Sports Silliness

The last few days have provided some funny sports stuff.  Let us take a look at a few of them.

Haha, very classy Rice!  Probably the only thing I will remember about them all season.

World-class athlete...running is hard!



Seriously, what the hell is Morgan thinking?  Does he really want a piece of Pujols?  That man would destroy him.  Also, I would love to see Fielder and Pujols fight.  Plus, if Morgan was so serious about fighting, how is it that Prince Fielder is able to lightly jog run full speed over to grab Morgan?  That was one of those:  "oh shit, I hope someone grabs before I get my ass beat."

And then Morgan decides to go to twitter...

Calling Albert Pujols a woman...wow.  Very clever Nyjer!  I also see that spelling is kicking your ass, especially "where vs. we're."  What a joke...



Things I learned from the Sidney Crosby press conference:
-His brain is like a Ferrari
-The etymology of the word concussion...it comes from Latin!
-Christmas is a celebration
-90% is better than 89%
-Sid needs to buy polo shirts a size bigger...he looked like he was about to explode out of that and start screaming "SID ANGRY!!! SID SMASH!!"
-According to the ladies, Sid is still sexy.
-Vestibular perception
-Sid is not retiring.  Or at least, do not bet on that.

Wow, just wow...these uniforms look like something you would see in Grant Morrison's Invisible.

HAHAHAHAHAHA, Worst Idea Ever

Who got high and decided that Ghost Rider needed a sequel?  And why the hell is GR pissing fire at the end of the preview?

Comic Book Characters Should Play Baseball: DC Edition

The other day I was thinking about comic book characters and how silly it is that all of these characters become heroes/villains when they realize they have some kind of power or ability.  If I found out that I had enhanced strength or something, I would probably go into professional sports.  Much easier to make millions.

I started to wonder which comic book characters would make the best baseball players.  I decided to only use the humans who had minor enhancements.  Obviously Superman would destroy a baseball.  And yes, the Flash would just tap the ball and make it home in under a second.  People would probably notice they were a little different.

Shortstop
Remember the days before Alex Rodriguez played for the Yankees?  Or before he took performance enhancing drugs?  He was a big guy, who could hit and play his position.  He was quick, agile, and powerful.  Who does that sound like?

Batman is 6'2, 210 lbs. and is a master in multiple forms of martial arts.  He would be amazing in the field.  Throwing batarangs probably means he would be pretty accurate throwing to first from awkward positions.  Oh, and he is big and strong, and could probably be a 40 HR type guy.

Second Base
You need someone quick at second, who can help turn those tricky double plays.  Well if Batman is at SS, then you would definitely want Robin at second.  Obviously I mean Tim Drake.  He was my favorite Robin.  Tim is listed at only 5'1, 115 lbs, but I think he may have grown a little bit.  Anyways, he would have the quickness to make those turns and throws to first.

Also, since he loves to use his bo staff, he would probably be a great slap hitter.  I could imagine him being more like Ichiro, high average and a ton of stolen bases.

Third Base
This is one of the positions where you want some serious power.  This is the character that got me thinking about this whole post.  Slade Wilson, aka Deathstroke.  He has enhanced abilities:  strength, agility, reflexes, and a healing factor.

This guy is a mercenary, but he could easily make a crap-load of money hitting 50 HRs per year and also hitting around .400.  If Albert Pujols or A-Rod can get over $200 million (I am sure Pujols will get that kind of money), Slade would probably be even higher paid.  Plus, his extra abilities would not be noticeable as long as he did not jump twenty feet into the air or something.

Oh, and with that healing factor, he could probably break Cal Ripken's consecutive game streak.

First Base
This is another one of those big, power-hitter type positions.  You would someone who is a big target for the other infielders to throw too, but also someone who can just crush a baseball.

Bane would make a great first baseman.  He is 6'8 and as long as he does not overdo it on the Venom, he would not look a muscle-bound freak.  Just use it on occasion and keep belting out HRs, probably would strikeout a few times though.  He would be like Adam Dunn.

Luckily, as of now, MLB does not test for Venom.  If they did, Bane could be banned for a few games.  Although, he has stopped using it in comics, to get started in baseball, while growing up in the Caribbean, I am sure he would have been juicing. 

Center Field
When you think of a center fielder, you want someone who is a natural athlete, and very fast.  They usually have a lot of ground to cover.  Well, who better than Nightwing?  He is built almost exactly like Andrew McCutchen.

Dick Grayson was a fantastic gymnast and acrobat long before he met Batman.  That kind of thing probably would come in handy when making ridiculous catches.  Also, he probably has a cannon from throwing batarangs and whatnot.  I picture him as .300 hitter, who steals about 30-50 bases per year.  Not a huge HR guy, maybe 15 to 20, but probably a fantastic gap hitter.

Left Field
Here is another one that has super powers, but those could easily be hidden.  Animal Man could play left field.  He could summon the speed and power of any animal he wanted.  As long as he does not overdo it, he could become one of the greats out there.

I picture him putting up numbers similar to CarGo last year.  35-40 HRs, 40-50 SBs, an average around .350.  Yeah, people would probably remember Buddy Baker as a player more than they remember him as a superhero.

Right Field
You want an amazing athlete out there who can throw the ball to third base and home on a rope.  Who would be better than Mr. Terrific?  The dude has won the Olympic gold medal in the decathlon and has multiple black-belts.

I bet he would put up a .300 average, hit about 25-35 HRs, and probably gun down about 15 guys a year trying to tag up on him.  The guy just seems to excel at whatever he does.

Catcher
This is such a tough position because most people do not realize how difficult it can be.  Also, there are so many different types of catcher.  Personally, I look for a good defensive catcher.  The abilities you want in that kind of catcher are quick reflexes.  People forget that a catcher has about the same amount of time to react to a pitch as the hitter.  If his pitcher misses his target, there is not a lot of time to move the body to make the catch.

Captain Boomerang Jr (Owen Mercer) would be perfect.  He is an expert at throwing objects, so he could probably throw out a good amount of runners, plus he has a little bit of super-speed, which means he can probably use that to slow down the rest of the world.  A runner stealing second would not distract him as the pitch is coming in.  Plus, he could use a little bit of that speed to allow him to steal bases.  I could see him racking up somewhere around 60-100 SBs in a season, probably have a huge OBP with all of his walks since he can slow the world down and know if a pitch is a ball or strike. 

Pitchers
If you want a good starting staff, you might as well look no further than the Green Arrow and his family.  Ollie, Roy, and Connor are all expert marksmen.  Using a bow makes a person have a very strong arms and chest.  They could easily become a pitcher with that kind of skill-set.  You might as well add Merlyn to that mix as well.  Instead of becoming an assassin, why not make millions throwing a baseball?

 And what about a late inning reliever?  How about Hourman?  The dude could just pop one of his Miraclo pills and be a hard throwing closer for about an hour.  He could be a two inning closer as long as it does not take more than an hour.

Alright, well that is it for this installment.  Next time I will look at some Marvel characters.

Man of Steel

The new Superman movie comes out in 2013 and it seems there is a new image out from the film.  I like what I see so far, Henry Cavill looks like he could pull this off.  Unfortunately, I am one of the six people in the world that actually enjoyed Superman Returns and I thought Brandon Routh was pretty good.

The other big news out about the movie is that Laurence Fishburne will play Perry White, the EIC of the Daily Planet.  Apparently people get all pissy about this since in the comics Perry is a white guy.  This just does not bother me.  Fishburne is a good actor and he can play the role of a leader who can come down hard on his ace reporters.  I wonder if he will yell "great Caesar's ghost"?

Matrix Video

I was watching The Matrix Revolutions last night and realized that it was not as terrible as most people make it out to be.  Also, I hope the next Superman movie has a great fight scene.  Hopefully they use a villain who has similar powers to Superman, so they can get pretty crazy with the flying & fighting.  Time will tell...

Links and Videos and Stuff

I have nothing to write about...well nothing that has not been said by better folks than me.  So whatever.

The Pirates
As everyone knows by now, the Buccos lost in a crazy game where the umpire blew the call.  If you checked all the blogs in my links section, they all had something to say about it.  None of them say it nearly as well as WHYGAVS.  That is just pure emotion...

Comic-Con
I was pretty uninterested in the happenings of SDCC this year.  It is crazy to think that I used to want to go there so bad, yet now I have no real interest in it.  I still love comics, but the idea of going there and watching movie previews seems a little insane.  I think it used to be about comics, now who knows what it is...anyways, read Filmdrunks last photo diary from SDCC, pretty cool.

Noah's Ark


This video is pretty funny, a little long though.  Brought to you by:  XKV8R.

Miss USA
Over at Sean's site, he posted this video, which is a great parody of the actual Miss USA contestants answering the question about should evolution be taught in schools.





Stupidity amazes me.

Captain America: The First Avenger

I have not said too much about this film, mainly because I kept forgetting about it.  It is crazy to think that Marvel put out two major films this summer (plus, there was the X-Men film, which is also a Marvel comic, but different production company...)  I keep getting surprised by how good the Marvel films actually turn out.  Maybe DC should just allow Marvel to make their movies as well (minus the Batman films).

The movie starts out with Steve Rogers being rejected yet again from being able to sign up for the Army.  Actually the movie starts with a modern day search team finding something in the Arctic.  Anyways, Steve finally gets into the military because a doctor wants him for a special project.  We learn that Steve has plenty of the intangibles, he is very David Eckstein-esque.  He then gets an injection and becomes taller and stronger.  He becomes a super-soldier, but the good doctor is killed, so they cannot make any other ones.  The Army uses Steve to promote buying war bonds.

Honestly, the beginning was entirely too slow.  I get that they wanted to show that Steve was a great kid, and how hard he would fight and never give up.  Why not cut that back a bit and just show the grenade scene and have someone list all his characteristics?  Or something, they could have cut it down a good fifteen minutes.

After that the action picks up and Captain America rescues some soldiers and leads his own team against Hydra.  He then saves the world by crashing a plane into the Arctic Ocean and defeating the Red Skull.  He gets rescued in the modern world and learns that he has been sleep for seventy years.

The Good
-The fight scenes were pretty cool.  He made using a shield look pretty cool and not hokey.  Also, they did not make him ridiculously strong.  Granted, he is strong, but I was afraid we would see him catching cars out of the air, or flipping over a tank.  Not that strong.

-Haley Atwell is pretty damn hot.  The character of Peggy Carter was also cool.  She is pretty tough, and I am sure they will introduce Sharon Carter at some point.  My guess is that the movie makes her the daughter of Peggy.

-Chris Evans did a great job.  He did not come off as the same character as Johnny Storm.  I have always liked him as an actor, although I realize some people do not. 

-I also loved how they set-up things for the Avengers movie, but not so much that it was irritating.  That was a minor problem in Iron Man 2, all the Thor references, which I guess put some people off.  Instead, the references were pretty plot integral.  Red Skull mentions the Cosmic Cube (he calls it the Tesseract) being one of the greatest treasures from Odin's Treasure Room.  Howard Stark was also more than just a cameo, which I thought at first when he was at the World's Expo.

-The ending was pretty much straight from The Ultimates.  Steve wakes up and they trick him into thinking it is still the 1940s and then he escapes.  I liked that touch.

The Bad
-Why did Cap jump to the conclusion that his only option was bringing the plane down?  Maybe someone can explain this to me.  If he is able to control it so that it will go into a dive, why not turn it around?  Or try to land it somewhere?  Were the bombs flown by Hydra agents?  If so, once he killed all of them, what harm would it be to turn around and try to land somewhere?  They should have went with the old fashioned nuclear rocket option instead.

-Bucky's death scene was good, but when they bring him back (and they will), it will seem pretty crazy that he somehow survived that fall.

-Hugo Weaving's accent

-Chris Evans need to bulk up more, his chest was not big enough...

Comic Book Movie Grade:  B+/A-

The Dark Knight Rises Teaser

You excited yet?

Captain America Fight Scene

More Captain America: The First Avenger Videos

X-Men: First Class

Lindsey and I went to see X-Men:  First Class on Friday, and it was pretty good.  Before I get into the movie, allow me to say about the theater.  Remember when I went to see Thor?  That place in Indiana was a real dump, but the new place in State College was just the opposite.  They had huge leather seats, the screens were very large, and the sound system was fantastic.  You suck Indiana!

Anyways, back to the movie.  It is set in the 1960s, Erik Lensherr is trying to find the man who killed his mother (Sebastian Shaw, played by Kevin Bacon).  He is like James Bond or Eric Bana in Munich.  He travels to Argentina and kills some former Nazis (he mixes his magnetic control with some pretty tough fighting skills).

Meanwhile, Charles Xavier and his good friend Raven are celebrating Charles receiving his doctorate.  He is pretty much a jerk trying to get into the ladies pants.  Moira MacTaggert enlists his help in tracking down the Hellfire Club.  She works for the CIA and has seen mutants in action.  He then informs the CIA of his abilities.

He then meets Erik and they become friends.  They enlist the help of a bunch of young mutants and set out to stop Shaw and the Hellfire Club.  One of my favorite scenes was the way they trained together.  Especially Charles and Erik together.  How funny is it that Charles is the one who helped Erik unlock his full potential.

There were a few little inconsistencies from the first movie.  Professor X tells Wolverine that Magneto has his helmet because he and Erik built Cerebro together, but in this one, Beast is the one who built Cerebro, and the Russians designed the helmet for Shaw.  How come Magneto never had more of those helmets made so that his followers could defend themselves against Professor X?

Also, we see the development of Mystique.  She starts out as Charles friend, but he does not think she should reveal her real appearance to people (Beast feels the same about how they should look normal).  Magneto constantly tells her that she is beautiful.  It was also cool seeing her shift into Rebecca Romijn.

Speaking of cool cameos, when Erik and Charles go on their mutant finding quest, they walk into a bar and start their proposition to Logan (Hugh Jackman), who tells them to "go fuck yourselves."  I was pretty shocked they allowed that kind of language.

Also, how does Moira go from a CIA agent, to someone who runs a hospital or something.  Remember in the post-credit scene after the third one?  Professor X takes that guys body over that Moira is taking care of, that hardly seems like CIA work to me.

I also loved how Shaw was someone who could challenge Magneto's power.  Although, how would a coin through his head kill him?  Or did Xavier have his powers shut off while he was in his head?  Seemed a bit weird to me.

I thought January Jones was extremely hot as Emma Frost, but umm, does this movie fit with the Wolverine movie?  Emma Frost was a young girl in that film and still being held by Stryker, at the end of this film, Magneto frees her from Stryker's grasp...

I want to say that Michael Fassbender was amazing as Magneto.  I can see why so many mutants would want to follow his cause.  He came off as determined and unwavering in his belief.  Charles (I thought James McAvoy was really good too) came off as arrogant and a little bit afraid of the mutants who look different.  He does not embrace mutantism (I am making that word up) 100% yet.  I am sure with him being paralyzed he will lose some of that ego.

The movie was really good and I am excited about the idea of a sequel.

Comic Book Movie Grade:  B+/A-

DC Comics Reboot

For years I have been saying that DC Comics should just scrap everything and start over.  After all the stupid Crisis books (minus Identity Crisis, I liked that one),  major events like Zero Hour or Final Night, and then whatever the hell Grant Morrison did with Final Crisis and Batman RIP; it just seemed like things were getting a bit stupid.

DC has announced that will reboot the system and all issues will start back at #1.  They keep saying that this is not some gimmick or another quick event.  This is permanent.  Characters will be lost, some will be gained.  HOW CRAZY! 

If they are telling the truth and the comics just start over and they come up with new stories, or updated origins for characters, then I am okay with it.  For awhile I thought they might at least try something like the Ultimate Marvel books.  I liked the Ultimate line when it came out.

Something tells me that DC will stick with this for awhile and when they realize that sales did not go up by 20% (or that sales went up for a bit, but then dropped back down), they will panic and let us all know that this is some kind other part of the multiverse.  Then they will go back to renumbering the books the way the way they were.  Hell, I can see them doing that when Action Comics gets close to #1000.

The real question:  will this reboot mean the Goddamn Batman will be the only Batman?

Girlfriend of the Week

Now that blogger is somewhat working again, I will post my GOTW.  This week it is Bianca Smith.  I discovered her through a link on Jason and Nick's new site CBCBS.  Needles to say, she is pretty hot and looks very sexy in a Batman shirt...

Thor

Lindsey and I met at the Carmike Cinemas 4 in Indiana for the midnight showing of Thor.  Why Indiana?  Well it was closest place for both of us since she was at work.  Unfortunately, it was in 3-D, which I had not seen a movie in yet, and was not all that excited about the idea. 

Before I get into the movie, I want to say that the theater sucked.  It was a tiny screen, the sound quality was terrible, and the bathrooms were disgusting.  I am pretty sure the sound system was a set of 50-watt car speakers from Wal-Mart, seriously that bad.  I do not even want to explain the restroom, it will make you vomit.  Anyways, on to the movie.

I definitely enjoyed the movie, more so than I thought I would.  I never really thought Thor was the type of character that could sustain a solo film.  I figured he would be someone that was in the Avengers movie and it would just be assumed that everyone knows he is the God of Thunder.  I was skeptical of this movie from the moment it was announced.

They did a great job of making this a story about sibling rivalry and their relationship with their father.  I loved how they did not make Loki into this evil shithead who all along was working with the Frost Giants. 

I thought for sure the "god without powers" trying to adjust to Earth would just come off as stupid, but it was actually pretty funny.  The only complaint I have about the movie is that the story should have started with Thor on Earth and giving us the idea that he has been stuck in this realm for years.  Unfortunately, if you do that, you lose those funny scenes of him throwing coffee cups on the ground or demanding a horse at a pet store.

A little something for the ladies...

I think if you do it my way though, it would seem more believable that his sacrifice would mean he was finally worthy to wield Mjolnir.  Whatever, such a small thing to complain about.  Speaking of the hammer, when he kicks the crap out of the SHIELD agents and puts his hands on the hammer and nothing happens, that was such a cool scene, especially since Jeremy Renner was there as Hawkeye.

I think Marvel learned their lesson from Iron Man 2 about not overly promoting their next movie by taking away from the current movie's plot.  The fanboys know who he is and get excited and the casual movie-goer probably said something like "hey, was that the guy from The Town (or The Hurt Locker)?"  Then when they see the Avengers movie, they will be like "hey, I remember that guy being in Thor!"

One last thing I really liked about the movie:  Natalie Portman.  Aside from the fact that she is hot (I refuse to believe there is even one astrophysicist who looks 1/5th as good as her), she is also a good actress (or female actor as they are known today).  I loved that when she was around Thor she would sometimes have that giddy/cutesy girly-ness that she had in Garden State. 

Did everyone else stick around to see the after-credits scene?  It involves Nick Fury and Stellan Skarsgard and what appears to be the Cosmic Cube.  I guess it will play a role in the Captain America movie and most likely in the Avengers movie as well.

Comic Book Movie Grade:  A

Green Lantern Preview

Finally starting to get very excited for this movie.  I had doubts at first, but it looks pretty solid.

Myspace Blogposts Part Four

I am about to delete my myspace account, but I figured I would share with you some of blog posts I wrote on there.  Do not judge me.

What am i reading?

Marvel's Civil War
Here is the story so far.  The Warriors have a reality TV show in which they capture supervillians, but since they are not powerful heroes, they only go after minor villains.  But, when they come across a house of villians that are extremely powerful, they decide to attack them.  Long story short, the villian known as Nitro emits a blast so powerful that it kills most of the town, about 800 people, including a playground of about 60 kids.  After this happens people want superheroes to register.  The government starts working on the Superhero Registration Act (much like the Mutant Registration Act), which would force superheroes to register with SHIELD and become paid government employees.  Some heroes are all for it, while others are against.  Iron Man goes on TV and shows his support for the project and then unmasks himself to the media, saying he is Tony Stark.  The head of SHIELD asks Captain America if the bill is passed will he be able to take down the heroes who resist.  Cap tells them he will not arrest anyone because he does not agree with the law, he says it is unAmerican.  When they try to arrest him, he escapes and begins recruiting soldiers to his camp.  The heroes he finds on his side, are the ones like Luke Cage, Daredevil, Falcon, the Young Avengers, Cable, and Goliath.  Iron Man has an advantage, he is able to appeal to the scientific heroes, such as Mr. Fantastic, Yellow-Jacket (Hank Pym), or to heroes like Ms. Marvel and Wasp, who are used to taking orders or being public heroes.  At the end of the second issue, we know that Cap and Iron Man have both talked to Spider-Man.  On the final page, Spider-Man comes to a press conference with Iron Man and unmasks himself, admitting to the world that he is Peter Parker.  In the third issue Cap's team is out fighting, not the other good guys, but instead still fighting crime.  When they intercept a distress call about a fire they immediately respond, but they find that it is a trap.  Iron Man offers amnesty if they surrender, he says he just needs 5 minutes to explain everything to Cap.  Cap agrees and shakes his hand, but instead places an object on IM's palm.  The device was designed to shut down IM's suit if he ever went rogue.  While he is down the battle begins, but since IM powers back up and begins kicking Cap's ass.  As Hercules and a few others go to rescue Cap, the commander of SHIELD gives orders to release a secret weapon, we see a bolt of lightning and then the last page shows Thor, who has been dead for over two years.
Okay so that was my quick synopsis of the story so far, haha.  Now my thoughts on it.  I absolutely love it.  There is conflict between friends, even between family.  Wolverine hates the idea of the registration, he doesn't understand why people are not out trying to punish Nitro, he makes it his personal mission to kill Nitro.  Reed Richards is helping Tony develop something crazy, maybe a super prison, who knows, but Sue hates it.  She saw what happened to her brother Johnny after Stamford (the town destroyed).  He was outside a club, and people attacked him for being a hero, called him a babykiller.  Many of the resistance fighters believe the government will start using them as weapons, since they will be employed by SHIELD.  The X-Men want to stay out of it, but eventually something will change (I'm guessing Cyclops would lend support to Cap, since the SHRA is like Mutant Registration Act, and mutants hated that idea.)....McNiven's artwork is fantastic.  This is definitely a book you should check out.
Here is a book you should not even waste your time with.  Squadron Supreme.  This is a remake, or revamp of the original.  The idea is that the superheroes (who resemble the JLA) use their powers to take over the world and create a utopia, but sometimes they go a bit too far.  In the new book, J. Michael Strysynkakdivn (i can't spell it, JMS), basically rewrites Rising Stars, with different characters.  I enjoyed the first part of the book, just called Supreme, but now, eh, it's grown tiresome. I'd delve deeper into it, but just trust me, read Rising Stars, read the original, and then combine them....

Myspace Blogposts Part Three

I am about to delete my myspace account, but I figured I would share with you some of blog posts I wrote on there.  Do not judge me.

x-men 3

okay, so i know that everyone i know went out and saw the movie x3.   i'm not going to talk about the movie. as i've said, i want to talk about comic books. but, it's obvious that no one is reading this, so i'll just post something about x-men.
if you are one of the people out there who loves the x-men movies, but doesn't read comics, then i have the book for you. ULTIMATE X-MEN. here is the deal with anything you see from marvel with ultimate in front of it. basically a few years ago they realized that young people, and people who were not comic fans were not reading their staple books.  so they released the ultimate line. in the ultimate books, the characters are stripped back to their roots. for examples, in ult. x-men the characters are young, it's the core team, with a few added twists. it's not a retelling of the stories, it's more of what would a modern day story look like with those characters. hard to understand? let me elaborate:
in the first trade paperback, we find a young xavier assembling a team that is going to thwart Magneto, who has a terrorist group. he believes that homo superior will overtake homo sapien sapien, but Xavier believes that both species can live together (integration).  we find the characters young again, we see cyclops as a team leader (star quarterback type character) who is still nervous about asking jean grey out.  we meet wolverine, who the US government created to be the perfect assassin, employed by magneto, who wants him to kill xavier. but wolverine realizes that xaviers ideals are worth fighting for. we get to see character growth.  the stories are great, but you don't have to know who everyone is, because they are all new basically. it's not like if you pick up Uncanny X-men 47X and they say "oh well character Z did this three years ago", which if you are new to comics, you wouldn't know. with the ultimate world you get to experience these characters victories and defeats in a modern setting without the super long backstories.
i would sit here and tell you about great stories in this book, but i don't want to. i want you to either go buy the trade paperbacks, or ask me to borrow the first one. trust me, you'll like it (oh and by the way, movie studios like using things from the ultimate universe, look at spider-man...).....i have no problem with people reading my books, but if you do, i want you to go buy your own, maybe not what i'm reading, but at least something that i can borrow. basically don't be a mooch. if you want to get into comics, then i can help you, but i won't be your freepass because these great writers and artists are not like musicians and actors, they need people to buy the books or they do not get paid....

Myspace Blogposts Part Two

I am about to delete my myspace account, but I figured I would share with you some of blog posts I wrote on there.  Do not judge me.

testament and new avengers: illuminati

As i said earlier i would like to tell people about different comics i am reading.  the first one is Testament by Douglas Rushkoff and Liam Sharp.

the story is set in the distant future. the US is still at war and are instituting a draft.  young people are being implanted with RFID tags, which allow the government to keep track, to help against missing children, but it also allows for the draft and will make it much harder to dodge.  The main character is Jake, whose father just happens to be the scientist behind the tags.  Jake does not have a tag and belongs to a group that protests the tags.  Now so far this doesn't sound all that interesting, i know.  The cool part of the book, is it also shows scenes back to biblical times, and the characters from the now are also then. in the first issue we see abraham about to sacrafice jacob (and its the same jake as our main character), jake wakes up and thinks it was a dream.  these flashback scenes also show the goddess astarte and baal manipulating events to go against yahweh. 

here is what i enjoy about the book so far (only on issue 4):  i enjoy seeing the connection between the past and the present, as if all this is happening again, but maybe this time baal/astarte will win.  the downside to the book is that it's sometimes hard to follow, for example, there is a scene where jake and a girl are having sex, and time kinda stands still, we see all kinds of weird things, and each scene is in a bubble around Astarte. but, other than a hard format to follow this book is great.

The next book is New Avengers: Illuminati by Brian Michael Bendis and Alex Maleev.  if you are unfamiliar with their work, stop reading and go pick up their amazing run on Daredevil.  anyways, this story was a nice prelude to the Civil War series thats about to start.  as always Maleev's art is stunning, especially the last page, which is all white, and has iron man sitting in a chair, saddened saying "It sure was."  The story shows the relationship and history of the group in marvel who have been meeting secretly to change the world (Iron Man, Reed Richards, Professor X, Namor, Dr. Strange, Blackbolt)...Iron Man is confronted by SHIELD to find a way to solve the Hulk problem.  the group agrees, well namor is opposed (which is odd since he hates the hulk, and everyone else really), to send the hulk into space, where he can't hurt anyone.  this is not a book full of action, but dialogue, which with bendis is always superb.  the problem with this is, if you are not a big comic fan, or not into superhero books, then this one may not really tickle your pickle.  however, if you want to give something a try and see beautiful artwork and excellent writing, well look no further.

Myspace Blogposts Part One

I am about to delete my myspace account, but I figured I would share with you some of blog posts I wrote on there.  Do not judge me.

Rising Stars

Okay, so a coworker let me borrow J. Michael Straczynski's Rising Stars.  I finished reading books 1-3 and was quite impressed.  the only things of his i had read were Midnight Nation (Excellent) and Supreme.  Now i originally liked supreme, which was a remake of the 80's book Squadron Supreme.  after reading rising stars i now realize that JMS just reincorporated the same ideas of that book and made supreme with new characters.  it makes me not want to read supreme anymore.  okay, so the superheroes make the world a better place. they stop being reactive, they become proactive.  what if every book alan moore wrote was just like watchmen? or all warren ellis books were basically transmetropolitan? 
the state of comics right now is weird. there is so much potential for good and yet so much potential to screw it up.  DC has already started going downhill. they were in the right direction after identity crisis.  writers could have built off that, but no, DC jumped right into a megaevent (Infinite Crisis).  it seems like a great idea, but its not. i'm unimpressed.  then we have marvel, i'm not sure, but they have huge events going all over the place, the civil war idea sounds cool, but it could really turn out to be crappy. who knows though...but then there are still the people who keep me happy:  warren ellis, grant morrison, bk vaughn, bendis (although his departure from DD was a sad day, lets see if brubaker can live up to it), millar...
in fact here is a small list of books i am reading that you should be:
Nextwave, Blackgas, Planetary, any Ultimate books, Daredevil (brubakers first issue was good...), Red Sonja, Conan, any of the Seven Soldier books, walking dead, fell, desolation jones, 100 bullets, fables, y:the last man, american virgin...
okay i'll stop there. tomorrow i will probably by last weeks comics and hopefully get a post to everyone about what i felt for some of the books.  also, if you know anyone interested in comics, tell them to read what i am saying. hopefully in the future i can put down more about different comics, but right now i just felt like something small to start. also i enjoy hearing what others are reading. i want this to be a discussion, tell me the books you enjoy, should i read them?

New Ring

Help me decide on which ring to purchase.

$100 Rebate

The other day I received my $100 rebate from Verizon for my new phone.  I decided to use it to buy a bunch of comics.  I know some people thought I was done reading comics, but that was quite far from the truth.  Who knew how many trades $100 could get you?  Let us have a look...

Superman Earth One
This is DC's version of the Ultimate line from Marvel.  It is a retelling of the Superman origin.  Also, J. Michael Straczynski shows how Clark could have went out and done anything.  I really enjoyed the part where he tries out for a pro football team and then goes to a research company and solves some giant chem formula.  He really could do anything, yet he does not know what he wants in life.  It is his parents who want him to be Superman.

I am hoping that they continue doing these, I would love to see where this Superman goes.  I also heard they will do something similar with Batman and Wonder Woman.  Pretty good idea.  I only have one complaint about the book.  It was basically the same as Superman:  Birthright by Mark Waid.  Hell, even the idea of Superman facing off against an alien invasion connected to him being his first battle was the same (although in Birthright, the invasion was created by Lex Luthor).

Preacher:  Alamo
When I lived at State College Park, my roommate (Jackson) had all the Preacher trades and I read them in one night.  It was mind-blowing.  Over time I have picked up a volume here and there.  I just needed the final volume and figured I might as well pick it up.  I forgot how great it ends.  After all the crazy shit that happens, who knew that every character would have a mostly happy ending.

Green Lantern:  The Sinestro Corps War
Everyone always thinks that Green Lantern is my favorite superhero.  Probably because of the ring I used to wear.  Oddly enough, I never really read all that much GL.  I wanted to read all this stuff when it was coming out, but just did not have enough money. 

It ended up being a pretty good book.  I am excited to continue reading the rest of this whole War of the Lanterns (or whatever it is called).  I do think that Geoff Johns may have come into my room one night when I was sleeping and read my mind.  Marty and I used to sit around at the Phyrst after those fun comic book club meetings and talk about ideas.  I came up with an idea of a new GL.  One that has the authority to use lethal force.  We also thought maybe he should be some kind of special all-sector lantern (we also tossed around the idea of him having a different color ring).  I even wrote down some notes about his first battle against someone like Darkseid or Mogul.  I also wrote in the notes how he should fight Superman (this was way before they brought back Superboy Prime) and figured it should be an epic battle and in the end, my GL would use his ring to synthesize Kryptonite to defeat him. So, Geoff, if you are reading this, or reading my mind, I have a few more ideas for you.

The Sword:  Earth/Air
This was the final two books from The Luna Brothers newest series.  Earth was pretty weak, but then the fourth book was pretty awesome.  I loved that in the end Dara became the hero yet she died without the sword.  I also loved how Malia came out and announced herself to the world and tried to get them to worship her.  The big reveal at the end was also pretty cool and at first I was going to be annoyed if Phaistos wanted to fight Dara, but him killing himself was a good ending.  For some reason I enjoy the Luna Brothers work.

Justice
The final volume of this saga was a letdown.  Or maybe I should reread the entire series to see if I like it.  At least the art was great.  I felt like the story became a little too odd.  The whole wearing the Metal Men as armor was just weird.

Anyways, this was a good way to spend $100 of free money.