Ultimately Off-Topic VII: The Miles Frontier

[Spiderx3000]

http://youtu.be/zbddOhsXBr4 That's episode 2. I think there's a total of six.

[sage6paths]

I'm not sure because I was quite young when Episode I came out. I think the books and comics mostly focused on the events after Return of the Jedi, so I don't think a lot of stuff was written over. I know there are a lot of post-Jedi books that are now really old stories. There's so much of it, it'd be a shame to waste it all. Especially considering how good they are.

I really don't want Darth Vader resurrected. If they want to do a film about him, they should do a film taking place in between the events of Episodes 3 and 4. Like the book Star Wars: Dark Lord where Darth Vader hunts down the last remaining Jedi, who have escaped to the outer-rim. That would be sick!


That was great. Is there a part two?

Part 3- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N-_5fFk__-w
Part 4- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GCXc-NQj73s
Part 5 - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3zJpszzTWgA
Part 6 -http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zticOAwVvaM
That's all of them unless you read the Astonishing X-men comic.

[sage6paths]

Also Robbie there is the excellent motion comic called Thor Loki Blood Brothers drawn by Esad Ribic that was awesome. It's pretty long though.

[Robbie_Jee]

I completely disagree with that. I know the Whedon phenomena you're describing but I interpret it much differently. I've always seen Whedon as somebody who pulls stage performances out of his actors, which translates uniquely on screen. I prefer it a lot actually. It's what makes Mark Ruffalo's performance so good in Avengers.

I not familiar with Whedon Phenomena. It's just my personal opinion.

What's a "stage" performance? Is it like Tom Hardy in Batman: The Dark Knight Rises because that is by far his worst performance to date in the way it felt like a one-dimensional performance rather than a serious piece of acting. It was quite strange for me to see such a drop in quality in his acting, especially after his performance in The Take. I think that performance is by far the most complex and most layered characterised performance in all of film. It's staggering. It's like Hardy is an acting scientist, throwing different mannerisms in a blender and creating a unique character design. It's insane. I've never known acting like it. It's SO layered. I recommend everyone watching it. The Take was a four episode TV series on SkyOne that depicted character portrayals that were far beyond anything I had ever seen from anyone before.

Every actor in Avengers Assembled were really, really terrible, like they all came from a B-List horror movie. I think Mark Ruffalo seemed like a good Bruce Banner for three reasons. 1: because of how bad all the other actors were. 2: Because the previous two Hulk actors weren't very good. 3: The motion capture of his face upon the Hulk was excellent. The similarity between Ruffalo's face and Hulk's was really great to see.

[Robbie_Jee]

Thanks, SpiderX and Sage. I'll watch them all.

[Spiderx3000]

I not familiar with Whedon Phenomena. It's just my personal opinion.

What's a "stage" performance? Is it like Tom Hardy in Batman: The Dark Knight Rises because that is by far his worst performance to date in the way it felt like a one-dimensional performance rather than a serious piece of acting. It was quite strange for me to see such a drop in quality in his acting, especially after his performance in The Take. I think that performance is by far the most complex and most layered characterised performance in all of film. It's staggering. It's like Hardy is an acting scientist, throwing different mannerisms in a blender and creating a unique character design. It's insane. I've never known acting like it. It's SO layered. I recommend everyone watching it. The Take was a four episode TV series on SkyOne that depicted character portrayals that were far beyond anything I had ever seen from anyone before.

Every actor in Avengers Assembled were really, really terrible, like they all came from a B-List horror movie. I think Mark Ruffalo seemed like a good Bruce Banner for three reasons. 1: because of how bad all the other actors were. 2: Because the previous two Hulk actors weren't very good. 3: The motion capture of his face upon the Hulk was excellent. The similarity between Ruffalo's face and Hulk's was really great to see.

WHAT! Who doesn't love Robert Downey Jr. as Iron Man! ;) To be honest I didn't mind the cast I thought they done very well. Mark Ruffalo was great as Hulk. I think I would have enjoyed Tom Hardy's performance of Bane more if I could actually understand what he was saying.:)

[Robbie_Jee]

WHAT! Who doesn't love Robert Downey Jr. as Iron Man! ;) To be honest I didn't mind the cast I thought they done very well. Mark Ruffalo was great as Hulk. I think I would have enjoyed Tom Hardy's performance of Bane more if I could actually understand what he was saying.:)

Oh yeah. My mistake. Robert Downey Jr is an excellent Tony Stark.

[taylor51]

So, Plawsky, my fellow Hickman-ite. We're three issues into Avengers. How do you feel the first arc stacks up against his two other recent big starts?

Personally, I felt that the first 6 pages of issue one were borderline perfection. Textbook Hickman foreshadowing of epicness, good mantra for the team, ties in well with the gravity of what's going on in New Avengers after the fact with Cap's nightmare, etc. Through the rest of the arc, I dug Hickman's action choreography and the character moments that happened during the fight scenes and man oh MAN was Opena murdering on art.

My only complaint is how compressing Hulk/Iron Man/Hawkeye/Black Widow/Thor's defeat at the hands of the Builders into three and a half pages cheapened the rest of the arc for me. I mean, sending Cap back to Earth broken as a message was great, the whole recruitment drive in flashback to save the original X-Men from Krakoa (I mean uh... yeah, you get the point ) thing worked for me, the urgency of getting back to Mars and saving everyone acted as the new team's trial by fire well enough and Ex Nihilo/Abyss/Aleph all seemed pretty cool after being given time to introduce themselves, but I feel like the Builders were never properly established as all that big a threat before the arc got rolling. I guess I feel like if we had gotten "Thor vs. First Knife" instead of "mind controlled Hulk gets sicced on his teammates for the umpteenth time" I would have been able to view the Builders as something more than the latest threat the heroes had to job to before the plot could get going and thus enjoy the entire arc better.

Anyway, that's where I'm at. What are your thoughts?

[RockyBanks]

Yay weekend. Boo work.

How to spend Friday evening? Comics or TV?

[Plawsky]

Yay weekend. Boo work.

How to spend Friday evening? Comics or TV?

[RockyBanks]

Don't mind if I do, thanks.

In related news, here's the best hate-mail line I've ever read in a comic book letters page:

"I hope you both eat something that disagrees with you, and you spend an entire day on the toilet."

[Balfro]

Don't mind if I do, thanks.

In related news, here's the best hate-mail line I've ever read in a comic book letters page:

"I hope you both eat something that disagrees with you, and you spend an entire day on the toilet."

Bahahahahaha! That's awesome!


Also, tonight is my last night in Hawaii :( I have one more sunset tomorrow at 6 pm and then it's off to the airport...

On the plus side I get to be with my girlfriend again after a whole month of being apart and me staring at tanned bikini babes :) and in two weeks time I'm bringing out the shiny circle of together-foreverness.

[Sinx]

Bahahahahaha! That's awesome!


Also, tonight is my last night in Hawaii :( I have one more sunset tomorrow at 6 pm and then it's off to the airport...

On the plus side I get to be with my girlfriend again after a whole month of being apart and me staring at tanned bikini babes :) and in two weeks time I'm bringing out the shiny circle of together-foreverness.

That sucks about leaving Hawaii, but I bet you're glad to see your girlfriend again. Good luck with proposing!

[Plawsky]

So, Plawsky, my fellow Hickman-ite. We're three issues into Avengers. How do you feel the first arc stacks up against his two other recent big starts?

----

Anyway, that's where I'm at. What are your thoughts?

I'm really digging it. That said, I think New Avengers is a much better book. I loved the opening of Avengers, but I wasn't super into the first arc. The art, obviously, is incredible, but the story didn't do a whole lot for me. Part of that is because there was some necessary set up. Hickman isn't used to writing big "super hero" moments yet - like team fights and banter - so some of that felt clunky. His strength is much more in the plotting and ideas. I'm looking forward to seeing what the longterm plans are, though.

New Avengers, on the other hand, is already near perfection. This is the perfect book for him, and I feel like these characters are much better suited for him than the characters in Avengers. It's a great followup to his FF run; I just wish he was still on Ultimates. So much so.

In related news, I just ordered the Nightly News off Amazon, so I'm looking forward to reading that soon. But I've got a lot of new graphic novels and trades lying around that I need to get to. I still need to finish Mind the Gap and the most recent Chew volume, I got another volume of Invincible (I'm now at v9), and I picked up the TPB of Ultra for five bucks today. Also Ghost World and Building Stories. And I might finally read the first trade of Invisibles, which I've had for like two years now.

Man... lots to read.

[Plawsky]

Oh yeah, and I saw Movie 43 tonight. It's the worst thing that's ever happened in the history of things that have happened. Seriously.