"Stuff"

Watched X-Men 3: The Last Stand, and here are a few thoughts on this flick. It's got spoilers, so if you haven't seen it yet and don't want to know about it, stop now.



First, I really don't like the way Wolverine steals the whole X-Men movies. He may be the most popular of the team, but i dislike how original storylines have been re-written just so it can feature the character. I didn't like Cyclops being killed off early in this movie, and Wolverine being present (rather than Scott) when Phoenix dies.

Next, I didn't like the way Jean's turning to Phoenix was blaimed in part on Prof. X. "Mastermind", in the original storyline, pretty much unleased her Dark Phoenix persona. And I do realize that it'd taken many more than three flicks to go thru the whole deal in the X-Men comics about the "Hellfire Club", but then, I think there's way too much crammed into these flicks anyway. I'd like to have seen at least 5 or 6 films in the series before we ever got to The Phoenix Saga to expand more on The X-Men's long history as a team.

I still hate the leather outfits.

Can't say that I cared for Magneto being shown as somewhat benevolent early in this film while he and Prof. X visited Jean Grey as a young girl. I don't recall this ever being stated that they worked as a team anywhere in the series (although I could be incorrect since I haven't followed this book "faithfully" for the past 20 years).

I didn't like Prof. X being killed off by Jean, even if at the movie's conclussion, we see perhaps he wasn't. I still believe the professor's mind is stronger than Jeans, albeit she Phoenix or not.

The lack of relationship between Professor X and The Juggernaut. (Aren't they supposed to be half-brothers?

No Russian accent with Colossus.

Rogue losing her powers (and Magneto, possibly, as well).

Things I did like: The use of all of the original X-Men somewhere in this movie, even if they didn't all battle together AS a team.

Kelsey Grammer as "The Beast" (although he could have been a bit more articulate).

The large number of various mutants used in the film. By my count, there's 15 main players: Prof. X, Magneto, The Angel, The Beast, Marvel (Jean Grey) Girl, Wolverine, Storm, Cyclops, Iceman, Mystique, Rogue, Juggernaut, Kitty Pride, Colossus and Pyro.

Stan Lee's 3 second cameo (pay dat man anudder "$2.50").

Storm's new "doo". She was always changing in the comic,anyway.

The lack of any real "down time" in this movie. I hate to say "fast paced", but it was, and it kept me interested all of the way throughout the film, whether or not I thought the adaptation was faithful or not. It kept me entertained, and that's the whole idea of watching a movie in the first place.

And I'm sure there's other things I could say one way or the other about this movie that I've since forgotten. Overall I think The X-Men flicks are still the best written of all of the Marvel adaptations, and I think as well that Marvel has it all over DC in making movies about their characters (but DC still has better animated versions). I give this flick a : "B".


Okay, so much for that review. Oh yes. I have picked up a copy of V for Vendetta on DVD and as soon as I watch it I'll give some opinions as well.

In other things, my wife and I went to see her father recently. He's still in good spirits, but I can tell his health is quickly going down hill. There's just so many things he cannot do these days that a scant year ago it wouldn't have bothered him. Yesterday while we visited, I went out and mowed his lawn, pulled up weeds, emptied his overrun gutters, etc., worked around doing "this and that" for several hours. He still drives to various places, does his own shopping and the like, but he seems to have just a lot of bad days.

Since we were gone all day I didn't do any yard work, but it really needs it around here again. Leaves are covering everything, gutters over-flowing. Might as well wait until the weekend and just let them fall for a few days to even see if I can actually see a difference as I do the work.
.
Picked up a 1/2 dozen or so new comics at WaldenBooks. I limit myself to spending no more than $20 at a time on new comics due to their high cover price anymore. This usually lets me purchase 6 titles. This time it was an all-out DC purchase by buying Action Comics #843, All-Star Superman #5, 52 (Week 22), Krypto the Superdog #1, Supergirl #10 and Superman #656.

This issue of Action has the new "Aquaman" character. Can't say I even know what happened to the OLD Aquaman. This seems to be a younger and much less experienced version, but with all that's happening in new comics these days it doesn't surprize me that I've missed some stoyline along the way. As with the last few issues of this title, the cover looks like the front page of a newspaper.

All-Star Superman, written by Grant Morrison and illustrated by Frank Quitely, continues to be one of my favorites. These stories seem to all happen pretty much outside anything else going on in The D.C. Universe, with Clark Kent not being married to Lois Lane. It's a more simple version of The Man of Steel in many ways, but better written than some of his other titles.
.
This was my first experience with reading an issue of 52, and I liked it very much. Week 22 deals with "Will Magnus", creator of The Metal Men, and also has a 2 page recapping of the Hal Jordon "Green Lantern" origin. I found it entertaining enough to wish I could read the first 21 of these.
.
Krypto the Superdog is just an out-right fun comic, and even if it is kiddy par, it's great to see a character such as Krypto finally get his own title after being around for over 50 years. The stories are based mostly on the t.v. animated episodes, with a retelling of his origin in issue #1, and a Superman appearance. We also see "Streaky the Supercat" and "Bat-Hound" along the way. I probably will never buy another issue of this, but I'd recommend it to any younger comic book reader.

In Supergirl this time she decides to go to high school as a student, and adopts the ol' "secret I.D." thing, and sort of learns what it's like to be a human teenager. The trials and tribulations of such are a quick lesson to her. Very good story here by Joe Kelly.

And in the current issue of Superman we have one of his basic "fight someone who's about as strong as you are" story, but with a little surprize at the ending with the reappearance of one of my fave 1980's characters, "Arion, Lord of Atlantis"! Hope I get to catch the next issue just to see what that's all about!

older comics I've picked up recently include a Superboy #86 from 1961, which is the 4th. app. of "The Legion of Super-Heroes" and a classic early silver-age battle between Superboy and the young Lex Luthor where Supes battles his krytonite men (one of those great memories that I bought off the stands when I was 9 or so), 3 misc. issues of Badger (just because I always liked the character, and one of them has a story by Steve Rude in it), a copy of Captain Confederacy #4 (the Epic series), three issues of Englehart & Leialoha's Coyote (an excellant series), a copy of Power of The Atom #1 (a title I never read originally, so I thought I'd give it a look-over), Vertigo Rave #1 (from 1994; has short app.'s by Animal Man, Shade, Sandman and others in the Vertigo titles), Xombi #4 (a title that SHOULD have been by Vertigo; wish I could read all of those), and a copy of Jack Katz The First Kingdom #9. I've read all of these FKs at one time or another, but didn't realize that some had cover coloring by Jim Steranko!


Dat's it for now; enjoy the typos!