Fellowship Reviews: January 2011

For What It’s Worth: The End of Wizard Magazine.

I wanted to chime in on the death of Wizard Magazine which, if haven’t heard, closed their doors Monday morning. I feel sorry for all the people (and their families) of both Wizard and Toyfare magazines losing their jobs.

I used to read Wizard when it first came out in 1991, but preferred another magazine called Comic Scene (anybody who was reading comics back then remember that mag?). When that folded, I moved over to Wizard. They had some cool stuff – free posters, trading cards, and ashcans comics. The “casting the (fill in the comic book title) movie” articles were cool as well as some of their dream battles (don’t remember what they called it). Where else could you see an image of Darth Vader versus Doctor Doom?

I haven’t read the magazine a lot in the last four or five years, but when I didn’t really enjoy it. The “news” was already outdated thanks to the internet, the articles were ok, but the price of the mag went up and the page count went down. Wizard was a shadow of itself, so the news was shocking, but not surprising.

Reading some of the responses on the internet is surprising, but people can be cruel. However, other people have responded way to the other end. I’ve read that this foretells the death of comic books in print. WOW! That’s a big leap there isn’t it? The guy said it was to Wizard’s credit that comics were in Borders, Barnes & Noble, etc. That’s another leap – I’m starting to get tired. The Barnes & Noble that is near me has cut down their trade paperback stock by a ton in the last year. It was one of the few sections that had to sacrifice space so the store can promote the Nook. I’m sure my store isn’t the only one that did this. So where was Wizard when this was happening? Trying to save its own ass probably.

The sad thing is now there is a big void. The comic book magazines that are still publishing are Comic Buyers Guide and the magazines by Twomorrows Publishing – which focuses on comic’s history and art (Back Issue, Alter Ego, and Jack Kirby Collector for example). For better or worse, this is truly an end of an era.

For What It’s Worth: What Happened to the Reaper?

With the villains for the next Batman movie “The Dark Knight Rises” being revealed recently, I thought now would be the time to talk about this. After coming out of the theater from watching The Dark Knight, I wondered who would be the next villain (just like you did I bet).

After quickly going through the most obvious ones, I thought, “What happened to the Reaper?”

First off, I’m not talking about the one would just reappeared recently in the Batman comics as an ally of the Black Mask. I’m talking about the adversary Batman faced in the “Year Two” story arc in Detective Comics #s 575-578. Mike Barr wrote the arc with art first by Alan Davis and then a relative newcomer named Todd McFarlane.

Judson Caspian was a socialite who lost his wife to a robber in the streets. He decided to become “The Reaper,” wearing a large hooded black cloak, heavily armored red leather suit, and a skull shaped mask. He wielded two scythe-shaped weapons, with various other lethal implements contained in the spiked shafts of both weapons. The haft contains a very powerful handgun and smoke pellets to help give to the illusion that the Reaper is in fact an incarnation of death.

When Judson started his crusade, people thought it was Batman. Caspian died after his last battle with Batman, he purposely fell to his death but not before telling Batman he was “a worthy successor.”

After the events of Zero Hour, the Reaper was wiped out of the DC continuity. The closest is the Wrath, who originally appeared in the Batman Special #1 in 1984 (also created by Mike Barr). A copycat version appeared in Batman Confidential #s 13-16 (2008). There is also Prometheus who first appeared in New Year’s Evil: Prometheus in 1998 (created by Grant Morrison). The third villain is Phantasm, who appeared in the animated movie “Batman: Mask of the Phantasm” in 1993 (created by Alan Burnett). All are very similar – an anti-Batman.

Overall, the Reaper is an interesting character and his inclusion in the Batman movie would have been great. Remember, when we last saw him, Batman was public enemy number one. Now, add another vigilante who kills, it would make Batman’s life more complicated. Oh well, what would have been…..

A review: The Kang Saga on "Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes"

Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes has got to be the best Marvel animated series ever made. The stories, while are taken from the comics, are not re-telling the same stories like the Marvel cartoons of 90's did.

Kang has arrived to the present because his future time-line is being destroyed by an anomaly which he found out is Captain America. He decides to eliminate the Avengers and conquer the world in the present - not only to save his time-line, but to save the live of his love Princess Ravonna. The Avengers and SHIELD are no match for Kang and his forces so Ant-man/Dr. Pym uses his guards from the Negative Zone prison to form an army. These robots are known as Ultrons and if you know Avenger history you probably know where this is going. So, after programing the robots the concept of violence, the Avengers and Ultrons attack the main ship the Damocles to stop Kang. All of the Ultrons were destroyed except Ultron 5, but the Avengers capture Kang and are trying to save Ravonna when the episode ends.

As I said, they are not doing chapter and verse from the comics, but are keeping the spirit which is great! I really enjoy this series and highly recommend it!

A review: "The Cape"

The Cape is the story of Vince Faraday (David Lyons), a second-generation cop who is wrongfully accused of a crime when he would not join a privatized police force that doesn’t have Palm city’s interests at heart.

Faraday is taken in and trained by Max Malini (Keith David), a ringleader of a circus gang of criminals, several abilities that Faraday will use to end the corruption of the city and restore his good name. Orwell (Summer Glau) who is an investigative blogger assists Faraday. She’s a rip-off of Oracle (she also has the last name Simone - Bird of Prey reference?).

The Cape is a clone of Batman, but it’s not that it’s a bad thing. The stories are decent so far and the visual effects are great. I like the show, but am not sure that the show will last. The whole "Batman clone" might turn some people off. It will be interesting to see the ratings for the premiere. I recommend it.