Which I think its the problem, Hellboy (as a comic) was never really a "fantasy story." Instead of being a clumsy-yet-lovable-oaf, he was a world-wide adventurer who often found himself in sticky situations. The whole underground-elf-world seemed a bit extravagant for the Hellboy universe, and the "Troll's Market" felt too much like Harry Potter and his alley. The elves as a whole were quite weak, and their storyline never felt engaging enough for me to care. Part of the problem with the entire storyline was that it featured too many characters. Hellboy, Liz Sherman, Abe Sapian, Johann, the two elves, and Manny. Trying to juggle around each character and give them equal amounts of screentime/exposition/character development led to some of the piece's weakest moments.

Having said that I must say that del Toro really brought out more of Liz Sherman than what appeared in the first film. There she was more of a tacked-on character, meanted to create a need for Hellboy to ultimately choose right, in Hellboy 2 she's a part of the team (still in a limited sense), and her character is directly invovled in the story. Although here she switches roles with Hellboy and rescues him from certain death. What I'm saying is that the movie started out as having some good points, a move paranormal adventure kick, but quickly degraded into something else. As much as beautiful scenery and crazy contraptions/characters were engaging and fun to watch, they couldn't carry the story alone. Its kind of sad to see Hellboy reduced to this, and I feel the need to revist the comics once again.

First there’s the endless round of parties. When it gets a bit much and you just want to spend one evening at home, just one quiet evening, your excuses are met with reproving silences. Even the static on the wire seems reproaching. You feel like everyone in the world is accusing you of becoming old. Of turning into one of those dull, stodgy people who must hit the sack by ten or they become crabby. In short, of becoming everything you vowed you’d never become (ah, the recklessness of youth). There’s too much pressure to be happening.

And then there are all the movies you have to see. I let myself be lax and missed out on Wall-e, Wanted and Rock On. Now I suppose Wall-e can be caught on DVD, but Wanted? It’s a sad, irreplaceable loss my friends. So, hung over, you drag yourself to the theatres in the morning. After all the partying you have to save money somewhere. And you craving high carb, exorbitantly priced food to get over your hangover doesn’t help.

While on the subject of movies, I must mention Drona here. I haven’t seen the movie but if all the bitching about it is justified, then I am mystified. Because, you see, Goldie Behl is a friend of mine. So is Joydeep Sarkar. I have worked with them extensively over three shows – Kabhi Haan Kabhi Naa (Zee), Remix (Star One) and India Calling – and have the highest regard for their storytelling abilities. So I am a little baffled by their failure. I am baffled by the nature of the failure. The only reason I can think of is that the interminable delays the film suffered drained the people of their creativity and enthusiasm.

While also on the subject of movies, I did see Hellboy-II. Of all the releases this week, this seems most worth it. CG, kickass; action, great; the narrative and pace okay, although a little slow in parts.  Not quite the Dark Knight, but entertaining nonetheless.

And now I’ve gotta go. Another party beckons. At this point I can only hope that it gets over at a reasonable time, like, say 1 a.m.?

Part 1: Marvel Heroes | Part 2: Marvel Teams | Part 3: Marvel Villains | Part 4: DC Heroes | Part 5: DC Teams | Part 6: DC Villains | Part 7: Miscellaneous

HANCOCK

Portrayed by: Will Smith [Hancock (2008)]

THE CROW

Portrayed by: Brandon Lee [The Crow (1994)]; Vincent Perez [The Crow: City Of Angels (1996)]; Mark Dacascos [The Crow: Stairway To Heaven (1998)]; Eric Mabius [The Crow: Salvation (2000)]; Edward Furlong [The Crow: Wicked Prayer (2005)]

SPAWN

Portrayed by: Michael Jae White [Spawn (1997)]

CLOWN

Portrayed by: John Leguizamo [Spawn (1997)]

HELLBOY

Portrayed by: Ron Perlman [Hellboy (2004), Hellboy II: The Golden Army (2008)]

ABE SAPIEN

Portrayed by: Doug Jones [Hellboy (2004), Hellboy II: The Golden Army (2008)]

LIZ SHERMAN

Portrayed by: Selma Blair [Hellboy (2004), Hellboy II: The Golden Army (2008)]

FLASH GORDON

Portrayed by: Buster Crabbe [Flash Gordon Movie Serials (1936)]; Steve Holland [Flash Gordon TV Series (1954)]; Sam Jones [Flash Gordon (1980)]; Eric Johnson [Flash Gordon TV Series (2007)]

MING THE MERCILESS

Portrayed by: Charles Middleton [Flash Gordon Movie Serials (1936)]; Max Von Sydow [Flash Gordon (1980)]; John Ralston [Flash Gordon TV Series (2007)]

BARB WIRE

Portrayed by: Pamela Anderson [Barb Wire (1996)]

THE SHADOW

Portrayed by: Alec Baldwin [The Shadow (1994)]

TANK GIRL

Portrayed by: Lori Petty [Tank Girl (1995)]

V FOR VENDETTA

Portrayed by: Hugo Weaving [V For Vendetta (2005)]

JUDGE DREDD

Portrayed by: Sylvester Stallone [Judge Dredd (1995)]

RED SONJA

Portrayed by: Brigitte Nielsen [Red Sonja (1985)]

As an added bonus here's a preview of the upcoming G.I. Joe Movie characters *cringe*

AND I'M SPENT!

In 2004 Hellboy made a ripple on the ever-growing superhero movie scene that was swallowed up in the wave of larger fare such as Spiderman 2. It was somewhat of a shame, as Hellboy featured one of the comic world’s more interesting and most entertaining of protagonists; one third repentant demon, one third Dirty Harry, one third moany teenager.

What Guillermo del Toro did with Hellboy should be admired, particularly in light of the fact that the film is essentially a big amusing failure. Part of the agreement in casting the ideal Ron Perlman in the lead role was that the budget ended up slashed. As a result, demon-hunter Hellboy ends up fighting the same monster over and over and over. And over. It wasn’t even that interesting a monster (on a barely related note, Sammael in fact looked far more like the hybrid of a Predator and a xenomorph than that monstrosity that turned up in AVP2 did). Also, the introduction of the character of John Myers, who was meant to be the awestruck human who eased us into this not particularly alien world of demons and whatnots, managed to weigh the film down more than any number of budget constraints could.

But due to an abundance of style and wit the film was crowd-pleasing enough to take a decent handful of cash and run for the hills. Combining that with the numerous Oscar wins and noms for del Toro’s stunning Pan’s Labyrinth, and a sequel to Hellboy was almost guaranteed.

So comes Hellboy II: The Golden Army, an embarrassingly colour-by-numbers sequel. Oh sure, they’re pretty spectacular colours (gone is the obnoxious dark blue tone of Hellboy that made the film too dark at times to even see – yes, it was nearly as obnoxious as that nauseating green hue from the Matrix sequels). But as I will continuously point out here again and again, production values cannot excuse a bad film’s badness.

Hellboy II has much of what you could ask from a sequel (and what many sequels nowadays fail to cash in on): the best of the cast return, the worst character has been written out and the action and spectacle have ante-upped considerably. Ron Perlman is so perfectly comfortable as Hellboy we could imagine he never took the make-up off in the last four years. Selma Blair sexes up her goth image from the first film to a far more pleasing degree. And while Doug Jones’s Abe Sapien still fails to crossover from comedic support to central character, his own voice is actually far more suited to the character than David Hyde Pierce’s over-stuffy re-dubbing for the first film. Best of all, Agent Myers is gone, although the fact that the film should even take a second to explain where he has gone (Antarctica) shows a level of compassion for the terrible character that he does not even deserve – no doubt audiences would have been happier to be left imagining all the terrible things that might have happened to him since the last film and be done with it.

What’s missing is the sense of doom from the first film. Here an embittered elf is determined to reap his revenge on mankind. Hellboy has to stop him. But the first film (and the comics as well, I understand) spent so much time highlighting how Hellboy himself was the doom of the world, that this plot seems bizarrely secondary, like an episode of a Hellboy TV show, or one of the admirable but similarly ignorable animated Hellboy movies, Sword of Storms and Blood and Iron. There are a few references to Hellboy’s greater (evil) purpose, but by in large the plot of this film seems to wish to overshadow it, which it simply cannot.

So yes, there’s evil elf (Luke Goss), and he has a trollish henchman, and they try to control a giant mechanical army. And Hellboy tries to stop him, by going largely against the book, and against his new father figure, ghost-in-a-suit Johann Krauss (whose very existence raises far too many questions). And all the way along it’s very very pretty. And Abe falls in love with evil elf’s twin sister. And it’s utterly unbelievable.

The fairest way to continue this review is to completely tear the film apart and then talk for a time about how pretty it is. Cause then we’ll all feel much better.

Hellboy was a funny film. There was wit, and an underlying sense of fun and joy in the subject, but that is largely gone here. Hellboy’s quips have become so stock that the film asks us to laugh purely based on the delivery. “And stay down” shouts Hellboy as he slams his bulky opponent to the floor. Ok, why not? Maybe there is no more suitable line available, but I’m certain anything would have been funnier. Even the cleverest line of the film, delivered by a disturbing infant growing out of some monster, is delivered with clumsy gurgling. It’s quite a shame really.

There are numerous other things to nitpick at, such as the sequence battling the tooth fairies in which the “red shirt” agents are boringly picked off one by one, or the Men in Black-stolen scene at the Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defense where Jeffrey Tambor’s FBI chief stumbles through his lines so awkwardly it seems he never saw the script (oh yes, it’s clearly meant to look like he’s flustered, but it makes for terrible cinema).

But Hellboy II’s biggest failing is it is patronising – oh so patronising. Perhaps more so than recent Spiderman or Superman films. And it’s a tragedy coming from the same filmmaker who broke so many rules with Pan’s Labyrinth. Even Agent Myers looks like a helpful narrative construct compared to some of the scenes in this film. For example, the emphasis on the connection between the two elf twins could not be any more heavy-handed. By the time we reach the film’s climax only two people in the audience don’t know what’s going to happen to the villain and neither of them are expected for another five or six months. Speaking of babies, the baby plot adds almost nothing to the film bar a bone of contention between Hellboy and Liz. So Hellboy has to grow up now; well he always did – that was the point of the first film, why does he need a baby (babies) to change that?

Countless parodies have been done in the last few years of how to make a sequel to a superhero film, and disturbingly it is Hellboy II, a film that could have been groundbreakingly (or at least tremoringly) different, that hits almost every single clichéd note. The superhero is unveiled to the public (in a slow-motion musical explosion sequence that is simply terribly executed), the villain implies that the hero is more like the villain than those he protects (queue Willem Dafoe-style cackling), the people he protects turn against him, he is left mortally wounded but saved by love, etc. It’s so by-the-books it could bring you to tears. It even concludes with Hellboy triumphantly “quitting the force”, only to leave himself and his team stranded in Northern Ireland (they strut triumphantly in the opposite direction of their plane). There are no excuses, not from a director who has become such an icon filming a source material that has been considered so out of the ordinary. He co-wrote the script with Mike Mignola himself!

All that considered, it is very pretty, and in the end this was always going to be a test run for del Toro’s shot at The Hobbit. And the clockwork-fetishist has undoubtedly impressed, with his team creating some remarkable visualisations. The Troll Market, although perhaps not as grand in scale as it might have been, is so brilliantly laid out, and populated by such bizarre and interesting beasties that one doesn’t know what to admire most. Make-up, puppetry and animatronics create creatures that are as much Uruk-hai as they are Skeksis, a wonderful combination of available technologies – further hinting at what joys The Hobbit might bring.

Most enjoyable of all is the film’s opening, in which the story’s prologue is narrated in a marionette-style fashion that recalls Anders Rønnow Klarlund’s 2004 film Strings. Charming, if far too early a peak for the film.

The sequence in which the elemental god covers the city in glowing grass could not have been done better without flying Miyazaki in to show them how it should be done. Character designs, such as the legless goblin (with a surprisingly authentic Northern Irish accent), the elf king and Death (truly noteworthy) are all the signs of a master filmmaker, who is simply slumming it with an incomplete script. The final battle against the clockwork army in the clockwork palace atop a clockwork floor is notable not just for the impressive choreography but also for being a CG action sequence which never really feels confusing. It’s a sign of just how far the technology has come and the good it can do in the right hands.

Alas these were the right hands at the wrong time. A beautiful experience does not a good film make. While del Toro is clearly still learning – he has admittedly created here a villain who is not just evil for the sake of it as in his previous films – we certainly should have expected more from this, and it goes to show that in terms of storytelling he is still far behind his compatriots Cuarón and Iñárritu. It had been such a strong summer in terms of blockbusters, it’s somewhat of a tragedy that a director so reliable should let himself down so greatly.

2/5

Of particular note are a bunch of graphic novels, some of which I'd read long ago, and some that I read for the first time.

Swamp Thing has always tugged at my heart - the misunderstood monster, sort of like Frankenstein's monster; yet Swamp Thing is gentle, only rising to anger and violence in defense of humanity and Mother Earth.  I'd forgotten how much the love story of Abby and Swamp Thing swamped me with emotion when I first read it, at least until I started reading "Swamp Thing: Love and Death" by Alan Moore again last week.  It still holds that power for me, and I actually caught myself being titillated by the "vegetable sex" episode (as Neil Gaiman calls it in his introduction).  The artists, Steve Bissette and Jon Totleben, know how to capture emotion and, well, sex, but without actual copulation.

I also loved the Pog episode, a tribute to Pogo; but it is very sad, and sadly, it does seem like something that would happen on this lady.

Hellboy sort of ambushed me.  I didn't know what to expect from it, and was pleasantly surprised to find that it wasn't torture-porn - I think I was confusing it with Hellraiser, because I kept picturing something like Pinhead when I thought of Hellboy.  At any rate, I love a world where people can address a red demon with truncated horns on his forehead as "Mr. Boy".  Here again, we have a sort of Frankenstein's-monster-become-useful-member-of-society - Hellboy, summoned from ??? by Rasputin, kills his "father"; but without all the moral agonizing and self-justification of Frankenstein's monster who took revenge through killing loved ones of *his* "father".  Rasputin pulls a Darth Vader by trying to convert Hellboy over to the Dark Side, telling Hellboy it is his destiny, this is why he (Rasputin, his father) summoned him (Hellboy) - and Hellboy kicks his ass, instead of blubbering and trying to commit suicide like Luke Skywalker.  But does he get the girl?  Or maybe she's his sister. . .

I remember reading one Sin City volume way back when, but only vaguely.  So I've started with The Hard Goodbye - definitely hadn't read it.  Marv is:

a) Paranoid
b) Heroic
c) Crazy
d) All of the above
e) None of the above

but is he really dead?  I won't know until I crack the next volume.

Heroes: Season 1 is 34 betweener tales about the characters in the television show - you can read these online at the Heroes website, although it is also in published form. It's very cool to see some background for the characters, and it explains a lot that one may not have understood from the televised episodes.

But my biggest read was Cryptonomicon, by Neal Stephenson.  This book made me a little ashamed at how much popular literature I spend time reading.  It is written for people with attention spans longer than a breezy 250 or 350 pages; it uses language and vocabulary in a way that people as well educated as myself should *expect* to read and use it, and Stephenson never dumbs down his plot or his characters to try to suck in a few extra readers; nor does he rely on (or need to rely on) sex to make the story interesting.  I was hooked from the first page.  If Neuromancer by William Gibson is cyberpunk, then Cryptonomicon is cybergeek.

I will admit that there were a few places that out-geeked me - being a nerd, married to a nerd, I was pretty much able to keep up with the techno-language and scenarios; I can see where someone who is totally uninterested in or unfamiliar with computers and cryptology might have trouble with this aspect of the book, but it would be worth skimming those parts just to read the rest of the story.  Which is primarily about people.

The story is set up as alternating timeframes, between World War II and the late 1990s. It takes a long time to get around to the point of the story, but the journey there was fun. I have to admit some disappointment at the way it ended - something like 1160 pages of build-up, 6 pages of climax, and 2 pages of denouement. Don't get me wrong, I loved the book, it's just hard to get let down on the ending. It's a problem, I'm sure, to end a story well - one of my favorite authors, Stephen King, writes incredible stories, but oftentimes the endings suck. And I surely couldn't do any better, I'm just sayin' ...

*******************

p.s. I actually started this post 2 months ago but real life intervened, to the point that I did not feel up to writing (see my personal blog for details - link is on the About page). However, I did get a bunch of reading done in the meantime. I will probably post about some of the books, but definitely not all. I'll try to be better, but I've got a lot more real life heading my way, so no guarantees.

The holy trinity of internationally known Mexican directors, aka Alfonso Cuarón (Children Of Men), Guillermo Del Toro (the Hellboy films) and Alejandro González Iñárritu (Babel) will produce Mother And Child, a new ensemble drama from Colombian filmmaker Rodrigo García (Things You Can Tell Just by Looking at Her), who also wrote the script.

The $4.5 million project, produced with Mockingbird Pictures president Julie Lynn, follows the intersecting lives of a 50-year-old woman, the daughter she gave up for adoption 35 years ago and a black woman looking to adopt a baby.

Set to begin a Los Angeles shoot in late December or January, the film continues Garcia's examination of female characters found in his dramas "Things You Can Tell Just by Looking at Her" and "Nine Lives."

In the meantime Garcia's latest film, the intriguing supernatural thriller Passengers (see the trailer), currently watchable in Greece, Spain and Iceland, will open in the US on October 24th, in the UK on November 28th and in Australia on December 4th.

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En sak som är väldigt bra med hösten är att vädret blir så dåligt att man äntligen kan få stänga in sig med en stor skål chips och ett par, tre filmer utan att få dåligt samvete över att man inte är utomhus.

Den här hösten är filmutbudet på biograferna väl sådär, om du frågar mig. Men det är åtminsone en rulle som jag absolut inte tänker missa: Hellboy: the golden army.

Hellboy-filmen är en uppföljare till den första filmen med samma namn som kom 2004. Filmerna bygger på en amerikansk serie av Mike Mignola. Den handlar om hur ett gäng nazister under Andra världskriget försöker åkalla djävulen, men endast lyckas frammana ett litet djävulsyngel: Hellboy. Omedelbart efteråt stormas nazisternas läger av amerikaner, och den lilla demonen blir omhändertagen av amerikanska armén. Han växer upp och blir medlem i den statliga brottbekämpande organisationen BPRD, och samarbetar där med ett flertal hel-, halv eller omänskliga figurer för att eliminera ondskan varhelst den befinner sig.

 Den första Hellboy-filmen var helt ok, tyckte jag. Visst, har man läst serierna så stör man sig alltid på att alla detaljer inte stämmer med originalversionen, och jag tyckte egentligen inte att själva äventyret var sådär jättespännande, men på det stora hela var det en hyfsad film. Selma Blair, som spelar Hellboys stora kärlek Liz, är riktigt bra i rollen, och amfibievarelsen Abe Sapiens var också jätterolig. Men även om jag inte blev helt såld på film nummer ett så måste jag ändå se tvåan också... det är ju ändå en av mina favoritserier som tagit steget till vita duken - och jag är väldigt svag för gigantiska tentakel-monster och uråldriga magiska ritualer.

Än så länge finns tyvärr varken Hellboy-serierna eller filmerna på Biblioteken i Botkyrka, men ni kan säkert få tag i dem på annat håll.

Hellboy: The Golden Army på nätet

Hellboy 1 på imdb.com

Hellboy-serien i Seriewikin

/Sara

First time I walked into my old shop, Bowen, the owner, a dude around my age, introduced himself, shook my hand, asked me what I read, recommended some books and all that jazz.  And even though it was a sales pitch, he made me feel welcome and that's all it took to make me start a Pull and spend way too much money there.  More importanly, it was his shop that, as I happened to pass it one day walking to class, plunged me back into the world of comics and rekindled my love for the medium as a unique form of story-telling.  But, now without a place to go and talk about the books I'm reading, what's new, etc., my flame is admittedly dim.

I've only got 2 titles on my Pull and don't bother to visit my current shop more than once a month.  I'm reading Wasteland (awesome book) and Marvel's The Immortal Iron Fist (haven't read any of the non-Fraction/Brubaker stuff yet, but I'm scared) but that is it.  I haven't bought a Trade since the Hellboy Volume 8.  I've got a backlog of Trades I need to finish (The Black Dossier), but overall I feel disconnected with what's out right now.  My old shop closing made me miss some issues of books like The Astounding Wolf-Man, Tales of the TMNT and some others.  I've thought about getting my stuff online, but though I don't like the place, I'd rather support a local shop then e-commerce.

I've seriously thought about getting my own shop, I would love it, but if there was ever a time NOT to a open a business, especially something as specialized as comic books, it's now.  So, until I find a solution, I remain a sparse reader and unmotiavted creator.

Bad Advice for Good Times, the most untrusted name in filmmaking, announced today that it will begin preproduction on two features and a short inspired by, expanding on, and celebrating the work of the most influential horror writer of the 20th century, H.P. Lovecraft.  The films will be co-written and directed by Joseph Nanni (Casting Call of Cthulhu) and produced by BAGT.  "CCoC was like a dry run for us, so we were pleasantly by its success," says Nanni.  The short film was selected by 12 festivals across the globe and was downloaded over 20,000 times from Yog Radio.  While Casting Call of Cthulhu is a comedy Joseph assured us that the lines will be blurred in the upcoming productions, "The next three films won't be comedy but funny things will happen."  None of the films are adapts of Lovecraft's work but will incorporate characters and themes he dealt with.  "I think adapting Lovecraft is a great pitfall of the genre.  Fans inevitably compare the film to the text, which is unfair.  Lovecraft’s ideas and storytelling are a completely unique experience for readers.”  Nanni says his approach to Lovecraft will be similar to Lumely and others who have added to the mythos, “Lovecraft’s work was an open system, he encouraged other writers to take the ideas and expand on them.”  The team behind CCoC will once again focus on a minor Lovecraft minion, “The three films will feature Shub-Nigguarth and introduce a secret society dedicated to suppressing evidence of the Old Ones.”  The short, entitled Drawing Baphomet, will be released in early 2009 and the films begin shooting next spring.    

“Cigar. Cuban. Now you pissed me off!” says the protagonist of Guillermo Del Toro’s latest venture Hellboy II: The Golden Army as the baddie’s sidekick Wink, yields a blow to his face, making his favorite tool fall into water. With a face that looks like a cross of a samurai and X-Men mutant beast, Hellboy (Codename Hellboy) is a character right out of the pulp magazines.  And with a name like that and a storyline that aids the use of eye-candy incredibly, the producers would always rest assured. Plus one to the count of superhero films in 2008.

So we have here this bunch of four central ultra-cool mutants – The cigar chewing, beer boozing, borderline-colonel Hellboy (Ron Perlman), the earth element, The timid and brainy Abe (Doug Jones), the  water ingredient, the intensely anxious Liz (Selma Blair), the fire girl and Johann Krauss (James Dodd) the German intellectual forming the wind element of the group bound by (the absence of) the fifth element. All hell breaks loose when the exiled Prince Nuada (Luke Goss) of the mythical world decides to call it quits with the truce with the humans that called for peace and aided the banishment of their indestructible “Golden Army”. The film’s best moment, perhaps, comes around this point where we see the mythical prince practicing his sword in a fairly mythical milieu and just as he finishes, a high speed train whizzes past behind him! One feels that he is in for a great time. NO.

But for this, the prince has to unite the three pieces of the all-powerful golden crown that controls the army and hence break his bonds with his family that preserves two of the pieces. Meanwhile, Hellboy and Liz are trying to reconcile with the discerning eyes of the human world and form a happy little familial world for themselves. And when their paths cross, it’s the same thing all over again. Villain hurts hero, hero gets back big time. All this happens on a high-speed, immensely attractive vehicle called Computer Graphics that seems to never tire the audience. Year after year, be what the form, this boon (?) given by science has been regularly and faithfully exploited.

It is clear that Del Toro has the uncanny ability to blend elements of the ever enchanting world beyond the natural - the mythical – with the harsh realities of the existential one. But where Pan’s Labyrinth (2006) scored was in its treatment of the two worlds. Those worlds never saw each other, those worlds were never affected the clockwork of each other, those worlds were bliss. Here, Del Toro has let one world loose into another, arguably corrupting not only the integrity of the worlds but also of the plot itself. The Golden Army hence becomes no better than a CG-driven superhero flick that succumbs to market demand.

Of course, the film has its own charming moments where you tend to forget all the stereotype moments so far. Consider the scene where Hellboy and Abe retire in the library after a hard day’s work. They listen to “Popular Love Songs”, sipping loads and loads of beer, singing along unabashedly and cruising into a hilariously contemplative mood. One does forget that these guys aren’t humans and smiles all the way. Additionally, Hellboy is amusing with all his one liners and his thinking-with-his-knuckles attitude. But that’s just about everything that you take back from the two hours of runtime. Like Iron Man (2008), The Golden Army also seems to rely too much on these things.

Clichés galore, The Golden Army seems like an exercise in typical Hollywood film craft. The cool and funny gang of superheroes, check. The megalomaniac baddie who turns out to be the boss, check. A thin thread of romance between the good side and the bad one, check. Sacrifice of a lesser but lovable character for the greater good, check. CG flood, manipulative score, tilted camera angles, check, check and check. Once can go on and on, but somebody’s got to do the job. Every year, there seem to come a few films that offer what the audience wants but are so easy to be smashed. But if not for them, we would not be appreciating better ones, would we?

Verdict:

Até agora a série tinha histórias pequenas, algumas das quais nem tinham a participação de Mike Mignola na equipe criativa. Nesse volume a coisa começa a mudar. Como ele próprio diz no pósfacio “Nós queríamos começar uma nova série de livros, tratar o B.P.R.D. da mesma forma que temos tratado Hellboy durante os anos”.

Embora algumas das historias da equipe publicadas até aqui deixassem a desejar agora os antes coadjuvantes de Hellboy tem uma historia digna do seu criador. Humor, terror e auto-referencias enchem a historia de uma forma que apenas Mignola consegue.

O grande atrativo desse livro é algo que os fãs têm esperado por anos. A revelação das origens de Abe Sapien.

Na verdade a origem de Abe é apenas um pano de fundo para a historia. E a revelação não vem como um ponto final na questão, mas na verdade como uma expansão para novas questões envolvendo o personagem.

A arte do álbum ficou a cargo de Guy Davis que já havia trabalhado com esses personagens na historia Dark Waters publicada em B.P.R.D. – Soul Of Venice and Other Stories.

As ilustrações de Davis se encaixam muito bem com o mundo de Hellboy. O jogo de sombras, as criaturas estranhas, as cores tudo está lá. O diferencial está nos ambientes muito mais elaborados e detalhados do que se está acostumado na arte de Mignola. Não há do que reclamar, mas não há como não pensar como seria se os lápis estivem a cargo do criador da série.

"I'm a Joker."

"Can't argue with that logic. See you later."

Marvel/DC Ironman and Batman Part 1

Marvel/DC Ironman and Batman Part 2

Marvel/DC Ironman and Batman Part 3

Marvel/DC Ironman and Batman Part 4

Marvel/DC Ironman and Batman Part 5

Marvel/DC Hulk and Batman

Marvel/DC Villians Edition

Hellboy meets Marvel/DC

Marvel/DC Superman and Spiderman

Marvel/DC After Hours

Marvel/DC After Hours 2

Hancock and Batman

and yet more in the related links. Knock yourselves out.

-Azuire//lastfactor&c.

The descendants of J.R.R. Tolkien, the man who wrote The Lord Of The Rings and The Hobbit, have given New Line Cinema a deadline: they have ten days to pay them 150 million dollars in unpaid LOTR royalties or the case will go to trial in October, thus indefintely delaying the two planned Hobbit movies from director Guillermo Del Toro (the Hellboy films).

As for New Line, they're no stranger to lawsuits when it comes to Tolkien. Some of you may remember LOTR trilogy director Peter Jackson suing them over not being paid what he was owed, and a legal battle with MGM over who actually owns the movie rights to The Hobbit. New Line should just man up and pay up in my opinion.

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Yup, It's here.

After a small delay in publishing, I'm here with a bit more of a round up of the Con's events.

Lets hope that this time everything goes well and I'm not still sorting this out 12 hours from now!

Hi Folks,

Here I am, finally, with my second report on Baltimore Comic-con.

To catch you guys up to date, I had an issue with my laptop yesterday and was only able to nip down to the business center and place a small post.

and when I did that, I went back and read over my notes of the event. and honestly there wasn;t a lot to talk about for day two as I selfishly spent most of it shopping and grabbing 2 sketches.

Instead,  I thought that I may spend sometime recapping many of the plot points that the comic panels have raised over this weekend.

Warning! Spoilers AHEAD! READ ON AT YOUR OWN PERIL!

DC Comics:

Final Crisis:

• “not when there’s a chance [Earths Heroes] may lose, but when they actually loose.” - Dan Didio
• October sees Final Crisis: Resist and Final Crisis: Submit,  roll around the pair of one shots that show life on Earth after the heroes have been defeated by Darkseid.
• Final Crisis: Rage of the Red Lanterns will according to scribe Geoff Johns officially introduce the Red Lanterns. “Thier powers are based on rage and they have it out for Sinestro. The day the Guardians decide to execute Sinestro...well, they want to do it themselves. It’s a lot of fun.” (thanks to Newsrama for the exact wording on the quote, my notes were a bit garbled.)

Superman:

• Superman: New Krypton:Octobers Five wednesday Schedule brings a new and according to Didio each one is imporant, but none more so than New Krypton. Johns said that the big picture invovles Earth being flooded with 100,000 Kryptonians all of whom gain powers akin to Kal'el. so imagine what that means for Earths Super villains?
• James  Robinson stated that the nine issues that make up the arc will focus on life in various parts of the world including New Kandor. There is also going to be a Jimmy Olsen Special that will lay down clues for later development.
• Several things happen with New Kandor's arrival. The debut of a new Superwoman, The payoff of Supergirl's want to Return home. Her Parents will be among New Kandor's arrivals as well as the return of Flamebird/Nightwong and the Creature Commandos.
• Yes. The creature commandos. The Dracula, Frankenstein et al allegories. They're back. and not just for a few cameo appearences.

Justice Society:

• When "Thy Kingdom Comes" wraps up. there will be an arc that will focus on Black adam, Iris and Felix Faust. with Adam and Iris taking over the rock of eternity.

Power Girl:

• a New Power girl series will be starting, thatpicks up on the Johns/Amanda Connor arc in JSA calssified, but will be open will be open to new readers as it will be working from the ground up.
• The New Book Will be written by Jimmy Palmiotti and be a litte lighter in tone.

Titans:

• A Terra Mini Series by Palmiotti, Conner and Justin Gray drops this fall, and will have appearences by Power Girl and Geo force.
• Sean McKeever jokes that his intent all along was to kill enough Titans to make the Teen titans go on a recruiting drive as they will "Kings and Pawns" and those recruited will include Bombshell and Wonder Girls Nephew (who wants to be area' new champion)
• Terror Titans, written by McKeever. “Lots of conniving, lots of controlling and lots of blood,” according to McKeever. “It’s a whole lot of teen superheroes beating the crap out of each other – and there’s story too.” and in Issue #4 there is a big break where Static, from the Milestone universe appears, markign his first DCU appearence.

JLA:

• Didio Used that to segue into Talking about Mile stone charachters such as the Shadow Council, which will return to have full on clashes with the JLA throughout most of 2009

Trinity:

• The Oft Fan-maligned series was up next, and Didio Really avoided anything but saying "The story is about what the characters stand for, and how they have created iconic expectations about a superhero, and how important they are not only to the DCU, but also to the multiverse 52 showed how important they are because they weren’t there, and this shows how important they are because they are there." and a small anecdote that Artist Mark Bagley was actually much quicker than the writer Kurt Busiek.

BatGirl:

• Didio then kinda took us fans to task for a moment. Talking about how there are people who at every convention speak up asking "Why was the ongoing cancelled" or "Bring back cassie" and yet, the sales on the current mini series are frankly Disappointing and makes them look at the ongoing return with skepticism.
• Batgirl will hoever play a major role in Batman and The Outsiders and the other Bat-Family books.

Green Lantern/Green Lantern Corps. :

• "War of Light" starts this month and according to Johns, he and the GLC scribe have spent a lot of time getting on the same page. “Pete [Tomasi] and I talked a lot about the ‘love’ corps [the Blue Lanterns]. We asked ourselves if that would that be lame, and realized that love can be scary as well."

Marvel Comics:

Mighty Avengers:

• With Issue #20 Bendis leaves the Title to start Dark Avengers with art by Mike Deodato.
• Dan Slott Takes over as scribe as of Issue #21
• Chis Gage takes over on Avengers: The Initative

Spider Woman:

• Spider Woman: Agent of Sword by Bendis and Alex Maleev hits stores in March. "We're hoping, god-willing, you guys-willing, we'll stay on that book for a long time on this one as well," Bendis Mentioned, referencing his and maleev's Daredevil Run.

Spider-man:

• Amazing Spider man #573 is the conclusion of "New Ways to Die", and has a back up story that introduces Stephen Colbert. I kid you not.
• The reason Harry Osbourne is back will be covered by Slott himself.
• John Romita Jr and Mark Guggenhiem will have an arc that answers a lot ifnot all of the spidey questions. Yes, That's right, Marvel just promised to answer EVERY Brand New day Question.

Ultimate Wolverine Vs Hulk:

• The Mini series that we never thought would be finished.. well.. has been. at least partly. LOST scribe Daimen Lindhoff has finished AND TURNED IN the scripts of r all the issues. the art is going to be finished after Secret invasion is finished.

Dark Reign:

• This is the big one. Dark reign is the state that the MU is left in Post Secret invasion. it comes from the VERY LAST PAGE of #8 and will echoped in ALL OTHER major Marvel Titles. however  Bendis was VERY careful to underline that it is NOT an event rather than a state of being for the MU. The MU is collapsing thanks to the skrulls "Something will take its place." Bendis described it as "how after Civil War we saw the Initiative."

Top Cow:

• Ron Marz is  now signed to an EXCLUSIVE Top Cow deal, and will be on Witchblade at LEAST through 2010.
• The Witchblade Movie will not realease in 2009 as previously announced but rather 2010 instead.

Dark Horse:

Hellboy/BPRD:

• Hellboy and BPRD are both running to the same end. The apocalypse. The creators just don't know who is going to get there First.
• Mingola is returning to draw Hellboy next month in a One shot called "In the Chapel of Moloch"
• Hellboy over the next year is going to invovle to massive reveals about the charachter, and the destruction of at least one major city.

Umbrella Academy:

• Issue 1 of the next season is going to weigh in at a hefty 32 pages.

Buffy The Vampire Slayer:

• #19 is set to be out in Six weeks.
• #20 is a one shot by Jeph Loeb
• The arc after that willbe about Vampires coming into vouge and check in with original series regulars.

The Goon:

• The Series 10th Anniversary will feature guest creators such as mingola.

Image Comics:

• Mark Millar's Chosen will move to Image. The First mini series wil be reprinted ina collection entitled American Jesus Volume 1. With a new series to come.

That wraps up the recaps from the "Big Five" companies, as it were.

I can honestly say I'm really looking forward to That Power Girl series. I hope they get Amanda Conner to draw it. she is made of awesome.

Anyway, I'm exhausted so I will jsut say I loved the con this year, absoluetly loved it.

I can;t wait until next year.

LATER!

Much love Frankie for the banner again, and Tracey, Babe.. Miss ya already!

Noi ne-am saturat ca oamenii sa ne considere/vada ca niste brute ale cavernelor, sa fim asemuiti cu raul ce salasluieste in fiecare.

De ce in fiecare film/carte fantasy noi suntem automat categorisiti in tagma celor rai? Poate pentru ca am luptat alaturi de elfi in marele razboi? Poate pentru ca noi nu am vrut sa cedam locurile noastre hraparetilor oameni? Poate pentru ca noi inca luptam pentru supravietuirea noastra, pe cand elfii s-au inchis in padurile lor seculare sau au plecat peste mare, iar zanele si celelalte fiinte magice s-au auto-exilat in Muntii cei Mari, lasandu-ne pe noi sa fim ultima linie de aparare?

De ce credeti ca nu mai vedeti astazi nici elfi, nici gnomi, hobbiti, zane sau copaci vorbitori? Pentru ca voi, oamenii, i-ati distrus rand pe rand, ocupand si distrugand casele noastre. Ati omorat sistematic orice urma a fiintelor magice din aceasta lume "reala", cum ii spuneti voi. Ei bine nu e adevarat. NOI inca suntem aici, luptam inca pentru ceea ce e al nostru.

Nu credeti? Intrebati nordicii de cate ori intra in pesterile noastre, intrebati copiii zapezii de cate ori intra noaptea in padurile locuite de noi. Intrebati batranii cu parul alb de cate ori au spus povesti cu noi la gura focului.

In ultima productie a celor de la Dark Horse Entertainment, ma refer aici la HellBoy 2, noi am fost ironizati si aratati asemenea unor brute gata sa distruga orice, fara ratiune, niste servitori. Well, va inselati. Cati dintre dumneavoastra s-au intrebat daca Mr. Wink il ajuta pe printul Nuada de bunavoie, cati s-au intrebat ce legatura de prietenie exista intre ei? V-ati intrebat daca Mr. Wink credea sau nu in dreptatea cauzei sale? Nuu... dar toti ati ovationat atunci cand a murit, nici unul din voi nu a varsat o lacrima pentru el. De ce ati face-o? E mare, e urat, se imbraca prost, are un pumn de metal, rezulta clar ca e the BAD GUY. Well, not really.

Noi nu am distrus padurile, la urma urmei de ce am face-o? Ne-am distruge propriile case. Noi nu foram dupe metale pana se surpa pamantul, noi nu pornim razboaie doar de dragul de a le porni, noi nu omoram alte fiinte pentru ca ne face placere, sau din sadism. O facem pentru a supravietui. Se spune ca am manca pisici, si ce-i cu asta? Si leul mananca antilope, si bufnita mananca iepuri, iar uneori tigrii ataca oamenii… dar totusi ele sunt specii pe cale de disparitie si protejate de lege. Noi suntem vanati, exterminati, macelariti, distrusi doar pentru a satisface nevoia voastra de a fi singurii suverani ai acestui glob de pamant.

Noi am fost aici inaintea voastra, la fel cum inaintea noastra au fost altii. Vechii copaci umblatori inca mai traiesc, putini, caci voi i-ati distrus si transformat in hartie si chibrituri. Cei care au mai ramas se ascund in padurea cea mare. Dar ei pot, biete suflete muritoare, sa va spuna adevarata poveste a taramului astuia.

A venit timpul ca noi, infamele creaturi ale noptii, monstri si uzurpatori, protectori ai padurii si ai muntilor sacri, sa iesim si sa luptam pentru patria noastra. Sa va vedem atunci pe voi, oameni cu sufletul gol, cum veti trai sau muri, atunci cand miturile si legendele voastre se vor adeveri.

pana atunci,

la revedere

Character spigolosi, luci e ombre che si tagliano di netto. Passaggi ad angolo retto dal bianco al nero e fibre muscolari che non lasciano spazio ad eccessive armonie.

Con il suo Hellboy, ma anche con la sua versione oscura di Batman, trasfigura la convenzione nel proporre un personaggio nel pieno della sua turbativa, nel dramma del suo essere nel mondo.

Bene e male si svuotano del loro senso comune. Il bello non esiste. Si nasconde come il brutto tra le ombre.

Ed emergono gli spigoli.

Despite everything else on his plate right now, Mexican filmmaker Guillermo Del Toro (the Hellboy films) will find the time to co-write a trilogy of vampire thrillers with Chuck Hogan, whose novel The Prince Of Thieves was recently announced as being adapted by and with Ben Affleck (Hollywoodland).

Story will revolve around an invasion of New York City by a vampiric virus. Series will trace the roots of the vampiric race back to its Old Testament origins.

The books will be published by HarperCollins in the U.K., and a special edition will be published simultaneously by the company's Spanish-language imprint, Rayo, in the U.S.

Del Toro is currently in pre-production of two films based on J.R.R. Tolkien's The Hobbit and will then enter a long-term deal with Universal Pictures.

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