Archive | Comics RSS feed for this section

Stabbed in the Eye with Nerd Awesomeness

24 Jul

Stabbed in the Eye with Nerd Awesomeness

As you may have guessed, I’m not at Comic-Con International this weekend.  Thanks to the magic of the interwebs, though, I don’t have to worry about missing out on updates, livestreams, photos, and video from the hundreds of panels taking place.  Seriously, people.  DC and Marvel have a panel going on in just about every time block of the Con.

Better yet, I don’t have to worry about being stabbed in the eye by some crazy guy because I’m sitting in Hall H with 4,000 other people hoping to see the cast of the Avengers movie.

I guess we’ll just call it a break even situation.  That is until I stumbled across this little bit of awesome-sauce this afternoon: the newest trailer for the Sony Entertainment/DC Comics massively multiplayer online (MMO) game DC Universe Online.  Jim Lee, Geoff Johns, Marv Wolfman, and other major creators have spent the last five years working on bringing the world’s greatest super-heroes to life for the PS3 and PCs.

Check out the trailer and join me for a little chat, okay?

You know what? Just go ahead and watch it again…or five more times. I’ll wait.

Back again? Good. CAN YOU BELIEVE THIS?  I’m not even sure where to begin.

Corey’s Top 10 Head ‘Sploding Things in the DC Universe Online Trailer

10.  Superman’s five-o’clock shadow.

9.  Cyborg looks awesome.  Please, DC. Realize this character has the potential to be a major player in the DC Universe and give him the respect he demands.

8.  Joker uses Harley Quinn as a human shield.

7.  Every hero in special armor means things are really, really bad.

6.  Wonder Woman with a delicious Kryptonite-filled interior.

5.  Deathstroke using Batman as a piñata thanks to Wonder Woman’s lasso.

4.  You can never go wrong with Kevin Conroy as Batman and Mark Hamill as Joker.  Seriously.  After twenty years of two fine actors playing the characters, you’d think audiences would want the producers to move on to someone else.  No…such…thing.

3.  Superman burns off Black Adam’s face with his heat vision!

2.  Black Adam calls down the lightning and destroys the entire city.  C’mon.  Why doesn’t the Shazam family get more love in the comics?

1.  A storyline that is good enough to be a movie.  Stop wasting time on these direct to DVD movies and simply make this happen.  Villains win.  Time travel.  The trinity.  Awesome animation.  Great voice acting.

At least I know what I’ll be doing at 3 a.m. this November when Elliott won’t sleep.

Is the Race of Spider-Man Up for Grabs? Sure.

31 May

Is the Race of Spider-Man Up for Grabs? Sure.
I passed over a tweet this morning from Newsarama noting that Community star Don Glover was campaigning to play Spider-Man in the upcoming movie reboot.
Casting choices are always contentious decisions.  You may not like Christian Bale’s bat-growl.  You may think Ryan Reynolds is too young to play Green Lantern Hal “Highball’ Jordan.  You may have thought Brandon Routh channeled the quiet ease of Christoper Reeve just fine.  Patrick Stewart was a spot-on Charles Xavier.  You may have even thought that Shaq was the perfect Steel.

No matter what you think about casting choices, there is a certain amount of thought that goes into why an actor is chosen to play a particular hero, villain, or supporting character.  Sometimes, that choice is based purely on the star power attached to the lead.  There’s one case where this has really gotten the in way.

Hallie Berry played a convincing (thought somewhat too Westernized) Storm in the X-Men franchise.   Bad wigs aside, fans embraced her in the role.  What Berry did not fit into was Catwoman’s leather.  It didn’t make sense, it wasn’t based on comics, and it was poorly written.  Simply stated: it was a flop.   Surely the star power of Ms. Berry should have made it work on some level.  Why not?  She was Selina Kyle, but really she wasn’t the Selina Kyle.  Comics fans like their stories based on the greater mythology that has been at work for–in many cases–over seventy years.
I once read an interview with one of the DC Comics executives where they discussed interpretations, legacy characters, and the immutable elements of their mythologies.  He argued there are three elements in defining the way a character is represented: 1) the absolutes; 2) the negotiables; and 3) the things up for grabs.  He used Superman as a prime example.

Is Corey Getting an iPad?

31 Jan

Is Corey Getting an iPad?

I was out of town on Wednesday during Steve Jobs’ big announcement of the iPad. Walking through the halls of the Capitol building in Frankfort–iPhone firmly planted in pocket with the sound off–I could only imagine how the world was changing around me. Surely the much-heralded Apple Tablet would affect all aspects of our lives from that day forward.

Not so much. At least not yet.

Upon returning to the office on Friday, the question everyone wanted to ask me was “Are you buying an iPad?” I’ve been an early adopter of the iPhone–twice sneaking away from camp to procure the new device. Despite the hype and the potential the iPad presents, I will not be giving Steve Jobs $500+ this Spring. Keep reading to find out why.

(more…)