Back to Sunnydale

I'm not sure when, but Thor, the God of Thunder is set to make his return to the Marvel universe. I am anxiously awaiting my preview copy. This article says he is scheduled to return in July. Thor has always been one of my favorite Marvel characters.

Stan Lee and Jack Kirby first adapted the thunder God from mythological sources into the comics back in the 60s and he has been around in one form or another ever since. Following the Avengers Disassembled storline a few years back, Thor was killed. Yet, we all know by now that superheroes rarely stay dead, they have more lives than the proverbial cat and have risen from the grave more times than Lazarous.

Well, evidently this isn't some clone fake out of Thor such as the one we saw back in Civil War, but the real mccoy.

There are also rumors that there's going to be a monumental smack down between Thor and Tony Stark (a.k.a. Iron Man) when the Thunder God is made aware of Captain America's murder and the events which led up to it.

The Hulk is currently back on Earth and on a tear in New York City along with his warbound brothers.

Now, Thor returns to wrangle with the director of S.H.I.E.L.D.

I almost feel sorry for Iron Man.  

 

Wendy dragged me off to the Cat club last week to see/hear Sara Routh perform. Yea, I had no idea who she was either, apparently her brother is Brandon Routh who played Superman in the movie and Wendy is madly in love with the guy. I expected it to be like the musical equivalent of "chick lit" and that is pretty much what it was.

Here is a photo I shot of her during the show. I had to correct it a bit because it was dark and I used my flash intermitently, so as not to disturb her too much during her set.

Rather than provide a link to her website I decided to add this link to an interview she did recently on killradio.org

Even though I miss working with the newspaper and website at Mt. SAC, there has been a lot going on and I haven't had too much time to miss it. In addition to working at school, I am currently working on a story for the Walnut paper on the red light cameras installed in the city and I've got a ton of comic book reviews to catch up with for SBC. I went camping with some of my high school buds this weekend so maybe next post I will include some of the photos from the trip. There are way too many good comics coming out right now. World War Hulk from Marvel, After the Cape from Image and Countdown from DC are among some of my recommendations.

 

Writer: Chris Yost
Artist: Scottie Young

Publisher: Marvel Comics


Whether it’s bringing back old but cool X-Men foes like Nimrod or re-creating classic X-Men covers like issue #26’s homage to Uncanny X-Men’s unforgettable cover to issue #141, the “Days of Future Past” storyline, New X-Men by Yost, Kyle and Young is the one X-title I look forward to reading every month.

Fans who didn’t pick up the New X-Men’s storyline in the “House of M” reality may be left wondering why the demon lord Belasco targets the students of the Xavier institute in the first place, but it’s made clear in this issue the reason is Illyana Rasputin, a.k.a. Magik. Belasco believes the students are cognizant of her whereabouts and pulls them into Limbo to extract the information from them. Naturally, they are unable to comply.

Though comics featuring bands of young teens or super-hero recruits in training are now commonplace (think Runaways or Avengers: The Initiative), not so long ago it wasn’t such a trite idea, and the premise was well executed on a consistent basis in one of Marvel’s best books a few decades ago: The New Mutants. This comic book has the same familiar feel to it, and it borrows from the X-Men’s long and storied history to craft exciting and fresh new stories.

If one doesn’t mind Young’s less realistic approach and cartoony feel to his artwork which is reminiscent of Humberto Ramos’ style without being an exact carbon copy, the reader can expect dynamic action sequences and fantastic visuals well suited to the many monsters and creatures found regularly within the comic’s pages.

Of course, Rasputin has a long history herself with ties to Marvel’s Limbo dimension, but one doesn’t have to be an X-Men historian to enjoy this plot line, which is another asset this comic has going for it: it’s accessible to new readers as well as enjoyable to old time fans already familiar with these characters.

Yost and Kyle do a superb job of conveying the sense of dread and helplessness felt by the young mutants. This is uncharted territory, and it’s especially troubling to a character like Sooraya whose religious beliefs influence her life to a greater degree than most.

Another reason to enjoy the book is the inclusion of X-23 to the team. She is a character with a short pedigree but with a lot of potential. Craig Kyle isn’t afraid to damage his own creation for the good of the story and what happens to her this issue is truly unforeseen and a visual delight.

Great pacing, interesting characters, vivid colors courtesy of Jean-Francois Beaulieu, and some of the best cliffhangers in the industry guarantee that this comic is a great read every month. It’s amazing how good it can be without featuring prominent characters like Cyclops and Wolverine on a monthly basis. More people should be giving it a try.

The Spring semester is history. I have gone back to freelancing for the Weekly News. As I was driving to the Mt. SAC graduation ceremony last friday to watch some of my friends graduate, I felt a sense of impatience, traffic had slowed to a crawl due to a bad traffic light on Grand and appropriately enough, "Patience" by GNR came on the radio. I feel I have to have patience because I would like more than anything to be all done with my B.A. at Cal Poly and already working for a major newspaper, but I know that this is just another chapter of my life that is about to open.

I leave you guys with some of the images from my PHOTO 10 portfolio. You guys can be the judge of whether my photography has improved at all since taking the class.

This issue of Buffy, the conclusion of the first story arc in the new comic book series may disappoint some fans, if only because it lacks some of the fresh nostalgic impact of the first three, but the conclusion to story arcs in sequential form are always tough to craft. I find the frenetic pace of this series to be exciting and the character moments fit in as beautiful respites to the requisite butt kickings.

The beautiful cover by artists Jo Chen suggests it may be a Dawn-centric issue, but she’s barely in the comic at all. However, she does have the best moment in the issue IMHO, even though it occurs off panel.

After Satsu and Buffy have gone through the portal and Warren and Amy have been dispatched and Willow has been rescued, the poignant rescue is broadcast on the monitors in the Slayer’s Scottish castle where Xander is still doing his best Nick Fury imitation and manning the rescue operation and says, “Let’s stop patting ourselves in the back ‘till we have extraction. And someone ask Dawn to stop jumping up and down.” (Get the funny?)

This issue is a non-stop action romp with Buffy confronting Amy with one magical ace up her Slayer sleeve, one which was similar to the one the Scooby gang played to defeat the demon robot Adam at the end of season 4 in the episode “Primeval.” There’s also a showdown in the military installation two miles south of where Sunnydale used to be which is reminiscent of the initiative, which some fans hated when the TV show was on, but which also has the effect of fostering a comfortable sense of familiarity. Others include the magical scythe Buffy employed against the first evil at the end of season seven, and the appearance of mystical beings similar to the “powers that be,” recurring characters in “Angel,” the Buffy spin-off.

The artwork within the covers continues to be of above average quality. I was at first clamoring for Cliff Richards to pencil the tales, as I had grown accustomed to his expert renditions of the actors who made our favorite characters come to life in Dark Horse's previous Buffy comics. However, Jeanty has proven he is both capable of producing good renditions of Buffy’s cast as well as depicting the more mystical and magical aspects of the series.

My only problem with the plot is that it seems that Amy’s motivation to take on Willow and the Slayer army isn’t clearly defined, she went from being a mild annoyance to a powerful adversary, but her transition does not seem to flow. Willow should have kept her in her cage while Whedon seems too eager to elevate her to “big bad” status. Warren’s motive makes more sense: Nothing like good old fashioned revenge. Now nothing more than a skinless monster, he relishes in the opportunity to torture and possibly “lobotomize” Willow.

On the romantic spectrum, it’s interesting to note that Satsu may have feelings for Buffy, as it is strongly implied that she was the one who kissed her last issue to break the spell, but is her infatuation more a sense of admiration than the manifestation of actual romantic feelings? And how does that bode for Xander and Buffy’s apparent coupling? The creative team is taking a month off, so we have to wait until August for any more answers.

The competition was fierce, but I was humbled and honored to find out that this here blog took first place honors in the semi-annual journalism awards competition this weekend put together by Mt.SAC's Journalism department in Walnut CA, honoring new media and contributions made by journalism students.

Sine I have been working on updating Mt.SAC's website for the last year or so, I thought, why the heck not? Why not enter? Never dreaming that it would be recognized. Blogs entered ranged from everything from Hip hop to politics to current events, and of course journalism. Though my blog primarily focuses on the achievements and trends in visual storytelling (i.e. comic books and graphic novels) and its primary existence is to advance this industry's accomplishments and to promote them, I have touched upon some of the other topics mentioned above on occasion, and will continue to do so.

I'd like to thank all the people who read it on a regular basis and I also would like to say that it was an honor to be up against such great blogs which also took home awards. Congratulations to all the winners, keep on blogging and continue to make insightful contributions in new media forms and in your future pursuits in journalism.

It was Kathy Griffin night last night on Bravo. At the risk of sounding like a gay man (not that "there's anything wrong with it" to quote Seinfeld, but I am not) I've become a fan of comedianne Kathy Griffin. From what I gather, she has a very large following among gay males.

A t first I used to think she was very annoying, but she was always kind of funny in her many guest appearances on various sitcoms. She was always one of those D-list stars who make a living on being (but not starring) on tv shows or small roles in movies, kind of like John Lovitz.

Now Griffin has parlayed that image into very funny specials on Bravo and her reality tv show, "Life on the D-List" which if I am not mistaken is starting out its 3rd season.

I can't stand the reality tv genre, so I don't think I am going to be watching her show on a regular basis, but she is always good for the occasional laugh and I really like her comedy specials. Her latest was just what I needed after a long day of studying for finals and working at school.

I read one blogger who said she didn't like her as much anymore because she portrayed an image of being one of us, regular joes who share the world with the celebrities among us, but this person was turned off by finding out what Kathy is really like, apparently living in a nice house and staying at expensive hotels.

I don't think Kathy ever came accross as though she was trying to be a regular joe. Regular joes don't go to Holllywood clubs and premieres or hob nob with the likes of Lindsay Lohan so I guess I would have to disagree with this disgruntled blogger.

However, I do like the fact that she goes out of her way to poke fun at celebrities, to her detriment she has even been banned from various talk shows including Ellen's show and a few others. She burst into tears when Jay Leno made a nasty remark about her and she lost her job on E's red carpet show for perpetrating a gag about Dakota Fanning. It seems as though she just can't help herself and that's just awesome.

One of the funnies bits on her new special dealt with Rosie O'Donnell inviting her to do stand up on her cruise for lesbians and their kids. Griffin said in a recent interview on Newsweek, "I'm going to be on the boat for three nights with the lesbians and the kids, And you know how self-righteous the lesbians are about those goddam kids. And I hate children. But I'm not going to tell Rosie."

That's some funny stuff.

Thus far, the "Back in Black" storyline running through all the Spider-Man comics has been loads of fun. I stopped reading Amazing Spider-Man on a regular basis for a while following Stracynski's deplorable "Sins Past" storyline, but Civil War was so much fun that I decided to give Amazing another try after Peter unmasked in CW#2 and thus far it has been the best of the post-CW Spiderman comics.

There are continuity problems to be sure, and these have been pointed out by other bloggers, most notably: Spiderman returns to his black and white duds, which he first donned back in 1984's Secret Wars, despite the fact the reason he ditched them in the first place was because it traumatized his wife to see him dressed as the psycho killer who lated adopted the suit and terrorized her (Venom)

Yet, at the end of ASM# 539, Spidey is so grief stricken by his aunt May being shot by a sniper's bullet that he decides to return to his old costume and Mary Jane doesn't utter a word of protest! Well, despite these glitches in continuity, as I said above, the story has worked rather well, most notably in Amazing where a dark tale of revenge has been weaved (pardon the awful pun.)

Sensational and Friendly Neighborhood have been a little bit more silly with the former being the best of the two, in my opinion, with a story arc featuring a string of Spider-Man impostors descending in Manhattan. I was somewhat bugged by the appearance of Sandman in the latter which I viewed as another needless ploy by Marvel to exploit the release of Spiderman 3, but be that as it may, it was still cool to see how each artist in all the books renders Spidey in his gorgeous black suit. I was also dissapointed to see Angel Medina have such a short run as artist over on Sensational, but maybe he was just slated to pencil one book. This is a shame, as I think he would be awesome as a regular artist and I would be more willing to stick with the comic for the long haul if he was making extended contributions. I dig his style and have done so since he was drawing Spawn over at Image.

Peter David, one of my all time favorite writers, is coming up with some quarky stories, but they are all over the map, one month getting the saga of the green goblin and Ben Parker from a future dimension to the most recent arc of Ms. Arrow who apparently turns into a collection of spiders to form some sort of spider monster. Weeeird. We'll see where this title is headed in future installments.