Shaolin Batman

La lang.

Belated

Merry Merry, geeks!





Santa Claws,heh.

Christmas Loot!

Thor and I went to the 2nd Christmas Toy and Collectible Fair and a trip to Comic Odyssey. Needless to say we went and emptied our wallets!

New Frontier Series 2 : Batman, Dr Fate, Martian Manhunter, and Flash
The rest in the picture are from Series 1


Finally the rest of the Authority minus Jack Hawksmoor. Thor bought Apollo last June.


Elseworld Counterparts from Red Son with JLA Superman and Batman and Son's Batman bought earlier this year. Terry Dodson's Wonder Woman was a Christmas gift from Thor.


Thor's picks - He's still admiring the packaging.


Crappy picture but this was the most expensive action figure I bought. This was a Christmas wish come true! I also got a couple of cheap busts that are locally made.

Yep. It was a happy Christmas!

One More for Baltimore

It hasn't won an Emmy but critics have unanimously anointed it the greatest show on TV. And that's not just some dim, brash Mark Millarish hyperbole. This is one of the few times they're so right, it's scary.

The Greatest Show On TV, then. Coming back for one last go-around. Bubbles is clean, Marlo's pissed, Omar's on the prowl ,Clay Davis is still full of "sheeeeeeeeeeeeit", McNulty's drunk again and Avon Barksdale's back. Hallelujah, motherfuckers.

January 6,2008. Miss it and you lose.

Go To Hell!

There's Hideo Nakata's Deathnote movie, L:Change the World. And there's this.





The only two superhero movies y'all should wait for next year, no more, no less.

I suddenly couldn't care less about that Iron Man movie - - -but Christopher Nolan gets a ticket sale from me.

Found

Season 4 is upon us. January 31.

There will be spoilers

The X-men and mutant kind have faced near extinction before through genocide by humans, a virus, or people from space or the future wanting to kill-off everyone with a mutant gene. Usually everyone got cured, the killer/s neutralized. After M-day, 91% of mutants lost their mutant gene, there’s no “enemy” to fight or a virus to find a cure for, and no problem that science or magic can solve. For two years, mutants know that they slowly dying off and in that time different X-titles have been setting up characters and events for the Messiah Complex. Through bad and good writing I have stuck with the titles. My investment is big. Thus, my expectations for this event is high and so far it has consistently delivered fantastic story-telling.

Madrox and Layla are sent 80 years to the future where mutants are kept in concentration camps (where we learn that Lalyla's mutant gene "comes and goes"). Rictor goes under cover among the Purifiers because he would not register as a mutant anymore. The New X-men led by Surge went to attack the Purifiers as payback for murdering their friends. They almost did not make it out alive. Wolverine, Storm, Nightcrawler, Angel, and Emma Frost (at least in spirit, her body’s back at the Xavier’s) fought the Marauders where Kurt got mortally wounded and Logan found out from Gambit that the baby was with Cable. Predator X (the monster made by the people who created X-23 and is reinforced by Mercury’s well…mercury) is tracking the yummiest monster treat around which is of course the baby.

Scott and Xavier are still butting heads with Xavier asserting that he should lead and that Scott has been making wrong decisions. Scott has assembled X-Force: Wolverine, X-23, Caliban, Warpath, Hepzibah, and Rahne to track Cable and the baby with order to kill Cable if necessary to ensure that the baby is in their hands.The Reavers led by Death Strike is also after Cable.

Xavier’s was leveled to the ground by the O*N*E* Sentinels who were taken over by sentient metallic goo. Sentinels wanting to kill mutants is old but they pulled it off because for a long time O*N*E* Sentinels were written to useless in protecting the kids in the Institute – they were harmless, manned by stupid soldiers – it caught me off guard.

In my opinion, Batman War Games was one the most well executed cross-overs ever since the tone of the story-telling and the art was consistent throughout different titles, writers, and artists. Messiah Complex is at par and more. Brubaker, Yost, Kyle, David, and Carey are all in their top form as they write great fight scenes but they do not forget to delve into the characters’ self doubts, fear, and anger and how these affect their decisions and actions. The artists have all been great. So far, I cannot predict how they will resolve the story – or maybe that is me refusing to think ahead. I don’t want anything to spoil the ride.

All Across the Universe

GREEN LANTERN #25
Written by Geoff Johns; Art by Ivan Reis, Ethan Van Sciver and Oclair Albert; Variant cover by Gary Frank

Minor Spoilers. Major Spoilers are blocked off.

Come to think of it, the plot-bloated but emotionally resonant Infinite Crisis feels like a prequel to Geoff Johns’ dark oeuvre The Sinestro Corps War, which is as much a story of Sinestro recruits Superboy Prime and Cyborg Superman as it is the fall and rise of the Green Lantern Corps. What started out as the best major event opener in DC’s convulsing superhero history has finally wrapped up in Green Lantern #25 and, well, it kept me coming up for air most of the time. A solid 30-minute read it will take you about the same time (or longer) to admire the details of the art. Reis’ pencils are breathtakingly cinematic. Pace perfect. A bloody valentine to space operas.

Geoff Johns has always been more about the story than the concepts. And Sinestro Corps War, he expertly tells. Watching him weave a universe-full of story threads into a clear action-driven, morally-centered epic is simply a wonder. It could have been messy (Countdown) or choppy (Infinite Crisis), but this one is just one smooth ride to a GL mythos-shattering finale.

The Green Lantern Corps books are independent from the main title but I did find them more interesting. More theoretical, more adventurous with its inventions. Hal will live through this war, I’m sure, but the battle in Lantern Mogu had me guessing the outcome. Gibbons and Tomasi made the corps more heroic than superheroic, just your ordinary (space) cops (Zaido!) making a living. And they have the world to lose.

I’m still reeling from the magnitude of it all—there’s nothing more I want to do than finish the last two tie-ins (GLC Corps epilogue and the ION special) before giving the series another read. But as it is, the Sinestro Corps War is this year's best. Nothing even comes close. And with the lethal force activated in the power rings and the birth of the blue and black lanterns, 2009's Blackest Night just can’t come faster enough. ****1/2

A night in Gotham

As usual guys…. Major Spoilers….

Crime Bible: Five Lessons in Blood #2 Written by Greg Rucka; Art by Jose Saiz

Greg loves Renee. Really! Her characterization throughout the years have changed, improved, and in some ways became more flawed. Renee is tracking down the crime-bible-cult from 52 and has gone undercover as a customer in a brothel run by the cult. Mr. Rucka slowly built up to the dilemma of people who have gone deep undercover—will she be completely part of that world (sex, drugs, alcohol, murder and the like) or not? From all the movies I have seen on police going undercover (Donnie Brasco, Infernal Affairs) you cannot help but be dirty or else blow your cover. This is a big issue in the DCU as seen in JLA Elite—it is necessary to go deep but impossible to stay immaculately clean. Renee working alone is in a worse situation—she has no support or back-up and she is deeply lonely. The woman offering a respite to this is a temptation too big to resist.

Gotham Underground #2 Written by Frank Tieri; Art by J. Calafiore and Jack Purcell; Cover by J. Calafiore

Well, they’ve gone and done it. There it was—a full page of Spoiler stalking Robin. O well, let’s see where this one will go. The Gotham gangs are organizing themselves—those who are not led by metahumans or costumed villains. They want to re-claim Gotham. Meanwhile good old Batman is deep undercover as Matches Malone in a state penitentiary. He wants to investigate what is happening to the villains who have disappeared so he got himself arrested and sent to jail. I would have thought he’d be smart enough to know that if the Suicide Squad is involved, he wouldn’t find the villains in jail. That big neon clue should have led him to Amanda Waller! Anyway, he left Dick and Tim in charge while he is away. Dick decided to do some investigating on his own by creating a-la Matches Malone alter ego. He is his father’s son (or he just ran out of original ideas).

All Star Batman and Robin the Boy Wonder #8
Written by Frank Miller; Art and Cover by Jim Lee and Scott Williams

Wow! This is the coolest Joker ever! It’s not unbelievable that a sane woman would want to have sex with him (well, as long as she didn't know beforehand that he will kill her after the hot sex). Dick is changing the Goddamned Batman. The jerk found himself starting to care… awwww! But after how he was characterized the change in attitude is too fast for me. Dick's first costume and name – The Hood – was funny. He based it on Robin Hood (at first glance I thought it was Ollie)! He looked like a little Speedy with arrows and all.