Once Upon a Geek

While on the cruise, I finally got around to reading the Eureka graphic novel from BOOM! Studios.  I was pretty exited to see the story was by the Eureka TV show creators Andrew Cosby and Jaime Paglia.  That tells you right away that it’ll be faithful to the series.  In interviews the creators have referred to their Eureka comic work as Season 1.5 of the TV show, and that the comics should be considered official Eureka continuity.  As a fan of the TV series and an avid comic reader, I was pretty thrilled about this!  This story was originally published as a four-issue mini-series and then collected.  It was to be the first of four Eureka graphic novels, however, only two have been produced to date.

Here is the graphic novel description from BOOM! Studios:

Sci-Fi Channel’s smash hit TV show comes to BOOM! The first arc of Eureka is collected in this volume, masterminded by the creators of the show and told completely in continuity! It’s a game of cat and mouse when Sheriff Cater is on the hunt for an escapee from Global Dynamics. But what connection does this dangerous stranger have to Carter’s partner, Jo Lupo?  Story by Andrew Cosby and Jaime Paglia, Script by Brendan Hay, Art by Diego Barreto, and Cover Art by J.K. Woodward.   112 pages, Full color, 9″ x 6″, MSRP $15.99

Overall this was a good read.  The story was solid, the characterization was dead-on, there was a good dose of humor, and it truly felt like an episode of the TV series.  We get to see most of the show regulars, such as: Sheriff Carter, Allison Blake, Deputy Jo Lupo, Zoe Carter, Nathan Stark, Henry Deacon, Douglas Fargo, Vincent, and even Taggart.   A major portion of the plot revolves around Jo Lupo’s past, which is nice to see explored here.

One of the chapters (or issues depending on how you look at it) featured a cliffhanger ending with the surprise return of Warren King.  That’s right, Warren King!  I know what you’re thinking, Warren King!  Seriously!  Wow!  … … okay, I didn’t know who he was either.  I had completely forgotten that the Director of Global Dynamics in the pilot episode was Warren King.  Remembering that character was made even more difficult by the interior art.  The panel layouts, action, and storytelling are all fine in the comic, but the artist did a poor job capturing the likenesses of the actors.  With the obscurity of the character and the weak art, I’m not sure anyone could have got the full effect intended in the cliffhanger.  By contrast, the painted covers for the individual issues, which were presented in the graphic novel, are really gorgeous.  The covers capture the spirit of the show as well as the likenesses of the characters.

Overall, any fan of the Eureka TV series would enjoy this graphic novel.  I would say this story is the equivalent of one really good episode of the TV show.  However, at the price of $15.99 for the graphic novel, I’m not sure it’s worth it.  After all, you can get an entire season of Eureka on Amazon.com right now for $21.99.  My recommendation, borrow the graphic novel from a friend.

Van Allen Plexico’s latest novel, Sentinels: The Shiva Advent, is an engaging and fun read. At first I was unsure whether I’d enjoy the book as I’m not usually a fan of superhero prose. Compounding my concern was the fact that this is the fifth book in the Sentinels series and I haven’t read any of the previous volumes. Well … I’m pleased to report that I was enthralled before the first chapter was over! The mysteries presented early on compelled me to continue and I found myself wanting to learn more about the interesting characters.

This novel makes a great jumping on point in the adventures of the superhero team called the Sentinels. In the first chapter, the team is decimated by a murderous robot called the Vanguard. The rest of the novel features the rebuilding of the team either through rescue or the addition of new members. The story concludes with a huge confrontation against Vanguard. This is an ideal scenario for someone new to the series like me. By tearing apart the team, it provided an opportunity to learn about each hero individually and to be on the ground floor for the new characters.  The Sentinels team features several of the typical superhero archetypes (i.e. super-strong flying man, displaced god, armored avenger, etc.), with some characters having direct analogs amongst Plexico’s favorite team, Marvel Comic’s Avengers. In fact, the title character Shiva has many characteristics in common with the mighty Thor.  While some characters may be representative of established heroes, they are not mere carbon copies.  These characters have original back stories and interesting personalities.

I was shocked that once I started the book I couldn’t put it down.  As I mentioned, I’m not typically a fan of superhero prose, but Plexico has somehow managed to capture the essence of comic book adventures using only words on a page.  While the story is evocative of the superheroic Bronze Age of comics, it lacks the corniness that sometimes accompanied those tales of yore.  You’ll find the spirit of Stan Lee’s characters and Roy Thomas’ plots living-and-breathing in Van Allen Plexico’s writing.

The novel represents the first chapter of “The Rivals” trilogy and features a great cliffhanger.  If you love old school Avengers tales, especially ones dealing with cosmic forces, then this book is for you.  Sentinels: The Shiva Advent was published by White Rocket Books in 2009 and is available by clicking here.

Music is not a frequent topic here at ONCE UPON A GEEK, however, the artist known as “LIGHTS” is a fellow geek and her music is definitely worth talking about.  She is a 22 year old up-and-coming musician who describes herself as, “a fairly small-sized, Canadian girl who makes intergalactic-electro music”.  Her style is very much pop music, with a heavy influence from electronica (she calls her music “electro-pop”).  Typically pop music turns me off, but her stuff really grabbed me.

LIGHTS has a fair amount of geek cred.  She’s an avid gamer, particularly World of Warcraft, and a fan of science fiction.  She states that her look is inspired by Laura Croft and Wonder Woman.  Check out her web site for several issues of a sci-fi motion-comic called “Audio Quest: A Captain Lights Adventure“.   “Audio Quest” has aired on MTV and MTV.com.

I’d never heard of LIGHTS until a few weeks ago when someone from Warner Bros Records contacted me suggesting that as a fellow geek I might enjoy her music.  They were kind enough to send me her debut album, The Listening, which I’ve really enjoyed.  Again, I’m not a pop music kind of guy, but this stuff appeals to me.

The album immediately grabs you with the first track, “Savior”.  Without a doubt the strongest track on the album and one with real hit potential.  I’ve found myself humming the chorus all week.  I played this track for my wife and was surprised to see her tapping her toes unconsciously along with the music.  In addition to strong lyrics and vocals, it’s got some of that voice modulation that Cher popularized with “Believe” back in 1998.  The modulation give it that extra something that makes it that much cooler.  I love this song!  Demonstrating her geekiness, the video is heavily influenced by science fiction.  Check out the “Savior” music video below.


"Saviour" Music Video

LIGHTS | MySpace Video

If you can’t see the embedded video above, click here.

The entire album is enjoyable, however, a few other stand-out tracks include: Drive My Soul, Ice, and February Air.  LIGHTS should be applauded for cleverly working in the lyrics, “Ice, Ice, baby” into her song “Ice”.  This girl is cute, clever and cheeky!

One of the things that impressed me the most about LIGHTS is that she built her fan base by herself.  She isn’t some pre-fabricated pop star created by a major music label.  Her own online efforts are what built her popularity.  MySpace was one of her primary channels to get the word out about her music, along with her web site.  In 2008 she released her first EP for which she won the 2009 Juno (the Canadian equivalent of a Grammy Award) for New Artist of the Year.  Impressive!

The Listening is really enjoyable, amazing as a debut LP, and definitely worth your time.  Check out LIGHTS at iamlights.com.

After seeing three hours of Stargate Universe, I’m very impressed.  According to Wikipedia, the “industry” (whoever they are) has dubbed Stargate Universe as “dark and edgy”, a sentiment I would agree with.  It’s a solid show and I’ll continue to watch.

So far I’ve only seen the pilot and the first episode.  After seeing just the pilot, I felt it was incomplete and I wasn’t totally vested in the series.  While I enjoyed the concepts, it just didn’t feel right.  I chalked it up to new series jitters, but wasn’t sure I’d be coming back for more.  Then I watched the first episode. Now I would recommend any new viewers watch the pilot and the first episode together.  The pilot is entitled “Air” Parts 1 & 2, the first episode is entitled “Air” part 3.   After seeing “Air” part 3 it all came together for me.  Together it’s a complete story that encourages the viewer to come back for more.

Being a self-respecting Geek, I simply have to find things to pick apart about the show.  First, the show doesn’t feel like any previous Stargate series.  I jokingly refer to Stargate Universe (SGU) as “Stargate Galactica” with my friends.  The series creators appear to be going for the high-drama, super-high-tension, claustrophobia, shaky-cam, and folksy music from the recent Battlestar Galactic series.  That isn’t a bad thing, it’s just a big departure for Stargate.

Second, I find it ironic that the Stargate franchise has followed Star Trek’s path pretty faithfully.  Stargate SG1 = STNG (new planet each week); Stargate Atlantis = DS9 (fixed location deep in space); and Stargate Universe = Voyager (Lost in Space formula).  I guess that means the next Stargate series will be a prequel.  Maybe it will be about the Stargate program of the 1950s.  Given the Lost in Space aspect of SGU, Dr Rush is totally Dr Smith.  He’s also got some Gaius Baltar in him.  I like to call him Dr. Gaius Smith.

Third, while I like the character of Eli, it’s a little too obvious what he’s supposed to represent.  He represents two things: (1) the humor of the previous Stargate series, and (2) he’s supposed to be our geek-window into the show.  My guess is that some producer thought us geeks wouldn’t associate well enough with the characters, so they added someone like us in the show for us to relate to.  Again, I enjoy his character, but it feels a bit forced.

Fourth, I find nearly all the characters on the show interesting, with the exception of Chloe.  She doesn’t do anything for me and is already grating on my nerves.  I’m usually pretty accepting of characters.  I even find Lou Diamond Phillips character and the Dr Rush character interesting.  Both are jerks and I wouldn’t want to hang with them in real life, but on the show they are fascinating characters to explore.  Chloe… nothing, nada, zip.  Hopefully she’ll become more interesting, or fall out an airlock.

That’s really all the griping I’ve got.  I really dig Colonel Young, the commanding officer.  His willpower and presence is inspiring (and he looks like Stallone – cool!).  I also like Lt. Johansen, the field medic.  She’s tough and interesting.  I think her character has lots of potential.  The ship itself, Destiny, is really interesting and I look forward to learning more about it.

In conclusion, I like the show and will watch more.  I need to catch the two more recent episodes over on Hulu.

This post began life as an e-mail to my friend, Ed.  Thanks Ed for inspiring this post!

X-Men the Animated Series is one of the more beloved cartoons to come out of the 1990s.  This series ran on Fox from 1992-1997 for five seasons with a total of 76 episodes. Last week volumes 3 and 4 were released on DVD by Buena Vista Home Entertainment (no doubt in order to capitalize on the same-date released X-Men Origins: Wolverine).  It’s sort of ironic when you think about Buena Vista releasing these cartoons in light of Disney’s recent purchase of Marvel Comics.  It’s a small world afterall (pun intended).  I would have reviewed volumes 3 & 4 before now, but there is simply so much content on these DVDs that I’ve been busy watching them.  Seriously, there is over 11 hours of X-Men across these two collections!

……………..

X-Men the Animated Series volumes 1 & 2 came out this past April.  To read my review of those volumes, please click here.  This time out, volumes 3 & 4 cover episodes from the third and fourth season of the show.  Volume 3 contains 15 episodes, including: an adaptation of “The Dark Phoenix Saga”; an exploration of Wolverine’s past in the Weapon X project; and an alternate timeline in which the X-Men never existed due to the murder of Professor Xavier.  Volume 4 contains 14 episodes, including: Magneto’s offer of sanctuary to all mutants aboard his Asteroid M fortress; and Apocalypse’s daring plan to kidnap all telepaths using Cable’s time platform.

I used to be a major X-Men junkie. We’re talking MAJOR junkie. I’d read every single Uncanny X-Men story from Giant-Sized X-Men #1 (1975) through Uncanny X-Men #320 (January 1995), and all the various franchise books. Shortly after the “Phalanx Covenant”, I’d had enough and just walked away from 20 years of continuity and over 400 comics.  So I was really surprised when the storyline in these cartoons truly grabbed me.  Essentially these are adaptations of Chris Claremont’s best work.  While these cartoons aren’t perfect, they did a much better job adapting “The Dark Phoenix Saga” than did the film X-Men: The Last Stand.

As with the previous volumes, these cartoons provide solid entertainment.  There is tons of action, subplots, and drama.  I’ve said it before, but the creators definitely deserve props for not reinventing the X-Men for this cartoon. They pulled plots directly from the old comics, instead of trying to “re-imagine” the X-Universe.  It’s evident that the storytelling in volumes 3 & 4 has improved as compared to the previous releases.  The writers have brought a little more maturity to the adventures.  The stories focus quite a bit on character development and the discrimination against Mutants.

Some of the stand-out episodes on these releases include:

• Juggernaut Returns
• Weapon X, Lies, And Video Tape
• Beyond Good and Evil
• The Lotus and The Steel
• Secrets, Not Long Buried
• Xavier Remembers
• Family Ties

Now you gotta take the good with the bad.  Like the previous releases, these DVDs don’t have any special features. I found myself disappointed once again, but wasn’t terribly surprised.  You’d think they could score some kind of commentary, interviews with Marvel staffers, or at least trailers for the episodes.  Oh well.  Also, the animation continues to be less than stellar.  While it wasn’t terrible, it certainly pales in comparison to series contemporary, Batman: The Animated Series.

Those concerns aside, I’d definitely recommend these discs to folks.  It truly is one of the best comic book-adapted cartoons of all time.  These DVDs are available through Amazon.com – click here for Volume 3 and click here for Volume 4.  However, if you aren’t already familiar with the X-Men cartoon, you should first check out volumes 1 & 2.  You can watch the first 21 episodes of X-Men the Animated Series on-demand for free at Marvel.com.

I finally picked up the DC Universe animated original movie Green Lantern First Flight on DVD.  While the trailers I’d seen looked pretty good, I just wasn’t feeling passionate about watching the film.  My apathy is centered on the lead character, Hal Jordan.  While I really like everything surrounding the Green Lantern concept and universe, I find Hal Jordan himself to be one of the most boring characters in DC Comics.  I grew up reading Hal stories, but never really felt energized by the lead character until Kyle Rayner came along.  So it was with some reluctance that I finally sat down to watch this DVD.

With my general feelings about Hal Jordan behind us, I gotta say this movie was great!  Don’t be fooled, this was a science fiction movie, not a comic book movie.  I’m using the term “movie” intentionally here, even though one could simply describe the film as a “cartoon”.  I categorize this as a “movie” due to the epic story and the real journey that played out across the 77 minutes of the film.

The basic framework of the story should come as no surprise.  Pilot Hal Jordan is given a mysteriously powerful ring from a dying alien which transforms him into the Green Lantern.  Hal discovers he’s one of an elite force of protectors who patrol the universe under the leadership of the Guardians of the Universe.  The antagonist of the story is Sinestro, formerly the greatest of the Green Lanterns, now a rogue wearing an enormously powerful yellow ring.  Again, no surprises here.  Beyond that, the story doesn’t stick to the established Hal Jordan origins shown in Emerald Dawn or the more recent Secret Origin.  It delves into some good science fiction concepts and explores the almost-reasonable motivation behind Sinestro’s betrayal.  Hal gets a chance to shine as the rookie Green Lantern and demonstrates why he’ll become the greatest of all Green Lanterns.

In addition to solid storytelling, this film is full of action-packed battles, science fiction imagery, and great animation.  The combat scenes are exciting and you can’t help getting caught up in them.  It will be interesting to see if the upcoming live action Green Lantern movie with Ryan Reynolds can match the action scenes from this animated version.  Lots of cameos by favorite characters from the Green Lantern universe: Kilowog, Tomar Re, Kanjar Ro, Ganthet, Boodikka, Carol Ferris, Arisia, Ch’p, and more. The voice acting was fine; no complaints, but no stand-out performances either.  While the film is rated PG-13, the only thing to watch out for with the kiddies is some intense combat/gore and a little bit of language.  Nothing that an advanced 10 year old couldn’t handle.

The only disappointing thing in the movie was the lack of character development for Hal Jordan himself.  I promise I’m not being biased here against Hal.  While Hal did lots of cool things in the movie, you never really got a sense of who Hal was or where he came from.  Without really noticing much difference, you could have interchanged Hal Jordan for Kyle Rayner, or John Stewart, or Alan Scott, or even Charlie Vickers (anyone remember him besides me)?  It didn’t detract from the film tremendously, it just made it harder to connect with the character.

If you haven’t seen it, below is the official trailer for the movie.

For more on the movie, visit the official website by clicking here.

I picked up the Target exclusive two-disc special edition DVD, which includes a free digital download copy of the film.  I love the whole digital download concept!  This is such a great enhancement for DVDs nowadays.  Additional special features include:

• A First Look at Superman/Batman: Public Enemies (7:49) – This was a really cool featurette that has me totally jazzed for this upcoming animated movie.
• Blackest Night: Inside the DC Comics Event (8:51) – includes commentary from Geoff Johns, Dan Didio, and Peter Tomasi discussing the Green Lantern comic book event
• Green Lantern: Behind the Story with Geoff Johns (8:41) – Johns discusses the mythology of Green Lantern
• Duck Dodgers “The Green Loontern” episode (22:22) – This is a fun episode of the Duck Dodgers cartoon.
• In Brightest Day, In Blackest night: The Green Lantern Corps – Character Profiles of Sinestro (4:01) and the Guardians of the Universe (3:39)
• Bruce Timm’s Top Picks: Green Lantern – Four Justice League animated series episodes “Once and Future Thing” parts 1 & 2, and  “In Blackest Night” parts 1 & 2 (about 23 minutes each) — These episodes star John Stewart as Green Lantern, but watch for the fun Hal Jordan cameo (voiced by Adam Baldwin) in part 2 of “Once and Future Thing“.
• From Graphic Novel to Original Animated Movie – Justice League: The New Frontier (10:44)
• Wonder Woman: The Amazon Princess (10:25)
• Batman: Gotham Knight – An Anime Evolution (10:09)
• A few trailers for other non-DC films

While I was fairly pleased with the special features in general, I was disappointed there was no audio commentary and no in-depth featurette on the making of this animated movie.  Missing these didn’t spoil my day, but I would have liked them.

Overall, this was a fun science fiction movie with great action and visuals.  I recommend it!

I was expecting a basic kid’s movie when I sat down to watch the DVD/Blu-ray of Race to Witch Mountain.  I’ve got two children myself and I’ve sat through a BUNCH of sub-par kid’s movies before.  The original Witch Mountain films still haunt my memory as pleasant childhood viewing, but I wasn’t expecting much from this modernization/remake.  Surprisingly, what I found instead was a fun action-adventure film with humor and a touch of emotion. Don’t get me wrong, this movie isn’t going to change your life, but it sure will entertain you and your family for 99 minutes.

Dwayne Johnson (The Rock) as always provides a likable muscle-bound everyman, the kind of guy you can’t help but cheer for.  The two otherworldly teens, AnnaSophia Robb and Alexander Ludwig, performed unexpectedly well in their roles.  And Carla Gugino (Watchmen, Threshold) rounded out our band of heroes as the stereotypical beautiful scientist.  Here is the description of the film from the official site:

Jack Bruno (Johnson), a Las Vegas cabdriver struggling to stay on the right path, gets an out-of-this-world incentive when two aliens, disguised as teenagers, suddenly appear in his taxi. In a race against government agents, an alien hunter and time itself, Jack must help the children recover their lost spaceship so they can return home and save their planet and ours. Breathtaking chases, close calls and special effects make this an action-adventure the whole family will enjoy.

Here is a clip showing some of the fun action in the film:

This movie also featured a bunch of super-cool supporting actors. I found myself taken out of the film a few times by seeing so many of my favorite actors in bit parts.  Check these out: Cheech Marin, Tom Everett Scott (That Thing You Do!), Chris Marquette (Fanboys), Garry Marshall (the creator of the HAPPY DAYS franchise), Bob Clendenin (Star Trek), Jonathan Slavin (Free Enterprise), and Meredith Salenger (as reporter Natalie Gann, which is funny because the actress is best known for her role as Natt Gann in the 1985 film The Journey of Natty Gann.)

Also making appearances in the film were the original actors who played the otherworldly children in the 1975 Escape to Witch Mountain – Kim Richards & Ike Eisenmann (GEEK FACT – he also played the rookie engineer that died in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan). I’ll be honest, I didn’t recognize Richards, Eisenmann, or Salenger in the film until I watched the Blu-ray bonus feature, “Which Mountain?”  Here’s a clip from this Blu-ray exclusive feature:

The only disappointments with this film come from the poorly-developed alien assassin, Siphon, and the under-utilization of Carla Gugino.  The Siphon character is your stereotypical unstoppable, yet always one step behind, killer.  He’s mostly obscured from sight for the first part of the movie for reasons of creating dramatic tension.  When we do finally see him fully on-screen, his appearance is somewhat corny – corny in the Power Rangers sense. After that he’s never really fleshed-out in an interesting way.  He blows stuff up good, but doesn’t really serve any purpose outside of being a hunter/killer.  Carla Gugino is a great actress, however, in the role of Dr. Alex Friedman she’s just sort of there.  I think this was more a function of the script than her abilities.  Given the opportunity, I believe she could have brought a lot more to the movie.  Those really were the only two letdowns of the film.

Some other things I liked about the movie include the incidental music and the Project Bluebook agents.  If you pay attention to the background music during the film, it really helps to enhance the action and tension.  You can’t help but get caught up in the rhythms.  In regard to the Project Bluebook folks, seeing them as antagonists was sort of like watching Men in Black from the alien’s point-of-view.

The DVD/Blu-ray I got is worth mentioning because it’s a cool three-pack.  Inside the case is a Blu-ray disk of the movie, a standard DVD of the movie, and a third DVD-ROM featuring a digital copy of the movie you can transfer to your computer and play with Window Media Player or iTunes.  It’s kind of the best of all worlds.   The three-pack retails for about $45, but you can find it discounted in lots of places.  The film is also available in a few other DVD varieties.

Overall, it was a fun movie well worth you and your family’s time.

Just a reminder: There’s still time to enter the contest to win one of five copies of The Wolverine Files hardcover! No gimmicks, no strings attached.  Just a chance to win a cool book for free!  Click here for details.  Contest ends tomorrow, Wednesday, August 5th.

I picked up Uncanny X-Men: First Class #1 last week. This is a new ongoing series from Marvel set in the early days of the Uncanny X-Men.  I guess I’ve got X-Men on the brain.  I’ve mentioned it here before, I used to be a major X-junkie. We’re talking MAJOR junkie. I’d read every single Uncanny X-Men story from Giant-Sized X-Men #1 (1975) through Uncanny X-Men #320 (January 1995), and all the various franchise books. Shortly after the Phalanx Covenant I’d had enough and just walked away from 20 years of continuity and over 400 comics.

I was pleasantly surprised by Uncanny X-Men: First Class #1.  Writer Scott Gray was able to refresh classic X-Men plot threads, without making them feel like retreads.  This series is set sometime shortly after The All-New All-Different X-Men #101 (Oct. 1976).  The team consists of Cyclops, Nightcrawler, Storm, Wolverine, Colossus, and Banshee, with Jean Grey/Phoenix as a supporting character.  This particular issue focuses primarily on Nightcrawler, but they dedicate some time to each team member.  In the issue Nightcrawler is feeling like an outcast due to his appearance (a well-established plot thread from the old days).  After a meeting between the X-Men and the Inhumans, Nightcrawler is invited to visit Attilan, the Inhumans city.  There Nightcrawler finds that feeling of belonging he’s been seeking all his life in this city of unique super-powered individuals.  Of course after that, things go awry and conflict ensues.  There was a decent cliffhanger and it appears from the solicits that the storyline will conclude next issue.

On the whole, the comic was well written and well illustrated.  There were a few moments of odd dialogue during a Danger Room training scene, but other than that Gray managed to capture the characters “voices” accurately.  I’ve never been a huge Inhumans fan, but it was a nice to see Nightcrawler’s plight in contrast with the Inhumans policy of acceptance.  Artist Roger Cruz did a fine job drawing the book.  It was neat seeing an essentially old school story drawn with modern style and techniques.  Cruz does a really nice job on faces and movement.

Surprisingly, I’ve decided that I will continue to collect this comic going forward.  While I enjoyed this issue quite a bit, at first I wasn’t 100% sold on getting back on-board with a monthly X-Men title.  There were three factors that helped me make my decision:  (1) The price for Uncanny X-Men: First Class #1 was only $2.99 for 22 pages of story.  In an era where Marvel is charging $3.99 for just about every brand new series, I was shocked to see the price tag of only $2.99 on this one.  (2)  Since this series isn’t set in modern day, there can’t be any crossovers.  No crossovers = no additional books to buy = no event fatigue caused by this book.  (3) Story arcs will be single issues or very short runs.  It appears that this will not be a book that consistently does six-issue story arcs just to ensure they can print a trade paperback.  Most of Marvel’s First Class books feature one-and-done stories, with the occasional multi-part story.  If I’m going to read an X-Men book again, I’d rather have short story lines than a long drawn out one.

In closing, I recommend this book if you were a fan of the 1980s Classic X-Men back-up tales, or if you were a fan of the old school X-Men and are looking for a decent no-strings-attached book.

New Mutants #1 from Marvel Comics was released back on May 6.  It took me a while to get to this one as I’m behind in my reading, but it was definitely worth the wait. For me, this comic felt like Homecoming.  All my favorite New Mutants were there, but they had grown up.

A little history for you… I remember back when I was in Middle School a friend described to me their passion for the New Mutants.  He explained that while he loved reading about the X-Men, the New Mutants were people he wished he could hang out with.  At the time I wasn’t reading New Mutants on a regular basis, however, his description always stuck with me.  I started collecting the series when I was in High School with issue #71.  Within just a couple months, I had purchased all the back issues and was firmly enthralled in the mythos of the New Mutants.  I absolutely loved this team!  I agreed with my friend completely, these were kids that I would have loved to hang out with!  When everything changed a year later (with the introduction of Cable), I was still enjoying the book.  I thought the new direction with Cable had promise and I even liked Rob Liefeld’s art (when he was just starting out and was inked by an experienced artist).  I hung with X-Force for the first twenty issues, but eventually stopped when it became unreadable.  From there I lost track of my New Mutant friends.

Enter New Mutants #1 this month.  Cannonball, Sunspot, Magma, Magik, Karma, and Dani Moonstar together again!  It was interesting to see how the characters had changed over the years.  They weren’t dramatically different, but there were enough changes that you could tell time had passed.  This series isn’t ignoring their appearances since the final issue of the original New Mutants series, but it’s certainly minimizing those other stories.  I wasn’t kidding when I said this issue was like a Homecoming.  You got the sense that these characters haven’t worked together in a long time.  It reminded me of seeing old High School friends when I was in college.  Clearly we had grown apart and were now different people, but we quickly settled back into our old groove.

The original New Mutants are now all considered to be graduates and are recognized as members of a larger X-Men force.  In this issue, Cannonball assembles an X-Men team made up of former New Mutants to rescue Karma and Dani.  From what I’ve read in interviews, the heroes of this book won’t actually be called New Mutants.  There is an interesting scene of Cannonball requesting approval for his team roster from a very middle-management-like Cyclops.

My two all-time favorite New Mutants are Cannonball and Magik.  In this issue I liked seeing Cannonball grown up and comfortable with his role as an X-Men.  He’s no longer the lanky kid we remember; now he’s built like a college quarterback. He’s also confident without being too cocky.  Magik hasn’t actually changed much, primarily due to the fact that she’s been dead for a number of years and was only recently brought back.  Her dark side is still just beneath the surface, as was shown in a few different scenes in this book.  In fact, she was downright creepy in one conversation with Magma.  I’m glad they kept Magik’s classic haircut, it just makes her even more unsettling.

Magma had some interesting scenes involving a romantic subplot, while Sunspot was there mostly for comedy relief.  That’s not to say his character was useless, I just think there is a lot of room to further develop Sunspot.  We only saw Karma a little bit and haven’t seen Dani at all yet.

It’s a shame that Wolfsbane is being used over in X-Force; it would be nice to see her interact with her old friends.  Zeb Wells has hinted in interviews that we may see Warlock within the first year of the book –  hooray!  Hopefully no one is clamoring for a return of Bird-Brain.

I enjoyed Zeb Wells’ writing on the book.  There was a good pace, interesting character development and interaction, and Wells was able to cram a lot of story into 22 pages.  Diogenes Neves’ art was decent in the issue.  Not the most amazing artwork I’ve ever seen, but better than many other comics.  His Magik was dead-on.

If you are jonesing for more New Mutants, you can probably still find copies of the free New Mutants Saga that came out in April.  It recapped all 100 issues of the original New Mutants series – and it was FREE!  You might also want to try the Marvel Spotlight: New Mutants special that came out this month.  It featured interviews with current writer Zeb Wells, and original series creators writer Chris Claremont and Bob McLeod.  It was a good read.

I plan to continue collecting New Mutants and hope the quality stays as solid as the premiere.  Issue #2 is scheduled to ship June 3 and features the return of Legion (the insane son of Xavier and the one responsible for the Age of Apocalypse alternate time line).  I sincerely hope Marvel doesn’t ruin my enjoyment of this book by tying it too heavily into the million other X-titles on the market.

The image at the top of this post is one of the covers to New Mutants #1.  Below are three more.

Just for fun, here is an awesome ad for the original New Mutants series (circa issue #18) drawn by Bill Sienkiewicz.

Finally, here are some drawings from my favorite New Mutants artist, Art Adams.

Howdy y’all!  Sorry I missed posting on Monday.  It’s another very busy week for me at work.  I’ll do my best to get some posts up this week, but please forgive me if I miss another day or two.

My thoughts on the new STAR TREK movie (and yes, there are SPOILERS):

HOLY CRAP, WHAT A GREAT MOVIE!!!!  That sums it up.  Thanks for reading and have a nice day!  … … … well, I guess I can go into a little more detail.

I flew to Dallas to spend some time with my brother and father; it was a sort of Guys/family weekend.  Thursday night we hung out, re-watched all the trailers, and talked about our anticipation for the film.  We were so excited for the film and had such high hopes based upon the trailers.  Because of our excitement, we all agreed there was no way the movie could live up to our expectations.  We were ready to be disappointed, simply because the previews made the film look so good.  On Friday at 7:30pm we saw the movie.  I’m very pleased to say the movie lived up to the hype!  I loved this movie!

Was the movie perfect?  No.  Was a great action/sci-fi film?  Yes.  Was it faithful to the spirit of Star Trek?  Yes.   Here are a few Pros/Cons about the film in my opinion.

PROS

• The new cast was great: Chris Pines (Captain James T. Kirk), Zachary Quinto (Spock), Karl Urban (Dr. Leonard ‘Bones’ McCoy), Zoe Saldana (Nyota Uhura), Simon Pegg (Scotty), John Cho (Hikaru Sulu), and Anton Yelchin (Pavel Chekov).  I thought each of them did a really nice job with their roles.
• Karl Urban as Dr. McCoy was quite possibly better than DeForest Kelley as Dr. McCoy. I’m sure that statement is sacrilege to some, but I thought Urban did a great job with this role.
• Zachary Quinto as Spock was uncanny.  He did a great job channeling his inner Nimoy.
• Zoe Saldana was not only hot, but was also a real character.  She did a great job creating Uhura.  I say “creating” because the original Uhura’s character never really developed on screen.
• Chris Pines did not play Kirk like Shatner.  That was a smart move.  While much of the original Kirk’s spirit was the same, he did his own interpretation.  That will help him avoid comparisons with Shatner.
• The opening scene with Jim Kirk’s birth and the death of George Kirk was powerful.  Great action combined with strong dramatic effect.
• Bruce Greenwood as Captain Pike.  Greenwood is just cool.  You couldn’t help but like Captain Pike.
• The special effects were freakin’ amazing! The subtle redesign of the Enterprise is sweet!
• I enjoyed Eric Bana as Nero more than I expected.  I’m not typically a fan of Bana in movies, but he did a nice job with this role.  The character was not what I expected at all.  Nero was basically a blue-collar Romulan, who sometimes spoke very casually to his opponents.  It was very different and I think that is why it worked.
• The romance between Spock and Uhura.  It totally caught me off-guard, but I like it.
• The time travel subplot worked much better than I expected.  I thought that would be what killed the movie;  I was totally wrong.  It accomplished two goals: (1) it symbolized the original cast passing the baton to the new cast, and (2) by identifying this as an alternate timeline, the writers have freed themselves of any pressure from the die-hard continuity Trekkies.  Smart move.

CONS

• The rapid promotions in the film were a little hard to swallow.  Third year cadet on the skids suddenly becomes Captain?  Uhura becomes the primary communications officer because she speaks a rare language?  Dr. McCoy becomes Chief Medical officer because he answered the phone at the right time?  Scotty becomes Chief Engineer because he … showed up? And after the emergency, they all got to keep their posts.  I had to keep reminding myself, suspension of disbelief.
• The original Kirk was definitely a rebel.  However, he only broke the rules when he felt it was necessary.  This Kirk seems to want to break ALL the rules.  I think showing him following some basic rules would help engender some trust between the Captain and the crew.
• Kirk finding Spock Prime’s cave on the ice moon.  A little hard to accept.
• I’m still trying to figure out the Roddenberry-like moral of the story.  Star Trek was always a way for Gene Roddenberry to tackle moral issues facing modern society.  So far I’m only coming up with vague concepts, like “There is no predestination.  Your destiny is your own.  You can be anyone or anything you want to be.”

There you go.  My initial thoughts on Star Trek.  What did you think?

Also, enjoy this clip from Saturday Night Live.  A few Star Trek cast members made a brief appearance.