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Geekspeak Report, Podcast

Geekspeak Report – Episode 4

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The first Geekspeak Co-Host Challenge episode is here! “The Geek Pastor” Wayne Cordova, host of RadioWayne, joins me this episode as contestant number one. Is he the one? You decide! Shownotes to follow tomorrow.

You can e-mail us at speakgeekspeak@gmail.com, and make sure to check out the forums so you can support your favorite co-host. Next time, The Yanni will join me as Contestant Number Two. Until then, enjoy, and thanks for listening!

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:57:48 — 64.2MB)

Editorial

Rant Timing #4: Why So Serious?

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Why So Serious?

The film world lost a great one today, long before his time should have been up. Heath Ledger, age 28, died today. He was about five years older than I am, as he would have turned 29 in April. Deaths like this put your life in perspective. You never know what day you will wake up, do your daily routine, all without knowing it will be your last time. Heath’s career was budding. After Brokeback Mountain, most of Hollywood knew his name. With The Dark Knight, the second Batman film directed by Christopher Nolan, he was to be the successor of Jack Nicholson in the role of The Joker. The film wrapped principle photography, so that is at least secure, as of now. He was filming another movie, The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, when he died, and that one looks to be in jeopardy, as it was in the middle of production. Will The Dark Knight be the last time we see Heath Ledger on screen? A talented, wide-ranging actor, ends his life with a role like The Joker. Serial killer, insane, a malicious smile upon his face. Is this how you would want to go out? I certainly would be torn. On the one hand, I guarantee people will believe that the role led to his death, that acting crazy made him crazy. I’m going to go out on a limb here and say that is ridiculous. No, there is no Batman curse that has been transfered over from The Superman Curse, and no, the role had nothing to do with what happened. He simply died. End of story. Even if he did commit suicide, or if he overdosed on pills, this was not because he was The Joker. It was because he was a troubled man. None of this has been confirmed, so I’m not going to speculate on any of this until there are facts to turn to.

Now, for the other side of going out as The Joker: the character is one of the best known comic book creations in the history of the DC Universe. He is the villain of villains and heroes alike, and has appeared everywhere from lunch boxes to cartoons to posters. If Heath plays The Joker as well as I believe he will, he will go out on top. The performance will always be remembered. If he tops Nicholson, more power to him. No one will be able to replace the image of a man who died with the role in the eyes of fans and movie-goers alike. Plus, the viral marketing campaign already had people jazzed for the movie; even those who would not have seen it originally are now interested. Heath’s death will drive even more people to the theaters. So yes, The Dark Knight will be a success on multiple plains. A great movie, with roles to remember.

Rest in peace Heath. You leave behind a daughter who will hear stories about you for a long time to come. While your career might have been cut short, it was still longer than most, with more accolades than some people who have been in the business twice as long have achieved. The line I titled this column with is apropos to the situation. “Why so serious?” Today, we are allowed to be.

Podcast

Comic Timing – Episode 55: DC Wrap Up 2007

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It is time for DC discussion! Raph of Geeks Unite!, Brandon of the soon to return Quarter Bin Podcast, join Brent and I to discuss 2007 in a year in review. We touch on Countdown, Sinestro Corps, Amazons Attack, our favorite and not so favorite titles and creative teams, the works, so listen and enjoy!

You can e-mail the show at comictiming@gmail.com, and please vote for us at Podcast Alley and Digg us at Digg.Com. And of course, if you can, please donate to the HERO For the Holidays effort if you can. Every little bit helps!

Until next time, thanks for listening, and thanks for downloading!

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 2:43:01 — 50.8MB)

Podcast

Comic Timing – Episode 54: Marvel Wrap Up 2007

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2008 has begun, so let us review 2007, shall we? Brent and I begin with a wrap up for Marvel, as we are joined by Jen Capelli and Chris Johnson of Amazing Spider-Cast. We discuss everything from the major X-Books crossovers to the end of Civil War and the beginning of The Initiative, all the way back to Annihilation and Annihilation Conquest. We also discuss our favorite creative teams, favorite and not so favorite miniseries, and we ask the most important question for 2008: Who is a Skrull?

Next week, Brandon Christopher, Raph Soohoo, Brent and I go over DC in 2007. Make sure to tune in to hear the other side of the comic book universe discussed!

You can e-mail the show at comictiming@gmail.com, and please vote for us at Podcast Alley and Digg us at Digg.Com. And of course, if you can, please donate to the HERO For the Holidays effort if you can. Every little bit helps!

Thanks for listening, thanks for downloading, and talk to you all soon!

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 3:04:23 — 55.4MB)

Editorial

Rant Timing #3: One More Bad Story

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One More Bad Story

Here’s a combo of what I’ve posted over at Newsarama and on CBR after reading Amazing Spider-Man #545: One More Day Part 4.

Won’t this affect Thunderbolts as well? After all, Norman plays a huge part in that book, and having his son back would certainly effect his decisions a lot. Would he have turned away from the darkness, or embraced it? Would he ever turn to working for the government? It’s a question that will need to be brought up, although I’ll be curious to see if Ellis even acknowledges the change. Hell, I’ll be curious to see if even BENDIS acknowledges the change in New Avengers! Wasn’t the unmasking half the reason why his teammates thought he might be a Skrull? Oh, and Dan Slott brought doubt upon Peter being Spider-Man in Avengers: The Initiative. Does this mean The Scarlet Spiders are still secret agents because they never went to help Peter?

How about Flash? Did he ever even wind up in a coma? Is he with Betty Brant, and if so, does she remember almost being killed not too long ago by a psycho woman made of spiders? Does Black Cat still know Peter is Spider-Man? Does Black Cat even remember being with Peter at all?

Is Doctor Octopus still disgusted over the fact he got beaten by a kid all these years? Better yet, is he back to being a green suited mop top villain now?

Too many questions, all thanks to Joe Quesada’s editorial mandate. Will we get answers to even HALF of these questions? Doubtful. By 2009, new EIC at Marvel. I’m calling it. Not even the best creative teams can wipe the fact that 20 years of continuity just got destroyed, all thanks to an immature young old man who hates the very idea of marriage. Quesada didn’t even bother to try with this one. All he did was wave a magic wand. But what about all those writers out there who were itching to give their shot at the current Spider-Man? Did he even bother to see if the wealth of creators would be willing to revive Spider-Man while still keeping what has made him such a compelling character over the past few years? No, he did not.

You’re a child, Joe. Sometimes that works to your advantage, as a man with an imagination makes it big in comic books. This time however, your immaturity has alienated your core audience. Does he even bother to read reader responses anymore? I mean he used to do that here on Newsarama, but I know he’s been a busy man lately, drawing an Alien headed Spider-Man for four issues. I hope he realizes our response has been almost entirely negative. I say almost because yes, there are people who saw it as a positive, and I do not want you to feel your take is invalid. I hope you enjoy what you read, more power to you. It’s just not what I’m looking for in a character or a company to spit on the past twenty years.

I started reading comics with a married Spider-Man when I was just a boy, and I loved the dynamic, even then. Now I’m left with a stranger. JMS was right.

Joe Quesada wants an uninteresting Spider-Man who lives with his Aunt even though he’s well into his twenties, and is addicted to wheat cakes. We want a Spider-Man who is compelling, knows how to grow up, and feels real. Marvel Comics was founded upon the belief that we should be able to relate to the characters as human beings. How can we possibly relate to a Peter Parker who makes a deal with the devil to erase his marriage from existence? It certainly will never happen to any of us. We cannot relate.

This is something Joe Q has forgotten, and it is the major mistake One More Day made.

The last 20 years of storytelling is indeed worthless now. My Spider-Man, the one I grew up with, the one who found a wife and friends to rely on, the one who lost his best friend in tragic circumstances, no longer exists.

Thanks, Joe. For nothing.

Geekspeak Report, Podcast

Geekspeak Report – Episode 3

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Episode 3 of the Geekspeak Report is here! Brent Kossina, my regular co-host of Comic Timing, stops by to assist in the selection process for the upcoming Geekspeak Co-Host Challenge! After the names are randomly picked out of his hat, we talk plenty of geek news and reviews, including:

We will return in January with the first of the Geekspeak Co-Host Challenge episodes. If you want to comment on this or anything else, e-mail us at speakgeekspeak@gmail.com, or you can visit the The Comic Forums to post your thoughts.

Thanks for listening, thanks for downloading, and welcome back to The Geekspeak Report!

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:14:59 — 40.9MB)

Podcast

Comic Timing – Episode 53

Spider-Man time! Jen Capelli from the Amazing Spider-Cast and Chris Gallo, alias Webhead on the forums, join Brent and I to discuss our Friendly Neighborhood Wed Slinger. We go all the way through his career, from costume changes to love interests, from cartoons to movie, all the way to One More D(el)ay. Great times to be had, and thanks to Jen and Chris for joining us!

You can e-mail the show at comictiming@gmail.com, and please vote for us at Podcast Alley and Digg us at Digg.Com. And of course, if you can, please donate to the HERO For the Holidays effort if you can. Every little bit helps!

Next week, our year end wrap-up episodes begin, as Jen Capelli returns along with her podcasting partner Chris Johnson to discuss how 2007 went for Marvel. Stay tuned, and thanks for downloading!

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 2:29:56 — 75.2MB)

Editorial

Rant Timing #2: The Battle of the Analogues

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Battle of the Analogues

VS.


I have a to read pile of about 35 comic books thanks to DCBS, so it takes quite a while for me to actually read certain books. I have also grown accustomed to letting certain series accumulate on the pile so that I can read multiple issues at once. One of the series I chose to do this with is Lord Havok and the Extremists, which happens to be one of 87 different Countdown titles currently being produced by DC. Now I have not been nearly as down on Countdown as some others have been. In fact, in my observations, the tie-ins are often better than Countdown itself. Just as Sean and Jim put it on Raging Bullets, you get the basics in Countdown, and if you are interested, you check out the tie-ins for more information. That does not always work, but hey, you can’t win ’em all. So I read issues 1 and 2 of Lord Havok at the same time, and it seemed quite familiar. I was looking at a dystopian version of The Marvel Universe, Registration Act and all. With characters such as Americommando and Tin-Man, they certainly were not trying to hide their true intentions.

This was far from the first time such a tactic was performed by either Marvel or DC. The “Meta-Militia” as they are called here, originally appeared as “The Champions of Angor” in Justice League of America #87, back in 1971. This was right around the same time Marvel introduced “The Squadrom Supreme” in Avengers #85. Hell, this was done as a way for the two companies to have an unoficial crossover, as both were on the stands at almost the exact same time (See Comic Book Urban Legends Revealed for more info on that)! As the years went on, each set of characters evolved, and we got what could be classified as What If? or Elseworlds versions of the opposite side’s heroes. What If Marvel’s Supervillains Destroyed The World? Superman: King of The World. All you have to do is change Angor to Earth, Extremists to The Masters of Evil, Champions of Angor to Avengers, Angor to Earth, Hyperion to Superman, and Squadron Supreme to JLA, and that is exactly what you get.

Flash forward to today, and each other’s opposite team continues to mimic the other company in new ways. The Squadron Supreme are still around, but so is the newer, hipper Supreme Power. Here, we have a world where Superman (okay, Hyperion) was not found by loving parents and raised to be a good boy. Instead, the government find him and raise him in The Truman Show. Of course, once he realizes his life is a lie, all hell breaks loose and he decides to make things better his way, or the highway. Oh, and Wonder Woman (fine, Princess Zarda) is naked a lot. And Flash (once The Whizzer, now Buzz which sounds less wrong) and Batman (Nighthawk) are black. And Green Lantern (Dr. Spectrum who I’m pretty sure is not a doctor) works for the military. Yeah, you get the picture.

The Champions of Angor are pretty much gone in the regular DCU, but The Meta-Militia are better, faster, stronger, and live on Earth-8. Iron Man (Tin-Man) is president, with Captain America (Americommando) as his VP, in a world where those who do not follow the Registration Act get killed in most horrific fashion. Of course, the villains of this world are none too pleased, and get together to screw up their hard worked plans, and it all goes horribly, horribly wrong. Oh, and the A in USA stands for Angor.

New times, same old song. It shows that Marvel and DC have drifted so very far apart over the years as well, as what was once a playful way of crossing over without crossing over is now “Let’s show how messed up the other company is!” Still, is would be quite interesting to see Supreme Power cross over with The Meta-Militia/The Extremists. Would they fight, or band together to try and control both of their worlds? Do Americommando and Hyperion have a lot more in common than you would think? The guy writing this right now thinks so. I would appreciate seeing Earth-8 get further explored past a miniseries, as Frank Tieri has my interest. Hopefully sales will warrant that. So yeah, let’s see a crossover of a different ilk for once. Sounds good to me.

How about you?

Editorial

Rant Timing #1: Ultimate Letdown

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This is the first of a new series of editorials I will be posting both on the Comic Timing site, and on the forums. Hope you folks enjoy!

Ultimate Letdown

Ultimates 3 Issue #1. A brand new era for the fresh, hip, new Avengers. No, not the New Avengers. I mean, they’re new, but just not the NEW Avengers. They’re just new, mighty Avengers. Wait, huh? Okay, no, not Mighty Avengers, that’s something else entirely.

Can we start over?

Up until now, comic fans were graced with the writing talent of Mark Millar, combined with the lush visuals of Bryan Hitch. Detailed characters along with detailed plot makes great storytelling. Yeah, only problem with that one: it took forever to come out. The 2 volumes of Ultimates (24 issues on total) took FIVE YEARS to complete! Sure, there were a few months between volumes, but even in comic book time that’s a long wait. Instead of making us wait for a third volume of Millar and Hitch to be completed, the team decided to go elsewhere. That elsewhere happens to be Marvel’s First Family, the Fantastic Four. Good luck keeping that on time, but that is another story for another time.

So what does Marvel follow up with a slow yet ultimately (no pun intended) successful era of Ultimates? Surely they would give us another All-Star team, right? Something like Neal Adams and Brian Wood? How about Brian K Vaughn and Phil Jimenez? Nope. None of the above. Instead, they give us Jeph Loeb, who has put out plenty of great comics books over the years, but has also managed to write the worst Wolverine issue EVER just a few months ago. Wolves. Seriously? To go with Jeph, Marvel chose revolutionary artist Joe Madureira, whose Japanese inspired art on Uncanny X-Men ushered in a new wave of artists. Then he got the import of Final Fantasy VIII and stopped drawing Battle Chasers so he could play it.

Yup.

Well, Joe went to the video game world for a while and designed characters for a living, and now is returning to where he got his start, with Christian Lichtner on colors. A bold new beginning. A continuation of a legacy. This should be a team that takes what has come before it and molds it into something bigger and better.

What the hell happened?

Ultimates 3 #1 came in my DCBS shipment today, and those were the words that left my lips. I mentioned the colorist for a reason, because I do believe this guy needs to be taken out back and given a stern talking to. Joe Mad is a bright, colorful artist. And you mash him out in dark tones? It looked like someone dipped my copy in water, dried it, then handed it to me trying to pawn it off as brand new! The writing…not so good. Did Jeph Loeb read the cliff notes of the first two volumes as opposed to the entire collection? He seemed to grab talking points and ran with them: Captain America thinks women of the 00’s are all hussies who need to cover up, Hank Pym’s a pill popper, Thor likes women of all ages, Tony Stark likes to get smashed while sharing his mansion for superheroes, apparently nobody seems to know who Iron Man is even though it is so very obvious (or did I read that part wrong?), Hawkeye is the knight because his family is dead, and Wanda and Pietro share more than just brotherly and sisterly love for one another. Oh, and Black Panther was in Ultimate Avengers, so throw him in too. And Wasp is the most normal member.

Reading this title hurt. Perhaps Jeph Loeb read All Star Batman & Robin right before he wrote this issue? This was God damned bad. Plus, to spoil the ending, so earmuff time for those who have not read it, but you kill off Scarlet Witch right after implying her and her brother shag off screen? Great, now we’ve got another universe with an angsty Pietro on our hands. Now I’m not condoning the twincest angle because hell, up until now it was just a subtle wink and a nod to it from Millar. He was not heading in that direction, that I’ll come close to guaranteeing. But Loeb goes there, and kills one of them off! Why even bother bring it up the in the first place? The death of a sister would have been just as powerful to see unfold, but he went there anyway. Also, Venom? Valkyrie? Black Panther? Yeah, just reminding you Black Panther is there since he had no lines all issue.

I am in pain. I need some Tylenol before the vain in my head bursts. Ultimates does not have to equal edgy to the extreme, Loeb! All it has to do is feel fresh, new, and a little bit militaristic. It failed. Will I continue to pick the book up? I’ll hurt myself for at least two more issues just on the slightest chance they change the colorist so I can actually SEE the art, and that I get the Jeph Loeb back who wrote the first Superman/Batman arc, and lose the one who wrote Wolverine #55 and Ultimates 3 #1. I have not missed an issue of the original three Ultimate books since they launched. Ultimate Spider-Man, Ultimate X-Men, Ultimates, complete runs for all. If things do not shape up damn fast, delete the last one from the list.

I still hurt inside. Ow.

Podcast

Comic Timing – Episode 52

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52! 52! Well, Episode 52 that is. Bob Bretall and John Mayo of The Comic Book Page Podcast join Brent Kossina and I for another edition of 22 Pages. This time, we do a lot more than 22 Pages, as we go over the Green Arrow and Black Canary Wedding. This covers JLA Wedding Special #1, Green Arrow/Black Canary Wedding Special #1, and Green Arrow/Black Canary #1. Spoilers all over the place, so if you have yet to read these books, you might want to hold off on listening to the show. Also, there is some special news halfway through the show you should keep an eye out for.

You can e-mail the show at comictiming@gmail.com, and please vote for us at Podcast Alley and Digg us at Digg.Com. Oh, and here is a link to the Noisy Awards, where you can vote for Comic Timing as your favorite group comic book podcast! And of course, if you can, please donate to the HERO For the Holidays effort.

See you folks next week for Episode 53, and thanks for listening and thanks for downloading!

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 2:14:16 — 73.7MB)