Veteran Insomniac

(Yes, I know it is not Wednesday. It was when I wrote it)

On a pretty solid trip to Portland, for the Oregon Brewfest, we stopped off at Powell’s and went in search of literary treasures. Material for many “new comic book” days to come was supplied while looking in their assembled superhero collections, as I stumbled across a good deal of the Marvel Civil War collections. I realize these are not new comic books per say, but as I only actively follow one line of comic books, I tend to pick up new books on subject of interest rather than chronological imperative. Also, as I have not really gone over it before, a good deal of these Wednesday posts will be regarding the various Civil War pieces I’ve acquired, which hopefully will be all of them.

I suppose I should dedicate the first of these to establish what kind of comic book reader I am.  My knowledge of the various canons of comic books is not just from comics themselves, but from adaptations of classic IP that was rampant during the 90’s that almost universally included “The Animated Series” following a colon. As a child of those times I was acquainted with the majority of mutants, heroes, villains, and henchmen, but not intimately familiar. It was this way until the producers of the host of Saturday morning cartoons wisely re-targeted my demographic as we came into our independent years by creating the superhero blockbuster.  It was really Bryan Singer’s X-Men that found the key balance between what works on the silver screen, and what works inside the printed panel. Comics and their characters had been tugged out of their campy roots and into the mainstream.

It took a few summers of massive CGI and a move into independence for me to pick up comic books again. As it stands, I don’t have a massive selection of books, and I greatly desire to pick up completed story arcs rather than wait through a cliffhanger every month.  As it is, I have enough of a backlog to attempt to make this a weekly post as I go over a piece of my illustrated collection.  First up, Civil War: War Crimes

I’ve been so caught up with Watchmen stuff lately, I’ve missed a lot of what’s been going on with Terminator Salvation, other than Christian Bale blowing off some steam, which I totally don’t blame him for. If I could criticize without reprisal some of the people around me, Mr. Bale would come across like a kittycat.

So, I’m a big fan of the Terminator franchise, and Sarah Connor Chronicles has kept my interest high where Terminator 3 fell down. Tapping Christian Bale to take over as a developed John Connor has given me faith in the project, and as his obvious dedication to his craft has reinforced my optimism. I realize I say shit like this a lot, but I think that this season is going to be a generally GOOD one for movies. I’m going to stop here and make a statement about GOOD movies. There are good movies, and entertaining movies. Good movies have cinematic value, and warrant discussion much like good works of literature do. Entertaining movies are simply that. They stimulate a very basic sense of enjoyment, possibly through loud noises, bright flashes, and scantily clad supporting cast. A film can be both entertaining & good at the same time, like Dark Knight, or it can be “good” without being entertaining (“No Country for Old Men” springs to mind). Also, I’d like to take a short break to show the top 5 movies for the past weekend:

1. Madea Goes to Jail
2. Jonas Brothers: The 3D Concert Experience
3. Slumdog Millionaire
4. Taken
5. He’s Just Not That Into You

Way to go America. Just because a movie is in theaters does not mean you have to see it. DO NOT SEE BAD MOVIES. They will just keep making them. Have some standards and integrity, DEMAND plot….
wait……this sounds familiar.
That was FOURTEEN YEARS AGO. You KEPT GOING TO BAD MOVIES.

Back on topic, I think Terminator is most definitely going to be an entertaining movie, even if that is the gear-whore in me loving to check out all their fancy toys (HK416, hellz yeah). I’m hopeful that it will also be a GOOD movie.

Oh, and I read a statistic that the average American reads one book a year, so I picked up my copy of Count Zero again and burned through a few chapters. Say, there’s a movie idea right there. I mean, Johnny Mnemonic was sort of campy and fun, but it think the world may be far enough past The Matrix to give cyberpunk another go without “knockoff syndrome”

Also, added sites to the blogrolls and a twitter feed. Check them out if that’s what you’re into.

Supporting Alan Moore doesn’t mean hating Watchmen.

Choice Excerpt:

But the book is so much better than the movie…

they will all say. Yeah, I know it is. That’s why it’s a book. By definition it has more space to explore the plot, more space to delve into the subconscious and more space to extricate every last droplet of greatness. Clearly, F. Scott Fitzgerald’s version of The Great Gatsby can’t be touched, Heller’s take on Catch-22 isn’t rivaled by its adaptation, but you know what these underwhelming films did? They convinced otherwise hapless, book-hating shmucks to hit up the novel and give reading a chance. You know how hard it is to make anyone read anything? The average American reads one book a year. One. And that dumbfounding statistic includes The DaVinci Code and Goosebumps and Harry Potter. Fuck us. A book can’t even change the world anymore. How sad is that? I’ll probably hear about the End Times via text message.