Something Something Hot Trailers

So, two long awaited trailers dropped this week.

The first was for Thor: Ragnarok which looks incredible. This looks like the sort of epic scale the Thor movies should have always been aiming for. Thus far, the series has been, let’s face it, a series of well produced romcoms with fantasy elements not unlike the white thirst cinema that is Starz’ Outlander. Jane and Thor make doe eyes at each other, Kat Dennings looks hot and cracks jokes, Tom Hiddleston steals the show, Kat Dennings looks hot and…..you get the idea. Rinse and repeat. Thor is one of those properties where each and every adventure should have all of existence hanging in the balance. This franchise and the Hulk’s movies should always be about super destructive epic god battles. For context, Jason Aaron’s God of Thunder series features a future vision in which an older, war worn Thor who now rules Asgard gets into a fist fight with Galactus where he thrown into the moon so hard he comes flying out the other side. I shit you not. So, a slugfest with the Hulk is more than welcome.

Until now, the movies never had that sense of scale and urgency. The trailer alludes to that and it also manages to look fun which, at the end of the day, is really the most important element to maintaining the kind of audience these movies attract or should attract (are you listening, DC?). A movie about a thunder god should go for broke AT LEAST and Ragnarok looks like it does just that.

Then, there was The Last Jedi….

Though I could geek the fuck out about every detail, I’m going to try not to go on very long about about it because I have a feeling I’m going to be talking about Star Wars a lot in the near future. First of all, the Tron inspired poster look spectacular and really gives Rey that epic hero look she needed in the Force Awakens poster.

The trailer was epic, though. I mean, it was only a minute and a half and it threw out thrills and questions to be answered faster than Janet Hubert tweeting during a Fresh Prince marathon. The part I’m most interested in is the part at the end where Luke said, “It’s time for the Jedi to end.” That line alone opens up potential for some interesting directions for Luke’s character to go. Even though the Jedi are mostly about order and learning to center your emotions and letting go of earthly attachments and shit, Skywalkers tend to have a complicated relationship with the Force. With him being literally the LAST of the Jedi, there’s no telling what secrets he learned once he found the Jedi temple. He could have learned the truth of how his father was seduced by the dark side (and how his mother was dating Anakin when he was clearly still a minor) which would be enough to give anyone resentment issues. Who knows? I’ve even heard some theories that we might get introduced to the beginning of the “Grey Order”, something we’ve never seen in mainstream canon. Also, make sure you get a good look at Poe Dameron’s black X-Wing. The ball’s in your court to pump out some quality toys and model kits, Disney. I’ll be waiting.

My review of Hal Jordan and the Green Lantern Corps is available on Black Nerd Problems for your viewing pleasure.

The Week In Geek: 3/4/17

So, this week in Star Wars, as if the cast for the Han Solo movie wasn’t already cartoonishly awesome, Michael K. Williams (Omar from The Wire) has officially been added to the cast. I don’t know how big his role is. I don’t know what character he’s playing. As far as I’m concerned, he could reprieve his old role as Omar from The Wire and my ticket would still be guaranteed bought. I love that we’re getting so much Star Wars content out of this run. I would be in Heaven if we could get a non episodic movie in between every episode. We’re at a point where the budget and the technology exists to send this franchise in so many different directions. The official episodes represent the “space drama” and Rogue One had the feel of a “greatest generation” war movie that showed a more visceral, ground level side of this conflict. We don’t know much about the Han Solo movie but I could totally envision this being a space caper film. Either way, my ticket is bought so that’s that.

In other geeky ass news, nobody really knows for sure what’s going on with Tron. A few years ago, we production for Tron 3 got cancelled. I’m assuming Disney put the brakes on it to pay for all these Marvel movies being relentlessly pumped out (not that I’m complaining about more Marvel but TRON) on top of liberating Star Wars from George Lucas’ wooden ass dialogue. Since then, there have been rumors that more Tron might still get made. Hell, Tron Legacy director Joseph Kosinski even gave us some insight into what Tron: Ascension would have been (or might still be about). Now, according to The Hollywood Reporter, Disney might be looking to reboot Tron all together….with Jared Leto at the center of it. There is virtually no version of me throughout the multiverse that could be convinced to not watch a Tron movie. If the only thing standing between me and my seat in a movie theater to watch a Tron movie were a dozen heavyweight MMA fighters, I guarantee they’d all end up on their asses. No amount of anything could keep my nerdy black ass out of the seat for a Tron movie….except maybe Jared Leto, the dude who took his role as the Joker so seriously, he showed up to a hospital in full Joker garb with a tarantula on his face, scaring the shit out of terminally ill children. But the idea of a reboot isn’t terrible. I’m really excited about what Kosinski had in mind for Tron 3, but even as a Tron fanatic, I realize that a lot of time has passed and it’s not unreasonable for a studio to want to just start over. If that’s what it takes to get these light cycles back in effect, so be it. I just wouldn’t count on seeing it until a few years after the Avengers defeat Thanos.

My comic review for Star Wars is available on Black Nerd Problems for your viewing enjoyment and don’t forget about Chapter 2 of Neverland: The Untold

The Week In Geek- 3/23/16: Well, That Happened....

I know this is usually where I'd offer some comprehensive review on the things I liked and didn't like about Batman vs. Superman, but I haven't seen it. Honestly, I'm not in much of a rush to see a Superman movie where the entire premise is based on "people are scared of Superman." Having said that.... 

Welp. Batman v Superman is finally here and apparently holding at somewhere around 30% on Rotten Tomatoes which is....well, bad. I'm sure it's more than a minor cause for concern over at Warner Brothers because, correct me if I'm wrong, Justice League Part One is ready to begin filming. With the myriad of criticisms about BvS, the studio has some hard decisions to make about the overall direction Zack Snyder is taking DC's cinematic universe. Then again, Man of Steel has been a target of an equal amount of criticism and it doesn't seem to have slowed Snyder's vision at all, so it's entirely possible that this could end up being one of those franchises like Transformers or even X-Men where the movies are consistently trash but not trash enough for people to stop watching them. But for that to happen, this movie would have to do Transformers numbers at the box office (if you're waiting for me to explain how Transformers keeps doing numbers, nobody's that smart), meaning that people would have to either show up to the theater because all the criticism has them curious or because they're making a conscious decision to ignore the criticism. But at this point, who knows, really?

My comic reviews for the week on Star Wars and Batman are up and available on Black Nerd Problems for your viewing enjoyment. And be sure to get a look at the latest page in my ongoing webcomic series, Neverland: The Untold.

The Week In Geek 1/6/16

This Week In Star Wars (in case you're not sick of me talking about Star Wars yet)....I was scrolling through io9 and I saw yet another article listing all of the "minor" issues with The Force Awakens which, no offense to io9 in particular, has gotten goddamned annoying. The most annoying thing is that, since Force Awakens has been so well received and is well on its way to beating Avatar in worldwide sales (meaning there's nothing to justify an article on what sucks about it), every article you read has to preface it with, "Don't get me wrong...we like this movie, but..." in the same way racists start racist comments with, "Look, I don't want to sound racist, but..." Because outside of Star Wars, the week or so after New Year's is slow news in geekdom and the usual suspects need some shit to talk about.

In this very same week, JJ Abrams was on a podcast where he gave a very reasonable explanation for the naysayer who whine about the movie being a remake of A New Hope. First of all, he shouldn't have and, quite frankly, didn't have to do that if you ask me (I'm going to say that if you're reading my blog in the first place, that counts as you asking me). For one thing, there's the inevitability that if you keep feeling the need to justify your work, you'll say something stupid that will eventually end up as comedic fodder like when Max Landis said he wanted to make American Alien the opposite of AllStar Superman (I'm assuming by "the opposite", he meant "bad" because that's what's happened so far) or when Zack Snyderclaimed to have saved Watchmen from Terry Gilliam or whatever. Furthermore, we all know that, no matter what they say, directors and writers totally listen to the fans. Even the trolls. We know this, but it just looks bad when said creators actually respond because, ultimately, NEVER have these statements ever shut fanboys up no matter how thought out they are. Never. Zack Snyder has responded to Man of Steel criticisms for ages now and yet MoS is STILL the most divisive movie every in the genre. It doesn't even work in politics. Donald Trump could get on the stump tomorrow and claim that Jeb! Bush is a holocaust denier and Jeb! could say something logical and reasonable like, "I'm not responding to nonsensical, unfounded allegations. Let's talk about the issues." Despite this being a completely mature, rational way to respond to a Presidential candidate whose entire political strategy is based around lying and flinging gargoyle shit at the other candidates, odds are good that we would still ridicule him and call him "low energy" or whatever else Trump has convinced him he is. It's not that we want to believe something Donald Trump says. We don't. We know that, in all likelihood, it isn't true. But the fact that Bush is so visibly wounded, you can tell it affects him. Even when he's not directly addressing it, he's addressing it and, ultimately, dignifying the comments. Put simply, JJ Abrams, at this juncture, should just not be dignifying these things that are only being discussed just because the nerd blogosphere needs some shit to talk about. Also, I'm not a director/producer worth millions of dollars or anything, but if MY movie were holding solid at 94% on Rotten Tomatoes, io9 and anyone else who has anything to say about it could go fuck themselves no matter how well intentioned their "think piece" is. But that's just me, so....

My comic review for the week on Invincible Iron Man is up and available on Black Nerd Problems for your viewing pleasure. Outside of that, I may get a little inconsistent with the blog reviews since I just moved a PS4 into my house and will be playing unhealthy amounts of Destiny for both self-care and research purposes. Yes, I heard what I just said. Yes, I know it sounds ridiculous. Yes, I still mean it. That is all.

The Week In Geek 12/30/15

This Week In Things Too Geeky To Discuss With Your Friends.....No matter how you feel about Star Wars: The Force Awakens (sorry, but I'd be happy if my movie had a 94% on Rotten Tomatoes), you have to admit it's nice to have the nerd community geeking out about Star Wars again in a less abstract, fan fictiony way. It's also nice that the introduction of John Boyega's rogue trooper character, Finn, has created a reinvigorated sense of community within the Star Wars blerd fandom. I was personally getting tired of debating over Samuel L. Jackson no matter how awesome it was that he repelled an entire enemy platoon singlehandedly. My favorite thing is that, since Star Wars is a very self sustaining marketing engine that responds to its fans, you end up getting cool shit like this action figure based on everyone's favorite electro baton wielding stormtrooper. 

He wasn't a huge part of the initial marketing campaign, but after the movie released and the internet lost their shit (though I still don't understand why...I mean, he lasted for half a lightsaber fight). Now, the movie is barely two weeks old, ready to surpass Titanic sales and now he has his own action figure. He doesn't even have a name but he has an action figure. Disney wastes no time.

And the amount of detail that goes into this universe is ridiculously geeky. Nerds....we have a cross section book. My relationship with bookstores over the years has left me privy to some wildly geeky shit, but after all this time, sci-fi cross section books still stand firm in my pantheon of the geekiest shit a human being can purchase in public in front of other people. I mean, it's basically an automotive manual for vehicles that don't actually exist. Neil Degrasse Tyson is basically America's wacky Science Uncle and even he isn't THAT geeky. Isn't it fucking awesome?  

This Week In Wonderfully Nerdy Women That Don't Know I Exist.... Readers, there is simply not a higher note to start the year on than talking about Ariell Johnson, the sister from Philly who is opening up her own comic shop. The idea behind Amalgam Comics & Coffeehouse is to build a sense of community in the Kensington part of Philly around two things that a). get blerds through the day and b). are both not Meek Mill: comics and coffee. It feels like the next logical step, given that the past couple of years in the industry have really been focused on creating more conversations about diversity in comics as well as the way geekdom treats women. The fact that safe spaces are happening on a physical level as well as a conversational one is an exciting prospect and a wonderful omen for the possibilities of things to come in the blerd community.

The Week In Geek: Star Wars Edition

So, This Week In Star Wars....Star Wars happened this week. So, it's should be pretty obvious that this week, I am going to be discussing Star Wars. With that in mind, if you haven't watched The Force Awakens yet, now is the time to jump ship because there are going to be spoilers after the jump. Last chance so there's no excuses.

The Week In Geek 9/2/15

So, This Week In Black Girl Magic, Netflix casted Simone Missick to play (very likely) Misty Knight in Marvel's Luke Cage series. The fact that Misty Knight is going to be in this show at all makes this one a promising venture....though I'm not counting on it being as awesome as Season One of Daredevil. But I'm more than open to being proven wrong. Luke Cage is also a great character that's overdue for another upgrade in visibility, so the show deserves a win.

This Week In Geeky Non Stories That People Lose Their Fucking Shit Over....Force Friday is a thing that happened. Basically, it was the first big reveal of the new toy line for the upcoming Star Wars movie, The Force Awakens. Now, I won't talk about the fact that most toy retailers were so vastly understocked, fans almost started an uprising at their local Toys R Us. I won't talk about the fact that an 18 hour live stream of people taking toys out of the fucking box is easily one of the most psychotic thing I've ever heard of since the first Saw movie was in theaters. No, I'm going to talk about the questionable nature of some of these toys like this fucking thing, for instance....

Masque #CaptainPhasma #ForceFriday #StarWars pic.twitter.com/y6H1xdt25k

— David Popineau (@davidpopineau) September 3, 2015

Look, I'm really excited that Gwendoline Christie is involved enough in the plot to merit her own toy. I'm just as glad that they're bringing back the voice changer face masks like the Darth Vader ones they had when I was a kid. But I don't feel like kids want toys that say generic shit like "On my command, fire" or the ever iconic "Submit your blaster."

On the other hand, this is unbearably cool. It's highly promising when you go in expecting a few toys to get you hyped for what is already the most hyped movie of the year (short of Age of Ultron) and come out with a droid that could very well be the future of robotics to a certain degree. Voice commands, personality, intuitive app controls? Sign me up! Disney is pulling no punches for this ad campaign! And it's not even Fall yet.

My review for the week on Thors is available on Black Nerd Problems for your viewing pleasure. Feel free to like, comment and share as you see fit.

The Week In Geek 2/4/15

This week, Netflix announced they're developing a Legend of Zelda live action television series. It's awesome that this came along in the wake of the Daredevil trailer because it sends a strong message that Netflix wants to be in the nerd business in a big way. These sort of projects have way more opportunities than they did when I was growing. I remember when we were stuck with Captain Lou Albano as Super Mario inviting pro wrestlers and Cyndi Lauper over to his fake house in between short Zelda cartoons (remember when Link was basically a rapey dudebro with a sword?).

Also, Brian Bendis announced he'd be leaving the X-Men books after he finishes the current arcs. Despite my being a huge Bendis fan, I think it's good that he's getting out. The longer a high profile writer stays on a book, the stronger the trolls get. For everyone out there that exalts Chris Claremont for his tenure on X-Men, there are people (like me) who struggle to understand what the big deal is. My only regret is that it looks like he won't get around to explaining how the hell Charles Xavier got into bed (literally) with Mystique.

My comic reviews for the week are up and available on Black Nerd Problems for your viewing enjoyment. Feel free to like, share, comment or whatever makes you happy. This week, I took a look at....

Batman Eternal: ACO's art was incredible this week. Great follow up to David LaFuente's turn at bad. As far as the writing, I ge t that there's the impulse to throw material at the reader rapid fire to close all accounts, but this sort of thing got easily convoluted in the middle of the series and you definitely don't want anymore tangles in the cords towards the end.

Star Wars: Considering the fact that John Cassaday managed to crank out not only one but two books on time (early, in fact), it's only appropriate to say that lightning has offcially struck twice with this book. It's very quickly becoming one of the absolute best titles in comics. Jason Aaron's Darth Vader is just about pitch perfect right down to his asking Luke Skywalker "Who sent you here to die like this?" 

The Week In Geek 1/17/15

So, this week, Marvel released the first of its Star Wars comic material and thus far, the reviews have been mainly positive. I'll be talking about the book itself a little further down (with the reviews), but this is a really exciting time to be a Star Wars fan. I can't speak for anyone else, but I wasn't a huge fan of the Dark Horse books at all. I basically regard them the same way I regard David Goyer's idea to develop a Superman show without Superman in it. The timelines usually kicked off either so long before or so long after the movies I grew up with, I didn't quite understand what I was supposed to be relating to. Disney bringing all these elements under one umbrella is a breath of fresh air. As we've seen with their handling of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Disney likes their properties and characters being as accessible as humanly possible.

"You know Spider-Man? Sure, come on over. Don't like the movies? Don't worry about it. Here's an entry level cartoon for you. Don't like cartoons? Thinking about jumping into comics? I've got just the thing.

"Oh, you know who Luke Skywalker is? Come on in! You don't play The Old Republic? No problem. Here's this comic book you might dig."

As we get closer to Episode 7, it's going to be interesting to see what other properties Marvel can crank out.

My reviews for the week are up and available on Black Nerd Problems for your viewing pleasure. Feel free to like, comment and share at your leisure. This week, I took a look at....

Batman Eternal: This issue really meant well. It really did. The Bat-family going to break up a Mad Hatter caper should be some exciting shit. But it just didn't come off that way and the art was a huge reason why. As expressive as the faces were, it's strange that Joe Quinones wasn't bigger on detail everywhere else. It came across as a comic book you'd get with a 90s Batman toy. Honestly, this book can't really afford to have an issue that's this lacking visually so close to the end we've been waiting for.

Star Wars: See the problem with the handful of Star Wars I read during Dark Horse's reign was that the level of quality didn't justify the amount of material Dark Horse used to put out. You might find a decent issue once in a while, but you had to wade through a lot of crap. It's a lot like Azelia Banks. Sure, she drops jewels on Twitter once in a while about race relations but you have to sit through the stupid shit she says about everything else. And even when you do find the good books, often times, they were so far removed from the Star Wars universe I was used to (the characters and events in the movies), it only felt like it was just marginally a Star Wars book. Marvel's first new effort was the first time in 30 years I'd read a Star Wars comic that properly recreate the feeling I got at the movies. When the action starts, I was cheering out loud. Jason Aaron has a really good handle on what makes Star Wars so iconic. And it starts at a point where you don't have to feel left out. "If you watched the first movie, you're in. We'll take it from here."