on the Black Lanterns going after the deceased relatives a various Bat-family members. As I mentioned in my review for Blackest Night #2 , this first issue also focuses on Boston Brand - Deadman and his physical body being resurrected into a Black Lantern. Writer Peter Tomasi does a good job here, but I have to give him some negative points on this one because of the way he writes the character of Damian Wayne - Robin. If you’ve been reading Grant Morrison’s Batman and Robin, Morrison portrays Damian as a major jerk. Judd Winick follows Morrison’s lead, but has toned it down a bit over in his stories in Batman, but the jerk personality of Damian is thrown completely out the window here in Tomasi’s version of the character. There’s no arrogance; no snide comments about Dick not being the real Batman, nothing. Instead we get a character who if you picked up this issue without knowing what has happened over the past few months, you would think that this new Robin is more along the lines of Tim Drake.
With that being said, the story is still very good in my opinion. It opens up with Batman (Dick Grayson) and Robin at the graves of Bruce Wayne and his parents, Thomas and Martha. As we all know, Black Hand went to Bruce’s grave and took his skull for some unknown reason. The caskets of Thomas and Martha have also been dug up, but their remains have not been resurrected into Black Lanterns. In this scene, Tomasi’s makes his first mistake of writing Damian out of character as Damian shows genuine feeling of sadness as he sees the bodies of his grandparents. He’s so distraught that he can’t bear to pick up their bodies as Dick decides to remove them from their graves to a safer location. The Damian that we see in Batman and Robin probably wouldn’t care much for the bodies of people he didn’t know - even if they are related to him. He’d probably say something like let’s toss ‘em back in the hole and let’s go.
Click to continue reading DC Comics Review: Blackest Night: Batman #1
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Army of Darkness - Recut Trailer “2009 Comedy style”
GCsthedarkknight brings a summer-comedy spoof on the film. It has its moments of genius and charm, but the soundtrack does not sync up together all throughout the clip, removing the suspension of disbelief that this could be a real trailer. Regardless of little aspects like this, it still makes me laugh every time, and it deserves points for that. Most important though, this video deserves its place on our “Best of,” because it is definitely a cut above the rest of the Army of Darkness mash ups. And that says a lot.
Click to continue reading The Best “Army of Darkness” Recuts / Remixes
Rating: *** 1/2*
By the end of the mini-series Final Crisis: Legion of Three Worlds, writer Geoff Johns resurrected two recently deceased super-heroes: Kid Flash and Superboy. With this issue we see another resurrection as well with the return of the long running DC title Adventure Comics. The original book ran from 1938 to 1983 and featured numerous adventures of secondary DC super-heroes. Some of the characters that were featured in the title were stories about Superboy and the Legion of Super Heroes. With the return of Adventure, we will be seeing new stories featuring both Superboy and the Legion once again.
The difference here of course is where the original Adventure Comics showcased tales of a young Clark Kent as Superboy, this series will focus on Conner Kent who is a genetically created clone of Superman and Lex Luthor. In this issue we see Conner return to Smallville to live with Superman’s mom Martha Kent. Since he’s partially a clone of Superman, he’s also calling her Ma.
Click to continue reading DC Comics Review: Adventure Comics #1
The animation I created above, was done using FlipBook. The website has a fun interface for creating little cartoons the really old-fashioned way. You will need to draw every frame from scratch. You cannot copy, paste, import, etc. You can use your previous frame, but that is all. The program is very basic, but its these limitations that have spawned a series of beautiful animations from user submissions. The little cartoon I did contains 76 frames.
Click to continue reading Who Else Wants to Be A Cartoonist?
Rating: *** 1/2*
Non-stop action. Great artwork. A great story. The Blackest Night mini-series continues this week with another great issue by Geoff Johns and Ivan Reis. In the last issue we saw the murder of Hawkman and Hawkgirl and their resurrection as Black Lanterns. In this issue, more of the dead rise to become Black Lanterns as we see Aquaman’s body rise to become a Black Lantern along with Aquagirl and Dolphin. They battle Aquman’s wife Mera and the former Aqualad Tempest (worst super-hero name ever!). In another shocking turn of events, Tempest gets killed and becomes a Black Lantern. I’m curious to see how all of these dead heroes will be resurrected as I assume Tempest, Hawkman, Hawgirl, and anyone else who gets turned into a Black Lantern won’t stay dead by the end of the series.
In an interesting twist, the super-hero Boston Brand aka Deadman, sees his body become a Black Lantern, but his spirit form is not effected. His story continues in Blackest Night: Batman which also comes out this week. Some members of the DC magic community: Spectre, Zatanna, Blue Devil, and the Phantom Stranger, become interested in what has happened to Brand and come to investigate his grave. They are greeted by none other than Pariah of Crisis on Infinite Earths who is now a Black Lantern. From his body bursts numerous Black Lantern rings. They do not effect any of them except the Spectre as the ring turns Crispus Allen the current host of the Spectre into a Black Lantern. In a stunning splash page by Reis, we see the Spectre as a giant Black Lantern screaming that he wants Hal Jordan back. Very cool.
Click to continue reading DC Comics Review: Blackest Night #2
Marvel Comics Review: Ultimate Comics Avengers #1
Posted by David Torres Categories: Editorials, Reviews, Marvel Comics,
Addendum: The writer of the following article regrets the oversights that were made while writing this post - both comic book and political related. The writer intends to be more careful in the future to adhere to the core subject of Comix 411, which is comic books, and not personal political opinion. Thank you.
Rating: *** 1/2*
The relaunch of the Ultimate Universe continues with Ultimate Comics Avengers. There have been three separate Ultimate Avengers series (then known just as The Ultimates). I read and enjoyed the first series, which was written by Mark Millar, who is also the writer of this new series. Since the premiere of that first series and the recent mini-series Ultimatum, numerous characters have died including: Wasp, Hank Pym, Black Widow, the Scarlet Witch, and Quicksilver. The remaining members of the team will make up the current team: Captain America, Iron Man, Hawkeye, Thor, and Nick Fury.
Before I give my review of this issue, I want to give a little back story on my feelings about Mark Millar. I made a conscious decision not to pick up The Ultimates after the second series. Why? Because of Mark Millar’s political beliefs. Many creators within the comic book world are liberal - which is fine, but I think that Mr. Millar leans more to the left than a liberal. I think he’s a communist.
Click to continue reading Marvel Comics Review: Ultimate Comics Avengers #1
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