Yearly Archives: 2011
My Thoughts on Catwoman’s Movie Costume
UPDATE: New theory about Catwoman’s mask added to story. Look for the blinking .gif.
New images of Anne Hathaway in full Catwoman costume have been circulating the Interwebs over the past day or two, taken candidly by onlookers at the set of The Dark Knight Rises. I didn’t want to comment on the costume because, first of all, we don’t yet know if it’s the final version, and second of all, I’m not a fan of these types of candid set shots. I wanted to wait for an officially released photo. But it’s a slow day for geeky news, so I figured there’s more than one way to skin a cat, so I’m going for it.
I don’t like the costume. It’s too glam.
She's a Barbie girl, in a Batman world
This picture is terrible. Anne Hathaway looks like a Barbie doll, walking around as if she were made of plastic. That’s why I wanted to wait for the official shots. But other than just the creepy, thin sort of look, the costume just isn’t good. There are parts I like. I definitely like the style it’s going for, with the leather and the zipper. The costume definitely invokes a more utilitarian look than spandex superhero. It’s the mask I don’t like.
Read more after the jump, as well as my thoughts on the Bane costume.
Awesome Upcoming X-Factor Cover
Marvel’s December solicitations came out today, and while I’m not going to go through every single issue, I just thought I’d show you all the awesome cover to an upcoming issue of X-Factor. Two issues will ship in December. The first issue will deal with new villain Bloodbath, and the death of one of their team members. The second issue will finally deal with a cliffhanger that’s been around since very early on in the series.
The prophecy that Wolfsbane will murder Madrox and Layla Miller on their wedding night!
How’s it going to happen? Are they really going to die? Are they really going to get married!? To make matters worse (or funnier), Layla was still a little girl when the prophecy was made. Now she’s been aged through time travel to a young woman, perfectly not-creepy for marriage. She and Jamie have even kissed! Plus they share matching face tattoos from their journey together into the future (long story). So I’m excited to see what happens and this is the cover to one of those issues. And it’s an awesome cover.
Not looking too good for Madrox. Note the face tattoo. I told you so!
Gears of War 3 by Conan O’Brien
Conan O’Brien is a huge geek, just like the rest of us. And he took a stab at a softer, gentler Gears of War this week. Funny stuff. I probably still haven’t figure out how to really get this embedding thing to work for anything other than Youtube. So please forgive the link.
Comic Reviews: DC Should Have Done a Full Reboot
Another week has come and gone, leaving me with another stack of new DC titles to read and enjoy. So far, my general opinion still hasn’t been changed by what I’m reading. I become more and more convinced each week that DC should have done a hard reboot right from the beginning. They should have set all of their characters back to Square One. None of this crap where some characters have been fully rebooted and some haven’t been touched at all.
I think the fans would accept a full reboot.
Just look at the evidence in sales so far this month. Justice League sold over 200,000 copies and is going back for its fourth reprint. (To you non-comic fans, that’s a big deal). Even books like Hawk and Dove have sold out and are going back for a reprint. People are buying these new DC titles in droves!
"Hey Marvel! Come at us, bro!"
So clearly DC’s strategy of getting people excited for just their revamp/soft reboot has worked. They did a great job over the summer preparing people for the changes. Comic book fans were ready and willing to accept the new continuity. Yes, there have been some grumblers (like me!) who have complained about some of the changes. But we’re still buying the comics. Which leads me to believe that we’d all still be buying the comics if DC had gone for a full reboot. They’re already retelling the origins of Superman and the Justice League in their respective books. But with the second story of each, they’re going to jump ahead five years. It’s a weird storytelling strategy.
They should have done a full Ultimate DC.
Just not this Ultimate DC
Why not retell all the origins of the characters with exciting new twists and focus? Look at the success of Ultimate Spider-Man. Have DC’s best writers plot out the birth of a new DC Universe. Weave characters together from the ground up into the Justice League and into the Teen Titans. Get rid of characters you don’t want anymore. Give new origins to some characters. Do whatever you want, but do it with some consistency.
But this would never work. I don’t know if comic book fans would have the patience to sit through everything again already knowing what’s to come. While I’d be happy with Dick Grayson back as Robin, with DC retelling his origin, I’d constantly be looking ahead for Jason Todd, Tim Drake and Damian Wayne. Plus some comic fans would definitely be bitter about losing all the continuity. I don’t know if they’d be pacified by the idea that all of that was still around and they could reread it whenever they like. Just DC is going forward with some new ideas.
Oh well. What do I know? This is probably why DC hasn’t given me a job yet. Click the jump for my reviews of DC’s Week Three, including Catwoman, Wonder Woman, Batman and Nightwing.
Review: X-Factor #225
X-Factor is my favorite comic book on the stands, mostly because it stars my favorite character: Jamie Madrox, the Multiple Man. But it’s also a very fun comic, with great characters, great stories and occasionally great art. So I want to dedicate my blog to giving X-Factor as much love as possible. Writer Peter David has penned nearly 80 issues (!!!) starring the same group of B and C-list mutants from the X-Men franchise. X-Factor doesn’t get a lot of press, rarely does anything to draw attention to itself, but maintains enough fans to keep publishing.
X-Factor #225
X-Factor is the little series that could.
So I’m going to start reviews with the latest issue, X-Factor #225. I should have started with the last issue, X-Factor #224.1, but I couldn’t get around to it that weekend. Such are the distractions of a wealthy, studly, millionaire cowboy/astronaut such as myself. In this issue, the team is still recovering from the last big storyline, which involved the birth of Rahne’s demon baby, as well as the events of the separate series Avengers: Children’s Crusade. X-Factory had a brief but very meaningful cameo in that series, which I’ll get to in a moment. The crux of this new issue is that Madrox and his team are pulled into a murder investigation in Kansas, one that occurred on the farm where Jamie Madrox grew up.
But the victim isn’t as dead as she seems.
Henchman-4-Hire 