J-Nel

May 1, 2015 11:37 pm I thought the cape thing was great, but I think it's because it's the exact same moment as when Martian Manhunter models himself after Superman in "The New Frontier" animated movie (or maybe it was JLU, either way, I loved the moment)... As for the reunion of the ifanboy trio, I think may have enjoyed it just as much as movie. Great show, guys!!

May 1, 2015 11:34 pm I've been thinking for, well... only like 2 hours, trying to figure out why I liked this AoA so much but would still rank the original just one notch above "Iron Man 2" as my least favorite of the MCU films, but one smaller thing I keep going back to is how I wholeheartedly bought into a massive army of nondescript CGI thugs when they were robots but didn't when it was aliens...

March 10, 2015 3:45 pm I’m gonna chuckle and hear Josh saying “This is th-th-THE TREAT!” every time I read a good comic for a while after this…

October 16, 2014 10:53 pm I had been reading "Uncanny Avengers", so "Axis" just felt like a continuation of that series with Remender working in the Hickman Avengers' members for this grand finale of the series. Yeah, it was a little jokey, but no more than other issues of "UA" (I loved it, but "hard of hearing Cap" pushed the limit way back). Seeing Alex & Scott come together as brothers was kinda heartwarming and taking Tony straight back to being an unintentional villain didn't feel wrong to me at all (although ironically, I really don't want to see "Civil War" revisited in film). With that said, much like "Infinity" was with the Hickman books, I can't imagine jumping into this story cold or at least without reading the first arc of "UA"... I hope that's the reason I've heard so much negative coverage, but hey, we all love what we love...

October 8, 2014 3:21 pm I loved it!! Embracing the goodhearted square nature of Barry Allen was a choice consistent with the character yet surprisingly bold, but finding an actor like Gustin who actually embodied those qualities was a joy to watch. Any dialogue or plot contrivance I may have found clunky or cringe-worthy in an episode of “Arrow” or other network shows was neutralized or made downright charming in an "old movie / tv" way because the writing and ensemble around Barry was so strong in creating believable relationships and depicting a character with those pop sensibilities who you truly want to root for. Sure, the flashbacks to the murder where kinda melodramatic, but once I saw that wonderfully touching scene with Barry and his Dad I immediately forgave it… This may be veering into hyperbole, but honestly, had a double-sized episode of this come out as a movie even 10 years ago people would still talk about as one of the great superhero movies of that initial early 2000s blast…

October 7, 2014 4:02 pm If I weren't a Previews guy I definitely wouldn't have noticed it, so I just wanted to let Conor, Josh, (& Paul) know that Garth Ennis has a brand new volume of "War Stories" debuting this week (10/8) with a new #1 from Avatar. Let's hope it's as good as the Vertigo & Dynamite stuff was...

September 29, 2014 10:36 pm Not sure if the guys will touch this and actually don't blame them if they don't, but I've been having these thoughts on DC for awhile as well. I may be speaking out of turn and correct me if I'm wrong, but I'm almost certain that the "Certain People at DC" are Diane Nelson, Bob Harras, Dan Didio, Jim Lee, & Geoff Johns. The horrible thing is that outside of Bob Harras I don't know who they could lose to actually improve their books. All I know about Diane Nelson is that she was in charge of licensing the Harry Potter franchise, which leads me to believe that she knows how to best exploit a "timeless" story-based property in other media and beyond. I'm sure she's happy Johns is making all these TV deals happen, but I just can't imagine that the same person who knew what she had with Harry Potter and apparently did a great job with it can look at the totality of DC's comic book line and think, "We're nailing it for a wide-net mass audience and doing work that will elevate the lesser characters and help the more popular ones endure..." Jim Lee's okay. If anything, all of his former Wildstorm folks have done a great job on the digital stuff and if those books were the norm for the quality of the print line I doubt we'd even be feeling so glum about DC. As for Johns, while he's probably as harmless is Lee, I think he's been hurt the worst by The New 52's near-universal tone and the distinct lack of foundation to pull from without yanking his reader straight back into The Old 52 (which apparently he's doing on "Superman" to all the ifanboys' pleasant surprise). Despite all the post-New 52 work, he is the Chief Creative Officer and is making those TV deals happen but I do wonder how focused he is on comics with all of that on his plate. Didio I'd really have to lump in with Harras. He's always struck me as guy who wants superhero books to be one way, but then he goes and does stuff like "Omac" and "Infinity Man" so I really have no handle on him other than he really hates Dick Grayson... As for Harras, his tenure at Marvel before Quesada came in and rocked the boat with "Marvel Knights" kinda speaks for itself. That Marvel era is pretty consistent with The New 52 in tone, look, overall misunderstanding/mismanaging of characters, lack of focus or priority on cultivating/keeping new talent, and complete disregard for the identity of an individual book. So yeah, Harras is definitely the one certain person who could leave where I think we'd see at least see some improvement but as I've made allusions to above, comics is game of talent and Image, Marvel, & Dark Horse seem to have far more of an appetite for that than any of the other premier publishers... After some pretty abrupt and negative public departures DC has brought in Cullen Bunn and Gerry Duggan but lost Jeff Lemire (he didn't re-up his exclusive), Charles Soule (the one writer who left on semi-good terms), Andrea Sorrentino, Marco Rudy, Steve Pugh, and probably others I'm forgetting to Marvel. Then again, I don't know if that's more him Didio/Lee letting those guys go. All I know is that their lack of a CB Cebulski-esque figure and nearly identical art on all but a handful of books is a problem that at this point I assume they're just fine with. Still, props to whoever has those new Bat-books looking so bold. Apologies for the long post, but I'm not even a "DC Guy" and I find myself scanning the DC section of the Previews catalog doing my monthly DCBS order and thinking "How much longer does this go on?". I mean, I thought that page with all the Pre-52 characters Conor was talking about was cool, but then I thought, "Okay, but who writes and draws those stories of these awesome characters???" and frowned....

September 7, 2014 9:57 pm Love the show as always but my gawd, "77 Satellites", hell of a way to start an album and hell of a way to start a podcast. You (Conor, I think?) just fueled a deep dive into the early Jimmy Eat World discography...

August 11, 2014 11:37 pm As far as great Batman/Nightwing stories go, "Year 3" may be the best story ever produced that DC hasn't collected. Growing up in Wyoming, I swear we only got Marvel books and Batman (not even Superman books, just Batman) at the one gas station spinner-rack in town but I remember grabbing these issues and the giant-sized Detective Comics #600 that faithful summer...

August 11, 2014 10:02 pm Yeah, I agree wholeheartedly with all Josh & Conor's points... up until possibly the greatest scene in the movie... "You wanna get nuts? LET'S GET NUTS!!!"