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, 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:

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 from Episode 167, brought to you by Heroes Landing in Clermont, FL:

• DC Comics “Drawing The Line at $2.99″ policy: early effects and indicators, and how is NOT changing prices affecting the choice to keep buying Marvel books?
• Thoughts on the end of Burn Notice’s Fourth Season–guest appearances, the finale, and what it might mean for next season’s status quo;
• ‘Stu’s Reviews’: Brightest Day #18, written by Geoff Johns and Peter J. Tomasi, art by Ivan Reis, Patrick Gleason, Ardian Syaf, Scott Clark, and Joe Prado; Green Lantern Corps $56, written by Tony Bedard, art by Tyler Kirkham

And in case you’re more of a visual person and you like to SEE us geeking out in studio, here’s the video (note: raw audio – podcast version contains additional content). Enjoy!

Originally posted at PrimeTimeGeek.com.

In this second hour of Prime Time Geek featuring special guest co-host Comic Book Alex from Ghost Shadow Studio:

• Thoughts on J. Michael Stracynzski’s sudden departure from Superman, Wonder Woman monthly comics to focus exclusively on the sequel to the Superman: Earth One original graphic novel;
• Review of “Superman/Shazam: The Return of Black Adam” from Warner Premiere and the DC Universe Animated Movies Collection;
• “Smallville Smackdown” – review of Season 10 Episode 8 “Abandoned”

Enjoy!

Here, at last, are the “lost” Halloween episodes of PTG, recorded on October 31st, but only now available for the first time anywhere!

Originally posted at PrimeTimeGeek.com.

PTG Episode 153 is brought to you by Dinosaur World! The big day for the Talk Nerdy Show/Slacker and the Man field trip to that well-known prehistoric-themed attraction is tomorrow, and we’ll be there for a bit, taking pictures and maybe shooting a little video which we’ll of course post on our Facebook Fan Page and YouTube channel. Should be a lot of fun, so be sure and check out those sites tomorrow and the upcoming week.
[UPDATE: Due to "real world' obligations, I won't, in fact, be attending the Dinosaur World field trip after all. Please be sure to visit the Talk Nerdy Show and Slacker and the Man sites for pictures and video from the event.]

In this episode, our second with The Man from Slacker and the Man and Stu Cohen from Heroes Landing, we spend a good amount of time debating who’s currently on the right track as far as producing successful comic book movie adaptations, and whether or not stories of Marvel Studios‘ meddling in Iron Man 2 is cause for concern in regards to their upcoming features. We wrap up the hour with two comic book reviews from Stu, Superior #1, by Mark Millar and Leinil Yu, from Marvel’s Icon imprint, and The Last Phantom #2 by Scott Beatty and Eduardo Ferigato, from Dynamite Entertainment. Enjoy!

Here’s Part Two of our Top Comic Picks for this week, focused on two DC Comics titles in stores last Wednesday. For our top Marvel picks for the week, check out Part One.

Brightest Day #10 (written by Geoff Johns and Peter J. Tomasi, art by Ivan Reis, Scott Clark, and Joe Prado): As much as Brightest Day has been improving of late, pretty soon this title is going to be worthy of the moniker “Longest Day” (with apologies to the films of that name). Or maybe “Talkiest Day” would be even more accurate. Issue #10 continues the recent trend of the book to spend a longer time on each cast member’s ongoing story, with this issue focusing on the Firestorm, Aquaman, and Aqualad story arcs. This is a good thing: it allows us as readers to spend more time in each issue with these characters and their challenges only increases the chances that we’re going to care about those challenges and how they are resolved. But for all that additional time spent in these most recent issue, STILL not a whole lot ACTUALLY happens: Ronnie Raymond and Jason Rusch, currently the duo making up Firestorm, learn more from Professor Stein in very long expository speech balloons about what “Firestorm” really might be, and that mysterious “third party” lurking in there shows up ominously AGAIN. The boy who would be Aqualad is finally told his true origin, just in time for his big baddie daddy, Aquaman arch-nemesis Black Manta, to invoke his visitation rights. And Aquaman himself, well, he does what heroes do, and shows up just when he’s needed for a reunion we’ve been waiting for since issue #1. Hopefully we get some follow-up to these story beats, with some actual action involved, in the next issue, but I wouldn’t be surprised if the book segues back to the story’s other characters, and even though I do find the Hawkman/Hawkgirl and Deadman story arcs in Brightest Day more interesting overall, I’d REALLY like to see some payoff to what’s been set up for us in this issue. WORTH A READ

Green Lantern: Emerald Warriors #2 (written by Peter J. Tomasi, art by Fernando Pasarin): Guy Gardner’s mission to the “Unknown Sectors”, and the characters that will be accompanying him, takes a little more shape in this issue, and writer Peter J. Tomasi gives us a sense of what’s on all their minds in this second issue of the latest Green Lantern spin-off series. Gardner and fan favorite GLs Kilowog and Arisia all had a really rough go of things during Blackest Night, and its those conflicts and issues being focused on here that promises us a character-driven series of stories, at least at the outset. Guy’s lingering issues stemming from his encounter with that nasty Red Lantern ring come first, and its during a visit to the Blue Lantern homeworld of Odym that the group’s most unlikely member makes her entrance. Artist Fernando Pasarin’s style is clean, easy on the eyes and stunning when it needs to be, such as while depicting Arisia’s disturbing dreams about Lantern Sodam Yat, who she believes to be dead, or showing us the series’ first villain, the mysterious and über-creepy Zardor of Kralok. But what I like best about Pasarin’s pencils is that he’s not afraid to depict characters in a more “realistic” way. There’s nothing gratuitous, nothing that amounts to “fanboy service” in Pasarin’s work–just solid, coherent visual storytelling that hopefully will set the standard for what we can expect from a title that’s off to a very interesting start. RECOMMENDED

This evening, we’ll post our Flash TV Reviews, so check back with us soon!

Originally posted at PrimeTimeGeek.com.

PTG Episode 144 is brought to you by Heroes Landing. Our favorite comic store in Clermont has a birthday coming up, and we want to spread the word about what’s going to be a great party. Head over to their Facebook Fan Page for all the details on the event, which is going on September 18th, and that’s not all they’ve got going on. Todd and Stu love serving up cake and “refreshments” whenever a major title debuts, and the next one up is Uncanny X-Force, coming Wednesday, October 6th! Marvel has declared that day “Uncanny X-Force Day”–no, we’re not kidding, check out the image below, and make plans to come out and celebrate. Just don’t expect your work to give you time off for it …

It’s our first episode back after a week-long break, so for this, the first of two end-of-summer episodes, we brought in The Man from Slacker and the Man and Stu Cohen from Heroes Landing to sit in and help bring the laughs. In this 80-minute edition we cover Neil Gaiman’s The Sandman being developed for television (without Gaiman’s participation as of this posting), cast our votes in a few of Spike TV’s Scream 2010 Awards, and review Machete and The American, both new in theaters this weekend. To wrap up the show, Stu brings you reviews of two new comics from last week: Superman: Last Family of Krypton #2 from DC Comics and Wolverine #1 (yes, a new ongoing series) from Marvel. Enjoy!

Originally posted at PrimeTimeGeek.com.

PTG Episode 141 is brought to you by Cure For the Run MMX. SomaCow’s second annual charity event is just a few days away now, but it’s not too late to get involved. If you’re interested in “running” in the event, if you’re a local business and you’d like to contribute something to the raffle, or if you’d just like to make a donation, go to curefortherun.com and you’ll find all the information you need. It’s going to be a day of great memories, for earning a year’s worth of bragging rights, and for brief athletic achievement followed by copious amounts of eating and drinking. But most of all it’s going to be a day for doing something good for children who need it. All proceeds and donations will go to New Hope for Kids, a Central Florida-based charity whose goal is “to bring health, healing, and happiness to children and families suffering from grief, loss, or life-threatening illnesses.” So please, come on out this Saturday to Wall Street Plaza, get registered to run (starts at 2pm), come meet the hosts from all the shows at the SomaCow Media Network, as well as Slacker and the Man, the Talk Nerdy Show, the Orlando Ghostbusters, and more, eat, drink, and when the time comes, RUN!

In this episode we review a HECKUVA lot of stuff, but perhaps most interestingly we review a pair of movies that came out last weekend that couldn’t be more different in terms of tone, style, and target audience. About the only thing that Scott Pilgrim vs. the World and The Expendables have in common is that they both feature martial arts fighting and choreography. One of these films enjoyed considerable movie critic love, overwhelming approval from fans, and tremendous social networking buzz going into the weekend. The other movie, however, proved to be the more palatable to mainstream audiences (despite lousy reviews) because they knew what they would be getting, and therefore actually made money, winning the box office competition by a WIDE margin. Of course, if you didn’t know already, that box office winner was The Expendables. Shows how much I know about predicting the box office; as you’ll hear during the podcast, I actually said I’d be very surprised if Scott Pilgrim didn’t come out on top this weekend.

It’s just another in a series of box office flops by films made from lesser-known, niche or cult-favorite comic book properties. The Hero Complex blog at the LA Times this week features a great article by show business reporter Ben Fritz about why films such as Watchmen, The Losers, Kick-Ass, and now Scott Pilgrim vs. the World have floundered on opening weekend after riding huge waves of fan approval and hype generated by previews and screenings at Comic-Con. It’s a very interesting analysis, and the conclusions are hard to refute. Enjoy!

[EDITOR'S NOTE: During my review of Green Lantern: Emerald Warriors #1 in the final segment of this episode, I erroneously credited John Byrne as the writer of the DC crossover event "Legends", as well as mistakenly giving its publication years as 1989-1990. "Legends" was published in 1986-1987, plotted by John Ostrander, scripted by Len Wein, and penciled by Byrne. Apologies for the confusion.]