Yearly Archives: 2011
The 6 Greatest Comic Book Santas
Let’s get this out of the way first: Santa Claus is real. Totally real. He’s big, he’s jolly, his white beard is legend and he lives on the North Pole making toys for all the good little girls and boys of the world. He uses time zones to his advantage when flying around the world in one night, and his reindeer fly using magick. Boom, mystery solved! If he wasn’t real, why would I, a 28-year-old man, still be getting presents marked ‘From: Santa’ under the Christmas tree? Can’t explain that!
Also not every kid in the world celebrates Christmas, so that cuts down on his time considerably.
It also helps that he's sometimes a vampire
Santa Claus is such a popular guy that he’s one of the biggest celebrities on the planet, and is always appearing in movies, TV shows and more. Whether he’s selling Coca Cola, being put on trial on 34th Street or getting his testicles electrocuted by terrorists in Iraq on South Park, Santa Claus spends a lot of his free time in show business. He’s even made more than a few appearances in comic books. Back in the 40s and 50s, Santa had his own funny books. And Silver Age superheroes like old-timey Batman and Superman were always willing to lend the jolly old elf a hand. But he’s not always portrayed as quite so jolly. Or quite so non-homicidal.
And we’re not talking about stories starring a mall Santa or just a guy in a Santa costume – like the time vampire-slayer Blade had to kill a mall Santa who was possessed by a murderous demon – we’re talking the real deal Kris Kringle himself!
Read on to see the 6 best comic book appearances of Santa Claus!
Robin Will Be Appearing in Dark Knight Rises
Sort of.
At least in Easter Egg form.
The first full trailer for the third and final chapter of Christopher Nolan’s Batman movies was posted online yesterday. And even though Nolan has repeatedly said that Robin will not be appearing in his films, did everyone happen to catch this brief bit during the football game scene in the trailer?
I have no idea what that middle letter is though
Word on the Internet has it that fans were told to bring their own signs, so kudos to the fan holding that letter ‘R’. But even still, Nolan is the director and editor. So he or someone high up edited this trailer and cut and spliced the movie together. Someone has left this ‘R’ in the film and there is no way they couldn’t see it. You see it, right?
If not, check out the Robin logo:
You see it now
Clever girl.
Full Dark Knight Rises Movie Trailer!
The first full length movie trailer for The Dark Knight Rises was released on the Internet today, and it’s…pretty cool. As I mentioned only a few days ago, I haven’t been wowed by a movie trailer in a long time, and this one does not break that streak. It’s uninspiring. I don’t get chills watching this trailer. It just sort of throws a bunch of characters and potential catch phrases at us. And the thing with the football field looks…fakeish.
Anyway, watch for yourself:
Neither Bane or Catwoman (who is only seen as Selina Kyle in this trailer) have much of a presence. Neither one comes off as menacing or memorable, like the Joker from The Dark Knight. And we barely see any Batman at all in the trailer. There are a bunch of characters we don’t know, something political to do with Commissioner Gordon and then just vague shots of Bane in his less than stellar mask/costume.
Not gonna lie, I’m disappointed. Still, I’m sure it’s going to be an awesome movie!
The Skyrim Dragonborn Rap
With many geeks the world over absolutely in love with playing Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, it’s only natural that some of them would be creative. And while the most I’ve managed to do is write up some semi-witty blog entries about the game and my accomplishments, other people, like Dan Bull, have created an epic Skyrim rap!
So overall, I’m not yet sure if I’ll be writing a Skyrim review. The game has been out for about a month, and I haven’t beaten it yet. There’s just so much to do in the open worldness of it. The main storyline is the least exciting draw. My orc, Tannenbaum the Warrior Poet, has done so much else on the side. He trained at the Bard College, he crafted a full set of armor out of dead dragons, he slew the head of a museum dedicated to the bad guys from Elder Scrolls IV, and he did that under command of a demon. The demon gave Tannenbaum a knife in return, told him to spread carnage in his demon name. But Tannenbaum just threw the knife into his trunk back home.
I took a few more pictures, if you like. This one shows the epic scale of the game world.
A nice view
I can literally travel to anywhere I see, and that’s just a fraction of the world of Skyrim. There’s so much to do and see. For example, here’s Tannebaum slaying a dragon. It’s hard to see, but that’s him on the dragon’s head. Tannenbaum jumped on top and smashed his deadly axe into the dragon’s head.
An axe he forged out of pure ebony metal and a demon’s heart. The axe is imbued with fire, and it is name is ‘Demon’s Run’. Some of you will get that reference.
‘Demon’s run when a good man goes to war’
The graphics, especially of the dragons, are spectacular.
But it’s not just dragon-slaying and axe-making in Skyrim, no sir! There’s a lot of fun to be had as well. Just this weekend, Tannenbaum was walking a road to get to a nearby township when he was suddenly passed by the ghost of the headless horseman.
Somehow he’d fallen off his ghost horse. You can see it in the distance
Tannenbaum chased him halfway across the world map before finding a headless body…and looting it for a bit of coin.
So yeah, with so much going on and so very late since the game’s release, I haven’t decided if I’ll write a full review or not. Let me know in the comments.
Review: The Ray #1
I can only assume that The Ray was a rejected idea for the New 52 back in September. Coming so soon after the big reboot, and resigned to just a mini-series, I imagine that some editor somewhere liked the idea enough to give it a lifeline. Which is fine. I’ll never oppose adding more comics to the shelf. But The Ray #1 is so bland, mediocre and generic that I can see why it was rejected. The book lacks a hook, lacks any creative or interesting idea to make it worthwhile.
The Ray #1
So if you like your superheroes ordinary and plain, The Ray is the book for you.
Comic rating: 3/5: Alright.
That’s not to say The Ray is a bad read. It’s a perfectly fine comic book about a brand new superhero and his origin story. Though the concept isn’t new. The character of ‘the Ray’ has been around since 1940, and DC had a C-list character running around with his own series back in the 90s and up until the New 52 reboot. For this story, though, writers Justin Gray and Jimmy Palmiotti are starting from scratch. The light-based powers are the same, but we’ve got a new hero, a new supporting cast, a new status quo and new villains. Unfortunately, Gray and Palmiotti did little to capture my attention.
I picked up The Ray #1 on a whim. I like the costume, it was a light comics buying week and I thought ‘what the heck?’. While I’m not disappointed that I bought the comic, I don’t know if I’ll buy anymore. The Ray just isn’t a very bright idea.
Spoilers after the jump.
Henchman-4-Hire 