Universal Dork

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  • The Avengers: Age of Ultron Trailer: Did it Deliver?!

    I know, The Avengers: Age of Ultron  probably doesn’t need any more hype, as it’s clearly on it’s way to probably being the most successful movie of all time. But to not chime in a little on this one would be a crime right? I was a big fan of the first one, it was a damn fun movie, I finally got a pretty decent Hulk (though I still am not a fan of an entirely CG character) and it merged all the other Marvel movies together seamlessly. Now I’ll say this I’m not sure that The Avengers with all of it’s slick computerized fx will age very well and I to be honest I wasn’t a huge fan of Loki & The Chitauri as the films main villains. But regardless now we have the first trailer for the second installment and it looks pretty damn awesome! So here it is again, like this fucking thing needs any more attention with it’s near thirty million views in like 2 days…

    It’s clear the movie is going for a darker almost apocalyptic vibe to it. It’s tone is much more serious and the trailer clearly lets us know this movie is filled with secrets and clues to future Marvel movies. The first look at Ultron was chilling too, he’s a creepy ass robot the way he should be, so I’m tickled pink that they got that right. It promises to an epic battle between The Hulk and Iron Man (or possibly Iron Man’s armor under the control of Ultron?) that I can’t wait to see. It’s clear there’s some sort of problem with Tony Stark in this one that I suspect could set up the movies for the Civil War plot they have been talking about. I also see potential for maybe a Planet Hulk flick coming out of this one. I cannot wait to see the Vision! And this messed up romance!

     

    Now as cool as Ultron looks I wish and hope that there’s more to flick in way of super villains. I love Ultron, but the whole idea of The Avengers fighting another huge ass group of guys who look the same (ahem the Chitauri in the first film and army of Ultrons this time)) again might be the one thing that I am not too thrilled with. I really would love instead to see some Avengers villains really get into the next movie. Give me The Masters of Evil, Baron Zemo, The Super Skrull, The Absorbing Man, The Leader, M.O.D.O.K., The Wrecking Crew for cryin’ out loud!! Where are all these great villains dammit?

    I wanna see the Avengers take on a team of bad guys like in the comic books-Let’s get a roster of great actors for the third movie with a final superhero/villain battle unlike anything we’ve ever seen on film. I cross my fingers for part three to deliver this and more. In the meantime though I am pretty damn pumped about The Age of Ultron, it somehow looks leaps and bound more exciting than the first one. It seems Marvel just can’t be stopped, let’s see Fox or Sony or hell even DC top this! It’s an exciting time to be a fan of the superhero…

  • Comic Book Cover of the Week! The New Defenders by Bill Sienkiewicz!

    This particular cover way back from 1983 was one of my favorites as a kid and today it stands as a truly stellar piece of work even by today’s standards. The New Defenders were pretty awesome and you had three of the original X-men all together in the same book! It’s clear when you had Bill Sienkiewicz on a cover back in the 80’s you were gonna get something leaps and bounds ahead of the curve. I consider him along with Mike Zeck one of the best comic book cover artists of all time bar none. His cool jagged style added that extra edge to your favorite book, suddenly making them cooler than ever before. Check this one out! They just don’t make em’ like this anymore…

     

  • The Death of Wolverine #4: Final Verdict!!

    Just got done reading the Death of Wolverine #4, the final nail in the coffin for Logan! Now we all know that Wolverine will only be “dead” for maybe a year or two tops. Same cookie cutter superhero death formula as always, a big comic book hubub, news stories, a bunch of comic books that feature the effect of the characters death, funeral issues, blah blah blah..Yeah so Wolverine will be going MIA for a little while and hopefully people will miss him enough that Marvel can then again make some big money on his return as well.

     

    So was the death of Wolverine worth all the media hype, shiny metallic variant covers, director’s cuts and a high cover price of five bucks a pop? I’m gonna say a firm no. This series should have been at least 6 issues better yet 8 to really tell a compelling unforgettable Wolverine story with some serious staying power. Aside from a strong first issue, the story in general while playing on nostalgia from Logan’s past felt incredibly rushed with not much real substance and not much new to offer to his complex story.

    On a positive note at least it wasn’t Sabretooth who “killed” him, his final nemesis “Cornelius” was at least a surprise and the series art was pretty fantastic. Shocking? Nah…issue number four brought Logan’s legacy full circle back to the Weapon X program where Cornelius  of course was creating super soldiers with adamantium laced bones and of course he needs Wolverine’s healing factor to ensure his test subjects can survive the procedure. Of course when he realizes he no longer possesses it, he’s got little use for Logan and orders a new nemesis Major Sharp to destroy him. Ultimately the ending is in many ways very predictable and I can already see the image of Wolverine literally bursting back into the realm of the living in a year or so.

    My final thoughts, I’m glad Wolverine is “dead”. He’s been done to death literally. He’s been around every corner for the last  two plus decades, he’s turned into a bit of softie too. Wolverine is not the mysterious anti-hero we came to fall in love with anymore. I think some time apart is healthy, he’s like a lover who you’ve spent every waking second with for far too long, you need some time to breath dammit! I also really hate these ‘Death’ of events. They’re NOT shocking in the least. If you really wanted to shock us have his death take place unannounced in his main core book! Have all this shit happen but don’t tell us he’s gonna die a year before it happens!! Imagine if Robert Kirkman announced every death in The Walking Dead and made a damn spectacle out of it every time someone kicked the bucket?!  How shocking would that be?!

    I also don’t like all these tie in books, I for a second considered buying “The Logan Legacy” #1 today until I saw how terribly drawn and stupid every panel of it all looked. I for one look forward to a good loooong ass break from Logan. When they do bring him back, and they will,I hope Marvel learns from their mistakes. Give him a spot in the X-men(One title), give him one solo book of his own, get his hairy ass out of The Avengers and make him more like the guy who we used to all wanna hang out with! Make him pissed, mean and most of all a loner like he was meant to be. I look forward to the day I miss me some Wolverine!!! ‘Nuff said…..

  • Hey Can We Also Get 9 More Episodes of “Carnivale”?!!

    Hey anything is possible these days in the way of TV and movies now that we have fans demanding what they want to see via social media, blogs ect. It’s been proven that us fans aren’t as dense as Hollywood would like to believe we are, we enjoy intelligent well crafted television show and movies dammit-we really do! The announcement of David Lynch’s new upcoming season of Twin Peaks is proof of fans interest in shows that may have, at one point, been too bizarre for television at the time. So recently I’ve decided to watch “Carnivale” again, which is one of my favorite HBO shows of all time! Unfortunately this show only got two seasons despite being nominated and winning five Emmy awards, the show was deemed too inaccessible for the average viewer.

    This is one of the reasons the show was so great, it clearly didn’t fit the mold of the average television show. I believe if the show was broadcast today (it originally aired in 2003) it would have much stronger audience. The show’s complex story and rich history never was given enough of a chance to unfold onscreen, the cast had barely a traditional pretty Hollywood face anywhere in sight. The show was dark, epic, gritty, extremely creepy, exploring the darker sides of religion good and evil. It’s sets and styling were perfect period, every episode was eye candy. It at the time had quite a high cost of 2 million per episode and a large ensemble cast. The show ended far too soon and for years fans have attempted to get petitions going to get it back on air with no luck.

    However as I watch these two seasons again in 2014 they actually feel like they were made now and not over ten years ago. I’m not sure how the show might pick up this many years later, but I’d certainly love to catch what might be the case with Ben Hawkins, Samson and the crew. It’d be a great reason for Nick Stahl to clean up his act. This a show that has many questions left, and it’s plot, symbolism and themes to this day still have people debating. So let’s continue the journey with this traveling Carnivale, I guarantee it’s a far more compelling trip than American Horror Story “Freak Show” could ever be!!!

  • The 1989 “Trial of The Hulk” Daredevil Returns in Marvel’s Netflix Series?! WTF?!

    Ummm…this is a bit of an odd surprise here, we just got the official look at the new Marvel Daredevil from the upcoming Netflix series today and well it seems they’ve decided upon the 1989 “Trial of The Incredible Hulk” TV series version of the characters costume!!? I’m not kidding this is exactly the same costume design from that movie that Rex Smith wore! Which, um….wasn’t really the best interpretation of the character I’ve seen, heck I might even take the Affleck Daredevil’s maroon leather look over this one! Don’t believe me? Check out this newly released pic:

     

    And now let’s look at the 1989 Trial of The Incredible Hulk Tv version:

    Ummm…kinda Baffling huh? I guess we’ll see how this all plays out, my guess is the newly released Marvel pic above could be Daredevil’s starter costume? Like maybe it’s the first one that he puts together? If not boy that sucks!!! I wonder if John Rhys-Davies will be returning as the Kingpin?!!!

     

  • Don’t Put Shatner in The Next Star Trek!

    Can you believe it-I’m asking for William Shatner to NOT be in the next Star Trek flick?! It’s something I thought I’d never say, but after hearing recent news that the original Captain Kirk might now be appearing in the next installment of the big screen Trek adventures I came to the conclusion that sometimes you have to just leave nostalgia alone. After an excellent reboot of the Star Trek universe that didn’t diminish or erase the original series/the movies, but rather connected them together perfectly and adding Spock Nimoy Prime to the equation successfully, somehow we still got the god awful sequel  “Into Darkness”. This was a movie that somehow dumbed down the Trek mythos into a cheap action flick while totally ruining the legacy of the series number one villain Khan. Pondering what would come next in the series as a Trek fan for the first time wasn’t something that I was particularly excited about.

    So now we have a Abrams-less Star Trek film and now they’re planning on putting William Shatner back into the equation. Sure this sounds like a possibly entertaining trip down memory lane, something that true fans might totally dig. I say it sounds a bit like a bit of a mess. They got lucky once adding Nimoy and for the most part pulling it off quite well. However I’d much rather just have an intriguing compelling science fiction adventure without all the corny business. Stop with the Khan, Shatner, Nimoy nostalgia while you’re ahead and just give us a solid trek through the unknown regions of the galaxy with the crew that you so carefully set in place. We don’t need William Shatner in these movies or any other original series actors. Let’s for this next movie forget about the past.

     

    I’d love to see  some new threats to the crew, hell I don’t even want to see a damn Klingon yet in this series! The reason why Star trek was “reset” was so that we could boldly go where no one has gone before. Adding Shat to the mix would be a cheesy move at this point, we already did the whole time travel thing once. Twice might not be quite as charming. They mentioned that Shatner could appear as the old version of Chris Pine’s Kirk-but really Pine’s Kirk is quite different than Shatner’s. To jam him in the movie would be just so that Shatner could be in it because they can.

    There’s really no other other reason and it’s a shame for them it’s not as graceful as putting Mark Hamill in episode 7. Shatner is the real Kirk and always will be but I don’t think he needs to be on the Enterprise this time around-what do you think?

  • Cool Indie Comic Book Alert: Help Push “The Plowshare”!!

    There’s nothing I love more than seeing friends with great ideas and talent get out there and make their dreams a reality! So I was downright intrigued when I saw this cool comic book project pop up on Kickstarter, from people back in my hometown of Neenah, Wisconsin, a place where I spent much of my youth!  It’s always been a dream of mine to write and or illustrate a comic book of my own. I spend a fair amount of time drawing these  days, mainly for our weekly D&D games where I illustrate the games villains and player characters (which I will be posting here shortly), but I have never attempted a real legit comic book. So after taking a closer look at “The Plowshare” I couldn’t help but feel incredibly inspired!

    This comic written by Doug Flaherty and beautifully illustrated by Dan Wheeler tells a rather chilling tale: “Eager to escape the big city, if only for a day, our unnamed male character follows railroad tracks deep into the country where he, by pure chance, finds himself in a field where numerous men are engaged in a ritual which leads to the death of the revered leader. Our man from the city faces the horror that he might be snatched and held as a future sacrifice.”

    The Plowshare Comic

    It’s clear that Wheeler is on top of his game here, his art is stunning and it’s a bit baffling that he’s not a big name in today’s comic scene. I have a feeling that if this project meets it’s goals that may soon change. Doug Flaherty sites Neil Gaiman as a major influence, and to me that’s quite a good first sign as to this little project’s promise. It’s refreshing doing a post here for something like this that isn’t connected to a giant corporation, spitting out mind numbing stories by the boatload. I love a great original idea being pushed by an underdog and proving that you don’t need to rely on a company with big bucks to get your ideas out there to the public, thanks to modern technology. It’s power to the people and the time is now to do it. So Take a second to check out this dark tale right here at The Plowshare’s official Kickstarter page!! They need the funding to get this printed and into people’s hands and every little bit helps!

  • The Signal: Totally Tense Cerebral Sci-Fi!

    If anyone out there likes their sci-fi with a side of brains and heart like I do then look no further! “The Signal” delivers and then some! Not to be mistaken for the zombie type “The Signal” flick from 2007, which was actually pretty decent. This is a completely different movie that only recently came out on dvd, Itunes ect. I’ve seen quite a bit of dumb ass sci-fi making it’s way to the masses over the years, so it’s great to see movies that actually challenge the brain like “Moon”, “Looper” or “The Europa Report” to name a few. The Signal, starring Brenton Thwaites and Laurence Fishburne is quite an adventure that will have you scratching your head in confusion and wonder all the way to the films incredibly tense climax.

     

    The films premise starts out simple enough,On a road trip, Nic and two friends are drawn to an isolated area by a computer hacker, who’s been toying with them online all school year. Upon investigating an old seemingly abandoned house where the traced the hacker’s signal, one of them disappears. When everything suddenly goes dark, Nic regains consciousness – only to find himself alone & confused, in an odd medical facility. To give away anything would be a crime, but this one is indeed filled with some great twists and turns that will have you guessing all the way.

     

    The Signal has top notch acting, incredible special effects and a ton of thrills that will have you on the edge of your seat. I’m excited to check out what else the film’s director William Eubank has done and what he’s got planned next. He’s certainly a director to watch in the future. I’m hoping that we can get more serious sci-fi elements into the next installments of something like Star Trek on the big screen, as even with the old episodes from the 1960’s they often had some really great plots that really made you think. An element that is often missing from modern sci-fi, instead we often end up with sci-fi for people with A.D.D.! So I say waste no time and check this one out right away if you want something truly unique, original and totally exciting!!

  • The Walking Dead #132: The Zombies Stay Stupid!

    Late last night I finished reading Walking Dead #132, and just as this book was finally starting to grab my interest again it kind shifted back into the same gears it has been for far too long. So stop reading now if you fear any SPOILERS! I’ve said it here for quite some time now, that this title needs a major injection of something different to add some new excitement to it’s ongoing apocalyptic story. Well most recently we had a stir of exactly that, when a group from Rick’s settlement stumbled upon supposed zombies that could speak! The idea of this alone was exciting and intriguing to me, perhaps a little nod to “Day of the Dead” and full of possibilities for future story lines.

    Could you imagine a new threat in the form of an intelligent horde of flesh eaters! Now that’s frightening! I imagined  villains far more ruthless than Negan or The Governor, an undead villain and the threats that they could pose to the existence of the human race. Well along comes issue #132, and it once again hits upon this new threat now being confirmed by Dante and his crew, the dead indeed are speaking! I felt that surge of excitement I haven’t felt in quite sometime in this title-but then I turned the page and yet something entirely different was revealed, something I had been hoping would not be the case here…The undead are still mindless-we have a new group of evil, evil humans once again…uggh….only this time they are dressing up as zombies. I had figured this might be the case when the idea was first crossed in the book a couple issues back.

    My balloon is officially deflated. It seems that Kirkman wishes to keep this title on the same rails it always has been, Zombies=bad, Humans=more bad!!  We have read this story countless times here in this title, it was great for the first 100 issues if that. Now though a great opportunity has been missed, the chance to do something different here. Perhaps people are totally digging this comic book still and I’m totally off base here and runnin’ my mouth like a mo-fo?!

    Still I can’t help but wonder how this title could be if Kirkman wasn’t so afraid to break the mold he’s made for this series. What about the rest of the world? No one in Rick’s company cares to know if perhaps there are areas that are safe or unaffected? They just wanna build this little settlement and live? No one cares about a cure? What if there’s more to this whole story, one that’s larger than Rick? Are we at this point just supposed to accept that Rick is starting civilization again and that the rest of the world is a total wasteland? I’d love to see these questions answered and I’d love to see this threat evolve into something more interesting, if zombies can be a reality what else might be out there? Unfortunately that’s a subject Kirkman doesn’t feel confident enough to explore, I love a good drama but come on, this book could be SO much more today…please tell me what all of you think?! Am I just a Walking Dead hater?!!

  • Comic Book Cover of the Week: Vintage Snake Eyes!

    Here’s a great blast from the past, GI Joe #53, by none other than Mike Zeck! Duh! You know I am starting to think that he might be the best cover artist of the 1980’s as I’ve seen a trend of consistently posting covers by him during that era. He did a ton of super awesome GI Joe Covers back in the day. You know all of us kids back then were obsessed with Snake Eyes! This was a simple, basic but totally bad ass cover that showcased how cool the character was-proving you just can’t ever go wrong with a god damn ninja!!

    What’s even more bad ass is the full picture Zeck originally drew-Check it!!