This came to me in a vision.
Thanks to the readers who checked out and even linked the Spider-Man 3: Deleted Scenes dealy. That gave us our highest traffic ever. We had almost five visitors in one day! Wow!
My homey David Uzumeri has a very good (and plausible!) look at who wrote what for 52. A brief excerpt:
I’ve been hiding this in my back pocket for a while, since I didn’t want to jinx DC putting up more of Keith Giffen’s breakdowns. One of the most hotly-debated topics in the creation of 52 was very simple: Who wrote what? The writers, and DC, have been very cagey about providing answers… but it turns out they were there all along.
So, I’ve been looking at Keith Giffen’s breakdowns on 52thecomic.com, and I noticed that different scenes have different font and numbering styles on the cues (like “13 BOOSTER:” as opposed to just “BOOSTER:” in a different font) in different scenes. So I took a look at it, and it seemed kind of obvious that the different writers use different cues.
Geoff Johns: Times New Roman, “1. CHARACTER”
Greg Rucka: Times New Roman, “1 CHARACTER”
Grant Morrison: Arial, “CHARACTER”
Mark Waid: Courier? (a typerwriteresque font), “1 CHARACTER”This is what I came up with. The final tally:
You’ll have to visit Funnybook Babylon for the final tally, I’m afraid. I can’t ruin all their fun.
I guess this’ll fuel your “I knew Grant Morrison/Geoff Johns wrote all those parts I didn’t like!” arguments, huh?
Pardon the short post, but a Brothers is packing up boxes like mad. After I’m done, I’ll definitely have something interesting/nerdy/horrible for you, though.
Tangent: I just got hit with a summary of what’s been going on in New X-Men recently and it easily sounds like Marvel’s worst book. They went from nice, kid-friendly but still quality stories to all but three of the original team being killed, kids being tortured, and all this crap?
Plus, Prodigy is dead and I am not happy!
Via Ragnell–
I’m not 100% clear on the difference between a blog carnival and a linkblog (a carnival is more discerning, I guess?), but here’s one that sounds interesting.
Why A Carnival?
Because Lt. Uhura should have had more lines. (ST: TOS)
Because Kevin Sorbo was jealous of Keith Hamilton Cobb and wrote him out. (Andromeda)
Because among other butchery, the SciFi Channel made Ged white. (EarthSea)
Because Forrest was a plot point and Graham was an extra. (Btvs)
Because Ronon Dex is not a savagely sexual wild man. (SGA)
Because Aiden Ford deserved better. (SGA)
Because Goliath showed up only to get killed. (Marvel: CW)
Because Vixen should have been more than the other woman. (JLU)
Because Carl Lumbly should be remembered for MANTIS.
Because Milestone Media deserved more love.
Because there should be more shows like Afro Saumrai
Because there should be more heroines like Jade and Juniper Lee.
Because Bianca Lawson tried out for the role of Cordelia Chase instead of Kendra. (BtVS)
Because Pete Ross drowned in a sea of nothingness (Smallville)
Because it can feel isolating among other journalers and bloggers.
Because it could encourage other People of Color to speak up more.
Because there are illustrators of color who don’t get to put faces like theirs on the front of a SF book.Can you think of more reasons? I’m sure you can.
PoC SF Carnival: We Exist. And We Are Not Invisible
People of Colour SciFi Carnival. Go take a look and submit something if you so choose. It launches mid-June.
(can anyone tell me what a fen is? i’m thinking swamps and marshes and that can’t be right.)
Time for something a little different. A few weeks ago, I talked about the World Championship Wrestling comic, discussing a horrifying clash between comics and wrestling. Of course, I’m not done. I have to cover WWF Battlemania, after all. Plus I have a guest article on the way covering a comic that’s very concept causes my brain to explode.
Mixing comics and wrestling isn’t always a bad thing, though. I’d like to talk to you about CHIKARA, an independent wrestling federation that lives out of Pennsylvania. I had heard of it a while ago, but only recently have I given it a look. A couple weeks ago, I was invited to tag along to their show Rey De Voladores and I was basically blown away. It’s got everything I want in wrestling. The wrestling talent is there, giving us innovative and exciting match-ups. It’s got enough story to get by without making it more important than the actual matches. Even when the match is lopsided and the winner is blatant, they don’t make it a one-sided match that lasts two minutes. The match-ups aren’t entirely stuck on good vs. evil. Two heels can fight without having to worry about the crowd not knowing who to cheer for. Two tag partners can compete against each other without some forced storyline about them breaking up.
Most importantly is the fun factor. A lot of these guys are just weird. There’s a guy named the Hydra, who wears a monster mask, but is so skinny that he has to draw a six-pack onto himself with a sharpie in a desperate attempt to make himself seem menacing. There’s Chuck Taylor, once a smiling good guy, now driven mad by success and ego as he physically threatens children and the elderly on a regular basis. He also has a random love for dolphins and has the theme from Pete and Pete as his entrance music. There’s Player Uno, the 8-Bit Luchador, who usually wears tights that resemble overalls, as well as a lucha mask and a cap. During some matches, he’ll even kick a turtle shell into his opponents.
Others I’ll get to later.
The point of this article is the DVDs. Since CHIKARA doesn’t have a TV deal, they mostly get by with their DVD sales. This is actually what got my initial attention, as many of the DVD covers are based on classic comic book covers. The homage covers are done by Marco de Alfonso (possibly spelled wrong) and he does an amazing job.
Let’s have a look.
I mentioned this in another post as being a scene I enjoyed seeing recreated in Spider-Man 3. I’ve got it below the cut.
Art’s by Sal Buscema, words by JM DeMatteis. It’s a great scene and wonderful capstone. Spoilers abound, obviously.
For comparison’s sake, here’s the scene from the movie, paraphrased.
Harry leapt in front of Peter and ended up being stabbed through the chest. Pardon the chatlog.
Peter: Hey pal, how you doin’?
Harry: Been better.
Peter: Get you through this.
Harry: No.
Peter: I should never have hurt you. Said those things.
Harry: None of that matters, Peter. You’re my friend.
Peter clasps his hand.
Peter: Best friend.
And Harry dies.
There it is. No commentary needed, I figure? Be a little careful with your comments and spoilers, since the movie is fresh out. If you want to talk spoilers, toss them between <spoiler>spoiler tags</spoiler> and it should hide them properly. Make sure you mention what you’re spoiling, too!
I owe you guys a post. I was writing it on Sunday, but some paying work dropped into my lap, and with a move set for next Monday, you can understand how important that is right now. Soon.
I was thinking about this newfangled Supergirl DC has running around. Amazons Attack, raised by Amazons, so on and so forth.
We’ve already got an Amazonian Supergirl. DKSA Kara Zor-El is better than DCU Kara Zor-El. She could take her in a fight, easy. Then we’d have a good Supergirl! I could make an entire post out of that. Oh, how I wish I had a feature that let me pit two comics characters against each other in a fight…
Anyway, I took today to rest and recuperate after my hilariously stressful week searching for an apartment in San Francisco. (I found one, by the way! Just got to get the lease and deposit out of the way.) I got a bit of writing done started and I’ll have some long-awaited (sup kanda) reviews for you tomorrow. Mighty Skullboy Army, the Autobiography of Malcolm X graphic novel, and Last of the Independents.
Yes, I am like four years late on that last one.
Stay tuned, true believer.
I too saw the midnight showing of Spider-Man 3. Fun movie, even if it does have its flaws.
I do like how the crowd I saw it with was totally into it. Stan Lee got a round of applause. Bruce Campbell got a crazy ovation. The initial Venom transformation got a round of applause. Even that one bit at the Jazz Club towards the end where Peter does that thing he immediately regrets got a huge applause despite the fact that it was meant to be serious.
There are some groan-inducing scenes, though. I can understand why people wouldn’t like it.
Keep in mind, with the novelization, I thought it was quite good. It’s just that Raimi decided to cut out a lot of stuff and I’m not sure I agree with what he decided on.
Below is a list of most of the stuff that was either cut out of the movie, or Peter David just snuck into his version of the story. If a lot of this stuff is included in the eventual Spider-Man 3.1, I’ll be sure to pick up a copy. It may not be an improvement the level of Kingdom of Heaven, but I’m sure it would be an overall improvement nonetheless.
Remember, this is spoiler-heavy. So don’t go complaining to me because you accidentally read about the scene where Spider-Man defeats Venom by playing the entire guitar solo from Freebird and the rent-crazed landlord reveals himself to be Dormammu in disguise.
I just got back from Spider-Man 3. Brief, spoiler free review:
I spent eight bucks on it and left the theater satisfied. I didn’t find it cluttered at all, though a few subplots were spaced out a little too far. It was a long flick, though, so I kind of understand.
Couple quick spoilers behind the tag–
-They did the scene from the end of Spec Spidey 200, though slightly altered! I was hoping for a “You’re my best friend, Pete,” and they got pretty close!
-Stan Lee got a “’nuff said” in.
-JJJ stole the show, as usual.
-Topher Grace wasn’t a great actor, but he worked the role well. He was sleazy!
Actual comments later, I figure, for it is nearly three in the a m. suffice to say that it was probably not as good as Spidey 2, but still a worthy member of the trilogy. It was one part guilt, one part soap opera, and one part action, just like all the good Spidey stories.
