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Moving Day! The Super Hero Expierence

Monday, October 17th, 2011

I wonder if they realized who was moving in?

I’ve never been a real big fan of moving. I’ve only moved my own house twice, and I think that I’ve helped my friends move more than I ever could. So when the daunting task of moving the official SuperheroStuff warehouse, I wasn’t exactly looking forward to it.

I had to take off my gloves to do the 'Emerald Twilight' thing

Now, don’t get me wrong. Our old warehouse, although functional and well worn, really didn’t have many perks beyond that. The warehouse was in the bowels of an ancient textile factory that has stood for close to 100 years. Spider-webbed windows, rusted pipes, and cracked flooring. Not exactly the most glamorous of locations, but it did provide a certain measure of remoteness. It also didn’t have any working heat or air conditioning last year, and for a small period of time no working water. The no water thing spawned some fairly interesting stories, which I have been prohibited from writing here though you can probably let your dirty little imaginations do the rest of the work. During the Christmas season the no heat thing was rather painful. We are in Pennsylvania and as such during the winter this State becomes a land of cold and darkness. Nothing like finding stuff in a dilapidated warehouse in 10 degree weather. Heck, I would wear my Green Lantern hobo gloves, a long sleeve t-shirt, a sweater, a Red Lantern Hoodie, a woolen hat, and a Vietnam era Marine trenchcoat….AND I WAS STILL COLD! One of benevolent leaders was merciful, and found some infra red heating lamps. They kind of reminded me of the lights they use to keep fast food warm, but when you are that mind numbingly cold you don’t mind being a medium french fry. After a while, we started calling these lights ‘Sun Gods’ and started developing a faux religion. The cold does strange things to people.

It's on like Donkey Kong!

Another such ‘amenity’ provided by our old warehouse was a fairly large rat we had nicknamed ‘Meg’. We had even go so far as to give the poor thing a time card. Around 10:20 each day, this monster of a rodent would traipse non nonchalantly down the middle of our office hallway, ignoring all of the screaming and madness that normally goes on. The creative process can be noisy and mildly belligerent, but it didn’t seem to stop ol’ Meg. I don’t hold any ill will to the rat, even though the bloody thing pilfered my snacks from my desk on multiple occasions…even going so far as to steal an ENTIRE bag of zip locked cookies off my desk. That was about the only time that I was willing to slightly bend my pacifist like tendencies. I’m all for the preservation of life, but don’t you dare mess with my cookies. I need them to go with my coffee!

So reflecting on all of these ‘quirks’ one can see why we needed to move. Of course our need to grow and expand our massive collection of superhero related items also helped. You’d be surprised on how much space all of this takes up, and considering all of the things we are getting now we need plenty of extra room. Now Pennsylvania is a cross-hatch of fields, sprawling developments, and dense urban environments. We run the gamut of terrains so finding a new location might have been problematic. We had checked several different locations before finally settling on a brand new warehouse in an industrial park nestled between some fields just a short jaunt from our then current warehouse. A beautiful location AND a brand new building? Oh yeah, sign us up!

Work work!

After doing a shuffle back and forth with our local municipality, we were cleared to move into our brand new warehouse.Unfortunately, the logistics of moving the world’s foremost collection of SuperHeroStuff is a tad bit more overwhelming than one might expect. We had to set up brand new shelving, we had to establish where everything was going, and we needed to do it in less than a week. Oh, and I forgot to mention that this entire process started after the week where it was 117 degrees. That is not an embellishment either…it was the hottest week in the history of this state…EVER! I lost 6 pounds in 3 days because of how hot it is, and I am a skinny fellow(I push 160 pounds)! One of the best work outs ever, but not something I would suggest for losing weight. There is probably far more less straining activities.

When we finally started moving into our new location, our first task was to put up the sixteen foot shelving. Think it of it like a giant erector set, and slightly more imposing. We had a two person scissors lift as well, but that didn’t help us to ‘raise’ the baseline of the structures. Murphy and his infernal law had struck us at this point, and our boards for the shelving was about an inch too long on all sides. Sighing, we got to work circular sawing our way through over 300 boards. There was enough sawdust for us to draw our favorite symbols on the floor! Well, suppose I was the only one who quickly scrawled down any symbols, but I had a lot of fun. I think my co-workers had a lot of fun ruining them and making me freak out too. Hey, I take my Green Lantern symbols seriously!

Like I said, Erector Set!

Fun with Sawdust

I don’t think I am nearly obsessive compulsive enough to appreciate the amount of time we spent organizing everything. You can’t just load up a 24 foot truck multiple times with boxes containing everything from the Atom to the X-Men and expect everything to be in the exact same order. I think it is kind of like losing socks in the laundry. Sure, you put everything in there, but some things will fall into this bizarre pocket dimension(perhaps the Phantom zone) and just get generally messy. Some boxes didn’t hold up well, and kind of collapsed in on itself. Not sure if you guys realize this, but we have enough t-shirts that they have their own center of gravity and event horizon, in which not even light can escape. Why do I suddenly hear Sam Neil stating that we won’t need eyes where we are going?

Almost Done!

After 6 grueling days of moving, building, and organizing everything was finally coming together. To see our desks set up in our new offices with that prevailing new building smell. You know what I’m talking about. It smells like electric wiring, fresh carpet, and drying paint. It was almost…too clean. Not like that was much of a problem, it was just unsettling. No giant rat threatening our munchies, working AC and heat, everything in order and organized…it was like a completely new job! You know, except with the same crazy co-workers and being surrounded by all things DC and Marvel. We now have the ability to scoop up everything our nerd-filled hearts can allow! It is so…glorious. There is just a single tear drop beading down my cheek. It is too much power! However, I still had asked my co-workers here if there was anything they missed about the old warehouse, their response was generally along the lines of ‘Well, we miss the rat piss smell’. So yeah…that old warehouse? Despite the fact that it is literally seven minutes down the road, it couldn’t possibly be any farther away!

Our Operations Manager's new Desk/ Fort

Tags: Our Warehouse, The Big Move
Posted in Random Musings, Uncategorized | No Comments »

Why Not A Captain America Shield For Our Troops?

Sunday, August 7th, 2011

Soldiers Need Cap Shield

This Is In Reference To Our Troops In Real Life – Not The Comics

More than 7,000 coalition troops have died in the Middle East; 4,700 in Iraq and 2,600 in Afghanistan. Possibly tens of thousands of US soldiers have had amputees due to IEDs and from combat. As an ex Airborne Ranger, I’ve often wondered, WHY THE HELL aren’t our soldiers issued bullet/fragmentary resistant shields similar to what Captain America wears. Body armor is currently being used, but it does nothing to protect the arms and legs of soldiers exposed to enemy fire. Body armor also transfers a huge amount of force to the body and internal organs.

With standard issue Captain America shields, the term “Double Amputee” would still be used when talking about returning US casualties of war, but hopefully, the incident rate would be far, far less than what we see now.

Cover and Concealment

Cover: Cover is what a soldier hides behind when receiving fire. Bullets are fired at you, you need something in between you and the bullets, something that will stop them. A very thick wall, lots of cyder blocks, a hill, an armored personnel carrier, 50 camels. These things keeps you alive.

Concealment: Concealment is something that prevents a soldier from being seen. Think of all those Vietnam movies you’ve seen. Soldiers in the bush, hiding in the foliage are concealed from enemy eyes. If spotted, and if they have no cover to hide behind, they’re dead meat, depending on how fast they can run and how many rifles are pointed in their direction.

What’s A Shield Do?

Soldiers In The Open

A Captain America shield is portable cover. No matter if a soldier is an urban environment, a desert or even in a jungle, they are exposed when going from point A to point B. Every single time they move from one building to another they are essentially moving from through a “Danger Area” (Danger Area is any “open” area such as a field, river, top of a hill. Any area where the enemy can go, “So, Abdul, there I was dreaming about these virgins and…. HOLY JIHAD! Abdul, Look! There is an infidel out in the open in that goat field! Wake Jafar up and let us shoot these Great Satan dogs! …and don’t forget your sandals Abdul, like you did last time.”

Kneeling Position - Leftie

Out in the open, in a Danger Area, a soldier is exposed. As he starts receiving enemy fire, he has nothing to hide behind. there is no cover to stop the bullets from hitting any part of his body. His only hope, depending on the size of the enemy with respect to his own unit, is getting in the prone position (decreasing the size of his silhouette), laying down a tremendous amount of suppressive fire (which can’t be sustained for too long), and then strategically getting the hell out of there to a better position (cover) so they can then return targeted fire from a safe position. They can also call for support, which god only knows when that would come. In this instance, the shield would help protect a soldier’s torso, arms and legs until he and his comrades got safely to a better place of permanent cover.

What’s Needed In A Shield?

The shield would need to meet certain conditions in order for it to function properly in the combat theater of operations. Off hand, some of the requirements are:

Capable of stopping an AK-47 round. Granted, armor can’t stand up to a hail of bullet fire, but it only takes one bullet to mess up a soldier’s day. If that shield can stop that one bullet, and a couple more, he’ll be able to get a new shield back at base, and have a great story to tell his buddies, wife and little daughter at home.
Portable without weighing a ton. A soldier can only carry so much crap before he starts bitching and moaning. .. well… he’s going to be bitching and moaning no matter what (I hear the MREs are only marginally better than they were when I was in) no matter what, especially in the heat, but logistically, he can only carry so much before his performance is hampered which is when his equipment becomes a liability. The shield shouldn’t weigh any more than 14 pounds max.
On Guard.
Easily worn during performance. It has to function while he moves and engages in combat. Which means he needs to be able to lie in the prone, kneeling position, in urban environment (going through doorways) and is not cumbersome while firing his weapon.
Can be unencumbered as needed. At some point a soldier needs to do other stuff, remove a rucksack, put on a rucksack, apply a dressing to a wound, get to that hot piece of frag lodged in his rib cage, get behind the wheel of vehicle quickly, grab a pen to take a cute female MP’s phone number down. The shield needs to be rapidly deployed and discarded on an as-needed basis.
Camouflaged. Obviously, the shield wouldn’t look like Caps, except for ceremonial dress, and would have a camouflaged cover on it, based on the terrain and the operations involved.
Cost effective. What’s the price of a soldier’s life? If you consider that an M4 (M-16) costs somewhere around $500 and a Kevlar helmet around $300, an effective shield should be able to be issued at around $1,000. A while ago we had up to 200,000 troops in Iraq and 20,000 in Afghanistan. If 75% of them were combat assigned, that’s about 165,000 soldiers out in the field susceptible to enemy fire. The tax payer’s price tag would be $165,000,000. Even at $2,000 per shield (which could EASILY be gathered by doing nothing more than passing a hat) the total cost would be $330,00,000. Chump change! US tax payers would be getting a goddamn deal and more troops would be returning, walking off that plane to their wives and kids.

Don’t they deserve it?

Haji At 12 O'Clock! OPEN FIRE!

- by Ronando

PS: Yes, the photoshopped pics are less than ideal, but since our main graphics guy left to go be a counselor at some summer camp, we’re left on our own to hack and slash our way through making pics. So, no flamers!

Tags: Captain America
Posted in Contests, Random Musings | 8 Comments »

Explaining Captain America To My Wife…

Monday, July 25th, 2011

SPOILERS: A real conversation with my wife Valerie, while on a run, after seeing Captain America: The First Avenger. After seeing the movie and thinking about comic-to-movie transition, interpretation and continuity and adherence to canon I started thinking about the decrease in comic sales in general. I thought I’d run my thoughts by my wife, for a good distraction from the run while giving me an excuse to talk about comics in general, since I hate running.

Ronando: “Ok, so, … here’s why I think comic sales are partially due to ridiculously complex comic stories. .. and it’s connected to the Captain America movie we just saw. there’s some like, cool things about the movie that you should… um… that you’ll think are pretty cool.”

Valerie: “… uh huh.”

R: “.. so, you remember in the movie, Cap’s friend Bucky …”

V: “Yeah, the guy that died on the train?”

R: “Yeah. Well, in the comics, he dies and…”

V: “On a train?”

R: “No. No. .. not on a train, it’s complicated. He dies trying to stop a test rocket in World War II but then is brought back several years ago by the Russians, but he lost an..”

V: “Bucky’s a Russian? I thought he was Captain America’s friend.”

R “No! No! He is Cap’s friend, he’s not Russian. The Russian’s fouuund him, but he was missing an arm, and they brain washed him. Here’s the deal. They train him to be an assassin, a sniper, as well as a trainer for the Black Widow Russian agents. The cool thing is that we saw Bucky, for just a moment, using a sniper rifle in the movie. I’m betting that when the Avengers comes out, Bucky will be the Winter Soldier, which is the name the Russian’s gave him when he was working for them.”

V: “So what’s that got to do with a decrease in comic sales?

R: “…. um… I don’t know, I lost my train of thought. Hold on, let me catch my breath.”

V: “Aren’t you supposed to know this stuff? You run a superhero website and sell superhero shirts. You would think that your fans would expect you to know all the…”

R: “Give me a second!! I’m trying to remember the connection, it’s pretty convoluted! I have to backtrack my thoughts. …. Oh! Ok, so, you know I just got my comic shipment from Excalibur comics in Portland. So, in there is a new series called Fear itself. The deal is, if you’re buying comics for the first time in a couple years and you happen to pick one of these up, you have no friggin’ idea what the hell is going on! Check it out, there are these like, 6 or 7 hammers that fall to Earth and..

V: “Like Thor’s hammer?”

R: “Exactly! So, they fall to Earth and..”

V: “But Thor already has a hammer.”

R: “NO! NO! Listen, No, there’s 6 or 7, I don’t know ’cause I started in the middle, that fall to Earth. They’re somehow connected to this serpent that wraps around the Earth, an evil serpent, so anyone who picks up the hammers gets possessed and turns evil. So, you know the Red Skull from the…”

V: “What’s this have to do with Captain America and Bucky?”

R: “…. Ugh! I’m getting there! Hold on. You know the Red Skull from the movie?”

V: “Yeah.”

R: “Well, he has a daughter who’s name is Sin. She’s an evil b!tch who happens to have one of these hammers. So does Hulk and the Thing. So… Ah! Here’s what I was getting at. Bucky’s wearing Captain America’s uniform and …”

V: “I thought Bucky was dead?”

R: “No! NO!! Well… he was, but, remember? The Russians brought him back and…”

V: “Yeah, one armed sniper and spiders.”

R: “… Black Widows!! Ok, so, When Captain America was dead, Bucky..”

V: “Captain America’s dead? They just made a movie of him. Are you sure you know what you’re talking about? I’m totally confused now.”

R: “UGH! Yes I know what I’m talking about. … for the most part. Yeah, sure I’m missing some stuff here and there, but this stuff I know. So, Cap died when..”

V: “OH!! Yeah. He died in World War II, right?”

R: “um… no, not that time. Everyone thought he was dead, but he was just frozen for like 30 years. They brought him back in the 70s when the Avengers found him.”

V: “Wait. In the movie they said he was asleep for 70 years. You said 30.”

R: “Well, that’s because it was 30 years later in the ’70s.”

V: “Wait. … is that real time or comic time?”

R: “Both. … no wait.”

V: “You have no idea how stupid this sounds.”

R: “I do too, I complain about it all the time. Now listen, back in the 70s, when they bring Cap back, it was 70 years. But..”

V: “You mean 30.”

R: “Right, 30, WW II plus 30 years is 1970sish. But, in the movie, which is right here and now, it’s 70 years later! Got it?”

V: “Yeah, but what’s that have to do with Thor’s other hammers?”

R: “Sonofa… hold on, let me figure out where I was going with it. There’s a connection, it’s just hard to concentrate while running in this god forsaken muggy heat. And it’s only 7:00 am still! …. K, I got it. Cap comes back, joins the Avengers in the ’70s, and recently he gets killed and …”

V: “Wait, is this for real killed or assumed killed?”

R: “Well… I don’t really know, I never figured it out since I didn’t read that whole comic line. I don’t know if it was really him or some clone or god knows what, if he really died and something brought him back, but, regardless, for this story, he’s dead-dead. So, at some point Bucky comes in and ..”

V: “But I thought he was a bad guy for the Russians.”

R: “Well, yeah, he was, until he turned good again.”

V: “How’d that happen?”

R: “I don’t know, I missed that story line too.”

V: “And you’re supposed to know what you’re talking about?”

R: “Look, it’s like … comics are like a soap opera but cooler. You can be gone for years and come back and even though you have no idea what the hell is going on, you still have a good grasp of the fundamentals. You know that the old stuff still holds.”

V: “Like Bucky being dead?”

R: “GODDAMNIT! Will you just let me finish? So, in a friggin’ nutshell… Cap’s dead, Bucky’s cleared his head from the brainwashing and is now a good guy AND apparently somehow finds himself wearing Cap’s uniform, in place of Cap. So, he’s fighting off Sin, the Red Skull’s daughter, while Captain America, Steve Rogers is up with S.H.I.E.L.D. talking abo…”

V: “I thought Captain America was dead! You just said, ‘Cap’s dead and Bucky took his place.’”

R: “Ugh! Yeah, well nobody stays dead in the comics. He’s alive at this point.”

V: “Oh, like Batman?”

R: “Yeah, like Batman. And Superman.”

V: “How many times can they die?”

R: “Um… I don’t know. But I think the fans will only give them one chance and that’s it. … But Spider-Man died twice.. he just died in fact.. .but it was the Ultimate Spider-Man.”

V: “The skinny one?”

R: “Yeah.”

V: “Didn’t you say he had a clone and one of them died too?”

R: “Yeah, he died too, the clone, but Peter, and the readers, didn’t know till he died and turned to dust. … So, ANYWAYYY! … where the hell was I?”

V: “Cap’s dead, Bucky took his place, Cap’s alive, Bucky’s fighting the Red Skull’s daughter who has a hammer like Thor’s.”

R: “… wow, I’m impressed you managed to keep track of all that.”

V: “I’m a doctor, I need to know this stuff to stay cool with all the male doctors and medical students. So finish your story.”

R: “K, so…. um… oh yeah, Cap’s alive and he wants to get into the fight. In the mean time, Bucky’s getting the crap kicked out of him. He bashes Sin’s face with the shield, ‘BAMF!!’ And is coming in to decapitate her when she knocks him down and rips his arm off and blasts a hole through his chest. Bucky’s dead-dead-dead. Blue Beetle had a bullet put into his dead, so he’s dead-dead, same with Psycho Pirate where Black Adam explodes Pirate’s head by poking him in the eyes. .. so, it looks like, to me, that Bucky’s dead-dead-dead. … I give it a 80% chance of being permanent.”

V: “hmmm.. .three deads, that sounds permamanent. How can you tell if it’s permanent?”

R: “Um… good question. .. .I think 1) when you see the body, but that’s not a guarantee because we saw Robin’s body and Cap’s body, but not Bucky’s, and all three were dead and are now alive. And 2) …. if the wound is bad enough to the point where the reader goes, “Jesus Christ! Did you read this?” Then they’re pretty much dead. … at least a 65% chance of being dead-dead.”

V: “Wait… Robin’s dead?”

R: “OHJESUSCHRIST We’re not going there. No! No.”

V: “…..”

R: “Ok, so, Cap’s dead… I mean, Bucky’s now dead and there are these 7 planet buster hammers floating around in the hands of possessed heroes and villains. Big Big trouble. The deal is, it’s confusing. Totally confusing if you walked right in the middle of it. The only reason why I know is ’cause Debbie at Excalibur told me about the story and that I should buy them.”

V: “Yeah, you sound confused.”

R: “Shutup!”

V: “Well, if it’s so confusing, then maybe they should have a summary at the beginning of each comic of what’s going on.”

R: “Yeah, they already do that.”

V: “What? They do? Don’t you read it?”

R: “Pffft… no, nobody does. It’s boring.”

V: “You are such a dork! Here you are contemplating on one of the primary reasons why comics are decreasing in sales, referring to a major flaw in the comic publishers and writers and come to find out, they account for it, but you just don’t read it.”

R: “… it’s boring. I hate reading those things.”

V: “Don’t you think that if you read them that you just might understand the comic a little more?”

R: “…..”

R: “Well… yeah…..guess you’re right. … but the stories are still long, drawn out, big galactic, infinite crisis bullsh!t this or House of that! … it just keeps getting more and more convoluted to the point that the story itself is lost in all the convolutedness.”

V: “I don’t think ‘convolutedness’ is a word and I think you’re just being lazy. Didn’t you say that Blackest Night was a big hit? Wasn’t that convoluted? Did you read all of those comics?”

R: “Yeah, it was a big hit. … no, I didn’t get all of them either. The price of comics are freakin’ expensive! $3.99 for a Marvel comic!”

V: “…. wait, isn’t … wasn’t Blackest Night DC?”

R: “… well… yeah, but you still get my point! Look, the price of comics on top of convoluted, super-ark story lines that make you buy a bunch of comics you don’t want to buy compounded with where if you miss one friggin’ issue you’re totally lost, and those stupid ads for Go-Gurt and Spider-Man scateboards all comes down to a decrease in geeks who want to buy comics. That’s all I’m saying.”

V: “Sure took you a long enough time to say it. I still think you’re just being lazy and like to complain. Do all of you comic guys complain this much? … So, tell me how Robin died.”

R: “No!”

V: “Awww… are you pouting? Do you need a hug?”

R: “No! Get away. You’re sweaty. Leamealone!!!”

*forced hug, then laughs*

R: “I’m still right! You just don’t understand ’cause you don’t have to put up with these writers.”

V: “Uh huh.”

Tags: Bucky, Captain America, Fear Itself, Thor
Posted in Comic Books, Contests, Random Musings, Superheroes | 12 Comments »

Super Mutant Brothers: From Video Games to Comic Books

Wednesday, July 13th, 2011

At a place like SuperHeroStuff.com, you either know your stuff or you get acclimated real fast. You see, when they hire you here, during the interview they literally quiz you. Yes, that is correct…being tested on one’s knowledge of super heroes as a term of employment. Where else can you find something like that? By no means can I even claim to know more then these guys here, but it is definitely more then your average Joe. You see, I’m a distinct child of the 90s and my comic book knowledge started completely by the heavy super hero saturation of the early decade. Waking up as the Sun rose and watching all of the Saturday morning cartoons on FOX just to get to X-Men(save the best for last, right?) or rushing home from school the catch Batman: the Animated series really was as close as I ever got to the ‘true’ comics back then.

I hope you can hear me humming theme song

I hope you can hear me humming the theme song

My interests, and to a lesser extent still do, focus on video games. That is perhaps the only reason I was able to pass the test here to get in. I grew up in arcades playing those sweet side scrolling beat em up games like Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, the Simpsons game, or the X-Men one. One year, the only thing I asked for was a Nintendo, and perhaps that is what really sent me down this path. I’ve been hooked ever since. Heck, I even went to Super Mario Brothers movie with my best friend dressed up as Mario and Luigi(we were in like 2nd grade…don’t judge and to this day I will vehemently argue that movie is good. What can I say…I’m loyal). I’m the kind of guy that will argue things like who the better video game sociopath is; Id from Xenogears or Sephiroth from FF7. I’m the kind of guy that will mix Ayn Rand politcs with major plot lines in Bioshock. I’m the kind of guy who lost it when they saw someone dressed up as Altair from Assassin’s Creed ‘blending’ through the crowd at last year’s Philadelphia Comic Con. I don’t really shed a tear during movies, but the Metal Gear series has gotten me to well up on occasion. I’m used as an in game reference to lore in World of Warcraft because I played the other Warcraft games and paid a rather keen attention to the detail. The first time I heard the terms ‘fail’, ‘owned’, or ‘epic’ it was used to describe griffins, hill giants, and the Short Sword of Ykesha in Everquest. Let us digress from this video game name dropping, and get back to a subject we all understand: super heroes!

Oh, how I do love the Comic Cons

Somebody making this game yet?

There is an easy transition from video games to comic book heroes. What is so different from casting a chain lightning than yelling SHAZAM and being hit by one, transforming one into a mighty force of nature? What is so different than using bullet time when compared to the Flash or Zoom? What about all of the video games with pyrokinesis in all of its glory…Phoenix anyone? I wonder if Shadowcat enjoys the game Portal? Baraka and Wolverine should have a throw-down…though I’d have to give it to Wolvy. You see, it really is an easy jump!

I love this shirt!

As previously stated, when you are here, you learn to swim with comic sharks. I needed a hero, a favorite, to get behind. Surrounded by all of these super heroes, I could find something that spoke to me….something I could get behind. After all, we all enjoy a super hero for a personal reason, some more overt while others are a bit more subtle. I swear, one could almost develop an entire sub division of psychology based on this choice alone. I feel you can tell a lot about somebody based on their favorite character, but maybe that is just me. Maybe it was just luck, or fate, or simple happenstance but I noticed one day, perhaps my 2nd week here, that we were moving a lot of this ‘Green Lantern’ fella. At this point, I probably knew more of the Green Arrow than Green Lantern, so I asked ‘The *#$@ is this guy’s deal…he seems pretty popular?’ To which one of the others responded with a ‘He can make whatever with a magic ring’. My curiosity piqued, ‘What do you mean, anything?’ I mean, really, anything is a pretty big scope in my mind. We talking angel food cake here or dragons made of bone with kitten warriors on their back while shooting lasers and hellfire out of their eyes.. ‘Anything.’ He shot back. Well then, suppose I had some researching to do..

I think I got lucky at this point in the story, because the whole Blackest Night was coming to a finale. It is a lot of information to process quickly. Years of back story that left me slightly confused.. Kal-L and Kal-El? I thought it was just a misspelling…you mean there are two Supermen; how does that happen? Well, off to read the Crisis of Infinite Earths. Why is Batman so apprehensive about the other JLA’ers? Suppose I should pick up this Identity Crisis. It is a vicious cycle, I’m telling you! Through all of that madness though, the power of the Lanterns still held me enthralled. Power derived from creativity and emotion…as a Liberal Arts Major I could get behind that completely! The spectrum of emotional lights is like a super-charged mood ring. If I was in that ‘world’, I would either be a Blue Lantern or a Sinestro Corps member…really depends on what kind of day they catch me on. Hey, maybe they will mix one day and I’ll be a Green Lantern. You see, I paid attention in art class…public education works! I know this seems a bit DC focused, and it is but I’m starting to pick up some Marvel things. Cut me a little slack please…I needed to find a starting point(the Sentry catches my interest, and that whole Universe X story arc, as well as Demon in a Bottle)!

When our powers combine....

So, what’s the cut of my jib? What’s my angle? It is rather pretty simple – comic books are not as ‘closed’ as one might suspect. Maybe you aren’t a hardcore comic book kind of person but they’ve always caught you interest. Overwhelmed, you fear to pick up a book, scared that you’ll be lost. Don’t be. The world of comics is constantly changing, constantly referencing back on its self. Sure, you won’t know 100% of what is going on, but there is nothing keeping you from finding out and if you don’t, why bother? Enjoy the comics from what they are…a perfect blend of story telling and art. In a book, you are forced to rely completely on your imagination, and in a movie there is no room for it. However, in comics there is a distinct kind of fusion. The storyboard and images are laid out for you, but your mind makes up the rest.

Custom Drawing from David Kwonch of your humble author!

Tags: Brandon Shoaff, Employee, Green Lantern, Video Games
Posted in Random Musings | No Comments »

Green Lantern Movie Review – Spoilers

Monday, June 20th, 2011

green-lantern-movie-hal-jordan-ryan-reynolds Green Lantern was directed by Martin Campbell, (Casino Royale 2006, Edge of Darkness 2010), written by Greg Berlanti (Green Lantern: Emerald Knights, Brothers & Sisters TV series, Eli Stone TV series), Michael Green (Heroes TV series), Marc Guggenheim (Brothers & Sisters TV series, Eli Stone TV series, FlashForward TV series) and Michael Goldenberg (Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix screenplay, Peter Pan screenplay).

Hal Jordan was played by Ryan Reynolds (Buried, Paper Man, X-Men Origins: Wolverine) while his love interest Carol Ferris was played by Blake Lively (Gossip Girl TV series, The Town, The Private Lives of Pippa Lee) and was absolutely gorgeous. Sinestro was played by Mark Strong (Robin Hood:Godfrey, Kick-Ass:Frank D’Amico, Sherlock Holmes:Lord Blackwood) and did a spectacular job, as usual. Hector Hammond was played by Peter Sarsgaard (Knight and Day:Fitzgerald, Orphan:John Coleman, In the Electric Mist:Elrod Sykes).

By now, everyone knows that the mainstream media visciously panned Green Lantern, to the point that Rotten Tomatoes gave it a patheric 26% . This was partially brought on by the questionable CGI (computer-generated imagery) that everyone was complaining about. The CGI was such an issue that even YouTube’s ItsJustSomeRandomGuy made fun of the mask in his “Hi, I’m a Marvel…and I’m a DC” video.

Magneto: “You want to talk image problems with that mask!? Is ILM going to be done with that thing before the BluRay comes out?”

When it comes to Superhero movies, it’s generally the geeks who come unglued. And if you’re reading this, you know it’s true since you’ve probably partaken in some of the flaming rants yourself:

Spider-Man

Spider-Man 3

Iron Man 2

X-Men: The Last Stand

Superman Returns

Fantastic Four

Wanted

Ghost Rider

The list is endless. Let’s face it, us comic fans are whiny, complaining little brats! … or could it possibly be that movie makers simply can’t make a real, REAL comic book movie if their life depended on it. But then again, even us geeks can’t make up our minds, Watchmen is a perfect example, was it good or not? It’s a coin toss, but personally, I loved it! Yaa for blue pee pees!

The interesting thing is that, everyone and their dog expected Green Lantern to suck yak nuggets. We were apprehensive as hell. What happened? We asked our Facebook fans, who saw it early, what they thought. They responded with an overwhelming positive response! They loved it! We were blown away. What the hell happened? For once, we were pleasantly surprised, aside from Heath Ledger’s massively perfect performance.

Why was Green Lantern good? Why were the movie critics in such unanimous opposition to what the geeks had to say? Here’s our thoughts.

They stuck to comic canon. Not that hard, but most screenplay writers simply can’t open up a couple dozen comics and read the damn story and history on a hero. They covered all the basics to an adequate degree that the heavy duty, uber-geeks were happy. They even included an explanation (kinda) to the events leading to Abin Sur’s crash landing on Earth. You know, the question all fans asked over the years, “Why did Abin Sur need a ship if he could fly and couldn’t his ring help heal him?” So, they got that right and even added to the story.
They got Ferris Airfield down, the background of Hal’s father and his jacket, him being a hot shot pilot and even included an interesting display of Hal going up against some drones. They got Tomar Ra, Kilowag and the Guardians down perfectly. Oa was believable and Sinestro was superb. I loved seeing him work in Hal’s “training session.” They really showed what someone who had a strong will power could do with their ring. And did you notice Sinestro’s scars in his face? Made him look that much tougher. Don’t mess with Sinestro!
The CGI was better than expected. Sure we thought it would be distracting, and sure they special effects guys had a challenge of making a suit that is supposed to be a construct out of light, not made of real material, without making it look like a poor CGI job but damnit, they pulled it off and the suits were alright.
They bridged the origin and Blackest Night together in one movie, as well as leaving room for GL II with the Yellow Lantern corps.
Ryan Reynolds delivered. Many of us thought he was too much a goof ball to carry the role of Hal Jordan, but he ended up winning us over.
The last scene was awesome. Constructing two fighters to pull him from the gravity well was just too cool. And, to give a nod to old-school comics, Hal finishes the job with a big green right cross.
Blake Lively was incredibly hot. No, seriously. Smoking hot. I’m talking, “move over Megan Fox” kinda hot. Her acting was adequate, but she wasn’t totally convincing as the Top Gun type of pilot. Tom Cruise, she aint.
The mask. …ok, the mask sucked. They should have done a better job with it, but moving on.
There was an adequate amount of humor, and some good fight scenes. Peter Sarsgaard (Hector Hammond) was fantastic as a creepy scientist. And Angela Bassett was a great cold hearted, head turning scientist as well, playing Dr. Amanda Waller quite convincingly. … loved them heels.

In short, the movie delivered beyond our expectations.It wasn’t the best out there, but it still delivered an entertaining two hours that was convincing with good graphics and decent story line that held our attention and stuck good enough to canon to keep us from ripping it apart. Again, it was better than expected. It’s unfortunate that mainstream media had to be so harsh on the movie when it’s quite apparent that fans, true comic fans, thoroughly enjoyed it. We suggest you go see the movie, and if you’re not totally familiar with Blackest Night or the origins of Green Lantern, go visit your local comic shop guy and tell him to hook you up.

06242011 Addition: YouTube’s ItsJustSomeRandomGuy made a follow up to his original post about the Green Lantern movie.

- Ronando

Tags: Blake Lively, Green Lantern, Hal Jordan, Ryan Reynolds
Posted in Movies, Random Musings | 13 Comments »

Buy A Comic Day! … Who’s in?

Sunday, February 13th, 2011

Precipitious Drop In Comic Sales

Superhero Idea – Your Thoughts On Comics Day
We have been thinking about what we, Superherostuff.com, could do to help the comic industry as a whole. As everyone knows, with the demise of Wizard Magazine, along with countless other newspapers and magazines that have closed their doors or gone digital, we are bound to see less glossy covered Spidey comics and more flatscreen comics, such as at Marvel.

Some contributing reasons as to why we might be seeing such a precipitious drops in comic sales along with migrations to digital formats might be attributed to:

$3.99 pricing
Increasing forms of entertainment that compete for our attention and discretionary dollar
Ridiculous story lines that piss us all off
Piss poor managing of a company that results in loss of profits, market share, readers, blah blah blah

Both Newsarama and ICV2 have touched on the dip in sales, which leads us back to, “what can we do about it and is this the way we want to head? Towards digital and demise of comics and a pass time that we grew up with?” Personally, my answer is “no.” I don’t believe that the digital universe is God’s gift and answer to comic entertainment nor is it a good substitute for some forms of reading material, comics being the perfect example.

Call us crazy, but what we might see in the future is a decline in revenue, since people like to get their digi-content for free, resulting in a decline in writers and artists resulting in lower quality story lines which could lead to the entire industry possibly collapse into nothingness as people go about their lives texting on their new G6 cellphones reading the new Twilight graphic novel, for free, not caring what happens to comics.

We believe that there is room to resuscitate the industry and we are wondering if we could make an impact, a difference. One idea we have is to push towards a “Buy A Comic Day” where everyone commits to taking one day, or weekend in getting up off their butts, going to a genuine comic book store (not a grocery store) and buying a friggin’ comic. Even if it’s just one or two, DC, Marvel or Indi comics along with a couple of old-school comics, for a buck each, it just might start making a difference.

Yeah sure some of you geeks go out and buy comics each week or month, but for the most part, most people don’t and that’s what needs to change. We have over 76,000 fans, if even 20% were willing to go get a comic each month, and then post on Facebook what they purchased along with and what they thought about the story line, we’re wondering if it could make a positive difference.

If enough people buy in on it, we just might be able to leverage a discount from the stores who are willing to participate. The question is, is this something you guys would be interested in getting behind? .. So far, it seems like fans on our Facebook page are really taking off on the idea.

Post Edit: Looks like people are taking off on the idea. Click here to see our Facebook responses. I’ll be going, my back issue choices will be Green Lantern Blackest Night and Batman Robin Dick/Damien series and maybe some more Astro City. New issue choices will be whatever the arrogant comic guy behind the counter suggests.

Tags: Buy A Comic Day!
Posted in Comic Books, Random Musings | 8 Comments »

Comixology Seeks Partnerships with Comic Book Retailers

Friday, February 11th, 2011

Well, it’s happening; the beginning of the end of physical, newly produced, hand-held comics. Or, at the very least, the beginning of a great reduction in printed Comics. Sorry about that. I just injected a little bit of my own opinion in there before giving you the chance to gorge yourself on a more fact-based cut of prime-cut article-meat. So….

Comixology recently announced they would be offering their digital, downloadable comic book database to comic book retailers…well, the websites of comic book retailers. So, if you have a brick and mortar store with those fancy-pants websites, you could possibly lead your customer base to comixology and make a smidge off the digital sale. I see quite a few pros…and an equal number of cons with this particular arrangement. I’ll spit one out from each side of the fence and grant you the gift of…pondering.

Pro- The digital realm gives a heck of a lot more people the tools and the medium they need to create and display their own comic-thing. Yep. This is the age where, thanks to the ease of translating your existence through shiny, unbiased megabytes, everyone is important, everyone is significant; everyone has a story or expression worth being read or appreciated by others…… no matter how mundane. You want to get your music out there? If you can work the latest music hardware (and software), you can create a universally playable file and slap it up on your Facebook page. Or, your very own website. Love comics? Want to do your own? Need to find an audience? Well, there’s one waiting for you, twiddling iis thumbs en masse as its lumbering, uni-consciousness peruses the fathomless seas of preferred entertainment, waiting to stumble onto the next big thing in the hopes of peaking it’s fickle, but highly resonant interests. In summation, the independent creator without the big publisher backing can create the work and market it directly to a fan base. Thank you, computer!

comixology

A Slight, Multi-faceted Con- More digital content, offered at a cheaper price-point. This may reduce the sale of the actual, physical books draping the store shelves; which may lead tp publishers printing less physical stock. Ugh. At some point, if physical publishing is significantly slighted, perhaps single, issue-sized reads may only be offered online, with a multi-issue collection (trade paperback) being the physical item that actually takes up shelf space; after the story arc running through the individual issues offered online concludes, that is. And you know what else? I like to hold the damn thing in my hand! I like to flip actual pages, not click a “Next” tab. I like to see works of art presented and held separately from the mass of incalculable, downloadable content! These are graphic stories created by sentient, feeling, expressive beings, not the results of specifically coded data-streams! To force art into code is just….it diminishes the pains of expression. It deserves to be kept on a shelf in your home. It deserves to be touched, displayed or passed along as something that is NOT expressed through an easily disposed of format! AGGGH!!!! This is not simply transferable bits of data! This is emotion, ideology and fantasy made manifest! Ok, I’ll stop.

So, what do you think? Yeah, guess I could tap into the digital realm for access to something I might want to try out….but I want to see the thing granted the respect it may deserve with it’s own, separate, corporeal portal into the creator’s soul. I want to see the spirit behind the veil, not the coded translation saved to the airless space of a documents folder.

Tags: comixology, digital comics
Posted in Random Musings | No Comments »

Should Joe Quesada be Fired For What He’s Done to Spider-Man?

Thursday, November 11th, 2010

I Just Want To Forget...

Even though I don’t remember the exact day, I remember that the month was August and the year was 2000. Why do I remember this month and year so well? Because this was the month and year that comic book artist Joe Quesada was hired as the new Editor in Chief of Marvel Comics. I remember discussing with fellow geeks at my local comic book store about how excited we were about this brave new move.

Mephisto Joe Quesada

For Marvel fans everywhere, the feeling we felt might be compared to the same feeling Democrats across the country felt when Obama was elected President in 2008. This was because we felt Joe Quesada was finally bringing a ray of light during a very dark period in Marvel Comics history. See, when the 1990s hit, the comic industry started taken a dive, and in 1996 Marvel filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. It wasn’t until August of 2000 when Marvel started recovering from the scare.

If that weren’t enough, the 1990’s also saw a “Clone Saga” in the Spider-Man books, a teenage Tony Stark running around as Iron Man in the Avengers books, and other controversial storylines that polarized fans and led to decreases in sales on many of Marvel’s flagship books. So, like many fans at the time, I felt that Joe Quesada’s charisma and creativity that he displayed in the books that he was drawing and editing at the time (Daredevil, Black Panther, etc.) was exactly what Marvel needed to come out of this hole that they had dug themselves in to. And, for at least a little while, Joe Quesada did actually manage to dig Marvel back up and out of that abysmal hole.

During the first six years in his tenure as E.I.C., Quesada oversaw controversial yet insanely popular storylines such as Civil War, House of M, and others. Sales were up, fans were happy, and Marvel Comics was enjoying a renaissance period after the Dark Ages of the 1990’s. That is, until the autumn of 2007 rolled around.

One More day

This was the time where Joe Quesada decided to put his own personal interests in front of the interests of the fans who butter his bread; hence the reason “One More Day” dawned on us. For those who may not know, “One More Day” was a storyline that ran through the Spider-Man books in 2007 where Peter Parker made the conscious decision to sell his marriage to Mephisto (who is the Marvel Universe’s version of the Devil) in exchange for the life of his Aunt May, who was dying at the time from injuries inflicted by a shotgun.

“After his Aunt May has been shot, Spider-Man seeks help to save her life. He encounters the demon Mephisto, who offers to save her life if Spider-Man gives him his marriage. Spider-Man and his wife Mary Jane Watson agree, and this part of their history is erased so that, effectively, they have never been married. The storyline set the stage for a restructuring of the Spider-Man titles, resulting in the cancellation of Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man and The Sensational Spider-Man, with Amazing Spider-Man revamped as a thrice-monthly publication.

The decision to abruptly end Peter Parker and Mary Jane’s marriage and the events of “One More Day” were heavily criticized upon the series’ conclusion, although the artwork received praise.“ wikipedia

: Amazing Spider-Man 545

This was all done due to Joe Quesada’s eerily extreme hatred for Peter’s marriage. You can read his rant about how much he hates the marriage here at CBR.com. At that moment Quesada imposed his own personal vision of how the Spider-Man universe “should” be onto the loyal fans who’ve followed Peter and MJ over the years, without presumably thinking, for one moment, about the desires of those same fans who were the ones responsible for Marvel’s recovery as well as making Joe Quesada financially well off.

“One More Day” was the shotgun blow to the stomach. What happened next was nothing short of an evisceration as Peter continued on with his life after his agreement with Mephisto, as if his 20 years of marriage (1987-2007) to Mary Jane never even existed. But Joe didn’t stop there! No, 0n top of that, Peter had no job, no house (he lived upstairs in his Aunt May’s home, again). He had nothing! It was like all the character development that had been made with Peter in the last 20-30 years up until 2007 was now obliterated, wiped clean, as if we the reader had made the same exact agreement Mephisto MADE WITH Peter.

From then on out, the Spidey-books were back to the status quo of the 1960’s and 1970’s. This “new” era of Spider-Man continuity is dubbed “Brand New Day”, in reference to the fact that it’s a brand new continuity. To make things even more bizarre, a new love interest is introduced in Peter’s life named “Carlie Cooper”, who is also rumored to share the same name with Joe Quesada’s daughter. Think Joe Q. might be getting just a little bit too personal with Marvel’s flagship character now?

Carlie Cooper

Fast-forward three years later to the autumn of 2010. Spidey book sales are the lowest they have been in years, which you can read about here. Apparently, fans are still resentful about the fact that the marriage was “magically” erased with thirty years of character development flushed down the toilet.

Joe Quesada then makes an announcement that “Brand New Day” is ending in Amazing Spider-Man #647, which can be read here. The clouds suddenly parted and the rays of heaven had shown as many fans, including myself, took this to mean that Peter and Mary Jane were getting back together, and that Peter was getting his old life back . This horrible continuity, hatched by the evil Mephisto and his twin goblin brother, Joe Quesada, was finally coming to an end with a wooden stake in it’s heart!

I Want Your Love

… And like all horror movies the bad guys, and bad stories, JUST DON’T DIE! After reading Amazing Spider-Man #647 last week, pretty much nothing’s changed; Mary Jane is still out of the picture, Carlie Cooper is still Peter’s love interest, and Peter is still unemployed. So how is Joe Quesada able to tell us “Brand New Day” is ending, when pretty much the entire status quo of BND is still intact? How come we’re still giving Marvel our money for this mundane mediocrity? How come fans aren’t asking for Joe Quesada’s head!? Or at least his job?

I don’t know about you but for me, as a consumer of Marvel Comics, I feel like someone has pissed on my leg and then tried to tell me that my leg is wet because it’s raining. Well you know what? It ain’t raining Joe, and I want my $3.99, times a hundred, back! Peter and Mary Jane were the Clark Kent and Lois Lane of Marvel. They had the kind of strong and almost magical chemistry that few couples in the history of comic books, and even real life, have ever had.

For twenty years, Mary Jane was Peter’s rock, and I felt they complimented each other in a way that no couple in the history of comic books, not even Clark and Lois, have ever been able to do. So, for all that to be taken away in one panel and for me to spend my emotional and financial investment over the last three years, waiting for this whole mess to be retconned only to be misled by Joe Quesada is a giant kick in my face while my wallet is emptied. I’m now convinced that Brand New Day will NEVER end as long as Joe Quesada remains Chief Creative Officer.

So, how about it, fellow comic geeks? Do you feel like I do, that Peter Parker’s character has taken a step backwards since One More Day? Is Joe Quesada acting in the interest of the fans, or even in Marvel’s best interest, or is he really just interjecting his own personal agenda, his own twisted vision of Spider-Man without thinking about what the fans want? Most importantly, Should Joe Quesada be set free from his responsibilities at Marvel’s helm or maybe even step down from his post as Chief Creative Officer based on what he’s done to Spider-Man’s character? What do YOU think?

One More Day: MJ & Spidey

Written by Douglas Appich

Tags: Brand New Day, Joe Quesada, Mephisto, One More Day, Spider-Man, spiderman
Posted in Book Review, Random Musings, Superheroes, Video of the Day | 9 Comments »

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