Monthly Archives: March 2013

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Top 5 Exclusives of WonderCon 2013

WonderCon starts today and will be running through the entirety of this weekend in Anaheim, CA! The exclusives list isn’t as extensive as San Diego Comic-Con or New York Comic Con, but there are still some very cool items available. Here’s what we think are the best.

Aardman Batman and Robin Action Figures 2-Pack (DC/Graphitti Designs)
Price: $39.95, Limited to 2000

Different than the Aardman Batman NYCC 2012 exclusive, this Aardman Batmn sports the classic blue and grey uniform. Also included is an Aardman Robin, whose costume looks like a cross between Dick Grayson’s and Tim Drake’s Robin costumes. If you’re not interested in an Aardman Robin and want to save some money, you can still order the NYCC exclusive black and gray costumed Aardman Batman directly from Graphitti Designs’s website for $25.

3.75″ Larfleeze and Guy Gardner Action Figures 2-Pack (DC/Graphitti Designs)
Price: $29.95, Limited to 5,000

This 2-pack looks better designed than the John Stewart and Atrocitus 2-pack from NYCC 2012. Guy looks like Guy. I love the smirk on his face. Orange Lantern Larfleeze looks great. And you get a figure of Larfleeze’s orange construct minion Glomulus. If you missed the John Stewart and Atrocitus 2-pack from NYCC, you can find that on Graphitti Designs’s website for $25, $5 less than this set. Personally, I’d rather pay the $5 extra for this set if I had to choose between the two.

Will Eisner’s Spirit Artist Edition: Limited Signed and Numbered (IDW)
Price: $300, Limited to 100
If you want this, you may have had to order it already. IDW took pre-orders for this book on their website on 3/27 and had it listed as sold out on 3/28. If you’re interested in buying this, I recommend making the IDW booth your first stop at WonderCon to see if they have any available. Is this version worth $175 more than the regular edition? Well, it’s signed by a man who died 8 before this book was published. I’m not sure how IDW pulled that off. My guess is that IDW cut Will Eisner’s signature from legal documents and pasted them in the book. That, or IDW has one hell of a paranormal communications division. The other difference is the cover. The regular version features The Spirit front and center, while this version has him regulated to a small circle  in favor of femme fatale Sand Seraf. On a side note, Sand Seraf has one of the coolest names ever in comics.

Gil Kane’ Amazing Spider-Man Artist Edition: Limited Signed and Numbered (IDW)
Price: $250, Limited to 250
This version has a different cover than the regular edition. I like this cover much better. It’s also signed by four of the creators involved. Sadly, IDW’s paranormal communications department was unable to procure Gil Kane’s signature, but it is signed by Stan Lee, John Romita, Gerry Conway and Roy Thomas. That’s an impressive classic Marvel line-up.

It’s not as cool as the John Romita Artist Edition Limited Edition, which was the same price and included a head sketch by Jazzy John Romita. Like the limited edition of the Will Eisner Artist Edition, this version is listed as sold out on IDW’s website as of 3/28. Head straight to the IDW booth if you want to buy this.

David Flores’ “Deathshead” Vinyl Figure
Price: $100, Limited to 30

I have to give David Flores props on his ballsiness. He’s releasing this scary looking skull faced Mickey Mouse in Anaheim, aka Disney-town. WonderCon is a stone’s throw from Disneyland. I’m interested in finding out if Disney’s lawyers give him a hard time about this when they hear about it. That said, this vinyl figure would make a very cool looking antithesis to the cuddly Mickey Mouse on your coworker’s desk.

Star Wars Legacy Volume II #1 Exclusive WonderCon Variant Cover (Dark Horse)
Price $5, Limited to 1,000
This variant cover features Han Solo and Princess Leia’s descendant, and series star, Aina Solo wielding her recently found lightsaber. For those unfamiliar with the concept, Star Wars Legacy takes place a long time in the future of the Star Wars universe. Writer/artist Gabriel Hardman and writer Corinna Bechko will be signing this issue at the Dark Horse booth on Sunday. Make sure to get a ticket to the signing when you pick up this issue. DC has a couple of variant covers available at WonderCon too, but they’re just lazy, recolored editions of Justice League of America #1 (because that issue needed another cover) and Batman #17 at 2 1/2 times the regular cover price (cough, ripoff, cough).

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Skyfall – Review

5/5 – SKYFALL IS AWESOME!

I thought about making this only a three word review: Skyfall is awesome. And leave it at that. Three words, a shot of the poster, and call it a day. It doesn’t come from laziness. It’s just matter of fact. Skyfall is awesome. That’s really all you need to know.

How awesome is Skyfall? I rank it higher than The Dark Knight Rises in movies from 2012. And I loved The Dark Knight Rises. Not good enough? Fine. Skyfall is better than a unicorn riding a dragon. That’s right.

Skyfall is more awesome than this!
Still not good enough? Are you nuts? That’s a mythical beast riding another mythical beast! Fine, Skyfall is more awesome than Batman riding a Tiger with bat wings.
Why does this Tiger have bat wings? I don’t know, but it’s awesome. Not as awesome as Skyfall, though.
I haven’t seen many James Bond movies. I can count the ones I’ve seen one one hand and still have fingers left over. Skyfall makes me want to watch all of them. The only thing stopping me is that I’m not sure if I will enjoy them as much as I enjoyed Skyfall. Maybe I’ll just watch Skyfall again.
I’m really hoping that director Sam Mendes comes back for the next James Bond film. He’s already said he’s out. Hopefully the trucks of money the producers drive to his door changes his mind.
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Dark Shadows – Review

2/5 – Another
2/5 – Watch the trailer instead.

After the disappointment that was Alice in Wonderland, I had high hopes for Dark Shadows to be the movie that would redeem Tim Burton in my eyes. The trailer looked very funny. But as can often be the case, the best parts of Dark Shadows were in the trailer.

If you’re not familiar with the origins of Dark Shadows, the film is based on an old soap opera of the same name. A family from the 60s (or the 70s in the film version) has a very distant relative move in with them…namely a recently unearthed vampire ancestor.

The trailer for Dark Shadows made the movie seem like it would be very tongue-in-cheek and campy, like the excellent Brady Bunch movie from the 1990s. Unfortunately, the tongue-in-cheek campiness is kept to a minimum beyond what what was already shown in the trailer.

Instead, we get a movie that was overly long and slowly paced. The screenplay seemed lazily written. Maybe screenwriter Seth Grahame-Smith was trying to make the movie feel like a soap opera brought to the big screen, but there was a little too much deus-ex-machina towards the end. One character gets special powers out of nowhere, turning the tide in the climatic battle. The love story between Barnabus and Victoria never goes anywhere and seems tacked on. Victoria is often relegated to the background, despite being Barnabus’s supposed reincarnated true love.

The movie is not completely bad. There are some funny lines and amusing montages, but as a whole it’s a disappointment.

Johnny Depp should play Michael Jackson in the Michael Jackson story.

After watching the movie, I turned on an episode of the Dark Shadows television series on Netflix’s streaming service. Wow, I thought the movie was slow. It amazes me that fans can watch this show in marathon sessions. Dark Shadows the TV show is the definition of slow. I didn’t even make it to the introduction of Barnabus. There was a scene where a character was staring at the wall of a crypt for a good 30 seconds. It was like watching a small-screen adaptation of Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy.

I recommend listening to the This American Life story on a Dark Shadows convention more than watching either the movie or TV versions of Dark Shadows. That story was great.

I haven’t given up on Tim Burton yet. I still very much look forward to watching Frankenweenie. The trailer looks great, but then again so did the trailer for Dark Shadows.

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ParaNorman – Review

I was really excited to see ParaNorman.  I remember cackling during the trailer in the theater every time that little Igor kid would come on. And this would happen every time I saw the trailer. So when ParaNorman arrived from Netflix, I immediately put it in my DVD player.

That funny Igor kid never showed up.

When is this kid appearing, already?

It turns out that the movie I was excited to see was Frankenweenie. It was about a half hour into the movie that I realized this. Oops.

The movie I was looking for.

ParaNorman is an enjoyable movie, even if it’s not the movie I meant to watch. I didn’t laugh during it as much as I did during the trailer for Frankenweenie, but it is still a well told story. It’s like The Sixth Sense for kids. Young Norman sees dead people, a lot of dead people. There’s a cool sequence where he’s walking down the street and we see all the ghosts that he sees. It basically turns his quiet suburban commute into the crowded streets of Manhattan. A lot of people are dead, and they all want to talk to Norman.

I was surprised to see ParaNorman earn a Best Animated Feature nomination. It was not even in the same league as Wreck-It-Ralph. But I can see why kids would love this movie: ghosts, parents who just don’t understand, kindhearted fat jokes. What more could a kid want?

Still, I hope Frankenweenie is better.

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Osombie – Review

1/5 – This puts the zero in Zero Dark Thirty.

After watching Zero Dark Thirty, I headed home and popped its sequel, Osombie. I won’t lie, I was genuinely excited for a movie about Osama Bin Laden coming back as a zombie. Sadly, it didn’t live up to my expectations.

Savage Dragon did it better.

Osombie begins where Zero Dark Thirty ends, with the assassination of Osama Bin Laden. Unlike the raid in Zero Dark Thirty, Osombie reveals that UBL had zombies in his basement. Before being taken out by Seal Team Six, UBL downs a couple of One A Day vitamins zombie pills.

That’s right, I said zombie pills. The zombies in Osombie are the results of a super soldier program gone wrong. Instead of making Captain America, the program created a bunch of biters. I can’t help but think this was a needlessly complicated plot device. With a zombie outbreak, you don’t need to spend this long explaining how the zombies came to be. They’re here. They’re hungry. That’s enough.

I had a few problems with Osombie beyond the zombie pills. For one, if the US and British governments are aware of the zombie problem, why did they only send a small group of soldiers to wander around the desert to deal with it? The US and Great Britain are worried about the zombies making it over the border and a worldwide outbreak ensuing. So they end a half dozen people, on foot, to deal with it? I get not wanting to risk your own soldiers getting infected by sending legions of soldiers, but this is ridiculous.

All of the characters behave like they have god-mode turned on. Unfortunately for each of them, god-mode decides to turn itself off without warning.

God-mode fail.

Can we get that one guy in the squad to put his shirt back on? I get it, you want to show off your abs to your colleagues, but you do realize that the #1 cause of zombie infection is them biting through bare skin, right? Not to mention the skin cancer risks.

“I didn’t know the risks! For the love of God, where’s my shirt?!”

It’s amazing how little seems to happen over the course of the movie. Most of the film is spent following these soldiers riffing on things while wandering around the desert. It’s like Clerks 2 meets a sandbox. The most annoying of these characters is Joker, the “funny” guy in the group. His jokes are so lame that he had to steal a bit from another movie. Don’t think I didn’t notice that, screenwriter Kurt Hale.

I kept rooting for a group of zombies to just devour Joker.

Osombie is such a great name for a zombie movie! Why’d they waste that on this script? The movie plays out like it was written from someone’s first draft from Screenwriting 1. The only way I’d be able to recommend this movie is if Kevin, Mike and Bill make a Rifftrax for it.