The Hulk, the Avengers and what Marvel needs to do

The Incredible Hulk/Avengers Blog - In Honor of Geek Pride Day

In honor of Geek Pride Day, I wanted to write about something that shows my geekness, those that really know me, know I am a HUGE geek. Case and point, this weekend at the numerous Wrestling shows I was a part of, many of the topics asked were 1.) about the Horror Show (www.latenighthorrorhotel.com)  and 2.) What do you think of ___________ comic story.

Last night I decided to give the Incredible Hulk (starring Ed Norton) another chance. I liked this film, I think simply because it was better than the 2003 Ang Lee film, but it was still nothing that amazing. The 2008 was much better, just still fell kind of flat. I liked the super soldier story but Abomination just looked "blah"...plus it had to compete with Iron Man that summer, with Iron Man being such a great film, The Incredible Hulk was overshadowed.

Let me start with - I love Stan Lee, he has given us so many amazing heroes and made a lot of people's childhood's better. With that, a lot of his stories are from the 60's and things change and some don't transfer well to film for modern times, The Hulk debuted in 1962. I have never been one that thought the Hulk was the ruler of the Marvel Universe, in fact quite often the sub context of his story, the Betty Ross love story and him always trying to become normal, just bored me. Betty Ross always seemed more of a hinder than an asset storyline wise. At least on the TV show, Bill Bixby gave the Banner character some sympathy and I felt for the guy...Banner was more likable.They could explore more with the Banner character but never give us enough time to feel for the guy.

The last few years though, in my opinion, have been great for the Hulk in comics. The Planet Hulk, World War Hulk storyline...fantastic, the current Red Hulk/ Fall of the Hulks story...AWESOME, I mean hell, I even enjoyed the Hulk vs Wolverine 5 issue story arc....now we move on to the Avengers.

With Iron Man 2, which was a great filler story to get to the bigger picture, out of the way and Marvel films moving closer to the Avengers Initiative film, the rumors are that the HULK could be the villain. This could be great and let me explain why. Side note : people always ask my opinion on Iron Man 2, it's no Empire Strikes Back as far as story builder goes, but once we get other films out there, people will grow to appreciate it more.

The Avengers, depending on what the final team is comprised of could be Epic (the picture gives an idea of who could be on the team..while I could do without some...at least the general idea is there), I say Epic since well, I'm a nerd. Let's hope that we aren't forced to sit through more establishing story, let's assume that Banner is aware that the Hulk is a problem, Betty is out of the picture and the Avengers storyline is set. I would like to see Banner trying to work with Stark to develop some sort of a antibody to help stop the transformation, that I could see. I would love to see the Avengers trying to create some sort of plan or capsule (yes similar to Planet Hulk) to rid the World of the giant green troublemaker. 

So much is riding on the Avengers, the Steve Rogers/Captain America movie has to be "Amazing", the Thor movie has to be a "MUST SEE". If Marvel gives us more Galactus in cloud form or some crappy Ghost Rider, Daredevil or X-Men 3 crap...it will ruin what they have established with Iron Man. Let's hope they get their act together. Keep watching here as I provide more comic news and opinions...granted they are just my opinion, let me know what you think.

Happy Geek Pride Day!!

What am I reading this week?

What am I reading this week?

by : Rob Dimension

Well another week of comic book reading and movie watching has come to a close. I figured I would share what I am reading, what looks good and what I saw for the week. This way I can cover a few mini opinionated reviews and not be stuck for a long drawn out blog. As you can tell by my picture (on the left) I am very excited with this weeks reading material. I spent this week grabbing some older trades, re reading some and regretting not picking up others sooner. On a whole, this weeks stash was very good.

The Walking Dead - I had read issues here and there and never really got wrapped into the story as much as I should. For me, comic reading is like phases, some weeks I enjoy The Red Hulk stuff (the last year has been very good Hulk reading), while other weeks I might grab some off title that no one gives a chance too. Robert Kirkman had really grabbed my attention with Marvel Zombie trades 1 & 2 plus Dead Days, so I had to go back and read The Walking Dead series (currently issue #71 is in stores). Like all comics, it's never to late to jump in, so I wanted to read about the Zombie Apocalypse, I'm a sucker for love stories. 

The story follows a group of survivors though-out the ordeal, problems on the road, how they survive but what intrigues me the most, the topic that hardly anyone talks about ..... the social issues. How people within your group cope with death, if they can mentally handle what's going on around them. Kirkman does a fantastic job touching on those issues, feeding you the minor details that get you wrapped up within the story and the characters. Very smart writing, makes the good guys likable and the bad guys, not...very simple, yet hard to achieve for many. 

I am 1/2 way through the 2nd Hardback and have set myself a mission to ingest as much as I can to get current. I still have Hardbacks 3 & 4 sitting here and will hopefully be done with those by the end of next week. So, if you haven't read comic in a while and want to check something out, go grab the 1st trade of the Walking Dead by Image, it retails for $9.99 and is worth every penny.

Yep, another trade I slept on...Hack/Slash. Devils Due Publishing puts this one out (currently issue #31 is out) and was pretty big in 2008 but I always just kind of wrote it off and another, cute girl, no storyline comic...man, I was wayyy wrong. Filled with plenty of slasher material that would make any horror fan happy, Hack/Slash delivers the goods on more than one level.

The story follows Cassie Hack, a social misfit whose own Mother murdered for the sake of her daughter's feelings, on a quest to take out the bad and evil slashers. Accompanied by her trusty, equally freakish sidekick, Vlad, Cassie roams from town to town and gives you plenty of adventure, hot scenes that make any fanboys glasses fog up and some laugh out loud moments. Paying tribute to many horror icons today, I spotted a Troma sticker, a few mentions of other pop culture Icons and even a side story with Chucky (yup..the crazy, murderous Good Guys doll). 

I grabbed the Omnibus Volume 1, think a larger trade paperback with numerous chapters, that retails for $34.99 but is full of tons of reading. I can't recommend this one enough. I think fans of Troma, bad B movies and well, lonely nerds world wide will enjoy this one... especially the nerds (like me) since Cassie wears very little. Ladies and Gents..there is a new ass-kicker of slashers and her name is Cassie Hack.

On to the other comics I grabbed for the week - I will admit, it was rather light for me this week. Only so much time in my days for comics and the two mentioned above have taken over...

• Siege #1 - I went back and want to read this, since people are pimping it to me. Norman Osborn was Marvel's go to villain last year and it continues on here. Claiming his new identity as the Iron Patriot, Norman has assembled his own Avengers Initiative and is set to take down Asgard. I have never been a big fan of Thor or Loki, as they are just too wordy for me. But, so far I am enjoying this one...there are only 4 in the series and it isn't too hard to just jump right in. So go check it out! If you wanted to be even more caught up, check out The Dark Avengers series.

• Fall of the Hulks #1 Alpha - I grabbed this simply because within the last year, anything pertaining to the Red Hulk/Green Hulk war has been pretty fun. The smart Hulk vs The Dumb one...equally as powerful, blah, blah, blah...this comic is more of a set up story. Plenty of super villains, I just can't get enough of Doom lately..he is so BA, plenty of back ground knowledge to get you set for the remainder issues. I look forward to reading more about this...the plan of capturing the World's smartest is never an easy task.