Going through a bit of a dry spell..
I thrashed the last three pieces that I did because they are too horrible to show. Hours down the drain there…
This is the only halfway decent piece that I did recently… it’s also my first ensemble piece… Took hours just to render… then more hours on Photoshop… I really should get a faster comp.. 😀
Not completely satisfied with Superman, might redo him one day in the distant future..
Still trying to find my “style” so C&C most welcome.
Thanks!
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!
Or how Marvel is kicking DC’s bloated ass in the cinemas when it comes to earning brownie points from fan boys’.
To be honest, out of all the summer comic book based blockbusters, Green Lantern was the one that I was most eagerly anticipating.
And what do I get? An overly loud, grossly pointless, highly forgettable and obscenely disappointing run-of-the-mill Hollywood swill.
Looking over at exhibit B… We have X-Men: First Class that I expected to Suck. I mean, come on… They destroyed all notions of conformance with the comic books by putting Havok, Banshee and Darwin(??!!!) on Xavier’s first team; they mixed and matched (what they think are) the coolest mutants to put in the show, changing the gender and race (Angel) or color and name (Azazel/Nightcrawler) when they have to; worst of all, we have a non-bald Prof X…and that is just wrong.
Yet… in spite of all that, First Class appeared to be stronger of the two films. At the very least. it was the one that I enjoyed more…
So what happened?
I put it down to one word: Simplicity…
I believe DC’s characters have the richer history (or non history) when compared to Marvel’s…
Probably because of this, they tried to dump EVERY Obscure Comic Book History Info into this one film, sowing seeds for what they hope would be taken up in the inevitable sequel (Hello Sinestro). But since it is impossible to cram 50 years of history into one two hour film, they started taking creative “liberties” and changing comic book canon. The alternative explanation is that the writers are too lazy to read through all 50 years of comic and came up with a script based on their own understanding.
In spite of all this, they seem to expect:
A) non fans to follow
B) fans to not complain that they got the history wrong
C) everyone else to not be confused to a point where they give up
Case in point… The villains.
For First Class, we have ex Nazi Kevin Bacon, I mean Sebastian Shaw leading a bunch of evil mutant to incite a nuclear war to hasten the growth of mutanity. There are side plots.. But they are simple and does not distract from the main storyline
For Green Lantern… We have *drum roll* PARALLAX that is possessed by Krona (???!!! Or is it the other way round?) and Hector Hammond. I am a Green Lantern fan and I am hard-pressed if you want me to tell you the whole history of Parallax and Krona in two hours. It is simply too complicated and you reeeeaaally have to follow canon to understand it. YET DC tried VERY unsuccessfully to do that amidst the narrative to flesh out Hal Jordan and the rest of the Corp in that same time frame. Tall order… Is it any wonder they crashed and burned?
Also, a bit of fan service doesn’t hurt either…
Even if it is to tell people to go f*ck themselves…
I’ve been raving about “Blackest Night” a fair bit on this site, so it’s not a surprise that I am a big fan. What’s not to like? Zombie meta humans smacking each other around.
I particularly like the bit where Hal Jordan’s New Guardians faced off against Black Lantern-ed version of heroes who have died and “cheated death” before. Seeing as how characters are moving through the revolving door of comic book death so fast these days, that is A LOT of Black Lantern powerhouses, including Superman, Wonder woman, Impulse, Green Arrow and one of my personal favorites – Superboy.
Conner Kent started out as a bit of a joke after the (*irony alert*) “Death of Superman” event.
What we initially know was that he was created by Project Cadmus to replace Superman. He was artificially aged to mid-teens and implanted with the necessary knowledge of someone his biological age (in regards to general studies, such as math, reading, etc). When Superboy arrived in Metropolis, he went by “Superman” and had no real name. While glibly asserting he was the original Superman, he quickly rebuked any insinuation he was the original Superman. In fact, he told anyone who’d listen that he was a clone of Superman.
This clone thing went on for quite a while in an age where “cloning” was a considerably dirty word, thanks to the whole Spider Man “Clone Saga”.
It was later on in his life that it was revealed that Conner Kent was a part of Project 13. Project Cadmus did a total of twelve failed experiments. They grafted what they could of Superman’s DNA onto human DNA and that process stabilized the extraterrestrial genes-thus Superboy was born, fifty percent Kryptonian and fifty percent human.
It got more interesting when the fifty percent human DNA was found to belong to one Lex Luthor.
This evolved Conner Kent into an interesting figurehead for storylines about “Nature vs Nurture” dichotomy.
Anyway, I was quite disappointed that Conner didn’t get to lay the smackdown on anyone in the Rainbow Brigade. So here’s my latest render – Black Lantern Superboy!
My first full body render of the Green Lantern… The edges are still a bit sharp.. Probably need a bit more of photoshop work on it, but….yay!
Still having trouble with the full body modeling of Hal Jordan.
Making progress with the boots though.
Decided to do a close up of GL winding up for a punch.
Did I mention I really enjoy rendering the lights because of his power ring? Decided to dial down a notch on the greenest though…
Ok. Fine, I am not really such a big fan of grotesque re-presentations of Norse legends.
But I thought I should give Marvel a chance after my uncharacteristic raving at the trailer for the Green Lantern movie.
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?
Yeah…. what the title says….
I am sensing a conspiracy…. or very brilliant marketing people.
Marvel kickstarted their new mega event on the rare week when there is not much activity from DC’s Blackest Night.
Siege, like all Mega events promised to have far and long reaching consequences in the Marvel Universe, much like the Skrull (I mean Secret) Invasion last year, World War Hulk the year before that, Civil War the year before and the House of M nonsense the year before that. The list goes on…
The series will (presumably) chart Norman Osborne’s descent into madness (again) and possible fall from grace. Much as I want to see the series crash (I am very fatigued by these Mega Events, especially when this seems to be an extension of Secret Invasion), it is actually off to a good start. The main books for Siege is promised to be limited to only 4 books, so the actions come fast and furious.
Just check out them apples.
All this within the first issue!! Good break from the trend of Mega Events building up for 2 to 3 issues before the action starts flying. Naysayers might say that the whole Dark Reign of last year was ALREADY the buildup to this event, but I say Nay. I mean you’ve got to love Brian Michael Bendis. He seems to write action sequences as well as he does Tarentino-esque dialogue sequences.
The sad fact is, good though Siege might be, I sense that it would continue to live in the shadows of Blackest Night. Pun fully intended, baby.
I have to admit, the spin off series from Blackest Night are starting to… lose their novelty and charm. It reached a point where they are mainly issues in and issues out of DC heroes getting shocked at their closest friends and family members coming back from the dead, they get mocked, they get taunted, they get into a fight, DC heroes win. Wash, rinse, repeat.
The main series and the 2 core Green Lantern titles however, are going VERY strong, and… I didn’t think this was possible, picking up the pace and growing deeper than I could possibly fathom at the start of the event. I am genuinely excited to see what comes next after each and every issue. Geoff Johns has this ability to sweep the rug from under my feet with every twist that he introduce.
Case in point… *SPOILER ALERT*…
That has got to be one of the biggest “HOLY CRAP” moment I’ve had in a long time. Simply awesome.
Couple that with the fact that the mainstream media is piling on the coverage and upping the profile of Green Lantern (prob as a build up to the movie) (Did I mention they seemed to have very good marketing people?), GL seems poised to be the next Dark Knight.
For one thing, I want to have a limited edition Green Lantern lantern (LEGLL), like Sheldon does.
While Big Bang Theory has always been full of comic references, they went all out this week. Sheldon actually managed to SCORE a not bad looking girl with this LEGLL.
Awesome.
I know… it’s been too long since the last updates.
My perfect excuse? I was busy.
Anyway, updates on the world of comics – Blackest Night continue to kick serious ass. It has officially passed comfortably over the hype bump and slide easily through the mid season fatigue that most hyper series face and zombie fatigue that most… ermm.. zombie series face.
Case in point – Blackest Night #5.
Normally, I am not a very big fan of splash pages. The reason is simple. Using 2 pages out of a 24 page comic book to “showcase” a scene just does not make much sense to me. It’s simple mathematics really, there’s less story to tell. Especially if said splash page consist of 2 characters punching the nuts off each other with one gigantic “POW” plastered across the centre of the page.
Blackest Night #5 shows how splash pages should be used. It contains no less than FOUR (count them, baby) splash pages and an almost equal amount of full page panels in a 27 page comic book, and my only reaction was… WOW. Each of the splash pages are effectively and efficiently employed, drawn to milk the most emotional response out of you. Bile spewing Batman, anybody?
I really could not wait for more!
Anyway, a synopsis of Blackest Night 5 using 2 of the splash pages… for anyone who’s interested.
The rainbow brigade has finally been formed and they are out for some black lantern payback.
Of course, Zombies being Zombies, the Black Lanterns are not taking this sitting down and has recruited some truly badass new members to the ranks.
Need I say it? SPOILER ALERT.
Cliff hangers like this made me really glad that Blackest Night is a series that I did not trade wait. It is full of these “dangle your balls on a string “kinda endings that is so masochistically fun.
With no real Blackest Night installment this week, I was pretty convinced that this would finally be the week for Wednesday Comics (WC). WC is a new anthology that comes out every Wednesday (REALLY), or in sunny home town, Thursday featuring many one page stories of (relatively) popular DC heroes… much like the 1 page comic strip serials seen in the newspapers( think Prince Valiant, Dick Tracy, etc…)
The cool thing about WC is that they have a truly hardcore stable of creators which translates to some (wet) dream pairing up of writers and artists working on hugely established characters.
Exhibit A: Post 100 bullets (something I should definitely blog about) Azzarello and Risso working on a noir-ish Batman murder mystery. Hot dames, check. Wittily punny (or is it punnily witty?) dialogue, check. Hard talking, smooth dealing men, check. Batman? Check! Check! and check!
Exhibit B: Neil Gaiman (yup, HIM again) and Michael Allred in an almost trippy Metamorpho adventure. Neil Gaiman, check! Michael Allred, check!
The whole comic is consistent in keeping with the tone of the newspaper strip. The dialogue is accessible (meaning comic nerd will not be the only ones who will understand the speech) and a lot of this is because, like all Sunday comic strips, the stories does not carry the baggage of continuity. EVERYONE can just hop on and be entertained. We have Agatha-ish mysteries, Last boy on Earth fantasy adventures, War stories and of course, Super hero tales. There really is something for everybody.
And did I mention the art? The deliberate news paper-ish lettering and adding of color half tones to the images to make the strips more vintage looking really brought on a wave of nostalgia… in a VERY good way
Sample art. Un Photoshopped
The reasons why WC is not top of the pops this week?
1. It’s an anthology. For every cool Busiek Green Lantern story, there is one lousy and confusing Wonder Woman one. Having a book with something for everybody means everybody has something not to like in the book. Though the average quality of the book is good to rock your heart out superb, there are still some jarring tales that just does not sit very well with you (I’m looking at you Wonder Woman)
2. Three words. Brian Michael Bendis with his Secret Warriors.
The Group that Fury built during Secret Invasion finally come of age. With the addition of a new kick ass member and the return of the Howling Commandos, the Secret Warriors are slowly shaping up to be the prickly thorn in Osborn’s backside. It’s like watching the growing of the Rebel movements in Star Wars.
Finally. Reason number 3.
And the top reason why Wednesday Comics is not the king of the hill THIS week.
Post Secret Invasion, we’ve seen this team take a beating week after week after week. We bemoan the lost of the darkly humored Thunderbolts and silently, we think that this incarnation of Thunderbolt is just gonna be the forgotten step sister to the Dark Avengers.
I mean… villains masquerading as good guys that save the world for personal gains. That’s basically the premise of Thunderbolts since its conception. So with the Dark Avengers around, who need the Thunderbolts?
The final page of #134 throws that question right open. The final reveal shows the huge and intricate web of deception that has been built around the readers. We’ve been played for WEEKS. And this normally means 2 things.
1. The old direction for the book is not working and the editors decide to take creative liberties and give a big twist in the tale to bring it in a whole new direction (think soap operas)
or
2. It was planned for all along. (Much like George Lucas planned his Star wars to be part of a nine-0-logy. It’s all bout the money, it’s all bout the dum dum de de de dum) (think soap operas)
Either way, consider me gullibly swindled due to the smoothness in the handling of the twist.
Without giving too much of a spoiler away, I’ll say this image of a future cover of Thunderbolts says it all…
It begs the question… WHO are the Thunderbolts?
And for those not afraid of a spoiler, I would say this lil minx will be getting a LOT of exposure in the coming year.
Oh, I forgot to include the context…
I’ve been pretty hyped up about Blackest Night.
The new comic week came and with it came the latest installments of the saga. We saw more of the Orange Lanterns, the Red Lanterns and the Star Sapphires in Blackest Night: Tales of the Green Lantern Corp.
More importantly, we saw one of the first real interactions between a (all together now… Woooooaaaaaah) Black Lantern with the DC meta human population. While I still do not know the powers and motivations of the Black Lantern, I do love their powers of being able to see others’ affinity with the different colors in the spectrum.
Of course, the ongoing comic con at San Diego threw up this lovely lil image of a new range of action figures for Hal Jordan as the various colored Lanterns.
The blockbuster event of this summer.
2 years in the making and featuring a cast numbering in the thousands.
It’s darker. It’s more mature. It’s edgier.
It’s not Harry Potter and the half blood prince.
It is way cooler than HP for the pure and simple reason that it contains zombies!
At least that’s what I think they are…
For a storyline that’s been set up for 2 years and 2 books into the saga, I honestly still can’t tell you exactly what a Black Lantern is.
All I know is that they scare the hell outta me and they are cool as hell.
Geoff Johns is a VERY strong writer for character comics. He single-handedly sparked my interest in the Justice Society of America, a team comprising of relatively old, silver age heroes which should have no business in today’s world whatsoever. They represent a generation of values that just does not make sense anymore. Somehow, he managed to make these old foggies relevant and develop these characters into ones that the reader can care about. No mean feat, considering the membership of the Society is dynamic (at best) and said membership consists of anything from 5 to 50 characters.
He is also really good at rejuvenating old concepts and retelling the mythos of over powered, over exposed characters like Superman and Green Lantern to make them interesting again. He lifted these characters from the “fight with the monster of the month” monotonous storylines to something else altogether. Cue the Sinestro Corp War, the War of the Light and New Krypton.
One genre which he never really touched so far is that of Horror and Gore, normally more the niche of writers like Garth Ennis and Jason Aaron.
Geoff Johns’ tales till now might be a little dark and slightly angsty, but they normally end with a message of hope. He’ll even try to show the more humane side of “evil” characters such as Black Adam and even Brainiac, which adds another dimension to their characterization and make them more compelling characters. I don’t think he really believes in Evil for Evil’s sake. Green Lantern #43 and Blackest Night #1 seemed to be proving me wrong as he shows he can out evil and out gore the best of them. Grant Morrison’s Final Crisis was supposed to depict a scenario where evil won and all hope is lost. But seriously, the final scenes of Blackest Night #1 were one of the most “f%& me blind” scenes I’ve seen in a comic for a very long time. It shows how absolute the Black Lanterns’ potential for mischief could be, and Johns is milking it for all that it is worth.
He paints a scenario that seems totally hopeless for the heroes to overcome. Case in point: the scene below.
Which I should probably mention: Spoiler Alert!
Sidenote: Is it me? Or is this Dark/Black theme the “in” thing for the moment? I mean… Marvel is having their Dark Reign event going on too… Certainly makes one wonder about the ideas are coming from…
Clones are people two 