Beyond My Geeky Life

We all know that for the most part Hollywood is not big on being original. Sequels and reboots flood our theaters constantly. With that comes both the good and the bad of it all. With Jurassic World I was not sure if we would get the good or the bad with the film. I was not into the hype and originally planned on waiting until the film made it to video before seeing it. JP 2 and 3 were disappointing, so I had little faith that JW would be anything more. Also with how Hollywood is making it obvious that there is no way to match the originals when they let a franchise sit for two decades, as we have seen with so many sequels (Or prequels) as of late. I have been let down so much by the big franchises. And while I consider movies like Indiana Jones and the Crystal Skulls to not be the worst in the franchise ( I find Temple of Doom to actually be a worse move) it was lacking. There was a lot of build up to finally getting a new adventure in that universe after all that time. I have lea...

For those who don't know, I am a fan of comic books. I have a good sized collection that spans around sixty years, maybe more, especially if you count reprints and collected works. If so, then I have comics from over 75 years ago. I have read the first appearances of many characters, including Bat-Man, Superman, Namor, The original Human Torch, The Fantastic Four, just to name a few. I have some idea of the evolution of comic books into what is on the market today. I won't claim to be an expert or even one of the most knowledgeable of comic book fans, but I feel I am able to form some fairly well thought out opinions concerning comic books. As I said I have read some significant first appearance issues now from all eras of comic books. The more I have read from the various ages (Golden, silver and modern) the more I see where the big changes have happened. With that I have no doubt at all that there is one comic that really can be said to have had the most influence as to whe...

I love going to sci-fi/geeky conventions. I get out to as many as I can in a year. Normally I can make it to four or five, even though here in Colorado it seems we average at least one a month, especially if you can travel all over the state. We are a geeky state. Last weekend we showed the world just how geeky Colorado can be by holding the Denver Comic Con and having an attendance of over 101,000 people. We have solidly put ourselves as one of the top five comic con. One of the greater aspects of DCC is the chance to meet various celebrities from all aspects of entertainment. This year I left with a lot of enjoyable experiences like the conversation I had with Anthony Michael Hall that covered his time on Saturday Night Live, Robert Downing Jr and joking about him getting a role in a Marvel movie. It was not a long exchange, but it was enjoyable and I left feeling like Hall was the type of person you would want to hang with. I can say the same about the incredibly talented voic...

The family went and saw Avengers: Age of Ultron this afternoon, in 3-D. It lived up to the hype and clearly set up a lot for future films. A lot of little treats for us comic fans as well as some real surprises. Marvel studios has yet another hit on their hands. Before the film started we were treated to the trailers. Several of them I had already seen on-line, but now I got to see them in 3-D. This included the one movie that will most likely give Avengers a run for top movie of the year and caused me to geek out big time. The trailer for Star Wars: The Force Awakens was awesome to begin with, but to see it on the big screen, in 3-D... That in itself was worth the price of a ticket. I really have faith that episode 7 will get the Star Wars franchise back on track. And to keep this geeky weekend going strong, tomorrow is free comic book day. I am always up for free comic book and will be going to Mile High Comics to take part in the festivities.  And we already know that...

We've been watching the new show iZombie. We got hooked with the first episode and have enjoyed everything that has followed. I have not read any of the comic books, so I will only be talking about the TV series here. After the first episode I had to ask my wife "Shouldn't it feel wrong for me to be attracted to a zombie?" One aspect of the show that really does stand out is the main character, Liv (Played by Rose McIver), being actually attractive for dead chick. I also know I am not the only one who feels this way. I would not think I would find such a pale complexion attractive, let along sexy. This may be a high compliment to the actress, but there is something about Liv that is highly appealing. At a recent convention my wife cosplayed as Liv and that look worked for her as well. In giving the issue some  real thought, it came to me that we are now sexualizing zombies much the same way we did vampires a few decades ago. The idea of taking what is supposed t...

For February Loot Crate had the theme of Play. A lot of fun stuff in the box. My family really enjoyed the game Super Fight. It is a card game based around all manner of match ups between assorted characters with some truly bizarre weaponry. This was the first Loot Crate we had received that came with an actual novel. The book was Ready Player One by Ernest Cline. I read the back cover and it sounded interesting so it got moved up in my reading list. I was not disappointed. Over the last few days I found it real hard to stop reading as I got closer to the conclusion. The book itself is filled with many great pop culture references. Most are from the 80s, but there are some from the 70s and 90s. There were tons geeky trivia at every turn here. I actually learned some interesting new odd ball facts about Pac Man, Cap'n Crunch and more. The story takes place in a future where just about everyone is active in a virtual universe called OASIS. OASIS is filled with fan made worlds...

In some ways this is a hard post to write as I am very much conflicted over my feelings about the Spider-Verse saga that recently wrapped up in the Spider-man comics. Spidey is my favorite hero and so I wish for the best from his comics and am thrown off when it just doesn't all come together. I am going to start with the bad on this so I can finish with a positive note. Spider-Verse suffered from going no where real fast. The main six part story really was lacking. Each part did little to move the story and often felt like it repeated itself. Most of the real interesting stuff happen in the tie-in comics. The main story just couldn't handle it all. To some level it really felt like trying to get all the various versions of Spider-Man/woman/girl/pig/ape working together was too much to ask and regretfully it showed. Now there were some good scenes in the main story, but nothing that really stood out. The conclusion itself just happened. There was nothing in it that was as...