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The Clone Wars Decoded Part 1
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I sat down a few nights ago and watched the first episode of Star Wars: the Clone Wars decoded and I was really let down. I was expecting more insight into how the episodes were made up and some of the backstory of what was going on in the episodes. Instead we get some master of the obvious things like how the Asajj Ventress is a bad guy that is being trained by Count Dooku in the ways of the dark side of the force. For those of us that have seen the other version of the Clone Wars cartoons (the short ones that ran on Cartoon Network around the time of Revenge of the Sith) already know all about the Asajj Ventress from them. We did learn right off the bat the name of the Toydarian King's ship and that is kind of neat. We also learn that the Clone Troopers that are in red outlined armor are members of the diplomatic security corps that go around with Jedi when they are on missions. I'm not going to write this off as a complete loss yet; the first episode of The Clone Wars cartoon is kind of so-so. It's not 'Rookies' level good, but it's a good way to kill a half hour if you need to do something and it's on your DVR.
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FCBD
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Free Comic Book Day was back in the early part of May and it had some okay stuff. I picked up the Blackest Night preview and while it was good, it did not make me want to run out and put all of them on my pull list. The Blackest Night issue also had lots of ads in it for other DC Comics stuff. That is kind of distracting because I'm trying to get into the story for the ten or so pages that were available and having a giant advertisement about Killzone 2, the Vampirates novel, or the Dragon Ball Evolution video game does not help any. The DC Comics three comic sampler that they had of some of their Johnny DC titles was good for the little ones. Granted the first part with Shazam was kind of odd and would have been fun for kids with more time and talent than I have. The second story was the Batman Brave and the Bold story about him and Blue Beetle inside a World of Warcraft type game where some malicious program has started stealing money from all around the world. If you suspend your disbelief of people on different continents all playing on the same server then I can buy into this story. The last sample was of Tiny Titans. I found one of the bits that they had printed had been printed before in another issue. The last one with Raven feeding the birds and squirrels is the one I'm talking about. The one that I found that was really worth it was the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 25th anniversary reprinting of the first issue put out by Mirage Studios. Outside of one front and back page of comments from Eastman and Laird in the beginning and four pages in the back advertising various TMNT graphic novels; all the rest was pure comic book glory of the shelled foursome. It was kind of funny because I went looking in the back issues of the local comic book store and could not find any TMNT back issues from the late 80's and early 90's. I know we have back issues and some of the old school graphic novels from that time and I could read them at any time, but I would really like to own them. After reading it I totally wanted to order some pizza and see if I could find the old NES version of the arcade game on E-Bay. I did neither, but I'm sure the mood will strike me again.
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Wolverine Movie Makes Big Bucks
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The Wolverine movie raked in over $85 million dollars in the domestic box office in its first weekend. My sister saw it and liked it, but she does not know the complicated back story that he has like some comic fans do. She is probably the ideal demographic for that kind of movie: upper teens female. There's also some controversy about how Deadpool is made to be in the movie. I was wandering around the local Target store one day and happened upon the action figures for both the movie and the cartoon line and saw the one thy had for the movie Deadpool. All I can say is two phrases: 1. EWWW! 2. Baraka clone much? (For those of you that don't know Baraka is the Mortal Kombat character introduced in MK2 with blades that popped out from his arms for certain attacks.) I hope no one runs out after seeing the Wolverine movie and buys comics from their local comic store expecting it to be like the movie; because it isn't. The second weekend in May it has to go up against the J.J. Abrams helmed Star Trek movie that looks ten times as sweet as it should be, and has a hell of a lot better toy line.
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The Most Parts to a Build-A-Toy Ever!
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Speaking of the Star Trek movie toy line, it has probably the most ambitious build-a-toy to date. It's the bridge to the U.S.S. Enterprise from the movie. It comes in 18 parts that are being included in the various waves of movie versions of the 3.75" action figures. So far they have only released about a third of the parts to the bridge as well as the sort of foundation that you have to build the bridge on which is the bridge itself. The whole thing, if you pay retail and prices stay the same, will be $151.81 = (6.99 each figure x 18 different figures) + 25.99. Yeesh that makes the $10.99 each you pay for parts of the build a figure with the DC Universe figures pale in comparison. It does have some imagination potential for people because you can use the new G.I. Joe, Star Wars or Wolverine action figures on it too. You could have comic book Deadpool come on the bridge and out sexy Kirk for Uhura. You could have Cobra Commander sit in the Captain's chair of the most competently run ship in Starfleet. You thought Tribbles were bad; just try having Junkyard on the bridge. You could have R2-D2 take over the ship from one computer access panel. You could have Han Solo punch out Kirk for trying to take Leia away from him. Yoda and Spock to could have a well thought out idea contest. These are just a few examples I could think of right off the top of my head, but it would be fun as hell to play with them.
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I Admit it; I'm Weak, Like Small Kitten
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I know over the past few months I have been talking about how I'm no longer purchasing Marvel comics unless it was for my brother, the former Surly Gamer, but I was weak. I went to FCBD at my local store and while I was there they had the issues of the Deadpool comic that I swore off of and the back issues of Amazing Spider-Man that I wanted to buy, but swore off of. I really hate going to any store and not making a purchase because I hate to see stores struggle in this economy because of people not buying things from them. So I picked up the two issues of Deadpool I'm missing as well as well as an issue of Amazing Spider-Man as well as Detective 849, the next to last issue I need to finish the Batman RIP storyline. I'm seriously considering putting both Deadpool and Amazing Spider-Man on my pull list just because I miss both books so much and I feel I'm not supporting my local comic book store enough. I got this weeks' books (for May 6) and went ahead and got the latest two issues of Amazing Spider-Man and that months Deadpool. I have not quite yet put them on my pull list yet, but if they can redeem themselves by good writing, which Mark Waid will help on Amazing Spider-Man, but Deadpool is going to take some time to warm me up once again. I hate the fact that I have to get two issues of Thunderbolts just to get to know the whole story, and those issues have just gone to second and possibly third prints.
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Patience in this Case got Nowhere
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Looks like Duke Nukem Forever, the game that has taken forever to come out, has been abruptly cancelled when the company that was producing it, 3D Realms, folded when it ran out of money. The game was supposed to come out in 1998 and then was delayed and delayed until it was supposed to come out in late-2001. There's a story on Yahoo's gaming blogs that shows someone who has waited for his $10 pre-order on Duke Nukem Forever since, if I'm reading the yellowing receipt correctly, August 13, 2001. That person deserves some kind of award for holding on to that receipt for that long and being very patient. I say that if you can prove that you have preordered Duke Nukem Forever from a local game store like Slash000 did, then I say you deserve double your money back. Why, you may ask, because of the way the dollar has shrunk in value since then and since the game is vaporware. What do you say GameStop, are you up to it?
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Clone Wars Decoded Part 2
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I just got through watching the second episode of the decoded Clone Wars cartoon and I must say there was a big improvement in this episode over the previous episode. I did learn that Kel Dor breathe helium rather than methane and that the clone troopers have a limited air supply in their armor and it is sealed kind of like a space suit. Personally I like the all parts of the Malevolence trilogy, but this one is my favorite by far. Sure the other parts have Y-Wings and the downfall of the ship, but Rising Malevolence has the pace and the feel of the old movies and I know it keeps me on the edge of my seat every time I watch it. The only thing I would warn parents about is that this episode has a lot to do with death because of what is shown on screen. There's also some good points when Plo Koon asks the clones why they think they are not going to be picked up, and the Clone says, "We're just clones." Plo says they are more than just clones and that someone will come and find them. I think this shows contrast between how the Jedi do things and how the Trade Federation does things. The Jedi treat the clones as equals even though they (the Jedi) are more powerful and could probably handle the Trade Federation by themselves. The decoding part of the episode has less 'duh' moments than the first one did, and I loved that it was done in a kind of point of view of a Clone Trooper who was reviewing old footage.
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Star Trek Rakes it in.
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The new J.J. Abrams Star Trek movie raked in over $76 million in its opening weekend. Not as strong as the Wolverine movie, but then Wolverine did not have to contend with another blockbuster in its first weekend like Star Trek did. I have not seen it yet, but my older brother, the former Surly Gamer, got to see it for $4.50 on opening night. He was so excited he paid so little, but then he had to sit through like half an hour of commercials before the previews that it kind of soured him on the whole experience. My older brother really liked the movie and he is big on television shows and movies with good writing so it is probably well executed on that front. I'm surprised that he even went to see it in the theater instead of waiting for someone to download the torrent and give him a copy. I have read very little about the movie because I'm trying to stay spoiler free until I see it hopefully within the next week or so. I have seen the trailer and the clips they have on the movie's web site. It really makes me want to see it. This is probably going to be the movie that changes my mind about it when I watch it. At first I was all like, they cannot redo Star Trek and when I found out J.J. Abrams was doing it, I thought it was going to turn out like the television show Lost where things don't make a lick of sense. All I know is that the movie is a sort of re-boot of the franchise and that it tells the story of how the crew we grew to know in the Original Series got together. According to older brother, the movie makes sense and is one of those really good movies that is a popcorn flick.
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Bad Writing Ahoy!
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This link (http://www.newsarama.com/tv/090514-animated-shorts-tmnt-25.html) was supposed to talk about the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles season 7 releases on DVD and go into some detail that made it really special. Unfortunately someone must have checked Wikipedia on an off day because it is full of inaccuracies. I know that the TMNT foursome was mutated by chemicals accidentally spilled when the owner of Splinter was trying to save someone's life, not by chemicals in the sewer themselves. The Turtles did not have a favorite food in the Mirage comic; the whole eating pizza thing was made up for the cartoon. Some other things that really need to be looked up; First, April O'Neil was not made up for the cartoon. She was in fact in the original comic book, but not as a reporter but as a lab assistant for Baxter Stockman. Second, the show that was a "rip-off" of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles was not Wild West Cows of Moo County; it was the Wild West C.O.W.-boys of Moo Mesa (which IMHO had a great opening theme). The writer at least gets partial credit for that. It is sloppy research like this that brings your writing as a whole down and makes semi-legitimate writers like me and the others writing for this magazine look all that much better.
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Live Action Avatar?
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This link (http://blog.newsarama.com/2009/05/22/avatar-the-last-airbender-film-pics-released/) shows a picture of the young actor that is playing the Avatar Aang in the Avatar the Last Airbender live action movie that is coming out next summer. I really don't think that live action will not do this movie any justice simply because the story has been told and told well already in animated form. The movie is being directed by M. Night Shamalan which means that I am not going to see it because he's going to try and trick the movie out somehow with his trademark swerve that he puts in all of his movies. I have no doubt that this movie's special effects will be done well because they are spending about a year on them, but I feel the energies on the Avatar license should be used to tell other stories in the Avatar universe in cartoon form rather than rehashing the same stuff in live action form.
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