DC Animated

DC Animated 

What's In Store

          As per usual, in the special features included on the Justice League: Flashpoint Paradox movie, we got a sneak peek at the storyboard of their next movie that was in the works. Justice League: War based on Jim Lee and Geoff Johns first 6 issues of Justice League collected in the Graphic Novel Justice League: Origin which featured the first appearance of Cyborg as a member of the League. The storyboards suggest that the story will be expanded to include Shazam, as well as possibly Steppenwolf or some other Apokaliptans. 

DragonCon 2013 Photo Gallery

DragonCon 2013

       DragonCon is our native Con here in Georgia, held every year in the capital, Atlanta. The show is comprised of a parade, signings, music and several contests. If you're interested in attending one year, check their website, dragoncon.org, for details.

Updated Art Gallery

I recently updated the Earth-19 Art Gallery with some of my older freehand work. They're mostly comics characters and they're inked and shaded. Click the link to the right to check them out! There's more on the way, too, so keep checking in.

Flashpoint Paradox Guest Review

Justice League: The

Flashpoint Paradox

Guest Review

       There's a new DC Animated movie out, and one of my contacts offered to write an in depth review. Give it up for Mr. Brooks Cannon, guest reviewer extroardinaire.

 

     What if one day you woke up and realized that everything had somehow changed? Oh, and you’re the Fastest Man Alive, the Flash?  Well, DC answers that in an enjoyable, though not perfect, full-length animated movie, Justice League: The Flashpoint Paradox.

   As I just mentioned, the general idea behind the story revolves around Barry Allen, the Flash, waking up one day to a world that’s very different than the one he knows.  Different, in this case, meaning wrong.  Very wrong.  In this world, there is no Flash, an important event in Barry’s life played out differently, and the superheroes that we all know are either merciless warlords, missing entirely, or totally reimagined, as is the case with Batman.  Batman is introduced early on and is the biggest supporting character in the movie.  This version of Batman puts a fantastic spin on the character that changes the hero in ways that I don't want to spoil here, suffice to say I would love to see more of this version of the character and thought he was handled really well.

   Unfortunately, this brings me to my first problem with the movie.  Almost all of the other characters, especially with Batman right there to compare them to, seemed very shallow.  None of the other heroes’ motivations go beyond, “Bad guys! Get ‘em!” and the villains only strive for the worn out clichés of world domination, revenge, or a mixture of both.  I feel like most of these characters could have been replaced by any other hero or villain with almost no effect on the story.

   That’s not to say that the story’s not good though, because I really did enjoy the trip from point A to point B.  Although the plot didn’t have much in the way of surprises, it moved at a quick pace - plenty quick enough to keep me engaged - and had a satisfying, though not Earth-shattering reveal towards the end that I appreciated.

   The art and animation have the usual amount of quality and polish that we’ve come to expect from DC’s animated movies, with only a few exceptions.  The biggest of these, and the one that really bothered me, was the tacked-on computer generated super-speed sequences.  It’s been a trend at DC over the past few years to render all the vehicles in their cartoon movies and television shows as computer generated 3D models, and the 3D models on the cartoons’  2D plane has never looked quite right to me.  I feel the same way about the Flash in those few scenes, and I really hope that this doesn’t catch on the way that CGing the vehicles has.

   My biggest problem with the movie as a whole, however, is with the several scenes with surprisingly graphic violence.  Don’t get me wrong, I love a great fight scene as much as the next guy, but when a man gets hanged, as happens in an early scene in this movie, I’d rather not see every single moment of it.  Pan the camera away, just show his feet leave the ground, or use any number of tasteful ways to show it, but please don’t keep the frame on his face while the blood gushes from his mouth as he dies.  At times it just seemed a bit excessive.

   As I said, overall I enjoyed Justice League: The Flashpoint Paradox, and although in might not be the perfect movie to watch with your small children, the fast-paced and engaging plot, awesome spin on the Batman, and generally more serious tone don’t quite make it a must see, but it’s definitely worth your time if you’re interested.

   My score: 8 out of 10

   What do you think? Have you seen the movie? Love it? Hate it? What did you think of my review? Please comment below! Any input is greatly appreciated! And thanks so much for reading!

Marvel Events Reading Order

Marvel Event Reading

For anyone interested in Marvel NOW!, or the Age of Ultron event, this is a list of catch up material in chronological order that should fill you in on some of the big universal shifts in the Marvel Universe. As a warning, there are spoilers in the summaries. If you are only interested in the titles, they are in bold, just don't read the summaries. 

House of M
      An insane Scarlet Witch's powers go out of control, altering all of reality, leaving the mutants as the dominant species. In the end, Scarlet Witch blames her father Magneto, before reverting all the changes, and uttering the words, "No more Mutants", leading into the Decimation storyline during which the X-Men discover that nearly all of the worlds mutants were depowered, leaving the mutants an endangered species.








Civil War
     Superhero Reality Show team The New Warriors takes on more dangerous villains in a bid for better ratings, leading to a fight with Nitro the Exploding Man, who detonates, leveling Stamford, Connecticut. The Government calls for Superhumans to register their identities, and become government agents. Iron Man backs this decision, while Captain America rebels, leading to a superhero civil war. Iron Man builds a prison in the negative zone to hold the revolting heroes. In the endgame, civilians begin attacking Captain America's team, which causes Cap to question his actions, and surrender. After this, Stark is appointed Director of S.H.I.E.L.D., with his co-director being Maria Hill.(Maria Hill had been director after Nick Fury went into hiding after his disastrous Secret War) This story leads into the Death of Captain America storyline.





World War Hulk
       After the Illuminati (Professor X, Namor, Iron Man, Black Bolt, Mister Fantastic, and Doctor Strange) send the Hulk into space for the safety of Earth, Hulk crash lands on the savage planet Sakaar, is made a slave and a gladiator, and eventually becomes the Emperor of Sakaar. After fathering a child, the ship Hulk came in explodes, killing Hulk's wife and many of his subjects. Gathering his team, the Warbound, Hulk swears vengeance on the Illuminati, and declares war on Earth, forcing the Illuminati (except for Professor X who Hulk says had been punished enough already) to fight as gladiators, leading to a final fight between Hulk and Sentry. Hulk defeats the Sentry before one of his Warbound, Miek, kills Rick Jones, and reveals that he (Miek, not Rick) had sabotaged the ship, because he believes Hulk could only be content with something to fight. Tony Stark activates a satellite to revert Hulk to human form. Banner is imprisoned. This leads into the Red Hulk/Green Hulk storyline







Secret Invasion
     The Illuminati make a pre-emptive strike on the Skrulls, who capture and study them, then release them. After the skrull homeworld is destroyed by Galactus, the Skrulls invade earth, replacing an unknown number of Earth's superhuman community. After several clashes between skrull and superhero forces, Norman Osborn makes a bid for power, intercepting information Deadpool was hired to collect, and using it to kill the Skrull Empress Veranke. This storyline leads into the Dark Reign, during which Norman Osborn becomes director of S.H.I.E.L.D, now rechristened H.A.M.M.E.R. and brings together his own team of Avengers.






Siege
      Loki manipulates Norman Osborn into laying seige to Asgard, now floating over Oklahoma. The attack culminates in Thor's return and the death of the Sentry, as well as the outing of Norman Osborn as a psychopath, and the Green Goblin. This storyline leads into the Heroic Age shift of status quo, that saw the reorganization of the Avengers. Also the direct followup entitled Avengers Prime shows the mending of the wounds left over from Civil War between Captain America, Iron Man, and Thor.
     







Fear Itself
       The Asgardian God of Fear, the Serpent, returns to take over the Earth with his emissaries. Odin decides to abandon the Earth to its fate, even proposing using it as a trap to kill the Serpent by razing the planet to the ground. Thor objects, insisting on defending the Earth. Tony Stark meanwhile, begs Odin to give the humans a chance. Odin cedes on both counts, providing Thor with the Odinsword, and allowing Tony Stark to forge weapons from Uru for the heroes. Thor manages to kill the Serpent, but is mortally wounded in the process. Odin returns to Asgard with the corpse of the Serpent, his brother, sealing Asgard off from the Earth and stranding some Asgardians there. This storyline leads into Shattered Heroes, which explores the consequences and implications of Fear Itself, including the introduction of the new God of Thunder, Tanarus

Schism
        After a U.N. mutant peace summit is attacked by Kid Omega, many countries begin mobilizing Sentinels. Cyclops begins taking a more militaristic stance, believing that the many mutant teens in his care should learn to defend themselves, while Wolverine feels that the children should not be made to fight, but should be able to count on the X-Men to defend them. Wolverine ends up threatening to detonate the island of Utopia to destroy an attacking Sentinel, while Cyclops stands his ground, preparing the young mutants to fight. The two men begin arguing about Jean Grey, and a fight breaks out. Cyclops and Wolverine end up destroying the Sentinel, but part ways over idealogical differences, with the former remaining in Utopia to head up his team, while the latter returns to New York to open the Jean Grey School for the Gifted. This storyline leads into X-Men Regenesis, a re-branding of the X-Men titles, depicting the two factions of X-Men.





AvX and Marvel NOW!
        This should bring you up to speed on major events up to the Avengers Versus X-Men event, which I didn't want to spoil because its pretty recent. After that storyline, the fallout is dealt with in the rebranding Marvel NOW!.  Marvel NOW! relaunched a lot of Marvel titles in the wake of AvX to reflect the new status quo, for example, Uncanny Avengers features a team composed of mutants and Avengers, and A+X features a team up of one X-Man and one Avenger each arc. Hope this helps people who want to pick something up without wading through ten years of continuity. I did the wading for you, because that's what I do.

Spotlight On: Bane

Spotlight On:

Bane

        Introduced in 1993 in Batman: Vengeance of Bane, the character was designed as a counterpoint character to Batman, intended to be his mental equal, and physical superior. Bane was born in the Caribbean Republic of Santa Prisca, the son of revolutionary soldier for hire Edmund Dorrance. Dorrance, better known as the blind master martial artist King Snake, fled the country after being arrested, leaving his unborn child to serve his sentence. Bane was born inside in the walls of the Peña Dura prison, learning at an early age to kill or be killed. After the death of his mother, Bane was released into general populace, and during a prison brawl, fell off of a walkway, and ended up in a coma for a month. During the coma, Bane saw a visage of his future self, warning him against fear, which in the vision took the form of a giant bat.  After coming out of the coma, Bane murdered a fellow inmate, and was thrown into la Cavidad Oscuro, a dark crevasse that flooded with each high tide.

     

     However, Bane refused to die, living off of fish and rats, and developing meditation techniques to avoid going insane in the ten years he was confined to the pit. After the warden released Bane into general populace again in the hopes that someone would kill him, Bane met an inmate known as

Bird, from Gotham. Bane became intrigued by the idea of a place ruled by fear of one man and believed the Batman was the incarnation of fear he had seen in his vision. Bane became convinced that destiny had put the two of them on a collision course. Being a natural intellectual, he began incessantly reading all the books available in the prison, learning to read in six languages. After reading all of the books available to him in the prison, he began using his network to smuggle more in. He began conditioning his body, pushing it to its limits. He stopped sleeping, instead going into a recuperative meditation for four hours each night.

A young Bane in the Cavidad Oscuro

         Around this time, scientists came to the prison to experiment on inmates, and choosing Bane for his strength, they began administering the super-steroid known as Venom, a highly addictive compound originally employed by Batman to surpass his physical limitations. After becoming addicted, Batman was able to kick the habit. The steroid took Bane, who already possessed peak human strength, to superhuman levels. Bane then escaped  Peña Dura and left for Gotham to confront his nightmare.  After observing Batman for some time, Bane saw that even his enhanced strength would not be a match, and realized he would need to wear the Batman down. To this end, Bane blew up the outside wall of Arkham Asylum, releasing the inmates. After more than a month of going nonstop, Batman was exhausted, and becoming sloppy. allowing Bane to follow him back to his cave, and in turn, deduce his civilian identity. Bane broke down the door of Wayne Manor, and beat Batman nearly to death in the Batcave, before breaking his back over his knee. 

Batman on Venom

         The story goes on and is mired in continuity, but we'll stop here. This is to give you an idea of what Bane is like, since there is yet to be a movie, videogame or animated series that does him complete justice. If I had to pick the closest interpretation, the Dark Knight Rises version was very true to the comics version. That version was a master strategist, terrorist, and trained by Ra's Al Ghul, much like Bane in the comics. As far as the drug Venom goes, at no point has it ever caused Bane to instantly increase in size, although this has become a staple of the character. Rather than increasing his size, it maintains his superhuman level of strenght, and has a calming effect. The drug was actually conceived to be Bane's weakness, because it was so addictive. Bane later beat his addiction, but retained his size. Bane has been shown  to be highly intelligent, even beating Ra's Al Ghul at chess, and being able to understand when Ra's and Talia attempted to conceal information from him by speaking in various dead languages(i.e. Dhari, Urdu, and Farsi) . Even after ceasing to use Venom, in Bane of the Demon, he is shown as able to rend steel bars. 

        As a quick update, as of the New 52, Bane has been shown preparing an invasion forc

e to march on Gotham, as well as moonlighting as muscle for the Court of Owls