Blake flies solo this week with an in-depth look at the Boom! Kids line of comics featuring the Disney, Pixar, and Muppet characters. Blake looks at each of the series that has been released to date, gives his thoughts on the best and the weakest, and offers a few suggestions for the future of the line. In the picks, check out the Showcase Presents Ambush Bug graphic novel, and the Assault on New Olympus Prologue one-shot! Contact us with comments, suggestions, or anything else at Showcase@comixtreme.com!

2 in 1 Showcase Episode 146: Disney Goes Boom!
Inside This Episode:

After several massive problems — problems that actually required me to do my NaNoWriMo writing longhand for three days this week, I’ve finally gotten a new computer. It was coming anyway, and with Windows 7 now out, it just didn’t make any sense to keep sinking money into that thing in the hopes that it would get better. I definitely am not going back to that particular brand of laptop, and after 24 hours of playing with my new toy, I like it quite a bit.

I’m hammering away now, trying to finish up tonight’s writing, and it’s going well. With this weekend off work for Thanksgiving, I intended to get a Hell of a lot finished. I may not actually finish the story — there’s more left than I expected at this point — but I’m pretty sure I can cross the 50,000-word mark before Thanksgiving. Wish me luck.

This usually goes up on Wednesdays, but I was having some computer issues at the time. I know. Here we go now…

If you’ve stopped by your friendly neighborhood comic shop lately, you may have noticed that a lot of DC Comics are coming with wonderful, magical little chunks of plastic in ring shape. This week in Everything But Imaginary, we look at some premium giveaways of the past, and suggest a few for the future.

Everything But Imaginary #329: At a Premium

In part three of A Long November, the frustrating pixie named Lou decides to up his game, putting Duncan Marks through a series of tests that Charles Dickens himself would approve of. And if Duncan proves to still be resistant… well… there’s always “The Trip.”

Theme music by Jeff Hendricks. Evercast logo by Heather Petit-Keller. Additional music: Merry Freakin’ Christmas by the Mydols & Christmas (Baby Please Come Home) by Opp Sept Demo, provided by the Podshow Podsafe Music Network.

A Long November Part Three: Experimentations (Evercast #4)

Send your e-mails to BlakeMPetit@gmail.com.

A Long November, along with eight other Christmas stories, is now available as an eBook from Smashwords.com. If you’ve got a Kindle, iPhone, Sony eReader, or virtually any other eBook-reading device, you can add the book to your device. Visit the book’s page at Smashwords.com!



Depressingly, local stores haven’t been keeping the DC Universe Infinite Heroes figures in stock lately. And frankly, it’s been pissing me off. But fortunately, MattyCollector.com is giving us a few exclusive figures to help me get through the drought.

Crisis on Infinite Earths Infinite Heroes

This set includes four figures, each packaged individually but only sold together… so, whatever… Each is a character that figured prominently in the classic 80s crossover Crisis on Infinite Earths. Let’s go through them, shall we?

The Psycho-Pirate Reigns!

First up, here’s the Psycho-Pirate, a rather obscure Justice Society villain who rose to prominence during the Crisis. He drew power from his “Medusa Mask,” a golden mask that gave him the ability to generate any emotion he so chose. He was notable after the first Crisis as being the only character to remember the DC Multiverse after the worlds were merged. He died a few years back in Infinite Crisis, and it wasn’t much of a loss. He wasn’t used much in the intervening 20 years, and with the return of the Multiverse the thing that made him special wasn’t special anymore. He’s back now, as a Black Lantern, where his power is causing some serious damage.

Who monitors the Monitors?

The Monitor was introduced in the Crisis for the first time, where we was revealed to be the being who watched over (in other words “Monitored”) the Multiverse. He died in that story as well, but when the Multiverse was reborn, it was revealed that there was now one Monitor in each of the 52 universes. This is a cool-looking figure, but has very limited playability, with the stiff plastic skirt, shoulder pads, and cape keeping him from moving very freely.

"I'm tellin' ya, Wally, the fish was thiiiiiiiiiiiis big!"

Barry Allen, the Silver Age Flash, is one of many heroes who met his demise in this storyline (although like many of them, he’s come back to the DC Universe, and he’s currently one of the stars of Blackest Night as well). It’s hard to tell from the photo, but the expression on Barry’s face tells us this figure is intended to represent him at the very moment of his death. Cheerful, huh?

"Seriously, you should have seen the OTHER guy."

The last figure in this set was the original Supergirl, Kara Zor-El. She’s come back too, but not in exactly the same form. It’s more like she started from scratch. And speaking of scratch, she too bears the scars of her final battle in this figure. To be honest, this is my least favorite Supergirl costume ever. I think it’s the headband. But the figure needed to be had, if for no other reason, than because of the packaging…

"Well... This is... awkward..."

Don’t get it? Maybe this will help:

The act of imitating a classic comic book cover has become commonplace. These “swipe” covers (or, if you prefer a more dignified term, “homage” covers) are considered by many fans, myself included, to be a lot of fun. But this is the first time I’ve ever seen a swipe action figure package.

One of the quirkiest movies I’ve seen in years, The Men Who Stare at Goats is a bizarre comedy that pushes the limits of  my suspension of disbelief, but ultimately left me laughing and feeling oddly satisfied.

Based on the book by Jon Ronson, The Men Who Stare at Goats features Ewan McGregor as a reporter who flees his divorce by trying to become an embedded reporter in the Iraq war. While there, he runs across Lyn Cassady (George Clooney), a man who he has been told was involved in a secret Army project in the 80s to develop soldiers with psychic powers. As we watch, two stories unfold simultaneously — the tale of the original “New Earth Army,” and the tale of Cassady and McGregor’s Bob Wilton as they race across Iraq on a mission that Cassady is remaining disturbingly tight-lipped about.

For a movie about the army set in 2003 Iraq, it’s refreshingly apolitical. Director Grant Heslov isn’t trying to beat any agenda into the audience’s heads, and the story is far more amusing than it is chilling or thought-provoking, even if it does seem a bit goofy. Ronson’s book, which I have not read, is about a supposed real-life military arm that tried experiments to develop paranormal abilities such as psychic location, telepathy, emotion control, and other such talents that could have practical purposes. While I have no trouble believing that the army would attempt such experiments, the plot here goes far outside of the realm of belief, regardless of what the opening lines of the film proclaim. The program itself isn’t really treated as a joke, just the reactions and character of several of the people involved.

The cast is good. Clooney handles his role with an appropriate gravity, and Kevin Spacey is wonderful as the failed writer whose participation in the program is far more selfish than that of his comrades. Jeff Bridges is almost channeling The Dude as he plays the reborn hippie that develops the project, and he drives most of the flashback sequences.

McGregor is a good actor, and very good in this part, but I almost think that casting him was a mistake. The participants in the project name themselves after characters from a popular movie series of the time — they’re called “The Jedi.” Which is appropriate enough, but when you have McGregor asking what a Jedi is, how people become a Jedi, what a Jedi’s powers are and so forth, it does pull you out of the movie. Virtually every time the word “Jedi” or another other Star Wars reference was made with him on the screen, half the audience began tittering with amusement. It’s funny enough the first few times, but soon I found it becoming distracting. There’s even a reference to the “Dark Side” at a rather serious moment that I couldn’t help but giggle at. McGregor did a fine job, but I wonder if it may not have served the story better if the character who was trying to uncover the secret of the Jedi wasn’t the guy who played Obi-Wan Kenobi.

I liked this movie. It wasn’t a knockout punch, but it was funny enough and I felt like I got my money’s worth.

The marching band is coming onto the field, the coach is giving the Justice League a much-needed pep talk, and the fans have gone to pee. That’s right, it’s the Blackest Night Halftime Show! With the fourth issue of the eight-part epic on the stands, this week Blake and Kenny sit down to talk about the story so far, the various tie-ins, and make their predictions for the second half of DC’s best event in years. In the picks this week, Kenny goes with Vampire Hunter D: Stuff of Dreams and Blake digs the new Fables spin-off miniseries, Cinderella: From Fabletown With Love. Contact us with comments, suggestions, or anything else at Showcase@Comixtreme.com!

2 in 1 Showcase Episode 145: Blackest Night Halftime Show
Inside This Episode:

The NaNoNoveling is coming along beautifully. I just hit 30,311 words total. Remember, the goal is 50k by the end of the month, but I’ve been doing a good bit more than that each day. If I didn’t write another word until Thursday, I’d still be on pace to finish before the end of the month. But don’t worry, I’ve got no intention of allowing that to happen.

Earlier in the week, just about the time I hit 20k, I had one of those beautiful, writerly moments that only happens in a writer’s favorite stories. I’ve got several things set up — characters, motivations, set pieces and so forth. And I knew what the end point of the story was, but I hadn’t quite decided how to get there. While on duty Tuesday morning, I was pondering the story and everything — really, every significant character, plot point, theme — all seemed to just gel in my mind. It was an awesome feeling, and when I got the time later in the day, I did something I very rarely do: I outlined the second half of the book. It’s coming along swimmingly now. I’ve got about 20k left to go to meet the NaNoWriMo requirement, but I suspect that I’ll actually overshoot that a little when it comes to actually finishing the story.

And I couldn’t be happier.

Here it is, folks. The big magilla of the week. While some of the assorted Blackest Night tie-ins in the regular series have been kind of tangental, the stuff in Green Lantern and Green Lantern Corps has never been anything less than must-read stuff. This issue, a member of the Indigo Tribe join Kyle, Guy, Kilowog, Arisia, Soranik, and the rest of the Corps as they try to defend Oa from an onslaught of… well… every Green Lantern who has ever died. And that’s a lot.

As they fight, holding the line best they can, the Corps begins to get overwhelmed. You see, over in Blackest Night #4, the Black Lanterns finished charging their power battery, and allowed the Death God Nekron to rise. This issue catches up to that moment and we see what their new goal is, now that they don’t need to absorb hearts to fill ‘er up anymore. And it’s bad, friends. Guy and Kyle try a desperate gambit, letting a captured Red Lantern loose in the midst of the Blacks, but one of the Alpha Lanterns takes his job a little too literally. Finally, one of the Lanterns makes a play to save all of Oa, but at a tremendous cost.

This issue is gonna have people talking. Some people are going to be outraged, because when something like this happens, people are always outraged. And I’m going to get into that more after the upcoming spoiler warning. But for now, I’ll just say this: I’m not outraged. Because I think what happened here was handled very well by an excellent writer in Peter J. Tomasi, and because — the nature of this story being what it is — I don’t think we’ve seen the end of this plotline yet.

Rating: 9/10

SPOILER WARNING

Okay, if you’re still reading now, you’ve got nobody to blame but yourself. In this issue, the event that’s gonna piss people off is that Kyle Rayner sacrifices his life to save the main power battery on Oa from the onslaught of the Black Lanterns. Whenever a superhero dies, people get pissed off. Sometimes I think they’re justified. But in this case, I think the story works.

My criteria for accepting a hero’s death is this: Does it serve something other than shock value, and does the death suit the character? Ted Kord’s death, for example, served an undeniable story purpose, and he went out fighting to the end. It fit. By contrast, the deaths of the New Warriors back in Civil War served the story, but was a disgrace to the characters, having them die because they behaved like childish amateurs, something they had long since outgrown. Kyle makes a conscious decision to sacrifice himself, says goodbye to Soranik and Guy Gardner, and goes out fighting like a Green Lantern. It’s a worthy death.

It serves a story purpose. The rest of the surviving Lanterns have an even more personal stake than before, especially if you’ve seen the cover for the next issue, where we see Guy Gardner’s response to this event.

And what’s more, I don’t believe Kyle’s story is over. This is a story all about death and what comes after it in the DC Universe. A lot of characters have died (in fact, I’m tempted to re-read all the issues so far just to catalog them all) simply too many to believe they’re all going to stay dead. What’s more, my persistent “White Lantern” theory seems to flow into this. Each Corps needs a Guardian, or at least a point man. If a White Corps is established, with the souls of the dead standing against their bodies, I could see Kyle leading the charge.

I could be wrong. But I think I’ve got a good track record with this series so far.

Lest we forget that there are superpowered beings in the DC Universe that don’t live on Earth or Oa, Tony Bedard and Andy Clark bring us R.E.B.E.L.S. #10. While most of the Blackest Night tie-ins have begun with a dead friend, love, or enemy of the titular hero rising from the grave, this issue actually starts with someone who is alive, who we watch get murdered, and who rises to become a Black Lantern to plague Vril Dox.

Dox and his new robotic R.E.B.E.L.S. are taken off-guard by the assault of their assigned Black Lantern, and get into even more trouble when they encounter a back of Sinestro Corps members fleeing another Black Lantern. The collision of the two makes for a lot of trouble for the team, but gives Dox something he’s been curious about for some time.

Not being a regular reader of this series, I feel like a lot of the nuances were lost on me. Dox isn’t really a very compelling protagonist, and the subplot about his son takes an interesting turn this issue, but doesn’t do enough to hold my attention. I’m also kind of perplexed about the identity of one of the Black Lanterns. The character pursuing the Sinestros has no logical tie to them. If the idea of the Black Lanterns is to send them after someone with whom they shared an emotional link, this person doesn’t really make any sense.

The final page promises an interesting part two, at least, especially if what happens in the end of this issue should turn out to be a permanent change to the character in question, but I kind of doubt that will happen. And it was nice to see some of the other DC Space Heroes (such as Adam Strange and Captain Comet) brought into the fray. But those elements aren’t quite enough. I’ve really enjoyed a lot of Tony Bedard’s work, but this issue sort of left me flat.

Rating: 6/10