A Night at the Space Opera

I think this is going to be the last of my Marvel Now review column. There are a few more new titles coming out, but I'm getting tired of reading them. They did motivate me to keep reviews coming, so I'll try to keep up with that. I'll try to mention less corporate type books in the upcoming months. That's mostly the stuff I really enjoy anyway.

On to these two books. I'll preface by stating I'm a huge fan of space operas and loved these two books when they were relaunched eight years ago. Keith Giffen brought back some pretty obscure 70s characters and Abnett and Lanning later perfected them. I bought most of all those cosmic titles until they were cancelled a couple years ago. Now that the movies were announced, Marvel has brought them back to the forefront. I was interested when these books were first announced but was skeptical about the creative teams.

After reading, these books aren't that bad but still are thoroughly disappointing. And they're kind of the same book. I will right now simultaneously describe the plot of both books: Some douchey teenager with father issues (in Nova he's a drunk loser, in Guardians he's absent) discovers that their his father really was the space adventurer that he (or in Starlord's case, his mother) claimed to be. The kid gets injured in a fight and ends up in a hospital. Rocket Raccoon also obligatorily shows up in a couple panels.

Since both of these books take place 95% on earth, it really isn't much of a space opera. With the upcoming films, Marvel really seems to be trying to push these as Avengers books. They're even putting Iron Man on the Guardians. Which is cool. They're a business. It's not art. They need to attract young kids. I'm not going to argue the fact that Marvel and DC books are for kids anymore than I'll argue that Star Wars is for kids. And if they weren't for kids, then why did we love them so much when we were kids? I wasn't watching Midnight Cowboy every day when I was six.

Showing Nova and Starlord as kids reminds me of Patton Oswalt's Star Wars routine (which I was coincidentally listening to a couple days ago). I don't care what the characters I love were like as kids. I just want to see them flying around with the helmets and shooting things.

More John

I've plugged the book. I've plugged the movie. So now I'll mention the score. I figured I'd give you guys a heads up since there are only 3000 of these pressed. You can pick one up here: http://www.lalalandrecords.com/JDATE.html.

Anyway, mine showed up yesterday, and it's great. It was composed by Brian Tyler who also did Bubba Ho-Tep and Six String Samurai. This one's a lot more diverse and ambient than Bubba, but definitely shows a similar style. Check it out.

If you have not yet heard, Delocated is ending with an hour long series finale on March 7th.

A Less New World

 I think the reason I'm getting sick writing about these is because I'm getting sick of reading them. Marvel definitely put the quality books out in the first couple months of their relaunch.

Secret Avengers is another book that wasn't particularly bad or good. It should be titled SHIELD, but I can't really complain about that because the last SHIELD book (which was excellent; fans of Manhattan Projects should read it; if you're not reading MP, you all should be) did so poorly that the last two issues were solicited but were never released.

This is Marvel's covert ops team that reflects the popular characters in the movies. As you can see on the cover, the Hulk is teased, but doesn't appear in this issue.

The opening scene was a pretty cool intro. The art is also pretty solid. I like Marvel's transition bringing in the Samuel L Jackson Nick Fury into their main universe.

I think my biggest problem is having a gritty book where the two main characters are pussies about killing people. If you look at the cover again, you will notice that their main "super powers" are a gun and a bow and arrow. What do they do with them? Shoot terrorists in the kneecaps? Hawkeye is essentially a Heather.

Avengers Arena continues to be fun and interesting. I don't care that it's Battle Royale and that it exists because The Hungry Games is popular with the kids. This is in my opinion Marvel's second best title (behind Cap).

Artist Dave Johnson posted this video this morning with the caption The morning banana shame. It gave me many laughs.

A Less New World

Marvel's relaunch has been going on for a few months, and I think I'm starting to get a little fatigued. Yet I'm sticking with these reviews since there are really only a few more left. I'm so close. But I don't know. I might stop. Here's another one that I don't have much to say about. It's not great. It's not bad. It's a comicbook. That's all I got.

1. Warhead (Venom; Guest: Scott Kelly of Neurosis)

2. Best Friend (Queen; Guest: Caleb Benjamin of Tweak Bird)

3. Black Betty (Original artist unknown)

4.  Set It On Fire (The Scientists; Guest: Mark Arm)

5.  Station To Station (David Bowie; Guest: JG Thirlwell)

6.  Attitude (The Kinks: Guest: Clem Burke of Blondie)

7.  Female Trouble (Divine a.k.a. John Waters)

8.  Carpe Diem (The Fugs)

9.  Timothy Leary Lives (Pop-O-Pies)

10.  In Every Dream Home A Heartache (Roxy Music; Guests: Jello Biafra and Kevin Rutmanis)

11. Romance (Tales of Terror)

12. Art School (The Jam; Guest: Tom Hazelmeyer)

13.  Heathen Earth (Throbbing Gristle)

John Dies at the End

One of my first posts when I started this blog was about this novel. The film is finally finished, and I got to see it last week. It's really good. A pretty flawless translation. It's been five years since I read the book so I don't remember a lot of the book's plot clearly, but there is a lot of imagery and a lot of scenes that stuck with me. The film looks the way I saw the book in my head.

I also got to meet Don Coscarelli after the movie. I got a little dorky and told him how much I love Bubba Ho-Tep which is one of my all-time favorite movies. But really, anyone who knows me knows that I love to go on about movies that I like to anyone who will listen. So it felt cool to do that with someone who actually wants to hear it.

Anyway, if you've read the book, you know there's a lot of stuff in it. Apparently, there's a lot of scenes and monologues  that were shot but didn't make the 100 minute movie. These  scenes will be on the DVD coming out in a couple months. It also seems that Bubba Nosferatu is unlikely at least for the time being, although Coscarelli would still love to make the film.

John Dies at the End is on a very limited theatrical run now and also On Demand (I think. At least it was for a while). Definitely check it out. The book's sequel has recently been printed as This Book is Full of Spiders: Seriously Dude, Don't Touch It. I haven't had a chance to pick it up yet, so I can't vouch for it but I'll go out on a limb and say it's probably good.