Posted by
Unknown
- Thursday, September 26, 2013
Crude, crass, and vulgar. When I had first heard of Rat Queens, I had imagined Skullkickers with chicks. When I went to pick it up my local comic book store, that’s just what the guy behind the counter said as well. This is a sort of half-truth. Both Skullkickers and Rat Queens play off the classic Dungeons and Dragons in great satirical comedy, but in two very different ways. Now, bear in mind we have only just seen the first issue of Rat Queens. While Skullkickers revels in over-the-top machismo and ultra-violent antics, Rat queens, with no shortage of said violence, definitely curves towards a more uncouth and sexual humor. It’s a read best left on a high shelf lest a young individual were to pass by. It’s sure to offend a few people, and kindle the hearts of feminists everywhere.
Rat Queens follows the tale of our all-female gang duly titled the Rat Queens. They are one of many gangs within the Palisade who are wreaking havoc within the city limits and the people are tired of it. Apparently there was a time when these gangs took up arms against monsters and various invading forces that sought to destroy, or otherwise cause problems for the Palisade, but now they have settled down into a raucous life of sin and debauchery. Given the option of banishment or service to the crown, the Rat Queens opt for the quest assigned to them; rid the Hindman Cave of its supposed Goblin population. It’s a simple little ditty and nothing too impressive at this point in time, but it’s got lots of room to grow.
 |
| Page 5, Panel 1 of Rat Queens Issue #1 |
Initially I felt the story to be a little redundant. I've read this a hundred times and really, why do I need another fantasy RPG on my bookshelf? That comment aside, I feel that among the many other fantastical tales out there, this book might accomplish a few minor tasks that others don’t. Primarily, I’m really enjoying the comradery among the girls. Betty, Dee, Hannah, and Violet play off each other quite well and I’m looking forward to more of their off kilter conversations in further issues to come. Secondly, within a single issue I already have a pretty firm grasp on the back-stories for two of the four girls and it didn't feel like I was being force fed. That’s a huge accomplishment. It didn't take a monologue or diary entry to do it, just clever conversation and a little intuition. That’s a win for me.
 |
| Page 7, Panel 5 of Rat Queens Issue #1 |
The creative team behind this book features Kurtis J. Wiebe as our scriptwriter and Roc Upchurch on art. Kurtis is known for his work in Peter Panzerfaust and a big Shuster Award win for his book Green Wake. He has also written for The Intrepids and Debris, two more Image Comics titles. John Upchurch, who goes by the alias Roc, is providing the eye candy for this marvel after making his debut in Image doing the cover art for the series Vescell. More then what Kurtis will be providing us in terms of story, I am quite intent in seeing the continued works of Upchurch in whatever he may do. He has a style that isn't as cookie cutter as most individuals in the industry at this moment and so far I am a big fan of those doe eyes and cute button noses. Roc has been quite open about his work on Rat Queens and you can see more pages in future issues at his blog site here.
 |
| Issue #1 Promotional Cover Done By Fiona Staples |
For a damn good time, Rat Queens is a definite suggestion for you pull list. I suspect that not only will we continue to see the same great things that are happening in this first issue in future issues, but also a whole lot more. If you are a fan of wily women and loose lips, this might be the tale for you. If you have ever played D&D with your bros and wondered what it might be like to have a girl at the table, this is definitely the comic for you. If you've ever wondered why the most masculine and chiseled of heroes always hog the spotlight, well women, this could be the story for you too.
Finally, if you manage to snag yourself a copy, as I hear they have sold out, give me a shout and let me know what you think. Which one of the girls do YOU have the biggest crush on?
*update: Looks like this will be on ongoing series. Hurrah!
Posted by
Anthony Mango
- Wednesday, September 25, 2013
After morphing together the cast of the Star Trek movies and television series here, artist ThatNordicGuy is at it again, merging the two actors that have played Charles Xavier and Magneto in the X-Men film series to create the "perfect" versions of these X-Men characters.
Obviously, these do not include the little children versions, as that would be incredibly difficult to pull off. They include James McAvoy morphed with Patrick Stewart for Charles Xavier and Michael Fassbender morphed with Sir Ian McKellen for Magneto.
Check them out! Pretty awesome, right?
 |  |
| Michael Fassbender & Ian McKellen Merged as Magneto | James McAvoy & Patrick Stewart Merged as Professor Charles Xavier |
What are your thoughts on ThatNordicGuy's artwork above? Leave us a comment below!
Posted by
Anthony Mango
- Tuesday, September 24, 2013
Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. made its long awaited debut with the pilot episode tonight. Judging by the massive success of the Marvel Cinematic Universe and the wide appeal that the program has, the experts have already deemed that it will be a huge hit. While that is almost written in stone, does it mean the show is good enough to warrant that?
It's time for another REVIEWPOINT as we break down the film's hits and misses. As always, we'll start with the bad news first.
WARNING: SPOILERS BELOW
THE MISSES
1. THE ABC NETWORK CHEESE FACTOR
Is it the cheesiest thing in the world? No. Is it campy? Not really...unless you count Lola the flying car, which I'm sure a lot of people will love because they'll embrace the absurdity of it, but that's just not my style. Still, I can't help but feel like this would be a show I'd enjoy a lot more if it were on a different network, namely NBC or CBS. There aren't many shows on ABC that I have liked in the past 10 years with FlashForward being the only one I can bring to mind - and if you watched that show, you would agree with me that it had a very different tone from Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. and most ABC programming. Everything feels a bit too clean. Also...and I know I'm going to catch heat for this...the tone is a little too "fun" and reminds me of Firefly, another Joss Whedon project, which I watched ALL the episodes for and did not like a single one of them whatsoever. I'm not opposed to fun, and I'm not one of those people that thinks absolutely everything has to be as dark and realistic as the Dark Knight trilogy, but I'd like for them to take it a bit lighter on the CGI, flying cars and jokey characters to an extent.
2. FITZSIMMONS, LEO FITZ AND JEMMA SIMMONS
For someone like me who absolutely loves puns, you'd think I would love that part of the duo at the very least, but I don't. This is partly due to the cheesiness that their characters exude. They're also rather bland and uninteresting so far and trying desperately to make up for it by exaggerating everything and trying to be these hectic comedic relief characters, but I'm just finding them annoying. I also am not looking forward to all the shipping from my fellow fanboys and fangirls around the world....particularly because they seem more like a brother/sister combo, and that's kind of creepy.
THE HITS
1. AGENT GRANT WARD
At first, before the show aired, one of my biggest gripes was that they didn't make the main character (or any of them outside of Maria Hill) people from the comics. While I do still maintain that notion and I wish Clay Quartermain and others will show up, and that they'll make use of the million or so S.H.I.E.L.D. agents that are in the comics rather than just continually making up brand new ones, I do have to bite my tongue a little bit with Agent Ward. Having a fresh, clean slate to start off with makes it so we can grow along with Ward without any preconceived notions. He's a bit wooden right now, but it's only the pilot, and they've put some groundwork in there to build up to some legitimate characterization down the line with his family issues and his hotheadedness. He's a much more likable lead than I anticipated he would be.
2. REFERENCES TO THE UNIVERSE
This show needed to prove that it was in the same continuity as the movies and it did very well illustrating that so far. Extremis, the Chitauri, gamma radiation, flat out mentioning Dr. Erskine and his super soldier serum, and so forth were all moments that made me smile as a fan. "I don't think Thor's technically a god", saying that there are cosplay girls parading around Stark Tower....awesome.
3. AGENT COULSON LIVES....SOMEHOW
At first, the mere write-off that Coulson only stopped breathing for a few seconds was bothering me. What a slap in the face to the movie, right? Then, with the allusion that there's more to the story than him just getting a vacation to Tahiti in his recovery, they sold me. I fully expect Coulson to turn out to be a Life Model Decoy and the revelation of this is sure to be a huge plot point that will develop over time. Putting that seed out there at the beginning of the show will pay off and every show that is worth a damn does this properly, just as they did here.
END NOTES
Melinda May still has to win me over and I don't like Fitz and Simmons, but the rest of the cast is good and I'm much less worried about this show's potential now that I've seen the first episode. They can certainly go down the wrong path and make this turn out worse than this, but there's just as much of a chance that they improve upon the flaws of the first episode. A slightly less cheesy tone, straying away from the things that remind me of Firefly, and keeping up the continuity will help it at least from my perspective. I'll be watching until they convince me to stop.
Would I recommend it? Yes. If you're a fan of the Marvel films, you'll get at least some entertainment out of this. Your mileage may vary on some of these concepts, though, either for the negative or the positive.
What were your thoughts on the episode? What should the next Reviewpoint be?
LEAVE US A COMMENT BELOW!
Posted by
Anthony Mango
- Monday, September 23, 2013
The final season of How I Met Your Mother has started with two episodes back-to-back, titled The Locket and Coming Back.
Rather than run down the episodes in synopsis format, I figured I would do a standard Hits & Misses Reviewpoint-style post.
THE MISSES
1. LILY THE DRUNK
One of the things this show has had a lot of fun with in the past is showing Lily as more of a raunchy, disturbed individual than her outside persona would appear. This time around, though, I found it simply annoying. Lily spent the entirety of the hour complaining, looking like a wreck, and just being problematic, despite having the absolute least to complain about and the easiest time out of every character.
2. NO REVEAL OF THE MOTHER'S NAME
The main thing I was hoping to see in this was the reveal of her name. Why? I don't know. I'm just tired of calling her The Mother or Yellow Umbrella or any other pseudonyms.
3. THE TIME FRAME
Maybe I'm jumping the gun, but I don't want to see an entire season of people talking on the phone and traveling. I want to see the How I Met Your Mother that I've watched for 8 seasons, where they interact in their apartments and the bar, can flash back to previous things and flash forward.
Likewise, am I overlooking something, or is there a plot hole with the train situation? Lily and The Mother (name would work so much better there, wouldn't it?) are on the train to Farhampton and we see that Lily has arrived. All leading up to this, we've been seeing The Mother arrive via a cab much later, when it's raining at night and it's either just before or during the ceremony. If she arrived with Lily, why is she re-arriving? Someone fill me in if I'm wrong here, please.
4. TED MOSBY, SAD SACK
Again, I might be jumping ahead, but if Ted spends the entire season acting the way he did in these two episodes, then no wonder a lot of people don't value the character, as he won't be entertaining. I want there to be a huge payoff to the character and this storyline with a lot of emotion, but just because I want drama doesn't mean I want Ted to be a totally humorless, pathetic and pitiful character. That's unnecessary.
THE HITS
1. THE MOTHER TOTALLY WORKS
We haven't seen much of her yet, but I completely buy into The Mother BEING The Mother. She seems to fit well so far in the orchestra of the cast. There's not much to her character as of right now, but I already find her very likable. For someone who has been told more times than he can count that he's extremely similar to Ted Mosby...I can see why Ted would go for her.
2. BARNEY IS SURE OF HIMSELF
I'm sure we'll see something down the line where Barney second-guesses the wedding (after all, we've already seen it with the ducky tie situation), but for now, I like that Barney isn't going straight into that.
3. MARSHAL IS STILL NOT CORRUPTED
Something I've always enjoyed about Marshal's character is that he could have the world shit all over him, but he's still very optimistic overall. Ted can be quite depressed, Lily can get quite psychotic, Robin and Barney can be manipulative and angry, but Marshal is always hoping for the best and expecting that out of everyone.
END NOTES
This was one of my least favorite openers for the show so far, so I'm disappointed. I'm very, very worried that this is going to feel stretched out and too different from the previous seasons. I hope the addition of Daphne to the cast isn't a big deal and she's gone within the next episode or two, as nearly every show that adds a character at the end just focuses on bringing a lot of attention on them and losing it on the main characters that got us to this point.
That being said, if I would put my trust in any show to pull this kind of a drastic thing off...it's How I Met Your Mother. The show has been brilliant so far and I truly think I won't be disappointed by the end. I also fully expect that I will cry when all things are said and done.
What were your thoughts on the episodes? What should the next Reviewpoint be?
LEAVE US A COMMENT BELOW!
Crude, crass, and vulgar. When I had first heard of Rat Queens, I had imagined Skullkickers with chicks. When I went to pick it up my local comic book store, that’s just what the guy behind the counter said as well. This is a sort of half-truth. Both Skullkickers and Rat Queens play off the classic Dungeons and Dragons in great satirical comedy, but in two very different ways. Now, bear in mind we have only just seen the first issue of Rat Queens. While Skullkickers revels in over-the-top machismo and ultra-violent antics, Rat queens, with no shortage of said violence, definitely curves towards a more uncouth and sexual humor. It’s a read best left on a high shelf lest a young individual were to pass by. It’s sure to offend a few people, and kindle the hearts of feminists everywhere.
