I May Have Been the Only Person in the World Who Liked Dragonball: Evolution

Though I don’t remember what I liked about it. Or, at least, what I didn’t hate about it.

Good times with Honest Trailers at Screen Junkies! I want them to do Space Jam so badly.

Hench-Sized Comic Book Reviews – 1/18/14

Holy cow, you guys, the Blob is back! The Blob! Not the Age of Apocalypse Blob, or skinny Blob, or powerless Blob, but the real, regular, normal, 616 Blob is back in all his glory in this week’s issue of Uncanny X-Men! With no explanation whatsoever, Brian Michael Bendis just brings back one of my all-time favorite comic book super-villains! And he’s great! Oh man, I hope Bendis has some fun plans for the character!

But the return of the Blob does not win Uncanny X-Men Comic Book of the Week on its own. No sir. Uncanny X-Men wins that title for an absolutely amazing Magneto story, which catapults him to maybe the most badass mutant on the planet these days. If his upcoming solo series is anywhere near as good as this issue, then we’re all in for a treat.

Fortunately, we’ve also got good issues of Thor: God of Thunder, Superior Spider-Man and some other titles this week. I even picked up Skyman #1 by Dark Horse!

But man, I’m so excited for the Blob!

I love the Hawaiian shirt, the sunglasses and the goatee; I love’em!

Comic Reviews: Amazing X-Men #3, Green Lantern Corps #27, Skyman #1, Superior Spider-Man #25, Superman/Wonder Woman #4, Thor: God of Thunder #17 and Uncanny X-Men #16. 

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Your New Justice Leagues!

Big changes are in store for the various Justice Leagues (there are more than one) coming out of the Forever Evil storyline, and I felt it might be fun to share.

First up, the bad news: Justice League Of Canada has been changed to Justice League United. If that’s not depressing, I don’t know what is. DC was gonna do something fun and weird, and instead they’re making it boring and generic. Though writer Jeff Lemire promises that the first story arc will indeed take place in Canada, in this announcement interview with USA Today.

They would have made Canada proud

Considering how much I’m loving Lemire’s Green Arrow, I might have to start picking this up. I was never happy with Geoff Johns’ Justice League of America, but then I don’t think that was ever actually its own comic. It was only ever the road to Forever Evil.

As you can see from that photo, the team is going to be Martian Manhunter, Green Arrow, Supergirl, Stargirl, Animal Man and the new Adam Strange. I don’t particularly care about anyone in that line up, though I am absolutely fascinated with the New 52 Martian Manhunter, and, like I said, Lemire’s Green Arrow is pretty great. Lemire is also going to introduce some new Canadian characters, so more power to him. The stories in JLU are going to focus a lot on outer space, according to the interview. And just a word to my readers, saying ‘outer space’ is just so much more fun that simply saying ‘space’. Unless you’re using ‘space’ as an adjective.

Speaking of team line-ups, the good news is that Lex Luthor is going to join the roster of Justice League, Geoff Johns’ flagship book. That’s actually pretty darn cool, in my opinion.

Too much green and purple

I can’t say that Johns has been writing the best Luthor in the pages of Forever Evil, but just the idea of Luthor on the Justice League is a fun one. He’s a new, Alpha personality, and no doubt he’ll have his own particular brand of heroism. Although why any of the other heroes would let Luthor join the Justice League is anyone’s guess. It’s not like he can force them to accept him, right? Anyway, I’m kind of excited to see what Johns does with this shake-up. And he’s adding Captain Cold too, so that’s kind of neat. You can read a deeper interview with Johns at Newsarama.

I actually kind of like what I’m seeing out of DC Comics…so surely it’s all going to be terrible in the end.

How Desolation of Smaug Should Have Ended

Considering that the ending to The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug was the worst part of the movie, I’m glad to see the How It Should Have Ended guys giving the film it’s full due.

Good times. Good times have been had by all. Personally, they didn’t even need to make multiple jokes here. The only one should have been that Desolation of Smaug should have ended anywhere other than where it did.

Holy Cow, Teen Titans has Been Cancelled!

The worst (best?) has happened as it seems that Scott Lobdell has driven Teen Titans into the ground. Announced by Lobdell himself on ComicVine today, Teen Titans will be cancelled at issue #30 in April!

TTEnd 01

Wow. This is fascinating news. It’s sad that I won’t be able to continue my popular Teen Titans reviews (ravagings?), but man oh man, how great would it be if DC Comics found something better to do with the title and the characters?

Lobdell explained that the last regular issue will be #30, followed by an Annual a week later, which will wrap up the series with a final battle against N.O.W.H.E.R.E., because Lobdell insists they’re the Titans’ arch-enemies. Groan.

I’m thrilled the DC is letting me wrap up the story on a high note as the TEEN TITANS square off against the N.O.W.H.E.R.E. in a final battle — bringing to conclusion the conflict that began in the first issue! I’m certainly going to miss writing the adventures of Red Robin, Wonder Girl, Bunker and the rest of the gang. But as a huge, life long fan of the title I’m very excited about the whispered rumors I’m hearing race back and forth between New York and Burbank.  (Trust me when I say we haven’t seen the last of everyone’s favorite teen team adventurers.)

Let’s read between the lines for a moment. You’ll see that Teen Titans is being cancelled instead of just being handed off to a new creative team. With a title as marquee as ‘Teen Titans’, why wouldn’t DC just let somebody take over from Lobdell?

I think the answer is because Lobdell so greatly screwed up the team that DC has no choice but to burn it down and start fresh somewhere down the line. That is exactly what I think has happened. Ugh. Teen Titans is so bad. The characters have been all but ruined.

If only DC could completely erase everything Lobdell did to the Titans. But at the very least, now there is hope for something better. Hope with me, my friends. Hope.