I have been binge reading the books, and then the comics, of author Mike Carey, and I think you should as well. Mighty Dale and I discussed such above. huzzah.
Seriously, though, the Felix Castor books are absolutely top notch. Carey takes the template of his comic series Lucifer (which you should also read), and from it creates the world of British exorcist Felix Castor. It’s similar to both Constantine, and the Harry Dresden books, but of a higher order. The writing is very good, as well as the stories. Harry Dresden books are fun, but it’s not literature. The Felix Castor books run at a higher level, intellectually, while still being fun. Read them. Read them all.
Seriously. I am so glad I gave Mike Carey a try. He’s great.
So the new Batman V Superman trailer debuted on Wednesday Dec 2nd, and there were a lot of mixed emotions in the Dale of the Dead household, I watched it over and over, processing everything I was seeing. Anybody who knows me will tell you I am an unashamed comic book fan. DC, Marvel, Dark Horse, Vertigo, whatever, I don’t pick sides because I know I live in the golden age of seeing my favorite heroes being put up on the big screen. I have nothing to bitch about.
Finally, the Justice League
I’ve eagerly awaited the day that we’d see a Justice League movie, and when the big news hit I was excited as all hell. I liked Man of Steel for the most part, and am a big fan of Henry Cavill as Superman. I’m worried because the more I see of this movie,the more my excitement diminishes. Let’s talk about the trailer, the good, the bad, the straight up fuckin weird.
Here is is if you haven’t seen it yet, or you want to go back and see something I mention.
Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice Trailer
So our trailer starts off with Daily Planet reporter Clark Kent, at some fancy ass soiree. He sees a car pull up and asks who the driver is. spoiler alert, it’s Bruce Wayne. Seriously Clark?!?!? You work for the press, and you have no idea who Bruce Wayne is? The FUCKING BILLIONAIRE FACE OF GOTHAM, and you’re clueless? Maybe Zod smacked him around too much and fucked up his long term memory.
Clark introduces himself to Bruce and asks him his opinion on the “bat vigilante”. Batfleck pulls an “I dipped my dick in your soup” grin that only a douchey billionaire could pull off. Then it’s cue the montage of bat stuff going down. Police raiding a home and finding a baddie tied up, and branded with a bat symbol. BRANDED. This I actually like. The brutality is great.
Batman needs to be more extreme than Superman due to his lack of powers, so this was fine with me. You hear the conversation between Clark and Bruce playing over the action. Bruce accuses Clark of being a hypocrite since every time Superman saves a cat out of a tree Clark writes a puff piece about it. Batfleck then drops the “I have a bad history with freaks dressed like clowns” an obvious nod to Joker. We then see the Robin suit with “hahaha joke’s on you Batman” scrawled on it, implying that this takes place in a post Jason Todd world.
When titans meet
All this has great tension, the music is sufficiently dark and foreboding, all this leads to…………Jesse Eisenberg’s Lex Luthor. He breaks all that tension by very campily calling, “BOYS!!! This Lex totally majored in musical theater.
Lex proceeds to ingratiate himself to Bruce and Clark, and act like a total douche nozzle. Seriously, how Clark refrains from punching a hole in Lex’s face is beyond me. I got a few seconds of him and it was enough to drive me into a murderous rage.
More Montage
Onward to another montage of things we’ve seen already for the most part. Superman and his weird SWAT team, Superman showing up for his hearing, more Lex, Bruce saying that Superman brought the war to earth, scenes of the Superman/Zod fight from Man of Steel (I’m actually excited to see that fight from a different perspective), and shots of Batman and Superman duking it out. We hear Lex saying “the greatest gladiator fight in the history of the world! Son of Krypton vs Bat of Gotham!”
This implies that Lex is manipulating one or both of them against each other, for undoubtably nefarious purposes. We also get some cool shots of what I assume is the batwing, and we see Amy Adams as Lois Lane. Hey Amy, welcome to the party. Then more fighting, and a shot of the bat mobile, which I actually think looks pretty damn good. I hated the tumbler so this is a welcome change for me. Then we get that really strange shot of Batman fighting Superman’s SWAT guys in some kind of desert suit,while strange flying moth things fly around and pick up SWAT guys. I can’t make heads or tails of this, but I think it’s Bruce’s dream sequence about a world where Superman goes unchecked.
What the fuck is happening here?!?!?!?!
This leads to my favorite part of the trailer, Superman and Batman fight in the rain and Superman tells Batman, “Stay down, if I wanted it you’d be dead already.” Which really is true. Without the use of kryptonite Batman really could never realistically stand a chance. He’s alive because of Superman’s restraint, which also shows me what I suspected the whole time. The killing of Zod in Man of Steel was a turning point for Clark. He learned that he never wants to do that again, and here it shows that he is maintaining that ideology; one step closer to becoming the blue boy scout we all know from the comic books. On another note, Batman’s Dark Knight Returns armor looks pretty damn good.
better than I was expecting honestly
What Day Is It? Doomsday.
Then comes the big reveal, which imo was just way way too much for a trailer. We see General Zod’s body being wheeled to Lex, and this is when the trailer gets real Frankensteinesque, with lightning and shit, and the mad scientist Lex Luthor declaring, “If man won’t kill God, then the Devil will do it.” That’s when we hear a roar and see something crashing down the side of a building. Out of the smoke and wreckage… Doomsday, and ladies and gentlemen, he ain’t looking so hot.
I had NO idea that the cave troll from lord of the rings was crossing over into the DC universe, good for him, finally getting his big break
Wonder Woman Saves the Day
Doomsday fires his laser face at Batman and Superman, who are seemingly fucked, only to be saved by Wonder Woman. But I feel this may be a different scene entirely.You know how tricky trailers can be.
Supes looks at Bats and asks “Is she with you?” Bats looks back and with his weird robot, throat cancer voice says, “I thought she was with you.” ha fucking ha. I’m getting too old for this hackneyed shit. We then get our first shot of the holy trinity in action.
I give you your trinity
Mighty Dale’s Judgement
So that’s my rundown of the trailer. Now I’ll give you my opinion. It has some good stuff. I’m cool with Batfleck, I’m cool with Henry Cavill as Superman. So far I can’t stand Jesse Eisenberg as Lex Luthor. Lex is supposed to be an intimidating business man, who gets his way through intelligence and brutality, for fucks sake. The man becomes president at one point, I can’t see the Eisenberg Luthor ever becoming president. I can only hope that his douchebag behavior is an act to mask his true evil nature. I can say the same for Doomsday almost, I hope that over the course of the movie he evolves into the version of Doomsday we know and love, and this is just his very first incarnation. In the end guys and girls, I’ll be in line, probably at midnight, to check this movie out, but am I not 100% sold on this DC universe, not even close.
Ladies and gentlemen, breaking news has dropped straight from the set of the hit CW show Arrow. The hit adaptation of the DC comic’s hero and Justice League member Green Arrow has recently revealed a new photo, which shows Oliver’s partner, sidekick, and confidante John Diggle finally suiting up and donning the mantle of………………….Magneto?
That’s right, kids. Diggle is suiting up, and by suiting up I mean something between a leather daddy, and (Power) Top Gear.
The World’s First Analrapist
(Not So) Secret Identity
Now what baffles me is why would Diggle suit up now? He’s two years into his vigilantism, and NOW he wants to hide his identity? Everybody knows you already. Do you think the League of Assassin’s are going to go, “Whatever happened to that Diggle guy?” and the new Ra’s will simply say, “Disappeared, but another tall, buff, black guy appeared right after, hanging around Team Arrow.”
Now don’t get me wrong here, friends, I’m not bashing the guy. I’m as big a Diggle fan as the next guy, but slapping a helmet on on him that:
A. looks like Magneto’s and
B. it barely covers his face
It’s stupid, cheap, and cheesy. You can do better, Arrow costume department. Look at what The Flash has done. They’ve created a functional suit that looks great, is true to the source material, but still original.
Diggle’s suit looks like the losing outfit on Project Runway.
I hope Arrow can recapture the magic of season 2. It’s more important than ever after such a weak 3rd season, which had so many low points it’s hard to list them all (but I’ll name the ones that irk me the most)
Mighty Dale Judges Season 3
Olicity. Just typing that word made me dry heave a little. Then the fact that the show runners basically took the Bruce Wayne story, slapped the name Oliver Queen on it, and sold it as a unique idea. That’s cheaper than Diggle’s goddamn suit. Oliver and Felicity driving a porsche off into the sunset was garbage, and it should have been left on the cutting room floor. It’s so ridiculous and so cheesy I had to burst out with laughter. The convertible, the smiles, the blonde hair, the sunset, the end of season one had the glades blowing up and Oliver more or less failing to save the day, season 2 had the amazing Slade Wilson finally put away in an A.R.G.U.S. facility, and season 3, well, I had to check to make sure I wasn’t watching an episode of Beverly Hills 90210.
CW, stop diluting cool shows with tween romance shit, in order to skew to a younger demo. It’s like adding whipped cream to scotch.
please tell me the car’s going to blow up, please tell me the car’s going to blow up, wait it’s not going to blow up?!?!?!?!
Guys and girls, I don’t know if Season 4 can fight it’s way back, but I sure hope it does, this is a show that has had some real highs, and it’s taken the viewer on some great adventures. Lets all hope we get a great 4th season…………starring Magneto, and if not, heres to Legends of Tomorrow. Welcome back Sara Lance, we’ve missed you.
dale of the dead 