The Flickcast

The Pull List Comic Reviews: ‘Dark Reign: The List – Amazing Spider-Man’, ‘Dr. Horrible’, ‘Flash: Rebirth’ and More

Posted on November 19, 2009

Welcome to another edition of The Pull List Comic Reviews! An incredibly solid week as we’ve got three Blackest Night tie-ins, some speedster action and a particularly “horrible” tale, but only one issue each week tops the “list.” Be sure to let us know what you thought of these issues, we’re always interested to hear from you, the readers. As always, WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD.

PULL OF THE WEEK:

dark-reign-the-list-amazing-spider-man-cover Dark Reign: The List – Amazing Spider-Man One-Shot – Marvel Comics – $3.99 US
Writer: Dan Slott
Artist: Adam Kubert
Score: 9.5

Norman Osborn made a list and he’s checking it more than twice as certain thorns in his side have gotten his full attention. Everyone from the X-Men to the Avengers have had to deal with him, and by now you’ve heard of how the Punisher went to pieces over his clash with the H.A.M.M.E.R. Director, so how will Spider-Man do? Hint: Spidey doesn’t win this one.

I’ll start with Dan Slott’s writing in this issue, and simply state that he crushed it. There’s no other way to say it, really. Sure, an argument could be made that Spidey should have done something by now, especially considering his history with Stormin’ Norman. Put that aside, if you ever wanted to see Peter Parker triumph at anything – he’s had a ridiculously long losing streak since “Brand New Day” – then this is the issue for you.

It’s been a few months since artist Adam Kubert penciled some pages, but with that amount of lead-time you knew this issue would be stunning. He failed to disappoint. Crammed with gorgeous visuals, the entire one-shot was a treat, even when the action had decidedly died down for the last act. One look at the very first page is all you need to know in regards to how good the art is.

Review: ‘Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans’

Posted on November 19, 2009

Not many people say it, but Nicolas Cage gets a bad rap. Often, even from me. Sure, he’s made some questionable script choices in the past, and been known for a few colorful and even over-the-top performances, but if there’s one thing he is known for, it’s consistency in a role. That’s exactly what he brings to the table with Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans.

The film is an almost-modern-day reboot of the 1992 film starring Harvey Keitel. This time, rather than the rough streets of New York City, the setting has been changed to a post-Katrina New Orleans, with crime high and morals low, the only thing left to keep the streets safe is a deranged lieutenant on a path to his own personal hell.

USA Network Launches Character Themed Gaming Website

Posted on November 19, 2009

Anyone who has tuned in to the USA cable network over the past few years cannot avoid noticing that their focus has been on characters. Whether the eccentric star of Monk or the artist who created the “Hope” Obama design, every level of character has been put in an ad campaign for the network. Now, USA has launched their own gaming site with USA Character Arcade that lets players create their own characters by playing through a varied collection of USA themed flash games, earning points and trophies along the way.

Like most Flash based gaming sites, many of USA Character Arcade’s games are fast pick up and play action and puzzle games. Some are simple reskinned versions of other games like the Where’s Waldo-esque Where’s Bunny? in which a player must find a hidden rabbit throughout various snapshots of NYC. Others take a simple formula like that of Kitty Cannon and add a whole new level of strategy to it like Psych Food Fight . Instead of merely picking an angle and power level, a player now decides which item they’d like to chuck at the opposing side of the lunch room, each with a different level of bounce, as they try bounce their food all the way to their best friend’s face.

J.J. Abrams and Company Talk ‘Star Trek 2’

Posted on November 19, 2009

Oh, how time flies. It feels like J.J. Abrams’ Star Trek was still hovering out in the distance, a big question mark of a concept. Now the DVD is in the hot little hands of fans, and no one can stop talking about the sequel. Oh heck, they were talking about the sequel two minutes after it premiered. Over at Sci Fi Wire, they pinned down Abrams, Damon Lindelof, and Roberto Orci to talk about Star Trek 2. While it’s being touted as being very spoiler filled, it’s really just the creators thinking out loud and seeing what’ll stick.

Abrams confirms that he will direct the sequel, despite all rumors to the contrary, and that we shouldn’t look for it to hit theaters before 2012. While they’re predictably tight-lipped, Lindelof dropped one intriguing hint as to the new film’s place in the timeline. Citing the timeline of the Bourne films as an inspiration, Lindelof suggested that a squishy LOST continuum might come into play.

“One of the things we like to do as storytellers is drop you in the middle of something. And the question that you’re asking yourself is: Where am I in relation to the last time I left these guys? Could this be something that predated even, perhaps, some of the adventures that they had in the first movie? Does it happen five years later? Is it happening two seconds later? Who knows? So we’re not going to tell you.”

PS3 Firmware 3.10 Update Adds Facebook Integration

Posted on November 19, 2009

Though they’ve been at war since the dawn of the Next-Gen gaming networks, Microsoft’s Xbox 360 and Sony’s PlayStation 3 have been a bit more visual with their dispute over the past few weeks. First, PlayStation announced they would also be supporting Netflix instant streaming, but only by way of a Blu-ray disc, which proved to be pretty awful.

Now, after Microsoft announced the integration of Twitter and Facebook in Xbox Live on Tuesday, Sony is again trying to get their hand on top of the bat, as they just announced yesterday’s 3.10 firmware update will also offer Facebook integration. From Joystiq.com:

Once firmware 3.10 is installed, the PS3 will be able to send updates to a user’s Facebook wall indicating which Trophies they’ve just unlocked in games and what they’ve recently purchased from the PSN’s PlayStation Store. Developers will have the ability to access Facebook functionality to send more detailed updates to the site from their games, and these options can (as was the case with Trophies) be patched into titles currently on shelves.

Clip From This Week’s Venture Bros. Episode ‘Self-Medication’

Posted on November 19, 2009

Over the past few weeks we’ve been able to bring you exclusive preview clips of upcoming episodes of The Venture Bros., which have shown off some of the truly great stories that the show’s creators, Doc Hammer and Jackson Publick, have brought to us this season.

This week’s episode is shrouded in a bit of mystery, but we were able to determine this awesome fact: both Robot Chicken’s Seth Green, Patton Oswalt, John Hodgman of the “I’m a Mac, I’m a PC” Apple Ads lend their voices as guest stars. That information should be enough to keep you glued to your computer screen as you watch the preview clip after the jump.

This season alone, the show has had Kevin Conroy (THE voice of Batman), and Brendan Small (Metalocalypse) make an appearance. Check out the clip from “Self-Medication” after the jump and be sure to catch it on Adult Swim this Sunday at Midnight.

Justin Theroux Heads Into ‘Space’

Posted on November 19, 2009

JTM-028362 Justin Theroux, the man of a thousand projects, has just added one more flick to his plate. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Theroux is now looking to set a comedy in the stars. He’s strapped in to pen a little romantic comedy called Space Invader for Fox, and may even oversee its mission control as director.

By now, the men out there (and many of the women) will immediately be recoiling at the idea of a romantic comedy. But this is Theroux, writer of Tropic Thunder, so you know it’s not going to be that kind of movie. Invader follows a man who suspects his astronaut girlfriend is cheating on him with another astronaut while they’re stationed up top, so he finds a way to blast off into space and confront her. The deliciously funny and sexy Will Arnett is set to star as the jilted, Earthbound lover.

It sounds silly, but it’s the right kind of silly, the kind of thing Don Knotts would have made in his heydey, only raunchier. With Theroux and Arnett on board, I think it’s one we’ll eagerly countdown to.

Dave’s Comic Book Recommendations

Posted on November 18, 2009

drlistasm001_dc11_0001 I’m particularly fired up for some brand new Adam Kubert art this week. The Kubert Brothers are probably my favorite comic artists working today, and this week we get Adam Kubert handling a Dan Slott Spider-Man issue, where our favorite web-slinger gets put on Norman Osborn’s List. This is probably the Must Buy of the week in my opinion, and there you have it.

Other good issues include the beginning of the Gauntlet story in Amazing Spider-Man. With Mark Waid writing and Paul Azaceta drawing the introduction, Joe Kelly and his I Kill Giants artist Niimura handle a Black Cat story.

From DC we get the penultimate issue of the Flash: Rebirth, with some incredible art from Ethan Van Sciver. At this point, with Blackest Night and everything else it seems like this book has kind of gone by the wayside and we know that Barry Allen is back and he is back to stay. So why stay with this book? Well, I feel like its still interesting to see how he comes back, plus all the Flashes together makes for some neat visuals.

Finally, an Indie book called Viking, written by one of the best comic writers that you may or may not know of, Ivan Brandon, takes on a viking crime book with artist Nic Klein. This is a beautifully dialogued, and gorgeously rendered book that is a feast for your eyes. Its easily the best put together comic on the market so I urge you all to try it out.

As always, we here at The Flickcast care about what you read, so leave us a comment and let us know what you liked/didn’t like from this week’s comics. For a more complete list of what comes out this week, check out the one at Midtown Comics .

Older Posts

Newer Posts