The Avengers

I don't have much to say that hasn't already been said just about everywhere else about this film. I won't bother with a full review, but I rate it Nine of Ten Stars.

I will also add this:

1. If you love classic SHIELD, this is the Marvel Movie for you. (Heli-carrier... HELL YEAH!)

2. I appreciated the fact that Samuel L. Jackson actually played Nick Fury instead of just doing Samuel L. Jackson schtick.

3. For those who reading this who play in my "Star Wars" campaign... Black Widow is a good visual for what it looks like when the likes of Shahda, Jenna, Ohna or Bretahl open their respective cans of Mark Four Woop-ass. :)

4. Stay for ALL the credits! There are two tags this time around.

Classic Batman Halloween adventures

Batman: Haunted Knight
Writer: Jeph Loeb
Artist: Tim Sale
Steve's Rating: Ten of Ten Stars

During the mid-90s, when "Legends of the Dark Knight" was helmed by editor Archie Goodwin and at its peak as an outlet for unusual Batman tales that may or may not be "true", three excellently creepy Halloween Specials were published. All three were created by the team of Loeb and Sale, and all three have been collected in "Batman: Haunted Knight".

In addition to three of the best Batman stories ever published, there's an introduction by Archie Goodwin that puts them in context of the editorial philosophy he had for the "Legends" title. He wanted to present self-contained Batman "novels" that presented tales that were moving and exciting not only on an action level, but also on an emotional level; he wanted the stories to explore possibilities of the early years of Batman and characters associated with him from many different angles and he wanted all those angles to provide new depths and insights into those characters. Each story is particularly interesting, because it reveals facets of Batman's character to both the reader and to the character himself; each story has a component of self-discovery that ends up making Batman and even stronger hero than he might otherwise have been. (Interestingly, from a "continuity geek" standpoint, the stories seem to be saying, "Batman was once a psycho... but he healed and grew emotionally, and now he's a defender of justice.")

With "Batman: Haunted Knight", we see three examples of that editorial philosophy operating at full power. We also get a character who is the perfect vehicle for Halloween stories fighting some of his strangest foes under the dealiest of circumstances. Fans of Batman, fans of spooky stories, and fans of well-done comics will all find something to like here. All of the above goes double for those of you who liked "Batman Begins", as the tone in these three stories resemble the one found there.


The first story in the book is "Fears". In it, Batman squares off against the Scarecrow, while in his true identity of Bruce Wayne he meets what seems to be the perfect woman. However, while Bruce is caught up in and blinded by the hope of ending his decades of emtional isolation, Alfred discovers that Bruces' new lady love may be more dangerous than a supervillain.

Then we have "Madness", a story that is just as much about Batman's hunt for the Mad Hatter (who has been kidnapping children) as it is about Jim Gordon and his relationship with his adopted daughter Barbara. Fans of movies like "Seven" and "Along Came a Spider" and similar thrillers should enjoy it. It's another story that also gives Bruce Wayne some more chances to heal old emotional wounds and put to rest some ghosts.

Speaking of "Ghosts", the third tale is a "A Christmas Carol" take-off with a Halloween theme. After an introductory fight with the Penguin, the story becomes a psychological drama as Bruce Wayne/Batman is visited by the "ghosts of Halloween". It's got pretty much the same message as "A Christmas Carol", and Loeb and Sale pull it off with such grace and skill that a tale that might have seemed hackneyed or silly instead becomes touching and creepy all at once.

Get "Batman: Haunted Knight", and you'll be treated to three great Halloween stories that also rank among the best Batman comics ever published.

For more October monsters and horror,
visit Terror Titans and Shades of Gray!

'Orgazmo' is a turn-on for comedy lovers

Orgazmo (1997)
Starring: Trey Parker, Dian Bachar, Robyn Lynne, Michael Dean Jacobs, and Ron Jeremy
Director: Trey Parker
Rating: Seven of Ten Stars

Joe Young (Parker), a dedicated Mormon missionary ends up a porn star and a real-life sexual superhero. Will his virginal girlfriend back in Utah (Lynne) understand, or will Young's double-life end in tragedy?


If you have enjoyed some of "South Park"'s crudest moments, you'll love "Orgazmo." If you like absurdist humor, you'll also love "Orgazmo." If you can picture a movie that mocks religion, the porn biz, the film industry, and everything in between, you'll find that "Orgazmo" is everything you imagined and more.

This film displays Trey Parker's ability to take pot-shots at everything and everyone at this finest. It also features some of the funniest and crudest jokes and gags to ever appear on film, and despite this, it manages to remain a fairly clever and intelligent movie.(Well, as intelligent as amovie can be with a superhero whose midget sidekick wears a dildo on his head.)

One of the best aspects of the film is the character of Joe. He's naive and he's in one hell of an awkward situation that keeps getting worse, but Parker's script never demeans or mocks him. As such, it avoids a mistake that ruins many comedies that tackle religion. The film pokes fun at Mormon stereotypes, but it never gets vicious toward Mormons themselves, and as such the film remains funny and enjoyable.

This is not a movie for those who are easily offended, no matter what their political, cultural, or sexual orientaton... but it is a movie for the rest of us. Jack Mormons may be especially amused by some of the films digs at Mormon and Utah culture.

Two ladies of the night at their best

Catwoman & Vampirella: The Furies (DC Comics, 1997)
Writer: Chuck Dixon
Artists: Jim Balent and Ray McCarthy
Rating: Eight of Ten Stars

When Gotham City is plagued by a string of violent, cat-themed break-ins, everyone assumes that Catwoman--legendary thief and adventuress--has gone psychotic... except Catwoman, who wants to retore her bad reputation to its proper place. But before she has that chance, a mysterious, batwinged avenger known as Vampirella--dedicated foe of the Cult of Chaos and evil vampires everywhere on this world and any others--swoops down upon her, dead-set on stopping her before she commits any further evil acts.

"The Furies" is one of the best Vampirella comics to be published since Harris Publications revived the character in the early 90s, produced by a team that I am certain will be looked back on as being part of the very best stories featuring DC Comics' Catwoman. When this book was published in 1997, Vampirella was beginning to seriously flounder under Harris, while Catwoman was at a glorious height that I don't think the character will ever be at again: She was cast as a complusive thrill-seeker and adventuress for whom staging elaborate capers and impossible crimes were almost an end unto itself, and this team-up with Vampirella (once the misunderstandings between them are cleared up) works because of the generally lighthearted tone that pervailed in the Catwoman series at the time.


The book is particularly fun to read because of the amusing banter between Catwoman and Vampirella, as they beat up thugs and confront the ever-scheming Penguin in their search for the werepanther.

"The Furies" is a comic book I recommend highly to fans of classic Vampirella. I think you'll enjoy it immensely. Similarly, if you liked Catwoman back when Chuck Dixon and Doug Moench were writing the series, you'll also find this to a very entertaining read.

For more reviews and drawings of Vampirella, click here to visit my Shades of Gray blog.

Roles are reversed in 'Elseworlds'

Catwoman: Guardian of Gotham, Books 1 and 2 (DC Comics, 1999)
Writer: Doug Moench
Artists: Jim Balent and Kim DeMulder
Rating: Seven of Ten Stars

"Catwoman: Guardian of Gotham" was a two-volume series published in DC's "prestige format" in 1999. It appeared under the "Elseworlds" umbrella, where characters are twisted and changed into something other than what readers are used to seeing them as. (I don't know if DC is still doing these, but from what little I know about what's been going on in the DC Universe in recent years, it ALL sounds like an Elseworlds series.)

In this one, it's Catwoman who is Gotham City's biggest superhero. She's allied with Commissioner Jim Gorden, she battles versions of the Joker, Two-Face, Killer Croc... all the usual suspects. Oh, and then there's the mystery Bat-man, a homicidal criminal the likes of which Gotham has never seen. Will Catwoman be able to capture him? Or will she be the one laying dead by the end of the night?


"Catwoman: Guardian of Gotham" is a fast-moving tale of gritty superhero action. If you liked the violent psycho-phase of the Batman titles, you'll probably enjoy this little alternate reality story. Doug Moench is in top-form writing-wise and there is plenty of entertaining stuff here. The romantic attraction between Bruce Wayne/Selina Kyle that's been present in the Batman series since "Batman" #1 in the 1940s is used to greater effect than I think it's been anywhere outside the "Long Halloween" graphic novel.

Similarly, Jim Balent turns in some great pencils. His redesign of Catwoman's costume (which I think is the fourth or fifth one that did during his years drawing the character) is excellent and in keeping with the look of the rest of the "re-envisioned" Gotham City. The costume of the evil Bat-man is also a great and appropriately, insanely horrific. On the downside, Balent was well into his "breasts must be at least the size of the woman's head" phase. (But it's not as bad as his work on his self-published "Tarot" series... where breasts are at least TWICE the size of the head.)

The end result is a book that's entertaining and worth reading if you're a Batman or Catwoman fan--especially as the characters were portrayed in the 1980s and 1990s. However, it's not a "classic," so, despite the upscale and long-lasting format it was originally presented in, I doubt it's easy to find a decade after its publication. Should you come across this two-issue series at a flea-market, comic book convention, or on eBay, I recommend grabbing your copies.

Forgotten Comics: Silverblade

Silverblade (DC Comics, 12-issue series 1987-1988)
Writer: Cary Bates
Artists: Gene Colan, Steve Mitchell, and Klaus Janson
Rating: Nine of Ten Stars

Jonathan Lord was a hugely popular Hollywood leading man throughout the '30s, '40s, and '50s. There wasn't a genre he didn't conquer, and there wasn't a famous literary character he didn't play. As age began to catch up with him, he withdrew behind the walls of his palatial estate high in the hills above Sunset Boulevard, with his friend and manservant Bobby Milestone and copies of his old films. However, thirty years into his self-imposed, lonely and bitter retirement, Lord's youth is restored and his granted the power to assume the form of any character or creature he ever portrayed on film by a mysterious spirit who has chosen him to battle an ancient evil that threatens to consume the world.


"Silver Blade" is a highly creative 12-issue series that deals with such mattters as pre-destiny, reincarnation, the nature of reality, and the lines between good and evil. It is a highly entertaining story of great depth, and it's a shame that it's never been reprinted in graphic novel form, given the crap that has been reprinted. ("Death of Superman"? "Batman: No Man's Land"? These were nothing but third-rate, elaborate advertising stunts.) It's an extremely intelligent series from a writer who has never really received the acknowledgement from comic book fans that I think he deserves. Bates' 100+ issues run on "The Flash" during the 70s and 80s is one that is criminally underrated, and "Silverblade" is a prime example of the fact that mature comic book storytelling existed before someone hit on the idea of marketing it.

One of the best aspects of the writing in "Silverblade" is that Bates uses Bobby Milestone--a former child actor whose life has been a string of failures since his movie career faded--as the primary point of view character in the story. Bobby stands apart from Lord's new life, and he remains very suspicious of what is happening, serving as the perfect "stand-in" for the reader as the tale unfolds. Milestone also becomes the anchor point when the series takes a couple of very strange and unexpected twists toward the end--daring twists, actually.

The artwork by Gene Colan is spectacular, as Colan's art through the mid-1990s always was. Colan brings the mixture of realism and surrealism to his art that a series like "Silverblade" demands. Although he is starting to slip past his prime here, he does a great job on this. Inkers Mitchell and Janson enhance Colan's art just enough to make it shine even brighter. (Yes, even the usually heavy pen of Klaus Janson is just here to augment rather than cover... then again, Colan is such a powerful artist himself that I doubt the heaviest inker could obscure his style.)

Maybe we'll see "Silverblade" re-presented in graphic novel form one of these days. It's long overdue.

'Manhunter: The Special Edition' collects great work by Goodwin and Simonson

Manhunter: The Special Edition (DC Comics, 2005)
Writer: Archie Goodwin
Artist: Walter Simonson
Rating: Ten of Ten Stars

"Manhunter: The Special Edition" collects some of the finest comics ever created and published by Americans. Originally published in 1973 and 1974 in issues of "Detective Comics", "Manhunter" was a revival and reinvention of a Golden Age superhero of the same name. In the talented hands of writer Archie Goodwin--one of the greatest talents of American comics--and artist Walter Simonson, it was also a high-water mark not only in graphic storytelling but also in adventure fiction that has rarely been equalled in the 30 years since the material was first published. It is a book that every aspiring comic book creator should read carefully.

In 1946, mystery man Paul Kirk (aka Manhunter) is killed during an African safari. However, he awakens some 25 years later, healed and restored through the super-science of the Council, a group of World War II-era scienties bent on reshaping the world in their image. They hoped Kirk would serve as their chief enforcer of their will, but instead he dedicates himself to opposing their fascist goals. He is soon joined by a small group of allies, foremost among them being Christine St. Claire, a intelligent and sexy Interpol agent, and the mysterious Batman.


The "Manhunter" series reprinted in this book consists of six 8-page chapters and a 20-page climactic episode that chronicle events from Paul Kirk's ressurection through his final, cataclysmic showdown with the master of the Council. These stories are textbook perfect examples of how to tell a complex story in a serial format, with each installment managing to provide a stand-alone story while developing both the larger tale and the personalities of its cast of characters.

In addition to the original "Manhunter" series, the "Special Edition" reprint includes an interesting essay by Goodwin on the development of the series (reprinted from a 1979 collection of the series), as well as a new "Manhunter" story that Goodwin was working on at the time of his death and which Simonson finished and presented as a "silent" tale--just art and no words--in memory of Goodwin. These two items are great additions to an already fabulous package.





You can read all the classic "Manhunter" stories online by clicking here. Start with the earliest post first, of course, as blogs always read in "reverse order" when it comes to series of posts.

'Aeon Flux' is better than the marketing campaign makes it seem

Aeon Flux (2005)
Starring: Charlize Theron and Marton Csokas
Director: Karyn Kusama
Rating: Six of Ten Stars

The Monican rebels start wanting freedom from Chairman Trevor Goodchild's (Csokas) rigid system of government in the utopian citystate of Bregna, but when they send their best agent Aeon Flux (Theron) on a mission to assassinate him, she learns that there is something far more sinister lurking behind the walls of Goodchild's citadel than anyone had imagined. Ignoring the orders of her superiors, she instead launches a quest to uncover the dark secrets of Goodhild and even her own existence. She soon finds herself forced to rethink everything she thought was true, and she eventually must ally with the she believed to be her greatest enemy, Goodchild, if she is to survive.

The previews and television ads for "Aeon Flux" are misleading. They make the film appear like a clone of "The Matrix" or perhaps even "Demoltion Man," with a bit of stereotypical Hollywood revenge story thrown in. I say this is a sign that the studio is mismarketing this flick, as they made me think this was yet another example of movie makers buying a property and "improving" upon it by dumping everything that made it cool, so I almost didn't go see it.

In truth, "Aeon Flux" is a faithful adaptation of the animated series it is based on, with enough back story and additional elements added to make it sensible and worthwhile viewing if you walk in cold with no knowledge of the original series. It's got the same over-the-top stunts and action of the animated series, plus an often-times surrealistic atmosphere.

The bizarre technology of the far-future Bregnan society and the rebels that battle against it is perhaps embodied even better in the live action film than the original series. While some of the costumes made me shake my head a bit (shades of bad "Star Trek: The Next Generation" copies in some cases), the look and feel of the "Aeon Flux" world from the cartoon was also brought over faithfully, with the gorgeous Relicary, the private homes of Bregnan citizens, the food and drink that is consumed, and the towering spires around Goodchild's citadel being particularly well-done.

The oddness and often dreamlike sense that runs through everything in the "Aeon Flux" world works both for and against the movie,just like it did in the animated series. I thought "Aeon Flux" was at its best when it was presented as short films; when MTV expanded the episodes into a half-hour format, most of them were more belabored than intriguing. That same sensation started to set in for me about an hour into the film... but it only lasted for a little bit, because the filmmakers then started building toward the climax and they got my attention again.

The acting is hard to comment on in the film, because the characters in it behave as they do in the original series--almost serenely calm even while trying to kill each other. No one that appeared on screen did a particularly bad job, and I thought that both Theron and Csokas were excellent at conveying emotions despite the required restraint of the characters.

All in all, I think this is a good and interesting movie. Not a great one, but I also don't think it's as bad as I am certain critics and movie-goers are going to claim it is.

The real problem with "Aeon Flux" is in the marketing, because it sets up expectations that this movie doesn't deliver. Instead, the marketeers should have played up the conspiracy, dark secrets, and "what is the meaning of life, duty, and freedom" angles that are contained in the film, instead of focusing on a hackneyed "she was the government's top assassin... until they betrayed her!" plot element that in truth isn't even really present in the film. I think this movie, sadly, is going to bomb in the theatres, but it will truly be discovered by audiences when it appears on DVD.





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For a brief summary of the original Aeon Flux (and stats for the "Big Eyes, Small Mouth" RPG), "blank">visit this page at my website.

'Golden Age Sandman' is comics history,but it still disappointed

Golden Age Sandman Archives, Vol. 1 (DC Comics, 2004)
Writer: Gardner Fox, Ogden Whitney, et.al.
Artists: Bert Christman, Creig Flessel, et.al.
Rating: Six of Ten Stars

From the first time I saw him in an issue of "Justice League of America" (during one of those way cool crossovers between Earth One and Earth Two that were an annual tradition in that title), I had all sorts of ideas for the Golden Age Sandman. There was just something about his look I liked. I wanted to see more of him, and I made up my own stories. I even submitted a couple story proposals to DC Comics in the early 1990s, but they were rejected.

When the Sandman was revived in "Sandman Mystery Theater", I followed the title until the very end. I was disappointed that it didn't have the feel of the old-time movies from the 1930s and 1940s, but it was decent enough. I also didn't quite like the way Wesley Dodds was portrayed, but mostly because he didn't fit with how I'd imagined he should be.

But, the Sandman still remained a visual favorite of mine, so when I saw that DC had released the earliest tales as part of their Archive Edition series, I had to get it.


Unfortunately, the Golden Age Sandman is still better in my imagination than he's ever been in print.

The tales presented in this hardbound book are interesting historical artifacts as far as the development of the comic book medium goes, but they really are not all that good. They have the choppiness of a newspaper strip that was a frequent weakness of early comics, and they feature artwork which is only slightly better than the norm of the day. Worse, the recycling and swiping of panels that artists did to keep their deadlines is embarrassingly evident in several stories.

All that said, the stories are better than a lot of those found in comics from the early 1940s, and the reprinted covers are very cool.

I don't regret buying the book, but it's hard for me to recommend to others unless you're a Big Time Fan of early Golden Age comics. AS much as I remain enamoured by the look of the Golden Age Sandman, this material simply doesn't warrant the upscale format it's presented in... nor the $50 price tag.