Hazmatter

And here's Linkara's thoughts on the movie.

I have no idea how I missed this, but the new season has started!

The boys from Blood Gulch are back.

The master going evil and the student rebelling, in my opinion, is the perfect set-up for the second movie. If we had Sinestro turn bad immediately after being introduced to him, we wouldn't feel the sense of betrayal from Hal and the Corps that such a turn deserves. As it is, the movie has enough clues toward that development for foreshadowing purposes and laying the groundwork, and it ends with Hal having earned Sinestro's respect.

I do have to wonder if Martin Campbell was really the best choice of director for GL, but he still does an admirable enough job. I hope the next movie, assuming there is one, will nix Earth-based elements almost entirely and have it all set in space and on alien worlds like Korugar.

Clark and Lois might be iconic, but I'd still personally put Peter Parker and Mary Jane Watson well above them. (Which makes it sting all the more how they were handled in OMD and OMIT... but I'm not going to rant here.)

I've also got a soft spot for Barry Allen and Iris West.

Wally West and Linda Park, too.

Dick Grayson and Barbara Gordon.

Batman and Catwoman are a lot of fun, but (even though it's never actually gone anywhere in canon yet) I admit I'm a Batman/Wonder Woman 'shipper. I blame JLU. I couldn't help grinning when Diana had her hallucination-kiss with Bruce before getting the Star Sapphire ring in Blackest Night. Make it happen, DC!

I enjoyed myself watching it. Was it as good as The Dark Knight or Iron Man? No. Were there issues in the script or editing/direction that could have been corrected or improved during production? Of course. But then, the same is true of the first X-Men or Spider-Man films.

Yes, the "reluctant hero's journey" origin story has been done to death by now in these movies, but everyone on screen does their best with what they've got. It's not trying to be terribly deep or insightful or socially relevant like The Dark Knight or an X-Men movie, but it doesn't try to make excuses for what it is, either. Green Lantern raises the freak flag high and runs with it; you either accept the premise of an army of aliens in glow-in-the-dark spandex and magic rings flying around and making stuff out of light, or you don't.

Catwoman or Wolverine are truly bad comic book movies that I've seen in recent memory. Even Watchmen or, as I said, the first Spidey and X-Men flicks had their cringe-inducing moments. At no point is this anywhere near as bad. Green Lantern might not be terribly spectacular or original in the story department, but it didn't make me wince the way it might have if handled by people with far less respect for the concept or the audience. And there are a number of truly awesome moments when Hal is ring-slinging.

There have been (and likely will be) better comic book movies this year, but I'd say it's still worth at least one look to decide for yourself. Maybe more, if you're like me and end up liking it. The elements are all there for a really great GL movie, and while this might not be it quite yet, hopefully the people behind this have got their sea legs by now and we'll get to see that great movie in the sequel.

(I didn't see it in 3-D, but I'm curious what others who did thought of it. It looked like there were far less lighting issues that might interfere with the more spectacular scenes than in, say, Thor.)

The handful of clips that have been released online have me a good deal more hopeful for this than I was with the first trailer. But I'll still be trying to keep my expectations from getting too high as well.

/em fingerscrossed

Frank Miller + Todd McFarlane = ...buh???

Yes, it's Miller Time again!

I thought Jason Isaacs was Sinestro...? Pretty sure Arnold Vosloo was Abin Sur in this.

I like to pretend that everything after the adamantium bonding in XO:W is just some twisted mishmash of memories that Wolvie's cobbled together to try and make sense out of everything. And failed. Horribly.

Honestly, a Wolverine origin movie should've been a mix of Memento and Kill Bill.

But yes, First Class does outright contradict a fair number of tidbits, especially from the last two X-Men flicks. Most glaringly, seeing Prof. X still walking around and being buddies with Erik as the (admittedly younger-looking) bald Patrick Stewart in flashbacks and the like. But it's such a good movie, and so much better than the films it contradicts, that I really don't care.

"...and that's why Mogo doesn't socialize."



Sold.

Guess I should contribute something...

Booster Gold #44-45: Following the events of Time Masters, Booster unexpectedly finds himself in a now-empty version of the Arizona location of Rip Hunter's secret time lab. Skeets is the only other one there, and the two deduce that something's happened as fallout from their search for Batman. They fly to Coast City to try and get Green Lantern's help (since he and Superman were along for the ride in their jaunt through time) and the military immediately assumes that Booster is an Atlantean scout of some sort, opening fire. Booster eventually figures out that he's what they're shooting at and tries to get away.

After re-evaluating their situation, Skeets and Booster decide they must be in some kind of alternate timeline and try to timeshift back to their own reality. Skeets burns out in the attempt and Booster realizes that something's happened to change the past; there's nowhere for them to escape to. The military springs their secret weapon, the creature Booster once dubbed "Doomsday," under the remote mental control of Gen. Nate Adam (Captain Atom).

During the fight with Doomsday, Booster is thrown through the home of a woman named Alexandra Gianopoulos, who he rescues and flies away to safety. After she calms down and Booster explains his story, he brushes up on his revised history and the state of the world, deducing that Professor Zoom must be behind this, somehow. He figures out the location of a chronal anomaly and heads for Gotham City, Alexandra secretly following to help him since she doesn't want to live in a world where she has to hide her own powers...

(To be continued in Booster Gold #46!)

Here's some more news on titles.












The rundown:

Legion Lost - members of the Legion stuck in the present day, rather than the 31st century.

Legion of Superheroes - original recipe, new packaging

Teen Titans - oooookay... well, we know what Tim's doing in the relaunch (and his new Red Robin suit actually looks pretty cool compared to the others; do I detect a hint of Original Nightwing in the design?), but the rest... gah. And I guess Superboy's getting his own book, too.

Static Shock - his new look kinda works, though I'm not entirely sold yet on the hexagon-tiles he's riding instead of the simple disc he's used in the past

Hawk & Dove - LIEFELD?!?!? They gave freakin' LIEFELD art chores on this series?? I don't know or care who Sterling Gates is right now, WHAT WERE THEY THINKING?!? How does this guy keep getting work outside of his creator-owned schlock? Does he have blackmail on someone at DC or somethig?

Dick is Nightwing again. Babs is Batgirl again. Damien is still Robin. Still no word yet on the status of Tim Drake, Stephanie Brown or Cassandra Cain, though...

I'm much more excited/hopeful than I was with the first trailer. Though I do hope that they're not showing us all of the good scenes in these more recent releases just trying to make up for the atrocious editing on that first one. Supposedly the movie is about 50/50 between Earth and space/Oa scenes.

Not really a pure comedy series, but Psych has a lot of funny in pretty much every episode. Even some of the more dark/serious eps have their fair share of chuckles. Scads of pop culture references, too.

I'm now actually hoping that we do get sequels to this that advance the timeline of the X-Men universe into other decades. Imagine witnessing the birth of Nightcrawler, and how that impacts Raven/Mystique. Or they could crib from Michael Bay (or Doctor Who) and use the space race as a springboard to introduce the Shi'ar, possibly touching on Havok and his family. (I'd kinda love to see Cary Elwes as Corsair!)

No word yet on the status of Superboy, or indeed most of the "sidekick" (or formerly such) characters.

After reading the Flashpoint Abin Sur GL tie-in today, I have a theory about this relaunch.

In that book, the appearance of Abin, Sinestro, the Guardians and Oa seem to be more in line with the designs that we've seen from the upcoming movie. This makes me wonder if DC is doing this in order to have a ground-up cohesive redesign of their universe to draw from in marketing new films and other media, while hopefully bringing in new readers and keeping the old.

In other words, if this line-wide relaunch and the GL movie don't go over well, put me squarely in the "doom" camp. If they can actually pull it off and do it right... well, we'll see.

I'm still not gonna play DCUO, though.

Maybe it's just me, but I think Batman's redesign seems inspired by his look in the Arkham games. Which is a good thing. Not sure yet how I feel about the more "armored" appearance of characters like the Flash, though.

And yes, JLU and Blackest Night made me a Bruce/Diana shipper. Plus I'm sick and tired of pairing Supes and Wondie in Elseworlds stories, so I'm reeeeally hoping that angle is going to be more of a public perception thing.

Makes me wonder if Booster Gold will be the only one left who remembers the previous timeline once all is said and done... though I'm glad to hear they're keeping around characters like JaimeBeetle and Batwoman. And I'll probably at least look at Robinson's Hawkman series.

More news/rumors:

Superman and Wonder Woman will supposedly be publicly linked as a "couple," though whether that turns out to be genuine or simply tabloid assumption remains to be seen.

LoSH will be relaunched as Legion Lost... again. No idea how or even if this will be similar to the previous title by DnA.

Deadman will be the star of Adventure Comics.

The multi-color Lantern Corps still seem to be in-continuity, since they'll be getting their own new series.

Check here for more snippets, including the full JLA cover art with redesigns for Batman, Flash and Cyborg.

And here... we... GO.

Ultimatum #5

A Good Man Goes To War