Way too Many Reviews

"50/50"- Starring Joseph Gordon Levitt (yay!) and Seth Rogan (boo!)-- Right. JGL has cancer, which sucks. This movie is billed as sort of a comedy, with an emphasis on "sorta". It's kinda sad, really, and the recurring themes of loneliness and isolation hit a little too close to home for me. Kinda bummed me out, really. Still, Joseph Gordon Levitt is excellent as always, and Seth Rogan's just collecting a paycheck so he can smoke more weed, like always. As an added bonus, the always excellent Anjelica Houston is in it as Levitt's overprotective mom. Not bad. Worth watching.

"Snarked!" #1 by Roger Landgridge- The continuing adventures of the Walrus and the Carpenter as they try to scam their way through life in (not really) Wonderland. This is great, good old fashioned cartooning, and it's based on the various works of Lewis Carroll. So, yeah, lovely.

"iZombie" #18 by Chris Roberson and Jay Stephens- Hey! Guest artist! They great Jay Stephens drops by Zombieland to give us a neato little flashback about the old guy monster hunter. Not an essential issue, but fun nonetheless.

"Baltimore: the Curse Bells" #2 by Mike Mignola, Christopher Golden, and Ben Stenbeck- Lord Baltimore continues the hunt of the one eyed vampire that ruined his life. Plus there's evil vampire nuns and a really screwed pregnancy involving lots of blood. Creepy fun.

"RASL" #10 by Jeff Smith- I hate to say this, but this issue is kinda painfully skippable. I've really liked this series, but the (long) wait between issues coupled with the occasional slow issue like this one is making me think I should just wait for the Collection Edition of this one.

"Stormwatch" #2 by Jefff Cornell and Miguel Sepulveda- Wowzers! Issue One was just kinda okay, but this issue... Man, oh man this issue is awesome! Just crazy, bizarre stuff from one end to the other. Plus, Monsters! And the Moon tries to kill Earth by throwing giant Monsters at it. I lub eet! Can't wait for next issue.

"Red Lanterns" #2 by Peter Milligan and Ed Benes- It's a little slow, but this little issue delves into the horrors and immorality of war in a fairly deft manner. Then Atrocitus vaporizes a guy with his Acidbloodpuke. So, yeah. Digging it.

"Animal Man" #2 by Jeff Lemire and Travel Foreman- I didn't love Issue One as much as everyone else, but I still liked it enough to pick up Issue Two. Glad I did. HOLY CRAP! Monsters, Tears of Blood, Monsters, the Red, Monsters, and a solid story with great characterizations. Apparently Lemire has decided that it's Game On.

"OMAC" #2 by Keith Giffen and Dan Didio- Sigh. Kevin Kho is a whiny little nobody who wastes our time for some of this issue. Then an Absorbing Man rip-off shows up and starts wrecking stuff. So Kho is forced to turn into OMAC. Then there's much Smashing, including OMAC dropping a building on the notAbsorbing Man, which is Smash Directly our of the Kirby Smash Playbook. Also, there's some actual Plot Exposition. So what did I think? Reread the sentence about OMAC dropping a building on a dude. Do you need anything else from your comics? I don't.

"Action Comics" #2 by Grant Morrison and Rags Morales- Oh Lex Luther. You've got Superman right where you want him. Now can you hold onto him long enough to exterminate and dissect him? Well, if he could it wouldn't be much of a series, would it? This comic makes me smile. I read it, and I just get this goofy smile through the whole comic. I think happiness is a pretty good review, right?

"The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: 1969" by Alan Moore and Kevin O'Neil- Hmmm. I gotta admit, I'm not sure what to think of this one. On the one hand, I honestly can't remember much of anything about "The Black Dossier" or the previous TPB (except that I HATED it), so I kinda felt a little lost with this one, cause it makes a lot of references to that stuff. Plus, there's a ton of references to literary and pop culture stuff, most of which I don't get, which kinda detracts. Plus, the ending sucks ass. And, once you get down to brass tacks, there's really not much here, just kind of one event and a bunch of bickering between the three lead characters. Wow. This is not a very favorable review. Still, it's got some cool psychedelics, and there's lots of sex and nudity. I am a fan of those three things.

"One Piece" vol. 58 by Eichiro Oda- Every year, Marvel and DC put out a Big Ass Crossover featuring all of their characters, chronicling a massive Battle between the forces of Good and Evil, where usually someone dies at the end. It would be cool, if they didn't do it Every Damn Year, and the Death at the end is completely meaningless because the Dead Guy usually comes back to life within a year or three. Plus, there's almost never any real quantifiable effect on the world at the end (or if there is, it's rearranged again when the next Event starts). By contrast, the Paramount War in Eichiro Oda's "One Piece" is not only a massive epic conflict that is utterly breathtaking in its scope and execution, but the Deaths at the End have real impact, because the characters that Died were important, and we know they're not coming back, ever. Plus, the Paramount War has a real impact on the world of One Piece, one that is still having an effect on the story. Volume 58 is just about in the middle of the conflict, as Luffy continues his attempt to free his brother Ace. One of the two major deaths that result from this war comes at the end of this volume, and it's a heartbreaker. One Piece is pretty much better than just about everything else out there. Easily my most favorite manga ever.