Yearly Archives: 2013
The Avengers to Reap Cosmic Justice for the Last Few Seasons of The Office
I loved The Office. The show was amazing, the characters were great, and it was definitely appointment TV. But towards the end, it just got bad. It lost all of the magic of the earlier seasons, and it just started piling on bad characters. Worst of all was James Spader as Robert California. Wow, did I hate Robert California. He’s probably the No. 1 reason I stopped watching The Office.
Well lo and behold, the Avengers themselves are going to step up and avenge my lost love! James Spader has been cast as Ultron in The Avengers sequel!
He already looks like a robot
I know Spader is probably just going to be voicing a robot – what with Ultron being a robot – but this still means the Avengers are going to put the beat down on Robert California! This is exciting news.
Review: Teen Titans #23
Just when I think Teen Titans has done everything in its power to mess with my head, here comes Teen Titans #23. On the one hand, it’s everything I’ve ever wanted from the comic. Here is an issue dedicated to the various members sitting down and talking to one another about themselves and their lives. Some of them even sound kind of like teenagers; you know, when they’re not utterly the most base, awkward expositional dialogue ever written. Oh yes, oh yes. The one thing I’ve been complaining about most since the start of the DCnU Titans, and Teen Titans #23 delivers in spades.
Teen Titans #23
But holy crap is this a weird, stunted and disappointing comic!
Comic Rating: 4/10 – Pretty Bad.
I don’t even think I should rate these Teen Titans issues anymore. I’ve lost all ability to be objective, or even recognize what is or isn’t a good or bad issue. There’s just the same dull ache of concern over whether what I’m reading is fine, or if it’s just as inane and misguided as it’s been since the beginning. Teen Titans is a bad comic book. The characters are paper thin and have zero depth. They have no reason for being a team. It’s just a collection of familiar characters garbled together into a team book, with sales presumably strong enough to keep it going, based probably entirely on the brand recognition. Their dialogue is some of the most stilted, exposition-heavy in all of comics. And their costumes just look stupid. There, I said it.
Teen Titans #23 starts off with one of the silliest moments yet as the team deals with Kid Flash being pulled into that vortex, which you can see on the cover. It’s one of the most openly comedic moments I have seen in comics in a long time, but it’s so broadly comedic that I’m not sure it’s actually happening in 2013. It seems like something you’d see in a 90s sitcom, complete with laugh track.
On top of that, for reasons I can’t quite fathom, writer Scott Lobdell spends the issue reintroducing every single member of the team, in the most awkward and obvious ways possible. One would think this is a ‘jumping on’ type of play, for any new readers (as if!), but then the next issues of Teen Titans in September are part of that Villains Month play. They won’t have anything to do with the Teen Titans. So why would anybody jump on for this issue, then be forced to read comics about Trigon and Deathstroke?
And the ending. God damn the ending of this comic. If it means what I think it means…
Join me after the jump for a full synopsis and more head-against-wall examination of this out-of-control comic book.
6 Things I Love That Everybody Else Hates
Wow, people really seem to hate Ben Affleck. When it was announced last week that Affleck had been cast as the new Batman, the Internet exploded! And after that, I think there were more articles about the negative fan reaction than there were articles about the actual announcement. It seems the Internet really, really doesn’t want Ben Affleck to play Batman.
But why not? I like Ben Affleck just fine, and I’m excited to see what he’ll do with the character.
Give him a Boston accent, probably
So that got me thinking, what are other pop culture things that I love but everybody else seems to hate? I know there are more than a few movies on that list, but what else? Being the student of the Internet that I am, keeping track of the various hate rage is just something that comes gradually. We all know that the Internet loves bacon and Joss Whedon, and we also know that everybody hates the Star Wars prequels and, apparently, Ben Affleck. These are just accepted facts of pop culture society these days.
Well I’ve put together a list of six things I absolutely love that everybody else seems to hate. And I’d love to hear some of yours in the comments.
Fans Make the Coolest Trailers
An enterprising geek named solyentbrak1 put together a trailer for the Batman/Superman moving starring Ben Affleck as the Dark Knight and Bryan Cranston as Lex Luthor. It’s quality stuff.
For the record, I’m still cool with Ben Affleck as Batman. I’m also cool with Bryan Cranston as Lex Luthor. I’m currently watching the entire Breaking Bad series, so I’m big into Cranston right now. Though I have to wonder…do people want Cranston as Luthor because he’s a good actor? Or because Walter White is badass and bald?
Good Guy Green Goblin: Why the Little Guy Matters in Comics
I don’t remember how or why I came to possess a copy of Green Goblin #1 in 1995, I only remember the joy I felt flipping through its pages. I can remember marveling at the artwork by Scott McDaniel, possibly the first time I ever actually appreciated comic book art. I can remember haphazardly scouring the comic book shops and supermarkets in Central New York searching for all the follow-up issues, before I ever even knew that comic books come out on Wednesdays. And I can remember waiting 10 years, well into adulthood, before I finally managed to track down the final issue online, and how reading it after all those years was like stepping back in time. The series was just as good as I remembered – if a little dated.
With the Green Goblin series in the mid-90s, Marvel Comics was trying desperately to reach out to both youth culture and longtime fans by mixing a semi-familiar brand name with a slacker protagonist. Green Goblin was a blatant cash-grab. It only lasted 13 issues.
But those 13 issues may be the very reason why I’m such a big comic book fan today. Green Goblin was my ‘gateway drug’. And Phil Urich is my hero.
He’s a funny guy
Some of you reading this have probably never even heard of Phil Urich. He’s no Peter Parker or Bruce Wayne, that’s for sure. But nevertheless, Phil Urich came along at just the right time to hook me into comic books. Green Goblin wasn’t the first comic I had ever read, but it was the first series I ever started collecting on my own. And when all 13 issues were over, I kept reading and I kept looking for more new comics. It was a fun little series with a lot of energy and some cool ideas.
After it was cancelled, one would reasonably expect never to see Phil Urich again. His story hadn’t sold, it was cancelled; shouldn’t that be the end of it?
Nope! Apparently not! And that’s why Phil Urich is such a fascinating character. Phil kept coming back. New writers like Brian K. Vaughn and Dan Slott came long with new ideas and new roles for Phil to play. And through their work, Phil Urich’s story continues to be told, even after all these years. And that’s one of the things I love about comics: through unexpected teamwork, through new writers and new ideas, even the little guys get their own stories. Phil will never be as popular as Spider-Man or Batman, but he’s got a story nonetheless.
Join me after the jump if you’d like to hear it.
Henchman-4-Hire 