Comic Shop Corner: Deadpool & Cable: Split Second #1

This weeks hot book: Deadpool & Cable: Split Second #1

Synopsis: Call them a duo with a special kind of dynamics...call them the odd couple but with guns...call them 90s comics distilled down into two characters -- DEADPOOL AND CABLE ARE BACK, BABY! That's right -- The Merc with the Mouth and the Soldier with the Scowl are together again in this all-new series! When Cable gets a vision of a terrible future set off by the death of one man, he knows he must protect him no matter what! I'll get you three guesses who's been hired to kill that guy. Go on, guess. The fan favorite team of Fabian Nicieza & Reilly Brown have reunited to get the gang back together -- and it feels so good!

Why check it out? It's well known that Rob Liefield created Deadpool, but the scripter on that issue of New Mutants #98? None other than Nicieza. Upon completing the New Mutants run with issue #100 the two went on to do X-Force until issue #12 when Liefield leaves and Nicieza becomes the full time writer. Years later, he and Reilly Brown paired the two characters together for 50 issues after their previous solo issues ended and it ended up being gold. So why pick this up? Why wouldn't you!? These two creators revitalized these characters by pairing them up and now they're doing it again when Deadpool is at his peak of popularity.

Special: Best Christmas Movies

Hey everyone. The holidays are officially over and I hope everyone had a good one! For this post-Christmas pre-New Year Special post I'm going to rank all the Christmas movies I watched this year based on the movie's quality and it's yuletide cheer. First up, a couple rules:

1. The movie must be a theatrical release, so no Netflix specials, straight to DVD fare or TV movies/specials. I also didn't include this years releases (Krampus and The Night Before) since they deserve more than 1 viewing before being properly judged.

2. The judgment for Christmas spirit is in the table below.

5=Christmas themes throughout plus Santa or Jesus
4=Christmas themes throughout
3=Mostly Christmas themed
2=Half Christmas themed
1=Barely Christmas themed

And now the list:

24. Edward Scissorhands
Movie rating: 4     Christmas rating: 1     Total rating: 5

23. Batman Returns
Movie rating: 4     Christmas rating: 2     Total rating: 6

22. The Chronicles Of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe
Movie rating: 5     Christmas rating: 1     Total rating: 6

21. The Santa Clause 3: The Escape Clause
Movie rating: 2     Christmas rating: 5     Total rating: 7

20. Eloise At Christmastime
Movie rating: 3     Christmas rating: 4     Total rating: 7

19. Disney's A Christmas Carol
Movie rating: 3     Christmas rating: 4     Total rating: 7

18. The Polar Express
Movie rating: 3     Christmas rating: 5     Total rating: 8

17. The Santa Clause 2
Movie rating: 3     Christmas rating: 5     Total rating: 8

16. Scrooged
Movie rating: 4     Christmas rating: 4     Total rating: 8

15. Home Alone 2
Movie rating: 4     Christmas rating: 4     Total rating: 8

14. Mickey's Christmas Carol
Movie rating: 4     Christmas rating: 4     Total rating: 8

13. Home Alone
Movie rating: 4     Christmas rating: 4     Total rating: 8

12. Die Hard 2
Movie rating: 4     Christmas rating: 4     Total rating: 8

11. The Nightmare Before Christmas
Movie rating: 5     Christmas rating: 3     Total rating: 8

10. A Very Harold And Kumar Christmas
Movie rating: 4     Christmas rating: 5     Total rating: 9

9. The Santa Clause
Movie rating: 4     Christmas rating: 5     Total rating: 9

8. A Christmas Story
Movie rating: 4     Christmas rating: 5     Total rating: 9

7. Eight Crazy Nights
Movie rating: 5     Christmas rating: 4     Total rating: 9

6. The Muppets Christmas Carol
Movie rating: 5     Christmas rating: 4     Total rating: 9

5. Just Friends
Movie rating: 5     Christmas rating: 4     Total rating: 9

4. Gremlins
Movie rating: 5     Christmas rating: 4     Total rating: 9

3. Die Hard
Movie rating: 5     Christmas rating: 4     Total rating: 9

2. Dr. Seuss' How The Grinch Stole Christmas
Movie rating: 5     Christmas rating: 5     Total rating: 10

1. Elf
Movie rating: 5     Christmas rating: 5     Total rating: 10

Top 10 Countdown: December 26, 2015

10. Set It Off - The Haunting
Last week: NEW!


9. Marianas Trench - One Love
Last week: 10.


8. Hedley - Hello
Last week: 8.

7. Good Charlotte - Makeshift Love
Last week: 9.


6. State Champs - All You Are Is History
Last week: 4.


5. One Direction - Perfect
Last week: 6.


4. As It Is - Speak Soft
Last week: 5.


3. Arkells - 11:11
Last week: 1.


2. Seaway - Best Mistake
Last week: 3.


1. As It Is - Sorry
Last week: 2.

Special: The Night Before/Krampus/A Very Murray Christmas Mini-Reviews

'Tis the holiday season so why not tackle some mini-reviews on some of the holiday flicks that hit your local multiplex and streaming service this year.

The Night Before:

Ethan, Isaac, and Chris have been friends since childhood, and for a decade, their yearly Christmas Eve reunion has been an annual night of debauchery and hilarity. Now that they're entering adulthood, the tradition is coming to an end, and to make it as memorable as possible, they set out to find the Nutcracka Ball - the Holy Grail of Christmas parties.

My thoughts? Not too often you have a Christmas movie that hits on so many different emotions like The Night Before does, all 3 of our main characters are flawed and overcoming those flaws with the help of their friends and a drug dealing Michael Shannon, surprisingly being the emotional centerpiece to this film. More importantly this movie is also really funny which is almost as rare as an emotionally satisfying Christmas film.

Final verdict: 4 out of 5 drug dealing Zod's.

Krampus:

When his dysfunctional family clashes over the holidays, young Max is disillusioned and turns his back on Christmas. Little does he know, this lack of festive spirit has unleashed the wrath of Krampus: a demonic force of ancient evil intent on punishing non-believers. All hell breaks loose as beloved holiday icons take on a monstrous life of their own, laying siege to the fractured family's home and forcing them to fight for each other if they hope to survive.

My thoughts? Not nearly as scary or horrifying as the trailer's make it seem but Krampus is still good campy fun. You can tell that it's a traditional comedic cast and that overshadows what little gore there actually is. Mostly the scares come from the toys and elves that look more menacing than you usually see them in Rankin-Bass specials. But overall this movie is more akin to Gremlins than to Black X-Mas.

Final verdict:4 out of 5 homicidal gingerbread men.

A Very Murray Christmas:

Bill Murray worries no one will show up to his T.V. show due to a terrible snow-storm in New York City.

My thoughts? People have been crapping all over this Netflix Original Holiday Special. It currently holds a 36% user rating on Rotten Tomatoes, despite a solid 77% critic rating, to go along with a 5.8 user rating at IMDB and an ever lower 5.1 user rating at Metacritic. I will say not a lot happens in this special, A snow storm knocks out the power cancelling Bill's Christmas Special so he's stuck in the hotel singing songs with the staff and other occupants before passing out and going into a dream sequence where George Clooney and Miley Cyrus show up to sing along with Bill. This can essentially be explained as a series of famous people (Chris Rock, Maya Rudolph and Jason Schwartzmen among them) singing famous Christmas songs along with Bill Murray for an hour. Not my cup of tea but obviously some people will and have enjoyed this, just don't expect a plot.

Final verdict: 2 out of 5 golden rings.

Top 10 Countdown: December 19, 2015

10. Marianas Trench - One Love
Last week: NEW!


9. Good Charlotte - Makeshift Love
Last week: NEW!


8. Hedley - Hello
Last week: 9.

7. Zebrahead - Worse Than This
Last week: 5.


6. One Direction - Perfect
Last week: 7.


5. As It Is - Speak Soft
Last week: 6.


4. State Champs - All You Are Is History
Last week: 1.


3. Seaway - Best Mistake
Last week: 4.


2. As It Is - Sorry
Last week: 3.


1. Arkells - 11:11
Last week: 2.

Comic Shop Corner: Justice League #46

Before we delve into this week's selection some exciting news... All the Free Comic Book Day books for this year's event (May 2016) have been announced! So head on over to http://www.freecomicbookday.com/Home/1/1/27/981 to check out what all the Indie publishers, IDW, Image, Dark Horse, Marvel and DC are releasing for you this year.

Speaking of DC, I do read mostly DC however it wasn't my intention to have 4 posts in a row about DC Comic properties but alas that's how it ended up thanks to this week being extremely light... Anyways let's check out this week's feature:

This weeks hot book: Justice League #46

Synopsis: "Darkseid War" rages on! Wonder Woman and Mister Miracle must rally to find the missing Anti-Monitor, while the rest of the League deals with the consequences of their new, godlike abilities.

Why check it out? Well apart from this being the most exciting arcs the Justice League have undergone since the New 52 launch in September 2011, this arc also marks the return of Darkseid who hasn't been seen since the first Origin arc which didn't really dig deep into his character, rather they focused on the leaguers coming together but with this arc he gets his due, as do his children. So why this issue? Francis Manapul, the man that drew The Flash so beautifully at the outset of the aforementioned launch, is drawing it! This will likely be the most gorgeous book of the entire arc which will make it more than worth your while.

Special: Christmas CD

Howdy folks! With every holiday season that comes you get treated to a new volume of the hit Christmas compilation, which I make every year, "What's A Partridge? What's A Pear Tree?". We're at volume 8 this year and the information for download and tracklist is below, but before we get into that, here is the link to last year's post which has last year's CD (volume 7) and a direct link to the previous years article which has volumes one through six. (LINK IS HERE) And now here's the obligatory "I own none of the music listed here or in previous articles" quote.

What's A Partridge? What's A Pear Tree? Volume 8

http://www.mediafire.com/download/qj8hn5hcu3ucla9/What%27s_A_Partridge_What%27s_A_Pear_Tree_Volume_7.zip

1. Relient K - Angels We Have Heard On High
2. Seasons Change - Holidays
3. Count Your Blessings - Round Up The Christmas Tree
4. Jason Lancaster - All I Can Give You
5. Issues - Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays
6. It's Only A Story - I'm Coming Home
7. Amely - Christmas Time Again
8. William Beckett - Do You Hear What I Hear?
9. State Faults - Mookie's Last Christmas
10. Automatic Habit - Merry Christmas, Don't Come Home
11. Divide & Conquer - I Sat On Santa's Lap And All I Got Was This Restraining Order
12. Metro Station - Last Christmas
13. This Wild Life - Sleigh Ride
14. MxPx - 2005
15. Sunrise Skater Kids - 12 Days Of A Pop Punk Christmas
16. Sherri Dupree & Max Bemis - White Christmas
17. Hawk Nelson - Up On The Housetop
18. illScarlett - Christmas Vacation
19. Daisyhead - Silent Night
20. A Rocket To The Moon - Santa Claus Is Coming To Town