It looks like Corey and I split this one down the middle for 5 out of 6 each. I really should have guessed the obvious finish to the Elimination Chamber match to go for the perfect 6, but for some reason I just though that was too obvious a choice. He made a good point though about how Hunter has been quietly out of the title picture now for a couple of years and giving him the belt would be a good reward for being the company man. He also apparently has the inside track on the Raw main event at Wrestlemania, as it’s being said that it will be a Triple Threat Match with Hunter, Cena, and Orton.

However, Corey said that Orton would win by DQ. He retained the title, but John Cena won that one, and the Legend Killer lives (barely) to fight another day.

I had some pretty low expectations for this show given Rey Mysterio’s injury, the Smackdown elimination chamber looking pretty lousy on paper, and the given that there would be no real outcome to the WWE title match. I guess then if my expectations were so low, I was pleasantly surprised…

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Spider-Man The Icon, $49.95 (Titan Books) Written by Steve Saffel.  There have been some fantastic books published over the past couple of years about comic books and comic book characters and the latest is Spider-Man the Icon from Titan Books.  This 320 page, hardcover tome traces the evolution of the character from his beginning in Amazing Fantasy #15 to his present day status as a blockbuster pop culture superstar.   The book follows Spider-Man’s development, decade by decade.  This is a character whose origins even pre-date Amazing Fantasy #15.  Uncanny Tales #26 from 1954 featured a character called the Spider Man, which looked like a giant spider with a human head.  Seems the seeds for Spider-man were planted many years before his first appearance.  Interestingly, Aunt May and Uncle Ben made their first appearance two months before Spider-Man, in Strange Tales # 97.  Here the elderly couple had not a nephew, but a niece named Linda who turned out to be a mermaid!  The issue was drawn by artist Steve Ditko, and there’s certainly no doubt that this is the same Aunt May and Uncle Ben who would raise Peter Parker.  (more…)

Aaand, here’s the last one for the week. Lucas brings you an X-stravaganza, reviewing three X-titles under the “Divided We Stand” banner, which he couldn’t quite remember while recording- whoops! Wolverine, X-Force, and X-Factor each get a few minutes, and as a big X-fan, all seems to be well in his favorite part of the Marvel Universe.

In the second vlog this week, Janelle covers a mismatch of sorts. First, the last issue of a mature comic, American Virgin #23. Then, the first issue of a comic geared towards kids with Tiny Titans #1.

The first one this week features reviews of Captain Marvel #3 and Nova Annual #1. One of them was billed as hot and somewhat boring, one of them gets no love from Marvel at all and is consistently awesome. Stay tuned for more!

Countdown sucks.

If you can get past a cornucopia of plot holes and a slightly sluggish middle part, Jumper is actually a fun, frenetic, special effects extravaganza! It’s a superhero movie in Sci-Fi/Thriller clothing, and should be the template - at least action-movie-wise - as to how totally cool and awesome a superhero movie could and should be!

Quick recap: a Jumper = a teleporter: someone who can move across rooms, continents, anywhere really, without having to actually walk, run, or ride something like us plain, boring folks. Played with his usual monotone excellence, Hayden Christensen is the main Jumper extraordinaire who soon discovers that there are others like him, and what’s worse, others who hunt and kill his kind.

So what if you might have to check the critical and analytical parts of your brain (like watching Transformers) to fully enjoy the movie? Just sit back, turn your brain to “slightly above comatose” and delight in the teleporting fun! It’s rare when I have been thrilled by an action movie that is so utterly dependent on special effects that these effects are not only good but super realistic! It seems, more often then not, that many of today’s CGI effects are often barely passable, totally fake, quite crappy, and so totally removed from believability and reality that they throw me out of the move: like the zombie-ish meanies in Will Smith’s I Am Legend (could they look any more fake?). Thankfully Jumper’s effects are exciting and authentic enough to not only allow me to fully invest myself in the movie but to also toss out my normal “scene-it-all” snobbery.

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Corey Henson and I sat down this week to put down some thoughts about Sunday’s No Way Out PPV, but first some news from WWE.com:

Rey Mysterio’s quest to regain the World Championship may have suffered a severe setback in Santiago, Chile, on Wednesday night. The injury occurred during Wednesday’s live event at Arena Santiago, where Mysterio teamed with Kane against Zack Ryder & Curt Hawkins. During the tag contest, Rey suffered an apparent injury to his right arm – specifically his bicep. Clearly in pain, the Master of the 619 gutted it out and finished the match, then was quickly examined by WWE athletic trainer Jason Crivello upon leaving the ring.

Mysterio flew back to the United States late Wednesday night, and is currently in Gulf Breeze, Fla., waiting to meet with world-renowned surgeon Dr. James Andrews, who will determine the extent of the injury. Regardless of Dr. Andrews’ findings, Mysterio has his heart set on competing this Sunday night at No Way Out, where he is scheduled to face Edge for the World Championship.

This also from Pro Wrestling Insider:

He hasn’t had an MRI done. His mentality right now is that at all costs, he does not want to miss Wrestlemania, so if surgery is recommended, he’s going to have a major decision to make. We won’t know about Sunday’s PPV until after he sees Andrews and they determine the severity of the injury. They could have him show up and do an injury angle because there are no TV’s left before No Way Out, where he was scheduled to face Edge for the World title. Surgery would put him out around six months.

Bad luck for Rey Rey, as this would be the second straight Wrestlemania he’s missed since winning the World Championship there in 2006. Even if he tries to gut it out on Sunday, he’s not going to be able to hit some of his usual high spots, like the 619, so I can’t imagine he will do himself much good by trying to go. It seemed like with Edge and John Cena’s returns over the winter that the hard luck injury stories of last year were over, but they just keep going it seems…

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I always find it funny as to what’s considered a dirty word where. Obviously, George Carlin has opined on it at length. Consider England, where the posters for “Austin Powers 2: The Spy Who Shagged Me” had to be censored. Today on, well, Today, Jane Fonda simply said the name of the piece that’s she reading without really thinking about it. That title . . .

The national hand-wringing has already begun. There’s shock! Outrage!

Incidentally, none of this has to do with the elections or the war, but hey, whatever takes up time on the news, I suppose.

The first image of the new solo Wolverine movie has just been released!

Is it me or does Wolverine’s claws seem extra long and lean? Like, kinda narrowy and sorta dull at the ends?

As much as I hate to toot my own horn, unless I am in the privacy of my own home, I just have to let everyone know that I will be doing a reading from my indie comic book “So Super Duper” www.sosuperduper.com, at the Three Dollar Bill Cafe in San Francisco next Sat. Feb 23rd at 8pm! Wheee!

This being WonderCon weekend and all I am  way excited that I will also be doing a signing at the Con as well! I will be at the Prism Comics booth - they being a non-profit LBGT comic website www.prismcomics.com - on Sun Feb. 24th from 1-2pm!

So if you are in the area and wanna stop by and say “hi”, or if you just want to do a driving-by-flashing, I will be most happy to see you!

You can keep all the fluff and nonsense that comes from the Grammys.

I’ll take the über-HAWT Cat Power any day of the week over that assortment.

If this song were about Hervé Villechaize instead of banal sentimentality, then it would kick 31 flavors of ass. As it is, it’s junior high poety from another American Idol winner; the charts are merely a truck-stop on her slow journey back to anonymity.

Here’s a sample:

I can’t waste time so give it a moment
I realize, nothing’s broken
No need to worry ’bout everything I’ve done
Live every second like it was my last one
Don’t look back at a new direction
I loved you once, needed protection
You’re still a part of everything I do
You’re on my heart just like a tattoo

(Just like a tattoo, I’ll always have you
I’ll always have you, I’ll always have you)

Forgetting for a second that the central simile is groaningly clumsy . . . how many cliches can be crammed into one chorus?

Additionally, the whole commits a cardinal sin: it’s boring. Really boring. Watching-grass-grow-as-the-paint-dries boring. Avril Lavigne’s Girlfriend may be weak on a number of levels, but at least it rocks a little, it’s catchy, and its video demonstrates that Avril has grown up to look kinda like Kristen Bell’s not-quite-as-hot little sister. Tattoo could be used by the U.S. Military as a first-strike pacification method; they could pipe it in through the radio stations of hostile countries and murder the opposition in their sleep.

Back to the foundational simile: “You’re on my heart just like a tattoo.” Are heart tattoos a new thing with the kids? “Hey, crack this one’s chest; he wants a Mighty Mouse on his aorta.”

I kind of appreciate that the objection of her affection isn’t “in” her metaphorical heart, but ON her heart. It makes it sound like someone is sitting on her ribcage. “You’re on my heart just like I’m being pressed in the manner of the Salem Witch Trials!” That would be an awesome line, save for the fact that it doesn’t rhyme.

Bomb Queen III TPB $14.99 (Image Comics) Written by Jim Valentino and Jim Robinson; art by Jim Robinson.  Go ahead…I dare you to try and tell me that Bomb Queen isn’t one of the coolest, most kick-ass comics on the market today.  I triple-dog dare ya!  Robinson’s sarcastic and caustic Bomb Queen is sheer joy to read.  It simply pulverizes the standard superhero fare.  If you’ve never read the series let me quickly get you up to speed…New Port City is the Bomb Queen’s hometown and superheroes are strictly prohibited there.  BQ is the absolute ruler and doesn’t let anyone forget it.  Her battles with heroes who invade her turf are the highest rated shows on TV and the citizens of New Port City can’t get enough of their lovely Queen and her frequently shredded costume that displays her ample attributes.  Let’s get this straight…Bomb is one mean hottie, not above blowing up an annoying TV host or grabbing a kid to use as a shield.  Hey…wrong place wrong time!   Still, the Shadow Government keeps sending new heroes into the city to try and kill her.  This time it’s paid gun Red Cross who makes the mistake of trying to take out our anti-hero.  Cross will do anything to succeed, even if it means destroying the entire city with a small nuke.  The naïve but very powerful heroine Blacklight will try to intervene to prevent the catastrophe but will soon lead her into conflict with the Bomb Queen herself.   Bomb Queen is edgy, intelligent fun.  Bomb Queen is about as evil as they come and yet you can’t help but be infatuated with her.  She’s so bad she’s good!  This is the third Bomb Queen series and it keeps getting better and better.  Robinson’s art is outstanding…colorful and dynamic but it’s his witty dialog that really pushes this series above so many of its boring brethren.  Strictly for mature readers, though!  Grade A

Back Issue Magazine #26  (TwoMorrows Publishing) Edited by Michael Eury.  TwoMorrows is really one of the best publishers around, period!  For comic fans, especially for long time comic fans, their line of books and magazines are like dying and going to geek heaven.  From Roy Thomas’ longtime fanzine Alter Ego, to the wonderful Jack Kirby Collector, and one of the very best publications, Back Issue Magazine.  Each issue spotlights a different comic’s theme and #26 is a “Spies and Tough Guys” issue that features a Black Widow cover by Paul Gulacy.   The highlight of the issue for me is Dan Johnson’s interview with Gulacy and Doug Moench, the creative team behind one of my favorite comics from the 1970’s Shang-Chi, Master of Kung-Fu.  This title was unlike anything else produced in the 70’s when a title rarely survived more than a couple of years if it didn’t have a guy in a cape.  Moench and Gulacy talk about how the series was developed and their influences.  Evidently, Marvel got the rights to Sax Rohmer’s Fu Manchu character for a pittance and used the yellow menace as a backdrop for their James Bond-esque action/espionage series.  There is also an article about a proposed Nick Fury/Shang-Chi crossover that was to have been done by Moench, Gulacy, and Jim Steranko, but unfortunately the project fell through.   Another great interview is Mike Gagnon’s talk with Howard Chaykin about the now defunct Atlas Comics.  Not the Atlas of the 50’s that would become Marvel, but the Atlas started by former Marvel Comics founder Martin Greenberg in 1974.  Determined to beat Marvel at their own game, Greenberg hired some of the industry’s biggest talents, offering higher pay rates.  But almost as soon as it started, Atlas came crashing down like a house of cards and none of their titles reached beyond four issues.  As a young comic fan, I though I’d be selling those first issues for a gazillion dollars when I was older… Other articles feature a history of James Bond in the comics, the rebirth and death of Eclipse Comics’ Airboy, Michael Browning’s wonderful look at The Suicide Squad, the history of The Black Widow, and much more.  This is one of the most well written magazines around today.  Grade A    

From the desk of Rebecca E. Mollenhauer, professor of art at Saint Mary-of-the-Woods College:

The Saint Mary of the Woods College Art Gallery’s next exhibition opens this evening with an artists’ reception from 5:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. The work of seniors Lynn Payne and Barb Hallock, both digital media majors, will be featured. This senior thesis exhibition, which is the culmination of the artists’ work as students at SMWC, will be on display from February 13th to 21st.

The art gallery is located in Hulman Hall, room 132. Admission is free and open to the public. Regular gallery hours are Monday through Friday, 12:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. If you have any questions, please contact Rebecca Mollenhauer, Gallery Director, at ext. 5265, email rmollenhauer@smwc.edu, or stop by the gallery during gallery hours.

Congratulations, Barb!