Karma, bitchez!

Wee story:

Yesterday at Glasgow Comic Con I gave away my spare weekend pass for free, as I didn't want to see it go to waste, and I was happy not to make my money back on it as long as someone got to enjoy the con. Yes, I'm nice I know :)

Then today at the con I decided on a whim to buy myself and my Big Comic Page colleagues a Funko Mystery Mini each. The guys had worked hard and I figured a wee treat - regardless how small - would be a nice gesture. Anyway, the Forbidden Planet booth only had one DC mini left which I decided I would have for myself, and I bought 3 Avengers minis for my chums.

Now, I don't collect vinyl figures, especially not blind-boxed ones, as I think they are a pain in the arse if you end up with a bunch of duplicates. Today's purchase was on impulse, but imagine my surprise when I opened up the box and found the rarest figure in the series. Yep, I got the sweet little 1:72 White Lantern Batman pictured above!

He is Batman

NOTE: This post was originally published over at The Big Comic Page

Batman is the reason I read comics.

I’m from a fairly small island called Bute, just off the west coast of Scotland, and when I was a kid, there were no comic shops there (there still aren’t), just a few small newsagents that didn’t really carry many comics at all. 2000AD and the Judge Dredd Megazine were regularly available, but that only came to my awareness after Detective Comics.

In the spring of 1994, I was staying with my older sister for a couple of days, and to occupy myself I decided on a whim to pick up Detective Comics #674 from one of the local shops. I had no idea what was going on in comics. I didn’t know why Bruce Wayne wasn’t Batman anymore, or why Batman was wearing this awesome armour. It turned out that this was KnightQuest, and one of my sister’s friends, who just happened to be visiting that day, was clued up on current comic events and explained to me the whole Bane/broken bat/Jean Paul Valley situation.

I was hooked. I was able to get Batman comics from the same shop fairly regularly until I moved to Newcastle a few months later, at which point I was able to visit dedicated comics retailers on a pretty regular basis (pocket money allowing).

I was a DC kid. I started buying various titles such as The Ray, Anima, Superman, Huntress, and I got hooked on ‘Zero Hour’ and its tie-ins, but Batman was always the mainstay. I collected for a couple of years, but eventually we moved back to Bute, and by that time my interest had started to wane. Comics disappeared from my life, as I was spending more and more money on Warhammer gaming, and playing guitar and chasing girls were becoming a lot more interesting. When I was about 20 years old I sold all of my comics to pay some bills.

Flash forward to 2011. Again on a whim, I picked up a pre-owned copy of the Batman: Arkham Asylum videogame and as I was playing, I got really into not just the game itself, but the various character biographies that you unlock as you play. I started to get nostalgic for my comic-reading childhood, so on a trip to Waterstones, I decided to see how things had progressed. I bought the collected trade of ‘Batman: The Long Halloween’ by Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale ‘Year One’ was next. The Dark Knight Returns/Strikes Again. Arkham Asylum. A Death In The Family. I was hooked again!

I’ve been collecting again ever since. I hunted down Contagion/Legacy/No Man’s Land in their entirety, and caught up on Scott Snyder’s New 52 Batman, as well a Grant Morrison’s epic run, and I look forward to many more years of tales of The Dark Knight.

I’m actually embarrassed to say that I got my dates confused, and I almost missed the fact that today was ‘Batman Day’, the official celebration of the Character’s 75th anniversary. But I know now, and I felt compelled to write a little something about The Bat.

He is the reason I started reading comics (twice).

He is the mainstay.

He is Vengeance.

He is The Night.

He is Batman.

#Batman75

Thoughts On 'Thor: The Dark World'

Last night I went and caught the 3D double-bill of Thor and it's sequel The Dark World. I was really excited about it, and although it was a pretty cool film, a few niggling things disappointed me.

***SPOILERS ON***

First of all, I'll cover the positives, just so you know I didn't go just to hate on the film.

1. Tom Hiddleston, Chris Hemsworth, and Anthony Hopkins are all still brilliant. The casting in the Thor movies has been really good, and the acting superb for the most part, but even if there were any weak links, these three could more than carry the films.

2. The visuals are absolutely gorgeous. The CGI is well done, and Asgard looks incredible. The scale of the film is awesome, and as the plot moves around various settings, everything looks as good as you could imagine it.

3.The plot works fine. Ancient alien race seeks ancient mystical power to bring about darkness to the universe. Okay, all good!

4. The mid-credits Guardians of the Galaxy tease made me do a fanboy squeal.

5. Kurse,who is the Dark Elf version of a Super-Soldier, is a total badass. I loved that guy, even if his death doesn't make sense.

And now the negatives:

1. I'll start with my major gripe, and it's also one which I thought affected Iron Man 3. Too much comedy. Kat Dennings' character Darcy was really likeable in the first Thor movie and provided light comic relief, but here, the character is ruined through over-use and becomes annoying very quickly, as almost every line she delivers is meant to make the audience laugh. As if one comedy character isn't enough, they give her a sidekick of sorts in her 'intern' Ian, who again is played purely for laughs and nothing else. As if that still wasn't enough, Dr. Erik Selvig (played by Stellan Skarsgard) is reduced from a S.H.I.E.L.D.-worthy physicist to a clown running about in his underpants, or even naked for yet more laughs. This is explained away using the fact that Loki was in Selvig's head for the duration of The Avengers and he's a bit messed up as a result , but I bet Hawkeye won't be running around acting like a total spanner in his next outing.

2. Speaking of S.H.I.E.L.D., where the hell were they??? Whether it was Fury, Coulson, or Black Widow, S.H.I.E.L.D. has been a major unifying element throughout the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and their physical absence here made 'The Dark World' feel quite removed from the world that Marvel Studios are trying to build. Obviously we can probably blame actor schedules and availability for this, but even a vehicle or some agents we didn't recognise would have sufficed. Giant alien ships descending on London seems like something they would want to get close to.

3. The Dark Elves are lame. They look like badasses, but Malekith - aside from being really mean - isn't very threatening at all until he gets the Aether, and towards the end of the film, the Dark Elf soldiers appear even more inept than fresh-from-the-academy Imperial Storm Troopers.

4. Kurse on the other hand, is fucking AWESOME. He's so awesome, and apparently so invulnerable, that HE CAN SWAT MJOLNIR OUT OF THE AIR LIKE A FLY! So why can Loki just walk up and stab him dead then? There is no way it should be that easy, considering Kurse just whupped Thor's ass like it was nothing.

5. This one is admittedly a little petty, but remember the 2009 Star Trek film where, of all the caves, on all the planets, in all the galaxies he could have ended up in, Kirk just happens to walk into the cave that future Spock is living in? Well that sort of happens here too. Thor and Jane amazingly stumble into the one cave that contains a space anomaly that will transport them back to London. That was lucky.

There you have it. Its not that Thor: The Dark World is a bad film, It's a proper cosmic superhero film, and is very entertaining, but as much as I am loving the Marvel Cinematic Universe, a Captain America cameo or the mere presence of Tom Hiddleston as Loki just isn't enough to justify the hype. Sorry, Marvel. I still have high hopes for Captain America: The Winter Soldier and Guardians f the Galaxy though.

Well, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Happened...

After months of excitement, Marvel's Agent's of S.H.I.E.L.D finally hit TV in the states last night. Call me a pirate or a thief if you want, but rather than wait until Friday to watch it on TV here in the UK, I opted to take the less legal route and watch it online. Was it worth it?

Well...kind of. Fanboy exuberance has people pissing their pants the world over as Joss Whedon is finally making TV again, and while Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. is pretty good, I'm not one of the ones who thinks everything about it is amazing.

The show does everything it promised it would in regard to tying in to Marvel's Cinematic Universe. Certainly via dialogue anyway. The characters talk about the Battle of New York, the Avengers, and Extremis is even a plot point too, but there are no visual references, aside from those S.H.I.E.L.D pickup trucks we saw in The Avengers.

Joss Whedon has always been great at injecting humour into his scripts, but it feels forced in this pilot episode, and the funny bits aren't really funny at all unless Clark Gregg's Agent Coulson is the one delivering the lines. Not that this is Whedon's fault at all. The scripting is pretty good, but it seemed to me that the humour just didn't suit some of the actors, especially Iain De Caestecker as Agent Fitz.

Everything else fits into place pretty nicely, although I personally can't stand Skye (played by Chloe Bennett). Aside from her just generally being annoying, I find it hard to believe that an agency like S.H.I.E.L.D. wouldn't already have someone with her tech skills within their ranks. Again though, it's just personal taste, and she doesn't ruin things for me.

Clark Gregg is, of course, the star of the show, but in this pilot episode, J. August Richards steals every scene he is in, even including a dramatic exchange with Gregg towards the end, and I really hope his character returns at some point.

Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D has a LOT of potential going forward. Everyone has been asing if we will see cameos from the film actors etc. but it doesn't really need them. If they turn up, great. If not, then at at least the show is doing enough of its own thing to stand out.

Preview Of Rafael Albequerque's Animal Man Artwork!

The Negative Zone: Movie Petitions

It's late and I'm tired and I just got annoyed reading about a petition to get Marvel to make a solo Loki film. What is the point??? Yeah, a shitload of people love Tom Hiddleston as Loki, me included, but does anyone honestly think that Marvel Studios need anyone to tell them how popular their characters are, or indeed what films they should be making? In case you hadn't noticed, they're doing OK on their own. Apparently, the petition has reached 15,000 signatures. Wow-fuckin'-wee!

A similar campaign is the 'Make A Dredd Sequel' campaign. I even signed it. I thought Dredd was an absolutely brilliant film, and I would love to see another one get green-lit. But it's a different thing altogether. Dredd is a critically successful film that struggled to break even at the box office, even on a relatively modest budget of $45 million. The guys behind the petition are hardcore to the point of organising mass 'buy Dredd on DVD days'. They already cleaned out Amazon's stock once, and they plan to keep on doing so, until the suits sit up and take notice. It may not work, but the fact that 2000AD, the comic the character originates from, have adopted the campaign and made it official certainly gives the whole thing some weight. Even Karl Urban, who portrays Judge Dredd in the film is now aware of the campaign, and is talking about it in interviews. But let's be honest. Even if 2 million people sign that petition, then pay to see the film, and then go and buy it on DVD, I don't imagine the studio execs will be exactly shitting their pants in excitement at the potential profit, do you? But the campaign not only shows support for the film. It keeps people talking, and it brings fans of the film together in an online community that wasn't necessarily there before.

My point is, films like Dredd need that kind of support. It was a great film that almost went ignored. Loki on the other hand, is everywhere. He has been a very popular part of an extremely large and financially successful franchise. Don't get me wrong, I would love to see more Loki on film, but if Marvel Studios say 'we don't think it will work', then there will probably be a spiteful backlash from fans, because you can make demands of creators under the cunning guise of a politely worded petition on Change.org, but when fanboys hop on that bandwagon, and don't get what they want? The claws are bound to come out.

Can't we all just get along?

DC are getting a lot of flak this week aren't they???

I agree that it's largely their own fault. Their constant editorial meddling is now becoming infamous, but this week the hatred I've seen for them is kind of misplaced. If you can post hateful bile on someones Facebook page, or threaten violence, you could probably manage some homework first.

Case in point: DC are not homophobic.

Last week, the creative team on Batwoman left the title. One of the reasons given was that DC would not let them write the characters' wedding into their story. This set the internet alarm bells ringing, because Batwoman (Kate Kane) happens to be gay. Now, Batwoman is one of DC's most critically acclaimed titles, and they are very proud of the book, the character, and the handling of her sexuality. But internet logic goes like this:

"DC won't let Batwoman get married? Batwoman is gay. DC are homophobes!"

Batwoman co-writer JH Wlliams III then had to take to Twitter to clarify:

DC are pretty much against marrying off characters at the moment anyway, and editor Dan Didio explained the companies stance during an appearance at Baltimore Comic-Con:

"Heroes shouldn’t have happy personal lives. They are committed to being that person and committed to defending others at the sacrifice of their own personal interests. That’s very important and something we reinforced. People in the Bat family their personal lives basically suck. Dick Grayson, Bruce Wayne, Tim Drake, Barbara Gordon and Kathy Kane. It’s wonderful that they try to establish personal lives, but it’s equally important that they set them aside. That is our mandate, that is our edict and that is our stand."

A person making sense on the internet? Surely not!?

DC have also brought the pain on themselves in the last day or two over their Harley Quinn art competition. Entrants are required to draw a page from script in the hope of getting their art into an upcoming Harley Quinn comic. The uproar here comes from one of the panel requirements:

"Harley sitting naked in a bathtub with toasters, blow dryers, blenders, appliances all dangling above the bathtub and she has a cord that will release them all. We are watching the moment before the inevitable death"

The backlash to the suicide angle I can understand to an extent. Despite the supposed Looney-Toons-style context of scene, it's National Suicide Prevention Week in the US, so in order to avoid controversy, you'd maybe want to steer clear of any sort of depiction of the topic, but another issue being raised is the apparent sexualization of suicide.

If you remove the word 'naked' from the panel description, the sexualization issue kind of disappears, so yeah that's a slight oversight on DC's part, but when protest-bloggers get hold of a headline like 'DC Comics asks artists to show their skill at killing off naked women', context goes out the window anyway, and the hate spreads like wildfire, giving thousands of armchair activists something to rant about on Facebook and Twitter. 

I do wonder, though...if they hadn't asked for Harley to be naked, and some of the artists had drawn her naked anyway (because, you know, she's in the bath), would they have been publicly abused on the internet for being sexist? I bet they wouldn't.

DC will probably lose some readers over the backlash, while the majority of real comic book fans will just move on and continue to support a medium we love.

Random Retro: Slingers

My latest 'Random Retrospective' article is now live over at the Big Comic Page! This week it's Marvel's Slingers from 1998. Check out the article on the BCP website.

Arc Reactor! Trinity War

Trinity War is usually the kind of event that I would cover in The Big Event, but the main story only ran 6 issues, so sticking to my own rule, we have an Arc Reactor! post instead. Not that there's any difference...

I have always been a more DC-inclined reader, mainly based on my love for Batman, but honestly, I am beginning to wonder how I keep falling for their nonsense. Last years Zero Month? GIMME! Rise of the Third Army? GIMME! Oh wait, you can have that back.

It has been coming for a good long while (ever since Flashpoint), having been hinted at in various titles of the New 52, and apparently we'll see major fallout from the event going forward, but unfortunately Trinity War ends up being another one of DC's events that are solely for the purpose of setting up the next one (in this case, Forever Evil, part of September's Villains Month). These events are becoming a bit of  regular thing, and  it's kind of like a Big Mac meal, in that you think it's going to be a bit of a treat, but it ultimately leaves you unsatisfied, and hungry for something else an hour later. It's not that Trinity War is bad. Far from it! It's actually cool seeing the three different Justice Leagues interact, and Geoff Johns and Jeff Lemire together is a comic fan's dream team, but the whole thing was just a way to get rid of all of the heroes for a month so that DC can cash in on some gimmicky 3D covers, when they could just have taken a break from regular programming like they did with Zero Month last September. 

To be fair to DC, they could have stretched this out a lot longer, but they broke from the norm and kept this event short and fairly simple, and in setting up Forever Evil, it did it's job just fine. My opinion may also have been skewed by the fact that Marvel just started their big summer event Infinity, which, after only 3 issues, is kicking the ass of most of the stuff DC have released in the last 2 years.

I'm pretty much avoiding Villains Month, barring a couple of titles, but I will be covering Forever Evil in a future post, just to see where this all went.

Checkmate!

My first 'Random Retrospective' article went live today over at the Big Comic Page! This week it's Checkmate! issues #2 and #3 from 1988. Check out the article on the BCP website.