2011 Gift Guides: Gifts for Comic Book Lovers.

 Does your loved one, love comics more than anything else? Here's the ultimate list of must have graphic novels. Whether the person has read or even currently owns a copy of these books or not, a new copy is always appreciated as the pages will be less worn. Every one of these can be read over and over to non-stop enjoyment. Stop in to any local comic book store to pick up copies of these books.

15. Y: The Last Man. This series can be had in either 10 softcover or five hardbound editions. It tells the story of the last man on planet Earth. Not only is he the last man, but barring his pet monkey, he is the last surviving mammal on the planet. Pick this series up to discover why.

14. Sandman. From another of the masters of the medium, this time it's Neil Gaiman. The series ran for 75 issues, but has since been reprinted in 4 ultimate hardcover editions. The story is of the personification of dreams. The main character is Dream, though he goes through many names throughout the series. Other aspects of fate are also featured in the series.

13. Justice League of America: Tower Of Babel. Several members of the Justice League have been attacked with bizarre, but dangerously effective, methods. From a blind Green Lantern who can't use his imagination to make constructs to now water-fearing Aquaman, the race is on to find out who's responsible and what's their endgame. Soon to be a new DC Animated straight-to-DVD film, it stands as one of the best written arcs of the Justice League.

12. Wolverine. Written by Chris Clairemont and penciled by Frank Miller, this four issue arc, that has been reprinted in graphic novel form several times took the character of Wolverine from a flat two dimensional raging character, to one with depth, feeling and back story.

11. Sin City: A Dame To Kill For. Dwight McCarthy thought she was out of his life forever. But he was wrong... women like Ava Lord never really leave you. And when she crosses his path again, he's going to wish he never met her... Second in the sensational Sin City series, this is said to be the main story to be adapted for the sequel to the 2005 Sin City adaptation. A noir story like no other, and one of the best Frank Miller works.

10. V For Vendetta. Alan Moore, who wrote this, is a true visionary. He's helped to define what graphic novels are, and what they can strive to be. V for Vendetta tells the story of V, as he revolts against the British Parliament in a myopic future.

9. Black Summer. Originally an eight issue arc, now you can get all of the individual issues in graphic novel form from one of the masters himself, Warren Ellis. The story is about masked heroes and villains dealing with political strife in the 1980's.

8. Buffy The Vampire Slayer: Season Eight. Picking up about a year and a half after the events of the TV show Buffy The Vampire Slayer, the titular heroine faces new challenges, new roles and a new villain as she struggles to cope with all the changes she's been through. Old enemies rise again but can they defeat an army of Slayers and their network? The official continuation of the show and just as fantastic as the show that started it all, Buffy The Vampire Slayer: Season Eight is a great revival. Catch up with Buffy and the new Scoobies, starting with the first arc, The Long Way Home.

7. Civil War. After a horrible incident involving a staggering amount of fatalities, the superhero community becomes divided when a new bill is proposed, stating that all costumed crimefighters must register their identities with the government and work in tandem with them. Iron Man leads the side willing to work with the government, Captain America leads those wishing to remain unmasked. A landmark event in Marvel history, one with ramifications lasting years after its conclusion.

6. Scott Pilgrim. falling hard for aloof newcomer Ramona Flowers, Scott Pilgrim learns if he is to win her heart completely, he must defeat her seven evil ex-lovers in combat. A six part series, this is a hilarious and invigorating ride which the movie, while compressed, was extremely faithful to. Volume 1 is entitled Scott Pilgrim's Precious Little Life.

5. The Walking Dead. Winner of the 2010 Eisner Award for best continuing series, this follows a group of survivors as they try to make their way in the world following a zombie apocalypse.

4. Runaways. Six kids discover their parents are a criminal cabal known as The Pride and that each of them have powers or weapons at their disposal. Gathering what they can, the kids (Alex, Nico, Karolina, Chase, Gert and Molly, as well as their newly discovered genetically engineered dinosaur) leave their homes and try to find a place to stay as they fight their parents. Currently on hiatus, now would be the opportune time to start reading this excellent series, starting with Volume 1: Pride And Joy.

3. The Dark Knight Returns. Bruce Wayne has been retired for 10 years as Batman. However, crime has gotten even more out of hand and he can stand it no more. His body may have aged, but his mind is as sharp as ever as the Caped Crusader bursts back on the scene, leaving many to question if the Dark Knight's return is a gift from the gods, or the cataclysm Gotham has been heading towards. A pivotal read in the long and wonderful history of the masked man hunter of Gotham

2. Watchmen. Set in an alternate 1980's, where Richard Nixon is still president, and super heroes have been deemed illegal, this book starts with the death of the Comedian, and ends with a massive attack on New York City, but do the heroes come out of retirement in time to save the city? Pick up the book to find out. This is the only graphic novel to make Time Magazine's 100 all-time greatest novels list.

1. DC Comics: The New 52. A hardcover book that won't be released until Dec. 13, not only is it new, but it's timely. This book will compile all 52 number one issues of the newly relaunched titles in the DC comics universe.

Bonus Buy: JLA/Avengers. One of the most anticipated crossovers in comic book history the flagship superhero team from each of the industries top publishers, end up working together to stop an evil so great it threatens both universes.

Captain America: Prisoner of War

My first Cap comic, and I was a bit disappointed. The story was decent enough, but the art on this was bad, and often distracting.

The story is about Bucky, who was recently arrested and then sent off  to a prison in Siberia for the supposed crimes he committed during the period that he was the Winter Soldier. The hitch there is that the Winter Soldier, while technically Bucky, was acting on orders while under mind control.

The prison scenes are similar to that of Capt. Kirk in one of those Star Trek films, though with pit fighting added in. Eventually Bucky decides to escape, even though he knows that it will cause an international incident, and he ends up blowing up the entire prison. Black Widow helps him to escape Antarctica and return to America.

Magnets and the Superhero Flavored Candy!

Two stores, two amazing discoveries in the past few days.

First at a dollar store in Allen Park, I discovered a bunch of Superhero candies.  Some were gummies (my personal favorite variety of candy) others were these crunchy tart candies that are shaped like heroes. There were also candy sticks, or what used to be called candy cigarettes and then there were the taffy pieces. Iron Man, Spider-Man, Captain America, The Incredible Hulk and Wolverine each adorned different flavors of taffy.  The best part of these taffies though, is that normally I would pay a quarter a piece for them, but these come in packages of 10 for $1. There was also some Spider-Man candy rope type things, I haven't tried them yet, but they look good.

Other candies discovered, were gummies and crunchies based on Super Mario Bros. characters, and also more candy sticks based on some Hanna Barbara characters.

At anther store, not all that far from the office that has recently opened, I found some other cool things, namely some Superhero themed magnets that will be used to decorate my space at work.  I'll have magnets all over my desk, and some lawn gnomes on top of my desk from here on out.  I'll save the gnome discussion for another day though, for now it's all about the Superhero magnets.

My mother was with me as we stopped at Five Below, that's where I bought a few cool things a couple of weeks ago, and also where I found the gnomes and magnets, and some other stuff.

The magnets are the coolest thing so far though, I got two cool bigger Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles ones, as well as the 'normal' ones with Captain America (three variations), Spider-Man (2 variations), Thor (2 variations), The Punisher, The X-Men (2 variations), Iron Man, Superman, and another Ninja Turtles one. There is also one there about gnomes, which was funny to me that I was able to get that the same day I got the gnomes.

As the name suggests, everything in the store is $5 or less, and they have a lot of cool stuff, I will be back again.

My comic book Confession.

   Today, I'll admit to you all a secret that I've kept from the nerd community for a long time. I'm a wannabe, a know-nothing, a fake, fraud, and whatever other insult that you want to include.  What it boils down to is this.  I claim to be a well rounded geek (feel free to insert random fat jokes if you must.) yet I've barely read any comic books in my life before the last year.
   Growing up comic books were not accessible to me, there were no local comic shops in small town rural Temperance, Michigan. I know I claim Monroe, that is where I was born, and lived until about age 7, but after that it was all Temperance baby. But I digress, unlike past generations of nerds, I had many options of where to spread my geek to. I got to 'watch' my comics as there were more animated shows based on comic characters than ever before, many of the stories were ripped right out of the comics. Comics were expensive, and I grew up sans the silver spoon needed to properly feed my nerdy obsession.
   Video games were huge in my generation as well, sure there was the Atari before us, but most advancements in home gaming game happened during my generation as well, that meant another thing to split my time with.
   Then came the internet, and soon after wikipedia. I know that it's not a good source for a journalist or a research paper, but it's great for a nerd. Mostly it's edited by the more nerdly among us, and we self moderate our selves and and massively fact check each other. The great thing about wikipedia is that it allowed me to catch up on years of history in a few hours, and very cheaply.
   Unfortunately that meant I still didn't dive into comics as much as I wanted to, and it allowed me to sound knowledgeable among the community I so wanted to be a part of, simply because I knew the story lines, and if something were mentioned that I didn't know, I'd simply claim to not remember, or that I must have missed that issue.
   Pre-2010 I had probably read less than 20 comic books in my life, and maybe 5 or 6 trade paper backs. A lot of that has changed in recent years, as I've figured out I can get TPB's from the library, and that the library has deals where I can get books from just about anywhere. I'm loving it.  I currently have 33 trade's checked out, and I rip through them in about an hour each.
   I'm catching up mostly on Batman and the Flash right now, but I will soon move on to catching up on more stuff. Please leave me a comment and let me know your suggestions of what I should check out. And please don't chastize me to much, for being 'in the closet' for so long with my secret. I'm out now, and looking for help to fix the whole in my geek playbook.

"When Spider-Man lands on a rooftop, make sure he doesn't land on any pigeons"

   The nostalgia bug has hit me recently, that combined with Netflix recently putting on a ton of old shows, has lead me to the path of rewatching Spider-Man the Animated Series.  the show originally ran from Nov. 1994 until Jan. 1998, a total of 65 episodes over the five seasons.

   The great thing about this show, was that it didn't find the need to over explain things like a lot of shows and even movies do today, but it didn't dumb down anything for kids either.  Season one throws us straight into the thick of things, Peter Parker is already Spidey, and he's out fighting supercriminals, no backstory needed.

   The show has a lot of science and techno babble, 99 percent of which is made up completely.  But ti doesn't try to over explain the science behind this stuff, it just works its way into the conversations on the show and the viewer is expected to understand it.

   The animation holds up to today's standards, even better than a lot of current shows.  Marvel and DC both had several shows out in this time frame, and animation wise, this was one of the best looking shows of the era. Voice wise, Christopher Barnes, while not a well known actor, was an amazing Spider-Man.

   Season one lasted 13 episodes, and introduced us to many classic Spidey villains such as the Lizard, Shocker, Venom, Mysterio, the Hobgoblin and many more.

   Batman the animated series was still on the air when this show debuted, as was Superman the animated series.  The powers that be at the next sent out a memo stating "When Spider-Man lands on a rooftop, make sure he doesn't land on any pigeons," hence the title. What that meant however was that they wanted a show with much less violence than Batman. Batman didn't take any punches when it came to beating on the baddies, Spider-Man wasn't allowed to do anything that would insinuate violence.  He only even attempted to throw a single punch in the entire series, which did not land.

   That memo however in no way changes the enjoyability of the show. the show remains one of my favorite animated shows of all time.

   Stay tuned for reviews of seasons 2-5, and my overall impressions of the show in the near future.


Episode #1 - Night of the Lizard
Original Airdate - November 19th, 1994
Peter's science teacher, Dr. Curt Connors, transforms himself into the Lizard while attempting an experiment to regenerate his missing limb. Consumed by the animal instincts of the Lizard, Dr. Connors terrorizes the city and becomes a hunted man. When Spider-Man discovers that his teacher is in fact the monster he has been trying to capture, he must find a cure before Dr. Connors' transformation becomes irreversible.

Episode #2 - The Sting Of The Scorpion
Original Airdate - March 11th, 1995
J. Jonah Jameson hires a detective, Mac Gargan, to be transformed into a super hero to fight Spider-Man and names him the Scorpion. But Scorpion turns on his creators after he mutates and attempts to blow up a power plant. Now Spider-Man must clean up the mess that Jameson has created and stop Scorpion before he destroys the city.

Episode #3 - The Spider Slayer
Original Airdate – February 4th, 1995
In order to pay off his debt to the crime boss known as the Kingpin, Norman Osborn hires Spencer Smythe to design a powerful robot called the Spider-Slayer to capture and destroy Spider-Man. Spider-Man manages to defeat the machine along with Spencer Smythe in a massive exposion...or did he?

Episode #4 - Return of the Spider Slayers
Original Airdate - Feburary 11th, 1995
Alistair Smythe, Spencer Smythe's son, builds three more Spider-Slayers to destroy Spider-Man and the people he holds responsible for his father's death.

Episode #5 - The Menace of Mysterio
Original Airdate - Feburary 25th, 1995
As part of a personal vendetta a new villain in town, Mysterio, frames Spider-Man in order to tarnish his reputation and attempts to gain the status as the real hero of New York. Now, Spider-Man must foil Mysterio's plan and expose him for the villain he is!

Episode #6 - Doctor Octopus: Armed and Dangerous
Original Airdate - February 18th, 1995
Spider-Man battles the villain known as Doctor Octopus, who has kidnapped Felicia Hardy and J. Jonah Jameson for ransom. Spider-Man discovers that Doctor Octopus has a personal vendetta against Felicia's mother, Anastasia. Now, Spider-Man must find a way to put an end to the grudge and save two innocent lives.

Episode #7 - The Alien Costume, Part 1
Original Airdate - April 29th, 1995
Spider-Man comes across an alien symbiote that attaches itself to him and forms a new black costume. Meanwhile, Eddie Brock accuses Spider-Man of stealing a valuable rock which was really stolen by the Rhino. Now Spider-Man faces a $1,000,000 bounty for his capture.

Episode #8 - The Alien Costume, Part 2
Original Airdate - May 6th, 1995
When Spider-Man discovers that his black costume is a living organism, he decides to use it to get back the Prometheum X. Meanwhile, Eddie Brock's lies eventually leads to his firing when Jameson realizes that he's been duped. Spider-Man eventually removes the symbiote after fighting the Shocker, only for it to find a new host, Eddie Brock. 

Episode #9 - The Alien Costume, Part 3
Original Airdate - May 13th, 1995
Eddie Brock, now bonded with the symbiote costume and calling himself Venom, sets out to destroy Spider-Man. Now faced with a stronger foe that possesses the same abilities as him, Spider-Man must find a way to outwit and outmatch this menacing new villain and send the alien symbiote back to outer space.

Episode #10 - Kraven the Hunter
Original Airdate – April 1st, 1995
Spider-Man finds himself caught between Mariah Crawford, a doctor from Africa, and Kraven, a man who has stalked her all the way to America. An accomplished hunter, Kraven gained animal-like abilities when he ingested a cure to save his life, but the side effects are causing his behavior to be erratic and violent. Spider-Man works with Mariah Crawford to find a cure and save an innocent man and the people around him.

Episode #11 - The Hobgoblin, Part 1
Original Airdate - May 20th, 1995
Norman Osborn hires the the Hobgoblin to take out Wilson Fisk, but when he fails Osborn fires him. To get revenge on Osborn, Hobgoblin changes sides and kidnaps Norman's son, Harry, for the Kingpin. 

Episode #12 - The Hobgoblin, Part 2
Original Airdate - May 27th, 1995
Spider-Man goes after the Hobgoblin after he attacks Aunt May and kidnaps Harry Osborn. He forms an alliance with Norman Osborn and unknowingly becomes allied with the Kingpin as well. After rescuing Harry, Spider-Man finds himself in an all-out no-holds-barred fight to the finish with the Hobgoblin.

Episode #13 - Day of the Chameleon
Original Airdate - June 11th, 1995
A new villain, The Chameleon, is impersonating other people through an image-inducing belt and plans to assassinate two major diplomats on the brink of signing an important peace proposal. But the Chameleon makes a misstep when he unwisely takes the appearance of Peter Parker while Spider-Man is around. Spider-Man battles his doppelganger to ensure that the peace treaty goes according to plan. 

It's Hammer Time!

No, this is not a post about MC Hammer, but rather a review of the Thor Blu-Ray and DVD combo pack that was recently released (Sept. 13 in America).

   Synopsis: The powerful but arrogant warrior Thor is cast out of the fantastic realm of Asgard and sent to live amongst humans on Earth, where he soon becomes one of their finest defenders.

   The movie was just as good as it had been in theater, which I saw with a group of my friends on the opening weekend.Chris Hemsworth, who I can't recall seeing in anything prior to this was an amazing casting choice for Thor. Tom Hiddleston turned in a fantastic performance as Loki and Natalie Portman, Kat Dennings andStellan Skarsgård were all well above what I expected from the film. Anthony Hopkins and Rene Russo seemed to be more cameo appearances that actual roles in the film sadly.  Each had less than 5 minutes screen time. The script was done well enough that it was believable in this universe that Thor and the other Asgardians were real and not simply a toss in just to get the character into next summer's Avenger film. I'll leave a film review out of this for now, since I am reviewing the DVD and not the film proper.

   For the purpose of review, I bought the BluRay 2 disc edition of the film, and am working off of that.  There is also a 3D version, which I chose not to go for since I do not yet have a 3D TV or a 3D DVD player, key on the yet there. I want one of each badly.  Not that I am a huge fan of 3D films, but I am a huge fan of technology and it's never bad to have options to watch more stuff and different stuff.   I'll start with the visuals. The film is visually stunning, beautiful backdrops and believable special effects.  The frigid visuals of Jotunheim going against the beauty and grace of Asgard, all tied in together with the stark nothingness of the New Mexico desert, put it all together mix in one part ageless beauty from Portman, and add in the hulking mass of a man in Hemsworth for the ladies and this film has it all visually.  The transfer to the disc, while not flawless is fantastic.

   Moving on to the audio aspect, the transfer is fantastic.  The sound mixing has a 7 channel mix for Region 1 and a 5 channel for Region 2.  The film has many dynamic thundering sounds that are all mixed in well enough to seem realistic. Sure no one truly knows what it sounds like when an ice giant dies, but the audio mix here is pretty darn believable. 

   Now for the stuff you really came here to read about, the special features.  This set is jam packed with stuff. Director Kenneth Branagh gives us great insight into the film with his commentary track.  There are 11 deleted or extended scenes, all of which have commentary from Branagh.  There are also no less than 7 featurettes that detail every aspect of the film.  Though standard on nearly every DVD these days, the teaser and full length trailer are also included.  Subtitles are included in several languages other than the standard English and Spanish, and several other trailers are also included. The best part about all of these special features is that they are all in HD quality, something most extras on other DVD's are not.

   

   Overall I'd give this DVD a 4.25 rating out of 5.  There aren't a lot of areas that need improvement, but it could have done better in some regards.  All in all it's a fantastic fun experience for both the casual observer and the hardcore fan.