God Loves, Man Kills (An X-Men Story)

This is one of those books that I think everyone should read. X-Men has been a series that has often addressed the question of prejudice and hate towards minorities (in the case of the X-Men, the minority is the mutant). This was a graphic novel published solely as such; it was never a serial X-Men story and was published as one complete story without trying to be placed into the X-Men continuity. At the same time that it's a stand alone story it also ties what came before it together into one idea while having a big influence on where the X-Men storylines would go to in the future. That being said, you don't have to know the stories that came before this and you don't need to read anything after reading this to get more of the story; it is its own story that someone unfamiliar with the X-Men could pickup and read. It was originally published in 1982 and the issues it addresses and questions it raises are still relevant today.

The story follows the beginning of a genocide of mutants, lead by a fanatical religious leader William Stryker. Stryker is leading a fanatic group of people who kill, without sympathy, anyone who is a mutant because they are not human. After we see a brutal killing in the opening panels, Magneto, leader of a mutant resistance group in the regular comic series, decides it is best to join forces with his nemesis, Charles Xavier and the X-Men, in order to stop the burgeoning holocaust. After Stryker kidnaps two of the X-Men and Xavier for nefarious reasons, the rest of the team follows Magento to stop his bandwagon's momentum in its tracks by any means necessary.

The graphic novel by itself is powerful without the amazing story by Chris Claremont and superb art of Brent Anderson that seems to be the forerunner to an art style of comic-artist Alex Ross. The one series of images that could easily shake anyone is the picture of Xavier being crucified on the roof of one of the World Trade Center towers by his own students, or the murder and lynching of two young children for being mutants.

If anything you will recognize some of the elements of the story as it was the source material used by Bryan Singer for his movie X2.

This graphic novel is not only a read, but a 100% buy and treasure it often type book. It will surely be read again by me.

WOLVERINE!!! And there after...

So last Friday Amanda and I saw X-Men Origins: Wolverine and it was stellar!! What a great movie! Anyways, I can't really say enough other than that I loved it. There were some changes to the basic story line from the comics, but I guess you can expect that from a movie. So if you haven't seen it yet, than go see it now!!






Now what's next for Hugh Jackman?? Well, if you have seen the movie I really hope that you stayed until after all the credits to see the extra clip at the end, and if you did than you'll know what's coming: There will obviously be a sequel to Wolverine and (SPOILER ALERT) ...











...it is to be set in Japan, and will focus on the samurai/Yakuza storyline of the comics, wherein Wolverine trains in the way of the samurai in order to control his feral nature, and falls in love with Mariko Yashida, heir to the Yakuza family.

(UNSPOILER ALERT)

But that's not all! To read more about Hugh Jackman's plans for other movie projects and a Broadway musical called Houdini that was based on music by Danny Elfman, read this.

X-MEN, the 90's Animated Series

Here it is





































AT LAST!! I have been waiting for this since the invention of the DVD! Disney bought the rights it seems (or inherited them, I don't believe that they originally owned it) and for the first time ever(!) the classic 90's animated series is coming to DVD! These first two volumes put the first 33 episodes (of the entire 76) on DVD and volume 3 has been rumored to be in the works.

I really can't describe how long I've been waiting for this. I even wrote Fox years ago to find out if they had any plans for it, they said they didn't have the rights (I wrote them cause the cartoon was on Fox) and they told me who had the rights. So I wrote them and they said there were no plans to put in on DVD any time soon. So here we are and on April 28, 2009 IT CAME OUT! So hopefully I'll get it soon...

Oh! the childhood memories! I have always enjoyed sleeping-in, and it was on on Saturday mornings at 10am, which meant I got to watch the best cartoon ever, AND I got to sleep in. Jodi would always watch with me as well. And thus began my induction into nerd-dom and comics. Now I can relive it, oh joy! Maybe for Father's Day...

New Movie Previews

OK, so there are some amazing movies coming out this year, everyone loved Iron Man, it was great. And everyone knows about Batman and has seen the preview so there is no need to post those, but here are some interesting movies you may not have seen the previews for:
James Bond in Quantum of Solace, Nov 7, 2008



Do I really need to explain the meaning of James Bond? One of the best franchises of all time!! Oh, as a side note the movie take place one hour after where the last Bond flick (Casino Royale) ended and Daniel Craig is returning as James Bond.

Next, The Day the Earth Stood Still:


This movie may need a little more explaining. It is a remake of a 1950s sci-fi classic. I won't give too much plot away because it looks like it diverges a little from the original plot (but not too much). Anyways, without knowing anything about the plot, one can see from the preview that it looks really, really good.

As for other good news:
-- X-Men Origins: Wolverine comes out May 1, 2009 with Hugh Jackman returning as the Wolverine and directed by Gavin Hood (who won the Academy Award for best foreign film in 2005 for "Totsi"). The screenplay will be done by David Benioff (who wrote the screenplays for "Troy" and "25th Hour"). Joining the cast are Gambit (played by Taylor Kitsch from TVs "Friday Night Lights"), Deadpool (by Ryan Reynolds), John Wraith (by Black Eyed Peas Will.i.am), Col. William Stryker (by DannyHuston), Kayla Silver Fox (by Lynn Collins), and of course Sabretooth (by Liev Schreiber).

--Thor for this film only the director has been announced, and it is Matthew Vaughn, the director of "Stardust," and "Layer Cake."

Anywho, that's it for me. Hope you're as excited about these films as I am. Other tidbits, in the works after Thor are movies about Captain America, and then an Avengers film that will link up Iron Man, Hulk, Thor and Captain America. Woo Hoo!!