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…

Because I couldn’t take it anymore..

This portrait was seen in the recent episode of Smallville.

And because I can,

The 15 heroes in the portrait, left to right, are: Star-Spangled Kid, Wildcat, the Atom, Sandman, the Spectre, the Flash (Jay Gerrick), Hawkman, Hawkgirl, Dr. Fate, Green Lantern (Alan Scott), Hourman (Kent Nelson), Dr. Mid-Nite (with Hootie the owl), the original Black Canary, and Mr. Terrific

There… got THAT off my chest

Rein in the Fanboys

Smallville used to be a guilty pleasure of mine.

The plotlines were incredibly contrived, the lines – painfully cheesy, the acting – decidedly atrocious and the CGI… not exactly top notch.

But if anything, Smallville had one great thing going for it…   Lana Lang. Haha, I kid. The show was rife with awesome fan references to obscure characters and storylines from the DCU – some of which actually involves Lana Lang!

I was lulled back to the show by the much advertised Geoff Johns (lead creator of Blackest Night)  penned episode of Smallville which will feature *gasp* The Justice Society!

The Justice Society is a big thing on my comics shopping list, especially the Geoff Johns penned ones. The JSA is different from most superhero teams. With the motto of “The world need better good guys”, the JSA went about “collecting” the heirs of superheroes past and go through the 101 of “How to be a Superhero” with them…. Kinda like the X-Men, but cooler. You cannot go wrong with a bunch of old fogies like Wild Cat, Green Lantern (Alan Scott) and the Flash (Jay Gerrick) leading the team.

Because of its premise, the recent roster of the JSA has more than 20 members (or about 1% when compared to the cast of the X-Men) , but Geoff managed to create a personal touch for each of them. He made me care about B-Listers like (these are real superhero code names) the Atom Smasher, Power Girl, Mr Terrific, Citizen Steel, Sandy, etc…. but more importantly, he made it seemed like they care for each other too. There’s a warm and fuzzy feeling I get when reading them.

The original creators of Smallville had a strict “No Tights No Flights” policy. Think it worked in favor of the series as it kept a measure of suspense to the series. It explored possible “influences” that made Clark Kent Superman and hints at the possible future of Clark. There was an aura of suspense in the show… much like the “is it there/is it not” relationship of Agent Mulder and Scully in the X Files.

Besides this, there was another huge factor that made this code works – Tights just look ridiculous on normal human beings… eeeesh…

Anyway, a lot has apparently happened since Kristin Kreuk left the series. Besides using star writers like Geoff Johns to continue to lull fanboys in, the creators of Smallville  had been using lots of guest stars and super heroes appearances to boost ratings.

They were apparently so desperate, they recently resorted to the use of… The Wonder Twins…. ooooooh….

Back to this episode of Clark Kent….  to summarize it in 2 words – IT SUCKS!

It seems even Geoff Johns cannot make comic book dialogue work in real life. Some decidedly witty one liners just does not come across right… Perhaps it’s the comic book to video conversion, or maybe… just maybe, the producers should channel their funding to acting classes for the cast.  The plot for the episode was ok, but the acting made the show a pain to watch.

Actual lines from the show include such gems as:

Jo’hn Jonzz (aka: Martian Manhunter): I hope it’s not too late to say, “We come in peace.”

Green Arrow: Drop the mace, Conan.
Hawkman: I will… on your head.
Green Arrow: Bring it, big bird. Just for the record, you started it.
Hawkman: I’ll finish it

Oliver: What are you–my chaperone?
Hawkman: Think of me as your parole officer but with a mace.

Green Arrow: I’m thinking we should regroup with the others before we go after Icicle Junior.
Hawkman: You go back to Sherwood, Robin Hood. I’ll turn the Icicle into slush myself.

TOTAL Schumacher’s “Batman and Robin” Deja vu.

Hmm… maybe I shouldn’t be that hard on the actors… It seems impossible to deliver lines like these with a straight face… unless you’re Kristin.

Comic of the Week – Week of 17 Sep

Before I go on any further, I must make a disclaimer..

I Trade wait.

And I suppose this is the only reason why Fables and Ex Machina had not made their appearances on this list yet. I try very hard not to get any spoilers, so yes, I don’t read the individual issues.

Having said that, brilliant though Fables and Ex Machina might be, I’m wondering if they would be good enough to unseat the best books the awesome Blackest Night and the sometimes brilliant Dark Reign had been serving up so far.

Blackest Night has yet to hit a false note (discounting Blackest Night: Teen Titans, but Teen Titans had not been a heavyweight contender for a very long time), serving up suspense, horror, mystery and superb story telling in fell swoop.

Dark Reign, no matter what critics had been saying, managed to massively shake up the status quo in the Mar-verse. The sheer volume of work and the number of characters shaken up by the mega event is truly mind blowing.

True, some of the not so good (ok, horrible) issues of this mega cross over stinks strongly of geek-xploitation, but even the staunchest critics have to admit that the best issues of Dark Reign features some of the best story telling and intriguing character development in the medium for a very long time.

Which brings us to the 2 contenders for the Comic of the week for the week of 17 Sep.

First up, we have Dark Avengers #9. Nick Fury and his “Caterpillars” seems to be everywhere this month.And in Dark Avengers #9, they had a confrontation with Phobos’ Dad, Ares, the @#$% God of War with his “No @#$%” Axe given by Zeus.

By all accounts, it is an inevitable face off. I mean, Nick Fury all but kidnapped his @#$% kid and pitted him against the Dad. What would’ve turned out to be a mindless slugfest in lesser hands became a real character exploration of the various (ok, Ares and Phobos) characters featured in the issue.

Quite a lot of people had been complaining about how the Dark Avengers series had been missing one crucial ingredient, namely…. The Dark Avengers. The Dark Avengers rarely feature in their own monthly, preferring to pop up in other Dark Reign Titles – to the extend of seeming to have the ability to be at multiple places at the same time ( I am looking at you, Dakan). But I prefer to think of each issue so far as Bendis adding layers to each of the Dark Avengers individually.

Dark Avengers #9 certainly shows Ares to be more than a mindless war mongering piece of meat at Norman Orsbornes’ beck and call.

Contender 2 for this week, is of course, Blackest Night #3. Besides continuing the slug fest between the Black Lanterns with Hal Jordan and Barry Allen, (adding the Ray and Firestorm to the lineup for good measures), this issue shows the first movement of the mysterious Indigo Lanterns.

Below is the cover for Blackest Night #3.

With this, I declare Blackest Night #3 the winner of the Comic of the Week for the week of 17 Sep.

No, you did not miss any paragraphs.

The cover is that Awesome.

Out.