Comic Books

Originally a Dark Horse comic and hen adapted into a couple of feature films by the publisher’s very own Mike Richardson, Timecop also became a short lived TV series on ABC some 15 years ago or so. It story really is the sort of sticky concept that could be endlessly recycled I think, with no small thanks to that deceptively crass title. Really, Timecop says so much. It promises something specific but still quite open ended – a cop of time. What kind of adventures would they get embroiled in? According to The Hollywood Reporter, Timecop‘s next iteration is coming. Universal are said to be considering it as a reboot – of course – and apparently, Jean Claude Van Damme won’t be involved. Well, not yet anyway. Surely he’s just the sort of stunt cameo these films tend to go for? And I mean stunt quite literally. Here’s my favourite scene from the original. Ironically, it’s not very Timey or Coppy, but it certainly stuck in the mind by it’s own means. Click here to view the embedded video. Right, next step: reboot The Mask. Step after that: cross it over with Timecop, get the Dark Horse Cinematic Universe going. Maybe. Okay, maybe not. Still, reboot The Mask anyway. Another Adaptation Of Timecop Is Coming

TweetWith Disney owning Marvel and all their characters, it was expected that they’d eventually set their film-makers to work on a Marvel Universe project – however, I doubt anybody would have expected that project to be Big Hero 6. And yet here we are, with a release date set for next year and footage already up on youtube! Big Hero 6 are the main superhero team of Japan in the Marvel Universe, and were created by Steven T. Seagle and Duncan Rouleau. However, they’ve been most recently know for having drawn the attention of Chris Claremont, who wrote them not too long ago - they’re the focus of some of his most recent work for the company. Made up of weird characters, the team reads a little like the X-Men in terms of powers and image, but with a Japanese twist and turn on the concept. One of the more well-known members of the team is Honey Lemon, for example, a blue-eyed blonde girl who apparently traded her Asian body for a white one. A reverse-Psylocke, in effect. The movie, however, focuses on Hire Hamada, as he joins up with the team to try and save San Frantokyo from destruction. This is a bold move from Disney, as Big Hero 6 are nowhere close to being well known. Yet! Director Don Hall will be in charge of the film, which has a release date for November 7th, 2014. #call_to_action h4{padding:0px 5px;} #social-essentials {margin: 0 0 10px 0;}

One of the unreported bits of silliness that I stepped over in the last few days was a largely speculative “rumour” that Sony might sell off the Spider-Man movie rights. It all stemmed from a bit of financial advice the company had received, suggesting it sell some assets and buoy themselves on the great Red Sea of accountant’s ink. Yeah, well, forget that. Ain’t It Cool put their brand power to use, and got Sony Picture’s Co-Chair Amy Pascal on the line for a quick chat. Not only did she admit a personal stake – and so she might, the Spider-Man films are perhaps the biggest hit of her tenure at the studio, and something she has been very much involved with – Pascal added that she’d “never ever ever” let the rights slip out of grasp. Never ever ever? Click here to view the embedded video. That’s right. Never ever ever. Ever. As you might expect, Pascal also took this opportunity to tell the world that she’s really thrilled with work on the new film. Which is nice. I hope we all are too. The last one was pretty divisive, but hell, I don’t think I can fault the casting and I do want to see these guys back and working with better material. Sony Will “Never Ever Ever” Let Go Of Spider-Man Movie Rights

* Gary Tyrrell passes along word from Fred Gallagher that he's feeling better after a recent surgery to correct a general condition. * Sean Gaffney on Negiho: Mahora Little Girls. Sean T. Collins on the superhero comics of Kate Beaton. * when I was a kid, the anti-Batman was Superman. * here's a list of 42 webcomics you need to read. * it's always fun to look at a gallery of mainstream comic book images. There are always about five or six pretty good ones in such an array. http://thecoolkidztable.blogspot.com/2013/05/art-attack-july-2013s-coolest-covers.html * the writer Matt Fraction takes a look at Bob Kane's grave. There's a funny story someone told me once that I can't quite remember about Stan Lee being at another funeral and walking around trying to find Kane's last resting place. http://mattfraction.com/post/50977782546/everybody-thinks-im-kidding-when-i-tell-them * the Library Of American Comics site has a longish piece up on the "Moon Maid" contests. * I've seen people talking about a Jason mural but I've never gone to look at it until now and whoa. Yeah, that's nice. I really like the space Jason has carved out for himself in North American comics; I don't have a sense of how he does in any of the European markets * holy crud, what a great episode of SMMA. * Matthew Brady has been writing about One Piece in short bursts at his site. I'm glad when someone writes about that comic because it's super-popular and I don't quite understand it. * so I guess Comics Observer runs suggestions for new readers based on the comics that come out every Wednesday...? That's nice. I wish I'd thought of that. It's always tricky to find that balance between comprehensive coverage and focused recommendation. * finally, I greatly enjoyed this piece on sometimes comics artist Ray Houlihan, and would have even if he weren't at times a comics artist. The visuals are lovely.

Hey, you're gonna wake up next to another person, you're gonna pay your dues.And Lois has some of the strangest dreams ever.Like she's been eating apples just before going to bed.What? They're NOT dreams? They happened for realz? The pre-Crisis DC Universe was a strange place, yo!

"Rassilon ordered the construction of bow ships. Ah. Swift vessels that fired a mighty bold of steel that transfixed the monsters through the heart. For only if his heart be utterly destroyed will a vampire die."TECHNICAL SPECS: First aired Dec.6 1980.IN THIS ONE... The Doctor talks about the old vampires legends of Gallifrey. Romana tries to spring Adric from the vamps' inner sanctum.REVIEW: Admittedly, not much actually happens in this episode. The Time Lords are captured and escape, the technophile rebels continue to plot their Lords' downfall, and Romana finds Adric and gets jumped by the King and Queen. But incident merely takes a back seat to revelation. At the core of Part 3 is a story from long ago, told to the Doctor by the hermit in the mountains the third Doctor sometimes spoke about (nice bit of continuity from Dicks), about a war between the Time Lords of Rassilon's time and ancient vampires. It's something the writers of extracanonical stories - the Virgin novels especially - made quite a meal of, but who can blame them? The imagery is epic. Giant vampires who could suck entire planets dry. Time Lord bow ships that launched a immense steel spikes into their hearts. And a lone King who fled our dimension to take refuge in E-Space. These revelations are padded out over a number of scenes and have the Doctor running for the TARDIS (how old are Type-40s that Rassilon references them, or didn't he write his "Record"?), then to a magnetic card filing system, not to mention the initial scene in which Romana keeps interrupting the story. And yet, the simple poetry of the tale, Baker's voice and some quick editing to moments of action, keep us interested.The program can't show us any of this, but the words are enough to raise the stakes considerably. The three vampires the heroes have been dealing with are powerful enough to temporarily mesmerize a Time Lord and possessed of great strength, and yet they are only servants of the Great One whose heartbeat can be heard through the ground. Worse, the ancient vampire king will soon awaken (it's why they're recruiting new servants like Adric) and plans to return them to N-Space to feed. So much time has passes, even the Time Lords might not be able to stop him this time, especially since their war seems to be the reason they've lost their taste for violence (not that the Doctor doesn't indulge in a stray punch from time to time as he does here).I've praised Uncle Terry a lot over the past three reviews, but director Peter Moffatt is doing a good job too. There are several bits of business that simply enhance scenes. For example, the ritualistic movements of the vampires, dead people going through the motions of a former life. Their attack on Romana and Adric is right out of a silent film, but works in that context. I also like in how it took all this time for the Time Lords to realize they had a new companion. Yes, there's padding, but the information we (and the Time Lords) learn is worthy of getting its own framing episode.REWATCHABILITY: Medium-High - Dicks adds to Time Lord mythology considerably, without having us go to boring old Gallifrey.

“Nooooooo! T-The Force! Someone...reaching out...through the machine!” Welcome to Star Wars Rediscovered and my review of Classic Star Wars Volume 3: Escape to Hoth. Read on after the jump to see what I thought of this third volume of this series. Classic Star Wars Volume 3: Escape to Hoth Writer: Archie Goodwin Artist: Al Williamson Art Assist: Allen Nunis Colourists: Steve Buccellato, Matthew Hollingsworth, Ray Murtaugh, Tom Roberts Cover Art The cover art for this collection is as uninspiring as the previous volumes. We have two figures who are about to be attacked by a lizard creature and Darth Vader, the male character looks to be too blonde and muscled to be Luke Skywalker but if previous volumes are taken into account there is every chance this could be him. The colours and use of shadow are fine but Vader looks a bit too small and thin to look very threatening. Plot Story #14 This is the first volume where we get a fairly heavy recap of what has occurred in the previous volume. We resume the story where we left off in the last volume with Vrad and Luke fighting. Luke manages to somehow convince Vrad to not shoot him after they have fought even though at the end of the previous volume he seemed dead set on killing him. Luke convinces the general to let him fly with Vrad and they set off to confront Vader. However Vrad again betrays the Rebels, he abandons Luke on a planetoid and hopes to bargain for his life with the Empire with the power gem. Luke is rescued by the Millenium Falcon which somehow manages to arrive right behind him without him noticing. Unexpectedly Vrad changes his mind and attacks the destroyer even though the power gem is depleted, he is vapourised by their shields but this allows the Falcon to damage their ship from the rear as they had transferred all shields to the front. I was pleasantly surprised at this twist, it definitely helped to add a bit more depth to the character and he became more than just a traitor who was to weak to stand against the Empire. General Dodonna promotes Luke to commander while they all prepare to leave the base before the Imperials arrive, Dodonna however secretly stays on the planet and sacrifices himself to destroy the Imperials. There is obviously a heroic gene within the Dodonna family line. We again are told the same information multiples times, which gets a bit boring. The Rebel fleet make it to Hoth thanks to Luke's use of the Force and they evade Vader. Story #15 Our characters on the Falcon have ship trouble before they can make it to Hoth and land on a nearby peaceful looking planet to make repairs. During this Luke sees who he thinks is Tanith being attacked by a giant plant monster, he kills it but she runs away and in chasing her Luke is pulled over a cliff by her and into water. It then is discovered that she is not Tanith but a stranger. Her explanation to Luke is that the atmosphere of the planet is too rich for strangers and so can make them see things. I initially found this such a boring and blunt plot device just so Luke can be teamed up with this woman while on the planet. However this just turns out to be her off the cuff explanation. A few pages later and S'ybll and Luke and suddenly kissing, it feels very strained and unnecessary. I was right to feel this way as she is in reality a mind witch who has attempted to bring Luke under her spell so she can drain his life force. He is stronger than she anticipated however and he escapes. S'ybll tries to bring the entire environment down on Luke but he has made her so enraged that she collapses and presumably dies. They return to the new Rebel base on Hoth. I was quite pleased that she was in fact an enemy waiting to strike and not just another damsel in distress for Luke to save, this turned around what could have been a very bland story. Story #16 On their journey back from defeating the mind witch the Falcon is unwittingly followed and so out heroes

Posted On Today at 04:24:58 am EDT by Menshevik [Reply] [Quote] [New] Quote:Quote:What I'm on about is the way a lot of people seem to conflate "breaking a taboo" or "breaking the rules" with "good writing", to mistake the former with the latter. And I think Blargh's contention Quote:Quote:Quote:Quote:Without Bucky coming back from the dead, we would never have had Brubaker's wonderful runs on Cap and Winter Solider. Quote:Quote:comes dangerously close to that. So I wrote that if Brubaker is as great as his admirers say then I see no reason why his runs on Captain America and Winter Soldier couldn't have been as great with a Winter Soldier who wasn't Bucky Barnes. (It shouldn't surprise you that I think any competent writer should have been able to do this). This was not, as you seem to think, an attempt to have Brubaker judged on stories he didn't write. But I would like to remind people that breaking rules/taboo can be and all too often is just a sales ploy, a way of generating publicity. In this case, was resurrecting Bucky Barnes essential to the Winter Soldier stories, or was it primarily a way of attracting people to pick up those stories which, not being readers of Captain America, they might not have done with a Winter Soldier who wasn't Bucky Barnes? Quote:Quote:I think that if a rule is considered important (as the taboo against resurrecting certain characters was), it should generally apply to everyone. It should only be broken for a very important reason, and I do not consider the addition of yet another grim and gritty character to Marvel's roster of heroes important enough, not even for the (Golden Age and Cold War) nostalgia appeal, especially as we already have Jack Monroe. Quote:I guess I'm not one who thinks the rules should be followed just because it is a rule. If a good story can be told by breaking a rule then by all means break the rule. For example I personally enjoyed seeing Ben Grimm's Aunt Petunia and that she was presented as attractive instead of the old battleax Ben described her as. Everyone else but me probably hated it though. Well, I didn't say rules should be followed just because they are rules, and as you see from my statement above I was speaking of important rules and having them only broken for important reasons. The death of Gwen Stacey broke major taboos at the time (killing off the hero's major love interest, having this happen under circumstances that made the hero appear partially responsible for her death), but the effect was a major change of not only ASM but superhero comics in general. That FF story did not bother me at all, but it was very much a flash in the pan - Aunt Petunia made an appearance and then was basically never shown again. Had there actually been a significant taboo about showing her, what happened would have amounted to a waste of the effort of breaking it. But as far as I recall, she simply wasn't important enough. Even her "old battleaxe" image was largely extrapolated by the readers, as Ben Grimm would on several occasions invoke her, but never really described her and it wasn't even clear if she was a real person. Because Ben Grimm is middle-aged most people assumed that if Petunia is his aunt she must be older than him. So I'd say here it wasn't an actual rule, more an accidental habit developing into an unwritten tradition. It was not a hard and fast rule like e. g. never showing Dr. Doom's scarred face - which John Byrne broke for a story that I consider a big failure and so badly written that I would prefer it had never been printed. But in the words of Futurama, I watched it and I can't un-watch it. A story that a writer and editor may love is one that readers (or at least myself) consider rotten. Case in point: the return of Jean Grey, which managed to work a way around the rule Jim Shooter had set up, but the only rationale behind it was that some nos

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