Movie Night - Because Tromeric told me to...

So recently, Tromeric of Guts and Grog fame posted Bloody Disgusting's Ultimate Horror Movie Challenge, in which they listed 61 horror films, and asked you to score yourself one point for every one you've seen. He posted this on his personal facebook page, not the G&G one, so don't go looking for it. I saw it because we're fb friends..yep, we're tight like that. Anyway, I ended up scoring an embarrassing 59 out of 61, with the only two I missed being A Tale of Two Sisters and Oldboy.

Of course I know of the existence of both, and have been told before that I would like them, I just never got around to watching them. Honestly, back in the early 2000's I was so into J-horror that I actually burned myself out on it, which is why I just never got the itch to check these out. Fast forward to last night, I was surfing Netflix on the old PS3, and what do I come across in the "Foreign Films" section? Why, Oldboy and A Tale of Two Sisters, of course. Couldn't watch anything last night, as it was late and I had to be up early to pick up my bro at the airport at ass-thirty this morning. Tonight is a different story though!


First up, I think I'm going to tackle Oldboy. While I do enjoy me a good brutally violent revenge flick, this one has it's work cut out for it. See, I've already seen and own a copy of I Saw the Devil, and it's one hell of a brutally violent revenge flick. Still, I've had too many people tell me that I will love this, most of whom I can generally trust to steer me in the right direction movie-wise, so looking forward to finally checking this out.

A Tale of Two Sisters will probably finish my night off. Honestly I don't know a lot about it, other than it's a ghost story, and involves two sisters. Judging by the other films on Bloody Disgusting's list, I like the company this one keeps, so I'm hoping for greatness, even though I'm admittedly a little burned out on ghost flicks at the moment. Fingers crossed.

Big thanks to Tromeric for sharing the article! After these, I will be 100% on Bloody Disgusting's list, and all will be right with the world again. Until the next list comes out, of course. 

Friday Night Drive-In

This week's lack of posting has been due to my coming down with a nasty case of the Black Death. Hopefully will get things back to normal soon. I saw Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter, and played through the second episode of The Walking Dead game, so I have things to post about, just no energy. Anyway, enjoy this little gem that I had forgotten actually existed until I got a reminder from my good friend Mikey this week, a DC short film based on the wonderfully violent Lobo Paramilitary Christmas Special. Look kids! It's Andrew Bryniarski!

Samurai Fett

Another day, another t-shirt! Nowhere Bad has this SICK Boba Fett design on sale for the next three and a half days only! Get one!

New Designs at Fright Rags!

Three all new designs went up Friday, and out of the three I'm interested in two. Here they are...

Love this zombified version of Revenge of the Nerds! A classic from my childhood reimagined, and also worth noting it's a Fright Rags shirt, and it's NOT black! Interjecting a little bit of color into my closet is always welcomed, especially in the Alabama summer heat.

Even cooler and an even bigger classic from my childhood, it's Chainsaw and Dave from the movie Summer School! I tell you no lie when I tell you that my brother and I have seen this movie hundreds of times. We basically watched it on repeat during the summers when we were kids. It was Summer School, Monster Squad, Rad, and Star Wars, all day every day. I can still recite this one all the way down to Chainsaw and Dave's collabo homework assignment in which they talk about the person whom they admire most in the world, make-up effects artist and creature creator Rick Baker, whose wonderfully gruesome slime bladders and slobber tubes in An American Werewolf in London won him a richly deserved Oscar.... Ahem, this is a must-own.

The Pact

Got a chance to view this in the privacy of my own home, before it's limited theatrical run, through Amazon streamed through my PS3. I am well aware that most of you who own PS3's or any capable device are likely already using this function, and I am in no way bragging about my ability to do so, I simply wanted to point out that technology is just fucking awesome, and I sincerely wish I was given this opportunity with way more movies.

Anyway, on to the movie. Throughout it's festival showings and such, The Pact has garnered quite a bit of attention, with audiences calling it "frightening", "freaking scary", and comparing it to things like "Paranormal Activity" and more recently "The Innkeepers". Well, it certainly isn't frightening, or freaking scary, and about the only comparison I saw to Ti Wests's wonderful Innkeepers is that there was a ghost, and both movies fit snugly into the "slow burn" category. The Pact shows promise in several places, but it's slow pace and several questionable plot twists kept it from achieving greatness.

The story is your typical ghost fare. Sisters Annie and Nicole are returning to their childhood home after the death of their mother. While Nicole has already arrived, it takes some convincing on her part to talk Annie into coming. She finally gives in, and when she arrives, Nicole is nowhere to be found. Strange things begin to happen, lights flickering, strange noises, and Annie begins to fear the worst when days pass and nobody has heard anything from Nicole. As she begins to investigate the strange occurrences, she uncovers some dark secrets from her family's past, and ends up fighthing for her life against the proverbial skeletons in the closet she uncovers.

That's a pretty generic plot summary, I know, but you don't really want me to spoil everything here, do you? As I said before, overall the story is pretty stale anyway. I actually was way more into it in the beginning, when I wasn't sure exactly what was happening. There were a few genuinely creepy moments, good use of atmosphere and tension, but unfortunately before long The Pact resorts to jump scares and completely took me out of it. Once Annie starts to slowly discover what's happening, and I do mean sloooooowwwwwly discover, I had all but become bored with it. The big twist at the end proves to be it's greatest transgression though, as it made me roll my eyes so far back into my head that I feared they would get stuck there. All in all, there really isn't anything even remotely original about this movie.

I normally don't make mention of a film's score in these little write-ups because I honestly don't really pay that much attention most of the time. I takes a particularly good, or in this case awful, score to get me to even notice. To be fair, it's not even the whole movie, it's one scene, when Annie first visits the Medium, Stevie. I have NO clue what exactly was supposed to be the idea here with the music, which was an overblown mixture of industrial metal mixed with what can only be described as microphone distortion and a bass line, and it was playing so loudly in the movie that I actually had to turn down my tv. Maybe it was an effort for Stevie to keep from hearing the voices or something? I don't know, but I didn't like it.

I've been almost all negative so far, so let's talk positives. First, camera work. I admit I've been paying way more attention to this lately and that's thanks in no small part to the movie reviews on "Back Online, Back On Duty". Sure, I know when a scene is shot well or not, but it's nothing that I particularly studied going into every movie I watched. The Pact has some impressive stuff going on in this regard though, particularly a couple of well done crane shots, and one really cool shot from behind Annie's ankle while she's riding her motorcycle. Nothing spectacular, but I did take notice. Performances, while Annie takes up most of the screen time and does a perfectly believable job, the big surprise came from Casper Van Dien as the pseudo-compassionate detective Creek. He doesn't turn in an Oscar-worthy performance or anything, but seriously, when's the last time you thought "Hey, Casper Van Dien was pretty good there."? What? Starship Troopers? Me too. Not much to talk about in the gore or effects departments, but there is some creepy make-up on display here, and it's done pretty well.

Overall The Pact turns out to be a pretty uneven experience. It seems like it tries too hard, and just when you think something cool might happen, it trips over it's own ambitions. It refuses to just be what it is. Still, I don't regret watching it, and recommend anyone who is into ghost flicks to give it a look. Worth a trip to RedBox, but I can't see any reason to ever revisit it. In fact, after you've seen it once, I can't imagine it would hold up all that well upon repeated viewings.

Friday Night Drive-In

I LOVE the smell of commerce in the morning! Pop culture cross references aside, tonight the Drive-In takes us to the mall for one of  the greatest zombie epics of all time....

When there's no more room in Hell, the dead will walk the Earth.

Dark Horse dropped a nuclear bomb of awesome on my pull list this week, with new issues of BPRD The Devil's Engine, Alabaster Wolves, the fantastic finale of Ragemoor, and another wonderful issue of the greatest anthology book currently in print, Dark Horse Presents. One final Dark Horse book I found to be particularly fresh though, the new Baltimore series begins with Dr. Leskovar's Remedy.

During WWI, Lord Henry Baltimore leads an unsuccessful night attack in Europe which ends up leaving his men dead, and Baltimore himself wounded and unconscious. He awakens to discover vampires feeding on what's left of him, and horribly scars one of them with his bayonett, taking the creature's eye. Turns out the vampire he stabbed was a particularly powerful one named Haigus who brings down a plague of Vampirism over Europe, which eventually takes Lord Baltimore's family. The attack also left Baltimore with only one leg, as he lost the one that Haigus had been feeding on to gangrene. Replaced with a wooden prosthetic, Lord Baltimore searches all over Europe for a cure to the plague, and his revenge against Haigus. This particular issue is the first of a new mini-series, which will only be two issues. In it, Baltimore crash lands a plane near a small fishing village, where a mad scientist, Dr. Leskovar, is using the inhabitants as test subjects in his own attempts to cure the plague, and save the life of his son.

Baltimore is a book in the Hellboy family, and as such is co-plotted by Hellboy creator Mike Mignola. That alone guarantees quality. His fellow co-plotter should also not be a stranger to any fans of Mike's big red ape. Ben Stenbeck returns on art, and just as with the other Baltimore stories, this one is equally good looking. I wasn't familiar with his art before Baltimore, but seriously, you should've seen the convent of Vampire nuns in "The Curse Bells". Absolutely fantastic stuff.

Of course I got some non-Dark Horse stuff too, but nothing spectacularly note-worthy that I haven't talked about before on Fresh Ink. The Walking Dead, Venom, Wolverine, Daredevil, Batman Beyond Unlimited, and Nightwing all continue to be good reads, and Avengers vs X-Men continues to waste both my precious time, and even more precious money.

Gore Store NY

Recently came across this seller on eBay while searching for things to adorn the walls of my Batcave with. I'm a sucker for foreign posters of American movies, and The Gore Store NY is filled with obscure posters and prints from around the globe. My favorite part is they offer three size choices, with the price varying depending on what you pick. The smallest are 8" x 10" which is exactly what I was looking for, and will only set you back $6.48, with most prints offering free shipping. Thought I'd share a few of the ones that I'll be hanging up soon. I'd caption them, but I think they're pretty self-explanatory...

I do think I'm going to go larger on that Troll Hunter poster though, it's just too nice. Always looking for recommendations on stuff like this, so if any of you know of any good places for rare or obscure foreign posters that won't cost an arm an a leg, share away!

Screen Grabs

Monster Brawl

After finding this movie on Twitter and following it for what feels like forever, I have FINALLY seen Monster Brawl, and this was good. By now I will assume that you are at least somewhat familiar with the concept behind the movie, monsters beating the shit out of each other in a wrestling ring tournament style, and from that you've likely already made up your mind as to whether you're gonna watch it or not. If the idea of watching a werewolf put a cyclops in a figure four leg lock is one that puts a big, stupid grin on your face, then rest assured Monster Brawl is your movie.

Is it perfect? Of course not. It is literally like watching a wrestling pay per view, only before wrestling became stupid, and with monsters doing the wrestling. We do get to see some short back story segments on all of the monsters, but outside of that there isn't much going on in terms of story, which I will admit was a little disappointing. My biggest let down though, was the fact that outside of commentators, ring girls, and the occasional manager (Jimmy Hart!), there's no crowd whatsoever. Definitely feels like a missed opportunity there. How cool would it have been to see the Werewolf tear apart a spectator or two on his way to the ring? At least the wrestling is good though, definitely would've been a deal breaker there.

There are a few recognizable faces and voices, but nothing to get overly excited about. Wrestling fans will of course recognize the aforementioned "Mouth of the South" Jimmy Hart, Kevin Nash and Robert "Kurrgan" Maillet, as well as UFC ref Herb Dean. For those of us who aren't as into the wrasslin, there's Dave Foley, Art Hindle, and the wonderful voice over work of genre legend Lance Henriksen, whose last name is actually misspelled on the back of the bluray. For shame packaging department, for shame!

When all is said and done, the easiest way to describe Monster Brawl is simply "fun". That's a term that gets tossed around a lot to describe "so bad, it's good" movies, particularly in the horror genre, and I hesitate to use it here, but when you laugh as much as I did at a movie, and genuinely enjoyed the experience, I can't come up with any better adjective to use. Monster Brawl is big, monster beating the shit out of other monster, laugh out loud fun. It won't be for everybody, but it was definitely for me. The ending leaves things wide open for a sequel, and I'd put money down today to see it. Bring it on!

Friday Night Drive-In

This machine just called me an asshole!

Writer Scott Snyder dominates my comic pile this week, with not one but TWO comics that I thoroughly enjoyed. Another surprise came in the form of Arkham Unhinged #3, which has basically just been an excuse for DC to squeeze 3 more dollars out of we Bat completists up until now. Plenty of other DC's rounded out my pulls this week. Enough blathering, on to the Fresh Ink!

I haven't made much mention of it up until now, but I have just been digging the hell outta this "Court of Owls" story running through all the Bat-books. Everything that writer Scott Snyder has been doing in Batman since the launch of the New 52-niverse was building towards this issue. It's not the finale, but oh my holy damn at the twist at the end. I seriously need #11 right now. Snyder absolutely blew me away last year when he and my personal favorite artist Jock collaborated on a Detective Comics run that ended up being the best Batman comics published in years and years. If you haven't read The Black Mirror, I can't recommend picking it up enough. The Court of Owls has been just as good, and the reveal in Batman #10 left my jaw hanging open. Long-time Spawn artist Greg Capullo has been handling the art since the reboot, and I shouldn't have to tell you how amazingly pretty this comic has been. As far as I'm concerned, Snyder and Capullo are the new Steve Englehart and Marshall Rogers, and I wouldn't mind if they did this book forever.

Scott Snyder strikes again with a brand new American Vampire spin-off miniseries, Lord of Nightmares. I actually think this issue is better than the story that's currently going on in the main American Vampire book. Of course it's just one issue though, but it seems as if Snyder is finally going to introduce the "Big D" into the world of AV. While that may initially sound like cause for an eye roll or two, let me say that I have full confidence in Snyder and his ability to give us yet another amazing story. And if nothing else, it will at least be a million times better than Blade Trinity. Joining Scott on this one is Dustin Nguyen, who I best remember from a lengthy tenure on Streets of Gotham with writer Paul Dini. Dustin's style is an acquired taste, with a hint of Mike Mignola but not as dark and a bit more minimalistic, but I've always dug it. He appears to be changing things up a bit for Lord of Nightmares, to make it look a little more similar to the art from the American Vampire book, which I love, so I'm really impressed with the work he's done here. Looking forward to seeing where this story is going.

Brian Wood's next epic following the conclusion of his fantastic Vertigo series DMZ officially began this week courtesy of Dark Horse Comics. Technically the first chapter of The Massive began in Dark Horse Presents earlier this year, but the first official issue hit stands today. The Massive is the story of a world that's been decimated by natural disasters. A small group of activists aboard a trawler named Kapital travels the oceans in search of answers as to the whereabouts of it's sister ship the Massive, which mysteriously disappeared along with it's crew. Just from what I know of Wood's writing and what I've read of this story so far, this one is going to be more of an adventure style tale than horror, but I'm cool with that. So far the Kapital has already been attacked by Siberian pirates in this first issue, which I must admit was pretty cool even though I don't like pirates. Artist Kristian Donaldson is not a name I'm familiar with, but as with most other Dark Horse books, the focus on quality is obvious as this is a very well drawn comic. This is definitely one to keep an eye on, I think it's going to be really good. 

That's what's fresh on the racks this week. Happy reading, people.

Prometheus

I purposely avoided all reviews of Prometheus until I got a chance to see it for myself, as I wanted to go in knowing as little as possible about it. Last night, I got a chance to check it out. I put my crippling social anxiety on hold, and braved the terrifying experience that it going to see a movie not by myself in the comfort and safety of my own living room, but in a (moderately) crowded theater. After I left the theater, I immediately returned home and began reading reviews from blog buddies, and a couple of other places, and I'm genuinely confused as to why people walked away disappointed in any way. That's probably because I'm not very smart, and it doesn't take much to entertain a brain such as mine, but I digress. This will not be a "review" as there are plenty of those out there for you to read should you so choose, this is basically more of me rambling about my reaction to the film however there will be some spoilers, although I will do my best to make them minor. If you want to experience Prometheus like I did, knowing almost nothing, then do not read on.

On the one hand I suppose I can sort of see the side of the argument for people who were expecting a Alien prequel which answered all their questions. If that's what you were looking for, then sure, be disappointed. But really, would that have been totally satisfying? Isn't part of the fun of a movie franchise which has had it's popularity rise to the point that we refer to the characters and creatures featured therein as a "universe" the mystery that comes along with it? I know it is for me. Looking at the big picture when it comes to my favorite movie or comic book series' and being given little glimpses without having the whole thing spelled out for me is what keeps me interested. I like to come up with my own conclusions, or think ahead for myself and see if I end up being right or not. Sometimes I call things, sometimes I'm completely wrong, but either way I like when I can get enough into a movie franchise that I actually do find myself thinking about it before AND after I watch an entry.

As you've probably surmised for yourself at this point, I absolutely loved Prometheus. So many times I sat in my seat with a big, stupid grin on my face at what was happening on screen. Yeah there were some slow parts, and some questionable character development, but they did little to detract from my enjoyment of the movie. I fell in love with the overall tone almost immediately, and I was way too wrapped up in the story to notice if Prometheus briefly asked me to suspend belief when a character had to complete a physical feat that they shouldn't have been capable of as dictated by their present situation. Basically, I accepted the fact that I was watching a fucking movie about ALIENS and if a human jumped a little farther than they probably could in real life, I was ok with it. Overall I seem to be a bit more forgiving than most of the internet when it comes to movies, which only makes sense to me as there aren't any movie studios giving me hundreds of millions of dollars to bring my imagination to life on the big screen so as to entertain others.

Let's talk about performances, two of which in particular stood out for me. First and foremost is Michael Fassbender as David basically carried the movie for me. This guy is as A-list as actors come for me right now. I liked him as Magneto in X-Men First Class, but I was floored by Shame. David is the obligatory android in Prometheus, because you just know when Weyland Corporation is involved there's gotta be an android. Fassbender does a fantastic job of moving back and forth between an almost forced faux robotic attempt at compassion, to a cold lack of regard to human life when it came to his own curiosity at the events as they were transpiring. The other was Idris Elba as Captain Janek, the pilot of the Prometheus. I suppose in the most traditional sense, he ends up being the "hero" of the movie, but even if that doesn't particularly apply, there's no denying he's definitely one of the most likable characters. I first noticed Idris in 28 Weeks Later, then in The Office as Charles, but it wasn't until he played the traitor Roque in The Losers that I really started to see how good he is. For him to stand out in a movie that featured both Michael Fassbender, Guy Pearce, and Charlize Theron says a lot about him to me.

It was evident from the very beginning that Prometheus was going to be a gorgeous film in terms of visuals. As was expected with a sci-fi movie with a budget this size, the effects in this movie are stunning. The Prometheus itself looks fantastic, there's an extremely impressive looking scene where a storm front moves in early on, and planet's residents all look believable and interact well with their real life counterparts on screen. If I have one complaint in this department it's that they don't actually have enough screen time, but Prometheus is big on atmosphere and the tension of waiting for something fucked up to happen. This isn't a big action flick that's littered with alien monsters and huge explosions.

Being that I'm not old enough to have seen Ridley Scott's original masterpice Alien on the big screen, I couldn't help but feel like Prometheus was probably going to be the closest I'm ever going to get to having that experience. While I hesitate to label it strictly as "horror" those elements are certainly present. There are a couple of splatteriffic scenes, but not really any over the top gore. As I mentioned, there's a lot of atmosphere at play in Prometheus, but when things do get going, it certainly satisfied the horror geek in me. I'm sure anybody with even a slight interest in the Alien franchise will most definitely be watching, but I urge anybody who may have had their intentions swayed by a negative review to still go see it and make up their own mind. Prometheus does indeed raise more questions than it answers, but also ends up opening a door into a whole new area in the Alien mythos, and I'm excited to see what's coming next. I just hope I don't have to wait as long this time for the next chapter.

Mister Bones' Top 5

Yesterday I had a friend bring to my attention the existence of a porn parody of the Avengers. I'm not a big porn fan, despite the fact that making a statement like that will undoubtedly be met with a healthy amount of disbelief, and likely a fair amount of scoffing, I can only say that I have neither the time nor desire to attempt to prove the internet that I don't love porn. That being said, I will fully admit to enjoying the hell out of porn parody trailers. They're almost always hilarious, and they exist for just about every genre of film or pop culture these days. As I can off the top of my head think of 5 that I particularly found amusing, I thought this might be a good excuse for a Top 5 post.

Top 5 Porn Parody Trailers

Note, these are Youtube safe and have no nudity whatsoever, but may or may not be considered safe for work or family friendly. Watch at your own risk!

5. Star Wars XXX - This looks to be most of the actual plot in the trailer, as I can't imagine there is much left except for the naughty stuff. Nonetheless, it looks like a great Star Wars spoof, I especially love Chewbacca.

4. The Avengers XXX - I'm actually fairly impressed at some of the obscure Marvel characters featured in this one. Ms Marvel, Scarlet Witch, Spider-woman, and even Sharon Carter make the roster. Judging from the trailer, I guess Hulk is the villain? Don't know, but I have to give any porn with a CGI Iron Man in it props. 

3. Justice League XXX - Ron Jeremy as Penguin, and Wonder Woman's invisible jet. Need I say more?

2. Official Friday the 13th Parody - This one is hilarious for Jason's origin alone, if for no other reason. He drowned in the lake because his...ahem..."meat machete" was too heavy, and it acted as an anchor that kept him from being able to resurface. Bwahaha! 

1. Batman XXX - You knew this was gonna be my pick for #1, didn't ya? Yep, a Batman movie that I actually don't own is my favorite porn parody ever. It's a spoof of the 60's television Batman too, right down to the intro. I told myself I would eventually probably buy this one, as I'm helpless to resist Batman related stuff, but so far I haven't.

There they are in all the adult glory, my Top 5 Porn Parody Trailers! Some others that failed to make the cut were The XXXorcist, Saved by the Bell XXX, and of course who could forget Scooby Doo XXX. Tomorrow, we forget all this adult crap, and get back to what really matters, comics and stuff! Last porn post for a good while, I promise...

Midnighter doesn't care for Pussy

Friday Night Drive-In

I'm in Florida on the beach, so there's blood on the sand in this week's drive-in feature!

I've never been to an orgy before, what do I wear?

These huge weeks after relatively light ones are always hard on the wallet. Luckily for me, I work for comics! Lotta #2's out this week, Earth 2 (which I will talk a bit more about later), World's Finest, X-O Manowar, and Dial H all ship their respective second issues. All of those were good reads, but there were a couple of standouts as per usual, and they're my picks for fresh ink this week.

Valiant comics continues their resurgence after a very strong first issue of X-O Manowar, with an equally strong relaunch of Harbinger. Joshua Dysart is writing this new series, and if the first issue is any indication it appears that he has done his homework. I'm actually relieved that so far these books seem to be sticking fairly close to what worked, and made them so good when Valiant first arrived on the scene in the late 90's. Harbingers are a group of psionics of varying levels, some of whom are even latent. It's a very rare occurrence, but when a Harbinger first manifests, the very first, or Omega Harbinger, Toyo Harada senses it and immediately sends agents of the Harada foundation to collect them. Needless to say, this doesn't sit particularly well with the book's main character, teenager Peter Stancheck. I will admit that so far for new readers not a whole lot of this is clear right away, but this is just a first issue, and there's a lot of story to set up here. For those of us who fondly remember the original series, this new Harbinger is off to a very promising start.

A new anthology book! Woo! And Steve Niles is writing one of the stories! Double Woo! As has been stated previously, if Steve Niles has his name on it, consider me signed up. Creator Owned Heroes is a brand new series from Image, made up of two main stories, and lots of back-up material like interviews, previews, and such. Steve Niles' contribution is called American Muscle, and looks so far like some sort of post-apocalyptic road trip story, complete with raiders and mutants. Should be fun! The other story is Trigger Girl 6 by writers Jutin Gray and Jimmy Palmiotti, and artist Phil Noto, whose minimalistic style is one that I just so happen to dig. Not a lot of story to go along with Phil's art in this first issue, but from what I gathered it looks as if Trigger Girls are assassins that are either cloned or genetically enhanced in a lab of some sort, then programmed, and given a mission to carry out. In this issue, the Trigger Girl is sent to take down a Senator. The why's and whatnot aren't given, but so far so good. As stated, I love me an anthology book. Especially one that gives the spotlight to creator-owned properties from some of my favorite creators.  Creator Owned Heroes is kinda like Dark Horse Presents, only $5 cheaper and with less content. The creators will rotate in and out as the stories end.

Now a little on Earth 2 #2, the infamous issue in which Golden Age Green Lantern, Alan Scott is officially introduced into the New 52, and is openly gay. Now, my personal feelings toward that particular issue aside, looking at this with as open of a mind as possible, I can't help myself, I don't like it. Not because I'm a huge Alan Scott fan, I'm not, but this just feels like a completely un-necessary publicity stunt, looking to cash in on a hot-button issue going on in the real world today. I see absolutely no point whatsoever in even bringing a SUPERHERO'S sexual orientation up to begin with, but in this book Alan Scott literally appears in about four panels before he's shown sucking face with another dude. It's a SUPERHERO COMIC BOOK, why don't we leave stuff like sexual orientation, regardless of what it is, for the mature titles out there, of which there are plenty. This is exactly the kind of thing I expect from Marvel, but not so much from DC, I'm honestly more disappointed than anything else. The irony of having a superhero whose weakness just so happens to be WOOD be an openly gay character is also not lost on me, but that's neither here nor there.

Off my nerd soapbox now though, I don't like it simply because it's being blown out of proportion. Lotta good stuff out this week just waiting to be read. Hit your local comic shops people!

Random Screen Grab