I am this close to saying… Flashpoint Sucks

Don’t get me wrong.. I think the main Flashpoint ROCKS. I’m having fun with the shock reveals that comes with every issue. It’s just the rest of the “companions” to Flashpoint that is getting to me. I am referring to the 101 tie ins that come with Flashpoint

They’re all suffering from what I term “alternateuniverseseventisvitis”.

The main Flashpoint book is an interesting foray into an Elseworld where things are familiar but not totally so, these so called tie ins just dance around the central “world”, while accomplishing almost nothing else.

B and C list characters are dying like mayflies in the Flashpoint world, but there’s this feeling that all these will not be of any consequences when we shift back to regular programming. This would not be so bad if the tie ins manage to tell an engaging story that is coherent with these “deaths”.

We’re more than half way through Flashpoint, and almost none of the tie ins seemed to be adding any value to the Flashpoint-verse other than to expand on things that we’ve already known since the beginning of Flashpoint. It took 2 issues of “Emperor Aquaman” to bring us on a huge roundabout to reach THIS point:

The Flashpoint one shots are the worst offenders of this. I am especially disappointed with titles such as “Flashpoint: Reverse Flash”. Contrary to my initial beliefs that it would contain new insights and add twists to the world of Flashpoint, it just told us that the Reverse Flash used his “time altering” powers to change the past of Barry Allen and that he was the one responsible for the death of Barry’s mum. It took one (not very cheap) issue to tell us a tale that had been established from the start of Flashpoint. WTF??!!!

This is made more apparent when the “event” is compared to one such as “War of the Green Lanterns” that contained more “HOLY SHIT” moments than you can shake a roll of toilet paper at. On top of that, “War of the Green Lanterns” was intriguing, smart and funny. Even with the impending DCU revamp threatening to make the whole crossover event obsolete and redundant, it managed to set up a final panel that makes you go “NO WAAAAAAAAY….”

Now, that is what I call a stellar event.

Go Team Green Lantern!

In a Flash

It’s New Comics Day again!

Really excited about the latest installments of Flashpoint, in spite of myself…

Decided to do up a piece on The Flash….

Slightly different from what I’ve done previously…

The thing about the Flash is all about his speed… Trying very hard to capture his kinetic nature.

It’s also one of my first time experimenting with a non black background. There’s a lot more to consider with regard to the color scheme to make sure that everything “goes”…

There’s also a lot more modeling to be done then the usual works…

Fear the Flashpoint Itself

WARNING: Images contained in this post contain MAJOR spoilers for Flashpoint and Fear Itself!!

The last comic week saw the release of the latest issues in the Big 2′s tent-pole summer events.

Flashpoint #2 for DC – which sees Barry Allen making sense of Thomas Wayne Batman (AKA Red Eyed Casino Bats), and trying to kickstart his Flash powers by means of… ermm… electric chair suicide?

and

Fear Itself #3 for Marvel – which sees Bucky Cap and the Avengers FINALLY confronting Sin and Blitzkreig USA after THREE months of hemming, emoting and hawing…

The result of all these events?

Is it me? Or is there something oddly similar about the two images above?

And… how misleading would these pictures be?

My take:

Barry Allen – Being one of only two people aware of the “original” DC universe, it’s unlikely that DC will kill him off… Unless Booster Gold suddenly acquire Flash like super speed and becomes the surprise Protagonist of Flashpoint, Barry will probably have a “rebirth” with speed powers returned at the start of Flashpoint #3

Bucky Cap: Here’s the dootzy. We’ve seen Steve Cap getting ready to leave the command post and take his place “as a soldier in the battlefield” in Fear Itself #3. It seems the perfect opportunity for Marvel to reinstate him as the ONE Captain America in the Marvelverse after trying Bucky out for a year. It would also be just in time for the movie release of Captain America: The First Avenger. Newcomers to the Marvelverse via the movie would not be confused by a different Cap than the one featured in the movie. Also, the crossover is not called Fear BUCKY itself…

There is one small problem though… People LOVE Bucky Cap.

Ok, I LOVE Bucky Cap. Guns, metal suit with American Flag pointing towards his crotch and all… He’s conflicted and flawed, with a hazy and mysterious past that had not fully been explored yet. He’s not the perfect, blond, all-American Blue eyed Captain America that Steve Rogers was. In other words.. he is more INTERESTING.

So, if you are listening to me, Marvel… PLEASE DON’T KILL OFF BUCKY CAP!!

Haven’t we seen this before?

“Everything you know will change in a Flash”

The DCU is set for a major revamp after their summer blockbuster event, Flashpoint. There had already been rumors that all current in-continuity DC titles will be scrubbed and 52 new titles will be relaunched with issue #1.

I am not sure what my stand is on this is, at the moment… On one hand I think it is a potentially bold move by DC to capture new readers who would not be bogged down by little things such as “continuity”. On the other hand, I think Continuity rules, and the necessities of capitalism has bitch slapped fanboys like myself who had doggedly followed every “relaunch” the Big 2 goes through.

But hey… it’s just me… and I’ve been wrong before… This could prove to be a launch pad for new and exciting stories with a modern sensibility… Just look at Spider Man after Brand New Day…

Anyway, Flashpoint started spiritedly enough with these cryptic messages in Booster Gold…

Along with the Flashpoint teaser montage below, I think it was a fair prelude of what was to come in Flashpoint.

So far, we’ve seen a couple of big reveals about the world of Flashpoint.

#SPOILER ALERT#

We know that Bruce Wayne was the one who was killed in Crime Alley, and because of this, Thomas Wayne became evil red eyed Batman.

We’ve learned that the Flashpoint World is without a Superman, and Cyborg, ultimate B-Lister got to step off the bench and became THE hero of this new world. Boy, you know your world is screwed when you look in the sky and see a Cyborg dropping towards you. Does he even fly?

We’ve discovered that an all out war between the seemingly villainous Aquaman-led Atlanteans and Wonder Woman’s fury driven Amazons caused most of the world to descend into madness. The war climaxed in the sinking of Western Europe – probably taking along with it the world’s last beer and wine reserve… No wonder everyone is angry.

#END OF SPOILERS#

All in all, it seems like a well stretched out Elseworlds  or “What if”s event, except for one thing… it’s set in the “Original” DC Universe… whatever that means anymore.

Does this sound familiar to other long time comic fans?

Yup… Flashpoint reminds me of Marvel’s Uber hit, the Age of Apocalypse where Prof X was killed in the past by his son Legion. He never formed the X-Men in time to defeat Apocalypse and hence a future was created where Mutants ruled through Apocalypse’s paradigm of “Survival of the Fittest”.

To a (very young) me, the series was the bee’s knees as it shows how one small event in the past can lead to a whole new set of possibilities and drastically different outcomes. A comic book lesson in Butterfly Effect.

So far, there’s been no mention of what caused the huge changes in the DC Universe.

All evidences so far point towards the Reverse Flash altering Barry Allen’s past, and in doing so, changed the course of history. At the moment, it seemed that there are too many changes in the current situation to have been the cascading effect brought on by a singular event.

But you never know… Personally, I have faith in the story telling abilities of Geoff Johns to introduce a twist to the assumption that Professor Zoom is the man causing the Flashpoint timeline. (I hope) the late release date of “Flashpoint: Reverse Flash”  would support my theory and introduce a (MAJOR) twist in the tale. I am personally stoke to see which is the milestone “singular” event that brought on this new future…

Boy, would it suck if the cause of Flashpoint is just one of Flash’s Rogues running around, changing EVERY key events of the Past just so he can screw around with Barry Allen.

The Fantastic Four is dead, Long live the Fantastic Four!

Johnny’s body (or lack thereof) is barely cold (pun intended) in its grave and Marvel had already announced the new member of the FF – Peter Parker with what looks like his 10,000th (new) (new) (new) (new) new suit for this month.

With the inclusion of Spidey, the quartet can rightfully call themselves the Fantastic FOUR again, but through some weird logic (likely from the marketing department), now decide to call themselves the Future Foundation instead. In one move they retained the alliterated team name and at the same time, re-branded themselves as a team that is not 50 years old… even though alliterated team names are so half a century ago.

Whatever the name, the FF must be rolling in the big bucks to be able to attract Peter Parker in his 10,000th monthly appearance in random comic books on top of his own (10,000) series  and the (new, mighty, secret, mysterious, running out of adjectives) Avengers.

Also, can’t say that I care much about the new Tron like costumes and the weird three-hexagon shaped new logo. Remind me again, if your group comprises of four members, shouldn’t the logo be square motif-ed? Or at the very least, comprise of four hexagons??

(Not) Another Super Hero Death

That’s correct. The Fantastic Four is now the Fantastic Three.

The story has been building up for months and the secret is so confidential  that the comic books featuring the death were packaged in black polybags and not sold on newsstands.

For the umpteenth time, Marvel proclaimed that this death is “permanent and would have far reaching consequences in the Marvel Universe”.

Nice try, Marvel.

I have 2 words for you… “Steve Rogers”.

I don’t think anyone is holding their breath that this death would be  permanent. They might die from oxygen deprivation. Wait… given the speed the resurrections occur these days, they might not…

So, the question to ask is… who died?

*Spoiler alert*

Just the third Human Torch in the Marvel Universe (after Jim Hammond and Taro), but then again, who’s counting? Like I said, nobody’s expecting the death to be permanent.

Johnny is easily the most accessible member of Marvel’s first family. Reed behaves like a general jerk, while Sue is possibly promiscuous with some not-completely-human species. Sure, Ben has the whole Frankenstein-ien misunderstood monster thing going for him, but seriously, there is only so much whining a guy can take from a comic book. So that leaves us with the stereotypical party animal, Johnny. Everyone loves a guy that lives fast and die young (literally) right? It shows us how good life can be if only you have the balls to have a blatant disregard for responsibility. What’s the fun of the Fantastic Four without Johnny?

So here’s a new render… my tribute to the 50 year old party animal – Johnny Storm… till you come back again.

My personal bet is the “resurrection” will occur within a year.

 

Greenest Lantern

I’ve raved about his movie.

I’ve raved about his mega event.

I’ve even raved about his merchandises.

And so I decided to put my act together and start modeling my own Hal Jordan.

I’m still deciding on a final “look”, and his bottom half (specifically the boots) are a bitch to model.

But here’s a sneak peak of my Green Lantern model.

Love the number of ways I can play with the lighting due to the Green Lantern ring. This one is supposed to give a “noir-ish” feel. It’s very much inspired by Alex Ross’ portraits of superheroes.

Quick question: For the glowing power ring… Lens flare or no?

Happy Halloween!!

One of my favorite ongoing comics for the moment has got to be the Walking Dead.

Besides being a comic about Zombies (and EVERYBODY loves zombies, right?), it’s a comic with a lot of heart and plot twists that knee you in the balls till it blows out your brains. I had been hooked on the series since I first saw the tagline (if you can still call this a line)

“How many hours are in a day
when you don’t spend
half of them watching television?

When is the last time
any of us
REALLY
worked to get something that we wanted?

How long has it been
since any of us really
NEEDED
something that we WANTED?

The world we knew is gone.

The world of commerce and frivolous necessity has been
replaced by a world of survival and responsibility.

An epidemic of apocalyptic proportions has swept
the globe causing the dead to rise and feed on the living.

In a matter of months society has crumbled,
no government,
no grocery stores,
no mail delivery,
no cable TV.

In a world ruled by the dead,
we are forced to finally start living.”

Which self respecting arts student would not love a pseudo intellectual prose like that??

Seriously, Robert Kirkman (creator/writer/Overlord Supreme) of the series ensured that the Zombies are the least frightening thing in the entire series. To me, it’s a study of the human condition – how disgustingly degenerate and how surprisingly noble when we are forced to our extremes.

So now, on Halloween (days of all days), they are launching the Walking Dead TV Series!!

The arts student in me is inclined to point out the irony of how they fly in the face of line one of the tagline (“How many hours are in a day when you don’t spend half of them watching television?), and I probably would have if they put some two bit director/writer into the project.

I am still skeptical about how well they can translate the comic I love onto the small screen, but putting Frank Darabont (Green Mile and Shawshank Redemption, two awesome character drama) at the helms seems like a pretty damn fine start.

Plus, the trailer looks so darn cool!

I might be jumping my guns but if Darabont can match Kirkman’s flair for characterizing the ragtag band of survivors, putting them through the rollercoaster extremes of hope and hopelessness, this just MIGHT be THE TV series of 2010 and beyond.

Most.Awesome.Halloween.Treat!

New Toys and whatnots

It’s been a reeaaaaally long time since the last post. What have I been up to?

Well, this and that… mainly getting tied down with a wedding ring.

So, besides transforming the Girlfriend into the Wife, I’ve also started tinkering with some 3d software.

My first creation? Poison Ivy, of course.

It took some time to model Poison Ivy, and a hell lot more to pose and do the rendering work.

So here it goes… my first 3D piece…. “Off with his head!!”

 

Can’t really capture the sexy dangerousness of Ivy, but I think this is a start.

Will try to upload more pieces as the days go by…

“TRY” being the operative work…

It’s all about WAR(s)!

Right now, there are at least 3 wars raging in the big 2 universe. And I am just talking about the “regular” universe and not the various multiverses that they have.

War is one of the ultimate story telling techniques for companies with big and recognizable rosters.  It is a wonderful excuse to bring together their biggest names in a big showdown and milk the feel good (and cash) factor of the various brands for all they are worth. Kind of like WWE’s annual Royal Rumble.

Over the past few years we’ve seen lots of wars being raged. Civil War, Skrull Invasion, War of Kings, Annihilation War, Secret War, Secret War 2, Kree Skrull War, Sinestro Corp War, The Invisible War, Doom War, World War Hulk, Siege just to name a few. Even events like House of M, Blackest Night and Final Crisis though technically not wars, have the same factors as all the above mentioned storylines.

Comic War veterans (like myself) have come to realize that not all wars are created equal. For every Blackest Night, there is a World War Hulks. And we have probably come to a realization of what makes a “war” work and what doesn’t.

2 factors which make or break a “war” storyline for me are:

- the “time between installments” factor

- the “does anything that happen here matters” factor

Regular readers here will know that I think “Blackest Night” is the most awesome storyline since Huckleberry Finn, but it reaaaaaaally irks me that we can go weeks, even up to a month without any progress in the main story. I understand that is probably the publisher’s attempt to cash more out of this mega event, but having to wait so long for a fast and furious war just seemed wrong. This is what I think is the primary reason for the failure of “Siege” as well.

“War of the Supermen” certainly fixed the timeliness factor well. It is essentially a 100 minutes (yup you read it right, MINUTES) war and the whole story is over in 4 issues that comes out weekly. Pretty awesome, except for the fact that it does not pass the “does it matter” test. Sure the whole New Krypton concept has gone down the toilet and the fatalities were high, but New Krypton was a concept that is like the proverbial fish and overstaying guest. It stank because it has hung around beyond its welcome period. And at the end of the day, no matter how many Kryptonians die, we know that the primary ones (Superman, Supergirl, Superboy, Krypto the Super Dog) and even the sub primary ones (Zod and gang) will live on. PLUS: the action sequences were quite crappy. They should have taken a peek at what the Green Lanterns were doing in Blackest Night.

Which brings us to the mess that is World War Hulks… or Fall of the Hulks… or whateveryouwanttocallit.

It is… in every sense of the word, a HUGE mess. Beside the awful story telling and horrible characterizations, it does not even have the decency to end its run early. The whole fiasco with Red Hulk and the Intelligencia started even before Siege and it is still ongoing. The gaps between each inconsequential installment of the series is painstaking and furthermore, the creators seemed to be under the pompous delusion that whatever happened here matter. I mean… Hulked out marines and… Hulked out heroes????? The Hulk brand can do A LOT better.

Anyone still intending to do a “War” story should really look at how Marvel is kicking ass in “Second Coming” for the X Men.

The action is fast and superbly furious. There is AT LEAST one installment of “Second Coming” every week and each installment progresses the story with new plot twists and casualties from the war. And the best part? They did all this without sacrificing the quality of the storytelling and the art.

The casualty rate in Second Coming is high and we have already seen the death of an instantaneously recognizable X Men, with numerous others suffering potentially career ending  injuries.

And the best part? Marvel does not seem like it is going to let up on the body count any time soon.

Say what you want about the overexposure and brand exploitation of the X-Men, but Marvel certainly knows how to protect the brand integrity of the X-Men. By telling stories of the highest standards when it comes to mega events like “Second Coming”. (Childish sidenote: I still can’t help sniggering at the title)

THIS is the way War should be done.

A special mention this week should go to The Amazing Spider Man. Almost 2 years ago, I was doing some serious bitching about the concept of Brand New Day. I am still not happy with the deus ex machina they used to annul the marriage of Peter Parker and Mary Jane Watson, but I have to admit that much good came out of it. The whole “Gauntlet” mega storyline and its various mini components have worked superbly so far, and they would not have happened if Peter Parker was still happily, or unhappily married. I love the fact that they never let the “Spider Man” concept grow old and so far, managed to reinvent some of his older rogue gallery to make them more than the goofy concepts they were 30 years back.

My favorite panel of the week, however has to be this….

If only for the preview tagline.

I mean, seriously…

“Lobo PUNCHES PEOPLE WITH RINGS… hard”

Comics does not get better than this. *Excite*

Of an Ending and 2 Goodbyes

And so it ends.

For a 4 issue event, Siege lasted 3 issues too long.

I mean it is essentially ONE big BRAWL and Marvel managed to drag it out over the main “Siege” books, “Siege Embedded”, “Siege: Random Marvel character”, “the XXX Avengers” among the OTHER countless tie ins. It is paced less like a brawl than a leisurely game of Bridge played at the local old folk’s home.

Siege IS the BIGGEST damn Mess I’ve ever seen.

I speak as someone who is not above sitting through an entire M Night Shayamalam movie just for the payoff at the end. If anything. the ending of Siege was ALMOST as bad as the whole set up and premise. There was no emotional connection to the *surprise* death at the end of it all. The only thing going for the ending was how conveniently (and sneakily) Marvel (or Brian Michael Bendis) managed to tie up some loose ends in their current continuity. In one fell swoop, Marvel found a way to kill off a character that was too awkward to exist in their little multiverse and at the same time found a purpose and place for a newly resurrected one (who conveniently is gonna be starring in a movie real soon). *cough* Steve *cough* Rogers *cough*

Which brings me to the “death”.

We now have the obligatory heroes send off at the end of the mega crossover. The “send off” issue, besides milking fan boys of our remaining pocket money for the month, serves as a recap of the fine things the “hero” has done and a reminder of why people love him.

In that respect, Siege’s hero send off was staler than the sweat of the boy who had just ingested a gallon of Cheezit (trust me, I know about this subject, sadly) because there just isn’t so much to “remember” *insider nudge nudge wink wink* about this particular character!

It’s exceptionally bad when compared to the “sending off” in Marvel’s other event for the moment – The X-Men’s Second Coming (Insert your own lewd joke here)

It is MY Marvel event for now. To be honest, there is not much of a fight here. It is currently pitted against Siege and… *horrors* World War Hulks. I am a HUGE fan of the Hulk. I even semi enjoyed Ang Lee’s vision of a poetic Hulk. But a Hulked out Marvel universe is too much for me to bear. This shall be a gripe for another day…

The pacing for SC has been superb. The death was really shocking.  The emotional investment I have in it is immense. Added on the whole new team dynamics of the X-Men since the Utopia storyline. I get the feeling I always get from reading my favourite pulps – That there might not be that bright cheery ending at the end of it all. That we are watching the characters go to hell in a fast car, but it is too damn fine a ride for us to look away.

Simply awesome.

Of course, I must point out this week’s fine reference to sunny lil Singapore.

Fear the prowess of Maxwell Lord!!

LIVE!!

Blackest Night is over and  here you have it…

For better or worse, the 12 that came back…

Is it me, or does this remind anyone else of the Oceanic Six from Lost?

This was especially after reading Brightest Day #0.

We know now that Boston Brand (Dead Man) is the only one among the six who retained his white ring. We also know that there might be a more specific, and probably sinister reason for these specific 12 being the ones who were brought back.

While I am not as excited about Brightest Day as I was about Blackest Night, I am intrigued by the more mysterious premise. I mean, for the longest time, we know that Blackest Night was going to be about Zombie Heroes and Villains, Brightest Day, for the most part remains a mystery.

It certainly doesn’t hurt that Geoff Johns is the Chief Architect behind Brightest Day as well.

Anyway, the Brightest Day checklist…

Let’s see where this one takes us…

And so it Ends…

We all know it was leading up to this….

Dancing Between Raindrops

Most of the releases from the Big 2 this week revolves around their respective mega crossovers/events/whatchamightcallits  (Siege for Marvel, and Blackest Night for DC, for those of you living under a rock).

And like all major cross overs that came before, this means that a majority of their other titles will be considered “tie ins”. And these “tie-ins” SHOULD flesh out the ongoing soap opera in the main books for the Event.

There is an inherent Problem with this approach for Siege and Blackest Night.

Siege is essentially one Giant Brawl for Captain America’s goodie-two-shoes vs Norman Osbourn’s baddies-bad-boots-posing-as-goodie-two-shoes.

Blackest Night, while intriguing and shocking thus far, is at its heart a giant brawl between the Black Lanterns and the Rainbow Brigade.

Below are Marvel’s releases with the “Siege” Banner this week.

Just a sidenote: I love the way the “Siege ” banner sits on the cover.

Anyway. what’s inside these covers are essentially the Director’s Cut for Siege#2. They let the fan boys know where all the other major combatants not showcased in the main series are fighting their fights. I admit, it can be pretty awesome if it is your kind of thing, but somehow, it just did not work for me.

Next, we have the biggest disappointment of the week.

Green Lantern and Green Lantern Corp have been the cornerstones of the Blackest Night Series. We saw events develop in these books that that were not seen in the main Blackest Night Series, events that were essential to the development of the whole saga and gave the series an unexpected dept.

I expected more of the same from Green Lantern #52.

We all knew that Sinestro became the first (only?) White Lantern from the events of Blackest Night #7. I was excited to find out more about how Hal Jordan and the rest will react to this new development. Instead, we have a weakass story of how Ion, Parallax and the rest of the mascots for the various rainbow corps came about, and a rather lame buildup to the Final Showdown that is sure to come down in Blackest Night #8.

I’m not asking for these tie-ins to advance the ongoing saga. I think it is hard to toe the company line, and at the same time try to tell a reasonable story between the heavy hitters.  I just think it is pretty f-up to make fans pay 4 x $2.99(at least) for essentially the same story. Hell, they even share the same dialogues between the different books!

I guess, it is not that surprising that my book for the moment is this:

Besides the pretty awesome cover, the story tells the evergreen tale of love lost and the descent into the abyss that follows. The twist in the tale is pretty frickin fine as well.

For your consideration, when you have $2.99 to spare, you can do worse than to invest it in an Amazing Spider-Man book.

By worse, I mean any of the Siege tie-ins, of course.

A Conspiracy Theory

I think I might’ve made a passing mention on how strangely similar the offerings from the Big 2 (DC and Marvel, duh…) were.

We’ve known for some time now that DC will be following up on the year long “Blackest Night” Saga with another year long Saga entitled “Brightest Day”.

This would be a reference to the Green Lantern Oath of “In Brightest Day, In Darkest Night…”

The funny thing is that now, Marvel are announcing their next big event after Dark Reign. It’s entitled “The Heroic Age”

Hmmm… Just some food for thought, but…

BLACKEST Night – DARK Reign

BRIGHTEST Day – HEROIC Age

Is it me, or does someone else see a strange similarity here?