Duds and Discounts
Yipes! So that's what things look like when I don't turn on my PC
for three days -- my Hotmail account is nearly full, and there's way
too much to read throughout the comics blogosphere. Much of the
blogging
seems to revolve around a little movie called
Spider-Man 2,
which I did manage to see yesterday. So far
Sean's
take probably best sums up my own feelings, but I've still enjoyed
reading
Jim
Henley's thoughts on the movie. I agree with Jim that the
themes he discusses are in the movie, but that's part of my problem
with
SM2: The themes are in, around, under, and on
top of this movie in such a painfully hammered-home way that it's
impossible to get lost in the story. Everyone's speechifying
their laughably inane thoughts in the most stilted manner
possible. Perhaps this is the Ditko influence by way of Ayn
Rand? We can't have moments that are subtle or nuanced;
everything must be made obvious and tedious, preferably by having the
characters
pontificate philosophies at the audience via long-winded soliloquies.
I did think the filmmakers managed to make Doc Ock a much cooler
villain than he ever was in the comics. Loved the idea of the
arms controlling him, especially with the visual of the pincers as a
dinosaur head whispering in his ear. The sound effects also went
a long way toward
establishing the alien-ness of Ock's tentacles without overdoing
it. (Perhaps the movie would have been better if the special
effects crew had also been responsible for reining in Maguire's and
Dunst's performances.)
Back in the realm of actual comic books, I've been reading a lot
of trashy, pulpy manga lately.
My local Half Price Books has stacks of what look like remaindered
books from
ComicsOne, all
reduced to the low, low
clearance price of two bucks apiece. So I picked up full sets of
Offered,
Goku:
Midnight Eye, and
Kabuto,
as well as the first two volumes of
Wounded
Man.
(As further evidence that these books were remaindered,
ComicsOne is unloading sets of these and other series at
half-off on
their website.)
Finally, DCBS has this month's
specials
up. Fans of Mark Millar should be happy, as both the
Ultimates
hardcover and the first
MK Spider-Man collection
are offered at 50% off. Myself, I'm more excited about the Russ
Manning
Magnus Robot Fighter HC (50% off), Andy Diggle
and Pascual Ferry's
Adam Strange #1 (75% off), and the
first two volumes of Grant Morrison's
Doom Patrol (both
50% off).
