Benjamin's THAWTS

Lets start this now! I’m going to try and avoid spoilers, and I’ll mark when I can’t.

AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #664

With Spidey about to head into his own summer event, Spider-Island, a lot of the stories before it are starting to either feel like filler, or semi-hype for it. This issues brings to a conclusion the current arc where Anti-Venom (Eddie Brock) sets his sights on one of spidey’s best new villains, Mr. Negative. Wraith is also involved, but she is very minor. I think that may be due to to how not too many people even remember where the hell Wraith is supposed to come from in the first place. 

This issue actually progresses Anti-Venom and Negative quite a bit, which I was pleased with. I’m sure some people wish Anti-Venom would just go away, but I am a comic child of the 90’s, and as such, I love Eddie Brock and want him to succeed as a character. I feel like, after this arc, he can be finally established as that anti-hero thing they have been trying to make him into for years. Not that I’m saying he deserves his book, but he can show up a but more in Pete’s life and that would be fine.

Negative’s push is great too, and one I’ve been hoping would happen for awhile. Anytime he fought spidey, it was the same cycle over and over again, but now he has to change up his game plan, which should be interesting.

The mystery of who is Wraith now was wrapped up super quick, and felt dumb. Hopefully Slott doesn’t always use Carlie, Pete’s new squeeze, to solve the side mysteries and becoming the Amazing Deus Ex-Machina. 

I should also mention how much I liked this artist on this issue. Camuncoli is not a name I am too familiar with, but there was something I really appreciated about how clean his characters were, and how smooth they moved from panel to panel. Slott needs to keep this guy around.

Like I said, the past few arcs since Spider-Island was announced have felt like they been building to the event a bit more than I would like, but this arc left a good feeling with me. Anti-Venom will clearly play a part in the event, which means nothing but good things. 

If you’re confused about what the hell this Spider-Island event is, fret not! I will write up an opinion post about it soon explaining what the hell is going on!

AMERICAN VAMPIRE #16

Another fantastic issue from my current favorite comic writer. 

The ‘Ghost War’ arc continues forward as we find out what those dastardly Vampire Nazis are up to exactly! Snyder reveals it so perfectly too. They don’t monologue their nefarious plans, they just force some of our heroes to submit to it, and make the others watch.

Snyder’s characters are always so strong. Skinner Sweet is one of my favorite characters in comics right now. Snyder’s not the first guy to write a bad guy people want to root for, but Sweet is different, I feel. Other bad guys people root for have some sort of redeeming quality about them. Sweet has none, and he brags about not having that quality and somehow, Snyder gets me to say ‘HELL YEAH!’ to that!

Albuquerque continues to nail it as he brings the needed stillness to the more thoughtful scenes, and that frantic, all-over-the-page vibe for the action shots. 

DETECTIVE COMICS #878

Fucking Scott Snyder. The man is going to bankrupt me if he keeps pumping out gold like this. 

This issue ends the Hunger City arc on an odd, yet satisfying note. Batman solves the mystery surrounding the dead killer whale in the bank plaza that started the arc, but the bad guys get away, and really, win. It also directly leads into what, I assume, will be the resolution of the James Gordon arc Snyder has with Francavilla, which literally made me gasp at the last page of this issue. 

I think what gives Snyder an edge to writing a Batman story is that, not only can he write a damn fine mystery, he’s not afraid to get gruesome and scare you with it as well. And it’s not just stupid scares either, it’s actual psychological terror mixed in with natural gore, which is odd to say and type, but I feel like that best fits what he is doing. 

Also, Jock continues to knock it out of the park. I will say though, some panels were a little confusing at first look, but it all looked fantastic.

I’m really excited to see how Snyder writes Joker. I have a feeling Snyder is not only going to define how Dick Grayson is as Batman, but how Joker is in general in a non-morrison story. Can’t Wait!

That’s all I wanna write for now. I’ll update this post with other stuff that came out on this date sometime tomorrow. 

BYEEEEE

Hey everyone! Sorry I’m so bad at updating this. I have been on a job hunt recently, and finally got one! (whew!) So now I can start to regulate this out a bit more. 

I really liked writing about comic book stuff so I think I’m going to transform this into a comic review and opinion tumblr. Since I can’t buy everything that comes out each week, I’ll only cover what I buy and what I can borrow. 

Woo!

Hey guys! Sorry for the lack of posts the past few days. I think I’m going to limit my comic book writer/artist spotlight to the weekends. If I did one every night, I would run out kind of quick actually! So be on the look out SOMETIME this weekend for that.

Also, I want to start reviewing movies I see. I think I will start with X-MEN this Thursday night!

Hey everyone! Time to talk about COMIC BOOOOOOKSSSSSS. If there’s anything specific you guys want me to touch on with writers, let me know. I’m new to this writing thing and sometimes am at a loss for how to talk about someone’s writing. Today, we focus on the team that is writing my favorite Batman book right now. Here we go!

Scott Snyder

One of the most talented up-and-coming writers today. Snyder is famous for his original book, American Vampire and is now also writing Batman Detective Comics and starting his own Bat-book mini-series Batman Gates of Gotham. This man is a genius at smart, unexpected plot development with sincere and sinister character development. His original series, American Vampire, caught my radar midway through it’s second arc. On the review sites I frequent, the book always got 4 to 5 star reviews so I had to check it out. I was not disappointed. The book continues to impress and surprise me with every issue and it doesn’t seem to be stopping. Some of the side characters are even getting their own book due out mid to late summer I believe which also looks to be phenomenal. 

The major character in the DC universe Snyder is tackling right now though is Batman, and my god, he can write the fuck out of some Batman. Right now, the caped crusader is actually Dick Grayson, the former Robin turned Nightwing when he couldn’t put up with Bruce Wayne’s bullshit anymore. Now, due to some major shaking up in the Batman world, Dick is the Batman of Gotham and Bruce is the Batman of the whole world. It’s a bit weird, but go with it since that’s not what we’re here to talk about. Snyder’s portrayal of Dick as Batman is pitch perfect. Batman still has to be rough with criminals and be a symbol, but Dick has a bit more fun with it then Bruce did, and Snyder lets that shine through. Snyder has done such a remarkable job with Detective comics that the big wigs at DC let him create his own Bat-book to tell another Batman related story. It’s only one issue in so It’s hard to tell if it’s great or not, but the direction Snyder has set is on target and as long as he keeps writing at his usual caliber, it will be another home run for sure.

Jock

The artist who goes by the one name, Jock, is the artist on Detective Comics with Snyder right now. Not only is he the main artist on that book, but he does covers for Batwoman, Scalped, and Thunderbolts. Get your bibs out and prepare to drool.

I won’t always stick to guys on the same book, but this is usually how I filter through all the comic muck. Who is a top dog writer and and who is a top dog artist and have they/are they/will they work together? See ya tomorrow night!

Since I’m actually using my tumblr now, I figured I’d also review games as well! This review will contain spoilers for the story so you have been warned.

When they first announced this game was coming out I actually wasn’t excited at all. It seemed to daunting to me at first. But as videos of the game kept coming out, the more I got hyped for it. Recently I have been becoming more of a puzzle game fan than an action only fan in terms of games, and the preview videos all seemed to paint this game as exactly that, puzzle and action. 

I’m happy to say that those two elements blend together perfectly. 

For anyone who’s ever played Shenmue on the Dreamcast, you will know exactly how this game works. Except in L.A. Noire, the story is great and everything you do has a point!

The action aspect of the game is fun. It’s not very detailed out like most action games are though. You can pretty much jet through the whole game with just your pistol. The police issued shotgun and the tommy guns of the 1940’s are fun to use, but they are never necessary.

Accessing different guns is weird too because there is no gun-picking screen. You can go to the trunk of a cop car and grab a shotgun, or you can pick up guns from guys you have taken out. All that said, it functions well enough to push the story forward. The real gem here is the puzzle aspect to everything

There are two kinds of puzzles in L.A. Noire. There are the crime scene puzzles, and the interview puzzles.  The crime scene puzzles are pretty straight forward. You just check out the area for any and all clues. The game gives you a music cue when you have found all the clues at the crime scene, which is nice because it lets the player know they can move on without breaking the feel of the game with a huge message across the screen saying “YOU FOUND THE ALL THE CLUES”

Interviewing suspects and people of interest is what this game features the most and does the best. The puzzle aspect of this is about reading people. The facial recognition and movement tech they used for this game is astonishing. Every little movement of the face or which way the suspects looks while speaking means everything. Kudos to all the actors for this game. They couldn’t just put all the emotion in their voice like most video game actors do. These guys and gals actually had to flex their chops, and they all did admirably. 

While interviewing people, once you get an answer to a question you ask, you can either choose to believe them, doubt them, or straight up call out a lie they may have told. When you pick ‘lie’ you have to pick from the evidence and clues you found at the crime scene or statements that other people have said. It works so well, and when you pick the wrong option or the wrong piece of evidence, you feel like a fool because as soon as you do, you knew what you should have picked. They never throw you a challenge thats impossible. There aren’t any ‘unreadable’ people in the game. Everyone’s got a tell, you just have to know what to look for.

The story in L.A. Noire is fantastic, though it does take a swerve near the end and then another at the very end which I’m starting to think Rockstar is going to do with every protagonist. If you played Red Dead Redemption, you know what I’m talking about.

Cole Phelps is a bit lopsided as our hero. He’s the perfect image of a hero cop until, for some really unexplained reason, he takes a serious dive in the moral department. It might be because what Cole does isn’t that shocking to today’s society, but they really ream his ass the second they find out he’s not perfect. 

If I were a star giving man, I’d give L.A. Noire 4.5 out 5 stars citing that Rockstar needs to be careful that their stories don’t become predictable and that if they are going to have gun play, they need to fine tune it, and not just slap in the same old system from GTA IV

The more and more I read comics I read, the more I realize that while being loyal to characters like Spider-Man and Batman have their charm, the real superstars of the comic world are the writers and artists. I will always get Amazing Spider-Man regardless of how good or bad the writing and the art could be. Thankfully right now the artists are top notch and the writer is perfectly suited for spidey. Here are a few of my favorite writers and artists.

Dan Slott

This jolly fellow is the current writer for Amazing Spider-Man. He started off his run by giving Peter Parker a solid job. In science no less! That alone set off the good news flags for me. Hardly anyone remembers that Spider-Man is also a genius scientist. Slott’s stories have continued to impress over the past few months as he has created a new villains for spidey that will actually seem to stick around and re-invented some old favorites like Hobgoblin. He also is not afraid to acknowledge that spidey is a bit over-teamed by being on the Avengers, New Avengers, and now the FF. But, he utilizes those connections to bring in more characters into the book that would otherwise be ignored, which is brilliant. Slott could, and should, be in charge of Spider-Man for a long time.

Marcos Martin

Now here’s an artist with a serious future. Martin is one of the three artists in rotation on Amazing Spider-Man and he is fantastic. What makes Martin’s art so unique is that it has a very clear golden age look to it while still feeling modern and relevant to today’s stories. I could talk about the man’s work all day, or I could just post some and let you guys check it out!

He Also did the art for Batgirl: Year One and is going to be doing the art for the new Daredevil book with another favorite artist of mine, Paolo Rivera.

This was fun! I’ll try to do a writer and an artist a night!