The Marvel Universe/Marvel Masterworks Sentinel has arrived, is it worth your hard earned money? Large figures are somewhat harder to judge than the smaller ones, due to the fact that this figure has to meet the company’s price point, fit into the already existing product line, and still be cool/unique enough to be a must-have for an collection. For the most part, the Sentinel meets all of the criteria well.

PAPERWORK

Before we begin, we need to do some paperwork. More or less two groups of toy collectors exist, toy collectors and toy investors. Collectors collect because they love the product. The other branch is toy investors. Toy investors buy them in hopes of one day flipping their toys at a large profit. Over the last few years the schism between the two groups has grown larger and the investors have become more and more outspoken.

This brings us to SDCC. Comic Con has become quite infamous for popular toy exclusives. The problem is that not everyone can go to Comic Con. They simply can’t afford it, or they can’t get tickets to get in. Hasbro being the wonderful company that they are wants your money, so every year after SDCC their exclusives are available somewhere. Sometimes at their web site and sometimes as a website exclusive somewhere else. The toys they think will do really well, they release in retail stores. I personally love them for this.

We have now landed in last year’s SDCC, and Galactus. Galactus debuted last year as an SDCC exclusive. The problem is that the only thing that was exclusive about Galactus was his packaging. Less than two months after SDCC, Galactus was found at Toys R Us. This lead to a lot of very angry Con goers. The market had just dropped out on their toys (some convention goers pay for the trip to SDCC by selling exclusives on eBay, and mailing them from San Diego). They now had virtually no resale value on this very expensive Con toy, especially when customers can go to toys R Us and pick up the exact same Galactus for 1/2 or even 1/3 of the price. The resale value of Galactus was now dependent upon being in its original packaging, otherwise it is impossible to tell the difference between a Comic Con exclusive and something bought at Toys R Us.

Now Brody, this is a wonderful and yet pointless lecture, what does it have to do with the Sentinel? This year what I see as a move on Hasbro’s part to appease all groups, we now have two different colors of Sentinels made…the SDCC version and the retail version, or as I have been thinking of it for the last few days, the “real Sentinel” and the “silver and blue Sentinel” (Honestly, have no idea why silver and blue, I’ve tried to do some research, but I have no idea where the color scheme came from. If anyone knows I would love to hear it). We now have an instantly and easily identifiable color coded Comic Con exclusive. My only complaint on the situation is that the “real” version should have been released in retail, and the variant should have been at SDCC, not the other way around. If you want the “real” Sentinel you are going to have to visit eBay where it is currently ranging from $100 to $199. If you want the “silver and blue” you can currently buy it at Walmart and Toys R Us for $55 and $50, respectively.

WHAT DID MY $50 JUST BUY ME? (OR GALACTUS PART DEUX)

Much like Galactus, the Sentinel comes in a large window box. Much like Galactus, it comes with an additional figure. And much like Galactus…well let’s quit screwing around because it IS Galactus, mostly. Much like the 3-3/4 figures, he has a reused body. The sentinel has the same arms, torso, legs and hands as Galactus. Because he has the same body as Galactus, he has the same articulation as Galactus. One upside is that because he doesn’t have robber skirt in the way, so Sentinel’s legs are now very much posable.

Read my review of Galactus’ articulation HERE.

I do need to bring up hand articulation again, as in April Hasbro released a Frost Giant, and it had articulated fingers, why can’t The Sentinel and Galactus have articulated fingers? The sentinel also has the same casting problems as Galactus; the “Cold Slugs” (again see the Galactus review).

For me, this is a big problem with the figure. Fifty bucks is a lot of money for a figure that I already own 75% of. One of the first things that I noticed about it (before I even left the store) was that he had six pack abs and a belly button. What does a giant robot need a belly button for? Those two things made me begin to dissect the figure on the spot as it became very obvious very quickly that this was a recycled mold.

That doesn’t mean this is a complete loss, there are certain things in the Galactus sculpt that I found odd, yet when seen on the sentinel, it makes since. This has led me to believe that this was the intent from the beginning. To create a body that could function for both figures, to combine elements from both and split the difference. However, overall I think that it makes a far better Sentinel body than a Galactus body.

EVERYTHING OLD IS NEW AGAIN

Along with the old boy comes some very nice new pieces. Much like Galactus, the Sentinel has an LED in his head that makes his eyes light up when you press the button on his chest. Again, the LED should be swapped out for something more powerful. I have found that the head sculpt is a thing of beauty. It has some very nice circuit/wire detail in the mouth and around the eyes. It really does look like it was lifted right out of the comics.

One of the other new features that I love is the shoulder guards. Because he is paired with Wolverine, claw marks have been sculpted into them. This begs the question as to why the motif wasn’t carried out throughout the entire body, but I now understand that it would require new molds.

Another excellent piece of sculpting is the exposed wires in the Sentinel’s wrists and ankles as they’re extremely well done. According to the box art, everything that is painted black should also be the same exposed sculpted wires. Alas…we meet another victim of cost cutting/reusing the same sculpt. One plus that they’ve added is a wrist piece that extends over the hand; it’s a great addition because it helps to hide the simple ball joint that is the wrist. Because it’s a free moving piece, it can be turned out of the way so that it doesn’t get in the way of the wrists movements.

One of my biggest problems with Galactus was the lack of detail and on the new pieces of the Sentinel, he shows varying textures. One panel will be smooth flat plastic and the one next to it is rough almost like sand paper. It’s a nice little addition because it is visible even at a distance; the smooth pieces catch the light and the rough pieces appear dull.

PAINT, PAINT, PAINT

Much like Galactus, Sentinel doesn’t have a lot of paint. His face is painted, his shoulder guards have a “14” decal, his chest is two tone black and purple, his arm is two tone silver and purple, and his hands are two tone sliver and purple. The only thing really worth writing home about are the copper colored “exposed” wires which appear on first inspection to be painted, but on closer examination they seem to be decals or transfers because some of them don’t line up correctly…which only gets worse as they wrap around the figurine.

My biggest paint gripe is (for lack of a better term) his “Tony Stark® chest arc reactor” because it’s a decal that looks like a sticker…a paper sticker…a bad paper sticker. It’s poorly made, crooked, and looks like a drunk five year old put it on but then this was made in China, so it probably was a drunk five year old. Overall the paint leaves much to be desired.

OH GOD, NOT ANOTHER WOLVERINE!

I love Wolverine as much as the next guy, but the number of versions of him is getting as bad as Darth Vader. I already have SEVEN WOLVERINES AND ONE DARK WOLVERINE! The crazy thing is that I don’t have them all, Hasbro has made more, many more that I just didn’t buy! Do I really need another one?

I have been compiling a list of X-Men who don’t have a figure yet such as Professor X, Psylocke, Rogue, and Bishop. Ok, granted Professor X is a poor choice, but what about any one of the rest?

The figure itself has the same body, with a head that has a new slightly larger mask, but the rest is the same. The paint job, is slightly better than most of his other versions, he has some nice washes, but again, is it really necessary?

SCORING

As much as I have bitched and moaned about this toy, I like it, a lot. Overall, I highly recommend it for the serious Marvel collector. I am far more pleased with the final Sentinel product than I ever was with Galactus.

SCULPT: 90%
ARTICULATION: 70%
PAINT: 50%
WOLVERINE: 70%
OVERALL: 70%
+20% BONUS FOR AWESOMENESS

My grade in sculpt is based on new parts. My grade in articulation is a docked because of lack of finger joints and a poor ball jointed wrist and no ab joint. Paint well what paint? Wolverine would have gotten an 85% but because I really don’t need another one so his score gets docked as a convenience fee.

The basis for Intrepids is not so different than the extremely popular “Umbrella Academy.” It revolves around a team of orphans that have been adopted and find a sense of family in a team that is trying to save the world from mad scientists. Each member of the team has been given their own special cybernetic implant, (as the book explains that nobody can deal with more than one implant). The team leader is a former partner of the man who seems to be the villain of the piece Dr. Koi, the king evil scientist (the more I write about this the more it sounds like X-men instead of Umbrella Academy). Dante and Koi seemed to have developed the cyborg technology together then gone their separate ways because of differences of opinion. The majority of this issue is in dealing with the back story of Dante (team leader) and his former partnership Dr. Koi. It also deals with them trying to figure out what Dante isn’t telling them about his past, and his relationship to Dr. Koi.

I think I walked in on the wrong issue, I walked in on the one that is largely exposition and back story. The First issue had the large cyborg bear and the second had the tea bagging apes, and I get this one with the back story. As a new series it takes some time to find a groove, some of the jokes fall flat, and the art work is inconsistent. That being said I don’t think that I fit in the target audience, I recommend this book for the 11-15 age bracket.

If I’m pressed to describe Green Wake, the best that I can do is to call it a noir with supernatural mystery. It takes place in a town called Green Wake, that honestly makes me think of purgatory (think C. S. Lewis’ The Great Divorce). The actual story of the second issue opens with the discovery of a second body. Green Wake has now been struck with two grisly murders. What makes this even stranger is that when they examine the body one of the characters states “We’ve never had murders, you see. In fact we’ve never seen bodies.” Morley (who seems to be our main character), believes that Ariel is the killer, and what’s more that she is killing in hopes to find clues to somewhere called “Babylon” (though what that is is still unknown).

If all of this sounds a little vague on my part, it is intentional, as this is a mystery, I don’t want to be the jack ass that gives too much away. I will mention one more thing, the longer you stay in Green Wake, the more amphibious you become in appearance, the oldest known resident in town looks like a giant frog. To add to the weirdness, the town has a lot of frogs, and all of them seem to have frogs tattooed on their bellies, much like the ones that our killer is cutting into her victims.

Wiebe and Rossmo have truly brought us something amazing. As to the writing by Wiebe, I really enjoyed this issue, as far as my overall impression I would compare it favorably to Allen Moore’s “The Courtyard,” and the sense of wonder and the bizarre I had the first time I read it. But most of the heavy lifting seems to be done by Rossmo, and his artwork, I think that the art is what is going to make or break the book for a lot of people, I love it (To me it looks like Tim Burton and Mike Mignola had a love child).

The world’s largest comic pack retails at $24.96; for those of you who are keeping score, Galactus STILL retails at $54.99(I thought for sure that the price would have come down by now). The Frost Giant stands at 12.5 inches tall, Galactus is 19 inches tall. Yep apparently that extra 6.5 inches is worth 30 dollars. Just as a side note, for comparisons, most of the Marvel Select figures are $19.99 and they are 7 inches.

Let’s start with the Loki action figure. I’m really excited to get this figure, and I’m glad they didn’t drop a movie version of Loki in the box. Loki’s body is what I think of as the “Hasbro Marvel Small Body” it is the same body used on Black Spider-Man Costume, Archangel, Human Torch, Iron Fist, Electro, and Silver Surfer. It has the same articulation, nothing new here. On top of same old Work-a-day body is a new head sculpt. I think one of the perks of recycling bodies, Hasbro can put more time and money into Head sculpts, and this one really shows it.

Loki’s paint is also well done. He has a dark green wash over a lighter green body, it also has the fantastic painted on scale detail, I have no idea how they painted on those scales but the look great. Again the head is where it really shines- he has some lighter dry brushing on his face to accentuate skin tones. Also his eyes are fantastic, each eye has a well defined white, iris and pupil. Each tooth is also individually painted. They are such fantastic little details that I have never seen before on figures of this scale.

In case you all are wondering, yes Loki does look totally bitchin facing off against the previously released Thor figure.

I also think it should be noted that this is the only comic book version of Loki that Hasbro has produced so far. A movie version that was released in March.

Now on to the reason you bought this, this big blue beast. When I opened it up I thought for sure that Hasbro had read my Galactus review, everything that I hated about Galactus has been fixed in this figure. The Frost Giant is a brand new sculpt, no recycled parts from some of the other previously released figures. He looks fantastic! The fur detail is wonderful, as is the damage and weathering sculpted into the chest plate. I particularly love the head sculpt; he looks stupid and ready to eat Asgardians. The helmet is beautiful, the horns have some nice grain work sculpted in, the bone of the skull looks like a fresh kill.

On to articulation. He has a ball jointed- head, shoulders, and hips. He has swivel- biceps, elbows, forearms, wrist (in and out), abs, waist, knees, and ankles. He does have ratcheting joints- elbows, abs, knees, and ankles. I know a lot of people hate them, but it is necessary to support all that weight, and he is a very heavy figure. One of my favorite features is that on his left hand he has a swivel joint on his knuckles, each finger can move separately, leaving a semi-poseable hand.

Paint is where this figure really shines. The fur has been dry brushed with a lighter brown, then dry brushed with metallic white. His chest plate has been dry brushed with metallic gray, because it is cast in brown this adds to the appearance that it is rusted and aged. All of his skin and muscles have been airbrushed to ad layered skin tones. Again the helmet is really excellent, it has two washes of a light brown, a dark brown, and has been dry brushed with white. Then the rings are painted copper.

This is really an excellent complete package and looks amazing, and would make a great addition to any collection.

COMPLETE PACKAGE: 94%

The Story!? Well Wade is broke. Again. Let’s face it, he just doesn’t have the attention span to keep track of money. He is $312,891.02 over drawn because he does fantastic things like spend $25,896.92 on guinea pigs. His first step in seeking a job is to cold call every super villain he can think of, when that fails he finds an ad in the help wanted section for a job as a herald (yes that’s right of Galactus) because let’s face it Galactus goes through Heralds like fat people go through doughnuts. After accepting the job, he gets the most pimped out supercharged surfboard possible and starts picking of planets at random (one appears to be populated with Pokémon and I cheered when they died). Unfortunately Wade can’t ever seem to shut up. Galactus (Ravager of Worlds, Devourer of Worlds, The Creator, shall I go on or is that enough aliases?) finally ends up firing him. On his way home he has a run in with the Silver Surfer who then kicks his (Deadpool) ass. The final issue of Deadpool Team-Up closes with Wade joining a H.O.G. (Harold of Galactus) support group.

Written by Skottie Young, this is something of a change for him as he is best known as an artist (he won an Eisner Award for Marvel’s Wonderful Wizard of Oz). It’s incredibly difficult to write Deadpool, to strike the right balance of crazy. If it’s over the top, becomes unreadable and stupid the issue falls into the cracks. What seems to be the trick is to let the insanity come from Deadpool, rather than try to force him into strange situations. Young does exceedingly well here. The issue has some great dialogue from Wade, I particularly enjoyed him asking Galactus if he wanted to join a fantasy football league, and him calling the Silver Surfer a “Christmas ornament on a surf board”. Honestly the only complaint I have about the writing is that Wade didn’t break the fourth wall, and that he didn’t have his first and secondary thought bubbles.

Art by Ramon Perez and Andreas Mossa. The drawings of Silver Surfer are well done, and the panels with physical comedy are excellent, the most part the art work is simply adequate.

This has been consistently the best of the four ongoing Deadpool series , and I’m sad to see it go. Some of my favorite Team-Ups have been with- Thor, Machine Man, and Captain Brittan. Honestly, this isn’t one of the best, but it’s pretty damn good.

Please support Wade in his last team-up issue!

My comic back log is huge! Sometimes I am so overwhelmed at the size of it that I will go to the comic shop and pick up something new just to free me from the chains of continuity. On one of my latest trips to the comic shop I picked up an copy of Spider-Man 654.1. I will freely admit that I haven’t read a lot of Spider-Man comics, but I have read a few, and I used to watch the cartoons religiously in Junior High and High School. I knew who all the major players where and I was confident I could fill in all the gaps, this being a .1 issue.

For those of you unfamiliar with the point one program, from Marvel.com-

“Geared for new and long-time readers alike, the all-new Marvel: Point One initiative delivers the perfect jumping on points for the biggest super hero series in the world! Beginning in February 2011, select Marvel comic series marked with a “.1″ after the issue number feature full-length, self-contained stories by Marvel’s top creators, laying the groundwork for the next year of storylines. From INVINCIBLE IRON MAN to AVENGERS to AMAZING SPIDER-MAN, each Marvel: Point One issue of the associated series not only begin major new storylines, but also seamlessly introduces new readers into the dynamic Marvel Universe and its popular super heroes. ‘Marvel is absolutely committed to providing new readers with easy entry points into all our comic book series and Marvel: Point One is the next step in our new reader initiatives,’ explained David Gabriel, Senior Vice-President, Sales & Circulation, Marvel Entertainment.”

The story from this issue revolves around Flash Thompson. After having lost his leg in the war, he becomes part of the Venom Program. Flash is infused with the Venom symbiote and performs spec ops missions for the military. After each mission the two are separated to prevent the symbiote from taking over and to prevent bonding. As the story progresses he is sent in on a rescue mission. As he and his assignment escape, his symbiote legs are shot off and he hulks and totally loses his sh!t. The symbiote takes over and violently saves the day. They escape and he and the symbiote are separated again, however the issue ends with him jonesing for the symbiote.

Over all I enjoyed the story (Dan Slott), and I found the artwork (Humberto Ramos) simply adequate. The idea of turning a marvel villain into a government weapon isn’t a new one, but it was well executed, and Venom has always been a favorite of mine. It was totally awesome when he lost control and Venom bit a guys arm off! That’s not to say that the story didn’t have problems, and the majority of my problems are .1 related-

1. Aside from the cover Spider-Man was not in this issue, and Peter Parker was in one tiny panel of one page. This book by its definition is to introduce new readers into this comic book series, and this series is about Spider-Man, so where is Spider-Man?

2. I really liked the story, but Flash Thompson is a C-list Spider-Man character that most new readers will be unfamiliar with.

3. If this is the first time someone picks up a Spider-Man comic, what is Venom, and how did the military get a hold of it to use it in this military program? How are they containing it and controlling it?

To rap this thing up, I used Wikipedia three times to fill in back story and plot holes, that’s completely unreasonable, I’ve had to do more for other comics, but that seems excessive for what’s supposed to be “the perfect jumping on point.”

Story me/newbie- B+/C
Art- B

Will I pick up 655? Probably not…

Being primarily a 3-3/4 inch toy collector, that is the line if have followed with greatest interest. Entertainment Earth is reporting that wave 1 will be released tomorrow, then wave 2 in June. They are reporting that this wave will have- 3x Battle Hammer Thor, 3x Lightning Clash Thor, 3x Sword Spike Thor, 1x Secret Strike Loki, 1x Shield Bash Marvel’s Odin, 1x TBD (most likely an additional Loki or Odin).

So what does that mean? If you want an Odin or Loki you will probably have to go to the store tomorrow, because officially right now they are one per case. What that means is that every ebay scalper on the planet will swarm the stores and buy them up to resell for $20.00 each.

Wave 1 of “Deluxe Action Figures” will also be released. This wave has- 4x Blaster Armor Thor, 2x Frost Giant. Wave 2 is to be released in April.

I am somewhat disappointed in this launch release, last year when Iron Man II was released the majority of the line was available before the movie’s debut. I believe the pickings are so light so as not to leave everyone too broke for the Captain America Toys coming in May.

Me personally? I’ll probably hit up a Walmart at midnight and buy a Loki and a Frost Giant.

I finally got around to picking up the BAT-AT. For those of you that don’t know, that stands for Big All Terrain Armored Transport (Big because it is closer to the correct scale than the previous version that has been re-released over the past decades). Sometimes it’s called The Walker, or, as an ex of mine once called it, “the big thing that looks kind of like an ugly dog.”

Before I begin we need to discuss price, because price was the biggest consideration in when I made my purchase. The fact of the matter is that a trend has been set over the past years by the other large Star Wars toys, and I knew that eventually the price would be just right. I have been following the price since its release, and here is the current price from places I regularly buy toys. So here is the break down:

Regular or average price $100
Big Bad Toy Store $149/$109 +S&H
Brian’s Toys $129 +S&H
Entertainment Earth $108 +S&H
Toys R Us $79/$89 (you have to pay more online)
Target $79
Walmart $79/$95 (you have to pay more online)
K-mart $99

Now here is the catch, some of the stores are already getting rid of them. I picked mine up at K-mart for $50, then a day later it was up to $75, now it’s back up to $99. Think about that, that’s a $100 price difference between the highest and the lowest, and $50 less than the average. So be warned, if you are going to purchase this, shop around, and you can find a really good deal!

Let’s play with it!

This is what your hard earned money gets you, except obviously you get four legs and four feet. Please note that you get one AT-AT Driver, and one speeder bike. I love the speeder bike. The body of the bike is the same one that Hasbro has been using since the mid-nineties, however the handle bars have finally been fixed to be more movie accurate (they bend in rather than are straight up), as has the outrigger, sensor array and directional steering vanes. I would have preferred a biker scout to go with the speeder bike, but then it’s a “free” figure so you can’t complain too much.

It’s a great looking toy, once it’s put together. It’s got some great looking “weathering” paint applications, however I would like to have some more paint applications because it has miles of gray plastic. The sculpt on this monster is amazing, the detail involved in the panels is wonderful, it definitely helps make up for the lack of paint. The Panels that open are well hidden, and they fit snugly together. I am somewhat concerned about the rubber neck, the rubber used on toys doesn’t always hold up well over time. In some cases it has been known to disintegrate within a year.

The Articulation is very stiff, and I’m glad. I makes it easier to pose and to hold the pose. All the joints are swivel joints. the “hips” and “knees” have about 140 degrees of rotation, and the feet have about 90 degrees of rotation. One of the perks of the increased shoes size is that it is extremely stable. I had it balanced on two legs, giving it the appearance of actually walking. The head is basically a ball joint, in the sense that it can move, however it isn’t really possible, it moved with a control arm like a puppet, or locked into place.

To fully understand the scope of this beast let’s do some comparison shots with the old one.

Before I bought this, I looked at pictures, read the specifications, but I just didn’t fully understand how big it is. So here is the break down- the old body length was 23.5 inches long, the new body length 29.5 inches long and with rear panel open 34 inches long. The old leg length is 13 inches with the new leg length coming in at 17 inches. The old foot is 4.5 inches long and the new foot is 6.125 inches long. The old overall height is 18.5 inches tall, the new height is 25.5 inches tall. It’s one thing to read the numbers, and look at the pictures, but just to reinforce the point, it’s as tall as my neighbors black lab, my niece was petting it like a puppy, she tried to climb on it and ride it like a rocking horse, my got dog got scared and ran away from it.

If the outside isn’t cool enough check out all the work that went into the inside. They turned a vehicle into a play set. I was blown away at all the parts that opened up, and all the detail that went into the interior sculpt.

The previous model’s interior-

One of my favorite features is this,
A hatch opens up in the belly, and it has a grapple rope that raises and lowers, so that you can recreate the scene in The Empire Strikes Back, when Luke cuts open the belly of the AT-AT with his lightsaber, throws a grenade inside and blows it up.

You should know that it requires three AA batteries for the electronic components. It has six buttons in various locations that produce the famous hulking walking sound, the speeder bike sounds laser fire, lights to go with the laser fire, movie voices including Darth Vader, A light up tactical screen, And more. Luckily it also has an on/off switch. I would also like to note that it has an excellent sounding speaker, unlike Galactus.

To wrap this monster up, I think this is the coolest toy I bought this year. Yes, you should buy this, buy an army of them, just make sure you shop around when you do, and make sure you get a good deal.

Some of things that caught my attention- “Inception” was nominated for the holy trinity: best drama, director, screenplay, and as an added bonus original score. Johnny Depp was against himself as best actor in a comedy, he was nominated for “Alice” and “The Tourist”. Both Mad Men and Dexter seem to be neck and neck in the TV Drama category. Glee was nominated for Comedy TV series, and actor and actress, also Jane Lynch was nominated for best supporting actress. The one thing that really bothered me is that for some reason Steve Carell is still being nominated for The Office; I wonder if it is because this is supposed to be his last season.

This is the short list, as the complete list could take days to go through.

What do you all think?

1. Best Movie- Drama
BLACK SWAN
THE FIGHTER
INCEPTION
THE KING’S SPEECH
THE SOCIAL NETWORK

Best Actress- Movie- Drama
HALLE BERRY, FRANKIE AND ALICE
NICOLE KIDMAN, RABBIT HOLE
JENNIFER LAWRENCE, WINTER’S BONE
NATALIE PORTMAN, BLACK SWAN
MICHELLE WILLIAMS, BLUE VALENTINE

Best Actor- Movie- Drama
JESSE EISENBERG, THE SOCIAL NETWORK
COLIN FIRTH, THE KING’S SPEECH
JAMES FRANCO, 127 HOURS
RYAN GOSLING, BLUE VALENTINE
MARK WAHLBERG, THE FIGHTER

Best Movie- Comedy/Musical
ALICE IN WONDERLAND
BURLESQUE
THE KIDS ARE ALL RIGHT
RED
THE TOURIST

Best Actress- Movie- Comedy/Musical
ANNETTE BENING, THE KIDS ARE ALL RIGHT
ANNE HATHAWAY, LOVE AND OTHER DRUGS
ANGELINA JOLIE, THE TOURIST
JULIANNE MOORE, THE KIDS ARE ALL RIGHT
EMMA STONE, EASY A

Best Actor Movie- Comedy/Musical
JOHNNY DEPP, ALICE IN WONDERLAND
JOHNNY DEPP, THE TOURIST
PAUL GIAMATTI, BARNEY’S VERSION
JAKE GYLLENHAAL, LOVE AND OTHER DRUGS
KEVIN SPACEY, CASINO JACK

Best Animated Movie
DESPICABLE ME
HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON
THE ILLUSIONIST
TANGLED
TOY STORY 3

Best Director- Movie
DARREN ARONOFSKY, BLACK SWAN
DAVID FINCHER, THE SOCIAL NETWORK
TOM HOOPER, THE KING’S SPEECH
CHRISTOPHER NOLAN, INCEPTION
DAVID O. RUSSELL, THE FIGHTER

Best Screenplay- Movie
DANNY BOYLE, 127 HOURS
LISA CHOLODENKO, THE KIDS ARE ALL RIGHT
CHRISTOPHER NOLAN, INCEPTION
DAVID SEIDLER, THE KING’S SPEECH
AARON SORKIN, THE SOCIAL NETWORK

Best TV series- Drama
BOARDWALK EMPIRE (HBO)
DEXTER (SHOWTIME)
THE GOOD WIFE (CBS)
MAD MEN (AMC)
THE WALKING DEAD (AMC)

Best Actress- TV- Drama
JULIANNA MARGULIES, THE GOOD WIFE
ELISABETH MOSS, MAD MEN
PIPER PERABO, COVERT AFFAIRS
KATEY SAGAL, SONS OF ANARCHY
KYRA SEDGWICK, THE CLOSER

Best Actor- TV- Drama
STEVE BUSCEMI, BOARDWALK EMPIRE
BRYAN CRANSTON, BREAKING BAD
MICHAEL C. HALL, DEXTER
JON HAMM, MAD MEN
HUGH LAURIE, HOUSE

Best TV Series- Comedy
30 ROCK (NBC)
THE BIG BANG THEORY (CBS)
THE BIG C (SHOWTIME)
GLEE (FOX)
MODERN FAMILY (ABC)
NURSE JACKIE (SHOWTIME)

Best Actress – Comedy
TONI COLLETTE, UNITED STATES OF TARA
EDIE FALCO, NURSE JACKIE
TINA FEY, 30 ROCK
LAURA LINNEY, THE BIG C
LEA MICHELE, GLEE

Best Actor- Comedy
ALEC BALDWIN, 30 ROCK
STEVE CARELL, THE OFFICE
THOMAS JANE, HUNG
MATTHEW MORRISON, GLEE
JIM PARSONS, THE BIG BANG THEORY

This second issue picks up right where the first one leaves off. Jeb is in conflict with his past, and wonders if he can truly change, rather than deal with his “visitor” from the previous issue like he would have in the past, he decides to let the sheriff handle it. When Jeb arrives in town, where everyone he runs into seems to be familiar with his old self, “Hellrider” and well, knowing things they shouldn’t. Meanwhile the “visitor” from the first issue stops buy to see Esther. While she is helpful and courteous, everything she says seems to have another meaning, an effect that is added to by the art work.

The book is engulfing. 90 percent of the story is in the pictures, if the text is simply read the story would be unremarkable. Each page seems to have a duel meaning, the story that is on the surface, found in the text; and a second almost prime evil, atavistic, story that is found in the artwork. Every piece of Menton3’s artwork is disturbingly beautiful. The intentional conflict between the two leaves the reader’s skin crawling and disoriented with the constant conflict between the two.

I highly recommend this book, and I can’t wait for the next issue.

Price? $3.99

Being a double feature this issue has two stories, both involving human sacrifice

The first takes place in Kansas in 1960. A man is given a house by a mysterious stranger. When he moves in, he finds a body in a locked room. Through the magic of comic books he learns that it is his job to lock people in that room, to make human sacrifices, in exchange he is given gold coins. After performing his civic duty for two years he brings in Hellboy seemingly to solve the mystery and save the day. Being a Hellboy comic, the craziness happens. It’s a great little “locked room” story

The second story is much shorter, but equally good. A deranged museum gift shop employee thinks that he is an Egyptian Pharaoh and he must sacrifice the girl that spurned him to the Egyptian gods. Hellboy gets involved and things get messy.

This was a great issue! Also, this makes a great introduction to the Hellboy universe if you have never read him. Bottom line $3.50 for a “double feature!”

“One for the Money” is the Story of Stephanie Plum becoming a bounty hunter. Not just a bounty hunter, but the worst bounty hunter ever, who happens to be very lucky. Stephanie is fired from her job, and to make some money she goes and works for her cousin Vinnie the bail bondsman. She originally was going to be the file clerk until she finds out the job has been filled. Vinnie’s secretary Connie tell her that if she wants to make some real money she needs to become a bounty hunter! When Stephanie learns that an ex of hers is on the run to the tune of ten grand she is willing to go after him. She gets some brief training by the tough as nails Ranger, and is set loose on her own. There are car chases explosions, and a body count. One of my favorite running jokes in the series is how many cars will Stephanie blow up in this book?

“One for the Money” was originally published in 1994, shortly after its publication, it was optioned by Tri-Star Motion Pictures, but nothing happened. For fifteen years. Finally earlier this year this year the movie was cast, filmed, and is currently in post production. It is slated for release July 8, 2011.

The cast?
Katherine Heigl … Stephanie Plum
John Leguizamo … Jimmy Alpha
Debbie Reynolds … Grandma Mazur
Jason O’Mara … Joe Morelli
Daniel Sunjata … Ranger
Sherri Shepherd … Lula
Patrick Fischler … Vinnie Plum
Ana Reeder … Connie

While I’m not sure about some of the casting, even if they just loosely follow the book this could be the comedic hit of the summer. Movie Insider has a great photo gallery here http://www.themovieinsider.com/m1037/6/one-for-the-money/

Dear Mike,
Today I read the latest installment of BPRD. I just wanted to thank you for writing a comic that I need to read, and that I look forward to every month. After I pick up an issue I cannot wait for the next one to come out. How you keep the various series that you write fresh and exciting just astounds me. The thing that I enjoy most is that even after all the comics of yours that I have read, you can still surprise me. Take for instance the newest issues of BPRD. Just when I think that I know where the story is going it suddenly takes a left turn. Could you please tell me what is going on, please?

An issue that I feel we need to address is the cliff hanger endings. I know that we are working on small story arcs, but you are killing me with the cliff hanger endings at the end of each issue. A month is a long time to be kept in waiting and hoping. I realize that when you are fighting a giant tentacled monster you didn’t have a good place to stop, but you aren’t going to let my good friend Ben become a cold blooded murderer are you? Say it ain’t so! You are going to leave me in suspense for another month aren’t you?

In conclusion Mike, I want to know how you are going to wrap all of these seemingly unrelated stories in a single issue, (we have our fearless leader on her way to stop Armageddon in Texas, Panya screwing with Kraus for no apparent reason, and Abe in the fight to the death with a giant monster) because we only have one issue left in this story arc. Are they all related? Is it all going to work out in the end? Last of all please don’t let Abe get eaten by the behemoth, please?

Hugs and Kisses, Brody

Story by Mike Mignola and John Arcudi
Art by Guy Davis
$3.50

There are so many things that I would love to tell you all. I want to tell you all the great stuff things that happened in this issue, and just ruin it for you, but I won’t. New potentially storied character alterings are introduced. Savoy finds out some of Tony’s secrets by munching on that ear he took all those issues back. And Chow, Tony’s brother is suing him for breaking his jaw. All of this happens at the Chu family Thanksgiving.

If you are even a casual Chew reader you must pick this up! As usual this book is still $2.99.

WHY AREN’T ALL OF YOU READING CHEW?

It is 1870 and Jebediah and Esther Foster have decided to return east from the Dakotas to Esther’s family home in Silent Hill. The pregnant Esther seems filled with light and hope; however the former criminal Jeb is much more morose about their new home. Maybe Silent Hill isn’t the best place for this couple to settle down. Jeb’s past is hinted at, and that he he might of played a part in pushing Indians off their land to make way for white settlers, and he is referred to as “Hellrider”. Esther is questioned as to whether she thinks her baby can be different from its father. I won’t go into details and I won’t give anything away as this is Silent Hill and Everything in Silent Hill is a mystery, but this issue is full of strange shadows and visions, and downright disturbing characters.

Menton3, the artist, has been on my radar for some time now, however this is the first comic of his I have read. He has a deep talent for the surrealistically fucked up. A marriage between him and Silent Hill seems like a match made in heaven. If you would like to look at some of his art work he has a page at deviant art http://menton3.deviantart.com/ .

This issue is $3.99 and a must have for Silent Hill fans, make sure you stop in at your local comic store and pick it up tomorrow!

Billy and Sproule’s Biological Curiosities have come to London at the request of John Merrick, to stop Jack the Ripper. The previous issue ended with Billy being arrested as the ripper. This issue opens with several “Ripper” murders. Sproule’s gang continues to investigate while Billy escapes from jail with a two faced man(literally). The issue ends with the ripper being revealed, but if you want to know who you’ll have to read it!

I love Powell’s writing style and Hotz’s art is an excellent fit. Hotz’s has an excellent splash page of dead prostitutes that manages to be disturbing and funny at the same time. As I was casually going over it, the picture made me think of Dead Hooker jokes (my favorites are “What’s the difference between your job and a Dead Hooker? Your job still sucks!” and “What did the Blind, Deaf, and Dumb Hooker get for Christmas? Cancer!” (what are yours?)

If you are not reading this book you are missing out. This is issue 2 of 4 so it’s not too late to catch up. This book sells for three hundred and ninety-nine pennies.

Hellboy is in Lancaster County, PA to kill a vampire. After defeating the vampire HB is recruited by the Wise Dog Society (a group of animal paranormal investigators) to help look into some animal ritual killings. They enter a cave that I repeatedly told them not to go into, and the paranormal took place.

First off I have never read “Beasts of Burden” I knew it existed, but I’ve never picked up an issue, so I had no idea what I was getting into. This comic didn’t have the usual epic/world ending Hellboy mood, that I have grown accustomed to lately, and it was nice to have something lighter in mood again(I mean come on how seriously can you take a team up with house hold pets). I think it was a little too cute for something I would want to read regularly, but as an interim it was refreshing.

The art work was probably the biggest shock for me. Hellboy always seems to have a certain style, no matter who is drawing. Thompson’s art work was wonderful. Apparently Thompson is the regular for “Beasts of Burden”, and her work seems to better fit this type of lighter story, rather than the usual HB gloom and doom. Thompsons work was primarily in water colors, and a lot of the panels where gorgeous.

This book is $3.50, and I think it worth a look.

I love launch parties, because it allows “geeks” to gather together, to talk about their favorite games, and what they hope and expect from the new release. Last night was no exception. I chatted with one guy about expectations in game play for Fable III, and what we thought the Kinect would do for the game play. I argued with another about Star Wars continuity, and if Force Unleashed could really fit in the Star Wars time line. The anticipation filled the store. People saying they would blow off work or school tomorrow so they could stay up all night playing their new game.

My Game Stop played poker, and trivia games for Star Wars and Fable Prizes. A few members of the Alpine Garrison of the 501st, also attended to take pictures with fans. If you don’t attend launch parties you are missing out on a fantastic opportunity to spread the geek love.

Honestly I felt like the guy who walks in the middle of the movie, looks up at the screen and asks “What just happened?” the story picks up where the previous issue ends, and I had to gather clues as the story went along. Lucky for me story was written well enough that I could do that. I won’t comment on the story, because I don’t know enough. I will say this- I have already found myself invested in the characters, I didn’t see a single zombie until page 18 and I didn’t mind.

I’m usually not a fan of black and white comics, but I enjoyed the art work. The second to last page was a splash page that made me have a geekgasm.

This book is $2.99, and if you are looking for something off the usual beaten path this might be the book for you.

The story picks up where the previous issue ends with the yet unnamed duo attempting to steal the body assassinated in the previous issue. Some thing else is beating them to the punch. As giant zombie escapes with the body, the pair captures one of the thieves. After basting the thief and threatening to eat him the thief tells our heroes where the body was taken.

I love this book, the art work is wonderful it looks like 80′s cel animation. The writing is stellar, I found myself laughing out loud. One of my favorite quotes from this issue is “Corpse Juice in me beard smells!”

This book is $2.99. On a side note the first issue is on its 3rd printing.

Like many other figures Ghost Rider has a “recycled” body, he has the same body as the A.I.M. Soldier. As such he has a ball jointed- head, shoulders, torso, hips, and ankles. He has swivel- biceps, elbows, wrists, waist, hips, and knees. Basically everything we have come to expect from this line, and He is more flexible than me.

Even though it shares the same body as the A.I.M. Soldier, they did such an excellent job painting it that it is hardly noticeable. For example on the shin- the boot portion is left as shiny black plastic, but where the pants begin was painted a dull black, then dry brushed with dark blue. The same goes for the loves. He sports more paint than the average Marvel figure, he probable has more paint than Galactus.

Probably the most remarkable part of this figure is the head. The skull is white plastic with a yellow wash and florescent orange paint as highlight, to match the color of the plastic used for the flames. The flames and the skull are of course two separate pieces, with the flames glued on. Honestly I would like to see some highlights painted in the flames, but they did such an excellent job sculpting them that I can let it slide. It is incredibly hard to pull off the look of a burning skull when working in plastic (don’t believe me go back and look at the Ghost Rider Movie toy line, most of the figures look like the Bride of Frankenstein styled their orange hair), but I think they did it.

I found this figure at Walmart, it was $8.XX. Even though I am not a Ghost Rider fan I recommend you pick it up if you see it.

This new series is written by David Lapham, the creator of “Stray Bullets”. The series features art by Kyle Baker, who was last seen working on “Prelude to Deadpool Corps” #5. Both of them have won Eisner Awards.

A Federal agent (only referred to as Bob) is undercover to take down a mob boss named Hammerhead. Said boss is holed up in an office building a la Howard Hughes. He won’t come out, so someone has to go in after him. Bob is sleeping with the head of Hammerheads security at night (who often beats him), and works in the building during the day as a janitor (Bob’s uniform is a pair of bikini briefs). Deadpool is brought in to take down Hammerhead, and as usual he is unable to follow a plan, and royally fucks up the situation. Fear not! This only increases the body count. The undercover agent steals Deadpool’s crumpets to get him to leave the basement. Deadpool follows his nose, to get his crumpets back, and has the final showdown with the mob boss. The story ends with Deadpool telling his handler “Your naked Bob. If you want to remain employed as my operative, you’re going to have to wear a proper uniform.”

Lapham took a different approach in writing this book. Rather than the usual point of view of Deadpool it was written primarily from the point of view of Bob. This made a fabulous introduction to this new series in that as readers we are allowed to see how other people see Deadpool, and the mythology that surrounds him in his world. Stuff like “They say he can’t be killed” and “my friend saw his leg shot off and he grew a new one” and “He single-handedly stopped nuclear testing in North Korea” and “They say he is possessed by a demon.”

The gritty art work was nice, and seemed to fit the story well. I did have to look for the “Max” in the artwork though, but it was there (Heads cut in half rather than cut off, organs falling out of bodies, flying body parts).

Overall I enjoyed the book, I think it’s worth picking up. It seems to be following its own time line and continuity, probably in an attempt to bring in new readers. My one issue is that I hope it returns to the “regular” Deadpool style of storytelling, it was funny to see how others see Deadpool, but a lot of comedic opportunities where missed. Honestly I think it would be amazing if issue #2 was the same story written from Deadpool’s point of view, to see what he thinks happened.

What can I say? I love Mignola, and I love this series. I think Ben Steinbeck’s minimalist art work is excellent. With the vampire zombies it is a very seasonal book, so why don’t you pick it up?

Wont you please drink the Mignola Kool-aid with me?

The last few months of waiting have been hell. Issue #1 came out in July. There has been a lot of conjecture as to what would happen in this issue, and all of my own have been wrong. With all of Moore’s work he can still surprise me, and that is high praise.

I’m not sure what will be a spoiler and what wont, because I have no idea where this will end up so I’ll keep it short and sweet. Our two FBI agents go to Salem, Mass. to investigate a lead into the string of murders. A lot guesses are made as to what part Lovecraft’s stories play in the murders, but nothing substantial is revealed. They are sent to a sex/magic shop named Whispers in Darkness (if you know your Lovecraft you know that is a variation on The Whisperer in Darkness). The FBI agents pretend to be a kinky couple interested in magic and the owner invites them to a meeting for “genuine devotees”. And I’ll stop here.

In the name of full discloser I loved and hated this issue. The reason why is that it is supposedly a four issue story, so time and pages are very valuable, however the second half of this story seems like an inconsequential tangent to the overall story arc. I do have a lot of faith in Moore, and I’m sure in the end all the puzzle pieces will fit together. The issue ended left me unsatisfied. Meanwhile with the cliffhanger ending I am left waiting to see what happens next.

When I first heard a few months ago that Hasbro was going to release a Galactus figure in the 3-3/4 scale, I was incredibly excited. I think that Hasbro releases some of the best toys in this scale, also I love Galactus! He was a childhood favorite of mine, and my interest in him is largely nostalgic.

I was extremely disappointed when I heard that this was a SDCC exclusive. In all honesty, I seriously considered buying one off eBay for the several hundred dollar asking price. Luckily I read later that Galactus would be released in stores. This started the chase, where I found myself checking stores several time a week until I found one. Then it happened and was rather pleased to pick this on up at Toys-R-Us.

Galactus comes with a Silver Surfer figure and can be balanced on his hand with a little work. This happens to be the same Surfer that was released last year; however he has a new paint job, that is less pearl and more silver. In the sake of full disclosure, between the fact that the Surfer’s legs are so far apart (making it incredibly difficult to get and keep him on his surfboards), and the fact that Galactus has no articulation in his hands, it will be next to impossible to keep the Surfer from constantly attempting suicide by jumping from Galactus’s hand. However, when posed it looks pretty damn cool. If I were another type of collector I would just glue the Surfer to Galactus’s hand.

When the button on Galactus’s chest is pushed, his head lights up and he speaks one of eleven phrase such as “I HUNGER!” and “I AM THE DEVOURER OF WORLDS!” (Its Galactus, so of course he speaks in all caps).

I have to say that I was very disappointed in his LED, it was impossible to see during the day, and is only clearly visible in complete dark. Because of this, I made a trip to Radio Shack and bought the brightest LED I could find that would still fit in his head, costing me six bucks. If you buy this figure and have soldering skills, I recommended that you do this. The batteries are easily replaced through a compartment in his back, which is fairly well hidden, but easily accessible. This is probably a good thing to do because while he already comes with batteries, they are the cheep knock-off brand.

This is where a large portion of your money spent is going to – the LED, circuit board, and speaker. While none of those parts are particularly expensive the cost of copper is still up and metal is more expensive than plastic. The speaker is .25W and 8ohms, which I found to be a little weak and having a lot of distortion but still better than most speakers included in toys. I do think that the voice cast as Galactus was excellent…and I just mentioned my LED issues.

Now let’s break it down all the way and talk about paint, which he has very little of. His head probably has the most, as it is cast out of clear blue plastic and then painted over. The rest of Galactus’s body is basically just plastic itself. For example, the arms are cast in blue metallic plastic, with the single purple application, the hands are cast in brown with a purple application, the legs are just blue, and the boots are cast in purple with brown applications. If I had to estimate, I would say that he has paint on about 1/3 of his body.

I realize paint costs money, and that they have a price point, but the limited applications really leave him with a severely lackluster appearance.

The next thing that I need to bring up is the casting itself. Clearly on the figure, you can see some “cold slugs.” The most egregious one is on the leg and is about the size of a half-dollar.

Cold slugs are caused by hot plastic hitting cold metal, consequently the plastic cools and a solid piece of plastic gets pushed into the mold. They can easily be prevented by using “cold wells”. The bottom line is that Hasbro didn’t, and most of the body has these giant cold slugs…EPIC FAIL.

Now, on to the articulation. When working with a figure this size, articulation is a huge issue (bad pun intended), joints have to be strong enough to support the figure’s weight, but still be mobile. Consequently, many toys in the past that were this size tended to have very limited movement.

We’ll begin from the top and work our way down, he has ball jointed head, shoulders, wrists, hips, and ankles. The wrist joints have limited up and down motion (approximately 30 degrees), but it is there at least. The ankles have mostly up and down motion, very little side to side. His elbows, gloves, waist, and boots are all swivel jointed. It is here where I have a big complaint, and it’s mainly about his skirt/dress/kilt.

The plastic used in the mold it is too hard, effectively making the hip and knee joints useless because the plastic prevents them from moving. I give them a break mainly because it’s not like Galactus is going to sit down cross legged and have a chat…No, he is going to stand and loom and look intimidating.

I also wish they had but some joints on his fingers as it has been done before, and it would allow him to hold things more effectively, like the Silver Surfer problem mentioned above. Over all, I’m impressed with what it can do considering its size.

Now the sculpt, which I have to say, I’m a little disappointed in . This figure stands at a HUGE 19 inches tall, but has very little detail. Aside from the detail on the back of his head, and on his forearms, he has nothing that can’t be done on a six inch figure. After pulling him out of the box, the first thing I wondered was if they took a six inch 3D rendering and enlarged it to this size. It’s just a shame that the best piece of sculpting is on the back of his head, as it will hardly ever be seen.

In 2005, Toy Biz released a Galactus in its Build-a-Figure program. The Toy Biz Galactus is 16 inches tall. He has a ball-jointed head, shoulders, torso, hips, and ankles. He has swivel-jointed elbows, gloves, wrists fingers, knees, boots and toes. I think overall, he has a better sculpt and every single part on him was painted.

However, the years have not been kind to his joints as he now has a hard time standing. Overall, I prefer the Toy Biz Galactus to the Hasbro one, it’s just a better figure and I love that he has finger joints so he can hold things. The catch, is that the Hasbro Figure is more to scale than the Toy Biz one could ever dream of and that it’s hard to find all the Toy Biz parts. It’s not impossible…just hard.

To wrap this monster up, three versions of him exist. There’s this one, the SDCC one that is identical to this one (only the packaging is different), and a dark purple one that is painted like the Galactus from Marvel Ultimate Alliance. So far he has only been seen at Toys-R-Us, where he retails for approximately $50. I like this figure, but I don’t think he has $50 of awesome. I’m pretty sure it doesn’t have $100 of awesome (that seems to be the average eBay price), and it definitely isn’t worth the $150 for the SDCC version. If this thing lands at Target and Walmart like it is supposed to, I’m betting you can pick it up on clearance for $25 (at $25 you could buy one for the whole family!) next January…much like how Skrull, Giant Man, and Goliath got clearance-d out this January for half price.

On a side note, I have to thank my friend Jeremy for loaning me his Toy Biz Galactus for the comparison shots. Thanks Jeremy.

Can you guess why I picked this up?

I Kill Giants is the story of Barbara Thorson. “Barb” seems to be the odd person out, the picked-on kid in the class. She doesn’t fit in, so she occupies herself by escaping to a world of her own making. The story opens on her sitting in class, on career day and a motivation speaker asks her what her career may be (because she isn’t paying attention, she is reading) she simply states “I kill giants.”

This simple mistake lands her in the principal’s office, where she displays her wit as well as her strong willed nature earning her a week of detention. When she arrives home we learn that she lives with her sister (the book never comes out and says it, we are lead to believe that her parents are dead). Her home life is in the very least, complicated. The one thing she seems to excel at is being a dungeon master in her D&D campaigns with her friends, however today’s round seems to end badly.

The story closes with her sister trying to comfort her, but failing. At the end we see Barb feeding what seems to be fairies.

To me, it was very easy to identify with the character of Barbara. Everyone that has ever felt like the odd man out as a teenager will be able to identify with her. Honestly, when the story ends it leaves the reader unsure if actual events are unfolding, or if she has lost touch with reality. We don’t know if her giants are metaphorical, representing her problems at home and school, or possibly literal. Niimura work is entirely in black and white, and seems to have a strong manga/anime influence. His artwork adds to the story rather than detract from it, and he has succeeded where so many others have failed. It’s only a buck, so read it.

The story opens with a dwarf and a human that looks like a carnival strong man (the heroes are yet unnamed the writer claims as an homage to “The Man with No Name” trilogy) fighting the fattest werewolf I have ever seen. After kicking the living crap out of the werewolf they end up killing it with a silver spoon!

The next morning when the duo goes to collect to collect the bounty on the werewolf, the captain of the guard refuses to pay. This leaves the unnamed duo broke, and stuck in town. It is here that we learn that the chancellor who just rolled into town has been shot in the face. Queue our duo who chase after the murderer for the reward, chaos follows.

This book was an entertaining, drunken, and mythical romp through a world that has werewolves, dwarves with drinking problems, a mysterious assassin, possibly a vampire, and death by spoon (which brings Alan Rickman to mind and that great line from Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves “Well at least I didn’t use a spoon”). The artwork is wonderful, it looks like late 80’s, early 90’s hand-drawn animation, and with a price of $2.99 you can’t complain…I mean, how many books are still $2.99?

This book is written by Steven T. Seagle. Seagle is co-creator of Ben 10 and wrote for Uncanny X-Men, Alpha Flight, Sandman Mystery Theatre, Green Lantern: Brightest Day, Blackest Night, and Superman. Joining him is illustrator Marco Cinello. Cinello has worked extensively for Nickelodeon’s Animation Department, and previously worked on Soul Kiss with Seagle.

Frankie Lives in a Castle outside Transylvania Pennsylvania with his father. His birthday is October 31, and today is his birthday. His father has told him that he should never leave the castle because monsters live in the town. Today, he meets two children from the town that tell him that children live in the town, and monsters live in the castle.

These children tell him to have a “Happy Halloween” and leave. Frankie is afraid of the monsters in the castle that they told him about so he sneaks out of his room and goes into town. When he arrives he sees children trick-or-treating and sees nothing but MONSTERS. Everyone in the town loves his “costume” and wants to take him to the town square for the costume contest.

This causes Frankie to run away because he doesn’t want a Happy Halloween. Frankie runs home and his father finds him hiding under his bed. The villagers come to the door and his father lets them in. This is when Frankie realizes that they are not monsters at all but people wearing costumes.

Frankie wins the prize for best costume. The story ends with “Sometimes a happy birthday can be a happy Halloween.”

The story is extremely well written, right down to persistent use of the moral, “sometimes what you don’t want can be the perfect accompaniment to what you do want,” and “sometimes one thing can be two things.” The artwork is well done and very charming. Your kids will love it, I loved it. It’s listed as $12.99 MSRP.

Steve wakes up the next morning believing that everything that happened in the previous issue was just a dream. Then a package arrives with a brand new issue of “The Coffin Fly,” in it are all of the previous nights escapades. After reading part of the issue at work he runs and meets with his band of super heroes where he tries to convince them that they must find the “The Creators!” this must be done before “The Shadow Men!” catches up with them.

This is turning into one of my favorite comics, the art and storytelling style make me feel like a kid again. The book has a very nostalgic flavor to it, right down to the fake ads. It makes me want to find a box of Otter Pops and read a stack of old comics. If you don’t read this book you are missing out. This is book 4 of 6, it is $3.99

The fist issue is you basic character introduction we meet Wesley, Fox, and the Professor. Wesley is a sad sack, his girlfriend cheats on him with his best friend, his boss treats him like crap, and he spends his spare time researching anxiety disorders. We find out that Wesley’s father was a supervillan, who has just been killed; and Wesley stands to inherit everything he owned including $50 million. The catch is Wesley has to work for the Professor for six months so he can learn not to be a little bitch, and to learn how to use his super powers. The first issue ends with one of my favorite moments, when Wesley begins to realize his potential and shoots the wings off flies.

The biggest difference between the movie and the comic is the fact that the book seems to be more of a superhero book. I see the movie as more of an over the top James Bond spy thriller. As I mentioned this book was created by Mark Millar, also known for” The Ultimates” and “Kick Ass”. It’s drawn by J. G. Jones; he was nominated for an Eisner Award for his work on this series. As I mentioned this book is a buck, and how can you go wrong for a buck? Now I have to find that $20 hard cover…

Umbrella Academy is the story of seven children who were born under unusual circumstances and each of them has extra-ordinary skill sets. The seven children are adopted by a an alien that is disguised as a rich inventor named Sir Reginald Hargreeves, his mansion is named “The Umbrella Academy.” They are referred to as numbers 1 through 7. They disappear for several years when they suddenly reappear to save the city of Paris from a homicidal Eiffel Tower. Flash to twenty years later and Sir Hargreeves is dead, Number 5 returns after being missing for 20 years. He brings news that something bad is coming.

This book is si-fi with this under tone of campy fun; I almost want to say in the flavor something like Galaxy Quest. This book is dark and quirky fun, but what do you expect from a guy like Gerard Way (lead singer for My Chemical Romance). The art work by Gabriel Bá who worked on BPRD 1947 with Mike Mignola.

As a “one for one” this book is a buck, so go pick it up!

Chew is about Tony Chu. Tony is Cibopathic “that means he can take a bite of a piece of food, and get a feeling about how it was raised, where it grew or how it was harvested. Or what meat it’s made from.” The only thing he can eat without these effects are beets. Due to his special ability he is employed by the FDA to track down illegal/black market chicken trafficking. Chicken has been outlawed due to bird flu. Savoy is a former FDA agent gone rouge. But the real story of this issue is- Fricken. Fricken is a new chicken substitute developed by a man named Montero it being a cross between frogs and chicken. In this issue Tony’s former partner Savoy makes his long awaited return. Savoy believes Montero may be responsible for bird flu, and if not responsible, knew it was coming.

This issue is written by John Layman and drawn by Rob Guillory. I have loved every single issue of this comic, it just keeps getting better and better. Chew is $2.99. This is the best comic you aren’t reading.

This issue takes place some time in the first half of the third season. The story is about a Kung-Fu Master Vampire who has come to Sunnydale. Various fighters around town were found drained of blood, so research is done.  A fight then takes place, and bad jokes are made in a typical Buffy manner.  I did enjoy the fact that this was one of the few occasions when Xander was allowed to play the part of the accidental hero.

The story fits in well with the TV series. The art work and coloring in many places looks like it could have been lifted directly from an episode. I think number one of the Season 8 series would have been a better choice because it’s an ongoing series (for a few more issues at least), but like I said I have never read this before.  As for the price? Well, it’s a buck!

How can you go wrong for a buck?

In the previous series, after faking his own death Billy is convinced to join Sproule’s Biological Curiosities, a vaudeville/freak show. In this issue, Billy and Sproule’s Biological Curiosities have come to London as Jack the Ripper stalks the streets. Billy and company have been asked by the Elephant Man to investigate the murders. Through a series of unforeseeable happenstance, the issue ends with Billy being arrested as the Ripper.

I find the story and the characters charming, Billy is well written, as the unlikable rogue that you know will come through in the end; he is surrounded by a highly entertaining supporting cast. The art work itself reminds me of “Living Dead Dolls” in the sense that it is adorable and yet disturbing at the same time. The depiction of Joseph Merrick was beautiful and grotesque.

As the cover states, this book is three hundred and ninety-nine pennies.

This is all building toward something, but I have no idea what that is. I don’t even know what I can tell, because I don’t know what will be a spoiler. I can tell you that Ben Daimio is back. I can tell you that more infighting is happening at the bureau between Kraus and Panya. Beyond that you will have to read yourself.

I don’t have any idea where the story is going, but I’m loving the ride. The artwork is rougher than I like, but the hurried style of the artwork seems to fit the events of the story. Bottom line: It’s good and its $3.50.

This week, Hasbro released the ”Revenge of the Sith” wave of their Vintage line. Today, I would like to look at the Clone Trooper. I already have hordes of Clone/Storm Troopers in my collection already, but I was interested in seeing what changes, if any, have been made besides the packaging.

Before I look at this new figure I would like to review the Clone Trooper history to see how it came about. If you don’t like/want a history lesson…as a great man once said, “I have a microphone, and you don’t, so you will listen to every damn word I have to say.” Just go with it, all will be explained in the end.

1) 2005 Revenge of the Sith #6 (with quick draw action)

This proved to be an unpopular figure because of the quick draw action, the motion made it difficult for the figure to be posed. The design was dumped for the #41 figure. The helmet was kept, along with some other parts not associated with the “action.”

2) 2005 RotS #38 AT-TE Tank Gunner

The amazing thing about this figure was that it is the first Star Wars figure with Ball-jointed hips. The down side is that they dumped #6 ball-jointed shoulders and elbows for a swivel joint. The ball jointed hips were a great addition, however the upper body was just horrendous. The other perk was that this figure had a removable helmet, so you could see the clone’s face.

3) 2005 RotS #41 Super Articulation

This figure has been a mainstay of the Star Wars line, since its release in one form or another (501 trooper, shock trooper, etc.). It has been released every year for the last five years. This figure has ball-jointed head, shoulders, elbow, torso, knees, and ankles. However, it has swivel hips and wrists. The main complaints about this figure for the last five years is that it doesn’t have ball-jointed hips, and it doesn’t have a removable helmet.

4) 2008 Star Wars 30th Anniversary Commander Gree

In an attempt to please the fans, this figure was created. Every single joint on him is ball-jointed…yes including wrist and hips. He ALSO has a removable helmet. This was the first time I had ever seen a ball-jointed wrist on a 3-3/4″ figure. The problem with this figure is that he is too easily identified as Commander Gree because of the changes in the sculpt. Hasbro never had any intentions of reusing his body as a regular Clone Trooper; they claim that he costs too much to produce to meet the price point.

5) 2010 Vintage Line Clone Trooper

This now takes us to the present day and the reason for the history lesson. So here we go, the legs off of this figure are off of the RotS #38 AT-TE Tank Gunner, the arms are off of the RotS #41 Super Articulated Clone Trooper, the upper torso is off of the Attack of the Clones Clone Trooper, and the lower torso is off of Commander Gree in order to marry the different upper body and legs. The figure also has a new head sculpt, however the helmet is the same one that was created for Commander Gree.

To wrap up this review, very little is actually new on this figure (if you are looking for new parts you are paying almost $8 for a new head that you will cover with a helmet), however this is the first time all of these particular parts have been assembled in one figure.

I do have some issues with the hips, the same issue that I have had for five years, being the sculpt of the armor gets in the way of movement. This figure is worth exactly what I paid for him, however I don’t plan on replacing all my troopers with this one.

The story is that a nuclear weapon has been stolen from the U.S. Government by a rouge CIA agent. The cold war is in full swing, and someone must prevent this weapon from falling into enemy hands. J. Edgar Hoover has decided that only a lunatic is capable of catching this femme fatale, Wade Wilson is that lunatic. But first he has to pass a psych evaluation.

This pulp style with intentionally “bad” art and the fact that it doesn’t take itself too seriously fits well in to the story. The art work appears to have been lifted straight out of a pulp magazine with the washed out colors and the uneven line drawings. The cheesy over the top story telling fits in well with previous Deadpool issues, while still giving it its own distinct stile. With the quantity of Deadpool books that marvel has been putting out lately, I have almost become desensitized to the antics of Deadpool, however A few pages in this book in particular actually made me laugh out loud. One of my favorite moments was when Deadpool was in a psych evaluation, when asked why he does what he does he said- “I do it because I like to kill people. And the U.S. Government was smart enough to give me a license to do so. So for that, God bless America.”

This book is $3.99

The writing is typical Mignola, which I confess that I love Mike Mignola’s work, and I love this book! The art style is the usual for a Mignola books, lots of blacks and grays, and an almost two-dimensional flat quality, that I have grown to love. One if the things that I particularly enjoyed was the color pallet. Because it is a vampire book a dark color pallet was used, except for when blood was seen. When blood was in the panel a vibrant red was used.

This book is $3.50, and comes out today (September 1,2010), you still have plenty of time to start reading this series!

Tuesday Evil Dead will be released on bluray for the first time ever. The bluray will include two new High Definition transfers in the original 1.33:1ratio, and a 1.85:1 widescreen ratio; it also sports a TrueHD 5.1 audio track. This excites me because my DVD doesn’t look that hot on a standard definition TV, and just awful on a HD TV, and of course it has been modified to the widescreen format.

Special features include
• A new audio commentary by Sam Raimi, Robert Tapert and Bruce Campbell.
It also contains a DVD n the special-features DVD:
• One By One We Will Take You: The Untold Saga of The Evil Dead
• The Evil Dead: Treasures from the Cutting Room Floor
• The Ladies Of The Evil Dead Meet Bruce Campbell
• Book of The Dead: The Other Pages
• Discovering The Evil Dead
• Unconventional
• At The Drive-In

While most of the features on the DVD have been previously released, they have gathered them all together from the various previous editions. Subjected retail price is $29.99, however amazon.com and walmart.com are selling it online for under $18.00.

It’s August again. August and I have always had a love/hate relationship. I love it because it means the launch of the years new Star Wars toy lines, and the stores a resetting the shelves for Christmas, I hate it because it also means a price increase in said toy line, and stores are thinking about Christmas. This year to celebrate the 30th anniversary of The Empire Strikes Back Hasbro has launched the “Vintage” toy line. Unlike the Clone Wars line, this line seems to be aimed at the nostalgic adult collector. The vintage line is created to look exactly like the “Empire” line thirty years ago, right down to the vintage mail away Boba Fett. The vintage line is replacing the Build-A-Droid line from the previous two years.

I picked up the Luke and Leia, as they are the only real holes in my collection that came in this wave. I thought they would make an excellent test case for the new line. Not only do these figures seem to have a reduced number of accessories, but depending on the store a dollar to two dollar price increase. On the surface that might seem like a bad thing, but in reality it means more money to make a higher quality figure. In the case of these two it means exceptional sculpts and paint applications.

Not only does Luke have a wonderful sculpt and paint he also has a ball jointed – head, shoulders, elbows, torso, hips, knees, and ankles. He also has swivel wrists. The figure is so well sculpted that the points of articulation blend into the sculpt. Not only is Luke on his way to becoming a Jedi Master, but due to the articulation, a master of tantric sex.

For me personally the most remarkable thing about this figure Leia, is that it actually bears a resemblance to Leia. This is something of an anomaly in female figures. This figure is an above average sculpt and paint job. She has a ball jointed – head, shoulders, elbows, and knees. She has swivel wrists elbows, waist, and hips. However, it has no form of ankle joint.

As something of a side note- I have been hearing a lot of complaints lately about the fact that the Marvel line is better than the Star Wars line because of its articulation. This bothers me for several reasons, the greatest being that the marvel line is built upon the shoulders of G.I. Joe and Star wars, right down to toy designs and marketing. If the Star Wars line had not been so successful for the last ten years, Hasbro wouldn’t have even gotten the Marvel contract away from Toy Biz. As far as articulation goes, marvel has had more because they can use the same body for multiple figures. They need fewer molds to make the same number of toys. Because they need fewer molds the cost of producing the line is lower, so they have more room(as far as cost goes) for increased articulation. Think about it, how many different applications does a Darth Vader Sculpt have? How about yoda?

He is an extremely attractive figure. The body itself is just less than four inches tall. With the wings attached he gains another inch in height. The wings have a span of six and a half inches. The paint applications are very well done, and the head sculpt and wing sculpt are excellent.

The wings have the ability to fold in and out or in essence to flap.

If the secondary wings are placed outside, he can wrap the winds completely around him.

My biggest problem with the wings is that they were so busy thinking about moving them in and out, that he is not able to move them up and down. If they had attached the secondary wings separately or in a different spot on the primary wings, the spot where the wings join the body could have been minimized to a single rounded point. The wings would then be free to move up and down, and almost doubling the wingspan.

My biggest problem with the figure as a whole has the choice of body. They used the same body as Black Suit Spider-Man Iron Spider-Man, Human Torch, and Silver Surfer. It is an excellently made body, however it is rather small. The problem is that the wings are so heavy that the body as trouble supporting the weight. A larger body would have fixed this problem, such as the one used on Union Jack and Guardian. I’m sure it was a price point decision; in order to keep cost down they used a smaller body to save money.

Over all this is an excellent figure retailing at $7.99. However, it is not worth the $20 to $60 eBay price. More are scheduled to be released at the end of August with the next wave, buy it then. A Variant is currently available in most stores, despite what you might hear the variant is easier to find than the regular figure, as it doesn’t come with the full wings, but a small collapsed set. However it does have an excellent head sculpt of the gold “Death Mask.” In October a variant will be made available with the X-Force Costume. It is exclusive to Marvel digital comics. If you want it you most sign up, and it is “free” plus the price of shipping, like Nick Fury was last year.

When I first heard about this project I had almost no interest in it. I had liked the original comic run and thought they could not do it justice, also Kevin Conroy and Mark Hamill were not involved.

It was not until I started doing some research that I found out who the key players involved were and the main reason why I decided to give it a try…

For instance you have the following:

After seeing that large of a list of people with Batman pedigrees, it’s then I became VERY interested. If I were to choose a crew to work on a Batman feature, most of them would be involved because these people understand Batman. In fact, the only person missing from this is Paul Dini.

Under the Red Hood has an all new cast. I love Kevin Conroy, and I was very perturbed when I found out he was not involved. However Bruce Greenwood steps up and gives a stellar performance that is somehow reminiscent of Conroy, but still making it his own. John DeMaggio, who I thought at first was a miscast (probably best known for Bender on Futurama) turns out to be equally up to the task and does an excellent job. Also involved as voice crew are Jensen Ackles as Red Hood, Neil Patrick Harris as Nightwing, Wade Williams as Black Mask, and Jason Isaacs as Ra’s al Guhl. All in all they turned out to be an excellent cast.

The Animation was also excellent. The matte paintings were some of the best I have seen DC do. For the most part, they did all new character designs that somehow still feel familiar. The character animation was good, but it is not quite up to “Heart of Ice” from Batman: The Animated Series, but frankly I don’t think we will ever see the like of that again.

Spoilers for those that don’t already know the story: Under the Red Hood is the story of Jason Todd. Todd was the Robin that took Dick Grayson’s place. He was brutally beaten and killed by the Joker. He was returned from the grave by Ra’s al Guhl, by way of his Lazarus Pitt (often a side effect of the process is insanity). Now retuning to Gotham playing the part of a crime lord in order to seek his revenge and clean up the city in his own crazy way.

Side note: The Bluray version also contains a Jonah Hex exclusive short starring Thomas Jane and Linda Hamilton. Honestly I usually dislike Jonah Hex, but I really enjoyed this short, it was pretty awesome. The story was good, the voice acting was good, and the animation was great. If you are going to buy Under the Red Hood, spring for the Bluray so you can see this short feature.

The problem with Comicon.

Today my Comicon Captain America Exclusive showed up from hasbrotoyshop.com. It is an incredibly cool toy if you are an “Ultimates” fan. Then my friend told me he had just ordered his off of eBay and only paid $36, for his. I asked him why he had paid so much, and he told me he was unaware of it being available anywhere else. I seem to hear a similar story about this time every year.

Every year a few weeks before Comicon preorder items start showing up on eBay, advertising sales on Comicon exclusives. The problem that a lot of collectors are facing is that a lot of toys that are advertised as Comicon exclusives actually are not. What usually seems to be the case is that they are originally released at Comicon, and later sold online.

For instance, this year was the Hasbro Toy Shop Exclusive of 1940’s Ultimate Captain America. This Captain America was originally released at Comicon; however it is now for sale at hasbrotoyshop.com. What is the problem with this? Well, often it is not until after Comicon that the buyer finds out if the toy is actually an exclusive or not. As a result the first few weeks to a year the value of these Comicon “not exclusives” can be artificially inflated. In the case of Captain America he sells for $9.99 plus shipping at hasbrotoyshop.com, while at the same time he sells for up to $49.99 plus shipping on eBay.

Another example is that in 2007 Comicon had a not exclusive of hasbrotoyshop.com and shop.starwars.com. The toy in question is a Ralph Mc Quarrie Concept Series Yoda and Obi-wan. It sold for $14.99 plus shipping after Comicon. People paid in the neighborhood of $60-$70 for these figures. Now that the artificial inflation has collapsed they can be bought on average for $20 online, and if the buyer is patient for as little as $10 on eBay. Earlier this year the entire Mc Quarrie line was re re-released in two box sets containing thirteen figures for $99, or $7.61 a figure.

The other side of the coin is King Grayskull, a 2008 Comicon exclusive. King Grayskull has turned into something of the toy holy grail of late. He kicked off the Masters of the Universe Classics line, the first of the Four Horsemen line to be produced in the “original style.” What sets him apart is that no one could guess at the success of the sales MUTO classics. For the most part, only hard core fans purchased him, and now Matel has said that they will not be re-releasing him in the near future. Consequently the average resale price is $250, and if you want a variant, that can be in the thousands.

Often times what collectors forget is that retailers want your money. They want to make a profit off of you; King Grayskull is the exception rather than the rule. Hasbro has always been very good about re-releasing its popular toys, sometime it just takes a few years. My recommendation is that if at all possible, do not buy “new” toy exclusives off of eBay; be patient and see if the owner of the exclusive is going to release it online after Comicon, if it is currently out of stock shortly after Comicon, wait a few weeks, they will get more. Hasbrotoyshop.com still has some of the previous year’s exclusives still in stock. Don’t overpay for exclusives. As most toys are not maintaining their value, only buy toys you want, not simply because you think they might be worth something someday.

San Diego Comicon has brought forth a lot of new new in the Marvel movie news, First up is an artist’s rendering of what a Hugo Weaving as Red Skull would look like (see the full article). People can say whatever they like; Captain America is going to be awesome.

Also shown at SDCC this past week, was “The Destroyer” behind Odin’s throne from the up-and-coming Thor movie. The Destroyer has been used by Loki on several occasions in his attempts to destroy Thor. We’re assuming that the true villain of the film will likely be Loki, and I think that all of the major fights will probably involve Thor and The Destroyer.

Oh and in an offhanded fashion, Marvel also announced that Mark Ruffalo will play Bruce Banner in the Avengers movie being directed by Joss Whedon.

The story follows a team of FBI agents who are investigating a string of grisly crimes that appear to be the copycat of a former FBI agent who went off the deep end. The team is picking up the pieces from where he left off, and creepiness follows.

The story itself is rumored to be a retelling of one of Lovecraft’s stories centering on the Cthulhu mythos. I think Alan Moore is an incredibly talented writer, and I can’t wait to see what he does with the story. That being said my highest praise is also my biggest complaint about this book:  It is all exposition. I can’t wait to see where this is going, but also nothing really happens–all of the action/big puzzle pieces happen before the book starts or “off camera.”

If you are looking for something new and different, this could be the place to start, and with the first issue just out last week, it is also the perfect time to start.

The story follows that Lady Deadpool’s cable has gone out, and she cannot watch her stories. She is forced to leave her house for what appears to be the first time in a very long time. Upon leaving her house she discovers that T.V. is out everywhere.

Subsequently she joins a revolutionary group that she believes is trying to restore T.V. to the people, and falls in love with the leader “Che.” In the third act, General America arrests “Che” as a terrorist and Lady Deadpool is then paid with casserole to rescue him. She ultimately goes toe to toe with General America, and goofiness ensues.

Mary Choi marks her comic debut in this issue of Lady Deadpool. Choi shows an increadble understanding of Lady Deadpool, which is saying something, because Deadpool is infinitely complex and incredibly simple. Choi seems to understand what the Deadpool audience wants, and doesn’t hold anything as sacred.

I particularly enjoyed when General America said “Hark are my awesomely winged ears burnin?” She shows a lot of promise in her future as a comic book writer.

This book is exactly what its target audience is looking for, however if you are not a Deadpool fan you might not find much here. The artwork is simply average, but no one reads a Deadpool title because its attractive. The long and the sort is parts with Lady Deadpool are genuinely funny, however she seem to be a secondary character for much of her own book.