Confessions of a sick fan

Since I haven't really had the funds to hit my LCS as of late (and I'm up late/early with a cold), I thought I'd just put out a few confessions of mine about comics I already bought and read & those I plan to read.

CONFESSION 1: I have not enjoyed Kathy Immonen's run on Runaways

In the course of trashing a few new books, The Hurting mentions that they think Immonen had a lot to fix from Whedon's lateness-plagued run and Terry Moore's somewhat unfocused run on Runaways.

Now, let's be fair here. I thought Moore's run was lackluster at best but he left her with the kids in a safehouse in California, minus a few members of the previous cast. Even with a new addition who was a plant-controlling mutant time-traveler, it wasn't like they'd all been transformed into middle-aged Cyborg Zebras and stranded on Mars in the year 2525 or something. So, how did she then chose to start her run? Immonen starts out with the random killing of the iconic dinosaur portion of the team and blowing up their Malibu base. I mean, seriously? Why not just burn all of Molly Hayes' hats while you're at it? This is the team that non-comic readers recognize as the one with the Goth Chick, the little girl in the funny hat, the other ones and the dinosaur. Sheesh.

She then followed that up with a second issue that was comprised almost entirely of people yelling at one another while sitting in rubble. Fun! I have no idea why anybody wouldn't immediately fall in love with this wacky comic about teens with superpowers.

I have to admit that I didn't even follow my traditional "3 issues to be fair about it" rule because I'm damn poor and I don't like to waste money on things that don't make me happy. It hurt because this is an all-female team writing and drawing a book about a team lead by a teenage girl (with Molly "Always Awesome" Hayes). Also, I liked that Hellcat series a whole lot and they hinted Gert was coming back, so I definitely wanted to like this book. I wanted to like this book so bad that the cognitive dissonance from hating it kind of gave me an ice cream headache.

What I'm saying here is that, while I wasn't the biggest fan of their runs either, I don't think it's entirely fair to lay all the blame at Terry Moore and Joss Whedon's feet for Runaways not shining as brightly as it could.

Whew. Glad I got that out there.

CONFESSION 2: After nearly two decades reading comics, I still have very little idea who about 2/3'ds of the JSA are.

This doesn't stop me from loving the holy crap out of Eric Trautmann's tense, well-plotted JSA Vs. Kobra mini-series or Palmiotti and Conner's fun, excellent and ongoing Power Girl series. And yes, I know, Wikipedia is my friend. I'm just lazy and have enough vague knowledge about all their personalities and powers from various crossovers to be satisfied. For instance, Bell Girl and her husband Hoodie Man find a corpse! Freckles McWhirlwind is horrified! And so on and so forth.

In seriousness, the fact that they're spinning them off into two books now instead of one makes a lot of sense because as near as I can gather, there's 42 members on the team. If the JSA teamed up with the X-Men, I think they'd outnumber the population of Nebraska.

Also, if they really did kill off Mr. Terrific like I've been hearing from folks, this Checkmate fan's gonna be more than a little ticked off. I'm just sayin'.

CONFESSION 3: Planetary #27 finally coming out makes me happy.

No real addition to that one. I mean, I could be a whiny fanboy about it, but hell, I'm just happy it's finally here. I'm going to save up five bucks, track it down and buy the crap out of this one, just for completion's sake, if nothing else. I just hope that, after all these years, the art in it is rather astonishing.

*cough*

Sorry.

A Splendid Surprise

So, the talented artist known as Neil Cameron is doing an gloriously geeky A-Z of Awesomeness over at his blog. The main idea is that you go and suggest the most "awesome" geeky combination you can think of and bam! He draws it! I really should have mentioned it earlier to you all, considering how hilarious they've all been, but I didn't want any of your suggestions as to what he should draw to beat out one of mine. Mwoo-a-ha-ha-ha! Mine is an evil laugh.

Ah, but now that my Machiavellian scheming has worked, I suggest you get over there toot suite to give him your suggestions. And oh, yes - I am also proud to present the talented Mr. Cameron's use of my suggestion for the letter "S" . . .



Suck it, Second-place Sims! *ahem*

And many thanks again to Neil for drawing a guaranteed smile a day. I'm really looking forward to seeing what he comes up with for U-Z.

ITEM! Kristen Bell Marries Chewbacca!

Now, I usually leave this sort of celebrity gossip and commentary for sites like Defamer (a high-quality site, I assure you)but I just thought you'd all be interested to know about this exciting new celebrity couple. How did Chewbarsten start, you might ask?

Friends say that the Wookie - already having surprised everybody in Tinseltown by ignoring his novel-based death to start appearing in guest spots on such shows as Ghost Whisperer, 24 and a two-parter on Grey's Anatomy - already had a crush on the petite actress. So when the talented star of Forgetting Sarah Marshall , Veronica Mars, and the upcoming Veronica Mars movie reportedly met Chewbacca while slumming it in wretched hives of scum and villainy, it was no surprise to anyone that sparks flew. Before you could say Kessel Run, the two took off to Vegas and got married!

"What can I say?" giggled a grinning Bell, "It was just love at first sight. He asked me to play pool and I just had to let the Wookie win."

"EYYYYYRRRRAAARRRRGGGG! WAAAAAUUUURRRRRRNNNNNNN!" joked Chewbacca to Entertainment Tonight.

"HUUUUUUUUUUUUUUURRRRRRRRRNNNNNNNNNNNNNNGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHH!!!" added Chewbacca, playfully putting his lady love in a headlock on the red carpet for her new film, Fanboys - a film which has already caused controversy on the Internet, much to everyone's shock and dismay.

Bell and Chewbacca seemed in too high spirits tonight to care about the whinging of nerds on the Internet, however, Bell's cheeks pink with glee as her Wookie lover continued to give her carotid artery a cheeky squeeze.

"EEUUUUURRRRRRUUUUU! RRRRRNNNNNNNNNNNNGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHH!" added Chewbacca with a big, toothy grin.


"Baby? Chewby? Chewby, baby, I- I can't breathe!" Bell said in response to further questions from reporters about the ceremony, their whirlwind romance and any future baby plans. "Seriously! Let . . . go . . . now . . . honey . . . I'm . . . passing . . ."

Ha! Adorable! It seems that Chewbarsten sure loves playing their cards close to their vest - or weird silver ammo belt as the case may be. Even so, The LookOut will keep all you faithful viewers updated on this hot, happening Hollywood Romance from their birds-eye view of LA in Colorado and at great personal risk to themselves! Because that's just how The LookOut rolls.*

BONUS VIDEO CONTENT!





*If forced to apply a geeky label, The LookOut is actually more of a Browncoat, a Dwarfer or a Scaper than a Star Wars fan but hey, those really doesn't work for the joke.

I rarely do memes . . .

But this one -

"Create a team of four to eight members, which comprise of sets of doubles as played by the same actor."

- amused me. Kalinara's choice was inspired and hard to beat. My only response would be making a team of the following fellows:



Sam Axe
Ash Williams
Brisco County, Jr.
Autolycus, King of Thieves
Jack Stiles, a.k.a. The Daring Dragoon

In a weird way, it all sort of makes sense. Sam Axe is an expert spy gone to seed, Jack Stiles is a spy in his prime, albeit in 1801. Ash Williams get time-tossed a lot and Autolycus is a thief who's done some time-traveling himself (and yes, I know this idea has happened and is already happening again at the moment - quite hilariously, I might add). Brisco County, Jr. deals with weird steampunk science all the time and the end of his series was connected to time-travel as well.

I imagine them all getting time-tossed thanks to MAD SCIENCE and forming one big messy family. I could see Sam Axe and Jack Stiles bickering while having to guide the others, Birds of Prey style, to get out of things and get back to their respective times. Naturally, Ash wouldn't listen to anybody and there'd be zombies on top of everything else. It'd SO be a hoot and a half. :D

Why I should write comics

THIS





+ THIS


MULTIPLIED BY THIS




= THIS, SQUARED



Nextwave 2.0 -
Never send a mutant to do a mecha's job.

Thanks and praise to the inimitable Kevin Church for the inspiration.

All we want to do is rock your brains

My plans for the evening do not include comics but they do involve geeky musical joy. I will be seeing a live performance by Mr. Jonathan Coulton, the hitmaker behind Still Alive, Re: Your Brains, Code Monkey and Skullcrusher Mountain. In joyous celebration of my Friday night plans, I hereby present BONUS VIDEO CONTENT of his many hits:

A surprising revelation, Shameless self-promotion and A Reader Quiz!

So, I was watching the Special Features on the DVD of Dr. Horrible's Sing-A-Long Blog ('cause I'm a giant nerd like that) and there was a feature where the stars and writers chose what superpower they would like to have. Unsurprisingly, Joss Whedon's most desired superpower is that of an alumni of Professor Xavier's Westchester Academy. Surprisingly, however, it is not Kitty Pryde. Instead, Joss covets the ability of most humble of the New Mutants - Mr. Doug Ramsey, Cypher. His power was basically to be a living Babelfish and . . . well, that's all really.


Yeah, future one-half of Douglock, I'm as surprised as you are.

Now, as a writer I can understand the desire to understand and speak any language but also as a writer, I'd much rather be a telepath. Being able to read Japanese would be cool, sure, but being able to understand people on a deep, personal level? Know their stories? Way more satisfying. Plus, knowing the honest thoughts of people around me would be a plus, assuming the telepathy came with an off switch to keep me from having an aneurysm in large crowds.
(Also, Doug Ramsey died a ridiculous death by being shot by a bird man with glasses. Emma Frost and Professor X are still running around, even after Charlie took a bullet to the freakin' head. I'm just sayin', folks.)

Readers, you make the call - what one superpower would you most like to have?

Goodbye, productivity! Hello, Hulu!

Hulu, the site where you can watch TV for free after Lex Luthor tells you to buy things*, has just put up so many of my Geek TV favorites that I don't think I'll ever write another word.
(hey, if Kalinara can blog about TV, I think I'm good here)

Sure, you've got the obvious staples I already watch or own on DVD but there's also the gloriously obscure and geeky shows. We're talking stuff Fox canceled here, people. So far, the only obscure shows I love they don't have are Wonderfalls (a.k.a. the show Bryan Fuller did before Pushing Daisies and writing some of the only great episodes of Heroes) and Due South (1 Mountie, 1 Chicago Cop, 1 Deaf Lip-reading Wolf). They also fail at hosting The Middleman, which is, quite simply the most amusing comic book action show ever put on TV but I can forgive them. Almost.

Here's just a taste of Hulu's bounty:

John Doe - an amnesiac who is a walking Google box solves crimes. Surprisingly fun.

Death Note - if you like anime and cat and mouse games with supernatural stuff, this is your cuppa tea. A bit too clever for it's own good at times but annoyingly compelling.

Freakin' Sliders, people. The show is about several delicious mini-burgers who travel from alternate universe to alternate universe, hoping against hope that the next leap will be the next- oh, you get the idea.

American Gothic - One of the most deliciously creepy TV shows I think I've ever seen on television, period. You will belief the boss from Office Space can murder you in your sleep.

The vastly underappreciated New Amsterdam - I usually hate shows about immortal people but this story of a cop who can't die until he finds true love was cheesy and charming in all the right ways (and before you even mention it, yes, they also have Forever Knight). Why they canceled it, I can't say - people just liked it better that way.

There's also the obscure yet strangely awesome Saturday Morning Cartoon Project G.eeK.e.R. - which, much like the Matrix, has to be seen to be experienced.

But most awesome of all, they have obscure comic book TV shows up the wazoo, some of which I've never even seen.
The Incredible Hulk, complete with sad piano music? Check.
The Crow: Stairway To Heaven? Check.
Swamp Thing? Good Lord, really? Also, check.
Mr. Justice and Powerful Girl? Uh . . . check. Who are they again?

And most importantly, live action episodes of The Tick! While it never quite measured up to the glorious lunacy of the animated version, it still holds a place of joy in my heart.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to go fail at writing anything ever again.

*To add humor to your Hulu viewing experience, make sure to shake your fist at the screen every time Clancy Brown tries to sell you something, shouting "I'll never buy your DAMN 'fill in product name/attribute here', LUTHOR!" in your best Tim Daly voice.

So, here's a question

What are you going to be for Halloween?

I was considering creating a Dr. Horrible costume but really, I imagine that costume's gonna be more overexposed this year than tasteless Heath Ledger Joker homages. In the end, I have decided to try for James Bond. I already have both the tuxedo and martini glass, after all. Plus, hey, obscure Buffy joke (I actually was "Military Guy" last year, courtesy of my Paintballing Gear)!

Of course, if you're a lady, there seems to be an endless variety of different and tasteful costumes for you to wear!

See more funny videos and funny pictures at CollegeHumor.

The LookOut - Slacker or Menace?

Hello, loyal readers! I'm sure all five of you have missed me terribly. Especially you, TV's Summer Glau! Sorry, TV's Summer Glau. Just look how surprised she is that I'm updating again! Priceless. Well, you're very welcome, TV's Summer Glau and so are all of you!*

Seriously, I'm sorry for the long delay in posting. Things have just not been copacetic in the house of The LookOut as of late. Thankfully, I've got a new job and as soon as I get another one, things will be almost entirely back to normal. I may even have money for comics again in two months! Huzzah! The lack of Ellis' Astonishing X-Men, Helen Killer and Simone's Wonder Woman alone are killing me. Don't even talk to me about missing Booster Gold.

On much happier note, Dr. Horrible's Sing-A-Long Blog? Genius. Watch it now before it stops being free online! You know what else is awesome? The Middleman. I guess nothing cheers me up quite like mad science.

Oh, and hey, there's some weird movie coming out this week about a dude who dresses up like a bat or something. Bizarre. Anybody going to see that? I think I might go, even if it means selling bodily fluids, 'cause hey - Maggie Gyllenhaal is in it. I know her much raved about acting skills are the reason everyone's so hyped about this film.** Right? I don't know. Clearly, I don't really follow these "comic book movies".


*TV's Summer Glau has never, and probably will never, read, condone or know of the existence of "Look Out! Here Comes A Comics Blog!". We here at The LookOut apologize for the deceit.

**Fun Trivia Fact - Maggie Gyllenhaal and I have the same birthday! No foolin'.

Hurm

July 17th, 2008. CGI explosion in clip this evening, Billy Crudup on giant greenscreen. The fandom is afraid of it. I have seen its brief preview. The Hollywood is extended flash and the flash is full of stars and if the stars finally gloss over, all the fanboys will moan. The accumulated addition of all their SFX and smashed pumpkins will foam up about their eyeglasses and all the geeks and Alan Moore purists will look up and shout 'Save us!' And I'll look down, and whisper 'Meh.'

They had a choice, all of them. They could have followed in the footsteps of good movies like Iron Man, or Spider-Man. Decent movies, who believed in a continuity's dissolution for a movie's pay. Instead they followed the exacts of Englishmen and scholars and didn't realize that the trail led over a precipice until it was too late. Don't tell me they didn't have a choice. Now the whole PR campaign stands on the brink, staring down into bloody hell, all those purists and intellectuals and hysterical types, and all of a sudden everybody can think of smart-ass things to say.

Waiting for an actual whole movie to critique in all this snark and thunder.

I'm not stuck in this fandom with you.

You're stuck in this fandom with me.

Technical Difficulties and The Outside World

The LookOut regretfully posts from a working computer that it is having technical difficulties at this time. We apologize for the delay and hope to get things sorted out soon.


Stupid, lousy Ultron! *shakes fist*

In the meanwhile, The LookOut is going to be geekcore this weekend and go to a Con as the guest of a friend. No, not that Con, alas - another one much closer to home. With luck, The LookOut will get his Season 5 of Angel DVD box set and copy of Serenity signed by Adam Baldwin . . . because The LookOut is just that much of a geek.

I hope the rest of you have lovely weekends and that my comp's difficulties will be sorted out soonish.

The extremely important reason for the delay in my comics blogging

This game? This cute little "Look-at-me-aren't-I-so-precious-with-my-little-freaking-crayon,
I'm-probably-just-an-adorable-little-kids-game-I-bet-you can-beat-me-in-five-minutes-play-me-it'll -be-fun!?" GAME?
This is spawn of Satan.
This is what Pinhead plays on his days off.
This Game Is The Devil.
THE DEVIL!!!

Damn you, Level 11! Daaaaamn you!!!

Now, if you'd like to read something actually comic book related, I highly recommend these pages of Adam Warren and Rick May's Gen 13 #70, telling the story of Sarah Rainmaker coming out to her Uncle. Beautifully done issue, that. And I love the cloud details on the cover.

Comic Book Fashion?

This link about comic book nerds being "Brashly confident avatars of cool" has got me curious . . . so indulge me, Dear Reader, by answering the following questions for me - either in my comments section or in your own blog!

1. How many comic book related shirts do you YOU wear/own? What are they?

Batman, Superman (original logo & colors), Superman (on fire logo, black background), Powers (Retro Girl outline on Black), Milk & Cheese Bowling t-shirt, Bone (Phoney Bone's face & logo), Spider-Man (black background)

2. Which of these shirts are your favorites?

The Milk & Cheese one is well-made, extremely comfy and hilarious. Hands-down my favorite. Of course, I wear all of the above regularly, save for the Spider-Man one, due to it having shrunk in the wash.


3. Which of these shirts get the most comments when you're out and about?

Original Logo Superman and Batman always guarantee comments from strangers and occasional wide-eyed stares from kids. The Milk & Cheese is a surprisingly strong third, especially when I wear it out to bars. All three generate a lot of fun and I've even started conversations that way.

My favorite moment with the Superman shirt was when I was in Vegas. My friend Jim and I were strolling down the entranceway into the Excalibur Casino where we were staying, after having a very disappointing day. Being that this is Ye Olde Medieval Times Casino, they have two trumpeteers who blare out a welcome for guests as they arrive. They gave us a perfunctory bugle call and I tried to cheer up Jim by quipping "Hey, at least these guys knew we were coming!", and giving them a thumbs-up.

Not two seconds went by before they began playing the John Williams Superman Theme in tandem. :D I burst out laughing - and then made sure to strut the rest of the way down the entranceway in a "Superman" pose, preening like an idiot.

(On a side note, my friend Kay tends to get tetchy whenever she asks somebody with a Superman t-shirt questions about, say, Action Comics and gets met with a blank stare. Luckily, I'm authentically GEEKCORE - you know, as opposed to all these wanna-be playas co-opting Geek Culture. :P)

4. Feel like posting a pic of yourself in one of your Comic Book T-shirts, looking oh-so-fashionable?

Not right now, but I'll edit this later to add one . . .
Behold! This is from many moons ago but the shirt remains the same. Gotta say, Clark Kent is/was the easiest five-minute Halloween Costume I ever put together.



(Ye Gods, I forgot I even owned that goofy-looking Buffy poster. I'd always wished whomever gave me that B-Day gift went with a more fandom-y black background Buffy/Angel or the Buffy Season 2 Cast poster. Instead, I had to constantly convince people I loved Buffy the Vampire Slayer, not SMG inexplicably squatting in poison ivy. *sigh*)

Dr. Horrible's Sing-A-Long Blog

Apparently, Joss Whedon is doing a musical about a Supervillain named Dr. Horrible, who spends most of his time trying to work up the courage to talk to a pretty girl at the laundromat, in betwixt getting beat up a lot by a hero named Captain Hammer.

Neil Patrick Harris is Dr. Horrible, Nathan Fillion is Captain Hammer and The Guild's/Buffy's Felica Day is Penny.

While this is going to be Internet only from what I understand, I foresee a LOT of fun being had. :D

And for those of you still searching, please refer to this link, as I live to serve.

BONUS VIDEO CONTENT:

Animated Nathan Fillion is Vigilante on the JLU Animated -

Superteen Battle Royale - Your Thoughts Please?

VS


ROUND ONE: Classic Teen Titans line-up versus Modern Runaways line-up - who wins?

Given our familiarity lies mostly with the animated series, Kay and I based a team for the Titans on that model - which turned out pretty evenly matched.

Raven Vs Nico, Starfire Vs. Karolina, Robin Vs. Chase & Old Lace - these all seem like pretty uneven match-ups on paper. On the other hand, I fully believe that Victor could take Cyborg, Xavin could take down Beast Boy and Molly Hayes could surprise Wonder Girl or Kid Flash into outcold-land. If we vary up these match-ups, things could get even more interesting.

In the end, we both leaned towards the Runaways. This was mostly because they A)have the stealthy lack of costumes going on, B)have the son of a Skrull Warlord who's willing to kill people (yes, Xavin hasn't been shown killing anyone but c'mon, (s)he's a freaking Skrull Warlord's son, people), C) Molly Hayes sucker punched the Punisher - doing the same to Robin isn't outside the realm of possibility.

While we didn't think it'd be a rout, we felt fairly sure it'd turn into at least a draw. Also, I just plain love to imagine the Titans being utterly befuddled by these kids without costumes who fight dirty. Now, if we were talking modern age Titans with Devil Boy, the Martian telepath and more importantly, Ravager and the royally ticked off Wonder Girl, I'd probably be singing a different tune.

Now, the winner of this battle have to take on the most vicious teen team we could think of - Gail Simone's revamp of Gen13.


Now before you scoff, these aren't the same cheesecake-y scamps from the early 90's you may think you know. Every one of them just saw their foster families murdered in front of them Batman-style, because the guy who cloned their bodies and raised them to be a certain way THOUGHT IT WOULD BE FUNNY. Each of them knows they're freaks of nature and aren't terribly happy about it (save Zen Grunge and Rasta Bobby but their anger still simmers deep down). They're all smarter, more paranoid and willing to kill if need be than their previous incarnations (well, poor Roxy's certainly more prone to violence at least). Grunge killed a version of Apollo, for heaven's sake. Whichever team you choose to stand against them, I wouldn't dismiss the possibility of a long, brutal battle.

Even Kay and I were uncertain about who would win what. At least I'll get to see a match-up of sorts between the Gen13ers vs the Titans in the upcoming Wildstorm/DC: Dreamwar.

The funniest part? After all this teen blogging, what I'm most excited about in the upcoming DC/Wildstorm thing is the JSA Versus the Welcome to Tranquility beat-down.

As Giffen himself so neatly puts it: "Geriatric wars, man! [laughs] Any book that's got old people pounding the shit out of each other -- c'mon! It's worth the price."