13.5 Quick Movie Reviews

2009-01-17 5:32:32 am

Hey gang, sorry again about my complete lack of posts lately, things have been crazy. I have been keeping myself busy with movies though, so here are 13 short reviews about some flicks I've seen lately, plus one movie I didn't watch.

SIX STRING SAMURAI (1998)
I really liked this post apocalyptic-like road trip movie with a samurai Buddy Holly. The howler-monkey kid got annoying fast, but the action and snappy dialogue kept things moving along at quite a clip. Much better than I thought it would be.

OUR MAN FLINT (1966)
Flint's a swinging secret agent int he 60s more worried about having a good time than stopping an international incident (at first at least). Great, campy 60s spy fun, that both pokes fun at but also sets itself up in the same universe as James Bond. A lot of fun, can't wait to check out the sequel.

THE MAJORETTES (1986)
I don't actually remember too much about this movie other than it involved some maniac hunting down and killing high school cheerleaders. It's a way lower budget movie and apparently very little of the money went to snag actors who can, you know, act. Skip this one unless you're a horror completist or you're looking to cross another movie off in your copy of Creature Feature (like me).

DAY OF THE DEAD (2008)
I was actually pretty impressed with this remake-in-name-mostly of Romero's Day of the Dead. I'm not a huge fan of the original or anything, but I wasn't expecting much out of this flick and was surprised. The story moves along the same speeds as the fast Zack Snyder/28 Days Later-like zombies, but my favorite part is seeing actual people I recognize like Mena Suvari, Nick Cannon and Ving Rhames killing and becoming zombies. When was the last time you saw a non genre actor semi-famous person in a horror movie after they became famous? Hopefully it's a trend that will continue. I'm actually kind of surprised that they didn't release this movie in theaters. Oh well, a pretty good zombie movie all said and done, though not a classic.

THE SHADOW (1994)
In my opinion, it's hard to go wrong when you populate a movie about a pulp hero with actors like Alec Baldwin, Peter Boyle, Tim Curry, Ian McKellen, James Hong and Jonathan Winters and luckily The Shadow held up my opinions. I'm not all that familiar with pulp heroes, especially the Shadow, but I like the idea of him having a network of people all over the city (usually people he has saved) who help him out. There's all kinds of cool stuff like secret labs and ancient forces of good and evil. Oh and for 30 Rock fans, I highly encourage you to think of these as the early days of Jack Donaghy.

LAST MAN STANDING (1996)
A pretty cool story about a gangster-era hitman (Willis) holing up in a ghost town populated by two rival gangs, gets slowed down with a little too much back and forth back stabbing. I definitely don't remember all the details about this one, but I'm a Willis fan. Michael Imperioli plays pretty much the same role he always does and Walken stars as Willis' main competition and they fight which is cool. Can you imagine Walken fighting now? Aside from a dance fight I mean. Oh, also Walter Hill of Warriors fame directed LMS, so it's gotta be pretty good, right?

FOXY BROWN (1974)
So far my experience with blaxploitation films as been hit or miss, but luckily Foxy is enough of a hit. In the plus column, Pam Grier cuts quite the figure, plus she kicks ass. I also like the idea of a group of inner city dwellers taking the law into their own hands and creating their own kind of police force. I'm not a big fan of the sexual assault stuff, but I guess that's all part of the exploitation riff. Too bad Foxy and Shaft never got together. That would have been a great flick.

LEATHERHEADS (2008)
I'm not sure if I've professed my heterosexual man love for George Clooney on the blog before, but I'm a big fan. I think we'd get along smashingly. I do know that I've talked about how much I like the American Office, so you probably know I'm a John Krasinski fan. So, Leatherheads was a good flick in my book. It doesn't make my top 10 sports movies of all time (well, maybe, I'd have to come up with that list actually), but it's fun and it offered up a look at a period in professional football that I am completely unfamiliar with, so that was cool. Of course, it's a comedy, so I'm not sure how accurate it was, but who cares? Like I said it was fun. Has similar story elements to League of the their Own (which probably would make my top 10 because I'm a huge softy). Not groundbreaking by any means, but worth a watch.

JOURNEY TO THE CENTER OF THE EARTH (2008)
I liked Leatherheads more than Journey, but it's not a terrible movie (even if it is very predictable). The special effects bounce back and forth between boderline okay, pretty good and not so great, but the effort is there. I really wish I would have been able to see this bad boy in 3D. I missed out on the phenomenon in the 80s and have gotten a taste for it by watching Superman Returns (ugh) and Nightmare Before Christmas in lame separate the background from the foreground 3D. I can't freaking wait to see My Bloody Valentine 3D!!!

KILLER KLOWNS FROM OUTER SPACE (1988)
Holy crap I loved this movie. Rickey got me a subscription to a horror movie mag called Horror Hound that's not expertly edited, but still offers up tons and tons of horror goodness. One such bit of goodness was a whole feature on Klowns. The movie is just so much freaking over the bigtop fun. I really can't believe that a studio made this movie. Please, do yourself a favor and check it out. Also of interest on the DVD is the Chiodo brothers' home movies from when they were making monster movies as kids. Pretty impressive stuff for pre-teens with a 16mm camera.

VAMPIRE EFFECT (2003)
The combination of Hong Kong action and vampires drew me to this flick pretty quickly on Netflix. Heck, it's even got Jackie Chan in a roll that's more than him just walking on and being called Jackie (which he is). As with a lot of movies like this that I've seen, the special effects and fight scenes are sick, but the story itself is nothing new. I did really like the cool retractable whip/sword weapons they used. I think I designed something very similar what I was younger.

LICENSE TO DRIVE (1988)
If you thought Corey Haim could have been a little bit smoother, though still pretty spazzy in Lost Boys and Corey Fledman from the Burbs could use a little mellowing out, then License to Drive is the perfect 2 Coreys vehicle for you (puns!). Haim fails his driving test, but still tells a young (though still 18 by my math) Heather Graham that he can pick her up. It's basically like an episode of a sitcom, but stretched to 90 minutes and definitely edgier than your average Saved By The Bell. Good stuff. Next up from the Coreys? Dream a Little Dream (which I have absolutely no knowledge of).

LEGEND (1985)
Legend is one of those movies that I don't remember at all, but have since come to find that it's kind of a big deal (to some people). I knew that Tim Curry was in it, but had no idea Tom Cruise was. I thought it might be kind of a funny movie, but when I saw Tom prancing around the forest or whatever I clicked this badboy off and deleted it from my queue. I am no fan of fantasy movies.

JOHNNY BE GOOD (1988)
I'm becoming a pretty big fan of Netflix's recommendations. I started watching Johnny after digging License and wasn't disappointed. It's got an older and more confident Anthony Michael Hall and a completely goofy Robert Downey Jr.. There's a good deal of goofiness to this movie, which focuses on Hall as a football star getting courted by and visiting different colleges that want him. Downey plays his wacky best friend, but what struck me about the movie is how real it can be at times. Hall and Downey sell their characters like they're up for an award. Oh, it's also got Uma Thurman as Hall's girlfriend and Jennifer Tilly has a quick role. If you're an 80s movie fan, or just curious to see what Downey might have been like back in the late 80s give Johnny a look.

AUGUST RUSH (2007)
Sometimes you've got to add a movie for your lady to the ol' queue. I was pleasantly surprised with August Rush, not because the story is all the unique (you've seen the broad strokes before plenty of times), but because of it's view of music. The way they show the young boy experiencing music in everyday life, what it means to him and how he's eventually able to play it in his own unorthodox way really struck me. If you've got to watch a chick flick with your girl and you're a music fan, this is a good choice. Also, Keri Russell is in it and looking good.

KING OF KONG (2007)
If you haven't seen this documentary about the surprisingly competitive world of classic arcade high score competitions, please stop reading and watch it right now. This one makes it into my top 10 movies of 2007 (should a list ever actually exist). First off, it shows off a world I've never seen, which you know I love. Also, that world is full of deceit, greed, cowardice, heroics, villainy, triumph and defeat. The way the story is put together feels like a really well scripted feature film, though the events and the ups and downs are completely real. If you've ever liked anything I've written about on here, watch this movie.

SUPERMAN/DOOMSDAY (2007)
Seeing as how The Death and Return of Superman is the story that got me collecting comics in the first place (and how deeply and utterly I bought into the idea that any of the four subsequent people could be the real Superman), I was very excited when I heard a few years ago that DC/WB was going to make an animated movie about that very event, I was psyched. I figured it probably wouldn't have EVERYthing that made the comic so cool (Superman turning back to save a family instead of finishing Doomsday off, that very 90s JLA facing off against Doomsday, an eyes-swollen-shut Guy Gardner asking his teammate to aim his fist at Doomsday so he could blast it, not to mention the four other "Supermen"), but that it could offer up a cool new look on the idea. And it's definitely a different look. I would have preferred them either go straight with the established look and continuity of the Bruce Timm/Paul Dini-verse or have a drastically different art direction on the project as little things like Superman's cheek lines become distracting. I was also distracted by the different voices for these characters that I recognize from a specific other incarnation that looked very similar but sound completely different. Even at 77 minutes it felt kind of slow, but the fight scenes are pretty great (though they don't hold a candle to JLU). I still hold on to my dream of one day seeing an epic, animated incarnation of the Death and Return of Superman though. A boy can dream, right?

Wild(er) and Crazy Flicks

2009-01-10 5:19:22 am

One of my favorite aspects of Xbox's watch instantly option is that I can go through every movie offered online and add whatever looks even remotely interesting to my queue. Which is a great way to watch flicks by some classic directors. Within 24 hours, Em and I watched two movies by acclaimed director Billy Wilder (check him out if you've never heard of him, he's probably most famous for Sunset Blvd. which is worth your time). I actually didn't even realize that two movies I had already added were directed by him. I added Seven Year Itch because it's regarded as a classic and Marilyn Monroe's in it. Kiss Me, Stupid grabbed my attention because Dean Martin stars.

I'll start with the movie that was...less good, which is Kiss Me, Stupid. There are two huge problems with this movie. The first is that it's one of those stories where everyone's lying to each other to make things easier and the whole time you're yelling "just tell the truth" at the screen. Of course they never do till the end, because that would be the end of the movie. The other problem is that it's just kind of creepy as the guy who played My Favorite Martian (and was also on Picket Fences) lets stranded crooner Dino (Dean Martin if you couldn't figure out) hit on his pretend wife while he's in the room. It's even worse that Dino does it! It's well acted and all that and they even incorporate some of Dean's actual on stage antics in the movie, but, like I said, there's just too many things taking me out of the movie. Em and I watched it while we took the Christmas decorations down and were both completely weirded out. Skip this one unless you're a HUGE Dean Martin, My Favorite Martian, needlessly confusing story or Billy Wilder fan.

Luckily, The Seven Year Itch was awesome. The story follows a pocket book editor as his wife and kid leave New York City to summer somewhere only to head home and find out that the gorgeous Marilyn Monroe is living in the apartment above him. I've never seen Marilyn Monroe in anything but pictures (speaking of which, this movie has the famous subway/white dress scene (the the full-on image never appears in the flick). I freaking loved this movie. First off, it showed me a time period/practice I've never seen before. I had never heard of wives and kids leaving for the whole summer. Plus, I'm a sucker for anything set in New York City in the past. Next, the acting is fantastic. Marilyn doesn't just seem like the dityz blonde (though she is both), there's still some depth there without getting int he way. Also, the male lead Tom Ewell had some experience with the character as he played him in the original stage version. Even the smaller parts are all great. But what I really like about the story (and the basic story is very interesting as Tom tries, at the same time, to both be with and stay away from his neighbor) is that Tom gets to imagine all these different scenarios that we then see on screen. You know, kind of like Scrubs, but it doesn't make me want to punch someone in the face. I highly recommend this flick.

Now a few general points of interest/thoughts. Just for the record, Wilder wrote and directed both flicks, though he didn't write the play that Kiss is based on. I was surprised by the large amounts of sexuality and innuendo in both movies. I'm not sure if this was something that Wilder specifically dabled in, or if things were a little but more acceptable back then than we think, but there's all kinds of sex bubbling around the surfaces (most obviously in the "will he have an affair" plot of Seven Year Itch). I was also surprised to see that Kiss Me came out nine years AFTER Itch (Kiss is from 1964, Itch 1955). First off because Itch is so much better, but also because Kiss is in black and white while Itch is in color. Just some interesting things.

Next up on my Billy Wilder list? Probably The Apartment from 1960 which stars Jack Lemmon, Shirley MacLaine and Fred MacMurray.

In the FUTURE: Logan's Run (1976), The Omega Man (1971) & Soylent Green (1973)

2009-01-02 9:26:41 pm

Man, the 70s must have been kind of a bummer. According to the three post apocalyptic flicks I watched the other day, we'd either be living great lives until we turned 30 and were killed, mostly wiped out by a plague or sleeping on every available staircase and eating processed people. Oh, also, chances were pretty good that Charlton Heston would still be around. He's just awesome like that. I'm a big fan of these kinds of movies and Heston, so this was a good mini marathon for me. Let's hop right in shall we?

LOGAN'S RUN (1976)
After a global holocaust, society has been rebuilt in domed cities where life is pretty good except for the fact that, when you turn 30, he get killed. It's just how society works now. But some people aren't too keen on the idea of entering the Carousel (a weird, anti gravity chamber that whisks the victims up into what seems to be a giant lazer zapper) so they try to run (and are thus called Runners). It's up to the Sandmen to find them and either kill them or...well, we only see them kill Runners. Our hero is Logan, a Sandman (played by Michael Basil a.k.a. Basil from the Austin Powers movies), who gets tasked with a top secret mission to find a place called Sanctuary that supposedly hides Runners. Well, as you can imagine, things don't go quite according to plan.

Logan hooks up with this girl who supposedly has connections to Santuary so the both of them go on this crazy adventure that includes operations to change face (with a sexy Farrah Fawcett), a run down ghetto filled with society's crazies, a frozen wasteland lorded over by a crazy robot and even the outside world.

I really liked how far the creators went with the story. It wasn't just about Sandmen vs. Runners or Logan getting to the outside world. He acts like a true hero and wants to tell the people in the domed city the truth about the outside world (to his own near peril). Plus, this is just a fun world to get a glimpse of with their age coordinated to the color of the clothing they wear to the jewels in their hand that change color with age. The whole concept is very cool and even the 70s cheesiness of some of the scenes (the robot for instance or the model of the futuristic dome city) add more than they detract from the overall enjoyment of the movie.

THE OMEGA MAN (1971)
After watching one interpretation of the future, I figured I'd check out another. This is one of many movies based on the book I Am Legend. From what I've read (I haven't read the book) this is a pretty drastic departure from the book as it starts Heston as a scientist who was immune to a plague that hit mankind and either killed everyone or turned them into super-pale zombie weirdo cultists. The cult members want to kill Heston because they believe he represents the old ways and the old ways lead to the end of the world.

As it turns out though (of course), he's not really the last man on Earth as he comes to find out when he runs into some fellow survivors (including a woman!). Things get really great for a while after Heston develops an antidote for the plague from his own blood, but it doesn't last. Without spoiling anything, the ending is pretty harsh, much worse than I thought it would be.

The scenes of Heston cruising around an abandoned LA are super cool. I'm always a fan of something like this because it's really the kind of special effect you'll never see in real life, a city of that magnitude completely empty (I also love the scenes in 28 Days Later with Jim walking around an empty London). Heston also does a great job of carrying the movie pretty much by himself for the first 20-30 minutes of the movie (not counting the mutants or the bust he talks to). Frankly, I'd watch Heston do just about anything and with the unusual turn of events at the end, this ranks up there are a great flick in my book.

SOYLENT GREEN (1973)

I'll be honest, I wasn't paying really really close attention to Soylent Green. I can't remember what else I was doing though I think it might have been writing a feature for the next issue of ToyFare (available in stores in February!). Anyway, I liked what I saw as Heston (yeah!) investigates a bunch of murders in a crappy feature where people sleep in run down apartments (or the stairs if they're really poor). There's also apartment complexes where the rich live with what can only be described as complimentary prostitutes. It's one of these rich guys that bites it early on, spurring the story on.

There's a lot of plot, most of which leads up to the completely spoiled ending that Soylent Green (a foodstuff sold to the poor) is actually people. I think it was first ruined for me in an SNL skit starring Phil Hartman. Oh well, no grudges held.

There's also a subplot with Heston's older friend and classic actor Edward G. Robinson in what would be his last role. There's all kinds of subtext as the older man spends time with Heston, the only other person who know that Robinson was dying of cancer. In the end it's a pretty dark and grimy film and even though we all know what Soylent Green really is, it's not what the whole movie's about. There's a lot of emotion between Heston and Robinson that becomes all the more palpable when you know the real life history behind the shooting.

I also really like the dingy future. It's definitely not the clean and crisp one of Logan's Run, seeming moor like Escape from New York than anything else, but without all the weird gangs or kind of like Land of the Dead with the merchants and poor people surrounding the palatial high rise. Whereas the streets in Omega Man are completely empty, the ones in Soylent are packed with the dregs of society. It's an interesting difference. Oh, also, the first murder victim's in-house prostitute gets really excited when her john buys her a brand new arcade game (according to the IMDb, it was made by the same guy who would go on to make Pong). It was pretty funny. It's fun to see what people 30 years ago thought the future would be like and how wrong they were. Fun stuff.

Theatre Hopping

2008-07-19 4:17:52 am

Hey Gang, sorry about not posting recently. I've been falling asleep pretty early (cause I'm getting old) which cuts my viewing and reading time sufficiently. But, I have been reading a few things here and there. I've had a copy of Sandman Mystery Theatre Vol. 3 in my "to read" pile for a while now. I was hoping I'd get Vol. 2 (I'd already read 1 and 4) so things would make a little more sense, but I decided "what the heck" and jumped in anyway. I had actually forgotten I had 4 on my shelf, so it was fun to go back and re-read that after 3.

Okay, so here's the deal with Sandman for anyone who doesn't know. In the way-late '30s Wesley Dodds comes back from a trip to "the Orient," he's having these crazy, prophetic dreams and decides to become a Mystery Man called The Sandman. Armed with a gas gun and a gas mask, he helps solve crimes in a pre-WWII New York City. The book was co-written by Matt Wagner and Steven T. Seagle and drawn by Guy Davis and launched from the Vertigo imprint in 1993.

Volume 3 is entitled "The Vamp." Basically, the members of a gentlemen's social club are getting aced and it all comes back to a pretty nasty fraternity "prank" they played back in the day. Interestingly enough, the mystery isn't what really draws me into this Sandman story. I had a pretty good idea of who the killer was part way through the book and that was fine because I was really swept up in the world of the late-'30s NYC. Like I mentioned in the Batman: Thrillkillers review, I'm a sucker for certain time periods and this is definitely one of them. There's this really interesting mix of British upperclassness, but with a very American twist to it. Plus you've got the building tension about what will be called World War II and on top of all that you've got the dawning of the Mystery Men in the DCU. This was back when Vertigo books could still have ties to the DCU. Wagner and Seagle also tackle some bigger issues like racism and homosexuality in ways that seem familiar even today.

The great thing about this volume is that it's told completely from the perspective of Dian Belmont, Wesley Dodds' girlfriend (and future wife). She's a real smart cookie who fancies herself an amateur detective (here dad's the DA). The story really follows her more than anyone else and we get to see why she's one of the coolest unsung characters in comics as she navigates the worlds of jazz clubs and high society functions all the while trying to figure out how her friend from college is related to the killers.

"The Scorpion" follows a killer who uses a whip as he goes after the members of a particular oil company. Again, the killer's identity is pretty obvious right off the bat. If you're paying attention, you'll be able to figure out who it is pretty quickly. But that's kind of how some TV procedurals work too right? You get a pretty good idea of who did what, but it's the process of watching Wesley figure out for himself while trying to keep Dian in the dark about his dual identity and really get a hang of this whole superhero game. What's more interesting here is the why.

I've talked to some of my friends about this book and while some have read it, others couldn't get into it because of the art. Davis' art does come off as sketchy at times, but I highly encourage you guys to give it a shot. Once you get used to it, it's like you don't even notice anymore (like watching a movie in black and white nowadays). Davis does an amazing job of putting you in this, most likely, unfamiliar world and grounding you and the characters in it. And then he'll throw some pretty wild dream sequences at you that look completely different, but really capture that dream quality that's so hard to put on the page.

So, if you're solely looking for a mystery book, I don't think this would be the best pick. But if you're looking for a great look at a group of highly complex and interesting characters in the unique setting of the 1930s DCU, I can't make a higher recommendation. Let's just hope DC keeps putting out the volumes. They're up to 6 now, which I have, but I still need to get my hands on 2 and 5.

Making a (Thrill)Killing

2008-07-11 7:36:26 pm

So, every few months I have a few beers and start clearing off my trade shelf to make room for new stuff. But I don't just automatically get rid of things. Sure there's a pile of books I'm going to throw up on Swap or see if any of my buddies need, but I also make another stack of books that I want to re-read to see if they deserve that place on my shelf. Batman: Thrillkiller was one of the books on the chopping block. What did I think? Read on...

Batman: Thrillkiller (1997)

Written by Howard Chaykin
Art by Dan Brereton

I'll put it this way, Thrillkiller is heading back to my shelf.

Here's the deal, Thrillkiller is an Elseworlds book, which was a stamp that DC put on out of continuity books that took familiar concepts and put a different spin on them. This one obviously focuses on Batman, but it doesn't start with Batman, instead, we get a load of Batgirl and Robin in the early '60s. Batgirl is still the daughter of James Gordon and Robin is still acrobat Dick Grayson (though his real family name is different), but instead of Bruce Wayne living in Wayne Manor, Barbara lives there and has created her own batcave below. I'm not really sure where she got her money, but I assume it's from her mother who got murdered. Little Barbara found her with a bat-shaped blood pool around her (hence Batgirl). Also, Chaykin calls her a madcap heiress way too many times.

Batgirl and Robin walk the mean streets of Gotham standing up for the little guy, but not against your average supervillains. They're butting heads with the corrupt cops of Gotham. But not all the cops are bad guys, take Bruce Wayne for instance. His parents lost their fortune in the depression and went on to get murdered by their servants. He's been tasked by Jim Gordon (another good cop) to both stop the corruption and bring Batgirl and Robin to justice.

I actually don't want to get too into the story in case you want to check it out and see for yourself, which I highly recommend. I will say one thing about the trade, though, that confused me. I thought the book was made up of a four-issue series when it's actually a three-issue series and a one-shot put out later. Which explains why the last chapter of the book seems separate but equal to the previous ones.

Okay, here's what I like about the book. First up, the art. Dan Brereton has an somewhat exaggerated yet super-sexy style that really appeals to me. Back in my younger con-going days (1999 to be exact) I met Dan at either the Mid Ohio Con in Columbus or the convention in Novi, MI. He drew me this rad Harley Quinn sketch for free and also gave me the great suggestion of getting two sketchbooks in order to maximize your sketch-getting potential.

So, yeah there's a little nastalgia for the first creator that ever talked to me like a real person and did something cool for me, but I also really like Dan's style. You should check out Nocturnals sometime.

Anyway, I'm also a big fan of this time period. As Chaykin says in the first issue, this is a pre-JFK assassination '60s. Things are going crazy, the cops are corrupt, but the country still has the spirit that seemed get squeezed out when JFK got killed. Chaykin really captures the mood of the times and even uses what seems like language of fiction from the time in his narration.

But what I really like about this Elseworlds tale is that the relationships aren't just assumed. In a lot of Superman EW tales, Superman always falls in love with Lois. In this case, Bruce Wayne isn't rich, he doesn't even start off as Batman. And even though Barbara Gordon and Dick Grayson are together, it's a whole different dynamic than what you're used to in the comics. Also, the villains were changed, some more drastically than others. Joker is a woman, there's a dirty cop called Duell that looks like Two-Face, but then there's also Harvey Dent the DA. You've even got Black Canary and Roy Harper showing up in the one-shot. Oh and Catwoman is a stripper. But even though the characters' circumstances are different, you still feel like you know Bruce Wayne because he's a tough guy who's out for justice and doesn't mind busting a few skulls to get it.

That's The Spirit! Part 3

2008-06-30 6:43:04 pm

Once again the fine folks at Lionsgate saw fit to send more The Spirit teaser posters my way and this time they sent two! So check out these two lovely ladies:

Jaime King as Lorelei

Sarah Paulson as Ellen Dolan

Like I said before, I'm not all that familiar with The Spirit, but even I know who Ellen Dolan is and can't wait to see Sarah Paulson again. I was a big fan of Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip (if you haven't seen it, you should check out the DVDs, I'll get to a review soon enough). So, we'll see once Christmas comes how she does with The Spirit.

OMAC Attack

2008-06-18 4:00:34 am

For the past 15 years or so I've felt this weird connection to Jack "The King" Kirby. It's not because I was a huge fan of his work (I think the only copies of his books I owned prior to last year were some of his Topps Comics stuff), but because he passed away on my birthday back in 1994. I was around 11 at the time and had only been reading comics for a few years, but I remember feeling really weird about that.

Anyway, fast forward to last year and I finally found myself reading some of Jack's work for the first time. But it wasn't the Marvel stuff I had heard about since I started reading comics, it was the at-one-time-less-known New Gods stuff. The Jack Kirby Fourth World Omnibuses blew me away and once I'm through reading them, I'll probably post something on here about them, but for now you'll have to settle for an OMAC review.

Jack Kirby's OMAC: One Man Army Corps
Written, drawn & edited by Jack Kirby
Starring OMAC, Buddy Blank

This book came out a few weeks ago and boy is it a great read. Weird, but great. Probably the most interesting aspect of the whole thing was mentioned in the intro by Mark Evanier. According to Mark, the concept of OMAC (a One Man Army Corps in the future) started life as a Captain America story. Can you imagine? Just think about it for a second.

Anyway, on to the story. Most of you have probably heard of OMACs by now. The latest version played a prominent role in DC's Infinite Crisis. In that continuity they're hapless people who were infected with a technovirus that lets a satellite called Brother-I turn them into superhero killers. But in Kirby's world, OMAC was designed as a hero for the people in "the world that's coming."

Which brings us to Buddy Blank, a regular dude who works for Build-A-Friend until he's selected by the faceless Peace Agency to become the One Man Army Corps. When OMAC takes over, Buddy disappears, but does return later on in the series.

Over the next 8 issues, Kirby throws OMAC against everything from a rented city of assassins trying to kill him, a giant spider-like monster, future gangsters, a vast cloning ring, a mad scientist stealing the Earth's water and more. Kirby's wild pencils really bring these out-there concepts to life, punching you in the eyes with incredibly crisp pencils.

The main problem with the book is that there isn't much of a conclusion. Like a lot of Kirby's DC work (from what I hear), OMAC got cut short because he was moving back to Marvel and DC didn't want to put anyone else on the book (hence the Joe Kubert cover to #8). Because of this, the obviously-planned-as-a-cliffhanger ending to #8 got a new non-Kirby panel drawn to try and wrap-up the series (which doesn't really succeed).

That being said, this book is completely worth it. If you've never read any Kirby, this is a great representation of his wild and wacky DC work. Want to pick up the Fourth World books, but don't know if you'll like them? I think if you like OMAC, you'll like the Fourth World stuff, so this is a pretty good measuring stick for $24.95 (or less depending on which websites you shop at).

Personally, I'm hoping to see the rest of Kirby's DC work collecting in a similar format to this and the Fourth World Omnibuses. Maybe a Sandman book? Or even a re-packaging of the Kamandi Archive Editions in this Omnibus format. What do you say DC? What are the odds?

That's the Spirit! Part 2!

2008-06-16 4:01:53 pm

The nice folks at Lionsgate passed another The Spirit teaser poster my way. This time it's the lovely Scarlett Johansson as Silken Floss.

Wowsers, does this poster make anyone else feel kinda funny? Like when we used to climb the rope in gym class?

That's the Spirit!

2008-06-10 8:03:17 pm

Hey gang, so, I guess the nice folks at Lionsgate liked what I had to say about Rambo because they added me to some kind of press E-mail list. At least, that's what I think happened. Anyway, one of their nice press people sent me the following teaser image of The Spirit's Eva Mendes as Sand Saref. I have to claim ignorance when it comes to The Spirit, but I'm curious to see how this movie plays out (Sin City was awesome and Frank Miller's a pretty big deal).

So, thanks again to Lionsgate, feel free to send any more images or screeners/DVDs (crosses fingers) my way.

The Incredible Wonder Woman

2008-05-19 2:27:43 am

Like I said during my review of Demon in a Bottle, I didn't really read a lot of older comics, especially pre-Crisis DC stuff. I used to feel like if it didn't matter as far as continuity is concerned then why bother? I also assumed, wrongfully, that a lot of the books from back then were too corny to be read. I've been proven wrong plenty of times since getting to Wizard and having access to the library. So, with that in mind, I decided to give DC's recent Diana Prince: Wonder Woman Volume 1 trade a whirl.

Diana Prince: Wonder Woman Volume 1 (1968-1969)

Written by Denny O'Neil and Mike Sekowsky
Drawn by Mike Sekowsky
Collects Wonder Woman Volume 1 #178-183

Okay, so, there's no intro in this book to give any context as to what the heck was going on in Wonder Woman before the trade starts, so it's a jump-in-the-pool-and-swim situation. Also, I read this book over a few weeks, picking it up and putting it down as other things came across my plate, so my memory might be a little fuzzy (well, fuzzier than usual).

We open with Wonder Woman's love interest Steve Trevor getting picked up by the cops on murder charges. Like any good girlfriend, Wonder Woman sets out to find out what's really going on, but thinks that rolling out as WW might be a little too obvious so she goes out as Diana Prince and gets herself some very mod clothes. And man, does Sekowsky revel in the psychedelic backgrounds and clothing, which unintentionally transport modern readers back to the time period this book was being created in (or at least what we like to think the '60s were like). Diana/Wonder Woman figure out what's really going on with Steve and everything's okay.

Then in order to get Steve out of the way for some time, Steve Trevor gets sent out on a secret mission to infiltrate Doctor Cyber's criminal ring that makes him look like traitor. In the same issue Diana gets word from her mother that the Greek gods are moving to another dimension to rest up. Diana agrees to stay in our dimension to continue helping mankind, a decision that strips her of all her powers.

It's pretty crazy to think that they were trying things like this back in the day. We're used to it by now, but can you imagine if they stripped Superman of his powers back then? From what I can remember, the '60s were a pretty rough time for DC's superhero comics (what with those upstart Marvel Comics coming out), so it seems like this was DC's way of trying to keep readers who were into the martial arts and spy fiction of the time. I'd like to think that it's the kind of book that would have sparked my interest if I was reading comics back then (I got into comics with the death of Superman, Batman getting his back broken, Wonder Woman becoming a red head and Green Lantern going crazy).

So, Diana Prince finds herself powerless on a world she still doesn't quite understand, having to worry about things like food and rent. Luckily for her, an old blind Asian dude is getting accosted by some hoods right outside her new place, she jumps in to help him, but he proves a formidable foe and easily dispatches the criminals. The man's name is Ching (sometimes called I Ching, though I'm not sure if that's part of his actual name or just the way he talks) and he's on Dr. Cyber's tail too. By the way, yeah, Morrison recently brought Ching back in the Resurrection of Ra's al Ghul. So in exchange for Diana's help in tracking them down, he'll train Diana in the martial arts in some really freakin' cool splash pages.

Have I mentioned how much I like Sekowsky? I'd never heard of him before picking this trade up, but the artist turned writer (O'Neil left a little over half-way through the book) wowed me to the point where I'd give just about anything he drew a shot. And of course, Denny O'Neil is one of those incredibly prolific writers that I've read and enjoyed for years.

Back to the story, Ching and Diana spend a few more issues going back and forth with Doctor Cyber's evil ladies, accompanied by Tim Trench for a while. Trench fills the roll of the hardned private dick who's ready to help until something more profitable shows up. Again, I really enjoy the different genres that O'Neil and Sekowsky played with. The next guy that comes along ends up betraying Diana and Ching to Dr. Cyber, leading Diana to beat him within an inch of his life. For some reason, Cyber (who, by the way, is a woman, even though they assumed it was a man for the first few issues, I assume this was way more of shock back then) leaves her to beat on him.

Distraught, Diana runs out of the house. By this time Sekowsky was flying solo in the writing department and the combination of his words and pencils really reveal the betrayal that Diana feels as she collapses in the street from exhaustion only to be approached by an Amazon asking her to return with her to the Amazon's new dimension. Diana agrees and brings Ching with her.

It turns out that Diana's grandfather Ares wants Hippolyta's secret of interdimensional travel which only she holds. Hippolyta refused, so Ares' sister puts her in a coma after fighting the first battle in a war of the gods (no, not that one). The Amazons brought Diana back to fill her mother's role as general of the Amazonian army, a roll which she fills with gusto, leading them into battle against Ares' monster army.

But Diana and the Amazons realize they're no match for the god's armies. Diana comes up with a plan: to travel to the dimension of history's heroes and ask them to come to the Amazon's aid. The dimension-hopping Amazon takes her there only to find that the heroes are sick of fighting for no personal gain. Luckily the Valkyries offer to fight side by side with the Amazon's against the hordes of Ares, even though they know they can not win. The combined forces do a serviceable job defending themselves, but still fight a losing battle, until the heroes eventually show up and turn the tide in their favor. With Diana's mother restored, Ares admits his defeat and leaves the Amazons be, for now. In the end, Ching opts to stay with the Amazons for a while as Diana returns to her adoptive home.

Overall I really liked this book. It's a great mix of genres with a number of rad stories, some fantastic art and a good balance of action and mythology that plenty of other Wonder Woman writers have aimed for and missed. By stripping Diana down to her bare bones, O'Neil and Sedowsky really showed me why Diana is a great character. My only problem with the story is that this strong woman who we've seen grow as a person, a fighter and a warrior needs a group of men riding in on their horses to save the day, even though I love the idea of a dimension filled with heroes (like a hero heaven). Maybe it's just those women's lit classes I took in college kicking in, but it does seem to take a little bit away from the story. I can't wait for the next volume to hit shelves (and by shelves I mean the Wizard library).