Friday Night Fights - Classic Pool Cue Whoopass
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After missing out last week to see Iron Man, FINALLY! The Cracker. Has come back. To FRIDAY! NIGHT! FIIIIIIIIIIGHTS!!!
By order of his purpleness Bahlactus, we’re taking this back to the days of black and white.
Chun Li THAT shit…
Technorati Tags: Friday Night Fights, Bahlactus, Classic, 100 Bullets, Loop Hughes
Popularity: 3% [?]
Geeks of the Round Table.
Image by lman1138 via Flickr
Last week, Mike Haynes from Panels of Awesome, RJP of Between The Staples, frequent readers and commenters AJ and Midknight, and I traded a bunch of e-mails that culminated in a Skype chat between Mike, AJ, and myself this past Sunday night.
The original plan was to focus on Iron Man, but the chat ended up going all over the place. We had so much fun that we decided to try and make it a weekly thing, every Sunday at 7pm EST. Hopefully Midknight will be joining us this week, but we know RJP won’t be there due to prior engagements at Emerald City ComicCon. We all expect tales of Seattle debauchery to make up for his absence.
If you would like to join us us this Sunday, or any Sunday, drop me a line at any of the many ways to contact me listed on the “About” page (or even drop a comment on the blog) with your Skype username (Skype is free, kids!) and I’ll make sure you get an invite to the chat!
Anyway, Mike beat me to posting excerpts from the roundtable discussion, but here are some of my favorite quotes:
Holy SHIT, that movie was awesome.
Hurry up and watch it so that I can geek out with y’all!
Also, in case you haven’t heard, make sure to stay until the credits are over.
~Me, immediately after getting home from seeing the Iron Man movie.
Best Marvel flick to date…with Spider-Man 1 & 2 coming in a close second and third. X-Men and X-Men 2 would be somewhere in the mix too I guess.
~Mike, on where Iron Man stands among the other Marvel movies.
I’ll go as far as to say best Comic Book Movie to date, edging out Batman Begins.
~AJ, going one step further than Mike.
I’m still not willing to go THAT far. Batman is God, people.
Mike Haynes: Speaking of acting, Robert Downey Jr. - Best casting ever?
AJ Tardive: Oh man, amazing. Like I said before, if Tony Stark was that much of a BAMF in the comics, I would be a die hard Iron Man fan.
Dustin Christian (Crackerbob): Yeah, Downey ran away with it, as I expected, but everyone was excellent in it. I think they cast with an eye on the long term… Howard can easily carry the focus on War Machine, as can Paltrow and Favreau with any increased exposure on their characters. I don’t think there could have been a better person to play Tony Stark.
AJ Tardive: Howard’s shining moment “Next time baby…” was great.
Mike Haynes: Loved that little teaser.
AJ Tardive: Really got my hopes up too, cause for a second I thought he’d actually become War Machine this early in the series.
Dustin Christian: I hear he probably will wear the armor in the sequel; everyone is signed for three movies.
AJ Tardive: Yeah, next film will supposedly delve in to Tony’s alcoholism.
Mike Haynes: Exactly. If it’s not Iron Man II, it’ll be in the third. Either way, he’ll be in that armor before the trilogy comes to a close.
~The whole group, discussing the casting and the future of the franchise. Again, this was before Marvel made their announcements on Monday morning.
Dustin Christian: I snickered every time they made fun of SHIELD’s name.
AJ Tardive: I was surprised, I didn’t catch the SHIELD references until he actually said “SHIELD” at the end.
Dustin Christian: really?
Mike Haynes: Yeah, me neither.
Dustin Christian: huh…I caught it right away.
AJ Tardive: yeah. when he said it I was like “oh…damn”
Mike Haynes: Then right before he says it I was like…”Oh. He’s SHIELD…” [and then] “…just call us SHIELD.”
Dustin Christian: I caught it the first time, when they said “Strategic Homeland…” I was like “ooooh… COOL!” I kept halfway hoping to see some people in the jumpsuits, even though they would have looked ridiculous.
Help me out, people - am I really the only one who caught that right away? Am I that much of a geek?
From there, we kinda bounced all over the place, talking about what’s coming out, what’s out, how much Jeph Loeb needs to step up his game with Captain America: White, how Spider-man can just not win as a comic in my mind (no matter what), my seeming obsession with the viral campaign for The Dark Knight, why no woman should EVER date Matt Murdock, and various other topics. There were awesome moments and I was funny as hell, but putting it all into context would quadruple the size of this already long post.
Your best bet is to join our little Bags-and-Boards Mafia this Sunday for more comic book fun! Anything goes and we can talk about anything you like - even RJP’s sex-change operation!
Technorati Tags: Panels of Awesome, Round Table Discussion, Bags-and-Boards Mafia, Iron Man, The Dark Knight, Summer Movie Season, Batman, Matt Murdock, Tony Stark, Robert Downey Jr
Popularity: 6% [?]
Batman vs Iron Man - Who’s the Baddest Billionaire?
Found via Doomkopf
Technorati Tags: Batman, Iron Man, Summer Movie Season
Popularity: 6% [?]
Dave Sim Has GOT To Be ^$%#$ Kidding Me
Dave Sim has sent out the following form letter demanding that anyone who desires correspondence with him declare that he is not a misogynist.
(Click for a larger image)
Sim opens the letter by opining that no-one stands up for him when people call him a misogynist, typically ignoring the idea that maybe it is because he is a misogynist.
Oh well, I guess I’ll never get a letter from Dave Sim.
found via Blog@Newsarama
Technorati Tags: Dave Sim, Misogyny, Crackpots, Denial
Popularity: 7% [?]
Awesome Arena Tournament of Champions Week Eight Results
Cracker’s Note: This is a repost from the new Awesome Arena Site! You now have a choice between discussing the results here or over there; you’ll be awarded your points either way. Of course, if you decide to conduct all of your Awesome Arena business on the official site, I hope you’ll stop by to visit me here once in awhile.
Anyway, on with the show!
Welcome, once again, to the results segment of Awesome Arena Tournament of Champions.
Midknight has picked up another five bonus points for being the only person to pick Superman and write up a breakdown of his victory. As you’ll see, this has given Midknight quite a boost.
Let’s do this…
The bell sounds as the Man of Steel enters the arena slowly floating down from the skylight. He glances down to see that Sentry has yet to show so he takes the time to mentally prepare and stretch a bit. You don’t want to pull a hammy ya know? Half an hour passes by and still no sign of Sentry. The audience looks around at each other confused. A little while longer passes by and a scrawny referee enters the ring with a cell phone is his hand. A microphone is lowered and the referee puts the cell phone on speaker and holds it up to the mic. It’s Sentry calling to forfeit the match because he’s afraid of leaving his house and blames it all on agorophobia. Superman shrugs and celebrates.
My streak of predicting victories has continued. Y’all are so lucky that my points don’t count - I’d be stomping you all!!
Thanks, Midknight - your bonus points will be reflected in the current standings. The same deal goes this week, folks. Give me your best commentary on how you think the first battle of the second round between Martian Manhunter and Batman will go. The person whom I judge the winner will receive five bonus points. As you’ll be able to see, this can give you a pretty big boost in the standings.
Speaking of standings, here they are:
Midknight has taken over first place with seven first round points for knowing that Batman, Thor, Red Tornado, Captain America, Green Lantern, Hulk, and Superman ain’t nothing to mess with, nine bonus points for posts on ComicVine, one bonus point for pimping us on his blog, one bonus point for helping Mike search for Batboat pictures, three more bonus points for signing up with Forums of Awesome, and the ten bonus points awarded for his breakdowns last week and this week to give him a total of THIRTY-ONE POINTS!
AJhas dropped to second with six first round points for correctly predicting victories for Martian Manhunter, Thor, Red Tornado, Captain America, Green Lantern, and Hulk, eighteen bonus points for posts on his myspace blog and view askew, and three more bonus points for signing up for an account on The Forums of Awesome for a total of TWENTY-SEVEN POINTS!
RJP stays in third with two first round points for supporting Batman and Red Tornado, 18 bonus points for posts on Between The Staples and his Facebook account, and three bonus points for signing up for the Forums of Awesome for a total of TWENTY-THREE POINTS!
In fourth, Xers has four first round points with victories for Martian Manhunter, Thor, Red Tornado, and Captain America, two bonus points for posts on Cre8Buzz and BlackPlanet, and three more bonus points for signing up with Forums of Awesome for a total of NINE POINTS!
Patrick D. is in fifth place with two points for backing Batman and Martian Manhunter (I wonder who he’ll pick when they fight eachother?”), two bonus points for posts on Patrick Says and his Twitter, and three more bonus points for signing up at Forums of Awesome for a total of SEVEN POINTS!
In sixth place, DougFungus has three first round points for supporting Batman, Red Tornado, and Captain America and three bonus points for signing up at Forums of Awesome for a total of SIX POINTS!
In seventh, Weston backed Martian Manhunter, Thor, Red Tornado, and Captain America for a total of FOUR POINTS!
Finally, in eighth place, Naimad89 backed Batman to give him ONE POINT!
Once again, the standings are:
1st: MidKnight - 31 points
2nd place: AJ - 27 points
3rd place: RJP - 23 points
4th place: Xers- 9 points
5th place: Patrick D. - 7 points
6th place: Dougfungus - 6 points
7th placeWeston - 4 points
8th place: Naimad69 - 1 point
Once again, don’t forget to vote in the poll and tell us who you think will win and why in the comments either there or here! And don’t forget to tell me how your pick will win for a chance at five bonus points!
Finally, remember that since this is the second round, correct predictions are now worth TWO points. The game is far from over, folks.
Let’s get it on!
Technorati Tags: Awesome Arena, Tournament of Champions, Superman, Sentry, Batman, Martian Manhunter
Popularity: 7% [?]
Dark Knight Trailer Released on Happy Trails
Image via Wikipedia
The wait is over!
The second trailer for The Dark Knight is now available at http://www.whysoserious.com/happytrails/trailer.htm.
Unfortunately, it’s not the Jokerized version, but it’s still pretty awesome. And I’m pretty sure that scene with Harvey’s head in profile holding the gun by his face is actually a shot of Two-Face. You can almost get a glimpse of some crispy edges on the side facing away from us. It’s much more noticeable on the big screen. Also, as The Dreaded Mike Haynes pointed out in comments, you can see the shoulders of his suit are different colors and patterns. Good catch, Mike!
Here, check it out:
(click the image for a bigger version)
You can see this trailer on the big screen (where it looks very cool) before Iron Man, which lives up to the hype and then some.
Technorati Tags: The Dark Knight, Trailer, Happy Trails, Why So Serious, Two-Face, Batman
Popularity: 10% [?]
Jokerized Dark Knight Trailer
It would appear that the film reels raffled off at the climax of Monday’s viral activities contained a “Jokerized” copy of the trailer.
Wanna see?
Doesn’t that put a smile on your face?
Technorati Tags: The Dark Knight, Viral Campaign, Trailer, Joker, Batman, Harvey Dent
Popularity: 12% [?]
The Dark Knight New Trailer Site Happy Trails, Second Trailer Leaked
Image by Morning Magician via Flickr
After a scavenger hunt in cities around the world (you can read CBR’s on-the-ground reports from New York and Los Angeles here), participants were treated to a viewing of the new Dark Knight trailer. Someone at the Sao Paolo, Brazil, showing managed to record the trailer.
The bad news is that the quality is crap and the video will likely be pulled any time now.
The good news is that there’s a new site and it looks like the trailer will be released there on Sunday, in a similar method to the release of the last trailer. If you just want the url of the new site and don’t care how it was found, just skip to the end of this post.
During the scavenger hunt, the people on the ground were being fed clues by accomplices at home checking the It’s All Part of The Plan site. The final clue led them to a grid full of J’s.
These J’s corresponded to a set of letters that, when unscrambled, spell out “Sitting Ducks”, leading us to http://www.whysoserious.com/sittingducks/. According to people far more clever than I am, the ducks represent bianry code (blue for 0, yellow for 1) spelling out…
1. 1st row: “To win shoot”
2nd row: “Only row two”
3rd row: ybbyyyybbybby
Following these instructions gets you a “You Win” sign. Click on that gets you…
A new site called “Happy Trails”, with language implying that the new trailer will be released into the wild on Sunday, presumably after premiering before Iron Man.
Technorati Tags: Batman, The Dark Knight, Viral Campaign, Why So Serious, Sitting Ducks, Happy Trails, New Trailer
Popularity: 23% [?]
Awesome Arena Tournament of Champions Week 7 Results
Image via Wikipedia
Cracker’s Note: This is a repost from the new Awesome Arena Site! You now have a choice between discussing the results here or over there; you’ll be awarded your points either way. Of course, if you decide to conduct all of your Awesome Arena business on the official site, I hope you’ll stop by to visit me here once in awhile.
Anyway, on with the show!
Welcome, one an all, to the results segment of Awesome Arena Tournament of Champions. For the sake of simplicity, Mike and I decided to move everything into one central location, so you’ll be able to fulfill all your T.O.C needs right here.
Of course, you’re always welcome to visit Mike’s battle announcements and polls to award points, so no more stressing out or giving yourself carpal tunnel syndrome commenting everywhere.
Sound good? Awesome (pardon the pun), let’s get started.
The commentary of last week’s battle comes to us via the legendary Midknight. Midknight has been awarded five bonus points.
The Hulk and Wolverine enter the ring. Wolverine trash talks a little which just pisses the Hulk off more. The bell sounds and the two combatants blast out of the corners, charging at one another. Wolverine gets there first with his trademark claws out and ready for rippin’. He ducks below the Hulk and stabs him in the back of his right thigh and his left kidney. The Hulk roars in pain. Wolverine just fucked himself. The Hulk swings around violently, tossing Wolverine back first into his own corner. The Hulk charges after him and lands a huge fist right in Wolverines face. Wolverine is out cold but The Hulk isn’t done just yet. He follows up his attack with some major blows to the body, causing Wolverine massive internal bleeding. Finally the Hulk lifts Wolverine compact frame clear over his head and throws him clear out of the arena.
HULK WINS!!! My prediction streak continues!
Thanks, Midknight - your bonus points will be reflected in the current standings. The same deal goes this week, folks. Give me your best commentary on how you think this week’s battle between Superman and Sentry will go. The person whom I judge the winner will receive five bonus points. As you’ll be able to see, this can give you a pretty big boost. And make this one good, folks - Mike’s been waiting for this battle almost two months now!
Speaking of standings, here they are:
AJ is holding onto his lead with six first round points for correctly predicting victories for Martian Manhunter, Thor, Red Tornado, Captain America, Green Lantern, and Hulk, sixteen bonus points for posts on his myspace blog and view askew, and three more bonus points for signing up for an account on The Forums of Awesome for a total of TWENTY-FIVE POINTS!
Midknight has moved up to second place with six first round points for knowing that Batman, Thor, Red Tornado, Captain America, Green Lantern, AND Hulk ain’t nothing to mess with, seven bonus points for posts on ComicVine, one bonus point for helping Mike search for Batboat pictures, three more bonus points for signing up with Forums of Awesome, and the five bonus points awarded for his breakdown to give him a total of TWENTY-THREE POINTS!
He’s gunning for you, AJ
RJP has dropped to third with his Sean Connery impressions with two first round points for supporting Batman and Red Tornado, 16 bonus points for posts on Between The Staples and his Facebook account, and three bonus points for signing up for the Forums of Awesome for a total of TWENTY-ONE POINTS!
In fourth, Xers has four first round points with victories for Martian Manhunter, Thor, Red Tornado, and Captain America, two bonus points for posts on Cre8Buzz and BlackPlanet, and three more bonus points for signing up with Forums of Awesome for a total of NINE POINTS!
Patrick D. is in fifth place with two points for backing Batman and Martian Manhunter (I wonder who he’ll pick when they fight eachother?”), two bonus points for posts on Patrick Says and his Twitter, and three more bonus points for signing up at Forums of Awesome for a total of SEVEN POINTS!
In sixth place, DougFungus has three first round points for supporting Batman, Red Tornado, and Captain America and three bonus points for signing up at Forums of Awesome for a total of SIX POINTS!
In seventh, Weston backed Martian Manhunter, Thor, Red Tornado, and Captain America for a total of FOUR POINTS!
Finally, in eighth place, Naimad89 backed Batman to give him ONE POINT!
Once again, the standings are:
1st place: AJ - 25 points
2nd place: MidKnight - 23 points
3rd place: RJP - 21 points
4th place: Xers- 9 points
5th place: Patrick D. - 7 points
6th place: Dougfungus - 6 points
7th placeWeston - 4 points
8th place: Naimad69 - 1 point
Once again, don’t forget to vote in the poll and tell us who you think will win and why in the comments either there or here! And don’t forget to tell me how your pick will win for a chance at five bonus points!
Technorati Tags: Awesome Arena, Tournament of Champions, Hulk, Wolverine, Superman, Sentry
Popularity: 12% [?]
For The Love of Reviews - Trials of Shazam 12
Let me start off by saying that I wanted to like this series - I really, really, reaaaallllly did want to. I even avoided reviewing any of the past issues in the hope that it would all pay off in the end, but it never really worked for me. For whatever reason, Judd Winick’s superhero characters just never quite feel anything less that awkward and not quite in-character. He seems to try to make the characters what he thinks they should be instead of what they are, continually taking me out of the story.
In this final issue, Freddy leads the Justice League against Merlin’s demon forces to maintain the balance of magic. I don’t think I’m really spoiling anything by telling you that Freddy’s willingness to sacrifice himself in order to save the world prompts Zeus to give him the full power of Shazam. The surprise is in where Zeus was all along, and that I won’t spoil for you.
Honestly, with the exception of me wondering what the hell Superman is doing fighting against demons when magic is one of his very few weaknesses - sit this one out, Big Blue - and my uncertainty about a long-haired Captain Marvel that is now just called “Shazam”, this story had alot of potential, the execution was just flawed.
Honestly, unless you’re a big continuity and/or Captain Marvel buff who just has to have the story of the Captain Marvel mantle being passed from Billy Batson to Freddy Freeman, I would give this series a skip.
But if you just have to have these issues -or any others, for that matter - take a look at Itaggit’s Comic Price Guide to see if you can hunt them down for a reasonable price.
Technorati Tags: Comics, Shazam, Captain Marvel, Trials of Shazam, Freddy Freeman, Billy Batson, Judd Winick
Popularity: 11% [?]
