"Post No. 638"

Got in that lot of 24 Bongo Comics issues of both Futurama and Radioactive Man. The RMs have such an odd numbering system. The ones I got are as follows:

#1, 88 (No.2), 216 (No.3), 412 (No.4), 679 (No.5), 4( really the 8th. issue), 136 (really the 10th. issue), 222 (really the 11th. issue), 575 (really the 12th. issue), V2 #6 (really the 13th. issue), 8 (really the 15th. issue), RADIOACTIVE MAN 80 PG. COLOSSAL# 1 (1995/really the 7th. RM issue). The reason for this numbering is, of course, because RM's a parady comic and the writers want to make it look like it's been published since the 1940's or something, whereas currently I think only 16 issues exist (not counting a "7-11" giveaway version). One's like a Gold key comic, another like a 1970's Marvel, one like a 1960's Mighty (Archie) Comics, etc. There are still four issues of this I don't have, which are #'s 7, 100, 197 & 1000. There's one made like a 1950's Atlas comic, another that's a Kirby tribute, etc., etc. Great book!

The Futurama issues were at the generally funny best and every issue still reads to me like watching one of the animated episodes. One of the better ones which ended up being continued was about "Bender" going into another dimension inhabited by the Bongo Comics' creators, including Matt Groening.

Well. I won those copies of Strange Tales (Marvel) #'s 126 and 135 (1964 & '65, respectively) at a dirt cheap price, which really shocked me, especially here recently when I've been outbidded so much. There's a world of difference in that title a mere 10 months and 10 issues apart as they are, with the 126 still featuring "The Human Torch & The Thing" from the FF, and the 135 being the first appearance of "Nick Fury Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D.". If you think about it, the superhero run in that title in the 1960's was pretty evenly divided with The Torch being in 101 thru 134, and Fury in 135 thru 168; that's 34 issues for the former, and 34 issues for the latter! 'Course, The Torch did have an app. in the 2nd. (and last) Annual.

Although I read that issue of 126 when it was on the stands (more impressed with Steve Ditko's "Dr. Strange" backup, actually), the 135 really took me by surprize one day when I had gotten off the school bus in the neighboring town (where I currently live) and first saw it on the stands in a drug store I frequented after school. By that time in '65 I was buying everything Marvel was putting out, and I also remember it was at the end almost of that school year. I was 14 years old, still mowing yards for extra bucks to support my 4-Color habit.

(On to other things....
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MOVIE REVIEW: HOLLYWOODLAND (2007):

50 Years ago the 16th. of next month, actor George Reeves of t.v.'s "Superman" fame, was found dead in the upstairs bedroom of his Benedict Canyon (California) home of an apparent suicide.

This film probes the subject of Reeves' career and following investigation questioning the findings of the official police report.

Reeves began his span in Hollywood about as illustrious as any actor could imagine, playing a bit part in the 1939 "Gone With The Wind". In this he was one of the Southern "twins"(w/red hair) near the beginning of the movie. It wasn't much, but he had a line and the film was in full color (something reserved only for Hollywood's best efforts of the time), and it looked like he was off to a flying (if you'll pardon the pun) start.

But Hollywood in those days was much different that it is today. Actors were practicaly owned by the studios, and did what the studios told them to do. In the late 1940's when actors were being thinned out from the studio's stables, Reeves became a victim looking for more permanant employment.

It was during this time Reeves discovered other ways of getting noted, such as having himself photographed with other celebrities and the like, when he met the wife of one of the producers and began a lengthly affair with her. She wanted to help Reeves get more movie roles, but ended up opening the door for him into a new exposure, television. And, in 1951 while t.v. was still in its infancy, Reeves starred in "Superman and The Mole Men" which led to a weekly 30 minutes per episode lead as the character in "The Adventures of Superman" in 1952.

The AOS was so popular, not among just children but adults alike, that by the 3rd. season it was being filmed in color (practically unheard of in that early stage of t.v. at that time), but Reeves and many other Hollywood actors, in general, looked down upon television as something beneath them thinking that being a movie star was everything, with only a handful of insightful actors such as Jack Benny, Lucille ball & desi Arnex, jackie Gleason (and some other) who realized that it as a doorway to fame, riches and immortality.
.
And t.v. made Reeves immortal whether he wanted it or not. He became so recognizable "as" the character of Superman that it was difficult for him to obtain parts in other films as a serious actor. By the latter part of the 1950's Reeves had had enough of wearing the tights and cape and was growing older. he wanted to move on to other projects such as directing and producing.

And everyone wanted to see reeves move foreward as he was very likable. Known for his sense of humor and great personality and sense of honor, insisting that actress Phillis Coates (who played "Lois Lane" in early episodes) had equal billing.

But...it was his feeling of growing older is probably 'why' he dumped the producer's wife (who was 8 years his elder) and began another affair with a younger starlet, thus producing much speculation as whether this was a suicide, or even an arranged murder by the producer himself to avenge the honor of the wife he loved, although unfaithful to him.

Secondary plots in this film involve a private detective (played by Afrien Brody) who investigates the death for Reeves' mother, and the P.I.'s relationship with his estranged wife and young son. The P.I. imagines a number of other ways Reeves death could have happened such as being accidently shot, to murder, but ultimately concludes that he shot himself due to depression and the dissatisfaction not being able to achieve the goals he, himself, had set as an actor.

Ben Affleck , at times, bares an uncanny resemblance to Reeves and does a fine portrayal. The film's not overly long, has few slow or dark areas, and is Rated "R", but that's mostly for minor brief nudes shots of Affleck's backside. Recommended watching.

"Post No. 637"

The above scans are various reproductions of my favorite Jim Steranko "Nick Fury Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D." cover from issue # 4 (September, 1968).

Of my the great mysteries to me regarding this cover is why, when it was reproduced in the 2000 trade paperback collection of issues #'s 1-3 & 5 (Marvel Comic), did they choose to use such a rotten copy? Was it a printing error? Was Marvel's own file copy in such poor shape? Come on!? There's 'what"? A Brazillion comic book shops in New York City where a decent copy could have been purchased if they had such a bad one? I just don't understand. The copy they used has a look of a brittle and very aged one, whereas all of the other Steranko copies they used for reproduction have a newstand mint appearance. Judge for yourself.

The top scan is of the 1st. printing of the 2001 trade paperback Marvel did which collects the Steranko Nick Fury stories (from Strange tales) where they used the NF 4 as the cover.

The second scan is of a personal copy I have which is the original.

The third scan is of the one they reproduced in the 2000 TPB which reprinted the NFAOS 1-3 & 5.

Very curious....

And...on to other things...

Got all of my mowing done for the week so I guess I can try to relax the rest of the day. Tomorrow will be hectic at work, I'm sure, as I'll have to work all day by myself. Which means no pulling tools from the warehouse unless I write up an order and someone else does that for me.

Thursday I'm off work again before I start a 5 day in a row stretch. Labor Day weekend quickly approaches. I don't believe it'll be as busy this time as in previous years simply due to the economy, but I could be mistaken. We'll see.

Checking the confirmation code on a package at USPS.com, it states that the lot of 2 dozen (evenly split) issues of Bongo Comics' Futurama and Radioactive Man should finally arrive tomorrow on the 20th., and I'm anxious to read these titles.

"Post No. 636"

"COMIC BOOK REVIEWS"

Civil War limited Series (Marvel/2006) by Mark Millar, Steve McNiven and others was an alright storyline with a lot of conflict among Marvel's major players, and even a death of a rather minor one, but...hasn't this all been done before? Several years ago wasn't there this "mutant registration" thingy going on in all of the "X" titles? Looks like a recycled idea to me and something to just get more of their readers' hard-earned doe. And Marvel's making Tony Stark look like more and more of a government tool these days rather than one of Marvel's greatest heroes. Marvel hasn't treated Tony well these days, making him even more of the villian in his plans with other Marvel majors to get rid of The Hulk in recent years. (Shame, shame, Marvel.)

Superman (DC) #'s 206-215 (2004-2005) has some really nice Jim Lee artwork, but Brian Azzarello has put less "meat" into this story than the carcass of a picked-clean Thanksgiving turkey. The JLA app.'s didn't help. Less pretty pictures and more thought-out writing, please. Believe it or not it IS possible to put more than one word balloon in a panel.

Batman (DC) 635-641 (2005), mostly by Winick, Mahnke & Nguyen, was much better written, all of which involve the return of the character, "Jason Todd". What I liked the most about this is that there was no lengthly explanation for "why" he returned; he just did, and his goal is to carry out sentence against gotham's criminals to the max, beyond what The Bat-Man will allow. In the end, Bats just accepts it. Interesting way to do it. Well done.

"Post No. 635 - 5 YEARS OF ELMO'S JUNCTION!"

Hullo. Dis is ~D.Puck's ol' pal, "BOOTZX" guest-hostin' da blog here t'day on it's 5th. Year Anniversary! Yeah. You've had t' put up wit' the ol' Puck' now fer 5 whole years, an' let's face it. Th' poor ol' sod is pretty pooped so he's takin' th' day off.

In th' meanwhile, I decided t' step in an' lend him a hand...ummm...paw tryin' t' think of somethin' different t' post here on dis "special day", an' decided t' show yooz guys an' dolls some previews of th' Bootzx Comic Book dat Puck's a'workin' on of my various adventures here in de world of you humans. As usual, all yuz has t' do is t' click ont'a th' image an' it'll come right up larger than life! Hope yez all like them, an' please remember dat all th' material is sole property of an' copyrighted by David E. Puckett an' can not be used without his permission. (T'anks!)

See yuz in de funny papers!

"Post No. 634"

New comics that have arrived this week include: All-Star Batman & Robin the Boy Wonder (DC) #1, Amazing Spider-man (Marvel) 528, Batman (DC) 635-637, 639-641, Civil War (Marvel) 1, 3, 4, Fantastic Four (Marvel) 533, 534, 541, Identity Crisis (DC) 2, Justice Society of America (DC) 9, The New Avengers Annual (Marvel) 1, Superman V2 (DC) 166, 206-211,215, Superman/Batman (DC) 6,10,11,13 & Wonder Woman (DC) 2. Here are some comments on those I've already read.

All-Star Batman & Robin the Boy Wonder (DC) #1 (2005) is by Frank Miller and Jim Lee. It is a grittier re-telling of the origin of Robin in the pre-team days of The Bat-Man, when he'd concentrate on the playboy persona during the day to become the bat as night falls. Here we see Bruce Wayne and Vicki Vale attending the circus the night "The Flying Graysons" are murdered and Batman showing up, of course, to find the assassin and bring him to justice, and also recruiting Dick Grayson as his team-mate against crime. I've decided, over the years, that I like Miller's scripts much better when he's working on some title or character he owns, rather than one of the Marvel or DC icons ("Daredevil" being an exception). Oh this story is okay for Miller, but not quite up to what I expect from him, although I will admit that I've only read this single issue and might change my mind after reading more. Jim Lee's artwork seems to have matured a bit more and I'll admit to liking it these days after avoiding any comic like the plague in his time at Image .

The Amazing Spider-man (Marvel) #528 (2006), is part 12 (or 12) of "The Other" storyline written by one of my current favorites, J. Michael Straczynski and drawn by Mike Deodato Jr., and is rather anti-climatic in its ending, but not too bad a read with Spider-man discovering there's much more to his spider powers than he ever thought before. Deodato does his more than acceptable job on the artwork.

Fantastic Four (Marvel) #'s 533, 534, & 541 (2006) written by Straczynski and illustrated by Mike McKone. McKone isn't the best FF artist I've ever seen, but he's far from the worst. Sometimes his work reminds me of Dale Keown, and that's okay. It's mostly clean and uncluttered and never interfers with the flow of the story. In these issues (533-534) we start with Straczynski's tale of how The Hulk's been recruited by the government to check out some odd situation in a cave, only to discover that the villianous organization, "Hydra", has put a gamma-ray bomb in there which goes off in his face! Well, naturally this alters Hulk's mentality and appearance and he goes back to being the old "Hulk Stomp!" character raising hell, and that's when the FF are called in to help out. But the FF has other matters at home to attend to as child services want to take Reed and Sue's children into protective custody, saying the children's home life isn't a safe inviroment. So Johnny and Ben go looking for "The Greenster" and attempt to bring him under wraps.

#541 is one of the "Civil War" issues and involves The Thing trying to take a vacation in France and getting drafted into helping that country's own group of super-humans, many of which appear to be parodies of The Justice League. They all fight a villian similiar to "The Mole Man" , and Ben discovers the guy is causing all this trouble due to being rejected by his girl friend. It's pretty funny, self-contained in a single issue, and probably the best solo Thing story I've ever read.

Identity Crisis limited series (DC) #2 (2004). I hate jumping into the middle of a limited series, but from what I've gathered about this whole title is that Sue Digby (the wife of Ralph Digby, aka "The Elongated Man") was beaten and raped by "Dr. Light" and Zatanna with the JLA's concent decided to lobotomize him, rather than to outright kill him, and it's a story being told to the Wally West version of The Flash and the Kyle Rainer version of Green Lantern. I really don't think themes such as that should be in a mainstream comic book, but a lot of people seemed to have liked it (so what do I know).

Justice Society of America (DC) #9 (2007) is a book I'd buy just for those great Alex Ross covers, and this one has Power Girl in all her glory on it, as well as a tale that revolves mostly around her and her feelings over the loss of the original Golden-Age version of Superman. Written by Geoff Johns and illustrated by Eaglesham, it's always been a pretty decent comic.

The New Avengers Annual (Marvel) #1 (2006) is all about "that other" Black Widow's revenge from nearly being burned alive and putting her mind into a new version of "The Super Android" to take her vengence out against The Avengers, and along the way, we have the wedding of Luke Cage (aka, "Powerman") to his longtime girlfriend and ex-super hero, Jessica Jones. I think maybe Bendis wanted to write a story that'd been as memorable of the wedding of "Reed & Sue" in Fantastic Four Annual #3 (1965), but...well...this is another time in comic book history and it just can't be done. Still not a bad story.

And...in other things... my knee's now somewhat better after straining it the other day trying to remove a large "rock" from my mother's yard, which I accidently drove over with the riding lawn mower and busted the housing on same. I went out there to try to pry the rock up only to discover that it was a large amount of concrete instead, probably from an old clothesline pole that had been on the property 50-75 years ago! You see, my dear, late father used to pull his trailer up behind the house there with his pickup, which resulted over the years in some deep ruts. These eventually got washed down by the rain and melting snow, exposing the concrete, which I didn't see (of course) and ran over it.

Any hoo, I ended up having to use the "push" mower to do my entire back yard, which was a good 6 to 8 inches tall so I had to literally shove the mower through most of it and try to keep it from dying all the time. This took me a good 2-1/2 hours (which usually takes me a half an hour or less with the riding mower), so I swore right there to get the riding mower repaired "no matter what the cost", or buy another one, 'cause I certainly am getting too old to be doing that sort of chore come this Summer when the temperatures are in the 90+ range! And, it wouldn't be just my yard I'd have to do, but mom's large yard as well, so I called a guy who does such repairs. Looks like I may be lucky enough to get everything repaired for $100. or less. The housing's already been repaired and I'm just awaiting the repairman to find the right blades, and it looks like by next week she'll be up-and-runnin' for at least another season.

But, getting back to my knee, I had the pry bar under this concrete and stepped down on it when I heard a "Pop!" and I fell right to the ground! I think I only strained it however as it's better now.

And tomorrow, May the 14th., is the 5th Year Anniversary of "Elmo's Junction"! My, how time do fly. So I'm taking the day off and letting a friend host the site instead since I never could think of anything special for the day. What my friend has planned for it? Who knows...?

Then I'll be back again soon after that to kick off yet another year of comic book, movie, etc. reviews, rants and my useless political views.

See you then, and my thanks to one and all who have followed me over the years! (Comment MORE, dammit!)

"Post No. 633"

This past week returning to work has been extremely hectic.

Par usual, it'll take me three weeks just to catch up after being off for a single week. We had three different tool orders come in to be pulled from the warehouse, taken over to retail where they all required updated pricing and stocking on the shelves. In this time since I've yet to even completely restock my shelves there of the merchandise which had sold from that week's absense. Tomorrow, when I go back again (this is my day off), I'll have to work on that.

Add to this the attempt to mow both my mom's and my own yards from two full weeks of off-and-on rain which had made the grass grow 6-8 inches. I began on that night before last by using the push mower on my own front and side yards. Then last night I mowed my mother's yards, save for the trim work, with the riding mower. I then took this mower up to my own back yard to discover that belts or some such thing had come loose, causing the blades to not mow, but gouge the yard instead, so I had to take that back and break out the push mower once again and completely mow my own large back yard with that. I got it done around 7 PM after getting off from work at 5PM.

Needless to say it was a very long day, especially considering that I had somehow miss-set my alarm clock and I awoke Sunday morning at 4:45 AM rather than 6:45, and had stayed up the duration. I'm not sure "who" to have fix this riding mower. My regular people for that have all retired from working on such here locally, and the only other way to have the mower repaired would be to load it up either on a trailer or pickup truck and take it "somewhere"; neither of which I have for that purpose, and there's no telling what someone would charge to come and get the mower and take it to their shop. (I can see right off that this is going to be one loooonnnnnggggg summer.)

In other things...

I won a lot of 2 dozen issues of Bongo Comics' Futurama (many early issues) and Radioactive Man. This lot is split evenly in numbers of each, and it apears that I may now have a full set of RM. I'm not a big fan of The Simpsons title from this company, but I do very much enjoy their other books so I'm sure that'll be a great lot to read.

I, as well, have another lot of approx. 30 misc. modern comics coming in, mostly Marvel, all of which are slated for review as I receive and read them.

Got in both The Brave & the Bold (DC) #25 (1959) and Our Army At War (DC) #174 (1966) in the past week. The B&B is the first app. of the original "Suicide Squad", which is a somewhat hokey tale in the early years of the Silver-Age where a team has been selected that does only suicide type missions when no one else can do them, and it involves the oceans boiling, from which a huge prehistoric "Godzilla-like" creature emerges to cause havok. Nothing seems to hurt this creature, of course. How all of these prehistoric creatures seem invunerable to rocket blasts and the like has always been a puzzle to me, but I suppose if they could all die pretty easy, there wouldn't be a good comic book story, huh?

The issue of OAAT was an unusual tale, where "Sgt. Rock" kills a german soldier to discover it was just a teenage boy, which drives Rock almost to the point of a nervous breakdown. He tears off his sgt. stripes and dons a medic's armband and refuses to fight anymore, and it takes seeing his command being struck down by enemy forces to put his mind back into gear and return to his old self. Different from the usual Rock story, and this issue sports the wonderful "Go-Go Checks" on the cover (which brings back many a fond memory of that time for me comic-collecting-wise).

Since I had to work on Mother's Day, I'm taking my own mom out to dinner today. Hope everyone else had a nice MDay. Always remember your mom; 'only got one of those.

"Post No. 632"

Found a copy of Marvel Team-Up (Marvel) #24 (1974) which has a pairing of Spider-man with "Brother Voodoo". This is something like his 6th. app. after a stint in Strange tales 169-173. Not sure which came first; his app. in MTU or in the Marvel magazine, Tales of the Zombie , but it's from his first two years as an exisiting Marvel character. Didn't realize he went on to play parts in various other Marvel titles over the years, being what I always considered a memorable, though, second-stringer in the Marvel line of heroes. But a neat comic from Marvel written by Len ("Swamp thing")Wein and illustrated by Jim ("Supergirl" back-up stories in Action Comics in the 60's, etc.) Mooney from the days you could buy a comic book for twenty-five cents cover price.

And, as usual, I just blink my eyes and my vacation for the year is over, this being the last day before I go back to work. I start back again tomorrow, off Wednesday to take my mom to the doctor for her stomach "scoping", then back to work until next Monday. I noticed on this new work schedule that, since our Winter help's going back to her seasonal position elsewhere, two of us will have at least 2 days per week, per month, that we'll have to work by ourselves in retail, here at the beginning of the busiest time of the year (which makes absolutely no sense to me at all).

If the time at work went by as quickly as does the time off from such, you could just sneeze and it'd be vacation time once again. But that's just not the way it works.

So today, on this last day of regular posts, I took my mom to pay her insurance, get her medicine, get some stamps and do some shopping, and when my wife gets off from work we need to travel to a closeby town and pay some bills and do a little shopping. Then it'll be time for the evening meal, clean up, bed, and back to the grind.

My on line auctions have gone badly for the past three times I've listed on eBay now with vintage collectibles. Nary a hit or bid for the past month until a minunum bid on an item today, which shows that the only things someone wants are large amounts of "something" at a very low price. A week or so back I finally hit my 1,000th. Positive Feedback and got my Red Star, but it hasn't shown any difference in bidding so far.

Found three more J.T.Chick tracts I didn't have today, which brings my total to 104 in my collection (counting variations and foreign editions). Soon I'll either have to add holding sheets to the folder which holds these, or start a new one.

One comic I've won and axiously await is a copy of DC's The Brave & the Bold #25 (1959) which is the first app. of "The Suicide Squad". The copy I won is a low grade "reader", but still complete and a rather esoteric comic of a minor team from DC, but one that actually had (I think) 6 different app.'s in that title even though they never got one of their own. As I recall, Suicide Squad was the first silver-age team to appear in B&B. Number 23, which featured Joe Kubert's "Viking Prince", was the first issue of the title devoted to any single character, and after SS ran, #28 was the first app. of the 2ND. B&B team, "The Justice League of America". Sort of connection event between the two major key events in that comic.

Of course, the Silver-Age Suicide Squad is certainly unlike the one that followed, first appearing in the pages of the Legends limited series and then a title of its own in the 1980's (which, incidently, and I didn't know this until recently, contained the first app. of "The Oracle" character in issue #23).

"Post No. 631"

Got in that copy of Dawn (Sirius) #1 (1995). Of all the T&A titles from the 1990's, there were just a handul that peaked any interest in me. Dawn was one of them due to the wonderful work of J.M. Linsner. The other two that I really liked were Shi by Billy Tucci (published by Crusade Comics), and Harris Comics' version of Vampirella. Everything else was just a bit too fan-boy-ish for my tastes, including the multitude of titles from Image at that time which wanted to grab at all the lonely teenage boys with various suggestive sexual poses. (Not to say that the titles I did like didn't on occasion have that as well, but at least they had a decent script to go along with it).

And, besides, if I wanted sex in a comic book I could read Omaha the Cat-Dancer (which was better written as well.)

So now some comic book reviews...

Good friend, Dave Jones, gave me a stack of comics to read, so here's some reviews of the ones that I felt deserved some comments.

Batman Cacophony L.S. (DC) #1 (2009) deals with "Deadshot" breaking into the Arkham Asylum to kill The Joker, because one of The Joker's associates had mixed other chemicals with his lethal smile formula, and a kid dies from it. But Deadshot runs into a snag when an unknown costumed being shoots him in the head and breaks The Joker out of the asylum. Turns out Deadshot had extra protection in his mask that stopped the bullet and when Batman "resurrects" him, he then has him arrested and goes after The Joker for the Brazilionth time. Looks like a pretty good story, but would take more issues to make a accurate review.

The Contingent (Mind Storm Pub.s) #1 (2008) has all the feeling of some fanboy that's read one too many X-men comics. Typical title about a bunch of super-powered beings, one of which accidently kills one of her teammates with her power. Lots of pictures...little meat to the story.

Haunted Tank L.S. (DC-Vertigo/2009) #1 deals with that old Civil War ghost of Jeb Stuart returning once again to help his descendents during battle, but this time it has a new twist when Jeb discovers the descendent is of a black persuasion. Lots of tension between the ghost and his great,great,great whatever, and sort'a funny at times. 'Wouldn't mind reading more of these.

March of Ultimatum Sage and War of Kings Saga (Marvel, 2009's). About all I can say about titles such as these is that it's a sad shame that Marvel believes it has to publish such just so that their readship can understand exactly just what the f**k is going on in their comics. Over-complicating storylines over a long period of time can have one of two effects. It can either get its readers engrossed in a myriad number of a companies titles and cause these readers to purchase more of the companies books, thus increasing sales, or...it can cause the readers to become totally confused with all of the bs and finally get to the point that the whole thing turns them off from the over-load and causes these readers to stop purchasing any of the comics. Whatever happened to the days when one could read 15 titles from a single company, and still understand all of the continuity between each of these titles? I believe it must have ended in the late 1970's, at least with Marvel.

Sandman: the Dream Hunters L.S. (DC-Vertigo) #1 is a hard comic to beat, what with a combination of talents such as Neil Gaiman and P. Craig Russell. based on a legend which deals with a badger and a fox and a monk it's more than a typical Sandman story, and proves that Gaiman and Russell have neither lost any of their great style and craftsmanship. Highly recommended.

Sgt. Rock: The Lost Battalion L.S. (DC) #1 (2009) is also excellant. Written/drawn by Billy ("Shi") Tucci, it's different from other work by this creator and shows he has what it takes to produce fine work based on characters other than those he's personally created. The tale begins with the Invasion of Normany towards the end of World War II, and shows the gritty and lethality of the war in a realistic manner. I think Joe Kubert would very much approve of this treatment of "Sgt. Rock and Easy Co.".

The X-Files (Wildstorm) #1 (2009). I used to read Topps version of this comic based on a tv show quite a lot. In fact, I read at least the first couple of dozen issues, as well as their specils, annuals and digests. So for a new company to publish a title based on "The X-Files", I'm pretty picky about it. This first issue's storyline begins with a man who appears to have committed suicide, but he sister thinks better and asks Mulder and Scully. Into their investigation they discover that the wound in the man's head was not an entrance wound, but an exit wound, showing that something killed him from the inside out. They discover that this man was involved with a company that produces biological weapons. Thus the mystery begins, and Mulder believes that since he "knows something" now, he'll be the next on their hit list.

So far, I find it not as well written or drawn as the Topps version. perhaps it needs several more issues to mature. I'm a little surprized at how large a fan-following this show has here several years after its cancellation, but in general, the shows were quite good, or at least good enough to warrent a couple of follow-up theatrical releases (the first of which I thought was only so-so).

"Post No. 630"

Looks like The Archie Superheroes may soon be coming back. Plans already for the return of The Shield, The Hangman and The Web; can The Fly and The Jaguar be far behind? Let's hope it's better than the previous effort from the !mpact Comics line DC did, as none of the characters were handled very well. I'm more for bringing back the original heroes with the original secret I.D.s and powers and in costumes more in keeping with the original concepts. DC hasn't had the best of records when trying to revive some old character. (I try my best to forget what they did to "The Fighting American".)

Well...overall, this has been a very depressing week for me and definately the worst vacation I've ever taken. It's rained every day which cancelled my big yard sale I was going to have Fri-Sat, rained out the local flea market this weekend, rained out much of the "city-wide yardsale" in a neighboring town, plus put a damper on my plans to even attend the sidewalk sale at a comic shop here on "Free Comic Book Day '09". In fact, I should have just gone ahead and worked every day instead, at least that way I'd gotten an extra week's paycheck. Now just watch. NEXT week the sun will be shining practically every day. (Thus is life, and sumtims, life just sucks.)

About the only thing I accomplished this week was getting around 17 boxes of comic books I have stored here in the pc room, mostly in copier paper boxes, alphabetized so "whenever" I do get around to buying some regular comic book long boxes, I can finally get those all organized. I only need around 200 backing boards having that finished as well.

And I did get to watch those three movies I previously reviewed. No comics I've won lately have come in; maybe today.

"Post No. 629"

"MOVIE REVIEWS:"



(Yes, there could be some spoilers).

X-MEN ORIGINS: Wolverine Starring Hugh Jackman. This could possibly be the best effort in the X-men movies so far. I've liked them all, but we get away from the spandex and into the character's mind more in this flick. Several things are told about Logan, which, not being a big fan of the character I never knew (but then, I never read the Origins limited series which supposingly explained his true origin).

For one thing, I always knew that Logan was a lot older than other Marvel characters, but this makes him trying to close in on 200 years, fighting an an adult through The Civil War, World War I, etc.

Next we see that, although not called as such (or, maybe I just didn't hear it), "Sabretooth" turns out to be his brother and has been by his side, fighting, for over a hundred of those years. As I recall, it was hinted way back in Marvel's Wolverine V1 #51 that Sabretooth may be Logan's father, but that was changed over the storylines in the following years. In one of the X-men flicks, Sabretooth was in allegiance with "Magneto" and his band of evil mutants.

Magneto's nowhere to be seen in this flick, however, but we do see "Striker" who has a very important part in the way Logan went from a mutant with a bone structure which protrudes claws from his hands and a great healing factor, to the "Weapon X" type origin we read when shown in the pages of several issues of Marvel Comics Presents. We see scenes of the adamanium metal being injected into Logan's skeletal structure, making him nearly invunerable.

The special effects are, as usual, very good and we see a few other familiar X-men characters, both heroes and villians, along the way, and this movie ties into the beginnings of the X-men team.

KNOWING, with Nicolas Cage, is one of his better flicks and has many a suspenseful and heart-touching moment. This story begins 50 years ago when a group of school children do drawings of things the think the future will be like, and these are buried in a time capsule. One girl, instead of drawing a picture, does a page full of numbers which seem to have no obvious meaning until Cage finds this after the capsule's been removed. He discovers that these are dates and coordinates to disasters that have occured. The big "thing" about it? The last one isn't finished. What comes next??? No big spoilers here as this is one that needs to be seen fresh, and I highly recommend it.

PUNISHER: WAR ZONE is yet another offering of a Marvel character to film. As usual, The Punisher is wrecking havok and killing as many criminals as humanly possible. This time it's his old adversary, "Jigsaw". The Punisher screws up by accidently killing a federal agent and attempts to make up for this sin and find some redemption in his goal of wiping out the criminal element. Lots of shooting, lots of blood-shed, lots of "is this all worth it" moments in the typical Punisher style, and the best attempt they've done thus far to adapting the character to film. Ray Stevenson (no; NOT the singer) as "Frank Castle, with a fun performance by Wayne ("Seinfeld") Knight as "Linus Microchip Lieberman".

"Happy May Day, Everyone!"