In a shocking turn of events the first official poster for Breaking Dawn – Part 1 is suprisingly lacking in the brooding character department. Nowhere to be found are a single mopey teenage girl, a glittering pedophile vampire, nor a hunky werewolf (What? The dude is pretty ripped).
I imagine the conversation of how to design this poster went something like this:
“So, we need to make another Twilight poster.”
“Damnit. Really? How many more of these are there?”
“Just one more after this. But seriously, this is due to the studio execs in like twenty minutes.”
“Okay, okay. How about Bella and Edward holding each other longingly?”
“No, we did that with the first movie.”
“Right. How about then we put Bella, Edward and Jacob all on the poster standing there, each looking off into different directions with brooding expressions on their faces?”
“New Moon.”
“Damnit! Okay, what about that same idea, but they are all looking at the camera with brooding expressions?”
“Eclipse.”
“I really can’t think of any more ways to put a teenage girl who suffers from chronic depression, a 100+ year old vampire who’s into young girls, and a werewolf who apparently doesn’t own a single shirt on a poster that’s going to appeal to this fanbase.”
“Hey, check out this image that came up when I did a Google Search for ‘Dawn Breaking’!”
“Nice! Throw the title over that! Who gives a shit anyways? Let’s go get a beer.”
In any case, if you click the poster image above you can see the high-res version that has pretty much nothing on it. Gawd-Almighty I can’t wait for the last installment of this movie to be released so this will all just be done and over with. How did I end up being the one to cover this stuff for BSR?! Twilight is in the top three things I absolutely hate in this world! Honestly! Check out my list:
1. Politics
2. Hitler Twilight
3. Hitler
4. Bono
5. Banana Pudding
6. People with Bad B.O.
7. People who are obsessed with In N’ Out
8. People who bring their crying children to grown-up movies
9. People who make eye contact with me
10. People in general
See?! It actually bumped Hitler down a place!
Naw. In all seriousness I love writing about this stuff. There are few things in this world that bring me joy like getting Twilight fans all worked up in a hissy-fit.
You know the drill. Tell me how much you love Twilight and hate me in the comments below!
Sometimes, I find myself with a problem when I do these columns. When a character has been around a while, there are so many re-tellings of an origin, adding and subtracting certain elements and sometimes using new characters with the same name! I always wonder which is the “best” origin to showcase. When searching through my back issues for today’s subject though, It was particularly difficult. In the end, I decided to focus on my favorite version of a character rather than drown in a sea of minutia. This character’s atomic structure is complex enough as it is, so let’s just dive in and check out… The Secret Origin of Firestorm, the Nuclear Man!
As many origins go, this one starts with a framing sequence. In this one, it’s pretty obvious that Firestorm is new to the hero scene, as he’s still testing out his abilities. He’s flying above the city, and causing quite the commotion. Such a distraction is he, that he ends up having to save an onlooker who’s about to get hit by a taxi. Now if this were your run of the mill hero, like Superman or the Flash, they’d just speed in front and scoop the guy to safety, or just smash the taxi for dramatic effect. Instead, Firestorm uses his ability to alter matter to turn the taxi into water. Now, I’m no physicist, but just because something changes its atomic structure doesn’t mean it loses velocity, so Firestorm actually turned the pavement into a very painful Slip ‘N Slide. After that, Firestorm changes his destiny density and flies through a passing helicopter, freaking them right the hell out. This sort of irresponsibility is not what I want out of my heroes! To add an extra bit of weirdness, a disembodied voice tells Firestorm, or rather Ronald, that’s he’s doing a fine job!
I guess always having a guy in your head makes exposition easier.
And so, Firestorm flies off to confront Earhart, but when he gets there, the threat of death causes the Nuclear Man to flashback! Unlike most flashbacks, Firestorm’s only goes back to earlier that day. We’re looking in on the life of Ronnie Raymond, who is apparently the “Ronald” that the voice mentioned earlier. Anyway, it seems Ronnie is the new kid in school, but he must go to school in Bizarro world, where the jocks are picked on by the nerds…
If I knew outrageous facial hair helped you stand up to bullies, I never would have shaved in high school.
Cliff’s taunts continue throughout the day, finally getting the better of Ronnie in the cafeteria, where he lashes out! Unfortunately for Ronnie (and his burgeoning lady friend Doreen), he up ends his lunch tray and pelts the two of them with grade D meat and other things resembling food (this is a public school, after all). The day continues as such, with Ronnie lamenting that he flunked out of jock school and that he didn’t make any friends. Truly does it bring a tear to the eye. To keep up from getting too choked up, the narrative now takes us to the Hudson Nuclear Plant where we are told resides someone else very important to Firestorm, Professor Martin Stein.
“Except for that layabout in sector 7-G…”
Before Stein can truly savor being master of the atom, a former assistant busts in along with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. The assistant, Danton Black, accuses Stein of stealing the plans for the power plant. Of course Stein objects, saying Black is nothing but a thief and a liar, but the NRC says the plant isn’t allowed to open until a trial is held. It just goes to show you, no matter what super powers you have at your disposal, bureaucracy will always win. Stein is pretty broken up about it. Even though The China Syndrome wouldn’t be out until next year, he’s still keen enough to know that the public will assume the plant isn’t open because something is wrong structurally. Since this takes place in the DC Universe and not real life, Stein has a plan.
I never said it was a good plan!
Leaving Stein to his mad scientist ways, we switch back to Ronnie, who is checking out the news where there is a nuclear protest being led by the previously mentioned Eddie Earhart. Ronnie, being a dumb ass teenager, decides he can save face with Doreen and everyone else, if he joins up with Earhart’s group and takes a stand for something. Even if he personally doesn’t care about the issues, he’s gonna be popular, dammit! Apparently, the news story tells where the group is headquartered, since Ronnie finds it with no problem. It seems like it’s a wretched hive of scum and villainy, but Ronnie seems to have a blind spot when it comes to people with outrageous facial hair…
"You got it, Afro-Taft!"
Predictably, the group plans on raiding the nuclear plant that night, and as soon as they break in, Ronnie protesting all the way, they knock the foolish high schooler out. But Prof. Stein was watching all of this while powering up the atomic pile. He’s taken all he can stand at this point, and since there are no guards due to the plant, you know, not being open he decides to take matters into his own hands. While Stein has the element of surprise on his side, there is no way he can contend with the awesome mutton chopped might of Eddie Earhart!
Chunk Young? Isn't he a famous football player or something?
Now with any opposition knocked out, the nicely coiffed criminals set their explosives, because… well their motives aren’t exactly clear. I mean, blowing up a nuclear plant might get the point across to abandon nuclear power, but it’s more likely going to just kill a lot of people. At any rate, Ronnie, being hard of head, comes to just as the bad guys are leaving. He hears they’re next going to hit a plant in Jersey, but he decides it’s probably a better idea to save his own life at the moment. In said moment, a number of things happen. Danton Black shows up to steal Steins computer designs, Ronnie finds Prof. Stein and tries to save him, and oh yeah, the bomb goes off!
Yes, we call it "Comic Book Radiation"...
Black is also caught in the explosion, and it’ll cause him to later become the villain Multiplex, but seeing as this isn’t his story, we’re going to ignore him for now. In the heart of the explosion, Ronnie is experiencing sensations altogether new to him, and frankly, he likes it! It seems he and Professor Stein have fused into one being, albeit a naked one. Ronnie seems to have a lot of knowledge he didn’t previously, and instinctively knows how to alter matter. Thankfully for the reader’s eyes, that extends to clothing, and Ronnie whips himself up an outfit. He even goes as far to name himself Firestorm, because why not, and then we finally learn who the disembodied voice was from the beginning of our tale. If you didn’t figure it out on your own by this point though, please turn in your “Grasp of the Obvious” membership card.
Get it? Nuclear Fusion, cause they "fused" together? Verrrry clever.
Now we’ve come full circle, since Firestorm now goes off to test his powers. The flashback ends, and apparently Firestorm can give the Flash a run for his money when it comes to the fast thinking department, because all of that back story was recounted in a fraction of a second! Firestorm is in the thick of the fray now, Earhart orders his men to kill the Nuclear Man yet again, but the Ronnie/Stein combination is too much for the collective no-goodniks. He turns immaterial, he transmutes guns into cucumbers, he shoots blasts out of his hands that may or may not cause instant cancer! At this point, Earhart knows he’s licked, so he does what many a desperate man does and tries to kill everyone along with himself! It doesn’t quite work out that way.
"Hit you with an atomic belch? Well now that you mention it..."
Firestorm instead opts to just knock the guy out, which also works. The day won, Firestorm flies off, but being a fused being, he has a mini freakisode when he realizes that he may just be stuck as he is forever. We get a half page of a guy who could probably kill everyone on the planet going nuts, which is a little worrisome. The collective DCU breathes a sigh of relief when things calm down.
How can something be inexplicable, and then explained in the same panel? My head hurts.
At this point, Ronnie and a Professor Stein who doesn’t seem to remember a thing about their adventure stumble off into the sunset, beginning the strangest friend/partnership since peanut butter and bananas. Firestorm would go through many, many incarnations over the years, including the really excellent Jason Rusch version. The current Firestorm is a weird mix of Ronnie and Rusch and has just finished up a stint in Brightest Day, and it remains to be seen where the character will go from there. If nothing else, at least he has a pretty awesome costume, right?
This story originally appeared in Firestorm: The Nuclear Man #1 March, 1978. It’ll be collected in a trade paperback in July.
Anime Update: 5/24/2011 – AM2 Convention Guests and Charity Manga for digital devices.
Hey everyone! This week on Anime Update we’ve got AM2 convention guest announcements and information about a new charity manga series that you can pick up to benefit the Japanese Red Cross.
First up: Convention AM2, held in Anaheim, California, has just announced two very special guests will be attending this year from July 1st – 3rd. Akihiko Yamashita and Miho Shimogasa will be the guests of honor at what is one of the most anticipated anime, manga and music conventions on the West Coast!
Akihiko Yamashita is known for his outstanding work on the character design for Giant Robo: The Animation – The Day the Earth Stood Still and Zegapain. His first directorial work was at the world famous Studio Ghibli where he directed Chuzumo. Yamashita-san has also directed some of Studio Ghibli’s most famous projects including Howl’s Moving Castle, The Borrower Arrietty, Ponyo, and the latest film from Ghibli – Kokuriko. Check out this stunning trailer for The Borrower Arrietty – one of Yamashita-san’s most recent projects:
A fun side note about Yamashita-san: he has huge admiration for the works of J.J.Abrams and has said he is an avid “Trekker/Trekkie”.
Miho Shimogasa was born in Yokohama and decided to become an animator during her first part-time job as a cell painter (this was while she was still a university student). Upon graduating, Shimogasa-san joined the highly recognized anime studio Artland as an animator. She later became a freelance animator and has worked on such notable titles as Cutey Honey Flash, Kocchi Muite, Miiko, Nightwalker, Gokudo, Gravitation, Psychic Academy, The Prince of Tennis, Ultra Maniac, Powerpuff Girls Z, and Battle Spirits: Shonen Toppa Bashin. Shimogasa-san has served as Animation Director of Sailor Moon Supers, Sailor Moon Sailor Stars, and as assistant director in Galaxy Express 999: Eternal Fantasy.
Shimogasa San with her nekko. Kawaii desu ne!
Fun fact about Shimogasa-san: her name was used to name a twin maid character in Detective Conan.
A pass is not required for general admission to AM2, but those who do purchase a pass will receive many benefits. Attendees can avoid the anticipated huge lines at autographs, premiere screenings, workshops, main events, concerts and panels by purchasing a Passport Fast Pass. This pass will also provide holders with priority seating options at Main Events and at Concerts as well as earning discounts with nearby theme parks, retailers and local restaurants during the event weekend. Activities at the convention will include Exhibit Hall, AMV’s, Arcade, Summer Festival, World Cosplay Summit, Behind the Voice Actors Studio, Rum Party Pirates, Masquerade, Cosplay Chess, Dances, Fashion Shows, Table Top, Console Gaming, AniMaid Café, AniMaid Café Host Club, Workshops, Panels, Concerts and more! Get more information about AM2 over at their website.
Second this week: Viz Manga is now hosting Takehiko Inoue’s Smile: Pray for Japancharity manga series on their Digital Manga App.
Drawn on the iPad with Zen Brush app, the illustrations by master manga creator Takehiko Inoue portray smiling Japanese citizens of all ages. These images reflect a message of hope in the aftermath of the devastating disasters that struck Japan on March 11th. The creator has approved the wide use of these images for fundraising efforts in Japan. The digital compilations available through the VIZ Manga app is the first use of these images for fundraising outside of Japan.
Volumes 1 and 2 are now available and are priced $9.99 and $1.99 respectively. Future volumes will be made available for $1.99. All proceeds will be donated directly to the Japanese Red Cross Society. So, if you’ve been buying manga on your digital device, give this a look and support Japan’s Earthquake recovery! Learn more over at Viz’s website.
For more anime, manga and geek news from Japan and around the world, stay surfing on BSR!
The website for Star Wars Celebration VI went live today. It’s not much more than a tease, asking for your email address to send updates to. Which might be a little frustrating, because we were teased that we’d be getting an announcement soon and launching a website that takes your email address is hardly that.
Clearly, you’re here for my two cents and if you look at your calendar, you’ll notice that today is May 24th. Tomorrow is the 25th and the anniversary of beginning of the Star Wars saga.
It would not surprise me at all to see an actual announcement come tomorrow, straight to everyone’s inbox, circumventing the press entirely.
I’m still holding out hope for somewhere closer to the west coast, Salt Lake City, preferably.
It’s a new year, which means it’s time for a new Call of Duty game to be released! This years title will be the direct follow up to the wildly popular Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 with Modern Warfare 3.
The game is set to release on November 8 of this year and the story line will pick up directly where the events of the second installment left off – with an all out World War at hand, and America under attack on our own soil.
I enjoy Call of Duty: Black Ops, but I’m excited for the franchise to return to the Modern Warfare setting as it’s been my favorite so far. The single player campaign has an epic story line that I’m excited to see the resolution to, and of course the always fun – but sometimes very frustrating multiplayer aspect. It will be interesting to see what changes developers Seldgehammer Games and Raven Software bring to the table for multiplayer.
I am also surprised to see developer Infinity Ward still attached to this series since it was my understanding that Activision had burned some pretty big bridges with them in the previous games. Perhaps they wanted to see their story through to the end, since they are the developers exclusively for the campaign, not multiplayer. I’m sure Zombietron will know something about this and add his two cents.
In any case, I think the trailer looks epic and I can’t wait to get my hands on this game when it hits shelves later this year!
Arse-bot, Zombietron, Mexicus Prime, Kill-Tacular-Tron, Vagatron, and guest ‘caster, Dude-BroBot!
It’s time once again for your monthly dose of the Big Shiny Podcast!
This month we all gush over Thor, talk about our reservations over X-Men: First Class, our growing excitement for Green Lantern and other upcoming Summer blockbusters. The Smallville finale was disappointing, but that was to be expected, and so was the fact that NBC passed on Wonder Woman based on the pilot. We let Zombietron vent/rant about the Playstation Network outage for a solid 5 minutes and then talk about how awesome Mortal Kombat is. Vagatron brings he usual awesome grab bag of comic recommendations including why Ultimate Spider-Man is such a badass.
At the end of the ‘cast we introduce a new section called Jokin’ Off With Jimmy . . . yeah. Listen to figure out exactly what that is. You won’t will regret it.
So plug in your headphones and mentally prepare yourself for 2 hours of geeky podcast goodness!
It’s no secret that I’m a big fan of George Lucas and his works. Though some might say otherwise, it’s not a blind devotion, either. George Lucas is an incredible filmmaker in his own right and his pre-Star Wars films I would count among my favorites, whether or not Star Wars had ever happened.
One of those two films, American Graffiti, is being released on Blu-ray next week and it’s a must have for any serious cinephile.
The film itself is worth owning in any format. The film is a documentary-feeling examination of the car culture of the late 50s and early 60s. It takes place over one night and has some of the finest performances out of Richard Dreyfus, Cindy Williams, Ron Howard, Charlie Martin Smith, and plenty of others. This is one of my favorite movies because of its incredible direction, acting, storytelling, use of music… All of it. It’s one of those films that brings everything together perfectly and ends with a bang (literally in the case of Harrison Ford’s character, Bob Falfa.) The film is charming, funny, quotable, preposterously well-written… Above all, it’s engaging and timeless. If you haven’t seen it, I implore you: SEE IT NOW. This new release is the perfect reason to buy this film and watch it.
One of the biggest reasons this release is perfect is the quality of picture. George Lucas personally oversaw the digital cleanup work on this film and it is one of the best looking Blu-rays I’ve ever scene. This is an incredible colorful film and the neon and bright lights stand out on a screen in a way I never expected possible. American Graffiti was shot in what’s been called “poor man’s anamorphic,” meaning that each frame was half of a 35mm frame split in two so that the film got them twice as far and they didn’t have to use anamorphic lenses while shooting. The movie is very dark, shot almost entirely at night, and I had always assumed the grainy nature of the film would be impossible to sharpen. I was wrong.
This release looks truly stunning.
Another great thing about this release is the behind the scenes documentaries. George Lucas has always provided incredibly insightful and inspiring documentaries for his material and this is no exception. When it was on the DVD, I must have watched the documentaries a dozen times and they are educational and give me a jolt of creativity that’s more effective than coffee.
New to this release is a video commentary starring George Lucas. It’s interesting to listen to and offers great stories about the production of the film, but the video component to it seemed useless to me. I like looking at George as much as the next guy, but I really felt like the video element was a distraction.
I was very appreciative, though, that there was an option that told me the song playing during the film. There are so many damned songs on the soundtrack (all of them great) that it’s nice to have some way of figuring out what they all are other than guess work.
If you’re like me and you’ve been sucked into True Blood, then you’ll be just as excited as I am that the Season 4 Trailer has arrived today from HBO. Admittedly, I have a pretty strong love/hate relationship with True Blood in that sometimes I enjoy it immensely and other times I want to give up because the characters are just so extreme. Despite my frustration with some of the characters on the show (mostly Tara), they always keep me coming back for more. It also leaves me wondering if there are any good (by this I mean not-so-corrupted) people living in the town of Bon Temps? (I think Hoyt is perhaps the only one.)
This season we’re going to see even more supernatural forces creep up on the little Louisiana town of Bon Temps. Necromancers arrive and it is rumored that they can perhaps control vampires since they are technically dead. Sookie has to deal with more drama and death popping up all around her, and we will soon see if she will choose Bill or Eric (or maybe Alcide the werewolf) as her next lover.
Give the trailer a watch and tune in to HBO on June 26th to see the Season Premier.
Here is the first long trailer for Torchwood: Miracle Day! And it looks like this season is gonna be a doozy! This series will be a BBC/Starz joint production and stars John Barrowman and Eve Myles who reprise their roles of Captain Jack Harkness and Gwen Cooper. Also joining them will be Bill Pullman, Mekhi Phifer, and Alexa Havins. Torchwood: Miracle Day airs July 8th in the US on Starz. It is looking like this is going to kick all sorts of ass!
