FanBoyWonder

FanBoyWonder Audio Book Report—52, Parts 1 and 2

2009-06-13T20:19:00.000-07:00

A funny thing happened while FanBoyWonder was at our local public library not too long ago—while scanning the “latest selections” section of the audio books, lo and behold what did we see but 52 Parts 1 and 2, by Greg Cox, based on the DC Comics maxi-series of the same name.

As regular FanBoyWonder readers may remember (assuming there are many of you left following our prolonged absences of late), last year we reviewed The Last Days of Krypton by Kevin J. Anderson—a novel chronicling the history (at least the tail end) of Superman’s home planet.

We’ve always had mixed feelings about novelizations of comic book stories. The comic book (or “graphic novel” for those high falutin folk) is a storytelling medium like no other as it’s a unique and seamless blend of words and pictures.

Yet there is no denying that a novel, with its much, much higher word count, is the best forum to expand the breadth and depth of a character where comic books can only scratch the surface.

The audio book takes that relationship yet another step farther. Graphic Audio has produced a number of DC Comics novelizations including the adaptation of 52.

That said…here’s the Upshot of 52 from Graphic Audio: A year without Superman. A year without Batman. A year without Wonder Woman. But not a year without heroes... Earth’s most revered heroes have vanished. In their absence, the cities of Metropolis and Gotham have fallen prey to the machinations of super-villains and the criminal activities of Intergang.

Booster Gold, a hero from the future, has stepped into Superman’s boots only to find them too big to fill, especially when rival hero Supernova arrives on the scene. Recruited by the mysterious crime fighter known as the Question, detective Renee Montoya investigates an even more mysterious vigilante prowling the streets: Batwoman. These and other veteran and rookie heroes around the world must unite against a vast conspiracy of evil about to usurp control of the Earth once and for all.

We have to admit that we enjoyed this audio novelization of 52 a lot more than we enjoyed the original weekly, year-long (i.e. 52 weeks) maxi-series.

First and foremost, the Graphic Audio presentation was First Class. There slogan is “A movie in your mind,” and they delivered. We really did feel like we were listening to a comic book.

This is in stark contrast to the Kingdom Come audio book from a decade ago. The KC audio was an adaptation of the Kingdom Come novel by Elliot S. Maggin which in turn was an adaptation from the now classic Kingdom Come graphic novel by Mark Waid and Alex Ross.

The KC audio was professionally produced but it was voiced by commercial and voice-over actors. The pronunciations were right but the inflections were all wrong. A decade later, Graphic Audio has gotten it pitch perfect.

Secondly, author Greg Cox has done the 52 story a great service by streamlining the year-long story into a coherent narrative—partly by inserting some badly needed exposition and partly by trimming down the story to the three strongest character arcs—1) Black Adam and “The Black Marvel Family; 2) Booster Gold, Supernova and Rip Hunter and 3) Renee Montoya, The Question and Batwoman.

Thankfully omitted and barely remembered by this reader was the “Cult of Connor” dead-end story line; the Steel/Luthor/Everymen story, the Ralph Dibny time killing “investigation” and the cosmically bad Adam Strange/Animal Man/Starfire lost-in-space saga.

At the time it was launched in May 2006, directly following the screw up that was Infinite Crisis, 52 was a groundbreaking experiment as DC Comics sought to produce a weekly comic book. The premise of 52 was to tell the story of the DC Universe during the lost years between Infinite Crisis and One Year Later.

To this end, 52 had its big gun scribes—Geoff Johns, Grant Morrison, Greg Rucka, and Mark Waid—on the project working hand in glove…or trying to. Despite their best efforts and we have no doubt it they tried very hard to make it work, 52 was a jumbled mess as the storytellers were writing by the seat of their pants and it showed.

With some time and with the benefit of unfolding his story to the reader in one sitting rather than 52 weekly bites, the 52 audio novel works. We found ourselves hanging on details of the audio book that we barely paid notice to during the weekly comics series.

The Renee Montoya character is the emotional heart and soul of the story here in the novel version. The former Gotham City police detective is a well into a self-hating binge of booze and broads (she’s gay) after her cop partner and best friend was murdered and she couldn’t bring herself to murder the murderer.

Vic Sage/ “Charlie”/The Question finds Renee and saves her by making her his (crime busting) partner and eventual successor as Sage is dying of lung cancer. With the Batman out of town during this missing year, Intergang is moving into Gotham, but a new, unrelated Batwoman has appeared to step into the void left by the Dark Knight.

It turns out that the mysterious Batwoman is Kate Kane, a billionaire socialite, a graduate of the United States Military Academy at West Point…oh yeah and a lesbian…but not just any lesbian but Renee’s old flame from way back. Given that in the original comic book series, Batwoman was defined pretty much only by her sexual identity peppered by a couple thin slices of background detail, Cox does his admirable best to flesh out this one-dimensional character.

While Renee Montoya is the heart of the book, Black Adam is the muscle…in every which way. Cox builds upon and expands the impressive job the committee of writers did in the comic book of making the reader feel both compassion and contempt for Adam.

We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again, the very best kind of villain is the one that doesn’t think he’s a villain but just trying to do good…and Gods help who gets in the way.

The Booster Gold story line is the weakest of the trinity. While Cox captures the shallowness of the character who time traveled back 400 years to become the success that he wasn’t in his own time, Booster’s voice actor made him sound too much like Jeff Spicoli (“Hey Bud, let’s party”).

The Booster Gold character is as shallow as any Hollywood “It” guy but he’s at least a little brighter than the three-watt bulb that Cox portrays him in the novel.

Cox does the best job of it by seamlessly meshing the “World War III” story line into 52. In the comics, WWIII was a slap dash affair where the committee of writers—realizing they had utterly failed to fill in the storytelling blanks of the missing year between Infinite Crisis and One Year Later, scotch taped their solution—Black Adam going insane after the murder of his wife Isis and taking a magic-powered rampage across the globe.

What was Gods-awful in the comic series, Cox has managed to make the battle action of WWIII highlight of the book.

Greg Cox and Graphic Audio has actually made us like a story that we hated reading the first time around.

If 52 is supposed to be “A movie in your mind” then FanBoyWonder gives it a thumbs up.

FanBoyWonder DVD Review—Hulk Vs…

2009-05-25T18:45:00.000-07:00

FanBoyWonder hit the video store and among our rentals was the recently released “Hulk vs...” featuring two separate animated films—“Hulk vs. Thor” and “Hulk vs. Wolverine.”

To be honest, we were in the video store looking for the even more recently released Wonder Woman animated DVD but loathe to walk out empty handed, we picked up Hulk vs…

We found it an amusing waste of time…with the operative words being “waste of time.” Not for nothing but since we went to the trouble of watching it, we thought we would bang out a DVD review from the hip.

Here’s the Upshot from Marvel Animated Features: Hulk vs. Wolverine—Alberta, Canada. The Incredible Hulk has been tearing a line across the Canadian countryside, leaving a swath of destruction in his wake. He has to be stopped, and there's only one man up to the job. He's the best there is at what he does, but what he does isn't very nice. He's Wolverine, an elite agent of Canada's top secret Department H, and he's been put on Hulk's trail with a single objective: stop the green goliath...at all costs. Hulk and Wolverine are about to enter the fiercest battle of their lives.

Hulk vs. Thor—Asgard, realm of the gods. For ages, Loki the trickster has sought a way to bring defeat to his accursed stepbrother, Thor. But for all the battles Thor has fought, in all the nine realms, only one creature has ever been able to match his strength - a mortal beast of Midgard known as The Incredible Hulk. Now, with Odin, the almighty king of the gods, deep in a regenerative sleep, and the forces protecting Asgard at their weakest, Loki is finally ready to spring his trap. In an epic battle that will pit gods against monsters, that will test a hero's limits more than ever before, only The Mighty Thor can hope to prevail.

FanBoyWonder is glad that we only paid $3 to rent this video rather than $20 something or more to own it.

Two weak stories packaged together into one DVD do not make a good buy…or even a rental. Our biggest of many gripes about this DVD comes from the fact that the Hulk is a guest star in his own video—two times over. In both stories, a rampaging Hulk is little more than the plot device to spur Thor and Wolverine, respectively, into action.

Worse, we are promised Hulk vs….the two heroes but the fighting between Hulk and Thor and Hulk and Wolverine short and not all that satisfying—especially in the Wolverine movie.

At PG-13, this video is not geared to the little ones but more toward the hard-core fanboys—both due to the graphic violence and to the non-existent attempt to provide any kind of back story to the viewer. The storytellers simply assume that the viewer is up to speed the goings of the Marvel Universe.

If nothing else, there is an implied promise to the viewer that there will be some serious battling, brawling action between the God of Thunder, the Main Mutant and Marvel’s heaviest of hitters but even there, Hulk vs… fails to deliver.

We laud the Marvel marketing machine for its animated effort to plant the seeds of interest for live-action movies featuring Marvel characters but it seems to us that it’s counterproductive to attempt to grow interest by slapping out such inferior product.

Unless it’s a freebie two-for-one rental deal, avoid this inferior product.

FanBoyWonder Film Review—X-Men Origins: Wolverine

2009-05-11T20:04:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone. So sorry that we’ve been away…again. Life has taken a couple very interesting turns these past several weeks and among other things, recent events have taken a toll on our creative side. Writer’s block isn’t so bad if you are a dental hygienist but very, very ungood if you are a professional writer.

Yet the sometimes you just have to find the time, get back into the batter’s box and start swinging at fastballs until you connect. So that said, FanBoyWonder took a much needed break this past weekend from said current events for a two hour distraction at the cinema. Look for our next posting sometime sooner than six weeks hence—we promise.

Okay, then…let’s get it on.

The Upshot from 20th Century Fox: Leading up to the events of X-Men, X-Men Origins: Wolverine tells the story of Wolverine's (Hugh Jackman) epically violent and romantic past, his complex relationship with Victor Creed (Live Schreiber) and the ominous Weapon X program. Along the way, Wolverine encounters many mutants, both familiar and new, including surprise appearances by several legends of the X-Men universe.

FanBoyWonder walked out of the movies on Saturday last night with some mixed feelings. Wolverine did everything that a comic book film and an action movie should do—advance the hero/protagonist (along with the viewer) through the adventure—but like most prequels, the story was limited by the need to stay (more or less) true to the previously told events of the other X-films while also trying to stay fresh in the moment.

Despite some dragging during the first half of the film, Wolverine was decently paced with a couple of genuine surprises yet it failed to reach that critical mass of excitement.

Having long ago stopped reading X-Men and Marvel Comics in general, we went into the movie familiar with Wolverine but not knowing his back story chapter and verse. So it was surprisingly pleasant to enjoy the movie without being overly hung up (or even aware) on the differences between Logan’s comic book history and the movie’s adaptation of the character.

Hugh Jackman continues to shine in the title role. It’s funny to remember that Jackman was the second choice to play Wolverine and got the part only due to another actor’s scheduling conflict. Yet from the very first scene in 2000’s X-Men, Jackman owned the role.

However, even here in his own solo adventure, Jackman’s Wolverine still seems a bit sedate. Too much of the man and not enough of the animal. We see hints of it but we have yet to see Jackman’s Logan in full throttle berserker mode.

Ironically, it is Schreiber as Victor Creed…the future Sabertooth …that displays the most feral ferocity. You just know that this guy is bad seed but there’s a hint of nobility in him that makes us like him in spite of himself.

The film does stay true to the X-film’s continuity despite the fuzzy timeline. We guess it takes place about 1980 given WHERE the bad guy’s secret HQ is located.

The main bad buy is Col William Stryker (Danny Huston), who was previously introduced in X2: X-Men United. Danny Hudson does a good job of playing a younger version of the character first played so deftly by the great Brian Cox while at the same time adding his own presence.

However, it’s a major failure of the script that fails to deliver the story’s promise to fully flesh out Striker’s origins and motives in his ruthless dealings with mutant-kind. Despite a valiant effort by Hudson, Striker is just your ordinary, average crazed military guy eager to “take the fight to the enemy” in a “preemptive strike” to “protect Americans.”

Okay…FanBoyWonder has never served, never wore a uniform (unless you count Cub Scouts) and we’ve never so much as done a single boot camp push-up, but we don’t think it’s too much to ask that Hollywood portray the military and armed forces personnel as something other than blood crazed killers and/or rigid dopes who obey orders but never think.

In other words, come on Hollywood, let’s let the military be part of the solution in a story rather than the problem for a change. But we digress.

This wouldn’t be an X-Men movie without a plethora of mutants. Some we knew, some we were meeting for the first time.

Ryan Reynolds does little more than a cameo as Wade Wilson, a sword swinging mutant along with Agent Zero (Daniel Henney), an expert tracker and lethal marksman; Wraith (Will.i.am), a teleporter; Fred J. Dukes (Kevin Durand), The Blob, a morbidly obese and super-strong behemoth; and Bradley (Dominic Monaghan), who can manipulate electricity.

We also get to see a young Scott Summers and future Cyclops and Emma Frost who lead a rag-tag band of imprisoned kid mutants. Patrick Stewart makes a welcome but all too brief cameo as Charles Xavier/Professor X. However, the CGI attempt to de-age Stewart into a younger Xavier looked so ridiculous that it was a distraction.

We couldn’t help but smile mid-way through the film when Striker tried to appeal to Logan’s patriotism to leave the simple life of a lumberjack with a beautiful woman living on a mountain cabin and come back into the fold.

“Your country needs you,” says Col. Striker. “I’m Canadian,” Logan retorts.

Good day eh? Who says the Great White North doesn’t have anti-heroes. Bob and Doug McKenzie, Rodney McKay and of course that wacky Wolverine, Logan. So take off you hosers.

The “Easter egg” at the end features Logan “drinking to remember” in a bar in what looks like Tokyo. This leads us to think Wolverine will be “Turning Japanese” for the sequel. Personally, we hope for an adaptation of the 1982 classic “Wolverine 4-issue mini-series by Chris Claremont and Frank Miller, back in the day before they both jumped the shark.

The Bottom Line: The fight and actions scenes were competent and even well executed but it fell short of spectacular. That pretty much sums up our take on X-Men Origins: Wolverine—neither un-watchable nor uncanny.

Battlestar Galactica—Daybreak Part 1

2009-03-18T19:05:00.000-07:00

A note from your friendly neighborhood FanBoyWonder: As we noted upon our return, FanBoyWonder is on limited duty as we are still busy at work and in coping with Mrs. Lovey Wonder’s long recuperation and our efforts to bring her home.

We DO intend to expand the scope of the blog again beyond BSG reviews…including taking aim at the clusterfrak that is today’s DC Comics but for the moment we’re talking before we fly. Stay tuned, we’re working our way back to full speed.

Meanwhile, on with the pain.

Here’s the Upshot from Sci-Fi Channel: Upshot: As Galactica is stripped for parts, a call for volunteers is made for a final mission.

This is it…the beginning of the end. FanBoyWonder is having trouble believing this is the next to last Battlestar Galactica…EVER. Not so much because we are in denial as to the show’s impending expiration as that there are just so many darned plot threads hanging out there that we’re afraid we’re going to be left hanging by our unresolved curiosity when clock runs down.

This was a strange episode it truth be told. Others we have read didn’t like the pre-holocaust flashbacks to life on Caprica but we liked the symmetry—ending with the prologue.

Plus it was interesting contrast to see our characters now, worn down after four years of post-holocaust existence and then to see them as the people they were when life was “normal.”

In Caprica City, there is a brief scene of Bill Adama discussing job plans with someone else in an office—Adama is wearing a suit….the first time we can ever recall seeing Adama NOT wearing any kind of uniform.

We then see a newly acquainted Caprica Six and Gaius Baltar in his limousine before he gets a disturbing call about his father. He can’t seem to recall her name and hence the running joke of the series.

Given how hated he is now, it’s easy to forget that of all of the crew Baltar was the big cheese, a celebrity scientist with political connections while the two more important people of the fleet—Bill Adama and Laura Roslin—were little known and less important cogs in the machine.

Speaking of Laura, we find that she was no stranger to tragedy and loss even before the Cylon attacks as her family is wiped out by a drunk driver.

We also get to see Kara Thrace and Lee Adama meet for the first time over dinner at Zak Adama’s apartment. Amazing what a couple of haircuts can do to take years of both characters.

Meanwhile, in the not so delightful present day, the viewer is jolted back from to reality at the sight of a cancer ravaged Roslin is in sickbay while Doc Cottle watches over her.

Elsewhere, a reluctant Lee Adama gives the orders for Galactica to be stripped for its parts, while Admiral Adama packs up his belongings in preparation for their transport to his new quarters aboard the Cylon baseship.

In an attempt to take advantage of the ship's low morale, Paula tries to convince Gaius that the Galactica's current fall could lead to their group's political uprising. Yet when Gaius asks Lee about gaining political leverage, Lee points out that Baltar has never, not once ever committed a truly selfless act, prompting Baltar to withdraw.

In the brig we seek a bitter Galen Tyrol visited by Helo in the brig. Tyrol is there presumably for his knowingly helping Boomer to escape and unknowingly helping Boomer to kidnap Hera.

All things considered, Helo is being pretty cool to the guy who helped kidnap his kid. For his part, Tyrol is down on himself and all Number Eight Cylons and Cylons in general.

Adama is moved to change his mind rescuing Hera after seeing her picture on the now abandoned memorial wall. Adama and Starbuck share a touching scene when she confirms what Baltar said publicly last episode and he says he doesn’t care. Kara is his daughter as far as he’s concerned.

Having found out Cavil’s location from Sam the Hybrid, the Admiral and Kara make a call for volunteers to assist with the search mission for Hera. They mark a divisional line in the flight deck with red tape and instruct those who are willing to join this last fight to cross over it. Lee Adama is the first and others soon follow suit, including a withered Laura Roslin who has come down from sickbay to show her support.

Adama also is taking volunteers from those crew members who were part of the mutiny hence we get to see Racetrack…ah the lovely, smoking hot Racetrack …oh yeah and Skulls too…back in a raptor doing recon.

It’s doesn’t take much to get Tyrol to volunteer and he drag Tory along with him… “like you have anything better to do” he tells her. Tory's reveal as one of the Final Five Cylons has been a disappointment to us.

Her character was a bit of a blank slate to begin with but after the reveal, we not only knew less about her than before, but what we do know, we don’t like. She is always the wet blanket of the party….trying to be the most Cylon of the Cylons.

Oh yeah, the little fraker murdered Cally when Cally found out they were Cylons. We will be very disappointed if Tory is not held to account for this.

The episode ends abruptly into “To Be Continued” leading us to believe that this is meant to see in its three-hour entirety.

Frak! We miss the show already.

Battlestar Galactica—Island in a Stream of Stars

2009-03-12T19:28:00.000-07:00

The Upshot from Sci-Fi Channel: While Helo (Tahmoh Penikett) copes with Hera’s abduction, Galactica’s damages overwhelm the crew’s repair efforts.

Sorry for the delay folks but we were distracted as Mrs. Lovey Wonder’s recuperation had a setback this week. She’s better now and trying to make up for lost time so we can get her better and bring her home. We miss our Lovey.

Speaking of catching up, with just 24 hours until the next episode, your friendly neighborhood FanBoyWonder is striving to memorialize our thoughts on last week’s episode—we still can’t believe this is nearly the end.

Part of that is due the fact that “Island” seemed to promise the viewer answers but just left us with more questions.

Repairs to Galactica are making little headway and that’s even before the major hull breach kills some 60 souls—human and Cylon alike. Just like last week, the crew is in just as bad shape as the ship.

Helo and Athena (Grace Park) are beside themselves with grief following Boomer’s abduction of their daughter. Helo is racked with guilt at not being able to tell his wife from Boomer—Cylon model Number Eights both—and Athena seems unwilling to assuage his guilt.

It was a tough, uncomfortably familiar scene for us to watch. Having been suddenly and involuntarily separated from their little girl, they are frantic with worry not knowing where she is or even if she is safe. Trust us when we tell you that what they are enduring is the worst feeling in the universe.

The second worst feeling is to see the thing(s) you love most dying before your eyes knowing you can do nothing to save either. We are of course talking about Admiral Adama (Edward James Olmos) as he watches President Laura Roslin (Mary McDonnell) lose her battle with cancer and he sees his ship lose its battle with time.

Adama is reluctant to concede either loss. Adama is increasingly falling apart from within—as evidenced by his increased drinking and pill popping. Like his battlestar, Adama is starting to buckle from all of the hits he’s taken over the years.

Suddenly the rules have changed and what has worked for him in the past—strength and force of will to achieve the desired outcome—is utterly failing him. It’s interesting to see Col. Tigh (Michael Hogan)—Adama’s XO and best friend in the universe, Cylon or no—be the rock this time while Adama lets go.

When talking to our best pal and all around Kemosabe John today, he noted how annoyed he is at Gaius Baltar (James Callis) and “his harem” of beautiful women who literally worship the brilliant but feckless fracker.

Yet Baltar has two great scenes here. First when meeting Caprica Six (Tricia Helfer) again for the first time since the Eye of Jupiter. Baltar expresses condolences to Six over the miscarriage of her unborn baby with Saul Tigh.

As always with Baltar, he does the right thing for the wrong reason—although he thinks he means well. Six knows Baltar’s bag and is having none of it.

Poor Six, she’s come a long way from that ruthlessly curious sexbot we first met in the mini-series. Consider that one of Six’s first scenes had her snapping the neck of a newborn—just to see what it was like—Six HAS to be pondering irony of her miscarriage. Perhaps the Cylon One True God has extended the fickle middle finger of fate her way.

In the second Baltar scene, Gaius encounters Starbuck (Katee Sackhoff) in the head. You gotta love our girl Kara Trace—only she could so stonily stare someone down while sitting on the pot.

In a moment of impulse, Starbuck confesses to Baltar of discovering her own charred remains back on “Earth” (again, we still don’t think that nuked out planet was really Earth) and she gives him the corpse’s dog tags to analyze.

He does, concludes the corpse was Starbuck and he proceeds to out Kara as an angel—“proof of everlasting life”—in a misguided attempt to instill hope in the crew.

Starbuck’s critically wounded husband, Samuel T. Anders (Michael Trucco) one of the Cylon Final Five, has been placed in a hybrid tank in the hopes of speeding his healing recovery. Racked with guilt, Starbuck puts a gun to his head to euthanize him when he reacts by grabbing her gun hand and speaking hybrid.

As Kara goes to the Memorial Wall, Lee Adama (Jamie Bamber) tells her he doesn’t care how she came back, she’s there and he’s glad. Kara puts her photo back on the wall. Starbuck is dead, long live Starbuck.

By the end of the episode, Adama has reluctantly concluded that the old girl’s day is done. The Admiral orders repairs stopped and that Galactica start to be stripped down for parts, offloading the civilians and transferring the weapons to the Cylon Basestar.

After convincing a reluctant Tigh, they raise a glass together to toast the old girl before they send her off “in style.” –End of Line.

Tomorrow’s episode Daybreak part 1 purports to tie up all of the loose ends. We hope so. Of all of our burning questions we REALLY want to know the secret of the Imaginary characters—Imaginary Six (Tricia Helfer) who has been Baltar’s constant companion, guide and punisher since throughout the life of the series, as well as Imaginary Baltar who has appeared to Caprica Six on occasion. What’s the deal there?

We’re really going to miss this show when it goes dark but it least they got to go out on their own terms. So say we all!

Battlestar Galactica—Somebody To Watch Over Me

2009-03-02T20:00:00.000-08:00

We’re back! A hello to our loyal fans who all but gave up on us during our “hiatus” as well as a welcome to some of our Facebook friends who are checking out FanBoyWonder for the first time.

Our blogging muscle is still weak from inactivity so we’ll be shooting from the hip during this review, but for your reading pleasure, here’s some of our thoughts on Friday’s Battlestar Galactica with our recap of the final episodes so far to come before this coming Friday—three episodes and counting until The End.

The Upshot from Sci-Fi Channel: Kara/Starbuck (Katie Sackhoff) tries to reconcile her identity with her grisly find on “Earth” (quotes are ours) while the Cylons aboard Galactica want to charge Boomer (Grace Park) with treason.

Boomer, Boomer, Boomer—you are a bad, bad girl. Who knew? Well at least you aren’t conflicted anymore and you’ve chosen a side.

We have to admit that we were pretty faked out by this little crazy eight. We had been hoping that Chief Tyrol (Aaron Douglas) would have stayed the frak away from her, having long since moved on but his having discovered his true Cylon nature was a game changer. Understandable but disappointing nonetheless.

It was especially hard to watch Tyrol beg President Roslin (Mary McDonnell) for her life and to see her coldly rebuff him. We’re not sure how we feel about the whole Cylon projection thing—a little too “virtual reality” for our taste and that little sci-fi chestnut had been overdone long ago.

We have some trouble with Helo (Tahmoh Penikett) making the beast with two backs with Boomer impersonating Athena (also Grace Park) and with him not being able to tell it was NOT his wife. Worse, little Hera didn’t know Boomer wasn’t her mommy when it had been established previously that Hera can tell mommy from all of the other Number Eights?????

So Boomer makes good on her escape jumping away—the wake from the FTL jump to Galactica was like someone with broken ribs getting a jab in just the wrong place.

Only later does Tyrol realized that he had unwittingly helped to kidnap Hera—talk about a gut punch. Galen, the girl’s nothing but trouble. Wake the frak up already!!!

Meanwhile, poor Galactica—the old girl has really taken a beating over the years and now it seems to be all catching up.

There’s an old Indiana Jones quote that we are quite fond of repeating around our birthday each year—“It ain’t the years, it’s the mileage.” Unfortunately for the old bucket, BSG-75 is running long on both.

The aging and scarred battlestar is the perfect metaphor for the condition of the rag-tag fugitive fleet—all 39,556 souls (Apparently we’re now counting Cylons among the fleet, hence the boosted head count.).

The entire fleet received a collective gut punch when they found “Earth” and it was a long dead, radioactive wasteland. (We don’t think that was really Earth but we’ll find out for sure in just three more episodes.) They went all in and came up empty.

The mutiny was just the most obvious result but there are signs everywhere that everyone in the fleet is just going through the motions. They’ve lost hope.

It’s contrary to human nature to just give up or to simply lie down and die, so they keep going but it’s a half assed attempt at best. Little by little, they let things slide, too overwhelmed or tired or worn down to do anything more than what’s in front of them, acting on instinct with no reason to believe that tomorrow will be any better than yesterday—indeed they expect it to be worse.

With no one is this more true than our girl Starbuck. The Lords of Kobol must be angry and vengeful gods the way they have kicked poor Kara around like a hacky sack.

So it’s small wonder when Kara is like a moth to the flame when she encounters the Piano Man at Joe’s bar. We seemed to figure out early on that Piano Man was real only in Kara’s head (like Imaginary Six or Imaginary Baltar) but we didn’t make the connect until late that he was her long, lost daddy.

Plus he seems to have composed the Watchtower song—at least the melody—that switched on the Final Five Cylons. Could Starbuck’s dad be Daniel—the missing and presumed destroyed seventh Cylon? If so, this would make Kara, like Hera, a half-and-half?

We feel cheated that we only more questions than answers but we can’t wait to find out more.

So say we all!

Post Script: Just as we were about to post we just remembered the funniest bit of the show—Starbuck’s prize of the last tube of “Feldercarb” toothpaste in the universe. We almost fell off the couch laughing at this little nugget of original BSG trivia popping up like that. Feldercarb indeed!

FanBoyWonder Returns

2009-03-01T19:14:00.000-08:00

FanBoyWonder would like to apologize to our loyal readers for our lengthy and unexplained absence.

By way of explanation and to de-bunk some of the potential rumors, FanBoyWonder was NOT detained during our business trip to San Francisco in October and held in captivity all these months. We were in fact able to make good on our escape from the hippy moonbat center of the universe as planned.

Unfortunately, we flew home directly into a bleepstorm that started at home and continued at the office with circumstances at either home and/or work requiring our urgent, undivided attention to put out fires.

The sad story at home is that a few weeks ago, we had to say good-bye to Brianna The Girl Wonder (AGAIN!!!) and to our grandson T.J. The Wonder Lad when we reached an impasse with their parents and we had to ask them to leave. I miss my little girl terribly, as well as the baby boy I was just getting to know but I’m grateful for the time that I had with them.

During all of this, our wife—Mrs. Lovey Wonder—has been seriously ill for sometime now. Her prognosis is hopeful but it’s going to be a long climb back.

Following our absence, we want to thank our motley crew of fans for reaching out to us to ask if we were well—especially you Ryan from Film Fodder. Sorry we couldn’t answer but blogging wasn’t at all on our mind.

But as we’ve learned in caretaker school, if you neglect yourself too much, it does nobody any good.

So FanBoyWonder is back—on limited duty to start—but as we survey all that has gone on during our absence—we’re looking at you Dan DiDio at DC Comics—we are sharpening our poison pen ready to impale all that is mediocre and praise the praiseworthy in comics, sci-fi and television.

We’re polishing up a review of Friday’s Battlestar Galactica with future programming to be announced.

“Sometimes, you have to roll a hard six.”

FanBoyWonder’s San Francisco Treat

2008-10-17T19:42:00.000-07:00

"You don't know San Francisco, Butters. It was the breeding ground for the hippie movement in the 60s. Those hard-core liberals, lesbian activists, and diehard modern hippies young and old. I swore I would never set foot in San Francisco. God help me." –Eric Cartman from South Park’s Smug Alert

FanBoyWonder is about to hop a plane in just a few hours to the Left Coast for five days and four nights in San Francisco for business.

We apologize to the folks who have e-mailed us and/or left comments on the blog—the day job kept us slammed and now we are hitting the road. Hence this is why we have been so light on content this week—we will catch up on our reviews of Life and other content we have backed up…promise.

Thanks for your patience.

Battlestar Galactica’s Seelix To Be Interviewed Tonight

2008-10-14T10:10:00.001-07:00

FanBoyWonder is calling all Battlestar Galactica fans to set Condition One throughout their Internets as we call your attention to an interview tonight with actress Jennifer Halley—Diana “Hardball” Seelix on Battlestar Galactica.

The interview forum is an Internet talk show—The Mike and Michelle Show—hosted by our work buddy and colleague Mike along with his lovely wife Michelle.

Here’s the Upshot for tonight’s The Mike and Michelle Show: Tonight, Mike and Michelle will talk to three film director's whose work will be featured at the Baltimore Women's Film Festival 2008: Jennifer Halley, Vivian Umino, and Arlette Thomas Flecther, as well as festival director Marisa Cohen. The festival will be held October 23-26th. For more info check out their site: www.bwfilmfestival.com

The Mike and Michelle Show interview with Ms. Halley will air tonight at 9 p.m. (eastern) and be available for to listening at your leisure.

Here’s the link:
www.blogtalkradio.com/Mike--Michelle/2008/10/15/The-Mike-and-Michelle-Show

While Ms. Halley will be talking about her current project, we expect she’ll field a BSG question or two—especially since FanBoyWonder be feeding said questions to the host.

So Say We All!

UPDATE: We have been informed by our work pal Mike that Ms. Halley had to cancel her scheduled interview with him--such is the show biz life. If the interview is rescheduled, we'll let you know--FBW.

Grandpa FanBoyWonder & Brianna The Girl Wonder visit the Pumpkin Patch

2008-10-12T20:06:00.000-07:00

Today Grandpa FanBoyWonder and Brianna the Girl Wonder enjoyed a lovely day at the Pumpkin Patch—a local working farm www.summersfarm.com that every Fall hosts a fall festival of homemade amusements like the hill slide and tractor train pull, as well as pony rides for the kids and of course the hayride out to the other side of the farm to pick pumpkins.

Visiting the pumpkin patch with Brianna had been a tradition of ours since she was three-years-old—interrupted last year while our little girl had been “away”—but gladly continued with her home again this year.

Despite the gathering storm forming with her “parents,” today FanBoyWonder and our pride and joy strove to live in the moment.

It was a beautiful Indian Summer day and Brianna had a ball running around the farm…down the slide, riding on horseback, crawling through haystacks, visiting the animals and best of all jumping and jumping and more jumping on the “jumping pillow”—a giant trampoline like rubber pillow about the size of a swimming pool where Brianna and 30 of her friends of all ages bounced to their heart’s content.

As for Grandpa FBW, we went down the slide once, nearly broke our tailbone and then decided on the spot that the ole SHAZAM-bago was acting up again and let Brianna have at the fun-farm stuff.

The big catch of the day was our foray into the pumpkin patch where we secured—and Grandpa carried—two decent sized perfectly orange pumpkins.

We spent the last hour watching our Girl Wonder jump up and down on the Jumping Pillow then a stop at the drive through for a well-earned Happy Mean and here we are home. A good time was had by all.

Life—Everything All the Time & The Business of Miracles

2008-10-09T20:12:00.000-07:00

The decidedly mixed blessing of having FanBoyWonder’s favorite television show airing twice a week is that it makes blogging about each episode difficult—especially if much of your non-blogging time is consumed with either earning a living or family obligations.

Another thing—it turns out that we much rather prefer to view Life at it’s “Special” time of Monday at 10 p.m. as opposed to it’s regular time slot of Friday nights at 10 p.m..

The reason? Simple. By the end of the work week, FanBoyWonder’s ass is seriously dragging as the demands of the aforementioned work and home life, as well as our Washington, D.C. commute which compels us to get up at 4 a.m. to catch the 5:10 a.m. train into D.C.’s Union Station each morning.

So by Friday at 10 p.m. it’s tough to coherently enjoy much of anything. Thank goodness for the Internets where we can watch each aired episode of Life in full. See for yourself at www.nbc.com/Life—newcomers to the show are most welcome.

Okay, we’re going to do a two-fer review so here’s the Upshot of each episode from NBC.

Everything All the Time: Detectives Crews (Damien Lewis) and Dani Reese (Sarah Shahi) investigate the murder of a man found beaten and tied to a chair at the bottom of a pool. While at first it appears to be gang related the investigation leads to an underground party circuit. Dani Reese's father Jack (Victor Rivers) goes to Ted (Adam Arkin) to see what Crews knows about him. Charlie asks his ex-wife to talk to Rachel the only survivor of the family he was accused of killing.

The Business of Miracles: The body of a cancer research scientist is found frozen, at first Crews and Reese think it was an animal rights group, but as they look into the scientists personal life they aren't so sure. Crews tries to prove that Jack Reese was involved in him going to prison.

Among the many other things we like about Life, we like the wide variety and the quirkiness of the mysteries Crews and Reese must solve each week.

The spoiled rich kids were made to love to hate but it was interesting to see Crews acting the safari guide for Reese in identifying and explaining the three “dog types” of the pack of lads—Alpha (leader) Beta (attack dog) and Omega (clown/fool). No doubt this was hard wisdom Crews learned as both predator and prey during his 12 years in federal maximum security prison.

We found ourselves doing a double take when we realized half-way through the episode that the hard bod head shrink who was a suspect and accomplice to the murdering punks was Stacey Haiduk—formerly Lana Lang from the better to be forgotten (except for her) Superboy TV series of the late 80s.

Oh goodness—still smokin HOT after all these years. Even hotter we must say if truth be told. Three words—“Va-Va-Voom!”

Okay…our apologies to our female readers (if there are any left—we’re thinking of Monic and Elizabeth) but that’s out of our system now.

Moving on, it was not unexpected that Jack Reese would lean on Charlie’s old prison pal and current housemate and money manager Ted Early for information by threatening to violate Ted’s parole and send him back to the slam for his remaining three years stretch.

It scared Ted and who can blame him. The wordless scene later on with Ted starting at Jack Reese’s confidential (and “borrowed”) police personnel file—seriously weighing the two evils of betraying his friend Charlie and losing his friend or not giving up a friend and going to back to the hell that is prison. It was a great, understated scene that we wish they played out just tad longer.

Worse however at the end of the episode when Charlie tells Jack to back off Ted. We REALLY wanted to see Ted stand up to Jack or at least come clean with Charlie—to see Ted make his choice and face the demon head on.

Perhaps this scene was shot and ended up on the editing room floor but we feel cheated because this was a chance for the audience and Ted to take a big step together. We’re surprised that Team Life dropped the ball like this but can’t win them all.

In the Business of Miracles—it was morbidly funny to watch Crews accidentally shatter the frozen solid murder victim. Funny if only for Reese’s reaction “You have to touch EVERYTHING don’t you?”

These two have definitely settled into a groove some not quite hybrid of pals and bickering siblings. Please Team Life, do NOT try to force romance between these two characters—they are pals….or at least we see where they could be.

Meanwhile the bug that Crews planted in Jack Reese’s car last episode is already bearing fruit in the form of finding another conspirator higher up the food chain. Who this big guy is isn’t yet revealed to the viewer but he scares Jack Reese and it’s oddly interesting to see HIM being squeezed.

Suddenly big bad Jack doesn’t seem so tough after all. Rather, there’s someone a whole lot worse waiting in the wings for Charlie as he follows the conspiracy trail.

Better yet was the confrontation between the Reese father and daughter—Jack and Dani—at the extended family dinner table in all of its awkward inevitability.

The confrontation appears to have made Dani fall of the wagon slightly, leading to a funny and completely undignified meeting between her and the creepy new Captain (Donal Logue).

At the same time that Reese is not fully sober, Crews spills a chemical in the lab crime scene and ends loopy where he sees his ex-wife Jenn (Jennifer Seibel) everywhere. We found this to be somewhat over the top and we guess that they are going to pursue the ex-wife storyline.

It’s logical that they should but we are just having trouble figuring out if it’s the character of Jenn we don’t like or the actress.

As we’ve noted previously, Life also employs the A-plot, B-plot formula each episode where our heroes must deal with the mission/crime at hand (A-plot) while unraveling the larger conspiracy putting the pieces together a bit a time (B-plot).

However, Life employs this much more effectively, both in terms of the much more interesting A-plot mysteries but also with the satisfying speed in which they are moving forward with the B-plot conspiracy mystery.

Perhaps because Team Life knows and has known almost since Day One that they are on borrowed time until and unless ratings improve. Whatever the reason, the viewer feels like the show is building ever closer at the end of each episode to a big payoff. Keep it up.

The next episode of Life is Not for Nothing airing tomorrow (Friday) night at it’s regular time of 10 p.m. Eastern. Here’s the Upshot from NBC: When a university's social experiment of running a prison goes wrong Crews and Reese are there to investigate when a student acting as a guard is murdered.

The ‘Murder’ of Superman’s ‘Pa’ Jonathan Kent

2008-10-08T19:51:00.000-07:00

“OH COME ON!”—that was our reaction when we read the New York Daily News online today while at work.

Thankfully, FanBoyWonder’s office door was closed so our exclamation and the curse words that followed were muted by the wooden door and remained out of earshot of anyone who could or would narc us to Human Resources for discharge of a potty-mouth within company limits. It’s a good thing too—just one more round of “sensitivity training” at HR “re-education” camp and we are sure to break.

Yet, we really are pissed off that DC Management has opted to kill off Jonathan Kent in the pages of this week’s Action Comics #870, on sale today.

Hey don’t blame us for spoilers, yet again the &*@&#$ NY Daily News played the spoiler by posting the story well before any comics store opened today—we don’t currently read the Superman books but it sucks for anyone who does.

Even getting beyond the annoying fact of HOW the news was released, it’s the WHAT that truly offends us.

Just last week when commenting on the DC Nation panel at Baltimore Comic-Con and the upcoming Superman/New Krypton storyline, we expressed our resentment at being force fed a wholesale return to the Silver Age—in other DC books (i.e. the return of Hal Jordan and soon the resurrection of Barry Allen) and now in the pages of Superman.

FanBoyWonder hasn’t regularly read any of the Superman books for quite a while...we jumped off during the awful Electric Blue Superman story arc of a decade ago but for a while we kept an eye on the Superman titles—occasionally picking up a Super book.

Yet in recent years, Superman has looked less and less familiar to us. We totally lost any connection for the Super books when DC retro-conned the Superman origin to make Clark Kent and Lex Luthor boyhood chums and rivals—JUST like the Smallville TV show.

TV shows/movies are supposed to take their cue from the Comic Book—not the other way around.

Which brings us back to the “murder” of Jonathan Kent. Actually, not murder so much as a sacrifice…a character sacrifice to appease the gods of the sales gimmick. The few press articles that are out as we write this have noted the similarity to Pa Kent’s comic book demise and his same fate in Richard Donner’s 1978 Superman The Movie.

This is hardly a co incidence given that writer Geoff Johns was Mr. Donner’s one-time personal assistant and protégé.

So here we go—Pa Kent’s death is one more step backward to the Silver Age—in this case via the Donner-verse.

As we previously noted, FanBoyWonder has been a long fan of John Byrne’s Superman post-CRISIS on Infinite Earths reboot The Man of Steel.

It’s not perfect and it did cause some continuity problems (i.e. no Superboy and the Legion) but Byrne and the creative Superteams that followed transformed what had been a dull, one-dimensional iconic caricature into an organic character that readers could more or less relate to, identify with and root for.

One of the best things that Byrne did in his Man of Steel re-boot was to bring the Kents—both Jonathan and Martha—back to life. This was a major shift from cannon as the Kents’ demise was one of the fundamental premises that Jerry Siegel and Joe Schuster had laid out when they created the Man of Steel.

The object lesson was supposed to be that for all his powers and abilities far beyond those of mortal man, Superman couldn’t prevent his adoptive parents from passing away.

Yet Byrne’s return of the Kents was applauded roundly. And with good reason. There was NO reason to make Clark/Kal-El a double orphan. Over the years, Clark would have many great scenes looking to Pa Kent for counsel or advice or to account.

Jonathan Kent was one of the few people in the universe who could put the Man of Steel in his place and keep him grounded. These scenes were made the character Super because Pa Kent’s moral compass directed the Man who was is son.

Even Geoff Johns agrees as he told the Daily News.

“If baby Kal-El had fallen in the hands of a lesser man, the world would be a lesser place," the NYDN quoted Johns.

Because it’s Geoff Johns we know Jonathan Kent’s death would be quite poignant and otherwise well done—the pages we’ve seen online confirm this—but we disagree with the decision and the direction DC is taking—backward.

“It was probably the most difficult scene I've ever had to write," said Johns again to the NYDN. "That's why there's no dialogue in the scene, there's nothing left to say."

Actually there is just one more thing to say—Rao save us from Silver Age nostalgia.

FanBoyWonder’s DC Nation Baltimore Invasion—The Exit Strategy

2008-10-06T19:19:00.001-07:00

In our final installment of our DC Nation invasion during Baltimore Comic-Con, FanBoyWonder and Kemosabe partook in the question and answer portion of the program.

A little aside—we are writing this Friday evening thanks to the miracle of modern technology and the dumb luck your humble blog host as we remembered to take our laptop when Brianna The Girl Wonder half pleaded, half dragged us bodily to the cafetorium of Brianna’s school for PTA “movie night.”

So as Brianna is enjoying Finding Nemo with her some 50 of her friends, Grandpa FBW is thankfully at the grownups table occupying ourselves with this blog posting—at least for a long as the laptop battery holds. We pray the movie ends before the battery does.

Ok….on with the pain.

As we’ve noted, the DC nation panel featured Executive Editor Dan DiDio, along with Jimmy Palmiotti, DC’s uber writer Geoff Johns, Sterling Gates, Kemosabe’s favorite writer James Robinson, Sean McKeever and DC Comics Story Editor Ian Sattler.

John Ostrander’s Suicide Squad

When it came time for the Q&A, FanBoyWonder was feeling a little snarky. Our first time up at bat, we asked a question to which we already knew the answer.

To Dan DiDio, we praised the recent Suicide Squad mini-series as one of the best books they did this year and noted that writer John Ostrander is on record as saying he’s up for writing more Squad, so will there be a follow up Squad?

DD answered that despite pockets of dedicated fans, the book—Suicide Squad: From the Ashes (now available in trade paper back)—didn’t sell as well as they had hoped so there are no immediate plans for another Suicide Squad series.

However, DD did helpfully point everyone to Squad appearances in Manhunter and Secret Six and the Squad will continue to appear in other books throughout the DCU. If there’s demand, there will be another Suicide Squad book.

We followed up by asking if John Ostrander would be writing said hypothetical future Squad book.

“That’s a scheduling issue,” DiDio replied, which means “Don’t hold your breath.”

FanBoyWonder’s Take: While it’s lovely that the Suicide Squad characters are appearing throughout the DCU—it’s better than Limbo—it was John Ostrander’s golden pen that made those characters and the Squad special.

It’s not a surprise that the recent reunion mini-series Suicide Squad: From the Ashes (to repeat—now available in trade paper back) wasn’t a top seller.

Even back in the day, the original Suicide Squad struggled with sales throughout its entire five year, 66-issue run. However Ostrander (along with his late wife and writing partner Kim Yale) set the gold standard for super hero espionage/political storytelling.

Greg Rucka’s Checkmate and Gail Simone’s Secret Six can both trace their roots back directly to the trail blazed by Suicide Squad two decades ago.

This year’s Squad mini-series was not only just as good but even better than the original series—Ostrander’s experience and continued growth as a writer over the past two decades really showed up in the series.

So various members of the Squad may appear in other DCU titles but Suicide Squad without John Ostrander is like Justice League in Detroit—a shadow of its true self.

Green Lantern John Stewart—M.I.A.

A bit later during the Q&A, following a presentation of the Johnny DC titles Tiny Titans (a favorite of Brianna the Girl Wonder as is Super Friends), DiDio unveiled another new book in this line is “Supergirl: Cosmic Adventures in the 8th Grade,” which will be released in December.

We complemented Tea m DC for this—noting that our seven-year-old Girl Wonder loves these books and Grandpa FBW loves that they serve as a gateway to the DCU and to comics in general (without a Frank Miller “C” word to be had anywhere)—so we encouraged them to stay on this right track.

Yet, we just couldn’t help ourselves when we tweaked the panel and Geoff Johns in particular that just about the only place we can read Green Lantern John Stewart is in an issue of Brianna The Girl Wonder’s Super Friends comics—So how about that Geoff Johns?

He answered a tad defensive—not unjustified given our snarkyness—that John IS in Green Lantern and DiDio jumped in by noting that John Stewart is in Justice League of America so we must not be reading it.

We replied that JLA is unreadable but they didn’t hear or didn’t acknowledge my retort as they moved on to the next question.

FBW’s Take: Okay, we knew we were being ….prickly and we DID know that John Stewart was featured in the pages of JLA before we stopped reading it. But only AFTER current writer Dwayne McDuffie shoehorned JS into the line up at the start of his run.

That came AFTER the over-rated Brad Metzler pushed John Stewart out of the League to make room for Green Lantern Hal Jordan because Hal was part of Brad’s fanboy fantasy baseball line up.

Here’s the deal—Of the literally thousands of Green Lanterns, John Stewart is THE recognizable public face of Green Lantern thanks to being featured in the Justice League Unlimited cartoon. It’s John Stewart who is on the toys and in the Super Friends20comic and in a line up of elementary school age kids (like our girl wonder) John Stewart is THE Green Lantern.

Yet the nano-second that Justice League Unlimited went off the air, John Stewart was stuffed into a trunk out of sight. The aforementioned Dwayne McDuffie, formerly JLU producer, is the ONLY reason why John Stewart is regularly featured anywhere right now.

Worse, in this month’s Justice League of America #25, (we didn’t buy it, we viewed the preview pages on Newsarama), it features Green Lantern Hal Jordan AND John Stewart. Upstaged AGAIN.

In Green Lantern, scripted by Geoff Johns, John Stewart hasn’t been seen in months because of the current Secret Origin story arc—a.k.a. Hal Jordan Year One, a.k.a. Emerald Dawn: The Do-Over.

We can already here the reply to our complaint: “Well, Green Lantern is Hal’s book and John Stewart is just a supporting player.”

Okay. WHY? In the pages of Green Lantern Corps, Guy Gardner and Kyle Rayner—the former “Last Green Lantern” and emerald standard bearer for a decade—have carved out a home in that book yet John Stewart is perpetually the last one standing without a chair when the music stops.

Again why? Hal Jordan was dead. Okay. There was a significant anti-Kyle movement. Okay. So why not something daring and so safe—by elevating John Stewart in the main DCU to the status he enjoyed in the JLU universe as THE Earth GL.

It would have been the best of both worlds—a three decades old character but with a blank enough landscape to treat as new.

DC Management’s misguided revival of the Silver Age has resulted in bringing back a dead white guy to push aside the most high profile Green Lantern—who only happens to be a character of color and in our humble opinion a much more interesting character than Hal Jordan is or ever was—to reinstate the 1960s status quo.

John Stewart and his fans deserve better.
Ok….that’s off our chest and we feel better. Next.

Dr. Fate's Fate?

Kemosabe asked that given the brilliant yet tragic re-boot of the Dr. Fate character by the late Steve Gerber, what will be Fate’s fate in the DC Universe.

DiDio pointed out that Dr. Fate is currently in Reign in Hell (apparently this book is on it’s 3rd issue and we’ve never even heard of it—good job DC Marketing) and will be making supporting appearances throughout 2009, but DC felt that in the wake of Gerber’s untimely passing, it didn’t feel right to launch a new Dr. Fate series.

FBW’s Take: Meaning they don’t know what the hell to do with Dr. Fate right now and no one wants to try to top a dead man’s last work. Heck we can’t blame them. We’ll give DC a year to regroup before we expect to see a Dr. Fate series—but please guys, take your time and do it right.

Meanwhile, if you haven’t read it, pick up Dr. Fate: Countdown to Mystery trade paper back, featuring Steve Gerber’s final work. His final legacy is a new Dr. Fate that reminds us of the original but is breathtakingly original in his flaws and in his strengths. Check it out.

Final thoughts and Parting Shots

Okay…bit of a disconnect…FanBoyWonder is writing this closing section of our DC Nation posting on Monday afternoon on the train ride home. It turns out the movie ran out before our laptop battery but Grandpa had been busy ALL weekend long with babysitting duty…not just Brianna the Girl Wonder but nearly one-year old T.J. The Wonder Lad.

So now that we’ve gotten some rest at the office, we can end our tour of DC Nation with some overall observations.

After we left the DC Nation panel and for the more than week that we’ve had to chew on what we heard…and what we didn’t hear from DC Management, we can’t say that we are able to muster a lot of excitement for what DC has planed in 2009.

We like what’s going on the in Green Lantern part of the DCU—the near endless and unnecessary re-telling of Hal Jordan’s origin not withstanding—but we liked Green Lantern going in nothing new.

Also we are cautiously optimistic about the upcoming Power Girl series but feel that Justice Society of America needs a shot in the arm that only a co-plotter/co-writer can provide. As a title, JSA was strongest when there were two creative heads on board—right now the book has one talented but VERY overextended scribe.

In between child care duties, we had some time to think about what was most bothering us about the DC Nation panel and the state of the DCU in general. The make up of the Baltimore panel appeared to represent the state of DC Management—each creator up there was more or less talented (some more some less than others) but each is beholden in some manner to Executive Editor Dan DiDio—they’re all “Dan’s Guys.”

Geoff Johns is top dog in the kennel and he’s not so much beholden to DD it seems they have struck a partnership in which Johns gets the runs of the place as long as he can produce for DD.

Palmotti and Gates strike us as go-along guys who know they are at-will employees and DD is the boss. James Robinson is a slightly different creature. JR is every bit Johns’ peer in the talent department but he has the option of picking his ball and screwing if he doesn’t like the deal—he wants to be there but doesn’t NEED to be there.

The fact that a proven talent like John Ostrander can’t get regular work from DC but the DC Nation panel consists of all “young turks” beholden to their “Czar” says that DC Management enjoys like-mindedness. It’s tough to think outside the creative box in an echo chamber.

So we come back to Dan DiDio and Geoff Johns and the analogy that hit us—think New England Patriots Bill Belichick and Tom Brady.

As soon as star quarterback Brady became injured and was out of the season, the Belichick Patriots went into the toilet.

At Team DC, so long as Geoff Johns can continue to toss storytelling missiles into the End Zone, all is well. But DC’s current Golden Boy Wonder has been the starting quarterback and the star for about 5 years now, he is showing obvious signs of fatigue and there is no one….NO ONE waiting in the wings to pick up his creative slack.

Winning coaches (and we use that term loosely as it’s a matter of debate whether DC has been a “winning team” lately) can only harness/exploit talent for as long as the talent can take to the field—and if you don’t have any other tools in the tool box, you’re screwed.

So let us close by reiterating our two words for Bill Belichick ….uh…that is to Dan DiDio—“Deeper Bench.”

FanBoyWonder & Kemosabe Invade DC Nation at Baltimore Comic-Con Part II

2008-10-01T18:59:00.000-07:00

As we noted the other day, FanBoyWonder along with our best pal and all around Kemosabe enjoyed a fine time at the Baltimore Comic-Con this past weekend.

Among events in which we partook was the DC Nation panel featuring Executive Editor Dan DiDio, along with Jimmy Palmiotti, DC’s uber writer Geoff Johns, Sterling Gates, Kemosabe’s favorite writer James Robinson, Sean McKeever and DC Comics Story Editor Ian Sattler.

In the first part of our DC Nation invasion, we reported on and provided snarky commentary about DC’s upcoming plans for the Justice Society of America and Power Girl.

Here in Part 2, we feature…some more things from the panel that we found of interest. Let’s get it on.

Faces of Evil

Taking its cue/inspiration from the decently done but not-long remembered New Years Evil series of fifth-week one shots from a decade ago, DiDio announced in January that the villains of the DC Universe will take over the various DCU titles by telling the story from the bad guys’ point of view.

In addition there will be a series of one-shot specials also following along this villain-centric theme, including a Solomon Grundy special by Geoff Johns and Scott Kollins and one-time Grant Morrison JLA flavor of the month bad guy Prometheus, written by Sterling Gates.

Also look for a Kobra special designed to “established a new status quo” for the cult/terror organization of the DCU, as well as a Deathstroke The Terminator one-shot.

FanBoyWonder’s Take: Telling the story from villains’ point of view sounds very interesting. Marvel Comics tried something like it in the early 1990s with the Spider-Man villains in a mini-series the name of which we can’t quite remember but it failed in its execution.

We hope DC can do better and we’re onboard with the concept but given Team DC’s recent and decidedly mixed track record, we not going in with high expectations.

Justice League(s)

Dan DiDio noted that Justice League of America will serve as the lynchpin title for the re-introduction of the Milestone universe characters—first seen in the 1990s—back into the DC Universe.

Although their had been a previous crossover during the 90s, current JLA writer and one-time Milestone scribe Dwayne McDuffie will bring the two universes together again for the first time as the Shadow Cabinet will go head-to-head with JLA, while major Milestone universe characters Icon and Static will play significant roles in JLA and Teen Titans respectively.

Meanwhile, DC is launching a second Justice League title to spin out of the God-awful Final Crisis. Kemosabe’s favorite writer James Robinson (a heavyweight scribe to be sure) will be writing the book.

Robinson noted that among the roster of the new/second League will include Freddy Freeman, the former Captain Marvel Jr. and new Captain Marvel/Shazam (we’re still not sure what name they’ve settled on for the New Red Cheese) and Batwoman. The aforementioned Prometheus will be having a run-in with this new League.

FBW’s Take: Regarding JL of A, we’ve always respected former Justice League Unlimited Cartoon Network veteran Dwayne McDuffie. Yet we think he inherited a big steaming s&*t sandwich when he took over the mess of a title from the over-rated fanboy dilettante Brad Metzler.

Hobbled to start with, frequent and persistent editorial mandates distracted from whatever story Dwayne wanted to tell and the art by one-trick T&A pony Ed Benes all conspired to make this book unreadable—so we stopped reading.

With the inclusion of the Milestone characters, Dwayne may finally be getting the chance to tell the story he wants but our good will for this book is gone. We know there are Milestone fans out there—we sat behind one at Baltimore Con and he was positively gleeful at the Milestone news.

To him and to Dwayne, we wish you luck.

As far as the second Justice League book goes—other than a showcase for a VERY talented writer, we’re not sure there is a compelling need for two Justice League books.

Robinson didn’t help assuage our fears when he explained the premise—THIS JL book will feature a more proactive team—proactively striking at threats before they become….(wait for it)…a crisis instead of always reacting.

Haven’t we heard this song before? Let’s think back…this sounds a lot like Judd Winick’s Outsiders, who stole the premise from Justice League Elite. But going further back, remember the good old days of multiple Justice League teams—Extreme Justice and Justice League Task Force?

This isn’t just a bad idea, it’s an UNORIGINAL bad idea—how many times can you re-tread this tire before it blows out on the storytelling highway??

The only reason…. the ONLY REASON we haven’t dismissed this book out of hand is because of James Robinson’s street cred. The guy is a proven rainmaker but frankly, we wish he would go back to Justice Society of America.

Hey, that’s a great idea. If DC would only change the name of the book to “Justice Society” to run in tandem with Geoff Johns “Justice Society of America” then DC would not just have an instant convert but a Number One fan.

Green Lantern/Blackest Night

Following up from last year’s surprise success (a surprise only to DC management) Sinestro Corps War, this month (October) will feature the continuation of that arc in the War of Light starting Final Crisis: Rage of the Red Lanterns.

As we’ve seen there aren’t just emerald and yellow power rings but now there are a number of different colors with a different color coordinated “corps.” Red Lanterns, for example, are warriors of rage.

The other spectra of light are based on emotions—Orange Lanterns are greedy, including the head guy “Agent Orange” but there are also Blue Lanterns of love and Black Lanterns of death.

Peter Tomasi in Green Lantern Corps will be featuring more the Star Sapphire brigade before he and Johns tag team into the Blackest Night event where the dead rise in 2009.

FBW’s Take: We have to admire the imagination behind this to an extent but we’re wary that they are taking a good idea too far. But Johns has enough street cred so that we’ll go where he wants to take us.

However, what does it say about Final Crisis—not quite yet half over—that they are already talking up the next big event?

Superman/New Krypton

The basic premise of New Krypton is that the Bottle city of Kandor is enlarged and 100,000 Kryptonians released to “re-settle on Earth, juiced by our yellow sun and ready to make a home—despite those pesky “indigenous” creatures—Earthlings.

FBW’s Take: Despite the talent assembled for this story arc to play through Superman and Action Comics—it sticks in our craw because we resent being force fed a wholesale return to the Silver Age—at first drip by drip and now with a tidal wave.

FanBoyWonder has been a long fan of the John Byrne’s Superman post-CRISIS on Infinite Earths reboot The Man of Steel. For all of the continuity problems that resulted (not ALL of which Byrne’s fault), we liked the Man of Steel-era Superman (circa 1986 to about 2000) because he really WAS the Last Son of Krypton—the sole survivor.

What we hated about pre-CRISIS Superman was that more and more survivors of Krypton kept popping up—starting with Supergirl Kara Zor-El. Superman becomes less and less unique with each Kryptonian survivor.

The premise of New Krypton has been compared—none too favorably—to an episode of Lois and Clark the New Adventures of Superman in the 1990s.

Okay….here is what has ALWAYS bothered us about Superman’s basic premise: We can see up to a point where a strange visitor from another planet would or could be physically enhanced by a smaller, less advanced world’s environment.

Yet Superman has been “Super” all over the universe and at such an extreme god-like power level that it’s hard for us to swallow that a whole race of people instantly being bestowed with god-like powers uniformly at the same god-like level just because the sun changes color.

Not too long after Byrne left the Super books (in a huff…big surprise), Team Superman added to the Superman legend that Kryptonians were genetically bonded to their planet and to attempt to leave the confines of their world would be instantly fatal.

This plausibly explained why such an advanced civilization never developed real space-travel abilities.

Geoff Johns, the master of the plausible retrocon, really should look at some sort of explanation as to why Superman/Kal-El is just SO super under a yellow sun. Perhaps Kal and Kara Zor-El were born with the Krypton version of a meta-gene, making them something special on Earth or Krypton.

That’s a wee bit of ranting we know but we had wanted to get that out.

We have to admit that we DO find ourselves curious about the New Krypton story line. We might just give this a chance—our distaste for the Silver Age revival not withstanding.

We had not intended our DC Nation posting to be three parts but we’ve got more to say yet we’re nearly at our stop as we write this on the commuter train.

Tune in tomorrow (or just as soon as we can) and we’ll wrap up our trip through DC Nation with some Q&A snarkyness.

Life—Find Your Happy Place

2008-09-30T19:10:00.000-07:00

At long last a new episode of Life on NBC aired. Despite having seen a preview online, it was good to see it on the TV from the comfort of the couch.

FanBoyWonder is doing this review from the shotgun formation so here are our quickie impressions:

The Upshot from NBC: In the season two premiere, detectives Charlie Crews (Damian Lewis) and Dani Reese (Sarah Shahi) are on the hunt for a serial killer when three numbered trunks containing suffocated bodies are found scattered across Los Angeles. With their new boss New York transfer Captain Kevin Tidwell (Donal Logue) pressuring them to get answers, Crews and Reese race to find a connection between the murders before the killer strikes again. Meanwhile, Ted (Adam Arkin) and Crews attempt to track down the daughter, the lone survivor, of the family Crews was wrongly convicted of killing. Brent Sexton also stars.

This was a non-pilot pilot as it was very much accessible for newcomers but those fans who have been there from the start—like FanBoyWonder—got something out of it too.

The serial killer A-plot was well done as it held a surprise that was hidden in plain sight. We sort of knew the “Lee-Harvey” type at the box store was the killer but his motivations and the seriousness of his bent-ness still came as a shock.

Crews and Reese have grown into a comfortable groove together—they respect each other but are still wary of each other—at least Reese is wary of Crews….Charlie doesn’t give away much for all of his Zen platitudes even as he at times goes out of his way to annoy her with said platitudes.

It was interesting to see Kyle Hollis (Titus Welliver) again…in a prison jumpsuit no less—making up for Charlie’s time lost in prison. Jack Reese has gotten to Kyle and prompting him to deny ever knowing Jack, much less killing for him.

In that faux-documentary that they do each week, Kyle drops a seed of doubt with viewers noting that if they locked Charlie up, he must have done something. Hmmmm.

We’re not crazy about the new boss played by Donal Logue but it’s early yet even as we really miss Robin Weigart. Weigart’s Lt. Davis was said to have been demoted (perhaps due to Crews being allowed to bring Hollis to justice and clear his name????) so we are looking forward to seeing that aspect of the story play on.

Yet we can’t help but think that they bumped out a strong woman in favor of a slacker white guy.

Speaking of strong women, Reese has let her hair down this season but is still a hard ass, even as she is overtly less hostile—the aforementioned grudging respect developed between her and Crews.

As I noted in my reply to comments to my previous Life posting, FBW is very much a Reese fan. Damien Lewis is the star of the show yes but his character benefits with a strong counterweight, which comes ironically in the form of the petite Sarah Shahi.

Perhaps having Brianna the Girl Wonder around makes us that much more sensitive regarding female role models. Reese, if not positive model, is at least an example of a strong/tough woman—despite her demons.

What makes Shahi so good as Reese is that the actress is a stunningly beautiful woman (something quite rare in Hollywood I’m sure :) but by force of sheer will and acting the viewer totally buys her as a buttoned down, straight laced cop….instead of her small stature being a minus, it’s a plus. Reese is one tough broad.

After some 10 months of nary a word about Life from the Network, we’re pleased they are giving it some push with four episodes in 2 weeks. Catch the next episode this Friday at 10 p.m., followed by Monday again at 10 p.m. after Heroes and back to its permanent Friday, 10 p.m. slot on Oct. 10.

It really is a wonderful “Life”—don’t believe us—see for yourself www.nbc.com/Life.

Baltimore Comic-Con, DC Nation Panel and FanBoyWonder’s ‘Translations’

2008-09-29T18:43:00.000-07:00

Following up on our overview of FanBoyWonder and Kemosabe’s invasion of Baltimore Comic-Con this past weekend, we offer our impressions of the DC Nation panel that we attended on Saturday.

As it turns out, FBW and Kemosabe joined the panel already in progress—following the better part of an hour in the ticket line but the upside of that was that we missed all of the time killing introductions and the likely tedious blather from DC Comics Executive Editor Dan DiDio about how Final Crisis really doesn’t suck(but it really, REALLY does).

Acting as part emcee and part board room chair with a dash of roastmaster thrown in DiDio was flanked by on the panel by (in no particular order) Jimmy Palmiotti, DC’s uber writer Geoff Johns, Sterling Gates, Kemosabe’s favorite writer James Robinson, Sean McKeever and DC Comics Story Editor Ian Sattler.

We won’t report the 90 minute panel verbatim—you want a stenographer try newsarama or Comic Book Resources—but we’re here to weigh-in on the news that interested us and to offer our reaction and commentary to said news.

The format of the panel had DiDio at the podium with the creators seated at the adjacent table and a slide show of art from various DC Comics titles on screen. Something the professional newsman in us found surprising and a bit disappointing was that Team DC had no real talking points to speak of.

Some creators were better than others but it seemed obvious (to us at least) that there was no “script” in that when their book came up for discussion—some creators struggled to offer a clear, concise explanation of the book’s premise and/or the upcoming story arc.

Geoff Johns was quite adept at providing an “upshot” while other creators struggled. This came as a surprise as Baltimore certainly isn’t the first convention these guys have done—this should be boiler plate by now. Back to media training class fellas.

One other thing that stuck in our craw before we get to the nitty gritty—following a audience member’s near gushing praise of Trinity (we don’t agree but it’s a free country and such), DiDio brought the guy up to sit on the panel, where the super-fan happily obliged by offering drank-the-kool-aid positive commentary of the DCU line up.

The whole thing made us uncomfortable because it seemed they were mocking this poor guy who had done no wrong—it’s a fine line of being part of the joke and you being the joke.

If it were us, we’re pretty sure we would have said “thanks but no thanks” if such an offer were made to us (unlikely as it is given the slight ball-busting we did when we had our turn at Q&A)—UNLESS we were offered a seat between the Secret Six’s Gail Simone and Nicola Scott…..or perhaps Huntress Year One writer Ivory Madison and upcoming Power Girl artist Amanda Connor (“Hubba-Hubba”:)

Also one more observation before we get to the pain—we’ve already written about how cool Geoff Johns was with us during autograph time but sitting in the audience listening to Johns do a LOT of the talking about DC future projects—many of which he is writing or co-writing—it occurred to us that if Geoff Johns (God forbid) was hit by a bus tomorrow, the 40 percent of DC’s current stable of books would vanish with him.

Two words Dan DiDio—“Deeper Bench.”

Ok…let’s get it on.

Justice Society of America

Geoff Johns noted that “Thy Kingdom Come” is wrapping up and Black Adam will be returning to the pages of the JSA starting with Issue 23. Adam discovers his wife Isis is indeed alive and they take over the Rock of Eternity together prompting the Justice Society to try to stop them.

During the Question and Answer (Q&A) session, Johns also noted that Adam Smasher will be returning to the JSA but he wouldn’t elaborate.

FanBoyWonder’s take: We’re disappointed that Johns mentioned NOTHING about the Earth-2 story line introduced in Justice Society Annual #1 this summer, leading us to believe this is a one-off story that doesn’t seem to carry any creative weight down the road.

That’s a disappointment considering that storyline has got us jazzed after a year or more of coasting/stalling with the Kingdom Come sequel in JSA. Johns obviously loves these characters and this book but it seems obvious that he can’t give them his full attention.

Power Girl

The upcoming new Power Girl series will seek to pick up ball from what Geoff Johns and artist Amanda Connor started during their Power Girl story arc in JSA Classified (#1-3) just prior to Infinite Crisis at least in the light-hearted theme.

Palmiotti says the book is deliberately designed to be accessible to newcomers and to long-time fans alike

Meanwhile, Palmiotti and Connor will finally be rolling out their Terra mini-series that they first discussed with us (and a room full of other fans) back at Pittsburgh Con in 2006. In an amazing coincidence given the same creative teams, Power Girl (as well Geo Force) will guest star in Terra.

FBW’s Take: We think Power Girl is long over due for a series of her own. We like Palmiotti and Connor but we are also a bit wary….Palmiotti has a …mixed record creatively and Connor isn’t the quickest artist around and now with two books….but they clearly have a passion for the project so we are hopeful and look forward to Power Girl.

We’ll wrap up our orbit of DC Nation in our upcoming Part 2. Stay Tuned.

FanBoyWonder, Kemosabe and the Baltimore Comic-Con

2008-09-28T20:09:00.000-07:00

FanBoyWonder and our best pal and all around Kemosabe John Micek braved torrential downpours, traffic accidents and sleep deprivation on Saturday (not unlike the sleep deprivation we’re feeling now at the end of the night following a full day of family stuff) as we made our way down to Charm City for the 2008 Baltimore Comic-Con.

While we both had a fine time, we both found the convention to be a mixed bag—there were a LOT of carbon-based life forms crowded together in a space that didn’t seem to be fully adequate for the event.

FBW and Kemosabe stood in line for better part of an hour starting outside and slowly making our way to the box office—three tiny ticket windows, only two of which were seemed to be open at any one time.

Once we (finally) made it in, we scooted up two floors to join the DC Nation panel just a few minutes in progress (more on that in another post) then after 90 minutes we made our way to the show floor and directly to the mini-food court. $9 later we were standing and stuffing our face with a turkey wrap and an ice tea—proof positive as to how tough it is to do comic con on a budget.

Following lunch, we started to take a lap around the floor to scout out the show but it became increasingly tough just to move about given the sea of humanity—a few in the crowd were pushing baby/kid strollers but more annoying where those “Simpsons Comic Book Guy”-types who were dragging rolling suitcases behind them, obvlious to all around them. Their bags filled no doubt with books and other merchandise to be signed and posted immediately on E-Bay.

Along the way we spotted not as many folks in costume as we would have figured—a lot of Star Wars Jedi-types (yet not a single “Slave Leia”), a guy in full Superman get up, a pair of girls about Brianna the Girl Wonder’s age dressed as Supergirl and Batgirl respectively there with their FanDad and two Spider-Men traveling in tandem—one red and blue costume, the other movie black costume.

As soon as we had our bearings, FanBoyWonder quickly made a bee-line (to the extent that it was possible) to the ComicMix http://www.comicmix.com/ booth to acquire our Holy Grail and the main reason for our going to the Con—the limited-edition trade paper back of Jon Sable Freelance: Ashes of Eden by the great Mike Grell.

Unfortunately, Mr. Grell couldn’t make the show as originally planned but ComicMix’s Martha Thomasas WAS there. After we purchased our copy of Sable she gave a bit of the lowdown on Mr. Grell’s next project (again, more on that later). Despite being very busy, Martha gave us some of her time and we were most grateful—Thanks Martha.

The highlight of the show was seeing creators James Robinson and Geoff Johns. Kemosabe was particularly anxious to meet Mr. Robinson. After some two hours in line—passing the time with the Fanguys in back of us counting the many ways in which Final Crisis sucks—we made to signing table.

Kemosabe got some quality chat time with Mr. Robinson and he signed Kemosabe’s Starman promo-poster from 1994—the very same poster that used to hang in the kitchen the swank FBW/Kemosabe bachelor pad back in the day.

Meanwhile, FBW got just a moment with Geoff Johns as he signed our hard copy edition of JLA/JSA Virtue and Vice. We made our quick pitch to Mr. Johns about giving some closure to Hector Hall, who in JSA just before Infinite Crisis was hastily written out—he gave a non-answer answer but he was gracious about it.

In fact, Mr. Robinson and Mr. Johns were extraordinarily gracious given that we were just 4 people from the end of the line and they had been on panels or signing all day long with more to go. Many thanks gentlemen.

There was one unfortunate incident that marred our full enjoyment of the Con. After FBW was done, it was Kemosabe’s turn for a few moments with Geoff Johns.

As Mr. Johns was signing Kemosabe’s rare JSA promo poster—a poster Mr. Johns hasn’t seen in a while and was engaging our pal in an animated friendly chat even as Kemosabe, camera phone in hand was readying a picture of Johns signing his poster, someone barged in, to “say hello” to Mr. Johns, blocking Kemosabe’s camera shot and interrupting him mid-sentence.

When Kemosabe politely noted that said person had spoiled his picture, this person was not only not contrite but said person was quite snooty in their slight of Kemosabe.

This person was a correspondent for newsarama.com. Decorum will keep us from naming names but we had been familiar with this person's work and for the most part had found their writing to be.... satisfactory—a talented amateur.

Keep in mind both FanBoyWonder and Kemosabe are both professional newsmen—have been for some 15 years each—so we know, WE KNOW what it’s like to gather news and cover events, especially at trade shows.

We can understand a correspondent (we will NOT call this person a “reporter”…that designation is for the professionals) seeks to touch base with trade show “talent,” to schmooze and to try to make time for an interview.

We get that and we KNOW it’s not easy…especially under a hectic deadline schedule. WE GET IT!

But there is a right way and a wrong way to get the job done. The right way does NOT involve one throwing around attitude like a bat-a-rang.

The thing is, this Newsarama person didn’t see our pal Kemosabe another newsgather, all they saw was a pesky fan “in the way.” Maybe it was just a bad moment of otherwise decent person but reputations can be made and broken in just a moment…so can impressions.

So where are we going with this. Simple—You disrespected my friend Newsarama.com hack…..so BLEEP YOU SUNSHINE!

That ugly little event aside, the dynamic duo of FanBoyWonder and Kemosabe enjoyed themselves in Charm City and we didn’t even have to spend all of our money.

Yet next year, we think we will revisit Pittsburgh Comic-Con, with more time, more money and a plan.

Meanwhile, look for more of FanBoyWonder’s dispatches from Baltimore Comic-Con tomorrow and as the week goes on.

FBW Editor’s Note: When not playing the part of FanBoyWonder’s Kemosabe or when not playing with two bands -- Milkshake Jones www.myspace.com/milkshakejones and Fink’s Constant, http://www.myspace.com/finksconstant -- John L. Micek covers Pennsylvania politics for a major Keystone State newspaper—read his political blog, Capitol Ideas, at http://blogs.mcall.com/capitol_ideas.

Paul Newman—R.I.P.

2008-09-27T19:41:00.000-07:00

“I don't regret anything. It came at the right time. I was getting bored acting. ...You become passionate about one thing, it leads back into something else. If you can gain a sense of passion and commitment in your life in one arena, it's bound to bleed back into other arenas. ... In all the things I started to attack — football, tennis — I had no gift for it at all. I had no gift for racing, either. It's just something that I really wanted to do." — Paul Newman as quoted by the Associated Press in 1990.

FanBoyWonder wishes to express our sadness at the news of passing of veteran actor Paul Newman—he died of cancer today at the age of 83.

We found out about Mr. Newman’s death while at the Baltimore Comic-Con of all places as the news flashed across our best pal and all around Kemosabe’s BlackBerry.

During our drive home from Kemosabe’s house after a long day at the Comic-Con we had some time to reflect on Mr. Newman’s career and it’s impact on our everyday lives—simply put the man was an icon.

Over his long career, he will be remembered for many different roles—Butch Cassidy among them. We remember him for his quiet dignity and as a very centered individual.

Our personal favorites among his many roles include Absence of Malice, Slap Shot, Nobody’s Fool and in one of his final roles, the 1930’s mob boss and surrogate father to Tom Hanks’ gunman in the Road to Perdition.

Newman’s final scene in that drama still moves us to near tears even after multiple viewings.

Below is Mr. Newman’s obit from Reuters. We will be posting our adventures at Comic-Con tomorrow.

***********************************************

Hollywood legend Paul Newman dies, aged 83

By Bob Tourtellotte

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Legendary film star Paul Newman, whose brilliant blue eyes, good looks, cool style and talent made him one of Hollywood's top actors over six decades has died at age 83 after a long battle with cancer.

Newman died on Friday night at his farmhouse near Westport, Connecticut, surrounded by his wife of 50 years, actress Joanne Woodward, and other family and friends.

"His death was as private and discreet as the way he had lived his life, a humble artist who never thought of himself as 'big,'" said a statement released by his family on Saturday.

Paul Leonard Newman, known as "PL" to his friends, appeared in more than 50 movies, including "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof," "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid" and "The Sting." He earned nine Oscar nominations for acting and won the best actor honor for 1986's "The Color of Money."

A director and race car driver as well as an actor, Newman was also known for his extensive philanthropy. He created Newman's Own food products, which funneled more than $250 million in profits to thousands of charities worldwide.

"He quietly succeeded beyond measure in impacting the lives of so many with his generosity," his five daughters said in a statement. "Always and to the end, Dad was incredibly grateful for his good fortune. In his own words: 'It's been a privilege to be here.'"

"There is a point where feelings go beyond words. I have lost a real friend. My life - and this country - is better for his being in it," said actor Robert Redford, Newman's friend and co-star in "Butch Cassidy" and "The Sting."

Former President Bill Clinton and U.S. Senator Hillary Clinton said in a statement that they will miss their "dear friend." California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger called Newman the "ultimate cool guy" who was "one of a kind."

HOLLYWOOD LEGEND

Born in a Cleveland suburb on January 26, 1925, Newman was a Navy radio man in the Pacific during World War Two. He went to Kenyon College in Ohio on a football scholarship, but took up acting after he was cut from the team over a barroom brawl.

He helped run the family sporting goods store, then headed to the Yale Drama School and ended up in New York, winning a Broadway role in "Picnic" in 1953. His first major movie role was as boxer Rocky Graziano in "Somebody Up There Likes Me."

In 1958, Newman starred in "The Long Hot Summer" with Woodward, whom he married that year shortly after divorcing his first wife, Jacqueline Witte.

He played an alcoholic loser in "Cat On a Hot Tin Roof," opposite Elizabeth Taylor, and pool shark Fast Eddie Felson in "The Hustler." Other hits were "Hud" and "Cool Hand Luke."

Newman was also recognized for work behind the camera, earning a best picture Oscar nomination and a Golden Globe award for best director for "Rachel, Rachel," starring Woodward, which he produced and directed.

Although his movie career slowed in later years, Newman picked up Oscar nominations in 1994 for "Nobody's Fool" and in 2002 for "Road to Perdition."

He returned to the stage the same year in "Our Town" at a Connecticut playhouse. The show moved to Broadway and Newman was nominated for a Tony award. He won an Emmy, U.S. television's highest honor, for its 2003 broadcast.

In 2005 he won another Emmy for best supporting actor in the mini-series "Empire Falls." His last film part was a voice-over role in the 2006 animated "Cars."

OUTSIDE THE LIMELIGHT

Newman resisted the glare of Hollywood's spotlight.

His long marriage to Woodward ran counter to Hollywood's tradition of fast weddings and quick divorces, and the pair lived in a 200-year-old Connecticut house, far from the heart of the entertainment industry.

Asked the secret of his marriage, Newman once said there was no reason to roam, asking: "I have steak at home. Why should I go out for a hamburger?"

He started auto racing because he said he was bored with acting, but won respect in that field, coming in second in the Le Mans 24-hour competition in 1975. In 1995 at age 70, he became the oldest driver on a winning team at the 24 hours of Daytona race.

Newman tried to advance many social causes, at times in the political arena. A supporter of liberal Democratic presidential nominee Eugene McCarthy in 1968, Newman ended up on President Richard Nixon's "enemies list," which he termed "the highest single honor I've ever received."

Still, Newman said his deepest satisfaction came from philanthropy.

Particularly close to his heart were his Hole-in-the-Wall Camps for seriously ill children. Today, there are eleven around the world that have helped over 135,000 kids, all free of charge.

Newman is survived by Woodward, five daughters, two grandsons, and his older brother, Arthur. Newman also had a son Scott, who died in 1978.

FanBoyWonder & Kemosabe Invade Baltimore Comic-Con

2008-09-26T20:00:00.000-07:00

FanBoyWonder and our best pal and all around Kemosabe are hitting the road early tomorrow to Charm City for the 2008 Baltimore Comic Con.

It will be FBW’s first comic book show since we and Kemosabe hit the Pittsburg Comic-Con in 2006. We’re doing it on a budget this year but we’re glad just to hang with Kemosabe, to attend the panels, acquire a little bit of loot and maybe even give the a piece of our mind to the current brain trust at DC Comics.

Look for dispatches from the Con upon our return.

FanBoyWonder Television Spotlight—The Return of ‘Life’

2008-09-25T18:18:00.000-07:00

It’s been a long time coming but FanBoyWonder is pleased to announce the return this Monday of the second season of one our favorite television shows—Life on NBC.

We’ve been big fans of this show from the start. As much a victim of last season’s shortened writers strike as it was a beneficiary, Life is an under-hyped, yet top shelf action-cop drama that is frequently overshadowed by shows with more (marketing) flash but much less substance.

Life Season 2 kicks off on Monday at 10 p.m. even as the DVD of Season 1 is on sale now, as well as available for viewing on the show’s website www.nbc.com/Life.

Here’s the Upshot from NBC: Life was his sentence. Life is what he got back. Damian Lewis (Band of Brothers) stars as the unconventional police officer-turned-convict-turned-detective with a second chance in each compelling Season One episode of the critically acclaimed mystery series Life.

After twelve years in prison for a murder he didn’t commit, offbeat Charlie Crews has returned to the force with a $50 million settlement, a new spiritual outlook, a strong fondness for fruit, and a highly unusual approach to solving crime. With the aid of his skeptical and demanding new partner, Dani Reese, played by Sarah Shahi (Rush Hour 3), he’s turning police procedure upside down in this unique and fast-paced series with a “terrific cast [and] terrific writing” [according to Mary McNamara, Los Angeles Times].

Despite its crappy Friday 10 p.m. time slot, NBC is at least trying to give the show a decent chance of attracting new viewers by rolling out four new episodes in two weeks—the aforementioned season premiere on Monday, at 10 p.m. after Heroes, then Friday, Oct. 3 at 10, then Monday Oct. 6 and back to Friday Oct. 10.

Life creator Rand Ravich has said that new viewers need not have seen any of Season 1 to get up to speed on Monday—NBC has posted the Season 2 premiere on the website and we agree, it’s a good episode for old fan and newcomer alike.

However, if you do get the Season1 DVD or even view it online, if you don’t feel like slogging through the whole season, all you need to do watch is the first episode and the season finale—“Pilot” and “Fill It Up” respectively to get the gist but we guarantee that you’ll want more.

The latter episode, Fill It Up was quite intense and should have nabbed Lewis an Emmy® nomination, as Crews confronted the man who killed his friends and he confronts his rage at serving the time.

Life follows the A plot, B plot formula— not unlike what we saw in USA Network’s Burn Notice, but much more effective in its implementation—the A plot centers around the murder/crime of the week while the B plot focuses on the Crews’ slow unraveling of the murder mystery and conspiracy for which he was framed and lost 12 years of his life behind bars.
It took a couple episodes early in last season but Crews ditched many of the annoying quirks that he displayed in the pilot episode, settling on just one or two idiosyncrasies.

Yet Lewis as Crews still displays an almost child like wonder at some of the many things that he missed while in prison—like GPS or the advent of the Internet, but we have also seen that dark angry side that he struggles—sometimes just barely, to hold back.

"[Crews] was in maximum security most of that time [during his 12-year prison stay], fighting for his life, the rest in solitary confinement," Lewis told USA Today earlier this month. "You have a character who is wild and imaginative and poetic and cracked and warped as you like. The world has changed."

Crews’ partner Reese is the perfect counterweight for him. We like her for a number of reasons—first and foremost that she’s not written as the sidekick to the oddball, quirky detective.

Reese outranks Crews as senior partner and she always seems to maintain her centeredness even as Crews sometimes is at his most wacky. But she has her demons as a recovering drug and booze addict after getting hooked while undercover.

Lewis is the star of the show but Sarah Shahi is ever bit his equal and not the comic relief sidekick or worse the eye candy with a gun pretending to be a cop. (See the episode “Powerless” again if there are any doubts).

Reese and Crews are both very flawed people—in some ways different and others very much alike. Unlike other Life fans, we hope Reese and Crews NEVER hook up romantically but we do hope they work their way toward a battle-hardened friendship.

We weren’t crazy about him at first but we’ve grown to like the character of Ted Early (Adam Arkin), the paroled financier who Crews saved while they were in lock up together and on the outside is Crews’ housemate and money manager.

We are not so taken with Crews' lawyer Constance (Brooke Langton), who appears to have been dropped from the main cast, nor with Crews’ ex-wife Jenn (Jennifer Siebel) who believed Crews was guilty and divorced him in prison.

Crews has some issues with her but unfortunately there’s little chemistry between the two and we blame that on Siebel who seems overwhelmed with the part.

We’ve since learned that Stargate SG-1’s Claudia Black was cast as Jenn originally but she had to bow out due to pregnancy. It’s a shame because we saw some early clips of Black as Jenn from the pilot and she was gangbusters and brought a lot more depth to the table.

Crews and Reese have a new boss this season in the form of Donal Logue replacing Deadwood’s Robin Weigart. We were disappointed by this as Weigart’s Lt. Davis was a tough but fair boss, even as she was subtly blackmailing Reese to give her dirt to use to kick Crews off the force and it seemed she was involved in some way in the Crews frame-up conspiracy.

We hope she gets to come back as a recurring character rather than be thrown away altogether.

Season 2 Wish List: We are really hoping to see more of Charlie Crews’ life before he went to jail; more of the character growth Ted started to show by the end of Season 1, as well as how Crews and Ted met in prison.

Most of all, after nearly two decades of Guilty as charged, prosecutors-can-do-no wrong (got Nifong????) on Law & Order, we would really LOVE to see Charlie Crews getting into the face of the District Attorney over the issue of the wrongly convicted.

Bottom line: Life had a tough time in the ratings last season and with a bad time slot and minimal network support, it can use some viewer help. In a sea of “reality” television crap, Life is a quality drama that is definitely worth your time.

DC Comics’ Latest (BAD) ‘Decision’

2008-09-21T19:26:00.000-07:00

FanBoyWonder was surprised not at all but shaking our head none the less at DC Comics’ latest mini-series to crash and burn on take off—DC Universe: Decisions.

Here’s the Upshot From DC Comics: Election season is upon us, and the stakes have never been higher! An unknown villain is attempting to assassinate the presidential candidates, and only the heroes of the DCU stand in the way. As Green Lantern, Green Arrow, Superman, Batman and more try to learn the killer's identity, they are faced with the difficult task of reconciling their own personal ideals with the mission at hand. Brought to you by writers Judd Winick and Bill Willingham and featuring sensational art by Rick Leonardi.

Frankly, we knew this mini-series was screwed from the moment we heard two words connected to this project—“Judd Winick.”

Admittedly, we weren’t exactly pre-sold on this mini-series when we saw it on the comics shop shelf this week but any notion of giving it a chance and taking it home vanished as we thumbed through Decisions #1. We put the issue back on the shelf in short order. Perhaps it should have stayed “pulped.”

It has been said that the true test of one’s intelligence is how much they agree with you. That being the case the Dan Phillips of IGN.com is a very smart man indeed. Let’s go to his review of DC Universe: Decisions #1.

“DCU Decisions is not done well, and it is not done intelligently. Its idea of politics is superficial, to say the least. Its idea of left and right is as overly simplistic, insubstantial and deceiving as the red and blue colored maps every network flashes around during election season.

“Its characters express no real opinions whatsoever. In fact, the closest thing to an actual opinion or stance writers Judd Winick and Bill Willingham give any of their political characters is one advisor's shallow and vague promise that his candidate's ‘programs will lift millions out of poverty and despair.’”

Decisions would have been a Brave and Bold idea in the best creative hands but these were NOT the best hands on deck at DC. Or….perhaps they were, which says a lot about the state of Dan DiDio’s DC Comics today.

What the braintrust behind Decisions doesn’t seem to realize is that for all of its blunt force trauma, American politics is a bloodsport of nuisance and sophistication.

We can’t speak so much about Bill Willingham but there is NOTHING in Judd Winick’s portfolio of work to date that remotely suggests that he possesses anything more than a superficial knowledge of politics outside of his own world view—we’re not sure he can even spell “political science,” much less “teach” it to fanboys.

Again, Dan Phillips of IGN.

“If the powers at be at DC really wanted to throw caution to the wind and use their iconic superheroes to explore political issues, they should have dove right into the murky waters of politics and at least tried to explore a few issues maturely. As much as I would have cringed to see a character like Superman take a stance on something as controversial and complicated as abortion or immigration, I at least would have commended DCU for having some serious stones. Instead, they handle everything with kiddie gloves.

“In the end, the book is insulting, not to any of my political leanings, but to my intelligence. This is really the best DC can offer in terms of social relevance? Really? I suspect that even a ten-year old would find this book's overly simplistic take on politics to be suspect.

“I think the fundamental idea behind this issue is ill conceived from a business standpoint. Yet I still would have praised DC's boldness in tackling the issues had they ever, you know, tried to tackle any issues. They too, it seems, are trying to have their cake and eat it too. They want to be praised for real world relevance, yet lack the courage to actually try for it.”

Chalk this up as yet another brainstorm from Dan DiDio’s (Out) House of Ideas. Dan should be glad that HIS job isn’t up for a vote, lest his “constituents” might just “pulp” him out of office.

Burning Out On 'Burn Notice'

2008-09-20T14:10:00.000-07:00

One of FanBoyWonder’s favorite new shows of last summer has become one of our greatest disappointments this year following “Good Solider” the “season finale” of Burn Notice this past Thursday night.

At the start of the new season we were promised a resolution to the cliffhanger of last season when Michael Westen (Jeffrey Donovan) drove into the back of that parked semi-truck to meet the people who burned him.

What we got was a resetting of the clock where so much has happened but nothing has changed. This show has gotten so rigid in its formula that it makes The A-Team look like Whose Line Is It Anyway.

We really want to know who burned Michael and why but we’re two seasons in now and we are no closer to knowing than we did during the pilot episode….actually we know even less given the riddle wrapped in an enigma known as Carla (Battlestar Galactica’s Tricia Helfer), Michael’s malevolent new “handler.”

As the summer progressed, Burn Notice went from must see TV to something to watch as an amusing waste of time—we’ve lost that loving feeling.

Then in a boneheaded programming move, USA Network goes THREE WEEKS without Burn Notice before airing the final two episodes—killing whatever creative momentum the writers had been trying to build.

As for as we the viewer, it made us realize we didn’t exactly miss not watching anything on Thursdays at 10 p.m.

Tricia Helfer’s role as Carla was over-hyped and under-delivered. Here total screen time to date wouldn’t amount to three-quarters of an hour of a single episode. Which is too bad as too bad, Helfer’s role as Natalie Six on Battlestar Galactica (as opposed to Caprica Six) had us excited to see Helfer play someone NOT the overt, in-your-face sexpot.

The bottom line is that Season 2 of Burn Notice was new but not terribly different. It’s more like everything to date has been Burn Notice Season 1 split up over two summers.

This show is stagnating and hasn’t grown beyond its very clever premise and introduction. This is by no means a bad show but it seems like Team Burn Notice is doing its best to be mediocre when it could easily be SO MUCH Better.

The only surprise to come Thursday night is that Burn Notice will return “this winter” instead a full-year long, summer-to-summer hiatus as they did last year.

This will give Team Burn Notice the chance to redeem themselves with the fan base or definitively doom what was once a most promising show. Until then….

Take Your Girl Wonder To Work Day

2008-09-19T20:17:00.000-07:00

(Pictured: Brianna The Girl Wonder in training to take over Grandpa FanBoyWonder’s job. Sorry for the crappy resolution from the cell-phone cam)

Today, Brianna the Girl Wonder escorted her grandpa FanBoyWonder to our day job covering the real-estate finance market in Washington, D.C. Why?

Besides it being a day off from school, we decided we could use her input in helping to unravel the current financial crisis—sure she’s only in Second Grade but so far the Harvard-Yard brianiacs haven’t been doing all that hot so like she could do any worse.

Cute as a button, polite as a pin and helpful as all get out, Brianna made us proud as we showed her off to co-workers and bosses alike. Speaking of bosses, Brianna was pleased as punch when she learned that “your boss is a girl?!?”

She loved it even better when we told her that not only was our boss a “girl” but the boss’ boss is also a girl.

To see the look in her eyes…to see them light up as she realized that girls can be bosses ….that girls can be ANYTHING made our heart glad.

During our lunch hour, we took a walk over to 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. so the Girl Wonder could see The White House for the very first time. It’s a crying shame that the “people’s house” is all but closed to the public. Hopefully the next President will open it up again.

Brianna is sleeping soundly as we write this and we are not long for bed after we post this. It was a good day.

Coming Back To Life

2008-09-16T19:47:00.000-07:00

“I took a heavenly ride through our silence
“I knew the moment had arrived
“For killing the past and coming back to life”
—Coming Back To Life from Pink Floyd’s The Division Bell (1994)

The recent death of Pink Floyd’s Richard Wright has found FanBoyWonder in a contemplative mood.

Even as we we’ve been taking a break from the blog with the intent of beating back the heat of creative burnout, the world has gone and kept spinning on its axis and events have proceeded whether we were ready or not to deal with them.

Reading Rick Wright’s obit, we did the math and realize that he was our father’s age. Wright had cancer—a killer at any age—and Dad FBW remains as healthy as ever but it made us realize that the sun is the same in a relative way but our parents ARE getting older and consequently that we’re an aging (Fan)BoyWonder.

In other words—“Shorter of breath, and one day closer to death.”

What’s the point? Simple. Rest time is over. We’ll have plenty of time NOT to write when we’re dead.

So let’s get back up on the horse with a couple random thoughts.

--“Obscenity,” Frank Miller and the God***n Batman’s publisher DC Comics.

Okay…we don’t like it but we can understand Miller being Miller but what’s DC’s excuse?

Miller never so much as sold out as “went Hollywood.” He’s the quintessential kid in high school who—once he got to hang with the “cool kids”—promptly forgot his former friends among the freaks and geeks caste of losers.

Thus whenever Miller wants to slum and write Batman again, it should be a foregone conclusion that ANYTHING Miller writes is gold so DC should just gratefully lap up whatever stories Miller pens.

Yeah, whatever. To each is own. We’re not a fan of Miller’s All Star Batman and Robin The Boy Wonder but some are. That’s fine….UNTIL Miller’s “vision” starts to damage the brand. Those not in the know see Miller’s GD Batman and thing that it is THE definitive (read: mainstream) Batman being published today and they would be right to be appalled.

“Batman” and “obscenity” should NEVER appear in the same headline together but that’s just what happened.

From the New York Post to the Los Angeles Times to all of the blogs and indy weeklies in-between, Dan DiDio’s DC Comics was revealed outside of the trade press to be at best incompetent or at worst to be deeply bent.

Does this mean that Grandpa FanBoyWonder needs to screen for the “C-word” before allowing Brianna the Girl Wonder to read her issues of Super Friends and Tiny Titans?

Got editors???

--Torri Higginson’s revenge—Stargate Atlantis Canceled.

Somewhere, Torri Higginson is smiling.

About a year or so after Higginson was summarily demoted from her starting role as Dr. Elizabeth Weir, leader of the Atlantis expedition to occasional guest star and was written off the show, Sci-Fi Channel has pulled the plug on Stargate Atlantis after January.

Higginson subsequently did a couple guests appearances last season, including a major teaser that featured Weir as leader of a faction of Replicators. But when she later told producers she was not interested in coming back to show that s**tcanned her (i.e. Fire me? Screw you!) they had to scramble and cut out a major story arc for this season.

Just last month, Sci-Fi Channel and Atlantis producers announced that this 5th season would be the show’s last. They spun it as ending the show so they could make direct-to-DVD movies like SG-1 but canceled is canceled.

Higginson was cashiered to make room for SG-1’s Amanda Tapping, who had another year on her contract. Tapping’s Col. Carter and never fit in as Weir’s replacement and she was gone after a year.

Robert Picardo (formerly The Doctor on Star Trek: Voyager) has done an able job this season as Weir’s replacement’s replacement but the bottom line is that here was nothing wrong with the Elizabeth Weir character other than that the writer’s didn’t want to do anything with her.

It’s undeniable that as soon as Team Atlantis “fixed” things, it was a self-inflicted would from which the show would never fully recover. Stargate Atlantis always had the potential to reach Battlestar Galactica levels of greatness but there was a consistent vibe that the Atlantis show-runners didn’t want to challenge the viewers or themselves all that much.

Best of luck Torri. Living well is the best revenge. Don’t look back.

--Twenty Years Ago

Our sense of history and an overwhelming sense of sentimentality compel us to acknowledge an anniversary of sorts today.

“L,” it’s hard to believe it’s been 20 years since CVS & BK and everything that followed. The years have taught me that while I don’t yearn to go back and do it over again I also wouldn’t change a thing—that is except for “the how” at the end. Harsh words were spoken and bridges burned. That’s on me. Coulda, Woulda, Shouda.

Some years back, I heard about you and “A.” Good for you! Best wishes to you both. Be well.—“C.”

Shine On Pink Floyd’s Richard Wright—R.I.P.

2008-09-15T18:43:00.000-07:00

FanBoyWonder would like to humbly add our voice to the world-wide chorus of those mourning the passing of musician and founding member of Pink Floyd Richard Wright.

Mr. Wright passed away today (Monday) in England following a brief battle with cancer at the age of 65.

We were stunned when we heard about Mr. Wright’s passing from a co-worker earlier today. We are sad of course at the passing of Mr. Wright and we offer our prayers and condolences to his family.

But beyond the death of one man is the realization that the Pink Floyd that we loved to hear growing up—both with Roger Waters and during the post-Waters, David Gilmour-led Floyd era—has died with him.

Even if, and the operative word is IF, the remaining three Floyd—Waters, Gilmour and drummer Nick Mason—should decide to play again together, it won’t be Pink Floyd.

Given that the Floyd has been around for more than 40 years, it was inevitable that members would get older and pass away but that it has happened now is an unpleasant reminder of our own mortality.

To be honest, FanBoyWonder had been holding out hope that the members of Pink Floyd would come together again—if not for a reunion of the four—at least the post-Waters Floyd would put out one last album.

Our hopes were buoyed by the Live 8 reunion of the Floyd Four in 2005. But their last reunion turned out to be their final reunion. At least we had that. Wish You Were Here Rick.

R.I.P. Richard Wright.

Below is Mr. Wright’s obit from the L.A. Times.

---------------------------------------------------

Richard Wright dies at 65; founding member of Pink Floyd

While he lacked the high profile of bandmates Syd Barrett, Roger Waters and David Gilmour, the keyboardist nonetheless shaped the British psychedelic group's sound.
By Randy Lewis
Los Angeles Times Staff Writer

Richard Wright, the founding member of Pink Floyd whose piano and synthesizer work played a critical part in the pioneering British psychedelic rock band's ethereal sound, died Monday after a short battle with cancer, his spokesman said. He was 65.

Doug Wright, who is not a relative, said Wright died at his home in England and that his family did not wish to release any more information, the Associated Press reported.

Wright never achieved the high public profile of the group's three key figures -- founding singer-guitarist Syd Barrett and the often-feuding co-leaders, singer-bassist Roger Waters and singer-guitarist David Gilmour, who joined shortly before Barrett left in 1968.

But he wrote or co-wrote many of the band's songs, and frequently provided a crucial component of the Pink Floyd sound. On the group's landmark "Dark Side of the Moon" album, Wright was responsible for the thick electric piano chording on the 1973 hit "Money" as well as the swirling organ lines and classically inspired grand piano on "Us and Them," a song he wrote with Waters.

He also co-wrote “Shine On You Crazy Diamond,” one of the group's signature songs from "Wish You Were Here," the second of five Floyd albums to reach No. 1. The nine-part epic song is a salute to Barrett, who, after leaving the group, retreated into mental illness, often attributed to his drug use. He died in 2006.

Wright had no explanation for the astonishing longevity of the "Dark Side" album -- it spent more time, 741 weeks, on the Billboard album chart than any other in history -- or the extraordinary following the band inspired. The 1979 album "The Wall" spent 15 weeks at No. 1 and has been certified for worldwide sales of 23 million copies by the Recording Industry Assn. of America, putting it third on the list of all-time best sellers, behind "The Eagles: Their Greatest Hits 1971-1975" and Michael Jackson's "Thriller."

"I know we've made some great songs and great music," Wright told Billboard last year, "but I can't tell you why we're so popular."

He quit the band in 1980 following their tour supporting the double album "The Wall" because of increasing tensions within the group. He rejoined the band a few years later, and, without Waters, the group put out "A Momentary Lapse of Reason" in 1987 and "The Division Bell" seven years later.

In recent years Waters has been playing "Dark Side of the Moon" in concert under his own name without any of the other original band members. Waters, Gilmour, Wright and drummer Nick Mason performed live together for the first time in 24 years at the 2005 Live 8 benefit concert in London.

Wright released two solo albums, "Wet Dreams" in 1978 and "Broken China" in 1996, but neither made Billboard's Top 200 albums chart.

In a 2006 interview with the Independent newspaper in London discussing the DVD release of Pink Floyd's 1994 concert tour, Wright talked about the group's celebrated concerts, which helped expand the boundaries of what rock was capable of in a live setting through elaborate lighting and staging effects.

"One of the things I always regret about being in Pink Floyd is that you can never go to see the show. I have no idea what it looks like. We know it's pretty powerful, but when you're on stage you have no clear idea of it."

He met Waters and Mason while they were architecture students in England. They started playing together in a band they called Sigma 6.

When they hooked up with Barrett and formed Pink Floyd in 1964, the rock explosion was reverberating through England and across the Atlantic as the British Invasion took hold stateside. At that time, Wright said his goal was a simple one.

"When we were with Syd," he told the Independent, "our ambition was probably to get a No. 1, to get on 'Top of the Pops,' " referring to the popular British pop music TV show. "That was his ambition, definitely. My only ambition was: this is fun, I hope we can make a living out of this -- and of course, I hope we're gonna be a huge success and sell more records than Elvis Presley and the Beatles!"

FanBoyWonder Takes A Break To Recharge

2008-09-10T04:44:00.000-07:00

“I have something to say! It's better to burn out than to fade away!” –The Kurgan from the film Highlander (1986)

FanBoyWonder is taking a little break from the blog for a short while. This announcement actually just makes official what has been in practice.

We just came off a mega writing project at the day job and with other pressing circumstances on the home front, we’re running low on creative-writing voltage.

Thus, we’ll be off the grid for perhaps a couple weeks….or we could get our writing mojo back tomorrow…who knows with these things. So please check back periodically.

Cheers for now,
FanBoyWonder

The Tragic Final FATE of the Doctor and the Doctor's Writer

2008-09-04T19:00:00.000-07:00

FanBoyWonder would once again like to spotlight a worthy comic book series that has been collected in trade paperback (TPB) and is scheduled to hit stores this week—Dr. Fate: Countdown to Mystery.

Here’s the Upshot from DC Comics: The Helmet of Fate has landed…on Kent Nelson — a man so far down on his luck, he doesn't know what luck is! The transformative nature of the helmet grants him powers he can't begin to comprehend…but will they make his life better, or even worse?

This Dr. Fate TPB collects the late Steve Gerber’s eight-issue Fate story that originally appeared last year in Countdown to Mystery—one of the many “Countdown” spin-offs. This particular Countdown book paired the Dr. Fate story with a god-awful unreadable Eclipso story that was instantly forgettable.

FanBoyWonder went into this introduction of this latest of Dr. Fates prepared to dislike it or at least to be disappointed. Why? Because as a long time fan of Dr. Fate—including the most recent wearer of the golden helmet Hector Hall—we resented the change to another new Fate seemingly just for the sake of change.

The problem is that we really LIKED Hector Hall as Dr. Fate in the pages of JSA. Hall—son of (the Golden Age) Hawkman and Hawkgirl and formerly Infinity Inc.’s Silver Scarab— had several years as Fate under his belt and his character as Fate was just starting to find some traction when—to our mind—he was quite briskly and unnecessarily broomed off the stage (along with his newly resurrected wife Fury).

It remains a bitter disappointment to us that JSA writer Geoff Johns has yet to see fit to give Hector Fate proper closure.

We don’t blame Steve Gerber for this. Quite the contrary, Gerber quickly won us over with his rendition of a Dr. Fate who was also named Kent Nelson.

Gerber with art the art team of Justiniano and Walden Wong do a first-class job in the introduction of this new character with the familiar name.

Our protagonist—but decidedly NOT a “hero”—is Dr. Kent V. Nelson, psychiatrist, is a distant relation/descendant of the archeologist Kent Nelson, the original Dr. Fate.

In this scary new world, the helmet of Fate is no longer the host of Nabu, Lord of Order but it’s still a powerful source of magic in an age where the rules of magic have been re-written following Infinite Crisis and the Day of Vengeance mini-series and where the helmet finds a broken man in this stranger named Kent Nelson.

Gerber paints a portrait of a man who has hit bottom—a physician could not heal himself from clinical depression and alcoholism. It caused him to lose everything—his wife and child, his professional reputation and his will to live until the helmet finds him.

Gerber’s excellent re-introduction of Fate is complemented by Justiniano and Wong’s art. This is the same art team from the Day of Vengeance mini-series so there is a visual continuity to this story. Their style is particularly suited for tales of magic and sorcery.

What impressed is most with Gerber’s story was that Kent’s life doesn’t suddenly find purpose and meaning once he comes into possession of the magic helmet—in fact it gets worse or at least more complicated as he seeks to learn on even the very basic rules of wielding magic.

Along into the story, after cleaning up and drying out a little as well as taking a step forward in his astral education, Kent allowed himself to fall off the wagon—“What could it hurt” was his rationale. The result was unforeseen and tragic and nicely played by Gerber.

Gerber deserves special kudos for portraying (relatively speaking given the context) depression and alcoholism in a realistic fashion. Unfortunately, we have some experience in this area and we know each is a disease that not only affects the depressed and/or problem drinker but those who love them as well. Trust us, Gerber kept it real.

Another amusing aspect of the story is its setting—Las Vegas, Nevada. America’s Sin City was also the writer’s home so Gerber was quite successful in making Las Vegas a character in this story—and a shady character at that.

FanBoyWonder has been to Las Vegas no less than half-a-dozen times over the past 15 years—for business purposes we assure you. One can almost feel the greed and desperation that permeates ever aspect of this great big town—the perfect backdrop for a hard-luck, last-stop, would be sorcerer. Double kudos to you Mr. Gerber.

R.I.P. Steve Gerber

The story behind this story is even more compelling. Before it was relegated to a Countdown spin-off title, Gerber’s Dr. Fate had been slated a year earlier to run in a re-launched Dr. Fate series before it was pulled from the line up at the very last minute due to Gerber’s health issues.

It was those same health issues—a lengthy battle with pulmonary fibrosis and an unsuccessful bid for a lung transplant—that claimed Gerber’s life before he could complete his Dr. Fate story—one of the best Dr. Fate stories we’ve ever read.

Gerber succumbed to his illness more than three quarters of the way into the series. True professional that he was, Gerber dictated the plot of issue #7 over the phone from the hospital—literally on his deathbed but he never got to finish his final tale—it wasn’t his Fate.

For the eighth and final issue, four different writers—including Gail Simone and Mark Waid—were tapped to give their version of how Gerber’s Dr. Fate s should end. They did as good a job as could be done under the circumstances but even incomplete, Gerber’s Dr. Fate is absolutely worth your time—check it out.

Dr. Fate: Countdown to Mystery, in stores today, 160 pages, softcover, $17.99.

FanBoyWonder Comic Book Spotlight: Secret Six

2008-08-30T20:21:00.000-07:00

FanBoyWonder wishes to spotlight what we see as a promising new ongoing series from DC Comics that’s scheduled to hit stores on Wednesday—Secret Six.

Here’s the Upshot From DC Comics: Because you demanded it! The Secret Six are back in an all-new ongoing series that promises to deliver some of the darkest, most twisted action-adventure the DC Universe has seen since...well, the last time the Secret Six got together! Writer extraordinaire Gail Simone (BIRDS OF PREY) is reunited with BIRDS penciller Nicola Scott to chronicle the adventures of the Six, and you will not believe what they have in store.

Join Catman, Scandal, Deadshot, Ragdoll, and ?? as they prepare for an adventure that will take them through a gauntlet across the seediest parts of the DC Universe, and will ultimately pit them against a foe more monstrous and murderous than any they've had to face! Don't miss the beginning of the most ferocious and scandalous Six story yet!

FanBoyWonder is absolutely looking forward to this new series even if we are a tad wary as to Simone’s hit-or-miss history with this group of reprobates and scoundrels.

We’ve been fans of Gail Simone’s work on Birds of Prey for sometime now and she blew us away with her six-issue Villains United mini-series as part of the run up to Infinite Crisis in 2005.

Yet, the following year we were disappointed by Simone’s follow up mini-series Secret Six. The magic of Simone’s bad-guy protagonists had faded some what in the year between Villains United and Secret Six.

The Secret Six mini wasn’t terrible—despite a couple of really weak middle issues—but it was clearly inferior to “Villains.” Simone was clearly off her game, helped not at all by the junior varsity art team of Brad Walker and Jimmy Palmiotti—they simply couldn’t pick up the storytelling slack and their visuals paled when compared to the Villains United art team of Dale Eaglesham and Wade VonGrawbadger.

About a year later, Simone redeemed herself in Birds of Prey featuring the Secret Six as the special guest villains. With the help of BOP art team of Nicola Scott and Doug Hazelwood, Simone got her mojo back—Six times over.

Now Simone and Scott are teaming up again for the aforementioned Secret Six ongoing series. Given her stumble with the mini-series, we’re a little wary of what Simone has in store but she’s not one of the best writers in the DC bullpen for nothing.

Plus, she has Scott and Hazelwood to carry the ball with their top shelf visuals.

Our favorite of the Six hands down is Catman. We’re a sucker for hard luck stories and we like how Simone has made the one-time Batman knock off into a formidable presence again after he was previously portrayed as a fat f**k loser.

We’ve also always liked Deadshot even if we would rather see him back on the Suicide Squad—a Squad written by master scribe John Ostrander but since DC Management still has its collective head up you know where, we’ll just have settle for just ONE sophisticated, top shelf comic book series where you root for the bad guy.

For our money, Simone went off the tracks in the Secret Six mini-series when she went away from what made Villains United so compelling—the bad guy vs. bad guy civil war in which The Six rebelled against “The Society.”

Think of it as collective bargaining for villains where you either joined up or were marked for death. This put The Six as hunted by both the good guys—JLA and such—and the other bad guys.

It didn’t get any better than that so we hope Simone revisits that theme in some form in the new series.

Speaking of Simone, in an interview with Newsarama in April, she gave her lowdown on these despicable characters that we are asked to root for…and do.

“They care primarily for themselves. They aren't heroes. At times, they aren't even likable. I kind of like that it's a superhero comic about desperate people. They all know their lives aren't going to end well,” says Simone.

"I also find the chemistry between them fascinating. The core members, to a man, including Catman, are selfish, spoiled brats to some degree, and they are always thinking about themselves, primarily. But in that mode, they still somehow have come to like and trust each other. Which they all hate to varying degrees. It's not their nature. They're the anti-JLA in that regard. You can't really call them friends, but they're the closest thing to friends any of them have ever known,” added Simone.

Secret Six #1 on sale Wednesday, $2.99, 32 pages.

FanBoyWonder TPB Spotlight—Suicide Squad: From The Ashes

2008-08-29T20:48:00.000-07:00

Okay you can relax now, FanBoyWonder is back. We found ourselves off the grid for the past couple of weeks as a mega-writing project at the day job sucked up all of our available creative writing reserves, to say nothing of our free time outside of the office.

But as we take some vacation time for an extended Labor Day loooong weekend, we’re trying to catch up on some of neglected bloging duties.

We would be remiss in said duties if we failed to point out the release this week into trade paperback (TPB) one of the very best mini-series that DC Comics has put out this year—Suicide Squad: From The Ashes.

Here’s the Upshot from DC Comics: The Suicide Squad makes its triumphant return in this new volume collecting the recent miniseries. But how did team leader Rick Flag Jr. survive a ground-zero nuclear blast and return from the dead?

This eight-issue reunion mini-series collected in TPB recaptures the magic—and then some—of one of the smartest comic book series of the late 1980s-early ‘90s.

The one sentence explanation of Suicide Squad: Think Dirty Dozen meets Mission Impossible with the worst villains of the DC Universe sent on the toughest black-ops missions.

Back in the day, writer John Ostrander—along with frequent collaborator, co-plotter and Ostrander’s late wife, Kim Yale—managed some sophisticated storytelling amid the backdrop of super powers, covert intelligence and Washington politics.

FanBoyWonder was delighted to hear last year that DC had commissioned a new Suicide Squad mini-series with Ostrander as the scribe. There had been at least one or perhaps two attempts to revive the Suicide Squad concept in the years since the Squad’s cancellation in 1992 after a 66 issue, five-year run.

These all-too-forgettable Suicide Squads lacked a key ingredient—John Ostrander. Now back in the saddle for eight issues, we can say without a doubt that he not only didn’t miss a beat but Ostrander’s take on the Squad had actually improved with the years.

‘The Wall’

One of the DC Universe’s most unique and enduring characters, Amanda Waller was a creation of Ostrander during his original run on the Squad. “The Wall” as written by Ostrander is a force of nature. She’s morally compromised and as flawed a character as one can be and NOT be an outright villain.

We came to appreciate Ostrander’s gift of nuance with Waller over the years as we watched other writers—most recently Checkmate’s Greg Rucka—attempt to write Waller and end up with a generic facsimile who was ruthless but without mirth.

The first third of the mini-series focuses on one-time Squad leader Col. Rick Flag, who was “killed” off during the second year of the original series. In “From The Ashes, Ostrander cleverly explains away how Flag did NOT die in a nuclear suicide bomb explosion. Better yet, this is the first time long time Squad readers like us got to REALLY got to know the Rick Flag character.

From the time he was first introduced in the original series, Flag was on the verge of emotionally snapping… until he did in the aforementioned nuke “suicide” bombing of Quarac. With the revival of Rick Flag, Ostrander injects something old and something new into this reunion series at the same time by permitting old-time Squad readers to meet Col. Flag again for the first time.

Best quote of the mini-series: “Don’t kid yourself. Your son was a heartless killer who planned and caused the death of innocents. I strangled him to death with my bare hands in a place from which you will never recover his bones. I’m proud of it.” –Flag reacting to the father of Jihad leader Rustam who attacked Flag to avenge his son’s “murder.”

Ostrander never skimped on characterization—whether they were main players or Z-list villain guest stars not long for this world.

Case in point: One time Master-of-Disaster villain and one-time hero Outsider Windfall was plucked out of limbo by Ostrander to be the Squad’s latest cannon fodder. But during a single-page scene where Windfall is talking to the Squad’s shrink, Windfall explains how she tried to go straight and go to college but she ended up wanted for multiple murder when she used her powers to kill the frat boys who legally got away with drugging and gang-raping her.

That one scene gave this obscure character feeling and personality and it made us really invested in her getting through the mission alive to redeem herself. Ostrander made us care about and root for a character who—for storytelling purposes—was a Star Trek Red Shirt.

Ostrander is an old school pro who is good enough to put make is own mark on a story without over-writing somebody else’s previous work.

A word about the art by Javier Pina and Robin Riggs. It was spectacular in an understated way. The Squad NEVER looked better.

Ostrander left the door wide open for a new Squad series but DC seems to be taking a pass. This boggles the mind given the utter crap that makes up their current line up.

In a recent column, Ostrander observed how he and other veteran comics writers over 50 have had a hard time finding work in comic even as they are a the peak of their writing experience and mojo.

There is something deeply flawed in the universe when Judd Winick (no talent, one-trick pony) is the most prolific writer in the DC bullpen while John Ostrander (a proven rainmaker) struggles to find work.

We hope that DC Management reverses course because we know there would be an instant audience for an ongoing Suicide Squad series by written Ostrander (with art by Pina and Riggs?????).

Suicide Squad: From The Ashes—192 pages, $19.99. On sale now. Do yourself a favor and pick it up.

FanBoyWonder’s Comic Book Consolidation Challenge Part 2

2008-08-18T18:57:00.000-07:00

(Pictured above: Ed Benes’ rendition of Justice League of America. FanBoyWonder has dropped JLA, declaring it the worst book in the DC Universe of comics at this time.)

FanBoyWonder continues our top to bottom review of the titles on our pull list. Here in Part 2 of our Comic Book Consolidation Challenge we look at the titles published during the second half of August.

Again our verdict for each individual title will be either KEEP, DROP or ON THE BUBBLE, meaning that we’re considering dropping the book but we’re giving it one last chance.

All right, let’s get it on.

The Week of August 20th

Birds of Prey # 121

The Upshot from DC Comics: The Joker infiltrates the high-tech gang network of the Birds' new hometown, Platinum Flats! And that's going to set him up for a direct conflict with Oracle, Barbara Gordon! Written by Tony Bedard; Art by Michael O'Hare and John Floyd; Cover by Stephanie Roux. 32pg. $2.99

FanBoyWonder’s Verdict: ON THE BUBBLE.

The Why: This title has had a couple creative change ups since the great Gail Simone moved on from Birds of Prey but Tony Bedard has done an able job of maintaining the storytelling momentum but Bedard has the unfortunate cross to bear of NOT being Gail Simone.

This wouldn’t be such a bad thing except that Simone and is teaming up again with Nicola Scott, until very recently the BOP artist—for a new Secret Six series and we fear that Bedard’s Birds will pale in comparison.

All things being equal, we’d stay with the book and we’re not saying we are definitely dropping it but it comes down a money saving decision, this is a book we’ll have to look toward cutting. Sorry guys.

The Brave and The Bold #16

The Upshot: Superman and Catwoman – together at last?! This team clearly won't be held together with super-glue! Written by Mark Waid; Art and Cover by Scott Kolins DC Universe, 32pg, $2.99.

FBW’s Verdict: DROP

The Why: Mark Waid just doesn’t seem to have a very firm grasp on the DC Universe as he used to, perhaps in no small part that he is running another comic book company while freelancing titles like Brave and Bold.

This was a great book at the start and we loved the concept—team ups with different DCU characters as a way of introducing readers to characters and corners of the DCU that we wouldn’t otherwise see. Yet Waid went off the tracks with last year’s Flash/Doom Patrol team up and he never got his timing back.

Even our love for George Perez’s art couldn’t keep us fully engaged and when he fulfilled his 11 issue commitment and left, our interest seemed to follow suit. He’s off the book in a couple of issues and we’ll re-assess the new creative team but for now, we’re not going to waste our money.

Flash # 243

The Upshot: The conclusion of "Fast Money"! The Flash returns to Keystone, making some bold moves to get his life and reputation back on track – with some serious consequences for his family! Written by Tom Peyer; Art and Cover by Freddie E. Williams II. DC Universe, 32pg, $2.99.

FBW’s Verdict: DROP!

The Why: Let’s face it; we all really said good-bye to Wally West at the end of Geoff Johns run in Flash #225. After that it was a placeholder writer, then he disappeared in Infinite Crisis, then he was brought back with a family after Bart Flash imploded and now with Barry Allen being brought back to life, this title’s days are numbered. We consider it a mercy killing and see no reason to continue throw good money after bad at this title.

Justice League of America #24

The Upshot: Vixen's power issues come to the forefront as Vixen, Black Canary, Zatanna, Hal and The Flash pay a visit to Animal Man. The team must team up with Animal Man to battle a new Justice League villain – and at stake is control of the Tantu Totem! Written by Dwayne McDuffie; Art and Cover by Ed Benes. DC Universe, 32pg., $2.99.

FBW’s Verdict: DROP, DROP, DROP!!!

The Why: This book is a mess and it has been since “Issue Zero” and the subsequent 12 issues that served as little more than novelist Brad Meltzer’s exercise in fanboy fantasy baseball.

After 13 issues of Meltzer’s overblown, over-scripted, over-the-top League that was all talk, infrequent action and all self-importance, Dwayne McDuffie from Cartoon Network’s Justice League Unlimited was brought in to steady the ship.

Yet hobbled by editorial mandates and mandatory crossovers, McDuffie was at best half-a-writer on this book. We can see hints of where he wants to take the book but it’s not enough. We’re bored and out of patience.

Helping not at all is Ed Benes’ T&A visuals that are more comical than provocative and not even that much to write home about. Lately Benes has been inking his own pencils as inker Sandra Hope has apparently left the book—it’s even more apparent how much Benes is artistically coasting.

Bottom line: McDuffie’s best efforts not withstanding, Justice League of America is currently the WORST book in the DC Comics line up (these days that’s saying a lot) and we see no indication of the situation improving anytime soon. Like we said, we’re done.

The week of August 27

Green Lantern #34

The Upshot: The penultimate chapter of "Secret Origin"! Hal Jordan and Sinestro face off against Abin Sur's killer - Atrocitus! But what dark secret has Atrocitus uncovered about the impending "Blackest Night?" And what revelation will forever change the relationship between Hal and Carol Ferris? Written by Geoff Johns; Art by Ivan Reis and Oclair Albert; Cover by Ivan Reis. DC Universe, 32pg. $2.99.

FBW’s Verdict: KEEP.

The Why: While we have been absolutely bored to tears these past few months at Johns decision to tell an overblown retro-conned (while admittedly better) version of Emerald Dawn, writer Geoff Johns has a definite direction in mind for this book and for the Green Lantern franchise.

While Johns has performed something of a miracle in making Hal Jordan a decent character—a hot dog flyboy rather than a hard luck loser as he had been since the days of Hard Traveling Heroes—we’re annoyed that Green Lantern John Stewart is getting the short shrift—again.

Justice Society of America #18

The Upshot: Magog is introduced into the DC Universe in "Gog" part 3! The last god of the Third World has walked the Earth delivering good will to men wherever he goes. But out of a violent confrontation comes the birth of the one being the Kingdom Come Superman must stop: Magog! Meanwhile, Starman struggles with his new role on the team and Damage celebrates his. Plus, Power Girl's strange ordeal on Earth-2 leads her to seek out help from an unlikely source. Written by Geoff Johns and Alex Ross; Art and variant cover by Dale Eaglesham and Ruy Jose; Cover by Alex Ross. DC Universe, 32pg., $2.99.

FBW’s Verdict: KEEP!

We have always loved the Justice Society and would read it no matter what. But we’ve been very bored with this book over he past year. Yet following the events of JSA Annual #1—Justice Society Infinity—and the upcoming Kingdom specials, we’re excited again.

We think that Geoff Johns has been stretched too thin lately and this book had been suffering for it but now his focus seems to be back on JSA so things are looking up.

The Beginning of ‘The End’ of Iron Man

2008-08-15T19:06:00.000-07:00

It may be true that all good things must come to an end but in the case of Marvel Comics’ Armored Avenger Iron Man, it’s “The End” that has us stoked.

FanBoyWonder’s favorite new go-to Website for all things comics and sci-fi—io9 http://io9.com (thank you Kemosabe for the refer)—is reporting that the classic Iron Man creative team of David Michelinie and Bob Layton are re-uniting once again to chronicle Tony Stark’s final chapter in Iron Man: The End.

The source of the news comes from Layton himself who is sporting preview pages of the upcoming mini-series on his Website www.boblayton.com.

Now of course this REALLY won’t be the last Iron Man story ever told but Michelinie and Layton have been itching to tell their version of Shellhead’s last days for the better part of a decade.

According to Layton, he and Michelinie pitched Marvel their concept of the “last Iron man story ever told” back in 2000 but it took some time to get the green light.

“After the span of almost a decade and several ‘false starts', this project has finally reached fruition,” explained Layton on his website.

Here’s the Upshot from Layton himself: Decades in the future, a 70-plus Tony Stark is overseeing his ultimate project of his lauded career—the completion of Earth’s first commercial space elevator, whose inauguration will change the world’s economy and the future of space exploration forever. However, not everyone is looking forward to this project’s launch with the same enthusiasm as the head of Stark Universal. Sinister forces are at work, behind-the-scenes, to insure that Stark’s pinnacle scientific achievement ends in disaster.

Layton says “The End” is tentatively scheduled to be published this November, in conjunction with the Iron Man movie’s DVD release. However, the Iron Man DVD is reportedly slated for a September 30 release date so take the “tentative schedule” with a grain of salt.

The story has been conceived and plotted by Michelinie and Layton—scripted by Michelinie, pencilled by Valiant alum Bernard (Second Life of Dr. Mirage) Chang and inked by Layton.

The End would mark M&L’s second Iron Man collaboration this year following the four issue mini series Iron Man: Legacy of Doom—the third of M&L’s Camelot Trilogy featuring Iron Man vs. Doctor Doom in King Arthur’s Court.

The previous two clashes of Marvel’s armored heavyweights by Michelinie and Layton took place in the classic Iron Man (volume 1) #149-150, with part two in Iron Man (again volume 1) #249-250—which has also been in a hard cover Iron Man: DoomQuest.

While “Legacy” wasn’t quite a strong a story as the first two Iron Doom team-ups—due in large part that it was a flashback “forgotten” tale retroactively sandwiched between the previous two Camelot stories and current events in the Marvel Universe—Legacy was still quite enjoyable and worth checking out.

While we’ve always been DC Comics fanboy first and foremost, we read a fair amount of Iron Man back in the great days of Old Marvel—both during Shellhead’s his time on The Avengers and in his own book.

Their circa 1980 Demon in a Bottle story line from Iron Man (first series) # 120-128, collected in the trade paperback The Power of Iron Man was groundbreaking stuff, ahead of its time and easily as good as anything put out today, while their Armor Wars in 1988 remains a Shellhead benchmark.

To us the definitive Iron Man has been and will always be from the team of Michelinie and Layton. No one else since has come close to making this character come alive.

Bottom Line: Count on Iron Man: The End being on our pull list in November or whenever it hits stores. Stay tuned.

FanBoyWonder’s Review of Final Crisis #3

2008-08-12T18:51:00.000-07:00

Once again we’re pressed for time as we’ve been busy at work and we were late in picking up books but before the review window closes shut we wanted to get our thoughts on Final Crisis #3 on the record even as we’re shooting from the hip…because we just know that the world is just DYING to know what FanBoyWonder thinks.

The Upshot From DC Comics: Batman missing in action! Superman immobilized! Green Lantern on trial for his life! A shadow is falling across Earth's super heroes — and now it's Wonder Woman's turn to face the Evil Gods!

What bizarre warning from beyond awaits Frankenstein, The Question and the agents of S.H.A.D.E. in the shadows of the Dark Side Club? What grim fate lies in store for The Human Flame? What happens when the Anti-Life Equation hits the internet? Can the Fastest Men Alive outrun The Black Racer — Death himself? And who are the Justifiers? The answers are all here as the unstoppable rise of evil continues in FINAL CRISIS #3 by Grant Morrison and J.G. Jones.

Well we suppose we could call it an improvement of sorts—the first two issues of this seven-issue mini-series “event” offended us. This month we were just bored.

That actually sounds harsher than we intended as FanBoyWonder actually liked Final Crisis #3 much better upon our second and third readings but our recurring thought was “this is what it looks like when ‘evil wins’ huh?”

If by “evil” they mean “manufactured drama” then okay—mission accomplished but when we compare Final Crisis “evil” to say… the evil of The Holocaust or the evil of the tax code—sorry but Morrison’s concept of “evil” seems rather feeble to us—at least what’s been revealed to us thus far.

There was definite, if incremental, improvement this issue. Morrison has dialed back some what his random jumping around the story allowing the reader to start to get a clue as to what is going on even as he advances the plot with the mandatory summon all the heroes into one place to debrief thing.

With Batman captured, Superman off the board tending to his critically ill wife Lois Lane and Wonder Woman (albeit later in the story) infected with the bad guy virus, it falls to Alan Scott the original/Golden Age Green Lantern to pick up the mantle of leadership and inspiration that normally falls to Superman.

Morrison scores points with us here. Especially as in the history of the post-CRISIS “New Earth” in the days of the Golden Age before Superman and the Justice League generation came on to the scene, The Green Lantern was the big guy powerhouse of his day so the heroes of the day looked to GL leadership and to set the example.

Whether by accident or by design, Morrison has honored the original GL and by extension the original JSA members so he’s earned some brownie points with us.

J.G. Jones art was also better upon the second read. His breakdowns are quite eye-catching but his pencils and inks look rushed in some key panels. Carlos Pacheao has been tapped as artistic back up starting next issue but we’re wary of this becoming Infinite Crisis all over again with a committee of artists.

More is the pity in that Jones’ art is adequate but we can see how it could have looked so much better.

One little thing that really annoyed us came in the splash page with the conference he heroes. Jones shows Alan Scott Green Lantern with his power ring on his right hand when it’s always on his left hand. Careless in small things, careless in all things.

A plot point that did seem rather unnecessary for Morrison to create out of whole cloth Article X to “draft” superheroes in times of crisis—a concept VERY similar to what Greg Rucka introduced in Checkmate a couple years back.

It seems even more unnecessary when we see on the splash page that bulk of those “drafted” are once or current members of either the Justice League, Justice Society and/or Teen Titans—folks who would have answered the call anyway. Yet “drafting” them implies something much more dramatic—in a manufactured sort of way.

Naturally, what we most cared about—the return of Barry Allen—was featured the least with Jay Garrick at the West house to tell Wally and Barry’s wife what has happened to their husbands. Ok….Jay recognizes Barry’s aura so it’s really him but Morrison cheats us out of a fulfilling reunion between Barry and Wally by stilted dialogue.

Libra—the signature bad guy of Final Crisis—continues to impress us not at all. With his peach colored cloak and his grape colored mask and shirt—this fruity little villain does not exactly radiate menace or convey a sense of danger. Face it, the guy is no Anti-Monitor.

We’re honest enough to admit that we’re never going to totally buy-into this “event.” This is not just due to the failings Morrison here but also Morrison is paying for the bumbling of DC management.

However, this issue shows us that some potential still exists to make it a decent, if not long remembered, mini-series.

Smug Alert—The Secret Crisis Behind DC & Marvel Comics

2008-08-11T19:47:00.000-07:00

FanBoyWonder wants to acknowledge a REALLY good essay by Travis at Film Fodder Comics www.filmfodder.com/comics --“What’s Wrong At Both Marvel and DC?” in which he cleverly and unflinchingly dissects the ...underperformance of this summer’s two comic book “events”—Final Crisis at DC Comics by writer Grant Morrison and Marvel Comics’ Secret Invasion by writer Brian Michael Bendis.

We encourage you all to read Travis’ essay then come back here for our take—fully acknowledging Travis’ great commentary as the springboard for our own thoughts on the matter.

Below we excerpt three key points from Travis but again, it’s not our intent to distort his point by omission so we do encourage you to read his essay in full, then come back here for our Two Dollar and 99 Cents.

Travis’ Upshot:

“There is a relatively new situation going on at both companies. DC has a rather different method of planning stories, in that tons of people cram into a room and plot out the direction of a title or character for a year or three. Marvel tended to be a little more free-wheeling, but lately they have adopted more of the meeting syndrome as well, to mixed results. The one big change to all of this recently is that both companies are trying their hand at crafting an in-depth meta-story involving the entirety of their respective shared universes, but the results are not going well.”

Plug 'n play:

“With both of these writers [Morrison and Bendis], we have a case of someone getting stuck on an idea and getting away with writing a few things, and then waiting, biding their time until they could get enough influence over enough titles to carry out the rest of their plan. We are dealing with two large stories that are consuming more than their fair share of shared-universe comic pages (not quite as much at DC) to play out an old, old idea by a tired writer who keeps his ideas in the back of his head, waiting for the chance to plug them in wherever he can make them fit.”

And finally:

“While crafting a meta-story is not in itself a bad idea, it is hard to do in cinematic style. The most comfortable place for that is TV. It can be accomplished in comics, but it takes more cohesive planning and better story-telling than either of the two companies are managing. Geoff Johns proves the exception because he is not doing a hyped "special event" outside the normal monthly titles. Instead, his narrative is crafted within each title, with organic implications for other places in the shared universe. Other writers are free to take some of those implications and run with them, incorporated into the other titles, and most of the good writers do so, which makes for a natural meta-story in collaboration with the massive number of other creative people who are playing in the same sandbox and borrowing the same toys, which might be affected by the changes implied in his titles. The end result is a gripping narrative with meaningful events and character growth. With the Bendis and Morrison titles, we get hyped marketing that the characters will be changed forever... until their next event which shatters all of your preconceived notions, ad infinitum.”

FanBoyWonder has had this essay on the brain all weekend but it wasn’t until we watched a re-run of South Park that it came to us in a bolt of lightning. DC and Marvel Comics are at a crossroads with both their “events” They stand in the eye of the storm—the perfect storm of self-satisfaction. In a word—SMUG!

For anyone who didn’t catch the classic South Park Episode “Smug Alert” the upshot of the episode is that when Kyle’s dad buys a hybrid, he becomes so self-satisfied and preachy and obvlious to reality that he starts to enjoy the smell of his own farts. Others in town quickly follow suit resulting in a massive “smug storm.”

The problem as we see it has been a long time in building and certainly not entirely the fault of either writers Morrison or Bendis—although they are certainly a large symptom of the problem. In a nutshell, comic book storytelling, its storytellers and comic book fans have come to take themselves WAY too seriously.

It wasn’t so bad when “comic books” first became “graphic novels.” Everyone wants a little respect, comics fans are no exception so it was nice to have our art form recognized and respected at long last.

From ‘Characters’ to ‘Properties’

However, as fans became more “sophisticated”—or at least older—the Big two publishers—DC and Marvel seemed to lose sight of the actual storytelling—“characters” became “properties” and publishing took a back seat to movies, media and merchandising.

So comic books have found themselves relegated to the “kids table” at their own banquet. Consequently, there’s been much less “adult supervision” by DC and Marvel’s parent companies and so long as the books were published and they didn’t lose too much money, big corporate didn’t care.

Thus the comic book star system grabbed hold of the industry with a python-like grip. The star system had been born long before this current “Secret Crisis” to be sure but “talents” like Mr. Morrison and Mr. Bendis have helped fuel this star into a “supernova” of hubris at the same time that comic book galaxy is dramatically shrinking.

To their credit, these stars DO come to the comic book kids table with a vision and ideas—some brilliant, others hopelessly flawed—but ideas nonetheless. This is much to the relief of current management which by all outward appearances and recent track record, management appears to be totally devoid of idea or vision beyond “sell, sell, sell!”

Thus with the aide and abetment of the publishers, the star system of writers does not write for their audience but for their own amusement—to express THEIR vision of the (comics) universe as they see it. This comes much to the consternation of the lower profile but more reliable writers in the comics bullpen—the age old resentment of show horses vs. workhorses.

Under the current alignment of the “stars,” these high-profile hacks don’t care or don’t know what stories came before them because it doesn’t matter—they are living in the now because they are in the know. Their universe is the six-to-eight issues it takes to fill a trade.

We the long-time reader/customer are ridiculed for not liking what’s being sold to us— for “not getting it.” This time it really IS like nothing that’s ever been done before—their story is REALLY sophisticated so please don’t bother them with questions of quality control or disagreements on direction. Don’t you know who they are?

Now that’s just SMUG!

Of course, we the reader are not exempt from criticism. We may not like what they are selling but we’ve been buying it so we are as much a part of the problem as anything. We enable the problem.

So what’s the Secret Crisis? There’s a major Smug Storm closing in on the horizon. It’s headed down the pretentious turnpike, with its many-headed crossover titles sucking up all of the readers’ disposable income and good will until….like San Francisco in the South Park universe…the Big Two of DC and Marvel Comics disappear completely up their own…anal orifices.

FanBoyWonder & Kemosabe Review The Dark Knight

2008-08-10T20:16:00.000-07:00

Here’s the Upshot from Warner Brothers: “Batman (Christian Bale) raises the stakes in his war on crime. With the help of Lt. Jim Gordon (Gary Oldman) and District Attorney Harvey Dent (Aaron Eckhart), Batman sets out to dismantle the remaining criminal organizations that plague the city streets. The partnership proves to be effective but soon they find themselves prey to a reign of chaos unleashed by a rising criminal mastermind known to the terrified citizens of Gotham known as The Joker (the late Heath Ledger).”

FanBoyWonder and our best pal and all around Kemosabe John Micek went to see the much anticipated sequel to 2005’s Batman Begins—The Dark Knight during its opening weekend.

Even as we started to record our impressions during the short drive back to Kemosabe’s house from the theatre, we quickly realized that the film was just too big for us properly review in a shoot from the hip format.

So we split the difference by first recording our initial impression then taking time to ponder the Dark Knight before entering into our Siskel and Ebert-like give and take exchange via e-mail.

MEGA SPOILER WARNING: If you haven’t yet seen The Dark Knight, don’t read any farther.

Roll tape:

FanBoyWonder: I think I finally get the Joker now. The Joker always kind of annoyed me because he….I never figured out why [Batman] or anybody just never put a cap in him but it really was like the end of The Killing Joke. But at least they didn’t’ share a laugh.

But they both recognized something in each other that they can’t kill.

Kemosabe: Batman is Batman. He can’t cross that line. He can’t kill The Joker has no compunction about killing. So it’s like the unstoppable force meets the immovable object. It’s like they said in the movie, there’s nothing that can be done about it.

They are just destined to lock horns with each other because Batman can’t ever cross that line and kill [The Joker] and that’s the only way he’ll ever be stopped.

FBW: It’s even more elemental than that. It’s Order and Chaos. They truly can’t vanquish one another.

KS: I liked that they never actually explained him—no origin [for The Joker]. It could be one of like three origins. He’s just like some demonic force.

FBW: Exactly how The Joker is in the comic.

Gary Oldman took it up a notch as Commissioner Gordon.

KS: I agree.

FBW: And wow they killed Batman’s ‘ Lois Lane ’ [Rachel Dawes played by Maggie Gyllenhaal]

KS: She wasn’t ‘ Lois Lane ’.

FBW: She was the love interest.

KS: Ah….it was kind of weak.

FBW: That actually surprised me that they killed her off.

KS: I had actually heard that it was going to happen so I wasn’t entirely surprised.

FBW: [Gyllenhaal] actually did a little more with [the role of Rachel Dawes] than did Katie Holmes.

KS: That’s because they gave Katie Holmes nothing to work with and Maggie Gyllenhaal played her a lot fiercer.

FBW: Gyllenhaal I thought was marginally better but what do you do with the ‘girl part’ in these kind of films.

And nobody plays B-movie scumbag like Eric Roberts [as Gotham mob boss Sal Maroni]. He came a tad close…he didn’t quite cross the line but he came right up to it as far as overdoing it.

KS: It was parody. I will not be as kind as you. It was outright parody.

FBW: He gets a little bit of legitimacy by appearing in Heroes and he thinks he’s the cat’s ass now.

Overall, The Dark Knight makes Batman Begins look like a Super Friends cartoon episode.

KS: It was bleak. There were a couple scenes that I found quite chilling like with [Gordon’s] son. As a father you just feel that stuff. The impossibility of the choice.

[Momentary pause after FanBoyWonder drops the tape recorder in the car]

KS: I will quibble with the editing. It was dark and it was kind of murky. It was very fast and it was very hard to see…very hard for the eye to keep track of what was going on.

Granted its kind of Batman’s thing. He disappears. He comes back.

FBW: [Director] Christopher Nolan has gotten better at doing action scenes but wow, they took it up a notch.

I thought that Anthony Michael Hall as the anchorman [Gotham Cable News reporter Mike Engel] was going to have more to do.

KS: Is that who that was?

FBW: Yeah.

At this point we got to Stately Kemosabe Manor and we both realized that we need time to chew on what we saw. So below an e-mail exchange starting about a week after we viewed the film.

FanBoyWonder starts the e-mail exchange:

I liked the inclusion of Dr. Crane/Scarecrow and the cameo by Cillian Murphy. It was both a nice way to wrap up old business from the previous movie Batman Begins but also a subtle and clever way very early in this sequel to reinforce the previously established theory of “escalation” in the Batman film universe where costumes and capes start to come out of the woodwork following the appearance of Batman.

Did Batman create this new brand of costumed menace or did Batman come onto the scene to combat this new brand of uber-criminal? Chicken or the egg. In any event it was a nice touch.

“You either die the hero or you live long enough to see yourself become the bad guy”

Harvey Dent’s quippy, almost throwaway line over drinks with Bruce Wayne (Christian Bale) and Rachel Dawes is a very neat upshot of a very messy movie and it oh so captures the tragic fate of this character

Aaron Eckhart as Harvey Dent was brilliant. Fanboys everywhere knew his ultimate fate but I found myself hoping against it. That the true mark of a really good film. We wanted Harvey not to endure what ultimately becomes his dark destiny as ‘Two-Face’.

Another word about Eric Roberts. We mentioned that we was over the top and he was definitely not quite the heavy that Tom Wilkinson who played Carmine Falcone— Gotham’s Al Capone in Batman Begins was.

Eric Roberts is no Tom Wilkinson but I guess that was the point. Carmine Falcone was THE BIG mob boss of Gotham. He was taken off the chess board and who takes his place but the junior varsity of the mafia. Still it would have been nice to see Wilkinson again but two Batman Begins cameos would have been pushing it I suppose.

Morgan Freeman was given a lot more to do as Lucius Fox this time around. Consequently, Michael Caine as Alfred didn’t get as much to do but Alfred did manage to have a couple vital supporting scenes as Bruce Wayne’s manservant, assistant, mentor and co-conspirator.

Morgan Freeman’s Fox really stepped up. Unlike Batman Begins where Fox and Bruce Wayne played it coy—tell me no lies and I’ll ask you no questions—Fox this time around was All In right in the thick of it. No more plausible deniability.

And we really liked how Fox pushed back against Batman when Fox thought Batman was crossing ethical lines by using Wayne Technology, Fox’s invention for a well-intentioned purpose that all-too-easily could have been perverted for ruthless means in the wrong hands.

And yet again with Fox and Alfred and especially Gordon, we see that for all of Batman’s tricks and training and grit, he can’t do it all alone. He’s the one man war on crime but without allies, it would be a quick good night for the Dark Knight.

Speaking of key supporting players, Gotham/Chicago was as much a real character in this story as anything. In Batman Begins, they did shoot some key scenes in the city of Chicago so it looked and felt like a real place and not like you were on a sound stage.

This Gotham City was a living, breathing urban center. You could see it. You could feel it. That made all the difference. This was real movie. Even Batman’s costume/armor and Joker’s get up looked real enough.

This was a plausible, real world movie—as much as humanly possible given the premise and the story’s comic book origins.

Kemosabe responds:

Hope you don't mind if I go all "meta" on you for a moment.

But every time I see a "Batman" film or read one of the seminal comics -- whether it's "Batman Begins" on celluloid or "Killing Joke," or "Year One," on paper, I start thinking about the Batman's iconography and the power of myth.

Because, on a very real level, that's one of the questions/issues that this movie confronts: The Batman (isn't it quaint how they're still using the definite article "The" before his name?) as symbol -- both as a force against=2 0lawlessness and as a reflection of our own inner needs and fears.

One of the things that's driven me crazy in the wake of the release of this movie was the run of articles comparing "Batman" to the current occupant of the White House -- the only similarity between them being their allegedly single-minded pursuit of evil and their desire to vanquish it.

But putting aside the easy political expediencies, there's actually something to it.

At the opening of the film, The Batman is already confronting the problem of the inevitable escalation in weirdness and crime that his very presence in Gotham City has created. You see that with the preponderance of garish villains (Scarecrow, Joke and Two-Face) and with the imitators that he has inspired.

Though he's only been on the job for a short time, The Batman has already gone from man to symbol -- a symbol of order, of law in the face of lawlessness. But even with this success, we find Bruce Wayne questioning his own methods, wondering whether a bogey-man who hides in the shadows, who inspires grown men to dress like him and risk life and limb, is the kind of protector that Gotham City deserves.

Ultimately, he decides it isn't, and determines instead that the future of Gotham lies with the fresh-faced prosecutor Harvey Dent. At one point, he's even ready to chuck it all to live what he hopes will be a quiet life with his lady fair -- Rachel Dawes.

Not to give too much away, but you've got to figure that this isn't the way it's going to work out. And one of the most intriguing parts of the film is watching Batman/Bruce come to terms with his potency as a symbol and his realization that, though it means never getting to live a normal life, he has to fulfill this role in the life of the city.

And that's the point where Batman morphs from a man in a bullet-proof suit to something like a legend. All our greatest myths, after all, involve some kind of sacrifice on the part of the hero. Hercules had his labors. Odysseus had his wanderings. Sisyphus had his boulder. And Batman/Bruce has the war he must know he can never win, but fights anyway.

And there's something a little ennobling about that -- yet still a little sad.

Batman alternately inspires and provokes pity. Inspires because, somewhere, deep inside of us, we hope there's the part of us that would rise to an impossible challenge if called. And sadness because we know the depth of the sacrifice required to do so.

Back to you, Fanboy ...

FanBoyWonder’s Last Word:

Heath Ledger’s Joker—perhaps in no small part due to his unfortunate and untimely death earlier this year—has grabbed the lion’s share of both critical attention and viewer buzz but I think Aaron Eckhart deserves a special word of praise for playing two separate and distinct characters within the same film—one heroic and one unredeemable—in his portrayal of Harvey Dent and later Two-Face.

Gotham’s “White Knight” DA could have easily been painted into a corner of blandness as a white-bread, by-the-book, naïve public official that works within the system to battle corruption—and is always doomed to fail.

But Eckhart—with the help of some good scripting—brings a heaviness and depth to Harvey Dent. Dent plays by the rules (mostly) but he also plays the angles within those rules—hence the double-headed coin (“I make my own luck.”).

Eckhart gave viewers the sense that Dent had real, pragmatic flaws long before the “accident” that gives birth to Two-Face. Dent’s horrible scaring didn’t give him superpowers or funky fighting abilities but it did take the lid off of the inhibitions that most of us keep inside (i.e. NOT ramming the car that cuts you off in traffic).

One complaint I have of the film: I was confused as to Harvey’s final fate when I walked out of the theatre.

Two other things I really liked about Dark Knight was the evolution of Batman’s relationship with Gordon.

We see it just as it is in the comics—semi-condoned by the GPD as evidenced in a couple of time where Batman appears at a crime scene and Gordon orders his cops to clear the room and they grudgingly but quickly comply.

As part of that, we also got to see something of the “Dark Knight Detective” where Batman collected a bullet then back at the Bat-lair (was it really a cave?), Bruce and Alfred use Wayne-tech to run ballistics tests and run down leads on the computer Oracle-style. I hope they play up more of the detective angle next time.

Bottom line: For a film that was so long, (about 20 minutes too long I think), at the same time it also felt terribly rushed at times—especially during the extended third act with Two-Face.

Maybe I’m pulling this out of the air but one got the impression that Nolan and Company perhaps weren’t sure if they would be around for the next bat-film so they went All-In with the Dark Knight to make their statement.

I’m going to need to go see it again to pick up what I missed the first time but Dark Knight was a definite home run in my book. I’m looking forward to letting Brianna the Girl Wonder see it…in another 5 years.

Kemosabe Takes Us Home:

One final word before we part. And I recall reading this elsewhere, so the meme is already out there.

One of my favorite scenes in the film is the ballistics test in the "Batcave."
Why? Because it's a reminder that Batman, in addition to being a revenge-obsessed loner with an undeniable way with his fists, is also "The World's Greatest Detective."

The test-fire scene featuring Bruce and Alfred is one of the rare glimpses of that side of the character, and it's one that deserves to be explored more.

After all, if Batman is nothing else, he's the culture's most enduring pulp hero. And one of the great addictions of the pulp genre is following the character as he unravels a mystery. Heck, not for nothing is one of the flagship Bat-titles called "Detective Comics."

If there's a third bite at the apple, I'd love to see a more classically Noir-ish take on the character. That is, less focus on the fists and more on the unraveling of a great mystery.

FBW Editor’s Note: When not playing the part of FanBoyWonder’s Kemosabe or when not playing with two bands -- Milkshake Jones www.myspace.com/milkshakejones and Fink’s Constant, http://www.myspace.com/finksconstant -- John L. Micek covers Pennsylvania politics for a major Keystone State newspaper—read his political blog, Capitol Ideas, at http://blogs.mcall.com/capitol_ideas.

R.I.P. Isaac Hayes—A.K.A. South Park’s Chef

2008-08-10T16:57:00.000-07:00

FanBoyWonder was shocked to hear the news of the passing of legendry singer Isaac Hayes—known most recently as the voice of Chef from South Park. He was 65.

Long after he was known as the “Shaft” guy, he got a career second wind to a whole new generation of fans as the voice of Chef—three words—“Chocolate Salty Balls.”

Hayes ended his association with the South Park guys and the South Park fans on an acrimonious note when he abruptly quit the show—purportedly in protest over the show’s poking fun at Scientology. But the South Park guys make fun of everyone so go figure.

So when the guys “killed” off Chef, Kyle summed it up best during the episode’s memorial service—“We shouldn't be mad at Chef for leaving us, we should be mad at that fruity little club for scrambling his brains." - a not-so-subtle jab at Scientology.

We’ve always hoped that Matt and Trey and Isaac would bury the hatchet and allow for the return of Chef—now that can never be.

Let’s hope that Chef is out there resting in peace—and haunting John Edward.

Rest In Peace—Isaac Hays. Good-bye Chef!

Below is Mr. Hayes obit from the Associated Press:

Singer, songwriter Isaac Hayes dies at age 65

MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) — Isaac Hayes, the pioneering singer, songwriter and musician whose relentless "Theme From Shaft" won Academy and Grammy awards, died Sunday afternoon, the Shelby County Sheriff's Office said. He was 65.

A family member found him unresponsive near a treadmill and he was pronounced dead an hour later at Baptist East Hospital in Memphis, according to the sheriff's office. The cause of death was not immediately known.

In the early 1970s, Hayes laid the groundwork for disco, for what became known as urban-contemporary music and for romantic crooners like Barry White. And he was rapping before there was rap.

His career hit another high in 1997 when he became the voice of Chef, the sensible school cook and devoted ladies man on the animated TV show "South Park."

Steve Shular, a spokesman for the sheriff's office, said authorities received a 911 call after Hayes' wife and young son and his wife's cousin returned home from the grocery store and found him collapsed in a downstairs bedroom. A sheriff's deputy administered CPR until paramedics arrived.

"The treadmill was running but he was unresponsive lying on the floor," Shular said.
The album "Hot Buttered Soul" made Hayes a star in 1969. His shaven head, gold chains and sunglasses gave him a compelling visual image.

"Hot Buttered Soul" was groundbreaking in several ways: He sang in a "cool" style unlike the usual histrionics of big-time soul singers. He prefaced the song with "raps," and the numbers ran longer than three minutes with lush arrangements.

"Jocks would play it at night," Hayes recalled in a 1999 Associated Press interview. "They could go to the bathroom, they could get a sandwich, or whatever."

Next came "Theme From Shaft," a No. 1 hit in 1971 from the film "Shaft" starring Richard Roundtree.

"That was like the shot heard round the world," Hayes said in the 1999 interview.

At the Oscar ceremony in 1972, Hayes performed the song wearing an eye-popping amount of gold and received a standing ovation. TV Guide later chose it as No. 18 in its list of television's 25 most memorable moments. He won an Academy Award for the song and was nominated for another one for the score. The song and score also won him two Grammys.

"The rappers have gone in and created a lot of hit music based upon my influence," he said. "And they'll tell you if you ask."

Hayes was elected to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2002.

"I knew nothing about the business, or trends and things like that," he said. "I think it was a matter of timing. I didn't know what was unfolding."

A self-taught musician, he was hired in 1964 by Stax Records of Memphis as a backup pianist, working as a session musician for Otis Redding and others. He also played saxophone.

He began writing songs, establishing a songwriting partnership with David Porter, and in the 1960s they wrote such hits for Sam and Dave as "Hold On, I'm Coming" and "Soul Man." All this led to his recording contract.

In 1972, he won another Grammy for his album "Black Moses" and earned a nickname he reluctantly embraced. Hayes composed film scores for "Tough Guys" and "Truck Turner" besides "Shaft." He also did the song "Two Cool Guys" on the "Beavis and Butt-Head Do America" movie soundtrack in 1996.

Additionally, he was the voice of Nickelodeon's "Nick at Nite" and had radio shows in New York City (1996 to 2002) and then in Memphis.

He was in several movies, including "It Could Happen to You" with Nicolas Cage, "Ninth Street" with Martin Sheen, "Reindeer Games" starring Ben Affleck and the blaxploitation parody "I'm Gonna Git You, Sucka."

In the 1999 interview, Hayes described the South Park cook as "a person that speaks his mind; he's sensitive enough to care for children; he's wise enough to not be put into the 'whack' category like everybody else in town — and he l-o-o-o-o-ves the ladies."

But Hayes angrily quit the show in 2006 after an episode mocked his Scientology religion. "There is a place in this world for satire, but there is a time when satire ends and intolerance and bigotry towards religious beliefs of others begins," he said.

Co-creator creators Matt Stone responded that Hayes "has no problem — and he's cashed plenty of checks — with our show making fun of Christians." A subsequent episode of the show seemingly killed off the Chef character.

Hayes was born in 1942 in a tin shack in Covington, Tenn., about 40 miles north of Memphis. He was raised by his maternal grandparents after his mother died and his father took off when he was 1 1/2. The family moved to Memphis when he was 6.

Hayes wanted to be a doctor, but got redirected when he won a talent contest in ninth grade by singing Nat King Cole's "Looking Back."

He held down various low-paying jobs, including shining shoes on the legendary Beale Street in Memphis. He also played gigs in rural Southern juke joints where at times he had to hit the floor because someone began shooting.

FanBoyWonder’s *&#$@! Birthday

2008-08-07T02:00:00.000-07:00

(Pictured above: Not the "God**mmed FanBoyWonder"….but an incredible simulation!)

Today is FanBoyWonder’s birthday (hold your applause and/or condolences until the end please). We are neither bragging nor complaining...just admitting to facts already in evidence.

However, if you follow the news at all, you may have heard that there’s a little bit of HEAT around the corner from FanBoyWonder’s world headquarters in Frederick, Maryland. So before we are named a “person of interest” in the commission of our own birthday by some Fancy But Incompetent blue suit, we’ve opted to flee the jurisdiction for today.

Thus Grandpa FBW will off the grid today and on the hiking trail where we will be contemplating our mortality and our slippery slide toward middle age, as well as getting a head start on planning a really, really grand mid-life crisis--suggestions welcome!

So we’ll see you on the other side!

PS: A happy happy Birthday to our good friend Dr. Bill, with whom we share the day. Cheers Doctor!

Bush League Justice???

2008-08-06T04:43:00.000-07:00

FanBoyWonder spotted this editorial cartoon while reading Time.com yesterday—Time in turn picked it up from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and we thought it was just too darned funny not to share.

Now this is about as political as we get on this blog and our fanboy friends on the Right need not get all lathered up—we’re an equal opportunity make-fun-of-er.

In the interest of fairness, we’ll post a comic book cartoon that equally tweaks the Lefty Moonbats the moment we see something that fits the bill—AND that is funny.

Speedy Recovery to Morgan Freeman

2008-08-05T01:02:00.000-07:00

FanBoyWonder would like to extend our best wishes and a speedy recovery to Oscar ® winning actor Morgan Freeman—best known to fanboys and girls as Lucius Fox, Batman’s gadget guy in Batman Begins and the now-playing The Dark Knight.

Mr. Freeman was seriously injured and reported hospitalized in serious condition in a Tennessee hospital following an automobile accident yesterday.

Freeman, 71, "has a broken arm, broken elbow and minor shoulder damage, but is in good spirits," according to a statement from Donna Lee, Freeman's publicist as reported by the Associated Press.

Below is Lee’s statement in full regarding Mr. Freeman’s condition:

MEMPHIS, Tenn.-- The following is a statement by Donna Lee - Spokesperson/Publicist for Morgan Freeman:

Regarding Morgan's injuries - "Morgan has a broken arm, elbow and has minor shoulder damage but was in good spirits when I spoke with him a short time ago at the Elvis Presley Memorial Trauma Center at The MED, a Level 1 Trauma Center at the Regional Medical Center at Memphis.

He is having a little bit of surgery this afternoon or tomorrow to help correct the damage. He says he'll be OK and is looking forward to a full recovery."

Folks are welcome to send well wishes - no flowers or gifts - to:
PO Box 16548, Encino, CA 91416 in care of Morgan Freeman
Or they can blog him at: http://www.planitnow.org/morgan/
He and we thank everyone who has sent them for the good wishes and prayers.

Mr. Freeman has a long, distinguished body of work but to FanBoyWonder he’ll always be The Easy Reader from the Electric Company in the ‘70s and of course, Ellis Boyd "Red" Redding, wise prison lifer from The Shawshank Redemption.

Godspeed Red and get well soon!

Justice Society Infinity—The Best of Both Worlds??

2008-08-02T19:25:00.000-07:00

Sometimes you know you are going to love a comic book from the moment you see it solicited—that was us back in April when FanBoyWonder first spied the beautiful Alex Ross cover for Justice Society of America Annual #1. We were NOT disappointed.

The Upshot from DC Comics: Welcome to Earth-2! Power Girl has made a life for herself on our world, as a member and chairwoman of the Justice Society of America and as a hero in her own right. But she's never stopped dreaming of one day returning to her Earth — the parallel world where the members of the Justice Society were the only heroes. Where her best friend was Helena Wayne, the daughter of Batman. And where evil was a little easier to fight…wasn't it? As her greatest wish comes true, Power Girl's about to find herself back on Earth-2, surrounded by friends she thought she'd lost forever.

FanBoyWonder’s Takeaway: This issue was really quite good. Better than our high expectations with a plot twist that was a shocker yet seems so obvious in retrospect. After months of nearly boring us to tears with his agonizingly slow Gog storyline, JSA Annual #1 is Geoff Johns at his best and the art by Jerry ‘Mr. Earth-2” Ordway was some of the best of his career.

Quick History Recap: Prior to 1985’s DC Universe shattering maxi-series CRISIS on Infinite Earths, Earth-2 was an alternate reality, a parallel universe home to the Justice Society of America and the “Golden Age” versions of Superman, Batman and Wonder Women who made their debut prior to World War II and who aged with the passing years.

Earth-1 by contrast was home to the younger counterparts of Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman and of the Justice LEAGUE of America and was the hub of the DC Universe.

On Earth-2, Power Girl was introduced as Superman’s cousin. PG’s Earth-1 counterpart was Supergirl but PG was much cooler because she picked her own distinct hero name rather than follow a “super” shadow (the costume didn’t hurt her standing with fanboys either).

Also on Earth-2, Batman and Catwoman got married and had a daughter named Helena while Robin grew up. Helena became The Huntress after her parents died and Huntress and Power Girl became fast friends, as well as the vanguard of the next generation of Earth-2 heroes, followed a few years later by Infinity Inc.

The smaller, more finite multiverse and what appears to be Earth-2 was restored following the events of 52. In the last issue of Justice Society of America, Gog sent Power Girl “home” and here we all are.

We had been hungering for a spotlight on Power Girl since the events of [the god-awful] Infinite Crisis restored Power Girl’s pre-CRISIS on Infinite Earths origin and making Kara Zor-L the last daughter of the Multiverse.

Remembering her true origin has been a truly mixed blessing for PG as she knows who is she is and where she came but truth comes with a terrible price. She can never go home again to Earth-2 because following the CRISIS, Earth-2 never existed.

So it seems a dream come true for both PG and FBW to see her crash land on Earth-2, found by her best friend The Huntress—Helena Wayne, the daughter of Batman.

From the aforementioned Alex Ross cover—appropriately hazy like a window back in time— we thought we were going to see the pre-CRISIS Justice Society and Infinity Inc. as we remembered them—circa 1983 with Jade who is alive and well, as is the Silver Scarab, Fury, and The Atom/Al Pratt.

This wasn’t the JSA frozen in place from the early 80s (despite Nuklon’s unfortunate Mohawk straight out of “Flock of Seagulls”). Rather this was Earth-2 for the new millennium—Justice Society Infinity.

Featuring Star Spangled Kid/Sylvester Pemberton as Chairman, JSI is the logical progression of the Earth-2 that we once knew had the CRISIS never occurred. On this Earth-2, the members of Infinity Inc., the team made up of the sons and daughters and next generation of Earth-2 heroes, succeeded their parents to carry on their tradition of Justice while at the same time making their own mark on “Society”—hence Justice Society Infinity.

One can tell that Ordway missed these characters just as much as we did. His layouts are rock solid—including a clever couple of pages featuring JSI that that were reminiscent of Todd McFarlane’s style when he was Infinity Inc.’s “penciler in residence” for writer Roy Thomas.

Thanks to his run on Thomas’ Infinity Inc. and before that World War II-based All Star Squadron, Ordway became the artist most associated with heroes of Earth-2. There’s no doubt that Geoff Johns crafted a first-rate story here but it wouldn’t have had nearly the emotional punch that it did if it were not for Ordway’s retro-visuals—he really did bring us back to Earth-2.

Unfortunately for Power Girl (and FanBoyWonder), you really can’t go home again. This isn’t the Earth-2 of the pre-CRISIS but an incredible simulation.

The way that we and Power Girl finds out is nothing less than Johns at the top of his game. Two-thirds of the way through the issue, when Kara has finally accepted that she is “home” and has re-bonded with her best friend The Huntress, who shows up but …..Power Girl.

Irony alert: Power Girl has a parallel Earth doppelganger. As Kara tries to explain to her angry double (who punches first and asks questions later—again with the irony) and an enraged Huntress who just opened her heart to this “imposter”—the wackiness ensues.

Power Girl-2 mobilizes the JSI and now the hunt is on. Great Krypton indeed!

What we really didn’t like: Huntress admits to PG that the secret (and unrequited) love for her life is Robin. Her father’s adopted son and her older brother in all but blood. Yuck! Come on Geoff Johns. That’s just wrong!!!!! We’re willing to over look this if you never so much as mention this again.

What we really liked: We thought this Annual would be a one-off story in which Power Girl sees her old friends of the “original” Justice Society, realizes that she can’t go home again, resolves her feelings of loss and comes back to the JSA of “New Earth” changed for the better and her burden lifted.

Instead, Johns drop kicks PG and the reader right into the next big story arc even as the Gog story-line plays itself out. We are excited beyond at the prospect of the Justice Society of America and Justice Society Infinity meeting.

To Infinity and beyond!

FanBoyWonder’s Comic Book Consolidation Challenge—Part 1

2008-07-29T19:36:00.000-07:00

FanBoyWonder has not exactly made secret lately our disappointment and in some cases outright distain for a lot what is being offered in the way of comic book reading of late.

So given that the state of the economy and given that our disposable income has taken a hit in the midst of this non-recession, recession that we’re in—as well as the fact that we’ve recently taken in some extra mouths to feed—we’ve opted to conduct a top-to-bottom review of our regular comic book reading to see what books have been under-performing with an eye toward trimming the fat and curtailing expenses.

To that end, we have sought to look at the upcoming titles for the month of August with three basic outcomes—“KEEP,” “DROP” or “ON THE BUBBLE.” With only a few exceptions, we’re looking at only regular ongoing series that are currently on our “pull list” at Brainstorm Comics and not mini-series or one-shot specials.

So without further ado, let’s cut to the quick:

Comics On Sale August 6

Final Crisis #3 (of7)

The Upshot from DC Comics: Batman missing in action! Superman immobilized! Green Lantern on trial for his life! A shadow is falling across Earth's super heroes — and now it's Wonder Woman's turn to face the Evil Gods!

What bizarre warning from beyond awaits Frankenstein, The Question and the agents of S.H.A.D.E. in the shadows of the Dark Side Club? What grim fate lies in store for The Human Flame? What happens when the Anti-Life Equation hits the internet? Can the Fastest Men Alive outrun The Black Racer — Death himself? And who are the Justifiers? The answers are all here as the unstoppable rise of evil continues in FINAL CRISIS #3. by Grant Morrison and J.G. Jones. 40 pages, $3.99.

FanBoyWonder’s Verdict: A reluctant KEEP.

The Why: Like it or not, we feel compelled to see this “event” through to the bitter end in the hope that we might be surprised and like it. That said, we refuse to purchase any of the Final Crisis crossover and spin-off titles. If Mr. Morrison can’t tell his story in the seven-issue main title, it’s not worth reading.

Manhunter #33

The Upshot: Manhunter finds a shocking link between the disappearances of immigrant workers and big business – and that means attorney Kate Spencer's going to court, if she doesn't become a target first! 32 pages, $2.99. Written by Marc Andreyko; Art by Michael Gaydos; Cover by Liam Sharp.

FBW’s Verdict: KEEP

The Why: Our best pal and all around Kemosabe turned us on to this book and we are glad that DC Comics finally got around starting it up again after its reprieve from cancellation. As a reader who only came on board during Manhunter’s post-cancellation 5-issue trial last year, writer Marc Andreyko could do a better job of attracting new readers by throwing an exposition bone or two but it’s quality writing.

Kate Spencer is not an especially attractive (i.e. likable) character—especially for a “hero” but Andreyko keeps us rooting for her anyway. The art by Michel Gaydos has been a little tougher to swallow. The art isn’t bad as evidenced by his breakdowns but instead of inking his own pencils, the book requires an inker to bring out the best of Gaydos’ visuals.

Nightwing #147

The Upshot: A "Batman: R.I.P." tie-in! Two-Face hits New York City–but when he takes a bite out of the Big Apple, he finds it rotten to the core. He'll make Nightwing and all of New York pay for their crimes…unless Nightwing can save one of Harvey Dent's old flames from an assassin's bullet! 32pg., $2.99 Written by Peter J. Tomasi; Art by Don Kramer and Sandu Florea; Cover by Rags Morales

FBW Verdict: DEFINITE KEEP!

The Why: As regular FanBoyWonder readers know, Nightwing has been a sentimental favorite of ours since that day in 1984 in the pages of Tales of the Teen Titans #44 when the former Robin the Boy Wonder grew up and became his own man as Nightwing.

Since then the character has floundered—at best never quite meeting his full potential or at worst…being written by Bruce Jones. While former long-time writer Chuck Dixon made Nightwing cool and competent when this series debut—he never managed much in the way of character growth.

Enter Peter Tomasi and finally at long last we see a writer who can perhaps bring Nightwing to his full potential—assuming stupid crossovers like Batman R.I.P. don’t get in the way. Whatever else we cut, you’ll have to pry Nightwing from our cold, dead hands.

Trinity #10

The Upshot: This month in TRINITY: The Justice League joins Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman to stand against the threat that the Crime Syndicate brings to Earth. And, in this month's co-features, members of Batman's "family" search for clues to what ties several thefts together – and what links them to the cosmic conflict that has resulted! 32pg. $2.99.

Written by Kurt Busiek and Fabian Nicieza; Art by Mark Bagley and Art Thibert and Scott McDaniel and Andy Owens and Tom Derenick and Wayne Faucher; Covers by Andy Kubert and Jesse Delperdang

FBW Verdict: DROP (like a stone).

The Why: For the record, FanBoyWonder has nothing against the concept of the weekly comic book. However, we do prefer a good weekly comic book. 52 was marginal at best and Countdown was a disaster but despite this we gave Trinity a chance.

In large part this was due to respect for the past work of Kurt Busiek and especially Mark Bagley, fresh from his run on Spider-Man for Marvel, we wanted to see him draw DC. But once again, this weekly series is glacial in its pace and it seems designed to do little more than bleed $2.99 per week from our wallet.

We were just starting to see where Trinity was going (maybe) with Issue 8 but that’s some $23 later. If this were the first weekly series out of the gate rather than the third we might hang in there but a year of this???? Don’t think so.

Our advice to DC—have team Trinity wrap up the story as soon as possible in the publishing cycle—we’re talking weeks, not months—then we’ll all just forget this weekly “experiment” idea for another 20 years.

Comics On Sale August 13

Amazing Spider-Girl #23

The Upshot from Marvel Comics: “Did someone say CLONES?!?” As Peter demands answers from Kaine about the brand new May, Spider-Girl learns that Humanity First has targeted both Davida and Sara for death and she can only save one. Part 4 of 5. $2.99

FBW’s Verdict: DEFINITE KEEP!

The Why: We LOVE this book. This is Old School Spidey in a cute new package. Tom DeFalco and Ron Frenz have continue to show the came comic book can appeal to kids of all ages. May Parker is her father’s daughter but she’s also her own person and this is a book we can’t wait to allow Brianna the Girl Wonder read when it’s time. Go Old School!

Booster Gold #11

The Upshot from DC Comics: Guest writer Chuck Dixon jumps into the Timestream to tell a tale of Booster Gold and Batman! When Booster is charged with stopping a time-traveling villain from Batman's past, he must travel back in time and go undercover as Killer Moth to stop this mystery man from destroying Gotham City! Guest-starring Batgirl! 32pg. $2.99. Written by Chuck Dixon; Art and Cover by Dan Jurgens and Norm Rapmund .

FBW’s Verdict: ON THE BUBBLE

The Why: We were excited about this book when it first came out. We had read Booster Gold’s original series—written and drawn by Dan Jurgens—back in the 80s and when we heard that DC’s Boy Wonder Geoff Johns would be co-writing this with the collaboration of artist Jurgens, we were pleased.

Jurgens himself has admitted that he didn’t yet possess the proper storytelling tools when he first wrote and drew Booster’s original 25-issue series. Yet two decades later with Johns’ help, Booster Gold became a top shelf character ironically enough by fooling the DC Universe into thinking he was a useless dolt and by giving Booster—a refugee from the 25th Century—a grand purpose as guardian of the time stream.

Yet Johns slowly began to lose us with an overly complicated storyline in Booster’s attempt to undo Blue Beetle Ted Kord’s murder by taking the reader through a grand tour of all of the DC “events” best left forgotten such as Zero Hour and 1 Million.

Now Johns has left the book after Issue 10 and we’re not sure how long Jurgens will stick around as artist or even stepping back up as Booster’s writer.

We’ll hang in there for a bit but if further cost cutting is required, Booster Gold as it stands at this moment on the chopping block.

Checkmate #29

The Upshot from DC Comics: The Royals send an increasingly erratic Chimera up against an imminent apocalypse! Good thing the Global Guardians are there to back him up! 32pg. $2.99. Written by Bruce Jones; Art and Cover by Manuel Garcia.

FBW’s Verdict: DEFINITE DROP!

The Why: We have to admit we wanted to like this book as we like Greg Rucka’s work but we never fully engaged with Checkmate despite seeing the great potential of the book and the premise. We often said when reviewing the book that Rucka was too smart for his own good.

Perhaps he gave readers such as FanBoyWonder too much credit but we had trouble keeping up with the political twists and turns helped not at all by Rucka’s unwillingness to throw the reader even the occasional bone to catch us up.

Furthermore, Rucka never really had a feel for Amanda “The Wall” Waller as he was determined to paint her as totally ruthless with none of her irony or mirth that Waller’s creator John Ostrander exhibited during the days of Suicide Squad.

This became especially evident during this year’s eight-issue Suicide Squad reunion mini-series and the reader could compare side by side Rucka’s Waller to Ostrander’s Waller. But more than that, Ostrander’s Suicide Squad was a much more compelling read than Checkmate.

We admit that we likely wouldn’t have bought this book at all when it started a couple of years back if not for the inclusion of Green Lantern Alan Scott as the White King. Yet we stayed even after they dispatched GL after 4 issues.

We were more than ready to leave this book behind with Rucka when he left at Issue 25 and the announcement of Bruce Jones fresh from his god-awful run on Nightwing made it more than easy to drop this book and never look back.

Apparently, the marketplace agreed with us as we just heard that the book is canceled after Issue 31. Next stop, 5 for $1 bin.

Green Lantern Corps # 27

The Upshot: Witness the grand opening of the new Warriors bar! Then, meet a mysterious new Lantern by the name of Saarek, who can hear the dead. What brings him to Oa – and why are the dead growing restless? 32pg. $2.99 Written by Peter J. Tomasi; Art by Luke Ross and Fabio Laguna; Cover by Rodolfo Migliari

FBW’s Verdict: KEEP

The Why: From the start this book has been unfairly caught in the shadow of the main Green Lantern book given that Geoff Johns’ GL has been a hit or miss prospect while GLC has consistently cranked out quality stories and almost always on-time.

We really liked original GLC writer Dave Gibbons and we were disappointed when he moved on after the Sinestro Corps War (jump or pushed?). But Peter Tomasi has stepped in to continue the quality storytelling.

GLC is a much harder book to write as it staring Guy Gardner with Kyle Rayner and 7,200 other Green Lanterns as opposed to the Hal Jordan Show in Green Lantern with only the occasional cameo by John Stewart.

Lately Tomasi should be commended for single-handedly attempting to maintain the momentum following the Sinestro Corps War and Alpha Lantern story arcs. While Geoff Johns has opted for the momentum-killing, place holding six-issue Secret Origin of Hal Jordan, life for the 6,999 other Lanterns has gone on in the pages of GLC.

FanBoyWonder is a long time GL fan so we’re apt to collect both titles but if push came to shove between GL and GLC, we’d be hard pressed to drop Tomasi’s Green Lantern Corps over Johns’ Green Lantern. You’re officially on notice Geoff Johns.

That’s it for now. We’ll tackle the last two weeks of August in Part 2 our Comics Consolidation Challenge—that’s when the knives really come out!

It’s Not Called The DARK Knight For Nothing

2008-07-20T18:52:00.000-07:00

FanBoyWonder has just returned from an action-packed visit with our best pal and all around Kemosabe, the climax of said visit was our screening of the new Batman film—The Dark Knight

In a word….Holy Bleep! That was an intense movie. We agreed that we both liked it but we each needed to process all that we saw in this quite long motion picture.

FanBoyWonder and Kemosabe will doing our usual Siskel & Ebert deal in a few days hence once we’ve had time to process the film and to give consideration to FanBoyWonder readers who have not yet had the chance to view the film.

However, we must warn those going to see the film that Dark Knight is NOT for young children and at some 2 ½ hours, it’s not for anyone with a weak bladder.

Meanwhile, we will mention that during Dark Knight, we saw the film trailer for the live-action Watchmen film due out early next year. In another word—Holy Bleep…two times. What we saw was in many ways the classic graphic novel by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons come to life. We’re looking forward to it.

During our visit to the Kemosabe family, we were privileged to be a guest at the birthday party of Kemosabe’s pride and joy Miss Jo-Jo, who turned three years old this past weekend. The birthday girl was cute as a button and FanBoyWonder was sorry that we were unable to bring our own pride and joy—Brianna The Girl Wonder—to the party but next time for sure we will get our two princesses together. Next time our vow!

We did however enjoy accompanying Kemosabe Saturday night to lovely little bar so we could watch him play with one of his two bands—Fink’s Constant, http://www.myspace.com/finksconstant a local and quite good reggae band.

The band let FanBoyWonder hang out with them and we got to be an honorary roadie as we have a decided lack of musical talent. We’ve somehow have never minded lacking musical gifts—that is until we saw the “groupies.” Ah come on! How come they get groupies??? That is NOT fair????

They could have thrown us a bone and let FanBoyWonder do a Davy Jones tambourine thing on stage just to make it look good but at least we got to say “I’m with the band” just once in our life before we die.

Thanks for a good time fellas!

We have to go to bed now as it’s been quite a while since Grandpa FBW has been out clubbing till the wee-hours of the morning.

Look for our comprehensive review of The Dark Knight coming soon.

Three words: “Why so serious????”

The Dark Knight Strikes A Cord...With Reviewers

2008-07-16T19:19:00.000-07:00

As FanBoyWonder eagerly awaits the coming of the weekend so we can hook up with our best pal and all around Kemosabe then journey to the multiplex to view the much anticipated Batman Begins sequel The Dark Knight, we have noticed with great satisfaction the overwhelmingly positive reception by film reviewers.

Our excitement, already building toward a fever pitch, has been placated not at all as we read the reviews—carefully avoiding spoilers whenever possible.

Below are some samplers:

See you at the movies!

Joe Neumaier—New York Daily News

Comic-book fans may point to earlier mixtures of adult themes and real-world subtext ("X2: X-Men United," "Spider-Man 2," this year's "Iron Man"), but "The Dark Knight" is something else.

The ax-grinding, soul-churning, thought-provoking sequel to 2005's "Batman Begins" dives down and dirty into the unholy mess a society sinks to when fear is its driving force.

Without sacrificing thrills, it finds sober excitement inside the ticking time bombs people can become. It's the "Unforgiven" of superhero movies.

Kyle Smith—New York Post

The highest praise I can give a superhero movie is that it makes me forget about its 10-cent-comic-book soul. "The Dark Knight," unlike its superior predecessor, has some absurdly improbable scheming and sputtering one-liners. It also lacks the chord of ancient evil found in "Batman Begins."

Not least among the welcome features of the new edition, which ventures into shadowlands unknown to "Spider-Man" and the rest, is its references to "the bat man," a distancing touch. He's not one of us, someone you're on a first-name basis with. He is a weird loner who doesn't care what you think of him. Batman is obsessed, unrepentant and excessive. Batman is cool.

"The Dark Knight" benches a lot of weight for an action flick. It creates an experience either less fun or less silly, depending on your taste, than, say, "Iron Man."

Tim Teeman—The Times Online (UK)

The title of this new Batman is revealing: he can swoop over the city all he likes, but he gets no pleasure from meting out justice, or playing the big guy. This is one gloomy superhero whose navel gazing is accentuated by his glottal, laryngitis-like growl.

The genius of The Dark Knight is that Christopher Nolan, the film’s director, producer and co-writer (with brother Jonathan) has not only produced a stunning, amazing comic book movie, but also one with an intellectual heart and a tough, unresolved message at its end. Nolan, who directed the last Bat-movie (Batman Begins in 2005), has a masterful grip on his hero.

Sara Vilkomerson—New York Observer

The much-buzzed-over performance of the late Heath Ledger in this lead role has propelled anticipation for the July 18 opening of The Dark Knight from regular fanboy excitement into full-throated frenzy.

Don’t be fooled by the PG-13 rating: The Dark Knight is no kids’ movie. Rather, it’s a terrifically bleak affair—as weighty, dark and complex as it is thrilling to watch. In fact, the film is a closer relation—and not just i n running time—to last year’s feel-bad Best Picture nominees, No Country for Old Men and There Will Be Blood, than to fellow superhero summer blockbusters like Iron Man, Hellboy II or Hancock.

Though the bad guy might wear purple pants and streaked clowny makeup, and our hero likes to don a bat mask and cape, the issues this film grapples with—identity, incomprehensible violence, a society living in terror—feel awfully familiar, and urgent.

David Ansen—Newsweek

Even darker and more relentlessly serious than "Batman Begins," Christopher Nolan's "The Dark Knight" pits the troubled superhero (Christian Bale) against his most troubling foe—the Joker. As played by the late Heath Ledger, with tangled greasy hair, grotesque white makeup, darting mad eyes and an obscene tongue that keeps licking his slashed, painted-on smile, this Joker is an agent of chaos so arbitrarily evil he strikes terror not just in his foes, but in the mobsters who hire him to eliminate Gotham City's caped crusader.

It's a stupendously creepy performance, wild but never over the top. He cuts a figure so dangerous that you wonder if Batman is up to the task—or if our hero himself will have to become as ruthless as his foe. When you're fighting an enemy who plays by no rules, do you have to abandon your own moral code to vanquish him?

Nolan dispenses with the stylized Gothic sets we're accustomed to in the series: he makes no attempt to hide the fact that Gotham City is modern Chicago. Gone, too, is the antic sense of humor that Tim Burton brought to the show. There's not a touch of lightness in Bale's taut, angst-ridden superhero, and as the two-and-a-half-hour movie enters its second half, the unvarying intensity and the sometimes confusing action sequences take a toll. You may emerge more exhausted than elated. Nolan wants to prove that a superhero movie needn't be disposable, effects-ridden junk food, and you have to admire his ambition. But this is Batman, not "Hamlet." Call me shallow, but I wish it were a little more fun.

With all due respect to Mr. Ansen and to quote the immortal Don Rickles—“That’s your opinion and you’re annoying me.”

By Kirk Honeycutt—The Hollywood Reporter

The Dark Knight" is pure adrenaline. Returning director Christopher Nolan, having dispensed with his introspective, moody origin story, now puts the Caped Crusader through a decathlon of explosions, vehicle flips, hand-to-hand combat, midair rescues and pulse-pounding suspense.

Nolan is one of our smarter directors. He builds movies around ideas and characters, and "Dark Knight" is no exception. The ideas here are not new to the movie world of cops and criminal, but in the context of a comic book movie, they ring out with startling clarity. In other words, you expect moralistic underpinnings in a Martin Scorsese movie; in a Batman movie, they hit home with renewed vigor.

Peter Travers—Rolling Stone

Heads up: a thunderbolt is about to rip into the blanket of bland we call summer movies. The Dark Knight, director Christopher Nolan's absolute stunner of a follow-up to 2005's Batman Begins, is a potent provocation decked out as a comic-book movie. Feverish action? Check. Dazzling spectacle? Check. Devilish fun? Check. But Nolan is just warming up. There's something raw and elemental at work in this artfully imagined universe.

Striking out fr om his Batman origin story, Nolan cuts through to a deeper dimension. Huh? Wha? How can a conflicted guy in a bat suit and a villain with a cracked, painted-on clown smile speak to the essentials of the human condition? Just hang on for a shock to the system. The Dark Knight creates a place where good and evil — expected to do battle — decide instead to get it on and dance. "I don't want to kill you," Heath Ledger's psycho Joker tells Christian Bale's stalwart Batman. "You complete me." Don't buy the tease. He means it.

Justin Chang—Variety

With the Bruce Wayne/Batman backstory firmly established, “The Dark Knight” fans out to take a broader perspective on Gotham City -- portrayed as a seething cauldron of interlocking power structures and criminal factions in the densely layered but remarkably fleet screenplay by helmer Nolan and brother Jonathan (stepping in for “Batman Begins’” David S. Goyer, who gets a story credit).

Using five strongly developed characters to anchor a drama with life-or-death implications for the entire metropolis, the Nolans have taken Bob Kane’s comic book template and crafted an anguished, eloquent meditation on ideas of justice and power, corruption and anarchy and, of course, the need for heroes like Batman -- a question never in doubt for the viewer, but one posed rather often by the citizens of Gotham.

Hulk Film Franchise Smashed?

2008-07-13T19:38:00.000-07:00

Riddle us this fanboys & girls,

What does The Incredible Hulk and Superman Returns have in common?

Each comic book character film was neither a sequel nor exactly a re-boot but were kind of remakes but each felt as if they were on very familiar storytelling ground.

These comic book film franchise echoes were in some ways as good as their predecessors (while decidedly NOT in other ways) but not quite better—or at least better enough to satisfy fans who wanted something new, not just different.

Superman Returns didn’t quite fail at the box office but it underperformed because audiences found it underwhelming when compared to the original Richard Donner-directed Superman film.

Now it would seem that this summer’s Incredible Hulk staring Edward Norton is on track to suffer the same non-success as suffered by the Ang Lee-directed 2003 HULK staring Eric Bana.

A Hollywood Reporter story by Carl DiOrio (picked up by Reuters’ wire service where we read it) speculates that the odds of a sequel to Incredible Hulk (which would make for a THIRD Hulk film) are looking pretty long based on the anemic box office returns so far this summer.

From DiOrio’s article:

“Five years ago, "Hulk," the first movie based on Marvel's hulking green comic book character, rang up $245 million in worldwide box office but was widely dismissed as a commercial failure. The second attempt, "The Incredible Hulk," amped up the fun factor and dialled down the brooding of director Ang Lee's original but is unlikely to gross significantly higher than its predecessor and might not spawn a sequel. And it's been dubbed a success.

“After four weekends, the Louis Leterrier-directed "The Incredible Hulk" has earned $125 million, the same as what "Hulk" had pulled in at the same time in its run. "Hulk" finished with $132 million, and its successor is unlikely to do much better.

“Its foreign rollout is still in progress, with comics-friendly Japan among the territories the remake has yet to bow, but it appears likely that the Edward Norton starrer will struggle to reach $130 million internationally. The first film tallied $113.2 million overseas.

“Despite the similarity of the Hulk films' theatrical runs, industryites suggest the lighter tone of the second film makes it more the vehicle to generate sequels, and some suggest the remake will prove a more lucrative DVD title than the Eric Bana-starring original. On the other hand, production costs and marketing expenses were steeper the second time around, totaling more than $200 million. The first film cost about $150 million to make.”

To put things in perspective, Iron Man has earned more than $560 million at the box office world wide.

FanBoyWonder hopes the folks at Warner Brothers are taking notice and trying to learn the lessons of the Hulk mistake as they prepare the Superman Returns sequel The Man of Steel.

FanBoyWonder Film Spotlight: The Dark Knight

2008-07-11T18:27:00.000-07:00

The fanboy summer film festival reaches critical mass one week from today as the much anticipated Batman flick The Dark Knight hits theatres all over Gotham and from sea to shining sea.

FanBoyWonder began looking forward to this sequel to Batman Begins from the moment the houselights came up at the movies in 2005. From everything we’ve seen and heard thus far, it will have been WELL worth the wait.

Here’s the Upshot from Warner Brothers: “Batman (Christian Bale) raises the stakes in his war on crime. With the help of Lt. Jim Gordon (Gary Oldman) and District Attorney Harvey Dent (Aaron Eckhart), Batman sets out to dismantle the remaining criminal organizations that plague the city streets. The partnership proves to be effective but soon they find themselves prey to a reign of chaos unleashed by a rising criminal mastermind known to the terrified citizens of Gotham known as The Joker (the late Heath Ledger).”

We have been hearing nothing but good buzz about Dark Knight and not just from the usual suspects in Fanboy Nation but throughout the mainstream media as well.

Case in Point—Time magazine’s Richard Corliss:

“[Dark Knight director Christopher] Nolan has a more subversive agenda. He wants viewers to stick their hands down the rat hole of evil and see if they get bitten. With little humor to break the tension, The Dark Knight is beyond dark,” writes Corliss. “It's as black—and teeming and toxic—as the mind of the Joker. Batman Begins, the 2005 film that launched Nolan's series, was a mere five-finger=2 0exercise. This is the full symphony.”

Now that’s what we’re talking about!!!

Christian Bale returns as the title character, as does Gary Oldman as Jim Gordon—this time it’s Lt. Gordon, a bump up from Sgt. Gordon in Batman Begins but not yet “Commissioner” Gordon in this character’s future.

Both Bale and Oldman are dead bang perfect in their parts. Even if they only give us more of the same, we’ll be happy but these are performers with serious acting chops and we would be surprised not it all to see them both rise to the occasion and take it to the next level.

Bale makes it look easy playing both Bruce Wayne AND Batman to perfection. Bale IS Bruce Wayne when it a suit and he’s the Dark Knight when the cowl comes on.

Yet particularly praise worthy is the viscerally intense portrayal of The Joker by the late-Heath Ledger that we’ve seen in the teaser clips.

We admit that long before Ledger’s untimely death earlier this year, we had doubts about his being cast as the Joker. That is until last summer when Warner Brothers released the first teaser trailer which was little more than audio with the Bat-Symbol on the screen.

When we heard Ledger as the Joker—in our mind’s eye we didn’t see Caesar Romero or Jack Nicholson, we saw The Killing Joke, death with a smile, Bat-s**t crazy Joker directly from the comics.

Aaron Eckhart is on board The DK as District Attorney Harvey Dent, helping Batman and Gordon clean up the corrupt from top-to-bottom Gotham, until as we all tragically know, evil claims him and Dent becomes Two-Face.

In other casting news, Maggie Gyllenhaal replaces Katie Holmes as Assistant District Attorney and Bruce Wayne’s childhood friend Rachel Dawes. We were glad to hear that the filmmakers were replacing the actress and not the character for the sequel.

Batman has never had a Lois Lane per se but the filmmakers saw fit to write one in to this Bruce Wayne’s life in Batman Begins. Consistency is important and by sticking with the character, it says that Nolan and company are committed to a character-driven drama that’s punctuated by costumed battles and not the other way around.

While it is all too fashionable to crap all over Katie Holmes and while we did find her performance in Batman Begins underwhelming, she didn’t seriously detract from the film either. We hope that Maggie Gyllenhaal can take things to a new level.

Rounding out the casting is Michael Caine as Bruce Wayne’s loyal manservant Alfred and Morgan Freeman as Lucius Fox, CEO of Bruce Wayne’s company and Batman’s go-to gadget guy. These two master thespians class up the joint just by showing up for work.

However, like the man said, this is a DARK, grown up film. It’s ironic that what looks like the purest interpretation for comic book character to the big screen would be decidedly inappropriate for young children.

It may be a super-hero film but this isn’t kid stuff, which is why 7-year-old Brianna The Girl Wonder will NOT be seeing the seriously PG-13 Dark Knight anytime soon even as FanBoyWonder’s inner 7-year-old will be viewing each and every frame in total rapture.

The Dark Knight opens Friday, July 18. Check out the official website for more info http://thedarkknight.warnerbros.com and we’ll see you at the movies.

Final Crisis + Fan Dissatisfaction = Pile-On DC Comics????

2008-07-10T18:31:00.000-07:00

(Who is the REAL villain of DC Comics’ Final Crisis? Is it the arch-criminal Libra, is it DC Management and the minds behind this most recent DC “event” or is it the grumpy, often complaining but still money-spending fanboy or girl????)

Has the dissatisfaction and perhaps even disgust at DC Comics’ most recent offerings among a (VERY) vocal contingent of fans (and FanBoyWonders) gotten so out of hand that it’s not only become counterproductive as a change agent but contrary to the readers’ ultimate desire for quality storytelling at DC Comics?

That in a nutshell is what Ryan from Film Fodder Comics www.filmfodder.com/comics/archives/2008/07/post_5.shtml is asking in his most excellent essay titled “Final Crisis—I Heart Continuity.”

Ryan—who also writes a cool blog called League of Melbotis http://www.leagueofmelbotis.com/ –posed some hard questions which we will attempt to address here.

While we strongly encourage any and all those interested to read Ryan’s essay for themselves at Film Fodder Comics—we will be excerpting relevant portions of his essay here as we attempt to address his points.

It’s not our intent to distort his point by omission so we do encourage you to read his essay in full, then come back here for our Two Dollar and 99 Cents.

Also a programming note—because we have also answered Ryan in his own forum--I’m suspending FanBoyWonder’s delightful little penchant of speaking in the third person for the duration of this post.

The Upshot of Ryan’s point comes in the early paragraphs:

“To the casual observer (the non-superhero reading public) there's not much to distinguish Marvel from DC. In fact, it’s fairly routine that some press coverage botches who publishes what in fluff stories on Spider-Man, etc... But in the comic-concerned interwebs, those of us who watch these things know that the nation is not really split along party lines. We're really divided between Marvel and DC.

“And DC of 2008 is the the Democratic Party of 2004.

“What should be an appealing package of standard comic book ideas is being drowned out in a wicked combination of mediocre product and deafening internet chatter. The "John Kerry hates Freedom" of 2004 is DC's "DC's event comics should be able to be summarized in a single sentence" of 2008. Say it often enough and stay on message, and somehow it becomes true. Even when its not.”

The following below is a longer version of the abbreviated answer that I provided Ryan in his own forum. (Waste not want not when it comes to good blog material Mama FanBoyWonder always said.)

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Hey Ryan,

Great post. This is the first chance I’ve had to reply but I’ve had it on the brain since I read your essay yesterday.

I hear what you are saying and all of the public bitching and moaning (which I am a part—I fully admit it) perhaps isn’t helping and perhaps it’s even emboldening DC Management to get their back up and to press forward.

But other than complaining, the only alternative course of action for fans/customers to take is to sheath their wallets and stop buying comic books (or at least DC comic books)—something that once seemed inconceivable but not it’s….NOT impossible.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

“This isn't to dismiss disgruntled fans when DC does make a mistake. Countdown was an egregious miscalculation, and I'm still waiting for a substantial apology. But picking on DC has become so commonplace, it’s a wonder if there's any signal to noise at this point that it’s a genuine question whether the hapless DC staffers who bother to read this stuff can actually glean any useful information.”
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Personally, I think it goes back even farther to Infinite Crisis and especially the final issue in which they released with UNFINISHED ART! But your main point stands. Emotion does factor a lot into this.

To me, I sense an undeniable undercurrent of smarmy-know-it-all-ism from DC Management that not only doesn’t acknowledge quality control issues, but insists on berating the “customer” for not wanting to buy what they are selling.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

“The supposed failure of "Final Crisis" was chalked up not so much to sales figures, but to narrative problems. Online critics have bashed Final Crisis for a few reasons.

(a) the story is too complicated and should be summed up in a single sentence
(b) The story is steeped in continuity
(i) which I more or less followed, whether it was necessary to the plot or not, but I'd like to register my indignation, anyway
(ii) won't someone think of the children? This could be their very first comic, and they'd be so very, very confused.

“I confess to being a bit flabbergasted by the first criticism of "Final Crisis". It is true that Hollywood exists thanks to high-concept ideas, plus attractive women, plus explosions. The insistence that the reason "Secret Invasion" is selling so well, while "Final Crisis" is supposedly not (Secret Invasion outsold Final crisis by about 40,000 copies. Bully for Marvel on their success), is the one sentence concept.”

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

The trouble is that Marvel took the trouble to SELL the reader on Secret Invasion by deploying the “one sentence concept.” DC by contrast, let us know a year ago that Final Crisis was coming but made no real effort to convince to read it—only that we had to read the main title and ALL of the companion titles.

At the heart of DC ‘s non-selling selling point is “Trust us! This isn’t like all of the other times,” which for many fans is hard to swallow after Infinite Crisis, 52/World War III, Countdown and its many headed spin-offs that didn’t turn out to be count.

Add to that an economy that’s in a (in fact if not in name) inflation, and taking the leap of faith with DC Final Crisis seems more like walking off a cliff.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

“A lot of these criticisms also appeared during the first issue of the series, which was more or less prologue to the main action of the series. Perhaps Morrison should have turned up the heat for the first issue, but this reader can't help buy wonder if those other reviewers were jumping to conclusions about a comic which they hadn't seen to even partial completion. How would any work in any other medium stand up to criticism if the reviewer wrote their review based upon the first few minutes?"

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

I’m afraid I must totally disagree with you here Ryan. Yours would be a not unfair point except that the comics publisher demands money--$3.99—for each “chapter.” The moment money changes hands, it becomes fair game for criticism and it really isn’t unreasonable to expect each issue to stand alone—at least enough to be a satisfying read—while building to a greater whole.

Battlestar Galactica or Lost or some such may have an ultimate ending but if viewers are satisfied with individual episodes, they will stop watching and the show will be canceled in short order. And the only thing a television viewer is requires to spend per episode is time.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

“By clamoring for one sentence plots, readers of super hero comics are selling themselves short. Not all stories need to be told like an 80's Simpson/ Bruckheimer movie, or fit neatly into packages that will do little but give the audience action-story comfort food with a plot they can recite from beginning to end without seeing a single page.”

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

That is a definite danger. But I also think that it –at least in part—has been due to a self inflicted wound. Comic book storytelling got so grown up, so smart that we may have outsmarted ourselves.

Remember back in the day when there were “Editor’s notes” and/or one-or-two-or three panels of exposition bringing readers up to speed as to what happened previously? This used to be standard operating procedure at DC and especially Marvel.

Why no Editor’s notes? Perhaps because today’s editor has been rendered all but irrelevant by the writers star system where he wants to tell his story and his story alone regardless of what came before or after and publishers that publish not for the individual “floppy” reader but for the Barnes and Noble’s coffee sipping Trade Paper Back reader.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
“To some degree, 'Final Crisis' is taking more than its fair share of lumps because of the horrendous transition between "Countdown", "Death of the New Gods" and "Final Crisis". And it seems that the dual edged sword of the Mega-Narrative of the DCU's Continuity is that Morrison's series must carry the albatross of the series which preceded it. And the appropriate levels of scorn heaped upon both."

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

You are right. I’ve made no bones about the fact that I’m judging Final Crisis not just on its own merits but am I really at fault for that? DC is counting on Final Crisis (vainly I fear) to act as a counterweight to the plethora of failures occurred in a short period of time.

Face if, and the operative word is “if” Final Crisis does become a run away hit and win over skeptical fans (believe or not I’m still trying to keep and open mind—provided they can win me with my having to purchase nothing but the main FC title) all will, if not forgotten but at least forgiven.

Ryan you took the time to craft a well thought out essay. I agree with some and (as you can see) disagree elsewhere. The thing is I think you are right. But the hell of it is, I’m right too.

Maybe we should just reset the clock to January 1986 immediately following the Crisis on Infinite Earths and re-start the DC Universe all over again—again.

FanBoyWonder Television Spotlight—The Return of Burn Notice

2008-07-07T19:29:00.000-07:00

It’s been a long damn time in coming but FanBoyWonder is pleased to announce the arrival this Thursday of the second season of our favorite summer show—Burn Notice on the USA Cable Network.

From the moment we spied it (pun intended) last summer, we knew that Burn Notice would not only be one of the best shows of the summer television season but we quickly came to regard the show as some of the most original and innovative television to come along in a long time.

Great characters, clever writing and the right amount of action—the trifecta right there.

Here’s Upshot on Burn Notice from the show’s Facebook page (swear to God) http://www.facebook.com/pages/Burn-Notice/7750605107:

“Most people would be thrilled to be on the warm, beautiful sands of South Beach. However, Michael Westen (Jeffrey Donovan) is not ‘most people.’ He's got a pesky FBI tail, a violence prone ex-girlfriend looking for closure, and a hypochondriac mother calling him 30 times a day. Yet these are the least of his problems.

“After 10 years of serving his country working in Eastern Europe and the OPEC countries as a covert operative, Michael is living every spy's worst nightmare. While in the middle of a dangerous mission in Nigeria, Michael's "contact" informs him that he has been burned. When a spy gets fired, he doesn't get a call from human resources and a gold watch. In Michael's case, they jeopardize his life, freeze his bank accounts, dump him in Miami, and flag him on every government list known to man. They can't take away his skills or what's in his head, so they take away his assets and his resources to make sure he can never work again. They burn him

“Now Michael has a much different mission: he must find out who issued his burn notice and why he was blacklisted so that he can put his life back together. Meanwhile, he has to fend off a suddenly hostile world of old foes gunning for him. In order to survive in Miami and fund his own personal investigation, Michael enlists the help of the only two ‘friends’ he has: Fiona (Gabrielle Anwar) an ex-IRA operative who also happens to be an ex-girlfriend and Sam (Bruce Campbell) a washed-out military intelligence contact whom the feds have keeping an eye on Michael. He's also forced to deal with the family he went halfway around the world to get away from - particularly his mother, Madeline (Sharon Gless), who couldn't be happier to have her son back in town.

“Michael, on the other hand, is happiest when he is in a different hemisphere from the rest of his family. He was 17 when he left home to join the military and he never turned back. Now stuck in Miami, the one place he vowed never to return to, he must confront the bad memories of his childhood and repair the broken relationships he left behind.

“As he gets closer to the truth, Michael scrapes by helping out whoever needs his services -- mostly desperate people who can't go to the police. Using his Special Ops training, some duct tape and his sardonic humor, Michael becomes a reluctant hero. It's a dangerous gig, but it's the best he can do ... for now.”

From what we saw last season, Jeffrey Donovan’s Michael Westen has serious (if not yet totally fulfilled) potential as one of THE great television characters.

Westen is a cross between 007’s James Bond and Chevy Chase’s Fletch with a healthy dose of MacGyver thrown in for good measure. Throughout each episode Donovan’s sardonic narration conveyed just the right comic bite to what could have been some pretty dark moments.

“Covert intelligence includes a lot of waiting around. Know what it’s like being a spy? It’s like sitting in your dentist’s reception area 24 hours a day—magazines, sip some coffee and every so often, someone tries to kill you.”

When we last left Michael Westen, he was about to meet with the folks who had “burned” him and we’ve been waiting all summer to see what that meeting would entail.

Word has it that the new character thrown into the mix would be Michael’s new handler “Carla” played by Battlestar Galatica’s Tricia Helfer.

“Her background is a mystery, her motives are unclear, and Michael's not even sure who she works for. All he knows is that she's a lethal combination of brains and beauty. Carla is Michael's only link to the people that burned him, and if Michael ever hopes to get his life back... he needs to find out more about her,” explains the USA Network.

That’s all we have to go on as we get to know this new character. For our part, we’re glad that Michael will have—instead of the faceless covert bogeyman on the cell phone—he’ll be dealing with his adversary face to face.

A couple points we hope to see the Burn Notice team improve upon this season include more air time for Sharon Gless as Michael’s mother Madeline who didn’t have much to do last season except be a hostage Michael had to protect.

We’re not all that crazy about Michael’s deadbeat brother Nate (Seth Peterson) who does nothing but screw up and put Michael in harm’s way but we’re willing to give the writers another chance to make us like the guy.

The one big flaw from last season was the A-plot/B-plot format of the show whereas Michael would do an “Equalizer”-like job for someone in need while the B-plot would continue to (all too slowly ) unravel the mystery of Michael’s burn notice.

The thing is, if we liked Michael’s clients that week, we were glued to the TV for the episode but if we didn’t care for those who needed his help, it could be a long hour.

While we do like Fiona (Gabrielle Anwar), Michael’s trigger-happy ex-girlfriend, we really love Michael’s buddy Sam played by the awesome Bruce Campbell. Sam surprised us by evolving into someone with a lot more iron as the season progressed.

Sam may be a washed up drinking gigolo but he can still kick ass and he is (mostly) loyal to his pal Michael. Yet Sam’s best scenes come when he is tamed up with Fiona who have grown to tolerate, if not grudgingly respect each other, for the sake of Michael—think of them of the George and Elaine of the cover ops ass-kickers.

Burn Notice will air throughout the summer on Thursday at 10 p.m. (eastern) on the USA Network. The Season One DVD is in stores now and you find out more from the official website www.usanetwork.com/series/burnnotice. It’s worth checking out.

Final Crisis #1 “Directors Cut Special”—Are They F*&king Kidding??????

2008-07-06T12:55:00.000-07:00

It’s amazing the things that can make one’s blood boil. Here FanBoyWonder was at home enjoying our last day of vacation before we have to jump back into the work-week grind when we came across a most surprising “coming attraction” on the DC Comics website listing of the August comic books.

Among the ubiquitous Final Crisis crossovers designed to broaden the reading experience of DC Comics’ latest “event” (as well as to drain more money from average fanboy and fangirl’s coin purse) is something that at first we thought had to be a joke—Final Crisis #1 Director’s Cut Special.

“Are they f$#king kidding???” That’s a quote verbatim of the words that escaped our lips at a higher than indoor voice level when we read this on our computer screen.

Unfortunately for Grandpa FanBoyWonder, Brianna The Girl Wonder was just a few feet away from us watching her Hannah Montana on the Disney Channel (Hey—forget water boarding. The boys at Gitmo should try playing 24/7 of just “tween” television programming—the prisoners will tell you ANYTHING you want to know after Hour 8, just to make it stop) when we uttered our “bad word.”

It didn’t take us that long to recover from being chastised by a 7-year-old girl before we were good and mad again (although in a much quieter way) at this nakedly absurd attempt by DC at—pardon our French—polishing a turd. Worse, they are marketing it as if they are doing us a favor.

Here’s the Upshot from DC Comics: “Come on a guided tour of DC's FINAL CRISIS #1 and become further enveloped in the event of the century. Delve deep into the mind-blowing first issue as we explore what every page and panel represents, and the process behind the story as Grant Morrison and J.G. Jones reveal secrets hidden in the script and art.”

In case you are wondering, FC “Directors Cut” is 64 pages and will cost you $4.99 (“a fool and his money are soon parted”) while the original Final Crisis #1 was $3.99 and 40 pages.

Are we wrong in thinking that readers should NOT have to pay ANOTHER $4.99 to have explained to us what should have been SELF-EVIDENT in the story from the start????

Bad enough when the trade press rump-swabs at Newsarama or Wizard would sycophantically “interview” Dan DiDio or some DC editor so they could explain and answer reader questions as to just what exactly happened in the latest issue of Infinite Crisis/52/Countdown/Trinity. Now they expect us to pay for it????

Memo to Dan DiDio, Grant Morrison and J.G. Jones—Please don’t p**s down our leg and tell us it’s raining.

Our best pal Kemosabe summed it up more succinctly—“That’s just offensive.”

Does anybody think we’re wrong-headed on this? Come on…we can take it.

FanBoyWonder’s ‘Special’ Way To Save Jericho

2008-07-05T08:48:00.000-07:00

The website SyFyPortal http://www.syfyportal.com/news425161.html is reporting that an effort is underway to get the brilliant but (twice) canceled CBS action drama Jericho staring Skeet Ulrich made on the big screen as a major motion picture.

As you may or may not be aware, CBS—the one-time “Tiffany Network”—brought back the once-canceled Jericho this past winter for an abbreviated seven-episode second season following a massive, well publicized and we have to admit brilliantly unorthodox viewer revolt in which CBS was inundated with peanuts as a protest to the network suits.

Jericho was unexpectedly canceled mid-cliffhanger at the end of the 2006-07 viewing season, brought back again this year and canceled once more following low ratings—this despite widespread critical acclaim and significant media coverage of the show’s return.

Here’s a Jericho Recap thanks to Wikipedia: “The storyline centers on the residents of Jericho, a small, rural Kansas town, in the aftermath of nuclear attacks on 23 major cities in the contiguous United States. The series begins with a visible nuclear detonation of unknown origin over nearby Denver, Colorado, and a loss of power and modern communications, effectively isolating Jericho. Later, power is restored to Jericho by what is alluded to as the efforts of the U.S. government, but soon after, an electromagnetic pulse (EMP) disables all electronics.

“Several themes regularly addressed in the show included the gathering of information, community identity, public order, limited resources, the value of family, hardships of fatherhood and internal and external threats. The show also features several mysteries involving the backgrounds of major characters, the perpetrators of the attack, and the extent of damage to the United States and its government.

“The pivotal character in this story is Jake Green (Skeet Ulrich), the 32-year-old son of Mayor Johnston Green (Gerald McRaney), who briefly returns home to visit his family and friends before becoming stranded as a result of the catastrophe. After a somewhat awkward return home and a tense reunion with his father, Jake steps up to become a leader in Jericho, fighting to protect the town and its citizens. As the people of Jericho struggle to survive in a changed world, most remain unaware that one of the newest residents, Robert Hawkins (Lennie James), knows much more about the attacks than he lets on.”

In addition to the move to produce Jericho: The Movie, there is a separate effort by seriously dedicated fans to seek a long-shot cancellation reversal for a third season of Jericho.

They mean business as the group www.savejerichoagain.com has raised enough money to produce and air a Save Jericho in select television markets throughout these Allied States of America.

As regular FanBoyWonder readers know, we were quite late jumping on the Jericho bandwagon and we make no bones about it. While vaguely aware of the show during the first season, shortly before the second season earlier this year, we caught a marathon of the first four Jericho episodes on the Sci-Fi channel, became hooked immediately, and caught up on the first season as quick as we could thanks to the CBS website.

Hey Sci-Fi Channel….what happened to the rest of the episodes? They canceled the series but that shouldn’t you from airing the re-runs that you already bought and paid for.

Bad enough you screwed us by holding the Final Episodes of Battlestar Galactica until 2009 but geez…you play re-runs of the under-rated, long-canceled Star Trek Enterprise religiously every week—how about making some room for Jericho in the bullpen? But we digress.

Let us reiterate that—in our humble opinion—Jericho Season 1 is some of the finest television we have ever seen, hands down. Every single episode of the 22 episode season was top shelf from acting to scripting to visually.

Jericho Season 2—returning some 18 months later—was only half as good. This was NOT just because it was a shorted season but because the show lost all of its storytelling momentum (it was DEAD after all), its original band of writers had moved on to other jobs and because the show’s moral center— Gerald McRaney had been killed off at the end of Season One.

Still, a half is good Jericho is still better than three-fourths of the shows out there (two words—“Bionic Woman”. There we said it).

Suffice to say that FanBoyWonder drank the Jericho, liked the bittersweet taste, and drank some more.

So to serious Jericho die hards out there reading this—please take this as the word of a friend when we say that the odds of Jericho hitting the big screen are about the same as Jericho Season 3 being green-lit by CBS or even by a smaller cable network—Slim-to-None and Slim just left Bailey’s Tavern on the way out of town ahead of the mushroom cloud.

Even if by some Herculean effort one or the other did happen, neither a movie or a third season would be the Jericho we all know and loved.

Jericho The Movie by virtue of its format might, and the operative word here is MIGHT have a bigger budget but it would NOT be a character drama as was the show’s main strength.

Furthermore, how many people realistically would go out and spend $7 to $10 or more at the multiplex to see the film version of a low-rated television show they may nor may not have heard of (okay there is Star Trek but that’s lighting in a bottle).

On the other hand, Jericho Season 3 would, by necessity, have an even leaner budget, which would mean even fewer characters/actors would return and/or crappy production values.

Either way, the magic would be gone and it would be a shadow of the true Jericho.

A ‘Special’ Appeal To Tom Selleck

FanBoyWonder proposes a third way—Jericho The Special television movie event (No wait, hear us out!).

In the same periodic movie format, CBS airs the Jesse Stone series (based on the novels by Robert B. Parker) staring Tom Selleck—so far four have aired with a fifth in production to air later this year—CBS could do the same with Jericho Specials.

Tom Selleck’s Jesse Stone series itself is a bastardization of the format used by the BBC’s Prime Suspect (staring Dame Helen Mirren) which just recently wrapped some 15 years worth of periodic television movie episodes.

CBS could produce and broadcast Jericho TV Specials—movies that are action-packed and self-contained stories but that also further character grown and build off the continuity and history of the series and each previous TV movie.

Tom Selleck—Jesse Stone executive producer as well as star and a guy with CBS Head-honcho Les Moonves’ ear—should get on board with the concept of Jericho Specials (we humbly suggest).

What’s in it for Tom Selleck? Well, Tom Selleck if CBS should broadcast another series in the same periodic format, it would only bolster Tom Selleck’s/Jesse Stone’s long-term prospects and not make Tom Selleck’s series such a lone-wolf in the network wilderness.

Tom Selleck, FanBoyWonder calls upon the power of Google Finder Tom Selleck to send this blog posting Tom Selleck’s way and humbly ask Tom Selleck to heed our words.

And hey Tom Selleck, please keep those Jesse Stone movies coming Tom Selleck—you’re the TOPS Tom Selleck (Do you think we said Tom Selleck’s name enough times for it to work TOM SELLECK???).

Anyway, Jericho might not be able to sustain a weekly appointment television audience to satisfy Mr. Nielson but rallying the loyal viewership and recruiting some newcomers to view a two-hour movie once or twice a calendar year is doable (TOM SELLECK).

Added bonus: A TV movie format would free the Jericho cast (starving actors all) to look for other work while allowing them the flexibility to come back and reprise their roles for these reunion specials.

Perpetually on the bubble, Team Jericho would have the freedom to produce each TV movie as if it were their last—unless or until the ratings render the final verdict.

Our suggestion for the first (of hopefully many) Jericho specials, follow up on the events at the end of Season 2 and play out the Second American Civil War but from Jericho’s perspective as the town seeks to free itself from the shackles of the “Allied States of America.”

Hey CBS big honcho Les Moonves—if you green-light this effort to SAVE JERICHO AGAIN, we will watch it and we promise to bring friends. Who is with us (TOM SELLECK)??????

Cabin Fever, Super Patriots and Happy Birthday America

2008-07-04T11:28:00.001-07:00

FanBoyWonder would like to salute our faithful readers this Independence Day and hope that everyone is enjoying this fine 4th of July.

Our apologies for our unexplained absence the past couple of days in case you were looking for us. FBW took the whole family plus our good friend Doctor Bill—who is practically family to us all—to Doctor Bill’s cabin in the woods of West Virginia for a nice relaxing couple of days by the river away from it all.

Turns out is was more “away” than we had intended as when we got there the phone lines were down, as was the satellite television hook up.

The TV satellite came online by the middle of the first evening (Thank God) but phone service to the cabin stayed down for the duration of our visit, hence no dial-out Internet and forget wi-fi as we had to ride half a mile into a clearing just to get a cell phone signal.

So we had to “rough it” with only 500 channels perhaps no Internet was a blessing in disguise as we all had time to really enjoy the cabin and the outdoors.

Brianna The Girl Wonder certainly loved it. T.J. The Wonder Lad had fun but at 7 months old, you can have fun anywhere. Grandpa had some extended quality time with T.J. the first morning as everyone was asleep and our streak in avoiding diaper changing ended when the lad left us a pretty spectacular “present.”

Yet Grandpa FBW DID manage to relax with a couple mile-long walks to the general store and back in the morning at first light for a newspaper and some time to reflect as we viewed the mountains, heard the river and communed with nature.

Better yet, we got much better at just doing nothing—we sat in a chair facing the river, watching it placidly float down stream as we read our newspapers then caught up on about three weeks worth of comic books we had backlogged—taking a nap here and there.

As we are back home everyone else in the house is sleeping except for FanBoyWonder and Brianna The Girl Wonder who immediately found her friends and is her room playing with them.

Yet since this is a comic book blog, let’s tie it all together by sharing with you a recurring thought as we watched the news about the never-ending electoral food-fight called Campaign 2008.

Cap for President???—We Should Be So Lucky!

Our mind kept drifting back to the instant classic “Cap for President” story from Captain America #250 (1980) by Roger Stern and John Byrne where an independent third party attempted to draft Captain America as their candidate for President of the United States.

As rumors of a Cap presidential run hit the media, much of the issue consisted of the general public and Marvel Universe’s reaction and serious consideration of a Super Solider President, even as Cap himself is bewildered that people—including his fellow Avengers—are even taking the notion seriously.

At the end of the issue, Cap addresses a crowd of supporters and explains why he can’t be a candidate—we repeat it below in its entirety:

“I have given much thought…to those stories…and to the public discussion they inspired. I have had to face the question of whether or not I should be a candidate for President of the United States.

“I gave this much thought…and I have come to my decision.

“The Presidency is one of the most important jobs in the world. The holder of that office must represent the best interests of an entire nation.

“…I have worked and fought all my life for the growth and advancement of the American Dream. And I believe that my duty to the DREAM would severely limit any abilities I might have to preserve the reality.

“We must all live in the real world…and sometimes that world can be pretty grim. But it is the dream…the hope…that makes the reality worth living.

“In the early 1940s, I made a personal pledge to uphold the dream…and as long as the dream remains even partially unfulfilled, I cannot abandon it.

“And so I hope you can understand….that in all fairness, I cannot be your candidate.

“You need to look within yourselves to find the people you need to keep this nation strong…and God willing, to help make the dream come true.”

Nearly 30-years later, those words mean so much more now, especially as we look up into the “real world” and observe the brass-knuckle, clusterf**k, clowns-in-a- Volkswagen process of picking our next President of The United States.

Yet, as much as a circus or sporting event as it seems to have become, there is no place we would rather live than the United States of America.

'Last Full Measure of Devotion'

Even as today is the U.S.A.’s 232nd Birthday, today also marks the 145th anniversary of the end of the Battle of Gettysburg in the American Civil War. Gettysburg is arguably the turning point of the War Between The States.

It is perhaps the outcome of that great battle that determined that we would remain one bloodied but stronger (if imperfect) nation rather than two (or more) fractured American provinces.

We close this posting with some of the wisest words ever spoken—Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address—delivered Nov. 19, 1863.

“Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.

“Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.

“But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate -- we can not consecrate -- we can not hallow -- this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us -- that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion -- that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain -- that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom -- and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth. “

'Nuff said....except for this--God Bless America!

FanBoyWonder’s Review Of Final Crisis #2

2008-07-01T20:08:00.000-07:00

While we just KNOW that the entire comics blogosphere has been waiting at the edge of their collective seats down in mom’s basement waiting for FanBoyWonder’s review of the second installment of Final Crisis and we’re sorry to cause unnecessary anxiety but FanBoyWonder has been on vacation.

Yesterday we took Brianna The Girl Wonder on her very first trip to Washington, D.C. (expect a future blog posting on our misadventure as soon as the pictures come back) and tonight we are packing for a family getaway-from-it-all at a friend’s cabin in the woods.

Yet we realize if we don’t speak now, we should ever hold our peace on this latest “event” from DC Comics. So here we go from the shot-gun formation.

The Upshot From DC Comics: Meet Japan's number one pop culture heroes, the Super Young Team and their languid leader, Most Excellent Superbat! Join legendary wrestler Sonny Sumo and super escape artist Mister Miracle as they team to face the offspring of the Anti-Life Equation! See Earth's superheroes mourn one of their oldest allies! Witness costumed criminals sinking to new depths of cowardice and depravity as Libra takes things too far! Uncover the doomsday secrets of the poisoned city of Blüdhaven! Learn the shocking identity of the prime suspect in the murder of a god! And read on if you dare as Batman becomes the first of Earth's champions to face the Fallen of Apokolips. All this and a spectacular return from the dead...Grant Morrison and J.G. Jones' multiverse-spanning epic continues with bombshell after bombshell in FINAL CRISIS #2 — "Ticket to Blüdhaven"!

Well….Final Crisis #2 wasn’t as horrible as Final Crisis #1 was. This time we were merely under-whelmed by the events that unfolded but not outraged. We do however feel more than a tad confused for committing the apparent sin of NOT reading “Morrison’s Greatest Hits”—Seven Soldiers and the like before picking up this series.

Is THIS what it feels like for newbies trying to jump into the DC Universe following years of back-story and continuity?

Everybody else says there that is some grand concept, some big picture ideas that Morrison is working to establish here so it’s really not fair to judge Final Crisis on an issue-by-issue basis. Okay…if DC is going to take $3.99 from my wallet for each “chapter”…then that makes it fair game our not unreasonable expectation that we get to read a coherent issue.

As we noted, we are wary going into this latest event so Morrison and DC not only have to win us over on the strengths of this story alone but they also have to overcome their track record of f**king up just about everything since Infinite Crisis.

There are only two things we find worth noting—First the appearance of the Alpha Lanterns who come riding in roughshod over the Justice League, claiming jurisdiction and brushing off the “local yokels” Batman’s reaction to this is totally within character, if understated.

That leads into the scene where Green Lantern John Stewart is ambushed and seriously injured by a fellow Green Lantern, leaving the Alphas to arrest Hal Jordan. We can only say that John Stewart better turn out all right after this.

If this becomes some half-assed excuse to bump off the coolest but most disrespected of Earth’s Green Lanterns, we’re going to be seriously pissed off.

Second of course is the last page where we see that Barry Allen is indeed back now and racing a bullet. So they re really going to do this huh? If they are going to do it, do it right please.

Bottom Line: Despite our skepticism, we are trying to keep an open mind and actually WANT to be impressed but we are not expecting much.

R.I. P. Don S. Davis—Stargate SG-1’s General Hammond

2008-07-01T12:52:00.000-07:00

It’s seems like our little comic book, sci-fi and all around entertainment blog has felt more like the obituary page of late with all of the “R.I.P.” postings we’ve passed along but FanBoyWonder was indeed saddened to learn and wished to acknowledge of the passing of veteran character actor Don S. Davis—best known as General Hammond on the series Stargate SG-1.

FanBoyWonder is a moderately interested Stargate fan generally but we always liked the General Hammond character—part Papa Bear and part Solomon but the total straight man, especially for Richard Dean Anderson’s annoying quip of the moment.

We first remember seeing him as the dad of one of the punk characters whose name we can’t recall since we long since all-but forgot about the show. Davis, of course, played a military officer, straight arrow with the rebel, good for nothing son.

The man looked like he was born in uniform. Better yet, he looked like the kind of military man you would expect and hope to find—honest, fearless, stern but fair.

We would later see him in many other bit roles of no consequence but that is both the bane and the beauty of being a character actor. With just a few exceptional roles, if the audience notices your existence, you are doing something wrong.

While it wasn’t until Stargate SG-1 that we actually learned the man’s name, when we would see Don S. Davis in a scene, we knew that he would do at least his part (and likely more that the viewer would never see) to carry the show. That’s what character actors do.

Below we post Mr. Davis’ obit thanks to GateWorld http://gateworld.net/ with our sincere condolences to the family, friends and fans of Don S. Davis. R.I.P.

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Don S. Davis: 1942-2008

Monday - June 30, 2008 by Darren Sumner

With great sadness we must report that veteran actor Don S. Davis passed away on June 29, 2008. He was 65 years old.

Don co-starred on Stargate SG-1 for the show's first seven years, helping to launch the enduring science fiction franchise. Davis played Major General George Hammond, base commander and a father figure to many of the show's characters.

He is also well-known for his portrayal of Major Garland Briggs in Twin Peaks.

Off-screen, Don was beloved by the show's cast and crew. He departed the show in 2003 due to a medical condition that restricted his workload, but returned for several guest appearances on SG-1 and Stargate Atlantis in the following years. Don worked hard to improve his health, and continued to work both on screen and off until his death.

The following message was provided by Don's representative and his wife, Ruby Fleming-Davis:

‘Dear Fans and Friends of Don S. Davis,

So many of you have been touched by not only the work and art of Don S. Davis, but by the man himself, who always took the time to be with you at the appearances he loved, that it is with a tremendous sense of loss I must share with you that Don passed away from a massive heart attack on Sunday morning, June 29th.

‘On behalf of his family and wife, Ruby, we thank you for your prayers and condolences. A family memorial where Don's ashes will be scattered in the ocean will take place in a few weeks, and should you wish to, please make a donation to the American Heart Association in Don's memory.’

Born August 4, 1942 in Aurora, Missouri and raised there, Don received a Bachelor of Science degree with a double major in theater and art from Southwest Missouri State College in 1965. He then served three years on active duty in the United States Army, entering as a Second Lieutenant. He rose to the rank of Captain and was stationed in Korea before completing his required tour of active duty.

Upon leaving the army, Don began working toward a Master's degree in theater at Southern Illinois University, in Carbondale, Illinois, and received his Master's degree in 1970. He taught at the University of British Columbia for a decade before returning to SIU to complete his coursework for a PhD in theater, receiving the degree in 1982.

Don's list of film and television credits is lengthy, dating back to 1982. He met Stargate co-star Richard Dean Anderson on the set of MacGyver, where Don worked as a stunt double for actor Dana Elcar.

When production on Stargate SG-1 began in 1997, the producers tapped Davis to play the base commander--originally written to be a by-the-book antagonist, but quickly softened by Don's own personality and experience.

In 2003 Don married his soul mate and the great love of his life, Ruby Fleming-Davis. The two have resided in British Columbia with their three dogs, Teto, Ming and Charley.

Don's off-screen career as an artist blossomed especially in the years since he left Stargate. A look at his Web site, DonSDavisArt.com, reveals his tremendous gifts in painting, drawing, and woodcarving.

Don's final Stargate appearance is in Stargate: Continuum, the SG-1 DVD movie that will be released July 29 in North America and August 18 in the United Kingdom. He will also appear in the forthcoming films "Vipers," "Woodshop," and "Far Cry," according to the Internet Movie Database.

Many fans of Don's work have had the opportunity to meet him in person, as he was also a regular face at fan conventions around the world. Fans learned that behind General Hammond was a Southern gentleman with a big heart, a no-nonsense attitude, and all the love and respect one could imagine.

Services for Don S. Davis will be small and private, in both Vancouver and Los Angeles. His Web sites will be updated this week, and his obituary has been published in the Vancouver Sun newspaper. In lieu of flowers or gifts, the family requests that donations be made to the American Heart Association in Don's memory.

Michael Turner—R.I.P.

2008-06-28T10:33:00.001-07:00

FanBoyWonder would like to acknowledge the passing of comic book artist Michael Turner who died last night at the age of 37 following a long battle with cancer.

We confess that beyond the six-issue Supergirl story-arc from a few years ago in Superman/Batman, as well as his various covers, we weren’t thoroughly familiar with Mr. Turner’s work. We’ll also be quite honest in admitting that we weren’t his biggest fan as his vision of artistic expression did not always conform to our personal tastes.

Yet there is no denying Michael Turner’s latent talent—particularly in the eyes of his female subjects—and we regret the loss of an artist who will never now achieve his full potential.

Below is his obit in full from Comic Book Resources www.comicbookresources.com

FanBoyWonder wishes to expresses our sincere condolences to Mr. Turners family and friends.

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Michael Turner Passes Away At 37

by Jonah Weiland, Executive Producer

Sat, June 28th, 2008 at 1:50AM PST
Updated: Sat, June 28th, 2008 at 2:32AM PST

We here at Comic Book Resources are very sad to report that artist Michael Turner has died after a long battle with cancer. He was 37. Aspen Comics’ Vince Hernandez told CBR News Saturday morning that Turner passed away Friday night at 10:42 Pacific Time at Santa Monica Hospital in Calfiornia. The news spread quickly at Wizard World Chicago, during what would have otherwise been a riotous night at the hotel bar, the mood suddenly turned somber with remembrances of Turner from friends and acquaintances. A minute of silence will be observed during Wizard World Chicago Saturday afternoon.

Turner is an artist best known for his work on books like “Witchblade,” where he got his start in comics, moving on to titles such as “Black Panther,” “Superman/Batman” and his very own creator owned series “Fathom” and “Soulfire” through his publishing company Aspen Comics. A prolific artist, he’s done work for both DC Comics and Marvel Comics, and has provided covers to some of the best-known comics published in the last ten years, including Brad Meltzer’s “Identity Crisis.”

In 2000, Turner was diagnosed with cancer -- chondrosarcoma in the right pelvis, which resulted in his loosing his hip, 40% of his pelvis and three pounds of bone. What followed was 9 months of radiation. The cancer has gone into remission and returned multiple times since he was first diagnosed.

For anyone who’s met Turner, they’re likely to tell you what a genuinely nice guy he was and how his spirit for life was higher than anyone else they had ever met. Oddly, my path crossed with Turner’s numerous times. We both live in Los Angeles, and on at least five different occasions we would run into each other at clubs or special events around the city. He seemed like the kind of guy who was up for anything and had a great sense of adventure, especially as evidenced by his love and excellence at water-skiing and martial arts.

Last year during Comic-Con International in San Diego, I invited Michael Turner out to the CBR Yacht for an interview. He was happy to come out to the boat. His colleague and friend, Vince Hernandez, called me the Saturday afternoon the interview was scheduled to say they were running late, but were on their way. I went to the end of the dock to greet them and there, off in the distance, was Michael, Vince and a friend of theirs walking slowly towards our slip. They were walking slowly because Michael was on crutches, recovering from the latest round of surgeries and treatment. It was a hot day, but there was Michael, making his way to the boat with a smile on his face. His strength of will was truly inspirational.

The resulting interview was a wonderfully sweet one. I remember talking with him about his comics, his covers, his health and much more. After the interview he and his crew hung out on the boat for a while, enjoying the calm moment away from the convention with a soda and good conversation.

Sadly, that video interview never made it on to the site (not for anything to do with Michael or the content of the interview), but we’ll make sure that video is encoded this week and published in his memory and so that all of you can see what sort of man Turner was.

Turner’s fight with cancer was truly inspirational. He fought it with dignity and grace.
More details concerning Turner’s passing are forthcoming. Those wishing to send their condolences to Michael Turner's family are encouraged to send them to:

Aspen MLT, Inc.
C/O Michael Turner
5855 Green Valley Circle, Suite 111
Culver City, CA, 90230

Aspen Comics also encourages anyone wishing to make a charitable donation in Turner’s name can do so to his requested charities, The American Cancer Society or The Make-A-Wish Foundation

CBR extends it’s heartfelt condolences to the family and friends of Michael Turner. He’ll be sorely missed.

FanBoyWonder Film Review—Indiana Jones & The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull

2008-06-27T20:00:00.000-07:00

Next to apple pie and baseball, there’s nothing more pure American than Indiana Jones. Sure he’s a fictional film character but he’s an icon. FanBoyWonder practically grew up with Indy—having first saw the original Raiders of the Lost Arc on our 11th birthday in 1981.

So FanBoyWonder was quite pleased this past weekend when Brianna The Girl Wonder chose (with absolutely no influence from Grandpa FBW) to see Indiana Jones rather than Kung Fu Panda during our long-awaited movie time together. (Worry not, we’ll be taking her to see the martial arts panda sometime next week during our vacation).

More than anything else we wanted to share with her the experience of seeing an Indiana Jones movie in the theatre—the only way to see some classics.

Rated PG-13, there were a couple of times—especially during some particularly gruesome bad guy endings—that we questioned the wisdom of us taking a just turned 7-year-old to this movie.

To her credit, Brianna said she was scared at times—we figured that out when she jumped our lap and held on for dear life—but she was very proud of herself for seeing it and very glad she did it. Indy got a big thumbs up from The Girl Wonder—the highest of high praise indeed.

Here’s the Upshot from Paramount Pictures: “The newest Indiana Jones adventure begins in the desert Southwest in 1957 – the height of the Cold War. Indy (Harrison Ford) and his sidekick Mac (Ray Winstone) have barely escaped a close scrape with nefarious Soviet agents on a remote airfield.

“Now, Professor Jones has returned home to Marshall College – only to find things have gone from bad to worse. His close friend and dean of the college (Jim Broadbent) explains that Indy's recent activities have made him the object of suspicion, and that the government has put pressure on the university to fire him.

“On his way out of town, Indiana meets rebellious young Mutt (Shia LaBeouf), who carries both a grudge and a proposition for the adventurous archaeologist: If he'll help Mutt on a mission with deeply personal stakes, Indy could very well make one of the most spectacular archaeological finds in history – the Crystal Skull of Akator, a legendary object of fascination, superstition and fear.

“But as Indy and Mutt set out for the most remote corners of Peru – a land of ancient tombs, forgotten explorers and a rumored city of gold – they quickly realize they are not alone in their search. The Soviet agents are also hot on the trail of the Crystal Skull. Chief among them is icy cold, devastatingly beautiful Irina Spalko (Cate Blanchett), whose elite military unit is scouring the globe for the eerie Crystal Skull, which they believe can help the Soviets dominate the world... if they can unlock its secrets.

“Indy and Mutt must find a way to evade the ruthless Soviets, follow an impenetrable trail of mystery, grapple with enemies and friends of questionable motives, and, above all, stop the powerful Crystal Skull from falling into the deadliest of hands”.

In a word, this film was “cute.” We don’t mean that in a condescending way but rather we left the theater feeling good. It was a nice nostalgia trip for those of use around for the first adventure but an amusing tale for both veteran and newcomer alike.

It’s not exactly a light-hearted romp but the filmmakers closed the book one of the most beloved adventure serials with a wink, a nod and a crack of the whip.

This was the last chapter of Indiana Jones and he goes out with style. SPOILERS WARNING BELOW

While Harrison Ford looks great at 65, Team Indy was smart in not pretending that Dr. Jones was still the 30-something action hero. Indy acknowledged that it’s “not as easy as it used to be” but he never dwelled on his being the aging adventurer.

We were oddly reminded of the Batman from the Dark Knight Returns but in a decidedly lighter tone. Make no mistake, Indy may have many more miles on the odometer but he’s still one tough customer.

Our arse-kicking archeologist gives as good as he gets to those red commie bastards who—given that it’s 1957 during the hottest time of the Cold War—have replaced the Nazis has the bad guys.

Speaking of the Red Menace, Cate Blanchett was kind of cute (there’s that word again) as the sassy Soviet who at times is more than a match for our guy Indy. She wasn’t given much to work with but she managed to keep her near-cartoon of a character, Col. Dr. Irina Spalko, from digressing into a total imitation of Natasha—as in Boris’ other half from the Rocky and Bullwinkle Show (Is Grandpa FBW showing his age here????).

We are more aware of than familiar with her body of work, but Blanchett is an English actress (yeah we know she’s an Aussie but “English” as in the classic old school sense) so almost by definition she can phone in a role (which she seems to have done here) and still be as good or even better than the flavor of the month would-be starlet that Spielberg & Lucas recruited as the fem fatale during the last film—1989’s Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.

On the other hand, it’s hard to imagine the Indiana Jones from the original Raiders of the Lost Arc not only eating Comrade Spalko’s lunch but making her like it. But the 1957 Indy model has lost some of his edge—in every sense of the word.

It’s not just that he’s not as agile as he used to be but he’s—if not kinder and gentler—wary and worn-down. The world is changing around him and his professional accomplishments—as well as his record of service during “The War” (World War II) as “Col. Jones” for the OSS (the Office of Strategic Services—the counter-espionage predecessor to the CIA) doesn’t seem to count for much in this fearful new world of the Red Scare.

Professor Jones finds this out “at work” at Marshall College as J. Edger’s Bureau has concluded that Indy’s kidnap by the Soviets, their forcing him to help them break into and steal an alien (as in Extra-Terrestrial) body from Area 51 and his subsequent escape and his association with pal turned traitor Mac (Ray Winstone) of course make him guilty of being “a Red” and a security risk so they lean hard on the college to fire Dr. Jones.

It falls to the dean of the college and Indy’s friend Charles Stanforth (Jim Broadbent) to break the news. Broadbent’s character takes the place as Indy’s academic colleague and confident Marcus Brody, who like the actor who played him, the late Denholm Elliott, has passed away.

We learn that in recent years Indy has also lost his father Henry Jones Sr. (Sean Connery who remains very much alive but who passed on coming out of retirement for what would have been a cameo for the film).

Stanforth points out to his friend and to the audience that Indy has reached the point of life where life takes away more than it gives back.

Jim Broadbent does a good job as Indy’s loyal friend in ever treacherous academia but he’s no Marcus Brody.

In a touch that we most enjoyed, the script remembered Brody’s character and placed his image prominently in a couple of scenes—including a laugh out loud moment with a statue of Brody and the bad guys on campus.

Henry Sr. and Marcus Brody were important characters in Indiana Jones’ life and it impressed us to no end that the script not only did NOT contradict (to the best of our knowledge) events of the previous films but it actively sought to incorporate Indy’s history into this film.

Here character continuity was Job One—two thumbs up guys.

We especially liked seeing more than just a tease of how “Professor Jones” lives. Shot on the campus of Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut, FanBoyWonder’s old college stomping grounds (New Haven, NOT Yale) and dressed up to look like 1957 anywhere U.S.A.. We tell ya, the Elm City never looked so good us.

It’s not too long after the introduction of the Rebel Without A Clue young Mutt (Shia LaBeouf) that a wacky chase with Indy on the back of Mutt’s Harley ensues as those darned Reds want the map that Mutt has just given Indy in exchange for Indy’s help finding Mutt’s mother Marion.

It was actually quite thrilling to watch the chase though the timeless campus of Yale and onto Chapel Street.

It’s takes longer into the movie than it should have to for Indy to realize that “Marion” is Marion Ravenwood (Karen Allen) his love interest from the very first movie and that Mutt is actually Henry Jones III—but don’t call him “Junior.”

It’s good to see Karen Allen again. The years have been quite well to her and she actually had a couple of significant action things to do, although they could have and should have found more for her in the film.

We learn that Indiana ditched Marion a week before their wedding (damn fool) BEFORE he learned that she was preggers. So she moved to England and married another man to raise Indy’s baby—Mutt. Yet even though he left her at the alter, Indy has carried a torch for Marion all these years.

It would have helped to actually have Indy and Marion spend more time together on screen as they weren’t quite able to re-capture the chemistry they shared onscreen during the original Raiders given the time constraints.

Nonetheless, Marion’s return brings the Indy franchise full circle and we never thought that the other Indiana Jones films were quite as good without her.

What is the treasure that Indy and company are chasing? It almost doesn’t matter as we were just so damn glad to see everyone again but as soon as we saw Area 51 and heard about Roswell, we knew it would be aliens.

Indy and company must return the Crystal Skull to it’s temple of origin in South America in order to rescue the mind family friend and Mutt’s surrogate father Professor Herald “Ox” Oxley (John Hurt) and try to stay ahead of the evil Soviets for good measure.

Three guesses how that return of the Crystal Skull turns out and the first two don’t count.

The film wraps up back at Marshall College with wedding bells. Twenty years and four films later, Dr. Henry Jones, Jr. and Marion finally tie the knot and it was cute (yes that word again). It really was like watching two old friends march off together into the sunset.

When we asked her afterward what her favorite part of the movie was, Brianna The Girl Wonder answered immediately. “The wedding.”

In a bit of shameless commercialism, Lucas & Spielberg leave the door WIDE open to continue the franchise with Mutt Jones but as far as we’re concerned this is the end of the line for Indy and he went out in the best way possible—leaving us wanting more.

Thanks so much for the ride…. “Junior”.

FanBoyWonder Film Review—The Incredible Hulk

2008-06-23T19:22:00.000-07:00

Here’s The Upshot from Marvel Studios and Universal Pictures: “Scientist Bruce Banner (Edward Norton) desperately hunts for a cure to the gamma radiation that poisoned his cells and unleashes the unbridled force of rage within him: The Hulk.

“Living in the shadows, cut off from a life he knew and the woman he loves—Betty Ross (Liv Tyler)—Banner struggles to avoid the obsessive pursuit of his nemesis—General Thunderbolt Ross (William Hurt) and the military machinery that seeks to capture him and exploit his power.

“As all three grapple with the secrets that led to the Hulk’s creation, they are confronted with a monstrous new adversary known as the Abomination (Tim Roth), whose destructive strength exceeds the Hulk’s own.”

FanBoyWonder has had decidedly mixed feelings since we saw The Incredible Hulk.

Overall, The Incredible Hulk was a good, not a great, but a good comic book movie. When compared to it’s predecessor film—Director Ang Lee’s HULK from 2003, The Incredible Hulk was at the same time much, much better than yet also not quite as good as 2003’s HULK.

Incredible Hulk did everything that both a comic book film and an action movie should do—advance the hero/protagonist (along with viewer) through the adventure—sometimes a break-neck speeds.

Yet we also have a greater appreciation of Ang Lee’s HULK—that is to say what Lee was trying to and ultimately failed to accomplish.

Ang Lee’s HULK—I think, therefore me HULK.
Edward Norton’s Incredible Hulk—Hulk SMASH!

HULK had nuance and character development. Incredible Hulk has action, action, action. This is not to say that HULK was action-less or that Incredible Hulk had zero hints of character or feeling.

Take the best part of both Hulk films and Marvel would have had the Ultimate Hulk experience—think chocolate and peanut butter together.

However, even if one takes 2003’s HULK out of consideration, The Incredible Hulk is still not without its problems. It’s essentially a chase film. It’s also the victim of its top-notch first act in which Bruce Banner is hiding out as a day-laborer in the crowded slums of Rio de Janerio, Brazil.

It’s a beautiful, original setting for an action film and chase sequence. For all our talk of character development in HULK, Norton gives us a great glimpse into the loneliness of Bruce Banner as he struggles to eek out a living working in a bottling plant.

As the only gringo in the joint, Banner is not universally welcomed by his co-workers but we see that despite his deliberate efforts to maintain calm and not lose control of his heartbeat and trigger a transformation, our boy Bruce is NOT a pushover.

The Brazil location was such a beautiful setting (despite the overcrowding and abject poverty) that we wouldn’t have minded the whole film taking place there.

Without much dialogue devoted in terms of character development, Norton does a great job of adding little character bits his Bruce Banner—such as trying to learn Portuguese while with an English/Portuguese dictionary in front of the TV.

It’s here where we get a cute cameo of sorts by Norton’s television predecessor—the late Bill Bixby in a clip of the Courtship of Eddie’s Father—in Portuguese.

When General Ross (William Hurt) finds Banner in Brazil, he sends a black ops team but the our boy Bruce isn’t a genius for nothing and he has an escape plan read to go and off starts one of the best chase sequences we’ve seen on film in years.

Of course, Banner cornered—by local street toughs who get more than they bargained for when they trigger a Hulk-out. The creature in shadow makes short work out of the thugs and he doesn’t take much longer against the black ops team led by Captain Emil Blonsky (Tim Roth) who finds himself both frightened and fascinated by the most powerful thing he’s ever seen.

Unfortunately, the film can’t sustain its strong first act and it slowly deflates. That’s not to say it wasn’t entertaining but there was a promise of a better film that went unfulfilled.

The film did manage to avoid a common cliché by avoiding having Banner—now barefoot and nearly naked but for a pair of tattered, too big for him pants, panhandling on the streets of Mexico enough Samaritans gave him enough pesos to purchase half-way decent clothes.

Another running gag through the film was Banner’s efforts to avoid wearing purple pants—often the only color that stretch pants came in.

With his efforts for finding a cure and his data lost following Ross’ Rio raid, Banner is making his way North to see his long lost love Dr. Betty Ross—The General’s daughter and Banner’s former lab partner. But it’s the data he needs, as much as he wants to see her—she’s moved on and he knows he’s radioactive to her life.

Of course the do encounter each other and before you know it there’s another military attempted snatch up Banner, which goes wrong and triggers a Hulk-out and suddenly there’s a REALLY big man on campus.

Here we get to see in full view a look at this Incredible Hulk. It didn’t look bad but to us it looked no more or less fake than Ang Lee’s HULK. Once one suspends disbelief, you can see pass the CGI.

What made the battle interesting was not Hulk vs. the Hardware but Hulk vs. a new Super-Solider serum enhanced Blonsky—the closest to a Captain America cameo that we get in the film.

Still it’s interesting to see Blonsky greatly out run the other soldiers and use his new found agility to play cat and mouse with the Hulk…until Hulk swats him across the campus.

Still craving more, Blonsky wants what Banner has…he wants to be the Hulk….and then some. And he gets wish thanks to Dr. Samuel Sterns (Tim Blake Nelson) the scientist that Banner has been communicating with to find a cure…or so Banner thinks.

Sterns injects Blonsky with Banner’s gamma blood and the Abomination is born…and perhaps so is the Leader in time for the sequel.

This sets up the climatic battle of the third act. It’s was okay but nothing to write home about…especially as the longer the battle went, the more CGI it looked.

To Ang Lee’s credit, his HULK actually conveyed a sense of overwhelming power….especially with those 3 miles high, five miles long leaps of his. This Incredible Hulk fell short in that regard.

In the end, the movie ends where it starts, with Banner on the run in hiding and ready to Hulk out for a sequel.

Other notable cameos included Lou Ferrigno as a university security guard with whom he and Norton’s Banner share a moment—all the while winking for the audience. Stan Lee of course has his cameo—this time as an ill-fated customer who drinks a bottle of pop contaminated with Banner’s blood. Excelsior indeed!

Roth’s Blonsky wasn’t given much to work with in the script but he carried it by force of personality. Ironically, he became much less interesting when he transformed from man to (computer generated) monster as the Abomination.

William Hurt’s General Ross was little more than an anti-military stereotype—but he was true to the comic as that’s how Thunderbolt Ross was played in the comics—shoot first and if you ask questions later, you must be a pantywaist.

Liv Tyler as Betty Ross we liked as she had some spark and she wasn’t just the screaming Vicky Vale of the picture. Unfortunately, she and Edward Norton had absolutely zero chemistry as Betty and Bruce.

The much-talked about cameo of Robert Downey Jr. as Tony Stark same at the end of the film—so no one need sit through the credits waiting for an “Easter egg” such as with Iron Man.

As we said, we consider The Incredible Hulk good but not great yet much more watchable than 2003’s HULK.

However, five years and two films later, the same basic story of the Rampaging Hulk has been told—it’s time for filmmakers to move on beyond this well trampled ground.

In a sequel, let’s see the Grey Hulk—the version of Hulk that’s smaller and weaker yet smart and mean. He’s not evil but he’s not very nice at all. And or let’s see an intelligent Hulk or heck…let’s go all in and let’s see the Maestro—the older, stronger, evil and just plain crazy version of Hulk from an alternate future—as first seen in Peter David’s classic Future Imperfect graphic novel.

Next time, let’s see Hulk smash into new storytelling territory

George Carlin—R.I.P.

2008-06-23T05:24:00.001-07:00

"I think it's the duty of the comedian to find out where the line is drawn and cross it deliberately."

FanBoyWonder would like to humbly add our voice to the world-wide chorus of those mourning the passing of the legendary comedian, philosopher and all-around cool guy George Carlin.

Mr. Carlin passed away yesterday (Sunday) in New York hospital of heart failure at the age of 71.

We first remember Mr. Carlin as a young FanBoyWonder listening to his classic stand-up act on our local rock station on Sunday evenings. When we were growing up one of the best shows on the radio waves in the Hartford area was the Comedy Hour—every Sunday at 9 p.m. and Mr. Carlin was a regular feature.

It was there that we were first introduced to Mr. Carlin—his hippy dippy weather man, the difference between football and baseball and it was from him that we were first exposed to clever, edgy and thoughtful political humor.

We also got to see him live while in college—circa 1990—and he was every bit the master comedian.

He later gained fame for later generations in the movies—as Cardinal Glick in Kevin Smith’s Dogma—among other roles but unlike many other comedians who make it to film, he never abandoned his first, best outlet of his wit—the stand-up comic stage.

George Carlin will perhaps be most famous or infamous for a certain seven “dirty” words—but the one word that will rule the day today is “sad.”

R.I.P.

Here are a few memorable George Carlin quotes thanks to http://strangeglue.com

"If someone loves you and they leave and don't come back, it was never meant to be. If someone loves you and they leave and come back, set them on fire."

"The main reason Santa is so jolly is because he knows where all the bad girls live."

"The very existence of flamethrowers proves that sometime, somewhere, someone said to themselves, "You know, I want to set those people over there on fire, but I'm just not close enough to get the job done."

"Some national parks have long waiting lists for camping reservations. When you have to wait a year to sleep next to a tree, something is wrong."

FanBoyWonder Book Report: The Last Days of Krypton

2008-06-22T10:34:00.000-07:00

A funny thing happened while FanBoyWonder was at our local public library a couple of weeks back—while scanning the “latest selections” section, lo and behold what did we see but The Last Days of Krypton by Kevin J. Anderson.

As regular FanBoyWonder readers may remember that last fall we did an advance preview of the upcoming release of this novel chronicling the history (at least the tail end) of Superman’s home planet.

The novel hit stores last fall but as we’ve had frivolous things to pay for such as food, shelter, weekly comics fix plus the return of Brianna The Girl Wonder (and family) on our plate; we could never seem to find that extra $25.95 (hardcover) to purchase this particular piece of prose.

So we thank the guy or gal in charge of book purchases at the library for it was their wise selection that allowed us allowing us to travel back into time and space through the 28 known galaxies far, far away to visit the most famous fictional dead planet in history.

Despite some 70 years of Superman, not much is known about the Planet Krypton. It’s famous for blowing up shortly after delivering its last son to Earth but the story of Krypton itself has always been fertile yet woefully under-explored storytelling territory—until now.

Unfortunately, we found Anderson’s novel to be a mixed bag. The reader doesn’t learn a whole lot new about the late Planet Krypton yet he manages to capture and keep the readers’ at throughout the author’s long and winding (and at times long-winded) story.

Here’s the Upshot from HarperCollins: “Everyone knows how Kal-El—Superman—was sent to Earth just before his planet exploded. But what led to such a disaster? Now, in The Last Days of Krypton, Kevin J. Anderson presents a sweeping tale of the pomp and grandeur, the intrigue and passion, and the politics and betrayals of a doomed world filled with brave heroes and cruel traitors.

“Against the spectacular backdrop of Krypton's waning halcyon days, there is the courtship and marriage of Kal-El's parents, the brilliant scientist Jor-El and his historian wife, Lara. Together they fight to convince a stagnant, disbelieving society that their world is about to end. Jor-El's brother, Zor-El, leader of the fabled Argo City, joins the struggle not only to save the planet but also to fight against the menace of the ruthless and cunning General Zod.

“The diabolical Zod, future archenemy of Superman, avails himself of a golden opportunity to seize power when the android Brainiac captures the capital city of Kandor. As Zod's grip on the populace tightens and his power grows, he too is blind to all the signs that point to the death of the very civilization he is trying to rule.

“Through all of this, Jor-El and Lara's love for each other, their history, and their son allows for Krypton to live on even as the planet is torn apart around them. For in the escape of their baby lies Krypton's greatest gift—and Earth's greatest hero.

“The Last Days of Krypton is a timeless, ground-breaking exploration of a world that has never been fully defined, and reveals the extraordinary origins of a legend that has never ceased to amaze and astound generation after generation.”

The novel has been described as reminiscent of The Last Days of Pompeii in style—with a dash of James Cameron’s Titanic—in that it will tell the story of the lost civilization of Krypton in epic form.

The Kryptonian society that Anderson describes does indeed have a very Roman feel to it—with a subtle but a very real social/political caste system with certain prominent families, such as the House of El, at the top of the heap.

The ruling Council of Krypton governs by indecision and precedent with its mantra being “it’s the way we’ve always done it” followed close behind by “Thou shall not rock the boat.”

This is a civilization with its best days long behind it even as the planet is faced with multiple perils—a building pressure at the planet’s core, Krypton’s red sun Rao that could go Super Nova tomorrow or in a thousand years and a comet that’s on a collision course with Krypton—talk about overkill.

Jor-El and his brother Zor-El, scientists both, are celebrated in Kryptonian society for their intellect and their just plain inability to be ordinary, average and un-ambitious.

The white-haired Jor-El is almost certainly designed to make the reader think of Marlon Brando from the Richard Donner Superman movies—but considering we never liked Donner’s vision of Superman; this was not a big selling point for us.

Ditto for Jor-El’s nemesis Zod, who we see introduced not as a General but as Counselor Zod—he’s head of the Commission for Technology Acceptance.

Zod is a bureaucrat who is more devious and wily than gifted and brilliant. Zod—who likes to speak of himself in the third person early and often—uses his position as the planet’s technology czar to confiscate any and all of Jor-El’s inventions that is deemed to be potentially dangerous.

Yet rather than destroy those inventions, as is his mandate, Zod stockpiles keeps the goodies for himself, waiting for the right time to use whose weapons to “protect” Krypton and no one is the wiser—the fox guarding the hen house to be sure.

The author Anderson paints the picture of a civilization where its best days were long ago. The Krypton of Jor-El’s time is afraid of change and afraid other life beyond it’s own planet.

Given the number of different interpretations of Krypton over the years, it’s easy to understand why Anderson went with the version that people know best—the version that has been force fed into the public mind for some 30 years—the Richard Donner Superman movie version.

We found it difficult to picture the white-haired Jor-El in these pages as Marlon Brando but we had no trouble picturing the pompous, blustering Zod as the actor Terrance Stamp. Yet the character we most enjoyed—felt the most connection with--was Jor-El’s brother Zor-El, who in these pages is essentially the mayor/governor of Argo City.

Zor-El isn’t as naturally gifted a scientist as his brother and he knows it. But he does have innate people and political skills that serve him well in the story—he certainly sees Zod as the despot he turns out to be LONG before his brother the alleged genius.

Although Last Days does treat the reader to the meeting and courtship of Superman’s parents Jor-El and Lara, we truly wish the author had drilled down beyond his superficial presentation of Krypton’s customs, traditions and history.

Far too often, Anderson superimposes contemporary Earth slang and metaphors in his description of this advance, extra-terrestrial civilization in a galaxy far, far away. It proved to be an unnecessary distraction.

Instead, Anderson spends a disproportionate amount of the novel on Counselor Zod’s rise, General Zod’s reign and the fall of Zod and his subsequent banishment into the Phantom Zone—which ironically saved his life and the lives of his accomplices.

They would of course live to fight Jor-El’s son Kal-El another day under Earth’s yellow sun.

Fortunately, since Anderson was hell bent on focusing the novel so much on Zod, at least he made Zod interesting—which is to say the reader got to know and really got to despise Zod.

We really hated Zod’s ass three-quarters through the novel but we REALLY hated the people of Krypton, especially Jor-El, even more for falling under the spell of this guy who made Snidely Whiplash look like the master of subtlety.

Zod is a punk!

There we said it.

It’s not that Zod was so tough or so clever—although he certainly did corner the market in the ruthless department—but Zod was really a snake among sheep.

To Anderson’s credit, we could tell we were really into this book when we kept waiting and hoping for someone to give this blowhard some push back. Zor-El was one of the few characters to stand up to Zod and that’s what endeared us to the father of the Supergirl.

What makes Zod a punk? Because he was tough ONLY when he had the upper hand. During a scene in the book, Zod nearly came apart when his military attack on Argo City was stopped in its tracks by Zor-El’s force-field dome (the same dome that would protect the city and allow it to survive intact when Krypton blew up).

We didn’t sense any inner iron in this blowhard—not say like Lex Luthor. Put Zod and Luthor in the same room with a red sun lamp and you can count the minutes until Zod would be crying like a little girl. Heck, even the Toyman would eat his lunch.

Zod in the end of course was vanquished—thanks to Jor-El—but it was done in a not completely satisfying way.

Meanwhile, for all of his genius, Jor-El is among the most obtuse in his dealings with Zod and it costs the character dearly. Despite his instrumental role in ending Zod’s reign, the public’s fear and distrust of Jor-El and his close association with Zod make them deaf to Jor-El’s warnings about the danger to Krypton and it kills them all in the end.

So much time was spent in the novel on Zod that we felt that Krypton’s destruction got the short shrift. The scenes where Jor-El and Lara rocket baby Kal-El to Earth in a desperate gamble to save his life were forced—as it the writer were running out of pages and had to get that minor little plot detail out of the way.

Despite this we felt a Titanic-like tug at our heart strings in hoping these people would somehow find a way to survive even as we knew they wouldn’t.

When all is said and done, Last Day’s of Krypton was an amusing waste of time so long as you don’t accept it as cannon, not unlike a Star Trek novel. It counts unless something comes along in the comics to say it doesn’t.

Yet the novel represents a missed opportunity to really explore this lost civilization and addresses some long-unanswered questions.

Questions such as:

-- Just WHAT makes someone from Krypton SO powerful under a yellow sun that they would have the powers of a god nearly everywhere else in the universe?

--We would have liked to have had some sort of mention of Daxam—Krypton’s offshoot race and home of Lar Gand/Mon-El/Valor of the Legion of Super Heroes.

--Just how is it that Kryptonians look identical to Earthlings—North American, Caucasian Earthlings?

Bottom line: The Last Days of Krypton could have and perhaps should have been better but it was definitely worth the effort. While we’re exploring long-dead characters, how about a novel featuring the courtship of Thomas and Martha Wayne or the life of Hippolyta before Paradise Island?

Great Krypton indeed!

Final Crisis Management—(Another) Artistic SNAFU

2008-06-19T20:09:00.000-07:00

FanBoyWonder has made no secret of our skepticism in dealing with DC Comics’ latest big “event” Final Crisis by big deal “rock star” comics writer Grant Morrison.

Our skepticism comes from both the fact that DC’s other recent event, Infinite Crisis, was a storytelling failure of the worst order and that DC has failed more often than not since Infinite Crisis.

Besides despite a few impressive works, taken as a whole Grant Morrison has been a hit or miss performer with us—more often missing than hitting.

Frankly, we weren’t expecting much going into Final Crisis and having read the first issue, we further lowered our already diminished expectations. We deduced that if the story was going to make any sense at all, it would come together in the later issues so for the time being, the series would have to be carried on the strength of the art by J.G. Jones.

Jones’ art in that first issue was impressive, although it seemed to lose some artistic steam in the middle pages.

So despite our skepticism, we were floored when we read the story in Newsarama.com http://www.newsarama.com/comics/080616-PachecoFC.html “Carlos Pacheo Joins JG Jones on Final Crisis.”

Some eagle-eyed Newsarama writer picked out this little nugget in the September previews, discovering that Carlos Pacheco will be joining J.G. Jones on the art chores for Final Crisis #4 and will apparently be working together with Jones on art for the remaining issues.

Newsarama quoted DCU Executive Editor Dan DiDio who explained that the move is being made to keep the miniseries on schedule.

“Following the break in the schedule and beginning with issue #4, Carlos Pacheco will be joining JG Jones and handling a portion of the art chores on the Final Crisis mini series. We feel that Carlos, whose work on Justice League of America #21 stood out amongst the events leading up to Final Crisis, is an excellent addition to the team and his style will nicely complement the tone and feel JG Jones has set for this series.”

Prior to this, representatives from DC have stated that Jones was maintaining his schedule on the series, according to Newsarama.

If we were feeling charitable, we would see that this was a damned if they do, damned if they don’t situation for DC—stick with Jones solo on art and go late or bring in artistic back up and remain on schedule.

But we’re NOT feeling charitable, so WTF??? This series has been in the pipeline for a year and Morrison himself has said that scripts were in the can well into Countdown to Final Crisis. So what’s the deal?

What absolutely killed Infinite Crisis—besides a rambling story no direction and less soul, was that IC primary artists Phil Jimenez and Andy Lanning could never came close to carrying the book themselves and had to rely on a veritable committee of illustrators, including original CRISIS on Infinite Earths artist George Perez.

We should not that back in the day, Perez—with inkers Dick Giordano and later Jerry Ordway—penciled the entire 12-issue CRISIS by himself with each issue on time.

And now word has come down that the Final Crisis artist can’t hack it on schedule—as promised.

“Heroes Die. Legends Live Forever” We’ll tell you what else lives forever—the stink of an over-hyped, under-delivered “event.” Final Crisis indeed!

FanBoyWonder Welcomes Home Our Wonder Kids

2008-06-19T19:50:00.000-07:00

FanBoyWonder would like to take a quick moment to proudly announce the return of our granddaughter Brianna The Girl Wonder to our humble home, along with her new baby brother T.J. the Wonder Lad—7 months old—as well as their parents, Laurinda the step-daughter and Kenny the son-in-law.

The Wonder Kids are with us for an extended visit as they look to relocate and get on their feet. Despite some cramped quarters, it’s good to have our family back.

It’s been a long two years since Brianna first left with hard words spoken back and forth between mother and grandparents but we’re all coming at things with a different outlook and we’re determined to make the best of it looking forward.

Meanwhile our little girl has grown up and is a very beautiful 7-years-old. T.J. the Wonder Lad remains in good health at 7 months old following his emergency heart surgery just days after his pre-mature birth. He has amazing curious eyes and we look forward to getting to know him better.

Welcome home kids!