Tag: comics

Categories
Movies

Joker

Joker

Always was more of a Marvel guy than a DC guy growing up, but I can’t not check out a movie about a villain. The villains were always the coolest part of comics.

I read some pretty great reviews of Joker, so my expectations were pretty high going in. I have to say, it lived up to the hype. It’s not too often that a movie makes you think so much any more, but this one really did that for me.

It was darker and more disturbing than anything I’ve seen in a while. It really does a great job to get you inside the head of an unstable guy, or at least I though I was in his head most of the time. But frankly, by the end I’m not sure how much we were in his head or in reality. Well done.

Very well done. One of the more interesting movies I’ve seen in a while.

Categories
Books

X-Men: Second Coming

X-Men: Second ComingI had a 40% off coupon on Borders that I was on a mission to use up. Since I’ve read pretty much every tech book out, I figured I’d attempt to go way back to my roots and try some comics or a graphic novel. I hadn’t really read an X-Men crossover since probably high school, but had heard good things about Second Coming and it was all shiny and hardbound and seemed the perfect candidate for my coupon’s use.

It was a collection of the following issues:

  • Chapter 1: X-Men: Second Coming #1
  • Chapter 2: Uncanny X-Men #523
  • Chapter 3: New Mutants #12
  • Chapter 4: X-Men: Legacy #235
  • Chapter 5: X-Force #26
  • Chapter 6: Uncanny X-Men #524
  • Chapter 7: New Mutants #13
  • Chapter 8: X-Men: Legacy #236
  • Chapter 9: X-Force #27
  • Chapter 10: Uncanny X-Men #525
  • Chapter 11: New Mutants #14
  • Chapter 12: X-Men: Legacy #237
  • Chapter 13: X-Force #28
  • Chapter 14: X-Men: Second Coming #2

There’s plenty of summaries regarding the story, but there were a few moments that really stuck out for me.

Nightcrawler (Kurt Wagner) died! He’s been one of my favorite characters since as long as I could remember, and was really bummed when he died. Granted he did die a most noble death that was right in line with his character, it was very sad nonetheless.

I also thought it was really cool when a severely weakened Magneto crawled out of the sick bay to defend the few mutants remaining. He’s always been one of if not my favorite villains, and to see him put the preservation of his species before his own health was pretty awesome. Also even though the Sentinels registered his health around 30% he was still able to rip thru them.

This was one of the darkest stories I’ve read in a while, with a crazy amount of casualties. Extremely good stuff, it really reminded me of why I did enjoy reading comics so very long ago.

Categories
Books

Marvel 70th Anniversary Collection

While on lunch break with NGM I noticed the Marvel 70th Anniversary Collection at Borders. It’s a reprint of several comics over the 70 years that Marvel has been putting stuff out. I didn’t buy it that day, but a few days later I found myself picking up a copy to read over.

Growing up I was a huge comic book reader, especially anything being put out by Marvel. So I was excited to see that the following were reprinted in full color in this collection:

  • Marvel Comics #1 1939
  • Captain America Comics #2 1941
  • Captain America Comics #3 1941
  • Journey into Mystery #6 1953
  • Tales to Astonish #13 1960
  • Amazing Adult Fantasy #10 1962
  • Fantastic Four #13 1963
  • Strange Tales # 115 1963
  • Amazing Spider-Man #50 1967
  • Avengers #93 1971
  • Iron Man #128 1979
  • Uncanny X-Men #128 1980
  • Daredevil #168 1981
  • Incredible Hulk #340 1987
  • Marvels #0 1994
  • Avengers #4 1998
  • Ultimate Spider-Man #13 2001
  • New Avengers: Illuminati #1 2007
  • Captain America #25 2007

The only story that I had read previously was Uncanny X-Men 128, with the Hellfire Club. It was one of my favorites anyway so I was glad to read it again. Actually issue 129 which isn’t included was one of my all-time favorites. It’s when Wolverine pretty much becomes a major character in comics in my opinion.

The early Namor story was extremely violent. I’m was surprised to see such violence in a book published  back in 1939. Once I got the the Fantastic Four #13 in April of 1963 I started to enjoy reading these much more. At that point that’s where all the characters I’d grown up reading about started to make their early appearances.

The “Elektra!” Daredevil #168 was a very good read even though I was very familiar with the story by now. I also enjoyed New Avengers: Illuminati #1 a lot. It was cool to read something very recent that was still pretty cool to read.

At $25 I think this was quite the bargain for all these great stories.