Alan Rapp

Guardians of the Galaxy #15

/ / Comics

Guardians of the Galaxy #15Guardians of the Galaxy #15 isn’t a bad issue, but it’s certainly a tad disappointing as the 19-page adventure feels a whole lot more like graphic novel filler than much of a standalone issue. As set up in the last issue, the Guardians are pretty much screwed. We get glimpses into the fate of each member of the team (Gamora being tortured by the Badoon, Rocket being experimented on by the Kree, Groot fighting off giant termites, Drax fighting despair and imprisonment, and Peter Quill awaiting trial). We also get several pages dealing with a team impersonating Earth’s heroes attempting to lure the newest Guardian off Knowhere.

With so many separate glimpses, and less than 20 pages in which to work, Guardians of the Galaxy #15 doesn’t leave much room to actually move the arc forward (although there’s enough room for lots of ads). Quizzically we get another issue without Angela or any knowledge of her fate. And despite her appearance on the cover, Carol Danvers isn’t part of the story here, although it seems she may have a large role to play in putting the team back together again. For fans.

[Marvel, $3.99]

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The Art of the Steal

/ / Home Video
  • Title: The Art of the Steal
  • IMDB: link

The Art of the StealWritten and directed by Jonathan Sobol, The Art of the Steal is your basic heist flick centered around getaway driver Crunch Calhoun (Kurt Russell) who, after spending seven years inside a Polish prison thanks to his brother Nicky (Matt Dillon), gets the old gang (Kenneth Welsh, Chris Diamantopoulos), his new apprentice (Jay Baruchel), and Nicky together for one last score.

The movie also includes a B-story involving a buffoonish Interpol agent (Jason Jones, hamming it up like a SNL skit) and his criminal consultant (Terence Stamp) which play much more lighthearted than the rest of the film giving it an inconsistent tone that doesn’t quite pay off.

Despite the cast (Baruchel being the stand-out and Dillon something of a head-scratching miscast), and some pieces of the story that work well, The Art of the Steal isn’t as smart as it thinks it is or as smart as it needs to be to pull of the big twists it has in store (most of which you should see coming).

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Continuum – Minute of Silence

/ / Television Reviews
  • Title: Continuum – Minute of Silence
  • wiki: link

Continuum - Minute of Silence

Taking the death of Betty (Jennifer Spence) particularly hard, Carlos (Victor Webster) shares the secret of the dead Kiera Cameron (Rachel Nichols) with Alec (Erik Knudsen). Already burdened with the struggles to get HALO off the ground and the fact that Kellog (Stephen Lobo) is suing him for freezing him out and going to work for Piron, Alec doesn’t take the news that Kiera hid the existence of her dead double very well (even though the discovery of the body does help solve one of his problems).

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Star Wars: Rebel Heist #2

/ / Comics

Star Wars: Rebel Heist #2After last month which saw Han Solo captured by Imperial agents, the four-issue mini-series continues on the pleasure planet of the planet pleasure of Feddasyr where Princess Leia has been dispatched to get her hands on an Imperial top-level security code needed by the Rebellion. Like the first issue, the events are presented from the view of a green Rebel recruit, this time a red-skinned Twi’lek exotic dancer named Sarin whose cover has been blown just in time to get Leia into a lot of trouble.

The template from the first issue works well again as this time we don’t get the view of a hero worshipper crushed into reality but the disappointment of a young woman realizing the Rebellion sent a princess rather than soldier to get the job done. Putting her life in danger to take Sarin’s place and get the code, which turns out to be harder to move than either expected, the princess grudgingly earns the respect and admiration of the recruit but still suffers the same fate of Han Solo in the end. Next month: Chewbacca. Worth a look.

[Dark Horse, $3.50]

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