The New Ninja Turtles Will Be Awesome...Probably

We get in a lot of heated debates at Gaming Grounds. A lot of them revolve around comics and video games, and whenever I bring up something like politics the conversation always seems to steer back to if Superman is better than Batman.

For the record, SUPERMAN IS BETTER THAN BATMAN. Anyone who convinces himself that Batman could take Superman on in a one on fight better check their vitals. They very well may have OD'd on that Kool Aid.

A hot topic at ye olde gaming store right now is the upcoming Ninja Turtles movie. I'm of the personal belief that the movie is going to be a fun filled romp for the whole family, but more than a few of my friends have expressed concern that Michael Bay is going to "ruin another franchise."

Which is an odd statement, because I'm looking at the box office receipts for the Transformers series and everything is solid here. Has anyone actually watched the old Transformers cartoon? Yeah, it was really good when I was 10. So was the Mario Bros. cartoon, and Legend of Zelda's, and a plethora of old programs we remember through rose colored glasses. Go back and watch them now and tell me they still hold up.

I can hear at least half of you saying "they still hold up!" Shut up. You're too kind or too easy to impress.

There are some programs that are still solid. The 90's Batman cartoon is still amazing to watch. Darkwing Duck is still a favorite of mine to go back to. The Simpsons episodes of the 90's were the most entertaining of all animated programs in the history of animation, and that's a statement I will stand behind and defend until my dying breath.

And then there were the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

The Punisher IS Captain America

I can hear the fanboys collaborating on a researched and learned retort to my header, and that's okay. This piece is purely based on opinion, so like religion before me, I'm telling facts and logic to piss off.

So they announced yesterday that Falcon was taking over for Captain America, who apparently is finally coming off of a seventy year drug high. I guess it's some plan by Marvel to shake up their roster, as it must be incredibly difficult to keep these characters fresh and interesting after so many years and so many adventures. Captain America, in particular, is often cast as bland and held back by his by the books pure good character.

Superman has the same problem, with the small asterisk next to his name that says if he ever turned on humanity it would be an apocalypse. If Captain America ever turned his back on us, it would be more akin to when Sergeant Slaughter turned into an Iraqi sympathizer and feuded with Hulk Hogan. And, just like in those days, I assume the Hulk....ster would put Steve Rogers down with an atomic leg drop and send him back down the ranks to feud with Brutus Beefcake.

We're getting off track here. My natural instinct to praise Hulk Hogan ruins everything!

Archie - The Most Controversial Comic of All Time?

I talked about this a bit on my Facebook, but the more I think about it the more I feel the need to rant a bit. I never, ever, ever thought I would write an article on Archie.

Here we go.

Reading Lindsey's article on Barbie (right here!) got me thinking about classic characters, and there aren't many who are as beloved as good old Archie.

I mean, I guess he's beloved. I've honestly never cared much for the series, but I respect the fact that they dragged out a simple love triangle into a two hundred years story line. The fact that the guy is still going after four hundred and twenty (snicker) years is a testament to how important your grandparents are to comic sales today.

Well, meemaw and peepaw, I've got some bad news. Actually, they say a picture is worth a thousand words, even if the picture is of Archie.

A Shoujo Fan's Top Picks

A small part of my manga collection

I enjoy reading manga. I spend far too much time doing so really. It's rotting my brain, but I can't seem to give it up. I don't really want to. I like taking a dive into fiction after work.

My genre of choice is shoujo. For the laymen that would be girl's comics that generally have a romance theme and pretty characters. I like pretty drawings.  I'm a big fan of pretty much anything by Clamp, the powers behind Card Captor Sakura and Magic Knight Rayearth.

There's some good shounen, boy's comics that are usually more action oriented, out there but it's hit and miss with the art for me. If I think a series has an ugly style of drawing I'll usually ignore it. A bunch of people love One Piece but I won't give it the time of day cause I can't get past the art. I'm bias like that. I love Bakuman, which is all about making it as a manga artist, and despite all of the excessive fan service High School of the Dead is a good read too, plus if you want to know what happens after the anime it's all there is.

I will admit I'm also a mild fujoshi. What the hell is that you ask? It's literal translation is "rotten girl" but in the manga world it's a fan-girl of gay romance stories. So I enjoy the occasional shounen ai, boys love, series such as Fake or Gravitation. Most female anime and manga fans go through a stage of it, or so I've noticed. Usually because of falling across slash fan fiction of their current favorite series.  Some take the obsession a little far though, and they're the ones who tend to make us all look like nut cases. The trend is large enough though that Otaku USA has added a fujoshi culture section to it's manga reviews.

The manga that follows are some of my all time favorites. They are in the order that I've discovered them rather than by favorites. Mostly because I can't really pick which one I like more than another. Several of these titles I have read, or am currently reading, online but the ones that are complete I do own hard copies of the entire series. Reading online is fine, but it's always good to support the titles you love as well.

"Arrow" Premiere. Green Arrow gets the spotlight

 

After playing 2^nd string for years, Green Arrow is finally getting his shot(pun very much intended) in the form of his own TV series. 

                                                 

“Arrow” premiered last night on the CW and I’ve been relatively excited to see it for months since seeing the first footage. So I figured, “Hey, there’s this blog. I saw the pilot. I have thoughts. Why not think those thoughts and let my brain send signals to my fingers that make them type those thought signals into a blog post?!” So that was my very complicated thought process.

A little background for you first as DC isn’t as good at exposing the average person to their characters that aren’t Superman and Batman as Marvel is.

Green Arrow is Oliver Queen. Oliver Queen inherited lots of money. Ollie has no powers. Though he is really, really, good with a bow…and fighting…and being a loudmouth liberal.  He’s basically Batman minus the childhood trauma, brooding, had a fantastic goatee at one time and is actually written as a guy without powers.

Excuse me while I sit back and smirk smugly at that last part…

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