Home

Okay, so I've been back for a week and a half now, but I've been too depressed to blog and while it still sucks to be back I figure its about time I try and get things back to normal. We did manage to podcast a couple of times before I left the states, but it's been a little hectic since i got back so I haven't had time to edit, nor to record any more, but rest assured; season two of Stuff and Things is on it's way, and with them will come probably more pictures that you could possibly care about.

But suffice to say I had a hell of a lot of fun over in America. I even surprised myself by having a hell of a lot of fun in Disneyland. though not so much Tower of Terror. That ride kicked my ass. KICKED. MY. ASS.
the majority of the time at the park I the people I was with were taking it in turns to watch their baby while the other went on a ride with me, then we'd swap and the other would go with me on he ride, so I went on every ride at least twice the number of times as they did... but when I got off of tower of terror? nope. it was time for me to look after baby Sherlock for the first time.

But there will be more of that later, when I post the podcast adn the pictures.

For now, however, I just wanted to tell you all that I am back. It sucks but I'm back. With my return I am playing Minecraft, Disney infinity and learning Unity 3D

Tubage
- James

Superior Heroine

Speaking to Comicbookresources on august first Marvel movies boss, Kevin Feige talked about their movie plans, specifically how they've not got any plans to create female led movie projects in the near future. His reasoning made sense, but it was still just excuses. Don't get me wrong. I understand, there are some very legitimate reasons, but I still think there's room for another franchise, after all Ironman has run it's course (by that I mean it's pretty awful at this point) and nobody REALLY likes the thor films. we could easily put those aside for a few years (as Feige said would be a necessity) and make space for some good female leads.

And since we're talking about it I thought I'd make my Three suggestions.

While usually I would go into things like the different time lines and worlds, ultimate marvel being my favorite, but for the most part people like to focus on standard continuity. Earth-616.

Brunnhilde The Valkyrie

Brunnhilde was an obvious choice for me. Brunnhilde comes straight out of the Thor side of the Marvel universe, appointed by Odin to lead the Valkyrior. For those not versed in Norse Mythology the Valkyrior were the female angels who selected fallen warriors who had accomplished great deeds, performed heroic acts or simply impressed them to go with them to Asgard to train in war all day then drink and feast all night until Ragnarok, the end of time.

Brunnhilde would make a great movie, in part because Thor's setting and back story have already been established so this would slip right in there, but mostly because she's just a cool character. Interesting, strong, she has a rich back story that even the comic book fans are still getting to know.

A lot of people consider her to be just a female Thor, but she's really not. She doesn't have any of the same motivations, nor the same characterizations. With the right actress, the right level of sarcasm in her writing she could be great.

There are many possibilities for a film about Brunnhilde, but the one I like most is the idea of Souls going missing when she tries to bring them to the after life. The story I keep coming to would be one where she is watching a hero, a particular person that she likes for Asgard, and in her day to day acts she discovers that souls are being stolen. It's at this point that she discovers that the man she wants for Asgard is going to be killed soon so she must find out where the souls are going and stop the bad guy before he dies.

That or make sure he doesn't die, in which case she wouldn't bring him to Asgard, at least not yet.

Laura kinney X-23

Now I know that X-23 is an impossible choice, in part because the franchise that she is from (X-men) is still owned by another company, Fox. I also realise that she's from a franchise that is primarily about group movies, but she's still well worth mentioning.

Laura Kinney or X-23 as she is known to many is the successful clone of the original Weapon X, the Wolverine. Which would imply that she's just a cheap female knock off of Wolverine, but like Brunnhilde; she is not. Another thing people might be concerned by is her time amongst the New X-men. She did spend a lot of time amongst the X-men, but arguably she's spent significantly longer on her own, learning about her self, about her progenitor and about who she could be. This hero has the potential to be the next Spider-man with a hint of Hitgirl thrown in. That isn't to say that she's just a female Spider-man, she is far from it. My point was more that she's relatable. or could be. The outcast. The girl who is just learning to find herself. There have been so many shows and films where a character with a special ability wants to keep out of trouble and just blend into the background but gets pulled out of 'retirement' to take care of something that they can't ignore - from Buffy the Vampire slayer to the new Constantine - that I can't imagine it would be hard to come up with a story here.

Laurie has escaped from Weapon X and has re-located to small town america. She starts school - because of course she does - and tries to remain hidden, but something happens. A field trip accident, a gym prank gone awry, a lab experiment and she's exposed. News gets back to Weapon X and they come for her, uncaring of the lives of the people in town. Laura has to decide whether to escape and live or protect the people who treated her differently... but who also became her friend.

It's an old story, but one I would love to see with X-23 at the helm.

Natasha Romanoff Black Widow

Lets be honest, this was the most obvious one, no? This one was always going to be in this list, we already have an actress, a set up, a basis for what to do and where to go from here. There are a thousand things we could do with the character that Scarlett Johansson portrays surprisingly well in Ironman 2, Avengers and Captain America, Winter Soldier.

I hadn't been a big fan of Johansson before her foray into the world of Marvel. Nothign against her, of course, she simply hadn't done any work in genres I have any particular attachment to (That I'm aware of). But her portrayal of the Russian mob hitter turned secret super agent with a dark and sordid past was great, and with the end of the winter soldier movie (spoilers) destruction of Shield, the realisation that Hydra had infiltrated every level of the Worlds government there are surely hundreds of spy stories to get us involved in, because as Winter Soldier showed us; not every super hero movie has to be about a big monster tearing up the city or the super villain blowing up the world; it can be a spy thriller or a comedy or a horror story or a sci-fi or an adventure.

Can you just imagine Natasha taking to the streets of Russia once more to go after one of her old contacts who has information about Hydra, only to get caught up in a plot to make war with the USA, or discovers that the russian mob have gotten hold of an asgardian artifact that could open the world to some alien race bent on their destruction.

I personally think it'd be great. 

Now these are not in any particular order, nor are they by any means the only heroines in Marvel who deserve a look.

if your interested in looking out for more check out the following names:

Ms. Marvel, Jessica Drew, Julia Carpenter, Wanda Maximoff, Kitty Pryde (who I love btw, but she is very much a grouper), Martha Franklin, and a whole host of others from all walks of the Marvel universe, not to mention the other verses.

Tubage

-James

Vigilant in death

I spend a lot of time on Deviant art following some really amazing artists, It's great to see the things they do with their own characters and even some of the ones I've grown up with, btu what is absolutely best is when some of these artists go through all the trouble of creating fully fledged comics and having them released.
It was great when the artist couple/duo of Adam Withers and Comfort Love created their first comic series, Uniques (I bought every issue), and published it themselves.
And it's great now when Stjepan Šejić (AKA Nebezial) released his first completely independent comic series, published by Image and Topcow.
Now Stjepen is a well known comic artist in the comicbook world, having leant his particular style to series such as Army of Darkness, Battlestar Galactica, Darkness, Witchblade (and a whole host of its spin offs) and more recently a relaunch of hte 1996 series 'Aphrodite IX'.
He's worked with Zenescope Entertainment, Virgin comics, Radical Publishing, Arcana Studios, Dynamite Entertainment, Marvel but he's most well known for his work with Image/Topcow who have brought his most recent projects to the people.

Stjepen has worked within the comics industry for a long time, worked on a lot of incredible projects and he's very actuive on his deviantart account, giving fans of his a great insight into him and his humor (Doctor batman Wwoommmmmb). But to the best of my knowledge (and feel free to correct me) he's not before written, designed and drawn an entire comic himself.
And Death Vigil makes me ask; Why not?
It's damn good.
The story flows really well, the characters are incredibly well written and, of course, the art is spot on.
Death Vigil is an interesting new take on the after life, workign with the idea of some people being chosen to continue their life after their death in the form of agents for the reaper. It follows the story of at least two members of an ancient order of post-dead people as they join up with the reaper to fight necromancers. In this world the Reaper - Bearnie - is the protector of peoples lives, of peoples souls.
The comic opens as the first character - Sam 'The Digger' - dies trying to save a young woman from being mugged in an alleyway. Stjepan shows the process that Bearnie goes through to make him into a member of the Vigil and then transports the readers twelve years into the future to show sam, a now veteran of the Vigil, waiting in a cemetary for the preverbial shit to hit the fan. Which it does a mere few minutes later, when a full necromancer opens a portal to hell in front of his fahter's grave.

Necromancers use their gifts to break the barriers of life and death and call forth incredibly detailed and well drawn monsters from the depths of hell. The Vigil was created to stop that from ever happening.

All in all it's a great start to a comic series. It introduces the main characters, shows how everything works, gives the player an insight into how people develop over time and even some lead up to the main story arc.
The layout as much as the artwork itself gives the reader a great sense of the action, speed and tone of the current scenes. Using picture in picture style captions as well as full page and constantly changing panel sizes, and structures. Not to mention that the characters and scenes themselves have been well designed and developed into a practical perfection.

Issue one is available now from most retailers in the states and from Forbiddenplanet.com, it's also available at comixology. So get out there and read it.

Tubage
- James

AMURICA FUNK YEAH!

Literally 2 weeks today I get to go to america!
So I decided to give you all a look at my schedual! Sadly I didn't get tickets to Comic con, however I will still be visiting San Diego on the Sunday and enjoying the ambience!

So I set out on Thursday the 24th, my flight leaves Heathrow at 7 in the morning which will make for very early departure, I most likely wont even go to bed on Wednesday night so I can sleep on the plane. I will be getting to Chicago at 10:45 and leaving again at 12:45 for the final leg of my journey arriving in Salt Lake city - three months late for their comic con - to meet up with Elizabeth and her almost 6 month old son Sherlock!
Most likely we'll ride back to theirs, pick up her husband from work and grab dinner, then watch the Pioneer day fireworks... all while I try not to fall asleep on everyone!
When we wake up the next day, the twenty fifth, we will spend most of the day chilling out at Elizabeth's house while her husband is at work, playing games, watching movies and tv shows, the usual nerdisms. When he gets off work however it's the first leg of our journey down to Anaheim! We'll drive to a stop off in Saint George to rest for the night and eat and rest some more.
The 26th sees us driving the rest of the way through to Anaheim, passing through Vegas (but not stopping) possibly dropping by Calico ghost town before heading on down to our hotel in California; Hotel Pepper Tree.
Day 4, the 27th! Comicon Sunday. Sure I don't have a ticket but my friends do and I'm looking forward to looking around and enjoying everything going on around the outside of comic con!
28th and 29th will be devoted to all things Disneyland. We're gonna try and hit both Disneyland and California Adventure, but I'm a super wuss like wimp and I don't know how well I'll do on any of the rides. FYI I'm allergic to pineapple but I'm totally gonna pig out on dole whip in the tikki room.
Wednesday the 30th  is LA in the morning and Vegas in the afternoon and evening, topped off with a show at the Rio; Penn and Teller! You have no idea how excited I am for Penn and Teller, not to mention my suite at The Luxor. I got a deluxe tower suite. It has it's own freaking wet bar. a living room and a separate bedroom. I could easily spend the whole holiday in that room, but I wont, we'll be in Vegas on the 30th to the 1st when we'll be driving back up to Saint George. At some point in Vegas I'm planning to go to a club or two just to have a bit of fun, but I think that'll probably be on the second night. We might go see another show (Circe Du Soleil?) but no plans as yet.
On the 2nd we will be heading out for a nice long hike in Zions National park - by the way if you havent seen it google it, it looks incredible.
Followed on the 3rd by more hiking in Kanarraville Falls and Bryce Canyon on the 4th. All of which are amazing and I can't wait to get some amazing pictures.
Then back to Payson to hang out at Elizabeths for three days. We're planning to visit a bunch of things while we're chilling including a drive in cinema, a shooting range, some badass DnD sessionage.
Then I will spend the last day, friday the 8th crying a little because its going to totally suck coming home after spending two and a half weeks out there.

So as you can imagine; I'm super stoked. Super excited and I cannot wait. I realised today that there are fewer days until I go than I will be spending there. fourteen days left. Sixteen days there.
SO EXCITED!

VIDEO!
-James