Kevin Is Right: Captain America: The Winter Soldier Trailer

This one is just a quick hitter because I just watched the new Captain America: The Winter Soldier trailer and I am pumped.   Check it out below:

Wow.  There's so much to love here in such a small package.  (Yes, you may insert joke here).

First and foremost, it looks like Marvel will be cribbing liberally from Ed Brubaker's amazing run on Captain America (November 2004 to October 2012), which for my money is one of the best runs in a comic, ever.  If you want to read the books before seeing the movie, that's the place to start.  The Winter Soldier is the title of one of the best Brubaker's arcs, and it looks like the plot beats that characterize the arc are central to the film.

The high points all appear to be represented.  On the surface, we have the mystery of who is The Winter Soldier.  (We won't spoil it here).  However, even within the trailer we see the layers of subtlety of theme being peeled back.  The genius of Brubaker's run on Captain America is that he didn't utilize Captain America as just another super hero, or even as a sort of jingoistic American power fantasy.  Instead, Brubaker's run was a meditation on what it means to be American in the 21st century, and the tension between the legacy of the idealized American past, particularly "The Greatest Generation" and the realities of an ever-changing, frightening and menacing world.  The use of Captain America was a lens in which we could envision how "Old America" would view "New America" and thereby reconcile the two rapidly diverging ideas, and the nexus at which our American ideals converge upon our American realities.  In this case, the tensions between pre-emptive warfare and our idealized sense of justice, and even more subtle meditations, as manifested in Cap's suit which appears to have eschewed the more idealistic, symbolic Red White and Blue for a an approach that can be simultaneously be described as practical and stealth, or perhaps sneaky, covert and, even Anti-American.  I'm sure the symbolism that the only sign of America left on Caps' costume, the star, is also featured within the trailer on the Winter Soldier's metallic arm, will not go unremarked upon.

On top of this substantive work, we see some of the other special sauce that's going to make this All-American burger so tasty.  The character list is impressive.  Natasha Romanov, "The Winter Soldier", Nick Fury, and Robert Redford as Alexander Pierce, who appears to be directing S.H.I.E.L.D. (even I don't understand this mystery, but it looks awesome), as well as The Falcon, who not only is a fantastic and underrated companion character to Captain America, but looks to be given a phenomenal character design for the movies.

I also want to commend the first 30 seconds of this trailer in particular.   I felt it was a bold move to lead your action movie trailer with a relatively quiet character moment between Romanov and Rodgers.   The gamble paid off in a big way, though.  The acting and interplay between Evans and Johansson is extremely engaging and playful, and yet the end beat of the scene is the sort of heroic moment that immerses you in that Captain America feeling.  I have to confess that after that 30 second clip, I had to readjust my expectations.  I was ready for a movie to start, and, sadly, only had a trailer.  Ultimately, that scene served to give me the intangible feeling of quality which really shaped my impression of the rest of the trailer.  Something whispered to me "Don't worry Captain America fanboy, we'll take good care of you, we understand."

Despite their excellent track record, I've never been this excited for a Marvel movie.  Sure, it's just a trailer, but this one may end up ranked with the first Iron Man film in terms of quality, if this trailer is any indication.  Obviously, too soon to tell, but boy do they have me excited!

Kevin is Right: Comics Preview: X Files Season 10

An old love and a new love have collided for me, and I'm very excited about it.  If you someday aspire to be a reasonable and respectable human being, worthy of the rare gift of life bestowed upon you and deserving of the admiration and respect of other organisms, you have watched and love The X-Files.  If not, please make one of two choices:  1) Jump off the nearest bridge so as to stop potentially polluting the gene pool.  2) Grab a Netflix account, start watching, and thank me when you're done.  These seem like your only two options from where I'm sitting.

In any case, now that we're all on the same page, (having eliminated all the tasteless scum from the face of the planet,) I wanted to let you know that, whatever your feelings on Doggett, Reyes and I Want To Believe, you can now breathe easy.  All indications are that the X-Files you fell in love with is back, albeit using a different medium, the Comic Book.

IDW Publishing, following in the footsteps of other well received continuing, canonical stories (such as Buffy The Vampire Slayer Season 8 and 9) has launched, this month, X Files Season 10.  This series represents the continuing, allegedly canonical, adventures of the two greatest characters (both in terms of nuanced charm and raw, visceral sex appeal) world literature has ever known, Fox Mulder and Dana Scully.

Quotas or Common Sense? A New Face for Marvel Comics

The world of super hero comics has been largely dominated by white dudes with rad ass powers for a while now.  Superman, Captain America, Spider-Man; all pretty obvious examples, and for a reason: they were created by white dudes. So, it is especially interesting to see the new iterations of both the X-Men and Mighty Avengers teams (though it is nothing all too surprising-we do have both a mixed race president and Spider-Man, as well as more women in college than men) populated with more representative casts. Done for that very reason, as stated by Tom Brevoort, “The reality is that the people who are interested in these characters and want to see heroes that reflect them have a genuine point. We first started conceptualizing this book in February around Black History Month, so there was a lot of talk around that.”   However,some folk are kinda getting their nickers in a bunch over it.

X-Men has always had some
of the best heroines.

   

         You have my attention with
     this line up.

<--Look at these awesome covers.-->

Kevin is Right About Movies: Man of Steel

Generally, I prefer to write my reviews without spoilers.  This will not be one of those reviews.  However, before I put down my all caps indication to you that you should read no further should you wish to experience the plot in a manner that the filmmakers intended (if such a generous interpretation of intent can be made), please accept a humble explanation in two parts.

The first, the plot of this movie was so convoluted, poorly thought out and terrible that revealing the plot to you, in my opinion, can in no way diminish your enjoyment of the movie any more than having the plot revealed to you through the normal cinematic process.  Simply, the plot is so worthless that having it spoiled is simply not offensive to the conscience.

Secondly, the terribleness of this movie is so profound that it demands specific examples to convey the depths of idiocy to which it stoops.  In order to truly bring how badly written this movie is to light, I must pull back the curtain.  Further, I feel it is my duty to do so.  So now, if you still give a shit: SPOILERS!

Aliens, Space, and Demons Oh My!

          My regular readership of web comics dwindled somewhere in freshman year of college after a small six or seven year fixation with them thanks to sites like Keen Spot.  But this morning I had the extreme pleasure of reading a new web comic.  And I mean really good, multimedia, web comic called Ava's Demon.  The series is only a few chapters in, and easily conquered in about 45 minutes of reading; though the art might have you dwelling on plenty of wordless frames longer on the merits of it's story and style.  What I enjoy about most comics is the capacity they have to tell a story largely through image, and when an artist realizes that they can say so much without writing a word I get into my happy place. Show me don't tell me is my motto and Michelle Czajkowski seems to have a similar belief.  Many of the pages of Ava's Demon don't contain text, just wonderful little luminescent paintings done in a cross between Disney and Ben Templesmith (Who is freaking amazing and responsible for art in Wormwood, Fell, and 30 Day of Night).

The Star Wars

No your grandma isn't throwing in a 'the' where it need not be, better Dark Horse and Lucasarts have announced the future release of THE STAR WARS comic.
This will be based on the 1974 draft of the film, but with some tightening up of the writing and story, because if you have read it, you know it is far from greatness. In the story we have Skywalker as a composites of Luke & Obi; also Han & Chewie are more singular as well (but as a reptile man not a carpet); The replacement of Darth Vader with a gent kindly known as Starkiller (though not to be confused with the protagonist from the Force Unleashed).
As for what parts of the story will change from the original draft I do not know, you can do yourself a favor till then, and watch The Hidden Fortress, along with other Kurosawa samurai movies and make lightsaber noises any time someone whips out a sweet katana move.
I held on writing about this but seems as if this was not an April Fool's shenanigan, thank goodness.

Pretty pictures after the jump...

MARVEL Comics Freebies!

So Marvel is currently giving away a bunch (700 to be specific) of digital issues of their comics; including NOW! titles. If you are like me and have been out of the comic book game for monetary reasons check it out, go to The Marvel Store or comiXology   to grab some of this digital swag while you can. Be warned the servers are really slow right now due to the high traffic from this offer, but hell FREE COMICS. I am wondering if this is because the new direction isn't doing so well, or if this is to promote the digital format that they have been working hard to build up. Either way I like it.

Batman Year Zero

This morning something pretty big was announced.  DC Comics (via Associated Press) announced the next storyline for Scott Snyder's flagship Batman Book.  Batman: The Zero Year.  This is something I'm very excited about.

Snyder, along with artist Greg Capullo, has done a really good job on the book ever since he came on at the start of the New 52 DC Relaunch back in 2011.  He's written two major arcs: The Court of Owls, and Death of The Family.  Both were satisfying for a couple of reasons.

First, they felt big and important.  This was not "Batman fights the riddler.....again."  Snyder has a way of setting the stakes high and getting the reader to buy in.

Capullo's visuals have been top notch and aided the pacing and tone tremendously.  I always hate to see a talented writer paired with an artist that doesn't fit his style.  However, that is not an issue here.

Finally, Snyder is a man who is talented at big arcs.  It has been tremendously rewarding to watch these stories develop over a fairly large timespan, and yet feel not only internally consistent, but infused with a sense of constant forward momentum.

If there is to be any criticism, it simultaneously is not Snyder's fault, but more promisingly, may be alleviated, at least temporarily, by this new arc.  DC needs to sell bat-books, and so you need bat characters.  Although the New 52 was supposed to be a fresh reboot of the entire DC Universe, because of this aforementioned need, the Batman title was saddled with a murky, unclear continuity (analyzed as effectively as is possible here) in which he has a ten year old son conceived while he was Batman (probably), 3-4 Robins, some of which have died and come back to life, and only been operating as Batman for, seemingly, a couple of years.  Because: Comics.

Zero Year ( A clever hat tip to Frank Miller's Batman:Year One...available in movie form on Netflix) has the opportunity to pare all this silliness down by taking us back to Bat Basics. Batman in his simplest form.  No Robins 1-4.  No pre-existing rogue's gallery.  No "Bat Family" to be saddled with.

(Interesting Thought:  In Death of the Family, Joker's point to Batman is this extended Bat Family has made him weak and diluted.  The Joker wants to, in essence, remove him of these burdens so he can go back to being the Batman, Joker loves.  Good writing or Snyder actually BLOWING YOUR MIND WITH META COMMENTARY?)

Let's see what Snyder does.  I, for one, am really looking forward to it.