21Six.net - Where Jesus Files His Taxes

Following a rather lengthy absence, Marvel has decided to revive their kind of teeny-bopper Spider-Man comic, Spider-Man Loves Mary Jane, which is the follow up to Mary Jane and Mary Jane: Homecoming. These stories are set in, obviously, a slightly different Marvel universe from 616, and focus a bit more on the high school drama and traditional stuff of being in high school that most people really only like looking at when it doesn’t concern them.

Issue #1 came out not-too-terribly-long ago, and I decided to give it a looksy. It’s got a different writer than the previous volume, so I’m a little curious as to how this is going to translate in the long run, but the first issue seems to give the same kind of feel from the previous ones. We start off with a nice, kind of silly dream by Mary Jane, as she then later tries to desperately prove she doesn’t have any feelings for Spider-Man.

I’m curious to see where this series is gonna go now, and if it continues in a similar silly direction that the previous “season” went. One of the draws of this series was that it humanized everyone on a different level than the other versions of the comics. In this version, they’re written to feel more like the people you hung out with at high school, or, if you still go, the people who you would talk about behind their back. Harry Osborn and Mary Jane have their conflicts and drama, and Peter is struggling to juggle his social life and being Spider-Man through a variety of lame excuses that everyone seems to buy.

Considering that the previous series was a nice hit with people, I have faith that this one will do the same. Though, as always, I’m a little skeptical as to what it’s going to do.

Check out Marvel’s piece on the comic at their website.

So, as everyone is probably aware by now. The Dark Knight came out, and, seeing as my website is devoted to comic book nerdery, it only makes sense that I’ll be commenting on it. Every positive thing you could ever hear about this movie will not do it justice. It is an experience. Everything about it happens in a way that I can only describe as somewhere between “epic” and “completely fucking insane.”

But let’s get started.
Read the rest of this entry »

I don’t exactly know how new this is, as I’m not designed to be on the up-and-up, but there’s a trailer for the upcoming Watchmen movie out.

And every bit of excitement I’ve had about learning that the movie exists came flooding back. One of my main worries, that they would crew up how Dr. Manhattan looks, has been removed.

It’s been a while since I’ve done one of these, so I thought I would bring it back up, and have a little fun. Today’s review is Showplace Cinemas North, located at 4200 North Third Avenue in Evansville, Indiana.
Read the rest of this entry »

I know that, really, I’ve spent a lot of time talking about Miller’s Batman, moreso than is really needed for any particular person. But I like Batman. And I like Frank Miller. And this is my website and no one actually makes you read these things. If you have objections, I’m sure you can just as easily read something on here that you do like, or just assume that I have some kind of understanding of what I’m talking about.

What I’m talking about, this time at least, is the whole of Frank Miller’s take on Batman. Well, not even the whole. Whenever people think of Frank Miller’s Batman then think of Year One, Dark Knight Returns, All Star Batman and Robin and, with shame for some, Dark Knight Strikes Again. These four books are pretty much the definitive versions of Miller’s Batman, though he has other books that I’ve not read and may not even be out yet. As such, I’ll be focusing on these four.
Read the rest of this entry »

Reuters via MSNBC

LOS ANGELES - Comedian George Carlin, a counter-culture hero famed for his routines about drugs and dirty words, died of heart failure at a Los Angeles-area hospital Sunday, a spokesman said. He was was 71.

Carlin, who had a history of heart problems, died at St. John’s Health Center in Santa Monica about 6 p.m. PT after being admitted earlier in the afternoon for chest pains, spokesman Jeff Abraham told Reuters.

Rest in peace, sir.

I know it’s been a while since I’ve posted anything, so here we go.

Jack Chick, and by extension, Chick Publications is a Protestant Fundamentalist company that has many little comic books called “tracts” that promote the concept of Chick’s particular brand of Protestant Fundamentalism in a manner that some people may find objectionable. However, in the interest of fairness, and because of the general atmosphere of this website, I will not be sitting down, tract by tract, and discerning truth from fiction and pointing out various logical fallacies in his writing or anything like that. That is for the skeptical community of the world to be bothered with. I’m sure if you use Google, and search for it, you could easily find a site devoted to nothing but determining the veracity of the claims made in the tracts.

What we’re going to do here, instead, is merely present the tracts, and show some of the absurdity that is present within the overall world of these tracts. In the interest of fairness, I will also be linking you to the page on Chick Publications were you can view these directly and a page where you can order these for yourselves to do with whatever you see fit. It’s not my place, and I’m sure Chick Publications doesn’t mind this little bit of publicity from a nobody website on the Interblag.

First and foremost, if you wish to indulge yourself, and read these for yourself, you can access it from the Chick Publications online order page. As you can see, there are a multitude of various things to be had within the confines of his part of the tubes. But we’re focusing on the tracts.

Chick Publications also has a tract list for reading online. This is where I will be gathering my information for this little bit.
Read the rest of this entry »

So. I’ve been thinking about some things recently–most of them involving comic books since that’s pretty much all I think about it seems. Today we’re going to talk, specifically, about comic book villains. I’m going to talk about my top five favorites, from everything I’ve read over the years. You don’t have to agree with me, in fact I pretty much figure you won’t on most of them. There are a few that seem to be universal, but that’s another story.

The Joker

Definitely has to be on the list. Batman’s antithesis and easily one of the greatest villains in both style and execution. He can be written so many ways that it was even suggested in Arkham Asylum: Serious House On Serious Earth that Joker recreated himself every day–somehow beyond the concepts of conventional sanity and insanity into something wholly different and infinitely more frightening. Joker’s range seems to be from malicious, white-faced murderer to the campy prankster of the Silver Age.

I’ve established, multiple times, that I prefer the more methodical Joker. The Joker who is more a sociopath than he is a giggling fool. He still makes his jokes, he still is clearly insane, but he’s also throwing puppies into fires or something.

He’s a character that’s easily used and abused by a writer who doesn’t know what he’s doing, and merely wants to use a mainstream villain for his story arc. Which is, in itself, a shame, because the character can be written as a rather complex character (see The Killing Joke).
Read the rest of this entry »

Let’s talk about the new Iron Man movie.

This isn’t gonna be a summary of every detail of the movie, compared with appropriate aspects of the comics, to show just how different the two were–because it’s not important. This is a good movie. No. This is a great movie. Robert Downey Jr. is amazing and I couldn’t have asked for anyone else to play Tony Stark. Everything about him just felt like it. The man felt human. It didn’t have the over-the-top epic drama that was filled through nook and cranny that some of the lesser (yet not campy) comic book movies had. This movie clearly wasn’t taking itself THAT seriously, and that helped with some of the charm.

I find it comparable, in quality, to Batman Begins, which is probably one of the best comic book movies that have ever existed. It’s not the most faithful to what it’s derived from–but that’s just it, it’s derived from sources. But I’m not going to talk about that movie, I’m going to talk about this one.
Read the rest of this entry »

Video games involving comics often get a bad rap–mostly because they all tend to suck on a level that most things can’t even begin to match. Just look at all of the games involving Batman–a character who could easily dominate the industry with his games. I mean, seriously. The man is a ninja detective. How the hell can you go wrong with that premise?

But I digress. I’m talking, right now, about a specific game that’s coming out in the future: Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe.

The game, at the title, sounds sketchy. These are two concepts that really shouldn’t mesh well, especially given the trailer at WorldsCollide.com features Batman and Sub-Zero. Granted, these two are the two of the most popular characters in their respective franchises, but the fact that they’re including Batman makes people wonder just what’s going to happen.

I’m really looking forward to this game, in concept at least. It’s like Marvel vs. Capcom, only, clearly, with different companies (I know, you’re suprised). I’m curious to see just what the storyline is going to be, and who all is going to be applied from both sides. I suspect that their Fatality thing will be modified (especially considering the game isn’t M-rated) if even kept at all.

I know this is, like, a week late. But I don’t really care. I just found out about it. GameStop has stuff on it at this link.