3 Razors

Fairly Legal

  • Title: Fairly Legal – Pilot
  • tv.com: link

I’ve been very pleased with the shows USA Network has put out in recent years. I was a big fan of Monk, and I love Psych, as well as Burn Notice and White Collar. I was impressed with the first season of Covert Affairs, and In Plain Sight has proved to be an engaging drama centered (as most USA shows tend to be) a deeply human, and deeply flawed, central character.

USA’s latest, Fairly Legal, revolves around a lawyer turned mediator (played by the lovely and charming Sarah Shahi) who works for the law firm started by her late father and now run by her step-mother (Virginia Williams).

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Birds of Prey #8

Is that a little Batman mixed in with the Birds of Prey? I think it is!

There’s actually quite a lot to like about this issue including Oracle‘s inner monologue about having Bruce help her team and Black Canary‘s reaction (including a sly smile) at seeing “the” Batman back in action.

The entire issue centers around the Calculator‘s goons trying to locate Oracle. There’s also a far less satisfying B-story of Hawk checking up on the Penguin. Everything works fine… until Oracle puts everyone in danger by inexplicably asking Batman to take a dive (which he does?) thus putting her entire team in real jeopardy.

The finally few pages really seem to drop the ball on what was a very fun, engaging story filled with ample amounts of action and internal monologue. It’s still worth a look but ends on a rather disappointing note.

[DC $2.99]

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The Green Hornet for Dummies

  • Title: The Green Hornet
  • IMDB: link

Director Michel Gondry and star/co-writer Seth Rogen set out to do their version of the Green Hornet. They’ve succeeded. This is unlike any Green Hornet I’ve seen, and probably as far removed from my idea of who these characters are as could be done and still title the film The Green Hornet. In fact, the main character is so unrecognizable you have to wonder why even use the Green Hornet characters instead of simply making an original film.

The Green Hornet debuted on radio in the 1930’s alongside other popular programs such as The Lone Ranger and The Shadow. Since then the character has bounced around comics, low budget movie serials, and, most notably, the 60’s television show starring Van Williams and Bruce Lee.

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Batman goes Beyond (again)

Due to the recent success of the latest Batman Beyond mini-series, Terry McGinnis and friends get a new series starting here. Although there’s nothing all that special about this story (especially as a first issue launching a new title) there are several interesting notes worth talking about.

The first is the choice to launch a new title rather than simply continue the numbering from the recent mini-series. This volume picks up shortly after the events from the “Hush” storyline (which is referred to) so you’d think the more natural choice would be to continue the previous series rather than launch a brand new one.

There’s also the choice of using a brand-new villain, one who steals the (not particularly well-guarded) weapon of a former super-villain to cause mayhem with the new found ability to transmute people and objects into metal. As Bat-villains go this guy ranks pretty far down the list.

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Avengers #8

For both good and ill the latest issue of Avengers is set up to allow our heroes to get caught up on the events of the previous issue. The Illuminati come back together to discover not one but two of the Infinity Gems they split among themselves have been stolen.

The conversations between the characters work well, but the story itself lacks some punch. The only action sequence we get is a flashback to Parker Robbins beating the snot out of the Red Hulk. Speaking of Parker Robbins, am I the only one who finds it strange (pardon the pun) that Dr. Strange can’t mystically identify the identity of the villain putting the stones back together again?

The issue’s final panel sets up what looks like more retreading of the same points as Steve Rogers shows up to find out what Tony Stark and his friends are hiding. That initial conflict should be interesting, but I hope we’ll get some real advancement of the plot as well.

This is actually an issue you could easily skip and not miss any big developments in the story arc. That said, it’s still worth a look for the interactions between the Illuminati, but it’s far from a must-read.

[Marvel $3.99]

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