The Problem With Fanboys: Batman v Superman Edition

So, the reviews are for Batman v Superman and at this point, I think we're far enough away from the release to say the overall response is somewhat mixed (which is mainly considered bad for a movie that made no bones about putting all of its eggs firmly in one basket. The most entertaining aspect so far has been the backlash to the backlash. As someone that wanted this film to be good enough to rival Marvel or at least show the potential to do so, it is hilarious to watch DC fans who bet the farm on Dawn of Justice do backflips to defend it at its most indefensible moments. 

Serioiusly, guys, it's come down to people claiming that people hating it because of their "Marvel bias" is what has caused the movie to tank. The argument is that fans are being hyper critical of plotholes that they would have let pass in a Marvel movie. Now, that could be so. After all, plenty of good movies have inconsistencies. The problem is that Batman v Superman doesn't do itself any favors. See, plotholes can be overlooked if the movie manages to be entertaining and effective in other aspects. For example, if Robert Downey Jr. is entertaining enough, it's easy to forget about some instances in The Avengers movies when logic falls apart. Now, multiply that factor times Chris Evans, Chris Hemsworth, Joss Whedon's sarcastic self aware script (in the first movie, at least), the occasional Don Cheadle "BOOM, you looking for this?" joke, etc. It's drinking Jack and Coke; you coating something arguably hard to swallow with something that is decidedly less hard to swallow. To call Batman v Superman hard to swallow would be a vast understatement. And it's not just because sad sack ass Movieverse Superman is like the superhero version of Eyeore from Winnie the Pooh or because Batman (despite being awesome) was a walking Call of Duty killstreak or because parts of the movie require the lead characters (one of which is the World's Greatest Detective) to be utterly stupid for the barely discernible plot to make sense. It's the fact that all of these put together amount to Zack Snyder's blatant disdain for his audience. He was so obviously salty about having to tone it down and being unable to do new Superman murder, he devoted the opening to a ground level, 9/11 view of the old Superman murder. This isn't even speculation because Snyder has been trying to justify himself since Man of Steel, saying weird shit like superheroes murdering are okay as long as they don't murder as much as the First Order from The Force Awakens (for those of who didn't see The Force Awakens, Zack Snyder compared the two most popular superheroes in human history to an empire of evil space nazis capable of destroying star systems. That his benchmark for good guy murder, y'all.

Marvel has demonstrated at least some regard for doing what they believe the fans want. Even when you have to eat your vegetables (Thor 2), you're offered some dessert (Guardians of the Galaxy) when you finish them. Dawn of Justice is an marginally edible block of instant microwaveable meat loaf and Zack Snyder is the barely attentive nanny who just wants you to shut the fuck up and finish your dinner while he eats your dessert right in front of you. There's a scene where Holly Hunter looks terrified at the sight of a jar of human urine, a callback to Lex Luthor's metaphor about pissing on someone and telling them it's Granny's Peach Tea. First off, the idea of a superhero movie that features a giant jar of piss is, in itself, beyond the pale. Second, it's actually a very apt metaphor for the movie and the director's relationship with it and the viewership. Batman v Superman is two hours of piss and Zack Snyder hates you for not having the imagination to pretend it's peach tea as you choke it down. So, there's that.

Don't forget to check out my Black Nerd Problems comic review of Invincible Iron Man. Feel free to like, review, and comment as you see fit.

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 1/20/19

It'll be like my Senior Prom...except my date won't leave me to
ride home in the back of another couple's van. Good times.

This Week in Gaming.... So, anyone that keeps up with me on Twitter knows that I've recently purchased a Playstation 4 and, with it, Destiny, the MMO shooter everyone's talking (or whining) about. For someone who hasn't owned a console in more than ten years, this has basically been the equivalent of me plugging into the Matrix. As you can tell from my posts on comics, I read heavily about anything I get into, so yeah....expect a lot of gaming posts to come this year.  
So Destiny. This week, Bungie announced (on Reddit **shudder**) a new event for Valentine's Day which includes a party in the Tower, the game's social hub (which, I should mention, is the most awkward place to try and communicate with other people), some fixes and improvements that will come with next month's update and a special new 2v2 battle in the Crucible (the game's PvP mode). I can only assume this is to pacify the fans who have been complaining that there haven't been any major events such a new strikes or items since The Taken King expansion in October. I also have to say I found it odd that Bungie would announce love is in the air on the same social networking site where nude pics of every celebrity that's ever sexted were leaked and circulated last year. Hopefully, this is the start of Bungie getting a little more improvisational and learning to fully embrace the inherent outlandishness of the MMO crowd they're trying to unite with the FPS crowd they already have. Or maybe what half the internet is saying is true and Bungie is totally just throwing things at the wall to see what sticks. Who knows?

My reviews for the week on Batman and Tokyo Ghost are up and available on Black Nerd Problems as usual. Feel free to read, comment and share as usual. 

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 10/21/15

This Week In Superhero Television.... Agents of SHIELD is really coming around. It's nice that this has finally turned into a full fledged show with an identity. Some people still aren't as excited about Daisy Johnson (formerly Skye) still being the focus, but I think if they look closer, they won't see the same character they did before. In fact, Quake was a character that mostly fun but never really got to see her potential reached.

I mean, really....what the fuck ever happened to Quake? I mean, she had this great setup as Nick Fury's protege that "will go on to do great things and be one of the best agents ever." She had her own team of young, DIVERSE superpowered agents, most of which we've never heard from again including Phobos, the goddamned god of fear. This is one of those cases where Marvel could have BEEN doing the All New All Different thing ages ago. As a matter of fact, I'm going to go ahead and take that, in retrospect, as a direct attempt on Marvel's part to not let Brian Bendis OR Jonathan Hickman be great (even though they are both clearly allowed to be great now), but I digress. I think the complaining about Daisy wouldn't be so vocal if it weren't for the fact that the Most Interesting Story On The Show (What the Fuck Happened to Simmons) has been relegated to the side story.

Meanwhile, on The Flash, some of the sins of Season 1 have come back to bite this show in the ass. This week's episode mostly dealt with Captain Cold's abusive father blackmailing him into a crime spree. Since the writers have essentially defanged Cold, making any episode with him involved into anime filler (at least until Legends of Tomorrow finally debuts) it took them bringing The Voice of Darkseid in to give The Flash a reason to get shot with the cold gun. It's always interesting to jump into the minds of villains and their vulnerabilities, but the fact that it's a CW show means there's always the possibility that the writers will give into their urges to pander to the Lowest Common Denominator. In this case, that means having Golden Glider sit in the hero's lair and make doe eyes at Cisco. By the way....if your sister is a supervillain that can turn things to gold, why the fuck are you still robbing banks?

And then there's Arrow.... Last time we talked, Arrow was at least TRYING to move back to a palatable direction that isn't Oliver Queen becoming an assassin god. Now, things have picked up speed and the writers have begun to inoculate the show against sins of the past. It makes sense for the characters, given the events of last season, but come on, Oliver and Diggle starting off the new season in a bromance quarrel is not quite the nail biter we'd like. So, Felicity locks them in a room and basically orders them to suck it up. This barely takes an entire five minutes to accomplish before the duo are back on the streets, kicking butt again. So, they're speaking again and Felicity solved a problem by doing something other than crying. Two birds in one stone. They even got rid of Oliver's horrible flashback wig (despite the ever looming problem that these flashbacks are still happening even though nobody really cares at this point). Now, if only someone would do something about Diggle's awful welding helmet. I mean, his superpower is a gun. Don't you need depth perception to effectively shoot people? The show started off with him missing a bad guy directly at his side and I can't help but think maybe the narrow ass slits might have been an obstacle. Oh, well. I guess we can't have everything we want.

My comic reviews for the week on Tokyo Ghost and The Invincible Iron Man are available on Black Nerd Problems for your viewing pleasure. And don't forget about my webcomic, Neverland: The Untold. As always, feel free to like, share, comment and spread the word at your leisure.

The Week In Geek 8/5/15

-So, Secret Wars is being pushed back AGAIN so it'll now be ending in October now. Man, I like this event a lot but for fuck's sake....I'd like it a lot more if Marvel wouldn't drag it along like this. DC and Marvel sometimes have a tendency to suck with these scheduling issues. DC shit the bed last year pushing Forever Evil back so far, rest of the books in the line had moved on past the event and basically gave away the ending. Now, with SW being delayed, there's so many moving parts in Hickman's story, the tie-ins have to be careful not to give away too much story. In truth, they wouldn't have so many problems with scheduling if they'd cut events like this in half. Marvel had the right idea when SW started off biweekly. Despite being so god-awful, at least Convergence got in, told its story and got out. Then again, considering Esad Ribic's artwork, it might just be worth the wait. 

-The Strain, the FX show based on Guillermo Del Toro's vampire apocalypse series, just got renewed for its third season. And despite my liking this show, I have no idea how that happened. I get that FX is doing its damnedest to stretch out this story with a little cinematic nuance and get the most out of the basic plot points, but Christ Almighty....it's the Vampire Apocalypse and the city's reaction to it is, at best, lukewarm. People feel completely comfortable, going to groundbreaking ceremonies, meeting in dimly lit parking garages, putting up "missing" flyers and flirting with cute latin girls in Indian food restaurants. So far, the most exciting plot points this season are a). the flashbacks of Abraham Setrakian Da Gawd and b). the Vampire Black Ops Team....and they just got snuffed out in stupid ass network television fashion, so that doesn't leave us much except the vastly underused Kevin Durand and Corey Stoll, Vampire Hunter which....umm, isn't all that exciting. The major problem is that in the era of existential horror/drama/misery porn like The Walking Dead where people can make the smartest decisions possible and STILL never have a single moment of happiness, it's getting noticeably hard to sit through a show where the characters seem to consistently make such awful decisions. I'm talking about the little stuff. They just stroll right into abandoned places, hardly ever clearing the rooms or even scanning them for vampires. Even Corey Stoll, Vampire Hunter's son, Zach is getting intensely annoying. But this is also a show where the high points maybe balance out the bad points, so it always ends up doing just enough of the right something to justify its continued existence. So, the result is an hour every Sunday where you keep hoping the good will start to actually outweigh the bad instead of just cancelling it out. But probably not.   

My review of this week's Ms. Marvel issue is up and available on Black Nerd Problems for your viewing enjoyment. As usual, feel free to read, like, comment and share as you see fit. You know the drill.

The Week In Geek 6/17/15

So...Game of Thrones. Since a lot of you are super spoiler sensitive, we'll be talking about the season finale after the jump.

The Week In Geek 5/14/15

It's sort of hard to explain how exactly CW is getting The Flash so right. This week's episode sort of brought back into focus a). Flash's standing as "the Superman of the Arrowverse" as well as b). the villainy sort of resembles professional wrestling. Captain Cold is admittedly part of the bad guy game specifically because he loves it. And probably because he's better at it than he ever was at being a small time crook. The implication of destiny being as much a factor for villains as it is for heroes is one of the major building blocks of superhero lore and shines through clear as day on this show. The only major problem I have with the show is its handling of Iris West. It made sense at first to keep her out of the loop of Barry Allen's identity, but in the meantime, in delaying the inevitable, the show has to find side plots for character development. It just so happens that these particular side plots have made her sort of intolerable not unlike Lana Lang on Smallville. Cockblocking Linda Park, making the Reverse Flash thing all about her, pulling Barry in and out of the Friend Zone at her leisure...not very endearing.

Meanwhile, the CW also dropped a first look at their next spinoff, Legends of Tomorrow. The best thing they could have done is bring back Caity Lotz as the White Canary or Canary Original or whatever they're going with. She was always the more entertaining opposite to the Arrow because Laurel is the WORST and has been for two seasons straight, suffering from a little more of Iris West Syndrome. The best I can figure is that this spinoff is in response to Marvel/Netflix setting up The Defenders starting with Daredevil. With the turnout Daredevil had, I doubt LoT is going to compete with that, but it shows that DC is at least trying to give fans what they want.

Also, my review for this week's issue of Thor is up and available on Black Nerd Problems for your viewing pleasure. Feel free to read, share, comment at your leisure.

The Week In Geek 11/12/14

My reviews for the week are available on Black Nerd Problems for your viewing pleasure. Feel free to love them, hate them, comment, share them as you so please. This week, I took a look at....

Batman: The Joker's return is likely the best highlight of the week. Snyder is leaving a terrific and unique fingerprint on the Batman mythos that we'll be talking about in ten years guaranteed, but more importantly, as a Superman fan, I have to point out that Batman said it himself, "If Superman wanted to kill you, there's probably nothing that could stop him." There. He admitted it. He said it himself. It's officially canon.

Batman Eternal: I have to say I do love the New 52 idea of the Spoiler, a kid who deals in information throughout Gotham, stays a step ahead of everyone (including Batman) and feuds with her C-list supervillain father. That said, I really enjoyed her teaming up with Batman to throw down against Hush only to pull Batman's own disappearing trick in him.

Thor: I love that the Thor's ancient magic hammer basically comes with built-in tutorials and helps you learn how to use it. Also, I'm sticking firm to my theory that the new Thor is actually Odinson's SHIELD agent girlfriend, Roz Solomon, but listen, guys, don't start emailing me the plotholes in my theory. It's just a theory. Besides, plotholes or not, there's precedent for EVERYTHING in the comics.

Axis : I don't even have notes on this book. It's getting worse and worse by the week.

The Week In Geek 10/1/14

So, this week, I did a review on Nightwing: The Series and honestly, it might have the best reception a superhero related project could ask for this week. And yes, I absolutely recognize that both Agents of SHIELD and Gotham also happened this week. My statement still stands. Gotham got quite a bit of chastisement for its episode, "Selina Kyle" and I'll have an upcoming post about why it was well deserved. Meanwhile, Agents of SHIELD took a bizarrely huge hit in its ratings which is really weird considering the new season improved upon its previous problems DRAMATICALLY. Hell, they even dipped into the budget to bring more black people on the show. Just goes to show how fickle a mob the Fandom Hype Machine truly is.

Anyway, my reviews for the week are available on Black Nerd Problems for your viewing pleasure. This week, I took a look at:

Batman Eternal: I don't know...maybe this is some kind of sacrificial tribute thing where if we're going to have the incredible James Tynion IV writing the book, we have to have shitty artwork as a trade off. I mean, it's been just unforgivable the past couple of issues. The sad thing is I love the story so much and feel so invested, I don't have the heart to put the damned book down. However, it's only fair to say that odds are we'll probably have better art coming up. On the plus side, I have to appreciate the ongoing war between the Spoiler and her seemingly Z-List father, the Cluemaster. Hopefully, we'll see more of Stephanie Brown's daddy issues sooner than later.

Thor: Honestly, this one is an open/shut case. The name and art have changed, but Jason Aaron's master class in storytelling remains the same. Bit by bit, he's giving us insight into the Future King Thor he's teased us with throughout the course of the God of Thunder series and I love it. Very few writers are capable of making me enjoy a villain I dislike as much as Malekith, but Aaron is pulling it off.

The Week In Geek 9/3/14

So, this week the announcement finally went out officially that Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson will be playing Black Adam in an upcoming Shazam movie. He's been screwing with fanboys on Twitter for months, posting pictures of possible characters he could have been playing, but it's nice to have officially have confimation. Arguably, this is the first no-brainer DC has actually gotten right in the casting department. Truthfully, they needed a win after a few lackluster choices that weren't necessarily bad but don't really leave anyone camping out in front of the theater.

Granted, I was almost sure he was going to end up being Shazam (because playing a 10 year old in a superhero's body is the kind of shit Johnson can do in his sleep) but I could see his Black Adam being fucking menacing. There's an argument that it's a miscast because Dwayne Johnson's thing is that he plays heroes and would be a great addition to DC's cinematic hero roster. Normally, the fact that this is an opinion that came from IGN would be more than enough to make it inadmissible evidence because most opinions that come out of IGN either come from a). bad information or b). a lack of information. The argument of "I don't want to see The Rock as a bad guy because he's not a bad guy" is, at best a sort of hilarious stance to take. Anyone who holds this logic will have to come to the realization eventually that Dwayne Johnson is, in fact, NOT an actual superhero that DC is actually adding to some list of actual superheroes. He's an actor. He's a wrestler. Even then, the Rock was actually a heel back in the day just before the pinnacle of his wrestling career. He was also a bad guy (a shitty one, but still...) in The Mummy Returns and, before eventually becoming a hero (because Universal would have been stupid to give him up), he was the guy the Fast and Furious team was on the run from. These are nitpicks, but still....to say that an actor should always be a hero just because he's done it well before sort of misses the point of acting, especially when said actor is one of the rare cases in which a wrestler has enough range and charisma to keep getting decent work. Besides, Black Adam's path in the comics has gone for unapologetically evil to kinda-sorta-antihero. And we all know how well that's worked out with Loki over in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. It's entirely possible that we could get that kind of popularity for this character over at DC.

Anyway, I'll talk a little about the scourge of fuckery in the nerd community known as #GamerGate tomorrow mainly because I'm in a good mood today and would like to remain so. Until then, my comic reviews for the week are up on Black Nerd Problems and available for your viewing pleasure. As always, feel free to comment, like, share at your discretion. This week, I took a look at:

Iron Fist, The Living Weapon: As much as I enjoy this book, I think they've done the whole "break the hero down as much as possible" thing enough. I think everyone reading this book should be just about ready to see the hero win a little bit. I mean, I doubt the the payoff is going to (or can afford to) suck when the titular hero has a Netflix series in production.

Uncanny X-Men: Okay, I wasn't too happy about Chris Bachalo's return to this comic. I mean, I like his style, but honestly, I felt like it served its purpose in previous issues. In fairness, it wasn't that much of a bother because there wasn't a lot of action this time around (because sometimes his action beats are difficult to follow), but Kris Anka just raised the bar so high, it's hard to forget. Aside from that, Bendis' dyfunctional family narrative is still working out well.

Batman Eternal: Let me just say....a villain called the Architect whose outfit theme is clockwork is a little silly. DC really runs the gamut of costumed villains as if there's a compendium of names versus a list of themes and they just close their eyes and pick one from each list. Other than that, this was a pretty good issue.

The Week In Geek 8/27/14

So, one of this week's Geeky Things That People Were Talking About was the announcement that, Donald Glover, to the apparently overwhelming joy of Twitter, will be voicing Miles Morales in an episode of Ultimate Spider-Man. On one hand, it's cool that the social media campaign that inspired Miles in the first place gets a (kinda) win in seeing their idol on screen in some form. I'm just not entirely sure this is that much of a "win." Mainly because Ultimate Spider-Man is a uniquely awful half hour of television. The thing that makes it so notably bad is that a). Spectacular Spider-Man, a perfectly decent show got bumped for this and b). it's a titled after a Brian Michael Bendis work but follows it in the same way the latest batch of X-Men movies follow the comics (meaning there are characters with similar names and attributes, but aside from that....nope). I could go into everything this show does wrong but I digress. Donald Glover.

I'll say this for Marvel: They draw we better
edge-ups than DC (sorry, Mister Terrific).

Let me just say right away that I like Donald Glover. As this is being written, I'm actually listening to his Because the Internet album. I respect that he (as I've found out in the past couple of months) has a fanbase that is, to say the least, rabid. So, I don't have any personal distaste for the guy (I'm really trying hard to save myself any fan backlash here because I've seen them in action).

With that said, he's no Spider-Man, cartoon or otherwise. Black, white, whatever...there's a certain atmosphere of iconic, dormant heroism to everyone to play/voice Marvel's poster child. Tobey Maguire had a wide-eyed, nebbish Luke Skywalker quality to him. Andrew Garfield is a dorky smartass more like the Ultimate Peter from the comics. Even Christopher Daniel Barnes from the animated series that dominated most of the 90s had an unassuming everyman quality. Donald Glover is....well, Troy Barnes. Putting Troy Barnes in a Spider-Man costume is nothing less than fan service. And that's okay. With superhero comics, if they run long enough, it's inevitable that they're all subjected to a degree of fan service. It's just that sometimes, that works out for the better (Dick Grayson as Batman, Bucky Barnes as Captain America, Wolverine being on virtually every major Marvel team possible) and sometimes you get Childish Gambino being snarky in a Disney cartoon for 30 minutes.

Then again, I really could have stopped this little analysis at "Ultimate Spider-Man is a uniquely awful cartoon" anyway.

Anywho, my comic reviews for the week are available on Black Nerd Problems for your perusal. As always, feel free to comment, like, share and troll as you see fit. This week, I took a look at.....

All New X-Men: I have to say that I like the groove Bendis has found for his take on the X-franchise. The Original X-Men are at their best when they're getting into trouble while the staff isn't around. I like the direction of the whole "different factions fighting for different aspects of the dream" thing, but the Originals, not having all of that baggage, serve as a nice break from all that without completely departing from it either.

Batman Eternal: Finally, some major plotline payoff!!! This is definitely one of the top 3 best issues of the book. James Tynion IV did a pretty good job of balancing all the plotlines he had to work with. Granted, he conveniently didn't have as many to juggle as pretty much every other writer has, but still. Masterful job getting to Gotham's big upheaval. I'm VERY excited about what's next.

The Week In Geek 8/20/14

My comic reviews for the week are available on Black Nerd Problems for your viewing pleasure. As always, feel free to comment, share or fling feces at anything you like or don't like. This week, I took a look at.....

Batman Eternal: I loved this issue but after writing the review, I went back and read it again and it occurred to me that Batman has the weakest material of all the principal characters....in a Batman book. I'm sort of in the middle about because on one hand, structurally speaking, Batman shouldn't have the weakest material in a Bat-book. On the other hand, if the cost of downplaying Batman (I mean, let's face...dude has had 75 years of character development) is giving Jim Gordon The GAWD all of The Glory, so be it. Because holy shit....watching him give Carmine Falcone's goons the Ice Challenge was fucking epic.

All New Ghost Rider: Okay, it's official- I fucking love this book. But I sort of want them to get away from this Bane venom steroid pills plotline and get a little more supernatural with the threats. So far, we've only seen the Rider in regular old fist fights. I'm not exactly shitting on the new guy, but the Ghost Riders of old have gone up against people like the HULK. The "Worldbreaker" Hulk....the "OhMyGodTheHulkIsAboutToRainOldTestamentArmageddonOnUsAll" Hulk. I'm just saying....I need a fight that's going to set the neighborhood on fire. But it's early, so I'll be patient. For Now.

Can we PLEASE have
Self Destruction as their theme song?

Multiversity: This is a book that really only has problems depending on how you feel about Grant Morrison books. I mean, come on, let's face it. Most Morrison books are pretty much based on whatever he's smoking that week. I'm STILL trying to figure out what the fuck Final Crisis was about. But for all its psuedo scientology babble, I actually really enjoyed this book. How could you not? A black POTUS who is actually Superman? In what world is that not awesome? And the DC spoof version of the Hulk in a diaper? I cried laughing. There were enough easter eggs and Morrison trademark to keep me entertained in a bizarre way, so yeah....I'll be back for the next issue.

The Week in Geek 8/13/14

My comic reviews for the week are available on Black Nerd Problems for your viewing pleasure. As always feel free to like, share, comment, fling poo at anything you love or hate. This week, I took a look at.....

Batman Eternal: Just in terms of going from last week to this week, this has mainly gotten back to being a good book to look at. A story that was mainly about Batman skulking around in the sewers looking for a killer shouldn't be so visually vanilla. This week was a huge improvement....except for two things.

First of all, this is the second week in a row where this book has made Jason Bard look like a complete doofus for the greater good of making Batman look cool.

Look at this:

You've got Batman going all headfirst into action. Killer Croc looking as menacing as ever like he's about to "Hulk Smash" whoever the fuck they're about to fight. And there Jason Bard, Gotham's new top cop, carefully rappelling down the fucking chasm. Granted, there's virtually no way to make a regular guy look cool while climbing, but still. They couldn't have given him a rope or something?

Second: Red Hood's mask. This is a problem and I'm not sure why its disquieted my soul so thoroughly but, goddamnit, it has. It's just gaudy as fuck. I mean, look!!!

You can't tell me that doesn't provoke some questions. Does it mold to his lips? Does he talk through the mouth? Is that mouth supposed to be  moving and we're missing it? I shouldn't be spending this much time asking this many questions about a mouth that doesn't belong to Rosario Dawson. I'm just sayin. Fix this shit, DC.

Batman: Okay, this is a nice way to follow up Zero Year. Instead of throwing us right into the next thing, Scott Snyder and Gerry Duggan give us a grace period and use this mainly one-shot issue to get us used to not having Greg Capullo around. Duggan's style is tailor made for hard boiled detective shit which is exactly what Bats gets down to here. I'm very much looking forward to what this creative team has in store.

All New X-Men: I thought I was going to miss Stuart Immonen on this book because, as much as I love Brian Bendis, he did the title a lot of favors visually. But Sara Pichelli has taken the torch and carried the fucking thing like she's been there all along. There are going to be some people that don't like this book because they feel every issue of a superhero book HAS to be about people beating the shit out of each other (though, in fairness, it's been so long since the X-family got along, readers might have forgotten what that looks like and doesn't really know how to respond). This is really no different than an episode of a television show devoted to character development. If you can sit through a whole hour of Heisenberg trying to kill a fly, I don't see why you can't read through this.

And now, in closing, the most awkward but necessary transition EVER....

So, with the turmoil in Ferguson and the untimely departure of Robin Williams, it's safe to say that this week was a particularly maudlin one. This doesn't have much to do with comics and I hate to feel like I'm ambushing you guys with some soapbox shit at the end of an emotional week, but suicide strikes a certain nerve with me, so you're gonna have to bare with me today.

If you know someone who's having a tough time to a point where they might consider hurting themselves or if you're having a hard time, hear me now. Tell someone. Tell anyone. Tell me if you have to. The only way we make it to tomorrow is together and trust me when I say this: We Want You Here. There's too many wonders in this world for us to not want to share them. There's no shame in reaching the end of your rope if there's someone waiting at the end of it to catch you. Don't let the darkness consume you. Don't wait. Don't stay silent. Don't hesitate. There's love all around if you look for it. 

1-800-273-TALK
suicide.org
crisistextline.org

The Week in Geek 8/6/14

So, this week, Black Nerd Problems published an exchange between me and my editor, Will Evans about Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice and whether it's a Pass or a Play. Granted, I argued for seeing the movie mainly because thus far, I haven't personally seen any aspect of it that makes the whole thing a "non starter" like it has with some. In truth, I think the thing that has hindered the movie before we even got a trailer is the perpetual press junket. I harped on this a little bit in my Comic Con commentary last week but as a whole, (running the risk of sounding like an old man) I think cinema in general has been somewhat hindered in the era of social media.

Don't get me wrong. As a member of "New Media", I recognized how much progress has been made as far as independent property being circulated and having so many options for alternatives to hoping for the old mainstream venues to notice you. However, for the mainstream big budget films, I remember seeing nothing more than a thirty second trailer and maybe an endorsement from some fast food joint and being able to go into a movie cold with an open mind about what I was about to see. BvS is a prime example of how there is a headline now to tell you every single level of the production process to the point where there's no mystery anymore. Marvel is a pretty good example of an outfit that knows how to use the media engine to its advantage, control what gets out and treat their fanbase to some quality tidbits for its loyalty, but even with that in mind, I still basically walked into Guardians of the Galaxy KNOWING it's going to be awesome as opposed to the degree of wonder that should come from a Marvel movie that doesn't feature conventional superheroes (though, yes, I get that it's in a superhero filled universe). In any case, I'm not exactly #TeamZackSnyder, but I think I've seen enough that movie deserves a we'll see.

Also, I'll have a few thoughts about Guardians of the Galaxy up some time tomorrow.

My comic reviews for the week are up and available on Black Nerd Problems for your viewing pleasure. This week, I took a look at.....

Why the FUCK would you point your flashlight at Killer Croc
and NOT YOUR GUN?!

Batman Eternal: I think every comic has a make/break issue that can harm the quality at any given time. With Warren Ellis books, it's the overall patience of the reader. With Jonathan Hickman books, it's his tendency to meander in the world he builds for the reader. With Greg Land books, it's Greg Land. With Batman Eternal, at any given time, the artwork can easily sink this boat for that week. The gift AND the curse of having Dustin Nguyen on the title was that it raised the bar. Anyone who's seen his previous work on Batman books knows that his style feels so natural for this universe. Then, for Andy Clarke to have to follow up behind Nguyen's gorgeous work was rough. It was a decent job, but after a plot where some of the panels were simply terrifying, chasing monsters in the sewers should have felt much scarier and atmospheric than this did. Hopefully, this improves next week.

Iron Fist, The Living Weapon: I'm really having a hard time deciding whether we're going to look back in a couple of months and find this to be a sleeper hit by the time Kaare Andrews is done....or if Marvel is going to cancel it prematurely and leave us wondering what happened to this run in a few years when someone else comes along and gives it the Shang Chi treatment (I'm sorry, but that book is awful).

The Week In Geek 7/30/14

I'll have some San Diego Comic Con follow up stuff ready to go for you guys tomorrow since people asking me about certain events took up the better part of my time this week. It's flattering and a little surreal that you people seem to care so much about my opinion on these things lately. I literally can't even go on a date these days without running into a reader who says some shit like "Hey, man, your whiskey sour is on the house....but you're dead wrong about X-Men this week." Anyway, my reviews for Black Nerd Problems are up and available for your viewing pleasure. Feel free to click, share, comment and troll at your convenience. This week, I reviewed....

Batman Eternal: Listen, folks, I know this book, despite my praising it, has had some problems along the way, but this Ray Fawkes and Dustin Nguyen fall very perfectly into this supernatural, "creepy shit afoot" groove with the greatest of ease. Bringing back the Roman was awesome early in the series, but making Deacon Blackfire matter again is setting up to be a good look. I could definitely see the events of this storyline spilling out into the rest of the Bat-books just in time for some fun Halloween related books.

Uncanny X-Men: Listen, not only is this book back to being brilliant, but it's surpassed its previous brilliance. The thing about X-Men books in general is that there are often times when they work better not focusing on superhero antics. Their whole thing is making the public perception of mutants a little more upbeat, but they don't get to do that very often because most of the time, they're fighting with each other on one level or another. And even if they're not fighting each other and actually saving the world, they take it on the chin so often, they never really get around to changing minds. I think Bendis understands that X-books are at their most poignant when they centered around the idea of the X-Men as a family...sometimes fractured, always dysfunctional.

The Week in Geek 7/16/14

A few things this week....

If you're interested and not already tired of hearing about the new Thor, I wrote an article about why some of the outrage is....well, stupid. It hasn't even been a week since the news got out and I've already talked about Thor enough to last a lifetime. I honestly believe the trolls were only rubbed the wrong way because Marvel made a big deal in the press about it. If this had just been a par-for-the-course part of Jason Aaron's story arc, I'm pretty sure it would have gone unmarked or at least been a lot more low key in making its rounds in the press. But if you really want to talk about Marvel and making statements about gender or, according to some, "forcing them down our throats"....I think this would be a good way to go about it. If you really want to appear open minded about women in superhero comics, sure, you could make "that" statement quietly and create an alternative "that" audience can pick up over here in "that" little subsection where it won't bother your primary demographic. OR you can take a character who (let's face it), despite his corresponding movies basically being romcoms, is the quintessential avatar of all things stereotypically "manly", move him to the side and (this part is pure conjecture because we haven't read it yet) give all of those qualities to a woman. Why? Because making sociopolitical statements are only truly effective when you've shoved it in someone's face and made them uncomfortable. Otherwise, why even open your mouth? But I could be wrong.

I also wrote an op-ed on the treatment of women in Nerd Culture. By the way, let me just thank the trolls for giving me a break on that one. As I'm writing this, the Thor article has been out for barely 24 hours now and you're already going to work. I can't combat the ignorance on two fronts.

In addition, my reviews for the week are up and available on Black Nerd Problems for your viewing pleasure as well as your scorn and derision. Whatever comes first. This week, I took a look at....

Ms. Marvel: I genuinely don't understand the whole "Instead of changing a popular characters' gender, just make better female centric books" complaint when you have a book like this on the shelves (or Black Widow or the all female X-Men book or the Mighty Avengers book where women on the team outnumber men, etc.). This is easily one of the BEST books in comics this year without question. Teaming the perpetually hopeful Kamala Khan up with curmudgeonly ass Wolverine was a brilliant move on G. Willow Wilson's part. I'm more excited to see if Wilson facilitates the inevitable team up with Captain Marvel, her favorite her.

Batman Eternal: Not much to say outside of the review this week, but this was mainly a fantastic way to start a new volume of the series. And bringing in Dustin Nguyen is always a plus. I'd pretty much call him one of the quintessential Batman artists of the 2000s. His use of shadow and anime-esque art deco type lines have always stuck out to me and made for a dynamic read.

Uncanny X-Men: Now, THIS is how you bounce back after a lackluster issue. Brian Bendis and Kris Anka make such a good creative team, I hardly recognized this book from the previous run. I was really impressed with the clean, drastically different style employed here. As much as I love Chris Bachalo, the "Vs. SHIELD" story had a lot of chaotic moments that made it easy to get lost in the action. Anka's clean, straightforward panels are reminiscent of Chris Samnee's work on Daredevil....which is always a compliment.

Stuff I Read This Week 7/2/14

My reviews for the week are finished and available on Black Nerd Problems for enjoyment alongside your barbecue and the drinks your uncle tells you not to watch him make. Smell that shit before you drink it. You never know. This week I took a look at.....

Batman Eternal: This was an awesome week because it furthers Scott Snyder and the conspiracy to make Jim Gordon an awesome character. I'm of the mind that a hero is only as great as the villains who test them. What better test is there to keep throwing in a hero's path than his sociopathic serial killer son? Also, Jason Bard is growing on me. His team-up with Harvey Bullock and Maggie Sawyer has been a great read and is evidence that we need a GCPD book soon. Mikel Janin is easily one of the best artists we've seen on this book yet. He really seems to get the kind of atmosphere this book should have, but isn't shy with using a very definitive color palette to get his point across and separate the "freaks" from the "straights."

Iron Fist, The Living Weapon

: This book has not hesitated to get better with each issue and I'm totally okay with this. When you create a genre based superhero, I believe the idea is to make a character that would make the most skilled, revered real life figures of that genre shit themselves. Having said that, Iron Fist would render Bruce Lee unconscious just by cracking his knuckles.

Stuff I Read This Week 6/18/14

My reviews for the week are available for you internet adventuring/critiquing/trolling pleasure on Black Nerd Problems. Visit, comment, say hello, pass it around at your leisure. This week, I looked at....

Batman Eternal: I realized that my review for this book has basically become my weekly column for BNP. When you look closely enough, a weekly comic can be like a master class in everything that can go right AND wrong. As much as I love this book, it's been something of a balancing act. A lot of the reason what bring you to this book is Scott Snyder's basic plot. What's got to find some normality is the visuals. Don't get me wrong: Ian Bertram's artwork was fucking awesome and you can never go wrong when your primary influences are Frank Quitely and Robert Crumb. But last week's artwork was such a travesty, it's going to take at LEAST three weeks of strong visuals to make up for it. For the most part, the story/script is strong enough (even when it's cramming a lot of material into one issue) that it keeps things going. Even good television shows have episodes that aren't as strong as others, but don't take away from the overall quality of the series.

Uncanny X-Men: Okay, it's no secret that Brian Bendis is probably one of my favorite writers. His voice for a lot of characters is very distinct and entertaining. Having said that, he dropped the ball this week. The "big reveal" of the villain was an utter fail. First of all, it was as if they spun a game show wheel at the Marvel office and THAT'S what they came up with. Second of all, if that's who he came up with, there was so much potential for symbolism and dialog about the duality and Beast having to face the fact that he's the center of so much going awry in the X-family lately (being that he's the one who brought the Original X-Men from the past and now, for some reason, he doesn't know how to send them back). Instead, all this got swept under the rug in favor of a satisfying but rushed quick fix resolution.

Stuff I Read This Week 6/11/14

My comic reviews for this week on Black Nerd Problems are now up and available for public consumption.

Batman Eternal: Okay, I think I'm developing a crush on this book. I mentioned this in the review, but it's sort of addictive in the same way a weekly television show is. One problem is that there are issues where it feels like it crams an hour worth a material into a half hour format. This can be disorienting depending on who's handling script duties that week, but it's sort of a minor problem so far. I can see that the REAL issue with this book from week to week is going to be artwork. Different artists trying to maintain the same aesthetic has has mixed results at best. The visuals have been mainly fantastic lately, but this week's character designs were unforgivable. This is still a solid book, but being a weekly title sort of subjects it to having more issues than a conventional monthly or biweekly book.


All New X-Men: This has been a strong book from the start but this particular run is stellar. It's a really great balance of action and exposition. As much as I love Brian Bendis, he has a habit of leaning heavy one way or the other. He did a great job of keeping things exciting while giving some real gravitas to Charles Xavier Jr (they've REALLY got to come up with some kind of codename for that guy).

Uncanny X-Men Special: Look, I'm not bashing this book, per se. You'll know when I'm bashing a book. It's very apparent. So, no, I don't hate this book. It's really funny and it's a good example of maintaining elements of another writer's aesthetic. But the first issue of any good comic should be the one that justifies the book's existence. It should say right away, "This is why I've gathered you all here today." This book didn't. I hope it at least tries to not seem like a cash grab and an excuse to put Iron Man in stuff (since his own book was a very well put-together "meh" the last time I read it).