Over the next month I’m excited to bring you a series of EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEWS with the creative minds of the superhero blog The Urban 30. Currently starting their 6th season, you can read their adventures every weekday at urban3zero.com, as well as videos and motion comics from ThreeZeroMedia.
So I encourage you to check out the website and follow along with the team and their adventures, but I also want to show everybody the writers behind the characters. So join me in welcoming the founder of The Urban 30, Mr. C Lorenzo Johnston.
Anyone who doesn’t like Grant Morrison, please stop reading this article and don’t pick up the issue. Everyone usually has a problem with his extreme takes on certain heroes we know and love, but honestly this one was not too over the top. I guess if you’re disappointed in Supes’ new digs (Jeans, a ‘S‘ T-shirt and a cape) you probably won’t enjoy the comic either. I however did enjoy the issue a great deal.
Once again I can’t figure out the angle of the new number ones aside from attracting new readers. Is it new continuity? Is it ten years before what we now know of the DC Universe? 20 years? Who knows, but I guess who cares! It’s number one and it’s a new beginning! Superman operates a little bit like Batman in this issue, hitting big criminals like a true vigilante and holding them over skyscraper balconies if they don’t talk. Not that Supes would actually kill said criminals… He is relatively new in town, the cops treating him as more of a threat than a help and of course there are those in the shadows monitoring him and the potential threat he poses. I’ll give you two guesses on who’s doing the watching on that one.
I really enjoyed the issue. Like I said, with Grant Morrison writing you expect something completely off the wall but he was a little subdued in this one which isn’t necessarily a bad thing because he still did the job. It’s good to see all of the major characters showing up already, with Lois, Jimmy and Luthor all making appearances. I like the new angle on Clark in the issue as well, as he works for a rival paper against Lois and Jimmy’s Daily Planet. I’m sure eventually he’ll make the switch over but in the meantime it’s more interesting to see him as a rival to Lois instead of a partner. Another thing I found interesting was that even though Superman was always known as invincible, a thing I disliked about him as a hero, he didn’t seem to be completely untouchable in this issue. If they want Superman to not be so boring then they’ll continue having him get beat up a little bit, especially when it’s not involving another Kryptonian or Kryptonite. It’s never good when a hero only has one weakness that hardly ever gets utilized.
Alternate Jim Lee cover
Rags Morales is of course excellent with the pencils in the issue and let’s face it, he rarely misses his mark. I’ll be getting the next issue of Action Comics when it comes out because DC is definitely doing the job of keeping people interested in a whole new jumping on point for their comics. Will it sustain itself for very long? Maybe, but I’m on-board for the moment. I give it five out of five grizzlies because it had everything I wanted, a good fresh story and excellent art I hope the Morrison-Morales duo keeps it up.
Bloody Disgusting recently had an interview with Todd Farmer, potential writer behind the remake of Hellraiser and the third Halloween movie. In this interview something disturbing was brought to light: both movies are being considered for PG-13 ratings. Hellraiser? PG 13? And after the two previous Halloween movies from Rob Zombie, they want to bump it down to a PG-13? That has to be the most hilarious thing I’ve heard in the last few days… you know because the last time I laughed as hard was when I found out Darth Vader screams “Nooooo!” at the end of Jedi.
The Friday the 13th reboot was decently done. Jason Voorhees looked excellent in it, and the movie followed the simple formula from past Jason movies without feeling too worn out. Not to mention that the horror flick made 91 million dollars in box office revenue, and only cost 19 million to make. Therefore, a sequel would be a no brainer, right? You would think so, but the studio has been a little shy in pulling the trigger on a follow up. Now come reports about the studio wanting to go with the ‘found footage’ approach that worked for movies like Cloverfield and Paranormal Activity, but failed for Apollo 18 and Paranormal Actvity 2. Also the setting will change, not necessarily from Camp Crystal Lake, but a snow setting was mentioned. Check out the info from Worst Previews below:
Who doesn’t love a good Tums commercial? They fight heartburn instantly and give us that catchy little jingle at the end – “TUM, TA TUM TUM TUMMMSS!” but these commercials from a few months back really broke the mold. I’m thinking maybe my mind was in the gutter watching these, but hopefully you’ll agree that the first thing you think of watching these commercials is most definitely not a pretty sight.
For example, this one below with granny trying to eat her egg roll….
And to top it all off, it knocks her dentures out! Seriously? A phallic object wriggling around in an elderly woman’s hand and smacking her all over the face? I’m actually surprised there wasn’t a public outcry from a Rights Group for the defense of the male genitalia or some garbage. Me? I find it be both horrifying and hilarious. This one down below would lean more towards the horrifying, as a man tries to bite some meat on a stick into a pork rib:
Hot diggity-daffodil, that sure was grody! There were of course a few other ones involving less… phallic food selections. There’s a hamburger, hot wing and even a taco. Let’s just leave the taco one alone shall we?
Chances are if you are aware of, and/or interested in Dead Island, it’s as a result of the spectacular non-linear teaser that was released several months ago. The trailer, hinting at an emphasis on emotion, devastation and tragedy in a zombie apocalypse, went viral and drew millions of views on Youtube alone, even garnering some nice praise from game journalists and credible tech mags.
What you might not be aware of is that the game was actually announced 5 years ago at E3 2006, and had it not been for the sombre trailer blowing all our minds it probably would have continued to pass under everyone’s radar up to, and probably after, its release. Combine that revelation with the reminder that the game’s developer Techland had little to do with the teaser at all (they actually handed the job off to Axis, an animation studio) and we’re all left with not much to go on.
The whole teaser debacle aside, Dead Island is an open-world first-person zombie basher set in a resort in Papua New Guinea. You have the option of playing one of four blank slate archetypes who inexplicably have the good fortune of being immune to the infection that is mysteriously sweeping the island paradise. You wake up after a night of drinking and partying to find something horribly amiss; conventions! Zombie conventions everywhere! Making your way through the hotel you find blood, flickering lights and abandoned rooms, and led by a voice on a loudspeaker you’re eventually guided to a group of survivors, and through an awfully expositional conversation you’re tasked with saving the living, and killing the undead all over the isle of Banois. It’s a disappointingly uninspired introduction, especially after the amazing teaser (Yeah. I’m not setting it aside).
From then on you’re subjected to all manner of generic fetch-quests that slowly inch you closer and closer toward the endgame. There are multiple acts of the story which offer a change of scenery and new enemy types and weapon drops, but it scarcely draws you into caring for any of the inhabitants of the island, least of all your own character, who regardless of your selection has no discernable personality and yet refuses to keep silent long enough for you to infuse yourself into his or her place.
Grizzly Bomb 
