For the Honor of Grayskull!

I am SHE-RA!

Not really, but it would be so cool if I was. For one thing, I would not be suffering the physical effects of helping my friend move yesterday. However, I did just finish watching the Best of She-Ra DVDs. After all these years, my memory of the show was a bit fuzzy. I mostly just remembered the basic story and how much I loved the show. I was a little afraid that it wouldn't hold up, but it turns out there was no reason to be afraid. Sure the style was very different from what we are used to now, even in cartoons, but it was like reading a comic book from the 80s, different but still good.

Overall, the show is still really strong. She-Ra and her alter ego Adora are wonderful characters, every bit the equal of their male counterparts, He-Man and Adam. Actually, Adam could be really insufferable, while Adora was always intelligent and capable. As, J. Michael Stracznski (former She-Ra writer, creator of Babylon 5 and current writer of Amazing Spider-Man as well as several other comic books) notes in the documentary on disc 2, when Adora becomes She-Ra, she becomes even more of who she really is. Embracing her power allows Adora to become more confident and bold. This is illustrated in the episode "The Stone in the Sword," my favorite episode on the disc (and the only one that doesn't feature and characters from He-Man). In this episode, the stone in the sword (hence the title) cracks during battle and Adora loses her ability to turn into She-Ra. In order to save Bow (the show's damsel in distress was naturally a guy), Adora must get the crystal repaired by journeying to the top of Sky Dancer Mountain and down into the Etherian Underworld without becoming She-Ra. She proves that she is worthy of becoming She-Ra and the stone is repaired. That is why she is such a great role model. Also, she kicks ass. The importance of that cannot be underestimated.

On The Secret of the Sword audio commentary and in the documentary, it is mentioned that Etheria was set up with the evil Horde in control as a reaction to Eternia, where the good guys ruled. In short, He-Man works for The Man, while She-Ra is a rebel. It makes sense that they wouldn't want to be telling the same story on both shows, but it also works as an unintentional feminist statement. The rebels, most of the regularly recurring supporting characters being women, are trying to regain power that was taken from them by the evil Horde, lead by the male Hordak. Sure Hordak had several henchwomen, but it's not like there aren't any anti-feminist women. At the end of The Secret of the Sword, She-Ra, He-Man, and the rebel army even restore a woman, Queen Angela, to the thrown of the Kingdom of Bright Moon. I knew this show had to be the root of my feminist beliefs. Thanks, Filmation! Filmation gets bonus feminism points for employing the first ever female director for animation, Gwen Wetzler. It's fitting that she would work on a show that was all about empowering girls. Rock on, Gwen Wetzler!

I am happy to say that my love for She-Ra has been re-ignited. I cannot wait for the full season DVDs to come out. I never bought the He-Man DVDs because they are far too expensive, but She-Ra is worth it. She is the first of many kick ass female action heroes that I love.

Who Wants to Be a Superhero?

Did you see this? It was crazy and unbelievably lame and I absolutely loved it. Pure cheese, baby. Pure cheese.

Stan Lee, of course, made the show. He's so good at selling this shit. Why the man wasn't put on television ages ago, I have no idea. The contestants are a trip though. I'm going to call the winner right now. I bet it's going to be Feedback. I know the guy failed the first test, but he takes it so seriously. He quit his job for this and he has a sob story. Apparently after his father died when he was 14, he looked to Stan Lee's creations as role models. Also, according to the Scifi.com page for his character, he absorbs his powers from videogames. Major Victory has the best catchphrase by far with "Be a winner, not a weiner!" The Iron Enforcer just has to go though. He's an ass.

Then there was this show called Garth Marenghi's Darkplace. It's British and there are no words to describe it. Well, there are, and those words would be "horror spoof." Pretty funny stuff though, especially the "not acting, but truth" of Dean Lerner.

Finally, there was the Amazing Screw-On Head pilot. Why did I never hear of this comic book? How can I find it? I'm not sure if this has actually been picked up for a series yet, but it needs to be. Emperor Zombie rules!

And Now I Turn Into a Total Fangirl

I am really struggling to control my excitement right now, because this is totally awesome. I don't normally blog at work (yeah, even us amateur supervillains need to have day jobs), but I just couldn't resist. I have been looking foraward to the Buffy Season 8 comic books for so long, and now my excitement is doubled, or maybe tripled. My excitement is expotentially higher. I am completely unfamiliar with Georges Jeanty's work, but that cover is gorgeous. I look forward to seeing his rendering of the other characters. I also look forward to finding out if Xander will still be sporting a patch or if he will have gotten himself a glass eye. Now we just need to get an announcement about when it will come out and what other former Buffy writers will be working on the series (I'm hoping for Drew Goddard).

Between this and the Best Of She Ra DVD, today is just so cool.

Superman Returns

I finally got to see Superman Returns last weekend, but I have been dealing with wonky internet access all week, so finally, I give you my review (not that you were holding your breath). Beware of spoilers contained within:

While Superman Returns certainly had its faults, I thoroughly loved the film. It touched on all the things that make me love the character, and the visuals were incredibly stunning. Those action sequences were amazing. Bryan Singer’s visual style just seems to expand and improve with each film, and I thought Brandon Routh was wonderful as both Superman and Clark Kent. I’ll admit, I wasn’t nearly as thrilled with Lois Lane or Lex Luthor, but Kate Bosworth did not bother me nearly as much as I thought she would and Kevin Spacey’s Lex was a vast improvement over Gene Hackman. I didn’t even hate the kid as much as I thought I would.

I thought the emotional aspect of the film worked extremely well, since the whole movie was about Superman's isolation. Many people have complained about Clark/Superman's lack of dialogue. My response to that is to ask who he was supposed to talk to. He had no one. As Clark, he couldn't talk to anyone, because no one knew he was Superman. As Superman, he couldn't really talk to Lois, the only person he had anything to say to, because she had moved on. He just came back from Krypton, finally having come to terms with the fact that he really is the last of his kind, and then his one link to his heritage is taken away from him when Luthor stole the crystals. It was heartbreaking. That's why I found the end so powerful. I wasn't thrilled with the idea of the kid, and I would still prefer they went with a different angle on the whole thing, but you could see just how much knowing he had a son meant to him. He wasn't as alone anymore because there was this other part of him out there in the world, half Kryptonian and half human. Jason represented a link to both his heritage and his adopted world.

The main plot of the story didn’t work nearly as well for me as the emotional angle. I kept wondering about how Lex Luthor’s plan would work in the long run. The whole thing could have stood to have a bit more explanation. However, Spacey’s Lex Luthor proved himself far more menacing than Hackman’s ever was during the beat down he and his henchmen gave Superman. I actually found that scene rather disturbing, and I’m a girl who has been known to root for other versions of Lex Luthor. (Have you read my Justice League Unlimited blog entries?) Also, as I said before, the action sequences were amazing. They really carried the non-love story side of the movie. I went nuts over the plane crash scene and all the other heroics, especially the whole sequence where he saved Metropolis were exciting. I know the budget on this movie was astronomical (mostly because of all the previous failed attempts to get a Superman movie made), but it was worth every penny. Singer worked in the iconic Superman imagery seamlessly. I spent half the movie just completely geeking out.

The entire end of the film, from the beat down to the very last shot was breathtaking – a true testament to just how great a filmmaker Bryan Singer is. The shot of Superman flying up to the sun to recharge was breathtaking. Actually, every shot was unbelievably beautiful. The last movie I saw that looked this good was Peter Jackson’s King Kong. As a matter of fact, King Kong is the movie I would most likely compare it to, both in content and in the fact that it’s not nearly as successful as it deserves to be. It is fitting that both were filming at the same time. Maybe Singer and Jackson can commiserate about their under appreciation.

The acting was less stellar, but I thought Brandon Routh was wonderful. (I’ve got a crush on him now, so you will find it impossible to dissuade me from this point.) As has been noted and criticized, he did not have much dialogue, but he managed to sell so much emotion without saying anything. I never failed to feel for both Clark and Superman. My heart went out to him throughout, and if Routh had not been effective that would not have happened. Kate Bosworth did not annoy me as much as I thought she would, but she wasn’t great. Her acting wasn’t awful, but I think a better actress would have done a better job of making me overlook some of the flaws in the characterization. The way Lois Lane was written in this film just did not fit my ideal version of the character, but I thought it worked within the context of the story they wanted to tell. Kevin Spacey was great acting wise, but I would have preferred a different take on Lex Luthor entirely. However, Perry White and Jimmy Olsen were captured exactly how I imagined them. Next to Brandon Routh, I thought the most impressive performance was turned in by James Marsden as Richard White. As the man who stood between Superman and Lois Lane, he had a difficult task in front of him, but good writing and a considerable amount of talent and charm made Richard as sympathetic as Superman. Also, after X3, it was just really nice to see James Marsden get to play a considerable role in a good movie.

Superman Returns wasn't a definitive interpretation of Superman, and it may not even be my favorite, but it was a completely valid interpretation. I thought everything worked within the context of the story Singer was telling and I was incredibly moved by it. I'm not ashamed to admit that my eyes welled up with tears several times throughout the film. Between the powerful emotional storytelling, the beautiful imagery, plenty of moments to make my inner fangirl completely geek out, and quite probably the best superhero action sequences I have ever seen, I thought it was a completely satisfying movie and far better than a lot of the other superhero movies (like X3, for example). Spider-Man 2 is still my favorite superhero movie since I am 100% biased in favor of Spider-Man and I thought Dr. Octopus worked better as a villain than Lex Luthor; and it is hard to compete with the original Superman films since the are a fond memory from my child and are the standard by which I judge all superhero films; but Superman Returns would definitely be put near the top of my list.

I Know He's Got a Mutant Healing Factor, But Really Now...

I haven't done any of the updates I planned to do, partially because I am lazy and partially because I have had this killer sinus infection for the past two weeks. There's so much to talk about, like the Spider-Man 3 trailer, Superman Returns (which I haven't seen yet, also partially due to the killer sinus infection), Marvel's Civil War, the last issue of season 1 of Young Avengers, and so much more. I had no idea where to start. It's all very overwhelming, so I decided to start with my personal WTF moment courtesy of Wolverine #43. (Spoilers to follow, so don't read if you don't want to know.)

Let me start off by saying that I think this particular Civil War tie-in storyline is pretty good. It's not great, and I personally find Ramos' art a bit weird looking (especially the hands), but I'm enjoying it. That said, I have a question. How the hell does Wolverine heal himself from getting completely incinerated? I'll admit, my biology knowledge is fuzzy, but if all that's left of him is his skeleton, there's not actually anything left to heal. Don't you need white blood cells to heal? And don't tell me it had something to do with bone marrow, because if you can't cut adamantium, you sure as hell can't heal through it. Anybody got an explanation for how this can work? I'll take anything that's remotely plausible, but right now, I'm not buying it. Also, when Magneto ripped the adamantium from Wolverine's body, didn't it take a while for Wolverine to recover from that? I don't remember that well, but I thought it did. In Wolverine #43, Wolverine is all better and beating up Nitro within a matter of minutes.

There's just getting out of control with Wolverine's healing factor lately. I didn't read Ultimate Hulk vs. Wolverine, but didn't Wolverine get completely ripped in half? How did that work exactly? Did his two halves get reunited and kind of fuse back together? Did he grow a new lower body? Seriously, I would like to know. Someone please tell me, because it seems to me that we are getting away from healing and venturing into regeneration, which is something mammals cannot do. Regeneration should be a whole separate power, and one that belongs to a lizard or amphibian-like mutant.

I had a similar problem with Wolverine #32. Let's overlook the fact that the issue sucked and focus on the fact that Wolverine repeatedly got shot in the head. I'm not saying this would kill Wolverine, because he would definitely heal from being shot. However, this was during World War II, before he got the adamantium, and I don't think any of those bullets passed through his head. That means that all those bullets were lodged in his brain. How could he heal properly while having to accommodate the presence of all that lead. Shouldn't he be severely brain damaged?

I don't know, maybe I'm missing something, but this sort of thing is really starting to bug me.