Set Your Watches

Every time I hear that a comic book is to be adapted into a motion picture, I go through the same routine:

1: Vague interest upon the initial announcement
2: Mass excitement after seeing the first trailer
3: Total hysteria while waiting in line hours before the movie's release
4: Slight confusion during opening credits
5: Second-hand embarrassment halfway through the movie, (often exacerbated in the event of a Stan Lee cameo)
6: Post-traumatic stress disorder when leaving the theater

With a few exceptions (Sin City, Batman Begins, and Hellboy come to mind), any widely-released adaptation of a comic book turns out to be at best, mediocre, and at worst, Daredevil. And then, when a new comic book movie is announced, I foolishly think to myself that maybe this time will be different, that maybe the director will get it right. Of course, I'm always wrong.

But maybe this time will be different.

I am referring to the upcoming adaptation of Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons' groundbreaking maxi-series The Watchmen. Often considered one of the best, if not the best, graphic novels of all time, The Watchmen has had a long history of bad breakups with the film industry (a 1989 version of the adapted screenplay can be found here). Only now, it's finally happening.

The movie has been announced for quite a while now, but I am writing about it now because a few days ago, according to my Wizard magazine, the first poster has been unveiled, drawn by original Watchmen artist Dave Gibbons.



I'm not sure how I feel about it in terms of it working as a movie poster, but what I do get from it is this: director Zack Snyder is telling the world that he's not fucking around. He's not making just another shitty comic book adaptation. He's making the Watchmen (this is especially evident if you are familiar with how the covers to the individual comics looked. Essentially, this poster looks like it could be a hypothetical issue 0).

For more information on the poster, read the Wizard article online here.


Also, whenever I look at the release date I think of the lyrics to "Three is a Magic Number." Whether this is intentional or not is anybody's guess.

Aaron's Pick of the Week

Pretty much every comic shop I've ever been to has a little feature known as a "pick of the week," where each employee offers their opinion on which books are not to be missed. I figure it would only be appropriate for me to do likewise.

Here's what I loved for the week of September 19:

Captain America #30

by Brubaker (w), Epting (a), and Perkins (a)


Why is it that, despite the fact that I never much cared for Captain America, despite the fact that I never much found the Red Skull to be a terrifying villain by any means, and despite the fact that the lead character's been dead since March... why is it that this book is so good?

Well, there are various reasons, not least of all the beautiful artwork, engaging dialogue, as well as surprising plot twists (at least two of which can be found in this issue). However, none of these elements, noteworthy though they may be, impress me as much as Brubaker's characters.

Where Brubaker really impresses me is in his ability to treat even the most ridiculous characters with dignity. And this applies to everyone, whether it's Captain America's best friends, formerly goofball villains such as Doctor Faustus and Armin Zola, or even (and perhaps most appreciatively on my part) Tony Stark (aka Iron Man), who since Civil War has been portrayed as the Idiot King of the marvel universe. In this issue, we see why he's Director of S.H.I.E.L.D.

Though I touched on this earlier, it would be a crime for me not to mention the art at least once more. While Brubaker can, as I said, make any character engaging through dialogue and actions, it would all be for naught without Epting and Perkins breathing cool into their designs. I mean, they even made this guy look cool.

In this particular issue, I was struck by Brubaker, Epting, and Perkins' ability to completely shift tones on a page-by-page basis. In the blink of an eye, the comic would quickly go from intense to sombre, from pensive to terrifying, from awesome to... well, it never stopped being awesome.

Knowing the trend in comic books, to state that Captain America's return is definite, even as soon as within the year, would be no great claim. One argument for his imminent return is the fact that there is still a Captain America series. "You can't have a Captain America series without Captain America," they'd logically argue. However, as this title proves, these people are dead wrong.


Also recommended

Groo 25th Anniversary Special: Hilarious. The only reason this one isn't my pick of the week is because it actually came out on the 12th.

World War Hulk #4 (of 5): Seriously, pick up this book. Not a fan of the Hulk? That's no excuse. Not a fan of super heroes at all? Again, not good enough. You aren't able to read? Okay, that's an adequate excuse.


Not recommended

Lobster Johnson: The Iron Prometheus #1 (of 5): The name aside, I found this to be surprisingly lackluster, especially considering how much I love Mignola's other works (Hellboy, sure, but especially B.P.R.D.). I'm not sure exactly where the book lost me. Oh wait, it was with this line: "Germans? Jeez! I don't know much, but I read the papers. That Hitler looks like trouble, and I bet he'd love to get a hold of this suit." Hopefully the book will pick up. I, however, will not be sticking around to find out.

Shipping list for Wednesday, September 19, 2007

The following is a list of comic books slated to be released this Wednesday. It should be noted that these are the titles that were specifically ordered by Paradise Comics, so while this is an extensive list, it does not necessarily cover all titles. Bold indicates that I plan to purchase the title, while the inclusion of an asterisk(*) indicates that I recommend you do the same.

- Annihilation Conquest Quasar #3 (of 4)

- Aquaman Sword Of Atlantis #56

- Army @ Love #7

- Avengers Classic #4

- Batman Lobo Deadly Serious #2 (of 2)

- Birds Of Prey #110

- Captain America #30 CWI*

- Catwoman #71*

- Checkmate #18

- Countdown 32

- Countdown To Mystery #1 (of 8)

- Criminal Macabre My Demon Baby #1 (of 4)

- Cyblade Pilot Season #1

- Ex Machina #30*

- Flash #232

- Green Arrow Black Canary Wedding Special #1

- Hellblazer #236

- Highwaymen #4 (of 5)

- Irredeemable Ant-man #12

- JLA Hitman #1 (of 2)

- Jungle Girl Px #0

- Legion Of Super Heroes In The 31st Century #6

- Mad Magazine #482

- Madman Atomic Comics #4*

- Marvel Adventures Avengers #16

- Marvel Adventures Fantastic Four #28

- Marvel Comics Presents #1

- Marvel Illustrated Treasure Island #4 (of 6)

- New Battlestar Galactica Season Zero #1 Blank Cvr

- New X-men #42

- Penance Relentless #1 (of 5)

- Programme #3 (of 12)

- Red Sonja #25 Blank Cvr

- Robin #166

- Scooby Doo #124

- Shadowpact #17

- Sheena #3 (of 5)

- Simpsons Comics #134

- Spawn #171

- Spider-man Red Sonja #2 (of 5)

- Star Wars Knights Of The Old Republic #20

- Streets Of Glory #1 (of 6)

- Superman Batman #40

- Tales Of The Sinestro Corps Parallax #1

- Terror Inc #2 (of 5)

- Testament #20

- Umbrella Academy Apocalypse Suite #1 (of 6)

- Wasteland #12

- Wolverine Origins #17

- World War Hulk #4 (of 5) WWH*

- World War Hulk Front Line #4 (of 6)

- World War Hulk Gamma Corps #3 (of 4) WWH



actually, from the looks of things, this week will be fairly shitty.

notes: "CWI" means the title ties into Marvel's Civil War: Initiative lineup, while "WWH" indicates that the title ties into Marvel's World War Hulk series

Catwoman image from dccomics.com.
Madman image from imagecomics.com.

Ut! First post!

Welcome to my blog, concerning all things comic booky in nature. I suppose it would be apt at this point to introduce myself.

Hi, my name is Aaron F and I love comic books.

This is an introduction I have used many times in my life, although sadly it has yet to yield the desired result: to make friends. Usually it is met with a pursed-lipped nod, an awkwardly-retracted handshake, or in some cases an "oh... how... quaint."

Comic books have always been a love of my life, at least as far back as I can remember. One of my earliest memories is of me, around 2 or 3 years old, sitting on my grandmother's lap watching Batman in theatres and being traumatized by watching the Joker's mangled body on the streets of Gotham, his laughter still echoing in the distance.

Oh wait, that memory sucked.

It wasn't until I was older - old enough to know better - that my love affair with comic books became something of an obsession. Perhaps it was the completist in me, but I had to read everything. I tell you, during this period of my life (most of highschool, that is), I read a ton of crap. But I also read a ton of masterpieces.

Unfortunately, at this point my goal to become the Ultimate Comicbook Master had led me down a very solitary path. Try as I might, I was unable to effectively convey the transcendent joy comic books gave me ("I swear, comics are awesome! You should totally read this issue, it's my fav-DON'T FUCKING TOUCH IT!"). Even at the comic book store where I worked, the owner's interest in comics was no longer aesthetic (having admittedly not read one in several years).

Since moving to Windsor, however, I have found a few fellow enthusiasts. Also, I know that there are still more of you out there on the internet (for some reason the internet and geekdom go hand in hand). So hopefully the path I've been treading will reveal itself to be hardly as lonely as it originally appeared.

Oh, and for those wondering: the exclamation of "Ut!" in the title of this post is a reference to ONE of my favourite super-heroes, the Flaming Carrot (image from the official site). For those of you who enjoy surrealist humour, I can't recommend this title highly enough (The Mystery Men? Yeah, they debuted here). The fact that he never got his own cartoon series (to my knowledge) is criminal. Let's call it my pick of the week.

Anyway, enough about me. Who the hell are you?