Comic Book Journal

And first, the dailies -

In Least I Could Do, Rayne is up to no good - as usual - following Noel to his date with Katie, whom he met at a speed dating event a couple storylines ago. Rayne makes a pest of himself as ever, while Noel wonders how he can keep the date going with Katie with Rayne ever-present.

In Dominic Deegan, the last Chosen strikes at “the bearded guy” - who is actually a depowered Gregory - in attempt to provoke a confrontation. With Gregory recovering, Dominic disguises Quilt as Gregory as a last ditch effort for diplomacy. The diplomatic effort by Dominic is a bit surprising to me - in most stories, he’s all about hastily confronting evil, not dealing with it, and while this “evil” is represented by a pretty girl instead of shrouded necromancer and creepy orc, ambigious characters - and more importantly, reactions to them - are Mookie’s sometimes unconsistent weakness.

And finally, in Arthur King of Time and Space, Lancelot recovers from a fight thanks to a magic shield, which the webcomic has to back-track to explain the significance. Now Lancelot now has to save his king and country from imprisonment and invasion - yet again.

In the monthly categories -

In This is Gravity, Dexter and Amanda discover the cause of the mysterious fires sweeping through town to be a bizzarely distant Maggie. This can’t be good . . .

Freelance work has prolonged any work being done on Between Two Worlds, so we’ll try back next month.

And in Bardsworth, Mike grapples with an honest enchantment, while getting a good grade in Bard class just for telling the truth - here’s the twist: the magical denziens of this world don’t believe a word he’s saying about our real world and chalk it up to assigned roleplaying!

Marvel keeps getting better and better . . . could it be the company is winding up for its own version of Infinte Crisis? First the New Avengers find Skrulls influencing things since the first issue, and now the X-Men are connecting with the ultimate epilogue of House of M: Messiah Complex.

The Mike Carey-written storyline - set for October 2007 - deals with the birth of what looks to be the first in the next generation of mutant kind, and involves various factions, including not only the X-Men, but also Sinister’s Marauders as well as the Purifiers, an anti-mutant force formed by William Stryker of X-Men 2 and God Loves, Man Kills, in race to find the child.

The crossover promises to unite the X-Men in ways not seen for years - which is a relief, considering the X-Titles have been more than a little bit gloomy since even before House of M. The characters apparently playing a starring role include Bishop, Gambit (presumably a Marauder, unless something changes in this week’s X-Men #200), Warpath, Angel, Mystique, Angel, Cyclops (wearing something very close to his classic costume, at least in the cover) as well as my personal favorite, Jamie Maddrox.

Speaking of Maddrox, I’m looking to order the Peter David Maddrox mini-series Multiple Choice from Amazon, which launched the best-selling X-Factor in the beginning. I’ll provide a full review soon enough, and I promise to keep you all posted on any plot details concerning Messiah Complex.

Its official: Stan Lee has just got a star on the broadway Hollywood Walk of Fame. Lee’s literal co-stars in this will be Angela Bassett, Cate Blanchett, Christina Aguilera, Brooks & Dunn, Ricky Martin, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Vince McMahon, Howie Mandel and Tim Robbins.

Its long overdue, yet somewhat surprising, considering Lee has been in the business long before all the others, but really only earned the recognition for his work in “motion pictures”. Considering everything else he did, it just seems rather limiting to focus all of his (admittedly recent) accomplishments in that one area, which make up only a small portion of his career.

Still, its a huge, huge honor and great day for comic book fans!

Okay, this is one piece of news that I’ll just have to believe when I see . . . because its so downright awesome!

Ain’t It Cool News is reporting . . . with a fair amount of clarity . . . that a major Marvel character will be making his cameo in the upcoming Iron Man flick next summer - none other than Nick Fury.

Now a lot of old school fans might rule their eyes at this one - we get to starve through another shot of David Hasselhoff as the One-Eyed Super Spy! Like once wasn’t enough!

However, this isn’t the Old School Nick Fury we’re talking about. This is the Ultimate version - a bold, and in my frank opinion, entirely awesome new re-invention of the character. In the Ultimates (Ultimate version of the Avengers), Nick Fury is patterned so directly under one man - Samuel L. Jackson.

Who is just finishing shooting his own cameo as the future SHIELD head in the movie.

Like I said, I’ll believe it when I see it. Its not totally far-fetched - Samuel L. is a noted comic book fan, so much so that he lent his likeness for use in Ultimates. But Marvel had trouble nailing down Samuel L. Jackson for the voice-over work in Ultimate Avengers 1 and 2 and well as the Ultimate Spider-Man video game, casting doubt upon the premise of seeing this singularly cool character as intended.

However, a solo film has been in the works for quite some time - one which uses the Ultimate take, with Will Smith a rumored contender at one point.

Like I said, I’ll believe it when I see it. I’m not convinced this isn’t just some fans starting a rumor in the hope it comes true. But even a cameo of the character - with Samuel L. in the role - would bring an uncomparable air of coolness to this already solid-sounding super-flick!

The MMORPG-based comic City of Heroes - just about the only other comic I actually have a mailing subscription to - is set to end in about a month or so (figures).

City of Heroes has already eclisped two runs from two different publishers. The first, by Blue King Studios, focused on on minor heroes Apex, War Witch and Horus, in their efforts against the various supervillain groups of Paragon City. This one got off to a rocky start, and though its character were superb by the end, cheesy dialogue in the start as well poorly-picked side characters were the death of this series. To make matters worse, the Blue King run completely ignored to the heroes at the heart of COH - like the ones on the box!

The second series, by Top Cow, corrected this problem by recruiting serious comic book muscle like Mark Waid, Dan Jurgens and Troy Hickman while injecting a focus on the premiere superteam, the Freedom Phalanx as well as the Teen Titan-esque Vindicators. While heads and tails above the Blue King Studios run, the Top Cow series still had problems - namely focusing too much on its NPC heroes and not enough on player-created heroes.

First off, I wouldn’t argue with the cancelling of the comic - it was prone to delays, and since it was Top Cow, I have a feeling if it wasn’t selling it was burning a hole in NCSoft’s pocket. However, I do think there should be something comic-related out there to entice the regular audience.

The comics have included strips from the likes of Ctrl Alt Del’s Tim Buckley as well as others in the past, and this practice should continue on the website. In addition, I recommend (warning: vagrant self-promotion approaching!) a humor action-driven webcomic picking off where the comic left off, done in the style of say, my own webcomic Hector! (**cough** my schedule is open **cough**)

While I’ll be sorry to see the City of Heroes comic go - nothing made me want to play more, even when my account is inactive - I do think there are plenty of interesting options awaiting the folks at NCSoft. I can’t wait to see what they do next.

A quiet week for once . . .

Least I Could Do returns from New York after confirming the non-existence of ninjas or turtles. Rayne gets a call from his brother, who announces he has a cat named Qui-Gon Jinn. Rayne considers injecting his cat Baby with midi-chlorians.

No new Dominic Deegan’s this week, after a move and break-up threw the creator Mookie into a major deep funk. I offer my condolesnces to Mookie.

And in Arthur King of Time and Space, Arthur is captured, and Lancelot is captured trying to rescue him. Well, things don’t go exactly like that in the Western time period, where Lancelot does something else to, uhhh, help the forlorn Guinivere.

Mark Waid is returning to one of the first books which launched him into a comic career, and with him, a very familiar face is returning to book as well.

But the return isn’t without a major casualty to the DCU . . .

LAST CHANCE TO AVOID SPOILERS

During the latest issue of the JLA/JSA crossover “The Lightning Saga”, Wally West - MIA since Infinite Crisis - was pulled back from the Speed Force during on the part of an effort by several Legionaires to save another missing member.

However, in the same week, Bart Allen - the current Flash - was stripped of his powers and then brutally murdered by Rogues Aba Cadabra, Mirror Master, Heat Wave, Inertia, Captain Cold and Pied Piper.

It is surpising that Bart was killed now in the game - though Flash is always imperiled every time DCU does something big, a throw-back to the death of previous speedsters Barry Allen and Johnny Quick. Still, despite a rough start, the Flash books seemed to have been doing better - before this happened. However, after such a rocky start - a really rocky start - DC could have been planning this as a contingency.

The title will now restart as All Flash #1, with Wally - as well as his family - returning to DCU. In an interview with Wizard, Waid said, “All Flash is specifically about Bart and Wally and their relationship and the passing of the torch, and how tragic it is to have to pass the baton and then to have to take the baton back.”

I like Mark Waid a lot, and I’m really glad to see the character back in his hands - but I just wish it was under better circumstances.

If Civil War wasn’t enough - putting Spider-Man back in the black costume, revealing his identity on live TV and, for at least the time being, putting Aunt May in the hospital after a botched assassination attempt - Marvel plans to do a lot more.

First there’s the upcoming “One More Day” - J. Michael Straczynski’s final magnum opus for the Spider-Man books. The story will definitely tie up the fate of not only Aunt May, but Mary Jane’s relation to Peter Parker. In an interview with IGN, future Spider-books editor Steve Wacker said, “Well, I think there have been more than enough Aunt May and Mary Jane stories.”

However, it should be noted that following “One More Day”, another storyline called “Brand New Day” will revamp not only the Spider-Man support casting, but the books themselves. Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man and Sensational Spider-Man will be cancelled, while Amazing Spider-Man will be put out three times a month.

There’s also talk of bringing back Spider-Man’s old support cast. While I’m not a big fan of getting rid of MJ - Peter seems worst off as a character without her rather than with her - I think tue supporting cast is crucial. While there have been attempts to make characters like Flash Thompson relevant again, Marvel needs to just ground its heels in and get these characters back into Spider-Man’s life.

Overall, we’ll see how this plays out in Spider-Man’s life. I personally think the guys been through enough hell - don’t mess his life up anymore - but seeing the cover of Brand New Day, where Spider-Man is brandishing a gun on someone - leads me to conclude neither the best or worse has come yet for our friendly neighorhood Spider-Man.

So Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer soared to the top of the box office this past weekend. Its a hip, funny and entertaining flick, but how does it stack up to its comic counterpart? Find out below.

The Fantastic Four - All of the Foursome’s comic book personalities are intact, perhaps even more so than the first movie. Seeing as how Reed Richard’s bumbling scientific curoristy interrupts his own wedding, its no stretch (no pun intended) to see him driving his own relationship with Sue through ground during Civil War. Sue and Johnny’s relationship is very strong in this episode, particularly as Johnny starts swapping powers left and right like the Super-Skrull. When one of these power-swaps causes Sue to get hurt, Johnny realizes he’s a danger to everyone around him. Its actually his frequent tormentor Ben Grimm who sticks with him, adding to the family feel. Of course, the squabbling isn’t completely lost in the script, and during a military operation, the general at one point exclaims “What the hell is wrong with you people?” during a family feud.

Grade: A

The Silver Surfer: Perfectly rendered in both CGI and plain costume, the guy looks great. Laurence Fishburne nails the voice, but I have a feeling the unsung hero here is Doug Jones, who plays the Surfer is body but not voice (he also played Abe Sapien in a similar capacity on Hellboy). Jones gives the Surfer a powerful yet interesting body vocabulary. Its all here - we learn the Silver Surfer’s former identity - Norrin Rad - and why he does what he does - sacraficing himself for the love of his live. Even when he’s down charged with the Power Cosmic, he’s a wonder to behold.

Grade: A

Dr. Doom: Julian McMahon is as bad-ass as ever as the chrome-domed adversary of the Fantastic Four. Freed from his icy prison, Doom starts investigating the Silver Surfer, eventually teaming up with the Four to bring down this otherwordly menace, though he has - not surprisingly - an ulterior motive. I could have used more details on Latveria - a place only hinted at in the first firm. Also, once Dr. Doom finally obtains the Surfer’s board, he really doesn’t do anything with it save gliding around the city. Dr. Doom was greaty portrayed by McMahon, but not quite up to the devious manipulation of his counterpart.

Grade: B

Galactus: Granted, the big guy is really hard to do, but the filmmakers took the easy way out far too much here. While the intergalactic storm cloud is intimidating, it just isn’t Galactus. There’s no real character to it - it doesn’t talk, and we only think we see the familiar head piece behind a wall of flames. Yes, this is a character to do, but there needed to be more here. The way things are going now, there’s no character, not even an ominous figure. The sense of sinister forbodding is present though, just no attached presence.

Grade: C

Frankie Raye: Played by hottie Beau Garrett, there’s little hint of this character’s future as a herald of Galactus. She does end up with Johnny Storm in the end - just like the comics - but there’s little chemistry between their love-hate relationship. The character exists as a sidenote, and I have a feeling there might be a couple deleted scenes on the cutting room floor expanding both her character and her relation with Johnny Storm.

Grade: C+

Overall: A solid entry into fantastic film, one of the surprising saving graces of the series lies in the fact that the stories are spread out so much. This isn’t like Spider-Man (Oh, we have to do the new Goblin now) or X-Men (Oh, we have to do Dark Phoenix now). As a result, I have a feelin the Fantastic franchise will know a surprising amount of freedom - coupled with its action comedy core - than the other Marvel movies.

Grade: B

Marvel’s future is looking pretty green, and I’m not talking about money or the Hulk.

In the latest issue of New Avengers, Echo regained her senses after a near-brainwashing and returned the favor to her killer/resurrecter/abducter Elektra by stabbing her.

No sooner was Elektra killed than revealed to be a Skrull, a shapeshifting race whose empire has been devastated by the Annhilation Wave. Interviews with writer Brian Michael Bendis at Newsarama and Wizard have revealed this incident plays into a major 2008 Marvel event where the Skrulls may have infiltrated and replaced characters through out the M.U.

And its not just Elektra - Luke Cage’s baby is looking green, and depending how you interpret Jessica Jones’ “Okay. Then.” response, its possible she’s been replaced as well.

The quintessential Skrull replacement tale occured during the end of the Secret Wars, with Alicia Masters was replaced by female Skrull named Lyja. With the original Alicia tucked away in suspended animation, Lyja intended to marry Johnny Storm after Ben Grimm stayed on Battleworld. Though a reconning, this story “works” because Lyja wasn’t discarded as a plot device - and remained an ally of the Fantastic Four for some time after her revelation. Its even possible she’ll appear in the Skrull event, having remained a human woman (in a different form - Masters was freed) since the events of Onslaught.

That’s what Bendis will have to do to make this event “work” on a similar level - give life and personality to the Skrulls. If he can make this new batch of Skrulls - who apparently feel Earth is their religious right after the death of their empire - with a sense of deep conviction and character, then fans will accept it. Since its Bendis, I’m very confident this story will turn out alright.

There is, however, no reconning in place - the Skrull Infiltration doesn’t tie into the events of House of M or Civil War. However, Bendis has stated Skrull activity appeared throughout the first New Avengers arcs, which makes me rather nervous.

Bendis is playing with green fire, I think, and he’ll have to be really careful releasing the genie - or Skrull - from the bottle, because this is a hard story to nail. However, if he does make it work, the rewards for a tale of paranoia and suspicion on the M.U. will be entirely worth it.

Well, there’s major stories running in all three strips, so let’s get started, shall we?

Least I Could Do - After a musical stand-off with a puppet and then a random attack on a man dressed as an M&M, Rayne finally reaches his board room meeting, where he is seemingly tasked with whipping the NYC chapter of the company into shape. I still can’t shake there’s something more sinister way way in the background of the NYC trip - that either Rayne is tasked with firing this chapter or has a pink slip of his own waiting for him back home. But that was my impression when this whole thing began a couple weeks ago.

Dominic Deegan - Gregory uses his newfound disguise to elude the Chosen, and calls upon uber-bombastic tomboy Rachel for some sort of ploy. He also uses his alter ego to publish an article in the paper, sending a clear message to the last Chosen - he knows she’s out there, and recognized her on the battlefield long ago, but forgives her from her actions, and remains regretful for his inability to save her comrades during the battle.

Arthur King of Time and Space - Not really a lot happening, but the story is going in an interesting direction. Guinevere and Lancelot continue their affair, while King Arthur is away - apparently having an affair of his own!

Wednesday I finally remembered to take my notepad and pencil to the grocery store and write down the titles avaliable there.

As I said before, the comics were pushed back to the bottom shelf and furthest rack, but seeing as how my feature was delayed by a kid ransacking the rack, these comics are at least somewhat popular in my home town. Here’s a list of what I found:

DC Animated Titles including Legion of Superheroes in the 31st Century and The Batman Strikes. I’ve also seen Justice League Unlimited there once or twice.

Several Spider-Man titles including Sensational, Amazing, and oddly enough, Spider-Girl. The latter is one of the most consistent titles I’ve seen there. This could be due to the fact that the De Falco-written series looks more in keeping with the Spider-Man look than the current comics!

Usually a smattering of X-Men titles, including Uncanny, are available. However, I’ve rarely seen anything outside of the ordinary save for an issue or two of Astonishing in flipbook format (flipbooks are two comics in one, usually reprints of crucial issues). And, oh yes, there will always be a Wolverine comic.

One nice surprise was the JMS-written Ultimate Power, which details the Ultimates, X-Men, Spider-Man and Fantastic Four fighting against the the Squadron Surpreme.

There will always be a Superman, but I typically find one title per selection. In addition to Action Comics and Superman, I once saw a copy of All-Star Superman, which I almost considered buying, but decided to wait till the trade was published.

The most consistent comic - other than Spider-Girl - I observed to be Sonic The Hedgehog. Don’t laugh - this series has been running since, if not before, the 1990’s television show, and is one of the best-selling titles for that age group. Take that, Archie!

And finally, the weirdest comic I saw was an issue of Marvel’s failed New Universe sitting sad and alone in between Blade and Moon Knight. I’m not quite sure how a comic like this ended up in a grocery store - NU would be aimed at fans of the original imprint, not the mainstream - but I’ll probably con myself into buying it sooner or later.

Well, that’s all for the list. I still have some questions - I’m curious how this store selects its comics, and I think I might ask around for those answers in the next installment of Pharmacy Finds. Meanwhile, if your local pharmacy or grocery store has any comics sold at all, let me know what they are. I’d love to compare notes.

First, there was Ronin, a shadowy member of Bendis’ original New Avengers line-up, tasked with keeping watch over Japan’s criminal underworld.

Despite all masculine appearances, however, Ronin was really Echo, the deaf assassin introduced in the pages of Daredevil.

Immediately after Civil War, however, Echo was killed - by Daredevil’s own ex-girlfriend Elecktra, now leader of the Hand. Echo was resurrected and intended for brainwashing by the Hand, only to be promptly rescued by the new New Avengers - among them another Ronin!

Well, the cat’s out of the bag - this new Ronin is none other than Clint Barton aka Hawkeye. Killed in Avengers Disassembled, brought back in House of M and re-focused after the death of Captain America, Clint’s return as Ronin as one of ‘em we should have seen coming.

But I can’t see Clint Barton staying in the role of ninja warrior long - it just doesn’t seem like Hawkeye. Granted, there are more practical reasons for this identity - namely, Kate Bishop took over the name Hawkeye in Young Avengers. The two met during an issue of Fallen Son, leaving Clint cut between two secret identities - there’s already a Hawkeye and he refuses to take up the mantle of Captain America.

For some reason, Marvel stumbles in places DC has absolutely no trouble. Why can’t there be two Hawkeyes? No one is going to confuse teenage girl Kate for probably pushing forty Clint. I am all but certain Clint Barton will end up back in the archer costume, one way or the other, and I am all but certain we’ll see yet another mystery Ronin within a year or two.

This is the feature I wanted to do over the weekend, but didn’t have the time.

Then, I arrived to find my “sample” as it were ransacked beyond recognition.

The sample I speak of is actually the pharmacy. Before the days of comic book shops, believe it or not, this is where all the action was. But the rise of specialty shops made a big dent in the comic book industry’s MO - offering often secluded, den-like atmospheres, a wide variety of bubble-bursting “varients” and many other collector’s items.

So where does this leave comic books in the pharmacy nowadays? Actually in the very back shelf of the bottom rack. But despite their hard-to-reach position, I found one item of interest which caught my eye last Wednesday - an issue of Warren Ellis’ Thunderbolts.

Odd that this comic - one not especially aimed to the mainstream audience - landed in the pharmacy. I noticed others - including Moon Knight and even Blade - gracing the shelves of recent months.

I arrived at noon with a notebook in hand today to write a list of titles appearing regularly in the “pharmacy finds” - but to my dismay, my selections were limited by a single eight-year old, who ransacked the section in search of DC Animated’s latest Legion of Superheroes.

Not wanting to discourage the next generation of comic book readers - especially if they’re singing my paycheck - I left this project for another day.

Hopefully they’ll be restocked Tuesday or Wednesday. But while we wait, here’s an open question to anyone who likes to see their name on the comment roll:

Just what comics do you typically find at your gas station or grocery store?

IGN has posted a trailer for the Ghost House Pictures’ adaptation of Steve Niles’ and Ben Templesmith’s chilling vampire comic “30 Days of Night”. If you’re not familiar with this comic, well, frankly, you might want to check to make sure you’re not under a rock of any kind. This comic launched the careers of not only its writer, Steve Niles, but also artist Ben Templesmith - who went on to do such hits as Fell, Hatter M and Wormood: Gentleman Corpse.

The comic centers around the Alaskan town of Barrows, which faces thirty days of nights a year past the Alaskan circle. Unfortunately, this will be Barrows’ last nightfall, as the town is besiged by vampires, who treat the development as an all-night buffet. The film stars Mellisa George and Josh Hartnett as husband-and-wife police Stella and Eben.

First off, I really like that the trailer really rolls out the red carpet for the project. The trailer reads “From the groundbreaking graphic novel.” If only they’d said that for all the previous Alan Moore adaptations were saw. Additionally, the trailer captures several scenes straight from the comic, including a victim being surronded and swarmed by vampires, a great shot of the menacing vampire catalyst Marlowe, and a final shot as the vampires assembling as Barrows burns to the ground.

What I don’t like is the alterations made to the character interaction. In the comics, Stella and Eben are happily, or at least, contently, married. In the movie, however, they are estranged. Now, I know the screenwriting team (which includes Steve Niles) has a good reason for this - creating internal conflict to mirror the brutal physical conflict right outside their doors.

But in the comics, this relationship seemed fresh. The characters were comfortable around one another. They trusted one another and they said things - sometimes heart-wrenching, sometimes hilarious - to one another. In the movie, however, I expect a lot of awkward or unhappy silence replacing the dialogue that really should be included - unless Steve Niles really steps up his game in this picture.

Ultimately, there a certain things in 30 Days of Night in need of change - such as more detailed peripheral characters as well as longer plot - but there are some things which desperately need preserved - including the main characters, their relationship. Also add the ending to that second list. If I see anything but the ending seen in the comic, I’ll be very, very, very disappointed.

30 Days of Night comes to theatres this fall.