"Loki's still hotter..."

So, knowing that Adorkette is a fan of Tom Hiddleston I sat her down and made her see the trailer for Thor: The Dark World...

...and what's the first thing she says?

The power of family...

I was at work yesterday when Mrs. Adorkification called to tell me that both she and Adorkette were fine, but for some as-yet-to-be-determined reason our basement had flooded.

Good News: the part of the basement where my DVD's, Blu-rays, Blu-ray player, television...all the electrical stuff...was fine.

Bad News: My comics (roughly thirty years worth) were not so lucky.

I had to spend the remaining five hours of my shift trying to cope with the news, going through the stages from anger to acceptance.

When I finally got home, I learned that not only did my dynamic duo deal with most of the water (there was roughly an inch or two left at the farthest corner - thank God for uneven basement floors), but Adorkette single-handedly moved all of my comic boxes out of harms way.

See, Mrs. Adorkification has arthritic knees, so going up and down stairs is painful at the best of times. Adorkette spent Sunday afternoon going up and down the stairs with buckets and towels while my wife emptied them and wrung things out.

But according to Mrs. A, the first thing Adorkette thought of at the time...was my comics.

Naturally, I have to go back to work this morning, but I have Tuesday off so I can help with drying out our washer, dryer and oil burner.

But my lesson of the day is this -

Never underestimate the POWER of family.

I think the kid will stay home from school today. She's earned it. And then some.

Robin III Part 41: War of the Gods #4 (December, 1991)

Tim plays a part in saving the world…albeit a small part.

I have this issue.

Tim’s in Gotham with Bruce as they witness New Olympus approach. He’s awestruck at the sight, but Bruce mentions that he’s seen “oblivion peeping over the horizon” too many times.

As other teams of heroes attack her on several fronts, Circe launches her army of harpies and bestiamorphs on Earth…starting in Gotham. Tim fights back, alongside Batman, Black Lightning, Katana and Looker. He catches one creature in a Bat-line – only to be carried away. Fortunately, Bruce is there to knock it out of the sky.

Notes of Interest:

1) This is Part 25 (and the finale) of the War of Gods storyline.

WTF? Moment: After being carried away by a harpy in Batman #470, you’d think Tim would have learned to keep his feet on the ground…

WTF? Moment #2: I hope somebody told Tim and the others when the fight was over…or that Wonder Woman wasn’t dead. Sure – the disappearance of New Olympus from the sky (along with the harpies) would have been a sign that they won, but I didn’t see anyone announce Diana’s resurrection over the comlink to the Gotham crew. Whoops.

First Impressions...Monsters University Trailer

Here's the latest trailer. I knew this was coming, and was looking forward to it, but...

...it's set in the past.

WTF?

I understand that they wanted to explore how Mike and Sully met.

Okay. I get that.

I also LOVE the idea of setting this film on a college campus.

Brilliant.

But by the end of Monsters Inc., we learned...
...laughter is more powerful than scream...
...Waternoose and Randall were arrested...
...Roz' affiliation with the CDA was revealed...
...Sully was put in charge...
...and most importantly, Sully got back to see Boo again.

I thought Monsters U was going to be a new thing, set up by Mike, Sully and a now grown-up Boo, to get the next generation of monsters to learn how to make kids laugh. Sort of a blend of Animal House and Second City stand-up, where we'd learn about Mike and Sully's history through flashbacks.

Instead, it looks like a blend of Animal House and...dare I say it...Phantom Menace.

Adorkette and I will see it, she was just the right age when Monsters Inc. came out, but I'll do so with a little bit of a heavy heart. Sort of a "what the heck were they thinking?" kind of thing.

About this "brother/sister act"...

So Whedon's hinted at some appearances coming in Avengers 2.

Everyone's talking about this...

...but NO ONE is talking about this...

...so I think, in order to avoid potential legal issues with Fox Studios, Whedon's "looking to the North" so to speak. Because even if Puck does appear in X-Men: DoFP, the Beaubier twins won't.

Two words...

'Nuff said.

In Marvel Studios I Trust

Robin III Part 40: Wonder Woman #61 (January, 1992)

Tim joins with many other heroes (and some villains) in mourning Diana’s passing, ready to end the War of the Gods.

I have this issue.

Superman gives the eulogy at Diana’s memorial service, where everyone gathers to pay their respects and prepare for the upcoming final battle.

Notes of Interest:

1) This is Part 24 of the War of the Gods storyline.

WTF? Moment: Tim makes an appearance on the last page of the book, and doesn’t say a word. Now - the last page is a splash page, with the gathered heroes and villains shouting “For Diana!” I expect Bruce to stay quiet. He’s Batman…but Tim? He’s young, energetic, standing shoulder-to-shoulder with many heavy hitters. Why wouldn’t he be pumped? My guess is that Bruce told him not to. It’s more dramatic and brooding that way.

WTF? Fridays...4/26/2013

Now onto our regularly scheduled programming...

It's official - movie rights to Daredevil have returned to the House of Ideas.

THANK GOD!!!

I've mentioned before that the worst thing about Daredevil was Affleck, and I still stand by that, but I would LOVE to see DD integrated into the MMU.

Speaking of the Marvel Movie Universe, this came out...

November 8th can't come fast enough...or maybe, say, 9 PM Thursday the 7th?

Speaking of Marvel Movies in general...

Two more mutants have been confirmed: Bishop and Warpath.
Now, I understand Bishiop because they're obviously combining the "Days of Future Past" story with Bishop's arrival to Earth-616 back in Uncanny X-Men #282. But Warpath? Isn't he the brother of Thunderbird, who died back in The X-Men #95, who joined The New Mutants as the team became X-Force?

How are they gonna integrate him into the film?

Speaking of X-Men: Days of Future Past...

HOW FREAKING COOL IS THIS?

A very special WTF Friday...

I had going to a Marvel Movie down to a science.

I never got to see Iron Man, The Incredible Hulk or Iron Man 2 on opening weekend. I saw them when I could, and Mrs. Adorkification and/or Adorkette either came with me, or saw it with me some other time.

When Captain America came out, I dragged my wife to see it with me at the midnight premiere...probably only so she could check out a new theater...and it was fun.

Then Thor came out. My wife and I saw it...at midnight...in 3-D/IMAX. Adorkette went with me later to the same place.

Then for Avengers, I saw it at midnight by myself, went with Mrs. Adorkification later, and then again with Adorkette.

Yes. I paid to see Avengers in the theater three times.

So I looked forward to Iron Man 3 with the same plan as Avengers.

At work I have to submit my schedule requests a month ahead. So I told the powers that be that I'd close Thursday (9:30 to 10:00-ish) with the intent of going to the midnight show, and have Friday the 3rd off to recoup.

At NO POINT...during the ENTIRE MONTH OF MARCH...you know, when all the promotional stuff came out about the film, and Marvel.com and Facebook started counting down the weeks...did ANYONE SAY that there would be no midnight showing...

...but HEY...there's gonna be a 9 PM showing Thursday! Isn't that GREAT?

NO...IT...ISN'T!!!

And I can't rearrange my schedule because everyone else worked around my requests.

...

I always thought that midnight shows (other than Rocky Horror) were released at 12:01 Friday morning because of some legal issue preventing new movies to be seen "before Friday".

I don't understand WHY theaters are NOW able to show things as early as 9 PM Thursday night.

I'm not against the idea mind you, in fact I fully support it...

JUST GIVE US A HEADS UP SO WE CAN PLAN OUR LIVES ACCORDINGLY!!

That's all I ask.

Is that too much?

Greetings New Avenger...

So I added another to my team -

for two reasons:
* In honor of Iron Man 3 (coming out May 3rd to a theater near you...and me).
* Because recruiting him stands in the way of completing the Premium Mission in Chapter 2.
Note - I will never...NEVER...put him in that God awful Iron Patriot thing. People cringed when Spider-Man came out with that Iron-Man inspired (and Tony Stark created) Spider-Armor back in the '90's, but having War Machine dress up like Captain America is okay?
BULLLLLLLL$#!TTTTTTTTTT

Uhh...okay...

I know enough not to judge any film by a single picture,

but I really don't know where they're going with this.

I'm going to hold all my thoughts until after I see the first one.
Which, between work and the summer movie schedule, may be a while.

Oh yeah...THIS is happening...

To be honest, I almost forgot...almost..

Speaking of Boston...

For some reason, I keep missing the second closest convention to my house.

Now, it isn't for lack of trying.

I just wind up having too much going on to attend.

Due to what's happened, it will be rescheduled.

And it's gonna be awesome.

Boston Strong...

The events that took place in the past two week stunned all of us.

Adorkette and I were in CT visiting my family during the Watertown portion, and I couldn't believe it was happening - the postponing of Bruins and Red Sox games, authorities telling people to stay in their homes, the entire city of Boston shut down.

But what moved me to tears wasn't the scary hunt, it was the impact this had on the country.

Chicago...New York...Los Angeles...and other competitive cities...all made it known that they stood by Boston.

As we drove home Saturday, signs of thanks and support flashed on billboards and hung from bridges all along I-90 and I-95 .

Boston is my city. I went to college there. I met my best friend there. I met my wife there.

Mrs. Adorkette attended a one day seminar in the Westin Hotel - and we took Adorkette out of school for the day so I could show her around the BU campus - less than a month before the Marathon.

I'm shaken. I'm scared. I'm angry and frustrated and just plain mad.

But I'm also proud.

Now excuse me, while I go hug my family...

I gotta call Bull$#!t on this...

OK guys...I'm gone for a few days, and THIS is what I miss? (Spoilers after the break.)

First Impressions: The Hunger Games

I'll admit that I was the last person in my house to see this film.

My wife and daughter saw it in the theater, and now that Netflix has it streamable, I decided to see what the hype was about.

I liked the film. I got the social commentary, like the class struggle and the references to Nazi Germany.

I knew Woody Harrelson was in this film, along with Mystique. But no one...I mean NO ONE...told me that Dr. Erskine and Arnim Zola were in it, and at one point sitting right next to each other. Mind Blown.

But what I didn't get was the hulabaloo. All I saw was Red Dawn, Twilight, and The Running Game.

I understand that every generation gets (and in many cases deserves) a re-telling of the same themes, where "everything old is new again".

Coming from a youth spent on comics, where everything new was old before, I'm okay with it.

What's new about it (to me anyways) is that Girls Need Heroes.

Which they do.

So if girls like Adorkette (who never got past the first Twilight novel) get hooked on Katniss and read the Games books (which Adorkette not only read, but owns -sitting on a shelf right next to Harry Potter) all the better.

As for me, I'll leave movies and books like this to the younguns, and stick to my numerous comics and comic-based films.

'Nuff Said.

On a side note, I'm taking Adorkette to CT to visit my sister and her family for a few days. If all goes well, I'll be posting again on Sunday so you'll be spared my WTF? Friday this week.

Have a good weekend!

So, about the Man of Steel...

I just saw the most recent trailer (officially #3) and the Zod viral video.

Here's what I've figured:
* The comment made about Kal-El having his powers "from birth" most likely means he develops his powers over time on Earth, rather than all hitting at once in adolescence. Don't laugh though, because throughout his years in comics they've developed both ways.

* I think Superman in handcuffs is a ruse made up by the American government (Checkmate maybe?) and Supes to throw Zod off his game as they "turn him over".

* Zod may come to Earth, but he's not coming alone. My guess is that while Nolan and Snyder try to meld both Superman and Superman II into one film, Braniac will show up.

* And is that Richard Schiff on the other side of the glass? Yes it is! As Emil Hamilton no less.

My lingering concerns:
* Clark seems to spend his life hiding amongst humanity. So how does The Daily Planet fit in?

* The infamous interview between Kal-El and Lois takes place in a jail cell?

* Is it me, or is there a total lack of chemistry between Superman and Lois?

Shin-e-ga-mi?

I'm not by any means an expert on Anime, but this is one of the most popular ones ever.

The reason I know this...is because Mrs. Adorkification has seen it.

All of it.

Like all 400+ episodes of it.

And is reading the Manga.

Now, she can talk for an hour about who is Fourth Lieutenant in the Seventh Division and what power(s) that person has and what their personality is like and what their sword's name is and who they faced in which episode of what season...

I know this...because she has.

To me.

For the record, this is the same woman who turned and walked away when, in 1989, I started spewing about Alan Davis and Chris Claremont bringing Rachel Summers back from the Mojo-verse for the new Excalibur series after disappearing in Uncanny X-Men #'s 208/209 back in 1986!

Just sayin'...

Am I too old to learn all this Bleach stuff?

Most definitely.

Am I too old to respect the artwork and storytelling nature of this beast?

Absolutely not.

But I may end up learning some of this stuff anyway through sheer osmosis. So there's that.

Post-poned...

...due to computers.

My computer (using Vista...I know...) died. And continued to die roughly ten minutes after I started it back up (...I know...).

So I've just finished "upgrading" it to XP, and will spend the night re-loading all the stuff I use.

That is, if the kids around us stealing bandwidth will let me...I KNOW!!!

So - the DCMU's gonna be a thing?

There's been some news spilled by Warner Brothers Picture Group President Jeff Robinov...who apparently is DC's answer to Kevin Feige?

Anyway, according to Robinov, their "plan" is to indeed use Man of Steel as the first installment of an official DC Movie Universe.

...

Which means that Nolan's Batman Begins trilogy - much like the cheese - stands alone.

Plus, according to MoS Director Zack Snyder:
* Kryptonite will not make an appearance,
* and it's possible...possible mind you...that Kal-El's had his powers from birth, like ON KRYPTON!
...

W...T...F...?

What the heck was I thinking...

So I added another to my team...

...and now I have to justify it.

First of all, he only cost me 12 Command Points to recruit. Yeah there's another Special Ops open, with Vision as the prize, but to get him I'd have first recruit Black Knight, Captain Britain and Psylocke...for 315 Command Points total. I don't have 315 Command Points...and there's no way in Hell I'll get 315 Command Points in 17 days...so screw it.

But another reason I wanted him is because he's a Tactician. Until now, Hawkeye was my only Tactician and there's many a foe that can be beaten quickly when using a Tactician.

The fact that you need to recruit Scott to completely clear all missions in Level 2 is just a benny.

I hate the costume though. When the opportunity presents itself, I'll spend the extra CP to get another costume for him. Whether the "Jim Lee X-Men" look or the "Original X-Men" look, I don't know.

Heck - I may even spring for the "X-Factor" costume...

WTF? Fridays...4/12/2013

I closed at work last night, followed by opening this morning.

Ugh...

First Impressions: G. I. Joe: Retaliation

I saw this a few days ago in 3-D. While 3-D wasn't my first choice (I just missed the 2-D version), I paid the extra $2.50 for a matinee.

First – there was the IM3 trailer…in 3-D…THAT was cool.

As for the film itself, I liked it. There wasn't too much Magic Mike in there, and the overall plot didn't change from what I read last year when this movie was supposed to come out.

There’s three stories, presented here as spoiler free as possible:

1) The Joes capture a nuclear warhead, get demolished, and regroup.

2) Snake-Eyes and Jinx (also a cool character, but one I know less about) go after Storm-Shadow.

3) Zartan impersonates the President and with Cobra Commander and Firefly works on eliminating all nuclear weapons on Earth to put something even more dangerous in play.

Far and away, the stealer of this film was Byung-hun Lee, who played Storm Shadow. He owned that role and took every scene he was in.

Snake-Eyes is always cool to see too, but the remaining Joes look pretty much like any other military team. There’s no cohesion. Yeah, they all work for the same country, but they don’t look like they’re on the same team.

I understand that the costumes from the comics and action figures can’t directly translate to film, but one of the challenges in making movies like this is that fans see something recognizable, like giving Flint his beret, or having Lady Jaye with short hair. She looked more like Cover Girl to me. At least they gave Roadblock his gun…

I will say that Cobra Commander looked like Cobra Commander, and Storm Shadow came fresh out of the box. As for Firefly, he’s another character I don’t know well, so I honestly can’t tell how true-to-the-source he was.

But my biggest complaint has to be the ending. I got the message they were sending, but would it have hurt anyone to add another five minutes to the film as the Joes start looking for more members? Like Shipwreck? Torpedo? Wild Bill? Dusty? Footloose? Gung-Ho? Beachhead? Cover Girl? Or maybe…I don’t know…Scarlett?

As for the actors (aside from Lee), they did a good job with what they had. Bruce Willis will always be cool. D. J. Cotrona and Adrianne Palicki did get to play a little with the relationship history between Flint and Lady Jaye. Dwayne Johnson kicked it as Roadblock, and while Ray Stevenson will always be Volstagg to me, he did a good job as well.

All in all, a good matinee and will most likely show up on my Blu-ray shelf at some point. A far cry better than the first film, and (I hope) the beginning of another film franchise.

Robin III Honorable Mention: The New Titans #81 (December, 1991)

Tim’s new look as the third Robin is explained on the letter’s page.

I have this issue.

Written by Michael Eury, inside DC #7 reviews the history of Robin’s costume and how it got an upgrade upon the completion of Tim’s training.

Notes of Interest:

1) I’ve used “WTF?” appearances in the past (for Malcolm Reynolds and Puck) because they have certain appearances that don’t clearly fit within their chronologies. “Honorable Mentions” are when behind-the-scenes facts or details about a character are mentioned within the pages of a specific issue but outside the story within the issue, which is the case here.

2) Denny O’Neil, Jenette Kahn and Dick Giordano masterminded the endeavor.

3) O’Neil commissioned several artists for their interpretations for a new look…and got about fifteen different sketches back.

4) O’Neil, Kahn and Giordano picked the direction to go in (based on Neil Adams’ design), asked Director Tim Burton for his input, and finalized the look.

5) While this issue is Part 23 of the War of the Worlds, Tim doesn’t appear within the story.

WTF? Moment: Why did DC ask for Burton’s opinion? I thought studios took the idea or look of a comic character, made the changes necessary to transfer that look to film, then moved on to production. Here, DC waited to reveal Robin’s new look until after a film director had his say.

W…T…F…?

One could argue that it was because Burton was working on Batman Returns at the time, and was trying to add Robin to the script. Okay. But shouldn’t DC have gone to Burton and said, “Look - here’s what Robin’s going to look like in future issues. Now do what you can make it work on film.”? 

Robin III Part 39: Wonder Woman #60 (November, 1991)

The War of the Gods continues as Tim makes less of an appearance and more of an afterthought.

I have this issue.

Batman meets Wonder Woman…on another Gotham rooftop…sans Tim…to explain what he discovered about the Themysciran Goblet. Tim can be seen in all of two recap panels “standing by” as Bruce checks out the Goblet.

Notes of Interest:

1) This is Part 19 of the War of the Gods storyline.

2) Needless to say, there’s no character development here.

WTF? Moment: I understand why Tim was put in the back seat here. It’s a Wonder Woman issue, tying into a larger universe-spanning epic story. My question is – why was he even there? I’d rather see him (or any character for that matter) either involved in the given story, or not there at all.

Neat little side-story to Jon Favreau's interview...

...that happened back at SDCC 2010. All I knew that happened there was the Avengers introductions and someone getting stabbed in the eye over a seat.

But then Favreau mentioned this in his Kevin Pollack interview:

Pretty damned cool!

Bond is awesome...

I saw Skyfall recently. I liked it. It's a great "transitional" film that closes the door on the Craig years and opens another for the next film.

In fact, they made the point at the end of the movie to remind viewers that Bond will be back.

I'm not going to reveal any spoilers, but we learn a bit more about Bond's pre-007 past and MI6 gets shaken up a bit to say the least.

For die-hard fans (like me) who missed it in theaters should definitely check it out.

A new recruit has joined the ranks...

No, I didn't get Hank Pym. 315 Command Points were a bit beyond my reach.

But I did get someone cool...

 ...Sweet Christmas...

I already had Iron Fist, and you do get 50 extra points for using both Cage and Fist in the same fight, so this made sense.

So now I can bide my time training this guy up to Level 8 (the same level as most of my team) and save some silver. Training any character to Level 10 costs 100,000 silver. 100,000 silver!

WTF? Fridays...4/5/2013

It's been that kind of week...

The Good: I was able to get a computer into the basement (which has a chair, a sofa, my comics, a  tv, a blu-ray, my PS-2, some cd's and other stuff - like lights) and get it to connect to our router so I can blog without tying up the family computer.

The Bad: Between constant updates and some considerable distance from the router, the computer works online at a somewhat s l o w e r  p a c e .

Jon Favreau stopped by Kevin Pollack's Chat Show.

It was a cool conversation and ranged from his early work to Iron Man to watching films with his son to watching films with his father when he was a boy.

I'm a huge fan of Kevin Pollack's show because of the laid back approach to his conversations. Nothing's scripted, everything's on the table, swears are included and not *bleep*-ed out.

The main reason I haven't seen every episode is because of Pollack's guest choices. I've only seen shows with guests I know of, or am interested in enough to hear over two hours of talk with or about.

And tat's fine, because I'd rather watch that than listen to thirty-second soundbites and meaningless anecdotes between commercials.

AND NOW A MOMENT OF SILENCE...

Growing up, I had access to four networks: ABC, NBC, CBS and PBS.

That was it. No Cable, no Internet, no MTV, nothing else.

So the only way I could learn what films were coming out in the near future was through Saturday afternoon's Siskel and Ebert.

They were fun to watch, and I have no doubt that they're still sitting in some Chicago theater giving new movies their thumbs.

I remember the heart-breaking show where the Muppets said goodbye to Jim, and knew that son John took over Kermit...and by extension the whole "Muppet-verse".

But Jane was involved from the very beginning. 

Quoting from The Mary Sue...

"Jane was a board member of the Muppet Foundation, created in 1982 to advocate for and develop the art of puppetry. She also founded the Jim Henson Legacy following Jim’s untimely death in 1990 and the Jane Henson Foundation in 2001 to do some philanthropic work of her own."

Jane Nebel Henson was the Mother of all Muppets.

...and finally (on a lighter note)...

Gamora is slated to appear in Marvel Studios' Guardians of the Galaxy, and rumor has it that Zoe Saldana in in talks for the role.

I only know Saldana from The Losers and the Star Trek reboot, but I think she'd do nicely...as long as Gamora isn't CGI.

If they can paint a woman green for Trek, they can do it for GotG.

"Nuff said.