Jessica

07 August 2010 | Hisham | | Artwork, Comics
 

Here is Jessica Drew, Spider Woman, a New Avenger, an agent of SHIELD, a former agent of HYDRA, a former private investigator.

Spider-Woman
 

And no, he's not related to Peter Parker at all.

Click here for a larger image.

 

Jennifer

06 August 2010 | Hisham | | Artwork, Comics
 

Oh, look. It's Bruce's cousin Jennifer Walters. The gamma-irradiated Avenger, Agent of SHIELD and a practicing attorney-at-law.

She-Hulk

She'll punch you as dead as a wayward Skrull at the end of Secret Invasion.

 

Kara and Stephanie

02 August 2010 | Hisham | | Artwork, Comics
 

A pair of watercolour splatters:

Supergirl

This one is originally from Kandor, now living in Metropolis.

Batgirl

This one used to be Robin, then Spoiler; currently living in Gotham City.

 

Don't Mess With Mickey's Cockatoo - An Iron Man 2 Review

29 April 2010 | Hisham | | Comics, Movie Review
 
Four versions of the suit - no Hulkbuster suit though

Tony Stark is back on the big screen again in Iron Man 2. And this time he's brought more friends as well as enemies.

General thoughts about it after watching it last Thursday: Another awesome movie which Robert Downey Jr. starred as Tony Stark, but also allowed every character to shine. No one was wasted.

The story is much more complex, which I guess made it more difficult for the filmmakers to make a tighter movie like the first one. But excellent performances around and a much more epic final battle (that made the first movie's a little two-round bout) made up for it. As per the first movie, unlike most modern superhero movies no one dresses in black and broods like a 16-year-old. Maybe, they find themselves in deep thought for a bit, but after the apparently-therapeutical "engineering montage" everyone's happy and eager to fly and blow crap up.

And now we move on to spoiler territory with a point-by-point review.

SPOILER ALERT, YES?

 

Iron Men and War Machines

 

Do They Sell This Suitcase Anywhere?

08 March 2010 | Hisham | | Comics, Misc Sci-Fi
 

This nifty suitcase appears to be pretty cool, and seem to be good to have with you all the time. When you need to use it, all you have to do is activate it at your feet, like so:

 

Then you wait for it to quickly unfold and show a pair of handgrips. You grab on to the handgrips and twist them, like so:

 

Greedo Goes To Duro

20 January 2010 | Hisham | | Artwork, Comics, Star Wars
 

Greedo, he goes to Duro!Back in late 2001-early 2002 when I was really down and out, one of the things I tried was sending samples of sequential comic art to comic companies. I never really followed up on them, but one of the things I came up with was the pencilling of an eight-page original unscripted Star Wars story entitled "Greedo Goes To Duro". It was something that could have easily made for an issue of the now-discontinued Star Wars Tales anthology from Dark Horse Comics. But it wasn't.

This week, I found photocopies of the pages I did after I went digging under the bed. Seriously, it was deep in a folder under many folders in a dust-layered box under the bed. When I found it, I too had become heavily encrusted with ancient dust, dust bunnies, dust pangolins and dust capybaras.

Here it is presented in the Gallery for your amusement / ridicule. Apologies for the scan quality of page 4. I can't find the originals for scanning.

Note: Since the Gallery uses Light Box pop-up feature, you will be able to either (1) see the full-sized image javascript pop-up or (2) the intermediate image which displays the text desciption on each entry page. Click on the intermediate image if you want to see the full-sized pop-ups, or if you want to read the text description, navigate the entry pages using the left or right arrow buttons on the toolbar above the intermediate image.

 

Dog Carcass In Alley This Morning, Tire Tread On Burst Stomach

06 March 2009 | Hisham | | Comics, Movie Review
 

L-R Peacemaker, Nightshade, Captain Atom, Thunderbolt, Blue Beetle and The Question
The limited series comic book Watchmen was released by DC Comics more than 20 years ago. Written by Alan Moore and illustrated by Dave Gibbons, this comic was the start of a new age in the medium. Along with its contemporary, Frank Miller's The Dark Knight Returns, it deconstructs the superhero genre by showing us what extreme conditions can produce costumed crimefighters, what kind of personalities they have and what happens to them when they are considered illegal... all existing in an alternate 1985 timeline where Nixon is still the president of the United States and the world is living in the shadow of imminent nuclear war.

Because of the very rich and detailed storylinetold within the space of 12 issues and several fictional documents per issue, such as book exceprt, interviews, letters, news and magazine clippings to support the main narrative, almost everyone wants a Watchmen movie adaptation but decided that it was too complex and too nuanced to be distilled into a two hour (plus change) feature film.

How difficult would it be to translate the Watchmen to the big screen? From my point of view, the star of the Watchmen aren't only the characters. It's also the world which they live in, the quotable script, the story, the situations, the flashbacks, the narrative structure. They can make a thousand different variations of the origin of Superman in the movies and TV, live action or animated. But there can only be one way to tell Watchmen: the way Alan Moore written it.

Last night I saw the Watchmen movie adaptation directed by Zack Snyder, and did I like it?

 

The Corps is Mother, The Corps is Father

09 January 2009 | Hisham | | Comics, TV
 

Roll call for the members of Green Lantern Corps that appeared in the pre-credits teaser of the Batman: The Brave and the Bold episode "Day of the Dark Knight!"

Sector 2814 & Sector 674
 

The 'Tronians Are Back With Friends And Then Some

28 December 2008 | Hisham | | Comics, Transformers
 

Check it out:

Who is the Fallen? Find out after the break.
 

They Come From The 31st Century

22 December 2008 | Hisham | | Comics, Trawling The Net, TV
 

Every year since season 4 of Smallville, I used to check out the first few episodes to see if it grabbed me. But the novelty was gone, and even the inclusion of Kara Zor-El in season 7 wasn't enough to sustain my attention.

Season 8 however is a whole new ball game. I've not missed a single episode.

Inclusion of new character Davis Bloom that eventually turns out to be Doomsday - which reads terribly as a concept on paper, but is pulled off adequately. A new job at the Daily Planet and a burgeoning romance with Lois - including humorous lively banter instead of the unbearable melodrama with Lana. More DC Comics characters as guest stars like Plastique and Maxima.

And after the mid-season break, for the first time ever: the live action appearance of none other than the founding members of the Legion of Super-Heroes, flight rings and all:

Garth, Imra and Rokk!

... with apparently Persuader of the Fatal Five in tow, complete with his signature weapon the Atomic Axe.

Watch the promo here.

 

An Array of Questions Concerning Youth

17 December 2008 | Hisham | | Comics, Trawling The Net
 

Is this young Remy LeBeau, the Ragin' Cajun?

Gambit
 

Diedrich Bader Takes Over The Cowl

04 December 2008 | Hisham | | Comics, TV
 

There is a new Batman animated series in town, and since I'm still not back from lunch and I agree with every word written by Shane about it, I'll just hand over the microphone to him:

Ollie and BruceSherman, set the wayback machine to circa 1985, and a 4 year old Shane is taken to a local department store. Now, it's lost to the ages, but he must have been aware of Batman via The Superfriends, or the deal Shell had with giving away DC Superhero figures with a fill up (I think I had 2 of everyone). But this fateful day, Shane got his very first Batman comic. It was complimentary that day, and involved 2 stories I can barely remember. One had him facing a fake Wayne Manor, full of androids created by Hugo Strange. The other was the one that sticks more in my mind. Simple grunt work, crime solving. The panel I will never forget that is Batman chopping either side of some punk's neck and dropping him like a bad habit. And thus, an infatuation began.

We've gone through some rough times with Batman. Michael Keaton turned out to be very brooding. However, Val Kilmer and George Clooney's time at the helm kinda....screwed him, big screen wise.  Only recently have Batman Begins and Dark Knight pulled his bum from the fire.

 

Oh, Snap!

27 September 2008 | Hisham | | Comics, Humour, Star Wars
 

My old Boba Fett figure and Irfan's new Hulk figure act out the final fate of the galaxy's most feared bounty hunter.

I've got a bad feeling about th- SMASH!
 

I Want To Play In This Campaign

03 September 2008 | Hisham | | Comics, Humour, Role Playing Games, Trawling The Net
 

PVP Online's latest comic regales us with a description of one of the greatest ideas for an RPG campaign.

Click on the thumbnail to the right to read the entire strip, and to see what I'm talking about.

I believe I'd very much like to play Jesse Mach of Street Hawk in that campaign.

Anyone else willing to be Stringfellow Hawke, B.J McKay, Sheriff Lobo and Colt Seavers travelling the country to thwart the evil plans of an evil Mr. Belvedere? We'd have the Street Hawk, Airwolf and Sheriff Lobo's police cruiser poisitioned inside B.J. McKay's 18-wheeler, ready to be deployed at a moment's notice, like The Highwayman series.

We'll be fighting wave after wave of Melmackian troops led by Gordon "ALF" Shumway, under the direct command of Mr. Belvedere's lieutenant Arnold of Diff'rent Strokes.

"Whatchoo talkin' about, ALF?"

You know you want to play this.

 

Two Mediums: A Visual Comparison

18 July 2008 | Hisham | | Comics, Trawling The Net
 

Last year I wrote about the upcoming Watchmen movie to be directed by Zack Snyder. Today, I finally saw a trailer.

I've been had by trailers before, so there's still a chance that the actual movie might still suck.

But still I'm an optimist. When I first saw the trailer in High-definition Quicktime, I knew I had to make a comparison of the shots in the trailer and panels in the actual Watchmen comics. Then I thought, why not do it here in this weblog.

Enough gab. Enjoy the images, starting with Mister Blake here:

The Comedian's last laugh
John Winchester himself
 

Not So Jolly Green Giant - An Incredible Hulk Review

12 June 2008 | Hisham | | Comics, Movie Review
 

Holy crap! It's Bill Bixby's Zombie!The new movie from Marvel Studios entitled The Incredible Hulk has been released. The movie is about a man who has been altered by an overdose of gamma radiation causing him to transform into the nine feet tall, green-skinned monstrous creature known as the Hulk.

The movie is directed by Louis Leterrier and stars Academy Award winning actor Edward Norton as Bruce Banner, Liv Tyler as Betty Ross, William Hurt as General "Thunderbolt" Ross, Tim Roth as Emil Blonsky and Tim Blake Nelson as Samuel Sterns. Ty Burrell also makes an appearance as psychiatrist Dr. Leonard Samson.

Oh, who am I kidding. This isn't really a review for the unwashed masses.

This is me hulking out comic book geek style over an awesome comic book-turned-movie, which is in my opinion, a hundred times better than the 2003 Ang Lee movie only entitled Hulk which I first saw when it was shown on TV3 last week.

I fell asleep before the end. But that Hulk is really bright green though. Really bright green.

Beyond this point, SPOILERS shall patrol the streets. You have been warned.

 

Of Romance, Sarcasm, Math and Language

13 May 2008 | Hisham | | Comics, Trawling The Net
 

Once upon a time I mentioned about a comic strip in this entry. Since then I've found out (for quite some time now) that the webcomic in question is xkcd - a webcomic of romance, sarcasm, math and language.

Usually the strip has only from one to four panels per comic. But once in a while they do epic storylines like the following one.

Strip originally conceived in conversation with Jeph Jacques.  Soon to be a major motion picture.

To learn what happens in the end, click here for the full strip.

Here are a couple more favourites:

And the prophetic classic: Action Movies, which we finally got after a fashion in the form of this TV show which I wrote about earlier.

 

Wait! WHO Wears Ten Rings? - An Iron Man Review

01 May 2008 | Hisham | | Comics, Movie Review
 

I don't monitor Iron Man as close as say Spider-Man or the X-Men growing up. However, I do know what he's all about. I've checked Armor Wars out of Perth Library (again, that's Scotland and not Australia) and read it entirely.

Two of the most iconic Iron Man cover for me is the "Demon in the Bottle" cover and the one where "Stark" in the Stark Enterprises logo is replaced with "Stane".

Earlier tonight, we went to catch Iron Man (on opening day) at Cineleisure. I'm not going to talk about the plot of the movie. It's a basic origins movie with a battle with a bad guy. It's not high literature, but it's a great action movie with lots of fun moments throughout. The Iron Man origin in the movie is transplanted from the original comic book location of Vietnam to Afghanistan.

So, I'm just going to list out what's good and not-so-good about it. And to preemptively sum up things, it's mostly good.

The Mark III suit

Spoilers ahoy!

I ain't joking. SPOILERS!

 

Legion of Three Worlds

03 April 2008 | Hisham | | Comics
 

I've always been a Legion fanboy, having first read the Legion of Super-Heroes back in the late 70s-early 80s. Having started relatively late, all that came before was compressed and presented to me by the Secrets of the Legion of Super-Heroes mini-series.

After writing last year's Green Lantern Corps epic The Sinestro Corps War, Geoff Johns is back with veteran artist George Perez with something that knocked me unconscious for a minute...

Final Crisis: Legion of Three Worlds.

Here's a tidbit from the interview at Newsarama:

Newsarama: Let's just start up front and say what people are probably thinking, Geoff. Three Legions! When someone starts reading Final Crisis: Legion of 3 Worlds, is there anything they have to read first? Maybe they should read your Action Comics story that included the Legion of Super-Heroes? Or study up on Legion history?

Geoff Johns: If you want, sure, but you don't have to know anything before you read it. This is Superman and the Legion of Super-Heroes vs. Superboy-Prime and the Legion of Super-Villains. Things explode from there, but I’m approaching it like the current Action Comics storyline: You didn't have to read The Lightning Saga before reading that story, and the same kind of thing's true here. So I highly suggest Gary [Frank] and my wonderful Action Comics [laughs], for anyone who hasn't picked it up yet. But no, you don't have to read anything to pick up and understand Legion of 3 Worlds.

NRAMA: But Geoff, you're going to have all three Legions in this story? One Legion sounds overwhelming enough to a new Legion reader, but three??

GJ: But there's a focus on a group of characters. Certain characters will really get the spotlight. A lot of other characters will be in the background. That's what George does. When you have these big epics and you have dozens and dozens of characters, it can get overwhelming, but there's a focus on a group of characters that have their goals and missions that really represent to me the heart of the Legion. And those characters will be getting most of the attention. But everybody will be in there. Just about everybody.

It's like the Sinestro Corps had a lot going on, but it was focused.

NRAMA: So, just like it didn't matter if you knew the name of every Green Lantern and Sinestro Corps member during Sinestro Corps War, you don't need to know anything about the Legion going into this – is that what you're saying?

GJ: If you do, cool, if not, if you’re a DC fan you’ll enjoy this.

OK, all three versions of the Legion will be featured! The two reboots which was done by DC Comics has been made part of the story! I am a happy Legion fanboy! And with Grant Morrison writing the main Final Crisis mini-series... I guess I'll have to spare some cash monthly to pick these up as they get published.

Superman is wearing the ring again!
31st century brouhaha

Wait! What are Jenni Ognatz, Lex Luthor and a GL battery doing behind the Time Trapper?

 

Green Lantern Corps - Roll Out!

08 September 2007 | Hisham | | Artwork, Comics, Transformers
 

Corpsman of the Cybertron SectorYou know that one of the lifeforms in the universe that most deserve the Green Lantern Corps power ring is the guy depicted on the left. He has no self-doubt. He has no quantifiable fear. The only thing he'll pause to is to see if an upcoming battle will have unacceptable collateral damage. But if the collateral damage is acceptable, any enemies (Sinestro Corps, I'm looking at you) will have a Lantern-powered energon sword stabbed at their faces.

Click on the thumbnail to see the full version. Click here to see a bigger version at deviantArt.