You Don’t Get Much Without Giving – Review Of Wolverine #309

A couple of weeks ago, I sat through a handful of Marvel panels at SDCC and learned…not very much. Well, at least not a lot about anything related to the assorted members of the Avengers or X-Men – which was weird, what with the whole panel dedicated to them and their “summer blockbuster” event (yes, those were the, somewhat paraphrased, words of Marvel EIC Axel Alonso). At the AVX panel, much of the time was dedicated to cheerleading, with only modest time devoted to characters and titles. Most of those titles discussed ended up being related to books that will be released post AVX (Marvel NOW!). If Alonso sees the culmination of each year’s storylines as leading into a big summer time event, you’d think he might take a cue from the the actual “blockbusters” (hint – they’re often in Hall H or Ballroom 20 and you have to line up for them the day before…not waltz into them 10 minutes before they start.). Maybe have a panel that is balanced with more writers and artists on it than editorial. Talk about some of the individual books, both team and solo, of characters involved in your “summer blockbuster” in the here and now, rather than in, ahem, Marvel NOW. I’m sure it wouldn’t have killed Arune Singh to maybe take some time out from saying “How many of you love {insert event or movie}?” and get one of the architects on speaker phone, the way he did for the Amazing Spider-Man And Other Stuff That Was Marginally Related To Spider-Man panel we attended the next day. But, who knows? Rumor has it the entire staff of Marvel has to share a single bathroom in their building. Maybe they make him pay for his own long distance?

But what does this actually have to do with Wolverine #309? You’ll find out, with spoilers.

Red Dwarf X (Series 10) Set To Make Fall Comeback On British TV

DaveTV, a branch of the UKTV broadcasting network has announced that Red Dwarf will be returning to the air this fall. Look for the return of Lister, Rimmer, and Kryten in whacky adventures in which Lister may or may not finally get home to Earth. They may be older, but they’re still the same smeg heads we all know and love. While a specific air date has not yet been given, DaveTV has posted on its site that it will update with new Red Dwarf related stuff every Friday. Currently, DaveTV has the teaser trailer for the new series on offer. Check it out after the jump!

A Fistful Of Bourdain: Video From The SDCC 2012 Vertigo Comics Get Jiro Panel

Most of the SDCC 2012 panels we covered, we did thusly: I sat with a fat boy notebook and a pen, furiously taking notes and grabbing quotes in between taking photos of things that panelists would prefer I didn’t, while Amanda live-Tweeted the hell out of everything anyone said. As such, we walked out of each panel with a wealth of information and still photographs of each panel, but without an ability to truly absorb and enjoy some of the things we saw and heard.

The Vertigo Comics panel for the graphic novel Get Jiro was different. Amanda is a big fan of Get Jiro writer and celebrity chef Anthony Bourdain’s TV shows A Cook’s Tour and No Reservations, and as such, she hissed at me at the start of the panel, “I will Tweet this pig, but we’ve already reviewed the book, so I want you to videotape as much of this as you can so that I can enjoy it later. Otherwise, you’re reading me Kitchen Confidential through the bathroom door while I bubble bath with the shower massager. Again.” Or something like that, the vehemence of the hissing might have led me to hear more than was actually said.

Regardless, I therefore have a bunch of reasonably clear video of a good chunk of the Get Jiro panel… and I am passing the San Diego hotel and SDCC pass savings onto you! So grab your laptop, hit the jump, sit back in a warm bath with your shower massager, and never tell me about it.

Yes Sir, Captain Tightpants: SDCC 2012’s Firefly Reunion Panel

Later on today, we’ll try to post some of the remaining videos we took at SDCC 2012, but it will be a bittersweet experience. Because the one question we’ve been getting from most of our friends and acquaintances since we got back to the Crisis On Inifnite Midlives Home Office has been: “Did you get to the Firefly Tenth Anniversary panel?” Even the owner of our local comic store, where they know me by name and ask me to stop talking about movies to the paying customers, or at least to stop talking about the movies I find on Web sites with a top level domain name ending in “.XXX”, who you would think would be more interesting in upcoming developments in the products he sells, was disappointed that we didn’t spend hours in line for Ballroom 20 to see the reunion.

But we chose not to do that because we know that all the high-demand panels, like the Firefly panel, arrive on YouTube within ten days of their occurrance.

Case in point: please enjoy the video of the entire Firefly reunion panel, available after the jump.

Something To Look Forward To: Man Of Steel Trailer Released Online

Despite recent events that may have put some people off, we were able to catch a matinee of The Dark Knight Rises yesterday… and we will probably not comment extensively on those events, because they have nothing whatsoever to do with comic books or geek culture other than the setting. Sure, the dipshit who did the shootings told cops that he was The Joker, but that’s got nothing to do with the comics or the movies. Son of Sam said his neighbor’s fucking pit bull told him to whack out strangers, and I doubt you saw Dog Fancy magazine wringing their hands over what it meant for public perception of dog owners.

Everyone say it with me: James Holmes is a spastic and a monster, but his is a crime story, and not a comics story. Settled? Good.

Because I don’t want to talk about that cocknozzle, and due to a busy day, I don’t have time to talk about The Dark Knight Rises in any detail today. But one interesting new thing that we took from the event was the first trailer for Zack Snyder’s reboot of Superman, Man of Steel. Which a week ago, if you wanted to see it, was worth hours of your time in line for Hall H at SDCC 2012, but which now is available online. Meaning it is available here, right after the jump.

Conan O’Brien Finds Link Between TDKR Baine And Mitt Romney (Bane)

So, on Tuesday I guess Rush Limbagh said some nonsense about how the villain in The Dark Knight Rises, Bane, is actually supposed to be a liberal slam against Mitt Romney and his former company Bain Capital. Really. Here’s the quote:

Have you heard, this new movie, the Batman movie — what is it, the Dark Knight Lights Up or something? Whatever the name of it is. That’s right, Dark Knight Rises, Lights Up, same thing. Do you know the name of the villain in this movie? Bane. The villain in the Dark Knight Rises is named Bane. B-A-N-E. What is the name of the venture capital firm that Romney ran, and around which there’s now this make-believe controversy? Bain. The movie has been in the works for a long time, the release date’s been known, summer 2012 for a long time. Do you think that it is accidental, that the name of the really vicious, fire-breathing, four-eyed, whatever-it-is villain in this movie is named Bane? … Anyway, so this evil villain in the new Batman movie is named Bane. And there’s now discussion out there as to whether or not this was purposeful, and whether or not it will influence voters. It’s going to have a lot of people. This movie, the audience is going to be huge, lot of people are going to see the movie. And it’s a lot of brain-dead people, entertainment, the pop culture crowd. And they’re going to hear ‘Bane’ in the movie, and they are going to associate Bain. And the thought is that when they start paying attention to the campaign later in the year, and Obama and the Democrats keep talking about Bain, not Bain Capital, but Bain, Romney and Bain, that these people will think back to the Batman movie — “Oh yeah, I know who that is.” There are some people who think it will work. There are some people think it will work. Others think — “You’re really underestimating the American people who think that will work.”

I’d say his statements must make the folks over at Southeast Missouri State University really proud of him, but he never actually graduated from there. Bane, the Batman villain, was created in 1993, Rush. Even if you don’t have a full college education, Google is your fucking friend, buddy.

Meanwhile, leave it to the fine staff at Conan O’Brien to poke further fun at this ridiculous statement.

The Dark Knight Rises is in theaters now.

Starting Block: X-Factor #240 Review

There are many comics fans who just don’t get into Marvel’s X-Titles, and I am one of them. Which is a strange thing for a 35-year inveterate superhero comic geek to admit, but the team, and its 927 spinoff teams, generally just never grabbed me. You’ve got a bunch of heroes with no origin story beyond, “born funny,” a huge and nearly impenetrable backstory, and two of its lead characters – Professor X and Cyclops – are simply unlikable cocks. And considering the applause poll conducted at Marvel’s SDCC Avengers Vs. X-Men panel that fell squarely on the Avengers side, a lot of people of there agree with me. Not an issue of that book goes by without my deeply wishing that we eventually see Spider-Man yank Cyclops’s eyes out with some well-placed webbing, turning the prick into a normal person, qualified only to be the biggest douche selling pencils out of a tin cup.

With that said, I am a huge fan of Peter David’s X-Factor. I don’t know whether it’s because the team is smaller and easier to keep track of, or because the characters spend more time in small scale, street-level action than in preventing apocalypses (Seen Madrox taking on Ms. Marvel in Avengers Vs. X-Men recently?), or because the characters feel relatable and human than, say, a dude whose father is a Starjammer and whose girlfriend, depending on decade, either reads minds and turns into diamond or destroys entire planets… although I should be able to relate, because think I dated the second one. But I digress.

And X-Factor #240 is a perfect place to get your feet wet in the title. It’s a one-and-done, focusing on Layla Miller (who is one of the most interesting characters in the book), and examining her power – she “knows stuff” about the future – in a way that would be perfect for explaining Dr. Manhattan’s point of view if Alan Moore’s characterization allowed Manhattan to have free will. Free will and a nice rack, but you get my point.

Ashbury, No Haight: Silk Spectre #2 Review

Simply put, and without question: Silk Spectre #2 is the best issue of Before Watchmen so far.

It does everything you’d expect from a Watchmen prequel book, particularly one that isn’t endorsed by the original creators: it follows the original book’s visual, nine-panel format, it pays homage to Moore’s original writing style of having the words directly reflect the visuals in the panel, and it expands the Watchmen universe by exploring niche, side subjects that it would never occur to me to wonder about until I saw those explorations here. By mining the original work’s edges while paying tribute to its written and drawn style, it does what a prequel should do: build upon the original without superceding it. It is the first Before Watchmen book that I plainly and simply liked.

Inevitable Physical And Emotional Collapse

It happens every year: a couple of days after returning from SDCC, which is a week of violently and suddenly resetting your circadean rythtms twice while consuming a diet of beef, cheese and liquor, the body recoils in protest and requires a day of wretched television and catching up on comics.

Today was that day. As such, this…

…means the end of our broadcast day.

Still and all, we’ve got the new issue of Captain Marvel, a new chapter of Avengers Vs. X-Men, the second issue of Silk Spectre (one of the better efforts of Before Watchmen so far) and a ton of other stuff to catch up on.

But before we can review any of them (or finish uploading more SDCC 2012 videos for your perusal), we need time to read them. We also need time to quietly whimper while wondering what time it really is, but mostly to read them.

So in pursuit of those humble goals: see you tomorrow, suckers!

…And His Amazing Friends: Amazing Spider-Man SDCC 2012 Panel

There was one minor, eensy, tiny problem with Marvel Comics’s Amazing Spider-Man panel Sunday. The panel wasn’t really about Spider-Man.

Oh sure, the panel opened with news about the Amazing Spider-Man and Avenging Spider-Man comic books, but those updates took about seven or ten minutes of an hour long panel. After that, we got updates on Carnage, Venom and Scarlet Spider, which are at least Spider-Man related… but we also got status reports on Captain Marvel, Punisher War Zone, Space Punisher, and last but not least, Daredevil, whose status report was, in effect, “Yeah, we have no idea what’s going on with that triple-Eisner Award winning book! But Eisner Awards are cool! And Daredevil won three of them! So who doesn’t love Daredevil?”

Which actually brings to mind another minor problem with the Spider-Man panel, and with every other Marvel panel we went to: Moderator Arune Singh, who is Director of Communications for Marvel Comics and possibly the most irritating and repetitive public speaker on the planet. Here are some of my notes from the panel, verbatim from my notebook:

• If I hear Arune Singh say, “How many of you are loving X” again, I will shit.
• At least 4 “How many of you love…” so far. Fuck.
• Fifth. Fucking. “How many of you LOVE…”
• SIXTH. SINGH WILL DIE BY MY HAND.