COMIC REVIEW – Mighty Morphin Power Rangers #2 (Hamilton Comics – Vol. 2)

The second issue of this second miniseries from Hamilton Comics is the only issue in this run to feature one full-length story as opposed to being split into two stories. Unfortunately, even in this format, “The Yesterday Bomb” is a story that still feels rushed.

The plot of the book is fairly straightforward; Lord Zedd concocts a bomb that sends the Power Rangers and their Thunderzords back to the age of the dinosaurs and now they have to find a way to make it back and stop Zedd’s evil robot to wrecking havoc on the city. In theory, it’s not a particularly bad story and does have the makings of something that could’ve been spread out over a couple issues. In execution, the plot does come off as feeling a bit rushed and while I don’t care for the decompressed style of storytelling in comics that span several issues, there are times where I wished they had turned this into a two-part story.

Al Bigley returns for penciling duties while Sparky Moore handles the inking. I honestly wished that it were the other way around simply because Moore is the better of the two artists. A lot of the complaints that I’ve had with Bigley’s past work in these books are prevelant here; everything comes across as hastily drawn and a bit of a mess. Somehow, the art in this issue might actually be worse than Bigley’s previous outings, with one frame in particular depicting Billy as an older gentleman rather than a smart looking teen. I want to say that this book either predicted or inspired the means by which to write off David Yost from the series in the future, but that’d be giving this book too much credit. But, yeah, the art here is pretty bad; quite possibly the worst I’ve seen.

All in all, The Yesterday Bomb is a neat premise on paper, but the execution leaves much to be desired.

Daniel Bryan Danielson fired for choking some guy…

I wake up this morning and I find out that Daniel Bryan Danielson has been fired because he choked WWE announcer Justin Roberts with his tie during that whole skit. Yeah, that’s got to be the stupidest thing I’ve heard all day. Really, if the crack WWE management found some guy getting choked with his tie to be graphically violent, then they wouldn’t have spent a whole five seconds watching the guy get choked. They would have cut to something else. Instead, they lose one of the better workers in that whole NXT faction.

Remember that feeling I had about how WWE was going to somehow fuck up this goldmine they have going on? Well, this isn’t exactly that, but it’s a possible sign that they may very neuter this Invasion. It’s unfortunate that such a realistic (read: compelling) angle had to be toned down because someone might not be . And yet twelve years ago, WCW will pull off similar stuff without much repercussion and that was also something of a PG product.

Oh wait…

More Hyperbole from Dixie

TNA President Dixie Carter left the following on her Twitter:

“It’s 6:30 am. Been up for hours. So excited I can’t sleep. TNA’s about to change forever. Can’t wait to share it w/you, my staff, the talent” 

Uh-huh… yeah, sure. I’ve heard THAT one before. The next great experiment that will garner that 1.0 rating that you guys are so used to.

Still, you can’t fault her for trying. And people seem to attain some remote interest in what may change TNA forever… even if that promise has been made countless times before, giving the phrase even less weight than before each time it’s pulled out of the gutter.

Maybe I’ll be surprised, who knows? Or maybe I won’t care because WWE actually DID surprise me on Monday.

Oh wait, TNA has a PPV this coming Sunday? Yep, time for predictions as soon as I get the full rundown on the PPV.

PLEASE Don't TRY THIS AT HOME + Cena FUs the Invasion

Somehow, I had this idea to combine bits and clips of the NXT Invasion from this past Monday’s RAW with the audio track for one of those WWE PSAs (the clips where a superstar informs viewers not to try this at home). I lucked out in finding one with John Cena… and so here we go.

Before anyone brings it up, yes, I included the spit. Also, I liked the dramatic music piece that they used for the original PSA. It works nicely with the clipshow actually.

Speaking of Cena, here’s a snippet of his Twitter in giant Twitter type:

CeNation. Sorry for delay. Checked out fine. Mild concussion and some back and hip trouble, but I am in 1 piece. Thank u for your concern.


Yep. Eight guys beat the crap out of you and you ONLY suffer a mild concussion and some back/hip problems… and you’ll be going on RAW this coming Monday, jumping all about as if nothing’s ever happened… because that’s your thing.

John? Yeah, I know we don’t see eye-to-eye and I know you enjoy doing all that Superman bullshit that you do every single night. But please do me a favor and SELL the injuries. I know it’s difficult, but you’ve had two movies under your belt to pretend you’re somewhat hurt. You have that experience. Use it… because all the NXT Invasion storyline depends greatly on this ability. Thanks.

AVGN has lost it…

You know the angry reviewer shtick is lost on you when the guy who originated the concept is no longer interesting.

Case in point: AVGN’s Cheetahmen episode was informative and filled with gameplay for Cheetahmen, the unreleased Cheetahmen II, and the Genesis version of Action 52, but as informative as it was, it was also pretty damn boring. I don’t know; maybe it’s just me, but AVGN’s recent stuff has been somewhat lame as of late. Just seeing this guy attempt to be angry is becoming damn-near embarrassing. Just about the only guy I’ve seen who could convincingly pull off the angry gimmick is Dr. Ashen – doesn’t scream or bellow to get his point across, but  does convey anger in a way that is both funny and not ridiculous.

So, sorry, James. Less quantity didn’t bring out more quality.

This will lead to a rant on the angry reviewer cycle soon. Just wait.

RAW (June 7th, 2010) – Declaring WAR On The Three-Hour RAW

So last night, WWE introduced their three-hour Viewers’ Choice RAW. And I’d have to say that that should have been a warning that nothing interesting or remotely good was going to happen. Some of you might recall this experiment having been done before in the form of the brief Taboo Tuesday/Cyber Sunday series of Pay-Per-Views… yeah, they actually charged money for the same concept that was given away for free. Morons.

Whatever…

Continue reading “RAW (June 7th, 2010) – Declaring WAR On The Three-Hour RAW”

COMIC REVIEW – Mighty Morphin Power Rangers #1 (Hamilton Comics – Vol. 2)

So not long after the conclusion of their first miniseries, Hamilton Comics begins their second miniseries of MMPR comic books – although this one lasts about four issues before being abruptly cancelled due to an expiring license, as Marvel would pick up the slack by the time the movie rolls around… for better or worse, but we’ll get to that.

Right off the bat, the miniseries does a far better job of matching the paradigm established in the middle portion of the second season. One of the issues with the first mini is that the stories were written with the first season in mind and newer elements like Lord Zedd and the new Rangers were swapped in with the old stuff without so much a change in their actual mannerisms. Here, Lord Zedd is very much his own character, the new Rangers are very much their own personas, and Tommy is established as the leader after not being much of one in the back end of the previous mini. Baby steps, kids.

As before, we have two stories in this issue. The first story, “While The Cat’s Away,” sees Lord Zedd heading off to some other galaxy to take care of business, leaving Squatt and Baboo to concoct their own plan to defeat the Rangers. Said plan involves a droopy monster that is eventually defeated by an oven that shoots awful food. Said oven cooks awful food because Bulk & Skull fixed it… or ruined it… or whatever you think. This is standard fare with a smart ending and I like the attempt at giving Squatt and Baboo more than the bumbling roles they usually adopt on TV.

Unstoppable Force is the second story, which involves inertia. A monster with stretch limbs is attacking, nigh invincible, and is eventually defeated when it falls off a cliff after the Megazord steps aside… it’s a unique ending to an otherwise average story.

Both stories feature are by returning artists; John Heenik for the first and Sparky Moore for the second. Both have stepped their game and continue to produce some of the best art in this Hamilton run.

Mr. T declares WAR on A-Team remake

So according to this article, Mr. T was offered a cameo in the A-Team remake, but declined due to the fact that the original A-Team’s “light-hearted approach has been replaced by gritty realism” in the new film. Also, he doesn’t care for the fact that in this version, people died and things get sexed up while in the original show, nobody died and sex was down to a minimum – usually an attractive girl or two per show.

Mr. T, you may recall, originally played B.A. Barracus in the original TV show, a role that is filled by UFC fighter Rampage Jackson.

While some might be saddened by the lack of Mr. T in the new movie, give the guy some credit. Unlike Dirk Been-A-Dick, he stuck to his principles and didn’t accept a cameo in a project he didn’t agree with. He didn’t berate the remake either, just said it was vastly different from the show he made famous… although it must be brought up that the show wasn’t necessarily all roses either, but I’ll wait until I check out the movie… when it comes out on DVD.

Kickassia Does Not Kick Ass

So for the past day or so, I’ve been leaving some comments on Asalieri’s YouTube channel. A good majority of these comments pertain to Kickassia, a six-part miniseries produced by website That Guy With The Glasses which serves as their second anniversary event. Anyway, I realized that as much as I was expressing my thoughts and reply to a couple comments, I was taking it a bit too far with my endless spamming of comments. While it engaged some replies, ultimately it isn’t fair to anyone and especially to Asalieri that I use his channel as a place to vent my disappointment on a video that he has nothing to do with.

As a matter of fact, I received a PM suggesting I do a video review of Kickassia as opposed to continually post endless ramblings. I don’t intend on doing that (I posted a perfectly simple five word review that says all), but I do want to make up for the trouble I might have caused. Therefore, I sent Asalieri a PM a short while ago apologizing for the recent behavior and told him that I won’t be beating the dead horse anymore. It’s just not worth the trouble.
(2023 Update: For the record, Asalieri had replied back and wondered what the fuss was all about since he was in agreement with my feelings that Kickassia wasn’t any good. In hindsight, I probably shouldn’t bothered with an apology, since it was a complete waste of time and others have done much worse.)
Now that we got that out of the way… for anyone who absolutely needs to know my thoughts on the recent six-part borefest known as Kickassia, I present my thoughts on the project (hint: the title should give you a pretty good idea). I’m not going to call it a review because it’s more like a rambling, but I guess it could pass as one.

Continue reading “Kickassia Does Not Kick Ass”