I picked up the first issue of The Umbrella Academy: Vol 2 a week or two ago, and was so impressed, I picked up the graphic novel of Volume 1 today.

It came as a set, and was about half the size of a regular grahich novel and came with a figure of one of the characters named the White Violin.  The sculpting on the figure was pretty good as it looked the exact same as the character in the book.

If you go over to the Dark Horse website, you’ll find that there is an entire set of figures based on the characters in the book.  The entire thing looks amazing.  I’m thinking I may pick it up myself.  It would look great in my new office.

After reading Invincible earlier in the week, and The Umbrella Academy, I have to say that I find my interest in comics to be somewhat reinvigorated.

Any post I do about this book would not do it justice, but in a week or two after I have re-read it a half a dozen times, I may just attempt to give it the proper review it deserves.

Since we’ve been on a trend of watching one Transformers movie a week, I figured it would be a good idea for us to watch the original Transformers’ movie.  I haven’t seen it in years!  I picked up on DVD like, 8 years ago, but I don’t think I ever watched it.

Even though, they killed off practically all of the favorite characters from the original cartoon series in the first ten minutes, you’ve gotta like this movie more than the live action ones.  For me, I’m somewhat biased, as I find that this movie had what the live action ones lack….Dinobots!

Seriously, if they had at least put Grimlock in the Transformers 2, I would have thought that movie was about 40% better, just for that reason alone.  What do we get instead?  Some termanatrix wannabe who has a scorpion tail that fishes out of her ass…..yet they said there was no way to work Dinobots into the script.

In Other News

• Tomorrow’s strip is going to be a little late.  Luckily, with tomorrow being Canada Day, I have the day off work, which means I’ll have it done well before noon.
• Also, this Saturday I launch my new weekly comic strip on a new website, with a much easier to spell/remember web address!

With that said, I should probably get back to the movie.

Aly, Patrick, Mike & I saw the new Transformers movie.

That was a very long movie.  It started at 10:30pm and didn’t let out until after 1am.  We almost passed on seeing it.

When we arrived, the line up for the 10:30pm show was lined up right to the front entrance, and wrapped around outside the theater.  Which is where we stood for 15 minutes.  Out in the rain.  We got our tickets to the latest show possible so we could avoid a situation like that, but that just goes to show what I know about predicting movie line ups.

The movie itself wasn’t bad.  It wasn’t good, but it wasn’t as bad as I was told it was going to be.  I’m just not a Michael Bay fan.  Really.  Just look at some of his past movies.

Even though he had nothing to do with the new GI Joe movie, I have a feeling that it’ll be just as bad.  It’s looks like Power Rangers on crack.  Do yourself a favor.  Unless you’re a huge Transformers fan, I suggest you pass on this movie, as well as the upcoming GI Joe movie and go buy the seasons of the original cartoons on DVD.  Then maybe you’ll be able to work your way up to seeing this…..although, after watching the original 80’s series, you’ll probably cry blasphemy after seeing Transformers 2…

Final Crisis

To be honest, there were two reason why I picked this book up:

1. So I could complete my collection of Crisis books.
2. I read in all the reviews that this is the story in which Batman died.

This is the first time in years that I have not collected all of the individual issues of a Crisis story.  Mainly because of all of the really bad reviews…and the fact that the story didn’t really appeal to me.  However, once I heard that this would bring back the silver age Flash, Barry Allen, I decided that I’d go out and pick this up as soon as it came out as a graphic novel.  I did, and I’m not exactly 100% happy about it.  I’m not going to spoil the ending, but I will tell you, the only think I did like about this was the return of Barry Allen.

Batman’s role in this book was so little, it felt a little insulting to me as a Batman fan, that they killed him off.  In my opinion, if you’re going to kill off a character, you should do it in that character’s own title, or at least give them a bigger role in the story so their death has a little more meaning.  The same goes for the Martian Manhunter.  They just showed him being dragged into a room and being executed.  I’m not even kidding, he was only around for one hole page.  It’s sickening that they would give a character, that has been around since the silver age, and kill him off like that.  Hell, even the Blue Beetle, Ted Kord, got a full one-shot issue that he starred in, up until he got killed off on one of the last few pages of the book.

Unless you are a die-hard Grand Morrison fan, or feel an overwhelming need to complete your Crisis series, I would advise that you pass on this book.

HULK Vol.2 - Red & Green

Unlike Final Crisis, I thoroughly enjoyed this book.  Over the past few years, I really didn’t care for the Hulk.  I remember reading one issue a few years ago, and I actually thought about subscribing to it….until the next issue came out.  Betty Banner died of gamma radiation poisoning, and from then on, the book was never the same.  I kept reading after that for two years, but it never got better, so I stopped reading.  In this time, I missed out on the big Hulk events, that I heard were actually pretty good, Planet Hulk & World War Hulk.

It wasn’t until after World War Hulk that I took an interest in the character again.  I heard that there was now a Red Hulk, and he was nothing at all like the Green Hulk.  In fact, he wasn’t even Bruce Banner.  So, I picked up the relaunched series at Hulk #1 as well as King-Size Hulk #1, and was addicted.

Rather than being your standard “Hulk Smash!” type story, this one became a murder mystery as well as a “Who is the Red Hulk” mystery.  I read and re-read every issue as it came out, trying to put together clues as to who the Red Hulk really was, and that story is continued in volume 2 of HULK - Red & Green!

The first half of the story features the Bruce Banner as he tries to clean up the Red Hulk’s mess, after that incident with the Wendigos in the first story arc.

The second half, features She-Hulk and the Lady Liberators as they attempt to track down, defeat and reveal the identity of the Red Hulk.

I’m not going into much detail, because I want you all to read it for yourself.  So go pick up volume 1 & volume 2, and enjoy this story as much as I did.

Invincible #53

I’ve heard such good things about this series, I figured it was time I finally read an issue.

#53 came out almost a year ago, but I figured that even the older issues were worth reading to get a feel for the series, and I have to tell you, this story seriously lived up to the hype!

This particular story is about:

• the lead character Invincible, going on a first date with fellow hero Atom Eve.
• Having some words with his little(half?) brother from another planet, who had apparently killed two people in the previous issue without showing the slightest bit of remorse for his actions.
• a prison breakout.
• an brief argument with his mother.
• helping his ex-roommate move.

I liked everything I read.  This is what super hero comics should be about.  I don’t see myself going out and buying the book monthly, but I do see myself going to the book store, and picking up the four Invincible hardcover collected editions that are currently out in bookstores and comic shops everywhere.

I suggest you do the same.  If you would like to read a sample for yourself, go to imagecomics.com and read the first issue for free.

Michelangelo: The Third Kind #3

The reason I picked this up, was purely for nostalgic purposes.  I didn’t really care for it.  I tried to!  I wanted to!   I really did, but it just doesn’t really appeal to me the way the movies did.

I’ve decided that once a week, I will pick up an independent comic book.  This was my choice for this week, but having grown up watching the character on TV and in movies, I find myself unable to get back into it 18 years later.  My interest has faded in the character, and the story wasn’t interesting enough to reinvigorate that interest.

I liked the artwork, but I just didn’t care for the story.

I may give it another chance by picking up a different TMNT title, but this mini-series I won’t go out of my way to collect.  I’m thinking that Ninja Turtles don’t work as solo characters.  That last movie proved that.

So there you have it!  These are my picks and passes this week!  Tune in next week, and I’ll have more….or maybe I’ll just pick one book as my choice review of the week.  We’ll see.

It’s gotta make you wonder, what the hell is going on?

Before I went to work this morning, I heard on the radio that Farrah Fawcett had died today at 62.

After spending 10 hours in the office, I decided to check the news before I went home, and discovered that Micheal Jackson had died at age 50 of what they thought was a heart attack.   Now that took me for a shock.  I believe I muttered something out loud to the effect of “WTF?!?!”

I’ve never seen an episode of Charlie’s Angels and knew nothing at all of Fawcett, with the exception of some questionable appearances on the Late Show with David Letterman, so that didn’t really bother me all that much, but hearing about Jackson was really sad.  He was one of those guys who you always thought would be around forever.  He spent the past 18 or so years in a rut, and you always hoped that he would work his way out, and get his life on track.

Sadly, he’ll never get the chance.  One can’t help but feel sorry for his children.  I’m sure we’ll be hearing about this on the news for a very long time.

I remember when I was five years old, it was like, my first week of kindergarten, and I was wearing a Micheal Jackson t-shirt.  This girl who sat beside me on the bus, told me that she didn’t like him.  I had just seen, and was mesmorized by the Bad music video, and felt that her opinion wasn’t as important as mine.  So I politely replied to her, “I don’t care…” and went back to looking out the window.