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New figures…de-packaged!

Posted on March 22, 2010 by Walt

While I have a fair number of action figures sitting around in their packages…it’s not for value. I’m not planning on trying to re-sell them, I’m not trying to keep them (their packages/packaging) in “mint condition.”  No, my action figures tend to remain in their packaging because it can be a battle just to remove the figures FROM said packaging.  I’ve had to go at ’em with a knife, scissors, and quite a bit of patience in order to achieve successful extraction.

Following up my Sunday evening post about the Iron Man 2 toys and finding Thor at Walmart, here are Cap/Thor/Iron Man as promised, followed by War Machine, Thor, and Iron Man (my newest acquisitions).

Filed under: NON-REVIEW CONTENT, The Toy Chronicles | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment »

Iron Man 2, War Machine, and contemporary Thor

Posted on March 21, 2010 by Walt

I walked into a Walmart this afternoon planning to get the week’s groceries.  Unfortunately, they had no carts, and rather than go back out to the parking lot to get one, I decided to take a quick look at the toys, and head out.

Now, while the Marvel Universe/Fury Files 3.75″ line of action figures has been out for quite awhile, those usually only get 3-4 pegs in a single column, and they rarely have more than 2-3 figures per peg. However, the Iron Man 2 figures recently came out, and have a whole huge section–primarily 3.75″ figures as well as other related miscellany.

Unfortunately, there’s not really a whole lot for me in this series: I don’t care about having a whole bunch of different versions of Iron Man (even if it is a progression of the armors from the first version in the 2008 film to whatever we’re likely to see in the upcoming 2010 film), and I’ve never cared for the Iron Monger, nor am I all that familiar with Crimson Dynamo.

However, like last year’s Wolverine 3.75″ line, there is a sub-set of Comic-based figures. Though I took the above photo at Walmart, it was at Target that I bought the War Machine comic-based figure, as well as a Target-exclusive light-up Iron Man (mark VI armor) figure (Target has these on sale this week).

After looking at the Iron Man 2 figures, I turned around, and spotted a Luke Cage figure for the Marvel Universe line…and right below, Thor.  I’d seen the Secret Wars 2-pack of Thor and (Klaw, I think?) starting a few weeks ago…but the 2-pack was just the “classic” Thor. I saw photos from Toyfair that suggested a “contemporary” Thor was due out, so passed on the 2-pack to wait for the Thor I’d prefer. Went ahead and bought the figure–been waiting for a Thor to go with my Captain America and Iron Man.

I’ll probably post a Cap/Thor/Iron Man pic later this week.

Filed under: NON-REVIEW CONTENT, The Toy Chronicles | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment »

Deadpool Corps ad with Oath

Posted on February 26, 2010 by Walt

As long-promised, the upcoming Deadpool Corps do indeed have their own oath.

With this week’s Deadpool #20, and presumably other Marvel comics, we have this ad, for the 5-issue weekly March 2010 mini-series Prelude to Deadpool Corps.

It’s a rare occasion when an ad actually truly interests me…rarer still for it to get me excited about an upcoming project. In this case, I saw the ad, and immediately sent a text to several comic-reading friends who I knew would also appreciate the oath.

And if you haven’t bought a Marvel this week, here’s the ad (cuz hey, Prelude #1 comes out next Wednesday–March 3rd)!

Filed under: NON-REVIEW CONTENT | 1 Comment »

My thoughts on ‘Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths’

Posted on February 23, 2010 by Walt

Due to the length of what I wrote, I split this piece into 3 posts. Each is my thoughts on a different part of this DVD release.

part 1: What Came Before

part 2: The Movie Itself

part 3: The Extras

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My thoughts on ‘Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths’ part 3: The Extras

Posted on February 23, 2010 by Walt

A “bonus” feature (as far as I can tell, included with the barebones DVD, the special edition DVD, and the BluRay) is an animated short starring The Spectre.

This is a bit of an unusual piece to me–I’ve really only known the character as the primal/cosmic/universal force-of-naturehe’s been for the last 10 1/2 years. This short focuses on the character with Jim Corrigan as his “host,” where Corrigan grounds the Spirit of Vengeance a bit.

This short delves into some dark, disturbing territory…whether intentionally going there or taking advantage of less restriction due to being packaged with a PG-13 animated film, I’m not sure.

Not being particularly familiar with a down-to-Earth Spectre, I found it to be less interesting than I’d prefer in and of itself…but it’s still fairly interesting being exposed to this version of the character.

There’s also a preview of the next DC Universe project…Batman: Under the Red Hood, which is based on the 2003/2004 Under the Hood arc in the Batman comics.

While I have never bought into the “Return of Jason Todd” and everything that’s been done with that character for more than half a decade…as an animated project, it looks like this one has potential…at the least, this preview/”First Look” sold me on the concept. A large part of that, I think, is that it looks like the film will include material taken from A Death in the Family, which will more closely tie the Under the Hood story to that prior one, making it work as a unified whole in the film where it still has not for me as a comic story that essentially undid a key story in the Batman history.

Finally, there’s a short documentary that looks at the recent history of DC Comics, with brief interviews with the likes of Paul Levitz, Dan DiDio, Geoff Johns, Brad Meltzer, and others discussing Identity Crisis, Infinite Crisis, and Final Crisis, and a lot about how the stories were crafted and made to build toward one another. The interviewees also discussed what got them into comics, and their influences…and in general, made for a very enjoyable piece.

Of course, it was also interesting to see several of their roles/titles, given changes announced last week for the organization at DC.

I’m a sucker for such documentaries/interview pieces…I enjoyed the Death of Superman retrospective, the Green Lantern/Blackest Night piece on the Green Lantern: First Flight release, and of course this one.

_____________________
My thoughts on Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths
part 1: What Came Before
part 2: The Movie Itself

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My thoughts on ‘Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths’ part 2: The Movie Itself

Posted on February 23, 2010 by Walt

Now we have the second Justice League movie. Though it is the second under the Justice League header, it’s really no sequel to New Frontier. This one is based on some classic Justice League stories known to me under their contemporary heading of Crisis on Multiple Earths.  These comics–as I understand my comics history–were largely regular team-ups between the Justice League and the Justice Society…then situated on different Earths in DC‘s multiverse.

Though the multiverse has long since perished and recently been reborn, those stories still hold quite a bit of weight.

And so we have this movie, in which a Luthor crosses from his Earth to that of “our Earth”–that is, the Earth in which we find the DC super-heroes–and reveals this multiverse. He convinces the Justice League to help him on his world, to “free” it from the evil that terrorizes it. Whereas on our Earth, the most powrful beings are heroes, on Luthor’s Earth, they’re villains.

There’s a LOT to like about this movie.  The animation is nice and clean–plenty of detail for what it is, without being overly detailed or trying to be some sort of “animated live-action.” The visual style doesn’t seem to imitate silver age comics that I’m aware of, nor does it exactly imitate contemporary comics. There’s something to it that reminds me very much of the Batman, Superman, and Justice League animated series–probably in part that Bruce Timm is heavily involved in this movie as he was with those series.

I was initially disappointed that we had more new voices for familiar characters…but as the movie kicked into gear, I didn’t really even think about it, other than to note that the characters all sounded perfectly fine and no one seemed out of place…I heard the characters, and not the actors…which for me is an important thing for any animated project.

To me, The Flash had several of the greatest moments–a comment about Luthor’s state when they meet him; a Star Wars reference, and a nice play on things when rushing out of the Crime Syndicate’s place after his teammates. Owlman had a great Harrison Ford moment, which I’m not sure was intentional, though it almost seems it had to have been. And toward the end, Wonder Woman’s “spoils of war” is just about my favorite silver age reference ever–legitimizing a concept I always saw as ludicrous.

The “meat” of the movie was solid stuff, as well. Granted, with a team movie, there’s not a lot of room for character development, especially in the relatively limited timespan for these animated movies. The only thing that really felt forced to me involved a romantic interest for the Martian Manhunter (even if there was a bit of payoff in his final comment on the matter).

This isn’t a character study on any single character…it’s an action/adventure pitting many familiar characters against many similar/opposite characters. There seems to be plenty drawn from the original 1960s comics…and yet, a strong dose of contemporary story-telling.

These DC Universe dvd movies just keep getting better and better, and though I haven’t yet digested this one long enough to decide if it surpasses the previous ones…it certainly keeps up with the best of ’em.

_____________________
My thoughts on Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths
part 1: What Came Before
part 3: The Extras

Filed under: NON-REVIEW CONTENT | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 3 Comments »

My thoughts on ‘Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths’ part 1: What Came Before

Posted on February 23, 2010 by Walt

While in many ways, an animated/movie adaptation of ‘The Death of Superman REALLY gets to my core as a comic person–it was largely that story that fully submerged me long-term into the world of comics, and so it has a special place in my memories–that first movie from DC Universe is probably my least-favorite. To this day, several years after-the-fact, I tend to hold that its only redeeming quality is the retrospective documentary on the Death of Superman in the comics. (It doesn’t help that they LATER released a special edition, while subsequent movies have had simultaneous “bare bones” dvd release and a Special Edition release).

Batman: Gotham Knight was an interesting piece, giving a taste of Batman with the anime style…I actually enjoyed it for the most part, and while that is not a style I’d care for long-term for Batman, it definitely worked.

Justice League: A New Frontier became an instant favorite for me. There was something to its story–and perhaps the fact that I had not read the comics first (and yet, had had them repeatedly recommended to me). I read a one-shot DC put out around the time of the movie’s release and enjoyed it, and shortly after bought the TPBs of the comics, and greatly enjoyed those, such that as a whole, the New Frontier is a definite DC classic to me.

A combination of things led to my NOT picking up the Wonder Woman movie, though I Netflixed it, enjoyed it, and numerous times now would have bought it, if any stores would stock the “Special Edition” WITH the stupid cardboard box/slipcase thing. (Petty, sure…but that’s a story for another time).

Green Lantern: First Flight sorta crept up on me, but with Blackest Night then just barely kicked off, I was on a Green Lantern high, and was very excited for the movie. Though it was kinda strange in its depiction of Abin Sur and others, in and of itself I recall really enjoying it–especially the use of Sinestro, AND his Sinestro Corps costume…as well as the way it was left open for “sequels.” That it came with an exclusive Hal Jordan DC Infinite Heroes figure (well, if one bought the boxed version at Best Buy, anyway) was an added bonus. I’ll also always remember buying a new DVD player the same day in order to watch the movie, as the old DVD player my roommate and I had been using refused to recognize the new disc.

A little over two months later we got Superman/Batman: Public Enemies, and in anticipation of that one, I re-read the original comics, and thus both enjoyed and yet nitpicked it a bit more than I may have otherwise. I particularly enjoyed the voice casting, getting the “original” actors from the Batman: The Animated Series and Superman: The Animated Series to voice Superman, Batman, and Luthor. That the art was so similar to the original made it even more of a treat.

_____________________
My thoughts on Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths
part 2: The Movie Itself
part 3: The Extras

Filed under: NON-REVIEW CONTENT | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments »

Quarter-Bin Awesomeness

Posted on February 5, 2010 by Walt

As you can see by the photo here, we’ve got Batman #497 (the issue where Bane broke Batman (Bruce Wayne)’s back during 1993’s Knightfall arc. That midddle issue is Wolverine #1, from the original ongoing series from Marvel in the late-1980s. And rounding things out is Spawn #1 (FIRST printing, even!).

Going back 16 years, we’d have the April-1994-cover-date’s issue of Wizard Magazine.  The price guide in that issue lists these as:

Batman #497 – $9.50
Wolverine #1 – $30.00
Spawn #1 – $12.50

Did I pay $52, you wonder?

Nope…I paid a mere $.75 for the lot of ’em.

Speaking of price differences…compare these two stacks of comics:


On the left is a stack of 88 issues of Wolverine, Batman #497, and Spawn #s 1-2.

On the right…is a stack of 8 issues, new this week.

That huge stack?

$6 less than the tiny stack of this week’s new issues.

Filed under: NON-REVIEW CONTENT | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment »

Plastic ring-quest revisited

Posted on January 26, 2010 by Walt

Seems that this spring will see some more of those fun plastic rings from DC Comics. Over at DC’s The Source, it’s been revealed that retailers will be able to order GL rings with a minimum order of 10 copies of Green Lantern #53, and nice-looking Flash rings for a minimum order of 10 copies of Flash #1, both tying in to Brightest Day.

While I’m not yet sure what to make of the green ring–I assume those’ll be like the ones that came with Blackest Night #5 back in November–the Flash ring looks pretty cool.

And while I’m certainly not the only one who had the idea…I feel a bit validated by my comments in November, about how it’d be cool to see DC do further rings…and even suggesting a Flash ring tied to Flash #1.

Filed under: NON-REVIEW CONTENT | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment »

Black Lantern Computer = no reviews

Posted on December 24, 2009 by Walt

My computer decided a couple weeks ago that instead of letting me continue to simply review comics involving Black Lanterns, that it would do its own impersonation of a Black Lantern:

It died, and when it was “resurrected” by means of a new hard drive, certainly pulled the “mess-with-someone’s-emotions” bit with reinstallation of an OS and loss of a couple years’ worth of data.

So, while I may cobble together a handful of posts to close out the year, and for Blackest Night #6 (using an old mac laptop), reviews in general are on hold for the duration of my current computer problems.

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