Picked up this great Deathlok action figure at Meijers today. It’s a Marvel Legends Uncanny X-Force series figure with the cool grey/black/brown suit the whole team wore versions of in the Rick Remender run. Really well done figure. Stands well and looks fantastic. Take a look at these shots I got of him standing atop my Yamaha Receiver. Click the thumbnails for high rez versions.
I got to see the latest Marvel Movie on Friday. It’s a little difficult for me to even attempt an objective review of ANY Marvel film as I have lived and breathed Marvel Comics since I was 10 or so. And as of this writing I am 50…so that is a very long time. I guess reviews can’t really be “objective” anyway as all humans bring their own bias and expectations no matter how hard they try to suppress them.
I grade movies like this similar to the way I grade comicbook conditions. I try to be as optimistic as possible….but also as honest as possible. All movies start out as PERFECTION – a 10 out of 10…then I detract points or half points for everything I think was “wrong”. For me this movie is a solid 6.5. So what cost it 3.5 points?
Brie Larson – often there is a very fine line between Stoic and Wooden. Seems to me she hopped over that line. In a film with acting power houses like Annette Bening, Jude Law, Samuel L Jackson and Clark Gregg she was the weakest link. She was a bit robotic. Hopefully she loosens up and gets more comfortable in the role when she appears in the next Avengers movie. I have to detract 2 points for this.
So if I can attempt to separate the lifelong comicbook fan from the “Film Reviewer Guy” then we would probably stop right there and say this is an 8 star movie. But that just isn’t going to happen. I AM a comicbook fan….and I cannot and will not ignore decades upon decades of comicbook source material.
Before the most recent comicbook run Carol Danvers did not have the Captain Marvel moniker. First she was Ms.Marvel.
After that at various times she was known as “Warbird” and “Binary” and possibly some I’m not aware of.
The character above on the right is Monica Rambeau the FIRST female super-hero to go by the Captain Marvel title. Her powers were totally different and unrelated to the alien Kree race. Like Carol Danvers she was a bad ass and an Avenger. She even led the Avengers for a time. In the movie Carol’s friend’s daughter is called Monica Rambeau for reasons still unrevealed. For many fans this is perceived as quite a slight to the source material and I agree to a point. This cost the film a half a point in my view. I would take away a whole point but it IS still possible to see Monica become a hero in her own right in future films.
Now I am about to reveal a major surprise plot point so -SPOILER ALERT-! If you haven’t seen it yet and don’t wanna risk a spoiler stop reading right here.
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Long before Monica Rambeau came along the FIRST Marvel character called Captain Marvel was Walter Lawson. He was a renegade Kree warrior. His Kree name was “Mar-Vell”. Late in the film we learn that Annette Bening’s character Wendy Lawson is the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s incarnation of “Mar-Vell”. So not only do we have a sort of pointless character sex-change but we also effectively flush down the toilet a wealth of great comic stories and plots that could have been used in future films. The first Mar-Vell Captain Marvel series ran over 60 issues and included a lot of GREAT work by the legendary artist/writer Jim Starlin. His plot and character development on Captain Marvel (and many other Marvel Cosmic characters)is a seminal and very important part of Marvel lore and continues to inspire plots and stories decades later. Jim Starlin’s work with Mar-Vell culminated in Marvel’s very first Original Graphic Novel – 1982’s “The Death of Captain Marvel”.
With this film’s completely reworked version that NEVER became a costumed super-hero before her death the possibility of seeing these great stories in movie form are pretty much ZERO. THIS is the film’s greatest tragedy. What a terrible decision. What a complete waste. This cost it another whole point for me. This is how I arrive at a 6.5.
But there IS much to like about the movie. It does have a pretty positive female empowerment vibe that is obviously inspired by the comics both old and new. There is a very cool feline character named “Goose” that is too awesome for me to give anything away here. The alien shape-shifting Skrull race are handled PERFECTLY both in looks and powers. The 90’s setting is used to great effect with good music and plenty of nostalgia from VHS movies to early Windows PCs (ya gotta wait for those CD-ROMs to load!). The action is fun and it has several plot twists you probably won’t see coming. CGI effects are fairly seamless including some convincing de-aging for Fury and Coulson. I enjoyed the movie a lot despite the Mar-Vell and Rambeau slights.
Posted in Angst, Comics, Geekery, Movies | Tags: Captain Marvel, comicbook, Comics, Jim Starlin, Marvel, Marvel Movies, Movie Reviews
I’ve had a love-hate relationship with Glock for most of my adult life. I love the Plastic-Fantastic Renaissance they brought to defensive hand-guns. I also HATE that because of their proliferation and durable success you don’t have many options to buy a new production ALL METAL hand-gun that isn’t a 1911 style war-horse. Of course I don’t hate polymer guns. My carry and home defense guns are polymer Smith and Wesson Shield 9mms. But if I had my way all my guns would have aluminum frames and shiny stainless slides. Due to the “glockification” of handguns most modern semi-autos can be had in any color you want as long as it’s flat black.
My Brother-Cousin Elmo recently bought Glock’s new model 48. Bucking the flat black trend this one has a 4.17 inch barrel inside it’s silver “nPVD” coated slide. It certainly LOOKS way better than the all black herd. It’s strange though. It has an odd sort of off putting super FLAT almost powdery look and feel. It reminds me of fence or nail galvanizing. Not a very finished look. Glocks have always been just as UGLY as they are reliable….which is to say VERY VERY VERY UGLY. This is no exception…although it IS not AS UGLY as previous models. It has a sort of rounded chamfering on the muzzle end of the slide that adds a little style when compared to the old square BLOCKY look of most previous Glocks.
My main problem with Glock have been that their grips are just too thick. They feel like picking up a chunk of 2×4 lumber. There is still some of that but it’s greatly reduced manly due to it’s single-stack magazine (this one’s capacity is a nice even 10 rounds of 9mm). The Glock 43 was their first single stack Nine and even with my diminutive hobbit-sized hands my pinky would be dangling off the end with-out adding an after market third-party pinky rest/extension. My Shield’s would have the same issue if I ever used the 7 round mags….but I NEVER do. I opted to buy a bunch of 8 rounders. I sold or traded off all of the stubby 7 round magazines. The Glock 48 feels very NICE in the hand with no pinky dangle. For ME this handle is the PERFECT length.
Glock actually gets a LOT of stuff JUST RIGHT with this one. I put several mags of 9mm through Elmo’s brand new gun and like most modern semi-autos it never gave us one malfunction. Not only was I able to get accurate hits with the 48 but NONE of the brass flipped up and smacked me in the head on the way back down like a lot of Glocks do to me. If you look at some of the pics online or even some of the video reviews like this one from TFB TV you will notice the weird hollow “fake dust cover thing” that protrudes past the frame where the slide extends out to the muzzle. I thought that thing was soooooo ugly until I seen and handled the gun myself. It looks MUCH better in person.
I will probably never be a Glock owner…but I must admit they seem to be on the right track with the 48. They still have the usual Glock Problems:
1) painful cheese-grader “target” trigger
2) blocky overly thick grip (1.10 inch thick here while my Shield is 1.0)shape
3) terrible U rear plastic sights
One and Three are easily fixed by throwing on some aftermarket parts but you are stuck with Two. But for a Glock this is a really NICE grip. Just don’t compare it to prettier, more ergonomically advanced guns like the Smith & Wesson M&P series!
If you’re a Glock guy/gal and you have smaller hands and/or need a more concealable piece this is a better option than the stubby gripped G43 or G26.
