Marvel Comics

Not sure how much people are actually following this blog anymore, but I figured I'd use this as a forum to talk about very nerdy things such as comic books...

So Brendan got me a year membership to Marvel's Digital Comics (if you want my log-in info, let me know) and though I haven't had a lot of time to check them out, I'm finding there are plenty of comics for me to read.

So I'm trying to read some of the old school classics and reading about origin stories, but I'll admit, some of these are tough to read. I respect where this all came from, but man am I glad art has evolved over the years.

I read the origin story for Spider-man and this really wasn't too different from the Sam Raimi movie. The art wasn't too cheesy, but I guess I was hoping for something more or different from the movies. Not sure why, but I guess I should be happy that some directors are trying to keep to the story. Though on the other hand, I really enjoy what Christopher Nolan has done with Batman (I'm sure that can be another post).

Captain America was a little rough to read. The art itself felt like an old Archie and/or Rex Morgan comic. Seriously, who would read Rex Morgan in the Sunday paper? Anyway, I read about a quarter of it and I had to put it down. The origin story fits relatively fell compared to the movie, but the comic summarized it in 2 pages. The part that had me cringing / laughing was how Bucky gets turned into his side kick. Apparently Steve Rogers wasn't only Captain America, but a Boy Scout leader/chaperone and he gets caught by Bucky changing into his superhero uniform. Then Cap just tells Bucky he needs a side kick and there you go....lame...

Not so much an origin story, but I read some of the first Deadpool's and I actually kind of find this guy entertaining. He's quasi Wolverine w/o the claws and his personality is like Spider-man with all the chit chat. I'm curious what they'll do movie wise for this one considering I think they kind of messed him up in Wolverine movie. They made it so that his mouth is shut!?? That's 99% of who Deadpool is and his identity. What is kind of cool is his healing factor is a little more advanced then Wolverine: guy can grow back limbs if they cut off.

I think the next on my list is to read more about each of the Avengers and then read some of the more modern stories on the Avengers themselves. I think Iron Man then Thor will be interesting to read and then maybe some Captain America and Hulk. Definitely on the queue will be some X-men....from what I vaguely remember, the one's from the 90's had some sweet story lines...

On another front, I've been reading a lot of DC Comics lately (paper copies) and they've recently rebooted all their franchises to reset back to issue #1. They're not necessarily reboots & new origin stories...I think the basic principles are still there, but I think they're trying to take a Nolan-esque view in advancing their stories in a different light. (i.e. what if the world was skeptical of Superman vs. embracing him from the get-go, what if super humans were seen as rationale for the world falling apart vs. really being seen as heroes and how they deal in that world) So far, each that's I've read had been interesting and I love the art in each of them. One of these days I need to document who all the artists are and really follow their work. The only one I can name off hand in Jim Lee and he's doing sick things w/ the Justice League. Wonder Woman is super hot and probably could battle Belle as the "hottest" comic book character haha.

One other comic that I read that I thought was really interesting and actually beats my logic a bit about old drawings was Swamp Thing. Jonathan got me that for x-mas and I was actually semi-skeptical on whether I would like it or not, but it turned out to be really interesting. It had some weird twists and turns, interesting villain, and relationships. The only thing I question now is the cover art - it's Swamp Thing growing roses from his hands - that's the least tough thing I could think of for a cover to appeal to the masses. =)

Last semi-nerdy topic is related to probably one of my new favorite shows: Castle. It's a cheesy crime drama where some of the cases they solve aren't all too interesting and sometimes a little "too easy" for them to solve, but what I like most about the show is the dialogue. Every character on that show has so much appeal and to me that seems pretty rare. Usually I'll like 1-2 potentially one of them being the main one, but every person is awesome. I like the title character as well because he just has so many nerdy references (similar to why I like Chuck) that it keeps my appeal up. The sarcasm he puts in place are reasons why I really liked Firefly and just the sarcastic side of Indiana Jones & Han Solo - lead characters that are super confident, cocky, get the job done w/o taking themselves too seriously. Of course, this show also holds my appeal because I think Stana Katic is absolutely gorgeous! That definitely doesn't hurt.