Victor Oladipo, the Magic and me: NBA Draft reflections

Although I don't much care for the ownership, although I live in Indiana, although they've never won a title, although big NBA stars seem to run from the team faster than water flows down a hill, I've always been a fan of the Orlando Magic.

And when I say always, I mean always: Since the team was created in 1989, since I first laid eyes on the gorgeous, black-and-blue-and-white pinstriped uniforms, since Indiana boy Scott Skiles was among the first members of the team.

These days, due to political disagreements with the ownership, having grown tired of the organization's inability to hang onto any star players and due to my inability to actually watch the team play very often, I've more or less dissolved my fandom of the team (I'm sure they're all heartbroken) and become something of a hoops agnostic. I love the Dallas Mavericks (for Dirk and Cuban, mostly) and will root for them in most cases. I live very close to Chicago so it's easy to follow and root for the Chicago Bulls. The Indiana Pacers are a fun, young team and are entertaining to watch.

But old habits die hard. I still gravitate toward news about my old team, follow player movements, wonder how the GM who's about my age will work out, etc. When I heard those wily Magic drafted Indiana University SG/SF/hoops wizard Victor Oladipo last night, a smile crept across my face.


You see, even though I'm a Purdue grad, Oladipo is one of my favorite college players of the last several years. The last player I latched onto with this level of adoration was Kevin Durant. Before him, it was Carmelo Anthony. I think Oladipo is a tremendous athlete, has amazing court sense and has the ability to throw a switch and shut down whomever he's defending. If he had the killer instinct of a Michael Jordan, he'd be unstoppable. As it is, I think he'll be very, very, very good in the NBA. I believe he'll be the best player of this draft class.

And apparently the kid showed up to last night's draft proceedings wearing some Google Glass and sang some John Legend backstage. A cocky, intelligent technophile with a golden voice and a killer vertical? How is he NOT going to be a star? 

Instant Game Collection: Year One

Sony is gloating today about their Playstation Plus Instant Game Collection. What an absolutely incredible value. Anyone who is a Playstation gamer and does not pay for Playstation Plus (and can afford to) is a fool. Nuff' said.

Superior Spider-Man #12 - Comic Book Review

I've always been a proponent of the new Otto-Spider-Man. When I first heard about or suspected what was about to happen in the waning issues of Amazing Spider-Man, I got really excited. Finally, Marvel was ready to do something very bold and really very crazy. They killed off their beloved Peter Parker and replaced him with one of his core villains. Remarkable.

Twelve issues into the new run and how is it going? Quite well, actually. Otto is an interesting and fun to read character with some endearing traits. His budding romance with a little person and genius is a truly inspired choice. Their scenes are very cute. They make a great couple. Unfortunately, the new love interest does not make an appearance in this issue.

We are hip-deep in the story of the botched execution of the Spider-Slayer. He is trying to escape the Raft while Jameson and some civies are trying to stay out of harms way. Well, Jameson not so much, he wants to take matters into his own hands and kill the Spider-Slayer himself, no surprise there.

Otto, on the other hand, is thwarting the Spider-Slayer at almost every turn, mocking him as he does so. Smythe has a few tricks up his sleeve as well, repowering Vulture, Scorpion, and Boomerang with spider-bot-thingies. At some point, the power goes out and the Lizard escapes. In the end Spider-Man is presented with a Hobson's choice: save Jameson from Scorpion or save the innocents from the Vulture. Our ever clever Octavius chooses neither.....he will simply kill Smythe. Ohhh....goosebumps. Another great issue from one of the most consistently great reads in the Marvel Now! lineup.

New Avengers #7 - Comic Book Review

Avengers #14 had a lot of setup, setup, setup, so too does New Avengers #7, but it is just done a lot better here. The pacing is more deliberate and there is no editorial drive to jam in every possible Avenger into the story. I feel while Avengers suffers from too many characters, New Avengers has no such limitation and as such it reads much better and more like Hickman's previous work on Fantastic Four.

We get a quiet issue this time, no more incursions which puts Reed and Stark on edge. We have Beast learning from the Black Swan and Terrax quietly brooding. Strange and Reed have a spirited dinner date with Dr. Doom, where Doom asks about what is going on and the Illuminati members feign ignorance. We get a wink about Reed being in space-time and on this team concurrently, which was cool.  Black Bolt is having Maximus the Maker working on some terrible machine whose purpose (destruction) is unknown (in scale only).

That leaves Black Panther and Namor who have both been enduring something of a cold war between Atlantis and Wakanda. Namor offers a peace deal to T'Challa, but we all know that T'Challa no longer controls his nation. That responsibility lies with Shuri, T'Challa's younger sister and current ruler of Wakanda. Tensions rise as small skirmishes lead to bigger conflict and Shuri is forced to declare war on Atlantis despite T'Challa urging her to accept peace from Namor.

Lots of good stuff to enjoy in this issue. Lots of intrigue and character moments. Even when we are given a quiet issue there is always conflict. Next issue promises more developments on what Black Bolt is up to. I cannot wait.

Indestructible Hulk #9 - Comic Book Review

Indestructible Hulk has been a mixed bag. I think it suffered early from Iron Man syndrome. The early issues of Iron Man were kind of a waste in the same way that the early issues of Indestructible Hulk were a waste. We are nine issues into the Marvel Now! relaunch and finally with this issue it feels like Waid is beginning his run. Don't get me started on the Simonson arc, what a tragic waste.

I will let you in on a little secret, Hulk is bar none my favorite character in comics. I absolutely love him. Unfortunately, more often than not, writers don't get him or write him very poorly. I had to suffer through the Loeb years and the OMG terrible Jason Aaron run. I have to admit as much as I respect Waid as a writer he really stumbled out the gates and we haven't seen a great Hulk writer since Greg Pak dropped the mic and moved over to a failed X-Treme X-Men title and then onto greener pastures at DC.

If you couldn't tell by now, I enjoyed this issue. I feel like it finally gets to the meat of the new run. We wasted the first 5 issues on random SHIELD missions and the last 3 issues on one of the most boring, art-as-cautionary-tale, arcs I have ever had to experience. Simonson, please retire, or you know go do some indie work, I am tired of looking at your horrible art.

Matteo Scalera does a better job here, there is some dynamism, which all Hulk art should have. This should be an action title after all. We also get some really funny moments. You see, we learn in this issue that Daredevil has Hulk's back in dealing with SHIELD. If they ever try to pull something twisted on Banner, Murdock with have a lawsuit on their desk lickity-split. The moment where Daredevil and then Hulk walk into a known bad guy bar was very amusing.

I really have to give a shout-out to Chris Eliopoulos, what a great bit of lettering work you did in this issue. Very inspired work. Did he work on previous issues? I won't check because that would mean having to see more Simonson art.

Basically what happens in this issue is that Hulk is sent in to stop some arms trading and they have a very powerful sonic gun that really wants to fall into the wrong hands. Whose hands? Well Baron Zemo, of course. Great to see Zemo in action and what a great villain to counterpoint with Hulk. Makes sense to me, he could be Hulk's Dr. Doom if Marvel would allow it. Marvel, please allow it. Zemo is just wasted anywhere else, except maybe in the pages of Captain America or Avengers. Hulk needs a better, more expanded rogue's gallery though and Zemo fits the bill perfectly.

Playstation Vita: Home for Dedicated Indie Gaming

Wow, while the little device that could is struggling to get AAA game support, it has become the platform of choice for indie games. One of the reasons this is becoming the case is because of Vita users. Vita owners have lots of disposable income and they are not shy about spending money on digital-only titles. Recently, the devs behind Retro City Rampage shared their own sales numbers and stated unequivocally that Vita was the king of digital sales. Their title sold more on Vita than even the holy grail of digital distribution networks - Steam.

What this means is that even more hungry devs will want to put their games on Sony's sexy handheld in the future. Stay tuned.

Fantastic Four #9 - Comic Book Review

I love Mark Bagley. I've been reading comics ever since I was a young child, my first issue was a TMNT comic called Mighty Mutantmals #1 I bought at the local grocery store. I also read Bucky O' Hare comics and was interested in old Green Lantern/Green Arrow issues. While I have a long history with comic books (for my age), I have not being following them continuously that entire time. I have had on-off periods. One of the on periods was when I purchased a very large leather-bound hardcover for Ultimate Spider-Man. It was like the first 30 issues, all drawn by the same artist, Mark Bagley. I am a huge fan of consistency in comics. Bagley's consistency never fails to impress me. Here we are 9 issues into the new Fantastic Four Marvel Now! volume and look, Mark Bagley is still there, awesome.

On the other hand, I do not like the writing of Matt Fraction. I rarely read anything from him that I fall in love with or even enjoy. Fraction's first attempt at this Fantastic Four (the first few issues) was a huge error. It included a childish-talking Valeria (who we all know is a genius that rivals Reed), a british-slang-talking Thing and Reed (Pear-shaped?) and a return to a juvenile Johnny Storm who just went through a death-experience that had matured him significantly. There was a lot to hate in those first few Fantastic Four issues from Mr. Fraction.

However, I believe he is gaining his footing as I enjoyed this issue. This was the last issue I read last week and I was disinterested and anticipated a boring, bad issue. Fraction proved me wrong, though he did make kind of a massive misstep, but I would have to blame his editor as well. How did this time travel story, where Thing intervenes to prevent the marring of Victor von Doom's face (which leads to his becoming Dr. Doom) get released on the same day that we got the time-stream blowing up in Age of Ultron?  Maybe it was one intentional, showing all the time-stream madness leading even more so to the breakage, maybe it was a meta-thing. I will grant that.

In this issue we get Reed taking a guilt-ridden Thing through time to Doom in college, who through a freak accident, scars his face, which leads him to go crazy and become Dr. Doom. The thing we learn in this issue is that Doom is inevitable. Thing tries to stop what is happening and in fact does, but it doesn't matter, Doom will be Doom because Doom is crazy by birth, by lineage and Thing or Reed (who could have fixed Doom's equations in the experiment if only he would have listened) should feel now guilt about his becoming. I think that was an interesting message and a good one for these characters. Well done, Matt.

Oh, and there was a Council of Dooms, alternate universe Dooms witnessing the "Nativity". But then again, if Doom is inevitable and he was always crazy by birth and by lineage, what would be the significance of this event? It cannot be the "masking" as we already see a non-mask Doom in the Council. What is going on here? Matt Fraction! You have some explaining to do!

Avengers #14 - Comic Book Review

The first thing to notice is that this is the first "Prelude to Infinity" issue. Yes, the next Marvel event is right around the corner and this time Jonathan Hickman is taking the lead. Infinity is supposed to jump right out of the storyline going on in Hickman's Avengers titles (this and New Avengers). I've read in recent interviews that the Avengers and New Avengers tie-ins to the events should be considered part of the main story. Very well.

What we get with this issue is a lot of transition and world building, the same kind of thing that has been going on in the 13 issues before this one. This is very much a long-form story, where each issue reads more like a cog in a giant clockwork, than as a singular plot. Stephano Caselli joins us with this issue which should make fans of Secret Warriors happy. I find his more recent art to be more mature and more subtle than it used to be. Either that or he is just blending his style more to the current Avengers house. I see Deodato doing the same thing. To be honest, I prefer artists sticking to more of a cohesive style than being allowed to adopt whatever style they wish, I think it is better for consistency and better storytelling.

We learn a couple of things in this issue, each origin site has a specific purpose and they are now all trying to activate, but most of them are either malfunctioning or trying to communicate with something that isn't working right. Presumably this is the brain that Starbrand blew to hell in a previous issue. It seems Earth is now terminal. The communications site is attempting to send signals  and so doing it is wiping out global communications in pulses, sending shock waves around the world. We have Bruce Banner used for his genius to solve this problem while Iron Man does his leading a mission in space. Since the communications site (a bunch of insects) cannot send its signal, it requests help from the other sites. The other sites reject the request, except for the self-repair (blockheads) site. The blockheads take a portal to the communications site, which alerts the Avengers and so we get the start of a fight between giant blockheads teamed with giant insects, and the Avengers. The issue ends with an enterprising scientist on AIM Island playing that signal to their own site anomaly, only to find that it responds and opens up....

It is hard to review an issue like this, where it is mostly setup, coupled with some confusing things that you won't understand until future issues. The art was cool, seeing the different origin sites was neat, seeing various Avengers in action was fun. Eh, who am I kidding, maybe next issue will be better...

WWE 2K14 Debut Trailer

Presenting the debut trailer for WWE 2K14, brought to you by the new owners 2K Games, but still developed by Yukes and now jointly with Visual Concepts.

The visuals look like they may have either stayed exactly the same or went down. Maybe this was done in order to get more wrestlers on screen at once or hopefully other cool new features, but I was not impressed by this trailer. Hopefully they show some better stuff at a later date.

Go away Rocky, go away.

Kanye on Kanye: The W interview

To be a fan of Kanye West in this post-"Yeezus" era is to be fully engaged with the complexities of his music, his art, his process and his personality. I suppose you could enjoy his music and ignore his public persona, but you'd be missing out: Kanye is one of the rare celebrities who is unapologetically himself at every turn. He contradicts himself, he boasts, he speaks almost completely off the top of his head, as though all of his ideas are completely new in the instant before he expresses them, whether in his fashion designs, his interviews or his music. There's something incredibly vital about him and I don't want to sound like a celebrity sycophant because, in every other case, the cult of personality surrounding celebrities (including his girlfriend Kim Kardashian) is pretty repulsive to me.

I don't care what Katie Holmes is doing, I don't care what John Travolta is doing, I don't care what Kris Jenner is doing. I kinda really like hearing what Kanye is doing because what Kanye does in his life is so directly and immediately tied to his artistic expression, which is ultimately what I'm interested in. There's an urgency to what he does that is lacking in so many other artists, actors, musicians and others I see in the celebrity machine.

What I'm getting at is Kanye West has another interview out today and it's fantastic. Last week it was a great interview with The New York Times, and this week it's one conducted over a series of visits to his Paris apartment by W Magazine. Both are fascinating looks at this guy who's at once fully convinced of his own greatness and, at the same time, clearly concerned with staying as active as possible creatively to ensure he reaches the upper limits of his potential.

Age of Ultron #10 (of 10) - Comic Book Review

This has been a rather complex event for Marvel to pull off. First we get the end of the world type stuff, then we pivot to an otherworlds tale, followed by normalcy, followed by the unexpected. That creates many layers and I dare say many observers did not fully understand the complexity of trying to write it.

Two of the criticisms that I have read about this event, and this issue in particular is that 1. nothing happens and 2. it is merely a vehicle for more events. I wholeheartedly disagree with the first assertion and to the second observation, my response is, "So what?" This is a Marvel comic. The Big Two (Marvel and DC) are all about the shared universe concept and the idea of perpetual storytelling. Individual plots may begin and end, but the universe goes on and on and on. I don't understand what some readers were expecting.

Thing do indeed happen. Lots of things. First of all Ultron wins (temporarily), lots of heroes die trying to stop him and at the end of the day a very valuable lesson (or two) is learned. The major lesson we learn is don't mess with space-time or you will break it. There needs to be an nuke-like arms treaty for time travel as we have seen that if someone breaks it everyone is affected by the results. The second important thing we learned from the event is that Hank Pym, founding Avenger, is way more important than he has been given credit for.

Yes, yes Hank Pym created Ultron and slapped his wife around in the lowest period of his history, but he also created the Vision and without him we see what would have happened, another Age of Ultron-like ruin. And, ultimately, he was the only guy who could have stopped Ultron, and he did. This is the start of a redemption story for Hank and it looks really exciting. It carries over into Avengers AI, which begins next week (after the transitional Age of Ultron #10 AI issue this week).

We also got glimpses of Galactus jumping into the Ultimate Universe (hopefully to devour it and end that universe altogether) beginning the 4-part Hunger mini-series. Also Angela from Spawn fame joined the Marvel Universe. It will be interesting to see how Marvel handles the character in the pages of Guardians of the Galaxy beginning with issue #5.

So, yes, things indeed do happen. Lots of exciting things. But, what about the technical merits of the issue itself? I think the art is extremely well done and I found no issues with the many artists employed within it. I thought the whole point of the disparate universes was to show the differences in them in the various art styles and I didn't think any of the transitions were so jarring to be turned off by any of them.

One brilliant part of the issue was the reuse of the scene in Avengers #12.1 from the pre-Marvel NOW! days. How great was it to see that same scene played back, but with the knowledge that Ultron was gonna be defeated before he knew what hit him? I thought it was extremely well done.

Despite what others may be saying, Age of Ultron ended very well. It added a lot of new exciting developments and did so in a very attractive package. I look forward to seeing the ideas that sprung forth from this issue develop further as the months go on.

Wonder Woman #21 - Comic Book Review

I have to be honest, this is my first issue of Wonder Woman since Gail Simone was writing the title in the previous DCU. At that time, I hated the issue. I have heard many great things about Azzarello's direction in the New 52, so I was interested in giving the title another try. I am glad I did because I was pleasantly surprised.

This is one of the situations where I really wish DC would adopt the summary page that Marvel uses for almost all of their titles. I had no clue who most of these characters were apart from First Born (who I had read about in the Villains Month solicitations for September), Wonder Woman of course, and Orion. Despite not being able to understand who most of the characters were, I had a great time reading this issue.

Cliff Chiang is one of the artists that I normally would not enjoy, but something about this style just grows on me quickly. I love it. It looks really simple, but then look at Diana's face on that cover, that shows a great ability to emote so the art appears simpler than it really is. Great stuff.

One of the new elements of the Wonder Woman universe that I absolutely love that was added in the New 52 are the New Gods. It makes sense that Wonder Woman being mythology-based to really tie her to the New Gods. It was a brilliant move.

The one criticism I could level at the issue is the spoilery cover. The moment when First Born holds open a Boom Tube with his bare hands is an awesome moment and it stinks they gave it away on the cover. Other than that minor quibble, I loved this issue and I am looking forward to reading more.

Muramasa Rebirth on Playstation Vita Today

Sony has released Muramasa Rebirth for the Playstation Vita today. This is an enhanced version of Muramasa: The Demon's Blade for the Wii, with new content. The title looks gorgeous and will be a great addition to the Playstation Vita lineup.

WWE's heel/face roundabout

I haven't actually watched much WWE wrestling in a while, but I read the latest about Raw and NXT on WithLeather.com every week courtesy of the great Brandon Stroud. So despite not watching, I have a good understanding of what's going on storyline-wise.

That said, I took some time this morning to watch the better part of the Hulu Plus special edition of last night's Raw, which is probably a better way to watch anyway: rather than three hours, it's edited down to the best 90 minutes of the show.

Having not watched in several weeks, though, I almost got whiplash watching this edition of Raw. See, over the last few months, many of the most popular performers on the show have been WRITTEN as bad guys, meaning the crowd's reaction to the big matches is often counter to how the writers probably intended it. It's not uncommon for characters to do switches from bad to good and vice versa, to "swerve" the crowd in an attempt to recalibrate how they're treated by the crowd. What's somewhat more uncommon, however, is when several major stars are going through this recalibration simultaneously.

Current World Heavyweight Champion Alberto Del Rio just spent the last few months as a good guy, a babyface, a proud Mexican wrestler embracing his American success, wearing the Mexican flag on his trunks, smiling and hugging his manager/personal announcer Ricardo Rodriguez rather than grumping around and throwing Ricardo into danger's path as he had several months earlier, when he was the aristocratic, snooty, disdainful heel champion.

For this arc, he was the face because his opponent for the title was the charismatic, athletic, entertaining and extremely popular Dolph Ziggler, who happens to have been written as a heel for the last couple of years. This despite his overwhelmingly positive crowd response (he often gets a more enthusiastic reception than the forever-designated company face John Cena). But now that Ziggler lost the Big Gold Belt to Del Rio, he's being written a bit more favorably and Del Rio is back to sneering at the crowd and being matched against crowd favorites such as Chris Jericho (as he was Monday) to provoke a more negative crowd response.

So in that case we have two opponents in a story arc pivoting simultaneously, trading places in the good/bad continuum. In the case of longtime fan favorite Daniel Bryan and, well, longtime fan favorite Randy Orton, also opponents in an ongoing story arc, you have a somewhat more subtle, but still noticeable double switch happening. Orton, for the last several months a rather bland and ineffectual babyface, is starting to revert to the more nasty, conniving, brutal figure he used to portray as the "Apex Predator," a guy who was willing to maim his opponents in the ring for a win. Honestly, regardless of how Orton acts in the ring, the fans love him, or at least they love his finisher, the RKO, so in his case the repositioning has more to do with how effective he is in the storyline than how the crowd reacts to him.

Similarly, Daniel Bryan has been getting huge (HUGE) cheers from the crowd since the Wrestlemania before last, regardless of how his character acts in and out of the ring. Lately, he's been occupying a strange middle space in the good/bad spectrum, wrestling more or less as a comedic figure with tag team partner Kane, entertaining crowds with a story that revolved around both characters' struggles with anger management and finding a mutual appreciation via group therapy that translated into extreme effectiveness in the ring (like I said, a strange storyline, but entertaining nonetheless). During this storyline, Daniel Bryan changed from his crowd-pleasing "YES! YES! YES!" chant and positive demeanor to a more twisted, dark, "NO! NO! NO!" personality.

Whether he was screaming YES or NO, the crowds lapped it up. Just recently, though, Bryan started wearing the YES shirt again and yelling YES as he descends the ramp toward the ring and screaming YES as he lands his trademark kicks on his opponents. And he's playing up his underdog status, a traditional babyface positioning, against Randy Orton. And Bryan and Orton had two great matches on Raw (Bryan demanded a second match after the first one ended in a double disqualification, yet more babyface bona fides).

Overall, I'm a fan of these changes. Orton needs a nasty edge to be at all interesting as a character, Del Rio is fine as a babyface but much more exciting as a heel, and Ziggler and Bryan both deserve strong runs as fan favorites for all their hard work and excellence in the ring.

Interestingly, the one man who's not really changing his demeanor at all is the guy who's most in need of a storyline/character refresh: WWE Champion John Cena. On Monday, Cena cut a poorly received promo, chastising longtime badguy Mark Henry for faking a retirement speech the prior Monday in order to attack him and lay out a championship challenge. The crowd was NOT buying it, often hitting him with the derisive "WHAT" chant as he stood in the ring. Cena's been so good and so dominant for so long that crowds are largely in eye-roll mode when it comes to his character. He still sells the most T-shirts and merch, and he still brings in the PPV buys, so there's not likely to be any tinkering with his good/bad status any time soon. But it's too bad, because as I'm sure has been written a billion times online already, Cena as a complex, bad guy character would probably be a fantastic thing to watch.

Greg Pak and Aaron Kuder on Action Comics in November

According to CBR, writer Greg Pak (Incredible Hulk) will join Aaron Kuder (recent Superman issues) on Action Comics. Previously it was stated that Andy Diggle and Tony Daniel would be taking over Action Comics, but Diggle left in a huff and Daniel stayed on to complete the storyline. In the meantime Superman writer Scott Lobdell filled-in, but now we know who the permanent (hopefully) team will be.

I think this is a great choice. Pak is an amazing writer who did wonders with Hulk over at Marvel. He must be making quite the impact at DC to be entrusted with both Action Comics and Batman/Superman AND the introduction of Doomsday during Villains Month.

Kuder also seems like a great choice on art. His style evokes Frank Quitely and we all know how great All-Star Superman turned out in the art department. This has me excited.

William Fichtner Cast as Shredder in New TMNT Film.

According to slashfilm, William Fichtner from such films as Equilibrium and such TV series as Prison Break will be playing Shredder in the new TMNT film.

I am very excited about this casting choice as I think Fichtner is a great actor. He can exude a fantastic intensity that I think will be important for the role. He also has a great Shredder-looking face.

Green Lantern: New Guardians #21 - Comic Book Review

What a cool cover by Rafael Albuquerque and Dave McCaig. I used to not really be a big fan of Rafael's art, but he has certainly grown on me.

Let me start by saying this is another series I just began with this issue. I never did understand the New Guardians concept when this title launched, but now with the Templar Guardians, the title totally makes sense. In this issue the newly White Lantern Kyle Raynor is asked by the Templar Guardians and Hal Jordan to be both guide (for the Guardians) and spy (for Hal). Hal does not trust them and after what the previous Guardians did, who can blame him?

The new Guardians take Kyle with them to the edge of the universe to investigate an anomaly. There they find some conflict with a new alien named Exeter (is he new?) who tries to dissuade the Guardians from getting near the anomaly. The Guardians refuse and Kyle is forced to protect them, using his new White Lantern ring in the process. This starts a chain reaction that opens up the anomaly and wakes up what is inside, "some thing from a previous universe". This thing is called Relic, the new big Green Lantern villain.

I loved Brad Walker's art in this issue and thoroughly enjoyed the plot. We finally have a reason for the title, a new exciting quest for Kyle, and a brand new scary villain for the Green Lantern universe to play with. Justin Jordan hits it out of the park. I enjoyed this debut issue of the new creative team even more so than Robert Venditti on either Green Lantern or Green Lantern Corps. This is one of the best issues I read all week.

Batman and Batgirl #21 - Comic Book Review

Let me preface this review by stating that this is my first issue of Batman and (Robin) in the New 52 universe. I have dabbled in the series in the previous volume and I am a fan of Peter Tomasi from his Green Lantern Corps days.

Having said that, I think this issue was a mess. I understand what Tomasi is trying to do here, with each issue tied to one of the stages of grief (over the death of Damien Wayne in the pages of Batman Incorporated). This issue is titled, "The Bargain", so presumably we are onto bargaining, but who is doing the bargaining? Batgirl or Batman? All I saw was an obvious grieving Batman put forth his best effort to keep on going despite his loss. On the other hand, I see a meddling, preachy, and heavy-handed Batgirl interfering in something she has no business getting in the middle of.

We are told that she "removed her bat symbol", presumably in one of the other bat books or a previous issue, but sadly, I can obviously see the outline of the bat-symbol on her chest AND she still calls herself Batgirl, which makes the idea of disassociating herself with the bat family silly at best. Another problem I had with Batgirl is the way she desecrates the costume of Batman's son, the late Robin, in order to make some point to "get over it". This moment left me insulted and frankly appalled. Who does that kind of thing? What right does she have to do it? Barbara came out of this looking like a total asshole. The poor guy's son just died, let the man grieve for goodness sakes.

There was at least one good moment in the issue, specifically the part where Barbara is having a shadow-conversation with her father (Commissioner Gordon) while he is cleaning his gun. That was a nice moment. The artwork was sufficient and the cover is pretty cool.

However, despite those few good things, this issue carries the distinction of being the worst issue I read all week. Hopefully the next issue will be better.

Playstation Plus Instant Game Collection Changes 6/25/2013

Sony has released their weekly Playstation Plus announcement here.

Playstation Plus is an incredibly good value just with its Instant Game Collection alone and it is the feature I am primarily concerned with here at the Comics Clubhouse.

This week we gained Zero Escape: Virtue's Last Reward for the Playstation Vita.

I have played this game extensively and beaten it within the last few months. I played the Nintendo 3DS version however. After playing the demo on the Vita, I found the control scheme on the 3DS better suited for the game. For anyone who hasn't played this game, please do, but if you haven't played 999 on the Nintendo DS, play it and beat it before playing VLR. You will thank me later.

What will we lose next week? Deus Ex: Human Revolution for the PS3.

It is a well-reviewed and fun FPS/RPG hybrid that I found to be interesting and exciting. I am only a couple hours into the game and I have not found the time to jump back in. It is definitely worth snagging a copy of this before it leaves the service next week. Usually, Sony gives us a big PS3 release to start off each month and with Deus Ex leaving I imagine we are getting another big release next week for the PS3.

Weekly Marvel Comics Pull - 7/03/2013

Avengers #15
JONATHAN HICKMAN & NICK SPENCER (W)
STEFANO CASELLI (A)
Cover by LEINIL YU
"ECHO TERRA"
• Prelude to INFINITY: Part Two.
• Aliens races fleeing an intergalactic terror crash to Earth, just as the Avengers are occupied with the now-active Origin Sites!
• Captain Universe and Manifold take a trip across the universe.

Iron Man #12
KIERON GILLEN(W), DALE EAGLESHAM (A)
Cover by GREG LAND
"THE SECRET ORIGIN OF TONY STARK" CONTINUES!
• The Birth.
• 451’s ulterior motive proves to be a big one. In a very literal sense.

 

An Iron Sheik documentary? Yes please.

I wasn't into pro wrestling in the 1980s, so I don't have much firsthand experience with the Iron Sheik, but I know he's an icon and I know he's still extremely popular, given how many people follow him on his hilariously profane Twitter account.

What I didn't know until I read this story on Yahoo! this morning is that the Sheik, born Hossein Khosrow Ali Vaziri, is essentially broke and in constant, head-to-toe pain. Apparently the bones in one of his knees are essentially grinding against each other with every move he makes. A guy like Sheik, who still makes money for the WWE (as evidenced by his sparkling new WWE Legends shirt in the picture above, not to mention classic DVD sales and income from WWE Classics On Demand), shouldn't be in this position.

But now his managers, Page and Jian Magen, are using Indiegogo to crowdsource the money for a documentary about this amazing dude and maybe pull in enough scratch to help the 73-year-old pay for some much-needed surgeries.

The Yahoo! piece is well worth reading for other details about "Sheiky Baby's" life. For instance, I didn't know he escaped his native Iran for fear of being assassinated by the government. I think a donation to fund this documentary and help this guy live a relatively pain-free life is a great way to spend your crowdsourcing budget, if you have one.

Weekly Marvel Comics Pull - 6/26/2013

All-New X-Men #13

• The All-New X-Men find themselves face-to-face with the UNCANNY AVENGERS!
• Young Cyclops meets the adult version of the little brother he thought he may never see again. 

Captain America #8

RICK REMENDER (W) • JOHN ROMITA JR (A & C)
THE MAIN EVENT!
Steve Rogers has one chance to set any of this right! Broken, beaten and near dead he must defeat Zola or all is lost!
Plus, the reveal of the year! A character you never expected reemerges.

Daredevil #27

MARK WAID (W) • CHRIS SAMNEE (A/C)
• RED. DEAD. REDEMPTION.
• Two years of the most critically acclaimed series in comics…and it’s all been leading to this moment.
• ‘Close your eyes, Matt Muirdock. Take a deep breath. And feel everything you know slowly close in on you.’

  

Deadpool #12

Concluding the 2nd arc of MARVEL NOW! Deadpool! • Can Wade trust hell to keep their side of his contract? • Will all of Deadpool's new friends end up dead because of him? • Are turkey sandwiches better than ham? • 2 of these 3 questions will be answered!

Guardians of the Galaxy #4
BRIAN MICHAEL BENDIS (W) • Sara Pichelli (A/C)
• The biggest surprise hit of the year continues as critically acclaimed artist Sara Pichelli (Ultimate Spider-Man) climbs aboard!
• Gamora is one the galaxy’s greatest warriors…with a deadly secret that could bring down the entire team.

Nova #5

JEPH LOEB (W) • ED MCGUINNESS (A/C)
Variant cover BY Mr. Garcin
• The origin of the most talked about new character of the year comes to a shattering conclusion.
• Jeph Loeb and Ed McGuinness, two of the most popular creators in comics, bring you an Infinite-ly dramatic turning point in the life of Nova as he discovers that something out in the galaxy is threatening everything he knows.

 

Uncanny X-Men #7

• Dormammu's machinations have pulled all of the UNCANNY X-MEN into the hellish dimension LIMBO!
• Can Magik match the evil demon's lord's sorcery? Is she even on the X-Men's side anymore? 

Wolverine #5

Drowning Logan' starts here! • SHIELD agents everywhere, but not a comrade in sight! • Wolverine finds himself trapped on a helicarrier - and it's plunging into the depths of the Atlantic Ocean!

Wolverine and the X-Men #32

HELLFIRE SAGA PART 2!
• Wolverine has plans for the Bamfs...
• Meet the new Hellions! 

X-Men #2

• The school is on lockdown...but if the bad guys can't get out, neither can the X-Men!
• John Sublime is back, but is one of the X-Men's scariest villains not who we should be afraid of?
• Who or what is Arkea?

Beasts of the Southern Wild - Film Review

Let me start off by saying that the summary of the film on the back of the DVD case is very misleading. It describes Hushpuppy as something of a force of nature and some grand quest to cure and/or protect her father. Nothing like that happens at all in this film.

Essentially the core of the film revolves around a group of very poor Louisianians who live south of the levee. They are extremely poor, but eke out their own humble existence. They are fiercely independent.

This fierce independence is exemplified when a big storm floods their entire town/island known as The Bathtub. When the salt water rushes in and won't recede, due in part to the levee system, citizens of The Bathtub take it into their own hands to blow a hole in the levee to provide some relief. This gains them some attention from regular society who invade their homes to round them up and put them in shelters "for their own good". Eventually this ragtag group of Bathtubbers break free and return to their traditional ways. They won't move and won't change no matter what nature or society throws at them.

Oh yeah and there is this very personal story about a little girl (Hushpuppy) and her father (who is dying) and how she has to be strong and learn to begin to take care of herself. I actually found that whole part of the story to be rather oddly told and less interesting. There are images of supernatural aurochs coming to invade and glaciers melting and it is all very abstract and nebulous to the point that I never understood the metaphor. Not enough to warrant spending a dime on the special effects to accomplish it. This film would have worked just as well without it as the sociological elements are the strongest part of the film.

Worth it for: Learning the culture of The Bathtub and the socio-economic ideas related to it.

Could do without: Largely incomprehensible central metaphor and related special effects.