October 2011

The Savage Hawkman #1

savage-hawkman-1-coverIn terms of convoluted history there are few who can stand toe-to-toe with Hawkman. The character has been rebooted so many times, each adding a unique spin from everything from a reincarnated Egyptian pharaoh to a space cop, it would be almost impossible to add anything new to the mix that would make less sense. And yet, writer Tony S. Daniel finds a way.

This issue is a mess in every sense of the word. We begin with a distraught Carter Hall actually shooting his costume with a gun in the middle of the forest in an attempt to kill his alter-ego. And that makes far more sense that what follows as Hall seems to become possessed by the Nth metal which generates from his body when he’s attacked by an alien artifact.

Artist Philip Tan gives us a couple of beautiful panels, including a nice reveal of Hawman, but for the most part the art is as jumbled as the story.

If you’ve always wanted Hawkman to be more like Witchblade then this is your comic. For everyone else, however, it’s a huge disappointment. Pass.

[DC, $2.99]

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The Mentalist – The Complete Third Season

  • Title: The Mentalist : The Complete Third Season
  • wiki: link

the-mentalist-season-3Season Three brings more cases, a conspiracy within the CBI, and Patrick Jane (Simon Baker) will come face to face with Red John. The team’s division gets a new boss (Michael Gaston), Jane gets into trouble involving his brother-in-law (Kevin Rankin), the CBI investigates a religious cult with a charismatic leader (Malcolm McDowell), the team goes after a cop killer, Jane goes head to head with a criminal profiler (Linda Park) assigned to the CBI, a protected witness gets killed on Van Pelt’s (Amanda Righetti) watch, Jane gets held hostage by a man (Josh Randall) accused of killing two women, and Jane tries to trap a matchmaker (Morena Baccarin) he’s sure murdered her husband.

Other cases involve a dead jokey, murder in the home of a federal judge (Cristine Rose), a dead Santa Claus, a murdered writer (Jaimi Paige) covering a MMA fight, a murdered state lobbyist, the murder of an antique dealer, a doctor is killed with a nine iron.

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The Flash #1

flash-new-52-1-coverThe newest relaunch of The Flash is one of the DC Reboot’s better first issues. Although the main plot involving the death of an old friend of Barry Allen‘s isn’t as engaging as I’d like writer and artist Francis Manapul does a good job reintroducing the character of the Flash with a couple of the character’s Silver Age trademark trappings (including storing his suit in his Flash ring).

Despite a so-so first adventure Manapaul does get the feel of Barry Allen right. There are nice early moments including the Flash’s guilt over the loss of his friend, a terrific opening splash panel, and a humorous conversation between Iris West and the Flash after he’s saved the day.

Yes, I say Iris West because in DC’s New 52 it appears Barry and Iris aren’t married (and maybe haven’t ever dated). I’ve got to say this change was shocking to me as Barry’s relationship to Iris is one of the defining pieces of his character. DC is really starting him back at square one (which is the exact opposite choice they made for Hal Jordan, who appears to gone through his entire DC history in a condensed time period).

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Coming Soon

  • Title: Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close
  • IMDB: link

Based on the novel by Jonathan Safran Foer (who also wrote Everything Is Illuminated), Thomas Horn stars as a young boy who loses his father (Tom Hanks) on 9/11 and begins a journey to discover the meaning of a mysterious key left in his belongings. Sandra BullockJames GandolfiniJohn GoodmanViola DavisMax von Sydow, and Jeffrey Wright also star. Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close opens in limited release in select cities on Christmas Day.

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Doctor Who – The Wedding of River Song

  • Title: Doctor Who – The Wedding of River Song
  • tv.com: link

doctor-who-wedding-of-river-song

Series Six comes to a close with The Doctor (Matt Smith) meeting his destiny on the shores of Lake Silenco and surviving, but with a cost. River Song (Alex Kingston) figured out a way to save The Doctor but all of time has collapsed into a single event, everything in history is happening at the same moment as time itself slowly disintegrates.

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