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Post by The Captain on Sept 23, 2021 13:29:55 GMT -5
Found these two al Wallyworld today while I was there picking up packing materials... They had a bunch of Iron Mans and Black Panthers, but only one of each of these, plus an Elektra (which I already had) and an Iceman, which I passed on. -M I haven't bought action figures in years (not since they remade the Star Wars figured back in the 90s), but I may have to track down that Cap figure. It's really sweet looking.
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Post by The Captain on Sept 20, 2021 10:49:45 GMT -5
Took my wife out on a date for her birthday yesterday to see Citizen Kane on the big screen.
Yeah, it was even more awesome up there than it was watching it on TV at home. The scale of it, especially towards the end when they shift the focus to Charles and Susan living at Xanadu isn't done justice on the smaller screen, such as when Kane is practically enveloped by the gigantic fireplace.
It was a real treat to get to see it like that.
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Post by The Captain on Sept 13, 2021 18:07:34 GMT -5
UPDATE:
Both of my daughters came home raving about it. My older one watched it in study hall (our high schoolers are allowed their phones there) and my younger one watched it on the bus on the way home from middle school.
Can't wait to watch this with them, as our shared love of the MCU keeps us connected and gives us an appointment (either movies or TV) so that we are intentional about spending time together.
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Post by The Captain on Sept 13, 2021 9:07:19 GMT -5
Oh, this is the stuff. Using Matt Fraction's run on the characters, which was simply fantastic, as the loose basis for this series is a great idea.
Absolutely cannot wait for November 24 to get here! Really excited about this, and I can't wait for the texts from my daughters to see their reactions.
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Post by The Captain on Sept 6, 2021 12:04:04 GMT -5
Took this past Friday off to extend the weekend and because my current employer has a "use it or lose it" vacation day policy, so I have to burn through 9 days (now 8) between the beginning of September and the end of the year. Since it was a "free day" for me, I spent it at the closest "big" LCS, where I used a couple of hours to go through a few new boxes of Magic cards they put out, then a couple of hours to go through some of their dollar boxes (they have literally 200+ boxes of $1 stock just sitting around). First up, some more Amazing Adventures, putting me closer to having all of the Killraven stories (I think I only need 3 more now): First non-Jonah Hex issues of Weird Western Tales I've bought: And to wrap up the purchases, a pre-Crisis Flash issue (I'm slowly buying these, because I won't pay more than $3 for any of them) and two issues from a series I've never bought before but think I might start looking for (provided they're cheap):
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Post by The Captain on Sept 6, 2021 9:22:09 GMT -5
Since this wasn't streaming on Disney+, took the wife and daughters to see this last night. Theater wasn't packed, but there were enough people in attendance to give it a little of the old feeling (it was also probably because they had 6:30 and 8:00 showings on either side of the 7:30 showing we attended).
I can't say enough good things about this movie. It was probably the best-done MCU film in the past 5 years (taking out Infinity War and Endgame, which were epic in scale), far better than GotG 2, Dr. Strange, Captain Marvel, and even Black Panther.
Simu Liu was great in the title role, but the supporting cast didn't let him down. Tony Leung was so much more than a villain and his motivations, much like Erik Killmonger's, felt real, as it had nothing to do with money or power, and I want to know where Awkwafina has been all my life, because I adored her, as I did Meng'er Zhang as Xialing.
The action scenes were well done, although a little frenetic in places (it didn't help that the theater was a little on the small side, so I felt like I was almost on top of the screen, which made it hard to see from side to side as things were happening), but the human moments were realistic. This was a story about family and where people fit in the world, and that is what made it work.
I've seen folks online complaining about the "girl power" aspect of the film, as they felt it took away from Shang-Chi's story, but I felt that it added to the richness of the film, as the character development for Katy and Xialing was just as important as it was for Shang-Chi.
Loved it. 8.5/10
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Post by The Captain on Aug 31, 2021 19:59:48 GMT -5
Had a couple of outings over the past few weeks where I was able to pick up some things for the collection. First, from three weeks ago, all $1 books: Two more issues of this short-lived series that I started picking up just at the beginning of July: Some more issues of this on-again, off-again Bronze Age book: Five of the six issues of this prestige-format series: Some random books that caught my eye, although the Jonah Hex issues are something I'm actively collecting: Then, from this past Saturday, I went to one of my not-usual LCS and picked up these: Last two issues I needed to complete this series. Only two books in the series I paid more than $1 for: The big score was this Masterworks. I have the two S.H.I.E.L.D. Complete Collections, but these issues have only been reprinted in color in the hardcover format. Luckily, this was in the "Used" section, since it apparently has a little ding on the lower back cover, so insignificant that I didn't even notice it when I was looking at it, but they sold it to me at 50% of cover, so a $60 book became $30 for this awesome goodness:
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Post by The Captain on Aug 26, 2021 7:00:24 GMT -5
And so, it begins...
Yet another school year is upon us, as my daughters went back to school this morning.
My older daughter gets her first "opening day" at the high school, as she was remote for the first six months of her ninth grade year last fall. She's hoping the district is able to keep to its plans for football games and Homecoming and other "normal" high school activities, because she really missed out on those experiences last year.
The younger one also hopped the bus for the high school, even though she is only in eighth grade. Like her sister, she has been taking the next-grade-up literature class for a number of years, so she begins her day at the HS, then is bused back to the middle school (complete opposite side of the district) for the rest of her day. She's excited about getting to take French (a number of her friends are in the class) and that she gets to have art class by herself (due to a scheduling quirk involving her HS class and French, there was no eighth-grade art class available for her, but the teacher likes her so much, she offered to hold "class" for my daughter during a free period for both of them).
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Post by The Captain on Aug 19, 2021 20:16:45 GMT -5
I've never read From Hell before. I see there's a colorized Master Edition, but I understand it's originally black & white. Does anyone have an opinion on which version/edition is best? I've only read the first 1/3 of it in the original black and white. I can't imagine anything being added to the story by it being colorized.
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Post by The Captain on Aug 19, 2021 6:09:59 GMT -5
Watched the first two episodes last night with my younger daughter.
First episode was just OK. It was kind of like the old joke about Raiders of the Lost Ark, in that Indiana Jones isn't actually necessary to the story, because the Nazis were always going to melt their faces off after they found and opened the Ark of the Covenant whether Indy was involved or not. They didn't change anything significant about the original story other than gender-reversing the roles, having a weird monster attack, and giving us a pre-Tony Stark "Iron Man" suit from his dad. There was no "the world is completely different now because of this"; the good guys won, the bad guys lost, and there was one "person out of time" left at the end.
Second episode was FAR superior. They showed a universe ABSOLUTELY being changed by the one minor alteration in the original concept, and it had a lot of the quirky Guardians of the Galaxy vibe while still being its own new story. It was wonderful, and very sad, to hear Chadwick Boseman as T'Challa one last time. Gone way, way, way, way too damn soon. F@$k cancer.
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Post by The Captain on Aug 15, 2021 19:41:41 GMT -5
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Post by The Captain on Aug 15, 2021 19:30:50 GMT -5
I like some of the bad Marvel books of the 90s, stuff like Darkhawk, Sleepwalker, Silver Sable, Nightstalkers, Darkhold, etc. I loved Darkhawk and Sleepwalker, dont know if I'd consider them "bad" though. The 90s Dethlok OTOH, did have it's problems, but was still fun to read. Fair enough. In retrospect, they just seem kind of pointless, because they had almost no long-lasting impact on the MU. I guess Darkhawk is getting a mini-series later this year (it's a new DH, not Chris Powell) for his 30th anniversary, but other than some use in the War of Kings story, he's been MIA for the past 26 of them. I started the Deathlok series back then but abandoned it after about 8 issues or so. I've seen every issue of the book in the $1 bins around here over the years but have never once been tempted to pick them up, even at that price.
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Post by The Captain on Aug 15, 2021 15:50:02 GMT -5
I like some of the bad Marvel books of the 90s, stuff like Darkhawk, Sleepwalker, Silver Sable, Nightstalkers, Darkhold, etc.
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Post by The Captain on Aug 14, 2021 8:38:57 GMT -5
Sad to hear about Nanci Griffith's passing. I'm not what anyone would call a fan of hers, but I do enjoy hearing her on the Sunday morning folk music show on our local listener-supported radio station. I'm betting tomorrow is going to be dedicated to her music, as that is what they did when John Prine passed recently.
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Post by The Captain on Aug 13, 2021 11:18:07 GMT -5
BTW, not to make a mountain out of a molehill, but I'm so curious I have to ask...what is it about animation that just isn't your sandbox anymore? You are still into video games and comic books right? I can't really put my finger on it. It just...isn't. Loved cartoons growing up. Watched Batman: TAS when I was in college. Still like a good animated movie (Pixar or otherwise), but as for 30-minute TV cartoons, the only recent one that I've really enjoyed is Gravity Falls, which was witty and weird and told a self-contained story over two seasons and then it ended. I've had no interest in watching any of the Star Wars or Marvel properties that have been done in the past 10 years, even though I am a huge fan of both universes.
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