Well, sorry for the lack of updates for the last week and a half or so. I’m in the hospital and just got internet access, so now I have tons of time on my hands for posts. Here’s what I owe for the future:

Hellboy II and the Dark Knight reviews - These will come when I get out to see the movies. Both have gotten great reviews from friends and I can’t wait to see them. These won’t come until the end of next week the earliest, sigh….

Persepolis Review - Watched the movie this past Saturday and have much to say, but I’ll leave that for the blog post.

Comic reviews - As soon as I’m sprung from the hospital I’m heading to the comic shop, sad I know. I’ll have two or three weeks worth of build up to get to.

But here’s two items to tie you over until then.

First! DCist (a great local DC blog) is covering someone’s trip across the country as he stops at comic shops. I always wanted to try this and can’t wait to read all of the updates. Some of my most fun memories is scavenging for comics or games on trips to Toronto, Rochester, or local shows when I lived in Buffalo. Such fun times. You can read the article here.

Second! So, sitting in a hospital with no internet connection until now (thank you coworkers!) you watch a lot of tv. The Daily Show last night had Jon Stewart interviewing one of the stars of the Dark Knight where he attempts to get into his comic reading habit.  You can check out the video here (sorry catching up on a lot and don’t have time to post the embed).

Wow, looks like a missed something really cool on July 7th. Citizens for Batman which has been covered in an earlier post showed a sign of force to promote the upcoming movie The Dark Knight. In New York City and Chicago, giant Batman logos were posted on the sides of buildings.

Now the cooler part, and what appears I missed, is a live streaming of this event along with a chat room.  As far as political actions goes, that holds in a place in my heart.  Last year I was a part of the Chris Dodd for President internet team where we made live streaming and chat rooms a big part of what we did online, introducing UStream to the political scene.

Maybe we rubbed off on the Batman ARG?  Too cool to even think about.

Call it cultural confusion, but a comic book featuring Memin Pinguin created a minor uproar at a Wal-Mart in Texas. After a complaint about the cover of a comic book staring the comic book character, Wal-Mart chose to remove it from the shelves. CNN covers the latest dust up.

Mexico’s government have insisted in the past that,

“…a black cartoon character with exaggerated features is a historical icon who deserves to be celebrated on a postage stamp — and that U.S. leaders charging racism do not fully understand Mexican culture.”

The character was created in the 1943 and translates to Mischievous Guillermo. The stories are supposed to reflect the life of a poor boy in Mexico City. His adventures are read and remain popular in Mexico, Puerto Rico, Venezuela, Peru, Chile, Panama, Colombia, Philippines, and other countries. Stories about racism have been covered in the series,

While Memín suffers a degree of racist taunting, especially in the first issues, the characters mocking him are depicted as either cruel or ignorant. As the story progresses, his race becomes less of an issue.

This isn’t the first time the character has caused a stir this side of the border. In June of 2005 Mexico had to deny stamps of the character were in fact racist.

Wizard’s website covers the story, but here’s the highlights:

• The Joker was created by Batman artist and political cartoonist Jerry Robinson
• Robinson launched a media campaign to free the imprisoned Uruguayan political cartoonist Francisco Laurenzo Pons
• Organized a major syndicate for editorial artists to control their own work
• Helped Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster get a much needed financial settlement and their byline restored on their famous creation Superman

In Frank Miller’s the Dark Knight Returns we saw the writer take on some of the citizen reaction to Batman’s return to Gotham. It looks like Chris Nolan’s upcoming movie the Dark Knight might be incorporating part of that story in his latest take on Batman.

Continuing the very political Alternate Reality Game (ARG), a website called Citizens for Batman has popped up online. The first thing I notice is the site is a .org and not the usual .com. It’s a protest site praising the work Batman has done for the citizens of Gotham proclaiming, “Don’t Let City Hall Arrest Batman!”.

The political portion is pretty clear:

VOTE “YES” ON PROP D
Batman has been called many things - a menace, a legend, an enigma - but, the one title that seems to follow him wherever he goes is “vigilante.” Because of this label, Batman has been unfairly dogged by the Gotham authorities for far too long. But now, voters have the chance to help him do his job. Proposition D will require the Gotham Police to turn their priorities from so-called “vigilantes” and make them focus their efforts on the real criminals. So, when you go to the polls, say “yes” to a safer city, say “yes” to supporting a true hero and say “yes” to Prop D.

The site also sports a forum with this post from June 13th:

Looks like we didn’t do it! Proposition D is going down. This stinks! How could people have done this!

Much like the campaign site for Harvey Dent, the blurring of real world politics and the greater Batman storyline is blurred as discussion of civic engagement, best practices on how to engage people, and how to register to vote are discussed.

Overall kudos to Warner Bros. and the company running their ARG. I do wonder the spill over of this imaginary civic engagement and any real civic engagement in the real world. Any chance this story has driven real life action and engagement?

So is this the year of the comic book? 8 that I count are coming out this year. Already we’ve had, Iron Man, the Incredible Hulk, and Wanted. Still to come is:

Hellboy II: The Golden Army - July 11 - I am a big fan of the original. It definitely was a suprise hit. If nothing else Guillermo del Toro visually will present a stunner. Expectation: It’ll match the original.

The Dark Knight - July 18 - Batman Begins was one of the best comic book movies ever. Chris Nolan is back directing and I’m sure his vision will be amazing like del Toro’s and if nothing else the ARG has been cool. Expectation: Hopefully early positive word won’t raise expectations too high, but really Oscar for Ledger?

Whiteout - September 9 - A crime mystery at Antarctica starring Kate Beckinsale. I never read the comic, but need to pick it up. The comic has gotten good reviews and was nominated for numerous awards. Like A History of Violence, and Road to Perdition, I doubt anyone will connect this one to it’s source material. Expectation: Comics where you didn’t know the source have turned out well, I’m hoping this doesn’t break that tradition.

Punisher: War Zone - December 5 - I used to be a big Punisher fan, and the first movie was ok, nothing special. There’s so much potential here. I’d really like to see a movie focused on one man’s revenge on the people who murdered his family and the psychological trauma he’s endured from that and war. Like Iron Man, I’d update Frank Castle as an Iraq vet instead of a Vietnam. Expectation: Really low. The first was ok, and I don’t expect much more than this. It could go the Blade route and be a surprise underground hit. I’m more confused by the December release.

Will Eisner’s The Spirit - December 25 - I know where I’ll be Christmas Day. With visuals like Sin City, this movie, directed by comic great Frank Miller, has me giddy. I don’t know the source material too well, but the trailer so far is jaw dropping. I like what I see so far. Expectation: Like Sin City and 300 this one is high, and those other two didn’t disappoint.

Wanted is not your typical comic book movie.  First, it’s rated R, and the only other two comic book movies I can think of that fall into that is A History of Violence, and the Road to Perdition.  Second, like the two movies mentioned there’s no superheroes or villians in the traditional sense.

Let me say, I enjoyed the comic book that the movie is loosely based off of.  I enjoy the writer Mark Millar’s work, for the deeper narrative he’s attempting to tell, but am not the biggest fan of how he tells it.  He’s not an Alan Moore or Frank Miller who pile of the layers to the bigger story their attempting the tell.  Millar is much more blunt without the finesse those other two show.  However what Millar is saying is important and not subjects generally covered.  Wanted much like his latest series (soon to be movie) Kick-Ass explores similar territory as the book and also movie Fight Club.

Millar’s protagonist (if you can call him that) is an office drone much of like shown in Office Space and the tv show the Office.  The first part of the movie and comic series is built so we feel for this character and are drawn in to his world.  We’re supposed to feel sorry for him, and relate, reflecting on our own droning lives.  Now the brilliance that does seep out is that we come to like the main character Wesley Gibbons so much that we don’t bat an eye at the violence dished out and become complacent and accomplices at the horrors he causes.  Wanted to me is a reflection on the pc-90’s while Millar’s latest series Kick-Ass is a reflection on superheros for the YouTube generation.

Deep material if you want to take it that far.  On the surface though Wanted is a fun ride with over the top violence.  Not for everyone but definitely recommended for high school and college age males who want to see lots of people get shot.

Top comic movies of 2008 so far:

1) Iron Man

2) the Incredible Hulk

3) Wanted

Well time to catch up on some posts I’ve been neglecting over the past few months (they’ve been hectic and I promise to do better).  So, I noticed one of those posts that I meant to and never did was my review of the new Hulk movie, The Incredible Hulk.

First let me say the movie was excellent, and was a pleasant surprise compared to the Ang Lee crapfest that came out before (I never could get through it).  The new movie has an excellent cast starring Edward Norton as Bruce Banner.  What this movie does well that Ang Lee failed to do is pay homage to what’s come before.

The opening credits suck you in telling you the story as to what’s going on instead of the usual Marvel comic book panels.  References to Stark Industries, SHIELD, and Nick Fury all play out before the movie has even begun.  Mixing the various histories of the character the movie is much closer to the origin told by the Hulk television series that ran from 1978 to 1982.  The first half of the movie plays out more like the Bourne movies with Bruce Banner on the run from the military.  A nice mix of action but not the usual smashing you’d expect from this movie.  The second half of the movie plays out much more as expected with Banner attempting to cure himself and the eventual showdown between him and the Abomination.  At that point the movie loses some of its originality but is still very enjoyable.

All kinds of fun nods to fans plays out including a television clip of Bill Bixby (who played Banner in the tv show) in the Courtship of Eddie’s Father, Lou Ferrigno playing a security guard, Doc Samson is a character (though you need to check the credits), the purple pants make an appearance, and the usual Stan Lee cameo.

What the movie does great is expanding the Marvel movie universe.  Marvel has brought its movie production in house allowing it to “cross-over” it’s movie franchises, starting with Iron Man and the Hulk.  You’d think DC being owned by Warner Bros. would of done this a while ago, but Marvel has decided to combine the islands it’s movies characters live on.  This will eventually include their upcoming Thor and Captain America movies.  Not sure if Ant-man will be apart and SONY still has the rights to Spiderman

SPOILERS - At the end of the Iron Man movie we saw Nick Fury approach Tony Stark about the Avengers Initiative, a hint at things to come.  At the end of the Hulk, we see Tony Stark approach Gen. Ross about his “getting a team” together, a hint at the Avengers movie down the road (I assume).  I’d guess the Hulk will be involved somehow either as a member (he was a member of the original comic book team) or maybe the threat the team forms around.  We also know the next villain for the eventual Hulk sequel As Samuel Sterns is in the movie and the origin of him becoming the Leader is shown.

Overall, while the film doesn’t quite hold up to the Iron Man movie, the Hulk on it’s own is an intelligent, fun time worthy of your $10.

Top comic movies of 2008 so far:

1) Iron Man

2) the Incredible Hulk

This covers two weeks of comics as I was traveling the week before.  There’s a lot to be posted this week!

Monthly Purchases

Avengers: The Initiative #14 - Looking at 3D Man’s ability to see Skrulls.

Captain America #39 - Continuing the brilliant series’ run.  How do you boost a third party candidate?  How about a security scare?

DMZ #32 - Part 4 of the Delgado Nation storyline as election day draws closer in the DMZ.

Ex Machina #37 - Some great political material in here.  Can they stop the new person before the Republican Convention?

Fantastic Four #558 - A big fight, Doctor Doom gets beat down….

Final Crisis #2 - Yeah I was a little confused on this one like everyone else.

Guardians of the Galaxy #1 - I missed the release and had to pick up the second printing.  I was a huge fan of the original series and have to say so far this one is a blast.

Guardians of the Galaxy #2 - Continuing a great team book exploring Marvel’s cosmic stories.

Iron Man #30 - Continuing a look at the next step of nuclear war, all the damage none of the fallout.

The Mighty Avengers #15 - A look at Hank Pym and what happened when he was switched out by Skrulls.

The New Avengers #42 - A look at Jessica Drew and what happened when she was switched out by Skrulls.

New Warriors #13 - I still say this book has potential.  I’m not giving up quite yet.

Runaways #30 - The end to their time traveling adventure.

Secret Invasion: Fantastic Four #2 - I missed the first issue but this looks at what happened to the FF when their building was sucked into the Negative Zone.

Secret Invasion: Runaways/Young Avengers #1 - The two teams get caught up in the Skrull invasion.

Thor: Reign of Blood - A good old school Thor story.

Thunderbolts #121 - Again something so fun watching the Green Goblin do his thing.

Wolverine #66 - Mark Millar looks at a Wolverine in the future after the heroes have all been defeated.

Uncanny X-Men #499 - The end to the horrible San Francisco story.  Here’s hoping for #500.

The Walking Dead #49 - Not reading this one until I read the trade paperback that was released this week.

X-Factor #32 - The new direction for the team begins.

X-Men: Legacy #213 - Continuing a look at Professor X’s history.

Graphic Novels

Walking Dead: Made to Suffer - The great series continues as it looks at mankind after a zombie plague.

Y The Last Man: Whys and Wherefores - The end to the brilliant series by Brian K. Vaughan.

Monthly Purchases

The Invincible Iron Man #2 - Continuing a look at asymmetric war.

Secret Invasion: Who Do You Trust? #1 - A bunch of short stories having to do with Secret Invasion.

Trinity #2 - And this is the reason I don’t read a lot of DC comics.

The Twelve #6 - A must read, J. Michael Straczynski does his version of Watchmen.

X-Force: Ain’t No Dog - Two short stories, not bad.

Graphic Novels

Fables: Wolves