You Light Up My Life

I. Literally. SCREAMED. Out. Loud. When I saw this in the Diamond Previews catalog! Are you fucking kidding me?! This is like... something the universe created JUST! FOR!! ME!!! Dazzler!!!

Like OMG!!! AND, she comes wearing a real crystal necklace and standing atop a real disco ball! That is the gayest thing ever! Apparently, there was a poll online for fans to vote for whether she would have her pupils visible, but as you see, they aren't, which is how she looked in her earlier comics anyway. Who's looking at her eyes? It's all about the crazy long hair, the silver catsuit, the KISS makeup and whatever gay dance anthem plays in your head as you stare at her magnificence! (I've chosen "It's Raining Men" but feel free to select your own.)

I'd kill a baby to own this. I don't fucking care how much it costs! Eleventy gajillion dollars? Here! Take it!

The only thing better would be... heeeeeey, didn't Tonner just start making Marvel dolls?! (Why yes they did, I have their Ms. Marvel!) Tonner! Make a Dazzler doll! NOW!!! (And Fire-Star too, if you feel like it!)

Cartoon MANic Tuesday

Marvel announced the Cable is returning to the Marvel Universe and surprisingly, it doesn't seem to include the X-Men (well, except moonlighter Wolverine), but the Avengers. I do read the Avengers books, but I'm not terribly intrigued by this, since Cable originated in one of my less-liked periods for comics, the 90s. I'm running this for one, purely gratuitous reason.
Jesus, Captain America has a gorgeous ass!

Captain America Set Pics

Yesterday, images of Chris Evans as Captain America on the Cleveland set of The Avengers popped up on every nerd website out there. More on that in a sec.
Here we see someone, an actor or stuntman, wearing what appears to be a motion capture suit. Hmmm... wonder what that's for? Is he playing a shape-shifting Skrull, as has been widely rumored? Is he The Hulk? Something else entirely?
Here we see a spacey-looking ray gun. That certainly seems Skrully.
And now back to Cap.

Y'know... there's something I'm not quite digging about this suit. The fabric kinda bugs me. It looks sort of Power Ranger-y. Oh, you k now what it is? The shoulder pads! He had some shoulder detailing in the WWII costume, but I think it worked better
In a lot of ways, the WWII suit actually looks MORE high tech than the modern costume. It looks more functional and realistic. I think maybe the modern suit is a tad too streamlined and simplified. It actually looks a bit too costume-y. The helmet looks a little weird too. Oh, also, in the movie Captain America, there is absolutely no effort made to conceal Cap's identity, so shouldn't his ID be public knowledge? In that case, he really doesn't even need a mask. (But we all know he has to have it, just because... well, that's the costume!)

Am I being too critical? I don't hate it or anything. It's not bad at all, it's just a bit off for me.
Finally, a straight-forward image of Chris Evans as Steve Rogers. I'm looking forward to more images as filming continues!

Artist Bill Walko has done some really nifty images. Check out his Deviantart page. He's got quite a few really nice Teen Titans illustrations and I was DELIGHTED to see his take on The Power Squad, the aborted all-female super team that I discussed here.
Looks like I'm not the only one who found this idea delicious! Here are a couple more images from his page that I particularly enjoyed!

Modernized Wonder Twins!
The Spider Friends!
The Herald and Bumble Bee! (This was later integrated into a larger Teen Titans group scene, which you can see on his site.)
Best of all... Jem & The Holograms!
This one is entitled "Who Is He Kissing:"
I like how Rio actually looks Latino here! All of his stuff is super adorbz! I think I'm actually going to order prints of a couple of these!

How Can I Not Care And Still Be Completely P.O.'d At The Same Time

Two "big" comic-related stories popped up last week, but they were things I was kinda apathetic about.
First, over in Marvel's "Ultimate" Universe, they recently killed off Spider-Man. They are relaunching the Ultimate comics and will introduce a new successor to Peter Parker, Miles Morales a teenager who happens to be half black, half Latino. Huh. Okay, well, they replaced Ted Kord as the Blue Beetle with a Latino teen and that actually went well. I mean... I don't read the Ultimate books anymore, so what's it matter to me? Sounds like a good idea, though and Spider-Man is about as big a name as they come, so to have him embodied by an ethnic character is pretty bold, if you ask me. Along the lines of having AA female Monica Rambeau go by the name Captain Marvel, but even moreso!
Second, they revealed that Lawrence Fishburn would portray Perry White in the upcoming Superman: The Man of Steel movie. My reaction? Well, heck, Lawrence Fishburn kicks ASS! That's perfect casting! But that movie is so far off that I'm not getting myself worked up over it just yet. But anyway, that's a good choice, right?

Oh fuckin' WRONG! I started reading comments online and it was the skuzziest, most racist shit you could imagine! I was stunned, appalled and ashamed! Ashamed because I am a dyed-in-the-wool NERD! I am DORK to the core and I associate myself with that culture... only to find that these "peers" I align myself with, this culture I feel a part of, consists of such bigoted idiots! I've always tried to brush it off as more of an exclusionary thing. I've always said that hetero white males feel that if a protagonist isn't also a hetero white male and they don't read that character's books or see their movies or whatever, it isn't that they're racist, it's they feel that the character isn't like them, therefore feel that they won't "get" the character or they feel that the book (or movie or whatever) isn't FOR them, it's for individuals that are superficially like the character. But, nope! Turns out fanboys are just racist assholes.
Not even the old school, sheet-wearing, sister-fucking kind where they're just FLAT OUT EVIL. These are people that INSIST they aren't racist at all. They're "traditionalist." "Spider-Man has always been white! This is just PC garbage!" Peter Parker has always been white. The REAL Peter Parker still is. In Ultimate comics, though, Peter Parker is all kindza DEAD! This is a new character. Why does his successor have to be YET ANOTHER Caucasian teen hero? We have a shit ton of them already, 75% of which are in the Legion of Super Heroes. Fuck that! We need another white teen in tights like we need another fucking Green Lantern. What the fuck is everyone's problem?! I don't even get why people are pissed. This isn't Peter Parker! This isn't the REAL Marvel Universe! Why does it always have to be about YOU, white people?!

And who gives a fuck about Perry White?! I can't believe that people are bitching about that when in Iron Man, they turned Caucasian butler Jarvis into a fucking COMPUTER and no one said shit about that! A computer isn't even HUMAN! So what does that say?! White fanboys are okay with characters being dehumanized, but NOT being a different sort of human that is probably more athletic and can dance better than them?! Such ridiculous bullshit! GAH!

Also, it's 2011. Who the fuck is still racist? Are people even still doing that anymore?! Jesus, I know comic fans aren't that hip, but that backwards shit went out with fedoras and cocktails at lunch. (Okay those two things are welcome back in style, but not RACISM!)

Huff huff! Deep breaths! (Pass me a cocktail.)

Still Shots From The Avengers Trailer

I meant to post these last Tuesday, but whoopsie! Some wonderful person slowed down the quick-cut Avengers trailer and posted these stills so everyone could get a better look at everyone.
First we have Chris Evans as Captain America, in a modernized, sleeker look than in his solo movie. I guess I'm okay with that, although I liked how his WWII costume looked more functional and realistic yet was still bright and "comic book-y." In the comics, his shirt is chain mail armor. This just looks like spandex or some-such. I guess it moves freely, but Cap isn't the mightiest hero out there, so the added protection made sense. But overall, not bad at all.
Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury. Not much to comment on there.
Jeremy Renner as Clint Barton, out of costume, so once again, not much to comment on.
And ditto Mark Ruffalo as Bruce Banner. Is he wearing a purple shirt? If so, cute reference!
RDJ as Tony Stark rocking a Black Sabbath tee, so once again, cute reference.
RDJ and Chris Hemsworth's ass.
Thor and his mighty guns. The tunic part looks good. It's faithful to the comics. The suit of armor in the Thor movie, I though, looked good, but I know some people thought it looked too rubbery and fake, so maybe those folks will like this look better. I still miss the helmet!

I was missing the cape in the earlier pics, but here we see it's added back in for the action sequence, so that makes me happy.
Black Widow has a boring look to begin with, so there's not much to say about her here. It just looks like a generic uniform. Like Cap's costume, it looks perfectly functional. In fact, it looks like it was clearly designed by whoever designed Cap's suit, so that's nice and adds a sense of "team" to their costumes. Hopefully, Hawkeye's also fits in the same way.

So far, looking good!

I'm just going to borrow these from Artastic Avenjer's blog. These are some VERY sexy images of male super heroes by Joe Phillips.
I LOVE Joe Phillips' style! If I could draw LIKE anyone, he is my pick. He doesn't do a lot of actual comic work. Usually, he does these awesome gay themed illustrations that are published in books or calenders and lots of merchandising.It's like hot and cute at the same time. One thing he does really well is capture age. He draws clear adults or younger characters. Not every illustrator does that. But anyway, enjoy!












This one's my favorite. It's so hot! Although I think Beast should be bigger. Ice Man looks like a young Ben McKenzie and ain't nuthin' wrong with that! Also Angel seems to be the least endowed and when I think about it... that sounds about right. Ha ha!