TITLE: Red Hood: The Lost Days #1 (0f 6)
AUTHOR: Judd Winick
PENCILLER: Pablo Raimondi
PUBLISHER: DC Comics
PRICE: $2.99
RELEASE DATE: June 3

By Rob Siebert
Editor, Fanboy Wonder

**SPOILERS AHEAD**

To coincide with DC Entertainment’s latest direct-to-DVD animated feature, Batman: Under The Red Hood (which comes out next month), DC Comics has reunited Judd Winick with Jason Todd, a.k.a. The Red Hood. Fittingly, Winick not only wrote the movie, but the story arc it’s based upon, which reinstated the Jason Todd character into Batman’s world.

This story is meant to bridge a bit more of the gap between Jason’s resurrection, and his battles with Batman, which were first published a few years ago. The issue begins with Ra’s al Ghul and his daughter Talia discovering that Jason Todd, the second boy to be given the mantle of Robin, has been savagely murdered by The Joker. Given her feelings for Bruce Wayne, Talia feels for him. A short time later, she learns that Jason has somehow survived, but is a shell of his former self. He can’t speak or communicate, but when provoked, his fighting instincts kick in. Jason is in Talia’s care for over a year before Ra’s grows tired with his lack of progress, and orders that he be sent away. We close the book as Talia is about to place Jason in a Lazarus Pit to revive his mind.

Art from Taringa.net.

The ironic thing about this miniseries being called The Lost Days is that it starts with a rehash of a story that’s already been told. In spring 2006, DC published Batman Annual #25, in which ALL these plot points were revealed for the first time. Essentially this is the same story, some scenes complete with verbatim dialogue, told through Talia’s eyes. We’re not getting a lot of fresh content here, thus, this issue lacks the hook that first issues typically have, as we already know what’s coming in issue #2.

In Winick’s defense, the issue is titled “Prologue,” so technically we’re not digging into the meat and potatoes of the story yet. But I feel like Winick could have trimmed the fat a little bit, so that we could have at least gotten Jason started on his “lost” journey by the issue’s end.

One aspect of this issue that bothered me is that Winick dances around how Jason was actually brought back to life. If you’ve read Batman Annual #25, you know it’s because of Superboy Prime’s actions prior to Infinite Crisis (he essentially caused a cosmic rift that brought Jason back to life). But if you’re picking up this issue with no knowledge of that, all you know is that he dug his way out of his coffin, and was found in his semi-responsive state. How this boy, who was beaten to death with a crowbar and then blown up, came back to life is information the reader should know up front, rather than to have to guess. Either Winick and DC are planning something with that later in the series, or it’s simply a mind boggling mistake.

I’m also not a fan of how Pablo Raimondi kept Jason’s body so chiseled. It’s that over-muscled style that you see in so many superhero books. I wouldn’t necessarily have a problem with it, if this child weren’t in a mostly vegetative state, and didn’t use his body when he wasn’t being attacked. That being said, some of the facial expressions we see on Talia in this issue are strong.

Talia is the one character that comes out of this issue better than she went in. One plot element Winick adds with Lost Days #1 is that Talia cared for Jason because she wanted Bruce Wayne to love her. What better way to win a man’s love than to return his dead son to him? Thus, we get a little more insight into why she placed him into the Lazarus Pit. There’s also a very nice exchange where Talia is talking to the unresponsive Jason about how much Bruce misses him, and a single tear falls from the boy’s eye. A little cliche, but touching nonetheless.

I’m happy Judd Winick is getting the chance to work with Jason Todd again, as I enjoyed Under The Hood. But The Lost Days #1 felt more like a sequence of deleted scenes than anything else. Hopefully we can actually get the ball rolling in the next issue.

NOTE: The cover shown above is a variant. A portion of the regular cover is shown in this piece’s feature image (from ComicArtCommunity.com).

TITLE: Whatever Happened to Baron Von Shock #1
AUTHOR: Rob Zombie
PENCILLER: Donny Hadiwidjaja
PUBLISHER: Image Comics
PRICE: $3.99
RELEASE DATE: May 26

By Eric Stuckart
Creator, Destroyer

Celebrity is a strange thing that most of us will never have the privilege (or dumb luck) to enjoy, if even for fifteen minutes. Most celebrities crash and burn faster than you can say “Shazam!”, so it’s kind of humorous that Rob Zombie—who’s managed to maintain celebrity status for close to two decades now by literally camping out on the fringes of mainstream and pop culture—has based his third foray into comics on that very subject. However, it should be noted that before he broke big with White Zombie in the early 1990s that he initially got his start in comics and working as a production assistant for Pee-Wee’s Playhouse.

Whatever Happened to Baron Von Shock is an 8 issue miniseries penned by Zombie, depicting the rise and fall of Leon Stokes, a gofer on the set of a horror-themed children’s show. By a sudden turn of events and dumb luck, he lands a gig on the show as a Svengooli-type personality, introducing shitty B horror movies and generally playing the role as a slightly sleazy, spooky TV host. The role takes off, and the newfound popularity gains Stokes the two major desires in his life: drugs and women, and the debut issue foreshadows a certain ending for the gravy train that is his fame.

Image from theouthousers.com (Click to enlarge.)

The story setup is definitely something that I’m interested in, but let’s call a spade a spade here. The first thing I noticed when picking up the issue was not the colorful dialogue or drawings, courtesy of Donny Hadiwidjaja, it was all the naked girls. Seriously, there’s at least four or five pages out of the twenty page book (not counting ads) that feature either sex scenes or nude women. Personally, that’s something that I can take or leave, but I was surprised to a degree, and then I remembered who wrote the book. I suppose credit should be given to Hadiwidjaja, who clearly has had a lot of practice drawing busty women in compromising situations, but I digress…

Basically, if you’re into Rob Zombie, be it his music, movies, or past efforts in the comic medium, you should know exactly what you’re getting into. There is one slight twist to that stereotype, though. Whereas much of his music and past comics were far-fetched tales about monsters, superheroes, or superhero monsters, this story is more based in reality. They’re still very much characters that you could imagine in one of his films, but it’s much more realistic than other efforts of his that I’ve seen. Then again, considering how much he’s dealt with the rock and roll lifestyle, as well as working in Hollywood, I’m that has plenty of influence on the subject matter of this book.

Ultimately, by dealing with much larger than our petty everyday life, he’s managed to weave a tale about a regular guy who hits it big, and from the looks of it, has a pretty far drop ahead of him. It’ll be interesting to see how far down the rabbit hole goes…

Front page image from deviantart.com.

ARTIST: How To Destroy Angels
ALBUM TITLE: How To Destroy Angels
RECORD LABEL: Null Corporation (Self-Released)
RELEASED: June 1

By Eric Stuckart
Creator, Destroyer

So anyone reading this who actually believed Trent Reznor when he said he was taking a long break from music, go put on your dunce hat and sit in the corner for being ridiculous. You are a ridiculous person, now you get time out. For the rest of us waiting for his next move, it’s here, and it’s free (more on that ‘free’ bit later…).

How To Destroy Angels is the Nine Inch Nails frontman’s latest musical project. Consisting of himself and longtime collaborator/bandmate Atticus Ross, along with Reznor’s wife, Mariqueen Maandig, handling vocals, it is the next evolutionary step from Nails’ last album, The Slip, mixed with some of Year Zero’s more abrasive beat-driven moments.

The eponymous six song EP gives a brief taste of what to expect from the band. While I could spout off a couple of paragraphs describing the music, that wouldn’t do the service that saying that this sounds pretty much like latter day Nine Inch Nails with a slight pinch of Portishead thrown in for good measure. Whether she was trying to or not, Maandig sounds eerily like a female version of Reznor when he does his quiet, contemplative singing style.

Photo from wikipedia.org

Haunting keyboard lines cuddle up against pulsating, sometimes danceable beats, and Maandig wisely plays to her strengths, giving a breathy, subdued performance. The EP’s pacing is done so in a manner that builds up tension, peaking at the disco-esque “Fur Lined”, only to gradually phase out with the piano and static laden “A Drowning”.

It will be hard for Reznor to ever completely ditch comparisons to NIN, especially when he’s still making music that falls in line with his former band, but I’m of the opinion that it’s better that an artist does what he does well rather than fail at something different just for the sake of looking or sounding different.

While rumors abound that The Slip wasn’t actually the final, er, nail in the coffin, and that NIN will continue as a studio-only project, at least we have something new to enjoy from the man who is always keeping his fans guessing his next move.

Adopting a status quo that he’s been using since his record deal with Interscope  disintegrated, the EP is free and will have a domestic release on cd on July 6, with a vinyl release coming in the near future. To get the album for free, go here. All you have to do is enter your email address. For audiophiles, $2 will get the EP in your choice of three forms of lossless audio (24-bit 44.1kHz WAV, 16-bit FLAC, Apple Lossless), as well as a music video for “The Space in Between”, or you can buy some merch and get the hi-def version for free.

RATING: 9/10

For more information, visit their website here.

Front page photo from myspace.com.

TITLE: Super Street Fighter IV
PLATFORM: 360, PS3
DEVELOPER: Dimps/Capcom
PUBLISHER: Capcom
ESRB: T
RELESASED: April 27

By Cameron Miller
Staff Writer, Crowd Control

You’re in for one hell of a fight!

If you are like me and loved Street Fighter IV then you are going to be obsessed with Super Street Fighter IV. Where to begin? There’s 10 new characters, 2 new bonus stages, 35 second ultra combo moves, a new challenge set-up, new game modes, and evened out game play. On release day, I played almost 15 straight hours of this game testing out all the new options; it’s amazing.

SSFIV is basically an upgrade similar to the Street Fighter II and Street Fighter III games; they take the original and add more content to it. The graphics are the same which are very unique change since SFIV came out, it really revamped the series. The music is good as well there are character specific songs as well as stage specific and all are great to fight to. The new characters include T.Hawk and Dee Jay from Super Street Fighter II; Adon, Cody and Guy, all from the Street Fighter Alpha; Dudley, Makoto, and Ibuki from Street Fighter III.

Image from streetfighter.com

There’s also two brand new characters: Juri, a Taekwondo master, and Hakan, a Turkish oil wrestler. In the new bonus stages you get to destroy a car and in the other you break the barrels before they roll away, just like in SFII. As for the new challenge set up, you have just one move or combo in the set instead of the 5 or 6 in the set like in SFIV which I think is a much better idea because before you could do the first five, and then get stuck on the sixth one, and you wouldn’t be able to save your progress if you didn’t finish.

They have changed around most of the characters’ moves and priorities since the first SFIV and have really tried to balance it out. For example, Sagat can no longer kill you just by looking at you; he was really overpowered in the first game, along with Zangief, but now I do feel that they aren’t as powerful. One problem I do see though is that T. Hawk is now the new overpowered grappler—he has tremendous throwing power and can fly around the stage to track you down, and how much skill does it really take to just do a 360 motion and punch? There are still bad match-ups though; using certain characters against others will prove to be a rough match. However, all the characters are very fun to play with and use I highly recommend trying all of them out to find one that feels comfortable to you. It may take a while, considering that there are now a total of 35.  As I said earlier, everyone now has a second ultra combo to choose, which is a great option because of the different ways they each work will make some a better pick against certain characters.

Image from streetfighter.com

Dimps/Capcom have added a few really neat modes online, such as a replay channel to watch not only yourself but everyone online. It is really nice to watch the higher ranked players fight some intense battles. You can learn a lot from this channel. They also have Endless Battle mode where you fight until you lose. It is comparable to the unranked player fight in SFIV. Team Battle is a great mode they have added, it lets you gather a team and challenge another and while your teammates fight you get to watch.

One thing I think SSFIV lacks is a plausible story which I understand isn’t the easiest thing to work into a fighting game but it would be nice to know what is going on with certain characters and what they are doing in their specific ending. My only other complaint is directed towards the online play, it is still terrible. You can have a green connection with anyone and matches still lag like crazy. I thought they would have fixed it from the first one but I was clearly wrong.

Personally I have always been a Street Fighter fan from the very beginning and I’m sure I always will be. Nothing beats pummeling the crap out of your friends in a good match. The game looks great and plays great and you really can’t ask for much more than that.

Looking for a little more Hadoken in your life? Here is your chance. If you love fighting games and are looking for one I highly recommend you pick up Super Street Fighter IV now before I throw a Hadoken at you. HADOKEN!…just kidding.

RATING: 8.5/10

Front page image from gameztraffic.com.

By Rob Siebert
Editor, Fanboy Wonder

Ain’t It Cool News has posted images that apparently depict what Chris Evans will look like in-costume for Captain America: The First Avenger.

Click on the images below to enlarge them.

TITLE: Super Mario Galaxy 2
PLATFORM: Wii
DEVELOPER: Nintendo
PUBLISHER: Nintendo
ESRB: E
RELEASED: May 23

By Justin Polak
Co-Founder, Ambassador to the Mushroom Kingdom

When I completed Super Mario 64 back in 1996, I wanted nothing more in this world than for a sequel to come out. Unfortunately, I had to wait until 2002 to get my 3D Mario platforming fix when Super Mario Sunshine dropped. While I felt Sunshine was a worthy entry in the Mario series, it seemed that nothing would ever top the greatness that was Mario 64. Then Super Mario Galaxy blindsided me in 2007. To me, Galaxy was to 3D Mario games as Super Mario 3 was to the NES collection of Mario games: An absolute masterpiece. All was well with the world, and I willingly accepted that I would have to wait until the next Nintendo console to play a new 3D Mario game.

Imagine my surprise when Super Mario Galaxy 2 was announced. To say that I was excited would be an understatement. However, I quickly grounded myself, and thought of the negatives. What if Nintendo gave us a cheap rehash? Though I knew the developers were working on plenty of new material, I feared that using essentially the same bag of tricks might leave a stale taste behind.

I’m glad I was wrong. While Galaxy 2 largely looks and feels the same as its predecessor, brilliant level design and a more fresh, streamlined experience makes this installment a pleasure to play through. First, if you thought some galaxies in the original were crazy, then you might want to brush up on your platforming skills because Nintendo certainly didn’t ease up the difficulty level. Like all Nintendo games, Galaxy 2 starts off simple enough. Even people with little video game experience could figure out how to weave in and out of a few early levels. Slowly but surely, the difficultly ramps up, and before you know it you are being put to the test in every possible way. Mario games may look friendly, but the punishment you’ll have to endure while collecting some stars is more brutal than the most bloody video game out there.

Image from VGChartz.com.

But don’t let my words discourage you. Nothing is impossible, and Nintendo keeps up their easy-to-learn, tough to master rule of level design. New power ups lend a big hand when they are presented to you. However, as cool as the new power ups are, the addition of Yoshi steals the show. Unlike his ho-hum appearance in Sunshine, Yoshi is fun to control, and even gets in on the action for one of the boss fights. Yoshi also has his own unique power ups, my favorite being the hot pepper which causes him to run at breakneck speeds.

I also like the addition of the world map. As cool as hub worlds are, I found it very obnoxious to trek on top of a tower to access a few levels, as seen in the original Galaxy. Granted there is a hub world, but it is very small and mainly used to move across the map. It goes to show that the map system found in Mario 3, or more recently, New Super Mario Bros. Wii had it right.

If I were to say anything negative about Galaxy 2, it would be that despite the improvements over the original, the game does have a similar vibe to it. By no means does this suck any enjoyment out from the experience, but if you were expecting something brand new, it looks like you will have to wait until the inevitable sequel on Nintendo’s new console, whenever that might come into fruition.

Image from VGChartz.com.

At the end of the day, who cares if Super Mario Galaxy 2 didn’t exactly break new ground? Would you complain if Mario 3 or Super Mario World had a direct sequel with minor tweaks (yes, Mario World had a sequel, you know what I mean)? That’s what I thought! If you own a Wii it should be a requirement to have this game on your shelf. I would venture to say that Galaxy 2, along with its predecessor, is worthy of a Wii purchase when it comes right down to it! Go buy it and explore Mario’s new galaxy!

RATING: 9/10

Front page art from Gamernode.com.

By Rob Siebert
Editor, Fanboy Wonder

Photo from DayLife.com.

Twenty-six-year-old Donald Glover is widely known for his role on the NBC sitcom Community, as well as the recent Mystery Team film. But if one particular online fan community gets its way, Glover may soon receive the biggest role of his career…Spider-man.

Yahoo! Movies reports that an online campaign to cast Glover has Peter Parker in the 2012 Spider-man reboot has swept social media outlets such as Twitter.

The campaign originated with Mark Bernadin, a writer for the sci-fi web site io9.com. After seeing the rumored candidates in line for the role, Bernadin wrote a column entitled: “The last thing Spider-man should be is another white guy.” He pointed out that being black or hispanic wouldn’t invalidate the Peter Parker character, and that he would be in a mask for half the movie anyway.

Glover has said he’d be open to auditioning for the part, as opposed to having it given to him.

Heat Vision reports the five actors in line to play Spider-man are Jamie Bell (King Kong, Defiance), Alden Ehrenreich (Tetro), Frank Dillane (Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince), Andrew Garfield (The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, The Social Network) and Josh Hutcherson (Red Dawn, Bridge to Terabithia).

By Rob Siebert
Editor, Fanboy Wonder

Image from Celluloid and Cigarette Burns.

Dynamite Comics announced via press release today that they have acquired the licensing rights to Total Recall, a 1990 science fiction film starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, and will publish comics based on the film later this year.

“I am thrilled to announce that Dynamite has acquired the rights to Total Recall from StudioCanal,” Dynamite President Nick Barrucci said. “We will give this property the same tender care that we have given to so many of our other successful science fiction properties such as Battlestar Galactica, Stargate, and Buck Rogers!”

The film starred Schwarzenegger as Douglas Quaid, a construction worker in the distant future who takes a “virtual vacation” via a company called Rekall Inc. But when something goes wrong, Quaid discovers that his memory had been erased, and his is actually a freedom fighter from Mars who had relocated to Earth. The film also featured Sharon Stone as Quaid’s wife Lori, and Rachel Ticotin as his new love interest, Melina.

Front page image from FilmForward.com.

TITLE: Justice League: Cry For Justice
AUTHOR: James Robinson,
PENCILLERS: Mauro Cascioli, Scott Clark, Ibraim Roberson
COLLECTS: Justice League: Cry For Justice #1-7
FORMAT: Hardcover
PUBLISHER: DC Comics
PRICE: $24.99
RELEASE DATE: June 2

By Rob Siebert
Editor, Fanboy Wonder

Cry For Justice is a story about ethics among superheroes, the right thing to do versus the wrong thing to do. It asks questions about brutality, torture, and of course, the big question every fanboy asks at some point…

Why doesn’t the hero just kill the villain, and end the threat once and for all?

The premise is great. But the execution is kinda weird.

By my estimation, this story begins shortly after Final Crisis, and ends shortly after Blackest Night. So you’ve got to figure this book spans at least a couple of months. Angered after the deaths of Batman and Martian Manhunter, Green Lantern (Hal Jordan) demands the Justice League start living up to its name, and start taking on a more proactive agenda against evil, as opposed to simply putting out fires. When the League disagrees, Hal and Green Arrow (Oliver Queen) strike out on their own. Eventually, their little band of rebels grows to include The Atom (Ray Palmer), Supergirl and Captain Marvel, Starman and Congorilla (He’s a talking gorilla. That’s right, got a problem with that?)

Art from ComicBoxCommentary.com.

The group investigates a plot involving dozens of supervillains, led by Prometheus, a villain who can exploit the weaknesses of the JLA using an advanced computer program that feeds information directly into his brain. Though the heroes take Prometheus lightly at first, the ramifications of what he does in this story will likely be felt for a long time.

The core story in this book, the one dealing with ethics and conduct, has a lot of meat to it and is very interesting. But it feels like there’s a lot of fat that could have been trimmed.

It should be noted that this group of heroes was originally going to be something of a Justice League B-Squad, an internal affairs type group. That idea was approved, but later nixed. I feel like James Robinson may have started writing the book as a smaller-scale story, then abruptly had the rug pulled out from under him, and had to blow it up. I say that because when the book’s climax begins, the core team has been joined by several additional heroes in the fight against Prometheus. It basically becomes a giant free-for-all.

Also, the dialogue during the first half of the book is inexplicably awkward and…wordy. There’s really no other way to put it. Robinson usually doesn’t have a problem with dialogue, but it feels like he came down with Revenge of the Sith syndrome here.

A brief example: There’s a scene where Supergirl comes in and saves Green Lantern from an attack. Hal says: “All right Supergirl, here you are. And you saved my life — much appreciated by the way. But I still have to ask — Are you here now as a hero…or as a villain?”

See? Needlessly wordy, not to mention corny. In any other book, I bet that quote would have been cut in half. But for some reason those kind of lines pop up all over Cry For Justice.

You’re also expected to know who most (if not all) of these heroes are when you open the book. One of the biggest plot twists in the book involves Red Arrow, Green Arrow’s former sidekick, who doesn’t even come into the book until about the halfway point.

Still, it has it’s high points. One thing nobody can take away from the book is the art of Mauro Cascioli. It’s among the best I’ve seen in the modern era. During the latter half of the book, Scott Clark inexplicably takes over for a bit, which I take as yet another indicator that this book didn’t go as planned.

Robinson’s portrayal of Congorilla is charming, and the scenes in which The Atom tortures the villains are very intriguing. Also, despite the book’s flaws, the ending packs a major punch.

Though it certainly helped shape events to come in the DCU (particularly for Green Arrow and Red Arrow) Cry For Justice had a very flimsy execution. It’s a good story, but only if you look hard enough.

RATING: 5.5/10