Month: February 2014

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Have you seen House of Cards, and if so what do you think of it?

Midway through the second season as I type.

I like it – I found myself OD’ing on the first season, and setting it aside about halfway through before returning and hungrily devouring the rest of it. This second season is… interesting?

It feels like there’s been a shift that the writers haven’t quite managed to come to terms with, with Frank in the VP seat. There’s no throughline like the Russo plot of the first season, and Frank’s new duties mean that he seems too removed from the tightly focused scrum of party politics the year before.

Tonally, it feels like it’s lurched more towards dark comedy – while I admired the “You probably think I’ve forgotten about you” monologue at the end of the first episode, everything feels a little bit more cartoonish this time around, and it was hardly the least cartoonish show to begin with.

Overall, I like it, and I’m going to keep watching. But this year feels problematic in a way that the first didn’t.

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SAVAGE WOLVERINE 19
ISSUE # 19 – Gail Simone (W) • TBA (A)
COVERS BY Shane Davis
ISSUE #19 –
• He’s the best there is at what he does – but what if he has a bad day?
• Logan collides head first with some bad luck on the worst possible day. Can Jubilee lend a hand?
• It’s Wolverine’s no good, very bad, extremely awful day by Gail Simone (Batgirl) and Somebody!

“By Gail Simone (Batgirl) and Somebody!”

Yes, I wonder why artists may feel like they’re being devalued by the Big Two these days. I can’t quite put my finger on it.

(From here.)

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so when will the next episode of the wait what podcast will come out ? its one of the best parts of my week I make an effort not to miss ^_^ also who do you think would win in an Miss Universe body building contest between She-Dragon or Joanna Cargill ? the winner gets to Fight take Debra Whitman on a Date ?

We should be recording this week, so… next Monday or Tuesday? Soon! is the answer. Soon!

And as someone who had to google who Joanna Cargill was, I have to admit, I am nowhere near qualified to answer that second question other than saying that someone should take poor Debra Whitman on a date.

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If Vision is in Avengers 2 and does not cry will you demand your money back?

No, because it’ll leave Paul Bettany something to do in the sequel.

More importantly, if Vision and Scarlet Witch don’t start flirting in this movie, I’ll – okay, I’ll actually be a little relieved, considering that Bettany’s something like 20 years older than Elizabeth Olsen. Damn you for ruining my Englehart wishes for the movies, Marvel Studios!

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The books spotlighted for the campaign are FBP, Coffin Hill, Brother Lono, Trillum, The Wake, and Hinterkind. According to ad copy, there will be a $250,000 marketing campaign including ads in the LA Times (Hero Complex), IGN, NY Times.com, Huffington Post The Onion/AV Club, Facebook (Hello Brett Schenker), Goodreads and Romantic Times.

Romantic Times? I can’t wait to see how The Wake and Brother Lono are going to be advertised there.

From here.

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The “Point NOW” issues take matters even further. A Point NOW issue, it seems, is what a title gets when even Marvel has too much shame to relaunch it. The issue is officially numbered something like #20.NOW, and it gets a bloody great #1 on the cover, to signify… what exactly? The solicitations for these comics offer unexplained gibberish such as “Avengers #24.NOW = Avengers #1 in all-new Marvel Now”. The reasonable reader, groping for meaning in this syntactic wilderness, might be forgiven for assuming that a Point NOW issue is at least a jumping on point of some description.

Such a reader might be surprised by this week’s two offerings. Guardians of the Galaxy #11.NOW boasts a huge #1 in the top right hand corner, but the story within is “The Trial of Jean Grey”, part 2. Yes, it’s a crossover with All-New X-Men, so it’s the first chapter to appear in Guardians. And yes, the first two chapters could technically be read in either order, since they show how the two different teams got to the same point. That’s a structure Bendis did to death in his Avengers events, though it makes more sense here, spread across two different titles. Even so, the bottom line is that it is the second part of the story to appear, and Marvel have stuck a #1 on the cover.

This is nothing compared to X-Men #10.NOW, which is billed as “Ghosts, part 1″, despite being quite plainly the continuation of the Arkela/Sisterhood storyline that began in issue #7. The issue opens with the resolution of mid-story cliffhangers from the previous issue, principally Monet having charged into battle alone and been beaten down by the villains. In the upcoming trade paperback edition, this issue will be “Muertas, part 4 of 6″. And even that storyline is a sequel to the original Arkela story from issues #1-3.

Nobody could describe this comic as the first issue of anything, however generously and broadly that concept is defined. It is, in reality, a middle chapter of a lengthy storyline. So why does it have a big #1 on the cover?

Paul O’Brien takes on Marvel’s love of renumbering (and inventing non-number numbers).
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Directed by Joss Whedon (“Marvel’s The Avengers”), the film returns its iconic cast, including Robert Downey Jr. (“Iron Man 3,” “Marvel’s The Avengers”) as Tony Stark/Iron Man along with Chris Hemsworth (“Thor: The Dark World,” “Marvel’s The Avengers”) as Thor, Mark Ruffalo (“Marvel’s The Avengers,” “Now You See Me”) as Hulk, Chris Evans (“Captain America: The Winter Soldier,” “Marvel’s The Avengers”) as Captain America, Scarlett Johansson (“Captain America: The Winter Soldier,” “Marvel’s The Avengers”) as Black Widow, Jeremy Renner (“American Hustle,” “Marvel’s The Avengers,”) as Hawkeye, and Samuel L. Jackson (“Captain America: The Winter Soldier,” “Marvel’s The Avengers”) as Nick Fury. Joining the cast are Aaron Taylor-Johnson (“Godzilla,” “Kick Ass 2”) as Quicksilver, Elizabeth Olsen (“Godzilla”) as Scarlet Witch and James Spader (“The Blacklist,” “Lincoln”) as Ultron.

Yes, that doesn’t sound like a movie with far too many main characters at all. (Not listed: the already announced Paul Bettany as Jarvis and Thomas Kretschmann as Baron Von Strucker, as well as the rumored Cobie Smulders as Maria Hill, Clark Gregg as Agent Coulson and Don Cheadle as Iron Patriot/War Machine).

(From Marvel PR email about Avengers: Age of Ultron.)

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During an action-packed event on Monday, February 17, at the 2014 American International Toy Fair, Disney Consumer Products unveiled its dynamic product lines that will dominate boys toy aisles this year with offerings inspired by highly anticipated content: Disney’s Planes: Fire & Rescue, Star Wars Rebels, Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy and The Amazing Spider-Man 2 from Sony Pictures Entertainment and inspired by Marvel’s iconic web-slinger.

That’s right: boys toy aisles. Because girls aren’t allowed, apparently. This is from a PR email with the subject line “DISNEY CONSUMER PRODUCTS READY TO CAPTURE BOYS’ IMAGINATIONS  AND DOMINATE TOY AISLES IN 2014,” because only ALL CAPS can explain how exciting this is, obviously.

Aside from the sexism implicit in the messaging – something that only comes from the positioning of the release itself; the quotes from Disney folk are gender neutral –  the most fascinating thing about the email for me is that it came from a Marvel.com PR source. On the one hand, I get it – Guardians of the Galaxy and Amazing Spider-Man are Marvel properties – but nonetheless, it’s an explicitly Disney PR message sourced from Marvel. Blurred lines indeed.

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Diamond To Close Digital Storefront Program

Diamond To Close Digital Storefront Program

Less than two years after launch, Diamond Comic Distributors is to close Diamond Digital, its digital comics storefront solution created in partnership with iVerse Media. The closure was announced to retailers via email last week, with the reason given being that “18 months after its launch, results indicate that Diamond Digital has not gained enough traction in the marketplace to continue.”

Got to say: I really thought this would be a bigger deal than it turned out to be.