Top Ten TV Cartoons (plus Three Honorable Mentions)

-Swinebread

What's been going on in blurbs.

I’ve sworn off Marvel Comics… well, at least the pamphlet kind. I refuse to pay 4 bucks for a single comic book. Considering their new pricing model now, it seems like the best thing to do. I’ve found myself really tempted by Marvel’s 70th Anniversary titles and the Marvel Pets but I held firm and it feels good. On the other hand, I’m more open to picking up Marvel trades and Hardcovers. My comic shop had a big sale a while ago with either 50% off or a straight price of 10 bucks on hardcovers.

Because of this I picked up
Annihilation: Countdown Volumes One & Two. Great, well written cosmic adventures
Annihilation Classic. I just adore all these cosmic characters especially Rocket Raccoon
Marvel Monsters. A collection of old and new Kaiju-ish stories featuring creatures from Marvel’s age of monsters. The Devil Dinosaur and Fin Fang Four stories rocked.
Marvel Westerns. A collection of old and new stories featuring characters from Marvel’s Western line. The Hurricane story is probably the best Superhero,Weird Western I’ve ever read.
Marvel Visionaries: John Buscema. His early stuff, plus a random smattering of latter stories.


Speaking of cosmic characters, I really enjoyed the Annihilation stuff so much that I went out and bought Nova and Guardians of the Galaxy trades. I got most of them used at Powell’s. (My new goal is to buy mostly used and/or "on sale" comic trades as much as possible) Reading this new Nova series has been great. I’m fan of the original Nova series from way back in the 1970s, but I have been really disappointed with how he’s been depicted since. This current series finally achieves the cosmic potential that the Nova character has always had but was always ignored.


No More My New Comics?
I kinda figured what was the point since I’ve cut down to 0-2 titles a week. I guess I could do a monthly My New Comics but I’ve since fallen out of practice of doing it… It’s just not as much fun with the same few title every month.


The wife and I just watched Dororo. It’s a live-action Japanese adaptation of Osamu Tezuka’s manga of the same name. It’s pretty good with all kinds of traditional Japanese monsters and sengoku period swordplay. If you’re interested in fantasy samural stories check it out.


I did see Star Trek but never did a review. I enjoyed it quite a bit. I loved how the film brought back some of the humor of TOS. There were a few story problems especially a bunch of coinkydink stuff that I noticed after I left the theater, but all and all, a very fun film. The only thing I straight up just hated were the engine rooms… that stuff looked just like something out of MST3K. My fears for this film and the Star Trek Universe were unfounded. I’m glad I was wrong. Now Paramount, DO NOT PUT KHAN IN THE NEXT FILM. Try something new please.


Several months ago, YouTube pulled my Devo, Beautiful World, video. It lasted a little over a year.


I’ve been watching Showtime’s new show Nurse Jackie…. It’s very entertaining and Edie Falco’s character here is much more interesting than Carmella Soprano ever was. Some nurses have problems with the show but what’s getting me down is the tiredness I have for ER/hospital shows… couldn’t we have a program about park rangers or Travel agents or science fiction writers… basically the networks and cable stations are Lazy because it’s easy to find the drama in cop, law, and hospital shows.


I happened to see Vol 1 and 2 of the 1990s animated X-men show last month, so I snapped these DVDs right up. Despite the fact that we've got Gambit and Jubilee, instead of Colossus, Nightcrawler, and Shadowcat (Kitty Pryde) on the regular team, this is as close as we are ever gonna get to good adaptions of the comics. No extra features but that's OK because all the room on the disks went to ensuring the episodes are top quality.


But most of all I've been spending my time taking care of Swinebread Jr. Wow! It's been almost a year since he was born.


-Swinebread

Favorite Costumes

Since it’s almost Halloween, I thought I’d list some of my favorite comic book costumes from years gone by. You'll notice no Superman, Batman, or X-men costumes (except for Dark Phoenix) because I'm just too overexposed to them. In no particular order:

Fantastic Four She-Hulk
Shulkie is interesting because she's never really had a costume per se except for her time in the mid '80s with the FF. The results were stunning don't you think?



Spiderman
Spidey's look is as iconic as DC's big three but somehow his costume still seems fresh after all these years.



Doctor Spectrum
I enjoy this Marvelized Green Lantern for his bold colors and simple masked design.


Sandman
The original pulp superhero. You gotta' love the gas mask and gas gun.


Harbinger
She's gotta' nice mix of Roman goddess and classic Sci-fi in her superhero outfit that gives her sexy regalness that brings it home for me.


Judge Dredd
Dredd has a hardcore, over the top, and supercool costume that's perfect for fighting crime in the future.


Doctor Doom
Doom is powerful and fearsome in his medieval looking armor and green cape. Plus his sidearm gives him that modern fascist look.



Supernova
He has kind of a generic costume but that's why I like it I think. It's sort of an everyman kinda look. The combo of full mask and cape really pulls the whole thing together.


Blue Beetle
I really groove on the cross Spiderman/Batman vibe that the Blue Beetle costume (at least the Ted Kord version) has.



Scarlet Witch
I love everything about how the she looks. The Scarlet Witch is the perfect gift for Valentine's day.



Gamora
She's had a lot of changes to her costume but I like the original the best. Sassy and deadly all in one.



Psycho-Pirate
His suit messes with my emotions...



The Question
Who doesn't like a guy with a fedora and trench-coat but when you add the blank face... classic!



The Shocker
I like the fact that this guy just looks like a thug.



G.I. Joe
I picked up a few issues of the G.I. Joe when I was a kid but I dropped it after I realized it was more about shooting people then having amazing superpowers, but I was still always attracted to the title for some reason. Now I know why. It was because of the costumes. Regardless of any jingoistic message of the series, G.I. Joe had and still does have a ton of wonderfully designed outfits. Basically, the X-men movie folks ripped off costume ideas from G.I. Joe when they went they looking for a more realistic look for the mutants. Here's a few of my top favorites.

Snake-eyes


Storm Shadow



Baroness



Cobra Commader with hate hood



Captain America
OK I admit the little wings don't work as well in this day and age but otherwise what we have here is the ultimate patriotic costume. Plus the Cap shield seals the deal for me. Cap is the Defender of Liberty not the attacker for Liberty and the Shield symbolically backs that up. Folks outside the US might not be able to appreciate his outfit as much which makes sense.


Valkrie
Does this really need to be explained to you?



Dark Phoenix
Sexy Cosmic Evil? ...I think so!


Moon Knight
I've never been a super big fan of Moon Knight but I keep coming back because of the excellent look that he has.



The Rocketeer
Best homage to retro-sci-fi ever. How could this wonderfully conceived outfit not be on any comic lover's list.



Vance Astro
The Guardians of the Galaxy are great and Vance has the best costume of the group with or without cap's shield. It's simple but elegant with an amazing abllity to stick to his face.



The Human Bomb
This guys is obviously dangerous and his costume says this in spades.



Doctor Fate
The archetypal superhero magic-user. I love the Helmet and color scheme .



Union Jack
I'm not an Anglophile but Union Jack sure has a kick-ass patriotic costume.



Jennifer Morgan
She sure looks like she has mystic powers right?



Nova
His suit has been messed with a lot over the years but I like the classic version the best although the latest one isn't too shabby.



Original Spider-Woman
One of the first amazing female costumes at Marvel IMHO. The 2nd Spider-Woman had a pretty good one as well.




Mr. Monster
Nothing says Halloween Like Mr. Monster!



Hobgoblin
Playful and Scary at the same time.



Kang the Conquerer
I know that most folks think his costume is dorky but there is just something about it that works for me.



Doctor Midnight
A classic cross of Pulp Adventurer and Superhero



Green Lantern
I think Hal Jordan's orginal sleek costume was a masterstroke from a design sense but I also like all the variations that DC has created for the different Green Lanterns over the years.



Dart
probably the best thing about the Atari Force comic was the character of Dart. I loved her her sci-fi mercenary look.



Jack of Hearts
He's always been one of my favs and his complicated playing card inspired costume is one of the reasons.


Wonder Woman
I'm not particularly into WW but you have to admit that her superhero costume is one of the best ever.



-Swinebread

Fear Doubt Hate

Psycho-Man sure likes to push buttons.



-Swinebread

New X-men Cartoon Trailer

A new X-Men cartoon is on the way and Wolverine is absolutely the star. Looks good and Gambit is nowhere to be seen... Awesome!



-Swinebread

SUPERHERO CASTING - THE GOOD and BAD

Plus Hancock



-Swinebread

Randomness

Spring over here to get the scoop on the pics from the Wolverine movie set. Looks interesting especially since I didn’t even know they were in production with this thing. It’s funny because I bailed on Wolverine and X-men comics back in 1991, and back then Logan was still this guy with a mysterious past. Later, Marvel started filling in his back-story. Those comics look interesting but I never felt the urge to read them. X-men burnout I guess (and the undoing of the Dark Phoenix saga). As it stands now, the Wolverine movie could be extra entertaining for me

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MSNBC conducted an interview with David Hajdu, author of the new book, “The Ten-Cent Plague: The Great Comic-Book Scare and How it Changed America,” see here

Here’s a section by Hajdu:

The interesting thing about comics, and why comics were early to be a source of economic and social power for young people was because they were affordable. I mention this in the book, but these were things that were made by young people, for young people, marketed directly to young people and priced for young people. And they’re the only work of expression, of art, that qualified as such. Kids could buy candy bars … but not much else, for a dime. There were no other forms of art or creative expression within their reach….

Comics and the late,’40s and ’50s were more popular than any form of popular entertainment. The way to fully absorb the power that comics had was to understand not just the reach, which was extraordinary, which was huge, but also that the content of those comics and the point of view of those comics and the sensibility of those comics was so radically different from that of anything else that young people can see. If kids are going to the movies, they’re not seeing anything like this in the movies. Movies were geared toward families. There was nothing like this.

We lost a lot when comic books were practically destroyed in the 1950s by small-minded people. Comics most likely would have been as big here as Manga is in Japan had this purge not happened. Many of the readers of these 50s comics were boomers; I wonder if this is was their first rebellion? …a rebellion that was crushed.

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The Sci-Fi channel has started airing a “new show” last week about a man that morphs between three alternate universes called Charlie Jade. It’s not really new as it’s been out in Canada and South Africa for a few years.

Filmed gorgeously in and around Cape Town, this Canadian-South African co-production (2005, 20 episodes, plus one "recap" episode) centers on the adventures of the eponymous Charlie (Jeffrey Pierce), a private detective who, in the course of investigating a mysterious girl’s murder, gets catapulted into an alternative universe. Our universe. There he must unravel the machinations of the nefarious megacorporation, Vexcor, before... well, to say any more would spoil the surprise.

Charlie Jade breathes new life into the standard SF trope of the parallel universe. The show moves among three “present-day” universes: the Alphaverse, Betaverse, and Gammaverse. You won’t find Spock-with-a-Beard here; in fact, very few characters have alter egos. This—to invoke Spock again—is logical: given different life circumstances, most people’s parents wouldn’t have gotten together. Charlie comes from the Alphaverse, a Blade Runner-esque dystopia where Vexcor rules a totalitarian state of near-universal surveillance and corporate corruption. But Vexcor has a problem: the Alphaverse is running out of natural resources. Luckily for Vexcor, it has developed a universe-hopping technology that will allow the company to plunder the Gammaverse, a seeming utopian idyll of ecologically sustainable living. To reach the Gammaverse, however, Vexcor’s machine must punch a line through the Betaverse, our universe. And when Gammaverse terrorists blow up the Vexcor’s Gammaverse base, Charlie finds himself caught in the shock wave and stuck in Beta.

From Here

Trailer:


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Stephen Colbert's Make McCain Exciting Challenge! The first entries are in.



Also youtube has ton. Including one that used Dr. Zaius’ mini-me Bush here.


-Swinebread

My Top Ten Comic Book Movies

Heidi Meeley made a Top Ten Comic Book Movie list a while ago so I thought I’d make my own list. Note that I don’t include TV shows but I do include direct to video movies.

I don’t have a particular order.

Superman II – This film has some corny aspects but Superman II boasts the first spectacular superhero battle ever to grace the silver screen. You gotta love Supes flinging General Zod into the that coke sign. Plus, I really liked that fact that the villains are truly evil. After watching the Batman TV show it came as quite a shock to see psychopaths running around the with same powers as Superman.



Spiderman – Thee best adaptation of an origin story I’ve ever watched. Seeing Spiderman on the big screen is the fulfillment of a childhood dream. The overall sweep of the film is very evocative of the comics and Toby Maguire is excellent as Peter Parker.



Ghost World – This adaptation of Daniel Clowes’ comic of the same name, is an amazing film. It’s about the comedy and tragedy of two girls facing the horrible world of post high school in a suburban wasteland. It was nominated for best-adapted screenplay. It should have won.



Hellboy – A smoking and drinking demon saves the world. Ron Pearlman was born for this role and he made the character come alive. In some sense, Hellboy is the best visual realization of a comic book character ever.



X-Men – What I really like about this movie is that it’s a case of making lemonade out of lemons. It didn’t really have enough of a budget to do the X-men properly and so the creators focused on the emotional context of the characters, which is what the X-men are really all about anyway. Hugh Jackman is a total coup as wolverine and the chemistry between all the actors is truly what makes the movie.



The Mask – A zany and crazy live action cartoon is what you get with the Mask. Jim Carry’s best role imo and Dark Horse Entertainment’s first big success. What happens when your id is released onto the world? Watch The Mask and find out. The dance numbers are outta this world!



Iron Man – Iron Man is one of those movies that meets the expectations of the trailer, films rarely accomplish this. Casting Robert Down Jr. as shell head is a masterstroke and updating his origin story for our time works perfectly. It’s a tight film with plenty of action, lots of laughs and a pop culture mea culpa for the horrible things the US had done for the last seven years.


Justice League: The New Frontier – I’ve already done a review of this see here. An excellent straight to video movie adapted from an excellent comic.



American Splendor – A wonderful cross between a dramatic film and a docudrama, which I never thought was possible until I saw this film. The drama of everyday life and stress of just being alive spills onto the screen in a tale that only Harvey Pekar could tell but is relatable to everybody. One of the best films ever despite the fact it’s a “comic book movie.”



Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles – Seriously, The first film was a very faithful adaptation of the original black and white comic that started it all. Aspects of it are very dark and not like the kiddy cartoon at all but ninja turtles still is rather funny. It never pretends to be more than it is but it delivers the goods with a solid action oriented story. Plus, seeing a Muppet splinter doing martial arts is awesome.



Honorable Mention:

Creepshow – An homage as opposed to an adaptation of the EC Horror comics from the 1950s

Persepolis – I haven’t seen the film or read the book but I suspect that both are very good.

V for Vendetta – A good movie and Hugo Weaving is amazing as V but since Alan Moore hates it, V for Vendetta can’t be in my top ten.

Batman Begins – You know, I’m not really a Batman fan and I’ve come to terms with that. I hate all the Bat films but this one. (and maybe Dark Knight but it’s not out yet).


Manga
This post is about American comics but if I included Japanese manga it would push many of the American titles off the top ten, but here’s a few:

Lone Wolf and Cub (Shogun Assassin) – Yes it’s from a comic book.

Naüsicaa of the Valley of the Wind – Hayao Miyazaki made the comic first so he could make the film.

Akira – Cyberpunk at it’s best.


-Swinebread

Women's Wickedness Month

So it’s Women’s History Month again… This time around I thought I’d list a few of my favorite Female Supervillians. OK, OK, I know I’m supposed to do something “positive” for WHM, but I just couldn’t help myself. I’ve been thinking about this for a while now, and I realized that I just have to get it out of my system. Besides, these are all strong, proactive, and intelligent women so why the hell not?

The Viper (Madam Hydra)

This vixen, criminal mastermind figures very prominently in my early comic book reading experience. When I first got addicted to marvel comics, two of the first three issues I ever read from the house of ideas featured the Viper as the antagonist: Captain America #283, and New Mutants #5. Additionally, The Viper was also the villain in the first X-men comic I ever read issue #173. In all three issues, she was very alluring, despite the fact that she was stone cold crazy. Her whip, sleek body suit, green lips and half covered face (ala veronica lake) made her all the more exotic. Despite her obvious womanly charms, she’s clearly a psychopath and a terrorist. No one is able to work with her, not even the Red Skull, as her only desire is to sow destruction and chaos. The one exception is her teaming up with the Silver Samurai. It’s one of those horrid love stories in the mold of Bonnie and Clyde. The Viper is very scary because she’s the antithesis of everything a woman is “supposed” to be. She's evil, violent, and nihilistic… You never forget your first.


Superwoman

Superwoman hails from a parallel Earth where good and evil are reversed. So, essentially, she’s a bad Wonder Woman. Along with her buddies in the Crime Syndicate of Amerika (that are evil analogs of the main characters in the justice league), she subjugates her world through fear. I first encountered Superwoman in the pages of Crisis on Infinite Earths #1. She died in that story, but I became very interested in her, umm… adventures and thusly bought up all of her previous comic appearances. Her and wonder woman tying each other up was awesome. The Crime Syndicate was just too great of a concept to let go of and so Superwoman, along with rest of her team, has been revived many times. I’ve always had the feeling that she was a perv/dominatrix type and Grant Morrison’s Earth 2 comic confirmed that. In Grant’s story, she lets a sexual deviant Jimmy Olson watch her change clothes, makes a pass at Martian Manhunter by saying she’ll try anything once, and even gets Bill Clinton lassoed up and on his knees. Wow, how could this evil Amazon not intrigue me?


Titania

One of the strongest females in the Marvel Universe, Titania, has always kicked ass and never taken names. She’s often seen fighting She-Hulk, another favorite of mine, which really adds to her appeal IMO. The catfights between those two can lay waste to whole city. Titania is great because she’s wish fulfillment gone wrong. She used to be a pathetic weakling until she took Dr. Doom’s offer for superpowers and became the ultimate bully. She’s always spoiling for a fight and can’t stand being beaten. She even had a phobia of Spiderman for a while after he handed Titania her ass on a platter. Ultimately, I like her because if Titania is around there’s gonna’ be a good, knockdown brawl. What also makes her interesting is her unmitigated rage towards She-Hulk. It makes me wonder if Titania has unresolved “special feelings” for the jade giantess.


The Borg Queen

Star Trek has always been mainstream, but there was only one time when it was actually super cool outside of it’s über geeky fandom (which I have been a part of to some extent) and that coolness came in the form of the Borg Queen in First Contact. She’s a controversial figure with some Trekkies because she changed the nature of the Borg, but for me she’s brought a much-needed sexy threat to the Star Trek Universe. What makes her so frightening is that she can strip away your humanity, and enslave you body and soul. Losing you identity in a powerful woman both repels and attracts at the same time. Besides all that, I had the distinct pleasure of being assimilated by the Borg Queen at Star Trek the Experience in Las Vegas, and yes, it was good for me!


The Great Tyrant

Sometimes in life you remember the exact moment you had an epiphany. A moment like that happened to me when I was watching Barbarella. The scene where Jane Fonda’s character meets the Great Tyrant the first time, warped my 7yearold mind. See, up until that point I knew that men and women did nasty adult things together but I never knew two women could do nasty adult things together too. When I watched the Great Tyrant lusting after Barbarella and saying “your very pretty, pretty” I was shocked beyond belief. The Great Tyrant’s scene is tame but after I saw it, a whole new perverted world opened up suddenly. I was very young, very intrigued and I wanted to know more… much, much more. That’s why the Great Tyrant will always hold a special place... ...in my loins….
Watch the scene!



Dark Phoenix

Before Marvel retconned Jean Grey’s death into the realm of ridiculousness, the Dark Phoenix Saga stood as a powerful story of absolute power corrupting absolutely, down into the darkest depths of the soul. Her decent into madness and cosmic evil is the greatest X-Men story ever told IMO. The rest of the franchise has been chasing this masterpiece ever since. What makes the Dark Phoenix so chilling is that she was a warm and wonderful person, Jean Grey the hero, but she was manipulated into becoming a cosmic threat that nearly destroyed everyone that Jean ever cared about. We all worry about the evil that exists inside of us but what if that evil took us over totally. This is what happened in the Dark Phoenix saga, and that’s why as a villain, she stands the test time despite the fact that Marvel has undone the consequences of this gem of story since it first appeared. If you only read one X-Men collection, read this one. Dark Phoenix is truly among the greatest of all supervillains and she reminds me of an era when comics were amazing.

Honorable Mention

Mystique:
What’s fun about Mystique is that I like both her Comic Book and Movie incarnations. In the comic she’s a strong, bisexual leader and in the movies she’s a sexy assassin/spy. But most of all she's got shape changing powers and smurfy blue skin. Now that’s awesome.

Terra:
The whole Judas Contact was another of those great comic book storylines and Terra was it’s malicious star. Her traitorous activities to bring down the Teen Titans proved her to be an especially devious villain. You gotta’ appreciate someone that’s simply been bad from the beginning but fooled everyone into thinking she was one of the good girls.

Catwoman:
I’m not all that much into Batman, but I have admit he sure met his soul mate of a sort in Catwoman. She’s, sexy, crafty and makes thieving look oh so good. Catwoman seems to have survived that horrible movie with Halle Barry, proving she’s got nine lives.

Queen Bavmorda:
When I saw Willow as a teenager, I was supposed to cheer for Madmartigan, feel empathy for Willow Ufgood, and enjoy the antics of the two brownies, Franjean and Rool, but you know what? I found evil Queen Bavmorda in her dark and dreary castle the most interesting part of the whole movie.

-Swinebread