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Nerd Lunch Episode 116: Live Action Super Hero Television

Posted in comic books, podcast, pop culture, Superman, The Flash, TV shows with tags Batman, comic books, Nerd Lunch Podcast, podcasts, Superman, The Flash, TV shows on January 28, 2014 by Paxton

This week we are joined by Elliott Serrano, a writer from the Geek To Me Blog on RedEyeChicago.com. Elliott joins us to talk about live action super hero television.

We talk about some of our favorite live action super hero TV shows, we talk about why we think our favorites worked. We talk about ones we didn’t like and why we think they didn’t work. We even discuss M.A.N.T.I.S. for some reason.

We mention all the classic super hero shows (Batman ’66, Adventures of Superman, The Flash, etc) and we end the show with a discussion of the new school shows (Agents of SHIELD, Arrow, Marvel’s Netflix shows, etc). It’s a great discussion chock full of super heroes.

Download this episode from iTunes or listen to it on Feedburner.

Or listen to it online right here.

AWESOME-tober-fest 2013: DC’s Blackest Night mini-series (2009)

Posted in comic books, monsters, Superman, The Flash, zombies with tags AWESOME-tober-fest, AWESOME-tober-fest 2013, Batman, Cavalcade Comics, comic books, DC Comics, monsters, Superman, The Flash, zombies on October 8, 2013 by Paxton

Summer of 2009 began the DC event, Blackest Night. At the conclusion of the Sinestro Corps War, DC teased the coming of the Blackest Night prophecy. The Guardians of the Universe told of the coming of 5 new Lantern Corps, each backed by a different color of the emotional spectrum. This fracturing would lead to a war of light, the coming of the Black Lanterns, the dead rising and the eventual destruction of the universe.

The Blackest Night mini-series was eight issues long and first appeared in June 2009. The story starts with Black Hand walking amongst the tombstones of a cemetery. He grabs Bruce Wayne’s skull and carries it with him (this was obviously during the time just after Bruce Wayne’s fate is revealed in Final Crisis). Black Hand keeps talking about a coming war and retribution. And the coming of “him” (who we’ll discover later).

We see black rings invade the Lantern crypt on Oa and start reviving all of the formerly deceased lanterns. These “zombie” lanterns become the beginning of the Black Lantern Corps.

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Spending my kid’s college tuition on Hake’s Auction #209

Posted in Batman, comic books, movies, nostalgia, pop culture, Superman, TV shows with tags Batman, comic books, LEB, movies, pop culture, Star Trek, Star Wars, Superman, Wizard of Oz on July 12, 2013 by Paxton

This week’s assignment for The League is to browse Hake’s Auction #209 and find all the cool stuff we’d buy if we were rolling in dough like P-Diddy. So I spent my fair share of time at work this week perusing the enormous auction catalog and came up with some stuff that I would like to buy. Assuming, of course, that money is no object.

There were several awesome Star Wars items I found interesting. Firstly, the C3POs cereal lot featuring a full size C3PO standee and three box flats. I have always had a fascination with this particular cereal and the ephemera it created. These are particularly good examples of that. The seven Star Wars Coca-Cola promotional posters are also pretty awesome. Four of them are from Burger Chef/Burger King giveaways in 1977 and feature Del Nichols artwork. Three of them feature Boris Vallejo artwork and were to promote the release of Empire Strikes Back. Finally, I am in wet, sloppy love with the full size Return of the Jedi Burger King glasses Darth Vader standee (1983).

There were lots of comic book and super hero related items that I want. Tops on that list would probably be The Great Comic Book Heroes book from 1965. It’s signed by several comic luminaries like Jerry Siegel, Joe Shuster, Bob Kane, Shelly Moldoff and Will Eisner. Yes, the creators of both Superman AND Batman signed this thing. Plus, I’ve looked at this book before and it’s pretty awesome.

Speaking of Superman and Batman, I found several items featuring those heroes that rock my Casbah. The boxed Mego Superman doll from 1977 is particularly awesome because I’m kind of in love with the packaging art. And the art on the 1954 Superman metal lunchbox is pretty close to melting my eyeballs out of my head and that’s only the picture. And these Mego Comic Action Heroes figures from 1975 (in package!) are also incredible. And speaking of incredible, check out the awesomely weird and bizarre cover to issue #33 of the comic World’s Finest. Why the hell is Superman spinning Batman and Robin in the air WITH HIS FEET?! I love the Golden Age. I also would buy Flash #147 featuring the second appearance of Reverse Flash with a great cover homage to Flash #123. I actually already own Reverse Flash’s first appearance in Flash #139. And what will I put all of these comics in when I own them? That’s right, my very own g***amn comic spinner rack from the late 70s. I’ve wanted one of those retail spinner racks ever since I started collecting comics in the early 80s. Continue reading →

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Superman Week 2013: Favorite Scene Friday on To the Escape Hatch blog

Posted in comic books, movies, nostalgia, pop culture, Superman with tags DC Comics, movies, pop culture, Superman, Superman Week on June 21, 2013 by Paxton

For Superman Week, Robert over at To the Escape Hatch asked me to write another Favorite Scene Friday. This time, themed, obviously, for Superman. If you remember, I’d previously written a Favorite Scene Friday involving Young Guns.

So for this week’s Fav Scene, I talk a lot about the Christopher Reeve Superman movies. And specifically about Lex Luthor as played by Gene Hackman.

(Via Criminal Movies)

Head over to To the Escape Hatch to read all about it.

There’s a very slight possibility that I may get to see Man of Steel this weekend. If that happens I’ll post a review of it next week mainly because I know there are precious few reviews of that movie out on the ‘net right now. So, let’s hope that happens.

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Superman Week 2013: BB Hiller’s Superman IV novelization (1987)

Posted in books, comic books, movies, Superman with tags Book Report, books, comic books, DC Comics, Movie Novelizations, pop culture, reviews, Superman, Superman Week on June 20, 2013 by Paxton

So the new Superman movie, Man of Steel, made it’s theatrical debut on Friday. To celebrate, I thought it would be fun to do another Superman Week. I convinced CT over at Nerd Lunch and Robert over at To The Escape Hatch to join along. So leap in a single bound over to those wonderful blogs and see what Superman content they are offering up this week.

Continuing Superman Week 2013 with another look at one of the Superman novelizations. Here’s a review of the Superman IV movie novelization from 1987. And yes, I’m pretty sure I hate this weird cover.

Supes 4 novel

The book is written by B.B. Hiller who is a veteran of movie novelizations. This guy has penned novelizations for Little Monsters (the one with Howie Mandell and Fred Savage), Ghostbusters II, Big, ALL of the 90s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movies and ALL of the Karate Kid movies. So this guy has been around…so to speak. Unfortunately, or fortunately depending on how you look at these things, Hiller didn’t adapt any of the other Superman movies. Only this one. The last one. And, ostensibly, the worst one. However, to be perfectly honest, I’m a fan of this last Superman movie. Don’t get me wrong, it’s absolutely f**king terrible but I love it anyway. And I wanted to see if the book makes an attempt at explaining ANY of the crazy ass insanity that goes down in the movie. A quick check of the page count (144) tells me that, no, this probably won’t explain a g**damn thing. But I decided to try it anyway.

The verdict? It’s actually not that bad. Somehow, the ridiculous story on the page comes across better than it does on the big screen. However, there are several added scenes and subplots that help explain some of the ridiculousness. Just so you know, about 45 minutes of footage was removed from Superman IV including an entire subplot about a first failed attempt by Lex to create a Nuclear Man.

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