Hello comic book heads, one and all! We’re back with our fourteenth installment, and I’m still looking for shout-outs from anybody who attended the comic book panels at Wizard World Philly a few weeks back. The reports from Newsarama are all well and good, but I’d love to hear the news from others who were actually in attendance.
Also, I’d like to let any readers in the New York area that I’ll be participating in a competition run by Next Round Entertainment and COMIX NY called TRIAL BY LAUGHTER. Industry will be in attendance, and interspersed between four professional comedians will be 7 newcomers (myself included) who each have 5 minutes to wow the crowd and the judges, and earn bookings at other venues in the city and potentially on the road. And on top of all that – there’s a happy hour with $3 beers afterward!
The show is at 8pm, and the club is located at 353 West 14th Street, just east of 9th avenue. You can buy advance tickets by calling the club at (212) 524-2500. Normally tickets cost $15, but if you tell them you’re there to see Greg Manuel specifically, they’re only $10.
Hope to see you there – and by all means, spread the word because I’ve performed here before – it’s a great club and a guaranteed fun night!
Okay, back to the comic stuff – THE SPECTACULAR SPIDER-MAN: THE ANIMATED SERIES wrapped up its first season this past weekend, with the appearance of none other than…
…g’wan, now – guess.
Greg Weisman and company gave us the best rendition of Eddie Brock yet by foregoing a professional rivalry such as in SPIDER-MAN 3 and the ’90s FOX cartoon, and using the Ultimate history with Peter Parker to make their connection more personal. Condolences to Topher Grace and Hank Azaria on this one; trust me, I don’t like giving Brian Michael Bendis credit for anything, but you gotta call’em like they are.
The Parker/Brock relationship also got a little extra something by mirroring the Peter/Aunt May/Uncle Ben dynamic with Curt and Martha Connors; clearly, while they both lost their parents in the same plane crash, Peter always had his aunt and uncle, while Eddie implicitly had nobody, thus causing him to latch onto the Connorses as strongly as he did later in life. Then as the series went on, and Eddie lost his job and tragically misinterprets Peter’s newly complicated life as Spider-Man as selfishness on Peter’s part, Eddie’s slow-burn transformation into Venom really worked nicely.
Even as I read that voice recording for the next 13 episodes have wrapped, I’m really surprised that I don’t read or hear more about this series. It’s probably the most satisfying adaptation of a Marvel comic I’ve seen since the Season 2 revamp of MARVEL ACTION UNIVERSE: FANTASTIC FOUR, and I think a big part of that is Weisman’s love of the characters and specifically, the character’s history. I mean, just from reading this interview, you get the sense that the genius behind GARGOYLES had every intention of bringing it. And while he does take from different sources that have come along over the years – including the other animated series that’ve come down the line, the Ultimate series, the movies…the main source always remains the timeline of the original comic…be it the intrigue behind the Big Man, the original motivations of the Green Goblin, the flirtations with Liz Allan, Betty Brant and Mary Jane Watson – even Harry Osborn’s codependence and problems with addiction – it’s all there and all true to the original source material, right down to Peter’s first great love…
I mean, it had everything I hoped for back when FOX first tried it in 1994, and then some; I haven’t had this good a reason to wake up early on a Saturday morning in a good ten years.
(this Sig is courtesy of MaydayParker143.)
Let’s see, what else is there to discuss…well, I’d have something to say about SECRET INVASION #3, but as we’ve established, I don’t give a crap. However, I did need an excuse to point y’all to a hilarious review written by a much bigger person than I who actually read the thing. Check it out here over at The Savage Critic.
Meanwhile, over at Newsarama.com, Grant Morrison gave this interview following the release of FINAL CRISIS #1. Apparently there’s a bit of a continuity problem with the lead-in to FINAL CRISIS – specifically, the depiction of the death of the New Gods and the birth of the Fifth World that…ahhhh blah-blah-blah, yakkety schmakkety.
That ain’t why I put in the link to that interview, because once again folks…could really care less. I’m just plain burnt out on the mega-events, I really am. There’s been far too many in a short span of time since IDENTITY CRISIS, and I really wish the Big Two could’ve done us a favor and at least took turns or something. No, the reason I put in that interview was this quote:
NEWSARAMA: …your portrayal of Dr. Light really played up a specific side of him, somewhere between sexual predator and serious horndog. You setting him up for some bad stuff that readers won’t feel guilty about when they cheer for it happening?
GRANT MORRISON: There’s certainly that aspect to it. Once you’ve had the image of Dr. Light hammering away at Sue Dibny’s ruptured rear end burned into your neurons, it’s hard to write him as one more cackling gimmick villain.
You know, Brad Metzler had the decency to play out the sequence in question so that, depending on your interpretation of the scene, you could at least tell yourself that the Justice League returned to the Satellite just before Dr. Light could complete the act. Probably says a lot about where Morrison’s head is than anything else…so thanks for burning that image into my own neurons there, mate. If I may return the favor, I’d like to offer a few comics-related moments that actually are as cute as you thought that remark was:
I’m sorry, that’s what I call Left-Field amusing. I’m surprised nobody ever thought of drawing a Hulk punching out a Watcher before now!
That one just tickles the agnostic in me.
Heyyy, didja see that? One of’em was even yours!
Don’t mind me folks – I’ve also been wanting to work in my newfound love of SONIC THE HEDGEHOG for some time now. Working from the continuity of the ABC Saturday morning cartoon, Archie Comics has put out a thoroughly enjoyable comic month in and month out, and only $2.25 at that!
And let me also say this: if ATOMIC ROBO hasn’t found its way onto Cartoon Network’s Adult Swim by 2010, I’ll be very surprised. But then again, I’m still waiting on HEROBEAR & THE KID to hit the movie screen with a vengeance, so what do I know…
Just sayin’, is all…
