Quote of the day: A nonviolent approach

“The cry for peace will be a cry in the wilderness, so long as the spirit of nonviolence does not dominate millions of men and women.

An armed conflict between nations horrifies us. But the economic war is no better than an armed conflict. This is like a surgical operation. An economic war is prolonged torture. And its ravages no less terrible than those depicted in the literature on war properly so called. We think nothing of the other for we are so used to its deadly effects.

The movement against war is sound. I pray for its success. But I cannot help the gnawing fear that the movement will fail if it does not touch the root of all evil – man’s greed.”

-Mahatma Gandhi, “Non-Violence – The Greatest Force”

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Rant Against… FORMSPRING

Actually, that title is sort of a lie. This isn’t completely against Formspring, because the service is actually kind of neat. This rant is against the people who connect Formspring to their Twitter and/or Facebook AND THEN ANSWER THIRTY QUESTIONS EVERY DAMN TIME THEY LOG IN.

The service allows people to ask you questions, either with their account or anonymously. Some celebrities have accounts (and get swamped with questions), but most of it that I’ve seen is just ordinary people like you and me. It also allows you to answer random questions that it has in its database.

SO MANY ANSWERS. Seriously, in the time it took me to type this and search Google Images for a Formspring picture (less than five minutes), one of my Twitter contacts posted upwards of 20 answers to questions on her Formspring. IT’S RIDICULOUS.

I’m going to take this blog as a place to make a similar statement to the statement that my good friend Nate made: If your Twitter feed is covered with Formspring, I will unfollow you. And others will too, because that shit is annoying.

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RAGE @ Brightest Day

Let’s get one thing out of the way right off the top. I loved the Blackest Night event. I’m still buying Blackest Night-related comics because most of them were really awesome, and because I want to own as many as I can get. Additionally, while I have some Marvel titles that I read and love, too, I’d probably say I’m a little bit of a DC fanboy.

Now that we’ve got that cleared up… What the fuck, DC?

That image had me really happy. I think I saw it a month or so before the actual end of Blackest Night – whenever it was that this image came out. I was interested to see what would happen, why this day would be so bright, and I loved that symbol.

Then the Brightest Day limited series was announced: a year-long, twice-a-month series focusing on those resurrected at the end of the Blackest Night series. Since I like most of the resurrected heroes and villains, I thought “Hell yeah! It’ll be great to see how the DC Universe adapts!”

It is now three months (or, six issues) in to the series, and I’m still waiting for shit to get going. As I said above, what the fuck, DC? The (extremely) slow pace can’t be blamed on wanting to have enough story for a year (or, 26 issues), because Justice League: Generation Lost is being published on the same schedule, and it’s great. Seriously, I’m loving Generation Lost, and the pace is great so far.

There are two problems with Brightest Day that I see right off the top of my head: too many resurrectees, and not enough story. I love Geoff Johns’ work, and have even watched a couple episodes of Smallville just because he wrote them – and I don’t watch Smallville. But unless things start picking up really damn quick, I’m going to start thinking that Brightest Day would’ve been better as an 8-issue series, like Blackest Night was (or some number of issues around 8 or 10).

Here’s a couple things I’d like to see addressed, now that there are all these resurrected characters:

• Red Robin’s reaction to Captain Boomerang’s revival. Tim Drake lost his dad to this particular villain, back in Identity Crisis, when he was still Robin to Bruce Wayne’s Batman. Now he’s older, a grown man and hero in his own right, and the news of Boomerang’s revival can’t have gone unnoticed. But I don’t think I’ll get to see this, since they seem to be keeping the Cap busy in The Flash.
• Deadman being nearly as interesting alive as he was dead. When he was dead, Boston Brand was a pretty funny and interesting character. In this day or two (in-universe) that has gone by since his resurrection, he’s done little besides whine to the White Lantern ring about being powerless.
• Aquaman doing something. Before he died, he was king of Atlantis. Now, he refuses to have anything to do with Atlantis when Mera suggests that they could fix his marine-animal telepathy (as he can currently only summon dead/undead sea life), and has been kind of meh.
• Why we should care about Hawk. This guy was a hero, yeah. Then he was a villain (twice, as Monarch and then as Extant). Then he was dead, and now he’s back, and a hero. Why should we care about Hank “Hawk” Hall? Hopefully Gail Simone can give us an answer in Birds of Prey, because he’s probably the resurrectee that I care the least about.
• Where the hell is Professor Zoom? Seriously, he hasn’t really been seen or heard from since being revived. What the hell are you guys waiting for? Just because he’s the Reverse-Flash doesn’t mean you have to wait to put him in The Flash. Throw him in a fight with someone in Brightest Day, or something like that.

The rest of the resurrected heroes/villains are actually being entertaining as they are. Martian Manhunter is tracking down a killer who might be the only other Martian (or something), Firestorm’s having some serious issues with the two halves hating each other, Osiris is trying to find a way to bring Black Adam and Isis back from being statues, and Jade is with the JLA and JSA dealing with Starheart shit.

Oh, and Max Lord is making the back-together-but-not-really Justice League International crew’s lives hell. So, seriously, DC. Why can’t you make Brightest Day more interesting? The only issues worth the $3.99 price have been #0 and maybe #6.

And just because this image, a four-page fold-out from Blackest Night #8, was so amazing, here’s that:

Click for the larger version. Or, you know, go buy Blackest Night #8.
The art on this fold-out is worth it.

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Random Ramblings on drugs and work

Okay, looking at it after I type it, that looks bad. Just to clarify, I’m not on drugs, just talking about the baaaaad combination that is drugs and work.

A few weeks ago, I was prescribed percocet for really bad wisdom tooth pain. If you’re not familiar with percocet, it’s pretty much a combination of oxycodone and tylenol. And by “pretty much”, I mean that’s exactly what it is. Oxycodone is derived from opiates. So I’m essentially taking a derivative of opiates and tylenol when I take one of these pills.

Last week, I had a really shitty idea. I had been dealing with the wisdom tooth pain for about an hour, and decided to take one of these, and it was a baaaaaaad idea. Once the pain went away, which didn’t take that long, I started to get pretty fucking high from it. While I’m not against drugs and getting high in general, me high at a customer service job is a fucking bad idea.

It got me thinking about how many times we’ve fired someone, or other places I work have fired someone, who was smoking weed or something like that on the job. Granted, I’ve never felt as out-of-it when I’ve tried weed as I have when I’ve had to take percocet, but I was barely functioning until I came back down from it an hour or two later.

Among my readers, I’m almost positive that at least one or three of you have gotten high at/before work, so I’m curious…. how the hell do you function? Anyone have the stories like mine, with prescribed stuff being the cause? Speak up, I want to hear!

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Working on…

You’d think that I’d do whatever I could to have as little as possible to work on, on my birthday, right? . . . If you’d think that, then you don’t know me very well. And honestly, that kind of hurts. Here I was, thinking that we’d been this close for so long……

You know what? Don’t worry about it. Let’s just get past that and onto the topic at hand, aye?

I have been kind of grumbling about how the majority of my waking hours will be either at work, or going to/from work, but that’s because my job isn’t what makes me happy. Shit like this is what does the trick for me, writing and (attempting) creativity. And, while one of the projects won’t be seeing the light of day for another couple weeks, I’d like to give you a little look-see.

Yes, that is an RSS image designed like the Superman symbol. And yes, there is a (geeky) reason for it – it is part of a project that Ian Austin (one of the writers here) and I are working on. There’s still a lot of work to do before I can show you more, though! Keep waiting!

Additionally, I’ve got somewhere around… four things that I’m working on in Photoshop (had to take a second to count them). One or two of them is for the same thing as the “Supes RSS” image, but one of them is for a good friend of mine, who has expressed a lot of excitement at seeing the finished version, now that he’s seen the first draft.

And I’m always trying to get good pictures so that, when I do have internet seven days a week again, I can give you guys a little bit of photography awesomeness. So, just know that I’m keeping busy doing my best to be creative for you all!

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Batman: Under the Red Hood

Oh, look, I got a birthday gift from DC Comics!* That’s right, today is my birthday, and yesterday, “Batman: Under the Red Hood” came out on DVD and Blu-ray. I’ve been eager for this since I first heard about it some time last month, and I definitely feel like the wait was worth it.

I mean, look at that gorgeous cover!

Typically, I’ve found DC Universe Animated movies to be mostly enjoyable, but I always have little issues here and there. With Green Lantern: First Flight**, my issue was the lack of adherence to the canon origin story. Usually, my main issue is voice acting choices, though. This time? No complaints. =)

Let’s start in on the voice acting, since that’s my usual issue. This movie, I was actually more excited about the voice acting than I was about the storyline (I’m only a casual Batman fan). Bruce Greenwood, Jensen Ackles, and Neil Patrick Harris all in one movie? I’d like to take a moment and say HELL YES.

Bruce Greenwood: Batman – Perfect. He was like a mix of Bale’s version of the Bat and the Batman: The Animated Series version, rolled in to one. An awesome balance, without being over-gruff like Bale’s Batman in The Dark Knight.

Neil Patrick Harris: Nightwing – Nightwing isn’t a really important character in this movie, but he was around just long enough for me to get used to the voice that NPH used, a lower version than his normal voice. Awesome comedic lines.

Jensen Ackles: Red Hood/Jason Todd – Awesome. Normally, Ackles uses a VERY gruff voice, including in Supernatural and some of his other works, like the My Bloody Valentine remake. In this, a little of that roughness was there, but not too much, and it actually worked perfect. Just the right amount of intimidation.

John DiMaggio: The Joker – BENDER!!!! Okay, Futurama nerd moment aside, DiMaggio’s Joker was very different from his work as Bender. While not having the title of “creepiest EVAR” like Mark Hamill and Heath Ledger, DiMaggio still brings some heavy chills as The Joker, especially in the opening scene with Jason (look for the quotes below).

Next up comes the story, and whether or not it is true-to-canon. Good news for you purists, and added enjoyment for me: it is very accurate! The story incorporates two Batman stories in it, “Death In The Family” and “Under the Hood”, the former of which was published in the late 1980s, due to fans disliking Jason Todd, the second Robin. In the story, and in first few minutes of the movie, the Joker kills Jason after beating him severely with a crowbar.

The second story, written by Judd Winick (who also wrote this adaptation) fills the remainder of the movie, five years after Jason’s death. A masked man known as Red Hood has shown up in Gotham, with skills that are very familiar to Bruce. I won’t spoil the whole movie for those of you who aren’t already familiar with the stories, but it is well worth the watch.

Finally, the art. If any of you were huge fans of Batman: The Animated Series like I was (and am), you’ll be very happy. The art style is very reminiscent of that series, albeit slightly updated. Very aesthetically pleasing, and flows nicely.

RAMBLER RATING: Nine bats out of ten

“Let’s try and clear this up, pumpkin… which hurts more? A…?” [hits Jason with crowbar] “Or B?” [backhands Jason with crowbar] “Forehand?” [hits again] “Or backhand?”

-The Joker

“There’s been an uptake in heavy trafficking, but crime is down…”

“Indeed, it is! Master Bruce got almost three hours sleep in the last two days.”

-Conversation between Bruce, and Alfred (and Nightwing)

Batman: Under the Red Hood can be found on many sites, including Amazon.com and Walmart.com, in these formats: Bluray, DVD, and 2-disc special edition DVD. The 2-disc special edition and the Bluray version both include an animated short featuring Jonah Hex – the comic book version, not the lame-ass movie.

 

*Except not really. Just a fortunate coincidence on my part
**Which came out on my birthday last year

Cover image courtesy of Wikimedia
Bat images courtesy of Photobucket

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