Comically Obsessed

Marvel Celebrates the Debut of the Astonishing X-Men Motion Comic

October 28th, 2009 - It's not quite animation, but it's more than a comic book. It's ... Motion Comics! DC did it with Watchmen, Marvel recently did it with Spider-Woman, and now you can take the comic book reading experience to the next level with Astonishing X-Men.

Will Cyclops' optic blast have a cool "SSHHRRAAAKK" sound effect? Will Emma Frost come off English and sexy, or butch and raspy like Dr. Girlfriend from The Venture Brothers? Will the motion comic itself be ... astonishing?

Celebrate with Marvel and enjoy costume contests (just in time for Halloweeeeen!), giveaways, and of course, the premiere of the Astonishing X-Men Motion Comic, today in Union Square, NYC, beginning at 4pm. At 7pm, "ASTONISHING X-MEN will be projected three stories high so that fans can experience the adventure like never before!"

Neal Adams, Chris Claremont, Dan Slott and other creators will be on hand to sign your fanboy man-boobs.

Visit http://marvel.com/fest09 for further info, true believers.

Chillin' with Chewie at Big Apple Comic Con

Here I am chillin' with Chewbacca at the 2009 Big Apple Comic Con.

The actor (Peter Mayhew) who wore the original costume was busy signing autographs 15 feet away. I'm not sure who was in the costume, but maybe that's for the best.

Marvel 70th Anniversary Celebration

Marvel 70th Anniversary Celebration with Joe Quesada, Chris Claremont, Greg Pak, Klaus Janson & Fred Van Lente
> at Barnes & Noble, Upper East Side, NYC, 08.11.09

Writers and artists are always at the comic shows, available for autographs and answers to our geeky questions, but it's rare that I can tear myself away from rifling through the comic bins to brave the lines. Fortunately, five Marvel men - Janson, Claremont, Pak, Van Lente and Quesada - set up shop at B&N for an hour to entertain our probing questions in the name of Marvel's 70th anniversary.

Mighty Marvel Men: Janson, Claremont, Pak, Van Lente (hidden), Quesada

After hearing questions about comic-based movies, Claremont's X-Men Forever, and the making of Magneto Testament, I decided to play a little hardball. "Everyone knows that time in the comic universe is different from that of our real universe," I began. "Lack of aging in characters such as Wolverine, Thor and Scarlet Witch can be explained away, but what about Peter Parker, Tony Stark, Steve Rogers, Scott Summers and others? How would you explain the slow aging or lack thereof in certain characters?"

"Well, we won't have a Marvel Crisis," Quesada deadpanned, referring to DC's mid-80s hero-housecleaning series Crisis on Infinite Earths. Writers and editors have had some issues with Peter Parker and Tony Stark, Quesada explained. But they find ways to keep the characters young. For example, a writer wanted to give Parker and MJ a kid. Now, the kid couldn't stay the same age forever, and in turn neither could Parker or MJ. By not having kids, Parker can stay in his 20's. As for Cap, well, he did fight in WWII and lay frozen for years, but was defrosted, um, yesterday!

And once again, I suspend my disbelief in the name of being a True Believer.

Quesada went on to explain his take on the differences between the Marvel and DC universes. Marvel's characters are easy to relate to because they are human first, super-powered beings second. Superman's alter ego is Clark Kent, and Batman's way to interact with normal people is through Bruce Wayne. It's the opposite with Spider-Man; he's Peter Parker first, and then Spidey when he dons his costume.

All in all, I'd say the panel went extremely well. A lot of fans purchased the Marvel 70th Anniversary trade paperback and stuck around for autographs. But I wondered how much the good people of B&N knew their audience. Seeing that most of the attendees were adults or at least teens, having dudes decked out in cheap-looking super-hero costumes to accost customers at the entrance seemed a little misguided.

Sure beats doing kids' birthday parties!

"Hey, lady," Spidey called out to a middle-aged lady entering the store, "you like comics? We're having ..."

"Maybe next year!" she replied, fleeing in the opposite direction. Spidey didn't even shrug.

Even I felt a little uncomfortable having to get through two costumed freaks in order to get to the panel. Iron Man and Spidey held court at the entrance to the store, and weren't going anywhere for the time being. The would-be heroes posed for camera-phone shots and kicks in general. Spidey even spoke in a voice remarkably similar to that of Dan Gilvezan (who voiced Spidey in 80s cartoon "Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends").

Closer to the event room, though, lurked an even more frightful figure: The Incredible Hulk! Hobbling around in a busted-up, rubber costume less realistic than what you would have found in a dime-store thirty years ago, he looked scary, but not in a good way. Even Lou Ferrigno would have cringed. But I guess it all added a bit of nostalgic fun to the evening.

RRRAARRRGHH!! Hulk pee! Outdated costume ruined! (cue sad piano music from the 70s TV show)

Know what would be even more fun? If they published the books on time! Or kept the cover prices down! Ok, enough complaining! Back to obsessing ... : )

STAR TREK 2009 proves Roddenberry's genius timeless

It's been years since the last good Trek film, but this one makes it worth the wait.

The action and drama, injected with familiar bits of humor and the characters' famous lines, start right at the beginning and don't let up for the film's entire two hours. Even storytelling elements are much more fast-paced here than that of the original series and movies. Kirk's back-story, featuring his parents, brings to mind the familial themes explored in Battlestar Galactica and Star Wars.

The F/X get a stylistic work-over. Phasers look similar, but flip around when switching from stun to kill. Beaming gets a make-over. The transporter envelops transportees in a cocoon-like energy wrap, with a rushing sound instead of the high-pitched choral static hum of the original series, or the lower-pitched, expanding egg super sci-fi vibration of the earlier movies.

Unlike the more recent Star Wars movies, the CGI and visual aesthetic in STAR TREK are not greatly divorced from the originals, just slightly updated (despite having occurred chronologically earlier). The Enterprise looks more like a starship than a frisbee and two paper towel rolls glued together. The phasers, communicators and tricorders maintain their retro-futuristic look. And, most importantly, Uhura looks great in her red mini-skirt.

Director J.J. Abrams worked hard to pay tribute while updating Gene Roddenbury's vision. And, thankfully, the casting is nearly flawless. After watching Zachary "Sylar" Quinto play Spock, it's hard to imagine anyone else doing justice to Leonard Nimoy's legacy. Quinto does a brilliant job of portraying a young man torn between two species and two worlds - mixed race of Vulcan dad and human mom (played by Wynona Ryder) and serving in Starfleet or the Vulcan Academy of Science.

Chris Pine's maverick Kirk expands upon William Shatner's risk-taking leader of the Enterprise; we even get a deeper look into Kirk's early years as a young man. The more you watch, the more Pine takes on some of Shatner's mannerisms, to much delight.

Simon Pegg (actually half-Scottish) flawlessly delivers Scotty's lines while fusing his own eccentricities with that of the beloved engineer. John Cho adds some serious cojones to the Sulu character when he and Kirk (Pine) skydive down through Vulcan's atmosphere to subdue Nero's world-destroying device. Zoe Saldana plays a smart, fearless, sultry Uhura, while Karl Urban portrays Bones to the hilt. Out of the major protagonists, Anton Yelchin's Chekov is the most different - thicker accent, curly hair - but his excited, nerdy antics add to the tension when saving people via transporter at the last possible second.

Absent from this installment of STAR TREK, for better or worse, is the campiness of bad acting, poorly staged fights, and inadvertently comedic lines (click here for a clip of Kirk's "I... have had ENOUGH... of YOU!" to Kruge while kicking him off the cliff in ST III). Some new story elements in this film differ radically from past episodes and movies, including romance between Spock and Uhura, and the destruction of Vulcan and Romulus. And, apparently, Abrams could not find a way to work Shatner into the film beyond a cameo. Click here to learn why.

In one scene, future Spock explains the events which lead up to why Kirk and Scotty must leave the Starfleet outpost on the ice planet to beam onto the Enterprise en warp to Vulcan. Spock tells young Kirk about Kirk's father being proud of his joining Starfleet. I was hoping the characters would restore reality, and bring back Vulcan, Romulus, Spock's mother and Kirk's father, but maybe all the death is Abrams' set up for the next movie.

As a Trek fan going on 25 years now, I walked out of the theater feeling very happy and excited, overall. I'm sure you will, too.

Photo Credits: Industrial Light and Magic

Who watches the Watchmen?

I did. For all the online fanboy bitching, I think Zach Snyder et al did a great job. I could have done with less of the over the top "Matrix" and "300" style slow-mo action shots, but overall, not bad for a big, loud, sexy, Hollywood interpretation of the celebrated mid-80s graphic novel.

New York Comic Con 2009 Photos (Javits Center, 2/8)

↑ Cobra Commander, looking very evil

Fanboys never die. If you attended this year's Big Apple Comic Con, you experienced the general insanity and excitement in the room, laughing in the face of these tough economic times. The geeks took over with a joyous abandon that I haven't seen at a 'con in years. Movement was restricted within the swelling, all ages crowds, full of the usual sights, sounds and smells. Light saber duels, costumes, Kaiju Big Battel-style throwdowns, general goofy exuberance and ... a non-stop dance contest to "Rockit."

Recession? What recession?

With the dance showdown's cheers echoing overhead every five minutes, I worked as hard as I could to capture the best costumes - while scouring the bins for bargains. I managed to squeeze out "recession specials" from some vendors ("these are not the prices you're asking for"), and made out like a bandit on both days. One seller even insisted I pay $5 LESS for some graphic novels, and I didn't even employ any Jedi mind tricks. It was a buyer's market for sure.

Over to the dollar bins. Perez and Byrne Avengers, Vampirella, New Avengers, Astonishing X-Men, various variants, all waiting to feed my collecting compulsion as I squeezed my bony frame in there. Some bins were so packed with mylar-bagged books that my flipping and pulling process actually frayed some finger. After blowing the smoke off my fingertips, I found an acute case of mylar burn with minor bleeding at the cuticle! Where's that healing power?

wolverine

↑ X-Men Origins: Virgin

The NY Comic Con's web site boasted heaps of artists, writers and celebrities. Except for the autograph lines, these people were tucked away somewhere. A friend of mine managed to snap a pic of the lawyer from Battlestar Galactica, hanging out at one of the booths, on Saturday afternoon. I had no such luck. But I did have a helluva lotta fun. See ya at the next NY Con - in October ... of 2010. : (

faker