Jason Momoa Cast as Aquaman: Thoughts & Opinions

It looks like Jason Momoa (a.k.a Khal Drogo for the Game of Thrones fans) will be taking on the role of the King of Atlantis in Zack Snyder's upcoming Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice. While this theory surfaces months ago, recent developments seem to point to this actually being real. Because I'm a comic fan who likes to express his opinions about things, I thought I'd go ahead and give my two cents on this. I can actually boil it down to ten words.

"Cool. Still don't give a shit about the move though."

I wasn't kidding when I said that Man of Steel killed any hope I had in DC's movie franchise being any good, and the news surrounding this cluster f@#k waiting to happen hasn't changed that. While I like Momoa and feel like he unfairly suffers from typecasting, I still can't muster any excitement for Dawn of Justice.

First Impressions of Gal Gadot's Wonder Woman

As part of their Comic-Con panel, Warner Bros. gave us the first look of Gal Gadot as Wonder Woman (who will not be receiving her own film, but having a glorified cameo in Batman & Flying Batman's film). Because I'm a huge Wonder Woman fan, I thought I'd give my initial impression of the costume. 

Honestly, I have rather mixed feelings about the costume. I really like the look and the shape of the costume, having always preferred versions of the Diana's suit that possessed a skirt. However, I absolutely hate the heels. Adding heels to Wonder Woman's outfit was a horrible idea and whoever made that decision should be slapped. hard. 

Also, I getting really sick and tired of all the desaturated pictures coming out of DC and Warner Bros. They're trying so hard to be "dark" and "edgy", but it just looks dull and lifeless to me. Would it be too much to have at least a little color once in awhile? 

What do you think of Gal Gadot's Wonder Woman costume? Do you like it, do you hate it, or are you indifferent? 

The Return of Wally West

The Flash Annual #3 Cover by Brett Booth

According to an announcement made via USA Today, Wally West will finally be returning to the DC Universe in The Flash Annual No. 3, which hits the shelves April 30th. I'll consider this a late birthday present, since Wally West has always been one of my favorite characters and I've always preferred him to his mentor, Barry Allen. 

However, I'm unfortunately not too fond of the new costume. While I'm glad he's not wearing a black and red costume like so many other DC characters are sporting, I'm not a fan of the electrical elements. With that being said, I will say it looks a lot better than another former Teen Titan's new costume (*cough* Raven *cough*). 

Based on the design of the costume, I'm guessing Wally will be the new Cobalt Blue. However, that's pure speculation at this point. I'm just glad Wally West will finally be returning to the comic world, along with my favorite Batgirl Stephanie Brown (I know she's Spoiler again, but I'll take what I can get). 

Question Time: What do you think about Wally West making his return to the DC Universe? Do you like the new costume? What do you think his new role will be in the comics? Leave your answers in the comments below. 

The Problem With Steampunk Wonder Woman

Recently, DC Comics released a handful of steampunk variant covers for their releases next month. Some of them look pretty cool and make me actually want to pick them up just for the cover alone. However, others are a little problematic. 

To elaborate, I'll use a visual aid and see if you guys and gals can figure out what I'm talking about. First, I'll show you the two covers that I really like. 

Batgirl & Batwoman Variant Covers

Both covers look awesome and capture the characters and the concept of steampunk pretty well. Now, let's look at the two covers that I'm not that fond of. 

Wonder Woman & Wonder Woman/Superman Variant Covers

We have Wonder Woman, an Amazon and powerful warrior, is depicted as a flirty show girl and posing for Superman while he carries what I assume is her luggage because everyone knows girls always over-pack and make the men do all the hard work. 

See the problem? 

Out of all the characters, why is Wonder Woman depicted like this? Why is she placed in all the stereotypical "girly" roles, especially when Batgirl and Batwoman aren't? It just seems like a weird decision to me. Actually, this is DC and they are in the business of making weird and stupid decisions, so I shouldn't be too surprised by this. I guess I still have some hope left in me. 

Now, let me be perfectly clear about something. I'm not saying the covers are badly drawn. Both covers, especially the one on the left, look good from an artistic stance. Also, my problem isn't with the costume Diana is wearing, but how they depicted her. For example, let's look at the Teen Titans variant cover. 

Teen Titans Variant Cover

Wonder Girl is depicted in a similar show girl outfit to Wonder Woman. However, at least she is in an action pose and not posing for her boyfriend or giving a flirty look at two people wielding guns. I don't mind the outfit, I just wish she was depicted in a way that matched the character's personality. 

Is that too much to ask?

Scott Snyder to Introduce Female Nightwing in Batman #28

Art by Dustin Nguyen

Today on Twitter, Batman writer Scott Snyder told his followers that Batman #28 would not continue the "Zero Year" story. Instead, it would give the reads a glimpse of Batman's future.

 "Then I started thinking about all the crazy plans we have in BATMAN, and in BATMAN ETERNAL (the weekly), for Gotham of 2014, and I figured: what if, as a thank you to you guys for all the support, we took a month off from ZY right at the halfway point, and instead did a special issue that showed you what's coming up in the world of Batman AFTER ZY? Not an issue that cuts to the present, but one that actually shows you a glimpse of the FUTURE of Batman - Gotham circa summer 2014?

So I got to talking with the other Gotham writers, and we agreed that with all the crazy stuff that's going to happen in 2014 - and my goal above all in 2014 is to keep things daring and fun - it'd be a thrill to do a total spoiler issue. A stand-alone issue that takes place in the near future and reveals all sorts of massive surprises coming to Gotham in the spring of summer of 2014. 

Afterwords, Snyder tweeted the above piece of art from comic artist Dustin Nguyen of what appears to be a female Nightwing. DC has been teasing about the last of Nightwing for awhile. Could this be why?

Last month, Snyder tweeted a Thanksgiving portrait of the Batfamily that seemed to lack a certain Boy Wonder and had Snyder's character Harper Row sitting with beside Stephanie Brown, Red Robin, and Batman.

While this is purely speculation, I have a feeling Harper Row will take on the role of Nightwing. The character depicted in the Nightwing design does look like her and the costume fits her style. Also, it would make since for a character that Snyder created to take on the role and become a full -fledged member of the Batfamily.

Personally, I'm fine with this. I like the character of Harper Row and I had a feeling Snyder would do something like this eventually. I thought he would make her Robin after the situation with Damion Wayne, but I can't be right about everything. However, this does leave me with a question: How does Dick Grayson fit into all of this?

Is something going to happen to him? Will he be retiring from the superhero game or will DC kill him like they've done so many other characters in the New 52? Will we have two Nightwings, one red and one blue? Who knows.

Random Musing: Do We Take Our Opinions Too Seriously?

((Have you ever had a question or idea pop into your mind that you'd love to write about, but feel like it might not be strong enough to base an essay/editorial on it? Same here! To deal with that, I'm starting a new series of random posts appropriately called Random Musings. Whenever I think of a question or idea that would be perfect for this series, I'll make a quick post introducing the topic and throwing out an answer/idea or two I head about it. At the end, I'll ask a question for you to answer in the comments. I hope you enjoy and please, keep the discussions in the comments civil.)) 

Last Thursday, I managed to catch an early screening of Man of Steel with a group of friends. While the film had a good cast and decent music, it was brought down by some serious pacing issues, story-structure problems, and a sheer lack of character development.

Since it currently holds a 56% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, I knew I was going to eventually run into people who enjoyed the film and I would have to explain myself when they asked the inevitable question: "Why didn't you like it?"

A few days ago, I had a few people ask me what I thought and asked me the above question when I told them I disliked Man of Steel. After presenting my points, I expected to hear the usual response of, "I can understand where you're coming from, but I still enjoyed the film. To each their own." Sadly, that's not what I received. Instead, I had people telling me that I was A) a cynical asshole who hates everything, B) an idiot who wouldn't know a good movie if it slapped him in the face, C) a nostalgic idiot who hated the movie because it wasn't the original 1978 film or its sequel, D) had no taste, and E) blind and couldn't see how great the film really was.

When did it become okay to verbally attack someone for having a different opinion than you? I'm perfectly fine with other people having an opinion that is different than mine. If we all had the same opinions about the same things, life would be rather dull and boring. While I might ask why you like something, I'm going to do it as politely as possible and try my hardest to see your side of the argument.

With that being said, I'm going to expect the same respect from you when I disagree with you. I'm not going to call you an idiot for liking a piece of entertainment that I don't and I'm going to expect that you do the same. Why do some people see the need to do this? Is insulting a person based on their taste in entertainment really worth it?

If I had to take a guess as to why some people act like this, I would probably say its because they take their opinions on something too seriously. Because of this, they see someone expressing an opinion that doesn't mirror their own as a personal attack on them. Since they see it as a personal attack, they feel the need to attack the supposed "aggressor" and defend themselves. However, this is still just a theory and it could be something else entirely.

So, what do you think is the cause of this problem? Do you think it might be people taking their opinions about media and entertainment too seriously and personally, or is it something else?

Movie Review: Man of Steel

Man of Steel is Warner Bros.' most recent attempt to reboot the Superman movie franchise after 2006's rather disappointing Superman Returns. The film, which is directed by Zack Snyder and written by David S. Goyer, retells the tale of how Clark Kent (Henry Cavill) becomes the titular Man of Steel and saves the world from a genocidal General Zod (Michael Shannon) and his band of equally evil Kryptonians.

To be perfectly honest, my expectations for Man of Steel have been rather mixed from the very beginning. When I saw the first few trailers, my expectations were rather low based on the director's previous works and I felt the "dark and gritty" tone they seemed to be going for wasn't a good fit for the character. However, as more extensive trailers were released, my hopes slowly began to rise and hoped this film might breathe some new life back into the Superman franchise like Batman Begins did for the Dark Knight.

Unfortunately, that didn't happen.

Man of Steel, like its predecessor Superman Returns, had an incredible amount of potential to be the definitive Superman film for the current generation of movie-goers. However, it squanders this potential by letting it be consumed by a laundry list of problems.

First, the movie suffers from a number of story structure and pacing issues. The first half of the film, with the exception of the opening scenes on Krypton, feel like a collection of little vignettes that have very little connective tissue between them and go by so quickly that we see very little development for our main character. At times, it feels like we've even missed a scene or two (How did Clark know there was an ancient Kryptonian ship in the Arctic buried under the mountains of ice?). The regular flashbacks don't help with this, disrupting the flow even more. Once Zod and the other Kryptonians show up, the movie picks up a little bit before the second half is consumed by supercharged fight scenes that just drag on and on. While they were occasionally nice to look at, I started to grow bored with them and just wanted them to be over so we could get to the end of the film.

Man of Steel also offers very little in the character development department. Most of the scenes taking place in the present focus more on what Clark can do instead of who he is. In theory, the flashbacks are supposed to handle that like they did in Batman Begins. However, the majority of them just have Jonathan Kent repeating the same speech about keeping his powers secret because humanity won't accept him over and over again.

Speaking of Clark's adoptive father, this has to be the single worse interpretation of Jonathan Kent I have ever seen in my life. Jonathan Kent is supposed to be the man who instills a moral compass into Clark, showing him that he has a responsibility to use his powers for the betterment of mankind and to always find a way to save someone. However, this movie turns him into an asshole who actually suggests that Clark should have let an entire bus full of children die and prevents him from saving his life from a tornado to keep his powers a secret. I really wish he would have just been a one-note and bland like the rest of the characters. At least I wouldn't be as pissed off as I am about him.

Now, my next objection is more subjective than the rest and some people will most likely disagree with me on this. However, I can't give my honest opinion of this film without saying this: the protagonist in this movie doesn't feel like Superman to me. While there are spots in the movie where I see the Superman that I know and love shine through, those moments are few and far between. Instead, we have this rather bland character who doesn't care about the thousands of lives that he is putting in danger due to the massive amounts of property damage he is causing. Superman is a character who will go out of his way to save a human life and takes it rather personally when he causes someone to lose their life. I understand its fun to see two godlike entities beating the crap out of each other and seeing the carnage they leave in their wake, but when one of the characters in that fight is supposed to care deeply for humanity and is supposed to be willing to do whatever it takes to protect them, you'd think he'd try his hardest to not level entire blocks of a majority city fighting a single villain.

While Man of Steel does have a large number of faults, there are a few diamonds buried in the ruff. For example, the cast is easily the best part of this movie. While they have very little to work with character and script-wise, the majority of the actors (especially Amy Addams, Henry Cavill, and Michael Shannon) try their hardest to give a good performance and be entertaining.

The music by Hans Zimmer is decent as well. His compositions really do fit the tone and mood of the movie and never overpowered the scenes they accompanied. While I wished they could have brought back John William's score from the original and re-worked it to fit the movie, Zimmer's music still works.

Man of Steel is a movie that had a lot of potential to be something great, but squandered it with a poorly constructed story, bad pacing, and a serious lack of character development. However, if you just want to see a movie where two super-powered titans beat the crap out of each other, then you'll probably find some enjoyment out of Man of Steel.

A Defense for the Man of Steel

Everybody knows the origin story of the Man of Steel. He was born Kal-El on the alien world of Krypton. His father, a scientist known as Jor-El rocketed his only son to Earth moments before his planet's destruction. He crash-landed in rural Kansas and was discovered and adopted by Jonathan and Martha Kent, who raised the child as Clark and imbued him with a strong moral compass. As he grew into adolescence, he started to develop superhuman abilities such as super-strength and the ability to fly. When he reached maturity, he resolved to use his powers for the benefit of mankind. By donning his signature red cape and blue-and-red custom with a stylized red-and-yellow "S" shield on his chest, he become the one and only Superman!

Apearing for the first time in the pages of Action Comics #1 in the summer of 1938, Superman was created by two high school students from Ohio named Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster. He is considered by many to be the first superhero (even if that might not be technically true) and is widely considered a national cultural icon. He, along with characters such as Batman and Wonder Woman helped to create the superhero genre and establish its primacy within the American comic book industry.

However, Superman has had a lot of criticism leveled at him the past few decades. Many have called him "bland", "over-powered", and even "unrelatable." In fact, I used to be one of these people. When I was younger, I wasn't too found of Superman. I always saw him as nothing but a "Big Blue Boy Scout" and preferred characters such as Batman and Marvel's Spider-Man.

As I grew older, however, my opinions on Superman started to change. After reading Grant Morrison's series All-Star Superman and Joe Kelly's story "What's So Funny About Truth, Justice, & The American Way?", I started to see how cool Superman really was and how interesting a character he could be when paired with the right creative team.

Sadly, there are still a number of people who continue to criticize the character for reasons that when you get down to it, aren't actually true (the majority of the time anyway). So, I thought I'd give my very own rebuttal to some of the major criticisms thrown at the Man of Steel.

The most common argument I hear about why Superman isn't a good character is that he's over-powered. While he might have more or less powers depending on the time period when the story was published, Superman's most famous powers are flight, super-strength, invulnerability to most attacks, super-speed, vision-based powers (including x-ray, heat-emitting, telescopic, infra-red, and microscopic vision), super-hearing, super-intelligence, and super-breath. Now, I know what you're saying, "Cody, that is a lot of powers," and I won't disagree with you. Superman has always had a lot of powers and is one of the most powerful characters in the DC Universe. However, I find the idea that a character can't be good because he has too many powers to be ridiculous. Dr. Manhattan from Watchmen has the ability to virtually do whatever he wants and is still just as interesting as the other, powerless characters in that story.

Also, while he has a large number of powers, he also has a number of weaknesses as well. First, his powers are nullified when he is exposed to green Kryptonite. If he's exposed to this stone for a prolonged period of time, he will eventually die from the radiation. Secondly, he loses all of his powers when exposed to the light of a red sun (For those of you who don't know, Superman derives his powers from the light of our yellow sun). Finally, he is vulnerable to magic-based powers and attacks.

The second major criticism thrown at Superman is that he's too bland and unrelatable. Generally, I've seen this criticism come from people who have very little experience with the actual character and are going off what they've heard from others or have only read stories from writers who didn't know how to properly handle the character.

Superman is a brave and kind-hearted hero with a strong sense of justice, morality, and righteousness. These traits were, as I mentioned before, instilled in him by his adoptive parents. He's a character who believes that since he has been blessed with these great powers, he also has the responsibility for good and the betterment of humanity. In many ways, he represents the philosophy of "With great power must also come great responsibility" a lot better than Spider-Man. That responsibility also extends to the code of honor that he has adopted, hoping to show the people of the world that good still exists and to never give up hope.

However, that sense of responsibility can be a negative thing as well. Since he tries to do whatever he can to save humanity, he has a habit of taking a failure to help someone rather personally. In many ways, he is kind of a perfectionist when it comes to being a hero. He always sees areas where he can do better. He also struggles with his code, knowing that it would be easier to become a super-powered version of Judge Dredd and simply do away with his enemies, but not wanting to resort to that because he has to be better than that because of his status as a symbol of hope and righteousness.

Wanting to do the right thing, struggling with doing the right thing when the wrong thing would be much easier, taking failure rather personally at times and being a perfectionist at what you're good at. I don't know about you, but I believe those seem to be very relatable qualities to me.

Now, I will be honest. Like many comic book character, the quality of Superman greatly depends on the creative team behind him at that moment of time. Sometimes, you will have a Grant Morrison or a Joe Kelly who understands the character and will utilize him properly. Utter times, you will have a character like Frank Miller who misses the point and bring those very things that people hate to light and make him unbearable. I have read a number of stories staring the Man of Steel that just make my head hurt and cast it aside for something better.

However, that fluctuation in quality is true for almost any comic book character. For example, Batman can be awesome when handled by someone like Scott Synder or Dennis O'Neil. However, he can be god awful when he's handled by someone like Doug Moench or Frank Miller after The Dark Knight Returns.  It's all about having the right creative team to use the character properly and understand the fundamental elements of the character.

I know some people will remain firm in their dislike of Superman. That's their opinion and they have a right to that opinion. My view of the character differs from theirs and that's okay as well. My motivation behind this post as to explain why I liked Superman and why I disagree with some of the criticisms. However, if someone does change their mind about Superman and gives him a second chance, I'd be perfectly fine with that as well.

Thoughts on Earth 2 #9-12

As I've mentioned before, Earth 2 is easily one of my favorite comic books DC is publishing at the moment. Robinson knows how to breathe new life into these Golden Age characters while staying true to the history associated with them. Also, Earth 2 shows you can have stories that are both dramatic and fun to read.

After the defeat of Solomon Grundy and the re-introduction of Steppenwolf, the last four issues (#9 - #12) have dealt with the re-introduction of Dr. Fate and seeing the characters come together in the end. Seeing as Dr. Fate is one of my favorite characters in the DC Universe and the Justice Society is one of my favorite teams, you can understand why I was excited for the "Tower of Fate" storyline.

Thankfully, Robinson did not disappoint me. "Tower of Fate" is a well-written story arc that does a fantastic job of introducing the new characters of Fate, revealing the more supernatural and magical side of Earth 2, and telling a fun story that also helped push the meta-plot further along.

Each part of the story did what I want every issue of a comic book to do: further along the story without feeling incomplete. Each issue remains entertaining and feels satisfying while keeping you interested in the overall story. This is just another example of why Robinson is a talented writer.

Of the four issues, my favorite has to be #11. In the issue, we get to see why Jay Garrick is an awesome character. While he is faced with a situation that could possibly end in his demise, Garrick knows he can't give up and will sacrifice his life to protect the world and the ones he cares about. This dedication to what is right and the willingness to sacrifice oneself for that cause is what makes a character heroic. Knowing it's that heroic attitude that inspires Khalid Ben-Hassin to finally put on the Helmet of Nabu and become Dr. Fate, even thought it might cost him his sanity.

The only real weakness present in these four issues is the same weakness that I mentioned back in my review of #8. While Robinson is a talented writer, his tendency to over-explain and not let the illustrations tell the story at times can get a little annoying. However, that weakness is less noticeable in these four issues, which is great.

If you love fun superhero stories with a heavy dose of magic and the supernatural, I would recommend you give Earth 2 #9 - #12 a read. You will not be disappointed.

Thoughts on Earth 2 #8

Cover to Earth 2 #8, Illustration by Yildiray Cinar,
Art Thibert, & Gabe Eltaeb

I'll be completely honest, I'm not the biggest fan of the 2011 DC reboot. While I'll probably go into further detail about it at a later date, I just feel like the company missed a lot of potential with the reboot and made a number of really stupid decision over the past year.

With that being said, there are a few of their new series that I absolutely love and remain on my weekly pull list month after month. Earth 2 by James Robinson is one of these series.

I know some people don't like the series (you can't please everybody), but I love it. I think the main reason is because I see it as what DC should have done when they did the reboot: Create a universe that pays homage to the history of the characters, but makes it easy for new readers to approach the series and give old characters a new, interesting spin.

Earth 2 #8 reintroduces the general of the armies of Apokolips, Steppenwolf, and explains where he has been after the defeat of his parademon armies and the death of Batman, Superman, and Wonder Woman five years ago.

We are also introduced to a new character: Fury. Apparently, she is the daughter of Wonder Woman and is the Last Amazon. During the Apokolips War, Steppenwolf kidnapped her and conditioned her into being his greatest soldier.

From the appearance and the attitude she has in the comic, it feels like they took Wonder Woman and combined her with Big Barda, and I'm rather digging it. I'm really interested in seeing what happened to the character and if she'll remain a bad guy or not. I also really like the little glimpses at the relationship between the two, giving me the feeling the two have a adoptive father/daughter relationship that I find really interesting and can't wait to be expanded upon.

This issue, unlike the others, is not illustrated by Nicola Scott. For this issue, the art is by Yildiray Cinar, and it's pretty good. While it isn't as stunning as Scott's, it gets the job done and conveys the story and action very nicely.

The only real complaint I have with the issue, and it's probably the complaint I have with the series, is that Robinson tends to put dialogue into scenes that actually don't need it. There are a couple of moments in the issue where the art does a good job at conveying the story, but there is a speech bubble placed in the panel and tends to weaken it a little.

However, this is still a great issue and the teaser that we'll get to see Dr. Fate's introduction in the next issue has me really excited for February. If you like Earth 2, I highly recommend going out and picking this issue up. You will not be disappointed.