Category Archives: Things I Like

This is the first I've seen of the upcoming X-Men prequel and I have to say, it looks pretty awesome! It's shaping up to be an amazing super hero summer, with Thor, Captain America, X-Men First Class, and Green Lantern. It's good to be a geek! Let me know what you think about this one in the comments.

I love me some Super-Bowl, and I love me some Super-Bowl commercials. Here's one that promises to be among the best of the bunch, and proves once again that Nerds Rule!

One of the Things I Love the most are pop songs featuring super-hero references. And one of the all-time best is "You Don't Mess Around With Jim" by Jim Croce, which goes a little like this in the chorus:

They say you don't tug on Superman's cape,
You don't spit into the wind,
You don't pull the mask of the ol' Lone Ranger
And you don't mess around with Jim.

Since many of you may be too young to have ever heard of Jim Croce, here's the song. Feel free to name-drop other songs you like that reference super-heroes in the comments!

With many thanks to Myro for pointing it out, this is most definitely a Thing I Like: Stan Lee is giving each NHL team a super hero!

It's an interesting idea, and though frankly Stan's later career has been a bit hit or miss, I admit to curiosity as to how this will turn out. Given their massive speed, manual dexterity, and seeming imperviousness to pain, NHL players are this close to being super heroes anyway, so this shouldn't be too much of a stretch! Here's the official site if you want to check into it further.

I was sent to the antique stores to see if I could find any appropriate furnishings for the new house, and this is what I came back with:

Never send a geek to do a man's job, that's my motto. Rocketeer's motto of course is "Quit lookin' at me before I blast your face in with jet exhaust." Or something like that.

Sadly, while totally cool and a great find that I definitely love, this particular action figure moves only at the head, waist, and upper arm. He also can't stand up on his own, presumably from the after-effects of a long night drinking with Betty. Not that I blame him.

If you've got a photo of an action figure or other toy on your desk that you love, by all means post it in the comments, it'd be great for everyone to see!

Take a look at this panel from Marvel's "World War Hulk", showing Iron Man in one of his innumerable armor variations (featuring such fan favorites as "Arctic Armor", "Space Armor", "Going To Get the Paper Armor", and more!)" punching Hulk in the stomach:

The underlying great penciling and outstanding inking set the stage, but for my money, it's the coloring of Christina Strain that takes this otherwise very good sequence to the next level. When you're looking at a traditional comic in your hands, printed on paper, the colorist doesn't get to shine (literally). But when you're looking at a digital comic, you get treated to a level of quality usually only approachable on the most expensive prints on the most expensive paper.

It begins with the incredible rendering of the Hulk's metallic arm band. (We'll skip the question for the moment of "Why does the Hulk need armor when he can shrug off nukes wearing nothing but a smile".) I love the brush work inking on the sections and the highlight line left behind each band, details that completely sell the idea of metal. And believe me, coming up with the proper ink rendering of various real-world materials is not easy.

But what I absolutely love about that arm band is the reflected yellow highlighting from the thruster-fist. Ink rendering gets you most of the way to believing that's metal, but accurately capturing the way light reflects off of a surface like that pushes it over the goal line.

Then look at how the colorist has introduced a darker green into the folds of Hulk's shirt, complemented by a yellowish green on the raised wrinkles. Follow that color from the arm band and how it looks against metal, to how it arcs around his torso and how it reflects off of cloth, and then on down to the belt and the leather leg bands and finally his green flesh.

Each color is slightly different, and reflects that material difference shown in the color of the light, sealing the conceptions that a giant rocket is going off. In essence you have a halo effect surrounding the point of impact, all done purely with color. Brilliant.

Throw in the great blurring effect on the fist and the multiple bands of yellows and oranges in the contrail, the way the red of Iron Man's armor changes to purple in shadows, and you've got one of the best-colored comics panels I've ever seen. I love, love, love it.

We tend to focus on the writing and the penciler first when it comes to comics, with the inker and colorist a distant second if they come to mind at all. Which is as big a mistake as discounting the horn section of an orchestra because they're not as "important" as the conductor or the strings. A modern comic is more than just the lines and the words; when done well, color brings it all to life and adds a dimension to the entire enterprise that simply isn't possible any other way.

So hats off to Christina Strain and all the other unsung heroes of hue out there! Now go out and hug a colorist, y'all!

(Image from "World War Hulk" number 1, ©2007, Marvel Comics.)

With thanks to reader PCFDPGrey for passing it along, I thought you might enjoy this list of "Top 20 Worst Superhero Names". A sample, which for my money HAS to be number 1:

It's a pretty funny list, but I was curious if there were other options that would have been better. For instance, I think "The Human Torch" is actually a pretty cool name. So in no particular order, here are some other options to consider:

• Paste-Pot Pete
• Brother Power the Geek
• Arm Fall Off Boy
• The Whizzer

What would you put on the list, and if you feel particularly motivated, how would you rank the all-time worst names in comic book history?