Posted by
Unknown
- Sunday, April 6, 2014
Posted by
Orion Petitclerc
Welcome to another comic book review by yours truly. (These are fun. We should do these more often.) Most of my reviews are about either Marvel's symbiotes or Moon Knight. You can probably already tell this one's about the latter. Last month I reviewed the first issue of Warren Ellis, Declan Shalvey, and Jordie Bellaire's astonishing Moon Knight series, which won me over for its nostalgia and its new storytelling format. Today I'll be reviewing Moon Knight #2, so let's get to it!
As Ellis had suggested, this issue is its own self-contained story, following a storytelling format akin to what you'd see in a serial crime drama (like any show in the CSI franchise). Just as the previous issue's title, "Slasher," indicated what kind of criminal Moon Knight faced in that story, this issue's title, "Sniper," pretty much summed its story up.
The first eight pages are all similar in layout. Each has eight equally-sized panels arranged in two columns and four rows, with each panel depicting seemingly disconnected workers clocking out for the day. As the story progresses, the number of panels with any art content begins to dwindle as each target is expertly assassinated from a distance with a single sniper shot. Very little is revealed about the reason why these people are getting picked off, but the omniscient narration from the first issue returns to tell a tale featuring elements strikingly similar to Marc Spector's own origin story.
Through these eight pages, the color white becomes ever more dominant as the panels begin to disappear with their victims. The creative team's goal was to make the color white as striking against other colors as it is in Moon Knight's costume. It's also a clever tactic on their part because it also conveys the idea of the "light at the end of the tunnel" that people are said to experience when they die. See? I can be deep, too.
After the last victim falls, Shalvey and Bellaire treat the readers to a beautiful New York City nightscape before they and Ellis plunge us into the action. It's a fight between the mystery sniper—boasting a very high-tech, high-caliber rifle—and Moon Knight, who dives from a unique Moon Copter and glides in sporting his new superhero suit. From there it's a quick battle, and then the entire situation is explained to our hero in the end.
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| Another strong one liner, Ellis. |
The one thing this issue lacked is a continuation of Marc's story, which made the book feel shorter in comparison to issue #1. The buildup to the battle was slow and steady, and when the action did happen it was short lived. Now, that doesn't mean this was a bad issue in any sense. It's exactly what Ellis planned on delivering: a digestible episode of self-contained crime drama. It's a tasty grab bag of popcorn—light, entertaining, and sticks to your teeth for a short while. However, if this is the kind of format we're going to get for the rest of the series, I wish Marvel would make this a bimonthly publication as opposed to a monthly one, so we needn't wait as long for the overarching story to progress.
Luckily, the story in this issue didn't finish as cryptically as the last one. Instead, issue #2 ended with a classic moral you'd find in most crime dramas of this sort.
Shalvey and Bellaire continue to kill it in the art department, making this issue as visually entertaining and meaningful as the last. Moon Knight #2 gets 4.5 stars out of 5 for the narrative—half a star deducted for the absence of Marc's story—and 5 stars out of 5 for the perfect art.
Are you still enjoying this new take on the Lunar Legionnaire? What was your favorite moment from this issue? I want to know, so let me hear about it in the comments section below. Here's hoping you'll look forward to the next review!
Posted by
Fellonius Munch
- Saturday, April 5, 2014
Yet more news this week in regard to the current crop of superhero hero movies. Writer, director, and producer Luc Besson's phenomenal comeback kick starts in 2014 with the first trailer to his latest action thriller Lucy, starring Scarlett Johansson and Morgan Freeman!
The movie follows the titular character (Johansson) as she's dragged into a smuggling operation as a drug mule. A package of some unknown substance is sewn into her stomach for shipment. But the job goes wrong and the substance enters her bloodstream. You might expect her to overdose and die, but this is clearly no black tar heroin. Whatever it is, it triggers the development of superhuman abilities and mental evolution, making her unstoppable—as her captors are about to find out.
From what we can see in the trailer, this movie looks to be everything we've been waiting to see in the latest Marvel movie releases. Johansson's fans and Avengers fans alike have been pushing to see her really get to grips with the character of Black Widow. Well, not only will Johansson get to prove her mettle as a superhuman butt-kicker with Lucy, but anyone looking for an original thriller that delivers much more than it promises may find that Lucy delivers more than most of the recent big spenders.
The movie delves deep into the concept of what humans could achieve by using more than 10 percent of their brains. That is where Morgan Freeman's Professor Norman—a man studying this concept—comes into it. Lucy comes looking for his help after her predicament unleashes the full capacity of her rapidly evolving mind, demonstrating that our wildest dreams, such as psychokinesis, may only be the tip of the iceberg. The visual effects of Besson's latest film are stunning (though currently more than 10 percent of that is thanks to the captivating Johansson), and the action looks frankly gut-busting.
Luc Besson, a brilliant director who broke out in the nineties with La Femme Nikita and Leon (aka The Professional), has brought international film fans joy for over thirty years. He's one of few foreign filmmakers to truly thrive and endure in the US film industry. Aside from Taxi and The Fifth Element, he has also written and produced such gems as Taken, The Transporter, and most recently one of the late Paul Walker's final features, Brick Mansions (yet to be released).
Personally, I cannot wait for this movie. Sound off, fanboys! Leave your thoughts in the comments section below and tell us this doesn't look amazing. Thanks for reading.
Posted by
Fellonius Munch
Meet five-year-old Kristoffer Von Hassel, the youngest security researcher ever credited with working for Microsoft. He's just been paid off with $50, four free video games, and a free year of Xbox Live Gold membership for reporting a major security flaw in the Xbox One's log in security system!
Kristoffer recently managed to access his dad's gamer profile apparently by entering the wrong credentials and then filling the password entry box with spaces. As is with most innocent kids, the young boy's glee was replaced with anxiety, and the possibility of getting in trouble and having his games taken away got to him. With that, he owned up to his dad and they chose to report the flaw to Microsoft, resulting in a cache of goodies that Kristoffer's dad probably ran away with whilst laughing maniacally….
Sound off, Fanboys! Any of you just lose out on a second Christmas there? Comment below and thanks for reading.
Posted by
Fellonius Munch
Finally, the first teaser trailer to Sylvester Stallone's The Expendables 3 is here, and it looks awesome!
This old-school action movie franchise has been charging headlong and gathering momentum since its 2010 debut, bringing classic action movie legends together to make corny, high-octane, high-impact features. Even if you're not a fan, you can't deny that they do what they set out to do.
In the last installment, Sly and the Family Stallone went up against villains Jean-Claude Van Damme and Scott Adkins for the murder of Thor's younger brother (Liam Hemsworth). Along the way, they got Arnie back and joined forces with Chuck Norris. That was a lot of fun, but just as Expendables 2 did a lot to improve on the first outing, developments over the last year suggest that Stallone has been doing a lot to improve on the franchise's prior lack of acting weight.
Well, he's only gone and done that by adding Mel Gibson, Harrison Ford, Kelsey Grammer, Robert Davi, Antonio Banderas, and Wesley Snipes!
Now, we all know Han Solo, Blade, Mad Max, El Mariachi, and Frasier, but I was particularly delighted to hear that a somewhat less famous actor, Robert Davi, had joined the cast. Some of you know him as the opera-loving Fratelli brother from The Goonies, but there's a hidden link here. He's been good friends with Schwarzenegger since a viewing of Die Hard, where Davi played FBI Special Agent Johnson. And so the family grows...
While we're waiting for more updates on EX3, why not take a look at our predictions for what Expendables 4 could look like!
Sound off, Fanboys and Fangirls! Are we looking forward to a ridiculous amount of explosions and hilariously bad one-liners, or what? Comments below, and thanks for reading.
Posted by
Orion Petitclerc
- Friday, April 4, 2014
Hello, Fanboys (and Fangirls)! I'm baaaaack! Once again, I bestow upon ye the goo that keeps on giving: symbiotes! (Ew, get your minds out of the gutter!) This time, we shift gears back to pretty much the only symbiote character who has remained constant since his debut. That's right, I'm talking about the scourge of the '90s, the crimson killer, the one and only Cletus Kasady, a.k.a. Carnage. He's back again, and this time Cullen Bunn (The Sixth Gun, Helheim, Venom), Salva Espin (Generation Hope, Deadpool), and Veronica Gandini (Fearless Defenders, The Mice Templar) are pitting him against the '90s Marvel Universe's other famous whacko in red, in a match made in Heaven/Hell (you decide which). I'm referring, of course, to the brand spankin' new Deadpool Vs. Carnage 4-issue limited series from Marvel.
An official Deadpool/Carnage face-off has been on every nostalgic geek's wishlist since the '90s, and at long last Marvel has delivered. Expectations were high, as Bunn had big shoes to fill with both Deadpool and Carnage fans after his previous mildly successful work with both characters. He and his partners in crime definitely did not disappoint with the first issue, which—when summarized with only two adjectives—was both frenetic and funny. I'll be reviewing this limited series as a symbiote fan, but I can't deny that Deadpool has grown on me in the past few months.
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| Achievement Unlocked: Looks That Kill |
The first important point to note is that this is Carnage's very first book with a parental advisory warning on the cover, and it's about time! If we were to slap an MPAA rating on Carnage as a character, it would be either R and NC-17, and this book would probably receive the former rating. Historically, any comic that featured Carnage never carried any such parental advisory, even though Carnage has always been depicted as gory, murderous, and outright terrible. With Deadpool Vs. Carnage's parental advisory, however, Bunn and company have a little more leeway to flex their wicked muscles (that's a real thing, y'know) and give Carnage and Deadpool the violence and raunchiness they deserve.
Now, for the actual story. This book picks up right after the events of Superior Carnage Annual, which Bunn also wrote, in which Kasady reunited with his symbiote and escaped from prison. (Check out my reviews of each issue of the Superior Carnage series here.) As is customary for Carnage, he celebrates his freedom with another murder spree somewhere near the Kansas state line. I'm loving how, under recent writers, Carnage is gravitating towards the Central and Southern United States. It seems to me that this complements Kasady's hickish/redneck character.
By chance or Providence, while Deadpool is eating a bowl of cereal in his New York City apartment, he happens upon a news channel covering the aftermath of the Kansas bloodfest. Deadpool (being Deadpool) is more interested in finding a channel featuring Kat Dennings, but the universe eventually pulls him into a quest to track down and stop Carnage in a random and very amusing manner. The two finally meet—or, rather, Carnage meets one of Deadpool's explosive missiles before meeting the Merc with a Mouth himself—and begin their mad dance and cooperative comedy roast, setting the tone for the rest of the series: an entertaining pissing contest to see who's crazier. The book ends with the arrival of the series's first special guest, but without spoiling the surprise for you all, I'll give you one hint as to who it is: it's a fan favorite from Carnage's past.
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| Take note of the word balloon from the new player. |
The art is downright spectacular, and both Espin and Gandini deserve pats on their backs. Having the parental advisory the book has, you'd probably expect this series to have an art style similar to that of artists like Clayton Crain or Gabriele Dell'Otto, the better to depict the gore and grit. Espin's cartoony style, however, compliments Deadpool's loony-ness, and the two artists' combined work gives a friendly technicolor tone to the violence.
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| Cletus on a lazy Sunday. |
Luckily, this doesn't detract from the gravity of the skirmishes; instead, it adds an airiness with the injected humor between both characters, conjuring a sort of disconnection in the reader which, in itself, is delightfully disturbing—imagine yourself sitting, reading, and laughing at the humor of a cartoon about a bloodbath. The book's creative team made monsters of their readers, and I'd expect nothing less from Deadpool Vs. Carnage.
I really have no valid complaints about this first issue about anything other than Kasady's mullet, which is a new haircut for the character. I wasn't a fan of Eddie Brock's mullet back in the '90s, and I'm sure not a fan of Kasady's mullet now. I was really liking the very Southern 'do and sideburns that Kim Jacinto gave him in Superior Carnage Annual, and I wish this new creative team had left that detail alone. Again, I have no valid complaints about this first issue.
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| BRAWNDO: IT'S INTEEEEEEEENSE! |
Deadpool Vs. Carnage #1 gets 5 stars out of 5 for the writing, and 5 stars out of 5 for the art, rounding the overall rating to a perfect 5 out of 5. I don't recall, but this may be the first individual comic book I've ever given a perfect score to on Fanboys Anonymous. I guess I'm just trying to tell you all to pick this book up. Like, right now.
Which is your favorite of the two madmen in red? Who are some of the guests you're waiting to see pop up in this limited series? If you've read the book already, do you think I gave it a fair rating? SHOUT IT OUT in the comments section below, and follow The Venom Site for all of your symbiote needs! Pretty please?
Posted by
Orion Petitclerc
Hey-o! If you're like me, you're probably excited for the Amazing Spider-Man 2 coming out next month, and not just because it'll have a first look at the Venom symbiote. (I would link you the proof, but Sony took the leak down soon after it was posted.) Also like me, the gamer portion of you guys and gals are also probably looking forward to the follow up of the previous film's tie-in video game.
Before today, Beenox has revealed Electro, Kraven the Hunter, and Wilson Fisk's (a.k.a. the Kingpin) involvement in The Amazing Spider-Man 2 video game. Now a new trailer has surfaced featuring a few new additions to the villains cast, including Harry Osborn/Green Goblin as he will be featured in the film, film game veteran Black Cat, and…Cletus Kasady?! As Carnage?!
Yep. As the trailer suggests, Venom's psychotic spawn will be making his film game-verse debut with this new installation, although with an obviously altered origin story tied into Oscorp experimentation. Additionally, Beenox has revealed that there will be 15 alternate costumes to collect in the game, each of which features its own unique stats and perks. Some of the costumes announced include Spider-Man Noir, Miles Morales' Ultimate Spider-Man, Superior Spider-Man, the "Ends of the Earth" Spider-Armor, Kaine's Scarlet Spider, Spider-Man 2099, and a few of Spidey's Identity Crisis suits.
The Amazing Spider-Man 2 video game will be available for PC, Wii U, Xbox 360, Xbox One, Playstation 3, and Playstation 4 on April 29, 2014. Shout out, Fanboys and Fangirls! Will you be picking this game up? Which villains are you looking forward to taking on? Comment below!
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