February 2012
9 posts
6 tags
21 Comic Book Movies - #15
15. The Incredible Hulk (2008)
The Ed Norton-starring semi-sequel to Ang Lee’s 2003 effort, Hulk, took me by surprise when it was released in the summer of 2008, following up not just its Iron Man but The Dark Knight. While it doesn’t hold a candle to the latter, there is a lot more heart to be found here than in Tony Stark’s debut. To be sure, the third act suffers from a...
6 tags
21 Comic Book Movies - #16
16. Iron Man (2008)
More than a little overrated, especially in light of its competition in the summer of 2008, the first Robert Downey Jr./Jon Favreau adventure was still an incredible ride and offered something relatively unique in the increasingly samey superhero genre of film. A lead that was already oozing confidence (and more than a little full of shit), a surprising amount of focus on...
7 tags
21 Comic Book Movies - #17
17. Spider-Man 2 (2004)
While I never fully understood what all the fuss was about with the first film (call me crazy, but by-the-numbers origin stories rarely do anything for me), Sam Raimi’s first Spidey sequel was Comic Book Movie Done Right. Superhero faces adversary, finds himself in a moment of doubt, but eventually manages to set himself straight in order to save the day. While...
4 tags
4 tags
21 Comic Book Movies - #18
18. Batman: Under The Red Hood (2010)
Without a doubt my favorite animated Batman movie - yes, it even surpasses Mask of the Phantasm - likely because of the focus on legacy Bat characters. We get not one Robin, but two, and they’re tackled pretty much perfectly. In fact, I hadn’t ever sympathized with Jason Todd as much before I saw this film (well, obviously I’d sympathized...
4 tags
3 tags
Boycott Marvel?
There is so much wrong with this I don’t know where to start.
In short, the creator of Ghost Rider can not only not profit from Marvel’s use of the character, but is now no longer allowed to say that he created him.
(via Gail Simone)
6 tags
Amy Reeder...
I was skeptical about a Batwoman book not at least partially drawn by JH Williams III. I know that other artists, including Jock, have tackled Kate Kane before, and had seen Reeder’s half-pages in Batwoman #0 released last year. But the current issue, #6, was going to be the real test for the strength of Williams’ writing and the character and title as a whole without Greg Rucka...
January 2012
27 posts
4 tags
21 Comic Book Movies - #19
19. V For Vendetta (2006)
While watching this film made me realize Natalie Portman’s limitations as an actress, her lack of subtlety as Eve is more than complemented by some fantastically camp performances from Hugo Weaving and John Hurt.
Highlight? John Hurt’s Adam Susan Sutler.
Disappointments? Natalie Portman’s English accent.
5 tags
21 Comic Book Movies - #20
20. Daredevil (2003)
I think it’s safe to say that this was unfairly panned when it hit theaters. Yes, it is absolutely littered with some shoddy effects and cheesy moments, but at the same time it felt so much less like it was desperately trying to please than the film it was being compared to, Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man. Did Matt Murdock deserve better? Definitely, but it was by no...
9 tags
21 Comic Book Movies - #21
21. Watchmen (2009)
They called it unfilmable, and they were wrong. Although Zack Snyder takes major liberties with the ending and in so doing cuts out one of the graphic novel’s more interesting metatextual subplots - as well as another one I was quite fond of, featuring a news vendor and comic book reader - the finished film is surprisingly effective as a look back into Cold War...
11 tags
5 tags
If they ever make a Justice League film...
… I would very much like to see this scene acted out.
But in the meantime, apparently this storyline - Wonder Woman: The Twelve Labors - is being collected for the first time! (Pre-order)
10 tags
Comic Books I Miss These Days
1. Batgirl (by Bryan Q. Miller)
2. Secret Six (by Gail Simone)
3. She-Hulk (by Dan Slott)
4. Planetary (by Warren Ellis)
Just thought I’d note those down. I do love to wallow in misery.
6 tags
“I went into Static Shock with a lot of high hopes. Among them was showing that Static wasn’t simply an A-list character, but one of the most powerful in the DCnU. I really wanted this series to be fun and exciting and to bring the same degree of creativity to it that I put into Xombi balanced with making Virgil’s personal life at least as engaging as his superhero life. I also saw Static...
4 tags
Va Va Boom!
Wonder Woman is not Superman. She’s not Batman, The Flash or Martian Manhunter either. So, for all the fuss that this cover to Wonder Woman #8 is creating, I couldn’t be happier about the current direction her title is going in.
Brian Azzarello has taken this opportunity to redefine - not the character, but rather, how she is perceived, and run with it. For all the stick she gets,...
4 tags
8 tags
7 tags
8 tags
Close, But No Cigar
The list of trophy winners from tonight’s Golden Globes awards ceremony tells us much about how critics have been divvying up their praise over the past year. From the 1920’s-set The Artist to screen icon Meryl Streep, Hollywood seems to have fallen back on celebrating past glories rather than new talent and ideas.
The cliche-ridden Hugo snagged a Best Director statuette for...
7 tags
Earth-2: Coming At Us Too Fast?
Yesterday, DC Comics announced that two new titles - set not in its main universe, but on a parallel world called Earth 2 - would be heading our way in May, just nine months after its company-wide, continuity reboot.
While we’ve known about the Earth 2 title for some while now - James Robinson and Nicola Scott have been unofficially attached to a Justice Society book among online...
5 tags
CW Has A Trick (Arrow) Up Its Sleeve
Deadline is reporting that CW will be producing a pilot for a television series based on Green Arrow, titled, er, Arrow.
Justin Hartley, who played Green Arrow and his alter ego Oliver Queen on CW’s Smallville until last year, is not attached to the series, which “sets him in a new world with an original story that is not based on the comics”.
It’s interesting that DC...
5 tags
So Much For Milestone
Since the DC relaunch in September, I have been buying Static Shock - a capable, if by no means exceptional, title - mostly out of dedication to Dwayne McDuffie’s legacy. As well as being one of only a handful of non-white characters headlining their own books, Static is also the only Milestone character DC has bothered trying to integrate into its new shared universe.
Today’s...
3 tags
3 tags
Occupy Comes to Cyprus
A group of Greek Cypriots have been “occupying” one of the main entries into the Turkish-controlled part of the Cypriot capital, Nicosia, in an effort to accelerate the ongoing efforts to reunify the island. The protesters have set up camp at the famous Ledra Street pedestrian crossing in the old city, and have set up banners within the ‘forbidden’ United Nations buffer...
4 tags
Not lovin' it
I’m a sucker for fast food movie tie-ins, but these specialty burgers from Quick promoting the 3D re-release of Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace look fowl.
9 tags
Back-ups in Detective and Batman?
DC is announcing two back-up stories for its flagship Batman titles, Batman and Detective Comics, on Monday, and is increasing their price to $3.99. While the latter half of that doesn’t exactly thrill me, these could be exciting times for the currently benched Gothamites.
Grant Morrison is using Cassandra Cain in the 2012 relaunch of Batman Inc, according to a Tweet to me from Snyder...
December 2011
49 posts
12 tags
2011: Top 5 Movies Seen On DVD This Year
1. Amreeka (2009)
I think any recent immigrant, Arab or not, can relate to the challenges faced by Muna and her son - be they a lack of financial security or experiencing mild racism - in Amreeka.
Bound by two exceptional performances from Nisreen Faour as a divorced Palestinian woman with a green card and Hiam Abbass, her US citizen sister, this is a relatively intimate tale about an...
12 tags
2011: Top 5 Disappointments (News)
1. International community is ambivalent on Syria
Out of all the Arab countries to have risen up against their authoritarian leaders this year, it is the Syrians who stand the chance of establishing some form of accountable, functional democracy. While I’ll always be thankful to France and the U.S. for helping to topple al-Qadhafi in Libya, their relative lack of action in Syria is...
8 tags
2011: Top 5 Guilty Pleasures
1. Nadia Oh
Ladies and gentlemen, I give you The Most Awful and The Most Glorious Thing To Ever Happen To Music. Her only slightly self-aware, autotune shenanigans are of the incredibly addictive (“Soopermodel”, “No Bueno”) and utterly indecipherable (“Jump Out The Window”) variety, while her low budget, green screened music videos are the work of genius...
9 tags
2011: Top 5 Disappointments (Entertainment)
1. Hugo
Martin Scorsese, you know you’re awesome. But I honestly have no idea what the critics have been smoking when it comes to Hugo. I’ve never seen a movie try so desperately to capture the magic of film and fail so spectacularly. Although I was impressed with the 3D visuals (for the first time ever, I might add), an unoriginal storyline about a little boy and a Scrooge-like old...
8 tags
2011: Top 5 Movies In Theaters This Year
1. Incendies
The tale of twin Canadian siblings tasked with uncovering the secrets of their dead mother’s past, Incendies is a touching, if also incredibly disturbing, depiction of the domestic horrors of tribal and religious war. Lubna Azabal gives one of the performances of the year as Nawal, a Christian woman whose life (and womb) is caught up in a conflict not-so-loosely modeled on...
10 tags
2011: Top 5 TV Shows
1. “Community” (NBC)
Forever overlooked by every critics’ association on the planet, this is the one mainstream comedy program that actually takes chances. Sure, not every episode this season has been warmly received, but I’ll gladly watch the so-called ‘duds’ if it means we also get such gems as the timeline-shifting genius of “Remedial Chaos...
12 tags
2011: Top 5 Comic Books
1. Batman (vol. 2), 2011- by Scott Snyder & Greg Capullo
Scott Snyder’s work on the relaunched Batman title has been the highlight of the New 52. After years of Grant Morrison’s continuity-shuffling shenanigans and the lackluster offerings of Tony Daniel and David Finch, it’s nice to see Batman at his best. But what does that mean, exactly?
Well, for starters, this is a...
4 tags
2011: Top 5 Tunes
1. Marina and the Diamonds - “Radioactive”
Produced by Stargate, this addictive track is perhaps the only highlight of Marina Diamandis’s somewhat poorly thought out comeback. A pretentious attempt at creating an alternate personality (Electra Heart), blonde wigs and some malarkey about “the American dream”? Er, sounds great dear. While you get on with that,...
7 tags
2011: Top 5 People
2011 has been quite a year. I began an M.A. program in Communication in January and completed it last week. Over that same time, I’ve had four entirely different jobs, written about 40 articles, moved twice, started two blogs, used my free DVD library access to watch at least 100 classic films, and frequented The Nut House far more often than I care to admit.
To start off my review of 2011,...
11 tags
5 tags
Hello, Beloved
The character thought to be Talia al-Ghul makes a brief appearance in the next trailer for The Dark Knight Rises, expected to drop tomorrow.
Just look at her face… Marion Cotillard is going to own Talia.
7 tags
Arabs in Comics - #1
#1. Damian Wayne
Admittedly, Damian is only about one third Arab, but as the current Robin and the son of Batman, he is by far the most prominent in superhero comic books.
Originally reviled by virtually every member of the fan community, the character has catapulted in popularity since becoming the Robin to Dick Grayson’s Batman in 2009, memorably overturning the usual grim...
2 tags
