Double Episode Review: Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes : Episode 22 & 23 : "Ultron 5" & "Ultron Imperative"

Ultron 5 & The Ultron Imperative back to back is the culmination of almost a season's worth of foreshadowing in Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes. Peppered throughout previous episodes of the series have been glimpses of Ant-Man's Ultron Synthezoid constructs, with the Avengers recently using them to defend against Kang the Conqueror's invasion in an earlier arc. To fans of the comics seeing that familiar robot around confirmed the show would soon be introducing one of the team's best villains into the cartoon's continuity. I've never had a chance to read the original Ultron saga in comic form, so the chance of seeing an animated retelling has been high on my want-to-see list since I first heard this series was starting. I'm not surprised they waited until the end towards the end of the first season to bring in Ultron either, as his cold, artificial intelligence brings just the right amount evil robot-cliche conflict to the show. Hey, I happen to love evil robot cliches!

Green Lantern (or how I want to learn to stop worrying and love the bomb)

His sight doesn't look too great in that
crappy mask. I'm sure I could escape it.

That headline is a little misleading, as you'll soon see. Recently I've found myself questioning whether I'm a DC person at all.

I mean, I love Batman : TAS, JLU, Young Justice et al, but I've never really gotten into the DC comic scene. Even as a kid, as much as I loved Batman and Superman, my exposure was limited to their various film and television incarnations. In fact, I think I may own precisely one Batman comic, yet thanks to the animated series, movies and video games (not to mention Wizard and general comic conversations) I have quite a good understanding of both his history and his mythology, rogues and relationships included. I have fond memories of watching Richard Donner's Superman as a young boy, particularly enamoured with the scenes of baby Kal-El lifting up the Kent's pickup truck, or young Clark outrunning a train. However I'm outright positive I've never owned a Superman comic, and I couldn't even tell you which few I have read. Once again though, I feel incredibly familiar with just about every aspect of his lore.

Green Lantern on the other hand, well... he's a bit of a mystery to me. You see, when it comes to comics,  you can make mine Marvel. I had a brief daliance with Image for a while there (thanks glossy pages and Michael Turner!) and had initially become a serious comic afficianado through the Dark Horse line of Star Wars books. I can specifically remember Marvel comics I had as a kid though, in particular a 'What If' Fantastic Four comic in which the Silver Surfer didn't betray Galactus. It was full of that wonderful Kirby and Lee madness and strange silver-age science-fiction, and I loved every panel of it.

Which is why I'm so routinely surprised that Green Lantern just doesn't do it for me. Surprised and disappointed. When Green Lantern : First Flight came out, that was my first real introduction to the lore. Once again, I was familiar with aspects of it from JLU, but those team shows never really give you the depth of a characters origins and the premise. I thought First Flight was okay, nothing more. I enjoyed Wonder Woman much more, which is a little shocking, maybe because I think there is just something so overwhelmingly silly about Green Lantern. I love Space Opera, so what the heck is going on here?

WonderCon News of Note-Worthiness!

So perhaps you've had a chance to watch some of the Green Lantern footage premiered at this years Wondercon over in the US, if not here it is again for your consideration:



Fan bait. That's my first reaction to that. It's awesome fan bait yes, but fan bait all the same.

Episode Review: Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes! : Episode 103 : "Hulk Vs the World"

The Incredible Hulk smashes into his first appearance on Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes in a great episode scripted by Chris Yost and producer Josh Fine. Titled 'Hulk Vs the World' it also happens to be a surprising introduction for the Green Goliath as he's not alone with 'The World' including the series' introduction to both Hawkeye and the Black Widow. So there's a lot going on in this episode that isn't Hulk just breaking stuff for 22 minutes as you might expect, because there's also a lot more Avengers world-building going here AND Hulk breaking stuff!

Captain America : The First Avenger - Trailer online!

There's a trailer out for Captain America : The First Avenger!

It's been a while since I've written anything, which has been pretty disappointing. Fortunately, it's largely been for great reasons, like starting a contract at Rising Sun Pictures. It's been a lot of work that has left me without the energy to keep up with half of the shows I'm supposed to be watching/reviewing (not to mention a big Chuck diversion that's taken over), and even less energy to sit down and write about it all.

Having said that, there's a trailer out for Captain America : The First Avenger!

Making a few comments on a trailer felt like a good way to ease back into the writing, so first let's check it out and then we'll comment.

Episode Review: Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes! : Episode 102 : "Thor the Mighty"

Hell yeah! Now this is more like it!

After last episode's low-key introduction to Iron Man, this time around we get a mini-epic full of Shakespearean theatrics and super-heroics, and it's all thanks to The Mighty Thor!

Now in the interest of transparency and full disclosure, I need to reveal I'm a huge fan of Thor and his extended family of Norse gods, the Asgardians. In 2007 Babylon 5 creator J. Michael Straczynski started a superlative comic run writing Thor for Marvel, breathing new life into the character and relaunching the canceled comic title. So good it actually encouraged me to go back and read the classic Walt Simonson run on Thor in the 80's, featuring some of his craziest cosmic tales. Perhaps it's also just me, but Thor has to be the perfect comic to read while also listening to some heavy, dynamic progressive rock, perfectly matching all of his psychedelic trips through the Marvel cosmos. It's also easy to say that my love for Thor is reaching fever peak with a live-action Thor feature film coming out this May, that will also have Marvel hoping to lure more than just this fan's money to the cinema. So how does the Norse god of Smacktalk and Smiting fare in Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes?