My friend JimSmash sent me some Hulk comics! Sweet! Me like Hulk. One of them was this classic from 1977. Spoiler alert- the unexpected super-villain is none other than Bi-Beast! Yup, the clone robot thing with the dual nature (plus he has two faces on his head) that was made by some bird-people on a floating island somewhere. I was a little hesitant to google him but it turns out he isn't as obscure as I might have thought, and even cameoed on a relatively recent episode of Avengers:Earth's Mightiest Heroes. It says so  on his Wikipedia page.

I had an even epiccer run today. I was still in a Hulky mood so I was wonfdering what to watch, decided to rent from the iTunes store, other than a freebie once I never tried that before. Some weird mental block about paying 99 cents for a file that disappears in 48 hours. Not 99 cents! Who can afford that? But it's easier and cheaper than driving to Blockbuster (and driving there again to return it) so yeah. Anyways, I rented the Ultimate Avengers movie, a cartoon based on the Ultimates. It was alright, the best part eas that although the Avengers assembled to deal with an alien menace, it was really about Hulk fighting Thor and Captain America et al. Yup I just said et al. So I got my Hulk fix.
We also were able to watch the first two episodes of Game of Thrones. Pretty cool, eh? Of course no one looks how I imagined them but that's always the case. Pretty faithful adaptation for the most part. And the opening titles are great. Hopefully the series lasts long enough to get to the part where the giants ride the mammoths. I'd like to see that. I'd like to see Hulk fight giants riding mammoths.

My buddy Jon sent me a link for a fanfilm of Batman vs all the usual suspects, pretty fun.
Which reminded me of this fan-made Superman cartoon:



And then I recently watched the Planet Hulk animated movie on DVD. Did I ever tell you how much I truly loved the Planet Hulk saga in comic book form? The movie necessarily simplifies it a lot, but is still faithful and as a bonus, ends on a happy note so if you like you can just leave it at that or read the comic that continues on to the inevitable tragic ending.

The most exciting thing that happened at work last week was I got to read a bunch of comics. I wisht every week could be like that!
I'd heard that Age of Apocalypse was one of the all-time classic X-Men storylines so I got the Complete Epic (four volumes) from the library. Maybe my expectations were too high but I thought it was kind of terrible. Never mind that the way you could tell that the X-Men were all alternate-reality versions of themselves is because they had mullets. I dunno. The basic idea was sound, what if Charles Xavier had died before forming the X-Men? Obviously Magneto would lead the X-Men and Apocalypse would take over the world. But where it went wrong for me is all the focus on space aliens and Blastaar and the Negative Zone. What does that even have to do with Apocalypse? I dunno.
Luckily World War Hulk was better. Not as good as Planet Hulk which I loved. WWH is all about how he comes back to Earth with his Warbound buddies to get revenge for all the bad stuff that happened at the end of Planet Hulk. It had some great moments, though lots of the big things happened off-screen, ie in the tie-in comics that weren't in the WWH collection. Oh well. Hulk still smashed plenty of shit.
Batman R.I.P. was kind of confusing. Didn't really know anyone other than Batman. Even Robin was someone else.
What else. Spider-man and Red Sonja. Got that one for a laugh and it was definitely funny.
I also finished reading Cory Doctorow's Little Brother. I liked it. Makes me want to make a pinhole camera detector. Among other things. Not that I'm worried someone snuck into my house to install a pinhole camera to spy on me. Does make me wonder about the classrooms where Michelle teaches, though. And the washrooms. Eew.

I'm pretty much the world's best writer over there in my haultruck. Nothing to do all day but read comics and listen to CBC podcasts and think about life. Then I come home and the genius evaporates like so much . . . stuff that evaporates.
Anyways. Can always talk more about comics. read two the last couple of days- Wolverine Origin, which I had really really low expectations for, but since it was library I thought I'd see how bad it was. Considering they (as the movie also showed) made him a little sickly child named James. But you know it wasn't that bad. At least he's still from Alberta! And the way he got the name Logan actually makes sense. So yeah.
And even more better? Planet Hulk. Some of my favorite comics are those ones where the heroes somehow get transported to another planet or dimension and there's always an evil emperor and gladiatorial games and slaves to be freed. Like when Hulk and the Defenders went to Tunnel World and had to overthrow the Unnameable. Still one of my favorite comics ever. And Planet Hulk is just like that but with less Namor. Too bad the ending is so sad. But Hulk can't have happy endings any more than um, like . . . well he just can't have a happy ending. Not allowed!

I picked up this Marvel Zombies comic for my friend Craig and of course I read it before I gave it to him. What a great idea right? Take the Hulk and Wolvie and Spidey and all those guys and turn 'em into zombies!
But, I thought it was kinda silly. They weren't really zombies in the mindless sense- they kept talking about how awful it was that they had to feast on human flesh now but at least human flesh is so delicious! It had a funny ending though, much more satisfying than the ending to Fantastic Four 2, which was a movie that could have used waaaay more zombies.
All the cover homages were cool, though, like the one above which gives tribute to this classic McFarlane cover one of my favorites of all time.

Fanart Friday: 70s/80s Marvel


The other day I found a great picture of Rom, Space Knight by Chad Fuller. I loved that old robot! Actually I think he was a guy trapped in a robot body. Whatever happened to him anyways? Probably still out hunting Dire Wraiths in the cold depths of space. So I decided to do a feature on the old comics from my youth that are mostly forgotten today. Like the world's best non-team, the Defenders! Or what about Man-Thing? Don't forget Iron Fist.

(art by Jay Anacleto/tmd2008; Saltares; Lord Mesa)

I think She Hulk has always been around but here's a picture of her anyways, by Zanker. Then there's Spider-Woman (seen here rendered by Jerry Carr), I think she's been revived lately. Longshot hasn't been, but BDPatton tried with this cover he submitted to Marvel. Looks like he married Dazzler and they had a baby.

It's so nice to be half done my week after working only one night shift. I took half the week off for a wedding. Night shifts around this time of year are nice because there's only about four hours of dark. But I gotta go! No fan art friday again today sorry! Well here's a quick one in honor of the incredible Hulk! A recent daily deviation by Manarama:

Some of you may not be aware that the Hulk was once a Defender! Way back in the '70's he was a member of the Superhero Non-team, a sort of Anti-Avengers consisting of Dr. Strange, Namor the Sub-Mariner, the Silver Surfer, Valkyrie, Nighthawk and Hellcat. And though I readily admit I have a trace amount of geekoglobin flowing in my veins, I also have to say that I had to look that up- here is a good link for the Defenders so you can learn more about them if you like. I bring it up because when I was little I had a couple of issues (I think I still have them, actually) of the Defenders and they were great- I think it was intended to be more of a light-hearted book then the typical superhero comic. I had two parts of a three part story arc (and look- I found one of the cover images at that website!), so I would love to track down the third part to fit all the pieces together. It was about how the Hulk and Namor and Dr. Strange wind up on an alien world somehow, and embark on a quest to rid that world of tyranny. I remember they had to wear disguises for some reason. The world was populated by all sorts of strange and enigmatic denizens, including angel-like beings with their wings growing out of their ears and one fuzzy guy with three arms and three eyes- I think he was the captured King or something. Those were my favorite kind of stories- heroes lost in an unfamiliar world, doing heroic things.
Sort of like what I do here on Earth.

Finally saw Hulk today. Just got back, in fact, so this is pretty off-the-cuff. Hmmm. There were parts of it that I loved, and there were parts where I was keenly aware of how sore my back and neck get when I sit in a movie theater. But all the parts with the Hulk doing his thing were everything I was hoping for. Rampaging, raging, 'roidal Hulk. And that is why I went in the first place. Therefore, I give Hulk 2 and a half Poos out of Five. All the green made me very happy. Green is my favorite color you know.
I just overheard this on the news while I was typing, "Health specialists say there is little benefit in abstaining from sex for couples who are trying to conceive."

The Hulk opens tomorrow!! I think I might not see it until Saturday, but that's ok. I love the Hulk. Green is my favorite color, you know. I just watched the DVD of the old school TV show they had back when I was a kid. I have a few fuzzy memories of that show- I loved it, but watching them now I'm surprised kids enjoyed it so much- it's quite slow moving, even adultish- the Hulk only comes out every 15 or 20 minutes or so- an eternity when you're a kid. I heard the Hulk doesn't make an appearance in the new movie until an hour in, but now that I'm all grown up I don't mind. I trust Ang Lee, it'll be a great movie.
Oh yeah and the comics are tha poo too. I should check out some of the new ones and see what's up with the Hulk these days. Which reminds me of a little encounter I had the other day . . .

Homie and the Hulk
" Homie is a friendly bear who likes to play 'er cool
Fishing in the creek or else swimming in the pool
But as you know he is quite strong and also very tough
If a bad guy comes along and tries some bad guy stuff
One day Homie was having a snooze, resting by a spruce
When a man came and said hello and said his name was Bruce
"Bruce my friend, good to see you, come over to my den!
"We'll eat some fish and berries and then have a debate on zen."
Bruce was tired and hungry, and had just become a Taoist
(Finding much more inner peace then when he was a Maoist)
So he agreed to come along and went where Homie lead
But because the cave door was low, oops! he bumped his head
Homie saw and laughed and said, "Sorry I'm being mean!
"I'm not making fun, it was just so . . . hey you're turning green!"
It was true- Bruce was turning green, and putting on some bulk
Right there in the cave Bruce became the Incredible Hulk!
Homie's guest became a monster as Homie watched in shock
Then he had to duck when the Hulk turned and threw a rock
"Hulk!" said Homie, "Calm down, I do not want to fight you!
"But if you keep attacking me then I will have to bite you."
The Hulk just growled and snarled and with a mighty crash
He punched the walls and stomped the ground and yelled out "HULK SMASH!"
So Homie sighed and rolled his eyes and waited out the tantrum
Wondering how many places the Hulk must have been banned from
Finally the Hulk calmed down and turned back into Banner
Bruce looked around and apologized for his impolite manner
"I'm sorry for what I did but you were very brave!"
And Homie said, "No worries, I always wanted a bigger cave!"

And on a totally unrelated note, looks like Ninjai is finally back online, at least the first two chapters, with the rest to follow and then FINALLY (it's been what, 8 months?) chapters 11-14.