Originally posted at PrimeTimeGeek.com.

Contents of Episode 184, brought to you by Free Comic Book Day and Heroes Landing:

• “The Man” from Slacker and the Man, w/ what’s going on on his show, what’s upcoming, and his prediction for the TRUE (?!) future of Prime Time Geek
• Interview: Austin Janowsky, comic book inker and graphic designer, creator of “Stanley the Snowman“, inker on “Iron Man: The End” for Marvel Comics
• Thank yous and final thoughts …

And speaking of “thank yous”, two BIG ones that went unsaid during the broadcast and thus MUST be made here: Comic Book Alex of Ghost Shadow Studio, and the members of Sci-Fried for your constant support and promotion of Prime Time Geek amongst friends and fans, as well as your contributions to the program. You guys are awesome, I will certainly continue to sing your praises, and I wish you all the best as you carry on with turning your passion into your life’s work!

Hope you enjoy these final episodes – please don’t delete “Prime Time Geek” from your bookmarks, however! We’ll be around all throughout the summer with movie reviews, comics reviews, and sound clips from appearances on other podcasts, and keep following us on Facebook and Twitter for news, photos, and random bits of geek. We’ll be seeing you out there!

Originally posted at PrimeTimeGeek.com.

Contents of Episode 183, brought to you by Free Comic Book Day and Heroes Landing:

• Highlights of FCBD 2011 at Heroes Landing (up until broadcast time)
• Movie Review: “Thor“, starring Chris Hemsworth, Natalie Portman, Tom Hiddleston, Stellan Skarsgaard, Idris Elba, Jaimie Alexander, with Rene Russo and Anthony Hopkins. Directed by Kenneth Branagh.
• Interview: Victor Gischler, author of Go-Go Girls of the Apocalypse (See all Action & Adventure Genre Fiction), Vampire a Go-Go (See all Contemporary Literature), and The Deputy (See all Mystery Books), current writer on “X-Men“

And while you’re listening, please head over to our Facebook page to check out more photos from Free Comic Book Day 2011 if you haven’t already. Enjoy!

Originally posted at PrimeTimeGeek.com.

Highlights of MegaCon Weekend 2011, brought to you by the Talk Nerdy Show and the AAA Network:

• Friday, March 25th: Stories from Celebrity Row & the Sci-Fried/Slacker and the Man CD Release Party at The Geek Easy*
• Saturday, March 26th: A Con Newbie’s Lament; a night at the Cirque de Mentia
• Sunday, March 27th: Controversy in Artist’s Alley!

*Music from Sci-Fried’s latest album, “Future Tense” – go to www.sci-friedband.com to order your copy today!

Also, check out our Facebook fan page for more photos from the weekend!

Many thanks to Christine Alger and all the folks at MegaCon for letting us be a part of this tremendous event for a third year. MegaCon 2012 is already set for February 17th-19th – we’re SO there!

Originally posted at PrimeTimeGeek.com.

Contents of Episode 179, brought to you by Slacker and the Man, Heroes Landing, and The AAA Network:

• Wonder Woman’s new TV costume: what we think;
• Guest TV Reviews: V: The Second Season (Stu); Justified (Stu and the Man); Young Justice (Stu and the Man)

Since this episode was recorded, there have been, of course, a number of updates on the topics covered – Wonder Woman’s costume has changed yet again, due seemingly to fan outcry; and Captain America: The First Avenger now has a full trailer online to view, and with full knowledge that a trailer can make anything look good, we here at PTG humbly submit that this trailer SHOULD put the doubts of all but the most dubious of skeptics and hardened of haters to rest. Check it out for yourself, if you haven’t already:

Enjoy!

Originally posted at PrimeTimeGeek.com.

Contents of Episode 178, brought to you by Slacker and the Man, Heroes Landing, and The AAA Network:

• Superman film casting news: Kevin Costner cast as Jonathan Kent; Side topic: Naming non-baseball-related Kevin Costner films that do not suck.
• Trip down Memory Lane: What comic book story arc got you hooked on comics?
• Guest review: The Man reviews “Tucker and Dale Vs. Evil“

Here’s the trailer for Tucker and Dale Vs. Evil … best we can do unless you live in Russia …

Enjoy!

Originally posted at PrimeTimeGeek.com.

Contents of Episode 175, brought to you by Heroes Landing, the Orlando Ghostbusters, and the Ghostbusters: Infestation party, Saturday, March 12th from 3-7pm: (CORRECTION: During the podcast I erroneously announced the DAY of the event as Wednesday, rather than Saturday. Apologies!)

• Thoughts on the iPad 2: does having a camera (two cameras, actually) make all the difference?
• Philip K. Dick stories in film: from “The Adjustment Bureau” to “Total Recall“, we look at how these stories have fared when brought to the big screen and ask, “Which is your favorite?”
• DC Comics‘ upcoming “War of the Green Lanterns”, and our odds-on favorite to be the Green Lantern of Earth who doesn’t survive this latest cosmic saga from writer Geoff Johns.

And here’s the video recording of the episode (w/ raw audio). Enjoy!

Originally posted at PrimeTimeGeek.com, contentiously brought to you by Slacker and the Man.

Contents of Episode 171, with special guest co-host “The Man”:

• Getting caught up with Slacker and the Man in 2011;
• The X-Men: First Class trailer – did we perhaps fear for the film’s quality too soon?;
• The Man’s Marvel and DC Comics must-reads; plus, excitement over this summer’s upcoming crossover events, Marvel’s “Fear Itself” and DC’s “Flashpoint“?

And in case you haven’t yet seen the X-Men: First Class trailer, here it is:

The Last Phantom #4
Written by Scott Beatty
Pencils by Eduardo Figerato
Colors by Vinicius Andrade

I’ve reviewed every issue so far of “The Last Phantom” from Dynamite Entertainment, the previous three on the air, and now here with issue #4, and I still remain convinced that it’s a great comic book, filled realistic, gritty depictions of both the “modern” 22nd Phantom, his enemies, and his battles. That said, not a whole lot happens in issue #4’s story, entitled “Ghost Ship.” It does feature one very important milestone for this story’s Kit Walker, a man who walked away from the legacy of “The Phantom” only to find himself walking the path of his fathers in search of justice. Some of those earliest ancestors, including the very first Phantom, fought pirates on the high seas, and in “Ghost Ship” Kit finds himself battling with modern-day pirates, seeking to steal not gold or jewels, but instead the treasures of today, electronics and collectible toys (yes, that’s in the script!). That one mention is perhaps the lightest moment in the issue, as the rest is all business and speed Kit along in his journey toward the man who had his family and friends murdered while also stealing his philanthropic foundation and its resources. This is also the first time we see the current Phantom wearing his traditional color, the deep purple that looked so silly on Billy Zane all those years ago but works well on paper, although the suit is far more than just a fashion statement here, and stands to add a new twist to the Phantom’s legend.

Writer Scott Beatty keeps action and dialogue well balanced, as he has throughout these proceedings, and artist Eduardo Ferigato continues to supply consistently strong pencils depicting clear, visceral action that’s easy to follow from panel to panel. You might put this one down thinking that it felt slightly like filler, but once you take into account where the Phantom began his journey, and I don’t just mean THIS particular Phantom, but all of them in the line, then the reason for this story to be told becomes clear, and the read becomes even more enjoyable.

Artifacts #5 (of 13)
Written by Ron Marz
Pencils by Whilce Portacio
Inks by Sunny Gho and Arif Prianto of IFS

The second act of Top Cow’s crossover event Artifacts begins here, with a new artist on hand to bring to life Ron Marz’s grand storyline bringing together Top Cow’s most popular characters and teams along with their respective enemies. Comic industry veteran Whilce Portacio brings his talents to Top Cow’s biggest stage, and he’s given the task of bringing new players into the drama, namely Cyberforce, the team created by fellow Image Comics founder Marc Silvestri. Cyberforce is recruited by the android Aphrodite IV as yet more pawns in the game being played out for control of the “thirteenth artifact”, under the ownership and control of an as-yet undisclosed character. Portacio also gets to give us his renditions of Sara Pezzini (Witchblade), Jackie Estacado (The Darkness), Danielle Baptiste (The Angelus), Patience (The Magdelena) and the other bearers of the known artifacts, as one side tries to figure out what’s going on and what’s happened to Sara’s daughter, Hope, while the other positions itself to eliminate the heroic artifact bearers and take the final one for themselves.

Marz is Marz; you either love all the intricate (over)plotting or you don’t. The story here really is Portacio and what he brings to the table. Now I haven’t seen anything Portacio has done since WAYYYY back in the day when he was doing pencils on X-Factor (yeah, I’m old, shut up.). I have to say, his style hasn’t changed much. That’s not a knock–if anything, it should tell other old timers like me what to expect from this issue and the next few that he’s providing pencils for. Lots of lines, lots of big hair, lots of crazy energy effects. What’s a surprise here is how muted it all comes off due to the rather spare color palette provided by the inkers. The book might have profited and really jumped off the page with some bolder colors and deeper contrast, but as it currently stands, everything has a background of either beige, brown, or gray, and it just hushes everything. Maybe that’s deliberate to control Portacio’s line work, but I think it works against the art truly coming alive. We’re used to seeing Witchblade and The Angelus in particular come to life in big bold color thanks to the remarkable work of artist Stjepan Sedjic, the regular penciler on Witchblade, so this new approach to the characters is jarring and a bit of a letdown.

If you haven’t read the previous issues of Artifacts, or any of Top Cow’s other long-running series whose characters are featured all coming together in this book, then you’re going to be hopelessly lost. In fact, I’m pretty sure my description just now left you hopelessly lost, because this story has LOTS of moving parts, characters with sub-plots and complex motivations, and you get the sense that Marz is just getting started cluing us in on what’s really going on. For veteran Top Cow readers, however, this book has been a real treat, and it only gets better now that we’ve added Cyberforce to the mix, and even Hunter-Killer got a mention, so you have to wonder when they will show up, as well. It’s Top Cow’s party and you’re invited, definitely, for what’s setting up to be a great ride, but do your homework first and at least read up on these characters and their previous travails on the wiki before diving in if you want to actually enjoy the proceedings.

Brightest Day #19
Written by Geoff Johns, Peter J. Tomasi
Pencils by Ivan Reis, Joe Prado
Colors by Aspen MLT’s, Peter Steigerwald

Last issue’s shocking ending (and note how I did NOT put quotation marks around “shocking”, because when I finally got around to reading #18, right before picking up issue #19, I was floored) really got me feeling as though Brightest Day is really and truly winding down to a conclusion that might, just might, make all the meandering this story has done worth the while.

This issue picks up right where issue #18 left off, with Deadman (Boston Brand) and the White Lantern ring on his finger that’s been so enigmatic throughout the series thus far, only now the ring is feeling chatty, and sets out to explain what’s happening on Earth and what role the twelve heroes resurrected at the end of Blackest Night had to play in preventing something ELSE from destroying the Earth. This is only a small portion of the book, however; the main bulk of the comic switches us back to Aquaman and Jackson Hyde, the new Aqualad as they race to face down Black Manta, Siren, and the Atlantean invasion force behind them. By the end of this issue, things are going very badly for Arthur and Jackson, and Arthur finds himself feeling the most painful kind of deja vu, which leaves you truly wondering if his return to prominence in the DCU will be as brief as it appears the Hawks’ was.

I have to say, artwork really carries this issue, as at times the script gets mired in exposition both in Deadman’s story and Aquaman’s. Joe Prado’s work is solid in the Deadman portion, but it’s Ivan Reis’ handling of the Aquaman pages that really shines. When Reis is at the top of his game, as he is in this issue, you feel (or at least, I feel) as though he could tell the story coherently and powerfully without the script and dialogue present at all. Plus, he’s got some truly amazing splash pages in this issue that simply explode off the page. If you enjoy Reis’ work, you’ll find yourself flipping through the pages again a few times just to take in the scenes again as he depicts them. For my part, whatever book he happens to work on next, I’ll buy, regardless of what it is, because he’s THAT good.

From the outset of Brightest Day, writers Geoff Johns and Peter Tomasi have told us that the story was about second chances, and that sometimes second chances don’t work out the way we hope they might. Because the story has taken so long to develop (can you believe this has been running for almost a year now?), it’s been easy to lose sight of that overarching idea. But it’s all really coming together now, and if last issue didn’t serve notice to readers that Johns and Tomasi meant what they said, this issue certainly makes a strong push to drive the point home even further. Look out everyone, because I think Brightest Day is about to get very, very dark in the final stretch.

Invincible Iron Man 500.1
Written by Matt Fraction
Pencils by Salvador Larocca
Inks by Frank D’Armata

Marvel begins its “Point 1″ series of re-launch titles this week with Invincible Iron Man 500.1, which undertakes the task of providing a good point for readers new to Marvel to start collecting books centered around its tentpole characters.

As such, there’s no new storyline introduced here (and that’s kind of irritating considering that issue #500 was also kind of a one-shot stand-alone issue with little resonance or connection to the previous story arc); but rather a VERY condensed retelling of Tony Stark’s life and times, as told by Stark himself and with the unifying theme being his neverending battle with alcoholism. The story device that writer Matt Fraction sets up to provide Stark with an opportunity to tell his own story to a room full of strangers (and to new readers) is interesting and compelling–it works primarily because Fraction has been writing Tony Stark for so long that the voice throughout is utterly authentic. In fact, it might work TOO well, as this Tony Stark sounds very little like the Tony Stark of the Iron Man movies, and fans of the films who pick up the book hoping to hear Robert Downey, Jr.’s voice resounding through the pages will certainly be disappointed. Fraction’s Stark has been humbled, time and again, over the course of the past few years of storytelling, and so the boisterous, irrepressible energy that characterizes Downey’s portrayal of Stark is nowhere to be found here. That’s a good thing, frankly; if the Stark of the comics could still walk around with all that Downey swagger and arrogance after what he’s been through and what he’s put his friends and allies through, he’d have people lining up to beat the crap out of him … even moreso than usual.

There is a lot to like about this particular issue if you’re a long-time Iron Man fan. Fraction’s script successfully gives us a slide show depicting the most important people, places, and challenges that Tony Stark has met as Iron Man in single images with no dialogue save for Stark’s speech, and those images should bring back good memories of some truly great moments. Larocca’s art style is so very different than those that originally brought us all those moments over almost 50 years of publication, but his depiction of Iron Man, like Fraction’s voice for Tony, is so familiar at this point after so many issues that the difference is not distracting. Oddly enough, considering that this book is meant to lure new readers, I think people unfamiliar with Fraction’s tone on Iron Man will be somewhat off-put by what they find, because it won’t be nearly the same kind of nostalgic fun for them that it is for someone who’s followed Tony around for a while.

Originally posted at PrimeTimeGeek.com.

Contents of Episode 168, brought to you by The Talk Nerdy Show:

• Actor Henry Cavill cast as Superman/Clark Kent for the upcoming Christopher Nolan-produced, Zack Snyder-directed Superman film, coming in 2012
• The death(?) of Johnny Storm/The Human Torch in Fantastic Four #587: how long will it stick?
• Comics reviews: Avengers #9, written by Brian Michael Bendis, art by John Romita, Jr.; Atomic Robo: The Deadly Art of Science #1, written by Brian Clevinger, art by Scott Wegener.

And for you videophiles out there, here’s the recording from Sunday night’s webcast (with raw audio). Enjoy!