Geddy's Thoughts on The Avengers' Post-Credits Sequence

Hey everybody, NWC's Geddy Cahoon here! Rather than do a THIRD straight-up review of The Avengers, which I will say was pretty fucking good as far as comic book movies go, I figured I would share my thoughts on what was, for me, and probably a lot of comic fans, the film's high point: The post-credits sequence. I want to talk about some of the pros and cons, and what the appearance of a certain character could mean for the future of comic book movies.


Hit the jump to hear Geddy's thoughts on the post-credits sequence of Marvel's cinematic achievement, The Avengers! SPOILERS OBVIOUSLY ABOUND, DON'T READ IF YOU HAVEN'T SEEN THE FILM!

My Two Cents on Marvel's $200.3 million (and counting) Cash Draw

by Scott Speegle

      Let me preface this review by saying that I love comics. Comics are the first thing  that I actually decided to love entirely of my own volition. So any of the points of contention (and there'll probably be a few that will put bunches in panties) that I offer towards Marvel's huge summer outing The Avengers, come from a place of deep love for the medium. I'll also be working on the assumption that you are at least vaguely familiar with the characters and themes in this review. If not, there's the door.

    Ok, now the film opens with a painful cliche and its first ten minutes are a pretty rocky start. Right out of the gate Avengers has a massive problem: It needs to set itself up, and that takes time, a lot of time as it turns out. "But Scott, all of the previous Marvel blockbusters have been leading up to this epic and exciting culmination of super awesomeness." Some of you are probably saying from whatever delusional realm you reside in. In reality every "piece" that has been primed to fit into the puzzle that is Avengers actually exists within it's own separate bubble, all bookended by Samuel L. Jackson's Nick Fury doing a bit of fan service in post credit sequences. Iron Man is really the only character that feels organically integrated into the established continuity of the Avengers film, this is largely due to the fact that the aforementioned Nick Fury has spent the most time with Mr. Stark. Everyone else is kind of just thrown into the mix and the awkwardness of that is visible throughout.
     So Avengers has that problem, tricking you into watching the prelude to the prelude while making you think you've just opened the puzzle box and have all the pieces laid out before you, waiting to be dare I say it.... assembled.

Hit the jump to read on.

THE AVENGERS Movie Review

by Alex Hajna

Making an Avengers movie is, no doubt, a tough gig. Nothing like it has ever been attempted in the history of Hollywood: gathering characters from five different movies, and putting them all together in one film. Many questioned the practicality of such a project, and rightfully so. How can you properly develop each character, give them each their rightful time to shine, and not make any of them seem like the chief advocate of the film? Well, my friends... Joss Whedon made it work. And he made it work well.

TCJ's "The Johnny Ryan Interview": Deconstructing the Funniest Man in Comics Today

Hey everybody, Geddy Cahoon here with an interesting little thing for you. My favorite comic book writer/artist today is probably the relatively unknown Johnny Ryan. Ryan crafts comics in the vain of guys like Underground Comix movement notable R. Crumb. Ryan's comics are crass, lewd, violent, overly sexual, disturbing, and absolutely hilarious. He doesn't push the envelope; he obliterates it. His comic strips are dark humor personified, often not even containing any "humor" in the straightforward sense. It's funny because it's offensive.

I feel as though Johnny's comics personify the way I feel all sensible people should view comedy: Everything is funny, or nothing is.

I don't know about you, but I like to have a little bit of biographical info on my favorite authors and artists. This interview with Johnny from tcj.com has it all. It delves into his somewhat tragic upbringing, how he got involved in comics, and much more. It also gets into the infinitely interesting (To me) list of other comic book legends/notables that Johnny has pissed off or just don't like him. It's lengthy and at times disturbing, but it's worth a read if you're into Indie Comics in any capacity, or just a hardcore comic book fan in general.

Here's the interview: The Johnny Ryan Interview

Look out for some features to be updated in upcoming weeks. The Ink Spill seems to have made its triumphant return, and as soon as my camera issues are rectified, Figure Fraction will come back in full swing. We're also implementing some sort of regular Movie-Reviewing column, so stay tuned.

Give this interview a read, and Welcome to Your Doom!

-Geddy

The Ink Spill No. 6 

Another installment of the Ink Spill is right here, in front of your face area! Check it out party boy!

No. 1- Captain America #10 (Parel Variant)

art: Gerald Parel 

      Avengers! The block buster movie event that is Marvel's all star assemblage is right around the corner. Lots and lots of people are very excited about the film and while I don't necessary count myself among them, I do enjoy the Avengers. The idea of organizing (and even regulating) the resources of super-powered beings is not only practical but also pretty appealing. Much to my surprise Marvel has been doing a pretty good job of striking a balance between integration of the movie property into the realm of its print and digital comics and keeping said comics separate enough to not feel overly bogged down. 

     This cover for Captain America #10 is a great example of this. Gerald Parel has created an interesting mix of current and classic. One of my biggest gripes with Avengers as a property is that it's too much of its own thing and to me it feels like it could exist outside of the Marvel universe entirely. Here in this cover Parel has opted to mostly utilize classic representations of the depicted characters, with artful integration of very modern designs (Ultimate style Nick Fury blends well with Oliver Coipel's Thor). The realistic rendering style is very reminiscent of Alex Ross while also possessing a more painterly feel. The starkly classical triangular composition lends a strong air of artistry to the piece and accentuates the element of cohesion within this particular Avengers lineup. 

Overall I really enjoy this cover and I'm glad the print end of things is still (barely) able to stand on its own. This specific Cap arc very nicely deals with less canon characters like The Falcon and those are kinds of things that the film adaptations should be doing more often. 

Publisher: Marvel Comics - Available: April 25, 2012

Hit the jump for a couple more covers plus my dumb thoughts about them!

David Foster Wallace and the Incomprehensibility of Being Human

So to anybody interested, here's a much longer, much more fleshed out version of the David Foster Wallace essay. I still need to make some revisions and add some things, but criticisms are welcome, bearing in mind that I've already received plenty. I think this is one of the better things I've written. Enjoy. Or don't. It's essentially me rambling like a jackass for 10 pages.

- Geddy

Note: This displays in a slightly odd way since I copied and pasted it from an email I sent it to somebody in. Enjoy despite the weird white background.

Docu Picks - 'I Got Next'

A few days ago I was on a documentary kick (8 in three days) and among those was a particular nerdy flick that I thought I might share here. It's a nice look at the state of contemporary competitive gaming and it's interesting at how much has changed even since this film came out.

It's still streaming free on hulu so check it out cry baby.

-Scott-