A Story from Free Comic Book Day

Spiderman teaming up with Jedi Knights and the Flash to stop a robber? That's a cross-comic alliance if I ever heard of one. You just have to read the whole story here: HERE

We are definitely raising a Geek

I am the proud co-owner of a four year old. I say co-owner because she is my niece and if I said I owned her, my brother (her dad) and my mother (her Mimi) would probably take serious issue. Ownership question aside, my niece is a geek. She probably does not know it yet, but she is just the same.

To illustrate, we are currently working on letter and word recognition. A. B. C. D. Apple. Bird. Cat. Dragon. Yes, dragon. She recognizes the word when she sees it and takes great pride in pointing out the dragons she recognizes on the Dungeons & Dragons poster I have hung on my bedroom door.

How did this come about? Simple, she was raised by geeks. My mother (her Mimi) has always encouraged targeted long-term acquisition. For her, it was Swarovski crystal and porcelain roses. My older brother collects the cartoon character Tigger from The Adventures of Winnie the Pooh. My little brother has a heavy preference for video games (he was playing Tecmo Football at three). Me, I collect dragons and comic books. She's still too young for me to trust with my comic books, most of which are older than she is, and thus valuable enough for me to wait past the hamfisted stage of her development. The influences of each of us can be seen in her choices of activities:

She uses a dragon poster to practice reading and color recognition. She knows the Tigger Song word for word. She screams when she does not get a turn at Dance Dance Revolution while others are playing.

There are definitely people who would think now is a good time to cut off the geekishness at the pass through the use of the normalizing effect of television; however, in our family we watch CSI, Bones, Burn Notice, and Fringe, so I do not think that will help in any way. Besides in this day and age, I think raising a geek is something to aspire to. Now to start on her brother. He's only 8 months old, but you really should start young.

Black Panther gets his own animated series

Black Panther is getting his own animated series. Why this surprises me I really do not know. After his marriage to Ororo (Storm of the X-men), it seems that Black Panther is crawling out of the woodwork to try and become a serious character on the Marvel roster. Do I agree with this? Not really, but I probably have not given him much in the way of real thought thanks to the way his marriage was handled. Honestly, I see this as another publicity stunt meant to rehabilitate a franchise.

Whatever my personal thoughts on the subject are, Black Panther the Animated Series begins its run on Australian television on Saturday, January 16th. The series starts with T’Challa becoming King and having to find the murderer of his Father. It’s a mini-series team up between Marvel Animations and BET Networks.

Check out more information on the series at Marvel.com. You can even see previews of the artwork.

Protests are going to happen....but this is just funny.

DISNEY MARVEL DEAL PROTEST | Weekly World News

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I laughed so hard at this. Not because it was so unlikely, but because this is the kind of thing that I can actually see comic book fans doing. Given half a chance, they will dress as their favorite characters and make their views known. This almost makes me wish I was going to Dragon*Con (opening Thursday in Atlanta, GA) to hear what the fans will be saying to the artists and others who appear at the convention.

Disney's acquisition of Marvel continued...

Disney and Marvel continues. Even I have to admit that I have not looked at this from every angle or even tried to see how many places are going to be effected by the this merger.

Movies.
Toys.
Games.
Comic Books.

And that is probably just scratching the surface truthfully. Just so many intellectual properties. So many under the surface deals. It practically boggles the mind.

One thing I do hope does not change are the artists and writers who have made Marvel great over the years.

Disney Buys Marvel: Is this the end?

It might be the end of an era: Disney to Acquire Marvel Entertainment. I am not even sure how to look at this. Marvel Entertainment has been a part of my life for so long that I honestly cannot even begin to imagine what my life would be like without that influence.

I have written several comic book scripts over time. I consider Stan Lee to be one of my personal heroes. I am absolutely terrified that once this happens, Marvel Entertainment as I know it and love it will cease to exist. Things have not gone all the way through, the Marvel shareholders still have to have their say, but all the two companies are waiting for are the rubber stamps to usher them through the rest of the process.

According to the Times, Ike Perlmutter is staying on to oversee the Marvel properties so there is still some hope of things not taking a complete and drastic turn for the worse. Maybe we can use that to take heart.

I personally do not particularly like this idea (I am not alone); however, to say that it does not make good business sense would be unfair. Disney has a hard time reaching the boys, which Marvel has always been great at. Not to mention the recent major box office successes Marvel has pulled off. Marvel has never quite managed to pull off globalization, which is Disney’s primary schtick.

Paramount Pictures is still in on their contract until it runs out, so have no fear, Iron Man will still come out.

As it stands, this deal is not finished and no one could truly predict what will come out of it. I, for one, intend to take an optimistic bent. Marvel just got a major infusion of cash and a star maker engine no one can argue with, that is never a bad thing.

Stan Lee at it again

Check out TimeJumper, the brainchild of Stan Lee (Spiderman & X-men fame) and Disney. An awesome online comic book downloadable through ITunes. It can be seen on the internet as well as on phones.

I spent some time clicking my way through the website (linked above) and I have to admit to really liking this. Stan Lee himself is the voice of the CEO of H.U.N.T (Heroes United, Noble and True) Corporation, Lee Excelsior. It is actually very cool that he interjects himself into his work so much rather than playing the man behind the curtain. Check out H.U.N.T's website and take their recruitment quiz.

Like most everything in entertainment these days, TimeJumper has several features to it, including personnel files (character bios), surveillance photos (sketches/concepts), and classified videos (behind the scenes videos).

Terry Dixon, the TimeJumper himself, is the son of Arthur Dixon, the genius behind the time jumps. However, Terry wasn't the first choice for its use. His older brother, Sam, who has since disappeared used to be the one leaping back and forth through time. Now with Arthur dead and Sam missing in action, Terry is the only one left that can use the technology his father created. So he's responsible for protecting the time stream from C.U.L.T (Council of Unstoppable, Lethal Terrorists) led by Charity Vyle, while balancing his schoolwork. (Sound familiar?)

Currently, TimeJumper is on a monthly release schedule.

Check it Out!