Review Shots For 3.30.11

This is the official warning to any and all who read these reviews. Progressively Aggressive holds a severe DC bias. I don't DISlike Marvel by any means... but I don't read the books, and I'm not a fan of the overall Universe. Plus, let's be honest, I've spent thousands of dollars over a number of years on DC books. I'm not made of money... come on, there's a recession going on, for God's sakes.

Detective Comics #875
Scott Snyder & Fracesco Francavilla

It's always refreshing to tell when a new writer coming into a long-standing book has been a long-time reader. That is most definitely the case with Scott Snyder and Detective Comics. In this issue, we see the longer version of the Jim Gordon / James Gordon Jr. confrontation that Snyder teased us with in his debut issue. Snyder understands the "mystery" genre, and the opening monologue from Bullock at GCPD reads like pitch-perfect old-school noir. Snyder writes Gordon like the old, weathered cop that he is. In the latest issue we find Gordon tailing a case from decades ago, and into intercuts a flashback when his "damaged" son James was just a child. The creepy factor is dialed up to 10, and we never really get any clear answer as to whether or not James is a psychotic killer or just... damaged.

Francavilla literally draws and colors everything in this issue, and it looks amazing. His color selection is either blacks and blues or firey auburns and oranges, both used to amp up the tension of the scenes. It's going to be a shame to see him go to Marvel for American Panther, because his Tim Sale style is matches up insanely well to this type of story.


Action Comics #899
Paul Cornell & Jesus Merino

I think Paul Cornell gets the DC Universe. The general rule of thumb for these characters, which writers like Grant Morrison, Joe Casey and Mark Waid stapled down in the nineties, is that you write the most off-the wall, unexplainable, and unintelligible material you possibly can for these characters to face, but you treat it with such nod/wink cool and confidence that people eat it up.

In the penultimate issue to Cornell's Lex Luthor epic, Luthor faces off against Braniac for control of the black spheres and becomes... well, something different. It's unclear as to what exactly has happened to Luthor, and I don't want to spoil anything, but we finally get to see what was on the other side of the "door" the rings created. The face-off between Luthor and Braniac is both hilarious and dead-on, as two super-geniuses shout out the fantastically over-the-top maneuvers and equipment that could never exist in real life - which is kind of the point.

The issue sees fill-in artist Jesus Merino, most likely because Pete Woods will be doing 50 pages of interior work in the 900's issue next month, and he fills in nicely. Merino's style is very old school, with precision lines that don't overuse cross hatching and lighting effects like Woods' work does. With that, merino works better on books like JSA or Superman, where the style matches the subtext. Here, Woods' overly computer-enhanced work fits the space age material Cornell is writing, and I would've loved to see what he did with Luthor on the final page.


Green Lantern: Emerald Warriors #8
Peter J. Tomasi & Fernando Pasarin

We get to see the third side of the initial conflict this week, with Guy Gardner facing off with Hal Jordan in "War of the Green Lanterns". The issue serves as set-up, which is a bit concerning since the last "Green Lantern" and "Green Lantern Corps" issues served the same function. But I assume not all readers are following all 3 books, so a set-up was needed in each.

We're starting to get a full picture with this issue. The 4 earth-bound Lanterns, as well as Kilowog and Ganthet, have been affected by Parralax way back in "Rebirth", so they're less influenced by its control. The issue itself is one big fight between Hal and Guy, before they reach the same conclusion that Jon and Kyle did in GL Corps. It's not an uninteresting issue, but it's certainly retreading on familiar ground. We get a verbal argument followed by a construct-based brawl, and while the fight itself is fairly cool (takes place across an entire planet) some of it is admittedly hokey... Guy shoots construct hockey pucks at Hal while wearing a construct hockey-jersey. Why not just shoot him with the thing?

My major complaint with Pasarin's work is that it's too clean. There's no scratches, the line work is too pristine. I love Pasarin's work in this issue, but I still recognize his faults. The fight takes place on a snowy planet, so clean pencils would work exceptionally well there. But Pasarin can pack a lot into a page; a splash containing an entire fleet of the Corps bearing down on Guy, Kilowog and Arisia is amazing. A reviewer at Comic Book Resources compared it to George Perez, and I'd be hard pressed to disagree.


That's it for this week! If you have thoughts, comments, hate-filled bullshit that essentially just disgagrees with me (but in an overly-rude, completely unnecessary fashion), leave a comment or email us at progressivelyaggressive@live.com

So Arnold Schwarzenegger is Retarded, Right?

He'd have to be to be excited about the new Stan Lee created comic book about him titled The Governator. Looking past the incredibly stupid title that was obviously hatched by a comic writer in his fucking nineties, there's a lot to get me excited about... and I mean the kind of excited you get watching a car sliding on a sheet of ice towards another unsuspecting car at a stop light.

So let's take a look at the quotes from Super Hero Hype and Entertainment Weekly. I'll be dissecting them as I go, because I'm sure you'd agree with me that some of this shit cannot go without consternation.

To quote Stan Lee: "The Governator is going to be a great superhero, but he’ll also be Arnold Schwarzenegger. We’re using all the personal elements of Arnold’s life. We’re using his wife [Maria Shriver]. We’re using his kids. We’re using the fact that he used to be governor. Only after he leaves the governor’s office, Arnold decides to become a crime fighter and builds a secret high-tech crime-fighting center under his house in Brentwood."

First of all, I really like the idea of Stan Lee using Schwarzenegger's kids. It just sounds funny. But I love the description Lee gives of the entire book. It sounds so simple; an aging action star/roid freak/masochist who's now a governor and his family. Simple stuff, simple story. Done. But WAIT, there's a twist! After he leaves the governor's office, he's not just going back home to lounge around and eat sausage and smoke cigars and punch through layers of cement and brick that happen to be lying around... He's going to build a fucking crime-fighting center under his house!

My first question would be "Why?" I guess we'll just have to read to find out.

A further quote from the EW article: Along with the Arnold Cave, the Governator will have a fleet of super vehicles at his disposal, a closet full of “Super Suits” that allow him to fly and perform other super stunts, and a team of colorful sidekicks, such as Zeke Muckerberg, the precocious 13-year-old computer whiz who acts as the Governator’s cybersecurity expert. Naturally, there will also be recurring supervillains — including an evil organization called Gangsters Imposters Racketeers Liars & Irredeemable Ex-cons (or G.I.R.L.I.E. Men, for short). For Schwarzenegger, the cartoon is obviously the next best thing to being President. "I love the idea of a control center below my house with a path so that boats and submarines can go right into the ocean," he tells EW. "In the cartoon, my house is much closer to the beach than where we live, but, you know, it’s a cartoon."





Okay, here's where things get tricky... We know his kids are in the book, right? Why the Hell does Arnold need a "precocious 13 year old" to help him with computer problems?

"Hey, Zeke!"

"Yeah, Governator?"

"My Outlook is broooken, fix the thing or I break you."

"You got it, boss man!"

"I'll be outside by the pooool."

And on a side note, the character's name is "Zeke Muckerburg", and obvious (almost too obvious) nod to Mark Zuckerburg. Get it? Cuz of Facebook! But he's a kid! That makes it a joke!

Alright, back to the article. The evil enterprise raises a couple questions as well.

Gangsters Impostors Racketeers Liars & Irredeemable Ex-cons (or G.I.R.L.I.E. Men, for short)

Alright, one of these things is not like the other... What are liars doing getting murdered by Arnold Schwarzenegger? Or Ex-Cons, for that matter? Yep, you're not a reformed member of society until the Governator says you are, dirtbag! You can tell they aren't reformed because they tossed in the fact that they're "irredeemable". That means they're eeeevil. You would think that if Arnold had a base under his house he could stop bigger criminals that impostors, right? He's going to go use his super-suit to fuck up somebody stealing identities? And in front of children?? Harsh...

Arnold closes things out with the great quote;

"I love the idea of a control center below my house with a path so that boats and submarines can go right into the ocean,"

Really? Cuz I hate the idea. Was he saying that as an architectural thought, or was he referring to the comic?

"In the cartoon, my house is much closer to the beach than where we live, but, you know, it’s a cartoon."
This cartoon is bullshit and it is inaccurate! If you're not going to get the pathway to Schwarzenegger's house accurate to the foot then why the fuck are we even making this thing??

The comic book and animated series spawning from this aborted rape-baby of an idea are set to hit next year.

Geoffrey Rush is Tomar-Re

Hey y'all,

I'll have a full post later today, but I need to get this out there first and foremost. I'm not sure I have thoughts on it just yet, but the HeroComplex at LA Times is reporting that Geoffrey Rush (yes, the Geoffrey Rush of "Mystery Men" fame) is voicing the character of Tomar-Re in the Green Lantern movie. So... apparently this movie's still getting made.

PERFECT photo comparison, LA Times. PERFECT!

I haven't seen Rush in too many films, mostly because I don't like period pieces, but what I've seen him in I enjoyed. Hell, he was the only reason I sat through the first Pirates of the Caribbean movie. Oh, and House on Haunted Hill, he was good in that (yeah, I'm kidding.) So this is pretty exciting news, as I'm familiar with the character of Tomar-Re from the books. I'll be honest, I never pictured Tomar-Re with a slimy Brisbane accent. But the movie can use all the PR it can get, with Thor and Captain America getting sporting the limelight so much right now.

Oh, and Michael Clarke Duncan may be voicing Kiliwog, but that's speculation at the moment. I'm hopeful though, because I really want to see the scene where Kilowog looks at Hal and says "Gimme yo' hand, boss."

Behold the Majesty of Wonder Woman!

Newsarama has come out with screencaps of some behind-the-scenes footage of David E. Kelley's "Wonder Woman" pilot. Boy, does she look graceful!

Eek! My shoooooes!

A powerful Amazon warrior, fighting against the evil and corruption of modern mankind's Jesus Christ does that look like shit.

Not very warrior-like, is it? Just kinda looks like your mother-in-law performing a dare near Lower Wacker. But there's a couple other things worth noting... take a look at our comparison below;

I honestly liked the original version of the costume, although I still had reservations. I liked the blue bpants with the blue boots, to start. It at least looks a bit more streamlined, like it was designed all in one piece. It also detracts from the poor quality of the actual costume design. It beign rubber and form fitting really didn't hurt either.

The new costume keeps everything from the waist up, but the pants have been tweaked to a darker shade, and look like they're made of cotton... so Wonder Woman's wearing baggy sweatpants... I assume its so she could do her "running across cars" manuevers in the show, but it still shouts "cheap" to me. Plus, the boots have been reverted back to the classic red. It's more traditional, and I for one am always a traditionalist when it comes to comic medium transitions, but it's a two way street. Why not get rid of the pants and go back to the panties? Because it's in poor taste. Agreed. But with that argument settled, you may as well go for broke on interpreting the costume. The blue boots worked. These red, floppy boots with the sweats don't.

Plus Wonder Woman looks terrified and horribly out of breath.

Wonder Woman! Grrrrrr..... ow, don't push!

Falling Skies Trailer

TNT has released a new trailer for their upcoming series, "Falling Skies."  It's set to air with a two hour debut on June 19th.  I'm thrilled there is a new Sci-Fi show set for release, but my initial impression is The Librarian vs. Cylon/bug people - I'm a bit skeptical to say the least.  Check out the trailer below and tell us what you think!  Feel free to either comment below, or send us your thoughts to ProgressivelyAggressive@live.com.




For more regular updates on the show, a web comic series, and additional trailers check out the show's official page
http://www.tnt.tv/series/fallingskies/