01/26/05 New Comic Review

Every week I will review the new comics that I read each week. Each comic will be reviewed and I will give my thoughts to each. So this week's comics:

Amazing Spider-Man #516: Skin Deep (part 2 of 4) So after the building collapsed last issue on Peter Parker's childhood friend, Charlie Weiderman, we see the emergency crews cleaning up the mess. Rescue crews find Charlie lying amid the charred remains of the building, his body a red metallic tint. Charlie awakens and panics throwing the rescue crew away from him. By accident an oxygen tank is ruptured igniting yet another blaze. Meanwhile, Peter is at home with Mary Jane getting ready for a Dress Rehearsal. Peter hears about the the inferno on the news and rushes out the house as Spider-Man. Peter has a flashback of childhood when Charlie would routinely get picked on by the school bullies.One day Charlie is so fed-up with being picked on that he chooses to fight back, with the aid of his father's pocket knife. When the bullies confront Charlie and attempt to pick on him, Peter sees that Charlie has a knife concealed behind his back. Peter knocks himself into Charlie, which dislodges the knife from Charlie's grip. A teacher runs over and discovers the knife on the ground and asks to whom it belongs. With Charles silence, Peter says it is his. Peter's Uncle Ben is called and the Peter tells him the truth about what happened. Uncle Ben understands and tells Peter to stay away from Charlie, because he is nothing but trouble.
Peter exhausted from swingin around the city, returns to an empty home. A knock is heard at the door, it is Charlie asking for Peter's help. Peter and Charlie discuss what has happened. Charlie demands that Peter help him, Peter is unsure. Charlie then threatens that he will kill everyone Peter knows unless he gets his help.

Teen Titans #20: Starfire and Cyborg stand atop the Titans Tower talking, she is telling him that she has to leave. She wants to be with Dick Grayson, Nightwing. Robin, Tim Drake, watches as Starfire flies off. Robin tells Cyborg that he is going camping with his father. We know this to be a lie, because Tim's father was murdered during Identity Crisis.
Interlude: Electrocutioner visits Bolt in the hospital. Electrocutioner wants to know what was in the box that Bolt was hired to get when he was shot by a couple gang members.
Robin has made the decision that he doesn't want to let his teammates know that his father was killed. Upstairs, Wonder Girl is helping Raven become more personable. Suddenly Beast Boy interrupts them, and notices Raven's new look. This triggers Raven's anger and she casts Beast Boy out of the room. Meanwhile, in Robin's room Superboy drops in and tells Robin that he knows about his father. Abruptly an alarm sounds, there is a problem in Opal city. On a rooftop we find the two gang members who stole the Luthor Suit from the box that Bolt was supposed to acquire. One of them has the suit on and is testing it, when the Titans arrive. Simultaneously, Electrocutioner arrives to take back the suit. A battle ensues, with the Titans victorious, except during the battle, the villain Warp teleports in and takes the suit with him. After the battle, Robin is able to tell his teammates that about his father.
Epilogue: Warp delivers the suit to Lex Luthor, who is seen studying Superboy for some menacing reason.

Other issues out this week:

New X-Men Academy #9
X-23 #2
Earth's Mightiest Heroes #6 of 8
JLA Classified #3
Uncanny X-men #454
Batman #636
Fantastic Four #522 (Rising Storm part 3 of 4)
Spectacular Spider-Man #24 (Sins Remembered part 2)
Legion of Super-Heroes #2
The Flash #218
Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe: Women of Marvel 2005

Oscar Buzz

So there are several films that have been getting a lot of Oscar buzz. I haven't seen them so I couldn't tell you if the buzz is sincere or just unfounded. Here are a few of the noteworthy contenders.

Million Dollar Baby: Clint Eastwood directs and stars in this dramatic piece about a boxing coach (Eastwood) who coaches a young talented female boxer (Hillary Swank). During the course of the film several life lessons are learned. I wasn't that fond of Eastwood's previous film, Mystic River, although Sean Penn did win the Oscar last year. Perhaps Eastwood has another hit on his hands this year.

Sideways: This small film recently appeared and has garnered some great praise. It features Paul Giamatti, who is becoming a terrific actor by choosing to do small meaningful films. I look forward to seeing this one soon.

The Aviator: About a week ago I wouldn't have mentioned this film as being an Oscar contender. Yet at the Golden Globes, this film attained much respect by winning Best Picture (Drama) and Best Actor (Drama) for Leanardo DiCaprio. Two heavyweight awards for this film, has to be taken into consideration for Oscar night.

There are of course other films that will be receive various other nominations, but I don't think we will see any film that will sweep the Oscars. This past year did see several big-budget movies, like Troy and Alexander. However, their box-office doldrums may prevent them from Oscar night glory.

I look forward to hearing the nominations, which I believe will be announced January 25th.

RB

My Church Experience

So in the comic collecting world, the legend of Chuck Rozanski is well known for his discovery of the Church collection. For those that do not know what this is, I will briefly explain. In the 70's a teenage boy by the name of Chuck Rozanski who dabbled in buying and selling comics, received a call about a collection of comics in Colorado, where Chuck lived at the time. So Chuck goes to investigate the collection. What he finds is an immaculate collection of every imaginable old comic in mint condition. He is so taken with the collection he buys them all for a small fraction of their actual worth. Apparently the seller was the wife of the owner of the collection, as the owner, Church, was terminally ill. So anyway, Chuck quickly sells off the collection to the highest bidders and makes a fortune. In the process he builds a chain of comic books stores, known as Mile High Comics. To this day, Chuck is an icon in the comic field.

On to my story.

On the CGC message boards. A new user posted that he had a collection of old books that he had to sell right away. He lives in the area and needs to sell fast. So I contacted him with dreams of finding these mint copies of rare books. I was thinking of how I could quickly sell them for a profit and what I would buy with the money. Then I started to think that maybe this was a scam to get me to go to his place to see his "collection" with a lot of money. He might then rob me of my money, and leave me forlorn.

He seemed polite enough and helpful. So we arranged a time when I could see the comics the next day. I went there fully expecting to get robbed. I hide my money in the car along with wallet, and for security I took a pocket knife with me. Not that I felt the pocket knife afforded any sort of protection, but at least I wasn't empty-handed.

I had no need to be afraid of the seller, he was genuine in needing to sell his collection. There were no thugs awaiting me behind the door to waylay me. Of course in flipping through his collection, which was very neatly laid out upon the floor, I saw several books that I would love to own and keep for my collection. However most of the books were lower grades and not the mint copies that I had dreamt of. When I asked how much he wanted for the books, he told me he would accept 50% of guide. This depressed me, because I knew that even at 50% of guide the books would be a significant amount of money. So my dreams of leaving with boxes of comics, was reduced to the reality of leaving with 4 comics. My total spending ended up being $23.00.

I guess this should teach me a lesson of some kind. Yet, if I receive another tip about a old collection of comics, you can bet I will dreaming of my own Church collection.

RB

Lost

After watching last night's episode, I really wish the story would move along a little faster. This is the best show on television right now. Although they do leave a lot of open plots.

Some of the characters I like:

• Sawyer - the rebel: I love his attitude and the easy going manner in which he handles himself. He provides a very strong male influence on the island and is the only one that challenges Jack.
• Locke - the adventurer: The true hunter and an enigma. He seems to be the only on the island who truly understands the mysteries of the island. Although he sems to have a darker side to him.
• Hurley - the big guy: Very genuine in his manner. He provides a little bit of comedic relief for the castaways. They haven't shown his background yet, but I look forward to seeing his story.
• Kate - the beautiful felon: She has quite a bit of skills and a keen intellect. This is probably due to her criminal background. Not to sure of what her motivation is to do bad things, outside of the thrill of it.

The rest are very enjoyable to watch and I look forward to each week's episode.

Fresh Start

So this will be my first attempt at writing a Journal or Blog, as it's known on the web. My 2005 commitment is to update this frequently. Hopefully I can provide entertaining reading for anyone who happens to wander by.

My main interest right now is comic book collecting, which I will go into detail at a later date. Hopefully in the next few months I can show you some pictures of some great looking comic book artwork.

Anyway, thanks for stopping by and have a nice day.

RB