Quickies

Due to being buried in work and being messed about to the point of insanity with my new degree on top of being a new father I have been a little distracted.
Here are a few quick reviews:

Wonder Woman DC should just plug Bruce Timm into everything they do and wait for world domination. Wonder Woman's main flaw is it is far too short, the end shots really make you wish that you could watch another 45 minutes of top-notch arse-kicking. Nathan Fillion is as charming and funny as usual, Kerri Russell lends the role the blend of naivety and will that is needed and Alfred Molina is simply disturbing.
Wonder Woman continues to be the best character to be waiting for a comic that consistently does her justice, but is immensely interesting in Timm's animated universes.

Castle

Castle continues to be utterly predictable, unimaginative and stupifyingly watchable thanks to Nathan Fillion being Nathan Fillion and his devotees smiling blankly for an hour and chuckling.

Dollhouse
Since the 6th episode (where apparently the Fox executives waved their hands in the air and let Whedon and Co. get on with it) Dollhouse has improved immensely, with the supporting cast becoming much more compelling; twists and turns effecting the story arc with more purpose and a focus on making the audience actually want to watch the next episode.
Dushku is still erratic at times (her confused, doting turn in Man on The Street was plywood when put alongside Patton Oswalt), but she is beginning to form a personality as Echo which will help with audience empathy and she is spending less time attempting to be convincing as a passive victim.
At the current rate of improvement the show should be just about good enough for me to be a bit pissed off when it gets cancelled.

Monsters vs. AliensSlightly amusing at times but mainly uninspired and certainly guilty of criminally wasting some of its cast. One of those films that News of The World critics would describe as "great for the kids!" while the rest of the world remembers that Toy Story happened and films like Monsters vs. Aliens are not good enough any more.
I didn't see the film in 3D but when one of the first shots is of someone playing "Bat-'n-Ball" towards the camera you can imagine how earth-shattering that experience is. The only time I want that old gag used is when the 3D Blazing Saddles is made.
Watch Kung-Fu Panda again instead.

HeroesCouldn't give a toss.


Ultimatum
Marvel realised that other than the always readable Ultimate Spider-Man, their Ultimate universe had gone astray.
Their answer was to have an event (which is their answer for everything lately) which restructured the Ultimate universe. Fair enough, sounds like a good idea.
Then they asked Jeph Loeb to do it.
Not so good an idea.
A fictional universe created by Bendis, Millar and Vaughn being eviscerated by someone who wasn't deemed imaginative enough to write on Heroes this season. His other big contribution recently is a Hulk who, now get this...is RED!
His follow on from Mark Millar's Ultimates series was so bad it was almost a parody.
Ultimatum is the latest example of Loeb's take on writing comics for Marvel: a process that involves writing "shocking" events onto small pieces of card, tying the cards to 30 bones, throwing them into his back garden and then listing whatever his dog shits out the following day. I figure his dog is a Bull-Mastiff as there's a lot of shit making its way into each issue of Ultimatum.
Someone dies, then someone else dies followed by a tragic death. Characters speak about the deaths in odd exposition laden mumbling with the tone of a 60 year old trying to imagine what a teen sounds like. The end.

Garbage.

More to follow when my brain becomes less entwined with my arse.

Superman: Doomsday

There is an odd relationship between DC's animated division and the comic book source material; time and again, the animated versions are frankly more interesting.

To me anyway.

In my mind when Batman speaks I still hear Kevin Conroy, Superman has never been more interesting than in Justice League Unlimited (outside of Christopher Reeve that is) and Michael Rosenbaum's best performance of a DC charcter certainly isn't as Lex Luthor, it is as The Flash.

On the other hand I'm much more likely to enjoy a Marvel comic, yet their animated efforts so far have had the style and grace of a severe genital rash.

So when DC announced a range of direct-to-DVD films based very closely on the source material I was intrigued, when it was anounced the esteemed Mr. Timm would be producing I was sold.

The first title to be released from the new crop of ventures is Superman:Doomsday.

The original source material has some good character moments but is mainly a slugfest followed by navel gazing followed by a ridiculously contrived build up to a silly return.

So as I sat down to watch the DVD I had mixed expectations.

I don't want to get too spoilery so I won't go into miniscule detail, though the main plot is pretty obvious if you've gone as far as reading the title. If you haven't read the comics and don't want to know anything at all then I'll just say that the film is a success and an example of how arse-kicking a fight with two super humans can be.

Superman is voiced by Adam Baldwin who does an admirable job as the big boy scout though there isn't much difference in tone when he plays Clark Kent, but as we don't really see much of Clark in this film it isn't a jarring problem.

This Superman is strong, confident and heroic but also smarter than he is often presented, bearing a resemblance to the brilliant Grant Morrison representation, Kal-El spends his off-time trying to cure cancer in between making small suns and chatting with his robot companion in the Fortress of Solitude.

He also spends time giving Lois Lane some super-lovin' as they have been intimate for a few months although astoundingly he has not divulged his "secret" identity, something Lois calls him on with much chagrin.

Perhaps the least natural voice in the film, Anne Heche plays Lois (who the film centers around) and her portrayal seems to be slightly influenced by Jennifer Jason Leigh's performance in Hudsucker Proxy, which can be distracting, but she earns forgiveness as she pulls off some key emotional moments, particularly on the porch of the Kent farmhouse.

As is obvious, I am a Whedonite and a complete fanboy when it comes to many of the cast members of Buffy, Angel and Firefly (see Adam Baldwin in Superman and Chuck for evidence) and so Lex Luthor being voiced by the formerly peroxide blonde James Marsters is a real treat.

Lex is fantastic in this film, he is the super-genius that Alan Moore envisioned (he comes up with a cure for muscular dystrophy while staring out of a window...then sends it off to be turned into a more profitable long term treatment) and he is also completely self-absorbed and ruthless. His obsession with Superman as presented here is not just a simple jealousy of power but almost a twisted, poisoned love of what the Kryptonian represents, and an intense need to destroy it.

Marsters knows how to switch from menacing to glib as well as anyone and the arrogance that is always Lex's weakness is intertwined with a powerfully dangerous Machiavellian nature effortlessly.

Although the film is mainly shot from Lois' perspective, a hefty proportion of its success depends on how menacing Doomsday is, which is a difficult proposition as he is in essence a bony-hided Hulk with less dialogue.

Fortunately, someone at Warner Brothers offered fellatio to the censors and got this film a PG-13 while allowing the violence to be eye-opening. In many cartoons, when a tank is blown up, the driver and gunner will jump out the moment before and run to safety. The jet that is shot down explodes while the pilot's parachute safely opens for all to see and no death occurs.

Superman: Doomsday is a different animal. Not only are there no parachutes but the jets crash into buildings and populated streets, Doomsday picks up one soldier who screams in terror, then we cut away as we hear a loud crack as the behemoth breaks another victim in half.

Doomsday not only threatens, he murders and he does it brutally.

When the titular characters face off it is explosive. Only a couple of fights in the JLU animated series have equalled such raw majesty and force as streets are levelled, windows shattered and buildings flattened by Superman and Doomsday's confrontation (a note to Bryan Singer, for the next Superman film please have Supes beat the piss out of somebody rather than get bludgeoned by street thug number 4, and let's have Superman do something that involves being awe-inspiring other than being the world's greatest fork-lift). The difference in this film is people die, the stakes are raised and when one of them falls it is a memorable moment, you can believe one has given his all to beat the other.

There are a lot of smart choices in the aftermath (including an iconic image involving the red cape that is effecting, but not lingered on) and having the marvellous Ray Wise (to be seen in Reaper reviewed here by Canyon) as Perry White full of bluster and concern for Lois as he reminds her "He ain't around to pull your ass out of the fire anymore" gives a true sense of a world in shock, scrambling to come to terms with a new age.

There is a nod to the relationship between Superman and Wild Wild West in a fun cameo

to interject some respite from the tragedy just as things get darker for the supporting cast.

I won't go into the rest of the plot as it deviates from the original comics' convoluted progression and though the final denouement is too convenient I found it was still satisfying.

Along with a slightly weak ending in comparison to the rest of the film the only decision made through the film that bothered me was the character design. Lex perhaps a little too thin making him seem alien in appearance.

Also I think there was concern that the style was too close to that of Superman: The Animated Series so cheekbones were added that frankly look silly at times and make some characters look ugly, particularly Superman.

Superman: Doomsday is an entertaining film that certainly gives hope for the other animated films being worked on, in the extras is a preview of the movie based on Darwyn Cooke's seminal The New Frontier, with a 50's Superman voiced by Kyle MacLachlan, Wonder Woman played by Lucy Lawless and in even further geekery, David Boreanaz as Hal Jordan.

In the animated films being released by the two big comics companies, DC's polish and use of their characters makes Marvel look positively anaemic.

Radioweb

While having far too much time on my hands thanks to the USA's brilliant policy of not allowing me to work for nearly a year after arriving in the country I found myself drawn towards the murky world of podcasting.
Podcasting really is an extension of the web; anyone with a computer and a mic and the basic knowledge of mpeg formatting can produce their very own episodic radio show with whatever content they please, and not all of it is porn.

To begin with, podcasts allowed me to keep up with the football action I miss so dearly through downloadable episodes of 606 (still the best phone-in show going thanks mainly to Alan Green's unwavering opinions) and from there I started to search around for content to satisfy my geeky hunger.

For comics I go no further than the superb iFanboy and Around Comics podcasts. iFanboy release a Pick of The week show every Sunday in which one of the hosts (Josh, Conor and Ron) review their favourite single issue in depth and then go on to discuss the other releases in an intelligent, knowledgeable and entertaining way. They have differing tastes, know their stuff and have an obvious love of the medium they talk about.
On Saturdays the trio also release a video-cast where they pick a comics related subject and add their thoughts in an informative style that is often aimed at the comics newcomer but always of interest to any fan of the medium.

Around Comics has a similar outline for their twice weekly shows but are slightly more raucous and irreverant in their approach, they cover comics news, reviews (in their Top of The Stack segment), future releases and creator interviews in a round table style, which often disintegrates into name-calling and vulgarity which has left me laughing loudly on a regular basis.

For podcasts dedicated to gaming MOG and Virginworlds are the two stand out shows which are utterly different and absolutely complimentary.

MOG (Massively Online Gamer) was once entirely focused on MMO news and discussion but as hosts Gary Gannon and Ryan Verniere became bored senseless with the new releases they have shifted to add console gaming to their perview. MOG isn't for those who are easily offended (their interview with the star of Whorecraft being a classic example) and the duo go from the philosophical and esoteric to ball-shaving and world class ranting with furiously funny ease.
Their sporadic video podcasts have "amaaaazing" production values and the chemistry between the two long-time friends keeps the show fresh, thought-provoking and consistently entertaining.
Definitely one to go through the archives and listen to.

Brent, the host of Virginworlds, is highly respected in the community due to his knowledge of the industry and his commitment to producing content with astounding regularity and quality. Virginworlds is a weekly MMO news show in which Brent goes through the stories making waves in the community and though he does add his own opinions on the burgeoning genre he isn't as rabid as many poseurs on the block. Brent recently opened up the Virginworlds label as a hub for a number of podcasts all of which can be accessed through his website which itself is a fantastic resource for the MMO enthusiast or "noob".
Brent's episode on how to make a podcast is about all you could wish for in a how-to guide.
If you want to know what I sound like at 2am with a shoddy mic and a pounding headache you can hear me reviewing an MMO on an episode in the Virginworlds archives.


There is a lot of dross out there, but let's face it that is true about the Internet in general, but look around and you'll find some really good content.
When I have spent an hour and a half listening to a podcast that I have enjoyed immensely produced by someone in their bedroom then switch on the gogglebox and find an inordinate amount of garbage that costs a fortune to produce I feel glad that the revolution won't be televised.


I honestly spend more time listening to podcasts than I do watching television these days, then again with the horrific advertising policy that is standard in television broadcasting in America I watch most television via DVD anyway.


There are other shows I listen to but my time is short this afternoon, but any suggestions for good podcasts would always be appreciated.

Invincible

As I'm currently flushed with the joys of destitution I find myself reaching to my once proud but now miniscule collection of pop culture and loooking for happiness.
I have the first 7 Invincible trades by Kirkman and Ottley (published by Image) and they remind me why comics still capture my imagination.

To get this out of the way, I'm what is known as a Marvel Zombie (which apparently means I will soon have a cover by Arthur Suydam done for me), I grew up on the X-Men and Spider-Man and to this day think the only Superman worth bothering with is to be seen on celluloid or as part of the JLU animated series. I caught the last episode of the recent Smallville season: spoilers ahead....seriously don't read on...here it comes...the episode was absolutely terrible. What a twist.

Well my childhood/teenhood/adulthood favourite X-Men got boned by Joe Quesada's genius idea of hitting the reset button as there were apparently too many mutants in the Marvel Universe. Ok fair enough, just a shame that leaving only a handful of remaining mutants kind of destroys the next phase of human evolution part of the mythos. Also the politically allegorical subtext which drives the Mutant idea is pretty much destroyed if a movement has less members than the Uwe Boll fan club.
Thankfully Joss Whedon has kept Astonishing X-Men pretty much away from all of the M-Day fallout nonsense.

Meanwhile JMS is taking Spider-Man down a fascinating new route in which he's dark and brooding. Oh and commiting crimes. Because he is dark and brooding. For 7 issues. But don't worry, the rumour is a magic reset button to turn Amazing Spider-Man into Ultimate Spider-Man but without Bendis writing it is soon to arrive. Don't go forming the queues to get this blockbuster right away, the ending has the same twist as Smallville's.

For more genius, read Loeb and Bianchi's recent Wolverine run, actually don't, read the always entertaining Paul O'Brien's review of Wolverine 55. After Loeb's first issue the theme song to Itchy and Scratchy came to mind as Wolverine and Sabretooth "fight and fight and fight and fight and fight". The difference being Itchy and Scratchy are funny and entertaining and don't compel me to stab myself.

Forgive my digression but I am a bitter man and it leads up to why I love Kirkman's Invincible.
It is a Super-Hero comic. It is well written.

Crazy I may seem but those characteristics appeal to me.

Invincible is Superman if he was raised by Ben and May Parker except Ben didn't die he just saved the world a lot. There is well-timed ironic humour, solid action and a Whedonesque sense of sub-plot and story arc pay-off.
Basically it is a lot of fun with characters you gradually fall in love with being put through the mill regularly. It doesn't reinvent the genre (Superman meets Spider-Man meets Buffy meets the JLA) but it does what it does very well and isn't trying to be pretentious doing it.
There is a large cast of characters each with a story that I'm more bothered about than most of Comics' leading icons at the moment.
I don't want Tony Stark to be Dick Cheney and I don't want Peter Parker to be de-aged and un-married with a wave of a magic wand because editors think they can't write stories that are interesting without altering a character completely.

World War Hulk works even if it is obvious how it will end and consists of Hulk walking from a pile of dust to show he has beaten someone else up (much more of it and he'll be nicknamed Pig-Pen).
It works because it takes the basic concept of the character and puts him in a situation that will be interesting.
Taking the basic concept of a character and changing it until you hope something interesting happens doesn't work.

Have a read of Invincible and enjoy the simple pleasure of a good idea written well.