Category: Comic Musings

All general posts relating to the comic book industry.

Some thoughts on IDW's TMNT series

So I was able to get my hands on the first three issues of IDW’s current Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles comic and so far, I thought it was an enjoyable series. Essentially serving as a reboot of the franchise (forgoing any of the prior comics), the series reintroduces us to the TMNT and tweeks the origin story a bit, with the turtles no longer being pet turtles, but rather test subjects.

It’s an interesting twist on the origin story and it (among other things that I honestly don’t want to dwell on here… not yet) results in the dynamics of the family being somewhat  different from what came before. I’ll probably hold off with a full overview until this current arc ends, but like I said, I’ve been enjoying this run so far and it’s been pretty fun to read a new TMNT book.

Whose utility belt is getting stirred?

So that ComingSoon website has leaked pictures of Anne Hathaway’s Catwoman get-up from the upcoming Dark Knight Rises flick, which you can check out by clicking here.

Personally, I’m not too keen on the costume… but who knows? Maybe there will be enough stirrings in one’s utility belt to get over it.

One Ends… And Another Begins… And it's all Barry Allen's fault.

So the final issue of Flashpoint came out… touching stuff here. The ending still tears me up a bit even after several reads. It’s a rather neat way of transitioning from the old continuity that has been around since 1985 to the New 52 that’s starting with Justice League #1… which is okayish. Maybe I need another read or two…

But yep… nice capping of twenty-five years. And a nice reinforcement of  a life-long lesson; if the timeline is somehow fucked up in any way, blame Barry Allen. It’s always gonna be Barry Allen’s fault…

Bring back Wally West!

Later…

Superman Is Single Again…

According to this USA Today article, writers feel that Superman is a more interesting character when he’s not married… because, hey, if you can’t tell interesting stories with a character, retcon their marriage. Because God forbid we make an actual effort in trying to make this work even though it’s worked for the past decade or so… bunch of hacks.

Then again, this is supposed to be a reboot, so whatever…

But you know what hasn’t been rebooted? Even in the New 52, CM Punk is still WWE Champion.

DTM BLOG Classics #51 – Revisiting The “Secret Spider-Man” Movie

Today’s DTM Blog Classic archive post is something of a chronicle, covering a subject matter that I’ve touched on multiple times over the course of the blog’s life time. The majority of posts took place in 2004-2005, but the final thoughts came in 2011, which is why this is backdated to 2011 rather than when the earliest posts were done.

Continue reading “DTM BLOG Classics #51 – Revisiting The “Secret Spider-Man” Movie”

A little late but…

You know… I didn’t really react to this when I first saw it. Maybe if something like this was done ten years ago or so, I would have been shocked or something. But today? Not really. I’ll give you a couple reasons;

1 – The Spider-Man in question refers to Ultimate Spider-Man, the one that was floating around in Marvel’s Ultimate brand for about a decade or so. Marvel wouldn’t have the balls to kill off the traditional Spider-Man we all know and loved, despite the supposed big deal being made around the killing-off of one of the Fantastic Four (whom will no doubt be ressurected in a few months or so).

On a side note, I’m not making a big deal out of this whole “Three” storyline because it’s been done before. See Fantastic Four #381.

2 – In comics, characters never really stay dead. They’ll eventually come back in a few years or so. So if they pull this out, the only people who would give Marvel the reaction they’re looking for with this storyline are the folks who don’t know any better.

3 – We already had a Death of Spider-Man storyline. It’s called One More Day.

That’s it.

More Crappy Comics On WWE? Sign Me Up!

Apparently, Titan Publishing (the guys who publish various trade paperbacks) has inked a deal to do comic books based on WWE. You can read some of the press release here if you want.

I’m not too keen on the idea. I’ll admit that the run by Chaos Comics was actually pretty good (the highlight being a 10-issue miniseries on Undertaker, which I actually enjoyed for the most part – and a few other oneshots). But that was during a different time.

This time, I’m not sure. But hey, it can’t be all bad, right?

EDIT: PWPix has some previous pages of the first issue of WWE Heroes, which features medieval knights, demons, and Hell In A Cell… and a Royal Rumble. Looks promising? See for yourself.

An Incoherent Rambling About Spider-Man’s Brand New Day

There’s word that Spider-Man has undergone a change of late. Marvel has been proudly touting its Brand New Day storyline, which is supposed to introduce the first new status quo for its popular superhero. Now I haven’t been following comics in a good couple years, but I figure let’s jump in and see how Spidey’s been doing since he opened himself up to the world.

So I come back to comics, start reading this bold new vision that Marvel has released and what do I learn?

– Peter Parker and Mary-Jane are no longer married and are apparently on bad terms with each other. Apparently this happened due to a deal with Mephisto that he would save frail Aunt May for the existence of their marriage. Yeah, that alone is pretty stupid and totally against the Parker character. How many people close to Peter have died? Did he make a deal to bring back any of those characters? That’s just bullshit! Why don’t we make a deal that brings back Uncle Ben too? Or any of the other 500 characters that have died in the Spider-Man comics… oh wait.

– Harry Osborn is back from the dead, on good terms with Peter, and hates Spider-Man… Christ, are you fucking kidding me? Bad enough we brought back Norman Osborn for that Clone Saga years ago, but now we’re brining back Harry because of this whole Devil deal? Bullshit! Again, why not bring back Uncle Ben instead of Harry? And if Harry hates Spider-Man, shouldn’t he hate Peter too? After all, Peter came out of the closet and… oh wait just a minute there, King.

– Nobody knows who Spider-Man is anymore. Don’t worry, it’s still Peter Parker, but apparently the whole thing is reorganized so that the whole unmasking thing that was much publicized, debated, criticized, analysed, whatever… never happened. Why would you do this? This is a move I expect from the Distinguished Competitor, not fucking Marvel. Again… BULLSHIT! It’s almost like they’re trying to rewrite history.

– Ol’ Jonah suffers a heartattack and his rival buys the Bugle and renames it the DB. Yeah, really fucking original. The DB. Yeah… BULLSHIT!

– Spider-Man no longer has organic webshooters, but the old-school mechanical ones. Some people might be happy with this, but I actually preferred the organic shooters. After all, spiders don’t have mechanical shooters, but I digress.

– A new heroine called Jackpot appears… and you know it’s obviously Mary Jane because she has red hair and calls Spider-Man “Tiger”. Christ! And who the fuck is Menace? Another goblin-like foe? BULLSHIT!

How do you fuck up Spider-Man?! Please tell me! PLEASE!

Okay… I guess I should be asking myself if the books are any good.

Truth be told, the stories aren’t that bad. They do try to bring back some semblance of classic old-school Spider-Man, but apparently nobody clued in on the fact that Peter is still old. The art for these books are… mediocre at best. Don’t get me wrong it’s not terrible and it’s fairly decent, but it’s nothing that hasn’t been done before. Overall, it’s worth a quick look, but the whole rewriting of history just ruins the whole thing for me. Again, why do these things need to change? It simply doesn’t make any sense. It reeks of… BULLSHIT!