Random Thoughts #34 - Creed's first album was kinda good!

Well, another year ends. It’s the last day of 2014, so I think it’s finally time for some random thoughts. As for Creed, I picked their first album up during the year and I like it for the most part. I know it's weird especially when the lead singer has apparently lost it these days.

2014… not too bad

As a year, 2014 was fine. It wasn’t great, but it wasn’t horrible either. It was just a good year. Heck, I made it to the end of the year, so I guess I can say that. My family is doing well for the most part. My grandfather on my dad’s side died in June, and that was pretty tough. The pastor to my parents’ church passed away only a few weeks later, so death is getting around these days. If there’s one thing that will affect anyone, it’s death. Still, I can say that it’s been a good year. God helped get through this pretty weird year. My family’s doing well, the job’s good, and a lot of friends are moving on in life. Now all I need to do is find the next Mrs. Williams which hopefully isn’t too hard.

I checked my resolutions/plans for 2014 and I stuck to it a bit. I did go to the gym. I don’t know if I lost any weight, but I do feel a little more healthy. So, here are my plans for the new year:

• Eat healthy and exercise.
• Get rid of more debt.
• Do more remodeling.
• Find a good woman.
• Live life to its fullest.
• Get rid of baggage.
• Be a better man.

WOMEN

Women… hmm… I got nothing to say this time. Maybe I’ll have something to say next year… I will have something to say next year.

Movies

I meant to write about these movies during Thanksgiving, but I didn’t feel like it. Thanks, Grant Morrison! Anyway, I used that holiday weekend to finally watch some movies that I’ve wanted to see: Pacific Rim, Transcendence, and Edge of Tomorrow.

• Pacific Rim – I thought the movie was okay, but it didn’t blow my socks off. I liked the overall plot and the effects, but something felt missing. I think it had to do with some of the characters. I liked Idris Elba and the woman who played Mako (Rinko Kikuchi), but the main lead was pretty bland. I did like Ron Pearlman in his small role though. I thought the plot involving Charlie Day’s character was interesting. Overall, it was alright. It definitely needed some “teenagers with attitude!”
• Transcendence – This was also in the “just okay” bracket. For those who probably didn’t see this movie, you can get a better view of it here. While it’s a sci-fi story, it’s more of a love story between Depp’s character and his wife. I honestly thought Johnny Depp was about to fall asleep in the role. The other big actors also don’t get to do much either. I also wasn’t a fan of most of the characters in this movie. They were either too naïve or too paranoid about the A.I. taking over everything. It brought the idea of A.I. forward but it didn’t do anything with it. The idea of whether the A.I is good or evil isn’t even debated at all. In order to stop the A.I. that really hasn’t done anything evil, the “heroes” have to basically destroy the Web which will throw the world into chaos. Only one person in the group questions it and he (Paul Bettany’s character) was my favorite character of the bunch! He questioned a lot of dumb decisions in the movie and no one listens to him. Overall, I thought was okay but weird in places.
• Edge of Tomorrow – This movie was awesome. There’s really nothing horrible about it. I liked Tom Cruise in this especially since he plays a character I don’t think he’s played before: a coward who doesn’t know anything. I liked seeing his character develop into a warrior as well as his many, many deaths. If you don’t like Tom Cruise, you may like this movie. I also liked Emily Blunt’s character as well.  The effects were cool, the story made sense, and the action was awesome. I will say that the ending does feel a little predictable but it’s not a horrible ending. If you haven’t seen this movie, check it out. I definitely recommend it.

Well, it’s been good. I’d make a joke about how some random marathon was held to keep the lights on, but I’ll pass this time. I still have things to talk about, so I’ll be Bach…or Mozart, either guy works. I don’t know about that Beethoven dude though.

COMING SOON: COMICS, SUPERMAN, BATMAN, MOVIES, TV, STAR TREK, CLASSIC SCI-FI, THE ULTIMATE UNIVERSE, MARVEL’S MOVIE UNIVERSE, GAMES,  HULK, THE 1998 CHICAGO BULLS, RICK JAMES,  MAYBE SOME DISCUSSIONS ON WOMEN, MUSIC, JEAN-CLAUDE VAN-DAMME, FOOD, CATS, DOGS, MASS HYSTERIA, AND OVERALL WEIRDNESS!

Well, I am done for the year. Peace, God Bless, and be safe in the new year. 

Crisis Time! - Favorite Crisis to Least Favorite Crisis

Now that I’ve looked at Final Crisis, I think it’s time to see which of the four Crisis events is my favorite one. I’m including Zero Hour in this as well. After all, it was a “Crisis in Time,” and it should be here. As you can tell, Identity Crisis isn’t on here. I haven’t completely read it and it’s not really a cosmic story like these are. Before I made this list, I decided to re-read the other three events. I also went and looked at what I wrote about them. One thing can definitely say is that my writing is much better than it was back then. I’m looking for which one was not only good (they all are by the way) but also which one just hit the spot for me. What had the best story, the best use of characters, best villains, and best art? I might as well start off with the one about that mad Green Lantern.

Merry Christmas!!!

Here's a little quick post to say Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to everyone. Whatever you celebrate, I just hope you're with love ones. It's been a strange year, but I'm still here to say that it's been good. I'll leave you with a page from a great comic book series, Starman. Peace, God Bless, and don't get too fat!

Battle of the Origins - Green Lantern Part Four

Well, it's been a treat doing this. Now, it's time to end it with these two last categories.

Art

If there is anything I can say about both of these origins, it would be that the art is pretty good. Both Emerald Dawn series were penciled by M.D. Bright, inked by Romeo Thangal, and colored by Anthony Tollin. I think they were on the main Green Lantern book at the time, so they knew what they were doing. Secret Origin was done by the art team on the book at that time. The story was in the main title. The issues were penciled by Ivan Reis, inked by Oclair Albert, and colored by Randy Mayor. I don’t know when they came on but I know that they were on the book around the time of the “The Sinestro Corps” storyline.

Battle of the Origins - Green Lantern Part Three

Today, I'll be looking at the supporting characters of the origins.

Green Lantern Corps

Today’s post will talk about the biggest supporting characters of Hal’s: The Green Lantern Corps (Corps for short). Of course, The Corps is heavily featured in the stories. I mean, this isn’t Alan Scott we’re talking about here. We end up seeing the large scope of the Corps. We get all sorts of aliens as well as characters that are featured in Green Lantern lore. We also get the short, Smurf-like buttheads known as the Guardians, the creators of the rings. So, which origin used the Corps the best?

Battle of the Origins - Green Lantern Part Two

Today, I'll talk about the villains of the stories and Sinestro himself.

Villains

When it comes to villains, Green Lantern doesn’t have the best. Some of them have gotten more play since Geoff Johns has been on the title but I can’t really think of any other than the recent ones. So, which origin has the best villains? I’ll try to figure that out.

Emerald Dawn has one villain: Legion. Deriving its name from the Bible, Legion is actually a collective of what was left of the Tchki-tchki. Years ago, they were a war-like race that the Guardians imprisoned on their home planet. Over the years, they evolved into a gelatinous collective and developed a yellow battlesuit in order to fight the Corps. With the suit, Legion causes a lot of rampage on Earth and Oa. Legion’s the main reason Hal gets the ring since it kills Abin Sur. It also kills Hal’s paralyzed friend on Earth. Hal does get his revenge on Legion at the end.

Uh-oh. Hal's about to get beat up by Big Bird's cousin!

Battle of the Origins - Green Lantern Part One

Well, it’s been two years since I did my “epic” match-up of the four Superman reboots. While it wasn't completely perfect, I thought it was a nice challenge. For those who don’t know, I basically put the four Superman rebooted origins (Man of Steel, Birthright,Secret Origin, and New 52) beside one another to see which origin was the best. It was kind of based off the Nostalgia Critic’s “Old vs. New” segment. It took a while, but I got through it. Afterwards, I tried to think of other things I could do this to. It took a while to come up with some things. Green Lantern’s origins were one of the first things to pop into my mind.

In 1989, DC decided to do a retelling of Hal Jordan’s origins in a miniseries called Green Lantern: Emerald Dawn. Its sequel, Green Lantern: Emerald Dawn 2, actually takes place during towards the end of Emerald Dawn. It was worked on by Jim Owsley (aka Christopher Priest), Gerard Jones, Keith Giffen, M.D. Bright, and Romeo Thangal. I actually talked about both mini-series a long time ago. I still think both stories are pretty good. In 2007, DC decided to do another retelling of Hal’s origins that tied heavily into Geoff Johns’ run on Green Lantern. Instead of a mini-series, the origin was featured in Green Lantern #29-35. Geoff Johns, Ivan Reis, and Oclair Albert reintroduced us to a young Hal. It is also pretty good.

While Hal Jordan isn’t my favorite character (or my favorite GL), he’s still a nice character and is a major part of the Justice League. Plus, his origin stories are pretty good. Still, which one is the best? My plan is to look at the major features of each origin and see what was done better. I only have about eight things to look at, so this won’t take long. I’ll look at things like the heroes, villains, supporting characters, art, and overall story. I’ll now start off with the main man of the origins, Hal Jordan.

TV Talk - Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman Season 3

Well, it’s finally time I got back to Lois and Clark: the New Adventures of Superman. I’ve gone through the first two seasons and they were good for the most part. It took a while to get through this season since I had other stuff to do. I remember seeing most of these episodes when they first aired. I know I missed some episodes including most of the season finale. It probably had something to do with church or we were out of town. The show still had a bit of an ongoing narrative with Clark’s and Lois’s relationship. Last season ended with something that was a big game-changer: Clark proposes to Lois. Even though they really only went out about four times, he asks her to marry him.

Season Three picks up that big plot point as well as Lois realizing Clark is Superman. The season basically revolves around them trying to make their relationship work through a lot of obstacles. There is a wedding and that’s all I’ll say about that for now.  There really aren’t any major cast changes this season or in the final season. Unfortunately, there aren’t many villains from the comics this time as well. We do get the return of Lex Luthor, which is always cool. We finally get some other Kryptonians showing up on the show. The season ended on a downer this time with Clark… well, that would be spoiling, wouldn’t it?

Weird Star Trek Episodes - "These Are the Voyages..." aka "Wait, These Flippin' Idiots Did What? Part 2"

Okay, I'll admit that this scene was good. That's all this episode gets though.

So, I’ve finally finished Star Trek: Enterprise… or at least the final season. There were some season 2 episodes I skipped, so I guess I have to go back and see those to get a better picture. Yay, I guess. I thought I may take this time to talk about the much-criticized series finale. No, I’m not talking about “Terra Prime” which I consider to be the true last episode. I’m talking about “These Are The Voyages…” which I felt I had to watch again. So, “hold on to your butts” because this might take a while.

The whole episode basically revolves around Commander William Riker making a decision on following orders. Yes, this is Star Trek: Enterprise, but someone had the “bright” idea to get Jonathan Frakes and Marina Sirtis to reprise their roles from TNG. The episode actually takes place during “The Pegasus”, a pretty good Season 7 episode. Riker uses the holedeck to pull up the NX-01’s final mission and get advice from the main crew. He plays as the unseen cook to get some advice from everyone. Even Counselor Troi takes a tour of the ship.

Jeffrey Combs... not even you can't save this episode.

For the crew, it’s been six years since “Terra Prime” and Capt. Archer is going to give a speech at the signing of the Federation Charter. They’re contacted by Shran, an Andorian and former ally. His daughter was kidnapped and he needs help to get her. The crew decides to help him out and save his daughter. Unfortunately, it comes at a price. The Enterprise gets boarded by the kidnappers and Comm. Tucker risks his life in order to save Archer. Even though Trip dies, Archer goes on to do his speech (WHICH WE DON’T EVEN SEE) and the episode ends with Riker ending the program. 

So… is there anything good about this episode? Nope. Peace, God Bless, and don’t forget to neuter your dogs or something.
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Ugh, I guess I have to say more than that.

Crisis Time! - Final Crisis #7

Well, here it is. It’s the final issue of this pretty weird event. I have to say that it’s been interesting. It’s been cool going through this event with a more critical eye. I may need that eye for this issue.

The creative team has gone through some changes for this final issue. Morrison is still the writer while Doug Mahnke is penciling the whole issue. The issue also houses a lot of inkers and I mean a lot. I don’t even think I know most of these folk. The main cover has Superman flying toward us while the variant shows the Multiverse being destroyed. The covers are okay this time around with both feeling pretty lackluster for a final issue. Now, excuse me as I try to recap this loopy issue.

Final Crisis #7
Writer: Grant Morrison
Penciller: Doug Mahnke
Inkers: Tom Nguyen, Drew Geraci, Christian Alamy, Norm Rapmund, Rodney Ramos, Doug Mahnke, and Walden Wong
Colors: Alex Sinclair, Tony Avina, and Pete Pantazis
Letters: Travis Lanham

Crisis Time! - Batman #682-683 and Final Crisis #6

Well, I’ve gotten to the penultimate issue of Final Crisis. It’s been an interesting ride, I’ll give it that. I’ll be also briefly looking at Batman #682-#683. Both issues tied into what Batman was doing or not doing in this case. Remember that he was kidnapped in Final Crisis #2 and he’s been off the board since then. The creative team for Final Crisis is the same but more people have been added. Doug Mahnke and Christian Alamy have come in to do some pages. We also got another colorist along with Alex Sinclair this time around. Morrison also wrote the Batman issues. The art for those was done by Lee Garbett, Trevor Scott, and Guy Major.

The main covers for the Batman issues were drawn by the always awesome Alex Ross. The covers for #6 are cool as usual. The main one features Batman and the variant features Darkseid holding a disheveled Superman. While the Batman cover is fine, I have to say that the variant is the more interesting one this time around. What’s weird (and kind of sad) is that scene NEVER happens in the event. This is actually the last time we see that new suit of Darkseid’s. I’m a little disappointed by that. Oh well… Let's see what the Dark Knight was up to!

Batman #682 and #683

Writer: Grant Morrison

Pencils: Lee Garbett

Inks: Trevor Scott

Colors: Guy Major

Letters: Jared K. Fletcher