Special: Free Comic Book Day 2014

Well it's finally here... The first Saturday in May is less than one week away which means we are in striking distance of Free Comic Book Day 2014. So for this weeks Sunday Special I figured why not rank this years collection of comics that will be available (for FREE!) at your local Comic Shop next Saturday so you know what I will be looking forward to.

57. Comic Book Legal Defense Fund Presents: Raising A Reader

56. Perfect Square's Hello Kitty and Friends

55. Drawn & Quarterly Presents: Shigeru Mizuki's Showa: A History Of Japan

54. Udon's Les Miserables: The Fall Of Fantine

53. Gemstone's Overstreet's Comic Book Marketplace

52. Hermes Press's Buck Rogers

51. Fantagraphics' Hip-Hop Family Tree Two-In-One Free

50. Alterna's Fubar: The Ace Of Spades

49. Diamond's Previewsworld Spectacular

48. Oni Press's Courtney Crumrin

47. Th3rd World Studios Presents: Finding Gossamyr: Way Of The Bladeslinger

46. Capstone Press's The Adventures Of Jellaby

45. Graphix Spotlight: The Dumbest Idea Ever

44. Epicenter's Magic Wind

43. Aspen's World's Of Aspen

42. Top Shelf's Top Shelf Kids Club

41. Antarctic Press's Steam Wars

40. Archie's Archie Digest

39. Epicenter's Entropy

38. Valiant's Valiant 2014: Unity Versus The Armor Hunters

37. Zenoscope's Grimm Fairy Tales #0: Age Of Darkness

36. Red Giant's 4 Comic Bundle (Giant-Size Fantasy; Action; Adventure; Thrills)

35. Comic Book Legal Defence Fund's Help The CBLDF Defend Comics

34. Avatar Press's Uber #0: The First Cycle

33. Action Lab's Skyward/Midnight Tiger

32. 2000 AD's 2000 AD Special

31. Comixtribe's SCAM Crosswords #0

30. Viz Media's All You Need Is Kill/Terra Formars

29. Red 5's Atomic Robo & Friends

28. Automatic Picture's Ipso Facto

27. Dark Horse's Project Black Sky

26. Dark Horse's Avatar: The Last Airbender/Itty Bitty Hellboy/Juice Squeezers

25. Valiant's Valiant Universe: Handbook 2014

24. Udon's Street Fighter #0

23. Automic Picture's Far From Wonder: Volume 1: Hatter M

22. Image's Rise Of The Magi

21. Arcana's The Intrinsict

20. 12 Gauge's Sherwood Texas/The Boondock Saints

19. IDW's Transformers Vs. G.I. Joe

18. Bleeding Cool's Bleeding Cool Magazine

17. IDW's V-Wars

16. BOOM!'s Kaboom! Summer Blast

15. Archaia's Hardcover Anthology

14. DC's Teen Titans Go! #1

13. Action Lab Danger Zone's Zombie Tramp/Ehmm Theory

12. United Plankton's Spongebob Squarepants Freestyle Funnies 2014

11. Papercutz' The Smurfs

10. Marvel's Rocket Raccoon

9. Bongo's Bongo Comics Free-For-All

8. Marvel's Guardians Of The Galaxy

7. Archie's Sonic The Hedgehog/Megaman X Flipbook

6. New England's The Tick

5. Comixtribe's Epic #0

4. Fantagraphics' Walt Disney's Uncle Scrooge & Donald Duck: A Matter Of Some Gravity

3. Papercutz' Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers

2. Hermes Press's Scratch 9 

1. DC's The New 52: Future's End

Well that concludes this list. Remember that even though this is a "Free Comic Book Day" for you, your local comic shops pay to get these books (mind you at a nice discount) to give away to you so be sure to support the stores year round. Have a wonderful FCBD and I'd like to hear all about your adventures. I'm currently in the midst of planning my own FCBD adventure. For more information on the above listed books check out  www.freecomicbookday.com and for more information on my anticipated books check out this post I did over at the Big B Comics Blog where I spotlight 5 books Big B will have available that checked in my Top 15 that people may not know about.

Top 10 Countdown: April 26, 2014

Happy Earth Day everyone! Now no more being hippies... Let's check out this weeks tunes...

10. Modern Baseball - Your Graduation
Last week: NEW!

9. Brigades - Small Time Crooks
Last week: 10.

8. Breathe Carolina Feat. Danny Worsnop (Asking Alexandria) - Sellouts
Last week: 4.

7. The Summer Set - Lightning In A Bottle
Last week: 8.

6. Chunk! No, Captain Chunk! - All Star
Last week: 7.

5. The Wonder Years - Dismantling Summer
Last week: 6.

4. Taking Back Sunday - Stood A Chance
Last week: 5.

3. Silverstein - On Brave Mountains We Conquer
Last week: 1.

2. Man Overboard - How To Hide Your Feelings
Last week: 3.

1. Fall Out Boy Feat. Courtney Love - Rat A Tat
Last week: 2.

Special: 2001: A Space Odyssey Review

Today I'm taking a break from the Sunday Special to give you the opportunity to read up on a friend of mine. Mad Mike Of Metal has been blogging for a bit and he just recently posted a review of 2001: A Space Odyssey over on his new blog. So instead of reading some of my mindless dribble read his thought provoking review on the sci-fi classic below:

Well, this is it. THE Sci-fi epic, the space movie to end all space movies, what is widely regarded as the greatest science fiction movie ever made, 2001: A Space Odyssey.

This movie has been on my watch list for a very long time. Everybody I've talked to that has seen it has told me it’s a masterpiece, and they've had the critics to back it up: It has a 95% approval rating on rotten tomatoes and the AFI named it the greatest Sci-fi movie of all time. I thought to myself "Really?" so they think it’s better than such Sci-fi/Space Epics like the Star Wars trilogy, Terminator 1 & 2, Alien, Aliens, Back to the Future, Jurassic Park, and Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan? Well, since it was being held to such a high esteem, I told myself that I would watch it the first chance I got...

So when I saw this movie on sale for 10$ on Blu Ray the other day, I didn't waste any time to buy and watch the movie that everyone considers to be one of the best movies ever made. And after watching it, I ask this question: ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME?

Okay, before anyone forms a lynch mob, I will say that I like this movie. I thought it was visually stunning, ahead of its time, and thrilling, but the greatest Sci-fi movie ever made? Hell no.

In my opinion, it's not the best Sci-fi movie ever made, it's not the greatest space thriller ever made, it's definitely not Stanley Kubrick's masterpiece, heck, it's not even the best movie of 1968 (that title belongs to Once Upon a Time in the West). It's a good movie, I'll give it that, but it's horrendously overrated, and allow me to explain why in this review. 

I’ll start off with what I liked about the movie. I thought the “Dawn of Man” sequence was brilliant. It represents how man, even at his earliest stages, was violent and territorial, and how we are at our most creative when times are at their most desperate. Seriously, using the bone of a dead animal to knock your enemy the fuck out with? That’s awesome. The gang of man-apes also discovers a black monolith prior to inventing the bone club, and they worship it like a god. I figured I’d mention that because the monolith becomes a big focal point in the movie. All in all, I love this whole sequence (which includes that cool match cut) and it’s definitely one of the film’s strong points. 

Another strong point is the visuals. The gorgeous shots of space, spaceships and planets are amazingly well crafted, especially for its time. The shot of the sun setting (or rising?) over the monolith is breathtaking, and the shots of Jupiter and the moon are just beautiful. I don’t know how many hours Kubrick spent drawing all of it up, but everything looked great. There is something about the visuals that annoyed me, but I’ll get to that later. 

The biggest thing the movie has going for it is HAL 9000. That red-eyed machine completely owns this fucking movie. Created as a perfect robot in control of the ship, HAL is forced to keep a secret from the crew. This secret leads to him “malfunctioning” and killing off everyone but Dr. Bowman. HAL, who happens to be a good lip reader, finds out the waking members of the crew are onto him and are planning on shutting him down, so what does he do? He blasts one of them in the coldness of space and traps Dr. Bowman outside of the ship, leading to one of the most memorable quotes of all time (Sorry, I won’t recite the quote, I’m afraid I can’t do that). Cold, ruthless, quotable, and diabolical, he is one of the greatest movie villains I’ve ever seen… 

Eventually, Bowman gets to Hal’s brain and begins to shut him down circuit by circuit. It’s done to the point where you actually feel sorry for that poor robot… Mostly because he’s such a badass character and deserves an entire movie for him to be all badass and shit. I see this as a perfect segue into the problems I have with this movie… 

First of all, as awesome as a character HAL is, he’s in the movie for only one act, and is killed off pretty damn quickly. The reason why I have a problem with that is because… well… He’s the only interesting character this movie has! 

Seriously, there are no other characters in this movie worth giving a rat’s ass about! This movie has little to no dialogue, or character development for that matter. I understand that Kubrick was trying to tell a story through visuals, and make it more of an experience than a movie… But Jesus Christ! Give your characters some depth for fuck sakes! That way, when Hal kills them off, we as an audience can: 

1 – Feel sad that these people died
2 – Feel hatred for Hal
3 – Root for Bowman to kill Hal off, instead of rolling our eyes when Hal is shut down because the movie then relegates back to a slow, colossal bore full of overlong visuals and a bland main character. 

I need to speak of another problem I had with this movie: The pacing is unbelievably slow… How slow, you ask? Well, it makes M. Night Shyamalan look like he has ADD. Now, before anyone reading this accuses me of being a Michael Bay fan, I just happen to like slow paced movies. Among my favourite movies of all time include some slow epics like The Godfather (Part I and II), the Dollars Trilogy, Alien, The Shawshank Redemption, etc. The difference between those movies and this one is: While slow paced, something interesting is going on! There’s an interesting conversation, there’s a brilliantly paced standoff, there’s a cop getting shot in a restaurant. In this movie, almost nothing is happening! We have to sit through what feels like an eternity just to watch a shuttle dock with that god damn space station!  I understand that 2001’s slow pace was intended to keep the audience in suspense and allow the audience to enjoy the visuals, but for me, it was just agonising to sit through, I just wanted something to happen! Anything! That’s why Hal’s presence was so crucial in this movie, because he at least made shit go down! But no, he had to die to make room for more pointless visuals… 

That brings me to my next point: Remember when I said there was something about the visuals that bugged me? Well here it is: While these visuals are absolutely beautiful and meticulously well done, most of these shots are left on screen for way too long! To me, the style was getting shoved in our faces instead of actually serving the plot. Okay, I get it, Mr. Kubrick, you put a lot of effort into drawing this shit up, and you did a wonderful job, but… can we get back to the story? Can that monolith blow up more eardrums? Can we see what Hal is up to? Maybe you can give the visuals a break for 15 minutes so we can get some of Dr. Bowman’s character flushed out? No? Okay…

Now I’m getting to my biggest problem with this movie: The ending. Everything wrong with this movie comes together here: No Hal in sight, it’s slow for the sake of slow, and the well done visuals are eating up too much celluloid. After the Dawn of Man sequence, we sit through roughly 2 hours of Hal and nothingness, only to see Dr. Bowman make contact with the monolith, go on an acid trip, wind up in a hotel room with older versions of him, and finally, turn into a fetus floating towards earth… What the fuck? 

From what I’ve read, this was meant to be an ambiguous ending that is left open for interpretation… Well, I interpreted it as dumb nonsensical bullshit. It’s only use was for Kubrick to shove more of his visuals in our faces instead giving us something coherent. But who knows, maybe I’m just one of the people that “Didn’t get it.” This part just flew over my head, I guess… If you managed to find meaning to this ending, good for you. It just didn't work for me. 

In conclusion, while 2001 has big problems, this movie is nice to look at (to an extent), Hal is awesome, Dawn of Man is the work of genius, and the soundtrack gives you shivers. It’s a good movie, a very good movie… But one of the greatest films ever made? Far from it. 

I give this movie a full 3 stars out of 5. I like it, but I don’t love it. 

Feel free to use the comments section to tell me what you think of this movie. 

- Mad Mike

If you want to read more from Mike then check out his blog at http://madmikeofmetal.blogspot.ca/ and stay tuned here as we are approaching the start of a new month so that means a new Monthly Movie Madness as we kick off the summer movie season and a new Comic Shop Corner in it's new format! Next week we are also delving into Free Comic Book Day.

Top 10 Countdown: April 19, 2014

Happy Easter weekend everyone! Hope it's a rad one, and in case it's not here's some rad tunes to listen to at least!

10. Brigades - Small Time Crooks
Last week: NEW!

9. The Flatliners - Birds Of England
Last week: 7.

8. The Summer Set - Lightning In A Bottle
Last week: 9.

7. Chunk! No, Captain Chunk! - All Star
Last week: NEW!

6. The Wonder Years - Dismantling Summer
Last week: 8.

5. Taking Back Sunday - Stood A Chance
Last week: 5.

4. Breathe Carolina Feat. Danny Worsnop (Asking Alexandria) - Sellouts
Last week: 4.

3. Man Overboard - How To Hide Your Feelings
Last week: 3.

2. Fall Out Boy Feat. Courtney Love - Rat A Tat
Last week: 2.

1. Silverstein - On Brave Mountains We Conquer
Last week: 1.

Special: 5 Batman stories that needs the DCAU movie treatment

I've been recently hooked on the DC Animated Universe movies so it's not a surprise that it would be my topic of choice for this special... Now surprisingly we have only had 4 Batman DCAU movies released so far (Batman: Year One, The Dark Knight Returns, Batman: Under The Red Hood and Gotham Knight, though I like to pretend that last one doesn't exist) On the flip side we've had 3 Superman solo movies and 5 Justice League films. You'd think the caped crusader would be given more time on screen with his rich comic history... But DC must have known this as we have 2 new Bat titles coming out this year with Batman And Son as well as an Arkham spinoff film set for release in May and Fall respectively. But in case they want more Bat-Verse here are 5 stories that would make great films.

5. Battle For The Cowl/Batman R.I.P./The Return Of Bruce Wayne

Okay so in the comics after Final Crisis Darkseid tosses Bruce Wayne deep into the past and he must travel back through time, having amnesia to return. Meanwhile with the apparent death of Batman, Tim Drake begs Dick Grayson to take up the cowl, but he refuses. Leading to Jason Todd taking on the role... Only to be attacked by Damian Wayne who is trying to prove himself to Dick, after being severely wounded my the new Batman. Tim Drake takes it upon himself to take the cowl and track Jason only to be left in a similar situation. The problem with adapting this? It's too big of a story to do in one film, perhaps over two, definitely not one, and DC already has the Justice League movies tying together currently so I doubt they'd want more continuity.

4. Batman: Gothic

My how the tables have turned. Gotham's mob bosses are being picked off one by one and they only have one person to turn to... Batman. Batman of course refuses to help the mob bosses to take down Mr. Whisper, a convicted child killer, but instead decides to track him on his own. After spotting a murder Bruce intervenes only to be tossed away by Mr. Whisper and his superhuman strength. The book also ties into Bruce's childhood and is a perfect mixture of horror and suspense filled mystery with a thrill a page. This would be a Batman/Bruce Wayne that most have yet to see so it'd be an all original entry and dark just like the caped crusader should be.

3. The Court Of Owls

The top 3 were so hard to rank, but I decided on putting the court at number 3 just because I think it's the most likely to get made. The newest entry on this list was started back in September 2011 by Bat-writer extraordinaire Scott Snyder and became an instant classic, Snyder introduced an all new power in Gotham that has been there for years, just unseen and unheard but definitely felt. It also, like Gothic, shows a whole new side to the Bat Family's past, though this time it affects Dick Grayson and not Bruce Wayne. I'm surprised it took over 70 years for a writer to finally put a villain in the image of the bat's natural predator... The owl.

2. Batman: Hush

As you may have noticed all these titles take place in the Bat-verse but don't necessarily have Batman as the only central character. Hush is the best example of this as the villain Hush targets and affects all people, good or evil, in Gotham. Of course to make a compelling film they'd have to choose a select few characters to follow as if they tried to tackle everyone the film would again prove to be too convoluted for the casual fan to follow. But in Bruce Timm we trust, and I'm positive a Hush film would be a huge hit with critics and fans alike.

1. The Killing Joke

Mark Hammil said the only way he's coming out of Joker retirement is to voice the clown prince of crime in an adaptation of Alan Moore's classing The Killing Joke. So at the very least DC, give a man who has given you so much over the years his wish, us fans would be delighted to hear Hammil's voice coming out of that grin once more as we discover Batman's greatest foe's origin and how he came to be the diabolical clown we know today, plus who didn't love in Under The Red Hood when Joker clobbered Jason Todd with the crowbar... I think watching Barbara Gordon getting shot would be equally impressive to see in moving pictures.

Top 10 Countdown: April 12, 2014

10. Silverstein - This Is How The Wind Shifts
Last week: 10.

9. The Summer Set - Lightning In A Bottle
Last week: NEW!

8. The Wonder Years - Dismantling Summer
Last week: 9.

7. The Flatliners - Birds Of England
Last week: 7.

6. Save Your Breath - Harrow Road
Last week: 1.

5. Taking Back Sunday - Stood A Chance
Last week: 6.

4. Breathe Carolina Feat. Danny Worsnop (Asking Alexandria) - Sellouts
Last week: 5.

3. Man Overboard - How To Hide Your Feelings
Last week: 4.

2. Fall Out Boy Feat. Courtney Love - Rat A Tat
Last week: 3.

1. Silverstein - On Brave Mountains We Conquer
Last week: 2.

Special: Captain America: The Winter Soldier Review

First off I'd like to congratulate 2 Broke Girls for upsetting Arrow in the finals of my "What TV Show should I watch next" bracket by a final vote of 23 - 21. I came down to the wire but it proves the old adage that boobs always overcome brawn... Now onto the matter at hand, let's talk Captain America.

The sequel to 2011's "The First Avenger" was billed as a must see Marvel event. It was believed to be the first true sequel to The Avengers, yes I realize Thor 2 came first but that only made passing mention of the events that unfolded in The Avengers meanwhile in Captain America: The Winter Soldier we see the reaction that the world, and most notably SHIELD had to Loki's actions in New York.

The plot is essentially Cap, Black Widow and friends versus SHIELD. Upon taking out a gang of pirates that took over a SHIELD boat. Cap is feeling uneasy since he caught Black Widow carrying out a separate mission for Nick Fury than what he was given. When approached Fury simply said it was compartmentalization, certain things he needed to know, other things he didn't. When pressed Fury shows Cap "Project Insight" a set of 3 helicarriers loaded to the nines with weapons that are able to neutralize threats before they happen. This of course doesn't sit well with Captain "Truth, Justice and The American Way" America (I know that's a Superman thing, but it works here so just shhh)

To avoid any spoilers I'll just say after a series of events Cap realizes that him and Nick Fury want the same thing but SHIELD has been infiltrated by a number of HYDRA agents, a terrorist organization that wants nothing more than the world to surrender their freedom... Which obviously angers Cap but not knowing who to trust he turns to Black Widow and a new friend fresh out of the war in Sam Wilson (Codename: The Falcon). Together they must take down SHIELD and HYDRA.

So what were my thoughts? Well it certainly changes the status quo of the Marvel Cinematic Universe that's for sure... Not to mention their tie-in TV series. It was a complete departure from the other Marvel movies that focus on grandiose action sequences and slick battle choreography (don't worry there was still lots of these) but unlike The Avengers or Thor, Captain America 3 plays out like a political thriller... This is just as much Argo as it was Iron Man. Chris Evans is constantly left running from the big bad organization with no one to trust.

The fight scenes are believable and well choreographed while Cap and Widow have tremendous on screen chemistry as they unite for a common goal, and newcomer Anthony Mackie (The Falcon) shows that he's not afraid to tangle with the big boys as he easily holds his own even when facing off with acting vets Sam Jackson and Robert Redford.

The plot moved along in a quick, precise manner in order to keep the story moving in a linear fashion and keeping your mind from wondering too far. I can officially say this as well, you don't have to see the first movie or even The Avengers (though at this point, who hasn't actually seen the latter) to follow. There's little mentions here and there of past films including some flashbacks of our Winter Soldier interacting with Cap in the first film, but nothing that hangs up the plot line. Sure, you won't feel nearly as bad for Cap when he's fighting The Winter Soldier without knowing their back story, but you can easily just move on and enjoy the shield throwing explosiveness.

Overall Captain America: The Winter Soldier continues Marvel's impressive universe building as it is my opinion the best entry not called "The Avengers" since the debut of the universe all the way back in Iron Man. I give it 5 Star Spangled Banners out of 5.

Top 10 Countdown: April 5, 2014

10. Silverstein - This Is How The Wind Shifts
Last week: NEW!

9. The Wonder Years - Dismantling Summer
Last week: 10.

8. One Direction - Midnight Memories
Last week: 8.

7. The Flatliners - Birds Of England
Last week: NEW!

6. Taking Back Sunday - Stood A Chance
Last week: NEW!

5. Breathe Carolina Feat. Danny Worsnop (Asking Alexandria) - Sellouts
Last week: 5.

4. Man Overboard - How To Hide Your Feelings
Last week: 4.

3. Fall Out Boy Feat. Courtney Love - Rat-A-Tat
Last week: 3.

2. Silverstein - On Brave Mountains We Conquer
Last week: 2.

1. Save Your Breath - Harrow Road
Last week: 1.